SotU2 Chpt 1

=Chapter 1=
==State of the Union - Book 2==
Fledglings Take Flight
Part One - Tharkad
I can't find the rhyme in all my reason
I've lost sense of time and all seasons
Feel I've been beaten down
By the words of men who have no grounds
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The Triad, Tharkad
Donegal Province, Lyran Alliance
3rd November, 3064
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Peter Ardan Steiner-Davion held the coffee mug under his nose and inhaled the rich scent of the steaming contents. He remembered how much he’d needed the brew to get through studying for his exams back at NAIS. If only he’d known back then what it was to be really busy. He’d had no idea.
Well, such was life. You grew up or… Well, or you had a grave somewhere. Ugh, he was getting downright maudlin. A mouthful of coffee washed that away just in time as a knock on the door signaled the arrival of his next meeting.
The Captain-General of the Free Worlds League was wearing the dress uniform of the FWLM even for this theoretically informal meeting. But then, there was only so much that one could unbend when the meeting involved two heads of state. The scar-faced man hid a startled expression as he saw that Peter was wearing a long, hooded robe - if one of far richer materials than Peter had worn during his long self-imposed exile.
“I wouldn’t have thought that desert robes were suited to this climate.” Thomas Marik murmured as he accepted the offer of a mug of his own from a servant, who then discreetly withdrew. The older man - he was easily twice the Archon-Prince’s age - added a drop of cream to his coffee before setting the small tray aside and joining Peter in the window bay of the meeting room, looking out at the sleet-swept garden outside.
Peter smiled tightly and sat down again on the cushioned bench that filled the bay. “While the popular image of deserts is one of heat, they can get very cold at night. These are well-insulated against this climate.” Tharkad was a cold world compared to most planets colonized by humanity, with glaciers covering more than half of the continent of Bremen despite it lying well south of the polar regions.
“If you were wanting to harken back to my ComStar days they’re the wrong color.”
“I’m just being self-indulgent,” Peter assured him - the robes were royal blue and the cut was also significantly different from those of ComStar and the Word of Blake. “where would you like to begin.”
Thomas took a sip from his coffee. “I’d like to see my daughter.”
“I was under the impression that Jessica was on Atreus, with the rest of your family.” Peter told him drily. “If ComStar are giving you grief on contacting them I’ll do what I can…”
“You know I mean, Isis.”
“And you know that I know that you’re no blood relative to her or at least so distant that it’s not worth mentioning.”
Thomas’ eyes narrowed, the scars around his right one leaving the expression disconcertingly asymmetric. “Are you threatening me?”
“If I was threatening you, Captain-General, you wouldn’t be left in any doubt of the matter.” Peter raised his mug to his lips, sipped and lowered it. “But let’s cut the crap. The fact is that you’re not the… original, shall we say? Not the original Thomas Marik. And that fact has already slipped out to too many people in the Free Worlds League. You’d have to be an idiot not to realize that it’s going to hit the public sooner or later, which means it has laughably little value as blackmail.”
He put the mug down entirely. “You’ve been a very effective. Captain-General and except for the understandable issues after your son died, you’ve been someone we can do business with since the Clan Invasion. But let’s call a spade a spade.”
The older man eyed him steadily and then drank from his own mug, using the gesture to break eye contact. “Very well. I wish to speak with Isis Marik.”
“She’s at Resaurius Keep. As far as I can tell, you can just go over there and speak to her anytime you want.” He couldn’t, but Peter wanted to see what Thomas said.
“I tried. I was denied entrance.”
“I’ve given no such orders.” he told Thomas honestly. “The security answers directly to Isis, that my brother assigned them to her.” Victor had an absolute gift for befriending female members of the other great houses. If he hit it off with Kali Liao then he’d have a full set. Peter hid a shiver at the very thought. The Chancellor’s sister was a dangerous lunatic, even her brother admitted it.
“Can you not overrule him? I understood that you rule, not that you were his proxy.”
Oh so he wanted to play that game? Peter rubbed his jaw. “Of course, but if I compromise the security of one guest, how would my other guests...” Such as Thomas himself, or the other members of the Star League Council “feel about their own safety?”
“Then arrange something,” the Captain-General grated, anger seeping into his voice. “You’re an inventive young man.”
Peter’s temper flared and for a moment he was on the edge of snapping back. Instead, with difficulty he kept his face and voice steady, cramming the anger down inside him where he could deal with it later. “Is that really the position you want to take, Captain-General?”
