Tales from the Academy
Chapter 25
"Mr. Naddel, would you please summarize our readings on the strategic situation facing the Komarran Navy at the time they let the Cetagandan's carry out their invasion of Barrayar?" Captain Vordranis was staring right at him from the front of the lecture hall. Jer groaned silently and got to his feet.
"Yes, sir. The Cetagandan Empire was in an expansionist phase and was demanding passage of its warships through Komarran space in order to launch an invasion of Barrayar. The Komarrans had reason to believe that if they did not accede to the Cetagandan demands they might be attacked themselves instead. They therefore had no choice but to…"
"Excuse me, Mr. Naddel," interrupted Vordranis, "I don't recall that as being in the assigned reading."
"Uh, well it's common knowledge on Komarr, sir."
"Indeed? So all Komarrans believe that their shameful betrayal of Barrayar was justified?"
Jer's face reddened, but he held his temper. He wasn't sure what Vordranis' problem was with him, but this wasn't their first encounter. Maybe he just hated Komarrans… He was hoping to get a rise out of him and he wasn't about to let him succeed. "I couldn't comment on that, sir."
"But you just did," said Vordranis smoothly. "But proceed—and please stick to the information in the text and not add your own editorial comments." This got a few laughs from the other cadets.
"Yes, sir," said Jer, gritting his teeth. "The Komarran's had very strong fixed defenses and naval units guarding the wormhole leading to Cetagandan space. A Cetagandan assault through the wormhole would have been extremely expensive. However, they had virtually no defenses guarding the wormhole leading to Barrayar. If they permitted substantial Cetagandan naval units to cross through their space and on to Barrayar they would have been faced with a powerful potential foe in both front and rear. That being the case, they only allowed the Cetagandans to pass troop carriers and light escorts through to Barrayar. No heavy units were given transit. The lack of heavy orbital fire support substantially handicapped Cetagandan efforts to subjugate Barrayar and prevented them from establishing an airtight blockade of the planet."
"You're editorializing again, Mr. Naddel," said Vordranis.
"Uh, no sir, that's an almost exact quote from Vormahan's The Influence of Spacepower Upon History, which was part of our assigned reading this semester."
Now it was Vordranis' turn to redden. He scowled and then cleared his throat. "Proceed, cadet. How did the Komarran's adjust their strategic planning once the Cetagandan's withdrew?""
"Yes sir. The Komarran's continued to treat the Cetagandan's as the main threat to them. Although they had built some minor defenses facing the wormhole to Barrayar while the Cetagandans were there, they did little to strengthen them during the time that Barrayar was constructing its own fleet. Therefore when Admiral Vorkosigan led his attack into the Komarran system he encountered only minor resistance at the wormhole exit. This allowed him to con… er, occupy Komarr with relative ease."
"And how would you account for this fatal lack of foresight on the part of the Komarrans, cadet?"
"Uh, clearly they didn't anticipate that Barrayar could construct such a formidable fleet in so short a time. Also, there was an economic recession on Komarr and funding for the military was severely cut during that time period, sir."
"Butter before guns, eh, cadet? But that's to be expected from a nation of shopkeepers and cowards, wouldn't you say?"
Jer clenched his fists, but kept his voice as steady as he could. "I'm not in a position to comment on that as it was not part of our readings, sir."
"Oh, but I would think that you could comment, Mr. Naddel," said Vordranis, putting emphasis on Jer's Komarran surname. "You are certainly better qualified than anyone else here. So how do you account for the almost instantaneous collapse of Komarran resistance once Admiral Vorkosigan broke through to Komarr proper? Cowardice? Stupidity? Or perhaps Komarrans just aren't fit to be soldiers? What do you think, Mr. Naddel?"
Jer could feel his temper coming to a boil. He knew that anything he said now would just make things worse. He should keep his mouth shut. But damn it, this bastard had no right to…
"Excuse me sir," said another voice. Jer jerked his head around and there was Anny, a few rows away, on her feet and facing Vordranis. "I had the privilege of speaking with Admiral Vorsworth last year, just a month or so before he died. We were discussing his role in the early phases of the Occupation and later as a blockade runner. He was quite clear in his opinion that bravado, fighting strictly for the sake of pride and honor, was just a waste of resources and lives. Living to fight another day made far more sense to him. I was wondering if this same philosophy could be applied to the Komarran defenders? Once Admiral Vorkosigan had secured the wormhole exit and taken the high orbitals around Komarr itself, any counterattack by the mobile forces from the other wormhole exits would have been doomed to failure and only led to needless casualties, both military and civilian. Perhaps they realized that and capitulated?"
Vordranis seemed startled. He glanced at Jer and then turned to face Anny. "Are you suggesting the Komarrans are still planning to 'fight another day', cadet?" he growled.
"Well, let's hope not, sir," said Anny with a small smile on her face. "Although as I recall, some Komarran ships did flee through the wormholes rather than surrender. Not all of them were accounted for—although that was forty years ago."
Vordranis frowned and cleared his throat. "We've drifted away from the topic, I think. We were discussing the strategic difficulties of defending a system with multiple wormholes. Now let's look at some examples from farther back in history…" Vordranis turned his eyes on the class as a whole and Jer and Anny sat down. Jer could feel his hands twitching slightly. The class ended a few minutes later and it was lunch time. Jer headed for the mess hall. Anny was walking ahead of him and although she glanced back at him once he didn't attempt to catch up, nor did she slow her pace. He got a tray of food and found an empty table.
