* * *
“We’ve left blood in the dirt of twenty-five worlds
We’ve built roads on a dozen more,
And all that we have at the end of our hitch
Buys a night with a second-rate whore.
The Senate decrees, the Grand Admiral Calls
The orders come down from on high.
It’s ‘On Full Kits’ and ‘Sound Board Ships,’
We’re sending you where you can die.”
“It would have been easier to stop their landing, of course,” Owensford said conversationally. “Once they’re down and sorted out into their units they’re a lot stronger.”
“Except we don’t have any way to control what lands on Sparta,” Lysander said.
“The lands that we take, the Senate gives back
Rather more often than not,
But the more that are killed, the less share the loot
And we won’t be back to this spot.”
“And if we fight them?” Alexander asked.
“We’ll break the hearts of your women and girls
We may break your arse, as well
Then the Line Marines with their banners unfurled
Will follow those banners to hell—”
“What will happen? We’ll probably lose,” Peter Owensford said. “Ciotti’s heart won’t be in it—he’d never have started this if he’d thought we’d resist—but he’ll fight because it’s what he’s done all his life and he doesn’t know what else to do.”
“We know the devil, his pomps, and his works,
Ah, yes! We know them well!
When you’ve served out your hitch in
the Line Marines,
You can bugger the Senate of Hell!”
“Of course the Bronson people are counting on knocking Sparta out once we don’t have your help any more,” Lysander said.
“I expect so,” Owensford said. “Actually it’s rather late for that. You’ve learned well. Still, you’ll be hurt. Murasaki’s technoninjas will have your communications in knots once they round up all the former CD technicians. You’ve got good universities here, but they’re not prepared for what Murasaki does. Not many are. Still, we’ve done a pretty good job on the Helots, at Base Camp One, and the Stora Commando operation. If they’d tried this stunt a couple of months ago, who knows, they really might have knocked you out of the war. Now—” He shrugged. “You’ve got a better chance than we do. Preserve your strength, take it slow and careful, I think you’ll be all right in the end.”
“Then we’ll drink with our comrades and
throw down our packs,
We’ll rest ten years on the flat of our backs,
Then it’s ‘On Full Kits’ and out of your racks,
You must build a new road through Hell!”
“General Owensford,” Lysander said. “I think you are laboring under a misconception.”
“Highness?”
Lysander stared at the screen. Rank after rank of Marines swung by the pickup. The tempo of the song changed, to a flurry of drums and horns.
“The Fleet is our country, we sleep with a rifle,
No man ever begot a son on his rifle,
They pay us in gin and curse when we sin,
There’s not one who can stand us unless we’re downwind.
We’re shot when we lose and turned out when we win,
But we bury our comrades wherever they fall,
And there’s none that can face us though we’ve nothing at all!”
“You seem to think we’re going to abandon you,” Lysander said.
“It’s the sensible thing to do,” Owensford said.
“No, by God,” Alexander said. “Do you think that little of us, Peter Owensford? What have we done that you think that?”
“Sire—” For some reason Peter Owensford couldn’t talk.
King David raised his head from his hands. “We here in this room have no choice,” he said. “But—you all know what we have here. The Life Guards, some training units, and little else. All the first line Brotherhood units are up north. There’s nothing left but the second-line Militia units. Old men, and boys and women. Enough to put down riots or fight terrorists, but can we ask them to fight that?” He pointed at the screen. “General Owensford, the Freedman Life Guards are at your disposal, and me with them, but I can’t order the militia to face Line Marines.”
“There’s no need to order them,” Lysander said. He turned to the Brotherhood representatives. “Citizens and Brothers. The Kings will lead their guards in defense of the allies of Sparta. Will the Brotherhoods join us?”
“Yes, Highness.” Allan Hyson, the banker, looked scared, but his voice was firm. “How could we not?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
There is a paradox in the study of individual military merit inasmuch as people generally believe that the fundamental strength of soldiers is derived from the mutual dependence of comradeship and its assurance of being never left to fight alone. This is superficially true, but only in the sense that the strength of mutual dependence is an end product itself. Nothing can be derived from mutual support among a group of nothings. The man in a unit who has nothing within himself of any positive value is at best a vacant file. Unit strength is built of individual strength in positive quantities, however small. The approbation of his companions in arms is the greatest reward of a soldier’s life. He never wins it by relying wholly on the efforts of others to assure his survival. In battle, when a man is not acting by reflex and retains a moment for introspection, the sensation of aloneness is most vivid. It is not to right or left or backward that he looks for strength of survival, but within himself. He is lost if there is nothing there of substance.
—Joseph Maxwell Cameron,
The Anatomy of Military Merit
* * *
“Urgent signal, sir,” Andy Lahr said. “Captain Catherine Alana.”
“Is this circuit secure?”
“Yes, sir, direct line of sight systems, the Palace to Plataia. I mean, with Murasaki I suppose we can’t be sure about anything, but I’d bet on it.”
“It will have to do. OK, Andy, put her on screen.”
Catherine was in battle dress, armor and leather, her hair hidden under a combat helmet. “New intelligence report,” she said. “Cornet Talkins has reported in. We’ve arranged a pickup, but I prefer to send her to the Palace. The CoDominium might or might not let her in here, but it wouldn’t be much of a favor to put her in the middle of a battle after all she’s been through. They were pretty rough on her. Anyway, I told her to ask for you, code Jehosophat.”
“All right, I’ll arrange to have her brought in. We can send her over to St. Thomas Hospital. Any reason I should talk to her myself? Andy Bielskis is here.”
“She knows where Skilly is.”
“Jesus. Tell me, quick.”
“Unfortunately, it’s where Skilly was. A farmhouse up near Corinth. Worth raiding, but you won’t get anyone important. Talkins didn’t exactly escape, General, she was rescued.”
“By whom?”
“Sir, you’re not going to like this. By Geoffrey Niles. He’s with her, and will be at the Palace shortly.”
“Niles. Under some kind of amnesty?”
“Safe conduct,” Catherine said. “We didn’t have much time, the Helots are looking for them, and so it was kind of a package deal, I had to bring in both.”
“I’ll do what I can. That Stora business really got to Prince Lysander. If we can show Niles had any connection to that, Lysander will hang him and there won’t be a thing I can do about it. Or want to do about it for that matter.”
“Yes, sir. Anyway, I told Niles he could walk out with a reasonable head start. General, he did rescue Margreta Talkins.”
“Yeah. All right, I said I’ll do what I can.”
“There’s more. The reason Skilly isn’t at the farmhouse is that she’s in Sparta City, Minetown to be exact, organizing the Helot revolt to take over when the CoDominium Marines kill off the government of Sparta. When the Marines march on us, she’ll start a general uprising.”
“How truly good,” Owensford said. “I have to face the 77th Line Marines with all my forces up north, nothing here but secondary militia, and I get to deploy for a general uprising as well. Actually, I expected it. Nice to see that effort wasn’t wasted. Any idea of just what strength she’s got?”
“No, sir, and I don’t think she knows either. The Ultimate Decree caught them off guard, and a lot of their politicals have deserted the cause now that it’s dangerous. Of course if she looks like winning they’ll be back. General, that’s not the worst of it.”
“Captain, just what can be worse?”
“Murasaki. He’s got an atom bomb.”
“Oh, boy. Do we know what he plans to do with it?”
“No, sir. Niles may know more about that. He was being cagey, holding back some information to bargain with. Of course he maybe wrong, but I’d bet a lot that he believes he’s not wrong, that Murasaki has a bomb and Skilly has worked out a way to use it to her advantage. Maybe you can find out more when he gets there.”