“Regardless, we may be in trouble,” Colin said. He looked up at the tactical display, scowling. “If I was in command of that fleet, I would be lurking nearby, watching Earth for the arrival of Admiral Wilhelm. Once that battle is done, I would move my ships in and take out the victor. We have to prepare for that possibility.”
“I have sent courier boats to the assembly points for the first-rank defence forces,” René Goscinny said, calmly. He looked to have grown up a great deal in the past two months, although there was nothing like surviving a space battle to focus the mind. Katy had clearly impressed him during their brief acquaintance. “They should be ready to come to our assistance within the week, although we had planned to deploy them against Admiral Wilhelm when he attacked a second first-rank world.”
Colin rather doubted that the Admiral would bother — attacking anywhere, but Earth or AlphaCent would only weaken him while adding nothing to his strength — but he held his peace. If the first-rank worlds got involved, they would add enough ships to the defence forces to give them a fighting chance. The losses would be horrendous, however, and revenge certain if they lost. Everything was at stake now.
“The Shadow Fleet is on full alert,” Admiral Arun Prabhu assured him. Arun was an old friend, one of the original members of the conspiracy, and Colin trusted him implicitly. The thought was bitter in his mouth. He’d also trusted Daria, while nursing doubts about Cordova and even Kathy. “When they arrive, we will give them a beating, never doubt that.”
“The Volunteer Fleet can be assembled, but I don’t know if it can be trusted,” Cordova said. He sounded almost normal now. It had to be a vast relief to finally get it off his chest. Colin had assured him that, whatever happened, he wouldn’t be lynched for sparing the lives of millions of helpless aliens. “Daria did most of the legwork in assembling it and… well, they may be her loyalists. I don’t think that most of them would believe she was the Empress, even if I told them, and they might even see it as a plot to get rid of her by the Imperial Navy. We might find ourselves inviting enemies within the defences.”
Goscinny blinked. “Surely they couldn’t do much damage…”
“Battles have been won or lost before because of the presence or absence of a single ship,” Cordova said, shortly. He looked over at Colin. “Sir, I request permission to return to the Random Numbers and fight in the battle.”
Colin lifted an eyebrow, catching the expression of worry and fear that flashed across Kathy’s face. It would be easy to deny the request — and he was sure that that was what Kathy wanted him to do — but it would be unjust. Cordova was one of the best commanding officers he had met and his presence on the battlefield might be decisive, even if the Random Numbers was far from a powerful superdreadnaught. Besides, how could he deny Cordova anything? He’d saved the Empire.
“Granted,” he said, and ignored the look on Kathy’s face, even if she didn’t protest aloud. “Prime Minister, what about Parliament?”
Blondel smiled tiredly. “Well, the remaining MPs have passed a law disinheriting the remainder of the Thousand Families and placing most of their possessions in the hands of the government,” she said. “If Kathy works quickly, most of them can be sublet down to their workers, allowing them a chance to take control and reform the systems. The remaining Thousand Family aristocrats are too traumatized to do anything to object and by the time they rediscover their nerve, their weapons will have been knocked from their hands.”
“I hope so,” Kathy said. There was a hard brittle edge to her voice. “In the long run, the centres of industry will probably be with the first-rank worlds, but in the short term, we should see considerable boosts in production. If we win the coming fight, there will be a long period of peace and quiet to reconstruct the economy. If we lose… well, it hardly matters any longer.”
Colin smiled. If they lost to either of the enemy forces, they would be hung or otherwise disposed of, pour encourager les autres. Neither Daria nor Admiral Wilhelm could leave them alive, no matter the possible advantages to be gained through clemency. They couldn’t afford to leave them as a rallying point for resistance.
“Good,” he said, finally. He stood up in one smooth motion. “We will meet again in a week’s time. By then, all of this will be over, one way or the other.”
They started to file out of the room. “Admiral, a word with you please,” Colin said, before Arun could leave. “I have something I want to discuss with you.”
The small transport appeared out of nowhere, flickering into existence near the edge of the fleet’s security zone. Penny, on the General Monck’s flag deck, had almost brought the fleet to red alert before the IFF signal came in, revealing that the transport was carrying the Empress from Earth. She informed Joshua, expecting that the Empress would want to dock with the General Monck and discuss matters with him, but instead she headed over to the General Cromwell and docked with that superdreadnaught.
“Rather an obvious choice, I’d have thought,” Joshua observed while they waited for the communications network to link the two ships together. The Empress had added a whole new spectrum of security checks that bespoke of inhuman paranoia, although Penny had to admit that they were necessary. “I would have chosen a different ship if I had been in her shoes.”
Penny turned to him to ask why, but Daria’s holographic image appeared in front of both of them before she could open her mouth. Penny had only seen her once before, but she’d looked like… well, just anyone, rather than an Empress. She’d looked surprisingly normal, like a girl who had washed her face clean of all cosmetics, but now she looked almost terrifying. She wore the midnight-black uniform of a Grand Admiral, with a line of golden ribbons on her shoulder that marked her out as the Empress — she had been the only person ever to wear such decorations; they had been banned after she’d been disposed — and looked almost terrifying. Her red hair contrasted sharply with her uniform, framing her sharp angular face, while she looked tired and deeply angry. Penny had seen faces like that before, on combat stress victims, and she wondered just what had happened on Earth.
If Joshua had noticed, he gave no sign. “Your Highness,” he said, gravely. There was no trace of mocking in his voice, none of the artificial respect that he so hated, and he sounded sincere. “May I ask what brings you here so early?”
“I was exposed,” Daria said, calmly. Her voice might have been calm, but Penny, well used to people who hid their real feelings, sensed a deep wave of anger under her tone. The former Empress — and perhaps future Empress — was terrifyingly furious at someone… and it didn’t take a genius to guess who. Colin must have come out ahead in their power game. “We may have to move soon, within the week.”
Joshua lifted an eyebrow. “Admiral Wilhelm?”
“He hasn’t shown up to fight yet,” Daria said, “but the Shadow Fleet believes that it is just a matter of time.”
Penny nodded. Joshua and her had gone through all of the possibilities while working on bringing the fleet to full readiness. Admiral Wilhelm’s only real choice was to go for Earth before he was crushed by superior force. Given time, Colin’s Empire could produce enough firepower to crush the combined fleets of four sectors, and then go on to impose their own order. Admiral Wilhelm’s only hope was to take Earth and then the shipyards, or destroy the latter. It would throw resistance back on the hidden shipyards along the Rim and give him time to build up his own capabilities.