“It’s not a plan, Papa,” Sabine told her grandfather, hoping her childhood nickname for him would derail his train of thought. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have with him, or anyone else for that matter. She was having enough trouble holding to her course as it was.
The hug that came from behind was unexpected, and almost brought all of Sabine’s tears for Kristof to her eyes as she resisted the comfort that was being offered, afraid she would relent at last. She wanted to pull away from the embrace, but her grandfather held her close.
“My little fairy queen,” Geoff whispered to her, turning her own childhood nickname back on her, “You do not want to do this. You will never forgive yourself if you do.”
“I can live with it, Papa,” Sabine said, forcing her tears and anguish down beneath a lid of rage as that bright, hot corner of her mind lashed out. “They will pay for what they have done.”
Geoff sighed as he released her and sat at the bar beside her. His look was knowing as he posed his next question. “Does Anasha know what you plan to unleash?” he asked her, clearly knowing the answer already but wanting to hear her say it.
“She knows enough,” Sabine said evasively, a guilty thought going out to her wife.
“She may feel as fiercely as you do about Kristof, but I do not think she would agree with what you are planning,” her grandfather said shrewdly.
“That is why no one had best tell her,” Sabine said pointedly, leaving no doubt how she would react otherwise. “She’ll know soon enough anyway.”
“That she will,” Geoff said sadly. “So be it, then.”
Geoff Arctura nodded shortly and bowed to kiss his granddaughter’s forehead before he too turned and left. Sabine found herself alone in the silence of her thoughts, but she remained determined. Whether or not Kristof was returned to her, she fully intended to make sure the Clovani felt just how displeased she truly was.
~23~
The trial had started, that much Anasha saw before their ship jumped to hyperspace. The Clovani had dressed Kristof up in a uniform, but she had seen the agony written on his face, as well as a few places where blood had seeped into the uniform shirt under his ribs. She’d sent a silent thought to him then, and she felt the ghost touches of his response. He was so weak now, Anasha had thought to herself, and she knew they needed to hurry.
The seven surviving members of Kristof’s team had insisted on joining her own, and she’d not had the heart to deny them. The stealth shuttle was overcrowded, as a result, as she tried to move about between men and equipment. Her own group consisted of thirty men, since Su’Tani forces operated in five man teams instead of the typical four. Added to this were Kristof’s seven, and Max of course. The android rarely left her side now, having appointed himself as her personal bodyguard for the duration of the mission. He would join herself and Kristof’s seven as the third team of the mission.
The mission resembled Kristof’s last in many respects. Team 2 would secure their extraction point and commandeer a ship for them. The team included snipers and heavy weapons, since Anasha’s group was likely to be coming in hot with the enemy right on their heels. The Su’Tani snipers never missed, and had trained to take down a target every six seconds, while their heavy weapons members would be able to drop munitions around the approaching friendlies with deadly precision and not hit them as they came in.
Anasha’s Team 1 included highly trained scouts that would silently kill sentries with deadly ease while finding a route for them. She also brought her own heavy weapons people who carried miniaturized Gatling systems similar to the full sized one Max had taken to Dorcanus II with him. The rest would be armed as a standards ops team.
The additions of Kristof’s men had created some difficulties at first, until she learned that one was the team medic and another was their explosive ordinance commander, which both created opportunities. Anasha’s own medic was moved to Team 2, while Kristof’s EOD tech would create some cover chaos to aid in their escape. The remaining members of Kristof’s team had readily volunteered to be the ones who would carry him out if needed.
After seeing the trial footage, Anasha knew Kristof was not walking out, let alone running out. He would need his men if he was going to have a chance. As she made her way back to the launch ramp, she prayed that he could hold on long enough for her to get to him. She wasn’t sure how she could live with herself if she failed to get to her husband in time.
The launch ramp was crowded with two large autonomous cargo carriers that would transport all of their heavy gear to the planet, one each to follow each team to their designated landing areas. The soldier doing the final checks gave her a nod of affirmation that all was ready. Anasha nodded in return as she continued to make her rounds.
These men and women had fought beside her in the past, during her first life. Some had found her return unsettling, but the feeling had passed. The part she herself had found unsettling was how much older they all were now. This group were now all officers now, many outranking her technically, but she had the command. They had all come at her call for this mission, since many were not part of the Royal Garrison, knowing what it meant to her and the Queen. Anasha had insisted on the best, and she knew these people.
Night would have fallen over the capital city of Dresana by the time they arrived in seventy two hours, just as Anasha had planned. The details of the plan kept going through her mind over and over. She hated that there was so much she didn’t know or was unable to account for, like Kristof’s exact location. They had made their best guesses, but it would be up to her sense of him to pinpoint him at the last.
Instead of dwelling on the thought, she pushed it away and thought of Sabine and their last night together. Her little queen had seemed so angry after Anasha had returned from seeing Max to the repair center. Her grandfather was gone, she noticed, and wondered at the source of this anger. The opportunity to ask had not presented itself, however, as Sabine had come to her as soon as she saw her and fallen into her arms with a kiss.
