by Kal Spriggs
Lucius nodded, “God knows, I’ve longed for another battleship to work with the War Shrike for years and with a proper escort…”
The Emperor frowned, “What then?”
“Then we’ll defend this system from the Balor.” Lucius shrugged, “Kandergain says, if we can stop this onslaught, the Balor are likely to leave us alone for the time being.” Lucius didn’t mention the origins of that belief. He believed in God, he just didn’t want to think a suicidal omniscient precognitive might be God.
“Oh, of course you trust Kandergain,” the Emperor snapped.
“What does that mean?” Lucius asked levelly.
“She’s a psychic, Baron. It wasn’t all that long ago that psychics were universally hated. It wasn’t until they were nearly wiped out by the Plagues that—“
“My grandmother was a psychic, and she died in the Plagues.” Lucius said, and he kept his voice level.
“Yes, and Kandergain isn’t your grandmother. We don’t know we can trust her. She’s got her own agenda, and that agenda doesn’t include Nova Roma.” The younger man rubbed his face, “Don’t you see? She has influenced your mind against me this entire time!”
Lucius shook his head, “I’ve thought a lot of this through before I ever met her, your Highness. Our best options…”
“We’ll go with your plan, for now, Lucius.” The Emperor said. “But I don’t have infinite patience. If you won’t help me, I’ll find those who will. Make sure you know who your friends are, that’s all I’m saying.” His voice seemed distant and he looked suddenly distracted
Lucius nodded slowly.
“Very well, then, Baron, you may go.” The boy waved his hand.
Lucius bit his tongue and departed. His stomach rolled and he felt slightly sick.
He wasn’t terribly surprised to meet Kandergain in the corridor. “Well?” she asked.
He looked at the Marine guards, stationed to either side of the door. “Walk with me.”
She followed him out of the building and into the garden outside. The Emperor of Nova Roma had chosen an abandoned estate for his living quarters. Lucius thought it a bit pretentious, but he doubted the former owners cared much. The Chxor had exterminated that entire family.
He stopped next to a fountain. Dead leaves choked it and only the slightest dribble of water trickled out. “Have you influenced my thoughts?” he asked.
“No!” Kandergain said, startled.
“What about the Emperor’s?”
She was silent.
“So you have?” Lucius demanded.
“Yes.” Kandergain said, quietly. “I’ve been doing my best to keep him calm.”
“Calm?” Lucius asked, “He’s… well, I wouldn’t call him calm.”
“No. I’m trying to influence him without taking away his free will.” She shrugged slightly, “Basically, I’m treading my own knife edge of morality. I hate to do what I’ve done, but…” She shrugged, “Lucius, he’s a kid, and he got dumped with a title he never expected to have. His older brother should have inherited, though thank God he didn't. On top of that, his homeworld is in enemy hands and his people are being massacred. It’s a little much pressure for a boy of eighteen years to handle.”
“So, what are you doing?” Lucius asked.
“I’ve… eased the coping process.” Kandergain shrugged uncomfortably. “Frankly, I hate to do what I’ve done without his permission. What he needs is a therapist. I actually recommended that to Admiral Mund.”
“So he’s cracking under the stress?” Lucius asked, horrified.
“Not yet, but he’s close. I think your talk with him will help.” Kandergain shrugged. “Honestly, he’s a good kid. I think he’d be great in any other position. Now, though… I just don’t know.”
“Okay.” Lucius sighed. “Anyone else you’re tampering with?”
“Now, Lucius, you got to leave a girl her secrets!” Kandergain dimpled.
“Isn’t there some kind of code or something, for you psychics?” Lucius asked.
“Well… it’s not polite to intrude without saying something. Like I said, I’m bending the rules with the kid, but… I’ve bent a lot of rules in my line of work.” She looked away, “I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, Lucius, but I’d do them again, when it comes to it.”
“I’m not going to condemn you for it. Does Admiral Mund know?” At her nod, he continued, “I have a question for you, by the way.”
“Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like it?”
“Hm, maybe because you’re psychic,” Lucius said with a sarcastic tone. He frowned though, “But seriously, I’m trying to find information on something that happened fifty three years ago.”
“You want to know about your father,” Kandergain said. The flat tone of her voice suggested that she didn't like the line of questioning.
Lucius stared at her, he hoped that he wouldn't strain their working relationship. Still... he had to have some answers. “I thought you might know something.”
She took a seat on the lip of the fountain, one hand flicked the surface of the stagnant water. “Why do you want to know, Lucius?”
Lucius paced back and forth, hands clenched behind him. He chose his words with caution, yet he knew the words sounded rushed as he spoke them, “Someone told me something, recently. Apparently, my father wasn’t executed. And—”
“Digging into that isn’t going to do you any good, Lucius,” She sighed. “That whole thing damn near broke your grandmother.” Her gaze went distant, “In some ways, I think that it did... she probably could have recovered from the Plague, part of me thinks that she just didn't want to go on living.”
Lucius tucked that knowledge away even as he tried not to think about it too much. The sudden loss of his grandmother had been part of what caused his own downward spiral when he was younger. “So… were you involved?” Lucius stared at her intently.
