Confluence

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: EAN LAMBERT

Vega and a team of guards waited for them as they docked on the Lancastrian Princess.

“His Imperial Majesty is in his apartments,” Vega said. “Admiral Galenos will be here soon. Group Leader Sale, I expect a report on my desk by the time this meeting is over.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Sale left to record her report.

“Speaking of reports.” Radko unzipped a pocket, took out three comms. “One of these is a copy of the report Callista OneLane acquired. Unfortunately, Vilhjalmsson got the original. He’s already sent it on to Admiral Markan.”

Vega nodded and handed the comms to one of the people with her. “Decode it. I want that report when I come out of this meeting.”

The meeting. What could Ean do to prevent Yu’s arresting Abram for treason? He checked the Lancastrian Princess. “Is everything all right?”

“Waiting,” came the reply.

Helmo was in the captain’s chair, sitting back, letting his instinct tell him what was happening. Michelle was working at one of the screens in her workroom. Yu and Sattur Dow were smiling over a drink in Yu’s quarters.

As Ean watched, Abram’s shuttle signaled that it had arrived. Helmo stood up. “Give Galenos’s shuttle permission to land. Inform Her Royal Highness he is here. Vanje, you’re in charge. I want you on the bridge, staff on alert.”

He left at a brisk walk.

After Michelle received Vanje’s call, she moved over to a cupboard on the wall. Ean could hear through the lines that the lock was coded only to her, Abram, and Helmo. She took out a small, needlelike weapon and slipped it into an inside pocket of her jacket.

Had Michelle just armed herself?

She whispered something that might have been a prayer, her emotion too raw for Ean to read properly—or too raw and personal for him to want to read—and started for the meeting.

The atmosphere in the large meeting room was suffocating. Ean found it hard to breathe. Ship lines were a dirge.

Ean checked the other ships in the Eleven fleet. On Confluence Station, armed soldiers in Balian uniform were loading prisoners onto a shuttle. Orsaya’s captain, Auburn, and two teams of Yaolin soldiers stood ready to assist if required.

Katida and Orsaya were dining with Jordan Rossi and Stellan Vilhjalmsson.

Both admirals looked grim.

Ean suppressed a shiver.

Radko said, quietly, “Relax, Ean. Do what you do naturally. Things have a way of working out.”

They wouldn’t work out all the time. You only had to miss once, and Ean didn’t even understand what the problem was yet. It should have been simple. A Lancastrian traitor, trying to steal the ships. But it wasn’t about that at all. It was about a ruler who was prepared to frame a good, honest man to gain a seat of power.

He breathed in deep. There was no word in Abram or Michelle’s vocabulary for failure. Not in Radko’s, either. There were just setbacks to be overcome. Abram was right when he’d told Radko that Yu would catch up with him eventually. Keeping Abram away from Yu wasn’t the solution. Getting Yu to change his mind was.

Helmo arrived, followed quickly by Michelle, and finally Abram.

Abram smiled at Michelle, nodded to Helmo and Ean’s group, then looked at Bach, still cuffed at the wrists. “Commodore Bach.”

“I request His Imperial Majesty be present at this meeting,” Bach said.

Michelle nodded—once—though the refusal was pouring out of her. A hot yellow denial through line one.

“I shall request His Majesty’s presence,” Vega said.

Ean watched Vega’s brisk march through the ship to the Emperor’s quarters.

Yu was still holding court with Sattur Dow. Guards in pairs stood at attention around the room. Two behind Yu, two off to one side, another two near the door. Tiana Chen and Ethan Saylor were among the silent observers. Chen’s hands were balled into fists as she glowered at the back of Dow’s head. Ean wished her glare were more lethal.

Vega saluted, then stood to attention. “Commodore Bach requests your presence in the large meeting room.”

“That was quick.” Yu looked pleased as he stood up. He turned to Sattur Dow. “Sattur, would you like to be present at this historic occasion.”

“I don’t think Yu is expecting this,” Ean said. “But he is expecting something.”

Bach said, “You should refer to him as Emperor Yu, or His Imperial Majesty.”

In Emperor Yu’s quarters, Vega said, “It would be inappropriate to invite a civilian to this meeting. This is a matter for the Crown alone.”

