TGoaW-113

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==Chapter 113 - The Glow of a Worm inside a Child's Eye==
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He left her with her friends...
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...because this way, she would have fewer opportunities to get into trouble. It wasn't that far to go, either.
"you've certainly created...opportunities Duke Patrick." Victor Steiner-Davion was in the Archon's office with Her Majesty. "Your pet Clanners beat theirs, your sister won a Naval trial...and you've gone and started an export deal."
"It won't be a threat to the Realm." Patrick asserted.
"I know that you believe that." Her Majesty stated. "I studied your report, the terms of the agreements, the resources that you're gaining, and the performance of the ships you're selling, and I've put them to the best strategists in the Joint Monarchy."
"And?"
"...And there are political problems with the things you've accomplished, Patrick." Archon Melissa Steiner stated. "Victor?"
"The Federated Commonwealth has negotiated an alliance with the Draconis Combine, it's historic, Pat." Victor explained, "It's real historic. Theodore's reversed some of Takahashi's worst policies, and they're desperate, and despite that, there's a fragile balance to keep them on-side...and now, you're selling arms to the Clanners. Diplomatically, it's not a good look, and I'm not sure letting them know you're making a play to break Comstar's monopoly, when Comstar is a major weapons supplier on the Clan Front, is going to be doing us any favors."
Pat shrugged, "I'm...completely uninvolved with that side of things." He noted, "by...official policy, even-yours." he glanced at the Archon.
"Policies are going to change soon." Victor said, "Mother?"
"I intend to abdicate in Victor's favor before the end of the year."
"Oh..."
"You need to brief him in on...several things." Melissa added tartly, "Beginning today. Including your little sister's big secret."
"OH." 
"Yes, that." she affirmed.
"It might help if one of you would tell me how much has already been told..?" Patrick suggested.
Victor visibly steeled himself. "Is it true, that the Tabiranth isn't just a salvaged ship?"
"I thought you guys getting that M-5E salvaged out near Murphrid would've answered that." Pat noted. Victor shook his head.
"Ohkay then...SLS Tabiranth is a fully functional M-5D series artificially intelligent automated warship...which you already guessed or knew. The Tabiranth is who taught my sister, and she's very attached to that ship, it kind of served as a replacement for her mother after the breakdown and the suicide attempts. She...and my people, consider that ship to be a free entity, not property. Is that a problem for you, Sir?"
"I am going to have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of a machine being considered a person." Victor admitted, "In fact, while I get that your sis thinks of it that way, I'm kind of surprised you seem to be inclined to humor her on it."
Patrick grimaced, "I am 'inclined' not to have my industrial base go into revolt, Vic." he said, using the familiar form from their Academy days at the Nagelring. "I have half a billion people in the belts, and the sample-and it's a large one-of them that have worked on and with that ship consider it to be a person, and more to the point, I have a system-wide culture that hates slavery and are LIKELY to consider it a person, and as you know, 'Slavery' is defined as converting people, into property. I'm indulging my sister's little belief because it's the best hedge against having to fight a goddam civil war over it with the people who make most of my exports."
Victor considered this, "and you?"
"I'm honestly not sure how much of a 'person' Tabiranth is, but she fits the local definition closely enough that I don't have the chops to argue it with most of the people I rely on for domestic stability and the income to pay our bills. Remember, most of OUR ancestors were from groups that had been effectively 'depersoned' in the Terran Alliance days, and because they often didn't like each other a whole lot the charter was written to be broad in defining personhood and Rights, and expanded after we threw the Rimjobs off..also, I've got a huge number of adherents to 'Free Stars' and lots of my people believe there are other intelligent lifeforms out past explored space. WE all recognize that 'other people' have narrower definitions of 'person', so keeping it on the down-low hasn't been too hard so far-we have a decent cover story that holds up to most scrutiny."
"Most, but not all?"
"Cooper from the Snow Ravens as much as called me out on the lie." Patrick stated, "Some of them know what they're looking at, some of them bought our bullshit line-like that Conal Ward fella-he bought the cover story thoroughly."
"So you made a deal with the guy who saw through the cover?" Victor inquired.
"Yeah, we did...and now you're telling me it could be a national-level political problem with nasty diplomatic side-effects."
"It can be-it, in fact is." Victor asserted. "We need Comstar, Pat. Threatening their markets and threatening to ban their troops from your system isn't good optics for the Realm."
"I'm pretty sure Comstar is responsible for four out of five laser-fusion nuclear sabotage charges we managed to find and disarm in the Boojum yards over the last four years, and that's five out of seven we know about."
"Four out of five..."
