Victory Conditions (27 page)

“What’s the latest on Turek’s force?” Ky asked.

“One of the transmissions picked up—translated by that expert at Cascadia—said they were going to finish getting the ships ready and supply them at their base. The translator doesn’t know if the coordinates were in clear or a code. There is a system where the coordinates are, but of course that could be a feint. Mackensee has been working with us on that; if that is the system, the closest place to do a supply would be Gretna—”

“I don’t think they’ll be lucky there,” Ky said. “We left a bit of a mess…” Argelos chuckled.

“I doubt that would stop Turek,” the Moray officer said. “And there’s Rosvirein. Both systems with dubious reputations, but both with plenty of arms on hand at last report. Mackensee has an agent at Rosvirein, but not at Gretna. They think they can pinpoint where Turek is, if his people come to Ros for supplies.”

“What do we know about the system they might be in?”

“Unmanned ansible platform—just a relay, basically. There was an unsuccessful colony there, something went wrong…I’m not sure. Mackensee may know.”

Ansible communications—especially via one of Toby’s special units—should be completely secure, but how secure was Stella herself? She would be furious if she were left out of the loop completely, if she thought Ky was dead. But if anyone found out that she wasn’t…if Stella, after a communication from Moray, walked around looking happy…that could compromise their only chance to make a surprise attack on Turek’s force.

Ky wished she could talk to Grace, but suspected that her communications lines were even less secure than Stella’s. Too many ansible relays between Moray and Slotter Key, and the codes Grace had given her might have been compromised.

No. She would have to let Stella worry. She had just decided that when a Moray officer came in with a cube of messages received on Argelos’ shipboard ansible.

Grace, of course. Hers was terse, voice-only. Ky ran it through the code filter. “Heard about big battle. Expect confirmation you’re alive as this is prerequisite for sending Spaceforce ships finally released by idiot government.” How had Grace heard about the battle? More worrisome, how had she heard enough to wonder if Ky was alive? The system ansible had been down…was Turek spreading the word, and if so, why?

Stella, next, video and voice, uncoded. “The Moray ansible is still down, but I’m sending anyway. I’ve got an invoice from Crown & Spears on Gretna, and I remember your telling me something about this, when you were at Adelaide, but you never sent me any paperwork. Should I pay this out of Vatta accounts, or apply to the Cascadians for it as a military expense? You weren’t actually authorized to draw funds from Cascadia then, but it will mess up my books if I pay it out of Vatta, since I don’t have any corresponding value received. Also, you forgot to give me the details of your transactions with Ransome—the sale of those ansibles—and that should be cleared up so the Vatta accounts are clear. Please do that immediately. The auditors will be checking our books in a few tendays…”

Ky shook her head. Surely Stella should have realized by now that Vatta Transport or the expanded Vatta Enterprises and its accounting were the least of her concerns. She felt like calling Stella just to give her a good talking-to. And she had no idea what documentation Stella really needed, and anything there might have been had blown up on
Vanguard.
She could have put it in her implant—it had been in her implant, as a record of conversations, but she’d offloaded it as a nuisance and now it was locked in a Crown & Spears box.

Some merchanter’s daughter she was! Wrong instincts every time. But the pang of guilt eased as fast as it had come, and the implanted therapy module dropped a few pearls of cognitive realism into her awareness. Stella had a legitimate problem: auditors. She herself had a legitimate problem: the war. Who else might have the data Stella needed? Well…Argelos might have stored it. Ransome would certainly have the records of his purchase. And she had staff.

“Evelyn…” The trim Moray officer appeared in the hatch. “I need to send my cousin on Cascadia some information, via shipboard ansible, that does not appear to come directly from me. Here’s what she needs, and here’s where it might be. Contact these officers, find out if they have it, and if so have them transmit it by shipboard ansible.”

“Right away, ma’am.” Evelyn saluted, took the list, and disappeared. Ky grinned. Staff was good. Now for Aunt Grace. That was still a problem, and she needed to consult the experts, such experts as she had.

