Van frowned. Why would Marti have included an item about the Revenant takeover of yet another independent system—and quoted an RSF sub-marshal? He read on, but the rest of the article shed no light on why, and from what he’d seen of Colonel Marti, what Van had received was all that Marti was prepared to offer.
…the location of the RSFS Collyns remains unknown, and the Taran Republic has repeatedly stated that the Collyns is “engaged in sensitive operations” and that the RSF is unable to comment further at present…sources indicate that the RSFS Fergus will be replaced on station in Scandya by a cruiser of the Addams class…vessel close to dreadnought capabilities…
Van nodded slowly. Marti had known, and probably Major Murikami had known about the pending transfer of the Fergus, yet there was nothing in the embassy system that had told Van. He could only speculate on what else he didn’t know, and he didn’t have enough information to speculate accurately.
While there was not a single item in the text reports that by itself made a definitive prediction on what might happen in Gotland, the assemblage was chilling to Van. And he couldn’t see that there was much that he could do—except watch. He could have reported the information on the Fergus, but his gut told him that would be counterproductive—and most unwise.
Chapter 19
Van did not sleep well sevenday or eightday night, and was up early on oneday, scanning the news summaries, the RSF briefing items, and following what he thought was the least biased Scandyan all-news stream: UpNews.
…timed for Independence Week celebrations, yesterday’s demonstration in Government Square sent thirty people to the medcenters, including an eight-year-old girl who had been playing in Independence Park. She was struck by a rock thrown by one of the demonstrators when it was caught by a constable’s malfunctioning shield unit…broken arm, but expected to recover…Whether the Conservative Democrats will recover from the public outcry against the demonstration is another question. The CDs had staged the event to protest the effort on the part of Liberal Commons members to extend debate on space defense funding…
Floor Leader Haarlan had this to say. “Less than a month ago, there was a space battle at the fringe of our system. No one reported it, not even the commander of the victorious vessel, who was promptly transferred—to a diplomatic post right here in Valborg. This transfer was also concealed, or at least no one had the courtesy to inform us, a certain sign of lack of respect. Without an adequate defense force, how can we maintain our independence, let alone hold the respect of other Arm governments…” Rebutting this was Liberal Commons line whip Svensen. “The space force being pushed by the CDs is well beyond the economic and financial capabilities of Scandya. Long before those ships were ready, we would be bankrupt and once more purchased hectare by hectare, manufactory by manufactory, by the Argentis, who have already purchased thousands of enterprises driven to the wall by excessive CD taxation…”
Absently, Van lowered the volume. The problem seemed insoluble everywhere. Prosperity and social stability rested on high levels of education and research, and high levels of spending on those resulted in innovation and progress—making a system attractive for takeover, either economic or military—unless it maintained a solid defense force. But…for a system to maintain enough power to protect itself, it had to levy higher taxes. That meant lowering levels of social and medical services, and increasing social unrest. And with lower levels of educational and research expenditures, the defense forces tended to lag behind others in capabilities, and that led to less ability to hold on to economic and military advantages.
A larger government—such as the Argentis or the Revenants—could funnel funds from many systems into concentrated research, and since, once discovered, knowledge was easily transferable within a political structure, it was far easier to maintain both an increasing technological and knowledge base and a military structure. Scandya—and to a lesser degree, the Keltyr and the Republic—had a much harder time balancing that. With system or planetary governments largely controlling interstellar travel, it was far easier to restrict technology transfer than in the ancient days when all humankind had lived on one planet.
He turned to the holo projection, now beaming a commercial message.
…and marriage is a sacred covenant between a man and a woman, an old and cherished covenant that has stood behind the faith and values that mankind has always cherished…see what marriage truly is…read the Book of the Prophet, free from the Community of the Revealed…
Van flipped off the holo and checked the time. Nine hundred. Using his implant, he accessed the embassy netsystem and made the contact with the Keltyr embassy. “Commander Ayrllis Salucar, please. This is Commander Van Albert of the Republic of Tara’s embassy.”
“One moment, Commander,” replied the AI taking the call—the image of a pleasant-looking and friendly woman.
Van waited.
The AI image smiled. “Commander Salucar is free at fourteen hundred. Would that be satisfactory?”
“I’ll be there at fourteen hundred.”
Van broke the connection and went back to the embassy-generated news summary. There was no mention of any out-system news, military or otherwise. After a month, he still had seen no RSF or Republic reports on the Collyns—even on the internal data circulated on the secure net—and no references to the Fergus, although the update summary listed the Fergus as still under repair off Gotland orbit control.
Van went on to the other items in his routine, from writing comments on the costs of refitting a dreadnought for Cordelia Gregory to continuing his analysis of the Scandyan SDF and reviewing critically all the information that Commodore Petrov had dropped on him. He’d read through it all once, but he had the feeling that he’d missed too much. So he was going back through each of the items more carefully—as he had time.
At fourteen hundred
