Confluence

by S. K. Dunstall

  Michelle nodded.

  “His Majesty believed Galenos would come around eventually. He has always had the interests of Lancia at heart.” He smiled faintly as he glanced toward Abram. “He might have underestimated Galenos’s feelings for you. None of us expected it to come down to Emperor Yu or Crown Princess Michelle.”

  Everyone on the Lancastrian Princess would have chosen the way Abram had.

  Helmo must have been thinking the same thing, for he raised his eyebrows. Ean wasn’t the only person who shrugged back. As Radko would say, was the sky on Lancia purple?

  * * *

  AFTER that, Vega escorted Bach down to his room and locked him in, while everyone else decamped to Abram and Michelle’s workroom.

  Helmo went via the bridge. “Give me ten minutes to talk to Vanje. I have the ship on alert.”

  Radko held Ean back. “Give them five minutes to themselves.”

  He was glad to have five minutes of his own, just him and Radko. “Thank you for saving my life. Again.”

  Radko half laughed. “He wasn’t trying to kill you, Ean. I should have seen that.”

  “You would have protected Michelle anyway.”

  “Yes, I would, but I wouldn’t have been fast enough.”

  Ean thought she would have been.

  They started walking slowly.

  “Was it bad? The job?”

  “It was different. I made some mistakes. There were times I could have used a linesman. Especially a level twelve.”

  “If you’d taken me with you, I could have helped.”

  “Wasn’t that the whole point? To keep us apart? And without you here, we would have lost the station, Confluence fleet, and Michelle. Nor would you have taken the Eleven to war.”

  Maybe so, but next time they’d work something out, so Radko didn’t have to go away. But then, there wouldn’t be a next time, for the dual enemies of Sattur Dow and Emperor Yu didn’t exist anymore.

  “Now that you’re not engaged,” Ean said, “what are you . . .” He stopped.

  Radko smiled. He heard it through the lines. “That depends, Ean.”

  “On what?”

  “Lots of things.”

  What did that mean? He looked at her.

  Her smile was affectionate. “Let’s see what happens, Ean?”

  He wanted to slip his arm through hers. Did he dare? Not quite. Not yet.

  They walked in silence for a while.

  Even Vega delayed coming back, stopping at her own office to frown down at the decoded report on the desk, then pick it up and start flicking through the screens.

  Ean broke the silence, eventually. “We have a problem with the Confluence.”

  “What sort of problem?”

  “It’s choosing its own crew.”

  “I thought you wanted crew for it.”

  “Yes, but it’s chosen its own Ship.”

  “Captain, you mean? Who?”

  “Sale.”

  “Hmm,” Radko said. “It’s not going to happen, Ean. She’ll be good, but no one will ever let her take it. She’s nowhere near qualified yet.”

  “You don’t have to be captain to be ‘Ship’ for the lines. On Confluence Station, Ship is not the station manager, he’s a guy called Ryley, who’s part of engineering.”

  “Have you told Abram about this?” Radko asked.

  “Sort of. But Abram never followed up on it. And he has been busy with other problems.”

  “Then he knows, Ean. I wouldn’t worry.”

  * * *

  “DAMAGE control,” Abram said, when they were all back in the workroom. “If Michelle doesn’t go back to Lancia soon, one of her younger siblings will take over. But if we don’t stay here with the council, we’ll lose credibility.”

  “If we haven’t lost it already,” Michelle said. “The lines know how much support we lost with my father and the Factor arriving.”

  “You might get some back now he’s dead,” Ean said.

  He looked at Michelle, who had loved her father despite all he did. He couldn’t tell her he was sorry, because he wasn’t, so he didn’t say anything. He’d talk to Katida and Orsaya himself, and maybe Shimson and Trask. Somehow, he’d convince them things would be better now.

  “Whom do we tell first?” Michelle asked. “The council or Lancia?”

  “Tell them at the same time,” Abram said. “Warn the council we will be making an announcement, then jump the Lancastrian Princess to Lancia, so that we get communication between sectors, and make the announcement from the palace at Baoshan. Walk in as you mean to continue, Misha. I’ll walk into Admiralty House and do the same.”

