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"DO WE HAVE ANYONE ON board who knows anything about the udukiin?" asked Radko, hurrying off the shuttle and into the nearby crew lounge that had, once again, been drafted into serving as a makeshift briefing room for command.
El Bahari slowly shook her head.
"Nothing beyond the basic species introduction classes we all took at the Military College."
"What about the Tianlong?"
"Zhang claims to know as little as we do," said Owens.
"But he agreed not to engage them until we know what's going on?"
"Yes," said Owens, nodding. "His exact words were 'I'm not an idiot.'"
Running a hand through his hair, Radko turned to Cagliari.
"Kestrel? Anything?"
She shook her head.
"We steered clear of the Shattered World just like everyone else."
"Everyone except ATC Castle," said el Bahari.
"Yeah, that's what I was about to say—we know ATC Castle went in, and," she said, pausing for emphasis. "We know Sigurdsson went in to return that Matriarch."
It was the first time Cagliari had mentioned the Matriarch aspect of Sigurdsson's side adventure, keeping it quiet at Radko's request, and he watched el Bahari's reaction. It was slight surprise, but not shock—more like surprise that a suspicion had been proven correct.
"So," he said. "Do we think they're friendly?"
El Bahari actually laughed at that. Radko was fairly certain it was the first time he'd ever heard her laugh and it was a much lighter sound than he'd expected.
"They haven't tried to attack yet—that's about as far as I'm willing to go. And," she conceded. "They want to talk, which means your friend may have made a good impression."
A few moments of silence passed before Radko spoke again.
"Then I guess we have a chat with whatever the hell a Kaigor Kai Rii is."
"You," said el Bahari.
"Me what?"
"The Kaigor Kai Rii wants to speak with you not us. The udukiin have been very specific in that."
Leaning against the bulkhead, Radko rubbed his eyes and sighed.
"They want me to go over to their ship, don't they?"
It was barely a question and everyone knew he didn't need them to answer.
"Alone," he said.
"Yeah," said Owens.
"Well, tell them I'm on my way, but I'm bringing a pilot," said Radko, nodding to Cagliari, who nodded back. "It's been a long time since I logged any flight time."
"Understood," said el Bahari. "I'll let them know."
"This is fucking creepy, Fin," said Cagliari as the shuttle glided toward the gaping maw that was the udukiin flagship's landing bay.
She was entirely correct—it looked like they were flying into the mouth of some immense space predator. Everything about the ship, from its hull to its weapon emplacements to the landing bay deck plates and bulkheads was a shade of red. Some a deep, blood red and some a bright, vibrant red that reminded Radko of the lipstick an ex-girlfriend of his had worn almost constantly. Her name had been Yvette, she was from France and she was very likely dead now, he realised.
He sighed. Exhaustion was turning him morbid.
Cagliari heard the sigh and interpreted it as something it wasn't.
"Sorry, I'll stop."
"No, no, I'm just tired. You're right, it's fucking creepy."
As they fully entered the bay, Cagliari whistled softly, looking at several large fighter craft racked along the walls. They were big—bigger than any fighters the Commonwealth had ever had—but they were clearly fighters. However, unlike the Argentavis, they appeared built for raw power. The Argentavis was a superiority fighter. These were large hammers.
A glowing ring suddenly flared to life just below the surface of the deck plates and began pulsing.
"I'm assuming that's where I land," said Cagliari, almost to herself.
She gently set down and confirmed breathable air outside, then cycled the shuttle's airlock. When she popped open the exterior door, she took an involuntary step backward.
Right outside stood four udukiin, armed with tall staves and looking less friendly than one would expect of a welcome party for an invited guest.
"You are Radko?" asked one of the udukiin, jabbing a finger toward Cagliari's chest.
She shoved the finger aside before it made contact with her breast.
"Hands to yourself, you-"
A knife was at her throat. One of the other udukiin had drawn the sharp curved blade from a sheath affixed to its armoured vest.
And suddenly that udukiin had a REV-2 pistol in its face as Radko stepped down from the shuttle and into the hangar.
