Ashes Of Victory

Sergeant Hughes' presence.

'You said it was important we meet,' Mueller noted, and Baird nodded.

'Yes, My Lord. First, I wanted to discuss additional funding arrangements with you. My organization has just come into a small windfall — one which would allow us to contribute another three-quarters of a million austens to your campaign funds, assuming we can do so without attracting the Sword's attention.'

'Three-quarters of a million?' Mueller scratched his chin thoughtfully, managing to keep the elation from his expression. 'Ummm. I think we can handle that. We have a mass rally in Coleman Steading week after next. It's an outdoor picnic, with entertainment, and we're expecting several thousand people. Most of them wouldn't be able to contribute more than a few austens under normal circumstances, but enough of them are members of our team that I think we could pass the money through them. It would have to be in cash, though. As long as it's in cash, they can always tell anyone who asks that they were keeping it at home under the mattress because they didn't trust banks, and no one can prove they weren't. Electronic trails are much harder to hide.'

'I believe we can make it in cash,' Baird agreed. 'Actually, we'd prefer that ourselves. As you say, breaking the transfer trail protects all of us.'

'Good!' Mueller beamed, and Baird smiled back. But then his smile faded, and he uncrossed his legs to lean forward in his chair.

'In the meantime, My Lord, there's another point which needs to be considered. Were you aware that the Protector intends to introduce an additional bundle of reforms and associated measures before the next Conclave of Steadholders?'

'I've heard some talk of it,' Mueller said a bit cautiously. 'No details, I'm afraid. The Protector's become much too good at keeping secrets for my peace of mind. Unfortunately—' he shrugged '—he and Prestwick have almost completely replaced the appointees the Keys had installed before the `Restoration.' While they remained in place, and remembered who they owed their positions and loyalty to, we still got occasional but valuable peeks inside the Protector's Council and the Sword ministries. Since then—'

He raised one hand, palm uppermost, then made a throwing away gesture.

'I understand, My Lord,' Baird said sympathetically. 'But while we never had the access the Keys originally had, we haven't lost as much of it since the `Restoration,' either. We still get fairly frequent reports, and while they're from considerably lower in the chain than the sorts of sources you and your fellow Keys might have counted on earlier, combining them gives us a reasonably accurate picture of what Benjamin plans. And what he plans this time around we find particularly disturbing.'

'Ah?' Mueller sat more upright, and Baird smiled without humor.

'You've heard about San Martin's petition to join the Star Kingdom, My Lord?'

'Yes,' Mueller said slowly but with a hint of asperity. 'Yes, of course I have. It's been in all the 'faxes for several weeks now.'

'I know it has, My Lord.' Baird sounded almost apologetic. 'My question was a way of introducing the topic. I didn't intend to suggest you aren't alert to such events.'

Mueller grunted and nodded for him to continue, and Baird settled back again.

'As I'm sure you know from those 'fax accounts, My Lord, both houses of the San Martin Congress have requested admission as the Star Kingdom's fourth world. The vote in favor of seeking annexation was much higher than most outsiders would have expected, I think, especially given how strenuously the San Martinos had demanded a return to local autonomy. But when you look carefully at the exact language of their request, it becomes evident that they aren't really giving up that autonomy. As we understand the proposed arrangements, San Martin would become a member world of the Star Kingdom, with a planetary governor proposed by the Queen and approved by the San Martin Senate. The governor would head a Governor's Council, with members selected in equal numbers by the Queen and by the Planetary Assembly. The planetary president would automatically be the chairman of the council — in effect, the Prime Minister of San Martin in the Crown's name — and the citizens of San Martin would elect two sets of legislators: one to sit in the Assembly, working with the governor and his council as the local legislative body, and one to sit in the House of Commons back on Manticore. Several questions still require attention, like whether or not the Queen will create a peerage for San Martin, but essentially what they're proposing is a relationship in which the planet would be integrated into the Star Kingdom, but only with several layers of insulation designed to protect San Martin's existing domestic institutions and prevent them from simply disappearing into the Manticore's maw, as it were.'

Mueller nodded. He'd already known all of that, but he felt no impatience at being told over again. Mostly because of how impressed he was with Baird's summation. It was unusual for most of Mueller's allies, even (or perhaps especially) among the Keys, to look beyond domestic politics, since it was the threat to their traditions and way of life which had motivated them in the first place. Even those who ever got their noses out of Grayson tended to restrict themselves to matters which concerned their own world's position in and obligations to the Manticoran Alliance and the waging of the war against Haven. Very few of them had any attention to spare for matters further afield than that, and the fact that Baird, whose organization, by his own admission, was composed mainly of members of the lower classes, had analyzed the San Martin proposals in such depth came as a considerable surprise.

'I apologize for restating things I'm certain you already knew, My Lord,' Baird told him, 'but there was a reason for my redundancy. You see, according to our sources, San Martin is likely to figure rather largely in the `associated measures' the Sword plans to submit to the Keys. Which is because Chancellor Prestwick and certain other members of the Protector's Council are urging the Protector to seek similar status for Grayson.'

'What?!' Mueller came half-way to his feet. He froze there, staring at Baird in complete shock, and the other man nodded soberly.

'We have similar reports from several sources, My Lord,' he said quietly. 'There are minor differences between them. There always are. But the core information is the same in all of them. Apparently the Chancellor and his allies believe that if the Star Kingdom can annex San Martin under an arrangement which guarantees that the planet's local institutions will remain largely untouched, it can do the same in Grayson's case.'

'That's preposterous! Lunacy!' Mueller shook himself like an enraged bull. 'The Alliance and our forced association with its members already threatens all our most sacred institutions. Surely even that idiot Prestwick has to see that any closer association would spell the death knell of our entire way of life! We would be secularized, dragged into the same sort of degenerate society and lax morals as the damned Manticorans!'

And the Keys' power and authority would also be drastically curbed, he thought furiously. Benjamin Mayhew's 'reforms' had already immensely bolstered the power of the Sword to intervene in matters which ought to be left to the control of the steadholders. Always in the name of fairness and uniform, universal application of those reforms rather than to encompass the gradual, systematic destruction of the Keys' historic autonomy, of course... not that Mueller or any of his allies were fooled. But if the accursed Manticorans were given an open invitation to poke their devil-spawned noses into domestic affairs which were none of their damned business, things would only get worse. And the forced association of Grayson's steaders, and especially Grayson's youth, with the corrupt society of Manticore, with all its material wealth and temptations, would have catastrophic effects on the stability of the planet's social order.

'My friends and I certainly agree with you, My Lord.' Baird's voice was far calmer than Mueller's. 'But I think that may be the entire point. The Chancellor does know what it would mean for our traditional institutions... and that's precisely what he actually wants. All the assurances of local autonomy and the inviolability of our religion and institutions would be no more than camouflage for his true intention: to `reform' our world right into a slavish duplicate of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.'

'Damn him,' Mueller hissed. 'Damn his soul to Hell!'

'Please, My Lord. I realize this has come as a shock to you, and I, too, am dismayed and angered by the potential for our way of life's destruction, but the Tester and Comforter tell us we must not lose our own souls to hate.'

Mueller glared at the other man for several tense seconds, then closed his eyes and sucked in an enormous breath. He held it for another five or ten seconds, then exhaled noisily, opened his eyes, and nodded choppily.

'You're right, I suppose,' he said, and actually managed to sound as if he meant it. 'And I'll try to to remember that I ought to be able to hate the consequences of another's acts without letting that drive me into