Captain Vorpatril's alliance

Tej and Rish continued toward the lift tubes. Rish watched her sideways, but for once, offered no comment. Tej loved her family, she really did. She didn’t doubt for an instant that they loved her, too, in their way. But she wondered how she’d plunged from soaring elation to glum depression in so few hours.

Chapter Fifteen

Ivan, only slightly out of breath but considerably out of sleep, entered Admiral Desplain’s outer office to find one of the senior Ops clerks manning his desk. The morning’s first pot of coffee had been made and drunk long ago, he noted from the dark dregs in the bottom of the pot on the credenza and the faint tarry aroma in the air. He checked a desire to scrape out the bottom of the pot with a spoon and eat the residue.

“Ah, Captain Vorpatril,” said the clerk, brightening. “The old man wanted to know as soon as you arrived.” He keyed his intercom. “Sir, Captain Vorpatril is here.”

“Finally,” returned Desplains’s voice. Ivan tried to read the tone, but from three syllables could only ascertain not joyful. “Send him in.”

Ivan trod into his boss’s inner sanctum, to find the admiral had a visitor‑an ImpSec captain, Ivan saw by his collar pins and tabs, as the man twisted in his chair to observe him in turn, frowning. Lean but HQ‑pale, salt‑and‑pepper hair that tried but failed to make him look older than the mid‑grade middle‑aged man he apparently was. Raudsepp, read his nametag. They exchanged the briefest of military courtesies.

Desplains was looking faintly harassed. And, given that the harassment was apparently being delivered by a mere ImpSec captain‑bringing the snakes in person? – decidedly irritated. The admiral did not invite Ivan to sit, so Ivan took up a prudent sort‑of parade rest and waited. Someone would tell him what was going on shortly; they always did, however little he wanted to know.

Desplains went on, dry‑voiced, “Captain Raudsepp has just inquired if, at the time I signed off on your marriage on Komarr, I had known what a curious set of relations young Lady Vorpatril was apparently trailing after her.”

“At the time of our marriage on Komarr, everyone thought Tej was an orphan,” said Ivan, “including Tej. And Rish. They seemed pretty happy to find out this was not the case, last night. And your interest in this is what, Captain Raudsepp?”

“Until last night, I was the Galactic Affairs officer charged with riding herd on your new wife’s alleged bounty‑hunter threat. A relatively routine physical security issue that has so far failed to provide much in the way of action, to everyone’s relief. I came in this morning to find my mandate had been unexpectedly upped by a renegade refugee Jacksonian baron and most of his extended family, about which the critical complaint is the unexpectedly part.”

Ah, yes. ImpSec did not like surprises. Too bad; surprises were their job, in Ivan’s view. He wondered if he ought to argue with the renegade tag; how could you tell a renegade Jacksonian baron from any other sort? Refugee, though, yeah, sure. He did put in, “Immediate family, actually. In a sense.”

Raudsepp’s brows tightened. “My heated memo to Galactic Affairs‑Komarr crossed in the tightbeam stream with an urgent heads‑up from Captain Morozov, warning us of the party’s impending arrival, so it’s good to know that they weren’t entirely asleep out there. If the alert had arrived six hours ahead of the event instead of six hours behind it, it might have helped. Somewhat. And so my routine physical security issue has turned into a completely unassessed political security issue. As I expect my assessment to be requested very soon, it behooves me to make one.”

Ivan tilted his head in acknowledgement of the justice of this, but resisted being drawn into premature sympathy with a brother officer. After all, ImpSec.

Raudsepp narrowed his eyes at Ivan. “Why did you sign them out of Customs amp; Security?”

“Well, they looked tired,” Ivan offered. “Hours and hours of bureaucrats. On top of jump‑lag, you know. The Komarr run is a bitch if you’re jump‑sensitive.”

“Have you managed to find out yet why they’re here?”

“They came to pick up Tej and Rish.” Wait, what? Take them away? For the first time, this thought came clear in Ivan’s sleep‑deprived mind, triggering an unpleasant flutter of panic in his stomach. Though he supposed he could part with Rish without much of a pang. But what if Tej wanted to go with her? “Check on them, anyway,” he corrected hastily. Dear God. We need to talk. “Parents, after all.”

“Do you have any other observations to report? Anything of danger‑or interest‑to the Imperium?”

“All they’ve done is land and go to bed.” Ivan stifled a yawn. “Well, and fill out a lot of forms. You have to have received copies of everything from Customs, and a report from your outer‑perimeter night fellow‑what the devil was his name‑Zumboti, that was it. Which means you know about as much as I do, so far.”

“Surely not. You have by far the closest view of the affair, going back the farthest.”