That was far more manageable, there was only six of them, two in each fleet.

  Gia noted, “That is what Breanne did, she didn’t bother with the lesser ships, and if Vincent has her personality, thought patterns, and morals, then he’s likely following a similar path.”

  He nodded, “Perhaps he left because he feared if the queen addressed all the ships, they’d turn on him and the fleet admiral, which fits into Leanne’s theory as well. Either way it won’t change much as far as the beginning of our plan. We’ll hit the six battleships first, free the six senior captains and the admiral’s they have on board. Then if the next couple doesn’t have a captain that’s been compromised, we can most likely safely assume the rest are clear.

  “The biggest problem we have is they aren’t truly the enemy, we won’t be killing anyone during the boarding actions. That means we need to hit the armory and pick up non-deadly weapons, it also means we can try issuing orders to stand down first. I’ll also be able to disable them with body magic.”

  Riesa said, “What if her majesty sent out a general message, saying Vincent compromised Augustus and possibly other leaders. She could order the first officers of every ship to temporarily take command, and to put the captains and admirals under guard until they were cleared by her majesty. Then they’d welcome us aboard the ships.”

  Leanne laughed, “I vote for her idea.”

  He snickered, “I agree, it takes care of the issue of friendly fire. Though if the captains and admirals resist or were ordered to do so, it could get a bit messy.”

  Gia nodded, “But it’s less dangerous than trying to force it by ourselves.”

  He agreed, but he worried the crew morale would suffer, if their captain killed anyone when being taken into custody it would be hard for the rank and file to follow their orders in the future. But it was what it was, and it could’ve been a lot worse. If that did happen, a few judicious transfers could fix the issue.

  “What do you think, Grant?”

  Grant replied crisply, “I’d do it that way, but I’d send a private eyes-only message to all the first officers thirty minutes before that. So they could prepare to take the captain into custody at the end of the speech. That way the captain won’t have time to react, not really, and after the more public fleet wide message none of their people will defend him from it.”

  He nodded thoughtfully, “We’ll do it that way, if her majesty agrees.”

  The five of them headed into the captain’s ready room.

  Daniella looked up, “The dukes all gave me condolences, and swore their loyalty to me. I told them to ready their fleets for an invasion. I also told them if they faced overwhelming odds to cede their planet and leave with the fleet.

  “We have no idea how many ships the Confederacy will send, nor do we have an idea what systems they’ll be sent to. So we may have to retreat to avoid our military being slaughtered, then we can shift ships around to reclaim those worlds and fight them off. But only if necessary, and if they’re heavily outnumbered.”

  He nodded, “Sound thinking. You believed them?”

  Daniella snorted, “No. I’d guess at least six, and up to eight of the twenty-one dukes, are in on the betrayal. But we can deal with that later. Let them think their waffling traitorous acts won’t bite them on the ass for now, when they come to publicly swear at my coronation, we can weed out the traitors. They’re in no position to hurt us, or at least they’re the lowest of my priorities as far as threats.”

  Gia said, “They could order the fleets to stand and fight.”

  Daniella shook her head, “When we make Kimberly the fleet admiral, she’ll give the orders in my name. A traitorous Duke can’t countermand orders from the throne. They’ll have to pick a side at that point, either join the fleet and retreat, or reveal that they’re a traitor and welcome the enemy fleets as ours leave. Not that the former will save any that have already betrayed us. What did you come up with?”

  He told her their idea, giving Leanne most of the credit.

  Daniella said, “I approve. I’ll send a message to all first officers now. In thirty minutes, my ship suit should be ready, and after changing I’ll give the home fleetwide address and order them taken into custody. I suspect you’re right, but let’s not make any assumptions. It won’t take me long to clear the thirty-six captains and four admirals if any of them haven’t been controlled.”

  He grunted in agreement, “With their cooperation and the tactical net, I should be able to teleport us bridge to bridge, and we can verify our reception right before jumping, through the security feeds on the bridge.”

  Daniella smiled, “Perfect. Then we return to the palace, and we wait for the enemy to show up. I need to know what we’re up against before deciding next steps. These ships can return to their home-world fleets at that point as well, with our thanks.”

  “Sounds good, Dani.”

  The first and dangerous part of the plan worked, for the most part. The four admirals and the six senior captains resisted arrest, but they were easily taken down due to the first officers arranging both ship’s security and Royal Marines to be on standby right outside the bridge. There were a few injuries, and only one fatality.

  It was very likely they were right, the other captains who didn’t resist were probably fine and not under mind control, but they were still going to ensure it.

  Rear Admiral Upper Kimberly and her flag captain was their first stop. Kimberly was a lovely light brunette with a lithe body. As he’d hoped, it didn’t take long for Daniella to undo Vincent’s handiwork. Once the confusion passed from her eyes, she went to one knee and bowed her head.

  Daniella said, “Rise. I’m also promoting you to Admiral of the fleet, and right now due to the lack of any reliable intelligence on the enemy, here’s what we’re planning to do.”

