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Shield of Humanity Copyright © 2023 by Variant Publications

Book design and layout copyright © 2023 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.

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1st Edition

CONTENTS

Don’t Miss Out

Previously on The Last Hunter

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

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PREVIOUSLY ON THE LAST HUNTER

Having liberated Argent, the capital world of the Confederation in the cluster, Jack Romanoff and his crew had to repair the ship and gather what help they could for the next phase of the fight. He also had to deal with politicians that he had to pay attention to.

While settling in on the planet, a familiar enemy with a new face came calling: the conspiracy that tried to kill Sara Nastasi was back. This time, they had their sights on him and the entire Confederation.

He and his people turned the tables on them but were unable to pursue the leadership of the Poseidon Group as it fled the system, starting a clock to a coup that could destroy everything they were fighting for. The next step was to find the conspirators’ hidden shipyards before it was too late.

1

Admiral Jack Romanoff walked into the main briefing room aboard Hunter and smiled at his officers as they rose. “Sorry I’m late. I got hung up on a call with President Ibarra. I hope you didn’t get started without me.”

“Actually, we did,” Commander Kelly Danek said with a cheeky grin. “Of course, we were mainly gossiping about your love life, so we can skip ahead if you’d like.”

He gave the chief engineer a quelling look as he sat down before smiling again. She was an iconoclast, and he was more than willing to allow her leeway as long as she kept his engines running. Still, his love life was a bit over the line.

Okay, a lot, even though they would gossip no matter what he did.

“I don’t exactly call light dating a love life,” he said somewhat repressively. “And since Sara is on Argent and we’re all the way out here beyond the jump limit, I don’t think there’s much to talk about, do you?”

“We weren’t talking about your love life, sir,” Lieutenant Derek Calvo, his helmsman, said. “We were discussing the energy shield we’re trying to develop.”

“Now you’re being a spoilsport,” Danek said with a scowl. “We could have kept him going for at least a few minutes.”

“You might be mostly immune to him being annoyed with you, but the rest of us aren’t,” Lieutenant Amanda Harris, his tactical officer, said.

“It’s a good thing he likes you,” Lieutenant Colonel Mac Turner, the marine commander, said with a smirk. “Teasing a man about his love life isn’t playing fair. And you young people shouldn’t be indulging in that since everyone else may be talking about yours.”

“I just said we weren’t talking about his love life,” Derek groaned, redness beginning to show on his cheeks. “And what do they say?”

“Never mind that,” Amanda said firmly. “Why don’t we move on to talking about what we’re really here to discuss? Teasing the admiral is all good and fine, but like Colonel Turner says, we’ve got better things to do.”

Jack noted with some amusement that she wasn’t blushing. Still, they were right. There was a lot to discuss, and they might as well get about their business.

“What’s the condition of the independent quantum drive?” he asked his chief engineer.

“Better than you’d think,” the tall, brown-haired woman said. “All the repair parts are in, and we’ve got it back together. We’re still running the self-checks, but everything is green so far. We should be ready for a test jump in an hour or two.”

It had only been a few days since the drive had been disabled in combat, so that was fast. The good news made him smile. He didn’t like being stuck without the ability to move rapidly around the combat area, and the independent quantum drive was the fastest means of doing so. The hyperdrive they’d confiscated from the Tardan colony vessel could also move them, but it was much slower.

“That’s a lot quicker than I’d expected. How did you manage it?”

“We had most of the parts already at hand, so getting everything into place was simple enough. The problem we ran into this time was that we burned out a couple of things that weren’t normally at risk of being damaged when we used the hyperdrive and independent quantum drive together to skip the ship ahead and create that energy shield.”

She frowned. “We’re trying to figure out exactly how that works. The two drives are working together in ways we don’t understand, and even though we figured out how to use everything safely—for the most part—it’s still a lot more dangerous working with this unknown technology than I like.”

“That might be true,” Derek said, “but it saved our bacon. The Novarites would’ve destroyed us if we hadn’t had that ability. I’ve been going over the data we collected during those skips, and we’ll want to be a bit more careful about how deep into the gravity well we go with it.”

“Why so?” Jack asked.

“We can use the hyperspace drive about twenty percent deeper into the system than we can use the independent quantum drive, and I suspect there’s a similar limit with the skip drive. When we engage the two drives together, the combined effect moves us forward faster than light speed, but it still seems to use a hyperspace band to get us there. The deeper into the gravity well we are when we activate the drives, the greater the risk we’ll trigger a jump into a higher hyperspace band that might be lethal. During the battle, we inadvertently jumped almost all the way to Argent and stressed the quantum drive. The distance we achieved is almost certainly an indicator that we pushed the line when we triggered the drives as deeply inside the gravity well as we did.”

Jack pursed his lips and crossed his arms as he leaned back in his seat. “I wish we had a way to have our cake and eat it too. We were discussing creating an isolated system with the hyperdrive and independent quantum drive used to create a shield rather than driving us around. Is that still a possibility? If so, could it also be used as the skip drive rather than putting our main drives at risk?”

“Now that we’ve got access to all the old battleships and our complete set of repair parts, it’s not out of the question, but do we really want to use an entire independent quantum drive for something like that?” Danek asked. “I’ve already commandeered what amounts to a complete drive to have on hand as a spare. I’m tired of having our primary drive system damaged in battle, so we’re putting together a backup. It will be in the middle of the ship, so hopefully we won’t be at risk the way we were in the past. I realize utilizing two independent quantum drives is an extravagance, but history has proven that we need the redundancy.”

“Will it work even if the drive isn’t in engineering?” Amanda asked. “I understand it covers the entire ship when we jump, but I thought its position inside the hull was important.”

Danek raised one of her hands and waggled her fingers back and forth. “It’s going to require some adjustment, and we won’t have the same area toward the ship’s stern that we could use to bring other vessels along with us, but I think I can make it work. There’s a lot of complex mathematics that goes into calculating what the jump bubble looks like, and I ran it through the computers to verify it should work.”

“Those are the kinds of words that don’t fill you with confidence,” Mac said with a grin. “I don’t suppose we can do anything to upgrade ‘should work’ to ‘will work,’ can we?”

“Not without testing it to be sure. I’ve sent everything I have down to Professor Prescott so he can verify my math, and we can certainly test things carefully when we’re ready to go, but the proof will be in the pudding. Until we try it, we won’t know for sure.”

Jack found himself nodding. “It’s a calculated risk, but one that I approve of. If the drive in engineering will be fully repaired in the next few hours, how long until the secondary unit is installed?”

“That’s going to take longer,” the engineer said. “We’ve got to hollow out the area where we took the hit in the ship’s side a bit more and get the basic subsystems back online to verify everything has power and that we’re ready to do the install. Since the Novarites were kind enough to clear out that section of the ship, we don’t have to disassemble anything.”

The thought of that made Jack grimace. The Novarites had a massively powerful beam weapon using antiprotons that had almost burned its way to the central corridor through the side of his ship. Considering the weapon had to go through a hundred meters of nickel-iron, that was a true statement about how powerful the thing was. They had two holes punched in the bow of the ship as well. They should’ve been nigh on invulnerable, but they were almost helpless against something like what they’d faced.

“I suppose that’s as good a place to install the new drive as any,” he agreed. “Derek, since you’ve been going over the data, how effective was our makeshift shield against the antiproton beam?”

“We took one hit while the shield was up. It diffused a lot of energy, but that was barely a fraction of what was being pumped into us. I’d say it saved us from maybe ten percent of the damage we would’ve otherwise taken. Not a lot in the greater scheme of things.”

“I suppose it depends on your perspective,” Amanda said. “Ten percent less penetration means lives saved and less damage to deal with. It’s a lot more effective against the phased packet plasma guns. I don’t want to say that we’re immune to damage from the things, but with the packets disrupted, there’s no focused impact point. The plasma sprayed the hull over a wider area, and we can survive that. An antiproton beam would chew us up. The new shield isn’t up to protecting the ship from something that powerful.”

“How did the Novarites protect themselves against weapons like that?” Mac asked. “It seems like that’s the same sort of weapon that took out the engineering section of the ship that was recovered after the first invasion. Are they as much at its mercy as we are?”

“There was no indication during the battle that they used an energy shield,” Amanda said. “If they had one, they didn’t use it. We’ve only barely started digging through the ship to see what we can find, but it’s possible it was destroyed during the battle. Even though the big ship was mostly intact, it was still blown into two pieces. That’s an awful lot of equipment that’s probably lost forever.”

“They don’t have anything like that,” Danek said with a shake of her head. “Lisa and Professor Prescott dug the full technical specifications for one of their big ships out of one of the Novarite computers. There’s nothing about an energy shield in it. I suspect that’s because they didn’t have access to an independent quantum drive like we did. There’s something about using the two styles of drive at the same time that creates that effect. It skips us forward in a quick burst through hyperspace, and then we dump energy when we emerge. That might be because we’re cheating by going somewhere between hyperspace and wherever the independent quantum drive takes us. This is all uncharted territory.”

“It sounds like we’ve got a lot to still go over,” Jack said with a sigh. “Now that Captain MacKinnon—excuse me, Vice Admiral MacKinnon—is on her way back to the Confederation to give them an update, we’ve got to find the Poseidon Group and those hidden shipyards of theirs. That’s a time-critical task because if we don’t stop them here, we won’t be able to. I don’t suppose we’ve made any progress on that.”

Derek shook his head. “We’ve dug up a crew to run another of the exploration ships, but the cluster is huge, particularly when you look at the fact that only a fraction of the stars are occupied. They could be anywhere.”

“That’s all very true, but we’re not going to find them if we don’t start looking. We have five exploration ships available, and we need to get them all crewed and searching. That means we need a good search pattern and a way to verify if any ships have disappeared. We’ll be careful, but the Poseidon Group will have their eyes out for us. If any of our scouts are less than careful, they could be captured or destroyed. If that happens, we need to know sooner rather than later. Amanda, if we managed to find the shipyards and have to confront a bunch of cruisers, what kind of condition will we be in?”

She smiled wolfishly. “We’ve got a lot of missile capability, and even though they’ll have phased plasma packet guns, we can disrupt some of that incoming fire. I don’t care how many cruisers they have. They’re not going to be as dangerous as a massive wave of Locusts trying to swarm us. Unless they have some kind of secret weapon, we’ll manage.”

“I don’t know that I’d discount the idea that they’ve got a secret weapon,” Mac warned. “While it’s possible they could be building a numerically superior force of cruisers to take on the Confederation, attrition isn’t a recipe for victory, at least not without losing a lot of your people. We don’t know what they got off the Novarite ship they captured, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they managed to work out some type of advanced alien weaponry. Could they have built their own antiproton beams?”

“Doubtful,” Danek said. “From what I’ve been able to determine, only the largest of the Novarite’s ships have that type of weaponry to begin with. It takes up a lot of space, and something the size of a cruiser doesn’t cut it. That means the small Novarite vessel they captured wouldn’t have had one, and they never got complete access to the Novarite computer systems. Without having the supporting data, there’s no way to determine how a weapon like that even works. We’d never have figured out they were using a variant of the hyperdrive to directly tap into a higher band of hyperspace filled with antiprotons.”

“It wouldn’t be easy, but it could be made to work,” Amanda insisted. “It’s obvious that whoever the Novarites were fighting had similar weaponry, and based on the size of the beam that must’ve punched through the smaller ship, it was of somewhat lower power. If a big beam had struck that small ship, it would have been obliterated. Whoever the people the Novarites are at war with came up with something smaller, and that might fit into a cruiser.”

Jack tapped one of his fingers against the tabletop. “I’m not willing to bet against them having some advanced weaponry, but we’re not letting it terrify us. If that’s what they’ve got, that’s what we’ll fight. We still don’t know some things and won’t know what we’re missing until we start digging up information. That’s what David and Tina Chen are working with Lisa to solve down on Argent. Until then, we assume it’s a problem we can handle. Derek, I want you to work up a search pattern so that we can most effectively see that every system gets a look to verify that no shipyards are hiding there.”

The young officer nodded. “If an exploration ship jumps in and collects data through passive sensors, they should be able to pick up anything worthwhile if they drop out on different sides of the system. That way, none of the planets obscure the fusion plants of any enemy ships. It’s how we found Port Royale and how we’re going to find the shipyards. Eventually.”

“Do the best you can and update me as soon as we have crews for more of those exploration ships. I don’t want any ship operating solo, so pair them up. When we get the final exploration ship fully manned, she can accompany us, and we can start doing the same thing. Or, we can explore alone and leave her here to carry us news if there’s trouble. That’s actually a better idea, I think.”

Danek pursed her lips. “I don’t like being so reactive, sir. I’d much rather send our scout ships to the two systems we already know the Tardans are using as strong points. We’ve got to knock them out before they get too much of a foothold. We can’t let the Poseidon Group distract us from defending the cluster.”

Jack rubbed his face. “I can’t argue that, but it’s difficult to formulate a plan of action when you’ve got three different groups of enemies. The Tardans are setting up to take over the cluster so they can try to subdue humanity and make them into hosts—which is something we need to stop as soon as possible—but the Novarites have sent at least some ships to fight them. That means we’ll be dealing with warlike aliens that don’t even want to talk. Then we’ve got the conspiracy that’s bound and determined to overthrow the Confederation Council. It would be difficult to fight any of those things by themselves, and we have to deal with all three.”

“As you keep telling us, sir, if it was easy, anyone could do it,” Mac said. “You can’t deal with the Poseidon Group until you find them. You can’t deal with the Novarites until you know where they will make their next incursion, if any. We know where the Tardans are. Hunter is more than capable of dealing with their military vessels, particularly with the little surprises we’ve come up with. Not to tell you your business, but I think they should be our primary focus until we get more information on any of the other situations.”

“I wish you were wrong, but you’re not,” Jack admitted. “Derek, start working out the best course to get to where we need to be. At the very least, we can send the available scout ship to look at one of those systems while we check out the other. We won’t leave until our drives are operational, but we need to be about our business rather than waiting for trouble to find us.”

Danek stood. “Unless you need me for something, sir, I should be back in engineering getting our drive back online. As I said, we should be ready to test things in a few hours, so I want to make sure we’re in the best shape possible before we head out.”

Jack nodded. “Make it happen. Everyone is dismissed.”

Once everyone else had left the room, Jack focused his attention on the Marine officer who had remained. “How are your people doing, Mac? You’ve been replacing people and dealing with training up the ones that weren’t ready for combat. Now that we’ve had the attack on the facility down on Argent and lost a bunch more, are your folks going to be ready?”

The big man smiled. “I won’t say they’re fully trained Marines because that would be a lie, but they’re willing and able to fight. Scouring the wreckage of the Novarite warship gave us a lot of experience working as teams, and we’ll continue building on that. The personnel office has put the word out to see if any retired Marines might be willing to come back to act as senior noncommissioned officers or officers. I think we’ll find more volunteers than we know what to do with, and that’s a good thing.”

“If you get that many people, you might want to split your force in two,” Jack suggested. “It’s a lot easier to train people on a planetary surface than on a ship on a combat patrol. You can have the primary group working off Hunter while a secondary group is getting the necessary training here on Argent. We can start swapping some forces back and forth when we’re done training the people here. That’s what I intend to do with some of our crew. We’ve got to build up enough trained people to start running more battleships, and they can’t do some of the training they need to aboard ship without being in everyone’s way. It’s complicated, but I think working on the space station can give those that don’t have a lot of space experience the skills they need to do their jobs. At least to start with.”

“I can’t disagree with the logic, but I’m not sure it’s going to work out that way in practice,” the Marine officer said. “It’s probably going to be easier for the Marines to be trained here at Argent than for the crew. You might want to consider moving your trainees to Port Royale and have them start working on one of the derelict battleships. Not only to do the repairs but to get familiar with the environment they’ll be embedded in. I don’t know what condition any of the other battleships are in, but if we can dig up enough engineering personnel here, we should start being able to get some of the ships mobile. Once they can jump, we can get them to Argent, and their repairs will go a lot faster.”

Jack shook his head. “You’d think so, but the spare parts are on Port Royale. This is one of those situations where it’s better to bring the experts to the scene and let them get to work. We already know how difficult it is to bring one of the ships fully online, but the ones there have been abandoned for a century and a half. They’ve rotted in place and had squatters tearing things out. No. It’s far better to deal with the situation there. What else have you got on your plate?”

The big man crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “We’ve still got primary responsibility for guarding the Novarite prisoners and the Tardans we captured that were part of the military. Some are still aboard, but we’ve moved as many as possible down to Argent. We just don’t have the space to deal with them here, and if they were to break out, it would be a threat to the ship as a whole.”

Jack already knew that, but he didn’t know the specifics. “Where are you putting them?”

“A relatively small island group far enough away from the occupied areas where we can keep an eye on them. The Tardan military and the Novarites are on different islands, far enough apart that they can’t see one another over the horizon but are within easy reach. We’ve got people on patrol in the air at all times, and nobody will be sneaking off. They can’t swim anywhere we can’t recover them from. We’ll use another island for medical purposes because even though the Novarites still want to fight us at every turn, many of them are injured and require medical care.”

“How will you manage that while we’re off scouting?”

“Part of our Marine group will have to be dedicated to the purpose. There’s no way around it. In fact, the more times we fight our enemies, the worse the problem gets. This is a stopgap measure, and if we get a lot more Novarites in custody, it will become unworkable in short order. The other big project we have underway is working with some of the locals to duplicate the technology used in the Gauss weapons. The things are very powerful, and I can see some circumstances where having that kind of firepower would be useful. That’s more of a long-term project than anything else, but it’s one of the irons I’ve got in the fire.”

“If there’s anything I can arrange for that Commodore Nastasi—Sara—could work out for you, then we’d be happy to help. Frankly, that’s why she’s doing what she’s doing, so you should take advantage of having her in your corner.”

“I’ve already got her working on a few things for me, but now that we don’t have Rear Admiral Allen fighting us every step of the way, I’m getting cooperation with my basic requests.”

The flag officer had been the liaison between the Navy and the Confederation Council in the cluster, and he’d been a pain in everyone’s butts before Commodore Robin Monahan—the head of at least the local branch of the Poseidon Group on Argent—had executed him. That hadn’t been what Jack had wanted, and it really burned that the woman thought murdering a man to make Jack’s job easier was doing him a favor. Still, he couldn’t deny that the resistance he’d been dealing with in the various branches of the Confederation Navy had vanished literally overnight.

That was one more crime those people would pay for once he caught up with them.

“Well, if you need anything, all you have to do is say the word. President Ibarra has assured me that she’ll grease the wheels where possible, and Sara—now that she’s operating as a negotiator rather than a JAG officer—will do what she can as well.”

He glanced down at his chronometer and stood. “If we intend to leave the system anytime soon, I’ve got a lot to accomplish. We might also want to consider moving our talkative prisoners down to Argent. The people doing the questioning are there now, and we don’t want to disrupt the rapport they’ve already developed.”

Mac nodded. “Already ahead of you, sir. We sent them down a few hours ago. We took the opportunity to collect some furnishings from the ship we were searching, so we were able to make something I think they’ll find a bit more homelike for them. Maybe that’ll help the Chens in their quest to get the Novarites talking.”

“Time will tell. Now, let’s get our houses in order and see what the Tardan military is up to.”

2

“Are you planning to take a break anytime soon?” a man’s voice asked, making Lisa Gane jump a little in her seat at the computer console.

She turned and glared at Gabe Miles, the young man assigned to be her personal assistant by President Ibarra’s office. “Do I need to put a bell around your neck? Don’t sneak up on me when I’m working. In fact, don’t sneak up on me at all. This isn’t a difficult concept, so how about you announce yourself at the door rather than just letting yourself in?”

The young man didn’t look the least bit perturbed. “I did. Three times. You were so buried in your work that you didn’t hear me, so I had to come a little closer. Besides, it’s not like this is your private room. You haven’t been there since I got everything together yesterday. Don’t you think you should at least take a look to make sure I don’t need to change something out?”

She felt her eyes narrowing. “You’re pretty mouthy for someone that’s supposed to be helping me get set up. Aren’t you government officials supposed to be more deferential?”

He laughed. “As if you’d respect that. I consider myself a good judge of character, and you’re the type of person that deals better when everything is laid out on the table. Tell me I’m wrong.”

She harrumphed. “Okay, you’ve got me there, but I’ve been busy. You wouldn’t believe how much work I’ve got to do, and I only have so many hours a day to make it happen. Crashing in the cot behind the computer is a lot more efficient than going to quarters that I’ll never use.”

He raised an eyebrow. “How would you know that you’ll never use it since you’ve never taken a look at them? Besides, you’ve got other people coming to help you. Are you planning on cleaning up in the industrial shower in the corner with everybody watching? That seems a bit… forthright.”

She eyed the shower made to wash away any issues that happened in an engineering space that required getting solvent or something like that off someone. It wasn’t private, and she wasn’t an exhibitionist.

“I suppose so, but that doesn’t negate the fact that I still have a lot to do. Do you know how difficult it is to crack the encryption on those data chips? Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make sure these weren’t accessible, and it’s annoying the hell out of me.”

“I haven’t got the slightest idea,” he said cheerfully. “What I can tell you is that if you don’t come and take a look at your quarters, I’m going to move all the relatively conservative furniture back out and get you something utterly ridiculous.”

She opened her mouth to say something sharp and then thought better of it. He might not be joking.

“Like what?” she asked suspiciously.

“There’s only one way to find out. Besides, did you even have lunch? You should take a break and get something to eat. I hear a freighter came through the gate about an hour ago, and they’ll be here in three. I suspect it’s carrying your new assistants, though no one has confirmed that. You’ll want to be ready for them, right? You’ve got time to look around your quarters, shower, and change clothes—you’ve been wearing those same clothes for two days, haven’t you?—and still get something to eat before they get here. If you get a move on.”

“You’re like someone’s mother, aren’t you?”

“Where I grew up, mother was only half a word.”

She laughed. “I know that’s bull. I’ve met people that have grown up in rough places, and that’s not you. Keep trying.”

<He seems to be getting the better of you,> Regex said silently in her mind. The alien symbiote wasn’t a talker, for which she was grateful, but he certainly loved listening to what was happening around them. And he wasn’t shy about sharing his opinions.

She doubted she’d ever get completely used to having someone connected to her nervous system, but she was warming to her passenger. As far as roommates went, she’d had worse. Besides, she’d be paralyzed without him, and the idea made her shudder.

I can’t decide whether he wants something from me or is just trying to be helpful. I understand it’s his job to help me set things up, but it’s been a couple of days. Doesn’t he have other things to do?

<That’s probably something you should clarify with him. Based on how important they see your work, he may have been assigned to work only with you. He seems very resourceful and concerned about your well-being. On the whole, one could certainly do worse when it came to assistants.>

He’s not technically oriented, so I’m not sure how good of an assistant he can be for someone like me.

<You’ve got other people coming to help with the technical matters, so his assistance would be in more mundane things. I believe he’ll play a role in keeping your personal quarters less messy. I doubt he’d be so bold as to try to instill order in your workspace, but if you can take concerns about personal matters off the table, that would make your life easier, would it not?>

We’ll see about that.

She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of someone messing with her personal things. While Regex might be part of everything she did, he at least was an alien, and that gave things a certain level of distance. Having another human make sure that her clothes were washed felt invasive.

Rather than argue with Gabe, she decided to give in to the inevitable. Stretching her legs wasn’t going to kill her, and she did want to see what kind of quarters he’d set up for her. The facility they were using had once been the planetary command headquarters for the Confederation Navy in case of an invasion. To say that everything was utilitarian would be something of an understatement.

When the man turned toward the door, she discreetly checked her chronometer and found that it was early in the afternoon and that she had skipped lunch. She had a ration bar somewhere on the computer console but hadn’t gotten around to eating it. Maybe the food quality in the mess hall had gone up since the last time she’d checked. The Navy people had standards, and the first few meals hadn’t met them.

Her assistant led her through a few corridors and up a lift to the level where she was assigned quarters. She’d looked around the rooms once they’d finally gotten around to giving her a permanent residence and had been less than impressed. All the old furniture had rotted in place, and everything had collapsed. There was very little chance there were bugs still living in it after so long, but it looked infested. Anything would be an improvement, even the outrageous furniture he’d threatened.

When he used his palm to open the lock, she almost growled. She didn’t appreciate people having access to her private space, and even though he’d obviously been working to fill it with whatever he considered appropriate, she didn’t like the idea of sleeping where anyone could walk in.

Yes, she could use the manual lock and make sure that didn’t happen, but it was the principle of the matter. If she had private quarters, she wanted to be the only one that could get in. Well, with the understanding that she’d have to upgrade the locks and security systems to be absolutely sure no one like her could get in. There were still people wandering around that would like to kill her. That was something to be avoided at all costs.

She was still thinking about potential security upgrades as she walked through what she thought of as a living room. It had couches and a low table where she could greet guests without subjecting them to the rest of her quarters. He’d called the furniture relatively conservative, and he wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t flashy or fancy, and she could live with that. There was a small half-kitchen off the living room that had enough equipment to make coffee and snacks, which was perfect for entertaining the way she did.

There wasn’t a wall screen in the living room, so she might have to see about installing something. Since she was concerned about the security of what she was doing, she’d handle that part herself. It might not match the decor, but it wouldn’t be something an outsider could tap into if she did the work.

A half-bath off the living room would allow guests to clean up without wandering into the depths of her personal quarters. That was something that would be useful as well.

A short hall brought her to several other doors and an even larger area set up for relaxation. This bigger room did have a wall-mounted screen, so she’d have to go over it and make certain its security was fully up to date and that she added a few of her own innovations to make certain no one was able to tap into what she was watching or working on.

The furniture here was similar to the previous rooms: comfortable, workmanlike, and not fancy. She wasn’t much for interpreting the style of things like this, but they looked like they were part of a set. She’d never owned furniture that came together before. Everything had always been a one-off purchase that often clashed with everything she already owned. Adjusting to the sameness would be something of a challenge.

The area to the rear had a full kitchen stocked with basic cooking materials that she had no idea how to utilize. Her idea of food prep was throwing something into the heater to bring it up to temperature. A check inside the chiller revealed ground meat, some type of whole bird, and other raw materials to make meals. The pantry also contained a wide variety of foods she had no idea how to prepare.

She turned toward Gabe and raised an eyebrow. “Somebody’s been leading you on. I don’t know how to cook.”

He smiled and inclined his head slightly. “That’s no worry. I’m an able hand in the kitchen. Now before you get concerned, you’re not going to find any of these rooms set up for me to live in, so I’m not going to be jostling your elbow, but if you intend to give your best effort to the work that’s landed on your plate, you’ll need to accept that some people will have to help you do the things you can’t do for yourself. President Ibarra tasked me with making sure that you’re kept in the best shape possible, and I take my duties very seriously.”

“You don’t have to cook here. This place is huge. Also, the Navy will eventually get the mess hall working right.”

“I’m sure they will,” he said with a nod, “but there will still be a need to tidy up, and someone trustworthy to do it.”

“Trustworthy,” she said as she crossed her arms and gave him a look of skepticism. “I’m not so easy giving trust to someone I only met a few days ago. How do you plan on getting in here once I change the security system?”

“I don’t have any skills in that area, so if you do something like that, I’m not going to be able to perform my duties to the best of my ability. I promise not to interrupt your sleep to give you breakfast. Hell, I’ve seen your work schedule, and I know that you crash whenever you feel like it and then work for a full day. I’m not asking for you to let someone pamper you. I just want to make sure that I can work meals around your schedule and keep this place livable. Believe me, sleeping in your own bed will be preferable to the cot you’ve got down by the computers. Besides, there’s going to be a lot of people working down there. Are you going to be able to sleep with all that noise?”

She pursed her lips. “There is something to what you’re saying, but I’m still not sure.”

“You’re the one who has to decide whether or not to trust me. I understand you intend to go over everybody in the president’s service shortly. Why don’t you start with me? My life is pretty much an open book, so it shouldn’t take you long to determine that I’m exactly who I seem to be. Once that’s done, you can feel more confident that having me on the access list isn’t a problem. How paranoid are you prepared to be? We can’t all be out to get you, after all.”

<That’s a reasonable question. Your life is busy, and having some of the more mundane items taken off your plate would be helpful. He seems like a nice enough sort of person. You should give him a chance.>

I’m not big on letting people in my life. Still, I suppose you’re right. I’ve got far too many things to do for me to worry about food and keeping things orderly. If he has access, then he’s a threat that I need to check. I suppose someone could still use him to get into my quarters, but if I set up the security system correctly, it will note who’s entered and alert me if he has company or if someone else arrives without him.

<Do you think he’ll clean your quarters by himself? You’ll want to get a list of people from him and run them through the process. I suggest you be as thorough as possible. Our lives might depend on it.>

“I suppose you’re right,” she said aloud. “I’ll need a list of people you intend to bring in to help do the cleaning since I’m sure you won’t do it by yourself. Everyone gets the full checkout, and if I’m not pleased with them, they don’t get in.”

“If you’re not pleased with the people I suggest, they’re going to get looked at by the investigative services a lot more closely,” he said in a serious tone. “The president is justifiably paranoid and will see if anyone comes up with oddities. I’ll get you a list with as much personal information as possible for your background check. Would having that by this afternoon be acceptable?”

She nodded. “That’ll be fine.”

The next room she looked into was her bedroom. The bed was far larger than she needed, but it fit with the rest of the furniture. She pressed on it firmly and discovered it was somewhat softer than she was used to and might take some adjustment on her part.

The master bathroom blew her away. It had a large shower and a tub to soak in if she wanted. The large mirror in front of the sink was brightly lit and would do nothing to hide any of her flaws. Not that she was ugly, but enhancing her appearance wasn’t high on her list of needful things. The shelf for makeup would likely remain empty as she had no intention of changing.

There were a few more rooms with purposes she could easily work out, including one outfitted to become a work area. It wasn’t currently hosting any computers, which was good since she’d have to rip everything out.

Overall, the quarters were significantly more than she’d ever provided for herself and much neater. Lisa returned to the bedroom and opened one of the closets. She found that there was already a wide variety of clothing in place. Some she recognized, but most she did not. At least the styling was the same as what she usually wore, so he’d done his research on what she preferred.

That worked.

“It looks like you thought of everything,” she said as she turned to Gabe. “I honestly don’t know how this will work out, but I’ll try to be open-minded. I won’t be the easiest person to work with because I can be abrupt, and I’m not very cooperative about doing what other people want me to do. Are you sure this is something you’re willing to work with?”

“I do like challenges, so count me in,” he said with a smile. “I haven’t had an opportunity to talk with you about what you’d prefer when it comes to food, so we’ll have to have that discussion at some point. I’ve been keeping an eye on your schedule, so I think I can work around that. The rest of it we’ll figure out as we go.”

She started to respond, but her comm went off. A glance at the screen indicated it was David Chen, so she answered. “Afternoon.”

“Indeed it is. Do you have time to get together and discuss something? We’ve started to make progress on digging into the traffic control data in the area around the Poseidon Group hideout. The data was erased from the system, but as you suspected, it wasn’t completely gone. In this case, it wasn’t that it was improperly erased. Whoever did that did an excellent job, and while you might be able to recover something, my wife and I can’t find any trace of it. Once again, corrupt personnel come to the rescue. It seems that the man they paid to install the back door they used to erase the data was keeping a separate copy for himself in case he needed to use it to either get himself out of jail or perhaps blackmail the people that had bribed him in the first place. My personal bet is on the former because he has to have realized these aren’t the kind of people you cross.”

She smiled. “Human nature is so predictable. If you’ve got the data, why do you need me? I know your wife can set up a proper search to go through everything.”

“She is, but the data itself is encrypted. We might be able to get through it in short order, but why waste time if we’ve got an expert in the house? If you could drop by my operation center and take a look at it, I’d appreciate it.”

“I can do that. I was about to get something to eat, but this sounds more interesting. Any objections if I eat on the job?”

“None at all. You know where we’re at, so I’ll have an eye out for you. Thanks for your assistance.”

She turned to Gabe and raised an eyebrow. “As this sounds important, could you get me something as well?”

He nodded. “I’ll handle it.”

“Thanks. Once everything is wrapped up, I’ll go over the security system I want to install, and I’ll need those names and identifications to run the background checks on. If you could get them to me by this evening, I’ll see if I can have them cleared by morning.”

“Don’t forget you’ve got those people from Port Royale coming in. If you can get me a list of the equipment they’ll need, I’ll see about having it on hand as quickly as possible.”

With that, he headed out, and she walked to the door a bit more slowly. Rather than take the lift, she went up the stairs since it was only a few levels.

This will be good work for you, Regex. You’ve got the same mixture of knowledge I have but don’t have much experience using it. When we get there, we’ll see how easily we can mix eating with you doing your work.

<I’m looking forward to seeing how these skills work in practice, though I’m not certain how well we’ll be able to mix and match you controlling the eating while I’m controlling the working. That seems rather chaotic.>

It’s going to be a mess, she admitted. Even so, we need to start practicing how to work in tandem. I’m never going to be adjusted to the idea that we’re a single being, but since we occupy the same body, it only makes sense that we need to be able to multitask. I need to be able to account for what you are doing, and you need to be able to do the same. It wouldn’t shock me if we spilled food everywhere, but hopefully it won’t be too bad.

She didn’t think it would be as complicated as they feared, but this could always surprise her. Regex was an old hand at controlling other people’s bodies—at least when it came to the hosts he normally operated in—but he’d never had to work with a second intelligence. She had no experience with having a passenger other than what she’d gained over the last few months. In a crisis, the two needed to work in tandem, and this was an excellent way to start.

His history was one of academic and scientific study, and now she was asking him to put a lot of things she’d studied to use in ways he’d never anticipated having to know. That would be challenging for him but not impossible. She had no doubt he’d pick up the basics quickly. Would he ever be as good at it as her? Doubtful, but she could hone his skills to the point where he was more than adequate doing basic hacking.

In exchange, she’d picked up much of his scientific knowledge of alien computer systems. That was useful on its own, but she was already getting ideas about combining the alien hardware with what she was familiar with in ways that someone like him would never anticipate. The Novarite systems had strengths that their own did not, and the reverse was true as well. If she could take the best of both worlds, she could create a brand-new type of computer that would have capabilities far beyond what they were currently utilizing. With those kinds of tools in hand, there was no telling what they’d be able to accomplish.

If, of course, she ever found the time to do any of that. Her plate was so full of things that needed doing that she’d had to call in assistance. Only she and Regex could dig into the alien computers, so she’d cede control of the search for links to the Poseidon Group to her new associates, except for Gabe and his helpers.

The people she’d hired were ones that she’d worked with many times in the past. Each of them had their flaws, but they would be good fits for the tasks at hand. Once everything was moving smoothly, she could reassess what she needed to do next and try to get ahead of the curve. They had a lot of enemies to deal with and very little time to figure out what they were up to.

And to start that out, she needed to figure out who was associated with the Poseidon Group on Argent. Once Regex broke the encryption on the files in question, it would be child’s play to set up a search through the public and private databases. Almost everybody that came by that area wouldn’t be involved, but some would be.

Everyone would get a thorough check, but she was willing to bet they’d find at least a few people on Argent that hadn’t been highly placed enough to be evacuated, and those people could provide some answers to very pressing questions.

She smiled as she let herself out onto the proper level. This would be a lot of fun, and she couldn’t wait to find someone they’d missed and get them locked up. The enemy had been calling all the shots up to this point, and it was time they started striking back.

3

Mac walked into the armory aboard Hunter and smiled at the chaotic mess scattered across the tables. While Professor Prescott had the honor of working with the people down on Argent to disassemble some of the Gauss weapons they’d captured aboard the Novarite warships, he had his own armorers doing the same.

Many of the people working in this room hadn’t been part of the original Marine complement, but now that they were getting cooperation from the personnel branch, it hadn’t been hard to find a handful of Marine armorers to come up and give them a hand.

There was every indication that they’d get even more people in fairly short order, but it wasn’t going to be before they headed out on their scouting mission in about an hour. These people would be working on this project, and he’d have his original people to continue training.

His new lead armorer was a former master sergeant named Philip Horn. Unlike the stereotypical Marine, he was tall, slender, and bookish. He favored glasses rather than having surgery to correct his vision, which fit with his personality perfectly.

The man had one of the Gauss rifles disassembled on the table in front of him. Considering the vast number of parts he was looking at, it was taken apart much more thoroughly than it was supposed to be.

Horn turned his head and raised an eyebrow as Mac approached. “Good afternoon, Colonel. This is quite the device.”

“That it is. What can you tell me about it?”

“The primary difference between it and ours is that it uses strong magnets to rapidly accelerate flechettes to multiple times the speed of sound. Based on the testing we’ve done, it can achieve at least three times the velocity of a standard Marine rifle. There are also a lot more projectiles in each of the magazines than we carry, and they’re lighter. This weapon is heavier than what we’re used to, but not by a large margin, and carrying extra ammunition isn’t going to be nearly as much of a burden if we move to something like this.”

“I’m not sure we’ll be doing that anytime soon,” Mac cautioned. “We want to understand exactly how these weapons work to make the decision, but we don’t have the manufacturing capability to put something like this together.”

The retired master sergeant laughed. “You must not have looked at the latest reports. We’ve recovered on the order of fifteen hundred of these from the wrecked Novarite warships. In fact, that might be lowballing it because I haven’t seen the latest reports myself. It wouldn’t shock me if we had a couple thousand of these on hand. That’s more than enough to outfit everyone with one, or at the very least to work up some heavy weapons squads using these. They’d be quite deadly in close-quarters combat.”

The news surprised him because he hadn’t realized they’d recovered so many. Even with the new people they’d brought aboard at New Copenhagen, that would be enough to outfit everyone. The question was whether it would be the right move. They knew their regular weaponry intimately, and it was pretty effective.

“What would be the driver to change what we’re doing now?” he asked. “I’m not a big fan of change simply for the sake of change. What would these bring to the table that would warrant doing something different?”

“Have you seen the armor the Novarites use? Pretty tough stuff. It’s made to stand up to hits by these. Admittedly, even it will only stop a glancing shot. The weapons we’ve been using thus far have been effective enough, but we’ve suffered casualties we didn’t need to take. If we used weapons like these, we’d take out the enemy faster, reducing our losses.”

Mac considered that. There was something to what Horn was saying, but he had to bounce it against the maintainability of the weapons and their capability to provide ammunition promptly. Just because they had enough of these weapons to arm his troops didn’t make them the best choice for long-term operations. As the armorer had said, it might make better sense to use certain highly trained squads to deal out death with them.

“I’m not completely convinced,” he said at last. “Looking at all these parts, I think maintaining them would be a real problem. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“Don’t use this one as an example,” Horn said with a wave. “I took it apart far more thoroughly than I suspect their manual would recommend. I wanted to get all the individual parts separated out to see what we could make and what we couldn’t. The flechettes aren’t that difficult to forge. That’s something the people here on Argent can handle better than us. It’s when we get into the magnetic field generators that we’ll probably run into trouble.”

It wasn’t difficult to spot the magnets that went around the barrel, but even though they didn’t look that big to him, they made for a reasonably bulky weapon. It didn’t hamper a three-meter-tall warrior, but it wasn’t sleek in design.

“What makes them problematic?”

“The strength of the magnetic field relative to the amount of power being fed into the magnets. Also, they’re using a superconductor that we might not be able to duplicate. Just having examples of it will make it a simpler process, but that’s an engineering task that someone else will have to get to. If it comes to maintaining the weapons we already have, I should be able to manage that well enough, but building more would be above my pay grade.”

“Then let’s not make any plans to outfit everyone with one,” Mac decided. “We can’t count on being able to keep things running at the level we need if everybody has a new weapon. I’ll talk with Beth and see what she thinks. How many of these do you think we can get operable before we jump out of the system?”

Horn shrugged. “Almost all the rifles recovered were used in combat. Some of them are damaged, and others might have issues we’re not aware of. I wouldn’t count on more than five hundred, just to be conservative. If I had to make a raw guess, probably two-thirds of them will work just fine. So far as ammunition goes, we got what they were carrying on their persons and what they had in the armories, so we’re well-stocked, especially if we only have a few people using them.”

“I’ve got something else that I want you to look at,” Mac said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out one of the pistols that Derek had found aboard one of the smaller ships. With all the searching they’d done, they’d only come up with two, and they’d both been aboard the same ship, so he thought they were custom jobs and probably either a lot more expensive than the rifles or simply harder to build.

The armorer took the pistol carefully and examined it, making sure that it always pointed away from the pair of them. “Well, look at this little beauty. I’d have wagered it would be impossible to build a pistol based on this tech, but here someone went and proved me wrong.”

Horn ejected the magazine. “It looks like it uses smaller flechettes, so ammunition will be a problem. Where did you get this?”

“One of the Navy officers recovered it from a Novarite cruiser. It looked like a captain had one on her person and another in her safe. Since we haven’t found any more, that’s a clue that they’re either hard to make or pricey. I’ll see that the other one gets on the last cutter out for Argent, but I want to see if we can duplicate them as well. I don’t envision them ever being in general use, but if we can build more for our officers, that would have a lot more punch than the pistols they’re currently carrying.”

The armorer laughed. “I’d say so. Even one of these smaller flechettes would go right through somebody not wearing armor. Unless you want them to be shooting the person attacking them and everyone behind that person, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Mac pursed his lips. “I’d wager that is taken into account. Either the muzzle velocity is much lower, or the flechettes are made differently and break up or deform. No one would carry a weapon that deadly otherwise. I won’t know the right answer until you can get me some data.”

“Will do. Look for at least some initial data sometime this evening.”

“That works for me. Thanks.”

Mac left Horn to his work and went in search of Beth Cassidy. He found her in the gym practicing unarmed combat with another Marine. The man was half again her size, but from the way he was circling around her cautiously, he was worried about what she could do to him. He was right to do so because she’d been Marine Recon—like him—and was much tougher than one would assume.

She proved that over the next thirty seconds, when the two of them came together and the bigger Marine went flying over her hip to slam down into the mat. He proved his resilience by rolling immediately to his feet before she could charge in.

They had another half dozen engagements, of which Beth won two-thirds. In the end, they bowed to one another, and Beth grabbed a towel to wipe off her face as she headed his way.

“Sorry I didn’t have my comm with me, but as you can see, I needed a little workout.”

“No worries,” he said as he gestured toward one of the benches. “I won’t keep you long, but I need to run a few things past you before we leave Argent.”

“Hit me.”

They sat, and he half-turned so that he was facing her. “I talked with Horn about the Novarite Gauss rifles. He said he doesn’t have what we need to duplicate the technology but that we’ve got enough to outfit every Marine if we choose to. I’m not sure that’s the best idea, but I want to get your take.”

She considered him for a moment before shaking her head. “We know how powerful they are, but they’re not what we’ve trained with. I think it would be a mistake to change horses mid-ride. Our younger people have only just begun to get comfortable with their rifles, and asking them to do something like that would really throw their training off course. I say we keep things the way they are and maybe test out some experienced people with the rifles in a support role.”

He nodded. “I was thinking pretty much the same thing. Those things can chew through even the armor that the Novarites are wearing, so if we take the heavy weapon squads and outfit them with these rifles to go along with the regular gear, we should be able to bring down the hurt on anyone that gets in our way. Out of the two thousand rifles we’ve recovered, Horn says that to be conservative, we need to only count on five hundred.”

“That still leaves plenty for us to experiment with, and we won’t be directly in a combat situation right away unless we get lucky. Or unlucky. I’ll start working up a training plan and testing out the weapons we have to see how they can fit into what we do. Is that it?”

He shook his head. “We need to come up with a series of plans for boarding actions. I don’t know what the shipyards will look like, but it doesn’t take a genius to realize that they would probably be more useful to us in one piece once the fighting is done. If we get lucky, we’ll surprise the conspirators before they can move out, which turns into a naval action. If we’re unlucky, we’ll find the shipyards after the cruisers have departed, and it’s a matter of taking them intact. We need to be ready for both possibilities and anything in between.”

“And we need to do better when we’re boarding Novarite and Tardan warships,” she added as she wiped her face with the towel again. “The Tardans don’t give us too much trouble, though they tend to fight when they shouldn’t. The Novarites don’t surrender at all. If we want to start taking more prisoners, the net guns are certainly helping, but we need to come up with other options. We’ve got to suppress them before they can resist as strongly as they have been. I’ve got a few ideas, but we won’t know how they will work out until we put them into practice.”

Taking the Novarite warships had been a nightmare. Even after the ships were disabled, every survivor resisted until they died or lost consciousness. Even once they were prisoners, they would attack at every opportunity. He’d never have imagined a more xenophobic race in his life, and he couldn’t understand how they had ever gotten to the point they could go into space. Were they not that way with one another? That seemed unlikely, but there hadn’t been a lot of fighting between the various prisoners.

“I suspect we’ll be dealing with the Tardans before we deal with the Novarites, but let’s get that training planned out and see if we can tweak our current processes, so we don’t have to kill as many of these idiots as we’ve been forced to so far. No matter who we run into, they won’t be peaceful, so let’s do what we can to apprehend as many prisoners as possible without killing them.”

“I’ve got the plans roughed out already, so I’ll get our staff to go over everything and smooth out any burrs. They won’t be ready before we make our first jump, but unless I’m very much mistaken, we’re not going to get lucky right out of the gate. I understand Calvo has been going over the map of the cluster and trying to determine the best locations to look, but none of them are close by, and we need to deal with the Tardans first. There’s no telling what trouble they’ve gotten up to while we’ve been busy with the Novarites and the Poseidon Group.”

“I suppose we’ll find out when we get there,” he agreed as he stood. “We’ve done some good work so far, but we’ve got a long way to go to get into shape to fight all the enemies gathered at the gates. I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom, but we’ve been lucky so far. Sooner or later, things will break against us, and we’ll find our backs against the wall. We’ve got to be ready to fight like hell when that time comes.”

She nodded as she stood and headed for the showers. “We’ll do the best we can. Hell, we’ll do even better than that. Mark my words.”

He hoped she was right. If they couldn’t turn the tide when the enemy was threatening to overwhelm them, it would be the end not only of their ship but of humanity itself. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

Mac shook his head and headed back toward Marine country. He had other things to inspect and very little time to do it. When things happened, they’d happen fast, and he had to be ready.

4

Sara Nastasi walked slowly into an office building in the downtown of the capital on Argent, taking in the details as she moved. Behind her, two Marines bracketed her, their eyes no doubt searching the same area for threats. There were more Marines in the vehicle outside in case there was trouble, though she wasn’t anticipating any.

The walls were covered with images of people working in space constructing ships and in the interior of half-built vessels doing work in vacuum suits. It was inspirational, and she had to confess she felt moved by what she saw. These were people that got things done.

Ringwald Engineering had done a lot of work for the Confederation Navy in the cluster. Before they’d lost their repair and construction slips, they’d been responsible for maintaining the Navy ships stationed here and building military and civilian vessels. Now that the Tardans had invaded, those facilities were gone, but at least the personnel had had time to evacuate, and they were what she was after.

The young man at the front desk—Clark, according to his nametag—smiled as she approached. “Welcome to Ringwald Engineering. How may I assist you?”

“I’d like to speak to someone who could authorize a work contract for most of your personnel. My name is Sara Nastasi, and I’m here on behalf of the Confederation Navy and the Confederation Council in the cluster.”

Clark blinked, probably unused to something like this landing in his lap. “Of course. If you give me a moment to call someone, I’ll see you’re escorted right in.”

“I’ll be right here.”

She took a couple steps away from the desk and resumed examining the images scattered around the lobby. Based on what she could see, this organization had the skills necessary to refit one of the abandoned battleships at Port Royale. It might not be quick or easy, and the technology would definitely be different, but trained engineers and construction personnel could figure out what they needed to do. After all, Commander Danek could come up with some people to assist them in the transition.

It only took a few minutes before a short man that had packed on more pounds than he should have came out of the lift. He had some Asiatic genes somewhere in his family because his skin was an almost golden brown, and his eyes had the telltale epicanthic folds.

He headed toward her with his hand out and a professional smile on his lips. “Commodore Nastasi, welcome to Ringwald Engineering. I’m Lu Junchang, the chief operating officer. If you’d accompany me to my office, we can discuss what you need and see if we can help provide it.”

“You can call me Sara,” she said as she gave him a firm handshake. “I’m on a leave of absence, so the rank isn’t appropriate. I’m trying to fit that middle ground between being a Navy officer and someone working on their behalf. I’m afraid these Marines will have to accompany me for my own protection. Not that I assume there are any assassins here, but it’s been an ugly week.”

The man nodded with a look of sympathy. “I’ve seen some of the news reports. Your Marines are welcome to be by your side. I’ll make certain that our security team is informed. Now, if you’d come with me?”

She followed him into the lift and moved toward the back as the Marines took up positions in the corners. Their rifles wouldn’t be much use in close quarters, but she had no doubt they could handle him if the rotund executive went berserk. With the pistol hidden under her jacket, she might have a decent chance of doing the same.

Jack had insisted that she stay armed, and she agreed. The Poseidon Group had proven their willingness to attack anyone, no matter how many bystanders were in the way. Even if she thought most of the conspirators had fled, that didn’t mean they’d all gone. There could still be cells looking to draw blood where they could, and she didn’t want it to be hers.

The executive pressed the button for the top floor, and the lift quickly took them there. It let them out into a carpeted hallway that was both professional and luxurious. It wasn’t ostentatious, but the deep pile carpet was soft and almost glowed in the light. A few discreet pieces of artwork graced the walls, but the thing that caught her attention as they walked were the small tables that held various devices. She couldn’t say what they were, but they looked like tools or equipment. They weren’t new, so she imagined they had some meaning for the executives of this company.

“These tools belonged to Alex Ringwald,” Junchang said. “He was a senior engineer in the Confederation Navy before he retired and founded the company. It was a small affair back in those days, but he grew it into a thriving organization that was the foundation of what we have today. His ideas and drive are still with us, and some of his descendants still work for us in various capacities, even though, as senior shareholders, they wouldn’t have to. Shipbuilding runs in their blood.”

“I wouldn’t even begin to guess what these things do, but it’s nice to see a company that’s in touch with its roots,” she said as she examined what was perhaps the most enormous spanner wrench she’d ever seen, propped up in a nook beside them. It was taller than she was.

The young man sitting at the desk to the rear of the office smiled at them all but said nothing as Lu led her past. Lu opened the doors to a larger office, stepped inside, and motioned for her to enter. He looked a bit nonplussed when one of the Marines went in first and looked over everything, but he didn’t say anything. A few moments later, the Marine gestured for her to come ahead, and they all went inside.

The executive nodded toward one of the chairs in front of his desk and then took the seat behind it. Once she’d sat, he steepled his fingers and smiled. “How exactly can Ringwald Engineering assist the Confederation Navy in these troubled times? I’m afraid we’ve lost virtually all our orbital facilities, which might prove to be a complicating factor.”

She crossed her ankles as she leaned back, clasping her hands together on her stomach. “I’m not certain that having your facilities would be as helpful as you think with the task I have in mind. You’re familiar with Delta Orionis, correct?”

He nodded. “That magnificent battleship that you used to fight the invaders. I can’t say that I’m conversant with what goes into something like that, but it has to be a marvelous feat of engineering. Are you requiring assistance with it?”

Sara shook her head. “Not exactly. How much history of the first invasion do you know?”

The man shrugged. “I suppose I know what everyone does. The aliens invaded the cluster, and the Navy built some battleships to fight them off. It was a hard fight, but one that they eventually won.”

“There were a dozen battleships at the war’s end, and only Delta Orionis is functional right now. There are eleven more that haven’t been maintained for more than a century and a half. We have spare parts meant to maintain those ships and to keep them in fighting shape, but no one has done anything to them in that time. I need people who can work on something like that to help restore those battleships to full operational readiness to help fight off the invasion we’re dealing with.”

Lu blinked and opened his mouth to say something but paused after extending a hand toward her. “Let me be certain I understand what you’ve said. You want us to renovate eleven battleships for the Confederation Navy? I have to caution you that without knowing the condition of the vessels or even being familiar with the technology that’s gone into building them, it will be difficult to gauge how long or difficult such a task might be. Frankly, some of them might be unrepairable. Also, that task could engage every engineer in the company and still need more.”

“That wouldn’t shock me. The crew aboard Hunter—that’s what we call Delta Orionis—runs around five thousand. Roughly one-fifth of that are Marines, so just operating a ship like that takes four thousand people. I can’t imagine how many people it would take to get everything into functional order from scratch, but that’s what we need.”

He considered her without saying anything for a few seconds. “Do you mind if I call a few senior engineers in to help us go through this? I served my time doing work in space, but I want to make sure I get all the details right before we even determine if this is something we can do.”

“By all means.”

He picked up the comm on his desk and spoke with someone—probably the assistant out front—and asked for a couple of people to be sent to his office immediately. Once he’d put the comm down, he smiled apologetically. “It may take a few minutes to get the people I want here, but they’ll have a much better grasp over what you’re asking for than I do. Frankly, trying to envision working on a single ship like that seems like it could absorb our entire team without any trouble at all.”

“The scale of the task is gargantuan,” she admitted. “Hunter’s hull is a hollowed-out nickel-iron asteroid more than a kilometer long and shaped like a potato. A lot of that is solid, but there’s plenty of equipment inside. I’ve brought a data chip with the technical specifications for the Hunter class battleships that might make the assessment a bit more straightforward.”

“It will. If you let me have that now, I’ll queue it into my screen so we can look at the necessary portions as the engineers ask questions.”

She handed him the chip and watched as he plugged it into a slot on his desk and brought the screen on the wall to life. It showed the battleship’s exterior with markings indicating the length and width in meters. He flashed through a few other screens showing cutaways and complete technical diagrams of what she assumed were the power distribution system and potentially the life-support system, but it went by far too quickly for her to do more than make a few educated guesses. He zoomed in on one specific area, and everything exploded out, showing various systems in far more detail than she could process.

Rather than looking intimidated, Lu nodded and smiled. “This is perfect. With something like this, we can have teams go over everything and determine how difficult the task of fully renovating a vessel like this would be. My thanks to whoever provided them. Your engineer, I presume?”

Sara nodded. “Commander Kelly Danek. She knows that ship inside and out, and her engineering team has been involved in every aspect of renovating Hunter, though I’ll be the first to admit I suspect the vast majority of the work was done as expeditiously as possible and probably not to the highest standards they could be. They were in a hurry and lacked parts and support. Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if Hunter could do with some renovation herself. Expedience has been the order of the day since the very beginning with that ship.”

“It would be helpful to talk with her and her people as part of this process,” he said as he blanked the screen. “They have invaluable experience that could save untold work hours and prevent costly mistakes. Is that going to be possible?”

“Sadly, no. Hunter is already jumping out of the system. I did arrange for one of the senior noncommissioned officers on the engineering team to stay and go over everything she knows. While her experience isn’t as wide-ranging as Commander Danek’s, it’s not far behind. Her name is Chief Petty Officer Sarah Yoo. It took more to pull her out than I expected, but she’s on her way here in a cutter now. I expect her to be available in a few hours. Kelly wasn’t happy to let her go, and I almost didn’t win that fight.”

“You do realize this is an epic undertaking, and the cost will be enormous,” he cautioned her. “While my company did have a contract with the Confederation Navy, even if we transferred all that value, it wouldn’t be nearly enough. The sheer scale of what you’re talking about means we’ll have to subcontract other companies to help with the work, which will cost an absolute fortune. My company and I are willing to work at a reduced rate to help save the Confederation, but it will still come with a price tag that will eventually have to be paid. Are you authorized to negotiate that kind of deal?”

Sara nodded. “I have authorization from Admiral Romanoff and President Ibarra. That should cover both the Navy and the civilian side. I don’t know how that will work in practice, but the Confederation Council in the cluster has authorized this work, and they’ll see you get paid appropriately for it. No discounts required since we’d be working you hard.”

“We can find an appropriate balance,” he assured her. “I’m not greedy, and neither are my people. We’re more than ready to work with you on this matter. While the price might be steep, we’re willing to defer most of the payment. I’ve got to keep my people’s bills paid and the lights on, but we’ll structure everything so you don’t have to worry about where the money is coming from right away. You have my word on that.”

There was a knock at the door, and he called for whoever it was to enter. A middle-aged man and a slightly younger woman walked in. The man was tall, blond, and well-built. He wore a suit that had obviously been tailored, but based on the scars on his hands, he wasn’t afraid to get involved with some mechanical project or another.

The woman was even taller than the man, slender, and with long fingers. Her hands weren’t scarred, but she did have a scrape over her left eye that looked recent.

Lu stood and gestured toward the pair. “Let me introduce Brad DiBartolomeo and Zoe King, our senior engineers. If anyone can tell us if this project is possible, it’s them. Brad and Zoe, this is Sara Nastasi. She works for the Confederation Navy and the Confederation Council in the cluster. She’s brought an extensive project for our consideration, and I need to get your input before I can determine if we can even take a swing at it.”

Sara rose and shook their hands. Surprisingly, Brad’s grip was gentler than she expected and Zoe’s firmer. “Thanks for coming. I appreciate your time.”

Zoe smiled. “Without our facilities in orbit, we’ve got a lot more time than we have work.”

“You’re not supposed to say that out loud,” Brad said as he took a seat. “Zoe is very task oriented.”

Zoe sat and crossed her legs. “What can I say? I am who I am. Give me a big project, and I’m as happy as a clam in water. Since the Navy only has one ship right now, I suspect this has something to do with that monstrous battleship, doesn’t it?”

“If you don’t mind, I’ll lay out the task as you’ve explained it to me,” Lu said. He waited until everyone was comfortably seated and then brought the monitor on the wall back to life, showing the battleship plans. “You’re almost correct, Zoe. She wants to talk with us about providing personnel to renovate eleven battleships that haven’t been maintained for about fifteen decades. I’m told there are a lot of spare parts, but since virtually nothing has been worked on over this time—and considering the scale of each of these ships—we’re talking a lot of work and probably a very short deadline.”

“I asked for a big project, and you have delivered,” Zoe said, leaning forward to stare at the schematic while sticking her hand toward her boss. “The controls?”

He handed her a remote wordlessly, and she began flicking through the images and scanning everything quickly. A couple of times, Brad asked her to back up and zoom in on something, but for the most part, they were content looking at the larger picture until they got to the engineering spaces themselves, and then they blew everything up and started going through things in detail.

That took a full hour, during which the engineers spoke with one another in what almost sounded like a code. It was filled with abbreviations and verbal shortcuts. They had obviously worked together closely before.

When they’d finished, the two of them huddled together and spoke quietly about the relative challenges of each section. Sara couldn’t determine how difficult the work would be based on what they were saying, but she didn’t anticipate this would be a walk in the park. She’d be shocked if they didn’t have to rip everything out and replace it.

“The scale of this ship is almost unimaginable,” Brad said quietly. “We’ve built cruisers for the Navy, and they don’t even come close to the scale we’re talking about. Now, multiply that times eleven. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but renovating those ships will involve ripping out everything and replacing it. Some systems might be fixable, but could we count on that with something needed to protect the lives of our fighting men and women?”

Zoe nodded her agreement. “I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it is a Herculean task. If we took every engineer this company has and all the workers we could get our hands on, that might be enough to commit to fixing a single battleship, and I’m not sure how long it would take until we got a chance to look things over. To fix eleven of them at the same time? You’d need every engineer and skilled worker we could beg, borrow, and outright shanghai. Even so, we’d need plenty of semi-trained labor to help with the work.”

“As I said, a project unlike anything you might have considered the cost of,” Lu said. “The question I have for my people is, can we do it?”

“If we scoured the planet for every engineer we could get our hands on and then did the same at New Copenhagen, I believe we could start work on three or four,” Zoe said. “Frankly, it would be better to focus our efforts on getting a few ready. I’d wager some of them will be in poorer shape than the rest, and we’ll have to evaluate them all to figure out where to best place our efforts. Did you say there are a lot of spare parts at hand? Are they in the same kind of condition as the ships themselves? If so, we’ll be restricted to working on one ship, which will be a huge pain in the ass.”

“There’s a huge space station there that’s filled with repair parts stored in a manner to keep them in good shape,” Sara said. “I’ve seen enough to believe at least those are usable. I can load a team on one of the freighters that’s coming with some personnel for us—hopefully, the one that arrived today will be available—and take you to Port Royale to look things over, but we need to work out the details of whether this is a task you want to do before we start that.”

Zoe laughed. “Want to do it? Hell, yes! All you have to do is give Junchang enough money for the work, and I’m all over this. Even discounting my patriotism and wanting to see these aliens kicked out of our space, just the idea of doing this kind of work thrills me in a way that I don’t think you can understand. I don’t know if he told you, but I’m one of the descendants of our founder, and I’ve got engineering in my blood. He was too young to have worked on these ships, but I can tell you from the stories I’ve heard about him that he’d have loved the challenge.”

“I’m not going to be able to work up the full contract without having my people look everything over,” Lu said. “I’m more than willing to send Brad and Zoe with some of our people to look over what we’ve got to work with, and once they get back to me, I can fill in the blanks. That way, we don’t have to slow the process down while they see what things look like. Does that work for you?”

Sara nodded. “If the two of you can gather your people and the necessary equipment, I hope we’ll be on our way in about two hours. I realize that’s not a lot of time, and I have no idea how long you need to be there, but we need to get this started as soon as possible.”

“That works for us,” Lu said as he stood and extended his hand. “I look forward to what I hope is a prosperous relationship.”

“So do I,” she said as she stood and shook his hand. “I’m afraid that humanity might be counting on us.”

5

David Chen stood behind his wife as they monitored the cells where they had their most prized prisoners. The two Novarites had been crew members aboard one of the big ships and were the only ones of the xenophobic species that had agreed to even speak with them rather than attack on sight.

The male, Aralan, was the smaller of the pair, while the female, Larista, was bigger and more aggressive. Both were members of the Blue Mountain clan, though he had no idea what that meant. They’d just begun cooperating, and while Christine Hooghuis had asked them a lot of questions about their background, and he knew something about the clan was in there, he’d been focused on other matters and hadn’t thoroughly reviewed everything.

It was shocking how quickly she’d gotten the pair to talk about themselves. The agreement had been that they’d talk about societal details and personal history. Christine had been more than willing to discuss her own past and the Confederation as well. She’d spent a lot of time working with them, and even skipping through some of the later interviews, it was obvious that she built a rapport with them.

A rapport that he and his wife needed to duplicate if they planned to get anything of military value. As paranoid and violent as the pair were, he wasn’t sure how likely that was.

Now that the hackers that Lisa had hired to assist her had arrived in the system, he and Tina needed to focus on the military aspects of their enemies. They had some Tardans they could question, but all efforts thus far had been met with resistance.

The members of the Tardan military they’d managed to capture knew what they were doing was something their people saw as a grave crime. He’d eventually hold that over their heads to get more information, but Lisa would get most of that out of the enemy’s computers now that she had time to focus on them.

The same could be said of the Novarites, but since he had subjects that were willing to speak, he wasn’t ready to let that pass. As low-ranking crew, they might not know much about what their officers and leaders wanted, but they’d know something. It was inevitable that people talked, and some of their goals would have filtered their way down to everyone. All they had to do was get the prisoners to talk.

“How do you think we’d best approach this?” he asked as he massaged Tina’s shoulders.

“I think you can keep doing that for a while, but it’s not going to get us any military secrets,” she said, her voice a purr. “I don’t know if anybody has mentioned this, but you have magic hands.”

“You’re not the first to say so, though you are the most recent by many years. I credit years of diligent practice.”

She laughed. “Keep on working on those skills. They’re perishable, you know. As for our guests, Christine has done yeoman’s work getting them to see humans as something other than things to be smashed. I don’t know how she does it, but she can get anyone to talk to her.”

“She’s got talent,” he agreed. “If we approach this the wrong way, they’ll raise their defenses, and we’ll never get them to talk to us. This opening phase will be critical, and I want to make sure we’re on the same page.”

“I think our best bet is to build on what Christine has done and try to connect with them on a personal level. Let’s start by telling them something about ourselves and our hopes and dreams. You haven’t had an opportunity to review everything Christine discussed with them. She’s gotten an excellent overview of how their society works. Our history has its share of dictatorships, but it’s nothing like what these people have had to grow up with their entire lives.”

“That bad?”

“Worse. To say that their leadership is top-down is a severe understatement. As crew people, they’ll never become officers. Outside the military, they’d be simple laborers and never have the opportunity to progress any farther. All things in their society are geared toward enabling the war machine that keeps their nation expanding, and any discord or discontent is dealt with harshly.”

“Ouch. Not promising.”

“No, it’s not. At this point, I’d be surprised if they have much resistance to what their leadership wants at all. They’ve shown an interest in knowing more about the Confederation and how it works, and I think we should feed that knowledge to them in exchange for what they know. By now, they have to realize that we’ll find out the big picture items eventually.”

“Eventually isn’t now,” he said. “The longer they hold out, the more they’ll put us at a disadvantage. I don’t intend to make them our allies, but we have to find a way to defuse their innate hostility long enough to at least sympathize with us. This probably isn’t going to work, but we have to try.”

“Then let’s get to it. Should we do this in person or via video? Even Christine wasn’t comfortable meeting with them in person, and I’m not sure they’d react well to our presence in any case. It seems like it would be a provocation.”

“Let’s start with video. Eventually, we’ll try to meet in person. They’ve already agreed that they can never go home, and they know they’ll have to forge a life among the aliens that captured them, so they’ll have to accept that they can’t attack everyone they see. You’re probably right that this isn’t the time to test that theory, but it will have to happen.”

He sat down beside her and manipulated the controls to bring up a view of the quarters they’d arranged for their prisoners. As they were mated, it was a shared setup, but much larger than they’d had aboard Hunter. It also had some of the prisoners’ own personal items that they’d recovered from the wreckage of the ship they’d been saved from. Mixed among them were other things that the pair had agreed would make their surroundings easier to live in because of familiarity and cultural significance.

There were no weapons, nor anything that could be easily used as a weapon, but one could tell by looking at the furniture style and the artwork they’d recovered from what had to be in officers’ quarters that the society was very martial. Everything was spartan, and the art all seemed to have a theme of sacrifice and bravery.

For David, it was a bit on the nose. Even so, he’d seen some of what their own society had looked like in the historical videos back in places like the Soviet Union on Earth. There were eerie similarities to what he was seeing now.

Their prisoners were seated at a small table and speaking quietly to one another. It looked like they were drinking the alien equivalent of coffee. Sadly, they wouldn’t be able to grow whatever biological material made the drink, though they’d recovered quite a bit of food and other stores that would be useful for some time. Their doctors assured them that most of the food they could get on Argent wouldn’t be poisonous, though it might not have everything the Novarites needed to survive and thrive. They were working on that.

He touched one of the controls and cleared his throat. They’d installed a screen on the wall that they could use to project their images. It also served to host the translation program created by Lisa Gane. Their appearance let the aliens know that it was time to talk. They weren’t fond of the process, but they understood the deal they’d made.

“Good afternoon,” he said. “Is this a good time to talk?”

Aralan and Larista both glanced over and seemed to sigh in unison. He had no idea if that meant the same thing for them as it did for humans, but it still made him smile.

“I suppose we do not have a choice,” the large female said. “It was inevitable that you would put us to the question, so now we will have to pay what is due. Take me and leave my mate.”

David felt his eyes narrowing. “What do you mean, take you?”

“Let us not pretend. You wish for military information, and you will go to any lengths to get it. Torture me and leave my mate to live out his life. There is no need to break us both for what I am sure I will tell you before I die.”

“You don’t understand how humans work,” Tina said. “We’re not going to torture you for information. We want to ask some questions, and we’re willing to trade something of value for what you have to say, but even if you tell us nothing, we’ll find out what we need to know from your computers. It may take a while, so we’re willing to make a deal to get what we want sooner, but we’ll find out everything you know and more at some point.”

“Humans are very confusing,” Aralan said as he stood and took the two cups to a sink to rinse them. “We were only crew, so we do not know the strategy of our leadership. We were placed into sleep to follow the slaves and determine where they settled so we could eliminate that threat before it became bothersome. There is no more to it than that.”

“I’m not sure that’s accurate,” David said. “Your people were involved in a brutal war that had been going on for more than a century, if I understand correctly. You sent a lot of firepower to follow the Tardans. Surely, allowing them to escape would have been a better use of your military resources than to send so many large vessels and escorts after them.”

The alien raised one shoulder. “I don’t believe our leadership understood how far the slaves would flee. Once we were committed, we had no choice but to continue the mission. When the journey kept getting longer and longer, they were likely unwilling to return without results. That would not have been good for their careers or physical well-being.”

“While I understand that you have no idea what your orders were, do you have any clue what the general plan was once you found their new home?” Tina asked. “It sounds like you weren’t there to take prisoners.”

“Our people do not tolerate those who would work against the state, so their deaths were inevitable,” Larista said. “It is not a matter of some personal enmity but simply the practical realities of our race being in a war for our very existence. No one with a knife can be allowed to stand behind us.”

“We haven’t found information about the enemy you’re fighting,” David said. “Why is that?”

Now it was the female alien turned to raise a shoulder. “Perhaps it is hidden among the classified data. I doubt that information about the war would be left around for everyone to find. We all hear stories, but none of us know who the enemy we face is or why the war has taken so long to win. Once again, that’s not something our leaders wish to share with us. You must capture a senior officer to learn that.”

“Surely, there must be rumors.”

“One does hear things, but even though our people are fond of hand-to-hand combat, I don’t know anyone that has ever engaged with the enemy. The weapons they use are comparable to ours, and when ships fight, it is rare to see survivors. Just as we do, the enemy makes certain that all ships are vaporized where possible. This is a war to the death, and there will be no prisoners.”

David pressed the mute button and turned to Tina. “Maybe that’s why they’re so convinced that we’re going to torture them for information. If neither side is interested in talking with the other, that makes for a brutal fight.”

“And yet it’s gone on for over a century,” she said. “I don’t understand why one side or the other hasn’t found a way to triumph. How can either side still be standing? It sounds like they’re having a knife fight in a closet, and that leads to death for everybody involved.”

“I hope Lisa can get some information about that out of their systems because I’m more curious than ever about what’s going on. It sounds like there’s more to what’s happening than what they’re being told. Frankly, I still don’t buy the story that they were sent to chase down the Tardans and slaughter them because you’re pretty focused when you’re involved in a fight to the death.”

He unmuted the microphone. “My wife and I are concerned that you might not have the full story about why you were pursuing the Tardans. It seems unrealistic that you would waste forces that could defend your worlds to track down fleeing slaves. After all, you allowed them to build ships for you, even if you didn’t have them putting weapons in them. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to occupy their system and make certain that no more slaves fled?”

“I have no doubt that happened,” Arlan said. “The runaway slaves would not be able to come after our people in the short term, but no one wants to allow a festering wound to kill them. This mission was necessary.”

“We have already spoken with you far more than I anticipated,” Larista said. “Our conversations with Christine have weakened our will to resist you. The woman seems to have some magic that she can use to convince you to say things you would never imagine yourself revealing. Now that you have used her to break our will, what will you do? What information do you hope we can reveal to you that will make any difference whatsoever?”

“One way or the other, we’ll end up fighting your people when they arrive,” David said. “I’m confident our leadership will continue to try diplomacy, but when your people attack us without even responding to our communications, that makes it difficult. I suppose a good place to begin would be to ask why you do that. What drives your people to fight so strongly that they won’t even communicate with the people they want to destroy?”

Larista raised her shoulder in that gesture that was becoming familiar. “I have never interacted with our command personnel other than carrying out the orders they sent through their intermediaries. Our society—particularly our military—is made up of layers that interact only with the ones directly above and below them. From what Christine said, the level above my mate and I would be the equivalent of your middle-grade noncommissioned officers. We don’t even speak to the higher-level noncommissioned officers, much less the most junior of the officers. Even such as they would undoubtedly not have the information you are requesting, so that is a question I cannot answer.”

“Can you tell us anything about the enemy you’re fighting?” Tina asked.

“I am certain our warriors have fought them,” Arlan said, “but our warriors do not communicate with the crew. They have a different chain of command. Once we were captured, they said nothing to us, so I have little information I can tell you about that.”

“But you do know something?”

The alien nodded. “This particular species was encountered roughly five generations before we departed on this mission. I believe that is close to a century of your time. You call my people warlike, but you should know that we are not expansive. We grow, but we do it a single system at a time, investing our resources to build it into something that can join the rest of society without being dependent upon support. The expansion was a long process without contact with alien species, and whatever encounter led to the fighting was not meant to be conquest.”

Tina muted the microphone. “I’m not sure how much of that I should believe. Just looking at the weapons their ships and warriors use, I think it’s obvious they like to fight a lot more than our guests are willing to admit.”

“It may be that they don’t know the truth of what their own government is doing,” David said. “They’ve already said they don’t have much contact with people at the highest reaches of their own leadership, so they might be told one thing while something completely different is actually happening. We also can’t count out the possibility that they’re lying to us.”

His wife raised an eyebrow. “They seem pretty sincere, but they are aliens, so it’s possible they could fool us since we don’t know their body language all that well. It never hurts to go into something like this being skeptical. What are we really after? We want to get their cooperation, but if they’re telling us the truth, they don’t have as much insight into what’s going on as we would have hoped.”

“There’s one thing they can confirm for us, if they know.”

David reactivated the microphone. “Your people were aware that the Tardans had something planned. You wouldn’t have moved as many ships as you did into position to follow them if you weren’t already aware of what was happening. My question to you is, given the scale of the operation, how much in advance were you positioned?”

“A significant amount of time,” Larista said. “Perhaps a year as you understand it.”

“Do you know how many vessels the Tardans were sending? Was your force tailored to fit what we’ve encountered thus far? If so, that means we’re going to run into more of your ships, does it not?”

“Your logic seems sound, but I cannot confirm it,” the alien said. “There were times when crew was shuffled from one vessel to another, and it wasn’t difficult to grasp that we were part of a much larger force. The senior officer in command of that force would lead many dozens of vessels, which implies that this operation was on that scale. Determining if that is true is something you’ll have to do for yourself.”

“What are your plans for us?” Aralan asked. “These quarters are comfortable, but they are still a prison. Will our cooperation lead to more freedom?”

David clasped his hands on the console and tapped his thumbs together. “What type of freedoms would you like to have? The other survivors of your species are so xenophobic that we cannot connect to them in any meaningful way. If they discover that you’ve cooperated with us in the slightest, I have no doubt they will kill you. Where does someone like you go from here?”

“It will be difficult, but we must find a way to fit into your society,” she said. “We can never go home, and we will always be strangers. My mate and I wish to integrate as much as possible into your society. That will require much education on our part and restraint from what seems to be the appropriate response to anything until we learn how we should respond. We don’t anticipate being released from your custody for a long time, but we would like to work toward that. Conversing with Christine has given us hope that there is a future where we can be free once more. Perhaps even freer than we ever were in the past.”

David and Tina exchanged a glance, and she nodded. It was something he had to clear with Admiral Romanoff and President Ibarra, but he could at least make the opening overtures because this was the right thing to do.

“I believe we can handle that,” he said. “As you say, it probably won’t happen quickly because our people fear the violence you might display. There are Tardans that are working with our people, and we’re willing to extend the same courtesy to you, but you can’t attack anyone. Even if you think they’re being provocative, you must restrain yourselves from physical action. That said, I’m willing to make a tentative offer to do that because I believe our leadership will agree. How do you think you will react to the presence of the Tardans?”

The alien male shrugged his shoulders. “I have never met one, so I don’t know that I would react harshly, but I anticipate that the reverse will not be true. The Tardans undoubtedly have no love for my people, so this will be challenging. What do we do if they attack us?”

“I can assure you that everything that takes place will be supervised,” Tina said. “Let the Marines handle it. They’re trained for that sort of thing and will make certain that no one is hurt. Will harsh words be exchanged? Almost certainly. They will accuse you of doing terrible things to their people. I suggest you find out if you can set aside a naturally argumentative response and listen to what they’re saying. If you ever hope to work with humans or Tardans, you’ll need to understand viewpoints that might not be very comfortable for you to hear.”

“Though there will be other ships of our people coming to your cluster, probably pursuing other Tardan ships, my mate and I will never be able to return home,” Larista said. “We will make the sacrifices necessary to begin the integration process. We will work with your people to confirm what data we can. If need be, we will even try to speak to other prisoners if you capture some that will talk. They will see that as a betrayal, and from their point of view, it is, yet that is the world we find ourselves in.”

David nodded. “Sometimes we have to play the cards we’re dealt. That might not be a metaphor you understand, but it means we often don’t have a choice about what circumstances life deals us. I’ll speak to our leadership and confirm they will work with you on this. Once I get their concurrence, we’ll begin the process. As soon as I know more, I’ll inform you. Thank you for your assistance. Goodbye.”

He killed the connection to the prison and turned to his wife. “Do you think this will work?”

She shrugged. “I suppose it’s possible, but it won’t be easy. One thing is for sure, though. If we can get a working group of humans, Tardans, and Novarites, we’ll be able to figure out things that don’t make sense right now, even if that’s an uphill battle.”

He laughed, stood, and stretched his back. “Let’s grab something to eat and then talk to President Ibarra’s staff. With Hunter out of the system, I suppose the next best person to speak to would be Sara. She can’t technically give us permission to do what we want, but that’s the best we’ll get.”

“Sounds good to me.”

As the two of them walked out of the room, he thought about what the prisoners had already said. There was the potential of a lot more Novarite warships in the cluster. They’d done well against just a few, but those big ships were a threat to even the battleship that was protecting humanity. They’d be in dire straits if they ran into half a dozen of them.

He’d have to pray Jack was cautious. One mistake could have dire consequences.

6

Tension was high on Hunter’s bridge when they dropped out of quantum space into the outer reaches of the Vesuvius system. It was the closest of the locations likely to have a major Tardan presence, so they were being cautious. Jack didn’t know whether he’d find the Tardans in control, a Novarite follow-up force having devastated the symbiote military presence, or the Locusts patrolling the system en masse.

He supposed they might find nothing at all. They were making assumptions about how everything in the cluster had gone down, and without a gate network to support the transfer of information, they were flying in the dark. It was his job to scout thoroughly before committing his ship to something too dangerous.

They had new capabilities, but the last week of travel had only allowed them to do so much in the way of repairs. Kelly Danek had been true to her word and had gotten a second quantum drive put together and online in the devastated area amidships where one of the antiproton beams had punched into them. They hadn’t had an opportunity to repair the hole driven through one hundred meters of their nickel-iron armor, so it was precariously positioned, yet they had a second independent quantum drive.

That wasn’t to say she hadn’t been working on getting the armored hull repaired. They’d found an asteroid of approximately the right size and composition and stuck it into the opening the beam had cut, and Danek’s people were in the process of liquefying it and getting it where it needed to go, but the process was incomplete.

They had to do the work while the ship was on the move, which wasn’t making things any easier. It would’ve been far simpler if he’d ordered the ship to stop for a few days to complete the process under more stable conditions, but he didn’t feel like he had the time to spare. Depending on how long it took to scout the system, Danek might be able to finish repairing the hull while they took the measure of the enemy forces inside the system.

“What have we got?” he asked from his command seat.

“We’re still pulling data, sir, but it looks like there are enemy vessels present,” Derek said. “The passive sensors are picking up ships moving in the system, but we can’t determine their size at this point. From what I can see, the activity is deeper in the system. We’re still collating the information, but we’re talking about at least a dozen vessels. The data we have at this point is a little sketchy, and even as we’re processing it, I’m picking up new contacts inside the system.”

Jack scowled at the main screen as it updated. “Are we picking up any Locusts?”

“No, sir,” Amanda said. “This looks like a Novarite presence. I’m not saying all the ships belong to them, but let’s say they took out the Tardan military but haven’t done anything to the colony vessels. That could match what we’re looking at.”

“If we stay at our current location, how long before we get a firm count?”

“We’ll never be able to pin them all down from out here,” Derek said. “We should be able to get eighty to ninety percent of them with time, but the ones that aren’t moving will be problematic. Particularly if they’re very distant from us or shielded by a planetary body.”

“And if we go in, how much risk are we taking?” he asked. “We already know the hyperspace detectors pick up an independent quantum drive the moment it engages and when a ship emerges. How much danger are we looking at of them figuring out who and what we are?”

