IronStar (71 page)

“One other thing you might want to
know. The Talamae military has a proud tradition of service and bravery, and
promotes by merit because it would never occur to them to promote someone for
any other fool reason. What it does
not
have, is anything like ‘Standing
Order Forty-four Dash A’. Hell, I
told
you I bunk with my exec. These
people just
handle
it.”

Again, like a scanner, Kirrah could
watch the thought processes at work in the pair. Despair, hope, calculation,
wildness, and some deep understanding shifting between them she could only
sense in passing. Finally, a decision surfaced. Marcus spoke for them both.

“We accept. Discharge would be
cleanest, or we’ll take assignment if that’s what you can get for us. And
thank
you, Kirrah Roehl.

“Just one thing,” he added as the
last of the other passengers trooped down the ramp. “What do we do
right now
?
The Admiral will be expecting us to report back immediately!”

“I’m way ahead of you there,
Lieutenant,” Kirrah said, reaching across the aisle to where their handcuffs
had been discarded. “Put these on. I hereby arrest you for assaulting my man
Prax’soua. My
god
, woman, you almost pulled his
ears
off! And
you
!”
she glared mock-severely at Marcus. “You assaulted the Talamae
head
of
state
!
You are both confined to house arrest. We’ll quarter you someplace nice and
comfy at the School, pending trial. Which may take a while to convene, what
with cleaning up after being nuked and everything. I figure, it’ll take at
least ten minutes longer than it takes Admiral Dunning to see the wisdom of my
proposal.” At their speechless, boggled looks, she locked the cuffs on one’s
right wrist and the other’s left, and added:

“Look, I
said
we appreciate
Marines more for your fighting ability than your verbal skills. You just leave
the negotiating to your kindly Warmaster. I’ve already made the same offer to
Doris, and she wisely accepted. Hell, she was a part of my hijacking team! Now
go quietly, while I make the same offer to Margaret. I hate to think what the
Admiral would do to her for losing command of her shuttle twice in two days!”

“He that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone…” - The Gospel of John, 8:7, King James Translation;
circa 30 A.D. Terra.

The hatch to Lucinda Dunning’s
office aboard the
Argosy
slid open. The room was small by the standards
of admirals’ offices, a mere four by five meters, but admirals did not usually
travel on vessels as parsimonious as destroyers. Despite its size, the data
feeds and comm links made the chamber adequate to her duties, and the Admiral’s
own presence made the undecorated gray metal walls, exposed conduit and
fittings seem the equivalent of the flag conference room on a Battlewagon.

At least that’s the way it seemed
to Ensign Margaret Piersall, as she stepped through the open hatchway.
Ex-Ensign
Margaret Piersall
, she reminded herself miserably. The Admiral returned her
salute, waved her to one of the three standard-issue chairs, and continued her
call in progress:

“I understand how you feel,
Corporal Sengli, and I know this leaves you short-handed. Your concerns are
noted. However I evaluate the probability of another ground assault on one of
our shuttles as low, especially since we’ve moved them onto Regnum soil next to
the Embassy building, where they fall under our perimeter security.

“It’s simply more important to
render all possible aid to the locals. No matter how I may feel about certain
actions taken by their Warmaster,” a sideways smoldering glare slid across
Margaret, and snapped back to the screen - “they are still our allies, and they
are still dealing with the aftermath of a mini-nuke, a modern weapon they don’t
even have a word for. We will do all we can with our technology to help them,
and your people are going to have to work right along with every sailor I can
spare, until we get them back on their feet.

“We have also been requested by
Talam’s chief priest and medical officer to send a relief mission to O’dakai,
which I am inclined to do. I’ve heard the O’dai casualties are very low
considering the yield of the explosion under their palace. In fact I’ve been
given to understand the strike was surprisingly precise and contained. But
those indigs’ health care is not up to even local standards. You will simply
have to spare six Marines for two days as security detail for that mission.”

Margaret could only hear one side
of the conversation, but the parade of expressions on her Admiral’s animated
face made her want to cringe into a corner, even when it had nothing to do with
her.