"I'm Radko," he said. "And I'm fucking tired of being invited onto people's ships and having weapons pointed at me."
He looked each of the four udukiin in the eye. He hoped he was looking them in the correct set of eyes.
"Your Kaigor Kai Rii invited me here," he said. "And I'm pretty sure it wasn't so my friend and I could be threatened by you."
"Very true."
Looking up to the source of the gravelly voice, Radko and Cagliari saw a fifth udukiin standing about three meters away, carrying a similar, but more elaborately carved staff.
"I am Udrach Kai Togru," said the new udukiin. "I welcome you aboard Her Glorious Vengeance."
At an elaborate hand signal from Udrach, the four udukiin guards backed off and so Radko holstered his sidearm.
"Do you want me to stay with the ship?" asked Cagliari.
Radko shook his head and she hopped down with him.
"Kaigor Kai Rii awaits," said Udrach, motioning for them to follow.
It unsettled Radko that the four guards fell in behind them, but he supposed it was understandable. He and Cagliari were, after all, humans who had been invited onto an udukiin cruiser. It was far from a normal or comfortable situation for either side. They were led through the impressively arched red corridors of the cruiser—Her Glorious Vengeance, as the udukiin called it. Radko had to admit the name had a certain ring to it and one could certainly never mistake the purpose for which the ship was designed.
They were led in silence, neither Udrach nor the other udukiin saying a word as they traveled deep into the heart of Her Glorious Vengeance and it wasn't until they were led into a large chamber, the walls lined with armed udukiin soldiers that Cagliari spoke up—and even then it was a whisper.
"I kind of expected we'd have seen Sigurdsson by now," she said.
"Silence!"
One of the udukiin guards swung the butt of his staff hard into the small of Cagliari's back, sending her sprawling onto the deck plates with a yelp of pain. Teeth clenched, hand on his pistol, Radko spun to face the offending guard but before he could react there was a snarl and a bark and Jaeger was there. The dog had placed himself between Cagliari and her attacker and the udukiin immediately backed up two steps and... and knelt. Head bowed.
And every udukiin in the room tapped their staff on the floor three times.
"Welcome to Her Glorious Vengeance," said a very familiar voice.
"Kaigor Kai Rii," chanted the udukiin.
Radko saw Frankenstein—Frankenstein was there?—helping Cagliari to her feet and then he looked to the other side of the long chamber where a pair of massive doors had parted and where the Kaigor Kai Rii now stood.
Hands on hips.
Smirking.
Fucking beautiful.
"Freyja..?"
Her smile broadened and they walked toward each other, both trying very very hard not to just break decorum and run. When they finally met, after what seemed like ages, the pair just stood awkwardly for a moment, staring at each other.
"For a while there," said Sigurdsson. "I wasn't sure I'd see you again."
"For a while there, I was feeling the same way."
And then she reached out, grabbed him by the front of his uniform and pulled him into a kiss.
Several moments later they separated, feeling dozens of eyes upon them.
"So, uh," said Radko, clearing his throat. "You're, what, a guest of this Kaigor Kai Rii? I take it you got the Matriarch back safely?"
"Uh... we need to talk."
He frowned. She stepped back and spread her arms and for the first time he really noticed what she was wearing. It was one of the armoured vests like the udukiin wore - though sized perfectly for Sigurdsson—and some kind of armour on her...
His frown deepened and then his eyes widened as he locked eyes with Sigurdsson. Her smile had faded slightly and appeared to now be more hopeful than the joy that had brought it forth previously.
"Is that...?"
"Yeah, the Matriarch. I'm not a guest of Kaigor Kai Rii, Finn—I am Kaigor Kai Rii," she said, and it almost sounded like an apology. "Like I said, we need to talk."
For a moment, Radko didn't know what to say, and by the time he had begun to form a response in his mind, Sigrudsson was nodding to one of the udukiin.
"Udrach, get Cags something to eat," she said, then smiled slightly at Cagliari. "Elgraphaar can fill you in on what's been going on."
"Um. Okay."
