* * *
“We need to get you and Glenn out into the public eye,” said Sean, sitting on the couch and watching his wife fuss over Augustine. “It’s been too long since the people have seen you. There has been talk that something might have happened to you and both the children.” And not just the one that we now have back, thought the Emperor. And that was a problem. Everyone knew that Augustine had been killed in the attack. They had held a funeral for the baby, with an empty casket of course. Now he was back, and noticeably smaller than his brother. If he were seen the speculation would fly. That he had survived and was put in cryo would be the one least likely to hurt the Imperial family. Thoughts of cloning would be a disaster, since that tech had been outlawed in the Empire for almost a thousand years. Guesses at time travel would be worse. Eventually they would come up with something, though cryo looked like the best bet.
In the meantime, the Empress and the heir had not been seen for many months. There was talk that something had happened to them. Pictures and vids had not been enough, since those could easily be faked. No, Jennifer had to appear in public, where people could see her up close, talk to her, even brush up against her within the limits of security.
“And not Augustine?” she asked with a frown.
“You know that he can’t be seen in public. Not yet.”
“And when will you be able to show him in public,” spat the woman, holding her baby close. “I will not let you take me away from my baby.”
“And if we had him in the aircar, with a nurse?” asked Sean, standing and walking to stand over his wife.
“I will not be separated from my baby,” screamed Jennifer, glaring at her husband.
And when we sedate you, what then? he thought. In her present state his wife could be a danger to herself and her children. But sedating her wouldn’t help in giving the people reassurance that everything was okay with the Empress and heir. A doped up automaton would be noticeable to the keen observers sure to be present.
Sean threw up his hands and stormed from the room, attempting to keep his temper under control. It would do no good to get into a shouting match with an unstable woman. But another idea was forming in his mind.
Making his way into his office, he fell into a comfortable chair and went over the options. First he needed to do something about Jennifer, who obviously was not stable. He had never thought that the self-assured physician he had fallen in love with would ever lose it the way she had. But then he wasn’t a mother, and though he loved his children, he would never bond with them the way their momma would. The shock of losing one of her children, working through the grief at his loss and coming to terms with it, then finding out that he had been saved. He wondered if they could just let it slide, and keep her out of the public eye. After all, if they went ahead with the time strike, as he was coming to call it, none of this would ever happen. Or would it? That was the part that was still driving him crazy. Crazy enough that he still wasn’t sure he would authorize it. So he still had to do something.
“Get me Sergiov,” he ordered over the secure com.
Moments later the face of his director of combined intelligence appeared in a holo in front of the chair.
“Your Majesty. What can I do for you at this late hour?”
“Sorry if I woke you, Director. But I had something on my mind and it wouldn’t wait.”
“I’m yours to command, your Majesty. You can interrupt me at any time.”
And I wonder if that would be true if you were in bed with a lover? thought Sean with a smile. Not that he would do such on purpose, but it was always a possibility.
“I need you to do something for me, Ekaterina. Or should I say I need your people on the shape shifter project to do something for the Empire.”
* * *
“I really don’t like this, Director,” said Captain Ishuhi Rykio, the ex-police lieutenant and recalled Fleet intelligence officer who had found himself working with the shapeshifters known as Yugalyth. Not a post he really wanted, but it was wartime, he had been recalled, and he really didn’t have a choice.
“I don’t like it either, Captain. I can think of all kinds of things that can go wrong if we let those things out wearing the shapes of such well known and powerful people. But I didn’t think of it, I didn’t order it, and we are stuck with it.”
Ishuhi nodded. The man was the monarch, and as far as the military was concerned, what he said went. Not that they would wipe out a planet full of Imperial citizens, no matter what he said, but just about anything short of it.
“And they can do it, of course?”
“The queen will do what we tell her. And the copies she creates will do what she tells them. But remember, Director. These are intelligent creatures, and they have a survival instinct just like any other living being. I can’t guarantee that they will do everything we want. And there is always the possibility that they will escape.”
“Which is why you will stick close to the operatives. If they do anything that makes you think they will go off the reservation, you are to terminate with extreme prejudice.”
“But hopefully not out in public,” said Rykio with a tight smile.
“If you let anyone see you kill them, you might as well turn the pistol on yourself, Captain.”
The intelligence officer let out a short barking laugh. All humor left his thoughts as he saw the look on his superior’s face.
“I’ll make sure they don’t escape containment, Director.”
“Be sure that you do. If this works, you might get a promotion out of it.”
And if it doesn’t, I might just have to get used to being in a cell, if they don’t put me in the ground.
Chapter Ten
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done. Bruce Lee
JEWEL SYSTEM. MAY 26TH, 1003.
“Admiral Lenkowski has smashed the left wing of the enemy’s coreward thrust, Madam President,” said Sean, watching a fast motion replay of the battle. Everything had gone as predicted. Better than predicted, if the truth be told. His force had taken some losses, but the enemy fleet had been all but wiped out. That was three out of the nine thrusts no longer there.
