‘And do you feel that would be better asked by you, or by the president?’ Dix was watching him closely, but Alex didn’t even attempt to hide his amusement.
‘I think from me, sir,’ he said. Shion had not been the slightest bit impressed by the president’s heavy-handed efforts at diplomacy. While they were having their supper on the command deck, in fact, she had commented that she understood what Davie meant, now, about people electing safe, predictable presidents, people who looked the part and could be relied upon not to be too intelligent.
That had sounded like the kind of remark Davie North might make, sure enough, but it was evident that Shion shared his opinion. She had also asked Alex just how frank she could be with the president in their meeting, today, while wearing Fourth’s uniform. She knew, of course, that that conversation was being recorded and would be copied to the First Lord and to the Diplomatic Corps, just as she’d known that when asking Alex if they could tell Attaché Djenbo to take a running jump.
‘All right.’ The twinkle in Dix’s eyes made it apparent that he had watched that recording, and there was a slight anticipatory amusement, too, as he glanced at the time. They had just over an hour before Shion’s meeting with the president, scheduled for 1100. ‘And just how forthright are you expecting her to be, at this meeting, this morning?’ Dix asked.
‘Well, you know, she does have very strong feelings about this,’ Alex told him. ‘She came to our space asking for permission to travel here as a private visitor. She thought that had been agreed with the Diplomatic Corps at Amali, and was perfectly happy to stay there, learning our language and customs, till arrangements could be made for her. She was very happy with us, too, till we arrived here at Karadon and the diplomats attempted to pull her off the ship. And now the president has turned up in person putting even more pressure on her to do the ambassador thing, she’s feeling aggrieved, and I don’t think she’ll be shy about saying so.’
‘Ah,’ Dix said, with real regret. ‘Well, I’m sorry we’re getting it so wrong. It’s just that reports from Amali did stress so highly how cultured and ceremonious she is, so this desire to serve as a junior officer with you just seemed incomprehensible. I get it, now, that they were pushing her into that role that she really isn’t comfortable with, and she just wants to be allowed to be herself, fair enough. It’s just, you know,’ he made a criss-crossing gesture with his fingers, ‘mixed signals.’
Alex nodded, thinking of the Shionolethe he’d seen at the dinner the previous evening. If he’d seen her that way, first, perhaps behaving like that for weeks, he too would have found it hard to believe that she could really want to serve as a junior officer on a frigate, and even harder to believe that she could turn out to be a friendly, cheerful young woman who enjoyed even the routine chore of water tests.
‘Well, you may want to brief the president that further attempts to persuade her to undertake diplomatic role will not be well received,’ he said.
‘I’ve already tried, but, you know...’ Dix gave a little shrug and rueful look that said politicians as clearly as if he’d said it aloud. ‘I think perhaps he needs to hear it from Shionolethe herself, to be sure that that really is coming from her. But I will pass on your advice about Gide, thank you, Alex. And you think she might know something about them?’
‘It’s possible,’ Alex confirmed. ‘She isn’t likely to know anything about them now, since Pirrell has been in such isolation, but her knowledge of ancient history is extraordinary, and anything that she might be able to tell us would be helpful, after all.’
‘All right – we’ll proceed on that basis.’ Dix nodded. ‘So, on a related matter, looking ahead to Novamas, I have to tell you that you’re likely to experience problems there. It wouldn’t have been easy anyway. Al Vickers is rabidly Old School and not at all happy that you’re being deployed there. You should know, in this, that Al Vickers believes that I had him assigned to Novamas out of spite, because of the political differences between us. He is absolutely wrong about that. I had him assigned to Novamas because he is someone I believed the Novamasians would respect and listen to in this never-ending argument with them over their claims of piracy and alien incursion. I also believed that he would be in a strong position to negotiate with the consortium of mining companies that operates at Tolmer’s. He has, after all, considerable experience in working with industry. He had four consultancies, till the rules were changed. Between them they paid him three times more than his Fleet salary, plus fringe benefits, membership of country clubs and so on. He was living up to that income, too, so there’s no doubt that the change in regulations hit him hard, forcing a very significant drop in his lifestyle. He blames me for that, obviously, but that remark you made about such consultancies being tantamount to corruption bit very deep. As I warned you at the time, it made you some powerful enemies, that, and Al Vickers is one of them.’
