East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Chapter Ten

When Herzer walked into the kitchen the next morning, Megan was sitting in the breakfast nook, her elbows on the table and her head clutched in her hands. Shanea was lying back in her chair, eyes closed, mouth open, breathing slowly. She’d apparently taken time to do her hair and makeup so she looked like a very pretty corpse.

Herzer tiptoed across the room to the percolator and started to get out the makings.

“Is there any coffee?” Shanea said, softly, smacking her lips. “I have this… really familiar taste in my mouth.”

Megan groaned, softly, and shook her head.

“GOOD morning, troops!” Duke Edmund said, striding through the door.

“I do not need this,” Megan muttered, clutching her head. “I can’t turn you into a newt.”

“I think I can take one more soldier,” Shanea muttered.

“Have a fine time last night?” Edmund asked jovially.

“No,” Megan said. “Ashly is dead.”

“And everyone else is alive,” Edmund replied, sharply. “That is a very good thing.”

“Except for the nearly getting killed part, I had a good time last night,” Shanea said. “What I remember of it.”

“And I’ve never seen a group of more satisfied guards,” Edmund admitted.

“What, all of them?” Herzer asked.

“According to reports,” Edmund said with a nod.

“Good lord,” Herzer said, shaking his head.

“All of them sounds about right,” Shanea said. “Is the coffee ready yet? I mean, it tastes good at first but the aftertaste… yick.”

“Shanea,” Megan muttered. “You didn’t.”

“She did indeed,” Edmund replied. “But it’s okay. The guards are quite… discreet.”

“Closed mouthed,” Herzer said. “Unlike some around here.”

“Herzer,” Megan said, threateningly. “We were nearly killed. Don’t be…” She stopped and looked up at him. “What did we do last night?”

“You slept,” Herzer said evenly, finally getting the coffee going. “I put blankets on Mirta and Meredith and then checked the guards. After that, I slept.”

“Oh, God,” Megan muttered. “I’m sorry, Herzer.”

“It’s okay,” Herzer said, sitting down.

“Hold it,” she said, sharply. “What do you mean you checked the guards?”

“Some of them,” he snapped. “Not all of them.”

“Herzer wasn’t there,” Shanea said. “Herzer I’m sure I would have remembered.” She frowned and wriggled a bit. “Yeah. Herzer definitely wasn’t there.”

“Did you know that Daneh was raped right after the Fall?” Edmund asked Megan.

“Yes,” Megan replied, glancing at Herzer who was still looking, if anything, more pissed. Given that it was a rape he’d been unable to stop, it was not his favorite topic of conversation.

“I’m not talking about Herzer’s burdens in it,” Edmund said. “I’m talking about Daneh. And me. She took… quite a while to get over it. And even after we were having conjugal relations, there were still problems. But she did get over it, as over it as any woman can. When you’re done with this mission, if you’re still having problems, or even not, I’d strongly recommend that you have a long talk with her. Or many. There are specialists around as well. But while she doesn’t do it as a specialty, she’s probably one of the best rape counselors in the world. And she’s my wife so you can talk to her about things that you couldn’t talk to with the vast majority of the counselors. And there are things that you cannot… understand, without talking to someone who knows. Including, among other things, irrational jabs of jealousy.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Megan said dryly.

“Don’t ‘keep it in mind,’ ” Edmund said, firmly. “Do it. End of discussion. Given the events of last night, and by that let me make plain that I’m discussing the attack, we’re moving up the shift to the training facility. You should be out of here by tomorrow—”

“I have meetings scheduled—” Megan snapped.

“Cancel them,” Edmund replied. “We’ve got the training facility surrounded by a fortified camp, now, with the whole Seventh Legion parked around it. If these things can get through six thousand legionnaires, we might as well throw in the towel now!”

“Oooh,” Shanea said. “More soldiers!” She paused and her pretty brow furrowed. “Six thousand… how long will that take…?”

Herzer had already done the math.

“Two hundred nights,” he sighed.

“Damn,” Shanea muttered. “Not even a year!”