“No, we’re not going to protest the
arrest of two of our Marines. The legal advice I have is that they have broken
local regs and are in lawful custody under conditions which are not cause for
alarm. In fact, if any
other
Marines choose to assault the head of state
of an allied sovereignty, they’d better hope they fall into the locals’ custody
rather than mine. We have engaged local counsel, although their hearing is
understandably a little down the docket from saving lives and re-establishing some
semblance of military security for our allies. Anything else?”

Another pause. Margaret found that
by careful self-control, she could avoid actual flinching when the Admiral’s
gaze happened to pass over her. She thought.

“Fine with me. Ask Ensign Auracotta.
She’s our Contact Specialist. If she ok’s it, go ahead. And look, Corporal
Sengli, I think you’re doing a good job down there. Just don’t worry about the
pride of the Regnum, no insult was intended I’m sure. Dunning out.” The Admiral
keyed the channel off, leaned back in her chair, sighed wearily, ran her
fingers through her short dark brown hair. She leaned forward and keyed again,
said:

“Maureen, bring us two caffis,
please. My usual, and…?” Margaret, realizing she was being addressed, jumped a
little despite her determination not to. Hastily playing back the conversation,
she finally grasped that she was being asked what she wanted in her caffi.
Surreal question or not, the Admiral was looking at her, waiting…

“Uh! One crème, thank you, Ma’am.”
Damn,
I sound as much like an idiot as I act
… In a remarkably short time, a young
Yeoman entered by the same hatchway Margaret had, set down a small tray on the
Admiral’s desk, nodded once to Margaret but politely did not notice her
anxiety, left. The Admiral picked up her cup, made go-ahead gestures to
Margaret who did likewise. After a few sips, the Admiral sighed deeply, leaned
back in her chair, and focused her full attention on the hapless Ensign.

“Ensign Piersall, I am not inclined
to accept your resignation.” Margaret could feel the skin on her whole body
flush. She began to imagine being kept in the Navy and made an example of, as a
warning to others. Rather than give herself time to work herself all the way
into panic, she just said:

“Aye, Ma’am. I don’t understand.”

“So I noticed. That’s why I asked
you here.” Another pause, while the Admiral took another sip of her steaming
beverage. Her eyes looked across the rim of her cup, weighing, considering.
Not
unkind eyes
, Margaret thought.
And she has every right to throw the book
at me
.

“I have reviewed the available
portions of the shuttle’s log, for whatever they’re worth.” the Admiral said,
ignoring Margaret’s renewed blush. “Fortunately they are supplemented from time
to time by Ms. Einarson’s certified recordings.

“In particular, you had the
presence of mind to activate the log before opening the flight deck’s hatch, so
it showed the confrontation between you and Ms. Roehl and her friend Peetha -
no, she changed her name…
Elagai
. What do you suppose I would have
wanted you to do at that point, Ms. Piersall?”

“Defend your shuttle, Ma’am. You’d
just told me the day before how I’d made a mistake by not doing that, and I
made the same mistake
all over again
. That’s why I resigned, Ma’am. I’m
just not… not…” She ran down again, speechless with shame and remorse.
Nevertheless she held her head erect, hands folded properly in her lap.

“Margaret, you were put in an
impossible position by a very creative and determined ally. She offered you the
choice of killing her and two other defenseless people, or surrendering a
shuttle. Did you make the right choice? Do you wish now you’d made the
other
choice? Think about the alternatives you had.” Margaret winced, took a
long, shaky breath. Finally her downcast eyes lifted to meet Lucinda’s.

“Ma’am, if they’d been clearly
hostiles, I wouldn’t have hesitated to shoot all of them. I know that. Thinking
back, I could have tried disabling the shuttle with my beamer, but I didn’t
think of it in time, and it would have been dangerous to everyone on board. I
have to say I did the best I could at the time. I’m sorry it wasn’t good
enough.”

“No, it wasn’t. From the time you
opened the flight deck hatch, nothing short of murdering three allies would
have stopped them. I am convinced Ms. Roehl was not bluffing in the slightest.
I will not fault your analysis of the circumstances from the advantage of
hindsight, and I never second-guess someone’s actions, when a tactical
situation takes them outside their training envelope. You did as well as anyone
could have.”

