I thanked the admiral and repeated the order not to give himself up unless he had absolutely no choice, collect the Swarm scientists and follow after the rest of the fleet. So the situation became clear. My battleships had escaped and were on the way to Aysar. The enemy was in Kej, not defeated, but fairly badly wounded. The time had come to attend to local matters.
"All ships, attention! Make the smallest possible advance toward the enemy ships. Match the speed of the battleships. No one jump in front. Ghost-2, increase distance from Alien ships to four hundred. Safa-40, and Safa-41, maximum speed toward the Alien ships. If they try to activate targeting systems on you, report back immediately!"
Two small green dots took off on the tactical screen and were moving rapidly to close the distance to the enemy. Everyone froze, waiting to see what would happen. One thousand miles to target. Four hundred miles. Two hundred." The Aliens were not reacting to our approach at all. "One hundred miles. Fifty..."
"Safa-40, catch one of the Sledgehammers in a warp disruptor and take a tight orbit. Do not reduce speed. Safa-41, your mission is to catch one of those unknown-model cruisers!"
But the Alien frigates didn't even react to my ships taking such unambiguously aggressive maneuvers and just allowed themselves to be captured unpunished.
"This is Ghost-2. I am four hundred from the enemy. Increase distance?"
"No, that's all I need. Send me your coordinates. Safa-40 and Safa-41, keep holding the cruisers. Attention to the whole rest of the fleet! Accept warp jump coordinates and report back when you are ready! Safa-60 will jump first, setting prewarp four hundred miles past the coordinates. Right after you get out of warp, Safa-60, capture another cruiser. All other ships, jump to zero on Ghost-2 two seconds after Safa-60. I repeat: only Safa-60 is to jump toward the Alien ships. All others are to stay clear. Admiral Kheraisss Vej, I need to make sure your subjects understand the order! Only Safa-60 will jump into battle. Everyone else, jump two seconds later on the opposite side of Ghost-2!"
Admiral Kheraisss Vej appeared on the screen and chirped a long speech into the microphone, then turned to me:
"My Princcce, all me cap-i-tan to understand order."
"Excellent, admiral. All ships, accelerate for warp! Attention! Cover light-sensitive equipment! Ten seconds for Safa-60, twelve for everyone else. Nicole, countdown!"
I could even feel the excitement of the moment in my skin. I looked to the Truth Seeker. The little girl had her eyes closed and was crying in fear. Another green spot appeared on the tactical map and jumped to the two others, after which the map disappeared. Armored plates were covering all delicate equipment. Warp jump.
"Rear shields have fallen by ten percent!" Came the worried voice of an engineer.
"I need a tactical map immediately!" I demanded, and a few seconds later the 3D hologram reappeared in the center of the hall.
After a brief look at it, all the officers gasped at once. Neither the Alien ships nor the three Safas existed any more. The map was showing nothing but a sea of small pieces of radioactive wreckage. A second went by, and another; then Space Corporal Patrick toyl Sven stood up in silence, approached the paralyzed Flora, bowed before her on one knee and kissed her on the hand.
"Florianna, it was only thanks to your talent as a Truth Seeker that our fleet is still alive! Know this, girl: I am forever indebted to you!"
The other officers applauded. I clapped my hands with the rest. Flora had completely earned these honors by confirming my suspicion of a trap with her abilities. Finally, I took the microphone:
"Now is not the time to relax! Bionica, send an order to the Tria. Have them send assault troops to capture the station. And tell the general to also prepare three hundred capsules to keep the scientists rescued from Kej in suspended animation in. Communications officer, I need to be put through to the Uf system beacon."
Fifteen minutes later, a Gamma Iseyek showed up on the screen in dark blue colors. The shape of his shell, combined with a massive bundle of tiny antennae near his mouth, made him look like a shaggy blue walrus.
