Stars of Blood and Glory (34 page)

Abaqa sat down on the couch opposite the
bunk which Jahan had folded up into the wall. Since his brother’s
ship was only a small cruiser, space was tight. Still, with the
ornately woven rug on the floor and the crimson silk hangings, the
room was far from Spartanly decorated. A small, narrow window gave
him a view of the brilliant starfield outside.

“
Here you are,” said Jahan,
returning from the food synthesizer with two glasses of thick,
syrupy juice and a tin of something alcoholic. He set them down on
a mosaic-tiled end table and spiked his own drink before offering
the tin to Abaqa. “You mother wouldn’t want you drinking this, but
it’s time you started acting like a man!”

“
Yes,” said Abaqa softly, taking
the tin. To be polite, he made as if to pour the alcohol into his
juice, but as son as Jahan’s head was turned, he set the tin back
on the tray.

“
So tell me, Brother, how goes
the battle?”

A cloud overshadowed Jahan’s face, like an
impenetrable dust lane before a nursery of young stars. “Not well,
I’m afraid. By now, you’ve heard the news about Tagatai?”

“
I have.”

“
It doesn’t bode well—in fact,
the campaign has all but fallen apart. Almost half a dozen of
Tagatai’s sons have laid claim on the Grand Generalship of the
fleet, and three of them fled the battle of Eyn-Jalla immediately
after the
Demon of Tenguri
was destroyed. Rumor has it that they’re preparing
their forces for some sort of showdown, and the other generals are
bracing for another internecine war.”

Abaqa nodded. “So the Federation will have
to wait, I take it.”

“
That’s right. Though, on the
plus side, there’s no shortage of opportunities now for you to win
glory.”

They drank from their glasses and sat for a
few moments in companionable silence as the weight of Jahan’s words
sank in. Abaqa found himself thinking, oddly enough, of the
planetborn captain whose crew he had helped to save. No doubt the
Federation had already reclaimed the base at the rogue planet and
rescued them. Though he knew he should feel defeated, he couldn’t
help but smile at the thought that her sacrifice hadn’t been in
vain.

“
You seem oddly happy,
considering the events of the past few days,” said Jahan. “But then
again, after all we’ve lost, one should feel happy just to be
alive.”

It was, of course, a roundabout way of
asking about what had happened to him. Abaqa tensed a little, but
he knew there was no getting out of it.

“
That’s true enough,” he said.
“I
did
capture the princess, though—and I would have returned with
her, if Gazan had given me the proper support.”

“
Ah,” said Jahan, raising an
eyebrow. “What was she like? It takes a spirited woman to run away
from home.”

“
Feisty is more like
it.”

Jahan threw back his head and laughed.
“Difficult, eh? It would have been an entertaining challenge to
tame her. But tell me, how did you escape?”

“
It wasn’t easy,” said Abaqa.
“They kept me locked up in a cell like a common prisoner. From
listening to the guards, though, I gathered that they were under
pursuit.”

“
Well of course—the moment I got
your distress signal, I sent out task force to recover
you.”

“
Thank you, Brother. But it
wasn’t until the showdown at the rogue planet that I realized I
needed to take matters into my own hands. After the first attack, I
managed to kill my guards and break out. With all the confusion
from the battle, it was simply a matter of waiting for the right
moment to leave unnoticed in one of the escape pods.”

“
Clever,” said Jahan. “So all of
the Federation lackeys were killed, as you said?”

“
They were.”

“
Then how did the princess
escape? I hear she’s back at her home world, ruling her planetborn
kinsmen.”

Abaqa smiled. “You don’t think I would
escape without the princess, do you? No—I knocked her unconscious
and put her in a pod with an extra supply of air and a disabled
distress signal.”

“
And never told your rescuers
about it?”

“
Of course not! The plan was to
borrow a gunboat, come back for her, and return to Gazan as if I’d
never been captured. The only reason I didn’t follow through was
because our forces were in retreat, and there was no way to recover
her.”

