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Die Rettungsaktion - A Story of the Concertverse Inner Sphere
- Epilogue -[]
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The Steep Price for Glory[]
Ducal Palace
Tamarind City, Main Continent
Tamarind, Grand Duchy of Tamarinde
10 October 3034
His Excellency Suresh Khan, Baron of Kurind on Giasaur, served the Free March as its ambassador to the Grand Duke of Tamarind's court. They were one of the few realms to have such relations with Tamarind, mostly due to proximity, given Tamarind's insular behavior.
He arrived at the palace in Punjabi court wear and allowed the Duke's Guard to show him to a meeting chamber. Sculptures and paintings lined the walls, the former on pedestals, while in the middle of the chamber a long table of finely-crafted tropical wood, a local sandalwood-like product, was lined with chairs of red velvet cushioning. Baron Khan took the proffered seat and awaited what he assumed was the pleasure of either the Grand Duke himself or his foreign minister, Prince Ranesh.
When the door opened again, however, neither man entered.
Instead, Ambassador Aleksander Zielinski rolled in on an electric wheelchair. His toga marked him as a Marian, and the purple embroidery as a servant of the Imperial family. He was old and frail, but the mind that had built the largest gladiatorial games outside of Solaris remained as sharp as it had been in his youth.
Khan remained quiet at the sight of his Marian counterpart, waiting to see if any remark would be offered first. None was immediately forthcoming, simply a quiet, steely gaze from the older man. Khan wondered if the man would even be capable of returning to his homeworld given his current physical health, but more importantly, he wondered what the Tamarindians were up to.
After a couple minutes of quiet, the doors opened again. Prince Ranesh entered, in a resplendent court gown with a turban on his head. He offered namaste to both of them, which Khan reciprocated with a polite nod, as did his counterpart. "Your Excellencies." Ranesh spoke Star League English with a smooth accent. "Thank you for your attendance."
"Your Highness." Khan said nothing else, waiting to hear what Ranesh had to say.
"Your Highness." Zielinski's words were spoken with a particular accent, partly Slavic and partly Latin.
"I shall get to the point. It grieves His Majesty, my lord, to see such great nations and neighbors war with another. He fears that a wider conflict make break out, and instructed me to meet with you to see if a peaceful solution can be arranged."
Khan glanced to his counterpart before speaking. "We are ready to hear terms, if they are honorable. The Hegemony has spoken with its actions as of late."
Zielinski continued to look to the Prince, ignoring the Arcadian entirely. "It was Arcadia that threw the first stone, your Highness. The Imperator did not want this war, he merely responds in kind. He is a man of peace at heart."
That remark required a great deal of Khan's reserve to hide the snort it might have otherwise elicited. Ranesh glanced toward him with a disarming smile. "So both parties are ready to stop this fighting. A good first step, but only the first. What terms would you seek?"
"The Marian Hegemony's actions in Bolan were to contain a rogue state, your Highness. Your nation was as much a victim as ours, given the unprovoked Bolanese attack on Promised Land. Bolan is no longer a threat to either of our nations, yet the people who made the decision to launch said attack, and to sell weapons to terrorists in our territory, they remain free. We are willing to guarantee the border as it stands and promise an end to all retaliatory raids should Arcadia make a public declaration acknowledging the same. But in exchange, we demand the Umayrs and their top advisors be returned to us for justice, for their crimes against both our nations."
Khan laughed. "You mean you want the Grand Princess and her family to parade as trophy slaves. This has little to do with justice for any attack and everything to do with vengeance for Bolan's earlier checks on Marian expansion." He focused his eyes on Ranesh. The Grand Duke of Tamarind had likewise once put up a barrier to said expansion, after all. "Highness, we were as aghast at the attack on Promised Land as anyone else. But this is sophistry. The Marians wanted an excuse to attack and conquer another state, and it was provided. Had the Hegemony restricted itself to, say, the seizure of Cavanaugh II, this would be a very different conversation. As the matter stands, we will not hand over a vassal of Her Serene Highness to be subjected to whatever 'justice' awaits them on Alphard."
"I can understand that, but the Marian Hegemony's point remains. My nation suffered Umayr aggression, yours did not. Certainly you can provide assurances on the matter?"
"The Umayrs are an exiled ruling family now, and have sworn fealty to House Proctor. They pose no threat to the Tamarindian or Marian peoples, and that is our solemn promise to you regardless of the outcome of this meeting." He leveled a look at Zielinski, who continued to offend by pretending he didn't exist. "We are willing to call an end to any plans for reprisals to the recent Marian attacks, and to honor the border as it stands. And as I am informed of prisoners being taken, we are more than willing to return them to their families in the Hegemony as part of a prisoner exchange."
"The Hegemony is willing to accept a prisoner exchange. We will release any Arcadians taken as prisoners in exchange for the release of Marian prisoners." Zielinski looked to Khan for the first time and smiled as wide as he could. "As for the Bolanese, well, they are now legally state property. They will not be released, although we would consider a trade. We'll release 10,000 for the Grand Princess herself."
It was clear Zielinski was trying to bait him. Had Khan been an actual Arcadian or Gienahite, it might have worked. He nodded once. "Our legal position on your idea of human beings as property is well known and need not be repeated here. As for your proposed second exchange, the term is rejected. More to the point, any Bolanese soldiers seized in your reprisal raid on Rosice were in Arcadian colors and must be included in the exchange."
Zielinski shrugged. "The Gladiators were not in the mood to take prisoners, so there were so very few… very well. An exchange of prisoners and a mutual acceptance of our borders. The Imperator will, of course, have final say, but he should be satisfied with the status quo ante bellum for a conflict he did not want."
"I will inform my government." Khan turned his head toward Ranesh. "The Free March thanks His Majesty the Grand Duke for his intercession in this matter."
"I will inform him of your words," Ranesh said pleasantly.
This was easier than I imagined. The Marians want peace as well, at least for now. Khan thought he could see a flicker in Ranesh's eyes as he made the same realization, one that he thought should make the man nervous. It may at least give us time to see to the Skye War issue...
"I thank you, Your Excellencies, for your attendance today," Ranesh continued. "Please, enjoy the hospitality of the Palace while alerting your governments as to the proposal."
- "The reprisal raids for the Arcadian intervention on Bolan were not a reasoned military counter-offensive, nor a planned reprisal campaign. They were a temper tantrum by an angry teenager at those who had defied him. The final strike by the Terror of the Deep on Zvolen was the suitable conclusion, then, as the mercenaries met a foe they could not terrorize and melted away. With Sean's fury spent and his eyes cast in other directions and March-Princess Sara-Marie's government distracted by the resumption of hostilities between Hesperus and Atreus, the way was open for a peaceful accord to end the fighting. Thus the Marian-Bolan War ended."
— Excerpt from "A Critical History of the 'Anni Gloriae'", by Titian Fulton, Professor Emeritus of the College of Interstellar History, Oxford University. Published 3126
The End