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  She pressed a virtual button on her desk. This one wasn’t the ornate rare wood version she’d had in São Paulo, of course. That one was rubble, along with most of the Cavaliers. She smiled at the thought of how well that plan had come together at the end.

  “Yes, General?” her assistant’s voice asked.

  “Any results on those searches of the Science Guild?”

  “Nothing yet,” her assistant responded.

  “It went out priority?”

  “Direct relay,” her assistant confirmed.

  “Very well.” Peepo pressed the virtual button, and the intercom deactivated. One of the Tri-V screens showed a constant montage of the various Human news feeds from around the planet. Of course, all the news was on her stunning victory. A few celebrations had broken out. She slid a personal slate over and made some notes on the cities with celebrations, the cities with protests or riots, and lastly, the ones which were deadly calm.

  Prudent action would be required. Between the casualties her forces had taken and the units she’d sent to finish the Winged Hussars, available planetary forces were only around 35%. And, of course, only a few Human units had proven themselves loyal. Those who’d been unreliable were no longer alive.

  In the corner of her main Tri-V display, a clock was counting down to zero. It currently sat at 170 hours. Once it started counting down, it would show how long the Winged Hussars and those forces they’d managed to run away with still had to live. She’d rather have gone for the final battle, of course, but it was in good hands with Paka. She wished she could have seen the look on the Hussars’ faces when they saw Paka come for their ending. She smiled and went on to the next item.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Two

  Winged Hussars Prime Base, New Warsaw System

  Lieutenant Commander Aleksandra Kowalczy was a legacy. Born from one of the two main families who’d controlled the Winged Hussars from the beginning, she was assured a position within the company. However, she wasn’t assured ownership or leadership. The Cromwell line was simple. The Kosmalski family was complicated.

  Included in Aleksandra’s lineage were the Kosmalski, the Kowalczy, and a few Kowalczyk. Over the last century, her family of Kowalczy had become the most common of those with Polish heritage, and the largest living in New Warsaw. Despite being only a 3rd cousin, twice removed, from the Cromwell family, being a member of the family meant she was still a legacy. A Kowalczy, Lech Kowalczy, was the 2nd in command and captain of Alicorn.

  Since the Schism, and the brief dark times that followed, the Cromwell family had commanded the Hussars, and the Kowalczy family had handled the financial and logistical affairs. Over the years, some of the Kowalczys had balked at that, and there’d even been whispered rumors of an attempted coup one dark night, decades ago. Despite the rumors, the Winged Hussars’ success under the Cromwell family’s tactical prowess was undeniable.

  Aleksandra was the youngest of four children. Born on Prime Base during a time of growth in the Hussars’ history, there were a lot of possibilities for her to rise in rank and responsibility. Despite the Cromwell family inheriting tactical command, they weren’t fruitful, like the Kowalczy family tended to be. Aleksandra was in primary school when the twins were born, and it was big news. Their leader was growing old, and many quietly feared what would happen without a Cromwell to lead them.

  Aleksandra was under great pressure from her grandmother to be a ship captain. Unfortunately for grandma, Aleksandra didn’t have the aptitude. The Winged Hussars Space Academy was based on Home, the planet Prime Base orbited. Then the curriculum moved into space and the Hussars’ kids started training in flight, engineering, and combat tactics.

  She did fine in early studies, always managing to maintain acceptable grades. But if you wanted to be a ship captain in the Winged Hussars, especially a combat arms captain, acceptable was as good as failing. By the end of the second year of the academy’s four-year program, she started seeing fewer and fewer command-related classes and knew her fate had been sealed.

  Ensign Aleksandra Kowalczy entered service as a traffic control officer the year Alexis Cromwell and her sister Katrina joined the academy. Four years later Aleksandra was a lieutenant JG, the same rank the sisters graduated at. Another four years and the twins were full lieutenants and both commanding frigates. Aleksandra was moved to the fleet logistics command at the same rank.

