“Well, you have two of them,” Alenski pointed out. “Why don’t you talk to them if that’s what you want?”
“I’m talking to you for a reason,” Roth told him. “Please don’t play stupid with me, Knight Admiral, especially when I may be the closest thing to a friend you have right now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know what the Empress will do with you when I return you to her. However, I have her confidence and I can argue for clemency on your behalf.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You don’t have to believe anything,” Roth told him, his voice hardening. “But I will tell you this. You do not want to put me offside.”
Knight Admiral Alenski sighed. “Very well. What is it you wish to know?”
“Lord Ilian, Lady Valinski and Lord Admiral Calendres must have given you some explanation of their scheme to convince you to side with them. I want to know what they told you.”
“You think they did not tell me the truth?”
“That is what I suspect, yes. However, why don’t you tell me what they said?”
“It’s strange,” Alenski confessed.
“Strange? How so?”
“Well, it seemed to change, that’s why. Initially, they wanted to grab power for themselves and they said if I helped them, I could become a lord admiral. I was stupid and greedy... I don’t deny it. And I was jealous of Lady Admiral Karaeli. She is not much older than I am, yet she progressed through the ranks of the Daeispa fleet as if a hurricane were in her sails.”
“I see. And this changed then, did it?”
Alenski took a breath to calm himself. “Well, then I found out about our benefactors.”
“And who were they?”
“At first, Lord Ilian didn’t tell me. He didn’t tell anyone, I thought. I had meetings with him and Lady Valinski back in the Daeispa quadrant after he tricked everyone into believing he’d been kidnapped. And Lady Valinski seemed as much in the dark about these benefactors of ours as I was. However, in hindsight, I admit she may have been acting ignorant for my benefit.”
“What makes you say that?” Roth asked.
“Well, she didn’t seem curious about them and she never asked Lord Ilian about them as I did. She must have known. But I am digressing. Anyway, Lord Ilian started providing us with new equipment to carry out operations around the Minstrahn Empire and he told us that this equipment came from our benefactors.”
“What did he say he was giving these ‘benefactors’ in exchange for this equipment?”
“I asked,” Alenski said. “And he told me that when we had achieved our goal and when the Minstrahn Empire was ours, we would give our benefactors a few small and unimportant worlds on the outskirts of the Empire. I asked him what they wanted with those worlds but either he didn’t know or he didn’t care. And then there were the ships.”
Admiral Roth raised his eyebrows. “The ships?”
“Yes,” Alenski said. “Lord Ilian showed us footage of these incredible ships in the heat of battle, obliterating everything before them. Incredible ships. Gigantic vessels of immense power. Power like the great vessel your General Kellahav summoned over Minstrah.”
“What did they look like?”
Alenski thought about it. “Like large cylinders, I’d say. With fans of blades around the circumferences.”
“Were they Levarc Dreadnoughts?” Admiral Roth asked him.
“I don’t know,” Alenski insisted. “He never told me.”
Admiral Roth leaned back, letting the matter slide for the time being. “And he showed you footage of these ships in battle?”
Alenski sighed. “I know. It’s strange. I don’t know how he obtained it. It looked like old archival footage, taken somewhere far off sometime in the past. But he said that eventually we could obtain some of these ships for ourselves. I asked him once why we couldn’t get them earlier but he insisted that we couldn’t use them for what we had in mind. They were not subtle enough for what we were trying to do. I think now in hindsight that he was right. But the plan has failed most abysmally so it is neither here nor there now.”
“Actually, this is all very interesting, Knight Admiral Alenski,” Admiral Roth told him. “You have been most informative and I thank you. However, there is one more matter that I wish to ask you about. Lord Ilian insists now that your ‘benefactors’ are a potential threat to the Minstrahn. He says that he begun this scheme of his to gain control of the Minstrahn Empire in order to give them a handful of worlds to placate them, and that he made an accord between these benefactors and himself to ensure this. They’d assist him in taking over the Empire, he’d give them a handful of worlds and in return, they would make no overt moves against the Minstrahn Empire. It’s a rather different tale from what you just described.”
