Governor Sallee saw Bertingas coming in from the corridor and called out to him.
“Ah! There you are, Counselor. Not a moment too soon.” She indicated a patch of floor beside her, facing the comm screen. She placed the admiral on Tad’s other side.
“It’s one of your new functions, Sir,” Sallee explained formally to Bertingas, “to fend off diplomatic overtures to, and enter negotiations for, your Cluster and your governor . . . Hmm, you smell of sweat and vacuum . . . Well, such as you are, you will please perform your function.” With that she nodded to the tech at the comm link.
The screen fizzed white and then resolved into a square block of sunburned flesh, topped by a shock of close-cropped white hair. The face was pitted with deep and troubling eyes, cut by a mouth that was accustomed to command.
Bertingas moved forward into the comm focus, so that only his face would be clearly distinguishable to this man. As he did so, the face on the screen darkened. Its shaggy eyebrows came down, and the curve of the mouth deepened.
“I am Anson Merikur,” the man said. “General and Acting Governor of Harmony Cluster. Do I have the . . . honor”—and what an ugly twist he put upon that word!—“of addressing Aaron Spile of Arachne Cluster?”
“You do not, General,” Bertingas said sharply. “I am Aurora Director of Communications Taddeuz Bertingas.
“Governor Spile’s overtures to this cluster have been received in the only manner that loyal citizens of the Pact could find appropriate.” The new D.ofC. waited a beat, then raised his voice. “We have defended this base—and Aurora Cluster’s loyalty—against the usurper. We have beaten the Spider to his knees and broken his fleet. If you now bring another fleet to his aid, you are too late, Sir. We shall—”
Bertingas stopped when Governor Sallee approached and put a hand upon his shoulder. Her face would still be vaguely out of focus to the general.
On the screen, Merikur’s rugged face was smiling.
“Counselor Bertingas, you should know,” he said, and the voice was not unkind, “that my forces have invested Palaccio and other key planets in your cluster. Your remaining bureau chiefs have told me to find her Excellency here, at Gemini Base. If Deirdre Sallee is still alive, you’d better let me talk to her . . . It’s over now.”
Sallee quietly moved Bertingas aside and stepped into the focus. “General?”
“Madam! Are you as loyal to the Pact as that brash fellow has indicated?”
“I am. All of my people are.”
“That is well. Know you, then, that I am taking this fleet home, to Earth, to Central Center. There we will defend the claims of Roderick against all usurpers. Do you have ships that will jump with me—or may I offer you the hospitality of my own vessel?”
“We have ships, Sir. We also take with us the allegiance—after a fashion—of the former Governor Spile and the Arachnids.
“General . . .” Sallee smiled. (Watching her in the monitor, Patty Firkin decided she did not ever want to cross this woman, Human or not.) “You will please disinvest my planets. At once.”
“Of course, Madam.”
“And a parking orbit around this base is all that’s necessary.”
General Merikur’s grin broadened. “It is done . . . Deirdre. Then, shall we arrange with your Protocol Master there, Counselor Bertingas, about docking, personal meetings, and so forth?”
As that final exchange was being made, Firkin noted Mora Koskiusko walking quietly forward, from Samwels’ side to just behind Bertingas. Her hand crept into his and closed hard.
Governor Sallee—now confronted with the physical boarding of Gemini Base, the last outpost of Pact loyalty under her actual command—paused. She spun out of the comm focus and searched the faces of Bertingas, the admiral, the colonels, captains, and other ranks assembled behind her.
“Can I trust him?” the governor asked in a low voice that carried only to the back of the room. “I mean, is it really over?”
Patty Firkin stepped forward.
“I can vouch for Anson Merikur, Ma’am. I have served with the General, once a Central Fleet Commander, for more than twenty years. He’s an admirable soldier. I would trust my life to his word. It was he that asked me to come here, to defend the Pact in Aurora Cluster.”
Halan Follard also moved to the fore.
“Colonel Firkin’s loyalty has been proven to you, Ma’am. Where that of others has stood in doubt.” Here the Kona Tatsu Inspector General’s eyes slid fractionally to the left, toward the governor’s own husband.
“Thank you, Halan,” Sallee said, making up her mind.
She turned toward the screen.
“Welcome aboard, Governor.”
An Honorable Defense Book 1 Crisis of Empire Page 28
