New Contract (Perimeter Defense Book #3)
Page 15
WAR! The Green House has declared war on the Unatari State
WAR! The Blue House has declared war on the Unatari State
I waited for some time, but nothing came in from the Red or Purple Houses.
"Green of course, I was expecting that. But I wonder what upset Blue?" I asked in surprise, turning to my cousin.
Katerina began to think and commented:
"The Blue House has many family connections with the Green House. At one point, the two houses even tried uniting, but the Throne World didn't allow it. Clearly, the Blues simply decided to support their close relatives. Though, perhaps the reason is something else entirely. Their problems are quite similar to those of the Orange House. Some of the more industrially developed and rich systems of the Blue House have been trying to break off from them for many years. They have united into an organization known as the Syndicate and declared autonomy in financial policy issues. In the end, the Head of the Blue House had to make some serious concessions to keep the Syndicate's systems under his control. Clearly, the Blue House Duke is worried that Unatari's independence could serve as a contagious example. In any case, the Blue House has no border with us, so their declaration is a mere formality."
Here, I completely agreed with my cousin. The Blue House had no realistic way of participating in combat operations against us. But I drew my cousin's attention to the Red and Purple Houses, which still had not joined the war.
"I think we'll have to wait another couple hours, Georg, before we can say that with any confidence. The Purple House if quite loyal to us, so their not joining is completely predictable. But as for the Red House, you're right. It looks strange. Usually, Great House analysts have plans in place for all possible eventualities and, if certain conditions are met, war is declared without delay. Clearly, your speech promising military aid to the Red House at the last moment confused them and abruptly changed their opinion of Unatari. The Red House is prepared to work together with anyone who can save them from complete annihilation. The Red House capital fell three months ago, the Sector Fourteen Fleet is practically in tatters, and the situation in Sector Fifteen is no better. The only thing that could put a stop to the Alien campaign is the direct interference of the First Imperial Fleet, but even then, we wouldn't take back much territory..."
The rest of my cousin's speech was cut off by the appearance of a communications officer who said that the Monarch of the Kingdom of Fastel would like to speak with Crown Prince Georg. I gave my permission, and my former father-in-law appeared on screen.
Valesy royl Pir ton Fastel, ruler of the star Kingdom of Fastel
Age: 79
I gave the Monarch a polite greeting, and he bowed in reply.
"Georg, I would like to discuss some issues you touched upon in your speech. Above all else, in regards to Lika... Am I to understand that my granddaughter Likanna was recognized as a Princess and made first in line to the Unatari State throne?"
I verified the information, and even noted that Likanna's interests would be represented by him as her guardian until she came of age, which also gave him the right to cast votes on her behalf in state councils. The King, clearly content, nodded and said decisively:
"Crown Prince Georg, I would like to know the conditions under which the Kingdom of Fastel would be accepted into the Unatari State."
The ruler of Fastel, seeing Katerina and my faces growing wide in surprise, explained willingly:
"The problem of all small stellar Kingdoms is that our noble titles mean absolutely nothing in other worlds. When my daughter Marta managed to conclude a legal marriage with a Crown Prince of the Empire, we thought that a true milestone, a real breakthrough in our many-year isolation. However, nothing changed. The princes, counts and barons of Fastel still did not have true royal status, neither in the Orange House nor the Throne World. And now, I see the possibility to change the situation, and work together for our mutual benefit. The newly minted Unatari State would obtain a fairly strong ally in the Kingdom of Fastel, which has forty-seven million people living on two inhabitable planets with fairly developed industry. In return, the Fastel aristocracy would like their titles to be officially recognized by the new government."
I quickly turned the possibilities over in my mind. I had the chance of strengthening my government for basically nothing, which was not the kind of thing that came about very often, so I needed to make use of the moment.
"Alright, here are my conditions. The Fastel Fleet must be brought out to the Varan system immediately to capture the space station and Orange House military docks in the system. The Varan system warp beacon must be turned off immediately. After that, both the Fastel and Varan systems will be accepted into the united Unatari State. You will personally receive the tile of Duke of Unatari, and retain the Fastel star system, as well as being at the forefront of Unatari politics. Your older son Niko will become a Count of Unatari and will receive the Varan system in perpetuity. He will also be given a place in line to the throne of the Unatari State, seventh to be precise, right after Duke Corwin royl Unatari. All other Kingdom of Fastel aristocrats will be given official titles as well. The ranks of your military officers, both in your fleet and army will also be retained."
The man began to think. He had clearly been hoping for more, probably wanting to retain his title as King, and his independence.
"Georg, I am not prepared to answer yet. I need some time," said the monarch, signing off.
"And why did you throw such harsh demands at your former father-in-law?" wondered my cousin.
"I didn't demand anything impossible. If the King wants the titles of his relatives to mean something not only in the Fastel system, but in another twenty star systems as well, he will first have to prove himself useful."
