the legitimate government of the outer colonies. I am the negotiator and the
interim ambassador if the negotiations are successful. We don’t consider it
defeat, if the will of the majority of the colonies has supported you; the fact
that you are the government in these regions is persuasive of that fact. We
extend you formal recognition from the new administration which has taken charge
in our own affairs… a situation I will explain further to your central
authorities; and we are prepared to open trade negotiations at the same time.
All military operations within our power to control will be stopped.
Unfortunately… it isn’t within our power to stop them, only to withdraw support
and approval.”
“I am a regional administrator, a step removed from our central directorate, but
I don’t think, ambassador Ayres, that the directorate will have any hesitancy in
opening discussion on these matters. At least, as a regional administrator sees
things, this is the case. I extend you a cordial welcome.”
“Haste—will save lives.”
“Haste indeed. These troops will conduct you to a safe lodging. Your companions
will join you.”
“Arrest?”
“Absolutely the contrary. The station is newly taken and insecure as yet. We
want to be sure no hazard confronts you. Cotton wool, Mr. Ambassador. Walk where
you will, but with a security escort at all times; and by my earnest advice,
rest. You’ll be shipping out as soon as a vessel can be cleared. It’s even
uncertain whether you’ll have a night’s sleep before that departure, You agree,
sir?”
“Agreed,” he said, and Andilin called the young officer over and spoke to him.
The officer gestured, with his hand this time; he took his leave with nods of
courtesy from all the table, walked out, with a cold feeling at his back.
Practicalities, he reckoned. He did not like the look of what he saw, the
too-alike guards, the coldness everywhere. Security Council on Earth had not
seen such things when it gave its orders and laid its plans. The lack of
intermediate Earthward stations, since the dismantling of the Hinder Star bases,
made the spread of the war logistically unlikely, but Mazian had failed to
prevent it from spreading all across the Beyond… had aggravated the situation,
escalated hostilities to dangerous levels. The sudden prospect of having
Mazian’s forces reactivate those Hinder Star stations in a retrenching action
behind Pell turned him sick with the mere contemplation of the possibilities.
The Isolationists had had their way… too long. Now there were bitter decisions
to be taken… rapprochment to this thing called Union; agreements, borders,
barriers… containment.
If the line were not held, disaster loomed… the possibility of having Union
itself activating those abandoned Earthward stations, convenient bases. There
was a fleet building at Sol Station; it had to have time. Mazian was fodder for
Union guns until then. Sol itself had to be in command of the next resistance,
Sol, and not the headless thing the Company Fleet had become, refusing Company
orders, doing as they would.
Most of all they had to keep Pell, had to keep that one base.
Ayres walked where he was led, settled into the apartment they gave him several
levels down, which was excellent in comforts, and the comfort reassured him. He
forced himself to sit and appear relaxed to await his companions, that they
assured him would come… and they did come finally, in a group and unnerved by
their situation. Ayres thrust their escort out, closed the door, made a shifting
of his eyes toward the peripheries of the compartment, silent warning against
free speech. The others, Ted Marsh, Karl Bela, Ramona Dias, understood, and said
nothing, as he hoped they had not spoken their minds elsewhere.
Someone on Viking Station, a freighter crew, was in great difficulty, he had no
doubt. Supposedly merchanters were able to pass the battle lines, with no worse
than occasional shepherding to different ports than they had planned; or
sometimes, if it was one of Mazian’s ships that stopped them, confiscation of
part of the cargo or a man or woman of the crew. The merchanters lived with it.
And the merchanters who had brought them to Viking would survive detention until