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Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 3 - A Light In The Black -
Chapter 10[]
Whys and the Whoses[]
"It's hyper-dangerous…
…requires active safeties, and it can't even be shipped on a Jumpship because the EMP effects will flatline the containment and cause a massive explosion." Samuel explained. "Periodically someone plays with it, because the potentials are so incredible, but it always ends up like the Ceres Incident: someone makes a mistake and blows up a moon."
Amanda looked thoughtful. "So why here?" she asked.
Samuel shrugged as Stacey's remote sat in the pilot's seat, bringing her presence and her temporary Captain to the station.
"Speculate, Sam." Amanda pressed.
"Speculation… They're doing high energy physics research out here, where it's not a danger to an inhabited system." he began. "A project built like this takes time and resources. More time than a few years between Simon Cameron and Richard's ascension. Simon liked the idea of investing in the Periphery-that's how he got in a position to be murdered…. to have an 'accident' and die from it-he was investing in the Territorial States."
Stacey was listening, and piping the feed through her HPG to Her Ladyship's vessel.
"You know this for a fact?"
"Rumors only," Sam said. "But you asked me to speculate. So, First Lord Simon, who's investing in the Territorial States and reversing policies that kept them down for most of the years after the Reunification War. Making contracts to have some experimental research done. That's because it's far enough from Sol that a Ceres accident won't threaten civilian lives. He knew it won't be popular with the Star League council, so he’s using a cut-out, and 'enabling' them with gifts."
"That's a hell of a reach." Amanda noted.
"YOU asked me to speculate, I'm trying to put together something logical," Samuel reminded her. "Think: everything we had on the Evanescent was a couple generations behind where Star League Regulars had it-that's a hell of a lot to 'fall off the truck'. There are M-5 cores, including blank ones, in a station off-the-grid! And you know security's going to be tighter than that with something as important as the SDS."
"Someone built the naval coordination station you got the data from." Stacey interjected, only it wasn't Stacey, it was Helena's voice.
"Ladyship?"
"Present via relay. So far the only thing that doesn’t check is if the tech on the Evanescent was a generation or two behind Regulars it would have been on the approved export lists."
"And the Nighthawk Power Armor weren't?"
"Nope. Those would require someone high up to approve it. Only my father could both approve it, and order it concealed from Uncle Aleks. But the timing means Richard would likely have to be involved as well at some point."
"Maybe he didn't approve of it..." Amanda mused. "Or someone convinced him not to approve of it."
“Amaris was more than happy to sell out his supporters in the Uprising to help clear the field of Kerensky for his plans in the Hegemony. With him out here busy chasing down combat forces he’d have a much freer hand to finish his coup. It might also explain why the Garrisons were emptied. Kerensky should have had more than enough force without them since he had a functioning navy and the Territorial States didn’t. With Richard’s authorization codes, well something about it always bugged me but I can’t say what. All I know is it is not clear who actually ordered the deployments.”
The shuttle banked and slid into dock.
Amanda closed her eyes. "We still don't have concrete answers." she muttered half to herself, before unstrapping and following the others into the station.
Habitat for No One[]
"But why antimatter...
…it doesn't make sense." This wasn't a copy of an M-9 base. That was immediately apparent. The hab modules clung to the walls, with a huge ring torrid running the equator, the spin on the structure made it like a moon turned inside out.
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Interior of the unnamed O'Neil Colony Station.
Some of the lighting was up, and there was a tram with two Marines waiting, the track suspending over the open space to a complex suspended in the center.
"It's artistic." Samuel commented. "A LOT artistic."
"Like someone wanted people to eventually see it?" Stacey/Helena speculated. "I remember seeing drawings like this on Father's desk."
"Simon's?"
"Yes."
"It makes even less sense now," the younger woman stated. "There's too much we don't know."
The tram ran up,and the view told them it was running along the axis of the station. "The staffing for a burrow this big should be in the tens of thousands, and that's just based on the solatube installations," Samuel noted.
"Oh??" Amanda questioned.
"Standing water bodies, and those squares are for hydroponic gardens," he said as he pointed out features. "This place was built to house a huge population, and feed them, and process the air for them using passive means."
