Free Messiah by S. Andrew Swann

in presenting a unified front when Adam made his eventual appearance. And, for all they knew, Adam’s attack could be in the midst of tach-space right now, on its way to claim another planet for its insatiable god.
    “After the negotiations,” he whispered to himself.
    Behind him the penthouse door whooshed open, and he turned to face the new arrivals. The four other members of the Daedalus’ command staff walked into the suite.
    Karl Stavros, still the nominal owner of the Daedalus , looked at Mallory and said, “Father, you look like hell.”
    Mallory turned to Toni Valentine, the de facto captain of the Daedalus and asked, “Any problems getting here?”
    Toni shook her head. “None. Though they seem to have a large refugee problem here. I can see why they refused us docking rights when we first showed up. Downstairs is a mess.”
    Mallory had seen that mess himself on arrival. The first floor of the hotel had been a casino and ballroom. Some time after landings stopped on Bakunin, they had stripped the floor clean and set up hundreds of cots. Now the lobby level was home to about seven hundred people.
    “What exactly is the plan here?” Karl asked.
    “We’re trying to negotiate a unified defense. A common command to fight Adam.”
    “You think you can manage that?” Karl asked. “I think you have better chances against Adam.”
    The Caliphate man behind him said, “Once they know what we fight, they will join together. They have no choice.”
    God willing, Mallory thought.
     
    Four hours later, Mallory stood in front of the bathroom mirror to get ready for the first meeting with representatives from the other fleets. He barely recognized the man staring back at him. In the stark light his hair looked more white than gray, and every crease in his face seemed deeper. Staring into his own eyes, he saw something stark and frightening—looking into the eyes of a prophet or a madman.
    Or a man on the third day of an adrenaline high...
    He cut himself twice shaving with a shaking hand, but the wounds barely bled. Even without the stubble, the face looking back at him was not one he expected the other representatives to listen to.
    I’ve done what I can.
    Someone knocked on the door. “Father Mallory?” Toni’s voice.
    “Yes?”
    “We just received word from the Daedalus . We have a problem.”
    “What is it?”
    “Stefan.”
    Stefan? He remembered Stefan railing at him when he first tried to build a consensus to fight this thing. “Even if everything you say about this Adam is accurate, which I have a hard time swallowing, what the fuck does it have to do with us?”
    He opened the door and asked, “What about Stefan?”
    “He’s gone missing.”
    Mallory looked over at the boy’s father. The man looked sunken, his face blank as if he wasn’t quite hearing their conversation. “What happened?”
    “He escorted the bays with Shane and Abbas to a hospital in the Beta habitat, he never returned, and the Wisconsin folks don’t know where he is.”
    Karl spoke up, “Did you say they took the medbays?”
    “Yes. I didn’t even know they were mobile.”
    Karl shook his head and sank into one of the seats.
    “Mr. Stavros ...” Mallory trailed off. Instinct made him reach out, and he almost formed words of reassurance, that his son would be found. But before any words of comfort reached his lips, the more secular part of his mind realized that Karl was not disturbed for his son’s safety.
    Under his breath, Karl said, “Bastard.”
    Toni turned to face Karl and asked, “What is it?”
    Karl chuckled and shook his head. “I outsmarted myself, my young pirate.”
    “What?”
    “Me and my son were never quite as helpless as we made ourselves out to be. There are many things on board the Daedalus that don’t appear in the logs or the control systems.”
    “Like what?” Mallory asked.
    “Weapons, for one thing,” Karl said.
    “What? You had a cache of weapons on board and you didn’t . . .”