The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [144]
But right now Teshak’s state of mind could hardly be described as anything as positive as satisfied.
‘Marshal Becker,’ he said in clipped tones while staring at the image on the comm screen. ‘This situation is intolerable. The ambassador and myself have been waiting on this primitive backwater for several days, expecting to be transported back to civilisation – if you know anything about the Clarified and the unique rank they carry in the hierarchy of the Hegemony, then you must also realise that obedience to my orders should take precedence for you.’
‘In any other situation that would indeed be the case, Clarified One,’ said the Ezgara. ‘But my orders come directly from the Second Tri-Advocate and they are very specific in both priority and objectives.’
‘And what would your objectives be?’
‘With great respect, Clarified One, I am not permitted to divulge … What?’ The Ezgara-Human turned his visored face to snap at someone out of view. ‘ … No, use the field pumps … ’ He turned back. ‘Clarified Teshak, Ambassador Kuros, my apologies but we have a critical situation that must be dealt with before I can come ashore. Till later.’
Then the screen went blank.
‘We should have dispensed with those Ezgara-Humans years ago,’ said Teshak. ‘Indeed, the fact that the Second Tri-Advocate has entrusted a high-value mission to a non-Sendrukan is further proof of the regime’s unfitness to rule.’
Gratach made no reply, just looked at the Clarified Teshak, who met his gaze and smiled.
‘Don’t be too hopeful, Kuros,’ he said, leaning closer. ‘There’s a Hegemony armada out there and before long a ship will come to take us back to Iseri where the last lingering shreds of your pitiful existence will finally be expunged.’
He straightened, exchanged a wordless look with Gratach along with a faint nod and a slight tilt towards the window with his head. Then he was out of the door and gone. Gratach got to his feet, closed the commset lid, moved round the table and went to the window. He scanned the night-bound sea, a black expanse glimmering from the meagre radiance of ionisation glows and the now frequent shooting stars, pieces of battle debris burning up as they plunged into the stratosphere.
Then Gratach looked left to where a long, indistinct shape lay half-submerged in the shallows nearly a hundred sendru-paces offshore. A few worklamps had been set up along the upper hull but going by what Kuros had heard, Becker’s ship was disabled, unable to fly. During the last part of the descent, coming in over the coastal plain, it was hit by about a dozen ground-to-air missiles that wrecked the ship’s main suspensor node and killed three techs. With the thrusters they were able to stay in the air long enough to ditch in the sea close to the Brolturan base. Repairs were estimated to take at least two days.
So why is Becker here? Kuros thought. He said his orders came from the Second Tri-Advocate, whom the Clarified clearly consider an adversary. And the Hegemony’s fleet is in the system so it is reasonable to assume that they would like to regain control of the warpwell.
He heard heavy footsteps in the corridor outside, which he knew to be the sound of the night-duty officer leaving to take over the sentry watch. In a few minutes the relieved officer would come up and enter the room across the corridor, slamming the door shut. Kuros also knew that Gratach would soon lie down on one of the couches while performing whatever optimisation tasks it found necessary, and it duly did. The room was small but sparsely furnished, one of two officers’ quarters on the main building’s third floor.
Neither the AI nor Kuros needed sleep, and at such times Kuros kept himself mentally active by recalling small details from happier times. He was just