Warlord Conquering (The Great Insurrection Book 3) by David Beers (best historical fiction books of all time txt) 📗

"Your miles aren't done, crone," she told herself. "You will push on because you're nearly at the finish line. You didn't come this far to falter."

Alex stood up, and using her cane, she left the room.

Chapter Nine

“Your offspring should be more prepared for the world than you were.”

—Adrian de Livius

Veena had thought escape was a good thing, at least when Hel had arrived in that elevator. She'd spent the last day or two contemplating what would happen to her and her fleet, and the answers always came back the same: she would die. This ship and everyone on it would be destroyed. The rest of the fleet would probably survive.

When Hel had arrived with her Whip in hand, Veena had rejoiced.

Now?

Veena wondered if she'd traded one death warrant for another, this one signed by the assassin.

As near as Veena could tell, they'd been traveling for about five standard hours. This pod, while insanely fast, had very little in the ways of communication or scanning ability. They couldn't tell if they were being chased, and they could only make limited contact outside the pod.

When they first boarded, Veena had wanted to program it to go to another dreadnought, but Hel’s argument had won the day.

Her words had been simple. "If we go to another dreadnought without the Titan's head in our hands, we're as good as dead. It doesn't matter if both of you are Primuses; your lives are sacrificed. The only chance we have is to escape from here immediately, then figure out the next step."

Veena hated admitting Hel was right, but she was. If they made it to any other dreadnought without Kane, they'd probably be put in another brig.

Five hours out, though, Veena wanted to know the next step.

It looked like they had escaped the AllMother's hands. Their captive was asleep in the corner of the pod. No one had a Clip for him, but it wouldn't be hard to keep him in line.

Veena sat across from Ares, Hel next to him. She looked at the assassin. "Where are we going?"

Hel's head was lying against the wall behind her, her eyes closed. Veena knew she wasn't asleep from the way she touched her Whip.

"I know you hear me," Veena told her.

Without opening her eyes, Hel answered, "If you know that, and I’m not answering you, why do you continue speaking to me?"

"Because I want to know where we're heading. It's quite simple if you think about it, Hel."

"If you two were in charge, we'd still be in the brig."

Ares spoke up. "If we hadn’t listened to you, we wouldn't have been put in there, would we? I agree with Veena. Where are we going?"

Hel sighed. "I'm not going to be stupid enough to speak in front of the prisoner and tell you why we're going somewhere. Perhaps you two geniuses can figure it out on your own. However, we're heading to a well-populated planet. One with more people than Earth. From there, I'll figure out our next steps."

"You'll figure them out?" Veena said. "You're in charge, is that what you're thinking? Because last I checked, the moment we're out of this ship, protocol puts Ares in charge."

Hel laughed. "What is your call sign? Hawk? Flutter away, little bird. You're annoying me."

"Enough," Ares said. "We're in no position to bicker among ourselves, in case neither of you noticed. We're in a pod in space, heading to a planet none of us knows much about, in an unknown part of a foreign galaxy."

He stared at Hel first, then turned his gaze to Veena. She couldn't deny what he was saying, but what was the alternative? Letting this psychopath lead them to certain death? Veena did not doubt Hel was going to kill them the moment they were no longer useful. Now, on a strange planet with only a Subversive captive as a witness? It would be easy to do.

Hel didn't look at the Titan but remained leaning back with her eyes closed.

Ares didn't seem to care. "AI, on."

"How can I help you, sir?"

"How far are we from our destination?" he asked the primitive computer. "Better yet, what's the estimated time to arrival?"

"Current velocity puts our arrival at twenty-five standard hours, sir."

Ares continued with his questions. "If you are active for the same amount of time, will the pod have enough energy to make it to our destination?"

"At the current speed, yes," the AI answered.

"AI, off," Ares said, putting the computer into a dormant state so as to not drain extra power. "In twenty-five hours, we're getting off this pod, and Hel, I don't care about the Subversive. I'm not getting off without knowing the plan. I won't be a stranger in a strange land without knowing what's happening. If you want to test me on that, now's the time, assassin. As soon as you're done, I'm going to turn this AI back on and have it explain everything about this planet to me."

Hel smiled. "Do you think you’re as great as your mentor?"

"Well, given that when I went up against him, my face didn't end up like yours, I'd say I'm better than you."

Veena saw the slightest twinge of anger pass over Hel’s face. She hates losing, Veena thought. Or she hates people seeing that she lost. Don't forget that.

The anger passed quickly, and Hel shook her head. The former Titan had bashed her up badly. She would need facial reconstructive surgery as soon as possible.

The assassin started speaking. "You two have about the same number of brain cells between you as an Earth-donkey. If you want to put us at risk, I'll tell you the plan. If we try to get back to anything the Commonwealth owns—a dreadnought, a portal, anything—we're dead." She lifted her head away from the wall and opened her eyes. She stared first at Ares, then turned her gaze on Veena. "Does either of you doubt that? Do you think we can run back