Terra and Imperium (Duchy of Terra Book 3)

by Glynn Stewart

And Hope would burn.

  “Ki!Tana, can you come to the flag office, please?” Annette asked over the com. She brought up a display of the system as she continued to try and see a way out of this. The Militia ships had reached Hope orbit now, Empereur de France and her consorts sliding in around Emperor of China while A Dawning of Swords moved in between Tanaka’s super-battleships.

  The display didn’t show her any answers. The horrendous technological and tonnage balance didn’t change. The deal she’d cut with the Mesharom was the only thing that might save them, but Kas!Val was going to throw it away.

  “What is it, Annette?” her first alien friend said, the door closing behind her as the massive A!Tol slid into the room.

  “Kas!Val has decided the ship is of too great importance for a ‘a backwater Duchess with delusions of grand authority’ to be making the decision about its fate,” Annette said woodenly. “She has declared it an Imperial strategic asset and will be taking command of all Imperial forces in the system, with no intent of surrendering the ship to anyone.”

  “Blood tide.”

  “Given what I understand of Mesharom espionage technology, they likely already know this,” Annette continued. “What are they going to do?”

  Ki!Tana’s skin had gone from blue (questioning or curious) to purple (sadness or stress) to black while Annette had spoken. Pure black, an inky fear-spawned black Annette had rarely seen on her friend before.

  “If Adamase believes you will not keep your word, they will destroy the ship,” the A!Tol said flatly. “And anyone who tries to stop them. They will set their hyper missiles to emerge inside the planet and shatter the crust, breaking Hope into millions of pieces to make certain any fragments of the technology of Those Who Came Before are irretrievable.”

  The Mesharom feared the death of galactic civilization. The deaths of a few hundred thousand—demonstrably, even a few billion—were a small price to pay to protect those untold teeming trillions from the fate of Those Who Came Before.

  “What do we do?” Annette asked hopelessly.

  “Convince Kas!Val to honor the deal.”

  “She legitimately has command authority over every warship in this system. There is no one who can override her, no one who can relieve her, until Tan!Shallegh arrives.”

  “Which won’t be for days,” Ki!Tana agreed. “Annette…you have to stop her. At any cost.”

  “We can’t arrest her. I could probably talk Jean into destroying A Dawning of Swords, but…”

  “The Empress couldn’t let that pass. Earth would face the full might of the Imperium again, and that’s not a battle you can win.”

  Annette studied the hologram again, a blinking orange light on the planet marking the crashed ship…and a second icon attached to it, representing the codes Rolfson had sent her.

  “There is one more option.”

  #

  Chapter 44

  Once Empereur de France and President de Gaulle had moved into position to flank Emperor of China, Jean Villeneuve allowed himself a small moment of unadulterated relief. With every Duchy of Terra Militia capital ship in one place, they were about as safe as they were going to be.

  The Mesharom battlecruisers halfway between them and the Wendira allowed another layer of safety and relief. He was aware of the odds even with the aliens’ assistance, but their presence seemed to be making the Wendira hesitate.

  And then the all-ships transmission came from A Dawning of Swords.

  Kas!Val faced the camera directly, her skin the dark green of furious determination.

  “All ships, this is Echelon Lord Kas!Val,” she introduced herself, in case someone didn’t know who she was. “As the senior Imperial Navy officer in this system, I am taking command of all Imperial forces and executing levy authority on the Duchy of Terra Militia.

  “All Imperial and Militia ships are now under my authority. You will link to A Dawning of Swords’ command net and provide full updates on your status, repairs and munitions supply.

  “The defense of the Hope colony and the protection of the unimaginably valuable strategic asset discovered on the Corellian Plateau are our absolute priority,” she continued. “Under no circumstances will we risk the colony or the Precursor ship.

  “All non-Imperial vessels in the system are to be regarded as potentially hostile and not permitted within one light-minute of Hope. I will have further orders once I have reviewed the full status of our forces.

  “Thank you.”

  Empereur de France’s flag deck was silent.

  “Sir,” Tidikat said slowly. “Can she do that?”

