by Tim C Taylor
“McEwan here. This had better be good.”
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry to wake you, but I think this is important.”
“Someone stolen the brandy again, Chief?”
“No, sir.” Arun felt bad. That had been a cheap shot. “Murder.”
Arun felt hot acid running through his guts. So many had died fighting for freedom, but some slimy skangat chodder had used the mayhem to settle their petty score. “Who was it, Coombes? Tell me the veck’s name.”
“Marine Phaedra Tremayne. Also known as–”
“Springer!” But she wouldn’t! Arun’s brain came properly online. He wished it hadn’t. Ever since Springer had pushed him away she’d grown more sullen. She avoided and ignored him. Every time he asked friends to tell him if she was okay, they told him the opposite: that she’d darkened in her hatred of one person. She would. With Xin, she would.
“Colonel Lee?” he asked. “Was she the victim?”
“Negative. The colonel is alive and well. Marine Tremayne has confessed to the murder of the colonel’s children, in a conspiracy involving Leading Spacer Furnace.”
“Meet me at my office. I’m on my way.”
— Chapter 67 —
The last acts of the Second Battle of Khallini were still ongoing, the Legion reserves pursuing the enemy relentlessly. People were still dying. And here Arun was, on his way to meet CPO Coombes and begin the court-martial of the most important person in his life, a process that would lead to her execution unless he woke his brains up quickly and came up with a means of keeping her safe.
A comm-ping interrupted his brooding journey. Barney was screening his calls to only receive updates from Coombes, but this call was from someone else. And it was tagged maximum priority.
Arun growled but accepted the transmission. “Why the frakk are you calling me now, Del-Marie? You should understand the pain I feel, better than anyone.”
“There’s a comm request for you.”
“A comm request?” Arun let the anger flood through his voice. “Who the hell is it that you thought it worthy to disturb me?”
“The White Knights…”
“White Knights? Is the transmission coming from the remnants of the 3rd Fleet? Are they surrendering?”
“No and no. The transmission is coming from a remnant of the Old Empire force we defeated when we first took Khallini. We knew several ships fled, but this ship has been hiding in the outer system for years, watching. Reporting. Until now.”
“Fine. Tell Kreippil to accept their surrender. He likes that kind of thing. I can’t deal with such details right now.”
“Arun, the ship isn’t important. It’s just acting as a comm-relay. When I said the White Knights wanted to talk with you, I mean an actual White Knight. It’s calling from the White Knight Homeworld.”
Arun came to a halt. A White Knight, in person…? Impossible. A chill sense of destiny blew through Arun.
“It wants to negotiate an alliance,” Del continued.
For a moment Arun could only stare, convinced he was misunderstanding, that Del was saying something completely different. “What?” he eventually managed.
“It’s offering generous terms.”
“Namely?” Arun said, more levelly now, deciding to run with this and hope his credulity could catch up somewhere along the way.
“Apparently the military situation across the empire is evenly balanced. The negotiator wants us to break the New Empire blockade of the White Knight system and liberate their homeworld in the name of our rightful masters.”
“They don’t want much, do they? And what generous terms are they offering in exchange for winning the war for them?”
“Freedom. Legally. Permanently. Freedom.”
Arun gave a sharp intake of breath. Freedom. He still fought for it, believed and would die for it. But where was his freedom? He had to punish the only woman he’d ever truly loved. Sure, he knew she was long lost to him but… Springer tried to murder his unborn children? No, that still didn’t make sense.
He thought back to Pedro’s warning long ago about how ugly humans could be in protecting their offspring from rivals. At the time he hadn’t taken the Trog seriously, but as the years wore on, Arun’s doubts had grown.
He shook his head. Springer a killer. No, it still didn’t feel credible.
“General…”
“I know, Del-Marie, I know. There’s a White Knight on hold.” Arun took a deep breath. He wasn’t ready for this, not so soon in the Human Legion’s emergence. Frakk it, who was he kidding? He’d never be ready, not for this.
“Go ahead. Connect me.”
“Patching you through now, General.”
There was a click and then the sound of a disembodied artificial voice, a computer translated voice identical to those used by Trogs, Jotuns, Littoranes… and the Hummers. “Who is this?” asked the voice.
“I’m General McEwan of the Human Legion. Who the frakk are you?”
There came a long wait before the computer voice replied: “In your language I reveal my name as Xotencatl Sum-Deus. I am the legitimate ruler of the White Knight Empire.”
“So?” he snapped back. Arun immediately knew he’d spoken too harshly. Many lives depended on his words. Billions of them. Trillions. “So what do you need of me?” he added hastily.
“The Empire is locked in stalemate, and I am blockaded inside the imperial citadel. Fighting is ongoing through all sectors, but with your destruction of the rebel 3rd Fleet, both sides in this civil war are now evenly matched.”
Why the hell should I care if you fight your rivals to extinction? Arun managed to keep that thought in his head.
