Admin86

Chapter 86 - The Administrator

Tharkad Naval Shipyard - Guest Complex Tharkad system
Lyran Commonwealth
3150

a few dozen meters away...

"...speaking of chalcas lunatics- Admiral." Sharon turned to her left, and found herself eye-to-eye with Dalia Bekker. "I find your 'solution' to the Jade Falcon Mongols to be disturbing."

"Khan Bekker. Enjoying the circus?" Sharon asked.

"Such as it is, aff." The Ghost Bear officer looked her up and down. "You are not as I imagined from your appearances in the media."

"Camera adds five kilos, you look Under Fed. I assume you're here speaks to the Rasalhague Dominion's position on Stone's proposals, Quiaff?"

"Aff...founder, you do look like a widened Roshak."

"Considering my grandfather held the Bloodname, is it a surprise?" Sharon asked, "Of course, I got the ugly parts of the family tree, hit every branch on the way down. My people said you brought the GBS Rasalhague, which suggests our report that the Alshain was the one in the shop."

"I never would have believed I would see a Ngo in a uniform." the Ghost Bear Khan said, changing the subject again, "What did they have to threaten you with?"

"Mmm...a crappy pension and long hours in the office." Sharon said, "Oh, and having genocidal space nazis attacking everyone helped make up my mind. What brings the Dominion's top military mind to a damn peace conference? I thought you tinspawns hated those things."

"I do." Bekker said, "However, we like supporting our allies."

Luxor Class Heavy Cruiser

"Stone brought a Luxor." Sharon said, "I think bringing a full on Leviathan Bock III might be a bit much, except Nikol Marik brought a carrier group, Yori Kurita brought a Carrier with Pocket Warship parasite riders, and Julian came with not just one Fox, but a Fox and four new-build Corvettes."

"You have a large fleet just outside the window." Bekker noted.

"We have a lot of ship construction and a patrol group outside the window-the Fleet is working." Sharon countered. "The ships parked here are basically waiting for orders to go elsewhere. The Commonwealth is large, it requires a lot of work to maintain."

"Hm, interesting, what kind of...'work'?"

"Well, there's commerce enforcement, anti-piracy, intersystem and intrasystem security, training cruises, ship-ex, fleetex, border patrol, maintenance, and humanitarian missions in the former Falcon territory, plus standby in case the neighbours get froggy. One difference from my predecessors, is that I don't let my crews sit still and rot. I understand your flag-captain was surprised to find recharging stations and fueling points along your route in."

"She was." Bekker said.

"Then you can confirm-the Republic has nothing in their territory we want." Sharon stated, "As a dispassionate observer, mind you."

"I admit a certain discomfort in that thought." Bekker told her, "You Lyrans seem to be pulling away from the rest of mankind."

Sharon shrugged, "We invited you all here-we're not so much pulling away, as we are sick of four hundred years of pointless conflict over a tapped out region of space whose primary resource is a vast population on public assistance. Trillian wants peace, I agree with her-there are more interesting and important things to do than beat one another back into the neolithic."

"Yet you not only have built a massive fleet but, are still building it."

"Nations have National Security concerns. Piracy and crime don't stop just because you sign a treaty and the Star League failed us all. It then ate itself out from the inside. The official position of my government, is that we're open to balanced trade, and peace with anyone who doesn't attack us."

"And your own position?" Bekker asked.

"I can advise the Archon, but SHE makes the policies, and I carry those policies out to the best of my ability in the most intelligent manner I can to achieve the end goals she defines. I am a professional, Khan Bekker. I serve the nation to the best of my capacity and in exchange, I don't have to deal with making policy beyond the scope of my specific duties."

"You do not favor alliance."