Yu towered over her. “You presume to tell me what to do?”

Vega inclined her head and turned away. “The large meeting room, Your Majesty.”

Ean’s back itched until she was around the first turn in the corridor. “He’s bringing Sattur Dow.”

Abram blew out his breath but didn’t say anything.

Ean didn’t want Sattur Dow in the same room as Radko. If Dow attempted anything, he wasn’t sure what he’d do. He’d think of something.

The Emperor swept in three minutes after Vega arrived. He’d changed his clothing and was now wearing a traditional, wide-sleeved, ceremonial jacket. He was accompanied by Sattur Dow and the full team of guards.

Helmo made a face, and Ean got a strong sense through the lines that this was unexpectedly fast.

Yu smiled when he saw Abram, stopped smiling when he saw Bach under restraint. “What is this?”

Vega spoke before anyone else could. “Please be seated, Your Imperial Majesty. Merchant Dow.” She indicated the seats around the table. “Team Leader Radko has returned and is ready to make her report to Admiral Galenos and me. Commodore Bach has requested your presence.”

“Radko.” The Emperor rolled the word around his tongue. He looked closely at Radko, then at Michelle and Abram, and settled into a seat. “Cousin. So you are back. And just in time.” He smiled at Sattur Dow, then waved a hand. “Report.”

Radko looked to Abram, then to Vega, who nodded brusquely. “Go ahead, Team Leader.”

“My mission was to meet with a trader on Redmond and investigate the sale of a report purportedly about line experiments.”

Sattur Dow started. Ean watched him closely.

“Our team managed to contact the seller, but we weren’t the only ones after the report. Gate Union sent someone in as well. Stellan Vilhjalmsson.”

Abram made a face but didn’t interrupt.

“Redmond soldiers attacked the shop just after we arrived.” She looked to Vega and Abram. “Unfortunately, Vilhjalmsson got away with the report.”

“So you failed,” Yu said.

Radko turned back to stare him in the eyes. “Of course we didn’t fail, Your Imperial Majesty.” Cold and professional.

Ean wanted to cheer.

“We traced the report to a Redmond company, TwoPaths Engineering. Specifically, to a TwoPaths site on the Lesser Gods world of Aeolus. Right against the palace wall, actually.”

Did Ean imagine it, or did the Emperor sit up straighter?

“The Lesser Gods?” Vega asked.

“Yes, ma’am. We discovered later that the experiments were a joint venture between TwoPaths Engineering, and the militaries of Redmond and the Worlds of the Lesser Gods.” Radko glanced at Bach. “We discovered artifacts that could only have come from the alien line ships; could only have come from one of the New Alliance worlds. From someone who had access to the alien line ships.”

“Enough,” Yu said. “We don’t need the details.”

Ean moved to stand close at Radko’s back.

“I sent Radko on the mission,” Vega said. “I need the report. And there is the matter of the consequences. If you prefer not to be here, by all means, there is no obligation to remain. Commodore Bach requested that you be here.”

Yu looked at Abram. Ean couldn’t see any reason for the look, especially since it was Vega who’d spoken. Or for the look he shared with Bach afterward.

Yu waved irritably. “Proceed.”

“We were captured attempting to retrieve the report and the artifacts,” Radko said. “The site was a laboratory and a hospital. They appeared to be experimenting on linesmen.”

The linesmen Ean had heard on the station. No wonder they had seemed crazy.

“After our capture, the people in charge there believed the lab had been compromised. They withdrew the linesmen from Aeolus and took them to the fallback lab on the space station I was rescued from.”

The Emperor stood to pace. Everyone seated rose, as was custom.

It was better to be standing. More voice for the lines when Ean needed it. He was starting to worry that Radko’s report was putting her in danger. Would Emperor Yu leave her alive to testify against Bach?

But then Yu would have to imprison them all. Including Michelle. He wouldn’t do that. Would he?

“We have heard enough.” Yu turned to Bach. “Free this man.”

Vega said, “Commodore Bach is under arrest, Your Majesty. For treason against Lancia.”

Ean was surprised Yu didn’t order her immediate demise.

The Emperor glanced at his guards and at Bach again.

“If it pleases Your Imperial Majesty, I would prefer to have the issue resolved.” Bach bowed low.