“I… I
did
?”

“You did as well as
I
did.
Consider, Ensign, that while you held a beamer, I held the weapons systems of a
destroyer. The first thing Ms. Roehl did after returning to the planet’s
vicinity, was to confess her sins and declare her intentions. Then she
jettisoned all her weapons and gave us the missile control codes, effectively
giving me the same alternatives as she’d given you - kill her, or let her
proceed.” Margaret’s eyes were getting rounder as the Admiral continued:

“I was sure I was only getting part
of the story, and by the time we figured out what she’d actually done, there
was no way to find that tiny projectile in the time available. But when an ally
hands you her knife, bares her throat and says ‘I’m
doing
this, kill me
or get out of the way’, it’s time to take a good hard look at your options
and
your ally.

“She forced my hand, exactly the
way she forced yours, and I will not see you punished for making the same
decision I made. You were wrong to surrender control of your shuttle on the
ground outside that palace the day before, Margaret, but you would have been a
lot
wronger
to shoot Ms. Roehl and her friends, to save the shuttle from
her the next day. In my opinion, you got
that
one right.”

“Th, thank you, Ma’am. You have no
idea how much that means to me. Or perhaps you do.”

“Ahem, perhaps. Now, there are a
few other loose ends to clear up. For one thing, I presume you were offered the
same ‘custody’ arrangement which is presently shielding Lieutenants Finch and Warden
from my attention. And Corporal Gilman. Why didn’t you take it?”

“Ma’am, Ms. Roehl had me strapped
to the jumpseat the whole time, that girl of hers, Elagai, threatening to kill
me if I so much as squeaked. I couldn’t have done anything to make her arrest
me even if I’d… I couldn’t have done anything, ma’am.” The Admiral’s eyes had
taken on a warning glitter.

“Yes, and very considerate of her
it was, to protect your innocence that way. That’s the proper answer for a Navy
Board of Enquiry, duly noted. However this conversation is off the record,
Margaret, and don’t think your Admiral can’t see a scam, even a legal scam,
when it’s running right under her nose. I’ve run too many myself, to not know
the smell of snake oil. Why didn’t you take the same course Finch and Warden
did? I can’t believe Roehl wouldn’t have offered it to you.” There was a
thoughtful pause while Ensign Piersall finally found the words to reply.

“Ma’am, I guess it just didn’t
feel
right. For me, I mean. I don’t blame the others for …for where they are now.
But I’d already lost control of your shuttle once, and then it was happening
all over again, only worse. So I wanted to stay as close to the problem as I
could. And when it was over, it just seemed right, to be the one who brought your
shuttle back, ma’am. It was my responsibility.”

“Even at the cost of your career.
Even at the cost of stockade time.” Margaret swallowed once, straightened her
back for the tenth time or so, said in a smaller voice:

“Ma’am, yes, Ma’am.” Admiral
Dunning leaned back in her chair, steepled her fingers, studied the younger
woman a moment, nodded to herself.

“Ensign Piersall, do you want to
remain in the Navy?”

Margaret staggered mentally a
moment at the abrupt shift, replied “Yes, Ma’am, if you think I’m…” The Admiral
waited, until Margaret figured out what she’d meant to say.

“If you think I’m capable, ma’am.
And suitable. I love the Navy. And I love piloting.”

“I never had doubts about your
capability
,
Ms. Piersall. And based on the available data, the results of the action, and
this conversation, I do think you’re ‘suitable’. Very well, I shall consider
the matter of your actions on the shuttle two days ago, a closed subject, for
both of us. I suspect some day you’ll make a fine commander, Margaret, and I’m
quite content with you serving within my command. Which is why, after breaking
you down to Middie First for that little stunt with the fake internal camera
data, I am restoring you to field rank as Ensign, provisional on a satisfactory
report from Lieutenant Commander Willison, my NavInt specialist. Who is just a
tad
curious how you managed to defeat the Navy’s data integrity checks so
thoroughly. And of course on continued good ratings from Captain Wallace. Is
there anything else you’d like to say before returning to duties?” Margaret
felt as though her world was reeling and spinning too fast to follow. She took
a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and said: