Black Legion: 05 - Sea of Fire (32 page)

“She was lucky. Another thirty minutes and we would have lost her.”

Xenophon took in a long breath, realizing how close he’d come to losing her for good. He reached out with his hand, and she grabbed it.

“Are we there yet?” she asked weakly.

Xenophon smiled and then spotted the shape of another familiar face three beds over. A female face looked back at him and nodded politely. It was Desma of Mantinea, and her arm was raised and suspended in a sling arrangement. She looked wide-awake, and her wounds were the classic injuries sustained in close ranged combat. He looked back to Lady Artemas.

“Not quite, nearly though. We’re heading for the border and into Hayastani space.”

Artemas’ eyes fluttered for a moment.

“Hayastan?”

She tried to move, but Xenophon pushed harder against her arm. The medical orderly looked at her reading on the computer unit and nodded.

“You need to stay here to give time for the healing to continue. The internal damage is light, but it will take twenty hours at least for the tissue repair to take hold.”

She thanked the man, and when he was finally away looked back to Xenophon.

“Tirbazus has been plotting against the Empire for years. He’s a dangerous man. You have to...”

Tamara leapt onto the end of the bed and narrowly missed landing on her legs.

“It’s okay. Tirbazus is in the Sea of Fire, so are the Carduchians.”

Artemas looked confused and turned her attention back to Xenophon.

“What? They hate each other. How...”

Tamara pointed to Xenophon.

“It’s all about Xenophon today. He made them come for us, and now they’re tearing each other apart.”

Lady Artemas still looked confused.

“But how did you navigate the Sea of Fire? And why is Tirbazus taking so many ships. I don’t understand.”

Even as she spoke, it began to coalesce in her mind. Images of her last visit, ancient accounts of the region, and the reports that came in to Babylon Prime. The Imperial family was large and spread out, and it was difficult to keep this kind of information private. She rolled over a little and groaned in discomfort. Xenophon moved a fraction closer, but she refused to let him speak.

“Of course, it makes sense. He has been lobbying on Babylon Prime for years about the disputed border region. His family never forgave their defeat at the Sea of Fire. The Carduchians invaded, took the border worlds, and then unleashed their secret weapon.”

Xenophon was confused and looked to Tamara who just shook her head.

“Weapon?”

Lady Artemas nodded and beckoned toward a glass of water. Tamara handed it over, and after three small sips it was replaced.

“Yes, the weapon; a massive engineering project to mine the artificial nebula that ran around the border. It failed catastrophically, destroying many worlds and wiping out the Hayastani fleet. That was more the three hundred years ago.”

Xenophon hadn’t heard the story before. As far as he understood it, the Sea of Fire was an ancient celestial phenomenon a millennia old, but that really didn’t matter. If the regional story was of a weapon, then that was what they believed, and he couldn’t change that. Artemas looked at him, her face confused and concerned at the same time.

“How did you navigate? Chirisophus destroyed any chance of paying for local guides.”

 
Xenophon’s mind returned to what he had done with the prisoner. He closed his eyes, the pain and memory of what he had seen still seeping back into his mind. He was of no doubt he’d done the right thing. In fact it was taught in every Terran military academy that intelligence was always critical. It was standard practice to capture and interrogate local commanders at every stage of a conflict. Even so, he still knew that what he had done was an act of personal violence against an unarmed man.

“I...I took the information from our prisoners.”

Artemas might have been delirious, but she could see the difficulty he was in. She did her best to look reassuring.

“Xenophon. Because of Chirisophus you had no choice. We could have bought the information to travel through this wilderness with coin. Instead, he chose the path of violence and looting; he has no business leading our escape. Whatever you did, it was for the good of all of us.”

She rubbed at her face.

“Me especially.”

Xenophon didn’t quite understand. He opened his mouth to ask, but she pulled him close. Their faces moved closer and closer until she twisted slightly to position her mouth next to his right ear.

“I was pledged to Tirbazus upon our next meeting, a goodwill payment for services rendered, long past.”

Xenophon was stunned. She pulled back and looked at him, but his face was a bewildering image of confusion and surprise.

“Why do you think somebody as high in my family left home during this crisis of my uncle and his brother? As long as I am away from Tirbazus, I will safe, and that means no official visits near him.”

Xenophon had always suspected there was something more to her being away from the royal home, but she’d never wanted to speak about it. Now that he knew of this agreement with Tirbazus, he was even more convinced that he had to keep them apart.

“Is this pledge still valid?”

She began to answer, but only then did Xenophon really understand exactly what she was trying to tell him. He swallowed hard and his eyebrows rose a fraction.

“Wait, are you telling me you are engaged to the Satrap of Hayastan?”

Now it was Artemas’ turn to look sheepish.

“Technically, yes. Not just me, though, he is already married, don’t forget.”

She looked away and at the others in the medical bay.

“It is a political gesture, a trade to shore up support and to create a long-term family alliance. I had no intention of ever...”

She noticed the look of stunned surprise about him, but Tamara simply laughed. He looked at her, his face both pleading and questioning, and that did nothing to calm her down.

“Trust you, Xenophon.”

“What?” he asked in a mock, offended tone.

“To find the only woman in the fleet due to be married. That is a real skill.”

The wall-mounted speaker buzzed and then so did the earpiece communications node sat loosely over his ear.

“Thirty minutes until arrival, all hands to battle stations.”

He glanced back to Artemas who again smiled at him.

