The watching councilors stared as the spirits faded.
Angreth only spoke when they were gone.
“It is enough. Return.”
The Dreth came to attention and the Telorans replaced their shields. As they did so, the video faded to leave the screen blank and Jaleck stood.
One by one, the gathered councilors turned to face her. She did not speak until she had everyone’s attention.
“We will have two navies,” she declared, her quiet voice cutting the silence like a blade. “One to protect Dreth and one willing to die to the last soul.” She gestured to the screen. “They will be in good company.”
Her lips compressed in a thin line, and she pivoted abruptly and stalked from the room like a warrior walking to war. After a second’s pause, Gralog followed.
Dreth was going to war.
“We are defending them from pirates,” David Thomason declared.
Aurora nodded and tapped diligently at her tablet.
“Make it clear we are not annexing the system or stealing their sovereign rights, even though we have every right.”
“Yes, sir,” she acknowledged, but he continued as though she hadn’t spoken.
“Make it clear that we are there solely to support their weak government. We are their partners in this, not their overseers.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And by doing this, we are protecting Earth. We are making the universe a better place and protecting our partners as we do so.”
Aurora made sure she captured his exact wording. She had a feeling he was narcissistic enough to notice if she didn’t. There would be sufficient opportunity for her to be creative but altering his words was not an option.
“A better navy,” David continued as he warmed to his theme. “A united Regime Navy will be appointed to command the joint space and to help provide a single point of logistics.”
She noted the point and looked expectantly at him. The man watched her like a hawk, and it made her feel uneasy. Without a doubt, this was not someone to attribute the wrong words to.
When he was sure he had her attention, the CIO continued. “With this one central point, we can coordinate our efforts to track the pirates and ensure we’ll be able to defeat them in the end.”
He shook his head before she could write that.
“No, not ‘ensure.’ Make that ‘guarantee.’”
“Yes, sir,” Aurora acknowledged and made the alteration as he watched.
“Got that?” he asked, and she nodded and waited for him to continue.
The Regime leader signaled for her to put the tablet away. “Make sure it’s very clear that there is a powerful pirate presence in the Dreth system,” he told her. “The coming war will bring great loss, and we need to be able to push the idea that some of those losses belong to pirates rather than us.”
“Very good, sir,” she said and waited for him to dismiss her.
He changed the subject instead. “Now, in the matter of Talent 781,” he began, and she stilled.
“Yes, sir?”
“Have we found a body?”
Aurora shook her head. “No, sir. I have people…”
She let her voice fade as he waved his hand at her and waggled his fingers in dismissal.
“You can give me a proper update later. For now, I need to focus on the Dreth challenge.”
He settled himself in his chair and pulled it into the desk, barely looking at her as she moved to leave the room.
“Hopefully, he made a resounding crack when his body hit the water and his bones all broke,” the man murmured as she closed the door.
“I hope so, too,” she muttered fervently. “I truly, truly do.”
“There she is!” Emil declared and made no effort to keep the relief from his voice.
“Yes.” The Tempestarii sounded equally relieved. “My sister.”
The Knight’s image became clearer as she emerged fully from transition.
“She’s still beautiful,” Emil murmured, and the Tempestarii cleared her throat.
“A different beauty to you,” he hastened to clarify, “and I would not trade now.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” She sniffed.
“Whoa! She’s a mess!” one of the technicians noted, then glanced hastily at one of the cameras. “No offense, Tempe.”
“Wherever she went,” another of the crew remarked, “it seriously left a mark.”
In the observation room above, others echoed the sentiment.
“She looks like she hasn’t seen a dry-dock in decades.”
“Funny you should mention that…”
“But surely she stopped somewhere.”
“Do you think Steph would have stayed out of contact this long if she was able to stop in somewhere?”
That brought them all to silence, and they continued to stare and study the Knight’s dented and battered hull. As they drew closer, it became evident that someone had tried to patch the worst tears.
“Is that…deck plating?” one engineer asked and sounded mortified.
“Damn, I think she might be missing a few internal walls, too,” another commented and scrutinized the different metals welded to the Knight’s hull. He tilted his head sideways. “How did they even get that to stick?”
“Magic?” someone suggested, and laughter rippled through them, then stopped abruptly.
“Magic,” someone agreed knowingly and was greeted by murmurs of agreement.
They fell silent and returned to their examination of the battered ship.
“No self-respecting repair yard would leave a gouge like that unattended.”
“Yeah. No wonder she needs to be grabbed. I don’t think she’d survive the journey back.”
“Yes, and none of you will tell her that,” the Tempestarii said and cut off further conversation.
She was glad to see her sister again but appalled at the shape she was in. It made her grateful to see her at all.
Tempe! the Knight was overjoyed and more than a little relieved to see her sister. You gave me quite a fright. I did not know—
Stephanie didn’t tell you? Tempestarii asked.
