Deception and Guardian emerged into the Redward System at the tail end of a massive train. Dozens of Redward Army transports and merchant ships had led the way, novaing half a dozen at a time while Kira slowly retrieved her nova fighters.
“Make a head count, Kavitha,” she told the cruiser’s Captain. “Let’s make sure everyone is here, and then I am officially surrendering this mess to higher authority.”
“Marija is on it,” Zoric confirmed. “We do have multiple nova-fighter squadrons flying escort.”
“Damn,” Kira muttered as she took in the details. “I guess Redward decided that secret was out of the bag.”
There were at least five six-ship fighter squadrons circling the merchant ships she’d brought back with her—and she could see a pair of destroyers rushing out toward them at maximum power as well.
“Let’s check in with the RRF as soon as we have that head count,” Kira told her friend.
“Everyone is here,” Zoric replied. “Any last words to our traveling companions?”
Kira snorted, but she opened a channel to Hodzic and the two Commodores.
“All right, everybody, this is where I loose you to your own devices,” she told them. “Deception is going to head for Blueward Station until someone tells me differently. Shang, Shinoda, I suspect you’ll both want to check in with Admiral Remington as well as your usual local contacts.
“I doubt Redward’s going to take the news we’re delivering well, but that’s our job.”
“That it is,” Hodzic agreed. “I already have orders to report to Green Ward for a shipyard assessment of Guardian’s damage. Thank you, Commodore Demirci.”
The Redward officer dropped off the channel.
“I have sent a message to our ambassador and to check in with Redward orbital control,” Shinoda said. “I’ll take your advice and contact Admiral Remington. It’s been… I won’t call it a pleasure, but you’ve done right by me and mine. I owe you a beer, Commodore Demirci. Fly safe.”
And then there was only the other mercenary Commodore on the channel, and Shang chuckled.
“You did good, Demirci,” he told her. “I wouldn’t have backed you if I didn’t think you would, though I was going on faith in Estanza as much as you. But you did good. I appreciate the backup—and the getting my people out intact.
“I suspect we’ll be seeing each other again soon. Good luck, Commodore.”
The command channel dissolved for the last time, and Kira exhaled a long sigh. Back to her regular duties—well, at least once she found a home for the extra starfighters on her deck and briefed the commanding officer of the Redward Royal Fleet on just what the hell had happened.
* * *
“Sir, we have an incoming shuttle that just adjusted course toward us,” Davidović reported in Kira’s ear as she was entering her flight deck. “No prior communication, nothing; they’re just vectoring toward us.”
Deception was almost in Redward orbit and barely twenty minutes from her usual dock. They were in the middle of the planet’s orbital traffic, which meant there were enough shuttles around that someone could sneak up on them.
She just didn’t like it.
“Get an ID,” she snapped.
“On it,” the Redward officer replied, then swallowed hard. “Okay,” she said in a small voice. “Redward Crown One is on approach, sir.”
Redward Crown One was the call signal for the spacecraft carrying the King. Kira fully understood Davidović’s choked response—and Kira wasn’t even one of Larry’s subjects.
“Understood,” she said. “Inform Zoric and vector their shuttle to the main flight deck. I’ll handle things on this end.”
Somehow.
“Milani,” she pinged her ground troop commander.
“Here. What’s up?” they asked.
“King of Redward is landing on our deck in seven minutes. I need an honor guard.”
“Done,” Milani replied. “But with that kind of warning, I’m leaving the dragon on extra terrifying.”
Kira snorted.
“Sounds good to me,” she told them. “Pulling Tamboli in. Tamboli, King Larry is landing in six minutes. How clear is the deck?”
Tamboli audibly squeaked at the question.
“I just cleared twenty-three RRF nova fighters out,” they replied. “We’ve got parts for assembling replacement birds starting to move in on cargo dollies so we can at least start to plan for having a full fighter wing!”
“Move those dollies back,” Kira ordered. “At least they’re still on wheels and nine of our bays are empty. Shove whatever you can in the hangar bays and clear everything out. I can’t imagine we’re going to have many people hanging out on the flight deck for long, but we need to at least look half-decent when the damn local monarch shows up.”
“Right.” Tamboli muttered something Kira carefully didn’t hear. “We’ll do what we can.”
“We all will,” she told them. “I’ll be there in two.”
* * *
Kira added another entry to the mental checklist of things she owed Milani for as she watched the plain RRA assault shuttle sweep onto Deception’s hangar deck. Somehow, they’d produced a dozen mercenaries for an honor guard in clean and respectable armor.
The armor didn’t match, but Kira didn’t really care about that. Her people were mercenaries.
Between Milani’s people and Tamboli’s, they even managed to clear enough space for the honor guard to take up formation safely as Kira and Kavitha Zoric waited for it to land. There was no way someone was going to mistake the flight deck for that of a true carrier or for anything resembling clean, but there was at least space for the shuttle—which there wasn’t even in Deception’s proper shuttle bay right then.
The spacecraft settled to the metal on well-maintained antigrav coils, and a ramp extended. Crimson-uniformed Palace Guards marched down it in perfect lines, joining Milani’s formation like the two units had trained for this exact maneuver.
Somehow, Kira wasn’t surprised to see John Estanza walk out of the shuttle one step behind King Larry. The large-girthed monarch walked quickly enough that the mercenary Captain was clearly surprised, but the pair reached Kira and Zoric in swift order.
“Commodore Demirci, welcome back to Redward,” Larry told her. “There have been better times for you to come back to, but you have also done us a greater service than we would have dared ask.”
His smirk was clearly somewhat forced.
“As mercenaries, you will be rewarded in the usual manner of mercenaries who do grand things: with more money,” he said loudly. “For the truth, though, you’re also going to get the usual reward for a job well done.”
“Another job,” Kira guessed.
“Exactly. Do you have a space where the four of us can meet in private?” Larry gestured at Estanza and Zoric. “The situation before us is…”
“I think you should leave off finishing that sentence until we’re in private, Your Majesty,” Kira suggested grimly.