September 1924 PD
Solarian Independence Party Headquarters, Luna, Sol System
"You'll lose a lot of our most dedicated supporters if you do this." Kevin Diaz' chief of staff told him. Zara was very good at her job; she'd gone from being an unpaid volunteer to Kevin's chief of staff in less than three years, and in that time the party had gone from a lunatic fringe organization to a minor party with representation in both houses of the Sol System government. Part of that rise was the appeal of an anti-League message in these times. Part of it was Kevin's natural charisma and political acumen. But a lot of it was Zara's talent for organization, even if she was a touch more radical than Kevin would like. Ex-Manpower slaves tended to be, even if they were not inclined to join the Ballroom.
"If we and the other independence movements can work out an agreement in principle for a new multi-system entity among the deep core worlds, we'll gain far more support than we'll lose. Besides, it's what I've been aiming for all along."
"You didn't let that stop you from putting up 'Sol for the Solarians' banners running up to the last election."
"I didn't think anyone else was ready to leave the League yet. Except Beowulf, and talking to them would have been political suicide then. Or Rivendell, and they're much too far away to be of any use to us."
"You're the boss." She said. "But don't say I didn't warn you if this crashes and burns."
[break]
A small café near Solarian Independence Party Headquarters, Luna, Sol System
"He's going to do exactly what we want." Zara told her colleague. "He's more idealistic than almost anyone in politics in the Sol system, but he still has the basic instinct to run the other way when a starry-eyed radical suggests a direction. Still, aren't you worried he might actually pull it off? If the elections were held today, he'd control the balance of power, and the leadership of the Alliance for Freedom and One Sol have loathed each other for half a century. Beyond that, a lot of trans-stellars are sending money their way."
The Alliance for Freedom and One Sol had both been radical new parties once, but for nearly a century they had been the dominant parties of the 'right' and 'left' in the Sol System government. Until recently, they'd controlled over eighty percent of the electorate between the two of them, with various minor parties making up the rest. Diaz' SIP had snatched ten percent in the last round of elections, and seemed certain to at least double that in the next.
And while none of the huge interstellar corporations that did business on Earth had any inclination to support upending the status quo in the abstract, a lot of them were adamantly opposed to the picking fights with Manticore. At least, they were opposed to picking fights that couldn't be won; closing the wormhole network to League shipping was costing many of the trans-stellars a great deal of money, and they wanted that stopped. It really didn't matter to them whether it was stopped due to pressure on the Mandrins or the SIP actually achieving its goal of a Sol outside the League or even by some Manty Admiral dictating terms from Earth orbit.
"Our analysis suggests things ought to be wrapped up within five years as far as the military side goes. And it's hard to see how any Sol-based political entity can be a player of consequence before then. Besides," The other woman said. "He's not going to pull it off." And she gave her agent (and to all outside appearances, her lover) a kiss goodbye.
It was easy enough to believe a former 'pleasure slave' had sworn off men. And when the Alignment had decided the SIP was worth infiltrating, if only just to observe at first, interesting but uninterested had been seen as the best cover for someone working with Kevin. The man was a gifted if overly idealistic politician, but he would have made a play for her if he thought he had any chance. And Zara had no intention of getting too tightly tangled with him; he was small change when all was said and done. The entire Sol system was small change.
[break]
Solarian League Office of Operational Analysis HQ, Earth
"Do you know anything about Indira Thenuwara?" Irene Teague asked her co-conspirator.
"Nothing that's not public knowledge, no. Her star is rising since the Battle of Sanderson, even if she 'let' the elves walk away with a Frontier Fleet detachment, but she's never been very popular with a lot of… more traditional… elements within Battle Fleet and that's truer now than ever." Daud al-Fanudahi replied.
"How far do you think they'd go against her?"
"I can't imagine anything beyond the usual bureaucratic infighting. Moving too forcefully against her would make enemies of the whole Thenuwara clan, and most of them are not quixotic characters like Battle Fleet's newest Fleet Admiral. Why do you ask?"
"Because I got wind of an internal affairs investigation into her ties with the Solarian Independence Party. It's in the very preliminary stages, but it feels like there are some very major movers and shakers involved."
"The SIP may have been fairly fringe until recently, but it's a legitimate political party here in the Sol system. The only thing she could do that would merit more than a mild official reprimand would be promising military support for a coup, and I can't imagine she would do that."
"On the other hand, suggesting she might could well take down not just Fleet Admiral Thenuwara, but all of her senior subordinates as well."
"It would take more than jealousy to convince even the more stubborn of our colleagues to cashier the only officers who have won a fleet engagement in the last fifty years."
"Then unless we want to posit yet another conspiracy, we know who is really behind this. Proving it, on the other hand, could be more difficult."
