Serenity smiled happily to herself. Things were going so well. Everyone was settled in on their own planet, and was almost entirely self-sufficient. Only the farthest planets had difficulty growing enough food for their populations, but Gaia produced more than enough excess to make up for the slack. It seemed, despite her indiscretion, that Charon wasn't going to make any more trouble, and they hadn't heard anything about Haven in years. The Earth--Gaia said that's what the natives called it--the Earth's people, despite their short life spans, had proved to be of enormous help. They were eager to provide labor for help in starting up their own civilizations, and though Gaia couldn't let them see the full truth of what her people could do, what she had allowed them to learn greatly enriched them. The only worry was that some of them seemed to be developing a desire to worship Serenity's people. Serenity had sent a missive to Gaia stating that she wanted that avoided if at all possible, but she understood how hard it could be. Since Gaia's planet had already been named by the natives, she'd used the name she'd been saving for the planet--Atlantis--for her settlement. Already it's fame was spreading across the blue globe.
All around her, things seemed to be going well. Serenity sighed. Now all everything had to do was stay that way. Somehow, Serenity doubted such peace could last forever.
As if her gloomy thought had signaled him, Hermes came dashing into her office, not even bothering to knock. She stood as he skidded to a stop, gasping for breath.
"Serenity! Somehow Chaos has brought some fighters here! Hades signaled word back to us a few minutes ago!"
Serenity slammed her hand down on her desk and swore, then began to think furiously, ignoring the surprised look Hermes gave her at her outburst. She looked up as a thought struck her. "How could they have gotten here so fast? We couldn't have been followed!"
Hermes shook his head. "No, we couldn't have been. There are three choices. They have some sort of technology that we know nothing about that allowed them to find us, they got lucky, or--" he took a deep breath, "we have a traitor among us."
"We can't do anything about the first two possibilities, but the third....there aren't too many who could betray us. Only the twelve leaders know the coordinates of this system, and only a few of us have access to transmitting equipment strong enough to reach Haven."
Sol strolled casually into Serenity's office. He walked up to his wife and began to give her a kiss, but she pulled away. "Don't, Sol, we don't have time right now. We have a problem."
Sol looked from her face to Hermes'. His lazy grin immediately fell off his lips, to be replaced by a worried wrinkle on his brow. "What is it?"
"Chaos has ships just outside our system. We've decided that we probably have a traitor in our midst, who gave our coordinates to Haven."
"But that's next to impossible! Only the twelve of us knew them!"
Serenity and Hermes nodded in unison. "Exactly." Hermes said.
"And only a few of us have strong enough transmitters to send out the message."
Sol slammed his hand down on Serenity's elegant writing desk, and she winced. It was taking a lot of punishment today. "How are we going to find out who it was?"
Hermes thought out loud. "I have a strong communicator, and you two do as well. Who else?"
Serenity paced back and forth across the room, ignoring the clicking her shoes made against the stone floor. "Aphrodite has one in that yacht of hers, and Chronos has one too."
Sol nodded. "And don't forget Minerva and Charon."
Hermes smiled a little, despite the seriousness of their conversation. "It would be in bad taste for me say I'm not guilty, so let me start analyzing all of us with you, m'Lady." He bowed a little in Serenity's direction. "I seriously doubt you would offer us up to Haven, simply for the fact that you betrayed Haven most spectacularly with the theft of Ginzuishou. You most certainly are up for execution if they catch us." Serenity nodded, being careful to hide any thrill of fear that crept down her spine at that dire, yet accurate, prediction. Hermes turned to look at Sol. "And you, my boy, would receive harsh treatment as well after you made that sun go nova right on top of the government ship. You two have invested far too much of your future into our success to give up to Haven. Aphrodite used her powers on Mau, which they're sure to know by now, so she probably wouldn't have blown the whistle either."
"I have personal reasons for distrusting Charon right now," Serenity said softly. "I can't reveal why yet, because if what I know went public, I'm afraid we wouldn't need the Haven ships to blow us all to kingdom come, we'd end up taking care of that ourselves. I'm going to have a talk with her soon." Sol knew better than to press Serenity for more of an explanation, and when Hermes opened his mouth, Serenity saw him give him a look that could set granite on fire. Serenity continued. "I trust you, Hermes, because, besides Sol and I, you've been in the revolution the longest, and taken the most risks back on Haven. I don't think you could have fooled us all those years so successfully. Especially since you were around when Ethos was still alive, and scanned us all for loyalty."
He gave her a jaunty little bow and a pleased grin. "I'm glad you trust me so well."
"Chronos wouldn't betray us like this if he were a traitor--he wouldn't have to. He could have interfered with time a long while ago and made us fail. He wouldn't do it this way." Sol and Hermes nodded and waited for her to continue. "Minerva. . .I'm not completely sure about. I can't think of any reason why she would betray us, but I can't think of a good reason she wouldn't either, while I can for all the others except Charon. I say," she whirled around to face her husband and Hermes. "that we concentrate all our attention on these two, but keep an eye on everyone else, including each other."
Hermes nodded, almost serious for once, but Sol more than made up for it when he took her hand in his and looked at her with glowing eyes. "I would like to volunteer for the job of keeping an eye on you, my dear." She swatted at him.
"Stop that! This is serious!"
