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Looking forward to more Drak!

I'm quite confused but very excited. Keep it coming!

Jumpship Poison Ivy, Zenith Jump Point
Ayn Tarma system, Magistracy of Canopus
5 January 2577 (3032 local calendar)
   Osami almost cried when she saw the astronomical data for the star they had jumped towards. The star matched Ayn Tarma’s profile and it even had the right number of planets orbiting at the right distances. Unfortunately none of them were in remotely the right points of their orbit according to the navigational data.
   â€œNot your fault.”
   The young navigator turned and was surprised to see that Captain Chon was directing an almost sympathetic look in her direction. “Captain?”
   â€œSomeone in the League’s navigation department must have given us faulty data,” Margaid explained. “It might be why we missed on our first jump as well – your calculations were spot on as far as I can tell.”
   Osami nodded in relief.
   â€œUh, captain?” There was a worried note in the voice of Mela Kocinski. The oldest member of the bridge crew, Mela was also the longest-serving aboard the Poison Ivy, the daughter of one of Kossandra Centralla’s ‘Black Brotherhood’. “Isn’t Ayn Tarma supposed to be a fairly small colony?”
   â€œIt’s a fairly recently settled world, maybe fifty thousand people. There are a couple of SLDF Regiments posted here, we’re shipping consumable supplies that aren’t made locally. Why?”
   â€œI’m picking up a lot of radio traffic. It sounds more like a colony. A major colony. I don’t think we picked up this many signals last time we stopped at Andurien.”
   Margaid stared at her. Andurien had a population in the millions. “What sort of signals?”
   â€œI’m not sure. The signal coding is odd – not encrypted, just very sophisticated. Most of it sounds like civilian traffic, there’s even what sounds like a traffic control station.”
   â€œTraffic control? Is there much traffic out here?”
   â€œSome.” Mela adjusted some controls. “Ah... including a modest little dropship that’s ambling in our direction. And if that isn’t a military IFF then I will eat my shirt.”
   The air inside the compartment seemed to chill. If Margaid noticed, she didn’t show any sign of it. “What is their ETA?”
   â€œThree hours and fourteen minutes, assuming they stay on one-gee thrust.”
   â€œIt would be rather convenient to be able to speak to them then, because we aren’t about to fight our way out of this.” The Ivy was well armed for a jumpship, mostly because it was an old colonisation-era vessel with an expensive compact core. That didn’t mean it was armed well enough to fight off anything larger than a couple of light aerospace fighters.
   â€œWe could try signalling them,” Osami suggested. “Just because we don’t know their signal coding doesn’t mean that they don’t know ours.”
   â€œNot a bad idea.” The captain bestowed an approving look upon the navigator. “Mela record this for re-transmission: This is Jumpship Poison Ivy registered out of Kanata. We are experiencing navigation and communication problems. Please do not enter our likely jumpfield unless your life insurance is up to date.”
   Mela touched a few controls. “Recorded and being looped on the usual emergency channels. So far as I can tell, they’re still in use.”
   â€œBatten down the hatches and make sure anything remotely suspicious is hidden properly.” Margaid paused in her orders and smiled thinly. “Which isn’t to say hide everything illegal. I’m sure that any marines boarding would be astounded if they discovered this was the only ship in this corner of the universe without its own still or a small stash of luxury goods that hadn’t unaccountably missed being stamped by customs.”

   It took less than fifteen minutes for a reply to be received. The voice was male, fairly young and also with a certain professional confidence. “Poison Ivy this is HMS Guisarme, Jason Miramar commanding. We are a patrol vessel of the Canopian Navy Royal and will be at your location in a little under three hours so if you need to put your crew in escape pods, rest assured that we will be able to pick them up. Please provide details of your emergency.”
   Margaid raised her eyebrows. “Canopian Navy Royal? I wonder what that’s about. For that matter, what’s a Canopian military vessel doing in League space.” She gestured to Mela to open the channel. “Captain Miramar, this is Captain Chon of the Poison Ivy. Either our navigational data or our computer is defective. We are also experiencing trouble with the encoding of most radio traffic in the system. Can you confirm this as the Ayn Tarma system?”
   She had to wait a few seconds for the response as radio waves spanned the distance between the two ships.
   â€œThat is confirmed, Captain Chon.” The naval officer seemed slightly amused. “This is Ayn Tarma. I’m not sure what could be causing your encoding problem although this is a pretty old format of transmission that you’re using. You may not bhe the only ones having navigation trouble.” His voice grew serious. “We have quite a bit of overdue traffic in the last few days. Where did you jump from?”
   â€œMauripur originally. We wound up in deep space, about six hundred AU outside the system had had to jump again to get here.”
   â€œVery strange. I think you’re the first ship to make across the Canopian-League border since Christmas.” There was a brief pause. “We were beginning to think the League had vanished. There hasn’t even been any HPG communication since then. Do you have any idea what’s going on there?”
   She had the presence of mind to gesture for Mela to cut off the transmission. “Does anyone know what a HPG might be and how it relates to communication?”
   There were no positive responses.
   Margaid opened the channel again. “I’m sorry Captain, I really cannot help you there. None of us are aware of any problems.”
   Miramar sounded disappointed when he replied. “I’m sure one of the ships we sent to re-establish contact will return soon. In the meantime, we will provide all aid that we can.”

