Copyrighted Material

Alpha Strike Copyright © 2022 by Variant Publications

Book design and layout copyright © 2022 by JN Chaney

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved

No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing.

1st Edition

CONTENTS

Don’t Miss Out

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

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1

Commodore Jack Romanoff had barely stepped out of the bridge of the battleship Delta Orionis with his executive officer, Captain India MacKinnon, when Ensign Amanda Harris, his most experienced tactical officer, trotted up behind them and cleared her throat.

“Excuse me, sir, but could we talk about the battle for a second? I noticed something strange about how the depot missiles behaved and wanted to run it by you.”

They’d just finished fighting a massive swarm of Locust motherships and drones at the quantum gate leading into the depot system, though they hadn’t managed to destroy them all. More than a hundred drones had broken away and charged the old Confederation Navy depot in the system.

Even if the battleship’s drives hadn’t been damaged, he wouldn’t have been able to catch up with the damned things. They were faster than him on his best day. Of course, considering that Hunter—the unofficial name for the battleship—was a hollowed-out nickel-iron asteroid more than a kilometer long and shaped like a potato, that only made sense.

The depot had managed to defend itself with missiles and lasers, though they’d sustained some damage in the process. The good news was that none of the motherships had escaped, so the Locusts wouldn’t know where the now destroyed gate in the New Copenhagen system had led.

“What have you got?” he asked, stopping outside the bridge hatch.

“It was their performance, sir. The missiles should have used nuclear warheads, but they didn’t. Those were kinetic kills. The explosions were the drone’s fusion plants failing.”

“Why would they do that?” India asked with a frown. “Shouldn’t there be nuclear warheads stored here with the missiles?”

“I can’t explain the reasoning or circumstances, ma’am. I just wanted you to be aware that something was off.”

“That’s good information, Amanda,” Jack said. “Keep going over the sensor data from the battle and the depot itself. I hope we don’t have to fight these people, but if we do, I want to have an idea of what their capabilities are.”

“Will do, sir.”

He let the young woman return to the bridge before starting down the corridor. A pair of Marines fell in behind them.

“Why do you think they did that?” India asked.

“They might not have had the skills to refurbish the nuclear weapons,” he guessed. “That’s an esoteric field, and everybody is leery about messing around with radioactive material. Connor has a thing about weapons, too, and by the time he was finished cleaning out the pirates, there might not have been anyone left with the skills to work on them. Hell, the pirates might not have had anyone capable of refurbishing nukes.”

Jack pulled his comm unit off his belt and called Christine Hooghuis. Officially, she was the videographer assigned to the ship by the Sons and the Daughters of the Locust War, and she’d be upset if they didn’t bring her along for this meeting.

Christine fancied herself a war reporter, and she had the spine for it. He wasn’t going to deny her the opportunity to be there. And, of course, he wasn’t going to give her an excuse to tear a strip off him if he left her behind.

“What’s going on, Jack?” she asked as soon as he’d identified himself. “Did we win?”

“This is one of those ‘yes, but’ situations. The drones and motherships are destroyed, so that’s a win. Unfortunately, I have to negotiate with the people squatting in the depot, and I know their leader.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Not this time. He’s a smuggler named Mark Connor, and we have a history. The kind of history where people point guns at one another. I’m on my way to see about forging an alliance, and I figured you’d want to be there.”

“Hell yes, I want to be there! Where are you going? Small craft bay two? I’ll be there with my stuff in five minutes. Don’t you dare leave without me.”

She disconnected without waiting for him to respond, so it was a good thing he was headed for small craft bay two. He also called Sara Nastasi and Mac Turner to tell them his plans.

India shot him a smile. “She’s eager. Depending on what we find there, having her along might be a positive thing. Just judging by the way this Connor dresses, he craves attention. That might give you an edge in negotiating.”

Jack pursed his lips and considered that. “You might be right. Also, the fact that she’ll be recording everything will have an effect. He might give up more than he might otherwise be inclined to, knowing that everything we say will be out in public at some point. If, of course, we win the war.”

“How do you think he caught Tina Chen?” she asked as she dodged around two crewmen carrying a heavy-looking crate down the corridor toward engineering.

Jack shrugged. “They must’ve noticed something about the cutter that didn’t match what they expected to see. I may ask about it, but I’d be shocked if they tell us.”

“If you don’t, I will. I want to know what we screwed up so we don’t repeat it if we have to do this again.”

“Be my guest. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Things were bound to get complicated no matter how this played out. It’s up to us to pick up the pieces and see how we can work together with Connor and his people.”

India stepped into an open lift and pressed the button for the appropriate deck. “On the plus side, we’ll be able to let the civilians off here. It’ll be great not to have them underfoot when we fight.”

When they’d entered the Perseus cluster, he’d watched in horror as Vice Admiral Suzanne LaChasse sent the self-destruct signal that destroyed the gate leading out of the cluster, trapping hundreds of civilian ships still trying to flee the Locusts.

It also left a dozen Confederation Navy cruisers to be destroyed protecting the civilians. Their sacrifice holding the Locusts back had given Hunter time to shepherd the civilians to safety.

That hadn’t been without consequences, but they’d repaired most of the damage. Enough, at least, to get them here and to bring along a strange Locust wreck that the drones had savaged. It had been filled with pods carrying aliens in suspended animation, though most of them were dead. That was a secret he wasn’t going to share with the smuggler.

He’d taken the people from the civilian ships and selected cargoes that might be useful, but getting all those people out from underfoot would indeed be good. He wasn’t sure the civilians would thank him for putting them on a station under the control of a smuggler, but needs must when the devil drives.

They arrived at small craft bay two at about the same time Christine did. The young woman raced in out of breath, undoubtedly having run the entire way.

“We’re still waiting on Derek, so you didn’t have to rush,” Jack said with a smile. “He’s a million and a half kilometers away. There’s plenty of time.”

“I wish you’d have told me that before I ran all this way,” she said as she bent over and tried to catch her breath. “Still, a little exercise never hurt anybody.”

He just shook his head. She wasn’t out of shape in the least.

It took her a minute to catch her breath, but once she had, she stood up straight and reengaged him. “I haven’t had a chance to go over the video I recorded on the bridge, so tell me everything that happened.”

Jack looked around and spotted one of her drones hovering nearby. They were her stock-in-trade, and they were damned unobtrusive. He hadn’t seen one on the bridge, but that didn’t mean there hadn’t been one. Hell, she might have wired up a permanent video camera. He wouldn’t put anything past her when it came to getting the videos she wanted.

He’d given her carte blanche for recording anywhere except private quarters or other locations where the crew had an expectation of privacy. She was recording everything she could get her hands on with the expectation she’d be able to edit it into a blockbuster documentary about the invasion.

He’d never thought himself likely to end up as a subject of interest to trillions of people, but he couldn’t let himself focus on that. It was beyond his control, so he chose to ignore it. He had a war to win, which was more than enough to hold his full attention.

While he was thinking about that, Commodore Sara Nastasi walked in, limping. She was the senior officer of the Judge Advocate General’s office on Faust, but she’d been trapped aboard Hunter when they jumped into the cluster.

Her prisoner had gotten his hands on a gun and tried to assassinate her, shooting her in the leg. She survived. He didn’t.

“I hear we’re going on a trip,” she said. “I hope there won’t be much walking.”

“There might be,” he said, “but I’d wager we can get you a hand getting to where we need to go. I was just about to fill Christine in on what happened during the last battle.”

Jack ran through the events of the fight for them, and Christine asked some questions. That filled up some of the time as they waited for Derek to return from the depot. Jack was grateful for the distraction because he’d have been pacing and worrying otherwise.

When the large hatch at the end of the small craft bay slid open and a beat-up cutter floated in to set down on the deck nearby, Jack was ready to go. The cutter was as old as Hunter—over two centuries—and it showed in its faded paint and the dents and dings it had accumulated.

Once the craft had settled, he headed for it but spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. The recommissioned and promoted Lieutenant Colonel Mac Turner—a retired Marine Force Recon officer and now Marine commander aboard Hunter—stood there in combat armor, armed to the teeth.

Since he hadn’t seen Turner before the cutter had arrived, Jack assumed he’d been hovering just out of sight. Probably so Jack wouldn’t decline his offer of protection, though he didn’t need it. If Connor intended to betray them, he’d have the ability to do so.

“Where were you hiding?” Jack asked with a half-smile as Mac approached.

“Up in flight control,” Turner said, gesturing to the lit compartment with wide windows overlooking the small craft bay from just above the main interior hatch.

“You know coming along isn’t going to make any difference, right?”

Mac shrugged. “Difference or not, sometimes you have to project an image. You’re the commanding officer of the most powerful warship in the cluster, and you need to have someone intimidating backing you up just to make a point to this guy.”

There might be something to that, so Jack gave in. “Okay.”

Jack ordered his Marine guards to stay behind and boarded the cutter before making his way to the control area while the rest secured themselves in the passenger compartment. Seated in the pilot’s couch was Lieutenant Derek Calvo. The young man was still dressed in civilian clothes because of the covert mission they’d been on.

He was young for his rank—barely an adult—but he was gifted when it came to flying the battleship. They were lucky to have him and his reenactor friends. If they hadn’t, he and everyone else aboard would be dead.

Jack slid into the copilot’s seat, strapped in, and put a headset on. “Is everything okay over at the depot?”

“They caught us almost immediately,” Derek said with a sigh. “I suspect they were watching the system a lot closer than we’d expected. When I brought my active sensors online, I must’ve caught somebody’s attention, and they tagged us for monitoring. That Connor guy was right there when we landed.”

“It sounds like there was nothing you could have done to change things. Don’t stress about it. We’ll make this work.”

“You sure make some interesting friends, sir. Are we ever going to hear the story about how you and Connor fought off a bunch of pirates?”

“Maybe someday. What’s your opinion of him? It’s been fifteen years since I’ve seen him, and we didn’t have much of a chance to talk back then. You’d know him better than I do.”

Calvo lifted the cutter off the deck and pivoted to head toward the exit. They made their way through the large hatch and into a tunnel leading to the asteroid’s surface. An identical hatch there slid open and allowed them out into space while an energy screen kept the atmosphere inside.

Once they were clear of the ship, his young pilot altered their course, and they headed toward the depot. They were too far away to see it with the naked eye, but the active sensors allowed him to see it clearly.

“He’s a character, sir,” Derek said with a smile. “He acts larger-than-life and dresses the same. We didn’t talk about his past, but he goes out of his way to make himself seem personable.”

Connor had been dressed like a pre-spaceflight pirate when Jack spoke with him. If anything, his costume was even weirder than the old uniforms the naval personnel aboard Hunter wore.

Jack continued asking questions about the conversation Derek and Tina had had with Connor, getting as much information as possible so he could build a mental image of the smuggler that wasn’t shaded by the events fifteen years ago.

When they approached the depot, Jack focused his attention on it. The orbital structure was designed to hold full crews for twelve battleships, the support personnel to work with them—three hundred thousand people—as well as their munitions and spare parts, so it was enormous.

Jack doubted there was anything approaching that number of people aboard, but Connor had been here for years, so there was no telling.

The eleven other battleships in his division were also in orbit around the gas giant. Their condition was unknown, but Jack had seen traffic going between the depot and some of the battleships, so the locals were doing something there. According to Tina, they also had people doing mining and refining in the belt.

He kept looking until the cutter entered the depot, and he found himself in a small craft bay even more expansive than the ones aboard Hunter. It wasn’t packed with small craft, but it was far from empty.

Jack saw Tina and Connor standing beside a parking spot just ahead of them. Derek must’ve seen them as well because he guided the cutter to that location and set it down.

As the young man began shutting the cutter down, Jack made his way back into the passenger compartment. Turner was already opening the hatch and making his way out. It looked as if he wasn’t going to be hiding in the background for this.

Jack followed Mac down with Sara, India, and Christine behind him. Rather than putting things off, he walked up to the oddly dressed smuggler and extended his hand.

“It’s been a while, Connor. It looks like time has been good to you.”

The red-haired man grinned as he shook Jack’s hand. “I can’t complain. And look at you, Navy, commanding one of these battleships. I never thought I’d see the day. You’ve moved up in the world.”

Jack introduced his companions, and Connor played the gallant host. Jack didn’t think the women appreciated having him bow over their hands, but he might’ve been wrong. Connor shook Turner’s hand just as firmly as he’d shaken Jack’s.

Even though Jack hadn’t seen it come out, he was sure there was a drone recording everything. The other man must not have seen it because he didn’t say anything about it.

Connor turned and gestured toward the main hatch. “It’s a sad time that brings us together, Navy, but with the Locusts invading the cluster, we have no choice but to find common ground. Let’s have something to eat while we reacquaint ourselves and settle the details.”

The bay was clean and filled with people that looked perfectly normal. Connor had been here for at least a decade, and he’d done something with the place. Jack hoped that the same was true of the other battleships. That might give them a leg up in this fight.

He wasn’t going to hold his breath, though. This was usually the point in the entertainment videos where the other shoe dropped. It was time to find out what was really going on.

2

Connor led his guests to Handor’s, a restaurant just off the concourse outside the small craft bay. He had a secret majority ownership stake in the business, and the employees were his trusted people. It allowed him to play at holding court in public with the safety of having trusted retainers always around him.

Life as a smuggler had taught him the benefits of keeping his cards close to his vest, and he had no desire to leave things up to chance. No matter how much bonhomie he projected, Jack Romanoff was a Navy officer, and Connor lived on what amounted to a stolen Navy space station deep inside a remote system that the Confederation would be very displeased to know had been discovered.

If, of course, they even remembered it existed.

The staff seated him at the same table they’d been at when he’d questioned Tina Chen and Derek Calvo earlier. The woman was sly, and he’d have to keep an eye on her. He’d been damned lucky they’d spotted her cutter activating its sensors. If they hadn’t, the spies would’ve boarded his station, and he’d have been none the wiser.

Calvo didn’t have the experience to be a threat. He’d been protective coloration. A clever play but one that hadn’t worked out for them.

The guards she’d brought along on that first trip were cut of the same cloth as the man accompanying Romanoff: older and rougher, and they moved like panthers. These were trained killers, and if things went sour, he needed to make sure they didn’t have line of sight on him when they started shooting.

Not that he intended to push things to that point, but a prudent man always had a backup plan or two.

He took a seat and considered the leading players of this little drama. There was his old acquaintance Jack Romanoff—now a commodore rather than the lieutenant he’d been fifteen years ago. That meant he wasn’t to be dismissed out of hand. One didn’t rise to that rank by being an idiot.

They hadn’t been friends, of course. Jack had been the Navy officer assigned to ensure the pirates had vacated his freighter. The young officer had no way of knowing Connor was pulling the wool over his eyes. All he’d seen were dastardly pirates attacking an innocent freighter full of civilians.

The fact that Connor and his people had been smuggling various goods for a pirate syndicate hadn’t even been on Jack’s sensors. The young officer had been a little wet behind the ears, but that wouldn’t be the case now, and he needed to keep that firmly in mind.

Of course, Connor could only blame himself for setting off the chain of events that made the pirates attack. He’d discovered he’d been smuggling Locust drone lasers for their boss. Those were far more powerful than little matchsticks most ships carried. The pirates could have killed far too many innocent people with them, so he’d been forced to act.

He might be a smuggler, but he had certain codes that he lived by. Moving weapons like that for pirate scum—particularly when they’d lied to him—was over the line. By the time it was all done, he’d lost his ship, but the Navy had captured the pirates. The ones he and his people hadn’t killed, anyway.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

He’d played young Romanoff and escaped with his surviving crew and the most valuable bits of cargo he had on hand. Then he’d managed to get down to the planet’s surface without being caught because he had a silver tongue, and using his knowledge of the pirates, he’d seeded his people into the crew of one of their ships and in a matter of months it was soon his.

It took five years to track down where the pirates had been sourcing the weapons. They hadn’t wanted people to know the location of their secret base, so it hadn’t been too hard to eliminate them. One by one, he built his own fleet of captured pirate ships and then sent in a trojan horse to attack from within while he did so from without.

There were still pirates in the cluster, but none of them knew where the secret base had been, which was good enough for him. And that brought them to their current problem.

When everyone was seated, Connor grinned at Romanoff. “The beer is good, and they have excellent salsa, Navy. You can’t go wrong with enchiladas, either. Negotiating is hungry work, and this is my treat.”

“He’s right about the chips and salsa,” Tina said with a smile. “They’re damned good, and the beer isn’t bad either.”

Romanoff raised an eyebrow. “This seems a little… informal for the kind of talks we’re holding, don’t you think?”

“Formality gives me hives,” Connor admitted. “I’d rather sit down in a comfortable environment and hash out the details. Surely it won’t be that difficult with the Locusts breathing down our necks.”

“You’d be surprised how difficult even the most simple things can be,” Jack said with a sigh.

Connor laughed. “I can only imagine. So, I know why you’re here, and I’m willing to work with you, but nothing comes for free. The price is what we’re here to figure out.”

His comment made Romanoff nod. “I’m curious if you’re in charge or merely a representative. Which is it?”

Connor raised a hand to summon the waitress. When she appeared, he ordered beer for himself and chips and salsa for everyone. He waited without saying a word until everyone had ordered a drink, then he leaned forward and shared his most wicked grin with the Navy officer.

“It’s a bit complicated, but I’m in charge. We have a council that handles day-to-day operations. As long as they’re happy with what I’m doing, they’ll let me make executive decisions. If I displease them, they’ll yank me up short and smack my hand with a ruler before tossing me out on my arse.”

“That’s quite the visual. Do you have the authority to agree to the deal, or will they need to ratify it?”

“They’ll have to sign off,” Connor admitted, “but I don’t think it will be too hard to bring them around once they hear what I have in mind. It’ll just take a bit of diplomacy.”

“As I recall from our last meeting, you weren’t all that diplomatic,” Romanoff said.

“There’s no need to dredge up the past, Navy. When we met the first time, I was just responsible for my crew. Now I have a lot of people looking to me to keep their lives steady. You might find it difficult to believe, but I take that duty seriously. I’m respectable now.”

“You realize you’re living in a Navy station, don’t you?” Commodore Nastasi asked, raising a slender eyebrow. “In fact, this entire system is the property of the Confederation Navy. That makes your standing a bit… questionable.”

Connor smiled and took a beer off the tray their server brought. “I know your name, Commodore, but not what you do. Jack here commands a battleship. What’s another commodore doing aboard?”

“I wasn’t supposed to be here,” Nastasi said, accepting some water and taking a sip. “Circumstances intervened, and I ended up trapped aboard the ship with my staff. My actual position is heading the Judge Advocate General’s office on Faust.”

“Ah, it all becomes clear,” Connor said, his smile widening. “You’re a lawyer or a judge. Maybe both. You’re more concerned with my presence than others are. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure you’re all troubled to find us here, but maybe not to the same degree. Am I right?”

He looked around the table and didn’t get any argument.

“I believe this entire situation can be boiled down to a simple phrase,” he continued. “Finders keepers. There hasn’t been hide nor hair of the Confederation Navy in this system over the last decade and a half. If the pirates I captured here were speaking true, they’d been present on and off for more than a decade longer. That’s an awfully long time, and I’m willing to mark this system down as abandoned.”

“That’s quite the legal theory, but I’m not sure the Confederation Council will agree with your assessment,” Nastasi said dryly. “Nevertheless, it’s not my place to argue one way or the other. I’ll just watch from the sidelines and see what happens.”

Connor pointed a finger at her and winked. “A woman after my own heart.” He turned his attention to the tall captain. “You’d be Jack’s executive officer, am I right?”

The tall woman nodded. “Don’t mind me. I’m just enjoying watching Jack squirm.”

That made him laugh. “Now, there’s the sound of someone that’s served with Jack for quite some time. Tell me, is he as much a stick in the mud now as he was fifteen years ago? He was kind of a fuddy-duddy back then if you know what I mean.”

The officer raised both eyebrows but said nothing, confirming his thoughts.

That left the other woman at the table. Christine something or other. He focused his attention on her and raised an eyebrow of his own. “And who were you again, Miss?”

“Christine Hooghuis. There’s no need to pay any attention to me. I’m just Jack’s videographer.”

That made Connor blink, and he crossed his arms over his chest as he considered her more seriously. “Why would Navy need someone to record his every doing?”

“I was hired by the Sons and Daughters of the Locust War to document the ship’s refurbishment, but then the invasion happened. Now I’ll be everywhere I can to make sure everything is recorded for posterity, so smile and show the camera your good side.”

Connor frowned, and she gestured off to the right-hand side of the table. He turned and spotted a tiny drone up near the ceiling. He hadn’t even seen the little thing. It was as quiet as a church mouse and damned unobtrusive.

He started to open his mouth to object but thought better of it. If this was being recorded, it was a platform he could use to get what he wanted. Based on his expression, Romanoff wasn’t pleased to be followed around like this, but Connor could see the advantages.

“You’ve got my permission to record me, young lady,” he said with a grin. “I have nothing to hide.”

The last person at the table was the military man. He didn’t look like a stuffed suit. This was a man that had been in fights, and he looked like he excelled at his chosen profession.

“Lieutenant Colonel Mac Turner, Confederation Marines and former Marine Force Recon,” the marine officer said. “I’m the guy who’ll shoot you if you try to hurt any of these upstanding people.”

Connor held up his hands. “I gave my word that you could come in peace and leave the same way. You won’t be interfered with.”

Introductions done, it was time to get down to business. After he ordered enchiladas, of course.

The salsa and chips arrived, and he made sure to order enchiladas with a double side of beans. The rice was okay, but he’d never been a fan. And then he added some chili con queso to go with it.

The others took a few minutes to look over the menus, even though he could tell they weren’t in the mood to eat. Most of them got enchiladas, but a few went for tacos. He supposed there was no accounting for taste.

That critical task accomplished, Connor launched into the bargaining. “You’re here because this is where the battleships were stored. I know this was a supply depot for them, and I’ll wager you’re short on parts. Am I right?”

Romanoff nodded but said nothing.

“Then the last thing I want to do is stop you from doing your duty. I might be a smuggler at heart, but I’m a human being first. Should we agree—and the council signs off—I’ll give you complete access to whatever you’re looking for to get your ship in shape. Hell, we might have some people who can do some of the work if you can figure out a way to pay them for their time. In Port Royale, everything is possible, and anything can be had for a price.”

“If you’re a smuggler, why pick the name of the famous pirate city?” Romanoff asked before scooping some salsa onto a chip and eating it with a nod of satisfaction.

“Is that what that name meant?” Tina asked. “I thought it sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.”

“It is indeed a name from the depths of time back on old Earth,” Connor admitted. “But it wasn’t just a pirate city. It was a place where pirates, smugglers, and other folk of ill-repute could openly live and conduct their business. As I said earlier, anything could be had for a price.”

“Sounds like a recipe for criminals to do terrible things,” Turner said, sipping his beer.

“I can’t say there weren’t dirty deeds committed, but my version of Port Royale is not the same,” Connor argued. “The people here may work in fields the law frowns upon, but they’re not scum like the pirates. I can’t stand those bastards, and Jack can confirm that.”

“I’m ready to concede you’re not a fan of pirates,” Romanoff agreed. “As for me, I’m willing to make a deal. What are you looking for?”

“Respectability and a home of our own. If we give you the support you’re looking for, the Confederation cedes ownership of this system and this station to us and rebuilds the gate we lost. The battleships are a gray area, but I understand they might be needed to fight the war. Some people will be displeased that you’re claiming them, but negotiation is about compromise.”

Romanoff laughed and shook his head. “I don’t have the authority to concede that. Nothing I do and say will bind the Confederation Council, or the Navy, for that matter.”

Connor took a sip of his beer and saluted Romanoff with his glass. “That’s mighty straightforward of you to say so, and I understand. Sometimes, public perception forces people to do things they might not otherwise prefer.”

He gestured toward the drone. “Like making an agreement that will be part of a documentary going out to the entire Confederation when the war is done. If the Confederation Council decides to go back on that agreement, they’ll see a political backlash I’d suspect they’d rather avoid. Particularly if we at Port Royale make material contributions to kicking the Locusts back out of human space.”

Romanoff seemed to think about that for a moment and then nodded. “I can bargain in good faith as long as you understand that someone else may overrule me. That’s not going to be my crew or me. Whatever agreement we make, we’ll honor. You have my word.”

“And what more could a man ask for, Navy?” Connor said. “And once the council signs off on it, we can start turning this entire situation around. I have the feeling the war isn’t going well.”

Romanoff sighed. “No, it’s not. My ship is the last Confederation warship in the cluster. The Navy also sent out a signal that caused the quantum gates to self-destruct, except for the one leading here. Honestly, it would’ve been better for everyone if it had blown up, but we at least managed to keep any of the motherships from escaping to carry word back.”

“Thank the heavens for small favors,” Connor agreed. “That would’ve been a disaster.”

“It’s still not that great,” Romanoff warned. “The only things we have to win this war are in this system. My ship is in bad shape, but it’s a powerful platform if we can get things working. Still, I’ll need more than just access to the repair parts and weapons assigned to the battleship division. You and your people will have to contribute to the war effort as well, and not just as paid contractors. You have to have some skin in the game.”

Connor found himself frowning. “You mean like serving on your ship or fighting somewhere? Hell, Navy, we’re civilians. What can we do?”

“We’ll have to figure that out, but we’re all in this together. Either we all make it, or none of us do. That’s not a threat. It’s just the truth of the situation we find ourselves in.”

He considered Romanoff for a few seconds and then nodded. “We can find a way to make this work, Navy. Let’s iron out the details over dinner, and then we’ll get someone to write them up nice and proper.”

Connor wasn’t sure what the Navy officer had in mind, but he was willing to work with him. He wasn’t wrong when he said their lives were all on the line. Whatever was happening in the cluster was undoubtedly terrible, and even an old smuggler like him wasn’t going to stand around waiting while billions of people died.

One way or the other, it looked like his people were about to get their hands dirty.

3

Professor Alan Prescott made his way into the medical center, hobbling with a cane and grumbling to himself. He wanted to be rid of the thing and walk around like a normal person, but his body wasn’t cooperating. He supposed being shot did that to a man.

Hopefully, this would be the last checkup before they cleared him for everyday activities. He supposed he’d still have the damned cane for a while, but his need for it would eventually end.

He found the place bustling with medical professionals moving about their daily tasks. Most of the people injured during the fighting today were still being cared for, but there weren’t many, thank goodness.

Sadly, because of the devastating damage dealt out by the drones, most people caught in the areas of effect died either because of decompression or the incredible temperatures from the failed fusion plants. Only a tiny number of their actual losses had been through injury.

It took a few minutes to find Jesse Romanoff, and when he did, he had to wait until she’d finished dealing with the patient she’d been seeing. Jack’s mother had been a retired doctor before the invasion, and though she might be slower of body now, she had a lot of experience to bring to the work.

As she exited the treatment area, she saw him standing there and walked over with a wide smile. “Alan, I wasn’t expecting you until later this afternoon. How are you feeling?”

“I’m ready to be done with this damned cane,” he confessed. “I know it’s not the time for that, but that’s how I feel. Maybe once I’m given leave to resume my duties, Christine will stop hovering over me like a protective fury.”

Jesse laughed. “She’s protective because she cares. Besides, even if we give you leave to resume whatever you see as your duties, it’s not going to keep her from hovering, and you know it.”

“True enough,” he grumbled. The strength of Christine’s feelings for him still surprised him. They’d only known one another for a few weeks, and it seemed like she was rushing forward with blinding speed. He had feelings for her, but sometimes her passion made him uncomfortable.

“Why don’t you step into the examination room, and we’ll take a look at you?”

She led him into the same room she’d just exited, which was now being cleaned by one of the medical staff, and had him sit on the examination table. Getting up was a bit of a pain, but he could make it work with the stool close at hand.

Knowing what was coming, he tugged off his shirt and winced as he stretched his torso. Selter had shot him twice during the attack, though he’d been lucky nothing critical had been hit.

The wounds were beginning to scar over, so he was sure he was mending. All he needed was to get the official word so that maybe Christine would let up on him just a little.

Jesse examined the wounds and took his vitals. She even brought over a portable scanner and took a look inside his chest.

Once she’d done so, she nodded in satisfaction. “Everything is healing just fine, and I have no concerns about releasing you from medical care at this point. If you have any problems, of course, come back right away. Keep using the cane until you feel comfortable without it, but don’t rush things. You can get dressed again.”

It took a minute for him to work his shirt back on and get off the table, but she was still waiting outside the treatment area for him. He appreciated her courtesy. Besides, he still had a few questions for her.

“If you don’t mind my asking, how goes your examination of the aliens?” he asked. “Have you found anything interesting?”

“I’d say everything we’ve found has been interesting, but I suspect that’s not what you’re asking about. You want to know if we found something that stands out, and we have. Would you like to take a look?”

“Biology was never my strongest subject, but if it helps me understand what makes the aliens tick, I’d like to see what you’ve found.”

She walked him to a hatch leading into an adjacent series of compartments. These weren’t technically part of the medical center itself, but they’d been converted for use as a morgue and laboratory. Sadly, some of the tables held body bags he was certain contained deceased crew members.

Once they were through that depressing area, they came into another morgue and laboratory that was much colder than the previous one. The tables here held alien bodies, and doctors were working on them.

Unlike a routine autopsy—of which he’d seen one back in the day—this was more akin to butchery. To find the secrets of the alien species, there was the unfortunate necessity to take them apart. It was a gory and bloody scene that, in retrospect, he might have been best off avoiding.

“I’m sorry about all this,” Jesse said. “This is a somewhat ghoulish process. If you’d like to avert your eyes and step over to this table near the bulkhead, I’ll bring everything we need to look at so you don’t have to see it in situ.”

Alan was happy to turn his back on the work taking place behind him. It fell into the category of necessary work that he just didn’t want to be part of.

It was much like hunting. He had friends that loved to hunt, but he’d never been a fan of the process. He wasn’t hypocritical enough to condemn them as he ate his fair share of meat, but that didn’t mean he wanted to harvest it.

Jesse returned with a small container holding what looked like a thick worm with lots of thin tendrils. He’d never seen anything like it. It seemed like a separate entity rather than being part of a living being.

“What is that?” he asked as he examined it from several directions.

“A mystery. You’re aware that we recovered a hundred bodies all told. This creature was wrapped around the upper end of their spines. Well, not all of them. Only the ones actively working in engineering, and the two we recovered from the damaged, yet functional, pods.”

He frowned. “So, you’re hypothesizing the vast majority of the beings aboard that ship didn’t have these? Also, you’re lumping the people still left in the functional pods with those in engineering. That suggests some interesting possibilities.”

The older woman nodded. “This seems to be a different creature joined with the humanoids in either a symbiotic or parasitic relationship. We’ve done some genetic sequencing and can confirm that these creatures are not related to the humanoids. They’re not even from the same biosphere.”

“Aliens inside the aliens? That’s somewhat ironic.”

“Indeed. When we examined the bodies that had them, we found old scars where they’d been implanted. Someone opened those beings up at the upper spine, placed these creatures inside, and then sewed them back up.”

The idea made Alan grimace. Science fiction was filled with examples of both aliens and symbiotic/parasitic relationships. Rarely did the two subjects meet, and when they did, it was almost always a bad thing.

He crossed his arms and looked at his friend. “Do you believe these smaller creatures controlled the larger? Were they a separate intelligence dominating their hosts?”

She shrugged. “The interior of the smaller creature is made up of what we might consider brain-like material. I have difficulty imagining how something like it could live in the wild, as it doesn’t seem well suited to getting food on its own. The smaller creature is helpless if not implanted into a host.”

“I wonder what its natural environment would be?” Alan mused. “Could it survive on its own?”

“Doubtful. And, though I have nothing to compare it to, the density and complexity of the matter inside this creature imply that it might be capable of high order brain function. Perhaps even sentience. Without having someone more knowledgeable about these creatures, we don’t have a way to be certain.”

“I suppose that brings us around to trying to wake up one of the aliens from the pods,” he said. “I know that’s something we’re not prepared to do yet, but after examining the bodies, do you feel we can provide an area where we could sustain them when the time comes?”

“Commander Danek told me their atmospheric requirements aren’t much different from ours. In fact, I see no reason why they couldn’t breathe the same air as we do. From what we’ve seen of their food supplies, they might need some dietary supplements, but our basic foodstuffs should provide almost everything they need.”

She gave him a wry smile. “On the other hand, how it would taste to them isn’t something I could comment on. Their lighting is somewhat unusual, but I think they could manage our lighting if they used something to shield their eyes. Maybe wraparound sunglasses with a light tint. In all, their default environment must not be that different from our own.”

Alan pursed his lips and considered the tiny creature. “So they chose to have these implanted, perhaps as a form of augmentation. What can you tell me about the hosts? How do their brains function compare to ours?”

Jesse waggled her hand. “We can only guess at this point, but I believe the humanoids’ brain structures are somewhat more primitive than our own. How that would translate into actual behavior and intelligence, I can’t say. Not without waking one of the living aliens and checking them.”

“And if the word were given, would you be able to do that safely?”

“That’s a question for Commander Danek.”

“Then I suppose I know the next place I need to visit,” he said with a lop-sided smile. “Thanks for showing me around. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

“You’re very welcome. I’ll show you out the side exit, and you can find your way to engineering without having to wander through the other autopsy lab. If you hear anything that might interest us, I’d appreciate you passing it along. Commander Danek is a good person but very focused, so prying details out of her is challenging.”

“Kelly can be challenging,” he agreed with a chuckle. “I promise I’ll pass on anything that applies to your work here.”

She opened the hatch leading to one of the side corridors. “Don’t overdo things, or Christine will hustle you back here, and you know I’ll back her up.”

“I promise to behave,” he said, making a production of crossing his fingers and hiding behind his back.

She laughed, shook her head, and closed the hatch behind her as she went back inside.

He made his way to engineering at a slow and steady pace, not wanting to push things. The last thing he needed was to have Christine angry with him. She was a beautiful woman with a bright personality and a grasp of invective that allowed her to strip the paint off the bulkheads if she wanted to.

When he arrived in engineering, he went down the lift and exited, already looking around to see if he could spot the chief engineer. He didn’t see Danek, but he did see something being assembled in one of the open areas: the massive hyperdrive from the wrecked alien ship.

His previous intentions forgotten, he walked over and watched the engineers assemble the large device. The new assistant chief engineer, Lieutenant Commander Charlie Ferraro, oversaw the work.

“I’m certain Commodore Romanoff has no idea what you’re doing down here,” Alan offered.

Ferraro grinned and shrugged. “Commander Danek was loath to leave it behind, and I don’t blame her. It took a lot of effort to take it apart in such a short period, but she managed.”

“I hope you took good notes, or putting it back together might be a trial.”

“Damned right we did. We’re assembling it here because it’s the only spot in engineering large enough to hold it. Once that’s done, we can see about trying to understand the science behind it.”

Alan raised an eyebrow. “And when were you planning to tell Jack about this?”

“Sooner or later, I’m sure. What brings you down, Professor?”

“I wanted to see if you’d had any success in ferreting out the revival process for the aliens inside the pods. It turns out the medical folks have found a few interesting things that we’re not going to be able to pursue in detail until we can wake our new guests.”

“We have them in a compartment not far away from your laboratory. We’ve done some experimentation with the damaged pods and believe that they have an automated wake-up function. We’re not going to wake anyone until the commodore makes the call, though. If we do, it’ll be dangerous for the one we select.”

“That’s better news than I’d expected,” he admitted. “I know Jack is busy figuring out who we’re dealing with at the depot, but we’ll have to decide if we’re ready to wake someone once he gets back. What about the computers we recovered?”

Ferraro pointed almost over their heads, and Alan looked up. The computers were being put together in another empty area on the far side of the compartment. Because of the way the gravity plates were laid out in engineering, the very center of the cylindrical room seemed up from any point along the outside walls. To get to the computers, they had only to walk right or left, and they’d arrive at them in due time.

“We’d appreciate your input on those as we’re not familiar with the computers aboard Locust vessels. If you’ve got time, could you see what you think?”

“Of course,” he said with a smile. “Shall we?”

The two began walking around the massive chamber, already talking about what might be stored inside the computers. Alan had to admit that he was looking forward to digging into them. Perhaps they contained the secrets that would give them the tools they needed to win this war.

4

Mac Turner watched the negotiations between Commodore Romanoff and the smuggler as he ate some of the admittedly delightful enchiladas and drank a beer. He had a stake in the outcome of the talks, but there was little he could do to influence what they were discussing, so he decided to look upon it as entertainment.

It was amazing how uncomfortable Jack looked. He knew the man was a good leader, but he seemed a bit put off by this ghost from his past. It didn’t stop him from doing what he needed to do, but it upset his equilibrium.

He’d need to look up their encounter. They had the computer from Hawkwing set up aboard Hunter, but he could also ask Captain MacKinnon for all the juicy details. That would probably be better than a dry recitation of the facts anyway. Anything she didn’t know, she’d find out. Of that, he was sure.

In the end, the draft agreement ended up being both basic, yet all-encompassing. In exchange for Jack agreeing that the Confederation would recognize Connor’s claim to the system on behalf of everyone living there—with the caveat that someone higher up the chain of command or on the Confederation Council might overrule him—Connor and his people would provide access to the spare parts, equipment, stockpiled weapons, and even the remaining battleships themselves.

In addition, the people of Port Royale would contribute to the war effort in whatever manner they could. The survival of the human race was at stake, so this wasn’t the time for one side to be holding back. If they were going to win, this had to be a joint effort.

Connor was very clear that while the governing council would likely approve this treaty, there would be people who didn’t care for it. Everyone here came from the dregs of society or were just rebels. Not everybody was scum, but Mac was sure none of them respected authority figures, which he suspected made governing them a real challenge.

Nevertheless, the agreement was better than he’d expected. Outright resistance by Connor and the people living here would’ve been more in character. The smuggler was a strange mixture of someone playing at being bigger than life and someone with real scruples.

With the negotiations concluded, Connor excused himself to take the treaty to his governing council for their approval. He reiterated before he left that they were free to come and go as they liked, honored guests of Port Royale.

The Navy officers had had a full day, so he wasn’t surprised when they decided to head back to Hunter. Tina Chen declared that she would explore the space station, and he decided to attach himself to that particular expedition. He wanted to see what kind of people lived here and what the actual conditions were.

Somewhat to his amusement, Christine Hooghuis decided to remain as well. She’d be recording everything in sight to add to her documentary, and since Connor had given her permission to record in public areas, she’d take advantage of it.

Mac’s only concession to fitting in was to strip off his overt combat gear and hand it to one of his subordinates. The marine would see that everything got back to Hunter, and Mac would make do with just a pistol and knife.

Connor assigned one of the people working at the restaurant to make sure they didn’t run afoul of any local customs. Mac had no doubt the young woman was also there to keep an eye on what they did.

After the dinner party broke up, their guide—Yvonne Shapiro—led them out of the restaurant and onto the concourse. Even at this late hour, there were still quite a few people out and about.

Most of them looked more than a bit spooked, which made sense considering there had been a Locust attack just a few hours ago. It would take a while for the fear to fade. If it ever did.

“Are there any local customs we should be aware of?” he asked their young guide. “I want to avoid stepping on toes. If I get into a fight, I’ll probably end up in jail.”

“As long as we stay out of the bad parts of the station, I think you’ll be fine,” she said with a smile. “Who in their right mind would start trouble with somebody that could break them in half?”

“You’d be surprised,” he muttered. “So, I saw your boss paying for dinner with gold coins. Isn’t that a bit anachronistic? Besides, isn’t gold too common to be of monetary value?”

“Sure. The value doesn’t come from the metal itself but the chips inserted inside during the refining process. In a way, it’s like regular Confederation money. It’s made to be difficult to forge. Anybody that wants to can make a gold doubloon—or silver pieces of eight for that matter—but they won’t have monetary value without those chips.”

“That makes sense,” Tina said as they walked. “When we landed and didn’t have the docking fee, I couldn’t figure it out. If Connor hadn’t already been onto us, that might have given me away right there. That’s the problem with trying to slip into a closed society with different customs.”

Christine didn’t say anything, simply staring at everything around her with wide eyes as they walked. Mac wasn’t sure why she found it so fascinating. It looked like every other space station he’d ever been on.

Her drone was circling around with one of its lenses taking them in as they spoke while also grabbing a wide-angle view of the rest of the concourse. He’d watched the little things work before, and they were very clever.

“So what would you folks like to see first?” Yvonne asked. “Honestly, the decks we have working look like any other place I’ve seen in the Confederation. There are a few things you’re not going to find on a regular space station, but they might be a little rough for your tastes.”

Tina raised an eyebrow. “In what way?”

“Captain Connor told you that anything was available for a price here at Port Royale. That’s generally true, though there are some restrictions. We’re a bunch of rabidly independent people, and the rules we live under don’t allow for any kind of slavery or indentured servitude. Neither does the Confederation, just to be clear, but I wanted to make sure you know that we don’t tolerate certain things.”

Mac nodded his understanding.

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t places to satiate certain desires that would be frowned upon inside the Confederation,” the young woman cautioned. “Whether that be drugs, men and women of questionable morals, or gambling, there’s a place to serve you. Oh, and let’s not forget the gun shops. I think you might like those, Lieutenant Colonel.”

He found himself smiling. “Just Mac, please. Colonel, if you must. I am something of a gun aficionado. What type of hardware are we talking about?”

She shrugged. “I’m not very knowledgeable about weapons, so I don’t know. Let’s just say that when I went into one, it looked like you could buy everything capable of inflicting violence. And just to be clear about carrying weapons on the station, you’re free to carry whatever you like, but you’re responsible for the damage you cause. If someone attacks you and you defend yourself, odds are there won’t be any problems. If you inadvertently shoot a bystander, though, there will be serious consequences.”

He nodded. “That’s one of the reasons we always check to see what’s in front of and behind the target before shooting. So we’re talking automatic weapons? Grenades? Something even more esoteric? It’s too bad I don’t have any money. Something like that would be my version of shopping therapy.”

The women all laughed.

“The captain has instructed me to open a line of credit for you,” Yvonne said. “I wouldn’t go overboard, but if you wanted to make a trip to a gun store, it could be arranged.”

“I like gun shops well enough, but I think I’d rather see something a bit different,” Tina said as they continued walking. “I’m not a gambler myself, though I’ve done my share over the years. Are we talking full-blown casinos or dives?”

“Anything you can imagine exists somewhere on Port Royale.”

“How much of the space station is available for your use?” Christine asked, focusing her attention on their guide. “This place is huge, and I have difficulty imagining you’ve got much of it operating. Unless you’ve got a lot more people than I expect, of course.”

The young woman shrugged. “I can’t say that I’ve explored that much, but we only needed the one small craft bay and two dozen decks or so. Everything else is sealed off and powered down. I understand that’s how we found it, and it seemed safer to leave it that way.”

Mac considered the station’s size and guessed they were using less than ten percent of the available space. Maybe less than five percent.

“They’ve brought one power station online but left the rest off because there isn’t any call for more,” Yvonne continued. “And before you ask, I’m not sure how many people live here. Maybe twenty or thirty thousand if you count the people on the battleships, working out of the belt, or at one of the garden domes.”

That piqued Mac’s interest. “Tell me more about the garden domes.”

“We can’t leave the system to go shopping, so there’s a small planetoid in the habitable zone that’s otherwise an airless ball of rock that they put several domes on. Food crops, animals, and even some people live there. They were set up before I got here, and the people that work them are paid well for keeping us supplied with food. Thankfully, there’s always an overproduction, and we’re going to be able to absorb the refugees you brought without straining our systems too much.”

That was good to know.

Even though he’d said he wasn’t interested in visiting a gun shop, he spotted one on the concourse, so he headed in that direction. The rest of them followed him into the store and almost ran into him when he came to an abrupt halt.

He’d expected something a bit wilder than a regular gun shop, but his imagination fell far short of reality. The walls were covered with weapons. Handguns, rifles, grenade launchers, and rocket launchers. There were even crew-served weapons in the back.

A burly man in a dark vest headed toward them. His face had a few prominent scars, and he wore an eyepatch across his left eye. “Evening,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “Anything I can interest you in?”

“Are those rocket launchers real?”

The shopkeep walked behind the counter, removed one of the rocket launchers from the wall, and handed it to Mac.

“Marine issue, maybe twenty years old. If it meets your needs, we can discuss the cost of the various types of munitions. I can provide them in quantity as well. That comes at a discount.”

To say that Mac’s mind was boggled would be an understatement. The rocket launcher was authentic. He’d used one just like it back when he’d been on active duty.

He handed the rocket launcher back and gave the store’s contents a closer look. The large room was filled with lethal hardware that would’ve been in line with what he knew sat inside Hunter’s armories. In fact, there was more variety here.

“What do you have in the way of vehicles?” he asked once he’d given everything the once over.

“Everything from refurbished Marine pinnaces all the way down to one-man scooters with built-in weapons. Admittedly, the pinnaces are ancient, but we guarantee everything has been looked over by professional mechanics and offer a ninety-day warranty for anything but combat or operational damage. Are you just looking for yourself, or are we talking about a mercenary company?”

Mercenaries weren’t unknown inside the Confederation, but they did most of their work on nonaligned worlds along the fringes of human space. There was always some dictator or strongman wanting to plant a boot on someone. Human nature seemed universal.

“I’m pretty well situated for weapons, but I can think of a few specialty items I might like to buy later,” Mac said. “Do you have any Marine Force Recon gear?”

“Their stuff is specialized, so it’s a bit harder to get, and it’ll cost you more, but we have a few crates in our warehouse for special occasions. Why don’t you set up an appointment to see what we have?”

Mac nodded. “I will. Are you doing much business these days?”

“With the Locusts on our doorsteps and the gate destroyed, I suspect my primary customer base won’t be around for a while, so I’m willing to cut a deal, especially if we’re talking quantity. My name is Bud, buy the way. This is my place.”

Mac took the card Bud pulled out of his pocket. Apparently, the rules of the road here were looser than he’d imagined possible, so he inclined his head to Yvonne to acknowledge the truth of what she’d said.

“Is there anything else you’d like to see?” Yvonne asked when the four of them had walked out of the gun shop and stopped at the edge of the concourse.

“I think I want to see one of these gambling dives,” Tina said with a mischievous smile. “I’ve heard stories, but everything always ends up being a bit more upscale than I’d like. Can you find something that’ll scratch that particular itch without us ending up in a bar fight? I promised to keep Mac out of jail.”

Yvonne laughed. “If I take you to a dive—which I’ll admit I’ve never been to one before—I’m not guaranteeing that there won’t be a fight. Those places are well known for folk who like to brawl for fun. If you go there, you’ll get what you get.”

“I vote against going to the dive,” Christine said. “Do you have something like a news organization here?”

“Of course,” their guide said with a nod. “People want to know what’s going around Port Royale, so we have a few groups that write up the events and even bring in a bunch of stuff from the rest of the Confederation. Well, they did before the invasion anyway. None of them are open at this hour, but I can send you their contact information. Would that do?”

Christine nodded, seemingly happy with the compromise.

“So, if everyone here is something of an iconoclast, how would you describe the people living on the battleships?” Mac asked. “What are they doing there anyway?”

The young woman frowned. “I don’t like to speak badly of anyone, but the folks that choose to live on the old battleships or out in the belt, for that matter, aren’t fond of strangers. They’d rather be left alone to do whatever it is they do. We’ve got rules of behavior here aboard the station, but in the rest of the system, the sky is the limit, except for slavery, piracy, and a few other hard no-nos. That’ll get them raided.”

It would be difficult to get anything done with the other warships if that was the case. They still needed to be scouted, and that would mean confrontations. He’d want to have local muscle along for those particular trips to help smooth things out.

There had to be a way to get access because they’d need them for the war effort. That didn’t mean it would be easy, though, and he didn’t envy Jack that particular task.

“If we can’t go to a dive, perhaps you can find us a place where we can just absorb the local color,” he said, looking for something that might satisfy Tina and avoid getting them in trouble. “We can have a few drinks and then head back to Hunter. What do you ladies think?”

When they agreed, Yvonne led them to a bank of lifts, and they were off.

He wondered what other secrets and surprises Port Royale had to offer, but he knew better than to ask. This place would have a dark underbelly, and the people in it might disagree with Connor’s treaty. He’d need to work with Tina and see what they could find out before that bit them in the ass.

5

Weirdly, Jack got a good night’s sleep. Even after all the chaos and blood it had taken them to get to the depot system, he felt as if they were finally ready to start fighting back. Now all he needed to do was come up with a plan, and to do that, he needed more information.

He had breakfast with his mother and Sara. The three of them had been sharing meals over the last week and had fallen into a comfortable rhythm. He was happy to spend time with his mother because it had been a long time since he’d had the opportunity to do so. Adding Sara was new but pleasant.

Before they’d left Faust, he’d spent significant time in Sara’s company while she was recuperating. As the only other flag officer aboard Hunter, she was someone he could share his worries with. The same was now true of his mother, and he took advantage of that this morning.

Once David Chen had served everybody breakfast and departed, Jack laid out his concerns. “I don’t trust Connor. That man’s a criminal.”