“I only told you what he told me,” Alenski said.
“I believe you,” Roth replied. “However, that is not why I brought it up. I want to know whether he said anything about this to you in any later discussions.”
Knight Admiral Alenski thought about it for a moment and when he next spoke, his voice was very quiet. “Actually, in a way, I think he did. When I suspected that the plan was getting away from us, that things were getting too far out of hand, I told Lord Ilian that his scheme would be the ruin of us. And he told me that our very survival depended on it.” When he looked at Roth next, all his defenses were down and he appeared resigned to whatever fate he had laid out for himself. “Do you think he lied about that too?”
“I think Lord Ilian is like a spider,” Roth said, climbing to his feet. “And he has woven an elaborate web of lies and half-truths around him. And if everything that has been going on since my arrival is a game, then I believe Lord Ilian is still playing it. Anyway, thank you again, Knight Admiral.”
“I was never in his inner sanctum, was I?” Alenski asked him.
Admiral Roth paused by the door. “No. You were not.”
Then he was gone and Knight Admiral Alenski was alone in his cell with nothing to keep him company, save a lot of unanswered questions and a heavy sense of remorse.
17. Preparations
“Look!” Asten said, pointing at the Harpy’s viewscreen. “Phalamkian Battle Titans.”
“Hm,” Selina murmured. “I wonder if...” She reached over to the communicator but it chimed before she flicked the switch.
“Is that you out there, Selina?” came a familiar voice.
“Father? What are you doing out here?”
“Scouting the area,” Lord Erama replied. “Your sister’s got us all worried about Levarc vessels coming into this area of space. Good to see you’ve made it out all right.”
“We were lucky,” Selina said. “They’re moving through the Minstrahn Empire right now.”
“Have you seen them?”
“No, but they’ve taken down the entire long-range communication network so they could be anywhere.”
“What about Admiral Roth and his task force, and Laila Casdan’s group? Are they all right?”
“Admiral Roth’s task force is still there. They’re investigating some worlds that... it’s all very complicated actually. Maybe I should come over and tell you the whole story.”
“All right.”
“And Laila and the others are heading back to Laonist to raise the alert and rally some reinforcements. It’s a good thing you’re out here though. Although I’m not sure how a Phalamkian Battle Titan would fare against a fleet of Levarc ships.”
“Perhaps better than you and I thought.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s also a little complicated,” Lord Erama said. “Why don’t you bring the Harpy alongside? We’ll set up a docking tube and continue this conversation on board.”
Soon, Selina had met with Maia and Zak and had brought her father up to speed.
“I’m not sure if things are anywhere near as tightly wrapped up as you’re suggesting,” Lord Erama s
aid after a moment’s pause.
“Well, no,” Selina replied, slightly puzzled. “The Levarc are moving unchecked through the sector and for all we know, they might have taken over two quadrants by now.”
“No,” Lord Erama said. “That’s not what I meant. I mean I don’t trust Lord Ilian and his companions not to cause any more trouble. Anyway, there’s not much we can do about that at the moment. Come on. There’s someone I think you should meet.”
“A Felariam,” Maia explained as they followed their father.
“So there were survivors then.”
“There were,” Maia said. “And we’re meeting one of them now. My uncle.”
“Your uncle?”
Maia nodded.
They reached a small seating area and Selina saw a man with light aqua skin, bluish black hair and glowing red eyes - all the features her sister possessed that made her unique - or had made her unique.
“Chief Commander Cyraes,” Lord Erama introduced him. “Maia’s uncle.” He turned to the Felariam. “Chief Commander, this is my other daughter, Selina.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Selina,” Cyraes said warmly, shaking her hand.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, sir,” Selina replied, slightly overwhelmed by all the surprises.
