Democracy's Light

Chapter Forty-Two

The atmosphere in the room was sober.

Colin glanced around the table, seeing who was present… and who was missing. Kathy Tyler, the heroine of the hour and the only person to emerge with much credit, was present. So was Jason Cordova, her lover, even though the news feeds flooding across the solar system were very ambiguous about his role in events. Blondel Dupre, Prime Minister, and René Goscinny, Foreign Minister and First-Rank Representative, were also present, as was Admiral Arun Prabhu. The missing seemed to haunt the table; Tiberius Cicero, Daria and Grand Admiral Joshua Wachter. Their presence seemed to pervade the room, even though one of them was dead and the other two were missing.

The security forces had started a search at once, but hours later, Colin had had to conclude that Daria had either managed to make it off-planet or had gone to ground somewhere where she couldn’t be easily found. Every man’s hand was against her now, her role in the bloody slaughter of thousands of people, many of them aristocrats, common knowledge. Nothing spread through the Empire like bad news and that was the worst news of all. Gwendolyn’s warning that Grand Admiral Joshua Wachter was still alive had worried Colin. There was only one possible reason to fake his death, only one role that he could fill, and that was commander of a fleet. Out there, somewhere, Daria still had a fleet. It was the only conclusion that made sense.

And Admiral Wilhelm was out there too. Colin couldn’t believe that they were allies, the former Empress and the Admiral who had made his own grasp for power. They were rivals as well — he wondered, absently, if there was a way to set them at each other’s throats — but both of them wanted Earth. Admiral Wilhelm’s path led directly towards Earth and Colin was sure that invasion was imminent. They would be challenging the Shadow Fleet, but he might well have the firepower to prevail… and Daria knew almost everything about the defences of Earth. She had once been an Admiral herself. She wouldn’t commit her forces to the attack until she was certain she could win, not with everything at stake.

The betrayal hurt. Colin had cared for Daria, even if they had been too different to act on their mutual attraction… but had it really been mutual attraction? In hindsight, had Daria tried to attract him to bind him to her cause, or had she been under stress as well and searching for a partner? She’d done something that only Joshua had done before and forced Colin to doubt himself and his actions. How much had she done to impede the development of the Provisional Government? How much had she done to cause the bushfires and minor conflicts that threatened to spring up all over the Empire? At the last, was everything they had achieved to be torn down, just because one woman wanted to return to the Imperial Throne?

Never, he thought coldly, and turned to face the table.

“We may be attacked at any moment,” he said, without preamble. They weren’t the type of people to be impressed by meaningless pleasantries, even if he had felt like wasting time. “By my most pessimistic estimates, Admiral Wilhelm should be here by now, so he may arrive at any time. We will also have to face the fleet that the Empress” — he refused to use her name, even through it hadn’t been her original name — “has assembled, a fleet of unknown strength.”

“Four superdreadnaught squadrons,” Cordova said. Colin blinked, quirking an eyebrow, at his confidence. “The ships that fled Home Fleet during the final battle for Earth — what we thought was the final battle for Earth — and vanished. They didn’t show up in Admiral Wilhelm’s line of battle at Cottbus, so they didn’t go to join him, and Daria used to command Home Fleet. She had plenty of time to place her own people in positions of power.”

Colin shivered. Again, for the second time since Joshua had beaten him at Morrison, he had the distant feeling that he was outmatched. It had taken him years of planning and careful action to build up the core conspiracy that had seized the Macore Observation Squadron and then Commodore Stacy Roosevelt’s superdreadnaughts, but he hadn’t been forced to leave some people hanging out on a limb for over fifty years. Planning on that timescale should have been impossible, but Daria had managed it, somehow… and, in doing so, had brought the Empire to its knees. Their sole prisoner from her inner circle — insofar as she’d had an inner circle — had worked for her for over fifty years too, although Gwendolyn hadn’t known that Daria intended a mass slaughter.

His blood ran cold as he contemplated the possibilities. If Daria had remained unnoticed, she would have been running the Empire by now… and the irony was that she might have done him a favour. Parliament had stopped wasting time in the aftermath of the massacre; they might even manage to create the first Empire-wide governing system to replace the Thousand Families. The prospect of hanging had concentrated more than a few minds wonderfully well. They couldn’t expect much mercy from the Empress when she regained her throne. The horror stories the Thousand Families had spread about her, turning her into a bogyman, were only encouraging that trend. They didn’t want to face her with a fleet backing her and Earth naked and defenceless.

“Regardless, we may be in trouble,” Colin said. He looked up at the tactical display, scowling. “If I was in command of that fleet, I would be lurking nearby, watching Earth for the arrival of Admiral Wilhelm. Once that battle is done, I would move my ships in and take out the victor. We have to prepare for that possibility.”

