Queen of the Pirates (30 page)

Jessica grabbed his elbow and dragged him forward. “Let’s go,
Warlock
,” she said.

He always forgot how strong the woman was. But the human contact was a good thing.

Daneel tucked her arm in around his elbow, just as he had learned, just as the book on
Aquitaine
culture said to do.

He was rewarded by her smile. It lit the morning more than the bright sun.

Inside, the bay was cavernous. Huge. Monumental. There was no easy term to cover it. But for the small size of the door, barely large enough for a modern fighter–craft, the DropShip
Cayenne
could have fit comfortably inside, with space to spare.

Now it was his turn to drag her along, as he walked to a series of strange holes cut into the deck.

Ah. Someone had stripped out a machine that sat here, once upon a time. He supposed that on a ship as automated as this one was supposed to have been, there would have been a fantastic number of machines to remove, as the darkness began to close in.

But
Bunala
hadn’t survived as a civilized power. Had whoever done that taken the parts elsewhere?
Petron
wasn’t all that far away, as things went, nor were several worlds in what was now
Salonnia
. Nor
Lincolnshire
, for that matter.

Truly, a mystery for the ages. The last, greatest ship built by a galaxy–spanning nation, reduced to a near–skeleton in a desert on the fringes of the galaxy. Just a skeleton of hull and ribs.

Thus could anything be brought down, like ants hunting mastodons.

Was that what she saw, here? Was that what Jessica was confronting? The end of civilization?

How could anyone stand thinking like that?

Of course, this was Jessica Keller. Her crew was in awe of her. The Red Admiral had apparently considered her a potentially dangerous foe as well. At least at the beginning, before. She and Desianna had taken Daneel into their confidence about the great game to confuse Wachturm and people like Jing Du and Ian Zhao. To try to stop this.

But how could one prevent something like this?

Daneel felt her stare boring into him.

“You see,” she said. It was not a question.

“I think so,” he replied quietly, unsure of his footing.

Things had just gotten large and dangerous. Or perhaps they always had been and he had been too wound up in trying to seduce this woman to truly appreciate her.

She signaled Desianna to bring Arnulf closer. The marines kept their distance, most inside, but a few on the outside, just in case. Professional paranoia meets professional killers. At least he was on their side.

Daneel blinked in realization. He was on their side. Her side. Committed.

No more games with Jing Du and Ian Zhao. No more playing all sides against a squishy middle, secure that he could out–maneuver anyone else when the blade dropped.

This had been the greatest starship ever built, once upon a time. Now they stood inside her corpse, forgotten on a lost world.

“Damn you,” he whispered, mostly to himself, partly to her, at her, because of her.

She smiled with understanding, possibly empathy.

Her? Empathy?

Maybe.

Desianna pulled Arnulf close enough for an intimate conversation.

Daneel felt Jessica’s hand wrap closer around his elbow, felt her heat against his side.

“Your Majesty,
Warlock
,” Jessica began, quietly but with a great intensity, “you know parts of the truth, perhaps most of it. Now is time for the rest.”

The King of the Pirates stared at the two women mutely, appraising them carefully on scales of kingship.

“Go on,” he said simply, regally.

“Once upon a time,
Warlock
dabbled in treachery,” Jessica stated flatly. “Treason, if you will, before Desianna and I saw a way to bring him back to loyalty.”

Daneel felt those regal eyes boring into him, a nearly physical weight settling on his shoulders. Again, he was reminded how this man came to rule.

“Truth?” the King asked.

“Aye, Arnulf,” Daneel nodded. “Before…”

Before. How to explain such a world–shaking transformation to this man in simple terms and not be here all day? Before
Sarmarsh
. Before planet–wracking devastation. Before
Hellhound
. Before Teri.

Before Jessica Keller.

Before.

Now, it was the present, verging on the future. Possibly eternity.

How do you convince a man like Arnulf?

“Yes,” Arnulf replied simply, looking at the two women in turn. “Before.”

Daneel learned another facet of rule.