  “Yes, Commodore,” Jean admitted to the Laian. “The Duchy Militias exist, at least theoretically, as a reserve for the Imperial Navy. She has the right as an Imperial flag officer to take command of our forces alongside her own.

  “And as the senior officer, yes, she can take command precedence over Echelon Lord Tanaka.”

  Tidikat was silent again.

  “Admiral?” Captain Ruan appeared on Jean’s chair repeater screens. “What do we do?”

  “What the Echelon Lord commands,” he told his flag captain. “She has the legal authority.”

  “But I thought we had a deal with the Mesharom,” Ruan said.

  “We did,” Jean confirmed grimly. “Unfortunately, it seems Echelon Lord Kas!Val didn’t like the deal and, bluntly, we either follow her orders or go into rebellion against the Imperium.”

  The Laian bowed his carapaced head and stepped away, leaving Jean alone with his own thoughts and fears.

  Without a word to his staff, he slammed the button that activated his privacy shield and began to issue commands. He might normally delegate to his staff, but he was perfectly capable of placing a ship-to-ship call on his own.

  His call clearly surprised no one. Tornado’s communication staff didn’t even speak to him before connecting him to Annette Bond.

  “Jean,” she greeted him.

  “Your Grace,” he said. “What do we do?”

  “For now, we wait,” his Duchess ordered. “We have a few irons we haven’t mentioned to the Echelon Lord, but…she has the authority she’s exerted.”

  “And the Mesharom?”

  “I am confident that Tan!Shallegh and I have the same reading of A!Shall’s instructions to me,” Bond said. “Once he arrives, that situation will be resolved peacefully. We just need to make sure Kas!Val doesn’t set off a galactic war before he does.”

  “She’s arrogant and short-sighted,” Jean admitted, “but I do not believe she is that stupid.”

  “And if the Wendira decide it’s time to move?” she asked. “I don’t know what Interpreter-Captain Adamase will do at that point. I am quite certain they’re aware of Kas!Val’s position on our agreement.”

  “Surely, they will still attempt to prevent the Wendira taking the ship.”

  “Yes. But they may choose to destroy the ship—and the planet it’s on—as an easier solution,” Bond said grimly. “Try and keep a leash on our Imperial friend, at least. We have even less influence on the bugs.”

  #

  Even having been warned, it took Harriet a full minute to get past the shock of Kas!Val relieving her of command and so abruptly declaring everyone, including the Imperium’s tentative allies, a threat.

  Finally, though, Pat Kurzman raised her on a private channel.

  “Can she do that?” he asked without preamble.

  “You know she can command the Militia,” she replied.

  “I know that. I mean, can she actually just waltz in here and take over command of the system from you like that?”

  “She’s senior and she’s A!Tol,” Harriet admitted. “So, yes. Unfortunately.”

  “She’s about to destroy everything.”

  “That’s a distinct possibility,” she agreed. “But for us to do anything else is mutiny. For you to do anything else is rebellion. The Militia may be a thousand times more powerful than the UESF was, but it’s no more capable of fight
ing the Imperium.”

  “We have to do something, Harriet.”

  “There is nothing we can do,” she said fatalistically. “She has the authority here, Pat. The Imperial Navy has no grounds under which I can relieve her. Once she issued those orders, my options are obedience or mutiny—and mutiny, Pat, dooms humanity one way or another.”

  “Damn it all,” he cursed.

  “Echelon Lord,” Ikil interrupted via the one-way channel into the privacy shield. “The Wendira are moving.” He paused. “So are the Mesharom.”

  She and Pat traded sharp nods of understanding, and she cut the channel.

  “What is Adamase doing?” she asked.

  “Moving aside,” Speaker Han concluded. “They’re not moving out of their range, but they’re definitely staying out of everybody else’s.”

  “I guess that answers if the Mesharom are eavesdropping on us, doesn’t it?” Harriet asked rhetorically. “Stand by for orders from the flag, and keep an eye on all of them.”

