The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight

He shook his head. “Colonel Morgan’s plan is a very weak reed on which to base our survival, but I can’t see any other option that offers better odds. The only other thing I could suggest is prayer.”

“Prayer?” Despite his tension, Drakon smiled crookedly. “What would I pray to, Colonel Malin? And what would have any cause to listen to my prayers?”

“Only you could know the answers to those questions, General.”

“Then if you are so inclined, feel free to pray to whatever you can think of that we get out of this in one piece. But also get moving on Morgan’s plan.” He knew it had no chance at all. The moment he surrendered, the locals would start creating trouble, objecting to the return of Syndicate authority and tying down his troops, and the commander of C-818 would have plenty of time to confirm that there were no hidden explosives and either head for distant star systems at high speed or surrender her heavy cruiser to Gathos.

But a very small chance was better than none at all. Drakon’s hand hovered over the reply control.

“General?” Morgan sounded baffled. “They’ve turned.”

“What?” He looked back at the display, seeing that six hours ago, CEO Gathos’s flotilla had bent its course again, turning away from the star and aiming straight for the hypernet gate. “What the hell is she doing?”

“Maybe she lost her nerve.”

“Why? Because she looked up my service record? Somehow, I doubt that.”

They kept watching, but the Syndicate flotilla stayed with the vector it had steadied out on. Drakon’s eyes went to the time. The half-hour time limit was about to expire. “Maybe Gathos is trying to trick us into not surrendering so she has an excuse for pounding this star system into rubble.”

Morgan had been watching the movement of the flotilla with narrowed eyes, and now shook her head. “No. She’s running. I’d stake my life on it.”

“You are.”

“Oh, yeah. I am.” Morgan grinned fiercely. “But maybe I can get to Gathos before I die.”

A sudden laugh from Malin sounded at the same time as another alert from the display. He pointed. “Now we know why CEO Gathos changed her mind about trying to reconquer this star system.”

At the jump point from Kane, another flotilla had appeared. Heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and Hunter-Killers arrayed around the unmistakable bulk of a battleship. “President Iceni’s units arrived closer to the jump point from Lono than we are, so the light from their arrival reached CEO Gathos’s flotilla before it reached us. She would have seen immediately that Gathos’s flotilla was here, and issued a threat that would have reached Gathos at almost the same moment as Gathos saw our reinforcements.”

Drakon laughed, too. From the planet, the battleship didn’t show any signs of being barely operational. Its huge, threatening, ugly, beautiful hull seemed to gleam wickedly among the much smaller warships surrounding it. “President Iceni, this is General Drakon. I am really happy to see you. Welcome back. For the people, Drakon, out.”

“She cut it fine enough,” Morgan grumbled.

Turning to Malin, Drakon gave him a questioning look. “Did you get a prayer off, Colonel Malin?” Malin nodded. “Whatever you asked for, something seems to have listened.”

Malin showed the ghost of a smile. “I asked that you receive what you deserved, General.”

Drakon paused in surprise, then laughed again. “I guess nothing listened to you after all. If I’d gotten what I deserved, I’d have died storming Gathos’s flagship. You two can stop worrying about setting up that suicide mission and get back to working on preparations for the Taroa operation.”

* * *

PRESIDENT Iceni watched him warily from across the table. She looked tired, having taken a heavy cruiser at high speed back to the planet while the rest of her flotilla stayed with the battleship, but her eyes also held a spark of elation. “Neutral ground. Totally secure. No assistants or aides. What is it that you want to talk about? I’ve already heard that you were unhappy about an execution that I ordered.”

Drakon nodded. “Yes. The execution is a minor issue, but I don’t want it to be forgotten. I didn’t like being surprised to hear that someone had been shot on your orders.”

“CEO’s prerogative,” Iceni replied.

“You’re not the only one running things here. I want to have a say in something like that. I want to know what someone has done, and I want a chance to evaluate the circumstances.”

Iceni tilted her head slightly as she watched him, tapping one fingernail against the table. “You think that I silenced someone?”

“It’s possible. You know what they say. Dead lawyers tell no tales.”

“No lawyers were involved in this matter.” She paused, eyes hooded in thought. “But you think it might have been something like that.”

“How do I know otherwise?”