Michelle went white. “You conspired with Redmond, as well as the Worlds of the Lesser Gods?”
“Of course.”
“Father, Redmond will use you to get the ships, and once they have them, they will spit you out.”
“Daughter, you go too far.”
“You have already gone too far. Once people know you—we—were behind this crazy plan to steal the Confluence, and its fleet, Lancia will be expelled from the New Alliance. You have destroyed us, no matter what we do now.”
“Have I not just told you we do not wish to be part of the New Alliance?”
The emotion creeping through the lines from the humans in the room was a fine brown mist that twisted Ean’s gut and made him want to be sick. It didn’t show on anyone’s face, except Michelle’s. She was white, her lips parted as if she wanted to speak but couldn’t say the words.
“You don’t have the alien ships,” Abram said. “I presume that was what you brought to the coalition with Redmond and the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. Will they honor an agreement if you don’t have the ships? Of course not, because you are no use to them.”
“We do not have the ships, Galenos, because of your interference. Had you not interfered, those ships would be in Redmond territories right now.”
Abram smiled faintly. Ean didn’t have to listen to the lines to know what he was thinking. Abram had nothing to do with it.
“You may laugh now, but Lancia has decided. This is the future. Choose to be part of it, or be executed for treason.” Yu shook his sleeve, and suddenly there was a blaster in his hand.
Ean was the only one who jumped. The only one who reacted, even. Had the others known Yu had a weapon?
Michelle put her hand to the inside of her jacket.
“Execute me,” Abram said. “But first, let’s talk about the fundamental flaw in your plan.”
Yu raised his blaster.
“Hold.” The needle weapon was in Michelle’s hand. So fast Ean hadn’t seen her pull it out. “Touch Abram, Father, and you are a dead man.”
There wasn’t any anger in her, only a steely determination very like her father’s.
“The fundamental flaw, Galenos,” Yu said. “The fact that Lancia doesn’t control the line ships?”
“Exactly,” Abram said.
“No. My daughter does, through her level-twelve linesman.”
After that, things happened so fast it was a blur, but at the same time, it was like forever in the void, and Ean could recall each event clearly.
Yu swung his weapon around to Ean.
Radko grabbed her blaster.
Yu’s arm kept swinging. Past Ean. To Michelle. “I can fix that.”
His finger tightened.
“No!” Ean and line eight were swamped by a massive blast of denial. Ean wasn’t sure he was the one who’d invoked line eight at all, but Yu went down.
Burned almost beyond recognition by Abram’s blaster.
Stunned into immobility by Radko’s blaster.
Thrown back against the wall by line eight.
Yu’s guards fired on Abram and Radko, but line eight sang true. The blaster fire bounced back. Half of them went down under their own fire.
By then, Vega and Helmo had their blasters out.
“Nobody move,” Vega said.
Commodore Bach stopped Yu’s guards with a gesture. “Weapons down.”
Michelle attempted to pick something off her jacket. It might have been burned flesh. Her hand shook so much, she couldn’t pick it off.
“That’s the second time you’ve shot someone so close I’ve got body parts over me.” At least, Ean thought that was what she said, for her voice was shaking as much as her hands.
Ean was shaking, too.
Abram knelt in front of Michelle and silently proffered his weapon.
“Don’t.” It ended up a sob. She put her hands on his shoulders, gripping so tightly her fingers were bloodless. A tear splashed down onto Abram’s head, then another, and another.
Abram tried to move Michelle’s hands off his shoulders. She wouldn’t let go, so he put his arms round her waist instead. She fell into his embrace, and they both ended up kneeling on the floor.
Radko moved over to Vega and held out her own blaster.
Vega didn’t take it. “You’d be more useful helping me collect their weapons.” She nodded at Yu’s guards.
“But, ma’am, I—”
“Stunned an already-dead body from the looks of it. Not to mention, you were doing your job.” Vega’s voice was steady, but her hands weren’t.
