The Terran Gambit by Nick Webb

Author:Nick Webb [Webb, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: galactic empire, alien invasion, genes, Space Opera, space fleet, military SciFi, space marine, republic
Published: 2014-03-18T23:00:00+00:00

***

Captain Titus entered the ready room, ready for yet another blast of god-awful music, when he blinked in pleasant surprise.

“Do you like it, Captain?” It was a question the Admiral had a habit of asking him whenever Titus entered the room while something new was playing.

“Why, yes. Yes, of course, Admiral, Verdi is one of my favorites. A true Corsican if there ever was one.” As he said it, he noticed something familiar in the lap of the Admiral. He glanced up at the wall, and sure enough, one of the two Panreh pipes were missing, the other held in the Admiral’s hands. Instantly, he felt a little on edge, wondering why he was holding the instrument, wondering if someone was about to get a dart to the neck.

“Parma, actually, but yes, I know what you mean. A man after our hearts.” He paused, closed his eyes, and looked as if he were letting the music flow through him. “A masterpiece. One of his many. Do you know, Titus, how he wrote the requiem? Under what circumstances?”

Titus hemmed. “Uh, no sir, I don’t believe I do.” He didn’t take his eyes off the Panreh pipe cradled in the Admiral’s lap.

“When Gioachino Rossini died … you know Rossini, right?” Titus nodded—how could he not know the composer of the William Tell Overture? “When he died, Verdi submitted a proposal to the greatest Italian composers of his day to collaborate on a Requiem Mass to honor him. The others agreed, and Verdi quickly busied himself with his contribution. But it soon became apparent that the effort was becoming mired in bureaucracy and politics, and rather than see his contribution languish, he wrote the entire mass himself. He then rededicated it to the also-recently-deceased poet Alessandro Manzoni. Now, Manzoni wrote many things, yes, but perhaps his most important work was the novel The Betrothed, which later became a symbol for the Italian Risorgimento—the political movement that sought to establish one unified Italian kingdom over the petty states that made up the peninsula at the time. When Manzoni died, the Kingdom of Italy had been made fact, and Verdi wanted to honor him, and by extension, Italy. Captain, am I boring you?”

“Not at all sir. Most fascinating.” Titus lied, trying to sound genuinely interested. Apparently, Trajan noticed his lack of interest, or at least his preoccupation with the Panreh pipe, and changed the subject.

“Did you inform Chief Engineer Lombardi of my desire to thank him?”

“Yes, sir. He is on his way now.”

“Good.” The Admiral closed his eyes again, letting the words of the tenor voice sound the Ingemisco movement throughout the cabin, and he held the Panreh pipe up to his lips. A warm, yet strangely exotic and primal sound joined the tenor’s voice, and the Admiral played counterpoint against it, dueling with the voice as if with an old friend. For a moment, Titus almost felt relaxed in the Admiral’s presence.

“Do you have any inkling of why I am listening to this now?”

Titus opened his eyes with a start.

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