Most of the politicians and hangers-on clear out of the room then, as it is time to discuss the particulars of the actual military response. Xiao and his support staff stay behind with me and Cleve. A ranger representative is invited inside, but before they join our small group, Deirdre approaches them on her way out. “You need to be an official part of the government,” I hear her say quietly but forcefully, “and we need to act together.” Given the mask, I can’t see the eyes narrow, but the body language communicates unhappiness. The ranger says very little, though.
When the door closes, Xiao looks around at those still present. “Well, I have a strategy I’m willing to propose if you’re willing to listen,” he offers.
Cleve does not take him up on that just yet. “I don’t know everything about everything,” he says, “but I’m curious if you guys have any connections with the University folks that we can tap as well. I get the sense that they may not necessarily be aligned with Morgan in principle but more in finances. Is that something you can buy, too?”
“Have you talked with their ambassador here yet?” I ask.
Xiao knows about the mercenary captains leading the Planetary Security Force units and about Dr. Gupta’s research partnership with the University. And he’s not happy about it. “We asked them to confirm or deny these things. They confirmed they contracted Dr. Gupta for some work. The way Dr. Gupta went about her work was obviously wrong and terrible,” he says, with a glance at me, “but there’s nothing inherently wrong with her contracting with the University in that way. However, given that the University is rather…” Xiao frowns, searching for a word and then layering the one he finds with condemnation, “… is rather complicit in this war on us, we are suspending that kind of trade with them for right now.” Xiao’s tone shifts as he says, “The ambassador is not happy about this.” He clearly doesn’t give a damn what the ambassador thinks. He’s previously advised us to stay away from the University representative, but now he tells us, “If you’d like to meet with the ambassador, you can. I don’t know if that’s something you would want to do, but I ask that you not hurt them since they are a diplomat… as much as I would like to do that, too.” He ends in a mutter.
¡Vaya! This is a level of ire I haven’t seen from Xiao before. I can think of no reason for us to talk with the University ambassador, other than to satisfy curiosity. And I really can’t think of any reason to hurt them. We’re not the wronged party there, the Stepdaughters are. “So what was their response to the fact that the University is complicit in Morgan’s army?” I ask, using Xiao’s term.
“They insisted that their forces were providing training, as well as general guidance and some equipment, but that the University has no culpability for how that gets used on this continent,” Xiao bites out.
“It really looked like Damian was leading a patrol, not just advising one,” I say, being the only person here who actually interacted with one of these mercenaries.
“I agree. From the way you’ve described it, that sounds to me like the captain of a ship. Even if, as you’ve said, most of the conscripts are local to the Morgan domes.”
“I’ll admit that I don’t know how the University is run, or how tight-knit they are as a society,” Cleve says, “or if this is government sanctioned, or how easily you can change their mind, given the right price.”
“We don’t have a lot of leverage on the University,” Xiao says. “They’re on a different landmass, and though there was some nominal amount of trade and sharing of information, they don’t need much from us. They have computing resources similar to Data Haven.”
“And with our intel, we didn’t get what Morgan was offering them,” Cleve says, throwing a glance my way. I shake my head; that wasn’t a question I thought to ask Damian.
“Presumably a lot of credits,” Xiao says with a dismissive shrug. Cleve suspects it is direct payment in resources like metals and other mined materials. It could also be recovered Progenitor tech; from our conversations with Shu-Fen, we know someone in those domes prioritizes its recovery. “Regardless, we’re not in a position to buy their aid—how could we trust it anyway?—and we’re not in a position to just sever our diplomatic relationship with the University. However, that has been discussed, I will say.”
“But they’re a piece on the board,” Cleve says.
“They are, but I don’t think they’re going to take additional direct involvement in this war, not more than they already have. For example, if we were to institute a naval blockade of the Morgan domes, I think they would be upset, but they’re not really in a position to deal with that. And I think they’d be very careful.”
“Does the University not have much in the way of a fleet themselves?” I ask.
“Not to the extent that we have,” Xiao tells me. “Because we focus on fishing with an add-on of exploring—” Xiao stops himself with a huff of amusement. “It’s funny, but Morgan would probably talk about it this same way—our mariners scale very well. The more mariners we have, the more responsible fishing we can do, and the more we can discover interesting new places and things.”
“The more, the mariner,” Cleve says with a small chuckle.
Xiao brightens a bit more, liking the slogan. He continues, “In the University, they have people who go out and discover things, but they’re on government-funded expeditions. They are not people making their way of life at sea. So for the University to have more mariners, so to speak, requires them to expend more resources to pay for that. Whereas the mariners, we pay for ourselves. We lift up society with the bounty of the sea.” He actually sounds a little choked up there at the end, brimming with pride and job satisfaction.