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

Morgan blinked and took a swallow of her coffee.

“It was not,” she admitted slowly. “I was only aware of the official story, that she broke an organization attempting to reopen the war with the Kanzi.”

“Which is also true,” Tan!Shallegh said. “What we kept secret was that that organization had acquired and successfully reverse-engineered a Mesharom starkiller. Duchess Bond destroyed the organization and acquired their weapons.

“She destroyed those weapons in turn before surrendering herself to the Imperium,” he summarized neatly. “I felt then that a concealable starkiller represented an unacceptable threat to the balance of power in the galaxy. That even the Mesharom had such a thing was and is still unknown to much of the galaxy.

“My opinion of miniature starkillers had not changed when we began the Final Dragon program,” he told her. “But I am merely the First Fleet Lord, not the only Fleet Lord. And my Empress feared we would need a secret sword to protect ourselves as we drew closer to parity with the Core Powers.”

“Hence Defiance and her sisters,” Morgan said quietly. “Sir, this is background for…?”

“You were in the Astoroko Nebula with starkillers,” Tan!Shallegh said grimly. “Our allies don’t know that yet, but a plan is being discussed where it is relevant. You were at the Eye and the storm around it—the ‘rosette,’ I think your report called it. You looked at it with the eyes of an officer with starkillers to hand.

“In your opinion, would the use of starkillers on one or more of the blue giants of the rosette take out the Infinite in the Eye of the Astoroko Nebula?”

“Ah,” Morgan breathed. “Yes,” she confirmed. “That was our plan, in fact, before our Final Dragon weapons were destroyed.

“We estimated that one star wouldn’t be a guaranteed kill on the target, but if we simultaneously detonated six—the number of starkillers we carried—it would probably be overkill.”

She shrugged.

“We planned for overkill.”

“I don’t like it,” Tan!Shallegh said grimly. “I don’t like starkillers, and I am horrified by the thought of wiping out a sentient race, even the Infinite, who have been unhesitatingly aggressive so far.”

“But?” she asked.

“There are three analysis teams, including yours, that have assessed the risk of the Infinite,” he said quietly. “Yours has the most pessimistic conclusions, but the Wendira and Laians agree with you in principle.

“Our next encounter with the Infinite will almost certainly see them having more fully integrated and adapted the interface drive and interface-drive missile technology to their biology,” Tan!Shallegh continued. “We faced less than one percent of their strength here in Tohrohsail, and, in clear waters, had they surprised us at anchor, we would have lost all three fleets.”

Morgan was silent. She’d drawn the same conclusion but hadn’t actually put it in her report. Arriving by surprise, the Infinite would have controlled the initial engagement positions and would have forced a plasma range engagement in short order.

It would have been a pyrrhic victory for whoever had won, but the odds would have been in the Infinite’s favor…and the Infinite could lose Swarm Bravo more readily than the galaxy could lose the combined fleets in Tohrohsail.

“What is the plan, then, sir?” she asked.

One of the Fleet Lord’s manipulators produced a small black box the size of Morgan’s palm, seemingly from nowhere, and placed it in front of her.

“We have, with the assistance of our Laian allies, refitted four of our Bellerophons to a new standard—designated Bellerophon-S—including Laian-provided stealth fields,” he told her as she stared at the insignia box.

“Thanks to the incorporation of some of our own tricks, that makes the Bellerophon-Ses the largest and most powerful stealth-capable units available,” he continued. “We do not have stealth-equipped starkillers, but it turns out that both the Wendira and Laians do.

“The Wendira are redeploying their Battle Hives to secure their own border, falling back on a strategic coordination rather than tactical. The only coordinated mission going forward is one no one is going to be talking about.”

Morgan was listening, but she also caved to curiosity and opened the insignia box.

Inside, resting on a layer of black fabric, was the crossed silver-spears insignia of an Imperial Division Lord. An officer who would command, say, four hypermodern battleships.

“Neither the Wendira nor the Laians were prepared to place their starkillers under the command of an officer from the other,” Tan!Shallegh said drily. “They were both, fascinatingly, prepared to place ships and starkillers under your command, specifically.”

“Me, sir?” Morgan asked.

“You saw the Queen yourself,” he told her. “They believe—and I agree—that you have a heart-level understanding of this foe that none of us can match.

“The spears are technically temporary,” he continued. “But so long as you manage to return from this mission, I believe I can make them freeze. Do you accept this tasking, Staff Captain Casimir?”

“You want me to command a mixed-race fleet, including two species that absolutely hate each other, and an unspecified number of starkiller weapons of mass destruction?” she clarified. “I presume I am to take said fleet into the Astoroko Nebula and trigger the simultaneous detonation of a significant portion of the rosette of stars around the Eye?”

“Correct and correct,” Tan!Shallegh agreed. “I do not like this mission, Casimir. But I cannot argue against its necessity. The galaxy as we know it may well be at risk. The only way we can combine Laian and Wendira starkillers in one force is under your command.

“Will you accept the mission?”

“Yes,” Morgan said quickly, before she could change her mind. What choice did she have? Without something drastic, the Infinite could easily end up eating the galaxy.

And this was definitely something drastic.

Once Morgan had the new insignia pinned on the collar of her uniform, the formal meeting with their allies started. Royal Commandant Ronoxosh and Voice Tidirok appeared on separate screens, each of them looking first to Tan!Shallegh and then to Morgan.

And never, she noted, at each other. That might have been an effect of the conferencing software, but she suspected it was fundamentally accurate.

“Division Lord Casimir