The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight

IT only took a week for the remaining loyalist opposition to crumble. At the end of that time, with the threat of Drakon’s ground forces and warships looming over them, and with the Workers Universal making a series of ill-considered threats and a suicide bombing that angered rather than intimidated the WU’s opponents, the last valleys controlled by the loyalists bowed to the control of the Free Taroans.

Sub-CEO Kamara promptly turned around the surrendered loyalist soldiers, combined them with her own forces, and charged into the areas still held by the Workers Universal. Drakon kept his own forces out of it as the Free Taroan soldiers, including those who had been recently fighting the Free Taroans, rampaged into the WU-controlled areas.

“We should be playing a part in this,” Morgan grumbled.

“I don’t want any part in it,” Drakon replied sourly. “For people who were upset about atrocities, they seem way too eager to wipe out anything and anybody with any taint of Workers Universal.”

“We could separate them,” Malin suggested. “Keep the deaths down by stopping the fighting.”

“They’d just finish the job when we left,” Drakon said. “Let them do it. Let them do it, then wake up in the morning and realize what they’ve done. Maybe in the long run, that’ll save some lives.”

“Do we have any word from the congress yet?” Malin asked.

“No. The interim congress is waiting until the WU is finished. I’ll talk to them tomorrow, tell them what we want, then we can get the hell out here.” Taroa was beautiful, but his thoughts of it were tainted by the toll of the civil war.

“General,” Malin said, “we avoided this kind of thing at Midway. Because of how you and President Iceni handled things.”

“Or because we had a lot more weapons and nobody would mess with General Drakon,” Morgan said sarcastically. “Let’s just tell these FreeTas what we want and tell them to deliver. If they’re not grateful enough for our help, we can dump a load of hurt on their heads.”

“They’ll know they can’t just blow us off,” Drakon said. “They need us, our goodwill, because we’re always going to be the star next door, and that’s the other thing that they’ll realize when they wake up in the morning.”

“I love it when you’re domineering,” Morgan said, then laughed when he gave her a disapproving look. “I get what’s going on. We own these guys even though the FreeTas get to keep pretending they’re all independent and strong. And we own those orbiting dockyards, which I bet is the third thing the FreeTas are going to be waking up to. Nice job, General.”

Malin didn’t offer any rejoinder this time, instead watching Morgan with the intentness of a man trying to defuse an explosive.

* * *

“IT’S impossible to express our gratitude,” another member of the interim congress intoned. “Now that Taroa is once more reunited, and free, we will never forget the aid that Midway offered to help bring that about.”

Remembering came cheap, of course, and no one had yet suggested the idea of actual, tangible repayment. Drakon nodded, offering the members of the congress a small smile. “President Iceni and I were happy to assist. We want trade to get going again. Your ships will be welcome at Midway, and we won’t use our warships to hinder any ships trying to get to you through our star system.”

A few members of the congress got that, realizing that the statement implied that such traffic could be hindered at any time that Midway felt like it. Traffic could still arrive using Taroa’s other jump points, but such travel would be much more difficult than for anyone using the speed and ease of Midway’s hypernet gate.

One of the congress members gave Drakon a skeptical look. “What will be happening to the charges for use of the hypernet gate by merchant traffic? Now that your rates are no longer regulated by the Syndicate government?”

He wouldn’t have known the answer to that except that Iceni had made a point of telling him before they left. “The rates are going to be reduced. It’s not that we don’t need money, but we won’t be sending any of that on to Prime anymore. We can charge merchants using the gate less and still retain more to help pay for establishing Midway as a strong, independent star system.”

“Why not charge even less and retain less?” someone challenged him.

Drakon couldn’t help a narrow-eyed look at the person who had spoken. “You think you’re getting a bad deal? I haven’t heard anyone say anything yet about the soldiers we lost helping you gain control of your planet and star system.”

The majority managed to look guilty though also defensive.

“Our military forces don’t come free, and they’re not cheap,” Drakon continued. “I need enough revenue to cover pay, maintenance, operations, and a lot of other things. Prime isn’t going to be defending Midway anymore. It won’t be defending Taroa, either. You help us pay for defense, and we’ll help defend you. Balk at that, and we may not have enough forces to spare when the Syndicate government shows up here again.”