Roben remained silent for a long time, looking at the sun as it slowly descended behind the horizon. But then answered, somehow immediately growing brighter in the face:
"Thank you, brother. Verena... yes, she was listening to our conversation and is grateful to accept your gift and also expresses her appreciation to you. Another thing... my son is also named Georg, just like you. Only my wife, myself and a very small circle of our closest contacts know that. And now you are also in on the family secret."
I opened the personal opinion change menu and raised my opinion of Roben by ten points. My brother answered in kind.
* * *
Roben and I were sitting in the very same alcove where we held our last meeting. This time, instead of more fruits I'd already grown sick of, I suggested we cook some marinated meat to go with our wine, right there in the fresh air. I even said that I'd cook it, so the servants wouldn't get in the way. For Roben, the idea of cooking something himself turned out to be, to put it bluntly, a novelty, and he simply sat next to me, slurping a light wine through a straw and enjoying the excellent weather and fresh breeze.
The conversation progressed, naturally, about politics. My brother was clearly nervous about the presence of outside combat starships in Tesse and was trying in every way to convince me to make peace with the Duke. I tried to convince Roben that there was no cause for alarm. My systems were well prepared to defend against an invasion, and Tesse was a totally neutral party in the conflict and was in no way under threat. The only thing I wanted from my brother was financial support, but Roben took a neutral stance on that issue as well.
"Georg, I want you to understand that I'm on your side in spirit. I have gone up against Duke Paolo's avarice before and know what a slimeball he can be. But you also must understand my position. I can't give you a billion, even on loan. The head of the Orange House has ordered that you be totally cut off financially, and I cannot disobey him. And now your systems are closed to incursion, but it would take just six hours to reach Tesse from the Orange House Capital. Just imagine it, little brother: just six hours and this place could be packed to the brim with the Duke's combat starships..."
"What if you also put your warp beacon in 'by request' mode? Then you wouldn’t have to let anyone in unless you want them," I suggested, moving the coals around in the grill.
"What are you talking about?!" Roben even grew pale in fear. "For that the Duke would skin me alive!"
"Well, what if you turn it off altogether? Just for twelve hours... even for ten, turn off the Tesse warp beacon for equipment maintenance. I don't need any more time than that. I'm not asking you for ships, brother. I'm not asking for political support. I just need a billion credits and ten hours of your beacon being off. And I'll bring you Peres royl Paolo's head on a platter."
Roben, already far in the weeds, twirled his empty glass and immersed himself in thought, holding his head in his hands. While my older brother thought, I answered an incoming message.
"Good, give my permission. Yes, they can, they're on the list – five freighters from Tialla to Hnelle. Give them a window of time and turn on the warp beacon for five seconds."
I turned off the communicator and turned back to Roben.
"See, it's that easy. This whole blockade against me is coming apart at the seams. What's the sense in trying to block my ships from getting in from Tesse, when freighters with the shipments I need can easily get to Hnelle from Tialla or Himora, and from Forepost-11...?"
Roben shuddered and answered decisively:
"Well alright, little brother. I promise you my beacon will be off for ten hours. But the billion is harder. No matter how you hide it, the Orange House financial control services will notice the money transfer. But there is a loophole: I suggest neither a gift nor a loan. How about I buy something from you for a billion credits? For example, I could buy your yacht. To be honest, I don't know the real price of Queen of Sin, but you must agree that it hardly exceeds half that amount, even including all the luxury items aboard.”
Here began my turn to be immersed in thought. It was a good deal, but the meat was done, and we took a break to eat.
"This is some great stuff, little brother!" With clear satisfaction, Roben ripped into the smoky juicy pieces of meat with his teeth, interspersing bites with big gulps of wine. "We'll have to come out here in nature more often. Maybe something stronger? To me, wine seems a bit too weak. It doesn't get you drunk at all."
"Let's go stronger," I agreed.
Roben reached for the bottle, but suddenly tightened up, placed his hand on his left ear and asked me in surprise:
"Georg, are you expecting someone? It's just that Katerina ton Mesfelle is asking for you. She's just arrived on Tesse on an express line from the Core. Should I tell her you're here?"
