The Far Bank of the Rubicon (The Pax Imperium Wars: Volume 1) (35 page)

Stephen laughed firecely at Jonas’ pronouncement. “Jonas, in your heart of hearts, you know that isn’t possible. You read the damage reports from Apollos. From all that returned home, we have cobbled together one fleet of about four hundred and twenty-five ships. Then there is the admirable and undefeated Seventh, with her nine hundred. In total, the remains of the free fleets add up to about thirteen hundred warships.”

Stephen looked to the sky again, caught up in his own vision. “What a glorious and useless defense we could muster against the six thousand ships of the Unity armada arrayed against us. The heroic Admiral Brennen and the great war leader Jonas Athena could go down together in a blaze of glory. A dying candle flame against the onslaught of Unity tyranny. They’d sing songs about it for generations.”

Then Stephen scowled as he burst the bubble of his own vision. “They’d sing songs about it, Jonas, while our people wilted under hopeless tyranny.”

He looked Jonas intently in the eye.

Jonas could feel Stephen willing him to understand.

“If the people of the galaxy are going to find their strength, Jonas, they will need a beacon of light—someone to rally to.”

Suddenly, Jonas understood how his brother saw him—the role he wanted him to play. He still didn’t know what his brother wanted him to do, but that didn’t matter, as Jonas wasn’t about to become what Stephen wanted him to be.

Jonas bolted upright and walked several steps away from Stephen, before turning to face him. “This is insanity. I’m not that person, Stephen. I’m not the Pax Imperium’s messiah. I’m your brother. I’m just a man—and barely that.”

The corners of Stephen’s lips turned up in a grin. “Not to the people, Jonas. To the people, you’re a god come to save them from the Unity.”

Jonas could feel his anger beginning to stew inside. He just wanted Stephen to spit out his idea so that he could turn it down. He answered warily. “What do you want, Stephen?”

Jonas could tell Stephen had anticipated his cool response. He nodded his head ever so slightly as he continued to look Jonas directly in the eye. “I want you to take the Seventh Fleet and run. I want you to keep fighting, even after I surrender. I want you to be a beacon of hope when all other hope is gone.”

“Now I know you’re insane.”

Stephen laughed with an undertone of bitterness. “Dora and I both knew you would respond that way.”

Jonas answered with a near shout. “Who else knows about this ridiculous plot?”

“Only three people. It was my idea to make you a symbol of hope. Dora gave me the idea of using the Seventh Fleet, and she gave me the person to do it with you.”

“Who?”

“Admiral Brennen.”

Jonas cheeks reddened. “Brennen?”

Stephen answered with a surprising calm. It appeared to Jonas as if discussing his plan had given him a resigned peace, equal and opposite to the agitation he previously felt. “Why do you think I had you go with her on the first mission of the Seventh? She’s the best tactician we have in the whole fleet. She’s known about this plan for several months.”

Jonas interrupted, letting his anger show in his sarcastic tone. “Several months!?”

Stephen looked at him amused. “As you said, Jonas, this war has probably been lost from the beginning. It was at least a possibility. After your derring-do on the
Indiana
, the people flocked to you. You became a hero in your absence. Knowing that even then the outcome didn’t look good, Dora and I decided we had to do something. After talking it over, we decided to bring Brennen in on the plan. She chose her whole staff with care, knowing this might be a possibility. All of the crews were hand-picked. All of them know they might be asked to go on long deployments with little or no contact at home. Few, if any of them, are married or have any ties to keep them here.”

Jonas closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. The fact that there had been a conspiracy against him going back several months made his answer all the more certain. “No, Stephen. I won’t do it.”

Stephen laughed again and slapped his thigh. He stood, facing Jonas. “Now, I won the bet! I said you’d turn me down outright. Dora thought you’d ask for time.”

“There has to be another way!”

Stephen smiled at him. “There is, Little Brother. We can go down in glorious defeat. We can die side-by-side as our people are surrendered to the slavery of the Unity, or we can give them time to find out they are strong. We can give them hope.”

Jonas shoulders sagged as he reckoned with the weight of what he had been told.

