The V'Dan (55 page)

Distressed, torn in his loyalties, Li’eth spoke quietly with Balei’in; his younger brother insisted on Li’eth’s remaining with Jackie, while he went to go check on their parents after another half hour passed. A few Guards remained once the drinks and blankets came, but otherwise they were left alone while the fate of the invasion took place overhead.

Gradually, other people came back, Winter Palace staff who started cleaning up the scrambled mess of shoved benches and bits of fallen rubble from battle damage. Some of the impact from those first two explosions had damaged a bit of the Inner Court. Chunks of ceiling had fallen, and one of the two Terran communications bots had toppled. Clees joined them to help reprogram and right the fallen one so that they could continue with their work.

The Terran comm screens flicked to life after half an hour or so. The face that appeared was the same male as before, Captain Andu Li, she realized. The communications officer from the
Embassy 8
. She knew him, as she knew everyone in her embassy. Twisting where she sat on the dais step, Jackie brushed off her black pantsuit and faced the upright tower. “Captain Li, report.”

He tipped his head to the side, his golden tanned face looking pale and exhausted. “Commodore Graves says that the last of the Salik are fleeing the system, Ambassador. He’d tell you himself, but some rubble fell on the
Embassy 1
’s nose as it sat in the bay, and they’re still going over the damage millimeter by millimeter, repairing it. And . . . we lost the
10
,
13
,
21
, and
28
. There are half a dozen other ships in need of minor to major repairs, and the
25
and the
17
are badly damaged, but they are able to limp in under their own power. The
17
actually only lost its nose cone and a bit of hull integrity because of it. They’re leaking air very slowly, but her crew got suited in plenty of time. Without the nose cone, the ship’s unable to leave the system, but the commander says everything else can be used for spare parts for the other ships, so repair turnaround time will be pretty swift if she’s the one dismantled.

“I, uh, can’t get a signal from the surface, other than these towers and the
1
still in the North Hangar. How are things down there, sir?”

Jackie shook her head. “Bad. We don’t know how badly the North Embassy Wing was hit. Just that it was hit after the Salik took out the palace shields. Just one missile’s worth, but we’ve been asked to stay here, to keep us out of the way of the rescue efforts.”

Off to the side, a group of red-and-gold-clad V’Dan reentered the Inner Court from the door behind her. Captain Li lifted his brows. “Why aren’t you using your telekinesis to help with the rescue efforts, sir?”

“Yes, Grand High Ambassador,” she heard Vi’alla state coldly. “Why
aren’t
you using your vast holy powers to rescue your own people?”

Twisting so that she faced the other woman a bit more, Jackie replied just as coldly, “Because I have
exhausted
myself—I have exhausted
everyone
you see sitting here—to the point of being unable to even stand up, from rescuing your
entire
capital city. The
only
reason why this palace and its city were not bombed into blackened
shakk
is because—at great personal expense—I projected a holokinetic
lie
that the city was ten kilometers
west
of here. Out over the open sea.

“Your own eldest brother directed your youngest brother and father in
deflecting
most of those missiles westward to match my massive cloaking illusion,” she continued, letting her anger give her some energy and heat to her reply. “He
would
have been advanced enough in his skills by now to have deflected
all
of them if we hadn’t had to tread oh so
softly
around your squeamishness about our Gestalt bond. If your people hadn’t been so
prejudiced
about the way
my people look
, we could have advanced our bond to the point where we could have
returned those missiles to their owners
.

“. . . But no,” Jackie finished, her anger draining out of her along with most of her energy. “The way we
look
has been too important to you and your people to see the damage your attitudes have been causing.”

(
Jackie,
) Li’eth tried to soothe her. His sister cut that idea dead.

“You will
not
talk to me that way,” Vi’alla growled. She
lifted the object in her hands, faced the temple-room behind the throne, and called out, “By the laws of V’Dan, I, Imperial Princess Vi’alla Sha-nu’en Tal’u-nakh Tuen-la V’Daania, duly acknowledged Heir to the Empire, take up the War Crown as Regent while Empress Hana’ka Iu’tua Has-natell Q’una-hash Mi’idenei V’Daania strives to recover from her injuries. Until the day she takes this from my head or her death bestows it permanently in place, I am Regent Princess Vi’alla V’Daania, rightful ruler in my mother’s place!”

