Shelly nodded. "You want Doc to be the Coalition's conscience."
"Sure, I want that, but I also want him to be its brain. He took a motley collection of troopers and brought out the best in them. Maybe he can have the same effect on the commanders who'll be part of this coalition." Victor looked up at him. "Your job will be to save lives. The goal of breaking the Clans cannot and will not be used to justify using any and all means to achieve it. I think you're the man who can fill that position, so I'm offering it to you."
The Prince of the Federated Commonwealth glanced down for a moment. "One last thing. I didn't realize until I came up here that there was some personal involvement between you and Colonel Brubaker. I would never begrudge you a chance to be happy. In this line of work there's scant little enough of that sort of thing, as well I know. Before you turn me down on those grounds, however, realize that the Dragoons are going to be gone a long time from Outreach because they'll be heading out with the rest of us. Chances are good the two of you will see more of each other with Doc on my staff than if he's a Dragoon."
Doc nodded slowly and felt Shelly give his hand a quick squeeze. The position Shelly offered him with the Dragoons would allow him to oversee his people and keep them safe, but Doc knew that wouldn't go on forever. There would be a point where someone made a mistake, a critical mistake, and the Titans would be hurt, maybe destroyed. And the worst of it was that it need not be the Titans that made the mistake— someone on staff could order them to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and they'd pay the price.
Victor's offer meant Doc would be the man in position to prevent that from happening. He realized that no matter how well he'd commanded his unit against the Falcons, he'd gotten by more on luck than on skill. Sure, his ability to think and plan had kept the Titans away from unnecessary jeopardy, but if they'd really stumbled into trouble he wasn't at all certain he could get them back out again. His strength lay in his ability to analyze weakness, to plan out strategies, and to put people into positions where they could make the best use of their own strengths.
And my strength means I can do this job. He glanced over at Shelly, and she gave him a half-lidded nod. Doc turned back to the Prince. "What will happen to the Titans?"
"You'll need staff. Pick out the folks you want to go with you. The rest can choose their own assignments and I'll make sure they get them." Victor smiled. "There are times when it's useful to be the Archon Prince."
Doc nodded. "Fair enough. I accept your offer."
Shelly gave him a quick kiss. "As much as it pains me to say this, you made the right choice."
"Thanks."
Victor extended his hand to Doc. "Congratulations, Leftenant General Trevena."
"Thank you, sir." Doc shook Victor's hand, then stopped as he saw someone in the street below. "If you'll excuse me, sir, there's something I have to do."
Victor blinked in surprise. "Excuse me, what did you say?"
Doc looked at Victor, then Shelly, and back again before pointing down at a burly man walking away from one of the hovertrucks. "That's Wayne Rogers of the Waco Rangers. The last time I saw him he recklessly endangered my unit with his irresponsible action. I promised him the next time we met I'd drop him. I thought the Clans had killed him, but I guess not."
Shelly shook her head. "He's too stupid to realize he was supposed to die in that ambush."
The Prince rested his fists on his hips. "And so now, Leftenant General Trevena, you're going down there to deck him?"
Doc nodded. "You'd not want an officer on your staff who didn't keep his promises, would you?"
"No, but you're a Leftenant General now, and in the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth, not LAAF." Victor frowned at him. "You can't go around punching mercenary leaders just because they're stupid ..."
"Sir ..."
"... at least not without orders to do so." Victor shrugged. "Go."
Doc blinked. "Sir?"
"Six months in the LAAF and you forget what an order sounds like?" Victor jerked his head toward the stairs leading from the roof. "Go keep your promise. That's an order, Leftenant General."
"Yes, sir!"
Doc faithfully executed his orders. And with only one punch, too.
Epilogue
Tharkad City Tharkad
District of Donegal, Lyran Alliance
17 June 3058.
The hurled remote control bounced off the holovid viewer screen with a clank. Katrina noticed that her brother's smiling face didn't shift a whit. It oozed smugness. The thing that truly bothered her about it was that she knew Victor had escaped disaster by dint of luck and, unbeknownst to him, her intervention.
The intelligence about the Jade Falcons' operation on Coventry that she'd passed to Vlad had prompted him to send a message to Marthe Pryde informing her of his interest in acquiring several Falcon worlds. Katrina had wanted the pressure put on the Jade Falcons so they'd withdraw from Coventry or face being attacked by two enemies.
