Spirit of Empire 4: Sky Knights (43 page)

“No, Your Majesty, you’re my Queen.
Why have you come?”

“Because I watched an amazing performance today and wanted to meet you. You have a gift, my dear.”

“So they’ve been telling me.”

Ellie nodded and smiled. “I’ll bet they have. How, out of all the thousands of inhabitants of this
gziekolt
, did my friends find you?”

“Your friends?”

“Yes, my friends. I’d like to include you in that category if you’ll let me. I have a feeling you’re going to be the teacher all the students hope they’ll get.”

“You’re too kind, Your Majesty.”

“Only when it suits. I seldom get to thank people, but you’re an exception. Today was an important day for Tranxte, an important day for the Empire, and you were a big part of its success. I wanted you to know, but it looks like Queen Atiana has already spoken for both of us.”

“I’ve only thanked her on my own behalf, Your Majesty,” Atiana said. “I don’t speak for you or your Empire.”

Ellie turned to her and nodded. “Hmm. Not yet.” She turned back to Graylee. “You served your Empire well today, Graylee. Know that your Queen thanks you. You have a rare gift. I hope you find a way to put it to good use.”

Graylee stood and looked into her Queen’s eyes. “I’ve been invited to Tranxte.”

Ellie brought a hand to her throat. “I had wondered when I saw who else was here. They’re hard people accustomed to a hard life. Are they asking too much?”

Graylee closed her eyes for a moment, then plunged ahead with what her heart was telling her. “What they’re asking for calls to me like nothing else ever has, Your Majesty. They’re telling me I have to wait, that it’s too dangerous for me at the moment.”

Tears brightened Ellie’s eyes. “So many have heard our call. It’s not just Tranxte calling you, my dear, it’s my call as well. We’ve had a pact among our forces fighting the rebellion. We’ve agreed to give everything that we are. We do it for our children and for our children’s children.”

“Powerful words, Your Majesty. Words worthy of our best adventure stories.”

Ellie shook her head. “No, Graylee. They are words that have come at great cost for some, the ultimate cost for many, many others. I’m certain Teacher Hawke and Queen Atiana could name some. I know I can name far too many from our war against the rebels. Anyone who enters into this pact risks everything that they are. It’s the choice to serve.”

Ellie turned to Hawke and Atiana thoughtfully, then she turned back to Graylee. “My coming here might have been a mistake. I came not to frighten you but to personally let you know what a terrific job you’ve done for your Empire. I’ll remember you, Graylee. I look forward to seeing you again, and you should feel free to call on me. Governor Seeton always knows where I am. And now, I’ve overstayed my welcome.”

Ellie and Otis left, and Borg returned to the room and sat, soon ignored by everyone else. Graylee started shaking uncontrollably and had to sit down. Hawke stepped behind her chair and put his hands on her shoulders.

“Oh, my,” he said.

Graylee turned and looked up at him, resting her cheek on his hand. “The last two days have been magical, but tonight is surreal. Tell me, was this part of a plan?”

He squeezed her shoulders, shaking his head. “We’re not that good. You must have really impressed her. Actually, she’s taking a lot more interest in all of us than we ever expected.”

Graylee settled back into the couch and closed her eyes, her hands atop Hawke’s hands resting on her shoulders.

Atiana motioned to Borg, saying softly to Hawke, “I think we pushed her over the edge. I should leave.”

Graylee surprised them. She stood up and motioned Hawke toward the door as well. “You’re both leaving,” she said. She stared into Hawke’s eyes, trying to communicate her feelings across the distance to him.

“Tomorrow’s another day. Find me.”

* * * * *

As they settled into the skimmer, Atiana said to him, “We need her. I need her. Must I wait?”

“She wouldn’t survive the gleasons.”

“She could learn.”

“I want her to come, but you and I have spent the better parts of our lives learning to fight and we’ve barely survived.”

“Maybe she needs a real teacher?”

Hawke did a double take. “Who?”

“The one who trained me. Let’s wait and see what she decides.”