  “Echelon Lord,” Piditel spoke up. “We have a wide-band transmission coming from the center star hive. Everyone in the system is going to pick it up.”

  “Show me.”

  The image that appeared in the hologram sent a shiver down Harriet’s spine. A Warrior-caste Wendira stood straight in the middle, their black and gold wings spread wide. The glittering color of what Harriet knew was a threat display almost overwhelmed the transmission as the extension made the gray-carapaced alien appear four or five times larger than it actually was.

  “I am Fleet Commandant Vaiyah,” the Wendira introduced themselves. “I am charged by the High Queens of the Grand Swarm to retrieve the ship of the Gods of Light on the world beneath you.”

  The immense wings beat once, glittering in the light of Vaiyah’s command deck as the gesture lifted them momentarily into the air.

  “You have fought bravely and my High Queens do not desire war with the Eldest Wyrm nor the Young Swimmers. Stand aside. We will retrieve the Gods of Light’s ship and leave. There need be no more bloodshed.”

  “They are inbound at point five cee, battleships, star intruders and star hives alike,” Ikil reported. “It’s a full-court press, Echelon Lord. Four hundred million tons of warships.”

  Vaiyah stared levelly into the screen with both their main eyes and the secondary eyes on their extended eyestalks.

  “If you do not stand aside, I will shower the world below with the wreckage of your ships and the blood of your flesh,” she concluded matter-of-factly. “We will make what apologies we must to the leaders of the Eldest Wyrm, but that ship will be ours.”

  The transmission ended and Harriet managed not to audibly sigh. There were many potential responses to that, but she could guess Kas!Val’s.

  “Bring the Echelon tactical net to full density,” she ordered. “Stand by to leave orbit.”

  Her flag staff looked at her in confusion for a moment, but then Kas!Val’s orders began to arrive.

  The Imperial force was to move out and confront the Wendira—while also staying between the Mesharom and Hope as much as possible. Several of her staff turned their species’ equivalent of hopeful gazes on her, but Harriet simply nodded.

  “Make sure everyone has the orders,” she told her people. “Make sure the tactical nets are running clean and the divisional formations are in line. This is Echelon Lord Kas!Val’s show now, but we can make sure our part goes off without a hitch.”

  Her people sprang into action. Somewhat delayed, yes, but nothing they would do now was essential. It would improve the survivability of her ships when they finally clashed with the Wendira, but their survivability was going to suck regardless.

  “Echelon Lord,” Ikil’s voice murmured and she looked up to see that the Indiri had crossed the deck to stand right next to her. “Tornado hasn’t moved. What do we do?”

  “Tornado is the Duchess’s personal transport,” Harriet replied, eyeing the icon for Earth’s oldest remaining warship. “She’s the only ship in this system that isn’t under Kas!Val’s orders. We do nothing.”

  One cruiser, however powerful her mix-and-match technologies made her, wasn’t going to change what happened here.

  “Transmission incoming,” Piditel reported. “Wait…that’s weird.”

  “What’s weird, Commander?” she asked her com officer.

  “It’s a tightbeam from the Mesharom to Kas!Val, but we’re receiving a copy of the entire communication,” the Rekiki told her. “And I’m not sure where it’s coming from.”

  Harriet checked the time stamp. That was…impossible. She was receiving the communication less than a second after Kas!Val’s responses were making it back to the Mesharom—and from the completely opposite direction of the Mesharom ships!

  “Show me,” she ordered.

  Her repeater screens now showed two sides of a communication. One was Kas!Val, still looking utterly determined. The other was the four-meter-long caterpillar-like nightmare of a Mesharom.

  “I am Interpreter Shialane,” the Mesharom began. “You are Echelon Kas!Val. I must, on behalf of my commander, inquire as to your intentions.

  “We reached a deal with Duchess Annette Bond, as a representative of your Empress, that the ship of Those Who Came Before would be turned over to us. We agreed to defend this system in exchange for that concession, and handed certain informational and technological gifts in payment.

  “You have now ordered your ships to treat us as hostile.” Shialane blinked, their legs twitching. They were clearly uncomfortable dealing with aliens, more so than in most video Harriet had seen of Interpreters.

