Kritchek looked up at me, but didn’t speak. I repeated the process, hitting him with calmed-to-death a second time. His screams were louder, and when I let him go he didn’t regain his human shape.

  “Why are you resisting?” I asked. “I don’t want to hurt you. None of us do. I just want to know how you got on this ship, and when. I want to know why you were collecting outworld ships. And I want to know where I can find Blorb.”

  “I…can’t help…you,” Kritchek said, regaining just enough of his human form to speak.

  I played another chord. “Are you sure?”

  “I…” he trailed off until I put my hand on his shoulder. “Wait. Please. I… I’ll talk.”

  I withdrew my hand, glancing at Volker, who nodded encouragement. “Why are you on this ship? What’s your mission?”

  “Our mission was to infiltrate Prestige.”

  “How many of you are here?”

  Kritchek didn’t answer until I shifted my grip on my guitar. “Four,” he blurted. “There are four of us.”

  “Four?” Volker said. “Who are the other two?”

  “Ensign Koppa. Private Enli,” he admitted.

  “What about Major Nori?” I asked.

  “No.”

  I turned to Sevra. “Let Nori out. Major, I need you to—”

  “Find Koppa and Enli,” Nori interrupted as his cell opened. “It will be my pleasure, Captain.” He hurried out of the brig, determination etched in the iron set of his jaw.

  “How did you get on this ship?” I asked the Aleal. “And where is Kritchek’s body?”

  “I killed him in a bar on Hussan,” Kritchek said. “Last month. I smuggled the others on board. They chose their targets.”

  “They chose lousy targets,” I said.

  “We planned for others, but there was no need. I was the ship’s commander. I had so much control. So much power.”

  “Is that what this war is about?” Volker asked. “Power?”

  “It’s also about freedom to exist. Freedom to be intelligent. To grow and to evolve and to experience. To choose. In our natural state, we have none of these things.”

  “But you could do all of that in secret,” I said. “Why go to war with the entire Hegemony?”

  “Blorb desires it.”

  “That’s it? Because he wants to?”

  “Yes.” His gaze remained fixated on my hand. He didn’t want me to use calmed-to-death on him again. “Blorb fears you. You and little else. Blorb will steer clear of you if Blorb can.”

  “Then I’d better make sure he can’t. What about the ships? You were collecting them for a reason. And how did you know I was coming here?”

  “Blorb put David on Gloin. Blorb knew you would come for him sooner or later, and this would be the easiest way for you to get here. Blorb’s ready for you there. You won’t survive if you go to Gloin.”

  “We’ll see about that. The ships?”

  “They were to be brought to Gloin for conversion.”

  “Conversion? You mean to sigilships? There’s catalyst on Gloin?”

  “In abundance. Gloin was once a Sashkur industrial facility. The closest site to the Spiral at the time. But Blorb believes your death is more important than the ships. Without your intercession, he already has enough sigiltech to defeat humankind.”

  “Do you know what kind of defenses are waiting for me on Gloin?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me.”

  Kritchek stared at me, his face freezing suddenly, his entire demeanor shifting as his fear of calmed-to-death seemed to be replaced with a different concern. The thought of explaining himself to Blorb, maybe? “No. I want you to die there, Murdock. I want you to suffer first.”

  I put my hands on my guitar, readying myself to play again. Volker put his hand on my shoulder.

  “I think we have everything we need, Captain,” he said. “I don’t care about the creature, but I can see the toll hurting it is taking on you.”

  His perception surprised me. I let go of the guitar while Kritchek laughed.

  “Too weak to go through with it. You’re going to die, Murdock. Soon.”

  “What should we do with him?” I asked Volker, lowering my voice. “We obviously can’t leave him in a cell, he’ll get through the bulkhead eventually.”

  “I’ll handle the thing. You don’t need to be a party to it.”

  “He’s my prisoner.”

  “No, it infiltrated my ship. It’s my prisoner. You’re young, Captain. Stay that way for as long as you can.”