“You have no love for me,” said Xotencatl Sum-Deus, the, what…the Emperor? “That is understandable. However, know this. The empire’s weakness is well understood by our rivals who press hungrily at our borders. If the stalemate persists in the civil war, you may win yourself a few decades in which to bask in the illusion of freedom, but none of us are ever truly free. The Muranyi are already conquerors of a dozen systems left defenseless by this internal conflict. I can tell you their rule is steeped in the blood of conquered species. And beyond them the Amilxi who are rumored to be even more callous. Many other races prepare to pick easy winnings off the carcass of our prostrate empire.”
“I’m listening. What do you want from me?”
“I want you to win me this war. And quickly. My loyal spotters saw your new weapons. Mustangs did you call them? Impressive. Rid me of the rebels. Save the Empire.”
“Why should I do that?”
Another pause. “Because I can give you what you’ve always craved. As your legitimate master, I can offer you the ultimate reward in the form of a legally binding agreement. My Intelligence Corps has been watching you for some considerable time, Cadet Prong, Marine McEwan, Major McEwan and now General. You were right all along. Freedom can be won.”
Author’s Notes: Human Empire
With the fourth book in the series, I continued the idea of trying to give each novel a different feel. If Marine Cadet was predominantly the boot camp from hell, Indigo Squad was shipboard mutiny in deep space, and Renegade Legion ups the numbers and sees infantry combat against the New Order Hardits, in Human Empire I wanted to scale up to a whole new level. We’ve seen space combat in all the other books, but in Human Empire we see large fleet battles for control of star systems for the first time. We also get exotic aliens, serious setbacks for the Legion, and see some of the things set up in the earlier books begin to play out big time.
In fact, I’ve been running through the book again recently doing quality control for the forthcoming audiobook (with Walt Robillard on vocals and Jason Kiefer twirling the knobs and hitting those buttons in the studio) and was struck by just how much I crammed into that one book. Nonetheless, the thing I was adamant I was going to do with Human Empire was write some space battles that would do Jack Campbell proud.
One of the coolest things about s
pace battles in science fiction are the space fighters. From Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica to Wing Commander, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and beyond, everyone loves a roguish space fighter. My problem was that I didn’t believe in them. There are whole sections on the internet discussing the credibility of various science fiction tropes, and space fighters unfortunately fall in the category of “nice to look at but makes absolutely no sense”.
With my current project (Chimera Company), I’ve enjoyed relaxing the science hardness quotient and going a bit Star Wars-style space opera adventure. With the Human Legion books, though, I always tried to at least attempt to follow the laws of physics. Therein was my problem: space fighters have to carry a lot of additional mass to cart around their pilot and life-support. Then they have to maneuver really slowly so they don’t crush them under intense g-forces. An AI-controlled drone should win every time.
So I came up with the idea of X-Boats, which didn’t so much break the laws of physics as cheat them. Hey, I never said I’d play fair.
X-Boats – I fell in love with them. Can you tell?
The year before had seen a lot of documentaries on the D-Day landings (2014 having been their 70th anniversary), and one of the things that intrigued me were the X-class subs. These were British midget submarines that had severely damaged the German battleship Tirpitz. I already knew that, but I didn’t realize they later landed reconnaissance teams to scout out the invasion beaches in advance of D-Day. That’s where the X comes from in X-Boat.
The moment I published the book, though, readers started telling me that I’d taken the idea from the X-Wings of Star Wars. Oh, well. Never mind!
That’s Xin Lee on the cover art by Vincent Sammy. In my art notes, I told him that I wanted interesting characters on my covers but not beautiful Hollywood people. Springer on Renegade Legion’s cover, for example, has half her face burned away into scar tissue. The only exception to that is Xin Lee and he captured my idea of how she might look. I love the expression on her face. In fact, I think it’s such a great piece of artwork that sums up the series that when I’m writing, I drink my coffee out of a mug with the Human Empire artwork.
Talking of covers, mine is not the only name on the cover of Human Empire. Ian Whates is on this book and War Against the White Knights too, but his name is not on The Battle of Earth.
Sometimes, I get asked whether we had a big falling out. I think that’s what people really want to hear, but I also get asked how we collaborated and which bits did he write? Unfortunately for the scandal-hunters, we didn’t have a big bust up, and we’re still on civil terms.
The reason I had approached Ian to suggest collaborating was to speed up the release of the novels without sacrificing quality. Ultimately, that failed. No problem with the story quality, but the writing speed slowed to a crawl. On the other hand, some aspects of co-writing were very exciting, and I have always wanted to collaborate with other writers in the future.
Ironically, collaboration between top indie science fiction authors has become so commonplace since my attempt, that these days it’s almost easier to list the authors who are not currently collaborating. Just look at the Amazon bestseller lists, and you will see what I mean.
And as I put the finishing touches to this boxed set, I am about to have my second experience of collaboration. I’m about to co-write my fourth Four Horsemen Universe novel with series co-creator Chris Kennedy. To say I’m excited about this project would be an understatement.
Anyway, back to the Human Empire co-writing. The plan was that Ian and I would discuss where we were headed for the next 50-100 pages and divide up the work into small chunks of a few chapters. Each of us would write our chunk in rough and then send it on to our partner, who would tidy up and reword but wouldn’t change the story without talking to the other author first. That way, we would merge our voices and the sense of ownership (which was potentially a problem because I’d written the first three novels on my own).