  They were also, if Harriet interpreted the brightly colored fuzzy hair covering most of their body correctly, significantly younger than most Interpreters she’d seen video of. At a guess, she was the backup Interpreter—and the main one had already spent too long talking to aliens to be able to continue doing so.

  Kas!Val glared at the camera, her own inky black eyes unreadable to Harriet. The green determination of her skin didn’t flicker. Whatever decision the A!Tol had made, she was going to see it through.

  No matter how stupid it became.

  “Duchess Bond had no authority to negotiate on behalf of the Imperium in this matter,” she told the Mesharom. “That ship represents a strategic military asset. A civilian like the Duchess has no role in its fate.”

  Shialane’s legs twitched again.

  “That was not what our ambassador on A!To was told by your government,” the Mesharom said calmly, and Harriet winced.

  Of course the Mesharom had confirmed whether or not Bond could negotiate with the Empress’s government. Kas!Val…wasn’t going to believe them, though.

  “I have no proof of that,” Kas!Val replied, a momentary flash of blue uncertainty flashing across her skin before the solid green returned. “I must protect the assets of my Imperium.”

  “If the deal will not be honored, then we will not protect this system,” Shialane said, their voice level despite their legs visibly spasming in stress. Harriet began to realize the alien’s stress had nothing to do with inexperience and everything to do with what they were going to have to say.

  “We must now destroy the ship of Those Who Came Before,” Shialane continued. “Your fleet and the colony must also be destroyed to make certain no data from the ship or that we provided Duchess Bond is distributed.

  “Your fate is your own choice, Echelon Lord Kas!Val. You have one fifth-cycle, as you count time, to change your mind.”

  “The Imperium will not be threatened or intimidated,” the A!Tol snapped. “I do not need your time! Withdraw or be destroyed!”

  Shialane’s legs had stopped spasming and they had closed their eyes. Harriet had very little training in Mesharom body language, but she could recognize sorrow when she saw it.

  “Then your choice is made and we will do what we must.”

  The flag deck aboard Duchess of Terra was deathly silent, and Harriet turned her gaze back to
the main tactical display. The Mesharom were moving now. All three fleets were moving, converging on a single point in space where the Imperial fleet would die.

  They’d take a good chunk of the Wendira with them. Then the Mesharom would finish off the survivors of both fleets and bombard Hope into debris.

  “Piditel.” Harriet coughed, clearing her throat, then turned to her com officer. “Piditel, can you tell if anyone else got that copy of the message?”

  “I think we’ve located the relay that was sending it to us,” the Rekiki replied. “But it was tightbeamed, and the relay is only about forty thousand kilometers away. There might be more relays, but I don’t think that one was sending it to anyone else.”

  “What do we do, Echelon Lord?” Ikil asked. “Shall I get Captain Sier on the line?”

  “No,” Harriet decided. “We, Commander Ikil, do our duty and follow our orders. There will be no mutiny today.”

  She smiled.

  “Commander Piditel, however, will forward that recording to Tornado. I have faith that Duchess Bond is not out of options yet!”

  #

  Chapter 45

  Annette watched the recording twice, to make absolutely certain she understood just what the hell was going on.

  She’d known the Empress would back her. Apparently, the Mesharom had used their hyperfold communicators to confirm that before they’d listened to her. Kas!Val, however, didn’t believe them.

  As an A!Tol senior Imperial Navy officer, it was quite likely that Kas!Val was simply unable to believe that her Empress would trust a human that far. Or that any of the member races of the Imperium could see the situation better or more completely than she could.

  And in her arrogance, Kas!Val was about to damn the first colony Annette’s species had created unless Annette or her people did something.

  “Permission to board A Dawning of Swords and educate the good Echelon Lord about the niceties of internal Imperium diplomacy?” Wellesley asked calmly from behind her.

  “Please, James. I don’t think forcefully boarding an Imperial flagship and shooting an Imperial flag officer is going to help Earth’s position in the Imperium.”