The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [41]
‘Defeat and dishonour, with a minimum damage to our military,’ said Teshak. ‘The multiclans, the families, the great throng of all Sendrukans will demand a change of administration and a new direction.’
‘The pact with the traditionalists is expected to be signed in the next few hours,’ said Dusorn. ‘By the time our vessel arrives with the carrier group the news will have broken. Now I must end this discussion – new complexities in our pursuit demand my attention.’
‘Thank you for the updates and elucidation,’ Teshak said.
Dusorn gave a wordless nod and abruptly the holoplane was empty. Teshak tapped a console control and the screen vanished as the encased communicator began to pack itself away.
The AI-controlled Sendrukans turned to face each other and for several unsettling moments Kuros shared Gratach’s unflinching eye contact with the Clarified Teshak. At last Teshak relaxed slightly, nodded, and leaned forward.
‘Utavess Kuros,’ he said. ‘I know that you can hear me. The valiant General Gratach assures me that your personality core is stable and aware of sight and sound. As you will have observed, the meticulous project of the Clarified takes another step towards its culmination. Soon the Hegemon’s favourites will be deposed and out of the ruined dusk of their rule a new dawn shall rise; we will be in control and when a stronger Hegemony stands forth an age of glory shall begin. You will not survive to see it, of course, but your part will not go unremarked.’
As they laughed on their way out of the building, Kuros seethed with helpless fury. Yet a calmer part of him considered what he had learned and reasoned that war was the cradle of accidents and coincidences. Even the most meticulous of projects were bound to encounter factors of unpredictability.
KAO CHIH
From an oval window in the starboard lounge of the Viteazul, Kao Chih sat watching dull red starlight spill over the edge of a flat continent-sized habitat. Its orbit had carried it out of the gas giant’s shadow and now a dirty crimson radiance was streaming over its surface, brightening the sides of hills and cliffs, buildings and motionless vehicles on transport lanes. The habitat’s surface was desolate, airless and grey, most of its structures had eroded and collapsed into crumbling ruins, vehicles pitted by centuries of meteorites, the frozen ground covered with dust. There were another twenty-four of these colossal habitats, every one a lifeless sepulchre locked into an ancient orbit.
Any other time Kao Chih would have regarded these examples of macro-engineering with fascination. But they were the last remnants of a dead civilisation, desiccated remains buried deep in the decayed depths of hyperspace. All he could do for the time being was try to stave off a crushing anxiety about their current predicament.
Pursued by three Suneye warships, the Roug–Vox Humana flotilla with its Pyre passengers had fled down through the levels of hyperspace. Guided and protected by Roug technology, the flotilla managed to make a series of boundary jumps, varying their length with lateral, cross-tier directions, even making the occasional double-back up a level or two. But still the Suneye vessels managed to find them, relentlessly and without fail …
Then the Nestinar suffered a major malfunction in its navigationals and the entire flotilla was forced to make an emergency boundary exit which landed them here in this tier of guttering stars, littered with the ruins of artificial worldlets. That had been less than an hour ago. Right now the five Marauder craft were engaged in a desperate rearguard fight against the three Suneye ships while the flotilla sought refuge among the gas giant’s orbiting flock of entombed landscapes. Time was needed to repair the Nestinar’s systems, which on closer inspection turned out to have been sabotaged. And time was running out.
Kao Chih was dividing