Alien General's Fated (Brion Brides 5)(54)

"No!" Aria screamed. "You can't do that! There wasn't even a vote! This is not the council's decision. It's yours."

But up above their heads, through the Galaya Hall's transparent ceiling, she saw the Fremma fleet turning. The Koliars stayed where they were. Perhaps they wouldn't shoot the Conqueror, but they didn't see a reason to come to its aid either.

Aria turned to Ryden, who was watching his ship.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry, forgive me..."

"You did nothing wrong," the general said again, his voice hollow.

The guns of the Fremma fleet rolled out. The ships formed into a loose formation to be sure to do it all in one shot. Aria shivered in helpless horror, wanting... anything. To help, to stop them, to have words that could put an end to it, to press her head against Ryden's chest and have him cradle her until it was over. Anything to burn the hopelessness out of her.

Then Wellack's voice cut through the air.

"General," he called.

Ryden's head snapped away from the Conqueror.

"You said to me you are on the side of the victors," he told the Fremma commander, who gave him a suspicious look.

"We are," the Fremma said, his mechanical arm buzzing when he gestured around them. "You seem to be losing, General."

"I suggest you wait a moment," Ryden said.

It utterly confounded Aria how he could suddenly be smiling, but the Fremma nodded after taking a long, hard look at him.

"Very well," he said.

When Klaen ordered the commander to shoot, the scavenger shook his head, keeping Ryden firmly in his sights.

"I will wait," he said cautiously. "If what I think will happen right now comes to be, I believe it's better if the ship is in one piece."

Aria wasn't the only one staring in bewilderment, but the Fremma seemed to catch on to something that the rest of them didn't. Only Wellack looked equally pleased and Ryden was outright grinning, looking up into the sky.

"If what I think will happen comes to be, remember that I didn't shoot," the scavenger added.

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"What is going on?" Aria demanded, but Ryden answered by pointing to the skies.

She lifted her gaze just in time to see a flash on the edge of the system and heard the Fremma groan. The next second, he was talking urgently into his com link, and the fleet disappeared from around the Conqueror as fast as it could.

Everywhere around her, Aria could hear terrified murmurs. Most of them could be summarized as Oh, fuck.

And finally she saw it too. A smile so wide it nearly hurt appeared on her face. In the next second, every speaker in the Galaya Hall echoed with the same deep, powerful voice that made even the union   guards stand straighter—until they focused on the words.

"This is General Diego Grothan, commander of the Triumphant," the voice said. "I have your little moon in my sights, and I assure you, my guns are working fine."





CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

Aria



The Galaya Hall held its collective breath, but Aria had never felt so much like laughing out loud.

"You called the Triumphant," she told Ryden, not believing the words were coming out of her mouth.

"I did," the general said, looking around in the hall with obvious pleasure. "They don't seem too happy about it."

Indeed, happy wasn't the word Aria would have chosen to describe the mood in the great hall. People were talking over themselves, arguing, asking for forgiveness, some trying to flee the retribution they clearly thought was coming. Speaking of that, Aria eyed Ryden to see if he had that horrible look in his eyes he had moments before someone died.

"He isn't really going to blow up Ilotra, is he?" she asked.

"No," Ryden said. "After all the trouble I went through to save it, he better not."

He answered the Triumphant's call quickly, speaking in battle lingo to shorten the message. Aria heard a rumbling laugh in response, and Ryden shut the link.

"You," Ambassador Klaen was saying over the others. "This is exactly what I was talking about! This is a coup, and you are holding us hostage once again..."

"This is nothing of the sort," Ryden responded calmly. "I messaged the Triumphant earlier today to come and aid my ship with the repairs."

While Klaen was boiling with rage, the general added, "And I thought Ambassador Aria would like to meet Diego Grothan's gesha, who is also Terran. They will have things to discuss. I see nothing illegal."

Before Klaen could open his mouth to say anything further, Ryden's voice dropped from the cheerful tone he'd used to a feral growl.

"Think your words through carefully, Ambassador," he said. "I might forget you gave the order to blow up my ship."

