Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

“Rather an obvious choice, I’d have thought,” Joshua observed while they waited for the communications network to link the two ships together. The Empress had added a whole new spectrum of security checks that bespoke of inhuman paranoia, although Penny had to admit that they were necessary. “I would have chosen a different ship if I had been in her shoes.”

Penny turned to him to ask why, but Daria’s holographic image appeared in front of both of them before she could open her mouth. Penny had only seen her once before, but she’d looked like… well, just anyone, rather than an Empress. She’d looked surprisingly normal, like a girl who had washed her face clean of all cosmetics, but now she looked almost terrifying. She wore the midnight-black uniform of a Grand Admiral, with a line of golden ribbons on her shoulder that marked her out as the Empress — she had been the only person ever to wear such decorations; they had been banned after she’d been disposed — and looked almost terrifying. Her red hair contrasted sharply with her uniform, framing her sharp angular face, while she looked tired and deeply angry. Penny had seen faces like that before, on combat stress victims, and she wondered just what had happened on Earth.

If Joshua had noticed, he gave no sign. “Your Highness,” he said, gravely. There was no trace of mocking in his voice, none of the artificial respect that he so hated, and he sounded sincere. “May I ask what brings you here so early?”

“I was exposed,” Daria said, calmly. Her voice might have been calm, but Penny, well used to people who hid their real feelings, sensed a deep wave of anger under her tone. The former Empress — and perhaps future Empress — was terrifyingly furious at someone… and it didn’t take a genius to guess who. Colin must have come out ahead in their power game. “We may have to move soon, within the week.”

Joshua lifted an eyebrow. “Admiral Wilhelm?”

“He hasn’t shown up to fight yet,” Daria said, “but the Shadow Fleet believes that it is just a matter of time.”

Penny nodded. Joshua and her had gone through all of the possibilities while working on bringing the fleet to full readiness. Admiral Wilhelm’s only real choice was to go for Earth before he was crushed by superior force. Given time, Colin’s Empire could produce enough firepower to crush the combined fleets of four sectors, and then go on to impose their own order. Admiral Wilhelm’s only hope was to take Earth and then the shipyards, or destroy the latter. It would throw resistance back on the hidden shipyards along the Rim and give him time to build up his own capabilities.

“That is understood,” Joshua said, calmly. “Do you wish a full report on the status of your fleet?”

“I will access it from the computers,” Daria said, equally gravely. That was something that Joshua had changed, at least; it was now a major offence to upload false information into a readiness report. It had been that kind of behaviour that had literally ruined an entire Sector Fleet at Morrison. Penny had once estimated that a superdreadnaught crewed by a honest crew, like the men and women who followed Colin, was far more likely to prevail against one that had been run down into the ground by negligence. Admiral Wilhelm, going from the records Admiral Garland had sent back from Cottbus, had also fixed that problem. It would mean that all three fleets were at the height of their power.

And we’re going to be the weakest , she thought, knowing how Joshua would fight the battle. He would hold off until Admiral Wilhelm and the Shadow Fleet, either under Colin’s direct command or one of his subordinates, had battered each other into oblivion… and then attack. Their weakness would become a strength. The only question would be how strong Earth’s fixed defences were these days.

“I will bring the fleet to alert now,” Joshua concluded. “I assume that there is a starship in the solar system, waiting for the attack?”

“Of course,” Daria said. Now that she wasn’t pretending any longer, Penny could hear a haughty tone in her voice, a sense that it no longer mattered what people thought of her. “Once they arrive, you can move in under cloak.”

Her image vanished. “Fascinating,” Joshua said, conversationally. “Did you notice what she didn’t say?”

Penny nodded. “Why was she exposed?”

“Exactly,” Joshua said. He looked down at the display for a long moment, watching as the tiny icons representing the secret fleet danced around the General Monck . “What went so badly wrong on Earth that she had to flee for her life?”

“You don’t think that she could be lying to us?”

Joshua laughed. “I think that she didn’t tell us anything that could be constituted as a lie,” he said, dryly. Penny flushed. She hated looking like an idiot in front of him. “Do you remember when we allowed Admiral Garland to leave Morrison to warn the rebels of the plan to scorch Gaul?”

“Of course,” Penny said. She remembered that clearly. It was the main reason why Joshua had come out of the entire rebellion as a hero to both sides, despite having fought on the wrong side — the one that lost. It had been a moment of shining compassion in a universe that tended to punish such decisions. “Do you want to do the same again here?”

“I don’t know,” Joshua said, softly. For a moment, despite his appearance, Penny saw his true age shining through. “I don’t know which way to turn. If the Empress regains her throne, we have a strong Empire, without the wasted chattering of Parliament or the chaos of devolving government as far downwards as possible. We can start a process of reform that will rejuvenate and reinvigorate the Empire, without having to worry about people trying to block the process for their own reasons, or because they benefited from the status quo…

“But I don’t know if she can give us that any longer,” he concluded. The bitterness and despair in his voice shocked her. Joshua was at his best when dealing with black and while space battles, not political manoeuvring and knives in the back. What, she wondered suddenly, had happened to Tiberius? Where was he? “It’s the best hope I have left… and it is a very thin line of hope indeed.”

Penny stared at him. “You could stop her now,” she said. It would be easy. The Household Troops on the starships were loyal to Joshua. They could head over to the General Cromwell and arrest Daria… or could they? It dawned on Penny that there might have been a very good reason why Daria had chosen that particular starship. It was crewed by people who would almost certainly be loyal to her. “You could…”

“I know,” Joshua said, “but I can’t. I cannot do anything, but wait here for history to move past us, helplessly trapped to play the roles she assigned us long ago. What else can we do, but make one final bid to save the Empire from its own people?”

“It doesn’t look like much, does it?”

Admiral Wilhelm gazed into the stars ahead of the superdreadnaught. One of them was marginally closer and brighter than the rest, but there was little else to mark it out as The Sun, the star that shone on the world that gave humanity birth. The romantic part of his mind had wondered if he would know it when he saw it, but without the electronic tracking system, he wouldn’t have been able to pick it out from the thousands of other stars, glaring out endlessly against the darkness of space. It was just another star.

“No, sir,” Captain Keene agreed. The fleet was assembling around the starship in good order, despite Admiral Wilhelm’s decision to shift his flag again, to a whole new superdreadnaught. It was a security decision, or so he had claimed, but the truth was that he wanted to keep his people on their toes. An alert crew was one that wouldn’t be surprised when the enemy forces emerged from flicker-space, intent on killing every last one of them before they could react. “It should look bigger, somehow.”