Admiral's Nemesis (A Spineward Sectors Novel: Book 11)

by Luke Sky Wachter

  “Yes, yes; save the propaganda campaign for the locals, Senator,” the elderly Tiberius Morgan rolled his eyes. “We all know the benefits of successfully bringing these Sectors into the fold. It’s the costs associated with this campaign that worry us.”

  “You, perhaps, but I think that any serious person who takes a good hard look at our current financial outlook will realize that, while our economy is still running red hot, without additional resources the economic drain from the Gorgon Front will begin to make Senator Hampton’s own personal trade woes look like peanuts as they begin to encroach upon the rest of us. The much-anticipated trillium returns which were promised by the instigators of the Gorgon Conflict have yet to appear—such a continued drain on our resources threatens to cripple our naval operations, which represents a far greater threat than simple financial insolvency like that which your House presently faces.”

  “Damn you, Cornwallis, my House is doing just fine!” shouted Senator Hampton.

  “That’s not what your Factotum in my pay tells me when he provides me with monthly updates on your financial status, Senator,” Charles Cornwallis said with a tight smile that was met with generalized laughter at the other Senator's expense.

  “This could ruin our standing with the rest of the galaxy if you foul it up with your usual cowboy approach to diplomacy, Cornwallis!” Senior Senator Morgan said, pounding his fist on the hand rail in front of him. “Let us not forget: those of us who were still around during that period, that the last time you entered the Spine you orbitally-bombarded one of their most economically successful Sector-level Core Worlds. That’s hardly the sort of action that will bring you great welcome when you return to them as one of their supposed liberators.”

  “You’re just jealous, Morgan,” heckled someone from one of the gaggles of Junior Senator.

  “Who said that!?” roared Senior Senator Morgan turning to glare at the now silent Junior Senators.

  “Order!” snapped Triumvir Bellucci coldly, striking her lictor on the side of her dais with a sharp crack that resonated throughout the chamber. “I will have order in this Senate; next Senator that disrupts this meeting will find him or herself up for election to Military Tribune with mandatory service at the Front required when he or she is elected—which, allow me to assure this assemblage, they most certainly will be.”

  There was a temporary silence as the group of junior Senators and the senior Senator continued to lock eyes. If Charles Cornwallis had to guess, he would say the Junior Senators, currently lacking anyone senior enough to air their legislative proposals before the senate, had tried to hire old Morgan and were now venting their frustration at Raubach purloining their designated mouth piece.

  His mouth quirked upward; Junior Senators were all the same. Full of fire in their bellies, a desire for acclaim and power as well as a series of well crafted legislative initiatives designed to achieve both aims. But such aims generally had little to no chance of ever passing beyond the Senate floor.

  He turned back to the dais. “I make no excuses for the actions taken by my ships in the Caprian Star System, Ms. Speaker,” Senator Cornwallis said flatly. “I did what had to be done at the time to secure the best interests of the Empire, as well as the long term security of the border of the then Confederated Empire. My record, both in the Navy as well as the Senate, speaks for itself.”

  “Yes, yes, we all found your actions completely understandable at the time and in line with the best interests of both the Empire and Confederated Empire of the time. Whether the locals will also consider things in the same light is what’s at question here. Also at question is whether a better…or let’s instead say 'less controversial' mouthpiece might be in order, at least for the initial regional level contact and negotiations,” Tiberius Morgan coughed before finishing.

  “Although my esteemed colleague may have forgotten, I believe this is rhetorical ground that’s already been covered,” Senator Cornwallis shot back.

  The elderly Senior Senator flushed and then paled with fury. “Some points require elaboration as well as revision and extension, Senator Cornwallis. There is no need to stoop to the level of baseless slurs or slanders,” the Senior Senator glared.

  “Whatever slanders I might make are never baseless, Senator,” Cornwallis said with contempt.

  “Perhaps we should cast aside personal aspirations, and also consider the fact that Cornwallis and their Raubach allies have failed to advance the interests of this Empire, and the Confederated Empire before it, time and time again in the Spineward Region during their decades of 'service' within the Spine?” Senator Hampton said witheringly.

