Hellhole: Awakening (56 page)

85

To Diadem Michella, a large part of ruling the Constellation involved putting out fires, crushing flare-ups before they could cause damage. Thanks to Ishop Heer, she was able to take care of many small blazes before they became conflagrations—such as Selik Riomini’s appalling scheme to break into the quarantined hangar and extract the alien specimens inside. He might have unleashed contamination across Sonjeera. Worse, he had openly defied her explicit command! She was so thankful for Ishop’s diligence.

She could assemble charges and destroy the Black Lord. Added to that was his failure to understand the military implications when he first learned that the stringline to planet Hallholme had been severed and that their large fleet had been lost. In his initial analysis, he had failed to realize that General Adolphus had set a trap, had assumed only that the ships would not be able to return home by their traditional route. He had been so wrong, and if Governor Goler’s report was to be believed, all those ships had been captured by their greatest enemy.

Despite her fury at what the Black Lord had done, however, Michella understood that she couldn’t execute him, or even strip him of everything, as she had done with Lady Enva Tazaar. Michella’s detractors would turn the accusations on her, and make her look incompetent for choosing Riomini in the first place, for relying on him so heavily. The uproar among the nobles would tear the Crown Jewels apart.

Or Riomini’s supporters might fight back and start an uprising of their own to depose her. He controlled the Army of the Constellation (what was left of it). Michella had to tread carefully, or she might find herself facing a coup, and the Black Lord would probably find irony in sending
her
severed head in a message pod as some sort of peace offering to General Adolphus.

Most importantly, despite his transgressions, Selik Riomini was her only viable option as a successor. Michella was realistic, and knew that she could not rule forever.

But she was not ready to step down yet, and in order to maintain her authority she needed to punish the Black Lord for what he had done. Once again, Ishop Heer had come up with the perfect solution.

Responding to her crisp and annoyed summons, Lord Riomini stood stiffly before the Diadem’s desk in the windowless war room of her palace. He wore his characteristic black clothing, but this time he chose not to adorn it with medals and braids. He obviously knew he was in trouble.

As usual, she had arranged for Ishop to observe from concealment, where special monitoring screens would display Riomini’s body temperature, pulse rate, and perspiration. As she looked at the Black Lord, though, Michella didn’t need any specialized images to see that he was sweating. She’d never seen him this way.

“Eminence, allow me to apologize, and explain—”

“I don’t think I need any explanations.” Her voice was cold and angry. “I want this lesson to
hurt,
Selik, so that you will remember it the next time you are tempted to get out of line.”

“I acted only for the good of the Constellation.” Now he didn’t even look shamed! “We must defend the Crown Jewels against further alien attacks, and the only way to do so is to understand what those creatures can do. My scientific experts were quite clear in their assessment.”

“And I was quite clear in my refusal! You
defied
me. Don’t you see? General Adolphus wants us to dabble with the specimens and become contaminated by them. This could be part of his overall plan, an insidious way to spread the alien infection. Breaking open the hangar would have been like triggering a biological land mine, and once the alien influence spreads across the Crown Jewels, the rebels wouldn’t even need to fight. They would defeat us from the first moment of contamination.”

“I … did not consider that possibility, Eminence.” He lowered his gaze, and at least had the good sense now to look cowed. “In warfare, it is always necessary to take chances. We cannot win if we do not accept some risk, even considerable risk.”

“You don’t understand the power those aliens wield. You weren’t there in the hangar when Ishop and I saw that creature exert a mental hold upon the human passengers. No doubt the creatures have already done the same to the entire population of planet Hallholme, including my own daughter!”

“But didn’t your man Ishop Heer journey there and interact with the inhabitants? Didn’t he himself go to the strange pools that supposedly contain alien sentience? Is
he
contaminated, Eminence?”

Michella considered this for a moment, then said, “Don’t try to turn this on me, Selik! Ishop is
not
infected, and we are here to discuss
your
actions, not his.”

As her voice became more shrill, Michella realized she might be overreacting, even irrational on the subject, but once she had established her opinion she would never back down.

