Confluence

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: EAN LAMBERT

Vega and Helmo sent Bach’s guards to the cells. “We’re locking you down because we want to control news of this ourselves,” Vega said. “Lambert, make sure they can’t get a signal out.”

“It’s a bit late for that,” Ean said. “The engineer on the Galactic News ship already knows.”

Indeed, he was already on at the producer. “Coop. Coop. Something has happened to Emperor Yu. I don’t know what, but it’s big news. Big, big news.”

“What, bigger than someone’s stealing spaceships? And no, Christian, I’m not calling up the Emperor of Lancia. Five minutes ago, you wanted me to report on stolen spaceships. Which weren’t stolen at all, incidentally. At least, not according to the Department of Alien Affairs.”

“You know Spacer Grieve always misdirects. If he didn’t say outright someone hadn’t stolen that ship, then someone probably did. But Coop, what about Emperor Yu?”

Ean realized suddenly. “That engineer on the Galactic News. I assumed he was a six because he’s an engineer. He’s not. He’s a one.” He was picking up emotions from the lines in much the way Tinatin did, except his pickup was a lot more accurate. Tinatin was probably already giving Kari Wang her own garbled version.

“Well then,” Radko said. “It goes to show, you shouldn’t assume. Ever. Especially for someone who relies so much on listening.”

It was good to have Radko back.

“Lambert,” Vega said. “When you’ve quite finished, can we have lockdown on the soldiers, and on Sattur Dow.”

It would be a pleasure. “We should stop comms from everyone in Yu’s party.”

“Do it.”

Ean sang instructions to the ship. No communications in or out for any visitors. Only comms for Michelle and Abram, Vega, and Captain Helmo and his regular crew.

Bach tried his comms. “Impressive. I see why Lambert was so important. And we can train linesmen to do this?”

“Provided you get the right combination of lines,” Vega said.

Neither Michelle nor Abram was the sort to spend much time whispering romantically to each other.

“Lancia knew as well as you did that the old Alliance was dead,” Bach said, when the room had been cleared, and they were settled with tea. Michelle, Abram, Vega, Helmo, Bach, Ean, and Radko. Radko had been going to stand against the wall in her usual guard position. Ean was glad when Michelle motioned for her to sit down with them.

“I need all the support I can get today.”

So Radko had left the wall and come to sit beside Ean.

“We could see we were better off in the fledgling New Alliance than we were as a secondary world in Gate Union,” Bach told Abram and Michelle. “Until you started to send back reports of what the ships could do. What the linesmen could do—particularly a level twelve—and we realized how much power we had at our fingertips.”

He wasn’t talking about himself here when he said “we.” He meant the Lancastrian admiralty, and the palace. Had he even agreed with what they were doing? They’d never know.

“Emperor Yu sounded out his daughter; the admirals sounded out Galenos. Unfortunately, both of you were determined to work with the New Alliance. So His Imperial Majesty looked elsewhere. Redmond and Gate Union were having problems. After Redmond tried to implicate Gate Union in the destruction of the Kari Wang, it was obvious to everyone that their alliance was fracturing. And Sattur Dow knew of a way we could approach Redmond.”

Abram raised an eyebrow.

“Renaud Han,” Vega said.

“Yes.” Bach gave a twisted smile. “He was smuggling for Redmond in return for silence about his son.” Renaud Han, paying silence money for a secret that wasn’t a secret at all. “I don’t know how you found out about it.”

Vega didn’t say it was coincidence.

“We knew Tiana Chen was blackmailing him, didn’t know Redmond was until Chen started working with Sattur Dow. When Dow wanted something sent to Redmond, she organized it for him through Renaud’s smuggling links.”

Two people couldn’t deserve each other more.

“What were they blackmailing Renaud over?” Abram asked.

“The fact that Han is not his son,” Radko said.

Ean looked at her. She hadn’t been there when he and Vega had interviewed Lord Renaud.

“He’s supposed to be a linesman.” Radko smiled at Ean. “He’s right-handed.”

