"Nor do I." Asano smiled warmly at Akira. "You are every bit your father's son. Never forget that." He bowed deeply, then straightened and walked from the platform.
Having returned his bow, Akira likewise stepped from the stage. He bowed again toward where his father had died, then turned and walked to Morgan Kell. "I would be grateful if you. could find a place in your command for a humble MechWarrior."
Morgan offered him his hand. "Your request honors us. Welcome to the Kell Hounds."
53
New Avalon
Cruris March, Federated Suns
16 November 3029
Justin looked up from the front row of the audience in Avalon City's Notre Dame Cathedral as Prince Hanse Davion took his place at the podium. His heart pounded heavily in his chest, and Justin thought to himself that it hadn't beat this hard when he used to wait for a fight on Solaris to begin. Smiling at his nervousness, he reached out with his right hand and covered Candace's left.
The Prince nodded his thanks to Cardinal Maraschal. "Thank you for that invocation, Cardinal." He faced the packed crowd in the cathedral, then adjusted the podium light to shine more directly on the text of his speech. Taking a deep breath, he began.
"The war means different things to different people. To soldiers in the front lines, war is long periods of utter boredom punctuated by moments of unrelenting terror. Machines the size of buildings stalk over the surface of a world destroying anything that opposes them. The weapons they use are hellishly powerful; the scars they leave on people, places, and things never heal.
"Those left behind at home face a different challenge. Their terror, while more subtle, is equally uncompromising. Is the next visiphone call going to tell you your husband has been killed? When you scan your electronic mail, or get a message from ComStar, will you learn that your son or daughter is being shipped home in an urn? Or worse yet, will that soldier at your doorstep tell you that your grandson is missing, but the AFFS is doing everything they can to find him?"
As the Prince's strong voice filled the church, Justin glanced over at Candace and then beyond at her brother Tormana's smiling face. We both thought he'd been killed in the first waves of the war. I've never seen Candace as happy as she was when the Prince reunited them.
Hanse Davion continued eloquently. "Despite these burdens borne by those on the front or at home, we can take comfort in one thing. At all times we know who we are and what we are a part of. We are not ashamed of letting this pride show through because it reinforces our confidence and belief in our society. It confirms the correctness of our mission and gives all of our efforts meaning. Seeing this confidence and pride reflected back from the others around us is the ultimate reward and sustains us even in the darkest times."
Hanse shifted the top sheet of his text to the bottom of the pile. "This is not true of a third class of individual working in our war effort. These people have to subsume what and who they are to fulfill their role in the war. For some, this means they must forge a whole new identity to perform their duties. For others, the job is to become more than they ever wanted to be. The stress of leading such a dual life would tear anyone apart at the best of times, but in a time of war, the pressure can be lethal."
Hanse looked up at his audience. "This evening, we are gathered here to honor four individuals whose singular and collective contributions to the war defy quantification, but cannot be overstated. The first of these individuals is Alex Mallory."
Far to Justin's right, Alex stood. The slender, blond man adjusted his black tuxedo jacket, then leaned occasionally on a black cane as he walked to the front of the cathedral's altar. Unable to genuflect, he crossed himself, and strode proudly to the Prince's side.
The Prince opened a box on the podium and drew from it a black medal encrusted with diamonds arrayed like the sunburst of the Federated Suns. "Known as Alexi Malenkov in the Capellan Confederation, Alex Mallory became a trusted member of the Maskirovka. At great risk to himself, he managed to send enormous amounts of intelligence back to the Federated Suns. It was through his efforts that we were able to thwart Maximilian Liao's first assassination attempt on the late Colonel Pavel Ridzik. Out of gratitude, Colonel Ridzik concluded a peace with us that saved countless lives on the Tikonov front. Later, when discovered by the enemy, Alex endured torture without surrendering one piece of information about himself or his confederates."
