stunt with the Arran missiles?”
That only paused him for a moment. Farragut hadn’t thought the stunt stupid. “I thought it would communicate our overwhelming superior force without launching our own weapons against them. I showed them we could destroy them, but that was not why we came. It worked. Monitors say the Arrans are coming out of their shelters to point at the light when we orbit over.”
“They might just as easily have concluded that we like toying with our prey before we eat it. You assume the universe thinks like John Farragut, and I know for a fact that it doesn’t. You are bold, forthright, cheerful—qualities you count on to bluff and charm your way through strange waters—but those qualities are not universally admired, I assure you. A stranger is as likely to see you as loud, undignified, vulgar, ignorant, inappropriately childish, and neglectful of my customs.”
“Your customs? Was that a Freudian slip?”
“No slip. Quite on purpose.”
“Did I do something to offend Rome?”
“Do? You did not do. You are. Your people obey you because they respect—not to mention adore—you.”
“And you have a problem with that?”
“Romans lead by force of law. It doesn’t matter if a Roman loathes his CO. He follows him to hell anyway. A Roman XO does not suggest a better way to deal with the incoming missiles when issued an order.”
Augustus had been monitoring the control room during the encounter.
“Calli asked for clarification,” Farragut excused his XO’s balk.
“Callista Carmel was schooled on Palatine. Mr. Carmel knows that under a Roman captain, she would be in the brig right now. But she also knows she can get away with that yellow snow under John Farragut.”
“You think Calli’s question was a thinly veiled challenge to my authority?”
“Thinly veiled? It was damn near naked.”
“Had more clothes on than your challenges, Augustus.”
“And yet I am not in the brig. Why?”
“Because you want so badly to be there. Well, I’m sorry but it’s going to take something very un-Roman and dishonorable like direct violation of orders for you to get there.”
Augustus fell silent as a stone. Stared. Had not expected that kind of insight from this man. Was surprised to be surprised.
Very well. The captain was a shrewd idiot.
Farragut’s smile returned. “So why are you so jolly eager to get into my brig, Augustus?”
“Frankly?”
“I’m pretty sure you can’t do anything else. Yes, frankly.”
“I believe Earth and Palatine to be natural enemies. Which is to say the U.S. and Palatine are natural enemies, given that the United States is the only military power worth mentioning on Earth. I am sworn to give my life to Rome. And Rome has seen fit to put its neck under the U.S. heel for the duration of the Hive threat. So here I am. I serve. I don’t like it. I don’t pretend to. I don’t question a direct order in your own command center.”
“And that grudge is not getting heavy, Augustus?”
“Can you shut off a hundred and fifty years of hostility as quickly as turning out a light?” Augustus countered.
“Oh, much faster than that,” John said brightly.
Palatine was founded in the late twenty-third century by a private consortium on a planet two hundred light-years away from Earth in the constellation of the Southern Crown under a U.S. flag.
Once Palatine’s infrastructure was in place, its land partially terraformed, the planet self-sufficient, and the government subsidy exhausted, the model colony declared its independence. Palatine, which also called itself Rome, summoned all true Romans from Earth.
And they answered. By the millions. Doctors, lawyers, judges, legislators, philosophers, historians, Catholic clergy, all manner of highly educated people for whom most Earth dwellers assumed the knowledge of Latin was merely a professional necessity or historical interest. Millions left Earth, forswore citizenship in their various nations and
That only paused him for a moment. Farragut hadn’t thought the stunt stupid. “I thought it would communicate our overwhelming superior force without launching our own weapons against them. I showed them we could destroy them, but that was not why we came. It worked. Monitors say the Arrans are coming out of their shelters to point at the light when we orbit over.”
“They might just as easily have concluded that we like toying with our prey before we eat it. You assume the universe thinks like John Farragut, and I know for a fact that it doesn’t. You are bold, forthright, cheerful—qualities you count on to bluff and charm your way through strange waters—but those qualities are not universally admired, I assure you. A stranger is as likely to see you as loud, undignified, vulgar, ignorant, inappropriately childish, and neglectful of my customs.”
“Your customs? Was that a Freudian slip?”
“No slip. Quite on purpose.”
“Did I do something to offend Rome?”
“Do? You did not do. You are. Your people obey you because they respect—not to mention adore—you.”
“And you have a problem with that?”
“Romans lead by force of law. It doesn’t matter if a Roman loathes his CO. He follows him to hell anyway. A Roman XO does not suggest a better way to deal with the incoming missiles when issued an order.”
Augustus had been monitoring the control room during the encounter.
“Calli asked for clarification,” Farragut excused his XO’s balk.
“Callista Carmel was schooled on Palatine. Mr. Carmel knows that under a Roman captain, she would be in the brig right now. But she also knows she can get away with that yellow snow under John Farragut.”
“You think Calli’s question was a thinly veiled challenge to my authority?”
“Thinly veiled? It was damn near naked.”
“Had more clothes on than your challenges, Augustus.”
“And yet I am not in the brig. Why?”
“Because you want so badly to be there. Well, I’m sorry but it’s going to take something very un-Roman and dishonorable like direct violation of orders for you to get there.”
Augustus fell silent as a stone. Stared. Had not expected that kind of insight from this man. Was surprised to be surprised.
Very well. The captain was a shrewd idiot.
Farragut’s smile returned. “So why are you so jolly eager to get into my brig, Augustus?”
“Frankly?”
“I’m pretty sure you can’t do anything else. Yes, frankly.”
“I believe Earth and Palatine to be natural enemies. Which is to say the U.S. and Palatine are natural enemies, given that the United States is the only military power worth mentioning on Earth. I am sworn to give my life to Rome. And Rome has seen fit to put its neck under the U.S. heel for the duration of the Hive threat. So here I am. I serve. I don’t like it. I don’t pretend to. I don’t question a direct order in your own command center.”
“And that grudge is not getting heavy, Augustus?”
“Can you shut off a hundred and fifty years of hostility as quickly as turning out a light?” Augustus countered.
“Oh, much faster than that,” John said brightly.
Palatine was founded in the late twenty-third century by a private consortium on a planet two hundred light-years away from Earth in the constellation of the Southern Crown under a U.S. flag.
Once Palatine’s infrastructure was in place, its land partially terraformed, the planet self-sufficient, and the government subsidy exhausted, the model colony declared its independence. Palatine, which also called itself Rome, summoned all true Romans from Earth.
And they answered. By the millions. Doctors, lawyers, judges, legislators, philosophers, historians, Catholic clergy, all manner of highly educated people for whom most Earth dwellers assumed the knowledge of Latin was merely a professional necessity or historical interest. Millions left Earth, forswore citizenship in their various nations and
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