Her voice echoed through the not-quite-empty hall. The staff members who had been discreetly straightening and tidying had stilled during her strong-voiced speech. Now they all dropped to one knee, as did the Elite Guards, and thumped their fists over their hearts. In ragged unison, they shouted, “All hail Regent Princess Vi’alla V’Daania!”

Li’eth moved with them, twisting from sitting on one of the steps to half kneeling on it. Grimly, he lifted his fist to his heart as well, though he couldn’t bring himself to speak in unison with the others. Jackie could feel how unhappy he was about this moment.

Jackie’s response was a bit different. She waited to see if there was more to the ceremony, then snapped, “Captain Li! Connect us to Premiere Callan and get us a full broadcast to every V’Dan signal you can. I suspect the next few moments will either make or break the whole Alliance, and I want everyone to know
why
.”

“Aye, sir,” Captain Li confirmed. The transparent screens flashed blue and silver, displaying the logo of the United Planets.

Vi’alla, the War Crown now perched on her head—either the one that had been on her mother’s head, or perhaps a duplicate—faced Jackie with a faint sneer. “What, exactly, do you think
you
are going to do about my regency? You have
no
say over what happens in the Empire.”

The screens shifted from blue to an image of the Premiere’s face. Behind him lay the Dome, the Premiere’s office; the late-evening Council session had no doubt been canceled because of the local need to focus on surviving the Salik onslaught taking so long. They would still have to deal with the subject of Shi’ol’s punishment and the Terran United Planets’ demand
to the V’Dan Empire on how to handle the prejudices behind her actions, but for now, the Premiere and the recording equipment on his end of the link were enough of a witness for what might come next. “. . . Ambassador MacKenzie? Is everything alright?”

Drawing upon the dregs of her reserves, Jackie pushed herself up onto her feet. (
I’m sorry, Li’eth.
) It was all she could afford to say to him. Shielding her mind tightly, bracing her legs so that she stood without wavering, she faced down the blond regent even as she bent metaphorically under the protocols of the situation. “Premiere Augustus Callan, I present to you Regent Princess Vi’alla V’Daania, who has taken up the War Crown in her mother’s absence. The Salik invasion fleet has been sent running. Unfortunately, the Empress of V’Dan has been severely injured in the Salik attack, along with an unknown number of Terran and other personnel. We may not know for hours just who has been injured or killed . . . but we still have a very serious question in need of an answer.”

Turning, she faced the Regent Princess.

“Think
carefully
, Vi’alla, about the needs of your people. Think
carefully
, Regent, about the
usefulness
of Terran strengths and Terran technologies in today’s fight . . . and in all the fights that are yet to come. We grieve with you for the suffering of your mother and your people, for the injured and the dead . . . but we must still stand here and assert our right to be treated with respect and equality in the eyes of you and your people. We demand respect from your people. And we demand that those who continue to insult us, in the face of our right to be respected as peers, as equals, as allies—throughout
all
Tiers, even unto the Imperial Family—those who persist in insulting us must undergo a mind-block by a Terran psychic to remove the source of
your
pervasive cultural disrespect toward us: your overemphasis on your awareness of your precious, petty
jungen
marks.

“We will be kind in the light of today’s tragedy, and will be willing to defer the final, permanent decision in this matter until your mother’s health and recovery are known . . . but we demand that you treat us and our rights as sovereign adults with the respect we are due in the interim.”

Vi’alla planted her fists on her golden-covered hips and
leaned in close enough that Jackie could feel the heat of her breath. “I will
never
allow your people to touch
my mind
 . . . and I will
never
allow you to touch the minds of
my people
!”

Silence followed those low-growled words. Two seconds, four seconds . . .

Premiere Callan spoke. “Ambassador MacKenzie. I am Augustus Callan, Premiere of the Terran United Planets, Commander-in-Chief of the Terran United Planets Space Force . . . and I accept my responsibility in the consequences of the following command: Initiate Executive Order
Victor Delta Delta Zero
, authorization
Charlie-India-Charlie Alpha Charlie
. Every spare ship we have will be under way within the hour. Good luck, and Godspeed.”

