by Damon Alan
“Yes, Lord Komi.”
Bannick walked from the room. He and Palia would be moving to the Palidragon right away.
If the enemy could move that quick between the stars, on board his dreadnought might well be the only safe place in the Mindari system if Admiral Dayson attacked again.
Chapter 27 - War Prizes
30 Jand 15332
When the Stennis arrived back in Oasis, Sarah and her crew were in the middle of a disorderly cloud of inoperable starships.
The Palino and Yascurra, thrusting furiously to match the velocity of the Oasis system, were distant points of light.
“No active hostiles on sensors,” Harmeen reported.
Sarah nodded, then did some quick math. She had plenty of time to gather in these prizes.
“Mister Algiss, match the system speed, and point us toward Refuge,” Sarah ordered.
“On it, Admiral,” the young officer replied.
“Mister Seto, order the Fyurigan out here to recover these ships and any personnel on board. Make sure they understand that a detachment of marines board first, suitable to the number of Komi personnel on board. Have the Entalia remain here on station in case any of the prisoners decide to go down like heroes. The order is that if an enemy ship opens fire, cripple it. We’ll use it for parts if we must, and we know where more ships are for the taking.”
“Aye, sir,” Seto replied.
Her crew working at their tasks, she had time to think. She needed a casualty report from the surface, and a head count of the Alliance personnel she’d rescued.
“Incoming from shuttle 19C. That’s Lieutenant Hamden’s ship,” Seto reported.
“Let’s have it,” Sarah replied.
“Stennis, shuttle 19C. I have someone on board who wishes to speak with the admiral.”
“Dayson,” Sarah said, letting them know she was listening.
“Exactly how is it that you got promoted to Admiral, I mean, how many insane tactics can possibly work for one person?”
Sarah sucked in her breath. Was that… Kuo? “Is this who I think it is?” she asked.
“Glad to see I can at least take you by surprise.”
“Hanada!” she practically howled. “You’re alive!”
“Captain Hanada Kuo at your service. Apparently I’m hard to kill, sir. You’ve tried plenty of times yourself and failed.”
Sarah laughed. This was good news. Her former XO from the Teplo, Kuo was top notch.
“Well, I suppose if you survive enough attempts, apparently you make Captain,” she responded.
“You should know,” Kuo replied. “So what’s your plan here, Sarah? Lieutenant Hamden has mostly clued me in on what’s going on, as hard to believe as it is. If I hadn’t seen the actions of these adepts, I’d call him a liar.”
Her plan was about to change, just a little. The Stennis was still flagship. He was now, he’d always be. But in Kuo she had the opportunity of a lifetime. To build a fleet in her image, by her standards, with a friend. Not that Heinrich wasn’t very capable, but it was still hard to think of Inez as a friend considering the circumstances of the Hinden. She’d get past that, but with Kuo she could get started now.
“I just stole several warships in various stages of repair. I’m going to need someone to see to refitting them, crewing as many of them as we can, and then getting a list to me of the things we still need to fully outfit,” she answered him. “Then we’re going to go kill the Hive in a way they’ve never faced before.”
“I like it. So who is this person you need?”
She grinned. “I’m not beyond having you put in a cell until you comply with my wishes,” she transmitted.
“Whoa, just kidding. I’m your guy. It looks like, since this Hamden fellow is telling me the truth, I pretty much owe you everything as does everyone else you rescued today.”
“Ask Hamden for a count on how many were rescued.”
“I have that for you,” Kuo said. “Fourteen thousand, five hundred and eleven.”
“That’s quite a few. Not enough to run these ships.”
“No, my carrier, which I see you brought along, needs eight thousand to be fully staffed. The leftovers from that barely crew the two battlecruisers I see floating out there.”
“So we need loyal Alliance people. Where do we get that?” Sarah asked.
“We’ll talk in person, Admiral, if you don’t mind. I’d really like to have this conversation face to face.”
“Bah. Never cooperative,” she jabbed.