The so-called Marik paused and his next words were more conciliatory. “I intended that as a compliment, Lord Steiner-Davion. But perhaps that was not how it came across. There is another matter we should discuss.”
“Yes. Arcadia.”
Thomas made a dismissive gesture. “My forces will withdraw, of course. We had no intention of claiming the world, merely extracting my… Kristen’s Krushers. I’m sure you would have done the same.”
“I would. And so, it would appear, would Therese Marik and her husband.” Peter took satisfaction at the color rising on the other man’s unscarred cheek at the confirmation that Lyran intelligence was aware that the Sixth Marik Militia hadn’t crossed the border on the Captain-General’s orders.
Kristen Marik’s death, along with her husband and two of their three children had done nothing to ease tensions between the two realms. Contracted to defend Coventry. The Krushers had served Katrina loyally and helped put down the pro-Victor provincial militia only to have the Coventry Jaegers betray them and attempt to massacre the mercenary regiment.
Escaping and crossing almost the entire Lyran Alliance along with a daring raid on Gallery - the Krushers had finally been run to ground on the border world of Arcadia, from which the Captain-General had refused to rescue them. Kristen’s brother-in-law Jeremy Brett-Marik had soured his career a second time by leading a mission to rescue the survivors, too late to save his in-laws. Popular media had seized on it and a major holoVid was being shepherded through production despite official attempts to quash it. The result would undoubtedly make Archon and Captain-General out as villains… but the public splash was nothing compared to the impact on Kristen’s surviving daughter Alys, who’d moved firmly into the orbit of her Aunt Therese and the ‘loyal opposition’ within House Marik itself.
“The MRBC have ruled in favor of the Krushers, of course,” Peter added after a moment. “I’ve instructed our lawyers not to contest the ruling. Duchess Alys may expect the bodies of the dead personnel along with the financial and material compensation to cross the border before the end of the year. I hope there will be no barriers to their delivery.”
“I’ll ensure there are no issues.” Thomas commented
“Good.” Peter leant back, feeling the cold glass of the window even through his thick hair, although the hood cushioned his neck. “The Coventry Jaegers have been struck from the rolls. Little satisfaction for her, I suppose.”
“I would think not. The Federated Commonwealth has not been a safe place for House Marik over the last few years.”
“Joshua’s leukaemia long predated his time at NAIS,” Peter reminded him. “Kristen’s command was unfortunately far from the only one betrayed by the former Archon. Rhonda Snord springs to mind.”
“Unlike Janos Marik, I have no grudge against that unit.” Thomas riposted mildly. “I assure you, my only interest in Isis is to assure her that she can return safely to her home. The falling out with Sun-Tzu was clearly his fault and not hers, whatever he may claim.”
“And yet you supported the relationship.”
“Besides the political benefits of their engagement, she seemed genuinely enamored of him.” The Captain-General spread his hands. “I do care for the girl in my own way.”
“I will pass on the invitation to speak with her.” Peter cupped his hands around the mug for its last heat and then drained it. “The choice is hers though. She’s under the protection of my House so long as she remains here. If she feels safer with us than with you, then any problems that causes for your image are not my concern.”
“I wouldn’t have expected you to be worried.” Thomas commented
“Oh, I am worried. I’ve just been through one civil war. Another, even across the border, isn’t something I look on favorably. But interfering in the League’s politics wouldn’t do me any favors.”
Thomas considered. “There is one thing that you could do.”
“My position on Isis is final.”
“That is understood, Lord Steiner-Davion, but you do have a vote in Star League matters.”
“And you want…?” Thomas asked
“I think it’s fairly obvious I’ll be elected as First Lord for the next three years.” Thomas’ face creased in a smile. “Meaning no offense, you’re still something of an unknown quantity while House Liao and House Kurita have had their chance and in the rotational nature of the office, the other great houses must hold it before they can be re-elected to it.”
“It would be difficult for me to secure a majority vote.” agreed Peter drily.
“Three years from now would likely be a very different matter, but even my vote wouldn’t be enough to elect you as things stand.” Thomas put his own mug aside. “The prestige of that may help to win over some of the more fractious elements in my parliament. If that election was unanimous, it might help to heal some of the tensions that have plagued the Star League through the last three years.”
“And of course it would look even better for you at home.”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll give that some thought.” Peter said diplomatically, although key points were already obvious: both Victor and Katrina had voted in traditional rivals of the Federated Commonwealth to the First Lordship. Doing the same and expecting it to play better in the Lyran provinces along the League border than his siblings had found in the other border marches would be madness. Being outvoted would be a small thing in comparison.
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