The Testimony of the Right Honorable Erich of Frostbane, Ta’al of Volparnu and Grand Vizier of the Skarsian Matriarchy
Let’s see…where are we? I’ve been reviewing the transcripts of Danak’s accounts. It took me a moment to figure out who the hell Princes Michael and Donovan were. Danak must be the only one who refers to Mickey and Chase by those names.
I believe my part of the story resumes when I received a message from Rosencrantz, the commander of the K’ntasari boarding party. Shakespearian names are extremely popular among K’ntasari, do you know that? And not because any of them have read Shakespeare, either. I find that most amusing.
“It was not what we expected,” Rosencrantz reported. “Once we were on ship, there was a moment of hesitation and then a mass panic. The officers are confused and frightened. They claim that they had no intention of coming here. They were on maneuvers in the Nilbex ™ system when they suddenly lost control of their bodies. A far-fetched story, I know, but there’s physical evidence to back it up. The ships don’t seem to have enough fuel to return to the Alliance systems. All in all, they’re quite ill-prepared for any kind of invasion.”
I immediately directed Rosencrantz to suspend the mission on my authority. It seemed to me that we were lacking in vital information. I summoned the battlequeen, then contacted Lord Danak. “I’d pretty much reached the same conclusion after viewing the recordings of Molly’s interrogation,” he said. “No matter what we did, she wouldn’t say a word. It seemed like she might have wanted to speak, but couldn’t – like she was being controlled.”
It was then I realized the nature of our true adversaries. “SongLuminants. Then there’s no point in using the captive ships to attack the others. CenGov was being set up.”
“Most likely. The SongLuminants were trying to provoke a war so that they would have an excuse to wipe out the Alliance worlds. It’s the same thing they tried to do during the Terran crisis a few months ago.”
“So what’s next?”
“Contact President Gweseki on Memehaven to confirm that he did not authorize an attack. I still think the idea you suggested is a good one – we’re working on it as we speak – but for now, we’ll have to take his word. As for the immediate situation, it’s no longer simply a matter of bluffing about the state of His Holiness’ well-being. The SongLuminants know damn well he’s incapacitated. So the best thing would be to have the mothmen take out the remaining ships – except for one little problem. As far as I know, there’s no way to communicate with them while they’re in space.”
That problem resolved itself shortly. Soon after I spoke with Lord Danak, Rosencrantz contacted me again. “Lilith is here. She wants to talk to you.”
“We might have a problem,” she said. “Elma’ashra took off.”
“What do you mean, took off?”
“Flew away. She’s supposed to be in custody.”
Frankly, that seemed to me an internal matter of little relevance to the Domha’vei as a whole. “We’ve got other priorities,” I said, explaining the situation to her. “We need the mothmen to handle the other ships.”
“I don’t think so,” she replied. “Ashpremma lasted about ten minutes before he ran home to his Chosen. My brother is totally tapped. He did what he could, but he’s really not cut out for spacefaring. Elma’ashra was the strongest of us, but she’s gone. That leaves me.”
“Then it’s you.”
“Incapacitate several dozen more ships? Are you nuts? I’m a lone branch. I don’t have that kind of power.”
“We can always return to Plan A,” suggested Battlequeen Escharton. “The K’ntasari are in position. Have them attack the rest of the fleet.”
“There will be casualties. Pointless casualties, since the Alliance in all likelihood had no intention of attacking us. And if Ashtara were really possessing the officers of the ships we’ve taken, he’d know immediately that they had been SongLuminant victims, so attacking the rest of their fleet with intent to destroy will just seem gratuitous. Ashtara could easily neutralize the fleet without loss of life. Which means that either we expose our vulnerability to the Alliance by admitting that our Living God is out of action, or we look like we intentionally tried to provoke a war.”
“My head hurts,” said Escharton. “What the hell are we supposed to do?”
“Thoughtful suggests that we call an emergency meeting of the Combine of Sentients,” said Lilith. “I’d tend to agree, but that won’t help us right now.”
“We can’t just let those ships attack Dolparessa,” said Escharton.
“We literally can’t,” I agreed. “Because the minute they start firing, the defense grid will respond on automatic. It won’t be enough to stop them, of course. The defense grid was intended to provide covering fire to assist our commanders. It will, however, probably inflict enough damage to start a war.”
“Now this is interesting, although perhaps not immediately relevant,” said Lilith. “Thoughtful just contacted Poklok-Kinniped. There’s breaking news in the combine. The SongLuminants are having a Civil War.”
I was stunned and baffled by this turn of events. “What are the ramifications of that?” I asked.
“Nobody is quite certain,” said a voice from Lilith’s datapad. “It’s never happened before. Apparently, the Champions of the Skylight Spin have accused the Panoply of the Ancient Foam of betraying SongLuminant civilization by allowing inferior species into the Combine. They say that they’ve become the puppets of the Outer Vent Defense Guild, and that the OVDG stands to benefit enormously by admitting sub-sentients which they then manipulate to their advantage. They’re citing the OVDG’s attempt to provoke a war between Human factions on two occasions as proof of this attempt to wield influence.”
“They might have a point,” I murmured.
“The OVDG admits that they sent the Hreck fleet recently to Terra, supposedly as a gesture of ‘mutual support.’ But they claim to know absolutely nothing about this current situation.”
“And the collapse of the Archon was a mere coincidence,” said Battlequeen Escharton sweetly.
“Most doubtful,” said Thoughtful 45.
“She was being sarcastic,” said Lilith.
“My apologies. Sometimes, my sense of humor is as poor as a Hreck’s.”
“The problem here,” I said, “is that the OVDG is nominally on our side, and the Champions of the Skylight Spin wanted to erase our species. It’s depressing to think that the lesser of the two evils has arranged an attack on our system in order to force us into a war we don’t want.”
“Which is going to happen if we don’t think of something soon,” said Escharton.
“I think we know the answer,” said Thoughtful 45.
“Do I have to?” asked Lilith.
“It’s well past time,” said Thoughtful. “You can’t rely on your father for everything. You have to grow up.”
“Urrrrgh!” said Lilith, placing the datapad on the table and unfurling her wings.
We witnessed the moth Philosophia dive directly through the ship’s hull. She vanished into space, a pinprick of blue-green lightless light.
“Where’s she going?” said Escharton. “She’s flying away from the fleet.”
“Back to Dolparessa,” Thoughtful 45 replied. “If she’s going to have enough strength to stop all of the Alliance ships, she’ll need another branch.”