“I think you’re right and yet wrong,” Sara said as she poured syrup on her pancakes. “Sometimes you run into people you have to keep an eye on every second—and he may be one of them—but I believe him when he says he wants to fight the Locusts. Besides, he’s got a lot on the line here.”

“True,” his mother said after she took a sip of her orange juice. “If he helps, he gets to keep everything he’s worked for. The Locusts will find him if he doesn’t, or the Confederation will come for him once the war is over.”

Sara nodded her agreement. “I wouldn’t say he’s a good man, but he has certain moral codes. Appeal to those, and you can pretty well guess what he’ll do.”

Jack bit off a piece of his bacon and eyed her curiously. “He’s pretty much your opposite number, so why do you think that?”

She smiled and took a sip of her coffee. “When you’ve been a lawyer and a judge as long as I have, you get a feel for people. In my line of work, we always see people at their worst, whether through their own actions or events that have occurred to them. You get a feel about someone that has true convictions.”

“I think you’re looking at this wrong, Sara,” his mother said as she poured herself some coffee. “You’re focused on the person leading these others. Just because he believes in what you’re doing doesn’t mean they do. Even if you come to trust this man under certain circumstances, that doesn’t mean there won’t be other elements working against him and you.”

Jack eyed his mother with more than a hint of amusement. “Is this the optimist in the family saying this? Who are you, and what have you done with my mother?”

“You don’t think we don’t see bad people in my line of work?” she scoffed. “Well, let me disabuse you of that notion right now. Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals are just as prone to infighting as anyone else. I’ve seen people sabotage projects just to get at a personal enemy even though it hurts a lot of other people and wastes an incredible amount of money.”

“I bet the professor or Doctor Wilson would say the same thing about academia,” Sara added.

“True,” his mother agreed. “It’s all fine and good to trust a single person will do what you expect if you know what makes them tick, but you’ve got to keep your eye on the entire situation if you want things to go your way. We can’t afford to have some unknown factor ruin everything. The stakes are far too high for that kind of laxity.”

“I don’t have enough eyes to do that,” Jack said with a sigh as he dug into his own meal. “I can’t have people watching everything around us.”

“Then don’t,” his mother said as she sopped a bit of her pancake in her egg yolks. “Right now, you’re still setting up the parameters of what needs to be done. That’s a relatively safe period for this project. Once you’re done assessing everything, that’s when someone will stick a scalpel in your back. Remember that old saying, ‘trust, but verify.’”

Sara spent a few seconds chewing a bit of her pancakes and nodded. “That’s sound advice. You can always trust someone to look out for their own self-interests. Keep an eye on everyone and see what benefits them. Things will be easier if you can get your goals aligned with the majority.”

“That’s still a herculean task, but I’ll try to keep your advice in mind,” he said before popping some of his pancakes into his mouth. Damn, but David could cook.

“So far as not trusting Connor, it’s not like you have much choice, is it?” Sara said after drinking more of her coffee. “In this earliest stage, you’ve got to assess what you have to work with, so what’s the biggest problem that could come out of that? Something you need is either missing or being used for something else. Focus on mapping the ground you’re working on, and then worry about other problems later.”

That was good advice, but Jack wasn’t sure how much use it would be. His first priority was getting Hunter in as good a condition as possible. If he focused on that, maybe he could deal with the problems that cropped up early and save everything else for farther down the track.

Once they’d finished eating and David was clearing away the plates, Jack excused himself and headed for the small craft bay. He called for the inspection team he’d put together last night to meet him there.

Derek would fly them over, Amanda would inspect the weapons, Kelly would look over the engineering parts, and Joby Hutton would examine the remaining supplies. The four of them should be able to give him a decent idea of how helpful this alliance would be.

Turner had also sent a pair of experienced people to make sure nothing untoward happened. They might not be needed, but Jack wouldn’t turn down backup while in potentially hostile territory.

Since he suspected a fair chunk of the depot was in vacuum and had no power, everyone brought vacuum suits and spare canisters of breathable air. There wasn’t any way they’d be able to look at everything they wanted to, but he wouldn’t allow a lack of equipment to stop them before they had a good look.

Amanda also had some skill at flying the old-style small craft, so he sat in the back with the others while their youngest flew them over to the depot. Experience was experience, and there might come a time when he needed as many experienced pilots as they could get.

Someone must’ve notified the smuggler that they were on the way because he was waiting for them. He seemed a little subdued for the character he portrayed, so Jack wondered what was wrong.

“Problems?” Jack asked.

“Nothing serious,” Connor assured him. “The council still hasn’t come around, but I think that’s just a matter of haggling. We’ve got two in favor and two opposed. The holdout isn’t leaning one way or the other, and I expect I’ll be able to bring her around. She’s an old friend, and she’ll see the benefits eventually.”

Jack had to admit he was a little surprised. He’d expected the smuggler to have a rubber stamp council, but it seemed they had an independent government. Surprising and somewhat reassuring. He’d cross his fingers and hope for the best. If some of the details needed to be renegotiated, they’d find a way to make it work.

“Are we still going to be able to take a look around?” he asked.

“Of course. Where would you like to start?”

“One of the most difficult things about fighting the Locusts is not having all our weapons. We’ve managed to get some of our lasers back online, but we don’t have access to missiles, so our primary offensive arms are useless. I think that would be a good place to look.”

Connor grimaced. “That might be something of a sore spot, though I’d imagine there’s enough for everyone. We never got that many missiles refurbished, and we’ve used up every one of those shooting down the drones when they came at us. It seemed like a low priority item since there were no Locusts to be defended against before.”

“What about the warheads?” Amanda asked. “We didn’t detect any radiation after the explosions, so there were no nuclear charges. What’s the story with that?”

“It seems the Confederation wasn’t as cavalier as they might have been when they abandoned this place. They took the nuclear weapons with them. They didn’t go far, but it might as well be across the galaxy. The nukes are sitting in a storage bunker on New Copenhagen.”

Well, that was an unpleasant surprise.

“You seem pretty certain about that,” Jack said as he put his hands on his hips. “How do you know?”

“It’s in the log at the nuclear armory. Whoever transported them away made an entry of where they were going. They didn’t feel comfortable just leaving such destructive weapons lying around, but they were right at hand if needed, or so they thought. I have no idea how long ago that was, so I can’t say whether they’re still there or what condition they’re in.”

Jack sighed. One more problem to deal with. Still, why should he have expected this to be easy?

“We’ll have to deal with the Locusts at New Copenhagen soon enough anyway, so we’ll get those nukes back,” he said. “Is anything else missing?”

“I can’t say anyone has ever done a full inventory, though I looked around a fair bit over the years. The computers are locked down, so I couldn’t get into them to look for a manifest. That said, I didn’t see anything that looked missing other than the nuclear devices.”

Jack nodded. “And the missiles? You refurbished less than a hundred of them. Please tell me there are more.”

“There’s warehouse after warehouse stacked high with the damned things. The ones we grabbed needed a bit of service to make them functional again, but one of the local arms dealers did that for a fee. I don’t imagine you’ll have any trouble getting some of them set to rights. They’re not nearly as effective without an explosive charge, but I believe we’ve proven that they do work.”

“Yes, you did,” Jack acknowledged. “Are you playing guide for us today?”

“I am. If you follow me, I’ll take you to where we keep our vacuum suits, and we’ll head into the unpowered section from there.”

They moved as a group, taking a lift up half a dozen levels before getting off. Connor led them through a maze of corridors to an emergency airlock. Someone had mounted a rack to the wall next to it, and there were dozens of vacuum suits—old-style, of course—hanging on them.

He and his people dressed in the ones they’d brought, while Connor did the same in one of the local suits. They settled on a convenient frequency before the smuggler opened up the emergency airlock. Once the smuggler had pumped the air out of the emergency airlock, he opened the other end, and they made their way into the unpressurized section of the depot.

As they started forward, Connor spoke over the suit comm. “Perhaps you can satisfy my curiosity about something, Navy. I don’t pretend to know much about the quantum drives, but nobody detected your arrival. I’m sure you didn’t pop out right next to the gate, or our defensive forces would’ve seen you. Did you already know we were here?”

“No,” Jack said as he got used to moving with his magnetic boots. “We took some damage right before we jumped, and we popped out quite a ways from the gate. We kept our mouths shut when we figured out you were here because we didn’t know who you were. I wish we’d come out closer to the gate and prevented the Locusts from getting in.”

“It would’ve been better if you had,” Connor said sadly. “Those six ships were our only armed vessels, courtesy of the pirates we killed off to keep the location of this system secret. Still, all’s well that ends well, I suppose.”

“With warehouse after warehouse of missiles, how many do you think are here?” Amanda asked.

The smuggler turned and grinned at her through his transparent faceplate. “Enough to arm all twelve battleships and have plenty of reloads to spare. There must be millions of the damned things. We’re not going to argue about Port Royale keeping some, are we?”

“Not at all,” Jack said as they moved through the dark, airless corridor. “Protecting the depot is critical to the war effort. Once we manage to recover the nukes, we’ll start fitting them into the missiles here as well. I want this station to be invulnerable because its loss would doom us.”

They came to an open lift shaft where they used ropes to guide them as they went up. All the lift doors were open, but everything was pitch black away from the lights on their helmets.

“We’re getting into the supply section now,” Connor said after going up a few dozen decks. “It takes up a lot of space, and I feel confident you could build brand-new battleships if need be. Anything you need, Navy, it’s here.”

“If the pirates didn’t steal a bunch of it,” Jack grumbled.

Connor laughed. “Oh, they stole a good bit, but it barely put a dent in what’s available. It’s not like this ancient equipment was all that profitable to sell.”

“Let’s get out there and take a look. I have no idea what’s here, but I think selecting something randomly will give us a better idea of the scale of what we’re looking at.”

When they came out of the lift, it was into a broad series of corridors that opened into tall bays. Like the supply depot back at Faust, each was filled with shelves stacked high with boxes. Without gravity, everything was loose inside the shelving, but it hadn’t wandered away because each was secured by netting.

Joby went from shelf to shelf looking at things and came back with a grin. “Nothing remarkable, but it’ll all be useful. And look how much of it there is. We’ve been scrounging and fixing things that were long broken, but if this particular warehouse is any indication, we’ll have lots of brand-new parts to install once we finalize the treaty.”

“Is there anyone else in here with us?” Amanda asked once they got back to the shaft. She was looking up.

Jack grabbed the rope before pulling himself into the shaft. Somewhere far above them, there seemed to be a soft light. He ordered everyone to turn off their lights and confirmed it.

“We’re not supposed to have anyone up here, but it wouldn’t shock me if we found somebody pilfering something,” Connor said in an unconcerned tone. “We’re a bit light on abiding by rules if you know what I mean. Don’t worry. I’ll sort it out.”

The group pulled themselves up the lift shaft until they arrived at the level with the lights. The illumination came from a portable light attached to the bulkhead outside one of the warehouses farther down the corridor.

When they made their way to the hatch leading into the warehouse, Jack could see half a dozen people in vacuum suits busy emptying a shelf into a powered sled.

“You there,” Connor said over the general comm frequency. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

That sparked a reaction from the thieves. They grabbed onto the shelving and turned to face the hatch. Rather than answering the question, they went for their weapons.

Jack yanked Connor away from the hatch just before the first bullets came flying through, ricocheted off the bulkheads, and went flying off in every direction.

His guards pulled their weapons and began sniping into the compartment, ducking back and forth in a rhythm that seemed arbitrary to him but well-practiced. There was some kind of timing to it, but he couldn’t guess how it worked.

“We need to retreat,” Jack said, pulling his pistol.

They’d only just started back toward the lift shaft when a bright light lit them up from that direction. More people in vacuum suits were pouring out, and they opened fire.

Jack felt the tug of something ripping at his sleeve. The shot had missed his flesh, but his air began hissing from the tear in his suit. He needed to patch it or he’d die, but he couldn’t do that while the bastards were shooting at them.

His choices were damned limited, so he opened fire. If they couldn’t take down their attackers now, he’d be dead either way.

6

Connor cursed the bastards ambushing them but didn’t let that slow him from returning fire at the people in the lift shaft as he retreated. He tried to activate his comm to call for assistance, but there was no signal. Power was off here, and the station itself blocked his ability to contact anyone back in the occupied areas.

Maybe he should’ve seen about installing some signal boosters. Well, too late now.

He didn’t get a chance to use his pistol all that often, but he was a pretty good shot. When he’d emptied his magazine at their attackers, two of them were hit through what he was pretty sure were his own efforts. Someone pulled Romanoff back while someone else slapped a patch on his torn suit.

To his credit, Romanoff continued firing. Connor wasn’t sure he’d have expected that of the young lieutenant he’d met fifteen years ago, but Romanoff had grown up. He and the young officers retreated into the area where they’d first been attacked, and he followed. The Marines had taken the people in there out of the fight, so it was as good a place as any.

“Who the hell are these people?” Romanoff demanded as he found a shelving unit to hide behind. It wouldn’t stop a bullet, but it beat being in the open.

Connor parked himself next to the other man, swapped his nearly empty magazine for a fresh one, and aimed his pistol over the supplies on the shelf. They were large boxes strapped together, so they weren’t floating in the microgravity environment.

“I haven’t got the slightest idea, but this is insane. People have been raiding these supplies for years, and it’s not like there’s even a law against it. We just forbid people from being gluttonous about it. If you need a part, you can take it if you can find it. How’s your arm?”

“Fine. I lost a little air, but Amanda got a patch on me in time to keep that to a minimum. I’m not able to reach anybody over my comm. Have you called for backup?”

“I can’t reach anybody either,” Connor said with a grunt. “Without power in these sections, there’s no signal, and we’re quite a ways from the occupied sections of the station. I’m afraid we’ll have to take care of this ourselves.”

In fact, the Marines took care of it. Their merciless barrage of fire drove the attackers off. Tellingly, the intruders went up the lift shaft rather than down. That meant they had a cutter or cargo shuttle docked farther up rather than coming from the occupied section of the station.

Once they were safe, they made sure nobody else’s suit was damaged. The last thing they wanted was somebody to have a catastrophic failure because it had taken enough damage to give out without warning.

Then they began looking at the dead men and women around them. There were half a dozen corpses in the warehouse and almost the same number in the corridor near the lift shaft. That was a significant group, so this was an organized affair.

Without stripping their suits, all he could do was look at faces through their faceplates. He didn’t recognize any of them, but that wasn’t shocking considering how many people lived and worked in and around Port Royale. The governing council estimated they had close to thirty thousand people in the system, so the chances of recognizing anyone were pretty low.

He knew the security services wouldn’t know who they were either. It wasn’t as if they had universal ID. People used aliases and lied about their identities all the time.

Port Royale was pretty much a cash and carry society. If you wanted to go to somebody with a lot of money and take a loan, that person was responsible for vetting borrowers and getting their money back if a loan went bad.

Now, if someone attacked someone else or stole something from them, the security services took that seriously. The penalties for outright theft or attack inside Port Royale were higher than they’d be in the Confederation. Examples had to be made to keep the rough people who lived here aware of the penalties for bad behavior.

Once this calmed down, he’d run their identities past everyone he knew. They’d figure out who they were, but it might take a while.

“It looks like the area is clear,” one of the Marines said. “We need to withdraw because they might come back.”

Connor expected Romanoff to argue, but he didn’t. Instead, they made their way down to the pressurized section of Port Royale on high alert. Once he had a good signal, Connor made sure a large group of trusted people was waiting for them. There’d be no ambush when they went back up to retrieve the bodies.

Once everyone had stripped out of their suits, somebody with a medical background went over them to make sure there were no injuries that might have been missed because of adrenaline. By some miracle, no one had been shot.

Apparently, Jack had called his ship to let them know what happened because half an hour later, a full squad of people in armored vacuum suits arrived, led by Colonel Turner.

The older man had his helmet tucked into the crook of his arm and scowled at Connor. “What the hell happened?”

He held up his hands. Turner was far more dangerous than even the rough and ready pirates he’d dealt with in the past, so he wanted to defuse things early.

“We chanced across somebody stealing something, and they took offense. We have some pilfering, but this was a much larger scale operation, and they weren’t willing to take no for an answer.”

“We’re retrieving the bodies,” Turner said, his tone brooking no objection. “Then we’re going to find out what they were doing. When I track the bastards down, they’ll wish they’d never been born.”

“Now that’s where you need to hold up,” Connor said, using a somewhat placating tone. “We have security services that will be happy to let you work with them, but this is our territory, not yours. We’ll make sure whoever did this pays a heavy price for it, but you don’t get to carry out a vendetta.”

The grizzled officer glared at Connor. “You just dragged my commanding officer and several of our people right into an ambush. Why should I trust anything you say, smuggler? By your own admission, everybody here is a criminal of some kind or another. I don’t trust your idea of justice.”

“And that’s why we have to make this right, don’t you think?” Connor. “What use is finalizing a treaty if you don’t believe we’ll hold up our end of the bargain? It’s incumbent on us to make the situation right. If we let you carry this out on your own, then it looks like we’re washing our hands of the situation. We have something to prove here.”

He let that hang in the air for a moment before he continued. “I have no idea what they were doing, but I’m sure there’ll be a thread leading back to whoever sent them. Are you going to work with me so we can grow together, or will you fight me and drive us further apart?”

Turner glared at him for a full ten seconds before nodding. “You get one chance to make a first impression. Don’t screw this up.” He turned to the rest of his people. “I want a fireteam to go back to Hunter with the commodore. The rest of you are with me. Be ready for contact with the enemy at any time. You’re cleared to return fire and advance if you’re fired upon. Don’t stop shooting until the threat ceases. Clear?”

“Clear!”

Connor looked at his security people. They didn’t seem nearly as dangerous as Jack’s, so he had security envy. It was too bad he couldn’t do much about it because the ex-military types that ended up at Port Royale were often the kind one didn’t want behind you while armed.

“I’ll go back up with you,” he said. “We’ll take my people along to secure the bodies.”

When they made their way back to the area where they’d been attacked, he saw the situation had changed. Someone had come back, and the bodies were gone, as were the parts they’d been stealing.

“This is where the fighting happened because there’s still blood floating in the corridor,” Turner said. “It looks like they came back for their dead. Where could they have boarded the station at?”

“There are a number of small craft bays that we don’t use. The large hatches are closed, but if someone connected a power cable to one, they could give it enough juice to open. Our flight control people should have tagged them. We pay good money to make sure we know who comes into the station and who leaves. The fact that no one raised the alarm means money changed hands, and someone on my payroll is in a lot of trouble.”

Turner gestured to four of his people. “Go up the lift shaft. Some of those bodies were still leaking, so you can figure out where they got out. Make sure they’re not still here. The rest of you assume guard positions. I don’t want any more ambushes.”

One of the Navy people who’d stayed with Connor was their supply man. He couldn’t remember the fellow’s name, but he’d been inside the warehouse where the intruders had been loading their stolen gear. Connor found him working on a tablet next to the now empty shelf.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

The Navy officer turned toward him and smiled. “I’m a logistics guy, so I’m following the part numbers. Whatever they stole will tell us a lot about them. Obviously, it had to be scarce enough to risk their lives, and they came in great numbers. My bet is there was more than one team. When this group came under attack, they called for help. Their coms worked better than ours, or they were closer together.”

Connor nodded. “And what did they get? I’m sorry, but I don’t remember your name.”

“No reason you should. I’m Joby Hutton, and before you get me confused with an upstanding guy, I was a supply officer that got busted down to petty officer and got his hands dirty more than once doing the kind of things that would make us friends.”

That made Connor smile. “A kindred soul, then. I feel like we’re long-lost brothers, Joby. What were they clearing out?”

“Fire control modules,” the supply guy said, his smile vanishing. “This shelf was filled with fire control modules for missile launchers. Admittedly, they didn’t take much of what was here, but if they had folk elsewhere loading up on missiles, they’d be very dangerous going forward.”

Connor grimaced. “We’re going to have to send people to look at the missile supplies, but I’d wager they loaded up on those as well. At least it narrows down where we’ll find them. There’s no need for those parts if you don’t have missile launchers. Since those only exist on Port Royale and the abandoned battleships, they didn’t go far.”

He turned to his people and ordered them to check the missile stockpiles. Once again, there was a tremendous number of missiles aboard Port Royale, and no matter how many the intruders had taken, it wouldn’t have made much of a dent. Still, they needed to look.

Amusingly, the missiles themselves wouldn’t be a danger to Jack’s battleship without nuclear warheads. The same would not be true of regular ships, small craft, or Port Royale itself. The station was armored, but not to the degree that would save it from being punctured by fast-moving missiles.

He and Hutton made their way up to the storage area in time to be told that some of the missiles had indeed been taken. Connor felt his lips pressing tightly together. It had just become critical to find whoever was behind this theft. The clock was ticking.

7

Alan marveled at the two massive Locust computers set up in the engineering compartment. They’d been powered up for more than an hour and weren’t having any issues.

He was relieved about that. Even though he had experience working with smaller versions of the same kinds of machines, these were unique, and he didn’t want to damage them.

With that worry behind him, he focused on directing Doctor Wilson—Alice—and her research assistants in setting up half a dozen terminals to interface with them.

They were isolated from the ship’s systems because that was only common sense. He had a lot of experience working under those constraints because Kelly Danek had insisted on that from the very beginning. Even the power connections were monitored, so the computers couldn’t use those to attempt to worm their way into the ship’s control systems. Every precaution that they could take had been taken.

“I’ve looked over mothership cores before,” Alice said. “What I haven’t seen before is a system that wasn’t wiped of all critical information. You’ve done that with your mothership core. What should we be looking at with these machines?”

“I have no idea,” he admitted. “The one on the left came from the engineering compartment aboard the wreck. The one on the right was forward of that. The amount of storage they have is significantly larger than the ones from the motherships. And by significantly, I mean thousands of times, at a minimum.”

He took a deep breath and walked up to one of the machines. The support hardware that had come with a computer was similar to what the motherships used, only bigger. The core itself was of a similar shape and equally as massive. It operated with a slight hum that wasn’t present with a mothership’s core.

“I can give you a rundown of what we found aboard the mothership’s core, particularly the things that had been deleted. We’ve copied that information over to a different mothership core that we’re using for storage. We can’t save their data to our systems because the media and storage methods aren’t compatible.”

Alice nodded and gestured toward the terminals. “And what are we hoping to accomplish by searching these two?”

He grinned at her. “This is a mission of discovery, my dear Alice. Perhaps we’ll be lucky and find a Rosetta Stone during our search, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you. We did find recorded communications from the first invasion that weren’t wiped on the intact mothership core. Those audio recordings were translated into an alien language. Perhaps there are actual alien sound files on these systems. I suspect we might be able to reverse engineer the output files and at least get something comprehensible in return.”

She pursed her lips. “I suppose that’s as good a place to start as any. Are we sure we’re not going to change or delete anything important in these computers during our search? Also, has any work been done comparing the contents of the two computers to one another to see if there is any overlap?”

He shook his head. “All I’ve done is make sure the machines are mechanically functional and stable. Commander Danek made certain that the power met the specifications I figured out from the machines themselves and that everything was shielded. That’s a security measure, and why we’re using standalone terminals, though these are every bit as powerful as any networked computer aboard this ship.”

“I’ve worked with something similar, so we can manage.”

“I’ll walk your people through some of the programs I wrote to compare the two mothership cores. We can let a couple of your people work on doing a comparison with these while the others work on searching for audio files in the alien format.”

At her nod, they walked over to where the research assistants were exploring their terminals. He captured their attention when he sat down at one and ran them through what they were looking for and how the programs he’d written worked.

“I won’t say I’m the best programmer in the universe—because I’m not—so if you want to play with the programs and see if you can improve things—or even find something I didn’t think of—you’re more than welcome to do so. There’s plenty of work to go around.”

Some of the young people decided to do exactly that and sequestered themselves at one of the terminals to begin working on the project. That left Alice and four of her assistants to help him start the programs he already had.

The process wasn’t quick because nothing he’d written had been optimized for speed. Frankly, he’d had nothing but time while doing his research, so he’d focused on missing nothing. Perhaps that was something the research assistants could bring to what he was doing.

Two of the terminals were set up to compare the contents of the unredacted mothership core with each of the big computers. A different terminal compared the large computers with one another. They used the remaining terminals to conduct a search for files in the alien’s audio format.

The comparisons were going to take a long time, but the search for audio files began striking pay dirt right away. A large number of files came up in the search results for both the large computers, and the list only kept growing.

He’d created a player to sample the audio files when he’d first discovered them, so he brought it into play now. He doubted he’d hear any human recordings, and he was correct. Every single file he sampled was in an alien language that was somewhat guttural and completely incomprehensible.

They were also made by real aliens rather than computerized translation because each voice was different, and the cadences strongly suggested they were natural speech.

“I suppose this is a good start,” Alice said as she eyed the list. “I think we’ll need to reverse engineer the translation software. Did you ever locate it on the mothership core?”

He shook his head. “We’ll have to do this the hard way. I know which audio files the aliens translated into their own language because the file nomenclature was identical. We’re going to have to start working on analyzing those to look for patterns and then build a program that can read the alien audio and translate it back to our language. Do you think that’s something you and your people could do?”

“Not a chance. We’re not programmers, though some of us have a fair bit of experience at it. We need dedicated professionals to build a program capable of doing the translating without introducing all kinds of errors. If there are none aboard this ship, maybe someone on the station could do it.”

“It doesn’t hurt to make inquiries. Why don’t you and your people focus on what we’ve got going, and I’ll speak with Captain MacKinnon since Jack is off the ship?”

At her nod of agreement, he went in search of India. She wasn’t on the bridge, but he found her in her office just down the corridor from Jack’s.

When she admitted him, he looked around and smiled. “I see they restored all the original furnishings. What do you think?”

She sat behind a desk almost as large as Jack’s and just as ornate. The compartment itself was eighty percent the size of Jack’s, which meant it was enormous compared to anything she’d likely experienced in her prior service.

“It’s a lot to get used to,” she admitted as she stood. “Even our flag officers don’t have anything like this, except perhaps the most senior ones. I could get by with something a lot smaller, but don’t tell Jack I said so.”

He made a motion of zipping his lips. “He’ll hear nothing from me.”

“What can I do for you, Professor?” she asked as she leaned against the desk.

“We’ve got the Locust computers up and running, and we’ve discovered a lot of audio files in the alien language. Originals, not translations. Sadly, none of us have the skills to build a translator, even though we have matched examples of recordings in our language that have been translated into the alien language. I need to go to the depot and hire someone. That’s not something I’m comfortable doing without buy-in from you or Jack.”

India frowned and leaned back against her desk. “This is a very secret project, and I don’t want to expose that information to people we don’t trust.”

“And utterly useless if we can’t decipher what they’re saying. As I see it, we don’t have to let them know about the new computers or the alien ship. It’s common knowledge among the crew that I’ve gained access to a mothership core. All I have to do is give them the files from it. They’d be responsible for developing a program that could reverse translate the audio. If they prove trustworthy, we could start feeding them the actual alien files to work with.”

“I don’t know,” she said, starting to pace. “Jack and our people have had some trouble, and things are pretty tense. Apparently, they walked in on someone stealing missiles and fire control units. Shots were exchanged, and people were killed. I’m not sure how open he’d be to sharing even that much information with them right now.”

Alan considered her. “I’m not asking them to do anything ultra-secret here. I just want to take the information we’ve recovered from the mothership and satisfy my intellectual curiosity. That’s my story, and I’ll stick to it if they ask.”

“Okay,” she said after a few seconds of thought. “I’ll clear the mothership core files with Jack and have an answer for you by the time you get there. If he says no, you can look around a bit and come back. If he says yes, I suppose you can start conducting job interviews.”

“I appreciate your support, and I’m hopeful we can find someone that can prove their loyalty to the project and their discretion. When we’re finished digging in these computers, we may need to develop Locust computer experts of our own. Sadly, that’s not me or any of the people we trust.”

She gestured toward the hatch. “Small steps, Professor. Small steps. We’ll consider this initial project a test drive. Depending on what they do and how we judge them, we might do more, but I’m not going to commit to it at this time. I suppose this is a proof of concept, if you will, so good luck.”

“Thank you for being so open-minded,” he said as he started for the hatch. “I’ll be most cautious in what I say and who I say it to. Whatever is decided, I’ll keep you in the loop.”

He stopped by his lab and packed away one of the neutered mothership cores that he was using for storage. It didn’t have anything on it from the new systems, so it would make an excellent device to demonstrate what he was working with and what he needed. He added a terminal he’d adapted to access the contents of the drive and some supporting equipment to power the core so that it didn’t need to be connected to the station’s power.

Sadly, that was a lot more than one person could carry. Even the core was more than he could handle because it was almost as big as he was. So, he summoned several crew people to get the boxed equipment to the small craft bay and aboard his preferred cutter.

As he was skilled in flying the old craft, he didn’t need anyone to escort him, though he brought the young people to cart the equipment to wherever its final resting place needed to be or get it back to the cutter if he couldn’t find anyone to help him.

He was halfway to the depot when he realized he didn’t have any of those gold coins they required for their landing fee. Oh well. He’d have to see if he could arrange a line of credit or bill Jack. He got verbal authorization from India to proceed with his plan right before he was ready to land.

Once he’d worked himself through the landing queue and parked his cutter, he spotted the table where he needed to pay and walked up to it while the recruits retrieved his equipment.

The woman sitting there held out a hand. “Landing fee.”

“I’m from Delta Orionis, and I don’t have any doubloons. Has there been a process set up to allow us to draw on credit?”

She nodded and opened a small notebook to jot something down. “I’ll see that the appropriate party is billed. Welcome to Port Royale. Can I assist you in finding anything? If so, I’m going to add that to your bill.”

He smiled. “I’m looking for directions to someone skilled in computer operations. I have an unusual task that I need assistance with. It’s not illegal, but it will be very difficult and not something they’ll have ever tried before. It’s alien, you might say.”

“It sounds like you need a hacker,” the woman said with a knowing nod. “We’ve got a number of people with skills in that area, but if you’re looking for the best, you’ll want Lisa Gane. If it’s got anything to do with computers, she’s your girl.”

She tore a sheet out of the back of her notepad and jotted down an address. Being conversant in the location nomenclature used by the Navy when the station was built, he had no trouble deciphering it.

“I’m very grateful for your assistance, so please tip yourself generously,” he said. “Good day.”

And with that, he headed out into Port Royale with his cargo handlers grunting and softly swearing behind him. The station looked much like any other he’d been aboard, and the population didn’t stand out as being all that different either. Nevertheless, he kept an eye out to make sure he wasn’t being followed and that he didn’t walk into trouble.

He followed the directions to a set of offices far off the beaten path. It wasn’t that this was a rundown section of the station, but it wasn’t well-traveled. He suspected the only people that found themselves here were the ones that intended to be there.

When he arrived at the appropriate office, he pressed the admittance button and waited for someone to answer. It took about thirty seconds, and he was about to push it again when the hatch slid aside, and a tall woman with tousled brown hair blinked blearily at him.

“Do you know what time it is?”

Nonplussed, he looked down at his chronometer.

Before he could inform her of the current time, her eyes narrowed. “That was a rhetorical question. I was working on a project all night and didn’t get to sleep until an hour ago.”

“Then I apologize for waking you, but I had no way of knowing your schedule. Perhaps you should consider putting a ‘do not disturb’ sign on your hatch?”

She ignored his suggestion, sighed, and stepped aside. “You might as well come in. I’m not going to get back to sleep until I hear what you have to say, so let’s get the formalities out of the way.”

Alan gestured for the young people moving his equipment to come inside. Instead of this being an office, he found it was living quarters. Rather, half of it was living quarters, and the other half was filled with more computer equipment than he’d ever seen in such a small area before.

Once the hatch was closed, Gane gestured for him to take a seat. “I’ll say up front that I’m busy with other projects, so unless you’ve got something interesting, I’ll decline. Why don’t you lead with the good stuff and save us all some time?”

He sat and smiled widely. “I need someone to translate audio files recovered from a Locust mothership computer core into our language. I have the source recordings and the output of their own efforts at translation. I need someone to write a reliable program to reverse the process, thus translating an alien language for the first time. Is that interesting enough?”

She gave him a long look. “If this is a joke, I’ll be super pissed.”

“I have some example hardware and a terminal that I’d be happy to demonstrate for you,” he said. “I’m Professor Alan Prescott, by the way.”

“Lisa Gane. I think we’d best get started, Professor. Get that set up while I make coffee. Today will be a long day.”

8

Mac wanted to shoot someone. Or, more accurately, many someones. People under his protection had been attacked, and the equipment and gear they’d worked so hard to recover had been stolen. It also annoyed him that Connor and his people had been negligent, so it was up to him to make sure that situation changed damned fast.

Thankfully, he had a plan, though he was sure the smuggler would hate it. At this point, that was a plus in his book. He didn’t have anything against the flamboyant man, but he’d been far too casual in assuming everything was going fine without checking.

That changed today.

Turner focused his attention on Joby Hutton. “We’ll need a complete inventory of everything we’ve got here. I understand that’s going to be in the computers somewhere, but we need to verify everything. I get that you’ve got a lot on your plate, but you’re going to have to prioritize this. I also realize this won’t be a quick or easy task, but we have to know what we have and what we’re missing.”

Hutton grimaced. “Do you know how many logistics people would’ve been assigned to this facility back in the day? Thousands. I hate to tell you this, but we don’t have a ghost of a chance of doing any kind of inventory in anything less than years. What you’re asking for is impossible.”

“I suppose you’re going to have to prioritize things then. Start with the most important pieces of equipment and work your way down. At some point, you can assign the work to other people. We’ve got to get Hunter back into fighting shape. I know you’ve been building a list of all the parts she needs, so that’s where you start.”

“Not to be a pain in the ass, but I don’t work for you, Colonel,” Joby warned him. “I get how pissed you are, but I have to look at the big picture. I’ll do what I can to verify some of the data on the most critical parts, but we’ll have to form a team to even come up with a plan to do a full inventory. I’m not starting on a long-term job like that unless the commodore tells me to either.”

Mac sighed. This was frustrating, but he understood what the other man was saying. Jack would have to decide what needed to happen. This really wasn’t his problem, no matter how angry he was.

“I get it,” he said. “And you’re right. Maybe we can hire locals or something once we know who we can trust. Or you could put some of those supply people that pissed you off to doing it.”

Joby laughed and shook his head. “They were stealing parts and selling them on the black market. What makes you think I’d trust any of them in a place like Port Royale? They’d rob us blind.”

“Point. What can you do?”

“Everything is in vacuum, except for some of the compartments holding delicate parts. They’ll be sealed in containers filled with pressurized nitrogen. We have no gravity, either. That has to change, or anything I do will take forever.”

Mac focused his attention on Connor. “Do you have extra power generating capacity?”

“This station has three primary power generating centers and four auxiliaries,” the smuggler said. “We’re only using one of the smaller ones, so no. It sounds like you need to bring one of the primaries online, and we don’t have enough personnel with the right training to make something like that work. If you want to bring more power online, you’ll have to provide the people to make it work.”

“Without a signed treaty, can we even do that?”

“I’ll agree to it, so long as one of my engineers is technically in charge. I understand your people wouldn’t do anything risky, but I have to observe the forms. Even once the council signs off on the treaty, that’ll have to be how it is, though we’ll work closely with your people to see that you have what you need.”

Working on a station that they didn’t control was a pain in the ass. Even so, there were limits to what he could do. It was the commodore’s problem, and he’d have to figure it out if it became an issue. Mac needed to focus on the things he could fix on his own.

“That’ll work for me,” he said. “Thanks.”

He walked over to where Derek and Amanda were examining some of the shelving units, moving slowly enough that his magnetic boots didn’t come loose from the deck. Amanda was figuring out what was on the shelf while Derek made notes on a tablet.

“Whatever the two of you are doing, it’ll have to wait,” he said. “I’ll need you to head back to Hunter and get some help. Commander Danek will have to send some of her engineers with knowledge of fusion plants to examine one of the main power centers. The goal is to bring it back online and provide us with power to the area where the parts and weapons are stored.”

Derek put his tablet away. “We can handle that.”

“I’m also going to need a lot of recruits,” Mac added. “If someone else decides they want to steal some of our gear, I want people in place to stop them. I realize we can’t guard everything, but we can put people in critical locations to make certain any intruders are spotted.”

Amanda nodded. “While Derek does that, I’ll take a supply of fire control units for the missile launchers back and begin working on integrating those into our systems. Then I’ll send people to retrieve a bunch of missiles and start the refurbishment process. If we can hire the people that refurbished the ones for Port Royale to walk us through the process, that’ll help a bunch, so I’ll talk to the commodore about it.”

“You’ll get no argument from me on any of that,” Mac said. “Derek, we’re going to scout around and find the Marine barracks. This station was supposed to house Marines for every one of these battleships and probably more to spare. There will be at least one small craft bay set aside for the Marines. I’ll want you standing by with the pinnace I came over in to provide us a power source to open it up before you take it back to Hunter.”

The young officer gave him a thumbs-up. “On it.”

Mac raised an eyebrow looking over at Connor. “Do you want to come along and make sure we’re not meddling in things we’re not supposed to be touching?”

“Go amuse yourselves, and try not to kill too many people while you’re about it.” Connor followed up with a disarming grin, so Mac chose not to take offense.

“I have to figure out who our attackers were,” the smuggler continued, “so I’ll be a bit busy. Have fun, but if you break it, you bought it.”

Everything arranged, Mac sent a pair of his people to escort the smuggler, Amanda, and Derek down into the occupied section of the station even though the smuggler had guards of his own.

He also posted lookouts in the lift shaft to note anyone moving through the area and act as relays so that no one was out of contact with anyone else. That had almost bitten Jack in the ass, and he didn’t want to have anything like that happen again.

Each deck had a general map of what was located on it posted outside the lifts. They were only using one of the lift shafts, and there were dozens that he’d have to keep an eye on. Once the power was restored, that would be easier from a central security location. He’d have to locate that as well.

It took them half an hour to find the deck with the Marine barracks. According to the diagram, it took up the entirety of this deck, and there was a notation that it took up the two decks above it as well.

The first deck didn’t have a small craft bay, so they continued up to the next one and found it. According to the diagram, it was big. Bigger than anything he’d seen thus far on either Hunter or the station.

Before he headed to take a look, he went up to the third floor and eyed the diagram just to get an idea of what was there and where everything was located. Then he returned to the middle deck and made his way to the small craft bay.

Unlike the ones aboard Hunter, this one was tidy, and everything was in its place. Based on his best guess from the insufficient light from their helmets, there were several hundred pinnaces strapped to the deck. Since the facility was in vacuum, they looked pristine.

Also, unlike most small craft bays, this one had two large hatches rather than one. Everything was in darkness with the power off, so they had their suit lights on to make their way up to the hatches. Neither were open.

Beside the large hatches were several personnel hatches leading to airlocks. Those also lacked any power, and the battery backups were long dead, but they had manual cranks to open and close the hatches in emergencies.

He and his people began opening a personnel hatch. It took a couple of minutes to get everything open, but at that point, they were looking out at the stars.

Mac assigned one of his people to go onto the outer hull and keep an eye out. Once the pinnace arrived and opened the main hatches, they wouldn’t be beholden to anyone else and could set up their own security perimeter.

That task accomplished, he headed for the next area of interest: the armory. He found it on the lowermost of the three Marine decks. If the Navy officers thought the hatches in the critical areas aboard Hunter were thick, they’d be shocked at how secure the Marine armory was.

The engineering hatch on the battleship was the thickest of the protective layers aboard the battleship. The hatch leading into the armory was twice as massive.

It was evident that someone had attempted to gain access and failed. They’d tried blowing the hatch open and cutting it. Neither of those attempts had done more than superficial damage. The armory was secure.

Of course, he had no idea what was inside it, but if it were fully loaded to support as many Marines as he thought could fit into this barracks, they wouldn’t have to worry about buying arms and weapons from the dealer downstairs.

Mac wondered if that man or one of his compatriots had tried to gain access to the armory. That would’ve been one method of getting new inventory. They wouldn’t have had any luck there, though. The entire perimeter was armored just as heavily as the hatch.

He gestured toward the lift shaft and pointed at two of his people. “Go find the command-and-control area. If I’m right, it’s going to be just above us. It’ll take up half a dozen decks, and that’s going to be where our Navy friends will do their business. We’ll want to make sure everything is good there before they come calling.”

While they departed, he returned to the small craft bay. Derek had made good time. The pinnace was clamped to the outer hull near one of the enormous hatches, and his Marines were running a line to plug into a hatch to provide power.

Everything was ready in less than two minutes, and someone cycled the hatch open. It moved ponderously, but it didn’t catch on anything. Just to be sure they had all the access they needed, he had Derek relocate the pinnace, and they opened the other large hatch as well.

That done, he ordered the young naval officer to bring the pinnace in and set it down on the deck before activating its magnetic clamps again. He needed one of the portable power units so they could gain access to the armory.

With power, he’d be able to use the codes he’d gotten from Hunter’s computers. If, of course, they hadn’t been changed in the time since the battleship had become a museum. If they had, gaining access to the weapons would be a lot more challenging.

As soon as they had the power unit, he sent Derek and Amanda to Hunter, and they got about their work. It took about fifteen minutes to get the power unit in place and energize the armory hatch. Once that was done, Mac waited for the control systems inside the armory to come to life and entered the code to open the hatch and disarm the protective security systems.

Nothing happened for what felt like an eternity, but then the hatch unlocked and began sliding aside. He let out a sigh of relief. This could have been so much more complicated.

When he’d been a kid, his mother had read him a story about a magical cave of wonders. Now, as a grown man, he’d found one of his own.

The armory—dimly lit by the power pack plugged into the hatch—was half the size of the small craft bay and fully stocked. Armor, weapons, armored vacuum suits, and even combat vehicles that could be loaded aboard pinnaces for ground operations. The vehicles had a larger hatch they could use that no doubt led to the small craft bay.

Everything they needed was there, neatly in its place and preserved for future use. Thank God the Marines had prepared for the invasion better than the Navy had.

“Okay, let’s get this all locked down,” he said. “We’re in a holding pattern until Commander Danek gets main power online, but I want every compartment in the barracks eyeballed. Let’s see what we have to work with and start planning how we can use it.”

9

Jack knew he was annoying his security detail by coming back to the space station, but he wanted to take a look around the section they’d be using. For the life of him, other than taking parts and equipment they needed, he wasn’t sure what they’d be doing there, but it was incumbent upon him to make sure it was ready for their use if required.

The first place he and his escort descended upon was the power center that would provide all the energy necessary for the Marine and Navy sections and the parts storage areas. He wasn’t sure how it compared to the other power centers aboard this station, but it seemed like it was large enough to energize everything all by itself since it had six large fusion plants. Six!

Danek had brought a swarm of fusion plant engineers with her when they’d come over, every one bearing packs of tools to get the power systems online if they were in condition to do so. From what he’d heard, she was less than impressed with the “supervisor” that Port Royale had assigned her, but as long as he didn’t get in her way, she wouldn’t stuff him out an airlock.

Probably.

Jack didn’t get in her way, leaving her to the task of bringing the power systems online if they were up to it. Instead, he took a fireteam of Marines to search for the area where the senior Navy officers would have worked. Turner had provided directions, so he could at least find the right section of the station.

It wouldn’t be like the bridge aboard Hunter. A station this size would have dedicated fire control centers to handle its defenses. No, he was looking for the command-and-control elements that had to be here to fight a war.

This station had been designed as the home base of the battleship division and set up to defeat another invasion by the Locusts. That meant everything necessary for the planning and executing of that war—his war—would be here somewhere.

Unlike Hunter, the station didn’t have seemingly infinite space. That meant the attached quarters and offices would be more reasonable in size, at least until one got to where the senior staff did their work. Much like Vice Admiral LaChasse’s office aboard headquarters at Faust, the senior officers had had plenty of elbow room to work.

He wasn’t interested in the office space. Instead, he wanted to find the planning rooms where policy and strategy were hashed out and implemented. He didn’t have the staff or the experience to work at anything like that, but one thing they’d have would be a map of the cluster.

It hadn’t changed since the last invasion. Exploration had already been on the decline at that point, and to the best of his knowledge, no new systems had been explored since then. In fact, this very station was built in the last place the Confederation had explored.

When Jack found the strategy and planning center, it was breathtaking. It rose three decks above his head in one massive chamber with tiered viewing areas on the top two decks and a walk-around viewing platform that allowed anyone to stand behind the railings and see what was going on.

In many ways, it was like a sports arena, only instead of athletes working below, there were circular rows of consoles where the senior staff worked around a holoprojector far larger than he’d thought possible. The damned thing must’ve cost as much as a cruiser.

Of course, Jack wouldn’t be able to see anything on it until power was restored. According to Danek, that could take a while even if the equipment had been shut down properly. It might take weeks or be impossible if things had been left to rot.

He walked around the large circular table that skirted the outer rim of the compartment. Even if every captain and first officer from the battleships and the senior officers who no doubt existed to support them had sat in those chairs, less than half would’ve been filled.

This compartment was overkill. If there was a smaller holo tank in one of the briefing rooms, it would more than suffice for what he needed. In fact, he might see about having it moved aboard Hunter. His would be a mobile command.

Jack was still musing about how over the top everything was when the overhead lights came on. Not every light worked, but many of them did, which was definitely a good start.

He glanced at the chronometer on his suit and saw that about an hour and a half had passed since he’d left the power center. Danek and her people had made better time than they had expected.

“Attention inside the Navy and Marine areas,” Danek’s voice came over his suit comm. “I’m about to restore gravity, so beware of falling objects. We’ll start with one-hundredth of a G. That should get everything drifting safely back down to the deck. Ten minutes from now, we’re going to scale that up to one-tenth of a G and give you another ten minutes to get yourself settled. From there, we’ll go up in increments until we’ve restored full gravity in about an hour. If anybody breaks anything important, it’s your own damned fault.”

She must have gotten the comm repeaters back online. He tested that theory by attempting to contact her over the command channel.

“Danek, this is Romanoff. What about life support?”

“We’ll head to life-support as soon as we’ve got a little gravity, sir. If it’s in as good a shape as the power plants, we’ll be able to start repressurizing everything once we close all the external hatches. We’ll start with low pressure and make sure we don’t have any leaks, so it’ll take more time than the power and gravity.”

“And the lifts?” he prompted.

“I’ve got people making sure the shafts are clear and closing things up. We’ll be able to get lifts to the populated areas without any issue, but I’ll want to make certain we can mesh the new cars with the ones already in service. The last thing we want is to have any collisions. That’ll take time, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“I’m not in a rush,” he assured her. “It will make this easier if we can do the work in shirtsleeves rather than vacuum suits, though. I take it everything was in good shape in the power center?”

“Whoever shut this place down made sure they turned everything off correctly and then did every step necessary to have it ready to come back online. All six plants are operating at minimal levels at this point. Once we’re sure they’re operating correctly, we can bring them up to standard power generating levels. That’s sufficient to power the entire station if Connor wants to go that far.”

She sighed. “I have to say that I’m jealous, sir. Our fusion plants are junk, and these are in prime condition. If I could steal four of them, we could conquer the universe.”

“I’ll bet the station has more,” he said. “For that matter, the other battleships might have some in better condition. I doubt it would be easy to get them out of the station—presuming they’d let us try—but that’s not necessarily true of the battleships.”

“The way I hear it, the people on the battleships aren’t friendly. I don’t envy you the job of telling them you’re the new owner when it comes time to start doing anything with those ships.”

“It’s not going to be easy negotiating with these people,” he agreed, “but they have to realize the Locusts are a bigger threat to them than us. We’ll manage.”

“If you say so, Commodore Optimist. I’ll give everyone a call once we’re about to start restoring pressure. The temperature and breathability will be crap until we’re pretty far along in the process, so I wouldn’t be looking to be in your shirtsleeves anytime soon, sir. Still, if everything goes well, we should have this area ready for people to work in without vacuum suits inside twelve hours. If everything goes well. Give us a few hiccups, and it’ll be days or longer.”

“Do the best you can, and keep me in the loop. The sooner we can start, the quicker we’ll get the necessary parts back to Hunter. We need her missile systems operational. I know we’re shorthanded, but it’s critical. I hope you’ve got some people who can help the tactical folks start refurbishing the missiles, too.”

“I’ve got a few people that can manage,” she said, “though you might want to tag whoever refurbished the missiles for Port Royale to head that project. We’ve also got some folks helping get some of the laser batteries online. Checking out the missile launchers, the magazines where the missiles are stored, and the fire control equipment won’t be too much of a stretch for them.”

“That’s a good start, and I’ll see what I can find out about the missile refurbishment. What are we looking at timewise?”

“I can’t promise we’ll have everything done in a timely fashion, but we can get the work started. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to figure out where the life-support systems are. Remember, gravity will be coming back on shortly. It won’t pull you down fast, but it’ll be there.”

“I’ll be careful,” he assured her. “Thanks for what you’re doing, and keep making the magic happen.”

Jack headed off in search of the battleship division commander’s office. His ability to navigate the old-style location markings had improved, but it wasn’t anything to write home about, so it took almost half an hour to locate the appropriate deck and start wandering through the offices.