Alex nodded without comment. This was not, as he understood, gossip. Dix was telling him this because he felt it was important for him to know, operationally.
‘Ordinarily that wouldn’t be more of a problem than you can handle,’ Dix observed. ‘He would undoubtedly give you a hard time but I do not believe that he would go so far as to attempt to sabotage your operations. That situation has just got rather more complicated, though, with the involvement of Professor Pattello.’ He saw the blank look on Alex’s face. ‘You did read the memo I sent you about that?’
‘Oh – yes, sir,’ Alex assured him, though he had spent less than two minutes reading it and hadn’t given it another thought since. Dix’s adjutant had sent the memo, informing Alex that they’d picked up reports about the situation with Professor Pattello along with other mail on couriers heading to Chartsey. They had learned, indeed, that she was aboard a liner heading for Chartsey, and had even flashed past that liner, themselves. The decision had been made, though, not to stop and speak with her, but just to let her go on her way.
‘The more I think about that, the more uneasy I get about it,’ Dix admitted. ‘The president didn’t want to be bothered with it at the time, and I can’t say that I put up any kind of argument, myself, since it really didn’t seem all that important to me either. I mean, a scientific consultant was fired from her project by the company she works for, it didn’t seem any big deal. But that was before I saw the official complaint she’s putting in to the Sub-Committee. She must have sent it as soon as she arrived here. A copy of it has bounced back at me via a mid-flight courier exchange, and it will be landing on the Sub-Committee’s mailbox by the end of next week. It is fourteen pages of poison, detailing all manner of allegations of misconduct against you and your officers. The most serious allegations against you are that you were aggressively intimidating, threatening her, and that there was improper collusion between you and the Devast personnel, forcing her off the project. It’s all right, I know,’ he gestured dismissively as Alex would have responded to that, ‘I’ve seen your reports, including the logged recordings of those meetings, and I have no doubt that when the Sub-Committee reviews the evidence they’ll recognise, themselves, that these complaints are unfounded ranting. What concerns me is that amongst the people she copied it to – the many many people she copied it to – are Al Vickers and Cerdan Jennar.’
Alex looked startled. ‘Why would she...?’
‘Oh, she sent it to everyone she could think of,’ Dix told him. ‘All five Admiralty Lords, for a start. And I suppose she included Al Vickers because he’s the port admiral at your next port of call. It is possible, too, that she knows how hostile he is to you, and hoped he’d act on the complaints himself. That won’t, or shouldn’t happen. I’ve fired off a memo to him telling him to disregard that as it will be dealt with properly by the Sub-Committee, and reminding him of the standing policy about complaints made by members of the public and activist groups against the Fourth, too.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ Alex said. With the number of complaints that were fired at the Admiralty about them on a dai
ly basis, the Fourth wouldn’t be able to function at all if they were stood down from active service while such complaints were investigated. There was, therefore, a special policy by which all complaints were processed through the Admiralty and merely reviewed by the special operations sub-committee responsible for supervising the Fourth.
‘Don’t thank me yet,’ Dix said. ‘I don’t think that’s fixed it. You know her better than I do – what are the odds, do you think, against her finding her way into Cerdan Jennar’s office, and being advised by him on the best way to proceed against you?’
‘Ah.’ Alex didn’t have to think long about that one. Cerdan Jennar was the Third Lord, and very definitely neither Dix nor Alex’s friend. He had wanted the First Lordship himself, for one thing, and had been beaten to it by Dix. He had also opposed him, loudly and publicly, over the issue of corporate consultancies. He’d suffered both financial loss and personal embarrassment when Dix had won that one and the Senate passed new rulings forbidding serving officers to have paid roles with companies.
