A god awful metal on metal screeching sound came from somewhere in my room, startling us both hard enough to shake the bed.
Rema scrambled off of me, jumping to his feet, the lights in the room brightening with his movements. I squinted my eyes against the light, watching Rema fumble for the orb that was vibrating as it wailed.
When he picked it up, it stopped, and Amee’s hologram winked into existence.
She looked worn out, with a dark circle under her remaining eye, the other covered with a wide brown eyepatch. The lines of her face appeared deeper, her silver hair fraying from the braid thrown over her shoulder. Her solemn face made my stomach twist into a knot.
“Patty, Rema. Sorry to wake you, but this couldn’t wait.”
I slid out of bed, picking up Rema’s tunic that had somehow made it onto the bedroom floor. I was momentarily puzzled how to put it on, as the back wasn’t just split down the middle, but in four flaps. Rema took it from me, holding it up so I could slide my arms into the sleeves. When he closed the back over me, I felt a pull and then thesnick snicksound as the pieces snapped together.
“Magnets?”
“Yes.”
“Uh, cool,” I said, before turning to Amee’s hologram. “What’s wrong?” I asked, giving a few tugs on the front of the shirt to test it. When it didn’t come off, I filed the questions about shirts for wings away for later and gave Amee my full attention.
Her jaw was clenched, pulling at the burn scars on one side of her face, and her eye had a haunted quality to it that hadn’t been there the last time I’d seen her. “The Unity duped us. It wasn’tjust the one out planet they attacked.” She closed her eye for a moment, opening it again to fix us with a hard stare. “It was all of them.”
I sat down hard on the bench. “What?”
“What do you mean, all?” Rema asked, sinking down to sit next to me, his arms coming around me to pull me close.
“They hit the remaining out planets in this sector. All 37 of them. Korsal was the only one they left alone, thanks to the orbital station. They waited until all of our attention was on the battle for Paliv and then they launched the rest of their fleet. We had to retreat.”
Rema stood to pace. “What are the casualties?”
I watched as Amee’s face paled, my stomach flipping over.
“Of our fleet? 60 percent. The ground forces are holding, but they won’t last much longer without more support. The Fang squadron you ordered sent with them probably saved their lives. It’ll buy them a little time.”
Rema cursed a foul streak, his eyes meeting mine when he was finished. “We will leave immediately. We can finish our mating ceremony at a later date.”
I nodded, coming to my feet to start gathering my things when Amee held up her hand.
“No you won’t. There is nothing you can do here. We need the Neldre’s support. It’s now critical until Jack gets back with her people. The Queen’s stipulation was for you two to be married, so get it done. Anu has ramped up fabrication to replace our lost ships, but we still have the Solus and we will do what we can until you get back.”
Rema sat back down, running a hand over his face. “How many ships are left?”
“We lost all but 30 Dreadnaughts. We are down to a hundred Magpies. The Fangs fared better, but their losses were still in the hundreds.”
Rema sat in silence for several minutes, his face set in a fierce scowl.
“Okay, here is the only option I can think of,” he said, looking up at Amee. “We go for Solarius.”
Amee looked as if he’d slapped her. “The Unity homeplanet? Are you insane?”
Rema shook his head. “Their fleet is engaged, they are throwing everything they have at the out planets. We hit them in their heart. Kill the Counselor, take the capital, and deal with their fleet after.”
“Cut the head off the snake,” I murmered, crossing my arms.
Rema flashed me a grim smile. “Exactly.”
Amee still looked like she’d swallowed something foul, but she nodded.“I will tell the others, see what they think. Do we wait for Jack and Ohem to return?”
Rema stood. “You do that. We will wait as long as we can, but prepare yourselves for a battle without them. We will finish the ceremony and regroup with you after, that will give Jack and Ohem more time. We send support where we can, but we can’t spread ourselves too thin. The out planets are just going to have to defend themselves for now, as best as they can. The Unity can’t kill them with the virus now, with the vaccines sent out, so we’ve crippled their first strategy. That will give most of the planets a fighting chance.”
Amee nodded, looking as if she was relaying this to others via her link. Rema sighed before continuing, “ And tell Anu to send a warship to get us. We will leave the ambassador shuttle behind. There is no more need for it,” he said, his tone hard.
