Fleet Admiral Kaizuka Kei, conscientious in all things, tested her microphone. Thousands of warships flew above, below and beside her, on spikes of atomic fire, towards Fezzan. A million men and women waited on her words.
"You all know me; fancy rhetoric is not my primary strength. You all know what is at stake; the lives and safety of our people, the peace of the galaxy. You all know your duty, and I trust every one of you to do it."
"VICTORY!" The cry of a dozen spacers soon filled every room and hanger of the fleet. "NELSON'S VICTORY!"
For weeks, the Alliance had raided and chipped away at the Imperial invasion fleet, crushing minor admirals and supply barges. Superior as Kei's fleet was in every respect, she'd known she faced Reinhardt von Lohengram, military genius and cornered beast. While his looting of undefended worlds had finally taught the people that enlightened dictatorship was a lie, there had been fearful public pressure to punish rapacity with a decisive battle. Then the Baucock fleet's direct attack on Reinhardt had been totally defeated; with a victory to show the Empire that he still deserved their worship, the Supreme Admiral had turned back towards Fezzan.
Roxanna Tughril's captured fleet and rush-trained crews, against exhausted and furious Imperials, had buckled and held. While the Alliance rushed to their rescue, the proverbial seventh cavalry – Lohengram had prepared an ambush in the Magenta starzone, Kei more than suspected, but she was ready. A counter for every stratagem, and what was only human could only break; Kei knew very well that Reinhardt von Lohengram was just a man. She'd studied every move of his campaigns until she almost knew him better than her own husband, and keenly looked forward to the day when a hopeless dictator would be none of her concern.
"I am honoured by your comparison, although I hope to survive this last battle with both hands." There was a smatter of awkward laughter, as Kei stiffly lowered her single eye, "Rather than another long speech…perhaps a song would raise all our spirits?"
There was only one possible song, composed by an unsung rating sometime after the failed invasion and thwarted coup. Soldiers from distant ice-worlds to the lowest bars of Heinessen had sung it; Alliance POWs had kept singing as they were beaten. It had been sung across the Empire, first in mockery, then in earnest. Heard through every mile of space where proud, hungry men and women had fought and died before an invincible madman, for the sake of a republic.
There was a little tow-haired boy,
From little wounds did smart,
He said, "I'll seize the universe,
To fill my empty heart."
Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha,
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
While we go marching on!
Gory, gory, what a terrible way to die!
Gory, gory, what a terrible way to die!
Gory, gory, what a terrible way to die!
When Reinhardt gets his due!
Ten million died before him,
And he did not give a damn,
His best friend tried to warn him,
And he did not give a damn,
He best friend died before him,
AND HE DOES NOT GIVE A DAMN!
We still go marching on!
Gory, gory etcetera.
The days he loved and laughed at home,
Kept running through his mind.
He thought about the girl back home,
The one he left behind.
We hear that it's his sister,
But I guess she doesn't mind!
The truth goes marching on!
Gory, gory etcetera.
There was a man called Uncle Arle,
Who died, two worlds between,
Yet clearly still, from shining hill,
His promised land is seen.
And every loyal citizen,
WILL DIE BEFORE THE DREAM!
We all are marching on!
Gory, gory etcetera.
Our Admiral and our President
Democracy will save!
For the one who must rule all,
Is truly base ambition's slave.
While our comrades and our children,
WILL HAVE FREEDOM OR THE GRAVE!
To victory marching on!
Gory, gory, etcetera,
His Waterloo is coming,
Not so many hours remain,
Our Nelson shall have victory,
And the tyrant shall have shame.
And the heirs of Goldbaum genocide,
Shall never rise again!
When he gets what's coming soon!
Gory, gory, what a terrible way to die!
Gory, gory, what a terrible way to die!
Gory, gory, what a terrible way to die!
FOR REINHARDT CAN GET -ED!
Lynn Lambretta herself had contributed a couple of verses, with hitherto unknown details of Reinhardt's personal life, that the common soldiery had seized upon uproariously. Only once, between gentle kisses across their room-sized bed for each finger belonging to her wife and president, she had wondered about her mockery of Annerose von Grunwald.
"…got to feel sorry for the girl. Sold by her father, raped by a vile old man…I'm sorry, darling. Her brother is the monster we must stop by any means, but isn't she ."