But it wasn't empty long. A moment later Patric Mederov sat down across from him. "Hi Patric," he said.
"Hi yourself," replied the big farmboy. "So Jer, tell, me: what the hell happened while I was home for the holiday?"
"What do you mean?"
"What do you mean what do I mean?" He stretched out his hands, one pointed to Anny sitting at one table and the other at Alby sitting at another. "Alby's not talking to you or Anny, you're not talking to Anny or Alby and Anny's not talking to anyone! I don't see any bruises on any of you or I'd think I missed a hell of a brawl in Vorkosigan House!"
"You noticed that, eh?"
"Hard not to! So what gives?"
"Well, as far as Alby's concerned, he's pissed because I read him the riot act about the way he's been sniffing after Abbie Vorburn. And then Anny read it to him again, not realizing I'd already done so, so he's mad at her, now, too."
"It had to be done before things got out of hand," said Patric, nodding. "The company had a pool going on how long it was going to take her to box his ears. Glad I didn't place a bet." Jer snorted. "Well, he'll get over it. Okay, that explains that, but what's the deal with you and Anny?"
Jer had been afraid he was going to ask, but he just said: "There's no deal, everything's fine."
"Yeah, right."
"No, really. Nothing's wrong. Well, Anny has been kind of quiet lately, but there's nothing between us." Nothing. Nothing between us at all!
"Huh," said Patric. "Well, she did pull your chestnuts out of the fire with Vordranis just now, didn't she? What's his problem anyway? Seems like he tries to ride you every class."
"Beats me. Maybe he thinks my great-grandfather is responsible for getting his great-grandfather killed. Beyond that I don't have a clue."
"Vor twit," muttered Patric. "So, you excited about getting back to Komarr next month?"
"What? Oh yeah, nearly forgot about that." As part of their space training their class was going to be assigned by company to warships of the fleet for short periods to become familiarized with their procedures. This would also include a series of wormhole jumps and since the only place the wormhole from Barrayar led to was Komarr, that's where they'd be going perforce. "Are you sure they'll be giving us shore leave?"
"Well, that's what I heard. Probably only a day or so, but enough to let us Barrayarans claim we've been on another planet. 'Course you've already done that by coming here. I hope they give you a chance to see your family, Jer."
"It would be nice," he said, not really sure if it would be.
The conversation lapsed for a while as they ate, which was a fairly rare occurrence, but with half their usual quartet missing… Suddenly Patric muttered "This is ridiculous," and got to his feet. He stalked over to the table where Alby was sitting and grabbed the much smaller boy by the back of his tunic and hoisted him into the air with one hand while picking up his tray with the other. Alby squawked and thrashed his legs for a moment. Patric calmly walked back to where Jer was sitting and plopped Alby into an empty chair and set his tray down in front of him.
"Hi Alby!" said Patric, resuming his seat. "How ya been?" Dozens of cadets all around were laughing even though they couldn't understand what was going on and Jer saw Anny with a hand over her mouth trying not to laugh, too.
Alby scowled at Patric and then scowled at Jer. They both just stared back at him, trying to keep their faces straight, but failing. Alby's lips were tightly squeezed together, but they started to quiver and after a few moments the ends began to curve upward and then he laughed. "I… I'm fine Patric," he gasped. "How are you?"
"Not bad, not bad at all. I understand you don't have a girlfriend." Jer choked on his drink. Alby stopped laughing and frowned.
"It's not funny," he muttered. "I really like her."
"Well, in three more years when she graduates you can go tell her that. Problem solved. You gonna eat your dessert?"
"Yes I am, so keep your paws off it."
"Just asking."
"So," said Alby, "You gonna haul Anny over here, too?"
The smile faded from Patric's face. He glanced at Anny who was still looking at them. She quickly looked away. "I… uh… there's probably some regulation against manhandling a cadet-officer," said Patric a bit lamely.
"What is going on with her?" demanded Alby. "Outside of duty she's hardly said a word to anyone since we got back."
"I don't know," replied Patric. "She's been acting different ever since she got out of the infirmary. Maybe something happened during the fire…?"
"We all got out alive," said Alby. "We're all heroes, she even got a medal. Why would she be acting like this?"
"She did get hurt…" said Jer.
"Ha! Since when did she let getting hurt even slow her down? You remember our first close-combat session, don't you?"
"Not likely to forget," growled Jer. The memory of it still made him angry.
"Maybe we should just ask her," said Patric.
"Too late, there she goes," said Alby. Anny had gotten up from her table and was carrying her tray toward the kitchen. "We've got duty in a few minutes. Maybe we can talk tonight."
But there was no opportunity that evening, nor the next day. Anny always seemed to be busy with something and spent more time in her room behind the security door and less time in the company office. On duty she was nearly the same as she always was, but it seemed like she was deliberately making sure that there were no private moments with her friends. At first Jer thought that it was just him she was avoiding. He theorized that Abigail Vorburn had said something to Anny like she'd said to him and that Anny had been equally horrified and determined to counter any rumors of a romantic involvement. But it soon became evident that she was avoiding Alby and Patric, too. None of them could figure out why.
And it hurt.
