Drake stood next to Tolvern, staring at the viewscreen with his hands clasped behind his back. Tolvern wondered if he was thinking of his old friend, or if he was worrying about new threats. He was back in the Royal Navy uniform, but Drake hadn’t gone pirate and back without effect. She could see it every time she looked at him. Drake was more easy in his interactions with his crew and had not replaced Capp, Carvalho and the rest with navy types. He even carried himself with more ease, as if he were more comfortable in his own skin, or least no longer needed to worry what others thought of him.
“You aren’t going to witness it?” Tolvern asked.
“I have no reason to do so. Only the Hroom emissary needs to be present.”
Maybe so, but there were plenty of others down there watching, including the rest of the officers from the bridge. Tolvern had wanted to go herself, but she didn’t want to leave Drake alone.
“Your final victory,” she prodded. “Doesn’t some small part of you want to see Malthorne’s expression when they push him into the airlock?”
“Gloating over a man’s death has never been my style, Tolvern.”
“You’re a better person than I am,” she said. “That bastard is responsible for so much misery. He deserves worse. He deserves to be drawn and quartered.”
“He may deserve it, but I take no pleasure in his execution.”
She found that hard to believe. More likely, it was something Drake aspired to. To be neutral, impassive. Just and never vengeful. But could he manage? She knew he was still angry about the senseless murder of his sister, about the death of Nigel Rutherford. Drake swore to bring Fitzgibbons to the same sort of justice that Malthorne was now facing. Why wouldn’t he be happy when the lord admiral died?
“Or perhaps it is too much of a distraction,” Drake said. “One that I cannot afford.”
“Sir?”
“We face a new threat. One that appears at first glance to be unbeatable. I won’t obsess about Malthorne while Apex is at our throat.” He turned to look at her for the first time since they’d begun speaking. “You should know something. I’ve given HMS Philistine to Jeremiah Weber.”
“I see.”
The demotion hurt. She’d taken her destroyer into battle once and seen it badly damaged. But surely her victory on Hot Barsa would have counted against that defeat. But perhaps Drake would allow her to take up her old position. She could serve with him on the deck of Blackbeard.
“I have not yet prepared your official orders, as the Admiralty must first confirm my choice, but I am willing to share off the record, if you’d like. Your new command, that is.”
“Then I’m to be captain again?”
“Again?” He smiled. “You were never demoted, Tolvern. This is an upgrade.”
“Huh? A cruiser, sir?”
Now he laughed. “In a manner of speaking.”
She stared, recognition dawning in her eyes. “Wait, do you mean—?”
“I am to receive my own promotion. And as vice admiral, it will be expected that I take Dreadnought as my flagship.” Drake raised an eyebrow. “That leaves my old ship in need of new command. Captain Tolvern of Starship Blackbeard. How does that sound? Oh, excuse me. That would be HMS Blackbeard now. We are no longer pirates.”
Captain Tolvern of HMS Blackbeard!
It almost took her breath away. If not for the pain of leaving Drake’s side, the news would have surpassed her wildest dreams. Jess Tolvern, a commoner and the daughter of a steward, was to be the captain of the most powerful cruiser in the Royal Navy.
But Drake was not done surprising her yet.
“I understand you had a . . . let us say, dalliance while on Hot Barsa.”
Tolvern’s face flushed. “Who told you that?”
“Who do you think? Capp, of course. Carvalho fessed up to her, and Capp is not the best at keeping secrets. It eventually got back to me.”
“I am sorry, sir. It was a moment of weakness.”
Not that she regretted it. A woman was entitled to a bit of adventure, a bit of pleasure when she was about to face death. Could even Drake deny it?
“Was she, um, upset?” Tolvern asked.
“Not at all. Capp was proud, I should say, that her man managed to crack such a tough nut as you. And one who, as I understand it, has been pining for another man. Me, apparently. Imagine my surprise to hear it.”
Tolvern blinked, speechless. She was aghast that Drake had heard about her silly schoolgirl crush. Capp! Good thing the subpilot wasn’t here, or Tolvern would wring her neck. Good heavens, how long until she could get out of here?
“You look horrified, Jess,” he said. His use of her Christian name was not lost on her. “Would it ease your fears if I were to tell you that I am seriously considering the idea?”
She found her tongue. “You . . . what? The idea of what?”
