“Clear as day, is it? I see things a little differently. The state has a value to it that makes it essential for human beings.”
“Really? Because human beings can live just fine even without any state, but states can’t exist if there are no human beings.”
“I am …; shocked, frankly. You sound like some extreme sort of anarchist.”
“That’s incorrect, sir. I’m actually a vegetarian, though I do bend the rules the minute I see a tasty cut of meat.”
“Admiral Yang! Do you intend to insult this court of inquiry?”
The sense of danger in Negroponte’s voice edged up a notch.
“No, sir, I have no such intentions whatsoever.” Naturally, he most certainly did have such intentions, but there was no need to come out and say so. Yang went silent, neither defending himself nor apologizing, and the chairman of the Defense Committee, perhaps having lost sight of his line of attack, continued to glare at Yang as he drew his thick lips tightly together.
“How about we recess for a little while at this point?” That was the voice of Huang Rui, who hadn’t spoken a word since the self-introductions. “Admiral Yang must be tired, and I’m certainly bor—I mean, er, exhausted. I’d be grateful for a little break.”
That request probably saved multiple human lives.
After a ninety-minute recess, the court of inquiry reconvened. Negroponte embarked on a new line of attack.
“I understand you’ve appointed Lieutenant Frederica Greenhill as your aide-de-camp.”
“That’s correct. Is there a problem?”
“She’s the daughter of Admiral Greenhill, who committed rebellious acts of treason last year against our democratic republic. You have to be aware of that, and yet …;”
Yang raised his eyebrows just slightly. “Oh? So in my free country, the child bears the guilt of the parent, like in some ancient autocracy?”
“I said nothing of the sort.”
“I can’t interpret it otherwise, I’m afraid …;”
“What I’m suggesting is that, to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, you need to consider your appointments carefully.”
“What’s an ‘unnecessary misunderstanding’? Could you tell me, with specifics?”
As there was no reply, Yang continued.
“It would be one thing if you had some kind of evidence that cast serious doubt on her, but when it comes to preemptive action against some sort of nebulous ‘unnecessary misunderstanding,’ I just don’t feel any need. Also, the right of a commanding officer to appoint whom he will is guaranteed by law in this case. And furthermore, if I were told to relieve the most capable and trustworthy aide I could ever ask for, that would hamper my ability to use our forces to their fullest extent. All I’d be able to think is that you were deliberately trying to inflict losses on our forces. Is that how I should interpret this?”
Yang’s aggressive line of reasoning had clearly beaten the board members to the punch. Two or three times, Negroponte opened his mouth and started to say something, only to close it, unable to think of a comeback on the spur of the moment. Looking for help, he turned toward the president of Central Autonomous Governance University, who was sitting next to him.
The man known as Eurique Blah-Blah-Blah Oliveira had more the bearing of a bureaucrat than a scholar. Of course, Central Autonomous Governance University was a school for cultivating government bureaucrats. Given his reputation for brilliance, Oliveira had no doubt been able to do as he wished at every stage of his life. He was brimming with a confidence and sense of superiority that extended all the way down to his fingertips.
“Admiral Yang, it’s going to be hard for us to ask questions if we’re being spoken to like that. We are not enemies here. Let’s try and understand one another better, using a little more common sense and reason.”
As he listened to Oliveira’s dry, raspy voice, Yang decided that he hated the man. Negroponte could fly into a frenzy, become confused, and so on, and for that alone, he still had a sense of humanity about him.
“Judging by your words and actions just a moment ago, you would seem to have certain preconceived notions about this court of inquiry, but you are misjudging us. We haven’t called you here to criticize you. In fact, you could say that this court of inquiry was opened in order to improve your standing. Naturally, we need your cooperation in order to do that, and we want to cooperate with you in every way as well.”
“In that case, there is one thing I would like to request.”
“And what would that be?”
“If you’ve got the answer sheet, could you show it to me? ’Cause I’d really like to know what kind of answers you’re all hoping for.”
Dead silence filled the room for a moment, and then angry voices churned the air in the room, creating currents of turbulence.
“Let the inquiree be warned! Please refrain from using words and actions insulting to this court of inquiry or scornful of its authority and character!”
The Defense Committee chair managed to rein in his loud voice just before it turned into unintelligible shouting. If there’s anything in this burlesque show you can call “authority” or “character,” then by all means, bring it out, Yang thought. Naturally, it was neither submission nor regret that caused Yang to hold his peace. A thick vein was bulging on the Defense Committee chair’s temple. Yang looked on maliciously as Oliveira of Central Autonomous Governance University whispered something in Negroponte’s ear.
Finally, Yang was released from day one of the court of inquiry, but that didn’t mean there was any improvement in his state of de facto house arrest. Herded into a landcar that picked him up from the meeting hall, Yang was taken right back to his accommodations. As soon as he met the junior officer serving as his personal assistant, Yang demanded to go out for dinner.
“Your Excellency, I’ll prepare dinner for you here. There’s no need to bother with going out.”
