SotU3 Chpt 38

=Chapter 38=
==State of the Union - Book 3==
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Castle Resarius, Tharkad
Donegal Province, Federated Commonwealth
March 20th, 3068
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Peter Steiner-Davion had withdrawn to Resarius Keep for a respite from the business of state. He’d thought that with the war over, his workload might begin to scale back, but instead there was a stream of petitioners with ideas and hopes for the liberated world.
Now he was being besieged even here, or that was how it felt.
Robert Kelswa-Steiner was out of uniform as he entered the lounge where Peter had chosen to receive him: a choice that was in keeping with the informality of the setting, but his blue tunic and white pants were of military cut, blatantly hearkening back to the uniforms of the Lyran Alliance - and before that, of the Lyran Commonwealth. “Your highness, I ask that we speak as cousins, not as liege and lord.”
Oh this was going to be good. “We aren’t at court, cousin. You have my ear.”, Peter told Robert
“What have I done that you should steal half of my mother’s legacy from me?!”, the other man demanded
Peter rubbed his jaw - he was tempted to ask if his scheming cousin wanted a list, but that would be ill-advised. “I don’t recall stealing anything from you, Robert. Perhaps you could scale back the hyperbole, since we’re speaking in private.”
The dark-haired Steiner stalked to the window and looked out at the garden beyond. It was what passed for late spring on Tharkad and the snow was gone - although grey clouds loomed overhead with the threat of rain. “I am speaking of Tamar!”
“I can hardly steal what you’ve never had.” He and Robert had been mere boys when Clan Wolf took the world. The then-duke, Selwin Kelswa had died fighting for his beloved world, sending his daughter to join her husband Ryan and their son Robert on Porrima, their world in the Isle of Skye. So far as Peter knew, Robert had never spent much time on Tamar.
Robert spun on his heel. “I am the Duke of Tamar.”
And of Porrima, since his father’s death. And Skye, by marriage to Hermione Aten. How many worlds do you want, Robert? All of them, no doubt. What was the old claim: that only human stupidity and the universe were limitless? Add avarice to that list. “In title, yes." Peter reminded him cruelly. “And now, through no effort of your own, you will have the bulk of the world as your inheritance.”
“I have served you loyally…”, Robert told him
Peter couldn’t help but laugh and he saw Robert’s face color at the derision. “Oh thank you, cousin. You have brought some humor to my day. Served me loyally? You?” He laughed again.
“I did not come here to be humiliated.”
“I’m really not sure why you came here, Robert. You’re not without ability - far from it." Peter admitted, sobering. “Your military service was cut short, but so was mine. You’re a competent administrator and your political support would be invaluable. If you were, in fact, my loyal servant; You would be prized and rewarded, but instead you cling close to the dream your father was fed by Alessandro Steiner of overthrowing my grandmother’s line and seizing power for yourself.”
He wasn’t even being untruthful. The new province being carved out of the occupied worlds would demand hundreds of capable officials to govern it and officers to defend. Just at the highest levels of the military, he’d need a permanent Field Marshal there to replace Victor, and at least three Marshals. A loyal duke - a Steiner, a proven planetary governor and with a heritage that tied him to one of the most important worlds - in the region would have been ideal. If only Peter could trust him.
“So you claim." Robert sneered. “And yet you strip lands from my rightful inheritance to grant estates and wealth to the bastard children of Kerensky that have ravaged the Commonwealth for a generation. It seems as if you’re more eager to reward our enemies than you are loyal Lyrans.”
Peter shook his head. “Let me take you back a little in history, Robert. In 3029, grandmother had led an unprecedented revival of our fortunes. Dozens of worlds that had fallen to the Draconis Combine had been brought back to the Commonwealth. Your grandfather petitioned for civil authority over those worlds, bringing them back under the leadership of the Tamar Pact.” He paused. “Within five years, almost every world we’d regained had been so alienated that they joined the Rasalhague Republic, essentially under the protection of House Kurita once more.”
''
“That was your grandmother’s weakness." spat Robert.
“If Katrina Steiner was weak, what does that say of those who failed many times to depose her, cousin? No. I will learn from her error in trusting House Kelswa to win back the loyalties of occupied worlds. Your birthright is Tamar, and you will have all but the continent of Amirani. I’ve granted that to the reunited Wolves - if nothing else, the logistics of evacuating their civilian castes across an interstellar distance is a burden I don’t need with the AFFC redeploying to cover our other borders.”
“Then I demand the assignment of my Tamar Cavaliers to their homeworld, so that they can guard against the predations of your so-called tamed Wolves.”
