War Is Too Important to Be Left to the Politicians
Reinhard and Kircheis were in their flat at Linbergstrasse, and Reinhard was fussing with his outfit. Magdalena had told him, on no uncertain terms, that he was not allowed to wear his dress uniform to a purely social party, one filled with people who were interested in speaking to Count Lohengramm, so he had needed to find something formal but nice to wear. The red jacket suited him, maybe, but he still resented it for the imposition that it represented.
"You look good, Lord Reinhard," Kircheis said, stepping up behind him in the bedroom and looking at Reinhard's reflection in the full length dressing mirror. Kircheis was dressed in civilian clothes as well, but nothing fancy; he hadn't been invited to the party. That was another thing that Reinhard resented.
"Thanks," Reinhard muttered, fiddling with his cravat some more. Kircheis put his hands on Reinhard's shoulders and turned him, so that they were facing each other and he could do the tie for him. "What would happen if I didn't go?"
"Lady Annerose would be disappointed in you," Kircheis pointed out. "It's a few hours of your time, and the food will be good. It can't be as bad as that fleet party you went to at-"
"That was different," Reinhard said. "And you weren't there."
"If I had been, I would have advised you didn't try to duel Luneburg," Kircheis said. "And I suppose I should advise you not to duel anyone at this party, either, just in case."
"I don't know who else is coming."
"Baroness Westpfale said you were likely to get along just fine with all of the guests."
"I don't trust her opinion on that," Reinhard said.
"I do," Kircheis said. "It will be fine."
"It's just tedious, and a waste of time. I have better things I could be doing."
"Do you?" Kircheis asked, smiling. "You have no standing orders from the fleet."
Reinhard just scowled. "You know what I mean."
"I'll still be here when you get back."
Reinhard reached up and tugged a curl of Kircheis's red hair. "Come with me?" he asked.
"I'm not invited."
"Just for company in the car?"
Kircheis pretended to look annoyed, but he didn't really succeed. "Only if you stop complaining about what a horrible imposition it is to go to a friendly social event."
"It is an imposition," Reinhard said. "It's quite beneath my dignity."
Kircheis laughed. "I'll come. But don't take that as an excuse to sneak out and leave early. This is for Lady Annerose's sake."
"I know. I won't."
"Good."
The car ride was pleasant, if long. Reinhard, who still had not gotten around to buying a car of his own, borrowed a fleet vehicle, though not a driver. Kircheis drove, keeping the auto steering engaged for most of the way, unfamiliar with the route. Privacy in the car allowed them to talk about whatever they liked, but Kircheis stopped short of allowing Reinhard to mess up his outfit by removing any of it, which only annoyed Reinhard a little. His mood was much improved by the time they arrived, heading down the long, unmarked road that led to the Grantham estate.
The sun was setting as Kircheis pulled them into the driveway, casting the huge stone house's roof in molten red, while the rest was in shadow, except for the lit windows like watchful, yellow eyes. There were plenty of other cars parked to the side of the house, but it wasn't nearly as crowded as some of the other gatherings Reinhard had been forced to attend, at Neue Sanssouci or for the fleet. Magdalena, in her way, had been kind to choose a small party to force Reinhard into. Aside from the effort to rescue Reinhard's social reputation, there likely wouldn't be any major political dealings here, not with this relatively obscure family and their guests.
"You'll be fine out here?" Reinhard asked as Kircheis stopped the car so that he could get out.
"Of course," Kircheis said. There was an unspoken 'Perhaps I should be more worried about you' in the way his mouth twisted up in a slight smile, his eyes crinkling, but Reinhard appreciated that he didn't mention it aloud.
One of the footmen from the great house, a gangly young man, came over as soon as he noticed Reinhard getting out of the car. Reinhard decided it would be easiest to simply allow himself to be shuffled along between the various formalities it would take to get him into the house.
Outside, it was a chill early autumn evening, but inside the house was bright and perhaps overly warm. The butler introduced Reinhard at the door of the library where the whole gathering was beginning, people standing or sitting and talking in small groups. They looked up when the butler's sonorous voice announced, "The Count Reinhard von Lohengramm."
Reinhard had been invited to this party, but looking around the room, he realized that he knew nearly no one, except- yes, there, coming over and bringing the hostess with him, smiling, the stiffly dressed Matthew von Crawley, erstwhile heir to this estate.
