Prisoner

by Gilbert M. Stack

  “Because you were afraid if they exercised the wrong kind of greed that the League or the Confederacy would invade you anyway,” Jewel said.

  “Precisely,” Farl agreed. “In those days we had a very limited ability to defend ourselves even against a sublight speed invasion fleet. Now we have both the ships and the strategic depth to protect ourselves whatever the other great empires should throw at us.”

  He started to rise, dismissing her. “So have I answered all of your questions, Jewel?”

  Jewel wasn’t ready to leave yet. “A great many of them, thank you, but I haven’t yet told you my primary condition if there is to be a marriage.”

  Farl hesitated and then sat down again. “I had hoped it would not come to this. It reflects poorly on you that you see this opportunity in such mercenary terms. I’ve given into you on the tithe.”

  Jewel shook his head. These people must absolutely despise her parents and their constant maneuvering to make more money. “It doesn’t have anything to do with armenium or money, at least not directly.”

  “Really?” Farl asked. “Then go right ahead. I’m curious to learn what you have in mind.”

  Jewel decided to just say it even though she worried that Farl would reject her request. She owed it to Erik and the others to find a way to help them. “I’d like you to drop the charges against the survivors of the Euripides. They’ve suffered enough, and frankly, whatever spin you want to put on their actions, we both know that they were neither acting as pirates nor truly stealing from you. It’s obvious that the Armenites had not preceded us to the Valkyrie System. What we found there was legitimate salvage.”

  The more that Jewel spoke, the more strongly Farl shook his head. “I can’t agree with you—especially not with your final statement. As a matter of spiritual principle, we Armenites believe that all planets bearing armenium deposits rightly belong to us.”

  Jewel hoped she didn’t let her eyes roll at the absurdity of that statement. She tried to be diplomatic but doubted that she completely kept the sarcasm out of her voice. “I hope you realize that no one else in the galaxy would agree with your position.”

  The justiciar general did not appear troubled by her lightly veiled scorn. He shifted in his chair. “We Armenites realized long ago that most of the inhabitants of the galaxy are mired in ignorance. Their agreement or disagreement in this matter has no impact on reality.”

  Strangely enough, this was the view of the Armenites that Jewel had been expecting from the beginning—arrogant, unreasonable, threatening. What had happened to the kind, patient man who had begun this conversation with her?

  “So you’re saying that if armenium is discovered anywhere else in the universe—on Luxor, for example—it already belongs to you.”

  “That is essentially correct,” the Empyreal said. “There are reasons we feel this way. If you live among us for long, I predict that you will not only come to understand our thinking on this matter, but to agree with us.”

  That seemed highly unlikely to Jewel, but she kept her mouth shut—at least on that topic. “Well, I’ll grant you that your position is interesting, but it’s also essentially irrelevant to my request. As nobody in the galaxy at large knows you feel this way about armenium, you can’t in good conscious prosecute someone for violating your alleged sovereignty.”

  “You knew we had conquered Ymir,” the Empyreal pointed out. “The ranking officer among the survivors is an escaped helot—”

  Jewel cut him off. “Erik is not a helot.”

  Farl didn’t like being interrupted and he clearly didn’t like being challenged in his area of professional expertise. His face grew heated. “He’s a Ymirian who has yet to swear the oath of loyalty. That makes him a helot.”

  “No!” Jewel replied just as hotly. She wasn’t going to let this man push her around—especially not on a topic this important to Erik. “He’s a patriot whose ship was destroyed when Armen decided it wanted to expand its territory. You didn’t even declare war. You just moved in and starting shooting people. Erik’s a patriot and a free man.”

  “He’s a criminal,” Farl spat back, “a pirate and a thief like the rest of them.”

  “None of them are—”

  The justiciar general interrupted her. “We’re aware of your relationship with this man. Don’t allow misplaced affection to confuse your priorities or sense of propriety. You are on the verge of ascending. It is a glorious opportunity. But despite the hint of steel in your core, you’re young, inexperienced and malleable. We will try to help you through your transformation but you have to do your part as well. Forget about the prisoners!”

  Jewel stood up. She was utterly sick of the pseudo-spiritual nonsense the justiciar general kept spitting at her. Marrying an Armenite was not going to make her a better human—if anything it would have the opposite effect. She shook her finger at Farl across the desk. “I am not going to abandon those people. If you want the wedding, let them go. If you don’t want the wedding, just keep on talking this way. You’re about to discover just how hard I really am!”

  She stormed out of the room without waiting for his answer.

  Chapter Eight

  It’s a Good Cartelite Story

  “May I come in?”

  Jewel sat bolt upright in her bunk, surprised and disoriented by the sound of Nefer Reneb’s voice. She must have drifted asleep. She’d been dreaming about Erik again and she hadn’t even realized the woman had come into the quarters the Armenites had assigned to her. She rubbed a couple of unshed tears from her eyes and glanced left and right, trying to ascertain if anyone else was present in the small room with them.

  Reneb tried to put her at ease. “I’m alone. I apologize for startling you. I should have realized that when you didn’t answer my call the reason was that you were sleeping.”

