by Terry Mixon
“Hold the thanks till after the peace conference,” Brad replied, equally quietly. “I don’t think the Senate is going to be a fan of the results.”
“Not my problem,” Barnes replied. “As we speak, the election is being called on Earth. I’m not running for Senate or President. I gave them you and you’re giving them peace. I’m done.”
“One last duty, Mr. President,” one of the Senators said. “You have a fiduciary duty to the Commonwealth today, after all.”
“I do,” Barnes agreed. “But a bigger one to humanity, I think.”
Brad’s wrist-comp buzzed and he checked it.
“Michelle, can you see the President and his companions to their quarters?” he asked his wife. “The OWA shuttle is right behind you, President Barnes, and we don’t want to keep anyone waiting today.”
“Of course not. Good luck, Madrid.”
Brad exchanged a nod with the leader of the Commonwealth, then turned his attention to the big doors as they slid open again.
To his shock, Brad recognized the head of the Outer Worlds Alliance delegation. Lynda Eden had been one of the members of the Council of First Oberon, the effective rulers of Uranus’s largest moon, when he’d visited that planetoid.
“Councilor Eden,” he greeted her cheerfully as he offered her his hand. “I’m afraid I presumed you were dead.”
“I might have been the only one of us to see your brother coming,” the old woman said bitterly. “Thanks to Envoy Lathrop, I got into hiding and survived the initial purges. The rest of the Council was far from as lucky.
“Once things started coming apart again, well, I still had my resources and connections.” She grimaced. “Until we sort out something better, I’m the Governor of Oberon—and since I’ve got the steadiest hand on the largest world, everyone else is deferring to me.”
“Better you than many others, I think,” Brad told her. “It’s nice to see someone speaking for the Outer Worlds that I know has a brain.”
Her laugh was sharp and bitter.
“That’s pushing it. I’m here, aren’t I? Stepping on Jack Mantruso’s flagship at the invitation of his little brother—for a peace conference that may as well be my nation’s surrender.”
“Better that you speak for the Outer Worlds than someone who might sell them out,” Brad replied. He knew that Eden had reached her Council seat by hook and by crook—all of the Councilors had been ruthless merchants and businesspeople—but she already had enough wealth to live out her life in luxury.
It was hard to buy someone who had everything they wanted.
“We must speak in private, Admiral Madrid, as soon as possible,” Eden responded. “Now would be better than later.”
“Unfortunately, I’m running two fleets and a peace conference,” Brad admitted. “I’m swamped. I can probably break some time free for you once the conference is underway, though.”
She grunted, but nodded her acceptance.
“Understand that it’s important, Madrid,” she told him. “To you and the Outer Worlds alike.”
“I will have my staff contact you to set up a time,” he replied. “May I have Lieutenant Muhammad here show you to your quarters?”
Marja Muhammad was one of the OWN officers who’d been added to Immortal to thicken up her crew after the mutiny. She was about as young and innocent as the OWN came.
A lot of OWN officers had blood on their hands, but if pardoning them was the price of peace, Brad was prepared to pay it. There were enough officers like Lieutenant Marja Muhammad to give him hope, though.
“That will be acceptable,” Eden allowed. “I look forward to meeting my counterparts.”
Brad shook his head as the Councilor was led away.
Unless he missed his guess, “Governor” Lynda Eden was the functional leader of the Outer Worlds Alliance. There was no question in his mind at all that Arbiter Kenna Blaze was acting as the effective head of state of the as-yet-unnamed Jovian nation.
And no one was going to question that President Barnes led the Commonwealth.
The conference was going to be fascinating.
Chapter Forty-Four
Kenna Blaze didn’t bother trying to set up an appointment or going through Brad’s staff. She just walked into his office as he was trying to coordinate a logistical transfer from the closest Jovian ships to a group of OWA ships about to hit their minimum oxygen reserves.
“You know I have a staff, right?” he asked the Arbiter.
“And they’re damned good at running interference,” she agreed. “Not so good at stopping a senior delegate who isn’t willing to be slowed by anything short of bullets.”
Brad gestured at the screen.
“I’m buried, Arbiter,” he told her. “You’re familiar with the feeling, I’m sure.”
“I am. But I also know you can make time when you’re buried, when you need to. When it’s critical—but your staff wouldn’t even let me get to you to tell you something was critical.”
With a sigh, he pointed her to a seat.
“Fine,” he conceded. “Talk, Arbiter. The conference starts in the morning. You’ve got twelve hours left to be ready.”
“I’m ready,” she said without hesitation. “But there are two ways I can approach that conference, and I know which way I want. And that leans on you.”
