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“Channel request accepted,” Marvin said.

“Imperial cruisers,” I said loudly. “I request a short ceasefire on both sides. I
know you’ve lost your commander. Please decide amongst yourselves which captain is
in charge and negotiate with me.”

There was no response for about twenty seconds, then someone finally answered us.
“Captain Yuki here,” said a female voice. “As the senior officer present, I’m now
in command of this task force.”

“Do you agree to a ceasefire?”

“I cannot. You’re stalling until your gunships are in optimal range.”

“You are blowing apart defenseless transports, many of which contain civilians!” I
shouted back. “Fire at my warships if you like, and die well, but please stop killing
innocents.”

There was another hesitation. Neither side was firing now, which was fine by me. Yuki
had rejected my ceasefire, but it was temporarily in effect anyway while we talked.

“There are no innocents, as you put it, in this system. We represent the Empire, and
we—”

“Look,” I said, interrupting, “I appreciate that you’re new to your command, Captain.
And I know the easiest thing to do in these situations is to continue on the course
laid for you by your previous commander. But I implore you to take this offer: accept
a ceasefire, and retreat with all your ships. Take them back to the Solar System,
and save all these ships and personnel to battle the machines.”

“The machines have been defeated,” she said primly and confidently.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “Says who?”

“The Emperor.”

I laughed then. “Well, I’ll send you some data then, if you want it. Consider it valuable
intel on what we’re facing. You do not have to reciprocate with any data of your own.
But Crow and every military on Earth should know how hard they hit us only a few weeks
ago.”

I signaled urgently at Sandra, who dug out recorded vid files from the Thor system.
They depicted in vivid detail the Macro fleet as it advanced upon our battle station.
We edited out any reference to the battle station itself, or the fact that we’d destroyed
the fleet weeks ago. I only wanted to show them vids of the Macros throwing fresh
ships at us.

While the files were retrieved and transmitted, I had a chance to reflect upon Yuki’s
words. The machines were defeated? What an odd conclusion to make. We’d stopped them
temporarily on our side, but at the other chain of four systems was the blue giant,
Bellatrix. That star system at the other end of the ring embedded in Venus’s crust
had been full of mining equipment and presumably Macro factories. Even if Crow figured
that I’d wiped out the Macros at my end of the known systems, what had he done at
his end?

“Captain Yuki,” I said, as the data finished downloading. “I would like to ask for
a single piece of information from you. Understanding is the first step toward peace.
Why do you think the machines have been defeated? What happened to the Macro stronghold
in the blue giant system? They had a lot of mining machines and factories there as
I recall. Are they no longer a threat?”

Captain Yuki’s voice became guarded as she answered me. “Our glorious leader eliminated
all threats from that system. I’m surprised he didn’t inform you of his victory. The
daily news talks of little else back on Earth.”

Her words caused my frown to deepen. I glanced over at Miklos, who was frowning and
thinking, just as I was.

“Data upload complete,” Sandra said.

“Captain Yuki. Please take a few moments to peruse the files before you continue destroying
Earth’s tiny defensive force. When the machines come again, they may well wipe out
my outpost on Eden. After that, Earth will be next. For your own survival and mine,
accept our ceasefire offer and return with this new intel to Earth.”

I waited after that for a full minute. Our ships were now almost nose-to-nose. I’d
ordered them to begin braking, otherwise we’d shoot past them and have to reverse
course to catch up. Possibly, that was their plan. Once we’d gone out of range, they
could continue to fire at the transports at will, then proceed on to the Eden system,
where my defenses were stretched very thin. Almost everything I had was guarding the
far ring that led to the Crustacean home system. Nothing was going to be able to stop
them if the cruisers evaded us and pressed onward to attack Eden. Fortunately, Captain
Yuki didn’t know that. I’d only sent her the vids of the Macros in the Thor system.

“There appears to be some kind of new alien. Are these creatures cooperating with
the Macros, as the vids seem to indicate?”