Yu turned to Radko, who stared him down again. Ean readied himself to sing, for the tension was a sudden crackling energy that tasted like ozone on his tongue.

Line eight was ready. It might not know what it had to do yet, but it was ready. He could hear it, now he was listening properly to the lines. He didn’t have to force it to work his way. It was ready to work its own way.

“Continue,” Yu said.

Radko glanced at Bach. “I was about to be interrogated when the Factor’s bodyguard, Jakob, came in with Commodore Bach.” She paused again, then continued, flat and harsh and unlike her usual tone. “Jakob accused Bach of having had him arrested. Bach countered by saying he had given Jakob access to the ships, and that Jakob was the one who had mucked things up. Then Jakob said Bach had promised that if they brought one ship through, the whole fleet would come. But it hadn’t.”

She tilted her chin and looked directly at Bach. “It was obvious to me that Commodore Bach was working with Captain Jakob to steal the Confluence fleet. When the opportunity arose, I arrested him and brought him home to face trial.”

“It’s a grave accusation,” Abram said to Bach.

“It is,” Bach agreed. “But I am loyal to Lancia.”

Michelle rubbed her arms, as if she was cold. “Loyal. As in attempting to steal a New Alliance fleet and hand it over to our enemies.”

Ean remembered, suddenly, the earlier conversation between Yu and Sattur Dow, with Dow saying, “She bought it,” and Yu’s reply. “I knew exactly how my daughter would react, Sattur. She has been protecting this linesman all along. Of course she would send him to what she perceives as safety.”

Maybe Bach was telling the truth.

“This isn’t about killing Abram to get onto the council at all, is it,” Ean said. Emperor Yu had set the whole thing up. “That was to distract us, and keep Abram away from Michelle, because together they might suspect something. Yu tricked us into going out to the Confluence today so Lancia could steal the ships. This isn’t Bach’s plan, it’s Yu’s.”

For a moment, the silence was absolute, except for the whispering of life support.

To Ean, that sound was gradually overcome by a stronger susurrus of betrayal. It came with a strong, sweet scent. Who would believe betrayal could smell so beautiful?

Yu’s smile had the same dimples his daughter had.

“Why?” Michelle’s voice broke on the words. “You have destroyed Lancia’s future.”

“Future, Daughter? When we are treated like second-rate citizens here? Everything we want, everything we do, has to go through a committee and be voted on. Where is the power Lancia once had? Given away. By you and Galenos. We have no wish to be part of a government in which we are powerless.”

“Whether we want to or not, we have to be.” They could have been the only two in the room. “We had two choices. Give in to Gate Union and become a second-rate world, for Gate Union would never let us remain a power. Or join up with the New Alliance and use the one lucky break we had—Ean and the alien fleet—to give us a chance at starting afresh.”

“We had a third choice.”

“Go it alone?” Michelle said. “We can’t even get jumps. Most of Lancia’s income is derived from New Alliance worlds. Our people would starve; we’d have nothing. How long will Lancia last as a power when we’re stuck in our own solar system?”

“Your imagination has become limited of late, Daughter. Are they the only options you can think of? You are right. Lancia doesn’t care about the New Alliance. The New Alliance doesn’t care about us, either. We have been left powerless and helpless. Because you will not think past the obvious.

“I do not plan on being part of a government I have no control over,” Yu said.

“So you planned to steal a fleet of ships and start out alone.”

Yu smiled. “Hardly alone.”

A fleet of alien ships didn’t make it any less alone.

Michelle opened her mouth to speak. Closed it again.

“Warships will not keep Lancastrians fed,” Abram said. “Lancia is an old world and has never been particularly fertile. We import half our food and 90 percent of our technology. We can use the alien ships to bomb worlds and ships as much as we want, but other worlds will stop supplying us with goods long before it is effective. That’s assuming we had full crews for the ships and could replenish supplies. Which is also unlikely.”

Yu spun around to Abram. “I plan for everything, Galenos. Even supplies. Even your opposition.”

Michelle put a hand to her head in sudden understanding. “You teamed up with the Worlds of the Lesser Gods.”

“Of course I did.”

“And when Gate Union stops the Worlds of the Lesser Gods from jumping?”

