A Civil Campaign

It didn't take ImpSec less than two minutes to arrive at Lord Auditor Vorthys's residence; it took them almost four minutes. Ekaterin, who'd heard the front door open, wondered if it would be considered rude of her to point this out to the stern-featured young captain who mounted the stairs, followed by a husky and humorless-looking sergeant. No matter: Vassily, watched by an increasingly irritated Hugo, was still calling blandishments and imprecations in vain through the locked door. A long silence had fallen in the room beyond.

Both men turned and stared in shock at these new arrivals. 'Who did he call ?' muttered Vassily.

The ImpSec officer ignored them both, and turned to give a polite salute to Aunt Vorthys, whose eyes widened only briefly. 'Madame Professora Vorthys.' He extended his nod to Ekaterin. 'Madame Vorsoisson. Please forgive this intrusion. I was informed there was an altercation here. My Imperial master requests and requires me to detain all present.'

'I believe I understand, Captain, ah, Sphaleros, isn't it?' said Aunt Vorthys faintly.

'Yes, ma'am.' He ducked his head at her, and turned to Hugo and Vassily. 'Identify yourselves, please.'

Hugo found his voice first. 'My name is Hugo Vorvayne. I'm this lady's elder brother.' He gestured at Ekaterin.

Vassily came automatically to attention, his gaze riveted to the ImpSec Horus eyes on the captain's collar. 'Lieutenant Vassily Vorsoisson. Presently assigned to OrbTrafCon, Fort Kithera River. I am Nikki Vorsoisson's guardian. Captain, I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid you've had some sort of false alarm.'

Hugo put in uneasily, 'It was very wrong of him, I'm sure, but it was only a nine-year-old boy, sir, who was upset about a domestic matter. Not a real emergency. We'll make him apologize.'

'That's not my affair, sir. I have my orders.' He turned to the door, pulled a small slip of flimsy from his sleeve, glanced at a hastily scrawled note thereupon, tucked it away, and rapped smartly on the wood. 'Master Nikolai Vorsoisson?'

Nikki's voice returned, 'Who is it?'

'Ground-Captain Sphaleros, ImpSec. You are requested to accompany me.'

The lock scraped; the door swung open. Nikki, looking both triumphant and terrified, stared up at the officer, and down at the lethal weapons holstered at his hip. 'Yessir,' he croaked.

'Please come this way.' He gestured down the stairs; the sergeant stepped aside.

Vassily almost wailed, 'Why am I being arrested? I haven't done anything wrong!'

'You are not being arrested, sir,' the ground-captain explained patiently. 'You are being detained for questioning.' He turned to Aunt Vorthys and added, 'You , of course, are not detained, ma'am. But my Imperial Master earnestly invites you to accompany your niece.'

Aunt Vorthys touched her lips, her eyes alight with curiosity. 'I believe I shall, Captain. Thank you.'

The captain nodded sharply to the sergeant, who hastened to offer Aunt Vorthys his arm down the stairs. Nikki slipped around Vassily, and grabbed Ekaterin's hand in a painfully tight grip.

'But,' said Hugo, 'but, but, why ?'

'I was not told why, sir,' said the captain, in a tone devoid of either apology or concern. He unbent just enough to add, 'You'll have to ask when you get there, I suppose.'

Ekaterin and Nikki followed Aunt Vorthys and the sergeant; Hugo and Vassily perforce joined the parade. At the bottom of the stairs Ekaterin glanced down at Nikki's bare feet and yipped, 'Shoes! Nikki, where are your shoes?' A brief delay followed while she galloped rapidly around the downstairs and found one under her aunt's comconsole and the other by the kitchen door. Ekaterin clutched them both in her hand as they exited the front door.

A large, unmarked, shiny black aircar sat impressively wedged into a narrow area on the sidewalk, one corner crushing a small bed of marigolds, the other barely missing a sycamore tree. The sergeant helped both ladies and Nikki to seats in the rear compartment, and stood aside to oversee Hugo and Vassily climb in. The captain joined them. The sergeant slid into the front compartment with the driver, and the vehicle lurched abruptly into the air, scattering a few leaves and twigs and bark shreds from the sycamore. The car spun away at high speed at an altitude reserved for emergency vehicles, passing a lot closer to the tops of buildings than Ekaterin was used to flying.

Before Vassily had overcome his hyperventilation enough to even form the question, Where are you taking us? , and just as Ekaterin managed to get Nikki's feet stuffed into his shoes and the catch-strips firmly fastened, they arrived over Vorhartung Castle. The gardens around it were colorful and luxuriant with high summer growth; the river gleamed and burbled in the steep valley below. Counts' banners, indicating the Council was in session, snapped in bright rows on the battlements. Ekaterin found herself searching eagerly over Nikki's head for a brown-and-silver flag. Heavens, there it was, the silver leaf- and-mountain pattern shimmering in the sun. The parking lots and circles were all jammed. Armsmen in half a hundred different District liveries, brilliant as great birds, sat or leaned chatting among their vehicles. The ImpSec aircar came down neatly in a large, miraculously open space right by a side door.

A familiar middle-aged man in Gregor Vorbarra's own livery stood waiting. A tech waved a security scanner over each of them, even Nikki. With the captain bringing up the rear, the liveried man whisked them through two narrow corridors and past a number of guards whose arms and armor owed nothing to history and everything to technology. He ushered them into a small paneled room containing a holovid- conference table, a comconsole, a coffee machine, and very little else.

The liveried man circled the table, directing the visitors to stand behind chairs: 'You, sir, you, sir, you young sir, you ma'am.' He held out a chair only for Aunt Vorthys, murmuring, 'If you would be pleased to sit, Madame Professora Vorthys.' He glanced over his arrangements, nodded satisfaction, and ducked out a smaller door in the other wall.

'Where are we?' Ekaterin whispered to her aunt.

'I've never actually been in this room before, but I believe we are directly behind the Emperor's dais in the Counts' Chamber,' she whispered back.

'He said ,' Nikki mumbled in a faintly guilty tone, 'that this all sounded too complicated for him to sort out over the comconsole.'

'Who said that, Nikki?' asked Hugo nervously.

Ekaterin glanced past him as the smaller door opened again. Emperor Gregor, also wearing his own Vorbarra House livery today, stepped through, smiled gravely at her, and nodded at Nikki. 'Pray do not get up, Professora,' he added in a soft voice, as she made to rise. Vassily and Hugo, both looking utterly pole-axed, came to military attention. He added aside, 'Thank you, Captain Sphaleros. You may return to your duty station now.'

The captain saluted and withdrew. Ekaterin wondered if he would ever find out why this bizarre transport duty had fallen upon him, or if the day's events would forever be a mystery to him.

Gregor's liveried man, who had followed him in, held out the chair at the head of the table for his master, who remarked, 'Please be seated,' to his guests as he sank down.