The Prince pinned the medal to Alex's jacket pocket. "In recognition of your efforts, I award you the Diamond Sunburst for service and devotion to the Federated Suns." Hanse offered Alex his hand, and the two men shook hands warmly. Alex, smiling, withdrew to a chair back behind the Prince and sat.
Hanse Davion looked at and invited the next recipient onto the altar. When Andrew Redburn, dressed in the black and gold dress uniform that the First Kathil Uhlans had adopted, reached him, the Prince smiled broadly. "All too rare in the services, but in excellent company here tonight, is a warrior who does not ask, 'Why?' when given an order. This man, Major Andrew Redburn, led his troops on a half-dozen of the most dangerous missions this conflict has yet offered us. He never begged off an assignment. He just went out and did what had to be done. In addition, he was able to set aside his own personal feelings and hatreds to accomplish the most dangerous mission of all: the recovery of two agents—one of whom was Mr. Mallory—from the capital of the Capellan Confederation."
The Prince opened another slim medal-case on the podium. The light glinted sharply from the gold sunburst disk, that formed the back of the medal. Superimposed over it was a platinum sword driven into an anvil. The Prince pinned it high on the black breast of the Uhlan uniform, right beside the Golden Sunburst Andrew had won two years before.
"For your service to the Federated Suns, I am proud to award you our highest medal: the Medal Excalibur. From this time forward, you will be known as a Knight of the Realm, and you will be granted a parcel of land on your homeworld of Firgrove."
Andrew, beaming broadly, shook the Prince's hand, then retreated to stand beside Alex.
The Prince let a smile light his face. "The third individual I would honor here tonight has requested, repeatedly, that I should not reward him. Though I appreciate and respect his request, I cannot grant it. To do so would be to deny him the long overdue praise and thanks for invaluable services he has performed."
Hanse looked down into the front row. "Morgan Hasek-Davion, please come forward."
Tall and strong, Morgan unfolded himself from the front pew. His red hair rode down over the shoulders of his Uhlan dress jacket, almost totally obscuring the golden epaulets. He glanced back once at Kym Sorenson, then mounted the steps to the altar. He genuflected crisply, then joined his uncle beside the podium.
Hanse looked from his nephew to the audience. "When we learned of a planned Liao strike at Kathil, a strike that would have crippled our JumpShip repair and construction capability for years, I needed a commander I could trust to stop the assault. I only had a handful of veteran troops to give him, and very little time for him to organize a defense. Morgan willingly accepted this assignment, and in the course of a week, managed to do just what had been asked of him."
Hanse glanced over at Morgan, then shook his head slowly. "And then, so he could get to Sian quickly and rescue the agent who had communicated news of the assault to us, he put himself at great risk. Using captured Liao DropShips, he convinced a succession of JumpShip captains that his force was the remnant of the Kathil strike force, and that they were returning with Morgan Hasek-Davion as a captive! Unmindful of his personal jeopardy, he led his people into the capital of the Capellan Confederation and made sure that everyone, including our agents, were on board his DropShip and accounted for before he left the field of combat."
Hanse slipped an envelope from his dress jacket. "Moreover, Morgan endured untold frustration before he was given the assignment on Kathil. Because of his position as my heir, I refused his repeated requests for combat duty." The Prince smiled broadly. "A
nd, in fact, had he let me know about his plot for reaching Sian quickly, I probably would have denied him that as well."
Hanse handed Morgan the envelope, and with a nod of head, bade him open it. "As you would refuse any reward I would offer you—though you will be inducted into the Order of Davion at the end of the year—I give you this."
Morgan tore open the envelope and unfolded the yellow half-sheet. His green eyes scanned the message printed on it quickly. His smile grew as he read it through again and then threw back his head in a deep, hearty laugh. He grasped his uncle by both shoulders. "Is it true? Really, Hanse?"
