Fourth Vector Ch. 43

When no one was willing to answer the question directly, Jack thought he just might have started to get through to all of them. They all seemed to be seriously thinking over the request, and maybe, just maybe, they would vote his way.

That line of thinking was crushed though with the next statement.

"My country is in no position to go back to war," said Aedan with a firm tone. "We haven't yet recovered from the last one, and who knows when that will be. I see no evidence that this threat truly exists, and that this isn't just a squabble between Jack and his former boss. I remain unconvinced and for that reason, I choose to stay out of this mess."

Jack opened his mouth to say something but Gaius stole the floor next. "What about us? What about Naxos? Jack, you know the devastation that my land has suffered. Would you ask us to go back to war again? I have nothing with which to make war except for a few Apulian regiments on loan."

Jack shook his head. "Consideration is being given for the size of our allies and their contributions for this next fight. I only ask that you give what you're able to give. In your case, Gaius, I understand that Naxos is still recovering. I would not ask for any aid from you until you thought to be in the position to give it."

"So why does Naxos get to contribute nothing when Picardy, which has suffered just as greatly, would be asked to contribute men towards the fight?" asked Aedan.

"He asks a fair question, Jack," added Santino. "Apulia was nearly conquered as well and saw just about our entire army destroyed in the first few weeks of fighting. Would there be consideration given for Apulia and her contributions already?"

Jack glared at both men. "You both know there is a difference between Apulia and Picardy, and then little Naxos. Santino, your army has largely recovered. A good portion of your men fought with us in Swabia. I know you have resources to contribute. Aedan, I'd lump you in the same category. You can't use that excuse with me."

"It's not an excuse if it's the truth," spat Aedan. He finally stood up from the table. "Are we done here? I've lost my appetite for further discussions. I'm no longer physically able to be party to this warmongering."

Jack looked around to see if anyone else might rebuke Aedan for yet another outburst, but to his surprise, Reina and Santino stood up with him. The three of them approached the door.

"Tomorrow, we will have a vote," said Jack before they could exit. "We'll put it to a vote. Every country gets one vote, and the winner will take all. I don't ask anyone to stick their neck out without having a voice. Although today's conversation was more heated than I would have liked, this is a threat to all of us. Our way of life is at stake. Our friends, our families, and our homes will be at risk. I wouldn't want to be the one that looks back after all of this is over and know that I did nothing."

Aedan raised his chin. "Tomorrow then, we'll meet back here and give our vote. And you shall see all the good this conference has done for your cause."

With those final words, the King of Picardy, the Queen of Carinthia, and the Director of Apulia left the room, leaving an awkward tension for those that were left. Jack looked around the room to see the faces of Nikias, Elektra, Masud, Hendrick, Ambros and Gaius. Most of them were still looking at him to see some kind of reaction.

"Well, tomorrow we shall have our vote then," said Jack, letting out some of the tension. "Do any of you have any serious concerns?"

"Several, Jack," answered Hendrick as he shook his head. "I don't believe this is something that I can give my support to. I'm sorry to let you down but my thoughts are with them."

With that statement, the Samaran Tribune bowed his head and left the room, following in the footsteps of the others.

Jack let out a sigh. The numbers were dwindling by the second. At this point in time, there were four confirmed no votes but there were still five countries represented in the room.

"We still have the vote," whispered Abigail from beside him. "Five to four. As long as we still get everyone left in the room, we still have enough to carry the tide."

She spoke just a little too soon.

"I'm afraid not, Abigail," said Gaius as he shook his head. "Naxos is still rebuilding. We don't have anything to contribute to the cause, and I won't vote yes just to shed the blood of someone else. I will vote no."

Gaius' words were perhaps the most disheartening of the day. With his statement went the vote. If Apulia, Samara, Picardy, Carinthia and Naxos voted for no war, there was hardly a way that Galicia, Andalucia, and Sorella could stand alone, and that was even with the Swabians.

"What about you, Ambros?" asked Jack. "This is a threat to Swabia as well. Would you be with me? Would you give aid to our cause?"