"Coun Lohengramm, I'm so glad you could come," the hostess, a middle aged and pleasant looking woman, said. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last. Matthew has spoken quite highly of you." Although her tone and expression were both gracious, she was sizing Reinhard up, looking every aspect of him over, and he wondered if she found him wanting. It wouldn't matter if she did, but he wondered nonetheless.
"I'm grateful for the invitation, Lady Grantham," Reinhard said. "I'm afraid that I've been so busy with the fleet that I've been neglecting most of my social responsibilities."
"A man such as yourself neglecting society?" Lady Grantham asked. "It's the rest of society that has been missing out on you, I'm sure."
Reinhard smiled thinly at the compliment.
"A pleasure to see you again, Admiral," Matthew said. He offered his hand to shake, an they did.
"Have you been settling in here well?" Reinhard asked. He had taken a liking to the man. Matthew was firm and capable and wholly unpretentious, qualities that Reinhard liked in other people. He would have gotten on well with Kircheis, so it was a shame for multiple reasons that Kircheis was sitting out in the car.
"Oh, yes, I have," Matthew said. "If you'll let me make the introductions, Cousin Cora?"
"By all means!" Lady Grantham said. "You'll be charmed to meet my daughters, I'm sure."
Reinhard smiled and nodded, and Matthew led Reinhard further into the room. "Baroness Westpfale will be pleased you were able to make it," Matthew said as they walked towards Count Grantham and his daughters.
"I half hoped that she would be here." It wasn't entirely surprising that Magdalena wasn't here. He had been warned that this dinner was for the three Crawley daughters to scope out various eligible men, and it wouldn't have been wise to invite competition.
Matthew laughed. "I understand she's considered a little bit of a bad influence on young women."
Reinhard frowned, thinking that this was probably due to her associations with his sister. "And yet she thinks she can be a good influence on me."
"I don't know if that's what she thinks. I've never been privy to much of the inner workings of her mind."
"Perhaps that's for the best."
"I'm sure." Matthew's voice was jovial. They had arrived in the back of the room, where two men, the Lord Grantham (Reinhard presumed) and another man he didn't know, were watching their approach.
"Lord Grantham," Matthew said, "I don't believe you've had the occasion to meet Admiral Lohengramm."
"No, I have not." The Lord Grantham was a tall man, taller than Reinhard, and broad shouldered. He gave Reinhard the same assessing look that his wife had, but Reinhard knew the criteria were quite different. When they shook hands, he kept his grip firm. "I've certainly heard about you, though."
"I can never tell if I have a good reputation or a bad one," Reinhard said.
"That is a funny thing," Lord Grantham agreed. "But certainly in person you leave a different impression than the one I had been picturing."
"An interesting reputation is more trouble than it's worth, in that respect."
"Have you met the Duke of Crowsburg?" Lord Grantham asked. He turned to the other man who had been listening to Lord Grantham's greetings. The duke was slender, shorter than Reinhard, and with an aristocratic face and a delicate bearing. He cocked his head at Reinhard, and this appraisal had something quite different in it, indeed.
"We haven't met," Reinhard said, "though I believe we have mutual friends."
"It's a pleasure, Count Lohengramm," the duke said, extending his hand, which Reinhard shook. "But on the contrary to Count Grantham, I find your reputation matches you exactly."
"I assume the difference is due to the sources you're listening to," Reinhard said. "I don't have much of an opinion of court gossip."
"To read the papers and see the numbers regarding your work in the fleet, and to listen to some of the talk, it would be as if there were two different Count Lohengramms running around. You don't have a brother, do you?" Lord Grantham was joking.
"Only my sister," he said. "Upon whom my successes are blamed."
"I believe I did meet your sister at Neue Sanssouci, once," the duke said. "You look quite alike. But she was too quiet. I assume you aren't quite as much of a wallflower."
"Perhaps my sister has reasons for not being so friendly to the men of the court."
"Oh, I wouldn't presume to bother His Majesty's favorite," the duke said, smiling.
"Have you met my sister?" Reinhard asked Lord Grantham.
