LE5739 - Falcon Rising, page 7
Samantha stopped pacing for a moment to say, dispassionately, "Dramatically put, Marthe. Some of this I had not known before."
"I merely present these details to support my view that Diana's claim is valid for me subjectively. Her demand to be allowed to compete for a bloodname is analogous to the unorthodox tactics of Aidan Pryde."
"How can you compare the two?"
"If there is any chance that Diana, as the offspring"— Marthe almost smiled as she noticed Samantha's wince at the word offspring—"of the courageous and resourceful Aidan Pryde, can earn a bloodname, I am willing to risk the disapproval of our entire Clan to allow her the opportunity to prove herself. Frankly, I, too, have my doubts that she can succeed, but then I think of Aidan Pryde and all the obstacles he overcame and I am not so sure. That is why, Samantha, I went against the tide and approved her candidacy and pressured Ravill Pryde to be her official sponsor. He was furious, but he is a good Jade Falcon warrior and an intelligent strategist who could see the worth of my contentions, as I am sure you do now, quiaff?"
For a moment it looked as if Samantha would disagree, but instead she spoke the ritual aff, then resumed her pacing.
"Many Falcon warriors oppose you on this decision, just as do many Khans in council."
Marthe swallowed hard. "It is true, I am afraid. But we will get past all that, and I will need your help, saKhan Samantha."
"I am at your service. Always."
For a moment, as her pacing picked up speed, it looked as if Samantha was going to crash into the wall. But she stopped abruptly and whirled to face Marthe.
"I have to say I cannot endure the catfights in council," she said, her voice calm but her mood clearly urgent. "Jade Falcons were not meant for this eternal palaver. We are becoming just like those Inner Sphere surats, with all our talks and maneuverings to maintain our own increasingly complicated political units and you—Marthe Pryde—are right there in the thick of it. You and the Wolf Khan Vlad Ward and—"
"Shut up, Samantha. Even if we are both Khans, there are limits to what we may say to each other. You are heading toward views that could be the basis for a Circle of Equals being drawn for us. And it is essential that we must not fight with each other, quiaff?"
Samantha nodded and started pacing again. Silently. She was clearly marshaling her thoughts for the next rush of words.
"At any rate," she finally said, "it is in my nature to be useful to the Clan at all times. Sitting in council and maneuvering through the bureaucracy are not much part of my personal arsenal. Inspecting troops and munitions and training units are more to my taste. I will always be more useful in the field than in the council chamber. While on Ironhold, I will report to you on this bloodname contest, too."
She stopped walking and her body relaxed as she looked to Marthe for comment. Marthe paused a moment to collect her thoughts.
"One more thing, Samantha. There is another matter on Ironhold that you could usefully attend to. The mother of Diana, the scientist Peri, has just arrived onplanet. She claims to be there to support Diana, but she is nosing around, and I hear that she is asking embarrassing questions about the scientist caste. The scientists are so secretive, so absorbed with their own concerns rather than the fulfillment of Clan goals, that—"
"I have often wondered why you, and the other Khans, allow the caste to carry on in such secrecy. It seems to me that—"
"I know what you are going to say, Samantha, and I partially agree with you. The scientists' hermetic leanings must be broken. At any rate, they have accomplished some impressive genetic advances, and I am sure they will produce even more to come. For now, I must find a reason to change the situation and I do not have one."
"As Khan you do not need one."
"But I do need one. It is important to be fair, Samantha. We depend on the scientists for genetic research that will provide us even more powerful warriors. I intend for the Jade Falcons to be the most powerful of all the Clans."
Samantha stopped in her tracks and turned to Marthe. "In that we are one, my Khan. We know that only the Falcons are the keepers of Kerensky's vision. That is what has let us overcome every obstacle, every defeat, every challenge."
"Aye, Samantha," said Marthe. "We are unstoppable. We are Jade Falcons."
Samantha turned to go, and with a sigh Marthe resumed her seat at the desk and the mountain of paperwork before her.
