Chapter 32

The talks went on, many of the attendees seemingly meeting for the first time. There were several disputes about actions to be taken, though Tillan and Conna were able to resolve most and what they couldn’t were kept to a minimum and workarounds sought.

“So, we are agreed?” Conna enquired of the group. “The operation to free our people can begin in two weeks.”

“Yes,” Oilo replied forcefully, explaining, “We need to move swiftly before Rentap creates an incident with another Realm that they simply cannot ignore and by so doing draws others in to the conflict!”

“Is he likely to do this?” Tillan asked, eyes narrowed.

“I’m afraid he is,” Hallad answered him, others around the table nodding their assent.

“It’s how he caused the border dispute with the Halcon Supremacy and drew the Rigelli into the dispute, amongst others,” Tenarch explained. “And what did the Kingdom gain? Absolutely nothing! Nothing but a few useless mined out rocks in an uninhabited system.”

“My husband thinks it was to cull various suspects in our fleets as there was a flurry of transfers to the fleet group just before the incident, That same fleet was decimated during and afterwards.” Conna added.

“Yes, our ‘noble’ King does have form for sending his enemies in to war,” Oilo sighed.

“He’s not the only Realm that does it. We have a few surrounding the Empire as well,” Tillan nodded thoughtfully. “They’ll often create a dispute with us in the hope we’ll kill off their surplus internal enemies.”

“It’s an effective tool as they know they can’t beat us,” I added.

“Yes, Rentap is quite adept at it, nor does he care that mostly innocents die by it just to get rid of a criticising few,” Hallad replied. “It’s how my son died and what motivated me into joining this reform group.”

“We have all got associations with those who lost lives because they got in Rentap’s way,” Conna noted. “With me it was my cousin, who refused to give up his marriage because Gukong Klasse decided my cousin’s wife, Marthe, would make a good concubine for his own worthless son.”

“Only for him to tire of her in less than a year and cast her out, unmarriageably soiled, to live in seclusion and shame, abandoned by society except for a few close family,” Hallad continued. “Klasse is also near the top of our list for permanent removal.”

“And his son?” I asked.

“Will be forcibly married to Marthe and then executed, leaving her the sole heir to the Gukong post and her past cleared,” Conna stated forcefully.

“There could be thousands of others,” I noted. “You need to be careful there isn’t a bloodbath.”

“We know, Kiria. But some examples are needed to encourage others to make amends.”

“Agreed,” Oilo nodded. “If we shed too much blood our regime will be no better than Rentap’s, and just as likely to fall.”

“That’s always an issue,” Tillan said. “You’ll be creating new enemies and you’ll need to minimise them.”

“I think we can avoid the temptation to kill them all and let the gods sort out the guilty,” Hallad replied with a grim chuckle.

“We’d better or we’re looking at another civil war within a year,” Tenarch added, getting a lot of signs of assent from the others.

“Very well,” Tillan concluded the meeting. “I will arrange for the various Imperial fleets and those of our allies to give a demonstration of force at the Kingdom’s border in five of our days, which coincides with the date your coup begins. Hopefully it will produce the response you are planning. Should you be successful, both the Empire and the Technocracy will recognise the new regime. On this you have my word.”

“And at no time will you cross our borders?” Tenarch asked, eyes narrowed.

“We will not, unless specifically and officially invited,” Tillan replied handing over a sheet of pseudo-paper with the Imperial and Technocracy agreement written on it and signed by Meritocrat Taisha and Director Elloson.

“Those are the terms we wished for; those are the terms we hoped you’d agree to,” Oilo noted in satisfaction.

“Just remember,” I added, “if it goes wrong, we will not be in a position to help, because we always keep our word.”

“We know,” Conna replied. “This has to come from us to avoid being called puppets.”

“And it will be very dangerous for you,” Tillan added as the meeting came to a close.

“So, anything piqued your interest?” Mazzim asked as the Teruna headed swiftly back to Tafta, initially followed by, but easily outdistancing, a Kingdom flotilla.

“Yes, your prices for the landorsite ore are a lot cheaper than the Technocracy can supply us at and in far greater bulk too,” Tillan replied. “Not sure if they’ll take credit or technology though, but we’ll begin serious negotiations with them next visit.”

“What do you use landorsite for?”

“It’s a stabiliser in the production of a material called corrilium. We use it to emulate the alien shields as the various minerals used are in short supply in the area where the Empire and our allies dwell.”

“And do you know how it’s made?” Mazzim asked, looking very shifty.

“That I do not. All I know is that the Empire is after various raw materials and is paying a good price for them,” Tillan explained. “How they go about using them is a state secret and there’s no way I’m going to cross ImpSec or FleetInt to find out.”

