Rusmak laughed.
“You attribute too much to these humans.”
“Yes,” the Baron said coldly, “I do attribute much to these humans. I have learned to respect their intellect, their cunning, their bravery and skill. Our history of conquest has been far too easy; the other races we have subjugated have been technologically inferior and morally weak. These humans, however, are neither. Never approach them with contempt, Rusmak.”
“You sound as if you love them,” Rusmak laughed. “While you’re at it, why not give your daughter in mating to one of them?”
The others in the room went silent at the insult.
“So she could beget a fool like you? I doubt that she would lower herself to have such a child.”
Rusmak snarled angrily and came to his feet, hand on dagger hilt.
“Enough of this,” the Prince said, extending his hand. “Both of you be silent. We are talking of a battle, not your philosophy Baron, nor your childish insults, Rusmak.”
Rusmak glared angrily at the Baron, who smiled and ignored him as if he were so insignificant as to not even be worthy of consideration.
“Baron, I do agree with Rusmak that you attribute far too much cunning to those animals,” Gar stated.
The Baron laughed softly.
“They know we will fight for Vukar, though it is worthless in a strategic sense. I daresay they attacked it because they have learned the high value we place on honor and vengeance; though in this war I consider such things to be superfluous.”
“You say honor is meaningless?” the Prince asked, unable to hide the surprise in his voice. “You saw the holo of the obscenity their commander performed.”
“A good bit of theater that. Come, come, Prince Thrakhath, don’t you think he knew there was a surveillance camera filming that for your consumption? Their detection gear is as good as ours, in some ways even better. They most likely know the station sending out the burst signals is there but have decided to let it live.”
“So what do you think will happen?” the Prince asked, growing increasingly annoyed with the Baron’s attitude.
“We send our fleet in, expecting to launch a ground assault and their carriers appear, striking us while we’re tied to a ground operation. If we turn to engage and abandon the ground attack all they need to do is get a handful of fighters in amongst the transports and landing craft and we lose our legions. If we attempt to defend the transports and ground assault, our counter-offensive capability against their carriers is crippled.”
“We have a track on all their fleet carriers,” Rusmak replied. “Two raid at Oargth, one in Bukrag, one is down for repairs, and their four remaining heavy carriers are gathering in Enigma anticipating our thrust in that region by our third fleet.”
“And eight of them are destroyed,” Gar announced proudly.
“So they are desperate,” the Baron said.
“And this raid of theirs is a desperate action and nothing more,” Gar retorted.
Prince Thrakhath leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He plotted out the lines of movement as if searching for a mathematical answer. There had to be a connection between the two attacks. It was obvious he could not ignore this Tarawa, but how to respond? The thought of splitting his fleet left him uneasy. If part of it should ever be lost, the political consequences could be devastating. He opened his eyes for a moment and looked over at the Baron.
You’d just love to see the home fleet disappear, wouldn’t you? he thought. Your side of the family has always hated us, our bloodline not as royal as yours, and you’d just love the chance to grab the throne.
Yet to turn around with everything and abandon the counterstrike? It would make him look foolish, ten fleet carriers to swat down this fly, even though the fly was threatening Kilrah, the first time such an audacity had ever been offered to the Empire in all its long millennia of conquest. Never had enemy eyes seen the home world, unless it was as dishonored prisoners brought home as slaves or for public executions.
But if there was a trap at Vukar? What could they have waiting? He calculated yet again.
He had to do both; there was no avoiding that fact, and it made him uncomfortable. The other fleets on the front were too far away to be diverted back to home defense so it would have to be the Imperial Units. Besides, it was never wise politically to have units which might be loyal to other clans located closer to the throne than the Imperial Fleet. As for the retaking of Vukar Tag it was out of the question for any units other than those of the Imperial Command to avenge that point of honor, for to do otherwise would be to show a weakness before the other families.
He also thought of the secret memo on his desk from the Emperor, ordering that the raider must be dispatched but the Imperial honor was to also be avenged if Thrakhath believed that both could be done at once. Somehow a copy of the holo showing the humans taking Vukar was leaked to certain members of the court, the insult to the Dowager Empress causing howls of derision. She was never accepted across all these years, viewed as an upstart from the periphery of the Empire and this insult was whispered by some to be a fitting revenge for her audacity in mating her way into the Imperial line.
Even though it was not a direct order from the Emperor to press the counterattack, just a strong suggestion, it made this debate moot, but he was curious to see how his underlings would act.
“Three carriers detailed to return and hunt this interloper down,” the Prince said, his voice sharp. “I’ll decide within the hour which ships it will be.”
He opened his eyes and looked at the Baron.
“You disagree?”
“How can I disagree with a decision of the Imperial blood?”
“But you do disagree?”
“To split a fleet is never a wise tactical maneuver, especially when confronting a potential unknown. I still maintain that the assault on Vukar was intended to be more than just a mere insult to the Dowager.”
“An assassination attempt a mere insult?” Gar snarled.
“Yes, precisely that,” the Baron replied, laughing softly. “These humans are smart enough to know that killing the Dowager would cause a burial of all rivalries for revenge in spite of how some of the royal line feel about her means of gaining power. They undoubtably knew she was not even there and that the destruction of the palace would, as a result, simply be a humiliation rather than a call for full blood vengeance. And besides, the palace was old, decrepit, dusty. A mere frontier outpost. If I owned it I would have destroyed it as an embarrassment long ago and if the humans destroyed it I’d view it as a favor to improve the view.”
Thrakhath detected the political taunt in the Baron’s words, the implication that the line of the Emperor was not royal enough, the Emperor’s mother of petty nobility, her claim to the Emperor’s father one of mere beauty and attractiveness, and nothing more. He wanted to spring across the table and drive a claw dagger into the Baron’s royal blue-blooded throat for that insult.
Not now, we can’t afford this rivalry now. Let the war with the humans be finished, and then in the glorious aftermath the rivals can be purged. Damn this war, he thought. It had forced a burial of old rivalries in the face of a common foe and as a result the tension was festering, unable to be lanced and cleansed until the humans were destroyed.
“Sire, I do not wish to miss the strike on Vukar,” Gar announced.
The Prince looked over at the commander of the Imperial Legions.
“You will not, nor will you, Rusmak.”
He closed his eyes again. The retaking of the planet and the gaining of vengeance was just that, a mere retaking and exacting of vengeance. Little glory there. But to bag the interloper, to save the honor of the home system, that would be the game at the moment.