Maelstrom Strand

by Rick Partlow

  “You’ll break us,” Anders warned her, fear prickling across the hair on the back of his neck. “You’ll destroy us going against Starkad.”

  “Perhaps I will,” Hale admitted. She brought her feet down from the table and rested her hands palm-flat on it instead, her face drawing closer to his. “But at least I’ll make the attempt. The question is, will you let me make it without you?”

  “The hell?” The words escaped of their own volition before he’d even considered them. “You can’t be serious!”

  “You’re a patriot, General,” she said. “And so am I, though you may not believe it. I did what I did because Eoghan Brannigan subverted our system of government, our way of life in an attempt to aggrandize his own family. I don’t blame his grandson. Jaimie did what he thought was right, but it couldn’t be allowed to continue. The Guardianship is not hereditary, it’s not a Goddamned birthright for the Brannigans to hand from generation to generation.”

  “So, you won’t be grooming your own replacement then?” Anders assumed. “You’ll be happy with the Council’s choice, whoever they may be?”

  “Now that the deadweight has been cleansed from their ranks, I will,” she shot back. “I didn’t do this to establish a Hale legacy, whether you believe it or not! I took the life of a good man, and I’ll kill many more if I have to, in order to save this nation from those who would have turned it into a kingdom like the Supremacy!”

  He wanted to rail at her, wanted to rage for the heroes who’d died fighting her people, but he remembered something General Constantine had told him during what the older man termed “leadership counselling.” No one, he’d said, is the villain in their own story. Rhianna Hale was a patriot. She did believe she had the best interest of Sparta at heart. She might be dreadfully, disastrously wrong, but simply dismissing her as a demon wouldn’t change anything.

  “Let’s stipulate for a moment that I accept what you’re saying is true,” he allowed. “Why do you think I would join you? And more importantly, why would you trust me if I did?”

  “Sparta is going to war with Starkad,” she said. “I am the Guardian and I will make it so. You know as well as I do you’re a more experienced general than any other I have, and you know having you will mean a better chance of victory in a war that will be fought whether you join me or not.” She shrugged. “Knowing you as I do, I doubt you can bring yourself to turn me down.”

  Damn the bitch. The thought wasn’t without admiration. Because she was exactly right.

  21

  Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God,” Revelation City’s only priest of the Old Religion intoned solemnly, “and in the face of this company to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony...”

  The man was plump in the face, his cheeks red from the late-afternoon sun and the heat and sweat stained the armpits of his ornate white robes. He reminded Logan of the family chef back in the palace, except Chef Phillip had a big, blond handlebar moustache and Father Daniel sported a full beard. At least the priest had dressed up for the occasion. Logan and Katy both wore their duty clothes, a flight suit for her and fatigues for him. The witnesses were no better attired, all of them just coming off duty and ready to head back on just as soon as the ceremony was complete.

  Katy though…Katy didn’t need a formal dress. She didn’t need anything. She smiled beside him, looking as happy as she had since he’d known her, and he was certain he wasn’t biased in the thought that she was the most beautiful woman in the entire universe.

  “…which is commended to be honorable among all of God’s children, and therefore is not to be entered into lightly by any, but reverently, discreetly, advisedly and solemnly. Into this holy estate these two persons present now come to be joined. If any person can show just cause why they may not be joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”

  “Here they come!” Tara snapped. Kammy could see it himself on the sensor display, but he let her talk. It helped her think things through. “Three, four, five by Mithra, six…. Six Starkad cruisers through the jump-point, Captain.”

  “All Wholesale Slaughter vessels,” Kammy ordered, trying to channel Donner Osceola as he always did in times such as these, “move to attack positions.” He turned to Bergh. “Take us into weapons range, Helm, maximum acceleration.”

  “Aye, sir,” Bergh said crisply. “Maximum acceleration.”

  “Drive field at one hundred percent,” Terrin announced. It wasn’t any more necessary than Tara’s observation, but he’d been trying to get the kid into the habit of letting him know the status of the field on a regular basis, so he let it go. “All systems nominal.”

  He’d thought about trying to make Terrin stay on one of the ships they’d sent out to the ice giant to hide, but he couldn’t bring himself to suggest it. Terrin had been with them from the beginning, near enough, and he was one of the crew now.

  Besides, Logan probably already tried to talk him into going, and if the Boss decided not to force the issue, neither will I.

  “They’re gonna target us with their lasers the second we’re anywhere close to in range,” Tara judged. “Which should be just another three or four minutes at this speed.”

  The enemy ships were probably in optical range by now, but the simulation on the main screen was so high-quality he nearly couldn’t tell it from the real thing. Six of them, gigantic, rough-hewn mountains burning straight for them at three gravities, while they rushed into the breach at the equivalent of thirty gees. Their wedge shapes were arrows of glittering silver, lit up by the miniature suns at their tails, fusion flames confined by magnetic fields.

  “They think we’re just gonna sit in front of them and go into defensive mode,” Kammy mused. “Let’s try to use what we got how they won’t expect. Helm, take us up forty degrees on the Y axis relative to the ecliptic.”

