There was only one answer left, he feared, the answer of Nietzsche, of Whittaker, of G.E., of Seether. And I know I should have moral outrage, but that is gone, he thought sadly. That must be buried if we are to survive. He closed his eyes and drained the rest of the bottle.
CHAPTER 10
“Glory is the outward measure of the Warrior’s worth, but the knowledge of a duty fulfilled is the one true inward measure.”
from the Fourth Codex 04:18:31
Operations Planning Center, FRLS Independence
Orbiting Vaku VII, Vaku System
1108 hours (CST), 2670.317
“I want to be perfectly clear on this, Lord Murragh. Are you saying you can’t help us, or you won’t?”
Bondarevsky could see the strain in Admiral Richards’ face as he asked the question. After a hard evening’s discussions between Tolwyn and Richards the senior admiral had finally agreed, albeit reluctantly, to go ahead with the salvage operation. It had taken every bit of Bondarevsky’s patience and tact to get the two strong-willed warriors to unbend and talk it over, and in the end Tolwyn had been forced to give the same detailed account of the conspiracy back in the Confederation to convince Richards that Karga’s recovery was absolutely essential to more than just the Landreich.
But after all that, it seemed Bondarevsky’s solution to the problem of disarming the self-destruct system wasn’t going to work.
The OPC seemed larger with only a handful of people present for this meeting. Instead of the full battle group and Project Goliath staff who were present the last time Bondarevsky had been here, today there were only five. Tolwyn and Richards were on one side of the triangular table, while Jason sat alone on a second side. Donald Graham and Murragh occupied the third. At the moment Graham was looking troubled, while the young Kilrathi prince’s expression was enigmatic, unreadable.
“I am not sure that I mean either of those, Admiral,” the kil said slowly. “I am certainly not unwilling to help. If you can put Karga back into operational status, make him a part of your fleet and use nim to prevent Ragark from making a bid for the Imperial throne, I am glad to be of assistance. It is not as if I or any other kil have plans to salvage the carrier, or the means to make the attempt.” Murragh leaned forward, fixing Richards with sharp, penetrating eyes. “As to my ability to help, that is less certain. I am not sure that there is anything I can do…but there may be. Much depends on circumstances.”
“Commander Graham’s report indicates that many of your survivors are members of the carrier’s Cadre,” Richards said. “It seems to me the questions are simple enough. Do any of them have the ability to shut down the self-destruct system? And, if so, will they do it if you order them to do so? I can’t see where circumstances will change the answers to either of those.”
Murragh made a hand gesture Bondarevsky wasn’t familiar with. “You have misunderstood the basic nature of the problem, I fear, Admiral,” the young officer said softly. “I seriously doubt if any member of the Cadre could release the self-destruct system. It is deliberately designed to be proof against the attempts of enemy borders to disarm it and carry the ship off as a prize. So the Cadre does not enter into the question at all.”
“Suppose you tell us what does enter into it, then,” Tolwyn said. Unlike Richards, who managed a degree of smooth urbanity in his dealings with the Prince, Tolwyn was gruff and plainly uncomfortable. He’d been fighting the Kilrathi for a long time, and Bondarevsky knew he found it difficult to accept that a Cat might be an ally-particularly after the treachery of Ralgha nar Hhalles and the cunning lies that had lulled the Confederation before the Battle of Earth. Yet Tolwyn knew that this young kil prince held the key to the successful completion of the Goliath project in his stub-fingered hands. The man must have been torn between conflicting emotions of doubt and hope.
“The computer system aboard Karga was subject to specific command codes known to the senior officers of the carrier and the battle group,” Murragh told him. “The self-destruct system can be shut down using those codes.”
“Surely you weren’t senior enough to know them?” Graham demanded, glancing sidelong at the Kilrathi.
“No, the information was limited to senior officers. But I know my uncle kept a full record of those command codes on file…and as his aide I did have access to those files. It may be that I can recover the information and use it to disarm the destruct sequence. But there is a risk.”
“How so?” Bondarevsky asked.
Murragh looked at him, his face expressionless but his eyes conveying irony. “The files are in the ship’s computer. In order to reach them, we must bring a portion of the computer net back on-line. And in so doing…”
“Risk setting off the self-destruct system,” Bondarevsky finished. “Wonderful. The perfect Catch 22.”
“The…what?‘ Murragh asked.
“A Terran figure of speech,” Graham supplied. “You need to do something before you can do something else that will allow you to do the first thing.” He looked at Tolwyn and Richards. “It’s possible, as I’m sure your salvage experts will tell you. But there’s no way to predict what might set that flying bomb off. That’s why we never seriously considered having Murragh try to find the codes while we were recovering supplies and equipment from the carrier. It just wasn’t worth the risk.”
Richards glanced at Tolwyn. “It seems that it is, now,” he said with a sour look on his weathered features. “Can you coach one of our specialists to do the job, Lord Murragh?”
The young kil shook his head, a human gesture he’d picked up from Graham. “No, that will not be possible. The files are open to me as an authorized member of the staff of the Battle Group Commander. There are retinal patterns and other identification markers on file in the computer. Few Kilrathi could gain access, and certainly no humans. I will have to do the job myself.”
Graham frowned. “You’re a valuable asset these days, Murragh,” he said. “Sending the rightful Emperor of Kilrah aboard an orbiting bomb isn’t exactly the shrewdest move any of us could make. Isn’t there any way around it?”
Murragh barked a laugh. “If you have cloning technology and twenty-one standard Kilrah-years to grow a duplicate I suppose we could work an alternative out. But barring that, I think the only reasonable course within our grasp is for me to make the attempt. As to the political implications of it all…well, until a few days ago I was not a factor in galactic politics, and few will note my absence if I am lost to the Empire now.”
“You can be flip,” Graham said, shaking his head. “But the fact remains that you could the over there. Damn it all, Murragh, I didn’t look out for that flea-bitten carcass of yours all these months just to see you throw your life away on a crazy stunt like this. You know the situation aboard Karga. Even with the destruct mechanism shut down, repairing that hulk is going to take a hell of a lot of work-and in the long run I wouldn’t be too sure it’s even possible. Do you want to risk your life on something that might not be worth the effort in the first place?” Neither Graham nor Murragh had been filled in on Tolwyn’s conspiracy information, so Bondarevsky understood how reluctant Graham would be to let his young Kilrathi friend make the attempt. As an engineer Graham knew better than most people just how much was needed to put things right aboard the Karga.
Murragh didn’t answer right away, but kept his eyes on Tolwyn for a long moment. “The reputation of Admiral Geoff Tolwyn is well known within the Empire,” he said at length. “He is known to us as a warrior in the deepest sense of the word, an honorable adversary. If you, Admiral, say that it is essential that you make this effort, I will accept that and do what I can. Your goals, at present, are mine. The Kilrathi people do not need a renewal of the war. We should have ended it a long time ago. But Ukar dai Ragark and his kind will see victory in battle as the only way to rally our race to their standards, and that will mean more fighting we can ill afford when our first need is to rebuild what we lost when Kilrah was destroyed. The Codices teach us that the first duty is to the Race, and even my claim to the throne is less important in this pass than giving you the means to stop Ragark before he rekindles the fighting. I will do what I can, and hope that it is enough.”