Praxis def-1

by Walter Jon Williams

  Lord Pierre hesitated.He, theoretically, represented Laredo in convocation through his patron/client relationship with the Martinez clan, though of course Lord Pierre had never been to Laredo, and would never go. “I’m sure,” he said finally.

  “You can never have too many allies in Convocation,” Martinez said.

  Lord Pierre turned to Roland. “Now that your shipyards have got those contracts,” he said, “you’ll be returning home?”

  “It will take me three months to get there,” Roland said, “and by then your frigates will be half finished. There’s no need for me to be on site-my father can handle all that. No,” Roland smiled, “I’ll be in the capital for quite a while. Probably a few years.”

  Lord Pierre did not seem cheered by this. He turned to Martinez. “But you, Lord Captain, you must leave soon.”

  “In two days, to make up this new squadron. I’ve barely met my new officers.” And what he’d seen hadn’t encouraged him: a gray-haired lieutenant who hadn’t been promoted in sixteen years, and a new-fledged youngster with scarcely any more seniority than Vonderheydte. He clearly had his work cut out for him.

  “Do you think Jarlath will strike for Magaria?” asked Lord Pierre. “Everyone seems to think he will.”

  “I don’t think he’s got the numbers,” Martinez said.

  Roland gave a little smile. “I thought you said we couldn’t fail.”

  “We can if wetry. ”

  Later, as strains of music floated toward the assembly from the orchestra in the ballroom, Martinez found himself with a powerful yearning to have Amanda Taen in his arms. But Warrant Officer Taen was away in her ship, repairing satellites for the next month, and Martinez hadn’t the time to make a new connection, not unless he made one now.

  As he walked toward the ballroom, Martinez found himself next to PJ Ngeni. Melancholy seemed to have become a permanent fixture on PJ’s long face, and Martinez assumed this to be a consequence of frequent contact with his sisters. Martinez more or less knew how he felt.

  “I say, Gareth,” PJ said.

  “Yes?”

  “Terrific speech you gave this morning.”

  “Thank you.”

  “It made me want to-todo something, if you know what I mean. Do something useful, in the war.”

  Martinez looked at him. “To join the Fleet?”

  “I hardly think I-” He hesitated. “Well, to dosomething.” PJ touched a hand to his collar. “I wonder if I might ask your advice. On a more personal matter.”

  Martinez lifted his eyebrows. “Of course.”

  “I wonder if it’s normal for someone from Laredo-a young woman, for example-to maintain, ah, a sort of social and emotional independence.”

  Martinez hid a smile. “Of course,” he said. “Laredans are renowned for their independence, both of thought and of character.”

  “Ah, I wondered. Because, you know-” PJ frowned. “I hardly ever see her. Sempronia, I mean. Formal occasions, yes, and she gives me a kiss on the cheek and…” His voice trailed away, then he resumed. “But she has her own friends, and she spends time with them, and I never…” He tried again. “She’s in school, of course, and she says she wants to enjoy her school friends while she can. And I can’t object to that, because I’ve had my friends over the years, and…” His brows knit in puzzlement. “But so many of her friends are officers. Andthey’re not in school.”

  For a moment Martinez almost felt a breath of sorrow for PJ Ngeni. And then he remembered who he was talking to, and his sorrow blew away like cherry blossoms in the spring.

  “I think you should just have patience,” he said. “Sempronia’s the pet of the family, and she’s used to having her own way.” He gave PJ’s arm a consoling pat. “She’ll grow to appreciate your virtues in time,” he said. “And as for the officers-well, I’m sure she just wants to take advantage of their company before they go off to war.”

  “Hmm.” These thoughts processed their way across PJ’s face. “Well. I suppose.”

  Martinez found out more about at least one of the officers the next morning, after breakfast. He was packing his night case, preparing to leave for a meeting called by his new squadron commander, Captain Farfang ofDestiny, when he heard a tentative knock on his door.

  “Yes?”

  “It’s me.” Sempronia’s voice, muffled by a thumb’s length of Shelley Palace teak.

  “Come in.”