But I only wanted the withdrawal after they'd rid me of Victor. Instead the Wolf pressure had supplied the Falcons with a reason to accept Victor's offer of hegira. Marthe Pryde had accepted hegira to frustrate Vlad, but in doing so she'd frustrated Katrina.
"Shall I leave the picture on, Highness?"
Katrina wanted to snap at Tormano Liao as he held the remote up, but she controlled herself. "Please, kill it."
Tormano hit a button and Victor's triumphant face shrank to a glowing dot. "Simply done."
"Would that it were so easy. His death in battle would have been perfect!" She gestured dismissively toward the dark screen. "Now he and that coalition show up, ask the Falcons to leave, and they do so. And most infuriating is the fact that since you blacked out news reports of the raids and have systematically drained the Falcons' predations of sinister importance, I can't even accuse Victor of being a coward. This looks as if he and his people just reacted swiftly to an emergency situation and were successful in their effort to deal with it."
Tormano bowed his head contritely, but she knew he had no regrets over his action. "I apologize for the difficulty I have caused you, but I was given little in the way of other options. I am fairly certain your people would not like to know you traveled to Clan space and have entered an agreement with a Clan Khan."
"Is that a threat?"
"From me, no, Highness, because I would be seen as complicit in this act of treason since I covered for you. While your efforts through Clan Wolf were instrumental in the Falcons making their decision to withdraw, your role in this matter must remain secret."
"I know that." Katrina pounded on her desk with a fist. "Not even a scratch! Damn him! Just when I need him to be a soldier and get himself killed, the little son of a bitch finds a way to avoid fighting. The story coming out of Coventry will play so well in the news that it will set my efforts to vilify him back for years. A true David and Goliath story, the diminutive Prince and a company of light 'Mechs drive eight Galaxies of Jade Falcons from Coventry! Even those who hate Victor will have to admire his cleverness at figuring a way out of this one. I'll never hear the end of it."
Tormano regarded her with a cautionary expression on his face. "That is, perhaps, true, Highness."
Katrina stopped. "I am not in a mood for inscrutability, Mandrinn, out with it."
"You noted you needed Victor to play the role of soldier, a role with which he is closely identified. Perhaps you should look to the role in which most people see you."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning you are the peacemaker who tried to mediate between your brother and Duke Ryan Steiner. You are the peacemaker who refused to join your brother in the prosecution of a war against the Free Worlds League." Tormano set the remote on top of the holovid viewer's case. "It was you who brought together half of Victor's coalition, for the Dragoons, the Harloc Raiders, and the Knights of the Inner Sphere would never have been present except for your efforts. This victory and what it portends for the future, as Prince V
ictor indicated in his statement, is a victory for the whole of the Inner Sphere. And it is, in great part, your victory."
Katrina sat back abruptly, making her golden hair dance over the shoulders of her bluer jacket. "I am a peacemaker? How can I claim credit for this military victory without shattering my credibility?"
"You do not take credit for the victory, Highness, but you exert control over the juggernaut it has spawned." Tormano smiled in a way that Katrina saw as delightfully filled with deceit. "You will hail this victory. You will thank your brother and everyone else with the grace and wit that you alone possess. Best of all, being a conciliator and peacemaker, you will declare your intention of hosting the Whitting Conference here on Tharkad. You will invite all the parties to this coalition to attend, to formalize the unity of Whitting. It was in the face of this unity that the Clans retreated. What began with a retreat at Whitting can become a rout after your conference."
"I understand what you are saying, Tormano." Katrina felt a smile growing on her face. As the sponsor of the conference she could set the agenda. Working to bring the parties together, she could fashion the result she wanted. She would have everyone in her web and be able to bring them together to further her goals. "This will give me great power, but I fail to see how it will rid me of Victor."
"Surely, Highness, you are not that blind." Tormano tapped the screen with a knuckle. "Your brother has already stated what will become the goal of this conference. Through it a force will be assembled that will go to war against the Clans in their own territory."
"Of course." Katrina nodded solemnly. "And my brother, Victor, the warrior born of warriors, will be the only logical choice to lead this force."
"Exactly, Highness." Tormano's grin became a reflection of her own. "The war will carry them far from here, to the worlds that spawned and sheltered the Clans. Only when the Clan homeworlds have fallen will their threat to the Inner Sphere be eliminated."
"And while Victor and his people are away," Katrina purred, "I shall do all I can to prepare the Inner Sphere properly for their return."
Michael A. Stackpole, Malicious intent
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