Radko silently helped Vega collect the blasters. Ean sang line eight to keep everyone safe, could see the field as a hazy, waist-high wave surrounding them.
One soldier surreptitiously lifted her weapon.
Line eight—and Ean—blasted her over to the other side of the room.
“Anyone else goes for a weapon, and I fire,” Vega said.
Abram put his own blaster onto the floor and put his hands to Michelle’s waist, lifting her as he stood. He wrapped his arms round her. She buried her face in his chest.
It was probably the first time anyone watching had seen her cry. Ean looked away, at Bach, who was watching him.
“It never was for the seat on the council, was it?”
“No. That was to keep Galenos away from the Lancastrian Princess. So he wouldn’t work out what was happening.”
“Was Yu ever going to kill Abram?”
“No. Galenos has always proven loyal to Lancia. He would have come around. It was your contract we wanted. Her Royal Highness held that.”
“Were you part of it?” Vega asked. “This assassination?”
“Yes.” Flat and bald.
“But why?” Ean asked. “What’s Michelle ever done to you?”
“Nothing. In fact, I admire her. But I support my Emperor. I support Lancia. It was obvious to many people that while she held your contract, we would never have control of the alien ships, for Her Royal Highness was committed to the New Alliance.”
Ean had seen his contract. He’d signed it. With Michelle, and Rigel, and Leo Rickenback. “If Michelle dies, my contract goes to Admiral Katida, of Balian.”
“If the contract owner dies, the contract goes back to the cartel house,” Bach said.
That was a standard contract, not Ean’s. Michelle, Rigel, and Rickenback’s lawyers had spent days on it. But Ean didn’t argue. It didn’t matter anyway. If Yu had killed Michelle, he would have ensured that Yu never got a single alien line ship.
“You’re a fool.” Vega came over and cut the restraints around Bach’s hands. “But I imagine you’re not the biggest fool, for a commodore doesn’t come up with plans like this. I suspect Admiralty House at Baoshan may be a little empty for a while. Galenos will not take kindly to a plan to murder Michelle.”
“You can’t let him go,” Ean said. “What if he decides to kill Abram, for killing Yu?”
“That’s Emperor Yu,” Bach said.
“He’s dead. He’s not Emperor anymore.” Michelle was, and that was too strange to think of now.
Vega said, “Emperor Yu isn’t the first of his family to be assassinated by the incoming Emperor. He killed his own father, and his father killed his father before him. If Bach is loyal to the Crown, he will now be loyal to the Empress.”
But Yu hadn’t been assassinated by his daughter. Abram had killed him to save Michelle. It might have been better if Radko had done it. At least she was part of Yu’s family.
Ean was glad she hadn’t, all the same.
“What about your people?” Vega asked Bach.
“They serve the Crown of Lancia. They will support the new Empress.”
Technically, they’d been negligent because their job was to save the Emperor.
Vega looked at Y
u’s guard. “Does anyone wish to complain, argue, or support anyone other than the Empress Michelle?”
There was only one answer to that, and it wasn’t “yes.”
“Good.” She turned to Sattur Dow. “And you?”
At least he’d stopped smiling. “I support the ruler of Lancia.”
Of course he did. But he would find the new ruler harder to influence than he had the old ruler.
Ean realized something else. “Radko doesn’t have to marry you now.” Something too strong to be relief flooded his mind and the lines.
“I am still prepared to take her,” Dow said. “Despite the gross negligence she showed today.”
He stepped back as Ean stepped toward him.
“I have a lot to offer a wife.”
Radko stepped between them. “I am sure we would both prefer to choose our own partners.”
Sattur Dow wouldn’t.
Abram said, “I’m sorry, Misha. I failed you by staying away you when you needed me most.”
Michelle pulled away, and looked at him. She shook her head.
“I will never do that again.” Abram kissed her.
A strong hum of satisfaction exuded from the ship. From .
Ean glanced at Helmo. You couldn’t see it from his face. It was as expressionless as Abram’s was normally.