"Yes, of course. And actually, send a high-speed shuttle out for her. She should join us for a get-together. I invited Katerina to join me in Unatari. She didn't have to think long; she hung right up and flew out. I already saw yesterday that our second cousin had made it out of the Green House to the Orange."
"I remember Kat well from when she was little," said Roben with a nostalgic smile. "When she was eight or ten, she visited me often on Tesse. If you look around, you'd even be able to find her old childhood playmates."
I put a new portion of meat to grill as the servants that Roben called brought in sparkling wine and all kinds of light appetizers for the lady who would soon be joining us.
"Well, so what have you decided about the yacht?" asked Roben, and I waved my hand decisively.
"Alright, I'll sell it. It's a shame, of course. I've grown accustomed to Queen of Sin. But right now, money is much more important to me. The only thing is that I'll be taking the crew with me for other ships!"
"Good, little brother, but only take your people. Leave all the valuables on the yacht. Because I know how you are. You pulled a good one on me with that Uukresh. By the way, what should be done with that ship? If you're clashing with the Duke, he'll want to confiscate such a valuable ship."
"You are, of course, right about that, Roben. I'll have to take the Uukresh with me. Its warp drives have already been fixed. I'll take it to Unatari and finish it up there. But, to be honest, I urgently need to start buying docks for it and shipping them in..."
I called Bionica, who was on Queen of Sin, gave her the equipment purchase orders and also told her about Queen of Sin changing ownership. The android promised that the crewmembers would all be transferred to Joan the Fatty within two hours.
I heard the crunching of sand. and saw Katerina ton Mesfelle walking toward us along a path. She was a beautiful, athletically-built brunette in a form-fitting traveling suit.
"So that's how it is! My cousins have started celebrating my arrival without me. It's not proper. Well, anyway, this lady is fresh off the road. Pour me a glass of something and get me something to eat. I haven't had a bite since this morning."
The account balance change alert beeped. A deposit of a billion credits! And, I wasn't able to turn off the screen before another billion came in! I took a look at the accompanying information. The first transfer, as expected, was from the sale of Queen of Sin. And the second had the note: "payout for breach of contract on the repair of the Uukresh carrier." I raised my eyes in surprise. Roben, sitting opposite me and pouring Katerina a glass of wine, gave me a wink. The three of us toasted to our meeting and had a drink.
"Ah, nice!" said Katerina, after draining her glass. "By the way, who was that sitting like a sad doll in the grass on the way here?"
I told her briefly about Princess Astra’s arrival on my ship. The girl shook her head in reproach:
"Georg, you look so grown up, but you can be such a child! Allow me to give you my first piece of advice as your new assistant. In your difficult circumstances, that Princess is a life raft that you should be clinging to! If you were to appear with a girl as beautiful as her in high society, all conversations about the android would fizzle o
ut on their own. That is why you should not be sending Astra home, but inviting journalists to flesh the topic out! And that's to say nothing of the fact that this girl is probably hungry..."
I went out after Astra and brought her to the alcove. Katerina slid the steaming and sizzling meat directly off the skewer onto her plate, and also grabbed vegetables and appetizers from the common dish with her hands, placing them on the plate next to the meat. Meanwhile, I asked the girl, clearly confused and not knowing how to behave, a question over the improvised table:
"Astra, tell me as honestly as possible: what were your parents' parting words to you?"
The girl didn't hide a thing:
"Your Highness, my father, King Kant, told me that a girl from a remote star system only gets the chance to speak with upper Imperial nobility once a century and that I should take hold of that chance with both hands. King Kant also said that he is simply not in a state to give a proper dowry for his fourteenth daughter, all the more so given that five of my older sisters have yet to marry. No one asked my opinion on the matter. My father simply ordered me to prepare for a trip and convince your Highness to let me stay with him at any cost, preferably forever, regardless of what role I'd take up – spouse, favorite, lover, or simply traveling companion. In any case, I'd be provided with the support I deserve. If I am not capable of charming your Highness, then I am to hold out at least for a few days in your company so I have the chance be seen in the company of an upper aristocrat. After that, it should be easier for me to select a groom. If, even with all of my effort, nothing is to come of this, I am to give a signal with this ring, and in three days I'll be picked up by a starship going toward the Veyerde system. But, if that does happen, I won't be able to count on a warm reception from my father. So, I am willing to accept whatever fate you give me... Oops! Just not that!"