"Habitats, and a Navy," Helena mused. "Research stations…" Her/Stacey's eyes narrowed. "This had to be something Dad was continuing from Auntie Jo's regency."
"For what purpose?" Amanda asked. "Because none of that makes sense with how the Star League treated us-"
"My father wanted to change that!" Stacey/Helena's demeanor shifted. "There were considerations and my Father considered them! The House Lords were an alliance of victors-which means they were waging covert wars and profiteering and undermining everything!!"
"That's why they killed him." Samuel mused. "He was angling to restore the Territorial States as a counter to the power of the Council Lords, because the Hegemony was confined on all sides."
"And Richard was vulnerable after his father's death," Amanda mused. "Vulnerable and being half-raised by the Fat Man, because his Regent was always… busy. Not to cast shadows, Helena, but your brother was a piece of shit because of how he was raised."
"Like yours is better?" Sam asked.
"Jeff, I assume, because if you say Daryl..."
"Yeah, Jeff. Jailbird Jeff." Samuel scowled. "If we're going to cast shade on someone, don't be pissed if the lights get bright on your own!"
“I know. Richard abused me and Elizabeth. Once he got married and found out he was going to be a father himself he started changing for the better, but it was still… complicated.”
"See? He got away with shit that any decent family'd have tanned his ass with a cable for!" Amanda spat, then looked Helena/Stacey in the eye. "You're sure he wasn't tuning up his wife when you weren't watching?"
"Where is this coming from?? What the HELL, Amanda??"
The girl gestured out the windows of the tram. "Have a look, remember that the two Warships we found outside were coming to destroy this place. To deny it, to bury it! That's not one person's whim, that's a National POLICY!"
“Elise stood up to Amaris. A beaten woman doesn’t stand up to abusers. Amaris tried to do everything he thought he could get away with to have Richard’s undivided attention.”
"Amanda, you're bleeding again."
"You know what? I'll wrap it later," Amanda snapped. "Let's go meet the person who's kept this place in business for us."
They stepped off the tram into the hub of the modified O'Neill sphere, and followed the deck plan to near the center of it all.
"At least they have chairs this time," Amanda noted. "At Port Orphan, Seron had to hold me upright."
Revelations and terrible Truths[]
With practiced ease…
… Amanda pulled her eye out, and plugged it in to a port on one arm of the couch before laying down.
Her body went limp, and drool dribbled from her lips.
"She's in. Samuel said, and started monitoring his Captain's vitals.
"I don't look like that when I-"
"Normally she doesn't either, but she did at Port Orphan. From the surveillance record from Erin showed she went limp there too. I'm going to guess something about linking to a Nirasaki core basically takes… everything."
The screens and holotank lit, as a musical fanfare sounded.
//"And now, a special message from Simon Cameron, First Lord of the Star League!!"//
Helena, looking through Stacey's eyes, saw her father as he was in his youth.
//"Greetings one and all, you know who I am, and let me tell you, the trip out here left my arms sore… okay, Dad joke.//
//If you're seeing this message, then the Project must have reached completion. A lot of time, effort, sweat and tears went into it, but we're finally done. If I didn't tell you before we began, Elizabeth, this was for you and Helena. Jess and I worked hard to build a future for ALL of our children, one that you can be proud of.//
//Sociologists often cite that when a civilization reaches its peak, it enters a period of stagnation just prior to collapse. The Hegemony is confined on all sides, this was the reason our ancestor founded the Star League-to establish a legitimate path out of that locked in condition.//
//Well, that wasn't working out. Aunt Jocasta laid it out for me-the Hegemony needed an outlet, somewhere we can preserve the best of our values, and a place and room to continue to grow, in order to stave off that stagnation that comes right before everything goes to Hell. If you're here, then we did it. The partners we brought in, and the people we're helping in this end, are a means to assure that mankind doesn't fall into an age of civil war, and darkness…"//
//“Nice idea Dad but it was never going to work. Not with Amaris and Richard, not with the petty jealousy of the Member States. Your heart would break if you saw what they did to themselves, and what was brought about by the greed of your opponents inside the Hegemony.”//
//"...my hope that you and Helena can use the infrastructure we built out here to forge a better world for tomorrow, Elizabeth…"//
"He thinks she's your sister." Samuel noted. "Why would he think that?"
