Act 2 - Bargaining
Chapter 12
Flensburg, New Avalon
Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth
19 June 3055One moment, Kate’s mom was speaking elegantly from behind a wooden podium framed by the mycosia pseudoflora blossoms that were her trademark.
The next instant, there was fire and death. The first flare of the explosion faded just as outcry began in the mess hall. Kate saw the podium was gone. She saw… body parts.
“Turn it off!” Clara shrieked.
Someone was gasping “No - no - no -” and it took Kate until the trivee set blanked out to realize it was her.
Warm hands caught hold of her shoulders and shook her. “Kate, Kate, focus.”
“Let me,” another voice said and then cold water splashed against her face, just droplets, but it dragged her back across hundreds of light years to the CMM’s base on New Avalon’s southern continent. “Leftenant,” General Payne snapped. “Are you with us.”
She wiped her face. “Yes. Sir.” Kate shook her head, seeing other faces looking as shocked, almost as griefstricken as she was. Her mom was much loved by her people.
Payne stepped back. “Heads up, people! I don’t know if this is real or if someone tampered with the message! For now, we assume that this did happen. Get your troops up and the base on full security. You know the routine.”
Maybe… maybe he was right. A hope that Kate barely dared trust bloomed. She tried to stand but Payne pushed her down. “Leftenant, you’re with me,” he ordered. “I need to report in and I’m pretty damn sure the first thing they’ll want to know is your whereabouts.”
Yeah, that made sense.
She followed Russel Payne through the ordered chaos of the CMM scrambling to full readiness. Troops who had clearly been watching the trivee gave her uncertain looks as their sergeants yelled and shoved them to keep moving. Tradition and regulation required them to treat any Davion as just another soldier… but there was also a long history of soldiers going above and beyond to protect and follow her family.
All eyes went to the Leftenant General as he entered the command centre, a holo table showing the base and its surroundings, including the nearby city. Icons marked the positions of the CMM’s subunits, status markers ticking up in readiness and Kate saw live ammo was being issued out. Every tech glanced at her when she went past, then back to their consoles.
“Any threats?” barked Payne.
“Nothing, sir. We’re ordering civilian flights down as a precaution.”
“Good. Watch the city for disorder. There may be rioting… have the quartermasters get non-lethal payloads ready, detail a mech company and one of our mechanized infantry battalions ready for that.”
“Yessir.”
Payne didn’t stop, heading for another desk. “Get me the Castle and the Den. I think they’ll be expecting me.”
“Sir.” The tech reached for controls and then blinked. “Marshal Sortek is on the line for you, general.”
“Good work.”
“He called us, sir.”
Kate expected to see the Prince’s Champion but it was another face that popped up on the console’s main screen - Ardan’s cousin, Bishop Sortek. She didn’t know him as well as the older Sortek but it made sense once she actually thought about it. He commanded the First Davion Guards RCT, posted around Castle Davion and the Fox’s Den. Wanting to know the status of the royal family would be his priority.
“Marshal.” Payne saluted, using his other hand to pull Kate into the view of the camera. “Leftenant Steiner-Davion is here. So far we have no signs of an attack on her.”
“Good.” Sortek’s eyes flicked to Kate. “Your highness, ComStar wasn’t fully simultaneous. Whatever happened, and we must take it at face value until we get an official message, it was over an hour ago.”
“My brother and sister?” she asked.
He glanced aside and for a moment terror gripped Kate until she realized he was just checking with his staff. “We just heard back from their security,” the Marshal informed them. “No attacks. We’re bringing them in now.”
“Did they…?”
A pained nod told her the obvious. They had been watching as well.
“I need to speak to the Castle, sir.”
Sortek nodded sharply at Payne’s remark. “Of course. Your highness, we all pray that this is some horrific mistake. But whatever happens, we are at your service.”
Kate managed something resembling thanks and Sortek vanished from the screen.
“You need a moment, leutnant?”
It took her moments to register the question was to her, not the tech at the console. “I need… to know, sir. I… I… can’t…”
Payne took her hand, something she could focus on and glanced to another of the staff in the dimly lit room. “Sergeant, file compassionate leave for Leftenant Steiner-Davion. No matter what, I think you’ll be using it.”
“Thank sir,” she muttered.