In a sign that not all was lost, Ambros nodded his head a moment later. "I'm very much in your debt, Jack Kincardine. Not only for my life but for my throne as well. I will go to war with you if you require it. Although, you know as well as I do that Swabia is in no position to go back to war."

Jack nodded. "I appreciate that, Ambros. We all need time to rebuild. Even if we all voted yes to this, we would still need a period of time to prepare ourselves for war. Six months is what I was thinking. That will give us enough time to stockpile supplies, munitions, and food. Do you think you could get a force equipped and ready to move in six months?"

Ambros thought about it for a moment. "It would be a challenge but I believe it could be done."

"That's all well and good but I'm still not enthusiastic about sending any Sorellan forces to fight side by side with the Swabians," said Nikias, casting a wary eye toward Ambros. "Even if you got your vote, Jack, how would you expect any of us to work with them? They've shown they can't be trusted."

"That's the part that I need you to leave to me," said Jack. "I need you to trust that I know what I'm doing."

Nikias pursed his lips. "That's a hard thing to ask of any man, especially on a matter as grave as this."

"What about if an ally asked it of you?" countered Jack. "What say you then?"

Nikias let out a deep sigh. A small smile formed on his lips. "I would try," he relented. "But it wouldn't be easy."

"No, it wouldn't," agreed Jack. "But we would find a way together."

"It still seems like you have your work cut out for you, Jack," said Elektra. "The four of us can't be expected to meet Java alone, especially with what you've told us."

"No, we can't," replied Jack. "We will need all of us to contribute. I will have to figure something out about the others. I can't let them bury their heads in the sand."

"Unfortunately, it seems like that's exactly what they want to do," muttered Vera.

Jack didn't disagree with her. It was the first time he was disappointed by his allies.

Did it have to come at the hour of his most dire need?

*****

The evening after the council was a somber one. Jack didn't have much of an appetite and instead of getting dinner with the rest of the heads of state, he preferred to sit on the balcony outside his bedroom and gaze upon the city of Kalmar.

It really was a beautiful city. Enough time had passed that she didn't show the scars of the last fight, when he had taken over the capital from Eric Rosdahl. Below him, he could hear the usual noises of the city—the sound of people, children, the clanging of tools, and the cries of birds. On one hand, it was like every other city in the world but on the other, it was a special place that truly deserved his protection.

And as the guardian of Galicia, it was his job to make sure that his enemies never tried to take his city away from him. If Bancroft showed up outside of Kalmar with the entire Javan fleet, Jack would fight to the death to protect the city of his ancestors.

There was no end to the depths of his resolve in fighting Bancroft. The problem was how could he make the others feel the same passion? How could he get Aedan to see the same threat before the Javan fleet showed up outside of Daban?

It was a question that Jack continued to ponder into the night. That is, until he received visitors around ten o'clock.

When he first saw the outlines of two people, he assumed it was Kat and Abigail, but Jack was surprised to see Evelyn and Vera joining him on the balcony.

"I bet you didn't expect us," said Vera with a smug smile as she sat next to him.

"Like usual, you know what I'm thinking," replied Jack. "Where are my wives?"

"Entertaining still," answered Evelyn. "They are being gracious hosts for all of our guests but it begs the question why you're not also playing host this evening?"

Jack scoffed. "After what happened at the council, I needed some time away. I needed time to think."

"And have you? What have you thought about, Jack?"

Jack let out a deep sigh. "So many things. You would think with all this time that I would have figured out what to do about my allies but I have no such better options. I have half a mind to just beat Aedan into submission but that would hardly suit my purposes with the other allies."

Evelyn chuckled. "Nor with Aedan when he came to either. I think he would be most upset."

"In any event, I don't know how to make them see sense," continued Jack. "I get why they think this is some kind of civil conflict due to my personal history but I'm at a loss for what I can say to them to change their minds."

"It was pretty bad," echoed Vera as she looked over at Evelyn. "I was there. For the record, Jack, I thought you did well in telling them about the threat in front of us. Although, you did lose your cool a few times."

Jack scowled. "I had to keep a firm hand on where that meeting was going. If I let Aedan or Santino derail it, we would have been further from our goal, not closer."

