The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight

“As far as we can determine, she is not sleeping with General Drakon.”

Which gave Drakon a few points for common sense, Iceni thought, as well as possibly some credit for ethics. Technically, superiors in the Syndicate Worlds were required to avoid having subordinates as sex partners since it was far too easy to abuse power that way. But in reality it had long been common practice, and almost every other CEO turned blind eyes to the abuse because they didn’t want to give anyone reasons to check them for their own violations of the law. “One of the reasons I trusted Drakon enough to work with him was because he’s not sleeping with anyone who works for him. But Morgan is attractive enough in many ways to have been able to attach herself to some CEO more powerful than Drakon, especially after he got exiled here. She chose to come here with him. All my instincts tell me that Morgan intends playing a deeper game than simply sleeping her way to the top.”

“There is a widespread belief that a few of her rivals have vanished in the past,” Togo noted.

“Yes. Get into every file, check every source, find out what you can. I need to know what she might do.”

“And Colonel Malin?”

“Him, too.” Iceni paused in thought again. “My impression has been that Malin is careful, controlled, and wants to leave behind Syndicate ways of doing things. But if he tried to kill Colonel Morgan during that military action, it would have been a hasty, impulsive act, and one fully in keeping with Syndicate ways of doing business. See if you can find out who the real Malin is.”

After Togo had left, Iceni sat looking at some documents on her screen but not really reading them. Why didn’t Drakon tell me about the message Dun sent? I wonder what was in it? My source says Drakon’s workers haven’t been able to get anything out of Dun’s equipment. The failure to inform me about internal problems with his staff is another matter and more understandable. No CEO ever admits to that kind of thing going on even if there are dead executives littering all of the conference rooms and the survivors are busy trying to wash the blood off their hands. But I’ve always thought it was a sloppy way of doing business. Only the boss should be deciding who gets the axe.

That was a joke, wasn’t it? Sort of a pun. Too bad there’s no one else in this star system who would find it funny.

Another incoming message arrived, from Sub-CEO Akiri on C-448. “Madam C—excuse me, Madam President, there has been an unexpected development.” Akiri paused, plainly reveling in being the bearer of important news, while Iceni seethed at the small delay in actually hearing that news. “One of the Hunter-Killers with C-625 did not enter the hypernet gate with the other mobile forces. It remained, and we have just received a transmission from HuK-6336 saying that they have overcome the ISS agents and those loyal to the Syndicate Worlds and will be joining us. HuK-6336 reports substantial personnel casualties in overcoming the snakes and loyalists, but says all equipment is operational.”

“Good,” Iceni said. “What about the three HuKs loyal to me that were shadowing C-625?”

“They are still about a light-hour from the hypernet gate, awaiting further orders.”

“Tell them to proceed on their missions to the other star systems. I need to know what’s going on at Lono, Taroa, and Kahiki. Make sure the commanders of those HuKs know that anyone who recruits more warships for our star system can expect to receive suitable rewards.”

“Yes, Madam President.” Akiri looked a bit disappointed because he had no chance at those rewards, but there was no way she was going to let one of her heavy cruisers go wandering off. They were needed right here.