Empire of Light

'I grew up having to wear these things any time I went outdoors,' Corso replied, stepping away again. 'And it gets to be second nature. Might as well complain about having to hold your breath if you go diving. How does that feel?'

'Better,' Lamoureaux admitted, tentatively touching the device where it pressed against his face, 'though I'd still rather not be wearing it at all. Now, do you mind telling me why all the subterfuge?'

'Because there's an extraordinary motion due to go through the Senate this morning to have me removed from my seat and placed under arrest on charges of sedition against the state,' Corso explained.

'Then we have to get you out of here promptly. We need to get you back to Ocean's Deep.'

'No.' Corso shook his head. 'By the time we got back there, it'd be just as dangerous. Think about it: the strike against the cache, the dispute over the Mjollnir – it's all tied together. Now there are rumours the Mjollnir's going to be leaving orbit again in a few days' time.'

'But it only just got here,' Lamoureaux protested.

'Nonetheless, I've got good intelligence it's headed for the Sol system. We can't allow that to happen.'

'So what do you plan on doing?'

'We need to get on board and take control before it can leave.'

Lamoureaux searched his face. 'You're serious, aren't you? What was the point of fighting Jarret, then?'

'I made the mistake of thinking the people behind him would stick to their own rules. But they were just gambling I'd be the one to wind up dead, and thus solve all their problems.'

Lamoureaux shivered. 'You haven't told me exactly where we'd take the Mjollnir.'

'Did you know Dakota's still alive?'

Lamoureaux nodded warily. 'Now that you mention it, yes. I didn't know until she got in touch with me a few days ago, asking me not to tell anyone. I didn't even know if she'd told anyone else.'

'She came to me a few nights ago and said me she wants to take the Mos Hadroch into Emissary territory, to one of their own caches. She claims that's the only way it can work.'

'Fly the Mjollnir into Emissary territory? That's crazy.'

Corso smiled grimly under his mask. 'If you've got any better ideas, I can't wait to hear them. Because I've been doing nothing but trying to think of alternatives and, assuming Dakota isn't insane or making up stories, I can't think of any.'

'Things might be a lot simpler if she was crazy.'

'She claimed she died out there when she tracked the Maker down,' Corso told him. 'That it destroyed her and her ship, but that it somehow preserved her mind and transmitted it to another ship closer to home. I want to know if you think that's remotely possible.'

'Shit.' Lamoureaux stamped his feet a few times on the frozen concrete, and shoved his gloved hands deeper into the recesses of his silvered parka. He stared off into the distance for several moments, towards a couple of rapid-orbit cargo ships idling on the concrete a few kilometres away, steam trickling out from their main nacelles.

'All right,' he said at last, 'you're worried she's been hit by whatever's taken down a lot of other machine-heads. What I would say is that she isn't any crazier than any of the rest of them, and none of them has shown the least sign of being delusional. And also there are… depths to the Magi ships I can't even begin to explain to someone who hasn't experienced them. The Magi were verging on godlike when they disappeared, Senator, so I suspect it's probably the least of the tricks they could pull off.'

He stared past Corso, chewing the inside of a cheek.

'You've got something else on your mind?'

Lamoureaux met his eyes. 'I've got to tell you, Senator, that interstellar piracy was pretty high on my list of career options when I was twelve years old, but I'm balking at it now.'

Corso gri

Lamoureaux laughed, the sound strangely muffled by his breather mask. 'I'm not sure what else you expect me to do. My Magi ship is still back at Ocean's Deep, otherwise maybe I'd be able to grab control of the Mjollnir.' He shrugged. 'Dakota could do the same.'

'No, she couldn't – and neither could you. The Mjollnir's had manual circuit breakers installed in case of exactly that eventuality.'

'Huh?' Lamoureaux shook his head. 'But surely that's crazy. Don't the Freehold have their own machine-heads now?'

'Yes, out of necessity, but they don't really trust them either.'

Ships all throughout the Consortium had been hastily modified to prevent them from being taken over by hostile machine-heads linked to Magi ships. A lot of damage could be effected in the brief seconds it took an unaugmented human pilot to react to a hostile takeover, but once he had thrown the switch, the attack could be stopped immediately.

'Well, that makes it a little more complicated, doesn't it? If Dakota's also going on this expedition of yours, you won't need me, will you?'

'On the contrary,' Corso replied. 'I'd need you along to help me keep an eye on her, and because I need people with me I can trust. So what do you say?'

Lamoureaux scuffed one booted foot against the concrete before letting his shoulders sag as if in defeat. 'What else am I going to do, Senator? Sit around along with everyone else and wait for the Emissaries to arrive? It's not much of a choice.'

Corso gri

'You have the resources to do that?'

Corso nodded. 'The Mjollnir's going to have only a skeleton crew when we board, so it's extremely unlikely we'll face any serious opposition. Not that you'd be expected to carry a gun or anything like that; you'd be following us in only once we feel sure it's safe.'

'So who else is going?'

'Hopefully the Mjollnir's usual commander, a man named Martinez, and one or two of his senior staff. I'm not sure the expedition would even have happened if not for him. He's currently under house arrest, but I'm working on tracking him and the others down. White-cloud's been spirited away, but assuming we find him too, he's coming with us. Leo Olivarri and Ray Willis should get here any day. Once I've had a chance to explain what I've got in mind, I'm hoping they'll agree to come along also.'

Lamoureaux shook his head and gri

The way he said it, it almost seemed like a compliment.

'Our plan is to board the frigate in less than a week, when it's scheduled for final maintenance and diagnostic checks. Security will be low, and we won't get a better chance.'

'And if it all goes wrong? If I don't hear from you, or they arrest you or kill you meanwhile, what then?'

'Then I'd advise you to find some way off Redstone and out of this system as fast as possible. Until then, we've got a lot of work to do.'