Victor was nearer to Tharkad, word would have reached him. Peter was on Tharkad… god, had he been there? There had been others in shot before the explosion, they wouldn’t have been much further. Kate tried to remember who it had been but all her mind showed her was that last moment of her mother’s life.
It had to be a lie, it had to me.
“Your excellency,” Payne was saying.
“General,” J. Hammond Davion said gravely. “Your highness. I am… very sorry.”
Kate looked up and saw the viceroy on the screen. The Minister of the Crucis March had been doubling as her mother’s deputy on New Avalon, though still using his own office and staff. He was behind his desk, face paler than usual. “What do we know?” she whispered hoarsely.
“We have a follow up message,” he said gravely. “Alpha priority, it almost caught up with the original transmission.” Then Hammond shook his head and crushed out the faint hope that Kate had been so wary of. “There is no formal declaration of your mother’s condition, but the incident is real. I regret to say that, from what what we saw I am expecting notification of her death at any time.”
Kate closed her eyes. Swallowed.
Then she squared her shoulders and looked up, meeting the duke’s eyes. “I will require the command circuit to Tharkad,” she ordered, knowing she had no formal authority over him… but she was no longer the spare. She was heir and Victor, whether he wanted it or not, was now the Archon-Prince. “Arthur and Yvonne will go with me. Mother’s…” A deep breath. “Her funeral will be closed casket. I can’t imagine her body will be intact enough to lie in state, as father did. We need to be there.”
“Of course, Katie. I’ll take care of everything,” Hammond promised her. “There are contingencies - a shuttle can bring you here by suborbital route and a dropship will be ready to leave by tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you,” she managed.
He shrugged helplessly. “I cannot accompany you, but my heart will be with you and your siblings in this dreadful time. If you need anything… we are family. Please do not hesitate.”
Then the duke was gone.
“I should get my kit together,” Kate said slowly.
“Someone can take care of that,” Payne told her.
“No… I… I need to be alone for a little while.”
Chapter 13
The Triad, Tharkad
Donegal March, Federated Commonwealth
30 June 3055There had been too much public grief to follow through with the original idea of a quick burial of Melissa Steiner-Davion. The compromise had been to use an incredibly valuable stasis tube as a temporary casket, preventing any decay of her remains. The flag of the Federated Commonwealth completely covered the medical apparatus and completely obscured the horrid sight of what remained of the beautiful and vivacious Archon.
Victor had forced himself to look at his mother’s remains once and regretted it ever since. Kathy had refused to and he had endorsed keeping their younger siblings from repeating his error in judgment.
As he watched from one of the mezzanine levels of the cathedral, a long long line of Lyrans shuffled slowly through the nave and past the casket. Some genuflected to his mother, others handed small tokens to priests who placed them on display tables on either side. In the future, they would be packed away and those that were not perishable used in a memorial to Melissa Steiner-Davion.
The door to the stairs opened and Victor turned angrily to see who was intruding. He had come here to be alone, told Galen not to let anyone through.
His fury faded as he saw Kathy’s face, pale between the black fur of her long, heavy coat and cap. “I thought you were with Yvonne.”
Victor’s sister moved up to stand next to him, looking down at the mourners. “I’m not who she needs right now. She’s in the library with Misha Auburn, talking history. It seems to distract her which… is probably for the best.”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his face. “Did you hear about Bolan?”
“God, is there trouble with the Free Worlds League?” Bolan was an important world, one that had one been part of a salient of League systems deep inside Lyran Commonwealth. It had fallen to House Steiner during the Succession Wars and reclaiming it had long been a dream of House Marik.
The assumption made sense, but for once it was not the worst. “Nothing so dire,” Victor told her. “Mother was a major patron to the Martial Academy of Bolan, and they have asked to rename the school in her honor. Arthur wants to transfer there and finish his military education in the Commonwealth.”
“Do they even have a mechwarrior program for him to join?”
“They keep getting delayed,” Victor admitted. “I’ve ordered the AFFC to do whatever is needed to get it back on track before the next year begins. It will be more like a training battalion than a full class… but my authority as Archon-Prince should be good for something.”
It still felt strange to refer to himself as such. That title had always been some distant future, some day when their parents had somehow conveyed their wisdom and leadership to the point he was ready. But now it was thrust upon him and he had never been so conscious of the burden they had left him.