* * *
What a crazy day... I was simply immeasurably tired. I spent so much emotional energy. Also, the weighty, fat-laden body of Crown Prince Georg was absolutely not keeping up with the active schedule I had been forced to adopt in the last few days. All the moving, meeting and negotiating I was doing was hard on me, but reality had already made some adjustments to my plans. Like now, truth be told, I should have been flying to Astorimma to make a speech to the ministers. And after that, I should have been flying on a shuttle to Queen of Sin in order to then fly off for negotiations with the Iseyek. In reality though, after all the work I'd already done, my blood pressure was spiking, and my head hurt something fierce, which made my personal doctor Nicosid Brandt have to give me medicine and prescribe some nonnegotiable bedrest.
I did not argue with the doctor. He really was a first-class specialist and would not be limiting me without serious medical reasons. But, all the same, Nicosid Brandt was a doctor, and not a strategist or politician. All he could see were the numbers on a patient's medical chart, not taking into account the situation developing behind them. I couldn't afford to lose a minute now. I had to manage to do as much as possible before my enemies finally came back to their senses.
And it should be said that the new Head of the Orange House, Duchess Inessa royl George ton Mesfelle set about working in the most active manner. She had refused to take part in negotiations without mincing words, not even waiting to hear out my cousin Katerina royl Unatari. Duchess Inessa's first order was to begin a complete transport, economic and financial blockade of the new government's systems. The Orange House's intelligence services froze the bank accounts and property of all companies without exception that had ever delivered anything to Tialla or Unatari. The directors of these organizations were also arrested. The new Head of the Orange House addressed her subjects with a fiery speech in the spirit of "we will defeat our evil enemies" and "our loyalty is a thousand times stronger than that of the separatists," and announced three new rules. If you trade with Unatari, you will be arrested and all your property will be confiscated. If you communicate with Unatari, you will be arrested and fined. If you support Unatari, you will be arrested and executed.
Basically, the
enemy was already taking active measures. The Duchess had gathered a fleet loyal to her, collected allies, and conducted a prolonged, almost half-hour-long conversation with the Emperor (I found out about this in an official message from the Throne World secretariat). For me, wasting time due to being tired or unhealthy was just asking to die. As such, I lie in bed, just as the doctor ordered with my eyes closed... but, despite how bad I was feeling, I continued working hard in the internal interface, reading messages and answering them selectively.
The second step of my offensive continued. Reports came in that landing troops had captured the Vorta Beacon, Unguay, the Closed Laboratories, Forepost-31 and Parn systems. The first two star systems in the list were already officially part of the Unatari State:
The Orange House has lost sovereignty over the Vorta Beacon system
The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Vorta Beacon system
The Orange House has lost sovereignty over the Unguay system
The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Unguay system
The three remaining space stations were quietly taken under control by our assault groups, but we decided not to loudly broadcast that fact yet. We had calculated that it would be possible to "box-in" the huge Green House fleet in one of the uninhabitable systems between their current location and Unatari. The trap was so crude that it actually had a chance of working. The last thing to do, on my Truth Seeker's advice, was to remove all living people from the stations in Parn, the Closed Laboratories and Forepost-31 in the next few days, leaving only androids. Florianna thought that the Green House’s Truth Seekers would sense something was off if we didn't.
For now, the enemy remained uninformed on their loss of the Parn, Closed Laboratories and Forepost-31 stations. My people at these stations received orders from the Orange House not to respond to requests from the Unatari State to turn on warp beacons or change out the encoding mechanisms. In the coming days, they were preparing to cut Unatari off from communicating with the Empire. That information, together with the Orange House's new codes, I also received from my landing troops.
As it were, I was trying to take a short break in my work and get a bit of rest when suddenly, some messages came in that I had already lost hope of seeing:
The Orange House has lost sovereignty over the Varan system
The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Varan system
The Kingdom of Fastel has lost sovereignty of the Fastel system
The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Fastel system
The Kingdom of Fastel has ceased to exist
Finally, my former father-in-law had accepted my proposal! Without opening an eye, I ordered Bionica, who was sitting silently in an armchair next to me, to affirm the list of aristocrats from the former Kingdom of Fastel as Unatari aristocrats with the titles I’d assigned. And then, a call came in that forced me to forget everything. It was my daughter on the line from the Throne World! My eyes shot open instantly and I jumped up, buttoning my shirt as I quickly ran my fingers through my hair and accepted the call.
Lika was sitting in a pair of cozy pajamas on the edge of her bed in a semi-dark bedroom, lit by nothing but her monitor. My daughter's emerald green hair was messy, and her face was a bit puffy. I noticed another two beds behind her, with two girls dozing away peacefully.
"Dad, I was totally confused about what was happening," Lika admitted, somewhat embarrassed. "First, you made an angry speech and left the Orange House. Then, I became a Princess four times over and moved up ten places in the Orange House aristocrats list. Then, the Kingdom of Fastel disappeared somewhere without a trace, and my last name changed. Could you tell me in two words, what's going on?"