“Jonas, if you do this for me, I won’t feel alone.”

The look in Stephen’s eye as he spoke told Jonas that it was a well-calculated statement. Jonas was quiet. For a few seconds, he wondered if the whole conversation had been an act to bring him to this point. For a moment he doubted that his brother’s tears had been genuine. Jonas took a deep breath and decided they had been. It was an attack of opportunity, a well-aimed truth which his brother knew would be effective. Jonas couldn’t outright refuse him. The best he could do was sue for time to rebuild his defenses and find another way.

“Give me some time to think it over, Stephen.”

Stephen’s eyes showed that he knew he had beaten his brother, and seeing that, Jonas knew he had been beaten, as well. He would do what his brother asked. He was just trying to pretend that he could say something other than yes.

Stephen nodded. “Of course you can think it over.”

He was quiet for a moment. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees and folded his hands before he went on. “There is a second matter which we must discuss, and I hesitate to bring it up, but it will be important as you make your decision.”

Jonas closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them, he looked up at the sky. “Yes?”

“We have strong reasons to believe that Malek sold us out to the Unity when our fleet was destroyed at Apollos. It seems our friends Jack Halloway and Anna Prindle turned up evidence of a deep cover agent working in the palace on Pontus. Until the fleet was decimated, we weren’t sure whether Malek knew or was being used. We still don’t have hard evidence, but the discrepancy between his losses and the rest of the Allies makes it difficult to think that he wasn’t involved.”

Jonas’ feet ran cold.

Stephen continued. “It’s a problem we have to take care of before I surrender. I have little doubt what price Malek would have demanded for information leading to the defeat of his liege lord.”

Jonas answered bitterly. “Your throne. There’s nothing else in the galaxy Malek wants more than your throne.”

Stephen stood and smiled grimly. “I thought you should know that right now, my head might be a pawn at someone else’s negotiating table. The Seventh may have one more battle to fight before you disappear into the night…” Stephen was quiet for a while as he started to walk back toward the palace. “And I thought you should be the one to tell Sophia.”

It was as close as anyone at the palace had ever come to acknowledging their relationship.

The nightmare startled Jonas awake. In the dark of his room at the palace, he stifled a cry.

Sophia leaned her head back into his chest and mumbled, “Mmyou ok?”

Jonas lied. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Sophia took his hand and placed it on her breast, mumbled “good,” and promptly fell back asleep, as she rubbed the back of her blond curls against him.

As he felt her nipple respond to his touch, Jonas propped himself up on an elbow and watched her. He tried to put out of his head images which had seemed so real seconds before, but the anxieties of the war and the state of constant fear they caused made that nearly impossible.

They had been together, Sophia and he, in his stateroom on the Ares, when suddenly a depressurization alarm sounded. They hunted and hunted to find a pressure suit which would fit her. Then the image shifted and Jonas found himself protected in a suit while Sophia struggled to breathe. Jonas pressed his eyes shut and tried to think about something else.

He was only partially successful.

In the hours since his talk with Stephen, he had been trying to fit Sophia into the plan. No matter what, he couldn’t make it work.

The dream had forced him to face what he feared most. He had no intention of fighting a battle with Sophia on board the Ares. If he died, that would be one thing, but losing Sophia would be another.

That thought helped clear his head. The path forward, at least for Sophia, was clear. If he loved her, he had to do the right thing.

Jonas made up his mind, and in so doing lost all interest in sleep. His heart ached.

Sophia must have sensed his loneliness because, as he watched, her eyes slowly opened, and she rolled over to face him. “Hey? What’s up? Did you have a bad dream?”

Jonas shrugged. “I was just thinking how much I’m going to miss you, when I go back to the fleet.”

“Yes, but you’re here with me now. Focus on that.” She tried to tug Jonas down into a kiss.

Instead, Jonas wrapped his arms around her, pulled her close, and said, “Sophie, there’s something I have to tell you. I don’t think it will shock you, but you won’t like it, but before I say anything, I want you to know I still love you. It doesn’t change anything… It’s about your dad.”