Both Dix and Alex suspected, too, that Cerdan Jennar had played a role in the catastrophic media storm that had engulfed them. The station that had broken that story was not irresponsible, after all, and would certainly have called some highly placed contact within the Admiralty to get the inside view on that before they went to broadcast. The words a dangerous and outrageous experiment had featured repeatedly in the coverage, said to originate from an inside source at the Admiralty, and that was exactly how Cerdan Jennar had described the scheme to allow parolees to serve on the Minnow. If Dix ever got the evidence to prove that he had done the dirty on them like that, he’d have Jennar out of his office in days. Without the evidence, however, there was nothing he could do. Cerdan Jennar certainly would relish any opportunity to help Candra Pattello make trouble for the Fourth, though.
‘Exactly,’ Dix said. ‘I don’t want to take even the slightest chance of you being prevented from carrying out your mission by this infuriating politics. So I’ve taken precautions.’
He picked up a tape from the high security rack on his desk, and showed it to Alex. It had ‘Emergency Orders’ and a code on it. ‘This,’ he told him, ‘is your ace card. It is only to be played as an absolute last resort, if you and Mr Burroughs are agreed that it has become impossible for you to carry out your mission orders any other way. I’ve set this so that both you and Mr Burroughs need to sign, to open it, and I want your assurance that you will not do so unless it really is operationally imperative, and that if you do have to use it, you will only do so to get out of that difficulty and not for any other purpose or for one more moment that you absolutely have to, understood?’
Alex laughed. He just couldn’t help it. As annoying as it was to know that the Third Lord might try to use Candra Pattello to make trouble for them at Novamas, he couldn’t imagine that that would be anything he couldn’t handle. The secret orders seemed needlessly melodramatic, too. He actually thought that Dix was joking, till he saw the look of reproof on his face.
‘Sorry, sir,’ Alex said, composing himself quickly. ‘But – seriously?’
‘Seriously,’ Dix confirmed, without a hint of amusement. ‘There are complex, dirty politics going on here, Alex, that I really can’t go into with you. If it was possible, in fact, I’d be replacing Admiral Vickers as port admiral before your arrival. Since I’m not in a position to do that, I’m taking the precaution of providing you with this ace card. And I do want your word that you won’t use it unless a situation arises that makes it impossible for you to carry out your mission any other way.’
‘Yes sir, you have my word,’ said Alex, looking intrigued. ‘But what is it? Orders for Admiral Vickers?’
‘Trust me on this,’ Dix said, with conviction, ‘you do not want to know. No, seriously,’ he told him. ‘You don’t want to know, Alex. Just be assured that if worst comes to worst, you have an ace card up your sleeve.’
There was a long moment in which their eyes met, Dix’s compelling and Alex’s searching. Then the skipper nodded, accepting that Dix must have good reason for refusing to tell him what was on that tape. He felt he could make a good guess what that was, too. It was some kind of order that would enable him to flout Admiral Vickers’ authority. That was not something that the Admiralty would put lightly into the hands of any officer, breaking the sacred Chain of Command. Even Dix Harangay, progressive as he was, and as confident in Alex as he was, would consider that a controversial move.
‘All right – thank you, sir.’ Alex took the tape and clipped it into the high security holder in one of his pockets. ‘I will do everything in my power to avoid using it.’
‘Well, I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I’ll sleep easier knowing that you have it, just in case,’ Dix said. ‘And here,’ he took another tape from a sealed box, holding it out, ‘is your clearance to open XD-317 for discussion with Shion, and to brief your officers on it once you’ve cleared Karadon.’
Alex clipped that into his pocket, too, feeling a thrill, as he did so. Official orders made it real, not something they were discussing as hypothetical. He had orders to attempt first contact with an unknown species. It just did not get any bigger than that, for any spacer.
