Cando’s vision shifted to the command circle, where the comms officer whispered to Dunston, who shook her head and dismissed the officer. Cando read her lips.

  “Not now,” the Captain said. “He’ll have to wait.”

  “What is it?” Cando asked, raising his voice.

  She swung around.

  “Minister Cooper says it’s urgent, but he doesn’t know what we’re dealing with.”

  The timing was too coincidental. Or was it?

  “Captain, I think you need to take his message.”

  She nodded to the officer while Felixx responded to Ola Osteen.

  “Your people gave us this victory? Is that your claim?”

  “It is, Captain. Now we wish you to take the Inventor’s gifts and cross the divide. Forty worlds need to witness the Light of God, and the scorpion must cleanse the many Disbelievers.”

  “She sold out everyone,” Kara said. “She’s lost her mind. They all have. Cando, what do we …?”

  Cando heard his wife but didn’t reply. Dunston listened patiently to Cooper, bobbing her head. Then she gasped.

  “What is it?” Cando asked.

  * * *

  “It’s confirmed, Captain,” Cromartie’s XO said. “The transport has no weapons. Our scan reveals the same radiant signature as our own cube, but hundreds of times stronger. It’s no trick.”

  Javier Felixx stared at the pallet, which answered every dream for himself and the entire armada. It was a gift of undeniable beauty. The Empress would reward Felixx and his crew for bringing home such a treasure. But if …

  “Your recommendation, Cillian?”

  “There’s no danger in allowing the transport to board.”

  “What of its crew?”

  “After we verify the contents on that pallet, we execute the crew. We’ll have a much stronger position if the Admiralty and Empress believe we captured the cubes.”

  “Agreed.” He opened a channel. “Rear guard, weapons hold. Allow the vessel safe passage.”

  The combat grid remained unchanged. He restored his link to the transport.

  “Mr. Knight, you will pilot your ship to Hangar Deck Seven. Follow the strobes. Remain inside your vessel until I say otherwise.”

  “Understand, Captain. I look forward to meeting you soon.”

  Felixx cut the link.

  This wasn’t right. This wasn’t enough.

  “It’s too easy,” he told his XO.

  “I believe he wants you to choose the cubes rather than risk a fight against two of their warships. If he is as important a man as that woman claims, he knows the difficulty we would face.”

  “Then you recommend we verify the contents of his pallet and tether home.”

  “I do. We can’t present this gift if the enemy kills us.”

  “But if we achieve our objective and deliver the gift, will the reward not be that much greater?”

  The XO’s tone sharpened.

  “Captain, that cruiser and its passengers have no value. They were planning a long-term defense against an invasion we can start in weeks, if not days. We have the tools.”

  “Trade one objective for another. Aye, Cillian?”

  “Yes, Captain. We have the greater victory.”

  “But not the one we were supposed to achieve. It is an unarmed civilian cruiser. The Empress will think we’re incompetent.”

  “I disagree. I …”

  Felixx relayed a new order to his Chief to the Nav.

  “Prepare to jump and engage the enemy on my command.”

  “I beg you, Captain. This is unnecessary.”

  “We jump when the transport is safely onboard.”

  The XO stiffened his shoulders.

  “Yes, Captain.”

  * * *

  “Are we excited?” Amayas told his crew from the nav cylinder.

  Ola wiped away tears, but words were few.

  “Perhaps there’s a bit of fear,” he continued. “Understandable. We’re about to embark upon a great journey. Most of you never left your home world before Tranteum. And now? You’ll have a chance to see all Creation.”

  “I wonder,” Ola said. “Do you think they’ll allow us to save our families and friends before they invade?”

  “I have no idea. I’m unfamiliar with Swarm combat techniques.”

  Amayas watched two holos inside the cylinder. One showed a steady entry into the designated hangar bay. The other displayed a command to activate the quantum singularity bomb’s discharge mount. He’d have to complete that sequence first. It had been many years since he gave the subsequent order.

