Lyees’s smile was sad when she nodded at me. “Yes, I agree. It has caused many unhappy unions because of family expectations. Not even the lower castes are free of these types of obligations.”
Typical. It would seem not even aliens were free of the pressures of social climbing. How disappointing.
“Their loss then. Fuck them. Rema has a better family now anyways.”
Even if they weren’t here to celebrate with us, they were here. Sam was busy running things back on Korsal, continuing the war effort. Callie was taken, but I refused to think the worst. She'd be back and in style I would bet, with a grinning Aga at her back. Jack and Ohem were gathering the calvary. We were all separated by time and space, but all their approval and love was right here in the room with me.
Rema and I would do our part in getting additional support from the Neldre, just had to navigate some hostile family members and some jealous royals and one scary ass Queen while also keeping an ear to the ground on what direction the war was going and we’d be fine. No problem. Speaking of which…
“Anu said she sent ahead a relay, do you happen to know if it connects to our links or if there is another way to get in touch with my people from here?”
“Oh, yes! I’m sorry, I brought it with me and sat it on the serving desk,” Lyees said, popping up from her seat to hurry to the buffet counter where she picked up a golden ball about the size of a softball. She returned to the couch and leaned forward to hand it to me. “Here it is.”
“Thanks,” I said, turning it over in my hand. The Rijiteran language was scrawled all over it in bold glyphs, with two rings of indented lines, separating the top and bottom halves. I twisted the two halves, hearing a click, and the glyphs lit up as the ball started rotating fast enough to hover over my hand.
Anu’s holo form blinked into existence above the ball.
Ah, there you are. I was just about to take over the planet's systems if you didn’t contact me soon. The Unity has regrouped. Their fleet is moving towards the outplanet Paliv. No, sit down. There is no need for you to return at the moment. Your mission is to get the Neldre to support us. We can handle this. If something should change, I will notify you. Sam and Izari are mobilizing our forces as we speak. Amee will lead the first wave. I will be occupied for a few days as we meet the Unity, but I have patched you into my emergency channels should you need me. Still no word from Aga or Jack. Stay strong, Patty.
There was a sharp ringing in my ears. Lyees was calling my name, but her voice was muffled against the backdrop of my pounding heart. When the ball dropped inert into my palm, all I could do was stare at it as cold sweat dampened my tunic.
Chapter 7
Patty
Well,fuck.
My heart was still thundering in my ears, combining with the ringing to form the start of what I was sure was going to be a truly magnificent migraine.
She didn’t even give me a chance to answer. I knew this was a near certain possibility, but I’d been mostly ignoring it. I was damn good at compartmentalizing things, but now it felt like all those neat boxes inside my head were exploding.
I probed the ball with my link in a near frantic fumble of mental gymnastics, finally finding the connection I wanted and made the call.
Sam’s hologram blinked into focus. Her face was drawn, but her eyes were determined.“Hey, Patty. I see Anu got a hold of you. Don’t worry, we’ve got things handled. Izari is something of a tactical genius, and Amee is already on the ship on the way to Paliv. We’ve got 100,415 troops on the ground on Korsal from all the support pouring in, and we sent another 50,000 to the front.”
I took a cleansing breath, bringing a shaking hand to my forehead to wipe at the sweat, ignoring the way Lyees was leaning on the edge of her seat watching us intently.
“What about fleet support? What does that look like?” Rema asked, coming into the room with his own inactive ball in his hand. I turned to him in so much relief that it made the room spin for a moment before my vision cleared. He was wearing a startling silver formal like tunic and pants, his long hair braided elaborately, with a silver jewelry piece across his forehead, disappearing into his hair at his temples. Seeing him dressed so fancy was enough of a shock to pull me out of my tailspin.
He took a seat next to me, two arms coming around me to pull me tight against his side, and I snuggled in close, laying my head on his shoulder. Sam’s image nodded a greeting to him.
“With Anu’s fabricators hard at work, we’ve managed to build over a 1000 Fangs, as well as 50 smaller Dreadnaughts. The Solus is carrying Amee and the main force. The Unity is sending a full fleet this time, as next to Korsal, Paliv is a strategic staging point.”
Rema nodded, his face fierce as he looked down at me. “Paliv is an important jump point to the other half of our galaxy, where there are several dozen out planets free of the Unity’s control.” I nodded my understanding, my chest warming that he’d takenthe time to explain to me what everything meant. He squeezed me again before returning his attention to Sam. “What is the strategy?”
Sam chewed her lip, looking behind her for a moment before squaring her shoulders and meeting Rema’s eyes.“I know a little about Earth’s war strategy from history books, and while this is a pretty simple one as war tactics go, it worked time and again. It’s called a pincer movement. We hit their flanks at the same time, crunching them between our forces. This time, we don’t let them get to the ground. It’s going to be an all or nothing space battle. We will send in ground troops just to evacuate civilians from the cities, and to provide support.”
When she was finished speaking, Sam watched Rema expectantly.
Rema was quiet for a moment before rubbing his chin, nodding. “That’s good. Smart. But send more troops to the ground just in case. Contingencies for our contingencies. Have them set up heavy artillery and anti-air cannons. Have a squadron of Fangs go planetside as well. Keep them patrolling.”
Sam nodded, going still for a moment while she relayed the updated orders via her link to the others.
“Alright, Amee has been told. Anything else to add?”she asked.
Rema shook his head. “Not from me right now,” he said, but he looked at me again. “Do you have anything to add?”
I blinked at him and then at Sam. “Uh, no. Not that I can think of.”
