The Emperor's Conspiracy

by William Zellmann

  I nodded as she continued. “Somehow you feel that it would be wrong to have any opinion that differed from his. I’ve never met anyone like him — and I’m not sure I’d want to. That kind of power over people makes me uncomfortable.”

  “I see your point,” I replied. “In a politician it would be scary. But in an Admiral, it's an asset.”

  She shook her head. “I think that kind of power is scary in anyone.” She shrugged. “Anyway,” she continued, “I gather you two got along all right.”

  I grinned. “He said that he had been looking forward to meeting me. Imagine!” I shook my head, still having trouble believing it. “He also said that Cord’s going to offer me the job of heading up his rim worlds fleet.”

  She shrugged again. “Well, of course he is! Just how many candidates do think he has that have beaten half of the Empire fleet?”

  I shifted uncomfortably. “You think so, too? Even Shar said something about it awhile back. I thought he was joking.”

  She sighed in exasperation. “Y’know, Val, we’re going to have to do something about this excessive modesty of yours. Here you are, one of the greatest military minds of the age, and you can't even see it. You still think you’re just a shanghaied trader captain.”

  I snorted. "‘Greatest military minds’ . . . ridiculous!”

  She shook her head. “All right, you tell me. How many commanders can you name that have defeated a dreadnought and a battle cruiser in a single battle, with casualties that have to be called ‘light’?”

  I fidgeted. “What if he does ask? What’ll I say?”

  She reached out and ruffled my hair. “You’ll say ‘yes’, you idiot!”

  I shook my head. “I’ve got to think about this. I have responsibilities. I owe Hari everything. Can I just walk out on him? And what about Jax? And you?”

  “What about me?” She asked in a tone I should have recognized as dangerous, but didn’t.

  “Well, I promised to sign you on for shares, remember? Or at least take you back to the Empire.” Then I continued with what has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever said, “I suppose I could arrange a ticket . . .”

  She leapt to her feet and stomped toward the door. “Don’t worry about me, Admiral. I’ll be easy to get rid of. In fact, you’ve just done it!”

  The door slammed so hard that I almost expected it to fall from its hinges. I sprang up and started after her, belatedly realizing what I’d said and implied. When I opened the door, though, she was no longer in sight. Shoulders slumping in defeat, I closed the door again, wallowing in my misery.

  I’d only known Suli a few months, but somehow I couldn’t imagine a life without her. Luckily, we were still in jump — she couldn’t leave the ship. I had time to try to figure out how to make it up to her.

  I don’t know how long I sat there trying to decide what to do, but it must have been quite a while. I vaguely remember the steward bringing in a tray of food. Finally, though, someone knocked on my cabin door. Hoping that it might be Suli returning, I said, “Come in!” with real eagerness.

  It was with a mixture of regret and pleasure that I saw Hari’s bald head and cadaverous body come through the door. I struggled to conceal my disappointment.

  “I thought you might want to talk, Val.” he began.

  “Actually, I do want to talk to you, old friend. But what made you think so?” I asked.

  He grinned. “The most efficient grapevine in known space.” The grin faded. “I gather you’re having some problems? Suli was observed storming down passageways and talking to herself.”

  I cursed. “Doesn’t anyone on this ship have anything to do besides spy on us?”

  Hari looked hurt. “They care about you, Val. They want you to be happy, and they want Suli to be happy. You’re the most popular two people aboard. Besides, you know how a skipper’s emotional state communicates itself to his crew.”

  I sighed. “You’re right, Hari. In this case, though, I don’t think it's anything serious. At least I hope it isn’t.” I shrugged. “At any rate, I’ll have to deal with it; it was my stupid mouth that caused the trouble.”

  Hari’s relief was so obvious and heartfelt that it was comic. I relaxed and grinned. “But I am glad you came, Hari. Everyone I talk to recently seems to have the opinion that Cord is going to offer me command of his rim fleet.” I looked at Hari, but there was no indication of surprise.

  He merely nodded. “And you’ll be accepting, of course?”