"Only for a moment," he said. "I admit I haven't spent as much time in the palace as some other people. That's what comes of living most of the year off Odin. You seem to spend most of your time in space, so I suppose you'd understand."
"Recently, yes," Reinhard said. "This, I think, is the longest I've been without an official deployment in quite a while."
"Do you know when you're expecting to go back out?"
"I've heard a rumor about late December, but as far as these things go, I wouldn't put too much stock in rumors." Reinhard tossed his hair. "I won't mind going back out. It's tiring to not have something I can accomplish."
"Perhaps you haven't been spending enough time on Odin to appreciate the charms of staying on it," the duke said.
"Do you travel much?"
"I visit my holdings at least once a year," the duke said. "But I also travel to Phezzan often. Have you ever been?"
"No," Reinhard said. "Even if I had the time, it's discouraged for active service fleet to travel there." Matthew was nodding.
"Ah," the duke said. "More's the pity. You'd like it there."
"Would I?" Reinhard intoned, voice quite dry. "I've never much approved of deregulated markets."
"Phezzan's a beautiful planet," Lord Grantham said. "Cora is from Phezzan, so we've visited her family there many times."
"If you don't mind me asking, how did Lady Grantham end up back in the Empire? If I were a native Phezzani, I don't know if I could bring myself to leave," the duke said.
"I'd like to think it was because the old world charmed her," Lord Grantham said. "But she was here with her father on business, which was how we met. And I'm very glad that we did." He smiled. "Let me introduce you to my daughters."
"Of course," Reinhard said. He nodded to Matthew and the duke, and allowed Lord Grantham to lead him over to where three young women were standing. The oldest was probably around Annerose's age, while the youngest was perhaps a little younger than he was. The women had been watching his conversation with Lord Grantham like hawks, though they had been trying not to look it.
"May I present you my eldest daughter, Mary; my middle daughter, Edith; and my youngest, Sybil."
Reinhard greeted each of the three in turn. Mary was a beautiful woman, with dark hair set in a perfect updo, diamonds glistening at her collarbone. She held herself with a regal bearing, her smile never even approaching her eyes. Edith was blonde, with an aquiline nose, and she looked at Reinhard with a naked curiosity. Sybil was lively and charming in the way she introduced herself, exclaiming, "I'm so glad to meet you at last!"
"I didn't realize that there was anyone waiting on me," Reinhard said. Beside him, Lord Grantham nodded, then stepped away to speak to some of the other people in the room, leaving Reinhard at his daughters' mercy.
"You're a curiosity," Mary said, an aloof tone in her voice. "It's not often that there are new figures in the court."
"I'm not in the court," Reinhard said. "I'm in the fleet."
"It's one and the same, isn't it?" Edith asked.
"Perhaps." He turned to Sybil. "I hear it was you who extended me this invitation?"
She flushed. "Yes," she said. "How did you know?"
"Baroness Westpfale told me."
"You know Baroness Westpfale?" Edith asked, suddenly very curious.
"She's a friend of my sister's," Reinhard said. "I could hardly avoid knowing her if I tried."
"She does have a way of inserting herself into your life," Edith said. "I love her, but she is quite strange sometimes."
Reinhard cracked a genuine smile at that. "I'll refrain from repeating that to her."
Edith smiled back, meeting his eyes. "Much obliged."
Mary's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Count Lohengramm, I saw some photographs of your flagship. It's quite spectacular. Is it docked on Odin?"
As much as this was a clear ploy to get his attention away from the middle daughter, Reinhard couldn't help but be drawn into a conversation about the Brunhilde . Of the gifts the Kaiser had given him, she was by far the one he enjoyed the most, and not entirely for her practicality. She was a beautiful ship, sleek and white and of an entirely different lineage than the standard Imperial cruiser. "Yes, she is," Reinhard said. "She's in the military spaceport, outside the capital."
"I've never seen a ship like the Brunhilde before," Mary said.
"She's the first in her class," Reinhard said. "Though I don't know if construction has been authorized on further members of the class. I believe some of her shielding technology is not being produced at scale yet."
"Is she faster than other ships?"
"Flagships tend to be," Reinhard said. "She's lighter, also, which helps. Her engine isn't that much more powerful than a standard battleship, but it is an iterative improvement."