As she walked down the corridor away from Marthe's quarters, Samantha Clees wondered if she had over-stepped in her conversation with Khan Marthe. She had become saKhan after a distinguished career, but believed that Marthe's achievements were greater. Sometimes she wondered if she should even open her mouth before such a daunting Clan hero. She had never wished for the high position she now held. It was for her merely a step in a career that was totally imbued with the values of the Clan.
Could I be Khan of the Jade Falcons? Samantha wondered. Probably not. But, if I were to achieve it, I would try to serve with the skill and firmness that Marthe Pryde displays. If only her mind did not sometimes take too political a turn. That is my only worry.
8
Grand Council Chamber Hall of the Khans, near Katyusha
Strana Mechty
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space
31 January 3060
Perigard Zalman, standing at the Grand Council Chamber entrance, surveyed the large room. He was generally one of the first to arrive for a Grand Council meeting, and today was no exception. But today he was more confident than ever. Today he would get to Marthe Pryde.
* * *
A half-hour earlier he had been to see Natalie Breen in her small office. Heading there, he'd experienced one of his sudden headaches caused by the shift from intense outdoor sunlight to the serious and gloomy darkness of the Hall of Khans.
The headache was throbbing as he stopped at Natalie Breen's door and made the usual polite knock. The erstwhile Khan's equally polite response came loud and clear from the other side of the heavy door. Entering quickly into the darkened room, Zalman got right to the point.
"This Marthe Pryde is unflappable. She is the Clan version of an ice sculpture. I provoke. She stays calm. If anything, I am the one who gets agitated."
"She gets under your skin, quiaff?"
"Aff."
"She did not become Khan until after I resigned, but long ago I knew her slightly. I can see her getting under anyone's skin."
Zalman described his efforts to provoke Marthe. "It seems as if she sees through me."
"A smart politician."
"For a politician, she complains about politics a great deal."
Natalie Breen laughed. "That is probably her best political tactic. Deny, then do what you deny."
Zalman shook his head. "That would not be the way of the Clans."
"Perhaps, or perhaps it is simply a facet of being a Khan. I suggest that, instead of hammering on the bloodname issue, you invoke the matter of the freeborn warrior, Horse, and his outfit."
The words surprised Zalman. "That would mean revealing information collected by our intelligence unit."
"It is your choice, Khan Zalman. I have no better advice for you than that which I have already given. Perseverance is the key. All warriors are humans, even Khans. There is a weak spot. I am confident you will find it."
When he left Natalie's office after discussing further strategy, Zalman was surprised to find that his headache had subsided.
* * *
While he appreciated Natalie Breen's faith in him, Perigard Zalman wished he could be as confident as she had suggested.
"Excuse me, honored Khan," said a voice behind him, and Zalman realized he was blocking the doorway. As he turned to clear the way, he discovered that the words had come from the individual he had been thinking about so intently, Marthe Pryde.
She nodded courteously as she passed by him and headed for her seat. Zalman felt vaguely insulted. Her courtesy had been too pleasant, much too pleasant.
When he had settled himself alongside Brett Andrews, he noted that Marthe Pryde sat alone at the Jade Falcon place. According to his last information, Samantha Clees was inspecting munitions and BattleMech factories on Ironhold.
Marthe seemed tall even when seated. It was the way she held her back straight, as if she did not enjoy the comfort of a chair. That was not strange among warriors, who often were uncomfortable sitting anywhere but in the cockpit of their BattleMechs.
After the Loremaster and the ilKhan had entered the chamber, the Khans donned their masks and performed their pre-meeting rituals. Then the session began and most of the masks were removed and set on the ornate desktops before them. Next began the usual debates, most of them concerning the final preparations for the Inner Sphere invasion. Sometimes the speeches were formal and repetitious, and even the normally intense Viper saKhan, Brett Andrews, seemed about to doze. Zalman stood up, interrupting the officious commentary of the Ice Hellion Khan, Asa Taney.
"We are like ants arguing at the edge of a puddle, one side wanting to skirt the shore of the puddle and take the long way around, while the other side wants to plunge in and take the risk of drowning on the way to the other side."
Zalman was gratified to see that Marthe Pryde was among the several Khans who sprang up angrily, and that it was she whom Loremaster Pershaw allowed to speak.
