“Battle,” said the Confluence.
Ean staggered to his feet. “Sale, we have to rescue Radko.”
Sale’s comms sounded. Vega. Ean looked at it uneasily. “Maybe you should answer that when we get back.”
Sale glared at him, clicked it on.
“Group Leader Sale,” came Vega’s crisp tones. “You are near a research station orbiting Aeolus, one of the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. Anything you do is likely to be considered an act of war.” She paused, then added, “You are on your own. I repeat. You have no support. Return immediately.”
They were still linked to the Eleven fleet ships. Ean considered turning the link off, but that was childish. Although there was a lot of activity on the media ships. They were listening in. He hastily sang those lines closed.
“Radko’s here,” Ean said to Sale. “On that station. She sent a message. She’s going to die.”
Sale looked at Ean, looked at her comms, then looked at the trainees—busy rounding up prisoners. She looked at her comms again. “There’s only one way home, ma’am. We need to fix his problem before he’ll fix ours.”
She clicked off and watched the Xantos attending Kentish. “How is she?”
Alex Joy shook his head. “She’s alive, but that’s all we can say for her.” He looked from Kentish to Vang, and back again.
Sale looked at Losan, who was nearby. “Take Joy down to the medical store.” She scowled at the paramedics. “If I thought any of them were real paramedics, I’d get you to rouse one.”
If that was possible. Many of them were horribly still.
“But I don’t think any of them are. We haven’t got much in the way of medical supplies,” she told Joy. “See what you can do.” She scowled again. “We’ve a whole hospital here, and we don’t know how to use it.” Then she turned to Fergus. “What in the lines did you think you were doing?”
“I had a suit on.”
“A suit protects vital body organs. It doesn’t protect your head. Or your legs. Not to mention, there’s a hell of a concussion as the suit dissipates the blaster heat.”
Fergus nodded and winced as he did. “Hell-of-a is an accurate way to describe it, I think.”
“Don’t do it again.” Sale turned to Ean. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll send you home,” Ean said. “Give me a shuttle. I need to find Radko. They are going to kill her.”
“Don’t be stupid, Ean. We’re better armed with you on a ship than we are with you in a shuttle. Although you’d better not lose this ship.” She flicked her comms on again, to Craik, on the bridge of the Confluence. “What do we have?”
“The station is threatening to shoot us.”
“Tell them we’ll use the green pulse if they do, so they’d better not try.”
“Right,” and Craik clicked off.
Sale looked at Ean. “Does the Confluence have a green field?”
“Yes.” And line eight was ready to use it, too.
“Not yet. Not until we have rescued Radko.”
Technically, the Worlds of the Lesser Gods were allied with Lancia—and thus the New Alliance. They should appreciate Radko’s uncovering Bach as a traitor, as well as Jakob.
The trainees were rounding up the paramedics who could move, removing their weapons, forcing them into a central circle. Ean tried not to jig impatiently. This had to be done, but every second they wasted here was a second wasted not rescuing Radko.
Sale looked at Bhaksir. “Use what trainees you can to get this lot locked up. Put them in one of the empty shuttle bays, and get Ean to sing the door locked. That way if they cause trouble, we’ll vent them into space.” She scowled at the paramedics. “I can’t believe they’re Lancastrian.”
She picked out three of the trainees, all single-level linesmen and thus standing, all with rankings on their shoulders. “You, help Bhaksir with the organization. Joy, too, when he gets back. Oh, and none of you try any stupid ‘They’re Lancian’ shit. We’re on the same side as you, and we’re your only way home. You’re right in the middle of enemy territory.
“Ean, block any messages from this ship that’s not ours. Some of those paramedics will have comms.”
That was easy. “Only send comms from Ship’s people,” he told line five. “From our fleet people. You know the ones Ship will let you send.”
It was equivalent to Captain Helmo saying, “No unauthorized comms.”
Sale turned toward the bridge. “Come on, Ean. We’ve work to do.”
Ean ran to keep up with her.
At last. It would take them forever to get to the bridge. He was glad he didn’t have to be on the bridge to know what was going on. Even the ship seemed infected with urgency.
“Hurry, hurry. Faster.”
“I can take a shuttle.” It would be faster than having to go all the way to the bridge.
“That’s not going to happen, Ean. You’ll leave us stranded in enemy space with the most valuable ship in the whole of the New Alliance.”
“Technically, the Worlds of the Lesser Gods are not enemies.”
Sale snorted. “Does anyone seriously believe that?”
No.
“Slow. Faster.”
He was going as fast as he could. Surely the ship understood that.
“Keep an eye on the trainees” Sale said. “I don’t want them turning on us. We’re in a really bad position right now. The only thing between us and the trainees’ taking over the ship is you. Keep it that way.”
He should have waited till they’d sorted out the attack here on the Confluence. But Radko might be dead by then.
“I don’t know how long the station will hold off firing on us. We don’t know what weapons this ship has.”
The Confluence was the size of a small city.
“We have a green field.”
“Which is useless because we’ll destroy Radko, along with who knows how many innocent people. Tell me about Radko.”
But first, Ean checked with line eight. “Where are your weapons? What do you have?”
The overlay of sound almost knocked him over. There were lots of weapons, all around the ship, although he couldn’t have told Sale where a single one was right now. One of them was the quiet blue hot blood.
“We have weapons. Lots of them.” Breathlessly, for Sale had started to run. It was a long way from the shuttle bays to the bridge. “Radko sent a message.”
He still couldn’t run and talk, let alone sing, but he tried anyway.
“She said. Commodore Bach,” because Sale needed to know that. “Traitor. With Redmond and the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. And then he shot her.”
“Bach shot Radko?”
“Jakob did.”
“What’s Jakob doing there? Never mind, Ean. Tell the rest when we’re on the bridge.”
He was grateful for that because Sale could run as fast as Radko. “You really should ask the ship how to get to the bridge fast.” Or he could ask it himself, but he didn’t have the breath for anything but running right now.
“We haven’t time to experiment right now.”
“Faster. Hurry.”
He had a stitch in his side, and the lines seemed determined to push him off course. He nearly ran into the wall once, had to force himself away.
“Faster,” the lines insisted, battering him with sound. “Faster.”
Finally, he couldn’t fight the sound anymore. He stopped, his lungs burning. All he could do was stand with his hands on his knees and drag in deep breaths.