"We just spent ages on board a merchant ship," Edith said. "It felt quite slow to me, but perhaps space travel always ends up feeling that way."
"The Brunhilde is faster than any merchant freighter," Reinhard said. "But most military ships are, except for some of the slower transports."
"And she's yours, right? You can take her wherever you want?" Mary asked.
"I have use of her at the pleasure of His Majesty," Reinhard said, voice dry. "But so long as it is His Majesty's pleasure, yes, I can take her where I like. But I primarily travel in service of the fleet."
"Mary just wants to convince our father to buy a ship of our own, or get a husband who owns a ship," Edith said, a little bit of a nasty tone in her voice.
Reinhard ignored it, but Sybil, who had just been listening, cut in between the animosity. "I would love to see your ship, sometime, if you wouldn't mind giving a tour. I've never seen a fleet ship up close."
"I'd be happy to show her to you," Reinhard said. This was only half a lie. He couldn't really resist the opportunity to preen over the Brunhilde .
Although Mary looked like she was about to say something else, their conversation was interrupted by the announcement that dinner was ready to be served.
As the assembled group headed into the dining room, Matthew caught Reinhard's eye and held him back for a moment. The duke lingerd next to him.
"You feeling like you've been thrown to the wolves yet?" Matthew asked.
"I was vaguely aware that this was intended to be something of a matchmaking party," he said. "Lord and Lady Grantham at least calculated the guest list perfectly."
"In what way?" Matthew asked.
"There are three of us and three of them," Reinhard said. The duke laughed.
"Are we choosing daughters?" he asked. "I'll take Lady Mary, then, if there are no objections."
Reinhard gave him a sidelong look, but said nothing. The duke just smiled.
"We should go in," Reinhard said. "Shouldn't let them think there is a conspiracy."
"No more of one than they have," the duke pointed out.
Reinhard ended up seated between Edith and Lord Grantham, which must have been a strategic choice on someone's part. The dining table was full with people, but aside from the three young men and the Crawley daughters, many of the guests were older or at least already married. It was perhaps intended to disguise that this was a matchmaking event, but it didn't succeed.
As dinner was served, lively chatter filled the room. Across from him, the duke was flirting with Mary, while on the other side of Lord Grantham, Matthew was holding up a fine conversation with Sybil and Lady Grantham at the same time. Reinhard felt rather trapped.
The food was good, but every bite he took made him wish that he could bring some out to Kircheis and eat in the car with him.
He could have a conversation with Edith- that wasn't a problem, exactly- she was an intelligent and incisive young woman, but he had no intention of flirting with her, and he felt that speaking to her in any way could be construed as flirting.
"Are you planning to visit your estate, now that you've been granted one?" Edith asked.
"If I get the chance," Reinhard said. "I might have gone during this period when I didn't have fleet commitments, but I was told that it was more important to be present on Odin for the season."
"I hope you find the season to your liking," she said.
"I suppose I will find out if I like it or not. In any event," Reinhard said, "I know very little about the running of a great estate. Herr Crawley has been walking me through the legal aspects of it, and from what I can see, the court appointed steward has been doing an adequate job. He is amenable to me hiring him to continue running the estate as my agent, so I think I will."
"It must be difficult to be the head of a noble house and in the fleet."
"I'm sure that I will be able to figure it out," Reinhard said. "In the fleet, I have been blessed with competent staff officers- if the same thing is true of managing my estate, then I have very little to worry about."
"Is everything about delegation?" Edith asked. "I've had very little opportunity to manage big projects myself, so I'm unfamiliar with how it goes."
"In some ways," Reinhard said. "One man is not a fleet. You have to trust the people under your command to carry out the orders you give to them, and those people have to trust that you will issue orders that are sensible." Reinhard thought it would be somewhat imprudent to mention how he once had participated in a mutiny, when he had been a junior officer. "But even if it is your men who will carry out your orders, the responsibility for their success or failure lies with you, in understanding what is possible and what is likely."
Edith nodded. "You seem to have a good understanding of that."
"Perhaps. I have also been very lucky not to have been faced with much of a competent enemy thus far."
Beside him, Lord Grantham laughed. "That's one way of describing the rebel fleet."
"I won't underestimate them," Reinhard said. "But at Tiamat, their command had difficulty adjusting to changing circumstances on the battlefield. That's a weakness that I've seen from them several times."