“His son joined the fleet,” Vega told Abram. “Except his DNA didn’t match the Han family’s. So Lord Renaud paid someone on Redmond to fix the records, opening himself to blackmail from Redmond, too. They got him to smuggle medical supplies.”

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

“Lord Renaud’s life is his own to destroy,” Bach said. “Our concern was contact with people in Redmond.”

“Let me get this straight,” Abram said. “You used the contacts Renaud made while smuggling to approach interested parties in Redmond. To offer them the alien ships in return for being part of a new alliance of Redmond, Lancia, and the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. How did the Lesser Gods come into it?”

“They’ve been working with Redmond for years, building ships based on alien technology. And experimenting on the linesmen even longer. They know more about linesmen than the New Alliance and Gate Union combined.”

Ean shuddered, remembering the feel of the lines—the wrongness of the linesmen—on the station orbiting Aeolus.

Red-mint-cinnamon amusement wafted from the lines. “I’d pitch our line knowledge against anyone’s,” Michelle said.

“Perhaps,” Bach said doubtfully. “Regardless, all three powers could see advantages. Redmond had line factories. The Lesser Gods the linesmen. Lancia brought the ships, and the level-twelve linesman although he was to remain under our control.”

Michelle made a sound that might have been a laugh. “Our level-twelve linesman is a thinking, rational human being.” Ean was glad Vega didn’t comment. “How did you think you would control him?”

Bach’s gaze flicked toward Radko. “He has shown loyalty to the woman who is minding him.”

“By marrying her off to Sattur Dow,” Ean said. “What was that supposed to do?”

“Sattur Dow would expect access to his wife.”

“That was never going to happen,” Abram said.

Instead, it had triggered the start of events that had ruined Yu’s plans. Ean couldn’t understand how they’d even expected it to for a moment. Didn’t Yu know that Radko couldn’t give them access? Although Vega had sent Radko away because they were worried she’d have to.

Vega said, “With Lancia giving away the ships, it would be hard to see us as anything but a lesser contributor to any union of worlds.”

“Giving away, Vega? No, I don’t think so. We’d still have the linesman.”

Michelle’s smile was full dimple. “You know, Ean, sometimes I think we should hand you over to our enemies and let them find out the hard way they have no control.”

Everyone except Ean and Bach laughed.

“I fail to understand,” Bach said.

“You don’t have to understand, Bach.” Radko’s dimples were as deep as Michelle’s. “That’s what I’m here for. To prevent people like you ever understanding.”

The others laughed again.

“Who was involved in this grand plan?” Abram asked.

Bach shrugged.

Michelle and Abram shared a glance. A glance that was a whole conversation in a single look. Like they used to, back when Ean had first joined the Lancastrian Princess.

Ean blinked and had to look away. This was how it had been. This was how it would be again.

“Commodore Bach,” Michelle said. “As the Empress of Lancia, I order you to tell me who was involved. Fleet Admiral Galenos, as the head of the Lancian fleet, orders you to tell us who was involved.”

Head of the Lancian fleet. Ean wasn’t the only one who had to hold in a smile, and the Lancastrian Princess’s lines made a choir to match. Lancia couldn’t make trouble anymore. Not with Abram in charge. Even Bach looked pleased, and Ean could tell from the lines that he truly was.

Bach half bowed from his seat. “Everyone at Admiralty house was involved. Emperor Yu, of course. Everyone except you and Admiral Galenos.” He stopped. “Sorry. Fleet Admiral Galenos.”

Michelle nodded.

“His Majesty believed Galenos would come around eventually. He has always had the interests of Lancia at heart.” He smiled faintly as he glanced toward Abram. “He might have underestimated Galenos’s feelings for you. None of us expected it to come down to Emperor Yu or Crown Princess Michelle.”

Everyone on the Lancastrian Princess would have chosen the way Abram had.

Helmo must have been thinking the same thing, for he raised his eyebrows. Ean wasn’t the only person who shrugged back. As Radko would say, was the sky on Lancia purple?