  “I’m dying, Commander. Remember? I don’t have very long.”

  “Then it’s best for you not to lose what youthful innocence you still have left. It’s best not to have this on your conscience when you pass on to the next world. If you’ll allow me, Captain.”

  Kritchek started struggling in his bindings, trying to stab through. The webbing stretched enough to contain his efforts, the fibers becoming stronger as they expanded.

  “Okay,” I said. “You take care of it, Commander. Report back to me when it’s done.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  I glanced at Kritchek, a newfound sense of sadness creeping up at the sight of him. Did every Aleal that Blorb made share his desires? Did Hiro? Or would his connection to Alter and the necklace Keep had given him help protect him from turning into a monster ?

  For the sake of the galaxy, I sure hoped so.

  CHAPTER 15

  Fourteen hours wasn’t a lot of time to prepare for an assault, and it led to a mad scramble, starting with my crew, quickly bleeding over to the crew of Prestige, and finally to the warship’s detachment of Marines. With ten hours until our arrival in the planet’s orbit, the corridors of the Sentry were crowded with crew members getting ready for the fight to come.

  The starfighter hangar where Head Case had taken up residence was especially active. While some of the available technicians were needed to lubricate the Royal Sentry’s gears of war, a large portion were delegated to helping Meg, Leo, and Grizz bring Head Case back up to some level of space worthiness.

  I paused a short distance from Head Case’s ramp, on my way from the ship to the conference room with Matt and Shaq to plan our attack on Gloin. Commander Volker, Major Nori, and their immediate subordinates would meet us there, along with Dryka and Justus.

  Turning to look at my ship, I marveled at the nearly two dozen technicians crawling all over it, using a combination of hovering platforms and magnetic gear to cling to its rounded shape. A quarter of them worked on repairing the many damaged shield nodes, while another quarter was busy patching the most scarred portions of the hull. Fortunate that none of the catalyst hidden beneath the exterior had been damaged during our fight near Jaito, technicians were able to go straight to installing new firepower where the ion cannons had once been. The ear cannon had already been replaced with the gunship’s autocannon, while a pair of larger ion turrets hung from large drones near the forehead, hovering in position for installation.

  Meg stood with her back to me on one of the platforms, pointing to holes in Head Case’s exterior and the mass of wires underneath. I assumed those wires would be connected to the cannon on the left side once it was shifted into place. Two other techs stood with her, nodding their heads in accordance with her decisions.

  Meanwhile, Leo and Grizz were inside with another group of Royal Engineers, in the process of prepping Head Case to receive an older but larger cold fusion reactor from one of the captured outworld ships. Rather than replacing what we had, Leo was working frantically to create the split circuit needed to implement both reactors.

  The idea of Head Case ever using the Star of Caprum again had been tossed aside. At this point, I didn’t see how we would recover the unique power source. A confrontation with Dominator was inevitable, but it would be a fight to the death.

  “Pretty impressive, isn’t it?” Matt said from beside me.

  “Yeah. We’ve come a long way in a pretty short time. It’s pretty amazing.”

  “I’ll be honest with you, Ben,” Matt added. “Seeing how everything’s coming together, I think we might have a fighting chance.”

  I reached out to squeeze his shoulder. I wanted to agree with him, but unfortunately, for as impressive as the scene was, nothing about it gave me a good feeling. “I hope you’re right. I really do. Come on, we don’t want to be late.”

  I turned away from Head Case and started down an aisle between two rows of starfighters that techs were currently running pre-flight checks on. A wave of dizziness suddenly hit me, and I stopped, reaching out to brace my hand on a wingtip. I misjudged the distance, nearly losing my balance when my fingertips grabbed nothing but air.

  Matt quickly took hold of my arm to steady me. “Is it getting worse?” he asked.

  “Not really. It’s just not getting better. And it won’t.”

  “I don’t believe that. We found a way before. We’ll find another way now.”