“You see where this is going, don’t you?” Hawke asked.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“The Empire’s presence on Tranxte started with Galborae. Gar came next, then Kori and me. We’re leaders, but we’re marines, not social experts. You added your special flavoring to the pot in a huge way, and now we’re expanding again, calling in the experts. Graylee is, I hope, the first of those experts. She’s exactly right for us. We need to be just as certain of anyone else we bring in. If we do it right, Tranxte might actually have a chance of winning.”

“I’m ready to go home,” Atiana said, back in the park and luxuriating in the feel of grass beneath her feet.

“We all are, but I need a few more days,” Havlock said, his eyes moving to each of them. “I have a surprise. We’re going back in a big ship, and a fleet of cargo ships with enormous quantities of food will follow us in a few months. We’re also bringing General Stymes and some of his senior staff. Two more transporters with squads and shuttles will be right behind us. We’ll get them trained before the rest of the marines arrive.”

“And weapons?” Galborae asked.

Havlock nodded. “Lots of them. The blasters are modified to include stunners, and they’re not as crude as the ones we made on the transporter.” He considered for a moment, then shook his head as he looked from Milae to Galborae to Atiana, the three from Tranxte. “There can’t be any serious secrets between us, so you should know that the new weapons can be disabled by a signal from our ships. We can focus that signal on a small area of Tranxte, or we can have several ships in orbit disable all the weapons on the planet.”

Atiana looked stricken, but Galborae did not. He understood. Atiana’s features smoothed out moments later—clearly she’d been in conversation with her Rider. “I thought for a minute it’s because you didn’t trust us,” she said. “I can see now that it’s to limit potential wars.”

“Which might not be all that far in the future,” Havlock said. “Not all nations will have leaders as benevolent as you. We’ll have to lean on some of them, and we might have to force ourselves on others. Initially we’ll bribe them with food and weapons. Fusion power plants probably won’t be all that far behind.”

“You need a headquarters,” Galborae said.

“We’re going to build a city. The ship that’s bringing us can’t stay—it’s one of the new fast ships—but Seeton will replace it with a full squadron when the rest of the marines arrive. It will suffice as our headquarters until we get the city built.”

“It’ll be boring duty for them,” Galborae said.

“I hope so. Our first priority is to introduce ourselves to the rest of Tranxte. While we’re doing that, Seeton is sending out teams to look for this new home for the gleasons forecast by Krys. If we find it, I’ll have to inspect it. If it works, we have to figure out how to get the gleasons to it. That’s our plan for the foreseeable future.”

“All right, you two. I know I’m being selfish, but can we put work aside for a little while? Can we just enjoy this beautiful park?” Atiana asked.

“Your word is my command, Your Majesty,” Havlock said. He lay down on his back beside her. Galborae did not. He could not bring himself to fully let his guard down. He stood up and wandered around, his way of keeping an unhurried but continuous watch over them.

Hawke and Graylee remained silent during this interchange, but neither of them missed a single word. She turned onto her side toward him and spoke privately, softly, from inches away. “Are you baiting me?”

He looked at her in surprise. “That was last night. We’re just relaxing now, something we don’t get a lot of.”

“You’re getting a fast squadron? They’re like . . . really, really rare. And you plan to install fusion plants around a whole planet, probably a mistake by the way, and build a city to represent the Empire?
Are you kidding?
”

“What’s wrong with fusion plants? They don’t have any electricity there, and we can’t bring them along without it.”

She sat up and tucked her legs under herself. He sat up as well and motioned for Havlock to pay attention.

“There’s nothing wrong with fusion plants,” she said, “but they are in no way a baby step. They’re an enormous step, and you bypass a lot of opportunities you could have taken along the way.”

“What opportunities?”