"Bionica, translate! We are the Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet. We are on a special mission from the Swarm and have destroyed many Alien ships in the Kej and Aysar Cluster systems. With us are the Gamma Iseyek the Swarm tasked us with rescuing from the planet Kej-V. We need a warp beacon in the Uf system to bring the scientists out."
The whiskered blue walrus heard out Bionica's translation, chirped back an answer, and hung up. My synthetic assistant translated:
"I do not have the authority for such a decision. This will have to be agreed on with the coordinator."
I sighed out heavily. If he needed Triasss Zess's agreement, it wasn't hard to figure out that the answer would be negative. And that was exactly what happened. A few minutes later the communications officer told me about a message sent from the Uf system:
"The Swarm coordinator told me that there is no Imperial fleet in Swarm territory and there could never be. Aliens, you cannot trick us into opening a portal for you to invade through."
"Well then, it didn't work the first time," I laughed wryly, seeing the others' attention focusing on me. "Now the praying mantis assault troops will capture the station, and we'll wait for the rest of the ships, recharge them and keep going."
After opening a map of Swarm systems on the screen, I started imagining the possibilities. We wouldn’t be allowed to Sobj, that had been clear for some time. Trying to get through the Uf system had just failed too. There were only two potential routes left: leave territory captured by Aliens through the Bej system or go on to the Arite system, which the Swarm fought a war over two hundred years ago with the mysterious Arite race. Human science knew precisely nothing on the Arites, and all information I had was based only on the meager information General Savasss Jach's personal record had provided, which said he was one of the heroes of the many-year war with them. There was nothing to do. I called the general and asked Bionica for help with the translation.
"Prince Georg, the landing troops have set down on the Aysar station, and the battle is under way. Approximately fifty minutes needed for complete clearing of all spaces on the Aysar station. Three hundred capsules for the Gamma Iseyek scientists have been prepared on Tria."
"General, I have a surprising question, and I hope very much that your obligations to the Swarm will not make it impossible for you to answer. What can you tell me about the Arites?"
The whiskers and appendages of the centipede suddenly started bristling like a hedgehog. Bionica commented:
"That's how Gamma Iseyek show disgust. He strongly disliked your question."
I could not give less of a shit about the insect's feelings, as I considered him partially at fault in the Swarm's betrayal. The general's answer was much more important to me:
"Prince Georg, you may not believe me, but it's better to meet ten times with Aliens than once with Arites. They are an exceptionally vile race of parasites. Since you've never had the good fortune of coming up against them, let me tell you that there is simply no way to remove an Arite. I spent many years in battles against the Arites and had a fairly good amount of victories. But I still do not know what exactly they look like."
"How is that even possible?" I asked in surprise.
"Because that’s how it is with Arites, Crown Prince. It's very hard to explain it in words. You'll get it if you see even just one."
Falling into the Trap
The battleships Master of Tesse and Bride of Chaos arrived to the Aysar Cluster at almost the exact same time as a message came in from Colonel Gor ton Vulf saying that a section of the warp beacon had been captured, though there were still battles underway in the rest of the station.
"Turn off the beacon, colonel!" I ordered. "We'll turn it back on for our cloakers in Kej for a very short time. Also, I really need trophies: Alien bodies, weapons, and equipment. That all has a huge value, both to the Empire and the Swarm alike. Perhaps, us having Alien trophies will be the very key tha
t will open the door home for the Sector Eight Fleet."
However, a minute went by, then another, but the tactical map was still showing an active warp beacon as before. I called the colonel and asked about the delay.
"My Prince... we'll need some more time to get it turned off. My engineers and Savasss Jach's experts are both reporting that the equipment they are familiar with has been replaced with something really strange. Now they are trying to figure out what it is exactly that we found. Our first impression is that half the familiar instruments have been replaced with some sort of grown, living organism. One of the halls is filled with all kinds of stalks and roots. It's not clear how IT can replace computer chips, electric cables, power circuits, batteries and all other kinds of equipment, but the warp beacon system is still on despite the fact that half of the necessary systems are absent. We haven't figured out how to work IT yet, nor where this creature is drawing power from. We could just rip IT all out, say to hell with IT and turn the beacon off that way."
