Throngs of demonstrators crowded plazas, filled alleys. There were fires and banners. In many areas the overwhelmed Hansa guards did not even try to keep them in check. Peter hoped he could reassure the mobs and impose order before they set fire to the Hansa HQ.

The troop skimmers landed in a cluster just in front of the Whisper Palace, arriving faster than the Hansa guards could respond to intercept them. The skimmer hatches hummed open simultaneously, and Confederation soldiers spilled out.

Willis and OX stopped protectively beside Peter as he paused to look up at the many-towered structure of the Palace. For the first time, he saw how ostentatious the enormous structure seemed, too cold and elaborate. Not like Theroc. And neither his family nor the Confederation could be truly safe until Peter closed the book on the dark days of the Hansa.

“Let’s go finish this.”

At his command, the assault troops raced up the broad stone staircase. Before his soldiers could reach the towering arches of the grand entrance, though, the glass-inset doors swung open. Colonel Andez and twenty of her fellow storm troopers stood with their weapons drawn — deadly projectile weapons, not stunners. “We have a warrant for your arrest.”

Willis pushed forward. “We don’t recognize the validity of any Hansa order.”

From the middle of the stairs, Peter shouted up at them. “I am the rightful King, and the Whisper Palace is mine. The people are calling for change. The Chairman’s time is finished, and so is yours. You can’t stop this uprising by standing in my way.”

Forthright and angry, Andez thrust up her chin and sneered. “You come slinking back while the Chairman is bravely facing the Klikiss. You are an opportunist, a coward, and an outlaw.”

Peter’s overwhelming number of troops held out their stunners and moved up the stairs. Though not cowed into submission, Andez visibly panicked. “Take them out! Shoot the King.”

The astonishing order caused her troops to hesitate, but Peter’s soldiers did not. With a buzzing crackle, twitcher beams engulfed Andez and her guards. The cleanup crew folded to the ground, a crowd of jittering arms and legs strewn across the grand foyer.

“I can see why the Chairman likes her,” Willis said. “She’s as boneheaded as he is.”

Peter nodded to the Confederation soldiers. “Good work.”

Willis issued orders for Andez and her companions to be disarmed, put in restraints, and locked into one of the meeting rooms just off the grand foyer. “That should hold them for now. We can deal with them once we’ve secured control.”

As the fallen guards were taken away, Peter gestured for the others to follow him. “Now we go inside — to the throne room.”

“Shall I take the lead, King Peter?” OX asked. “If we encounter additional resistance, I can draw fire, and I am expendable.”

He turned to the Teacher compy, thinking of everything OX had done for him, the sacrifices he had made. The compy had voluntarily deleted all of his memory and history — his very essence — just to save Peter and Estarra. “You arenot expendable.” He looked at his troops. “I don’t intend to lose anybody.” He passed deeper into the familiar passageways with his team pressing around him. Willis dispatched separate squads to adjacent halls and wings to secure the Whisper Palace, but Peter headed directly for the throne room.

When they marched into the spectacular chamber, Peter found King Rory sitting on the throne, dwarfed by the massive chair. He was alone in the big room. The boy stood indignantly when he saw them swarming toward him. “Guards! Help!”

Peter walked up the stairs to the throne and stood directly before the boy king. “You have nothing to fear from us, Rory.”

The boy looked uncertain. “Colonel Andez ordered me to come here after the Chairman went to the swarmship. She said I had to sit in my place as the Hansa’s King. but there’s no one else around. The deputy’s gone. I know Captain McCammon is dead, but where are the rest of the royal guards? I’ve heard explosions outside. The demonstrators are bound to come into the Whisper Palace!”

Admiral Willis gestured, and the guards fanned out to protect the other entrances to the throne room. “This chamber is secure, King Peter.”

“You don’t need to worry about the protesters,” Peter said to Rory. “In fact, I might be the only one who can save your life.” He spoke with genuine compassion. “I’ll keep you safe from the Chairman, too. I know what he did to you, because he did the same thing to me.”

143

Robb Brindle

The gigantic alien vessels shimmered and pulsed, like several huge beating hearts formed of countless individual specks. Sarein and Estarra waited with Robb on the bridge, all of them trying to hide their anxiety. Captains Kett and Roberts sat unobtrusively at two empty stations. Nobody spoke.

By now, Admiral Willis and King Peter should have made it to the Whisper Palace, but there had been no word from the King. or from Chairman Wenceslas since he’d disappeared into the gigantic Klikiss vessel.

“Anybody bring a deck of cards?” Rlinda finally said, breaking the silence.

Suddenly, perhaps responding to some kind of silent, simultaneous transmission, the eleven conglomerate ships began to move. Though Robb saw no engines, or any means of acceleration, the insect vessels lumbered through space like small asteroids, picking up speed and heading straight toward them.

Robb shouted orders. “Evasive action! Don’t let those things roll over us.”

His helmsman was already scrambling at his controls, but the swarmships plowed past on a course directly for Earth, barely missing the Confederation vessels. The bugs took no notice of them.

“Something’s sure got the breedex riled up,” Robb commented.

“Probably something the Chairman said,” Estarra added.

Sarein’s face was hard. “Basil can be irritating.”

Robb’s father spoke across the priority comm channel from theGoliath. “I am going to withdraw to Earth to set up a defensive line in case those swarmships attack.”

Leaving the channel open, Robb called out, “You all heard General Brindle. Let’s not have him fight this battle alone.”

The Confederation vessels drew back into formation and sped after theGoliath and the EDF fleet, who were already on the move. The Klikiss seemed to ignore them altogether as the swarmships plunged forward, hell-bent on reaching Earth.

Two of the swarmships split from the others and shot off to pursue a specific target. Robb called for long-range scans and saw the exotic angular vessels constructed by the black robots. Their engines blazed as the robots headed away from Earth, rising up out of the plane of the solar system, and a group of newly repaired EDF ships flew with them.