V2 Chapter 127: Cawl's Commitment
The great stargate hung in the void.
The Carpé family fleet still lay anchored at the outer perimeter of Cawl's Ark Mechanicus. Since Duvette had last been in this system, the surrounding space had grown considerably more crowded. Several new Ark Mechanicus vessels and Imperial ships held position in various orbits, while naval observation flotillas maintained their vigil further out.
The High Lords' Council and the Adeptus Mechanicus alike had taken a deep and abiding interest in a megastructure capable of crossing tens of thousands of light years in an instant.
Observation warrants from Terra. Exploration licences from Mars. Temporary exclusion markers from the Inquisition. All of them layered over this stretch of space. Every party was exercising restraint, but everyone understood that the stargate's value was sufficient to redirect an entire crusade's line of advance.
They had only just completed their third exploration run.
This one had not pushed deep, but it had successfully confirmed the existence of a Death Watch outpost on the far side and established limited communications. That result was enough for the Carpé family to begin reassessing the value of several new routes, and enough for the Adeptus Mechanicus to file applications for further access clearances.
Venus Carpé stood in the observation lounge of the family flagship, watching the new route data scrolling continuously across the cogitator array display.
Her mood was good.
If this route could be made reliable, the Carpé dynasty would acquire a strategic value that far exceeded the ordinary Rogue Trader household. They would no longer be simply a logistics contractor for the rear elements of a crusade, no longer just a supply chain for a given warzone.
They would become part of a stargate route network.
Even as a very small part of it, that was enough to move the Carpé family forward by a considerable degree.
At that moment, an urgent communication came through the fleet's Astropathic choir.
An aide stepped quickly into the observation lounge and handed Venus a sealed data-plate.
"Mistress. An encrypted message from the Sabbat Crusade front lines."
Venus took the data-plate and looked it over with no particular expectation.
Then she raised an eyebrow.
The transmission key belonged to Duvette Erdmann.
She was quiet for a moment, and felt a mild headache beginning.
Whenever this man came looking for her, something was always wrong.
Duvette rarely communicated this way. In the ordinary course of things he would package danger as a joint venture, or draw someone into trouble with a remark that sounded perfectly casual. But this time the message was too short and too urgent.
She read through it and let out a quiet sigh.
Of course.
Venus thought of Ashek II. She thought of the daemon world. She thought of how every opportunity Duvette had ever brought with him had carried risk behind it. She understood perfectly well that a great deal of what the Carpé family now held had come through Duvette in one way or another.
But she also understood more clearly with every passing year that every opportunity that young Commissar extended could drag an entire fleet into catastrophe.
"Mistress?" The aide asked quietly.
Venus closed the data-plate and let her expression settle back into composure.
"Use the urgent communications channel." She said. "Set this message to highest priority and deliver it to Archmagos Cawl."
The aide inclined their head. "A copy for our records?"
"No." Venus said. "This message goes to Cawl alone."
She paused, then added one more line.
"If anyone asks, this is a commercial technology agreement between the Carpé family and the Adeptus Mechanicus."
A moment later, the Carpé family's communications link reopened.
The private Mechanicus protocol that had rarely been used since Ashek II was reactivated, authentication runes lighting in sequence. The message bypassed the fleet's ordinary communications network entirely and was delivered directly into the depths of Cawl's Ark Mechanicus.
Inside the Ark Mechanicus, in one of its laboratories.
Countless mechadendrites moved through the air. The cogitator arrays produced a low, continuous sound. One of Belisarius Cawl's consciousness threads was processing stargate exploration data when the encrypted message from the Carpé family entered his thought queue.
The message was short.
[A legacy from the Age of Darkness.]
[Its significance considerably exceeds that of the Entropy's Song.]
[It is about to fall into the wrong hands.]
[If you do not come, someone else will open it first.]
Cawl did not reply immediately.
Multiple thought-threads ran simultaneously.
Duvette understood the value of Entropy's Song.
Therefore his willingness to use Entropy's Song as the point of comparison meant the legacy in question was not an ordinary relic, an ancient weapon, or a lost cogitator core. The comparison was deliberate. It was a calibration.
The final line was the more significant one.
If you do not come, someone else will open it first.
The word open indicated the object was not inert. It could be a facility, a sealed core, a system still capable of activation.
Duvette had not named it.
That omission was itself confirmation that the message was dangerous enough to warrant the silence.
"Interesting."
Cawl said it quietly.
The Mechanicus priest standing nearby looked up, waiting for a command.
Cawl read the message a second time.
If this were a trap, Duvette would not have routed it through the Carpé family. If this were an ordinary ruin, Duvette would not be requesting his personal intervention. If the object was already approaching the hands of someone like Heldane or Delavere, delay meant higher risk.
