“Lieutenant Harry Wilson,” I said, finishing her sentence.
Lowen looked at the both of us. “You two have met before, also?”
“We have,” I said.
“I’m popular,” Wilson said, to Lowen.
“That’s not the word I would have used,” she said, and smiled.
“If memory serves, the last time we met there were also exploding starships,” I said, to Wilson.
“That’s odd,” Lowen said. “The last time I saw Harry, there were exploding starships, too.”
“It’s coincidental,” Wilson said, looking at Lowen and then at me.
I smiled at him. “Is it?”
PART THREE
“I didn’t expect you to challenge me so much on my request to come back alive,” Tarsem Gau said to me, as I entered his office after the rescue mission.
Tarsem’s private office was, as ever, cramped; after years in spaceships and their tiny spaces Tarsem still felt most comfortable in close quarters. Fortunately I was not claustrophobic, and I agreed with the political wisdom of his personal office being smaller than that of even the most undistinguished Conclave representative. The office was even smaller than the one given to the human envoy, which I suspect might shock Ms. Byrne. Fortunately Tarsem kept a sitting pedestal for me so I did not have to crimp my neck.
“If you don’t want me to almost die, you shouldn’t task me to missions where dying is a real possibility,” I remarked, sitting. “Or at the very least don’t put me on missions where the pilot is a mad Fflict.”
“I could have zim disciplined, if you would like.”
“What I would like is for you to give zim a commendation for quick thinking and admirable piloting, and never put me on another of zis shuttles.”
Tarsem smiled. “You have no sense of adventure.”
“I do have a sense of adventure,” I said. “It’s overawed by my sense of self-preservation.”
“I don’t mind that.”
“Nor do you seem to mind testing the proposition, from time to time.”
“I don’t want you to be bored.”
“I am, alas, never that,” I said. “And now with chatty preliminaries out of the way, I want to impress upon you what an utter disaster this entire event has been for us.”
“I thought it went rather well,” Tarsem said. “The humans were saved, the Odhiambo was successfully destroyed without collateral damage to headquarters or other ships, and thanks to the actions of your mad Fflict in rescuing the stragglers, we remain in the good graces of Earth, and even got a tiny bit of credit with the Colonial Union diplomats for rescuing one of their own.”
“A thin skin of self-congratulation on a rather messy pudding,” I countered. “Which includes the very likely fact of an enemy action against the Odhiambo in our own space, which we neither saw coming nor could defend against, the fact that now we are no longer able to keep separate the humans from the Colonial Union and the Earth, as we intended to do for these discussions, and the fact that all of this plays perfectly well into the plans of those who are even now gathering against you in the Grand Assembly.”
“I seem to recall you arguing to save the human diplomats,” Tarsem said. “And me taking that advice.”
“You were going to attempt to save the diplomats regardless of what I advised,” I said, and Tarsem smiled at this. “And the decision to save them was more important than mere politics. Nevertheless, saving them will be seen by your enemies as proof of your regard for the humans, not a sign of basic decency.”
“I don’t see why I should care how they see it. Anyone with intelligence will understand what happened.”
“Anyone who isn’t blinded by ambition and frustration with the Conclave will understand it. But those who are blinded will choose not to see it, as you well know. They will also choose to see Colonials rescuing the earthlings as hugely significant, which it is.”
“You don’t think any ship so close would have made the attempt to rescue those diplomats?”
“No,” I said. “I think the humans might have made the attempt regardless. These particular humans, at the very least.”
“You think well of the Colonials.”
“I think well of Ambassador Abumwe and her team, including their CDF liaison,” I said. “I wouldn’t trust their government with a cooking fire, and I don’t advise you do, either, no matter what comes out of Ambassador Abumwe’s mouth in your meeting with her.”
“Noted,” Tarsem said.
“Even the two sets of humans arriving within a serti of each other will be augured as consequential,” I said, returning to the topic at hand. “And this was an easily avoidable blunder, as I warned you not to meet with the Colonials.”