Cassandra Kresnov 5: Operation Shield (59 page)

“Yeah, but where?” Sandy replied. “Earth's out, no one trusts them after the relocation. Callay became the default center of colonial space. Fleet has no real concentrations other than Pantala, and that's out…and how do they round up that much political consensus? Normally they'd all come here to do that.”

“So…” Danya thought about it. “Anyone who came here without consulting anyone would be accused of another coup. Because it's unrepresentative. So they have to take their time, but with the space lanes so big and messages going only one way…”

“Exactly. It's a nightmare. I expect they'll start trickling in, hold up in the outer system and talk about it there. It's the only way.”

“You mean that by taking the GC, you really do control the center of the Federation,” Danya reasoned.

“Yep. And now control the agenda, because we can demand they agree with or answer any security points we've identified. And since most of the Callayan population have grudgingly accepted we did the right thing, they're behind us, so any military resolution of our occupation of the GC would be a Fleet hostile invasion of the capital world, which isn't going to happen. We'll talk, it'll work out. You'll see.”

“Can we not talk about work while we're surfing?” Svetlana complained.

“Absolutely,” Sandy agreed. “Danya, stop it.”

“Me stop it?” He grinned. He was doing that so much more these days. “You were talking more than me.”

“Yes, but you started it. Look, here comes a good wave. Let's catch it together.”

“And no cutting each other off!” Danya demanded, paddling to position, watching the wave approach. “Svetochka!”

“It's not my fault!” Svetlana protested, also paddling. “I'm too light to control the board, Sandy said so!”

“Okay, ready?” Sandy watched the green wave building nicely as it approached. “Okay, go go!” As Danya and Svetlana both paddled like crazy. Sandy let it come to her, thrust twice and stood, looking fast left and right to see Svetlana, then Danya manage shakily to get to their feet, then rushing down the face, all up together. On the beach, Kiril saw and cheered loudly. Sandy laughed and made a couple of little weaves on her short board between them, up close to one, then the other, all grinning.

Until Svetlana tried to balance on one leg, lost control of her board, which plowed into Sandy, then across into Danya, as all three fell or jumped clear. And resurfaced laughing.

“You're an idiot,” Danya told his sister, swimming to her and grabbing.

“I nearly did it!” Svetlana laughed, struggling.

“You know, that was all a lot more ‘happy families’ in my head,” said Sandy, with an amused glare at Svetlana.

“Isn't it always?” said Danya. Svetlana stuck out her tongue.

Joel Shepherd is the author of four previous Cassandra Kresnov novels—
Crossover
,
Breakaway
,
Killswitch
, and
23 Years on Fire
—and four previous novels in the Trial of Blood and Steel series—
Sasha
,
Petrodor
,
Tracato
, and
Haven
. He is currently midway through a doctoral program in International Relations and has also studied film and television, interned on Capitol Hill in Washington, and traveled widely in Asia. Visit Joel at
www.joelshepherd.com
.

Author photo

© Impact Image, South Australia