The Shadow of Saganami

could respond.

'Which is always messy,' Medusa agreed, and smiled impartially at the disputants. 'Admiral Khumalo and I could tell you tales about politics back home in Manticore, couldn't we, Admiral?'

'Yes.' If Khumalo was grateful for the Provisional Governor's intervention-or, at least, for the form that intervention had taken-it wasn't apparent in his expression. 'Yes, Baroness, I suppose we could.'

'Well,' Krietzmann said, his eyes flicking ever so briefly to Alquezar and then to Lababibi, 'I'm sure that's true. But I have to admit I feel more than a little concern over reports about things like that business on Montana or, if you'll forgive me, Aleksandra, this 'Freedom Alliance' Agnes Nordbrandt has proclaimed back on Kornati. I'm beginning to feel as if the house is on fire and we're too busy arguing about the color of the carpet to do anything about the flames.'

'Really, Henri.' Tonkovic's smile was scalpel-thin. 'You're being unduly alarmist. People like Westman and Nordbrandt represent a lunatic fringe which will always be with us. I'm sure they have their equivalents back on Manticore.'

'Of course we do,' Khumalo said quickly. 'Of course, the situation is different, and tempers seldom run quite so high as they are out here right this minute. And, of course-'

He broke off, and Medusa used her wineglass to hide a grimace of combined amusement and irritation. At least the pompous ass had stopped himself before he said 'Of course, we're civilized back home.'

'With all due respect, Admiral,' she said in her best diplomat's tone, 'tempers do run just as high back home.' She smiled at the Talbotter political leaders. 'As I'm sure all of you are well aware, the existing Star Kingdom is a political system with several centuries of experience and tradition behind it. As Mr. Alquezar and Ms. Tonkovic have just made clear, on the other hand, your people are still in the process of forging any Cluster-wide sense of true identity, so it's scarcely surprising your political processes should be striking more sparks, on every level. But don't make the mistake of assuming that bitter partisan political strife isn't very much alive and well back home. We've simply institutionalized its channels and managed to turn most of the bloodletting into nonphysical combat. Usually.'

Khumalo's expression had tightened at her oblique reference to the collapse of the High Ridge Government, but he nodded.

'Precisely what I meant, Madam Governor, although I doubt I could ever have put it quite that well myself.'

'I'm sure,' Krietzmann said. 'But that still leaves us with the problem of how to deal with our own crop of idiots.'

'That's exactly what they are,' Tonkovic said crisply. 'Idiots. And there aren't enough of them to constitute any serious threat. They'll subside quickly enough once the draft Constitution is approved and all of this political angst is behind us.'

'Assuming a draft ever is approved,' Krietzmann said. He accompanied the remark with a smile, but his distinctive, saw-edged, lower-class Dresden accent was more pronounced than it had been.

'Of course it will be,' she said impatiently. 'Everyone at the Convention agrees we must have a Constitution, Henri,' her voice had taken on a lecturing tone, the patience of a teacher explaining things to a slow student. She was probably completely unaware of it, but Krietzmann's mouth tightened dangerously. 'All we're seeing is a lively, healthy debate over the exact terms of that Constitution.'

'Excuse me, Aleksandra,' Alquezar said, 'but what we're seeing is a debate over what we expect the Star Kingdom to put up with. We asked to join them . As such, are we going to agree to abide by the Star Kingdom's existing domestic law and accept that it extends to every system, every planet, of the Cluster? Or are we going to demand that the Star Kingdom accept a hodgepodge of special system-by-system exemptions and privileges? Do we expect the Star Kingdom to be a healthy, well-integrated political unit in which every citizen, whatever his planet of birth or present residence, knows precisely what his legal rights, privileges, and obligations are? Or do we expect the Star Kingdom to be a ramshackle, shambling disaster like the Solarian League, where every system has local autonomy, every planet has veto power over any proposed legislation, the central government has no real control over its own house, and all actual authority lies in the hands of bureaucratic monsters like Frontier Security?'

He'd never raised his voice, but ripples of stillness spread out from the confrontation, and Tonkovic's eyes blazed with green fury.

'The people of the Talbott Cluster are the citizens of their own planets and their own star systems,' she said in a cold, flinty voice. 'We have our own histories, our own traditions, our own systems of belief and political structures. We've offered to join the Star Kingdom, to surrender our long-held sovereignties to a distant government which isn't presently ours, and in whose creation neither we nor any of our ancestors had any part. I believe it's not merely reasonable, but our overriding responsibility, as the representatives of our native planets, to ensure that our own unique identities don't simply disappear. And to ensure that the political rights we've managed to cling to aren't simply thrown away in the name of some vast, uniform code of laws which has never been any part of our own tradition.'

'But— ' Alquezar began, but Lababibi put a hand on his forearm.

'Joachim, Aleksandra-and you, too, Henri. This is a social gathering,' she said in a calm, firm voice, unconsciously echoing what Medusa had said to her several hours earlier. 'None of us is saying anything we haven't all said before, and that we won't all say again in the proper forum. But it's impolite to involve Admiral Khumalo and Captain Terekhov in our domestic, family quarrels. As your hostess, I'm going to have to request that we drop this topic for the evening.'

Alquezar and Tonkovic turned to look at her in unison. Then they looked back at each other and both of them visibly inhaled deeply.

'You're quite correct, Samiha,' Alquezar said after a heartbeat or two. 'Aleksandra, we can duel one another into bloody submission another time. For the rest of this evening, I propose a truce.'

'Accepted,' Tonkovic replied, obviously making a genuine effort to infuse a little warmth into her own voice. The two of them nodded to each other, then to the others, and turned and walked away.

* * *

' Whew! That looked like it was going to turn nasty,' Aikawa whispered in Helen's ear. The two of them stood to one side, -taking unabashed advantage of the sumptuous buffet to stoke their metabolisms. And using the effective invisibility their extremely junior status bestowed upon them to eavesdrop shamelessly on their superiors.

' Turn nasty?' Helen murmured back under cover of munching on a canape. 'Aikawa, those two-Tonkovic and Alquezar-must've been sticking daggers into each other for a long time. And that other guy, Krietzmann! He's one scary little bastard.' She shook her head. 'I sure wish I'd had the chance to read those political briefings the Captain was talking about.'

'You and me both,' Aikawa agreed. 'But did you notice the Admiral?'

'You mean besides the fact that he didn't really want the Captain talking to any of them?'

'Yeah. It seemed to me he was on both sides at once.'

'Meaning what?' she asked, turning to look at him.

'Well, he seemed to agree with what's-her-name-Tonkovic-that whatever's going on on this Montana place isn't all that serious. Nothing to really worry about. But it looked to me as if he really agreed politically with the other two, Alquezar and Krietzmann.'

'Of course he did. And so would I. Agree with the other two, I mean.'

'Yeah,' Aikawa said, but his expression was troubled, and she raised an eyebrow at him. 'I just wish I knew what the Captain really thinks about all this,' he said after a moment, answering the unspoken question.

Helen considered that for a few seconds, then nodded.

'Me, too,' she said. 'Me, too.'

Chapter Thirteen