Empire of Light

'Lucas,' said Kenley, stepping forward and shaking his hand warmly.

Like Corso, Kenley was a moderate in the Senate. Hilgendorf, who was anything but moderate, merely nodded. Kenley's job here was to act as Corso's representative both inside and outside of the ring of combat, which essentially boiled down to making sure the other side did not cheat. Hilgendorf was there to play a similar role for Corso's opponent.

'Senator Jarret has asked me to make an offer,' said Hilgendorf, stepping up to Corso. 'He wants to know if you're willing to negotiate a non-lethal outcome.'

'What you mean is, you're willing to let me live if I agree to surrender without a fight and automatically relinquish my Senate seat and my vote.' Corso smiled grimly and shook his head. 'Please tell Senator Jarret that if he'd wanted a "non-lethal solution", he shouldn't have issued his challenge in the first place.'

Hilgendorf was anything but a patient man. 'Senator Jarret's a war veteran and a recognized Hero of the State. Maybe you should take some time to reconsider before making any snap decisions, Senator. You're standing on pretty thin ice these days.'

'Unless you've got a serious offer to make,' intervened Kenley, 'you should remain silent, Mr Hilgendorf

Corso raised one hand. 'It's okay, Marcus, it's only protocol. Mr Hilgendorf's just here on a formality, isn't that right?' he said, looking Hilgendorf directly in the eye.

'We're offering you an opportunity to step down before you get hurt,' Hilgendorf insisted. 'After all, none of your previous opponents possessed the… unique skills you and Senator Jarret both share.'

Corso frowned, momentarily thrown off-balance.

'Then I'll extend the same courtesy to Mr Jarret,' he replied, unsure exactly what Hilgendorf had meant. 'If he throws in his glove, I'll let him leave here alive. Otherwise, you can tell him I look forward to meeting him in combat.'

Behind his mask, Hilgendorf's expression seemed to freeze in place. 'Very well, then. I'll pass your decision back to him.'

'You can take the truck, Mr Hilgendorf,' said Kenley 'We'll walk to the meeting ground.' Kenley cast a questioning look at Corso, who nodded his assent.

Hilgendorf turned away without another word, and climbed back into the truck. A moment later the vehicle's caterpillar treads gripped the shattered stone beneath it, and headed back the way it had come.

'Fun ride on the way here?' asked Corso.

'How could you tell?' Kenley grumbled. 'Look… in all seriousness, Jarret isn't like anyone else you've been up against. He's got a hell of a reputation in the combat ring. You must know that, right?'

'And I don't, is that it?'

Kenley started to say something, then seemed to change his mind. He nodded along the frozen shore. 'Care to take a stroll?'

Corso glanced back at the tent, where Breisch was still resting. 'It'd be warmer inside.'

'Please,' Kenley insisted. 'Indulge an old man's intense paranoia.'

Corso shrugged, and they began to walk parallel to the waves beating against the shoreline. In the distance, a lighting rig was being set up at the combat ring, and soon sent beams of blazing brilliance slicing through the freezing mist that clung to the terrain further inland. The voices of the work teams racing to get everything ready in time carried to them across the still air.

Kenley stopped after a minute and turned to face Corso. 'There are rumours that Legislate forces are planning something at the Tierra cache.'

'I guess bad news gets about fast,' Corso replied, feeling weary. 'Okay, they're not just rumours. We found smuggled shipments of armaments being taken to the research base there. There's a new batch of technical and research staff just arrived there too, and I'm not sure I can even bring myself to tell you just how many of them I think are Legislate agents.'

'But surely there must be something you can do,' Kenley protested. 'You're in charge of the Peacekeeper Authority.'

'Yeah, but nobody elected me. And I was only accepted at first because everyone I dealt with was shit-scared of so much as sneezing in Dakota Merrick's direction. Everything went downhill once she left. And now we've managed to speed up the production of new superluminal drives, it's just a matter of time before someone decides to make a grab for the cache.'

'You make it sound like there's going to be a war.'

There already is a war, Corso thought. Yet most people seemed unable to grasp the notion that a conflict happening thousands of light-years away could possibly impinge upon them. Far fewer seemed to appreciate the enormous danger they were all facing.

'The way things are looking, it's going to be a pretty one-sided war.' He lowered his voice, even though there was no one nearby who could possibly hear them over the crashing of the surf. 'Did you find out who ordered the arrest of Martinez and his senior officers?'

Kenley nodded. 'It was Jarret, after he arranged a quorum of senators through a series of back-room deals. I don't have any hard evidence, but I'm very, very sure he's got his hands deep in the Legislate's pockets. More than that, he has someone working for him on board the Mjollnir.'

Corso stopped and stared at him. 'Who?'

'His name's Simenon. Martinez's second in command.'

Corso's mask made a harsh metallic sound as he sucked in his breath. 'Damn.'

They started walking again. 'We have people on the frigate, too,' Kenley continued, 'so we have some idea what happened. The quorum sent Simenon a directive that put him in charge and gave him the authority to throw Martinez, and any of his senior officers who didn't comply, in the brig, as well as putting the remains your man Driscoll discovered under lock and key until the Mjollnir got back to Redstone.'

'And you think the Legislate is secretly backing Jarret?'

'I picked up a rumour that the Mjollnir's next stop after here is Sol. A military R amp;D base on Earth's moon went silent a week back, and there's good reason to believe that's where they're going to take the remains of the Atn. They're stopping here first so they can replace the crew with more of their own people.'

'Under Simenon's command, I presume.'

Kenley nodded.

'Idiots, fucking idiots. All this time wasted, and we could have cracked that damn Atn open to see what's inside.'

'The thing I don't understand is why Jarret would get into bed with the Legislate like this,' said Kenley. 'He despises them and everything they stand for. It just doesn't make sense.'

'Look, we're still losing territory to the Uchidans. The whole reason for the expedition to Nova Arctis was because of pressure to found a new Freehold colony. With the whole galaxy potentially open to us, there's now an even bigger pressure to try again somewhere a lot farther away. My commandeering the Mjollnir gave Jarret the perfect excuse to call me out, and, if he wins, jurisdiction over the frigate then passes across to his side of the Senate House. That means control over the terms of settlement, once a new system is located, stays on their side.'

Kenley nodded, understanding. 'And then we'd be out in the cold, wouldn't we? But that still doesn't explain his connection with the Legislate.'

'The Legislate wants the remains Driscoll found, right? With me out of the way, Jarret's going to be within his rights to hand them over. And founding a colony is a very expensive business, remember. Lots of motivation there to climb right into bed with the Legislate and get busy.'

This was assuming Whitecloud had really found something significant, and not just a pile of million-year-old junk. But Corso tried not to think about that possibility too much.