Jahan chuckled and put a hand on his
shoulder. “Abie, I like you. You’ve got quite a flair. If you don’t
get yourself killed, you’re going to go places. I can tell.”

Abaqa nodded and took a sip of his drink.
“How did Gazan fare at Eyn-Jalla?” he asked.

“
Not well,” said Jahan. “He lost
two of his escorts and sustained some heavy damage to his own
flagship. Because he was one of the first to leave the battle, a
lot of the men in the higher ranks are questioning his
loyalty.”

“
I don’t blame them.”

“
Neither do I, but the blow to
his reputation infuriates him. It’s all he can talk about. Frankly,
as one of his sub-commanders, it makes me more than a little
uneasy.”

“
You think he would drag you into
a vendetta to defend his honor?”

“
I have no doubt of it. That’s
why I’ve decided to break ranks and start my own fleet.”

Abaqa’s eyes widened. “Start your own fleet?
Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“
It’s now or never. With Tagatai
gone, it’s going to come to war sooner or later. And even if Gazan
does hold back—which I don’t think he will for a moment—why should
I fight to defend someone else’s honor? There’s a lot more glory to
be won by breaking away, more so now than ever before.”

“
I suppose you’re right. But
still—”

“
Look,” said Jahan, setting down
his glass and laying a hand on Abaqa’s shoulder. “When the campaign
was just getting started, all you wanted was to go out and make a
name for yourself. Now, you seem more worried than my mother. Of
course there’s going to be risk—there’s always going to be. But you
only live once—and the greater the risk, the greater the reward. Am
I right?”

Abaqa smiled. “Yes, you’re right.”

“
Now that’s the Abie I know,”
said Jahan, clapping his hands in delight. “Which brings me to my
request.”

“
Your request?”

“
Yes. If I’m going to start my
own fleet, I’m going to need commanders that I can
trust.”

Abaqa’s heart skipped a beat, and chills
shot from the back of his neck to the end of his fingers. “Y-you
want me to be one of your commanders?” he stuttered.

“
For starters, at least. You
wouldn’t mind trading up from a gunboat to a cruiser, would
you?”

“
Would I ever!” said Abaqa,
barely able to contain his excitement. “I—I’d be honored to fly
with you.”

Jahan smiled as the two of them rose to
their feet. “Then let us make the arrangements at once. And of
course, you won’t always fly under me—once you’ve made a name for
yourself, I imagine you’ll want to start your own fleet. Until that
day comes, let us fly together as equals.”

“
Of course. As equals,
then.”

They clasped arms and hugged each other as
brothers, shoulder to shoulder. Before parting, however, Abaqa
paused.

“
Is something the matter?” Jahan
asked.

“
No, nothing. It’s just—is my
mother at Tajjur with our father?”

“
Yes. Why?”

Abaqa took a deep breath and glanced out the
window, unable to stop thinking about his encounter with the
planetborn. “Before I take command, I would very much like to see
her.”

“
Of course—that doesn’t sound too
difficult. We’ll set a course for the Tajjur system at
once.”

He looked at his brother and smiled. “Thank
you,” he said. “Thank you very much.”

* * * * *

The sun shone brightly through the massive
white clouds that hugged the horizon, offering a moment of calm
amid the storms. Roman took a deep breath of the fresh, wet air as
he led Rina along the red rock terrace. She hesitated, staring out
through across the waves of New Rigel V’s endless ocean. The cool
sea breeze from the open panes in the dome tossed her hair, making
her look like a little girl. Roman stopped and waited patiently for
her, knowing how difficult it must be.

“
Are you sure you have to come
with me?” she asked, still staring at the distant blue
horizon.

“
If I did not, would you come on
your own?”

She bit her lip and shook her head. “No.
Probably not.”

“
Then let us go. They are
expecting you.”