She caught his eyes, “I swear to you, Lucius, I had no part in your father’s actions.” She sighed, “Trust me Lucius, if I could have stopped that whole affair, I would have.”
“I’m sensing a ‘but’ in there.” Lucius said.
“I’ve told you before, Lucius, that I’ve fought the Shadow Lords, predominantly.”
Lucius cocked his head, “Yes.”
Her lips pressed into a firm line. She raised her head and met his gaze, “Sometimes I don’t do as good a job as I’d like.”
Lucius narrowed his eyes, “So… what, my father got caught in a Shadow Lord’s plot?”
She looked away, “Trust me, Lucius, we don’t want to go into that right now.”
Lucius opened his mouth, suddenly angry. His communication unit rang and interrupted him. He cursed as he answered it. “What?”
“Baron, this is Colonel Proscia. We’ve got a problem.”
“What?” Lucius snapped.
The Marine's voice was filled with barely controlled anger, “Apparently someone broke Lucretta Mannetti out of her cell. I’ve set up a cordon of the area, but I thought I’d let you know immediately.”
Lucius cursed again, “Thank you, Colonel.” He took a moment to think, “Are there any ships landed at the spaceport?”
“Yes, sir, we’ve got a couple of transports as well as our corvette and a couple of parasite frigates.”
“I think we can rule out the frigates as her way out, but make sure we get some people stationed around those transports and our corvette.” Lucius thought rapidly, “Also, warn the watch crews aboard the War Shrike and the Peregrine. She’s… rather possessive. She’ll want either or both of those ships.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lucius looked at Kandergain. “You aren’t going to tell me any more, are you?”
“Some things should stay buried.”
“Is my father dead?” Lucius asked.
She looked at him, and then her brown eyes went wide with surprise, “I—”
“Lucretta Mannetti told me he wasn’t execu
ted.”
She stood up, eyes narrowed, “What exactly did she say?”
Lucius took a deep breath, “She said the conspiracy she was part of had its origins in my father. She said it would have placed him on the throne.”
Kandergain began to curse. “We need to find that woman, right now.”
***
“I’m sorry, sir.” Colonel Proscia said, as Lucius came through the door.
“Was that a ship taking off?” Lucius snapped.
“Yes, sir.” Colonel Proscia shrugged. “Whoever broke her out had our uniforms. They showed up at the corvette a half hour ago. The team I had in place was told they had orders to get the ship off the ground.”
Lucius shook his head. “Did you contact our ships in orbit?”
Colonel Proscia nodded, “We’re tracking it on the screen, as well, sir.”
Kandergain stood near the window, staring out. “Too late.”
A tech rushed in, “Colonel, it’s—she—the corvette--just made a jump to shadow!”
“I’m sorry, sir.” Colonel Proscia had an exhausted tone in his voice. Clearly, he blamed himself, Lucius thought.
Lucius shook his head, “Not your fault, Colonel. Find out how she did it, that’s the important thing.” He looked at Kandergain, “Anything break loose that you think you can tell me now?”
She shook her head, “Nothing that will help.”
“Great.”
***
The council room of the interim government possessed the bland, nondescript construction of many Chxor-built buildings. From what Lucius understood, they had chosen it as a reminder of the Chxor occupation.
The room held the fifty men and women who had stepped forward with ideas on how things ‘should be.’ Of them all, only the original five from his council had any type of experience in governance. None of the original government of Faraday had survived the Chxor occupation.
Lucius waited, politely for the introduction by Kate Bueller. When she nodded for him to step up to the podium, he did so. As he stood there, under the lights, he suddenly wondered if anyone recorded these sessions. He rather hoped they didn’t.
Lucius realized, then, that he didn’t have it in him to endorse a constitution he hadn’t read. Nor, knowing how much he would gain, however little he wanted that gain, could he stand there and read the speech Kate wrote for him.
Even so, the wrangling and delays of the interim government needed to stop.
“Thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen.” Lucius looked around the chamber. He wondered how many of them did this from an actual desire to make the world better. He hoped, for humanity’s sake that more did than Kate believed. “I’m speaking to you, today, because right now, we’re in the middle of a crisis.”
He didn’t wait for the babble of confusion to die down. “In a short time, we’ll be fighting for our lives once more. We’ve driven the Chxor back, but now, we face the Balor.” Lucius shrugged, “I can’t say that a real government will help us to stop them. I can say that it will do your defenders much good to know they fight for a country and to know their country feels their sacrifice worthwhile.”
Lucius looked down, “Right now, this ‘interim government’ is a joke. You’ve met for the past two weeks, and you still haven’t come up with a name?” Lucius swept his gaze around the chamber and few of the men and women gathered could meet his eyes. “You’ve argued over this or that pet projects. You’ve traded political favors while portions of this very city are still without food, power, and water.”
“Your people, my people, deserve better.”
Lucius nodded once, “I hope this has come as a wake-up call. I hope you’ll focus on what’s really important now. Thank you for your time.”
Lucius stepped away from the podium. On his way down the steps, Kate pulled up next to him, a small smile on her face. “Excellent speech, Baron.”