“The only way I can imagine that word got out from here is via a shipboard ansible,” Ky said. “It could be Turek trying to spread the word that he’s won, trying to intimidate more governments. That makes sense, in a way. Or one of his agents here got something out before we caught them…they had hours to do that. But Aunt Grace addressed me, and said she wanted confirmation I was alive; she didn’t seem to be asking if I was alive. That suggests to me that she got word, somehow, that there’d been a battle, that there was some rumor of my death—that would logically be Turek, I think—and that I was in fact alive. Anyone else have ideas?”

“No, but I can’t think who’d have done it,” Pettygrew said. “I know I didn’t. I would have no reason to contact Slotter Key. Well, if I’d known you were dead, maybe…but even then I’d have contacted Vatta on Cascadia first. I’ve met Stella; she’s the logical contact.”

“I didn’t, either,” Argelos said. “When the ship blew, before we knew you were alive, I was thinking how to tell Grace Vatta, in her role as Rector of Defense—but like Dan, I’d have gone through your cousin, most likely. I suppose one of my crew might, without my knowledge—” His face was grim.

“Excuse me,” Pitt said. Ky turned to her. Pitt’s expression, for the first time in Ky’s experience, showed embarrassment.

“Yes?” Ky said, fascinated in spite of herself.

“My orders, orginally, were to support Major Douglas in his role as Mackensee liaison to this fleet.” Pitt paused; her mouth twitched. “I know that…the admiral is aware that this usually involves some…” She seemed to be struggling for the right words.

“Spying?” Ky suggested.

“Gathering data useful to Mackensee, yes, ma’am. If the admiral recalls, upon leaving our headquarters—” Ky noted that even now Pitt did not specify the location—odd, since they all knew it. “—the admiral told us about Grace Lane Vatta’s new position and the fact that Slotter Key privateers would be joining us at Cascadia. The admiral may recall that Major Douglas asked permission to contact Rector Vatta and present credentials.”

Ky had forgotten that, but she remembered it now.

“The major was aware—but I don’t believe the admiral was aware—that in the earlier events at Sabine, when Mackensee was forced to put up a bond by ISC, and the admiral’s—then captain’s—performance had impressed some of our senior officers there—a certain amount of preliminary background checking began. And was continued after the events at Lastway, but terminated when the admiral chose to pursue a privateer career.”

“I wasn’t aware of all that, no,” Ky said. It was unlike Pitt to be so roundabout, but she must have a good reason.

“In checking up on the admiral’s time in Spaceforce Academy, I happened to make contact with one Master Sergeant MacRobert. He thought a lot of the admiral as a cadet.” Now the faintest of blushes colored Pitt’s cheek. “We…um…corresponded now and then.”

“About me?” Ky asked.

“Sometimes. He was interested in how Mackensee saw the wider issues—piracy and the like—and after the attack on Vatta on Slotter Key—which to him looked more like an attack on Slotter Key itself, at first—he contacted me to see if I had any word on the admiral. Which, right then, I did not.” Pitt took a breath. “The long and short is, ma’am, that Master Sergeant MacRobert has been my source, as it were, for Slotter Key. And he’s now working closely with Grace Vatta, and apparently was before the old government fell and he may have had something to do with that.”

Fragments of memory coalesced in Ky’s mind, forming a pattern that almost made her laugh hysterically. Those fruitcakes. That spaceship kit with strange parts. MacRobert and Aunt Grace? Together?

“It didn’t seem something you needed to know, and he and I were both fully cognizant of the need for security—”

“Are you a double agent?” Argelos asked suddenly. “Have you been all along?”

“No, sir. My primary loyalty’s to Mackensee, same as always. But Mackensee saw, after Sabine, that Slotter Key and the Vattas were going to be important to know about. MacRobert knows that. He never passed on anything I could use to hurt Slotter Key, even if I wanted to. But there was a connection, and I was part of that connection, working of course under Major Douglas’ orders, as Master Sergeant MacRobert knew. The feeling was that two senior NCOs chatting was less…obvious…than Major Douglas calling the Rector of Defense. The thing is, after the—after Major Douglas died, all the responsibility fell to me. And I did think, after we knew the admiral was alive, that this was something to be passed along, with care.”