Other matters, however, wouldn’t just stop because he had those orders. Dix was already moving on, with a change of tone that indicated a new topic, ‘And while we’re on the subject of politics, I have to tell you that I’ve had to agree to Senator Machet travelling with you on this infernal fact-finding trip of hers. She’s perfectly pleasant about it but just will not take no for an answer.’ He shook his head, regretfully. ‘I’ve run out of excuses, basically. She’ll be joining you when we leave and staying till Penrys – you’ve got that VIP suite you prepared for Shionolethe, so you can give her that. I know, the last thing you need, but, you know, League Senator.’ He shrugged. ‘She swears she won’t be any trouble, and she does at least have some experience – did a similar trip on the Buzzard three years ago, fact-finding on exodiplomacy.’
‘Sir,’ Alex said, philosophically. He’d known, really, that that was only a matter of time.
‘All right.’ Dix gave him a sympathetic look, knowing very well what a nuisance it would be, having a politician aboard ship, looking over his shoulder, asking questions all the time. ‘Now...’ he glanced at a screen with which his adjutant kept him informed about visitors and calls, ‘let’s have Lt Commander Fishe in.’ As Alex would have got up to leave, Dix waved him back to his seat. ‘No, no, stay.’
He meant nothing more, in that, than wanting to give Alex the pleasure of seeing Martine get her promotion. But that, of course, presumed that she would be delighted, which she clearly was not. When the First Lord had told her the happy news that she was to be promoted to executive officer aboard the Minnow, she considered that for a few seconds then responded, ‘Thank you sir, I appreciate the offer, but I regret that I am obliged to decline it.’
There was a stunned silence in the First Lord’s daycabin, both he and Alex regarding her in astonishment.
‘I’m sorry, perhaps we’d better try that again,’ said Dix. ‘This is me, First Lord of the Admiralty, offering you your promotion into command rank. The expected response in these circumstances is ‘Thank you, sir, how wonderful’ or words to that effect.’
Martine grinned back at him, perfectly able to see that he wasn’t really annoyed, just bewildered.
‘Well, yes, sir, I fully appreciate that it’s not the response you’d expect,’ she conceded, ‘and yes, sir, I am fully aware that declining any offer of promotion means that it will never be offered again. But that is my decision, sir, and I am absolutely definite about it.’
‘Oh,’ said Dix, a little lamely. He had a very hectic and demanding day ahead, little of which was going to be fun. Giving a deserving officer a promotion which would be her step into command rank had been one of the few things on his agenda he was actually looking forward to. ‘Can I ask why?’
‘Ah.’ She thought about that for a moment and then asked, ‘Permission to speak freely, sir?’
‘As freely as you like, Lt Commander,’ said Dix.
‘Right, then,’ said Martine, with a purposeful air. ‘First, I am very happy where I am. I had actually written out my resignation at the point when Skipper von Strada asked for me to serve aboard the Minnow. I do, sir, understand entirely that the majority of the Fleet has to spend the majority of their time in port, and how important maintaining the homeworld defence squadrons is, but the politics and the bureaucracy just wasn’t what I’d signed up for. I was disillusioned and ready to quit. Skipper von Strada offered me the opportunity to get involved in something that felt really worthwhile, and I haven’t looked back since. I love being the second lieutenant. My days are a manic juggling of roles and responsibilities. I may fall into bed exhausted but I am never, ever bored. The assignments that we undertake, too, are very satisfying, being out here, really making a difference. I just can’t imagine any other ship, any other posting, where I would be so happy. So that’s one thing. Second, I have no desire to go into command rank – that’s a decision I made quite some time ago. Command rank just means more bureaucracy, more record keeping and a deluge of paperwork. Not interested, thanks. And finally, even if I was looking to step up into an exec’s role, the idea of having to babysit some twerp like Harry Alington just gives me the cold horrors.’
Both men continued to stare at her in amazed silence, and she grinned again, unapologetic. ‘Come on, sir, that’s the assignment from hell and you know it,’ she told the First Lord. ‘He’s just the kind of officer that made me want to leave the Fleet in the first place. And I have, I freely admit, a very low tolerance for upper class twits who regard Fleet service as something to do between golf and the opera.’
XD:317 (Fourth Fleet Irregulars) Page 36
