Lucifer's Nebula
Page 30
Tina frowned. “Yes sir. Shall I put the Watcher General on?”
I considered summoning back Fade for the conversation but decided against it. “Sure, why not. It can’t possibly be bad—”
“Please don’t say that,” Anya said.
“You’re getting the hang of back-talking your captain,” I said, pointing at her. “We’ve needed a new security officer since Clarice took the job of first officer. Consider yourself promoted, Lieutenant.”
“I thought that was William’s job,” Anya said.
“I’ll promote him to something else which doesn’t have any duties in case he annoys me by not quitting to enjoy his money,” I said.
Moments later, a hologram of Ida Claire appeared in front of me. She was wearing a white robe with a rank insignia on its right side, what I took to be the formal “dress uniform” of her spy agency. This uniform came with full audio and I could hear the sounds of rumbling which indicated to me she was both underground and under attack.
“Hi,” I said, trying not to show concern. “It seems you’re not in a good place.”
“Oh, I’m in the best,” Ida said, ignoring a Commonwealth medic running behind her as alarms blared. “Jewel of the Spiral.”
I blinked. “You’re on Albion?”
I tried to figure out how I should react to the discovery I hadn’t prevented an invasion of the Commonwealth. I hated that government despite the fact they’d been fully justified in attacking us. I would never forgive them for destroying Crius, no matter what the terrible actions of our government had been, and I hoped the galaxy would remember the day they’d destroyed my planet with the same infamy as the murderers of Earth or the Cognition A.I. which brought about the Great Collapse.
Yet, despite that, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of sympathy for the ones below. I hated the government of the Commonwealth, hated it with a fury but bore no ill will to the citizens of Albion. They were innocents in all of this no matter that they celebrated the conquests of their star navy as well as funded their activities.
Who could be attacking, though? I had witnessed enough of the Free Systems Alliance Navy blasting each other to know there was no way they could attack Albion again. They’d been destroyed down to the last ship (or at least close to it). There were bound to be other ships crewed by non-nanoplague infected soldiers but they’d be nothing more than insects buzzing at the face of the human race’s largest star empire. The Chel might have the force to attack or the Union of Faith, but neither could hope to defeat the Commonwealth in a straight up fight. If it was the Elder Races then there was nothing that could be done and I’d doomed mankind. No, I refused to believe that. I’d kill myself I had to.
But would it be enough?
Ida’s expression remained even, which was akin to screaming for her. “Yeah, I’m afraid so. You prevent one end-of-the-world scenario for my government and another one pops up.”
I leaned forward. “Who is attacking the Commonwealth?”
Ida gave a bitter gallows laugh. “The Community.”
Dammit.
THE ADVENTURES OF CASSIUS MASS WILL CONTINUE IN
LUCIFER’S PLANET