“I’m not ordering the deaths of two million people just yet,” Damien replied. “I don’t think it’s necessary. Time will give us what we need, Kole. Any further resistance in orbit?”
“No. None of the orbital stations that are left have any significant weapons, and they’re all terrified of what will happen if they cause the Marines too many problems. Based off my coms with the rest of Second Fleet, we now control the Legatus System.”
“Everything except the planet,” Damien agreed. “Has Niska reported yet?”
“Solace is gone,” the cyborg replied. Damien looked up to realize that the spy had just slipped into the office, one of Romanov’s Secret Service Agents hanging right behind his shoulder.
Aboard Duke of Magnificence, Niska wasn’t going anywhere without a guard.
“How gone are we talking?” Damien asked.
“A cruiser remained behind when the rest of the defensive task force jumped out to Centurion,” Niska explained. “When your message turned that into a nightmare for him, Solace and key members of the Legislature boarded that cruiser and got the hell of the system.”
“Damn. Where did he go?”
“I don’t know.” Niska joined the Hand and the Martian officer in looking out over Legatus below them. “I don’t have the depth of access on the planet that I hoped,” he admitted. “LMID no longer exists. The entire organization was proscribed for treason after those of us who got the Prodigal Son order fled.
“Most of my friends and contacts are dead,” he said heavily. “My name is known to enough people to open some doors, but not enough doors to make it safe for me to go down there.”
“I have no intention of assembling an army of millions and taking Legatus by force,” Damien said quietly. “Hopefully, Solace’s flight will change some minds. In any case, nobody lands or leaves without permission from me or Admiral Alexander.”
“Figure he’s fled where, Nueva Bolivia?” Jakab asked. “That’s their second-biggest industrial center.”
“It’s not the Republic’s fallback position, though,” Niska said. “There was always a base—a star system, I presume—outside Legatus for the leadership to retreat to. As an LMID operative, it wasn’t in my need to know.”
“And if they have a second source of antimatter, it’s there,” Damien concluded. “No ideas, Niska?”
“There are only ten systems left in the Republic,” the spy pointed out. “Surely, we’ve sent stealth ships to them all by now?”
“Our focus was on the ones closest to the front,” Jakab admitted. “There are at least three or four that we’ve only done the most cursory scouting of…and it’s not like we were looking for an accelerator ring. Big as the things are, on the scale of a star system they’re easy to miss.”
“I don’t know where it is,” Niska told them. “I don’t know where Solace ran to. Hopefully, they don’t have another facility to stick bits of Mages into Promethean Interfaces, but I can’t even hope for that much.”
“They aren’t getting the Daedalus Complex back,” Damien said grimly. “We’re going to tear that place apart piece by piece to make sure we know everything Finley and his people did—but Alexander’s people are already placing the antimatter charges to make sure it doesn’t fall back into the wrong hands.”
“So, what do we do now?” Jakab asked.
“We’ve sent a courier with a reinforced crew back to Sol,” the Hand told them. “The Mage-King will know what’s happened here in a few days…and that courier is carrying a Link.”
They’d captured seventeen Republic warships intact in the aftermath of the fighting at Centurion. They now had the samples of the Promethean Interface and the quantum-entanglement Link communicators the Republic had tried so hard to keep out of their hands.
“Once the Link arrives, we’ll be able to have a live conversation.” Damien shook his head. “Well, at least once Mars’ electronics techs have gone over it with a fine-toothed comb. I’m pretty sure that Solace will be listening in if we just boot the damn thing up.”
“I’m shaking down my contacts to see if I can get details on what ships they had in commission,” Niska noted. “I think we’ll know pretty quickly how much of the RIN is left.”
“Enough to be a hell of a pain,” Jakab noted. “We’re going to need to keep a lot of Second Fleet here. Hunting down the remaining active formations of the RIN is going to suck—and some of those guys who ran are going to choose darker paths.”
“Because what we need is a generation of pirates with capital ships.” Damien sighed. “We’ll deal,” he promised. “It’ll take months, maybe a year or two, for us to clean up the mess Solace has left us with, but we’ll neutralize the RIN and take control of the Republic’s systems.”
There was a long pause.
“What happens then?” Niska asked. “The Secession was under false pretenses, but…”
“We didn’t want this war and we don’t want to be conquerors,” the Hand told him. “The Republic is doomed. With all that they did, we can’t permit it to re-form. The individual systems can make their own choices about rejoining the Protectorate or not.”
“Best I can hope for, isn’t it?” the old spy asked. He shook his head. “All that we did, fueled by lies and hate. It wasn’t what we were after. I doubt that helps.”
