The wounded Mech Warrior held up his hand to stop Victor. "Highness, I appreciate more than you know those kind words, but all that is meaningless. You'll be able to read it in my report, but I'll give it to you in the short form now. Not only did I recklessly endanger Dr. Lear, but I issued unsatisfactory orders to one of the demolition teams. I foolishly imagined that the half-dozen armored infantry in the hospital area were the only ones in the hills. I sent some of our men back up to blow the gap, then I engaged another twenty or thirty of the armored Falcons in my Hatchetman.I knew there had to be even more of them somewhere, but I didn't try to warn Detloff or his people. The Falcons slaughtered them."

He turned to Deirdre. "Ask her. She was there. She'll tell you." Kai lowered his eyes, his face flushed with shame. "I as good as murdered those men, Victor. I should have known better. I didknow better, and I did nothing to save them. I deserve a court martial, not a medal."

Victor looked at Deirdre. "Well, Doctor, is it as he said? Did he murder those men?"

Conflicting emotions washed over Lear's face as she seemed to struggle for an answer. She glanced at Kai, then looked down at her own hands and interlaced fingers. When her head came up, though, she gazed at Victor without flinching. "No, he did not," she said. 'Those men were already dead. If he had not organized them and organized the evacuation of the hospital, everyone would have died. At least, in the mountains, they were able to die as men."

Victor glanced over at Kai. "You need time to think this over. Galen, take Leftenant Allard to the hospital."

Deirdre got up and started to follow them, but Victor placed a hand on her forearm and held her back. "Please, Doctor, wait a moment."

"As you wish, Highness." She lowered herself into her chair again. "Is there something I can do for you?"

Victor nodded slightly. "Kai is a good friend of mine, and I want to see things go well for him. He has never been a bastion of self-confidence, and as you just witnessed, he is overly harsh in judging himself. Even if he does not resign from the AFFC, he will never again order men into that sort of dangerous situation without more intelligence and more help for them."

Her eyes went cold and her voice was arctic. "What has this to do with me?"

"All right, Doctor," Victor said, putting an edge to his own voice. "You could tell me that this is none of my business, but I won't accept that. Consider it the meddling of a privileged noble or the arrogance of a Mech Warrior—I don't care. What I do care about is my friend. The friction between you two is so obvious, but he's never done anything to you. Why do you hate him?"

She opened her mouth, then stopped abruptly and looked at the ground. "I am a doctor. It's my job, my vocation, to succor the injured. I hate war and warriors because of the destruction they cause ..."

"Yet you've become part of the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth." Davion shook his head. "Why?"

Deirdre exhaled sharply, set her shoulders, and stood up. "I joined the AFFC to show my family and my friends that I can be loyal to your father and the state you will inherit. I joined because my family owed a debt to the Federated Suns and I was and still am determined to pay off that debt." She matched Victor's hard stare. "I joined because I will do anything I can to reverse the horrors for which you hand out medals."

Victor ground his teeth, but he kept his temper in check. "All right, I'll give you that, but we should save the discussion of why war is necessary for another time. Just answer me this, then you can go. Why do you hate Kai?"

"That's easy to explain." A cruel smile twisted up the corners of her mouth. "Let me ask you this, Highness. How might you expect me to feel about the son of the man who murdered my father?"

38

Invasion Command, Wolcott

Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine

2 October 3050

Shin Yodama gave Hohiro Kurita a confident smile and a wink as the Kanrei's son opened a widebeam broadcast to the DropShips sliding into orbit around Wolcott. "Konnichi wa,Smoke Jaguars! I am Hohiro Kurita, supreme commander of the forces defending Wolcott. I learned something of your customs while enjoying your hospitality on Turtle Bay, as did my aide, who assisted my escape from that world. To show that we are not total barbarians, I ask you how much force you intend to use in this attack so I may decide which of my resources I shall devote to repulsing your attack."

Standing behind Hohiro near the windows of the command post, Kanrei Theodore Kurita watched his son with obvious pride. He caught Shin's gaze, shared his smile, then turned to look out the large windows. Just barely visible above the horizon to the east, a red-orange ball was rising into the night sky. Two small black dots moved slowly across its shining face. Following them, its silhouette like an arrow, one of the Clan JumpShips came into view.

Shin frowned. It was too much to hope that after Turtle Bay they would not bring one of their warships into a battle. All his people's careful planning and hard work would be worthless if the invaders decided to scour the planet's surface with the weaponry bristling on that battlewagon.

The crackle of a response over the radio turned Shin to face the speaker mounted high on the wall. "I am Galaxy Commander Dietr Osis. I fear you have drawn incorrect conclusions from your observations of us, Hohiro Kurita. We have come to take the planet and make it our own, and so we do not require you to bargain away your strength ..."

"Come now, Galaxy Commander," Hohiro responded quickly. "You know that things could get nasty down here. I must, of course, defend this world against you, but I don't wish to lose more men than is absolutely necessary. As a fellow warrior, you can understand that. I desire to know how much force you will use in your attack so I can allocate my forces accordingly."

Utter disbelief underscored Osis's reply. "Are you saying you will not commit everything you have in defense of Wolcott? You are willing to use only part of your forces in a battle to decide who will own this world?"

A smile spread across Hohiro's face, but he kept his voice neutral. "I see that you understand my proposition precisely. I will, as has been our custom, forward to you the service records and history of my units. It will not take you long to see that I have cobbled them together from the dregs of our society. Mind you, they have all volunteered to serve, but bold heart alone does not a Mech Warrior make. Yes, I am prepared to use only part of my forces to defend Wolcott, provided the details can be worked out."

"Details? Please elaborate."

Hohiro glanced out the window at the JumpShip's silhouette. "You will attempt to conquer this world, a great prize should you win. I, on the other hand, battle for no special prize."

Osis's reply came back warily. "I could offer a promise of no further attempts at conquering your world if you defeat me." The tone of his voice left no doubt in Shin's mind that the Clansman believed Wolcott's sun would go nova before that ever happened.

"I appreciate the gesture," Hohiro sighed, "but such a promise would bind only you. Upon your death or demotion, another attack would follow almost immediately, and certainly without the civility you now show. I had hoped for something more concrete if we defeat you."