Hellhole (70 page)

She spoke in a firm voice, her words filled with great tragedy and compassion. “The Constellation finds itself confronted with some of the worst crises in our history, and all at the same time.” She raised her ring-studded hands. “General Adolphus’s unlawful declaration of independence, the revelation of his clandestine stringline network that would ruin the Constellation’s economy . . . and a resurrected alien race on Hallholme that has subverted human minds and is planning an expansion that threatens us all.”

Thick sadness deepened in her voice, even as the audience muttered and gasped. “My daughter Keana has herself been possessed by one of these aliens. The enemy has co-opted her, no doubt to use her against us. She is lost.”

Michella took several moments to compose herself – in a calculated fashion, Ishop thought – before she continued. “Recently, a group of alien-possessed converts came to spread their infection across Sonjeera. Once corrupted by Xayan slickwater, such people break all loyalties with the government and their own race. I shudder to think what would have happened if they’d been able to run loose among the Crown Jewels, but I intercepted them in time to stop this terrible threat against humanity. I saved us all – for now.”

She had already released images of the hideous slug-alien, much to the horror of the populace. “However, back in the Deep Zone those aliens are still allied with General Adolphus, and no doubt continue to draw their plans against us.” She paused for the rush of angry muttering, which came exactly as anticipated.

“In direct violation of the terms of his exile, General Tiber Adolphus has refused to cooperate with Constellation representatives and has intentionally engaged in a campaign of misinformation. As the revelation of his new stringline network proves, as well as taking charge of all fifty-four Deep Zone worlds, he has become more of a rogue than ever. Even some of the DZ planetary administrators have joined his movement, and one of our loyal territorial governors has been overthrown and imprisoned.”

Ishop saw that her face was red with a rage that did not seem feigned. She took a moment to compose herself. “The General is building a large military force to stand against us. His alien allies are probably spreading their contamination throughout the Deep Zone as we speak. Adolphus and his followers leave us no choice. The sooner the Constellation moves against him, the better.”

Michella spoke faster and with great sincerity. “Lords and Ladies of the realm, justice is clearly on our side. When Adolphus diverts revenues from us, he robs the Constellation of funds that we use to support our standard of living and strengthen our worlds. Because of his treachery, schools will close and innocents will starve.” She shook her head. “In my benevolence a decade ago, I gave that man a second chance, allowed him to live. But now it’s obvious that we should have executed the General at the end of his rebellion in order to protect the Constellation.”

“Kill the traitors!” a man shouted from the audience. An angry din arose in the chamber. “Kill the aliens! Kill them all!”

The Diadem had to raise her voice to be heard over the noise as she dropped her last bombshell. “And, judging by Adolphus’s irrational and suicidal actions, I believe he is himself possessed by an alien and intends to strike against the Constellation on behalf of the Xayans!”

Ishop was impressed by the way she managed to outrage the audience. The population of the Crown Jewel planets would be putty in her hands; they’d rush in droves to climb aboard military stringline ships to crush Hallholme. He had learned a great deal from her on his own path to power.

As the uproar slowly died down, Michella raised her fist. “Lord Selik Riomini has prepared the Army of the Constellation, and now we are ready. We intend to strike planet Hallholme with the full force of our military.”

In a great upward motion like a storm-swelled tide, the dignitaries surged to their feet, cheering. They wanted blood.

B
ack at Elba, clinging to a last normal evening, the General tried not to let Sophie see his tension.

Now that he had dropped all pretenses and declared his independence from the Constellation, he no longer considered himself bound by the terms of his surrender vows and his exile agreement. He would go where he wanted to go and do what needed to be done. But, oddly enough, he felt no desire to leave Hellhole, not yet. Not until this was over.

He had plenty of experience coping with battlefield jitters. Sophie was nervous enough for both of them, and she didn’t fool him when she feigned nonchalance with lighthearted comments. “So what do you think of our chances, Tiber? The pieces have come together the way we expected – for the most part.”

