SotU2 Chpt 2

=Chapter 2=
==State of the Union - Book 2==
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The Triad, Tharkad
Donegal Province, Lyran Alliance
5th November, 3064
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Isis Marik had chosen not to meet her father’s doppelganger at Resaurius Keep. She preferred to keep the retreat as a private refuge and inviting him there would have unsettled her sense of security within it’s faux-medieval walls.
There was also the question of privacy. Their conversation might well touch on private matters so she preferred they not be overheard, but having some visibility could act as a restraint upon the Captain-General. The observation gallery for the Estates General served for this - floor to ceiling windows looking out over the debating chamber gave visibility in both directions but the long gallery could be divided into several rooms by soundproof barriers. Since Peter Steiner-Davion had pushed, however mildly for the meeting to take place. Isis felt no guilt in putting him out by requiring one such room set up for her.
Although she had arrived early, she found the room already occupied. Her so-called father was sitting on one of the couches, the lights dimmed slightly to make it harder for those in the debating chamber or the other parts of the gallery to see details of them within.
So he’d taken her preparations and turned them to give himself a home ground advantage. Nonetheless Isis knew where the light dimmer was and was able to announce her presence by bringing them up sharply, crossing her arms as Thomas ‘Marik’ blinked at the sudden increase in light levels. “You pushed for this meeting, Captain-General, what is it that you want?”
“Isis, I want you to come home.”
“Home?” She looked at him in surprise. “For ten years that was Sian, but I’m no longer welcome there. We both know I was never really welcome on Atreus. You only kept me around because until Joshua was born and after leukemia was diagnosed you needed an alternative heir on hand. So where is home?”
Thomas shook his head. “Within the Free Worlds League, with your cousins. If Atreus doesn’t suit you, Isis, we have many holdings. Your exile is self-imposed. No one blames you for Sun-Tzu renouncing your engagement to him.”
“How strange, because I rather got the impression that you blamed me.” Isis forced a smile that was deeply ironic. “The man who arranged the engagement but never permitted a marriage, who made an alliance but withdrew from military operations when your goals were met when your ally’s objectives hadn’t been… found it easier to blame me than accept that he’d used me as an expendable hostage.”
“You were never a hostage.” he protested.
“Sun-Tzu saw it more clearly than I did. However angry I am at him, I saw better than you how your actions were viewed on Sian, but that was never a consideration. Did you even read my letters?”
“Of course.”
“Then you knew full well that his patience was expiring. I can at least claim inexperience in realizing what that would mean for me personally.” She walked over to the window and looked down at the Estates General, they were debating with their High Council peers something about currency reform. “You’ve led the Free Worlds League for almost thirty years, you have no such excuse.”
“I’ve been your father for slightly longer than that. Perhaps… no, certainly with less success.” Thomas walked to join her.
“My father? Is my real father even alive?” she asked. “I doubt I’ve ever even met him.”
The Captain-General hesitated. “Yes. He is still alive. The bomb that killed your grandfather required extensive reconstruction. Enough that he would be politically unacceptable as Captain-General.”
“You mean he’s a cyborg. Somewhere within the Word of Blake’s ranks, I would assume.”
“A respected voice within the Toyamist wing of their leadership.”
Isis glanced sideways at the irony in the white-haired Captain-General’s voice. “Not one that I have ever heard.”
“I suppose not. Your uncle Paul remains in close contact with him, he’s been a conduit over the years.”
“Puppet and puppetmaster?” Isis asked
The Captain-General shook his head. “Proxy. But over a quarter of a century we have had some… disagreements.”
“Since you’re close to William Blane, who is hardly a Toyamist. I would say so.” She let her smile fall off her face. “You said Paul was close to him… and Corinne?”
“I don’t know if she’s been taken into his confidence that far.”
“But she knows that you aren’t who you claim to be.”
“I am who I have been for a generation. One of the better leaders the Free Worlds League has ever had. Does my exact parentage really matter?”
“You’re asking a bastard that?” Reaching forwards, Isis touched the glass separating her from the politics of the Federated Commonwealth. “Do you really think I have anything to go back to in the Free Worlds League. At best I’d just be another minor Marik, dependent on better heeled relatives for my daily bread. No different from being a perpetual guest here, really.”
“Setting aside my own legitimacy… you’re the grand-daughter of a Captain-General. Lands and titles are yours for the asking.”
Isis paused. How desperate must he be for her presence in the League to say something like that, even if only she could hear that? “And if I asked?”
