Admiral (6 page)

At any rate, my staff was overly large and perhaps even excessive by some standards—certainly I'd have left three-fourths of them or more at home had I felt there was any real likelihood of serious combat. As things were, however… Except for the way the Herald-trainees weirded me out sometimes and the prima-donna attitudes of some of the soon-to-be Royal Governors, well…

I felt more than merely lucky. I was downright blessed!

"Gentlemen!" I summed up, raising my voice slightly for attention from my seat at the head of the table. "I think we've covered everything of substance. Tomorrow we're going to ah… 'Make the enemy an offer he can't refuse,' as milord Nestor put it so succinctly." My friend's ear-linings darkened—he'd always had a knack for coining phrases. "We've got all the details hammered out. Any questions?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," a diplomatic expert replied. "I still think you should make the proposal in person. It'd go over better with the general populace. According to our best information, well…" He lowered his eyes. "You're a rather popular figure even here. Especially in certain circles."

I smiled back, but my—thank heavens!—one and only protocol expert shook his head firmly. "It's not the place of Royalty to address anyone way out here as an equal, as simply
must
be implied if His Majesty were to open negotiations himself." He shook his head again. "It's absolutely
unthinkable
! After they surrender, then perhaps he might—or might not—deign to allow the local authorities to present themselves."

"That's the proper course to set!" Jean agreed, and that was that.

"Anything else?" I asked after another long silence had set in. I turned to the Yans and smiled. "Would you two like to have a high-priority shipping analysis worked up so that you can calculate your trade figures as early as possible?"

Yan Ho's face remained impassive as he replied for them both. "No, Your Majesty. We can wait our turn like everyone else. We have nothing on our plate that requires any special handling at this time."

"Excellent!" I replied, and as I stood everyone in the room rose with me. They'd remain standing, I knew, until they were certain that I was gone. No matter how long I was a Prince, I suspected, I'd
never
get used to that sort of thing. At least I could still let my hare down among the other free Rabbits back on my fiefdom—we'd been very careful not to teach them a lick of this sort of protocol nonsense. "Then I wish each and every one of you a good night. Tomorrow, with any luck, we'll bring an entire planet back into the kingdom without spilling a drop of blood."  

8

Well, it didn't work out to be
entirely
bloodless, though we certainly tried our best to make it so. One of the local Imperial revenue cutters must've been commanded by a true fanatic, because when
Javelin
led the way into Vargus space the damn fool tried to attack even though he found himself suddenly under our guns at point-blank range. "You bloody idiot!" Captain Blaine personally shouted into the intership circuit after receiving two nearly harmless popgun salvoes while withholding his response. "Can't you see that my beacon is showing a white flag? I'm here to parley, not fight!"

"Long live the Emperor!" was the only reply, so my old friend was forced to vaporize the fool and his crew with a single broadside. It wasn't either the reception I'd hoped for nor the first impression I'd wished to convey, but what was one to do when confronted with sheer lunacy? Blaine behaved exactly as I would've in his shoes, and eventually I so endorsed his report on the incident.

But that was later, of course. Much, much later. The orbital batteries accepted our flag of truce, so at least we were spared the much bloodier task of silencing them. They also accepted the white flags of the dozens of smaller warships and then over a hundred merchantmen that followed us as well, with what must've been steadily widening eyes. My Third Fleet was more an interstellar trading caravan than fighting force, and I made sure that the eight heavy ore-haulers I'd designated specifically for this world remained tantalizingly near the front of the formation, where they couldn't help but be noticed.

"Greetings, people of Vargus Three," Jean declared from his special seat next to that of Captain Blaine. "This is Jean le Vorsage, Heir to the House of Vorsage and Royal Chamberlain to the Court of Prince David. I bear a message from His Majesty for your planetary leader, whoever that might be."

The transmission was acknowledged, but then there was a long, long pause. Finally a thin, elderly voice replied. "This is Lord Sebastian Vargus," it answered. "I know your father, young Jean, and hope that he's well. Under different circumstances we might've become good friends. But please, explain to me again to whose Court you are Chamberlain?"

"To Prince David Birkenhead, Prince of the Realm and adopted brother of His Majesty King James." There was a long pause. "Apparently you haven't received much news lately, my Lord?"

"Neither news nor much of anything else of value," the tired old man replied. "Please forward my respects to your newly-crowned Prince; it's rather a surprise but on second thought perhaps it was inevitable. As is much else."

Jean frowned. "Prince David is present, aboard
Javelin
. In his mercy, he would offer you a proposition. Will you hear it?"

There was another long silence. "My workshops are silent. My serfs starve, and my once-docile Rabbits run amok and won't listen to reason. The Emperor's navy is far away while that of His Majesty sits on my doorstep. What sort of fool would I be, not to at least listen to propositions?"

Jean's eyes closed slowly, and he smiled. So did I. "When and where shall our negotiating party land?" he asked.

From there it was all a downhill ride. Lord Sebastian was delighted when he saw that our proposal called for no armed occupation, no payment of tribute, and above all no hangings except in the case of war criminals duly convicted before a military tribunal. He was also pleased to learn that we already had orders complete with down payments waiting in our hands for heavy steel and alloy products from his factories, primarily intended to help rebuild war-shattered Wilkes Prime. But most of all, he was absolutely thrilled when I offered to make a live-holo appeal to the Rabbits and Dogs of Vargus Three, asking them to peacefully go back to work and wait just a little longer to be free. "It's like this all over the Empire," Sebastian explained to me, when I not only granted him his audience but sat down with him in private and treated him with dignity and respect where he expected humiliation. "The Rabbits seem cooperative enough on the surface, but nothing ever gets done anymore. When no one's looking they sabotage valuable equipment, vandalize or steal everything in sight, even sometimes kill policemen or government officials when they can catch them alone."

