The Phoenix War (13 page)

Calvin believed that to be a much more likely
case than the frightening suspicion that the princess was behind
those evil deeds. Especially since, if he couldn’t trust Kalila,
that didn’t leave him with much. He believed in humanity, he
believed in preserving his species, and their proud, rich
traditions, but if he couldn’t trust Kalila… who was left to trust?
Who could he support? Not Raidan’s Organization, surely. He knew
what they Organization were capable of… which left him with only
the corrupt Assembly, which had proven itself easily deceived and
manipulated by corrupt interests such as the Phoenix Ring—for all
he knew the murderer of the king was an Assembly member himself.
Perhaps Caerwyn Martel. His brother Zane had been a Phoenix Ring
leader after all, maybe Caerwyn was one of them too. If nothing
else, the fat politician was reaching for the throne, serving only
his own best interests, not those of the Empire. Calvin could never
support the Assembly, not in its current state.

Which meant, if he couldn’t trust Kalila,
there was no one left to trust.

I wish I was on my ship
, he thought
again. Or somewhere else, at the very least. Somewhere far away.
But that forlorn wish was unattainable. For now he had to weather
the storm, trust his instincts, throw his lot behind Kalila, and
hope against hope that somehow the Empire would survive, that
Kalila would prove the kind of leader her ancestor was—the man
who’d originally united humanity into a single Empire. Because, if
she failed…

Calvin imagined Rotham ships burning and
pillaging human worlds everywhere. Followed by the death-black
ships of the Dread Fleet, leaving nothing behind. Human planet
after human planet falling. Until they’d been wiped from the
galaxy. And that was assuming the isotome weapons didn’t reappear.
If they did
…

He shivered as a sudden chill overcame
him.

I need to get it together
, he
realized, wanting relief from his depressing thoughts. Knowing the
crushing feeling of despair, while perhaps founded on very tangible
fears, was mostly just the after effect of equarius. Or so he
hoped…

His comm beeped. Calvin climbed out of bed to
answer it. It was the bridge requesting his presence immediately.
The comms chief didn’t say why, just that it was urgent. Obviously
something important was about to happen. He wondered what it
was.

Could it be the enemy fleets bearing down on
them? He doubted they could muster their forces so quickly. But if
the Assembly did ultimately decide to throw their starships against
them, despite the strength that Kalila and Raidan had amassed, it
wouldn’t be good. He couldn’t guess who would emerge the victor of
such a bloody slaughter, but he could imagine it would leave
humanity all but defenseless against alien invasion.

As Calvin left his quarters he did not walk
to the bridge, he ran.

***

Caerwyn watched the large display screen. So
did everyone else. And anyone whose eyes weren’t glued to the large
display at the front of the chamber was certainly watching his own
personal display—the message was on all channels and frequencies.
As far as Caerwyn could tell, it was being broadcasted to every
outpost, starship, colony, and planet in the Empire.

“…the usurpation of power by members of the
Assembly and many of the elites within our military is not only
against our great political tradition—throwing our sovereign Empire
into peril, it is also a declaration of war against the citizens of
this great nation,” Princess Kalila Akira was saying. Her face was
the main object in focus but two men could be seen in the frame,
standing a ways behind her. One was the former Executor of the
Empire, the young and impetuous Calvin Cross. The other was a man
whose face Caerwyn didn’t recognize, but he wore a navy uniform
with a captain’s insignia which he meant he was probably the
commander of the Black Swan.

Caerwyn frowned, paying close attention to
the Princess’s rhetoric for anything he could use against her in
his own address to the Assembly, which he was already planning.

“My father, King Hisato Akira, the rightful
monarch of our Empire, was slain on the Assembly Floor. Murdered, I
have no doubt, by the same conspirators who have taken root in the
Assembly, and at the highest levels of our military, to steal the
Empire away from the people who formed it. To enrich and empower a
few corrupt individuals at the expense of the safety and well-being
of humanity as a whole. And now they have committed regicide and
murdered the king, a king who was a good man, a king who deeply
loved the Empire and her citizens. He bled to keep us all safe
during the Great War, he led and guided us, but now he can protect
us no more. And we must look to new leadership, if we are to
endure.”

