“I have no problem with that,” Iceni said.
“No quotas?” Imallye asked.
“No. If they all want to go to you, that’s acceptable.”
“Hmmm.” Imallye canted her head slightly to one side as she studied Iceni. “I’ll also be screening them to see if any are your agents.”
“Of course. Are you willing to negotiate a boundary agreement?”
“Of course,” Imallye mimicked Iceni. “How about a supporting forces agreement?”
Iceni raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You’re willing to talk about mutual defense?”
“That’s what we just did here, isn’t it?” Imallye looked at Marphissa again, then at Rogero. “Besides, having seen your forces in action, I’d much rather be fighting alongside them than against them.”
“I’m sure we can work that out.” Iceni inhaled deeply, nerving herself for what she must say. “I want you to know that my expressions of regret were not a tactic driven by necessity. I dearly wish I had not accused your father and caused his death. I can never make that up.”
“No. You can’t.” Imallye smiled slightly this time, the expression not conveying humor. “And I want you to know that my expressions of hatred for you were not a tactic driven by necessity. I really do hate you, and always will.”
“Fair enough,” Iceni said. “I’ll keep an extra eye out for assassins.”
Imallye smiled again and leaned a little closer. “No. Trying to kill you would lead to war, and war would lead to more fathers and more mothers dying and leaving their children to grieve and plot revenge. I won’t have that on my conscience. There may be other assassins on your trail, but you are safe from me. I want you to live with your guilt.”
“Fair enough,” Iceni repeated, keeping her voice steady with some effort. “Your father would be proud of you.”
Imallye sat back again, the smile gone. “I hope so. At the very least, I have made the Syndicate pay very dearly for what they did to him.”
“You have,” Iceni said. “They badly underestimated you. I never did.”
“Lucky for you.” Imallye nodded to Iceni, then to Marphissa and Rogero. “I’m going to send half my flotilla back to Moorea immediately, but leave the other half here until I see the rock hit. I’d advise you to do the same. The Syndicate did not apprise me of their other plans, but I have reason to believe they were intending to strike at Midway Star System while you were gone. They can’t have much available to do that, but the cruisers and HuKs you left behind might find themselves with a difficult fight.”
“Thank you,” Iceni said. “I will also send half of my flotilla home immediately. The ones that remain will help guard the transports until we’ve sorted out who wants to go where. Will you need any help with the Syndicate troop transports that you convinced to join you?”
“No. They seem to be eager to avoid giving me any reason to destroy them,” Imallye said. “I will be leaving with the warships returning to Moorea, so I bid you farewell.”
Her image vanished, leaving Iceni with those of Rogero and Marphissa.
Rogero shook his head. “I’m glad we’re not fighting her.”
“Not yet, anyway,” Marphissa said darkly. “Madam President—”
Iceni held up a restraining hand. “I know. Don’t trust her. Keep our guard up. Imallye will either be a very good neighbor to have or a very dangerous threat next door. She might be both. But she knows I have commanders like you working for Midway, and I believe Imallye was absolutely sincere about not wanting to tangle with either of you. Anyone smart enough to have scammed the Syndicate the way she did, to have made that whole pirate queen act look real enough to fool everyone, is going to be smart enough to know that making an enemy of Midway would be a very big mistake.”
Marphissa nodded, mollified. “Will you really do what Imallye suggested?”
“Yes. We’ll see very quickly if Imallye is actually heading back to Moorea with half her force. I’ll leave you here in command of half of our flotilla, and take Midway along with the other half back home in case Captain Bradamont does need any help.”
General Artur Drakon left his command center after watching the warships that made up Ulindi Star System’s new fleet jump back to their new home. He still didn’t trust Jason Boyens, but had to admit that so far he had done just the sort of things that Gwen Iceni had hoped for. Boyens would probably end up effectively ruling Ulindi within a few years, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing since someone so focused on self-interest and so high on the Syndicate’s execute-on-sight list should work to make Ulindi strong and stable.
He found Bran Malin waiting in his office and automatically wondered where Morgan was. The two had been linked in their jobs for so long, it was still hard to realize that time was gone. “Is something up?” he asked Malin as Drakon sat down.
Malin nodded, standing respectfully, keeping any emotion from showing. Same old Malin. “General, I wanted to report a lack of activity.”
From anyone else, Drakon would have suspected a joke. But not Colonel Malin. “On whose part?”
“Colonel Morgan and Mehmet Togo.”
Drakon digested the news before speaking again. “Do you have any reason to think that either one is dead?”
“No, sir.” Malin frowned slightly. “A lack of activity on both of their parts would imply both had died, and that seems very unlikely. I believe that both have gone to ground.”
“Meaning that whatever they are planning is ready to go and they’re just waiting for the right time?” It never occurred to Drakon to ask if either had given up. That didn’t fit Morgan or Togo.
“I believe so, sir.”
Drakon leaned back, pressing his palm against his forehead and closing his eyes to think. “Are there any clues to their plans?”
“Both have tested defenses, General. Togo here, and Morgan at President Iceni’s offices.”
“You’re certain now that it was Morgan who tried to get to her, and not Togo?”
“Yes, sir.” Malin hesitated. “She never made any secret of the fact that she thought you should be sole ruler of this star system. And now that you and the President have an openly acknowledged relationship, there is the possibility of a child. An heir.”
“Another heir, you mean,” Drakon said. “Morgan wouldn’t want any offspring from me with anyone else. She thinks our daughter will conquer half the galaxy.”
Malin seemed to grow a little colder. “There are reasons to believe that Morgan is… less able to separate reality from her dreams. She may have been injured at Ulindi in ways that affected her stability, and while physically recovered might still be mentally feeling the impact.”
“And what about Togo?”
“I cannot be certain, but going through what is known and what was observed, I think Togo has his own dreams, General. President Iceni was not simply a boss to him.”
Drakon grimaced at that. “I suspected… but Gwen… I mean, the President, told me that Togo never behaved inappropriately toward her. He never tried to go outside the bounds of their professional relationship.”
“Not all forms of obsession manifest as physical desire,” Malin said.
That tread perilously close to ground that Drakon did not want to get into with Malin. He had once thought Malin’s relationship with Morgan was simply mutual loathing. But that didn’t explain why Malin had stayed working next to her for so long and risked himself to save her life more than once.