  “Many people will not understand our actions,” Amayas told them. “Those who write history will not be kind.”

  “They will,” a Zwahili said, “if the Risen Church writes it.”

  “True.” The transport entered the hangar deck, seconds away from landing. “But that is a huge if, my friend. The if being, will we live to see the day?”

  “What do you mean, Inventor?”

  “There are eight of us, but a thousand of those.” He pointed to the Splinters. “What holds greater value to the Swarm? Human life or shiny things? I’m not sure history would suggest the former.”

  The seven seemed to realize the implication, but Amayas gave up caring. They were despicable, deluded traitors, after all. What God was worth the blood of billions?

  He kept up his smile as his fingers pushed through the first sequence. The QSB atop the pallet of Splinters activated. They turned to see the brilliant glow at the center of the pyramidal device.

  Did they know? Were they too feeble to recognize the outcome?

  Shiny things always drew them in. They strengthened every sales pitch, opened many doors, and made the impossible seem reachable.

  “It would have been beautiful,” he whispered.

  * * *

  “Transport has landed, Captain,” the XO said.

  “Outstanding. Our first gift to Chastain. Now, the second. Nav, prepare to jump.”

  “Ten seconds, Captain. Nine, eight, seven …”

  Felixx intended to celebrate when it was all over. And the Admiralty? They’d damn well better give him a Battle Group.

  “Six, five …”

  Another voice interjected.

  “Captain, I’m detecting a massive discharge inside the transport.”

  “What is …?”

  One word entered his thoughts.

  Incompetent.

  * * *

  The news hit Kara as hard as the rest of them. Someone had stolen a quantum singularity bomb from the Aeternans. Michael Cooper said only one man had the skills to pull it off.

  “I don’t know his plans,” Michael said after Dunston elevated the audio for everyone on the three bridges to hear. “But if anything happens, do not put this on my people. It’s not our fault.”

  Cando only heard the stories about what the QSBs did to dozens of Ark Carriers in 5357, precipitating the end of the Chancellory’s three-thousand-year empire. But Kara knew; she witnessed the destruction on her sixteenth birthday from Pinchon Island’s North Shore. First, the orbiting city-ship was there, then it disappeared inside a brief smudge against the star field.

  No one outside the Aeternans knew how the devices worked. Michael refused to allow Scylla’s crew to analyze the defense grid or the QSB specifications during their extended visit. Many delegates wanted them banned as a condition of the Aeternans’ inclusion in any future union of forty worlds. She doubted Michael would agree.

  “Orders, Cando?”

  Both warship Captains waited for his words. They didn’t call him Admiral, but they treated him like he was.

  “Hold position,” he said. “If I’m right, this will be over in …”

  He didn’t need to finish the sentence.

  The battle cruiser appeared to phase-shift before it imploded. The bright smudge Kara saw years ago reappeared, consuming the enemy in a cloud.

  It was gone.

  The combat grid detected scattered debris, but only the tiniest fraction one might expect from a warship.

  “Is it …?” Dunston said.

  No one applauded or cheered.

  Kara laid her head against Cando’s chest and closed her eyes.

  “Capt. Ochoba, Capt. Sangoon,” he said. “Stand down.”

  33

  T HE SHOCK WORE OFF QUICKLY. What should have been a celebratory moment steeped in relief turned to difficult dialogue about what transpired and the implications for the conference. Questions from the Aston James bridge crew about how Amayas Knight knew this would happen spoke to issues for which there were no easy answers. Cando advised the three ships to hold position for now.

  Dunston, Philbin, and the Aleksanyans had only just begun their deliberations when Michael Cooper barged onto the bridge. He wasn’t satisfied with the response to his report.

  “Sounded to me like you knew something was up,” he told Cando. “I tell you Amayas left this cruiser and stole a goddamn QSB, and you say, ‘We’re in the middle of something’ then cut my link. Fess up. What’s the deal?”

