[LEGACY VERSION] The Enemy of Time (Book 2 - The Kaireyeh Chronicles)

Chapter 4 - Talina, Jacova

"I shot my mother," Talina said.

Milla, the young woman who had led the way down to the engine room, looked up from the console where she was rerouting the newly rising engine power under Talina's direction.

"What?"

"I shot her," Talina said. "Stunned her. Though I think it would have been better if I'd killed her."

Milla gave Talina a dark, glassy stare. The console beeped a warning and she looked down.

"Shunt that power to the environmental systems, we bled too much off," Talina said, pointing.

Milla did so, but moved away from her.

Talina smiled. She didn't need friends on this ship. Milla wouldn't talk to her now. Milla knew what she had done, or at least part of it, Milla would leave her alone.

"Who was your mother?" Milla asked instead.

"I--" Talina started to say she'd shot her husband as well, but she stopped. The words caught in her throat, and her eyes welled with a sudden ferocity.

Milla came around the console. "Hey. I think the techs can--" She reached a hand for Talina's arm.

Talina shoved her back. "Don't touch me!"

Milla locked her hands behind her back. "Fine. If you are confessing your sins, then at least give me the whole of it so I can know how despicable you really are."

Talina's shoulders sagged with relief. She nodded. "My mother. An admiral. Supposed to love me, I guess, never really did, but I think she thought she did. I had to shoot her."

Milla nodded.

Talina hesitated. Milla was Caelian Resistance. If she said her mother's name, the damn Caelian might congratulate her.

"My cabin has an extra bunk," Milla said. "If you don't have anywhere you'd like to stay--"

"No," Talina said.

"It's to keep watch over you," Milla said. "Because we can't have you killing any of our mothers, too."

Ah. That made sense.

Talina nodded.

"Right, then," Milla said. "Let's go there, I'll get you some clothes, I'm sure you'll want to change, and then maybe get some sleep. I'm tired--I'll stay there too to keep watch. I won't let you hurt anyone here."

Talina nodded again.

"I promise."

A knot eased in her chest, just a little.

* * *

Captain Jacova Roche stood with her hands clasped behind her back on the bridge of the M.A.S. Teven Spar, with Admiral Zivali at the first officer's station behind her. The Teven Spar was a light cruiser--it wasn't fitted like a ship of the line with a designated seat for a flag officer. And yet, though the admiral had not officially declared the Spar her flagship, this was where she chose to wage her internal war on the Caelian infiltration of their government.

Jacova felt the admiral's eyes on her back like lasers just waiting for her to burn. The admiral had said nothing about Jacova letting the Caelians--and Zivali's daughter--escape from the ship. She'd said nothing about having been stunned out herself. She acted as if Jacova had always been the captain of the Spar. And then she'd confided to Jacova in an offhand way that she had evidence on Grand Ciren Wycliffe himself. Even the Grand Ciren was not beyond her reach.

Jacova checked the countdown timer on the personal holoscreens that wrapped around her. "Prepare to drop translight on my mark."

"Preparing to drop translight, aye aye," came the pilot's reply.

The glowing orange numbers ticked down. "Mark."

The pitch of the ship's engines shifted first up, and then wound down. The streaky swirl of translight on one of her personal screens changed to the black of normal space.

"Entry into normal space confirmed," the pilot said.

"Initiating sensor sweeps," the nav officer said. "Sir, multiple contacts ahead."

Jacova nodded. This system was uninhabited, but though Zivali hadn't told her why they were here, she'd extrapolated the position of the Fifth Fleet. She watched as fuzzy contacts appeared on the spatial plot on her screens, then turned first solid gray, and then green as the sensor data was confirmed by the ship's computer and the techs down in the sensor department.

"All contacts confirmed friendly, identified as the Armada Fifth Fleet, Admiral Seonu Gi commanding," the nav officer said.

"Thank you, Mr. Nemmer. Comms, report to flagship, standard greeting for junior ship within the fleet--"

"Belay that," Admiral Zivali said. She came out of her chair to stand beside, and slightly ahead of, Jacova. Her face in profile was hard, her jaw set. "This ship is no longer attached to the Fifth Fleet. Convey standard greeting from flagship of the Miravec Justice Armada, Admiral Edora Zivali commanding."

And there it was. The Teven Spar was now officially Admiral Zivali's flagship.

Admiral Seonu would not be happy that their fleet would come under Zivali's orders. They were a few months superior to Zivali--Jacova had looked it up when she'd found out where the Spar was headed. But Zivali had declared martial law as a matter of internal security. As the ranking officer in Armada Intelligence, she held the authority of the government.

Jacova couldn't think of a neater coup.

The comms officer hesitated just the briefest moment, and Jacova nodded quickly to confirm the admiral's order. Now was not the time to get on Zivali's bad side, any more than she already was. She had to listen, and obey.

And pray that Talina had made it safely away from this mess. If anywhere would be safe from the coming war.

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