Sabine had been most passionate that night as her anger and fear for what was to come fueled her desire, and Anasha had reached out to pull Kristof’s awareness into it as best she could to give her love some strength to hold on to. It wasn’t long before she’d felt herself pulled down into the little queen’s need too, though, and what followed had been a night of love and passion and need that drove them into wee hours of the morning.
Anasha smiled at the memory. She’d thought Kristof had always gotten carried away in his loving of her, but Sabine was equally demanding and giving as well. Anasha suspected she’d learned it from Kristof, however, since he’d been her only lover before her. The familiarity had warmed Anasha’s heart, though, and she welcomed it as always whenever they were together as a couple or all three at once.
Their parting that morning had been tearful, but necessary. Even had Sabine had the proper training and not been the Queen, the baby would have precluded any involvement in a combat op for her. Sabine’s last kiss had been tearful yet fierce, and again Anasha felt the sense that the little queen was hiding something from her, but now there had been no time to ask.
“You should find some room to stretch out and sleep,” Max suggested as Anasha took a spot next to him. “You look as tired as Kristof always does before we leave on a mission. I suppose that means you got some last night.”
Anasha laugh as she elbowed the android. She appreciated his levity, it helped to ease some of the tension she was feeling even if it was embarrassing at times. She suddenly wondered just how much Max heard when he was standing guard in the outer rooms, and she found herself blushing harder.
“Is there ever a thought that comes into your mind that doesn’t find its way out of your mouth?” Anasha asked Max jokingly.
“No, not really,” Max replied in his characteristic bluntness, which made Anasha laugh again. “My point still stands, however. You need to rest.”
“If only I could,” Anasha yawned.
“Meditate, then,” Max suggested. Damn meddling, over perceptive androids, she thought to herself, but Max was right.
“Fine, I will try and sleep,” Anasha replied, knowing meditation was out of the question.
“Do not worry, I will be sure to wake you in time for the fun,” Max added quietly.
~24~
Sabine watched as the mammoth ship moved past in the distance. When she’d had it and its twin commissioned the previous year, she’d truly not had a grasp of the scale. Her grandfather had once tried to describe the size of a dreadnaught to her, and still she found herself in shock. She also felt more confident about her plan after seeing it though.
“It is quite impressive,” her grandfather said at her side. “I had quailed at the cost and the deadline you proposed, but there is no denying the sense of presence and power they bring. Their strength will be needed.”
The rift between Sabine and her grandfather from the night before was gone already, she was glad to know. As her last remaining close family, his opinion and love were vastly important to her. She knew he didn’t approve of the course she had set, but he would support her to the end it seemed.
In the distance, the flash of hyperspace suddenly revealed a second dreadnaught. Sabine knew she had been witnessing the Archangel moments before, which meant this new one could only be the Queen’s Honor. She again cursed Stephan for the name even as she praised him for delivering the ship ahead of schedule. While the Archangel was painted the standard grey and navy blue of the Puranni Navy, the Queen’s Honor gleamed in a pristine white and royal blue.
“At least the enemy won’t have to guess which one I’m on,” Sabine muttered darkly, and her grandfather chuckled.
“Easy now, child,” Geoff chided her. “Lord Stephan has grown in leaps and bounds this past year as he seeks to win your forgiveness. He is not nearly such a pompous ass as he used to be. Give him a chance, is all that I ask. You are the one, after all, who decided to pardon him and give him a second chance.”
“I gave him a second chance to help ensure peace in the Protectorate, not out of any special grace towards him,” Sabine said, but she knew her grandfather saw through her as he always did. As it happened, she had kept tabs on Stephan’s time as Grand Duke of the House of Duranis, and Stephan had not disappointed her faith in him.
The House of Duranis was historically opposed to her own ever since her family had assumed the throne over twelve hundred years ago. The Royal House of Duranis had passed without an heir and a brief but bloody dynastic war had erupted, with House Arctura winning out. The Protectorate was a generally peaceful realm except during those periods of dynastic succession, and the Duranis family had not been happy to lose the power they had held for nearly two millennia.
Since Stephan had ascended to the head of the House, those views had slowly changed. While the divisiveness was still there, the openly hostile disdain had diminished. Stephan’s time as her seneschal had given him a broader view beyond the family narrative, which had helped tremendously it seemed. Their families may never be the closest of friends, but at least they were no longer at each other’s throats either.
“Your shuttle is waiting, my little fairy,” her grandfather said quietly so no one else would hear. Sabine tossed decorum out the window and hugged her grandfather tightly for all to see.
“Hold the fort for me, Papa,” Sabine said as she stepped away.
“It will be here when you return,” Admiral Geoff Arctura responded with a bow and a smile.
Sabine gathered up her now augmented troop of guards, eight now instead of the usual four, and made her way to the hanger bay several decks below. The announcement of her intention to lead the rescue mission herself had been met with many loud, vocal protests, and the added security was one of the concessions she’d made to her commanders. She had flat out refused to agree to hide in the battle bridge of the dreadnaught, however.