"The esteemed Steel Viper Khan dishonors all of us in his demeaning comparison to ants. Perhaps he should devote his time to the study of imagery."
Her remarks were perfunctory, Zalman thought, spoken by rote. A typical response, the kind he hated. Suddenly he saw a way to use it. Perhaps, as Natalie Breen had suggested, Marthe Pryde could be provoked, if you came at her sideways.
"I am not surprised, Khan Marthe, that you should complain about imagery. It is the kind of remark that wastes the time of the Khans gathered in this chamber, the kind of waste so typical of the Jade Falcon Clan."
Zalman knew that, while all Clans abhorred waste, the Jade Falcons made something of a fetish of it. Marthe Pryde could not allow his remark, mild as it was, to pass by.
"Typical? Jade Falcons waste little. Everything is used. Several times. The Steel Viper Khan should retract his statement. I demand it, in fact."
And there it was, in simple terms, the opening. A small, almost trivial remark regarding Clan honor. Zalman's heart was beating faster as he spoke even more calmly.
"Steel Vipers do not lie; there can be no retraction."
"In this chamber you must prove your assertions, Khan Zalman, quiaff?"
"Aff."
"I await your proof."
Marthe Pryde looked so confident, so sure that she was merely defending her Clan on a small matter of honor, that she would never perceive the ambush in it.
"You waste warriors, Khan Marthe. Warriors die more because of your Clan's policies than their lack of prowess. It is a heroism bought at high cost, a wasteful heroism."
The sudden fire in Marthe Pryde's normally icy eyes thrilled Perigard Zalman. Famed for her coolness in all situations, this hint of emotion encouraged him to continue.
The other Khans, who usually at least muttered in commentary as a conflict escalated within the chamber, sat quietly in their seats, watching the two Khans as if they were BattleMechs circling each other in combat. Brett Andrews, who had apparently divined his Khan's strategy, whispered encouragement.
"I believe that the Khan of the Steel Vipers has been afflicted with a momentary madness," Marthe continued, please explain yourself, Khan Zalman."
"It is simple, realty. The Jade Falcon policy of not only accepting freedoms into their ranks, but of actually allowing one to compete for a bloodname is one ef the most wasteful policies to fee found in any Clan."
"We have given our reasons for the freeborn in the present contest at—"
"Waste. You train freeborns to fight as warriors. In their inferiority they endanger all the trueborns in the units. Many have died due to the actions of free—"
"More have been saved by the actions of freeborn warriors. Jade Falcons have shown that, while respecting their trueborn warriors, they have utilized their freeborns intelligently, without waste."
"With respect, Khan Marthe, your words are unconvincing. We Clans who maintain strict control over the freeborns of our warrior caste know that better than you who do not."
"You only think you do!" shouted a new voice. Khan Vlad Ward of Clan Wolf. No surprise there, Zalman thought. The Wolf and the Falcon had somehow become allied of late, and the Wolves' record of using freeborns as warriors was even-more shocking than the Falcons'.
"I need no help here, Khan Ward," Marthe said. Vlad sat down, but he was clearly irritated.
Zalman, pleased at creating even a slight rift between Vlad and Marthe, continued. "Recently we of the Steel Vipers have discovered that Khan Marthe Pryde authorized, while still with her forces on Coventry, the formation of a Trinary entirely composed of freeborn warriors. That, my fellow Khans, is the honor our esteemed Jade Falcon Khan wastes on the filthy freebirths in her—"
The other Khans protested loudly. Many of them shook their fists as they leaned over their council places. Others pounded on the desks. The commotion stopped at the raising of ilKhan Lincoln Osis' hand. The giant, black-skinned Elemental stood up and, while he spoke, kept his eyes firmly on Marthe Pryde.
"Khan Marthe Pryde of the Jade Falcons," Osis began in his impressively stentorian tone, "a serious accusation has just been lodged against you and your entire Clan. You wish to respond, quiaff?"
Marthe did not speak angrily, as Zalman had hoped, but in a low voice that resembled the rumbling of a volcano. Even amid the muttering of the Khans all around her, her voice carried through clearly.
