Act 1 - Anger[]
With A Bared Sword[]
Chapter 2[]
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Castle Davion, New Avalon
Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth
8 July 3052
The funeral of the First Prince had brought all the great and good of the Federated Suns to New Avalon - a grouping who didn't overlap as often as they should, even before the addition of Lyran dignitaries from the realm of Kate's mother.
The press of people wishing to express their sympathies - and more importantly (to them) be seen with the great Hanse Davion's eldest daughter - was something Kate had had enough of. It would not be politically acceptable for the great man's immediate family not to be on display, at least for those old enough to be in public view. Yvonne and Arthur had been able to make their escapes but the best Kate could do without censure was to avoid the more formal reception rooms for a while and 'be seen' in the halls and galleries. As long as she seemed to be on her way somewhere, she could avoid most conversations.
There were plenty of guests there as well, a mix of those moving between social hubs and a surprising number with ear buds to show they were taking the chance to tour the Castle. Once she gave it some thought, the princess had to admit that it was the chance of a lifetime for those who didn't have the rank or a duty that brought them to New Avalon.
She'd crossed to one of the portrait galleries when she found a familiar face studying one of the portraits in confusion. The blond officer who had been with Victor when he told her of her father's passing had an ear bud in one ear and the control device in his hand but he seemed to have stalled out in advancing as he examined the oil painting at one end of the room.
Kate planned only to give him a nod but she saw one of the Fenlon boys approaching, clearly intent on 'offering a sympathetic shoulder'. Their grandmother had been her father's minister for foreign relations and the idea that this might springboard into a closer tie to the royal house had sunk into the current Duke of Chesterton's mind. He had two boys about Kate's age and both had been primed to push that agenda since she first met them.
Another conversation like that was the last thing she wanted, so she turned to her brother's aide. "Hauptmann Cox, is there something bothering you?" she asked, looking up at the portrait.
"Ah, your highness." Galen Cox turned and bowed Lyran-style, clicking his heels. "Not bothering as such, but I confess the riding crop in your ancestor's hand puzzles me. It's not usually the image of royals."
Kate turned and looked up at the image of the long dead Robert Davion. "Like most of these matters, it's tied to an anecdote about his life. This is…" she checked her memory, "Yes, this was painted based on contemporary images but well after my many greats grandfather had passed away, not from life. I have no idea how he'd have felt about being painted with a riding crop in his hand."
"The tour doesn't seem to mention such a tale," Galen admitted. He glanced over Kate's shoulder and then gave her a questioning look.
"I would be happy to share the story." She took his elbow and drew him around to look back at the portrait. This conveniently left them arm-in-arm and it would be grossly rude for the Fenlons to interrupt when she was signaling a private conversation. Kate almost wished they would, it would give her every excuse to snub them for at least a year.
There was no interruption though, so apparently they had thought better of it.
"The Davions weren't royal at the time," she explained. "Robert was an officer in the Terran Alliance military, who had taken what was considered a low risk post on a remote agricultural world. At the time, New Avalon wasn't the hub it is today."
Galen chuckled at the depreciating remark about Kate's homeworld. "That would have been just before the Outer Reaches Rebellion then?"
"Yes, some years before. He married well and otherwise integrated into the local gentry," she explained. "The story goes that he was out riding with friends one day and came across an Alliance tax collector bullying a local farmer who was unable to meet the demands being made. The man - the tax collector I see - saw Robert riding up and recognised him, asking him to use the crop to whip the intransigent farmer."
"I take it he didn't," Galen observed.
Kate laughed quietly. "It would not be something we boast of if he did. We're not Kuritas. No, he applied the crop to the face of the tax collector, running the man off. It would be cynical to say that he and his friends were depending on local hospitality for their evening meal and likely had a fine meal at the farmer's expense after that, which would hardly have been the case if they sided with a tax collector."
The Lyran officer - his accent was that of Tamar - nodded in understanding. "And one day he was the man sending out tax collectors."
"Robert managed to avoid that," she told him. "When news of the Outer Reaches rebellion arrived, he deserted the garrison to join the militia force that would ultimately drive them offworld. He was still an outsider, but he was there in the background for early independence and died in the civil war that followed." She indicated the next portrait. "His son Adam survived and was in the inner circle of the great families who emerged from that and it was Robert's grandson Lucien who was the first Davion to rule New Avalon."
"And then the Federated Suns," Galen completed. "Even I have heard of his diplomacy."
"The Ian Cameron of his day," Kate agreed.