"Reply to Venus Carpé." Cawl said. "Message received. The Carpé family's assistance has been noted."
The Mechanicus priest lowered its head to record the instruction.
Cawl's other consciousness threads had already begun adjusting the fleet's heading.
"Notify the observation flotillas around the stargate. Ongoing exploration operations are to be handed to the Ninth Mechanicus Survey Group and the Imperial observation vessels for continuation."
"The Ark of Omen is to prepare to depart the stargate."
"Notify the Carpé family fleet: if they are maintaining the terms of our prior agreement, they are to follow."
The orders were transmitted quickly.
When Venus received the reply, she was silent for a moment.
She looked at the newly marked heading on the star chart, and finally let out a quiet laugh.
"Tell the Archmagos that the Carpé family will follow."
The aide bowed. "Yes, Mistress."
Venus turned back to look at the stargate through the observation lounge viewport.
She knew she had placed the family on Duvette's table again. Only this time, even Cawl had not chosen to wait and see.
"Tell Duvette as well." She said. "This is another debt that man owes me."
Shortly afterward, the Carpé family fleet began adjusting its heading.
Cawl's Ark Mechanicus disengaged slowly from the stargate's outer perimeter. The vast mechanical hull brought its engines to power. More Carpé family vessels followed it through the course change, all turning toward the same destination.
Menazoid Epsilon.
At that same moment, aboard the Resolute running through the Warp, Duvette stood at the front of the command bridge with a furrowed brow.
Admiral Villent stood beside him, his expression equally grim.
They had just received a second notification from Warmaster Slaydo.
The tone of this one was considerably more measured than the first. Slaydo indicated that he had received the initial report on the Battle of Tanith, and that he was satisfied with the action Duvette and Villent had taken against the Chaos fleet.
But the orders had not changed.
The Warmaster still required their immediate return to Balhaut.
The reason was stated plainly.
General Delavere had already been ordered to Menazoid Epsilon. If Duvette and Villent continued toward the same objective, it would create a command conflict in the warzone.
Slaydo indicated he would arrange a new route and new operational assignments for Duvette and Villent.
Duvette looked at the order for a long moment and said nothing.
"A pity we are already committed." He said quietly.
Villent let out a slow breath.
"I am beginning to regret agreeing with you."
"Too late for that." Duvette said. "We received this message while we were in the Warp. How much time has already passed in realspace, nobody can say."
He looked up at the churning Warp tides ahead of the bridge.
"By the time we turn around, whatever needs to happen at Menazoid Epsilon may already be over."
Villent did not answer immediately.
He understood the logic. Time in the Warp was never reliable. By the time an order arrived it might already be obsolete, and returning to Balhaut would surrender all initiative entirely.
But this was still a direct order from the Warmaster.
Villent looked at Duvette.
"Why are you so certain we have to go to this specific location?"
Duvette said nothing.
"We bypassed several worlds that still need to be retaken. We deviated from the original route and drove straight for Menazoid Epsilon." Villent kept his eyes on him. "Now the Warmaster has issued a direct order, and Delavere is already there. Under normal circumstances we should be coordinating with him, not being pulled away."
Duvette turned to look at him briefly.
Villent continued. "You know what is there. Don't you."
On the bridge, several naval officers lowered their heads with considerable discretion and made a show of hearing nothing.
Duvette was quiet for a moment.
He did know.
There was something there capable of altering the future of humanity, and something equally capable of destroying the Sabbat Crusade. If it fell into Heldane and Delavere's hands, the situation would come apart entirely.
But he could not say the words Men of Iron STC. Not yet. Not here.
"I can't tell you yet." Duvette said.
Villent's expression grew harder.
Duvette added a line. "But you will know."
"That is not reassuring."
"I know."
"Then give me a reason I can use to keep defying orders." Villent said.
Duvette looked at the target point on the star chart.
Menazoid Epsilon.
"There is something there." He said. "Something that would let Delavere seize the Warmaster's authority. Something that would finish the Sabbat Crusade entirely."
Villent's eyes shifted slightly.
Duvette continued. "If we turn back now, we hand it to them."
The bridge went quiet.
Villent looked at him for a long time before speaking in a low voice.
"You had better be certain you have not misjudged this."
Duvette gave a quiet nod.
"I am very certain."
Villent did not press further.
He turned to face the bridge officers.
"Maintain heading."
"Objective unchanged."
"Menazoid Epsilon."
The order went out and the bridge returned to its work.
Duvette stood where he was and looked at the twisting light of the Warp ahead.
He knew there was no turning back from this.
The fate of the galaxy would change here.