How could I possibly explain all these complex political processes to a twelve-year-old girl in two words? I smiled:
"Your grandpa Valesy and I decided it was getting too boring out here, so we started a war with three Great Houses at the same time."
Lika smiled hesitantly.
"You're just joking around again, dad... You yourself told journalists that I was already grown up. Explain it like a normal person."
Standing change. Likanna royl Mesfelle-Unatari's opinion of you has improved.
Presumed personal opinion of you: -83 (irreconcilable hate)
"It's not so easy to give a normal explanation right now, sweetie... but I'll do my best. Lika, you once complained to me that you were too far down the line of succession to ever become Empress, Duchess of the Orange House or Queen of Fastel. Well, now I made a whole new line, just for you, and you are number one. It's a new government with twenty star systems. Your grandpa Valesy completely supported my idea and included his Kingdom of Fastel in the new Unatari State. Of course, not everyone liked all these changes, so now I've got a war with three Great Houses on my hands."
Standing change. Likanna royl Mesfelle-Unatari's opinion of you has improved.
Presumed personal opinion of you: -68 (hate)
Lika kept silent for a bit, gave a heavy sigh and said:
"Dad, in the past I, of course, said a bunch of nasty things to you. But don't worry about what the system says. I actually miss you a lot. Can I fly out to meet you?"
First Allies
The screen had long been off, but I was still sitting deep in thought. I had just assured Lika that I would be very glad to see her at my place, and promised to think up a way in the next few hours to get my daughter to Unatari space despite the Orange House transport blockade. There was no way I could hope to get her here through Perimeter Sector Eight. But what about Seven? The Green House armada was supposed to be arriving there any day now, so the warp beacons would be switched off to stop their invasion. There was one possible route left: through Sector Nine, though there were also difficulties with going that way.
First of all, getting through Orange House space unnoticed would be nearly impossible. What was more, I had no idea how the new Duchess would react to a passenger liner with my daughter inside. I was afraid that they would detain Lika under a formal pretense. Of course, openly arresting an underage Crown Princess seemed like something no one would have the guts to do, though. Such an act would be equivalent to declaring war on the whole Empire, including all five Great Houses, and dozens of other kingdoms and allies. If Duchess Inessa did decide to violate Imperial law so flagrantly, she would be removed from the throne that very day and arrested by her own soldiers. But taking a twelve-year-old girl traveling unaccompanied and removing her from a flight "for her own safety" to place her under supervision in a remote palace was something my enemies could easily get away with, and I needed to take that into consideration.
Even if I were able to get her through Sector Nine somehow, she would have to get through the Swarm after that. The Iseyek were very loath to allow human starships passage through their territory, so there would be obstacles on the insect border in any case. Iseyek... Iseyek... wait! Perhaps they would be able to solve this problem after all!
A praying mantis freight starship returning from the Empire back to Swarm territory wouldn't arouse any suspicion in the Orange House whatsoever. Swarm transport ships were normally not even inspected at the border if the customs declaration provided by the insects showed that the ship was empty. The praying mantises weren't accustomed to lying on principle, so if it said there was no cargo, that was probably the case. As such, an empty transport ship with a secret passenger would probably be let through the border without any problems. But it would be even better for her to be on a Swarm diplomatic ship. That would definitely not be stopped and inspected. The idea was so obvious that I questioned why I hadn't thought of it right away.
"Communications officer, connect me with Triasss Zess, Senior Swarm Ambassador to the Empire."
Three minutes went by, and my old acquaintance came on screen. All the praying mantis's appendages had sprouted again. His coloration had changed to a very light gray, and there was a wide blue stripe across the chest of his chit
in shell. It was a symbol of distinction and simultaneously a sign that no member of the Swarm was allowed to touch him. Insofar as I knew, Swarm Queen Iseyek Prime Nai Igir had not only given full amnesty to the once disgraced diplomat, but had even promoted Triasss Zess and brought him into her inner circle.
"I'm glad to see you once again, your Majesty!" The praying mantis made a deep bow.
I greeted him in return with a slight nod:
"I am also glad to see you, senior ambassador! And though our relationship hasn't always been exactly smooth, I do hope that we can leave our past quarrels behind us."
Standing change. Your relationship with Triasss Zess has improved.
Presumed personal opinion of you: +70 (friendship)
Standing change. Iseyek race opinion of you has improved.
Alpha Iseyek race opinion of you: +24 (trusting)
Standing change. Iseyek race opinion of the Unatari State has improved.
Iseyek race opinion of the Unatari State: +1 (indifferent)
Not bad. Not bad at all! So, it seemed the senior Swarm ambassador had been given the authority to change faction relations. Even the Queen herself could hardly act with that kind of speed. I would have to keep that in mind when talking with Triasss Zess, as good relations with the Iseyek were extremely important for my new government.
"I won't beat around the bush here. I would like to have a personal meeting with the Swarm Queen as soon as possible. As you probably know, there have been some political changes in the Empire. A number of star systems have separated from the Orange House, forming the Unatari State. I would like to discuss a number of issues with your Queen related to our new status as neighbors."