"The Grand Council is no forum for your social views, Khan Zalman."
"Social views? Khan Marthe, that is a mild description for the expression of—"
"I apologize for using polite language to counter the muck that came out of your mouth, Khan Zalman."
Inside, Zalman was pleased. He felt confident now, in charge of the situation.
"I think my eminent colleague is not at this moment in a position to defend Jade Falcon policies."
"The policies of Clan Jade Falcon are consistent."
"Agreed. We are not just discussing the use of freeborns to fill out the ranks of units, especially support and garrison units. Sometimes that may be necessary, particularly in Clans who cannot produce sufficient trueborns to—"
Vlad stood up, but remained silent as Marthe interrupted Zalman.
"The distinguished Steel Viper Khan wishes to insult our trueborns as well as our freeborns. I would remind him that Jade Falcons can provide proof that both genetic types performed valiantly in—"
"We do not mean to denigrate your Clan's heroism. It is in the extent of freeborn involvement where we part company, you and I."
Zalman glanced around the chamber, making sure he had the attention of all the other Khans. He did. Good. Time to heat up the rhetoric, score more hits against Marthe's protective armor.
"I say that any Clan that allows freebirths to rise in their ranks, that allows freebirths to compete for bloodnames, that forms freebirths into Trinaries and, worse, has them commanded by a near-renegade piece of freebirth scum, is to be—"
"Star Commander Horse is not scum! He is a Jade Falcon hero! The Remembrance celebrates his bravery in—"
"Bravery or not, he is freebirth and, as such, he is scum, filth—"
"The great hero Aidan Pryde did not endorse such—"
He had been waiting for her to mention Aidan Pryde, hoped for it.
"Ah! Your Great Hero! Your hero so valiant his genetic materials were accepted into the gene pool ahead of their destined time. And I agree. In my study of this fine warrior's life, the main flaw seems to be his bizarre connections with freebirths. Recall that he failed in his Trial when he was a trueborn cadet, defeated, incidentally, through the shrewd tactics of my honored fellow Khan, Marthe Pryde. Recall that he played a role in order to obtain the unprecedented second chance at a Trial—he actually posed as freebirth scum and toiled for years in a garrison unit with many freeborn warriors. He lived with them, ate with them, fought and played with them, associated with them on every level. What kind of life was that for a trueborn? Is a trueborn warrior in freeborn clothing really a trueborn? Is—"
"The Steel Viper Khan's portrayal is distorted! I do not claim to support the decisions that led to these incidents nor do I endorse the policies that allowed Aidan Pryde to continue in that role. However, whatever is ugly in the past of Aidan Pryde was more than made up for by—"
"Was it? Was it really? Recall that Aidan Pryde never did shake the freeborn taint that colored his career. Even after his questionable victory in a bloodname contest that drew similar criticisms as the present one involving his freebirth daughter—and I will not even bring up again the ugliness of that distortion of Clan ideals—after he received his blood name, your Clan showed contempt for him by placing him in command of a unit as tainted as he. The Falcon Guards."
"The Falcon Guards redeemed themselves at Twycross."
"I do not deny the accidents in the career of your celebrated Jade Falcon hero. What I claim is that Aidan Pryde represents the debasement that has adulterated and demoralized the formerly great Jade Falcon Clan. It is no wonder that freebirth scum can rise to power, to become commanding officers with their own units of genetically debased warriors."
Zalman took a breath. He wondered why Marthe Pryde had suddenly gone silent. She should be leaping over her desk, flying toward him.
"Recall that Aidan Pryde's heroism in the Battle of Tukayyid, where he did indeed save uncounted lives and many 'Mechs as well, occurred as he protected the body of his fallen daughter. His daughter. This hero fought valiantly, true, but for what? To save the life of a filthy freebirth. And yet the Jade Falcons honor him. With this kind of history it is no surprise that the Falcons have brought warriors into battle before they have passed their Trials, have given freebirths command, have become so—so tolerant of the freebirths in their ranks that they are no longer the Clan that could win a Tukayyid battle. Their losses to our Clan in the invasion corridor serve as further proof of the decline of this Clan. We should reprimand—"