Gravity had been restored to low levels at that point, but he was still using his magnetic boots. Cracking his helmet would be a disaster in a vacuum environment, so it was better to be slow and safe.

Having the lights on meant that he could turn off his headlamps and see everything clearly. He still had his Marine guards making sure everything was clear around him, though he was confident that the people who’d been looting the supplies and equipment were long gone.

The Marines still acted as if trouble might lurk around every corner, but he didn’t begrudge them their paranoia. It was their job to keep him safe, and he had to make allowances for that.

By the time he’d located the battleship division commander’s office, gravity was back up to three-quarters normal. He shut off his magnetic boots and entered the adjutant’s office, where some junior officers would’ve done the office tasks and screened visitors coming to see the division commander.

He almost laughed as he walked in. The room was at least as large as Vice Admiral LaChasse’s office. It wasn’t just one person screening calls and looking over visitors. There were a dozen desks here, and he felt sure mid-rank Navy officers were screening information much like a command staff would do to make sure the admiral in charge got the information they needed without drowning in other data.

There was one rather large desk in front of the door leading into the next compartment. This would be where the person screening the admiral’s person from visitors decided who got in and who didn’t.

Vice Admiral LaChasse had had a lieutenant filling the role. He wagered the division commander here had had a full commander. Hell, maybe even a captain. The problem was that so many people on this station would’ve been flag officers.

Talk about problems he didn’t have to worry about.

He let himself into the admiral’s office with a bet that it would dwarf LaChasse’s, and he would have won big. The division commander’s office was twice the size of the disgraced vice admiral his father had arrested and replaced.

In addition to the admiral’s wide desk—which was larger than even his own aboard Hunter—there were small clusters of workstations where people did critical work for the division commander. They were far enough away that the people could work without feeling like the admiral was staring over their shoulders, but that still couldn’t have been an easy job.

Jack made his way over to the admiral’s workspace and found it spotless and pristine. The built-in computer was turned off, and the desk itself had nothing on it. Of course, everything had been in microgravity, so anything sitting out would’ve drifted away long ago.

Not that he could see signs of anything like that in the compartment. Whoever had been in charge of this office had put everything in its place before leaving.

When Jack looked around, he noted that though it didn’t have any viewports leading into space, the right-hand wall—when looked at from the admiral’s desk—was covered with viewscreens set edge to edge.

Curious, Jack walked over and found the controls and turned them on. He gasped when they came to life. It was as if he was looking out over the gas giant they orbited with nothing between him and it. It wasn’t a static image but a video. Its cold colorful beauty filled the compartment with pastel light.

He double-checked the controls and found several other views he could choose from. One was of deep space, another showed a fleet of Confederation warships in formation—not the battleships, but smaller vessels.

There was one of a battleship, and it was labeled “Delta Orionis.” It was his ship, though much less chewed up. This video was taken by someone flying around the vessel in a slow spiral to show everything.

The last setting was a planet from orbit. Earth: the birthplace of mankind. He put that up and marveled at how much like Faust it looked. Still, the iconic shapes of the continents told the true tale.

He left that video playing and went back to the admiral’s desk, sat, and tried to imagine what it would’ve been like to sit here when the first commanding officer had been in charge. They’d built this facility after the invasion, so everything here was prepared for a new war rather than fighting the old one.

Too bad they hadn’t kept the ships up. If they’d been ready for this invasion with the same level of preparedness, they’d have eviscerated the Locusts.

Sadly, human beings were what they were. They couldn’t remain vigilant forever, and the Locusts had stayed away long enough for their defenses to atrophy. It was up to him and his people to honor those who had built this facility by winning this war.

He was about to get up but decided to further indulge himself and look inside the desk drawers. All were empty, except for the top one. It contained a small wooden case.

Jack set the box on the desk and opened it. Inside was a folded piece of paper and a data chip. Carefully, not wanting to damage something that might be historically priceless, Jack unfolded the paper and read what was written on it.

To whomever next commands the battleship division:

I don’t know who you are, and we’ve likely never met, but I wanted to take a moment to leave my thoughts for you. Odds are you find yourself in challenging times, and I hope my insights can help.

I’ve left something for you in my cutter, locked safely away in its cargo bay. I realize we’re powering the station down, but I’ve taken precautions. Hopefully, you’ll find everything intact. The code to the lock is the date we destroyed the last Locust ship. Enjoy it in good health.

Humanity is in your hands, my unknown protégé. Be worthy.

Grand Admiral Edward Carstairs

Edward Carstairs had been the man who’d crushed the Locusts during the first invasion. He hadn’t been a Grand Admiral then, just an admiral. He’d ended his Navy career with that fifth star, and no one had ever done more to earn it.

He’d been dead and gone for more than a century and a half, so this was a message from the grave. It also emphasized how much time had passed since the station was mothballed. He hoped whatever he’d had left in his cutter could stand up to the cold, airless conditions for that long.

Jack put the note back where he’d found it, closed the box, and put it inside his suit. He’d wait until he got back to Hunter to hear what his predecessor had to say.

Whatever it was, he knew he needed to give it his full attention, but he had other tasks to complete. If anyone could understand what he was going through right now, the long-dead admiral who’d left this note for him was that man.

Well, he’d spent enough time indulging himself. It was time to get back to work.

10

Connor made his way to the flight control area serving Port Royale. It wasn’t much to speak of, but he knew the way. He supposed they’d have to expand the number of controllers with the Navy moving in. One more thing to work out when the council finished making up their minds about the treaty.

He needed to inform them about the attack, but he had too much on his plate to do it right now. All they’d want to do was talk about it anyway. Well, Romani would want to yell at him, but he could do with putting that off for a while, too.

The flight controllers were a phlegmatic group. They weren’t given to excitement, so when he stepped into a room full of people in an uproar, he knew something was very wrong.

“Pipe down!” he shouted over the chatter of voices. “What’s going on?”

One of the women turned to him as the conversation died down. “The computers crashed. We need a specialist to get them working again while we direct traffic manually.”

“We’ll get someone to look at things, but I need you to tell me what happened right before the computers crashed. The rest of you, get back to work.”

The woman he’d been speaking with shrugged. “It was a normal day. The failure seemed to come right out of left field. I suppose that’s how computer crashes are. You never expect they’ll happen, and boom, you’re down.”

“So, you only had traffic coming into the one bay, correct?”

She frowned at him. “Of course. Where else would they go? We had some traffic back and forth between some of the old battleships and the usual stuff going to the belts and the greenhouse domes, but nothing out of line.”

“Was there anyone on duty that’s not here now?”

That made her frown deepen. “We don’t normally have this many people working a shift, but we called in extra people to help us handle the load once the computers went down. It’s better to have two pairs of eyes looking at everything when you don’t have a computer backup. At this point, I expect we’re all here.”

“Was there anyone scheduled for duty that’s no longer here?”

She looked around and seemed to be counting heads. Since these were very detail-oriented folk, she’d remember who was supposed to be there, even with the pressure on.

“I don’t see Finley. He may have stepped out to use the bathroom.”

“Did anyone see when Finley left the room?” Connor asked in a louder voice. “No guesses. I need to know if anyone saw it happen.”

One of the young men seated at the console raised a hand but kept talking into his headset. He turned just enough to look at Connor as soon as he finished. “He left about an hour ago. Not sure what for, but things were still in an uproar because of the computers, so I thought he was going for help.”

“Is Finley his first name or last? Does anybody know where his quarters are?”

“His last name is McDonald,” she said. “I’m not sure where he stays, but it’ll be in our directory. Unfortunately, that went down when the computers did. I don’t think we have it written down anywhere. I suppose that’s something we need to correct.”

“What was Finley overseeing before the computers went down?”

“He had the main console,” the young man sitting there now said. “There were three of us on duty, so he watched the traffic and communicated with the various small craft while the rest of us were catching up on some paperwork. He was still doing it when the computers crashed. He headed out right after that.”

That was all Connor needed to hear. This Finley must have been covering for whoever had been in the parts storage area. Alone at the console, he could easily ignore traffic he didn’t want to acknowledge. If no one else saw the sensor records, they wouldn’t be able to say anything untoward after the fact.

Of course, that all went out the window as soon as people started shooting.

“When the computers come back online, I want you to go over every small craft that approached the station when Finley started duty at the console,” he ordered. “We’ve had someone stealing things from the warehouses, and the data may still be in there. There will be a bonus for whoever gets me the information I need.”

Connor doubted the data was still there. This Finley would’ve erased everything incriminating before he crashed the computers. In fact, if the computers were recoverable, he’d be shocked.

He stepped out of the room, pulled his comm off of his belt, and called one of the council’s aides. “I need a room assignment for a man named Finley McDonald. He works as a flight controller.”

“Hang on,” the young man said.

Connor gestured for his guards to close in while he waited. “Once we find out where this Finley lives, we’ll pay him a visit. No matter what happens, I want him alive.”

The men and women nodded. They’d do their best to keep from killing the bastard if he started shooting, but Connor wouldn’t hold it against them if they couldn’t take him alive.

A few seconds after he’d finished speaking, the aide was back on the channel. “His quarters are on gamma deck.” His contact proceeded to rattle off a series of letters and numbers that designated the compartment.

Connor recited them back to confirm and let his guards know where they were going. With that accomplished, the group headed to the lifts and down to gamma deck. Everything seemed normal as they made their way through the twisting corridors and stopped outside the indicated quarters.

“Open it up,” he ordered.

The electronic locks on the station could be overridden with the appropriate codes, and his security team had them. That didn’t mean there wouldn’t be manual locks on the inside, but if they were engaged, that meant Finley was home.

One of the security people used a device to override the lock, and the hatch slid open. His guards went in with their weapons drawn. Inside, they found chaos. A suitcase was broken open in the living room, and clothes were scattered everywhere. Definitely not the sign of an innocent man going about his day.

The security team spread out, calling out to one another to let everyone know what they were finding. One of the groups found Finley in the bathroom, but he couldn’t help them. Someone had stuffed him into the shower and slit his throat.

Connor stepped into the doorway and saw the dead man sprawled in the shower. From the way the bathroom was torn up, he hadn’t gone into the shower willingly.

He was a loose end that someone had cut off. It was still possible they’d find something that pointed them to the right people, but this would be a massive pain in the ass to sort out.

“Go through everything,” he ordered. “He might have written something down that we can use to trace the people behind this.”

Based on how the place had been torn up, they’d searched for any incriminating evidence, but they’d been on the clock. They knew someone would come along, and they didn’t have forever to make things happen. That means the most secretive hiding places might have slipped by.

As his people spread out to begin searching, Connor walked through the quarters himself. He’d been a smuggler most of his life, and he knew how to hide things where people wouldn’t find them. He considered where most people stashed things and decided not to even look there. His folks would check those for him.

No. He was much more interested in a concealed spot that no one would think to check. On a ship designed for smuggling, there were concealed compartments made to look like they didn’t even exist. They were built so that other equipment concealed their presence, but they had to be accessible enough to get your stuff in and out.

He pondered and discarded potential locations as he went from room to room. The attackers had cut up the mattress and all the furniture. Amateur hour, there. No one with half a brain would think those were secure hiding spots.

There were access panels on the floor that had been opened up as well. Those served the conduits that provided water, power, and air. Even the kitchen had been ransacked. The freezer had been emptied, and all the containers cut open. What a waste.

Connor grabbed a beer—which hadn’t been opened because the glass was clear enough to see through—and took a swig once he’d popped the lid. He grimaced. It wasn’t the best, but it would help him think. He then proceeded to search everywhere he could think of.

He returned to the bathroom and set the now empty beer bottle on the sink. With the kitchen eliminated, the bathroom was the most likely hiding place in his estimation. He’d go through everything and hope he got lucky.

Connor failed to find any concealed compartments in the cabinets, or fake containers among the cleaning supplies, and turned to the pipes at the back of the sink. One of them served as a drain, but the other seemed to be going from the level above to the one below. Anyone opening up the access would believe that the pipe was for carrying other people’s water.

He found that unconvincing. Those would be in the bulkheads and not readily accessible, so he wrapped his hands around the pipe and tugged at it. It resisted his efforts for a moment and then popped free. When he looked inside, he saw it contained several data chips.

Connor stood, pocketed the data chips, and shook his head at the dead man. “You made some bad choices, boyo. I can appreciate the desire to make money, but you sided with people that valued their privacy more than your blood. It won’t do you any good, but I’ll make sure they pay for that. Not because I care about you, but because they’re a threat Port Royale can’t abide.”

Whoever these people were, they’d come aboard his station, attacked his guests, and then murdered their pawn right under his very nose. They would regret crossing swords with him.

He made his way out to where the guards were still working. Some of them had found money and even illicit drugs, but he was sure he had the most important stuff in his pocket. There was only one person he trusted to get to the bottom of this without triggering any potential safety protocols. He brought out his communicator and called her.

11

Once Alan got the mothership core set up and the terminal online, he began showing the hacker the kind of files he was talking about and playing both the original audio and the translated files for her.

“You’ll see that each of the files is linked by the names,” he said as she looked at the screen. “My guess is the translation to the alien language will be imprecise. That means translating them back will make the errors even more pronounced, yet it’s all we can do. The problem is that we know nothing about how the alien language operates. Are all meanings based on the words, or do the tones change the meanings? Or even something even more esoteric?”

He scratched his ear. “Right now, I suspect you’ll need to create a series of algorithms that predict how the human words are translated until you get to the point where you can also create those translations from any file, including those you might produce yourself. That would match what the Locusts were doing.”

She nodded as she considered the terminal’s screen. “That’s what I was thinking, but that’ll only take me so far. Even once I get an algorithm that translates these files, that’s when the hard work begins. I think you’re underestimating how fast I can get the first portion of that done, so you’ll have to decide if you want to tell me the entire story now or wait until later.”

“The whole story?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’m not certain what you mean?”

She shot him a smug look. “You’re hiring me because I’m smart, so don’t treat me like an idiot. If you want to be able to translate alien audio files to our language, then you’ve got some other files lurking somewhere. I find it difficult to believe the Locust motherships and drones communicate in anything as primitive as audio, so somewhere you’ve gotten your hands on files created by living breathing aliens.”

“I’m not able to speak to that,” he said with a prim smile. “Either you’re interested in the job, or you’re not and I need to speak to someone else.”

She started to answer, but her comm sounded on the desk beside the bed. She excused herself and walked over to answer it. After a short conversation, she disconnected and came back.

“It sounds like we’ll have a visitor in a few minutes. I have to be honest with you, Professor. This sounds like an interesting job, but my time is valuable. If you want me to devote myself to this to the exclusion of everything else, you’ll have to pay for the privilege, which won’t come cheap.”

She quoted him a price in doubloons that sounded like quite a lot. Still, it wasn’t his money.

“I’m willing to pay that, but I have to discuss things with my Navy friends so they can arrange for a line of credit with the people in charge here. Right now, things are still up in the air, and I’m not certain how that will play out.”

His comment made her chuckle. “You can settle that yourself if you like. The person that just called me is the one that runs Port Royale, and he’s got another hot job for me. If you two can work out the details amongst yourselves, I’m willing to accept his word that I’ll be paid.”

She spent a moment staring at the terminal before she spoke again. “While I do live in a cave, I’ve heard about what you folks did for us in stopping the Locusts. Yes, some of them did bleed through, but they’d have destroyed us if the full swarm had gotten by. With that in mind, I’ll take twenty percent off my fee.”

“I appreciate the gesture, but it’s not my money. I’m a researcher at heart, and if they’re going to pay the one fee, they’ll pay the other. I suggest you take the money.”

That made her grin for the first time. “You’re a man after my own heart, Professor. I hope you can work out the details with Connor because this sounds like it’ll be fun. And, if my suspicions are correct, there’s a lot more to the story than you’re telling me.”

A few minutes later, someone signaled at the door, and she went to answer it. Standing on the other side could only be Mark Connor, who was dressed just as implausibly as Alan had been led to expect.

Connor stepped into the room and started to say something before noting Alan and the Navy people standing there. “You didn’t tell me you had guests.”

“There was no reason to. The professor and I were just discussing a potential project. He’ll want to talk to you once you’re done with me.”

“That sounds suitably mysterious,” Connor allowed. “I have some data chips that I need the contents of, but I suspect they’ve been rigged to erase themselves if accessed inappropriately. It’s linked to an attack on the Navy personnel and me earlier. I’ll pay your priority fee if you can get them opened up within the hour. Also, someone slagged the computers used by the flight operations team. I’ll need you to recover the sensor data to find the people associated with these data chips.”

Gane took the chips and walked over to her own computer. “I’ll get started on these while you talk with the professor. By the time you’re finished, I might have the work done. Then we’ll see if we need the sensor data. No need to pay for extra work, right?”

The smuggler looked Alan over and smiled. “Mark Connor. The way she keeps calling you ‘the professor’ implies you’re the academic that Jack mentioned in passing. Am I right?”

Alan extended his hand. “Doctor Alan Prescott, director of the Locust War Historical Society. Everyone calls me that because I used to teach at the university level. I’m one of the folks aboard Hunter with knowledge about the Locusts.”

He gestured toward the computer core. “As you can see, I’ve brought a mothership core for Miss Gane to do some specialized work on. She tells me that rather than working through Jack to get the funding for her services, I should perhaps speak to you.”

Connor walked around the side of the terminal and looked at the screen. “I can’t say this means anything to me, so you’ll have to tell me what you’re trying to do. I feel confident we can arrange a line of credit if it’s important enough. We know frighteningly little about the Locusts.”

Alan considered how to respond. He wasn’t going to reveal the presence of the alien vessel they’d salvaged at New Copenhagen or the fact they had living aliens they might be able to revive, but he had to tell him something if he wanted to get this work done.

“As I told Miss Gane, there are limits on some of the details I can speak about. I’ve been researching the Locusts for over a decade, and I’ve managed to crack one of their cores and retrieve some interesting files, including translations of human audio transmissions to an alien language. I want her to create a program that can reliably do the same and then reverse engineer it so we can take alien audio files and convert them to our language.”

Connor’s eyes narrowed, and he nodded. “People don’t pay good money without reason, so I’ll assume you already have some of those files you’d like to know the contents of. Who sent them? I thought the Locusts were machines.”

“They are, but somebody built them, and we’d love to know more about them.”

“Without actual aliens to speak to, don’t we know everything important about the machines? They’ve attacked every world inside the cluster by now, and they’re bent on exterminating our people in space. Will knowing what they said to their machines change anything?”

“Again, without getting into the details, yes. Jack can authorize giving you a rundown of what we’ve found, but I think the information we’ll gain by translating these audio files will have critical implications for the war.”

Connor crossed his arms and looked over at the hacker working on her computer. “She doesn’t come cheap, so you’re not asking for an insignificant sum. If this is some researcher’s scheme just to get historical data, I’m not going to be pleased. Convince me this has real-world implications and isn’t just an intellectual exercise, Professor.”

Alan pursed his lips. Maybe it would be worthwhile if he let out a bit of information. He could still play his cards close to his vest and keep their big secrets hidden.

“We got our hands on a different type of computer on our way here,” he said after a few seconds. “It was inside the wreckage of a new type of Locust vessel. It has many audio files, and they aren’t translations of human speech. They’re true recordings of aliens.”

He smiled in his best scholarly manner. “Do I know that they will change the course of the war? No. Will we ever know if we don’t try to translate them? Also no. Sometimes promising research comes to a dead end, but I promise I wouldn’t be pursuing this if I didn’t think it was critically important we obtain all the answers that might be available to us.”

Connor considered him carefully before nodding. “I think there’s a bigger story behind this, but I also think you’re telling me the truth, and I suppose that’s what’s important. Here’s the deal, Professor Prescott. I’ll open a line of credit for this research, but we need to be read into what you’re doing and why. Whatever secrets you’re hiding, our lives are on the line with yours.”

Alan shrugged. “Commodore Romanoff is the only one that can agree to release the details about what we found. All I can tell you is that he thinks this is the most critical research I’ve ever done, and it’s one of our highest priorities.”

The pirate sighed. “Then I’ll want your promise that you’ll at least try to convince him to share that information with our governing council and me. You don’t have to tell everybody what you’re up to, yet if you want our full-throated support, you’ll have to convince us that it’s worth our while. I’m willing to trust this is important, but you need to be willing to trust us as well.”

Alan rubbed his face and pulled his comm unit off of his belt. “I’ll call Jack and see if I can convince him to get behind this. That’s the best I can do.”

“And a man can’t ask for better than that, can he? I’ll see what Lisa’s up to while you have your talk. Be convincing, Professor. Be very convincing.”

Once Connor had stepped away, Alan connected to the station network and placed a call to Hunter. As far out as it was, there was a five-second delay going in each direction, but that couldn’t be helped. Once he got a hold of someone on the ship, he asked to be connected to Jack, only to find out that he was in a cutter between the station and Port Royale.

He disconnected and had the station route his call to the cutter. This time, Jack answered. “Professor, what’s going on?”

“I’m on Port Royale looking for help translating the Locust audio files. Both the computer professional and Connor have made inquiries about why we need to do this type of work, and I’ve answered as best I can, but they understand there are things I’m not saying. Without going into things over an open channel, Connor is willing to fund what needs to be done, but he wants to know why we want this research done.”

There was a short stretch of silence that lasted longer than just the transmission lag, so Alan knew Jack was considering how much could be allowed out into the wild.

“I won’t say that I trust Connor completely, but he’s right,” Jack allowed. “Tell them whatever you think best, but that information has to stay restricted to a very small group of people. If the whole story gets out, there’ll be an uproar. Hopefully, if anyone is trying to monitor this transmission, the built-in encryption will keep them from hearing anything.”

Alan had forgotten he was using one of the old-style military coms with built-in encryption. That was far better than speaking in the clear, but he still wasn’t going to mention anything that would give their secrets away because he was standing in the quarters of someone that could crack the protections on the transmission.

“I’ll tell them everything we know, though I’ll keep some of the details to myself,” he said. “Everything revolving around why we need these files translated is on the table. Is that acceptable?”

“Use your best judgment, Professor. Romanoff out.”

Alan put his comm back on his belt just as the hacker returned the data chips to Connor. Based on her smug expression and his pleased smile, she’d cracked whatever encryption or safety protocols had been in place.

“So I have good news on one front, Professor,” Connor said as he walked over with Gane at his heels. “Tell me I’ve struck gold twice.”

“When we were on our way through New Copenhagen, we chanced across the wreck of a new type of Locust ship. It had a tremendous number of suspended animation pods aboard with aliens inside them. We assume these are the aliens that created the Locusts. Not only did the computers from that ship have many audio files, but we managed to recover a dozen pods in functioning order with living aliens still inside them. We haven’t tried to wake them yet, but that will come.”

For once, Connor looked taken aback. “So there are living aliens behind these machines? I hadn’t ever considered that possibility. Nevertheless, if what you’re saying is true—and I have no reason to doubt you—this task is essential.”

Connor turned his gaze to Gane. “Port Royale will guarantee your full fee. I want you to give this your undivided attention, and I’m willing to pay a premium to make it happen. Everything you do here will be under a seal of confidentiality. You don’t talk to anyone other than the professor, Commodore Romanoff, and me.”

She nodded, her expression a bit worried. “You found this ship full of aliens, so you suspect there are even more scattered throughout the cluster? We’ll need to interrogate the ones you found, and we’re going to have to start negotiating with the ones you didn’t, so I’ll agree this is a vital project and give it everything I have.”

Alan extended his hand and shook Conner’s when he took it. Then he did the same for Gane.

“I’ll make sure you get access to everything you need, but at some point, we’ll be speaking with a living alien face to face. I’ve seen them, and it’s an unsettling experience, so I hope we can avoid misunderstandings. Lives will depend on the accuracy of these translations.”

She shook her head. “I can’t promise perfection, and I won’t. We have no frame of reference with these aliens, and there needs to be a back-and-forth process with someone knowledgeable in their language before I can refine the algorithms to be certain of their accuracy. Even then, it’s going to be a crapshoot. There will be subjects and words that have no literal translation.”

“Do the best you can,” Alan said.

“I’ll take the information Lisa unlocked and speak with your man Turner while the two of you focus on this. It seems the people that attacked us didn’t clean up as well as they’d hoped, so we can go pay them a visit.”

Connor smiled without a hint of amusement. “I’ll wager that Colonel Turner will be inclined to make them regret their life choices, and working with him to make that happen is good for both our peoples.”

“Then I’ll leave you to that with my good wishes,” Alan said. “Let’s hope we all have a productive time of it.”

12

Mac listened as Connor explained who he thought was behind the attack with more than a hint of skepticism. All the smuggler had to go on was data stashed away by a dead man. Data they couldn’t confirm.

He was willing to grant that the dead flight controller had believed these people were behind hiring him but was it true? If he’d been working behind the scenes with someone, he’d want to misdirect that person’s attention if they betrayed him. In fact, it would’ve been one of his highest priorities. When the hammer came down, he’d want to make sure it fell on someone else.

When Connor finished explaining who he thought the bad people were, Mac laid out his thoughts.

“I can see where you’d think that,” the smuggler agreed. “In fact, it’s the kind of thing I’d do myself. If that were the only evidence, I might be willing to entertain just a bit more skepticism, but it’s not.”

He grinned at Turner. “My hacker friend took a look at the computers in the flight control center. Whoever set them up to crash deleted all the sensor data and did so in a way they were certain would make it unrecoverable. Sadly for them, they’re not as good at that sort of thing as she is. She recovered a good portion of today’s data, and we verified that the unauthorized cargo shuttle came from the battleship Scorpius. Well, the asteroid that used to be that battleship, in any case.”

“And you’re sure the data isn’t faked?”

“She’s certain, and that’s good enough for me. One way or the other, my people and I are going in. I’m not asking you to do the hard work. I’m asking if you want to come along and represent your commodore and the Confederation.”

As much as Mac wanted to agree, he had to get this cleared with Jack first. He and his people worked for the Navy, and he couldn’t just go off on his own personal vengeance tour.

Once he’d contacted the commodore, he laid out what Connor had discovered and what the smuggler intended to do. “He wants to know whether we’re going with him. Do you think we should?”

“Probably not,” the officer said, “but this is one of those situations where they’ve asked for our assistance, so I’d like to give it. Technically, Connor and his people are the lawful authorities in this system, and you’re there as backup. Let him run the show, and if things spin out of control, you’re authorized to do what’s necessary to put things right.”

“I’m thinking you have something else in mind as a secondary objective,” Mac said.

“True. We need to know the condition of these ships. We’ve got to start somewhere, and that one just nominated itself to be our test case. Once everything is secure, we’ll send some engineers over to see if it’s even possible to get it back into service. If not, we’ll see what can be done to make it a mobile weapons platform to help defend against any Locust incursions.”

Mac nodded. “I think that’s a great idea, sir. We need a base of operations that’s not under the control of the locals. Right now, it’s Hunter, but our people will be at their mercy once we leave the system, and I don’t like that. Based on the condition our Marine weapons were stored in, I suspect the Navy left these battleships in good shape. Sadly, squatters don’t have the same standards. Also, there were pirates here long before these people arrived, and there’s no telling what was removed and sold.”

“And that’s why we have to look,” Jack said. “I’m not saying to let Connor and his people take all the risk, but they call the shots, at least in a strategic sense. You’re responsible for the safety of our people and the tactics they use. If he orders you to do something you don’t like, hit the brakes. If you see something that needs to be done, and he’s a little wishy-washy, push it as much as you can.”

“I can do that, sir. With Derek here, I’ve got what I need to make our move. I have no idea how Connor intends to board that battleship, but I have a few thoughts that might get us in and secure the areas we’d like right up front. Still, I need to pin down our rules of engagement. When is it acceptable to fire, and when do we have to let things proceed on their own?”

“There needs to be a general announcement that the authorities are boarding,” the commodore said. “Even if you’re being fired on, make that clear and give them a chance to stop. If they don’t, you’re free to return fire. We don’t want to kill people that are just protecting their homes, but that doesn’t mean we’ll let them shoot us up. Got it?”

“Got it. I’ll let you know how it turns out.”

He disconnected the call and walked over to where Connor was looking at the armory with more than a hint of avarice. Now that life support had been restored to this section, they didn’t have to be in suits, and the smuggler could see just how much firepower had been under his nose the entire time.

Too bad for him. Finders keepers.

“The commodore says we’re clear to assist you, but you need to give them a heads-up that we’re the authorities. If they start shooting, we’re clear to shoot back. We’re also going to secure the sections of the ship that are critical to its operations as expeditiously as possible.”

“I suspect a good chunk of the people living there had no idea this was taking place or didn’t grasp that what they were doing could cost someone their life,” the smuggler said. “On the other hand, they’re rabid isolationists, and the people leading this particular sect are more so than most. I used the word ‘sect’ on purpose because these folks have a very religious flavor to their xenophobia. I wouldn’t be looking for compliance.”

Mac had his doubts about how that would play out, but they needed to secure the battleship one way or the other. It was less about revenge than making sure everyone understood what happened when they shot at Confederation Marines.

“They were getting missiles and fire control units,” Mac said. “Any idea if they have their lasers working?”

“It’s possible, but I think the Locusts got them thinking. I doubt they’ve had time to get anything operational.”

Mac hoped not because that would suck.

“We’ll have to look at all the battleships as soon as possible. Even if others have been doing anything like that, we should be able to disable their fire control.”

“Agreed,” Connor said. “We’ll make a tour as soon as we secure this ship. With the examples we’re likely going to make, it should reduce any resistance to below the violence threshold.”

That was fine with Mac. He didn’t enjoy busting heads. If word got around, that would reduce the likelihood of anyone else taking shots at them.

“I’ll get my people together and lay out the rules of engagement,” Mac said. “I’d board in the engineering section. If we cut off their power, that will put a crimp in their style. Do we have any idea how badly these battleships were torn up by the pirates, or the people living there now, for that matter?”

The smuggler shrugged. “I took a tour of a couple after we seized control of the system, and there was a lot of equipment missing. If you’re looking for a ship in better shape than your current one, I don’t expect you’re going to find it. You might be able to salvage some of the equipment to make yours work better, but I’m not even sure about that.”

Not optimal, but not unexpected either.

“I’m surprised they didn’t strip the depot,” Mac said. “Pirates are all about making money.”

“I suspect it was too difficult to dig into it to get what they wanted, but the engineering sections of those battleships were easy to access. I suppose a telling point is that only four of the battleships have people squatting in them. There’s a reason for that, I’m sure.”

The news wasn’t a surprise to Mac. “If nothing else, maybe they’ve got a fusion plant or two that we can put aboard Hunter. We’ve had some failures, and replacing them would make operations a lot easier.”

“I wish you luck with that,” Connor said. “I’ll have my people ready to go in half an hour. See you shortly.”

After the smuggler left, Mac got his people together and briefed them. They all knew how Hunter was laid out, so even though there were probably some individual variations on these other battleships, the people living there wouldn’t have a complete home-field advantage.

They availed themselves of the armory to augment the weapons they already had. They made the deadline and were packed aboard a pinnace when the hatch to the small craft bay opened, and another pinnace came in.

Connor stepped out to meet him once it landed. “My people and I are ready to go. We’ve got enough explosives to get into the engineering compartment, but I’m hoping you’ve got a sneakier way of making that work. Does the commodore have access to any codes that could be entered to open the hatch?”

Mac nodded. “I’ve got those on tap. They’re built into the hardware, so it’s not something they could’ve changed without going to a lot of trouble. Even so, I’m not certain they could’ve gotten them out without replacing the hatches. I suppose the explosives are a good backup plan, but we should be able to get in without them.”

Now for the hard part. “Let me stress again that we have to make sure they get a warning to lay down their weapons right up front. Those are my orders, and it’s the right thing to do. If someone is stupid enough to shoot at us, they’ll get what they deserve, but they need a warning.”

The smuggler shook his head and sighed. “You Confederation types are always so honorable. When you get into the engineering compartment, you can use the speakers on your suits to order everyone to lay down their arms. I don’t expect it to do you much good, but they’ll have been warned.”

“You’re not going with us?”

“I figure we’ll make an entrance to the small craft bay they’re using so they can’t throw everything at defending engineering. I’ll give them a warning to soothe your conscience. Once you’ve secured control of engineering, you should be able to make an announcement throughout the occupied portions of the ship to warn the rest. There aren’t that many people living there, so there’s no reason to have huge swaths of the ship pressurized. Catching them all will be easy enough.”

“And resistance won’t do them any good if we kill the power,” Mac said. “I’m no engineer, but I know how to initiate a safe shutdown since that’s part of our training. Once we have them in the dark, the advantage goes to us because they’ll start running out of air. I’ll send a fire team with you, and they’ll be responsible for securing the bay after your people stop any resistance. We can keep them from getting out by entering a code that will lock the hatches down.”

“That works for me,” Connor declared. “Let’s do this.”

Mac boarded his pinnace and detached a fire team to join Connor’s group and made sure they had the necessary codes to access the small craft bay and lock the hatch behind them. Again, it was always possible the squatters had done something to negate those codes, but he thought that unlikely.

Since the squatters had just been involved in a fight aboard Port Royale, odds were they’d be ready for the incursion. At least they’d be at a higher state of alert than usual. The chances of exchanging fire were high, but he had confidence that his people were up to the task.

The real trick would be taking engineering without destroying everything. They needed that equipment intact. He laid out how important it was to avoid unnecessary damage. If somebody shot up the independent quantum drive, that battleship would never be of use to them. Ditto the fusion drives and fusion plants.

That put them at a disadvantage because the defenders wouldn’t be as concerned about that equipment. It’s not as if the battleship had moved in the last two centuries. All they cared about were the fusion plants.

Of course, it was always possible they thought they’d gotten away clean, but he wasn’t counting on that. It was always best to consider an opponent to be more capable than they probably were.

One thing in their favor was that none of the battleships were running active sensors. It was possible they’d detect the pinnaces with passive sensors, but they couldn’t control that.

They had no trouble approaching the battleship, and the pinnace latched on the hull near the massive airlock at the rear of the ship. Their target was the personnel airlock adjacent to the massive one. Once his people were on the asteroid’s surface, one of his specialists approached the smaller airlock and entered the codes necessary to open it without signaling anyone aboard that he’d done so.

The airlock was big enough for half a dozen Marines, and they were ready for trouble. The most likely point of resistance would be right inside the airlock if the squatters were prepared for trouble.

When the inner airlock door opened, they rushed in and found that the squatters had set up a barricade across from the airlock, and there were men and women behind it with weapons.

Even as Mac was shouting for them to lay down their weapons and surrender, the defenders opened fire, putting his people’s armored vacuum suits to the test. The Marines dove for cover and returned fire.

The enemy had the drop on them, but their weapons were less capable. Where the Marine armor deflected or stopped the incoming fire, his heavy weapons people dumped high explosives into the barricade, blowing it apart and injuring or killing some of the people behind it.

Their training allowed them to press their advantage and get people through the obstacle even as the airlock cycled and more Marines joined the fight. In seconds they were through the first layer of resistance.

“First squad, secure the prisoners and give first aid where you can,” he ordered. “Everyone else with me.”

With that, he led his people into engineering proper. Their surprise was gone, but they could still turn this around. He hoped Connor was as ready for trouble as he’d been, or the smuggler would get a much hotter welcome than he was ready for.

13

Jack sat in the rear of the pinnace, staring at the deck. What he’d found inside Admiral Carstairs’s cutter lay spread out before him as the pinnace headed back to Hunter.

The admiral’s gift had consisted of ten whiskey cases, sealed in a pressure-tight container and warmed by a slow decay-powered heater. Everything had been well-shielded, so it had been safe, but the power source had been on its last legs. The alcohol had been under the freezing point of water but still liquid. A decade or two more, and it might have frozen, shattering the glass bottles. Carstairs must’ve expected the Locusts to come back sooner than they had.

The surprising time capsule had contained one hundred and twenty-one bottles—one had been outside the cases and wrapped with a bow—of Drake’s Single Malt whiskey. The brand’s name was unfamiliar to Jack, but that was no surprise since he wasn’t well versed in high-end alcohol.

And based on the packaging, this was very classy stuff. It was a deep brown inside bright, clear glass bottles with silver and black labels and a long stoppered cork sealed by a silver strap that looked almost metallic. The labels marked the bottles as The Carstairs’ Reserve.

This was something he needed to turn over to David Chen, so he’d called ahead and asked his steward to meet him in the small craft bay to take possession of the cases of booze without telling him the specifics of what he’d found.

As soon as the pinnace landed and the ramp came down, David pushed a cart into the pinnace with a scowl. “Don’t you know how busy I am, Jack? What’s so important that it needed me to take care of it?”

Jack stood and extended the bottle of whiskey to him.

David took it with a sour expression that vanished when he got a good look at the label. “Where did you get this?” he asked in a low, urgent tone.

“It was left aboard the space station as a gift for me from Grand Admiral Carstairs.”

He shot Jack a look of incredulity. “Do you realize what this is?”

“Obviously not.”

David took in the ten cases sitting on the deck in front of Jack. Almost reverently, he set the one bottle he was holding on the deck and opened one of the cases, revealing twelve more bottles of the mysterious whiskey.

He stared up at Jack. “Are these all the same? Are they all sealed and intact?”

Jack nodded. “One hundred and twenty-one bottles of it. What the hell am I going to do with that many bottles of single malt whiskey? Have a wild party?”

“I’ve heard of the reserve, but I never expected to see a bottle,” David said as he picked up the lone bottle to examine more closely. “Hell, I never expected to see almost the entire reserve in one place. Jack, how could you not know what you’re looking at?”

“Assume I’m an idiot that lives in a cave and explain it to me with small words. Use pictures if at all possible.”

“Back during the first invasion—and even today—Drake’s Distillery was one of the premier distillers of fine whiskey in the cluster,” David said, not taking his eyes off the bottle. “The owners and staff fled for their lives when the Locusts invaded. In the chaos, the distillery was looted and burned. A total loss, or so they thought.”

Jack took the bottle from David, even though it looked like the other man didn’t want to release it. He examined it closely but found himself no more enlightened than when he’d started. “It’s pretty enough to look at and obviously has a connection to Grand Admiral Carstairs, but I don’t get it. If everything was lost, where did this come from?”

“The owners rebuilt the distillery next to the destroyed one and resumed operations after the invasion ended. It took many years to get everything back the way they wanted and to once again lay their whiskey into barrels to age. In fact, it was decades later that they began tearing down the old distillery and discovered two intact barrels under the rubble. Do you know anything about the process of aging whiskey, Jack?”

He shook his head. “While I like the occasional drink, I don’t know the process that goes into making it.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised, you philistine,” David said with a grimace. When whiskey is aged, it absorbs flavor and aroma from the oak wood of the barrel. Also, as it ages, some of the alcohol evaporates—the so-called angel’s share—so there’s a trade-off in what you get when you finish aging the product. Tell me, Jack, what’s the oldest whiskey you’ve tried?”

Jack thought about it and then shrugged. “I tried some eight-year-old whiskey a few years back. It was pretty good.”

David nodded thoughtfully. “The bottle you’re holding was aged in the barrel for fifty years. It had been close to bottling as a special reserve when the invasion happened, and I suppose that would’ve been at about the thirty-year mark, which would’ve been amazing. Instead, the distillers got something extraordinary.”

He took the bottle away from Jack and examined it again as if committing the image to memory. “According to the legends, each of the barrels had lost three-quarters of the alcohol they’d started with. Four hundred liters in total, reduced to about a hundred by evaporation. When they were opened, the distillers were able to get about a hundred and thirty-five bottles from what remained. They labeled them as The Carstairs’ Reserve and gifted them all to the grand admiral in thanks for saving humanity, their world, and themselves.”

David gestured at the cases sitting on the deck. “If those cases are full, you have the lion’s share of one of the most exclusive bottlings in Confederation history. How much do you think even a single bottle of this reserve is worth?”

“Based on what you just told me, a lot,” Jack said. “Why would the grand admiral leave this for me?”

David shrugged. “Some mysteries are not meant to be answered by mere mortals. If he didn’t tell you, we’ll never know. If the Confederation were not embroiled in a war, an auction of a single bottle of this would start at more than you make in the year, and rest assured that the bidding would be spirited. The final price? Who knows? Some astronomical sum.”

“So what you’re telling me is that I have to make sure Joby Hutton never learns of this.”

David chuckled and extended the bottle to Jack. “Him or Connor. These will be stored away, and you should sample that bottle sparingly. I would save them for special occasions and when meeting people you wish to impress. You’d be surprised how much something like this can sway someone that appreciates what they drink.”

Jack held the bottle very carefully. “I don’t have the palate to appreciate something like this for what it is. Why don’t you take the lone bottle for yourself and store the rest?”

David held up his hands, rejecting the bottle. “I cannot, and I will not. If you choose to open one of the bottles, I will happily share a glass with you and raise it in a toast to the Grand Admiral and those we’ve lost, but this is yours. It’s a finite resource that must be shepherded to your advantage, and you shouldn’t squander it.”

While he was still thinking about that, David began loading the cases of whiskey carefully onto the cart. He went through the pinnace and found a blanket to cover everything when he was done. Obviously, that was meant to make certain no one knew what he was moving.

“No one says you have to open the bottle, Jack,” David said once he was done. “Just keep it in your office, and you’ll know when the moment is right. I’ll secure the rest, and when the time comes that they might be appropriate, rest assured that I’ll let you know.”

And with that, David pushed the cart carefully out of the pinnace. Jack wondered if David would have a safe installed just to put the alcohol in. It wouldn’t shock him. He opened his greatcoat and slid the remaining bottle into an interior pocket. That would keep it unseen until he got to his office.

Once he’d made his way there and put the bottle into the lockable desk drawer, Jack pulled the box with the note and data chip out of his jacket and set it before him. He retrieved the chip and plugged it into his computer. The two were roughly the same age, so he didn’t have any compatibility issues.

When a list of files popped up, Jack was surprised to see just how many were on the chip. Whatever Carstairs had to say, it was extensive. The first file was labeled “personal introduction.”

He opened it, and the video started showing the grand admiral in a uniform almost identical to Jack’s, seated in a battered chair with a small table beside it. A glass with a couple of fingers of brown liquor sat beside a bottle identical to the one in his desk.

Jack considered the situation and paused the video long enough to retrieve the bottle and grab a glass. He broke the seal and extracted the cork with a loud ‘pop’ before pouring a finger of whiskey into his glass. After a moment’s hesitation, he took a sip to assess the rare whiskey.

He knew that people who considered themselves alcohol connoisseurs had all kinds of words to describe what alcohol smelled and tasted like, but he didn’t know any of that. All he could say was that the flavor was deep, complex, extraordinarily smooth, and quite simply the best whiskey he’d ever tasted.

With himself set up, he started the video back to life. The old man was smoking a pipe just as battered as his chair. He looked every bit the wise old admiral.

“Hello there,” Carstairs said with a smile. “As I said in my note, I have no idea who will read this, but since we’re mothballing the depot to wait for another invasion, I felt it was my duty to pass along my knowledge to whoever finds this. I pray they never return, and this is a simple historical curiosity rather than desperately needed guidance.”

The admiral sighed and set his pipe down in a handy ashtray. “The other videos on this chip are my efforts to give you that. As much as they wanted me to, I never gave any interviews or wrote any personal memoirs, though I, of course, shared my thoughts with the Navy so they could train and prepare our people going forward.”

Carstairs snorted a little and then shook his head. “That hasn’t stopped others from writing their memoirs, and some are quite good. If you haven’t had an opportunity to peruse the best of them, I’ve attached the ones I think best reflect what really happened on this chip for your perusal, though I suspect you’re a little busy right now.”

That made Jack chuckle. The old admiral had known just how challenging a situation like this would be. Personal experience did that.

“I’m not going to tell you what you need to do,” Carstairs continued. “Instead, I’ll tell you what we went through and explain the lessons I’ve learned. I’ll start with how the Navy was set up before the invasion and explain the political situation inside the Confederation. Then I’ll progress to the events as they happened and give my commentary and opinions. What we did right—and more importantly—what we got wrong without concern over who ends up looking bad, including me. That’s an awful lot to take in, so I hope you’ll find it useful.”

Carstairs leaned forward and looked directly into the camera. “If this invasion is anything like the first, the Locusts are everywhere. Focus on what you can and keep pushing. Step by step, you can push your way to victory. I believe in you, and I’ll do my best to help you through this, one Navy officer to another.”

He paused for a few seconds before continuing. “The Confederation has done the best they could to prepare for this new invasion, but I can already see the politicians regretting the money they’ve spent. Things will get worse, and by the time you see this, the situation may have changed dramatically. Whatever troubles have found their way to you, you can survive this and triumph. Believe in yourself and your people, and you’ll make it through.”

The old admiral picked up his pipe and puffed at it again. “I’ve never been one for public speaking, so these videos are just me talking to you. By the time you get them, odds are I’ll be long gone, so if you feel the need to share these files with anyone, I won’t be in a position to complain. Perhaps they’ll find them useful as well.”

Carstairs smiled just a little. “The only advice I’ll give you before I start is that you’ll need to be decisive. Strike hard and don’t let the damned things get one second’s peace.”

The admiral raised his glass. “I hope you enjoy the gift I left you. I’ve never been much of a drinker, so while I saved a few bottles for myself, I figured you’d be a good inheritor of the remainder. Enjoy them with my blessings. Good luck. Carstairs out.”

Jack raised his glass in salute, then sipped his whiskey as the video ended and thought about what the other man had said. The old admiral had spent quite a bit of time recording what amounted to his war biography based on the number of files on the data chip and their size. It was historically priceless. Hell, it was strategically invaluable. He desperately needed Carstairs’s insight and wisdom.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to watch any of it right away. There was just too much to do, so he’d have to make time to go over everything in detail and pass the files—all but the personal introduction—along to India and his other officers. They all needed to know what the man who beat the Locusts once before had to say. His knowledge might just save the Confederation.

Before he could do that, though, he had a few high-priority items he needed to take care of. First, they needed to arm his ship as well as they could. Admittedly, the missiles were far less powerful without their nuclear payloads, but their greater range would be a game-changer.

Because they didn’t have the nuclear warheads, they’d need to raid the New Copenhagen system and retrieve them. They’d bled the Locusts there both during their escape from the system and when they destroyed the gate and eliminated the drones and motherships that had made their way to Port Royale, but that still left a lot to attack them.

If they had to fight that many of the alien machines without missiles, it wouldn’t be doable. That meant they’d need every laser cluster and missile battery they could get working when the time came.

They’d also need the necessary capacity to get the nuclear warheads to orbit, so their Marines would have to force a landing on the planet, liberate the payloads, and get them back up to orbit while under attack.

Jack finished his whiskey, put the bottle and glass away, and summoned India McKinnon, Amanda Harris, Ahmed Adel, and Kelly Danek to his office. He also invited Sara Nastasi because a different perspective would be helpful.

Once they were all seated in front of his desk, he turned to Amanda. Technically, Ahmed was her superior, but she was the one with her finger on the pulse of what was happening in the tactical department. “What’s the status on our weapon systems, Amanda?”

“We’re making progress on getting more laser clusters repaired, sir,” she said evenly. “Frankly, it’s a lot easier to bring new clusters online than to repair the ones damaged in battle. We just don’t have enough people to do both right now. I’m working with Commander Danek to get some of the missiles refurbished. They were stored away properly, but there’s invariably something that needs to be tweaked or replaced, and we have to be certain they work as intended, or we might as well not have them.”

“The repairs on each missile won’t take much time, but we need a lot of them to do any good,” Danek said. “For a single missile battery, you’ve got five launchers. Each draws from a combined magazine that can hold two hundred missiles, so you get forty salvos. The magazines can be reloaded between battles from central stores as long as we have enough extra missiles.”

She shook her head, her mouth twisted into a lopsided smile. “That’s a hell of a lot of firepower, but it means a lot of work to fill the belly of the beast when you’ve got a thousand missile batteries. Some of those were damaged in the fighting, and none are currently online, but if the ship were operating at spec, we’d have a ready combat load of two hundred thousand missiles and a million ready to be reloaded between battles.”

“We don’t have the personnel to refurbish even a fraction of that number of missiles,” Ahmed said with a sigh. “Even getting the missile launchers back into functioning order and installing the fire control units will eat up a lot of time. We’ve been focusing on the lasers up to this point because there are many more of them than there are missile launchers. This ship originally had ten thousand laser batteries, and more than ninety percent of those are still offline. Some permanently.”

“Each laser battery has four lasers,” Amanda said. “It will take a lot of work to get everything working again. If the ship were undamaged, we’d have five thousand individual missile launchers and forty thousand lasers. Even with support from engineering, the tactical department can’t begin bringing enough of them online to make a difference between battles.”

Jack nodded. That was what he’d expected to hear.

“We have to think outside the box,” India said, leaning into the conversation. “There have to be people aboard the depot—excuse me, Port Royale—that have experience getting lasers and missile launchers functional and refurbishing the missiles themselves. We need to hire those people as contractors to help us get things ready faster.”