She could see the retreat on his face, and again he looked cowed. “Are you going to strip me of my rank and command?”

She leaned back in her chair, took a moment to compose herself. “No. I am not blind to your power and influence, and I won’t risk another civil war on top of Adolphus’s rebellion.”

Riomini looked relieved. “I will not deny my ambitions, Eminence, but I serve you first. I would never call my supporters to engage in a civil war. I do hope to become your successor on the Star Throne, so why would I destroy the very Constellation I desire to rule one day?”

She nodded slowly. “Now, that is an answer I can believe.” The Diadem took a deep breath to calm herself. “For your years of long service, Selik, I am going to be lenient—to a point. Therefore my reprimand will only be between us, no public scandal. My people need to view you as a bastion of strength. Publicly, I intend to support you as always, but I will not forget your poor judgment—nor do I want you to forget it.”

She activated a screen on a side wall, which displayed a live image of Riomini’s bodyguards who had been captured alive during the raid at the hangar. The women looked disheveled, angry, and defiant, though not the least bit frightened. They were held in an impenetrable vault, a large white-walled cell with no windows and no furnishings. Michella’s own uniformed guards, who had captured Riomini’s team beneath the quarantined hangar, had been assigned to guard the women inside the sealed chamber.

She saw him swallow, then cover up the gesture with feigned defiance; that gave her a sense of satisfaction. Was he actually getting cocky? He remarked, “You must be afraid of my team, Eminence, if you need to place so many of your own people inside a locked cell.”

She smiled. That had also been Ishop’s idea. “Oh, Selik, my people may think they’re guarding the prisoners, but they’re
all
prisoners. I told you, one can never be too careful about contamination. The risk is simply too great.”

Riomini’s brow furrowed, but she pointed at the screen and transmitted a signal. “When you proposed your punitive strike on Theser, do you remember what you said to me? That the rebels needed to be taught an unforgettable lesson so they would never forget the consequences of defying my orders? It seems you need a similar reminder.”

Nozzles opened in the white walls of the chamber, and jets of flame shot out. The inferno came from all directions. Both the prisoners and her own guards barely had time to scream, scrambling on top of one another, clawing desperately for shelter. Within moments they all caught fire.

Rather than watching the screen, the Diadem kept her gaze on the Black Lord while listening to the interesting sounds of death. As Riomini stared, wide-eyed in horror, the whole chamber was engulfed in fire—Lora Heston, the rest of his captured bodyguards, as well as the Diadem’s own security staff. The flames continued to roar and swirl long after the screams had stopped; the bodies blackened, and the bones crumbled into ash, while the fires still filled the chamber.

“Was that really necessary?” His voice was hoarse.

Michella spoke as if she were a narrator. “Every speck, every shred of life, has been incinerated and sterilized in that chamber. For safety reasons.” She studied his patrician face, saw anger and dismay there. Yes, she had hurt him deeply, and he would not forget. “You needed to understand the seriousness of the situation, Selik. For every bad decision there is a cost, and you have yours. For now.”

The wall screen went dark. Riomini stared at it, as if he continued to see the cleansing flames and hear the screaming victims. Finally, his defiance had been incinerated as well. He bowed slightly. “As you command, Eminence.”

Her voice softened, as if she were scolding a child she loved. “Never forget that you’re not the Diadem yet. Don’t make me consider other choices.”

86

After days of disembarkations, the last stragglers of captured Constellation soldiers came down under guard in military shuttles to the large temporary holding area outside of Slickwater Springs. Even before the formal surrender ceremony, Sophie had assigned fifty of her best supply chiefs to prepare the camp using colony materials, and the town sprang up overnight. And filled up with prisoners.

Though Sophie remained crippled with devastation and disbelief from the loss of her son and Antonia, her well-trained work teams rushed to erect shelters that would protect the captives from the worst of the planet’s mercurial weather. Site crews arranged for power, water, and sanitation. Eventually, the prisoners would be dispersed to other work sites and villages, but for now they had to be kept under tight control.