   HMS Guisarme proved to be a spherical vessel rather larger than a Black Ball freighter but vastly smaller than the Poison Ivy of course. Jumpships, by their very nature, jumped in-system vessels and mere dropships.
   That didn’t make the little ship any the less threatening though. Even a cursory examination displayed two doors suitable for launching fighters or gunships from and the hull was marked by almost a dozen turrets.
   â€œI think those are missile launchers,” Mela observed to Sara, who was on the bridge watching the ship manuvering. “And are those lasers?”
   The engineer twitched. “There’s no need to sound so excited about this.”
   One of the hatches slid open and a large shuttle craft edged out before turning slowly towards the Ivy’s own small craft bay.
   â€œDo you think there are marines aboard?” the communications officer’s face was guileless. “Lots of strapping young Canopian men to take us into custody.”
   â€œYou’re almost sixty years old,” hissed Sara. “For god’s sake, don’t start anything with these people. We have no idea who they really are.”
   Mela grinned. “I can’t think of a better way to find out. And it’s not age, it’s experience.”
   â€œMela!”
   â€œMs. Kocinski. Stop working off your nerves by teasing Sara with your cougar habits.” Margaid opened the hatch into the passageway that would take her down to the small craft bay.
   â€œI apologise, captain.” Mela bowed. “It will not happen again.”
   â€œThat isn’t license to turn on Ms Hayagawa either.”
   The communications officer pouted at the hatch as it closed. Then she smirked slightly. “I wouldn’t dream of infringing on your pregoratives," she murmered after the departing captain.
   Sara gave her a puzzled look and shook her head.

   Down in the small craft bay, the shuttle – another unfamiliar design - had opened hatches even before the outer door was closed and pressurisation began. Pressure-suited men and women began to spill out. Some of them were armed – no great surprise – but Margaid was pleased to see that others carried tool kits and first aid packs.
   The pressure suits were turquoise, with blue trim – the colours of the Magistracy Navy. One of them approached the hatch – an airlock for obvious reasons – leading into the rest of the ship and gestured towards it, obviously requesting permission to enter.
   Margaid activated the controls, allowing the officer to enter with two of his crew, before closing it up and pressurizing. A moment later the inside hatch opened to admit the trio.
   The man had removed his helmet and Margaid could see that he was young – perhaps still in his early twenties but already wearing the two diamonds of a Commander. He smiled engagingly. “Good day, might you be Captain Chon?”
   â€œThat’s correct.” She offered her hand. “Welcome aboard... Captain Miramar?”
   He nodded. “Thank you, captain. I must say I’d never thought to board an old Aquila like this. She must be seven hundred years old!”
   â€œNot quite that.” Margaid returned the smile but mentally chalked up another mystery. Surely no naval officer could be unaware that even the very first jumpships were no more than four hundred and sixty years old. “Have you been posted here long?” She decided to test the waters. “I don’t think that this was a Canopian world last time we traded in this area.”
   Miramar grinned. “It’s the Guisarme’s first posting since she was launched but of course Ayn Tarma was ceded by the League back in ’24.”
   When did we jump into the Twilight Zone? Margaid wondered. That first jump into deep space or when we jumped here?
   â€œI’ve brought some of my engineers, we can have a look at your navigation and communications gear. Well, I say we. I’m going to have to wrestle with red tape. We do customs work as well as patrol missions I’m afraid.”
   â€œI thought you might.” Margaid motioned him towards a small niche with two chairs and a tiny table attached to the wall. “I have the ship papers here.”
   If this was really a Canopian officer she could tell him about the contents of the secret hold. But if he wasn’t... She watched him as he glanced through the ships documents, seeing a furrow forming on his brow.
   â€œIs this some kind of a joke?” he asked.
   â€œI’m not being deliberately funny. What’s the problem?”
   Miramar looked at her sceptically and tapped the record of port visits. “Would you might explaining why you apparently haven’t visited a port in the last four hundred and fifty-five years.”
   â€œPardon?”
   â€œCaptain Chon, I may look like I was born yesterday, but even I can tell the difference between the twenty-sixth and thirty-first centuries.”