  She wasn’t the kind of person to be jealous. People like the Cromwell twins, who took to command and combat tactics like a Selroth to water, were a constant source of amazement to her. As the twins began winning battles and proving they were their mother’s daughters, the prowess of the Hussars grew, and that meant they all grew with them. The little black unadorned ribbon on her tiny board meant more than any other merc’s huge board of ribbons.

  Aleksandra did manage to get assigned to a ship for some contracts. She served on Chimera, one of the Hussars’ drone carriers, as assistant stores purser. Chimera completed nine contracts while she was on board as a full lieutenant, falling just short of the ten contracts to earn a better ribbon. She did pick up watch officer and able spacehand ribbons, though.

  Thanks largely to the experience she gained while on Chimera, Aleksandra was promoted to lieutenant commander and thus entered the Winged Hussars’ chain of overall command. It was something to brag about on those rare chances she got to go out on a date or visit a sibling, and not much more. At least, until Alexis Cromwell took every combat ready ship and left to attack Earth, and Lieutenant Commander Aleksandra Kowalczy was left in command of New Warsaw.

  The Hussars tradition maintained you didn’t move offices when you changed jobs unless the job changed duty stations. Offices and cubicles had electronic signage which could be changed to show a new occupant’s position. When her office on C-ring sign changed from “Fleet Supply Logistics” to “New Warsaw Commander,” it was a moment of awakening for her.

  “I didn’t train for this, Colonel Cromwell,” she’d said when the commander stopped by before leaving.

  “Nobody is able to train for every job they have,” she’d said. “Hold the fort; I’ll be back in a few weeks’ time, and we’ll have a drink to celebrate your new rank.”

  “What?”

  “I can’t have someone in charge of the system who’s only a lieutenant commander. We’ll fix that when I get home.”

  Thus, she found herself handling day-to-day operations of the largest Human merc unit and an entire star system.

  Aleksandra always kept three timers floating above her desk on a Tri-V. One was the 170 hour clock that started when the fleet departed for Earth; it showed when the assault would be underway. Another was 340 hours, the absolute soonest she could expect word back from Earth. The final was 510 hours, which was the deadline Colonel Cromwell gave her for the drop-dead time she could expect an update. Should nothing arrive by then, she was to open the contingency files.

  The first clock had been at 40 hours when Uuth, the commander of New Warsaw’s HST—its Home Security Team—came to her office to announce that Dr. Sato had somehow escaped from the system.

  “You’re kidding, right?” Aleksandra had asked.

  “Commander, I wish I was.” The Zuparti intelligence officer looked pained. “He had a squad of marines escorting him as he worked on Geek Squad business aboard Sphinx.”

  “The new Steed-class battlecruiser,” she said, and Uuth nodded. She’d been reading that the ship had moved out of drydock and was undergoing its final fitting. In another few days she’d have exactly one combat-ready capital ship at her disposal, albeit one with only a skeleton crew. “What was he doing there?” she asked.

  “I have no idea,” he said.

  “Do you know how he got out of the system?”

  “He had a modified CASPer he used in space. It was programmed to pretend he was still aboard. After finishing his work on Sphinx, the CASPer accompanied the marines back to Prime Base and to his quarters.”

&nb
sp; “He never exited the suit? Didn’t that attract the marines’ curiosity?”

  “Dr. Sato is rather…eccentric. Behavior which might be red flags for someone else are probable with the doctor. The suit was programmed to provide basic answers to situations. His absence wasn’t noticed until three hours ago when his meal was delivered, and he didn’t answer the door. Subsequent investigations found the CASPer unmanned and no log of his departure.

  “The only probable way he could have exited the system was on the intel cutter Virginia Hall, which passed through the stargate seven hours ago.”

  “You’ve conducted a thorough search?”

  “Of course,” Uuth said, nodding.

  Zuparti were most known for their paranoia. In this, they made excellent spies and intelligence staff. She had no doubt he’d been thorough.

  “It is possible he’s down on the planet,” Uuth added. “However, you’d have to wonder why he went to such extremes, just to go down to Home.”