  “Forty degrees Y axis, aye,” Bergh confirmed.

  He couldn’t feel a thing, couldn’t feel the change in direction or the brief interruption of the drive field as Bergh switched it off to kill their forward momentum, then bumped it to full power heading at a steep, upward angle compared to the course of the Starkad cruisers. Their lasers could be fired off their X axis, but not more than a few degrees. If they wanted to keep the Shakak at bay, at least one of them was going to have to…

  “Ships at the north and northwest position in the cluster are turning,” Tara announced.

  Kammy nodded. He’d expected it. The fusion drives had cut off and the flare of maneuvering rockets lit up the ventral bow of both cruisers on the hemisphere of the globular cluster at the north side of the ecliptic. “North” was a relative term in space, but you had to describe directions somehow, and this was intuitive while some arbitrary numeric system wouldn’t be.

  “The rest are proceeding toward Revelation,” Tara added.

  Kammy turned to the communications officer. “Signal the Avenger and the Ambrose Light to target the southern ship in the formation.” Back to Bergh at the Helm. “Set an intercept course for the two ships they tasked for us, but don’t make it easy for them.”

  “Aye, sir. Heading in.”

  “Marriage is the union of husband and wife in heart, body and mind,” the Father went on, the corners of his mouth turning up the only indication he was having a good time. “It is intended for their mutual joy and for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity.”

  We’ve certainly had our share of both, Katy thought, tightening her grip on Logan’s hand.

  What if they didn’t live through this? What if this was the end of their journey?

  “Through marriage, Logan and Kathren make a commitment to face their disappointments, embrace their dreams, realize their hopes and accept each other’s failures. Logan and Kathren will aspire to these ideals throughout their lives together.”

  Logan was beaming at her, despite the unfamiliar ceremony, just happy to be with her, the way he always was. He mi
ght have been the son of a king, but his wants were as simple as any other man, someone to be with him, to love, to grow old with and raise a family with.

  Will we have any of that? Does it matter as long as we both found what we were looking for?

  Terrin was standing beside Logan, the best man. He might not have always been there, definitely not when she’d first met the two of them, but now he was Logan’s friend as well as his brother. To Katy’s side was Franny, as cleaned up and presentable as any of them had been able to manage at short notice. It might have been Lyta Randell there had this all happened a few weeks earlier, but Franny was a good choice for maid of honor. She’d become important to Katy simply because she was important to Terrin, and Terrin was as much her brother now as he was Logan’s. She thought she saw Terrin and Franny sneaking glances at each other during the ceremony. She wondered if they were thinking about doing the same thing someday.

  Probably not a Christian ceremony, but still…

  “Who stands present with Kathren as she enters her life with Logan?”

  “I do,” Kammy said from behind her, taking the place of her father. The big man’s voice broke slightly at the words and fond warmness spread through her at his obvious emotion.

  She wished her mother and father could be here for this moment. She hoped they were still safe, that all this strife hadn’t touched them in their little pocket of heaven in the heart of the war.

  “Do you, Logan, take Kathren to be your wife, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy state of matrimony? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to cherish and continually bestow upon her your heart’s deepest devotion, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live?”

  “I will.”

  “Drive field down to sixty percent,” Terrin said, fingers digging into the armrests of his chair, trying not to clench his teeth. It felt unnatural for a spaceship to shake like that, and it was worse that it didn’t seem to bother any of the others.

  They’re probably just better at hiding it.

  “Capacitors recharged,” Tara Gerard droned, always so frosty in combat, so unlike her normal, fiery self. “Targeting cruiser one and firing.”

  Cruiser one and two, that’s what they’d been calling them. As if one weren’t enough, as if they weren’t dealing with six of the damned things. Just narrowing it down to the two, trying to slice it into manageable chunks.

  The particle beam cannon fired again—was this the third time? The fourth?—and the Starkad cruiser’s portside stern erupted in a fountain of liberated energy, hundreds of tons of metal turning violently into gas, then into plasma. Smaller jets followed, burning atmosphere from breaches in the hull. The drive cut off and the cruiser began to drift, the gas surging away from the hit acting as its own, unplanned maneuvering thruster.

  “Cruiser one is down,” Tara announced, then added quietly, “the bastard. Two is maneuvering, capacitor recharging.”

  “Drive field back to eighty percent,” he put in, having to force himself to look away from the spectacle of the dying cruiser to check the reading. “Should be one hundred percent in…”

  The second cruiser’s laser fired, the range closer now, and Terrin jerked against his restraints as the drive field contracted again, rattling the hull and them with it.

  “Drive field fifty percent.” Damn it.

  “Kammy, we got cruisers three and four turning back to us,” Tara warned. “Ten seconds till capacitors are recharged.”

  “Status on the Avenger?” Kammy asked her, still as placid as a mountain lake.

  “Avenger is engaging with cruisers five and six near the LaGrangian points. Amber Light is approaching six at four gravities acceleration.”