Sol nodded. "I know it is, but I just can't help myself." She laughed a little and threw herself into his arms. How could he do that? How could he make any problem shrink to nothing in the face of his love for her? She snuggled in his arms for a minute, pretending there were no ships outside the system, waiting for a chance to pounce, pretending that no one would ever betray them to Chaos, pretending nothing could ever ruin their happiness.
*****
Ares slapped the side of his head gently, as if he were trying to knock something out of his ears. "Did I hear you right? You want me to attempt to read Charon's and Minerva's minds to see if they're traitors? Why would you think they've betrayed us?"
Serenity shook her head. "We don't have time for lots of questions, Ares, but our long range scanners have detected Haven ships on a course directly toward this system. They'll be within firing range of Pluto in a few hours. One of us with a long range transmitter betrayed us to Chaos, and it's probably either Charon or Minerva. You're not a mind reader--I realize that--but you've always had an amazing amount of insight into people when you look through the fire. We need to know who it is."
Ares' head was spinning with the sudden flow of shocking information, but after a silent second he nodded. "Okay. Are we going to visit them?"
Serenity shook her head. "It takes too long. Does close proximity help you get more accurate readings?"
Ares nodded. "Usually."
"All right then. We'll hold our council of war here, and I'll ask Charon to teleport the leaders here to your planet while I have Hermes pilot the ship to evacuate everyone from the outer planets." She shook her head. "It's a shame Charon's the only one who can teleport over planetary distances. That means it'll be much more difficult if she is the traitor. Anyway, during the council I want you to examine Minerva and Charon, all right?"
Ares nodded sadly. "I understand."
*****
He didn't know what to think. He wasn't nearly as stupid as his muscle bound body often led people to believe, but even he had to admit he couldn't understand why Serenity would distrust Charon. They'd been close friends since they were children. But she was their leader, so he closed his eyes and concentrated on the bright orange flames while the others in the conference room held council. He searched for her with his mind, and found her, a roiling cauldron of guilt. He was saddened, and about to give up the rest of his investigation, assuming she was guilty of treason, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of the reason for her guilt.
He gagged as he dove into the depths of her fear and self-loathing, and he couldn't believe what he saw. Charon...and Chronos ?! Was she trying to get them all blown up?
He shook his head and moved on to Minerva.
Her mind was a beautiful placid lake compared to Charon's--she felt no guilt at all. He searched though her mind carefully--her family had always had ways of detecting unwary intruders into their thoughts--and found it. He shook his head. Her family was supposed to be one of the wisest on Haven, and it seemed her family had deemed the safe course--following Chaos--the wise one. She was here as an agent of the government, and since she had never been a believer in their cause, she felt no guilt whatsoever at betraying them. Ares wanted to reach out and set her on fire, but he held his temper in check and drew himself out of the trance. He got up off the gray stone floor, dusted off his knees, and began to make his way to the council chamber.
Serenity would want to hear of this.
*****
Everyone but Minerva knew about the second--the real--council meeting, and they discussed strategy.
Serenity looked around the table. "Our greatest weapon is Hades' power, but we'd have to get all the Haven forces onto a planet, and we'd have to blow that planet up to stop them."
Ouranos looked up an angry light in his eyes. "I'd like to nominate Minerva's planet for our battle. If we get most of the ships to land on her planet, then have Hades destroy it, we'll only have to mop up. We've already evacuated everyone to Gaia's planet, and yours."
Hermes spoke up. "While I definitely agree with the principle behind such an action, blowing up Minerva's planet would seriously alter the mechanics that govern this system. The outer planets would orbit a little farther away, having less concentrated mass pulling them to the center of this system, and the inner planets would move in a bit, having less pulling them out. And the debris would make for a few problems as well." Protests started ringing around the room, and Hermes held up a quieting hand. " However , Minerva's planet is the one we can most easily spare. It performs few useful functions, except for keeping Ares and Zeus apart. I think, in the interests of winning this battle, Zeus and Ares should redouble their efforts to get along with each other."
Serenity stood and took a deep breath. "Well, there you have it. Two very good reasons to lure our enemy to Minerva's planet and blow it up. Can anyone come up with a good objection?" She looked around the table, and, receiving no objections, decided. "Very good. Let's work with that as our plan, then. Next, we need some way to lure the Haven ships to Minerva's planet."
Sol looked up. "I have a suggestion. Their main goal has to be Serenity. I say we put Serenity in our fastest ship--Hermes' ship--and let them intercept a message coded very simply that lets them know where she is. We have them scan the ship, confirm that Ginzuishou is in it, and have Chronos teleport Serenity out to safety, after which our best pilot will outmaneuver all the Haven ships in Hermes' most excellent craft until it approaches Minerva's planet, when he will artfully let himself get shot, and then fall to the planet. He teleports out of the ship so the enemy doesn't know he's no longer there, and the ships are forced to follow the ship down to the surface. As soon as they're close enough, Hades will blow the planet to kingdom come."
Hermes nodded. "That would probably work. Especially if we fed dis-information to Minerva before-hand, claiming Serenity had had a secret base built on her planet. That would force them to land, instead of just shooting from the sky. It's a decent plan, Sol."
Serenity smiled at her husband. "And who would that most excellent pilot be?"
Sol bowed flamboyantly. "Why me, of course!"