"Vera tells me that even the Swabians have agreed to be part of this alliance against the Javans," said Evelyn. "That's quite the feat, Jack. I don't think that's ever been done in the history of the West."

"I suppose it's the one thing that Eric Rosdahl did right," said Jack with a wry smile. "He sowed the seeds of that cooperation. Now, it might have been for the wrong purpose at the time but I can't say that the idea didn't start with him. And Ambros has been remarkably adept at every task I've given him. He's not your typical Swabian."

"So I hear," replied Evelyn. "And it seems that's part of the reason why your allies don't want to stick their necks out again for you. They're afraid the Swabians are going to stab them in the back while they're overextended."

"Which I also understand," said Jack. "It's only because of Ambros that I believe he can keep the rest of his people in line. I mean, enough for us to work with them during a war. I believe that he can do that but I'm at a loss for how to convey the sense of trust that I have for him to the others."

"It seems you're in a pickle, Jack," noted Evelyn. "Is there no way you can go about this with just Galicia and Swabia? After all, those are the two biggest powers in the West. Couldn't you make due on your own?"

"I've been down this line of thinking before," said Jack while shaking his head. "It's not enough. Let's look at battleships just for the sake of looking at something. We know that any fight with Java is going to come down to at least one major naval battle. As of today, Galicia has seventeen battleships. Swabia has eleven that are serviceable after the losses in the last war. Between the two of us, that makes for twenty-eight battleships. Java has at least twenty in her possession but she also commands the fleets of the other two subjugated nations. The Occitanians have at least ten more and the Ruthenians a similar number. That makes for more than forty battleships against our twenty-eight. Not great odds."

"That is a large gap," noted Vera. "But that's just in terms of actual ships. Could Java provide crews to man them?"

"Knowing Bancroft and his affinity for the navy, he'll find a way to bring all that firepower against us," replied Jack. "And that's just battleships. All the other ship classes will outnumber us as well as men to fight. If we thought it was bad enough how the Swabians could manifest men to put in our way, the Javans would be much tougher. They have a larger population and Java is a much bigger place. It's not feasible with just Galicia and Swabia fighting alone."

"Just for the sake of the argument, Jack, how many extra battleships would you net by adding in the others?" asked Evelyn. "If you could get all you needed?"

Jack's head tilted from side to side. "You'd have to leave some behind for defense and there are some that wouldn't be seaworthy so that will impact the numbers a little. But at most, you'd probably get another eight to ten battleships between the rest of the allies."

"That practically makes up the gap," replied Vera. "So I can see why you really need them."

"Precisely," said Jack as he put his head in his hands. "This doesn't work without all of us united together. And even then, we're still going to be outnumbered."

"What about tanks and airplanes, Jack?" asked Evelyn. "Surely having those would give you an advantage over the Javans, right?"

Jack shook his head. "Bancroft has airplanes," he groaned. "He has one of my prototypes from back before the Battle of Aberdeen. No doubt he's smart enough to realize its potential and make more of them. He also has blueprints for tanks. No, we can't rely on any serious advantage here. He's going to match us in terms of sheer firepower at best, and at worst, we're going to be seriously outnumbered."

Evelyn pursed her lips together. "It appears then that you have to find a way to pull together your unruly allies, Jack. And I had to be the bearer of bad news but you're running out of time to do it."

"Don't I know it," muttered Jack. "If I thought it would help, I'd parade them around the cemetery outside the city and show them Jocelyn's grave but knowing Aedan, he'd probably suggest that she died of natural causes on the journey across the ocean."

"You've got to think of something, Jack," echoed Evelyn. "This is too important to leave it to a chance of luck at the vote tomorrow. You need to figure out a way to make them understand."

Jack put his head back in his hands. Surely there had to be a way to make this work.

But how?

*****

"Sir, the city is now secure. Our forces are in total control of all entry points and we've just taken over the granaries. Control is ours."

Trevor couldn't help but smile as he heard the statement. What a difference a few weeks had made. Nearly a month ago, they were facing their last stand in the Wilds, a desolate area that was claimed by neither Thessaly nor Tyrol. The army in front of them was quite a bit larger and poised to destroy what was left of Tyrolean resistance.