The Princess, reaching for her glass, caught her wide sleeve on a meat sauce dish and tipped it over right onto her dress. It looked like an accident, but with these past "domestic fabrications," crafted carefully by directors, there was no way I could be sure. Katerina cleaned up the sauce as much as she could, though the dress was of course ruined. Astra's face had a very authentic look of being upset on it.
"It's alright, don't worry about it," I said, calming the upset Princess. "I'm not gonna promise you 'forever,' but consider yourself noticed. Katerina will try to get the whole galaxy talking about my new favorite. But meanwhile, invite your younger sister to our table. It isn't befitting for a child to go hungry."
The incoming call signal beeped. It was Admiral Kiro Sabuto on the line.
"My Prince, you asked me to tell you when this kind of thing happens. A large part of the enemy fleet has left on a warp jump toward Himora!"
"Great news, admiral. We've got them where we want them now!"
I signed off and reached for my glass of wine as my face lit up with a smile from ear to ear.
"Ladies and gentlemen, pour yourselves a glass up to the brim! Little Flora gets juice, everyone else gets something stronger. I offer a toast: to us continuing to allow our enemies to make mistakes!"
We clinked glasses and took a drink. Astra suddenly coughed, having choked on the wine.
"I beg your apologies," said the girl through welling tears. "The wine was stronger than I'm used to. At home they only gave me the watered-down stuff."
Katerina looked at me somewhat reproachfully:
"What did you pour her? Why are you trying to get a child drunk?"
"I gave her what everyone else was having. Well, alright, next time she'll get juice."
"No, no," Astra blurted out. "I'm no child. I'm already seventeen, which, according to Veyerdean law, makes me a legal adult. Also, it seems somehow strange to refuse wine to someone who's just been sent intentionally to fly across half the Empire to become a Crown Prince's lover!"
"Brave girl!" Roben began chuckling, but I did not support him in his mood:
"The wine just went to her head. But about this 'lover' talk, I'm almost three times your age, and if I say you get juice, you get juice." All I needed was another crime to be accused of. This time it'd be corrupting a minor.
"Actually…" Flora began, but I interrupted her immediately.
"And you, little lady, need to learn how to hold your tongue when no one is asking for your advice."
The two girls sat down, frowning and hurt, and I hurried to change the topic of conversation.
"How about I put some more meat on. In a few hours, I'll have to prepare my fleet to leave, but before that we'll have to haul this little 'lover's stuff to the yacht. Or have you reconsidered flying out with me?"
"No, I haven't. But you can leave the stuff if you want. Those boxes are all full of evening and ball gowns. As far as I understand, I won't be needing those on a combat cruiser."
* * *
"My Prince, Oculus-3 is reporting that the enemy has arrived in Himora! A battleship, six heavy assault cruisers, ten light, lots of support ships. The frigates are in a five-hundred-mile-long straight chain from Tesse to the Himora station."
I laughed. Crown Prince Peres had taken everything I'd told him, allegedly in a drunken stupor, completely seriously. And now his ships were preparing to catch my yacht as soon as Queen of Sin makes the jump to Himora.
"Great, Oculus-3. Absolutely excellent data. Continue observation."
I took a look around. My head was still buzzing a bit, but the drugs Nicosid Brandt gave me had already chased the last traces of alcohol from my blood. All the staff officers were in their places waiting for my decision. My fleet's ships and seventy freighters came into the action from Hnelle, a little star barely visible from the Tesse system. The huge Uukresh, with holes gaping in its body, was also with us. Everything was ready for the beginning of the operation.