“It might not be the best decision for him,” she warned, holding her coat tight around herself.
“Perhaps. But it is his decision. He’s not a child any more.”
“None of us are.” Kat shook her head, took off her cap and brushed her hair back into order with the fingers of her other hand. She’d grown it out further since he last saw her, past her shoulders. “We should talk about how to handle your coronation on New Avalon.”
“Now?” he asked, incredulously. He turned to face her. “Is this really the time?”
“You’re the Archon-Prince,” Kathy replied, weighting the second half of the title more heavily. “You need to respect both halves of the realm.”
Victor grimaced. “Let’s move this somewhere more private.”
His sister looked down at him for a moment and then nodded curtly.
The two walked together to the stairwell, Kathy shortening her pace to match his own. The door closed behind them and Galen looked up from where he was waiting. “I didn’t think your order applied to family.”
“It didn’t,” Victor assured his friend. “But it’s a little too public out there to talk frankly.”
“Frankly?” Galen asked. He looked between them. “Do you mean argue?”
The Archon-Prince felt the corners of his lips curl up. “I hope not.”
Kathy put her hat back on, then straightened it with both hands. “I know your coronation has to take place here first, but after that you’re expected on New Avalon as well.”
“I understand,” Victor assured her. “And I will come to New Avalon, when the time is right. There is too much going on here to do so right away though. There is a reason mother spent more time on Tharkad than she did in New Avalon. It certainly wasn’t the weather.”
His sister shoved her hands deep into her coat pockets. “Alright. For royal court then? In three months?”
“Probably not.” The investigation into their mother’s death had barely begun, he had to keep an eye on that. And another on the Clans. The Red Corsair had hit another world - he had handed over the pursuit to the Kell Hounds, but the bandit had slipped away again. He and Galen both agreed that had to mean a leak, and Phelan was being stubborn about the idea that it could be from the other side of the border.
“Mom never missed that.”
“I know it’s not ideal,” he said. “Next year, I hope.”
“There is a command circuit, you would be on New Avalon in days,” Kathy reminded him.
“Yes.” Victor leant forwards slightly. “But you know what a circus the High Council is. I’d be hundreds of light years further from where my focus has to be and adding my coronation would make it worse. I’d be doing well to have things in order by Christmas.”
“The longer you leave it, the harder it will be,” she snapped. “Putting this off isn’t -” She broke off and shook her head.
“Isn’t?” he asked sharply.
Kathy took a deep breath. “Sorry.”
“No,” Victor insisted. “Tell me what you were going to say.”
She looked away. “It’s not what mom or dad would have done.”
That hurt and he knew his face showed it.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “That was cruel.”
Kathy was hurting too, Victor reminded himself. Hammond Davion had passed on a warning that she had been watching the transmission when the bomb went off. She had had to watch it. “I miss them too,” he told her. “Forgive me if I am also… raw.”
Galen was on the step below them and reached out to take them both by the shoulder. “Family always has more power to hurt each other,” he reminded them. “If you don’t mind, Katherine, why do you feel it’s so urgent for Victor to be crowned twice.”
“The Federated Commonwealth is an alliance still,” his sister told them. “It’s not a nation, not yet. Everyone thought there would be more time to take the steps for that. Losing that time has left everyone unsettled. Think back to the early history of the Lyran Commonwealth, the uncertainties from the time of Nine Archons. It was more than thirty years before Robert Marsden finally forced solutions for the issues and restructured the Commonwealth. I don’t want you to have to be another Crusher.”
That got a scowl from Victor. “He did what needed to be done.”
“Yes, but would he have had to go that far if there had been a clear single leader, known and accepted by everyone, from the beginning?” Kathy reached out to Victor. “You’d hate being a man like that, and I’d hate what it would do to you.”
Victor sighed and took her hand. “I never, for a moment, considered that this was coming from any sort of disloyalty,” he assured her. “I need to be seen to be dealing with the challenges we face and right now, with the Clans on the border, with mother’s death… with Ryan Steiner and his scheming. I need to get things in order here. As soon as there is enough confidence here in my realm, I will go to New Avalon. I promise you.”
Kathy leant on him for a moment and then pulled back. “Thank you.”
