by B. V. Larson
“Now, where were we, Mister Lorden?” Straker said with a false smile.
“He was about to try to suck up to the new boss,” Loco said.
Lorden resolutely held out his hand again, ignoring Loco. “Actually I’m trying to avert more death and destruction, sir.”
Straker took the man’s hand. Lorden’s composure reminded Straker of someone else.
Myrmidon.
Straker squeezed until the man should have winced, but he only raised an eyebrow. “I know what you are, Mister Lorden.”
“Good. Then you know how vital I am to your future.” Lorden placed his other hand atop the two hands clasping, not letting go. “We have to work together to save this new, combined Republic you’ve brought into being.”
“We don’t need your help, Lorden,” Straker said, trying to gently disengage his hand. “We have control of the VR matrix networks and all the media on this world, and message drones are sending updates throughout the Hundred Worlds. The citizenry will fall into line.”
“And the military?”
“We’ll take control of ships as they arrive. My AIs assure me they won’t have any trouble.” Straker started to get irritated. “Let go of my damn hand, Lorden.”
Lorden finally let go. “I’m starting to understand.”
“Understand what?”
Lorden eyed those listening. “We should talk privately.”
“All right. Let’s walk. Loco, Mara, go inside and mingle with the other guests, will you? Tell them I’ll be there soon.” Straker turned to walk out onto the grounds, Lorden at his side and Redwolf at his back. The area still looked like what it was: a battlefield in a park, being cleaned up. “Go on, Lorden, spill it. I’m a busy man.”
“You’re a humanopt. Do you even know that?”
“I’m not, actually. I was infected with the Hok biotech, then cured, so I read that way.” Straker put it together in his mind. “That’s why your attempt to influence me biochemically didn’t work.”
“A pity. This would have been so much simpler if I could.”
Straker stepped up to a stone railing that overlooked the harbor, a stiff ocean breeze in his face. A rocky cliff fell away down to the open sea. Far below, seawater poured in white cataracts from the flues of the machinery that drew power from the rise and fall of Atlantis’ extreme tides. “Simpler for you, maybe, but freedom’s never simple.”
“The issue isn’t freedom, Straker. It’s about order and peace and control—and prosperity.”
“With you Opter agents in charge? Or should I say, Sarmok agents?”
Lorden’s eyebrows rose. “You’re remarkably well informed.”
“I know a lot of things.”
“Information provided by the misguided Miskor, no doubt.” Lorden sighed. “They’re fools, and so are you.”
“To want to rid ourselves of your influence and be free?”
“You’ll only bring another war upon us. One we can’t win.”
“You sure you mean ‘us’?”
“I do. Just hear me out.” Lorden reached into his jacket and drew out two smokesticks, old-fashioned, large, elegant. “Cigar? One of my few pleasures.”
“More Loco’s thing than mine, but… sure.” Straker took one and imitated what Lorden did in lighting up.
“Don’t breathe the smoke in. Mouth only,” he said.
“Right.” The sensation was odd, but it seemed appropriate as the two stood together and gazed into the distance.
“I said ‘us,’ Straker, because I’m one of you now. The Sarmok Queens are true egalitarians, treating humanopts the same as their insectoid servants. We failed. That means my cabal and I are already dead to them. They will assume we’ve been turned, so, ironically, we might as well turn.”
“And you want to keep your nice cushy position in the government? I’d be crazy to let you stay there. I may be immune to your influence, but others won’t be, at least until we develop a vaccine. I’d be smarter to lock you up like Karst and wring you dry of intelligence.”
“You can’t make me disclose anything I don’t want to.”
Straker grinned. “Oh, I bet we could make you want to.”
“I see you’re no better than we are. The ends justify the means, eh?”
“I said we could, not that we would. Torture is stupid policy, not to mention immoral. Information gained is never reliable. More importantly, it’s counterproductive in the long run. If the subject dies, he becomes a martyr. If he lives to be freed, it makes him into the worst enemy you can possibly imagine.” Straker turned to look into Lorden’s face. “I know, because that’s what it did to me.”
“Yes. That was the most effective Miskor operation I’ve ever seen. It overthrew two empires.”
Straker felt puzzlement leak onto his face. “What operation?”
“The one that got you captured by the Mutuality and tortured, only to escape and eventually overthrow your tormentors.”
