Husher shook his head, once again speechless in the face of how far Snyder and people like her were willing to go. He was beginning to think that his biggest weakness might be his lack of imagination for exactly what they were capable of.
“Now, then,” Snyder said, her voice tight, though it carried a hint of premature triumph. “All in favor of the proposed legislation, say aye.”
They went around the room, and one by one, the councilors gave their votes.
“Aye,” said Snyder.
“Aye,” said Chancey.
Next, it was the only Tumbran’s turn, who hesitated, his gaze flitting from Husher, to Chancey, and then to Snyder.
At last, he opened his mouth, and a quiet syllable emerged: “Aye.”
The vote was almost unanimous—all except a Winger councilor, whose name escaped Husher. Faces darkened when she said “Nay,” but the vote moved briskly forward, and the law was enacted with an overwhelming majority.
At the final “Aye,” Husher stood.
“History won’t be kind to you for this,” he said, and marched out of the room.
Chapter 39
Both Killers
In keeping with the orders he’d been given, Husher had the Vesta and her battle group exit their respective warp bubbles well outside the Concord System, so that the resulting shockwaves dissipated harmlessly into the void without damaging anything.
We wouldn’t want to hurt our oldest enemies, Husher thought. In saner times, he might have chastised himself for the sarcastic thought, but he didn’t bother now. His mood had gotten progressively darker since his last encounter with the Cybele City Council, and he recognized that he was becoming bitter.
What does it matter? This is over. I’ve failed, and all that’s left is to watch the catastrophe unfold.
Another, smaller voice spoke to him, then, from deeper inside him: You don’t really believe that. You fought to keep the command seat because you know you can make a difference.
Husher quashed the voice and turned to Winterton. “Are you picking up anything?”
“Nothing, sir—not even anything to corroborate the intel we received, about the system bristling with warships.”
That didn’t mean much. The Concord System was ringed by a massive asteroid belt, with plenty of rocks big enough to conceal three supercarriers the size of the Vesta, let alone anything Teth or the Gok were known to field.
The only thing the apparent emptiness of the system told Husher was that Teth had been expecting this visit, and that wasn’t surprising, either. It was characteristic of all his past encounters with the Ixa that they possessed intel vastly superior to that which Husher had access to.
“Coms,” he said.
“Captain?”
“Broadcast a blanket transmission throughout the entire system. Text is fine. Tell Teth we came to talk, and that we have his brother Ochrim with us.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that, Husher leaned back as far as the command seat allowed—which wasn’t very much, since it didn’t recline—and studied the tactical display he’d willed his Oculenses to show. He felt exhausted.
Teth didn’t keep him waiting very long.
“Contact directly off the bow,” Winterton said. “It’s Teth’s ship, sir. It’s…sitting there, just outside the asteroid belt, without momentum along any trajectory.”
“Meaning we’ll collide with it if we continue forward,” Husher muttered after a glance at the relevant telemetric data. “Helm, full reverse thrust until we’re stationary as well.” As much as Husher would like to continue until the Vesta’s nose rested mere meters away from Teth’s warship, he knew better than to come anywhere near the Ixan. That would mean death for whoever failed to shoot first, and Husher knew exactly how far he could trust Teth.
“Incoming real-time transmission request,” Ensign Fry said.
“Accept it and put it on the main display.”
Teth’s newly hideous face appeared, with its knobs of bone breaking through a hardened, scaly face. “Did you bring Jake Price?”
“You don’t already know the answer to that question?” Husher said, eyebrows raised.
Teth’s tongue made a brief appearance between his fangs before receding into the dark maw of his mouth. “All language is performative, Captain, and sometimes questions are used to make a point.”
Husher decided not to bother trying to decipher that. “We don’t have a Jake Price with us, no.”
“Mm. Now, Captain, I know you’ve always been a great admirer of my work, and I’d be interested in getting your feedback on my efforts in obliterating your munitions facility in Viburnum. Did you appreciate my masterstroke, or did you even grasp it?”
“Cut the shit, Teth. I admire nothing you’ve done. I’ve fought to oppose it for decades.”
The Ixan twisted his bulbous head to the left, donning a perplexed expression. “We’ve made war on each other, certainly, but you’ve always striven so obviously to emulate me. Clearly, successful emulation is well outside your grasp—we agree on that—but the striving is obvious to all, and it’s embarrassing to us both for you to deny it.”
“We’re nothing alike,” Husher ground out.
“We are incredibly alike. We’re both killers, and we’ve both taken on the responsibility of deciding when it’s right for others to die. You’re not nearly as good as I am at making those decisions, but we both make them. As well, we’re both fighting partly out of vengeance. You killed my father, Baxa, and I killed the man you wished was your father, Keyes.”
“Captain Keyes sacrificed himself to help defeat you.”
“Call it whatever you want. Keyes failed, and you’re filled with a bitter thirst for revenge.”
“You’re nothing but an abomination,” Husher shot back, “created and set loose by the masters you call the Progenitors.”
