The support and supply ships looked like some sort of ancient space junkyard. Not a single ship was whole. Debris and an occasional flash-frozen crewman floated wherever our crews directed their searchlights. We patched what ships we could salvage and cannibalized those we could not. We searched the ships for survivors and recovered what few supplies were left, though there were plenty of shortages to go around. We scavenged both our own ships and those of our enemies. Repair crews worked round the clock and those who tried to sleep were frequently interrupted by falling pressure alarms, life support failure alarms and false alarms from imagined enemy attacks.

By the start of the morning shifts of the next "day," Shines Like the Sun still had not been heard from and everyone was worried. The fleet commanders decided to form up in battle array and advance in the hope of catching up with Shines Like the Sun's forces. As we prepared to set out, one of Moony's ships came through the transit station behind us. Moony had apparently fled with Most Noble's fleet to the last system we had passed through the day before. As the ship approached, it broadcast a message on all frequencies.

Shines Like the Sun was dead.

* * *

I raced to the C&C as soon as I heard the message from Moony's ship. The other fleet commanders were already logged into the virtual conference room. I could tell from their expressions that it was no idle rumor.

"So it's been confirmed, then?" I asked.

Phil didn't look up from the virtual conference table. Sherman looked at me with a strained expression. "That's what we're discussing now. It seems Most Noble's ship commanders witnessed the event. Shines Like the Sun's ship became separated from his wing commanders and was either captured or killed. We're not sure which. Not that it really matters at this point."

The other commanders looked at each other hopelessly or just stared into space. Somehow, in the very moment of the battle's victory, we had lost the war.

"So what are our options?"

"We could keep fighting," Sherman suggested. "They were completely unable to stop us. We're very nearly at their home world now."

"Surrender is obviously out of the question," Solomon said.

"Perhaps we could negotiate a contract with Righteous Ruler," Ormond suggested. Everyone looked at him in disbelief. "I hear the Moiarchy is having difficulties with the region of The Expanding House. They've nullified their trade agreements with the Indwellers."

"I don't suppose we could just go back to Solarian space," I suggested.

"We don't have any supplies," Phil said. "We can't afford to go on but we can't afford to stay."

The discussion continued with fits and starts for several minutes when a Cack courier ship appeared through the transit station at the far side of the system. It broadcast a Cack news program, then chased the signal across the system at the speed of light.

"Rejoice all you who dwell within," chanted the program host. "The enemy of our great ruler, that most traitorous of brothers, Shines Like the Sun is dead."

"Rejoice! The enemy is dead! Rejoice! Shines Like the Sun is dead!" chanted the background news readers.

As the program host gave the news in a traditional Cack chant, a video displayed digitally enhanced sensor logs of the battle from the Cack's point of view. Once again I saw the two forces arrayed for battle. Shines Like the Sun's forces advanced and Righteous Ruler's formation melted away in a total rout. Righteous Ruler began retreating, surrounded only by his elite core of warships. A hole opened up in Righteous Ruler's defenses and Shines Like the Sun's flagship, The Flower of Dirt plunged forward. The camera view zoomed in on The Flower of Dirt as it launched punishing missiles and energy beam attacks on Righteous Ruler's flagship ripping devastating breaches in the hull.

The camera view pulled back. Righteous Ruler's elite guard swarmed around Shine's Like the Sun's ship. Shines Like the Sun's own guard leaped into the fray. This time his ship took a pounding while Righteous Ruler raced away FTL. Shines Like the Sun's defenders managed to drive back the Cacks from his damaged ship and for a moment it looked like they had at least won the skirmish. But then a single damaged Cack ship, either out of control or on a suicide mission, slammed through The Flower of Dirt under H-drive. It scooped up a large section of The Flower's hull and most of its drive in its quantum wave field and carried it off before its own QWEGs seemed to overload and it exploded.

Not all of Righteous Ruler's defenders fled with him. Seeing The Flower of Dirt stricken and dying, they swooped in to attack. Shine's Like the Sun's defenders shielded him as best they could with their own ships, but one by one, they were all destroyed.

It was like a kick in the gut. I could only imagine how it must have felt for those Cacks who had sided with him. Most were of noble birth with positions of power and prestige in Righteous Ruler's administration. They had thrown those lives of privilege away. Depending on how vengeful Righteous Ruler was feeling, even their families could suffer for their mistakes.

The news readers continued to chant of Righteous Ruler's great victory while they showed him holding Shines Like the Sun's severed head. In the tradition of Cack victors, he carved up Shine's Like the Sun's body and distributed pieces as souvenirs to his friends and supporters as mementos and proof of his victory.