I had to force myself not to smile—goodness, but I was proud of my fellow slaves! "How terrible," I said instead. "We'll see what we can do about it. In the meantime… You've read the agreement, have you not?"

He looked down, then met my eyes again and nodded. "You're being more generous than I ever dreamed."

"That's because I want a real peace," I explained. "You can't build brotherhood and amity on reparations payments and declarations of war-guilt. It's been tried before, and didn't work out very well." Then my face hardened. "And yet… I must make it absolutely clear how strongly James and I feel about what few terms there are. Your Rabbits, for example—there are to be no punishments for their recent disobedience, and the new Freedman's Bill of Rights
will
be adhered to as scrupulously here as on any other Royal world. For that is precisely what you must understand that Vargus Three is to be from now on; just another Royal world, on our end as well as yours."  

"Of course, Your Highness," the former Imperial replied, bowing from the neck. "And speaking for myself at least, I intend to throw myself into the project wholeheartedly." He smiled softly. "I'm not fool enough to make you angry, you see."

I smiled back. "Let's not speak of such things. Instead, let's finalize our business and put all unpleasantness behind us forevermore. Is there anything else that you feel should be brought to my attention?"

Vargus frowned theatrically, clearly trying to reach a decision. "Well," he said after a long moment. "There's one thing you should know about. I'd rather hide it away, but if you're to be my sovereign I'm obliged to speak the truth."

My eyebrows rose. "Be honest with me and you've no reason to fear. Ever."

He nodded back. "So I'm beginning to see." Then he sighed and looked away. "I can surrender the orbital batteries," he explained. "And our defensive fighter forces. Even our army. Some individuals won't like it, but they'll follow orders." Then he shook his head. "But the Association of the Emperor's Students, well… They've promised a last-ditch defense against any invasion for over a year now, and foreseeing this moment have sworn to assassinate any high-level official who meets with a Royal leader for purposes that might even possibly lead towards surrender."

I frowned. "Young hotheads."

"Hotheads with backing from key VIP's, I fear. And with access to Imperial Treasury funds. This makes them a force to be reckoned with. I can't know, but I suspect they were organized specifically to make your life difficult at just this sort of moment, when only an insane man would turn away from such a generous offer." He lowered his eyes. "I can't control them, Your Highness. And I beg not to be held accountable for their actions. I'll cooperate in every way possible with any counter-measures you might choose to put in place."

You'll cooperate fully in everything no matter what for a few years before you're fully trusted again
, I thought to myself but didn't say aloud. After all, His Lordship seemed to be perfectly sincere, and had done everything asked of him. What good could it possibly do to insult the dignity of what was clearly at heart a decent man? "I'll warn the Governor," I assured my guest. "And… If you wish, I'll leave a detachment of marines to serve as a personal bodyguard for you, as well."

He smiled and shook his head. "If they get me they get me," he replied. "I've lived a good life, and frankly if I hadn't once been part of some very foolish decisions, well… I'd not be in the spot I'm in today. I made the bed, I'll lie in it. Besides, I trust my own internal security divisions. Thank you for not disarming them."

I smiled—we were confiscating only the heavy weapons, such as artillery and aerospace fighters. With luck, soon no one would need those anymore anyway. "You're quite welcome."

"Yes. And… Er…. Sire?"

"Yes, Lord Vargus?"

"I… In a few minutes, I'm going to kneel before you and pledge my eternal fealty in front of the cameras. And… It's not going to be easy, you see. Because I'm going to mean it, as much as I meant it all the other times I've done it. Which was always to His Imperial Majesty before today, you see."

I nodded again, but said nothing.

"It's going to hurt, breaking that oath after so much, so very much… Because of that, well… I hoped I might…"

"Right," I agreed. "You'd like to do it here in private first."

"Exactly, Your Highness," he replied.

"Then do so, Lord Vargus," I replied, rising to my feet for the occasion. "Because I have no wish to make this any harder for you than necessary."

"Thank you, sire," he replied as he fell to his knees. It was just as well that we did it that way, I suppose. Because he broke down sobbing not once, not twice, but three times before the deed was done. It was only later that I learned he'd lost four sons and three grandchildren during the endless wars.

And that either I or forces I'd been in direct command of had killed three of them.

9

The next five planets all followed the same successful pattern we'd set at Vargus Three. The nobles in charge proved eager to surrender, once it became clear that we meant to allow them to do so in prosperity and dignity. While a few bad apples were permitted to keep their heads when they probably should've lost them, for the most part our waging of peace was proving the most successful military campaign of the war. We liberated world after world from the grasp of the Empire, all the while making idle machines hum and filling empty bellies. Our marines grew bored while our economic specialists worked themselves into frazzles. Peace was breaking out everywhere these days, it seemed.

Another advantage to our system was that the Imperial archives and communications logs were instantly made available to us—it was one of the conditions of our standard agreement. We made use of this new gold-mine of information in a dozen different ways. One thing that the old log books confirmed was that the Imperials were indeed terrified of a Rabbit uprising—on at least one world, such a rebellion had actually already succeeded. While our plans called for breaking up the Third Fleet into independent task forces anyway once we were sure that our plan was sound, well… A successful Rabbit rebellion was something we hadn't counted on. "It's an agricultural world," I pointed out at our hurriedly-convened staff meeting on the subject. "So no matter how chaotic conditions have become, there probably can't be mass-starvation."

"But little details like public sanitation might well be compromised," Jean pointed out. "Same with medical services, water treatment, distribution systems…"