"No. I do not favor entangling alliances." Sharon said firmly, "If Trillian Steiner, the Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth signs on to an entangling alliance and plunges us into another optional foreign war? I will do my best to prosecute that war to a successful conclusion as quickly and if necessary as brutally as possible within the scope of my abilities. You know we used powerful weapons and techniques to break the Falcons. Those techniques, while ugly, saved more lives on our side. That's all I care about when fighting a war. Others can debate 'honor' and 'glory', I only care about winning."

"Yet you always publicly claim the master strategy was Roderick's." Bekker almost sneered.

"It's amazing what you can accomplish if you give credit to others and take the blame for errors on yourself, Khan Bekker." Sharon said easily, "You would be surprised at what you can develop from subordinates and superiors alike. for example, the performance you can get from greenie crewmen if they feel you're in their corner, or how fast someone will turn in a guy taking backhanders if they understand you value your personnel. Men will fight that much harder for you if they know, without a doubt, that they're not being wasted to pad a resume' or investment portfolio."

"and the master strategy?"

"Was absolutely Roderick's." Sharon said, "He confined to me what needed to happen so he could win. I made sure that thing happened."

Bekker laughed a little, "Spoken like a Soldier. what would your policy be, if you were...'in charge'?"

"You really want to know?" Sharon asked.

"Yes, amuse me."

"I would be handing this job to Emily Falcone, Ike Krautmeyer, or Linda Sithers-Minh. I'd be getting into a cutter bound for the farthest reaches of the deep periphery, looking for radio shells and undiscovered civilizations, missing colonies, and aliens." Sharon said bluntly. "I didn't ask for this job, Trillian stuck me with it after Melissa demanded we come to Tharkad's aid. She gave me this job and I'm doing the best I can, but I don't want to be here-she won't let me leave until the job is done."

"Why does she keep you?" Bekker asked.

"She seems to think I'm good at it. Being a professional, I don't want to disappoint her. Everything I've done with the LCN has been to show people that we can do better. To make sure when she finally lets me go, that she doesn't need to call me in again."

Bekker was speechless for a moment, looking contemplative. "You are not what I was expecting."

"If you were expecting my mom, sorry. She kind of caught a Republic-sponsored bullet to the forehead in 3140 and died. we caught the guys who did it, and traced them back to Brewer, and from Brewer's people to Republic Intelligence, who also taught my people why you don't over-centralize your shipyards with an attempted nuking of the Boojum yard in '05. Nice bunch calls themselves 'Fidelis'." Sharon sipped her drink and added, "So you're damn right I don't trust Stone, and I don't believe his words. I don't have to make that call though."

"Do you have proof of these claims?"

"Yep." Sharon said, "I do. I also have enough perspective not to waste my life on a revenge fantasy like Daoshen Liao has. There are more important things than trying to get backsies for past insults."

"I...I know family ties can...you would let that go?"

"More important things to think about." Sharon said, "Life is full of disappointments, I don't need to dwell on going after grudges when there are more important things to consider, people who look to me to do my duty without prejudice, subordinates, superiors and the stability of the nation-those all take precedence over my personal grievances."

"Not the Inner Sphere as a whole?"

"Screw them-sorry, I don't mean to be too offensive. I try to focus on that which I can change. I can't stop Yori and Julian from taking turns ratcheting up the atrocity ladder. I can't stop Daoshen from pursuing his revenge fantasies. I can't stop you from hopping into the squabbles of people who let their personal passions rule their reasoning." Sharon looked at the assembled VIPs, "All I can do, is advise my Archon that we don't need to be dragged through the mud and the blood of people who have forgotten there's a universe out there beyond the border, and that the very best thing to do, is to take care of our own problems and stay out of the squabbling, posturing, and murdering that has been going on since Kerensky deserted the Inner Sphere."

"When she rejects that advice, which she must surely do?" Bekker asked.

"Then I will do my duty and kill the people she says need to be killed." Sharon said, "Without hating them. With no anger. I will kill the enemy she tells me to kill, and maybe when I'm done killing that enemy. She will let me do what I would like and someone else can give her bad advice she won't listen to."

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