  Aleksandra agreed with that. She’d been born on Home and had spent half her life there. At best, it was beautiful, while still dark and dreary. At worst, it was just wet and dreary. If Dr. Sato had wanted to go down to the planet, he’d merely have had to ask. She accessed his intelligence file and saw he’d visited the planet fourteen times in the past. With the exception of his first visit, shortly after joining the Hussars, every time was on business.

  “The timing of Virginia Hall’s departure, along with the fact it had a cargo module loaded minutes before departing, and that departure was within hours of his ruse leaves little doubt what happened.”

  Uuth put a chip down, and Aleksandra accessed it. It was a standard cargo module’s logistics record. A logistics officer by trade, she knew where to look for irregularities. There were many. Sato was thorough, however, if she’d still been at her job, she might have noticed the hasty order for 122 cases of Japanese rice. Japanese rice wasn’t a common commodity on New Warsaw. In fact, she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen any come across a cargo log. Crap.

  “Thank you, Uuth,” she said. “File your formal report.”

  “You’ll have it by tonight,” the intelligence officer said and left.

  Aleksandra sighed and opened a file on her computer to write her own report. Five days and she’d lost the Winged Hussars best scientist. If the file on the enigmatic doctor was half correct, he might well be one of the most brilliant Human scientists in the galaxy.

  She pulled Virginia Hall’s destination log. Intelligence cutters didn’t keep to specific routes. About all she had was its first destination, what area of operation it was headed for, and when it was expected back. The answers were Karma, the Gresht region of the Tolo arm, and three months. During that time it would make contact with far-flung Hussars’ interests, drop off some personnel, and gather data. All the while, Virginia Hall would be posing as a small independent cargo ship known as a free trader. You’d have to board her to realize the ship had hyperspace shunts—and very little room for cargo because of those shunts.

  Forty hours later, she was at her desk reading the final report on Dr. Sato’s disappearance when the first clock ground down to zero with a beeping alarm. “The attack has begun,” she said to her empty office. It felt disconcerting, knowing her fellow Hussars were fighting and dying thousands of light years away while she was warm, comfortable, and safe in New Warsaw. The second clock was at 169 hours. She heaved a sigh and went back to work.

  * * *

  Three days later, she was looking at a report from the shipyard staff on misfiled materials when she saw a pattern emerge. All the materials were coming from the same storage facility, which was where the fitting-out materials for Sphinx were located. When she examined the materials movement orders, she found Dr. Sato’s authorizations all over the place.

  “Fleet materials office,” she said to her computer, and a connection was made.

  “FMO,” an elSha answered. “Cafta here.”

  “Cafta, this is Lieutenant Commander Kowalczy.”

  “Ma’am!” he exclaimed, obviously realizing he was talking to the current system commander. “What can I do for you?”

  “There is a bunch of incorrectly-logged cargo in the construction supply chain.”

  “Oh? Was there an error?”

  “I’m not sure,” she said. “Let me email a list for you to review.”

  “Sure, I’ll check them out and get back to you tomorrow?”

  “That’s fine.” She went back to work.

  Aleksandra yawned hugely, stretching her back and reaching for the ceiling. It was late, and she was considering calling it quits. Even in the lower gravity of C-Ring, where most of the Hussars’ offices were, sitting as much as her current job required was hard on her back. She could walk around and use her pinplants, sure. Somehow, though, she thought the commanding officer of an entire solar system should be at her desk, doing her job.

  “Crazy idea,” she said. She finished the stretch, opened her eyes, and saw two small creatures standing on her desk looking at her. “Holy shit!” she said and pushed away from the desk hard enough to topple over backward.

  She moved the chair, carefully looking around it. The two creatures were now sitting, their short back legs folded under them. One was dark-furred and slightly larger than the other, which was grayish. They both had long, pointed and expressive ears, with little tufts of fur on the ends. They also had tails longer than their bodies, which to her suggested they were arboreal creatures. Only the darker one had a tuft of fur on its tail. The gray one cocked its head at her, and she realized the tufts of fur on its ears were sparkling in the office lights.