Kaigor Kai Rii nudged Radko with her elbow.
"Follow me."
So he did. Back through the large doors by which she'd entered, down a short, blood-red hallway and into a surprisingly small room. A pair of udukiin guards had followed them, but stayed in the hallway and Sigurdsson closed the door as she and Radko entered. He was relieved it would be just the two of them.
"Might want to sit down," said Sigurdsson, a very faint nervous tremble in her voice. She nodded toward a table set in the centre of the room, four chairs around it.
As Radko sat down at the small table, Sigurdsson picked up an oddly-shaped bottle and two equally oddly-shaped glasses from a nearby shelf. Uncorking the bottle, she poured a translucent, greenish liquid into each glass until they were half full. Radko wondered if there was some intent to that—optimist versus pessimist kind of thing—but as Sigurdsson recorked the bottle, set it aside and settled in across from him, he looked into her blue eyes and didn't care about metaphors.
Sigurdsson picked up her glass and swirled the liquid.
"It's better than it looks," she said.
"I should hope so."
Lifting his glass, Radko could detect several different aromas from the liquid. Freshly cut grass. Cinnamon. Ginger. Lime. Locomotive. Though he didn't make any assumptions that any of those things were actually in the drink—it was one of the most absurd things about humanity, our innate ability to smell, taste or see the familiar in the unfamiliar. Ask any human what any strange type of meat tasted like and almost invariably the answer would be chicken.
He took a sip. The taste was strange, but not unpleasantly so, and it left a nice warmth behind when he swallowed.
"How potent is this stuff? And what's it called?"
"It's called baze and it's barely alcoholic. I'd guess maybe three percent? Hard to say for sure—the udukiin don't label shit like we do—but I had four glasses the other night and was barely buzzed. One glass won't do you in, I promise."
Chuckling, he took another sip.
"So," he said. "What the fuck?"
She laughed and it made him smile.
"Yeah, it's been an eventful few days," she said.
Giving him the short version of her adventure—the crash landing on the Shattered World, the ril-galas presence, the first encounter with the udukiin, her embarrassingly slow realisation that she wasn't so much returning a War Matriarch as becoming one. Her final acceptance of the fact and her decision to use it to do some good.
"And you accepted the title of Kaigor Kai Rii?" asked Radko.
"It's not that simple, Fin. It's not... it's not a job you apply for," she said, slowly spreading her three-fingered hand on the tabletop. "It's an ancient udukiin term. It means Matriarch of the Three."
She smiled a little as she saw the understanding in his eyes.
"I wish I'd been that quick to catch on," she said.
"And now you're leading the udukiin to war?"
Her smile faltered.
"Yeah. I am. I don't want to—I mean I want us to win this war, but I don't like the idea of thousands of udukiin living or dying at my whim," she said. "But what I like even less is the idea of this war continuing indefinitely. More friends dying. Maybe you dying."
Glancing away, she wiped her eyes quickly and Radko pretended not to notice.
"I didn't want to be Kaigor Kai Rii," she said. "Maybe that's why it took me so long to figure it out—I was in denial or something. But then I realised what I could do. What I could accomplish with the udukiin marching behind me."
There was another long moment where they just held each other's gaze before Sigurdsson again spoke.
"Do you trust me to do this?"
Reaching across the table, he took her blue hand in his own.
"Without question."
They just sat there like that, hand in hand, for a long time until Sigurdsson—so reluctantly it seemed to cause her physical discomfort—broke the spell.
"We can't do this right now," she said quietly, lowering her head into her palm. "I want to, believe me..."
"But time is not on our side," said Radko, finishing her thought.
"Yeah."
Looking up at him again, Sigurdsson smiled sadly.
"Even when this is all over," she said. "Even if it ends the way we want it to... I'm a goddamned udukiin War Matriarch. You're a Commonwealth Naval officer. How do we even...?"
"We live in the moment, Freyja. We take whatever happy moments we can find and we hold onto them like our lives depend on it. We're fighting for the people who can't fight for themselves," said Radko. "But we're also fighting for ourselves. To give us a chance to have a life again."
