Fourth Vector Ch. 26

"Prepare for the worst and hope for the best," added Luke.

"Amen," replied Jack.

They made their way back to their respective ships, with Luke officially taking over command of theValiant for the first time since the morning of the battle. With Luke and Kim back in charge and with their Sorellan orders in hand, it was time for Task Force 21 to depart Quiller's Cove and make for the small island of so much contention.

Jack gave the order for them all to depart in the morning, and there was a hurried rush to have the entire force ready to hit the open seas. The first thing that Jack wanted to do was to make sure all the last minute supplies were loaded onto the ships for the extended journey. For that reason, he had to jump over to theStardust briefly to confer with Mike Cutter before he was able to reboard theDestiny to check out her own stores.

Along the way, Kat found him and began to tail along next to him.

"Do you have a minute?" she asked, her eyes giving off a deeply vulnerable look.

"Only a minute," he replied quickly. "A lot to do before we leave."

Kat looked at the deck and then back at him. "I just . . . I just wanted to ask you about this morning. You didn't seem yourself. I just wanted to make sure we're okay."

Jack stiffened at the mention of her pregnancy again. He found his eyes drifting back to her stomach before he dared look at her face. "I'm okay. It's just a lot to take in right now."

She gave him a hopeful smile. "You're happy though, right? Jack, we're having a baby."

He swallowed heavily as all the thoughts from before came rushing back. For some odd reason, his mind kept flashing to some unknown date in the future, seeing Kat with a large pregnant stomach and in dire need of aid. He heard gunfire all around—Swabian gunfire—and felt truly helpless to the core. Were they really about to bring a child into such a world?

"I just need time to think, Kat," he said evasively. "I really haven't had a moment to myself yet with all that's going on. And I'm unlikely to have one until we're back out at sea. With everything that's happening right now, I just can't process it right now."

The hopeful smile vanished entirely. "Oh," said Kat softly. "I understand."

"I'm sorry," he said, meaning those words truly. "We'll talk more soon. I promise."

She nodded but said nothing. Her eyes were dark and wet, a maelstrom of hidden emotion that threatened to boil into a storm of tears. In that moment, he felt truly rotten for his behavior. What should have been one of the most joyous days of either of their lives was now tarnished by the muck and mire of reality.

Kat departed quickly without giving him a chance to fix his mistake. A soft sound caught his attention as she vanished, something that sounded like a tearful choke.

As much as his conscience screamed at him to fix the situation, he didn't have time to dwell on it. The ships needed to depart Quiller's, and Jack spent a late night and an early morning making sure they were in every condition to sail.

The next morning, the tiny base of Quiller's Cove arrived at the docks to once more wave off Task Force 21 as it departed for the Fourth Vector. This time around, there was a lot less apprehension about their destination but just as much anxiety on the behalf of her senior officers.

Whatever happened in Sorella would be a true test of Jack's character. If he followed his instincts, there was a good chance that he would also have to surrender his command. If he followed his orders, there was a good chance he would surrender his dignity. Neither option was anything close to ideal but one way or another, he would have to choose.

As theDestiny picked up on the strong seasonal winds coming out of Quiller's, Jack watched the western horizon with a mild degree of trepidation.

Here we go again, he thought.Back to the Vector.

*****

In the capital city of Picardy, Will Calland, his girlfriend Lindsay, and the captain of his army bodyguard, Captain Travis Axel, sat across a large meeting table from the sovereign of the country, King Aedan. Their meeting had just begun, and it was only about an hour ago when theTreasure first docked in the war-torn city. Their route to the royal palace had been marked with occasional gunfire, the results of the stalemate between the Picards and the Swabians.

And now, they'd just told Aedan the true purpose of their mission—the search for the deposed Regent of Galicia.

"Forgive me, but I feel like I'm missing something," said Aedan as his eyes swept over all three of them. "You traveled all the way from Galicia just to find Katherine Rosdahl?"

Will nodded his head. "That's correct. It was a mission envisioned by my father, Lord William Calland. I'm told that you two knew each other from long ago."

