Exile's Throne

by Rhonda Mason

  “I’ll think about what you said,” he managed, and walked out with his best appearance of calm.

  Deep inside, a familiar voice chuckled with satisfaction.

  * * *

  A few hours later, fortified by a brief interval of sleep, Kayla gathered with the others outside cryochamber 13-2. It had taken most of the night to ensure the necessary levels were secured to her and Natali’s ro’haar standards. She was satisfied that they could eat, sleep, build the new drive, and fly the ship in relative safety.

  Now it was time to crack the mystery of how Gunnery Sergeant Fengrathen had been awakened. The captain was here, along with Benny and Ariel. Ida had specifically requested that Toble come. He might be an imperial, but he was the only medic on the ship. Natali was here of course. Kayla and Malkor, with il’haars and octet members to protect, had come to see for themselves what fresh mess of a situation they’d brought their people into. Kayla especially refused to be left out of any decision-making process from here on out, not when Vayne and Corinth’s lives were at risk.

  With the exception of Toble, everyone was armed with bullpups. Ida might be captain of this ship, but she’d lost control of these lower levels long ago.

  Ariel entered the unlock code and Ida verified it for the system. The door to the cryochambers slid open without a sound, unleashing the most horrific smell Kayla had ever encountered.

  Bile rose in her throat and she unconsciously took a step back as if that would save her from the scent. Natali stood tall, holding down her gorge with supreme effort. Ida gagged and Ariel covered her mouth. Only Toble seemed unaffected— probably used to this kind of thing.

  Kayla cautiously stepped into the huge chamber, even while her nose was telling her brain that this was not a safe place to be.

  Everyone spread out to secure the entry and confirm the absence of hostiles at present. It took Kayla a few seconds to fully comprehend what she was seeing.

  There were dozens of open pods, their organoplastic lids retracted. Several of these were empty, but more disturbing were the pods that held the corpses of crew members who had not survived reanimation. The bodies were in various stages of decomposition, with distorted faces, bloated abdomens, skin slippage, and in some extreme cases, desiccation.

  Still other corpses lay face down on the ground, legs and arms contorted, having survived reanimation only to die mere meters from their cryopods. The chamber had become a field of death.

  Ida, Benny, and Ariel were frozen, the horror Kayla felt reflected in their expressions. Indeed, everyone stood rigid, the horror of it all trapping them and making moving forward with an investigation nearly impossible.

  Toble broke the quiet, and perhaps, as the medic among them, he was the only one who could have without giving offense. “We’re going to need biological containment gear.”

  A short time later, everyone was suited up and Toble made the first—rather unnecessary, given the condition of the corpse—pronouncement of death. Once fully geared, Ariel went to the room’s complink console, intent on discovering how the crew had been awakened without the system being alerted. Benny and Ida, each with a datapad listing the crew manifest, went among the dead to identify them.

  Kayla and Malkor would help prepare the bodies for space burial once Toble had determined cause of death as best he could, but for now they hefted the plasma torches they’d brought and set about sealing the ventilation grates in the room. Ida was adamant that none of her remaining crew members be vulnerable to the stepa at es.

  With the number of cryochambers the Yari possesses, this is going to be a long day.

  * * *

  Much later in the afternoon the last cryochamber was declared undisturbed and the final tally given.

  Twenty-seven dead and eight missing, Kayla reported to Vayne, knowing he could hear her thoughts. Beside her, Malkor reported the same to his team via mobile comm.

  ::That many?:: Vayne replied. He could have shielded himself and simply read her mind, but instead he let his surprise, frustration, and impatience come through with his words. Either the openness was so instinctual with his ro’haar, or he didn’t feel the need to guard against her. Whatever the reason, she was grateful for the intimacy. ::How could the crew be so careless?::

  Kayla glanced at Captain Janus, thankful the woman couldn’t hear Vayne. The captain stood with her back to everyone, still as a statue, one hand resting on the cover of a sealed hibernation pod, her gaze locked on the pod’s occupant. There is no reason to suspect the stepa capable of anything like this, or that they’d even be interested in waking other members of the crew.