As the program ended, a messenger shuttle arrived from Righteous Ruler. A tone sounded in the virtual conference room. It was the bridge. "Sir, we have a signal from the courier vessel. They want to speak to the commanders of the Solarian fleets."

The fleet commanders exchanged puzzled glances. Sherman said, "Connect them here."

The avatars of two Cacks, messengers from Righteous Ruler and Bright Fortune appeared along with the image of a human interpreter named Richards. He was a former security specialist for the Pentaminc Corporation and was now something of a consulting military strategist.

"We are offering here your terms of surrender."

The fleet commanders stared back in puzzled silence.

"Are you asking to surrender?" Solomon said.

"No," Richards corrected. "They're here to discuss the terms of your surrender."

Sherman laughed.

Richards' expression clouded over. "The Ruler has defeated and killed Shines Like the Sun. He orders you to turn your ships over to him and requires your commanders to appear before him so they may try to earn his favor."

"It is not our custom for the victors to surrender their ships," Sherman said. "However I have something that requires my attention. I shall leave it to you commanders to respond as you think best. I'll return shortly." With that, Sherman's avatar disappeared from the conference.

An awkward silence followed as if the Cacks had not anticipated the possibility of a refusal.

Then Phil spoke up. "Perhaps I'm confused. Is Righteous Ruler asking for our ships because he wishes our support as allies? If not, if he has defeated us, why bother to ask? Why not just take them? But if he wishes to contract our services, he should offer a proposal so we can negotiate it."

The Cacks waited for the computer translation, then looked to Richards.

"The Ruler's view," Richards replied, "is that since he has killed Shines Like the Sun, and there is no one left to challenge his rule, he is the victor. He also believes that since you are in the heart of his Moiarchy, thousands of light-years from home, with hundreds of gates blocking your way and that since he can bring against you so many ships that even if they did not defend themselves, you would run out of ammunition and your ships would break down just trying to destroy them all, you have no choice."

The Solarian commanders were sobered by this idea.

Ormond looked positively terrified. "W-we know that "Righteous Ruler's district, The Expanding House, has given him some trouble of late. This force could easily bring them back under your rule."

One of the Cack messengers responded quickly. "No."

"Then there are The Unbounded Ones and That Which Overturns..."

"No."

A long moment followed where the two sides simply stared at each other. At last I jumped in. "As I see it, the only thing we have now is our ships and our courage," I said, more to my fellow commanders than the Cacks. "If we keep our courage, we can make use of our ships, but if we give up our ships, I don't imagine we'd keep even our lives very long." I turned to face the messengers. "So, don't think we will surrender our only possessions to you. In fact," I smiled knowing that I was speaking from a former Cack ship, "we may just use them to take your possessions."

This brought a few grim smiles from my fellow commanders. They didn't last long.

"Brave words." Richards chuckled. "You should be a politician or at least a speech writer. But you are mad if you actually think your courage can overcome Righteous Ruler's power.

As we spoke, Sherman's avatar reappeared. "Have you reached a decision yet?"

"The commanders have said a number of things," Richards replied before anyone else could speak. "What do you say?"

"Well, I was glad to see a Solarian among Rightous Ruler's messengers," Sherman said. "What is the best advice you can give us fellow humans, knowing that whatever you say will reach the Solarian media and will spread throughout the colonies?"

My estimation of Sherman went up a notch. Richards couldn't advise us to surrender without being seen as a traitor to the human race, and if he advised us to keep fighting, that would greatly encourage our crews. In his own way, Sherman could be nearly as crafty as Moony.

Richards gave his fellow messengers an uncomfortable look and a bead of sweat formed on his brow.

"My advice," he paused to clear his throat, "is not to surrender if you have even one chance in ten thousand to fight your way back home. But, if you have not even that chance, I suggest you do what you can to save yourselves."

"Well, so much for your advice," Sherman growled. "Go back to your ruler and tell him that if he wants us as allies, we'll be more useful to him if we keep our ships, and if he wants to fight, we'll fight better with our ships.

"Very well," Richards shrugged. "Then that is the answer we will take back. But one more thing. Righteous Ruler is assuming that as long as you remain here, we have a truce, but if you advance or retreat, it is war. So which should I tell him it will be?"

"Tell him that we agree."

"What does that mean?"

"Truce if we stay, war if we leave."

"So do I tell him truce or war?"

Sherman's scowl deepened. "Truce if we stay. War if we leave."

* * *

Within hours of conferring with Righteous Ruler's messenger, I received a message from Phil. "A courier ship will be docking with the Torch—er –your ship in about half an hour. Get on it."

