He was not loved by his senior commanders. Coming from the Sector Family, he did not believe the propaganda and hollow beliefs that his seniors worshiped, but he was more capable for his more realistic views, and so respected for his abilities. He was very well-liked by his commanders and captains in the field, largely because he was no more cruel to the colonies than policies he could not control forced him to be, and also because he did not expect heroic, futile gestures in facing the Starwolves.
Captain Tarrel had actually not seen him in the two years since his sudden and unforeseen promotion to Sector Commander. His new duties had brought him to Vinthra, and she had immediately been given command of the Carthaginian by his order. She often wondered if that had been compensation for a relationship that was no longer expedient, both excuse and reward for making herself scarce.
Commander Lake had remained largely silent during those times when the mood of the council had turned hostile toward her. They had both recognized the importance of allowing the matter to blow over by itself, although that did not help to sweeten her opinion of him. When all was said and done, he had decided upon the course of action, although his decisions were in certain respects surprising. The council had recommended attempting contact with the unknown attackers, using a small fleet of drone cruisers as bait. Tarrel did not expect to be given command of that mission herself.
She hurried out into the corridor the moment the meeting adjourned, hoping to demand some word from Commander Lake on several subjects. She was almost surprised to find that he had waited for her; in her own philosophies, she had believed that he had been trying to shun her company since his promotion.
“You wanted to talk?” he asked casually, almost daring her to be angry.
“I want to talk business at least,” she responded. “If nothing else, I would like a better idea of what you expect of me. ”
“That is not unreasonable,” he agreed. “We can speak privately in my station office. Will you accompany me?”
“Is that an order?”
“If this is business, then it is an order.”
They walked together, for his offices were only a short distance down the corridor on that same level. Tarrel refused to be intimidated by any man she had taught to be half-way good in bed; she had never kept his company for the sake of his sexual abilities, but because they were like minds. While his response so far seemed to argue otherwise, she was satisfied that he was not going to pull rank on her simply as a ploy to keep her silent. They could still talk. Once she felt certain of that, she found that she was no longer so anxious or annoyed over the matter.
Despite his words, Lake took her not into his office, but into his private quarters. The Carthaginian’s shuttle bays were no larger than this suite of apartments, its decor rich but understated. He watched her as she looked about. When she saw him staring, he smiled wryly as if sharing some subtle jest.
“Would you like something to drink?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Not while I’m working. You know me better than that.”
“Are you working?”
“I’m thinking about business. You pay me to think, remember?”
“I suppose I do,” he agreed. “So, what are you thinking?” “First of all, I’m thinking that you might be using me as bait.”
Lake considered that briefly, and decided that he should pour himself a drink. “Do you know, the trouble with my new job is that I often have to think like a mercenary. I wish that there was no need of mercenary thinking in the military, but there it is.” “You propose to send me out to face that thing again, and you expect me to be understanding?”
“No,” he agreed simply. “It might not be fair to ask you to stand up to that thing one more time. If cannon fodder would get the job done, I would send those fossils I have to keep around as resident experts. You seem to have some idea of how to handle this situation.”
“I keep running away?” Tarrel asked.
“You do have to survive long enough to learn something.
And that is very much the point. I’m going to give you a small convoy of old ships, anything we can find in a hurry that is nothing but scrap. We can have those slaved to your navigational system so that they will fly in formation around your own battleship, and then we’ll send you to locate the area where that thing was last known to be. When it starts nibbling away at your convoy, you’ll know that you’ve made contact and you have a few moments to attempt communications. If they don’t answer, then you get the hell out.”
“You seem to believe that this is not Starwolves.”
Lake shook his head. “Starwolves don’t behave like that. They can be damned dangerous, especially if they catch you doing something they don’t like. But they do live by certain rules of their own making. I can’t say that I really give you much hope of success, but we might learn something more by provoking another attack. If they don’t talk, and if you don’t find some way to fight them, then find yourself some Starwolves and discover what they have to say on the subject.”
“If the Starwolves really are behind this, that would be looking for more trouble than I could handle,” Tarrel reminded him.
“Yes, I know that,” Lake agreed. “Those are the chances we have to take. If this situation is as desperate as I suspect— as you seem to suspect — I would even be willing to make an alliance with the Starwolves against this new threat.”
“The Sector Families are not going to like that.”
“Perhaps not,” he agreed. “And they will have to accept certain restrictions upon their ambitions, to appease the Starwolves. But, if they want to stay in business, they will just have to accept it. I know how to sell the idea to them, so no trouble there. I’m speaking to you this candidly now, so that you will understand my own plans enough to act as my agent when you leave here. You might well find yourself in the role of diplomat, either with these new attackers or the Starwolves, and the alliances you make could save or destroy the Union. I want you to feel free to do whatever it takes.”
“You could go with me,” Tarrel pointed out.
“I wish I could. The fact is, I’m about to do the Union itself a dirty trick, and you have to help me. If I try to go, Councilor Debray will want to know why, and end up replacing me with a professional diplomat. That person will be under direct orders to guard the Union’s dignity and commercial interests at any cost, not realizing that the cost would be those very things they want to protect. There’s more going on here than you know. Things are a lot more serious.”
“What do you mean?” Tarrel asked plainly.
“No mention was made of this during the council — most of those idiots don’t even know yet — but there have been five known attacks just like the one you saw, most of them worse,” Lake explained. “You just happen to be the first witness to survive. That’s why I can say with great certainty that the Starwolves probably are not behind this. Someone is systematically destroying all traffic, all the stations, even the satellites, every piece of hardware we have in space, system by system. If Starwolves were resorting to such dire tactics, they would be trying to force us to surrender before they destroy our spaceflight capabilities completely. And under those circumstances, they would want us to know that they were the ones doing this to us.” Tarrel frowned. “I don’t believe that you were going to tell me all this at first.”
“I’m not supposed to. I just don’t see how you can do what I need for you to accomplish without knowing it. So, will you take the job?”
Captain Tarrel looked profoundly surprised. “Oh, I suppose I just didn’t understand. I didn’t know that I had any options. I thought that this was an order. You know, the things that you senior officers tell underlings to do and you expect done no matter what.”