  “Hear hear,” agreed Senator Wessex and several of Cornwallis’s former Reclamation Initiative allies nodded to indicate their dissatisfaction with House Cornwallis and its current leadership.

  “I’d hardly call the Confederation's latest proposal that the Empire provide relief efforts to restore safety and security to the Spineward Sectors to be a prime example of House Cornwallis’s failure to advance the cause of the Empire,” Charles Cornwallis snickered derisively.

  “Some might argue that Imperial interests have in fact for years been hampered, not enhanced as some would like claim, by the bungling of Houses Cornwallis and Raubach in the areas beyond the Overton Expanse!” Senator Wessex said caustically.

  “House Raubach has severed its former relationship with, and now stands separate and completely independent from, House Cornwallis,” Senior Senator Morgan declared after conferring with the head of House Raubach.

  There was a stir on the multi-tiered floor of the Senate as House Raubach officially declared, on the floor of the Senate itself, what everyone with their head out of their rear and half an ear to the ground had known for months. Regardless, it had been a blow to Cornwallis' prestige when it had initially happened some months earlier, and it was a blow now yet again when Raubach all but threw the severance of their relations in his face.

  Senator Cornwallis forcefully reminded himself that once he had the Spine in his hands, he would once again be in an unassailable position.

  “I don’t see what Raubach has to do with our various successes with the Confederation or the Spine, much less any of our so-called and, as far as I can see them, mythical failures,” Charles Cornwallis said. “How a House whose main interests involve small craft and freighter craft drives, bolstered by the sale of hopelessly third rate technology to fourth rate single world powers, could have the slightest impact on my House’s interests, escapes me.”

  Raubach looked over and laconically lifted a middle finger in response.

  Lifting a brow, Senator Cornwallis smiled, pulled out his data slate and using the holo-interface began to dictate a message to his main Factor. He would soon be heading out beyond the Overton Expanse and into the Spineward Sectors; this was an appropriate time to finally do something about his far-too-big-for-his-britches-lately Raubach

  The woman behind the upstart whelp, Triumvir Bellucci, would also be dealt with after his triumphant return. But in the meantime he was going to put his best problem-solver on fixing this irksome House Raubach situation.

  Yes, he thought smiling at the Junior Senator and giving him a little jockular wave in response to the middle finger, Mr. Simpers will deal with Lynch while I am gone, and the entire situation will be cleaned up in time for my triumphant return. Sending a reserve fleet to bombard Raubach's impressively-well-hidden facility had been a half-hearted necessity. And with them already on the Raubach radar, Simpers' contacts with the Confederation would allow the problem-solver to introduce a completely unexpected angle. Unexpected to Raubach, anyway.

  Soon the Junior Senator would be like a stray dog without a home, forced to flee in all directions, and every single one of his supporters would be rooted out from their strongholds, persecuted, and ultimately destroyed.

  The fact that the resulting action would send a nice little warning message to one Triumvir Bellucci while Senator Charles Cornwallis was h
imself outside the Empire, and could later honestly say, even under truth compulsion measures, that he had no idea what had happened to the poor beset Raubachs until after he returned from beyond the Overton Expanse, would just be icing on the cake.

  “I’m sure we can set aside Raubach for another time and focus on the series of great triumphs brought to this Empire by your House, Senator,” Senator Wessex said with relish.

  “Nicolas...” Senator Hampton warned, giving Cornwallis a glance and placing a hand on Hampton’s shoulder.

  “And what exactly have you got?” Charles Cornwallis smiled indulgently, silently daring the other man to expose the Reclamation Initiative and the borderline illegal ventures of more than half a dozen Senators and senate houses. “A bunch of hot air and rhetoric perhaps? Really, Senator, if you have a personal grievance try not to trammel up the affairs of Empire with them.”