"We managed to disarm. the other two went off, which put the Landmark programme back by two years." Patrick informed Victor. "Lizzie would've had Destroyers to fight the Trial against the Snow Ravens, if complex D and F hadn't been torn up by five kiloton detonations in the major assembly frame personnel areas."
"You think Comstar did it."
"I have a limited number of suspects, Highness." Patrick said it savagely, "The bombs weren't local-my rockjacks don't use SLDF pattern warheads for their rockbreaker charges, and we did a physical count of munitions on a regular basis-nothing out of stores was used. The Federated Commonwealth or Lyran Intelligence wouldn't need to-an order from your Mother would do the same job without killing anyone, the Bandits are almost extinct in our end and never had that kind of firepower, the Clans have a frantic aversion to anything 'nukular', to the point it's irrational. so, who would have access and a motive? the Free Worlds? their intel agency is a damned joke, the Cappies don't have the reach, so who's left?" Patrick spread his palms, "Tell me, who tried to black us all out and stage uprisings after Tukayyid? who blacked out and blocked calls for help ahead of the Clans and administrated their captures until they knew where the Clans were going?"
Victor listened, as Patrick continued.
"Who has already admitted to 'Operation: Holy Shroud' thanks to Focht's tell-all book? Also, remember, the Terrans had 'The mother doctrine' going from the Alliance days all the way through the Hegemony period, and Comstar is Terran."
"When you put it that way. Yeah, it's pretty damning." Victor conceded. "Seven nukes?"
"Yeah. Seven nukes, four different mercenaries caught trying to set up a hit on my sister using criminals-those were caught by Lohengrin agents, by the way, but they didn't give us anything solid on who hired them, only that they were paid in C-bills by their Mister Johnson."
"You're aware of the Comstar split, right?" Victor asked, "That's because it could be Comstar, but it's probably more likely to be The Word of Blake. Either for direct policy reasons or to humiliate the organization that they split from when Focht released his document."
"Either way, I can't tell the difference without being told." Patrick stated. "Need I remind the Royal Heir that I've got critical industries vital to the nation in peril from this kind of shit?"
"I know...The deal with the Clanners. Clarify that one for me."
"I think we can flip the Snow Ravens." Pat said, "They were already 'wardens' and considered moderate by that culture's standards, Bryn Cooper figured out what Lizzie was doing, even if he couldn't manage the navigation tricks himself, he grasped her strategy just in time to lose to it. I think we might be able to flip them, maybe pick up the Falcons too-they're under attack by their fellow Clans and weakened to a point we might be able to turn that to the Realm's advantage and pull a conversion on them-which gives the Federated Commonwealth access to their tech-base and other advantages at low cost to ourselves."
"Like you did with Delta Galaxy?" Victor asked.
"Precisely. It's based on who they see themselves as being." Patrick explained, "We might be able to turn these invaders into assets-it's a long shot, but I think it's worth it. At minimum we can become too vital to them to attack when the Truce lapses."
"That throws our other allies under the bus, Pat." Victor said grimly.
"Imagine only having to fight the Wolves, Victor. Imagine having a secure flank." Patrick suggested, "One that will be a Lyran flank-with some colorful traditions, in only a few generations. We can breed them into irrelevance, or failing that one, we can beat them on pure attrition if we have to...and it doesn't hurt to know every one of their weaknesses."
"What the hell is your overall plan, Pat?"
"I'm after a perfect victory if I can get it." Patrick admitted.
"A...'perfect victory'?" Melissa questioned from her desk.
"Defeat them before we have to fight." Patrick stated, "Achieve victory without having to pursue battle by converting a foe, into an asset. I think we can achieve this. If not perfectly, then getting close enough that we regain territory and have light losses at worst, instead of the kind of catastrophe we were hit with when the bastards hit us from our blind side and had active cooperation from Comstar."
in the silent moments that followed, Victor and Melissa each marshaled their thoughts, and it was Victor's expression that changed first, "My god, it might work..."
"Your contingency?" Melissa asked, breaking the spell, "What if it doesn't?"
"Well, that's why we build ships with nuclear missiles, isn't it?" Patrick commented, "It's why we have BattleMechs, and Fighters and tanks and why we keep training soldiers in how Clanners function so we can beat them, hopefully so badly they stop moving. I know my intent is a long-shot, Your Majesty, but it's only one gambit we can play out of dozens-we have the population advantage, and soon the industrial advantage, and we've got until '67 to leverage it...and that leverage requires trade, and some of that trade might be REAL useful for inserting intelligence assets to make the war plans, if we have the war, work better."
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