I thought about sending a message back asking why and what it was all about, but I didn't think he had left that info out by accident. Whatever was going on, his secretiveness meant it was big. Twenty minutes later, the hanger deck master paged me. "Sir, I've got a courier here who says she has a pouch that only you can sign for."

"Thank you. I'll be right there." Normally, if anything had to be couriered to me personally, the courier would track me down and I would sign for it wherever I happened to be. In these days of quantum computing, normal secured electronic communication was usually quite sufficient. I certainly never had to actually crawl through a boarding tube into a courier's vessel before.

I followed the polite pilot officer inside and found Phil, Sherman and Solomon waiting for me with their XO's. "Is it someone's birthday?"

Sherman frowned not appreciating my humor. "Not now." He pointedly watched the pilot officer seal the craft then seal herself inside the forward cabin. No one said anything until the craft got clearance to leave, by which time I began to fear that, perhaps the fleet commanders might have concocted a plan to run out on the fleet. It would have been uncharacteristic of Sherman to run out on a fight, but then we were in a very unusual situation.

"So, what is this all about?" I asked once we were away.

"Most Noble is waiting for us two systems back. He intends to return to Sardis and has asked us to come with him."

"So that's it?" I asked in growing indignation. "You're just leaving?"

The commanders exchanged uncomfortable looks.

"That remains to be seen," Solomon said. "Sherman here believes we can still defeat Righteous Ruler's forces. We're going to ask Most Nobel if he would like to be the new ruler."

"Ah! So this is a conference—"

Sherman's scowl deepened. "You didn't think—"

"Are the other commanders included in this?" I interrupted.

"They'll be meeting us there," Phil assured me.

We transited to the next system and raced to the next gate where we found Most Noble's Cack fleet waiting as Sherman said. Moony's flag ship was already with him, having slipped out earlier. He had ingratiated himself with Most Noble and considered himself the Cack's friend.

It is a custom among the Cacks that a higher ranking Cack never enters a room occupied by a lower ranking Cack unless they are a servant and so of no rank. Because of matters of protocol, we were left waiting in a hall outside a conference room until Most Noble could arrive and prepare to receive us. He appeared to us without all the finery of Shine Like the Sun's court. His only ornamentation was a series of glowing ideograms on his pseudo-exo-skeleton. I didn't know how to read them, but I could recognize one of them as belonging to Shines Like the Sun and was a little surprised that he hadn't removed it.

Once we had got inside and had a chance to put Sherman's suggestion to him, Most Noble wasted no time refusing it. As he put it, once translated, "There are better Indwellers than I who will not permit me to rule." He repeated his intention to leave within hours and insisted if we were to join him we must prepare to move quickly before the ruler had a chance to gather his forces and, perhaps, use the transit station to outflank them.

"Then it's just as well that we go with you," Sherman said. "While you were talking with the Ruler's messengers, I consulted Dr. Hindmost, Shine Like the Sun's oracle, about the fleet's kairogram. The oracle told me that if we had the support of one of the Cacks who was willing to rule, we had every chance of being successful against Righteous Ruler, but if we did not, we could not be successful. In hindsight, it makes sense, for conquering the Moiarchy and ruling it are two different things. I think we should agree to go with Most Noble back to the Solarian worlds as soon as possible."

The other fleet commanders agreed and both the Solarian and Cack commanders exchanged oaths calling on the Great Maker to witness our promises to support, defend, and not betray each other. Once the oaths had been exchanged, Sherman turned to Most Noble.

"Now that we've agreed to travel together, what do you say is the best route to take? Should we return the way we came or do you know a better way?"

"The familiar path warranting our destruction. Having once satisfied our needs it offers only wanting."

"You know of another way, then?"

"Yes. The lengthening path offering objects of our need."

"Very well. You lead and we will follow."

"Readying for leaving now the long delayed first rest. A barrier of two or three systems may prevent Righteous Ruler. His swiftings being weak to stop us. His strengths being slow to catch us."

I had to puzzle over his words, but it sounded to me as if he were saying we needed to leave now and get as much space between us and Righteous Ruler.

Returning to the fleet, we formed up and seized the nearest transit station as quickly as possible before Righteous Ruler's spies could report back and a force could be sent to attack us. By exiting through both sides of the station we were able to cross the next system and join up with Most Noble's fleet without seeing any sign of response. Beginning our return journey on a new path, we transited to a different station than the one we had taken on the way down. Entering the next system we surprised a large contingent of Righteous Ruler's forces repairing and supplying their ships. Forming up as quickly as we could, we accelerated to the attack.