“Not really,” Damien said. “But we are where we are. The Republic as it currently stands must be destroyed. The RIN and their ships will be destroyed or captured.”
“And then maybe we’ll know some actual peace,” Jakab replied. “After the last few years of LMID trying to stab us in the back, that will be strange.”
“The Republic will be enough of a threat to keep the shipbuilding program going for a while,” the Hand pointed out. “The Navy will expand before we plateau it again. Without a new enemy, though, yes. I think we’ll finally have some peace.”
“Welcome, Lieutenant Chambers.”
Roslyn stepped into Admiral Alexander’s office slowly. The battle might be over, but there were still a thousand calls on both the Admiral’s time and hers.
“You called for me, sir?” she asked.
“It’s a moment to breathe, as much as anything,” the older woman told her. “Have a seat. Grab a coffee.”
Roslyn obeyed.
“You’ve done well, Lieutenant,” Alexander told her. “We’re going to be here in Legatus for a while now. We’re going to be digging into the Link manufacturing facilities. Once we’re certain we have clean units, we’ll start installing them in our ships.
“Actual command-and-control across interstellar distances is going to be weird. I’m going to need a damn fine Flag Lieutenant to keep all of that straight.”
Roslyn swallowed and nodded.
“If you feel you need to repl—”
Alexander cut her off with a laugh.
“Stars, no,” she told her. “You’re doing a damn fine job and I expect to continue getting the best work possible from you. But it’s always a question: right now, you’re the most junior staff officer in the fleet. If you wanted a more traditional career, we could transfer you to a tactical department somewhere.”
“You just said you needed me, sir,” Roslyn pointed out.
“I do. I could find a replacement, but training her would be a pain in the ass.” Alexander shook her head. “This kind of role is considered a solid foundation for later command and flag rank, Roslyn, but it also usually comes later in your career. Flag Lieutenant to the Admiral of a fleet is usually one of the last things you do before your promotion to Lieutenant Commander.
“Eventually, for the sake of your career and the good of the Navy, I’m going to have to give you up,” the Admiral pointed out. “If you wanted to be back at a tactical console somewhere, I wouldn’t begrudge it. The Mjolnirs are short enough on staff, I could probably fast-talk you into an assistant tactical officer slot on one of them. You could do a lot worse.”
“Or I could be where you need me, sir,
” Roslyn replied. “Which is likely to do more good for the Navy…and the people we protect?”
“Right where you are,” Alexander told her. “If you stick with me, you might end up promoted early again, just to make my life easier—but the hint of favoritism and patronage will haunt the rest of your career, Roslyn Chambers.
“I’m selfish enough to want you here, but I want you to know the risk for you.”
“I swore an oath, Admiral Alexander,” Roslyn said. “Choosing my assignments for my own benefit wasn’t mentioned anywhere. Doing my best to serve the Protectorate and the people Mars protects was.”
“All right.” Alexander smiled. “Good. In that case, Lieutenant Chambers, can you grab me Colonel Sang’s report on the orbital production facilities at Decurion?
“It seems we have work to do.”
54
The old man with the cane had gone by many names in his life. He’d been Winton when he’d met Damien Montgomery. Partisan when he’d worked as a mercenary for the conspirators who eventually became the Republic.
The secret warriors in the organization he’d built over his lifetime called him sir. In his own head, he’d started regarding them as his children, and himself as their Father.
The cane was new. Despite the best in medical technology, Father’s body was failing him. Fortunately, the events that had led to the Secession had identified the best candidate to succeed him at the head of Nemesis.
He stood in the magical gravity of his ship, leaning on the cane as he studied the reports out of Legatus. He wasn’t restricted to the speed of a Mage-jumped courier. He’d long since cultivated sources on the Republic capital, many of which thought they were reporting to a legitimate Republic official.
Who else, after all, would have access to one of their Links?
Father’s purposes had never truly aligned with the Republic. He had enabled Finley, but it was in pursuit of a higher goal.
Still. He’d worked more closely with Finley than he had with any other person alive except Kent Riley, his new protégé. He’d once thought the Rune Wright could succeed him. Even if the other man’s megalomania had made that too dangerous to allow, he’d been close to Finley. The man the First Hand had killed had been a personal friend.
But personal was not the same as important.
“They transferred an extra half-dozen Mages onto TK-421,” Riley said behind him. “She’ll reach Mars within a few days.”
“They think the war is over,” Father said quietly. “The Republic will soon disillusion them of that.”
“We need the buildup to continue,” Riley replied. “Should we deploy assets to make sure the Republic remains in the fight?”