“Understood. Regent Princess Vi’alla,” Jackie stated, her voice darkening with a mix of her anger, disappointment, and regret. On the Terran screens, the Premiere’s face vanished, replaced by the exhausted and now-anxious, somber expression of Captain Li. “We thank you for your nation’s hospitality. We will begin our evacuation efforts immediately. It will take some time, as there are still bodies, some injured, some probably slain, to be dug out of the rubble and accounted for. We also have ships that need to be repaired, and ships that need to reach V’Dan to aid in the evacuation. I trust you will be compassionate enough to allow us to do so in an orderly fashion.

“Be warned, however, that our patience and kindness, our
understanding
has ended.
Any
attempt to seize Terran property or personnel will be met as a declaration of war. Do not seek to detain us,” Jackie added, while the Regent frowned in confusion. “I will remind you this once—since you seem so easily prone to forget such things—that
we
can coordinate both our attacks
and
our defenses . . . and you have
not
seen every weapon in our arsenal.

“You may keep the plans for hydrogenerators and so forth, as we shall keep the plans for artificial gravity . . . but we will
not
give you the secrets of making the catalyst for those generators. And yes, we
also
deny you
all
access to our hyperrelays. Captain Li? You heard the Premiere’s orders and authorization?”

“Ambassador, yes, sir,” the man on the robot tower screens replied.

“Please log this date and time, for following through on Executive Order
Victor Delta Delta Zero
.”

“Time and date . . . logged, sir. Standing by to execute
Victor Delta Delta Zero
whenever you are ready, sir,” Captain Li stated.

“Detonate, authorization
Juliett Mike
.”

The images on the trio of screens held aloft by the two display towers immediately sparked with static and faded to clear. Vi’alla’s frown deepened. “What . . . what just happened? What was that . . . executive order?”

“You now have a modestly small but very hot crater on the nearest side of your nearest moon,” Jackie explained coldly. “Right where the
Terran
hyperrelay probe used to be. It, of course, has been obliterated as a warning of what will happen if you attempt to access any others. All of the other hyperrelays have been shut down and locked into countersabotage mode. They will no longer transmit
anything
until we send a very specific code to unlock their capabilities. Any attempt to move or open them will cause those probes to explode. Probes, I politely remind you, that were quite capable of vaporizing significant chunks of those rather large Salik warships that were attacking this world just a very short time ago.”

“What . . . ?” Vi’alla leaned back in confused shock. “You can’t . . .”

Jackie ignored her faint protest. The older woman was an idiot who needed to have things explained to her in painstaking detail. “The
only
hyperrelay communications equipment that still function in this system are the relays that are on board our ships. To rephrase more bluntly what I stated earlier, if your people even so much as
pat
the surface of one of our hulls without our clearly expressed and directly supervised permission from this moment onward . . . it will be taken as a declaration of war.

“In short, Regent Princess,” Jackie bit out each word through her bared teeth, “respect for your allies is
everything
. Without it, your people—your whole Alliance!—will get
nothing
more from us.” Turning, she strode down the shallow steps. Carefully, because she was still exhausted, and her balance threatened to wobble with each step. “I am going to go to
the North Embassy Wing to see how my people are doing and to oversee our evacuation of this place.”

“You cannot do that!” Vi’alla countermanded, anger and anxiety putting a stark edge into her demand.

Jackie swung around carefully, still mindful of how exhausted she was. “Oh yes, I can. You heard it from
my
emperor’s lips. Executive Order
Victor Delta Delta Zero
instructed me to close this embassy, cut off all hyperrelay communications across the entire Alliance—not just the V’Dan Empire—and to evacuate my people as swiftly and safely as I can. Furthermore, it
also
instructs me—via the word
zero
, which means
nothing
—that the Terran government will
never
deal with you, personally. You violated the one thing a leader
must
always do: put the needs of his or her people
before
their own bruised feelings and arrogant attitudes.