"You… you two… you…" Commander Andrew pointed at the two Consuls in a fury past bearing; never in this world had he thought these two would stand within Saint Cana's ranks.
In truth he was half mistaken in it.
What truly brought these two Consuls to their decision was in fact only the moment before.
Before that, Saint Cana had done no more than hold one communication with them of under 30 minutes.
Saint Cana had made a study of these two Consuls.
Because the Sacred Angel family's territory lies precisely at the joining of the districts these two Consuls govern, she had had some private dealings with them both.
Consul Melissa looks all delicacy and bloom, but Saint Cana knew her for a rose with thorns.
Rumor had it that within the Imperial Senate there were no few men who knelt at her skirts; but Saint Cana knew perfectly well that Consul Melissa had never touched a man in her life.
Those men were only playthings under her control.
And the reason Saint Cana could be so certain of it.
Was that she knew Consul Melissa did not care for men at all.
For which she had herself very nearly come to grief once.
Though after that, Saint Cana's relation with Consul Melissa was part teacher and part friend, and they had got on peaceably enough.
And in this business of the Imperial Senate's deliberations upon the hive-race Great Calamity — whether the migration plan, or standing or falling with the Empire.
Consul Melissa herself had all along held an attitude nothing could pin down.
At which Saint Cana was not in the least surprised.
For Melissa may fairly be called a person of no firm faith whatever; at the outset Saint Cana had even fallen into a quarrel with her upon the matter of faith.
Melissa is one who holds profit above all. She holds near a third of the interstellar trade within the Holy Radiance Empire, and would even use her military fleets to escort convoys for money.
With her, everything whatever has its price.
Even… fighting for one's country.
And so Melissa is very apt at trimming her sail to the wind; Saint Cana was sure that had she herself not stood out, Consul Melissa would assuredly have consented to the migration plan and left the Holy Radiance Empire without the least hesitation.
To use her own favorite saying: she is the captain of this ship, and she must be certain that the crew who follow her can pass through the storm and sail into the dawn; she cannot fail those who trust her and follow her.
As for anything else… it is not important.
And it was precisely because she understood Consul Melissa's character so clearly that Saint Cana sought her out first, and laid her own trump card open at once.
Though Consul Melissa, close and careful in her thinking, declared herself upon the spot in no way at all.
Nor did Saint Cana press her.
Whereas with Consul Gilbert — here was a man of straight gut; he is fond of war, and he is hot-blooded besides.
The pity of it being that this hot-blooded Consul was the poorest of the five Consuls, and the most hen-pecked of them.
The Disciple family held every military works that supplied him with interstellar warships.
Because he had no backing; he was a soldier who climbed up from the very bottom, and by one piece of battle-merit after another came at the last to stand in this place.
And that he could stand in this place — his merits were only a part of the reason. The greater part was that the crowd behind him held him the puppet easiest to control.
And so all this while, in outsiders' eyes, this Consul Gilbert was called a hunting hound of the Disciple family.
By any estimate Consul Andrew, at this hour, had never thought that this hound his own house had reared should suddenly bite at him.
"I am the captain of this ship, and I must think of the future for the sake of my crew. I am very sorry, old Chieftain Andrew." Consul Melissa bowed slightly; and though the words in her mouth were of apology, there was a faint smile at the corner of it besides.
That was a smile out of the heart.
One could see that Consul Melissa had no love for the migration plan either.
For here, after all, was the interstellar-trade empire she had won for herself.
"From the moment I became a soldier, my dream was to guard my planet, to guard my star system, to guard my home. Perhaps for a stretch of time afterward I forgot that first purpose of mine. But it is my great fortune that Supreme Commander Saint Cana woke me. She showed me how the interstellar hive-race have wrought their havoc within those three star regions you abandoned. My faith does not permit me to watch with open eyes while that scene is played out across the whole Holy Radiance Empire." Consul Gilbert straightened his body; he felt this was the first time in these several decades that he had stood straight.
Saint Cana turned her head and looked at the crowd of nobles below the steps.
She loathed this crew; but she must allow that she needed them to control the Holy Radiance Empire as it now stood. Were it a time of peace, she might perhaps have cleared them away without the least ceremony.
But not now.
The Empire needed a steady order, needed a complete order of war established, to furnish the logistical guarantee for the long fighting against the interstellar hive-race that was shortly to come.
Were these nobles destroyed, their territories would fall into disorder for a stretch of time.
And to restore order again would require the sending of a great many interstellar fleets.
Saint Cana had not so much time now, nor so many fleets.
And so she must make use of this crew.
Saint Cana gazed at the crowd below like a beauty of ice and snow, and that keen gaze gave every one of them a feeling of cold creeping over the flesh.
For all the world as though they stood now beneath a guillotine blade, and might at any moment lose their lives.
"The Empire's present case you must all have seen. Of the Ten Great Sacred-Light Legions, the Disciple, the Sacred Wing, the Sacred Guardian, the Sacred Cleric and the Sacred Lancer are all of them gone. The Sacred Maiden Legion that remains, after refitting, has interstellar warships made up to only seven parts in ten of its full establishment. And the Sacred Cross Legion has not recovered its establishment even to this hour; its present count of interstellar warships is under 300 — it exists in name only. Those that truly possess combat power are only the Inquisition Legion, the Sacred Radiance Legion, and my own Sacred Angel Legion." Saint Cana paused a moment upon reaching this point.
Consul Melissa at her side spoke. "The Sacred Radiance Legion now obeys my lord Supreme Commander Saint Cana in all things."
Behind the Sacred Radiance Legion stood Consul Melissa's control — who else, when she had the money?
"The Inquisition Legion's commander is a friend of mine; upon my dissuasion he will make no movement whatever within the coming 24 hours. As for… what follows…" Consul Melissa smiled faintly.
What followed, everyone naturally understood.
This commander of the Inquisition Legion would trim his sail to the wind: whoever held the advantage, on that side he would stand.
Saint Cana went on. "Our Empire possesses five fleet-groups. The Northern Sacred Fleet-Group, 200,000 interstellar warships; the Western Sacred Fleet-Group, 230,000 interstellar warships; the Southern Sacred Fleet-Group, 150,000 interstellar warships — close to 600,000 interstellar warships, all within my control. As for the Eastern Sacred Fleet-Group and the Central Sacred Fleet-Group, I think you gentlemen will have word of them very soon. And so now, gentlemen, make your choice. Those willing to remain with me and fight shoulder to shoulder with the Empire's people, stand at my left hand. Those who wish to go on with the migration plan, stand at my right."
Saint Cana raised her two hands and looked at them all.
In this moment her figure before them was for all the world an angel of judgment.
The left hand was life; the right hand was death.