DIPLOMATIC EFFECTS / CH. 2:FRIENDSHIP
ST PETERSBURG HARBOUR, 12NOON
[I hate to interrupt,] Karella called, [but how are things going, Jake?]
[War has probably been averted, if all relevant monarchs are convinced.]
[Urm...]
[The Tsarevna's brother gave the order to attack Ruth on Mars, Mum. She's pretty sure that big brother would think of war as a way of getting himself some of our technology. The Tsar isn't impressed, and has said before witnesses that big brother will be disinherited, and the crown pass to her if she managed to get either a submarine through friendship — as opposed to military force — or me as her husband. When she heard how much gold went into a sub, she gave up on that idea, and getting a stranger who didn't speak her language as a husband wasn't particularly to her taste but she tried, hard. To the extent of calling me selfish for considering marriage for love when the alternative probably meant war. That's when the stuff about her brother came out.]
[{concern} and?]
[She is willing to take a personal vow that no one will be allowed to take apart or otherwise study her submarine if we give her one, and not only that, but that she will vow to seek peaceful resolution to any dispute between her people and another nation. So, personally, I recommend a Guillemot class, as she's always wanted to visit to Mars, and it doesn't cost as much either.]
[I can see why that seemed the most attractive option to you.]
[And to her, also, mother. But no matter personal preferences, a marriage would involve a treaty, and you swore an oath about treaties with Russia.
This way just involves personal oaths. We need your agreement, and the Tsar to agree to his part, and uphold his daughter's vow to keep people away from her sub.]
[Technically, this is interfering in another country's succession, Jake.] Karella pointed out.
[That didn't stop us in the Beautiful Peninsula.]
[That was upholding treaty provisions.]
[I know. This is stopping people playing power politics with my future.]
[And what's to stop someone else thinking this is a good way to get a submarine?]
[I plan on talking to Lamura Russia-speaker this evening. The Tsarevna would be happy to visit Atlantis. She could witness Mikhail's wedding and mine, assuming you don't mind another Karella in the family.]
[Jake, I wasn't expecting the Tsarevna, but I was expecting Karella as a daughter-in-law sometime. Every time someone talks about you finding a wife she's in your mind. You don't think it's too soon?]
[We thought two years ago was too soon.]
[It was. That doesn't mean you need to marry immediately. It would be good if her book got finished, for instance. You weren't tempted by the Tsarevna's offer?]
[Not tempted. Worried I might not manage to think my way out of the logic.]
[Our closer allies will be wondering how Russia obtains a Guillemot and they have not.] Karella said.
[Yes, I hoped it wouldn't set a precedent, but it will, won't it?]
[Yes.]
[So, we would need to be fair and equitable. Heir to the throne of... who? Our closer allies? Major powers? Who are willing to swear similarly, before truthsayers or maybe the entire Council, accepting that we retain remote control and would reclaim or destroy the vehicle in the case of oath violation? I would actually suggest that an automatic park and recall feature like Karella Irontrader had be included too, to make investigation that much harder.]
[Automatically park it at the bottom of a nearby ocean? That would certainly make research hard.]
[Or fifty kilometers up? That's going to really make it difficult to steal a look.]
[That's got to take too much energy, surely?] Karella asked.
[I guess so.]
[But yes, it's worth asking. Your next challenge, Jake, if the Tsarevna is willing, is to work with her and Karella to come up with a form of words that mean that people of ill intent will never agree, and a set of categories that would include our friends but still keep the numbers small. The list will not just be 'our friends' because Russia has not been a friend, and so on.]
[But you agree?]
[I want to see your criteria, and I want to check some facts. If Tsarevna Svetlana has been truthful, and the criteria are not going to bankrupt the treasury, and the council do not scream too loudly. Yes. Whether it will be a guillemot or merely a forcefield submarine without flight, I am undecided.] Karella said. [But I do like the idea of Svetlana going to Mars, that would surely aid normalised relationships there.]
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THE PALACE, RESTORED KINGDOM
[Eliza, it is Karella, I have a question for your information gatherers, if I may ask.]
[You may ask, your majesty.]
[I've just been told that the Tsarevna of the Russian empire was told by her father, in front of witnesses, that he would express his dissatisfaction with his son by disinheriting him, making her heir to the throne if she managed to achieve one of two particular outcomes, which I'd expect the Tsar probably felt were unlikely. Based on their knowledge of the Tsar, is he likely to keep his word?]
[Who told you that?]
[She told my son.]
[If it's true, she took a risk. I'll ask discretely.]
[Thank you.]
[Do you know what the son has done?]
[I do. The Tsarevna Svetlana informed Jake of that, too. I could have found out, of course, but I decided that ignorance was bliss. The other... is too like peering into the future.]
