Familiar, yet alien. Comforting.

Yes. This must be a sign. A change. A move to the future. Here deals would once again be quickly struck. Here his plan would reach fruition. Here mistakes could be put at a distance. Forgotten.

No, never forgotten: you learned from your mistakes. No, they could be put into …perspective.

“ovKhan,” Coleen said, coming to a stop slightly behind him.

He did not respond immediately, still drinking in the sights and aromas like a man deprived of sensation.

Finally, forever-cool eyes swiveled to take her in, his voice a chill wind in counterpoint to the warmth of the breeze. “Any news?”

“From the planet, ovKhan?” She had always avoided using his first name, but after Sha had learned her secret, Coleen retreated completely from him, wrapping formality around her like armor.

If that is what she must do in order to not fail, then so be it.

“Neg. I already reviewed all three messages from Earl Stewart, as well as one terse message from the legate. Other news.”

“Aff, there is news.”

He waited, but she held her peace for several long seconds. She still attempts to kick against the manacles. His eyes narrowed.

Petty. Perhaps he would have to deal with her after all. A pity.

Finally, she responded, “We picked up a transmission that was broadcast into the clear by a tramp freighter that jumped in-system a few hours ago. They came from the Adhafera system.”

“The ship that precipitated our Trial of Possession?”

“I do not know, but it is conceivable.”

“It does not matter.” He looked away and shifted his stance, feeling the solid thud of his boots against the metal deck—the pull of a large gravity well. “The transmission.”

“What by their description can only be an ArcShip jumped in-system at Adhafera, where a collision nearly occurred. The Delta Aimag DropShips burned toward the jump point with undue haste after our departure. They were in the process of maneuvering to jump when the ArcShip arrived.”

“An accident.”

“Aff. It is difficult to discern from their barbaric descriptions, but it would seem the Voidjumper managed to escape serious damage to all but one of its DropShip communities.”

“Is that so?” They could have been discussing the price of beef, or the transfer of personnel between ships, instead of the potential death of tens of thousands of Sea Fox personnel.

The death of ovKhan Kalasa.

Gazing into the sky, searching to pinpoint the location where the Adhafera jump point would be visible from his position were it night, Sha could not help the sigh that escaped his lips, a small, soft decompression of resignation.

A loss to the Khanate, but it might have been best in the end.

He swiveled back. “And?” He could tell she held back more.

“Shortly thereafter, a frenzy of DropShip transfers took place between the waiting JumpShips and CargoShips, then a spasm of jumping. The Voidjumper, despite her damage, jumped.” She paused a moment, swallowed.

Afraid to say it? He knew her next words.

“Before the tramp freighter jumped, all that remained were the ArcShip and a Scout–class JumpShip.” She finally turned toward him and several seconds passed as unasked questions fired like synapses, quick, decisive, angry.

His turn to hold out, despite the obvious question burning her lips; she grew visibly agitated. Finally broke the silence, though to her credit she kept her tone level.

“You know what this means, quiaff?”

“Perhaps.”

She tried to stare him down for such a response, but could not. She blinked, spoke. “Aff, ovKhan. Aff. You know what this means. They know. They have discovered the plan and are scrambling even now.”

He shrugged lightly, dismissed all of Kalasa’s efforts in one brief muscular twitch. “We cannot undo what has been written. Only deal with what might be, or what is coming. I am still not convinced they have the whole plan.” For once, however, Sha did not even believe himself. Such activity rarely occurred and after their own quick departure… No, it did not bode well.

“And if they come here?”

“Then they come.”

She closed her eyes momentarily, as though marshaling strength to forge ahead. Spoke again without even opening them. “They will fight us.” She did not see the look of disgust that washed his features.

“We have fought them before,” he replied, abruptly moving down the ramp as though that ended the discussion.

“ovKhan,” Coleen called out, her voice rising. Massive vibrations ran through the ramp, sending shocks up into his groin and standing the hair on his neck on end; for an instant he imagined them coming from the tread of Coleen. From the questions she would not give up. From Kalasa’s footsteps, thudding through the cosmos, looking for him.

He squinted, angry at such fantasies, and continued down the ramp. He heard the servo whine of the first ’Mech unlimbering in preparation for patrol duty around the grounded DropShip fleet.

“ovKhan,” Coleen said again, her voice urgent. She pulled abreast just as they reached the hard tarmac of the spaceport and kept pace with Sha, who was walking briskly toward the command vehicle, debarked almost as soon as the fusion drives were extinguished. “They will fight and this time will be different. This will not be a Trial of Possession or Grievance or even a Ritual of Combat. They know and they will come to annihilate. A Trial of Annihilation!” Fear coated the word with desperation.

He stopped abruptly, rounded on her and raised his voice fractionally—the equivalent of a shout for anyone else. “Then… we… fight.” She stopped as though poleaxed by a ’Mech fist, her mouth dropping open, eyes wide, wild.

Sha hardened his gaze until he could have carved his words into lamellar ferro-carbide armor, his voice a tornado to shred any resistance. “I have told you, what we do comes with risk. Great risk. And if they come to fight, then so be it. I have bested Petr and will do so again. In the end,” he finished, unable to refrain, “you are Clan. A battle should be relished, quiaff?”

“But they will come with overwhelming force,” she managed to mewl. He didn’t expect a real answer, but Sha felt disappointed despite his expectations. Her fear diminished her ability to think. Dangerous in one who knew so much.

“No, they will not. The Scout ship is for us. The rest will be hunting for the Khan, trying to stop the inevitable. No, Petr will come alone, and with a smaller force than what we wield.” He slowed his breathing, brought his emotions back under control, leashed his blue eyes and the power of his personality. Coleen sagged after the onslaught, as though an arm pinning her in place had been jerked away.

“If you think clearly for a moment, you will remember that any merchant worth his salt has plans within plans. My cards have not yet all been revealed.” She looked up at that, and then turned as a technician rushed toward them from the command vehicle.

Sha turned to follow her gaze, and frowned at the unseemly haste. Petr could not be here this quickly. What else could be happening? Nothing that required such a state of frenzy. Sha was on the verge of opening his mouth for a reprimand, but the man’s words robbed him of any such desire.

“ovKhan, DropShips inbound as we speak, orbital insertion already begun.”

“What!”

“We have multiple contacts, verified. Cocoons already in interface, with numerous DropShips in stages of descent.”

“I told you,” Coleen said vehemently, the note of victory in her voice warring extravagantly with her panic.

He hardly heard, concentrating on the hard copy the breathless tech thrust into his hand.

“How were they undetected?”

“We do not know, ovKhan. A pirate point. Disguised as local traffic. Either might explain it. A tap on the legate’s channel confirms agitated voices; we have not yet broken their encryption, though one would assume they are as surprised as we.”