Gospodar had addressed Skupshtina since the days of the Founders. In the
gray tunic and red cloak of a militia officer, knife and pistol on hips,
he appeared still larger than he was. His words boomed across crowded
tiers in the great stone hall, seemed almost to make the stained-glass
windows shiver.
“–Intelligence reports have grown more and more disquieting over the
past few months. I can here tell you little beyond this naked fact–you
will understand the need not to compromise sources–but our General
Staff takes as grave a view of the news as I do. Scouts dispatched into
the Roidhunate have brought back data on Merseian naval movements which
indicate preparations for action … Diplomatic inquiries both official
and unofficial have gotten only assurances for response, unproved and
vaguely phrased. After centuries, we know what Merseian assurances are
worth …
“Thus far I have no reply to my latest message to the Emperor, and can’t
tell if my courier has even caught up with him on the Spican frontier
… High Terran authorities whom I’ve been able to contact have denied
there is a Merseian danger at the present time. They’ve challenged the
validity of the information given me, have insisted their own is
different and is correct …
“They question our motives. Fleet Admiral Sandberg told me to my face,
when I visited his command post, he believes our government has
manufactured an excuse to marshal strength, not against foreign enemies
but against the Imperium. He cited charges of treasonous Dennitzan
activity elsewhere in the Empire. He forbade me to act. When I reminded
him that I am the sector viceroy, he declared he would see about getting
me removed. I think he would have had me arrested then and there”–a
bleak half-smile–“if I’d not taken the precaution of bringing along
more firepower than he had on hand …
“He revealed my niece, Kossara Vymezal, whom I sent forth to track down
the origin of those lies–he claimed she’d been caught at subversion,
had confessed under their damnable mind-twisting interrogation–I asked
why I was not informed at once, I demanded she be brought home, and
learned–” He smote the lectern. Tears burst from his eyes. “She has
been sold for a slave on Terra.” The assembly roared.
“Uyak Bodin, Uyak Bodin,” Kossara herself wept. She lifted her hands to
the screen as if to try touching him.
“Sssh,” Flandry said. “This is past, remember. We’ve got to find out
what’s happening today and what brought it on.”
She gulped, mastered her sobs, and gave him cool help. He had a fair
grasp of Serbic, and the news analyst was competent, but as always, much
was taken for granted of which a stranger was ignorant.
Ostensibly the Merseian trouble sprang from incidents accumulated and
ongoing in the Wilderness. Disputes between traders, prospectors, and
voortrekkers from the two realms had repeatedly brought on armed
clashes. Dennitzans didn’t react to overbearingness as meekly as
citizens of the inner Empire were wont to. They overbore right back, or
took the initiative from the beginning. Several actions were doubtless
in a legal sense piracy by crews of one side or the other. Matters had
sharpened during the civil war, when there was no effective Imperial
control over humans.
Flandry had known about this, and known too that the Roidhunate had
asked for negotiations aimed at solving the problem, negotiations to
which Emperor Hans agreed on the principle that law and order were
always worth establishing even with the cooperation of an enemy. The
delegates had wrangled for months.
In recent weeks Merseia had changed its tack and made totally
unacceptable demands–for example, that civilian craft must be cleared
by its inspectors before entering the Wilderness. “They know that’s
ridiculous,” Flandry remarked. “Without fail, in politics that kind of
claim has an ulterior purpose. It may be as little as a propaganda ploy
for domestic consumption, or as much as the spark put to a bomb fuse.”
“A reason to bring their strength to bear–while most of the Empire’s is
tied up at Spica–and maybe denounce the Covenant of Alfzar and occupy a
key system in the Wilderness?” Kossara wondered.
“Could be … if Merseia is dispatching warships in this direction,”