“We are weak,” Terool said. “Their response to your ill-advised attack on the Pardal Clan nearly destroyed us!”
“Nearly destroyed you, you mean,” Cally said, harshly.
“Us,” Father O’Reilly said, placatingly. “We are not enemies.”
“Tell that to them,” Cally snapped. “They were the bastards that fucked with my head then left us out to dry when I managed to break conditioning. Just talking to this fucker is making me sick. And now he’s suggesting that we just let the Darhel wipe out thirty thousand soldiers and sailors? The Compact is inviolate! If it’s not there’s no point to this whole charade!”
“Are they sending the orders to destroy the task force?” Father O’Reilly asked.
“They are already sent,” Terool said, miserably.
“Can we intercept them?” Cally asked. “Corrupt them?”
“It would be… difficult,” Terool said.
“I don’t care for difficult,” Cally said. “Can you do it?”
“Perhaps,” Terool said. “And then again perhaps not.”
“And there’s more,” Father O’Reilly said.
“We must clarify this matter,” Terool said.
“Indowy think that they are inscrutable to humans,” Father O’Reilly said. “And, indeed, to most humans they are. But not to all. What else?”
“I’m more worried about the Fleet,” Cally said. “And, okay, my bastard of a father.”
“He is your clan lord,” Terool said, upset.
“He can rot in hell for all I care,” Cally snapped. “But I don’t want the damned Darhel to leave him stuck in hyper until his air runs out.”
“Terool!” Father O’Reilly said. “Tell us!”
“It is about… your father,” Terool said, miserably. “You see, the Darhel… ”
“Owe you a lot of money,” Tak said.
“Define a lot,” Mike said. “I’ve been paid way too much as it is.”
“Exalted Lord,” Tak said, carefully. “Recently, you may have heard, a Darhel Clan fell.”
“Epetar,” Colonel Ashland said.
“The same,” Tak said. “The were, in fact, destroyed. By your daughter, Michelle.”
“Really?” Mike said. He got a message from Michelle every year at Christmas. If she’d taken down a Darhel Clan it was news to him. “Good for her!”
“There were others working with her, Bane Sidhe and Tong. But it was primarily your clan which did this. The Darhel could not react against you nor against Michelle. But they would much wish to.”
“Why couldn’t they?” General Corval asked.
“Early in the conflict against the Posleen one of your generals, General Taylor, began a program to investigate Darhel manipulation of both politicians and war supplies.”
“That’s what got him killed,” Mike said, nodding. “Isn’t it?”
“Indeed, Exalted Lord,” Tak said, carefully. “However, some of your people, notably the Cyberpunks and human factions of the Bane Sidhe reacted. They killed several high-level Darhel and missed the Tir Dal Ron by a mere shred.”
“Too bad they missed,” Corval said.
“Thus was the Compact born,” Tak said. “The Darhel would not attack current duty humans and the Cybers and the human Bane Sidhe, of whom the Cybers are now a faction, would not kill Darhel.”
“This is making my head hurt,” General Corval said. “Ancient societies. Midnight assassinations. Darhel manipulation. Does any of this have a point?”
“This is the last point,” Tak said. “I do not know if even my masters are aware of this fact. It was contained in the communication to the Ceel that I intercepted when he went into lintatai. Further complicating things are that each of you is owed much more money than the Darhel ever told you. General O’Neal, for certain specific reasons, is owed… Well, the amount that your daughter used to take down the Pardal clan is but a fraction of what you are owed. One tenth of all you recover is, by rights, property of the capturers.”
“Yeah,” Mike said. “I know. We picked up a few billion credits worth here off those Posleen forges we captured intact.”
“The full implications were never explored,” Tak said. “Let me ask you this, General. On Diess. Would the planet have fallen absent your actions?”
“Oh, I doubt it,” Mike said. “There was a whole Corps there and they were getting some pretty solid defenses built.”
“Bullshit, sir,” General Corval said. “We’ve all seen the analysis. You hamstrung the Posleen at a critical juncture, the schwerpunkt. The Line would have fallen if the full weight fell on it. And you took out the only God-king using airmobile in that battle. To answer his question without the false modesty, yes, Tak, it would have.”
“Thus you, General O’Neal, are owed ten percent of the gross production value of Diess,” Tak said. “For the entire period of your life. Oh, some is owed to the many other soldiers and officers in the battle. But a large percentage of it falls to your account. Equally other planets. There are many humans who are owed much by the Darhel. But especially with penalties and interest, you are far in advance of them. You have done almost nothing but fight the Posleen for decades. Led critical defenses of multiple cities on Earth. Holding the pass in Rabun Gap gives you a margin of all goods and services in the Central North American provinces. Several of the recovery worlds of which you were a senior commander are now producing goods. You have gotten none of these additional monies. Your current calculated worth, according to the message, is approximately fifteen percent of all the Darhel clans’ worth. Mostly due to penalties. Payable, as all Darhel debts are, immediately and in full at your request.”
“Nobody has that much capital,” Mike said, blinking.
“That is the point,” Tak replied. “If you call their debt, every Darhel clan in the galaxy is immediately and totally bankrupt.”
“Good God,” Cally said, her eyes wide. “Holy… How in the hell did the Darhel let that happen?”
“They wrote a very bad law,” Terool said. “Back when we were first attacked by the Posleen. They attempted to buy our action. But we rejected them. The Way is the only way that we choose. So they kept increasing the amount they were willing to pay if we would only fight. But we would rather die than stray from the Way. So now they owe your father, all humanity for that matter, for a fraction of the price of the entire Confederation plus all the recovered worlds. They knew this from the beginning. But they also thought the humans would never figure it out.”
“You could have told us,” Father O’Reilly said, dryly.
“All those years I was scrimping and scraping and little did I know my daddy owned the Galaxy,” Cally said, bitterly. “Wait, if they kill him in deep space… ”
“It all reverts,” Father O’Reilly said. “Galactic law holds, not Earth’s. No inheritance.”
“I thought it reverted to the Clan,” Cally said.
“Not if he doesn’t transfer it, first,” Father O’Reilly said. “And he has to be in a Galactic Court to do the transfer. And it has to be accepted by the Court. Which is made up of… ”
“Darhel,” Cally said, bitterly. “Right. Like they’re going to accept him turning it over to the Clan.”
“There is one option, but it is poorly known and even more poorly understood, even by Indowy,” Terool said. “He can make suit to the Aldenata… ”
“They’re legends,” Mike said. “I mean, I know you Indowy think they’re gods, even the Posleen refer to them, if in less than affectionate terms, but… ”