Chapter Fifteen

No one said anything about the fight. Those who had supported Sharrai knew that when she died they had lost. Polly was a mage, even through their helms and the shrouding darkness she had known who they were. The fact that she had done nothing to reveal them meant that she had elected to show mercy. Most were grateful, the rest Hamaf quickly removed. More than a few wayward voices disappeared into the bowels of the ship, and they knew it was just. Treason was one of the few crimes for which one could be killed, and Hamaf now had cause to treat any sedition as treason.

The had been within the steel mountain for nearly three months when the news finally came. The linguists had managed to decode the foreign script, using scraps of writing and captured locals. With it, the programmers had hacked into the system. They had downloaded maps, logs, schematics, anything that could be useful and thousands of things that couldn't. In the end though, it was Polly and Jr that found what the Emperor had sought from the first day.
He heard a great thud coming from below. The weary Captain lept to his feet, or as close to it as he could manage. The sound was a mining charge, someone was carving the ship apart. As he started down the hallway he saw Jor and Polly toasting each other cheerfully.
"Sergent, what is the meaning of this?"
"Sir!" He snapped to attention, spilling the champagne down his front as he came about. "We were just celebrating."
"Celebrating what? and why are they blowing holes in the ship?"
"That's what we were celebrating, Polly and I were looking for" Her eyes widened and she stepped on his foot.
"Ow! What was, oh...We were looking to see if there were more computers or books lower in the ship."
Hamaf was in no mood for lover's nonsense, someone was blowing holes in his ship.
"So you were looking for somewhere out of the way and?"
"It was nothing like that, I swear."
"Get to the point Sergent."
"Right, so we found this big, mechanical thing. It was like a really big engine, with fuel tanks and stuff all over the place."
"And?"
"So Polly found a manual and it turns out we found out how the ship got here."
"AND?"
Jor cringed, Polly waved him aside and stepped up.
"And after personally informing the emperor himself, a team of demolitionists was dispatched to carve the ship open so we can move it to a proper lab. His Majesty was quite pleased, the chances of my succeeding my father on the throne are now 100%. I shall be sure to remember you and the efforts of your men quite well when I take my seat on the council."
She glanced back at Jor. "Some of you shan't need to wait that long for a suitable reward." She blew him a kiss, and the broad-shouldered soldier began blushing.
"And nobody thought to tell me?"
"Well no. I mean yes, I suppose Collin did. But the Emperor insisted that stay and deliver a full account of our time here."

Then she'd likely never return, not under his command at least. By all rights anything on this land was hers, the ship, the ruined city beneath it, and anything that came out of it. Most likely they would have a child of the streets like her killed before giving her the chance to become the second most powerful person in the empire. He found himself wondering how he would tell Hamren. They'd never really broken up, argued maybe, but they still loved each other. He'd take it badly, blame his father. He might even go looking for his sister and try to join her and the band of political assassins and wealth distributing bandits she called friends.
No, he had to hope she was still alive. If only for the damage it would do to his own family.