He held out his natural hand, and she
reached up and took it, holding on so tightly that he might as well
have been taking her to her execution.

They rounded a corner and stepped into a
large alcove, with colorful woolen hangings over rust-red sandstone
walls. Tall, thin palm trees lined the open-air space, the hairy
bark fluttering ever so slightly in the breeze. On the brick floor
at the center of the alcove, two little children played, while
their parents watched from a bench on the opposite side.

Rina’s muscles grew tense. Roman squeezed
her hand to reassure her, and she took a few steps forward.

The man was the first to see them. He looked
older than the one in Rina’s nightmare, but Roman recognized him
all the same. He nodded and turned to her wife, who looked up at
once. The moment her eyes fell on Rina, she gasped and leaped to
her feet, running over to throw her arms around her long-lost
sister.

“
Rina!” she cried, talking
quickly in her native language. Roman stepped back to give them
space as they embraced.

“
Mira,” Rina whispered, burying
her head in her sister’s shoulder. The husband walked up and
offered Roman his hand.

“
Thank you,” he said simply,
looking Roman in the eye. “How did you find her?”

“
It is long story. I think
perhaps you should ask her.”

The husband nodded, tears filling his eyes.
Roman remembered the urgency in his voice from Rina’s memory, and
realized that he had blamed himself for the way that she had run
away. It probably wasn’t merited, of course—so few of the ways that
people deprecated themselves were deserved. After so many years,
Roman knew this all too well.

“
Thank you so much!” said the
woman, smiling over Rina’s shoulder. She hugged her sister close,
as if to never let go.

“
It is no problem,” he
said.

As Rina’s long-lost family talked with her
in their own language, her face lit up in a way that made Roman
smile. Tears streamed from her face, and he felt as if he were in
her dream again. In his infrared vision, Rina seemed almost to
glow.

Live, Roman,
Danica’s words came
to him.
That’s an order.

Yes, Captain,
he thought to
himself as he turned away from the happy reunion.
I believe I
will.

Epilogue

Captain Roman Andrei Krikoryan
held his breath as the jump drive hummed through the bulkheads of
the
Danica
Nova
. A
dizzying haze clouded his vision, and for a very brief moment he
was tempted to shut off his physical consciousness. He hadn’t done
that since the Rigelan job, but that wasn’t why he kept his eyes on
the forward window.

After a short, stomach-turning jolt, they
were through. The milky starfield of deep space transformed into a
golden-yellow planet with a deep blue horizon. At the sight, an
audible gasp went up around the bridge.

“
The coastline—the
mountains—”

“
Is that
Akhalikavkaz?”

“
Look! The oceans are blue—with
clouds!”

Roman narrowed his eyes. The planet before
them bore little resemblance to the homeworld of his youth, but
even so, he couldn’t help but feel his emotions rise as he looked
down on it. The land was mostly brown, pocked with hideously large
craters and long gray lava flows, but pockets of green had emerged
along the familiar coastline, and the alluvial plans were checkered
with farms and cities.

“
It’s—it’s beautiful,” Maia
whispered. As her husband stood up and put his arm around her
waist, the bulkheads reverberated with the sound of dozens of
voices joined in the revolutionary hymn. Roman would have joined in
himself, but was too choked up to do so.

“
What a sight,” said Corporal
Tajjashvili, grinning from ear to ear. “That Hameji prince really
is a man of his word, isn’t he? I guess I lost that
bet.”

Roman chuckled. “Have you ever been so happy
to lose?”

“
Never, my friend. Absolutely
never.”

“
It’s not the same as it was,”
Yuri said, clenching his fists as he surveyed the partially
shattered world. “It will never be the same.”

“
No,” said Maia, “but we’ll
rebuild. Won’t we, Captain?”

“
Yes,” said Roman. “We
will.”

She smiled and put a hand on his arm, as if
to share in his moment of tenderness. Even though he couldn’t feel
her touch through the metal casing, he appreciated the gesture.