March To The Stars

grandfather's only child, there was no way the Regiment was willing to risk her at all. She rarely even got to leave the palace grounds.'

'Frankly, I could care less about Mother's problems,' Roger said coldly, swinging back in his harness as Poertena altered the cat's course slightly.

'Maybe not,' the sergeant major replied. 'But you've had more experience with 'real people' in the last six months than she has in her whole life. The closest she ever got to dealing with anyone but Imperial functionaries and politicians was the Academy. And even there, she spent the whole time still wrapped in cotton. They wouldn't even consider having her do live zero-G drills—not out of atmosphere, at least. It all had to be in simulators, where there was no possibility of exposing her to death pressure. And if they never let her do that, you can just imagine how much less likely they were to let her do things like, oh—just as an example that comes from the top of my head, you understand—leading a charge into a barbarian horde. And no cut-ups like Julian were allowed within a kilometer of her.'

'And your point is?' Roger asked. He leaned further outward and dangled his hand into the water as a slightly stronger puff of wind hit the sail. 'Speaking of risks, you do realize that if there are any of those giant coll around, we're toast?'

'That sort of is the point,' Kosutic said soberly. 'Imperial City is filled with professional politicians and noble flunkies, most of whom have never had to scramble for money to supply a unit in the field. Who've never been exposed to 'lower class' conditions. Who have never slept on the ground, never gone to bed hungry. In some cases, that means people who not only don't understand the majority of the population of the Empire, but who also don't like them or care about them. And in other cases—which I happen to think are worse—they don't understand them, but they idealize them. They think there's a special dignity to poverty. Or a special quality to being born into misery and dying in it.'

'Saint Symps,' Despreaux said.

'And various soclibs,' Kosutic agreed. 'Especially the older style pro-Ardane redistributionists.'

'There's at least an argument there,' Roger said. 'I mean, too much concentration of power, and you're not much better off than under the Dagger Lords.' He paused and grinned. 'On the other hand, I know you're all a bunch of low-lifes!'

'And if you live entirely by what you think is 'the will of the people,' you get the Solar Union,' Kosutic continued, pointedly ignoring the prince's last comment.

'Pockers,' Poertena growled, and spat over the side.

'Yeah, Armagh mostly sat that one out,' the sergeant major admitted. 'But Pinopa got it bad.'

'What really burned some of the early members of the Family was that the ISU used Roger MacClintock's policies as their 'model' for that idiocy,' Roger said. 'Prez Roger, that is. Roger the Unifier. But without accepting the societal sacrifices that were necessary. And then, when it all came apart, they tried to blame us!'

'I could kind of understand getting involved in planetary reconstruction,' Despreaux commented. 'Some of those planets were even worse off than Armagh. But leaving your main base completely uncovered was just idiotic.'

'And why did they do that?' Kosutic asked, and proceeded to answer her own question. 'They had to. They were already so wrapped up with social welfare programs that they couldn't build the sort of fleet and garrison force they needed and still be redistributionist. So they depended on bluff, sent the entire damned fleet off to try to do some planet-building, and the Daggers nipped in and ate the Solar System's lunch.'

'The Daggers were very good at killing the golden goose,' Roger said. 'But we—the MacClintocks, that is —learned that lesson pretty well.'

'Did we?' Kosutic asked. 'Did we really?'

'Oh, no,' Roger moaned. 'This isn't another one of those 'let's not tell Roger,' things, is it?'

'No.' The sergeant major laughed, but her eyes were on the native ship they'd come to meet, and her gaze was wary as Poertena wore around its stern, preparing to come alongside to port. 'But take a good look at your grandfather's career,' she continued, 'and then tell me we've learned. Another person who'd never worked a day in his life and thought the lower classes were somehow magical. And, therefore, that they should be coddled, paid, and overprotected ... at the expense of the Fleet and the Saint borders.'

'Well, that's one mistake I would never make as Emperor,' Roger joked as Poertena completed his maneuver. 'I know you're all a bunch of lying, lazy pockers.'

'Be about time to hail,' Poertena said. The ship and the catamaran were about a hundred meters apart now, on near parallel headings, with the cat slightly to the rear of the much larger merchant ship. Since that put the wind at their stern, Poertena had brought the sail in until it was luffing and dangerously close to jibing, or falling over to the other side of the boat. It might make them a little anxious about collisons between things like heads and booms, but it also slowed them down enough that they wouldn't pass the slower Mardukan ship.

'Get us a little closer,' Roger ordered as he unclipped the harness and secured it to the mast. 'I need to be able to hear their reply. And I don't see any guns.'

'Odd, that,' Kosutic said. 'I agree we need to get closer, but if those are pirates, or even letters of marque, chasing them, you'd think they would have defenses. And I don't even see a swivel gun.'

'Something else to ask about,' Roger said as Poertena fell off to starboard. The change quickly filled the sail, set as it was for a reach, and the cat began skipping across the rolling swell.

'Shit!' Despreaux flattened herself and tried to figure out where to move as it suddenly seemed obvious that the cat was about to go clear over on its side.

'Hooowah!' the prince said with a laugh, throwing his weight back outboard again to offset the heel. 'Don't dunk us, for God's sake, Poertena! We're trying to show our good side.'

'And I cannot swim,' Cord added.

'Lifejackets!' Roger laughed. 'I knew we forgot something!'

'T'is close enough?' Poertena asked as he brought the boat back to port with a degree more caution. They had closed to within sixty meters or so, and the Mardukan ship's crew was clearly evident, lining the side, many of them with weapons in their hands.

'Close enough,' Roger agreed, then stood back up and grasped a line to stay steady. 'Try not to flop us around too much.'

'What? And have you get all wet and sloppy?' Despreaux said.

'Hea'en forbid!' Poertena laughed. 'I try. Never know, though.'

'You'd better,' Kosutic growled. 'Straight and steady.'

* * *

'Just keep us on this heading,' Kerr said to the helmsman. 'They don't seem to be threatening us. And I don't see what they'd be able to do with that dinky little boat, anyway.'

'Who are they?' Pelu asked.

'How the hell do I know?' Kerr shot back in exasperation. 'They look like giant vern, but that's crazy.'

'What do we do if they want to come aboard?'

'We let them,' Kerr answered after a moment. 'Their ships can run rings around us, and I think those ports showing on the sides are for bombards. If they are, there's not much we can do but heave to and do whatever they say.'

'It's not like you just to give up,' Pelu protested.

'They're not Lemmar, and they're not Fire Priests,' Kerr pointed out. 'Given the choice of them, or the Lemmar and the priests, I'll always take the unknown.'

* * *

'Here goes nothing,' Roger said.

'What language are you going to use?' Despreaux asked.

'The kernel that came with the program. It's probably taken from the tribes around the starport, and we're finally getting close to that continent. Hopefully it will at least be familiar to them for a change.' He cleared his throat.

'Hullo the ship!'