"Your diversionary move was quite spectacular," Lord Grantham said. "I don't know if I would have led a fleet to do the same."
"It's not something I'd like to repeat," Reinhard said. "A trick like that works once." And he had been forced into it, but if Lord Grantham didn't know that, he wasn't going to bring it up. "I don't like to rely on tricks, anyway."
"I understand that. I always was more of a by-the-books man myself."
"I'm not saying that everything should be by rote," Reinhard said. "That's how you end up with commanders who are unable to respond to unique circumstances, but always betting everything on a clever trick is the work of magicians, not military men."
"It's more important to be able to see through other people's tricks than it is to perform your own?" Edith asked.
Reinhard took a sip of his wine. "Ideally, I would like to arrange things before I even arrive at the battlefield so that no tricks can be used against me. That's not always possible, but the goal of strategy over tactics is to never allow your opponent an opening in which he could construct a trick."
"Those are different?" Edith asked.
"Tactics are the moment to moment movements of your troops during a battle," Reinhard explained. "Strategy is far more concerned with the whole course of the war."
"And you consider yourself more of a strategist than a tactician?" Lord Grantham asked. "Most people would say the other way around."
"I am a competent tactician," Reinhard said, "but if I had to choose between the two, I would say that superior strategy wins wars. I have not yet had my strengths put to the test."
"Very true," Lord Grantham said.
"That's one of the problems that any military organization seems to face," Reinhard said. "People can rise through the ranks on tactics alone, but when faced with coordinating something larger than a single battle, they come up short, or choose the wrong battlefield, or the wrong goals."
Lord Grantham nodded. "I have seen that, myself."
"It's worse in the rebel territories, of course," Reinhard said. "There, there's no chance of their talented admirals getting to set the strategic goals of engagements. They should consider that war is too important to be left to the politicians, but they don't."
"You believe that it's better here?" Edith asked.
Reinhard smiled. "The upper echelons of the fleet do tend to be filled with nobility, or the younger brothers of titled men, anyway. That gives them more of an ability to directly influence the course of the war. And Kaiser Friedrich has been remarkably hands-off when it comes to military concerns during his reign. But this system has its own problems."
"Like what?" Edith asked. "The way that everyone has their own faction?"
"That's part of it. Centralized control of the military is something that the rebels do right. But what I meant was that my detractors are not without merit in some of their criticisms: although I have survived on my talents, the only reason I have been given as many opportunities to demonstrate my talent is because my sister and myself are favored by His Majesty. There are talented people who languish without opportunities to advance."
"Well, the fleet provides more of that opportunity than anything else," Lord Grantham said. "There's certainly no other venue where a young man from a poor family could make his mark on the universe. It's good that they have the chance."
"And you know many men from poor families who used their compulsory service to become successful?" Reinhard asked.
"Certainly," Lord Grantham said. "My valet, Bates, I met him when he was my soldier-servant in the fleet. He's a success story if there ever was one."
"I see," Reinhard said.
"It's a way to cross that great divide, anyhow," Lord Grantham said. "Do you have a good man like that?"
"No," Reinhard said. "I haven't found it necessary."
"Oh, we mustn't let Granny hear that," Edith said. "She'll be as scandalized as when she found out that Cousin Matthew didn't have a valet before."
"Like Herr Crawley, I'm used to living a very simple life," Reinhard said.
"Do you enjoy being in the fleet?" Lord Grantham asked.
Reinhard was brought up short by the question. He didn't have an answer. "It's the only path I could have ever chosen," he said. "And it suits me."
"Certainly it does," Lord Grantham said.
"Did you enjoy being in the fleet?" Reinhard asked. Lord Grantham had been a rear admiral when he retired.
"You know, when I was in it, I think I would have told you that I didn't, but I was sad to leave it, and if anyone said they needed me back, I would go back in a heartbeat." He drank his wine. "But I suppose it's a chapter of my life that's long over."
"What made you retire?"
"Family, in the end. I found myself resenting time I spent away, especially from Lady Grantham, and when my father died- that was it." His smile was melancholy.
"I see."
"Don't let that dissuade you either from furthering your career or marrying," Lord Grantham said hastily, glancing at Edith. "You have nothing but opportunities ahead of you."