//"...greatest danger in any royal family with more than two children, is that one of them will be a lightning rod for ambition and disorder. 'Heir and a spare' ends up in civil wars more often than historians like to believe, presumably your brother has children by now, my instructions to Sov Cu'ong were specific, direct and to the point, which is why you weren't informed until your brother's line was confirmed…"//
“Probably the DNA of her ancestries. Amanda is the recombining of three family lines, mine through my daughter, my sister through her children, and somehow the Drillson line. Despite how many generations removed she is from those sources her DNA probably reads like me or my sister.”
//"...left you girls with an exploration fleet, a scientific research establishment, and a foothold in the most peace-oriented portion of the Territorial States, in hopes you won't use it to foment a civil war, but instead, to expand the range of mankind…"//
“Instead someone found out and decided that was unacceptable. The worst part is it could be any number of people. Amaris, Dad’s political enemies, or Hell, any number of people in the SLDF that were not in Kerensky’s cult. This would represent a fundamental undermining of any of those power bases.”
Star charts appeared, and Amanda reached up to pull the plug from her eye-socket. "Those bastards." she said as she surfaced. "Those sons of bitches…"
“I… Don’t know what to say. I still want to believe in the promise of the Star League and the Hegemony, but I can not deny the evidence in front of me.”
"With a stroke of the pen, a treaty is signed, and lives are destroyed." Amanda recited angrily. "Your father tried to do good for my people and the sons of bitches murdered him for it… I know where the 9th CAAN went, and what needs to be done."
“Then it is time to gather the Fleet.”
"We raise the black flag, Helena, and we slit throats. No quarter, no mercy." The one-eyed girl's face was stoney and cold.
“That would make us like them. We must answer this but it must be done in a way that does not make us like them.”
"Like them? Oh, no…Madame Director-General, I have no intent of being like them... I simply intend to forward their cases to a higher power for final judgment." Amanda's tone was soft, like a razor being dragged along a whetstone. "They will be sure to get all the mercy they deserve, be assured of that, and be assured, no-one will end up with a new slave-collar on their neck, when I'm done. They 'evacuated' the base. It's why nobody is here."
“Don’t you see Amanda, you're taking a different path but the end is the same. We cannot be judge, jury, and executioner. And yes, despite your claims to the contrary, that is what we would still be.”
"I'm not judging them, Highness. I'm going to forward their case for judgment... to God, who can judge them... But more to the point, I'm going to stop them from doing it again."
"What did you see, Captain?" Samuel asked.
"Kolossus has been monitoring trace and jump echoes with a distributed array of radio telescopes and HPG relays, part of an interstellar pre-mapping astronomy project. He shared with me his observations while you were watching the last true First Lord's announcement,” Amanda explained. "I know where their JumpShips departed from, and arrived at, for the last two centuries. We can stop them now."
“Then we will. By the time we get back there should be enough people to reform crews and get more vessels underway and Second Destroyer Division should be able to take up garrison and convoy escort while we form up the main fleet for an attack.”
"Captain, Madame Director-General… should we put a staff here?"
"No," Amanda said. "Kolossus was appreciative of having someone to speak with, but it made clear it finds the presence of humans… distracting. It told me it prefers the solitude of research with only occasional visitors."
“Then we have to claim it as a Privateer base. We will likely still have to answer Trials of Possession ourselves from the Clans as antimatter will scare them to a level of shitless that we need a new term for to properly express.”
"We don't have to tell them… about the antimatter." Amanda speculated.
“If we don’t and they find out anyway it will be much worse. While I trust you, your crews, and even mine, too many people now know about this that someone will get drunk and careless. As bad as it is, it is still better to get in front of this.”
'You're the boss." Amanda said. "So, I'm going to let YOU decide who to tell, and how much."
“Foster. He needs to know for sure. If we keep this from him it’ll undermine the trust he has in all of us. I think with his help we can at least mitigate any fall out to an acceptable level.”