Arnulf paused a moment before he continued, eyes focused on Daneel like a hungry cat. “So what is the state of the conspiracy?”

“I do not know, Arnulf,” Daneel said simply, ready to finally embrace his future, whatever it was. “At one time, I was supposed to challenge you for your crown. You would have lost, due to a treachery that was not explained to me. I suspect something like
Hellhound
tried to do to me. I would have reigned in your palace. Jing Du would have continued on with another generation of bureaucrats. Ian Zhao would have become first among the Captains, and the world would have returned to the way it was before you started bending minds towards civilization. David would have fled or been destroyed.”

Daneel felt a planetary weight lift off of his shoulders as he listened to his own words.

Up until now, he had been without responsibility.

Now he was free.

He felt Jessica squeeze his arm in support. That alone meant more than any smile on Arnulf’s fierce face.

The king turned the weight of his terrible visage next to Jessica, the shortest person here, but far from the smallest. He put an arm around Desianna’s hips to pull her close.

“And why,” he continued, “does
Aquitaine
care?”

Jessica Keller looked up at the giant of a man, even bigger than Daneel by two fingers, and smiled.

“Because
Aquitaine
is civilized, Arnulf, King of the Pirates,” she said simply. “If you survive, perhaps there is hope for
Corynthe
as well. I am not an ambassador. You wouldn’t have listened to one. I am a warrior. You will hear me.”

Arnulf turned to kiss Desianna on the forehead. “For thirty years, Admiral Keller, this woman has been my partner. My co–conspirator. My rock. My safe harbor. She tells me to trust you. Backs you. Helped you to convince
Warlock
to come clean.”

He took a deep breath that Daneel felt himself mirroring. It was as though the whole weight of the world rested on the next words spoken.

“So I will trust the foundation of my throne on the words of an
Aquitaine
admiral, and my first love,” he said heavily. “How do we defeat them? I am merely a king. I cannot order Ian Zhao arrested without a better reason, or better proof, or I will turn the rest of the captains firmly against me. And I certainly cannot eliminate Jing Du without plunging the whole kingdom into chaos.”

“I have studied the patterns of ships coming and going, Your Majesty,” Jessica said quietly. “There was a chance the ambush would have occurred here, or at
Callumnia
. We were prepared for that eventuality. When we return to
Petron
, I expect their conspiracy to come to fruition. How, I do not know.”

“How prepared?” he said. “Who is involved?”

“David knows,” Jessica replied. “He has been working very closely with my team.”

“David knows? Why was I not informed?”

“An ancient philosopher once said that a secret known to three people,” Jessica said seriously, “is only a secret if two of them are dead. David is the only other person Desianna and I felt we could trust. You had enough work, making everyone behave during this Promenade. We had to prepare for the rest.”

“But prepared,” he replied to her with a hot, savage smile, “is forearmed. We will walk into the lion’s den one last time, my friends. Perhaps, I can even retire and make David the new king when this is all done. Certainly, I will have broken the captains to the bit.”

“And if we fail, my love?” Desianna asked quietly.

“Then make sure,” he looked at each of them in turn, “that you avenge me.”

Daneel felt a savage chill race up his spine.

Chapter XXXIX

Date of the Republic February 27, 394 City of Lincoln, Ramsey

Ramsey Governor Wapasha had the look of a man who was going to be stubborn. Certainly he was an important personage in these parts. He had eventually let the two of them come to his office for this meeting, but this looked like the point where he was about to dig his heels in and start to buck.

Tomas Kigali smiled. It was an easy smile. Breezy, even. On a man who was tall, and lean, and rakish, and good looking. And not about to take any crap from some pissant bureaucrat in the back of beyond who thought he was the shit.

Tomas glanced over at his cohort on this adventure, Command Centurion Robertson Aeliaes. Robbie just grinned back and nodded, happy to back his play.

Tomas turned the searchlight of his smile back to the governor.

That man was a dandy, in every sense of the word.