“Why are we rushing this?” Sara asked. “We don’t have the Locusts breathing down our necks right now, so we’ve got a while before they could get here. A period of months, right?”

Jack shook his head. “We have no idea what the Locusts are doing at New Copenhagen—or the rest of the cluster, for that matter—and we need to relieve the planet as quickly as possible. Not only to get the nuclear warheads but to find out what the aliens are up to. We need to act in a timely fashion because our duty isn’t just to protect ourselves; it’s to protect the people of the Confederation.”

He grimaced. “I understand that we have actual living aliens we could question if we spoke their language, but we don’t. We won’t be able to communicate with them for quite some time, if ever. That means we have to find out what’s happening for ourselves, and soon.”

Danek leaned back in her chair, brushing her brown hair out of her eyes. “We’ve been through the revival process on a few of the damaged pods, and my people believe we understand the process well enough to make it work. We can also have quarters set up that should work for them. The wreck had some quarters built into the engineering section, and we were able to salvage the furnishings and fixtures. It won’t be home, but it’ll be as close as possible. If we don’t start the process, we’ll never be able to refine it.”

Jack considered the engineer before sweeping his gaze over the rest of the officers in the compartment. “If we wake one up, what would be the purpose? I’m not opposed to the idea, but we need to have a reason to put its life at risk. I understand the Locusts don’t care about human life, but we have a responsibility to take care of a prisoner of war. We have to be sure we’re doing the right thing, at the right time, and for the right reasons.”

“I’ve been talking with your mother about what they’ve found during the autopsies,” Sara said. “She’s almost certain the beings we’re looking at are symbiotic. The humanoids have a primitive brain structure, so she doesn’t think they’d be more than basically sentient without introducing the symbiote. That brings up a chicken and egg scenario. It doesn’t seem as if the symbiote is in control of the combined being, though it may be providing the majority of the brainpower. Who put the symbiotes into the humanoids?”

Jack considered that and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter how they got to be the way they are. We’re dealing with the situation as we find it, and if we get an answer to that question, maybe it’ll make a difference. Until then, we only need to understand their motivations.”

“We can’t do that if we don’t talk to them,” she argued. “It’s going to take time to translate their speech to ours. We should be working on a parallel track to open communications on our own. I don’t like relying on machines to interpret what we’re saying.”

“I agree with Commodore Nastasi,” India said. “While we can’t guarantee we’ll be able to talk to the aliens, we have to start the process. At the very least, we might be able to assist the programmer in figuring out ways to tweak the translations. We gain nothing by sitting on our hands. Just like we have to free New Copenhagen as soon as possible, we need to at least start working on understanding the people that attacked us.”

Jack took a deep breath and considered the options before nodding. “We’ll bring one of them out of suspended animation with a medical team standing by to help if something goes wrong. I realize our understanding of their physiology is just about as weak as it could possibly be, but that’s the prudent thing to do.”

He focused his attention on his fellow flag officer. “Sara, if you’d work with Connor once he’s finished dealing with the people who attacked us, we need to get as many people as possible to help us get our weapons online. Ten percent of our laser capacity isn’t acceptable. When we get to New Copenhagen, we’ll attract every drone and mothership in the system.”

He turned his attention to Kelly. “We’re not going to be able to refurbish as many missiles as we’d like. That needs to be something we farm out to anybody that can handle the work. If you can get people from Port Royale to help, they can give us pointers about the refurbishment process.”

The engineer nodded. “That works for me. I can get everything set up for waking one of the aliens in a couple of hours. How soon do we want to do that?”

“If we’re committed to doing it, then let’s make the magic happen as soon as possible. We’ll wait until we’re certain Mac and his people are done with what they’re doing before we start. He may want you to come over and look at the engineering section aboard that ship.”

“I want to look around, too,” she admitted. “If they’ve got functional fusion plants, I’m inclined to appropriate them. We can yank out the nonfunctional units here without affecting our current operations. If we can replace them with ones that work at the rated capacities, we can turn around and tear out the flaky ones.”

“How long would something like that take?”

The engineer’s eyes became unfocused as she considered the issue. “If it’s a straight swap, three to four days. I might be able to cut some time off that if things go smoothly, but it will be longer if we run into problems. We also need to inspect the fusion plants before we do anything with them to make sure it’s worth the time and effort. If they’re sketchy, we’re not gaining anything.”

“Considering that two of ours don’t work, even wonky ones would be better than nothing,” India said. “We may also be able to salvage some of their laser and missile systems to replace ones we’ve lost in battle. Yes, that’s even more work, but we can’t keep losing lasers without replacing them.”

“We don’t have to worry about that,” Danek said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “There are a lot of replacement units aboard the space station. It’s easier to take one straight out of a box and install it than to pull one off a ship that’s been sitting for a couple of hundred years.”

“Point,” India admitted. “We still need to get as many of those aboard as possible because I want to start replacing the systems we’ve lost in battle. Like I said, that’s going to take extra hands, which we’ll have to hire. How much money do we have to work with, and how will this work?”

It was Jack’s turn to shrug. “I honestly have no idea, but Connor said we could count on getting assistance from them, and they’re going to handle the financing if their council ever gets around to ratifying the treaty we hashed out. When Connor is done with what he’s already got on his plate, I’ll run everything past him and see what the possibilities are. Until then, I think we’ve decided what we need to do.”

He stood, his officers rising with him. “We can’t wait forever to figure out what the Locusts are doing. We go back to New Copenhagen in seven days and find out what those bastards are up to. Let’s do what we must to make that happen.”

14

Connor and his people flew into the small craft bay and an ambush. The occupants of the old battleship had set themselves up behind a barricade in the large hatch leading to the rest of the ship. In addition to small arms, they had a heavy weapon capable of taking out a cutter, though his pinnace turned out to be a bit more than they could handle.

It was still one hell of an explosion. More than enough to make his pilot overcorrect and crash into the deck, making the pinnace slide into a nearby cutter and sending everyone inside slamming against their restraints.

That probably raised a cheer from the people doing the shooting, but they hadn’t considered that a pinnace was built to survive something like that and keep fighting. They found that out the hard way when the gunner in the turret opened fire with a heavy slug thrower.

He hadn’t called on them to surrender, but he figured they wouldn’t have been inclined to give up anyway.

The rear hatch of the pinnace came down, and he charged out with his people, diving for cover and firing at the defenders. The heavy machine gun blew fist-sized holes in the barricade as the gunner walked her shots from one end to the other. In less than fifteen seconds, everyone on the other side was down, dead or critically wounded.

Mostly dead, he suspected.

“Everyone throw down your weapons and surrender, or we’ll open fire,” he said. “There. They’ve been warned.”

His people chuckled at the dark humor and then advanced. If more people were waiting to attack, he needed to revoke their access to the small craft bay right now.

The fact they’d been set up and ready to defend on such short notice told him that he’d been right to guess they were behind the attack on Port Royale. Otherwise, there’d have been no reason to be so prepared.

From what he understood of the cult, they wanted to be left alone. It wasn’t that they thought everyone was coming to get them, so there would’ve been no need for this level of preparedness under normal circumstances.

Connor and his people advanced to the hatch and closed it. Then the Marines entered a code that locked it down tight. They wouldn’t be escaping this way.

He supposed it was possible they could get out through one of the other small craft bays, but he thought that unlikely. If they did, the pinnace at engineering would take care of the problem.

A few of the defenders were still in the process of dying, but there was nothing they could do for them. If they’d been in an emergency medical center right now, it still would’ve been too little, too late.

A few minutes after that, the lights went out. It looked as if the Marines had taken control of engineering and shut down the fusion plants. The lack of life support would make it tough for the defenders, and they’d have to negotiate.

If this had been an adventure story, he and his people would’ve advanced corridor by corridor, fighting the defenders wherever they found them. Smart people let the environment do the work for them. Once it became hard to breathe, they’d come knocking soon enough.

In the end, it took about five hours for the group leaders to decide they had no choice but to surrender. They didn’t talk to Connor about it. Apparently, they negotiated giving up with Turner. Maybe his attack had made an impression.

Whatever the case, that was fine by him. He’d still be responsible for relocating them to a place they could keep a better eye on them. He and his people had communications with the folks in engineering because they’d dropped a relay out on the hull. It was easy enough for the crashed pinnace to communicate with the Marines.

Turner and his people weren’t going to let any of these people into engineering, so when they began moving them out, Connor called a series of cutters to pick up a handful with each load. Everyone was searched for weapons, of course. Even having been told to disarm, they still found a fair number of guns and knives.

The prisoners were sullen, glaring at Connor and his people as they processed them. They would be an absolute joy for whoever he dropped them on, but they’d brought this on themselves.

The Marines had taken fire when they came through the hatch in engineering, but their armor had kept anyone from being killed, so that was a plus. That wasn’t to say that some of them hadn’t been injured, but they’d recover.

They’d need to have someone come in and bag up the bodies of those who’d been killed. Connor was happy to leave that gory task to someone else.

The only people he’d spoken with were the leaders of this little group. They were responsible for both the attack on the station, the murder of the flight controller, and getting their own people killed resisting.

He’d expected them to conceal themselves among their followers, but they didn’t. They stood out loud and proud, condemning Connor and the rest for intruding into their sacred space. He’d been indifferent to their anger and pressed them on why they’d done any of this. Their answers were couched in religious doctrine, but he got the high points.

Once the Locusts had invaded, it triggered a doomsday scenario for them. They believed it was their sacred duty to bring this ship back to life and go forth and fight them.

He supposed that wasn’t a bad idea to have as far as things went. The problem was they thought they were in command of humanity, and everyone had to bow to their way of thinking.

That, of course, wasn’t going to happen.

They’d begun laying the groundwork for getting their weapons online once the Locusts invading Port Royale had been destroyed. They’d been getting other supplies earlier but had figured they would save the weapons for later, particularly since they lacked the skills needed to get the ship’s weapons functioning again.

For a group that had decided they needed to defend humanity, they hadn’t done a lot of work educating themselves about the critical tasks. Well, he couldn’t control other people’s idiocy, so he was satisfied shipping them off to the garden domes. It would keep them out of the way, and the folks there would split them up so they couldn’t gin up the level of religious fervor that had gotten them in trouble in the first place.

He excluded the leaders from that, of course. The governing council would settle their accounts.

Once the last of the cultists had been removed, they went from one end of the ship to the other and purged the atmosphere from each chamber until only engineering had air. If anyone was hiding out, they’d have had to come out to save their own lives. Since no one did, it looked like they’d gotten them all.

That accomplished, he sent his people back to Port Royale and went to meet with Turner and his folks in engineering. He wanted to see what was there, and he also wanted to make a trip over to Hunter. He had some questions for his old friend Jack.

The Marine officer was walking around with a tall, brown-haired woman in one of those ridiculous uniforms directing herds of engineers to look at things. She seemed pleased with what she saw, though he didn’t see much to cheer about.

It was obvious someone had gotten into the ship’s independent quantum drive because the damned thing was in pieces. He had no idea what the hell they’d thought they’d been doing. It was like a jigsaw puzzle that had been disassembled and scrambled up real good.

“They’ve done a real number on this place,” he said to the two.

“The commodore won’t be pleased,” Turner agreed. “Still, they have at least one functional fusion plant, so that’s a plus. Mark Connor, this is Commander Kelly Danek, our chief engineer.”

Danek gave him a distracted nod. “I think a second plant might be functional with a little work. It looks like somebody shut it down when it started giving them strange readings, but I think it’s repairable. The other two are scrap.”

“Will that help?” he asked.

“It’s better than where we were. I’ve got a pair of disabled fusion plants these can replace, giving us more freedom to do what we need to do. Do you think any of the other battleships have functional fusion plants?”

“I’m sure at least some of them do, though you’ll have to do some serious arguing with the people using them,” Connor said. “Three of the other battleships have occupants, so they’ve got power. I’d suggest looking at the ships that don’t have anyone living on them first because you’re not going to get people shooting at you when you want to take their fusion plants.”

“I might have to do that, but I’m still hopeful I can get repair parts from your station to refurbish the two that we have working. That would give us four full-sized fusion plants and a more modern plant we picked up from Hawkwing. That’s plenty of power and gives us even more of a margin if we run into trouble.”

“I’ll leave you to take care of that, Commander,” Turner said. “I’ll also leave some of my people to make sure you’re not disturbed, but I need to head back to Hunter and give the commodore my report.”

“I’d like to go with you,” Connor said. “Jack’s told me about things I want to see in person.”

The big man gave him an indifferent shrug. “That’s fine by me. Are you ready?”

“Sure am.”

“Then let’s do it.”

The flight out to the operational battleship took a while. Romanoff had decided to keep his ship out of weapons range, and Connor couldn’t blame him. Their presence would make his people nervous, and Jack had every reason to be worried about what the station might do in return. Their groups didn’t know one another yet, so a bit of prudence was called for.

The small craft bay was hopping when they arrived. There were cargo shuttles bringing things over from Port Royale. Probably missiles and fire control units. Hell, maybe complete weapon systems. He didn’t know what, and it wasn’t any of his concern.

That was jumping the gun a bit as the council still hadn’t approved the treaty. He’d have to press them on it very soon. That needed to be settled.

As soon as they arrived, the Marine colonel called Romanoff and escorted Connor to meet him. The young man that had flown the pinnace—Derek Calvo—accompanied them. He might still be wet behind the ears, but he could fly.

Connor expected the Navy officer to meet him in a fancy office, but instead they went directly to engineering. Unlike the space aboard the battleship he’d just left, this compartment was brightly lit, and most things looked functional. That was reassuring, considering this was the only ship they had to protect them.

Romanoff gestured around them. “I’ve seen the pictures Danek sent back, and we’re in better shape than Scorpius, but we do have a pair of fusion plants I’d love to see replaced. I’ve got Joby Hutton scrounging out the necessary repair parts to bring the two working plants back to spec. Kelly isn’t going to say an optimistic word before the work is done, but I think we’ll be able to have four functional fusion plants when we’re done. That means we can take the fight to the Locusts as long as we can get more weapons systems online.”

“Some of your people were hurt during the fighting, and I’m sorry for that,” Connor said. “The people responsible for this mess will face justice, Port Royale style. It’s harsher than you’d approve of, but we are what we are.”

Calvo chuckled. “If you think Navy justice can’t be harsh, you should’ve been here when Captain Magri and a bunch of pirates had a very brief trial and were executed shortly after.”

Connor found his eyebrows rising. “Is that so? I have to say that my opinion of you is improving, Navy. It takes a lot of spine to hand out summary judgments like that. As you well know, I’ve never been a fan of pirates, and I’m sure they did something worthy of being executed. Who’s this Captain Magri, though?”

“Nobody important,” Romanoff said with a dismissive wave. “If you’re curious about what happened, I can see that you get a copy of the trial recording. Right now, though, I’ll wager you’re here to see proof of what the professor was telling you. Come this way.”

Connor followed the Navy officer, looking around engineering as he did so. He spotted a rather large piece of equipment that looked like a massive art display. There hadn’t been anything like it on the other ship.

“What’s that, Navy?” he asked.

Romanoff looked at the machine and smiled. “A secret. Maybe one day I’ll share it with you.”

Well, wasn’t that suitably mysterious?

The tall officer led the way to a hatch set in the side of the large engineering compartment. It was guarded by four Marines who let them pass without challenge. Inside, Connor found himself looking at a dozen strange-looking pods. They were unlike anything he’d seen before or even imagined.

At Romanoff’s gesture, he walked forward and looked through a transparent dome. Inside, lying on a red couch, was an alien. The sight made the hair on the back of his neck stand up in a profound atavistic reaction.

After examining the being for a minute, he turned to Romanoff. “I have to admit that I was skeptical, Navy, but you’ve convinced me in grand style. What are you going to do with them?”

“We’re going to wake one of them up. At least we’re going to try. A few of the pods were damaged before we found them, and the occupants were killed. If you’d like to see some of their bodies—just to make sure they’re real—I’d be happy to take you to the medical center, and you can see as much as you like.”

“I’ll take your word on that,” Connor said with a slight wave of his hand. “Though I will stay and watch the wake-up process play out if you don’t mind. Do these things breathe air like ours?”

“Pretty much. Their lighting is a bit different, as is the makeup of their food, but they can breathe what we do if the doctors are right. We’ve got some quarters set up nearby that should be better suited for them. There was plenty of food aboard the ship we found.”

Romanoff turned to face him. “We left that ship on the other side of the system, and we’re keeping an eye out that direction. Don’t go looking for it, and we won’t have any trouble. At some point, we’ll bring it here, and you can see it for yourself. I’d be happy to show you the recordings we took of its interior, but we want engineers to go over everything rather than have somebody stroll through taking whatever they like.”

“I’m wounded, Navy,” Connor said with a grin. “Even I know the limits of what I can plunder. Sometimes you have to let others do the work.”

He turned back toward the pods. “Do you think they can tell us why this is happening?”

“I’m sure they can. The question is, are they willing to do so? I suppose we’ll find out. Let’s call the medical people and get things rolling.”

Connor found a handy wall to lean against and waited for the show to begin. This should be interesting.

15

Alan watched the engineering team move one of the pods into the compartment adjacent to quarters they’d prepared for the aliens with interest and a bit of apprehension. The plan was to house it—and potentially the rest of the aliens if the decision was made to wake them—in a series of compartments they could get to from where they were awakened. If, of course, the first one survived the revivification process, which wasn’t guaranteed.

There were a lot of things that could go wrong as they understood almost nothing about the aliens’ physiology or the process the beings had to go through when being brought out of the torpor they were in. What if they required medication to assist in waking up?

They hadn’t found anything aboard the alien ship, but that didn’t mean there hadn’t been something in the portion of the ship that had been destroyed. They might very well be condemning this test subject to death. Still, he didn’t disagree with the decision to wake it.

Or, in this case, him. The medical teams had found two genders in their examinations. The alien version of DNA was still inexplicable, but some of the beings were definitely responsible for gestating young. Those had been labeled female, leaving the other gender as male. Once they could speak to the aliens, they’d find out if their suppositions were correct and if there were any social constructs that might complicate their assumptions.

Things might be more complicated than they appeared, but that was what they were going with for now. From the small sampling they had, it seemed the genders were roughly equal in number. He had no idea if that meant they were societally equal like humanity, but it was a data point.

“Are we going to have people present in the compartment when he wakes up?” Alan asked.

“That’s the plan,” Jesse Romanoff responded as she looked through a medical bag. “I understand that entails a certain amount of risk, but we’re going to have some of the Marines to act as a buffer if he becomes agitated. If there’s a medical complication, we won’t be able to do anything if we’re not right there.”

“Are you going to be able to do anything if he has a complication?”

“We’ve managed to isolate their adrenaline analog, so if we need to give him a jumpstart, we can try. We’d be guessing at the dosage, but we’re the best ones to try if someone needs to get him breathing again.”

He nodded. “Then I’ll stay inside as well. I know Jack, Connor, and our new programmer will be watching via video feed, but I want to see this unfold with my own eyes. And before you think Jack will say I’m too valuable to risk, you’re his mother, and he’s letting you be there, so that’s not an argument I’m willing to accept.”

She laughed as she closed her bag. “You don’t have to convince me, Professor. You need to convince Christine.”

“I’m going to be right here with him,” Christine said from where she was bent over an open case on the deck. “I’ll be recording everything. This is one of those momentous events that must be recorded in the closest detail possible. I’ve got four drones ready to catch it from every angle. You couldn’t keep me out of here with a gun.”

“You see?” he said. “She’s willing to sacrifice me for a good video angle.”

“Stop whining,” his girlfriend advised. “You’ve got doctors right here to revive you if you’re attacked by the alien. Don’t be such a baby.”

He chuckled as he walked around the pod, giving it one last look. He didn’t know much about the technology, but he’d worked with the engineering team to find the triggers necessary to kick off the revivification process in one of the damaged units. They wouldn’t know if it worked like they thought until they got started.

“Anyone not staying needs to get out,” he ordered. “We’ve got a hatch behind us, and if it looks like there’s going to be trouble, the Marines will form a shield between the alien and us while we evacuate. Under no circumstances are we to risk injuring this being. Understood?”

Once he saw general agreement, he stepped over to the machine and pressed the button that they’d installed on the side to trigger what was supposed to be a computerized revivification process. It wasn’t an instantaneous sort of thing, so he had plenty of time to amble back to stand beside Christine.

The atmosphere in the compartment had been altered so that it was what the alien would expect. The lighting was also the same violet tint as they’d found on the ship. In fact, they’d salvaged these lights from the ship. The fewer complications they introduced, the less opportunity for something to go wrong.

While he was interested in hearing what Jack and Connor thought, he was more concerned with what Lisa Gane had to say. After consultation with Jack, they’d brought her—and her equipment—over to record everything that occurred and to see everything unfold for herself.

She’d get her name in the history books if she could pull this off. She seemed a competitive sort, so this would appeal to her ego. She’d brought the alpha version of her program to give it a live trial. Apparently, modern programming didn’t revolve around writing code from scratch. She had programs that would do that for her. All she needed to do was refine it.

Not to make that sound insignificant. The devil was in the details.

Nevertheless, she’d rigged up an initial version to use the translation algorithms she’d developed from running the original files through her process. She’d readily admitted it would be inaccurate, but it still beat making rude hand gestures and hoping things turned out okay.

It took a couple of minutes before the transparent cover shielding the alien slid aside, and Alan held his breath, waiting to see what happened next. Then those strange hands reached out, grasped the pod, and the alien pulled himself out, standing naked before them when he stepped onto the deck. The alien recoiled as soon as he saw the humans and started waving his hands in what looked like distress.

Frankly, Alan could sympathize. The sight of the alien—particularly with his vertical jaw working—made Alan a bit queasy. Still, he couldn’t show fear or disgust. This was science.

“We mean you no harm,” Alan said into a specialized comm unit designed to interface with Lisa’s program. It immediately said something back in what sounded like the alien language.

Based on the creature’s response, he doubted the translation was accurate. The being jumped a foot in the air and scampered behind the pod. Then it spoke rapidly.

The comm unit seemed to digest that for a few seconds and then spat out its guess at what the alien had said. “Run warning cat don’t fractal my digit.”

“Lisa, I’m not quite getting what he meant,” he said. “Do you think you can do anything to clear that up?”

The translator dutifully spat that out in the alien language. They’d need a way to turn the translator off in the future for moments like this.

“This is literally the first chance I’ve had to run this program during a live translation,” the hacker said. “This is an incremental process, Professor Snark, so don’t expect miracles. Let me see about slowing down what he said and running it through again.”

A few seconds later, the comm unit spoke in the mechanical voice again. “Retreat or I endear you with my cat.”

Marginally better. At least the phrase had something of a theme. If the translation was even close to the mark, of course.

“Maybe he’s telling us to stay back, or he’ll attack,” Christine ventured. “It would be in character for someone confronted by aliens, particularly when he’s naked. Are you sure you didn’t find any clothes he could wear? We’ll have to blur part of this out for the historical record.”

Alan chuckled. “I suppose that’s as likely as anything else and better than we should expect.”

He took one step forward and bowed just a bit. “We’re not going to hurt you. You’re in no danger here.”

The being considered what the comm said to him and apparently found it somewhat reassuring because he stepped hesitantly out from behind the pod. He didn’t advance very far, but he seemed at least willing to listen.

“Jesse, I don’t suppose you have any clothing suitable for him, do you? If so, we wouldn’t want a nudity taboo to get in the way of making him more comfortable.”

“We recovered some clothes from the dead on the ship, but there was no way to get him dressed until he came out on his own power,” she said as she reached into a box at the back of the room and pulled out a folded pile of clothes.

When she set them on the floor between the alien and the Marines, the alien advanced slowly and warily, snatched the clothes off the floor, and quickly put them on. They didn’t seem to fit all that well, but Alan supposed it beat being naked.

Taking something of a risk himself, Alan advanced far enough to put the comm on the floor and then stepped back. The device would be able to hear him speaking from across the room because it had been designed to do so. Perhaps the alien would feel more comfortable if it had the device in hand.

The alien picked up the unit and tapped the screen with one finger. Apparently, it had a suspicion about how this sort of thing worked. It then spoke a single word into the comm.

The translation program spat out another attempt at defining what it had said. “Identify?”

Well, that was a complicated question. It could be answered both literally and figuratively. Which way would be best?

“Alan Prescott,” he said, pointing at his chest. “Who are you?”

The being seemed to consider his response before it spoke again. “Regex.”

That could be a personal name, a race name, or something unrelated to the actual question. Opening a dialogue would be a long and complicated process.

“I think we should step out and leave him to get used to his environment in the quarters,” Jesse said. “We’ll leave the comm unit with him so we can have someone attempting to communicate over a longer period to refine the translation program, but it’ll be less stressful if we’re not hovering.”

He nodded. “Jack, if you could open the hatch to the quarters we’ve prepared, he’ll explore it on his own once we’ve left.”

“Will do, after you leave the compartment.”

Alan joined the others in backing to the hatch and making their way out of the compartment. The Marines extracted themselves in good order as soon as they were gone and closed the hatch behind them. It wasn’t something the alien could open from the other side, so they were safe now.

It shamed him that he felt more than a bit relieved.

Christine had withdrawn all four of her drones and started putting them away in the case she’d grabbed on the way out. He was somewhat shocked she hadn’t tried to leave one in the compartment with the alien.

“Well, that was somewhat anticlimactic, but I suppose boring is better than exciting,” he ventured.

“I’ll definitely take boring when it comes to first contact,” Jesse said. “In all the entertainment videos, things go horribly wrong. I’d hate to start a war because of a misunderstanding.”

There was a moment of silence, and then everyone laughed. It wasn’t funny, but it kind of was.

“I’ll still be recording everything coming over the video feeds,” Christine said. “Once we have a better idea of what he’s saying, we can try to have another face-to-face conversation. He seems willing to talk, so we’ll get more samples of his voice to translate. You might want to put a monitor in there to display images of various things and run the words past him to see if the translator works correctly. You know, trees, grass, sky, stars, that kind of thing.”

“That presupposes their plant life is anything like ours, which isn’t a given,” he cautioned. “We have several computers in the quarters, and I’d be happy to let Lisa and the other professionals work on that. Do you really think we’ll be able to communicate with him?”

Christine shrugged. “Who the hell knows? I think you might get more if you wake some of the others and put them together. If they’re anything like humans, he feels alone and exposed. Besides, hearing them talk amongst themselves will give us a better opportunity to monitor their language.”

“We can open the hatch between the quarters and the revivification chamber and let him be there while we wake the others one at a time,” Jesse said. “I’ll need to collect more clothing and maybe bring all the shoes we have because there’s no telling what fits. Assuming Jack has no objection to that—and we have no medical emergencies while waking everyone else up—we could have them all awake in a few hours.”

Personally, Alan wasn’t certain how this would work out, but they had to try. Once they’d woken all the aliens, the attempts at communication could really begin. He had so many questions he wanted to ask, and it was frustrating that they couldn’t start the dialogue immediately.

Still, he understood the limitations of their technology. Lisa was doing the best she could, and he wasn’t going to blame her because things were rough. That they could even guess at what the alien was saying was a tremendous achievement. This project was a long-term one, and patience was key.

He truly hoped everything worked out, but these were early days. These creatures had built the machines that had tried to conquer humanity twice. He might have interesting questions to ask them, but he knew that Jack had pointed ones, and he wouldn’t be put off very long.

They were going back to New Copenhagen in a week, and Alan hoped they could get some answers before they left. If not, they’d just have to figure things out the hard way.

16

Mac knew how to work under a deadline, so he focused on getting the important things done first. Now that the commodore had decided to go back to New Copenhagen in a week, he needed his Marines ready for what was to come. That wasn’t much time, but he’d do what he could.

The Marine portion of the mission would involve getting down to the surface and liberating the nuclear warheads that went on the missiles Hunter carried. That kind of raid would draw negative attention in addition to what fighting the Locusts usually entailed.

Getting the ship into orbit around New Copenhagen was the commodore’s problem. He hoped there weren’t many Locust motherships or drones in the vicinity when the Marines launched, though. Pinnaces were tough, but they weren’t that tough.

If they could clear the orbit around the planet of hostile enemy units, they’d launch every pinnace they could and head straight down to the depot where the warheads were stored, liberate them, load them aboard cargo shuttles, and fly them back up to orbit.

The facility they were raiding had to be huge. A complete weapons load for Hunter was two hundred thousand missiles, not counting those in storage. If you added those, the number went up dramatically as Hunter could store a million missiles to reload between battles.

The station was designed to hold a complete loadout for all twelve battleships and its own defense. Just counting the mobile units, that was fourteen million four hundred thousand missiles for their initial combat loadout. The depot was where the battleships were meant to rearm when needed, so they had significantly more missiles waiting if a ship shot everything it had.

He hadn’t asked Joby Hutton how many missiles he’d found, but he suspected there were more than enough to reload every single battleship multiple times. If there wasn’t a minimum of a hundred million missiles aboard the depot, he’d eat the damned thing.

That meant the facility on New Copenhagen had at least a hundred million low yield nuclear warheads. To say it was impossible to move with anything short of a massive convoy of vessels dedicated to the task would be an understatement.

Their goal at this time was to get enough warheads to arm the missiles they needed to defend New Copenhagen. If they could do that, they could protect whatever depot held the nukes and keep using them. If they couldn’t—or if the Locusts destroyed the depot—they were utterly screwed.

He was still thinking about that as the Marines from Hunter made their way to the depot to draw arms and armor and begin drilling with them. Thankfully, they had enough operational pinnaces—barely—to get everyone down to the surface and set up surface-to-air defenses, though he’d have to find pilots.

“Have you got a second, Major? I need you to look at something.”

Mac turned and found Joby Hutton standing behind him with a puzzled expression.

“I’ve got a little time. What’s up?”

“I’ve found a section of the warehouses that I can’t get into. It’s armored, and the hatch doesn’t respond to my overrides. I’m hoping you can pop the seal for me.”

His interest piqued, Mac followed the logistics officer to one of the lifts and deep into the bowels of the warehousing system. This place was far too enormous to explore without a host of people working in concert. Apparently, that was what Hutton was doing.

After a few more minutes, they came to a set of security doors almost as impressive as those protecting the Marine armory. No. Scratch that. They were more impressive.

With a shrug, Mac entered the codes he had and was rejected. “I’ve got nothing. What do you think is in there?”

“No clue,” Hutton confessed. “We passed a couple of empty guard points, so this section was just as protected as where the nukes were stored. That’s got to mean it’s important, and the fact it’s still locked implies there’s something in there.”

“I bet Connor knows a person or two who might be able to bypass the security.”

Hutton snorted. “True, but do we really want him to know what’s in there? That seems like that’s just asking for trouble, if you know what I mean.”

Mac leaned against the hatch. “So let me see if I understand this. Your options are to keep this area secret but never figure out what’s inside, or ask a smuggler to provide someone capable of breaking the security on this thing and revealing its contents to the criminal elements while learning what’s in there for yourself? That is a rough set of choices.”

The logistics officer sighed dramatically. “You do have a way of putting things into stark relief, don’t you? I think it’s ironic that whatever it is has been here the entire time, and nobody’s bothered to try to get into it because they didn’t know it existed. There could be anything in there.”

“I suppose your other option is to have us bring in all kinds of explosives and blow the living crap out of it. That might mess up whatever’s inside, though. Do you even have any idea how much space this area takes up?”

Hutton shook his head. “I suppose that’s a good place to start, and I’m curious about the life support connections to the interior, too. Maybe there’s a way to get something through the air ducts to take a look. Even if we can’t access the interior, knowing what’s inside would be worthwhile. It would suck to spend time and effort breaking into an area that’s already been emptied out. And I think I know who might be able to help us figure this out if there are air ducts.”

The two of them went in search of an entrance to the maintenance areas below the deck, and Mac wasn’t surprised to see the storage area blocked under the deck. It looked like the air went through a tiny duct in the bulkhead. It was far too small for anyone to get through, but it was a way in. There was no ingress for water, which meant the compartment wasn’t intended to have people inside for very long.

When they climbed back up, Hutton called Hunter and explained the situation to the researchers that had discovered the mothership with the functional hyperdrive. Mac immediately understood why they’d have something that would work. They’d explored these wrecks remotely—at least in part—and had mechanical henchmen that crawled through them to see what was there before risking their own lives.

While they waited for the researchers to arrive, he and Hutton mapped out the edges of the compartment and discovered that it was enormous and occupied three decks. Whatever it was, it was substantial.

Doctor Alice Wilson only brought one of her research assistants, but they had several cases that held their scurrying minions. She looked at the large hatch with a jaundiced eye as her assistant opened the cases and set up the exploratory devices inside.

“I hope you have a better way to get into that area than straight through the hatch because my little devices need more space.”

Hutton made a come hither gesture. “If you’ll come over here, Doc, we’ve got access under the deck to where the air goes in. It’s about as big as my hand, but that should be enough space, don’t you think?”

“Let’s take a look and see.”

After Mac helped the older woman down through the opening in the deck, she examined the duct for a few seconds before nodding. “It will depend on any obstacles inside, but I think this will work. Our remotes can cut through some obstacles if I send the one with a laser in first.”

She ordered her assistant to hand her goggles and a cutting torch, which she then used to open up the conduit. She took one of the smaller remotes that looked like a spider and put it inside, being careful to avoid the hot edges.

The little thing turned on its lights and scurried out of sight while the research assistant handed Wilson a tablet with an image of what the thing was seeing.

Mac knelt and watched over her shoulder. Sadly, it ran into a series of bars across the duct at about the same location as the bulkhead.

“As I suspected,” Wilson said with a nod. “If you’re going to protect an area against intrusion, you’ll want to make sure it’s very well protected. Whoever built this security system was careful. That likely means cutting through these bars will set off alarms somewhere. Do we even know where that is?”

Mac shook his head and looked over at Hutton, who mirrored the gesture. “Not really. It’s either going to be to an area that the locals control or one that isn’t being monitored. It might not have even been powered until we turned everything in this area on.”

“I say we go ahead and do it,” Hutton said. “If it sets off an alarm, somebody will come looking for whatever it is or give us a call. If we call them in advance, they’ll know something is up. You could always have your people start looking for a security area, Colonel.”

“We’ve already started, but we haven’t found the security center yet. It’s probably somewhere above us, so I’ll send my people up that way in vacuum suits. It’s not going to be powered, but it would still be good to know where it is.”

“So we’re going through?” Wilson asked.

When the two men nodded, she instructed her assistant to hand her a remote that looked more like a snake with a laser emitter at the front. Mac found that even more disturbing than the spider. Why did they have to be spiders and snakes?

Once the new remote was in the air duct, they watched via the tablet as it got up to the blockage and then responded to her highlighting the areas she wanted to be burned away by firing a laser at it until it melted through the bars where they met the bulkhead. Whatever the material was, it was resistant but did give way. The entire process took approximately ten minutes.

Ten minutes during which no one called them to ask what the hell they were doing. That was probably a good indicator that the alarm led to a security area not being monitored by the people controlling Port Royale.

Once Doctor Wilson extracted the laser snake, she put the original remote back in, and it scurried through the now open duct and deeper into the air system. The conduit split off multiple times and became smaller, but the spider was able to make its way through.

Their first sign of success came when the remote arrived at a tube that went up. It terminated at a vent that directed the airflow out through the bulkhead. The vent plate was screwed in with standard fasteners that he was amused to note the spider was quite adept at undoing from the inside with its tiny legs. One by one, it unwound them and pushed them out of the vent cover until the remote could push against the cover itself and send it tumbling down.

The remote climbed out onto the bulkhead to see what was there. There were a lot of crates visible in the dim light, but that seemed to be it. A sizeable internal lift made for cargo sat nearby.

The remote scurried around the crates at Wilson’s orders, looking for any markings but finding none. It even went on top of a pile of crates to make sure that there wasn’t something up there. Nada.

“Well, that’s annoying,” Hutton ventured. “We know there’s a lot of something in there, but we can’t get in to figure out what it is.”

“Who says we can’t get to it?” Mac asked. “We just watched this little thing unscrew an air vent. It can walk right up the hatch and open it for us.”

“I feel like I’m breaking into a bank vault in some entertainment video,” Wilson said with a smile. “Tell me you don’t feel the same way.”

“I’ve been thinking that for the last fifteen minutes,” Mac admitted. “I think you need to go to the right. Find the bulkhead and then look for the hatch.”

She sent the device scurrying that way and found the massive hatch. There were controls next to it behind a protective cover that the spider could open. Exiting was as simple as pressing the green button, which sent the hatch sliding open and kicked the lighting up to full.

The three of them extracted Wilson from the deck and made their way around to the hatch. Whatever was in the crates was big and looked like it might be the same item because all the crates were of a uniform size. What the hell could be in there?

Apparently, Hutton was curious enough to activate a small forklift to get one of the crates down off the top of the nearest pile. There was no room to set it on the deck inside the warehouse, so he exited the storage area and set it down in the corridor. Then he went back into the compartment and returned with a prybar.

“Can’t have crates without having a way to open them,” he confided. “Let’s see what we’ve got here.”

He used the prybar to remove the large fasteners and let them fall to the deck. When he had the top of the crate loose, they shoved it open. That accomplished, lowering the nearest side to see what was in it was simple enough.

Only Mac had no idea what he was looking at. The crate was filled with long pieces of high-tech machinery that were slightly curved and as thick as his body. The stacked segments inside the crate were all identical, separated by packing material and braces.

“What the hell are these?” he asked as he ran a hand along one of the devices.

“No clue,” Hutton admitted. “I’ve been in logistics for a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like them.”

“That’s because you’ve never looked in the right places, and this isn’t the kind of thing that’s just stored anywhere,” Wilson said in a hushed tone. “These are segments to a quantum gate. If they’re all connected together, they form a complete circle that’s quite large. Then fusion plants and control nodes are attached to the exterior. I suppose those must be on one of the other decks inside this storage area. If all these crates hold segments to quantum gates, they’re a means to restore access to the cluster.”

Mac chuckled before shaking his head. “I’m pretty sure Commodore Romanoff has no intention of allowing anyone easy access to areas we bring back under our control, but you’re still going to need to tally up everything and give him an update, Joby. I’m wondering why the Confederation bothered putting these here. They’d have to have the same concerns we do. Installing a new means for everyone’s favorite enemy to get from system to system that easily cannot be something they’d have wanted.”

“It’s a mystery,” Hutton agreed. “I’ll get some people to tally up what we’ve got. Now that the crate is open, I see a chip on the right-hand side. That’ll be for inventory purposes, so there’ll be hand units around here somewhere. That’ll make tallying everything a lot simpler.”

He turned to Wilson. “Do you think you can look at some of these and tell me more about them, Doc? The other ones were set up so the Navy could blow them up. Are these the same? Do we need to worry about explosives in this compartment?”

“I have no idea, but it’ll be interesting to find out,” the older woman said. “Let’s go exploring, shall we? If we find anything, Major Turner has some professionals that can advise us on what to do next.”

Mac pulled his comm off his belt and called for the ordnance disposal people. Best to have the pros on hand, just in case. He had no idea why these gates were here, but he supposed it gave them a few more options going forward.

17

Jack walked into the briefing room and waved everyone back to their seats before they had a chance to rise. He took a seat at the head of the table and swept his gaze over his officers. India McKinnon sat to his right with Kelly Danek, Charlie Ferraro, Derek Calvo, Sara Nastasi, and the professor further down the table. To his left sat Joby Hutton, Alexey Golousenko, Amanda Harris, Ahmed Adel, and Mac Turner.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said. “My call with Connor ran long.”

“Has he managed to get the council to agree to the treaty yet?” India asked.

“No. I even offered to speak to them myself, but he said that might make matters worse. As he’s letting us get the materials we need, I don’t want to push things if I don’t have to. Best to let things lie for the moment. We’re now forty-eight hours short of kickoff, and it’s time to nail down what we’re going to do when we get to New Copenhagen. Let’s cover everything we have in progress to be sure we’re ready. Engineering, how is the work going with the fusion plants?”

The tall, brown-haired woman smiled. “We’ve yanked the two dead fusion plants and replaced them with the two from Scorpius. Had to swap out some parts, but they’re green and operating at full power. We tore down the flaky ones and replaced anything questionable, so they’re also running at full power. The plant from Hawkwing is also running just fine, so we’re powered up and ready for anything in engineering, sir.”

“Well done to you and all your people. What is the power situation aboard Scorpius?”

“She’s as dead as a doornail. My power guys think they can get one of the remaining plants up again, and that would allow her to be a weapons platform. Her drives would need a lot of work, so not a mobile one, unfortunately. As for her independent quantum drive, it’s in pieces, and I have no time to look at it.”

“I haven’t had a chance to look at the engineering sections on the remaining ships that have power,” Turner said. “The people there are edgy at the moment, and I figured it was better to not push things since we have no treaty and we’re on a deadline.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Jack admitted. “We can check them when we finish with New Copenhagen.”

He looked over at the chief engineer. “Do you have any more information on those gates Joby found, Kelly? The engineering and scientific teams have had five days to go over everything, and I’d like to know their status.”

She shrugged. “I’ve never had a chance to examine a quantum gate before, but that’s what those are. I don’t have any civilian gates to compare them to, but those don’t seem to be the same. For one thing, they’ve got an identify friend or foe system built into their control circuits to make sure only authorized ships can use them. If a ship tries to transit, it gets queried for the appropriate codes. If it doesn’t provide them, there is no transit.”

“Two questions,” Sara said, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table. “First, why didn’t they use something like that to the system here? We wouldn’t have had the pirates if they’d done so. Or the smugglers and Locusts. Second, just how secure can something like that be? It seems like anyone could detect someone else using the appropriate codes and copy them. That doesn’t seem very secure to me.”

“It’s a bit more advanced than that. First of all, you have to have the appropriate code generation system built into your ships. The gates generate a query based on the timestamp. The receiving system double-checks the validity of the code request, also based on the timestamp, and then generates an appropriate response through a series of algorithms to give it a one-time response that will never be repeated.”

“I’m impressed you were able to figure all that out so quickly,” Jack said.

“I know because of the specification sheets,” she admitted. “We found the code generation units, and they’re exceptionally tamper-resistant. They can also be destroyed by a ship’s crew if need be. The gates are also boobytrapped. If someone tries to get into them without the right codes—different codes than those used for jumping—they self-destruct.”

Jared rubbed his eyes. “It would’ve made a lot of sense to use a system like that as the only means of getting into this system. We can’t say why they didn’t, and we may never know. In any case, it’s not like we need gates at this point in time. We can set those aside for now.”

“It’s going to be important,” India argued. “Once we liberate New Copenhagen, we’ll need to get ships going between there and Port Royale. There’s no way we could carry all the nuclear weapons we need to transport. For that matter, the people down there may be in dire straits. We may have to bring support into the system to help them, too.”

Jack nodded. “There are millions of nuclear warheads to be moved. That’s not going to be as critical for our current fighting efforts, but we can’t leave them where the Locusts can take them away from us at will. It’s been weeks since the gates were taken down, and there’s no telling what forces the Locusts have in transit between systems even now.”

He grimaced. “Hell, I’d be surprised if the Locusts at New Copenhagen didn’t send motherships to notify nearby systems about Hunter already. We’re going to draw them like moths to a flame, so we need to figure a way to defend both systems, and I’m not sure how we manage that. Does anyone have any ideas?”

“The station and the battleships have weapon systems, so getting things prepared here will be a lot easier than at New Copenhagen,” India said. “If we have enough time, we can create orbital missile platforms and laser batteries for them. It would be simple enough to nudge small asteroids of the appropriate size into place. They’d have to be large enough to mount everything and host a fusion plant and thrusters to keep them steady. The problem will be doing it fast enough to make a difference.”

“If they sent someone for help the moment they detected us, the nearest occupied system is three months away at what we estimate their hyperdrives can move,” Jack said. “That puts the response to our incursion at about half a year now. That should be more than enough time to get ready for them, though we’ll use a more conservative estimate for the timing.”

He smiled coldly. “For that matter, if we can get the nuclear warheads we need, we should be able to take the closest systems away from them long before the motherships from New Copenhagen could arrive to ask for help. We’ve got the advantage of speed since they can no longer use our quantum gates against us.”

Even if the motherships had launched a force toward New Copenhagen when the gates were destroyed, they’d still be almost three months away. They had a window of opportunity, and they needed to use it ruthlessly.

“We have some idea of the forces we’ll face at New Copenhagen,” Ahmed said, “but not the full scope. What if we can’t take them?”

“Then it’s not going to matter what we do to prepare for holding the system, will it?” Jack asked. “We can’t go into this assuming we’re going to fail. We’re going to win this fight, though we may take damage doing so. If we get some serious breaches, what are our repair options?”

“It’s a bit time-consuming but a lot simpler than one might imagine,” Kelly said. “Basically, we melt nickel-iron asteroids and pump the material into the blast pits after driving some supports in to act as a framework. Once the metal hardens back up, we’re as good as new, other than having to drill a few new passages and mount weapons on the surface.”

“Don’t we need that now? We’ve taken some serious hits.”

The engineer shook her head. “While we got some blast pits from being knocked around, the damage doesn’t go deep enough to worry about fixing before this fight. I’ve already spoken with Connor about dedicating some of their refining capacity. We don’t have to be as picky as they are about separating the various minerals. We just want a nickel-iron asteroid melted down to the point we can fill the holes.”

“How does that work in space?” Sara asked. “Isn’t everything going to coagulate back together again?”

“Not as fast as you might think since vacuum is a good insulator. As we heat it to the point that it turns liquid, it’ll be malleable long enough to get it into place and tamp it to a good consistency. At the moment, they’re using large solar reflectors to concentrate light into a very small area and melt off portions of an asteroid they’ve captured.”

She leaned forward and smiled. “I’ve suggested something they could use for large-scale mining operations. We move a fusion plant out there and run power through the asteroid to melt it all simultaneously. We’d have to go slow and steady, but we can get a lot of metal in condition to use it with the process like that.”

Jack didn’t know about that kind of thing, so he was willing to leave perfecting the process to the professionals. If they said they could get it done, they could get it done.

“It sounds like we’ve got plans in motion for everything after the invasion,” he said. “That leaves the question of the aliens. What can you tell us about them, Professor? Any chance they’re willing to talk?”

“Willing? I believe so. Able to? Sadly, we’re not there yet. The translation program Miss Gane is working on is still primitive and error-prone. It’s getting better, but only by small increments. The remainder of the aliens are awake and in the quarters we’ve prepared for them. They seem gregarious with one another, and we have a few that we’ve managed to get started on some children’s programs to learn our language.”

He smiled a little. “I doubt they’ll be able to speak it anytime soon—other than in a basic form—but they may be faster at learning our language than we are mastering theirs.”

Jack was impressed. He’d never thought about doing something like that. “Where did you find that kind of program?”

“Port Royale, of course. Being as they have a full range of the population, there are parents with programs to help teach their children, so we’ve got everything from baby primers all the way up to tutorials and study guides for adults learning it as a second language. If any of these aliens have an affinity to learning our language, I believe we can move to speaking without an artificial translator faster than I’d guessed.”

“That’s great news,” Jack said.

“As their mouths are shaped differently than ours, they may not be able to speak our language effectively,” the professor cautioned. “Still, with an appropriate keyboard, they should be able to learn to communicate via the written word, if nothing else. We’re looking at all avenues, Jack. It’s not going to happen in a few days—or even a few weeks—but we’re making progress.”

“What about their behavior?” India asked. “These are the beings that created the Locusts, after all. Do they seem inordinately hostile?”

“Quite the contrary. I’d have expected the people that created such aggressive machines to be significantly more confrontational. It’s quite the mystery.”

Well, it would have to be a mystery they’d solve later. It was time to move on to the most important part of the meeting. Figuring out the best way to attack the Locusts at New Copenhagen.

Jack turned his attention to Derek. “I realize you’ve been working on an attack plan for New Copenhagen. It’s time to let us know what you propose.”

“Misdirection,” the young officer said. “We’ve already riled them up by drawing them to our location before jumping. They then found the quantum gate and poured resources through it, only to have it destroyed in their faces. They don’t know that we’ve destroyed every mothership that came through the gate, so they expect to get the word about where we went eventually.”

Jack nodded his appreciation of that succinct summary. “And how will we misdirect them?”

The young man grinned. “We’ll jump into New Copenhagen and power around at full speed to draw them to our location. Then, we’ll jump through a series of unoccupied systems before jumping back to New Copenhagen on the other side of the system from where we left them.”

“Could they use their hyperdrive to come at us, even if it is slower?” India asked.

“No. It has the same exclusion zone—at least—as we have. They’ll be stuck in normal space. Based on where New Copenhagen is located, we can draw them almost all the way around the star the first time. That means they won’t be able to catch us at the planet before we arrive in orbit.”

“We’ll be able to deal with what they leave there and any of the patrols that are still in the system, but we’ll have to defend the planet against the ones we lured out of position when they come back,” Amanda said. “That’s where we’ll take a beating.”

“What’s the benefit of doing something like that?” India asked. “We’re just putting off the ass-kicking, not avoiding it.”