Aedan smiled fondly. "I remember Bill Calland. It's been at least a decade since I've seen him. The last time was when I was with my father on a state visit to Kalmar. We dined with Marcus Rosdahl and Katherine when she could only have been around sixteen or so. Bill was there of course, and he delighted in telling us long and humorous stories at the dinner table."

Will smiled. "I'm afraid he's not much for stories these days. And he's considerably older than the last time you saw him. He would have made this journey himself if he thought he could handle it."

"At least he's still alive," said Aedan with a sharp look. "Not many people who attended that dinner still are."

Will cleared his throat awkwardly. "We hope to find another member of that dinner though. My father came into the possession of a dispatch back in Kalmar. It was one that stated that Katherine was here in Picardy, fighting the Swabians."

Aedan shook his head. "I haven't seen Katherine in many months, Will."

"But was she here?" he interrupted. "And where did she go?"

Aedan seemed to study Will for several moments, neither offering any further words or giving away his intentions. It made Will decidedly pessimistic about the whole affair, and for a brief moment, he wondered if it was a mistake to come to Picardy.

"She left," said Aedan after all that time. "That last time I saw her, she was on a foreign warship on her way across the great eastern ocean."

Will's eyebrows went up in surprise. "The eastern ocean? For what possible reason?"

"Is she all right?" asked Lindsay. "It wasn't an enemy warship, was it?"

"No, it was a Javan warship," said Aedan.

Both Will and Lindsay's heads tilted to the side in annoyance. "Everyone knows Java is just a myth," he said. And that was true, at least from his perspective. A childhood story that everyone knew, Java was a mythical landmass on the other side of the world. Countless Galician explorers of old had tried to find the continent and had been unsuccessful. Anymore it was just accepted that Java never existed in the first place. "Are you going to tell us where she really went?"

"Let me ask you something first," said Aedan. "Why are you trying to find her? Has she not been deposed in your country? Is Eric Rosdahl not still your regent?"

Will looked at Lindsay before answering. "He is. But it's no secret that Eric Rosdahl is not exactly worthy of the regency."

It was Aedan's turn to appear shocked. "That's a bold statement from a member of the Galician nobility."

Will shrugged. "Even still, it is the truth. There are various members of the Galician nobility that believe they've made a mistake in deposing Katherine. At the time, her inexperience and her sex were the biggest factors against her. We thought that Eric would be a stronger leader." Will hung his head in shame. "My father was one of those who moved to replace her with Eric, and we've all seen what that has led to."

"And now your father wishes to undo the earlier mistake?" asked Aedan. "But you're missing a critical piece of the puzzle. What are you going to do about Eric?"

"It's a moot point if we can't find Katherine," Will shot back. "So it leads me back to my original question. Do you know why she left? Where did she actually go?"

"I told no lie in her destination, Will. She was really aboard a Javan warship on the way back across the ocean to Java. She was with . . . her lover, a Javan commander," said Aedan, looking like there was more on his tongue that he wanted to say.

"A Javan commander?" asked Will in disbelief.

Lindsay didn't seem to be so disturbed about that part. "Across the ocean?" she asked before turning toward Will. "What are we going to do now?"

"Are they planning to come back?" asked Will to Aedan.

Aedan shrugged. "That was the plan although it's been several months. They left at the end of fall and we are in the middle of winter. Thankfully, they left part of their army here with us but we could surely use the rest of them. As you're no doubt aware, the Swabian army sits no more than three hundred yards from this very palace."

"What reason did she leave?" asked Will. "Is the fighting not solely contained to Picardy? Why would she leave in the middle of the battle?"

"At the time they left, the fight was going our way," replied Aedan dryly. "Our circumstances have changed greatly since then. I doubt that we'd be willing to let her part now with all that's going on."

Will didn't know what to say to that. He could feel Lindsay's blue eyes on him, no doubt having the same question in them that was apparent in his own.What are we going to do now?

"If I might be so bold," started Aedan as he got up from the table. "I think it's important that you know the man that Katherine is with. Her lover if you will."

"The Javan commander?" asked Lindsay.

"Yes and no," replied the king. "While he is the commander of their forces here, he is also much more than that. His real identity is wholly masked by his current role."

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean," said Will.