“That’s all well and good, your Majesty. But the other six axes of advance are still, well, advancing, into my republic.”
“Fifth Fleet is on the way,” said Sean, trying to calm the leader of his ally. “It will be setting up in front of the center element and slowing them down for Lenkowski. As soon as he has taken care of the right wing he will assemble to strike the center.”
“And meanwhile the other Caca fleet advancing into my kingdom has its own way.”
“That’s what the rest of your fleet is for, Madam President. They need to slow that force down. Lenkowski is fighting a campaign to destroy the Caca invasion without gutting his fleet. His fleet will be needed to reinforce Mgonda on the other front.”
The president gave him a look of frustration from out of the holo. He couldn’t blame her. It was her stars that were being invaded after all, by an enemy that wanted to kill all humans. But it did him no good to feed his units into the battle piecemeal just to slow them down. She would have to hold on the other flank until he got sufficient ships, and most importantly, sufficient wormholes there to take on their fleet. He suspected that after they found out their other fleet had been destroyed the Cacas would concentrate into one formation. That was as planned. If they were concentrated they couldn’t hit multiple systems at once. Oh, they could still send ships out to strike at nearby systems, and his raiders could pick off those small groups at their leisure. No, the major battle of this front would be on that axis of approach, and the Republic would live or die according to the result of that battle.
“I will not evacuate my seat this time,” growled the president, her eyes glaring at Sean. “They can kill me, but I will not run this time.”
Sean nodded. Until recently he would not have been able to understand. Now, after se
eing the destruction of his capital city, he could well understand her feelings. She had fled, along with her government, to a far-off world at the edge of the Republic. And her capital had been taken and most of the people killed, many during the bombardment and landing, many more as they were rounded up and processed to become rations for the Cacas. That planet was still in the process of recovery, a process that could take a century or more.
“It would be better for your people if you protected yourself, Madam President. It would hurt the alliance if you are not there to lead them, which will hurt the overall war effort, and may have a great impact on the fate of the human species.”
“I’m not a great war leader, Sean. If I’m gone, someone with a lot more stomach for this war will take my place. That can only be good for the alliance.”
“I disagree. Your people trust you. You have seen them through one invasion of their territory. They need to see you leading them through this one. I know you can’t lead a fleet. But you can lead the government behind that fleet. And that is what you must do.”
“I, will try,” she stammered. “That’s all I can do. And what can I do right now?”
“Speak to your people. Speak to your military. Let them know what’s at stake, and how much you believe in them. Then rally whatever forces you can get your hands on to throw in front of that second axis. I wouldn’t think it a bad idea if you went aboard your flagship, only don’t lead from the front.”
“I will think about what you said.” The president seemed to have taken some strength from what he had told her.
It had taken time from Sean, a commodity he didn’t have a lot of, but the results seemed to be worth the couple of minutes he had spent. The holo went blank, and Sean thought about what he had to do next. He looked out the smart window in his office, set to give him a view of Capitulum, his seat of power. He shook his head again as he looked at the devastation. Rubble was being removed, in some cases new foundations were being laid. It would still take decades for the city to be returned to a pre-attack state. Parliament must be rebuilt, the Reformed Catholic cathedral, the zoological and botanical gardens, the libraries and museums. New habitats were already going up at the zoo. The newly appointed members of the Lords could meet in many places, even on other worlds, and there was plenty of living space on the planet and worlds close by, but the animal exhibits, living creatures, needed someplace to stay. Many had been moved to other zoos around the planet. But some required special habitats, and those were under construction. It wasn’t their fault they had been moved from their worlds into a war zone.
The bastards, he thought once again, for maybe the thousandth time. If only they had been prepared. If only. He thought again about what the crazy count had told him. Nicholas Stumpfield. About traveling into the past and changing it so this didn’t happen. So his beautiful city was still in one piece, and three hundred million citizens were still alive. He had proven the technique worked, by returning Augustine, the heir all had thought dead, to him. And if one life could be saved, why not three hundred million?
One life doesn’t do that much to disrupt the timeline. Will a million? A hundred million? He knew the legends, that the Ancients had done something to disrupt the timeline, and had paid for it. But was that true? They had evidence that something had happened to some of the stars in the region, but were they linked to that disruption? Or was it something else? Augustine had been rescued, the child who was fated to become emperor one day if he survived, and there had been no noticeable consequences. Were there any at all?
“You have a com from the Elysiun High Lord, your Majesty,” came the call on the com.
Wonder what he wants? Normally the Elysium leader spoke to the Empire through Sean’s ambassador, Archduke Horatio Alexanderopolis. The ambassador could speak Brakakak, the language of the dominant species of that empire, and could most assuredly say their name for their own empire, unpronounceable by humans. “Put the High Lord on.”