“I just need time to get the numbers together, and decide on the most effective use of the ships you have and learn the repair state of each.”
“Major Dobornik, my chief engineering officer, picked them out. He’s skilled, and I expect repairs to be less than if we’d stolen ships at random.”
“He must have picked the Hyaku solely because it’s a carrier, then. She’s heavily damaged, or at least she was when I left her. Maybe the Komi did some repairs. They do good work if nothing else good can be said about them.”
Sarah pondered that. Did they repair some of the ships? Maybe the work was already well underway.
“Regardless, Hanada, I’m excited to see you. Let’s get to work.”
“I’m yours to command, Admiral.”
She closed the link and folded her fingers behind her head as she allowed herself a moment to gloat. Capable commanders were hard to find, as Batalova had proven. But she knew Kuo. He was a dream pick, and he’d probably saved her life on the Teplo.
It felt good to have a friend. A military friend, not a civilian one. Because while she and Thea were close, the Mayor had no clue how a military machine worked.
Chapter 28 - Admiral’s Personal Log
AI Lucy82A recording, Admiral's personal log, personal archive: Galactic Standard Date 09:52:57 30 JAND 15332
Personal log entry #1794, Admiral Sarah Dayson, origin Korvand, Pallus Sector.
Current Location: Inbound to Refuge, Oasis System
We did it! We had losses, and I hate that. But we rescued over fourteen thousand Alliance personnel. They’ll be offered the chance to fight the Komi, or, if they’ve had enough, they can settle New Korvand. We need ship crew, but we need factory workers, miners, and even farmers as well. I will not require anyone to fight at this point.
Somehow I doubt I will suffer for lack of volunteers.
[A seven second pause]
And I have Kuo back! What a fantastic turn of events that is. My first XO from my first command. I have no intention of replacing Heinrich as my XO, of course, but it does sound like Kuo is eager to get the command of his carrier back. He’ll have it, if that’s what he wants, and command of his escorts. That carrier will make an unbelievably powerful platform for the adepts to launch swarms from.
Once we get enough adepts trained to fill that role.
What I’m wondering is when does it become too much for Emille? Are there more out there who can perform her role, queen bee of the swarms?
We really need several. After seeing how it went at Mindari, I’m not sure we can be beaten with the adepts on our side.
[A ten second pause]
I need to get on the ground and get all this sorted out with Thea, at her request.
My shuttle pilot is standing by, I’m ready to go. I need some open sky and fresh air. Not a feeling I’m historically prone to feel, but there is something about Refuge. It’s home.
[A fourteen second pause, with light sounds AI estimates 98% probability to be luggage packing in the background]
There. All done. Lucy, tell my pilot I’m on my way.
[A six second pause]
End the log, Lucy.
Chapter 29 - First Day on the Job
38 Jand 15332
Salphan walked down the streets of the newcomer city in awe. The giant buildings were impressive enough, but the wide walkways, the vehicles moving to and fro, the metal ships in the sky overhead. It was so much to take in. His training had ba
rely prepared him for it.
People milled around him, strange looking, some dark, some light, many with hair in colors he had no idea was even possible. They were friendly, as he was in return.
He’d landed the job of a lifetime after years of service to Master Adept Edolhirr in the diplomatic corps.
The ambassador of Antecar to New Korvand, this was his first day in Jerna. He’d spent over a year learning the Galactic Standard the newcomers spoke. And much of their culture, at least as Antecaran scholars understood it.
It was a big day for him to finally put all of that to work.
He was surprised to find he’d arrived just in time, judging by the disorder ahead of him. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t far down the street, probably in the small plaza he could see.
Gunfire, which he’d come to recognize during his training for this job, erupted for a moment, then died away.
A woman’s voice echoed into his mind, overriding the screams of fleeing citizens. He ran forward, applying just the slightest trace of the gift to each of his feet to hasten himself along. But not so fast he’d fall.
The woman’s voice yelled at someone ahead. “You can kill me, but I’m not irreplaceable. My people do not go away with my death.”