Amanda turned in her seat and shook her head. “I’m not sure we’re in that much danger, sir. Those sensors were designed to detect a vessel in hyperspace, so seeing a little blip on the screen isn’t going to trigger them into thinking there’s a ship there. That’s not how their technology works. They’d probably attribute it as a glitch.”

“Also, those vessels are outside the range of the detectors we picked up off the scout ship,” Derek said. “The ones we got from their warships are less powerful than those, so we’re safe right now. If we choose to come in closer, we should still be outside their detection range if we’re careful in selecting our exit point, but still close enough for us to get a much better look at who we’re dealing with.”

There were trade-offs, but with a ship as agile as his, they could retreat if need be. “Pick a location where we can come out without direct detection, and let’s get some decent data off of those ships. We can always make a clean getaway if we don’t cross too deeply into the gravity well.”

“Understood, sir. I plan to bring us out near one of the outer gas giants. If we emerge with it between us and the inner system, we can come out into the open and proceed deeper into the system. It’s not completely safe, but they won’t see us unless they’re much more observant than I expect.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” he said. “Make it happen.”

They used the quantum drive to jump directly behind the gas giant and proceeded into the open under their fusion drives. While the colossal planet wasn’t far from the inner system, it was still distant enough that there was no sign that the humans living there had built orbital platforms. Harvesting from gas giants wasn’t profitable, which generally limited commercial operations to the asteroid belts.

They were still on edge for a while, but there was no indication any of the ships deeper in the system had detected their arrival. They hadn’t done any testing to see if something like a gas giant obscured the arrival of a ship on the hyperspace detectors, though he suspected it didn’t. Until they knew better, he’d treat it as if detection was possible.

It would take them hours to get into position to get the data they wanted, so he might as well step down to a lower state of alert and let his people stretch their legs. Everyone could have an opportunity to get something to eat if they wanted, cycle off their duty stations, and relax for a bit.

“Let’s start moving everyone to—” he started.

“Contact,” Amanda said, interrupting him. “It’s ahead of us and slightly above the plane of the ecliptic. I’m not sure what I’m looking at, but the passive sensors are getting an artificial return. It might be a remote detection station. If so, we’re well within range to be picked up.”

So much for this going nice and easy. “What can you tell me about it, Amanda?”

“Whatever I’m seeing is complex. There are artificial parts, but there are also sections that might be part of a cometary body. Without turning the active sensors on, it’ll be difficult to pick it out, but there’s a fusion plant operating over there at low power levels.”

“If I adjust our course, we can be on location in about an hour,” Derek said. “We’re outside the jump limit, so if we have to make a run for it, it’s as simple as pressing a button. They won’t threaten us until we get into weapons range.”

“If we count the object as a whole, how big are we talking?” Jack asked.

“Maybe half again as large as a cruiser, sir. Definitely not one of the big Novarite warships. Or, for that matter, even one of the cruiser-sized ones because it looks like the natural area is probably at least twice the size of whatever the artificial part is. It’s either a small ship or an artificial structure built onto an existing cometary body.”

“And we’re not detecting any active sensors? If I were to build lookout stations around a system, this is pretty much what one would look like.”

“No active sensors,” Amanda confirmed. “Like I said, the fusion plant is either small or banked down to its lowest setting. If we weren’t this close, I might have missed it.”

He tapped a finger on the arm of his command chair. If they were spotted, it was already too late to get away. Whatever that was, it couldn’t fire at them until they got close enough to get a decent look. If they were unlucky, they could still escape, so they might as well see what they were dealing with. This was a scouting mission, after all.

“Take us in slowly. We won’t go active on our sensors, but I want to be kept in the loop about any determinations you make. You both stay focused on it while I have a conversation with our Marines to make sure they’re ready for action.”

He activated the comm on the arm of his chair and signaled Mac’s office. There was no response, so he made a more general call and waited for the Marine officer to contact him back.

“You were looking for me, sir?” Mac said when he called back a minute later. “Sorry for the delay. I’m inspecting the big hatches leading into our small craft bay, and my suit’s comm unit was misbehaving. What’s going on?”

“We’ve arrived in the Vesuvius system and detected something that might be a lookout post. We’ll get a bit closer to make sure, but if it is one, we’ll want some of your people to board and see what’s going on there. This is the first time we’ve run into anything like this, and if we can get our hands on more of the alien technology in its natural environment without blowing the ships apart first, that would be useful. Even if it sends out an alert, we’ll have at least two or three hours before anyone can get out here, so I want to make sure we’re ready to seize the advantage here.”

“I’ll get a team ready to go. Keep me updated with what we’re looking at, and I’ll tweak the plan on the fly.”

“Sounds good, Colonel. Bridge out.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Derek cleared his throat. “We’ve got updated information about the ships deeper in the system. The larger ones are definitely Novarite. Thus far, we’ve pinned down four of them. We’ve identified about three dozen other ships now that we’re in a better position, so most of them are probably Tardan colony vessels. The assumption was that the Novarites would destroy them, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.”

“Most of them are gathered around the main world, but not all of them,” Amanda said. “It looks like they’ve positioned one of the big ships ahead of the planet in its orbit by about sixty degrees. Another one is trailing by about the same margin. Makes sense as those are gravitationally stable. They’re deep inside the gravity well, so they’re not a threat to us. All four are a minimum of three and a half hours away from the jump limit.”

Derek nodded. “It looks like the colony vessels are inbound and about halfway between the jump limit and the planet. They’re not moving quickly, so I’m guessing they can’t move under their own power. Some of the Novarite ships are escorting them and pulling them along with their own drives. I’m not sure how, but that’s the only way I can explain how they’re crawling along.”

“What about signals from the planet?” Jack asked. “Any indication the infrastructure there is still intact?”

The young helmsman shook his head. “No radio signals, sir. That’s not unexpected if the orbital infrastructure was destroyed. They may still be capable of short-range transmissions, but we’re not going to hear them out here. With the Novarite warships right there, including some cruiser-sized ones in orbit, I wouldn’t expect there to be many people talking.”

Jack leaned back in his chair and considered the main screen. “Let’s see a strategic layout of the system. Place all the ships we’ve identified thus far and mark them as yellow if there are any unknowns.”

The view on the screen changed, and he could tell that things would be much more complicated than they’d been the last time around. The only thing they had going for them was that the aliens here didn’t know what Hunter could do. Well, the Tardans would have an idea of what the battleships were capable of based on information gathered during the last invasion, so there was that, but looking at the ships that had been identified, he didn’t believe they had to be overly concerned.

It seemed the Novarites had arrived in strength and crushed the Tardan military. The question now was, what were they doing with the colonists? If their intent had been simple destruction, those colony vessels wouldn’t be in motion. They’d be debris. Based on previous actions by the Tardan military, they’d have disabled all the colony vessels as soon as they arrived. If the Novarite warships had been right behind them, they’d have obliterated the Tardan warships and the Locusts accompanying them shortly after that.

It seemed the Novarites had been satisfied with obliterating any armed resistance and were now moving the colonists toward planetary orbit. Did they intend to decant them there? If the humans on the surface were still relatively organized, that might be problematic for everyone. He needed to know what was happening here, but he wasn’t sure how to get that information without revealing his presence.

They traveled toward whatever they were approaching for the next forty-five minutes, gathering as much data as they could at a distance while refining what they were getting from deeper in the system. Nothing they’d seen thus far from inside the jump limit changed his impression that the Tardan military had betrayed the colonists and been stomped by the Novarites shortly thereafter.

The only mystery about the situation was what this lookout station was. It seemed too far out to be of much use to the Tardans after they’d seized the system. If they’d intended to deploy hyperspace detectors, they would have had to have built hundreds of these things, and there hadn’t been time. This entire situation wasn’t making sense.

“Sir, I think I might have identified what we’re looking at,” Amanda said. “Unless I’m gravely mistaken, the artificial structure ahead of us is a Confederation freighter. It looks like it’s laying directly against a cometary body and is powered down to the lowest point that it can be.”

Jack felt his eyebrows rising. “We’ve been under the assumption that all Confederation shipping in the cluster was destroyed by the Locusts. Could they have missed this one? If they did, what are the chances that anyone over there is still alive?”

The young woman shrugged. “They should have run out of oxygen a long time ago. There’s only so much you can do with recycling, and six months is definitely beyond that for a civilian freighter. Hell, it would be too much for us.”

“That might explain why they’re sitting next to a cometary body,” Derek said. “There’s a lot of ice that could be harvested to release oxygen. The process wouldn’t be straightforward, but it could be done. The real risk is that the life-support system wouldn’t be able to scrub out the carbon dioxide after a while. I’m not sure how they could get around something like that, so we might be looking at a tomb.”

Jack pursed his lips. “We’ll approach this ship as if there are survivors. At least a freighter isn’t going to be a direct threat to us, but I’d still like to treat this as quietly as possible. Set up a course to bring us around on the far side of the cometary body from the freighter. We’ll deploy the Marines when we get close enough and let them do a more thorough examination in person. We’ll remain undetected if nobody lights up their active sensors or sends a strong radio signal.”

“We’ll be in position for the Marines to launch in about twenty-five minutes, sir. I can coordinate that for you. I need to update them on what we’re seeing anyway.”

“Sounds good. Let’s take a step down from full alert and rotate the crew out. This isn’t going to be a threat to us unless things are a lot different than what we expect, but everyone needs to get themselves in order before we potentially have to fight.”

As the bridge crew began rotating out to take care of their needs, Jack brought up the visual of what they were looking at through the passive sensors on the small screen on his command chair. They were too far away to see any fine detail, but it sure did look like a freighter.

Who had these people been? Had they run into the outer system when the Locusts arrived and been missed? It was likely they were approaching a dead ship with a dead crew, but miracles had happened before.

Even if they found the worst-case situation over there, perhaps they’d left their passive sensors monitoring events deeper in the Vesuvius system. If so, they might be able to get data on the attack and even the arrival of the Tardan colonization convoy.

That’s what was driving his thought to send the Marines over. If the men and women serving aboard that ship had perished, it would be a gruesome task, but the benefits outweighed the horror. They needed to know what they were facing to have any chance at liberating the humans here.

He’d get that information, and they’d do what it took to make that happen. If the fight looked like it would be too difficult, he’d have to make some hard choices, but he desperately hoped that he could find a path to victory. There were billions of people down there desperately waiting for his arrival, and he wanted to set them free.

Yet he couldn’t lose sight of the tactical and strategic considerations that only having one battleship left him with. He and his people would do the best they could. Hopefully, they’d be able to get some answers that helped them make that decision in short order. And, if a miracle were to happen, they might even be able to rescue some people who no doubt thought they were doomed to die here.

7

Lisa was at the starport when the cutter carrying the people she’d sent for landed. Annoyingly, they hadn’t arrived on the freighter she’d been expecting them to be on and had taken an extra week to get there. That made her angry, but considering that the politicians on New Copenhagen and Port Royale had felt other things needed to come first, there’d been nothing she could do about it.

They had enough civilian ships now to move whatever they wanted, but these idiots thought they needed to talk things over first, so that first freighter had held nothing but idiot politicians and hangers-on. What a colossal waste of time.

Still, it had allowed her to do a fair bit of work, but she was still swamped and needed all the assistance she could get. Now that her hand-picked team had finally arrived, maybe they could start making some things happen.

The sun shone brightly in the sky, and it was damned uncomfortable out in the open. Not only was it bright, but it was also hot and muggy. There were reasons people lived in space stations, and she was experiencing one of them right now.

Once the cutter settled, the hatch opened, and a short ramp extended to allow the passengers to debark. A couple of Navy personnel came first, but they were followed by four familiar faces. She’d worked with each of the people before and knew their strengths and weaknesses almost as well as she knew her own.

Behind them was a fifth man that she didn’t recognize but that she suspected was the one that had replaced her working on the security system in the nuclear weapons storage facility on New Copenhagen. She only knew him by reputation but didn’t disagree with whoever had decided to add him to the team.

There was something to be said for adding an unfamiliar element to what they were doing. She and the people she knew would have their own ways of dealing with one another, so having an outside party working intimately with them would mean everyone would mind their behavior just a bit better.

After all, the people she’d hired were criminals. These were the kind of folks that were tempted to do things they shouldn’t. It was her job to make sure they understood the consequences and focused on what they needed to do. The rewards if they worked well together would be tremendous, but she needed to stress the things that might happen if they decided it was simpler to do something shady.

Still using her hand to shield her eyes from the incredibly bright orb in the sky, she walked up to the group. “I can’t say how glad I am to see you guys. I think this is at least sixty percent of the hacking talent on Port Royale all gathered in one place. Somebody should be afraid. Probably me. We’ve got one new guy, so I’ll lead off the introductions. My name is Lisa Gane, and I’m the best hacker from Port Royale. Fight me.”

“Sister, please,” one of the men said with a grin. “You’re the third best, if that. I’m BB Marzouk, and I’m the top hacker from our neck of the woods.”

“If you need me to put you in your place again, I’d be happy to demonstrate why I’m better than you are,” she said as she grabbed him into a brief hug. “And to expand on that little nickname, this is William ‘Big Bill’ Marzouk, which is what the BB stands for.”

“It’s good to see you again, girl,” he said, squeezing her tight. “We were worried about you.”

“I’m not going to get into this testosterone-laden fight about who’s best,” one of the women said as BB released her. She was short and had more muscle than one would expect from someone with her frame. “None of us would be here if we weren’t the top dogs. I’m Frida Olivieri.”

“Owen Klein,” the other male said. He had a bushy head of red hair and freckles. “I’m not at the top of the heap, but I do okay.”

The last woman, very tall with tattoos on her neck, shook her head and set her dangly earrings to jingling. “Shauna Nolan. Nobody needs to get their panties in a twist. We’re the best that Port Royale has to offer, so it doesn’t matter which one of us is better. This is a team effort. Right?”

“It is,” Lisa said with a grin. “And joining us is someone who worked for Admiral Romanoff on New Copenhagen. Everyone, this is Corey Goldberg.”

The young man waved toward the others. “Hi. I’m going to enjoy working with everyone.”

“Does he have what it takes?” BB asked, his tone a bit challenging. “Can’t say I’ve heard of him, but I don’t know all the players.”

“He broke into a high-security vault underneath a nuclear weapons storage facility, so I’d say he’s got some skills,” Lisa said with a smile. “Each of you is here because you’re good. I’d rather not do a briefing out in the sunlight because I can feel myself burning to death. Let’s get into the cutter and get the heck out here.”

Going right back into the vessel they’d just come out of was obviously not what they’d expected, but no one argued since she was technically the boss on this job. That would be something weird to deal with. She was a loner, and so were most of the people she had working for her. Each of them had a working knowledge of the others—except the new guy—and had even paired up on various jobs in the past, but they’d never worked as a group before.

Once the cutter took off, the group turned to face her. “What are we doing?” Klein asked. “Your offer was pretty light on details, though the pay and perks got my attention. I’d wager from the fact that you’re talking about getting us pardons for all past crimes means that this is government sanctioned, but I’m not sure why that’s important during an invasion.”

“It’s complicated,” she admitted. “Basically, there’s a group of people that want to overthrow the Confederation government. They would act soon, but the invasion set their plans back. Unfortunately, they haven’t given up their goals, and it’s up to us to track down all the information we can on them and identify any of their operatives that haven’t left the planet.”

Shauna laughed. “This sounds like something out of an entertainment video. Are you sure we won’t have to have a heist and an air car chase?”

The hatch leading into the pilot’s compartment opened, and Bronson Rowe stepped out, making her stiffen. He wasn’t supposed to be there, and the surprise made her very uneasy.

“That sounds like my cue. I’m Bronson Rowe, a former operative for Confederation Intelligence and also a former operative for the Poseidon Group, the conspirators in question. I’m working for you guys now, but if you want to be uncertain about where I stand, I’m okay with that.”

“Aren’t you supposed to have a minder?” Lisa asked with a scowl. “The last time the two of us flew together, you tried to kidnap me.”

“I’d say it was all a big misunderstanding, but that wouldn’t be true,” Rowe said with a grin. “I’m a reformed man. Oh, and Tina is making me wear this.”

He lifted his pants leg a little and showed a thick metal band wrapped around his leg. “It’s a tracking device and supposedly contains enough focused explosives to blow my foot off if I get carried away, though I’m told no one else would be in danger. It might even have a shocking device. I’ve lost track of the threats that have been leveled at me if I misbehave, so I believe you can probably trust that I’ll keep my hands to myself. After all, the Poseidon Group wants nothing more than to kill me anyway.”

Shauna, whose mouth had fallen open during the exchange, pursed her lips and shook her head. “I should never have even brought the subject up. Now that he’s here, somebody will start shooting, and we’ll crash land somewhere. I just know it.”

Rowe laughed. “Unlikely. The Navy has some pinnaces flying along with us, and they’ll intercept anything that will cause us trouble.” He took a seat a bit away from the rest. “Don’t let my arrival interrupt what you were talking about. I’ll listen in and throw out extra information for the briefing when required.”

<Are we truly certain that he is supposed to be assisting us? I have to say that his presence makes me nervous.>

“Do Tina and David know you’re on this cutter?” she asked. “You didn’t sneak aboard to get out from under their thumbs, did you?”

He raised a hand and waggled his fingers. “I may not have specifically mentioned where I was going, but like I said, they can track me down any time they choose. Besides, the pilot and co-pilot are Marines, and they’re armed. They know who I am, and you can rest assured that one of them had his eyes on me the entire time I was in the control area. You’re not in any danger from me.”

“Hold that thought.”

She stood and walked to the hatch leading to the control area, opening it with a touch at the controls. A glance inside showed two Marines flying the cutter, both of them wide awake and seemingly alert.

One of them turned to her and raised an eyebrow. “Can I get something for you, ma’am?”

“I’m just following up on our extra passenger. Was he supposed to be on this flight? You know he’s a prisoner, right?”

“We contacted Mister Chen when he showed up, and he authorized him to be along for the flight. Is he causing you a problem?” The co-pilot was scowling and looked ready to get up and deal with Rowe on the spot.

“No. I just wanted to make sure he hadn’t broken out of prison. Thanks.”

She closed the hatch and returned to her seat. “It looks like your minders did let you out on your own, so if you want to help, I suppose that’s okay, but let’s clarify a few things. You may have switched sides, but only because you didn’t have a choice. You’re not a good person, and no one sitting here should completely trust anything you say or do.”

If her words bothered him, his expression didn’t show it. “I suppose that’s reasonable. You won’t hurt my feelings because you don’t trust me. I worked for Confederation Intelligence for decades, and no one trusts anyone in that organization, and rightly so. Then I went to work for a conspiracy that was determined to overthrow the Confederation government. My judgment is obviously flawed, though I have to say the amount of money they offered was prodigious. Since we’re being so open and above board, have you told your secret yet?”

Her scowl turned into a glare. “Are you trying to piss me off? Either help with what we’re doing, or I’ll send your ass right back where it came from.”

“I’ll assume that means no. Don’t you think your friends deserve to know you have a hidden advantage?” He frowned. “Or maybe it’s a disadvantage. I’m not sure. Are you?”

“Somebody’s still a little upset that I captured him,” she said to the wide-eyed hackers around her. “It’s going to become public knowledge anyway, and some of you may have already heard. By now, you should all know that the Tardans are the creators of the Locusts. At least their military was. They’re symbiotes, and I have one of their scientists implanted inside me. He and I are working together, because otherwise I’d be paralyzed, and he’d be dead. Is that going to be a problem?”

From their expressions, none of her associates had heard that particular rumor. They all had some mixture of confusion and horror written across their faces. The only one that didn’t show that kind of expression was Goldberg. It seemed he knew of her situation. Since he’d come along to take over once she’d been injured, that shouldn’t surprise her.

“Hold on!” Frida said. “What the hell? Are you even you?”

“Do I sound like someone else?” Lisa said with a snort. “Of course I’m me. I just have a passenger, and we have learned to work together. That’s been helpful since his knowledge of the alien computers has allowed me to use my skills to break into them. Which, by the way, is the reason I can’t be doing the jobs that you were hired for. I have to focus on the alien computer systems because no one else has the necessary skills or understanding of their language to do it.”

