“If we succeed,” Anari said. “Remember that Kolhar is the most heavily defended planet in the Imperium. Despite our atomics, we could suffer heavy losses.”
He looked at the sprawling encampment of Butlerians all around him. “We have plenty of blood to spend.” He gestured to Anari, having already made his plans. “Take me to the Imperial Palace. I will inform the Emperor that we intend to conquer Kolhar, and all my followers will depart immediately. He doesn’t need to know more details.”
He had many warships in orbit alongside Roderick’s Imperial Armed Forces, including the hostage fleet that Admiral Harte had recently brought home. All those fighters were happy comrades for the time being … but Manford knew that the Butlerians had overstayed their welcome. The Emperor wanted them to leave.
When Manford returned after defeating Directeur Venport, though, his followers would never leave. They would be here to stay.
EMPEROR RODERICK SAT with Haditha in his private suite in the Palace, reading the unexpected handwritten message from Manford Torondo. The Butlerian leader announced that his entire fleet would depart for Kolhar, “to do what must be done. My forces are sufficient and my followers are determined. We will break through Venport’s defenses and lay waste to his entire planet.”
It was welcome news indeed.
He caught his breath as he handed the message to his auburn-haired wife. “I will tell Manford he has my blessing. The Butlerians will surely be slaughtered in the attempt, but they might still inflict considerable damage on Venport.” He tapped his fingers on the ornate bloodwood table. “Both sides may decimate each other.”
Haditha finished reading and set the note aside. “Manford must know that, though. He seems altogether too confident. Or foolish.”
“They can’t depart from Salusa swiftly enough, as far as I am concerned.” Although the Butlerian ships had made no overt threat against the Imperial capital, Roderick knew they could just as easily turn against Salusa, and maybe even attempt a coup. “I don’t trust Manford Torondo any more than I trust Directeur Venport.”
By now, he had decided that General Roon’s strike force had been lost somehow. Admiral Harte’s hostage battle group from Kolhar consisted of slow FTL ships that could not compete with even the old-model Butlerian fleet. Roderick had a plan for Harte’s ships, though — one that would be effective against the Butlerian homeworld, provided they were not totally destroyed at Kolhar. Either way, he felt confident that the Butlerians would be defeated.
The Emperor was supposed to possess the strongest military force, bar none, but during the course of his reign Salvador had let the fleet degenerate into corruption and incompetence. Salvador had become too dependent on the VenHold Spacing Fleet for transport, which left his military nearly helpless when Directeur Venport betrayed the Imperium.
Roderick stifled a groan. His brother had weakened the throne in ways that would take generations to repair … if House Corrino survived that long.
In the meantime, Roderick had signed extended contracts with EsconTran and other foldspace shipping companies to transport his peacekeeping ships around the increasingly restless Imperium. But only VenHold had Navigators, and so far Roderick’s scientists had not been able to poke, prod, or analyze the answers out of their captive specimen.…
Roderick struggled with the turmoil. An Emperor could not be tossed back and forth like a toy between the Butlerians and Venport! Soon, though, if the clash at Kolhar was bloody enough, the problem might resolve itself.…
BEFORE MANFORD AND his followers departed on their “holy mission,” the Emperor announced a day of celebrations to make the Butlerians feel appreciated. Their rallies seemed surprisingly restrained, because apparently they were saving their rage to be unleashed against Venport.
When Manford was ready to shuttle hundreds of thousands of followers up to his fleet in orbit, Roderick and Haditha gave the warships a grand send-off. They waved from the Palace towers as ship after ship lifted into the sky.
“Good riddance,” Roderick muttered. He didn’t really appreciate the Butlerians at all.
Haditha squeezed his hand. “Do you think they really could conquer Kolhar?”
“Faith and blind fanaticism are not sufficient weapons. I only hope the Butlerians inflict mortal damage on Venport’s forces before they themselves are destroyed.”
That would remove both of the annoying thorns that had been tormenting him.
56
When receiving an unexpected gift, a wise man does not ask too many questions. Only the foolish person assumes that a gift is simply a gift, and that there are no implied obligations.
Erasmus was true to his word. After allowing for the vagaries of positioning and more than a century of drifting, Draigo’s scouts found the thinking-machine fleet exactly where the independent robot had said it would be. Forty bulky battleships hanging in space, dark and cold, but intact.
Once scouts tagged the robot fleet, Draigo gathered a crew of Denali engineers and technicians to assess, inspect, and reactivate the thinking-machine vessels and pilot them back to the research planet.
Erasmus asked for permission to accompany the recovery team, but after Draigo considered multiple worst-case scenarios he concluded that he did not trust the robot enough: If given access to all those machine ships, Erasmus might just be tempted to seize them for his own purposes. Though his memory core now resided in a vulnerable biological body, Draigo chose not to take the risk.
A Navigator had brought the recovery team out into deep space, where the tagged robot fleet drifted, and now Draigo paced the piloting deck in silence, studying his prize. The Navigator in the tank behind him made no comment.
The Denali chief engineer, a tough woman named Hana Elkora, joined him on the deck. “I can’t wait to get my hands on those. Over the last ten years I’ve refurbished two dozen old thinking-machine vessels and added them to the VenHold commercial fleet — but never so many at one time.” Clearly pleased, she put her hands on her broad hips, as if considering all the hard work ahead. “This is a real treasure trove. Good thing the barbarians didn’t find them first. Those fanatics would have blown up perfectly good vessels without even attempting to salvage them.”
Draigo nodded. “What matters is that we have these warships, assets we can either turn against Manford Torondo or use to defend Arrakis or Kolhar.”
“Damned right, and we’ll get right to work,” Elkora said. “By now I know the usual machine booby traps, and I am more than familiar with lumbering old robot engines. We’ll get these ships going one at a time and fly them back to Denali. Even with just faster-than-light drives, you should start receiving the new vessels within a week.”
As the Mentat stared at the dark hulks floating there, he began counting and cataloguing them. “Directeur Venport will dispatch carrier ships with spare Holtzman engines to be installed. We can turn these wrecks into spacefolders in no time.”
“I’m ready to get to work,” Elkora said.
“All of us are.”
AN INITIAL CREW made their way aboard the first of the mothballed vessels. They used generators and battery packs to reactivate the rudimentary life-support systems, which the thinking machines had installed only for transporting human slaves. After several hours, the engineers managed to make the machine ship sufficiently habitable, and more workers came aboard in insulated suits and breathers.