“I couldn’t just read—”
“All the better that you didn’t read words of the page. Much better coming from the heart.” She turned, about to retake the podium, “I’ll have to change strategy a bit, but I think this will work even better than I planned.”
Lucius shrugged, “Whatever. Just make sure these people do something good.”
“Oh, they’ll look good for the cameras and they’ll have some good sound clips, but really, they’re just here for window-dressing. The real vote just happened with you, just now. They’re pudding in my hands, Lucius.”
Lucius looked over the faces full of consternation, fear, anger, and the handful that showed actual thought. “We’ll see.”
***
“Please repeat after me,” Lucius said as he held up his right hand.
“I, Lucius Giovanni, do solemnly swear,” he waited for the rumble to die away, “my loyalty to the United Colonies Fleet.” He looked over the sea of uniformed men and women. “I swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United Colonies,” Ten thousand men and women stood in the formation, right hands raised. They wore their new gray uniforms with pride, “against any enemies, foreign and domestic. I swear that I take this oath without coercion or personal reservation, so help me God.” He finished his much paused repetition, the fifth ceremony today. There would be two more.
“Today, people, you are no longer deserters or mercenaries or anything else less than defenders of a nation.” Lucius spoke without a written speech. Each speech he’d given came from within and he hoped each word meant as much to those listening as they did to him as he said them. “Yesterday, the interim government signed the Constitution. A month ago, we welcomed our new brothers and sisters in arms from the Dreyfus Fleet.”
Lucius looked over the brave faces, “Today we begin a new tradition. Today, we start a navy that will bring down the tyranny of the despots and the terror of the alien. If they knew what we’ve done, they’d do everything they could to stop us.” He gave a broad smile, “When the time comes, we’ll let them know that they should have when they had the chance.”
The formation cheered and Lucius nodded once. “Thank you, I could not ask for better people to serve with.”
He stepped away from the podium and watched as non-commissioned officers and petty-officers marched the different formations away. When he had stated his intentions to pull every man and woman in uniform planet-side, he had heard grumbles. Certainly, the chore to shuttle them down in shifts and to coordinate the watches so that everyone had their opportunity to give their oath in that formation made things difficult.
Lucius knew, from the beginning, it would be worth it. All those who had doubted it need only look upon the shining faces of the new Fleet.
All of the ships of the Dreyfus Fleet, as well as the vessels Lucius captured, had received new papers. All of those ships would undergo a rechristening ceremony as darkness fell on Faraday’s capital city. No more a ragtag group, no longer the hidden weapon of the human race, Lucius wanted to make a statement. Something new came into the universe on Faraday. Something bright, something conceived in hope that would change the human race, or die trying.
Lucius looked up at the brilliant blue sky, beyond which lurked so many dangers.
“All enemies,” he murmured, “bring it on you bastards, we’ll be waiting.”
***
Lucius ran a hand over the hull of the Achaean scout as he stood near the airlock. A ship carried a log of its history in the surface of a hull. The scarred hull of the Daedulus showed the pitting of many atmospheric entries. Battle damaged sections, replaced by repairs, showed as smoother patches against the worn hull. Occasional seams and creases marked where stress and time deformed the hull.
All in all, the Daedulus showed her years.
“Like what you see?” Kandergain asked as she came to stand across from him.
Lucius smiled, “Yes.”
They waited and Lucius waved Kandergain to lead the way onto the ship. “How did you manage to find an Achaean, by the way?” Lucius asked, as he stepp
ed in through the open airlock.
“With difficulty,” She laughed. From the tone of amusement in her voice, she preferred to keep him in the dark.
“Is it a hard ship to keep going, just by yourself?” Lucius asked.
“Who said I’m by myself?” Kandergain asked, over her shoulder.
“Oh, I just assumed it was you alone,” Lucius followed her down the corridor.
“Kitchen’s to the left, so is the mess. There’s an entertainment unit against the wall,” Kandergain pointed. “Living quarters are to the right. I’ve got the closest one. You can have one of the other five.”
“Okay,” Lucius glanced down either corridor. Neither went more than a couple meters.
“We’ve got a science lab on board, really more for prospecting than anything serious. I doubt you’ll need to use it, but it doubles as the sickbay, just in case anything happens.”
“If we need it, I think my lack of medical knowledge might be a problem.”
“Noted.” Lucius could hear the smile in her voice.
“Cockpit is up here. Two seats, in case you want to watch,” Kandergain said, as she keyed open the door. “Are we clear with control?”
Lucius glanced in at the narrow cockpit. The two jump seats were one right behind the other, but the array of screens and controls seemed far in excess to what two people could handle. “Yes, you probably should verify, though. They’ve been touchy since Mannetti broke out.”
She looked over her shoulder at him, “Probably a good bet she’ll turn up again, Lucius.”
“Oh, I know.” He sighed, “Frankly, with everything going on, I’m beginning to regret the decision to leave.”
“We haven’t even made it off the ground yet, Lucius. Trust me, if this pays off, it will be worth the investment of time.” She shrugged, “It’s not like Admiral Dreyfus doesn’t know what he’s doing militarily, either.”
Lucius nodded.
“Anyway, let’s get going.”