She looked back and forth between the two men, then frowned, saying, “The baby step is to show them what electricity can do and how it does it, then let them take the next step. Let’s say we start with a windmill turning a generator—it’s fairly easy and quick. It will work great and they’ll get used to the benefits of electricity, but they’ll get impatient when the wind stops blowing and the electricity stops. They’ll have a reason to find a better way to generate that electricity, maybe a dam or waterwheels or a steam engine or something. Building bigger generators will encourage the use of better metals and maybe plastics and such. They’ll want more users of that electricity, too, like toasters and water heaters and pumps, eventually vehicles and computers. Someday in the far future they’ll figure out how to make a fusion plant, but gentlemen, before they build that first windmill they have to figure out how to make wires to carry the electricity.”

Hawke grinned, holding a hand out toward her as he looked to Havlock. “That’s what I’m talking about.” He looked back to her, saying, “You said ‘we.’ Does that mean you’re in?”

“I can’t come yet,
”
she said, looking back and forth between the two men.

Havlock shook his head. “You’re a good fit for us, Graylee. I’d hire you today, but Hawke’s right—we can only accept warriors until we’ve dealt with the gleasons.
”
He paused to think, then added, “Let me reword that. You can’t come yet, but you can go on the payroll right now if you’re willing to commit. You’re smart. I need someone to give some thought to what we have to do in the years ahead. There are a lot of studies out there on how the Empire has dealt with emerging worlds. We’ve learned some lessons, but we haven’t come up with any good answers. I have some ideas of my own, but you’re far more educated than any of us. If you’re willing to do some research, I’ll promise you an attentive audience when you get to Tranxte.”

She stared at Havlock with a frown, then lay back down. She changed her mind and stood up, reaching a hand down to Hawke. “Let’s go for a walk.”

He jumped up and the two set off through the park. Before going far, they had taken each other’s hand. He pulled her hand up to his lips and kissed it, saying, “It’s sort of amazing what can happen when time’s limited.”

“Do I really have to wait? I’m ready now. Everything you describe intrigues me.”

He leaned over and kissed her lightly, then continued walking
.
“I can’t describe in words just how dangerous it is there. You’d want to be out helping and I’d have to say no. At the moment you’d hinder. It won’t be forever, I promise. Our roles will be reversed eventually—you’ll be the expert—but not yet. Trust me. Please.”

“What’s a typical day like for you?”

“Days and nights aren’t much different from each other . . .”

A little while later Havlock’s comm unit squawked. He brought it to his ear, listened and nodded, then called Hawke’s comm unit. “Our ship just started down from orbit. Let’s go to the port. I think you’ll want to see this. Bring Graylee.”

“Must we?” Atiana asked, lifting herself to one elbow beside him.

He nodded. “We can come back later if you’d like.”

An air car brought all of them across the port to its far side and settled to the ground. They remained in their seats, looking through the clear canopy to the sky while Havlock spoke to port control on the radio.

He pointed to a speck coming toward them from the horizon. The speck swelled until Atiana, Galborae, and Milae sucked in their breaths. The egg-shaped cruiser turned to its right and flew slowly and majestically around the far perimeter of the port, then turned and came toward them. It slowed to a crawl several hundred feet above the ground and continued toward them, gradually swelling until it blotted out the sky. It came to a stop directly over them and hovered silently, then tiny hatches began opening in its belly.

Atiana stepped from the car with Graylee on one side of her and Havlock on the other. He put an arm around Atiana’s waist and pointed. “Look inside that opening,” he said, pointing. “You can see sky ships resting in the belly of this beast. Look carefully and you’ll see people waving.”

She gasped when she fully appreciated the scale of the ship. After a moment’s hesitation, she began waving back. So, too, did Galborae, though Milae remained more reserved. Havlock spoke into his communicator again and the massive ship began sliding away from them, settling into a nearby berth without ever actually touching the ground. Ramps extended, and a beehive of ground vehicles erupted around the great ship.

Havlock released the air car and led his friends on a long walk beneath the hull. On closer inspection, dents and creases marred the otherwise perfect surface above their heads, and Galborae commented on the fact.