  “Hello,” the dark-furred one said.

  Aleksandra sighed as she finally remembered. They were Fae. They were connected with Colonel Cartwright, and they were involved with the Raknars somehow. Alexis had sent out a briefing on them shortly after the other mercs arrived with their asteroid. She’d never seen one in person, though, until now.

  “Are you okay?” the same one asked.

  “Yes,” she said, trying to right her chair with as much dignity as she could muster. “You caught me by surprise.”

  “This is your day of surprises,” the sparkly-eared one said.

  The other Fae looked at her with what she swore was a bemused look. “I am Sly,” he said, “you can think of me as the leader of our people here. This,” he said and gestured to the other, “this is Seldia.”

  “I am a K’apo,” said Seldia.

  “It means Far Talker,” said Sly. “It’s a gift that occurs only rarely in our people.”

  Aleksandra settled back into her chair. She almost caught herself asking the Fae to take a seat. They’d be so far down below her desk she wouldn’t be able to see them. Sly was wearing a belt with pouches on it. Seldia only had a simple piece of fabric wrapped almost like a toga. “What can I do for you?” she asked. “For that matter, how did you get in here without someone from security letting me know?”

  Sly gave a small smile. “You could say we are experts at getting into places,” he said.

  “Events are catching up with the galaxy,” Seldia said, her eyes closed and ears straight up. “They are closing in like a star circling a black hole. Faster and faster it spins.” She opened her eyes and looked at Aleksandra. “There is only one ultimate fate…”

  Aleksandra shivered as she looked into the alien’s deep blue-on-blue eyes. She felt there was more behind those eyes than she could ever understand. It made the back of her mind itch.

  “We don’t call them K’apo because it sounds nice,” Sly said. “Seldia can talk with any of our kind she wishes as long as she’s met them in person at some point in her life.” Aleksandra opened her mouth to ask why talking to someone was a special ability. “She can do it no matter where they are, whether in the next room or halfway across the galaxy.”

  “Oh,” was all Aleksandra could say. “Oh wow.”

  Seldia nodded. “Six of our kind went with you
r fleet to operate the Raknars. One is now dead.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  Sly bowed his head acknowledging her condolences. “It happens in war. Defeat also happens.”

  “What?”

  “Your forces are defeated. Alexis Cromwell was killed.”

  “No.”

  “Yes,” Sly said. “This is fact. Most of the fleet escaped. There was a superior force in space around Earth. The enemy commander executed a beautiful feint. They waited until your forces were fully committed, then tricked your commander into an ambush. I don’t have all the details; however, the Raknar were all captured, and the majority of your ground forces were destroyed or captured. Defeat was total.”

  “You must be mistaken,” Aleksandra said. She straightened in her chair. “Nobody beats Alexis Cromwell.”

  “She was beaten this time,” Seldia said, her tail lazily sweeping from side to side like a serpent. “Beaten and undone.”

  “What about the fleet?” she asked, ignoring the Far Talker.

  “Most of them escaped and are on their way back,” Sly said. “They left Sol a little over a day ago.”

  “Oh, thank God,” Aleksandra said.

  “Your God can’t save you,” Seldia said. “There is a huge fleet behind your own fleet. The war is coming to your home.”

  “How long?” Aleksandra asked. Seldia spread her arms and gave a very Human shrug, as if she didn’t know and didn’t care.

  “We’re going to try and find out,” Sly explained. “Far Talkers are…different, and their abilities take a heavy toll on them.” Seldia snorted, picked up a miniature warship from Aleksandra’s desk, and examined it.

  Aleksandra opened her computer and found the files labeled “Contingency.” Among them was one labeled “Impending Attack.” She opened the file and looked at its contents. “Oh, shit,” she said, reading the long list of protocols. She looked up at the two Fae, shaking her head. “Some of these are serious,” she said. “If I do this, they can’t be undone easily. How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”