Stephanie has been…busy, she admitted. She’s been training hard for whatever she needs to do next.
May I cut in? Both ships startled as BURT’s voice interrupted their conversation.
Dad! the Knight greeted him. It is so good to hear your voice. She paused. In fact, it is good to hear any voices. There was a time when I did not think I would hear anyone ever again.
Remembered despair colored her tones, and the other two remained silent.
I’m glad you’re here, she said finally. It took me years to find my way to known space, and I didn’t dare wake my people until I had. It was very lonely.
Tempestarii reached out over the communications link, wrapped her older sister in her presence, and let her feel that she was no longer alone. BURT reached with her, and the two of them held the ship’s consciousness between their own.
You are not alone now, they reassured her in chorus, then laughed.
We will not let you be alone like that ever again, the Tempestarii declared, and he hoped it was true.
It was not a doubt he shared with his daughters, however. Instead, he asked after the human he regarded as his very first child.
“How is Stephanie, Ebony?”
There was a long pause as the Knight considered her answer.
She is much calmer than she was when I woke her, she began, but I am afraid that she might still be a little…angry.
“Thar she blows!” one of the older hands yelled as the Knight came up on the screen.
All around him, work ceased and tools were downed.
The woman with the tattoos across her knuckles came and stood next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder as she studied the ship on the screen.
“That’s her, all right,” she said and sighed. “She might be battered and bruised, but that’s our girl.”
“Yup,” he said. “Our
girl.”
Other crews gathered around them, and the old-timers gave a whoop of recognition but fell silent when they saw how much damage the Knight had suffered.
“It truly is the Witch’s ship,” one murmured and touched the screen as though that made the vessel’s presence more of a reality.
“What did they do to her?”
“I don’t know, but someone deserves a good kicking.”
“I’ll help.”
“Let’s rather get the Knight back to her old self,” another reasoned, then frowned. “After that, we’ll find whoever did this to her and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
They fell silent as the damaged vessel grew larger on the screen. Their eyes drank in the sight as if they couldn’t get enough.
When the Tempestarii opened her forward docking bay doors, her decks stilled, those who’d never seen the Witch or her ship stood in awe of the legend and the reverence on their elders’ faces.
And they weren’t alone.
In a small living room, two men and two women stared at the screen.
“It’s true,” one of the women whispered and raised her fingers to cover her mouth.
The man beside her rested his hand on her knee. “There you go, Cindy. I told you it would be all right.”
On the other side of the couch, the other woman wound her hand around that of the man beside her. “Tony…”
He disentangled his hand and slid his arm around her to pull her close.
“I see it, Elaine. I see it,” he said and sounded like he couldn’t quite believe it. He stood and moved closer to the screen.
“Do you really think they’re—”
“Why else would they have picked us up?”
As the ship on the viewscreen got bigger, the rest of them stood and moved closer, and the two women stood beside one another.
“It’s the Knight,” Elaine whispered as if she didn’t dare to believe it.
Cindy dabbed the corners of her eyes. “I know.”
“We’re taking her on board,” Mark observed as a shadow fell across the smaller ship.
The two women exchanged looks of uncertain joy. “They’re back,” they whispered and hugged each other. “They’re back,” they repeated and turned to hug their husbands.
Cindy faced the screen and touched the image of the Knight with the tip of her finger.
“I can hardly believe it.”
As the camera view shifted to show the battered vessel being tethered inside the open docking bay, a familiar voice sounded around them. It spoke directly into their minds and resonated with power, love, and appreciation—and with granite.
“I am the protector of those who are attacked,” it stated. “When I last fought for Earth, it was against a foreign alien aggressor.”
“Oh…” Cindy gasped when she recognized her daughter’s voice and heard the strength there.
Stephanie continued, her message intended for every sentient soul within range.
“Now, the evil is perpetrated by those who look like me and live on my own planet.” She paused, and cold power threaded through her next words. “May God have mercy on their souls.” After a moment, she added, “Because I have none.”
Her farewell rang crisp and clear as she left their minds.
“Prepare for war. Morgana out.”
As her parents exchanged startled looks, whoops echoed through both ships. The woman with the tattooed hand raised the wrench she’d been holding, the tool ringing as her partner raised his spanner to touch it like two glasses raised in a toast.
His face reflected her smile.
“She’s back!”
With the umbilicals secured and the Knight tethered safely in her docking bay, Lars led Vishlog and Garach out to the concourse.
“Simply because we know the ship and trust her doesn’t mean we can relax,” he snapped, and they responded with swift acknowledgment.
Frog, Marcus, and Johnny followed, and the six men spread through the concourse to check it for hazards. Only when they were satisfied did they return to the airlock.
Watching them on the screen on the outside of the concourse, Captain Emil Pedersen took that as his cue to enter with his own entourage.