It was a tired Jonas who sat breakfasting with Dmitri the next morning. He and Sophia had talked until the hour before sun up. The mix of rage, fear, and grief Sophia had expressed when confronted with her father’s behavior had left Jonas spent before his day had even started. They both knew the palace was well aware of their relationship. It was one of those known secrets which tended to be left undiscussed in the cramped quarters of the family home. Nevertheless, he and Sophia felt obligated to play the game, so she was always gone before any of the servants started their morning rounds.

She had clearly been nervous when she left. Jonas hated himself for not being completely truthful with her. He had no doubt she knew he had held something back. Although he had been completely honest with her about her father’s betrayal and insisted on telling her over and over how much he loved her and how it didn’t change a thing, he hadn’t told her about Stephen’s plans for him.

He still hadn’t decided how to tell her about that or its implications for them. Jonas rationalized that he would have time. She had agreed to come with him to Pontus, full well knowing the danger. She wanted to help bring the man to justice who had so wounded her. He would tell her then.

Dmitri’s reaction to Stephen’s plan surprised him. They were sitting alone in his quarters at the desk with the white curtains drifting in the gentle breeze from the partially opened windows.

After hearing the idea he hesitated, looking pale. “It really has come to that, hasn’t it?”

Jonas didn’t say anything.

Dmitri drifted into silence, then answered slowly, “I think you should do it.” He paused. “And I will come with you.”

Jonas noticed the deep lines of care as he caught his mentor’s eye. He was incredibly grateful. The whole thing sounded lonely, and he wanted to have at least one familiar face among those surrounding him. “Thank you. I’d hoped you’d say that. It would have been a lot harder to do this without you.”

Dmitri brushed away the compliment with a wave of his hand.

Jonas absorbed the fresh morning air and looked around his room.

His mentor’s decision to come with him was the last straw. He gave up pretending. “I’m going to miss this place.”

“So will I, but we aren’t leaving forever.”

“Aren’t we?”

“I hope not.” Dmitri seemed carried away by his own thoughts for a moment. “No, I don’t believe we’re going away forever. We’ll come back here, you and I.”

Timothy Randall smiled broadly when he stepped into the virtual conference room.

Elijah Summers tipped his head slightly in deference to the man who now controlled the greater share of the galaxy’s resources and people.

Randall smiled warmly and shook his hand, as if he were greeting an old friend. “K!” he said. “It’s good to see you. I hope all is well.”

Summers returned the smile. “Everything is in order, sir. I should be the one congratulating you. I know that you are witnessing the fulfillment of your hopes and dreams for our people. It is truly a great day.”

Randall patted him hard on the back. “Yes, it’s a good day for all of us. We’ve swept away the Empire, and in only a few more days, the remaining resistance will fall. Then we will finally see what humanity can become when all its might and will is put to a singular use. That will be something.”

“Yes, sir. It will.”

Randall helped himself to a cup of virtual coffee, a habit which Summers guessed he kept merely as a matter of course when he entered a conference room, whether virtual or meatspace. He tore open a packet of powdered creamer and then gestured to the three chairs in the room. “Have a seat.”

Summers didn’t take any coffee. He sat and waited.

Randall finished and then sat down across from Summers, facing him. “So, what do you make of our new friend?”

“If I had to describe him in two words, I would say ‘utterly predictable.’ Bruno Malek is a man of appetites, easily managed if the right delicacies are presented to him. To start, he is overly fond of rich food and drink. His body bears the scars. Then there are a string of women who attend to him at night on a regular basis. The night I introduced myself to him he had a fourteen-year-old in a chamber just off the main ballroom of the palace. He seems little interested in anything but that which his animal nature demands of him—food, sex, and survival.”

If Randall found the information distasteful, he hid it completely. Instead, he nodded and said, “That could be useful in the future. Can he be frightened?”

“Most definitely.”

“Would he rebel?”

“Without a doubt, if the opportunity allowed him to advance his position.”

“Can we trust him?”

“At this point, wholly. He has no other place to turn, and he is aware that any attempt to return to the other side, or to assert his independence, would earn him the enmity of what remains of the Unity and the House of Athena.”