Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

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.