“That won’t be necessary. Our prior assistance with their project at Chrysanthemum should be enough,” the old man said. “They have a second accelerator ring, a shipyard and a stockpile of extracted minds.”
He wasn’t looking at Riley but he could sense his protégé’s reaction.
“You should be angry, Riley,” he pointed out. “We enabled a horror unlike anything humanity has seen—your anger at the Republic and at me is entirely justified.”
“The alternative was to see the same horror unleashed on a far greater scale,” Riley admitted. “I understand.”
“But you are still angry.” It wasn’t a question. Father turned away from the screens. He’d seen all he needed to. A gesture sent the Link system retracting back into the ceiling, and he slowly hobbled over to the wallscreen showing the space outside the ship.
There was nothing visibly special about the luxury yacht. It was one of dozens orbiting Earth, serving as home bases for wealthy visitors from across human space. Father’s yacht was more able to defend itself than most, concealing several powerful lasers and a full amplifier, but if he ever had to use those weapons, his grand quest would have failed.
“That is what we fight for,” he told Riley, gesturing at the world outside the window. “Ten billion souls on Earth. Another two billion on Mars. A hundred billion humans, all told. Almost a hundred million Mages.
“If our true enemy came upon us without warning, every one of those Mages would face the fate of the few thousand sacrificed to allow the Republic to fight this war.” He shook his head.
“I know all of their names, Kay,” he admitted to his protégé. “There will be memorials built to honor their memory, and I will make sure the lists of names are complete and correct. They will not be forgotten.”
Riley stepped up next to him, casting a worried glance at the cane.
“You push yourself too hard,” the ex-Marine Mage pointed out. Kent Riley was ex many things. He’d been a Combat Mage of the Royal Martian Marine Corps. While he’d worn that uniform, he’d been recruited to the Royal Order of the Keepers of Secrets and Oaths.
In that service, he’d killed a Hand for Father. There were no higher proofs of loyalty to the old man.
“I know,” Father conceded. “But I have some years left in me, years to bring you fully up to speed.”
It was the first time he’d admitted his plans to Riley.
“Me, Father?” Riley asked.
“You killed a Hand for me,” Father pointed out. “You’ve stood at my right hand since. Hell, boy, you evaded a Voice under your own power without having to kill her.
“No, it is and must be you who takes over. It will take time to fill you in on everything, but you know the core of it already.”
They studied the planet together for several minutes.
“Montgomery has all of the pieces now, doesn’t he?” Riley finally asked.
“I think so. And he’s a smart man, if too honest to join us directly. We must make certain he has the power to act when he puts all the pieces together.”
They were silent again.
“I thought you’d offered him the throne once,” the younger man pointed out.
“Oh, yes.” Father rubbed his throat gently in memory. He’d found himself suspended in the air with the life being choked out of him at the end of that meeting. Montgomery wasn’t the type to settle for a simple no.
“This time, we won’t give him a choice. You know what Desmond’s will says about Montgomery, if the Mountain falls to Kiera.”
“That won’t be easy to arrange.”
“We own the Councilor for Centauri,” Father pointed out. “So long as he doesn’t know why we want them both somewhere, he’ll cooperate. He’s a dead man if we reveal his crimes.”
Riley was silent for a moment.
“You hesitate.” Again, it wasn’t a question.
“Desmond is a good man.”
“He is. But he doesn’t have the strength for what is to come. The man he made his Sword will. It must be done, or all humanity will perish.”
Riley bowed his head.
“It must be done,” he echoed.
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About the Author
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.
Visit GLYNNSTEWART.COM for new release updates.
Other Books by Glynn Stewart
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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 (upcoming)
Starship’s Mage: Red Falcon
Interstellar Mage
Mage-Provocateur
Agents of Mars
Duchy of Terra
The Terran Privateer
Duchess of Terra
Terra and Imperium
Light of Terra: A Duchy of Terra series
Darkness Beyond
Shield of Terra
Imperium Defiant (upcoming)
Castle Federation
Space Carrier Avalon
Stellar Fox
Battle Group Avalon
Q-Ship Chameleon
Rimward Stars
Operation Medusa
Exile
Ashen Stars
Exile
Refuge (upcoming)
Crusade (upcoming)
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
Peacekeepers of Sol
Raven’s Peace (upcoming)
Raven’s Oath (upcoming)
Shattered Stars: Conviction
Conviction (upcoming)
ONSET
ONSET: To Serve and Protect
ONSET: My Enemy’s Enemy
ONSET: Blood of the Innocent
ONSET: Stay of Execution
Changeling Blood
Changeling’s Fealty
Hunter’s Oath
Sword of Mars Page 31