“On me?” he asked. “Arbiter, everyone is here, safe, and protected. I’ve done my part!”
“You need to understand the opportunity that lies before you,” Blaze told him. “Tell me, do you see a way to guarantee peace if we come out of this with three separate nations?”
“A lot of ways,” he replied. “They did it on Earth for decades, centuries. Trade, commerce, shared information networks. We can’t force people back under the Commonwealth. Would Jupiter kneel to the Senate again, even if concessions were made?”
“That’s not the point. You’re not wrong,” she allowed, “but that’s not the point. Everyone has come to this conference assuming we’re walking out with three major powers. My own orders are clear on that.
“But there is another path.”
“You’ve lost me, Arbiter,” Brad admitted.
“That’s why I’m here, in your office, having bull-rushed your staff,” Blaze told him. “Because you can’t see, and we need you to. We need you to see the opportunity before you, the chance to make humanity safe.”
“I think I did that already,” he pointed out. “I’m done, Arbiter Blaze. My letter of resignation from the Commonwealth Fleet is already on file. It’s effective the moment the peace conference ends and will go back to Earth with Senator Barnes.
“I won’t.”
She sighed.
“That’s probably for the best, but again…you’re missing the point.”
“Then what is the point?” Brad demanded.
“Brad, half of the damn OWN already calls you Lord Protector,” Blaze said quietly. “Eden is here to offer you the title formally.”
It was a damn good thing he was already sitting.
“You can’t be serious,” he told her.
“Why do you think she wanted to meet with you? You’re Jack Mantruso’s logical heir, and the OWA is in shambles. You control their fleet. Even when you send those ships home, it’s still going to take them time to rebuild, to establish elections, to come back together.
“They need a symbol of unity and continuity, and you’re the best—the only—candidate on the range.”
“I won’t take it,” Brad said. “I don’t want it.”
Blaze visibly rolled her eyes.
“Even though refusing might cost lives?” she asked him. “The OWA needs you. You’re their best hope for a peaceful transition.”
He exhaled.
“I can’t do it,” he told her. “I was a born on a spaceship, but Jupiter’s my home.
“And that’s what I mean by you being blind.” Blaze shook her head.
“My orders from the Governors were clear,” sh
e continued. “I was to encourage you to resign from the Commonwealth Fleet and come home to Jupiter. It sounds like that’s your plan.”
“And the OWA isn’t going to deter me from it,” he told her.
“If that’s the case, then the second part of my orders comes into play,” she told him. “The Governors found having the Arbiter Guild standing as a final overriding vote far too useful in a crisis. Their current plan going forward is a constitutional monarchy.”
Brad stared at her. He had to be missing where she was going.
“We don’t even have a name or a title yet, but my orders are to offer you the crown of Jupiter.”
He kept staring. He couldn’t be hearing her right. It wasn’t possible.
“Both us and the OWA would happily let you take both crowns. Certainly, I suspect both Eden and I would smack down any dissenters thoroughly enough. Two of the three nations united, a guaranteed peace.”
He swallowed, but she held up a hand before he began to speak.
“If you took the crowns, it would take us more effort to keep Mars from defecting to us than it would to get them to come over. Barnes knows that. And he knows that both fleets here would follow you.
“The massed fleet you gathered couldn’t have stopped Immortal. There is no force in existence that could stop the combined forces around this ship, the forces that would follow you. There’d be little enough objection regardless, so long as you promised Earth’s nations the same autonomy they have under the Commonwealth.
“If we have three nations, Brad, we’re going to have a three-way cold war,” she said finally. “The only way I see to stop that is to prevent that schism, right here, right now. That requires a symbol, a leader everyone will follow.
“You’re the only one who can do it,” Blaze told him fiercely. “Eden and I can push it through the conference; it’s what we’re both after. The only way to make this peace conference truly work is to make the coronation of humanity’s new ruler.
“We need a symbol of unity if we are to stay united. It has to be you.
“It can only be you.”
Brad swallowed again, then laid his hands on the table and faced Blaze as he marshaled his thoughts. She had raised every fear he’d had about the future, every concern about what might follow this war and peace conference…but…
“My entire family is dead,” he said quietly. “We killed each other. I’m a fratricide and I murdered my own uncle. I killed them both with my own hands. I’m not putting that bloodline anywhere near anything resembling a hereditary position.
“I’m not putting my child in a position where they’re expected—required—to twist their entire life to the service of this Frankensteinian nation you want to forge.
“This schism is inevitable. If we force a unity over it, we simply paper over the cracks and guarantee a worse war down the line. People must find their own way. We must accept what is, not what we want to be.”