“You’re trying to say this was all manipulated and planned? Bullshit.”
“Not planned, no, but set in motion. Others have been unleashed before you, men and women of extraordinary abilities and character, in hopes they’d disrupt the status quo, but you succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. The irony is, you ended up on the wrong side.”
“Gods and monsters, I hate you people.”
“Who?”
Straker ground out his cigar. “All you mysterious puppet masters who claim to be pulling the strings. I don’t know if you’re telling the truth or just making it all up after the fact. But go on, tell me how I’ve been a pawn all along.”
“Surely not a pawn but a knight. Now, pardon the pun, you’ve reached the last row and become a queen.”
“Still a piece on the chessboard. Okay. Explain about ending up on the wrong side.”
Lorden rubbed his eyes with one hand as if fending off a headache. “You were destined for greatness no matter what. Semi-clones of you—different in appearance, but with the same capabilities—would fill our mechsuits while AIs like Victory would revolutionize fleet combat. If your Liberation hadn’t occurred, in a few years the Hundred Worlds would’ve had a dozen Victory ships and we’d have been unstoppable. The Mutuality would have been defeated. Humanity and its allies would have been united under our banner.”
“Under Opter control, you mean. I like my way better—to be actually free.”
Lorden shrugged. “I’m not unhappy with the way things turned out.”
Straker stared, and then snapped his fingers in understanding. “Myrmidon always told me the Sarmok didn’t want to unite humanity—that all their game-playing was to keep us divided. So you’re not Sarmok.”
“I told you that five minutes ago.”
“But you’re not Miskor either.”
“I’m not an Opter anymore, Liberator Straker. I’m one of you now, and I can help your cause.”
“I’m supposed to believe you switched sides in the space of a day?”
Lorden blew a smoke ring. “In the space of an hour, really.”
“Don’t you believe in anything, Lorden? Aren’t you loyal to anything?”
“I’m utterly loyal to reality. I know the Queens. They care only for themselves. The rest—insectoids, humanopts, aliens, humans—we’re all so much cattle to them. Like many agents, I did my duty, but always with the knowledge that I could be discarded at any moment. Would you feel loyalty to such creatures?”
“Maybe not. But how am I to believe you’ll be loyal to me and the New Republic? Anyone who turns so easily can turn again. The leopard can’t change his spots.”
“I don’t expect you to leave me in a position of power—but I can be useful.”
“Self-preservation?” Straker asked. “That’s your goal?”
“And freedom!” Lorden said smugly.
Straker suspected Lorded was just using lines he thought would impress him, but he couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment.
“Not being caged.
..” he said. “I get that.”
“You’ll have to do more than eliminate their influence, Liberator,” Lorden said. “Opters are no different from any other expansionist species. The Queens are watching your rise to power, and they fear any uniting force that might all of humanity together. You represent an existential threat to their empire.”
Lorden breathed out a long, smoky sigh and tossed the stub of his cigar out over the balcony railing into to distant sea below.
“You’re already at war,” Lorden continued, “and you have no idea what you’re getting into.”
“We’ve fought the Nest Ships and drones before,” Straker said with a shrug. “I’ve already ordered a building program of special ships to counter them, and our new AI fighters are extremely effective. Besides, Opters only own a few dozen systems, right?”
“More than fifty, actually.” Lorden favored Straker with a bleak grimace. “I was told you visited Terra Nova. How many humanopts were there?”
“Over a trillion, I’ve been told.”
“Yes… more than one thousand billion. That’s half the population of the Hundred Worlds on one planet alone. Now, can you imagine every Opter system with that many insectoids? Do the math.”
Straker made a rough calculation, and he felt himself pale. “That’s two or three times the entire population of all of human space—my whole New Republic.”
“With the industrial output to match. Plus, there are more alien regimes farther out that are being manipulated just like humans were, so the Opters will have allies with capabilities you’ve never encountered.”
“So we’re the underdogs again?” Straker asked. He shrugged again. “No matter. I’ve been in this position before. How soon will they attack?”
“At a guess? A few young Sarmok Queens will begin raiding within a month. The Empress will allow that, to keep us busy. Then, within a year, the real attack will come, and it will roll over us like a tsunami. So you see, Straker, we’ll have to enjoy our freedom while we still have it.”