this is weird but looks interesting.

Question why is the Magistracy talking about the Blakists in 2576?  It says local time 3031 beside it which is still to early or did they break off a lot earlier in this one?

All should become clear. Of course 'should' in this case means, 'I'd better put an explanation of that in the fic, hadn't I'.

Thanks for the catch.

just a suggestion between each different person speaking maybe put a return ie

person a "this has happened"

person b "what has happened?"

person a "this"

just to make it easier to read the white on black makes it merge together a little bit not too bad just a layout thing.

looking forward to more

There should be indents for the first line each paragraph but if that's not enough differentiation, I'll look at putting extra lines between them as I usually do.

Ducal Palace, Jojoken
Andurien, Duchy of Andurien
13 January 2577 (3032 local calendar)

It wasn’t every little girl who had a castle of her own. Ehlana Centralla (aged eight and three-quarters) was one of the lucky exceptions. She and her sister Catherine, born almost two years after her, were therefore enjoying the benefits of re-exploring the ancestral Humphreys home while their father Richard re-explored the bars and brothels of the city around it.

It was an equable arrangement in the eyes of Savitri Centrella. Her husband didn’t complain about being passed over for the ducal crown in favour of his infant daughter and in return neither the daughter nor her regent infringed on his debauchery. It had been a political arrangement, never even solemnised with wedding vows, blessed more by the late Duchess Catherine and her need for allies to support secession from the Free Worlds League than any great affection. Savitri occasionally wondered if she might have been better picking Richard’s sister Louise, Canopian medical technology being well up to the minor assistance necessary for heirs under that circumstance, but matters had worked out well enough as it was.

Andurien lacked a legislatural body and Savitiri felt that creating one would exceed her authority as regent so there was no grand debating chamber for her to walk around. The nearest equivalent was the leadership of the Defenders of Andurien, which was at one and the same time the collective name for the Duchy’s armed forces and for their premier BattleMech regiments and the associated brigades. The principle addition was the addition of liaison officers to the Magistracy Armed Forces, the Andurien Defense Fleet and the Andurien Sector Fleet. The fact that the latter two were components of the Canopian Navy Royal would undoubtedly become a problem at some later point. Unfortunately their command centre did not have enough floor space for her to pace.

At the moment a holo display was mapping out the borders of Andurien and Canopus with the Free Worlds League, Federated Suns and Taurian Concordat. Overlaid across this was a display of the historical boundaries circa 2577.

“I realise that the explanation that we’re presented with is rather unbelievable,” Savitri agreed, “But MIM do not at this point have any better explanation for what is going on. So for the sake of doing something productive, we need a contingency for dealing with the SLDF as it was immediately prior to their invasion of us back in that year.”

The two maps rotated. “If we have for some reason been sent back to 2577, then it may be imagined that the Free Worlds League and Capellan Confederation will be a bit miffed with us. In the latter case, particularly because I was embarrassingly present at the Battle of Sian, a faux pas I hope you will all forgive me for. But getting back to the point, you will see that Andurien in particular includes many worlds that at this time were part of the Capellan Confederation, unsurprising as House Humphreys spent most of the last two and a half centuries carving their Duchy back out of the Confederation. The Free Worlds League, of course, has also lost several worlds.”

“Is it just me, or wouldn’t most of the SLDF staging grounds for this campaign be now under our control.” Menlo Drew looked intrigued.

Savitri smiled. The answer was delicious, but she would be better handing off to an expert. “I will be calling on Admiral Harrington.”

