Adrian waited for a while, letting it sink in, and then he had his Communications Handler point a transmission at one of the Shara Daim ships.
Dai Sha Anessa of the First Legion watched the holo in disbelief as ships started appearing around her and Garaam’s Legions. She recognized some of the designs from what the Erasi had provided and what she had seen during her captivity, but the majority of their number were the same unmanned ships as those that had just dealt with Narrasak. And there were five ships that were larger than any that Anessa had ever seen. Her comms chimed and she answered immediately.
Garaam appeared, her eyes wide. “Anessa, we need to close the formation. We can get through if—”
“They don’t want to fight us,” Anessa interrupted through her teeth, barely keeping her voice level. She had realized what all this was about. Garaam stopped and looked at her as if she had lost her mind. Anessa glanced at the holo, then back to Garaam. “Their ships are outside the range of our energy weapons, and their shields are down.”
“It could be a trick,” Garaam said.
“Garaam, they could’ve brought these ships to the battle at any point; why did they do it now?” Anessa asked, seemingly uninterested in the answer.
“I don’t know,” she said slowly, then asked, “Anessa, what is this about?”
Anessa opened her mouth to answer when her Do Sun spoke. “Dai Sha! We have an incoming communication request from the enemy; it’s directed at Bloodbringer.”
Anessa turned to Garaam. “We are about to find out,” she answered Garaam’s question.
“Open the channel,” Anessa said. Garaam’s hologram moved to the side, and another appeared in front of Anessa. Adrian sat in a chair very similar to Anessa’s. To his left stood a Nel with his tail bent and moving up and down to his side—Gotu, she believed he was called—and to his right sat the two beasts that always followed him. She heard a few gasps from those around her; they were aware of the Humans, but none had known about the Nel. Anessa had told that only to her higher-ranking people and the two other Dai Sha. Adrian looked directly at her; he couldn’t see anything else on her ship, only what she allowed. Garaam could see and hear everything.
“Anessa,” he said with a slow dip of his head, his eyes never leaving hers.
“Adrian,” she said slowly, and then without consciously doing it, her head dipped as well. She could see Garaam’s shock at that small gesture of respect she had allowed her enemy, but Anessa didn’t react.
“Do you remember the last thing I told you, that night when I showed you Earth?” Adrian said in her tongue, ensuring that all who were listening would understand his words.
Anessa did remember. I will change your mind, he had said. I will show you who we are, and I will prove it to you that your people are wrong in thinking they can just roll over us. Her mind supplied the memory, and she narrowed her eyes at him.
Adrian smiled. “I see that you do. Did I succeed?” he asked in a whisper.
Anessa’s expression hardened. She wanted to tell him no, to tell him that she was still right, that they were weak. But she couldn’t. The Shara Daim had never lost a full Legion, not in the two thousand years they had been in space. Now he had done it, all to convince her that she was wrong.
“Yes,” Anessa said finally.
Adrian kept his eyes locked on hers for a minute without responding.
Anessa was the first to break the silence. “And what happens now?”
He tilted his head. “Now, I ask you to come to Mars to speak with me before you and your ships leave Sol.”
“And if I refuse?” Anessa asked. She wasn’t really enamored with the idea of becoming a prisoner again, but Adrian had kept his promise to her once before.
“Then I order my fleets to destroy you all,” Adiran said simply. Anessa felt the anger in the room around her; she knew that they could not understand this. Shara Daim did not surrender, and they did not negotiate with their enemies.
Anessa closed her eyes for a moment, then looked at him. “I accept,” she said, and closed the link. She was met with outrage and shock from her own people and Garaam, who had watched the entire thing.
“Anessa, we don’t surrender,” Garaam said harshly.
“What do you want to do? To fight? We could, and we would lose. They defeated us with only unmanned ships and defense platforms, Garaam. Narrasak is dead, just like his entire Legion,” Anessa said.
“That’s why we must fight them! They killed a Dai Sha!” Garaam yelled.
“We would die a pointless death, not doing anything to further the Shara Daim!” Anessa yelled in return. “Narasak’s death was his own fault, he lost his mind at the first show of something he couldn’t handle easily! He died a pointless death, without even killing one enemy.” At her words, Garaam snapped back in shock. That had gotten through to her. To die a pointless death was the worst fate a Shara Daim could suffer.
“We don’t surrender, Anessa,” she said again, now more controlled.
“Then it’s good that we are not surrendering,” Anessa said.
Garaam looked her strangely. “You have a plan?”
“Yes, to do exactly what he asked of me.”
“But—” Garaam started, but Anessa interrupted.
“He didn’t ask for us to surrender, he asked to speak with me before we leave the system. And I want you with me when we go to meet with him,” Anessa said.
Garaam narrowed her eyes and glared at her, but then Anessa saw her relax. “Very well. I will do as you say, Anessa,” she said, and closed the connection. Anessa knew that if it had been any Dai Sha other than Garaam, they might not have agreed to follow Anessa’s lead, just as she knew that if she hadn’t chosen to come with the Legions, all who had entered this system would’ve now been dead.
Chapter Nineteen
Anessa and Garaam sat in the shuttle, an armored variant designed for troop transport, and waited as the shuttle dropped down to Adrian’s base. She knew that the armor of the shuttle would do little to prevent them from being destroyed should Adrian wish it; the base’s defenses were still active and tracking as the shuttle slowly lowered itself through the thin atmosphere of the planet. Anessa and Garaam had reached the planet on their super battleships, which had their shields lowered and weapons powered down, escorted by ten Empire ships.
Her Do Sun, Arisak, had tried to convince her that they should fight, that her going to the planet was a trick of their enemy to get her back as a prisoner. But Arisak didn’t know Adrian. If he had wanted to destroy the remainder of the Legions, he would’ve done it by now. And he didn’t need her as a prisoner. Anessa knew that there was only one thing that Adrian was interested in, and that was peace between the Shara Daim and his Empire.
The shuttle reached the surface and they followed the instructions, entering a large hangar that had opened in the side of the mountain.
“Remember what I told you,” Anessa said to Garaam. “Don’t use the Sha on them at all, and don’t threaten them. We are only here to talk.”
“And if they threaten us?” Garaam asked.
“They won’t, but if something like that happens, let me handle it.”