“Fair,” Felix conceded. He stared vaguely off into space for a few moments, the sign of someone accessing their internal network. “I’m no Forces officer, but those look like big ships to me. Is that what we were expecting?”
“No,” she said. “That’s sixty percent of what we thought their capital-ship strength was.” She brought up the image of the three cruisers in her own internal network.
“IntelDiv estimated they would have been able to build five of those ships, and Wong blew one of them apart at La-Tar,” she continued. “So, they believe that the Hierarchy has one dreadnought and four cruisers. If there’s three cruisers here, then…”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know enough to judge the validity of IntelDiv’s estimates,” she admitted. “Nor do I know the Kozun as well as Captain Wong. I could see them sending half of their cruisers here, to make an impression, but even that would mean IntelDiv was badly off on their estimates.”
And if they were off on the estimate of how many heavy warships the Hierarchy had, even the assumption that the UPA could take the Kozun out began to be suspect.
“That’s…concerning,” her chief of staff murmured, clearly following her line of thought.
Any further discussion was interrupted by a ping from Lieutenant Commander Moon. The Kozun had replied. With a mental command, Sylvia wiped away her view of the tactical situation and put the Voice of the Kozun’s message on the holoprojectors.
Like Sylvia’s own office, Voice Oran Aval’s surroundings were very clearly carefully constructed. While Kozun warships almost always had chapels of some kind aboard, she doubted they carried thrones delicately carved with religious iconography.
The white-stone seat was probably eight feet tall, with an immense back rising well above the slim figure of the Third Voice of the Kozun. Sylvia wasn’t familiar with the script or the imagery of the artwork carved into the seat, but she suspected the throne predated the Kenmiri occupation of the Kozun homeworld.
It was probably designed for this exact purpose, but it still represented a religious and cultural artifact of unquestionable value. The tapestries hung to either side of the throne were easier for Sylvia to read, with scenes of what would have been saints and miracles for a Catholic Christian on Earth.
Combined, the Third Voice had clearly assembled a miniature religious throne room aboard the ship carrying her, a temple as much to her power and authority as to the Kozun gods.
“I am Oran Aval, Third Voice of the Kozun,” the Kozun woman introduced herself, her voice surprisingly soft and delicate. She was a frail-looking woman, though some of that could have been the background, with pale blond hair pinned up into a hairstyle that partially covered her forehead armor plating. What was visible of the armor plates was covered in a mesh net of gold chain set with sapphires that matched the Voice’s eyes.
“We speak for the gods,” Aval continued. “And after them, we speak for the people of the Kozun Hierarchy. We reject, Ambassador Todorovich, your description of our actions in the La-Tar Cluster. You misunderstand the holy duty of the warriors sent to the Cluster. We did not invade anywhere…but that is a discussion for a later time.
“Your suggestion of holding those discussions aboard the escort Carpenter is acceptable to us,” she finished. “We will be accompanied by an escort of sixteen sacred guardians, Paladins of the Seven.
“They will be permitted their arms and armor. If we are to step aboard one of your vessels, this is nonnegotiable.” A hand waved delicately through the air and Sylvia focused on the fingers for a moment.
Delicate Oran Aval might appear, but her hands were callused and scarred. She had not only worked with her hands in the past, but some of those scars were familiar to Sylvia: they were a distinct pattern that resulted from repeated use of portable energy weapons.
Even the best shielding, after all, didn’t entirely keep the heat from the hands of the wielder.
“I and my Paladins will arrive aboard Carpenter thirty-seven minutes after we reach the rendezvous,” Aval concluded. “We will speak further then, Ambassador Sylvia Todorovich.”
The message ended and Sylvia snorted.
“I see that we aren’t going to be given a choice in how Her Holiness comes to us,” she said aloud. “Fortunately, her assumptions are well within what Rising Principle and I discussed. We’re fine.”
“Should we push back, just to make the point?” Leitz asked.
“No,” Sylvia said. “Let her pretend she has an upper hand for the moment. All of us know the reality, I suspect.”
“Or she’s fucking delusional,” her chief of staff observed.
“Then these negotiations are going to be very interesting,” Sylvia replied.
Given that she wasn’t expecting to make it through the peace conference without somebody betraying her, interesting was a default assumption.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Raven’s shuttlebay was a buzzing hive of activity when Sylvia reached it. She had sent a full suitcase of personal effects on ahead, but she’d thought only one shuttle was heading over to Carpenter.
Instead, it looked like at least three were being prepped—the three she recognized as having gravity shields.
“That seems excessive,” she noted aloud.
“Sixteen GroundDiv troopers, full armor for the same, supplies for twenty-some humans for a week, and making sure the ambassador has an escape route if everything goes wrong,” Henry Wong said from behind her.
She turned to find the captain standing by the door, watching the activity with a small smile. He was in his working uniform—black slacks and the white-necked black turtleneck of his rank—and he raised a sardonic eyebrow at her.
“You didn’t expect us to leave your security in the hands of the La-Tar Cluster, did you?” he asked. “Thompson’s been coordinating with Em Leitz for a bit. If the Voice is bringing sixteen guards, we’re sending you with sixteen guards.”
“And Rising Principle?” she asked drily.
“Rising Principle has eighty of La-Tar’s elite commandos aboard Carpenter,” Wong pointed out. “The same terrifyingly dangerous people who captured surface-to-orbit weapon installations and turned them on the Kozun for us.
“I’m not concerned about or responsible for the La-Tar ambassador’s security,” he concluded. “I am concerned about and responsible for your security, Em Ambassador.”
Sylvia chuckled. Something about his concern warmed her heart, though she suspected she was reading far too much into his professional façade.
“The concern and the escort are appreciated, Henry,” she told him. “Anything I should be watching for?”
“Thompson is in direct command of your escort,” he said, his voice suddenly coldly serious. “He’s carrying a high-powered encrypted transmitter with frequency-shifting codes and everything we could think of. It should penetrate any jamming or security to at least send an SOS. We’ve coordinated hourly check-ins with Carpenter’s command crew, but I want you to check in as often as you can as well.
“We’ll have at least a company of GroundDiv on standby at all times, and both Glorious and Raven will be remaining at Status Two at all times.” He shrugged. “Everybody has their shields up, so no one is complaining about mine.”