A Victiorian Age
БТ Альтернативка - Что если ВШ-Д был рожден девочкой?
Местами просто убойно.
“So, are you going to tell me what you and Hanse decided on for a name?” asked Katrina, reaching over to gently touch the infant’s head.
Melissa smiled and someone in the background snapped a photograph that Katrina made a mental note to obtain a copy of. “We agreed on Victoria if it was a girl,” the new mother said happily.
“If you don’t mind my asking, Kommandant, what possibilities did concern you about my appointment as your aide?”
“Other the possibility that someone blueblooded – up to and including my mother, who was married younger than I am now – thought you would be an acceptable or even desirable consort for the primary heir to the Federated Commonwealth?”
Victoria was pleased to see a somewhat panicked expression flit across her new aide’s face. You just wait until the first time I draft you as my escort to a society dinner, Hauptmann Cox, she thought. I may have accepted you as my aide, but that doesn’t mean I’m letting you off the hook just yet.
“Well the redhead in the black and gold uniform is Theodore Kurita,” Victoria told him without batting an eyelid. “Don’t let the samurai manners fool you, he’s a real teddy-bear.”
“Damn,” said Galen. “That’s a pretty impressive reception. Who’s the last guy, Death personifed?”
“That,” Victoria said, a note of pride in her voice, “Is Kai.” She eyed the man thoughtfully for a moment. “I think he’s gotten even taller since I last saw him.”
“Kai?”
“Kai Allard-Liao, the heir to St Ives. He graduated from the New Avalon Military Academy last year, had a lance in the Eleventh Lyran Guards down on the League border, last time he wrote to me.”
“The Eleventh are a crack unit,” Galen said. “How did he get a slot with them right out of the Academy?”
Victoria stepped off the bottom of the escalator, steadying the bag of supplies provided by the Hejira. “You recall the La Mancha scenario?”
Galen winced. “Yeah. Who doesn’t?” The La Mancha was one training exercise used in all AFFC academies, pitting the cadet singlehandedly against four larger and more powerful BattleMechs. It was a brutal no-win scenario and usually bruising to the ego.
“Kai beat it,” Victoria told him under her breath and left him fighting to keep his jaw closed.
...
She turned to the last of the welcoming party with a smile. “Good to see you, Kai.”
Kai Allard-Liao offered his hand but Victoria wasn’t taking any of that and dragged him into a hug. “So, if I decide to quit working for Morgan and go mercenary are you up for it? I’ll give you a lance as soon as I have enough ‘Mechs.”
“Wait, what?” he spluttered and Galen chuckled at the startled expression on the younger man’s face.
“I figure the odds are against me getting another command unless I build my own,” Victoria said, still holding onto Kai’s forearms. “It worked for the Duke of New Ivaarsen.”
“Not entirely,” Morgan told her grimly. “The Second Chasseurs were wiped out on Somerset last month. And you aren’t going to be without a command. When we pulled the Tenth Lyran Guards off Atria several officers decided they’d rather retire there than go to war. I’m giving you a battalion.”
Victoria’s jaw dropped. “Somewhere on Dromini, the remains of Frederick Steiner are spinning inhis grave,” she said at last. The Tenth Lyran Guards used to be one of the best units we had! “I hope you’re exagerating a little.”
“He is,” Kai assured her quickly. “There were only a handful of resignations and everyone else has something to prove.”
“Everyone else?” Victoria gave him a puzzled look, then tugged him around to examine his unit patch. “You quit the Eleventh Lyran Guards?”
He shrugged and grinned. “They were asking for volunteers – quite a few people got promoted to fill out the gaps.”
“Yes, but -” She stopped and checked his rank insignia. “You didn’t get promoted. So why…”
Morgan chuckled. “Blame your father,” he said, passing the buck courageously. “Your mother wanted you to join the Tenth – it’s notorious for the number of future Archons who served in it. But it was Hanse’s idea that since deploying you five hundred light years apart hadn’t worked out -”
Victoria let go of Kai’s sleeves and glared at her cousin.
“- maybe he could try putting the full legal weight of the AFFC’s code of conduct putting between you,” Morgan said, hiding a smile. “There are rules against relationships up and down the chain of command you know. And you wouldn’t expect to get some sort of special dispensation would you?”
“That’s evil,” Victoria said in shock. “Raising my own regiment is sounding better and better.”