"To go to a cottage and have some steaks," she said.
"Exactly. So let's solve one problem before we start on another."
"And by 'solve one problem' you mean just win a war," she said with a grin.
"Yep."
"No problem."
"So," he said, turning serious again. "Just how large is the udukiin force you can lead?"
"That I can lead? Fucking huge. Four million," she said, quickly holding up a hand when his eyes widened. "That's basically every adult udukiin—they're all trained to fight, but there's no way I'm leading an entire species into battle. I accepted this Kaigor Kai Rii thing, but I'm putting limits on it. They want to march—all of them—but I've laid out some ground rules."
Radko leaned forward, listening. It didn't even occur to him that sitting there with Sigurdsson, talking about their future, the future of the war, even the weird green drink, was the most comfortable and relaxed he'd been... well, since the last time he'd sat down and talked with Sigurdsson.
"I brought a hundred thousand soldiers," she said, surprisingly nonchalant about a number that would more than double what the Commonwealth could deploy. "Half here and half on Her Divine Retribution. I left two more capital ships back in the Priex—Her Righteous Fury and Her Graceful Violence—along with the rest of the soldiers. They're defending the Priex and are in reserve as reinforcements if we need them. On Earth or anywhere else."
"Shit," he said. "That's impressive. And side note: those are some serious ship names."
Sigurdsson grinned broadly.
"I know, I fucking love it. Ask me the name of my ship."
"What the name of your ship?"
Narrowing her eyes, Sigurdsson scowled.
"Her Glorious Vengeance," she said in a low, near-snarl. And then laughed.
"Bloody hell I missed you."
"Same here, Fin," she said, taking the last sip from her cup.
"But seriously," he said. "This udukiin thing. I mean, that prophecy sounds ominous, no?"
"What, about leading the udukiin to their rightful place in the universe? I guess," said Sigurdsson. "Aylarr says everyone interpreted that as meaning conquering or ruling or just fighting wars, but here's the thing, Fin."
She leaned in closer.
"No one bothered to ask the udukiin what they thought it meant. No one. And honestly the udukiin don't give a shit about conquering, they just don't think like that. They're happy with their Shattered World and their Priex."
"So..."
"So, what if their rightful place in the galaxy is as its protectors? Everyone acts like the udukiin are some scary war-loving psychos, but fuck Fin, they're like an entire society of Radkos. They're all true believers in doing what's right. They fought and beat the ril-galas the last time they tried to invade, for fucks sake."
"An entire society of Radkos?"
Sigurdsson grinned.
"You get the point. We've always needed allies, no matter what the dipshits in charge think. You brought in the Soviets and the icarans and now I've brought the udukiin. This could be the turning point we've been looking for."
Radko nodded. She was right—having the udukiin on board changed the playing field in a dramatic way. He was hesitant to say it tipped the scales in their favour—the ril-galas presence was too strong and too entrenched to think of Joint Task Force One as anything other than underdogs—but the udukiin presence made the odds of success and survival at the Hornet's Nest that much greater.
"Speaking of the dipshits in charge," said Sigurdsson. "How are things on the home-ish front at Thor's Hammer?"
His entire demeanour changed, he knew it. And he knew Sigurdsson saw it immediately and the look of concern that came over her face both touched him and made him angry at himself for allowing his feelings to show so...
No, he thought. Sigurdsson was the last person from whom he needed to be hiding his feelings. So he told her the whole story, with as much detail as he could without losing his composure. He watched as Sigurdsson's jaw muscles clenched and unclenched and clenched again as she heard about what had happened to Cortez and the scowl she wore was one that would cause enemies to rethink their life choices.
"Freyja," he said gently. "I know what you're thinking—believe me, I do—but we can't let ourselves be blinded by this."
"What they did was state-sanctioned murder-"
"You don't think I'm aware of what they did? You don't think I spent every minute thinking up ways to get her out of there?" Radko said gently despite the firmness of the words. "Anna was executed because of her friendship with me. But I have to keep reminding myself that my mission—our mission, the mission Anna died protecting—is exponentially more important than my personal need for revenge."
