10

The first step, Kira figured, was to set the terms of the discussion. That meant hitting the battle-stations command at last.

Alerts rang through both of her warships, and more nova fighters began to blaze off the deck within moments of the order being issued.

Finally,” Nightmare told her. Mel Cartman had clearly been sitting in her fighter, waiting to launch. “My planes are up. Scimitar is on his, but we’ve got a full strike group in space. Shall we go kick a twit?”

“Not yet,” Kira ordered. “Plot your novas, but hold position around Springtime Chorus for now.”

It was a pointed, if silent, response to Captain Sparacello’s message. Squadron after squadron of fighters launched into space, taking up positions around Kira’s three starships. Thirty Wolverines and Hussar-Sevens apiece launched from Huntress, accompanied by twelve Wildcat-Four bombers.

Deception “only” put twelve Wolverines and eight Hussar-Sevens into space, but that still brought the total to ninety-two starfighters forming a steady protective sphere around Kira’s warships.

If Kira was expecting this to come to a fight, that would have been the last thing the Denzelites would have seen before her warships and fighters vanished behind a shield of multiphasic jamming.

The problem, though, was that the moment she raised jammers, she committed her people. There could be no communication once the jammers were online.

She waited until the last fighters were in formation and then activated the recorder again.

“Captain Sparacello, I will be…blunt,” she told him. “If you attempt to detain my ships, I will use all necessary force to protect myself, my client and my employees.

“I am, of course, prepared to respect Denzel’s security restriction zone,” she continued. “If you provide further information on what you are attempting to secure, we will comply with all reasonable requests and restrictions.

“However, I do not see how my course or intentions are of any relevance to a star system I am about to leave thirty-plus light-years behind me.”

She smiled.

“We’ve already made this a bit messier than it ever needed to be, Captain. Let’s breathe and talk this out.”

Leaning back in her chair, Kira ran the mental math on how long the message would take. The Denzelite ship was still closing, but her jammers weren’t up and her fighters hadn’t launched assault novas yet.

With all of Kira’s fighters in space, an attack by the Denzelite bombers would be suicide, even with their escorts along.

The time lag for the transmission both ways passed, and she concealed a grimace.

“He’s not going to do anything stupid, is he?” Mwangi asked from the cruiser’s bridge.

“I hope not,” Kira said. “I don’t think so. If one of those fighters disappears to play courier, then we need to be worried. Until then…it’s just a question of whether he’s walked far enough out on the cliff that all he can do is jump.”

“Incoming transmission, Admiral,” Monica Smolak reported, Deception’s com officer having finally taken over for her junior.

“Play it,” Kira ordered.

Sparacello appeared again, his face just as motionless as before as he leveled eyes glittering with metallic flecks on the camera.

“Admiral Demirci.” At least he was giving her her title now. “We may have had a miscommunication here.”

There was a long pause after he spoke, still staring at the camera. He didn’t blink, Kira noted. That was unnerving.

“The Serigala System is currently under a security restriction by the Denzel Security Association due to a…contractual dispute between Serigala and Denzel,” he said, his tone still eerily level and measured.

“Given your armament and stated destination, we have a clear and present concern about your vessels and purpose in this region. If I have reason to believe that your nova will be to the Serigala System, my orders require me to detain or destroy your vessels.

“If you are heading to the Deva System, however, I am merely required to request payment of a transit toll to recognize the DSA’s efforts in securing the region. Details will be transmitted shortly.”

His unblinking gaze stared into the camera.

“We will require detailed information on your planned nova to make certain that you are not violating the restriction zone,” he continued. “Any attempt to nova toward Serigala will be met with all necessary force.”

The transmission ended and Kira nodded silently.

“Wallis?” she addressed Deception’s navigator. “How much does going through Deva increase our journey time?”

“It’ll add four novas, mostly because we’ll need an extra discharge stop before the Samuels-Colossus Corridor,” Lyssa Wallis replied immediately. “We’ll have to discharge in the Mowat System, whereas if we went through Serigala, we would be able to make a six-nova course directly to Samuels or Colossus.”

That added a minimum of five days to the trip, which was an annoyance Kira really didn’t need. But avoiding it wasn’t worth a cruiser duel and killing several hundred people.

“Mrs. Macey, we’ll get the amounts for the toll from the DSA shortly,” she told her employer. “We pay up and we chart a nova to Deva. I’m not going to kill anybody to save a few days.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” Macey told her. There was a long pause, then the Samuels delegate switched to a private channel. “A question, if I may.”

“Answers are mostly free, Mrs. Macey,” Kira replied. “I’m going to be on the bridge until our Denzelite friends pull their fighters back aboard at least.”

“Is this…what a blockade looks like?” the Samuels woman asked. “This is what Colossus will do around my system?”

“Normally, it would be spread at least two novas out in every direction,” Kira said. “That gives people more time to be diverted—only the fact that this trade-route stop is within nova distance of two systems makes this not criminally irresponsible on the DSA’s part.

“But yes.” She sighed. “A six-light-year nova takes a few seconds to charge up, and you can project the destination.”

That meant you either novaed under jamming or made sure there was no one around to see you if you were trying to jump without being followed.

“So, the DSA will put a nova fighter—or a bomber or a warship—near any ship they see in the trade-route stop,” Kira continued. “Even an interceptor will wreck a freighter if they fire into them while they nova.

“We have a bit more shielding than a freighter, but they’ve asked for—and we’ll give—enough information to counteract that.” She shook her head. “This setup is a bit amateur—they don’t quite know what they’re doing yet—but the basic concept is correct.”

Over the course of the war between Apollo and Brisingr, Kira had both broken and taken part in multiple blockades. She knew the drill.

“So, what happens if Colossus already has a blockade in place when we arrive?” Macey asked softly.

“The difference there, Mrs. Macey, is that I’m already contracted to break a blockade of the Samuels System,” Kira said quietly. “Here, I needed to avoid a fight. If Colossus is blockading Samuels…the criteria are very different.”

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