After that, Vega escorted Bach down to his room and locked him in, while everyone else decamped to Abram and Michelle’s workroom.

Helmo went via the bridge. “Give me ten minutes to talk to Vanje. I have the ship on alert.”

Radko held Ean back. “Give them five minutes to themselves.”

He was glad to have five minutes of his own, just him and Radko. “Thank you for saving my life. Again.”

Radko half laughed. “He wasn’t trying to kill you, Ean. I should have seen that.”

“You would have protected Michelle anyway.”

“Yes, I would, but I wouldn’t have been fast enough.”

Ean thought she would have been.

They started walking slowly.

“Was it bad? The job?”

“It was different. I made some mistakes. There were times I could have used a linesman. Especially a level twelve.”

“If you’d taken me with you, I could have helped.”

“Wasn’t that the whole point? To keep us apart? And without you here, we would have lost the station, Confluence fleet, and Michelle. Nor would you have taken the Eleven to war.”

Maybe so, but next time they’d work something out, so Radko didn’t have to go away. But then, there wouldn’t be a next time, for the dual enemies of Sattur Dow and Emperor Yu didn’t exist anymore.

“Now that you’re not engaged,” Ean said, “what are you…” He stopped.

Radko smiled. He heard it through the lines. “That depends, Ean.”

“On what?”

“Lots of things.”

What did that mean? He looked at her.

Her smile was affectionate. “Let’s see what happens, Ean?”

He wanted to slip his arm through hers. Did he dare? Not quite. Not yet.

They walked in silence for a while.

Even Vega delayed coming back, stopping at her own office to frown down at the decoded report on the desk, then pick it up and start flicking through the screens.

Ean broke the silence, eventually. “We have a problem with the Confluence.”

“What sort of problem?”

“It’s choosing its own crew.”

“I thought you wanted crew for it.”

“Yes, but it’s chosen its own Ship.”

“Captain, you mean? Who?”

“Sale.”

“Hmm,” Radko said. “It’s not going to happen, Ean. She’ll be good, but no one will ever let her take it. She’s nowhere near qualified yet.”

“You don’t have to be captain to be ‘Ship’ for the lines. On Confluence Station, Ship is not the station manager, he’s a guy called Ryley, who’s part of engineering.”

“Have you told Abram about this?” Radko asked.

“Sort of. But Abram never followed up on it. And he has been busy with other problems.”

“Then he knows, Ean. I wouldn’t worry.”

“Damage control,” Abram said, when they were all back in the workroom. “If Michelle doesn’t go back to Lancia soon, one of her younger siblings will take over. But if we don’t stay here with the council, we’ll lose credibility.”

“If we haven’t lost it already,” Michelle said. “The lines know how much support we lost with my father and the Factor arriving.”

“You might get some back now he’s dead,” Ean said.

He looked at Michelle, who had loved her father despite all he did. He couldn’t tell her he was sorry, because he wasn’t, so he didn’t say anything. He’d talk to Katida and Orsaya himself, and maybe Shimson and Trask. Somehow, he’d convince them things would be better now.

“Whom do we tell first?” Michelle asked. “The council or Lancia?”

“Tell them at the same time,” Abram said. “Warn the council we will be making an announcement, then jump the Lancastrian Princess to Lancia, so that we get communication between sectors, and make the announcement from the palace at Baoshan. Walk in as you mean to continue, Misha. I’ll walk into Admiralty House and do the same.”

“Both of you with bodyguards,” Vega said. “I will supply them.”

“And the council?” Helmo asked.

“We come back for the sessions and spend part of our time here, part there. Until Michelle can sort out a government loyal to her.”

“That’s a lot of jumps.” The terror that Ean associated with Helmo and jumping cold started to seep into the lines.

“We order a lot of shellfish,” Vega said.

“They’ll pick that up by the third jump,” Helmo said. “If not earlier.”

Ean had to convince the captains to jump cold. Or they had to come up with a way to stop Gate Union’s blocking New Alliance jumps. Both needed a miracle. Could they convince Vilhjalmsson to get the jumps for them? After all, he needed to get home.

