Rylae's Storm Page 10

CHAPTER NINE

  Introducing the senior officers to Admiral Shockpaw was rather uneventful. It seemed like everyone except Calgonnel and Lada forgot the Admiral was even joining the mission, due to being too busy with the accelerated schedule. During the quick meeting, I tried to scan the faces and responses of the goblins on staff – Sen, Zaxn and Simon – but I didn’t get much to work with. Or did I? All three of them were very quiet and respectful, with no evil grins or sharp movements or anything. I suppose the Admiral must be highly respected in the goblin community. I’ll ask Calgonnel in a bit when I get to his office.

  With the Admiral introduced, and his security staff now able to recognize all of the senior officers, that finishes off the list of ‘Admiral tasks’ in my head. The Admiral’s staff would have already taken the initiative with the cook staff , and Lada left the meeting at the head of his security detail, so everything else is in someone else’s responsibility matrix from here. I have to get back to ship management details later, but right now I’m heading to start talking mission details with Calgonnel – especially the new ones I just learned last night.

  I get to the Ambassador’s office and touch the door charm. The door fades out immediately, so I step inside and see Calgonnel sitting at his table. He doesn’t have a true desk in here, because “an Ambassador shouldn’t be separated from those he’s speaking with”. He’s very particular about things like that. Everyone’s equal in the Ambassador’s office. Just one round table with eight chairs. All the chairs are padded and extra-comfortable, and Calgonnel has one just like the others. His chair is only recognizable by the scrolls surrounding it and the additional wear in the padding.

  He looks up from a scroll he’s reading. “Hey, Rylae. Grab a chair.” I do, and he motions me closer to look at his scroll. “Looks like Tir Tairngire is going to open their hospital training center to non-UCST exchange students from the dwarven worlds. In exchange, the dwarves are going to share some of their new caregiver technology with all the elven worlds. Arlien Westiel is listed as one of the key signatories of the agreement. This is an excellent trade agreement. You and your mother should be proud of this.”

  Mother’s work as Chief Caregiver at the Academy Hospital puts her in situations like this regularly. She’s as much an expert caregiver as she is an interstellar activist. The council on Tir Tairngire respects her previous work with the Corps, as well as her excellent work with the Academy. She has a major voice in any hospital agreements between worlds. I smile. “Thanks, Calgonnel. I’m always proud of her, and I know Father is too. They’re pretty awesome parents.”

  He smiles and rolls the scroll. With important documents that an Ambassador may need to reference in meetings, like trade agreements, they always disseminate them in scroll form. Holoterminal report technology is secure, but reliant on mana batteries. No one wants a war to break out because a battery went dry and no one could pull up the details of the agreement during a dispute. I’ll just say it’s another ‘Admiralty efficiency’ and leave it at that.

  He sets the scroll on the top of a pile of them and turns to me. I hope he knows his filing system, because that pile doesn’t look any different to me than any of the other piles. So much easier to file reports in a terminal! Calgonnel taps his chin in thought. “I wonder what the goblins think about that agreement. Maybe they’re working on one as well. The races will never be in harmony, but it would be good to see everyone agreeing on things like this.”

  I chuckle a little bit. “I’m sure Mother’s working on it, but it may not be something she really wants to do. She did personally graduate Sen from the Academy hospital, and that’s likely not an experience she wants to relive dozens or hundreds of times with non-Academy goblins.”

  Calgonnel’s eyes get wide. “Oh. That poor woman. Your mother has my sympathies. On the other hand, imagine how much more healthy folk would be if there were more goblin caregivers. Enough to have some on every world. No one would get sick, because no one would ever want to be ‘helped’. Sometimes the cure is worse than the sickness. I know I save all my sick days for when we’re docked so I don’t have to visit the hospital ward on-ship!”

  I sit up straighter and pretend to be offended. “Ambassador. You should be ashamed. Sen Foulmuck is an excellent caregiver and performs her duties admirably. In fact, I think I heard her say something about checking out the Admiral himself.” I shake my head and put on a fearful expression. “I should probably follow up on that and verify the number of limbs he currently has versus the number he started the voyage with.”

  Calgonnel laughs. Goblin medicine is a lot different from anyone else’s, and hasn’t progressed much over the years even though research and technology has. Get a rash on your hand? Better take your arm off at the shoulder to keep it from spreading. Sen is constantly threatening to remove limbs. Sometimes she laughs about it afterwards. Sometimes she doesn’t.

  Since we’re already on the topic… “What’s the short story on the Admiral? The other goblins almost seem to respect him.”

  Calgonnel nods. “Admiral Bax Shockpaw held the title of King Damnation himself when he was a Battalion Major, around a hundred years ago. During a skirmish between the royal army and Shockpaw’s UCST battalion, the king tried to cheat, sending four hit squads in UCST armor through the ranks of the battalion to kill the Major. Shockpaw killed them all, leaving one goblin alive for an explanation. He then dragged the wounded goblin through the battle to King Damnation and killed the king using the wounded goblin as his weapon.

  “He put the King’s crown on his head and called for the fighting to end. Sixty years later, he handed the crown to his chief enforcer and just walked out, went to Terra and took an Admiral rank and position over the War department. The current King Damnation is that same advisor that the Admiral gave his crown to forty years ago.”