  Sempronia, her expression tentative, swung the thick door inward and entered. She saw him in his unbuttoned tunic, and walked up to work the silver tunic buttons, her teeth resting lightly on her lower lip and her hazel eyes comically crossed as she concentrated on the work. She finished the last button, straightened the collar, then stepped back to survey the result.

  “Thank you,” Martinez said.

  “You’re welcome.” She crossed her arms and frowned at him. He went to his dressing table and took from it the gold disk on a ribbon that he could wear if he wasn’t going to lug the Golden Orb about.

  “You aren’t going to carry the orb with you?”

  Martinez placed the disk about his neck. “To carry the orb on anything other than a formal occasion would be conceit.”

  “But Gareth,” Sempronia protested, “youare conceited.”

  Martinez decided that the higher wisdom lay in not answering this charge. He turned to her. “And the reason you came here, Proney…?”

  “Oh.” She hesitated. “I wanted to talk to you about one of your officers.”

  “One ofmy officers?”

  “Nikkul Shankaracharya.”

  “Ah.” This would be his second officer, whom he had met just two days before, and with whom he’d exchanged perhaps three dozen words. A sublieutenant of less than six months’ seniority, with a faint little mustache and a hesitant manner. At the first meeting, Shankaracharya had made little impression, though Martinez had a strong sense that this one, perhaps, would take a lot of work.

  “A friend of yours, is he?” Martinez asked.

  A faint rose color brightened Sempronia’s cheeks. “Yes. I was hoping that you could, well, look after him.”

  “That’s my job,” Martinez said. “But is Shankaracharya likely to need much looking after?”

  Sempronia’s flush deepened. “I think he’s very talented. But he’s shy, and he doesn’t put himself forward. You’re likely to trample him into the deck without even noticing he’s there.”

  “Well, I promise not to trample him into the deck.” He cast his mind back, uncovered a memory of Sempronia talking to a dark-haired officer at the family’s reception for Caroline Sula.

  Her eyes darted from one corner of the room to the next. “He admires you very much. He pulled strings through his patron Lord Pezzini to get aboardCorona. ” Her lips twisted into an S shape. “Of course, he doesn’t know you like I do.”

  Martinez approached Sempronia, reached out a hand and lifted her chin, so he could see her eyes at rest. “Is Shankaracharyavery important, Proney?” he asked.

  Her lips thinned to a line and she nodded. He kissed her forehead.

  “Very well, then,” he said. “I’ll do my best for him.”

  Her arms went around him briefly in a fierce hug. “Right, then,” she said. “If you look after Nikkul, Imight forgive you for PJ.”

  She dashed from his room then, and he finished packing and called for the servants to carry his gear to the cab that would take him to the maglev station. Alikhan wasn’t available-Martinez liked to think he was looking afterCorona in his absence. He threw his winter overcoat over one arm, took the Golden Orb in its traveling case, marched down the broad staircase to the foyer, and said good-bye to his family.

  Outside, snow glittered white beneath Zanshaa’s dark green sky. The antimatter ring arced overhead, with its dockyards and the improvised squadron of whichCorona was a part. The squadron would leave tomorrow, on special duty. Martinez didn’t know where they were bound, knew only that they wouldn’t be made a part of
the Home Fleet, because they had been assigned to the Lai-own Do-faq’s command, and not Jarlath’s. He assumed there would be many long days of acceleration before he found out, unless Captain Farfang chose to inform his captains at the day’s meeting.

  But it turned out that Captain Farfang couldn’t tell him anything, because he was dead.

  “Destiny was finishing its conversion from a Naxid ship to one crewed by Torminel.” This from Dalkieth, his middle-aged senior lieutenant. Her excited voice was high-pitched yet soft, almost lisping, a child’s voice that contrasted with her lined face. “Work was completed on the crew quarters last, so the hardshells had been bunking on the station and only came aboard last night to make final adjustments to the ship’s environment. And you know that Torminel prefer a lower temperature than Naxids, because of the fur.”

  “So it wasn’t sabotage?”

  “If it was, the saboteur was on the crew and died with everyone else. Because when they programmed the new temperatures, someone lost a decimal point somewhere, andDestiny’s environment was cooled to one-tenth what it should be.”

