Adric, Emperor of Gloran, sat in his personal quarters and stewed.
When he’d been a mere Cruiser-Captain, he’d had a space like all officers, but Emperors were busier men, so he’d taken a triple suite instead. Five meters long, twelve wide, and ceilings higher than most ships allowed.
Decadence, but he understood that most leaders of nations might have a bedroom this large, plus several more rooms for various entertainment and business functions.
The outer hatch pinged with a visitor, though Adric had left all his bodyguards outside. Such was his prerogative, to rise now and answer his own door. Six men stood in the hallway, escorting A.Q. Tanel.
“Come,” Adric nodded, motioning the man inside. He turned to the guard in charge. “Unless Aquitaine opens fire on one of our vessels, I am not to be disturbed.”
The man saluted and Adric pushed the button to shut the hatch. A lock was not necessary, as those six men would hold it at any and all costs in the face of such an order.
“Sit,” Adric motioned Tanel to a worktable near the door.
One square meter of light wood, with four chairs. Sufficient for tea and not much more.
Adric Kerenski didn’t need much more.
“Was there a problem?” Adric asked Tanel as he joined the man.
Tanel might be a candidate to be the next Gloran Emperor, except that Adric was still going strong and Tanel was only three years younger at fifty-five.
Adric suspected that the Empire might need a younger man next. Perhaps forty and full of the fire and fury to accomplish the sorts of radical changes that Aquitaine threatened.
Tanel’s mouth moved like he’d sucked on a lemon.
“Zaman sought out Lau and spoke extensively with the woman,” A.Q. replied. “At one point, Khan almost blundered into the conversation, but Zaman fled immediately. Lau proceeded to dress Khan down harshly, but quietly. If I could not read lips, I would have missed it all, as did everyone else. As it was, I only got parts, but even those parts were somewhat damning.”
“Dressed him down?” Adric asked, feeling a twinge of rage niggle at his belly that a foreigner might have the audacity.
But it was Command Centurion Lau. Ground Control. Perhaps the most dangerous starship commander in the entire Balhee Cluster, though Adric wouldn’t say that out loud around his own men. They would be offended, however wrong they were.
“I got the impression that Khan gave Lau a good deal of the history of himself and Kira Zaman, Adric,” A.Q. said.
He could use the Emperor’s given name in private. They’d been friends for decades, after decades previous as rivals.
“Did he now?” Adric was surprised. Not many outsiders were privy to those secrets.
But he supposed that Lau would need to know.
“How angry was she?” he asked now.
“Chewing nails and spitting iron, Your Majesty,” A.Q. laughed. “I thought Khan might wet himself by the time she was done.”
Adric nodded. Considered his options. As Emperor of Gloran, he could order just about anything and have it done. Such was the executive authority vested in each emperor.
However, his predecessor had shared one of the most important tidbits Adric had ever heard, there at the end.
Never issue an order that might make people question the wisdom of following you. Often, you will have to lead them, rather than shoving them to a place, which can be dangerous if you guess wrong. That is why the Imperial Robes are so heavy.
Adric had never forgotten that. Most of his important decisions had come through that lens.
“What of my cousin?” he asked. “How is she?”
“Well, from what I can gather,” A.Q. nodded. “Her squadron continues to earn top marks, though looking at the careers of the other Frigate-Captains that cycle through, it is obvious that the glory is hers. Little though she can bask in it.”
“She serves, regardless of the rest of us,” Adric said sternly. “Remember that. She is tougher than you are, because you never had those headwinds. Nor did I. I would move her to a cruiser if I thought the old farts in charge of the Penal Fleet would not piss and moan over such a thing. My only current issue is that I never imagined that Kosnett would come here first instead of Derragon. Else I would never have sent my cousin’s squadron to Carinae.”
“Dare we order her home?” A.Q. asked.
“No more than I dare dishonor Khan by ordering him elsewhere,” Adric said. “However, Kosnett offers me a solution that, while it is not my first choice, handles the situation with Khan and Zaman well enough.”
“Oh?”
“His people posit that the raiders who hit Carinae might have approached via Four, hiding in the sensor shadow,” Adric said. “And that they have the scanner power to perhaps locate signs of the ship that attacked the colony.”
“After so long?” A.Q. recoiled.
“Remember the thing that Urumchi’s First Officer did at Ewinhome,” Adric reminded the man.
“Beridze,” A.Q. nodded. “Blinded everyone. Well, there is a so-called Survey Dreadnought and an Expeditionary Survey Cruiser there. Send them all to Four for now, keeping Arteshbo’s squadron here?”
“Indeed,” Adric said. “That should keep my two problem children apart.”
“Is there a way to reconcile them?” A.Q. asked. “Ever?”
“That would solve many other problems, my friend,” Adric said. “But you and I both know what a stiff-necked man Adham Khan can be.”