  ::Well they have, and we’re the ones who are going to pay for it.:: Anger joined his other emotions.

  We don’t know that the eight that walked out of here are still alive. Based on the condition of the bodies left in the two chambers that have been disturbed, whoever opened the pods did it over a period of a few weeks.

  ::Only two chambers?::

  When the first crew members died, they must have assumed that things were faulty in that one chamber and tried a second. No need to try any more when they got the same results.

  ::Even with a seventy percent mortality rate upon reviving, they continued to open pods, huh?::

  Kayla sighed. So it seems. Why take the risk, just to wake a few more people? What were they planning? It’s possible the missing crew members are still sane and not hostile.

  ::Or they could be sane and hostile, which is even worse than the stepa at es we are already dealing with.::

  Hostile at who, though? The Ilmenans on board? The crew? Was there a division in the ranks over how life on the Yari should continue? They wouldn’t get any further by speculating amongst themselves.

  How is your day coming? she asked instead.

  Immediately she felt him raise a barrier, even without her psi powers. The emotions coming through shifted and dampened, as if being more tightly controlled.

  ::We’re doing well, almost done installing the RFID readers on all the lifts on the non-secure floors.::

  We. Vayne and Tia’tan. Working as a unit when Kayla, as his ro’haar, should have been the one with him. But she couldn’t be in two places at once. And Tia’tan still had full possession of her psi powers, in addition to being a skilled fighter. Perhaps Vayne was safer with her. Kayla buried the thought before Vayne could read it.

  No one could keep Vayne as safe as she could. No one would ever be as in tune as she was, or as dedicated. Tia’tan might be a fine fighter, but wasn’t as skilled. And certainly not as hyperaware, as hypervigilant as Kayla was. Tia’tan hadn’t survived five years on the slum side of Altair Tri. She hadn’t fought off men larger than her, intent on rape and murder. Hadn’t defeated opponent after opponent in the Blood Pit. She hadn’t lived on death’s edge like Kayla had.

  And frutt Tia’tan’s psi powers, anyway. Kayla trusted Vayne to keep himself—and his ro’haar—safe in that regard. Il’haars were born for that, and Vayne was one of the best.

  ::This situation is totally frutted. No matter what we do, it’s not safe on the Yari, not while crazy people have the run of the ship.::

  Vayne—

  ::You know I’m right. Now that we have the Lorius, we should at least be sleeping there.::

  And abandon the Yari to the stepa?

  He didn’t speak, but the emotions he sent through answered the question of how little he cared about that.

  Malkor had finished checking in with his team, and now cocked a brow in her direction.

  We’ll meet up after you and Tia’tan are finished; there’s a lot for all of us to discuss, Vayne agreed, but the tone, conveyed in emotions, left her little hope that he’d change his mind.

  Fantastic. Her il’haar wanted to go to Ilmena and escape everything, her sovereign ruler demanded they stay with the Yari until it could catch a hyperstream out of here, and her lover needed her to accompany him to Ordoch to convince her people to finally make a cure for the TNV, despite five
years of occupation.

  Things weren’t complicated at all.

  7

  FALANAR CITY, FALANAR, IMPERIAL SPACE

  Isonde did her best to smile at the man on the vidscreen, when inside she was screaming. Aich Nias was a member of the Protectorate Council and someone she’d hoped never to have to deal with. He was a hotheaded, domineering, outspoken councilor who tended to speak first and think afterward, and now, he would be her replacement on the Council of Seven.

  “I’m very pleased to appoint you as my representative on the council while I am in absentia.” By which she meant, “I’d rather drink coolant than let you anywhere near my seat.” She smiled harder and gritted her teeth.

  Aich beamed with satisfaction. “I am happy to accept, and gratified by your faith in me.” By which he meant, “I hope you die en route to Ordoch so that I might have this seat permanently.”