"No, colonel. For the time being, I forbid IT be destroyed, no matter what IT may be. We have thirty ships left in the Kej system. Without a beacon, they're doomed. Here, I think we better remember the first rule of computer programming: if something's working, even if you don't know how, don't change it. So, just collect the rest of the trophies, but don't touch IT yet. Will our ships be able to recharge their batteries at the station?"
"Yes, my Prince. Our technicians have already confirmed that. Though the voltage at the ports is nonstandard, and there are none using standard outputs, but our engineers say that they could reconfigure it to charge either Imperial or Swarm ships. The only thing is that there are only thirty-six working ports at the station. It's too few to quickly recharge such a big fleet."
I considered it briefly, then told them my decision:
"We will charge them one by one then. The first group will be Master of Tesse, Bride of Chaos, Tria, Emperor August, Boydur the Hero, Hunchback's Heir, Scalp Collector, Legashes one to three, Thrushes one to five, Pyros one to ten, Warhawks one to five, Flycatchers one to three, two Umoyge, and one Vassar."
"And what of the flagship?" Captain Oorast Pohl asked, surprised at the lack of Joan the Fatty in the list.
"We will be the last of the heavy cruisers to recharge. What kind of a fleet commander would save himself first and throw his subjects to the dogs?"
Judging by the labored smiles on the officers' strained faces, not nearly everyone approved, but no one expressed their dissatisfaction out loud. Nicole Savoia, in fact, even sent me a personal relation increase:
Standing change. Nicole Savoia's opinion of you has improved.
Presumed personal opinion of you: +57 (friendship)
I turned back to my assistant with a slight bow and smiled, which made the easily-embarrassed girl blush.
There was a certain risk in my choice to deprioritize charging the flagship, but I had some “crystal balls” watching the enemy in the Kej system, and they would tell me if anything changed. Also, Ghost-3, which had arrived ten minutes earlier to the Lobj system, had not detected enemy ships in it, so there was no threat to worry about from that direction either. If the Aliens started moving, I would have at least three hours and seventeen minutes to do anything (the time for the Alien ships to jump from Kej to the Aysar system), and in that time I could fully recharge my flagship's energy.
Making use of the silence that arose, I told my subjects that I was preparing to take some rest. I also said only to awaken me if our enemies took active measures, and then went back to my cabin to unwind. Astra had yet to finish the painting, but that didn't stop me. I had really already grown tired and needed to sleep. Also, after talking with Flora, I was feeling pretty high-strung and was preparing to really seriously have a talk with my favorite. Despite the Princess asking me to give her another hour to work alone, I decisively entered the cabin and flopped down on the little sofa. The girl, with an expression of clear dissatisfaction on her face, turned the canvas away from me so I wouldn’t be able to see her creation.
It seemed that Flora had not been wrong, and the time had come to put the presumptuous beauty back in her place.
"Astra, the Beta Iseyek all complain about you," I declared to the Princess, having decided to go straight on the attack. "They say that your thoughts are too loud and so interesting that, even when they are on ships very far away, they have no choice but to study the human anatomy through your fantasies, instead of working."
"What?" The girl was taken aback and, after setting the paintbrush down, turned toward me in frustration. "Who could have said such garbage? None of it is true, your Highness... Bionica! That's right! It's her! Only an android could translate the words of an insect!"