  Martinez was puzzled. “But the temperature change should have been gradual enough to-Oh.”

  “Yes,” Dalkieth said. “Torminel have a hibernation reflex. When it gets cold, they just go into a deeper sleep. But even hibernation doesn’t preserve them against an environment below freezing.”

  Martinez shivered. “All of them died?”

  “All of them. A hundred and twenty-something, dead in their racks.”

  “And the guard on the airlock?”

  “Destinywasn’t going to be in commission till today. Guards were provided by the Office of the Constabulary, not the ship itself. No one went in or out ofDestiny till early this morning.”

  When they found ice coating the walls, and frozen Torminel with frost glittering in their fur. Martinez wanted to lean back in his chair and marvel in awe at the horrific, whimsical blow of fate that had deprived the squadron of both its heaviest ship and its commander. But there was too much to do: two-thirds of his crew were strangers, a figure that included the officers. So far as he knew,Corona and its squadron would still leave the station tomorrow.

  “Who’s in command of the squadron?” he asked.

  “Kamarullah is the senior captain. Nothing official’s been said, though.”

  He rose from behind his office desk, conscious of the football trophies that were still bolted to the wall behind him. Tarafah’s suite had at last been reassembled, and he’d been moved into it, after insisting on triple-strength locks and bolts on the liquor store.

  “Right,” he said, “department inspections at 2601.”

  “Very good, Lord Elcap.”

  He carried the Golden Orb on his inspection-not the one the Convocation had presented him the day before, but the cruder version that Maheshwari and Alikhan had made in the frigate’s machine shop. If the crew drew the conclusion that he appreciated their gift more than that of the Convocation, he would not be disappointed.

  The results of the inspection were a little better than he expected, but he’d only completed half of it when Vonderheydte informed him that an urgent, private communication had been received from Squadron Commander Do-faq. Martinez dismissed the crouchbacks, including those he hadn’t yet inspected, and took the communication in his office.

  Junior Squadron Commander Do-faq commanded the Lai-own cruiser squadron that had been heading toward Zanshaa from Preowin since the rebellion. Hollow Lai-own bones couldn’t stand much more than two gravities’ acceleration, and he’d been accelerating the whole way. Now that Do-faq bad arrived at Zanshaa, he wasn’t about to slow down: he’d continue a wide, eccentric circuit of the system until shooting off toward whatever wormhole the Fleet had assigned him, and in the meantime he’d command his light squadron, which includedCorona, via remote control.

  How Do-faq was going to coordinate his squadrons if he ever had to fight was an open question, given their wildly different performance characteristics. But then, Lai-owns were supposed to be diabolically subtle tacticians, as their performance in the Lai-own War had shown, and Martinez told himself it wasn’t his job to worry about it anyway.

  Martinez used his captain’s key to decode the squadron commander’s message, which had crossed the six light-minutes that separated Zanshaa from the Lai-own squadron. When the picture resolved on the display, he saw that Do-faq was a youngish Lai-own for his post, as demonstrated by the dark featherlike hair on the sides of his flat-topped head, the hair that Lai-owns lost on full maturity. His wide-set eyes were golden, and his broad mouth, lined with peg teeth, was set in the weary lines that spoke of nearly thirty days of continual acceleration.

  “Lord Captain Martinez,” he said. “Allow me to congratulate you on your promotion and your receipt of the Golden Orb. I hope to have the honor of meeting you in person one day, should the constraints of the service ever permit it.”

  Martinez found himself warmed by these civilities. It was always pleasing to discover that your superior officers had a good opinion of you and were willing to say so. He was more accustomed to his superiors pretending that he didn’t exist.

  Do-faq slid nictating membranes over his eyes. “The loss ofDestiny has forced me to a number of painful decisions, among them, the reluctant conclusion that Lord Captain Kamarullah is unsuited for command of the squadron.”

  Martinez stared at the screen in complete surprise, and touched the control key. “Page crew Alikhan to the captain’s office.”

  Do-faq continued, his voice weary. “The other captains senior to you would, I am certain, be suitable enough for the task. But they lack combat experience-weall lack such experience. All but you.”