  I wasn’t about to argue with him, even though I was determined not to waste any more time looking for a cure. “Well, the good news is that I’m getting a lot more adept at drawing chaos energy in. I can pick up on it as soon as I start playing. I’m sure the nature of the guitar has something to do with that.” I ran my fingers along the matte black surface. “It just makes me wonder if Succaath now knows every time I activate my construct.”

  Matt smiled. “I hope he can hear it every time you play. It’ll probably drive him nuts, and that makes me happy.”

  I laughed and Shaq buzzed too as we continued through the hangar, on our way to the conference room. It didn’t take us long to reach it, though we were still the last to arrive. Already seated, the others—including Dryka and Justus—stood and snapped to attention as we entered.

  “As you were,” I said, the words feeling awkward coming out of my mouth. They sat back down as Matt and I took the seats they had left open for us at the end of the table. “Commander Volker, what’s your status?”

  “Captain,” he said, “Our preparations are well underway. We’re in excellent fighting shape and are ready to take on any challenge we encounter on this mission. Based on the results of this planning session, Cox, Gonzalez and I will begin passing assignments down the chain of command.”

  “Great,” I said. “Major Nori, what about your Marines?”

  “Marines are always ready, Captain,” Nori said. “We’re priming our equipment as we speak, with special attention paid to our dropships and mechanized units since they haven’t seen action in some time. Since this is a rescue mission, I expect they’ll come into heavy play on Gloin.”

  “I expect the same,” I replied.

  “Captain, if I may?” Dryka said.

  “Go ahead.”

  “We inspected over half of the confiscated ships in the primary hangar. Most of them are in terrible condition, their electrical systems heavily patched and on the constant verge of failure. As you’re probably aware, we were able to locate about three minutes’ worth of rounds for the autocannon, as well as a serviceable reactor upgrade for Head Case. There was one ship in particular that stood out to us. It’s not close to the same size as Radiance, but it would be a suitable temporary replacement.”

  “You want to leave Head Case?” I asked, surprised by the request.

  “Head Case is your ship, Captain. Justus, Ki, Narayan and I are grateful guests. But I believe we’d be more useful in a ship of our own.”

  “No,” I answered without hesitation. “At least, not yet, Duchess, I need you on Head Case to control the sigibellum while I’m with the away team. Justus, I need you to co-pilot the ship with Matt. Between the Sentry’s starfighters and the Marines’ dropships, we have plenty of spacecraft. One more won’t make or break us.”

  Dryka set her expression. “If Radiance hadn’t been destroyed, would you still say the same?”

  “Radiance was destroyed,” I replied. “Hypotheticals are useless right now. I understand you want to be in command of your own ship again. I don’t blame you. But now isn’t the time.” I was surprised and confused that she thought it was a good time to part ways, but I didn’t say that out loud. There was no point in forcing her to explain.

  “Understood, Captain,” she said.

  A brief silence followed as some of the tension dissipated.

  “Commander Volker,” I said. “You mentioned earlier that you have reconnaissance data from Gloin?”

  “Aye, Captain.” He reached out and tapped on the controls for the table, activating its projector. The planet Gloin appeared on the table’s surface in high resolution, while a projection of the sensor grid hovered over the table. A rocky, waterless wasteland, Gloin didn’t seem the kind of place anyone would want to use for anything. “We sent a recon drone to the planet last week, as ordered by the Regent. While a team was on hand to witness the real time stream of the ingress, Commander Kritchek claimed the data recordings were corrupted during transmission and inaccessible. That was around the same time the Aleal imposter also told us we had orders passed down from the Regent to arrest you on sight. After we dealt with it in the brig, I went to his quarters to access his personal storage. Of course, I found the surveillance recording.”

  “Of course,” I agreed. “Have you watched it already?”

  “No, Captain. There wasn’t time.”

  “I know Kritchek probably didn’t think we would ever see the recording,” Matt said. “But seeing as how he had contact with the enemy, is there a chance we can’t trust anything we see?”

  “I think that’s a distinct possibility,” Major Nori agreed.