  The queen laid it all out, as they’d already discussed. Kimberly wasn’t thrilled by the idea of abandoning any of their planets even for a short time, but grudgingly admitted it was unlikely their brief annexation of the worlds would be of a punitive nature. They wanted the commoners to accept their rule, after all. It would also take the confederacy by surprise. They’d no doubt hope to take out the fleets in a slaughter, then head to the next world to do it again. A strategy that would short circuit when they refused to fight, but that refusal to fight had a time limit on it.

  Kimberly said, “I understand. I’ll keep an eye on all the worlds, and I’ll brief all the captain’s personally.”

  Daniella replied, “Good, also be sure to let them know Vincent, Augustus, and the ship Royal are rogue. See if you can get your techs to cut them out of the tactical net. I’d rather not let them and therefore the Confederacy know where all our ships are in real time. Not if we can help it.”

  Kimberly said, “I’ll see it done, your majesty. Will Augustus be reinstated, if you’re able to reclaim the ship in the future and remove Vincent from this life?”

  Daniella shook her head, “Augustus is almost ninety. He’d been asking my father if he could retire for years now. Your position and new rank are permanent, until you retire.”

  Kimberly nodded, “Thank you for your trust, your majesty. I won’t let you down.”

  The rest of their plan went smoothly, and there was no resistance on any of the ships. They verified all the other captains were unaffected, and he believed that was the true reason Vincent had run. Though he didn’t discount just how heavily he and the others would’ve outgunned him in a fight, Vincent was extremely clever and arrogant, and might’ve stuck around if it’d just been that.

  The next few days passed as the Moiroi kingdom prepared for war, and all the fleets were on the lookout for the Dreadnought Royal. Not just in ship provisions and catching up on any maintenance shortcomings. The queen also ordered the production of twenty-two more fleets, though it’d be at least a year before that many ships could be built and manned with trained personnel. That would put three fleets around every world except Bright Star, which would have four. He knew she also had plans to build more after that, to replace whatever was destroyed in the coming battles, should they win out.

  Their entire society was shifting to a war footing, and if he was any judge then they wouldn’t be underestimating the Confederacy anytime soon during the rest of Daniella’s reign.

  Provided the kingdom survived the upcoming invasion that is.

  The first phase of quelling the rebellion seemed to be solid. Not perfect, they wouldn’t be sure of the dukes or duchesses until they’d come to publicly swear themselves to the new queen at her coronation. It was the one occasion that forced them by law and tradition to leave their world and visit the home world of Brightstar. There was also the matter of Vincent being alive still, and in possession of the most powerful ship in the Kingdom’s fleets.

  But both of those were manageable and known threats, the core and the rest of the insurrectionists had been killed. The rebellion was essentially over save those two details. But they’d done their damage, taken their toll on the Kingdom, and only time would tell if they could survive it.

  In the meantime, he was keeping a very close eye on his queen’s safety, and their four other lovers were as well. That task was made easier by the fact they were all spending the night in the monarch’s bedroom each night…

  Chapter Four

  They were in Daniella’s private dining room, and the queen was enjoying sitting on Dacen’s lap as they sensually fed each other the mid-day meal. Such intimacy in the dining room as well as in her bed every night made for some… less than traditional, courting.

  He was fairly sure in her mind it was already a done deal. Not that he was complaining, nor did he think she was wrong. Their lifelong friendship and three-month long affair pretty much exceeded what normal courting would usually accomplish, by quite a large margin. He had no doubts himself.

  He suspected the only reason they weren’t already planning the wedding, was that she needed to be crowned first, and there was the other not so small matter of being under the threat of invasion.

  What also made it a less than normal courting, was the fact their other four lovers were present in the room as well.

  She tilted her head in a way that he knew she was listening to her comms implant.

  Daniella sighed, “That was Kimberly, it’s started. The Confederacy just committed twenty-six fleets to battle, around six worlds including this one. In each case, they have us outmatched by two to one in throw weight and ship numbers. Six fleets to our three here, and four fleets to our two at five other major worlds. I have to say, it’s a good thing I listened to you and packed.”

  He grunted, “They probably have at least half that again, another thirteen fleets in reserves. Perhaps more, but not less. How the hell did our spies miss this?”

  Daniella shrugged, “They didn’t, most likely. Among the barons we killed, and that died before that to infighting, two of them were heavily involved in collating data sent in from our spy networks in the Leshien Confederacy, Grand Communion, and the Free Worlds. It’s pretty clear they lost the data and failed to inform my father of the buildup, on purpose I mean.”

  He kissed her softly.

  She smiled, her heart in her eyes despite the heavy subject of conversation.

  “Anyway, my knight, we should go within the hour. With a two-hour head start we’ll have easy access to an FTL line away from their approach. All six worlds will be abandoned for now. It’s problematical, we have forty-five fleets in total. Their plan is obviously to destroy ours with overwhelming forces, six worlds at a time. But they’d been counting on the fact the kingdom would be in a civil war with no central authority to shift forces, and none of the Dukes would give up their fleets to consolidate enough to counter-attack successfully.”

  He nodded, “The danger in that idea are those other fleets they must have in reserve to counter our response. We have forty-five, they have an invasion of at least thirty-nine. We have a six-fleet advantage even if they’re using modern tactics to the letter, and possibly less than that, and we have twenty-two worlds to guard while they have none.”