Diplomatic[]
Her passport…
…said 'Jane Drillson'. It stated her age as 38. Technically, 'Jane Drillson' was a recent addition to the Roberts Family on Sevon V, a distant relative whose citizenship was being verified.
That's the official story.
Unofficially, once out of a hospital environment and engaged in normal civilian activity, Jane's progress was leaps-and-bounds away from the introverted, traumatic shock she'd manifested since being rescued.
She was more or less adamant that nobody call her 'Elizabeth Cameron', and nobody does now.
It turns out, Jane Drillson is a very good special assistant to the MP (Minister of Parliament) for Sevon V, even a gifted one, able to immediately get the moribund office in order prior to election fever. And keep the business of government running while Ike Thomasen, the current office-holder, went on campaign.
Ike was re-elected to his Fourth term, and proceeded to die of a brain aneurysm while giving his acceptance speech.
It left an opening, and the 'Good Government' party chose his new Chief of Staff (Jane Drillson) to fill his seat on Alpheratz.
She had ties to The Great Captain Roberts, so it was natural to steer her well clear of direct involvement in the Defense budget committee.
"We're getting a feeler visit from the independent world of Wynn's Roost," President Avellar explained. "With the current Foreign Minister is earlobes deep in negotiations with the Draconis Combine… I'd like you to take this, Jane."
She shuffled the papers. "Wynn's Roost… and the Thazi Confederacy? Interesting. So instead of drinking sake with Kurita's man, you need someone who can horse-trade with a Mercantile prince and his cronies."
"You understand my intent exactly." Mitchell told her.
"Some of that…okay, all of it out to Blommstein, is on your documented intent to rejoin the Outworlds, Mister President." She laid the papers down. "But that's not what you're asking me for, is it?"
"No. The territories will be on the 'nice to have' list, right now. I'm looking to bring them into the war against the Sons of Plunder, and maybe form some political, economic, and military ties with someone who isn't a hundred times our size and prone to aggression."
"Slow absorption then," she commented. "Non-military, and you're hoping for voluntary."
"In the long term, yeah."
"Well, looks like I have a lot of studying to do…"
Jane found herself patting the slim folded stack of handwritten letters of encouragement and support from the Roberts family she kept in her breast pocket.
In a day and age where such things would otherwise be done via digital means the extra touch of them being done by hand had helped her keep her footing.
This role was both scary and familiar but it was always who she was meant to be. She was sure of that much.
Problem with Roberts[]
There is a reason the term…
…swears like a Sailor has held true through the history of mankind, and David Foster had been a Sailor a long time.
“Apologies for the outburst Director-General but you are right. If the others learned about this on their own that would be a whole new level of shit storm that would rival the Wars of Reaving, Jihad, or Hell maybe even the Succession Wars. Your idea of claiming it as a Privateer base is indeed our best bet. How the Hell do we break the news to the others though?” Dave Foster took a swig of something alcoholic in nature.
“We have to focus on the fact that the antimatter is going nowhere. So as long as no one comes in to do something stupid, like put a garrison on the facility, it is no danger to anyone. As dangerous as it is, it is not in a state that we can turn it into a superweapon.” The real time HPG transmission of Helena flickered momentarily.
"Also, it stands as a built in self-destruct." he mused. "For anyone stupid enough to try and steal some, even."
“Yes. I’ll have to leave it to you for how to exactly phrase that, as you are more familiar with the Clans than I am. And I’m afraid and still expect them to do something stupid over this.”
"Simple enough, have Stacey drop warning buoys broadcasting 'Case Orange' code-there's a dangerous substance or organism in that system and ships are warned to avoid it… and then, we'll make sure the President and Loremaster classify the Hell out of what it is-the same way we did with the level zero bugs during the war."
“Understood. I hope that will be enough.”
"If it isn't, then we're out a warning sat and a base we can't use," he sighed. "At least until you or Erin can talk the AI there around."
“I am unsure how to do that myself. Kolossus has a very different sense of self. While his vocalizations have a male tone and inflection it has no actual sense of gender. It is simply Kolossus. So when someone talks with it it sounds like it is referring to itself in the third person but it isn’t, that is its core identity. As much as I have experience with a fleet of AIs with all sorts of quirks of their own I am ill equipped for this.”
