Her Brother's Keeper
Page 44
There would be time enough to worry about that later. Right now, he just wanted to be with his family.
Chapter 32
The Blackwood & Associates ship Highlander II
Deep Space
Baker-3E871 System
Eight Months Later . . .
The Highlander II was a huge transport ship, an aeroballistic cone one hundred meters tall from nose to tail. She was the largest ship in the Blackwood & Associates fleet, and yet she alone would not be enough for this operation. She was joined by half a dozen others, including an armed escort from the Avalon Space Force. This find was worth protecting.
Cecil Blackwood studied a 3D representation of the derelict ship Agamemnon. Amazingly, no one else had come across it, though it had been more than a standard year since his sister had found it. It made a sort of sense, though—it had drifted out here undisturbed for something like eight hundred years. One more year wasn’t so much in comparison.
Zak Mesa and Anna Komnene were with him, and were excitedly taking in every detail of the ship that the sensors could provide. Zak had read up on the entire history of the ship, the Cosmic Odyssey VI program, and knowing him, the entire history of the Second Federation while he was at it. Anna, who it turned out was something of a “big deal” on her homeworld, had worked out a data-sharing program with the University Byzantium in exchange for a substantial donation to the recovery effort (including a research ship). Between that and the influx in funds from the sale of the Zanzibari artifacts, Blackwood and Associates was doing quite well. They were excited by the find, despite the gruesome description of what Catherine’s crew had found on board.
Cecil’s father hadn’t been thrilled with it all, of course. He’d bellowed at Cecil for screwing things up so royally, and even bellowed at Catherine when she’d stepped in to defend her little brother. Cat, being Cat, bellowed right back, and the whole affair turned into one of those infamous Blackwood family shouting matches. As usual, it had ended with the vintage brandy and scotch being poured, and things calmed down afterward.
Augustus Blackwood had actually offered Catherine his legacy. He offered to let her be the elder heir instead of Cecil. Cecil might have taken that as an insult, but he knew that she’d run things better than he could have, especially since it entailed eventually taking her father’s seat on the Council. That would have certainly shaken up those stodgy old goats, he thought, and the image of them harrumph-ing and pouting about it tickled him so much he wished his sister had taken their father up on his offer.
But Catherine, like their mother, was a free spirit. She had a life of her own, a tall ship, and a star to steer by. That was, she explained, all she wanted in life. Cecil certainly couldn’t fault her for that.
His father also hadn’t been happy about Bianca. He’d been even less happy when Cecil confessed that he’d married her on New Austin. The Church of Avalon officially recognized marriages from outside the faith, even secular ones (Cecil and Bianca had a civil union at a municipal courthouse in Aterrizaje), so there was nothing Augustus could do but drink and fume.
Cecil, for his part, had been sober for a year now, and staying dry was getting easier every day. Bianca constantly encouraged him, and rewarded his progress with every decadent bout of bedroom gymnastics her devious mind would come up with. She was, as he’d once surmised, a better Avalonian wife than any of the stodgy, inhibited Avalonian women he’d ever met. She had no patience for the gossip and politics of Avalonian high society, however; upon hearing that a council member’s wife had referred to her as a whore, she’d punched the woman in the mouth, right in the middle of a garden party for charity. It had been quite the scandal, and had made all the celebrity gossip media. Fortunately, they’d left for their current mission shortly after that. Even Bianca could only get into so much trouble in deep space.
Despite the hell Cecil had gone through on Zanzibar, he had to admit a lot of good had come of it. He was still haunted by the deaths of the people who had helped rescue him. Randall Markgraf, Wolfram von Spandau, and Charity Delacroix were their names, and Cecil would never forget them. He’d given half his share of the family fortune to a trust fund for the families of the New Austin mercenaries and the crew of the Andromeda. Blood money to be sure, but money was the only thing Cecil had left to give. Fortunately, thanks largely to his sister, Zak, and Anna, he had a lot of it.
As for Zanzibar . . . Cecil took a deep breath as he recalled that awful place. The message Zak had sent out so long ago had definitely gotten the attention of the mass media on a dozen Concordiat worlds. The excitement reached a fever pitch when word of ancient Antecessor artifacts located there had gotten out later on. Even as Cecil was focusing on the salvage of the Agamemnon, the Concordiat government was about to pass a motion to officially annex Zanzibar and send in a peacekeeping force. When word had gotten out about the conditions there, the suffering, and the possibility of ancient alien technology falling into the hands of a man like Aristotle Lang, the constituency on a dozen worlds had demanded that their leaders do something.
Cecil wasn’t sure the something in this case was a good idea. According to the various political punditry, it was expected that the annexation and stabilization of Zanzibar would be a quick and easy affair. The bloody fools had no idea what they were getting into. Lang wouldn’t give up so easily.
Still, none of that was Cecil’s problem. His mind boggled at the role he’d played in, essentially, altering the course of the history of a world, but he desired no fame or recognition for it. Too many people had died. Too many had suffered. Maybe some good would come of it, but he wanted nothing to do with any of it. Cecil was happy where he was, with Bianca at his side, Zak and Anna excitedly scanning their new prize.
That, he thought with a smile, was how things should be.