  Daniella bit her lip, “You’re right, we need help. Ceding the worlds will throw them off, and they’ll probably be nailed to the floor for a week or two, three at the most as they wait for direction from home.

  “Let’s for arguments sake, say we can push them out, if it’s just these fleets. I can have three other worlds send one fleet as aid to the five under threat, keeping one back for minimal protection. With their original forces, that’s five fleets to the enemies four in each case.”

  He nodded, “Okay, for argument’s sake, that still leaves this planet, and we’re outnumbered six to three.”

  She smiled, “That’s the easy part, we’ll pick up four fleets of mercenaries, and we’ll take back this world at seven to six odds in our favor. Not as good as four to three, but we have a lot of hidden defenses we’re going to leave offline, that will come online when we return. Not to mention you. If invasion by the confederacy doesn’t justify accessing the emergency treasury to hire mercenaries, than nothing would.”

  He tilted his head, “Okay, that would work, in our theoretical world. But in the real world we still have at least thirteen enemy fleets that will even those odds when they call for reinforcements.”

  She nodded, “Yes. The best way to take those off the board is to attack the confederacy. Yes, they built a huge invasion fleet, but they have to have left their home worlds very lightly defended. An attack will have their leadership demanding the return of some of those fleets, at least their reserves. If they make that fatal mistake, once we kill the twenty-six fleets here then they won’t be in a good position to invade anymore, and in a year we’ll be very well defended, and have a much more accurate picture of their readiness as well.”

  She paused for a second.

  “Of course, we’re in no position to attack them, so we’re going to have to get someone else to do it. Which is why we’re stopping at New Blessing, on our way to Crossroads.”

  Leanne asked, “What makes you think Prelate Aria would agree to attack the Confederacy.”

  Both he and Daniella said, “Self-interest,” at the exact same time, then he kissed her when they started and stared at each other.

  Daniella explained, “The missionaries are her pet project, and why she has the support of the majority of the upper clergy. She sent them successfully to the Free Worlds, and she sent them here through a proposed treaty.”

  She looked at him, and he finished, “But the confederacy basically told her hell no, and closed their borders to her. If the confederacy wins this war, then she’ll lose access to the twenty-two kingdom worlds, which will severely damage her influence and make her position as prelate a precarious one.”

  Daniella nodded, then said, “Even worse than that, the kingdom’s worlds added to the confederacy will make their living world count forty-one. Once they’ve consolidated their hold on the old kingdom worlds, it won’t be hard to raise a military and outbuild the sixteen worlds of the Grand Communion. In the end, the confederacy will be the only government left.

  “There is inherent stability in our three interstellar governments, so it’s in the best interest of the other two to join forces against anyone that gets expansionist ambitions. Just like the Confederacy allied with us over a hundred years ago, the last time an expansionist prelate sat on the throne. Three of us means that if any one of us are ever ruled by an ambitious expansionist, the other two can countercheck them. There’s no such advantage in being outnumbered over two to one with only one viable enemy.

  “For all those reasons she’ll say yes, eventually. I just hope she asks for something in return that I’m willing to give. Because she sure as hell won’t do it for free, but she will do it if the price is right.”

  Leanne looked thoughtful and unsure, “I hadn’t thought of it that way. My training is more about internal betrayal and petty scheming by individuals, not interstellar government politics.”

  Daniella shrugged that off, “Don’t doubt your value. We’re both very young, and I was raised cutting my teeth on these ideas. I bet there’s plenty that we could teach each other about those two subjects.”

  Leanne smiled, “Thank you for that, and you’re right.”

  She said, “There’s no guarantees in this life, but from everything you and Dacen have told me about her, Aria is an intelligent, well-reasoned, and compassionate ruler. But she’ll also granted, have me under the barrel and at a huge disadvantage in our negotiations.”

  He chuckled.

  The idea of seeing Aria again made him a little nervous for an entirely different reason. Aria and he had promised to see each other again, and to continue where they’d left off for the duration of his return visit. White lies of lovers, who’d at the time had believed those promises to be empty, and just what they were feeling.

  But now he was a lot different. Riesa and Leanne surely wouldn’t mind, but he would. He loved them now, like he loved his queen. It would feel like cheating, even if he could get them to agree with it. They weren’t just having an affair, not anymore. Gia and Allison deserved the same respect as well, and he knew they wouldn’t understand him sleeping with any women that weren’t a part of their circle and available to them as well.

  There was nothing to do about it though, except play it by ear and hope that the prelate understood. Ironically, it was mostly thanks to Prelate Aria any of that was true, because if she hadn’t started him on the road to healing then he’d have likely been thrilled to get back with the wickedly naughty and talented bed partner that she was.

  But it was what it was.

  The second problem he addressed out loud.

  “Crossroads might not be the best place, there’s other worlds and mercenary groups.”

  His queen smiled, and it wasn’t a nice smile. It was a smile to inspire nightmares, his queen was lovely and belonged to him heart and soul, but she was still a ruler and could be a hard person to those that drew her ire. He hoped he never saw her smile about him that way.