“You could repeat,” Herzer pointed out.

“What’s the fun in that?”

Megan groaned and buried her face in her hands.

“Van Krief, Destrang,” Herzer said as the lieutenants entered the apartment. “Good to see you again. The lieutenant’s pips look good on you.”

“Commander,” Lieutenant Van Krief replied, formally. Amosis Van Krief was a small, heavily muscled blonde with her hair pulled back in a bun to reveal a face all made of angled planes. Small, sharp, nose, square jaw and high cheekbones.

“Hey, Herzer,” Destrang said, waving languidly. The lieutenant was tall as his counterpart was short, with light brown hair that was worn a tad long and long, rangy limbs that were covered with whipcord muscles. Where Van Krief seemed to march everywhere, her face pushed forward as if she were looking for a wall to smash, Destrang could stroll while marching in formation. “It’s got to be bad if you’ve called us for help.”

“Actually, I just recalled that you’d never finished that paper on the Inchon Campaigns and I thought this would give you an opportunity,” Herzer replied with a grin.

At that, Destrang had the grace to look abashed at least.

Herzer had been an instructor at the Officer Basic course when he was drawn out to accompany Duke Edmund to Newfell Base. That was where the new fleet was being formed and as they approached their first real conflict Queen Sheida came to the conclusion that an unbiased and knowledgeable observer was in order. Edmund had tapped Herzer to accompany him and instructed him to pull three of the ensigns in the school as aides. Herzer had chosen Van Krief, Destrang and Tao.

The trio had ended up doing far more than serving hors d’oeuvres. After the fleet commander showed himself to be disastrously inept, Edmund had been put in command of rebuilding the fleet and the follow-on battles that the victorious New Destiny pushed. Van Krief and Destrang had been unwilling participants in the Fleet battles while Tao, who had grown up with horses, rode over half the continent, arriving with the cavalry reinforcements to cap the victory over New Destiny’s invading legions.

“I’ve been tapped with another mission,” Herzer said, letting him off the hook. “The information load is getting too heavy so I asked Edmund for some staff.”

“And what is the mission, sir?” Van Krief asked.

“Come on in the living room,” Herzer replied. “And I’ll give you an initial brief.”

When he was done, Van Krief shook her head.

“Is it just me, sir, or do I detect a lack of enthusiasm?”

“No, it’s not just you,” Herzer said. “I don’t see a good way to win this one. I know I can stalemate it, crash the ship in other words, but I don’t see a good way to ensure we get the majority of the fuel and New Destiny gets virtually none. I’ve got an idea how we can get most of what comes down, but not a way to win. I don’t like half victories. And we don’t have enough in the way of intel.”

“That’s hardly a new phenomenon,” Destrang said, shaking his head.

“And that’s going to be your job,” Herzer said, handing him a sealed envelope. “This is to be delivered to Colonel Torill at War Headquarters, Office of Special Operations. He’s our liaison at Headquarters. He’ll give you your access, including to UFS Intel Group. Get with their analysts. Look for any scrap of intel that might relate to this mission. You’ll be staying in Washan, probably working out of this building.”

“Yes, sir,” Destrang said, smiling faintly. “A capital city tour sounds much preferable to being thrown into the breach in a burning spaceship.”

Herzer grinned at him, knowing that Destrang only half meant it. The lieutenant was one of the few officers he’d met who combined a dilettante’s manner with a real feel for battle. He was as comfortable in the middle of a skirmish as he was at a dinner party. The latter was one of the reasons he’d given him this task, however.

“I understand Tao is on the way as well, sir,” Van Krief said.

“He was up with Second Legion in Balmoran,” Herzer said. “He should be here soon. You will be working on the operations order for the mission. Tao’s going to be courier for the intel Destrang develops and working with the councilwoman’s security detail. Among other things as an officer escort.”

“For the councilwoman?” Destrang asked. “Lucky chap.”

“No,” Herzer said. “For her assistants. You might have noticed that things are a bit confused around here today. We had an attack on the building last night. I’m not sure if it was directed at Megan or because New Destiny got wind we were forming another team. Whichever it was, security has been increased. And that includes for the councilwoman’s aides.”

