Most of those present simply absorbed the information, but Drakon noticed that Captain Bradamont appeared to be baffled. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I can see how hard it is for you to speak of this, Madam President, but how did the sub-CEO get executed so quickly that he couldn’t even give testimony?”
Iceni shifted her gaze to the Alliance officer. “He was accused of a serious crime.”
“But—” Bradamont looked around at the others for enlightenment, even more confused. “There wasn’t any trial?”
“Of course there was a trial. It took five minutes. The sub-CEO wasn’t allowed to testify because, of course, a criminal wouldn’t tell the truth, his lawyer had been appointed by the Syndicate and did nothing, the judge who was appointed by the Syndicate and controlled by the Syndicate pronounced the sub-CEO guilty, and ten minutes after that the sub-CEO was executed for his crimes.”
Bradamont’s mouth had fallen open. She closed her eyes and looked away. “I’m sorry, I—”
“That’s the sort of thing we revolted against,” Drakon said, feeling both upset by her reaction and defensive because he had, after all, been a part of that Syndicate system.
“That’s how the Syndicate works,” Gozen added. “Same thing happened to my uncle. It doesn’t matter if you’re innocent. The system assumes that you wouldn’t have been accused if you weren’t guilty, and anything you say to defend yourself is just proof that you’re refusing to admit to your guilt. If you confess to your crimes, maybe they’ll go a little easier on you and send you to a labor camp instead of executing you. Or maybe you’ll accuse someone else, someone they want to nail, and that might help make things a little easier for you.”
“And I knew all that,” Iceni said, her voice tight. “Yet I accused that man anyway. I am responsible for his death.”
“You’ve made extensive reforms to the justice system on Midway,” Drakon insisted. “To prevent just that sort of thing from happening. Sorry if this all shocks you, Captain Bradamont.”
Bradamont shook her head, looking embarrassed. “No. It didn’t shock me. The reason I reacted as I did was because… because the Alliance was well on its way down that same road. Not for every crime. But for some. There were a lot of people, a lot of political leaders, saying that if someone was accused of certain crimes then trials weren’t necessary. We should just punish them as if certain of their guilt because they had been accused, because they were suspected of having committed crimes or planning to commit crimes. It went against every legal principle that the Alliance was supposed to stand for, but it happened. Admiral Geary, after he awoke from his century in survival sleep, he told us that we had become too much like our enemy. That we had let the long war change us, so that we were willing to do the same things the Syndicate Worlds did. It is difficult to be reminded of just how true that was.
“However,” she added, looking at Iceni, “if this Imallye is going to pursue a vendetta against you, when both the enigmas and the Syndicate Worlds threaten this region of space, then she’s being an idiot. Nothing she does to you will bring her father back, but what she does can end up causing the deaths of countless more people.”
“Thank you,” Iceni replied. She looked away again, staying silent for a moment. “Unfortunately, as you have seen from Kommodor Marphissa’s report, Granaile Imallye doesn’t want to listen to reason. The question is, will she try to set up her own base at Iwa? Or will she launch an attack in the near future against us here, coming in either from Iwa or the longer way around through Laka?”
“From what the Kommodor says,” Gozen offered, “Imallye is as mad as hell right now. People with that kind of mad on don’t take detours on their way to revenge.”
“That would be my assumption as well,” Drakon said. “Imallye not only wants her revenge on you, now she also wants to get even with the Kommodor for embarrassing her in her own backyard and messing up her battle cruiser.”
“How long do you think it will take to repair the damage to Imallye’s battle cruiser?” Iceni asked Bradamont.
Bradamont shrugged. “It depends partly on what repair capabilities exist at Moorea. From the data that Manticore brought back, I agree with her engineers that the damage to the battle cruiser’s propulsion was widespread but didn’t penetrate to require propulsion unit replacement. That’s not a criticism,” she added. “Manticore needed to knock out as much propulsion capability on that battle cruiser as she could in a very short time, and was highly successful at that.”
She frowned in thought. “I’d estimate it would have taken Imallye at least a week to get that battle cruiser back to a repair facility, and after that anything from three weeks to six weeks to repair the damage that Manticore caused. That’s assuming that Imallye does a good job of motivating the repair workers.”
Iceni smiled thinly. “You do know what motivating the workers means in the Syndicate, don’t you?”
“I’ve seen enough to guess,” Bradamont replied in dry tones. “Unfortunately, we have only a vague idea of what Imallye’s forces add up to. She certainly has more than were at Moorea, but how much more, and how long will it take her to marshal them at Moorea, and how much will she have to leave behind to ensure none of the star systems she controls decide to change their allegiance?”
“We can preempt whatever move Imallye is planning,” Colonel Malin suggested. “Move into Iwa, ensure that Imallye knows we have set up a base there, and wait for her to react.”
“Why would she come to Iwa?” Bradamont asked. “If Midway places enough forces at Iwa to deal with Imallye, then Imallye could just go around through Laka and hit Midway.”
“Imallye wants President Iceni,” Malin said calmly. “If she is at Iwa, personally supervising our forces—”
“I don’t like that idea,” Drakon growled, feeling angry at Malin for suggesting it. “President Iceni is not bait for a trap.”
“She would be commanding a substantial portion of our warships, sir. If she were aboard the battleship Midway, she would be both well protected and able to strike back.”
Drakon shook his head. “That’s what the Syndicate thought when they set up their ambush at Ulindi. I’m sure Happy Hua felt completely safe aboard that Syndicate battleship, but there’s nothing left of her except dust floating in a debris field orbiting Ulindi.”
Iceni had given him a sharp look. “General,” she said, “I have to admit that Colonel Malin’s plan has merit. Our biggest problem is that we face two major threats, the enigmas and Imallye, and have to worry about splitting our forces to defend against them. But if we can suck both the enigmas and Imallye into Iwa, the enigmas by attacking their hidden base and Imallye by offering my presence, then we will be able to maximize the forces with which we can confront those threats.”
“You’re forgetting the Syndicate,” Drakon grumbled. “That’s a third threat.”
“The Syndicate wouldn’t have tried an attack with four cruisers if they had something more substantial on hand or expected soon. We hurt them badly at Ulindi, and we are but one of numerous star systems that are rebelling against the Syndicate, whose forces are stretched thin.”