  Anger flared. I slammed my fist on my desk. “Damn it! Why does everyone assume that I want to be an Admiral? Cord forced these stars on me! You should remember!” Memories surfaced, and I continued less excitedly, “In fact, as I recall, you had as much to do with shanghaiing me as Cord did. I was going to turn him down.”

  The bald head nodded. “Smartest thing I ever did!” he smirked. “Cord’s cause was right, and you needed a combat command again. You were letting yourself get fat and old.” His skull-like grin reappeared. “Besides, look at the great toys I got to play with.”

  The grin faded. “I know you, Val,” he continued. “I’ll bet you’ve been beating yourself up about taking Cord’s offer because you think you’d be abandoning me and Jax, right?”

  The direct question threw me off. “Well, I . . . Yeah, you could say that.”

  He nodded. “I thought so. Well, put your mind at ease. Offer me an Engineer’s commission, and I won’t file any grievances.” His grin flared again.

  “Are you sure, Hari? I mean, could you settle down here on the rim?”

  He looked at me as if I’d grown another head. “Are you joking? The rim is an engineer’s paradise. I’ll spend years just catching up with the state of the art.”

  I smiled. I could lay that concern to rest. Hari was never happier than when he had engineering problems and studies to work on. “But what about Jax?” I asked, my smile fading. “The kid just got his full share. He won’t be ready to settle down.”

  Hari chuckled. “Perhaps not, but he’s already asked me to put in a good word with you about becoming a boat pilot.”

  I was shocked. “A boat pilot? Hari, do you know their casualty rate?”

  He nodded soberly. “Yes, and I reminded him of it. But he’s young, Val, and immortal. What could be more romantic and exciting?”

  I shifted uncomfortably. “I’d been thinking about disbanding the boat unit. The casualty rate is just unacceptably high.”

  “Ah ha!” he crowed triumphantly, “So you have been thinking of taking over the rim fleet!”

  “Well, not really,” I replied worriedly. “I’d just . . . well, I guess I meant that I’d planned to talk to Cord about disbanding . . .” I gave up. “All right, Hari. I honestly hadn’t been thinking about it consciously, but I guess that at some level I just kind of assumed it.”

  He nodded. “So did everyone else. So, why are you huddled in here spreading hate and discontent among your crew? Why aren’t you already halfway to Suli's cabin?”

  By the time we emerged in Haven’s system, it seemed to be assumed that I would be retaining command of Cord’s fleet. If he appointed anyone else, I suspected that he'd face a mutiny in his command and control ship and his attack boat force.

  By the time he actually did offer me command of the rim fleet, it was almost an anticlimax — I think Cord was a bit disappointed at my lack of surprise.

  However, I owed much to all those who’d warned me in advance. By being prepared, I got quite a few concessions from Cord; more, I suspect, than he’d been willing to offer.

  For one thing, we agreed that one Fleet was enough. Let the Empire have the Fleet, we’d have a ‘Navy’. I also got a free hand in designing and organizing it.

  “But Admiral,” he cautioned. “Plan carefully, with a long future in mind. As we pursue my policy of aggressive development, we will become an increasingly tempting target. As the years become decades, and the decades generations, and the Empire continues to decline, future emperors and
even renegade viceroys will see the rim as a prize to be looted.

  “You mentioned that Chu-Lo conveyed the Emperor’s assurances that he could control the troublemakers for five years; and if the Emperor promised them, you can be assured that we will have those five years. But don’t count on six. I would suggest that you not share every trick and tactic with the Fleet. You may be facing them in battle some day.”

  By the time we returned to Thaeron, I was accustomed to wearing stars; they no longer embarrassed me. In fact, Cord had added two more to the three I already wore, so I would have rank equal to the Commander in Chief of the Empire Fleet, Vinlen Chu-Lo!

  Hari had a couple of stars, now, too. He was the Commander, Rim Fleet Engineering Command. Now he was the one embarrassed by the rank he carried, which gave me a malicious pleasure.

  Shar was annoyingly blasé about the two stars he wore as Commander, Thaeron System and my deputy. He acted as though the whole thing were simply a matter of course.

