The Black Gate (The Messenger #11) - J.N. Chaney Page 0,52

that likely seems vaguely dirty as well.”

“Or simply efficient,” Ragsdale said, chuckling. He turned to the Kosan. “Dash, Jexin wanted to introduce you to the leader of the Kosan contingent that’s going to join us in manning the Black Watch.”

Dash nodded and stepped toward Jexin. Both the Kosan and Rin-ti would be committing sizable forces to the Black Watch, welcome allies in a war effort that promised to stretch the Cygnus Realm pretty thin. Vynix would command the Rin-ti, but he hadn’t yet met the Kosan commander.

“Messenger, I would like to introduce Texal, Commander Designate of our forces here. He is a veteran of our earlier confrontations against the Golden, and he’s committed himself with distinction.”

Texal stepped forward and offered a bow. “Messenger, I am honored to meet you. You are spoken of with great reverence among our people.”

Dash blinked. “Reverence? Really?” He looked at Jexin.

“Remember, Dash, before you found us, we were living on the edge of extinction,” Jexin said. “Now, thanks to you, we have a new homeworld to call our own.”

Dash let that sink in, seeing, in a flash, that he’d been so immersed in the war he missed some of the goodness to come out of their fight. The Kosan had been in a bad way before the Realm found them, those not enslaved and brutalized by the Golden stuck eking out an existence on a pair of remote, inhospitable moons.

“Reverence is, ah, a bit more than I’m used to.” Dash returned the bow. “Really, when you get to know me, I’m rather ordinary. My toys aren’t, though.”

“Hardly,” Jexin said. “However, if it makes you feel better, I’ve seen enough of you to go as far as respect, rather than reverence. But you have to understand that for my people, it’s very different. You even travel in what amounts to an avatar of our ancient gods.”

“Sorry, Dash,” Ragsdale said. “You’re going to have to put up with being worshipped, at least for now.”

Dash made an awkward grimace. The journey from down-and-out courier to revered, almost holy figure of an alien race would make a good book—except no one would believe it.

“Anyway, on that note, how about we do the tour of Guardian?” He tried to move the subject to less uncomfortable territory, like war and weapons.

“Sounds good.” Ragsdale made a follow-me gesture. “I think you’ll like the place.”

As Dash took in the first weapons system, a genuine smile lit his face. “Already do.”

By the time they reached the CIC, the Combat Information Center—Ragsdale’s preferred designation for what Dash would have called the Command Center—any lingering doubts he might have had about the readiness of the Black Watch had been dispelled. Ragsdale ran a tight operation. Guardian was well over half of its fighting capacity only four weeks after its first two components had been connected, while the Sabertooth and her task force had been drilled to the point of being on top of any tactical problem Dash could envision.

“This is great work.” Dash gazed around the sprawling purpose of the CIC. “It makes me feel way better about the scary part of this.” He pointed at the main viewscreen, currently depicting the Black Gate in all of its near-ultraviolent menace. “Taking most of the Realm through that, to fight what’s on the other side.”

“Understood,” Ragsdale replied, then turned to Texal and Vynix. “We’re especially fortunate to have our allies here, because a lot of the credit for keeping slightly ahead of the timetable belongs to them. With their people in place, we’ve been able to free up a lot of ours to focus on construction and preparation. And that leads me to the next item on the agenda.”

Ragsdale led Dash and the others to a small group of people waiting nearby. “These are our mech pilots here on station.” He introduced each in turn. “You probably already know the Orion pilots, but Kayley and Dawes here are our newest. They’re flying the new Perseids we took under command.”

Dash nodded to the last two Ragsdale had introduced. The Perseid was an entirely new mech, and the smallest class yet produced. Essentially downscaled Orion class mechs, each was armed with a rail gun similar to the one mounted on the Archetype’s right arm, and a smaller, lighter version of a power-sword. Their strength was sheer acceleration. The Blur drive powering each was actually quite overpowered for their mass, so much so that early trials had almost seen the prototype Perseid rip itself apart. The two here were the