“Ah, Daughter. This is where you lack imagination, and I can see the future. A grand future for Lancia. Can Gate Union stop Redmond jumping?” Yu looked at Abram again. “Can they?”

“It would be more difficult,” Abram admitted. “Redmond controls the line factories.”

“Precisely.”

Michelle went white. “You conspired with Redmond, as well as the Worlds of the Lesser Gods?”

“Of course.”

“Father, Redmond will use you to get the ships, and once they have them, they will spit you out.”

“Daughter, you go too far.”

“You have already gone too far. Once people know you—we—were behind this crazy plan to steal the Confluence, and its fleet, Lancia will be expelled from the New Alliance. You have destroyed us, no matter what we do now.”

“Have I not just told you we do not wish to be part of the New Alliance?”

The emotion creeping through the lines from the humans in the room was a fine brown mist that twisted Ean’s gut and made him want to be sick. It didn’t show on anyone’s face, except Michelle’s. She was white, her lips parted as if she wanted to speak but couldn’t say the words.

“You don’t have the alien ships,” Abram said. “I presume that was what you brought to the coalition with Redmond and the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. Will they honor an agreement if you don’t have the ships? Of course not, because you are no use to them.”

“We do not have the ships, Galenos, because of your interference. Had you not interfered, those ships would be in Redmond territories right now.”

Abram smiled faintly. Ean didn’t have to listen to the lines to know what he was thinking. Abram had nothing to do with it.

“You may laugh now, but Lancia has decided. This is the future. Choose to be part of it, or be executed for treason.” Yu shook his sleeve, and suddenly there was a blaster in his hand.

Ean was the only one who jumped. The only one who reacted, even. Had the others known Yu had a weapon?

Michelle put her hand to the inside of her jacket.

“Execute me,” Abram said. “But first, let’s talk about the fundamental flaw in your plan.”

Yu raised his blaster.

“Hold.” The needle weapon was in Michelle’s hand. So fast Ean hadn’t seen her pull it out. “Touch Abram, Father, and you are a dead man.”

There wasn’t any anger in her, only a steely determination very like her father’s.

“The fundamental flaw, Galenos,” Yu said. “The fact that Lancia doesn’t control the line ships?”

“Exactly,” Abram said.

“No. My daughter does, through her level-twelve linesman.”

After that, things happened so fast it was a blur, but at the same time, it was like forever in the void, and Ean could recall each event clearly.

Yu swung his weapon around to Ean.

Radko grabbed her blaster.

Yu’s arm kept swinging. Past Ean. To Michelle. “I can fix that.”

His finger tightened.

“No!” Ean and line eight were swamped by a massive blast of denial. Ean wasn’t sure he was the one who’d invoked line eight at all, but Yu went down.

Burned almost beyond recognition by Abram’s blaster.

Stunned into immobility by Radko’s blaster.

Thrown back against the wall by line eight.

Yu’s guards fired on Abram and Radko, but line eight sang true. The blaster fire bounced back. Half of them went down under their own fire.

By then, Vega and Helmo had their blasters out.

“Nobody move,” Vega said.

Commodore Bach stopped Yu’s guards with a gesture. “Weapons down.”

Michelle attempted to pick something off her jacket. It might have been burned flesh. Her hand shook so much, she couldn’t pick it off.

“That’s the second time you’ve shot someone so close I’ve got body parts over me.” At least, Ean thought that was what she said, for her voice was shaking as much as her hands.

Ean was shaking, too.

Abram knelt in front of Michelle and silently proffered his weapon.

“Don’t.” It ended up a sob. She put her hands on his shoulders, gripping so tightly her fingers were bloodless. A tear splashed down onto Abram’s head, then another, and another.

Abram tried to move Michelle’s hands off his shoulders. She wouldn’t let go, so he put his arms round her waist instead. She fell into his embrace, and they both ended up kneeling on the floor.

Radko moved over to Vega and held out her own blaster.

Vega didn’t take it. “You’d be more useful helping me collect their weapons.” She nodded at Yu’s guards.

“But, ma’am, I—”

“Stunned an already-dead body from the looks of it. Not to mention, you were doing your job.” Vega’s voice was steady, but her hands weren’t.

Radko silently helped Vega collect the blasters. Ean sang line eight to keep everyone safe, could see the field as a hazy, waist-high wave surrounding them.