  Every one of Toms Tindarr’s boat pilots had decided to forego returning to their asteroid mining jobs, and had joined up. They were strutting around proudly in their new uniforms, showing off the distinctive emblems we'd designed, and telling anyone who'd listen how they’d earned the medals on their chests. I teamed Toms with Thaeron Base’s training officer, and they were designing a training program for attack boat pilots.

  Jax couldn't wait. He used his share of Valkyrie’s sale to the Navy to hire one of Toms' pilots to teach him to fly a boat. By all reports, he was getting ‘pretty good’.

  I was also doing my level best to seduce Wil Tor into retiring from the Fleet marines and heading up the Rim Navy Marine Force. If I could pry him loose, he’d be wearing three General’s stars. However, there were problems.

  It seemed that on the long lonely nights camped out on Haven, Wil had developed the habit of calling Kaleen just to chat. There was a woman in Wil’s civilian resistance group that was interested in him, and he in her; but for some reason Wil had become obsessed with Kaleen.

  When he offered to resign and take a rim commission if I would give him Kaleen’s name and address, I knew I had to do something.

  The problem was that Kaleen’s sentience was the most tightly guarded secret on the rim. I conferred with Cord, and he agreed to permit me to break the code of silence in this one instance, and let Wil know that his long-distance lover was a comp.

  I had Wil meet me at the palace, and we boarded Rimrunner. “Brace yourself, Wil,” I warned. “This is going to be hard to take.” I turned to a corner of the bridge, where I knew Kaleen had a camera. “Hello, Kaleen,” I said.

  “Statement does not compute,” came a flat, mechanical voice. “Please rephrase.” Wil was beginning to look scared. Even without inflection, he was afraid he’d recognized that voice.

  “It’s all right, Kaleen,” I said. “The Viceroy has authorized Wil to meet you.”

  “Good morning, Captain, Wil,” Kaleen replied, her voice now warm and genuinely welcoming.

  Wil was jerking his head wildly from Kaleen’s speaker to my face, and back again. “What is this?” He demanded. “This is a trick!”

  I put a hand on his shoulder. “No, Wil, it’s no trick,” I began. “When the comp designers were designing and building the AI for Rimrunner, all they were told was to build the most advanced AI in the Universe, with cost no object. They built better than they knew. Kaleen is the first sentient AI in the universe. She is completely self-aware, and probably smarter than any human on the planet.”

  “Obviously,” I continued, “her sentience is the most carefully guarded secret on the rim. Only the Viceroy, a few comp experts, and I know about it. And you, now.”

  Wil looked as though he’d been bludgeoned. “Can this be true?” He grabbed my sleeve. “Can this be true, Admiral? You aren’t lying to me?”

  I shook my head. “No Wil, I’m not lying, and it’s no trick. When Kaleen got back to Haven and contacted me, it was just too good an opportunity to pass. This is why I ordered you not to try to learn her identity — she doesn’t have one, at least as far as human records are concerned.”

  “It is all right, Wil,” Kaleen put in. “I understand the human concepts of privacy and secrecy. I am aware that many of the ideas expressed in our talks were to be regarded as personal and confidential.

  “You should know, however,” Kaleen continued, “that I retain complete copies of all our conversations, in real time and actual voice recordings. They are maintained behind multiple levels of security that prevent anyone but me from accessing them. They are also keyed to erase if anyone but me tries to access them.”

  Wil was still trying to grasp the fact that the woman he’d fantasized about on those long Haven nights was really just an assemblage of printed nanocircuits.

  I tried to help, to give him time. “Why did you do that, Kaleen? You weren’t told to keep records of those conversations.”

  Kaleen hesitated. Since her processors worked in nanoseconds, I could not even imagine what was going on in there. “I was not forbidden to do so, Captain,” she finally replied, her tone defensive. Defensive? A comp? I sighed. No matter how many times I had my face rubbed in her sentience, Kaleen surprised me every time she displayed it.

  “However, I retained copies so that I could replay them. I . . . have had few visitors since the battle, other than Captain Sinas and a number of comp analysts who want to poke and probe my systems. I . . . have been lonely, Captain. Wil’s recordings help. They remind me that I am more than just an assemblage of circuitry bound to a ship hull. I am a person.”