“We’ll have a window of opportunity to land our Marine forces and secure the area where they have the nuclear weapons,” Mac said. “If we can get enough of them back to the ship and into our missiles, the Locusts will have an unpleasant surprise when they try to take us.”

Derek nodded. “It’s going to be a race against time, and we’ll have everything on the line because we won’t be able to run away from them. If those nuclear warheads aren’t there—or are unusable—we’ll take a severe beating getting out of the system. If we can get out at all.”

“I’m not a fan of all or nothing plans,” Jack said. “Nevertheless, this is the only way we can get to the planet and get down to the surface to see what’s going on. What’s the weapon situation, Amanda?”

“We’re going to have about twenty percent of our lasers online,” the young tactical officer said. “We’ll have ten percent of the missile batteries functional if we’re lucky.”

“And how many missiles will we have?” India asked.

“The people working for the arms dealer have trained us up, and we’re refurbishing them as fast as possible. It’s not a fast process, but we’ve gotten almost two thousand ready in the last five days, and we’re aiming for twenty-five hundred. That’s five salvos with the operational launchers. We’ll need those nuclear warheads, or we’re in deep trouble.”

“Let me ask the obvious question,” Sara said. “Why don’t we wait another few weeks before launching the attack? It feels like we’re rushing things.”

“We are rushing things a little,” Jack admitted. “We don’t know what the situation is like on the ground, and we can’t leave our people to whatever the Locusts are dealing out. If it turns out they have more ships than we can handle, we’ll have to break off the attack. We’ll have plenty of time to do so if the situation dictates. Until then, we keep going forward.”

He turned his attention to Mac. “How are your people doing?”

The Marine officer nodded. “We’ve got our surviving Marines kitted out, and we’ll have enough pinnaces with pilots. I’ve been recruiting and testing people from Port Royale who have the skills to get down to the ground and back off again in the old-style ships. I had to promise them a good amount of money, but we have enough people to man every pinnace we’ll need, as well as the cargo shuttles necessary to get the nuclear warheads to orbit.”

He sighed. “What I don’t know is the situation on the ground. There may be enemy forces in the atmosphere. We’ve never encountered Locusts like this, so they may have aircraft we know nothing about. They may have ground forces, too. Much like in orbit, it’s going to be something of a crapshoot, and we’re just going to have to improvise.”

“We can only do the best we can,” Jack agreed. “We’re taking some risks in jumping early, but I think they’re manageable. We have no idea what the Locusts are doing to the local population. We’ve detected no radio signals, so they’ve done something. We don’t know whether they’re dropping rocks on every transmitter they’ve found or sending aircraft down to strafe every location generating a signal.”

He captured Mac’s gaze in his. “If we can stand off the enemy and take the orbitals, you and your people will have to link up with forces on the ground. Whatever they’re up to, we need to know about it.”

“We’re planning for as many surprises as possible, but nothing is guaranteed,” Mac said. “Once we get on the ground, that’s when the fun starts. We’re going to bring along as many weapons as we can to arm the local populace to resist using guerrilla-style warfare if need be. I’m hoping that’s not necessary, but I’m taking no chances.”

Mac turned his gaze to the young pilot. “Have you ever read Sun Tzu, Derek?”

“No, sir. I’m not even sure who that is.”

“He was a war leader from old Earth. He fought long before spaceflight, but he’s got some excellent advice for those who want to be warriors. One of those bits of information is relevant to your plan. ‘Be where your enemy is not.’”

Derek smiled. “That’s excellent advice, sir. Particularly when the enemy is stronger than you are.”

“The Art of War isn’t a very long book, so give it a read over the next few days. I made it mandatory reading for my officers when I was in active service the first time, and I’ll do it again now once this settles out.”

Jack put his hands on the table. “We’ve got forty-eight hours until we jump for New Copenhagen. We’ll have one chance to liberate them using surprise, so let’s get it right the first time.”

18

Connor swaggered into the chamber used by Port Royale’s governing council with a calculated air of nonchalance. One had to present a certain image to stand up to this group, and he’d had a lot of practice at doing it, but he never missed an opportunity to look as if he were in control, even if that wasn’t quite the case.

The chamber itself had been a small briefing room used by middle-ranked officers in the distant past, but they’d torn out the furnishings and had an oval-shaped table built to fill the space. A gap in the table allowed people to do their presentations from the center of the open space in the middle, so the council members surrounded them. He’d found having people asking questions from all around was a bit unsettling and usually resulted in more honesty. Now it was his turn in the box.

Well, fair was fair.

The governing council was made up of five people. Each of them was a mover and shaker in their own right, though not powerful enough to rule the system on their own. Arguably, Connor wasn’t powerful enough to do so himself. If he didn’t have the council’s support, he wouldn’t be running the show.

That was one of the reasons he’d been careful during his initial selection of who he’d allowed to learn the location of this system. Doing so made people beholden to him, to a point. Only three of the current council members were part of the original set, but he’d supported them when they needed it, and they’d supported him in most things since.

Not in all things, of course, because there was an independent streak baked into people that struck out on their own. Connor could push things, but not too far. What he did had to make sense to the council, or they’d cut him off at the knees.

More than five people were at the table because each council member had two alternates who sat in on the meetings. If a council member couldn’t be there, their first alternate stepped into their shoes for any votes. As the council was not allowed to abstain or vote present on any issue, that assured there were five votes either yea or nay on any subject.

That had been intentional. He’d seen far too many instances where the Confederation Council—or its subordinate groupings—had been unable to accomplish anything. He wanted to make sure there were always votes when they needed to be taken.

Of course, they weren’t stupid. If something wasn’t ready to vote on, the council would vote to table the issue for up to thirty days and then vote on it again. There were still some things in progress from years ago that they kept looking at to see if it was time to pull the trigger on.

When he’d created Port Royale and the council, he’d wanted something between him and ironfisted rule. He wasn’t cut out for that and wanted to ensure no one came along to murder him and take over the entire colony. The council was that mechanism.

If he wasn’t living up to their needs, they could replace him with someone they felt could do better, and he was okay with that. Port Royale had grown into a fine place, and he’d be happy to set aside some of his responsibilities and focus on things that were a bit more personal.

They hadn’t chosen to do so, but it was always possible he was pushing them too hard now and would pay the price. If they called for a vote to toss him out on his ear, there was nothing he could do about it other than dust himself off and move on.

The council members and their assistants watched him walk into the center space and turned slowly to take them all in. Their expressions ranged from worried to frustrated. At least no one seemed angry, so that was a plus.

“The council has summoned me to explain my choices, so I’m here,” he said. “How can I clarify what I’m doing and gain your approval?”

Romani Nadia, the de facto leader of the council and his sometimes lover, leaned forward and fixed him with a hard stare. “Everyone knows I’m your most ardent supporter, but I think you’ve lost your mind. You’ve let the Navy take over a quarter of the station, and you’re just giving away those valuable parts. We haven’t even agreed on the treaty you proposed. What are we getting out of this arrangement?”

“Would you rather we hand the cluster over to the Locusts?” he demanded. “I don’t know why you haven’t approved the treaty—or rejected it for that matter—but the war hasn’t stopped while you dither. They’ll need to be at their best to take the Locusts at New Copenhagen, and I made the call to accommodate them. Was I wrong?”

His on and off again lover scowled, but she shook her head. “No, but you’ve eroded our leverage. I’ll tell you right now that two of us voted to kick your handsome ass out of your leadership role. That vote was tabled, but you’ll get the boot if I’m not satisfied with what you say today. This is the time to convince us, or we reject the treaty and fire you.”

Well, it was serious then. He’d best put his charm on the line and make his best argument.

“As I see it, we have a few potential outcomes,” he started in a serious tone, making sure to take them all in. “We reject the treaty and force the Navy to make some hard choices. They’d rather not attack us, but they have the cluster to save. Do you doubt for one second they’d come for those parts? They would hate to do so, but would we do any differently in their places?”

That set off some murmured conversation but didn’t spark the anger he’d half expected. They’d already come to the same conclusion. That meant they knew and accepted that the Navy would get their parts one way or another. This resistance was about something else.

“We’re not stupid,” Romani said with a sigh. “We’ll have to make a deal, but we’re not satisfied you’ve bargained for the best deal we can get.” Then her expression soured. “I’m also not a fan of having them kick people off the battleships. None of the ships will be able to fight anytime soon, if ever. It’s our people being killed and taken from their homes, and I don’t like it. None of us do.”

“Those would be the same people that planned to overthrow this council and take control of Port Royale, would it not? Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking everyone is happy under the system we live in. The sect leadership certainly wasn’t. And, to be fair, that sect was a festering boil in our society and needed to be lanced. Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing I did.”

She sighed again, looking irritated and tired. “I would have, but I’m not happy to have all these Navy people rummaging around the station, taking whatever they feel like. And before you lecture me, I know these people are not our enemies compared to the Locusts, but that doesn’t mean I want them underfoot.”

“I’ve got a plan for that,” Connor said with a grin. “They don’t have to live aboard this station. Since the Navy owns the battleships—and needs them to fight the war if they can make use of them—there’s no reason we couldn’t move everything they need onto the battleships. It’s not going to happen overnight, but we can get them out of our hair over time.”

“And then they’ll sit there in orbit with the same weapons we didn’t want the sect to have and threaten us at their leisure,” Melissa Resch said in a sour tone. “Are we at least going to arm Port Royale better? If we’re going to be an independent colony, we deserve the right to defend ourselves.”

He turned to face the woman that was the closest thing to an opponent he had on the council. “We are. They’ve got far more missiles, missile launchers, and lasers than they know what to do with. In fact, they’ve asked us to start putting together everything needed to build laser and missile installations on asteroids that we can use to defend New Copenhagen. There’s no reason we couldn’t do the same here. If the Locusts—or the Navy for that matter—come calling, we intend to give them a very hot welcome indeed.”

Dan O’Brien leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. “And the Navy doesn’t have a problem with this?”

“I haven’t asked. We’ll be partners in this affair, so we’ll do what’s necessary to protect our interests. I don’t think we’ll get any trouble from Romanoff about doing so. Have you made any decisions about the sect leadership?”

“We took a vote before you got here,” Juan Pacheco said, his expression glum. “I’m not a fan of capital punishment, but we can’t allow vipers like that to live among us after what they did. We sentenced them to death, and it’s already been carried out by now. How is the Navy going to respond to that?”

Connor laughed. “If you haven’t had a chance to watch the recorded tribunal that judged a mutinous Navy Captain and the expeditious trial of a bunch of pirates, I think you need to do so. Romanoff and his people understand that some lines shouldn’t be crossed and that harsh penalties must be assessed. I don’t believe you’ll hear a peep out of them.”

Camilla Pugini rapped her knuckles on the table. “What about the money this is costing us? It’s only starting, and you’ve pledged an incredible amount, even without a treaty. It’s causing our economy to heat up in ways we’ve never planned for. Yet you’re proposing we spend a lot of money building things for the Navy. It’s not like they’re paying for this. We’re giving them the money they’re paying back to us, so our economy will suffer.”

She waved a hand to stop his response before he could speak. “I understand that we’re fighting for our lives, but everything could still go up in flames if we’re not careful. The Navy needs to bring something of value that we can put back into our economy, yet all I see are refugees, which will make the situation worse.”

“Would you turn them away?” Connor asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, but I’m responsible for the people that are already here. We need to have something brought back to even the scales. Maybe if we could get into trade with a liberated New Copenhagen, that would help, but we’re very short on ships, too.”

He nodded. She was just telling the flat-out truth.

“Well, as it turns out, I happen to know where we can get some ships, and the Navy people found crates of quantum gates. Not like the ones that were in use before, but ones that require encrypted signals to work. If the Navy drops off one in New Copenhagen to link up with us here, only ships with the appropriate equipment could come through. Does that interest you?”

Romani frowned. “If they had that kind of equipment, why didn’t they use it before? That could’ve kept this system safe from the Locusts, the pirates, and us, for that matter.”

“It’s a mystery,” he confessed. “And the bigger mystery would be how they expected to get those gates anywhere useful. The battleships are the only ships that can jump into a system without a gate already there. I’ve been giving it some thought, and I don’t think we’ve seen the complete picture. They can’t have stashed the gates here without a plan for deploying them.”

Connor turned in a circle smiling at everyone. “We’ve explored this system in a very haphazard way. Admittedly, we don’t have a lot of ships left now that the Locusts have destroyed the captured pirate vessels, but we’ve got enough small craft to start searching the outer reaches of the system. I think there’s something else in this system that we haven’t been aware of, and it’s time to start looking for it.”

“Even if we get the gates up, that doesn’t give us freighters to move cargo,” Romani said. “How do we overcome something like that?”

“The Navy abandoned more than two hundred ships in an isolated system near the gateway to the cluster. Once New Copenhagen is secured, they could return there and bring them back. A fair chunk are large freighters that would provide the very trade we need and that I’m certain New Copenhagen will be desperate for.”

He raised his hands a little. “Will that be enough? I don’t know, but it’s the only thing we have. As the Navy begins recapturing systems taken over by the Locusts, we’ll be able to once again build a node of trade to help save the people both here and there. Our assistance isn’t going to be forgotten. When the time comes, whoever their representatives are, they’ll stand up for our right to exist as an independent entity. Every bit that we help the Navy and the people in this cluster adds to our legitimacy.”

And here was the part of the pitch he knew they wouldn’t like. Well, best to get it out of the way fast then.

“And the best way that we can demonstrate our commitment to the cluster is to make sure they know we’re involved in freeing them from the very beginning. That we’re not just some standoff group supporting them from afar. When the Navy goes to New Copenhagen, I’m going with them. Whoever is in charge there will see our leadership’s face from the very first moment, which will have an impact.”

His pronouncement, of course, caused pandemonium. Everyone had an argument about why having him go was a bad idea, and they weren’t shy about sharing them with him. Rather than fight, he let their complaints wash over him.

He knew they’d come around eventually. His people were being emotional right now, and he was inclined to let them keep doing so until it was time to put it to a vote.

To his surprise, they wound down much more quickly than he expected and began bickering amongst themselves about the logic of his plan. Romani pointed out how it would benefit them and championed his cause, though it was apparent she wasn’t happy about being surprised like this.

Eventually, they put it to a vote and agreed four to one that he should go. They also unanimously voted to put forward to the Navy that they needed to bring all the civilian vessels they’d abandoned to Port Royale once the fight for New Copenhagen was done. That would require some very specific negotiation from him to make happen, but he didn’t think it was impossible.

“I’m glad we have that settled, but we need to discuss the treaty. You’ve still got some reservations. I can’t see about fixing those if you don’t tell me what they are. What do you want that I didn’t get?”

Romani fixed him with a hard stare. “You seem to have figured the angles on most things, but you left an important gap that has to be filled. Some of our disagreement had to do with allowing them here at all, but I’d wager we can settle that. You missed the fact that most of us have had trouble with the Confederation in the past. There needs to be a general amnesty clause in the treaty.”

He’d argued for that, but Romanoff had said he had no authority to grant that since he had no idea what people had done. He’d gotten the recognition of Port Royale as a political entity, and people here would be safe from the long arm of the Confederation law. Apparently, that wasn’t good enough.

“We did discuss it, but he wasn’t in favor of a blanket amnesty for murders and the like,” Connor conceded. “Where would we draw the line? Who would get their records cleared, and who would remain a criminal? It’s not like the Navy has the personnel or time to vet thirty thousand people.”

He frowned. “Or maybe they do have the people. They have a commodore from the Judge Advocate General’s office and her staff. They also have a salvaged computer from a Navy cruiser that probably has a list of people wanted for capital crimes. There might be something we could argue, but what would you have them do if they came across someone wanted for one of the crimes the Navy isn’t willing to grant amnesty for?”

“That’s something that you can negotiate about,” Romani said. “Maybe those people are on their own if they leave Port Royale. Or maybe we should have some standards and clean that kind of people out. I suppose it depends on the crime. If we provide sanctuary for pirates and murderers, that’ll draw more, and I think that’s a bad idea, but it needs to be settled. Do that to our satisfaction, and we’ll sign the treaty.”

“I’ll do what I can. We’ve got less than two days, so this might require some around-the-clock negotiations, and there’s no guarantee that the Confederation will honor their end once the war is over. We have to accept that.”

That didn’t please them, but they were all steeped in society’s underbelly and knew how the world worked. With the council business done, he accompanied Romani to her quarters so she could tear a strip off of him for risking himself like this. Then they’d find a way to make up. They always did.

He’d never considered himself one to settle down, but she’d never been one to put up with his crap. He needed that kind of person as a partner, though he couldn’t make it official while she still served on the council. That was a conflict of interest that would cost Romani her position, and he didn’t want to lay that burden on her.

Still, one day.

For now, he’d put off the worries about what came when they got to New Copenhagen. That would be a fight Romanoff would be in charge of, and he’d just be a pretty face. Unless, of course, things went very wrong.

19

Alan made his way to Kelly Danek’s office. She’d called him down to brief him on relocating their alien prisoners to their new home, and he suspected he’d get information about a number of other things as well.

He walked into her office, halted, and stared around in amazement. The fact that this was the chief engineer’s office was often concealed by the large stacks of books and manuals that dominated the space. Only now, they were nowhere to be seen.

All the furniture—and there was far more of it than he’d suspected—was free of clutter, and it was amazing how large her office truly was. He could even see a chair behind her desk. That had never been a given.

Not that Kelly was sitting at the desk, of course. That would’ve been expecting far too much. Instead, she was seated at a small table off to the side of the room, drinking coffee with Alice Wilson and Lisa Gane. The three women waved him over, and he cheerfully accepted a battered mug that he used at the coffee machine.

“Was there always a coffee machine in here?” he asked. “If so, that was a terrible waste. It could’ve been in my lab.”

“Don’t be greedy,” Kelly advised. “My office, my coffee machine, even if no one knew it was here. Hell, I didn’t know it was here until I started cleaning everything out.”

“So what sparked this spring cleaning event?” he asked as he mixed some sugar and creamer into his coffee before taking a sip and nodding his approval. “This office has been a disaster zone since I met you, and that’s been many years, my dear. What changed?”

She rolled her eyes. “I now have a subordinate who insists on meeting with the senior staff here. Charlie is a nice guy, but he can be a nag. I told him that if he wanted to have this office cleaned up, then he could get the manuals into a library somewhere close by where we could find everything, and damned if he didn’t do it.”

“I think it’s much airier now,” Alice said. “I like it.”

“It could do with a bit more stuff,” Lisa advised. “A clean office is a sign of a cluttered mind. You should see mine.”

“You should see hers,” Alan agreed. “I’d say hers is a rational compromise between what I’m seeing now and what was here before. I like it. You’ve still got the old diagrams up, and that lends an air of being in an engineering space, only now people can be in here with you. Rather, you can even be in here by yourself without worrying about being killed in an avalanche.”

“You’re hilarious,” Kelly grumbled. “I’m not fond of change.”

“And yet, here we are,” Alice said with a smile that was half-concealed behind her mug. “Now, what are we talking about? While I certainly love décor conversations, I suspect we have more important matters to discuss given the imminent departure for New Copenhagen.”

Kelly sighed and rolled her shoulders. “True. There are a few things I wanted to go over with you. My people have gotten the fusion plant from Hawkwing relocated to Scorpius. I’d originally intended to keep it here, but none of the plants were functional after we wrapped up working there. Since we’re planning on using it as our base of operations while we’re out of the system, it needed power for the life-support and weapons systems we’re bringing online.”

Alan frowned. “I thought we went through those negotiations so we could use part of the depot.”

“Still no treaty, so we had to work under the assumption that it wouldn’t get ironed out in time,” she said with a shrug. “They seem accommodating enough right now, but I’m not a big fan of having all our stuff so accessible. Scorpius isn’t ever going to leave this system. Someone did a real number on her independent quantum drive, and unless things get desperate, we’re not going to expend the time and effort to try to make the ship functional again.”

“That’s a shame. I hope that isn’t the case on all the battleships.”

“You and me both. I’ve already started having a number of compartments inside Scorpius expanded, so she’ll be large enough to hold our critical repair parts. Some munitions will go over there as well. It can’t hold everything, but we’re too open on the depot because every criminal in this system can get to us by riding up the lift or sneaking through the life-support system. It’s just not secure. Oh, and we moved Hawkwing’s computer there, too. Commodore Nastasi insisted.”

Alan found himself in agreement with her. The citizens of Port Royale seemed accommodating enough, but Jack and the rest had been attacked by people trying to steal their equipment. Even if they set Marines to guard the area, that threat wouldn’t go away.

“I can see the logic of that,” he admitted. “So, you’ve got power there, and we’re relocating our prisoners?”

She shook her head. “The commodore made the call to keep them with us. Too much chance that angry locals might want to discuss the invasion with them while we’re gone. It’s more dangerous this way, but if we all get killed, it won’t help to have them to talk to, will it?”

“Nobody is telling anybody anything,” Lisa said. “So far as they know, we’re just setting it up as your new headquarters because you don’t trust everybody on Port Royale. They’re not going to feel offended by that. Why would they suspect there are aliens on Scorpius?”

“No offense, but how do we know that you wouldn’t tell them?” Kelly asked.

“Because I signed the nondisclosure agreement, and if my reputation takes a hit because I talked out of turn, my income will suffer. If I agree to something in writing, then that’s what happens. As far as the people on Port Royale, they’ll be happier having you at a distance anyway, though I’m sure they’re not going to be happy you’re bringing the weapons systems online.”

“Considering that was what the religious fanatics intended, I can’t blame them,” Alan agreed. “The real difference is that we have a treaty—if they ever ratify it—with Port Royale, and we intend to honor it. We’re not going to try to kick anyone out or take control. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

“I don’t know if you’ve been paying much attention to what’s going on with our guests,” Alice said, “but their food supplies trend more toward the processed variety. That seems strange and not particularly healthy. Is there any way to check their computers and find out how long their journey was or where they came from?”

“I’ve looked, but my unfamiliarity with their systems impedes me. The computers don’t seem to have any security built into them, so odds are the answers we’re seeking are right there for the taking if we could understand what we were seeing.”

He turned his attention to Kelly. “You say you’re activating some of the weapons to protect Scorpius? How extensive is that going to be?”

“It doesn’t have to be extensive,” the engineer said with a chuckle. “The station only has thirty functional missile launchers. Port Royale could use its lasers for a long time before becoming a threat to the interior compartments. We’re focusing on getting a few of the lasers up and running as a deterrent for small craft. That’s it. We can focus on more once we’ve secured New Copenhagen.”

He nodded and drank more of his coffee. It would be a waste to let it get cold. Then he frowned. This was better than what he had in his lab.

“Where did you get this?” he asked. “I want some for myself.”

“It was part of the supplies taken off the freighters,” Kelly said. “Joby was holding out on us, but I twisted his arm until he kicked some over to me. If you talk to him, don’t let him shine you. He’s got more stashed away somewhere.”

“I’ll do that. I know you’ll be staying with the ship, but what about you, Alice?”

“I’m moving my lab over to Scorpius. My people and I will keep doing our research there for now. You?”

“I’m going to New Copenhagen. I want to get a firsthand look at what the Locusts are doing. No one is an expert on them—particularly when they’re doing unexpected things—but someone has to figure out what designs they have on humanity.”

“You came through New Copenhagen before you arrived at Port Royale,” Lisa said. “What do you think they’re up to?”

“Nothing good. They were building at least two space elevators, from what we could tell. That means they have something they want to get at on the surface. That kind of thing would be good for moving things in bulk, or perhaps extracting things from the planet, and that’s a mystery we need to solve.”

“Maybe I should go as well,” Alice offered. “No offense to you and what you’ve done, but I have a different knowledge base relating to the Locusts. We may have a better chance of figuring things out between the two of us.”

He gave the older woman a steady look. “Hunter is going there to fight. Every Locust in the system will try to kill us. Perhaps it might be safer if you come to visit after the system is secure.”

“It might be safer, but sometimes one has to take risks for what they believe in.”

“I hate to be the voice of dissent here, but it’s not smart to risk both experts at one time,” Lisa said. “If the Locusts pull off an upset win, you’ve lost every knowledgeable expert you have. That’s a bad call.”

Alan seized on that and nodded. “It’s true. I’m already taking more of a chance than I probably should, and it’s not smart to risk another expert when we have no one else standing by to fill our shoes. Alice, I’ve been on this ship for a decade, and it’s my duty to see this through. Keep working here, and we’ll send for you the moment we know the system is secure.”

Alice laughed. “And there’s a lie. Without having a gate between the two systems, there’s no way you’re going to bring this big ship back just to pick me up.”

“We’re taking half of a matched pair of quantum gates with us,” Kelly said. “Port Royale doesn’t have a lot of ships, but they’ve got a few. Once we’re sure New Copenhagen is safe, we’ll assemble it and bring our end online. I’m confident there are things we’ll need, and as you say, there’s no way this ship will be playing ferry.”

“I have to say I’m relieved to agree with you,” Alice said. “I’m not cut out to be a heroine, so I’ll let Alan gallantly stand for the scientific community.”

All of those things settled, the four had more coffee and discussed plans to expand what they were doing. If they were lucky, they’d find some academics on New Copenhagen that could assist them further. Until that point, they’d need to do all the work themselves.

They’d manage, but it wouldn’t be quick or easy. They had so many mysteries to solve, many of which would be made easier if they had professionals in other fields to help. Like linguists, for example. If they had a team of linguists helping Lisa with the translation efforts, the process might go faster and be more effective.

Half an hour later, he stood. “It’s been good visiting, but I’ve got to finish securing my laboratory. If we get into a fight, it’s always conceivable the ship could take damage in that area, and I want to make sure nothing important gets tossed around.”

“Be careful once the fighting starts,” Alice said. “Christine would be distraught if you got hurt or killed. That means you need to take extra steps to ensure neither happens. Understood?”

“So she’s informed me,” he said with a smile. “At length. Trust me when I say I’ll be as well protected as possible. Until we meet again.”

Alan cleaned his mug and hung it back by the coffee maker before leaving. He’d have to track Joby down soon. That coffee was just too good to leave to the logistics officer.

He altered his course to head for the logistics area to take care of that right away. He’d get a supply for his laboratory and for Christine. She’d enjoy the gift, and it might help take her mind off the upcoming battle.

Alan was worried, and he didn’t want her to see that. They were hoping for the best, but things could still take a turn for the worst. He trusted his Navy friends, but life had a way of dealing with overconfidence.

They’d win this fight. Deep inside, he believed that. The only thing he didn’t know was how badly they’d get hurt in the process.

20

Mac walked down the line of pinnaces, trying to keep from worrying. Many of them were from the Marine barracks aboard the depot, and they hadn’t been used in a very long time, but they’d passed the self-checks and inspections.

That wouldn’t be any consolation if they broke down during the fight at New Copenhagen, but they’d get a quick test flight by some of the local pilots. Not all of those pilots would be going with them, but many would. That was a good incentive for them to make sure everything worked.

He was grateful that whoever the Marine commander had been had made sure everything was put into storage properly. There were no surprises, though there were failures.

Mac was glad the locals were footing the bill because paying people to go on a combat mission when they weren’t already signed up to serve was expensive. People with experience that were willing to do so charged an awful lot, and there would be hefty payouts to their families if they didn’t make it back.

Another pair of pinnaces lifted off the deck and headed toward the large hatches as he watched. They’d circumnavigate the gas giant and do as much testing as possible on the way to Hunter. Once they were aboard the battleship, the Marines using that pinnace would get familiarized with it.

Even after the losses taken fighting the pirates, they still had almost a thousand inexperienced Marines and people from the Academy to watch over them. He had around six dozen formerly retired Marine Force Recon personnel to act as officers because of their experience, but that was still an awful lot of people that didn’t know what they were doing.

Sadly, if things heated up when they got to New Copenhagen, he and his people would suffer the brunt of it. That was always the case, but this time it would be worse.

“You ready to head back?” Beth asked.

He turned his attention to the older woman standing beside him. Beth Cassidy—now a major and back in active service—was one of his most experienced people, and she’d be operating as his second in command. She’d never been an officer, but she had the experience to do the tasks at hand.

Mac shook his head. “Ready? Hell no. Give me six months with these people, and we’ll be ready.”

She chuckled. “If wishes were horses, we’d be hip deep in horse crap. Since we don’t have enough time to get ready for real, are you at least prepared to execute the attack plan?”

“I should be asking you that. We have a good plan, but a lot will depend on what we find when we get there. If the Locusts are down on the planet or have a ground element, this will be more complicated. My biggest fear is that they’ve got air defense and can engage us on the way down. What have you got in mind to keep the landing force safe while we make our insertion?”

She gestured for him to walk toward the pinnace that would take them back to Hunter. “The pinnaces will fly combat air patrol once we’ve hit the ground. I’ve given the pilots as many pointers as I can, but there’s no time to train them for this kind of operation. We’ll have experienced folk running the weapon systems, and we’ll react to whatever we come across. Like you said, there’s no time to train everybody to the level we’d like.”

Mac stopped at the pinnace and looked over at the cargo shuttles that were busy loading weapons, armor, and other equipment that would be useful for the fight. Everything would be sorted out once they got back to Hunter, but they wouldn’t be lacking for weaponry once they got to the ground.

“We’ll need an awful lot of people flying cargo shuttles to pick up the nuclear warheads if the things are even there. I have no idea how the commodore intends to pay for all this, but the credit the smuggler extended us will come with a price.”

She nodded. “The shuttle pilots are getting paid the same combat bonus as the folks flying CAP. They’re going to be just as much at risk going between the storage area and Hunter. There’s no way to vet them all, but I’ll bet we get a few that refuse at the last minute or back out once things are in progress. We can’t do anything to stop that, but I hope it doesn’t cause a chain reaction where everybody just bolts.”

Everyone’s first combat experience was different. He’d seen it time and time again. Good leadership could make a difference in stiffening the line, but with all these new people, they’d break under the right circumstances, and he just had to accept there were limits to how much he could ask of them.

“Everything here is going as well as it can, so let’s head back to the ship,” he said as he entered the pinnace. “We’re only about six hours from kickoff.

“Admittedly, once we arrive in New Copenhagen, we’re going to be spending a lot of time drawing the enemy out of position for our attack and then making the drive to the planet itself. Everyone will have plenty of time to rest up, but we can’t afford any surprises at the last minute.”

“How long do you think we’ll be able to troll the Locusts out of position?” Beth asked as she followed him in.

“That depends on how hot and heavy they come after us. Probably a minimum of four hours, and maybe as many as six. Longer is better because every minute we spend drawing them away from defending the planet is an extra minute we’ll have to get some of the warheads back to orbit.”

He sat in one of the seats along the side of the pinnace and strapped himself in on autopilot. “Amanda Harris and the rest of the tactical people have been working with select engineering folk and a bunch of paid contractors to get missiles refurbished and ready for receiving the warheads. I have no idea how much maintenance the warheads will need, but every minute we can shave off that process means more missiles ready to blow the living crap out of the Locusts when they swarm us.”

“Something tells me that we’re going to have more missiles than we have warheads when the fight comes,” Beth said with a sigh as the pinnace lifted off. “It’s too bad we can’t use the quantum drive deeper in the system. We’ll be pinned in place once we reach New Copenhagen.”

“Only if they somehow manage to conceal their true strength,” he argued. “The commodore said that we’re not going in if there are too many of them. We’re going to be scanning for all we’re worth, so if they have more motherships and drones than we can handle, the mission gets called, and we’ll try again later. The Locusts don’t know why we’re coming, and we have to keep it that way.”

The two of them sat in relative silence as the pinnace took them back over to Hunter. The Marine small craft bay had been cleared of inoperable ships, but was bustling as they came in, already two-thirds full of pinnaces being serviced and inspected by the Marines. The mechanics were working on a few of them, correcting last-minute issues and replacing parts that had been questionable on the test flights.

Other people were busy loading equipment and munitions. Once they arrived down on the planet, they’d set up firing positions to defend the storage facility against attacks from the air and ground.

No one had mentioned the potential pitfalls of having the Locusts on a planet, but he was betting they had some mechanical ground forces. Having armed mechanicals coming after them would be a massive pain in the ass, but they had the heavy weapons to defend themselves if that happened.

None of these kids would’ve ever been in that kind of fight before, and he hoped something like that didn’t happen because it would be brutal. Just like the Locusts in space, any ground forces would throw themselves against his lines as many times as needed to overwhelm them. They were machines, and they didn’t care how many of them died to accomplish their goals.

He cared about his people, and no matter how this mission turned out, he was sure the fight would haunt him. Unless they got damned lucky and no one was defending the planet from the atmospheric line down. He supposed that was possible, but no self-respecting Marine counted on luck like that.

No. They planned on everything going wrong. Air to ground forces, massed robots coming at them, and even defenders inside the weapons storage facility refusing them entrance. The last option wasn’t very likely, but if they needed to make an assault to retrieve the nuclear weapons from inside the facility, they’d planned out a few ways to make that happen.

Once the pinnace had settled to the deck, he and Beth headed for the staff briefing room. It was set up as a gigantic command post with overhead maps of the area that held the nuclear weapons stockpile.

He didn’t have any staff officers making contingency plans, so he’d selected the very best of his personnel to go over everything and write up the various options. Whoever came out of this fight would be blooded, and they’d be a lot steadier in any future fights. He just wished there weren’t so many unknowns.

For example, what about loyalist forces on the planet? Surely the Locusts hadn’t suppressed all resistance yet. There would be armed groups he could connect with that might be able to assist them in getting intelligence about the invaders.

He and Beth walked into the makeshift operations center and joined the rest of the team. He let her start getting a rundown of the various contingencies they’d developed while he listened. There was a lot to go over, and he’d spend every waking moment refining what they had before launching the first pinnace.

They wouldn’t get a second chance at making this work. Everything either had to go right the first time, or they’d have to force the recalcitrant situation to work for them. To be honest, he was looking forward to punching the Locusts in their proverbial faces. The bastards had gotten their way so far, and it was time for payback.

21

Jack walked onto the bridge and swapped places with India as Hunter maneuvered to Port Royale’s jump limit. “Thank God that’s done.”

“So you worked out the last details on the treaty?” she asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Yes. Sara isn’t happy with the amount of work she has ahead of her, but it’s done. We’ll have time for cutters to take the documents I printed out and signed over to them, and Sara will oversee them signing them. Then it’ll all be official.”

“Just in time, too,” she said. “We’re almost to the jump limit. I’ll head for auxiliary control and leave you to it.”

“Thanks.”

He looked over the reports after she’d left and was pleased to see that all departments had reported ready for combat even though they didn’t expect any fighting during the first segment of the mission. This would be scouting the enemy and trolling them out of position.

“We’ve reached the jump limit, sir,” Alexey said about ten minutes later. “We’ve laid in the coordinates, and we’re ready to go.”

“And this will take us to the far side of the sun from the inhabited world, correct?” he asked, just to make sure they were all on the same page.

“Yes, sir.”

“Based on our sensor readings from last time, they didn’t have any drones out that far,” Derek said. “I believe the chances of running into significant enemy forces to be minimal.”

“Let’s hope that’s the case,” Jack said. “Bring us to battle stations just in case. If we don’t run into trouble, we’ll make a nuisance out of ourselves and draw them to us. If it’s going to be a while, we’ll step back down to normal operations until they arrive.”

“Yes, sir.”

The overhead speakers broadcasted the young man bringing the ship to battle stations. Everyone should already be at battle stations, but this was their final warning that a fight could be imminent.

“All stations report ready,” Derek said a few seconds later. “We’re ready to jump on your command.”

“Take us to New Copenhagen.”

The ship twitched as they transitioned between the two systems. Everything was reassuringly normal.

“We’ve arrived on target,” Calvo said. “Kudos to Commander Golousenko. We’re right where we need to be, and our passive sensors are gathering data. It doesn’t look like there are any drones or motherships in our vicinity, though there is a fair bit of activity out where the wrecked ship and the quantum gate used to be. There’s also quite a bit of activity around the planet. We won’t be able to pick up anything else until we go active and get a return signal.”

“Well then, let’s go ahead and knock on the door and see who’s home. Go to full active sensors and let them know we’re out here. Also, go to flank speed. Let’s put as much distance between the closest forces and us as we can. Keep in mind that we’re going to jump just prior to them being able to engage us. We’ll want to be able to leave for the intermediary systems at a moment’s notice.”

“I’ve already got the first jump locked in, sir. We need to maneuver about thirty minutes to be in position, so we’ll be good before they catch up with us.”

“Make sure to feed the sensor data we’re collecting back to operations so Tina and David can go over everything. We still don’t know what we’ll find when we get to New Copenhagen, and every detail might make a difference. Step us down from general quarters, and start tallying the forces coming after us.”

From everything he’d read during the first invasion, luring Locust drones and motherships had never been a problem. The damned things were almost suicidal in their desire to kill. A battleship could announce its presence in a system and guarantee every available enemy ship would come to it.

That’s what they were doing now, only they were making sure they could handle what they were facing before push came to shove. They still didn’t have their primary armaments or most of their defensive laser capability. Hunter was a far cry from the ship she’d been two hundred years ago, and he was quite aware of that.

This part of the plan ended up being fairly boring. As the signals from Hunter reached each patrol, they altered course to come after them. The very nearest of them wouldn’t arrive for about two and half hours. That small group would be no threat, so they’d exterminate them rather than jumping out.

It seemed to him as if the group sitting near the inoperable gate leading to Port Royale would be the largest conglomeration of enemy ships to reach them, with those from the planet no more than an hour behind.

“Derek, I want you to take us away from the system,” he ordered. “Let’s draw this out even more. They say a stern chase is a long chase, and every minute we can squeeze out of them is a minute more it’s going to take them to get back to New Copenhagen.”

In the end, it took almost six hours for the first large group to get close. Several smaller patrols had caught up with them and been destroyed, but his ship had never been in danger.

The swarm coming from the destroyed gate was at least as large as the one they’d fought at Port Royale. The ships coming from planetary orbit were twice as numerous and posed a severe threat. If the two groups combined—and he had no doubt they would—there was no way Hunter could hold them off with just the lasers she had operational.

That’s what he’d been afraid of and why this mission was so risky. Still, they didn’t have many other options. The nuclear weapons that would make his ship a powerhouse were on that planet. He had to have them, which meant taking risks to get them.

“Enemy forces are two minutes away from entering range to fire,” Amanda said.

“Standing by to jump in one minute and fifty-five seconds,” Derek said.

They were timing this right down to the very last moment. It was possible some of the drones would fire early, but their accuracy would be crap, and the damage they caused minimal. He was good with that.

“Put a timer on the main screen. What’s our new insertion point in the system look like? Are we clear of enemy ships in that area?”

“Sensor resolution that far out is poor, but I don’t detect any large groups of drones or motherships,” Amanda said. “We may run into some patrols, but they won’t be a threat. It looks as if we’ve drawn the primary forces in the system out of position.”

“If we arrive where we intend, we should be able to get to planetary orbit in about three and a half hours,” Derek said. “We’ve added more time than I expected with this maneuver. The problem is that by the time we get to planetary orbit, we’ll be deep enough into the system that we can’t get back out to the jump limit before they catch up with us. Once we go far enough in, we’re committed.”

They’d have almost three hours on the way in which they could still abort. If they turned around at the last moment, the enemy would chase them right back out to the jump limit, but they could still escape. However, once they crossed that invisible line in space, they would be swarmed no matter how this turned out.

“Understood. Jump on the mark.”

The timer counted down to zero before any of the Locusts opened fire, so Hunter jumped out of the system, having lured the Locusts as far away from the planet as possible. They briefly appeared in the new system—not one occupied by humanity—and almost immediately jumped to a second isolated system. From there, they went to a third. Each jump took them farther around New Copenhagen’s jump limit.

From that last system, they made the jump back to New Copenhagen. They appeared on the other side of the system from where they’d been a few minutes before, putting the Locusts at an extreme disadvantage in catching them.

Derek took the ship in at flank speed. The sensors confirmed there were a few patrols out this way but no large groupings of ships. They’d deal with those when they came to get them. They’d shut off their active sensors for the moment, just to get more time before the Locusts detected them, but they’d know where the enemy was and in what strength soon enough.

They were closer to the planet this time, and he was sure they’d get some good intelligence about what the Locusts were doing. If the Locusts had left any motherships or drones there, they’d have no choice but to fight them.

“I want to know what they’ve got going on in orbit as soon as you can get me some decent information,” he ordered Amanda. “We’ve guessed they’ve set up two space elevators, but we need to confirm that. If there are any other strange ships there, we need to know about those as well. Go to active sensors once it’s obvious they’ve detected us.”

“On it, sir.”

With three and a half hours until they reached orbit, he made sure everyone on the ship cycled out of their positions to take care of business and get something to eat. It looked as though they’d be safe from a massive fight before they reached the planet, and he wanted everybody on their best foot when the enemy came calling.

About an hour short of the point of no return, he was finally getting some detailed information about what was in orbit around New Copenhagen. That was good, but the enemy had held back an unpleasant surprise. Another swarm of Locust drones and motherships had just left the planet on a course to meet them. It was a serious conglomeration of ships, easily on par with those they’d fought at Port Royale. He knew they could take them, though the risk of severe damage was higher than he liked.

The swarms that had come out to meet him on the other side of the system were on their way back, having mingled into a grouping that could overwhelm his battleship. That meant they’d have two massive fights and potentially another one in orbit if they had fixed defenses.

“Designate the swarm coming from New Copenhagen as Force Alpha. The larger swarm is Force Bravo. If we find anything else in orbit, we’ll figure out what to call it at that point.”

The comm in his command chair went off.

“Romanoff.”

“This is Tina. We’ve been going over the data from around New Copenhagen, and we’ve pinned down two space elevators. There might be more on the other side of the planet, but we didn’t see any before circling the system, so I doubt it. It looks like they’ve constructed either large stations for them, or potentially those are vessels that were brought in for this purpose. They’ve moved some asteroids in to act as counterweights for the cables.”

Whichever it was, they’d deal with them. Stations would be easier since they couldn’t maneuver, so he’d plan on those being ships.

“Other than the drones and motherships coming out to meet us, we’re not picking anything else up in orbit,” she continued. “We’re too far away to see anything on the surface. They’ve had weeks to get started with whatever they’re doing down there, so we have to assume we’ll run into hostile forces.”

He considered her words. Did he dare divert any of their Marine forces to assault those stations or ships? No. Once they’d won this fight, he could figure out what they needed to do about them. Unless, of course, they opened fire on him, and then he’d destroy them.

“How are the ship/stations sitting in relation to our drop zone?”

“The space elevators seem to be near the two largest urban areas, while the nuclear weapons storage area is very isolated and on the far side of the planet. That leaves them with no line of sight on the landing zone or where we’ll launch the Marines.”

That was good. In fact, it was great.

“Thanks for the update, Tina. Keep giving everything in orbit as much attention as you can. Any details might be critical when we get there. Romanoff out.”

He turned his attention to Amanda and Ahmed. “When Force Alpha gets to us, we want to keep them away from our engines. The better we can thrash them at range, the less damage we’ll take. Hit them and hit them hard, but hold our missiles in reserve.”

“We’ve got more laser batteries online, so while we’re still going to take some chewing, I think we’ll come out of this with less damage overall,” Amanda said. “The one thing we can’t predict is taking hits around the engines, so we’ve made sure as many lasers back there are operating as we can. If they try to come around, they’re going to regret it. Briefly.”

“Let’s hope so.”

Time seemed to drag as they waited for the enemy to come into range. Then as soon as they were able to open fire, everything seemed to speed up and happen almost all at once. That was just the nature of combat.

This was his third battle against the Locusts, and he now had a decent idea of what to expect, so he was ready when a large chunk of them entered sprint mode and charged ahead.

Amanda was ready for it, too. She shifted her fire to them even as they entered range to start firing back. Their lasers wouldn’t be the primary threat unless they got lucky. The fact that they’d decided it was preferable to ram his ship made them dangerous, even in small numbers.

The few that survived to get into range to ram had to do so from the front because those that tried to slip around and get his engines became fodder for the lasers at the rear, which cut them down.

Having dealt with the lead elements of Force Alpha, they then had to manage the remaining drones and motherships as they poured down on them like water. Once again, their lasers managed to thin the enemy ranks, but they couldn’t stop them all this time.

Amanda seemed to target the motherships more heavily, and he supposed that made sense. If they decided to ram, their fusion plants were larger and would cause more damage. But she couldn’t stop them all. No one could.

The swarm engulfed Hunter, and even though they did everything they could to protect themselves, a lot of drones and even some motherships rammed the ship almost at the same time. Alarms blared from the damage control station, and he knew they’d taken a significant hit.

“Status?” he asked.

“It’s all over the ship,” the damage control officer said. “Two of our fusion drives are offline, and we’re losing air in four separate areas. Damage reports are still coming in.”

“We’ve lost a significant chunk of our operational laser batteries in that wave, sir,” Amanda said. “We’re down to less than fifteen percent. We’re not going to be in great shape when Force Bravo arrives.”

“We’re not going to be able to get out of the system before they catch up with us either,” Derek said. “Without those two fusion drives, we’re fully committed now. We either take the orbitals and get as many missile batteries online as possible, or they’ll blow us into little bitty pieces.”

“Then we’d best make this work,” Jack said.

He opened a channel to Mac Turner. “I hope you’ve got everything ready because we’re committed now. Are you going to be able to leave on schedule to secure your objectives?”

“We’re ready, Commodore. Give us the word, and we’ll take care of everything for you. All you have to do is clear the road for us.”

“We’ll do the best we can. We’re still more than ninety minutes away from orbit now that we’ve lost some of our drives, so be ready to go when the signal comes. We’re counting on you and your people, Major.”

“Understood, sir. We’ve got you covered.”

Jack killed the connection and considered the tactical map. He hoped the Marines could deliver. If they couldn’t, his ship was dead.

22

Everything felt normal for Connor right up until the ship shook. It wasn’t a big movement, but it felt as if they’d run over something, so that had to be significant. That also made the people refurbishing the missiles look up in confusion. They didn’t seem to realize the event’s significance and got back to work.

The missiles were being unboxed at one end of the compartment and wheeled across to the other on moveable platforms. Teams of people would check every component and replace those that tested outside spec or failed.

By the time a missile made its journey across the compartment, it was supposedly functional. If not, it was shunted to an adjoining compartment with others that needed more attention than they were prepared to give it at the moment.

He hadn’t been keeping a firm count on the number of missiles they’d worked on, but now was the time to make sure. He walked over to the engineer supervising the process and waited for a moment to interrupt him.

“How many missiles do we have ready?” he asked, pitching his voice low enough that only the two of them would hear.

“Two thousand, seven hundred, and five-five,” the engineer said. “We’ve rejected about the same number. Based on how long it’s taking us to do each missile and the time it will take us to get to orbit and begin receiving the munitions, I’d wager we’ll have around three thousand by the time we’re done. That’s more than we’d expected to get ready.”

“Will that be enough?”

“That’s a drop in the bucket for a ship like this, but what can we do? We’ve got a team in the next compartment ready to receive the nuclear warheads and do what they can to make them functional. We’ll move everyone over there to help with the installation process when the time comes.”

“Do you think it’s going to be a problem?” Connor asked as he watched the people work, their movements fast and economical. They understood the stakes and were knuckling down to get the job done.

The engineer shrugged. “It depends on how the warheads were stored. We’re talking about millions of the things. Potentially as many as a hundred million. They’re not built to have a large blast, but they are weapons of mass destruction. The radioactive components might have decayed too much to be useful if they weren’t properly stored. Hell, if they left the things assembled, they might be unusable.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. An unusable warhead wouldn’t defend them when the Locusts came calling. “What do you think the odds are?”

“Low. Based on everything I’ve seen about the storage of the missiles and the rest of the parts, everything in these nuclear warheads storage areas should have been put away so they’d still be usable. Radioactive components decay over time, but everything I’ve read about the half-life of the elements in question indicates they should still be serviceable for a few more decades, even if they’re close to the official line.”

“If you’re looking to set up a new business, you might want to start prepping to replace all those warheads when the time comes. I’d imagine that’ll be a very lucrative Navy contract.”

Connor grinned a little and clapped him on the shoulder. “I like the way you think. Well, we’ve got time to worry about that after we’ve kicked the Locusts out of the cluster. You look like you’ve got this well in hand, so I’m going to see if I can get a bit more information about what’s going on. Carry on.”

Going to the bridge or auxiliary control wasn’t something he wanted to do, and he doubted the Marines on duty would allow him in anyway.

He’d had an opportunity to see the bridge in operation and had been impressed. It looked like where people tasked with defending the Confederation would work. It gave him confidence that this might have a chance, even though they’d undoubtedly suffered a setback.

The only place he could get information and make a contribution—if it was warranted—was where Tina Chen and her husband were set up in the operations area. The guards there had been told to allow him in, so he passed by without incident.

The clever woman who had tried to sneak aboard Port Royale was busy working at one of the large consoles, and her husband—a man who came across as a bit too formal for Connor’s taste—was working beside her.

Half a dozen other consoles were in use by people trying to parse the sensor data and read the tea leaves about what was happening in front of them. Once they arrived at New Copenhagen, they’d have one chance at getting everything right. If they missed some important detail, it could end up being the death of them.