A searing wave of pain reached him. It was almost as if she knew how to channel her pain to call for the help of a nearby adept.
He broke into the square, to see the woman laying on the ground, her abdomen burnt and steaming. Several men and women, probably her guards, lay around her, either smoking from death by fire or frozen in the grip of an icy end. An adept stood over the woman, a sneer on his face indicating his intentions. He was torturing her to death, and enjoying every moment of it.
The woman on the ground was Admiral Sarah Dayson. He recognized her from Edolhirr’s shared memory of what she looked like.
Salphan recognized the traitor as well, although he’d only met him once in passing. Fasdamar of Karanya, a militant and generally disliked noble from an equally militant and disliked nation in southern Segat.
It was time to earn his keep as Edolhirr’s trusted envoy.
Salphan ran to a position a short distance from Sarah Dayson, moving into a fighting stance. “Step back, lay down, and surrender, traitor.”
His enemy didn’t hesitate. Fasdamar whirled around, hurling benches sitting next to a small fountain in Salphan’s direction, an attack Salphan easily diverted.
His eyes narrowed as he counterattacked. “You’re not playing with the helpless,” he hissed.
His counterattack slammed into Fasdamar, knocking the adept down and sliding him across the brick pavers of the square.
Fasdamar rolled, using his cloak to protect him from any abrasion the ground might have otherwise caused. He deftly rolled to his feet, aided by his gift.
“Good. I’ve always hated Antecar too,” the traitor spat out.
Salphan felt the warning of a heat attack, the slightest tingle preceded the attempted alteration of his body.
Reaching into the ground, he rent bedrock from it’s ageless foundations, tearing a giant wall from the earth itself to protect against Fasdamar’s assault. Stones flew in all directions, and a tree fell over onto the carved figure in the fountain.
Salphan simultaneously hurled broken pavers, benches, and most other debris he could find over the stone wall toward where his enemy should be.
Behind him people ran into the square, and he took a second to look at the new arrivals. Soldiers. Newcomers with guns.
Guns they leveled at him. “Get on the ground!”
He’d better explain to keep them from shooting him. He raised his hands, palms up in submission. “On the other side of this wall is a rogue adept, and if you want to live, you’ll let me deal with him and get her to safety,” he said.
Seconds later the first wave of pain hit him. Fasdamar’s attack had been at least partially successful. He was burned, he had no idea how bad.
Turning back to the matter at hand, he was surprised to see that Fasdamar had lifted himself to the top of the large boulder wall to regain sight of Salphan.
Taking time to explain to the soldiers was Salphan’s undoing. Fasdamar would probably write it off as the weakness of those who cared for the ungifted.
No matter, he’d died for a good cause.
He had no time to respond as the tingle of an attack gripped his heart. Fasdamar meant to kill this time.
A staccato burst was the last conscious perception to enter his mind.
Chapter 30 - Retribution
40 Jand 15332
Alarin and Emille were at the hospital within ten minutes of landing. When he’d heard of the attack on Sarah, he’d hardly believed it.
Not even the Karanyans were that depraved, surely.
But here he was, staring at the unconscious Sarah Dayson, a woman he hadn’t been entirely sure wasn’t some sort of immortal.
Fasdamar had paid, he lay unconscious in a nearby room, under guard, both of his legs blown off. The marines that guarded Sarah Dayson had all been killed by his cowardly attack, but others had rushed to the scene and gunned the adept down. Even a Master Adept can only deflect so many projectiles.
Shortly thereafter Emille had dragged the truth out of Fasdamar’s unconscious mind. This wasn’t an unplanned attack. Karanya’s leader, Master Adept Sh’garth, had sanctioned it.
Some couldn’t tolerate change. Others lived by it.
Today, Sh’garth would die by it.
Newcomer transports were already on their way to Antecar to pick up Edolhirr’s combat adepts, and deliver them to Karanya alongside Thea’s best soldiers. Before the men landed, newcomer airships would rain fire from the sky on Karanya’s palace complex.