“Ten years as a slave ... if you’re lucky,” I chuckled.

“Yes and I like my lifestyle,” Tillan replied with a grin.

“Don’t you get curious? Mazzim enquired.

“Oh yes, but not at the cost of spending ten Imperial years scrubbing floors and toilets to earn just enough to feed and house me, nothing else,” Tillan chuckled. “Fortunately the AIs tell us if we’re intruding on secrets.”

“So you just don’t go there?” Conna asked.

“Exactly.”

“Enjoy your jaunt?” Flinn asked me when I turned up at her base office.

“Yep, if you consider fending off a bunch of lewd, suggestive males to be enjoyable,” I replied with a grin.

“That bad?”

“Only the meet and greet,” I followed up. “Rest of it was rather fun and very relaxing.”

“Oh, you like Tillan then?”

“Flinn!”

“Hey! It was just a question.”

“Sorry, it was exactly the sort of thing my Mum would ask,” I apologised. “But yes, he’s a nice guy and nothing is going to happen whilst he and I are on a mission.”

“Yep, keep it professional, for now,” she nodded. “But after?”

“I don’t even know if he likes me that way ... or even if he’s married, as the AI will not tell me anything about him.”

“So pull some strings via your family connections and find out,” she grinned.

“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” I replied, a little shocked.

“What, you’ll open an AI service hatch but not ask if a guy you like is married?” she asked with a laugh.

“Troubleshooter Tillan is not married,” the AI informed us out of the blue.

“Thank you,” Flinn replied. “Don’t suppose you could compare compatibility ratings for our girl here?”

“Flinn!” I gasped.

“94% compatible,” the AI stated.

“There you go, girl. Up to you now,” Flinn replied before laughing out loud at my very red face.

“Why suddenly free with the information, AI?” I asked.

“Troubleshooter Tillan permitted it apparently. He likes you too.”

“He was listening in?” I asked, completely mortified.

“No, he has us monitor you to ensure you don’t draw unwanted attention from various identified Kingdom agents.”

“And you decided to let me know how he feels?” I asked, now feeling slightly puzzled.

“Yes, otherwise you’d never know as he will not tell you in case it complicates the mission,” the AI informed us.

“Good gods...” was all I could think to say.

“So, if you like him, let him know that after the mission you’d like to get to know him better, but only then,” Flinn advised.

“Arrange my love life, why don’t you,” I replied totally deadpan.

“Well someone has to, as your Mum can’t get out here,” she grinned.

“Flinn!”

The Black on Black approached the growing detection signals coming from what they’d identified as the fleet they’d been tracking, plus a growing number of other signals as well.

“How the hell are they hiding so many ships?” Kliss asked.

“It’s the organic outer shell they use. It absorbs their power generation frequencies, plus it would be low as they aren’t using their grav-drives anyway,” Yuni replied as serried rank upon rank of ships was slowly coming into view on her instruments.

“Numbers?”

“Unknown ... lots.”

“Ye gods!”

“Any idea how they build them? I mean it’s like there’s nothing around here.”

“Don’t know. They grow the outer shells ... I think, but the reports say they build the inner ones,” Yuni replied after a moment’s thought. “Count is over a million ships so far.”

“We would struggle against that many.”

“Yep. Though so far they have only sent out ten fleets of about two and a half thousand vessels each, most of them small fry.”

“That’s true, dangerous as they are,” Kliss agreed.

“There’re some gigantic ships in towards the centre of the formation,” Yuni observed, putting it up on Kliss’ feed. “Can you guide us in towards them?”

“On it.”

“So, Troubleshooter Tillan believes he has a handle on the Ilmainian situation?” Amantil asked Herrick in the Security Group meeting, simply to let the group know that she already did.

“Yes, Serenissima,” Herrick replied. “Apparently, Cure David, he got lucky when one of the dissident groups approached your daughter.”

“Fortunate for us, though Kiria does seem to attract people into talking to her,” David replied with a fond smile.

“Yes, she has friends on all levels of our society,” Amantil agreed. “So,” turning to Herrick. “What is Tillan’s plan?”

“Simply a demonstration of our strength on the Ilmainian border to draw out their fleets, at which point a coup d’état will be launched by this dissident group,” Herrick began. “All we’ll be required to do after that will be to recognise the new regime after the officer group on the Ilmainian fleets deal with the noble cabal commanding them.”

“I assume this dissident group knows what they are doing?” High Justiciar Bonsarr asked with a slight frown.

“Tillan believes so. They have been planning it for a while; it’s just that the circumstances were never right,” Herrick answered.

“Longer a plot goes, the more chance of it being betrayed or discovered,” Orliantomina Honack observed with a frown.