Brim felt his eyebrows go into orbit.
Onrad smiled, placing a finger to his lips. "A moment, gentlemen," he said indicating Hope with his head. "Little Miss Brim seems to be asleep." Then he winced. "I've got to be careful calling her that."
"How about if I get Tutti?" Brim asked, summoning the beautiful redhead with a light tap on an adjoining door. Moments later, the four men were on their way to the Emperor's private lounge.
"All right, now," Onrad continued presently, "you want to steal Brim, eh?"
"We do, Your Majesty," Borodov said. "For we have a twofold mission before us in Sodeskaya.
Not only must we establish new fleet, we must also develop starship suited to our type of warfare. Friend Brim has already been elemental in both kinds of programs."
Brim frowned. That sounded like a big change of duty station. He'd been spending a lot of time with Eve lately—in and out of bed. And feeling very comfortable about their growing relationship. Not to mention his new command....
"What do you think, Wilf?" Onrad asked.
"Well," Brim began, "I, ah..."
"We make certain you return to Avalon often enough to watch Hope grow up," the elderly Bear promised.
"And I think I could guarantee that this 'foreign' assignment would result in considerable enhancement to your service record, Admiral," Onrad said pointedly.
Brim glanced at Onrad for a moment with suspicion. He'd been convinced pretty quickly. Then it hit him! Of course! The three of them had been through the whole thing in advance. He'd been sandbagged again.... He grinned resignedly. "I'd be honored by such an assignment," he said—and excepting his feelings about Eve and Hope, he almost meant it.
Onrad nodded. "Thanks," he said with a very serious look on his face, then turned to the Bears.
"You're sure you want to let yourselves—and your dominion—in for such trouble?" he asked with a spurious frown.
"We have considered dangers, Your Majesty," Ursis said with an outrageous grin. "Knez Nikolas has convinced us that they can be largely overcome."
"Then it's done," Onrad said, glancing sideways at Brim, "after we send for our Admiral here on a tour of his native Carescria."
"Carescria, Your Majesty?" Brim asked, now completely confounded.
"Yeah," Onrad answered, then acquiesced with an embarrassed little grin. "All right," he said, 'I'll admit that this Sodeskayan assignment is so important that you never had a choice— and that I discussed everything in advance with these two grinning, so-called friends of yours...."
Ursis and Borodov suddenly took an abiding interest in the ceiling of the Emperor's study.
"But the Carescrian trip's a different thing," Onrad went on. "I understand how you feel about your home sector, so I'll leave that one up to you. You just need to know that it's damned important, too.
Those people out here broke their backs making the starships that just saved our Triad. They're important; we're going to need them a lot more before we finally whip the Tyrant and his bloody League."
He smiled. "After the war too," he added, his eyes focusing somewhere off into the future. "We'll have a different Empire by the time that happens..." Then he visibly forced himself back to the present, "I'll give you time to think it over, Admiral," he said.
"I won't need to do that. Your Majesty," Brim said, in the now very quiet room. "It's a trip I'd like to take." This time, he really meant it. Especially since he was almost certain that Eve would need to come along as his "adviser."
Onrad's eyebrows raised. "That's quite a change of heart for you, Brim," he observed.
"I know it is, Your Majesty," Brim said as the faces of Eve Cartier and Nadia Tissaurd materialized in his mind's eye. "But I've had a bit of help lately, It's made me realize that... well... hating that one part of me has cost dearly over the years. I think I'm ready to move on, now," he said, "and clearly Carescria's ready to move on, too." Then he took a deep breath. "After," he added, "we first win a pretty serious war."
"Pretty serious indeed," Onrad agreed, glancing up toward the surface where much of Avalon lay in smoldering ruins. He glanced at an exquisite timepiece on a nearby table. "Which reminds me of the Cabinet meeting I must attend in a few moments." He stood. "Gentlemen," he said in a clear sign of dismissal.
Brim and the three Bears rose. "We thank you in the name of Knez Nikolas," Borodov said.
"You can tell the Knez I thank him for the Loiterers he sent the other day," Onrad said with a smile. "But I'll make certain he knows officially." Then a chime sounded. He frowned and touched a small, glowing panel on the arm of his chair. A moment later, the door opened and General Zapt appeared with a small leather pouch embossed with what a startled Brim recognized immediately as the royal crest of Effer'wyck.
"Your Highness," Zapt said, "this came for Admiral Brim through are intelligence channel—highly secret, and all that. Seems as if it was smuggled out of Effer'wyck by one of our operatives."
Onrad nodded. "You've had it checked?" he asked with a frown.
"Completely benign," Zapt said, handing the pouch over to Brim.
"You don't have to open it here," Onrad said.
"It's all right," Brim said, loosening the drawstrings and peering into the pouch. Then his jaw dropped. "It's my new timepiece," he said in amazement, "the one I bought at the terminal during your last trip to Luculent, Your Majesty."
"How'd it get back to Effer'wyck?" Onrad demanded, then suddenly closed his mouth. He knew.
"Urn," Brim equivocated, "I was on a... secret mission, Your Majesty. We had a bit of trouble and I, er, lost it on the surface of one of their little starcoast planets."
"Harrumph... yes," Onrad said, his face reddening slightly. "They do send you on the damnedest missions, Brim." He gazed at the pouch with fascination. "And the timepiece is all that's in there?" he asked, narrowing his eyes in curiosity.
Brim peered into the pouch again. "No, Your Majesty," he said, drawing out a folded sheet of thin plastic stationery. "It seems to have a note with it." Frowning, he unfolded the sheet... then silently closed his eyes in absolute bewilderment. He knew the handwriting as well as he knew his own.
Dearest Wilf:
I watched you drop this in the forest during your short, miraculous visit to Bra've with my outrageous cousin Onrad. How I wanted to touch you there among the trees that stormy night! But I could not without risking the compromise of your escape. Never forget me, Wilf. Perhaps one day when I have helped win back the freedom of my poor, violated Effer'wyck we can find each other's arms again. Until then, I remain, Once your devoted lover,
Margot Effer'wyck