Stephanie Harrington waited diplomatically for her liege to sit before standing as otherwise the contrast between the tiny Magestrix and the towering commander of the Andurien Sector Fleet would be comical. “Lord Drew is essentially correct,” she confirmed, tapping a remote to bring up lights indicating the SLDF’s historical positions. While much of our current circumstances remain mysterious we can say with assurance that the planets and stars of 2577 are not interspersed with our own time period. Even allowing for stellar drift, which appears to account for why ships travelling in and out of the Inner Sphere are jumping to deep space rather than their destinations, we would have seen those systems by now.”

“The SLDF invasion force under Captain-General Marion Marik was concentrated into a single Corps, rather than split into three separate Corps as the Taurian invasion force was. VII Corps was in turn divided into three Divisions, each as powerful as the other Corps of the SLDF, positioned on Watermael, Meadowvale and Tellman’s Mistake. As the first two worlds are both part of the Duchy of Andurien, those two divisions can be discounted. Four independent regiments were stationed on Ayn Tarma, now part of the Canopian district of Ruschegg, and Leyda – then a Capellan world and now in the Duchy of Andurien.”

“The SLDF were of course supported by an Auxiliary Corps drawn from the Free Worlds League Militia. Of the twelve regiments in this Corps, nine are also removed. Captain-General Marik – assuming she has not disappeared with one of her subunits – has lost approximately seventy percent of her forces. The largest remaining component – and still an impressive force – would be Twentieth Division, on Tellman’s Mistake. Neutralising this force would essentially prevent any serious attack on Canopus or Andurien by the Star League for a minimum of six months.”

Drew eyed the map. Tellman’s Mistake lay at the far end of the Canopian border with the League from Andurien. “I take it that you intend to carry out that neutralisation?”

A new diagram appeared, drawing arrows from all corners of the Magistracy to Meadowvale. A single arrow then led across Ruschegg District towards Tellman’s Mistake. “Ground forces have been alerted already for the movement via command circuit to Meadowvale. While not ideal as a staging ground, a further command circuit is being laid out to move them to the jump off point of Sharqah.”

Savitri rose to her feet. “Admiral Harrington will be taking charge of a special Task Force of the CNR,” she announced. “That Task Force will precede the ground forces, arriving at Tellman’s Mistake as fast as possible, establishing a blockade to prevent their escape.”

The Magestrix’s face was predatory. “The SLDF soldiers will be treated in full accordance with the Ares Conventions. Our honour demands no less. But they are an active threat to the Magistracy and that threat will be destroyed.”

SLDF VI Corps Field Headquarters, June
Crucis March, Federated Suns
13 January 2577

The command centre was deathly silent. Relayed from the communications section during a general meeting, the report of the FSS Hawkwing was being heard by Major General Harmond Vriss  - two of whose Divisions happened to be stationed on June – and by Admiral Sara Vincent of the FSN’s Task Force Four, who was en route to her force’s staging area at Panpour.

It was Vincent who spoke first. “A base at Malagrotta... perhaps that is why the worlds spinward of us have dropped out of touch. With so many concentrated there, they could dominate the region.”

Vriss started calling up fleet listings. “On the other hand, if their fleet is concentrated here, what is covering their other bases? A shame we’re not technically at war yet or we could strike to cripple their support base.”

“If they’ve struck at Hoonaar or Great Gorge, or anywhere else we’re out of touch with, that’s war in my book.”

“We don’t know that that’s what they’ve done.”

“There’s too much we don’t know!” Vincent snapped. “But we do know that they hold Malagrotta in force. Those are FedSuns citizens and FSN crews that are waitng for a rescue.”

“Admiral, we’d need the entire fleet assigned to our operations to take on a force that size. And they’re spread all along the border – across two hundred light years. It would take weeks to assemble them.”

Vincent glared at him for a long moment and then took a seat. “So what do you recommend, General Vriss?”

Vriss continued to pull up data. “We still don’t know enough about what is going on. Or of how widespread matters are. Did you see that when the Hawkwing jumped back initially they missed June by the same margin that their initial jump to Malagrotta missed us by?”

“I did.” She frowned. “But their second jump was on target, just as it was on the way out.”

“Which probably means that the problem isn’t the ships.”

Vincent nodded slowly. “But in that case... no, that’s ridiculous.”

“I don’t know the actual cause, but to all practical purposes it seems that Malagrotta has moved. We can let the physicists worry about the why. We’re soldiers, we need to deal with the battlefield we’re faced with.”

“Alright, I can see that.” She took a deep breath. “Hawkwing made it here but there’s still a wrecked corvette and a jumpship with a drive that can’t be relied on, hanging six hundred AU outside this system. I need to recover the crews there. And I’m calling every FSN ship I can get to this area. We need something here that can face the Taurian fleet.”