  Terrin could feel a surge as the drive field regenerated, but not fast enough, not with three cruisers…

  “Do you, Kathren, take Logan to be your husband, to live together after God’s ordnance in the holy state of matrimony?”

  Logan felt light-headed. It was ridiculous. He’d faced death so many times he’d lost count, led dozens of men and women into battle where the very fate of worlds was on the line, and he was nervous as a kitten at the prospect of marrying the woman he loved? Ridiculous.

  “Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to continually bestow upon him your heart’s deepest devotion and, forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto him as long as you both shall live?”

  The priest was looking at Katy and so did he. They’d been through so much, seen death, devastation, and betrayal, yet somehow she was more beautiful now than the day he’d met her.

  “I will,” she promised.

  “What token of your love do you offer?”

  This had been the tricky part, given the time constraints. No one outside the very small Christian community in one of Revelation’s more remote outposts had any idea what a wedding ring was, so they’d had to have them custom fabricated and they were still hot from the polishing wheel only an hour ago.

  He slipped the gold band onto her finger, hoping his hands weren’t so sweaty he’d drop it.

  “With this ring, I thee wed,” he repeated the words as he’d been instructed.

  When she put the simple, unmarked band onto his left ring finger, it felt strange, almost unnatural. He’d never worn any sort of jewelry, but it was more than that. There was a weight to it, a permanence.

  His pulse was beating so loudly in his ears, he almost missed it when Katy said the same phrase back to him.

  “With this ring, I thee wed.”

  “In as much as Logan and Kathren have consented together in marriage before this company of friends and family and have pledged their faith, by the power vested in me by the Holy Church of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

  The priest grasped their entwined hands in his and smiled as he squeezed them tightly together.

  “What God has joined together, let no human put asunder.”

  A cheer went up from the witnesses gathered, and Tara Gerard whooped wildly, having preceded the wedding celebration by at least an hour or two. She didn’t have the bottle of wine in her hand now, but he’d certainly seen it there less than ten minutes before the ceremony.

  Logan swept Katy into his arms, laughing with sheer joy, all the nerves and doubts suddenly gone, and kissed her in the warmth of an alien sun.

  “Hey! Hey!”

  He didn’t register the shout at first over the cheers and laughs of his friends, but it persisted like the buzz of a mosquito past his ear. He broke his embrace with Katy and saw the young man running across the plain from town toward the clearing where they’d had the outdoor ceremony. Logan recognized him immediately as one of the teenagers they’d left on watch in the security center, keeping an open ear for the communications line.

  “Shit,” Katy murmured beside him.

  “Sir!” the boy gasped, out of breath as he reached them, eyes flickering in confusion to the priest. “Sir, we just got a relayed message from one of the ships we sent out for sentry duty!”

  Logan nodded understanding. They’d had several of the older cargo ships, useless for a fight but usable as scouts to keep an eye on adjacent systems.

  “It was the Kraken,” the kid reported dutifully. “In the Verdant system. She said the Starkad fleet just jumped into the far antipolar jump-points.” The messenger sucked in one last deep, shuddering breath before he settled into a normal voice. “They’re coming, sir. They’ll be here within a day.”

  Logan met Kammy’s eyes and the big man nodded.

  “All spacers to their ships,” Logan said, his voice losing its earlier joy, returning to the flat, businesslike tones of war. His thumb rubbed the unfamiliar metal of his wedding ring. “All mech pilots to the hangars.”
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  He gave Katy one last kiss before they began striding across the field, heading off to battle. Behind him, he heard the priest murmuring a soft and fervent prayer.

  “Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death…”

  Terrin was watching the Avenger. He didn’t know if anyone else had the attention to spare for it, but he felt as if someone should watch. Shelly Nance had been the Communications officer on the Shakak since day one, had turned down an XO posting on another Navy ship despite her promotion to commander, just to stay with Wholesale Slaughter. She’d been given her own ship, the captured Starkad destroyer, just in time for this battle, been sent head to head against a cruiser, a ship with twice her armor and firepower. She was less than ten thousand kilometers from the lead Starkad cruiser, their missiles crossing the distance between them, passing by each other en route, running through clouds of electrostatically charged chaff, targeted by waves of tungsten slugs from the point defense coilguns.

  “Firing,” Tara said, and he looked away for just a moment, seeing the beam from the Shakak’s main gun splash across the nose of cruiser two. “Shit, we got missiles inbound from three and four. Four, no, six of them. They’re not messing around. Cruiser two is damaged, venting atmosphere, but she’s still operational. She’s turning, pulling back.”

  Three battles happening hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart, the light of the events lagging over a second behind reality, and even the one he was involved in personally seemed far away to him. In high orbit around Revelation, Ambrose Light was still boosting straight at cruiser six, firing off every weapon she had to interdict the incoming missiles, sublimated metal gassing off her nose in a halo of light as the Starkad laser bit into her. She wasn’t turning, wasn’t trying to present her drive bell, just charging straight in.