"Admiral Bloodmark," Chad said, following the ISC protocol that required the lower ranked officer to speak first.
"Rear Admiral Barzun," Ragnar acknowledged.
Chad spoke simply, with no preamble. "Request permission to speak to Pharaoh Dyhianna."
I silently swore. Ragnar glanced up at me, the question in his gaze.
Pushing back the long tendrils of hair that had escaped my braid, I nodded. Then I said, "This is Pharaoh Dyhianna."
A sharp intake of breath came over the comm. When Chad spoke again, his voice sounded uneven. "My honor at your presence, Your Highness." Then, more softly, he added, "Gods almighty, it really is you."
"Yes." I couldn't say more until I knew why he had come.
Chad continued wthout hesitation. "It is the honor of the Radiance Fleet to serve the Ruby Pharaoh."
23
Majda Quandary
Virtual simulations of Admiral Bloodmark, Rear Admiral Barzun, Admiral Casestar, Primary Majda, Eldrin, and myself stood clustered in a virtual conference room on
Roca's Pride,
the battle cruiser commanded by Chad Barzun. We were all actually sitting at computer consoles in VR suits on our respective ships. In the sim, no one wanted to sit down, a position we all apparently associated with a weakening of status. So here we stood in a room with no furniture, just white marble walls veined with gold. The starburst emblem of Skolia was emblazoned on one wall in a flare of crimson and gold.
I had brought all my advisors together in the sim, current and former, including Jon and Vazar, who were still in custody. I had long ago learned that the only way to maximize my chances of receiving strong, thorough advice was to include everyone's opinion regardless of whether or not they agreed with me.
"You're suggesting treason." An uncharacteristic anger honed Jon's words as he faced Chad Barzun in the center of the room. "Take the Radiance Fleet to Earth? Are you insane? It's a blatant declaration of hostilities."
Chad showed no sign of relenting. "Earth made that declaration when they refused to release Web Key Eldrinson and Councilor Roca." His square chin, beak of a nose, and bushy eyebrows, iron-gray like his hair, made a sharp contrast to Jon's even-featured face.
Jon Casestar's frustration sparked, creating red flashes around his simulated body. "What about your loyalty to ISC and the Assembly? Are you going to throw that away?"
"Don't question my loyalty," Chad said harshly. "I commanded the fleet that took out the Traders. I saw our ships go down, over
ninety
percent of them." His voice roughened. "I saw the shuttle with Imperator Skolia and her brother Prince Althor explode. Damn it, Jon! I won't turn against the Ruby Dynasty."
Jon met his gaze. "More people will die if we go to Earth."
"We aren't going to attack," I said. Although I was standing near the wall, the sim carried my words as if I were right next to them. "A show of force may be all we need." Even though Eldrin's dream had put his father on Lyshriol, Eldrin remained convinced that his parents, if still alive, were on Earth, not Lyshriol. My models agreed. Nor had the Allieds notified ISC that they had moved any members of the Ruby Dynasty.
Ragnar was pacing back and forth. "We don't know that we won't have to fight." He had darkened his clothes and hair in the sim, giving him a shadowed quality. "And we have to decide what to do about Lyshriol." He stalked over to me. "Even if we rescue your sister and her husband, their children are still imprisoned on the planet Lyshriol. The Allieds are using our own defenses at Lyshriol to keep us out."
"And it's a damn good system," Vazar said. She was leaning against the wall across from me. "It's just as good when used
against
us as by us. The Allieds also have their own forces there. They could do serious damage if we engaged them." She strode forward to where Jon and Chad stood, her body shedding fiery light. Stopping with an admiral on either side, she glared between them straight at me. "I want it on record that I protest any such plans."
"No one has suggested we attack Lyshriol," I said mildly.
Vazar, we need your support,
I thought, even knowing she was too far away to pick it up. Although she was no longer in the brig, she remained confined to her quarters on
Havyrl's Valor
just as Jon Casestar was confined to his.