The Prince nodded his head, then enfolded Morgan in a hug. They separated, and Morgan threw him a salute that the Prince answered sharply. A broad grin on his face, Hanse turned to the crowd while Morgan took his place with the other two award recipients. "That envelope contained a message communicated to me through the Lyran ambassador. It seems that during her covert visit here last June and July, my wife managed to conceive a child."
Thunderous applause erupted spontaneously from the crowd. Justin felt his heart leap. Hanse will have an heir! He glanced back over his shoulder at where his father sat and threw him a wink. Quintus Allard acknowledged it with a nod and a pleased smile.
'The Prince waited for the applause to begin to die, then raised his right hand to put it to rest. "As joyous news as that is, and as much as I dearly look forward to welcoming another Davion into the Successor States, I have one more person I wish to acknowledge here tonight. In a way, this is a birth of sorts, or a rebirth, and could only be described as the product of a fiercely difficult labor."
Hanse Davion swallowed hard. "Over four years ago, we began an effort to groom an agent we could use to leak information, believable information, to Liao forces. His work, which was slow and meticulous, had begun to pay off. He had established a series of contacts with Liao agents on Kittery and appeared to the enemy to be a potential defector. Unfortunately, three years ago, he suffered a maiming injury in a Liao ambush, and investigators looking into the incident unraveled the network of contacts he had created."
The Prince looked out at Quintus Allard. "At that time, only the agent, the Minister of Intelligence, Information, and Operations, and I knew of the preparations that had been made. Because information about our agent's treasonous activities had already begun to leak out, we were faced with a choice between abandoning the operation, or using this hostile information to make him even more attractive to the Capellan Confederation."
The Prince motioned to Justin. "Please, come up here."
Murmurs swept back through the crowd as Justin stood. He looked out at the people arrayed behind him and felt their confusion. The last they knew, I was someone to be reviled. I was the half-breed who reverted to his baser nature. I was safe to hate, yet now I am honored. He smiled weakly while making his way to the altar. I don't doubt it confuses them... It confuses me. He genuflected, then crossed to where the Prince waited.
"Justin Allard himself made the decision to continue with the operation. He knew, because of the evidence against him and how we would be forced to arrange things, that he would be degraded, ridiculed, and hated. He knew that, because only his father and I were privy to the truth, he could expect no help from anyone he had called friend in the past. He knew, because we had given him the identities of various agents in the places we expected him to end up, that he would have to destroy himself if captured. He knew, if he died at any point in the operation, his name would never be cleared and he would join the ranks of Judas and Stefan the Usurper in the annals of history's great betrayors."
The Prince looked out over the crowd. "Through his efforts, we were able to locate and plug a serious breach in our security. Through his efforts, House Liao wasted valuable time and resources on a research and development project that caused serious harm to their war effort. Because of him, we learned of the planned raid on Kathil. Because of him and his influence, the St. Ives Commonality has seceded from the Capellan Confederation and entered into an alliance with the Federated Suns.
"The last time most of you remember seeing the two of us in the same place, I stripped him of his rank, his honor, and his name. For all of the services he has rendered the Federated Suns, I would gladly return those three things, but it is for yet another action that I chose to do so. When he sent us the message warning us about the Kathil raid, he asked to be withdrawn from Sian. When Morgan arrived with his DropShip, all Justin had to do was identify himself and he would have been taken away to safety. Instead of doing that, he entered the dungeons beneath the Liao Palace and rescued Alex Mallory. For this act of selfless bravery, I welcome you, Major Justin Xiang Allard, back home to the Federated Suns."
Justin met Hanse's strong grip with one of his own and shook the Prince's hand heartily. "You don't know how good those words sound coming from your throat."
Hanse smiled warmly. "You don't know how many times I feared I would never get a chance to say them." The Prince broke their grip and drew a medal identical to the one awarded Andrew Redburn from the small box. "Though wholly insufficient, I award you the Medal Excalibur as a token of this nation's gratitude for you, and at the ceremonies at the end of this year, you will be inducted into the Order of Davion along with Morgan."
