QE3-QW-Ch2-未校对

August, 2515
Major-General Ayen Iekanjika moved hand over hand through the transport tubes of the Mutapa towards the ventral landing bay. Two bodyguards preceded her. Like Iekanjika herself, the flagship of the Sub-Saharan Union had taken some hits, but had given better than she’d got. Technicians were cutting away damaged frame sections and sparks expanded outward like tactile light in the zero-g. The Mutapa was patched and refitted, constantly resupplied with ammunition, armour, fighter craft and pilots. She led the fight against the Congregate navy, always just one step ahead of the overwhelming forces looking to crush the Union’s war of independence.
The leading bodyguard peeked around an awkward angle in the transport tube, which sometimes curved counter-intuitively, following the lines of a drive system not made for the architecture of the ship. During their decades in the wilderness beyond civilization, the Sixth Expeditionary Force had worked with what they’d had, making things fit, making things work.
The Mutapa was her command now. Only a year ago, Iekanjika had been a major. Every day, she wished she’d been promoted the intervening four ranks because she’d accumulated years of experience and gotten the right grades in staff college. But the Mutapa was one of five warships of the original dozen to have survived this far into the rebellion. They’d lost experienced crew and officers, even as new warships and fighters rolled off factory asteroids. At forty years old, Iekanjika had clocked in twenty-five years of military experience and would have been a logical candidate for warship command. Taking command of the whole fleet was less intuitive, but with General Rudo’s ascension as the Minister of Defense and their middle husband’s promotion to Minister of War Supply, Rudo had wanted a fleet commander she could trust. So, terrifyingly, the fleet was hers.
The Puppet ship in the landing bay was ugly and inelegant, its design lines reflecting the use of drive systems from a century ago. Crusty lines of snow along the outside of the cockpit seals indicated leaks. Its miniature passengers disembarked. Their space suits added thirty or forty centimetres to their height, but even at that, the peaks of the helmets of even the bigger ones would only come up to her breastbone.
Instead of clean space suit surfaces that could be inspected and patched, stupid religious symbols and early Anglo-Spanish names she didn’t know seemed to have been finger-painted onto the material. The decorations on the priests were more careful, applied with brush, suggesting the folds of robes and the peaks of headdress she’d seen in the Puppet Free City.
The three clerics floated close enough for the military police to scan them. This was a diplomatic meeting, but one MP used x-rays and millimeter wave scans, while a second detached all the batteries from the Puppet suits and plugged them into a sequestered ship battery equipped with cautious fuses. A different set of marines had already done this to the Puppet ship before letting it enter the bay. Iekanjika came out of the airlock and into the bay. Her bodyguards each kept a shoulder between her and the three priests. It wasn’t the bishop in the center who spoke first, but a blond Puppet to his left.
“It’s good to see you again, major-general,” he said.
艾恩-伊坎吉卡少将手牵手穿过穆塔帕号的运输管道，走向腹部着陆舱。两名保镖紧随其后。和伊坎吉卡本人一样，这艘撒哈拉以南地区联盟的旗舰也遭受了一些打击，但付出的比得到的要多。技术人员正在切割受损的框架部分，火花在零重力下像触觉光线一样向外扩展。穆塔帕号进行了修补和改装，不断补充弹药、装甲、战斗机和飞行员。她领导着与公会海军的战斗，始终领先压倒性的力量一步，试图粉碎联盟的独立战争。
领头的保镖从运输管中一个尴尬的角度探出头来，运输管有时会反直觉地弯曲，沿着并非为飞船结构而制造的驱动系统的线条。第六远征军在文明之外的荒野中生活了数十年，他们一直在利用现有的一切，让一切适合，让一切运转。
穆塔帕号现在是她的指挥舰。仅仅一年前，伊坎吉卡还是一名少校。每天，她都希望自己能在这期间晋升四级，因为她积累了多年的经验，并在参谋学院取得了合适的成绩。但穆塔帕号是叛军最初的十几艘战舰中幸存下来的五艘战舰之一。他们失去了经验丰富的船员和军官，就连新的战舰和战斗机也从工厂的小行星上滚落下来。四十岁的伊坎吉卡已经有二十五年的军事经验，本来是战舰指挥官的合理人选。指挥整个舰队就没那么直观了，但随着鲁多将军升任国防部长，他们的中年丈夫升任军需部长，鲁多希望能有一个她可以信赖的舰队指挥官。所以，可怕的是，舰队是她的了。
着陆舱里的傀儡飞船丑陋而笨拙，其设计线条反映了一个世纪前驱动系统的使用情况。驾驶舱密封条外沿的积雪表明有渗漏。微型乘客下了船。他们的太空服让他们的身高增加了三四十厘米，但即便如此，即使是更高大的太空服，其头盔的顶端也只能顶到她的胸骨。
太空服的表面并不干净，可以检查和修补，而是一些愚蠢的宗教符号和她不知道的早期盎格鲁-西班牙名字，似乎是用手指画上去的。牧师们身上的装饰更仔细，是用刷子涂上去的，让人联想到她在傀儡自由城看到的长袍的褶皱和头饰的顶峰。
三位牧师飘得很近，足以让宪兵扫描到他们。这是一次外交会议，但一名宪兵使用了 X 射线和毫米波扫描，另一名宪兵则拆下了傀儡战衣上的所有电池，并将它们插入装有谨慎引信的封闭式舰船电池中。在让傀儡飞船进入海湾之前，另一组陆战队员已经对它做了这些工作。伊坎吉卡从气闸出来，来到海湾。她的保镖各自用肩膀挡在她和三个牧师之间。首先说话的不是中间的主教，而是他左边的一个金发傀儡人。
“很高兴再次见到你，少将，"他说。
He’d shaved his beard and cut his blond hair bristle-short. Manfred Gates-15. The traitor who’d almost cost them the Sixth Expeditionary Force. They’d discovered his betrayal early enough to build it into their plan. Pity he hadn’t been blown up when the Sixth Expeditionary Force had burst out of the Puppet Axis.