"Oh, my love, you're so sentimental. So Latin, so lovely, my only love…but the blonde beast is killing our people, threatening our existence, for the sake of that sister - and I never heard she asked him to stop, or even tried. I've never heard of that pitiful woman trying to save anyone, even herself, or do anything with her existence except suffer. Such women are worth your pity, sweet Lynn, but no more of our consideration. We must save democracy, by any means – no means you could use would ever stop me from loving you."
Less than a fortnight before the end of the Alliance-Imperial war, First Lady Lynn Lambretta was mortally wounded while test driving the latest model of sports car. The last of several Imperial agents, sent to Heinessen as to Fezzan, confessed several hours after arrest to having tampered with the brakes.
President Jennifer Dolittle felt her wife's pulse vanish as the monitor flatlined; she curled up on the floor and screamed. Then she addressed the Alliance on holovision the next day, her signature white suit changed forever to widow's black.
"…why did Lynn have to die? Why was she murdered, by Count Reinhardt von Lohengram? The trapped beast can no longer win this war, nor escape justice for his crimes – he has nothing left but his power to kill and hurt. To drive us mad with rage and grief, so that our fleets charge headlong into another fatal trap. I could reach across the light years and tear that hellhound to pieces, with these nails – but I will not. Only when his resources are cut off, his slaves cut down, and our never-defeated Admiral Kaizuka judges the moment ripe – justice will fall upon him. Justice and righteous vengeance for the mother of my children; for every mother, father and child that had to die so that Reinhardt von Lohengram might call himself emperor of the universe.
"I can only name one human passion in that heart of ice. It has been known to our intelligence services for some time that Reinhardt is a closeted homosexual – the only man, perhaps the only human he has ever loved, Siegfried Kircheis, was assassinated by his own people. For twenty-four precious years, now lost forever, Lynn and I were blessed with a joy that no slave of Empire has ever known. We loved openly, loved proudly, were loved for it. Until a miserable man who might have known such love, while there was still time - if he had ever owned the courage or the humility – shared with us the worst pain he had known or conceived. He murdered my love, out of callous envy and spite.
"I should pity him…but I cannot. I am sorry. I cannot. I am sorry, my friends, for all I have failed to do…"
A roar of indignant love and support had gone up from the nation, covering Jenny's tears as she clung for support to the edge of her podium. She would be remembered as a President-Chair who had failed in much, but never in courage – who had given her all, to save the very concepts of democracy and liberty from the blonde beast.
Kaizuka Kei had never so deeply admired her commander's strength. More than their wealth or even their generosity, she and Lynn had shared an exceptional ability for happiness – the Alliance had loved their chosen queens for it, as Reinhardt had never been loved. Every soldier speeding irresistibly towards their enemy's heart, from every race, birth and manner of living that freedom had nurtured, was filled with fearful resolve. Lynn Lambretta would be avenged, with Robert Lapp and all the rest, in the shame of the undefeated general when he was caught and beaten.
A handful of refugees had suffered and died across a thousand light years toward a world of peace. Arle Heinessen's children, a great nation at the culmination of history, would not give up his dream, never go back into slavery, but forward to a still more perfect republic – perhaps in a few millennia, Kei herself reflected, the Alliance as a nation would learn the meaning of modesty. Glad as she was that the Alliance was an improving nation, unconvinced as she was of its complete superiority, she was still more glad that her nation would survive. The battle of Magenta starzone was not a battle she intended to lose.
-0-
Twenty-four hours later, Kaizuka was seated in a bare cell, across a table from Admiral Peter von Oberstein. She sipped her coffee – her hands were free, while Oberstein was cuffed to the tabletop. It was the prisoner who broke the silence first.
"None of this has proved that democracy is superior to dictatorship, or anything but a coward's folly. Are we insane for seeking a single uncorrupt dictator, instead of several hundred uncorrupt politicians? Have you even read Hobbes, woman?" Kei did not even smile. Oberstein's monotone voice ground on, "You have not occupied or conquered the Galactic Empire, and you never will. Twenty-five billion persons, content to vote against democracy and die for the Empire you are nothing but rebels against – the only legitimate authority over mankind. The rule of the weak by the strong, the simple by the wise."
"You still consider yourself wise, then? When the population of the Galactic Republic is presently closer to fifteen billion?"
"…Frauline Mariendorf will crush such rebels. The border worlds will be regained."