The avian face of the leader of the Elysium empire appeared on the holo. He was not an absolute monarch like Sean, but only the first among equals of their ruling Council of Five. But he was still the voice of the empire.
“Your Majesty,” said Grarakakak in lightly accented Terranglo. “We have started sending our Fourth Fleet into your space through the wormhole gate. But I wanted to make sure that they had the support of your wormholes on that front.”
That had been one of the sticking points in the alliance from the start. The other nations hadn’t liked the idea of the New Terran Empire having a monopoly on wormholes, even though they were the only power that had the means to create them. That had changed when Elysium and Crakista had shown their resolve to leave the alliance if they were not given a cut of the wealth. And they were. They still didn’t have near the number of wormholes that the empire had, or even the Republic, but they had gotten enough to keep them happy. And Elysium and Crakista both were in the process of building factory worlds, based on supermetal production facilities, to start cranking out their own. Like the Cacas, they would have a difficult time ever catching the humans, as long as the Donut was intact, but even being in the game had made a big difference to their support. Now they were building inertialess fighters, and would probably soon ask for the new Alcubierre variety as well. It would make a future war against them much more difficult, but Sean had to worry about this war first. His son might have to worry about one against the now allies.
“We are moving them as fast as we can to the Republic, High Lord,” he told the alien. “Unfortunately, we can’t move them through wormholes, not like ships.”
“Which is why we can’t move as many of the ones we have as we would like,” agreed Grarakakak. “We have gotten used to having them in our fleet, if only for com purposes.”
“We can give you Klassekian com techs to take up some of that slack, High Lord. In fact, I believe we can put at least one on every one of your ships.” That was still a sticking point with the inertialess fighters. They were deadly ships, when they could find their targets. And Klassekian techs made it possible for them to accept vector changes while on the move. The allies would not get them for their fighters, but it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to supply them to warships.
“That would help immensely, your Majesty. If you’re sure they wouldn’t mind?”
“They volunteered for service in my military, which means they are subject to the same orders as any other personnel. And I have no fear of them serving on your ships, or those of the Crakista. Neither of you are barbarians, after all.”
“And about those new warp fighters, and the new weapons they carry?”
Here it comes, thought Sean. He knew it would soon be there, the request for something else that would allow the Elysium fleet to keep up with the humans. And if he gave it to them, he would have to do the same with the Crakista. It was an old problem with alliances, when one partner was so much more advanced than the others. People didn’t like seeing their own sons and daughters being slaughtered in job lots because their tech wasn’t as good as someone else they were supporting. He couldn’t blame them, but again it could hurt in the future. And Parliament might not like the idea.
The hell with the Lords. Half the members of that house were newly installed after the attack, and most of them were relative neophytes when it came to government. If he couldn’t roll measures through them with ease, he needed to abdicate in favor of someone competent.
The point was they needed the ships the other nations brought to the table. Even the lesser allies of the Klashak Concordium and Margravi Hegemony were important for the ships they could field, older Imperial vessels in most cases, though they were building some higher tech versions of their own at this point. The Elysium and Crakista ships were also slightly behind those of the empire, smaller, with slower acceleration, hyper VI capable at best. But they now deployed the newest Imperial electronics suites, and carried magazines full of their versions of the latest dual purpose missiles. O
ne of their battleships still couldn’t beat one of his under most circumstances, but three of theirs would give two of his a good run for their money.
“You will have them,” he told the shocked looking High Lord. “As soon as we are through here I will tell my tech people to get with yours and the Crakista and work out a tech exchange.”
“That was too easy,” said the Brakakak.
Sean wished it was his ambassador who was dealing with the leader. Not because he had any dislike for the beautiful creatures. But Alexanderopolis could read their facial expressions and body language, while he didn’t have a clue. Same with the Crakista, though there he didn’t have a resident expert like the archduke to interpret.
“High Lord. You have been our friends for decades, our greatest trading partners. I want to keep you on our side, during this war, and long afterward.” And if we ever get into a war, I have to depend on our industrial might to bury you. And as he had said, the Brakakak and the other species of that empire were not barbarians, with the possible exception of the Knockermen who had recently revolted, bringing civil war to that nation. Thei empire wouldn’t destroy whole worlds or wipe out populations. And neither would his people if fighting them.
“And the wormholes?”
“We don’t have enough on that front, yet, for any of our forces. But I will make sure you get a fair share of them. And the Klassekian com techs.”
“That is good, your Majesty. The Council will be happy to hear that you are so reasonable. And I am sure that Admiral Lenkowski will not use our ships as shock troops.”
“We haven’t done that in the past, High Lord. We will not do so in the future. Any risks your ships take will be the same as taken by ours. On that you have my word.”
The High Lord looked at him from out of the holo for some moments, silent, and Sean wasn’t sure what was going on behind that unreadable face. “I am happy that your son was returned to you, even if the circumstances of his return were somewhat, questionable.”
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