"Perhaps. Unfortunately, right now that team is going nowhere." He tapped the console. "We still can't break the bridge defense."
"You think so?" Sitting back, I closed my eyes and let threads of light brighten around me, in particular those I had marked during our communication with Jon. I examined the systems his security team had erected to defend the bridge. They were excellent. Amazing.
Then, in one great sweep, I activated all the intruder code I had put into their security— and crashed the entire bridge defense system.
22
Radiance
Havyrl's Valor
was one of ISC's largest battle cruisers, several kilometers in length. Its bridge alone was larger than many ships, over half a kilometer across. Ragnar and I entered the great hemisphere together, sailing through the air with a formation of his commandos. Many of his soldiers were already here, having secured the bridge. Jon still sat in his chair at the terminus of the robot arm, but Ragnar's people surrounded him.
The holoscreens that covered the surface of the hemisphere all showed space, in every direction, as if we floated in the void itself. Delos rotated "below" us relative to Jon's chair, a magnificent orb of blue, green, and swirling white, like an extraordinary jewel set against a backdrop studded with gem-stars and nebulae.
Ragnar's soldiers were relieving Jon's officers of command, replacing them at consoles set into the surface of the hemisphere. Then I realized Ragnar's people weren't the only ones on guard. Members of Jon's crew had joined the mutineers. The ramifications were sobering. If this failed, these people would pay the price of their loyalty to me with their lives.
As we headed toward Jon's chair, the guards around it shifted and I saw Eldrin floating there, gripping a cable. The mutineers had him surrounded too. I didn't like it. Regardless of what Ragnar wanted to be true, Eldrin wasn't an enemy.
Ragnar and I skimmed up to Jon's chair, using cables that stretched across the bridge. Jon watched us approach, his face unreadable. When we reached the chair, the guards moved aside so I could come in closer.
No one tried to stop me as I took hold of the cable near Eldrin. He didn't speak, but I felt the brief touch of his mind, a moment of reassurance. Then he moved back, leaving me with Jon.
I spoke quietly. "I regret that it came to this, Admiral Casestar. But I must relieve you of command."
"I also regret it, Your Highness." He pushed out of the chair wearily, as if he felt heavy despite the lack of gravity. The guards took his arms and moved away with him.
It gave me no satisfaction to see them escort Jon and his officers off the bridge. I hated having to treat a long-time ally as an enemy.
Ragnar watched them with triumph in his dark gaze.
Eldrin floated closer to me, holding the cable. He glanced at Ragnar, who had moved to the other side of the command chair to confer with several officers. Then Eldrin followed my gaze to the hatchway at the back of the hemisphere, where the guards had taken out Jon.
No regrets, Dehya. Casestar is the one who locked us up.
I pulled myself into the command chair, then paused while it readjusted to my size.
He thought he was doing the right thing.
He was wrong.
Anger edged his thought, pure and direct. Where Ragnar exuded dark intrigue, Eldrin reminded me of open fields and mountains; where Ragnar had sophistication, Eldrin was rustic simplicity overlaid with his years in the Imperial Court. Yes, Eldrin could move easily now among the powers of Skolia, speak their arcane language, and use their manners, always watching his behavior. But beneath that veneer, he was still the farm boy I had fallen in love with.
He came closer, grasping the armrest on the command chair. I brushed my fingers over his knuckles, and relief gentled his face. Although he didn't look at Ragnar, we were both aware of the admiral's presence— and how much we needed him. An uneasy alliance.
Ragnar was speaking into his wrist comm, directing his people as they secured the ship. Although technically I was in command, he was the ranking officer. I had no intention of taking his loyalty for granted. I couldn't give him what he wanted, the title of Pharaoh's consort, but other rewards existed. While we laid our plans, I would find out what else he sought.
The comm on the armrest hummed. Touching it, I said, "Selei here."
"This is Lieutenant Qahot, Your Highness," a woman said. "I'm picking up a ship entering the Delos system."
"Do you have an ID?"
"Not yet, ma'am."
Ragnar glanced at me, his face puzzled. I put my hand over the transmit panel and spoke to him. "It could be from Earth. Colonel Yamada may have slipped a message past our blockade."
His expression turned wry. "We've been so involved with our affairs here, I'd almost forgotten Delos."
Qahot spoke again. "Pharaoh Dyhianna, the ship is one of ours. An ISC scout."
"Are you expecting anyone?" I asked Ragnar.
He shook his head, pulling himself closer along a cable. Leaning over the comm, he said, "Lieutenant Qahot, this is Admiral Bloodmark. Escort the scout in. As soon as you know why they're here, let me know."
"Aye, sir."
As I turned off the comm, Ragnar said, "It might be from HQ, perhaps even from General Majda."
"Is Primary Majda still in the brig?"
"That's right. I gave her the option of joining us." His eyes glinted. "She declined."
Eldrin spoke tightly. "Were Althor alive, she wouldn't have gone against us."
Ragnar shrugged. "If Prince Althor were here, he would be Imperator. That would release Primary Majda from her loyalty conflict between the Ruby Dynasty and the Imperator."
Lieutenant Qahot's voice crackled on the comm. "Pharaoh Dyhianna, we have two more ships coming in, a Jag starfighter and a Jackhammer."
"Anything further on the scout?" I asked.
"Nothing yet— make that
six
more ships, another Jag, a destroyer, two more frigates— no, that's two destroyers—" Qahot drew in a sharp breath. "Gods, they're dropping out of inversion like popjacks. We have forty-three on scan. Forty-four."
I gripped the armrests. "Lieutenant, find out where they're from. Report to Admiral Bloodmark."
"Yes, ma'am. Sixty-eight ships now. Seventy."
"Are they Fleet?" Ragnar asked. "Army? ASC? J-force?"
