Méridien (The Silver Ships Book 3) (34 page)

“Captain Tachenko, you have the
Rêveur
,” Alex said.

“And I stand ready to prevent you screwing up, Captain,” Julien announced proudly.

Tatia’s astonishment was in plain sight, and Alex burst out laughing.

“Was that not the expression you used, Senior Captain?” Julien stated innocently.

Tatia ducked her face into her hands. “I’ll never live this down,” she said, then groaned.

Alex got control of his laughter. “Perhaps not, Captain. Then again, it’s just between friends.”

“Just between friends,” Tatia heard Julien echo softly. It occurred to her that she had joined a very private club, and the thought warmed her.

Days later, the flotilla exited FTL into the Oikos system. Alex had Julien broadcast a request to the Council that House Alexander’s Co-Leaders wished a meeting. Julien appended a synopsis of the events in Libre, proudly emphasizing the destruction of the Nua’ll ship, the nemesis of the Confederation.

Within hours, Julien received a polite response from the Council’s Administrator that their request would be reviewed at the appropriate time. On sharing the Administrator’s response with Alex, Julien asked,

Alex sent, then requested Tatia meet with him and Renée in their cabin.

Tatia’s first question on joining the meeting was whether a response to their request had been received.

“What we received, Captain,” Renée replied, “was a polite non-response. The response with no commitment will come later.”

“What? I’m confused,” Tatia replied.

“It’s the beginning of the Council’s pretense that they are conducting business, without conducting business, Captain,” Renée replied. “The Council expects us to be patient and wait for their reply. When we don’t hear from them, we’ll politely request an update from the Administrator, and he will tell us a reply is forthcoming. This will continue until the Administrator finally sends us the Council’s refusal or sets a meeting as much as a half-year in the future.”

“But we saved the Confederation!” Tatia exclaimed, throwing her arms wide in exasperation.

“Quite true, Captain, but did the Council request you to do so?” Renée challenged in reply.

Tatia had no response to what she felt was an absurd comment. She mutely appealed to Alex, but he wore a benign smile. “So we’re just going to wait, Admiral?” she asked.

“Oh no,” Alex replied. “That’s why you’re here, Captain. We’re going to pay the Council a visit.”

Alex had no intention of letting the Council control the flow of information about the flotilla. He had Julien send a general message to all SADEs in the system, updating them on House Alexander, the flotilla, and the Librans. Without prior prohibition, the SADEs distributed the message to House Leaders and general comm networks. Attached to the message was a summary vid so that every Méridien could witness the destruction of the Nua’ll ship.

One of Alex’s purposes for the distribution was to ensure their arrival hadn’t created a panic, since the city-ships were unlike anything the Méridiens would have seen before and might too closely resemble the huge sphere-shaped Nua’ll ship. In addition, Alex was curious to see how the general population might respond to their message.

As the flotilla approached Méridien, Julien collected tens of thousands of responses addressed to the Co-Leaders of House Alexander. Many requested business meetings or offered invitations to the Co-Leaders to attend a House function. All were curious to meet the New Terran Leader. On Alex’s request, Julien categorized and summarized the count of the messages as to intent. The only response offered in reply to the messages was Julien’s polite acknowledgement of each message.

Julien did receive one critical message. “Admiral,” Julien said, speaking to Alex and Tatia, who were on the bridge, “the Council’s Administrator has politely requested you halt the progress of the flotilla until such time as a decision is reached by the Council concerning a meeting.”

“Any change in my orders, Admiral?” Tatia asked.

“None, Captain, proceed to Méridien as planned,” Alex responded.

“Excellent, Admiral,” Tatia replied, displaying a wolfish grin.

The Administrator’s message was repeated several more times over the course of the next two days, but hours after the last message was received, the flotilla began dropping velocity to enter Méridien’s orbit
.

Despite their arrival at Méridien, the flotilla still had not received a response from the Council. Comms continued to pour in for Alex and Renée. Julien acknowledged their receipt, and the Co-Leaders remained silent.

After a third day waiting in orbit, Alex decided he’d had enough.

Julien replied.

Alex replied.

Julien launched joyfully into a comm conference with the SADEs. Not all of them were enthusiastic participants, but the core—Cordelia, Z, and Mutter—had no problem with a no-holds-barred approach to dealing with the Council. The SADEs were not privy to the Council Administrator’s secure communications, but they did have access to a wealth of mundane data throughout the planet.

It was Z who volunteered a scheme to monitor the Council Leaders’ locations at all times. The plan was to identify when all members, on the same day, commed for transport to the Council Chambers. It was common knowledge that once the Council convened, they would meet for an entire day. It wouldn’t provide Alex much notice, but it was the only workable plan they could devise.

Alex staged the personnel he required for the Council meeting aboard the
Rêveur
. The group was up every morning and ready to travel by 6 hours. After seven days, Julien signaled Alex at 5.15 hours that the Council members were ordering transport destined for Confederation Hall, the site of the Council Chambers.

Hours later, the
Outward Bound
was dropping speed for a landing at one of Méridien’s premier shuttle terminals. It was the closest location to Confederation Hall, although still twelve kilometers away. Captain Manet had received repeated refusals from the terminal’s controller for access to the landing ways. It occurred to Edouard to declare an emergency, but his Méridien training wouldn’t allow the lie to pass his lips or, in this case, his thoughts. Instead he warned the controller that the
Outward Bound
was landing, and it would be unsafe not to clear his path.

The deciding point for the terminal manager, who chose to override his controller, was that telemetry indicated the huge shuttle was accompanied by three flights of what the Méridiens had learned were the Admiral’s war shuttles … the Daggers. The manager feared for the lives of the people within the terminal, not knowing what unwarranted actions the Admiral might take.