The historic moment had arrived. I decided I should probably say something to give future historians some material. I turned on the microphone.
"Ladies and gentlemen, as you already know, an hour ago, I publicly stated my position clearly: the Hnelle star system is a zone for combat operations against the aliens and, as such, is closed. As the leader of the Sector Eight Fleet, I will not tolerate any other ships in the Hnelle system. Any fleet intruding here must be destroyed immediately, regardless of the color of their flag. However, some of the aristocrats were so greedy and stupid, that they decided not to listen to the voice of reason. We see that other ships are taking a course, with ours, to the Hnelle warp beacon. But what can we do? We warned them. Anyone who tries to stop us will be destroyed. That's how it was, that's how it is, and that's how it's gonna be. For the whole fleet! The warp beacon will be turned on in thirty seconds for exactly one minute! Countdown!"
I turned to the captain.
"Oorast Pohl, as soon the beacon turns on, don't rush to send Joan the Fatty through the warp jump. I want to see with my own eyes whether all of our ships go and whether our opponents will really dare jump into a closed zone despite the clear warning."
"Will do, my Prince! We'll make the jump after it’s been on for fifty seconds."
Ten seconds, nine, eight... A few bright flashes went off. It was Katerina ton Mesfelle taking a couple pictures to remember the historic moment. Three, two, one...
"New beacon!" said Nicole Savoia, sitting to my left.
"All ships, warp!" I commanded, and around a hundred bright lines stretched out in one direction into the dark, starry sky.
Peres's ships stayed around us in space. It can't be that they just decided not to risk it, right? But no, there goes the first, then another three, now a whole bunch of bright lines were stretching out from where Peres’s fleet had been toward the Hnelle system.
"You've only seen part of my fleet, Georg. The rest are flying to Hnelle now from Himora! You’re lost now, dummy!" The message came in from one of the enemy ships jumping into the warp tunnel.
That's all. There's no one left around us.
"You're the one who's lost, Peres," I said out
loud for my subjects. "The jump from Tesse to Hnelle takes four and a half hours, but from Himora it takes a whole seven. Two and a half hours will be plenty of time for us to cut your fleet down several times over and turn it into a heap of twisted metal. Then, we'll wait for the second part and have a talk with the battleship. You didn't have any more ships. Not in Tialla, not in Forepost-11. We know that from our observers. The mousetrap has slammed shut.”
The stars grew dark, the cosmos rolled up into a bright, glistening tunnel. Joan the Fatty, my flagship, hurried to take its place in the forthcoming battle behind the other ships.
It would seem that we just started a civil war in the Orange House.
Those Who Extinguish Stars
I wasn't especially worried. What was more, I didn't feel any fear either. I knew very well that my fleet was stronger than Peres's group of starships that had left Tesse toward the Hnelle beacon. Yes, technically there were sixteen cruisers on each side. And yes, the total number of ships looked to be about even – ninety-three of mine against one hundred ten of the enemy's. However, my ten heavy cruisers to Peres's six meant that I had one and a half times his firepower in the main calibers.
Four and a half hours through the warp tunnel... So my officers wouldn't burn out too early, I ordered them all to get some rest before the battle, setting an example myself. My cabin on Joan the Fatty was quite spacious but of course, it wasn't even close to the chic apartments on my old yacht. However, it somehow wasn't right for me to complain about my fate. Many didn't even have a spare cot because there were temporarily two crews on Joan the Fatty, and instead of the recommended maximum capacity of four hundred, we had more than seven hundred souls on board.
I saw Bionica, frozen timidly near the stairs. It was clear that, once again, she had nowhere to sleep. I magnanimously invited the android girl to my cabin.
"My Prince, allow me nevertheless to refuse such a high honor," the synthetic blonde objected unexpectedly. "Such a decision could lead to a new wave of gossip, which would be quite untimely. Also, I've been promised a cot in an officer's berth on the second deck. But if you’re looking for company, you really should be offering Princess Astra and her sister something more appropriate to their station than a bench in a common barracks with eighteen others."
Sector Eight (Perimeter Defense: Book #1) Page 31