  She ended the comm with a few more polite words, before she could renege on her end of the deal and tell him what she thought of his abilities as a councilor of any sort.

  “Stars, that was painful,” she said to Ardin, who had sat silently throughout the exchange as it took place in their state room. Less than two full days had passed since Vega had been granted authority over the occupation, and Isonde and Ardin’s counteroffensive was nearly finished.

  “It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut,” Ardin agreed. “Are we really doing this?”

  Isonde sighed. She really wanted to kick her hoverchair and hurl something across the room, but she didn’t have time for petty antics—she never did. So she remained seated and calm.

  The previous night they’d spoken with Malkor, who’d confirmed that if the octet’s plan to sabotage the data they had exchanged for Malkor’s life had failed, then Vega knew everything there was to know about the Influencer—including how to operate it. That’s assuming that her claim of having Dolan’s third incarnation of the Influencer—made to Hekkar while they’d been negotiating for Malkor’s release a month ago—were true.

  Isonde fully believed the woman, now, though it hadn’t been confirmed. How else could she have been named the new military leader of the occupation?

  If she knew enough about the Influencer to control the Council of Seven, she likely knew exactly how to harvest psionic powers from the Wyrds and bestow them on anyone she wanted. All she needed was a ready supply of Wyrds…

  Which was no doubt the driving force behind Vega taking control of Operation Redouble. If she controlled Ordoch, she would be unstoppable.

  This morning’s bid had to work. If Ardin and Isonde didn’t get to the planet and start negotiating a treaty with the Wyrds before Vega arrived with the fleet of reinforcements, there would be no treaty at all.

  Which could mean no TNV cure… Ever.

  She checked the chronometer: only a half-hour until the Council of Seven convened for the morning. They’d really cut this backroom deal close.

  Ardin tipped his chair backward slightly, folding his hands behind his head. “I really hope Vega isn’t planning on setting up shop as a peddler of psionic powers.”

  “But…”

  He grimaced. “But I know she’d use any capital of any type to gain power in the empire. The council members will agree to anything she proposes if it means they can get their hands on the coveted advantage of the Wyrds.”

  “True. I doubt she even has curing the TNV on her agenda.” By contrast, Isonde would trade all of her political currency to save her people from the plague, even if she was destroyed in the process.

  “I’m betting she does. If she can come back with a cure, she’ll be the biggest war hero the empire’s ever seen, which sets her up even more nicely to take over.” He stood and straightened his tunic. “Time for council.”

  “I need to check in with Raorin quick, I’ll be ready in five.”

  Ardin headed for the door, but paused before he reached it. He looked at her, tilting his head while he considered. “You know, I think you might be the most brilliant political mind of our generation.”

  She chuckled. “One of them, anyway.”

  “I’m serious. We heard from Malkor less than twelve hours ago. In that time you’ve researched the Articles of Incorporation of the council, figured out a solution, and brokered deals with both the Sovereign and Protectorate council representatives.”

  “To be fair, you brokered the deal with the Sovereign councilors. I just got the Protectorate member on board with our plan. We did it together.”

  “But it was your plan.” He considered her, and she held her breath. She was acutely aware of the tension between them, the hurt and disappointment she’d caused him by falling in with Vega and denouncing Malkor in order to save her seat on the council. She felt herself on the edge of her seat, wondering with hope and trepidation what he might have to say.

  No one but Ardin could make her feel this way. She’d loved him as a friend her whole life, and romantically these last few years, but never in the way he deserved. It was a truth she hadn’t recognized until she’d lost his esteem—something she had previously thought of as immutable.

  He smiled momentarily. A genuine smile, and that gave her hope. “You really are brilliant,” he said, then left the room.

  As a compliment from a husband to a wife it might not be romantic, but to her, it was everything.

  * * *

  Isonde took her seat at the table in the chambers of the Council of Seven, Ardin beside her. In a more sentimental moment, she might have reached out and squeezed his hand briefly for support at such a crucial time in their careers. Instead, she raised a brow as if to say “Ready?” and he nodded.