  Cando nodded to Dunston, who ordered her comms officer to replay the big moment. Michael watched the telescopic image.

  “The fuck?” He said. “That’s another Swarm ship. Wait. Is that the same one as …”

  “Yes,” Cando replied. “Watch, Michael.”

  “What am I looking for? I …”

  The implosion lasted three seconds.

  “How the hell?”

  “Amayas and several delegates from the conference were onboard. Amayas set off the QSB.”

  The Minister’s anger dissipated like the Cromartie.

  “I-I don’t understand. Suicide? Amayas Fucking Knight?”

  “He tricked them, Michael. He promised them a motherlode of Splinters. He saved us. I think he’d been planning it for days. When was the last time you spoke to him?”

  He looked at Cando like the question needed translation.

  “I … we didn’t speak … we …”

  “You argued with him at the nightclub a few days ago.”

  “Yeah, but that was different. He was being an ass. I was …” Michael looked around the quiet bridge, realizing all eyes fell on him. “This morning. He came to me this morning.”

  “Did he give you any hints about what he was …”

  “No. Fuck no. It was different. It was personal. Look, I can’t be here right now. I have to go …”

  Cando grabbed his arm.

  “Michael, please don’t speak of this. We need to sort through some prickly issues before we make a public announcement.”

  “Yeah. Sure, dude. No problem.”

  Michael walked off in a daze. Cando and Kara didn’t know what to make of it. Had anyone ever seen Michael so shaken?

  “We’ll have to interview him later.”

  “Cando, no one has seen something like that in ten years,” Dunston said. “They’ll be happy it took out a Swarm cruiser, but it’s going to bring back memories of Salvation. Everyone will turn their attention to the immortals, and not for the best reasons.”

  Kara knew she was right, but added:

  “I’m more concerned about what happens when people see who stood with Amayas. For all the rings! Those delegates were willing to kill us all and join the Swarm. Ola Osteen was the Bolivan Queen’s chief advisor. I don’t know the others, but …”

  “Joseph Mogandi will be devastated when he learns about the Zwahilis,” Cando continued. “He won’t understand how they were able to infiltrate the group.”

  “There’s only one good explanation,” Peter Philbin interjected. “These Swarm adherents had powerful friends. There’s a cancer in both their governments.”

  Kara dared not say what the others must have thought: How could the conference move forward?

  “Why didn’t he warn us from the start?” She said. “He knew there were infiltrators. He knew the Swarm were coming. He allowed Ham to be murdered … for this?”

  “Captain,” the comms officer announced.

  “Yes?”

  “It’s him!”

  “Who?”

  “I have a vid message. Recipients are you, the Aleksanyans, Security Chief Philbin, and the Captains of Scylla and Hermes. It says the sender is Amayas Knight.”

  “But he’s de …” Dunston started.

  “He said he’d speak to us again,” Cando said. “Time stamp?”

  “One and a half hours ago.”

  “I think we’re about to hear some answers. Captain?”

  Dunston nodded. “Relay the vid to all three bridges.”

  The new holo showed a solemn Amayas staring out at his audience. The background confirmed he recorded it in his quarters.

  “I cannot say where I went wrong, for there are so many to choose from,” he began. “However, I can say why. This is the first thing you must know.

  “I entered my pursuit with noble, even grandiose intention. I believed the human race would be desperate for a new order in the wake of the Chancellory’s fall. To this day, I remain convinced I was right. Yet I faced an insurmountable task. How does one man chase such a lofty dream? How can he hope to forge relationships when he is so reviled by so many across the star systems?”

  Amayas paused, his eyes shaded, as if he were reflecting.

  “I created a new persona for a new age. I discovered secrets not meant for human consumption. I observed. I studied. And then, with remarkable resources at my disposal, I sold an idea and set out to give it form. I offered something new that allowed the ordinary human to stretch his mind toward the extraordinary. Without these gifts – these playthings – I would have failed. The ordinary did not sell.