  Wil was regaining his composure. “I’m flattered, Kaleen. I, too, valued our talks. But I don’t have verbatim recordings, just memories. Those memories were very important to me a time when I felt disconnected from everything I knew. I thank you for that.”

  There was a short silence before Kaleen replied. “Wil? Would you call me occasionally? On radio? Just to talk?”

  Wil bowed toward her bridge camera. “Of course, Kaleen. I would like that. Provided the Viceroy approves, of course.” Wil was catching on quick, regaining his equilibrium much quicker than I would have.

  “Thank you, Wil. And you, Captain, my first friend? Will you call me once in awhile?”

  I grinned. “I’ll try, Kaleen. However, much has happened since our mission to Thaeron. I now command the new Rim Worlds Navy, when I get it built. I’ve also grown more accustomed to my rank. You no longer have to call me ‘Captain’.

  “I noted your shoulder boards when you boarded, Fleet Admiral. My congratulations! Should I now refer to you as ‘Fleet Admiral’?”

  I nodded with a smile. “When discussing business, call me ‘Admiral’. But for chat, I’m still just ‘Val’. However, to answer your question, I’m now stationed on Thaeron base. I doubt I’ll get to Haven often.”

  I could almost hear a grin in her voice. “You forget my capabilities, Val. I contain a subspace initiator, remember? I could call you if you were on Prime.”

  I controlled a wince. All I’d need would be Kaleen calling me at odd hours, just to talk. “No, Kaleen, I hadn’t forgotten. But I expected that you would use the capability only at the Viceroy’s order.”

  The answer was quick. “He didn’t tell me not to!” Kaleen sounded like a guilty child.

  I sighed. I did like her. “All right, Kaleen. If the Viceroy approves, we’ll set up a schedule for you to call me on Thaeron. However, remember, I have a lot to do. I’ll set up a schedule that lets us keep in touch, but you can’t be calling me too often.”

  We talked for a while longer, and then I stepped outside, to let Wil and Kaleen talk in private. I was beginning to get impatient when Wil came down the ramp, a thoughtful expression on his face.

  “I’m sorry, Wil,” I began, “but I knew you wouldn’t believe me if I just told you. And I didn’t want you pining away over someone who’s not even real.”

  He whirled on me, fists clenched. “She’s real! She
more real than a lot of flesh and blood women I know!”

  I nodded carefully. “She’s real, but she’s not human. The only relationship possible between you and her is an intellectual one. I’m sorry, Wil. I really am.”

  He relaxed a bit, but then he whirled and stomped off. I had a feeling it was going to get pretty drunk out that night. I warned the Viceroy’s security guards that Wil might be back.

  He was, but after a few monumental drunks and some marathon talks with Kaleen, Wil began seeing less of Kaleen and more of the woman that rumor had pursuing him for several months. A few weeks later, he accepted my offer to take over the Rim World Marines; and a couple of months after that Suli and I were invited to the wedding. Kaleen attended by remote.

  Surprisingly, the crews of four of our privateers had voted to enlist and let the Fleet buy their ships.

  We were negotiating with the yards on Outback for the design rights to the privateers. Once they were obtained, the Navy planned an initial order of fifty hulls. Since they weren’t privately owned, we could no longer call them privateers. We needed a new class name, and we decided on ‘Frigate’. I heard that the Empire Fleet was taking bids on several hundred hulls.

  I was busier than I’d ever been in my life. We were simultaneously trying to design and man a completely new military service and at the same time run an existing space Fleet. But first, I had an obligation. Valkyrie toured every inhabited world on the Rim, and I presented posthumous medals to the families of every boat pilot who'd died.

  Suli . . . uh, Commander Ursulas Fjolking-Kedron, Commandant of the new Rim Navy Astrogator’s School and my life-mate(!) and I had to move off my old Valkyrie. We took up accommodations on Thaeron base: Quarters, Flag Officer, For the use of. Suli was not impressed, but she wasted no time turning the sterile house into a lovely home.

  Then she took her accumulated salary as Valkyrie’s Astrogator and bought herself a mining boat. She somehow got Toms teach her to fly it, and still spends every spare minute terrorizing orbital traffic.