Chapter Nineteen #2
“Oh, a small perimeter around the accommodation would be acceptable, I suspect,” Travers said. “The idea here is not to imprison you, only to limit your interactions with the rest of the ship, while you devote your time to raising the child. Once the child is of age, your…”
“Sentence,” Devar supplied.
“Rehabilitation will be considered complete, and you can return to a full life once more.” Travers paused. “The only way this will be accepted by the ship is if you are seen to be making amends, that you are paying some kind of penalty.”
“Caelen is the penalty I will pay,” Devar said heavily.
Luciana gripped his sleeve. “You get to live, Devar!” she murmured. “And you want a child.”
“I wanted a child to raise with Caelen,” Devar said. “Only…” He sighed. “Of course I accept,” he told the captain. “There’s no choice to be made. And no room for negotiation, either.”
“No, I’m afraid there is not,” Travers said. “I had to…well, sell this to several parties, and negotiating terms would have made the whole deal founder. It is what it is.”
“Sell it to who?” Luciana asked. “I mean, beside the Accouchement Institute.”
“As they filed the original fraud charges, I had to discuss this with the Tankball Association. I had to get them to drop the fraud charges.”
Luciana’s middle jumped and her nerves fizzed. “The Association? Brice? But he resigned…”
Devar made a sound. “Brice Falcon resigned?”
“It was on the Forum this morning,” Luciana said.
Devar shook his head. “That’s how this all works.
That’s how he got it through. Magro would never go for this.
But Brice would. And the only way he could ram it through would be to file all the paperwork, everything signed and delivered, and then resign before Magro slaughtered him in public…
which she would absolutely do. The woman is a piranha. ”
“A what?” Luciana asked.
Travers smiled. “Your son is quite brilliant, isn’t he? I didn’t believe some of the reports about him. Apparently they were not exaggerated.” She smiled at Devar. “There’s just a small detail you got wrong.”
Devar held up his hand. “Wait.” He frowned. Then he sat back and smiled. “It was Brice’s idea. Wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Travers said. “And it is clever in its own way. Sold properly, the idea will mollify those who want blood over the arena tragedy. It will save you, Devar. And it will save this ship from tearing itself apart, which it is on the brink of doing.”
“Sold properly…” Devar smiled. “You want my mother to sell it.”
“Me?” Luciana said, her voice rising.
“Yes, I need you to sell this to the ship, Luciana,” Travers said.
She looked far more relaxed than she had when Luciana had walked into the room and now she sat back, her arms crossed.
“It was you who has been campaigning behind the scenes, changing the minds of everyone on the ship. Showing them how brutal and inappropriate the mutiny charge was.”
“Mother…?” Devar said, sounding surprised.
Luciana could feel her cheeks heating. “I…might have spoken to one or two people,” she admitted.
“Try hundreds,” Travers said.
Devar pushed his hand through his hair. “You changed the minds of a whole ship?”
“Not everyone. Some people just..” Luciana sighed.
“Well, they disliked you so much, they couldn’t see why the mutiny charges shouldn’t stick.
I couldn’t do anything with those people.
After a while, though, more and more people I spoke to had already been reading the Forum and talking to others who saw it the way I did and it… expanded, all on its own.”
“Good ideas do have legs,” Travers said.
“You will have to do what you did all over again, Luciana. This time, you must sell everyone on the idea that this compromise I’ve worked out is just and fitting, that Devar will be better able to make full and appropriate amends if he is allowed to live and raise a child for the future of the Endurance. Do you think you can manage that?”
“This will help Devar. Of course I can do it,” Luciana said firmly.
“Oh, make no mistake about it, Luciana,” Travers said. “You won’t just be helping Devar. You will be saving this ship.”
She swallowed.
Devar sat back. “Is there anything else Brice Falcon arranged before he left office?”
Travers’ expression was curious. “What makes you think there was anything else?”
Devar shook his head. “Falcon isn’t stupid. He knew he had to go for broke, take the one last chance to arrange things the way he thought they should be, before stepping down.” He paused. “It’s what I would have done. I’m surprised he left it at just the one poke in Magro’s eye.”
“As it happens, there was one other thing he finalized with the Bridge. He signed all the contracts yesterday before he went back to the office to resign.”
Luciana’s heart was hurting, from beating too fast. She leaned forward.
Traver’s mouth turned down a bit. “I wasn’t happy about it, only he had come up with the solution to the mutiny charges, so I owed him. The new arena will be built in the Palatine.”
Luciana could barely breathe. “Not the Capitol?” Her voice was strained.
Travers shook her head. “He owns five stalls in the area where we wanted to build the arena, and he refused to sell them. Said that if he didn’t agree to sell, then the Bridge had no reason to take any of the other stalls and the old Skinwalker’s Institute.
He offered terms on the Association’s lease of a new arena that were considerably more attractive than the old lease, and promised to publish those terms if I didn’t agree.
” Travers considered. “He drives a hard bargain.”
Luciana felt giddy. Weak with relief, and giddy.
“Damn,” Devar said softly. “He said he was just waiting for something to break. He wasn’t lying.” He laughed. It was a lovely sound, and Luciana realized that she would get to hear that laugh in the future, too.
Her eyes ached. Brice. He had orchestrated this.
“Is there something I have to sign?” Devar said.
“A great many things,” Travers assured him. “First, we must announce this to the ship, and then wait for some of the outrage to die down, while Luciana does her work. We’ll sort out details while that happens. You must stay in the cell for a while longer, Devar.”
“Knowing I get to leave it on my own two feet will make it bearable,” Devar said. “Thank you, Captain Travers. This is…” He swallowed. “Thank you.” His voice was hoarse.
Travers nodded. “Sometimes this job sucks. Then I have days like this.”
Luciana got to her feet. She couldn’t think beyond a single thought. “I have to…I must go. I have to…”
“Brice?” Devar asked, his tone gentle.
Luciana nodded, her eyes aching.
“Go,” Travers told her.
Luciana hurried to the door.
“I’ll be in touch!” Travers called.