"I expect you weren't born yet." Any Mediator alive then would be dead by now.
"Oh, no. I was taught these things because His Excellency would insist on knowing the flow of our politics. Kevin, may I talk to His Excellency?"
"For the moment, no." The Mediator would have more trouble reading Renner's thoughts and emotions. Bury, of course, was watching the monitor; he could interrupt if he saw need.
The Motie nodded brusquely. "The advent of interstellar aliens changed everything. We retreated from our position in the Trailing Trojans in good order. Medina lost considerable valuable resources, but we were able to hold on to some by going before there was need. The usurper family, call them Persia, were as eager as we were to avoid noisy space battles that might attract Lenin's attention. We may call this Period One, from the Empire's arrival to Lenin's departure.
"My Master established us in the inner halo of comets, beyond both the old and the expected new Crazy Eddie points. She had a gripping hand on considerable territory when she died, a vast volume enclosing little mass, near to nothing valuable at all. But in thirty years we would be just outward from the access point to the human-ruled Empire. You follow? We would command Crazy Eddie's Sister when the Curdle collapsed and the Sister appeared.
"Resources are thin where we settled. During the twelve years following Lenin's departure, we did well. Call that Period Two. We were able to expand Medina's base due to alliances formed with Byzantium in the moon system of Mote Beta. We shared our knowledge with Byzantium. The family Byzantium is large and powerful and can afford what she sends us, even though half of the resources they send go to support Medina Traders and to increase our strength. Of course they expect to share in the rewards, once our way opens to the worlds of the Empire."
"When Horace Bury's Fyunch(click) appeared, Byzantium was able to block other competitors and acquire her. This worked out well for us. With Bury-One to advise them, Byzantium felt more secure in our partnership."
Bury was nodding, smiling. Politics. Eudoxus continued, "Medina Trading spent Period Two sending ships to test the strength of the Empire's defense of the Eye. All the tricky stunts tried in that period were of our working, using resources that flowed from Byzantium."
"From what we saw, that was a lot of resources," Renner said.
"Indeed," Eudoxus said. "A great deal of wealth was lost forever." The alien conveyed sorrow and resignation. "So. We agitated for a Bury's Motie, but many years passed before Byzantium would release one to us. He was Bury-One's first apprentice. Of course Bury-One was already training a second, and the first began at once to train me. Call her Bury-2A, my teacher."
"I don't see where the fighting comes in yet."
"Am I to feel hurried, Kevin? You'll be two hundred hours en route. We don't intend to keep this acceleration any longer than we have to."
"Two hundred hours... okay. I'd like Sinbad and Atropos refueled as soon as we arrive."
"I'll pass the word. We will do other things for you, too."
"The war."
"Yes. Certain power structures in the Mote Gamma clusters- East India Company, Grenada, the Khanate-watched us build ships, move them into finicky position, make them disappear forever; we even armed and launched a comet that way. Wasn't that why some ancient comic named it the Crazy Eddie point? These pirates coveted what we were destroying in what must have appeared to be a form of potlatch. They thought they must have better use for such vast wealth."
"Potlatch?" Renner said. "A Motie word?'
Joyce stage-whispered, "Human. American Indian. Conspicuous consumption. Humiliate your enemies by destroying your own wealth."
Renner nodded. "Mote Gamma. Eudoxus, we didn't know about a Mote Gamma."
"As I said." The Motie was all unhurried patience now. "A gasball planet, three times the mass of Mote Prime, twice as far from the Mote as the greater gasball you've named Mote Beta. Gamma is much smaller, with two big moons and some gravel, all chewed to death by a million years of mining. I'll send you the mass-" The picture went dark with a snap.
Renner said, "Buckman? What?"
"It just cut off. Maybe she doesn't want to answer," Buckman said.
"No, she's under attack." Lieutenant Blaine pointed out a score of stars blazing dangerously bright. "That's good targeting. The enemy's a good quarter AU behind us. Sinbad can't shoot back, Captain."
"Not at that range. We've got the overpowered signal laser." A glance at Bury: had he held anything back? "And the finger, and they're way out of range for either of those."
The light wavered. It wasn't getting brighter. Probably a whole cluster of enemy ships was firing... and if those lasers were free to converge on distant Phidippides, then Medina's fleet must no longer be a threat.
Phidippides's drifting star thrust sideways; drifted behind Atropos.
Now Atropos became dark red, then cherry red, while Phidippidos cooled.
"Phidippides calling," Buckman said.
"Good. Eudoxus, what's your status?"
"Temperature down. Can your warship handle the flux?"
"Sure, Atropos has more mass and bigger accumulators than you do... and the enemy's breaking off. But dammit, there aren't any of your forces left at the comet, are there?"
Eudoxus shuddered. "Comet! We abandoned the comet as soon as you appeared. What need, when we had Crazy Eddie's Sister to find and protect? Let the Khanate have it. But a splinter group formerly belonging to the Khanate has virtually destroyed our main fleet and now holds the Sister
"Call them the Crimean Tartars, for the moment. They're new to us. The Crimeans hold the new Jump point to the red dwarf, and there's reason to think they know what they have. They'll be hard to dislodge."
Blaine was radiating distress. Renner said, "If they're there when Glenda Ruth comes through, we will all regret it."
"I will inform Medina's Warriors. After that it is out of my hands. Give me a moment."
The picture went dark. Kevin Renner clicked off, then turned to his people. "Horace? Anything? I don't even have intelligent questions. It's frustrating."
"Kevin, I have a thousand questions, but none are urgent. You will note the selection of names for the various groups. All from classic history, all having one way or another impacted on Arab civilization, some like the Khanate quite devastatingly. It is cleverly done."
"Eudoxus fully understands Hecate's importance," Chris Blaine said. "It's still worth remembering, Mediators don't do war. I'm not sure what they'll do now that their fleet is knocked out. Send an embassy group, probably including one trained by Eudoxus...hmm."
"What?"
"It seems probable that the Tartars will capture Hecate," Blaine said.
"You're calm enough about it," Joyce said.
Blaine shrugged without quite using his shoulders. "It's a problem that needs fixing, Joyce, not a bloody funeral. Yet."
"There's certainly nothing we can do about it," Renner said. "We're headed away from the Sister at high acceleration, and our friends don't have any ships left. So what happens?"
Blaine shrugged. "So the Tartars will take possession of Hecate. Medina will send Mediators, one of whom probably knows Anglic. We might be able to get a message to Glenda Ruth. At least tell- yes. Captain, assuming that the Tartars will not allow Eudoxus's friends to brief Glenda Ruth, have Eudoxus instruct his Anglic-speaking Mediator to use the expression ‘rape my lizard'. Either in Glenda Ruth's hearing, or as an expression she will be asked to explain."
"What in the world ...?" Renner demanded.
"It is recent slang, not used before this generation."
"Ah," Bury said. "Miss Blaine will know that the Moties never learned to say that from the MacArthur-Lenin expedition, therefore that this is a message from us. Subtle, Lieutenant. My congratulations."