“And you’re a dog, kept kenneled by the Kaithe until it drove you half-mad. We can do this all day, Captain. Humans are just as engineered as Ixa. You’re as much an abomination as I am. You speak to me using a display accessed with your vaunted Oculenses, but you might as well be looking into a mirror. Now that I’ve made that abundantly clear to you, dog, why don’t you follow your masters’ command to speak, just as they’ve told you to speak?”
Husher’s chest heaved with his breathing, and the sudden ringing in his ears made it difficult to think.
To have Teth diagnose his situation with such arrogance, such precision…it made Husher want to order his Tactical officer to let missiles fly.
That’s what he wants you to do. But no matter what Teth says, you have orders to follow.
“We’ve come to negotiate a peace deal,” Husher managed.
“Ah, yes,” Teth said. “Losing the munitions facility rendered the Interstellar Union exactly as pliable as I anticipated. And all it took to make you abandon the facility was to frighten one of your precious interspecies colonies.”
“We don’t gamble with lives,” Husher said, even though, on this point, he basically agreed with what the Ixan was getting at. But what else was there for him to say?
“I’ve always wondered why you don’t gamble with them,” Teth mused. “When losing in war means slavery or death, is it not far better to spend any coin necessary to avoid defeat?”
“It’s not worth sacrificing your principles.” Husher truly did believe that, if not in the way Snyder and her lot did.
Teth raised a massive, clawed hand in a dismissive gesture. “I tire of your sophomoric philosophizing. Surely you’re not the one who’ll conduct the negotiations on behalf of your government. Who am I to speak with?”
Husher nodded at his Coms officer, and she rerouted the transmission to a small chamber situated deep inside the Vesta, where Ochrim, Chancey, Shobi, and Bryson were gathered. Teth vanished from the CIC’s main display, though Husher could hear his voice through his embedded ear piece, as well as those of the four designated negotiators.
Husher did
have the ability to interject, though Chancey had made it clear that his contributions weren’t welcome unless they pertained directly to the security of the ship.
“Greetings, brother,” the mutated Ixan said.
“Teth,” Ochrim said.
“Hello,” Chancey chimed in.
“Let’s get right down to it,” Teth said, “shall we, oh defenders of the right and good? What have you come to offer me?”
“What do you want?” Chancey asked.
“What an intriguing question.” Teth let the silence drag on, then.
Someone cleared his throat—likely Chancey, since he spoke again. “We’ve come prepared to offer much in exchange for your cooperation in working together to achieve stability for the region. There are resource rights to several systems we’re prepared to offer, and we’re also ready to hear and consider whatever other requests and requirements you think are—”
Husher muted himself, then turned to his Coms officer. “Shut it off.”
“Sir?” Fry said, eyebrows raised.
“Shut it off. I can’t stomach it.”
“Yes, sir.” A second later, the voices vanished from his ear, and Husher breathed a sigh of relief, relishing the silence. He toggled to a view of the tactical display, then, scrutinizing Teth’s ship for any sign he might be planning to violate the implied understanding that no shots would be fired during the negotiations.
Chapter 40
Belay That Order
Husher was so fixated on Teth’s ship that he almost didn’t notice the asteroid that underwent a slight but appreciable course change, carrying it along a new trajectory that wouldn’t have been possible were it being acted on by the laws of physics alone.
Once he realized something wasn’t right, he willed his Oculenses to rewind the feed from his ship’s forward visual sensors, and he scrutinized the main display during the moment of change. He needed to be sure.
There. The asteroid’s trajectory definitely changed, and not only that, the rock was more than large enough to conceal a ship like the one they’d fought in the Saffron System. This close, the barrage of robots such a ship could loose would be incredibly difficult to fend off, especially combined with Teth’s arsenal, and that of whatever other vessels were concealed within the asteroid belt.
“Captain…” Winterton said, and Husher’s gaze snapped toward the sensor operator.
He was feeling a bit light-headed—like this entire situation felt surreal. It was surreal. They’d come to make nice with the Ixa, for crying out loud, and they were clearly about to be played. The Interstellar Union had signed off on this!
“What is it, Ensign?”
“Have a look at the position of Teth’s warship on the tactical display. It’s inching toward us.”
Husher gripped the armrests of the command seat until his knuckles were white and his forearms vibrated. “Tactical—”
“Captain,” Kaboh said in a warning tone from the Nav station.
Husher spoke over him. “Tactical, calculate a firing solution for eight Hydras targeting Teth’s ship and the area around it. Program them to separate at a kilometer’s remove from each other, and tell me when they’re ready.”
“Yes, sir,” Tremaine said, bending to his work.
Hydras were inspired by missiles fielded by the Ixa during the Second Galactic War, which had exploded mid-flight into hundreds of thousands of speeding kinetic-kill masses, raining down on a target ship’s hull and obliterating it if enough of the masses connected.
Similarly, every Hydra divided into eight smaller missiles, each equipped with a compact nuclear warhead. The Hydras were fitted with sensors and designed to separate the moment they detected an attempt to shoot them down. The eight-Hydra barrage he’d ordered would split into sixty-four warheads.
“Captain Husher,” Kaboh said, “I strongly advise against—”
“I’m responsible for safeguarding this ship, Kaboh,” he said. “That vessel is moving against us.”