Lorden turned away to look down at the sea. A hundred meters or more below the waves crashed on rocks.
Straker moved to his side and looked down with him.
“I won’t accept this kind of defeatism,” he told Lorden. “We’ll mobilize. You and your humanopts will help. We’ll figure out Opter weaknesses, pull some tricks to even the odds. We’ll find our own allies. Maybe the Miskor will join with us instead of the Sarmok.”
“I sympathize with and admire your optimism, Liberator. That’s why I’ll do my best to help. But it won’t matter. The balance has been destroyed forever, and all that’s left is Hive War. The Miskor will not go against the Empress’ express orders.”
“No chance that they’ll at least sit out the fight?”
“They’ll endeavor to minimize their own casualties, disfavoring the Sarmok… but they won’t rebel against the Empress.”
Straker struck his palm on the stone rail. “So, maybe we’ll take down the Empress. Cut off the head, just like I’ve done twice before.”
“An interesting idea,” Lorden mused, “but farfetched. The Opters have never lost a Hive War.”
“And what happens when they win a Hive War?”
“Genocide. They keep a residue of their enemies as slaves and curiosities. The rest, they exterminate.” Lorden’s expression softened. “Of course, they’ve never tried to conquer so many systems at once. Perhaps that will work in our favor. We might last as long as a decade.”
Straker became annoyed with Lorden’s defeatism and decided to end the discussion.
“Thanks for the briefing, Lorden,” he said, and he clapped Lorden on the shoulder.
Lorden smiled, and he reached up to touch the back of Straker’s hand as it rested on his shoulder.
Was that a stinging sensation?
Yes, Straker thought that it was… Could he have had a needle hidden in his palm? Could this worm really be trying to influence him biochemically… again? He was a snake that couldn’t stop itself from biting.
Straker smiled back down at Lorden, but there was steel in his gaze.
In a way, Lorden had succeeded in this blatant attempt to change Straker’s mind. Through this single underhanded action, he’d demonstrated to Straker that he would never be anything other than the conniving reptile he’d been all along.
“I’ve come to my decision,” Straker said.
Lorden smiled expectantly, and he moved to step back—but Straker’s hand clamped down on his shoulder. He didn’t let him go.
Pulling the smaller man off his feet, Straker yanked him close.
Straker and Lorden were face-to-face.
“You’re not going to use your tricks on me,” Straker said quietly, staring into the little man’s eyes, “or anyone else. Not today, Lorden. Not ever.”
Finally, Lorden’s insufferably smug calm broke. A look of true fear came into his eyes.
Then, without a further word, Straker threw him off the balcony. It was a powerful, arcing toss that carried the flailing man into the open air.
The fall was a long one. He seemed to drop down into an abyss, a pit from which none could crawl back.
Straker watched Lorden fall. He felt a surging, utterly satisfying sense of justice done. He knew Lorden had manipulated countless innocents and ordered the deaths of anyone who didn’t succumb to his will.
Lorden didn’t scream. Humanopts rarely did.
He struck stone ledges and outcroppings on the way down. Thumping and thudding, his body was crushed to a spinning pulp. He finally vanished into the dark sea without a sound.
Straker strode back to the Grand Hall and up the steps. He paused at the top before entering the dignitary-filled reception and took one last look at the lovely green of the shore, the dark cliffs and rocks, and the blue of Atlantis’ great ocean.
Some things are worth living for, he thought to himself.
Then he remembered his two children. One was here, a daughter embryo, soon to be re-implanted in his incomparable wife Carla. The other remained on New Terra, due to be born of Princess Roslyn, if Gorben’s words were true—and if the Calaria still lived.
He revised his earlier thought: Some things are worth living for—and some are even worth killing for.
The End of Flagship Victory
From the Authors: Thanks Reader! We hope you enjoyed FLAGSHIP VICTORY. If you liked the story and want to read the next one soon, please put up some stars and a review to support the book. Don’t worry if you’re a fan of another series, more books are coming!
-DVD & BVL
Books by David VanDyke:
Stellar Conquest Series:
First Conquest
Desolator: Conquest
Tactics of Conquest
Conquest of Earth
Conquest and Empire
Books by B. V. Larson:
The Undying Mercenaries Series:
Steel World
Dust World
Tech World
Machine World
Death World
Home World
Rogue World
Blood World