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  Lisa stepped aside, leaving Kyle facing Mira. Everyone else in the room was as unimportant they could be as he met her eyes.

  “Hi,” he said lamely.

  “Hi yourself,” she told him. “You, Admiral, are in a lot of trouble. You promised me you’d come home.”

  He gestured wordlessly around him.

  “I know what the odds were of you surviving when you stayed behind,” Mira reminded him. “If you die on me, Admiral Kyle Roberts, I will kill you.”

  Kyle laughed and shook his head at her.

  “The feeling is mutual, Admiral Solace.”

  Then she was in his arms, her lips pressing against his…and everything was right in the universe.

  50

  Sol System

  12:00 December 4, 2737 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time

  Earth

  Skylink One was the first space elevator humanity had ever built, one of the two that linked the carefully allocated rings of Earth’s orbital industry to the ground. Its base was an immense floating platform, with several huge buoyancy tanks.

  When the Commonwealth had been formed, one of those tanks had been turned into the Star Chamber of the Interstellar Congress of the Terran Commonwealth, with no concern for expense. Massive floor-to-ceiling windows opened out onto the Atlantic Ocean, and hundreds of chairs were laid out for the Senators and Congresspeople who ran the Commonwealth.

  Immense banners hung from the walls, bearing the image of each member world of the Commonwealth. Some of those banners were obsolete now, James Walkingstick noted as he entered the room.

  They wouldn’t even know which ones for a while. Days, weeks. It would be months before even the crude solution of carrying messages aboard Alcubierre-drive couriers, freighters and warships reached any level of true organization and usefulness.

  For now, these people ran the Commonwealth. They might not have contact with their homeworlds, but they had the authority to give the fleet orders, to send out couriers with orders for officers of the Commonwealth Navy to report back to Earth for their “justice.”

  The room was deathly silent as he walked along the aisle toward the front stage. It was rare for a room of over seven hundred politicians to be that quiet. It was probably due to the battalion of Marines surrounding the room, combat rifles leveled on the people who thought they controlled the Commonwealth.

  They hadn’t even given him a chance to talk. The moment his fleet had arrived in Sol, they’d ordered Home Fleet into action. Pulled together from scraps, Home Fleet’s twenty-two ships had stood no chance against his fleet…and had declined to obey those orders.

  Those ships were now part of his fleet. The command center at Ceres had acknowledged his authority. The Commonwealth Navy would now follow his orders, not those of the politicians in this room.

  That was a terrifying thought, but it was where he was now.

  General Krizman walked to his left and two steps behind, Tasker to his right, an equal distance behind. Four Marines followed, and over a thousand more filled the chamber, enforcing the silence.

  Michael Burns, the head of the Committee on Unification, and a frail-looking woman with pale skin and hair—Speaker Janet Lane, the leader of the Congress and generally accepted second-most powerful person in the Commonwealth.

  With the President a complete nonentity, the actual most powerful person was arguably Michael Burns.

  Or had been. Now…now even James wasn’t sure who was in charge, but he walked up to face those two politicians in silence.

  “When I warned you, I expected you to run,” Burns said quietly, ignoring Lane’s surprised glare. “Bringing your fleet was treason, a Rubicon of unparalleled proportions.”

  James winced.

  “If you were prepared to execute me, you were prepared to destroy the Navy out of paranoia,” he said quietly. The acoustics of the Chamber meant everyone could hear the entire conversation. “You left me few choices.”

  “So, you chose treason?” Lane demanded.

  “I chose my oath,” James replied. “To protect and serve the Commonwealth. Not the Congress. Not the Committee. Not the Senate or the Assembly. The Commonwealth.

  “With the network gone, we must hold together our nation with duct tape and blood until we have restored it. This is not the time to turn on each other! But you turned on me.”

  The silence continued. No one spoke as James met the two politicians’ gazes.

  Then Burns stepped forward, ignoring the weapons that snapped up to point at him.

  “You know how this ends now, James,” the old man said firmly. “From the moment you left Niagara with a fleet, you knew how this had to end. You set your feet upon an ancient path that can only end here. Can only end in one way. If you would save the Commonwealth, then do it,” the Senator ordered. “You leave us only one choice.”

  Burns knelt, his words booming out across the Star Chamber with unexpected force.

  “Ave, Imperator Terrae!”

  Other books by Glynn Stewart

  For release announcements join the mailing list or visit GlynnStewart.com

  Castle Federation

  Space Carrier Avalon

  Stellar Fox

  Battle Group Avalon

  Q-Ship Chameleon

  Rimward Stars

  Operation Medusa

  Duchy of Terra

  The Terran Privateer

  Duchess of Terra

  Terra and Imperium

  Vigilante (With Terry Mixon)

  Heart of Vengeance

  Oath of Vengeance

  Starship’s Mage

  Starship’s Mage: Omnibus

  Hand of Mars

  Voice of Mars

  Alien Arcana

  Judgment of Mars

  Starship’s Mage: Red Falcon

  Interstellar Mage

  Mage-Provocateur (upcoming)

  Science Fiction Stand Alone Novels

  Exile (upcoming)

  ONSET

  ONSET: To Serve and Protect

  ONSET: My Enemy’s Enemy

  ONSET: Blood of the Innocent

  ONSET: Stay of Execution (upcoming)

  Changeling Blood

  Changeling’s Fealty

  Fantasy Stand Alone Novels

  Children of Prophecy

  City in the Sky