Honor Bound

“From the method you used to contact me, I assume this isn’t a social call.”

“No, sir,” she admitted, “unfortunately it’s business.” She waved a hand back at Ari. “You remember Captain Shamir, sir.”

“Yes, a most capable Marine,” Jameson declared. “And quite the Intelligence officer in the last few years, I understand.” Ari actually felt himself blushing.

“Thank you, sir,” he said. “It’s an honor to meet you again.”

“Come on in,” Jameson invited them, waving at the open side door. “My wife is back in Capital City for a conference, so it’s just me today.”

“How is Janice, sir?” Shannon asked politely as they stepped into the house. She’d met the woman once, just after the wedding five years ago and couldn’t remember a thing about her.

“She’s doing well,” Jameson said, closing the door behind them. The side door led into the house’s old- fashioned kitchen; from the layout, Shannon could easily imagine it as it had been three hundred years ago, fitted with a wood-burning stove and an ice-box instead of the modern food storage and processing equipment it now held.

A drowsy English sheepdog padded into the kitchen from the living room and shoved its head under Jameson’s hand. He paused to kneel and scratch the dog’s ears affectionately before turning back to the two officers.

“Please, sit down,” Jameson motioned to the kitchen table. “Can I get either of you a drink?”

Shannon started to say no reflexively, but smelled coffee brewing and changed her mind. “I’d love a cup of coffee, sir,” she said. “I feel like I haven’t slept in a week.”

“You, Captain Shamir?” Jameson asked as he stepped over to the counter and grabbed a cup for Shannon.

“I’m good, sir,” Ari assured him, shaking his head.

Jameson sat across from them and the sheepdog draped itself contentedly across his feet on the floor beneath the table. “So, how can I help you save the world this time, Colonel Stark?”

She took a careful sip from the cup he’d handed her before she answered. “Sir,” she began, “we’ve come to you because we have a problem with the Executive Council and we know you have some connections there since…”

“Since I lost the election and had to get a real job,” Jameson finished for her, a smile quirking across his lips. “Yes, I’ve done some lobbying for Brendan Riordan the last couple years, both for the Council and for Republic Transportation. What’s Brendan done now?” He shook his head ruefully and leaned his elbows on the table. “I know he wasn’t happy with Daniel’s emigration reforms… is he trying to bribe the colonial governors again?”

“Not quite, sir,” she replied carefully. “He’s ah…”

“He’s trying to cut out the middleman, you might say,” Ari interjected, earning a baleful glance from Shannon.

“We have reason to believe,” Shannon told him, “that Director Riordan is part of a coup attempt against President O’Keefe.”

“What?” Jameson’s eyes widened and he jerked upright, startling the dog, who glanced up at him curiously. “Are you serious?”

“That’s not the worst of it, Mr. President,” she went on. “The coup attempt may involve an alliance with Antonov and the Protectorate.”

“Perhaps,” the former President said slowly, “you should start from the beginning.”

“Yes, sir,” she said. “You have to understand that this is incredibly sensitive and strictly need-to-know; you can’t repeat this to anyone without clearance and honestly, the only reason I can tell you any of this is that we’re basically desperate and President O’Keefe has dumped this whole thing in my lap.”

“Teach your grandma to suck eggs, Colonel Stark,” Jameson commented dryly and she had to chuckle. Jameson had been well known for playing things close to the vest as president.

“It started a few weeks ago, sir, when…”

A half hour later, her coffee cup was empty and Jameson was sitting back in his chair, a stunned expression on his face. The sheepdog had laid her head across his thigh and he was petting her reflexively. Shannon had told him most of the story, but she had left out the fate of Glen’s assassin and also, from gut instinct and natural paranoia more than anything else, she had omitted the fact that the Decatur had returned.

“If anyone,” he said slowly and quietly, “and I mean anyone other than you or Colonel McKay had told me that story, I would have laughed them out of my house. Unfortunately, I believe you. Jesus Christ,” he moaned softly, rubbing his eyes. “How did it ever come to this? What could Riordan be thinking working with Antonov?”

“Actually sir,” Shannon said, “I was wondering the opposite: why would Antonov work with the Council? What could they offer him?”

“Perhaps it’s as simple as the promise to leave him alone?” Jameson wondered. “After all, he knows we’ve been trying to hunt him down for the last five years.”

“Antonov would never be satisfied with that,” Shannon disagreed. “He spent over a century dreaming and planning to take over Earth, he wouldn’t be satisfied reigning in some alien hell.”

“That doesn’t mean he hasn’t let them believe that’s what he wants,” Ari pointed out thoughtfully. “If they’re desperate enough or greedy enough, they might buy it.”

“They’re likely both,” Jameson confirmed grimly. “Things are going badly, as I’m sure you both know. It hasn’t filtered all the way up to the level of the Council, but it will and they know it. Half the time I’m in Capital City, I spend trying to force Senators to face reality: the Republic economy and our government is a house of cards and it’s about to collapse.”

“Damn, another ray of sunshine,” Ari muttered. At Shannon’s quelling glance he raised his hands helplessly. “Sorry, ma’am, Mr. President, but everyone we run into keeps telling us the same thing and I keep wondering why it’s come to this if everyone seems to know it’s going to happen.”

“It’s a fair question,” Jameson admitted. “I’ve asked myself the same thing many nights since the election. Before the invasion, we were pushing our borders out and colonizing every habitable world simply because we were so surprised and delighted that there were habitable planets so close to us. So we came up with reasons to be there: we drilled for oil and found exotic animals and plants and we dumped our political rabble-rousers off far away from home and used them for cheap labor.

“But it wasn’t sustainable. We were pouring money into the antimatter production plants and building Eysselink drive starships and not making enough return to cover our investments. Eventually it would have imploded anyway… but the war pushed things up by years.” He sighed heavily. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to abandon the colonies pretty soon… at the least, we won’t be able to resupply them. Whoever stays will be on their own for years at a time.”

“That makes it even more crucial that we get rid of the threat of Antonov now,” Shannon declared. “Otherwise, he’ll be able to prey on the colonies and we won’t be able to stop him.”

“Actually, Antonov could be the key to saving the colonies,” Jameson said, a bit of excitement creeping into his voice. “Think about it… if we could gain access to the wormhole matrix that Antonov controls, we could reach the colonies without using expensive Eysselink drive starships… anyone who could afford an in-system transport could travel to the stars. Mining in the star colonies would be practical and affordable. But only if we get rid of the threat of Antonov… otherwise, he could ambush ships coming through the gates and make things too dangerous for trade.”

“That might explain why the Council is desperate enough to deal with him,” Shannon guessed. “They think they can make a deal with him and save their corporations. But why do they think he would cooperate?”

“I’ve known Brendan Riordan for over twenty years,” Jameson told her. “The man is many things, but he’s nobody’s fool. If he is involved in this, he must think he has some hole card that will keep Antonov in line.”

“This is where we need your help, sir,” Shannon told him. “We had some idea of when, where and how the people involved with this were going to make the attempt on President O’Keefe’s life, but things have changed. We’re pretty sure they won’t make an attempt while he’s in Houston addressing the Council, but that means we don’t know when they will decide to try it. We need you to try to get a read on who is