Retribution: The Lazarus Alliance: Book Six by Blaze Ward

Author:Blaze Ward [Ward, Blaze]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781644702055
Google: oVk7zgEACAAJ
Publisher: Knotted Road Press Incorporated
Published: 2021-05-25T18:30:00+00:00

Twenty-Nine

Addison

Addison was aft in the flag bridge. Aileen was on her way to Innruld Space now. That left Addison alone to take over if something happened to the bridge. But he would fight this battle just as he had the others he had accidentally slithered into.

As Second Officer, Aileen was normally supposed to be back at an Auxiliary Control station somewhere, but she’d left Remahle in charge of counting boxes for the newly enlarged crew while she was gone. Battle didn’t mean that dinner would be interrupted, just that it was likely to be a Human pasta with sauce and protein, baked in big pans ahead of time and then covered until the crew could be released to eat. Or have it delivered to their stations if this battle went on long enough.

Khyaa’sha would handle that just fine.

At least none of these silly admirals had remembered to put him in command of his own Human warship. Being on the flag bridge just meant he had better screens. Lazarus was always going to be in charge, him and Carlos. Addison figured if he could keep a quiet enough slither, he might just be able to get away safely, too.

Innruld Space. It called to him, but Addison knew that he’d rather be on Liberty, or, Creator forbid, on Brasilia. Wherever his love ended up needing to do her work. He was just a Director who had once owned a broken-down freighter. Not a man who moved systems or empires, and he was fine with that.

Today, he was backstopping Lazarus. Ready to issue commands, just in case.

But Innruld Space kept tugging at him.

Once the Innruld were done, it needed a different name. Addison would find it offensive to remember the overthrown overlords that way. Or in any manner that didn’t involve an odoriferous smear of fresh guano he deposited on a grave somewhere.

Alien Space was not much better, because that suggested they were somehow outsiders when it came time to deal with the Rio Alliance and whatever Yisan’s commercial empire ended up calling itself.

Commercial Empire. That had ugly connotations, as well. There would be trade, and it would probably be critical that no single planet have to face the Merchant Princes like Eduardo Martìnez or Fernanda Flores alone, so that in turn demanded some sort of treaty binding all those worlds together economically, if not politically.

Crap, when had he turned into a political philosopher?

But Addison knew the answer to that. Too many years carrying those little boxes between stations, intending to slowly wipe out the Innruld over generations, rather than all at once.

There would have to be some sort of Union when he helped destroy those tall bastards. All the worlds unified, after having broken free from their terrible overlords. It wouldn’t be like the Rio Alliance, if for no other reason than there were so many species involved, and all of them were generally of the same size. Humans dominated Rio, but they dominated this entire region of space.

Everything on this side of the Phraettis Nebula was functionally Human Space, when you got right down to it.

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