  “Both of you with bodyguards,” Vega said. “I will supply them.”

  “And the council?” Helmo asked.

  “We come back for the sessions and spend part of our time here, part there. Until Michelle can sort out a government loyal to her.”

  “That’s a lot of jumps.” The terror that Ean associated with Helmo and jumping cold started to seep into the lines.

  “We order a lot of shellfish,” Vega said.

  “They’ll pick that up by the third jump,” Helmo said. “If not earlier.”

  Ean had to convince the captains to jump cold. Or they had to come up with a way to stop Gate Union’s blocking New Alliance jumps. Both needed a miracle. Could they convince Vilhjalmsson to get the jumps for them? After all, he needed to get home.

  “Do we trust Markan?” he asked. Admiral Markan was in charge of Gate Union military. He was also Vilhjalmsson’s boss, and Markan valued Vilhjalmsson, for he had rescued him before.

  Michelle choked on her sip of tea.

  “No,” Vega said.

  “Vilhjalmsson was investigating the same thing Radko was. He must know Redmond was about to defect. Maybe you could exchange some of the information Radko brought back in return for jumps. About Redmond. About their experimenting on the lines.”

  Gate Union had more to lose from Redmond’s defection than the New Alliance did. Especially if House of Sandhurst proved to be as deeply involved as they looked to be, for Markan had supported Iwo Hurst’s failed bid to become Grand Master. If Hurst proved to be knowingly involved in the experimentation on linesmen—and how could he not be—then Markan stood to lose the support of the line cartels if he didn’t do something about it.

  Radko shook her head. “Markan already knows. Vilhjalmsson got the original report from OneLane’s.”

  “Ha.” Vega brought out the comms she’d been looking at earlier. “The problem is, if he bases his information on this report and tries to replicate it, all he’ll do is destroy a few extra linesmen.” She tapped the report. “Quinn and his friends think they’ve found a way to make linesmen out of nonlinesmen. But they haven’t.”

  She couldn’t possibly have read the whole report already.

  “They find someone with line potential, feed them full of drugs, then test them. All the way up to level ten.”

  Michelle understood before anyone else did. “Single-level linesmen. It’s probably the first time they’ve ever been tested for every level.”

  “They’ve been testing fully for six months now. I’m guessing Lancia suggested that.” Vega tapped the comms. “There’s a list in here of people who might be suitable for the treatment. Fergus Burns, Mael St Mael. Nadia Kentish.”

  Failed linesmen.

  “They think it’s a simple matter of finding the right combination of drugs, and they’ll get themselves another twelve.”

  The lines didn’t work like that. “Didn’t Bach or Yu tell them?” According to Katida, single lines were a badly kept secret.

  “Maybe not,” Abram said. “I suspect they kept line-related information close to their chest.”

  Michelle sighed. “It would have been Lancia’s only barga
ining tool. Lines and the linesmen.”

  “However,” Abram said, “we may have enough to bargain with Markan. Especially if we do it with the Grand Master of the line cartels present. We can’t keep line training and single lines secret forever.”

  “Vilhjalmsson knows Bach was arrested,” Radko said. “If he goes free, he’ll take that back to Markan.”

  Abram tapped eleven-time on the console. “We hand Vilhjalmsson back so he can tell them how Redmond planned to defect from Gate Union. Give Markan information about how line testing is flawed.” He frowned. “It’s enough to get us jumps to Lancia, but it has to benefit the whole of the New Alliance. Otherwise, we’re no better than Yu himself, and they’ll still look on us as traitors.”

  He looked at Michelle. There was a blue snap through the lines. From one of them? Or both?

  “Ask for a temporary truce,” Michelle said. “Three months. They give us unrestricted line travel. Jumps when we ask for them. We provide all we can about Lancia’s plans with Redmond and the Worlds of the Lesser Gods.” Her dimple showed. “We’ll put Bach in charge of that.”