“Ah,” Destrang said. “Well, bully on Gerson.”

“Herzer?” Shanea asked from the door. “Do you want anything?” She had gotten over her hangover and was looking as perky as usual. If anything, more perky.

“No, thank you, Shanea,” Herzer said.

“Was that one of the councilwoman’s aides?” Destrang asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Herzer said, grimacing.

“Didn’t mention that, did you, sir?” Destrang asked, grinning.

“One of them will be staying here, as well,” Herzer noted. “Meredith is Megan’s political aide. She’ll be staying here to keep an eye on some of the political actions Megan has been pushing.” Herzer paused and frowned, trying to figure out how to put what he wanted to say into words. “You’re aware, in general, of Megan’s background?”

“Yes, sir,” Van Krief said sharply. “We are.”

“Well, all of her… assistants came from the same source,” Herzer said. “You’ll both be meeting Meredith I’m sure.” He looked at Destrang, frowning and shrugged. “I’d strongly advise against setting your lance, Lieutenant. Strongly advise against it. Meredith can kill your career with a word and… she would do so if you gave her offense. Clear?”

“Clear,” Destrang said quietly.

“She can be rather… cold when you first get to know her,” Herzer continued. “And generally stays that way.”

“Clear,” Destrang repeated.

“Just… use your best judgment,” Herzer said. “And speaking of best judgment; you’re both going to be exposed to some very high level information in this job. And Destrang, at least, is going to be moving around people who are not cleared for this information. Don’t be a source, understand?”

“Yes, sir,” the lieutenants chorused.

“Destrang, you’ve been working in intel for the last few months?”

“I’ve been analyzing data from some of the activity in the southwest, sir,” Destrang said. “It’s all been low-level stuff and the position is only classified confidential.”

“Any training on how to avoid giving away information?” Herzer asked.

“Oh, and in gathering it, sir,” Destrang said with a chuckle. “Done a bit of it just to keep in training. You approach a person in a natural setting, give them a tidbit of information that indicates that you know all about what they’re doing then ‘talk shop.’ There are other techniques.”

“How do you guard against it?” Herzer asked. He realized as he asked the question that he had never had a class in information control. Generally, he just didn’t talk about anything that might be useful information.

“Never discuss your job with anyone you don’t know is cleared, sir,” Destrang answered. “When someone you don’t know is cleared wants to talk shop, talk shop about their job or change the subject. Never admit that anything they say as an assumption is true.”

“Hmph,” Herzer said, wondering how many times he’d been probed over the years. He also knew that one of the first rules of leadership is knowing when to admit ignorance and when not. “Good answer. Keep it in mind in this job. You, too, Van Krief.”

“Yes, sir,” Destrang said.

“How long have you been living here, sir?” Van Krief asked, changing the subject.

“Four months,” Herzer said. “I’ve been assigned to ops working on warplans for the upcoming invasion. And, of course, swaining Megan around to parties,” he added, frowning. “But that’s out the window for the time being. We’ll be leaving sometime tomorrow. This afternoon, I’ll brief in Van Krief on what we’re looking at. This evening I’ve got meetings with command on preliminary plans.”

“And those are?” Van Krief asked.

“When I figure that out, I’ll tell you,” Herzer admitted.

“So that’s what we’re looking at,” Herzer said, gesturing at the schematic that was laid out on the living room floor. “We won’t know where we’re going to dock until we get there. No team can be trained to simply go for a single objective because it will depend upon where they dock. And there are three potential objectives. Which one we strike at first depends on the distribution of our forces.”

“That’s why they went with all soldiers in the first wave,” Van Krief said, nodding at the briefing papers.

“Right,” Herzer said. “And they were going to bore for the control center, no matter what. Unless we’re concentrated near the control center, I’m going to bore for the one spot nobody should care about.”

“Where?” Van Krief asked, sliding her hand over the schematic. “Engineering?”

“Nope,” Herzer said. “Maintenance.”