"Something is going on with Lyshriol," Chad Barzun said.
"You've had word?" Vazar asked.
"A lot," Chad said. "Almost every time the Radiance Fleet dropped out of inversion, we picked up reports from ships we encountered. One of the Ruby princes— Havyrl Valdoria— has organized some sort of continent-wide act of nonviolent civil disobedience. ISC managed to slip in a Jagernaut team to help him. It's been going on for weeks."
Jon spoke dryly. "I would hardly call on Jagernauts for a nonviolent protest."
Ragnar shrugged. "I don't see the point. What can a crowd of planet-bound rustics armed with swords and bows do against Allied Space Command?"
"They aren't armed," Chad said. "That's the whole point. They're fighting this battle with social opinion. Somehow the J-team is sending footage of the protest to one of our ships, the
Ascendant.
The PR people on the
Ascendant
put together reports and send them to the holo-news broadcasters: Skolian, Allied, even Trader. Without the psiberweb, it takes days, even weeks, to spread the news to so many worlds, but the media still loves it. The image of these helpless natives and their noble, rustic prince holding a valiant protest against the mighty invading army. It's one hell of a good story."
"Rustic prince?" Eldrin quirked his eyebrow at that description of his brother Havyrl. He was standing against a nearby wall. "Vyrl has a doctorate in agriculture from one of the top universities in the Skolian Imperialate."
"Well, yes," Chad acknowledged. "The reports don't mention that."
I thought of Havyrl, one of Eldrin's younger brothers. He and Eldrin resembled each other, both with violet eyes and those handsome Valdoria features women loved. Vyrl was taller, with a curly, red-gold mane of hair. Unlike Eldrin, Vyrl had never had any problem reading and writing, or dealing with Skolian culture. Yet he was the one who had opted to stay on Lyshriol, as a farmer, rather than live a more modern life offworld, as Eldrin had done.
"Is the protest having any effect?" Jon asked.
"How could it?" Ragnar demanded, incredulous.
"It's making the Allieds look like a bunch of warmongers." Chad turned to Eldrin. "Your brother is brilliant. He's brought together almost the entire population of the Rillian subcontinent. Two hundred thousand people. They've gathered at that small starport near your village on the Dalvador Plains. They plan to stay until the Allieds withdraw from Lyshriol."
"It's a noble sentiment," Eldrin said. "But I don't see how it can do any good."
Chad beamed at him. "Lyshriol has become a symbol. The longer the Allieds refuse to withdraw, the more bellicose they look. And now they have three interstellar civilizations watching everything they do."
I couldn't resist a smirk. "That's a switch for Earth. Usually they're the saints, we're the sinners, and the Traders are the devils."
"So." Vazar bestowed on us an implacable stare. "What a great help it will be to Prince Havyrl when we show up at Earth with seventy thousand war ships. What shall we say? 'Greetings, Allieds. Would you care for tea?' "
"She's right," Jon said. "Our moving on Earth in full force could weaken what they're trying to do at Lyshriol."
"Not if we make a lot of noise about our friendly intentions," I said. "We tell them we've just come to pick up Roca, Eldrinson, and the others, and we thank them for giving protection. Then we make sure the media gets reports of everything."
Jon wasn't buying it. "No one will believe we come in peace with a fleet this large."
Chad looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure about that. It's big enough now to be a respectable deterrent, but not so large as to form an overt threat. Sure, they could defeat us if they attacked, but it would be a brutal battle. Do you really think they want that, especially if we come claiming peace?"
"Ah, hell," Vazar said. "They may be right, Admiral Casestar. Everyone knows the Allieds are holding their Ruby Dynasty 'guests' prisoner. Of course we would bring ships to defend ourselves. But with a fleet this size, we look careful rather than belligerent."
Chad grinned. "
Roca's Pride
should be our flagship. It's great symbolism, given that they're holding Roca Skolia prisoner."
Vazar grunted. "Pah."
Ragnar paced over to her. "I thought you agreed with us."
