Leaving the council room, David felt relief at the direction the meeting had taken. For despite the death of Yukiko, he did not want the Wyzhnyny eradicated. Qonits, who had become his friend, was a Wyzhnyny. Also he remembered the pastry chef on the Meadowlands, who out of goodness of heart had been friendly to him and Yukiko and Annika. And who now was dead.
After lunch in their suite, Qonits napped, while David sat in one of the small roof gardens and read the Kunming Daily Reporter in detail. Later, Qonits also came up, accompanied by Lance Corporal Shaughnessy, who removed himself a dozen yards, as if to give them privacy. Nonetheless, David supposed the marine was bugged-surely something was-and that everything they might say would be recorded.
"Tell me about Wyzhnyny history," he said to Qonits. "Not the details, but the broad features."
"The broad features? That is feasible, yes. I will begin at the beginning." Qonits also believed they were being recorded, and that David was leading him. Nonetheless he talked frankly, almost till supper.
Via Ramesh, the president and prime minister tried to consult with Charley Gordon after lunch. Admiral Soong, however, asked that they postpone it a couple of hours. Charley was still sleeping off the nervous exhaustion of the long battle. And the colonization fleet showed no sign of leaving. There was constant warp radio traffic between Wyzhnyny ships, but while no one on the Altai had any idea of what was being discussed, it sounded desultory, rather than intense.
Chang and Peixoto gave him half an hour, then eavesdropped on the ambassador and David MacDonald, gaining useful insights.
Forty minutes later they called the Altai again, and counseled with Charley, and Alvaro Soong. When the armada had arrived in the system, Charley told them, the colonization fleet had obviously been ordered to park where they were, and wait. But they wouldn't wait forever. Their commanders were surely aware that their warfleet had been destroyed. His impression was, they'd been discussing the dangers of fleeing-of being dispersed and isolated, with the separate units lacking adequate technical-industrial equipment for long-range survival. Along with the probability that many would be torpedoed when they booted their drives. They were aware that a human fleet was standing by, also in warpspace, with target locks on Wyzhnyny ships. And that survivors would almost certainly be hunted by the humans.
But they wouldn't wait forever. Unless something intervened soon, they'd leave, unless a peace proposal changed their minds.
An hour's discussion resulted in a plan. Half an hour later, Qonits, using a bottled savant in Cee Ministry, sent the basic features of an offer via Charley himself, who forwarded it using the Wyzhnyny command frequency. The vocators of the bottled savants provided a much better approximation of Qonits' Wyzhnynyc speech than any human vocal apparatus could.
The Wyzhnyny commanders could expect an "imperial" ambassador in two Wyzhnyny shipsweeks, to confer with them directly. Qonits would leave in a cruiser the next day, with David as his companion.
Chapter 64
Unfinished Business
Months had passed since the Wyzhnyny offensive on New Jerusalem had been broken. The Burger engineers had worked diligently, transforming the army's base from a tent camp to prefabs, electrified for heat and light. The battalion officer's dayroom had a wooden frame and a subfloor of newly-sawn planks, provided by the Burgers' portable sawmill. Walls, ceiling, roof, and the floor itself were sheets of Plastosil brought from Pastor Luneburger's World with the army.
The New Jerusalem Liberation Corps was ready for winter.
Which soon would be there. It was early ElevenMonth by the Jerrie calendar-dark, cold and wet-when Ensign Esau Wesley came in after supper. He'd brought his platoon back from patrol an hour and a half earlier, had cleaned up and eaten, then come to the dayroom to read. He'd never been much for loafing, and over the months had read, then reread the books Captain Zenawi had loaned him. He found them engrossing, full of facts and ideas-even wisdom-useful to a leader.
And that's what he'd become. The previous Sevenmonth he'd been officially posted as acting platoon leader. He'd never known or wondered why. In the army, orders came from on high-the company commander, Regiment, Division, or War House-and you went along with them.
He knew very well, of course, how he'd become unofficial acting platoon leader. Ensign Berg had been killed on the Tank Park Raid, then Ensign Hawkins had broken his leg on the Artillery Base Jump. But taking over in an emergency was one thing. Having the post on the company TO was something else.
There was a story behind it. It had been Sevenmonth. The entire corps had taken a lot of casualties, and the regimental commander, Colonel Leclerc, had called in his company commanders to work on reorganizing the regiment. They'd begun right after breakfast, and had pretty much wrapped it before lunch. Some companies had been deactivated-combined with other companies, or their personnel distributed within the regiment as replacements.
Division wanted airborne-qualified personnel kept in airborne-qualified platoons; something Leclerc would have done in any case. "Zenawi," he said, "your 2nd Platoon has the most distinguished record in the regiment. With a very fine commander. But according to Major Hatta, Hawkins won't be out of the hospital for eight weeks at the soonest. Add three weeks or more for rehab… " He shrugged. "And Hatta strongly recommends that Hawkins not jump again-not in this gravity.
"Fortunately Ensign Hussain is available. From 3rd Regiment; a good man. His platoon covered Demolitions while they'd wrecked the Wyz howitzers, and taken a lot of casualties. Including Major Chou, which left Hussain the senior officer, in charge of the rear guard action and evacuating the casualties. Then the Wyz elite hit. Hairy business, and he handled it well, all of it.
"I'm assigning him to you, to lead 2nd Platoon B."
Captain Kemau Zenawi Singh chewed a lip. "Colonel," Zenawi said, "2nd Platoon has a platoon sergeant who acted as platoon leader throughout the Artillery Base Raid. I'd hoped to see him get the job."
Leclerc frowned. "Esau Wesley? I reviewed his commendations last night, before okaying his promotion to sergeant first class. A remarkable young warrior. But he doesn't have anything like the training and the leadership experience Hussain has. Are you sure you don't prefer him because he's B Company, and you're loyal to your own people?"
Zenawi set his jaw. "That's part of it, sir. But on the other hand, I'm an old friend of Hussain. We were in the same cadet squad at the Academy. Went into Tehran together a few times, to sample the ethnic eating places.
"The thing is, young Wesley's a sort of icon in B Company, though I doubt he knows it. He's better than his official record, sir. For one thing he's got natural presence. Charisma. Berg, Hawkins, Captain Mulvaney, all made a project out of him early on, at Stenders, because of his leadership qualities. And he never disappointed them.
"On the Tank Park Raid, he took out the southwest tower by himself, with cover by a couple of blastermen. Then, at the Pecan Orchard, he led a stealth team into the middle of the Wyzhnyny camp and stole their headquarters, a floater-took it from under their noses-which was vital to our success there. And… "
Leclerc interrupted. "Kemau," he said patiently, "I know those things. But his reputation stems from his individual exploits. Leadership's another matter."
"But not unrelated, Colonel. In that disorganized melee at the tank park, before he took out the southwest tower, he functioned effectively as a leader. He and his squad were one of two sent into an utterly chaotic melee to support 3rd Platoon when they were getting swamped. And it was Wesley that Mulvaney turned to to get the flak towers handled. And on the artillery base jump, Esau directed Hawkins' Platoon at the same time he… "