She pursed her lips and looked at each of them for a few seconds. “No matter the trouble Rowe is trying to stir, everything he said is technically correct. If you’d like to spend a few moments talking with Regex, I’d be more than happy to let you do so, but I’d like to finish my briefing first, if I may.”

“Regex?” BB asked. “As in a regular expression? Is that a nickname?”

“No, just one of those weird coincidences. Now, can I get on with my briefing?”

When no one objected, she launched into a detailed explanation of what they knew about the Poseidon Group, their intentions, and their methods. The cheeky bastard that had tried to kidnap her freely expanded upon almost everything she said by adding details when she paused to take a breath. That was annoying, but no matter how much she glared at him, he just smiled and kept talking.

If only she still had that paralytic gun.

<I do believe that he’s trying to get on your nerves. Might I suggest that you do the same?>

And how do you suggest I do that?

<You’ve been very limited in describing the atrocities the Poseidon Group has carried out since we arrived at Argent. Your associates need to understand the kind of people Rowe was willing to associate with for money. They’re the kind of folk that will do things that violate the law for compensation, but he freely gave his support to a group that killed many people and tried to assassinate others. Let them know who he truly is.>

That wouldn’t be helpful when working with Rowe going forward, but he had to have an agenda since he was here trying to ruin what she was doing. In fact, maybe that was exactly what he was trying to do. If he could keep them from digging up all the information they could, it might keep certain irregularities in his confession from coming to light. What if he was guilty of things they wouldn’t forgive?

She took in a breath and let it out slowly. Then she fixed him with her best cold stare. “Your flip answers—even though they are informative—are getting on my nerves. Let me be clear about the kind of people you took money from. They were directly responsible for an armed attack that killed some Marines and attempted to assassinate Admiral Romanoff and President Ibarra. You may or may not have been involved in other work very much like that on other planets while in their pay, and I don’t trust you any farther than I can throw you. None of us should. You only changed your tune because you got caught, not because you had a change of heart. You’re still a snake.”

“That’s disappointing to hear but not really a surprise,” he said with a sad shake of his head. “In the end, it doesn’t matter what you think. This is a form of community service for me, and unless I help you do what you need to do, there’s a very strong likelihood that someone will kill me. I want to avoid that, so I’ll do what I must. You’re right not to mistake me for a do-gooder, because I’m not one. I’m a man that’s willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals and those of his employer. In this case, that happens to be Tina and David Chen. They call the shots, and I do what I’m told.”

“Is he for real?” Goldberg asked, crossing his arms and scowling. “He does sound like a villain off of an entertainment video. If that’s the case, we can’t trust anything he says, and we have to actively look to make sure he’s not misleading us. He’s probably here to see what we’re doing so he can try to guide us away from something that will incriminate him.”

Bingo.

“I can’t say you’re wrong to doubt me,” Rowe said. “Choose to accept what you will, and double-check everything I say. It’s not going to offend me.”

“Ignore him for now,” BB said. “If you’re working on the alien computers, what do we need to focus on first?”

“Background checks on everybody important in the confederation government here on Argent. Also, we have a known facility used by the Poseidon Group. They’d arranged to have the traffic control and camera data in the area deleted, but the person they paid kept a copy for himself. Most of the leadership has fled, but I’ll bet there’s still more to find.”

“Is that it?” Frida asked.

“Not even close, but that should be enough for us to start working on. I want to cycle each of you into working with me on the alien hardware so you can start becoming familiar with it yourselves. I want to design some interface software to allow us to pull information out of those systems, and that’s where I’m going to be focused, but there’s a lot to discover about the aliens, and we’ll need more eyes on the subject. I wrote a translation program, but it’s still got a lot of bugs, and I have no time to refine it.”

“Sounds like we’ve got our work cut out for us,” Shauna said. “Not sure how quickly we could learn an alien language, but we’ll do everything we can to start compiling a list of potential conspirators. I’m sure that once we do, we can start digging into the global communications network and discover what they’ve been up to. We might even be able to catch a few of them if they haven’t changed their comms.”

“Right now, we believe the Poseidon Group has a shipyard somewhere in the cluster, and they’ve been building warships,” she said. “If we can find someone to give us a system name or other clue pointing at them, it might give us the edge we need to stop them before they really get started. They might think they’re dangerous, but if they find themselves trying to fight Hunter, we’ll hand them their asses. Any other questions before we land and get started?”

“I hope you’ve got a good supply of coffee because we’ll be swamped,” Klein said. “You’ve got a lot of talent here, and this Poseidon Group will figure that out when we ruin their week.”

She grinned. This was the kind of thing she’d been hoping for. Now they had to translate the potential for success into getting everything they needed and do it fast. The clock was ticking, and there was no telling when the Poseidon Group would strike out for the Confederation. Once that happened, things were pretty much screwed.

8

Mac strapped himself into the pinnace with his hand-picked boarding party and began his pre-mission cycle of going over the plan even as they launched. They were coming in from the far side of the cometary body, so they wouldn’t see anything unless they had passive sensors set up on that side.

Assuming, of course, that there was anyone still alive inside that freighter. The odds against there being any survivors were pretty high, and he was already mentally preparing himself for the likelihood of this turning into a recovery operation in short order.

The plan was simple. The pinnace would come to a halt about a hundred meters short of the icy ball, and they would exit. They’d use their armored vacuum suits’ built-in thrusters to circle around to get at the freighter from two sides. One group would enter the engineering spaces and the other near the bridge. If there was anyone left alive, it was a priority to make sure no signals were sent in a panic. That was an exercise in caution because he didn’t think that would be the first reaction of any survivors.

No. Most likely, they’d be overjoyed to be rescued. He hoped that was what they’d find, but it was his job to prepare for all the scenarios. They’d do everything needed to maintain the condition of the ship while securing it. If there were survivors, they’d take them into custody until they could sort out exactly what had happened.

The approach took very little time. Admiral Romanoff had brought Hunter a lot closer than Mac would have in his place. The Navy officer was also counting on the fact that they were coming in from the freighter’s blindside, so Mac wasn’t in a position to judge. Still, he’d have preferred if Hunter had stayed at a safer distance. The likelihood of there being weapons capable of damaging the battleship was almost nonexistent, but when people did dangerous things for a living, nudging the percentages in their direction saved lives.

“We’re ready for you to exit, Colonel,” one of the pilots said. “There’s no indication we’ve been detected.”

“Copy that. Hold position in case we have to make a run for it.”

He switched to the channel the Marines were using. “We’re go for deployment. Head out by the numbers.”

While there were a lot of new people in the Marine contingent, these people had been recruits at the Marine Academy, and they’d gone through all the necessary vacuum suit training. They’d still take things slow where they could because when people rushed, that’s when accidents happened.

The rear hatch opened, and everyone moved out in sequence. They’d travel in pairs to make certain no one got into trouble without someone being right there to get them fixed up. In all, he was pleased with their formations. The hard work they’d put in was paying off when it counted.

By planning, the direction they were approaching from put the cometary body between them and the star. This far out, it provided little illumination, but they were still close enough to the nearby gas giant to get a little reflected light, so they weren’t in complete darkness.

He watched his built-in heads-up display and noted the larger group splitting up and going around the cometary body on two sides. He had an experienced sergeant in charge of the other group, so he wasn’t worried about what they’d encounter or what they did. He’d focus on the overall mission while another sergeant kept the people on his side in order.

Honestly, he shouldn’t be on this mission, but he wanted to see what was here for himself. It wasn’t like Jack had much room to complain, considering some of the shenanigans he’d pulled.

They jetted around the icy surface until the freighter came into view. It was in physical contact with the surface and looked like it hadn’t moved in a long time. There were no running lights operating, but he knew from the sensor readings they’d taken earlier that the fusion plant was operating in a reduced state. Running the lights here wouldn’t have attracted any attention from so far out, but he understood why they hadn’t. They wouldn’t have done anything to draw attention to themselves.

He and the dozen Marines he brought with him positioned themselves around the airlock just behind the bridge. It would be secured, but he’d brought along someone that could get into the system and open the doors without alerting anyone inside that they were there.

That required a bit of messing with the controls, but Marines trained to get into civilian vessels quietly because sometimes there were hostage situations that demanded discretion. Not everyone followed the design guidelines the Confederation mandated when it came to allowing officials to override their systems, but the manufacturers had put everything in that they needed to work around, even moderately well thought out bypasses. The only way someone inside would know that the airlock cycled was if they were standing right there when it happened or if someone had rigged an optical scanner inside the inner door. Unlikely, but not impossible.

It took less than ten seconds to plug into the system and activate the manufacturer’s overrides. That done, the Marine took the signal from his sergeant and cycled the outer hatch open. There was only room for three people, so Mac let the sergeant deploy his people and waited his turn. Toward the rear of the ship, the other squad would be doing the same.

As expected, he came in after all the Marines had deployed. Conditions inside the ship were as bad as he’d feared. The atmosphere—what little there was of it—was toxic with carbon dioxide, and the temperature was well below freezing. The lighting overhead was off, so the entire area was in darkness, and the grav plates were dead.

Half the Marines began working their way aft while the rest made for the bridge. Its hatch was wedged open, and the compartment was empty, but one of the consoles was active. It looked like it was connected to the sensors. The ship’s computer was still recording everything the passive sensors picked up. That was an amazing find and made the entire mission worthwhile.

“Plug our portable data pack in and start getting what data you can,” Mac ordered. “I’ll head back with the rest of our people and search the ship.”

Compartment by compartment, they worked their way aft and found nothing of interest. No bodies and no areas capable of supporting life long-term. It didn’t look like anyone had been here for quite some time.

Things turned interesting when they came to an emergency airlock set up in the corridor. It was welded to the bulkheads with no concerns about how ugly it was. Functionality had been everything. Miracle of miracles, they might have survivors after all.

“We might have something interesting on the other side, so I want everyone to watch what they’re doing,” he ordered. “If we do have survivors, I don’t want anyone to shoot unless they absolutely have to. Our presence might startle someone into opening fire, and I don’t want to kill or injure someone that might have information we need. I hate to say this, but we are not weapons free. I repeat, we are not weapons free. We need to take any hostiles out with minimum force and alive if at all possible.”

Once again, he deployed his specialist to bypass any security measures. This one was meant to be temporary, so the idea that it would set off an alarm somewhere if opened was of lower probability, though not impossible.

The technician took longer to go through the airlock, taking care not to miss anything important. Maybe the man thought there was a self-destruct device built into it and was being careful. He wasn’t going to argue with that kind of caution. People in desperate situations often did unexpected things.

They repeated the same process as they’d used entering the ship and were very quickly into the next section. Conditions here were much different than at the bridge. The temperature was still cool but more than survivable if one wore layers. The air tester said the atmosphere was breathable, though the carbon dioxide levels were higher than he would’ve liked. There was also overhead lighting, though it was dim and intermittent, and the gravity plates were on, though it felt like they were set to maybe one-third of a G.

Most interestingly, they could hear what sounded like someone playing a stringed instrument somewhere down the corridor. Either there were people here, or someone had left a recording playing. At this point, he’d allow himself to hope.

Using hand gestures, he sent the Marines forward. They moved in pairs, checking each open doorway as they passed, though they didn’t duck into the compartments. Since the survivors had no reason to hide from them, they wouldn’t be concealed.

They were about two hatches from where the music was coming from when a man stepped into the corridor from the compartment. It looked like he had what was left of a ship suit on, a tattered sweater over it, and some makeshift leggings. He hadn’t shaved in a very long time, and his hair and beard were long and ragged.

He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the Marines. His hands were empty, but he raised them anyway. His words, far from sounding frightened, were almost jubilant. “They’re here! They’ve come for us! We’re saved!”

“Just stay right where you are while we figure out what’s going on,” Mac said. “We don’t know anything about the situation, so don’t do anything hasty. Understood?”

“Sure,” the man said with a wide grin. “Whatever you need. We’ve got some other people in this compartment, and they’ll be damned happy to see you.”

The Marines slowly advanced and herded the man back into the compartment. When Mac went in, he saw that it was filled with people. There had to be two dozen men and women jammed into a relatively small compartment. He didn’t know much about freighter crews, but that seemed like a lot.

Everyone was staring at them with wide eyes and almost manic grins, but they stayed where they were and let the Marines look through the compartment. While they were doing that, Mac called the people in engineering to get a status.

“We’ve finished sweeping engineering, sir,” came the response. “There’s nobody back here, and conditions aren’t good enough to support life. I don’t know much about fusion plants, but I think something is wrong with this one. It’s running at a really low power output, and the status screen has plenty of amber warnings. It’s not dangerous, but it might shut down at any time.”

“We’ve got survivors, so finish searching the rest of your area and join us.”

He turned his attention to the people staring at him, popped his helmet, and tried not to grimace at the terrible stench of unwashed bodies. “My name is Lieutenant Colonel Mac Turner, and I’m with the Confederation Marines. One of our vessels is nearby, and we are rescuing you. First, I need to know who you are and how you got here. Which one of you is the captain?”

The man they’d seen in the corridor grimaced slightly and shook his head. “Captain Woodley gave up about a month and a half ago and took the long walk. He’s gone. The freighter only had half a dozen crewmen aboard, and none of the officers are still with us. Believe me, we could have used the engineer. Most of us are asteroid miners they picked up on their way out here when the Locusts arrived. We don’t rightly have a leader, but I’d be happy to answer your questions. I’m Ross Swayze.”

“How did you end up way out here, Mister Swayze?”

“Minerva—that’s this freighter—was delivering supplies to one of the refineries in the belt when the Locusts came pouring through the gate. Most of us were there to pick up supplies and go back to our claims. They decided to sneak away from the occupied parts of the system before anyone noticed them, and we decided to come along for the ride. That was good because the Locusts scoured the belt and destroyed everything. By the time we got out here, they were in control of everything, and all ships in space had been destroyed.”

“And you just settled in to wait and see what happened?”

Swayze nodded. “It’s not like we had a choice. Luckily, belters are pretty good scavengers. The life-support system wasn’t made to last this long, but we were able to get into the various supplies deeper into the freighter and find some stuff that we could modify to work for a little while. We didn’t try to keep the entire ship pressurized and powered because the fusion plant has been flaky since about a month after we got out here. The engineer kept things going, but this became too much for her, and she decided to take the long walk, too. We’ve lost about a dozen people over the last six months.”

“I can guess what you mean by that, but you should probably explain it so that I don’t misunderstand,” Mac said.

The ex-miner grimaced. “They decided they couldn’t take it anymore and spaced themselves. I’m confident their bodies are somewhere fairly close, but we have no way of knowing for sure. None of us was about to risk our lives to chase them down. As I said, after the engineer decided she couldn’t take it, it became tough to keep everything powered, so we shut down as much as we could and restricted ourselves to this section of the ship. I’m pretty sure the powerplant is about to shut itself off, and that would have been a death sentence. So, as you might imagine, we’re all delighted to see you.”

“I wish we’d come sooner so we could have saved them,” Mac said. “It looked like you’ve been keeping an eye on the inner system since the invasion. Have you been saving the data?”

Swayze nodded. “We didn’t figure we’d survive long enough to be rescued, so the only thing we could do was make sure we captured as good a record as we could. I can’t tell you much in the way of specifics because we don’t monitor it. There’s no need. No one’s even been up to the bridge in a month.”

“Do you have any sick or injured that need priority transport?”

“No. Everybody is relatively healthy, though I think we’re all tired of eating nothing but the Marine survival rations that were in the cargo. No offense.”

“Definitely none taken. I’ll coordinate with my commanding officer, and we’ll have people here shortly. Gather up anything you want to take with you, and we’ll take precautions by putting you in your vacuum suits and stuffing you into rescue balls. We don’t want to risk losing anyone at the last moment. Clear?”

The people they were rescuing seemed to be in wholehearted agreement, so he stepped back out into the corridor and raised the power of his suit comm so that he could speak to the pinnace. “I need a link to Admiral Romanoff.”

“I’m setting it up now, Colonel. Stand by.”

A few seconds later, the admiral’s voice came over the comm. “What’s your status, Mac?”

“As hard as this is to believe, sir, we’ve got about two dozen survivors. It sounds like the freighter crew picked up a bunch of belters. They’ve been here since the Locusts came through the gates and mostly seem healthy, though they’ve said about a dozen people gave up hope and spaced themselves. We’ll get them back to Hunter as quickly as possible, and they’ll go straight to the medical center to get checked out.”

“Agreed, and I’ll have them on alert for your arrival. Expect them in the small craft bay. It’s good news that you’ve found someone alive and bad that some of them lost hope before we got here, but we’ll do what we can. Any other information?”

“They’ve been scanning the inner system with their passive sensors the entire time. They haven’t been monitoring anything, but we should be able to pull the data off their systems, and it might tell us something about the latest Novarite incursion. They’re close enough that even civilian-grade passive sensors would’ve gotten fairly decent information.”

“That’s excellent news. The people are the highest priority, of course, but get somebody to pull that data. If we can figure out what we’re dealing with, we might be able to find a way to leverage that into freeing Vesuvius. Don’t dawdle, Mac. Let’s get things there wrapped up. I’ll send a few engineers to shut down the fusion plant safely, then we’ll move on.”

“Copy that. Turner out.”

Mac began organizing the rescue operation. He wanted everyone safely aboard the battleship within the hour. These people had been waiting for help for almost a year, and he’d see they got it.

He wasn’t sure what the sensor data would reveal, but maybe there would be something that could help them liberate the system. He wouldn’t hold his breath, mind, but it could happen.

As soon as he got back to Hunter, he’d be right there when they started going over it. It felt like they were ready to take action, and he hoped that was the case. He was ready to kill some aliens.

9

Sara tried to keep her impatience from showing, but it was hard. As someone who had worked as a lawyer and judge for most of her life, she had plenty of experience doing that, but this situation was testing her greatly.

She’d hoped to get to Port Royale within a few hours of speaking with the folks at Ringwald engineering, but that hadn’t been the case. The freighter she’d thought was carrying Lisa’s associates had instead been packed with diplomats and politicians come to speak to the Confederation Council in the cluster. Worse, until they settled their initial concerns, it had been only the single ship, and the politicians wouldn’t let it leave.

Two days ago, a second freighter had arrived carrying Lisa’s hacker friends. Of course, the return trip had been packed full of people to help provide relief on New Copenhagen, which meant it had taken argument and not-so-subtle threats to get the engineering team any space. The relief effort should have involved many more freighters, but at least it was finally getting started. Better late than never.

It took a whole day to unload all the cargo and personnel at New Copenhagen before the freighter could continue to Port Royale. It had made the jump a few hours ago, and they were just now coming into range to get a good visual of the space station and some of the battleships in orbit around the gas giant.

She was standing in the freighter’s mess hall, which was blessedly free of packed bodies, as the image of the space station grew larger on the wall-mounted screen. There were several dozen engineers seated at tables or standing around to watch. All of them seemingly with coffee mugs in their hands. She supposed some stereotypes were true for a reason.

DiBartolomeo and King stood beside her, watching the station grow bigger with approving nods. The senior engineers had been talking with her and their own people almost continuously since they’d arranged to have Ringwald engineering assess the potential workload, and now they were seeing the size of the space station holding the parts for themselves.

“I think that may be the biggest space station I’ve ever seen,” King said. “And I’ve seen a lot of them over the years. I even helped design a few. Do we have any technical specifications on that?”

Sara pursed her lips. “Not that I know of, but I’ll bet the computers up in the Navy section have them.. We had to cede control of the station to Port Royale as part of our agreement, but we have complete access to the parts stored there. We’ve got marines guarding the critical areas—like the armory—to keep anything dangerous from wandering off.”

“I think it’s even bigger than I’d thought, just judging by the small craft going into that one bay,” DiBartolomeo said. “The gas giant makes it look smaller than it actually is, and if it has all the necessary parts and equipment, as well as a missile supply for twelve battleships to fend off an invasion, the thing has got to be monstrous. It’s bigger than one of the battleships, or I’ll eat it.”

“It is bigger than the battleships by a fair margin,” Sara agreed. “Why don’t we switch our view to a wider stretch and take a look at our true destination.”

She used the remote controller to zoom out, so the entirety of the gas giant was visible. Strung out around the planet near the space station were four battleships. She knew from personal experience that the remaining seven were scattered around the gas giant in a stable orbit.