“In the meantime, I am going to have to put more weight on your shoulders,” he said apologetically. “I know you haven’t finished your time with the Crucis March Militia, but the plan was always that you and Peter would act as my deputies for whichever capital I wasn’t on. I don’t think Peter’s ready yet.”
“And he’ll want to prove himself against the Clans.”
“That’s a fight for another day,” he sighed. “I wasn’t supposed to end up in a war zone on my first deployment. No one expected the Clans.” A shake of his head. “Never mind. But you’re right, we need people to be thinking more of House Steiner-Davion, not Steiner or Davion alone. Hammond Davion has done a good job but I need you to take over as the face of my government on New Avalon. He’ll stay on as Minister of the Crucis March and one of the key advisors but I want you to serve as viceroy.”
Kathy sighed heavily. “I suppose I can hardly claim to be unprepared with everything you’re dealing with.”
Victor nodded. It would also keep his gentle sister safe on New Avalon. If she felt her duty required it, she would seek out a post facing the Clans and it would be harder to argue that than it would be with Peter, given her age and experience. But he had also seen her scores at NAIS and Victor knew she was not someone he wanted to send up against the Jade Falcons or the Steel Vipers. Not everyone was made to be a mechwarrior - she had forced herself to qualify, to make father proud. The least he could do was to let her finish her five years somewhere safe and sound.
Chapter 14
Avalon City Spaceport, New Avalon
Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth
10 July 3055The warmth of summer on New Avalon was a far cry from any season on the cold world of Tharkad. The baking heat hit Kate and Yvonne as they exited the dropship, along with a wall of sound from the crowd gathered to meet them.
It had been agreed that the sisters would return via Avalon City and not use Castle Davion’s own private drop port, to accommodate the public. While the crowds could not approach the landing pads directly, given the immense heat of the fusion torch that propelled the dropships, they lined the fences that marked the safe limit, many holding up patriotic banners.
Under the excited cries, Kate thought that she heard other cries - of disappointment. Even from this distance it must be plain to the crowd that she was too tall and Yvonne too red-headed to be the Archon-Prince. It had been no secret that Victor would not be with his sisters, but hope had apparently been stronger than the news reports. She saw some of the signs, those with messages aimed at the new Archon-Prince, sag in disappointment. A few vanished from sight, their owners perhaps embarrassed to show off that they hadn’t believed the news.
Kate raised her hand in salutation of the people of New Avalon and they roared appreciation again. It was intoxicating and she recalled her mother warning her that it was easy for demagogues to become so entangled with pleasing their followers that they lost all of their own agency.
“Remember, you are mortal.”
She turned and saw that it was Yvonne who had whispered that as she too waved at the crowds. “Mom told you that as well?”
“I think she said it to all of us.” The youngest of her siblings lowered her gaze at the reminder.
Kate reached over and interlinked their arms before they went down the steps to where the limousine was waiting for them to board. Security was tight - every roof that had a view of them right now had counter-snipers from the police or the AFFC staking them out - and suggestions that the sisters approach the fence to greet the crowd directly had been shouted down, so those who had come to see them would have to view them though the windows of the limousine as it made a slow pass in front of them.
The sisters walked carefully down the steps from the dropship, still arm-in-arm, and then waved again to the crowd before slipping into the back of the limousine. Kate took the seat that would be nearest to the crowd, leaving Yvonne free to lean forwards in the seat to be fully visible to those who had come to see them… or to shelter behind her sister. As Kate had once been sheltered by their mother.
To her credit, Yvonne made a point of being visible for much of the slow drive along the front of the crowd. Kate could tell by the sounds of her shifting that she was tempted to sit back at times, but refrained. She could not look at the younger girl, of course, keeping a sad but dignified smile aimed at those who had waited for hours to welcome them home.
Once the limousine reached the terminal, it turned through a guarded entrance and was waved directly past to join a convoy waiting to escort them up the mountain to Castle Davion.
The side windows were rendered opaque by a second layer of armor glass rising to cover them, giving the two privacy again.
“I don’t know how mom managed it,” Kate admitted. “Being on display so much.”
“I always thought you enjoyed it?” her sister asked in surprise. “You never seemed to shrink from it before.”
She shook her head. “It can be a bit much. I enjoyed going out like this when I was little, being the center of attention when mom and dad were usually so busy. Grandma’s funeral was the worst though. It wasn’t fun and games. The only good thing was that Victor was with us all the time after that, rather than only seeing him on Tharkad.”