In fact, I was trying to protect Flora, but the Princess's thoughts went in precisely the wrong direction. I had no desire to pressure my kind translator, so I answered Astra that Bionica had nothing to do with it. I assured the Princess that there were many in the fleet who understood the Iseyek language, and also Phobos and Deimos were not doing at all bad at learning human language and loved translating questions from insects for anyone who wants to hear. The Princess went simply crimson and sat on the armchair, covering her face with her hands. I sat down closer and said in a calming tone:
"Astra, you have to get used to the fact that times have changed. If you were just a girl barely anyone had ever heard of from the outskirts of the Empire, no one in the galaxy would be interested in what you talk about with your friends. But as you've already decided to become a noted public figure around a Prince in line to the Imperial Throne, from now on, your actions will directly influence not only your own reputation but mine as well. Even just a harmless flirtation with another man on your part, and that fact becomes public property and thus cause for discussion and mockery in society. And if, in addition, that very favorite continues to cast her played-through desires about willy-nilly, and strangers, both people and unpeople are able to see and hear it all, then a horrible scandal, up to the point of a call to the Emperor to explain the defiant behavior, is practically inevitable for us. I do not know how that sounds to you, but I don’t like it one bit."
Astra turned to me with her eyes full of tears.
"Crown Prince, a number of times in my conversation with Corwin overly spicy topics really did come up. However, every time the captain apologized for his tactlessness, and it never occurred to me that our conversation might be upsetting someone. But I only ever wanted one thing: for him to see that picture I'm making. The captain is an expert in painting and said beautiful words about how I have such a unique style, unlike anyone else's, and as a result wished for me to make him a painting."
What? The mustachioed captain is an art lover?! Don't try to pull the wool over my eyes! What had happened started to look totally different to me. Oh, Astra, Astra... So naive and trusting...
"Can I take a look at your work?" I wondered, and the girl agreed.
"It's almost, almost done. There's just a couple more little strokes left," the Princess announced, standing up from the sofa, drying the tears with her sleeve.
I also stood up and walked around the canvas. What was there to say...? It was about what I was expecting. The only thing this time was that the painting was done not in black, but primarily in dark blue. Two thirds of the surface were taken up by different kinds of triangles and also yellow, long and short lines placed according to the "so no one will ever be able to figure out exactly why" principle. In the middle of the painting there was a white oval with a gold crown clumsily shining forth (or a flame, though possibly also the pelt of a red animal). The work was completed by a little red cross with rays of different lengths, painted right on top of one of the triangles. It could hardly have been intended to be an ambulance, though there were no other associations that came to mind looking at it.
"Tell me the truth. Is it beautiful?" the Princess asked timidly from behind my back. "It’s a painting of the Sector Eight Fleet fighting i
ts way through a horde of Aliens. The gold light inside the pure white area is our ships, everything else is enemies, and there are really a lot of them.”
It seemed my conclusions about the Princess had been too rash. Princess Astra was still interested where my fleet was headed and what it was doing.
"Woah... Really nice," this time I was slightly acting against my conscience. "The red cross is..."
"The beacon home!" the artist informed me, noticeably coming to life.
"I really like it. Have you shown the painting to the consignor yet?"
The girl shook her head no, not understanding what I was hinting at. I was suddenly struck by an attack of utterly boyish joyfulness. Corwin ton Ugar, what kind of an art lover are you?! He's probably a lover of the fact that the trusting Astra's work could be sold for forty-fifty mil easily. I was now irreversibly convinced of the outcome would be just that.
"Astra, I have a wager for you. Let's say we give Corwin ton Ugar a painting that isn't by you but a totally different artist. If he doesn't figure it out in three hours that it isn't yours, you give your painting to me. But if he uncovers the forgery without you giving him hints, I'll give him the painting, apologize for the bad joke and never again will I interfere in your conversations. Agreed?"
The Princess began thinking, clearly looking for a catch. Then she said, cautiously and even confused:
"I do not understand you, Crown Prince. Those are unequal conditions on your Highness's part, because you will obviously lose. Corwin ton Ugar gave me an unambiguous assurance that he is an expert in painting, so he will easily recognize the artist's style and win the bet."
Beyond Death (Perimeter Defense Book #2) Page 16