Nevertheless, Adolphus was very glad to have her company. He leaned back in his chair, and in a thoughtful tone said, “Battlefield commanders must not allow themselves to feel anything but optimism, faith, and fervor before an engagement, even in private. And to be honest, at any point along the way, the Diadem could have discovered what we were up to, sent in her troops, and seized all of us. We actually made it to the endgame.”

“A dangerous game,” she noted.

The General let out a sigh. “Because of logistical challenges, the Constellation would never go to war with fifty-four planets at the same time. We need to exploit that to the extent we can, make them think we have more forces than we do. This will involve some guerrilla attacks on our part, but we also have to defend the stringline termini at a number of key Deep Zone worlds. If all else fails, I’ll cut the lines.”

Sophie’s gray eyes opened wide. “You’d actually sever the stringlines to Sonjeera? If you do, there’ll be no going back.”

He waited a long moment before answering. “The new network makes us all independent from the Crown Jewels. A good commander considers every option.”

“You are a
great
commander, but I’m still worried. The old bitch’s wrath is nothing to be taken lightly.”

“The Army of the Constellation is bloated and unwieldy, unpracticed, possibly even incompetent. Some of their commanders are less than top-notch, promoted because of family connections, not skills. But the Diadem does have plenty of ships, no disputing that. And if we do cut the stringlines, they’ll still lumber toward us, even if it takes months or years.”

“But we’ll have months or years to get ready for them,” Sophie said. “And so long as you know where they’re heading, we’ll have all the time in the world to use our
fast
stringlines to gather Deep Zone defenses, including your old fleet. We’ll be ready and waiting for them.”

He smiled at her. “I wish all of my own commanders saw the picture as clearly as you do, Sophie.”

Adolphus regarded the wall chart showing all the DZ planets strung together with a web of scarlet pathways that radiated from Hallholme. The bright red made him think of bloodlines, vital connections that ensured survival. A second web of old connections, marked in blue, emanated from Sonjeera. For an energetic economy and civilization, he would have preferred to keep both networks online while building several new hubs. But Michella would never allow that, not without a fight.

Sophie interrupted his thoughts. “But they still have some formidable leaders and thousands of battleships to throw against us. Do you think the Army of the Constellation will dust off Percival Hallholme and send him after you again?”

Adolphus slowly shook his head. “Oh no, not him. Commodore Hallholme broke his own personal code to achieve that final victory, even though he did it under direct orders.
He
was defeated in a more fundamental way than we were. Even though they painted him as a great hero, he was morally humiliated.” The General remained silent for a long moment. “That doesn’t mean Michella won’t find some other unprincipled lackey to do her dirty work, though.”

The unknown factor in all their plans was the Xayans. With their powers of telemancy and their mysterious racial goal of
ala’ru
, no one could say what they might do, what role they could play. But they had promised to help. And Keana Duchenet had become one of them.

Yesterday, Rendo Theris had sent him an urgent message from the Ankor hub, along with blurry images of the unexpected vessels that had appeared around the orbital complex, scanning the structures before flying away. The probe ships had taken no overt action against Ankor, sent no signal from the Constellation, and neatly avoided all of the facility’s defenses. They had merely appeared for a few moments, observed, and departed.

The General had already assigned his engineers to study the images, but the unusual, fast-moving ships fitted no known configuration. Even Ian Walfor had no idea what they might be.

He hadn’t imagined the stodgy Constellation would ever develop such innovative spaceflight technology. The old government had long been content to milk the existing system, and Adolphus was disquieted to see these hints of bold imagination. He wondered what the Diadem was up to. It was a reminder that he could not anticipate every scenario, and that he needed to be alert, prepared for anything.

Though it was late at night, a flustered Craig Jordan hurried into the General’s private drawing room. Ordinarily, the security chief would have been hesitant to interrupt his quiet time with Sophie. “Sir, we have a security situation, and I – I don’t know what to do about it. There are visitors outside asking to see you.”

“Visitors?”

“A lot of them, sir.”

Setting aside his wine glass, Adolphus left the quiet sanctuary, realizing that his last peaceful moment might already have ended. He hadn’t even managed to relish it. He and Sophie stepped out onto the wooden porch, astonished by what they saw.