"You're not entirely wrong. Ministers Richter and Braque were arrested immediately upon their proclamation of republican government, by Hildegarde von Mariendorf. It was a fatal mistake – the consequences of allowing supreme power to the most unsuitable and unhinged of citizens was brought home to your people by Lohengram's final demonstration. The whole republic and its remaining military are in revolt; Mariendorf will replace the republicans in jail within the month. In twenty years' time, perhaps, an even more hateful and deluded dictator than Reinhardt will seize power, He will begin another war against the Alliance and our piratical friends, which you will lose within a year. Then we will occupy you and educate you in democracy – the worst form of government, barring every other one that has been tried."
"Hypocrite. You would force democracy upon us, seize power over the universe, and vilify us as imperialists? Ruled by the feeble, the foolish and the pretty, your nation glorifies idiocy and weakness. You are living proof that commoners cannot govern themselves."
"We would only educate all of your people on their duty to society, to contribute their brains as well as their labour – when the most intelligent human can be blind or deluded, the brainwork of every human is required. Perfection is not demanded; corruption is punished. Power can be used for good – but not by seekers after lifelong terms, golden thrones and genocidal powers. All such things are the signs of mental disease. While humans are imperfect there will always be corrupt democracies and authoritarian backslidings – but if you do not believe that humanity can be better than it is, you were nothing but its jailer."
"You understand nothing. You lack the mental capacity to understand a man above all other men."
"That must be why it took a woman to defeat him. That was a joke. I understand your former commander is gravely ill."
"If he dies, there will be another war."
"He murdered First Lady Lambretta – but we cannot execute him. A long life in prison would perhaps be . We are not concerned that he will attempt escape; his sister, Annerose, made an extremely bold but unwise attempt to flee the Galactic Republic and join her brother. She was captured before she reached Fezzan and is now in our hands. She will be treated humanely – her requests to see her brother have been granted, although he has said nothing to her as yet. On a more personal note, you and the remainder of Reinhardt's staff will be tried before a military tribunal. Unless you are able to satisfy them that you had no influence over Reinhardt's crime, including the Westerland bombing, the border worlds famine, and the First Lady's death – then you will be hanged by the neck until dead. Your homeland retains some misguided reverence for your former chief, but only wishes to have done with the rest of you."
"I proposed it all. In our just, rational cause, I would do it all again. Do you wish to babble on at a dead man, wench?"
"Admiral Kaizuka, if you please." Kei's voice was quite calm, "I believe I have earned that"
"You won because of a man, Mahmut Tughril; because of your technological toys and tricks. The fighting spirit and fighting craft of Imperial soldiers cannot be inferior to democratically softened men - of mongrel race. Much less women dressed as soldiers, whose inferiority in strength, willpower and intelligence to men is empirically provable."
"…I begin to understand," Still, Kei could not have been calmer, "How a man who would have been killed by an insane dictatorship for his 'inferior genes' could dedicate his life to establishing a fresh, insane dictatorship – while considering himself entirely guided by logic and reason."
"It was your democracy that set up Goldenbaum's defective dictatorship -"
"I think you'll find that Goldenbaum used bribery, thuggery, false-flag terrorism and many other crimes to destroy democracy; he was no more elected than Hitler. We have history books in the Alliance you would benefit from reading."
"…however he took power, Goldenbaum would have disposed of me for my blindness. The state would have lost my dedication and irreplaceable intelligence; that is not how a rational administration operates. Every quality must be analysed, the whole situation must be understood, before it can be decided who may live and who must die. Who must be kept in the place appropriate for their abilities, as superior leaders and thinkers must be raised to theirs."
"You're a curiosity, Oberstein. I only wish you were a rarer one." Kei stood up briskly; the talk was at an end, "It's actually quite difficult, to consider how many killings and tortures we might practise every day, without losing our entire moral superiority over bigots and fascists. We might be proud that we condemn our crimes, while you glory in yours - that way lies hypocrisy and spreading corruption. We must be careful - yet, we must be careful to prevent the escape of such a determined, intelligent adversary as yourself. Special measures have been approved by our President – I'm afraid we have them as well, for genuinely deserving cases."
"What are you…no. No - !"
The two burly guards behind Kei moved in. They held Oberstein down on the steel table, as Kei carefully removed both of the bionic eyes Paul Oberstein had worn since he had lost his vision as a small boy. Carefully, she crushed them underfoot.
"You made no use of the vision you had. You will live out your last weeks as a blind man."