  Jewel swung her feet off the bed and started to stand. “Think nothing of it, Ms. Reneb. I hadn’t intended to doze off. I have a lot to think about and…” She let her voice trail off because she really wasn’t certain what else to say.

  “Please don’t stand, and, please, call me, Nefer,” the woman who was the chief negotiator for the Khaba Cartel told her. In less than two days you’re going to have nearly as many shares of Khaba as I do. I think that ought to override any age difference between us.”

  Why is she being nice to me? Jewel wondered. Could the Armenites have told her I still haven’t agreed to the wedding? Then the woman’s full statement percolated through her brain. “Two days?”

  Nefer glanced at her time piece. “Kole Delling arrived in the Prescott System forty-two minutes ago on the Armenite frigate, Vigilance. He’ll be here in about thirty-eight hours. The Armenites are scheduling the wedding for oh-eight-hundred ship time on the Righteous Lightning.”

  Oh-eight-hundred hours? Jewel thought, searching frantically about the room with her eyes until she found the clock. That was just under forty hours from now. A wave of panic consumed her. What was she going to do? She hadn’t even talked to Erik about any of this. How was she going to do that? Could she really give up Erik and marry another man? What was she going to do?

  Nefer affected not to notice Jewel’s fear. “I’m frankly surprised that they are in such a hurry that they sent him here with only a frigate. I was expecting a fleet of battleships as a display of the Hegemony’s might and power, but who really understands the Armenites anyway?”

  She stood there contemplating Jewel for a moment, as if considering that soon she would be in a position to understand Armenites far better than anyone else in the Cartel Worlds.

  “I, um, wow,” Jewel stuttered. She couldn’t get her mind off Erik. Forty hours wasn’t enough time. “It’s suddenly happening very fast.”

  “It will be a big day for you,” Nefer observed, “a big day for all of us. Your parents are angry but impressed. They don’t appear to have recognized that the cartel long ago realized that they were going to have to provide a substantial sweetener for you to convi
nce you to go through with this wedding. When you ran away from home, our share price plummeted as many people predicted the worst and sold off their stakes. Those of us with a little backbone came out ahead of the game, and we had the Cartel buy up shares in preparation for your incentive program.”

  That interested Jewel mightily. She had not realized that she would be trying to hold out for a share of the company back then. Of course, when she ran away, she hadn’t even realized that Armenite law gave her the ability to disrupt the deal by declining to marry Kole.

  Nefer wasn’t done talking. “And of course, now that you’re on board with a major incentive to act, there’s no reason Khaba can’t continue to grow and expand.”

  Jewel should have realized that Nefer came to talk to her about business. “I don’t know how much influence I’ll have yet. We don’t really know how things will work in the Hegemony.”

  The older woman sounded as if she’d already thought through all the possibilities. “But you’ll be experiencing life among the Armenites. You’re going to learn more about them then any modern Cartelite knows. The armenium is certainly a valuable asset well worth giving you a substantial share of Khaba, but I rewarded you so generously because I believe this opportunity is far larger than fuel. Armenite trade tends to focus primarily on military needs. I believe you can help us break into the consumer markets both on the primary Armenite worlds and on their conquered planets. We have more than enough experience in the Confederation, and in the League, and on the Fringe at making fortunes in economies of scale. We need you to figure out what the Armenites and their subjects would buy and then help us negotiate the access we need to sell those goods to them.”

  Jewel felt astounded by Nefer’s suggestion. In all her schooling, all her supposed training for the task of becoming Kole Delling’s wife, no one had ever suggested that she’d be doing more than securing Khaba’s contract. Nefer’s idea was far more interesting and intriguing. It sounded useful and even enjoyable.

  “That might take a lot of time,” Jewel noted, feeling her way into the subject. “The Armenites are a very insular people.”

  “It will probably take years,” Nefer agreed. “But Jewel, you have decades ahead of you—a lifetime to discover what the Armenites need and to show them how we in the Khaba Cartel can help them to the benefit of both of us. When we’re at our best, this is what we do. We forge friendships on the basis of commerce and the resulting alliance makes both partners stronger and more prosperous.”

  Jewel suddenly realized that Nefer wasn’t only speaking to her, but was setting forth her arguments for anyone spying on their conversation. Jewel decided that she’d better play to that hidden audience as well. “I’ll do it, of course, but only to the extent that I truly believe I’ll be helping both Armen and Khaba. When I marry Kole I’ll be adopting a new nation, and my children will have dual citizenship. I’ll have to look out for both peoples from now on.”

  Jewel had no doubt that Nefer understood exactly why she’d chosen to say this and that she was pleased to hear the words. She was less certain if Nefer understood that she hadn’t been lying for the benefit of their hidden audience. In the end, it probably didn’t matter.

  It suddenly hit her that she had said when she married Kole. Not if she married him. If she hadn’t been sitting she had fallen down. On some fundamental level, she’d accepted that she’d lost Erik. She’d been maneuvering toward that position for days now, but until this moment she hadn’t fully accepted it.

  The self knowledge made her want to cry.

  “Are you feeling all right, Jewel?” Nefer asked. The older woman hovered for a moment, her perfect nails flashing beneath the overhead light.