“We have a presence aboard Scorpius. I have to be honest. The engineering section was thrashed. Someone had gone to the trouble of disassembling the independent quantum drive and had been making other modifications to the ship. I’m not convinced they didn’t do something irreversible. How long would it take your people to assess a single ship like that?”

“If we find something major, we should know within a day,” King said. “If we’re talking about something subtle, it could take longer. We’re not planning on digging too deeply into each ship while we’re here. This is a broad assessment to see if we can make this work and what kind of workforce would be needed.”

“Honestly, we know it’s going to be a lot of work,” DiBartolomeo said. “I think we should start with a quick tour of the space station. Knowing what we have at hand to conduct the renovation work will be useful in determining if we have a chance at this. Almost anything can be fixed if you throw enough people at it, so long as you’ve got the requisite parts.”

“You people are the experts, so we’ll do it your way,” Sara said. “We’ll have a couple of cutters pick us up and go to the space station as a group. If you want to see every single compartment with parts in them, it will take a while. I suggest we have a general tour, and I’ll see if our quartermaster can get you an inventory. I know an effort has been made to verify what the inventory says versus what might still be there. This may shock you, but there’s been some scavenging over the years.”

“Hopefully, not anything important.”

“Agreed. We should be within range to depart with the cutter we already have attached to the freighter in the next fifteen or twenty minutes. As I said, other cutters will be on hand to immediately dock and take more people aboard. It shouldn’t take more than three to get us all over. If you’d get your people ready to travel, we can be about our business.”

True to her expectations, they were able to board the cutter after about fifteen minutes, and it quickly detached and made its way to the station. The engineers just kept watching the station grow larger as they approached. By the time they were ready to enter the small craft bay, nobody was saying anything. They were all staring at the view screen mounted to the front of the compartment.

“The scale of this construction is beyond anything I’ve ever seen,” DiBartolomeo said. “Whoever designed it deserves whatever rewards they were given. They’ve earned a round of drinks anytime they want when the engineers I know get together.”

“I suspect they were Navy engineers, and they’re long dead,” Sara said. “The space station was built right after the first invasion ended. Most of the fusion plants were shut down when we arrived, but we’ve brought some back into service. The storage areas were put into a vacuum to keep everything in good shape.”

“Even so. If we could get the plans for this, I would love to see them.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

The cutter landed inside the small craft bay, and the pilot took care of paying their docking fee. All the engineers watched in bemusement as he paid with a gold coin.

“Gold currency?” King asked. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“The gold is only a medium,” Sara said. “The doubloons have an encrypted chip inside that makes it money. It’s a workaround to meet expectations. Trust me, you’d have to meet the people that run this place to understand.”

“And look who’s dropped in to visit my little station,” a boisterous voice said from behind her.

She closed her eyes briefly and then turned and smiled at Mark Connor. “Captain Connor, it’s a pleasure to see you as always. Did you know we were coming, or did you just happen to drop by?”

As he invariably was, the ex-smuggler was dressed like an old-style pirate. Greatcoat, a tricorn hat, and even a cutlass on his belt. All that was missing was a parrot. She was more than half tempted to find one that could curse up a storm to give the man for Christmas. She was certain he’d love it.

“I keep tabs on who comes to visit, and when I heard you finally had some engineers to begin looking at your battleships, I felt the need to drop in and introduce myself. If, of course, you don’t mind.”

“Brad DiBartolomeo, Zoe King, allow me to introduce the governor of Port Royale, Captain Mark Connor,” Sara said. “As you can see, he’s a bit of an iconoclast. Brad and Zoe are the senior engineers with Ringwald Engineering. They need to assess everything to determine how hard this will be and how many people they’ll need to make the work happen. We’ve decided to start by examining a selection of the areas holding parts.”

Connor bowed deeply and swept his hat off of his head as he did so. “Welcome to Port Royale. Some fair warning for your people. Just about anything goes here, though no violence is permitted. Be sure of the deal you’re making because if you get taken advantage of, it’s your own fault. Still, almost anything you want is available here for a price.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask,” King said. “In fact, I’m not going to. Thank you for welcoming us, Captain Connor. Exactly what are you the captain of?”

“I’ve got a fast ship close at hand, but we won’t bother with names because I’m walking on the side of the angels these days. I used to be a smuggler, and I dealt with the dregs of society. That convinced me to found Port Royale and make it a place where people who just didn’t fit in anywhere else could rest their heads. If you need any specific and strange engineering skills, we might have a few people here that could provide insight. Say, someone skilled in nuclear weapons. Believe it or not, we have someone that’s been working with those and has gotten right handy with refurbishing them.”

DiBartolomeo’s eyes widened. “Nuclear weapons? I assure you, we don’t need to know anything about nuclear weapons. We are looking at refurbishing the ships, not blowing something up.”

Connor nodded sagely and smiled with his eyes twinkling. “So you say, but if you’re involved in getting those ships up to fighting speed, you’ll have to refurbish the magazines and stock them with nuclear-tipped missiles. A million each. Two hundred thousand in the ready magazines, and the rest in storage waiting to be used. That’s eleven million nuclear-tipped missiles. You might need to hire a few more people for something like that.”

King turned toward Sara. “Is he joking?”

She shook her head. “Anything but. The crew aboard Hunter has been working hard to refurbish the missiles they need for themselves, but it’s still a work in progress. If we want to get the ships in fighting order, the missiles will be part of it.”

“Refurbishing missiles is a different task than refurbishing nuclear weapons,” DiBartolomeo said with a scowl. “Unfortunately, it does mean we need a group to handle that task, with trusted individuals ready to work on the nuclear warheads themselves. That’s pretty serious to my thinking, so we’ll want to get a group of people with impeccable credentials. Who does the work for you, Captain Connor?”

“He’s an arms dealer and gunrunner,” the man said with a grin. “Probably not the most trustworthy of sorts, but he does know how to work on things like nuclear weapons. Don’t worry about it, though. We’ve got a couple of people counting them as they come in and go back out again, so I’m sure only a couple have vanished.”

He laughed when their eyes bulged. “I’m kidding. Absolutely none of them have gone missing. However, we did have to promise him a cut, so he takes one nuclear weapon out of every thousand that his people refurbish. I’m sure he’s not planning on using them for anything nefarious, though.”

“Stop teasing them,” Sara said firmly.

“You’re no fun,” he said with a wicked smile. “All the nuclear warheads and missiles are accounted for and in our possession.”

She resisted the urge to rub her face. “I can see why Jack likes you so much. Say, shouldn’t you be with the rest of the politicians visiting Argent? It seems like you’d want to get the best deal for yourself. If the Confederation Council in the cluster recognizes the existence of Port Royale, that’s big.”

He shook his head. “While I’ve got a decent manner with regular people, I’ve found over the years that I rub stuffy people the wrong way. In this case, it was better to send some of the governing council to do the talking. Besides, it left me here to greet your people. By the by, why aren’t you in uniform, Commodore?”

“I’m taking an extended leave of absence so I can be a better liaison between the Confederation Navy and everyone else, including the government here. I even have diplomatic credentials from the Confederation Council in the cluster. Also, there are a couple of diplomatic aides that will be along on one of the later cutters. They’ll be acting as official representation for the council, so we’ll need to see about renting some offices for them.”

“And exactly how are you going to be paying for that?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “Port Royale was willing to extend credit to you beforehand, but it’s time for something a little more permanent. I suspect our negotiators will be talking about something along those lines with the government’s reps, but I might as well ask since you’re standing right here.”

“We have a budget from the Confederation Council in the cluster, and so long as you recognize Confederation currency, we’ll be more than happy to pay the going rate. The real rate, not something meant to bilk them. As far as our debts, we’ll settle our tab.”

The ex-smuggler chuckled. “That’ll certainly make some people happy and make some of the grumblings go away. Good on you. I’m certain I can work out the details with the folks you have coming while you start exploring the levels above. We’ve got life support fully online there now, so you won’t need any suits. Access to those levels is restricted, and the Marines are in charge of security, so you’ll have to talk your way past them.”

While they’d been talking, two cutters had arrived one after the other and disgorged their passengers. Sara waved the diplomatic assistants forward and introduced them to Connor. “If the two of you would see about negotiating for office space and settling the Confederation Navy bill with Captain Connor, the rest of us will get to explore. Try not to get fleeced. I’m being serious. Read everything twice before you sign it, and make sure there are no gotcha clauses. Also, double-check that we get the right exchange rate between Confederation dollars and Port Royale doubloons. We’re setting the standard for everything from now on, and this isn’t the time to screw up.”

Connor clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry! I’ll guide these two through the process and see them safely out the other side. I have too much respect for Jack and the Confederation Navy to rob them blind. Besides, with the battleships being worked on, it would cause problems if we tried to pull the wool over your eyes. We’ll be working together for a long time, and friends don’t pull tricks on friends when it comes to money.”

“Double-check everything, and make sure we’re getting a good exchange rate,” she insisted. “As congenial as Captain Connor sounds, he’s an ex-smuggler. Everyone you’re working with here left the Confederation for a reason, and while I won’t call this frontier posting dangerous, they aren’t above some financial shenanigans. Be on your guard.”

“Spoilsport,” Connor said. “Fine. If the two of you will come with me, we’ll start by working out the basics. Once we come to an agreement, I’ll send it to Sara, and she can make sure the big bad smuggler isn’t pulling one over on you.”

“Ex-smuggler,” she insisted. “This is setting up how you’ll work with the rest of the cluster going forward. This isn’t the time to try to make a few doubloons from the credulous.”

He grinned without saying anything and gestured for the diplomatic personnel to accompany him.

Once they left, Sara pinched the bridge of her nose. “He’s going to rob them blind. Why does everything have to be so hard?”

King laughed. “He seems charming, in a roguish sort of way.”

“He is a rogue, and never forget that. I wouldn’t expect him to do anything that would really hurt anyone, but if he can get a little advantage, he probably won’t be able to help himself. Thankfully, I’ll have a chance to see what he’s pulling and fix it before this sets a bad precedent. Now, let’s start that tour.”

Taking them up to the appropriate section of the station took multiple lifts, and she found the controls inside the lift were indeed restricted to take everyone to the first level under Navy control and stop. There they got out, and after a conversation with the Marines on duty, she got a key to override the lifts, though she decided it was best to take the stairs the rest of the way and start seeing each level as they went.

They were suitably impressed by the wide variety of parts, and how many of them were available. The Confederation had gone far above and beyond in preparing for another invasion, and even though some sections had been scavenged, there were still far more parts and supplies than one would need to refurbish the entire fleet.

She was on the second level when one of the quartermaster personnel caught up with her. He had a tablet and a complete listing of the parts and supplies, updated to reflect where an inventory was done and noting where it was still in progress.

Sara handed that over to DiBartolomeo and King. They began scrolling through it and nodding, shooting commentary to one another as they started getting a good look at the scale of what they were dealing with.

She took the group up several levels to where the inventory process was underway. Inside one of the compartments, dozens of people were tallying what was in each bin and updating the database. They worked in pairs, with one person entering the data while the other did the counting. It looked like they were all Port Royale residents, so she hoped the numbers weren’t too far off. Still, it would be relatively obvious if someone tried to smuggle parts out, so she’d put her trust in the numbers.

By the time they got up to the Navy administrative levels and found an office she could lay claim to, five hours had passed. Her stomach was growling, so she asked one of the Marines to see about grabbing sandwiches and drinks for everyone. They weren’t servants by any means, but she didn’t want to break the engineers up while they were working. This task was so critical that any interruption might derail something important.

The office she’d picked had a conference room directly next door, where the engineers huddled. She brought the computer to life in the adjacent office and entered her credentials. She’d expected there to be problems, but the system recognized her. Someone had taken the time to update everything with the current officer pool. This system still thought she was on active duty, but being a commodore did have its privileges.

One of those turned out to be the ability to access this station’s design schematics. Portions of it were marked as either confidential or classified, but she could still get the full specifications with her security clearance. She found a data chip, made sure it was empty, and copied everything over to it. If Ringwald Engineering wanted to build a space station to match this, they were welcome to do so with her blessing.

The sandwiches and drinks had arrived by the time she returned to the conference room, and she made something for herself and sat down next to the senior engineers. When King made to say something to her, she extended the data chip.

“Here you go,” she said. “Compliments of the Confederation Navy.”

King frowned at the data chip and took it. “What’s this?”

“Complete engineering and construction schematics for this station.”

The woman’s eyes bugged out. “Seriously? And what do you expect us to do with this? Build one for ourselves?”

DiBartolomeo got a faraway look in his eyes. “Wouldn’t that be great? Imagine the kinds of things we could do with a station like this. We could fit the entire company inside and never run out of space.”

“This is overkill, Brad. Complete and utter overkill.”

“Apparently, you haven’t talked to the Marines thoroughly enough. There is no overkill. There is only open fire and reload.”

That made Sara laugh. “Okay, that really does sound like a Marine said it. In any case, I don’t know what you’ll do with that data, but it’s yours. Maybe one day you’ll build a set of shipyards and use something like that as your central command structure.”

King tucked the data chip away. “I don’t see that happening, but never say never. Let’s talk about what we’ve seen. This is amazing, but I suspect it’s not enough to fully refurbish those battleships.”

Sara frowned. “Seriously? Did you see the same incredible amount of supplies as I did? How could that not be enough?”

“I won’t know for sure until our team goes over at least one of those battleships in detail, but I’m anticipating having to do a wholesale replacement of cabling and piping, so what we have here isn’t going to be sufficient. We’ll have to manufacture what we need as we go. It’s not impossible to manage, but it will require setting up something in the system’s asteroid belt, if we’re lucky enough for it to have one. If not, New Copenhagen for sure.”

That wasn’t what she was hoping to hear, but at least it wasn’t an outright no. At least not yet.

“They already have some mining and refining in the asteroid belt, so it’s not out of the question. I suggest we finish eating and head over to one of the battleships. Some of them are still occupied by squatters because it was too much trouble to deal with kicking them off, so we’ll start with Scorpius. I’ve set up some offices there, and there are still some Navy personnel. Does the amount and quality of the repair parts at least give you hope that we aren’t barking up the wrong tree?”

DiBartolomeo shook his head. “The reverse, actually. I think we’ll be able to make this work in at least a few cases. Will we find something that renders one or more of the battleships unusable? Potentially. This is a case-by-case scenario, so don’t get your hopes up for each and every one, but I think we’ll be able to pull off at least enough to get some ships back in service. Assessing Scorpius will take time, so we’ll start with the real showstoppers. If we can clear those, everything else can be managed with enough personnel and elbow grease.”

His words made her feel a bit better. They needed those battleships back in action because, between the Locusts that they still hadn’t located and the other invaders, one ship wasn’t enough to keep things secure. Add in the Poseidon Group, and it was completely unmanageable.

Most of those problems were someone else’s issue, so she’d focus on refurbishing the battleships. To do that, they had to thoroughly inspect Scorpius, get back to Argent, and finalize the negotiations.

“I’ll take even provisional good news at this point,” she said as she stood. “Let’s finish our sandwiches and head over to Scorpius. Only part of her is pressurized, so we’ll use those vacuum suits you brought. I hope you came ready to put in some grueling hours because we’re not resting until we have enough information to go back and finish writing up those contracts. Time is of the essence, and we’re not going to dawdle.”

Everyone got to their meals with renewed vigor. Everyone besides her was an engineer, and they couldn’t wait to dig into the problem. Maybe they had a chance after all.

10

David rubbed his eyes. He’d been going over the reports about the attempted integration of the Novarite prisoners for the last hour, and they were giving him a headache. It wasn’t that anything had gone drastically wrong, but progress was slow, and distrust was high. This project of creating a working group consisting of their two Novarite prisoners, a pair of Tardans, and a pair of humans was fraught with peril. Honestly, he was just waiting for somebody to do something that started a brawl.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t the Novarite-Tardan relations that caused the most trouble. Oh, the surly giants certainly made things difficult, but the humans and the Tardans also had a significant amount of animosity toward one another. That wasn’t surprising after a major invasion, even though the civilians weren’t responsible for what their military did behind their backs.

Tina was working with them to make sure no one attacked anyone else. It had been a full week, and that was still a very real danger. He didn’t envy his wife that particular task, but she had Christine filming everything, so she wasn’t without tools that could diffuse any potential trouble. If she caught whatever was causing the grief in time.

A rap on the door distracted him, and he glanced up to see one of the civilians working in the facility. The man held a small packet in both hands.

“Miss Gane asked me to bring these reports to you, Mister Chen,” the man said deferentially.

David waved toward the desk as he tried to finish reading the paragraph he was struggling with. “Thank you. Just leave it on the desk.”

The man quietly set the packet down and retreated, then closed the door behind him.

David finally finished the report and sighed. This wasn’t going to be easy. His rumbling stomach seemed to agree, prompting him to call for lunch. They promised to have something for him shortly.

While he waited, he distracted himself from the reports by opening the packet from Lisa. Inside was a stack of printed sheets and a data chip.

The printed matter contained statuses on all the work she and her team had been doing. It looked like they were having better luck than he was, though they were still running into roadblocks.

Her team had only been on the planet for a few days, and they were still getting familiarized with the systems they were working on, but they’d made good progress. Unfortunately, the Poseidon Group had gone to great lengths to conceal their members’ identities and the locations they frequented, making locating potential suspects problematic. They’d keep working on it, but they’d come up dry for the moment.

He plugged the data chip into his computer, expecting directories full of research notes and other raw materials. That’s not what he found. Instead, it contained an encrypted directory and a single text file.

Someone doesn’t like you and your friends, and they’ve offered me a great deal of money to kill you. That’s not in my best interests, so I’ve decided to notify you instead. If you go to the address at the bottom of this missive, you’ll find the person that attempted to hire me. Once you’ve evaluated what I’ve left for you, I’d like to talk. You can reach me at the comm number I left on his shirt. Until then, my deepest regards.

That set off all kinds of alarm bells. Where had this come from, and how had it gotten mixed in with information from his hacker team?

To answer that question, he called Lisa. “This is David. Did you send up a packet of reports for me?”

“Yes. Do you have some questions about them?”

“Only one. What’s with the data chip you included?”

“Data chip? I didn’t send a data chip. Maybe it somehow got mixed in with the reports. Sorry about that.”

That’s about what he’d expected to hear. His attention turned toward the person who’d delivered the reports, but he only had the barest memory of what the man looked like. Older, gray hair, slightly balding, with light-colored eyes. Those were guesses on his part based on the glimpse he’d gotten.

“What can you tell me about the man who brought the report to me?”

“Nothing, really. We were busy, and one of the president’s people was down here, so I asked him to take the stuff up to you.”

“Can you describe him for me?”

“Maybe a bit on the tall side. Older. He seemed nice enough. I couldn’t pick him out of a crowd because I didn’t talk to him for more than a few seconds. This conversation is getting weird. Is there a problem?”

“I’ll get back to you on that. Thanks.”

He disconnected and made another call to the Marines. “This is David Chen. We have an intruder. Seal the facility. No one goes in or out until I say so, no exceptions. Keep things quiet while you can, but be vigilant.”

“Yes, sir. We’ll get everything locked down right away.”

David returned his focus to the information on the data chip. Looking up the address was simple enough. It was in an upscale area of the capital and seemed to be a residential zone. In other words, it was someone’s home.

Pulling up satellite imagery, he isolated that particular home and decided it was probably at the low end of the upper class. Or, he supposed, the very highest tier of the middle class. There was a little overlap, after all.

He called the Marines back and gave them the address. “I’m not certain what’s happening here, but someone of interest is likely at this residence. Go see what you can find out. If you can’t get in, summon planetary security and have them assist you. Someone might be in danger, and there may be someone hostile on the scene.”

“We’ll take care of it, sir.”

He grabbed the remains of his sandwich and headed for the security center. The place was manned by Marines and Navy personnel, each watching various monitors and the security system that surrounded the entire facility. One of the junior officers there raised his eyebrow.

“Is there anything I can do for you, Mister Chen? I’m Second Lieutenant John DiGiorgio.”

“There is, Lieutenant. I met what might be an intruder in my office, and I need to get a visual on him. It took place about twenty minutes ago.”