  Gate Union needed time to regroup. After all, Redmond owned the line factories. And Markan had elevated House of Sandhurst over the other houses. Their participation in line experiments wouldn’t go down well.

  “And line twelve?” Vega asked.

  “That’s not part of the deal. They don’t get information about that. Just about the singles.”

  “We do need to warn some people,” Michelle said. “Annette Jade, for one, as well as Admiral Katida. Balian and Aratoga have both supported us longer than they should have.”

  They wouldn’t be able to hide it from Orsaya, either.

  “I’ll talk to Vilhjalmsson and Katida,” Abram suggested. “While you talk to Governor Jade.”

  Michelle nodded, and they shared a quick, smiling glance before Abram inclined his head toward Ean. “Linesman, you might ask Admiral Katida to linger over dinner.”

  THIRTY-THREE

  EAN LAMBERT

  STELLAN VILHJALMSSON LOOKED as if he should still have been in a hospital.

  “Young Chaudry patched me up well enough,” he said, in answer to Abram’s query. “The medical staff at the station here looked at me as well and pumped me full of drugs. Unfortunately, I need my wits about me, so I can’t take too many painkillers. But I will stand, if that’s okay?”

  Abram nodded, but he didn’t sit down either. Nor did Orsaya or Katida. Radko took her normal position over near the wall. Ean perched on the edge of the table.

  “Markan must have few people he can trust if he sent you on this mission,” Abram said.

  “Not really. I went to investigate a stolen report about line experiments. How important could it be? I was bored sitting around headquarters.”

  It even sounded reasonable, but the lines heard evasion.

  “He’s not telling the whole truth,” Ean said.

  Vilhjalmsson looked at him, then at Abram. “Do we have to have the human lie detector in on this meeting?”

  Radko dropped her stance to stand straight. Vilhjalmsson flinched. Ean stood up, too.

  “Easy,” Abram said to them both. He smiled at Vilhjalmsson. “In this room or out there, won’t make any difference. He’ll still know.”

  “I confess,” Vilhjalmsson said. “I find him rather alarming.”

  That was the truth.

  “So Markan is worried,” Abram said.

  Vilhjalmsson glanced at Ean as he considered his answer. “You know as well as we do the ramifications of Redmond’s choosing to go it alone. They’re only ten worlds, but they have all the line technology for the foreseeable future. And if they’re actively recruiting worlds—as appears the case with this business of the Worlds of the Lesser Gods—it won’t take long for them to become a formidable foe. Especially not if they manage to steal a line ship, which I presume was their plan.”

  “I think you were worried about more than that,” Abram said. “You knew Redmond was building ships based on alien technology.”

  A tiny spurt of surprise from Vilhjalmsson. Should Ean tell Abram Vilhjalmsson hadn’t known that?

  There was none of the blue flash of instant decisions as Abram spoke. He must have thought hard about what he would say to the Gate Union man. Calculated dropping of important information that Vilhjalmsson had to take back to Markan was probably part of the plan.

  “You also knew they were building weapons based on alien technology. The destruction of the Kari Wang proved just how far they were prepared to go.”

  Vilhjalmsson raised a brow, but that was all the reaction that showed. Underneath, the lines amplified the quickening of his pulse. “Is there a point to this?”

  “We want a truce.”

  Vilhjalmsson tried to laugh, didn’t fool anyone.

  “A temporary truce,” Abram said. “Three months. Time enough for Gate Union to work out what they’re going to do. Time enough for them to decide what to do about Redmond. We both know Gate Union is as vulnerable as the New Alliance is if they can’t get access to new lines.”

  Orsaya and Katida were silent. Ean glanced their way. Neither showed any emotion.

  “As part of that truce, Gate Union lifts the ban on jumps for three months. Unrestricted jumps for all New Alliance ships. No delays.”

  Vilhjalmsson laughed. “You offer three months to think about things we’re already thinking about. Why would we agree?”

  “I can also offer you access to Commodore Bach. He’s been working with Redmond for months. He knows who the ringleaders are. He knows the whole plan.”

