David Drake - When the Tide Rises

"Look here, Colonel!" Brandt said. "If you've got the notion your lot's going to waltz in here and take over where Platt left off, I'm telling you you're wrong! We-"

"Silence, if you please!" Daniel said.

"-can run our own-" Brandt said at a rising volume.

The aide seated to Chatterjee's left started to get up, his face already crimson. Ashburn put her hand on the fellow's shoulder and slammed him back in his seat.

"-government and collect our own-"

Daniel was poised to grip Ma Brandt and turn her forcibly to face him, but that had a danger of leading to real problems. Still Hogg gestured upward. Tovera nodded, grinned like a serpent, and fired a single round into the ceiling over Brandt's head. The ceramic pellet punched through the molded plaster and pulverized itself against the concrete underlayer.

"What?" Brandt shouted, looking up just in time for a mist of finely divided paint, plaster, glass, and concrete to cover her eyes and open mouth. She lurched forward, trying to sneeze and cough at the same time.

"Thank you," Daniel said calmly. "I believe that if we all remain courteous, we can arrive at generally acceptable solution."

He smiled. He wondered if Hogg and Tovera had planned this ahead of time or if they were just so much in tune with one another's mindset that a crooked finger was all the communication they needed.

Hogg's stocked impeller was a very powerful weapon. Its discharge inside a room would've sounded like a bomb going off, and the osmium projectiles it fired would've ricocheted lethally instead of disintegrating.

Nobody tried to speak, though several people were sneezing. Daniel tightened his diaphragm to smother a sneeze of his own.

"The fort depends for its safety in the first place on its missile batteries," Daniel said. "Unless they're operational, the Alliance can reduce the position as easily as my cruiser destroyed the sector which refused to surrender to Colonel Chatterjee's forces. Mistress Brandt-"

He nodded to the Grange leader again. She held a hand over her mouth, but that seemed to be a precautionary measure.

"-your personnel don't have the skills to operate the missile system."

"We could learn," Brandt said, glancing toward Chatterjee with a wary look. She didn't raise her voice, and she only partially lowered her hand.

"Mistress," Daniel said before Chatterjee stepped in. "I've very frequently led forces into battle. If I were a man who lied about his own resources, I'd have been killed long since. Your farmers, properly armed and led, may well become the best infantry in the Bagarian Cluster, but they won't learn to operate shipkilling missiles in your lifetime or mine."

Brandt muttered something inaudible. Daniel turned to Chatterjee, who wasn't perfectly successful in controlling his pleased smile, and continued, "Which brings me to the next problem. Colonel, your battalion can't prevent the Alliance from landing out of the fort's range and bringing anti-ship missiles close enough to blockade you. To be safe from being starved out, you need to control the planet, not just Fort Douaumont."

He paused. "Go on," Chatterjee said, wary also but smart enough to wait to hear the complete proposal.

"Because Conyers was a Cluster Headquarters," Daniel said, "the bunkers beneath us here contained more than just Mistress Brandt and other prisoners. There are over ten thousand-"

"Over twelve thousand, if the inventory records are correct, Admiral," Adele interjected.

"Over twelve thousand, that is," Daniel said with a spreading smile, "stand of arms. That's small arms, no automatic impellers even, but sufficient to make Conyers a deathtrap for any force landing on the planet without the good will of the local populace. My people-"

"My people" was precisely true, Sissies whom Daniel was certain he could trust completely.

"-are distributing those arms to members of the United Grange of Conyers even as we speak."

Chatterjee started to jump up, then started to speak. He restrained himself both times, but the smile he gave Daniel was at best wry.

"With the military aspects of planetary defense settled," Daniel went on, "I've fulfilled my obligations with one exception-making arrangements for command of the defenses. I'm appointing Colonel Chatterjee as Military Governor of-"

"Now just-" Brandt said.

Hogg pointed his left arm, index finger extended, toward her face. He held the heavy impeller like a pistol, its butt resting on his right hip.

"If you'll please wait, mistress," Daniel said crisply in the renewed silence. "Military Governor, as I said, to coordinate with the civilian government through the mechanism of a Council of Twelve chosen by the citizens of Conyers."

He nodded toward the local men down the table from Brandt.

"Masters LaPlant and Casey inform me that this corresponds to the subdivisions of the United Grange."

"That's right, Leary," Bill LaPlant said. "And let me tell you, if Platt and his pansies think they can take things over now we've got guns, we'll teach him different!"

"I don't believe Governor Platt will be in a place where what he thinks affects anybody else, Master LaPlant," Daniel said. "But I agree with your larger point: so long as the Skye troops and the United Grange cooperate, there's no chance at all of Guarantor Porra reconquering Conyers."

Dasi and Barnes stood against the wall on either side of Adele; they grinned at one another over her head. There was no need to make a point of it, but either man could've convinced the Granger that who you screw has nothing to do with how well you fight.

"Right," said Daniel, rising from his chair. "My spacers and I will leave you here to work out the details for the government of Conyers. I very much hope you all understand that this requires consensus among the parties, but-"

He smiled around the room. From the tightness he felt in his facial muscles, he suspected his expression was merely a broader version of Tovera's before she shot into the ceiling.

"-when all's said and done, I'm an RCN officer. My responsibilities don't include the governance of planets which aren't enrolled in the Friends of Cinnabar. Good luck to you all, ladies and gentlemen."

As Daniel spoke, he strode toward the door on the other side of the room. Hogg, his impeller slanted across his body, made sure the path was open. As they stepped through the door, Adele leaned close and murmured, "How long do you think this will last?"

Daniel shrugged. "I give it a good chance," he said as they walked toward the stairs. His next order of business was to go aboard theLadouceur and see to matters there again. That meant a hike, but at least they wouldn't need an escort.

"Ma Brandt herself may be a problem, but I think the people who've been running the Grange since her imprisonment are reasonable. As is Chatterjee."

He grinned. "And anyway, speaking as Commander Daniel Leary, RCN," he concluded, "I think it'll last long enough to take the pressure off Admiral James. The rest isn't really any of my business, right?"

Daniel laughed. Shortly he'd be back in command of a warship, where he belonged. What could be better than that?

Pasternak lit the first pair of thrusters. TheLadouceur rocked gently, not from the negligible lift but because the rhythmic pulses of ions rippled waves in the surface of Grand Harbor. Adele began to recheck her display.

"Mistress?" said Rene on a two-way link from the console beside the one she was using. "I'd thought of Commander Leary as a, well, a fighting naval officer. After watching him settle the government of Conyers, well… he's really a politician, isn't he? Over."

Adele smiled wryly. "I assure you, Rene," she said, "Captain Learyis a fighting naval officer. Any Alliance commander who's faced him will vouch for that. The survivors will, that is."