"All of those, sir," Qahot said. "They're evading our questions."
Eldrin spoke uneasily. "Jag fighters often accompany army Talons."
"To Delos?" Ragnar snorted. "For what?"
"You brought your ships here," I said.
"I received word of Jon's fleet. We were cut off from HQ, so I came to rendezvous with Casestar."
I exhaled. "Pray these are doing the same."
Ragnar regarded me evenly. "Jon Casestar or Vazar Majda may have managed to send messengers to HQ asking for backup."
"This couldn't be a response to that," I said, hoping I was right. "How could Naaj mobilize the few forces we have left and get them here so fast? Even if anyone did slip out a message, it probably hasn't reached HQ yet."
Lieutenant Qahot's voice snapped out of the comm. "Admiral Bloodmark, I have that ID on the ships now."
"Who are they?"
She took an audible breath. Then she said, "It's the Radiance Fleet."
* * *
They came in waves: tens, hundreds, thousands, then tens of thousands, all that remained of the greatest fleet we had ever assembled. They had invaded Eube's Glory, the heart of the Trader Empire and broken the Trader military, but to do it they paid an almost unimaginable price. Eight hundred thousand ships had gone into Eube, hundreds of billions if you counted the smart missiles, drones and dust.
Seventy thousand returned.
They streamed through space, some damaged, some whole, all intent on one goal. Delos. They came in every form: bristling destroyers, frigates with deadly aplomb, Jag starfighters brilliant and fast; stinging Wasps and Scorpions; razor-edged Scythes; Bolts, Masts, Rafts, Tugs, Booms, Blades, Fists, and hundreds of even smaller vessels darting through the fleet. Ram stealth tanks appeared on our sensors and then disappeared, camouflaged even in plain view. Needle Spacewings soared alongside the unfolding Jackknives. Leos, Asps, and Cobras cut through the advancing fleet, as deadly as their namesakes. Thunderbolts and Starslammers rumbled with power. Then came the Firestorm battle cruisers, star-faring cities, massive and rugged, dwarfing the other ships that hurtled by them.
The vessels raced, lumbered, sprinted, or limped. Some barely made it in tow. Others blasted their exhaust with triumphant energy. They swelled in a colossal wave of living, thinking ships, filling the star system. From all directions they kept coming, in the plane of the ecliptic where the planets orbited their parent star, "below" the ecliptic according to the southern hemisphere of Delos, and above it. The fleet moved steadily onward, stretching from the outreaches of the star system all the way into its inner planets.
More ships continued to drop out of inversion, rank after rank of the armada that had turned the tide of the Radiance War. They had done the impossible, breaking the backbone of Traders' brutal military machine, and in doing so, they made it possible for the rest of us to remain free. It may not have been the largest fleet ever gathered in the history of the human race, but as far as we were concerned, it was without doubt the greatest.
Colonel Yamada was not sanguine.
"We're registering almost one hundred
thousand
ships." His alarmed voice crackled out of Ragnar's wrist comm. "Admiral Bloodmark, we are a peaceful world dedicated to sanctuary, a diplomatic outpost."
Ragnar was floating by my chair, holding a cable. "We appreciate your situation, Colonel."
Admiral Casestar gave me reason to believe no actions would be taken against Delos beyond the occupation.
Ragnar's gaze darkened. "Admiral Casestar has been relieved of command."
A silence followed his words. Then Yamada said, "I see."
I had no doubt he did see, probably all too well. One admiral wouldn't relieve another during an occupation unless major changes were taking place, changes that might signal political upheavals Yamada probably didn't even want to be near, let alone caught in without backup.
Lieutenant Qahot's voice came over the comm on my command chair. "Ma'am, I have a Lieutenant Garr on six. He's an aide to Rear Admiral Chad Barzun, who is now in command of the Radiance Fleet."
We were building up a regular plethora of admirals here. "Route it to Admiral Bloodmark." I kept my channels open and listened while Lieutenant Qahot and Lieutenant Garr arranged for Barzun and Ragnar to talk.
As a full admiral, Ragnar outranked Barzun, but that wouldn't mean squat if Naaj Majda had sent Barzun and his seventy thousand ships to stop our mutiny. Where had the Radiance Fleet come from? How did they find us?
When ships jumped into inversion, for superluminal travel, they couldn't communicate by conventional methods. It did no good to shoot photons at one another if you were traveling faster than light. Using superluminal particles wasn't much better; the uncertainty in their time and location made signals unreliable. Superluminal ships communicated through the psiberweb; without it, Barzun had no way to maintain contact within his fleet during inversion. The longer they spent in inversion without communications, the more the ships would be spread out in space and time when they dropped into normal space.
And yet, for all that Barzun's fleet stretched throughout the system, and despite how long it took them all to arrive, their formation was remarkably organized. To keep anything resembling a coherent formation, Barzun must have regularly dropped the ships out of inversion, then used hours or even days to regroup. Proceeding that way, it would take the Radiance Fleet
months
to reach any major ISC center. They certainly couldn't have already made it to headquarters and then back out here to a distant volume of space where Trader, Allied, and Skolian territory abutted.
This made no sense, unless the fleet had come straight here from their battle with the Traders. It had only been several months since the invasion of the Trader capital; the Radiance Fleet could conceivably make it to Delos in that time. But
why
? What did they know?
It was possible that, before Jon and Vazar were confined, one or both had managed to send messenger ships to HQ asking for reinforcements. The Radiance Fleet might well have intercepted one, with its own ships dropping in and out of inversion so much. And they were a formidable force. Against them, our four thousand ships had no chance.
When the lengthy protocols finished, Chad Barzun's voice came out of the comm. I didn't activate any visuals; we had no idea how much Barzun knew. If he didn't realize I was alive, that could work in our favor.