  Jewel tried to pull herself together. “Yes, I, it’s just all happening a little more quickly than I expected. A week ago—my time—I didn’t really think this marriage would ever happen.”

  Nefer adopted what she probably thought was a sympathetic expression. It wasn’t perfect, which was unusual for the negotiator, but she still made the effort. “It is a big change, but I can see from our conversation that you’re developing the right attitude. There’s important work for you to do after you get married.” She came back to the subject that interested her. “Armen and the cartels have built their relationship upon the healthy trade in armenium—a trade in which both sides come together as equals to develop and distribute this critical commodity. None of our future relationships can be permitted to damage this central one. Therefore, any expansion we make into Armenite markets must absolutely strengthen both parties.”

  Jewel’s heart really wasn’t in this discussion right now. She wanted to figure out what to do about Erik. She’d have to tell him—and she wanted to be able to do that at the same time she told him the Armenites were setting him free. What had happened to Justiciar General Farl anyway? Why was he playing hardball on what had to be a truly minor item if he’d just take the large view of things? “Is this what you came here to tell me?” she asked.

  “No,” Nefer admitted. “It is not. I came here to learn why you haven’t signed the contract I had drawn up.”

  “Oh, I’m not signing that one,” Jewel told her. She tried to keep her voice sweet and her lips smiling, but it wasn’t easy for her.

  Nefer spread her hands before her. “So I am given to understand, but you haven’t signed the one the Armenites drew up for us either. May I ask why? Is there something else you’re planning to hold us up for? I would think we’ve already given you more than you ever imagined you’d obtain. It’s on a par with what your father received for bringing us the initial armenium deal three decades ago.”

  “I know,” Jewel told her. “Believe me when I tell you that I have heard the story from him a million times over the years. How he rescued those children and transformed that one good deed into the opportunity of a thousand lifetimes. And I’ve heard in excruciating detail every concession he won from Khaba for the opportunity to act on his behalf to develop the armenium trade.”

  Nefer offered her a friendly empathetic smile. It was probably fake, Jewel thought, designed to make her more comfortable, but unlike the earlier expression, she couldn’t tell for certain by looking at it. “I’ve heard that story quite a few times myself. Your father is actually a decent businessman. He’s used his wealth to greatly magnify his holdings in Khaba and elsewhere. But nothing he ever does will match that first deal. It’s a good Cartelite story especially because it’s so atypical. No nefarious deeds, no trickery, just a bit of straightforward selfless heroics rewarded with the equivalent of an emperor’s ransom.”

  “He does deserve to be proud of himself over that, doesn’t he?” Jewel said. She wasn’t used to feeling good about her father, but in this one case it was easy to give the devil his due.

  “There are a great many of his peers who secretly think he was a fool for helping others without any thought for himself. Certainly, it’s not behavior he has since repeated. But it’s hard to argue with success.”

  Belatedly Jewel realized that the older woman was still standing. She got off the bed and turned the room’s one plain chair away from the desk and held it out for her. “Why don’t you sit down, Nefer? It’s hard to hold a conversation when I’m craning my neck up at you.”

  Nefer took the seat. “May I ask you something personal, Jewel? I’m interested in why you made some of the decisions you did in the Valkyrie System. Do you think it was thoughts of your father’s example that led you to risk drowning and dive to help those unfortunate miners? You had to know it was obscenely dangerous. Why did you do it?”

  “You know about the Valkyrie system?” Jewel asked. “I mean—”

  “We knew about Valkyrie long before we discovered that you were there,” Nefer explained. “The House of Delling is responsible for mining it, after all.”

  At the expression on Jewel’s face, Nefer paused. “I guess you couldn’t have known that, but Khaba is refining all the ore out of Valkyrie. Lisht, especially, is fur
ious over this. We’ve close to doubled our capacity in the years you’ve been gone and frankly the Armenites are still ramping up their extraction operations. I’ll admit to being surprised by the degree of Armenite commitment to us in Valkyrie. A sliver would have made more sense—we didn’t initially have the refinery capacity necessary for the new quantity of ore and Lisht did. But the Armenites said that they owed it to your father—further proof that selflessness as a business strategy can pay huge dividends in some cases.”

  She paused to catch her breath and give Jewel a chance to comment, but Jewel felt too fascinated by the information to say anything. All of that additional armenium must have pushed the cost of fuel down in the galaxy, which would have encouraged higher consumption, which would have elevated overall profits. Since Khaba was the cartel refining the new armenium, it would have gained a bigger portion of those sales at the expense of its Cartelite competitors. Their share price would have skyrocketed, while Lisht and Nuri’s would have fallen. And she had thrown all of this into jeopardy by running away on them—not just the lost revenue but what must have been a staggering investment in new refinery infrastructure.

  Nefer really had gotten the better of her. Jewel should have held out for even more shares.

  Nefer picked up her story. If she were aware of the thoughts bouncing around in Jewel’s head, she gave no sign of it. “Of course, we had no way of knowing you had been in Valkyrie yourself until your ship started transmitting your message screaming for help.”