And now? Trevor's army had finally arrived in Worchester.

"Excellent news, captain," replied Trevor as he pointed to the grand town hall that dominated the center of the city. "I'd like to place my headquarters here. Please grab what you can from my baggage train and see it done."

The captain saluted and started to execute the orders immediately. Trevor only watched briefly before he turned to look at Nina, who was watching him with a curious smile.

"You're enjoying this change of events, aren't you?" she accused.

Trevor nodded. "What can I say? It's good not to be dead."

Nina chuckled while her hand crept into his. They moved along the broad streets of the city, watching as gawking Thessalians noted their every move.

It had only been a day since they arrived in the city, and already their world had turned upside down. It first started the day after the battle, when Trevor realized how complete the victory had been. With the leftovers of the Javan Army leaving the battlefield as fast as their feet could carry them, Trevor's men took over their camps and their leftover supplies.

For the first time in weeks, the Tyrolean Army had food. Men who'd been walking wraiths suddenly showed the first signs of life. It continued as they moved out of the Wilds and back toward the border with Thessaly. With no Javan force in their path, Trevor's men kept moving until they spotted the city on the horizon the day before. Of course, there was no separate Thessalian Army to defend their capital city. No, the Thessalian Army had long ago been folded into the Javan Army as part of a unified command.

That meant the only thing the Thessalians could do was watch as the ragtag army paraded down their streets, putting the city under foreign occupation for the first time in centuries (that is, if one discounts the Javans as foreigners).

There remained only one source of government left in Thessaly and that was the Thessalian governor, Franklin Morris.

Trevor was familiar with Morris but he'd never met the man. All he knew was that Morris was nominally in charge of Thessaly, and he reported directly to Bancroft. He also knew that Morris could be hard to work with, but that was only based on rumors. Until today, no one that he knew had ever met the man.

However, Morris was due to make a call on his new headquarters that very afternoon. Trevor found it curious that Morris would acknowledge the Tyrolean takeover of his city and not flee with the other officials.

Trevor suspected Morris had a trick up his sleeve and he would find out what that was this afternoon.

While Gavin and Nina made sure they were situated in Worchester, Trevor headed inside his new headquarters to await the meeting.

Governor Morris arrived promptly at the time he said he would. Just based on appearances alone, Trevor found himself instantly disliking the man.

First off, he was dressed in a ridiculous set of robes that were too ostentatious and silky. His hair was long and tied back in a traditional Thessalian ponytail. What bothered Trevor the most was his arrogance. Morris appeared to be the kind of man who thought his shit didn't stink.

"My lord, I have to congratulate you on the taking of the city," said Morris with a hint of a bow. It was clear though from the way he stressed "my lord" that it was more ironic in nature than giving any respect for Trevor's position.

He gave a very flourishing introduction for himself next, making sure to list all of his accomplishments since becoming the Governor of Thessaly.

Trevor raised an eyebrow. "You have me a little confused, Governor."

The smile dropped from Morris' face only to be replaced with something resembling annoyance. "What confusion do you have, my lord?"

"It stems from the fact that you're still here in my presence," said Trevor. "All the other officials in this city fled when my army took the city, except you. Not even the postmaster stayed. So why did you? You knew my army was coming, didn't you?"

"But of course," replied Morris. "I knew before anyone else. I knew the exact moment the Javan Army was defeated and it was only natural that you'd come back to Worchester. But your question was based around why I stayed here to greet you."

Trevor waited for him to answer it. There was a moment of silence before Trevor finally spoke up again. "Well?"

Morris produced a dramatic sigh. "My poor Thessaly," he lamented. "She's a conquered power now, much like Occitania or Ruthenia. Her capital lies under foreign occupation and she has no defenders to speak of. Poor, poor Thessaly."

Trevor sighed and rolled his eyes. Morris' flare for drama was already annoying him, and if it was going to take the governor this long to state his real reasons for being here, he was in for a long afternoon.

Trevor chose not to challenge any of the governor's statements, specifically the absurdity of comparing Thessaly to Occitania or Ruthenia for that matter, and he pressed on.