“I have sent courier boats to the assembly points for the first-rank defence forces,” René Goscinny said, calmly. He looked to have grown up a great deal in the past two months, although there was nothing like surviving a space battle to focus the mind. Katy had clearly impressed him during their brief acquaintance. “They should be ready to come to our assistance within the week, although we had planned to deploy them against Admiral Wilhelm when he attacked a second first-rank world.”

Colin rather doubted that the Admiral would bother — attacking anywhere, but Earth or AlphaCent would only weaken him while adding nothing to his strength — but he held his peace. If the first-rank worlds got involved, they would add enough ships to the defence forces to give them a fighting chance. The losses would be horrendous, however, and revenge certain if they lost. Everything was at stake now.

“The Shadow Fleet is on full alert,” Admiral Arun Prabhu assured him. Arun was an old friend, one of the original members of the conspiracy, and Colin trusted him implicitly. The thought was bitter in his mouth. He’d also trusted Daria, while nursing doubts about Cordova and even Kathy. “When they arrive, we will give them a beating, never doubt that.”

“The Volunteer Fleet can be assembled, but I don’t know if it can be trusted,” Cordova said. He sounded almost normal now. It had to be a vast relief to finally get it off his chest. Colin had assured him that, whatever happened, he wouldn’t be lynched for sparing the lives of millions of helpless aliens. “Daria did most of the legwork in assembling it and… well, they may be her loyalists. I don’t think that most of them would believe she was the Empress, even if I told them, and they might even see it as a plot to get rid of her by the Imperial Navy. We might find ourselves inviting enemies within the defences.”

Goscinny blinked. “Surely they couldn’t do much damage…”

“Battles have been won or lost before because of the presence or absence of a single ship,” Cordova said, shortly. He looked over at Colin. “Sir, I request permission to return to the Random Numbers and fight in the battle.”

Colin lifted an eyebrow, catching the expression of worry and fear that flashed across Kathy’s face. It would be easy to deny the request — and he was sure that that was what Kathy wanted him to do — but it would be unjust. Cordova was one of the best commanding officers he had met and his presence on the battlefield might be decisive, even if the Random Numbers was far from a powerful superdreadnaught. Besides, how could he deny Cordova anything? He’d saved the Empire.

“Granted,” he said, and ignored the look on Kathy’s face, even if she didn’t protest aloud. “Prime Minister, what about Parliament?”

Blondel smiled tiredly. “Well, the remaining MPs have passed a law disinheriting the remainder of the Thousand Families and placing most of their possessions in the hands of the government,” she said. “If Kathy works quickly, most of them can be sublet down to their workers, allowing them a chance to take control and reform the systems. The remaining Thousand Family aristocrats are too traumatized to do anything to object and by the time they rediscover their nerve, their weapons will have been knocked from their hands.”

“I hope so,” Kathy said. There was a hard brittle edge to her voice. “In the long run, the centres of industry will probably be with the first-rank worlds, but in the short term, we should see considerable boosts in production. If we win the coming fight, there will be a long period of peace and quiet to reconstruct the economy. If we lose… well, it hardly matters any longer.”

Colin smiled. If they lost to either of the enemy forces, they would be hung or otherwise disposed of, pour encourager les autres. Neither Daria nor Admiral Wilhelm could leave them alive, no matter the possible advantages to be gained through clemency. They couldn’t afford to leave them as a rallying point for resistance.

“Good,” he said, finally. He stood up in one smooth motion. “We will meet again in a week’s time. By then, all of this will be over, one way or the other.”

They started to file out of the room. “Admiral, a word with you please,” Colin said, before Arun could leave. “I have something I want to discuss with you.”

The small transport appeared out of nowhere, flickering into existence near the edge of the fleet’s security zone. Penny, on the General Monck’s flag deck, had almost brought the fleet to red alert before the IFF signal came in, revealing that the transport was carrying the Empress from Earth. She informed Joshua, expecting that the Empress would want to dock with the General Monck and discuss matters with him, but instead she headed over to the General Cromwell and docked with that superdreadnaught.

“Rather an obvious choice, I’d have thought,” Joshua observed while they waited for the communications network to link the two ships together. The Empress had added a whole new spectrum of security checks that bespoke of inhuman paranoia, although Penny had to admit that they were necessary. “I would have chosen a different ship if I had been in her shoes.”

Penny turned to him to ask why, but Daria’s holographic image appeared in front of both of them before she could open her mouth. Penny had only seen her once before, but she’d looked like… well, just anyone, rather than an Empress. She’d looked surprisingly normal, like a girl who had washed her face clean of all cosmetics, but now she looked almost terrifying. She wore the midnight-black uniform of a Grand Admiral, with a line of golden ribbons on her shoulder that marked her out as the Empress — she had been the only person ever to wear such decorations; they had been banned after she’d been disposed — and looked almost terrifying. Her red hair contrasted sharply with her uniform, framing her sharp angular face, while she looked tired and deeply angry. Penny had seen faces like that before, on combat stress victims, and she wondered just what had happened on Earth.