Today the remaining organized opposition to the unification of the world would be silenced. Once the resisters saw the overwhelming fury with which Sarah’s attackers were put down, it would be over.
But that didn’t help his friend.
She was hooked to machines, and Thea hovered over her like a worried mother. Alarin couldn’t see all the details, but Thea had given him a brief description.
Fasdamar had cooked Sarah’s lower abdomen, damaging her kidneys, her large intestine, her bladder, her female organs. Only the nature of the attack, fire, had kept her from bleeding out. Most of the blood vessels were cauterized by the heat.
Now machines tried to do all the things for Sarah that the destroyed organs had done before. And his friend lay unconscious on the verge of death.
Emille entered into the room and walked up to him, locking her arm into his. “How is she?”
“Staring into the face of Tsungte. A miracle she’s alive, but only because the newcomer machines are keeping her so.”
They stood silently for a moment, absorbing the severity of that. Who else would Alarin be able to work with to bring this world together? Thea? A nice woman, but certainly too timid for what had to be done. Heinrich. The opposite. Too harsh at the wrong times.
There was the new man, this Kuo that Sarah was so fond of. He was on his way here from a spacecraft, from what Peter told him, apparently Sarah had planned to meet with him tomorrow.
Peter was at his lab now, growing organs that Sarah would need if she survived this initial shock. Another newcomer miracle.
Rage filled him. He’d told Sarah the adepts had control. That they weren’t a threat after the death of Merik. He’d been wrong.
Alarin pulled his arm from Emille’s, and moved toward the door.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
Her tone of voice said she knew full well what he was up to.
“I’m going to kill Fasdamar,” Alarin replied, opening the door. He stood in the doorway, waiting for Emille’s reply.
Thea surged toward him. “You’re going to what? That’s not how we work here.”
Alarin had to keep himself from exploding on her. The short war between the newcomers and the adepts had been contentious, but during the proces
s he’d become fast friends with Sarah. She deserved justice, it was his people that betrayed her and everyone on the moon. “Fasdamar is not your citizen to worry about. As I’m often told, I’m the First Adept of Refuge now. I get to decide.”
“And you’ll do nothing yet,” Emille said, walking up to and embracing him. “We wait to see what happens with Sarah. If she dies, I’ll kill him with you. If she lives, she decides his fate. It is our way.”
“The Antecaran way. Zeffult is much more… direct. Has been for a long time,” Alarin protested. Thea, he could get past. Emille was not so easy of a barrier to breach.
“This is neither Antecar nor Zeffult. This is New Korvand,” Emille reminded him as she removed her arms from around him. “You are not the boss here.”
Thea looked helpless.
Alarin understood her fears. If the adepts started doing what they wanted without regard to the laws and edicts of the newcomers, then why should Thea trust him? It couldn’t be that way.
“You win,” he said, resigned. “Thea, I apologize. This is your land. But do not let Fasdamar regain consciousness. If he does, he will burn this building to ash, I promise you.”
“I’ll go see that he’s fully sedated,” Thea said, relief on her face. “I’ll be right back, I need to let Sarah recover a moment before her next dose of nanites anyway.”
“Doesn’t she always curse that word?” Alarin asked.
“You know her too well,” Thea said as she exited.
Alarin walked over to his friend and touched her mind gently. Nothing. Whatever medicine the newcomers used, it removed all consciousness from the body.
Emille stood next to him again. “You’re doing the right thing, waiting. But either way, Fasdamar will have to pay. Hundreds, if not more, are about to pay in Karanya.”
“How is that acceptable, but me ending that worm down the hall isn’t?” Alarin asked.
“Because that is war,” Emille said. She looked pained. “We’ve learned it so well.”
Alarin didn’t respond. There was nothing to say. Before the newcomers came, there was conflict on Nula Armana, but it was only between adepts. But recently armed conflict had arisen between Zeffult and Himalland, and now the rest of the world stood against Karanya.