“Chief Commander Cyraes has assisted me in installing some new weaponry on our ships,” Lord Erama explained. “It’s a little cumbersome, but if we’re going to fight against Levarc warships, it will be worth it.”
Cyraes smiled. “It’s cumbersome because it was originally intended to be used as part of our ground to space defense weaponry so in the event that the Levarc should ever attack us again, we’d be able to defend our people without undue risk.”
“It’s funny really,” Lord Erama said with a wry smile. “We were coming out to have a look at Felarias before our engineers got here to work on constructing a planetary shield for them, and in the end they upgraded our ships.”
Selina shook her head as she tried to keep up. “Okay, I think I’m with you, but what is this weaponry you’re talking about?”
“Would you take a look at that?” Khalin said, taking a deep breath. Epcar stared at the viewscreen. It was an awe-inspiring sight that awaited them.
Thirty or forty Levarc cruisers, fighter carriers and gunships hung suspended in the void around the planet ahead of them, a light brownish world with a few oceans scattered across its surface. There were some patches of dusty green too but it didn’t look as though it were teeming with life. The Levarc ships on the other hand...
There were so many of them and here they were in a small modified freighter, right in the line of fire of half a dozen of them. They couldn’t have come out of lightspeed in a worse place if they had tried.
“Let’s get out of here!” Epcar said.
“Wait,” Khalin told him.
“What?” Epcar snapped. “We can’t kid around out here.”
“I’m serious,” Khalin said. “Just watch.”
Epcar kept his gaze on the viewscreen. So far, none of the Levarc ships had made any overt moves. He sighed. If they were killed, it’d be quick at least.
“All right. What is it?”
“They’re empty,” Khalin said. “The whole lot of them.”
“Empty?”
“Not a life reading on a single ship out there.”
Epcar kept staring. With no running lights and no glow from their engine thrusters, they looked like derelict hulks.
“Then it’s a grave yard,” he whispered, still impressed but for a different reason now. “So after leaving the original Levarc kingdom, whoever brought these ships here just abandoned them?”
Khalin shrugged. “Unless they all died of some type of virus or something.”
“But according to Admiral Roth’s report from General Kellahav, that Basilisk pirate said...” Epcar trailed off.
They both laughed and Epcar leaned back, shaking his head. “That Basilisk pirate said he and his boys ran under the noses of a massive Levarc fleet, picked up some weapons and fuel supplies from the surface and got out without anyone noticing. And he didn’t stop for even five seconds to wonder why.”
“Oh, we know why,” Khalin told him. “He and his gang are just so amazing that they can slip past a massive fleet and even a hundred running scanning systems wouldn’t pick them up. The Basilisks are just that good.”
“Brilliant,” Epcar grinned. “I can’t wait to tell the admiral.”
“Me too,” Khalin said. “But before we do, we ought to investigate this a little further. Let’s dock with one of these ships and have a look around. One of the carriers, I think. I’d also like to have a look down on the planet’s surface as well.”
“Wait a minute though,” Epcar said. “If these ships are abandoned, then who has Lord Ilian been dealing with and offering Minstrahn worlds to?”
“By the looks of things, no one,” Khalin replied.
“I wonder what he’s playing at then,” Epcar said. “Turning the Minstrahn on each other, trying to take over the Empire by kidnapping or killing off members of the ruling families, spreading lies about a Levarc threat and laying down a trail of Levarc weaponry to trick us all...”
“No.” Khalin shook her head. “He didn’t mean for us to find the Levarc weaponry. But by playing up the Levarc threat and the idea that he made a deal with them, he’s been able to easily wave away any questions about how he obtained Levarc grenades and so on.”
“What’s the point in that?” Epcar wondered.
“Are you kidding?” Khalin asked with an expansive wave, indicating the ranks of massive Levarc ships in front of them. “He tells people he’s made a deal with the Levarc and they think they’re just handing him bits and pieces - because really, why would they give him anything more? - when in reality, he’s got access to all of this and no one else knows.”