If Joshua had noticed, he gave no sign. “Your Highness,” he said, gravely. There was no trace of mocking in his voice, none of the artificial respect that he so hated, and he sounded sincere. “May I ask what brings you here so early?”

“I was exposed,” Daria said, calmly. Her voice might have been calm, but Penny, well used to people who hid their real feelings, sensed a deep wave of anger under her tone. The former Empress — and perhaps future Empress — was terrifyingly furious at someone… and it didn’t take a genius to guess who. Colin must have come out ahead in their power game. “We may have to move soon, within the week.”

Joshua lifted an eyebrow. “Admiral Wilhelm?”

“He hasn’t shown up to fight yet,” Daria said, “but the Shadow Fleet believes that it is just a matter of time.”

Penny nodded. Joshua and her had gone through all of the possibilities while working on bringing the fleet to full readiness. Admiral Wilhelm’s only real choice was to go for Earth before he was crushed by superior force. Given time, Colin’s Empire could produce enough firepower to crush the combined fleets of four sectors, and then go on to impose their own order. Admiral Wilhelm’s only hope was to take Earth and then the shipyards, or destroy the latter. It would throw resistance back on the hidden shipyards along the Rim and give him time to build up his own capabilities.

“That is understood,” Joshua said, calmly. “Do you wish a full report on the status of your fleet?”

“I will access it from the computers,” Daria said, equally gravely. That was something that Joshua had changed, at least; it was now a major offence to upload false information into a readiness report. It had been that kind of behaviour that had literally ruined an entire Sector Fleet at Morrison. Penny had once estimated that a superdreadnaught crewed by a honest crew, like the men and women who followed Colin, was far more likely to prevail against one that had been run down into the ground by negligence. Admiral Wilhelm, going from the records Admiral Garland had sent back from Cottbus, had also fixed that problem. It would mean that all three fleets were at the height of their power.

And we’re going to be the weakest, she thought, knowing how Joshua would fight the battle. He would hold off until Admiral Wilhelm and the Shadow Fleet, either under Colin’s direct command or one of his subordinates, had battered each other into oblivion… and then attack. Their weakness would become a strength. The only question would be how strong Earth’s fixed defences were these days.

“I will bring the fleet to alert now,” Joshua concluded. “I assume that there is a starship in the solar system, waiting for the attack?”

“Of course,” Daria said. Now that she wasn’t pretending any longer, Penny could hear a haughty tone in her voice, a sense that it no longer mattered what people thought of her. “Once they arrive, you can move in under cloak.”

Her image vanished. “Fascinating,” Joshua said, conversationally. “Did you notice what she didn’t say?”

Penny nodded. “Why was she exposed?”

“Exactly,” Joshua said. He looked down at the display for a long moment, watching as the tiny icons representing the secret fleet danced around the General Monck. “What went so badly wrong on Earth that she had to flee for her life?”

“You don’t think that she could be lying to us?”

Joshua laughed. “I think that she didn’t tell us anything that could be constituted as a lie,” he said, dryly. Penny flushed. She hated looking like an idiot in front of him. “Do you remember when we allowed Admiral Garland to leave Morrison to warn the rebels of the plan to scorch Gaul?”

“Of course,” Penny said. She remembered that clearly. It was the main reason why Joshua had come out of the entire rebellion as a hero to both sides, despite having fought on the wrong side — the one that lost. It had been a moment of shining compassion in a universe that tended to punish such decisions. “Do you want to do the same again here?”

“I don’t know,” Joshua said, softly. For a moment, despite his appearance, Penny saw his true age shining through. “I don’t know which way to turn. If the Empress regains her throne, we have a strong Empire, without the wasted chattering of Parliament or the chaos of devolving government as far downwards as possible. We can start a process of reform that will rejuvenate and reinvigorate the Empire, without having to worry about people trying to block the process for their own reasons, or because they benefited from the status quo…

“But I don’t know if she can give us that any longer,” he concluded. The bitterness and despair in his voice shocked her. Joshua was at his best when dealing with black and while space battles, not political manoeuvring and knives in the back. What, she wondered suddenly, had happened to Tiberius? Where was he? “It’s the best hope I have left… and it is a very thin line of hope indeed.”

Penny stared at him. “You could stop her now,” she said. It would be easy. The Household Troops on the starships were loyal to Joshua. They could head over to the General Cromwell and arrest Daria… or could they? It dawned on Penny that there might have been a very good reason why Daria had chosen that particular starship. It was crewed by people who would almost certainly be loyal to her. “You could…”

“I know,” Joshua said, “but I can’t. I cannot do anything, but wait here for history to move past us, helplessly trapped to play the roles she assigned us long ago. What else can we do, but make one final bid to save the Empire from its own people?”