Ascendant Sun: A New Novel in the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro

databases that defined Skolia.

Now he faced a better situation. Without the web, how did one send messages across the stars? By starship, of course. He had an entire flotilla at his disposal. They were headed into Trader space, so he had no intention of leaving data about his family on any of the ships. However, they all carried tau missiles, miniature starships with warheads. As weapons officer, he had access to all of them. He needed the armed taus ready for combat, but each ship also stocked a few without warheads. Empty shells. Such spares usually served as replacements if the casing for an active missile failed. However, they could also ferry data. They made good spy couriers.

Being cautious, he could spare three. By launching them to different locations, he tripled the chance that one would reach a major site. He would encrypt and hide the data so that only someone who knew the correct protocols could retrieve it. The files would also come to light on notification of his death or in response to certain inquiries about Ixpar or his children.

One question remained: What would he send?

He toggled into the Corona 's Legal mod and searched the database until he found the document he needed. Closure .

The closure statement had been developed to replace the process of declaring a spouse legally dead; as such, it required ten years of separation before it became irreversible. It differed in three ways from divorce: closure dissolved a marriage because of a permanent separation neither party desired; either party could reverse the closure; and the person making the declaration had to grant full inheritance to his or her spouse and any heirs, born or adopted into the union.

Filling out the inheritance section took Kelric a long time. Since he had "died" eighteen years ago without known heirs, his estate would have gone to his parents. The closure document, backed with the DNA analysis he provided, would reestablish his claim. Knowing his parents, they had probably done nothing with his estate, too stunned at outliving their youngest child to take any steps that acknowledged the finality of his death.

He had major holdings on three planets. On his home world of Lyshriol he owned a farm of several hundred acres in an outlying province of the Dalvador Plains. Lord Rillia had granted the farm to Kelric's father for his service to the Rillian army, and his father later gave it to Kelric as a betrothal present. When Kelric reached his majority at twenty-five, his mother gave him one of the Ruby Dynasty holdings, a mansion and many acres of land on the planet Metropoli. As Corey Majda's husband, he had his widower's home, the Majda palace on Raylicon where he and Corey had gone for their honeymoon.

His other assets included his savings and retirement accounts from his years as an ISC officer; his widower's stipend from the House of Majda; his stipend as a Ruby prince; his income from the farm, which was run by a local family; his income from a shipping business Corey gave him as a wedding present; and his income from a trust fund his parents set up at his birth. Although he also stood to inherit a portion of his parents' phenomenal wealth, he had trouble making himself complete that section. After everyone else he had lost, he hated having to acknowledge that they, too, could die.

Giving the identity and location of his wife and children also troubled him. For all that he could encrypt, lock, and hide the files, it made him uneasy. Codes could be broken and privacy violated. The risk, however, was better than the alternatives.

He had to enter his full identity, including his interminable list of titles: Prince Kelricson Garlin Valdoria Kya Skolia, Imperator Presumptive, Im'Rhon to the Rhon of the Skolias, Jagernaut Tertiary, Tenth Heir to the throne of the Ruby Dynasty, once removed from the line of Pharaoh, born of the Rhon, Eighth Heir to the Web Key, Tenth Heir to the Assembly Key, descended from the Valdor's line, Fifth in