Conventions of War by Walter Jon Williams Read Free Book Online

anything. You’ll get caught and killed and put the rest of us in danger.” At PJ’s downcast expression, she added, “Just live your normal life. You already possess considerable knowledge that’s of value. Tell me what you know.”
    PJ seemed uncertain. “What do you mean?”
    â€œWhat’s the news? What do you hear at your clubs? What are the Naxids doing?”
    â€œWell,” PJ shrugged, “they’re all over the place, aren’t they? Taking over the High City. They claim that they’re bringing everything back to normal, the way it was under the Shaa, but that’s not true.” He took a sip of his whisky. “They’ve got their own people in charge of all the ministries, all the departments.”
    â€œSo how do people feel about that?”
    â€œThey’re angry, of course. But…baffled.” He shrugged again. “Nobody knows what to do. Like Van, who I was talking to in my smoking club. Lord Vandermere Takahashi, I mean.”
    The Citrine Fling stung Sula’s tongue. “Go on,” she said.
    â€œHe’s in the Meteorology Department,” PJ said. “He’s got a new Naxid supervisor, and he doesn’t know how to act. He’s loyal, of course, but could he be charged with treason if he followed her orders?”
    â€œHe might be shot if he didn’t,” Sula said.
    â€œProbably not in the Meteorology Department,” PJ allowed, “but if he were in anyplace critical, like my friend Sun is at the Ministry of Police, that would be different. He’s got Naxids asking him for information all the time, and he doesn’t know what they’re going to use it for, whether it’s an ordinary request or something they could use to prosecute loyalists. And of course he’s had to take the oath of allegiance to the new government—does that make him a traitor or not? Will he be prosecuted or killed after we win the war?” He blinked. “The former government—the real government, I mean—was quite vehement about cooperation with the Naxids. And Van’s worried too, because even the Meteorology Department will have to take the oath sooner or later.”
    â€œI see,” Sula said. Ideas sizzled through her mind.
    She thought she knew the message that she wanted to send to the population.
    Â 
    M artinez spent the transit to Termaine in the Flag Officer Station, strapped to an acceleration couch and wearing a vac suit. Illustrious was at general quarters, standard procedure for a warship that might encounter an enemy on the other side of a wormhole. Martinez, as the squadron’s tactical officer, sat facing the squadron commander, Lady Michi Chen.
    The ship’s captain, Lord Gomberg Fletcher, directed Illustrious from Command, on another deck. The Flag Officer Station concerned itself only with squadron maneuvers and grand strategy, not with the details of running the cruiser.
    The squadron entered “hot,” radars and ranging lasers hammering in search of a foe. The Naxids knew Chenforce was coming, and they just might have prepared some kind of surprise.
    No surprise was in the offing, though since the Naxids had turned off their own radars, it took some hours for this to become apparent. Termaine Wormhole 1 was a considerable distance from Termaine’s primary, outside the heliopause, and it would take days for Chenforce to near the planet. If there were any surprises, they would be farther into the system.
    In the meantime, Michi Chen’s own demands were being pulsed to Termaine via high-powered communications lasers, and repeated on radio frequencies for the benefit of shipping. All ships in the system were to be destroyed; all crews in transit to abandon ship if they wished to live. All ships on the ring were to be cast off without crews, all docking and construction bays to be opened for inspection, any uncompleted ships thrown into the vacuum with