The Service of the Sword

He grimaced ruefully. 'Yeah, sure, I wouldn't invite him to a friendly poker game, and I think I'd have a heart attack if my sister told me she had a crush on the guy. But. Still.'

For a moment, he groped for words. 'What I mean is this, Sir. None of us Marines are gonna shed any tears over the shitheads he whacked. Neither are you, if you'll be honest about it. Scum, to call them by their right name. For the rest of it? He had a buncha decent people beaten up some, but—being honest about it—no worse than you mighta gotten in a barroom brawl. And then the slate was clean for them, and meanwhile he's been tearing right through all the crap that's piled up in these ships.'

Yuri fingered his nose gingerly. 'You must have been in some worse barroom brawls than I ever was, Ned.'

'You don't hang out in Marine bars, Citizen Commissioner,' Pierce chuckled. 'A broken nose? Couple of missing teeth? Hell, I 'member a time a guy got his– Well, never mind.'

'Please. I grow faint at the description of mayhem. And remind me not to wander into any Marine bars in the future, would you? If you see me looking distracted, I mean.'

The citizen sergeant snorted. 'The only time I ever see you looking distracted is when Captain Justice is around.'

Yuri flushed. 'Is it that obvious?'

'Yeah, it's that obvious. For chrissake, Yuri, why don't you just ask the lady out on a date?' His eyes glanced around the room, then at the door, sizing up the surroundings. 'I grant you, entertainment's a little hard to find on a StateSec superdreadnought. But I'm sure you could figure out something.'

Yuri Radamacher had a little epiphany, then. The citizen sergeant veered away from the awkward personal moment into another tale of Cachat's Rampage. But Yuri barely heard a word of it.

His mind had wandered inward, remembering ideals he'd once believed in. How strange that a fanatic could, without intending to, create a situation where a Marine noncom would joke casually with a StateSec officer. A week ago, Radamacher had not even known the citizen sergeant's first name. Nor, a week ago, would that sergeant have dared tease a StateSec Commissioner about his love life.

The Law of Unintended Consequences, he mused. Maybe that's the rock on which all tyrannies founder in the end. And maybe freedom's real motto should be something whimsical, instead of flowery phrases about Liberty and Equality. There's a line from a Robert Burns' poem that would do nicely. 'The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agleigh.' 

6

The next day, however, it was Radamacher's own half-assumed plans which suffered the mouse's fate.

The Special Investigator showed up at Yuri's door early in the morning. To his surprise, accompanied by Citizen Captain Justice.

As he invited them in, Yuri tried to keep his eyes off of the captain. Sharon's bruises were well on their way to healing now, and she looked . . . 

Better than she ever had. Yuri realized that Citizen Sergeant Pierce's wisecrack the day before had broken through his last attempts at maintaining his personal reserve. To put it in the crude terms of a Marine, Yuri Radamacher had a serious case of the hots for Sharon Justice, and that was all there was to say about it.

The problem of what to do about it, of course, remained in all its stubborn intractability. So he told himself, firmly, as he forced his mind to concentrate on the unwelcome figure of the Special Investigator.

'Are your injuries sufficiently healed to resume your duties?' Cachat demanded. The tone of voice implied a sentence left unspoken. Or do you still insist on malingering, mired in sloth and resentment?

Yuri's jaws tightened. Law of Unintended Consequences or not, he just plain detested this young fanatic.

'Yes, Citizen Special Investigator. I am ready to resume my duties. I'll have my kit transferred—'

'Not your old duties. I have new ones for you.'

The SI nodded at Sharon. 'In light of her exoneration and your own recommendation, I've appointed Citizen Captain Justice—sorry, People's Commissioner Justice, now; the promotion is only brevet, but that's within my authority—to serve for the moment as Citizen Admiral Chin's commissioner. Citizen Commander Howard Wilkins will be replacing you as the commissioner for Citizen Commodore Ogilve.'

Yuri frowned, puzzled. 'But—'

'I shall require you to remain on board this superdreadnought. The Hector Van Dragen will be remaining in La Martine orbit while the Joseph Tilden accompanies the task force in its upcoming mission.' Cachat scowled fiercely. 'I cannot allow the needs of the ongoing investigation to impede the State's other business any longer. Three new incidents of Manticoran commerce raiding have been reported—even a case of simple piracy!—and this task force must be gotten back into action. There being no valid reason for both SDs to remain lounging about while Admiral Chin's task force resumes its work, I am assigning the Tilden to accompany them.'

Radamacher scrambled to catch up. 'But—Citizen Special Investigator—ah, no offense, but you're not a naval man—a superdreadnought really isn't suited for anti-raiding work. Not to mention—ah—'

Cachat smiled slightly. 'Not to mention that the SD captains will raise a howl of protest? Indeed they will. Indeed they have, I should say. I squelched them last night.'

Yuri was fascinated, despite himself, at the smile which remained on Cachat's face. It was the first time he'd ever seen the Special Investigator smile about anything.

It was a thin smile, naturally. But try as he might, Yuri couldn't deny that it made the man's face look even younger than usual. You might even call it an attractive face, in that moment.

'As for the other,' Cachat continued, 'while I'm no expert on naval matters, Citizen Admiral Chin is. And she assures me that she can find a suitable role for the Tilden. Given her own experience and track record—and the fact that my investigation has turned up no reason to question either her competence or her loyalty—I have ordered Citizen Captain Vesey to place the Tilden under Citizen Admiral Chin's command.'

Yuri tried to imagine how loudly Vesey must have shrieked at that news. True, Vesey wasn't as mulish and intemperate as Citizen Captain Gallanti, the CO of the Hector Van Dragen. But, like all commanding officers of StateSec capital ships, Vesey hadn't been selected for his friendly attitude toward the regular Navy.

Cachat's smile was gone, now, his usual cold expression firmly back in place.

'Citizen Captain Gallanti will naturally include her and Vesey's protests at my decision in their dispatches to Nouveau Paris. I authorized sending a courier ship today, in fact, to ensure that Vesey's remarks could be included before he left orbit. But until and unless my decision is overruled from StateSec headquarters, the decision stands. And I will see to it that it is enforced, of course, by any means necessary. Fortunately, Citizen Captain Vesey did not press the issue.'

Hey, no kidding. Who's going to 'press the issue' with a man who's already demonstrated he'll personally shoot six people in the head in the space of a few hours if he thinks it's in the line of duty? It's one thing for a mouse to bell a cat, if he thinks he can get away with it. But he's not going to debate the cat about it ahead of time, that's for sure. 

Yuri stared at Cachat, wondering if the SI's own thoughts were running on parallel lines. They . . . 

Might be. Cachat might not be an experienced naval officer. But Radamacher was quite certain that the