“Do you mind?” Radko asked quietly from beside Ean.
He looked at her.
“Michelle. And Abram.”
Why would he?
She held his gaze. He held his breath. He was drowning, he was . . . a choir in the void. Ean blinked, and shook his head.
She smiled. “Good.”
Ean smiled back. “You know, Radko. I’m really, really, really glad you’re back.”
THIRTY-TWO
EAN LAMBERT
VEGA AND HELMO sent Bach’s guards to the cells. “We’re locking you down because we want to control news of this ourselves,” Vega said. “Lambert, make sure they can’t get a signal out.”
“It’s a bit late for that,” Ean said. “The engineer on the Galactic News ship already knows.”
Indeed, he was already on at the producer. “Coop. Coop. Something has happened to Emperor Yu. I don’t know what, but it’s big news. Big, big news.”
“What, bigger than someone’s stealing spaceships? And no, Christian, I’m not calling up the Emperor of Lancia. Five minutes ago, you wanted me to report on stolen spaceships. Which weren’t stolen at all, incidentally. At least, not according to the Department of Alien Affairs.”
“You know Spacer Grieve always misdirects. If he didn’t say outright someone hadn’t stolen that ship, then someone probably did. But Coop, what about Emperor Yu?”
Ean realized suddenly. “That engineer on the Galactic News. I assumed he was a six because he’s an engineer. He’s not. He’s a one.” He was picking up emotions from the lines in much the way Tinatin did, except his pickup was a lot more accurate. Tinatin was probably already giving Kari Wang her own garbled version.
“Well then,” Radko said. “It goes to show, you shouldn’t assume. Ever. Especially for someone who relies so much on listening.”
It was good to have Radko back.
“Lambert,” Vega said. “When you’ve quite finished, can we have lockdown on the soldiers, and on Sattur Dow.”
It would be a pleasure. “We should stop comms from everyone in Yu’s party.”
“Do it.”
Ean sang instructions to the ship. No communications in or out for any visitors. Only comms for Michelle and Abram, Vega, and Captain Helmo and his regular crew.
Bach tried his comms. “Impressive. I see why Lambert was so important. And we can train linesmen to do this?”
“Provided you get the right combination of lines,” Vega said.
* * *
NEITHER Michelle nor Abram was the sort to spend much time whispering romantically to each other.
“Lancia knew as well as you did that the old Alliance was dead,” Bach said, when the room had been cleared, and they were settled with tea. Michelle, Abram, Vega, Helmo, Bach, Ean, and Radko. Radko had been going to stand against the wall in her usual guard position. Ean was glad when Michelle motioned for her to sit down with them.
“I need all the support I can get today.”
So Radko had left the wall and come to sit beside Ean.
“We could see we were better off in the fledgling New Alliance than we were as a secondary world in Gate Union,” Bach told Abram and Michelle. “Until you started to send back reports of what the ships could do. What the linesmen could do—particularly a level twelve—and we realized how much power we had at our fingertips.”
He wasn’t talking about himself here when he said “we.” He meant the Lancastrian admiralty, and the palace. Had he even agreed with what they were doing? They’d never know.
“Emperor Yu sounded out his daughter; the admirals sounded out Galenos. Unfortunately, both of you were determined to work with the New Alliance. So His Imperial Majesty looked elsewhere. Redmond and Gate Union were having problems. After Redmond tried to implicate Gate Union in the destruction of the Kari Wang, it was obvious to everyone that their alliance was fracturing. And Sattur Dow knew of a way we could approach Redmond.”
Abram raised an eyebrow.
“Renaud Han,” Vega said.
“Yes.” Bach gave a twisted smile. “He was smuggling for Redmond in return for silence about his son.” Renaud Han, paying silence money for a secret that wasn’t a secret at all. “I don’t know how you found out about it.”
Vega didn’t say it was coincidence.
“We knew Tiana Chen was blackmailing him, didn’t know Redmond was until Chen started working with Sattur Dow. When Dow wanted something sent to Redmond, she organized it for him through Renaud’s smuggling links.”