  “I’ve got this,” Senator Wessex angrily shrugged off Hampton’s hand before rounding back on Cornwallis, “but since you asked about the various failures of your House in those very Sectors, Senator,” he said viciously, “why don’t we start with the daring exploits of one Marcus Cornwallis—your nephew, I believe—who not only bungled the retrieval of several privately owned constructor ships, but also succeeded in getting his ship and his entire crew captured. The black eye this Empire got when a handful of rustics fighting over an old, outdated and mothballed Confederation star base succeeded in capturing a top of the line mono-locscium Medium Cruisers, crewed with Imperial Navy personnel, is something you may have conveniently forgotten but not something this body will soon forget!”

  Charles Cornwallis looked at Senator Wessex with a deathly gaze. “We all have our black sheep, Senator. But as we seem to be comparing family failures in the Spine, do you not agree that it would be criminally negligent if we failed to mention officer Nicolas Wessex?” he said pointedly.

  Senator Wessex expression turned thunderous. “Don’t you dare attempt to divert the Senate's attention from the criminal failures of you and your nephew, Cornwallis!” he hollered furiously. “It is your house that—”

  “Theft of supplies, criminal negligence, rank incompetence—not to mention cowardice in the face of the enemy,” Cornwallis cocked a brow, “need I go on or should we agree to let bygones be bygone and just say that not everyone who ever entered Imperial service had success their first time around the galactic scene?”

  Senator Nicolas Wessex purpled and staggered backward.

  “I take it I have your vote to move the Grand Assembly’s petition to the floor for a vote?” Cornwallis asked digging in the knife and giving it a twist. Any further and the whole Reclamation Initiative business, along with Nicolas ‘John’ Wessex’s near-treasonous level of cowardice, would come into the open. If that happened, the House of Wessex would be directly dragged into the same swirling mess as Cornwallis faced right now, only without the potential life raft thrown out by his manipulation of the Grand Assembly.

  “I-I propose we vote on the Confederation Proposal,” Wessex choked out before rallying with a venomous glare. “If only so I can personally vote it down,” he yelled, “and expose it for the flawed proposal it is! And I further propose that Tiberius Morgan be added to the list of senior officials added to the Pacification and Liberation Expedition, if by some miracle it passes through a vote!”

  “What!?” Senior Senator Morgan exclaimed with shock and no little dismay.

  Cornwallis gritted his teeth.

  “In light of potential indiscretions among the younger generation of House Cornwallis, such a proposal might not be entirely out of line,” Triumvir Bellucci said in a contemplative tone.

  There was a pregnant pause, during which his data slate pinged.

  With narrowed eyes Senator Cornwallis looked down at the message.

  -Kennedy backs Cornwallis Initiative on Senate Floor?- was the plain text message.

  Charles Cornwallis turned squinted over at the former Triumvir.

  -How much?- he texted after a short pause, fingers typing rapidly then turned back to the Triumvir who was looking entirely too satisfied for his taste. Time to take her down a notch.

  “I believe, Madam Triumvir, that Cornwallis and Wessex are not the only Houses who have suffered from the various vagaries of wayward youth,” he riposted smoothly. Bellucci's daughter had gone missing some years earlier, with rumors of every stripe swirling about as to what fate may have befallen her. Then, a few months ago—and shortly before the bombardment of the hidden Raubach base—she had reappeared to cast a seemingly benign vote on revising a cultural appropriation procedure. Mere weeks after that vote, supposedly irrefutable evidence had surfaced that she had been killed—along with a picked team of Imperial Intelligence Officers many of whom were known to be in Bellucci's pocket—and, officially, she had been declared dead.

  Obviously, Charles Cornwallis was not the type to be taken by the 'official' line. And neither were the other seasoned veterans of the Imperial Senate, which only served to reinforce his suspicions regarding Bellucci's support for House Raubach's recent radical shift in focus and allegiances. Those suspicions had led him—or, more accurately, his agents—to make a somewhat surprising apprehension which he suspected would come into play in the coming minutes.

  Triumvir Bellucci stiffened. “You tread on dangerous ground, Senator,” she said flatly, “be careful you do not slip. Casting unfounded aspersions in public is one thing; doing so on the floor of the Imperial Senate could be considered an adversarial gesture requiring a response in kind.”