Despite her grief, Sophie insisted on being at the camp, and Adolphus felt compelled to join her. He remained sick inside at the debacle of the surrender ceremony and disgusted at Redcom Hallholme, all those good people dead, including Craig Jordan, Devon, Antonia, and the guards. A slow burn of anger continued to flicker within him, held in check only by adherence to his promise of safety to the enemy.
His
honor.

A tension headache twisted the wiry muscles in his neck, and he felt a dull pounding at the back of his head. If he had been a lesser, more emotional man, Adolphus would have executed Escobar Hallholme—just like Tanja Hu had killed Governor Undine—and no one would have criticized him for it. Now he felt he understood the Candela administrator better.

But when Adolphus had attended the military academy on Aeroc, the underpinnings of military honor and acceptable civilized behavior were drilled into him. Tiber Adolphus had lived his whole life by that code, even after turning against the corrupt government. Commodore Percival Hallholme had beaten Adolphus only by threatening to massacre innocent civilians. His son Escobar was worse, like a mad dog. It was clear to Adolphus that the Hallholmes had not learned their moral underpinnings in their youth, but rather on the battlefield, in their own desperate attempts to win at any cost.

Yes, if Adolphus had been a lesser man, he would have wrung Escobar’s neck himself. But he was not an animal and would not commit such a moral breach.

Out at the prisoner-of-war camp, a dusty wind blew grit and rattled the thin walls of the prefabricated shelters. He had originally assigned three hundred well-armed guards to monitor the camp—partly to protect the prisoners from any stupid ideas of escaping out into the perilous Hellhole wilderness—but Sophie demanded twice as many. Bitterness flowed like acid in her voice. “Just to be sure, Tiber. And I’m giving them orders to shoot to kill, if any of those bastards cause trouble.”

He saw the depth of pain on her face and knew how hard she was trying just to make it through each day. So he gave her the six hundred troops without argument, reassigning them from other duties. He had sent all but ten of his own DZ Defense Force warships to help with the Candela evacuation, so he had plenty of active-duty personnel available on the ground.

*   *   *

When he arrived at the camp, many of the prisoners were outside, sitting listlessly in the afternoon air. Others slept inside shelters, recovering from their own ordeal of living for two months on the edge of starvation; they were only just learning the truth that many of their comrades had been sacrificed in order to keep the rest alive for just a few more days. Now that they were well fed, getting good medical care, and were at least temporarily safe, they cooperated.

Most of them had surrendered quickly and voluntarily; very few had been forced into submission. Every one of the prisoners had pledged an oath of nonviolence, accepting the terms of surrender. Adolphus had not asked them to promise loyalty, because that surely would have been a lie in most cases.

Desperate people would promise anything when they were starving and near death. Given a week of full bellies and calm, Adolphus knew some would reconsider their promises to him, and he took precautions.

Sophie met him outside the fence. Wind whipped the hair around her face. Dust grains stung her eyes, but her cheeks remained dry. Sophie Vence was not a woman to shed tears easily; she had cried for her son, then bottled the rest up inside, sealing her emotions with anger toward the Constellation invaders. Adolphus knew she wasn’t finished grieving yet, although she pretended to be strong near him.

“Every hour, Tiber, I can barely stop myself from marching into the camp’s headquarters tent to tear Escobar Hallholme apart for allowing what happened.”

“Do you think it would do any good?”

Sophie still looked beautiful, but all the softness and humor had drained from her face. “I doubt it. After that treachery, he should at least have the decency to be ashamed, or express regret.” She shook her head and looked away. “I wanted to do so much for Devon. I brought him to this planet when he was just a boy, and this was supposed to be his bright chance, his whole future. Then he lost himself to the slickwater, and now he’s—”

Adolphus tried to console her. “You heard what he said, over and over. Because of the Xayans, he had a richer life with the Birzh presence than if he had lived a hundred lifetimes without him.”

She finally allowed herself a wan smile. “Yes, he told me that more than once. He wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything.”