Nova War

'Once I demonstrated to them how easily I could take control of this ship, yes.'

'All right, Dakota, you're obviously here for a reason. What do you want from me?'

'I want you to trust me.'

He was about to retort sharply, but stopped when he saw the look on her face. He saw the same fragility there he'd noticed the first time he'd ever set eyes on her, back on the bridge of the Hyperion.

'All right, Dakota, I'm listening.'

'I know we haven't always seen eye to eye, Lucas. Not even got close to it. And I've made mistakes. I know that. But I want you to know I don't hold it against you, what you tried to do back at Night's End. We've both faced challenges I don't think either of us could have imagined even a couple of months ago. But what's more important than that is that this isn't over yet.'

Corso cocked his head. 'The Emissaries are gone. The Shoal abandoned us here and vanished. They-'

'We won a battle, but not the war. And believe me when I tell you that war's on its way here right now. We need to be ready – not just you and me, but the whole Consortium. Leidner doesn't really believe what I'm saying to him, and when I talk to the Legislate Representatives back in the Consortium, they just treat me like I'm insane. Instead they keep making demands, but if they don't listen soon, we're all dead.'

She leaned forward beseechingly, any trace of a smile gone from her lips. 'You've seen at least some of the skills I have, Lucas, and no one else understands them as well as you do. I really need your help.'

Corso raised his hands and dropped them again. 'There's nothing I can do, Dakota. We're stranded way out here, and the Shoal aren't around any more to take us back… unless you're going to do it?'

Dakota leaned back. 'I can expand the jump field of any Magi ship so that it'll carry other ships on superluminal jumps, same as we did with the Piri Reis. You'll all get back home. But in the meantime, there's even more to worry about. Have they told you about what happened with the coreships that were carrying human populations?'

Corso shook his head.

'They dumped their human and Bandati populations en masse in systems that can barely sustain their existing populations, before apparently abandoning us for ever,' she told him.

'Shit.' Corso sat up straighter, wondering just how much news of the outside world had been kept from him. 'The coreships are gone?'

She nodded. 'People are scared right now, but you have to reassure them that it's going to get better eventually, even if it's going to be hard for a good while yet. There are a lot more Magi ships on the way, but it'll take months before the last of them gets here. I want to get started on setting up a superluminal network, using the Magi ships, to keep the Consortium together now the Shoal seem to have abandoned this part of the galaxy.'

Corso opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. 'More Magi ships?'

'About a thousand.'

Corso simply stared in amazement.

'The Magi Fleet,' she explained, 'turned out to be a lot bigger than anyone realized. I've recalled them all to Ocean's Deep, and at least a dozen more should get here over the next couple of weeks.'

'And then?'

And then I'm going to train new navigators for them.'

'Oh.' The implications took a few moments to sink in. 'You're talking about machine-heads.'

'I'm talking about candidates,' she insisted. 'Just having the implants isn't enough, but the original machine-heads – the ones who still have their implants, anyway – we can start with. My old tutor is one. He told me he met you, briefly'

'Langley.' Corso nodded. 'I'm glad he got out of that mess alive,' he added.

She leaned forward, clearly excited by her vision. 'A peacekeeping force, Lucas. One that can cross the galaxy if necessary, help maintain lines of communication, control traffic and trade, and most especially stop any wars before they can happen. A thousand machine-heads, a lot of them rejected by the society that made them – a way back for them, after the Redstone massacres and all the mistrust. Myself and the rest of these new navigators will share the responsibility for moving people and supplies between the colonies. And some of those colonies simply can't survive without regular contact with Earth and the older settlements.'

'You know that the first question people are going to ask is who you yourself are going to be responsible to. Who do you answer to, Dakota?'

'Myself and the other machine-heads will be custodians of the technology, Lucas. The Consortium, the Bandati, whoever – they'll have to come to us. We'll lease out the technology, but we'll always control it and protect it.'

Lucas snorted and shook his head. 'This is like some wet dream of absolute power. You're no better than the Shoal.'

'You've seen what happens when a bunch of different power groups came close enough to getting their hands on a prize like this. It's just too dangerous to entrust any of them with it.'

Corso looked away from her. 'There are people out there who think you're responsible for what happened to Night's End. An entire civilization was wiped out.'

'That wasn't me.'

'You're hardly lacking for a motive, are you? They locked you up, tortured you. You already killed thousands of them when you made a Magi ship self-destruct.'

'It wasn't me.'

He looked back up at her. 'Then you're going to have to deal with the fact that nothing you do is necessarily going to make you popular, Dakota. It's not like they're lining up to give you medals or the keys to the city, even as it is.'

'No. No, they aren't,' she agreed, swinging her feet back down to the floor. 'But I just can't think what else to do.'

'And that's what you want me to tell the Consortium?'

'No.' Her voice grew quieter again. 'I want you to take charge, Lucas.'

'What?' He gaped at her, thunderstruck.

'I'm going away for a while – not just yet, but eventually. The Magi weren't just looking for the caches; they were also looking for the creatures that created them in the first place – the Makers. They were close to getting the answers when the Shoal wiped them out.' She shrugged. 'Now I want to get those answers myself, if I can. But somebody needs to take care of things back here while I'm gone – just to organize, set up the network to bind the Consortium together. We can use the Leviathan's Fall station for a temporary base, since there are no habitable worlds here for us to endanger by our presence.'

'Shit, Dakota. I don't know what you expect me to do. I don't know how to organize anything like this, or where to even start. I mean' – he raised his hands in bewilderment – 'how do you know they won't take it all away from me as soon as you're gone?'

'Because I'll be able to find out what's happening from the new navigators, once they take charge of their ships,' she replied. 'And because Colonel Leidner, his staff and the entire Consortium Legislate are scared of what else I might do.'

'So maybe they'll call your bluff? What do you do then, blow up another star as a lesson? And what if that isn't enough?'

'I can only figure this out dealing with one thing at a time.'

'I don't want to have to do it.'

She smiled. 'Just like me.'

'To hell with you, Dakota!' he yelled. 'Don't play games with me. Why the hell should I run your fantasy of tin soldiers for you? What the hell makes you think I'm qualified to?'

'Well, for one, you don't want the job, which some people might take for a good sign. For another, you're an asshole, but at least you're an honest asshole. Enjoy some responsibility for a change.'

'I guess there isn't anyone else you could give the job to, is there?' he muttered.

'No, there isn't. And you know that means you'll do it.'

His face darkened, but after a moment a small smile flickered across his face, as if he'd just enjoyed a private joke. 'And you? How long before you're back from meeting your Maker?'