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"Let's go over a little astrography. Geography is the mother of strategy, they say." Illyan fiddled with a
control on his comconsole.
A wormhole nexus route map formed in three bright dimensions over the holovid plate. It looked rather
like a ball-and-stick model of some weird organic molecule done in colored light, balls representing
local-space crossings, sticks the wormhole-space jumps between them; schematic, compressing
information, rather than to scale. Illyan zoomed in on a portion, red and blue sparks in the center of an
otherwise empty ball, with four sticks leading out at crazy angles to more complex balls like some
skewed Celtic cross. "Look familiar?"
"That in the center is the Hegen Hub, isn't it, sir?"
"Good." Illyan handed him his controller. "Give me a strategic summation of the Hegan Hub, Ensign."
Miles cleared his throat. "It's a double star system with no habitable planets, a few stations and
powersats, and very little reason to linger in. Like many nexus connections, it's more route than place,
taking its value by what's around it. In this case, four adjoining regions of local space with settled
planets." Miles brightened each part of the image as he spoke, for emphasis.
"Aslund. Aslund is a cul-de-sac like Barrayar; the Hegen Hub is its sole gate to the greater galactic web.
The Hegen Hub is as vital to Aslund as our gateway Komarr is to us.
"Jackson's Whole. The Hegen Hub is just one of five gates from Jacksonian local space; beyond
Jackson's Whole lies half the explored galaxy.
"Vervain. Vervain has two exits; one to the Hub, the other into the nexus sectors controlled by the
Cetagandan Empire.
"And fourth, of course, our, ah, good neighbor the Planet and Republic of Pol. Which in turn connects to
our own multi-nexus Komarr. Also from Komarr is our one straight jump to the Cetagandan sector,
which route has been either tightly controlled or outright barred to Cetagandan traffic ever since we
conquered it." Miles glanced at Illyan for approval, hoping he was on the right track. Illyan glanced at
Ungari, who allowed his brows to rise fractionally. Meaning what?
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"Wormhole strategy. The devil's cat's cradle," Illyan muttered editorially. He squinted at his glowing
schematic. "Four players, one game-board. It ought to be simple."
"Anyway," Illyan stretched out his hand for the controller, and sat back with a sigh, "the Hegen Hub is
more than a potential choke-point for the four adjoining systems. Twenty-five percent of our own
commercial traffic passes through it, via Pol. And although Vervain is closed to Cetagandan military
vessels just as Pol is closed to ours, the Cetas ship significant civilian exchange through the same slot and
out past Jackson's Whole. Anything like a war that blocks the Hegen Hub would seem almost as
damaging to Cetaganda as to us.
"And yet, after years of cooperative disinterest and dull neutrality, this empty region is suddenly alive
with what I can only call an arms race. All four neighbors seem to be creating military interests. Pol has
been beefing up the armament on all six of its jump point stations strung toward the Hub even pulling
forces from the side toward us, which I find a little startling, since Pol has been extremely wary of us ever
since we took Komarr. The Jackson's Whole consortium is doing the same on its side. Vervain has hired
a mercenary fleet called Randall's Rangers.
"All this activity is causing low-grade panic on Aslund, whose interest in the Hegen Hub is for obvious
reasons most critical. They're throwing half this year's military budget into a major jumppoint
station hell, a floating fortress and to cover the gap while they prepare, they too have hired guns. You
may be familiar with them. They used to be called the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet." Illyan paused,
and raised an eyebrow, watching for Miles's reaction.
Connections at last or were there? Miles blew out his breath. "They were blockade specialists, at one
time. Makes sense, I guess. Ah . . . used to be called the Dendarii? Have they changed lately?"
"They've recently reverted to their original title of Oseran Mercenaries, it seems."
"Strange. Why?"
"Why, indeed?" Illyan's lips compressed. "One of many questions, though hardly the most urgent. But it's
the Cetagandan connection  or lack of it that bothers me. General chaos in the region would be as [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]