Two people couldn’t deserve each other more.
“What were they blackmailing Renaud over?” Abram asked.
“The fact that Han is not his son,” Radko said.
Ean looked at her. She hadn’t been there when he and Vega had interviewed Lord Renaud.
“He’s supposed to be a linesman.” Radko smiled at Ean. “He’s right-handed.”
“His son joined the fleet,” Vega told Abram. “Except his DNA didn’t match the Han family’s. So Lord Renaud paid someone on Redmond to fix the records, opening himself to blackmail from Redmond, too. They got him to smuggle medical supplies.”
Abram blew his breath out, didn’t say anything.
“Lord Renaud’s life is his own to destroy,” Bach said. “Our concern was contact with people in Redmond.”
“Let me get this straight,” Abram said. “You used the contacts Renaud made while smuggling to approach interested parties in Redmond. To offer them the alien ships in return for being part of a new alliance of Redmond, Lancia, and the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. How did the Lesser Gods come into it?”
“They’ve been working with Redmond for years, building ships based on alien technology. And experimenting on the linesmen even longer. They know more about linesmen than the New Alliance and Gate Union combined.”
Ean shuddered, remembering the feel of the lines—the wrongness of the linesmen—on the station orbiting Aeolus.
Red-mint-cinnamon amusement wafted from the lines. “I’d pitch our line knowledge against anyone’s,” Michelle said.
“Perhaps,” Bach said doubtfully. “Regardless, all three powers could see advantages. Redmond had line factories. The Lesser Gods the linesmen. Lancia brought the ships, and the level-twelve linesman although he was to remain under our control.”
Michelle made a sound that might have been a laugh. “Our level-twelve linesman is a thinking, rational human being.” Ean was glad Vega didn’t comment. “How did you think you would control him?”
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Bach’s gaze flicked toward Radko. “He has shown loyalty to the woman who is minding him.”
“By marrying her off to Sattur Dow,” Ean said. “What was that supposed to do?”
“Sattur Dow would expect access to his wife.”
“That was never going to happen,” Abram said.
Instead, it had triggered the start of events that had ruined Yu’s plans. Ean couldn’t understand how they’d even expected it to for a moment. Didn’t Yu know that Radko couldn’t give them access? Although Vega had sent Radko away because they were worried she’d have to.
Vega said, “With Lancia giving away the ships, it would be hard to see us as anything but a lesser contributor to any union of worlds.”
“Giving away, Vega? No, I don’t think so. We’d still have the linesman.”
Michelle’s smile was full dimple. “You know, Ean, sometimes I think we should hand you over to our enemies and let them find out the hard way they have no control.”
Everyone except Ean and Bach laughed.
“I fail to understand,” Bach said.
“You don’t have to understand, Bach.” Radko’s dimples were as deep as Michelle’s. “That’s what I’m here for. To prevent people like you ever understanding.”
The others laughed again.
“Who was involved in this grand plan?” Abram asked.
Bach shrugged.
Michelle and Abram shared a glance. A glance that was a whole conversation in a single look. Like they used to, back when Ean had first joined the Lancastrian Princess.
Ean blinked and had to look away. This was how it had been. This was how it would be again.
“Commodore Bach,” Michelle said. “As the Empress of Lancia, I order you to tell me who was involved. Fleet Admiral Galenos, as the head of the Lancian fleet, orders you to tell us who was involved.”
Head of the Lancian fleet. Ean wasn’t the only one who had to hold in a smile, and the Lancastrian Princess’s lines made a choir to match. Lancia couldn’t make trouble anymore. Not with Abram in charge. Even Bach looked pleased, and Ean could tell from the lines that he truly was.
Bach half bowed from his seat. “Everyone at Admiralty house was involved. Emperor Yu, of course. Everyone except you and Admiral Galenos.” He stopped. “Sorry. Fleet Admiral Galenos.”
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