  “In my reborn arrogance, I believed I could introduce a new order without inflicting pain and death upon people who endured centuries of it at the hands of a higher caste. They deserved a chance.

  “However, relationships have a way of fracturing. My interests often ran counter to the ambitions of those I wished to raise up. Rather than succumb to their demands, I resorted to the instincts of my original persona. You see, in my youth, I was an agent of terror.

  “I killed because I was trained to, because it was exciting, and because it allowed me to grow the order into which I was born. Thousands of innocent people died when I embraced terror. I was, to be blunt, good at my job. So when I faced challenges to my role in the new order called the Splinter Alliance, I resorted to terror. I killed thousands of people to preserve the future I sought.

  “I destroyed the people closest to me, including a woman who loved me and a boy who depended upon me. I lost my way, but never my dream. That is why I died today.”

  The words choked him up. Amayas reached for a glass of water before he resumed.

  “I pursued a singular outcome no matter the cost, no matter the reach. I denied myself nothing and taught lessons to anyone who defied me. I climbed a mountain meant only for gods. Yet I am just a man, a fact I ignored. My failure is now complete.”

  His features brightened and, for the first time, he smiled.

  “You have a different choice. You will work together as a species not to rise above one another, but to balance your individual needs inside the scales of the common good. This will not be easy, but the Tranteum Conference is a vital beginning.

  “My actions today have given you time. The Swarm no longer have the capacity to tether between universes. However, they are searching for the tools to do so, and I believe they will find a solution inside the next two years. They are bent on nothing less than the utter annihilation of our forty worlds. For the sake of the human race, build a navy. Share your best minds and your best technology. Work hard. Train each other. Mount a great defense and a greater union. Recall every Splinter and lock them away.”

  In the same paragraph, he had uttered a message Kara knew would lift their potential to go forward and simultaneously tear people apart. A great union? Yes! Take back the Splinters? Oh, shit.

  “Finally,” Amayas said, “I ask you not to hold the Aeternans responsible for me. I abandoned them eight years ago. Do not judge my longtime partner, for he believed in my dream and acted without malice toward our member worlds. Do not shun those who acted on my behalf. They were misled. Do not judge the people of Bolivar and Zwahili Kingdom for the actions of a small, misguided minority. Instead, I ask you to work with them to reunite their disruptive voices with the majority who seek better.”

  He knew what problems we’d have to clean up, Kara thought.

  Amayas leaned back and sighed.

  “I wish I had succeeded. I wish many things I can no longer have. I have been a prisoner to the future. No more. When my family name is spoken through the long, dark tunnels of history, I hope they will say that with his final act, Valentin Bouchet tried to do the right thing, something his parents never did. Goodbye.”

  The transmission ended.

  The silence which followed the Cromartie’s death engulfed the bridges again until Dunston broke it.

  “I-I don’t have any words for that.”

  “He confessed,” Kara whispered to Cando. “When this gets out.”

  “It won’t be pretty.”

  “Exonerating all those people will only generate more questions.”

  “He wanted us out here so we could witness his final act in all its glory,” Cando said.

  “Where do we go from here, sweetie? I’m at a loss.”

  Cando stepped forward

  “Capt. Ochoba, Capt. Sangoon, please advise your crew that the vid you just saw is classified until further notice.”

  “Yes, sir,” they complied in unison.

  He nodded to Dunston, who followed up with her bridge.

  “Officers, you are not to speak of these incidents – the destruction of the Swarm vessel or the vid – until further notice. I know I am asking much of you. We will not bury what happened here. But there are a thousand diplomats onboard this cruiser. Their safety is paramount. Do you understand?”

  They stated compliance, although the wrinkles above Dunston’s brows suggested she didn’t know how long they’d keep the secrets.