Havlock didn’t hesitate. “This is a fighting ship. I’d guess it’s probably seen as much action as we have.
”

Captain Rivard met them at the passenger entrance ramp. Havlock suspected who he was and met him with outstretched hand. “Well done, sir.”

“My pleasure, Governor. We threw a few kinks into the traffic system, but when I told them who it was for, they were willing to shut down the port for a few minutes. Welcome aboard.”

Havlock introduced everyone and asked,“What have you been told about your mission?”

“I’m taking a bunch of passengers and supplies to Tranxte. That’s about all I know.”

“It’s an emerging world, so you’ll have to keep a low profile. I don’t have a clue what we’re going to do with the supplies. We might be able to drop them at night . . .” Havlock went internal, knowing the issue would require some creative problem solving. He probably wouldn’t be going out with caravans for a while.

Galborae recognized the look on Havlock’s face and knew he might end up standing there in the doorway for quite a while. He motioned to the rest of the group and put his arm around Rivard’s shoulder, leading him up into the ship. “Let your men know they won’t want shore leave. Ever heard of gleasons . . .?”

Graylee took all this in silently, but she missed nothing. She watched Hawke as he worked, always seeking convergence with everyone, and wondered if she could ever make a place for herself in this tight group. She couldn’t join them until the fighting ended, that was the restriction Hawke had placed on her, but the more she listened to them the more she grew to understand that it was the fighting, the constant sacrifice and danger, that tied them together. She would never be a part of this group the way Hawke foresaw. He was looking through blinders when it came to her.

She, on the other hand, looked out at her world without blinders. She liked Hawke, they both shared a strong connection to each other, and she wanted to become a part of this amazing group of people, but how could she make it happen?

Havlock came out of his reverie when Atiana returned and put a hand on his arm. He saw Galborae disappearing down a corridor with everyone else and looked to her in surprise.

“Galborae has things in hand, Sky Lord.”

“Should we return to the park?”

She turned and put her arms around his neck, not caring who might be watching. “We had our little interlude. It’s time to get back to work. I hear Tranxte calling.”

Havlock deflated. “I wanted to take you on a date.”

“What’s a date?”

“I think your people call it courting.”

“Well!” She kissed him lightly on the mouth. “You have my permission to begin courting, though I think that’s already well under way.” She turned him and stepped into the great ship. Thankfully, Galborae and Captain Rivard had waited for them. Neither of them had a clue how to find their way around.

Graylee hung back with Hawke, liking what she saw. The  relationship between the Governor and Atiana called to her. She lifted her eyes to Hawke and studied him as he watched the Governor and Atiana, then he turned to her and their eyes met. She barely knew him, but she not only felt a strong connection, she sensed his desire. Despite that, he would not let her follow him. What kind of man made such a choice? Could things really be so bad there?

* * * * *

Supplies, mostly in the form of weapons and military rations for distribution to the general populace of Tranxte, entered the ship in a steady flow, a flow that lasted for three days and nights. General Stymes and thirty of his senior officers and enlisted men boarded, Graylee returned to her university, and the squadron set out for Tranxte.

Havlock and Galborae spent most of their time training the marines. They spent a little time on basic tactics, but tactics for fighting gleasons really had to be experienced rather than just discussed. These senior soldiers were rusty on basic soldiering skills such as marksmanship and conditioning, so they spent the majority of their time improving those. He did not need to remind any of them that they would be fighting for their lives. They would outrank many squad leaders and caravan commanders, but during their initial forays with caravans they would be subject to orders from those junior officers. For them, it would be like going back to basic officers’ training.

The six of them took a few hours of respite each day with the group Havlock began thinking of as his senior Council. With the approval of Captain Rivard, they spent some of those hours in the net on one of the fighters. Not only did they get to know each other better, they met each other’s Riders. Atiana’s Rider, Stren, appeared as a deep blue dragon—not a great dragon like Stven, just a person-sized dragon. Galborae’s Rider, Hormuth, appeared as a robed teacher, and to Galborae that’s exactly what he was—the companion who would help him reach levels of knowledge he’d never imagined.