Flattening against the door, the corporal snapped a salute as Allerton and Msuya strode past him into the room.
Followed by four quiet men in dark suits, who spread inconspicuously along the back wall. Secret Service? Meredith wondered. Or did Msuya decide to bring some muscle this time? Hiding his worry, he threw Allerton a salute of his own.
"Mr. President; Mr. Msuya: welcome to Astra. I'm sorry we haven't got a more elaborate ceremony for you, but we're a bit short of brass bands here."
Allerton smiled slightly at that; Msuya didn't. "That's quite all right," the President said. "We're actually here more on business, anyway."
So we're skipping even the pretense of a casual visit. Uh-oh. "I expected that was the case, sir," he said. He gestured to the three people flanking him. "Permit me then to introduce Dr. Peter Hafner, Civilian Council Head Carmen Olivero, and Councillor Cristobal Perez, whom I've asked to sit in on the meeting. If there are no objections, of course."
"There are," Msuya said. "Having civilians here serves no useful purpose. You are in command on Astra, Colonel, and I for one have no patience with this 'Civilian Council' smokescreen."
Deliberately, Meredith turned to Allerton. "Mr. President?"
"Mr. Msuya is correct in that all responsibility for Astran activities must rest with you," Allerton said. "However, if you want to consider these people as advisors, I think we can accept their presence."
Msuya growled something under his breath, and for an instant he and Allerton locked eyes. Then, with a fractional shrug, he pulled a chair out from the table and sat down. So, Meredith thought as Allerton and and the Astrans followed suit, Allerton hasn't completely knuckled under to UN pressure yet— or at least is willing to lock horns with Msuya on minor issues. Tucking away the information for future reference, he looked at Allerton and waited for the other's move.
It wasn't long in coming. "Colonel, we've been hearing reports recently of what must be considered unusual policy decisions coming out of your office. Your refusal to allow Mr. Msuya's scientific team to study your Spinneret cable and your abrupt dismissal of Dr. Chang's group at that same time, your inability to provide Earth with cable samples for study, and your apparent efforts toward unauthorized trade agreements have all raised questions about your fitness to command. I'd like to hear what explanations, if any, you have for your actions."
A well-rehearsed speech, Meredith thought, keeping his eyes OD the President.
"Am I being court-martialed, sir?" he asked bluntly.
"Not in the usual sense, no. Neither your rank nor your record are in any danger.
Only—as I said—your position on Astra."
"I see." Meredith glanced once at Msuya's poker face, thinking furiously. "As far as the scientific teams are concerned, I believe my jurisdiction includes the final decision on personnel joining the colony, even if their stay is to be temporary. As the Rooshrike had retrieved the second Spinneret cable and I had already obtained assurances that they would share their test results with us, it seemed redundant and a little ridiculous to waste time with the few boxfuls of equipment we had available."
"The time was ours to waste if we chose," Msuya put in with a mildness that seemed to shelter the promise of later fireworks. 'Furthermore, as a commissioned UN group we were legally outside your command authority."
"Excuse me, Mr. Msuya, but I had no independent confirmation of that fact,"
Meredith countered. "As I explained then, such orders or authorizations had to come through the holder of the mandate, namely the United States government."
He glanced at Carmen, got a small confirming nod. "Now, as to providing Earth with cable, we're perfectly willing to do so once we figure out the best way to move it through hyper-space."
"Free of charge?" Msuya asked.
"At the very least, we'll need to be supplied with the equivalent mass in other metals—all of our customers will need to do that much. As for the price … we haven't decided on such terms yet."
"I see nothing requiring any decisions," Msuya said. "Astra is UN territory; we should not have to pay for what is already ours."
"Iowa is a state of the U.S.," Meredith shrugged, "but its farmers don't give their grain away free."
Msuya arched his eyebrows. "I believe I said Astra was UN territory, not part of the U.S. Unless there is some unilateral agreement here I'm unaware of?"
"No, of course not," Allerton said, throwing an annoyed look at Meredith.
"Colonel Meredith was merely making an analogy."
And a damn stupid one, too, Meredith berated himself. Msuya had a strong enough case without having extra ammunition hand-delivered to him. At his left Hafner shifted in his chair, and on his far right Perez muttered something inaudible.
"I see," Msuya said, his tone making it clear the point was merely being postponed until later. "That of course leads directly into the whole question of trade agreements and your authority to make them. Do you deny you're offering UN
property—namely Spinneret cable—for sale without proper authorization?"
Meredith took a deep breath—and Carmen stepped unexpectedly into the brief pause. "It seems to me, Mr. Msuya, that we've kept very strictly to our legal duties, which I'll point out include both development and defense of the Astran colony. We're currently being orbited by ships of six alien races, more than half of them fully equipped warships. Do you have any idea what they could do if they thought we wanted to keep all of the Spinneret's technology and cable production for ourselves?"
"You fought off the M'zarch attack well enough."
"Through a combination of our luck and their ignorance," Meredith said. "Miss Olivero is correct: the only way to keep our neighbors peaceful is to make sure they see immediate benefits for doing so."
"So you're saying these offers of cable are basically fraudulent?" Msuya asked.
"Absolutely not," Meredith said. "Or would you have the human race stuck with a reputation as swindlers?"
"In other words, the UN had better rubberstamp your deals or else."
He was pushing hard to get Meredith into a corner; and Meredith was starting to get tired of it. "If you reject them you'd better be prepared to explain why we, as what the Rooshrike call an equal-status colony, are not permitted to make local trade arrangements. You'd better also be prepared to start any diplomatic overtures back at square one, in that event."
"All right, then"—Msuya switched tracks smoothly—"as long as you've brought it up, what about this alleged trade agreement with the Rooshrike? Or were you unaware that the UN has an exclusive contract with the Ctencri?"
"If you'll recall, Mr. Msuya, you ended your last visit to Astra by threatening us with total embargo of food and supplies," Meredith reminded him. "You made it abundantly clear that we would starve. As Miss Olivero pointed out, I had an obligation to protect Astra. Opening up an independent supply line seems to me to come under that heading."
He had the satisfaction of seeing the other frown with surprise; apparently that wasn't a defense he'd expected. "You can't protect your colony against its owners," he growled at last. "That's a completely ridiculous argument."
"Perhaps," Meredith shrugged. "But I have yet to see any proof that these threats and orders are the genuine will of the UN. It could just as easily be that the Ctencri are threatening Earth with an embargo of its own unless the UN obeys its orders in this matter."
Msuya stared at him for a moment, his jaw working with either rage or frustration.
Then, leaning back in his chair, he gave Meredith a cold smile. "You dance exceedingly well, Colonel, especially for a military man. Let's see if you can dance out of this." He waved a negligent hand toward Allerton. "Mr. President?"