“I had my own dalliance, so to speak. Perhaps you have heard about it. If not, it wouldn’t take much guessing to arrive at an answer. Catarina Vargus, to be frank. The experience put certain thoughts in my mind. Now, Catarina is long gone, building a fleet for a secret and distant mission. But there are other options.”
“Please be clear.” Tolvern licked her lips. Her heart was hammering. “What are you suggesting?”
“We are at war. Now is not the time for grand gestures. But it has occurred to me that our rules on fraternization may be overly harsh. If the cream of Albion is to serve king and country, there should be a way for those people to do so without destroying their hopes for personal happiness. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yes, sir. I mean, James. Yes, of course.”
He opened his mouth to say something else, but at that moment, the viewscreen switched to an internal camera on Blackbeard. It showed Malthorne, alone in an airlock, knee deep in garbage. They’d shoved him into a disposal unit, and nobody had bothered to clear it out in advance.
Good. Let Malthorne go out like the rubbish that he was.
“Jane, give us info on the disposal system,” she said.
“Disposal unit three at twenty-two percent of capacity by volume, eighteen percent by weight.” Jane’s tone was calm, clinical. “Rubbish venting in twenty-two seconds.”
Tolvern couldn’t resist. “Jane, initiate countdown. Broadcast it over the general channel.”
Drake raised an eyebrow but didn’t countermand her order.
“Eighteen seconds,” Jane said. “Seventeen. Sixteen.”
As soon as she started to speak, Malthorne turned about in the disposal unit, looking at the camera, waving his arms and saying something that couldn’t be heard. Jane was broadcasting right into the disposal unit. At ten seconds, his gestures became frantic. At five, he pounded on the airlock door, face red and eyes bulging as he screamed in silence.
Jane continued. “Four . . . three . . . two . . . one.”
The airlock opened. Malthorne and the rest of the rubbish whooshed into space. In a moment, it was gone.
Drake changed the viewscreen. Another orbital fortress rolled past, framed by the beautiful green and blue sphere of Albion beneath. In a wonderful coincidence, the Zealand Islands stretched into the ocean below them, with their home island of Auckland just visible through the clouds.
They had come full circle, Tolvern realized. The mutiny had begun in this very spot not so many months ago. Drake, unjustly sentenced for a crime he had not committed, and Tolvern making a desperate play to free him.
Now, the true villain had been sentenced and executed for the crimes that had killed millions of humans and Hroom alike. Drake had taken his rightful place as the admiral of the fleet. Tolvern would be captain at the helm of the ship where it had all begun.
She glanced at Drake, who stood tall and proud and handsome by her side. It wasn’t everything her heart desired. But it was a bloody good start.
-end-
Thank you for reading Rebellion of Stars. Read on for an afterword about the series. Meanwhile, if you enjoyed the book, please c
onsider leaving a review on Amazon.
To receive notice when my next book is released, visit my web page and sign up for my new releases list. This mailing list is not used for any other purpose, and you’ll get a free book as a thank you.
Afterword
Thank you for reading the Starship Blackbeard Series. Is this the end?
Yes and no. I don’t like those series that go on forever and ever, and I’m guessing you don’t either. Ten, twelve books. When are we going to find out if the bad guy is killed?
Well, this villain is dead. Admiral Malthorne, that S.O.B., got tossed into space with the rubbish. The sugar slaveocracy is in collapse, Albion is on its way to being reunified, and there may finally be peace between the humans of the sector and the ancient, but battered Hroom Empire. The story that began with Jess Tolvern’s ill-advised mutiny has come to an end.
However . . .
The sector is still in chaos. Apex is mowing down Hroom and human alike, seemingly unstoppable. General Fitzgibbons still needs to be crushed, and what about Catarina Vargus?
I don’t know about you, but I want to know. What drives a person to this one, singular goal: assemble a colonizing fleet for a one-way mission through a decaying jump point?
And what’s on the other side? The Omega Cluster is a huge unknown to both human and Hroom alike. I have a few ideas, but even I can’t say for sure until I start writing.
So watch my author page for the next book in the Starship Blackbeard universe. I’m going to launch it as a new trilogy, as this is a major story in its own right. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll take a look at some of my other offerings.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Rebellion of Stars (Starship Blackbeard Book 4) Page 21