[break]
Michael S. Garrett Royal Prison, near Caemlyn, Princedom of Sanderson
"Thank you for agreeing to let us interview him." Lt. Yuan Xing of the Rivendell Navy's Intelligence Corps said to the prison guard on duty. It was important to keep up pretenses. In this case, officially a request to interview the Princedom's former intelligence chief had been made by the Republic of Rivendell to the new government of the Princedom of Sanderson. Unofficially, the request came from somewhere in the Grand Alliance's collective intelligence apparatus, and had been made to Fleet Admiral Thenuwara, who held the Princedom's high orbitals and had forced the change in government. And officially Lt. Xing was the lead, with Lt. (jg) Andrew Mendoza of RMN Intelligence merely her assistant. In fact, the Sphinxian treecat accompanying Mendoza was the real lead investigator.
The former intelligence chief had insisted on his attorney's presence, and his interrogators had agreed that he did legally have the right to consul, under Sanderson, League, Manticoran, and Rivendellian law.
"If you had any serious charges to bring, I'm sure this spineless new government of Admiral Thenuwara's would have made them already." He said. "So what do you want?"
"We're not here to make any new charges against you. There are simply some questions that recently came to our governments' attention that you should know the answer to." Lt. Xing said.
"I have already told the new government's people everything they asked that would not be a violation of my oaths to the Princess."
«He believes that to be true.» Sharp Mind signed.
"At the time of the Princedom's attack on the Rivendell Terminus system, its location was not public. And there are a fair number of uninhabited systems within the boundaries of the Republic." Xing continued.
"Yes, the old Rivendell Republic claimed a great many of them for 'security reasons' and the League did recognize that claim when they brought the old Republic into the League. The Princedom never recognized those claims."
She didn't need the treecat's signing to know that was pure bluster. If the League recognized a claim on a system, it was accepted. If they cared enough, Manticore could challenge that. The Princedom of Sanderson could not.
"What concerns our governments, though, is how your government learned which of those systems held the wormhole bridge terminus. Our interviews with your former government and military personnel claimed the information was provided by your agency."
"We did some fairly extensive data analysis to narrow the possibilities."
«True, but he's hiding something.» The 'cat added.
"That would not have given you the location soon enough, without a great deal of luck." She said.
"We received an anonymous tip. And made rather extensive efforts to track down where that tip came from, without much success. The records of that investigation should not have been purged."
«He believes this.» Sharp Mind confirmed.
"Thank you. That was most helpful." She said.
After they were ought of hearing range of the former intelligence chief, though, Mendoza spoke up.
"Of course, trying to track down the probable Alignment operative who tipped him off a year ago isn't likely to be helpful, even with my furry friend."
«But I'm certainly going to try.» He signed.
[break]
Heinlein Station, Centaurian Union of Free Habitats
Kevin had always had a flair for the dramatic, and gathering on mankind's oldest habitation outside the Sol System was certainly that. The slowboat that eventually became the core of Heinlein Station was not the first colony ship to leave humanity's home system. It was, however, the first to reach its destination. Its settlers had been mostly from Sol's asteroid belt, and their goal had simply to get beyond the reach of Sol's government. They knew how to live in space, and did not want to take the time trying to find and terraform a planet. So they had stocked an interstellar ship, and planned to make it their home permanently.
Over the centuries, Heinlein Station had grown, and scores of stations filled out the Alpha Centauri system now. Its population was quite low for a full league member; with no habitable planets, growth had to be carefully managed. But there were still hundreds of millions of people there these days. And fifteen of those, including Kevin, were leaders of independence movements from deep core worlds.
"Even for your people, it looked like there was a lot of construction going on when I came in." Kevin told his Centaurian counterpart.
"Long-haul trade networks are in shambles. People all over the league are trying to expand local industrial production. And when they need new space stations quickly, they talk to us." Fab modules and pre-fab space habitat components had been one of the Centaurian Union's biggest exports since multi-megaton cargo ships had become practical. They needed them to keep up with their own growth; building some capacity for export was natural. And since they were building the same designs they used for their own people (barring modifications for local conditions), what the Centaurians built was of very high quality, especially for the price
"That might explain some of it, but even a politician like your truly can recognize a military shipyard when he sees one."
"I can't tell you more than public record on that. I may be the leader of a minor party here in the Union, but I'm still an elected representative and some parts of our defense budget are classified. We are expanding and modernizing our SDF, but the details of with what… well, if your plans and mine and ours succeed, you'll be able to ask through official channels and get an answer. But right now, I can't tell you, Kevin."
"I understand. No one's backing out at the last second, right?"
"I don't think so. A few of our little circle who have been closer to the political mainstream of their respective home worlds for a longer time are a bit nervous, but everyone realizes how badly closing the wormhole network is hurting us, and that we can't fix the kind of problems that dragged us into a war with Manticore without making fundamental change."
"Good." Kevin said.
A few hours later, he and the other fourteen signed their names to a document that began in a direct quote.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation…