After a moment, Percival picked himself up and tottered after him.
“This meeting is hereby called to order,” Hester Hyman said. She was standing at one end of a long table, made from Old Earth wood. The Popular Front’s council had transferred itself to Camelot as soon as the second round of mutinies had saved the world from recapture, determined to build a new political structure within Sector 117 and further afield. “We have come a very long way.”
Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham tuned her out, aware that Jason Cordova — sitting next to her — was doing the same. The first day of any political meeting was sure to be nothing, but boring, even though the representatives had more sense than to waste time arguing over the size and shape of the conference table. Now that the sector fleet had been captured, it hadn’t been difficult to overwhelm the local garrisons and liberate the other worlds in the sector, freeing them to join the rebellion. The Roosevelt Family’s secret stockpiles of war material and even a handful of unregistered shipyards would end up powering a war intent on bringing down the Families, once and for all. Her own task, coordinating the conversion of the local industrial base into a base that could support a massive war against the Empire, was already underway. There were few who disagreed or sought to talk peace with their former masters.
The Beyond itself was undergoing some changes, once the details of Operation Purge had been recovered from Admiral Percival’s sealed databanks. The Beyond had been shocked to discover just how much the Empire had known about them, including a number of places that had been thought to be undiscovered and undetectable. Some had packed up and headed further away from the Empire; others had come forward and added their own resources to the growing Popular Front. The Empire had no idea of the sheer level of hatred and discontent along the Rim, or of how many people would come and join the rebellion as it established itself. Hannelore herself had been shocked to discover just how much was hidden out beyond the Rim, or even within it.
She wasn’t too sure of her own position at times, but Cordova had vouched for her and most of the Popular Front seemed to trust him, even if not all of them liked the renegade Captain. Hannelore herself wasn’t too sure, but she could see another person hidden under the act, a person who only emerged when they were in private. Cordova had said little about his origins, yet she was sure that he came from higher social roots than he’d been prepared to admit. Besides, who was she to comment about someone’s birth? In the Popular Front, noble birth was a handicap, rather than a boon.
The three representatives from Jackson’s Folly looked tired, yet determined. Admiral Percival had been toying with plans to scorch sections of their worlds — even though he had been unable to simply throw the entire planet into the fire in the hopes that it would make the daughter colonies be more reasonable — and they knew that the die was cast. If the Popular Front succeeded, Jackson’s Folly and her daughter colonies would be free; if not, they would all be thrown into the fire. There could be no negotiations, save from a position of strength. If the Empire could be reformed, well and good, but if not they were prepared to burn the Empire to the ground. Hannelore couldn’t blame them, even though she feared their determination. After the war was over, they would have to find some way of living together or the Empire would splinter down into civil war — another civil war.
She settled back in her seat as Hester continued to speak. The Follies were quite right. The die had been cast and there was no going back. She was committed now, as were they all.
The spy knew that she had been lucky to remain undetected, even though the rebels were now aware of her existence. At least William Derbyshire, Imperial Intelligence’s Head of Station, had been smart enough to purge his files before the rebels took the station, leaving them with no direct lead to her identity.
She couldn’t believe how lucky the rebels had been, as if the universe itself had been conspiring against the Empire. The mutinies in the Sector 99 Sector Fleet would only be the beginning, for Admiral Walker and his allies had tapped into a rich vein of discontent. How many people in the Imperial Navy, the spy asked herself, would share the sense that no matter how competent and capable they were, they would never be able to advance? There would be thousands; no, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions. If even a tenth of the Imperial Navy decided to join the rebels, the Empire would have a real fight on its hands.
The spy settled down in her hiding place and started to wait. There would be a chance to make contact with Imperial Intelligence again, for some who came over to the rebels would be working for the Empire, and then she would have a new link to her superiors. And even if that didn’t happen, she knew her duty. There would be a chance to strike a blow at the very core of the rebel leadership. All she had to do was wait and it would come.
The two weeks since the Second Battle of Camelot had been crazy, but Colin had always found time to go to the observation blister and stare out at his growing fleet. The Imperial Navy starships, the ships from the Beyond and new designs the Geeks had put into production… a fleet capable of holding its own against a comparable Imperial Navy fleet. Earth didn’t even know it yet — the first reports of the rebellion, assuming that one of Percival’s subordinates had sent an unofficial signal to his patrons, wouldn’t be at Earth for another month — but the Empire was in serious trouble. Colin and his fleet would be able to advance quite some distance before the Empire started putting together a superior fleet to stop them. And by then the whole equation would have changed.
Colin smiled. The Geeks had designed several other tricks, each one either a development of Imperial Navy technology or something radically new. By the time they were deployed, the Imperial Navy would be gearing up for a conventional war, not something new. He’d come a long way from the officer who had sworn a petulant oath to avenge himself on his superior; whatever happened to the rebellion and the Popular Front, the Empire would never be the same.
And then there was Khursheda and Colonel Frandsen, off on their own mission. It was a long shot, but if it worked it would do the impossible and shorten the war.
“I thought I’d find you here,” Daria said. Colin turned and smiled in welcome. He hadn’t seen much of Daria for the past week; she’d been busy organising the hundreds of commercial starships that had come over to the rebellion. The fleet would have better logistics than the Imperial Navy, at least at first. Once the fleet started advancing towards Earth, they would be on the end of long supply lines, while the Imperial Navy would be falling back towards its bases. “Gloating over your victory?”
“Something like that,” Colin admitted, with a shrug. There was no sign of Mariko, which was odd; she was normally attached to Daria at the hip, her silent shadow. “Percival won’t be abusing anyone, ever again.”
“No,” Daria agreed. They’d found Percival’s private collection of videos once they’d searched his quarters, including hours of footage of his aide. Colin had watched some of them and then ordered them all destroyed. Wherever Penny Quick was — and whoever had taken her off the fortress had covered his tracks very well — he hoped that she was thinking about rebelling herself. “You could have killed him.”
Colin nodded. “I thought about it,” he said. “I just” — it was hard to put it into words, even for a friend — “I just thought that if I pulled the trigger, with him helpless, part of me would die with him.”