[And Svetlana's currently on a submarine... one of yours?]
[Yes, it's just clearing some ice so their ambassador's parents can get here easily for his wedding. And doing a bit of showing off too. I guess being there helped her feel safe enough to speak the unspeakable.]
[And despite tensions, she put herself there with no body guard?]
[Brave girl. You might as well know, impossible challenge number one was marriage with Jake, impossible challenge number two was getting one of our subs. Since she thinks big brother in charge means war, she tried her very best.]
[And she convinced Jake?]
[Assuming I can get agreement this end, and her daddy agrees no one takes it apart, she'll be swearing a complicated oath fairly soon and getting something she can call one of our submarines. A small number of nations, including yours, should expect ambassadorial visits offering identical terms. Those are still being worked on, but it'll include things like the heir to the throne vowing to solve things peacefully as much as it depends on them, agreeing we can make it come back here or self-destruct if it's abused, and so on. Driving lessons will be included.]
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
[Wow, so all this depends on our assessment of whether the Tsar is a man of his word?]
[Not only, no. Like I said, I need to do some convincing here. It'll be hard on her, but I think that the heirs to the throne being able to get anywhere in the solar system in reasonable time could be very useful.]
[In the solar system? You're thinking it'll be one of your Guillemots?]
[I'm hoping to convince the council of that, yes.]
[Have you looked for people who the Tsar has broken big promises to?]
[Yes. I didn't find any. But this is such a big promise, was I asking about a category of only one promise?]
[I'll ask.]
[Thank you.]
[I presume you need the answer soonish?]
[Next hour would be great. You may, of course, tell your father-in-law about this request, but try to keep the Tsarevna safe.]
[Of course.]
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UNDER ST PETERSBURG HARBOUR, 12.20PM, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29TH
“That was your mother, Jake?” Karella asked.
“Yes. How did you know?”
“You had your eyes shut,” Karella said.
“Oh. Old habit, that. I need to break myself of it.”
“I don't understand,” the Tsarevna said.
“Tsarevna Svetlana, if I may call you that — blame my mother if your given name was a secret — my mother has just been thinking to me. She has heard of your plea to me, and is in favour of your receiving a submarine. But she adds some more conditions, and it does set a precedent. She asks us, when we have time, all to think about how that precedent does not end up with you being an exception, includes certain specific friendly nations and yet does not come up with a very long list of countries.”
“You did not know my given name?” she asked.
“No.”
“I am no longer wondering why no suggestion was made about not using titles, which confused me since I was not very sure of yours. Surely your title is more than just prince?”
“We do not use so very many. I am 'prince Jake Karella Christoph', though my full name is much longer, that just adds my grandparents names. As a vocative, in English, 'Highness' or 'Your highness' are sufficient. Or to my friends, Jake.”
“You use a matronymic and patronymic?”
“Yes. For a while we used family names, in the English fashion, but it did not last so many centuries. We have returned to our old system.”
“So Natasha is your mother's name?” she asked Karella.
“Yes. It was from her I learned to speak Russian as I was growing up. She died some years ago.”
“If it causes no offence, I would like to be just Svetlana here. On land I must be Tsarevna, or Your Imperial Highness. Even Tsarevna Svetlana would be too informal in most circumstances.”
“Svetlana, do you have more questions about our faith before we return to port?” Jake asked.
“Not for now. For now, I would like to put my trust in God.”
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IMPERIAL PALACE, ST PETERSBURG, 2.30PM
“Imperial Father, I am returned,” Svetlana said, “and I find I must ask for clarification.”
“Clarification?”
“Yes, Imperial Majesty. You asked that I obtain a submarine by friendship or the prince's hand in marriage. I have friendship, and a conditional promise of a submarine. The conditions are that I must take an oath that I will only allow its use for peaceful purposes and always seek peace as much as it depends on me, and that I not study its secrets or allow them to be studied, and that my Imperial Father will also so swear that no attempt will be made to study it for its secrets, and also that my Imperial Father will swear that when I have the submarine he will enact the promises he made regarding the succession. As long as these oaths are taken and kept, her Majesty Queen Karella Farspeaker promises me a submarine and training in driving it. But not just any submarine, Imperial Father. In exchange for these oaths, I am promised one of their space-going submarines. But I ask, do these conditions and limitations void your promise to me? I will not obtain a submarine to study, only to use.”
“This is a strange treaty indeed.”
“It is not a treaty, Imperial Father, for there can be no treaty negotiated for the next two and three quarter years. These are mere personal oaths, binding only as long as we draw breath.”
“Only that long, eh? You have had a busy morning, my daughter. The young man was not to your liking?”