"Do you know why Katherine was in Picardy in the first place?" asked Aedan, causing the other two to shake their heads. "She was looking for someone. Someone very important to Galicia." He took a deep breath. "She was looking for the Galician king."

The silence in the room was deafening as Aedan uttered those last words. Will's mouth fell open while Axel shifted nervously in his seat. Only Lindsay dared to keep her vision trained on Aedan and she was the first one to speak.

"The Galician king?" she asked, treating the words with near mythical reverence. "How can that be?"

"Because he's alive," said Aedan. "And he's been here. He is the Javan commander that Katherine left with."

"This can't be correct," said Will. "The Galician royal family has been dead for two hundred years."

"This man is who Katherine claims him to be," interrupted Aedan. "I've seen the birthmark. The birthmark that is hereditary to the royal family. I've also seen the sword."

Will's eyebrow shot up. "The missing sword? You're certain of this?"

Aedan nodded. "I've seen it in his own hands. The Galician king lives. If you came here in search of a leader, he should be the one you're looking for. Not Katherine."

Will put his hands up. "This is a little much to digest right now but I can't believe what you're telling us. I know where the last royals are buried. There's a plot outside the grounds of the royal palace in Kalmar. All of them are there. The last king, Robert, and his wife, Elizabeth, as well as their two sons. There wasn't a drop of royal blood that survived that calamity."

"There was," insisted Aedan. "The youngest son survived. He was brought up in secrecy while the story of his death was maintained to the rest of the world. The heirs lived private lives away from the throne, lest some of the more aggressive regents seek to end it for them."

Lindsay gasped. "You mean the regents knew?"

Aedan nodded. "Katherine did. Old Marcus Rosdahl spent a good portion of his reign tracking down Jack's family. He killed off his mother, father, and grandfather during those years."

"Jack?" asked Will.

"Jack Easterbrook," answered Aedan. "He is the king. He is your king."

"That last name hardly sounds like a Galician one," said Will with a huff.

"That's because he was raised in Java. He was taken across the sea as a baby to live a life away from those that were trying to kill him. Marcus Rosdahl wanted him dead and he nearly succeeded so his remaining family arranged for him to be taken to Java and given to decent Javan folks who were childless at the time," explained Aedan. "He had no idea of his heritage until Katherine revealed it to him."

"And how did she find him? How did she know what to look for?" asked Lindsay.

"As the daughter of the regent, she knew who the family was," said Aedan. "She knew their last whereabouts and she spent three years of her life trying to track him down. She finally caught up to him in Sorella and verified his identity. When he arrived in Picardy last fall, he had just learned who he actually was. Can you imagine? Spending thirty-five odd years of your life not knowing what your real destiny was?"

"It does seem a little hard to believe," acknowledged Lindsay.

"I'm having the most trouble with it," said Will with a hardened stare. "I don't believe that the Galician king could just materialize out of thin air. If he were alive, all Galicians would have felt the bond between them and their king."

"I don't know much about the bond—that sacred tie that binds all Galicians to their sovereign," said Aedan. "But what I do know is that Katherine is certain of who he is as am I. She would tell you herself if she was here. If you're here to look for her leadership, I'm afraid you might be disappointed."

"And that seems to be part of the problem," said Will while crossing his arms in front of his chest. "She's not here to verify this story. Can anyone that's still in Daban do this?"

"Perhaps you'd like to talk to Jack's sister, Vera," said Aedan with a wily smile. "Jack's blood sister. She's in the city."

"I need to see the man himself," insisted Will. "This man that you all are so ready to call king. I need to look upon him with my own eyes and feel the bond myself. That is, if you're all not mistaken about this man."

"Will," said Lindsay quietly, putting her hand on his arm. "Are you okay?"

"I'm not," he answered before turning his attention back to Aedan. "This cannot be correct. The Galician king is dead."

Aedan tilted his head in confusion. "Why is this so hard for you to accept, Will? Is my story that fantastical that my word is not good enough? Do you really think I would lie to you?"

"Lie? No, but it wouldn't surprise me that we were being deceived unknowingly. There have been pretenders in the past all claiming to be king," said Will stiffly. "Forgive me if I want to be sure before I hail the man."

"I'm quite sure of what I'm talking about," said Aedan as his anger began to rise.

