Chapter Nineteen

An Admiral and a Captain

When Jenna was finally ready to talk to Admiral Denver, she looked collected, though she did not attempt to look terrifying or gorgeous with her clothes. She wore soft gray trousers and a white buttoned top. Her hair was braided in one tousled braid that fell elegantly down her shoulder. Her makeup was simple. Gray on her eyes and coral on her lips.

“All right,” she said, looking at the Admiral’s pink face, which looked a little pinker than usual if Jenna’s impression was to be trusted when her pool of inner tranquility had been ravaged. “Good morning, Admiral. What intel have you received over the last twelve hours?”

“Nothing, except shots of you crying like a sprinkler system, which is not overly becoming for an Adamis diplomat. We can’t have your position rescinded–”

Jenna interrupted. “If you could have done that, you would have done so before I was fetched from Earth. Am I right?” She shook her head, giving him only a minute to pick up the thread of the conversation. When he wasn’t as quick as she would have liked, she went on. “I’m not particularly interested. So, nothing except footage of me crying on my dock?”

“And speculation as to why you would do that,” he said between tight lips.

“All right. Well, in that case, I’ll bring you up to speed. We discovered who took Iker.” She explained about Don Leo. “He was holding Iker hostage and was willing to release him in exchange for a member of my staff. I sent that staff member to outer space to fulfill their demands. We should hear if the trade was successful in two days.”

“There was footage of your bodyguard kissing you,” Denver said gruffly.

“I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to do much worse than make out with my bodyguard without having to listen to something as stupid as your censure,” Jenna snapped back.

“So, I’m just supposed to sit tight for two days?”

Jenna yawned, partly because she found him boring and partly because the tranquilizers hadn’t completely worn off. “No. There’s more. I’m going to crown Rennett in three days.”

“I asked you not to do that. Can’t you follow instructions?” Denver blustered, trying desperately to keep control of Jenna.

“No. Here’s what happened. I asked you to send someone for me to crown. You did. I said I’d crown him and then there were all sorts of health concerns regarding whether or not he’d be able to do his job. I’m going to crown him whether he can do his job or not. The thing is, I don’t care if he can do his job or not. I’m going to crown him. If he’s incapable of giving you the representation you desire on the council, that’s your problem. I promised Fallcet I’d crown three of your guys. I’ll crown Iker on the same day when he arrives. Then I will have crowned three: Iker, Rennett, and Scion. Promise fulfilled. It’s not my fault you sent someone incapable. I have another man lined up. I’ll crown him and he can be the final member to make quorum. If Rennett can’t fulfill his duty, I will reclaim my seat and vote myself.”

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“Madam Diplomat!” Denver shouted. “You promised to stall.”

“I did no such thing. I gave you an opportunity to explain why you wanted me to stall. You said nothing. You have not provided me with a reason. Go ahead,” she said, leaning forward. “Tell me why you need me to stall.”

His face went even redder, but he didn’t answer.

When Jenna had waited long enough, she made her eyes like daggers before making her voice as cold as ice, “I won’t ask you again.” She waited and when no answer came, she waved her hand for Ixy to cut the transmission with Jenna’s last view of Admiral Lou Denver being one of him stuttering, but saying nothing.

Jenna took a couple of cleansing breaths while she waited for Ixy to get Phane up on the view screen. She hadn’t talked to Phane extensively, and considering how much importance she had put on him, she was suddenly quite worried that she had put all her eggs in the wrong basket.

When he came on, she gave him the biggest smile she could summon on that day. “Good day, Captain Phane. How are things looking from orbit?”

“I deeply regret promising to marry you,” he said, his gaunt cheek moving more than anyone’s cheeks had ever moved before.

“It’s okay. I think that diversion is off. The original goal was to get you crowned. I was just going to tell everyone you were in my house as my fiance to buy us time while you got your surgery anyway. I’m not concerned with that anymore. I just needed to summon the courage to tell Admiral Denver off, and I just did that. I was concerned about the AAMC guys being aware and unnecessarily violent if they knew that I had a new diplomat coming. However, that feeling has passed. I feel confident about giving you the Salt Palace and letting Rennett keep the Waterfall Palace. How does that sound to you?”

“This all feels a little unreal. The surgeon is here already?” he asked with a slightly bewildered look on his face.

“I’m sure Temptic explained why you haven’t met her yet.”

“He did,” Phane said, his eyes looking enormous through the camera lens. “This is spookier than I expected. Is there that much opposition to diplomatic relations between Adamis and Octavians?”

Jenna waffled her hand. “There’s more opposition than you’d expect, but the thing that happened to Iker was unrelated to the Octavians or the Adamis government or their military. Hopefully, we’ll have that corrected and we will have reclaimed Iker in the next two days. In the meantime, can I administer your interview?”

Vash leaned in and whispered to Jenna, “Didn’t you want to wait for Celestina to be in the room before you did that?”

“Is she on her way?” Jenna whispered back.

“She’s a little hung up, but we could wait and do this interview some other time,” Vash offered.

“Is this being recorded?” Jenna asked.

Vash nodded.

“Then it’s fine. It’s better for me to be doing this rather than nothing while I wait for Sardius to wake up.”

“I’m here,” Favel reminded them, lifting himself out of the water in the tank and gently lowering himself into the goblet waiting.

“There. Favel won’t let me go off the rails,” Jenna said cheerfully. “Phane, I’d like to introduce you to my fiance, Favel. He’s the chair of the Octavian council and a great support to all the diplomats living on Octavia Prime.”

Vash pushed Favel’s goblet forward and gave Jenna a tablet with a collection of interview questions.

She got started.