It took me a second to realize she was talking about the Crustaceans. I hadn’t really
wanted to give away that information, but I figured it was worth it if they would
stop the killing.

“Yes, they are,” I said. “Just as we served the machines once as troops when they
had us over a barrel. We’re fighting both the Macros and these new aliens.”

“How can they mount such massive fleet so quickly?” Yuki asked me. She seemed honestly
alarmed.

“In my opinion, they can do so indefinitely. They produce ships constantly, and throw
them at us when they feel they have enough. They will come to Earth one day if I fail.
It is only a matter of time.”

“How will you hold against them?”

I gritted my teeth and forced myself to smile. “I’ll be able to do the job much more
easily if you stop blowing up my relief column.”

There was a quiet moment, while no doubt the surviving captains engaged in a heated
debate. Finally, Yuki came back on the line.

“We accept your terms, Colonel Riggs. We will return to Earth, if you will return
to Helios. Let us call Alpha Centauri a buffer zone for now. Please do not become
aggressive again, or further misunderstandings are guaranteed to occur.”

Sandra erupted, unloading a long string of profanities and suggesting Yuki should
perform anatomically impossible acts. I understood her frustration. It was difficult
to be lectured by an arrogant Imperial about hostility when they’d started the shooting.

“Agreed, Captain,” I said when Sandra had lowered her voice enough to allow me to
unmute the channel.

Sandra still muttered obscenities behind me, but I felt the audio system probably
hadn’t picked them up.

After that, our two fleets warily disengaged. The Worms had already retreated from
the system by the time we’d managed to make peace and get out of range. I was left
feeling empty at the pointless loss of life. When I expressed these feelings to Miklos
and Sandra later, they scoffed at me.

“It wasn’t pointless,” Sandra said, “you had to do it, Kyle. They didn’t give you
any choice.”

Miklos was more philosophical about it. “This clash was probably inevitable,” he said.
“It was Crow that changed the rules of the game, not you. He also ordered his ships
to destroy the transports as they carried away your last loyal Star Force marines.
What could you do, other than declare war?”

“I’ll never forgive him for that,” I said.

I set the optical sensors to examine each destroyed transport in turn. I stared coldly
at the remains of a hundred ships. At this range, I couldn’t see the frozen bodies
I knew must be floating out there. There was only the silent wreckage and spinning
clusters of twisted, blackened metal.

Crow had a lot to answer for.

-19-

Although they took their time about it, the Imperial cruisers finally limped away
from the battlefield and retreated through the ring toward Earth. My fleet applied
full thrust for nearly a day to slow down then reverse course. I had no intention
of flying through the final ring and into the Solar System. I wasn’t ready to find
out what Crow had waiting for me on the far side.

It was strange, being so close to home and yet turning away. Always before, returning
to Earth had been a happy event. Even when we’d been chased by packs of raging enemy
ships, we’d always felt a surge of excitement and well-being to know we were about
to enter friendly territory. Now, it no longer felt like home.

Space is a lonely place under the best of circumstances, and being rejected by one’s
homeworld isn’t an easy thing to experience. Everyone around me felt the same, I could
tell. Every face was glum. Every eye stared at the screens as the last ring between
us and Earth fell away behind us again and we headed back out toward deeper space
and alien worlds. Would we ever return home again? Would we ever be welcome there?
None of us knew the answers to these questions.

Shaking off my reverie, I quickly decided to liven things up. In truth, we had almost
as much to celebrate as we did to mope about. We’d driven off the Imperials and saved
a lot of loyal Star Force personnel. I had no idea how many there were, but I intended
to find out.

“Marvin, open a channel to Captain Sarin’s fleet.”

“No response, Colonel. Possibly, her ship is damaged.”

“Well, keep trying.”

Sandra glanced at me, and I felt a pang of worry. Was she going to get jealous again?
But no, I could see in her eyes that wasn’t her first concern. She looked worried.
I signaled for her to come close and she did so.

