It was all my captains needed to finish the job. The Trixone didn’t know where the biggest threat was, and by now had no-one able to co-ordinate them fast enough.
One by one they either died by my hand, or by the fire of Rogue, Judge, or one of the destroyers and their Excalibur walls. It took longer to clean up the smaller ships than it had to do the original battle on the other side of the planet.
My awareness returned to the cockpit I was sitting in, and Leanne popped up the navmap. There was a big grey dot on it now.
The dot identified itself as Redoubt.
I jumped immediately back to the other side, found an unoccupied docking area of the station, and moved all the people on the destroyer there. With a lot more care, I moved the care unit Dreamwalker was in to the main medical facility, putting it as close as I dared to the medical people there, who were preparing for any casualties to come in.
As I watched, the Eagle Wing and Claymore Excaliburs took their wounded bird’s under tow, and started towards the station. Those of the smaller capital ships still capable of moving, did the same. Those not moving I checked again for people. There were none aboard, and I figured they’d used rifts to Haven.
Rogue appeared over by Redoubt, where salvage droids were launching in large numbers. Navy Mage One reformed into an arrow head formation over the top of Redoubt, facing the planet, and their Excaliburs vanished back onto their ships.
Now my staff vanished again, and I let out a long sigh. Serena popped up on the console.
“Are you alright, Bud?”
“I’m fine. Let me get my breath, and I’ll be back on board shortly.”
“You better.”
She vanished, and Leanne and Aisha popped up.
“Are battles always like that?” asked Aisha.
“No,” said Leanne.
“Don’t say it,” I told her.
She pouted.
“Say what?”
“She was about to infer this was one of the more boring fights.”
“And it wasn’t?”
“Quite the opposite.”
“Ah. Are you going to put me back where you found me?”
“That’s a damned good question, Commander. Are you?”
The voice was coming from behind me, and I wrenched my neck turning it too fast.
The Imperator was standing there. And I hadn’t felt a thing. Curious.
My left hand went to my neck, and instead of replying, I activated some pain relief, and straightened up. It was easier to rise, than keep looking back at him. He remained standing while I did so.
“Sorry,” he said. “That looked like it hurt.”
“I’ll manage, sir.”
I looked at him for a moment, concentrated, and the thirty six unmoving battleships went back where they came from. Their dots vanished from the still up navmap, and Aisha vanished with them.
“And they were?”
“The beginnings of a Thorn’s World militia fleet.”
He nodded.
“Not fully operational yet, I assume?”
“No. Not quite standard Rawtenuga ships, but with the engines offline. Plenty of power for everything else, but just normal shielding.”
“Did I see them start to fall into the atmosphere?”
“You did.”
“Why did you risk them instead of bringing something like one of the titans?”
“No time to find anything. I had a second to bring ships here and have them fire, before the battleships were far enough up out of the atmosphere to be able to maneuver to fire around my shield.”
It sounded a bit weak when I said it, since I could’ve just moved the shield had they moved. Although truth to tell, I’d no idea how long I could have held that shield up with all those ships firing at me at once. But then, my inclination was to deal with it, not sit there and wait for someone else to turn up and fight back.
“So you risked what you knew was available.”
Why was he harping on about risk?
“I grabbed what I knew was there, and could do the job.”
“And do a really good job they did. Your Aisha was the AI in control of them? That was Hubaisha, but has changed her name now?”
“Yes. To both.”
“Her first battle?”
“Not only first, but without any preparation at all. Thorn had Jane clone her when you first met him. She’s a station AI, now also running my ground based ship upgrade facility, and just today, taken charge of the shipyard you let me have. She knows nothing about ship control or battles.”
“I’ll check what Jane says she gave her. There must have been some battle routines in there somewhere.”
“I doubt it. She’s running a butler droid on Judge, and is quite happy doing so.”
He stared at me for a moment.
“Talking of which, if you don’t park us shortly, your other half is going to be pissed at you.”
I chuckled, and he joined in.
“Leanne?”
“Bud?”
“Home jump, please.”
Forty Seven
Needless to say, I crashed pretty quickly.
The Imperator rifted himself over to Redoubt before I did so, and the whole time he was close to me, I hadn’t felt the weight of the dual sceptre thing. The obvious answer was power. I’d had so much power flowing through me the whole time from multiple suns, mine was functioning on a whole other level. The dual thing just wasn’t a thing when that much power was involved at my end of us. That was the theory, anyway.
After releasing all that power, I lasted long enough for a group hug, to pass command to Jill formally, and to order her to take us back to pick up the pilots we’d left behind, who hadn't been able to get back on board fast enough. I warned her there might be orders after that.
And then I crashed.
Serena woke me in time for dinner. I showered, was told it was dress uniform, and nearly went back to bed. The status display informed me we were docked at Haven, and Redoubt was back where it normally was. Although there really was no need for it be there anymore. I idly wondered why it still was.
It was no surprise the travel car deposited us at the entrance to the Imperator’s private ballroom. What was a surprise was finding we were the last people there, and the whole room giving me a standing ovation as we entered through the door. I made an attempt to escape, but Serena had me by the arm too tightly, and all it did was make people laugh while they were clapping. For just a moment I considered jumping away, but Syrinx or Tanith would probably just bring me back.
The way parted down the middle of the room, and left Grace Tapping standing there. The pressure on my arm released, and I found myself being hugged by someone who was not my girlfriend or my team.
“Thank you for saving Chris,” she whispered in my ear, before releasing me, and stepping to the side, where there was now Eagle in front of me.
“Don’t you dare hug me,” I said loudly, and people laughed.
Instead, he offered his hand, and I took it. There was something in his eyes I hadn't seen before. Like he’d faced death head on, and wasn’t sure why he was still alive. He looked me solidly in the eyes for the whole handshake, and then nodded to me as he let go, before stepping aside.
Now the way was clear, all the way to where the Imperator was waiting on the small rostrum by the huge windows. Serena nudged me, and we started walking again. The crowd were silent now. She stepped away from me just before I reached the base of the rostrum.