Peter rested one arm on the mantelpiece over the room’s fireplace. “Oh very well." he agreed heavily - as if he’d ever planned to put them elsewhere. They might be under the operational control of the AFFC, but Robert had raised the Tamar Cavaliers and staffed them with men and women loyal to him. “However, Tamar will remain an important world so it’ll require an additional command to defend it. The Third Sudeten Lancers will be stationed there to help keep the Ghost Bears from getting ambitious.” And to provide a counter-balance if you provoke a clash with the Wolves.
His cousin paused, visibly running through lists of the AFFC’s regiments in his mind. “I am... unfamiliar with that regiment.”
“The formal announcement is still pending." Peter admitted with a smile. “We've built up a huge stockpile of salvaged Clan equipment with our victories over the last year. Rather than disperse it and invite a logistical nightmare, much of that will be used to form four Battlemech regiments, manned by a mix of veterans and of graduates from the cadet cadres that were protecting the Free Worlds border during the war. The Sudeten Lancers will be stationed on Tamar, Wotan, Twycross… and Sudeten, of course, to help the Olivettis defend their new province.”
“The… Olivetti’s province?” Robert’s voice was unsteady.
“Yes. Sudeten is centrally placed among the liberated worlds, while Tamar is - if you’ll excuse me for saying so - still rather close to the border. Fine for a theater command world, but not for an entire province. And even trapped behind enemy lines for more than a decade, Janna Olivetti’s loyalty never wavered. I was considering instating her as the new ruler of Odessa III after House Fisk’s treason, but better to let the Duchess resume their rule of Sudeten - after all it is her ancestral holding.”
Robert marched towards the fireplace and stood facing Peter. “The Tamar Pact was one of the founders of the Lyran Commonwealth, Your Highness. Tamar is its heart. If you think that you can steal its position for a jumped up technician and her family then…”
“Oh, are we back to formalities?” asked Peter, trying to sound disappointed. From the look on Robert’s face, he hit the right note. “I was rather enjoying the chance to speak to you as a kinsman, Robert.”
The duke all but snarled. “You will regret this, cousin Peter.”
“It’s possible. That is the nature of leadership, after all. We make decisions and then we have to live with the consequences. That would be why Richard is currently enjoying the hospitality of the Commonwealth’s judicial system as we investigate his involvement in treason.”
“A charge that I dispute.”, spat his Cousin
Peter snorted. If that was where Robert wanted to stake his position, it was his funeral. The evidence went well beyond a blood test now. “I’m sure it’s reassuring to Richard that someone believes that. But I have let the conversation go adrift. We were speaking of Tamar and its future. Have you considered your son’s part in that?”
Robert frowned, perhaps seeing this as a threat. “Gregory is doing very well at Sanglamore, your grace.”
Peter nodded. “I am glad to hear it. Would you like him assigned to the Tamar Cavaliers when he graduates? It would give him a chance to get to know the world - I assume you mean him to inherit there, since Skye would be the legacy of any children you have with Duchess Aten.”
The dark-haired man didn’t - quite! - let his composure crack at the implicit awareness of that crack in his relationship with his wife. Gregory Kelswa-Steiner was illegitimate, born before Robert’s marriage to Hermione Aten. Even if that marriage produced an heir to Skye, their elder sibling would pose a potential division within Robert’s fledgling dynasty. “A son is a very great blessing, Peter." he parried - striking at the Archon-Prince’s own lack of a direct heir.
“So my brother tells me. I hope to find out for myself one day soon." Peter acknowledged cheerfully.
He took a certain dark pleasure in watching Robert twitch at that. A Steiner-Davion heir would be a huge threat to the man’s ambitions, and he must now be frantically trying to wonder if Peter had been hiding a relationship and perhaps even a child of his own.
Not yet, Robert, he mused. But I can’t leave it much longer - and truthfully, I don’t want to. I only hope that my marriage can be more than merely political.
“If you have further concerns about Clan Wolf’s enclave upon Tamar, please feel free to contact their Clan Council directly." he circled back to the original point. “They’re convened to elect new Khans and debate the revised treaty we have with them, so this is an excellent time for you to begin bridging the gap.”
“It seems that I have little choice in the matter." Robert accepted stiffly. “If you will excuse me.”
“Of course.” Peter stepped away from the mantelpiece to walk Robert to the door. “And please feel that you can call on me in future. We are family, after all.”
The redhead waited until Robert’s ground-car had left before calling for a stiff brandy so he could wash the taste of those words out of his mouth. He still had to reply to Adam Steiner’s petition to push on and retake his homeworld of Somerset, although the Field Marshal knew full well how stretched they were at the moment - particularly in warships, while the Jade Falcons still had half of their fleet to guard their remaining territory.
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