Adele took off the commo helmet and replaced it with the peaked cap that was normal headgear with the 2nd Class uniform she was wearing. She smiled faintly as she allowed Daniel to hand her out of the vehicle.
“Ordinary diplomats,” she said, “would find a meeting like this one to be very stressful. Personally, I’m feeling quite relaxed now that I have my feet back on the ground. Perhaps we could offer a suggestion to the foreign service when we return to Cinnabar?”
“I don’t know any diplomats well enough to dislike them that much,” Daniel said, straightening his tunic. He felt good—buoyant, in fact. Surviving a ride like that was an exhilarating experience.
Whistling a snatch of “The Atlas Cluster Squadron,” Daniel strode toward the staircase with Adele beside him. A tattooed female petty officer was in command of the guards. “Does your driver always land like that?” she said.
“Pretty much so,” Daniel said nonchalantly as he started up the stairs. Now orbiting off Thermidor we took aboard a shipwrecked whore. . . .
“I’d like to say one gets used to it,” said Adele over her shoulder. “But I haven’t as yet, I’m afraid.”
Commander Purvis ushered them into the loggia shaded by hand-carved screens. Admiral O’Quinn stood just within the doorway. Daniel had met them on the roof of the Anyo Nuevo the first time the Princess Cecile docked in San Juan, but he knew the other four officers present only by file imagery.
Adele had warned him, but great God! they looked terrible! If it weren’t for the uniforms—flashy, locally-made versions of Dress Whites—Daniel wouldn’t have connected them with the RCN or with any military organization.
“Admiral,” Daniel said, saluting. He nodded to the others. “Fellow officers. I’m glad you were able to meet Officer Mundy and myself at such short notice. There isn’t a great deal of margin, but the RCN is used to that—”
He felt the corners of his lips quiver in what was as much a snarl as a smile. When the time came he’d be calm; he knew that from past experience. Now, though, visualizing the battle ahead, he couldn’t prevent the outward trembling of emotions older than the human portion of his brain. The Alliance might start the dance, but in the end the RCN would be calling the tune. . . .
“—and I think there’s enough margin, if we act quickly.”
“Act?” said Lieutenant Estaing, who was the least changed physically of any of them. “By cutting our throats, you mean, Leary? Because there’s nothing else to do! Two battleships, modern battleships, a heavy cruiser, and a flotilla of destroyers. That’s hopeless odds!”
Daniel crossed his hands behind his back and looked at Estaing. Not changed physically, but . . . and then again, from what Adele’s records said about the man, maybe he was morally the same man he’d been before the mutiny, too.
“I don’t believe it’s that bad, Mr. Estaing,” Daniel said calmly. “The Alliance squadron only arrived at Gehenna a week ago. They had an exceedingly difficult voyage from Pleasaunce. They’ll be an additional month fitting out, and they won’t be expecting an attack. I believe—”
“They won’t be facing an attack either, Leary,” said Admiral O’Quinn heavily. Daniel looked at him in amazement. The Admiral glowered for a moment, then grimaced and lowered his eyes to the floor. “Look, you’re a young fellow, full of piss and vinegar—which is fine when you’re young.”
“We’ve been young too,” said the grotesquely fat Lieutenant Tetrey. All the Aristoxenos’ officers were holding goblets, but Tetrey was swigging hers between bites from a platter of glazed fruit slices. “That’s why we’re here now, at the back of nowhere.”
“We have to face reality, Leary,” O’Quinn said. “The truth is, I don’t know that the Zanie could lift even if we took the full month you say the Alliance squadron will be refitting. She hasn’t entered orbit in three years, and it’s seven since we last took her into the Matrix. It’s hopeless to imagine us engaging two battleships!”
Daniel cleared his throat.
“I’m forgetting my manners,” said Adrian Purvis. “Here, Leary—and you, Cousin Adele. Won’t you have something to drink? Or eat, but these vintages are very respectable.”