Justin waited for the Prince to pin the medal on the breast of his jacket, then shook his hand again. Retreating to join the others, he congratulated them on their awards, then turned back to listen to the Prince complete his speech.
"Our war with the Capellan Confederation is all but complete. Our conquest has not been total, but then that was never our intention. Our goal all along has had two parts. The first was to eliminate the Capellan Confederation's ability to create the materials they need to wage war against us. Aside from a few minor facilities in the Sian Commonality, this has been successful.
"The second half of our objective was to free a people that has been oppressed for far too long. This is not a task that can be accomplished in months or even years. Our success in this area will be measured in generations, but I am confident it will be success we can measure."
Hanse looked back at the four men standing behind him, then turned to the crowd with a pleased expression. "The war, for these four individuals, is over now, but our enemies should mark well what they have accomplished. Not for the sheer audacity of planning, or the brilliance of tactics—though each has exhibited those traits. They should study these men to understand that a people nurtured in freedom and given the ability to do what they choose, are a people that will do anything—no matter how humiliating or personally painful—to ensure that their way of life will endure for eternity!"
54
ComStar First Circuit Compound
Hilton Head Island, North America, Terra
1 December 3029
Primus Myndo Waterly looked down from her exalted position to where her former peers stood at their crystalline podia. Her golden silk robe flashed with highlights slightly darker than her hair and felt very good against her skin. Almost as good as having won election to the Primary.
She smiled benignly. "I wish to thank all of you for your support. These will be trying times for ComStar, but we shall see to it that the Word of Blake will be fulfilled. Our unanimity in this cause is vital."
Her dark-eyed glance recognized Villius Tejh, granting him permission to speak only moments before he would have usurped that right. You still smart at losing, don't you, Precentor Sian? You would have won had I not reminded everyone that you failed to discover or inform us that Justin Xiang was really a Davion agent. You laid the blame for that on poor Julian Tiepolo as he lay dying. You avoided the repercussions, but it still hurts you. I'll have to put you out of your misery, like some wounded animal.
Precentor Sian met her stare evenly. "Primus, I would like to know what you are planning to do with the Federated Suns? Justin Allard, during his debriefing, will have undoubtedly informed the Prince that the Death Commandos who hit the NAIS
were not from Liao. The attack you urged upon us could cause serious problems."
Myndo raised one eyebrow. "Could it? I was unaware that we had informed Prince Davion that we attacked the NAIS. Indeed, as the attack failed in its objective and, in fact, gave the Prince a political boost because of his personal involvement in dealing with it, I should think he would thank us for having staged it. Though we might have used a different organization to mask the assault had we been aware of Xiang's true nature, we did not leave ourselves open to discovery."
Myndo preempted his desire to follow up with a defense against her attack. "I have, in fact, begun a dialog with the Prince of the Federated Suns. We have reached an agreement, in principle, to lift the Interdiction."
Ulthan Everson, the golden-haired Precentor from Tharkad, leaned forward. "How now? You were the one who pressed so fervently for the Interdiction. The Federated Suns has all but snapped up the Capellan Confederation, but the Interdiction has slowed the pace of war considerably. Why are you going to lift the Interdiction now?"
Myndo folded her hands into the sleeves of her robe. "It's rather plain, isn't it? The Prince, after perhaps one more wave of attacks, will no longer pursue the war. The Free Worlds League is moving to snap up worlds if Liao shifts its forces to fight Davion's invaders, but the Prince would never dream of letting Janos Marik steal worlds away from him for so little cost. Further, if he leaves part of the Confederation alive, it will force Marik to maintain troops on that border to face any Liao threat. These are fewer troops for Davion to worry about on his border with the Free Worlds League.
"Lastly, Princess Melissa is pregnant. Hanse Davion will move to solidify his holdings so that his child will have a stable realm to govern. The Capellan Confederation, when the time is right, will be an excellent straw man against which to direct his people if divisions develop within the Federated Suns."