"Sounds like a challenge for AFTER the war, then. In the meantime, I'll get the reports together-you kept Roberts from sending hers to the President, right??"
“Yes. Easy enough to do when you control the HPGs that send the report. Though I think she’ll be mad at me for a while for that. But better me than Stacey. If crew training is going as well on your end as it has been on ours I think we should be able to finally get your corvettes manned properly again and unless the yardmasters have screwed up the repair jobs everyone should be back where they feel most comfortable.”
"Well…two of them are yours. The other two are being designated 'Ephemeris' and 'Capricious'. Erin found a workaround for the scanning, and is laying down core personalities on a couple of blanks with Esmerelda's help."
“I should have been more precise, I was referring to Illusive and Evanescent. I know you’re short crew for them too and they should be finishing their repairs soon.”
"Oh, but you left out Lynnwood, the Essex II, which just got a shiny new Ares-25 core installed courtesy of Clan Diamond Shark. Whose tech-reps sent one modified for the altered configuration of the Illusive, and whose tech reps are currently experiencing the dubious joy of arguing with Billie Siegel and Billie Hoel."
“Seems I have not been keeping up on reports. We may need even more officers.”
"Again. You forgot to add 'again', Madame Director-General. According to 'Victoria' you tend to pawn that off on her, instead of doing homework." he chuckled. "Not the first Admiral I know of who does that, but Aff, you DO have a lot of reading to catch up on."
“All too true. I do find myself a little too hands off at times.”, commented Helena
"When you get back, I'll take you through the course on time management I developed when Loremaster Howe and Khan Crowe sent me to be the chief field officer for a new branch made up of volunteers and retirees. I have the responsibilities of a Khan without the position or pay."
“I know the polite thing to say is ‘I look forward to it’ but something tells me I’m not actually going to enjoy it. But that’s usually the case with homework that actually matters.”
He chuckled again. "At least you did not do the 'You get paid??’ joke-it never gets old, but it could, someday."
“I had to leave home for sixty years to re-learn the concept of money. It’s nigh impossible to shop when people just want to give you stuff.”
"I'll suggest to Leon that he take you shopping on Alpheratz when you turn up for the budget meeting." Foster said lightly. "You'll get a fine course in both micro and macro economics."
“Now that I look forward to. So once we get a few more field command grade officers there is something else we will need to discuss but that is a later topic.”
"Well, I'm poaching most of Roberts' A-team to fill slots. Seron's going to have his own boat, same for Nichols."
“Good. From what I have seen those two deserve it. I understand Mister Bedwyer is being a tough nut to crack for Navigation training?”
"If you can second a decent Nav officer for him, I can put him on one of the Corvettes. He's got the rest of the job worked out."
“The one thing I have in spades is good navigators. A lot of them need some polish around the edges for proper military service, but I have enough I can spare one.”
"When you get your flotilla back, we'll go over details." he suggested, "I want to see Larry's face when I tell him he can't dodge out of it this time."
“Something else to look forward to."
"Fresh meat's arriving in fourteen days, can you wrap things up there and be back by then?"
“Yes. We can collect everyone and be back before then.”
"What about the David R. Ray, is she salvageable?"
“I believe she can be, but we’ll need a dedicated crew for that anyway.”
"Tell Seron to pick people and bring it in, I'll tell Esme to start fabricating conversion equipment, we'll see if we can't put one of your girls back in a Lola III."
“If you can do that you may just get an AI to fall in love with you or Esme. Maybe both.”
"Reel it in, Director-General, bring 'em in and we'll talk again when you've arrived.", David commented
“Understood.” Helena chuckled… then turned more serious. "There is a problem with Roberts, and we need to deal with it."
"What kind of problem?" Dave asked.
"She's emotionally compromised. She's not fit, she needs at minimum a stand-down and more intense evaluation," Helena judged. "In the Star League-"
"In the Star League era, Amanda Roberts would be a second year cadet, assuming she even got into an Academy," David reminded her. "Director General, I know you are older than you look… she is not older than she looks... let me guess, she had a strong emotional reaction after the interface with the station AI, Quiaff? And she has been expressing doubts about her own abilities, Quiaff? Some unreasonable sounding prejudices as well?"
