“Okay,” I said finally. “Let’s talk plainly. If you want to complete your mission, you have to come to my ship and talk to me in person. Is that clear?”
Sarin thought this over. No one was sure how to proceed. Crow had always maintained the fiction that I was under his command. I disagreed, seeing my role as that of an equal partner, rather than an underling. Star Force was far from clearly defined at the top. In fact, authority between Crow and I had been a loose arrangement from the start. We’d done a fair job of managing the organization by separating Star Force into land forces and space forces, and dividing our jurisdictions accordingly. In general, Crow ran Fleet while I ran the Marines.
But in practice, it had never worked out so neatly. What had evolved was a regional power system, based on who was where. When I was running a task force in space, I commanded it, both ground and space forces. When I wasn’t near Earth, Crow asserted his authority there with glee. Crow never ventured far from Earth, so conflicts usually arose only when I was in the home system. When we were both at home, things often went badly. We invariably stepped on each other’s toes.
This time was a special case. Crow was trying to order me around while I was out on a campaign. As I saw it, he was the one trying to alter our arrangement of power.
I think it was my jutting jaw and flat stare that convinced Jasmine. She realized she wasn’t going to get me to come home just by showing up in the system in her fancy new ship and passing on Crow’s edicts.
“All right,” she said at last. “I’ll meet you on your ship.”
Several hours later, the light cruiser arrived in orbit over Eden-11. I watched it come in, admiring its sleek lines as it drew close.
I retired to Actium’s conference room, and the rest of my command staff knew enough to keep out as I waited for Sarin. Only Marvin tried to follow me inside. He’d come back up from stirring his mud soup down on the Eden-11 and was craning his cameras in my direction, trying to see and hear everything. I was vaguely amused by all of them. They were all dying to know how this command struggle would play out. Marvin was just more obvious than most.
“Major-ah, excuse me, Rear Admiral Sarin,” I greeted her as she stepped through a melting door.
Behind her, Marvin’s cameras appeared to be riding on stalks. The wall reconstituted itself, shutting him out. I gestured to the table, and she moved to the far side. She extended her hand, and I shook it. A few months ago she would have saluted me-but now she saw herself as something of an equal. A handshake was the protocol between Crow and me. I let the matter pass without comment, taking her offered hand and smiling before I released it.
She was Fleet brass now, but I was still the Marine commander. As I saw it, she was under my command out here. I kept these thoughts to myself. There was no need to push things right away. Possibly, we could work this out amicably.
“Shall I begin briefing you?” I asked.
“By all means.”
“First off, I’m sorry Crow and I have put you in this position, Jasmine,” I said. “We’ve never really gotten our act together, you know. The chain of command should be perfectly clear to all. What I want to do today is explain the Eden system situation clearly. Then you can make up your own mind how we should proceed.”
“I’m not in that position, Colonel-”
“Oh, but you are. You’ve been moved up to command rank. That has responsibilities. Right now, if I pitched over dead onto this table, you would be in command in this system.”
Sarin looked mildly alarmed. I wondered if she was really ready for her new rank. I knew she was ambitious and competent, but she was young and she’d run every battle from behind a touchscreen. Making strategic decisions that sent people to die-possibly millions of people-wasn’t the same thing as running ops.
I proceeded to lay out the situation in the system. I showed her the planet we’d liberated, vids of the Crustaceans who’d we made contact with, and the Nano ship fleet that were parked in orbit over the gas giant. She was particularly impressed by the Macro production facility I’d put to work for us, and the new gunship design. She was alarmed, however, by the alien forces that were staring us down over these lush worlds.
“It’s like the war never ended,” she said.
I almost laughed. “Ended? Why no, it hasn’t ended. Is that what Crow’s been telling everyone back home? Because if so, he’s full of crap. I don’t know if we’ll ever have peace out here for any significant length of time-but I’m trying.”
Sarin’s tongue wet her lips and she leaned forward. “Colonel Riggs, that is precisely how the talk is going back home. You are depicted as being a warmonger-someone who won’t take a victory and leave matters alone. Someone who wants to build an empire.”
“An egomaniac, is that it? A charge from Crow, no less? I’d laugh, but I’m too bitter for humor. I’m trying to keep our species and our biotic allies one step ahead of extinction. We need to stop the next alien incursion before it begins. I’d like to do it with as many allies and planets on our side of the fence as possible.”
“What fence?” she asked.
I smiled. It was the precise question I’d hoped she would ask. I dragged a file onto the desktop between us and showed her the plans I’d drawn up. My new battle station would bristle with weapons. If I could capture a few more Macro factories, I could make it happen. She watched carefully, and I could tell I’d impressed her.
“I see the strength of the plan,” she said. “Using the rings as a natural bottleneck, we could outgun any enemy that came through by placing a massive defensive fortress there.”
“Exactly.”
“I understand your plan, and I approve. But Fleet believes you should build your battle station closer to Earth-preferably in the home system.”
“It might end up like that,” I admitted. “But I want to try to put it out here instead, giving us six lovely new habitable worlds. Just think of that, six new Earths. On top of that, we’d save two allied species, the Worms and the Centaurs. We need help, I don’t want to do this alone.”
“What about the other races?”
“Right now, they are either hostile or uncooperative. Take the Blues, for example. I think they have something to do with the Nano ships that have abandoned the Crustaceans and now orbit the gas giant, Eden-12. They are barely willing to communicate with us. But I have hopes for cooperation with them in the future. We have the same strategic difficulties to face in the long run.”
“You mean the Macros.”
“Yes.”
Jasmine rubbed at her neck, deep in thought. Her hair had slipped from the tight bun she’d worn upon arrival. She still kept her hair long, and loose strands hung around her face as she studied the data intently. To me, she looked as pretty as ever.
“What did you name the ship?” I asked her.
“What?”
“Your shiny new ship. The one Crow bought for you to go along with your new rank.”
She sat back and glared at me. “It is named Goa — after a lovely region of India. But Crow didn’t buy me off. I’ve earned this promotion.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
Sarin didn’t answer, because we both knew I was lying. I absolutely thought she’d been bought off. Crow was a crafty old devil. He’d found out what my most loyal supporting officer wanted, and given it to her to place her under his spell. He’d figured out she wanted rank, so he’d provided an impressive one. Then he’d built her a nice ship, and sent her out here to rub her change of loyalties in my face. He wanted to force her to prove her new loyalty to him. It was hard not to be annoyed with both of them.
I wondered if Crow knew that last time Jasmine and I had been alone together in a command conference room, we’d kissed. If he ever did learn about that, I was sure it would make this awkward moment he’d created for the two of us even sweeter for him.