Epcar was quiet for a moment as he looked at the awesome display of freely available firepower they had discovered. “Bloody hell.”
“Yeah,” Khalin said as they approached the nearest carrier. “I think I know what that bastard’s up to now and it’s not good.”
Captain Merrick, commanding officer on board the Sentinel, strode across the bridge to the admiral.
“Sir,” he announced. “We are coming up on Laekessa. ETA five minutes.”
Admiral Roth rose from his chair. “Thank you, Captain.” He turned to a man behind him. “Major Henli. I would like our esteemed friend Lord Admiral Calendres to join us.”
The man gave a smart salute and turned about to carry out his orders. “Yes, sir.”
Roth smiled as he waited for the major to return. “It’ll be interesting to see what we can gauge from Calendres’s reaction.”
“Probably very little,” Merrick replied, not bothering to hide his contempt for the members of Lord Ilian’s triumvirate as Admiral Roth called them. “They’re all accomplished actors. I can’t believe a word any of them say.”
“Knight Admiral Alenski was genuine though,” Roth said.
“Fine, but he wasn’t one of the three,” Merrick pointed out. “Now, take Ilian. You said yourself he’s been throwing around lies like confetti. And he’s already proven that he can be very adaptive.”
“Yes,” Roth agreed. “He’s a challenging opponent and he has an ability to analyze my strengths and use them against me. And we have no reason to expect Lord Admiral Calendres to be any different. However, this little experiment should be interesting regardless.”
At that moment, Major Henli returned with three of his men, and in the middle of the group, walking with haughty posture, was Lord Admiral Calendres.
“Ah,” Admiral Roth smiled. “Lord Admiral. It is a pleasure to meet you at last. I trust your journey has been a comfortable one?”
Calendres gave him a slight smile and a nod. “Most pleasant.”
“We are just coming up on Laekessa,” Roth informed him, his tone politely conversational. He glanced at the
chronometer on his chair. “Ah. Presently, it would seem.” He nodded towards the viewscreen. The stars came into focus and a planet filled the entire screen.
Calendres did his best to control his reaction, Merrick saw, but he clearly flinched. They had come out so close to the planet, they could only see a small section of it. Even knowing what to expect, Merrick had nearly jumped himself. Coming out of lightspeed that close to a planet was dangerous. It required the most precise measurements and a damn good navigator. Fortunately, the Sentinel had several such navigators and they had practiced the maneuver a number of times during combat simulations.
“A most impressive demonstration, Admiral,” Lord Admiral Calendres said, recovering his composure almost immediately. “The skill of your crew is a credit to you.”
“Thank you, Lord Admiral,” Roth replied. “However, as much as it pains me to say it, we didn’t come out of lightspeed this close to the planet to impress our honored guest. We used this maneuver to gain the element of surprise. If there are Levarc here, then we don’t want to give ourselves away prematurely.”
“No, of course not.”
Through the viewscreen, the planet appeared to pass beneath them but it was of course an illusion. They were following a line of longitude, while the planet was spinning eastwards on its central axis. As they followed that line, a large orbital construction came into view.
There were many pillars, pylons, docking claws and work stations, and the entire complex was as large as any orbital construction facility that anyone on the Sentinel had ever seen.
Admiral Roth watched Calendres. “It seems the Levarc have been rather bold in the amount of equipment they have moved through the Minstrahn Empire, wouldn’t you say, Lord Admiral?”
“They must have been at this for some time,” Calendres whispered, going pale. “But we had no idea. They were going to get this planet after we had secured the Empire... I don’t know why they decided to undermine us like this.”
Admiral Roth held his gaze. “A good friend of mine once told me, Lord Admiral, that the Minstrahn have a love of art, in all its forms. Does this include acting, Lord Admiral?”
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