It was an idea I borrowed from Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck who collaborate under the penname James SA Corey on The Expanse.
You can see the fruits of this approach in the first two parts of Human Empire (the Wolf mutiny and the encounter with the Littorane queen). Looking back on them, I can see that they are not quite my chapters and not quite Ian’s, but an alloy of us both. Although Ian did write further chapters in this book, and a small amount in the next novel, it’s only the first two parts of Human Empire that are genuinely co-written, and I think they turned out pretty good.
It wasn’t a bust up that derailed us. Ian was super eager to press ahead and write faster, but a pair of real-life shocks meant he naturally had to turn attention elsewhere while I covered for his workload. Unfortunately, he never regained his focus and gradually drifted away.
Ian writes his own space opera books. So if you thought the first two parts of Human Empire are the best in the series, you should definitely go look up Ian Whates. Start with Pelquin’s Comet.
A more fruitful collaboration was with JR Handley who would go on to write the Sleeping Legion series. Partway through writing Human Empire, I signed contracts with JR for him to write a trilogy of novellas. The plan was that the novella releases would fit in the gaps between the Human Legion novel releases, so readers wouldn’t forget us. And both Human Legion and Sleeping Legion were due to be completed by spring 2016. None of that worked out quite as planned!
In Human Empire, Nhlappo, Spartika, and some other characters return to Tranquility, where the series began. I was deliberately writing those scenes, and planting characters, for JR to pick up in his Sleeping Legion novellas (which ended up being four novels, one novella, one novelette, and… as I write this in April 2020, more to come soon).
Tim C. Taylor – April 2020
2602AD. Book5 - War Against the White Knights
General McEwan prepares to gamble an all-or-nothing strike on the imperial capital.
But nothing is as it first appears when you wage WAR AGAINST THE WHITE KNIGHTS…
— Prologue —
“Summon the next witness!” called the court clerk.
Chief Petty Officer Coombes was Lance of Freedom’s master-at-arms, and that made him responsible for law and order on the ship. As he rose reluctantly to do the clerk’s bidding, it was obvious that parading witnesses in front of an audience wasn’t what he’d had in mind when he took the post.
Arun glanced at the defendant in her fenced-off box atop a high platform in the middle of the mess hall which had been transformed into a bustling courtroom. Given his personal connection with the defendants and the targets of their crime, General Arun McEwan knew that transparency was vital. He hadn’t wanted the trial to escalate into a spectacle but knew that was always going to be the risk and wasn’t surprised that it had become one.
From her high tower, Springer faced the polished stone bench, behind which Arun and the other members of the tribunal sat. She wasn’t looking at them, though. Her eyes, which could glow in such vibrant violet hues when excited, were sullenly cold and staring into the far distance.
Arun couldn’t even remember the names of the next witnesses. They’d changed the schedule shortly before the trial commenced at 09:00, and by that time Arun’s ability to think beyond the next second had vanished. All he could manage was to hide behind a façade of dignity, and hope Springer would get through this in one piece.
After Coombes had been gone a few moments even Arun noticed the atmosphere in the courtroom begin to calm and then chill. He tore his glance away from the defendant and onto the witness approaching the stand.
Arun shot to his feet, his hands pressed down on its polished top ready to leap over.
The judge grabbed Arun’s wrist. “No, you don’t!”
Arun remained poised for the jump. There was no full-time judiciary, of course. The judge’s role in this trial had fallen to Major Chan. Before joining the Legion after the First Battle of Khallini, the former staff sergeant had practically run his
battalion in the name of its Jotun lieutenant colonel. Chan’s voice carried enough authority for Arun to sit down and glare at the witness in silence.
Breakfast with Xin that morning had been awkward, but this was unbearable. She hadn’t warned him, hadn’t said a thing – presumably because she knew how he’d react.
Immaculate, and shapely in her colonel’s dress uniform, Colonel Xin Lee walked along the deck. She held her head high and studiously avoided looking in his direction. Xin ascended the witness stand, which was a second high tower, but whereas Springer’s stand faced Arun and the tribunal, Xin’s faced the defendant.
Springer had always claimed that Xin had a heart as dark as a singularity, but he’d never wanted to believe that. From the earliest days of his infatuation with her, he had convinced himself that she was nothing like the woman Springer perceived, that she was special. And of late that was precisely what he had found, seeing a completely different side to her. Yet now, seeing her take the witness stand, Springer’s judgement and all the doubts it had inspired came back to him.
“I protest,” Arun heard himself say. He knew that in speaking out he risked looking foolish and undermining his own authority, but he had to. He didn’t want to hear what Xin had to say. He didn’t want Springer to be right about her.
“Noted,” growled Chan. “But you were given the revised schedule, so sit down!”
Arun clenched his jaw tightly and watched Xin as she swore the sacred oath of honor, of fealty to the Legion and the ideal of freedom for which it stood.
Lieutenant Vogel was handling duties as interrogator. He circled the witness stand at deck level before beginning. “Impulsive. Protective. Revengeful. These are all words previous character witnesses have used to describe the defendant. Do you concur?”