Eyes of Tomorrow (Duchy of Terra Book 9) by Glynn Stewart (best e book reader TXT) 📕

speak. “Most likely, they exited hyperspace somewhere outside the nebula to acquire scan data to compare against the maps acquired from our traitors.”

“So, they now know what surrounds them,” the Wendira Princess concluded. “And the likelihood that your reinforcements will be able to restore containment?”

“Zero,” Tidirok admitted. “I’ve already ordered them diverted to rendezvous with the First Defense Fleet. The first ships will join my fleet in roughly twelve cycles.”

He paused, then snapped his mandibles and pincers simultaneously.

“As will I. These negotiations have become a pointless waste of my time, Princess Oxtashah. We prevented a war between our peoples cycles ago, but it is clear that your people have no interest in making common cause against this enemy.

“I can no longer afford to be away from my fleet, arguing that a pile is gold instead of shit,” the Laian said bluntly. “See to your borders, Princess, and we will see to ours. I suspect you will regret your choices.”

“Ten war-dreadnoughts destroyed without even slowing the enemy,” Oxtashah noted. “This changes things, Voice Tidirok. Give me…time. Three cycles. I must commune with my Queens.”

“And what difference is it going to make, Princess?” the Voice demanded. “Another hundred thousand of my people are dead. I cannot afford to waste more time.”

“I can not guarantee anything, Voice Tidirok,” she admitted. “But I swear to you, upon the hive of my hatching and the shells of my progeny, I will do all I can to convince them. As I have done all along…but this changes things.”

Rin concealed a snort. He’d suspected for a while that Oxtashah was more on-side with the proposed alliance against the Infinite than her Queens had been. She was a loyal servant of the Grand Hive and had followed her orders, but her true position had slipped out before.

“I cannot wait that long,” Tidirok told her. “The First Defense Fleet must begin operations against the Infinite immediately if we are to have any chance of protecting the Republic’s worlds.

“I must return to my fleet.”

“Then I will accompany you,” Oxtashah said, her wings snapping to their full spread and glittering in the conference room’s lights. “If you will permit it, of course, Zokalatan will accompany your flagship to the First Defense Fleet as a gesture of good will.”

Rin wasn’t even sure Oxtashah had the authority to do that…but she also had clearly made her decision. The xenoarchaeologist wasn’t as good at reading Laian emotion as he’d like, but he was pretty sure he was picking up Tidirok’s hesitation.

“I…will allow it,” the Voice finally said. “Tan!Shallegh: may I ask that your flagship escort the star hive? Closely.”

“If the Princess’s people will permit it,” Tan!Shallegh echoed, the A!Tol’s skin flickering red and blue in amused agreement.

“They will,” Oxtashah said grimly. “Pincer Korodaun’s fate will be shared by far too many if we continue to argue like hatchlings. You have my pledge of honor, upon the hive of my hatching and the shells of my progeny, that we will do you no harm.”

“I accept your honor, Princess,” Tidirok conceded. “We will be underway shortly. I recommend you return to your ship and have them commence preparations.”

Rin found Tan!Shallegh in the Fleet Lord’s office, all of the screens dark as the A!Tol sat there. He wouldn’t even have been certain the sentient was in the room if the door hadn’t opened to let him in, though Va!Tola’s systems said that’s where he was.

“Fleet Lord?” he asked the darkness.

“I’m here,” Tan!Shallegh told him. There was a flicker of movement, but the A!Tol was barely visible, his skin gray-black in exhausted fear. “I…”

The room fell silent and Rin Dunst let the door close behind him. He had been in the room often enough that he was able to find a seat, and he simply waited.

“You are a student of history,” the Fleet Lord said in the darkness. “Of the wars and tribulations not just of your race or even the Imperium.”

“Not primarily of war, but yes,” Rin agreed. “I mostly study everything we know about the Alava, and we really don’t know much of their wars.”

“It seems that may change,” Tan!Shallegh noted. “Tell me, Dr. Dunst, does it end? Does it ever end? Or will I be drawn into the waters of one war after another, each with the fate of worlds and races on the line?”

“The Imperium has been at peace more than at war, Fleet Lord,” Rin reminded the other being. “Even in your lifetime. Even in mine, and I was a child when you came to Earth.”

Tan!Shallegh had been a Fleet Lord of the Imperium for as long as Rin Dunst had been alive. If there was any being that had deserved retirement or rest more, Rin didn’t know them. He wasn’t sure what the A!Tol wanted from him, though.

“Perhaps,” Tan!Shallegh murmured. “It seems…worse, I’m afraid, because there have been so many wars where we feared for so much. I have done my duty, Doctor. But I think this may be the last war I have in me.”

“I don’t think anyone will begrudge you that, Fleet Lord,” Rin said.

“You’d be surprised,” Tan!Shallegh said with a flush of blue through the darkness of his skin. “It will depend, I know, upon how this war fares. My oaths and promises stand, and I will fight these Infinite.

“But I hope and pray there is some answer in your histories, Dr. Dunst, that I do not see,” he admitted. “This enemy was beyond the Alava. We have studied the Alava’s technology more than any others but the Mesharom, I think, and I know how far short of their power we fall.

“Can we win this?”

“The Alava broke everything, sir,” Rin reminded Tan!Shallegh. “That definitely included whatever the Infinite used for FTL and likely included many of their weapons. Certainly, none of the weapons we’ve seen from them so far match the weapons we believe the Alava possessed.”

“This is true. And perhaps even the Mesharom will join us for this war,” Tan!Shallegh suggested. “The last true heirs of