Venera wasnt good at looking pathetic. Besides, they could legitimately ask what she was doing here, thousands of miles away from Slipstream.
She could claim to be a traveling merchant. Then why ask after the expedition? Perhaps she should say she was from Hale, not Slipstream, a distant relative of Venera Fanning needing news of her.
These and other options ran through her mind as Venera waited next to the tall scrolled doors of the ambassadors office. The moment the door lock clicked, she pushed her way inside and said to the surprised secretary, My name is Venera Fanning. I need to talk to the ambassador.
The man turned white
as a sheet. He practically ran for the inner office and there was a hurried, loud conversation there. Then he stuck his head out the door and said, You cant be seen here.
Too late for that, if anyones watching. She closed the outer door and walked to the inner. The secretary threw it open and stepped aside.
The ambassador of Slipstream was a middle-aged woman with iron-gray hair and the kind of stern features usually reserved for suspicious aunts, school principals, and morals crusaders. She glared at Venera and gestured for her to sit in one of the red leather wing chairs that faced her dark teak desk. So youre alive, she said as she lowered herself heavily on her side.
Why shouldnt I be? Venera was suddenly anxious to the point of panic. What happened to the others?
The ambassador sent her a measuring look. You were separated from your husbands expedition?
Yes! Ive had no news. Just rumors.
The expeditionary force was destroyed, said the ambassador. She grimaced apologetically. Your husbands flagship apparently rammed a Falcon dreadnaught, causing a massive explosion that tore both vessels apart. All hands are presumed lost.
I see She felt sick, as though this were the first time shed heard this news.
I dont think you do see, said the ambassador. She snapped her fingers and her secretary left, returning with a silver tray and two glasses of wine.
Youve shown up at an awkward time, continued the ambassador. One of your husbands ships did make it back to Rush. The Severance limped back into port a couple of weeks ago, and her hull was full of holes. Naturally, the people assumed she was the vanguard of a return from the battle with Mavery. But nothe airmen disembarked and they were laughing, crying, claiming a great victory, and waving away all talk of Mavery. No, they say, weve beaten Falcon! By the genius of the Pilot and Admiral Fanning, weve forestalled an invasion and saved Slipstream!
Can the Pilot deny it? If Fanning himself had returned, with the other ships maybe not. If the airmen of the Severance hadnt started throwing around impossible amounts of money, displaying rich jewels and gold chains and talking wildly about a pirates hoard Well, you see the problem. Falcon is supposed to be an ally. And the Pilots been caught with his pants below his knees, completely unaware of a threat to his nation until after his most popular admiral has extinguished that threat.
He ordered the crew rounded up, on charges of treason. The official story is that Fanning took some ships on a raid into Falcon and busted open one of their treasuries. Hes being court-martialed in absentia, as a traitor and pirate.
Therefore, said Venera, if I were to return now
Youd be tried as an accessory, at the very least. The ambassador steepled her hands and leaned forward minutely in her chair. Legally, Im bound to turn you over for extradition. Except that, should I do so, youd likely become a lightning rod for dissent. After the riots
What riots?
Well. She looked uncomfortable. The Pilot was a bit slow, to act. He didnt round up all of the Severance s airmen quickly enough. And he didnt stem the tide until a good deal of money had flowed into the streets. Apparently, these were no mere trinkets the men were showing offand theyre not treasury items either, theyre plunder , pure and simple, and ancient to boot. And the people, the people believe the Severance , not the Pilot.
Our last dispatchthat was two days agosays that the bulk of the crew and officers made it back to the Severance and bottled themselves up in it. Its out there now, floating a hundred yards off the admiralty. The Pilot ordered it blown up, and thats when rioting started in the city.
If you returned now, said the secretary, thered be even more bloodshed.
And likely your blood would be spilled as an example to others. The ambassador shook her head. It gets worse, too. The navys refused the Pilots command. They wont blow up the Severance, they want to know what happened. Theyre trying to talk the crew out, and theres a three-way standoff now between the Pilots soldiers, the navy, and the Severance herself. Its a real mess.
Veneras pulse was pounding. She wanted to be there, in the admiralty. She knew Chaisons peers, she could rally those men to fight back. They all hated the Pilot, after all.
She slumped back in her chair. Thank you for telling me this. She thought for a minute, then glanced up at the ambassador.