Now that he was here, Connor found himself a little concerned about interrupting them. While he wanted to know what was happening, they were doing important work and didn’t need him jostling their elbows.

Nevertheless, he’d been to New Copenhagen many times over the years, and it was always possible he’d have some bit of information that might make a difference. It beat standing around with his hands in his pockets.

“Is there any way I can help?” he asked as he stepped up beside the console. “Or, barring that, might I ask what the hell just happened?”

David Chen glanced at him before returning to his work. “We ran into the first group of Locusts coming out of New Copenhagen. Pretty much literally. A lot of them rammed the ship, and we lost pressure in some sections. We’re still combat capable, but we’ve taken a beating. The bad news is that we can no longer escape. If we don’t get the nuclear warheads to arm the missiles, there’s a much bigger force of Locusts coming to kill us.”

“You can give me a hand if you’d like,” Tina said. “I’m trying to parse what’s going on in orbit around the planet, and I want to know if any of this was there before.”

Connor stepped over to her console and looked down at the images. He could see two massive stations with lines snaking down to the planet and up to what looked like asteroids. He’d been told that the enemy was building space elevators, but he hadn’t been sure if he believed it.

“Those were not there before, not the stations or the asteroids. It’s all new.”

“I suspected so, but it’s good to get a little confirmation. What do you know about the planet itself?”

“A significant amount,” he said, leaning up against the console. “I have contacts in both the government and the underworld that work to provide me with both information and supplies. They don’t know where I’m based, but when one provides things of value, the right people will step up to get what you need.”

“That’ll be useful if we can ever talk to them.”

“I’m told you’re not getting any radio signals from the planet. We’ve gotten quite a bit closer, and there should be some ground stations that could reach us. The problem before was likely because the strong transmitters were in orbit. None of the radio signals from below would’ve made it to your position simply because they weren’t powerful enough.”

Tina shrugged. “If they’re there, I’m not picking them up. Frankly, I’m not sure I’d want to draw attention to myself in their position. We have a specific area of the planet that we’re going to be dropping on. If we can’t find out what’s happening before we arrive, the Marines are going in blind, which could end badly.”

Connor nodded and examined the outline of the continents on the screen. “Where are the Marines going down?”

“There is a rather large volcanic island about two-thirds of the way up into the northern hemisphere on the other side of the planet from most of the major cities. It’s a cold place and off the beaten path. That’s where the facility holding the nuclear warheads is located. We haven’t got any idea what defenses it has, other than its isolation. There’s no indication the place was attacked, so I’m betting it’s intact.”

“Seems reasonable.”

“As soon as we get into orbit, we’ll drop the pinnaces down to secure the area and then send the cargo shuttles to pick up everything we can grab. Time will be of the essence.”

He looked up toward the ceiling and pursed his lips. “If they still have some reception capability down there, I might be able to get you some information about what’s been happening. I’ve got some frequencies I’ve been using to contact various people there for years. I don’t know whether they’ll have any way to respond, but if they know we’re coming, they can at least transmit to us in orbit when we get there. I’d be willing to lend my credibility to contact those people on your behalf, though I’m sure Jack would disapprove of most of them.”

She laughed. “I think you’re selling Jack short. He’s willing to work with just about anyone to beat the Locusts, including you.”

That made him chuckle. “You’ve got me there. So, do you want me to record a message? It’s not like the enemy doesn’t see us coming. I understand they can translate our language, but I’ll bet I can phrase things in a way they’ll have difficulty understanding.”

“Can’t hurt to try,” David said as he stood up and gestured toward his chair. “Sit here, and we’ll make an audio recording. Once you’ve got it together, we’ll send it up to the bridge, and Jack can make the decision. Personally, I think he’ll run with it.”

Connor sat at the console and marshaled his thoughts while David set up the recorder. He needed to make his plea in such a way that wouldn’t clearly translate to something the aliens would understand. Most of the translations they’d gotten during the war would’ve been from military vessels and panicked civilian ships. He’d wager they never run into a character like him before.

Well, there was a first time for everything.

When he nodded, David pressed the button, and Connor leaned forward to make sure his voice went toward the pickup. “Greetings and salutations, my old friends. This is your compatriot Connor. I’ve come visiting with some friends and noticed you’re having a spot of trouble. We’d like to lend you a hand with that, but we need to know what your visitors have worked up for us.”

He paused a moment to let that sink in before continuing. “It doesn’t matter which channel you use to respond, but if you’d let us know what’s going on, we’ll show up with all the beer and salsa you desire. You’ll know where we are based on this transmission, but you only have a short time to send the invite before we show up dressed in togas and ready to party.”

Now for the tricky part. “Don’t tell anyone, but we’ll be picking up some party favors at the big cone in the deep freeze up north. Big party favors that the Locusts will find to be a blast. Do me a favor and give me a little warning about the hors d’oeuvres being served there, will you? Connor out.”

He grinned at Chen as he killed the recording. “You think they’ll know what that means?”

“Not a chance. I haven’t thought about togas in years. So, the secret here will be the channels we use to transmit this signal to the planet, right? We don’t care who hears it, but we want to make sure the people most likely to respond at least know about it.”

Connor nodded. “My contacts all use specific frequencies. I think you should send it on all the ones I give you first, and then after a few minutes, send it more broadly. Frankly, if someone else wants to come to the party, I’m amenable.”

Tina chuckled. “I hope they at least have good taste in beer. You might as well get comfortable. We’ll want you at hand once they respond in case they have questions.”

Connor stood and found a seat that wasn’t being used. This was the most dangerous thing he’d ever done, even when he’d been actively working as a smuggler. There had always been the risk of being captured or killed before, but now it seemed like a dark cloud was hovering over his head.

Jack was a resourceful man, and if he thought this mission had a chance of success, then Connor had been right to put his trust in him. The Locusts would have eventually found Port Royale, so Connor would have only been putting off his own death by ducking out. Far better to make a difference now.

Besides, the payoff, if this worked, was astronomical.

23

Alan looked up when Christine walked into the lab, then she stood and glared at him with her hands on her hips. “Just where do you think you’re going?” she asked.

He raised an eyebrow but didn’t stop packing his tools and equipment. Time was growing short, and he needed to get moving. “Gathering the equipment I’ll need to make certain we get what we need. I rather think we’d want the right stuff, don’t you?”

“Have you lost your mind?” she demanded. “You can barely get around with a cane, and you want to go down to a planet overrun by Locusts?”

“I’m sure I’ll have plenty of people to help me get to where I need to go. We need somebody with the know-how to locate the critical components for these missiles and make certain they’re moved safely, don’t you think? If we don’t get this right, we don’t leave this system.”

“There are other people that can do that.”

He smiled a little and shook his head. “No one aboard this ship has any experience working with nuclear warheads or their component parts. I’m sure some of the engineers are more than willing to make an attempt, but I’ve worked with these parts, though it’s been many decades. Undergraduates do some of the strangest things.”

“This isn’t safe!”

“Don’t think I’m unaware that you intend to go down there as well,” he said. “A little birdie told me that you have a slot aboard one of the pinnaces. I’m just reserving the seat next to yours, so save your lectures. Either we both come home, or neither of us do.”

She let out a huff and growled in frustration. It was very endearing.

“I’m a war reporter—at least that’s what I’m playing at now—and this is one of those times where someone needs to be along to record what’s happening because it’s never going to happen again. I can duck and cover. You can’t even walk fast.”

“So you’re saying you’re not going to hold my arm while we try to do this?” he asked with a lopsided smile. “Pity. I guess I’ll have to ask Lisa Gane to give me a hand. Oh. I mentioned she’s going along to help me, didn’t I? I hope that doesn’t make you jealous.”

Christine rolled her eyes. “You don’t have enough computerized parts to interest her. She’s a nice enough girl—pretty too—but her hormones get elevated around overclocked processors, not guys. You’re not getting out of this that easily.” Then she frowned. “Why is she going?”

Alan hefted the bag over his shoulder and sighed when she took it away from him and threw it over her own. He headed for the door, trying to move a little faster than he was comfortable with because her shot about not being able to get around without his cane had struck a nerve.

“There will be electronic security on these facilities. No one knows the codes to get in, and you can rest assured no one would be storing something on the order of a hundred million tactical nuclear warheads anywhere easy to get into. Time is a very serious factor.”

Christine shot him a look as they walked, obviously assaying how mobile he was. “I suppose that makes sense, but I still wouldn’t count on her getting inside. Even if we accept she’s the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to hacking, there have to be other kinds of physical lockouts to keep people from getting in. This isn’t going to be a walk in the park.”

He didn’t say anything for a few minutes as they headed for the nearest lift. He responded when they exited at the correct deck and dodged through the crowd of crew members heading to unknown destinations.

“No one said it would be easy. With any luck, there will be someone on-site that can assist us with at least some of the obstacles. So long as we’re able to convince them that we are who we say we are, they may be able to unlock the outer doors for us. Once we get to where the weapons themselves are stored, that may become more problematic, and that’s where Lisa comes into play.”

Rather than heading to the small craft bay they were primarily using, Alan led Christine to the Marine barracks and the attached small craft bay there. That’s where Mac Turner and the Marines should be just about ready to go. They’d make an expeditious exit for the planet’s atmosphere when word came to depart.

Alan had anticipated a bumpy ride and taken an antinausea pill. This would be rougher than the worst roller coaster ever. Or, he supposed, the best roller coaster ever, depending on your point of view.

He found the small craft bay packed with people loading themselves aboard pinnaces when they arrived. Everyone was in body armor and armed with rifles. They also had other weapons scattered across their bodies and looked like they were prepared to dig in and hold whatever positions they took against an all-out assault.

He hoped that wasn’t something they had to endure, but if it was, he was glad to have these young men and women there to make sure he was as well protected as possible. Or, just to be truthful, that Christine was well protected. He’d lived a full life, and even though things were very interesting now, if the worst came for him, he could accept that.

Mac was directing traffic and making sure everyone was getting where they needed to go. The Marine officer waved them over and continued to issue orders to those standing around him. Once he’d finished speaking, he turned toward them and frowned. “What are you doing here?”

Alan smiled. “You must not have gotten the word. We’re going down with you. Lisa Gane should be along shortly as well.”

“I figured she’d be coming with us. Why are you here?”

“Don’t you need someone with experience dealing with fissile material? I’m your man. It’s been many years, but I helped recycle spent radioactive materials and even some disassembled nuclear warheads identical to these as a graduate student. It’s been a long time, but I was able to dig up the equipment I need to do this safely. You do want kids someday, don’t you?”

“I have kids,” he said, gesturing around at the Marines. “That’s all I need these days.”

Lisa jogged up with a backpack slung over her shoulder. “Sorry I’m late.”

Mac shook his head and pointed toward one of the pinnaces. “The three of you can strap in over there. This isn’t going to be a pleasure cruise. Everything must be stored away because we’re going down fast and landing hard. Once we’re on the ground, let the Marines out first to set up a perimeter, then grab your gear and follow us out. The pinnace will take off as soon as you’re clear, so don’t dawdle.”

Alan didn’t say anything, merely nodding his head and heading into the pinnace. He found an open seat and began looking for where he could store his gear. One of the Marine instructors appeared out of nowhere and took his bag from Christine, then found a panel he hadn’t even noticed and stuffed it inside the compartment. The rest of the packs and gear went in right behind it.

Two minutes later, they were all strapped into their seats and ready to go. That same Marine double-checked their restraints and then moved through the rest of the compartment, making sure everyone was taken care of.

“How hard do you think getting into a facility like this will be?” he asked Lisa. “You have more experience than I do at getting into difficult places, and this seems like it would be on the order of bank vault difficult.”

The young woman laughed. “You are so naïve. This will be far more difficult than breaking into a bank, but there is hope because everything is so old.”

“If this doesn’t work, we could blast our way in, right?” Christine asked.

“We could,” he agreed, “but that would be significantly more dangerous as it could put radioactive material into the air. The Marines seem well protected against physical threats, but radiation is a different matter. There’s a lot of material down there that can hurt us if we cut the wrong corners. I understand we’re under draconian time constraints, but we don’t want this to be a suicide mission.”

Mac strode into the pinnace ten minutes later and sat down next to him. He stowed his weapon behind his seat in a rack that was obviously made for it and then quickly and efficiently secured himself.

Once he was done, he turned to the scientist and raised an eyebrow. “At this point, all we can do is sit and wait. The commodore indicates we’re going to enter orbit and probably exchange shots with those elevator stations. We should get released sooner than that, but we won’t know until it happens.”

“That’s a damned shame,” Alan said, shaking his head. “Taking them intact might give us a lot of information. Particularly if there are more living aliens aboard them. I suppose we can’t take any chances, though. My sympathy for these creatures is low after what they’ve done to us.”

Mac was about to respond when Tina Chen and Mark Connor entered the cutter. Their sudden arrival made the officer frown ferociously. “Now what?”

“It’s not my fault,” Tina said immediately, raising one hand. “Jack ordered us to come along after Connor got a response from one of his contacts. They’ve guessed where we’re going and have promised to meet us with critical information they’ll only give to him.”

“Personally, I’d rather they just gave it to you,” Connor said, “but the person we’re talking about doesn’t exactly love authority figures. So, I’m doing my part.”

Mac stood, sent two Marines scurrying out of the pinnace to look for rides elsewhere, and saw the newcomers strapped in. He was visibly frustrated but wasn’t going to argue with Jack’s orders.

Alan smiled somewhat wryly at Tina. “I think we’ll have to buy Mac a drink by the time this is done.”

“By the time this is done, you’re going to have driven me to drink,” Mac said in a sour tone. “If anyone gives you an order, obey it, no matter who that person is. Clear?”

They indicated their agreement, and Mac returned to his seat, then strapped himself in.

They’d been heading toward this moment for so long that Alan felt a sense of inevitability. Once the Locusts had attacked the cluster, it had been foreordained that they’d strike back. He only hoped he could do his part to see that their fight was a win rather than a last stand.

24

Mac monitored the command channel as Hunter approached New Copenhagen. He had his usual pre-drop jitters, but they were under control, which was good. It wouldn’t do to let the young ones see he was nervous.

There was a lot riding on this mission. In fact, everything was riding on it. This was a “must succeed” objective. The commodore hadn’t said so, but Mac knew everyone on this drop was expendable so long as they achieved mission success.

They weren’t fighting for just themselves. The entirety of the Confederation was at stake, and the cluster was doomed if they didn’t get what they needed. He and his people wouldn’t fail. They might die, but they wouldn’t fail.

He was more than a bit irked at having civilians along, but he could see the logic for them being there, and he’d do his best to keep them alive, but his eyes had to be on the priorities.

“You taking a nap, Colonel?” Jack asked over the command channel.

“I wouldn’t call it a nap, but I am resting my eyes,” he lied. “What can I do for you, sir? Need me to take some more civilians along for a tour?”

Jack chuckled. “No, I think you’ve got more than enough on your hands already. We’re coming up on our orbital insertion point. I understand your folks aren’t trained for this, but we need to pre-position you outside the hull and behind the ship. I don’t believe there’s any way the Locusts can see you with the planet between them and us, but I want to be sure they have no idea we’ve dropped you off, so start moving your forces out and prepare to head down on my command.”

“Will do, sir. Good luck.”

“The same to you. Take care of our people, but get this done. Be ready in fifteen minutes.”

“Copy that. Turner out.”

He started giving orders over the pilots’ channel. They’d already discussed exactly how they’d need to make this happen, and even though they hadn’t practiced any of the maneuvers, he felt confident they could all be in position by the deadline.

Moments after he gave the instructions, his pinnace lifted off the deck and headed for the hatch. He couldn’t see what it was doing, of course, but he could feel the change in how it sat and knew they were on their way.

“You’re committed now,” he said to the civilians around him. “Reach under your seats, find the barf bags, and have one ready. This will be a rough entry, and you’ve never trained for anything like this. For that matter, neither have most of the people under my command. I’d much rather have whatever comes out of you end up in that bag than all over me. Understand?”

Almost surprisingly, he didn’t get any argument. In fact, everyone else in the compartment was getting their bags. His people might be green, but they weren’t stupid.

Mac retrieved his bag as well. He didn’t think he’d need it, but it had been a long time since he’d done anything like this, and he wasn’t going to embarrass himself.

The pilots reported themselves ready as soon as they made their way into Hunter’s shadow. The only danger of them being spotted was via the incoming Locust ships, and Jack had taken the precaution of putting New Copenhagen between them and the swarm so they couldn’t see what was happening.

He watched the timer, and the order came for them to go right on the mark. Just as they’d planned, the pilots began veering away from Hunter and accelerating hard for the atmosphere.

Things would get hot inside the small craft because they had no way of shedding the heat they generated until they were on the ground. Those of them that made it down.

He hoped they wouldn’t run into any kind of air defenses once they’d made it into the atmosphere, but it would be stupid to count that out. The worst-case scenario would be that the Locusts had some type of atmospheric interceptor, and they were in a position to intercept them.

Ground forces would be a more limited threat, considering they were going to a huge island. Getting the enemy forces where they could fight would be a challenge for the Locusts, but it wasn’t out of the question, so they’d planned for it as well.

The riskiest unknown was the defenders he expected to find there. What if they opened fire on the pinnaces? The commodore was transmitting to them that friendly forces were on the way, but Mac wouldn’t know if the people there believed him until they either opened fire or didn’t.

Right on schedule, the pinnace began twitching as it entered the atmosphere, and the crosswinds tried to shunt it aside with increasing strength the deeper they got. The heat inside the small craft rapidly rose to the point where they were all sweating.

“Detecting inbound contacts, bearing zero nine five,” one of the pilots said. “Five contacts moving at high speed. They’re painting us with sensors that read as Locust.”

“Defensive pattern Gamma,” Mac ordered. “Kill them before they get to us.”

He turned his attention to the civilians. “We’ve got inbound hostiles. Hang on to your shorts.”

“If you could get sensor readings off of these things, that would be helpful in planning for future engagements,” Tina said. “I’m not asking you to take any risks, but record the data and spread it around so that maybe it survives if we don’t.”

He nodded and passed the order along to the pinnaces moving to intercept. If this is what they found on the far side of the planet from the space elevators, they’d run into many more when they got to the occupied portions.

The pinnaces were designed to go head-to-head in both space and atmosphere, but the civilian pilots he had doing the flying didn’t have any combat training or experience. They seemed willing enough, but they were hesitant when they should be confident.

Sadly, that cost them.

The incoming hostiles fired short-range missiles that mostly missed, but not completely. He could hear the pilots’ consternation as they dodged around the incoming fire and began returning it. It quickly turned into an old-fashioned dogfight, and only the fact that his pinnaces outnumbered the intruders gave them an edge.

By the time it was done, all five of the intruders had been destroyed, but they’d lost a pinnace in the process. Thankfully, they were defensive patrollers and weren’t packed with people. He lost the pilot and gunner—which was bad enough—but he hadn’t lost a pinnace full of Marines.

“We’d hoped to slip in unnoticed, but it doesn’t look like that’s on the menu anymore,” he said over the command channel. “When we get on the ground, set up a defensive perimeter and look for more incursions. Now that they know we’re here, they’ll come after us with everything they have. Let’s be ready for it.”

They reached the heaviest air just after that, and the turbulence became almost unbearable. Everyone inside the pinnace bounced back and forth and up and down. First one and then a dozen of the inexperienced people had to use those barf bags. So did the civilians, every single one of them. That was not a shock.

What surprised him was that he almost had to use his own. He’d thought he’d burned that particular issue out of this system, but apparently, being retired long enough let weakness slip back in.

The pinnace came down fast and hard, flaring at the last moment to come in for a very heavy landing. Everyone inside bounced around when the pinnace settled on the ground, and the ramp came down.

In an instant, the instructor in charge of the Marines was up and ordering everyone out. Some of the Marines were a bit disoriented, but they grabbed their weapons and gear and rushed out in a preplanned pattern to set up defensive positions along the perimeter. They had no idea who or what they’d find in this place, and he wanted to be sure they were ready for all potential outcomes.

The wind coming off the water was frigid, something that would sap a person’s body heat right out. The Marines wore cold-weather gear underneath their armor, but it occurred to him that he hadn’t planned on the civilians, and they had nothing.

Thankfully, there was more cold-weather gear aboard the pinnace. He yanked open one of the cabinets and started handing the protective clothing to them even as they began shivering.

“Sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking about the landing conditions. Get these on over your clothes, and they’ll keep you warm enough. Be sure and grab some boots of the appropriate size to replace your shoes. You’ll need the extra insulation.”

He stepped onto the ramp and looked out over the desolate landscape as they were getting dressed. The rocky terrain looked volcanic. In fact, a massive cone thrust into the sky off in the distance.

As he understood it, the nuclear weapons were stored under that extinct volcano. It was almost an evil villain’s lair if he allowed himself that artistic flourish.

The pinnaces had landed in a massive semi-circle and disgorged their Marines. They were near what seemed like the main entrance to the storage facility, so they could protect that from incoming fire, though they couldn’t protect the entire island except by sending the pinnaces back up to provide air protection.

As the ground fighters got off, the pinnaces launched back into the air to join the swarm of defenders circling the island. If any more interceptors came looking for trouble, they’d find it.

He was about to give more specific orders to his people about how they should get themselves oriented when one of the unused channels came to life. “Unknown personnel on our perimeter, identify yourselves.”

“Defenders, this is Lieutenant Colonel Mac Turner of the Confederation Marines. We’re assigned to the battleship Delta Orionis, which is in orbit right now. Not to seem unneighborly, but we’ve come to pick up some warheads for our missiles. We figured you wouldn’t mind as it means we get to kick some Locust ass.”

“Since we saw you shoot down some of their aircraft, I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt until we can settle your identities,” the speaker said. “We’ve been keeping our heads down because we didn’t want to invite any unwelcome attention, but now that you’ve sent up a flare, I suppose we’ll have to work with you to make sure we don’t get hit.”

Moments later, one of the pilots in the defensive force circling the island broke in on a different channel. “We have active sensors coming out of the volcano. That’s not us, is it?”

“Those are friendlies,” Mac said. “This will draw more enemy aircraft, so I want everyone ready to handle any that gets through. Clear?”

He switched back to the other channel. “If you’re amenable, I’d like to meet. Time is limited, and we really need to get our munitions if we want to keep Locusts from keeping this planet.”

“It looks like you’re just down from our main gate, so if you and a small party come up to meet us, we can discuss what we can do for you. I suggest you hurry because our long-range sensors are already picking up incoming hostile aircraft. We’ve got some defenses, but we’re in for a big fight.”

“We’re on our way.”

Mac selected a squad of Marines to accompany him and then tagged each of the civilians to join them. Time was of the essence, and they needed to get the ball rolling.

Getting to the main gate was something of a hike, and he found himself a bit out of breath as they went. It had been a long time since he’d needed to be in this kind of shape, and even though he knew he could do it, he felt a little weak.

For their part, the civilians were having a more difficult time, and they had to stop for more breaks than he wanted. To the professor’s consternation, two of the Marines picked him up and carried him. Mac wished they had some small vehicles, but the terrain wouldn’t have supported them anyway.

His Marines carried a powerful comm repeater, so he continued monitoring the battle around the island as it developed. First, a couple of dozen, and then almost a hundred aircraft came in from several different directions.

It turned out the volcano had some pretty robust defenses as it began firing missiles while the aircraft were still distant. That didn’t stop them all, but it reduced their numbers before they got into range to engage his pinnaces.

That fight he could see with his own eyes as aircraft tried to make runs through and fired on his small craft while they returned fire. He was too distant to see the actual weapons, but he could see when one blew up. The sky around the island was filled with destruction.

The fight was so chaotic that he had difficulty following along by listening to the pilots talking back and forth, but their inexperience was costing them. More pinnaces went down, and he found himself grinding his teeth in frustration. If only they’d had more time to prepare. He understood why they had to strike now, but it was costing his people their lives.

Thankfully, the outcome didn’t seem to have been in doubt. It was possible the volcano’s defenses would have been insufficient by themselves, but with his pinnaces adding their weapons to the fight and distracting the attackers, they were victorious.

Sadly, they lost nine pinnaces, and two more were damaged enough that they had to land and would likely be unrecoverable. The equipment was the furthest thing from his mind, though. Those pilots would live to fight another day.

By the time they reached the gates leading into the facility, the attack was done. He was confident there would be more, but the initial response from the Locusts had been dealt with.

The gates held some of the largest and most armored hatches he’d ever seen. Frankly, he wasn’t sure why, since it was obvious anyone could go down the volcano’s cone and find what was inside. Still, he didn’t object to people protecting the weapons they needed.

A smaller hatch near the big one opened, and two men and a woman came out. All of them were in uniforms that looked like some type of planetary security. It was odd that weapons belonging to the Navy would be guarded by the civilians, but none of this made a lot of sense if one looked hard enough.

Mac stepped out in front of the others, keeping his hands away from his weapons. Based on their body language, the woman was in command, so he extended his hand to her.

“I’m Lieutenant Colonel Mac Turner, Confederation Marines, ma’am, and we’re a scratch force under the command of Commodore Jack Romanoff aboard the battleship Delta Orionis. We’ve managed to get some missiles to help defend this planet, but we’re going to be overwhelmed without warheads. We need access to the munitions right away.”

“Captain Sylvaine Dufaux, planetary defense forces,” she said with a grimace. “Even though I’m willing to accept you’re who you say you are, we don’t have any of the security codes needed to access the weapons. Honestly, I’m not sure that anyone on the planet does. No one’s been down there to inspect anything during the entire time we’ve had custody of them, and the records for that go back a century and a half. We’d thought the Navy had forgotten these things existed.”

“We kind of expected something like that,” Mac said with a nod. “We’ve got people that might be able to bypass the security if you’ll allow us access. I’d be happy to put you in contact with Commodore Romanoff, but he’s on the other side of the planet by now, dealing with those space elevators. We don’t know what’s going on down here, and even though I’d love to know, we’ve only got a couple of hours to make the magic happen.”

“Then let’s get inside,” she said as she stepped aside. “We’ve heard a little about what’s going on, but we’ve been keeping our heads down and hoping they didn’t notice us.” She frowned a little and pressed a finger to her ear. “It looks like we’ve got another incoming air vehicle. Just one, and it’s saying they’re coming to meet with somebody named Connor. Who the hell could that be?”

“That would be me,” the smuggler said with a grin. “I called ahead to see if someone could provide us with more detailed information about what was happening down here. That’ll be my informant. I don’t want to distract anyone from doing what they need to do, so Tina and I can speak with them as soon as they land. Please, don’t shoot them down.”

Dufaux considered Connor for a moment and then nodded. “Have it land inside your defensive perimeter.” She turned back to Mac. “Let’s go. We don’t have much time.”

25

As soon as the pinnaces split off and began heading down to the planet, Jack executed the next part of his plan. As they came around the planet’s curve, he was ready to deal with the space elevators.

He didn’t know if they were stations or ships, but it seemed more likely they were ships built specifically for this task and flown here from wherever the enemy came from. That was confirmed when they arrived at a firing position to hit the first space elevator and saw the ship had detached from the cable and was fleeing.

“Amanda, just how accurate can you be?” he asked as he leaned forward.

“At this range? I could give him a shave and a trim without nicking his skin, sir.”

“Can we tone down the power of our lasers? I’d rather not punch a hole completely through the damned thing.”

She tapped her console and examined something and then turned back and nodded. “I should be able to drop the effective power by around fifty percent. It’ll still hit hard since that ship doesn’t seem armored, but we might be able to control what gets damaged to some degree. What do you have in mind, sir?”

“I’d like to disable its engines and leave the rest intact for study. Of course, the way the Locusts are behaving, they might destroy it themselves, but I’m trying to gather what intelligence we can.”

She considered that for a long beat and then manipulated her console. While she was doing that, they came far enough around the planet to see that the second ship had also detached and headed off on a different course.

“The lasers aren’t meant to strike at lower power, but I should be able to manipulate the focus and diffuse the beams some,” she said. “If I aim at their fusion drives, we can take them out, though their engineering section will be wrecked in the process.”

“Do the best you can. If it doesn’t work, at least you tried.”

“Understood, sir. Firing on target one now.”

The tactical display was far too generalized to tell him what exactly happened when she fired, but at least the ship didn’t blow up.

After a couple of seconds, she nodded. “The damage was more extensive than I had hoped for, but most of the vessel is still intact. Their engineering section is toast. I used as few lasers as I thought I could get away with. Turns out I should’ve used fewer. Targeting the second vessel now.”

Once again, the lasers fired, but something went wrong because the ship exploded.

“It looks like their fusion plant went, sir,” she said with a grimace. “Sorry about that.”

“You did the best you could. What about Force Bravo, Derek? How far away are they?”

The helmsman checked his console. “They’re a bit more than two hours away. If they’re like the other forces, some of their drones will have sprint capability, and they’ll get here a little sooner. What’s the plan, sir?”

“Turn our active sensors on the planet, and get as much information as you can. Forward it to operations so David Chen can make a guess at what’s happening. Look for enemy facilities. If we find any, what are our options?”

“I’ll get to scanning those right away, sir,” the young man said, “but Amanda will be able to answer the second part of that better than I can.”

“Very little, sir,” Amanda said. “Our weapons are made for fighting in space. We could fire the lasers into the atmosphere, but they’re not going to be coherent by the time they get to the surface. They’d still cause some damage, but it would be over a much wider area than we’d like, and they’d be less powerful than would be useful, I suspect.”

He’d expected that but needed to ask.

“We’re getting more detailed information, sir,” Derek said. “It looks like the space elevators are mounted in the general vicinity of two major metropolitan areas but not inside them. That hasn’t stopped the Locusts from attacking the cities. There’s evidence of fires still in progress near both locations, and it looks like they’ve built facilities around the bases of the elevators.”

Jack leaned forward. “Can we see what they’re doing in detail? I realize we’re high up, but don’t we have some optics that can get us an idea of what’s down there? Also, we’ll want to know for certain what they’re doing inside the cities. I’ll assume one of those locations is the planet’s capital. Verify that as well.”

The young helm officer manipulated the controls. “We’re not set up to be able to clearly see things on a planetary surface, but I think I can get us at least a general view of what’s happening. I’ll be honest, sir. This might be better handled by Mister Chen.”

Jack considered that. He didn’t like leaving the bridge while they were in the middle of a battle. “How close are the nearest Locust drones or motherships?”

“There’s a patrol that will be here in about ninety minutes, sir. It’s not very big, and I don’t anticipate we’ll have any problems dealing with it before they fire. Engineering is working hard to get more of the lasers online to increase our firepower, so that’ll help.”

“What about reports from the Marine landing force? How soon can we expect to know what’s going on there?”

“We’ll be back over their location in about twenty-five minutes, sir. We can launch the cargo shuttles at that point, and they can keep us in contact after that.”

Jack nodded. “I suppose that’ll have to do. Stand down from general quarters. I’ll be back before we orbit over the Marines. Make sure that if anyone has any needs, they get taken care of right now. We’ll go back to battle stations fifteen minutes before the patrol arrives.”

He stood and gestured for the lieutenant to take his seat. “You have the conn, Derek. Make sure you take a run to the head yourself. I need you all ready when we start slugging things out again.”

With that, Jack departed the bridge and picked up a pair of Marines outside. He honestly didn’t believe he needed them, but Turner had been firm on this point. He wasn’t going anywhere without a Marine escort, particularly since a lot of unknown individuals from Port Royale were aboard.

Part of him wanted to make a detour and see how the missile processing was going, but he’d be a needless distraction, which had to be avoided. He headed to operations, going directly to the room being utilized to examine the data. He found David hard at work at one of the consoles while others worked in another cluster.

“We control the orbitals, but I can’t tell what’s going down on the surface,” he said as he walked over to David’s console. “What can you tell me?”

David turned and grimaced. “It’s not good. While they haven’t used anything as drastic as orbital strikes, there’s a lot of damage to both metropolitan areas near the space elevators. At a guess, they drove the people out of the area. I’m not sure why they didn’t tether the space elevators farther out.”

“They wanted access to the cities,” Jack said. “That can’t be good.”

“Probably not. I’m able to get some information on the facilities they’re constructing, but we’re going to need someone on the surface before we have any true clarity about what’s there. All I can tell you at this point is that they’re big. I can also say with certainty that there are atmospheric craft coming from those facilities and heading toward our Marines.”

Jack frowned. “What kind of atmospheric craft, and how many are we talking about?”

“Significant numbers. We’re talking hundreds of craft, though they are still some distance from the island. I’m not certain if they’ve already launched others, but it looks as if there are two groups. Some are fast movers, and others are slow. I suspect that means that the second group is carrying ground fighters. Since we’re talking Locusts, that means mechanicals.”

“That sucks,” Jack said with a frown, “but we knew there would be resistance. I hope we’ve got enough pinnaces still in the air to take care of them. How long do you estimate until those fast movers arrive on scene?”

“They’ll arrive in two segments since they’re coming from two different launch facilities. The first group will arrive in about forty-five minutes, and the second will be about ten minutes later. The slow movers will be roughly fifteen minutes behind that.”

“Make sure and document everything so we can pass it along to Colonel Turner,” Jack said. “He needs to know what’s coming as soon as we can transmit the data.”

“I’ll make it happen,” Chen assured him. “Meanwhile, I need to give you a summary of what we see in orbit. First of all, it looks like the space elevator setup is separate from the ships themselves. There are still cars on the cables that could go down into the atmosphere, even though the ships have detached. The surviving ship is also quite interesting. It’s large but designed to fit around the cable and receive the elevators. I’d imagine that means whatever is down on the surface was carried in those vessels and sent down once the elevator was constructed.”

Jack pursed his lips. “So this was all about getting things down to the planet rather than taking things away?”anchor

David shrugged. “We have no way of knowing. Perhaps if we have an opportunity to examine the vessel in more detail, we can figure that out. Based on the way they fled, I suspect they’re not controlled by machines, so we’ll find more aliens over there. I’d recommend sending someone over to disrupt them before they set up defenses. At least you’ll want to capture their engineering section. If they rig their fusion plant to go critical, we’ve lost that source of information.”

Jack hadn’t wanted to do anything like that, but the man wasn’t wrong. If the enemy decided that ship was expendable—or must be destroyed—they needed to at least sabotage the fusion plant.

“We’ve still got a few Marines aboard who could work that,” he said. “I’ll give orders for them to do so. That’s no guarantee that the incoming Locusts won’t vaporize it, but we can only do what we can do. What can you tell me about the space elevator itself? Is it still functional?”

“It seems to be,” David said. “Everything I can see indicates the cabling is attached both to the anchor in space and the ground. The ship was at the balance point, so it could detach without compromising the system. An excellent design we can use to our benefit. The material they’re using seems quite strong. It could help us get things off the planet faster if we can avoid destroying it. It would turn this relative backwater system into an economic powerhouse someday.”

Jack wasn’t so sure about that. “They’re going to be recovering for a long time. Still, we’re not going to destroy them unless we’re forced to do so. We’re going to have to attack their facilities on the surface at some point, though, which will put them at risk. We can’t let their survival interfere with doing what needs to be done.”

David sighed but nodded. “I understand, but this is one of those moments where we could change the very nature of the Confederation. The materials used and the methods they’re showing us would significantly reduce the cost of moving goods from one system to another once this is all over.”

Then he shrugged. “Still, as you say, we’ll do what we have to do. I’ll get as much data as I can while we’re in orbit, and we’ll just have to hope we get the nuclear munitions as quickly as possible. There are an awful lot of enemy ships coming our way, and I’d personally like to avoid dying.”

“I think everyone is with you on that.”

David chuckled without the slightest bit of humor. “I’ve been studying the records, and this is a small system. Believe it or not, the Locust forces left here are small compared with what should be in a major system. We’re in the fight of our lives, but we’ll have to be a lot better armed to face a true formation of the enemy.”

“That’s cheerful.”

“Indeed. We didn’t get a decent look at what was in the gateway system, but there was at least an order of magnitude more Locust drones and motherships than we’re dealing with here. Enough that we’d be in serious trouble facing off with them, even if all of our weapons were operational. We can’t lose sight of the fact we’re still the underdog, even though we’re starting to make a name for ourselves.”

That was something Jack had already known, but there’d been nothing any of them could do about it. It had taken twelve battleships the size of Hunter to kick the Locusts out of the Confederation last time, and that hadn’t been an easy task.

He was sure the enemy had come in greater strength this time, and he only had one run-down battleship to do the fighting. It seemed an impossible fight, even if they recovered all the nuclear munitions stored below, yet it was a fight they had to win.

“Gather as much data as you can,” Jack ordered. “In the future, we’ll need to come up with a way of getting observations in the atmosphere, even when we’re not landing, so be thinking about that. We’ve got no probes like the modern Confederation Navy takes for granted, so we’ll have to improvise.”

“I have some ideas, and I’ll look into them when I have time.”

“Good. Meanwhile, I’ll see about getting some Marines to make a hit-and-run raid to disable the fusion plant on that ship. Then we’ll just have to hope our people can get into the nuclear weapons and that maybe Connors’s contacts will give him the lowdown on what’s really happening here.”

With that, Jack headed back toward the bridge, pulling his comm off his belt. He didn’t like the idea of sending Marines over to that ship without knowing what was going on—particularly since they had so few of them left aboard—but if they wanted even a chance of gathering information from the ship once this fight was over, that was what he had to do.

Then he’d get back to the bridge and finalize their plans for fighting Force Bravo. It would be brutal even if they got the nuclear munitions, so they’d have to be on their A-game. A failure now would doom the cluster and kill everyone aboard his ship.

26

Connor stood in the cold and shivered. The massive volcano behind him did nothing to shield him from the biting wind. He was grateful for the protective clothing, but it wasn’t enough. As a spaceborne smuggler, he didn’t spend a lot of time on planets to begin with. When he did, it was in much more pleasant climes.

For her part, Tina seemed completely unfazed. In fact, she unbuttoned the top of her borrowed jacket. Somehow, that was even more annoying than being cold.

“Aren’t you cold?” he demanded.

“A bit, but I want to be sharp when your friends arrive. Getting too warm makes me drowsy, and I’d rather be uncomfortable than slow on the uptake.” She grinned at him. “Not that I doubt the sincerity of your associates, but if they try to pull anything over on us, I want to be aware of it before we find out the hard way. No offense.”

“You’re right to be skeptical,” he said. “The people I deal with aren’t the most trustworthy, though they’re honest in staying bought. I doubt they want to conceal what’s going on in any case. This is life and death, and I think you’ll find that even the shiftiest of sorts will have some line or another they won’t cross. An invasion seeking the extermination of humanity hits the mark for most of us.”

“Maybe. I’ll hold onto my skepticism, and you can pleasantly surprise me.”

One of the Marines standing nearby said something into the headset and then turned toward them. “The outermost patrol just let the new vehicle through. It’ll be here in five minutes. They said it looks like a civilian cargo shuttle, a sleek one.”

Connor crossed his arms and considered that. A number of the people he dealt with were smugglers, and if they were meeting someone with a souped-up cargo shuttle, that was one of them. The politicians would have a different kind of vehicle altogether. Frankly, he didn’t expect those types to come calling. Give him an honest criminal over a mealy mouthed politician any day.

When the cargo shuttle came into view, he nodded his head in recognition. He’d had his suspicions about who’d called them, but the message had been distorted and weak enough that he hadn’t known for sure. Now he did.

“We’ll be dealing with Roman Mitichyan, a dealer in special merchandise based in the capital,” he told Tina. “The one thing to keep in mind about him is that while he has scruples, everything is based on business. If there’s something in it for him, you can rest assured that’s the path he’ll follow.”

Tina considered him for a few seconds. “Are you saying there are situations where he might be a collaborator?”

“Not on your life. That said, I can see angles where he might keep some details to himself if he felt he could profit from them later on. Why sell the entire cow when you can sell milk every week?”

“Hmmm. I know the type. Well, you do the talking, and I’ll do the listening. If I feel the need to jump in, just back my play.”

“And what might your play be?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We all have our little secrets,” she said somewhat smugly. “You’ll know it when you hear it.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t bite us in the butt. Roman’s a bit prickly, so it’s better to be friendly than confrontational.”

The shuttle flew in and landed just in front of them. Connor stepped forward and smiled as the hatch slid open. Then his smile faltered and vanished.

Roman Mitichyan staggered out of the shuttle. He was dressed in burned rags and had a jagged scar across his forehead. Part of his hair was missing, looking as if it’d been burned away with his clothes. His face was covered in dried blood, as were his clothes.

Connor leaped forward and grabbed Roman before he fell. A glance confirmed that there was no one else in the shuttle. Considering how high in the organized criminal ranks Roman was, that was unheard of.

While he’d been reacting, the Marine had been on the comm. “Medic to the landing pad!”

Tina helped him get Roman to the ground and then sat him on the steps below the hatch. Whatever plan she had seemed to have gone out the window as she looked between Connor and the crime lord.

“You’re looking a little worse for wear, Roman,” he said. “Are things really that bad?”

“I think it’s safe to say things are much worse than you imagine. It was good to hear your voice, Connor. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to figure out where you meant, but I managed.”

“What happened?” Connor asked as he stepped to the side to allow a Marine medic to begin examining the injured man.

“There’s been an alien invasion,” he said in a somewhat mocking tone. “Perhaps you’ve heard about it. I have to say that the history books don’t do it justice. It’s more visceral when it’s happening to you, and a lot bloodier.”

Roman swallowed and flinched a little as the medic began examining him. “Be careful of my left arm. It’s broken. I was also shot on that side.”

“We need to get you someplace more protected, sir,” the Marine said. “I need to get these clothes off and see what we’re dealing with right away.”

The crime boss shook his head. “You can take me back into the shuttle if you like. Time is short, and I need to finish my piece before passing out.”

The three of them picked Roman up and carried him back into the shuttle. The inside of the vessel was a disaster. Connor would’ve thought the damned thing had crashed if the outside hadn’t looked pristine. Anything that wasn’t fastened down was on the floor. Even those things that had been secured had mostly broken loose.

A glance at the control area showed a lot of blood, so he was more than willing to believe that Roman had been shot. That probably wasn’t good for his old associate.

Once they had the injured man lying on the deck and had cleared the area around him, the medic cut some of the clothing away and grimaced. Even Connor could see the wound wasn’t good, and the medic called for blood and other consumables.

“I hate to rush you at a time like this, Roman, but if you’ve got something to tell us, I think you’d better get on with it,” Connor said with a hint of compassion in his voice.

“Things must be worse than I thought if you’re being nice to me, so I’ll get straight to the point. The Locusts invaded the capital and the city of Vanderbilt. They dropped cables from the sky and bombed the city from elevators that came down them. We had no idea what was coming after they destroyed every ship in the system but didn’t think they’d come down to the surface. We were wrong.”

A couple of additional Marines came into the shuttle and began setting up an IV drip and some bags of artificial blood. Thankfully, that kind of stuff didn’t care what your natural blood type was. It worked for everybody.

“We’re here to drive them out of the system,” Tina said. “We’ve got a ship in orbit right now that will do everything it can to keep them from coming back down to the surface.”

Roman winced when he laughed. “Oh, it’s far too late for that. They’ve built facilities at the base of the cables and sent thousands of machines into the cities. My organization was shattered, but I still had a few people that could tell me about it. They took some terrible risks and sent me images of what they could find. I’ve got those on an unprotected comm unit in the control area.”

“We’re going now, sir,” the medic said to Connor in a tone that brooked no disagreement.

“Wait,” Roman said. “They’re collecting people. I have no idea what they’re doing with them, but they’re singling out people to bring back to those facilities. Thousands of them. They’ve got Misty.”

Connor winced in sympathy. Misty was Roman’s wife. Roman might not care about many people, but he loved her. The man’s cooperation made a lot more sense now, and Connor was willing to accept what he said at face value for perhaps the only time in his life.

“We’ll do everything possible to liberate those people,” Connor said. “Let these men take care of you, and we’ll speak again soon.”

“I hope so,” Roman said, his voice growing a bit vaguer as the Marine added something to the IV drip. “We haven’t even settled on a price for my information yet. That’s barbaric. Save my wife, and we’ll call it even.”

“You have my word that I’ll do what I can.”

Roman nodded just a bit and then lost consciousness even as the Marines lifted him onto a stretcher.

“What are his chances?” Connor asked the medic as they started out of the cutter.

The Marine shrugged. “Poor. Get out of the way while we get him clear. We’ve got an area set up with a field surgeon standing by.”

Connor moved toward the front of the shuttle with Tina as the Marines carried the unconscious crime lord out. She started searching the control area while he watched his associate on the way to what might very well be his death.

He’d promised to do what he could to save Roman’s wife. He had no idea how he’d do that but had no doubt that Jack Romanoff would help him redeem his word. Navy was a man that wouldn’t stand idly by when people’s lives were in danger.

Tina came back with a comm unit, already swiping through some of what was on it, frowning. He looked over her shoulder and found himself scowling as well.

The devastation in the capital was worse than he’d imagined. Buildings blown up and burned, some falling over on others. Hordes of people in the streets running from six-legged machines.

Then there were images of a large alien facility with a cable going out the roof and into the sky. They were unusual structures, and he didn’t know how to interpret what he saw. Portions seemed to be ramps that went along their length and then arched upward to point toward the sky. What kind of purpose could they serve?

Then a few images later, he saw the answer as a sleek atmospheric craft launched into the sky on a lance of flame. That had to be the same kind of atmospheric fighting craft that the Marines had fought. It looked as if the Locusts had come to New Copenhagen to stay.

There were other images of flatbed mechanical devices carrying unconscious people into those facilities. That was chilling. It was one thing to put your boot on the necks of the people you’re conquering, but this seemed too methodical. What were they taking those people inside for?

Tina shook her head when he asked that very question. “I have no idea, but it can’t be good. Colonel Turner needs to see this, and then we have to find a way to send everything up to Jack as soon as possible. We’re not in a good position to pry the Locusts out of those locations—particularly when they have hostages—but we’re going to have to do something.”

“Do you think… Do you think they’re eating the prisoners?”

He half expected her to laugh at him, but she gave him a serious look before shaking her head. “It seems unrealistic that they’d travel all this way for a snack, even if we were compatible with their digestive tracts. Still, that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing something equally bad. We need eyes in the capital, and we need to get inside those facilities fast.”

Connor followed her out of the shuttle. “As much as I want to see that happen, I don’t think we have the people to make it work. Marines are all good and fine in space, but this is a ground war. We’ll need a lot more people. Where the hell are we going to get them?”

Tina shrugged and headed toward the volcano. “Damned if I know, but we’ll figure it out.”

Connor had been uncertain that coming here was the right thing, but now he knew that he’d had to see this with his own eyes. He knew the stakes now, and he’d see that Port Royale stepped up to do what needed to be done.

It wasn’t that the Confederation needed them—though it did. Humanity seemed to be at risk, and there could be no neutral parties in a fight like that. Roman had seen that, and had perhaps sacrificed his own life to get this information to them. That put things into contrast like nothing else.

The Locusts would pay for what they’d done here. He’d see to it.

27

Alan and his ad hoc team followed Captain Dufaux into the facility while Colonel Turner went back out to organize the defenses. Dufaux and her still-unnamed comrades escorted them deeper into an enormous facility, but one that had not seen a lot of recent use.

That wasn’t to say that the main floor wasn’t well-kept, but as soon as they entered one of the lifts and began going downward, it became apparent just how extensive the underground facility was. There were a lot of numbers on the indicator.

“How many people do you have here?” he asked.

“Not nearly as many as I’d like. Still, we have more people than we usually do. Some off-duty people came back as soon as the invasion kicked off, and we’ve been living here full-time since they took over the planet.”

“I see. And what can you tell us about the underground storage areas?”

“Nothing. We don’t have access beyond the foyers on each level. We live on the upper floors, and I sent most of my people to the defenses on the volcano’s slopes. That’s where the missile launchers are located.”

She studied him carefully. “You don’t look like a military man. What purpose do you serve in rearming this Navy battleship?”

“I’m about as far away from being a military man as one could imagine,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m a xenoarchaeologist and expert in Locust hardware and computer systems, but I’m the only one who has any experience dealing with these kinds of nuclear warheads.”

He inclined his head. “I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m Doctor Alan Prescott, director of the Locust War Historical Society, but I’d prefer professor if you must use a title. I was overseeing Delta Orionis when Commodore Romanoff took command. My associate is Lisa Gane. She’s a computer expert we hope can get us into the facilities containing the warheads so that we can begin transporting them out.”

“I’m a hacker,” Lisa clarified. “I’m an expert at penetrating various computer systems, and I was hired for this particular job because we don’t have the keys to get in.”

Dufaux considered the pair of them for a moment. “If you’re working for the Navy, why don’t you have the appropriate codes?”

“Because I’d wager the Navy has forgotten this place even exists,” he said with a sigh. “They might be paying your salaries—maybe—but there’s been no one here to perform maintenance on any of these warheads the entire time they’ve been here, has there?”

“I can’t speak for anything more than fifteen years ago—much less the century and a half we’ve been watching over them—but no,” she confirmed. “From what I understand, the warheads don’t require any maintenance because of how they’re stored, which is good because there’s an awful lot of them down here. The inventory says we’ve got a hundred million nuclear warheads. They’re not city killers by any means, but there are more than enough to cause some serious damage to a ship in space.”