  The nictating membranes slid away from Do-faq’s eyes, and Martinez found himself staring into the lord commander’s brilliant gold eyes.

  “I am willing to appoint you to command the light squadron, Lord Captain Martinez,” Do-faq said. “I realize that you may consider this an undue burden, considering the problems you must be facing inCorona now, with so many new crew and with the other difficulties of a new command. You may decline the appointment without prejudice…”

  Martinez paused the message as he heard a knock on the door. He told Alikhan to come in, and as his orderly entered, said, “What’s between Do-faq and Kamarullah?”

  Alikhan paused for a moment, then silently slid the door shut behind him. “That would date from the maneuvers back in ‘seventy-three, my lord,” he said. “There was a misunderstanding of an order that led to the maneuver being spoiled. The Fleet blamed Do-faq, and Do-faq blamed Kamarullah, who was tactical officer on theGlory at the time.”

  And now I’m in the middle,Martinez thought. The thought failed to depress him.

  Nor did the thought of his new and untried crew, the officers he didn’t know, the prospect of captains angry at being passed over, and the certain wrath of Kamarullah. He felt instead the onset of exhilaration, the tingle of blood and mind as he began to grapple with the challenges implied by Do-faq’s offer.

  “Thank you, Alikhan,” he said. And after Alikhan left, he told the comm board, “Reply, personal to Squadron Commander Do-faq,” and pressed the cipher key.

  The light came on that showed he was being recorded, and he gazed into the camera with a face that he hoped broadcast sincerity.

  “Though I fear you’re giving me far too much credit,” he said, “I am nevertheless honored to accept the appointment. I and the squadron will await your orders.”

  He had almost saidmy squadron, but had stopped himself at the last second.

  That, he decided, would be conceit.

  The next call came from Lieutenant Captain Kamarullah. He had a squarish face, a mustache, and the graying temples that suggested Do-faq’s wrath must have genuinely harmed his career-lieutenant captains were generally promoted well before their hair had a chance to go gray.

  “You could refuse the command,” Kamarullah said.

  “I�
��m sorry, Captain,” Martinez said, “but you know that Do-faq would just appoint someone else.”

  “You couldall refuse,” Kamarullah urged. “If the squadron stood united against him, he’d have no choice.”

  “I regret the situation,” Martinez said, “but I’ve accepted the lord commander’s offer.”

  Kamarullah’s lips twisted. “Regret,” he repeated. “No doubt.”

  Martinez looked at the man coldly. “Captain’s breakfast meeting on Corona at 0601,” he said. “You may bring your senior lieutenant.”

  He’d get the Golden Orb out of its box, he thought, the real one, to demonstrate his authority.

  And if that didn’t work, he’d use it to clout Kamarullah on the head.

  Two hours before his breakfast meeting, Martinez was awakened by a messenger who had his sealed orders from the Fleet Control Board. He put on his dressing gown, signed for the orders, broke the seal, and read his squadron’s destination.

  Hone-bar.Do-faq was taking two squadrons to Hone-bar, over a month away. That would give him time to work up his ship and his squadron, to have both ready by the time they all arrived.

  He paged his steward and ordered coffee.

  And then he began to make plans.

  The Home Fleet continued its colossal acceleration runs, making circuits of Zanshaa and Vandrith, then swinging wider still to include other planets and Shaamah, the system’s sun. It was joined by the Daimong squadron from Zerafan, which was already at speed when it arrived, and was integrated with Jarlath’s forces without trouble.

  Do-faq’s Lai-own squadron from Preowin arrived, which would serve to protect the capital while the Home Fleet was away. After a month of punishing accelerations mixed with planning sessions with his staff and (by video) with his captains, after endless simulations of the attack, Jarlath no longer even considered holding his armed avengers back. The thought that all the work and pain might go for nothing was too outrageous to contemplate. He asked permission to attack Magaria, and permission was gladly given.

  Forty-four days after departing Zanshaa, traveling at.56c, the Home Fleet swung around Vandrith for the last time and headed for Zanshaa Wormhole 3 en route to Magaria. It would continue accelerating all the way and should be traveling in excess of.7cwhen it first slammed into Fanaghee’s fleet.