It was his turn to hesitate and she felt his gaze on her, measuring if it was greed or ambition that motivated the question - or rather, how much of each. In that evaluation she understood as she hadn’t before how Victor had come to despise politics for the shadows cast by the supposedly high ideals of those who practiced it.
“The dukedom of Irian has been vacant since the execution of Garth Marik in 3028.” Thomas told her, in the tone of a man dangling bait before a hungry fish.
She laughed. How could she not? And as he drew back, affronted, Isis half turned away from the glass and towards him. “Why do you need me so much, ‘father’? Do you want me to be your mouthpiece, someone to counter Corinne and Alys within House Marik?”
“No one who knows our history would think you would be in my camp.” Thomas admitted. “I wouldn’t expect you to be partisan on my behalf, but for that reason where you can find it in yourself to speak on my behalf you would be all the more convincing.”
“And you imagine that I would?”
“All I ask is your honesty. I have been a good Captain-General and the alternatives are…” He made a dismissive gesture…
“Who are they?”
“Support is rallying around Corinne.” Thomas made a face. “My replacement as proxy for your biological father, whether she knows it or not.”
“And thus the Word of Blake would rule through her?”
“You understand then.”
“Who else?” asked Isis. “I’ve followed the politics of the League where I can, but at a distance and with the priority of Victor’s headquarters as the war against Katrina…”
He nodded. “Therese is promoting her son, Photon. He has the martial reputation to be a serious contender but Therese is no friend to Paul. If one side or another took the throne then the other would fight them for it.”
“So you say.” Isis had to concede the point though. Photon was twenty years her elder and had spent almost that long under a false name, rising to Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Free Worlds Guards on his own merits not the Marik name. Isis had still been at court in 3050 when Thomas awarded him the Order of the Saber in his own name for valor. He was in his prime, a tested and proven leader constrained only by the geographical and political distance between his mother’s stronghold on Tamarind and the capital on Atreus. In contrast Corinne was younger and less tested, but far better connected as the daughter of the League’s Minister of Intelligence.
“Besides that, Kirc Cameron-Jones is whispering that since House Marik has placed a non-Marik on the throne that we… that they’ve forfeited their right to first refusal. As such, as head of one of the original provinces he claims that he’s a right to the throne.”
Isis rolled her eyes. “I take it that Duke Halas differs from that.” Thomas’ second wife Sherryl was the Duke’s daughter. He also ruled Oriente, one of the three great provinces whose alliance centuries before had founded the Free Worlds League.
“Christopher isn’t just my father-in-law and a friend. We share the same views of the League’s future.”
“Those would be? I can speak for your record, mixed as it is, but I can’t say you’ve ever confided in me politically.”
Thomas gestured back towards the seats and Isis returned, realizing to her chagrin that she’d steered the conversation back into safe waters for him. Political discussions were meat and drink to the Captain-General - as natural as breathing.
“The last time the Steiners and Davions united kicked off the most ferocious war in a century.” he warned her. “That was with far more constrained resources and military capability than we’ve built since. A new Succession War could tear down all the progress we’ve made in our lifetime.”
“So you support the Star League?”
“Exactly.” Thomas gave her a half-clap. “A military response could be cataclysmic, but the Star League can serve as a balancing effect against potential dominance of the Federated Commonwealth, since they have only a single voice there, outnumbered by the other members.”
“A constraint that may start to chafe.” warned Isis.
“Indeed, just as their economic and military might threatens the rest of us. So it must be handled delicately.” The Captain-General leant forwards. “The Free Worlds League can hold a crucial center-ground - our only major conflict with the Commonwealth was Operation Gurerro, and even their own media concur that we had ample justification there.”
“Since Victor Steiner-Davion defeated the Clans on their homeworld, the outside threat of a renewed Clan Invasion no longer holds the Star League together, and internal pressures are building. We’re uniquely placed to step forwards as leaders in a new balance of power - which in turn means we can use our relative security and prosperity to expand economically and provide for our people.” He shook his head. “Kirc’s views have rarely reached past the borders of the League while Corinne’s backers are more concerned with advancing the Word’s most extremist agendas than with our own future.”
Isis considered. “You want us to hold the balance of power between the Federated Commonwealth and their enemies?” she asked doubtfully.
“Precisely.” He nodded like an approving school teacher. “With proper guidance the Star League can guarantee stability for the Inner Sphere for generations to come.”
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