It was slow going at first. It turns out there was a small tunnel that led through some of the debris that led us out and away from the reclamation mine. It looked like the kind of thing that had been put together over long years. A very Count of Monte Cristo sort of thing where some prisoner at some point had started the project and now here we were, finally reaping the benefits.

"Thank you," I muttered to whoever started this once upon a time.

"Who are you thanking, William?" Arvie asked.

"Whatever poor bastards started making this tunnel in the hopes they'd be able to get the hell out of here someday."

"I see," Arvie said. "I can look into records and see if it's possible to determine the prison records of who was in here and who might have..."

I waved a hand to stop him before he could really get started.

"That's fine, Arvie, no need to do any of that."

"As you say, William," he said, and there seemed to be a disappointed tone to his voice as he said it.

The last thing I needed was for him to occupy all his time and attention trying to figure out a list of prisoners in the reclamation mine from long ago who might've had something to do with making this tunnel. Something told me it would be difficult to figure that out anyway. A reclamation mine struck me as the kind of place people were sent to be forgotten.

I thought again of Mr. Dantes trying to find a way out of the Chateau d'If.

"What's the situation on the empress?" I asked.

"Actually, I was going to mention that to you. It would appear that..."

There was suddenly a loud shuddering sound. The tunnel all around us started to shake. I looked up, terrified the whole thing was about to come down around us, and that would be all she wrote.

Dust trickled down. Some of that strange, greasy stuff also fell down on people, which had more than a few people from the Early Warning 72 crew looking disgusted.

I looked over at Varis. Worry coursed through the link, but she didn't show any of that worry.

"What was that?" I muttered.

"Attention people of Reclamation Mine 471," a voice suddenly boomed out. I jumped at that. It was loud enough that I could hear it even through the giant mountain of scrap we were moving through. "This reclamation mine has been determined to no longer be financially profitable."

"Wait, is that actually..."

"She's probably doing the thing where her head is projecting down there to look down on all the insects she's about to crush," Varis muttered, practically grinding her teeth together.

"That does sound like something she would do," Jeraj said.

"You mean like the time she had the big head floating in the room where you were expected to have your first conjugal visit with her?" Yana asked.

"I told you that in confidence," Jeraj said, turning to glare at her. "And that wasn't a pleasant memory."

"Wait, she actually uses the big projected head when she's about to get with somebody?" I asked.

"She used it the first time," Jeraj said with a sniff. "And she didn't use it after that. I'm not sure if it was because she only uses it the first time, or if it's because the results were less than ideal when she tried it on me."

"Less than ideal?" I asked, arching an eyebrow as I turned to look at him.

"Have you ever really wanted to spend some quality time with a special friend, but you couldn't bring yourself to do it for some reason?" Yana asked. "Maybe you had a little too much to drink?"

"Oh, I see," I said.

"Would you please stop airing my dirty laundry, you bitch?" Jeraj said, glaring at her. "And besides, it would be more an example of really not wanting to do something and not being able to rise to the occasion."

"Yeah, I get it," she said, suddenly looking a lot more considerate than she had even a moment ago. "And I'm sorry you had to deal with that from her."

"You and me both," he said, shaking his head.

"Okay," I said. "This has been fascinating and everything, but we should get moving."

"You don't want to listen to the rest of her announcement?" Jeraj asked.

"You don't have to pretend like you want to listen to her bullshit anymore, Jeraj," Yana said.

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"Oh, right," he said. "I'm so sorry about that. I'm going to have to get over that."

"It's okay," I said. "I totally understand."

I thought about a relationship I'd been in back when I was fresh out of the Academy. She'd been pretty and I'd been convinced I needed to do whatever she wanted to keep her happy and keep me getting in her pants.

Everything had ultimately fizzled out when I got orders that sent me to the other side of human space. And there were plenty of times when I thanked the Lord above who I didn't really believe in that those orders had come in, for all that it felt like a disaster at the time.

"As this reclamation mine has been deemed non-profitable, we are going to be taking steps to close it immediately. If you are still within a half kilometer radius of the mine, we encourage you to get on a transport and leave as soon as you can. Oh, and Bill Stewart? If you're still alive out there somewhere to hear this: go fuck yourself, and I hope you fry in what's about to come for you."

"Oh, that's interesting," I said, thinking through what she just said. "Do you think she's been brushing up on Earth history and mythology and she's telling me to go to hell?"

"I wouldn't give the empress that much credit based on what I know about her," Arvie said. "I think she is merely saying she hopes you burn alive slowly and painfully in whatever she is sending this way."

"That sounds more like the empress I know," Jeraj said.

