CYTM61

=Chapter 61=
==Can you tell me where can we start over?==
Island 22, Golden Lake
Kowloon, Lyran Alliance
March, 3066
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"...an interstellar nation without a fleet isn't a nation for long." Elizabeth was saying.  
Henry tilted his head quizzically, "But the Lyran commonwealth fleet was a past-tense by the end of the Second Succession War." 
"Not really." she said, "Everyone was reduced to using stick-ships and dropships, nobody had a fleet that could project power the way they did at the beginning of the First Succession War, but everyone had something..and as long as everyone's 'something' is the same. It's having a fleet, so you have commerce and you have communication. Also with the ability to deploy troops for reprisals or to prop up supporters-everyone had something...and then?"
"Then Operation:Revival." he said, "and the Clans had a Fleet while the Inner Sphere did not."
"Bingo."  she scraped her plate and looked up.  "So, two years, thirty percent of the nation taken out cold. It's funny, being a Duchess with powerful backers, I got a look a the stuff they don't tell the press...or even each other.  Clan Wolf had a Fleet, when they hit Tamar. We didn't, therefore, it was weighed-relieving Tamar was judged to be too heavy an investment when the Clans routinely engage Jumpships. Therefore, a fleet-even a cheap one, is better than not having a fleet, but when it's combat, you need a combat capable fleet."
"So...the Sampans? I think granddad had pictures of them from the Amaris War, quiaff?"
''
"Yeah, but I refined the design with some professional help. We figured out how to mass produce the things-the only problem I really ran into was putting together enough of a trained navy. Who understood how to do the kinds of things Navies haven't been able to do for two hundred seventy years. It's why you didn't get hit with commerce raiding starting six years ago, and why you only faced my ships a handful of times in the last three years-you can't build something out of nothing without practice first.  We had to hire out the design work for the Landmarks, and they've been a bear to build quietly. So we had to hold them back even when it dropped in the pot until I could be sure we had crew and commanders who had some idea of how to fight big ships that maneuver and sling capital weapons around...but they're still not quite good enough."
"Not good enough? Liz, Kowloon didn't even have a navy ten years ago!" exclaims Henry
"Yeah. Not good enough.  The ride you came in is three or more generations more advanced, bigger, more powerful.  I'm out of time, I can't match it in my remaining lifetime. The closest I can get is catching something like that outside the Seventy Five and nuking it until the atoms are glowing...and there are significant details on why that's still a bad idea."
"Escalation?" he asks
She nodded.  "Escalation.  I have one planet, we got this far ahead of everyone else. Thats because I'm an iron-willed bitch who despises graft and corruption and have the charisma to get people to do what they know they want to do."  she poured coffee, looking at her brother, "I'm dead in four or five years at the most. It's not going to be pretty when I go, lots of screaming, thrashing, and broken bones. I'll be aware of all of it, trapped inside a malfunctioning meat-suit enduring something that the algometry experts tell me is the next worse thing to being burned alive. Maybe worse, because being burned is relatively quick, and they made Great Uncle Truk live that way for ninety days and it took a foreign power's commando raid to kill him in his bed."
"I know, Liz." he said lamely.
She cradled her cup, "SO...I need options. Before Morgan Kell outed you as being alive, my option was Pat's Fiance. Evelynn's practically family, she can't be scooped up by the National government because they don't want her. She's native to Kowloon, one of our very own...and there's you."
"I participated in a lawsuit." he reminded her, "For your office, no less. the titles."
"Wait five years and live here, you might get it anyway...but that confirmed my original second option.  By the time I die, the 'Duke' will be some property deeds, and tax records....and that's it.  The real power's going to be in the elected government just like the original colonists wanted, under the Pre-Invasion constitution."
"That government failed." stated Henry
"That government failed against TWO foreign powers, one of whom was backing the other with gifts of technology and a fleet...which our ancestors didn't have. The Archon-whichever one ends up in power when the civil war is over? Probably won't have many issues with a renegade lord dying and their successor being hamstrung." she noted, "As long as the taxes are paid...but see, you being here?" she grinned, "I get to see my big brother." there was a tear in her eye.  "I get to know you're alright, and maybe get to say goodbye before I can't say anything anymore."
"Lizzie, the Clans have fantastic medical science! They might be able to cure you!"
Her expression didn't harden when she said, "Grandpa said Uncle Truk said almost exactly the same thing about NAIS. Our ancestor fought most of that war in stage two-and Kerensky didn't have a cure then. With all the Star League had and we've forgotten the names of."
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