by Sean Danker
“The private did. Though she thought I was really Prince Dalton, not a double.” I snorted. “She thought I was defecting.”
“I’d even read about the Rothschild Mark they gave you. If only I’d recognized you. You don’t expect a Ganraen prince to come out of one of our sleepers. Especially not one that was supposed to have died on the capital.”
“Without the hair and the makeup, I almost don’t recognize myself,” I admitted. “I’m not as fabulous as Prince Dalton.”
The corridor was crowded and buzzing, but all that fell away. Deilani and I were the only two people for light-years around. I kept my eyes on the stars.
“How long ago did you replace him?” she asked.
“A while,” I replied.
She shook her head. “You never did deny that you were a spy. I just never thought you might be one of ours.”
“It’s dangerous for you to know. I couldn’t tell you. No point lying, either. And I’m not exactly a spy.”
“I’m not sure there’s a word for what you are,” Deilani said.
I didn’t argue.
“I should have figured it out. So you were a double for the prince. How did they switch you? Is he dead?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said simply.
“And the other royals that got assassinated? Was that you?”
“Does it matter?”
“And the capital?”
I thought about the royal cruiser smashing through the dome and barreling into the center of the capital station.
It was easy for the right person in the right place to make big things happen.
I didn’t say anything.
“Then it really was you. You destroyed their capital, crippled their government—forced the surrender. You won the war, got us the cease-fire.”
“You could also say I killed twenty million people,” I replied.
“But you saved Evagardian lives. It was your mission.”
“Was it? My orders didn’t come from the Empress, Lieutenant. That’s why Evagard needs me to die. This was someone else’s plan. Some committee of admirals and tetrarchs willing to do something extreme to end the war. For the greater good, as they saw it. If they haven’t been executed yet, they will be. It’s best if no one ever knows it was an Evagardian operation. Or at the very least the Empress has to be kept clear of it. She would never order that kind of attack, not at that cost for civilians.”
Deilani looked shaken, but she didn’t say anything.
“But it doesn’t matter. It was an Evagardian plan. At the end of the day.” I shrugged.
“After Cohengard, who can say what she’d order? Then the sabotage . . .”
“It’s not public knowledge, but at this point the people who matter in the Commonwealth know the truth. I had to break character at the end. I think the sabotage to Tremma’s freighter was Ganrae’s work. They messed up the computers and sent us off course. The sabotage to my sleeper was Evagardian. The shuttle could’ve been either one, and it was targeting Tremma and his pilot officer, not us. The possibility existed that they could learn the truth about me, and that made them loose ends to someone.”
“But they still tried to reward you. They gave you the Rothschild Mark and made you an admiral.”
“I told you it was an honorary title. Whoever heard of an admiral my age? Even an honorary one?” I smiled. “It only works if it’s posthumous.”
“Yes, but it never occurred to me you might be telling the truth.”
“Salmagard should’ve tipped you off. She never hesitated to follow my orders.”
“I thought she was just being . . . Earth born.”
“She’s not like that.”
“I see that now. That’s why she was so determined to protect you—she couldn’t have anything happen to the hero of the Empire on her watch. Or to the defecting prince, if that was what she thought. And I suppose she recognized you because she keeps important company. She knew Prince Dalton’s face when she saw it. She put it all together pretty fast.” Deilani looked annoyed. We both gazed at the Julian.
The ship was beautiful; it was intimidatingly large, but also elegant. I’d heard about how the Empress had taken it into battle to save a ship in trouble in the Demenis system, even before the Julian’s weapons and defenses were fully operational. That had been only a few short weeks ago.
It was a shame I’d never get to see it from the inside.
“So they heap these honors on you, then try to kill you.”
“Awkward, right?”
“Was it Tremma?”
“That sabotaged my sleeper? I don’t know. He was a spy. It would’ve been perfectly plausible for him to get the order to switch me off. Maybe even likely. But the Empire’s got plenty of people out there. It could’ve been anyone, anywhere. It’s been a long road.”
“But you think it was him. That’s why it didn’t bother you when we found his body,” she said, staring at me.
“I didn’t know him very well,” I replied. “He gave me a lift once. A long time ago.”
“You do think he did it.”
“I’ll never know. It doesn’t matter. It wasn’t personal.”
“We can’t admit to you—we can’t admit to what you did. We can’t admit to running ships like that freighter.”
“There are a lot of things they don’t teach you,” I said.
“If you knew they were going to kill you, why come back at all? Why not run when you had the chance?”
“I was going to be awarded my honors by the Empress herself,” I said. “Aboard the Julian. It’s not easy getting into a room with the Empress. How many people can say they’ve done that?”
“You had to know something wasn’t right.”
I shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. Are you going to try to take me in?”
“Take you in? Admiral, I’m just a young officer on station leave. I’m required not to show my face to these common galactics, and to conduct myself by imperial standards. Not to go hunting for my own government’s embarrassments.” She holstered her sidearm.
“Risky,” I said. “Being seen with me. You may regret this.”
“I’ll take my chances. I told her you saved her life.”
“That was thoughtful. Can you pass something else on for me?”
She cocked her head. “What?”
“Ask her if she wants to get dinner sometime.”
Deilani’s mask stared at me. “Are you being funny?”
“What?”
“Half the galaxy is trying to kill you.”
“Is that weird?”
Deilani just sighed. I went back to admiring the view.
“Or do you think she’s too good for a guy from Cohengard?” I asked.
“What?”
“You really couldn’t tell? I’ve got Cohengard written all over me. Binsey Surleau, Sustenance Block Delta. Two sections from White Square. I’m getting homesick just thinking about it.”
The silence conveyed her surprise perfectly well; I didn’t need to see past the mask. I knew what was on the other side.
“What’s your real name?”
“What difference would it make?”
“None, I guess.” Deilani stepped back and straightened. “Honor and glory to the Eternal Empress.”
“Always may she reign,” I replied dutifully, stepping back from the viewport.
For the first time since we met, she saluted me. I didn’t return it.
“Have a good career, Lieutenant.”
“Better than yours,” she replied.
I grinned, then turned and melted into the crowd.
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