"It also shows a surprising lack of understanding of exactly how the weapons she's ordering to be used against the reclamation mine actually work," Arvie said.

"How so?" I asked, picking up my pace just a little bit. She had just threatened to kill all of us, after all.

"It's simple enough," Arvie said. "Anything they're planning on using short of a nuclear weapon is going to take you out very quickly."

"And a nuclear weapon?" I asked.

"Well, it goes without saying that a nuclear weapon is going to take you out rather quickly, doesn't it?" Arvie said.

"Let's move a little faster," I said.

We were near the back of the line, and people in front of us weren't moving fast enough for my liking. Especially when there was the potential the empress was about to drop another nuke on us. Even if she was about to drop a conventional explosive on us, I still would've preferred if everybody in front of us was moving their asses with just a touch more alacrity.

"Let's get moving, people," I shouted. "We're on a timer here."

That led to some grumbling, but people started picking up the pace.

"I think this is going to be a problem," Varis said.

"Yeah, you're telling me," I said, looking at the people in front of us.

We had people who were injured in that fighting. It didn't help that a large chunk of the crew were basically marking time until they were ready for retirement. Which meant they weren't exactly fast movers to begin with.

I turned to Arvie floating next to us.

"I don't suppose you could project a display showing me where the empress's stuff is right about now?"

"One moment," he said.

A moment later, an overlay of Imperial Seat appeared in front of us. There was a red dot moving in a slow and leisurely circle out from the imperial palace at the middle of the city. Arvie had also helpfully provided a second dot that showed where the reclamation mine was.

I frowned as I looked at the display.

"Why is it moving out in a slow spiral like that?"

"The empress is trying to send a message," Arvie said. "If she just wanted to kill everybody in here then she would've launched a missile and that would be that."

"But sending a big bomber flying over the city in a nice leisurely spiral is going to give everybody in the city a chance to get a good look at it and think about how powerful the empress is, and how lucky they are that they aren't the ones who pissed her off today."

"Exactly," Varis said.

"Could I get a time hash that shows approximately how much time we have between now and when that reaches us? And also give me an overlay that shows how long it's going to take us to get at least a kilometer away from the reclamation mine?"

I also spared a thought for Selii and Satomi. Satomi was a prisoner on a transport ship somewhere, and Arvie was doing his best to take care of that. But I had no idea where Selii and the others were.

All I could do was hope they'd heard that over-the-top and ostentatious announcement from the empress about her intention to kill everybody within half a kilometer of the mine. And they were taking that for the hint it so obviously was that it was time for them to get the hell out of Dodge.

Even though a livisk would have no idea what in the hell Dodge City was, or why they should get the hell out of there.

Arvie helpfully put up a second set of displays on the projection he was sending from his drone. I glanced up at the thing.

"That thing is useful," I said.

"I intentionally sent out a multipurpose drone capable of many things. Medical, offensive, planning, things like that.

"I see," I said.

The medical bit had been helpful in getting some of our people...

Well, I wouldn't exactly call it getting them back in action, but at the very least it'd gotten them to the point we could go for this little jaunt through a tunnel under the debris field without worrying about them breaking a hip or making an injury worse.

I looked at everything, and then I glanced at the people who were disappearing down that tunnel in front of us. There was the occasional glow from somebody holding a plasma pistol out in front of them to provide a little bit of illumination because we didn't have flashlights.

"I don't like the timing on this," I said, frowning as I looked at the display. Then I looked up at the drone hovering in front of me. "Is there anything we can do about this? Any way to send some fighters out in order to delay that bomber just a little?"

"I could try," Arvie said, sounding resigned. "But I fear that even if we did, I have proven myself to be unequal to the pilots the empress has been able to send out against us. And she has the capacity to send a lot of them at us at once. Quantity has a quality all its own."

"I see," I said, still frowning as an idea occurred to me. "So what if we put someone in there remotely who was equal to whatever the empress is sending out to us?"

"Are you suggesting you remotely pilot the drones, William?" Arvie said.

"I mean, I've kicked some imperial fighter ass in the past when I was in the cockpit. What's different now?"

"Because you need an entire remote setup back in the tower to pilot one of the fighters like a drone," Varis said. "The problem being you have to be back in the tower."

I sighed and shook my head. I suppose it was too much to hope for anyway.

"There is one possibility," Arvie said, and immediately there was a spike of worry and irritation coming through the link from Varis. Which had me very curious.

"What's that?" I asked, though as I saw the smug way Arvie rocked the drone from side to side, I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"Oh no," I said.

"You could interface directly if we were to implant a neural interface directly into your brain."

"Son of a bitch. I was afraid you were going to say that."

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