The lift arrived at the level she’d selected seemingly at random, and the five of them stepped out into an armored foyer. The bulkhead looked very solid, and the hatch was substantial as well.

They could try to force it, but there were undoubtedly security systems that would do unpleasant things to them if they tried. He looked up at the ceiling and saw weapons mounted in the corners.

“My assumption is those are computer-controlled,” he ventured. “Are they going to object to us attempting to bypass the locks?”

“My guess would be no. The most likely reaction would be to alert my people upstairs. The weapons should only come into play if you try to force the hatch.”

“I can assure you that’s the furthest thing from my mind, but if that’s what needs to happen, the Marines will make certain these weapons are out of play. Unfortunately, I’m sure there are more just inside the hatch which would come into action if we were to try something like that, so I’d much rather get in the easy way.”

Lisa set her pack on the floor near the controls and began removing various tools and equipment. “You might think this is easy because you don’t have to do any of the work, but I assure you that bypassing the security system isn’t as simple as you imagine. I’m a hacker, not a miracle worker. I may run into security arrangements I can’t bypass.”

“Well, there’s no pressure,” Alan assured her. “The Locust won’t be back for a few hours.”

“You’re a funny man,” she grumbled. “It’s a good thing you pay well. Now shut up, and let me work.”

Alan turned back to Captain Dufaux. “If we gain access, this doesn’t look like the appropriate way to bring any of the warheads out. How would that work?”

“There are some large lifts in the center of the volcanic cone. Once we gain admittance to one of these floors, we should be able to move the warheads directly into the lifts and up to the cone. It’s pretty open, so your cargo shuttles shouldn’t have any problems.”

He watched Lisa put together what looked like electronic probes. Once she’d inserted them into the locking mechanism, she began working on a tablet while sitting cross-legged on the floor. He couldn’t interpret what was on the screen, so he didn’t even try. It was far better to get more information about their situation than worry about how quickly she’d be able to get in.

“What’s been happening on New Copenhagen since the invasion?” he asked the captain in a low tone.

“They’ve built two space elevators near our largest cities and came down in force after they sent drones into the atmosphere to smash into the ground and detonate their fusion plants. It caused a lot of death and destruction and gave them a toehold.” The captain grimaced. “Then they flooded the area with ground-based war machines. The planetary defense forces got plastered. I’m sure some units survived, but we weren’t expecting to defend the planet like this, and we weren’t ready.”

She rubbed her face, and he could see the exhaustion in her stance. “Outside the major metropolitan areas, they haven’t intruded that much, though they’re going to at some point. As much as it galls me to say, they’ve already conquered the planet. They just haven’t settled everything yet. You told her you had two hours. That’s not a lot of time.”

“No, it’s not,” he agreed with a sigh.

He returned his attention to Lisa as she worked. She was hyper-focused and busy tabbing from screen to screen and entering commands. He was loath to interrupt her, but he needed to know what she was finding.

“Lisa, briefly tell me what you’re seeing.”

“They’ve got some heavy-duty security on this hatch, but the code is old. Even though it was cutting edge military tech a century and a half ago, I might be able to use some of my advanced programs to bypass things that would be inconceivable to the people that designed the system.” She glanced up at him. “I can’t guarantee anything. I might get the damn thing open in the next five minutes, or it might take me five hours, five days, or five weeks. Hell, I might never get it open if things don’t work out, but I’d bet on the shorter end of the spectrum.”

“Would offering a bonus for getting it done faster encourage you to greater speed?”

She laughed. “My life is worth an awful lot to me, Professor. I won’t turn down your money, though. I think I might have just found us a way in.”

“Get that hatch open in the next sixty seconds, and I’ll double your already exorbitant pay.”

She tapped another few keys and then watched her screen as code scrolled up. “Come on, baby. Mama needs some computer upgrades.”

Something off of the right-hand side of the screen flashed green, and the hatch began sliding open, causing Lisa to leap to her feet and start dancing in the most ridiculous fashion he’d ever seen.

“Please stop,” he said urgently, though he smiled just a little. “You look like you’re having a stroke, and we’re being recorded.”

The others might not have noticed Christine’s drone tagging along behind them, but he’d seen the thing in the back corner of the lift. His lady missed no angle in making sure she got the video she wanted.

He headed into the facility. The interior was even more heavily armed than he’d imagined. There were slug throwers and even what looked like a flame thrower aimed at the hatch. Then there were explosives set all along the inside. Shaped charges that would make anyone trying to get in without opening the hatch very dead.

Dufaux and her people came in after him, looking around with interest. They’d never been inside this portion of the facility, so they all looked a little out of their depth.

The wide corridor he found himself in had hatches spaced out on each side as far as the eye could see. Some of the lighting had failed, but many of the panels were still lit. More than enough to get the job done.

He went to the nearest hatch and found that it was secured with the same electronic locks as on the outside. The hacker got her equipment rearranged and plugged into the lock. It took less than ten seconds for her to get the hatch open this time.

The room was set up like a warehouse with exceptionally thick walls. That was probably meant to contain any radiation leaks. The warheads themselves would be inside the heavy cases stacked throughout the room.

“Get busy opening as many of these rooms as you can, Lisa,” he ordered. “Captain, if one of your people could tell Colonel Turner that we have access, he’ll get the cargo shuttles here as soon as possible.”

As Lisa hurried off, accompanied by one of the men, the facility commander sent the other man back the way they’d come to carry his message. That left the two of them exploring this room and ensuring that what they needed was here.

Alan used a small battery-powered cargo mover to get a case down on the floor. He was grateful the machine still had a charge after all this time, even though it was plugged in. Batteries could be finicky.

The case was undoubtedly lined with the material to block radiation. A reminder that he should be wearing a protective suit to work on this. Looking back at the hatch, he spotted protective suits racked there and made a beeline for them.

“You’ll want to get yourself into one of these, Captain. While we’re in a hurry, it won’t do us any good to get sick.”

He had no way of testing the suit to make sure it still had the protective integrity he needed, but he’d just have to trust chance on that. Once he was dressed, he waited for the captain to finish and opened the case. Inside, fitted into foam compartments, were the component parts of a nuclear warhead. The housing was built inside the missiles themselves, so this was just the bomb.

It had been disassembled, and each part was stored separately. The radioactive components were thoroughly encased in blocks of what would undoubtedly be additional protective material, but after several centuries, he wouldn’t count on them being completely safe to handle.

During his work as a graduate student recovering wreckage from the first invasion, they’d chanced across more than a dozen missiles that had failed to detonate. He’d been the one tasked with learning how to take them apart and dispose of the dangerous materials safely.

It had been a long time, but he’d been a meticulous notetaker and had still had those notes in his files. He’d reviewed them before coming down and suspected that putting everything together would be roughly the same as taking it apart.

The only thing he didn’t know how to do was set up the detonation system. That would fall on the tactical people to figure out, so he hoped they had instructions about how to do that.

He closed the case and used the lifter to put it back on the stack. Then he dropped the metal tines and picked up the entire stack before carefully backing out of the room and turning toward the center of this level.

Lisa already had four additional hatches open and was working on a fifth. He headed past her as fast as the machine could safely move while keeping the stack of warheads steady.

“Gather as many protective suits as you can, Captain,” he said over his shoulder. “Time is of the essence.”

She didn’t bother responding, racing back to the first room. They now had what they needed to fight the Locusts if they could get them to orbit and put them together in time. The race was on.

28

As soon as word came from the professor to call for the shuttles, Mac did so. Hunter had left them in a swarm where he could contact them when he was ready, so even though the ship wasn’t overhead, it wouldn’t delay the mission.

The local officer who’d brought the word had filled him in on everything the garrison knew about the invasion. The news wasn’t good.

The Locusts had arrived in force and appeared intent on taking over the planet, killing any humans that resisted and driving them away from the space elevators. He paid particular attention to their descriptions of the automated war machines.

Details were sparse, but a general description was clear. Each machine was about the size of a large dog, running on six legs and firing slugs from its body. There couldn’t be much ammunition storage, so he wasn’t sure how the things would behave once they ran dry. Worst case, they’d use their legs as weapons, so he’d plan for that.

His people had spread out around the entrance to the nuclear facility and dug in. On a volcanic island, that had not been an easy task. They couldn’t use shovels to dig through the rock, so they’d had to blast foxholes with explosives. Thankfully, since he’d known where they were going ahead of time, he’d come well prepared.

The resultant foxholes weren’t very neat, but they went deep enough to give his people some protection, particularly when they used the loose rock to create cover for their firing positions. It wouldn’t be bulletproof, but it beat the hell out of nothing at all.

Since they had air superiority—at least for the moment—he had plenty of warning when the enemy was close. Though they were coming from two separate areas, they’d combined and came in as one group, split into three waves. All the fast movers were up front, and the slower craft had separated into two follow-up waves.

This seemed like an all-out attack with every bit of airpower they could deliver. The Locusts hadn’t been on the planet all that long, so they hadn’t had time to build everything they needed. He’d take advantage of that while he could.

The liaison from the facility told him that they were well-stocked for missiles, but their ability to shoot down incoming aircraft was limited by the number of launchers. They wouldn’t be able to hold them off, so Mac and his people would get hit. Worse, the facility itself would take some damage.

That was undoubtedly one of the primary goals for the incoming aircraft. They wouldn’t know what was stored here, but the machines seemed happy to take out their aggression on all aspects of a target area.

He watched as cargo shuttle after cargo shuttle went into the volcano and loaded munitions. The trickiest part would be making certain the cargo shuttles were gone by the time the enemy arrived. He didn’t want them at risk if they couldn’t load up and get back to orbit before the enemy came into firing range.

That meant that only about two-thirds of them could load up, but they brought a lot of shuttles. Maybe they’d have the option of bringing some back to pick up more after the attack was dealt with, but everything would be tight.

If they could deal with the Locusts in this system, they’d get an advantage in dealing with the next one. It would be months before Locusts from any other system could get here in force, so they needed to win this fight and free New Copenhagen. And to do that, he and his people needed to kick some ass.

When Beth told him the enemy was almost within striking range, Mac ordered the remaining cargo shuttles to lift off or abort, no matter the state of their load. Nearly all of them obeyed, but a few risked being shot down by completing loading before taking off. That pissed him off, but there was nothing he could do about it other than pray their stubbornness didn’t get them killed.

The pinnaces circling around the island made sure the cargo shuttles had protection. Even though some of the attacking aircraft made to go after them, they were shot down before they could fire. Score one for the good guys.

His pinnaces got into an extended dogfight with the attacking aircraft. When he’d hired the civilian pilots, he hadn’t expected to be involved in something like this, and it came back to bite them. His people just didn’t have the combat experience for something like this. They died in droves, though they took many of their enemies with them.

The facility fired its missiles into the attacking aircraft and took a number of them out, then switched to high-speed guns when the aircraft grew close enough. His positions also opened fire with antiaircraft weapons and knocked some of them down.

That didn’t keep the aircraft from firing their own missiles, which blew up areas around his people, taking out some of the Marine positions though many of the Marines themselves likely survived deep in their holes.

Even as they dealt with the fast movers, the first wave of slower aircraft arrived. He wasn’t sure what they were up to until they slowed to a crawl and dropped pallets that almost exploded when they hit the ground. Lots of six-legged machines swarmed toward the Marine positions.

“All positions, prepare for an immediate attack by ground forces,” he ordered over the general channel. “Don’t let them get in among you, or they’ll tear you apart.”

His command position was centrally located and away from any of the front lines, but that didn’t keep him from checking his weapons and getting ready. He doubted they’d be able to keep the war machines from penetrating their lines. They were hard to hit because they were agile, and they didn’t hesitate to fire the moment they could draw a bead on any of the Marines.

He immediately saw they didn’t use automatic weapons, likely because they didn’t have the ammo reserves to make that work. Instead, they fired single shots with surprising accuracy. That didn’t mean every shot hit, but they tore up several positions and kept the Marines pinned down even as they closed the distance.

Mac took command of the reserves and headed to that side of the encampment, leaving Beth in charge of pushing back the remaining aircraft. He couldn’t keep his eye on both problems, and the ground attack was more worrisome.

He made it about halfway to the line when an explosion to his right sent him slamming into the rocky ground. He staggered to his feet, his ears ringing as he glanced in that direction and saw a crashed aircraft. No crew would’ve lived through that, and it didn’t seem to have any surviving war machines, so he disregarded it and got his people moving again.

They arrived at the perimeter just as the war machines made their push to break through. He threw himself down behind a handy boulder and opened fire. The war machine he’d picked as a target absorbed bullets like they were going out of style, but then it spasmed and collapsed.

He switched his attention to a new target and continued firing. This one reached the Marine positions and leaped over them with more vigor than Mac had anticipated. It landed less than fifteen meters from him and seemed interested in shooting him. It couldn’t have recognized him as the commander of the Marine forces because he didn’t have anything on him that would’ve told it that. He’d just been unlucky.

The two of them exchanged shots, and he was grateful for the boulder because the bullets coming for him seemed to be very large. They were probably designed to tear up equipment rather than people. His rifle was paltry in comparison, though he could put out a lot of bullets. In the end, that’s what allowed him to win the exchange because, like the first one, this one spasmed and collapsed when he shot it center mass enough times.

It was a risk, but Mac came out from behind the boulder and slid to a halt next to the smoking machine. The central body was armored, though not as heavily as one might have expected for a machine like that.

His shot had gone in through a sensor array in the front. The armor behind it must not have been as thick as the rest of the body. That was poorly considered because the sensor array was facing directly toward anyone that wanted to shoot back at it. A sniper could take one of these things out with one shot if his suspicions were correct.

“All positions, be advised that the war machines have a sensor array on the front of the body with thinner armor. If you can punch through that, you’ll have a chance at taking the things out. Use targeted fire where possible.”

That few seconds of distraction almost cost him his life. Another one of the machines fired on him as it vaulted the Marine positions, and he was forced to roll aside and then sprint for one of the foxholes directly in front of him. That let the machine get past him, but he didn’t have a choice right now. They were fighting for their lives, and this position was being overrun.

The Marine in the foxhole edged over just enough to give him room to crouch down, and the two of them faced off in opposite directions, firing at any of the war machines that came close.

The fact that they weren’t being shot to pieces by aircraft meant the defenses were at least holding their own in the air. He doubted many of the pinnaces would’ve survived this overwhelming attack, and that would be a gut punch when it had time to settle in.

It felt like the battle had raged for hours, but it could only have been minutes. The war machines seemed to be everywhere right up until there were none to be found. All that was left were smoking carcasses. They hadn’t retreated. They’d fought until the last one had been shot down.

He turned to check on the Marine in the foxhole with him and found the other man dead. One of the attackers had gotten a lucky shot and shattered his helmet. Mac’s back armor was undoubtedly covered in gore, but he’d been so involved in the fighting that he hadn’t noticed.

One more thing to live with when he had time.

His legs seemed a little weak when he climbed out of the foxhole, but he was able to race to the command area and found Beth still directing the fight. He dropped in beside her and stared at the tablet she held that showed the island and the incoming aircraft. There were no defending pinnaces.

“All positions, we’ve got one last wave of aircraft coming in,” he said over the general channel. “I don’t know if they’re going to strafe our positions or drop more war machines, but get ready. You’ve got sixty seconds.”

To his surprise, the aircraft went straight for the volcano and started dropping munitions across the cone. Titanic fusion blasts sent massive columns of fire and debris into the air, much of which would come down on him and his people.

“Into your holes,” he shouted over the general channel. “Debris incoming!”

He ducked into his hole but still saw the bombers climbing high over the island even as rocks—some as big as houses—began falling around them. It was one of the most terrifying moments of his life.

Their final act was to dive into the cone as a group, detonating the weapons they still had aboard in targeted attacks at what might be the weakest part of the facility. Not many made it into the cone itself, but those that did caused catastrophic damage. The side of the volcano closest to him collapsed inward at about the halfway point. The right and left sides also caved in, leaving just one part of the volcano cone sticking up like a spike.

It took a seeming eternity for the debris to stop falling. As soon as it did, Beth had a radiation counter out. “No radiation, so no nukes.”

It was a favor, but a small one.

“Was that the last of them?” he asked.

She nodded. “That’s it for the air attack.”

“If anyone survived inside there, I’m not sure how we get to them,” he said, feeling sick. “The entrance looks intact, but I can’t imagine the upper storage levels standing up to that.”

“Do you think anyone survived?” Beth asked, her eyes never leaving the still collapsing volcano.

“If the Navy built sturdy enough, it’s possible that only part of the facility would’ve collapsed. They had an entire island to work with, so let’s hope they went deep.”

Not that they were going to get any additional warheads out of there anytime soon. He hoped Hunter had what she needed because that was all she was getting.

29

Jack forced himself not to swear. They’d anticipated a certain level of resistance below, but the Locusts had vastly exceeded their expectations, and now their people had paid the price.

The battle at the nuclear facility was over, but they’d gotten less than one load of nuclear munitions out before the volcano had collapsed. Turner wasn’t in a position to figure out how much damage the facility had taken, and he wouldn’t be for quite some time.

It didn’t look as if the Locusts had any more aircraft, but the damage was done. Not a single pinnace had survived. Each had had a civilian pilot from Port Royale and someone from the Marine Academy skilled in gunnery. They’d lost dozens of pilots and experienced Marines.

Even if they managed to win the upcoming fight in space, it was unlikely they’d get more volunteers from Port Royale. No amount of money was worth someone’s life, so that well would dry up.

The other action in progress was the Marine team he’d sent to disable the fusion plant aboard the surviving alien ship. That mission had taken longer than he’d expected because there’d been some fighting, and even though the Marines had won the day, they’d taken losses as well. They were on their way back with prisoners now.

The aliens would no doubt be able to repair the fusion plant with time, but if Hunter survived the fight, they could deal with the ship on a more permanent basis. This had been a temporary measure to make sure the damned thing didn’t run away or self-destruct.

Of course, it was always possible the Locusts would blow that ship to small bits themselves. That’s what they’d tried to do to the wreck, so it was possible they’d do it again. If so, that was outside his control.

The only thing he could control were the preparations for what might be their last stand. He hoped that wouldn’t be the case, but things would be tight. Time to find out how bad it would be.

“Derek, you’ve got the conn,” he said as he stood. “I need to check on a couple of things, but I’ll be back before the Locusts get too close.”

The young man nodded but didn’t rise. “We’ve got you covered, sir.”

Jack picked up his Marine guards outside the bridge and headed for the compartment they were using to assemble the nuclear warheads and install them in the missiles. Amanda was there overseeing the work, with the professor providing what expertise he could. Between the two of them, he certainly hoped they’d be able to make this work.

When he arrived at the hatch leading into the large compartment, he picked up one of the protective suits they’d brought up from the facility below and put it on over his uniform. He left his hat and greatcoat outside.

The compartment was a hive of activity as people moved the missiles in one side and set them up for warhead installation. On the other side, a large group of people was gathered around a table where it looked like they were assembling one of the nuclear warheads. Jack made his way over and listened in as the professor spoke.

“This portion here is the fissile material,” Prescott said as he held up a smooth hemisphere of dull metal. “You’ll note that each set of explosives has a letter on the outside indicating where the fissionable material and explosive charges are to be placed around it. Don’t get them switched around, or you’ll get either a failed detonation or an imbalanced explosion.”

He put the piece back down and looked around the group. “There’s an old saying. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. You may think you’re just dawdling along, but you’ll find the work proceeds quickly as long as you’re working smoothly.”

Jack watched as the older man got the various pieces of the warhead in place. Once that was done, he slid the warhead to one side.

“Now that the weapon is fully assembled, it’s a simple matter of putting it inside the framework already present in the missile and letting the tactical people arm it. Are there any questions?”

There were, and the professor spent a fair amount of time answering them. He was patient, and his experience as an academic definitely came through because he didn’t become perturbed at the delay. After that, the people around him moved to their own tables and began assembling nuclear warheads.

Prescott turned toward him and raised an eyebrow through the faceplate. “I didn’t expect you to show up here, Jack. Don’t you have something important to do?”

“If I don’t get my missiles, it’ll be a very short space battle. Can you give me any details about what happened down there?”

The older man shook his head. “I went up with one of the earliest shuttles because I’d be needed here to explain everything. Walk with me as I look over things to make sure no one’s making any obvious mistakes.”

Jack followed the professor and watched as he made suggestions and corrected mistakes. “How many warheads did you retrieve before the Locusts made it impossible for the cargo shuttles to get in and out?” he asked when they reached the end of the tables.

“Two thousand seven hundred and fourteen. More than I expected, considering just how short a time we had. Fortunately, the people working on the missiles have about three thousand of them. We can get most of those armed, which should give you an edge.”

Jack wanted to rub his face, but he couldn’t while wearing the protective suit. Only Amanda could tell him if that would be sufficient, but he thought it wouldn’t be. There were a lot of Locusts coming, and while the nuclear missiles might take out some of them—hell, even most of them—that wasn’t going to stop the whole swarm.

“This will at least make things a little fairer,” Jack said as the professor started back down the tables. “Hunter is tough, and if we can reduce the number of enemy ships coming at us, we can probably survive a pummeling.”

The professor nodded and turned to him. “What’s the word from down below? I left Lisa unlocking compartments under the volcano, and she would’ve still been there when the Locusts struck. What are the chances she’s still alive?”

“Unknown,” Jack said truthfully. “The volcano came down, but she may still be alive if the facility was deep enough. We won’t know until we start trying to dig them out. I’m glad Christine made it through the fight okay. Turner says she was on the front lines and fearless about getting the shots she could with her drones. That must’ve aged you about a hundred years.”

The older man sighed. “I don’t have a hundred years to give, but yes, I feel like I’ve been wrung out. That woman will be the death of me if she isn’t the death of herself first.”

“How long will it take to get all these weapons assembled?” Jack asked as he surveyed the workers. “I want to have them in the launchers no later than twenty minutes before the swarm gets into missile range.”

“I can’t promise anything, but we’ll do the best we can. They’re a little slow right now, but the team will speed up quite a bit as they get comfortable with the work.”

Jack nodded, having to accept the inevitable. “The Marines are on their way back from that ship with prisoners. Once you get the nuclear weapons assembled, I’ll want you to take over integrating our new guests with our original prisoners. Since it looks like the Locusts attempted to blow up our first group, there may be some difference between them and the second group. I want you to observe their interactions and figure out if we can use that to our advantage.”

“I’ll do what I can if I have time,” Prescott said. “What’s your plan for dealing with the Locusts when they come in? Are we going out and meet them?”

He shook his head. “We’ll stay in orbit. With the planet in the way, they’ll have to come at us from a limited number of directions, which is to our advantage. We can always rotate to bring more weapons into play. Just get us what we need to win this fight, professor. I’ll do the rest.”

Jack left them working on the weapons, stripped off his suit in the corridor, and retrieved his greatcoat and hat. Then he made his way to operations. David was busy at his console. It looked like he was examining the incoming Locust forces. There were a lot of motherships and drones, and it was intimidating.

David looked up when Jack stepped next to the console. “Don’t you have someplace more important to be?”

“So everyone says. It sounds like we’ll have about twenty-seven hundred nuclear warheads. I know you’re not a tactical specialist, but how much of a difference do you think that will make?”

David considered the console and tapped his chin. “It’s going to make a significant difference, but I’m unsure if it’ll be enough. Engineering has been working hard to get more laser clusters online, but this will still be an ugly fight, Jack. Let’s say the nuclear missiles take out two-thirds of our incoming forces. That still leaves a group almost twice the size of what we fought at Port Royale.”

“I think we can win,” Jack said, “but it’ll be tighter than I’d like, and we’ll get chewed up pretty badly. On a different note, have you spoken with Tina? Maybe she’s got more information about what’s going on down on the planet that will help us in the next stages of this fight.”

“I spoke with her for a few minutes, which was a relief. There’s a lot of information on the comm unit that the criminal boss brought, and it’s going to be all we can get for now. Roman didn’t survive his injuries, so we’re back to square one. We’ll have to find contacts that can get us more information.”

“I’m sure Connor knows someone.”

“Undoubtedly. The Locusts collecting people fills me with dread. Let me just lay out what I consider the worst-case scenario. A portion of these aliens are symbiotes. What if they’re trying to figure out how to implant those things into humans? Could they dominate them? Would they have access to a person’s memories?”

That was a chilling, horrible thought. If that were the case, without checking everyone a person met thoroughly, they might not even know they had alien spies among them. That was something he’d have to speak with his mother about.

It seemed unrealistic that alien creatures could be successfully implanted into a human being and control them through their nervous system. Yet, the implanted creatures weren’t genetically related to the humanoids they’d already found, and they seemed to work well together, so he couldn’t rule it out.

“It’s possible, but they’ve never encountered human beings before, other than through their machines,” Jack said. “I doubt they could make that work, at least in the short term.”

“How do you know that’s the case?” David challenged him. “What if, during the first invasion, they took human bodies back to wherever they came from to be examined? Keeping them in a vacuum would preserve the body for study, so we can’t rule it out.”

“I’m not ruling anything out, but I can’t be worried about a low order possibility right now. If we win the fight up here, we’ll be able to dig into what they’re doing down there. They only have a few large facilities, so we should be able to turn the tables on them. That isn’t to say the fighting will be easy, but we have to take this one step at a time.”

David considered that and nodded. “You’re probably right. We’ll survive this fight, though we might be staggering around like a drunk on payday by the time we’re done. Now, you should get back to the bridge. Coordinating everything will take more time than you expect.”

Jack clapped a hand on David’s shoulder and squeezed it for a moment. Then he turned without saying anything and headed toward the bridge.

This fight was the most important one Hunter had been in to date, at least during this invasion. They needed a victory, and they had to come out the other side with his ship mostly intact. If they didn’t, the Locusts would win this war, and he couldn’t let that happen.

30

Connor stared over the island and tried to understand what he was looking at. Numerous things were on fire, not the least of which seemed to be the volcanic crater above him. It was almost as if it had come back to life, based on the amount of smoke pouring from it.

The island seemed like a slice of hell. Since there was little cover, they had to use more explosives to blow holes in the rocky ground just to get people out of the biting wind. Hypothermia was a real risk, even with their clothing.

And then there was the screaming of the wounded and the still forms of the dead that littered the ground. The Marines were trying to bring them all to a central location, but the task was ongoing. He only hoped they’d gotten enough nuclear munitions to make a difference in orbit because they weren’t getting any more without a lot of work, and the price they’d paid to get as much as they did was high.

The sound of someone walking up made him turn his head, and he found Tina Chen making her way through the debris with the comm unit holding all the data Roman Mitichyan had collected in her hand.

“What new disaster is waiting to fall on our heads?” he asked.

“I’m not sure about any new disasters, but we’ve got a couple of old ones that might come back around to get us. I suspect the facilities at the base of the space elevators are capable of constructing more of those war machines. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were designed to create them in bulk so they could dominate the planet.”

She showed him a map of the two areas that had been on the comm. “It seems like they’ve focused their attention on the two major metropolitan areas, so the rest of this world hasn’t been attacked, but it’s only a matter of time. If we allow those places to keep building war machines, they’re going to keep pushing until they have the whole planet under their control.”

He grimaced, but he couldn’t say that was a surprise. After all, what would one expect of invaders? The sad thing was, as much as he wanted to make some quip about how that would be bad for business to add some luster to his smuggler’s reputation, he didn’t have the heart for it.

Watching people being killed or enslaved sickened him. He might be a criminal—or perhaps a former criminal at this point—but he had lines that he wouldn’t let others cross. This invasion had boldly jumped up and down on that line and then ran across it.

“Seems like that would be an easy fix,” he said. “Drop some nukes on those facilities, and they’re done.”

“You’re forgetting the people they’ve been herding into them. Your friend said there were thousands of them, but that number could be far larger. We could stop them here, but if we don’t know their ultimate plan, that leaves us with a dangerous gap in our knowledge.”

Connor spat and glared at the wreckage of one of the war machines. “I care about the people they’ve captured, but perhaps not as much as I should. If we eradicate these things quickly, we might be saving the people they’ve captured a lot of pain.”

“And we might not be,” Tina said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We have to make an incursion into one and get the people out alive. I know you don’t really mean what you’re saying, but I can understand the frustration driving it. Take a deep breath, and let the professionals deal with it. They seem to have done a pretty good job so far.”

“I suppose I can’t argue with that,” he said with a sigh. “Once the attack kicked in, I honestly didn’t think we would make it. I’m a trickster, not a fighter. You’ll forgive me if I’m pleased that the two of us weren’t attacked in the foxhole we were hiding in. Of course, I’d have died gallantly protecting you, but I’d much rather be alive.”

She chuckled. “What you really meant to say was that I’d have died protecting you because I have more skills at that sort of thing, but I appreciate the sentiment. Following along in that theme, I ran into Christine, and she’s okay. Apparently, she was in the thick of things getting her recordings. It shocks the hell out of me that she made it through without a scratch.”

Connor shook his head. “I’m not sure I’ll ever understand that woman. Why would someone intentionally put themselves at risk just to get a video? She could’ve sent the drones out without directly interfacing with them, yet that doesn’t seem to be what she did. Am I right?”

“Dead on,” Tina said, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight as she scanned the battlefield. “She ended up in one of the foxholes directing her drones out over the lines and into enemy territory. She’s back near the medical tent now, trying to put the imagery together.”

She refocused her attention on Connor. “I hear she used the drones as a distraction to keep one of the war machines off a foxhole with two wounded Marines. Drew it in a different direction, like a bird protecting its nest. She’s a brave woman but a little too reckless for my taste.”

“I think the professor will have his hands full with that one,” Connor said with a chuckle of his own. “She seems like an alpha type, and she’ll be driving everything that goes on in their relationship.”

He looked back at the volcano. “Why do you think they destroyed the volcano? They couldn’t have known what was underneath it. Was it simply because it was resisting them?”

“That’s as good an explanation as any, I suppose. Figuring out why aliens do anything is complicated. Who knows what’s going on in their heads? If we ever speak with the aliens we’ve captured, maybe we’ll be able to figure that out. It’s odd how nonconfrontational they appear, but they still created these rabidly aggressive machines.”

The two stood in silence, looking over the facility holding all the nuclear warheads they needed to fight this war. No matter what the Locusts had intended, they’d struck a shrewd blow, and this would be a game-changer in the worst way.

Even if they won the fight in orbit, it was an open question whether the facility below the volcano had collapsed or not. If it had, they might very well be doomed. If it hadn’t, recovering what they could would take time and manpower they didn’t have.

Everything rode on Jack winning the fight in orbit. If he could do that, they’d have a chance. If they lost up there, the cluster would fall. It was as plain as that.

Even if they won today, ultimate victory was still a nebulous goal because they didn’t have the forces to kick the Locusts out. Unlike the first invasion, they didn’t have twelve battleships filled with experienced personnel. They had one, and as eager as the people were, they weren’t veterans.

And the fact that the aliens may have come in more significant numbers this time would make the eventual win even more challenging. Whatever the case, the fight wouldn’t be quick because a single battleship couldn’t be everywhere at once. The bad things happening on this planet would be replicated on many others, and there was no way they could intervene on them all in time to do any good.

He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn’t hear Turner approaching until he spoke. “I’m sorry about your friend.”

Connor turned toward the grizzled officer, masking his startlement. “I can’t say that we were friends, only business associates. Still, I’ve dealt with him for almost two decades, and he was a good partner that always kept his end of the deal. I feel bad that he died getting this information to us, but a lot of people gave everything to fight the Locusts today. I’m very sorry for your losses, Colonel. That can’t be easy.”

Turner pursed his lips and nodded. “I haven’t processed it yet, and it will be hard. A lot of these young people just didn’t have the training and experience for something like this. Even for the ones that did, bad luck sometimes cancels all that out. Still, our losses were surprisingly light. They got all the pinnaces, so that means we no longer have several dozen Marine Academy veterans who could fire the weapons and the brave civilians willing to pilot for us. That’s going to suck because we can’t replace them. We have about a hundred killed in action on the ground, with three times that many seriously injured. Considering the kind of attack we were under, it’s a bloody miracle. Now we pick up the pieces and see what happens next.”

“Do you have any good news?” Connor asked.

“Some of the people from inside the facility managed to get back up to the surface. Among them was your hacker friend. That implies that at least some of the facility is still intact. It’ll be risky to send anyone down to check, but we have some combat reconnaissance drones—like Christine’s but more robust—that we can send to scout what we can.”

“That is good news. Did you hear that Christine was involved in the fighting?”

“I did. That was brave of her, and it won’t go unnoticed. She likely saved a couple of Marines with that distraction, so she’ll be getting an award of some kind, depending on what the commodore thinks best. I had doubts about this war correspondent business, but she’s proved me wrong. If we can take this planet back from the Locusts, I feel confident that documenting this battle will kick her career off in style.”

“What do we do next?” Connor asked. “I realize we need to guard this facility, but we’re in big trouble if we lose the fight in orbit. Hell, we’re in a lot of trouble if they send more aircraft to attack us. We’re really exposed out here.”

“I spoke with Captain Dufaux about getting reinforcements, and she feels confident the planetary defense forces will have people on their way here. Now that they have a reason to protect this facility with heavier weapons, they’ll do so. These nuclear weapons are what’s going to keep this planet safe once we liberate it. You can bet your ass they’ll guard this like the presidential palace. Well, better since the presidential palace is rubble at this point.”

“Do we have any idea what the civilian infrastructure is like?” Tina asked. “Is the leadership still alive?”

Turner shrugged. “Somebody is still giving orders, but they’re not revealing who’s in command or where they’re hiding. We’ll be speaking with whoever it is at some point, but for the moment, we’ll just have to be happy we’re getting backup.”

“More people are always good,” Tina agreed.

“From what Dufaux says, they’ve already got some units on the way,” he said. “They should arrive within the hour and set up weapons emplacements to replace the ones we’ve lost. It won’t be as good as what the volcano had, but hopefully we won’t have to deal with so many attackers at one time going forward.”

Connor hoped that would be enough, but he was starting to have his doubts. He’d known the fighting would be vicious and the task they’d set themselves Herculean. That assessment had fallen short of reality.

Everything going forward rode on Jack Romanoff and his ship. Connor had known that would be the case, but he hadn’t felt it in his bones. Now he did. If they got out of here, whatever he needed to do at Port Royale to get more of those ships online, he’d do it. He’d ride roughshod over them if anyone gave him crap about it.

He’d become a convert in this war, and now he’d see this through. Whatever Jack needed, he’d find a way to help him get it. Now all they had to do was win this fight.

31

Alan hadn’t been certain he’d be able to break away from the assembly of the nuclear warheads, but the team doing the work had grasped the simple process, and the warheads were made so they couldn’t be put together incorrectly without significant effort or incompetence. They were doing everything right, which gave him time to check in on the new aliens.

He now stood in the observation room they’d set up to watch their prisoners. There was still no way to understand what they were saying or to communicate with them in a meaningful fashion, but the computers were making progress in monitoring everything they were saying. Even if the progress was minimal, it was progress.

The Marines they had on board, though few in number, were going to be present to make sure no violence occurred. Introductions would happen under controlled circumstances and with limited access.

They’d split a compartment next to the prison in half with a sturdy, clear divider to make that happen. A few of the prisoners throwing themselves against it wouldn’t cause it to collapse, but there were enough small holes drilled in it to allow for direct communication.

All of the action was covered by video and audio pickups. Whatever happened would be well documented, even if it went badly. Or maybe particularly if it went badly.

“I heard our programmer friend turned up down on the planet,” Kelly Danek said. “That’s good. She’s got spunk. I like her.”

“I do, too,” he admitted. “She puts on a very mercenary exterior—and to be fair, she is a mercenary—but she’s got an inquisitive mind that doesn’t want to let go of problems. That’s refreshing to see in a young person.”

He turned toward the chief engineer. “How goes the quest to get missile batteries online?”

“We’ve got more than enough to handle the available missiles. It looks like your people are making progress in putting the nuclear warheads together and installing them. Amanda said they’ll wrap up in the next fifteen minutes and have the last of the missiles loaded before the battle.”

He’d been gratified at how fast his makeshift team of nuclear engineers had grasped the basic techniques of assembling the warheads. They were simple affairs for such deadly weapons, and that might just save their lives.

The swarm of Locusts would arrive in just less than an hour. The enemy had sorted itself out, so the drones were followed by the motherships. He had no doubt some of the drones would incorporate that new sprint drive and get to Hunter sooner.

That meant there would be three definitive waves in the attack. First would be about a third of the drones, then the remaining drones, followed by every mothership. The drones were dangerous enough when they decided to ram, but he imagined the motherships would be worse. After all, they were bigger and had more substantial fusion plants.

He had no idea what the tactical officer’s defensive plan would be, but it would have to be good. This was the most significant threat the battleship had faced during the current invasion, and its already scarred surface would be battered even further.

Yet there was nothing Alan could do to help with that now. He’d done his part getting the nuclear weapons prepared. Everything else would be up to Jack and his people. He needed to focus on the task in front of him.

“Shouldn’t you be in engineering?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Kelly shrugged. “I’ve got my new assistant chief engineer working on everything, and we’re ready to go. I wanted to make certain you were set up here and see how things started off myself. I’ll leave in about fifteen minutes unless there’s a fistfight. Then I might stay another five.”

He laughed. “I think it’s safe to say that we’re not going to have any fistfights. The partition you provided should be sturdy enough to keep the two sides apart.”

The Marine standing in the corner of the room received a call on her comm unit and answered. She spoke with the person on the other end before putting the unit back on her belt.

“The new prisoners are on their way. They’re under heavy guard and moving through cleared corridors. They should be here in a few minutes.”

Moving conscious aliens through the ship was new. They’d only had to deal with waking the ones in the pods the first time around. They’d already had them aboard the ship and safely locked away in a series of compartments they couldn’t escape from.

It was always possible some of the new prisoners would feel that they could escape given the opportunity. He hoped the large number of Marines and the restraints they’d worked up would be sufficient to keep them from violence.

He and Kelly waited, watching the wall monitors. When the Marines arrived in the new quarters, they removed the restraints from the prisoners and backed out. As soon as the hatch was secured, Alan ordered the Marine to open the hatch leading into the original prisoners’ quarters.

The original prisoners were more comfortable in their surroundings, and a few of them wandered into the new meeting room almost immediately. They ran their hands across the divider and spoke among themselves, no doubt wondering what this was all about.

Their attention was riveted on the other side when two of the new prisoners came through the hatch on their side and looked at them. The two groups eyed one another in a way that seemed wary but might have been anything. Tellingly, neither group spoke.

One of the aliens in the original group returned to their quarters and summoned the rest. As that side filled up, more of the new prisoners came in to look at them. The original group spread out so that they were all up against the partition where the new group seemed to draw together.

Alan was no expert on human body language—much less alien versions of the same—but it looked as if the old group wasn’t feeling friendly and that the new group felt a little threatened.

Finally, one of the aliens in the original group said something loud enough to be heard on the other side. When there was no response, she repeated it. One of the new prisoners took a couple of steps forward and stopped well short of the divider before responding. His tone seemed lower and his response more hesitant.

Whatever he said, the original group didn’t care for it. Several of them pushed up hard against the divider and struck it with fists as they began shouting.

Even if he’d understood the language, with everyone speaking at once, Alan wouldn’t have been able to understand a single word they said. Again, it was dangerous to attribute human emotions to an alien being, but they looked angry. In fact, they looked as if they wanted to harm the other group.

“Well, this is far more entertaining than I’d imagined,” Kelly said in a low tone. “It’s a good thing we made that divider as strong as we did because our original guests want to have a stern discussion with the newcomers.”

“They do seem angry. You’ll note how the new group is hesitant. I don’t want to put emotions into their actions, but they seem cowed. Either they’re afraid of the original group, or there’s something similar going on.”

He looked over at the Marine. “We’re going to have to see about getting the aliens out of there. I don’t want to have them attack our people, so you’ll have to find a way to get them to back off. One group or the other, I don’t care which.”

The Marine nodded and stepped out of the room. Four heavily armored Marines entered the compartment from a side hatch a minute later. They came in on the side of the older group. They were carrying truncheons that Alan hoped they didn’t have to use.

The original group seemingly understood what this meant because one of the aliens began pointing back toward the quarters and pushing his compatriots in that direction. Many of them didn’t seem to want to go, but they did.

When the aliens in that group had stepped through the hatch into the quarters, the one who remained looked at the other group and said something in a very firm tone. Then he looked at one of the cameras and pointed toward the other group, clearly enunciating a concise phrase. “Bad people.” His pronunciation was good, though there was an almost sibilant hiss to the tone.

Alan was shocked. So shocked that he could only watch as the alien walked back into the other compartment before the Marines shut the hatch behind him.

“Well, that was succinct but on point,” Kelly said. “I don’t know how your alien figured out how to say that, but if it’s accurate, it looks like they’ll be better at communicating with us than the other way around. I’ve got to go, Professor. See you once this is all done.”

Alan watched her leave and returned his attention to the monitors as the Marines cleared the other side of the meeting room. Some of the aliens had been using programs designed to teach human children. Even though their mouth structures were radically different from a human’s, it seemed they could pronounce simple words well enough.

The alien had used a short phrase, but it had a precise meaning. Those two words indicated the alien recognized what the word people meant, as in a grouping of others, and that there was something wrong about them. Whether bad meant they were evil or he simply disagreed with their goals, Alan had no way of knowing, but the intent was clear and seemingly correct.

The aliens had been working on learning to speak and read for less than a week. Pulling such a short and on-point phrase out of the air at a moment’s notice after such a short time meant the alien had a better grasp of their language than he’d have expected.

That boded well for their ability to communicate more effectively in the near future, but it wasn’t a situation he was ready to deal with today. There was a fight coming up, and he needed to make sure that both of these groups of aliens were safely in their own quarters when that started.

Each of these prison suites was as well protected as possible. Being in the central portion of the ship, it was unlikely they would take damage. Even if they did, life support here was isolated from the rest of the ship. The alien prisoners would have a chance if things went badly wrong.

He needed to go back to the weapon assembly area and make certain that the last bit of work was done as expeditiously as possible. They might also have a few warheads that showed problems that he could potentially help with.

There was every indication they’d expend every missile in this fight. The lack of one warhead might spell the difference between life and death for someone. He wasn’t going to leave something like that to chance.

Once that was done, he’d head to operations and join David Chen. He wanted to see this battle play out but not be underfoot. Operations would be the best place to do that.

With that decided, he strode out of the compartment as well as he could with his cane. The final conflict was almost upon them, and he still had work to do.

32

It took longer than Mac liked to get the condition of his people. The fighting had been intense, and Marines had moved from position to position as needed. So getting a final headcount had been an error-prone process, and everything had had to be gone over meticulously.

They had hundreds of injured Marines ranging from scratches and burns all the way up to critical gunshots. Many of them would make it, but some would not. He’d already lost more than a hundred people, not counting those in the pinnaces. That was the price they’d paid to defend the island, and he hoped it was worth it in the end.

He stood next to Captain Dufaux and stared at the ruined volcano. Now, instead of looking like some evil villain’s lair, it seemed almost active again, with all the smoke rising from the collapsed cone. Thankfully, the rock provided a decent shield against any radiation if there was a breach.

She turned to face him, her left cheek covered with a bandage to protect the sewed-up cut she’d received. The injury hadn’t been terrible, but she’d bled all over herself, and her uniform still showed the results. That and the dust and grime that coated her clothes, hair, and skin.

“I can’t believe we got out of there,” she murmured. “It was a nightmare. We were sure everything would collapse, even as we were running toward the side exits, and that was before the power went out. Thank God your hacker had a flashlight. We took the emergency stairs up and had to deal with a couple of collapsed areas. Your Marines helped get us out, and I’m very grateful.”

“I’m happy we could help. Are all your people accounted for?”

She shook her head with a haunted expression. “Most of them were at the defensive emplacements on the volcano itself, so they’re gone. The remainder were in the facility near the entrance, and the collapse killed them. We’re still searching for any survivors, but we’re not going to be able to clear the debris fast enough to find anyone that might still be alive before they’re gone. The scale of this disaster is just outside our ability to deal with.”

“Unless the Locusts send more units to attack us, I’ll have my Marines assist. Depending on how unstable things look, we may not be able to fully search your facility, but we’ll do what we can.”

He turned and stared out over the ocean. The cold wind was stiff enough to blow the tops of the waves, which made it look pretty, though he wouldn’t want to be out on it.

“The problem is that we don’t know what comes next,” he said. “Do they have more aircraft? I didn’t see them bringing the volcano down ahead of time, and that puts a crimp in our plans. At least we got almost enough warheads out to go in the missiles we had ready.”

“If they were going to send more aircraft, they’d have already done so,” she said. “The fact they haven’t either means they’re hoarding them for other uses, or they consider this facility out of action.”

She looked up into the light blue sky. “How long until the fight in orbit? Once that’s decided, we’ll know what comes next. If you win, we’ve got to hook up with what’s left of the planetary defense forces and start making moves on the alien facilities. If not, we still have to get off this island and find someplace to hide before they reconstitute their forces and come after us again. Do you think your ship has a chance?”

“Hunter has pulled off the impossible before, so I’m not going to rule victory out, but you’re right that it’ll be a tough fight. The warheads we got may very well make a difference, and we’ll find out in about half an hour. Orbital mechanics is definitely not my specialty, but I think they’ll be overhead for at least part of the battle. The exploding fusion plants on the drones and motherships should be visible even down here. If something worse happens, that should be visible too.”

He took a deep breath and focused his attention on her. “Let’s start working out what we do if we win. Focusing on the negative outcomes isn’t going to help us right now. We can clear enough of the emergency stairwell to get down and check some of the lower floors in the facility. Without power, are the hatches going to work?”

“They should,” Dufaux said, facing the volcano again. “They’ve got internal power, but with the volcano collapsed, there’s no way to get any of the nuclear weapons out. If the levels below it have partially collapsed, there will be significant radiation leakage, too.”

He nodded. “There are suits down there that will help with that, but we’ve got to figure out a means of getting some of those warheads out. Will the cases they’re stored in be able to go up the emergency stairs?”

She laughed. “Yes, but only one at a time, and they’ll be a huge pain in the ass to move. Everything is cumbersome, and you can’t take the weapons out of the cases because they’re radioactive.” She shook her head. “If you want your ship rearmed in a timely fashion, we’ll have to excavate the rubble out of what’s left of the cone. I can’t imagine that happening any time soon. How quickly could we see reinforcements from the Locusts?”

“If they sent for help when we came through the first time, it’s possible we’ll see reinforcements in something like half a year. That seems like enough time to clear the debris and start putting facilities in orbit to use some of those weapons. The problem is that you don’t have any missiles for them. Those are all at Port Royale. We brought some with us, but if our ship doesn’t make it, those are gone too.”

She shook her head. “I still can’t believe a bunch of smugglers and misfits took over an old Navy facility like that. It’s crazy. And that Connor guy, I’m not sure what to make of him. The way he dresses and acts, you’d think he’s an old-time pirate. Who could take that seriously?”

“He may dress the part of a buffoon, but he’s not,” Mac warned her. “Underestimate him at your peril. I can’t say I understand the governmental structure they’ve chosen, but it seems to work. They’ve got a fair amount of people, too, and their assistance in making all this happen is the only reason we were able to even make an attempt to save you.”

He looked around for Connor but didn’t see him. “He seems to have some morals, though obviously, they’re not the same as what we have. He’s probably more than willing to lie, cheat, and steal, but he draws the line at letting the Locusts subjugate humanity. That has to count for something. Your government and his will have to work together if we make it.”

That made her chuckle and shake her head again. “I want to see that. There are a lot of stuffed shirts in our government, and they’ll lose their little minds having to deal with someone like him. If, of course, they’ve survived the invasion. I’ve got to be honest, even if you win the fight in orbit, I can’t imagine how we get to the point where we free the entire cluster. This is just a small system. The bigger ones will have a lot more Locusts.”

He was about to agree with her when the sound of someone approaching from the side made him look over. It was Lisa Gane. Mac turned to face the hacker. She was, if anything, even filthier than Dufaux. “Please tell me there’s not another problem. I’ve got more than enough on my plate already.”

Gane shook her head. “More of curiosity and potentially an exploit we can use. Do you have time to come look at something?”

“If you think it’s important, I’ll make time. What are we talking about?”

“I’m not much use at clearing rock and stuff, so I’ve been looking at the war machines scattered around the battlefield. I found something interesting.”

When she turned and headed off, he shared a glance with the planetary defense forces captain, and the two of them headed after her. Even with the dead and wounded removed from the battlefield, there was still plenty to remind him of what had happened here.

The ground was broken up by explosions, and there was the wreckage of both aircraft and the war machines scattered around in various places, often still smoking. There were also bits and pieces of armor and weapons discarded or lost during the chaos.

Lisa led them to a mostly intact war machine. It looked like someone had gotten a lucky hit right through the sensor unit in the front and took out the controls because it was otherwise untouched.