A crowd had gathered there in eerie silence. Hundreds and hundreds of people had arrived without fanfare and surrounded the residence house. When he saw Peter Herald, Tel Clovis, and dozens of other familiar converts among them, he realized they were all shadow-Xayans.

Sophie was running the numbers in her head. “Tiber . . . this might be
all
of the converts.”

Up front, as their speaker, stood Keana-Uroa. “Yes, we have all come because our message is so important. A grave thing has occurred.” Behind her stood Devon-Birzh and Antonia-Jhera, holding hands.

Adolphus had received plenty of disheartening battle reports in his day. It was better to know the truth and be prepared than to remain blissfully ignorant. “Tell me.”

“Diadem Michella has murdered Zairic, Cippiq, and all of the other shadow-Xayans we sent as emissaries to Sonjeera. The whole delegation was executed. We sensed it through telemancy.”

Sophie gasped. “That’s appalling! They were our spokesmen. Oh, poor Vincent! And Fernando – how could she just kill them?”

Adolphus said, “I’m not surprised at all.”

Keana’s voice loosened and became her own natural voice. “I agree with you, General. Knowing my mother, I should have prepared them better, but Zairic was so confident. Long ago he unified the Xayan race, and I thought the Diadem would listen to him.”

“This means she’s no longer hesitating.” The General turned to Sophie. “There isn’t as much time as I’d hoped. The Army of the Constellation will be on its way. We had better expect the worst.”

Keana-Uroa stepped forward, and when she spoke her voice was clear and sharp, but with an added reverberation as every one of the shadow-Xayans echoed the same words, the same intonation. “We are ready to help, General Adolphus.”

A chill breeze passed through the air. Keana’s lips quirked in a secret smile and she spoke in her own voice. “My mother will be in for quite a surprise when she sees what we can do.”

O
n Aeroc, the broad and vacant prairie had become an improvised military camp, hastily erected. Under the fresh but stern command of Red Commodore Escobar Hallholme, the officers set up new divisions and prepared for a coordinated attack against planet Hallholme and the other unruly DZ planets. Out of the 182 noble families, major and minor, every one of them contributed to the new war effort.

From the patio balcony of Supreme Commander Riomini’s palatial home, Michella Duchenet could not see the limit of the gathered forces as they stretched across the prairie. Munitions, soldiers, and supplies would all be loaded into military upboxes, and troop transports to be carried up to the stringline terminus above Aeroc. From there, the Constellation’s largest military ships would travel to the Sonjeera hub, and from there transfer out to the Deep Zone.

Lord Riomini, Bolton Crais, and Escobar Hallholme stood beside her at the balustrade of the wide stone balcony. Fifty other officers were gathered outside on the balcony, most of them men. Since dawn, they had been going over tactical decisions in the Black Lord’s ballroom, which had been converted into a war room. Now, they would all share a sendoff toast in the cool late afternoon.

The ships would strike Hallholme first and destroy the illegal string-line hub. That would cut off General Adolphus from any help he might expect from his fellow Deezee traitors. Then they would proceed to dismantle the illegal operations, execute the General, burn the shadow-Xayan camps, and pave over the slickwater pools.

Afterward, her forces would proceed to the other Deep Zone planets and strike them one by one. Those fools didn’t have a chance. Michella allowed herself a small smile of anticipation.

Two servants moved among the officers on the patio balcony, distributing glasses of sparkling Qiorfu wine. It seemed appropriate to drink a vintage made from grapes that the Adolphus family had once cultivated. Michella accepted her own glass but didn’t sip yet. She waited for the others to be served.

“This is the largest task force ever assembled in Constellation history,” Lord Riomini said. “More than enough to annihilate the rebel bastards.”

“I think it’s excessive,” mumbled Bolton Crais, who had been giving logistical advice to his superior officers.

Escobar glared in his direction. “Not excessive, Crais. Reassuring. We do have to make our point. It’s good to give the military a real purpose again.”