Ean looked at her. She hadn’t been there when he and Vega had interviewed Lord Renaud.
“He’s supposed to be a linesman.” Radko smiled at Ean. “He’s right-handed.”
“His son joined the fleet,” Vega told Abram. “Except his DNA didn’t match the Han family’s. So Lord Renaud paid someone on Redmond to fix the records, opening himself to blackmail from Redmond, too. They got him to smuggle medical supplies.”
Abram blew his breath out, didn’t say anything.
“Lord Renaud’s life is his own to destroy,” Bach said. “Our concern was contact with people in Redmond.”
“Let me get this straight,” Abram said. “You used the contacts Renaud made while smuggling to approach interested parties in Redmond. To offer them the alien ships in return for being part of a new alliance of Redmond, Lancia, and the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. How did the Lesser Gods come into it?”
“They’ve been working with Redmond for years, building ships based on alien technology. And experimenting on the linesmen even longer. They know more about linesmen than the New Alliance and Gate Union combined.”
Ean shuddered, remembering the feel of the lines—the wrongness of the linesmen—on the station orbiting Aeolus.
Red-mint-cinnamon amusement wafted from the lines. “I’d pitch our line knowledge against anyone’s,” Michelle said.
“Perhaps,” Bach said doubtfully. “Regardless, all three powers could see advantages. Redmond had line factories. The Lesser Gods the linesmen. Lancia brought the ships, and the level-twelve linesman although he was to remain under our control.”
Michelle made a sound that might have been a laugh. “Our level-twelve linesman is a thinking, rational human being.” Ean was glad Vega didn’t comment. “How did you think you would control him?”
Bach’s gaze flicked toward Radko. “He has shown loyalty to the woman who is minding him.”
“By marrying her off to Sattur Dow,” Ean said. “What was that supposed to do?”
“Sattur Dow would expect access to his wife.”
“That was never going to happen,” Abram said.
Instead, it had triggered the start of events that had ruined Yu’s plans. Ean couldn’t understand how they’d even expected it to for a moment. Didn’t Yu know that Radko couldn’t give them access? Although Vega had sent Radko away because they were worried she’d have to.
Vega said, “With Lancia giving away the ships, it would be hard to see us as anything but a lesser contributor to any union of worlds.”
“Giving away, Vega? No, I don’t think so. We’d still have the linesman.”
Michelle’s smile was full dimple. “You know, Ean, sometimes I think we should hand you over to our enemies and let them find out the hard way they have no control.”
Everyone except Ean and Bach laughed.
“I fail to understand,” Bach said.
“You don’t have to understand, Bach.” Radko’s dimples were as deep as Michelle’s. “That’s what I’m here for. To prevent people like you ever understanding.”
The others laughed again.
“Who was involved in this grand plan?” Abram asked.
Bach shrugged.
Michelle and Abram shared a glance. A glance that was a whole conversation in a single look. Like they used to, back when Ean had first joined the Lancastrian Princess.
Ean blinked and had to look away. This was how it had been. This was how it would be again.
“Commodore Bach,” Michelle said. “As the Empress of Lancia, I order you to tell me who was involved. Fleet Admiral Galenos, as the head of the Lancian fleet, orders you to tell us who was involved.”
Head of the Lancian fleet. Ean wasn’t the only one who had to hold in a smile, and the Lancastrian Princess’s lines made a choir to match. Lancia couldn’t make trouble anymore. Not with Abram in charge. Even Bach looked pleased, and Ean could tell from the lines that he truly was.
Bach half bowed from his seat. “Everyone at Admiralty house was involved. Emperor Yu, of course. Everyone except you and Admiral Galenos.” He stopped. “Sorry. Fleet Admiral Galenos.”
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.”