“My ships are en route to a specific set of coordinates well away from the skip lines and local debris, to make certain of our security from unexpected surprises,” Half-Blue-Third-Red told them. “Those coordinates will be attached to this message.
“I expect all of your vessels and the Kozun vessels to rendezvous there in twenty-four hours, at the exact time agreed to in the prior arrangements. Where things proceed from there, I leave to your delegations, but I will maintain security of that zone and neutralize any force that threatens the peaceful completion of these negotiations—whether that force is external or internal to those negotiations.”
The mask twitched slightly.
“I do not guarantee success; that is up to you. I merely guarantee that no outside force will prevent you and the Kozun completing your discussions, however they end.”
The message ended and Henry silently studied the image.
“Did we get those coordinates, Moon?” he asked the coms officer.
“Yes, ser,” she confirmed.
“Forward them to Bazzoli and the other ships,” he ordered. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
He pinged Todorovich via his internal network as Raven’s engines came online.
“The Drifters are here,” he told her. “They’ve set the coordinates for the meeting, and everyone is headed there. We’re all expected to be there in twenty-four hours, so that’s how long we have to sort out the plan.”
“Anything of concern yet?” she asked.
“Everybody showed up with a heavier force than I was expecting,” he admitted. “I expected one Kozun cruiser and three smaller Guardians, not three cruisers and three of the larger Guardians I’ve seen.
“There’s a lot more firepower in this system than I was expecting, and it’s making the back of my neck itch.”
“Is it enough to risk the backup plan?”
“No,” he conceded. “Everyone is saying and doing the right things so far. Do you think you’ll get everyone on board with meeting on Carpenter?”
“That everyone has brought capital ships might actually make that easier,” Todorovich told him. “Carpenter might be the least threatening starship here!”
“There’s no ‘might’ to that,” Henry admitted. “Everything else here has shields of some kind, if nothing else. That makes her look quite fragile right now.”
“We’ll be fine, Henry,” she said. “Fragile is to our advantage, especially once we’ve got the Third Voice of the Kozun aboard.”
He could feel the surprise in her tone through the network.
“You’re surprised they actually sent a Voice?” he asked.
“I’m not entirely sure how the ranking of the Voices breaks down, but yes,” she admitted. “Is the Third the third-most powerful? That’s what I would guess, but from what we know, any of them would be a commitment here.
“They’ve sent someone who can actually bind the Hierarchy. That’s as positive a sign as I can get for them actually wanting peace.”
Henry nodded, biting back his follow-up. He really didn’t want to put Sylvia Todorovich on the most fragile starship in the system…but he had no real reason he could give for that other than not wanting to risk her.
And that wasn’t something the commander of her escort could permit to get in the way of her job.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sylvia made one last check around her office on Raven. To her eyes, it was horrendously overdone, but every single piece of decoration served a specific purpose. The commissioning seal of the battlecruiser, a side view of a bird in flight with a quill pen, was inlaid on the wall behind her in gold.
Flanking that seal on either side was the eight-star half-circle-on-blue flag of the United Planets Alliance. The flags were stiffened with wire, just enough to keep the symbol fully visible.
The big faux-wooden desk with its built-in screens, holographic projectors and haptic interfaces was actually Henry Wong’s spare, currently using those screens to show another copy of the raven-with-quill symbol.
“We’re ready, Em Ambassador,” Leitz told her from the door. “Are you?”
“Everything is in place,” she confirmed, checking her own stiff suit carefully in a holographic mirror. “I’m good.”
She took her seat behind the desk and leveled her best sharp look on the recorder.
“Voice Oran Aval, I am Ambassador Sylvia Todorovich,” she introduced herself in Kem. “I am here in the Lon System to assist Ambassador Rising Principle in the negotiation of a peace treaty between the La-Tar Cluster and the Kozun Hierarchy.”
The time delay was down to about five minutes, but she was still sending this as a prerecorded message. Five-minute gaps in the conversation did not lend themselves well to remaining professional.
“While I understand that you do not regard the United Planets Alliance as entirely neutral in this matter, I stand sufficiently outside the involved parties to act as somewhat of a third party,” she continued. “As such, I feel I am best suited to establish the fundamental final details of our negotiations.
“The primary piece still outstanding, I believe, is the physical location of the talks. The Drifters are only acting as guarantors of our physical security. Their own rules and regulations will prevent them from hosting the discussions that we need to have.
“Equally, I hesitate to put myself or Ambassador Rising Principle in your hands aboard a Kozun capital ship,” she continued. “While I, of course, would prefer to carry on these discussions aboard Raven, I recognize that would be unacceptable to you.
“Given the vessels available to everyone present, I would like to suggest that we meet aboard Carpenter, for two reasons: firstly, Carpenter is the least heavily armed and defended vessel here. She is a former Kenmiri escort, lacking energy shields or heavy plasma cannons. We all know the type, and despite being a formidable vessel, she is the most vulnerable of our options.
“That creates a shared vulnerability that I believe is the best option available to us,” she told the Voice.
“Secondly, however, all of this began with the Kozun invasion of the La-Tar Cluster,” Sylvia noted coldly. “It seems appropriate to me that this conflict end on a vessel belonging to the people of the La-Tar Cluster.
“While we are certainly prepared to consider other suggestions, I believe that meeting aboard Carpenter is our best choice.
“I await your response, Voice Oran Aval.”
She cut off the recording and relaxed slightly in the chair.
“Felix?” she asked.
“Said everything we need to say,” he confirmed. “You look intimidating as hell.”
“That’s not hard when aboard Raven,” Sylvia said. “And the Voice isn’t going to have much difficulty feeling intimidating when she’s sitting on Star Voice Kalad’s flagship. That’s part of why I want to have the talks on Carpenter. That gives Rising Principle an advantage, one they can use.”
“And we don’t necessarily need that advantage, Em Ambassador?”
“The Kozun know damn well that if they actually push the UPA too far, we have the power to end them,” Sylvia said quietly. “I think that’s more than enough weight in my corner, don’t you?”