“I don’t remember it.”
“Well, you were very very young.” She settled back into her seat. “I was just about old enough that I was allowed to carry you occasionally. I’d been too little to trust with a baby when it came to the boys.”
Yvonne nodded. “Did you ever drop me? Peter said something…”
“I sometimes think he was the one who got dropped on his head. No, I never did drop you. I did sit down and refuse to carry you any further once,” Kate reminisced. “But you’d spat up milk all over my new dress. Dad carried us both the rest of that event and gave me a telling off for making Mom’s day harder than it had to be.”
They passed the rest of the trip exchanging stories. Yvonne had several of her own stories, featuring events that Kate had missed while she was at NAIS. It was hard to believe that it would only be a year or so now before her youngest sibling would embark on her own higher education.
“You have a couple of days before you have to go back to school,” Kate recalled. “Are you going to stay at the Castle or go back early? Or something else, if you want.”
Her sister blinked. “Do you want me to go back now?”
“You’re old enough to decide for yourself,” she decided.
“Thank you.” Yvonne considered it for a moment. “I won’t see much of you either way, will I?”
“Probably not. I foresee a very busy schedule. My secretaries are probably dueling over who gets access first, not to mention I’ll have to rejoin my regiment…” Balancing that against being viceroy would be… interesting. At least some of her duty time would be classed as being detached to serve as part of her own Close Personal Security Detail, but too much of that would turn her credentials as a soldier into a joke. And Kate couldn’t afford that.
“I’ll go back to school tomorrow,” her sister decided. “I’d like a night in my own bed first, but the sooner I’m back the sooner I can get over the inevitable questions.”
“As you wish.”
Yvonne hugged Kate properly before they parted ways just inside the Castle entrance. Then the redhead departed for the family apartments while Kate had to follow another path, up past the Great Hall and into the offices used by ministers when they were in the Castle rather than the buildings that housed the actual senior bureaucracy.
Her little procession went past them and then took a dog leg through a room of secretaries who had worked for Kate’s father. Finally she reached the double doors that marked her destination. Guards whose formal livery covered practical body armor and weapons opened them before she arrived and Kate entered her father’s office for the first time since he’d died.
There were no real changes. The same curtains, furnishings and even decorations. Her mother had used it when she was here but hadn’t altered it to her own tastes. Most likely she had never had the time.
The Duke of Argyle was waiting, wearing his military uniform and the formal chain of office as viceroy. Hammond bowed deeply as she entered. “Your highness.”
“Your grace,” she said and smiled ruefully. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”
“Being honest, I was working in my office until I got word you had actually arrived at the Castle,” he said with a smile. “It never stops.”
“Thank you for the warning.” Not that she was surprised, having grown up around her parents… when they weren’t busy with that same never-ending tide of work.
“In any case,” Hammond said, lifting the chain over his head. “There’s no real precedent for this and you said you preferred not to have a formal ceremony.” He extended the viceroy’s chain in both hands.
Kate looked at it for a moment, twenty-five large golden links. They were evenly divided into five types, showing off the fox of House Davion, the sword-and-sunburst of the Federated Sun, the fist of House Steiner, the little used but technically official lyre of the Lyran Commonwealth and finally the five subtly large links with showed the fist-and-sunburst of her brother’s conjoined realms.
Finally she reached out and accepted the chain. It was just as heavy as she had imagined. Raising it, she hung it around her neck, adjusting it so that it hung evenly. It felt awkward and out of place.
“It fits you well,” the duke assured her.
Well, as long as no one else finds it out of place, Kate decided and went to the desk. The chair was at the right height for her mother and she reached automatically for the controls and raised it to what she was comfortable with. Then she glanced around her father’s… her parent’s office. No, it was Victor’s office, but until he arrived she would have to use it.
Opening her handbag she took out the list of things to do she’d made on her way from Tharkad and made a note to work in talking to the palace decorators. She was not going to work surrounded by reminders of her parents, it was hard enough.
“So I believe we are meeting the rest of the privy council first,” Kate asked Hammond once she had made the note.
“Indeed, your highness,” Hammond confirmed and once she was out from behind the desk he fell in deferentially behind her.