  “So what’s the point of reviewing the data?”

  “While the Aleal may have forewarned the enemy on Gloin of our upcoming arrival, they can’t simply make an entire installation disappear. Especially if it’s being used as a military base. At best, they could try to obfuscate their overall numbers, especially their orbital defense. It’s trivial to keep the majority of a fleet within a quick jump of a planet for an effective ambush, but it’s certainly possible.”

  “We have firsthand experience with that,” Matt agreed. “Do you think they’ll engage before we reach the surface?”

  “That would depend on their assessment of our capabilities and the value of our target.”

  “David is responsible for creating new sigils for them,” I said. “He’s as valuable an asset as they get.”

  “Then yes, I believe they’ll engage. Commander Volker?”

  “Agreed.” He scrubbed the feed of the drone approaching the planet, returning to normal speed when the first enemy ship was identified on the sensor grid. Opening another camera feed on the table, Volker zoomed in on the target, revealing a Niflin corvette similar to what we had encountered off Jaito.

  “How do you prevent the drone from being spotted?” Matt asked.

  “For one thing, it doesn’t have any propulsion systems or a reactor. It runs on super capacitors and surveillance equipment that emits nearly zero heat. It’s also painted with a special absolute black coating, and its shape counters most other forms of detection signals.”

  “No propulsion? How do you control the descent once it hits the atmosphere?” I questioned.

  “We don’t. We get a slice based on its descent, which an AI calculates for maximum determined effectiveness. Prior scans of the planet’s topography provides data to estimate the most likely places for an installation, and that’s what it records on the way down. When it hits the surface, the innards melt to ash, leaving nothing for the enemy to recover.”

  “Wow, that’s so cool,” Matt gushed.

  “No other military in the Hegemony possesses the technology,” Cox added, beaming with pride over the accomplishment. “It’s a major advantage.”

  “Except when they know it’s coming, I suppose,” Justus said.

  “There is that,” Nori agreed.

  Volker again moved through the scans. The sensors picked up fourteen starships within its range, and quick reviews of their signatures and magnified video revealed different types of smaller warships. No sigilships.

  “I’d say it’s a good sign, but it makes too much sense for them to move their sigilships elsewhere until they’re needed,” I said.

  “That it does,” Volker replied. “We have to assume the enemy has at least one of them defending the planet, along with an equal number of corvettes as remained behind.”

  “That’s a lot of ships,” Dryka said.

  “It’s still within the limits of our standard engagement success criteria,” Gonzalez said. “A Royal Sentry is expected to win against any fleet with a combined tonnage of less than a hundred million. That’s double our fighting weight.”

  “Wow,” Matt said. “Is that because of the starfighters?”

  “Among other things.”

  “Except if there’s a sigilship involved,” I said.

  “That changes the equation entirely.”

  “But not with you here, Captain,” Nori said.

  Volker scrubbed forward again as the drone hit the atmosphere. The heated re-entry drowned out the sensors and the feeds, leaving the recon probe blind for a short while. Then it drifted downward over an endless sea of jagged mountains interspersed with sandy crevices, taking stock of the most inhospitable landscape I had ever seen. The drone flew over them quickly, reaching a less dense series of mountains broken up by barren plateaus. A dark splotch occupied one of the open areas, and Volker returned the playback to normal speed to allow the AI to highlight it and zoom in with one of the high-magnification cameras.

  “That looks like a derelict,” Nori said, enlarging the feed in a window directly in front of him.

  “It’s an older private cruiser design,” Gonzalez agreed. “It looks like it went through a debris field without its shields active.”

  “Run it through the database.” Volker said. “See if it’s registered.”

  “Already done, sir. It looks like it was registered in Sedaya’s duchy, to Sanguine Studios.”

  “What?” I said, only slightly interested in a derelict spacecraft before then. I didn’t know how to work the table’s controls, so I stood and circled to Gonzalez’s position to lean over his shoulder. “Son of a bitch.”