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

Morgan couldn’t help but shiver. She’d commanded one of the Imperium’s newest and most advanced cruisers, a ship that served as a starkiller deployment platform. Her clearances were among the highest the Imperium had, which meant she knew exactly how many modern HSM-equipped capital ships the Imperium had built.

If the Grand Fleet were going to have thirty squadrons of hyperspace missile–equipped capital ships, that would be almost half of the entire Imperial Navy—and it would be basically every HSM-equipped battleship and superbattleship they had.

“We do not expect any reinforcements outside of the Laians and Wendira for approximately half a long-cycle, at least,” Tan!Shallegh warned. “Ninety cycles, minimum. That is how long we will need to maintain a holding action against the Infinite in Laian space.”

The room was silent, dozens of flag officers considering what that was going to entail. Finally, someone pressed a button to indicate a question.

“Yes,” Tan!Shallegh said, gesturing to the Rekiki officer. Morgan didn’t know the Squadron Lord in question, but she paid attention anyway.

The questions were where she suspected she was most likely to get dragged in.

“If we are bringing in Core Powers to deal with a Precursor-esque problem, has anyone contacted the Mesharom?” the Squadron Lord asked. “They were involved with the Taljzi, and that was a far lower threat level, as I understand.”

“We have attempted, through both official and unofficial channels, to make contact with the Mesharom Conclave, yes,” Tan!Shallegh said grimly. “We have received no response. Our messages have made it through, we believe, but the Conclave has not replied.”

Unofficial channels. A twitch ran down Morgan’s back as she considered those. Ki!Tana had vanished to carry copies of Defiance’s sensor data to their associates—members of the Mesharom-led not-quite-secret society that tried to keep Alavan technology under wraps.

Security treaties or no, she suddenly suspected that their associates had been instrumental in getting four Core Powers to willingly commit warships to anything. The great technological advancement of the Core Powers was often held up as a sign of greater cultural advancement…but usually only by the Core Powers themselves.

They were often xenophobic and isolationist, drawing their inspiration from the Mesharom, the oldest Core Power—and a race that didn’t even like their own kind, let alone strange aliens.

“We cannot and will not rely on the Mesharom to pull us out of this fire,” Tan!Shallegh told everyone. “With the fleets of six Core Powers, even we should quickly become redundant.”

“Then why are we here?” another officer asked. “We came in response to a request from the Laians to stand against the Wendira. This seems outside the scope we agreed to.”

“We are here because the Laians are our allies and because all evidence suggests that the Infinite present a potentially existential threat to the galaxy if allowed to expand and rebuild,” the Fleet Lord replied. “We hope to be able to communicate with them, but right now the only communications we are receiving are missiles.

“We will not risk the survival of our only Core Power ally by washing our hands of the situation,” he finished. “We will also not expose all of our technological secrets in their defense, either,” he warned. “Not unless it becomes necessary.”

Most of the secrets Tan!Shallegh was talking about hadn’t even been assigned to his fleet, Morgan knew. The Grand Fleet had a small force of ships that could make hyperspace denser—and hence enable significantly faster FTL transit—that they were trying to keep under wraps, but most of the rest of the Imperium’s secrets hadn’t been sent out.

Morgan had commanded the only starkiller-equipped Thunderstorm-D anywhere near the Grand Fleet. The Grand Fleet had starkillers, but they were the traditional kind that was the size of a destroyer, not the stolen Mesharom design that was the size of a shuttle.

“Next question?” Tan!Shallegh asked, switching to another flag officer as Morgan settled in to learn as much as she could of the fleet’s plans.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Sir.”

Morgan saluted as she stood inside Tan!Shallegh’s office. She’d last been in one of his offices aboard Storm Sentinel, but this one was decorated much the same. She recognized the handiwork of several of the artists that decorated his shelves, but not the works in question.

The Fleet Lord had a well-earned reputation as a patron of the arts on Earth and several other worlds. It was a small part of why humanity had taken the being who had conquered them to heart as much as they had.

His repeated command of fleets defending Earth from other people had probably helped, though.

“Sit, Staff Captain,” Tan!Shallegh ordered. “You were seated with I!Lorak at the briefing,” he continued after she had. “Did he clear some waters for you?”

“He mentioned I would lead my own team, but not much more,” Morgan said. “He felt that was your privilege.”

“Reasonable,” the Fleet Lord agreed. “Drink, Staff Captain? I have coffee for your people here.”

“Thank you, sir.”

A device concealed inside the A!Tol’s desk burbled away for twenty seconds, then a panel in the desk slid open and a cup of steaming coffee rose into view.

None of Morgan’s desks had that feature, but the Fleet Lord’s desk wasn’t standard Navy-issue.

“My existing staff is extremely capable and I have no desire to unbalance their working relationships,” Tan!Shallegh told her. “I feel that we are dealing with a problem from outside our known waters and we should have an outside perspective on that problem.

“So, yes, you are being added to my staff as a special analyst team lead on the Infinite, much as your partner has been added as a special advisor on the Infinite,” he continued. “As my staff will remain divided between Va!Tola and Sentinel to provide redundancy in the command links. That frees up the Operations department space on Va!Tola for your team.

“You may recruit anyone you wish from the Grand Fleet,” he told her. “I ask that you leave at least some of the officers of your original team with Lord Tan!Stalla, but I expect you to recruit several of them.

“If you need additional assistance