“Go to them. You need to get us through this Satrapy and fast. Tirbazus will not take kindly to having been beaten in this way. He is a proud leader, and this will weaken him. The enmity with Tirbazus goes back to the creation of the Sea of Fire. It was the Carduchians that created it, a powerful barrier to block access to annexed border colonies. He wants them back. You can use that.”

Xenophon squeezed her hand and then headed for the door. Tamara whispered something in Artemas’ ear, and she immediately laughed. Then she leapt off and followed Xenophon out of the medical bay and into one of the many narrow corridors.

“What did you say?” he asked.

Tamara moved her in finger from side to side.

“I’m not telling.”

Xenophon shrugged.

“Fair enough. In any case we’ve got other concerns right now. Like what happens when we arrive on the border.”

They quickly arrived on the command deck just as another powerful arc of energy lashed at the ship. Kentarchos Cadmus appeared to sigh in relief at spotting him.

“Our arrival is imminent. I brought the other prisoners to the deck, as you requested.”

Xenophon looked at Golnaz. He’d expected the Carduchian to be far worse for wear, but now he could see the marks from his interrogation were less significant than they had seemed. Minute by minute he seemed to be returning to normality.

The Scythian really was more skilled than I gave him credit.

He stepped closer to the prisoner and then noticed the small group of his comrades off to the side.

“Golnaz. Satrap Tirbazus has sent a full invasion force into the Sea of Fire, a neutral zone that defies all Imperial laws. He has engaged your own people in open warfare, not to fight my people, but to seize the opportunity for the unfortunate incident that occurred between you and I.”

Golnaz shook his head while Xenophon pointed to the VOB system. The external view changed shape at one point and then displayed video imagery of the battle they had just left. Carduchian ships fought bravely against a horde of much heavier and more numerous Hayastani ships.

Something moved off to his right and then came the rest of the Carduchian prisoners. They were escorted by a small group of Boeotian soldiers. Xenophon pointed to them and looked back at Golnaz. He led the man toward the starmap that showed their current position, as well as the route through the Sea of Fire.

“I was as good as my word that none of your people would be harmed. The fighting between our people was a misunderstanding, one started by one of our commanders who mistakenly believed your people were looking to ambush us.”

It was stretching the truth, but to say that the Strategos was a hotheaded Laconian with little ideas outside of war would hardly help his argument.

“All I need to know is will your people be able to defeat this force?”

Golnaz looked at him and then to the map. He seemed suspicious, but a quick glance at his comrades seemed to do the trick.

“My people will attack only if provoked. If what you say is true, then this will be the first act in a war between our states and this region, and will not stand for long. It will not be first or the last battle. I do not believe this fleet of theirs intends on an invasion. But if they do, then our forces will fall back and fight a guerrilla campaign until they are driven out.”

Xenophon remained as relaxed as he could be before continuing.

“You don’t believe he would attack, even though he has been pressing for this region for decades? Then what about these ships that we sighted on the Hayastani side of the border?”

The images changed to show the video of the entire fleet, as they had found it prior to the battle. By zooming in to one portion, it was easy to see more than twenty heavy assault transports; vessels designed to carry soldiers into battle.

“These are not border patrols, or even ships to attack my own people. They are waiting, and I suspect you have been betrayed, perhaps by Ariaeus himself. He has promised you all incredible riches for our destruction. Why would Tirbazus want riches? He has more than he could ever use. I tell you now; he has orchestrated this conflict with my people, and while your people fight for coin, they weaken. Now Tirbazus is stronger, and he will take what he thinks belongs to him.”

Golnaz looked nervous. As a minor regional commander, he was effectively a low level admiral in the Carduchian military, and his squadrons of heavy fighters no match for a fully-fledged invasion. He must have already worked out the threat his people faced.

“How well do you know the Satrapies here, and here?”
 
Xenophon asked.

He indicated the regions off to the right of the Sea of Fire. The map showed four main regions, with the largest being the Carduchian Wilderness. Next to it was the Sea of Fire, a thin ribbon that created the border to Hayastani. Attached to that region were two more, the Robotic Domains at the bottom and at the top, a much larger collection of star systems, rich with worlds.

Golnaz again looked to his people before answering.

“I have visited Hayastani on many occasions, mainly with diplomatic missions. As for the Taochian worlds, they have been controlled indirectly by the Hayastani since their defeat against Imperial troops.”

Xenophon could see Glaucon and Roxana listening carefully. The border regions were almost unknown back home, and this part of the Empire was far away from the section that was bordered with the Terran worlds. Golnaz watched them and spoke quietly, almost pleading.

“I have already given you this information. I can do little to help you. What of my people?”

“I see.”

Xenophon looked to Roxana who was clearly getting edgy. There were just a few details they needed, and time was running out.

“Help us through all the Hayastani and Taochian territory and on to open space and beyond, and we will help you stop a war that will leave Carduchia barren and destroyed. The price is your assistance through the rest of the Empire.”

Golnaz said nothing, much to Xenophon’s dismay. There was an uncomfortable delay, but then he did finally speak.

“How do I know you will not turn on us and kill my people? And how will you stop this war?”

Xenophon tilted his head a little to one side, as though amused at the suggestion.

“How do I know you will not feed me lies? Everything I have told you is true. Help us, and I promise we can help you strike a blow against the Hayastani Satrapy. Decide quickly, you have less than a minute.”

Golnaz tried to look calm but he was clearly concerned.

“How?”

Xenophon hadn’t even told the others of what he was thinking. Glaucon and Roxana would surely choose the careful route home, whereas Chirisophus would attack and burn anything in his path. Xenophon had another idea.