“Look,
Aquitaine
,” the governor began, “you can’t just waltz in here and start making demands.
Lincolnshire
is independent and sovereign. I am not about to just give you two of my warships so you can go flitting off on some adventure in pirate country. You make a polite request through formal channels and we’ll get to it in due course.”

“We don’t have time for bureaucratic niceties, governor,” Tomas replied. “In about forty hours, we have to break orbit and run like hell to
Petron
so we can be there when Jessica Keller gets back. We need your help.”

“Help
Corynthe
? Are you deranged,
Aquitaine
? They’re pirates.”

“Yes,” Robbie leaned in and agreed, his dark skin and deep voice providing such a rich contrast to Kigali. “And Jessica is trying to negotiate a treaty with them to make them play nice, with the full backing of the
Republic of Aquitaine
behind it.”

“And just what makes you think they’ll listen to her? She’s a woman in a land of chauvinistic men.”

Kigali smiled. He pulled a small holo–projector from his pocket and set it on the desk between them.

“She already has their attention, Governor.”

Tomas pressed play.

Ξ

The projection was an amazingly–lifelike composite. You could do that when you had that many scanners and cameras orbiting a target and watching, plus all the power of a navigation computer to process the animation afterwards. And a wizard like Yeoman Kermode directing.

The scene came up with the pirate base on
Sarmarsh IV
approaching, taken from a gun camera on one of the M–5
Harpoon
fighters in
Jouster
’s wing as they crested the abrupt horizon.

“The pirates,” Moirrey’s soothing radio voice intoned, “had established themselves on
Sarmarsh
like ticks, burrowed deep into a dog’s fur and dangerous as trapped rats.
Lincolnshire
couldn’t handle the task of clearing them out, so they asked for help. Jessica Keller and
Auberon
answered. We came, we saw, we conquered.”

It was a lovely reconstruction of what the base looked like, the day before
Auberon
arrived. Well laid out, with a number of small gun emplacements protecting the launch bay. The monstrous Type–4 beam at the bottom of the valley. The twin Primary turrets watching the sky like hunting dogs.

“The pirates thought they were secure. Heavily armed. Untouchable. They had not reckoned with the
Republic of Aquitaine
.”

An explosion blew out the flight deck as the stealth missile snuck home, followed by several more explosions as the stored missiles and fuel cells went up.

“They were pirates,” Moirrey continued soothingly, “prepared to fight Johnny Law and hold him off until they could escape. They were not ready to fight a war. They had no idea what a real war would be like.”

Rajput
came into view now, flying backwards and bow down as the ground installations opened fire and missed.
Rajput
responded with her big guns, followed quickly by
Auberon
destroying one of the turrets.

“
Aquitaine
offered them terms, but were refused. So we brought war instead.”

The gun turrets exploded, flames and rubble spewing in all directions as the flight wing immolated the last tower with guns and missiles. Truly, it was hell on Earth.

Cut to a view from above. Later. The fires were out, but the destruction was wide–spread. Evocative. Intoxicating.

“Again, Jessica Keller offered them terms for their lives. This time, they understood that she was not bluffing, and that their only choices at this point were the meekness of the lamb, or making their peace with the Creator.”

The camera panned slowly back and withdrew from the scene as the giant asteroid came into view, tumbling like a lazy bullet. It plunged into the heart of the pirate base like a knife, cutting the heart out of a sacrificial victim.

To Tomas, it was like watching a soufflé swell gracefully, and then collapse in failure. Not that his ever did. But he had seen pictures, heard horror stories.

“The pirate base on
Sarmarsh IV
was annihilated,” Moirrey’s voice worked up to a proper intonation of
Doom
at this point. “It will not be rebuilt in your lifetime, because Jessica Keller and
Auberon
were not about half–measures to protect
Lincolnshire
. But right now, she is talking directly to the King of the Pirates, and she needs your help. The
Republic of Aquitaine
is here to protect you. But
Lincolnshire
must help as well. Call your representatives. Call your mayor. Call the governor. Tell them to bring peace by making sure the big guns are there when Jessica Keller needs them. Our future depends on it.”