“What do you want?” she said.
“We have information,” Gates-15 said. “We’re looking for help. And offering help. This is Bishop Arnold Grassie-6, one of the leaders of the Episcopal Conclave.”
The little Puppet bishop held out his hand hopefully. Iekanjika didn’t move. He smiled tightly.
“It’s a blessing to meet you, major-general,” he said. “I also brought Rosalie Johns-10, a priestess and a friend of Belisarius Arjona. Is there somewhere we can speak privately?”
“Speak here,” Iekanjika said.
“I’m coming with military intelligence, major-general.”
Iekanjika waited out heartbeats. Three. Four. Five. She signalled her aide. Lieutenant Coulibaly squeezed between the bodyguards and held out a small device with two spools of insulated wire. She unwound one and handed the end to Iekanjika. She did the same and handed it to Bishop Grassie-6. He looked at it strangely and then pressed it to his face plate as she had.
“Turn off your radio and talk,” Iekanjika said. “The vacuum can’t carry your voice and the wiring is insulated.”
The bishop’s pale face looked side to side to his companions, but then he smiled reassuringly at Iekanjika.
“The Union and the Theocracy haven’t always been... aligned.” His voice vibrated in her face plate, sounding distant. “Many in the Conclave are resistant to dialogue with those who... betrayed our hospitality.”
“Betrayed?” Iekanjika said. “You tried to hold us captive and steal our ships.”
“Our demands were part of a negotiation,” Grassie-6 said. “The misunderstandings were cross-cultural in nature. We come in a renewed spirit of negotiation.”
“I have sixty seconds left.”
Grassie-6 raised his chin, then tapped his chest meaningfully. “I’m the good boy,” he said emphatically, “minding the divinities. And the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
“Forty seconds.”
“The Congregate stole something from us,” Grassie-6 said with a rigid calm. “We want it back. Enough that we are ready to commit troops to your cause and form an alliance with you.”
“You have no tactical or strategic value.”
“We’ll join your assault on Venus.”
“We’re not attacking Venus,” she said derisively.
“How will you end your war?”
“Time’s up.”
“Wait!” he said, reaching a hand out. A guard slapped it aside. “They stole Del Casal from us! He was helping our Numen. They ripped away the one man who could help stabilize the health of our divinities.”
“I don’t care about Puppets or the Numen or Del Casal.”
“Major-General! This is bigger than you or I. Such is the nature of divinity! We can—”
She released the wire and signalled for the Puppets to be loaded back into their creaky ship.
他剃掉了胡子，剪短了金发。曼弗雷德-盖茨 -15 这个叛徒差点让他们损失了第六远征军。他们很早就发现了他的背叛，并将其纳入计划。可惜第六远征军冲出傀儡轴心时，他没有被炸死。
“你们想要什么？"她说。
“我们有情报。"盖茨-15 说。“我们在寻求帮助。并提供帮助。这位是阿诺德-格拉西-6 主教，主教团的领导人之一。”
小傀儡主教满怀希望地伸出了手。伊坎吉卡没有动。他紧紧地微笑着。
“很高兴见到您，少将。"他说。“我还带来了罗莎莉-约翰斯-10，她是一位女祭司，也是贝利萨留斯-阿尔乔纳的朋友。有什么地方可以让我们私下谈谈吗？”
“在这里说，"伊坎吉卡说。
“我是带着军事情报来的，少将。”
伊坎吉卡等待着心跳。三。四次 五次 她向助手发出信号。库里巴利中尉挤到保镖中间，拿出一个装有两卷绝缘电线的小装置。她解开一根，把末端递给伊坎吉卡。她做了同样的动作，然后把它递给了格拉西六世主教。他奇怪地看了看，然后像她一样把它按在自己的脸盘上。
“关掉收音机，说话。"伊坎吉卡说。“真空不能传递你的声音，线路是绝缘的。”
主教苍白的脸侧向同伴们，但随后他又对伊坎吉卡露出了令人安心的微笑。
“联盟和神权并不总是......一致的。” 他的声音在她的脸盘上震动，听起来很遥远。“议会中的许多人都不愿意与那些......背叛了我们款待的人对话。”
“背叛？” 伊坎吉卡说。“你们试图俘虏我们，偷走我们的飞船。”
“我们的要求是谈判的一部分，"格拉西六号说。“误解是跨文化性质的。我们是带着新的谈判精神来的。”
“我还有 60 秒钟。”
格拉西-6抬起下巴，然后意味深长地拍了拍胸脯。“我是好孩子，“他强调说，”注意神灵。敌人的敌人就是我的朋友。”
“四十秒”
“公会从我们这里偷走了一些东西，"格拉西 6 号平静地说。“我们要拿回来。我们已经准备好为你们的事业投入军队，并与你们结盟。”
“你们没有战术和战略价值。”
“我们将加入你们对金星的进攻。”
“我们不会进攻金星，"她嘲笑地说。
“你们将如何结束战争？”
“时间到了”
“等等！"他说着，伸出一只手。一个卫兵把他的手拍到了一边。“他们从我们这里偷走了德尔-卡萨尔！他在帮助我们的努曼人。他们抢走了能帮助我们稳定神灵健康的人。”
“我才不管什么傀儡、努曼人和德尔卡萨尔”
“少将 这比你我都重要，这就是神性的本质！我们可以......”
她松开电线，示意把傀儡们装回他们吱吱作响的飞船。