Sabine would be the first ruling monarch in over five centuries of Protectorate history to lead a military campaign, and never one as large as this. She would also be the first Queen to lead an assault in fifteen hundred years. Fully two thirds of the Puranni fleet would take part in this mission which would see a two pronged assault of the orbit over Clovani Prime, each prong centered on one of the dreadnaughts over the northern and southern poles of the planet. Sabine fully intended to be on hand when Kristof was brought on board. Plus, there was the second part of their mission that she intended to see through as well, the part she had kept hidden from Anasha.
The shuttle ride was brief, and as the ramp descended, Sabine was greeted by the blare of a royal fanfare. Irritated, she saw that a royal blue carpet had been rolled out to the edge of the boarding ramp as well. She said a silent curse to Stephan before she had her guards form up in proper fashion, and then descended the ramp.
The cavernous hanger deck was filled with rank upon rank of officers and crew in parade ground formation, all standing salute to Sabine as she stopped at the end of the ramp. Sabine returned the salute to her troops as Stephan approached along with the ship’s senior officers and knelt before her on one knee.
Her former seneschal had indeed changed, Sabine noted. The man’s hair had greyed and he’d lost weight, even though like General Mannis he’d not been very robust to begin with. Life at the Sanctuary had made him soft, but a brush with death had hardened Stephan back up. Otherwise he remained as sharply dressed and proper as always as he knelt in his expensively tailored blue suit.
“Rise, Grand Duke Duranis,” Sabine commanded, and Stephan rose, while the ship’s officers followed.
“Your Majesty,” Stephan said, “Welcome aboard the Queen’s Honor.” There was a slight twinkle of mirth in Stephan’s eyes that told Sabine that he had caught wind of her displeasure at the ship’s name.
“We’re going to have a talk about that name soon,” Sabine said, her voice cast low so as not to be overheard by too many. Stephan chuckled and had the grace to blush lightly.
“Please forgive me, my Queen,” Stephan said lightly. “I meant it only as a monument of my regard for you. It can of course be changed, if you so wish, once we return from Clovani Prime.” His tone, while conciliatory, was also somewhat hopeful.
Stephan’s words had somewhat disarmed her desire for a name change, Sabine thought to herself with some annoyance. He had probably chosen his words with that intent all along. The Grand Duke had known her for a long time, after all, and he knew how to read her moods. Instead of giving in right then, she nodded to the Grand Duke and motioned for him to lead the way. The conversation about the ship’s name could wait.
“A shuttle awaits to take us to the battle bridge, your Majesty,” Stephan said as they went.
“That won’t be necessary,” Sabine stopped him short. “The command deck will be fine. I intend to see this through personally, as I have already told the Admiral. The command shall remain yours, of course, Admiral Raekis,” Sabine added quickly to the ship’s commander, “but I won’t be hiding in some rabbit hole for this battle.”
“As you wish, your Majesty,” Admiral Raekis responded with a nod. “It will be our honor to have you among us.”
Sabine gave Stephan an arched look to see if he would object, as he’d been fond of doing while helping to raise her, but he remained silent as they went. Changed indeed, Sabine thought to herself. Perhaps allowing his folly in naming the ship the Queen’s Honor could be endured after all if it made him happy.
The command deck was twice the size of the Royal Court, Sabine saw as she exited the lift from the hanger deck, though she knew a ship this size would need a massive number of people to run her. Much on the ship had been automated or given over wholly to androids, she knew, but it still took a lot of people. The crew here was a flurry of activity, all very coordinated and resembling a ballet, Sabine thought.
Admiral Raekis led her to the command dais, which oversaw the operations of the bridge, and offered her his own seat. The vie
ws from the viewports were spectacular as Purannis drifted by in the distance. Sabine seated herself, not liking how small she felt in it as if she were a child, and looked to the Admiral.
“How long will it take the fleet to reach Clovani Prime?”
“The fleet has coordinated an orbital insertion seventy two hours from now,” the Admiral told her. “Since all elements are jumping from different areas of the Protectorate to avoid tipping off the Clovani that we are coming, some elements are already on their way.”
“So our insertion team will have roughly six hours to complete their objective,” Sabine said flatly, betraying none of the emotions swirling in her. Her worry for Kristof was now augmented by her worry for Anasha and Max, too. Too many things could go wrong and cost her the ones she loved more than life itself.
“That is correct, you Majesty,” the Admiral replied as he stood at attention before her.
“And Firestorm?” Sabine asked quietly, finding it hard to say the name.
“As ordered, everything is in place should you choose to give the order.”
“Very good, Admiral,” Sabine said with a sigh. “Begin when ready.”
Admiral Raekis bowed and headed off to oversee the final preparations. Stephan came to stand to her right and joined her in watching the activity of the bridge. He seemed content to just be at her side, and Sabine once more considered the extraordinary change in the man.
“I must admit that I find the changes in you most surprising, Your Grace,” Sabine addressed Stephan by his title. “I am happy that I decided to give you a second chance.”
“It is I who is the happy one, Your Majesty,” Stephan replied in genuine gratitude. “I fear I was a weak man before, made soft by the ease of my station and family legacy that seemed to guarantee my future. Your mercy made me see the errors of my ways, as well as my family’s, and I only hope that I can one day truly repay the kindness and mercy you have shown me and my family.”
The Smuggler's Ascension: Dark Tide Rising Page 14