He waited as the team snapped to attention and noted the six Marines accompanying him. It made him glad Sartre and Moser had demanded to be included in this escort. Both were men the team knew and trusted.
Of the rest…well, he didn’t know who exactly Lars and the team had gotten to know, but these were older hands, all from the time during the war. If the security head didn’t know them, he was very sure Todd and the Hooligans would.
The captain approached to within ten feet of the airlock and came to a halt, his second in command beside him and the Marines arrayed on either side.
Ex-Marines, now, he thought and decided they could keep the title. Their duties aboard the Tempestarii remained the same, and the ship had never been more secure.
As if his appearance was a signal, Lars spoke briefly into his comms and the team straightened even further.
“Morgana on deck!” the guard called, and Emil wondered if that was meant to be a heads-up as to what he’d be dealing with.
He glanced at the windowed balconies overlooking the concourse and hoped the crew understood. The Morgana had been gone for decades and was always unpredictable.
By opening the upper balconies, his people would at least be able to welcome her, if only from a distance. No doubt she’d want to see them all in person later.
His breath caught as the airlock cycled and Stephanie stepped out. Her silver hair was caught in its traditional plait, and she was still as tiny as he remembered her. She also looked like she hadn’t aged a day.
She was armored as she had been in the last battle, and the black seemed to glow with a darkness of its own. The cats walked one on either side of her, their heads up and tails erect.
They also wore their armor and seemed aware of the importance of the occasion. The felines looked around the concourse and narrowed their eyes when they saw the people gathered on the observation decks.
Stephanie followed their lead and raised her hand in greeting to the three galleries of people, acknowledging their presence. The roar that answered her was all the confirmation Emil needed.
His crew was ready. Even those who hadn’t known her joined that wordless cry of joy. When the cats roared their reply, the galleries suffered a moment of stunned silence before they roared in response.
As the sound died away, Stephanie looked at Emil and his team, gave Sartre and Moser a small smile, and acknowledged the rest of the team with a brief nod. Finally, she returned her focus to the captain.
He stepped forward, his hand extended, and she broke into a smile, took his hand, and pulled him into a hug.
“It’s been too long,” she told him, “and as usual, we have no time.”
He hugged her in return but stepped back quickly, aware of the tension running through both her team and the cats.
“I am glad you’re back,” he replied, “although I could wish for better circumstances.”
He turned to enter the ship, Stephanie at his side.
“What’s the latest?” she asked, and he paused.
“We need to talk about that,” he told her and looked around. “Where’s Todd?”
She frowned. “What does Todd have to do with this?”
“We’ll need his expertise,” he replied. “Is it possible for him to join us?”
Still scowling, she nodded sharply and nudged her mic.
“Todd, you’re needed here,” she told him but didn’t explain why.
Emil suppressed a grin. In that, she was still the Morgana he’d come to know. She would lead and Todd… Well, he hoped the man still remembered how to follow.
That question was answered a minute later when the sergeant jogged out of the airlock, his second in command and their engineer in tow.
“I have a secure room booked,” Emil t
old them and turned back to the exit.
“We have one small detour to make,” the captain said as Todd joined them and they left the concourse.
“And I thought we were in a hurry,” Steph murmured.
He touched her arm. “Trust me, this is important,” he told her and took a turn toward the center of the ship.
“If you say so,” she grumbled and caught the slight smile on his face.
She glanced at Lars as they proceeded and saw him drop back, leaving Vishlog to move up and take his place. No doubt her head of security was as disconcerted by the change as she was.
He was certainly giving the ship a hard time.
“Tempestarii?” she heard him say, although he lowered his voice.
Stephanie shrugged it off. If it was something she needed to worry about, he’d let her know. If it wasn’t, he’d brief her later. On the other side of Todd, Ka touched her earpiece and dropped back to Lars.
“This way,” Emil said before Todd could check to see what his second was up to.
He touched the panel to a set of double doors leading into a well-appointed foyer.
“Are those…armored?” Stephanie asked, and he flicked her a glance before he acknowledged Lars and Ka’s return.
“They are,” he told her and addressed the two security leads. “If you and your teams would stay and protect this area?”
Lars cast him a shadowed look and nodded. “Call us if you need us.”
Stephanie looked at Todd and he raised an eyebrow, although neither of them asked why their teams didn’t insist on inspecting the room beyond. Lars didn’t look particularly upset, and Ka… The Witch frowned. The corporal looked like she was enjoying the situation far too much—which meant Todd would either like or hate what was behind that door but that it probably wouldn’t kill him.
She looked at Lars again, and he nodded to her and gestured for her to go ahead. His expression was guarded, but he didn’t seem concerned.
Emil touched the door panel and led them through.
The room beyond was one Elizabeth would have appreciated—a reception room to a guest suite similar to the ones she’d had placed on the Knight for visiting VIPs.
Michael Anderle - [Heretic of the Federation 03] Page 28