"That… sounds like past experiences," Helena mused.
"It is. I have been dealing with such reactions for much of my career in the Touman before retirement, Lady Cameron. Every ristar I have ever seen come straight from Sibko to a ranked position has the same issues for at least the first decade. Hell, I had those issues after I won my Bloodname in my twenties. Only we had LOTS of officers above me to temper them until the retreat from the Homeworlds. Roberts has her 'A' team that I have to strip to fill officer billets, and if we were not at war, in an emergency, I would be ordering her to take more leave among the civilians to back off that edge. In ideal conditions like you grew up with, she would still be in school!" He paused, "But then, in ideal conditions, I could afford to let the girl grow up at her own pace, she would not have a cybernetic implant in her brain, because she would not have been kidnapped by tech-worshipping terrorists in the first place."
He pulled a bulb from the cabinet and popped the self-heating tab. "AND, I would be forcibly retired due to age." He sat back down across from Billy Hoel's avatar. "The organization I am in command of exists because that immature girl started the ball rolling. The war we are in? Is because that immature girl kicked ants’-nests and revealed a deeper problem than a brigade of pirates who seemed uncatchable, but were not high enough priority to devote serious assets to bring down."
He sipped his tea and waited for the response, before adding, "We are not in that ideal world. I have to operate this service with what I can get. Which means we have fantastic technical abilities right now, but we lack personnel to a degree that navies in the past with a similar problem collapsed outright into ineffectiveness."
“Imperfect scenarios force terrible compromises at times. It is still dangerous to send someone that emotionally charged in command but in this imperfect scenario I will just have to hope someone with a stronger connection to her than I will likely ever create can break through to her before she gets more of her crew killed seeking revenge.”
"Start with reminding her of her religion." David said quietly. "It's one of the few parts that the butchers didn't cut out. New Testament, if she's feeling vengeful. I found it worked pretty well for settling her down at Michtal."
“I will try, but I suspect it would be more effective if it came from someone she already has a relationship with. I am still an outsider to her after all.”
'You're probably right," David said. "I have to convene a board, don't I?"
“I don’t think there is any other choice. Not if we want her to have any chance at a life post war.”
"Prepare your charges, Director-General. I'll see if I can find someone in the senior staff who doesn't owe that kid." He swore again. "It is going to be a real challenge finding twelve officers who do not already have an opinion at her rank or above."
“I just pray it is enough of a shock doing this that she remembers who she was before all this darkness started consuming her. Even if the charges do not go anywhere. I do not relish tarnishing the name of a war hero that has indeed accomplished so much with so little in such trying circumstances. But that too is part of the problem and why we must proceed. We must send a message that the ends do not justify the means to future officers in the Outworlds Navy no matter how successful they are. Which means if I am to have any personal integrity I need to also petition for my own removal from warship command as soon as a replacement can be found.”
“I am really starting to hate you. Why?”
“In any other Navy, both Amanda and I would be completely ineligible for service. Let alone command, due to our brain trauma and it resulting in us being incapacitated for several minutes after each jump. The good news is I am pretty sure a visit to Victoria’s automated surgical bay can fix Amanda. Me, well, even Vicky and her autosurgery suite can only do patch jobs while also keeping me alive in the face of toxic neurochemical buildup. Also, Simon needs a full overhaul.”
“Then I think we need to introduce you to the full wonders of Clan medicine.”
Clearing the air whom I am and what I do[]
"I see you have…
…assumed a more active role, Miss Drillson." The Clan Sea Fox merchant-factor was in her office when Jane returned from her meeting with the President.
"How did you know I was about to call you?" Jane asked, tossing her jacket on the hook and planting the valise on her desk.
"Thazi," the foreign Clanner said.
"Ah… I take it you know something about them?"
"The Thazi Confederacy is a minor market with a reputation for anti-piracy in the Spinward Periphery," he told her. "The ovKhan for my [faction] thinks they might be useful in this conflict with the bandit kingdom Sons of Plunder."
"You're brokering for a third party, then?"