Here it comes
, thought Caerwyn. He
knew the princess was going to challenge the power of the Assembly,
to steal away whatever meager portion of humanity she could to
rally to her banner. But in the end, her efforts would prove
fruitless and insufficient, Caerwyn knew. Once he finally united
the Assembly behind him, naming him the new monarch, Kalila’s claim
to the throne would evaporate, as would her support. Only the most
ardent and fanatical Akiraphiles would remain loyal to her, and
Caerwyn would sweep them away with a wave of his hand.

“The Assembly called the king to the Assembly
Floor to address them, and as he did, he was murdered! And
strangely the murderer has yet to be found,” said Kalila. “I say to
you all that the king was lured there! Lured for the purpose of
arranging his death! There can be no mistake! And on top of his
death, my own brother and sisters were similarly slaughtered by the
terrible plans of a corrupt and selfish few. An evil group who
arranged for four royal deaths to happen in less than an hour, and
no doubt wanted five—I only escaped them because I was on my ship,
surrounded by my loyal crew, outside their reach. But I’m sure they
are working hard, even now, to remedy that and destroy me too. But
I shall not let them! No more than I shall let them destroy the
future of this Empire.
Our
future. With your help,
we
will stop them. We must! And we shall restore this great nation to
her true glory!”

This will be useful
, Caerwyn thought
as he listened. The princess was making a heartfelt appeal that
would no doubt win her some support, at least in the short term,
but she also made herself out to be desperate, and Caerwyn was sure
he could use this broadcast to demonstrate how weak the Princess
was, grasping almost blindly for straws.

“When the King stood before the Assembly, in
those last few minutes of his life, he never once said anything
that could be interpreted as surrendering the throne to the
Assembly. He did
not
abdicate. He did not accept the
Assembly’s judgment that the throne should be taken from him. He
held it until the end, and planned to protect and defend the
citizens of the Empire with every breath. That was his one mandate.
He remained protector and defender of the realm until his eyes
closed that final time. And when he died, the throne passed to his
heir. I am his lone surviving child, I am the last of his name, I
am his only heir. It is not a mantle I ever wished placed upon
myself, and indeed the burden of defending the Empire, and caring
for the welfare of humanity, is a heavy one. But I
shall
carry it.

“I address you now as
Queen
Kalila
Akira, Heiress to the Andrevine, and Sixth Monarch of the Empire. I
call upon all loyal citizens to support me. To all members of our
military who still love the Empire to rally behind my banner. And
to all Representatives of the Assembly, any who still remember
their duty to care above all for the well-being of the citizens
they represent, to cast your voices behind me. Support me. Help me
save this Empire. Now is our only chance and we must act swiftly.
Even now the crows and vultures are circling, just outside human
space, waiting for the ideal moment to attack. Let us stand
together united, right now, and not give them that chance. My
father never yielded, and neither shall we! Support the Queen. Save
the Empire.”

With that, the broadcast ended and the
display winked off. Immediately the chamber filled with commotion
as the nearly four-hundred representatives, all present, discussed
this new development among themselves. Representative Tate struck
her gavel three times.

“
Order
on the Assembly Floor,” she
said forcefully. She repeated herself twice before silence returned
to the chamber. “We have before us a declaration from Kalila Akira
that she is the rightful monarch of the Empire.”

Caerwyn stood up and switched on the
microphone in his hand. It was a breach of the Assembly’s rules,
but he had to get the matter resolved as soon as possible, and not
let the Princess’s claims—the self-declared Queen—fester in the
minds of his fellow Representatives. “Kalila Akira has no claim to
the throne,” said Caerwyn, interrupting Representative Tate very
briefly. Before he could continue, he himself was interrupted.

“Point of order,” said Lady Florence, rising
from her seat on the dais near his. All of the Lords and Ladies of
the major Houses had taken their seats on the dais and would
continue to do so until they’d successfully elected a new king.
That king will be me
, thought Caerwyn. Florence continued,
“Representative Martel is out of order. He did not have the
floor.”