“An imperial wedding is arranged by treaty, Imperial Father, and Queen Karella has taken an oath. There can be no treaty negotiated before the time is up. But there can be friendship, and personal oaths and gifts.”
“So clever. They extract an oath from us, and then expect us to keep to them when they do not deliver.”
“My oath will start 'If I am given a guillemot-class space-going submarine,' Imperial Father. Yours depends on my receiving it. There is no treaty, only interlocking oaths that turn to ashes if the promise is not kept. And I asked what I should do, if I found myself under attack in my flying submarine. His highness replied from their law: Only a dangerous shark attacks those going about their peaceful business. Protecting oneself and others from a dangerous shark is every peace-loving adult's right and duty.”
“So the flying submarine is armed?”
“It works by powerful forcefields, powerful forcefields can puncture and slice. I was told the construction submarine could make a rod shaped forcefield kilometers long, at one third of the speed of light, and that the forcefields on the flying submarine have similar strength. Also, the fields trap radiation and can direct it where the pilot wishes, and they can be made perfectly reflective, against lasers, and masers.”
“And what of a missile attack?” the Tsar named his personal fear when flying anywhere.
“I expect we would not be comfortable as we are rattled around, Imperial Father, but I do not think an explosive exists that can penetrate the forcefield hull.”
“You convince me it is a vehicle beyond price, daughter. I will gladly keep the scientists away to keep such a protection. They will accept vows in front of their ambassador?”
“They will, father, but they invite me to Atlantis, to learn to fly one, to witness our ambassador's wedding. To be a tourist. They would prefer I take my vows there, but they do not insist.”
“I heard Mikhail was engaged. They have set a date?”
“His parents and parents-in-law arrive today, that is why the construction submarine was sent, in friendship to him. He has told her majesty he wishes to marry on Christmas day. A short engagement is the Atlantis way, unless there is some obstacle.”
“I will not send an Imperial princess in some troop transport,” The Tsar stated.
“No, imperial father. But the prince returns tomorrow or the next day, and with him their ambassador's daughter, for her studies. Would it not be fitting to have a prince as my chauffeur?”
“And for your return?”
“I would hope to come back by space-submarine, Imperial Father.”
“You will take a maid,” the Tsar declared.
“As you wish, Imperial Father. As long as she has no rank in the military,”
Some did, Svetlana was sure, “or she will cause embarrassment.”
“You may ask them if they are willing and permitted to visit Atlantis, ignoring their family commitments at this family time of year,” the Tsar said. “Just like you are.”
“You believe the annual family argument needs me, Imperial Father? I thought it would be better to avoid the name-calling.” New year's eve always included a time when her father allowed free discussion.
“Your mother will say I deprive her of your support.”
“Perhaps you could support her in my absence, daddy?” Svetlana was taking a slight risk, using such an intimate address. In the context though, it felt right. “I also have more news, of a personal nature. I have knowingly crossed the barrier that was between myself and the prince of the Mer and mother. I no longer hover on the edges of her faith, neither opposed nor committed. I am sorry if this displeases you, Imperial Father, but it is done. Many of those you might consider as suitable husbands for me would not be acceptable because of this.”
“You did this to try to win the prince?”
“I told the prince it would be acceptable to me. I told him I considered him selfish to plan to marry for love, when the alternative probably meant eventual war between our peoples. He told me the treaty ban was not just policy, but an oath, and asked if you would accept conditions on the submarine. So, no, not to win the prince, nor to win his support regarding the submarine. But I felt the case for the submarine was not very strong, and my lack of commitment to God made it weaker.”
“But you hope to win the prince eventually?”
“I hope to win someone like him, but I do not wish harm upon the girl he intends to marry on his return to Atlantis.”
“He is engaged?”
“Not yet. In such things, the Mer take a long time deciding, and then act quickly. They have been deciding for years, it seems. Me making my offer helped him decide that waiting because of age was not necessarily a good thing in international relations.”
“So,” the Tsar mused “if I still wish you to marry him, I would need to send an assassin.”
“If you send an assassin to kill my friend's wife, send one after me too, or I will dedicate a good portion of my life to publicly condemning you, and defecate on your grave.”
“Ah, the impetuosity of youth!” the Tsar said smiling at her answer. “You have grown steel, my daughter. Go, tell your mother what you have done, and what promise you have gained. I suppose if you have a private spaceship you could go and reclaim at least a small portion of Mars to bear the Imperial standard, couldn't you? Would you object to taking an assassin to deal with that wife-beater?”
“I do not think an assassin would be necessary, father. With your leave, I will happily talk privately to some reporters before I go and show them his wife's letter and his history of demerits for bad conduct after I have returned. Why send an assassin when all he needs is some deep breaths of mountain air?”
“You have my leave, daughter.”