She met his aggressive stare without a twitch. "I said it makes sense. It also makes sense that you will all be tried and executed for treason."
I spoke softly. "By whom, Primary Majda?"
Everyone went silent. Who indeed. The Assembly couldn't make their censure into policy without military backing. We had the major share of ISC forces now.
Unfortunately, Naaj Majda had the rest.
As Vazar watched me, her body went hazy. I did a quick check. No tech problem existed. She had blurred herself on purpose, a protest against the conflicting loyalties we had forced on her.
"Admiral Bloodmark." Lieutenant Qahot's voice snapped in the air. "We have an incoming ship. Civilian this time. It's from the Orbiter."
"What the hell," Ragnar said. "Now what?"
"Is it alone?" Jon asked.
"Yes, sir." Then realizing she had answered Jon instead of Ragnar, Qahot quickly added, "Admiral Bloodmark."
"What idiot would leave the safety of the Orbiter now?" Ragnar demanded. "Is she suicidal?"
"Not she, sir. He." From the sound of Qahot's voice she might have been preparing for an explosion rather than reporting a ship. "It's Primary Majda's husband and son."
* * *
"I'll throttle him!" Vazar strode at my side, her long legs eating up distance. Her guards came with us, as well as my bodyguards, and Ragnar and his aides. She was going so fast that even they had to work to keep up.
"What was he thinking?" She exuded fury, but I knew it was a shield. Vazar was terrified, knowing her husband and son could easily have been killed or captured. "I swear, I'll throw him in the brig for this."
"You're already in the brig," I said. Actually, she was still confined to quarters, but it had the same effect.
"Damn crazy man," Vazar muttered. "They had better be all right."
We took an elevator to the docking tube. Vazar set the car speed at maximum, and the rapid change to microgravity almost made me lose my last meal.
We exited into a ring that circled the docking tube like a giant donut. Floating around its bend, we came into sight of the the decon chamber where the incoming ship had docked. The chamber was in use when we arrived, so we waited around the entrance, a blue portal bordered by light-bars and conduits. I didn't envy the two people inside. They would come out into a cluster of Jagernauts, including one furious Primary.
The hatch hissed. Then it swung open, framing a man in the entrance.
Even after fifteen years, it still took my breath away every time I saw Coop. He had an angel's face, eyes as blue as Earth's legendary sky, and a dancer's lithe build. At thirty-nine he still looked like a boy. His golden curls shone. He was as stunning now as the day Althor and Vazar had met him. At the moment he also looked scared to death, and it wasn't of the Jagernauts, at least not most of them. His gaze was riveted on only one.
"Are you out of your mind?" Vazar growled. "You came here in a single, unarmed ship? With
Ryder
? Are you crazy?"
"My greetings, Vaz." Coop's voice seduced the ear, like music, deep and inviting in a way that came naturally to him, with an innocence that all the guile in the universe couldn't have reproduced. I had seen both Althor and Vazar, two of the most formidable warriors I knew, turned to putty by that voice. It didn't work today, though. Vazar still wanted to throttle him.
A fourteen-year-old boy appeared behind Coop. He resembled his father, with the same blue eyes and slightly darker gold hair, but his face had traces of the Majda bone structure, giving him stronger features. Ryder was also taller than his father, and growing fast, with broader shoulders and a more muscular physique.
"I wouldn't let him go without me," Ryder said. His voice had changed since the last time I saw him. It was deeper now than his father's voice.
Vazar gripped the edge of the hatchway. "I could have lost you both." Her words were all the more compelling for being so quiet. "
Both.
After we lost—" She drew in a ragged breath and said no more. The name she left unspoken almost seemed to hang in the air. Althor.
"That's why we came." Coop drifted closer to her. She started to lean toward him, then pulled back. He touched her shoulder, and she put out a hand to steady him so he didn't float away. "Whatever happens," he said, "we want to be with you. Security on the Orbiter wouldn't let us leave. So we, uh— avoided them."