He shook his head as Blaze opened her mouth to speak.
“No, Kenna,” he told her gently. “My answer is no. I will resign my commission and I will return to Io with my wife, where I will see my daughter born in peace.
“In a year, if Jupiter’s leaders want one washed-up mercenary as an officer, you can come knocking. But I won’t take a crown or a throne. I’m not qualified…and I don’t think we need one.”
“And if you’re wrong?” she asked in a small voice.
“Then we have all failed. But it falls to us to build a better future, Kenna, and if we try to bind that future in the form of dictatorship, regardless of how benevolent, we can only hold humanity back.
“You have my answer, Arbiter Blaze,” he concluded formally. “It will be the same answer I will give Councilor Eden. I won’t be humanity’s safety blanket. We can and will stand on our own two legs—and by the Everlit, I intend to live to see it.”
Thank you so much for reading. For more from Glynn Stewart, sign up for the mailing list at glynnstewart.com/mailing-list. Want something to read now? Check our Glynn’s Starship’s Mage space fantasy series.
For more from Terry Mixon, visit his website at terrymixon.com. Ready to read now? Try reading the Empire of Bones Saga series, starting with Empire of Bones.
About the Authors
#1 Bestselling Military Science Fiction author Terry Mixon served as a non-commissioned officer in the United States Army 101st Airborne Division. He later worked alongside the flight controllers in the Mission Control Center at the NASA Johnson Space Center supporting the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and other human spaceflight projects.
He now writes full time while living in Texas with his lovely wife and a pounce of cats.
Glynn Stewart is the author of Starship’s Mage, a bestselling science fiction and fantasy series where faster-than-light travel is possible–but only because of magic. His other works include science fiction series Duchy of Terra, Castle Federation and Vigilante, as well as the urban fantasy series ONSET and Changeling Blood.
Writing managed to liberate Glynn from a bleak future as an accountant. With his personality and hope for a high-tech future intact, he lives in Kitchener, Ontario with his wife, their cats, and an unstoppable writing habit.
Other books by Terry Mixon
You can always find the most up to date listing of Terry’s titles on Amazon at author.to/terrymixon
The Empire of Bones Saga
Empire of Bones
Veil of Shadows
Command Decisions
Ghosts of Empire
Paying the Price
Reconnaissance in Force
Behind Enemy Lines
The Terra Gambit
Hidden Enemies
Race to Terra
The Empire of Bones Saga Volume 1
The Humanity Unlimited Saga
Liberty Station
Freedom Express
Tree of Liberty
The Fractured Republic Saga
Storm Divers
The Scorched Earth Saga
Scorched Earth
The Vigilante Duology with Glynn Stewart
Heart of Vengeance
Oath of Vengeance
Bound By Stars: A Vigilante Series with Glynn Stewart
Bound By Law
Bound by Honor
Bound by Blood
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Other books by Glynn Stewart
For release announcements join the mailing list by visiting GlynnStewart.com
Vigilante (With Terry Mixon)
Heart of Vengeance
Oath of Vengeance
Bound By Stars: A Vigilante Series (With Terry Mixon)
Bound By Law
Bound by Honor
Bound by Blood
Starship’s Mage
Starship’s Mage
Hand of Mars
Voice of Mars
Alien Arcana
Judgment of Mars
UnArcana Stars
Sword of Mars
Mountain of Mars
The Service of Mars (upcoming)
Starship’s Mage: Red Falcon
Interstellar Mage
Mage-Provocateur
Agents of Mars
Exile
Ashen Stars: an Exile Prequel Novella
Exile
Refuge
Crusade
Duchy of Terra
The Terran Privateer
Duchess of Terra
Terra and Imperium
Darkness Beyond
Shield of Terra
Imperium Defiant
Relics of Eternity
Shadows of the Fall (upcoming)
Castle Federation
Space Carrier Avalon
Stellar Fox
Battle Group Avalon
Q-Ship Chameleon
Operation Medusa
A Question of Faith: a Castle Federation Novella
Peacekeepers of Sol
Raven’s Peace
The Peacekeeper Initiative
Raven’s Course (upcoming)
Shattered Stars: Conviction
Conviction
Deception (upcoming)
ONSET
ONSET: To Serve and Protect
ONSET: My Enemy’s Enemy
ONSET: Blood of the Innocent
ONSET: Stay of Execution
Murder by Magic: an ONSET Universe Novella
Changeling Blood
Changeling’s Fealty
Hunter’s Oath
Noble’s Honor
Fae, Flames & Fedoras: a Changeling Blood Universe Novella
Fantasy Stand Alone Novels
Children of Prophecy
City in the Sky
Wardtown