He grew conscious of someone watching him: a girl about his own age, but not a student—her calf-length dress was too stylish, and the little hat perched on one side of her head held a quetzal plume. She smiled as he met her eyes, then turned to talk to her matronly companion.
“Looking you over, stud,” Jeff said.
John half-grinned. Objectively, he knew he was good-looking enough; tall like his father, with yellow-blond hair and a square-chinned face. And he kept himself in good enough shape . . . but they don’t know. His foot twinged.
He punched his brother on the arm. “Like Doreen down in the canteen?” he said. They sat on the grass and passed a towel back and forth. “Thank me for it, bro. If I hadn’t gotten you into this weird Chosen stuff you’d still be a weed and skinny. She’s eating you with her eyes, my man.”
Jeffrey Farr had filled out, although he’d always be slimmer than the son of his foster-mother. Only a trace of adolescent awkwardness remained, and his long bony face was firming towards adulthood.
“Doreen? All she’ll do is look. Her folks are Reformed Baptist, you know; I’ve got about as much chance of seeing her skirt up as I do of getting the Archbishop flat. I tried pinching her butt and she mashed my toe so hard I dropped my tray.”
John clucked his tongue. “The Archbishop’s butt? Hell, I didn’t know you had a taste for older women. . . . Pax, pax!”
Jeffrey lit a slightly sweat-dampened cigarette. “Those things will kill you,” John said, refusing the offered pack.
“And the other Officers Training Corps cadets will think I’m a pansy if I don’t smoke,” Jeffrey said, leaning his elbow on his knee and looking out over the city. “I’ll admit, the phys ed side of it is easier because of all this exercise shit you talked me into.”
“How’s Maurice taking you going into the army?”
Jeffrey shrugged. “Dad’s just surprised, is all. Every Farr for five generations has been navy.”
“Since the days of wooden ships and iron men,” John agreed.
The Republic hadn’t had a major land war in nearly seventy years, and the army was tiny and ill-funded. The navy was another matter, since it had always been policy not to let the Empire gain too big an edge.
“More like iron cannon and wooden heads. When do you hear from the diplomatic service?”
“Next week,” John said. “But I’m pretty confident.”
“You’ve got the marks for it.”
Thanks to Center, he said silently.
Jeffrey’s green eyes narrowed and he shook his head. Even Center can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s udder, he replied, through the relay that the ancient computer provided.
correct, Center said. i have merely shortened the period of instruction and made possible a broader-based course of study.
Think we’ll have enough time before the Chosen take on the Empire? Jeff thought.
chosen-imperial war within the next two years is a 17% ±3 probability. within the next four, 53% ±5. within the next six, 92% ±7.
“I should have my commission in a year,” Jeff said. “You’ll be a member in good standing of the striped-pants-and-spooks brigade.”
“Much good it’ll do the Empire,” John said gloomily, splitting a grass stem between his thumbs.
North lay the rest of the Republic, and the Gut—the narrow waterway that divided the mainland along most of its width. North of the Gut was the Universal Empire, largest of Visager’s nations, potentially the richest, and for centuries the most powerful. Those centuries were generations gone.
“And we’re doing fuck-all!” Jeff said. “I know politicians are supposed to be dimwits, but the staff over at the Pyramid are even worse, and the admiralty isn’t much better, apart from Dad.”
“We’re doing all we can,” John said calmly. “The Republic isn’t doing much yet, but some people see what’s coming—Maurice, for example. And he’s a rear admiral, now. We ought to have some time after they attack the Empire.”
“I suppose so,” Jeff sighed. “Hey, you keep me on an even keel, did I ever tell you that? Yeah, even the Chosen aren’t crazy enough to take on us and the Empire at once. When that starts, people will sit up and take notice—even them.” He nodded towards the capitol building’s dome.