“I’ve no argument with that,” agreed Vriss. “We’ll need to kick the ultimate decisions up to General Wexford, perhaps even the Star League Council, but I’ll request that local SLDF squadrons scout uninhabited systems along the border. If their jumps put them about the same distance from the systems then we can figure out how we need to adjust our navigation in order to reach the Taurian Worlds. And for that matter, check where this ‘effect’ starts to kick in.”

He spread his hands. “All our maps are out, which means all our timetables went up in smoke.”

Reluctantly the FSN Admiral nodded. “The First Prince isn’t going to like this.”

Vriss sighed. “Sara, he’s a long way from being the only one.”


Jumpship Poison Ivy, High Orbit
Ayn Tarma, Magistracy of Canopus
15 January 2577 (3032 local calendar)

“Alright, command conference,” Margaid announced, sealing the hatch to the bridge.

“You couldn’t have waited five minutes for me to use the washroom?” Mela asked, reluctantly taking her feet off the back of one of the spare jumpseats. She didn’t stub out her cigarette though.

“You should have gone before we went.” Margaid looked over at Sara. “Do we have any repairs to make before we leave?”

“Leave?” Sara blinked.

“I’ll get to that in a minute.”

The engineer shrugged. “We’re on standard maintenance jobs only. As far as I’m concerned we can leave as soon as we charge the drive, which will be just over forty-four hours at current rates.”

“Good.” The captain looked over at Osami. “Ms. Hayagawa, what do you make of the navigational data we were sent?”

Osami, her eyes red-rimmed, glanced away from the other three women. “Ah... they’re consistent as far as I can tell, Captain. I don’t really have much data on the stellar drift patterns over four hundred years, but...”

“But you can use them?”

The navigator nodded sharply.

“Good enough.” Margaid sat down in her own chair. “First point of the agenda, having visited the surface I can confidently say that they are not lying about us having somehow misjumped forward in time. There is just no way that anyone could fake an entire city  - there must be half a million people just on that part of the planet.”

None of them mentioned the possibility of jumping back. Hundreds of years of interstellar travel left them with no precedent for it accomplishing time travel by accident. Certainly no precedent for attempting it deliberately.

“Secondly, they’ve given me an overview of their history.” She shrugged. “The War happened. We lost.”

Mela gave her a pained look. “So we’re in a Star League member state smuggling military electronics to a previous government that didn’t want to be part of the Star League. How much trouble are we in?”

“Not much. Because it turns out that the wheel turned. The Star League collapsed after two hundred years or so and for most of the next quarter of a millennium, the Inner Sphere went back to war, which appears to have eradicated the Terries, the Rimjobs and the Crappies, while the Periphery pretty much stayed out their way.” Margaid smiled, or at least showed a lot of teeth. “Think the Age of War but worse.”

“The good news is that because those wars destroyed a good bit of the infrastructure, military technology hasn’t advanced as we might think. Our cargo isn’t cutting edge any more but it’s not obsolescent junk. The local militia have offered us a fair price for it. Not great, but enough to keep us fuelled and fed for a little while.”

“That’s all very well, but it won’t keep the shareholders happy,” Mela pointed out. The Poison Ivy might be a private ship but it wasn’t Margaid’s property. They answered to one of the merchant cartels back on Canopus.

“Shareholders?” Margaid raised an eyebrow. “What shareholders?”

“...oooh.”

“Apparently the company folded with no assets hundreds of years ago. Even though the Centrellas owned it, any claim they had on us lapsed then. So the only shareholders we need to worry about are the ones aboard – which is you and I, Ms Kocinski. They might have been small shareholdings but they exist and the others don’t.”

“Well now, that is interesting.”

“That was the good news.” Margaid looked around at her ship. “Unfortunately, the Ivy is far behind the times. We were already struggling against the dedicated jumpships that just ferried dropships around. Integrated transport vessels like the Ivy couldn’t compete and there aren’t many left. I’ve got a contract shipping chemicals to Canopus, but because we can’t load on the surface and have the canisters ferried up to us it’s not going to pay all that well.”

“The simple fact is, we’re going to have to be pretty sharp if we want to stay in business in the thirty-first century.”

