She called Drakon.
Drakon’s response took an irritatingly long time. He finally called back, still wearing the combat armor. Was that display meant to send a message to her?
“Good to see you’re still around,” Drakon began.
“How nice of you to say so. I’m so glad you could take time from demonstrating your control of the planet to speak with me.”
Drakon smiled briefly. “There were matters that had to be dealt with. I understand that you’ve won, too. What happened to Kolani?”
“Dead.”
“That simplifies things.”
“Yes,” Iceni agreed. “With Hardrad dead as well we’ve cut in half the number of CEOs in this star system.”
His expression hardened. “Are you implying that should happen again?”
“That is not my wish.”
“I’m well aware that you don’t need me anymore now that the snakes are gone from this planet. You cut the deal with Black Jack, and you control the mobile forces here. I can’t touch you, but you could drop rocks on me all day. Let’s not pretend otherwise.”
Iceni regarded Drakon silently for a long moment before replying. “We both had our own reasons for rebellion against the Syndicate Worlds.”
“We didn’t have any choice when those orders came through for Hardrad to conduct the loyalty sweeps. We had to work together, or this star system would have ended up like all those other places where fighting has broken out. It was pure luck that we were already separately planning on revolting.”
“I never underestimate the importance of luck,” Iceni said. “I also don’t underestimate the value of people who don’t betray me when they have the chance.”
Drakon laughed. “We had plenty of levers to use against each other if it came to that.”
“There was nothing negative I could prove about you as serious as the deal I cut with Black Jack.”
“Yes,” Drakon agreed. “Making a deal with the Alliance would look bad to the snakes.”
“The deal was with Black Jack, not the Alliance,” Iceni said.
“What’s the difference?”
“I’m not sure at this point. He may be the Alliance.” Iceni frowned at Drakon. “The deal was worth the risk. We needed to know that Black Jack wouldn’t come charging in here to help enforce Syndicate authority, and I needed to be able to imply his backing for what we’re doing. The ability to say that Black Jack knew what we’re doing, wouldn’t interfere, and won’t let anyone else interfere, is invaluable.”
“Is that actually what Black Jack agreed to?” Drakon asked.
Iceni smiled without any hesitation at all. “Of course.”
“That’s quite a few important concessions from him. I’ve been wondering why he gave that up so easily.”
This time Iceni shrugged. She had no intention of admitting to Drakon that she had significantly exaggerated the extent of Black Jack’s support for her actions. “Maybe he really needed that mechanism to prevent hypernet gate collapses. Maybe he just wanted to be able to have leverage over us in the future. We’ll deal with that when we have to. We’ve already dealt with our former masters. Anything the government on Prime plans will take time to get together. We’ve got breathing room now.”
“No, we don’t.” Drakon waved to indicate the area outside where he sat. “The citizens are happy now, but I had one hell of a time keeping things from coming apart. Our own populace is poised to rise up in rebellion against us unless we handle them right. Leading this rebellion ourselves was our only chance, but I don’t think ‘same leaders, same rules, different titles’ is going to work very long. The citizens will figure out that game in no time.”
Iceni scowled. “We have the tools and tactics left us by the snakes. We can eliminate anyone we need to if they try to rouse the populace against us.”
“That worked for the snakes and the Syndicate Worlds. Until it didn’t,” Drakon pointed out. “I can ID anyone rabble-rousing. The surveillance software makes it easy to spot any leaders emerging by their communications patterns. And I can nail them as they pop up. But they’ll learn. How many different ways do you and I know to avoid snake surveillance?”
“Too many.”
“And you and I both know how many underground activities there are, black markets in anything you care to name. If a resistance starts using those techniques, spotting them will be as hard as hell. We need at least passive support from the majority of the citizens so rebellion can’t gain any foothold.”
“We have the warships,” Iceni said. “They’re our hammer to help ensure control of this star system.”
“Big hammer. Blunt hammer. We can nuke cities when things get out of hand, but that tends to dry up public support, and we don’t have an infinite supply of cities.” Drakon pointed to a display on one wall of the room where he sat, showing images of a mountain near a lake on some planet a very long way from here. “That’s from Baldur Star System.”
“I’ve heard of it but never been there. The beauty of the place is supposed to be breathtaking.”
“It is,” Drakon said. “But when I look at that picture, I wonder if that mountain and lake are still there, or if some orbital bombardment has turned that landscape into a cratered, lifeless ruin. We know the Syndicate way failed. Any fool could figure that out when the damned Alliance fleet came strolling through this star system and informed us that the war was over.” He snorted. “Our own government, the oh-so-efficient and effective Syndicate Worlds, couldn’t tell us that they’d lost. No. The enemy had to come here and do it, then the enemy blew away a bunch of those enigma ships that have been invulnerable to us because even though we’d spent decades trying to find out stuff about the enigmas, it only took the Alliance a few months to figure out how to defeat the aliens.”
“They had Geary,” Iceni said in a soft voice. “Black Jack.”
“Black Jack.” Drakon shook his head. “I didn’t believe the information we were getting about his coming back from the dead.”
“He came back,” Iceni replied. “I talked to him. It’s not a trick. Maybe he did us a favor.”
“By knocking the legs out from under the Syndicate Worlds government? Maybe. The corporate autocracy always justified itself by claiming to be superior to every other system, especially the inefficiencies of the Alliance.” Drakon gave her a skeptical look. “I’ll let the remnants of Syndicate authority on Prime try to come up with reasons why we couldn’t win a war despite a century of trying, then got our butts kicked by someone who supposedly died a hundred years ago. Are you sure Black Jack won’t be back here, trying to add us to an empire?”
Iceni looked down, her eyes hooded, recalling the messages she had received from Black Jack. “I can’t be sure of anything, but he seemed authentic. Just a military officer out to do his job. He’s either real, or he’s the best fraud I’ve ever seen.”
“He has to be working some angle.”
“If he were one of us, he would be.” Iceni fixed her eyes on Drakon’s. “Speaking of working angles, if I haven’t made it clear already, we still need each other. If you try to betray me, you might succeed, but even though the snakes are gone you’ll still go down with me. Just so you know.”
Drakon smiled at her, his voice and expression betraying nothing. “I already assumed that. I have control of the ground forces on the surface here and elsewhere in the star system”—he used one hand to mime pointing a weapon at her head—“and you have control of the mobile forces.”