Once the
Outward Bound
touched down, Sheila ordered the Daggers to fly cover over the terminal. The terminal manager, observing the actions of the Admiral’s war shuttles, curtailed all flights out of his terminal and diverted all incoming traffic to other terminals.

Alex and company exited the shuttle, and Tatia left six crew members, armed with plasma rifles, to guard their ship. Every Méridien in the group thought the actions were unnecessary, and that included the flights of Daggers over the terminal’s airspace, but Alex’s determined look and his march toward the terminal brooked no comments or questions.

On entering the terminal, Renée guided the group to the underground transport cars. She signaled the transport controller but failed to receive a response. “Admiral, I have no access by which to call us a vehicle,” Renée said.

“Apparently I still do, Ser,” Eric replied.

Just then, a transport car, large enough to manage the group, slid to a stop in front of them. Its double doors hissed quietly open. Everyone climbed aboard, and when Eric signaled their destination, their transport swiftly complied.

The New Terrans were mesmerized by the hive of activity in the underground transport tunnels, all brightly lit. Hundreds of vehicles of every size whipped past one another, not on rails or guides of any sort, but by virtue of the controllers signaling one another and managing paths. It was a marvel of engineering.

The group’s transport decelerated to stop at a platform, and Eric led the way from the underground transport level to the main concourse of Confederation Hall. When they exited the final lift, Eric indicated the corridor in front of them. “After you, Admiral,” he said.

While Tomas and Eric had waited aboard the
Rêveur
for word from the SADEs of the Council’s meeting, Tomas had said, “Eric, I have given this meeting a great deal of thought, and I have discovered that I could wish for no greater reward for services rendered to my people than to be present at the moment the Council meets the Admiral.”

Eric had thought over Tomas’s words for two days before he discovered he felt the same way. Once Eric recognized that his fears of confronting the Council as an ex-Leader had melted away, his emotional conversion to a Director of House Alexander was complete.

Alex led his entourage down the Hall’s wide, ethereal corridor. The floors effused soft changing colors in the afternoon sunlight that streamed through tall windows along one side of the corridor. Light from the ceiling, over ten meters up, echoed the colors of sunlight filtered by the windows. Some Méridiens sought to gain the Admiral’s attention, but Alex wasn’t interested; others crowded the corridor walls to give the Admiral and his people plenty of space. Rounding the corridor’s curved corner, they were approaching a group of Méridiens coming down the corridor. Renée increased her stride to meet them, outdistancing Alex.

Renée sent privately to Alex.

Alain had kept pace with Renée, but when Alex heard her single word, he signaled Étienne forward. Alex took stock of the middle-aged man who led the oncoming group. He calculated Albert was well past his century mark as the two siblings drew closer to each other.

Renée could tell her brother did not immediately recognize her. Albert de Guirnon was leading his own entourage toward the Council Chambers, and he seemed oblivious to who was advancing toward him. Finally, recognition dawned on Albert’s face, and he hesitated briefly before opening his arms in welcome.

Emotions warred within Renée to the extent that she hardly recognized herself.
Where is the polite, controlled, young Méridien woman that Alex rescued?
Renée wondered. She exchanged a cordial, traditional House greeting with her brother, kissing each of his cheeks. Then she stepped back and delivered a bone-jarring slap to Albert’s face.

Albert de Guirnon stood there, rooted in place. His mouth hung open, and his hand held his reddening cheek. His entire entourage looked to be in shock as well. An attack by a fellow Méridien, especially a House sibling, was inconceivable.

Even Albert’s two escorts had been caught unawares. Initially they had focused on the twins escorting the Méridien woman. Then their eyes had strayed to the oncoming mass of humanity known to them as “the Admiral.”

Renée sent to both Alex and Albert, acid dripping in her thoughts,

replied Alex, He touched his right hand to his heart and dipped his head.

Albert quickly gathered himself and returned the polite greeting.

But Alex wasn’t missing the opportunity to share a thought with the brother. Alex sent,

Alex led his group past Albert, who was left staring at their backs, incredulous at the insults he had received, verbally and physically. Alex and his group headed toward the Council Chambers’ Supplicants Hall. While Alex was still in Albert’s line of sight, he couldn’t resist the temptation to reach behind Renée to pat her rear.

Renée sent to Alex. Renée’s implant received the sound of a long, drawn-out, exaggerated kiss, and she laughed raucously.
Let my brother think on that as he will
, she thought.

The tall, ornate Council Chambers doors at the end of the Supplicants Hall were closed. The Administrator sat outside the doors in an enclosure that echoed the design of the floors and walls. Alex saw many well-dressed Méridien supplicants who waited to be called into Chambers on their business, sitting in chairs that lined the walls and comfortably conformed to their bodies.

Alex strode past the supplicants to the midpoint of the twin doors and stood waiting, never turning his head.

Renée found the shock on the Administrator’s face a thing of beauty. As a daughter who more than once accompanied her father to Council Chambers on House business, she had recalled the Administrator, who had been posted at that time, as an enormously prestigious personage, deserving of respect. Now Renée wondered how she could have been so foolish. This Administrator was pompous, exuding an air of superiority. That was until he was caught staring slack-jawed at the Admiral, who stood waiting for the doors to open.

The Administrator hurriedly scrolled down his appointment log and confirmed that the Admiral had received no Council response to his request for an appointment. Yet here the man stood. The Administrator searched his implant for a protocol to deal with an unexpected supplicant and found none. The event was unheard of.

What made matters worse for the poor Méridien was that the Admiral hadn’t come alone. Appointments were granted to a single person. Occasionally an exception was made for a House sibling or child. It had always been so. Adding a final insult, the Admiral had not spoken to him. Incredibly the giant New Terran was ignoring him, standing at the door as if he expected them to open because he was here.