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The bedside phone's signal was a loud, directional buzz scientifically designed to wake even deep sleepers. But it had been months since Jonny slept merely d...
"Jonny, Theron Yutu's on the phone," she said. "He says it's urgent."
"Uff," Jonny sighed, rolling heavily onto his side and punching at the hold-release button. "Yeah?"
"Governor, I'm at the starfield," Yutu's voice came. "A Dominion courier ship's on its way in-ETA about an hour. They want you, Governor-General Stiggur, and...
"At-what is it, three in the morning? What's the rush?"
"I don't know, sir-they wouldn't say anything more than that. But the starfield night manager said they wanted no more than a twelve-hour turnaround."
"They want to leave in twelve hours? What the hell is-? Oh, never mind; I'm sure they wouldn't tell you." Jonny inhaled deeply, trying to clear the ground cl...
"No, sir. The Hap-3 satellite's still out, and it'll be another half hour before Hap-2 is in position to make the call."
And once he was notified it would be another three hours before he could get back from the outland district he was touring. Which meant the whole burden of g...
"No, sir, but from his attitude I doubt he's looking for much in the way of ceremony."
"Well, that's one bright spot, anyway. If it's efficiency he wants, we'll give it to him with spangles. We'll skip the Dominion Building altogether and meet ...
"Almo Pyre's already down there-I'll have him find you a room."
"Good." Jonny tried to think of anything else he should suggest, but gave up the effort. Yutu generally knew what he was doing, anyway. "All right, I'll be a...
"Yes, sir. Sorry about all this."
"S'okay. See you."
Jonny flicked off the phone with a sigh and lay quietly for a moment, gathering his strength. Then, trying not to groan audibly, he sat up. It wasn't as bad ...
Chrys had been busy in his brief absence, finding and laying out his best formalwear. "What do you think it's all about?" she asked, keeping her voice low. T...
Jonny shook his head. "The last time they sent someone without at least a couple months' warning, it was to stick us with the Cobra factory. I suppose it cou...
"Could some disease have shown up in our last shipment?" Chrys asked, holding his shirt for him. "A lot of those commercial carriers only take minimal precau...
"If it had, they'd probably have specified that they'd stay aboard their ship while it was being serviced." Jonny grimaced as he backed into the sleeves, try...
Chrys noticed anyway. "Dad called this afternoon to remind you again about getting that checkup," she said.
"What for?" Jonny growled. "To hear him tell me my anemia and arthritis are still getting worse? I already know that." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Chrys. I know I...
She was silent for a long moment, and in a way her surface calm was more disturbing than the periodic outbursts of bitterness and rage that had occurred over...
"Sure," he promised, relieved at the change of subject. But only for a moment . . . because there was only one reason he could think of for the behavior of t...
Five minutes later he was driving toward the starfield. Beyond the glow of the streetlights, in the darkened city, the ghosts of Adirondack seemed to be gath...
* * *
Tammerlaine Wrey was the image of the middle-level Dome bureaucrats that had been the favorite target of political caricaturists when Jonny was growing up. P...
And his news was as bad as it could possibly be.
"Understand, we'll be doing what we can to draw off the bulk of the Troft forces," he said, waving a finger at the curved battle front on the Star Force tact...
"My God!" Syndic Liang Kijika gasped. "A hundred thousand? That's a quarter of our combined populations."
"But you have nearly twenty-four hundred Cobras," Wrey pointed out. "A hundred thousand Trofts shouldn't be too much for them to handle, if past experience p...
"Except that almost seventy percent of those Cobras have never seen any sort of warfare," Jonny put in, striving to keep his voice calm as the memories of Ad...
" 'Those who can't do, teach,' " Wrey quoted. "Your veterans ought to be able to whip them into shape in a few months. Gentlemen, I didn't come here to run y...
"We're all Dominion citizens," Tamis Dyon snarled.
"Of course, of course," Wrey said. "You know what I mean. Anyway, I'll want those people packed and on my ship within six hours. I have their names, but you'...
"What's being done to try and prevent the war?" Jonny asked.
Wrey frowned slightly. "It's beyond prevention, Governor-I thought I'd made that clear."
"But the Central Committee is still talking-"
"In order to delay the outbreak long enough for you to prepare."
"What do you mean, prepare?" Dyon snapped, rising half out of his seat. "What the hell are we going to do-build antiaircraft guns out of cyprene trees? You'r...
"I am not responsible for what's happened," Wrey shot back. "The Trofts started this, and you ought to be damned glad the Committee was willing to back you u...
Slowly, Jonny reached across the table and picked up the magcard. The die was apparently cast . . . but there was too much at stake to just sit and do nothin...
"Out of the question," Wrey shook his head. "In the first place we stand an even chance of getting hit by the Trofts before we ever reach Dominion space; and...
"He could function as a consultant on conditions here," Jonny persisted. "You admitted yourself you don't really know us."
"A consultant to what end? Are you expecting the Star Force to launch a backup assault through a hundred light-years of Troft territory?" Wrey glanced around...
"Doesn't care falx droppings for us, does he?" Kijika growled. His fingertips were pressed hard enough against the tabletop to show white under the nails.
"It's not going to matter much longer what he or anyone else in the Dominion thinks about us," Dyon said grimly.
"Maybe we can postpone that a bit," Jonny told him, handing Dyon the magcard. "Would you give this to Theron Yutu and have him start locating these people? I...
Governor-General Brom Stiggur was still en route to Capitalia, but he was within constant range of the Hap-2 communications satellite now and the picture was...
"More time than we've got," Jonny said bluntly. "To be brutally honest, Brom, I don't think we've got an icecube's chance on Vega if the Trofts decide they r...