“What if Jasmine is dead, Kyle?” Sandra asked me in a whisper.

I considered the possibility. It was a distinct one. About a third of the transports
had been destroyed. Worse, the Imperials might have tracked her transmissions to the
correct ship and blasted her on purpose. Didn’t every tyrant round up the rebel leaders
and execute them at some point?

“Nonsense,” I said with a confident smile that was pure bullshit. “She’s fine. She’s
almost as hard to kill as Sloan.”

Sandra nodded worriedly and went back to monitoring the holotank. On screen, my fleet
and Sarin’s fleet were now alone. The Worms had returned home to Helios, having long
since reversed course and withdrawn. Sarin’s fleet was also streaming down from every
direction toward my warships, like scores of lost birds returning to the main flock
after a panic.

“Anything, Marvin?”

“I’m getting reports now from various ships. They are responding in turn, listing
their damages, making relief requests. Should I put them through?”

“Yes, of course. Sandra, see what you can do for them. Send a gunboat out to every
ship that’s in trouble. Coordinate any necessary rescues. Marvin? Any word from the
refugee leadership? Who is in charge out there?”

“They all insist Captain Sarin is their commander. But they’re unable to raise her.”

I pursed my lips tightly and nodded. The next several hours passed quickly, as we
all had a lot to do. Our own ships were largely undamaged, and the damage we had suffered
was automatically repaired by our nanite friends. The situation was different with
the transports, however. They had a lot of wounded, and I quickly learned that most
of the passengers aboard the ships weren’t Star Force people. This was significant,
because they were just normal human beings. They didn’t have a built-in supply of
nanites to repair their bodies. They needed medical attention. Without it, instead
of self-regenerating, they died.

The refugee fleet coalesced around my warships in time. Some of them had to be towed
in by the gunboats. Others were wrecks which had to be evacuated and left to drift
away into the burning furnaces at the center of the star system. It was on one of
these wrecks that they finally found Jasmine.

“I’ve got a command contact, sir,” Marvin said late in the evening.

“What are you talking about?” I snapped back.

I was still on the bridge, stirring some bad coffee and slumping in my armor. Star
Force Marines didn’t need a lot of sleep, but we did need a little of it. I’d been
denying myself such simple pleasures until the situation was under control. Unfortunately,
there seemed to be no end to the rescue effort.

“A command channel contact, incoming from gunboat thirty-six. Someone aboard wants
to speak with you.”

I grumbled and opened the channel. I’d avoided direct contact with every concerned
captain that wanted to tell me about his problems. I had limited resources and they
were all pretty much allocated. Too often, my reply had been something like: “You’re
on your own, Lieutenant. Fix it.”

When I heard Jasmine’s voice, I was quite shocked. “Hello Kyle, I’m alive,” she said
inside my helmet.

I took a heartbeat or two to speak. When I did, there was a grin exploding on my face
and I straightened up instantly. “Jasmine?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“I’d given up,” I said. “Not looking, I don’t mean that. But I’d marked you down as
lost. I hate to admit that.”

“It’s okay.”

“Where the hell are you?”

“My transport was taken out, but a few of us lived. I’ve almost reached your cruiser.
Let me tell you about it in person.”

My heart accelerated in my chest, and I felt silly. Why did I seem to have a thing
for this woman? I hadn’t seen her in months, and she’d given me no end of trouble
in times past. She’d even declared loyalty to Earth and Crow.

I gave my head a shake to clear it, and looked around the bridge. Sandra had retired
an hour earlier. She was probably sound asleep by now in our shared quarters. Miklos
was rubbing his temples and going over damage reports on his screens. No one else
seemed to have noticed my emotional reaction, and I was about to relax when I turned
and saw a half-dozen camera eyes studying me closely. Marvin didn’t take breaks, naturally,
and he was operating the holotank right now. But his focus was on me. He knew who
was on the channel with me. In fact, he was probably eavesdropping.