  He leaned in. “Let’s do this,” he murmured, the thing Malkor had said to them a thousand times over the years, and would have said again in this moment. She couldn’t help but smile.

  The emperor called the session to order and turned it over to the Salamander of Biddan, Jobu, who was one of two Sovereign Council representatives who made up the Council of Seven.

  Jobu surprised the emperor and empress—but no one else— by abdicating his right to announce the first item to be debated and voted on by the council to the woman seated beside him, who in turn abdicated her right to the man beside her, Protectorate Council member Ino Ig Catan.

  He opened his mouth to speak but the emperor interrupted him. “What, exactly, is going on?” He skewered the two who had declined their turns—which never, ever happened—with a fierce glare. Isonde felt a smug satisfaction to be one up on the emperor, who was a strong supporter of Vega. “This is highly irregular.” He looked at the empress for support, but she merely shrugged. She, who always fell in line with whatever the emperor wanted, seemed for once curious at the proceedings. “Irregular, perhaps,” Ino said, “but well within our rights. And with that I abdicate my opening bid to the next speaker, the Empress-Apparent.” He inclined his head to Isonde. “You have the floor.”

  By now the emperor’s face was red with suppressed agitation, and he glared at her. She merely smiled. His son might have been his greatest opponent at the table in previous years, but that was before she’d gained her seat. Emperor Rengal had never met an opponent like her before.

  “Thank you, Ino.” She inclined her head to him. “Ardin and I will gladly make the first proposal, as it is a joint proposal between us.”

  The empress arched a brow, very intrigued. She leaned back in her chair as if settling in for a show, just as the emperor opened his mouth to object.

  Isonde breezed on before he could. “With the stated purpose of Operation Redouble to be to apply increased pressure on Ordoch with the expected outcome of a full capitulation to our demand—request—that they manufacture a cure for the TNV, it’s come to our attention that we’ve left out one crucial part of the plan: treaty negotiators.

  “Ardin and I propose that we be elected as the official treaty negotiators for the empire, and volunteer to travel to Ordoch immediately.”

  The emperor fro
wned but held his peace, as was required until she opened the topic up for debate.

  “We realize this is unorthodox,” Ardin said, taking up the proposal, “but in light of Senior Commander Vega— who is not a member of the military—being appointed as head of the occupation, this is an unorthodox time. The Articles of Incorporation for the Council of Seven allow for the appointment of one or more of its members as treaty negotiators in times of great immediacy, when someone with the highest authority needs to be there to see that a treaty is drawn up and ratified with utmost speed.

  “Considering the overwhelming spread of the TNV and the sheer number of its victims, I think we can all agree that Operation Redouble needs to conclude as swiftly as possible. Isonde and I have the authority to draw up such a treaty, and can have it to the Council for Ratification immediately, without waiting for another negotiator to have to go through proper channels.”

  “There is precedent for such a decision,” Isonde said. “The council appointed two of its members as treaty negotiators during the annexation of the first Protectorate Planet, and again when the Altair System was annexed in totality.” Thankfully. While she and Ardin might technically be able to do what they were proposing based on the articles, it was a lot harder to argue with precedent than it was with a legal technicality.

  “We understand that what we’re proposing would disrupt the Council of Seven’s day-to-day functioning, since we would be out of communication while traveling to Wyrd Space, and for most of the time once we reach the planet. We would therefore temporarily abdicate our seats on the council, appointing one member of the Protectorate Council and one member of the Sovereign Council, which is the order in which our seats were to be filled in the case of our death.”

  At least in this case, as it was a temporary measure, she and Ardin had the right to choose who would take over their seats. She would have chosen a primate before she would have chosen Aich Nias, but agreeing to his appointment secured Ino’s vote in favor of her proposal. Both Sovereign Council representatives agreed to vote in their favor as well, should Ardin put forth Archon Raorin as his replacement.