  Wow. That’s one hell of a story. At least it makes sense why he’s on this mission now, and the reverence from the goblins on my staff. Also why someone might want him dead. “Thanks. That explains a lot and puts some pieces together in my mind. It also leads into some news I received when the Admiral arrived.”

  “I was wondering about that. Normally I’d be on the greeting party for an Admiral, but I didn’t know he was on-ship until after launch. I was surprised by that, but figured there was a reason behind it.”

  “There was. The Admiral arrived in secret with information from the Office of Intelligence that there was an assassination attempt planned for his arrival to the ship. They contacted Cap, and Cap helped sneak him here. They didn’t know who the assassin was or where they were planning to strike, so they didn’t immediately trust anyone on the ship crew either. Since we still don’t know, this information is Level 0.”

  Calgonnel nods and is quiet. He looks like he’s processing the information. I don’t want to jump right into the other bits yet, so I give him a minute. Eventually, his eyes refocus on my face. “Understandable. Thank you for the information.”

  I nod, then look down at my hands. My left hand is pinching the knuckles on my right hand. It’s a bit of a nervous tic that I have when I don’t want to talk about something. I don’t think anyone else knows I have it, but I know I have it. “Correct, and that’s not the only piece of information I have. The Office of Intelligence thinks two assassination attempts on one mission is just a start. They have no more data, but they’re expecting more attempts on Stenchstone. Likely on Cap or the Admiral, but just as likely on you and I.”

  A smile spreads across Calgonnel’s face, which is exactly the response I wasn’t expecting. He must see that in my reaction, because he chuckles a little bit. “Sorry Rylae. In fact, I was already starting to realize our trip to the Overseer was going to be a bit more dangerous than we might have originally thought. An assassination attempt on us would just fit in with what I already know.”

  I sit back in the chair and cross my arms. “Okay,
Ambassador. You have my full attention now. It’s not every day I get to surprise you with news of our impending run from death, and you just steal my thunder away. What makes you think we’re not just going to get the LC out and hum a tune while skipping back to the ship?”

  He chuckles again. “Aside from the fact that goblins just don’t make things that easy? Firstly, the LC’s personnel file was interesting reading. His record is perfectly clean. He’s never been in trouble, never failed duty, and never had a single problem with any other folk in the UCST. I can’t imagine someone with this kind of record would suddenly try to assassinate a king.”

  That’s interesting. I bet that’s why Admiral Mom sent it to me, and why she wanted me to pay attention. She had already found a hole in the mission. Thanks Mom!

  Calgonnel continues, “Additionally, after reading more about the Overseer, I realized one very important thing: if you’re guilty of a capital crime, he won’t bother keeping you around. If LC Darkmuck was really being held for attempted assassination of the king, he wouldn’t be in custody. He’d be fertilizer in the fields.”

  Dragons be damned. How many dung piles is this mission going to throw at us? “Okay. Let me see if I understand this. We get a declaration of war because LC Darkmuck attempted to assassinate King Damnation in the name of the Corps, but the LC doesn’t seem like the kind of goblin to attempt assassination at all. We’re told LC Darkmuck is in custody, but if the assassination attempt had actually happened, he would be dead instead of being held.

  “On our end, we cut short the docking time of the only ship on Terra, stick previously-King-currently-Admiral Shockpaw on board after avoiding an assassination attempt on him, and fly him to Stenchstone to make his-former-advisor-currently-King Damnation stand down from war. When we get there, they’re likely to shoot or stab one or more of us, while our battalion stands toe-to-toe with their royal army throwing dirty looks at each other. This is starting to sound like a bad adventurer drama. What’s the end game here? “

  I receive a shrug in response to that one. I didn’t expect him to surprise me with an answer, but I had secretly hoped for one. “Could be anything. At this point, I’m not sure we know who all the players are. Could be the whole Damnation Kingdom really just wants to start a war with the Corps, even though the Corps isn’t some kind of interstellar army. Could be specific against Shockpaw. Could be a surprise retirement party for me. Pretty sure it’s not that one, but at this point it’s as valid an idea as anything.”

  Okay, that deserves a chuckle. “Point made, Calgonnel. We don’t know anything, so the next plans are to figure out how to learn something. We’ll have to report this to Cap so he knows it’s all some kind of ruse and doesn’t walk in expecting things to work out.”

  I run my fingers through my hair and stand. “If you can report to Cap and the Admiral, I’m going to go talk to Lada, Simon and Gimmir. They need to know we’re walking into a wasp’s nest. I also want to set up a couple hours of training every day this week for you, me and Simon with Lada assisting. If we’re going to be dodging fireballs, I want to make sure we’re in sync. Deal?”

  Calgonnel smiles up at me. “I knew you’d eventually want to take charge again, but I agree. The training is an excellent idea, and we should definitely get it in.”

  I shrug and walk to the door. “Yeah, I took charge again, but we’re still on the ship. I’ll be a good little girl when we’re talking about mission parameters and not about protecting your ancient elf ass.” I smile over my shoulder at him so he knows I’m kidding, then leave. I’m sure this new development will make the day of the two dwarves and one goblin I’m about to go discuss details with.