The hauptmann glanced back. "I believe your admirer has given up, your highness. Thank you for explaining that to me."
Kate hoped her pale cheeks hadn't flushed at being seen through. "I hope it is some exchange for your helping me brush him off." Then she tilted her head. "And I hope you don't call my brother 'your highness' all the time, he would hate that."
"He broke me of that very early," Galen assured her.
She glanced around the room. "If you would be interested in any more tales of family history, perhaps we could trade stories."
"I don't think Victor would thank me for giving his sister ammunition."
"It doesn't have to be about him," Kate told him and then her eyes narrowed. She had learned more about Cox, best to when he was around Victor almost half their waking hours. He had been with her brother through the war, including the training on Outreach and the raid on Teniente. "I am very interested in hearing about Omi Kurita." She dropped the name quietly, not wanting to be overheard.
The hauptmann didn't quite hide a wince. "I would think your family's intelligence agencies could tell you more."
"If I want to know what she was in terms of schooling, family connections and titles then yes," the blonde said quietly. "And I looked all that up when she was appointed to represent her grandfather at the funeral. But I also saw how Victor looks at her and that means I need to know who she is."
Galen gave her a wary look and the corners of his lips curved down. After a long sigh he turned towards another of the oil paintings. "Perhaps you could tell me about this one," he suggested, in acceptance of the bargain. "I saw it on the way down and the title doesn't tell me much."
"I'd be happy to," Kate told him, staying on his arm as they walked across to the painting in question, one that was (probably not coincidentally) at the quieter end of the gallery. "The Last Duel," she read from the bottom of the picture.
"Not entirely accurate, given how prevalent dueling is in the Inner Sphere," the officer observed. "And I don't recognize that 'mech at all."
"If it wasn't family history, I probably wouldn't either." She indicated the other 'mech, recognizably a Wolverine despite battle damage, which sported the colors of the Davion Guards. "That is my ancestor, Alexander the Great, of whom I assume you have heard."
"He did appear in history books once or twice," he deadpanned. "And his opponent?"
"Dimitri Rostov," she said with a degree of satisfaction. "Prince of the Terran March and the last great rival Alexander faced in the Davion Civil War."
Galen made a hmming nose. "I assume the absence of the Terran March from maps has something to do with the outcome of the duel? And his 'mech?"
"He was piloting a Swordsman," Kate answered. "One of the Federated Suns' early battlemech designs, It was built in the Terran March and made up the backbone of their battlemech forces during the civil war. When the March was dissolved, the production was discontinued. Hard to believe, isn't it?"
"I can't imagine any state stopping production of a 'mech entirely," the Lyran admitted. "Unless they were forced to, of course. And I do remember that happening around the tail end of the Succession Wars, back when I was a boy. But by choice?"
"It was a different time," she agreed, giving the picture a melancholy look. "For all that we're recovered since then, we don't just fall short of the Star League - in many ways we haven't caught up yet with the pre-Star League days. The bulk of the surviving Swordsman 'mechs were handed over the SLDF when it was formed, the rest were sent to militias and as far as I know none survived the Succession Wars."
"Like so much else." Galen turned his head again to the picture, which displayed the two 'mechs unleashing their full arsenals against each other in furious demonstration of the hatred between the two mechwarriors. "But why were they fighting? I thought Alexander Davion fought his civil war to win the throne back from his aunts."
Kate smiled thinly and used a phrase beloved of history teachers: "It was more complicated than that." She heard Galen chuckle at the words, perhaps he'd been taught by someone with a similar way of putting it. "Rostov's father Nikolai had been a supporter of Laura Davion - he helped her become Prince of the Draconis March, which gave her the power base to contend for the throne. The Varnays -"
"The Capellan March faction?"
"Yes, Laura's sister Cassandra married Prince David Varney," Kate confirmed. "They elevated the elder Rostov to lead the Terran March in hopes of sparking rivalry between them. It didn't quite work out, but it did divert him to face the Terran Hegemony at the time. Laura won his support back by nominating him as First Marshal of the Federated Suns. When fighting broke out, they almost crushed the Varnays, driving them back to within the Capellan March. However, at about the same time Alexander escaped from Varnayite imprisonment, Nikolai Rostov was killed and many of his forces turned their coats to the Varnays."
"Turbulent times," Galen said in understanding.
"Not unlike those that Robert Marsden, or the first Robert Steiner, experienced," she confirmed. "It took years for Dimitri Rostov to regain control of the Terran March - many of his father's followers preferred to side with Laura or Cassandra, for whatever reason. When Alexander emerged as a genuine contender, pledging himself to the 'true' Davion heir was a useful political tool and it worked out well for them: the combined forces of the Terran and the Crucis March was enough to defeat both Laura Davion and the Varnays."
