The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight

FORTY-SEVEN minutes after Kontos had spoken to her, he called Iceni again. “Battleship B-78 is ready to move at your command, Madam President.”

Marphissa, scanning her readouts on the readiness of the battleship, nodded with an amazed look.

Iceni settled back in her seat, looking around the bridge of the heavy cruiser. It felt far less occupied even though every specialist station was in use. With so much of the crew temporarily assigned to working on the battleship, the heavy cruiser had a strange sensation of emptiness. “Ready all units to proceed to the jump point for Midway, Kommodor.”

The heavy cruisers mated to the battleship had been loosed, and the light cruisers and HuKs brought in closer to escort the massive warship. They were finally preparing to get back to Midway, hopefully to depart Kane before any strong Syndicate Worlds force showed up at Kane, and hopefully to arrive back at Midway before any Syndicate Worlds attack showed up there. The propulsion problem with heavy cruiser C-818 had been a blessing in disguise. She hadn’t needed C-818, and its presence back at Midway offered some protection for the star system until she got back.

Far off, the three snake-controlled warships had jumped for Kukai hours ago. Since then, the detached portion of Iceni’s forces that had been shadowing them had turned to rejoin the others. “Tell the subflotilla to alter course to rejoin us just prior to the jump point for Midway,” Iceni told Marphissa.

The merchant ship, with its new cargo of evacuees from the mobile forces facility, still had a way to go before it made it back to the second planet; but the light cruiser bound for its crew’s home had remained with it, ensuring that Senior Ship’s Controller Hafely didn’t try to cut his losses by jettisoning evacuees.

Where the mobile forces facility had been there was now scattered junk, most of the debris having been knocked out of orbit, but some spiraling down into the greedy maw of the gas giant to vanish amid the multicolored clouds.

On the second planet itself, crowds could be seen in the streets, but too little in the way of comms could be picked up from the location of Iceni’s ships to know who was doing what to whom now that the snakes had run for their lives. Did the fires that could be seen in the streets mark celebration, or rioting, or fighting, or all of the above?

“All units,” Marphissa ordered, “come port four three degrees, down zero one degrees, accelerate to point zero three light speed, maintaining station on B-78, execute now.”

They were actually moving again. Iceni realized that she was smiling even though the shape of the gas giant receded with painful slowness beneath them. Only part of the battleship’s main propulsion units were working, enough to get it moving, but it would accelerate even more sluggishly than usual for a battleship, and getting it up to point zero three light speed would take a while. It would also take a while to get to the jump point at that velocity, but at least they were on their way. Feeling happy indeed, Iceni called the battleship. “Sub-Executive Kontos, do you want to take service in the mobile forces of the Midway Star System?”

Kontos grinned. “Yes, Madam President.”

“Then you are promoted to Kapitan-Leytenant, effective immediately, and appointed second-in-command of battleship B-78. Congratulations.”

The next call was to Colonel Rogero. “Are your soldiers enjoying the accommodations aboard B-78, Colonel?”

“Yes, Madam President.” Rogero wasn’t wearing his combat armor, of course, but he still somehow carried the aura of being ready for anything. Iceni found it a dangerously pleasant sensation. “Though in truth there’s so much space, and so few crew,” Rogero added. “It’s a little spooky.”

“Is everything in place?”

“We are ready for anything,” Rogero affirmed.

That was a code phrase, meaning that, if necessary, Rogero’s soldiers would turn on the crew and ensure that the battleship reached Midway. It was ironic, considering her own doubts about Rogero, but she had to count on him to ensure that Kontos or some other members of the battleship’s crew didn’t decide they wanted some other destination.

In truth, some of the delay in the battleship’s being ready had been her own fault. Some of the technicians had covertly installed overrides where overrides were strictly prohibited by Syndicate regulations. Only someone able to get inside the three citadels could have installed the overrides. But now, if anyone chose to try to hole up in those citadels again, Iceni could activate the overrides and quickly gain access to the inside of the three citadels.