“Missiles armed and ready, sir,” Tremaine said.
Husher nodded. “Standby to fire the primary laser, either at Teth’s ship or at whatever comes out from behind that large asteroid—it’ll depend on how effective our Hydras end up being. Fire missiles, Chief Tremaine.”
Kaboh stood up from the Nav station. “Belay that order.”
“Excuse me, Lieutenant Commander?” Husher said.
“I’m officially declaring you unfit for command on the grounds that your erratic behavior indicates you’re mentally unwell.”
Tremaine was looking between Husher and Kaboh, brow lowered, clearly uncertain how to react.
“You don’t have the authority to do that,” Husher said. “Fire the Hydras, Tremaine.”
“Do not fire them, Chief Tremaine,” Kaboh said. “I don’t have the authority to do it, but as chief medical officer, Doctor Bancroft does. And I know she’ll agree with me based on the way you’re behaving. Tremaine, you are not mentally unstable, and for you, firing those missiles will amount to high treason. I strongly recommend you refrain from doing so until Doctor Bancroft at least has an opportunity to comment on this matter.”
“Teth’s vessel is still approaching,” Winterton said.
“We don’t have time for a medical assessment in the middle of a developing engagement,” Husher said. “Tremaine, fire those missiles. Lieutenant Commander Kaboh, you are relieved from duty.”
With a toss of his head, Kaboh’s gaze swung toward the Coms officer. “Fry, put Mayor Chancey through to the CIC for all to hear.”
“Chancey has no authority in my CIC,” Husher said.
“No, but he’ll likely be able to tell us why Teth is moving closer.”
Slowly, Fry’s hand moved over her console, and with a couple taps, the mayor was patched through.
“Mayor Chancey,” the Kaithian said.
“Kaboh? Yes?”
“Captain Husher is poised to launch eight Hydra missiles at the Ixan Command Leader’s vessel in response to her maneuvering closer. Are you able to explain the vessel’s movement?”
A brief silence, and then Chancey spoke, sounding incredulous. “We were having trouble with the connection, so Command Leader Teth tried shortening the transmission distance. That seemed to work, and his Navigation auxiliary is slowing down now.”
Kaboh’s eyes found Husher’s.
“Mayor,” Husher said, “an asteroid changed its trajectory in a way that shouldn’t have been possible unless an enemy ship was hidden behind it.”
“Thank you, Mayor Chancey,” Kaboh said over Husher. “The captain has been acting irrationally, but you can rest assured that no rash actions will be taken.”
“Right. Good. Thank you, Kaboh.”
“It’s my pleasure. Terminate the call, please, Ensign, and summon Doctor Bancroft to the CIC. Commander Fesky,” the Kaithian said, turning toward the XO’s chair, “it’s not my place to give you orders, but I would recommend preparing to take command of the Vesta.”
“This isn’t about my mental state,” Husher said, glaring at the Nav officer. “This is a political coup of a military vessel.”
“Doctor Bancroft is far from a political operative, Captain. She’s a medical professional of the highest caliber. If she corroborates my assessment, it will be because she recognizes it as the best thing for her ship and everyone aboard.” The Kaithian sat at his console and turned toward it.
Five minutes later, the hatch opened to reveal Bancroft, for whom Kaboh played the video and audio of what had just transpired in the CIC.
Husher sat in the command seat, body rigid. Listening to himself, he did sound a bit manic, if you were looking for signs he was unstable.
I’m not, though. I’m stable. It’s the rest of the galaxy that’s insane.
“I’m truly sorry, Captain,” Bancroft said once she finished reviewing the recording. Her hands were folded over her waist, and she met his eyes with what looked a lot like sympathy. “I do find you unfit for
command. It would be best if you return to your quarters for now, until we can find you more appropriate accommodations.”
For a moment, Husher stayed where he was, wholly unable to accept what had just happened.
“Will we need to contact Major Gamble, Captain?” Kaboh asked mildly.
Husher didn’t answer. Instead, he rose from the command seat and walked stiffly from the CIC.
Chapter 41
The Taste of Sweat and Fear
“I’m sure you agree, my terms are quite reasonable,” Teth said from the command seat in the very center of the bridge, while his various auxiliaries sat around him in total stillness. “In exchange for a five-year armistice, to be renewed for a second five-year period at the end of the first, contingent on adherence by both sides…in exchange for that, I want total control of the Baxa System as well as the six nearby systems we’ve already mentioned. I also wish to speak with Jake Price, in person, as soon as possible, with the understanding that no harm will come to him. I’ve already explained where you can expect to find Price. Does that cover everything?”
“That about does it,” Chancey said cheerfully. “And as a representative of the Interstellar Union, I agree to those terms. It’s been a surprising pleasure to negotiate with you, Command Leader. I’ll see to it that the Vesta returns with young Price, and as we’ve already agreed, her battle group will remain here to ensure the IU’s interests are being served.”
“An unnecessary provision, but an understandable one, Mayor,” Teth said. “I will treat them as if they were my own.”
Chancey nodded. “If what you say about Price’s location is true, we should return in a little over a month. Is there anything else you’d care to discuss, Command Leader?”
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