Standing, Sigurdsson paced the room twice, then stopped, her back to Radko.
"Jesus fuck I'm scared, Fin," she said quietly.
Radko blinked and stared at the back of her head.
"What?"
"I'm scared," she repeated. "I'm scared of me."
"What do you mean?" he asked, standing and quietly pushing in his chair before approaching and placing a hand on Sigurdsson's shoulder. She immediately and unconsciously reached up and put her hand over his.
"Back on the Shattered World," she said slowly. "Jaeger was hurt. Badly. And I lost it, I went absolutely apeshit and, see, the Matriarch thing, it's not just me that's affected. She's got this psychic bond to the udukiin. And Finn I could feel my rage through them—all of them. I could feel it reflecting back in waves. They flew into a rage because I did, and I used it. I used them like I was taking a swing with my own fist."
"Against the ril-galas."
She nodded, conceding the point, but it was a side-point to what she was trying to say.
"But it was still because I let my emotions get the better of me. I reacted. And I do that all the time, I react. Just now I was ready to fly straight to Thor's Hammer and lead a boarding party to drag DeFreitas and Upshaw to the nearest airlock and blow them into space."
"Freyja..."
"No, Fin, this is a big deal. I know I've been responsible for other peoples' lives before, but at Fort Hathaway it was like a hundred people. Now, with basically every udukiin ready to follow me into battle, I could have the lives of the entire species in my hands. With one wrong, rage-fueled decision, I could be responsible for their extinction."
"The fact that you're aware of it," Radko said, touching her cheek to make her look at him. "Means the chances of it happening are slim. And for the first time since we first spoke over that shitty comm line between the Vimy Ridge and Fort Hathaway, you and I are fighting on the same front. We're together now and we stay that way—we help each other, we support each other and we stop each other from fucking things up. Right?"
"Yeah."
She didn't sound convinced.
"But?"
"But," said Sigurdsson. "I don't know how much the udukiin would question the decisions of Kaigor Kai Rii. You have el Bahari to question-"
"Every goddamned thing I do."
"Pretty much," said Sigurdsson, a smile briefly flickering to life. "Believe me, I trust myself with you here more than I do otherwise, but you're not here here. You're on the Vimy Ridge and I really—really fucking really—need a voice of reason at my side."
"Freyja, what's the one thing that even people who hate me would admit I'm really good at?"
"Resources. Finding what you have available and using it to its max potential."
"I'm glad you came up with that so quickly or it could have gotten awkward," he said with a smirk. "But yes, you're right. When the world ended, I had my ship and crew, I had a team of Rangers and I had a psychic. Then I got some icaran commandos and a Soviet carrier. You have Elgraphaar, Aylarr and Frankenstein. And Jaeger. I don't know Aylarr or Frankenstein very well, but I know Elgraphaar and Jaeger and they're both stubborn and not afraid to tell you when they disagree."
Sigurdsson chuckled. It was true, all of it.
"Use what you have at your disposal," said Radko. "Back then, I had input from Owens and Grey and Locaris and Quon. Now I have Owens and el Bahari and Rhekarr and Cagliari and you. I once read a paper by some Commonwealth Admiral who said commanding a ship was a lonely post; that the captain stood apart from his crew. I think that's bullshit. I think that a commander—Naval or otherwise—who stands apart from those he commands is a weak commander."
"And not a commander that people will follow when shit hits the fan," said Sigurdsson, nodding at first, then laughing and shaking her head. "Fucking hell Fin, how do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Make people feel better about themselves. Make them feel like everything will be okay."
"Because, in spite of everything we're going through, I believe everything will be okay. We will fight. It will be bloody and brutal and," he said, his eyes flashing. "We will win because I won't allow any other outcome."
Sigurdsson smiled.
"We won't allow any other outcome."
"So sayeth the Kaigor Kai Rii and so shall it be done," he said, with overwrought seriousness. But it made her laugh and he was yet again struck by how much he loved the sound.
"You're an ass."
"I am indeed."