Chapter 67
More than half a week passed before Van managed to lock the Joyau into Perdya’s orbit station. The off-coordinate jump translation had resulted in the loss of three days in translation time, and an additional two days in nonjump travel because the Joyau had dropped into norm space well away from Perdya. Still, Van had preferred the lost time to the possibility of an encounter with RSF warships.
He just hoped that his family had gotten his message—and that they had acted upon it. He couldn’t make them, but everything pointed to the Republic becoming more and more inhospitable to black Tarans in the days and months to come.
Once the Joyau was safely locked in, Van left Eri on board to handle the maintenance and took the down-shuttle to Cambria, even though the IIS headquarters had already informed him that no one knew where Trystin was—only that he had left word that he was in an uninhabited system engaged in testing equipment.
Joseph Sasaki was waiting when Van stepped off the lift on the top floor of the IIS building.
“Have you heard anything new from Director Desoll?” Van asked. “I’d sent a torp…”
“We relayed it via coded standing wave,” Sasaki replied. “I hoped you might know where he was. Less than an hour ago, we just got word. The Revenants have just smashed the Keltyr fleet, and are taking over the Keltyr systems…or half of them. The other half, the ones closest to the Taran systems, are being taken by RSF fleets…”
For a moment…. Van just gaped. He felt as if he’d been gut-punched. “The RSF…Tara…they’re cooperating, allying themselves with the Revenants?”
“That’s what the Service says, and we’re getting coded standing wave messages from the planetary offices in the Keltyr systems. The media haven’t reported it yet. I expect that any moment.”
Van shook his head. The pieces had been there. He just hadn’t expected them to go together that way.
Sasaki stiffened.
Van sensed the incoming and waited.
Sasaki looked at Van. “Let’s go to your office. There’s a standing wave message for you.”
The two walked silently down the corridor. Once in his office, Van used the system to call up and display the message. Decrypted, it was simple enough.
Immediate action: Joyau is to take on a complete load of message torps, cargo awaiting at the Aerolis Belt shipyard, and any additional message torps able to be fitted in the Joyau’s cargo bay. Make rendezvous with Salya and the Elsin ASAP.
The coordinates were there, but offhand Van didn’t know where they might be, except they looked to be somewhere close to the Revenant systems.
“That says where he’ll be,” Van said. “And where we’ll all be.” He pulsed an order for a hard copy of the coordinates, even as he used his implant to burn them into memory.
Sasaki looked back at Van. “I’ve ordered a private shuttle to get you back to orbit control two. I don’t think you’d better wait for the regular shuttle. The private shuttle will be touching down on the grass in front of the building in five minutes.”
“That bad?”
“The Coalition knows Director Desoll. They know he’s not here, but it won’t take them long to think about you and Nynca.”
Van didn’t even nod. He just retrieved the hard copy of the message and coordinates, folded it and slipped it into his shipsuit, then turned and hurried to the lift. Even so, the shuttle was waiting for him, hovering over the grass.
“Director Albert?” called a crewman in a maroon shipsuit.
“That’s me.”
“We need to hurry.”
Van jumped onto the ramp that didn’t quite touch the ground. Even before he was inside, the shuttle was climbing, and by the time he strapped into one of the luxurious leather couches, it was screaming skyward. Van was the only passenger.
The Revenants taking over the Keltyr systems? Given what Van had seen in the last few years, that didn’t surprise him as much as the Republic’s alliance with the Revs. His own people, though? Should he have seen it? Ashley had as much as told him that matters were getting bad, and that had been two and a half years ago. His fathers’ messages had also suggested the same. Then there had been the growing numbers of unfavorable references to the Keltyr that he’d observed.
So why was it so hard to believe?
Because he’d wanted to believe the RSF and the Republic were better than the Revenants? Because, despite the way he’d been treated, he’d hoped for better? Again, he had to ask himself whether the entire Republic culture was what he had thought—or what he had wanted to believe.
He forced himself to try to relax as he waited.
As the shuttle neared orbit control, the crewman reappeared. “The private lock is closer to your ship, but you’ll need to hurry. They’re debating whether to close Perdya to both outgoing and incoming traffic. A decision could come anytime.”
“Thank you.” Van nodded and began to unstrap. He followed the crewtech to the lock, where he stood waiting.
There was a muted thump as the shuttle eased into the locking bay, followed by the hissing of pressurization.
As Van started to step out of the lock, the crewman grinned. “We’re all behind you.”
Van accepted the words with a nod and another, “Thank you.” Behind him—or IIS? For what? To take on the Revenants?
He hurried down the station corridors to lock charlie three.
Once more, Eri was waiting.
“We’re leaving immediately?” she asked.
“For Aerolis.” Van pulsed the lock closed and headed for the cockpit. Rushing back to the ship was getting to be too much of a habit. “To pick up torps and cargo, and then rendezvous with the Elsin and the Salya.” Van paused. “Did you hear about the attack on the Keltyr?”
“Yes. Joseph