“Do we trust Markan?” he asked. Admiral Markan was in charge of Gate Union military. He was also Vilhjalmsson’s boss, and Markan valued Vilhjalmsson, for he had rescued him before.

Michelle choked on her sip of tea.

“No,” Vega said.

“Vilhjalmsson was investigating the same thing Radko was. He must know Redmond was about to defect. Maybe you could exchange some of the information Radko brought back in return for jumps. About Redmond. About their experimenting on the lines.”

Gate Union had more to lose from Redmond’s defection than the New Alliance did. Especially if House of Sandhurst proved to be as deeply involved as they looked to be, for Markan had supported Iwo Hurst’s failed bid to become Grand Master. If Hurst proved to be knowingly involved in the experimentation on linesmen—and how could he not be—then Markan stood to lose the support of the line cartels if he didn’t do something about it.

Radko shook her head. “Markan already knows. Vilhjalmsson got the original report from OneLane’s.”

“Ha.” Vega brought out the comms she’d been looking at earlier. “The problem is, if he bases his information on this report and tries to replicate it, all he’ll do is destroy a few extra linesmen.” She tapped the report. “Quinn and his friends think they’ve found a way to make linesmen out of nonlinesmen. But they haven’t.”

She couldn’t possibly have read the whole report already.

“They find someone with line potential, feed them full of drugs, then test them. All the way up to level ten.”

Michelle understood before anyone else did. “Single-level linesmen. It’s probably the first time they’ve ever been tested for every level.”

“They’ve been testing fully for six months now. I’m guessing Lancia suggested that.” Vega tapped the comms. “There’s a list in here of people who might be suitable for the treatment. Fergus Burns, Mael St Mael. Nadia Kentish.”

Failed linesmen.

“They think it’s a simple matter of finding the right combination of drugs, and they’ll get themselves another twelve.”

The lines didn’t work like that. “Didn’t Bach or Yu tell them?” According to Katida, single lines were a badly kept secret.

“Maybe not,” Abram said. “I suspect they kept line-related information close to their chest.”

Michelle sighed. “It would have been Lancia’s only bargaining tool. Lines and the linesmen.”

“However,” Abram said, “we may have enough to bargain with Markan. Especially if we do it with the Grand Master of the line cartels present. We can’t keep line training and single lines secret forever.”

“Vilhjalmsson knows Bach was arrested,” Radko said. “If he goes free, he’ll take that back to Markan.”

Abram tapped eleven-time on the console. “We hand Vilhjalmsson back so he can tell them how Redmond planned to defect from Gate Union. Give Markan information about how line testing is flawed.” He frowned. “It’s enough to get us jumps to Lancia, but it has to benefit the whole of the New Alliance. Otherwise, we’re no better than Yu himself, and they’ll still look on us as traitors.”

He looked at Michelle. There was a blue snap through the lines. From one of them? Or both?

“Ask for a temporary truce,” Michelle said. “Three months. They give us unrestricted line travel. Jumps when we ask for them. We provide all we can about Lancia’s plans with Redmond and the Worlds of the Lesser Gods.” Her dimple showed. “We’ll put Bach in charge of that.”

Gate Union needed time to regroup. After all, Redmond owned the line factories. And Markan had elevated House of Sandhurst over the other houses. Their participation in line experiments wouldn’t go down well.

“And line twelve?” Vega asked.

“That’s not part of the deal. They don’t get information about that. Just about the singles.”

“We do need to warn some people,” Michelle said. “Annette Jade, for one, as well as Admiral Katida. Balian and Aratoga have both supported us longer than they should have.”

They wouldn’t be able to hide it from Orsaya, either.

“I’ll talk to Vilhjalmsson and Katida,” Abram suggested. “While you talk to Governor Jade.”

Michelle nodded, and they shared a quick, smiling glance before Abram inclined his head toward Ean. “Linesman, you might ask Admiral Katida to linger over dinner.”