It pleased Jessica, watching someone like Em, the Grand Admiral, look uncomfortable as he studied the mass of Command Centurions and first officers that she had invited to dinner. There were a great many people in the room, and him, plus a young man he had apparently recruited as a Flag Aide, when he had snuck off from St. Legier.
Dinner had been superb. The wardroom had risen above their already-high standards for a memorable evening. Jessica gazed forlornly, and briefly considered licking the empty, shallow dish that had been a blueberry tart five minutes ago.
She did not appear to be the only person with such devastating feelings of loss.
Em turned his head and locked eyes with her, silently inquiring if she was ready to start. Stewards were clearing the last plates and refilling glasses and mugs. She nodded, interested in how Wachturm would handle this new group of recruits to his war. He only knew a double-handful of them personally. Tonight he was facing more than forty.
Wachturm pushed back his chair slowly and rose, bringing utter silence to the room, save for silverware coming to rest as people snapped to attention, even sitting.
“I am reminded, perhaps a touch forcefully, of Thuringwell,” he began in a slow cadence, drawing everyone, including her, to lean in as he spoke not quite loud enough to carry. “Many of you were there when the hammer dropped. Many of you were that hammer.”
She watched him turn to give Arott Whughy a significant look.
“Others I know tangentially,” he continued, showing he knew the man’s history. “From places like Ballard, the battle and not the ship.”
He nodded to Kanda Lungu and Elzbet Aukley, Command Centurion and Science Officer off the big Galactic Survey Cruiser that bore the Ballard name, acknowledging their sponsor as well as their place casting electronic sleet and blizzard at his people at Thuringwell.
“We have been foes, in the past,” he said. “And a few have become friends: Jessica Keller, zu Kermode, Colonel zu Arlo. I hope to add many of you to that list soon.”
Jessica watched Em pause, studying the crowd briefly before his eyes alighted on Yan Bedrov, seated in a corner close to da Vinci.
“At the Emperor’s request, both Emperors, in fact,” Em said, turning to nod to Casey, seated on Jessica’s right. “I asked Yan Bedrov to design a new way to fight. Something that we could take to Buran. Push that nation back from their self-appointed goal of conquering the universe and putting everyone under its electronic heel. Free the galaxy from their threat, and their people from its domination.”
He raised one hand and pointed at a distant bulkhead.
“Bedrov’s answer lies out there around us, cast in steel and dreams,” Em waxed poetic for a moment. “And my empire is riddled with traitors and fools right now, although we have begun the task of taking out the trash.”
Jessica marveled at the calm way Em paused to grab a glass of lemonade and take a sip, studying his audience before he spoke again. Silence as a weapon was something very few people knew how to use effectively.
“I must request your assistance,” Em continued in that heavy tone. “I had provided Jessica with everything we knew at the moment she left us. I have done the same now. Not because I knew that much, but because any specific question I posed might give too much away. I must ask you to step into the line of battle, as your Roman ancestors would have done, and hold that line. Fribourg is coming, but every day Buran grows stronger. Closer. In another year, it may have become impossible to dislodge them in our lifetimes.”
He stopped now. Turned to face her across the small distance. His eyes had that same, angry fire Jessica had first seen at Callumnia, discussing creatures like Buran. Madness, mixed with indomitable rage.
“I need le Beau Geste, Jessica,” he said flatly. “The Grand Gesture. The unexpected strike to the soft underbelly. I need Buran on its heels while I build Bedrov’s next fleet, knowing that the one I have now is insufficient to the task. I need a hammer.”
Jessica understood the fear behind those words.
They were here, but would it be enough? Could anything be enough to stay the avalanche?
Jessica put her own water glass down and rose, nodding grimly to Em and then taking in her whole staff and friends with a long, intense look.
“I have said this before, many times,” she called to the room. “Let me make it clear now. The war that all of you enlisted to fight is over. Done. Fribourg needs your help to save the galaxy. It is as simple as that. As Nils Kasum told many of us, before Ballard. We must stand atop the wall and hold it against all comers. Face the darkness and, in doing so, defy it. We will not be here long, and then we will be gone, back into the darkness. Ballard and CP-406 will find them for us. VI Ferrata, VI Victrix, and II Augusta will fix them. And then, ladies and gentlemen, we will kill them.”
The sound was more like a pack of wolves than a dinner of senior officers, if there was much difference.
The look in Em’s eyes spoke volumes. Once her deadliest foe, now a friend in mortal need.
And relying on her to save humanity.