“I want to eat out. Not in a bleak, empty room like this.”
“You’ll need Admiral Bay’s permission to leave through the front gate.”
“I don’t particularly want his permission.”
“Whether you want it or not, it’s required!”
“Well, in that case, can you put me in touch with Admiral Bay?”
“The admiral is out right now. He has official business at the High Council chairman’s office.”
“When will he be back?”
“I don’t know. So, is that all you needed?”
“Yeah, that about covers it.”
The junior officer saluted and went out of the room, and then for a while Yang stood there glaring at the door. Although he knew that bugging devices were present, he couldn’t help growling in a low voice, “Do you think you can do this to me?”
Yang flung his military beret down hard against the floor. Then he picked the innocent beret back up, brushed off the dust, and put it on his head. Crossing his arms, he wandered around the room.
I quit. This time, I swear, I’m really gonna quit. He had been thinking that ever since capturing Iserlohn the year before last. These were some of the same people who had rejected his letters of resignation repeatedly—and instead put him in positions of higher and higher authority, expanding his duties and his power.
When he had finally been let go from the court of inquiry, it had not been without a small feeling of pleasure. This was because today, at least, he had secured a tactical victory. He had crushed their false accusations one after another and, difficult though such a thing was, had even managed to embarrass the thick-skinned inquisitors.
However, this tactical victory would not necessarily lead straight to a strategic victory. While he’d be grateful if all those high-ranking officials decided to give up on the court of inquiry, it was very possible that they would instead continue even more obsessively. He had reached the l
imits of his endurance during today’s questioning alone, and it seemed impossible to continue to hold up through tomorrow and beyond. In which case, there’s nothing I can do except quit, right?
Yang sat down at the writing desk and started thinking about his letter of resignation.
During this time, Frederica Greenhill had not just been twiddling her thumbs while observing from the sidelines. She got to work as soon as she entered her room at an apartment building for female officers and, within the space of three hours, had made fourteen visiphone calls and nailed down the location of Rear Admiral Bay. The moment he left Job Trünicht’s office, he was accosted by Frederica, with Warrant Officer Machungo at her side.
“As Admiral Yang’s aide-de-camp, I demand to see my CO. Where is the admiral?”
“That is related to top state secrets. I can’t authorize any meetings, nor can I tell you where the admiral is.”
Frederica was not about to stand for that kind of answer.
“Understood. ‘Court of inquiry’ must refer to psychological torture carried out behind closed doors, correct?”
“Lieutenant Greenhill, watch what you say.”
“If you’re saying that I’m mistaken, then I demand that you prove it by publicly disclosing this court of inquiry, allowing lawyers to be present, and permitting the inquiree to see visitors.”
“I don’t have to respond to such demands.”
“Why are you unable to respond?”
“I don’t have to answer that.”
But Frederica did not back down from the high-handed attitude of the rear admiral.
“In that case, would you mind if I inform the news media that Admiral Yang—a national hero—is being arbitrarily and illegally subjected to a psychological lynching by a handful of high government officials?”
There was a visible flash of panic in the rear admiral’s eyes.
“J-just try it. You’d be breaking the State Secrets Protection Act. You’d end up in front of a court-martial yourself.”
“There would be no grounds for a court-martial. The State Secrets Protection Act says nothing about any ‘courts of inquiry.’ Therefore, it follows that even if I made this matter public, doing so would not constitute any crime. If you’re bound and determined to ignore Admiral Yang’s human rights and force this secret court of inquiry on him, then I too will have to use whatever means are at my disposal.”
“Hmph. The apple didn’t fall very far from the tree, did it?” the rear admiral spat back, filled with insidious venom.
For an instant, shock—and then fury—flashed across the face of Warrant Officer Machungo, but Frederica didn’t bat an eyelash. Only her hazel eyes blazed in that instant, like emeralds bathed in firelight. As Bay turned to go, leaving his cruel words behind him, she made no move to stop him.
Last year, when she had learned that her father was the ringleader behind the coup d’état, she had braced herself to be released from her position as Yang’s aide-de-camp. But then Yang, speaking to her in a tone like that of an awkward schoolboy, had told her: “If you’re not there for me, I’ll have a rough time of it …;”
Those simple words had sustained her thus far and would likely continue to do so. She turned to look at her large and muscular companion.
“Warrant Officer Machungo, I didn’t want to do this, but it’s my last option. Let’s go see Admiral Bucock and ask him what’s going on.”
After wasting about a dozen sheets of paper, Yang finally finished his letter of resignation. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to be able to look Julian and Frederica, or Caselnes and the others, in the eye after this, but he just didn’t think it was possible to go along with the Trünicht faction any longer. Even if he wasn’t around, the empire would have a hard time invading them as long as Iserlohn was still in FPA hands. Thinking of it that way was how he finally managed to calm himself down.
Utterly exhausted, Yang burrowed into bed. He had no way of knowing that, several thousand light-years away, Gaiesburg Fortress was flying across the black void. Neither god nor devil had made Yang all-knowing or all-powerful.