“I’ll allow it,” said Representative Tate.
“The matter of Kalila Akira’s claim to the throne is now open for
debate.”

“We cannot recognize her claim,” said
Caerwyn. “To do so would not only be illegal, it would further
fracture the Empire by encouraging more starships, planets, and
citizens to take part in Kalila Akira’s insurrection.”

“We have voted eleven times to elect a king
and eleven times we have failed to choose one. This Empire is
already fractured, it’s fractured because it lacks leadership.
Kalila is offering us that much needed leadership, on what basis
would such a well-timed, well-needed offer be illegal?” replied
Lady Florence.

“This body voted successfully to enact the
Sovereignty Clause of the Imperial Charter, Article One. That
clause gives us the power the remove the throne from the monarch
and establish a new leader. We voted to remove. Therefore it must
follow that the claim to the throne and all of its relevant powers
belongs to the Assembly now and not the spawn of Hisato Akira.”

“By my clear reading of the text,” said Lady
Florence, “the power of the throne remains in the hands of the
monarch until a new monarch is chosen, so the Empire may never
experience a moment when it is without a leader. We
need
a
leader.”

“That is one interpretation, yes,” said
Caerwyn. “But to abide strictly by such an interpretation would be
to place the reigns of the Empire in the hands of a corpse. The
monarch we voted to replace is dead, so we must expediently and
swiftly elect a new one.”

“Not so,” said Lady Florence. “The
interpretation I speak of, which is the interpretation any thinking
person would reach after reading the Imperial Charter, would not
put the crown atop the late King Hisato Akira’s head. It would
follow the normal rules of succession and pass to his oldest child
during the interim period where we have yet to elect a new leader.
And Kalila has just told us she accepts the burdens of that
leadership.”

“Nowhere in the language of the text can you
make the claim that succession enters into it at all,” said
Caerwyn. He looked over the vast audience as they seemed to be
scrambling with their displays to call up copies of the Imperial
Charter and re-read them for the thousandth time. He smiled,
knowing that there were no rules within the document for what to do
when a king’s throne has been recalled yet he dies before a new
king is chosen. “There are no rules governing this situation.”

Lady Florence seemed momentarily tongue-tied,
much to Caerwyn’s pleasure. “Which means,” Caerwyn continued, “we
must look to ourselves, our authority as the people’s
representatives, and our own wisdom to determine what course is
best. I say that we proceed with elections and finally decide upon
a leader. Let this be the day that we vote to unite.”

“You’re right, Mister Martel,” said Lady
Florence. “There are no rules governing this exact situation. Just
as there is no rule and no precedent, and therefore no reason, to
think that the invocation of the Sovereignty Clause against King
Hisato Akira still applies now that he is tragically deceased. I
say that the vote we made is now nullified, on the basis that no
law can be binding upon a deceased person.”

It was a clever argument, Caerwyn had to
admit. But not a strong one. “If this were a trial and we were
arraigning charges against Hisato Akira’s person, his status as
deceased would be a perfectly acceptable defense, and it would be
proper, just as Lady Florence suggests, for us to dismiss the legal
matter as no longer pertinent. But, as it happens, the execution of
the Sovereignty Clause is not a charge against a person, it is a
vote to reform the government. It is a vote of structure and
restructure, not an issue affecting a man, but rather a motion
affecting an Empire.”

Representative Tate smacked her gavel once
and spoke. “The debate considering the invocation of the
Sovereignty Clause charter is already resolved, it came to vote and
this Assembly voted in the affirmative. Representative Martel is
correct, the clause is active. What remains is for the Great Houses
to select a new king, and for this body to determine who safeguards
the powers of the monarchy until a new monarch is chosen.”

“I say that it must be Kalila Akira,” said
Lady Florence. There were a few shouts of “aye” and “hear, hear”
from the lower balconies. Though most of the nearly-four hundred
assembled remained silent, which Caerwyn took as a good sign.
“Kalila is the last living Akira, the throne must pass to her. At
least during the interim period. Who else could it pass to?”