What did the aliens do when their ships were damaged so badly? What could cause that sort of damage, anyway?
It was good to know that the ships were getting crew, but the flagship needed crew as well. “Why don’t you make each supply a crew member for the Confluence as a condition for getting its own ship?” The Eleven had a full linesman and a single-level linesman from each world; the Confluence should have the same. “Two crew. A single and a full.”
Abram smiled. “I’ll see what I can do. I may be able to get you a crew even if I can’t get you a captain.”
They arrived at the internal air lock that blocked off the more damaged areas of the station. Once through the air lock, the still-intact passages gave way to a structure of struts and clear plastic, separating the inside from the outside.
Ean’s stomach flipped queasily. Sure, he knew that there was nothing except space outside a ship or station, but he’d rather not see it. Not an empty black expanse like this.
Abram looked around. “That freighter did some damage.”
Yet Confluence Station wasn’t majorly distressed about it. Even though the lines were damaged, and their station manager was still in the hospital, the station song was more of fixing things and of everything under control. The Lancastrian Princess would have been distressed if its “Ship”—Captain Helmo—was missing.
“Do you think only ships, and not stations, bond with their captains?” Ean asked.
“Do you?”
“No.” Although both Piers Wendell and Jita Orsaya believed that going through the void increased the bond between ship and captain, and Ean knew his own link with the lines expanded every time he went through the void. “Maybe. I don’t know.” Ean would still have expected some recognition from Confluence Station that its “Ship” was damaged.
Captain Helmo called at midnight to say he was returning to Haladean space. Fergus and Commodore Vega were on the bridge with him.
Ean already knew one person was missing. “Is everyone—”
“There is a line-security issue I need to discuss with you, Linesman,” Vega said over the top of him. “Make yourself available on the Lancastrian Princess at the earliest opportunity.”
“A security issue?”
“At the earliest.”
He could get subtle—and not so subtle—hints.
Ean let Fergus sing them in, while he checked the surrounding lines to ensure there were no ships nearby. This was a sanctioned jump, ordered in the name of a freighter half the galaxy away, but Gate Union knew by now that the New Alliance was buying jumps on the black market. How could they not?
Ean trusted the Eleven fleet ships to stop any intruders, but Captain Helmo wasn’t as trusting as he was. It was Ean’s way of reassuring Helmo that everything was all right. Maybe one day, Helmo would believe it enough to jump cold.
The galaxy would turn into a black hole first.
He went out to the shared common room, where Ru Li and Gossamer were on duty. “I need to go to the Lancastrian Princess.”
“Now?” Gossamer asked.
“There’s a problem.” Vega might have wanted him to wait until morning, but she had said at the earliest.
Ru Li sighed and went to wake Bhaksir.
“If it’s line-related, couldn’t you fix it from here?” Gossamer asked.
If it was line-related, he could have. “Vega said a line-security issue. And to make myself available, at the earliest.” Besides, he wanted to know what had happened to Radko.
Bhaksir came out with Hana. Hana rubbed sleep out of her eyes. Sale came out from her room.
Guilt swamped Ean. He looked at the growing crowd of people. “It can probably wait until morning.”
“Ean,” Sale said. “Once you’ve asked for something, don’t weaken your position by saying it’s not important.”
“Besides, it’ll be good to have Radko back,” Bhaksir said.
Except Radko wasn’t back, and her own team leader didn’t know that yet.
Jumps weren’t permitted close to other ships. They waited in the shuttle for the Lancastrian Princess to come in closer before they went to meet it. If human ship lines developed to the level of the alien ship lines, there would be no need to jump so far out. If they could jump as accurately as the Eleven had earlier, they’d simply jump directly into position.
Ean listened to the chatter of the ships as they waited. Abram was going out to the Lancastrian Princess as well.
Bhaksir and Hana listened to the Lancastrian news feeds—no longer in real time although still more current than they had been—switching between channels when something bored them. Ean hadn’t kept up with Lancian news. He didn’t plan on keeping up with it, either.
Some of the news was about the war. Gate Union had attacked the mining colonies at Aratoga.
“At least it’s a change from the usual complaints about how restrictions on jumps are harming the New Alliance world economies,” Bhaksir said. “Wait,” as Hana poised to flick the channel again.
The reporter was the striking woman Ean had seen on the news vids earlier, Maxine Oroton. On-screen behind her was a picture of Michelle, wearing a formal blue jacket encrusted with jewels. Her dark hair was swept up in an elegant chignon, and she wore a tiara glittering with more jewels.
“News in from the palace,” Oroton said. “His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Yu, has announced the betrothal of his oldest daughter, Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Michelle, to the Factor of the Lesser Gods.”
The image changed to display a man—equally formally dressed—with cropped black hair and a wide, sensuous mouth.
He looked—to Ean’s prejudiced gaze—like a man who thought a lot of himself.
“We go now to Professor Ghyslain, to tell us about the Worlds of the Lesser Gods.”
The image crossed to a man standing in an open area, long coat streaming in the wind. A massive castle filled the screen behind him. “I’m standing here in the capital of Aeolus, the largest and most populous of the Worlds of the Lesser Gods.”
He had a booming voice that didn’t so much compete with the wind as quell it. “The building behind me is the Factor’s primary home. This is where Her Royal Highness Princess Michelle will reside after her marriage to the Factor.”
Michelle had four and a half years left on Haladea III before she went anywhere. New Alliance council members were elected for a term of five years.
“Professor Ghyslain, can you tell us more about the people and the worlds Her Royal Highness is marrying into?”
“Of course. There are ten Worlds of the Lesser Gods. They’re in the Redmond sector.” A galactic map filled the screen. Six worlds were highlighted in the center. “These are the Redmond worlds, which we all know.” The image moved to the top right corner and zoomed in to an edge of the sector. “These are the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. They are named after ten of the gods in Greek mythology. That’s an Old Earth mythology,” he added. “Aeolus, Asclepius, Amphitrite, Dionysus, Hebe, Hellas, Maia, Nemesis, Pan, and Persephone. Named, I might add, because the first three worlds discovered personified these gods.”
Ean had never heard of them.
“Aeolus is the god of winds, and as you can see, this place is most definitely windy. Asclepius is the god of healing. It was on Asclepius that we discovered the restorative compounds so vital in regeneration. Amphitrite is the goddess of the sea, and that world is totally covered in water.”