Aria saw Klaen nearly stumble back, sweat running down his brows. "If you think to take revenge on me..." he mumbled.

"I will leave that to the council," Ryden said, raising his voice to be heard.

With that, he turned to leave and Aria followed him out of the hall, resisting the temptation to throw herself into his arms. Behind them, the council exploded into arguments, but what once seemed alluring and fun to her now sounded like a bunch of squabbling children.

Only the Fremma commander came after them, clearly distraught. He began to say something, but Ryden cut him off.

"I remember," he said.

The scavenger nodded, giving him a wide smile and let them be.

Aria was busy wrapping her head around what had just happened. Her heart was singing, but on the other hand, she couldn't believe it.

"You called Diego Grothan," she said again.

"Yes," Ryden said, with a hint of warning. "Don't take me for a fool like the rest of them, thinking I'd let my men die for my pride."

"I don't," Aria hastened to say. "I really don't."

"That being said," Ryden added. "He'll never let me live this down."

Aria smiled, thinking of the stories she'd heard. All the Brion generals had a reputation, but Diego Grothan could probably boast being the most feared man in the galaxy. She'd only heard rumors of him, but soon she might meet him for real. When she told Ryden that, the general laughed.

"Yes," he agreed. "Very soon. We're going to the Triumphant."

"We..." Aria began and then shut her mouth. "Why?"

Ryden grinned a vicious smile.

"We must thank our savior," he said.


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The hatch of the fighter rumbled open. Aria followed Ryden out. The general still refused to touch her, at least until a healer had confirmed he posed her no danger.

At the first glance, the Triumphant looked much the same as the Conqueror did. The sister ships were so similar that after they'd been led through several corridors, Aria thought she knew exactly where they were going.

Aria could find her way quite easily through the well-lit hallways of the Triumphant. She thought it was probably because of Isolde, the general's gesha.

She turned the last corner before their guide did, earning her an approving nod from Ryden. And then she came face to face with General Diego Grothan.

The feared warrior stood in a small lounge in his quarters, and he turned when they entered. With one glance, Aria could see why hardened warriors ran from that man in battle. The look in his eyes was the most ferocious she'd ever seen. Although she met him in peace time, every move the general made told her she was seeing a killer, a brutal and efficient machine of war.

He was as tall as Ryden, dark hair cropped short, built like a tank. For a long moment, Aria stared at him, unable to say a word. The general's presence simply commanded her utter attention.

"Welcome," Diego Grothan said at last with an amused expression, "to the Triumphant. I see the two of you have been quite busy."

"Yes," Ryden said, with the same tone. "Not all of us can enjoy the luxury of fighting the enemy's minions."

Diego snorted, gesturing to the Conqueror anchored next to them.

"Some of us can make it through a battle with our ships intact. I thought they were nearly unbreakable."

"Apparently not."

"Pity you had to share that piece of information with the rest of the galaxy."

"Luckily not all of our enemies are as clever as Aria," Ryden said.

The mention of her name brought Aria back to the conversation. She'd been momentarily overwhelmed in the presence of the generals, hearing them talk about their conquests like it was something they did every day. Possibly they did. She guessed she'd find out soon enough.

"Indeed," Diego Grothan was saying and the attention of those fiery eyes was on her now. "I heard about her sabotage plan."

Aria shrunk back. "I didn't mean to. I had no idea how badly it might have ended..."

Diego Grothan laughed, an odd sound that echoed through the room, so deep it seemed to vibrate in the air.

"It was an excellent plan," the other general said then.

"But it was pointless in the end," the words escaped Aria's lips.

She had almost made peace with herself over breaking the ship's coils, and then the trial had happened. Watching the Fremma guns trained on the flagship had made her blood freeze in her veins. To think that she was going to be responsible for the deaths of all those people had been unbearable.

"You didn't know that," Diego Grothan said firmly. "Under the circumstances, you did the best you could. The fact that the hive mind never made it to the bridge is irrelevant. You removed that from the possibilities."