Chapter 70
Van was on full alert when the Joyau came out of jumpspace, scanning the system, but there were only two EDI traces in the entire system. One was a comparator beacon, and the other matched the profile of the Elsin.
He was still wondering what Trystin had done that was so wonderful and terrible, and whether it could really have been either. Even with the power of IIS behind him, Trystin hadn’t done that much, not in the larger scheme of things. Between them, over the past few years, they’d destroyed perhaps ten Revenant vessels. While those losses might have been significant to the Beldorans or the Keshmarans, that number was a mere annoyance to powers like the Revenants, the Coalition, or the Argenti, and slightly more than a minor problem to the Republic.
Still scanning the screens and checking monitors, Van turned the Joyau toward the Elsin.
“Two hours, I’d guess,” Van said to Eri in response to her unspoken question. “The Salya’s not on the screens yet.”
“Nynca will be here,” Eri predicted.
“She won’t be happy, but she’ll be here.”
“She is less certain than he is.”
Van almost laughed. Trystin did have an air of certainty, of complete assurance that what he did was the right thing to do. “I’m in her camp.”
Eri only nodded.
Van’s thoughts dropped back to his fathers, to Sappho and Aelysa and their children, and to Arturo. He couldn’t help worrying about them, hoping that they were all right. But, at the moment, he couldn’t do any more than he’d already done. He’d warned them, and he’d sent funds, but there was no way he could land on Sulyn without either taking the Joyau or without a fleet behind him—and neither was possible. He couldn’t just spend millions he didn’t have or spend IIS funds to jump halfway across the Arm because he was worried.
As the Joyau neared the Elsin, Van kept checking the screens, but the system remained as empty as before, with just the beacon and the two IIS ships showing.
Finally, he pulsed, Elsin, this is Joyau, approaching for rendezvous.
Just lock to the Elsin and come aboard, Trystin replied.
Commencing approach for locking.
We’re standing by.
Once the approach and locking was complete, Van set the shipnet on remote and made his way to the lock. From there, he stepped from the lock of the Joyau into the Elsin.
Trystin stood there. For the first time, he looked older, his face almost gaunt, with deep and dark circles under his eyes. Van did not see Alya, who had been working as Trystin’s tech.
“You’ve been working hard,” Van observed.
“Some things take more effort.” The older pilot gestured toward the captain’s stateroom.
Van followed, but this time took the console chair, leaving the more comfortable armchair for Trystin.
“Let’s start with you,” Trystin began. “You had asked to rendezvous.”
“You know about the Revenant and Republic attack on the Keltyr systems?”
“That’s why we’re here. We’ll get to that. Why had you asked me to meet you?”
“Some of it’s not so important now. It makes more sense, though. The RSF staged a coup, using the same sort of techniques that the Revenants did on Scandya—except they were successful in New Oisin…” Van went on to summarize his experiences, and his information raiding expedition. “…and when you look at it in light of the assault on the Keltyr systems, it all makes sense. They’ve been trying to push out and minimize the Coalition presence in the Republic, as well as using confiscatory legislation and economic policies to appropriate assets. I’d bet that those assets have gone into ships, supplies, and training.”
“How do you feel about it?” asked Trystin.
“Upset…worried. I’m afraid my family’s still on Sulyn, and that’s one of the places where internal security has been putting down unrest.”
“Betrayed?”
“That, too,” Van admitted. “That’s been going on longer than I’d guessed. I know it all happened, but I still find it hard to believe.”
“That’s because not enough people said, “No.” To stop evil, someone has to say no. At times, if the society’s strong, more than one person says it. At the present, none of the major societies in the Arm are strong. As I told you, it took years to find someone suitable for IIS.”
“That’s not why you rescued me from the RSF. Or why you prodded me to go back there.” Van said quietly. “You’ve wanted a good combat pilot from the beginning, haven’t you?”
“Yes, because I knew that IIS would run into more and more dangerous situations. It’s been getting worse for years. There’s more and more reliance on force, rather than order or cooperation.” Trystin cleared his throat. “I didn’t prod you to take a look at the systems in the Republic. Suggested. That’s because I knew you needed to come to some resolution about that.”
Van doubted he really had come to any internal resolution about how he felt about the Republic. “I still don’t know why you picked me.”
“Like a long-ago mythical figure who took a lantern, I went looking for an honest man. There aren’t many, not even in as many stars as the Arm has. Not honest able men who will act.”
“I’m not one.”
“Honest men always say that.”
“I’m not honest,” Van said. “And I’ve blood on my hands. More than I’d ever thought when I was a bright-eyed lieutenant so many years back. There’s more every year. I killed that Marine in RSF headquarters…Vickry and all those in the Revenant ships—and in the Collyns.”
“You can’t wash away the blood,” Trystin replied. “I know that. I wouldn’t take too much guilt for it, either. Let me ask you a few questions. First…that Marine in RSF headquarters. He shot to kill you, not to capture you. What was so important in
