Count the dead, make a plan, treat the wounded…the list unwound in his head, and he didn’t want to do any of it.
Unbidden, a ghost image of his visions rose in his thoughts. The rotten sea, the exploding ships, the stars. The bridge only he could make of alien strands. He’d lifted his head to speak when Tucker answered.
“Don’t look at me,” Tucker said, “talk to them.” He pointed at the four Zuul siblings.
“Us?” Sonya asked, incredulous. She looked back at Shadow, and he closed his mouth. He knew what happened next.
“You. Alan planned to leave Silent Night to you. Only stipulation is, you take care of your mom.” Tucker reached into an inner pocket and pulled out a data chip. “Merc commanders don’t leave succession to chance.”
His siblings, and Bana, stared at the chip in Tucker’s hand in shock, but Shadow nodded sharply. There would be more than enough time for mourning, but for now…
“Sonya,” he said, his voice roughened but clear, “ask Yanow to meet us here. Drake, find Niss and do the same. Tucker, you’re sure no one’s left on the Vergola base?”
“From what we saw…no chance. The Zuul gave as good as they could, but it was a bloody sucker-punch ambush.” The older merc shook his head and opened his mouth to say more. Then he shrugged and gestured for Shadow to continue.
“Veska…” His ears drooped at the pain that still held her rigid, but she nodded immediately in response. They had work to do, and she was ready. “Get a message to the Paku. We’ll need the Zuul. Bana, Ulan’s got the surviving Pushtal in the barracks—bring him and whoever they consider their leader, with Eye Patch dead. Ripley, find Anderle.”
“What are we meeting about?” Drake asked. From his lowered ears, he was asking more from curiosity than challenge, but either way, it was a fair question.
“Ifka is dead, and probably all the Zuparti. I don’t much care for the Engineering Guild. It’s up to us to figure out what comes next.”
“And we’re sitting on a billion credits worth of hyperspace juice,” Sonya added, eyes widening through her exhaustion.
“We’re going to figure out what comes next,” Shadow said again, certainty coating his voice, “and we’re going to do it together.”
* * *
It took less time than Shadow had expected to gather everyone together. Anderle and her squad had fallen back to the entrance of the mines, protecting the Aku and ensuring the explosion-happy Pushtal didn’t get under the base and blow them all sky-high. It was a good move that saved lives in those hectic minutes of battle. Yanow responded to Sonya’s call immediately and had been with Ulan and the Pushtal prisoners.
I’kik had brought the Paku closer in-system after she received Nillab’s message, but then the Gheshu had never moved. It would be hours yet before they were close enough to land anyone, but their open channel had only seconds of delay.
They’d pulled together what furniture remained somewhat stable after the ambush, making for a large, if unsteady and bullet-pocked conference table.
Everything smelled of bleach and exhaustion.
And they had more to do.
Introductions ran quickly, though Bana and Drake didn’t take their eyes off the two manacled Pushtal, and Tucker regarded the Aku curiously. Veska refused a seat, keeping watch at his right shoulder, Ulan stood between the two Pushtal, and everyone else took a seat or squatted at the table as their physiology dictated.
“We’re at a decision point,” Shadow said, resting his hands flat on the scorched table in front of him. “We’ve found no living Zuparti or Vergola, and we don’t expect that to change. That effectively ends the conflict in the system, but also, with the gate still interdicted and no messages sent, voids the agreement, as well.”
“So no one gets paid?” Tucker asked, frowning.
“That’s one piece. Niss, anything in the GalNet that helps clarify matters here?”
“Well…” The Aku lifted his head further from his shell and tapped the table. “There are no claim holders on this world, nor in this system. The Zuparti kept E’cop’k out of the official records to minimize exposure. They hoped to avoid what just happened here with the Cartography Guild. Thus, without an official claim of any kind, Galactic Union law states whoever sits on it owns it.”
“Finders keepers?” Ripley said, and everyone from Earth nodded.
“I would suppose that is a way of putting it. I have read all the data I could find on the Zuparti’s guild contracts and licenses. The guild is intrinsically linked to the production of Astatine-222. This is the only place Astatine-222 is successfully mined. Thus…”
“If we control the planet, we control the guild?” Sonya asked, incredulous.
“Precisely,” Niss agreed.
“It can’t be that simple,” Drake said.
“Yet it is,” Niss persisted.
“Oof da,” Sergeant Bana said.
“Fuck me dead,” Drake agreed.
“Right.” Shadow turned his gaze first on Yanow, then to the slate displaying I’kik’s neutral expression from space. “Then I have a proposal. Silent Night is decimated. Big Strong Fist is a garrison, and has no way off the planet. The Aku are noncombatants, and the Paku is barely limping along. We can all scream for help the moment the gate’s open and fight till everyone’s dead—if someone else doesn’t come in with fresh guns blazing—or…”
“I might consider ‘or,’” Yanow said, folding a set of her arms.
“Or, we form a new company.”
“What, all of us?” Anderle’s eyes widened—not in rejection, Shadow realized, but in sudden interest.
“The Mercenary Guild is in shreds,” Bana pointed out. “It’ll take a while to get a new company approved and registered.”
“What if there’s an old one we can bring back?” Shadow said. It was hard to keep the smile off his face.
“Silent Night?” Tucker asked.
“Older.”
“Insho’Ze offers itself to Night