"We'll just have to see about that," retorted Will.

The tension in the room was rising and it needed to be diffused quickly. Thankfully, Captain Axel was the one to step in to do that.

"Why don't we put this aside for the moment," said the captain, surprising everyone in the room with his sudden request. "From the sounds of things, neither Katherine or this Jack Easterbrook person are in Daban so verification will have to wait. Are they due back any time soon?"

"I have a dispatch that they are on their way back but I don't know when they will arrive," said Aedan. "It could be many weeks still."

"Then it's not an immediate concern," said Axel, earning a glare from Will. "We have other matters we can discuss. Namely, that we have managed to land in the middle of a war zone."

There was a brief moment of tenseness between Will and Aedan as the topic changed but it wasn't enough to last. There seemed to be too much at stake right now for the Picard king to let Will's temporary brashness get in the way.

"You're right about that," Aedan conceded. "Daban is once again on the front lines of the Swabian conflict. The first time around, it was Jack and his men that helped to liberate the city from the Swabians. We managed to push them back, taking Burwick first, before engaging in a decisive battle not far from Zarah." Aedan hung his head in shame. "It was there that we first encountered the tanks."

"Tank?" asked Axel. "What in the name of all that's good is a tank?"

"A rolling, armored vehicle that is quite impenetrable to rifle fire," said Aedan. "They are quite brilliant, if I must say so myself. They allow the Swabians to advance without having to worry about taking casualties. With these tanks, they managed to push us all the way back here. Our only saving grace is that we've finally figured out how to destroy them."

"So why are they still in Daban then?" asked Will. "Why haven't you pushed them out of the capital?"

"They still outnumber us quite heavily," said Aedan. "About twelve thousand men when all said and done."

"And your forces?" asked Axel.

Aedan pursed his lips. "Just over eight thousand. There's still too many of us to allow them to take the city without grievous casualties. And there's still too many of them for us to push out. That's why we're currently stalemated. We've recently received Carinthian reinforcements that came at a crucial time but we're just not strong enough to do anything about it yet."

Will nodded. "It's worse than we thought. We knew you were fighting a war here but we didn't know just how close to defeat you were."

"We've had some dissension in the ranks that had to be dealt with," said Aedan firmly. "It was not before the damage was done however. In any event, we need more soldiers to finish the job. And they tell me you've landed with quite a few men."

"That depends on your definition of quite a few," said Axel. "While I do have a whole company under my command, that's all we have."

"A company more than what we had before you arrived," said Aedan before looking back at Will. "You must have brought them here for a reason, did you not? Did you intend to aid our efforts?"

"I intended to use them as a bodyguard while we looked for Katherine," said Will. "With all that was going on here, it seemed prudent to bring a sizeable escort."

Lindsay looked over at Will. "We never expected this kind of scenario though, Will. With Katherine not here and Daban under siege, surely they could use some of our men?"

"We could definitely use any that you would be willing to spare," said Aedan. "My men have been fighting a long time without reprieve. Many of them are hungry and missing essential clothing. We could use all the aid we could get in taking over a section of the line."

"We didn't come here to get involved in your war though," said Will. "I'm sympathetic to your cause but if word got back to Galicia of our soldiers getting involved in the war, it could be calamitous for my family."

Aedan let out a deep breath. "I can understand your reasoning but I'm humbly asking that you reconsider. Our foothold in Daban is tenuous as is. We need all the help we can get, even if it is only from a company formation. Picardy and Galicia share long ties of friendship and an historic alliance against the Swabian threat."

"I'd like to think on this, Aedan, if that would be all right with you," asked Will. "There have been a lot of surprises today that have caught me off guard. I would like to consult with my people here before we commit to doing anything drastic."

"That is fine, I suppose," said Aedan, obviously disappointed by Will's response. "Will you be needing rooms at the palace to stay?"

Will nodded. "If it's not too much trouble. If it is, we'll gladly try to find our own accommodations in the city."

"Nonsense," said Aedan with a dismissive wave. "Galician nobility will always be welcome in the palace. I can guarantee you that. I'll have my servants set you all up in rooms, as well as get your soldiers to a barracks that they can settle in for the time being."