One soldier surreptitiously lifted her weapon.

Line eight—and Ean—blasted her over to the other side of the room.

“Anyone else goes for a weapon, and I fire,” Vega said.

Abram put his own blaster onto the floor and put his hands to Michelle’s waist, lifting her as he stood. He wrapped his arms round her. She buried her face in his chest.

It was probably the first time anyone watching had seen her cry. Ean looked away, at Bach, who was watching him.

“It never was for the seat on the council, was it?”

“No. That was to keep Galenos away from the Lancastrian Princess. So he wouldn’t work out what was happening.”

“Was Yu ever going to kill Abram?”

“No. Galenos has always proven loyal to Lancia. He would have come around. It was your contract we wanted. Her Royal Highness held that.”

“Were you part of it?” Vega asked. “This assassination?”

“Yes.” Flat and bald.

“But why?” Ean asked. “What’s Michelle ever done to you?”

“Nothing. In fact, I admire her. But I support my Emperor. I support Lancia. It was obvious to many people that while she held your contract, we would never have control of the alien ships, for Her Royal Highness was committed to the New Alliance.”

Ean had seen his contract. He’d signed it. With Michelle, and Rigel, and Leo Rickenback. “If Michelle dies, my contract goes to Admiral Katida, of Balian.”

“If the contract owner dies, the contract goes back to the cartel house,” Bach said.

That was a standard contract, not Ean’s. Michelle, Rigel, and Rickenback’s lawyers had spent days on it. But Ean didn’t argue. It didn’t matter anyway. If Yu had killed Michelle, he would have ensured that Yu never got a single alien line ship.

“You’re a fool.” Vega came over and cut the restraints around Bach’s hands. “But I imagine you’re not the biggest fool, for a commodore doesn’t come up with plans like this. I suspect Admiralty House at Baoshan may be a little empty for a while. Galenos will not take kindly to a plan to murder Michelle.”

“You can’t let him go,” Ean said. “What if he decides to kill Abram, for killing Yu?”

“That’s Emperor Yu,” Bach said.

“He’s dead. He’s not Emperor anymore.” Michelle was, and that was too strange to think of now.

Vega said, “Emperor Yu isn’t the first of his family to be assassinated by the incoming Emperor. He killed his own father, and his father killed his father before him. If Bach is loyal to the Crown, he will now be loyal to the Empress.”

But Yu hadn’t been assassinated by his daughter. Abram had killed him to save Michelle. It might have been better if Radko had done it. At least she was part of Yu’s family.

Ean was glad she hadn’t, all the same.

“What about your people?” Vega asked Bach.

“They serve the Crown of Lancia. They will support the new Empress.”

Technically, they’d been negligent because their job was to save the Emperor.

Vega looked at Yu’s guard. “Does anyone wish to complain, argue, or support anyone other than the Empress Michelle?”

There was only one answer to that, and it wasn’t “yes.”

“Good.” She turned to Sattur Dow. “And you?”

At least he’d stopped smiling. “I support the ruler of Lancia.”

Of course he did. But he would find the new ruler harder to influence than he had the old ruler.

Ean realized something else. “Radko doesn’t have to marry you now.” Something too strong to be relief flooded his mind and the lines.

“I am still prepared to take her,” Dow said. “Despite the gross negligence she showed today.”

He stepped back as Ean stepped toward him.

“I have a lot to offer a wife.”

Radko stepped between them. “I am sure we would both prefer to choose our own partners.”

Sattur Dow wouldn’t.

Abram said, “I’m sorry, Misha. I failed you by staying away you when you needed me most.”

Michelle pulled away, and looked at him. She shook her head.

“I will never do that again.” Abram kissed her.

A strong hum of satisfaction exuded from the ship. From .

Ean glanced at Helmo. You couldn’t see it from his face. It was as expressionless as Abram’s was normally.

“Do you mind?” Radko asked quietly from beside Ean.

He looked at her.

“Michelle. And Abram.”

Why would he?

She held his gaze. He held his breath. He was drowning, he was… a choir in the void. Ean blinked, and shook his head.

She smiled. “Good.”

Ean smiled back. “You know, Radko. I’m really, really, really glad you’re back.”