It was the tenth of April when a group of sixteen warships, including the battleship Hispaniola and the cruiser Cordoba, discovered it. This group, under the command of Captain J. Gibson, had departed from Iserlohn on a patrol mission into the corridor.
“If you do encounter the enemy, under no circumstances should you open hostilities. Just withdraw to the fortress and report your findings.”
Rear Admiral Caselnes, the acting commander, had given strict orders of this nature to every commander in the Iserlohn Patrol Fleet. While Fortress Commander Yang Wen-li was absent, they were to avoid needless combat insofar as it was possible.
An operator aboard the cruiser Cordoba was drinking yet another cup of coffee as he gazed at his instruments. He had lost count of how many cups this made. The present situation was peaceful—and therefore boredom itself. Aside from drinking coffee, there was absolutely nothing he could do to distract himself. His stomach, however, had had about enough of caffeine-triggered stimulation. Suddenly, the operator’s eyes lit up, and he violently slammed the cup down on the corner of his console.
“Warp distortion dead ahead,” he reported. “Something’s about to warp in. Distance: 300 light seconds. It masses …;”
The glance that the operator cast toward his mass meter froze there, and he lost the words he was about to say. It took several seconds to get his vocal cords started again.
“The mass is—extremely large …;”
“Give me a number!” shouted the captain. The operator loudly cleared his throat two or three times, and then managed to cough up the formless mass of shock that had been lodged in his windpipe.
“Mass is approximately forty trillion tons! This isn’t any battleship!”
This time, it was the captain’s turn to go silent. After a moment, he shuddered, shook off the choke hold that an invisible pair of arms seemed to have him in, and gave orders.
“Retreat, full speed! We’ll be caught in the spacequake!”
Captain Gibson, the commanding officer for this formation of vessels, was also ordering all ships to pull back immediately. The sixteen vessels put distance between themselves and the increasingly warped region of space as quickly as their engine output would allow. Vast undulations created by the spacequake raced after them, bending and shaking space-time itself, squeezing their hearts with invisible hands.
The coffee cup fell from the edge of the console and shattered on the floor. Even so, the operators stared on at the screen, never losing sight of their reconnaissance duties. At last, they saw the shock wave come racing toward them, and a voiceless wail rose up …;
A frantic atmosphere was beginning to form in the command room of Iserlohn Fortress. Operators were in constant motion. There was no rest for their hands, their eyes, or their voices. Rear Admiral Caselnes, along with the rest of the executive staff, stood watching the scene unfold.
“A patrol group seems to have encountered the enemy again …;”
“The enemy’s busy too, these days. Maybe they’re trying to earn some overtime.”
Idle talk was of course forbidden, but no one could obey that rule when they were uneasy. At last, the chief operator relayed the report from Captain Gibson to the acting commander.
“It’s shaped like a sphere or something similar, composed of alloys and ceramics, and its mass is …;”
“How much?”
“Mass estimated at over forty trillion tons.”
“Did you say trillion?!” Caselnes was a man with a quiet, tranquil disposition, but not even he could keep his composure when he heard that figure.
The chief operator continued: “Judging by its mass and its shape, it’s likely an artificial planetoid, forty to sixty-five kilometers in diameter.”
“You mean …; a for
tress like Iserlohn?” Caselnes said in a low voice.
Rear Admiral von Schönkopf, commander of fortress defenses, cracked an ironic smile. “I don’t think the empire’s ever sent us goodwill envoys in this form before.”
“So was that run-in back in January just a trial run for this?” There was a bitter edge to Caselnes’s voice. He had thought the enemy would learn the same lesson their own forces had and be more circumspect in the future. Had he been mistaken all along? “So then, we’ve got an imperial fleet that’s bringing along its own home base this time?”
“You’ve got to admire their effort,” von Schönkopf said, although there was no passion in his praise.
Rear Admiral Murai, ever the serious one, shot a prejudiced glance at the commander of fortress defenses. “Even so, it’s an incredible thing they’ve conceived. To warp here with an entire fortress in tow …; The imperial military has apparently developed an entirely new technology.”
“The technology isn’t new,” von Schönkopf countered unnecessarily. “They’ve just upped the scale is all. Breathtakingly, I might add.”
“What’s certain,” Caselnes said, stepping between the two men to bring things back on topic, “is that their forces are vast, and we’ve been caught napping. What’s more, Commander Yang is absent. It’s just us while he’s away, so at least for the time being, we’re going to have to hold the line ourselves.”
At Caselnes’s words, a wave of tension rolled through the spacious central command room. Understandably uneasy glances were shooting back and forth throughout the room. They had been utterly certain that Iserlohn was impregnable, but now a hairline crack of panic had appeared in the cornerstone of that certainty. Iserlohn had taken every cannon blast that had come its way, but those had been ship-mounted cannons; the output of the approaching fortress’s main guns would be on a whole different level.
Endurance Page 16