  “I cast no aspersions and mean nothing adversarial, Triumvir,” Cornwallis said with mock humility. “It’s just that I remember how I lost my own daughter so many years ago,” he made a dismissive, downplaying motion before looking up forcing a tear into his eye, “from my belated third wife. Sadly she was lost to us to a malicious proletariat poisoning plot; the thought of anyone being deprived as I have was more than I could bear.”

  “Does any of this have any bearing whatsoever on the potentially criminal failings of your nephew, Senator?” Bellucci asked sweetly.

  “Malicious slanders are the products of small minds, and they are promulgated by the even smaller-minded parrots who are too stupid to do their research,” he assured her, hiding laughter at the heat of her gaze when he called her a stupid, small-minded parrot.

  “Find your point quickly, Senator. Before I find you in contempt of the Imperial Senate,” she said harshly, “there will be no filibustering on my floor.”

  -Half- was the return message that finally and at long last came.

  Half probably meant half of the House Cornwallis assets he’d loaded up onto Kennedy House freighters, but it could mean the ‘old Lion of the Senate’ was trying to stick his fingers into his pockets and later claim Senator Cornwallis and his House owed him future favors.

  Not that he was in much of a position to argue.

  -Agreed. But only if I need it- he savagely smashed the send button. He wasn’t paying for anything he could have worked himself out of anyway.

  -We have an accord- Kennedy messaged back.

  “I suppose that it does not, Triumvir Bellucci,” Cornwallis said, working to appear appropriately crestfallen before appearing to brighten, “it’s just that I heard of the Triumvir’s concern for Junior Senator Bellucci, lost these past months, and felt the urge to commiserate.”

  If her gaze had been hot before, it was now lethal.

  “My daughter is none of your concern, Cornwallis,” she glared furiously.

  “Any mother would be overwrought at the loss of a daughter, just as I was as a father when losing my own daughter,” he said smoothly.

  “I am far from overwrought, and I assure you my daughter can attend to her own affairs,” she snapped.

  “Which is why, in the solidarity of the institution of family—to say nothing of my duty as an Imperial Senator—as soon as agents loyal to House Cornwallis discovered your daughter’s mercy mission t
o the Bamona Cluster had been intercepted by Pirates located beyond the Overton Expanse they moved immediately to intercept the dastardly pirates,” he said with a smirk and at his signal a pair of Junior Senators loyal to the Cornwallis ‘escorted’ the Triumvir’s daughter onto the Senate floor.”

  “Senator,” Triumvir Bellucci said, looking up at her daughter.

  “Triumvir,” the Junior Senator—a woman with a statuesque body, golden eyes and clearly Imperial blood—said disdainfully, suggesting of an even more complicated-than-usual relationship between mother and daughter.

  “It is a happy day for the Senate and the entire Empire that the Triumvir’s daughter can be brought back to us safe and sound, able to once again shelter in the comfort of her House’s arms before once again setting out for the…Bamona Cluster,” he declaimed sardonically. Bamona was on the other side of the Overton Expanse and his agents, members of the Free Legions, had found the Junior Senator on a freighter they had suspected of going to meet with the new leader of House Raubach

  “We all have wayward youths whose intemperance in their actions can occasionally lead to adverse consequences. However, I am sure you agree that there is no need to look too closely into the actions of the younger generation. They are out there to make mistakes and,” he gave the statuesque Junior Senator a piercing look, “hopefully learn from them.”

  “I believe you are right about old history, Cornwallis,” Triumvir Bellucci said, eyes shooting daggers at him for placing her in this position.

  In all probability, her daughter had been in more danger from him than from the so-called pirates—who were, in actuality, House Raubach supporters determined to bring down House Cornwallis—but by parading her through the Senate floor like this the Triumvir had to at least pretend the opposite. All the while she could be counted on to silently sharpen her knives in preparation for the opportune moment to bring him down. Not that she would succeed.