He wasn’t sure how, but she’d found a way to open the machine’s side. That exposed the mechanical components and the weapons system. The latter looked like a Gauss gun, using a magnetic field to drive the slugs rather than an explosive propellant.

That was one way to get the job done, and you didn’t have to worry about trying to dispose of spent brass, but it wasn’t something that humanity had decided was worthwhile. Too expensive to construct when old-school alternatives worked perfectly fine.

“So, what are we talking about?” he asked as he squatted down beside her.

“This is a machine made for war, right?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Then why are none of these components hardened? I’ve got a lot of experience working with hardened computer parts. A good electromagnetic pulse would knock this thing out.” She threw up a hand. “Hell, I’m not even sure it would stand up to some solid signal jamming or even focused microwaves. While this is alien technology, it doesn’t look like military technology. If we’d had a nuke to pop at the right altitude, we could’ve taken them all out in one go with the EMP.”

The insides of this machine did look a bit fragile. He’d thought it odd that the armor behind the sensor was so thin that he could take it out with a rifle. Now he could see other inconsistencies in the way it had been built.

This machine was a weapon, but it was an improvised one. The Gauss gun was the most military part of it, and it seemed to have been wedged in almost as an afterthought. It was as if the machine had been designed for a different purpose and retasked to this one at some later date.

“Okay, I’ll grant that this is interesting. We don’t have to explode a nuke to create an EMP, though. There are specific munitions that can do that. I’m not sure we brought any with us, but we might have. Is it just me, or does this thing look like it was repurposed? I don’t think this was supposed to be a fighting machine before they added the Gauss gun.”

She shrugged and stood. “I’m not much for military hardware, but it seems kludged. Why would they do something like this during an invasion? Wouldn’t they have brought purpose-built weapons?”

“One would think so, but it’s obvious that we’re not seeing the entire picture. Their aircraft were hostile enough, but now this has me wondering if those were repurposed too. They’re nothing but smoking piles of wreckage, though, so it might take a while to figure that out.”

He stood and resisted the urge to kick the machine. Repurposed or not, these things had killed or wounded his people. If it was susceptible to an EMP, he’d use that to make their job easier in the next engagement. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Mac checked his chronometer and saw they were down to less than fifteen minutes before the attack in orbit kicked off. Within an hour, their fate would be decided.

“It may seem kind of stupid at this point, but we need to get under cover. It’s always possible that some of the drones will bypass Hunter and make a run into the atmosphere. If they come for us here, we need to be ready.”

Not that he thought the foxholes would provide much protection if that happened, but it was his job to make sure as many people survived whatever came next as possible. Once the fighting was done, he could worry about the next steps in retaking the planet.

33

Jack sat in his command chair and watched as the Locusts made their final approach. As his officers predicted, about a third of the drones had sprinted ahead and were racing to meet them. Behind them came a larger swath of drones, followed by a large cluster of motherships.

They’d covered that eventuality in their planning, but that still didn’t mean their ideas would work out in practice. This was shaping up to be the largest and most intense battle Hunter had been involved in since Jack had assumed command.

He pressed the button on the arm of his chair to open an all hands channel throughout the ship. “All hands, this is Commodore Romanoff. We are about to engage the Locusts infesting the New Copenhagen system, and I wanted to take a moment to let you know how proud you’ve made me. Your efforts have made our victory possible. Remember the oaths we swore because it’s time to honor them. Romanoff out.”

He looked over his bridge crew and saw his people focused on their tasks, preparing for the battle that was about to crash over them. The young people before him were dedicated to the defense of the Confederation, and the few mature officers among them would try to help.

It made his heart swell with pride. This was everything he could’ve hoped for in the beginning. No. It was more than he could’ve hoped for. They’d delivered in ways he couldn’t have conceived of just a month ago.

He leaned forward. “What’s our status, Amanda?”

The young tactical officer turned in her seat just long enough to make eye contact before swiveling back toward her console and continuing to work. “They’ve finished loading the nuclear missiles into the launchers, sir. We’ll have six salvos of five hundred, though around three hundred of them don’t have warheads. We’ll fire four salvos with nuclear warheads at the second wave of drones and save the last two for the motherships.”

“What about the first wave?”

“Since the first group only has about one-third the number of drones, I’m recommending we save the missiles for the larger group. If they’re clustered together, we’ll get significantly more kills than if we don’t warn them what’s coming.”

He’d more than half expected her to go with this battle plan, and he agreed with her reasoning, but it was his job as the commanding officer to pour cold water on what she was saying and see if it held up.

“Some of those drones coming in the first wave will probably knock out missile launchers. Aren’t we taking too big of a risk by holding our most powerful weapons when we might lose them early? In fact, the missiles have a greater range than our lasers. Shouldn’t we fire them first?”

This time she did turn around and face him squarely. “It’s a risk, sir, but I think it’s reasonable. We’ll lose too many missiles to their defensive fire if we attempt a longer range. Are we going to lose some of the launchers because of that? Yes, but if we open fire too early, we blunt the impact we’ll have on the second and third waves. This is the only chance we have to sucker punch them.”

She pursed her lips and plowed on. “It would be a different story if we had all our launchers and lasers online. That would be a complete game-changer, but that’s not where we are, sir. We’ve got to marshal our resources and use them where they’re most effective.”

“Won’t they just open up the range between one another once we open fire?”

“They might try, but they’re not going to have enough time to be completely successful. It won’t matter much with as few salvos as we’ll be firing.”

He nodded, satisfied with the defense of her plan. “Understood. Your plan is a go. Derek, what do you have in mind for our maneuvering?”

“I’ll coordinate with the tactical department to spin the ship when needed and bring as many lasers on target as we can. We’ve put the nuclear weapons on the planet-facing side of the ship for this initial exchange. As soon as we’ve dealt with the first wave, I’ll rotate the ship, and Amanda can begin firing.”

“How long until they enter extreme laser range?”

“Seven minutes, thirty-two seconds,” Amanda said crisply. “We’ll begin firing the moment we can start achieving kills. By the time we’re ready to start firing missiles, we should have mostly dealt with that first wave, though there’ll be some leakers.”

Jack nodded. “I appreciate all the hard work you’ve put into this. It will be perhaps the biggest upset victory in Confederation history if we can carry this off. That’s something to look forward to.”

He didn’t mention that it would be one of the most ignominious defeats in Confederation history if they lost. That was something he’d rather avoid.

Watching the timer count down on the tactical map as the first swarm came at them was nerve-racking, but it was a situation he’d spent years practicing. He kept thinking about what they were doing, but he had no better ideas before the enemy came into range. They were just going to have to go with their guts and pray.

Just as the timer reached zero, Amanda pressed a button on her console. “Firing now. We’re achieving some hits, but our accuracy isn’t great at this range. I’d imagine they’ll open fire before we take out more than a third of them.”

There were far too many drones on the tactical screen to see individual kills, but some of the counters on the side of the screen estimated the number of enemies in the first wave, and he watched it begin spinning downward. Every one they could take out before it fired was a little less damage they’d have to suffer through.

“Enemy drones firing,” Amanda said. “Their accuracy is crap at this range, but they’re hitting us because we’re as big as a barn door.”

He almost laughed at her description of their ship. It was certainly accurate.

Because the first wave of drones had opened the gap between themselves and their brethren, they would have an opportunity to deal with them. It wasn’t going to be clean or without risk, but they needed to reduce the number of drones that would threaten the nuclear missiles before they opened fire.

“They’re inside our primary laser envelope, and accuracy is improving,” Amanda said. “They’ve fired on the remaining space elevator ship, and they’re cutting it to ribbons. The first wave is down below fifty percent. The second wave is deep inside missile range, and we’ll be able to rip them up pretty good. Now, Derek.”

“Rotating the ship,” his helm officer said. “The missile launchers will be in position to open fire in twenty seconds.”

“It will take us ten seconds to fire each salvo, so we have clearance to safely fire again,” Amanda said. “We’ll get this series off before they ram us, but not much before. We’ll need to brace for their reaction almost immediately after that.”

When the tactical screen showed that the ship had rotated and the first missile salvo launched, Jack couldn’t help but grin. This was them finally giving the enemy something to chew on.

“First salvo away,” Amanda said. “Several launchers have failed mechanically, but most of the birds got clear. Second launch away.”

They cycled through all four of the initial salvos, and the vast majority of the nuclear-tipped missiles raced through what remained of the first wave. The drones tried to shoot them down and in some cases succeeded, but the electronic countermeasures protecting the weapons, and their evasive maneuvers, got most of them through.

The second wave of drones reacted to the missile launches, but they were slow. All four salvos were in space before they began trying to spread out, which was far too late to save many of them.

The remains of the first wave of drones slammed into his ship before the missiles reached the second wave. By the time they got to Hunter, less than one-fifth of them were left, but that was still a lot.

“The first wave of drones has rammed us,” Derek said. “No serious damage, but we’ve lost a number of laser clusters. We managed to mostly rotate the missile launchers back out of the way before they got here, so we still have the final two salvos ready.”

“The first salvo of missiles has detonated,” Amanda said. “We have good hits on the enemy formation. They were too close together, and our missiles have taken out a large swath of them. Second salvo coming into detonation position now.”

The drones used their lasers to take out as many of the incoming missiles as possible, but once again, the Navy designers had done their work well. By the time all four salvos had detonated, the swarm of drones in that second wave had been reduced by three quarters.

That left fewer drones than had been in the first swarm to be dealt with by the lasers. That was much better than Jack had anticipated, and it gave them a chance of coming out of this alive. If the enemy had kept themselves bunched together and attacked simultaneously, he doubted Hunter could’ve survived, but they had a chance now.

Of course, being rammed by the drones that made it through was no easy task. They took out even more laser clusters and missile batteries. The last of them finished exploding just as the motherships came into laser range.

Unlike the drones, the motherships were dodging much more effectively and had opened the distance between one another. It wasn’t that they were more agile, but they had some electronic countermeasures of their own. Some of that was known by the old Navy designers, but some seemed new. In any case, they didn’t fall as easily as Jack would’ve liked.

“Rotating the ship,” Derek said.

“Firing salvo five,” Amanda said a few seconds later. “And firing salvo six. That’s it, sir. We’re out of missiles. Continuing with the laser duel.”

Between the missiles and the lasers cutting down the number of motherships closing in on them, they reduced the last wave by more than half, leaving an awful lot of motherships to come crashing into them.

Then the Locusts pulled an unexpected maneuver right at the end, condensing into a tight formation and racing for the engineering section. Derek tried to compensate, but Hunter wasn’t maneuverable enough, and the survivors of that suicide run slammed into his ship all at once, coming from almost directly aft.

The simultaneous detonation of all those fusion plants sent a jolt through the ship that was strong enough for him to feel. The lighting flickered, and alerts began wailing from the damage control console.

“We’re on battery power, sir,” the damage control officer said. “All power is offline.”

“All enemy motherships have been destroyed,” Amanda said. “There were a couple we had to take out with lasers after they somehow missed us, but we had enough power for that in the capacitors. We have no hostile units left in this system that I can detect.”

“Derek, what does our orbit look like?” he demanded.

The young man tapped at his console and let out his breath in a rush. “Our orbit is stable, sir. Even with the impact, Hunter has a lot of mass, and it didn’t shift us that much.”

Jack pressed one of the buttons on his chair arm. “Engineering, this is the bridge. Status?”

There was no response for several seconds, enough for his tension level to rise even higher.

“Engineering?”

“Ferraro here. Sorry, bridge, we’re a bit busy. We’ve taken major damage and lost pressure. All four fusion plants are down, but I think at least one of them should be back up in a few minutes. It’s still running, but we lost some of the power transmission cables.”

Jack let out his breath slowly. “Getting power back would be good. What else?”

“We’ve lost most of our fusion drives, at least temporarily. We also took a hit to the independent quantum drive. Sir, I’m afraid it may be gone.”

That was a gut punch. Without the quantum drive, they were trapped in New Copenhagen.

“Are you sure?”

“Sure? Not completely, but based on what I’m looking at, I think repairs will be problematic. The whole thing is split wide open.”

Jack sighed. “That’s bad, but we have options. We can use cutters to get the gate we brought out to a good spot and open access to Port Royale. They have spare parts and even whole drives there. We can still fix this.”

“And then there’s the other bad news,” Ferraro continued. “The motherships breached the compartment where the gate was. It’s in smaller pieces than our drive. Sir, I’m afraid that we’re stuck.”

34

It took Connor half an hour to locate cleaning supplies inside the cargo shuttle and clean up the control area. He wasn’t squeamish, but he didn’t want to sit in a dead man’s blood—particularly someone he knew, even if only through business.

Tina was nearby, which was good because he’d need her assistance with what came next. It was time to contact other people on the planet and not just those within his circle.

Until now, he’d been working as a criminal mastermind. Someone that oversaw an illegal operation working in the shadows, moving people and things the government of the Confederation frowned upon.

As crimes went, it wasn’t as objectionable as piracy and such, but the authorities still didn’t want to deal with people like him, and he had scant experience dealing with them, other than through bribes.

Corrupt government officials weren’t what he was hoping to find, and if he wanted to elevate Port Royale to something more than a smuggler hideout, he’d have to do better.

“How are we going to do this?” Tina asked as she dropped into the seat beside him. “The civilian communication network is gone, though I suppose we can use Hunter to bounce the signals around if she’s in position. Do you even know who to contact?”

“I know several people inside the government, but they’re the kind of folks that don’t want to advertise that they know me. They might be able to provide avenues to contact others if I can convince them to, though. Assuming they’re alive and in a position to do anything, of course.”

If they’d had air superiority, he’d have been tempted to fly closer to the major cities, but they had no idea how many aircraft might still be out there. They’d just have to do this the hard way.

“And what do you plan to do once you get hold of them?” she asked with one eyebrow raised.

“Start negotiating a bilateral treaty so Port Royale can assist them in exchange for recognition. Just because Jack made an agreement doesn’t mean I don’t need other avenues of support. The Navy can overrule him, as can the Confederation Council. The more local agreements I come to, the better for my people and me.”

He grimaced. “Not that it looks like we’re going to be discussing that with Port Royale anytime soon, not unless your engineers are a lot more talented than I expect. The loss of your ship’s independent quantum drive—and the quantum gate we intended to set up—is a real blow.”

“It is a problem,” she admitted, “but someone else’s problem. Focus on getting the people here to work with us. You’re charming, so that shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

“You wouldn’t believe how obstinate some people can be,” he grumbled. “Politicians have egos bigger than your battleship. I don’t know who’s in charge, and the odds of them being resistant to working with the likes of me are significant. We’ve got the contact information from Captain Dufaux to follow up on as well. I suggest you handle that end.”

“What are you looking for me to get them to agree to? I feel confident I can speak for Jack, but I’m not as well versed in what you’re looking for.”

He took the headset hanging on a small hook off to the side and slid it on. “I can handle negotiations. Right now, we just need to open lines of communication. Either people will have to come here, or we’ll need to visit them. The security situation isn’t stable, so we’ll have to figure out how to make that happen.”

Using a signal bounced off the battleship in orbit, Connor called the likeliest of the people he knew inside New Copenhagen’s government: Francesco Scazzosi, a minister in the planetary government in charge of health services.

That might sound like an improbable point of contact for a smuggler, but there was a brisk trade in counterfeit medical equipment and drugs. Nothing harmful, of course, but some corners cut here and there, and maybe a few serial numbers scratched off. They’d worked together since before he’d founded Port Royale, and Connor trusted the politician within the narrow limits that he trusted anyone.

With the planetary communication network down, every locality had been thrown back on its own resources. His communications signal would reach the destination if it was available, but they wouldn’t be able to transmit back unless they had access to something that could get a signal to the battleship in orbit, where the crew there would retransmit it to him.

Therefore, he was surprised when Scazzosi answered the call almost immediately. “Who is this, and how did you get my number?”

“Francesco, this is Mark Connor. I’ve come visiting with the battleship in orbit. I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”

There was a long pause on the other end, and then the man spoke much more softly. “I’m extremely busy, Connor, and I can’t afford to have anyone know that we’ve done business in the past. What do you want?”

“I’m hoping to lay that out to whoever is in charge.”

“Unfortunately for both of us, that’s me. Most of the council and the previous president were killed in the capital. Let me ask this more strongly. Why shouldn’t I disconnect this call and pretend we’ve never met?”

Connor almost laughed. Francesco was a decent human being—for a crooked politician—but he was hardly the caliber of person needed to lead a world, particularly in the midst of an alien invasion.

“You’ve dealt with me enough to know that I represent a powerful economic force,” he said in a tone meant to calm the politician. “It’s time for me to be completely honest about where I’m based and what we have to offer because my people and I don’t want to see New Copenhagen fall.”

“That’s nice, but the economy is the last thing on my mind right now.”

“Let me finish. There’s a system near here that used to be a secret naval facility but was abandoned. It was made to support battleships like the one in orbit right now. I’ve got tens of thousands of people there and everything we need to build orbital missile launchers to help protect this world, other than the warheads buried in the volcano behind me.”

There was a few seconds of silence. “Keep talking.”

“Our space manufacturing capability is small, but intact. The one thing we lack is people, particularly with experience in building the things we need. And by we, I mean both our systems. We’ve struck a deal with the Confederation Navy to recognize our system, so we’re operating as a governmental entity. There’s an opportunity for us to help one another, Francesco. All I’m looking for is a chance to sit down with you and the Navy people and hash out the specifics.”

Scazzosi was silent for so long that Connor thought the connection had failed. He almost disconnected and tried calling back before the other man spoke again.

“The last thing I can afford is to have our relationship become common knowledge. We’re already on the verge of losing control, and I can’t let my people down. If you screw me, you’ll not only take me down but maybe make it so that it’s impossible to govern this planet all. Do you understand?”

“Believe it or not, Francesco, I’m a governmental leader myself now, so I do understand. We don’t have to mention how we met, though I suspect the people around you might be a tad more forgiving once they understand what your connections have brought. Local space is clear, but we’re uncertain if the Locusts have more aircraft down here. Somehow, we need to make arrangements to meet at a safe location. Do you have any ideas?”

“Our planetary defense forces aren’t as depleted as the Locusts might wish. I received a report about a Locusts attack on a facility in the Arctic region. Is that where you are?”

“It is. I’m here with some Marines from Delta Orionis, and we’ve held off the attack, though the Locusts took down the volcano itself. We think the facility is mostly intact, but it will not be easy to dig out.”

Scazzosi started to say something, but Connor heard a knock on the other end of the call. Francesco took the comm unit away from his mouth, but it was still close enough for Connor to hear the Scazzosi speaking to someone in a hushed tone.

“My assistant tells me that someone from the planetary defense forces is on the official line trying to get me in contact with someone claiming to be associated with the Confederation. Would that be at the same location?”

Connor looked over at Tina and covered his comm for a moment. “Did you get hold of somebody and get forwarded to whoever is in charge?”

She nodded. “I’m waiting for them to get him on the line. Why?”

“Because I’m speaking to him right now. We may have to see about making this into a conference call.”

“You’re talking to the person trying to get through the military side, aren’t you?” Francesco asked. “I’ll let the military people sort out the best way for us to meet, and I’ll take you at your word on how you’re going to behave, Connor. My people really do need assistance, so I hope you’re not lying to me. What is it you’re looking for?”

“Recognition on my end. Port Royale is still something I’m sure the Confederation Council would rather sweep under the rug, and the Navy hierarchy might feel the same. The more people I can help inside the cluster, the firmer the ground I’m standing on.”

Francesco took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay. Once the planetary defense forces say it’s safe to meet somewhere, I’ll meet with you and the Navy representatives. I’m already getting word about the battle in orbit, and it seems you’ve been honest with me thus far. I know the Navy will need our help kicking the Locusts out of the cluster, and we’ll do what we can. If Port Royale—wherever that is—supports us, we’ll support them, too. Friends have to stand together when the enemy is at the gates.”

“Then we’ll meet soon. Take care, Francesco. A job like this can kill a man.”

Connor disconnected before Scazzosi could respond and raised an eyebrow at Tina. “He says he’s willing to work with us,” he told her. “You can hash out the details with the planetary defense forces about how to get together. If we can strike a deal, we might have a chance. If, of course, we ever get that big hulk of a ship of yours moving again.”

Rather than listening to her conversation when she started talking into her comm, Connor hung the headset back up and walked out of the shuttle. Their position was precarious, but it wasn’t hopeless. He’d do what he could to make this work, and they’d just have to hope for the best.

35

Alan was forced to make his way into engineering via a temporary airlock because they still hadn’t restored pressure. The engineering team would be working in suits for the foreseeable future as a large section of the hull had been breached.

Though he was certain there had been death and injury during the attack, there were no signs of it as he made his way down the eerily silent lift. He was getting far too familiar with moving around ships that had been holed during combat. He wished that would change, but he suspected things would get worse before they got better.

The very first thing he saw was how much damage the rear of the chamber had taken. Hunter had a dozen fusion drives to move her and based on the level of destruction, they’d lost more than half of them.

The independent quantum drive was in worse condition. A large chunk of the hull or perhaps debris from one of the fusion drives or motherships had split it wide open.

He spotted Kelly Danek’s distinctive vacuum suit as she led a team examining the damaged quantum drive, and he wished her luck trying to get anything done with it. From his perspective, it didn’t seem repairable.

It took a bit more effort to locate the assistant chief engineer, but he finally spotted Charlie Ferraro watching over people working on one of the fusion drives. Hopefully, one that could be repaired.

“Hey, Professor,” the engineer said when he walked over to him and waved a hand to catch his attention. “We’re a little busy.”

“Indeed you are. I promise not to take up more of your precious time than necessary, but I need to get an understanding of how deep a well we’ve fallen into. In your expert opinion, do you think the quantum drive is repairable?”

“Not a chance. Commander Danek will keep working on it, but I don’t see us getting out of this system without building a new one. It’s just too trashed.”

“I was afraid you’d say something like that,” Alan said with a sigh. “I know we lost power during the fight. Does that mean all the power plants are gone?”

“Not quite,” Ferraro said. “One of them is definitely gone, but the other three will be repairable to some degree. In fact, we’ve already got one back online. I expect the second to be cleared for service within the hour. That last one might take several days. It took a hard knock, and we want to make sure it’s in good shape before doing anything fancy with it. Even the one that’s out of service may be repairable if we can get some specialty parts manufactured for it.”

“Well, that’s good news. What about the fusion drives?”

“Those fall somewhere in between the quantum drive and the power plants. We lost some on the way in, and we took a big hit during the fight. Out of the twelve original fusion drives, one is intact, and five seem repairable. Not to say they’re going to work at full capacity once we’re done, but at least they’ll work.”

He made an ambivalent gesture. “It’s possible a few could be repaired, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Sadly, we’re going to need some structural repairs as well. It’s best we don’t have full acceleration right now because I’m not certain our stern would hold up under that kind of thrust. We’re going to have to baby her for a while.”

Alan nodded. “And I assume that’s the kind of repairs that won’t be possible in this system since they have no facilities left in space after the invasion. We’ll have to build something from scratch. Something of a chicken and egg problem. Unfortunately, the quantum gate we brought with us was destroyed. If it was still intact, someone in Port Royale could’ve brought us the parts we need.”

“All too true. If that’s all, Professor, I need to get back to work.”

“Actually, it’s not. Again, I apologize for disturbing you, but I need you to walk with me because I may have an answer to our biggest problem.”

“If you have an answer to any of my problems, I’ll happily spend some extra time with you,” he said, focusing his full attention on Alan. “What do you think we can do?”

Without saying anything, Alan headed toward the alien hyperdrive.

“This thing?” Ferraro asked, a hint of incredulity in his tone. “I hate to break this to you, Professor, but we don’t know anything about this thing.”

“Perhaps not, but that is a solvable issue. Not today, not tomorrow, but perhaps in a few weeks or months. We have prisoners that may be willing to give us insight into how this mechanism works. I can see the computers that ran it from here, and they look intact as well.”

“You’re serious?” Ferraro demanded. “Don’t you think that’s a little crazy? These aliens have no reason to help us.”

Alan smiled. “You weren’t there when the original group met the ones we brought over from that other ship. Our first set of prisoners is gravely displeased with their comrades. As they gain the ability to communicate with us, they might be more willing to cooperate than you’d imagine.”

“God save us from optimists.”

That made Alan smile. “In any case, we have to focus on what’s possible. We can’t create an independent quantum drive out of whole cloth, but we have this hyperdrive. If we intend to ever move this ship from one system to another again, that’s what we’re going to have to use. Everything else leads to waiting here for the Locusts to come kill us. Tell me I’m wrong.”

Ferraro looked like he wanted to argue, but Alan knew his logic was irrefutable. They had no means of getting away from New Copenhagen. The alien drive was their only option.

“Okay,” the engineer said. “Let’s say that’s true. How can we trust these aliens not to bugger the system? Hell, how do we even know that they know how to use it? None of them is guaranteed to be an engineer. Even if they are, who’s to say that they know how to navigate a ship while using it? We could turn the thing on and find ourselves headed in the wrong direction or explode. It could literally twist us into a pretzel.”

Alan put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Everything you’ve said is true, yet failing to use this technology means waiting for the Locusts to return and hoping for the best. Is that the course you think we should be following?”

Ferraro sighed. “No, but that doesn’t mean I think this is a great idea. Personally, I think you’ve lost your mind.”

“As a former academic, there may be something to that. Nevertheless, it won’t hurt to pursue this. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and Kelly will figure out something to fix the independent quantum drive and save us from my mad plans.” He looked over toward the wreckage of the quantum drive and shook his head. “Not that I think that’s very likely.”

“Sadly, I suspect you’re right,” Ferraro said, turning his back on the work being done there. “No matter what course of action we choose, we might get screwed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can salvage a fusion drive. Good luck.”

“And to you as well.”

Alan took a walk around the hyperdrive to make sure it wasn’t damaged, and then he walked around the computers from the alien vessel. Everything looked intact.

That particular mission accomplished, he left engineering, stripped off the vacuum suit, and made his way to where they were keeping the prisoners. If they wanted to get out of here, he’d have to form a personal connection with the aliens. There had to be some level of trust, and to get that, they needed to know who he was and be able to speak with him.

When he reached the makeshift prison, he informed the Marines on duty that he wanted a table and chairs on either side of the divider. The aliens’ backsides were somewhat different from a human’s, but the chairs still worked for them.

Since he wasn’t going to be directly in the presence of the aliens, the Marines could watch over him remotely to make certain someone didn’t somehow get through the divider. Considering how strong the partition was, Alan found that unlikely. The Marines apparently agreed because no one argued.

Ten minutes later, tables and chairs had been set up. When the Marines opened the hatch leading into the alien prison, it only took a few seconds for one of the aliens to stick her head into the compartment and see him waiting on the other side. She blinked her large eyes rapidly and then vanished.

Seconds later, the alien reappeared with a male right behind her. Alan thought it might be the same one that had spoken earlier. If so, that was just what he wanted. The two aliens examined the chairs briefly and then sat.

Alan placed his hand on his chest. “Alan.”

The male alien made an identical gesture. “Regex.” He gestured at the female. “Pastan.”

So it was the same male they’d first woken. Interesting. Alan was relieved the names were comprehensible and repeatable. In fiction, authors always thought alien names needed to be unpronounceable and filled with hisses and clicks. For once, reality seemed more straightforward.

While he hoped the rest of this little talk would be as useful, he was sure it would also be frustrating. At best, the alien grasped what a child knew of their language. Complex terms would be impossible, and they’d just have to build trust while he taught them how to speak his language. And there was no time like the present to get started.

36

Mac watched the personnel carriers come in low over the waves and circle the island with more than a hint of relief. The wounded and the dead had already made their way back up to Hunter, so all that was left were almost six hundred people guarding the area. He felt exposed, but the incoming reinforcements would help with that.

Before they deployed, however, he and whoever was in command would have to figure out how to work together. He had no business sticking his face into planetary affairs, and whoever was in command was probably going to insist this island was in their purview. It was his job to make sure they knew that wasn’t the case.

Mac didn’t expect that task to be easy, especially since he’d need a lot of assistance digging the nuclear warheads out. There could be a turf fight, and while he had experience with those, they typically didn’t have the kind of importance that this one had.

He couldn’t afford to lose this fight, but he also couldn’t offend whoever was in charge of the planetary defense forces. He needed to be diplomatic, and while that wasn’t as difficult for him as some, it still wasn’t his natural inclination.

As a single personnel carrier settled to the rocky ground, Mac stepped forward with Beth at his side. Together, they represented the leadership of Hunter’s Marine forces. There were a few senior instructors from the Marine Academy left on the island, but they were overseeing the defenses, and he didn’t want to distract them from their tasks.

When the ramp came down, he was surprised to see two men in battle armor assisting an elderly man with a cane down the ramp. The older gentleman was black and sported the same uniform as Captain Dufaux, though he had four stars on his collar, and he wore a holstered pistol at his hip. It was definitely not what Mac had been expecting to see.

As they were in a combat zone, he didn’t salute, but he did stand just a little straighter. Whoever this person was, whether they deserved respect or not, he would give it.

“I see that my appearance is not in line with your expectations,” the older man said when he reached the ground. “Needs must when the devil drives. I thought my days of serving were long past, but it turns out my planet needed my experience one last time.”

The older officer extended a frail hand. “I’m General Robert Nagle, and I command the New Copenhagen planetary defense forces. I was living out my final days on a farm when the invasion came. My predecessor and many of our senior officers died defending the capital, so the president requested that I return to service.”

Mac shook the officer’s hand gingerly. “Lieutenant Colonel Mac Turner, commanding officer of the Marine detachment aboard the battleship Delta Orionis. We refer to her as Hunter. I was retired from Marine Force Recon when this got rolling, but Commodore Romanoff brought me back into the service. This is Major Beth Cassidy, my XO. She’s also retired Marine Force Recon.”

“While I’ve never served in space, everyone has heard of Marine Force Recon, and that type of background commands respect, Colonel, Major. As does what you’ve done here.”

The older man looked at the ruined volcano and then swept his gaze over the battlefield. “I served during peacetime, so even though we trained for something like this, I’ll admit to never thinking I’d see the day. I almost didn’t. Another few years and I’d have been gone, but then I wouldn’t have a way to share the experience I’ve gathered over four decades of service with the young folk that need it so desperately now.”

The older man grimaced and shook his head. “We’ve got a lot of things to work out, Colonel Turner. To begin with, I’d like to land my people and begin setting up defensive positions to help relieve some of yours. Your people have been through hell, and I think they could use a break, don’t you?”

“I’m not going to argue with that, General. We have a lot of things to settle, but I won’t turn down anyone who wants to help us defend this place. Call your people in.”

The general made a gesture toward his escort, and one of them spoke into a communicator. Within a few minutes, the orbiting personnel carriers found places to land and started disgorging troops. They didn’t come racing out looking for places to set up but found the Marines and began coordinating with them to complement what was already in place.

“I’d ask you to walk with me, Colonel, but I’m afraid walking isn’t as easy as it used to be. Let’s go back inside my personnel carrier and take a seat. We’ve got a lot of things to discuss, and I don’t want to waste my energy marching around this frozen island.”

“Of course, sir. After you.”

Nagle turned around, and the two soldiers helped him back into the personnel carrier. Mac followed with Beth at his heels. Once they were inside the utilitarian vehicle, they all took seats along the side while the escort buttoned the vehicle back up. The general gestured for Mac to take the seat on his right and Beth to take the seat on his left.

“There’s no need to stand on formality here. We don’t have time to deal with that if we’re going to get the Locusts off this planet while I still have any say in the matter. I’ve got some people picking up our new president and his staff. They’ll be here in about an hour, and if you could have someone get him up to orbit, I’m sure he would appreciate it.”

“I’ve already got a cutter standing by, sir. Before then, we need to discuss something that might be a bit delicate.”

“You’re talking about the weapons, right? If you think I intend to fight you for possession of the nuclear devices that might free the cluster, you’re wrong. I’m going to claim a share of them if we can get missiles and launchers to use them, though. I understand that’s not going to be an issue if we can get down to where they’re stored because there are so many. Is that correct?”

Mac nodded. “There’s something on the order of a hundred million small nuclear weapons down there. I haven’t got the slightest idea how much work it will take to get at them, but I believe there’s more than enough to go around. The problem is that the Locusts don’t want us to have them. They hit this place pretty hard, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they made another go at it at some point. They’ve got two fortified positions, and we need to make certain they aren’t in a position to leverage them.”

“Digging everything out isn’t going to be an easy process, but there are construction companies with equipment that would be very helpful in the matter,” the older man said. “Honestly, the remnants of the cone are almost certainly unstable, so it might make more sense to blast it before starting the excavation. I’m sure making it fall outward would be preferable.”

Mac thought about the shape of the cone and shook his head. “It’s straight up on the inside and sloped inward from the outside. We might be able to get the topmost portions of it to fall out, but I suspect the innermost portions will be joining the pile inside.”

“Pity, but we’ll leave that for the professionals.”

“We also need to discuss the chain of command,” Mac said. “This is your planet, but I’m not certain if you’ve got what you need to assault the enemy positions. They’ve got captured people and technology we’d like to get our hands on, too. There are also aliens in there that we’d like to ask some very pointed questions to.”

The old man blinked. “Aliens? As in biological beings? I’d assumed these were all mechanicals. I think I’ll need an update on this before I have a meaningful response.”

It took about ten minutes for Mac to go through everything he knew about the aliens. He made sure to specify that there seemed to be at least two different groups based on the antipathy the prisoners had demonstrated, but since they couldn’t speak the alien language, there was no way to be sure.

Nagle stared off into the metaphorical distance for a few seconds after he’d finished. “Of all the potential causes of the second invasion, I didn’t anticipate something like this. Perhaps I should have. After all, someone had to be behind the Locusts, and now they’ve revealed themselves.”

He focused his attention on Mac. “The Confederation was a peaceful place, and our planetary defense forces weren’t meant to fight a real war. That’s why we got our butts handed to us when we tried to confront the Locusts. Based on the number of people you’ve got here, you’re in a similar state, are you not?”

“Pretty much.”

“If we’re going to make this work, we’ll have to find a means to work together, Colonel. You’ve got more experience at fighting than anyone on this planet. I suppose we have a few retirees with comparable experience, but by and large, we’ll have willing hands with little know-how.”

Mac sighed. “Almost all the Marines around us were recruits at the Marine Academy before leaving Faust. They had to learn to fight the hard way, those who made it through. We started with roughly twelve hundred people, and now we’re down to just under a thousand, including our wounded. Less than six hundred effectives. That’s not enough to do any real ground fighting. Once we finish what we’re doing here, I’ll have to replenish our ranks before moving to the next system.”

“I think you’ll find people willing to volunteer their services, though they’ll be as ill-trained as your recruits were to start,” Nagle said. “But first, we need to do something about the aliens themselves. They’ve been taking humans prisoner, and as you might imagine, there are quite a few theories about the despicable things they could be doing. We’ve got an obligation to save those people, which means we need to find a way to work together.”

“Since we’re in the middle of an invasion, fighting the aliens should be under the command and direction of Commodore Romanoff,” Beth said. “That means Colonel Turner should be directing what happens regarding those facilities, at least until we’ve settled what’s going on inside.”

The older man smiled a little. “President Scazzosi might have a different opinion on the matter, but I’m not going to dispute that. So far as I’m concerned, since we’re in the middle of a war, the Marines are the primary service, and the planetary defense forces will do whatever we can to support you. We’ve got basic weapons—including heavy weapons—and some old personnel carriers like this one, but nothing fancy. If you’ve got more weaponry that we could use during the assault, I can find hands to put them in.”

“We can help with that,” Mac said. “We brought along a number of weapons with the expectation of fighting on the planet’s surface. We lost more pinnaces than I expected, which will cripple our ability to fight. We might be able to get more working aboard the ship, but that will take people with mechanical ability to help get them operational. Another instance where cooperation would prove beneficial.”

The old general pursed his lips and nodded. “And to attack them, we need to get through those mechanical war machines. The blasted things are lethal, and they’ll shoot at anyone, soldier or civilian. There are a lot of them scattered throughout our two major metropolitan areas, and they’ve made them kill zones. I’m not sure how easy fighting our way through something like that with normal weapons will be.”

“One of my people may have found a weakness we can exploit, but that still leaves us a tough fight ahead,” Mac agreed. “Once we’ve finished getting to the two facilities, we’re going to have to find a way to get inside to capture the aliens while at the same time freeing our own people.”

“At least we haven’t seen any more aircraft since this attack, so we might be able to achieve air dominance,” Nagle said. “We have some atmospheric craft, but they would’ve been meat for the grinder if we’d sent them out before this battle. Now they might prove useful.”

The older man considered Mac for a moment. “I think we aren’t going to have any trouble coming to a suitable arrangement, Colonel. When the president gets here, I’ll go up to speak with your commodore at his side. I understand the fighting up there was a bit too close for anyone’s liking, and I’d like to take a look at your ship.”

“I’ll leave Beth here to command my detachment, and I’ll accompany you, sir. From what I’ve heard, our engineering area took quite a hit, and I’m not certain how easy it will be to get more assistance. In fact, I suspect things will get very complicated before much longer.”

The older man slowly stood. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, Colonel, you’ll find that the simplest way to cut through the things that don’t matter is to focus on what absolutely must be done. Everything else can sort itself out. We’ve got a lot of talented engineers and manufacturers on this planet. Whatever you need, we’ll provide. Your ship is the key to our salvation, and we’ll expend every effort to help you succeed.”

He smiled just a bit. “I realize that I don’t have the authority to promise anything like that and that our new president might have something of a reputation, but he’s not an idiot. In fact, as politicians go, he might be one of the smartest men I’ve ever met. He recognizes what’s in his own interest—and so he’ll recognize this as being critical.”

“I hope you’re right, sir. This is one of those times where we need all the help we can get, or humanity is totally and utterly screwed.”

“Well said, Colonel. Well said. Shall we make our way to your cutter? It might take me a while to reach it, and I don’t want to keep the president waiting.”

“I’ll call it over and shorten your walk, sir, but that’s still a good idea.”

He followed the older man down the ramp and called for the cutter to relocate. Nagle might be physically infirm, but his mind was still sharp, which would help them take New Copenhagen back.

At this point, he knew they could win this fight. The question was if they could do so in a way that kept the prisoners alive and got them the information they needed.

The final negotiations would be in Jack’s hands. Mac had no doubt Romanoff would be persuasive, but if the president of New Copenhagen proved obstinate, that would complicate their lives. It was time to pray for the stars to align because they needed a win right now.

37

Jack stood in front of his arrayed officers in small craft bay four. It had taken a direct order to get Kelly Danek to leave engineering, but she was there, even if she was grumbling under her breath.

The cutter with the dignitaries from New Copenhagen was settling to the deck in front of them, and the Marine guard came to attention. They held their rifles at a position of attention, forming a space between two rows the visitors could walk down.

They weren’t in their dress uniforms. He’d considered using them but had discarded the idea. Their standard uniforms would be formal enough.

When the cutter’s hatch opened, Jack was surprised to see Connor stepping out first. The smuggler came over with long strides until he stood by Jack’s side, then leaned over and spoke softly enough that only the two of them could hear.

“I’d take it as a personal favor if you didn’t mention that I had any connection to President Scazzosi before all this came around, Navy. While it wouldn’t embarrass me, he might find it awkward, which would put him on the wrong foot. We don’t want that.”

“I’m not an idiot, Connor,” Jack murmured as he watched everyone else begin filing out of the cutter. “I need to work with these people, and mentioning that their new president was running deals under the table with you is a bad idea. Your secret is safe.”

“Good. That said, you do need to have an idea of the kind of person you’re dealing with, so let me tell you about Francesco Scazzosi.”

Jack held up a hand. “Pass. You might find this hard to believe, but I think your view of him may be slanted. I’d rather come into this without any preconceived notions.”

Connor pursed his lips before nodding. “Have it your way, Navy.”

The man who had come out behind Connor was barely five feet tall. Physically intimidating, he was not. Nevertheless, he strode forward with a determined air and stopped in front of the assembled Navy officers.

“Welcome aboard Delta Orionis, Mister President,” Jack said as he saluted Scazzosi. “I’m Commodore Jack Romanoff, and these are my officers.” He went down the line introducing them.

Scazzosi introduced the people with him as high government officials, and Jack made a mental note of their names. These would be the people who made the decisions setting the course of humanity in the cluster, and he wouldn’t forget who they were.

Actually, no one would forget who they were because Christine came out of the cutter next, and he noted that she already had drones in the air. They must’ve come out right behind Connor, and he’d missed them. They were recording everything for posterity. Honestly, that was for the best, though he hoped they hadn’t captured his exchange with the smuggler.

“Just in case you hadn’t noticed, Mister President, there are drones recording us,” he said softly.

Scazzosi smiled, showing off his excellent teeth. “Miss Hooghuis told me she would be doing that, so I suppose we’ll all be on our best behavior, won’t we? Have no fear, Commodore. I’m not going to say anything awkward.”

Scazzosi followed that up with a hard look at Connor. The smuggler gazed back with an innocent expression.

“I don’t know if you’ve had the pleasure, but this is Mark Connor, the leader of Port Royale,” Jack said to defuse the situation. “He and his people have been assisting us in liberating New Copenhagen.”

The politician shook the smuggler’s hand. “And we’re grateful for your assistance, Mister Connor. I’m quite certain our systems will get along famously.”

It had taken a while, but Mac Turner exited the cutter and assisted an elderly gentleman in a military uniform down to the deck. Jack found himself more than a little nonplussed at the sight. It looked like the invasion was pulling people out of retirement homes now.

The older man came slowly up to Jack and saluted. He outranked Jack—even though he was in a different service—but Confederation military tradition had the salute to a commanding officer on his own ship taking precedence.

“Thank you for having us aboard, Commodore. I’m General Robert Nagle, commanding officer of the planetary defense forces. Your Marines did one hell of a job down there.”

“Yes, they did, General,” Jack said, returning the salute. “Yes, they did.”

Jack turned to India. “See about getting something to help get the general to the briefing room. It’s a rather long walk.”

“I’ll take care of it, sir,” she said, before stepping to the side and pulling out her comm unit.

He extended his hand toward the hatch. “Mister President?”

They started toward the main briefing room, and the president looked at the crew members hurrying down the corridor. “You got a tremendous ship, Commodore. I’m damned impressed and grateful that you came to free us. I’m sorry about the crew and Marines you lost making that happen. Whatever we can do to assist you, you have only to ask.”

“I’m grateful to hear that, sir. We’re in a bit of a bind, and the two of us will need to work closely together. I’ll give you the details once we arrive at the briefing room, but we took damage to our independent quantum drive. Until we get it fixed, we’re trapped here. There are other options for faster than light travel, but they’re risky, and I’m not sure I’m prepared to take those kinds of chances.”

Scazzosi grimaced. “That’s unfortunate. We have several manufactories on New Copenhagen that may be able to assist you in fabricating new parts. I have no idea whether that’s feasible, but we’ll certainly try. Unfortunately, many of the companies are in the largest population centers, and those are under the control of the Locusts. To gain access to them, we’ll need to push the bastards back into those fortresses they’ve built next to the space elevators.”

“I’m more of a space combat specialist, so I’ll leave the details of what’s possible on the ground to Colonel Turner,” Jack said. “We’ll need cooperation from the planetary defense forces to make that happen, though. We just don’t have enough Marines to make a difference in planetary combat.”

“General Nagle is an experienced and competent officer and was the commander of the planetary defense forces a few decades ago. He may be frail, but never doubt he has the spirit of a lion. He’ll work with your man, and they’ll get it done.”

It took several minutes to get everyone to the appropriate deck and a few more minutes to arrive at the briefing room. General Nagle had beaten them there and was seated near the middle of the table with India standing behind him.

“You made good time, General,” Jack said as he entered. “If everyone will be seated, we’ll get some water or coffee, and I can fill you in on what we know.”

Once everyone had taken their seats and been served, Jack went down the list of events—from his point of view—starting with their condition at the beginning of the war. He then went step-by-step, detailing everything they’d been through and discovered. He left nothing out.

He brought the wall monitor to life and showed them the aliens they’d captured and images of the wrecked ship. Once that was done, he laid out the complications, including that their spare parts and potential war-making gear were at Port Royale. The professor had said it was possible they could use the hyperdrive, but he wasn’t going to count on that, and he laid out how risky he thought the idea was.

Next, he emphasized that they needed the nuclear munitions to rearm his ship in case more Locusts attacked. It would only be a matter of months before the possibility of Locust motherships arriving via hyperdrive became a reality. It was a short window, and while it wasn’t likely any had departed from one of the other nearby systems toward this one when the gates blew, he couldn’t dismiss the notion out of hand.

“And that is the situation,” Jack said in conclusion. “We have something on the order of ten thousand missiles on hand that we can refurbish, but they won’t be as effective if we can’t get to the nuclear munitions. Also, if we can get back to Port Royale, we can set up a protected gate between the two systems and get some makeshift missile platforms put together for you. It was damned unfortunate that the gate we brought was destroyed.”

“Setbacks are to be expected in war,” Nagle said with a sigh. “I’d have loved it if you had a way to get there, but we don’t have any ships that could’ve used the gates anyway. From what you said, there might be a couple at Port Royale, but the majority are back in that first system you escaped to. You’d have to have a functional independent quantum drive to get there.”

Scazzosi nodded his agreement. “The first step to defense in space is to excavate the munitions site. It will take time and effort to get down to the weapons, but it’s time well spent. Some of the wilder sections of New Copenhagen often need areas cleared of debris, including large boulders. I think we can find some construction specialists to get to what we need.”

“That’s a good start,” Jack agreed, “but we also need to move against the aliens. The aliens have been learning our language via a children’s educational program. As you can imagine, we don’t have much of a shared vocabulary at this point, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. It may well be that we can find out what we need to know from the aliens we already have in hand, but that doesn’t alleviate our responsibility to rescue the prisoners. We don’t know what the aliens are doing to them, and I have to say that the possibilities fill me with horror.”

The politician frowned. “In what way?”

“I don’t think I mentioned that the aliens are symbiotic creatures. The humanoids we see also have another entity surgically implanted in their spines that increases their brainpower. I’m not certain if the humanoids are the ones in charge. What if the aliens are trying to do something similar to humans?”

“That’s horrifying,” Scazzosi agreed with a grimace. “And it makes getting them out an even higher priority.”

“Do we know why the aliens came to the cluster from wherever they originated?” Nagle asked. “People don’t just decide to migrate on a whim, particularly if it requires armed force.”

“That’s a great question,” India said. “I hope we’ll be able to answer it at some point, but that doesn’t mean we’ll understand the answer. Their motives may remain obscure.”

“If you have anyone on the planet that might be of assistance in opening lines of communication, we’d be more than happy to have help,” Jack said. “I’m sure Colonel Turner has already spoken with the general about needing to recruit replacements for the Marines we’ve lost. The same goes for our scientific efforts. The more, the merrier.”

Scazzosi rubbed his face for a moment and then nodded. “Whatever help you need, we’ll provide. Only by working together can we hold the Locusts off when they return. Considering the damage your ship took, I’m not sure how realistic our odds of fighting them are. New Copenhagen isn’t the largest system in the cluster—not by far—and I’m sure the Locusts didn’t invest us as heavily as other systems. You’re going to find more of them out there.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Jack agreed. “Now we have access—of a sort—to the munitions we need to conduct offensive operations. It’s not going to be easy to get at them, it’s not going to be easy to get my ship fixed, and it’s not going to be easy to get back to Port Royale, yet we need to do all those things.”

He stood and made his way over to a rolling tray that he’d had set up in advance. It contained numerous whiskey glasses and the bottle of The Carstairs’ Reserve he’d sampled earlier. He poured generous glasses for all and made his way around, serving each of them personally.

That done, he raised his glass into the air. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Confederation. May she ever stand.”

Everyone else stood and raised their various drinks, repeating his words. They drank, and there were exclamations on the quality of the whiskey and its origin, so that started him down the path of explaining what it was and how he’d gotten the bottle. He didn’t mention the ten cases stashed away for a rainy day, though. Some secrets were best kept close.

It looked as if he’d settled the situation with New Copenhagen, but a lot of hard work remained. If any of the goals they needed to accomplish were left unfulfilled, everyone would die or be enslaved.

Or worse.

That was something he couldn’t countenance. No matter the price he had to pay, he’d get his ship back into the fight and liberate the cluster. He’d sworn an oath to his dead to do so, and he would not fail them.

* * *

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

J. N. Chaney is a USA Today Bestselling author and has a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. He fancies himself quite the Super Mario Bros. fan. When he isn’t writing or gaming, you can find him online at jnchaney.com.

He migrates often, but was last seen in Las Vegas, NV. Any sightings should be reported, as they are rare.

* * *

Terry Mixon is a #1 Bestselling Military Science Fiction author who served as a non-commissioned officer in the United States Army 101st Airborne Division. He later worked alongside the flight controllers in the Mission Control Center at the NASA Johnson Space Center supporting the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and other human spaceflight projects.

He now writes full time while living in Texas with his lovely wife and a pounce of cats. Visit terrymixon.com to learn more.