"I don't intend to leave the fleet," Reinhard said. "As you say, my career is really just beginning."
"Of course."
"I think marrying a soldier would be quite exciting," Edith said. It was the poorest attempt at flirting Reinhard had heard yet, and he did his best to smile politely.
The rest of the dinner proceeded through its courses with Reinhard growing ever more annoyed with being forced to remain, and his thoughts kept flashing back to Kircheis waiting for him in the car. For Annerose's sake, he kept a smile on his face and when he couldn't find something pleasant to say, said nothing at all.
After dinner, the whole gathering headed back out to a different hall, where the footmen stood around with platters of drinks, and music was put on to encourage dancing, though no one really was keen on taking up the offer.
Reinhard found Matthew, standing off to the edge of the party, abandoning Edith, who rightly decided it was better not to push her luck and try to tag along.
"I probably won't be staying for too much longer," Reinhard told Matthew. "I have to get home."
"Pity," Matthew said. "I've rather been enjoying having the company of someone who's in my same strange social class." He smiled at Reinhard. "But this will all take some getting used to, and I can imagine that's true for you more than for me."
"Why is that?"
"Well, this is family," Matthew said. "They have to put up with me, even if I manage to put my foot in my mouth."
"Have you been doing that?" Reinhard asked. "You seem well behaved to me."
"You'd be surprised," Matthew said, with a real undercurrent of melancholy.
"Lady Sybil unhappy with you?" Reinhard asked. "You looked like you were getting along fine with me."
"Lady Sybil is wonderful, but…" He trailed off, and his eyes found Lady Mary, who was chatting with the Duke of Crowsburg across the room, smiling and touching his arm. The duke had a funny expression on his face, but Lady Mary hadn't seemed to have noticed.
"Go talk to her, then," Reinhard said. "There's nothing stopping you."
"It would be impolite to the duke."
"He doesn't have the right to claim another person," Reinhard said. "Nobility or no."
"Right," Matthew said. "You're right. Thank you."
Reinhard just inclined his head, and Matthew took his leave, wandering across the room and inserting himself in the duke's conversation with Lady Mary. The duke didn't seem too upset by this, but he smiled at Lady Mary, gave her a little bow, and then exited the conversation, leaving Matthew to talk to her alone. Reinhard watched them idly for a moment, but then the duke came over to him.
"I see it was you who freed me from that," the duke said. "I don't know if I should thank you or curse you."
"You were under no obligation to walk away," Reinhard said.
"It's not polite to monopolize a young woman's time, I suppose," the duke said. "But I've been looking forward to monopolizing yours."
"I'm not planning to stay for much longer," Reinhard said. "I have urgent business to attend to."
"A shame." He licked his lips. "Baroness Westpfale should invite you to one of her parties."
"Why?" Reinhard asked. "For all I appreciate the baronesses' friendship, it does little to raise my stature."
"Because it would be entertaining."
"In what way, I wonder? And for whom?"
The duke just smiled. "One more drink before you abandon society for the night?" He flagged down one of the footmen bearing drinks, who came over and held out the tray of champagne glasses.
"I suppose," Reinhard said, taking a glass.
Just as the duke reached for a glass of his own, someone bumped into the footman holding the tray, and he lurched forward, startled. The tray wobbled in his hand, and his left arm jerked to steady it, but it tumbled over, upending every bubbling goblet directly onto the duke.
Author's Note
the chapter title is a direct quote from dr strangelove "War is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought." perhaps fitting, considering Westerland 😬 (that quote in itself is a mangling of i believe a de gaulle quote- politics is too important to be left to the politicians. reinhard would probably agree on that score as well lmao. mr coup man.)
anyway um lots of little funny moments in this one. kircheis had to be left in the car in order to set up the next chapter haha. mild cliffhanger i suppose :p the stakes in this fic are so incredibly low that someone getting wine dumped over them is like. spicy.
hope you enjoy silly banter and other such things.
you know the drill: i'm javert on tumblr and natsinator on twitter. the rest of my writing has links at gayspaceopera. carrd. co . I'd especially encourage you to check out my original fiction that i'm writing concurrently with this one, Every Hateful Instrument. it's good, i prommy (different way of saying promise)