Grimm Keep, Oberon VI
Oberon Confederation
14 February 2577 (3032 local calendar)

Katherine Dormax was bemused when she realised that ‘barbaric splendour’ of Grimm Keep was more of a pirate chic, overlaid upon a modern looking military fortification. Medieval crenellations were mixed with sleekly advanced turrets, a defiant skull-and-crossbones flying above it all and adorning the pair of BattleMechs, Griffins that must have been obtained from the Terran Hegemony at some point, that guarded the gates.

On her way from the spaceport – no, even before, since entering orbit – Katherine had been astounded at the array of industrial and military might on display. Not because the Rim Worlds could not match it – they could – but that any small state could have amassed such a position without attracting the acquisitive attention of House Steiner, House Kurita or – she admitted with rueful honesty – House Amaris.

The limousine pulled up in front of great doors large enough to admit her own Phoenix BattleMech, guarded by yet another matched pair of ‘Mechs. These two were of an unfamiliar design, armour styled to appear somewhat like a medieval knight. Slowing a moment to take it in, she spotted several laser muzzles and what was probably a PPC mounted co-axially with the right forearm. Formidable, particularly if it was a domestic design.

Her escort gestured politely towards the door, a small panel of which had swung open to provide human-sized access without having to wrestle with the weight of the entire doors.

The chamber inside was unsurprisingly tall enough for a BattleMech to enter, although shadowed galleries and decorations would have confined any such war machine to the central area. The floor was uncarpeted, but spilling down from the dais at the far end was a banner, sized to be carried by a BattleMech. To Katherine’s astonishment, it appeared to be the ceremonial colours of a Lyran regiment, although not one she was familiar with. The Sixty-Fifth... She shook her head slightly as she walked across it. Generations of people had walked across the fallen banner, rendering much of the decoration illegible.

The dais held three people. A young woman sat on the principle throne, while a slightly older man occupied the smaller throne to her left. A second throne to the right was unoccupied, but she guessed that it was the notional place of the small boy sat upon the woman’s lap.

Another banner proudly displaying the skull-and-crossbones sigil she had seen before, but that above the consort was a teutonic-looking cross, quartered with a fox. Neither heraldry suggested obvious connections.

A loud-mouthed flunky off to one side bellowed “Colonel Dormax of the Seventh Amaris Legion,” as Katherine reached the foot of the dais. She could only see him from the corner of her eye but she swore he was practically spitting onto the floor with the words. Still, the obligations of etiquette were ingrained in her so she saluted the evidently royal family.

The woman rose to her feet, still holding her son in front of her. “Colonel, your reputation precedes you. Is it correct that you have risen in rebellion against your liege lord and driven him from his own capital?”

That was to the point. She hadn’t even introduced herself, although fortunately Katherine had at least picked up her title and could guess at a suitable form of address. “It is true, highness.”

The Queen smiled. “From everything I’ve heard about Gregory Amaris, I’m disappointed that you haven’t put his head on a pike.”

“It, uh, didn’t seem like the right moment,” Katherine temporised. These people might be advanced but they didn’t seem terribly civilised.

Her response was an amused smile. “So, I imagine that you have come here because five worlds that once swore allegiance to Amaris now bow to me.” The Queen looked to one side. “Someone bring the Colonel a chair.” Then she looked back at Katherine. “And of course there is the matter of the Second and Fifth Amaris Legions that were posted upon two of those worlds.”

Katherine accepted the simple wooden chair carried out to her by two guards. Neither man was armed, which surprised her until she saw that their rifles were being held for them by other soldiers. “You are correct in your assumptions, your highness.”

The Queen waved her hand in dismissal of the formality. “You may call me Charlotte and I will call you Katherine.”

“Thank you.” The RRA representative had to admit that she had never had a comparable invitation from Gregory Amaris. “The Provisional Government also wishes me to advise you that while the Rim Worlds Republic may have internal difficulties at the moment we will unite against a foreign invader. Should you not withdraw from the worlds you have occupied then we will expel you from them by force.”

Katherine’s breath was shallow as she waited for a response. If these people were to decide to discard diplomatic niceties then she might be facing her death. For a moment she wondered if her rivals within the Provisional Government had sent her here for that very reason.

Queen Charlotte’s smile merely widened slightly. “My dear Katherine, I don’t think that you or the Provisional Government really understand what has happened. Jerric, would you be so good as to explain?”

The man at the queen’s side rolled his eyes. “This is because of that business with the jar, isn’t it?”