"It's profitable." he said. "Between yourself, myself, and the listening devices no doubt left by several intelligence agencies, there are a number of reasons Clan Sea Fox is interested in the stability of this region of space. And knowing the players is useful, especially as planetary occupations and destructive efforts are… unprofitable. Brokering peaceful relationships, and maybe an alliance, on the other hand, presents an opportunity for profit."
“Since you are still Clan it gives you a way to focus your Warrior’s desire for conflict and glory towards a more productive end at the same time.”
"Aff," he nodded in agreement. "The Mitchells are quite interested in the idea-enough that we have an agreement."
"You're their introduction?"
"WE are their invitation to the table. They will have to, of course, present their own case, but My clan is pulling in extra rights for making the introductions."
"I see… and Wynn's Roost?"
"Are very concerned about Alliance expansion toward their own holdings, and asked for our help in preventing… unfortunate accidents," he said. "Such as, for example, spill over from the allied efforts to eradicate the Sons of Plunder."
"In plain English?"
"We obtained a security contract with Wynn's Roost; it is profitable, but dull." he allowed. "If they are recognized as a legitimate state, we can shift it to an arms deal, which is more profitable, without facing censure from the Grand Council for selling arms to the wrong people."
He studied her. "I question why you carry on this charade," he mused.
"My charade, you don't need to know my reasons." Jane stated. "I didn't even want this job, I was just doing a job when I was doing Natalie a favor working on Ike's campaign."
"The Perils of electoral systems," he chuckled. "Still, it is surprising they allow you to work under a pseudonym. You could pursue a more prominent role if-"
"I'm uninterested," she stated. "Look, it's an open secret among your lot, who I used to be, but that open secret is who I used to be... and she's been dead for a few centuries now. Nobody carries a Terran Hegemony identicard, Merchant Factor. 'House Cameron' consists of Helena and some distant cadet-line offshoots who don't even use the name anymore and haven't in living memory. It's… like being the rightful Queen of England. THAT title is similarly obsolete."
He stiffened, "You swept the room for bugs."
"Twice daily. I have a nice young man from the Snow Raven Watch who makes sure nobody has a live microphone within a hundred meters of this desk.” 'Jane' was Elizabeth for a moment: "Let me clarify for you. Uncle Aleks didn't even look for me when he was 'looking for heirs'." She poured hot tea from a carafe, and offered him a cup. "He would have found me too, the Devil's Breath prison was a known SLIC installation at his level."
The Merchant blinked. "You're… sure?"
"I was old enough when Dad and Uncle Aleks argued about keeping it open." she asserted. "Dad overrode him and kept it going. Yeah, I know he had to know where I was… and he left me there. That's underline enough, the title 'First Lord' isn't mine to inherit, it died with Richie."
"That was not in the copy we got…"
"Tales out of school, Merchant Factor. Elizabeth Cameron died in that place, I'm Jane Drillson now. I even have a valid identicard with that name, complete with legal name-change documentation for the scandal mongers if they REALLY want people to look at them like they're crazy. HELENA is the girl you want, if you want a Cameron Restoration." She cradled her cup in her hands, warming them. "Of course, if your 'Clans' had returned when Stacey was alive, you might have found an Heir more to your tastes."
"Stacey?"
"Helena's daughter. During the brief time I was out the first time? She was traveling a Folk Rumspringa, she left bloodline behind, you know who they are. I understand she lived for several decades out here while your Clans were tearing one another apart and calling it a golden age."
"So what happened to her?"
"I imagine she grew old and died," Jane said. "Which is what would have kept ME from winding up back in that cell when Guffney and Lovegoode carried out their coup. The problem with radically extended lifespans-your grandchildren and their friends will remove you when they're tired of being blocked by a glass ceiling… which is why 'Jane Drillson' will retire after two terms. I tried the idea of a restoration out, and the result is a lunatic distortion of everything the Star League once stood for."
"But you do not know where they are?"
"I gave the Alliance government everything I knew-Helena was the one who was interested in being a Navigator, Merchant Factor. I never learned astronomy or the KF theories." She inclined her head. "It wasn't… the role I was preparing for." She sat down. "Now, you have an appointment with ME, Jane Drillson, about a diplomatic matter. Shall we get back on topic?"