Ky shook her head, fighting off the urge to burst out laughing and scream simultaneously. The others were less restrained.

“What the hell—!” began Argelos, just as Pettygrew said, “That’s treasonous!” and the other officers muttered things Ky didn’t catch.

“Master Sergeant Pitt,” she said. The others subsided. “I am to understand that you have been in contact with MacRobert ever since Sabine?”

“Off and on,” Pitt said.

“I hope you won’t take this the wrong way,” Ky said. “You saved my life, after all. But what you’re describing would put you in the position to cause some of the trouble you’ve always seemed to deplore.”

“I was almost killed at Boxtop,” Pitt said.

“Allies have been killed to cover tracks,” Ky said. “What strikes me is that you may be telling the absolute truth—and I know you have been truthful with me in the past—but if you were clever enough, you could be backstabbing Mackensee, and us, and Slotter Key. Major Douglas is dead; we have no independent confirmation of your past history; we have no way—without breaking the communications ban I feel is necessary—to see what Mackensee thinks about all this. Assuming that Mackensee is as it has presented itself.”

“I understand, ma’am,” Pitt said. “It is logical…”

“I’ve trusted you, and I like you, but you’ve put me in a position where I can’t continue to trust you. You know I wanted my survival to remain secret—”

“Begging your pardon, Admiral, but you had not given that order at the time I contacted MacRobert. Even believing it was important for your people to know, I would not have done it against your orders.”

“You can say that now, but…” Ky shook her head. “I want to believe you. I will check on the timing of your transmission, which I presume is logged on whatever ansible you used—”

“Yes, ma’am. On Captain Pettygrew’s ship—” Pettygrew seemed to swell in his seat.

“If, as you say, your transmission preceded my orders, then that’s a point in your favor. But until we are in a situation where I can again contact Mackensee command myself, I cannot allow you to access communications equipment, and you must consider yourself confined to quarters.”

“Yes, ma’am. I understand, and I apologize for causing you this difficulty.”

“Corporal Decker will escort you to your quarters.”

Pitt did not object, as Ky half expected; she saluted and left, with Corporal Decker behind her. The moment the hatch closed, Pettygrew exploded.

“That—that arrogant, meddlesome—”

Ky raised her hand. “Dan, I know she shouldn’t have done it, and I know you didn’t mean to let anything like this happen. Please do check your logs, and check the time stamp on that transmission. My concern now is damage control. Grace Vatta knows, and Master Sergeant MacRobert knows. Would Grace have understood how important it is that no one else knows?”

“Turek must’ve spread the rumor of your death,” Argelos said. “Your aunt knows you’re alive—her message makes that clear, and Pitt told her—told this MacRobert, anyway.”

Ky was still thinking about MacRobert and Aunt Grace as a team. No wonder the bad government had fallen. How many had died in that, she wondered. And what was the status of the Commandant of Cadets? She pulled her attention back to the present. “We need the Slotter Key Spaceforce ships; if Grace needs confirmation…I wonder what will satisfy her?”

“There’s always fruitcakes,” Argelos said with a grin. He had found the original fruitcake story hilarious.

“Not a bad idea,” Ky said. “In fact…I think I can devise a message not even Turek’s best can figure out. Too bad we don’t have instantaneous matter transmission—I could just send her a fruitcake…”

“That would make a military nightmare,” Moray’s senior commander said. “I don’t want to contemplate matter transmission, thanks.”

Ky nodded. “I’ll take care of Aunt Grace. Now let’s consider how to deal with Turek…with what we’ve got left. It’s a mercy that putting the CCC into
Vanguard
meant we had to put the extra ansibles we brought you folks into
Sharra’s Gift
and
Helvetia,
or they’d be debris like the rest of her.”

Argelos looked at her with a curious expression. “Could’ve been a worse loss than ansibles.”

“It was,” Ky said, thinking of Hugh, Martin, Douglas, the Gannett family. “But the ansibles are the key to our ultimate victory.”