The first message flagged for Kira was from Queen Sonia. It was also for Admiral Kim, which sent another spike of guilt down her spine. Pushing that aside, she started the message and met the holographic gaze of Redward’s junior monarch and head intelligence officer.
“Demirci, Kim, I’m going to play the message we received from Gaspari before anything else,” Sonia said bluntly. “I’ll then give you the intelligence rundown on what’s going on, and then there are formal orders attached to this message from Admiral Remington and RRF command.”
She shook her head.
“This is a nightmare and I hope you have some better news out of the Clans’ Systems than we have,” Sonia told Kira. “First, though… ‘Her Majesty’ Queen Rossella.”
Sonia’s holographic image faded, replaced by another woman. Both had the posture and bearing of a proud leader, though Sonia definitely had looked more tired. Where Queen Sonia wore a plain suit, Queen Rossella wore her Admiral’s uniform with the stars replaced by a small golden crown.
Rossella was a tall woman with well-kept shoulder-length black hair and warm-toned skin and eyes. Her face was marked with the lines of someone who smiled easily and often, but there was a darker edge to her expression today.
“People of the Syntactic Cluster,” she greeted the camera. “I am Rossella Gaspari, the rightful Queen of Bengalissimo. While an erroneous theory of succession put someone else on my homeworld’s throne, I was prepared to accept that for the benefit of Bengalissimo…until it became clear that not just Bengalissimo but the entire Cluster was suffering for my cousin’s blindness.
“I have taken my rightful throne as Queen Rossella the First and begun the process of ensuring the security of my system and my people.”
She held up a hand palm-up.
“You have all seen, I think, the greatest threat. The one I see, the one that forced me to action at last,” she said calmly. “The Free Trade Zone sounded like a brilliant idea when it was first presented to me, but time has proven it for the lie it is.
“Redward ships have been everywhere of late, enforcing Redward’s rules, convincing people to follow Redward’s lead,” Rossella continued. “But it was in Ypres that Redward finally showed their true colors. They called on the mutual-defense agreements of the Free Trade Zone to attack a system that wasn’t part of their FTZ and forcefully intervene in their politics.
“The result? The puppet state calling itself the Ypres Federation. The closest thing I’ve ever seen to conquest of a system in the Cluster, as the Federation takes its cue from Redward. Proud and mighty nations humbled to the power of Redward’s ambition.”
Rossella shook her head, her eyes sad.
“But this wasn’t enough for King Lawrence. Instead, he bribed and blackmailed and imposed his will on the nations of the FTZ again to create his Coalition against the Clans—but who benefits when the systems the Clans control become Redward protectorates?
“The piracy might stop, yes, but when the resources of the Clans’ systems fuel the Redward war machine, we will all pay for our blindness, for our failure to recognize what Redward has become.”
She spread her hands in a shrug.
“King Lawrence and his fleet have become aggressively expansionistic, using the cover of this so-called Free Trade Zone to bend the entire Syntactic Cluster to their will. It is not enough that Lawrence commands the most powerful fleet in the Cluster. The rest of us must call him King as well…and I will not permit it.
“Bengalissimo is a free and independent system. We have rescinded our participation in the farce that is the SCFTZ and taken the measures we feel necessary to secure our safety.”
She smiled thinly.
“For the rest of the Cluster, I promise that we will not let Redward’s aggression go unanswered. We will shortly move to protect the Ypres System and assist them in separating themselves from Redward’s control.
“Bengalissimo is and always will be a beacon of hope for the Cluster. In this dark hour, as Redward attempts to impose their will on all of us, trust that we will stand up for your freedoms. Bengalissimo will fight this expansion.
“I give you my word, as Queen, that Redward will be stopped.”
The image froze for a moment, and Kira reached up to cover Bueller’s hand on her shoulder.
“That all sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?” he said, his voice flat. “Do you think she borrowed the Kaiser’s entire speech or just the speechwriter?”
“What?” Kira asked, pausing the message as Sonia’s image reappeared.
“I take it you never watched the Kaiser’s appearance before the Brisingr Diet to ask for the declaration of war against Apollo?” her boyfriend asked. “Because swap out the names and it feels like the same damn speech.”
She felt him shake his head.
“It’s not as exact as it feels,” he admitted, “but I’ll be damned if it isn’t the same message.”
“The Institute at work,” Kira suggested. “We know the Kaiser felt he owed them enough to give them Deception.”
“I’m trying not to believe that my home country bought into their nightmare, but I keep hitting things like this,” Bueller said. “Finish the message, Kira; my…concerns about home aren’t going to change anytime soon.”
She nodded and Sonia’s image resumed.
“You can guess what kind of measures Bengalissimo is taking,” Sonia told them. “We have confirmed some of our worst-case scenarios. At some point—we’re still trying to establish when—Bengalissimo built four new cruisers. That brings their strength up to seven, and it looks like they also doubled their destroyer strength.
“Some of those ships are definitely mercenaries, as our agents have confirmed older Crest designs being quite common,” the Queen noted. “So far, we haven’t confirmed any carriers or nova fighters, but we suspect that both Cobra Squadron and the strike carrier we saw at Ypres are under contract to Queen Rossella.
“Nothing has been officially announced, but we have evidence to suggest she’s already moved elements of either the BF or her mercenaries in around Ypres. A partial blockade is in place and will almost certainly become a full blockade shortly. No one in, no one out, until the Federation concedes to her.
“I don’t even know what kind of concession she’ll want from them,” Sonia admitted. “It’ll be hard for them to stop being a puppet state when they aren’t one.”
She shook her head.
“I am over ninety percent certain that the courier carrying this message will also be carrying recall orders for every ship in the Coalition Fleet that isn’t Yprian, Redward or mercenary. I do not expect to see contact from the Federation shortly, but I would recommend that their ships come back to Redward with you.
“Your formal orders will follow, but you can guess what they look like. Secure whatever Costar Clans Systems you have already taken…and then let the Fleet dissolve. We will make no attempt to force our allies to continue this campaign in the face of Bengalissimo’s threats and claims.”
Sonia shook her head.
“It appears the Equilibrium Institute had at least one more string to their bow and we badly underestimated how many resources each level of their plans had in play. Several of my analysts are already looking into theories that suggest that Rossella was always their secondary target.
“If they couldn’t convince Larry and me to become their military hegemon by arming the Clans against us, Bengalissimo was their best second choice.
“For an organization supposedly attempting to prevent a Cluster-wide war, it very much looks like the Institute may have just started one.”