Kate paused and looked over at Galen. "From Alexander's own records, I don't think the two men ever liked each other, but the breaking point was politics. Dimitri Rostov wanted a return to the old order, where he would rule his own March almost independently of New Avalon. But my ancestor was determined never to allow another civil war like the one he'd grown up in, to break the power of the Marches. Those who feared him as a tyrant saw Rostov as their only safeguard against New Avalon's dominance and the final round of fighting began." She closed her eyes briefly, recalling the first time she'd heard the story. "Alexander's wife was killed in a botched abduction attempt and that destroyed Rostov's popular support. Cynthia and Alexander's marriage was one of the great romances of the day - she was much loved. Alexander reached Robinson, which was the capital of the Terran March back then, with a huge army. He probably wasn't as great a general as Rostov, but he had numbers." She indicated the painting. "And then he risked it all on a single duel."
Galen frowned. "Somehow I think Victor would have done the same."
"Probably. I don't think we've ever discussed it, but…" Kate smiled ruefully. "Truth be told, I'd have more confidence in my brother's chances than Alexander's. He was a great leader, but not really an accomplished general or mechwarrior."
"Good enough though."
"Yes, it makes me feel a bit better about my own lack of skill."
He looked down at her. "You're in your final year at NAIS?"
"Yes, but I doubt I'll have anything like his class score. I'm not the second coming of our father or grandmother."
"But you do intend to serve?"
"As a Steiner," Kate said flatly, "I should. As a Davion, I must. A price for growing up in places like this." She gestured around at the opulent surroundings. "I think they call it duty."
"There are times around Victor that I'm glad to just be a farmboy."
Kate smiled but didn't tell him that Field Marshal Ardan Sortek, her father's closest friend and personal champion had started out as 'just a farmboy' who happened to fall into Hanse Davion's orbit. Let him stay innocent a little longer. No need to spoil the surprise, if Victor planned to keep his aide around - which she assumed he did.
Galen glanced around. "Regarding the lady in question."
Seeing that they had some personal space, Kate gave nodded and listened expectantly.
"I think you'd understand how hard it is for Victor to make friends," the man said. "I had to explain this to her brother though…"
"I have some idea."
"I think it's a chance to have someone who understands the restrictions he's under," Galen continued. "They both know it can't go anywhere - when Omi asked us to help rescue Hohiro it was on condition that she'd break off communication, though that got changed somehow. And they both know that word you used: duty. I'm not saying she isn't beautiful, but if your brother was going to fall for that he'd have probably been hitched before I even met him."
Kate grinned at the truth of that, but then the expression fell off her face. "So she likes him for who he is, despite his rank not because of it."
"Exactly."
"Damn, no wonder he's fallen hard." She'd seen Victor have crushes before but this was different. She could see it and if it wasn't for concerted work by her mother's staff, half the nobility of the Suns would have linked the dots. Keeping this out of the press was going to be a lot of fun for them. "Well, as you say, it can't go anywhere. At least if it helps keep the current truce together it'll be worth something. The last thing we need right now is another war with the Combine."
"I'm sure the Combine feels the same way," Galen said wryly. "Thank you for the history lessons, your… Katherine," he corrected himself when she waggled her finger at him.
"Thank you for your own help," she said with a smile. "If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me. I am for some mysterious reason well educated in the obscure history of House Davion and House Steiner."
"I appreciate it, but the HPG bills might get excessive for my wage. Perhaps next time we meet."
Kate frowned, trying to work out which of them was making incorrect assumptions. "I thought you were remaining Victor's aide?"
"Yes," Galen agreed, clearly making similar calculations. "But the Tenth Lyran Guards still posted back on the Clan border."
"And Victor is rejoining them," Kate said with a sinking feeling as she realized that she was the one missing pieces of the puzzle. The temptation to shriek "He's the First Prince!" was almost irresistible, but she was restrained by the sight in the distance of her uncle Ian's portrait… being the First Prince hadn't kept him from the frontlines… leading directly to the start of her father's reign.
She hadn't managed to hide her surprise and Galen nodded silently.
Kate forced her voice to remain calm. "Well, you'll be here until his coronation." The clear 'what coronation' expression she got told the princess that she was badly, badly out of the loop. "Thank you, Galen. I think I had better make sure that mother is managing…" she said stiffly.