  If Vilhjalmsson said he wasn’t interested, he’d be lying. Ean didn’t need the lines to tell him that. He was more worried about the hum of concern that had come from Katida’s line eight. He wanted to tell her to trust Abram but knew it wasn’t the time.

  “And that’s your sweetener?”

  Abram nodded. “But I’ll add another. We’ll tell you why we’re looking for failed linesmen.”

  That wasn’t going to be a secret for long, anyway. Plus, they needed to know that. Otherwise, they’d take Quinn’s experiments and start destroying more single-level linesmen.

  “Offer it to Markan,” Abram said. “See what he says. We have all been caught out by Redmond’s machinations. We both need time to regroup.”

  “So you’re more desperate for jumps than even we realize, or there’s something I don’t know.”

  “Take our offer to Markan, Vilhjalmsson. See what he says.”

  “I do get out of here, then? I thought I was a prisoner.”

  Abram smiled. “Organize a jump for me. I’ll take you myself, on the Lancastrian Princess. Somewhere close to Lancia because I need to take Commodore Bach home. And I need a jump back to Haladea III afterward.”

  Ean hid his smile. It was clever, and it solved their initial problem. What would Vilhjalmsson say when he found he’d been used to transport Michelle to Lancia to take over as Empress?

  “You’ve a nerve, Galenos. Using me to transport your prisoners for you. Not to mention handing me off in enemy territory.”

  “Tell me you can’t get passage off Lancia if you need it.”

  “Why should I trust you?”

  Vilhjalmsson looked at Ean rather than Abram. Ean stared back and tried to look as trustworthy as he could. And as expressionless as Radko.

  Vilhjalmsson considered a while. “I’m tired, I’m sore, and I need to report to Markan. I know there’s something I’m missing, but I’ll take the opportunity, anyway. I trust I will get there safely.”

  “You will,” Abram said. “I’ll leave you to arrange the jumps then. We’ll give you a secure line.”

  Ean nodded. He knew what he had to do.

  “Lancastrian Princess,” Orsaya said, frostily, after her guards had escorted Vi
lhjalmsson away. “That’s quite presumptuous, given all that’s happened these last few days. And taking Bach back to Lancia sounds eerily reminiscent of a recent traitor sent back to the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. We know how well that turned out.”

  Abram blew out his breath again. “Personally, I don’t care whether Bach goes or stays. Michelle must go to Lancia.”

  The pause after that felt as long as a ship’s passing through the void, and to Ean it seemed he had the same void time to check the other ships.

  Governor Jade had arrived on board the Lancastrian Princess. Michelle went down to the shuttle bay to meet her personally. “Annette, I appreciate your coming, especially at such short notice.”

  “My own brand of support,” Governor Jade said. “You’re under immense pressure at the moment, Michelle. It’s the least I can do.”

  “Thank you. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. Before I announce this to the council. But we’ll both need a drink.”

  Ean watched Governor Jade’s face as they walked to Michelle’s formal office, the one she seldom used. Jade was bracing herself for bad news.

  “Emperor Yu is dead,” Abram said. “He, and Lancia’s military, were working with Redmond and the Worlds of the Lesser Gods.”

  Orsaya and Katida stared at him.

  “Dead,” Katida said. “Are you sure, Galenos?”

  “Very sure. I killed him myself.”

  Another void-long silence.

  On the Lancastrian Princess, Michelle was telling Governor Jade, “My father is dead. He betrayed the New Alliance, and we had to—” She couldn’t continue.

  Jade moved in close and hugged her. “Oh, Michelle.”

  Ean could hear Katida’s lines. He expected shock and betrayal. Instead, he heard a wild, singing hope.

  “Yu planned to take the alien ships with him,” Abram said. “We had given him enough information to know that if one ship jumped, the others would follow when we didn’t have a seven singing them apart.” He glanced at Ean, and there were smile creases around the corners of his eyes, “Unfortunately for them, they underestimated the impact of line twelve.”