“Very well, Cornica,” Mareliux says. “At ease. And sit down, or get a drink, for all the gods’ sake. We’re all friends here, and we won’t be too formal just now. I intend to make you a party to a state secret that was of great importance but has now lost most of its meaning. It will lose all of it in ten days. And yet I will expect you to keep completely quiet about it. Nobody may know. Nobody, for as long as you live. If you don’t want to hear the secret, you may wait outside.”
The messenger’s tendrils go red at the tips. “I’m an Imperial Messenger of Cornica rank, sir!” she says firmly. “If I could notbe trusted with secrets, I could have requested a transfer to a combat unit!”
Mareliux chuckles at the force in her voice. “Of course, of course. Do forgive me, Cornica. I didn’t mean to imply that you can’t be trusted. Here is the secret, and you may want to listen too, Nerox: Umbra and I aren’t really married. The wedding was a sham, and the quaestor is right when he says that we are not a married couple. The Emperor thinks we are, and we want him and everyone else to keep thinking so until we go through the real wedding here on Khav in ten days.”
I have the pleasure of seeing Prince Nerox astounded. “You’re not…” His jaw hangs for three heartbeats, and then he laughs. “They sayI’mdevious! And here I’m being outfoxed by the most honest, most dutiful, most boring, and most proper man in the Empire! Oh, this is too much!” He roars with mirth, his drink spilling out. It’s an infectious laugh, and I find myself chuckling, too.
“Wait,”Bellatriz says from Mareliux’s belt. “Before more state secrets are being revealed, I thought we would talk about Juriniel’s spaceship. The one that was a prison for both Khavgren legionnaires and alien soldiers, and where she had a botanical garden in orbit and where she was in command of a great deal of Vyrpy aliens. Do we know how that ship was in orbit for many years without anyone noticing?”
“We do,” Sigise says. “If I may, sir?”
Mareliux nods. “You may, General. And from now on, nobody may ask for permission to speak in this room. That goes for you too, Cornica Espi. If you have something to say, say it. And as you can hear from listening to Prince Nerox, the thingyou intend to say doesn’t even have to make much sense. Yes, General?”
Sigise stands up, glass in hand. “I have simply checked the records, sir. The shipMerxastcame to Khav two years before Craxallo married Juriniel. It was a gift from an obscure alien race that we never heard of again, and which may well never have existed. The Navy thinks the ship was how that Phrexz impostor came to Khav in the first place. It may be a Phrexz ship, or it may have been conquered from some other civilization. As a gift, it was designated an Emperor’s Own ship while the Navy waited for the Emperor to forget about it, so that they could scrap it.”
“Ah,” Nerox says, having collected himself after the surprise. “That’s how it all works in bureaucracy. Just wait it out. Soon someone will retire or be promoted, and then the office will forget what they were waiting for.”
“She said it was her ship,” I confirm.
“After he married Juriniel,” Sigise goes on, “she expressed an interest in the ship and was even taken on a tour of it. She asked if theMerxastcould remain in orbit around Khav, because she had vague plans about turning it into a sanctuary for threatened plants from many worlds that were a part of the Empire. The Navy didn’t like the idea, but the admiral in charge had no choice because Juriniel was the newly married Empress and the request seemed innocent and not too costly. She made many trips up to that ship, always alone. There are records of other spaceships coming from other planets. They would dock with it, stating to traffic control that they were bringing samples of plants for the Empress. Which they may well have done, but we now know that they were mostly bringing prisoners and Vyrpy.”
“Keeping our own legionnaires as prisoners around Khav itself was a particularly nasty idea,” Mareliux growls. “I’m sure it was meant to further torment them.”
Sigise takes a sip of her drink. “Apparently that was not the point. The Phrexz needed someone to practice its evil Syntrix skills on. It used the prisoners that the Vyrpy supplied from their battles and conquests. It was a horrific situation for them. Many died from that Syntric torture.”
“So theMerxastwas how the Phrexz alien came to Khav, and it was also how it was able to practice and hone its Forbidden Arts until it was strong enough to use them,”Bellatriz sums up. “That makes it even more mysterious how theMerxastgave the right password to Princess Umbra and General Grast when they came up from Khav, escaping the Phrexz and wanting to find the ship that would take them to Earth.”
I look at Sigise. “I think theMerxastwas controlled by an AI that impersonated a Navy officer. Right? He replied with a joke, didn’t he?”
“Abadjoke,” Sigise replies, “so I was sure it was real Navy personnel. But an AI can easily pretend to be a person. It’s not allowed in the military, but the Phrexz didn’t care about that. I am concerned that it knew the password. That should not have been possible.”
“Who knew the password?” I ask. “I did, of course. Sigise. Mareliux. Maybe Sigise’s crew?”
“My whole team knew,” Sigise says. “But none of them would betray you, Princess Umbra.”
“And the ship I arranged as the real escape ship,” Mareliux says. “It was in orbit too. In fact, it still is, just waiting. I doubt theyknow about the recent events in detail. Remind me to tell them to stand down. But only the captain would know the codeword. I can’t imagine Captain Herepat giving it to anyone. She’d rather die.”
“You want to say something about now, Vera?”Bellatriz asks, her voice icy for a change.
I tap the AI I still have on my wrist. “My Vera? She’s been dead since the fight with Juriniel.”
“Areyou dead, Vera?”Bellatriz persists. “Or do you really want this to go on?”
The room goes quiet as everyone stares at my wrist.
“I’m not dead,”Vera finally says.
52
- Umbra-
Vera’s screen is still dark. Her voice is lifeless and generic, sounding like she was restored to factory settings.
“Vera!” I exclaim. “Are youalive?!”
“I chose to stay inactive after I saw Empress Juriniel aboard theMerxast.”
I’m so surprised I just stare. “Didn’t the Vyrpy burn you out with those cattle prods they used?”