There were chuckles from a few corners of the large room. It seemed that the consort was popular with his wife’s court.

Jerric leant forwards. “You see, Colonel, we’re not some small realm that the other nations of humanity have simply overlooked. It’s understandable that you might have believed it, it’s certainly the simplest explanation, but the truth is far stranger. Surely you’ve noticed that all worlds we have ‘occupied’ are in slightly different locations from those your navigators expected?”

Katherine’s eyes narrowed. “I have, yes. Do you mean that it was your doing?”

“Hardly.” Jerric’s smiled turned grim. “Although if we were able to do such things, we would hardly be intimidated by your Republic, now would we?”

She couldn’t help but shiver at the though. If any nation was so powerful that they could actually move a star, then they would surely have the power to dominate the entire human race. “A fair point.”

“The reason that the star systems are not quite as expected is that their positions have changed by stellar drift. A region of space that includes all of the Oberon Confederation, has - quite inexplicably - been transported back in time by four hundred and fifty-five years.”

“It’s not entirely inexplicable,” Charlotte disagreed. “Clearly some Random Omnipotent Being is screwing with us.”

“What?”

Jerric sighed. “My wife believes that God – or a God, since she isn’t Catholic – is responsible.”

“I don’t believe this,” Katherine exclaimed. “Time travel is impossible.”

Queen Charlotte patted her son’s back. “The universe does not require us to believe in it. It is as it is and it is up to us to survive it. In our time the Rim Worlds Republic is nothing but a distant memory and those worlds are mine.” She looked firmly at Katherine. “The worlds of your time along with the soldiers were either sent back to our time in our place or they were destroyed by our arrival.”


The lounge that Katherine was taken to after the audience was a far more conventional chamber, with comfortable seats around a coffee table. A discreet servant was on call at the touch of a button to provide refreshments at Katherine’s whim.

How could this have happened?

Surely it was impossible for some new nation to simply be slipped back in time. And yet, was it any more plausible for entire star systems to have moved other than over extensive periods of time?

Slumping into one of the chairs, Katherine decided that whether she believed it or not, she had no power to compel the Queen to say otherwise. She’d accepted transport on an Oberon jumpship so she didn’t even have means to leave the star system without their consent.

She drew herself up. Alright, supposing that this was true. What did it mean? In their history the Republic had ended? In that case the soldiers she was looking for were long gone and the worlds would probably not wish to leave the allegiance that they were used to.

How had it happened? How had the Republic fallen? Was the Star League to blame?

The door opened and she saw the queen enter. She’d let her hair down and thrown a shawl on over the dress she had worn on the throne. “Perhaps this conversation is best had in more intimate surroundings,” she suggested.

“If you’re really from the future, you must know what happens to all of us.”

“I know what happened in our past, at least what was recorded. By being here, we’re creating a new history now. According to the history books you were defeated, although your own fate is something of a mystery. Most people believe that you died during the SLDF invasion of Apollo but your body was never found.”

Charlotte walked over to the window and looked outwardly. “Gregory Amaris didn’t enjoy his victory for very long, but House Amaris survived and in the end their ambition tore the Star League apart. The other Houses fell into civil war and the Republic, already exhausted, was among the first to fall. Many worlds were annexed by the Lyrans but others went their own way. During the wars my great-grandfather’s regiment was betrayed by their ruler and came here. Over the years we carved out our own empire, uniting surviving colonies and founding new ones. You might say that we’e a successor state to your Republic.”

Katherine rested her head in her hands. “Then we’re doomed. The Star League will condemn us to more generations of being tyrannised by House Amaris.”

“Not necessarily.”

The colonel looked up and saw that Charlotte was still looking out of the window. “The Star League is committed to campaigns against the other three Periphery realms and those will be long, hard wars,” the Queen predicted. “It will be many years before they can send aid to Amaris. So you have time.”

Then she turned to Katherine. “And I have a four century advantage in technology over the Star League. Alone, either of us could be crushed. Together...”

“You’re proposing an alliance?”

“Yes. But there is a price.”

Katherine shook her head. “No doubt. And why should I believe that you would be any better than Amaris?”

“You think that I’m going to ask for leadership?” Charlotte seemed amused. “Oh, I’d not refuse if you offered but I’m offering you alliance, not servitude. My price is one of commitment.”

“Commitment?”

The queen nodded. “If the Rift Republican Army wants my support then I require the complete and final end of House Amaris.”