“It is possible that you could negotiate a different deal if you reached out to them yourselves,” Sylvia said. “I did not have the authority or the desire to commit you myself.”
“Which is, again, appreciated,” Ran told her. “But the reality is what the reality is. We will agree to these trading rights.” His tendrils shivered again. “It is not as if we are trading with anyone other than ourselves and the UPA so far. I do not surrender much.”
“They have committed three Guardian warships to secure the conference,” she said. “I do not believe the Kozun even have a force that could defeat three Guardians in battle.”
“Even with the UPSF’s support, I am certain that we do not,” Casto Ran agreed. “We will want to get our ships in motion sooner, Ambassador. If we are agreed on the plan, I ask that you speak with Captain Wong and we will prepare our expedition.”
“Of course, Arbiter,” Sylvia said with a small bow. “The UPA is here to support your people in any way we can.”
Chapter Eighteen
If O’Flannagain hadn’t already smashed a brick into Henry’s emotional state, his reaction to waiting for Sylvia Todorovich to arrive aboard Raven would have been enough of a hint on its own. Years of practice kept his face impassive as he stood with a formal welcome contingent, but he was nervous to see her again.
He found that realization more than a little amusing, using it as a shield against the emotional somersault his heart turned when the Ambassador stepped out of the shuttle in Raven’s bay.
He was fifty-one years old, for crying out loud. He had no business reacting like a lovestruck schoolboy at the sight of a conservatively dressed forty-year-old woman.
“Company, attention!”
The GroundDiv honor guard snapped to obey the barked order, creating a clear path from the shuttle ramp to where Henry and Iyotake were waiting.
Todorovich gave the guards a firm nod of acknowledgement and crossed the shuttlebay, her own staff trailing behind her like a flock of goslings.
“Welcome back aboard Raven, Ambassador Todorovich,” Henry greeted her, taking her hand and bowing over it. “We are delighted to once again play host to your delegation.”
“Delighted, is it?” she replied with a smile. “That might be the most pleased a UPSF crew has ever been to have us aboard.”
“Most UPSF crews didn’t watch you save five star systems, Ambassador,” he said. “Raven knows your worth.”
“And I know Raven’s,” she agreed. “I have detailed updates that weren’t in the skip drone, and I presume you have updates for me. Can we schedule a meeting for once I have my staff settled?”
“I have several slots clear this afternoon, Ambassador,” Henry confirmed. “And you and Em Leitz are invited to dine with myself and the senior officers this evening, of course.”
“We’d be delighted,” she said, with a sharp sparkle of amusement in her eyes. She turned back to her chief of staff. “Felix, check over our schedule versus the captain’s and schedule a meeting for myself at the best time you see fit.”
Henry coughed delicately.
“Bring Em Leitz, please,” he told her quietly. “I’ll have Iyotake as well. Our…understudies need to be briefed on some things as well.”
“I see,” she said. “Felix, include yourself in that meeting.”
“Yes, ser,” the chief of staff confirmed. “Anyone else I should include, Captain?”
“No,” Henry said. “Just the four of us.”
He needed to brief the two senior diplomats on Yellow Bicycle, but the fewer people who knew about their covert backup, the more likely they were to be able to keep it secret.
“Understood. Well, the sooner we get ourselves settled and unpacked, the better off we are,” Todorovich told him. “Shall we get to it?”
“Chief Headley, please show the Ambassador and her staff to their quarters,” Iyotake said from beside Henry. The Chief Steward had managed to be almost invisibly unobtrusive up to that point, materializing from behind Henry with three large muscular subordinates to take the diplomats’ luggage.
Most of the time, Henry was willing to trust his crew one hundred percent. Despite his orders to keep Yellow Bicycle secret, he wasn’t overly worried about it leaking to his officers and spacers—he trusted their discretion and their competence. Equally, he had faith in the obstacles that would prevent Kozun intelligence agents getting any reports back to the Hierarchy. With the Kenmiri subspace network permanently offline, interstellar communications were slow and obvious.
But his orders said Yellow Bicycle remained need-to-know, kept from even his senior officers until they were on their way. His XO and his communications officer knew, but that was it.
That meant he needed a secure briefing room to talk to Todorovich and Leitz in. Fortunately, Raven’s designers had lavished every security measure imaginable on the captain’s office. The small breakout meeting room attached to his working space was just as secure as the battlecruiser’s three official secure briefing rooms.
That room was more than large enough for this meeting, and he gave his steward a grateful nod as she laid a tray of prepared coffees on the table and added a carafe of black coffee.
“The ambassador is on her way,” the noncom told him. “Do you need anything else, ser? I have a tray of donuts about to come out of the oven as well. They should beat the Ambassador here.”
“That sounds perfect, Em Guarneri,” Henry replied. “Thank you.”
The donuts arrived at the same time as Todorovich in the end, allowing the ambassador to carefully snag what appeared to be a glazed carrot donut in careful fingers as she passed the tray.
Iyotake and Leitz at least waited for the tray to be placed on the table before grabbing snacks of their own. Henry was well aware of the quality of treats the officers’ mess put out and was perfectly willing to grab a donut last.
None of the pastries would have been unacceptable, after all.
“We’ve sorted out a plan for meeting the Kozun?” he asked Todorovich as she finished her donut and wiped her fingers on a napkin.
“We have,” she said. “You saw most of the details we sent, yes?”
“Went over the entire package with my officers, yes,” he confirmed. “Three ships from each side, three Guardians from the Drifters. It sounds balanced but has the potential to be messy.”
“It does,” Todorovich agreed. “The Cluster has asked us to send Raven and one of the destroyers to escort their ship. They seem to think that our warships are more protected than theirs.”
“They’re not wrong,” Henry said. “I’d been planning on something like that. We’ll bring Glorious with us—she’s one of the Significance-class ships, with almost half again the firepower of the Tyrannosaurs that make up the rest of the battle group.”
“That’s your area of expertise, not mine,” she said. “I promised I would discuss it with you and make sure we were bringing the right ships.”
“They’re sending an escort, I presume?” Henry asked. “I imagine they wouldn’t want to risk Sunshine with just UPSF protectors.”