“If you’ll have a seat right here, sir, we’ll go over the video feed from the corridor outside your office. It’s monitored, so identifying the individual in question shouldn’t be a problem. I assume that’s the intruder we’re searching for?”

“It is.” David took the indicated seat while the officer directed the technician working the console to go to the indicated feed once David had given him the office location.

It was easy to spot the intruder when he arrived, but that only added another mystery to the pile. Rather than having a clear view of the man’s face and body, he seemed distorted, and a variable brightness moved all over his body like splotches of color randomly bouncing from place to place. His entire frame was washed out, and nothing was identifiable.

The lieutenant leaned forward and stared at the image. “What the hell?”

“I haven’t got the slightest idea,” David conceded. “You’ll probably want to backtrack whoever this is and find out what else they might have been into. I spoke with Lisa Gane, and she said he was down in the computer center, so there’s no telling what sabotage this man might have carried out while he was here. We need to find him as quickly as possible and get this settled.”

Over the next half hour, he discovered that the intruder was slippery. The Marines were going through the facility level by level, but so far, they’d come up empty. To the best of their ability to discover via the monitoring equipment, no unknowns should be in the building, and they had no record of the intruder arriving or departing.

That was downright chilling. Someone was skilled enough to get into a Navy facility completely unnoticed, walk into his office, and hand him something. How was that even possible?

DiGiorgio cleared his throat. “The Marines have arrived at the address you gave us. They found an individual bound to a chair. He was badly beaten and deceased. A piece of paper was pinned to his shirt with a comm code.”

“Well, after an introduction like that, I suppose I should call,” David said as he pulled out his comm. “Give me the code.”

He quickly typed in the number and waited to see if anyone picked up. It was answered after a single ring. “Mister Chen, I presume.” The voice was artificially distorted.

“Who are you?”

“What’s in a name? They can be changed to suit the circumstances. For the time being, call me Patrick.”

“I have to say you’re quite good at getting into places you shouldn’t be, Patrick. Do you have superpowers? It seems like you’ve made yourself impossible to see on the security feeds.”

“I’m just a man with certain skills that are very useful in circumstances like these. People pay me quite well to be able to get to others they don’t like to make sure that they aren’t problems anymore. In this case, I know enough about the Poseidon Group to dislike them more than I like their money. I’m not exactly a fan of the Confederation government, but under the circumstances we find ourselves in, I don’t feel it appropriate to kill key members of the group fighting off several invasions. That being the case, I asked the person that wanted to hire me a few pointed questions, of which the answers are on the data chip. It’s only encrypted to make sure you called. The password is ‘password’. Yes, I know, awful security, but I didn’t want it to remain a secret. I’m sure the man’s home is filled with all kinds of interesting information, if you look in the right places.”

“I’m not sure how I can trust anything we find since you’ve made it quite clear you might have planted it yourself,” David said in a dry tone. “Tell me, Patrick, why should I believe the words of a self-confessed assassin?”

“I’m told that one can lead a horse to water but not make him drink. I’ve never tried that particular trick myself, mind you, but it sounds logical enough. I don’t have enough information about the Poseidon Group to know much, but if the secrets here might lead you to other people inside that organization, does it really matter the source? After all, I could have killed you today. Surely that speaks well to my character.”

“That you would kill someone for money? It does indeed speak to your character. In my case, the fact that you abstained doesn’t make me feel all that much better, particularly since you killed someone else. We should have a sit-down conversation. I have a lot of questions.”

Patrick chuckled. “I’m sure you do. I’m also sure you’re tracing this call, trying to triangulate my location. Let me assure you that I’ve taken the necessary steps to ensure that won’t happen. Please, be gentle when you go to the location your trace leads you to. It’s a café filled with young people doing whatever it is that young people do. I’ve never tried to understand the younger generations, so I hesitate to make a guess about their activities. Still, whatever their flaws, they are not me.”

David looked over at DiGiorgio. The Navy officer shrugged. “The trace does lead to a café. We have law enforcement on the way there now, but I don’t expect they will shoot anybody.”

“Why don’t you warn them that the subject says he’s not there. And then keep working on trying to do the trace.” He didn’t bother hiding what he was saying. Patrick obviously knew what was going on.

“Now, where were we?” he asked. “Oh, yes. The potential for the two of us to have another conversation.”

“I don’t object in principle,” Patrick said. “Don’t be concerned that I’m seeking absolution for my crimes in exchange for my assistance. I’ve done far too much wet work for that, and I don’t see changing anything about what I’m doing. On the other hand, sometimes even a villain feels they need to perform community service.”

David almost laughed but stopped himself. If Patrick wanted to ramble while the trace was ongoing, he’d let him.

“I’ve decided tracking down the Poseidon Group would be an interesting exercise,” Patrick continued. “There was quite a bit of money here, no doubt what the gentleman intended to pay me with, so I’ve confiscated it to finance my future operations against them. If I find anything truly interesting, I’ll see that you get word of it. Tell me you’re not intrigued.”

Intrigued? Horrified was more like it.

Working with Bronson Rowe was a stretch. Doing so with an unrepentant assassin was a step too far. Yet, how could he stop the man? It wasn’t as if he could tell him to back off and expect to be obeyed. On the contrary, this Patrick would undoubtedly move forward with even more gusto, maybe leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.

“If you’re inclined to start killing off more people as you go, I will point out that being able to question them could lead us to others in their organization,” David said, hoping to cut off that entire line of thinking.

“True, but there are more ways of questioning than simply looking mean and asking. Now, we should get down to brass tacks. Your people will undoubtedly tear this man’s home apart, looking for information. I’m sure you’ll find something worthwhile because he doesn’t seem to be as organized as he would need to be to keep his lives separated. I could probably have found whatever he was hiding, but there’s no need for me to be in direct competition with you. Now, I’m afraid I’ve got to go. I have a few more names on my list. Until we meet again.”

The call disconnected. David was willing to bet that the number was already unreachable and would never be used again. That only made sense for someone working in that type of field. Whatever contact information someone had for them would go through several cutouts and be good for a single use or very limited time.

Well, tracking him down was someone else’s problem. Probably Lisa and her associates. They at least had the skills with that sort of thing. All he could do was deal with the mess the assassin had left for them. After, of course, figuring out how he’d gotten through their security.

He went to the computer center being used by Lisa and her team. He found them all focused on locating the intruder and determining how he’d breached their security. Someone must have tipped them off.

In fact, they seemed very excited at the prospect. Each of them was calling out to the other any time they found anything interesting. They seem thrilled at the idea of backtracking somebody else’s hack of their system.

“I don’t suppose anybody has an update for me?” he asked as he went to stand behind Lisa.

She turned to look at him. “This is scary! We haven’t found out how he got into the system yet, but he left a nifty program. It’s custom and self-erasing. The code might still be there if we can find the various places it was stashed, though. We might not be able to put it completely back together, but I can already tell you how he jiggered with our security. He had something on him emitting on the electromagnetic spectrum that overwhelmed the cameras. It wasn’t visible to the eye, yet the electronics couldn’t handle it. The program was likely some kind of backup to be sure nothing important was caught.”

Personally, David wasn’t convinced. If he had taken the time to upload a specialty program, it wouldn’t just be to erase all evidence of his presence, though it would certainly do that as well. No. It likely had other objectives to achieve.

“I have a data chip with an encrypted file. He said the password was ‘password’ because he wasn’t hiding it.” He handed it to the hacker.

She rolled her eyes as she plugged it into the computer. “That’s lame. No viruses, and some files in a directory.”

Lisa brought them up, and he examined them over her shoulder. One directory held some portfolios. Basically, they were a series of images of people and a write-up with some of their backgrounds and habits. A couple appeared to be senior government officials either in the Confederation Council in the cluster or the planetary government. Some of the others were people he recognized from his own party, including his wife and himself.

This was very interesting and a little disturbing because he didn’t know the circumstances under which someone had gotten these images. The ones of himself and his wife appeared to have been taken inside the facility. Considering that only a few trusted government employees and the Navy and Marines were present, that was concerning.

A file contained a listing of the people in the portfolios and sums listed in Confederation dollars. Fairly large sums, in some cases. Interestingly, he and his wife rated numbers two and three on the scale, with her coming in above him. Not surprising. The top person was Lisa Gane.

That wasn’t to say that she was the most important person on the list, not really. President Ibarra was on there, but the dollar amount for her came in at number five on the chart. Sara Nastasi was number four. Taken all together, many of their friends and allies were on this list, and the total sum of money was substantial.

“This isn’t disturbing,” Lisa said dryly. “Now I feel motivated to figure this guy out and recover that program. Why did he have to come in person? He could’ve sent that information and not put himself at risk.”

“He was making a statement,” David said. “We’ll definitely take anything he says or does a lot more seriously now. Ego probably also played a role. He’s good, and he wants us to know it.”

“I’ve been running the description you gave us versus the planetary security databases and haven’t come up with any hits,” one of the women said. “If they’re looking for someone like him, they haven’t bothered telling anyone. He’s a ghost.”

“He really is,” David agreed. “He had the kind of looks, and demeanor one noticed during the moment but forgot as soon as the interaction was done. He faded into the background, and that’s the perfect sort of thing for an assassin.”

“Being at the top of the list,” Lisa said as she turned in her seat, “do I need to worry about somebody killing me?”

“I hope you like Marines because we’re doubling your guard. And before you get all bent out of shape, so is everybody else on that list. If the Poseidon Group is willing to pay professionals top dollar to see that we die, we definitely don’t want to leave them too much of an opportunity. And now, this assassin has proven he can get to any of us.”

“You’ll have to talk with someone and get a sketch done. We need to have something reliable about what this man looks like.”

“I have a fair hand at sketching,” he said to the hacker. “I’ll draw up what I remember because that’s inside my skill set. Once I’ve got that, we can have a professional work with you to enhance what I’ve got, and our killer will have a face.”

He crossed his arms. “I have to say that the intrusion program is interesting. I hesitate to give your people another task, but if you can recover the software, it might prove helpful if we ever have to penetrate one of the Poseidon Group’s facilities. I understand that if it’s something that used our old hardware against us, it probably won’t help, but he wouldn’t have written an entire program just to do this. He may have modified it slightly so that it was more effective in this kind of environment, but he’s used it before. I guarantee it.”

The hacker nodded. “We’ll keep digging around the system until we recover as much of the program as possible. It’s entirely possible that his unfamiliarity with how the old hardware works means we might find the entire thing. Somewhere along the way, he plugged a data chip in to upload the program. It’s almost a certainty that he didn’t anticipate that the buffer would probably keep a record. Based on what we’ve already found, it shouldn’t take us more than an hour to backtrack the upload point. Once we’ve got that, we can extract the whole program and begin working on it. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be all the risk.”

David raised his eyebrow inquiringly. “How so?”

“If you don’t think he uploaded other programs to monitor our progress or spy on us in various ways, you’re missing a bet. I’ve already taken the liberty of locking down all incoming and outgoing communications. Our systems are in isolation until we discover exactly what they’ve done. People can use their personal comms, but that’s it.”

Once he thought about it, he realized that she was right. He wouldn’t have only uploaded the program to allow him to get into the facility and back out again. No. He’d have definitely put programs in place to monitor them and keep himself updated. The thought made him smile. Once they figured out exactly how that was supposed to work, he’d write a nice little note to drop into the man’s inbox.

It was poor policy to let someone that could be an antagonist figure they were better than you. Patrick needed to be on his guard when dealing with the Confederation Navy and those associated with it.

“Well, keep me informed. I’ll get Tina to help me see what intelligence we can get at the house. You stay focused on this.”

David hoped they could get their hands on the assassin. They couldn’t afford to have a loose cannon careening across the decks at a critical moment like this. Patrick might have done them a favor—nominally speaking—but he had ulterior motives. The assassin was another problem they needed to deal with before it bit them on the butts.

He’d do the best he could, but they now had so many balls in the air that he wasn’t sure which one he should grab next. One mistake, and they would all come tumbling down.

11

Jack had wanted to talk to the survivors from the freighter immediately, but his mother put her foot down. These people had been through hell, and she wasn’t letting anyone see them until they’d gotten a complete medical work over and any issues that could be treated had been dealt with.

He knew better than to try to argue with her over medical treatment, so he’d focused his attention on the recovery of the passive scanner data. From this far out—and using civilian systems—the resolution was crap. That didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot to be found, but it did require trained experts going over the data to tease out its secrets.

Derek and Amanda had put in half a shift going over everything and developed a timeline. The Locusts had arrived at the beginning of the invasion, giving them a starting point. As they’d done in so many other systems, they’d spread out and vaporized everything in space except in orbit around Vesuvius itself.

That made sense if they’d treated the system like they did Argent. From what he understood of the Tardan military’s goal, they’d wanted to keep at least a few planets’ technology intact. The specifics of why they were doing so was unclear, but it had to do with their ultimate goal of heading back to fight the Novarites, he was sure.

Once they picked up the refugees from the asteroid belt, they’d settled around the cometary body and shut down as many systems as possible. They’d been hiding and hoping for the best.

Unfortunately, that hadn’t done them any good. Once the occupation had begun, there was nothing else humanity could do to save them. The Tardans had owned the system, and even if the Locusts had known the freighter was out there, they’d simply have destroyed it.

The next major thing they had on the passive sensors was the arrival of the Tardan colony ships and their military escorts. There were even more here than there had been at Argent, a total of twenty-seven of the big ships. Even so, it hadn’t taken their military long to disable them. It was unclear whether they could have done so while still keeping power to the pods that had the colonists inside them, so Jack wasn’t sure if the ships were giant graves or full of sleeping civilians.

The Novarites arrived within the hour, and the Tardan military vessels didn’t have an opportunity to interact with the colony ships further before they were engaged and destroyed. Then the Novarites made a pass around the colony vessels before determining they were no threat and spreading out into the rest of the system to engage the Locusts.

From what Jack could see of the fighting, he was willing to bet most of the small robotic craft were gone by the time the Novarites arrived. Where they’d ultimately gone, he had no idea. That was becoming a serious problem he couldn’t continue to ignore. There were supposed to be enough Locust motherships and drones in the cluster to destroy twelve battleships. Where were they?

He understood they had fanned out through the gate network and spread destruction far and wide. That still didn’t explain where they’d gone. A huge fleet of the robotic craft had been in the gateway system, yet they hadn’t turned up anywhere else that he knew of. Thanks to India’s scouting, they’d verified that the gateway system was clear, but the odds of them chasing after Hunter once he’d jumped seemed low.

No. He couldn’t assume they were wandering around somewhere. They’d had a task in mind, and it had required them to be in the gateway system. Most likely, they’d been on their way to the rest of the Confederation, but with the gate system destroyed, that wasn’t possible anymore. Did that change their orders?

Using the motherships, they could make the crossing on their own. That would take roughly three years. Since they were now eight months into the invasion, that was only a quarter of the time it would take, and they’d have time to deal with the enemy en route to the rest of the Confederation. If, of course, the Poseidon Group didn’t do something irrevocable.

The problem was that he couldn’t afford to assume they were limited to that speed. He now knew the Novarites could travel twice as fast. What if the motherships carrying that strike force could somehow increase their speed as well? It wasn’t likely, but it wasn’t impossible either.

Just one more problem that had to be dealt with sooner rather than later. He had no way of knowing where the Locusts were, and with the limited range of the hyperspace detector and the inability of the independent quantum drive to come out in deep space, he wasn’t going to get the answers he needed anytime soon. He had to focus on the problems he could solve, which meant he needed to see the people from that freighter. Not that they could provide anything that changed his calculus for this system.

The first step in making that happen was getting his mother to let him talk with them. Best to beard the lion in its den and get this over with.

He entered the medical center and shed his Marine guards at the hatch. There was no need to have them shadowing him in the depths of every single secured area. They had people on guard outside simply because he’d decided it was easier to have folks keeping watch on all critical areas as part of their regular duties rather than have every crisis require the placing of guards.

With several dozen new patients, spotting the people receiving care wasn’t hard. They were spread across the medical center, being checked by the entirety of the staff.

He spotted her coming out of one of the examination rooms and moved to intercept her before she could start working on someone else. “I understand I’m interrupting, but I need to talk to somebody that can help verify some of the information we’ve uncovered aboard the freighter. It’s time-sensitive, but I’ll keep it as brief as possible.”

She didn’t look happy, but she nodded. “You can have ten minutes with Ross Swayze. My understanding is that he picked up one of the leadership positions aboard the freighter after the captain and engineer committed suicide. He seems in good shape, but I’ll hold you to that ten minutes, so make your questions pointed and be sure he understands that he needs to be succinct. I’ll run you out if I think you’re pushing him too hard.”

“Understood. Thank you. Where can I find him?”

She pointed at one of the examination rooms. “I’ve got him stashed in there until I can get them into private rooms in the next hour. They’re rightfully sick and tired of being around one another. Are you expecting to recover any of the bodies?”

He shook his head. “They dumped the air in the lock, so each of the bodies got enough momentum to escape the cometary body. We don’t have time for a search, but I’ll log everything so that someone can eventually look for them.”

She pursed her lips and nodded. “Even though that cuts against the grain, I understand. I can tell you that they’ll be looking for eight bodies. Almost all were crew on the freighter. The survivors—with two exceptions—were asteroid miners. Interestingly, only one of them committed suicide. They’re a hardy bunch.”

“Pretty much rabid individualists is the way I heard it,” he said. “Those are the kind of people that seek solitude, so maybe they were in a better mental place to deal with this kind of trauma. What would you say his state of mind is?”

“Exhausted. They’ve been living in an area with poor life support for quite some time, which meant extended periods of vigilance. He’s also been keeping an eye on everyone and acting as the go-to man if they needed to talk to somebody. He probably kept a few of them from taking their lives before they were rescued.”

“Not all heroes wear capes. Thanks.”

Jack made his way to the indicated examination room and rapped his knuckles against the divider. “Mister Swayze? May I come in?”

“You folks might as well leave the door open. I’m okay. No need to keep checking on me.”

Jack opened the curtain and stepped in. The man sitting on the examination bed was unkempt and looked exhausted. The gown he was wearing didn’t help, Jack was sure. Swayze could also use a long hot shower, a shave and a haircut, and as much food as he could stomach. Then he should probably sleep for a day or two. His mother would make sure all those things happened.

“Sorry, I’m not the medical staff,” Jack said. “I just have a few questions. I have ten minutes, so I have to keep my questions pointed and request that you keep your answers succinct. Doctor’s orders.”

“Mi casa, su casa,” the man said with a shrug. “You must be one of the Navy people. Thank you very much for stopping to check the freighter. I’m not sure how long we could have held out otherwise. You saved our lives, and we’re grateful. Anything we can do to help, you need only ask.”

Jack sat in one of the visitor’s chairs. “Right now, we need information about what’s happening in this system. I don’t have time to explain, but the Locusts came back, and they didn’t come back alone. This time they brought their creators with them, but somebody else was chasing them with hostile intent. To say that the current situation is something of a mess is an understatement. Did you or your people monitor any of what was going on in the system enough to pick up any trends of behavior or oddities that should be mentioned?”

“We were watching pretty heavily just after the invasion,” Swayze said, scratching his bearded chin. “In the beginning, that was mostly the ship’s crew. Some of our people sat in after the captain took the long walk. They kept detailed notes at the beginning, but once things settled down, I’m pretty sure that fell off to nothing. Once they finished exterminating the spacers, there wasn’t much going on in the system. The Locusts used the gates to go somewhere else, and a few ships remained with some of the Locusts to watch over them. Almost all the activity was centered around Vesuvius.”

That was about what Jack had expected to hear as it matched the behavior around New Copenhagen. He already knew the people hadn’t been monitoring when the colonization ships arrived, so he’d have to tag up with Derek and Amanda to see if they had anything to add.

“Did you see any large groups of Locusts moving through the system? It’s possible that there were multiple arrival points, and if so, it would be helpful to know when that occurred.”

The man nodded. “There were probably five or six large groups of Locusts coming through. If our guess was correct, they were transiting toward the gateway system. I can’t say why they were doing that, but all of them seemed to have transferred through before something made the gates blow up. We can’t rightly say why that happened.”

“The Navy sent a self-destruct signal through the gate network. It had been installed after the last invasion, so that pretty well trapped all the invaders in whatever system they were in. Admittedly, they have hyperdrives, but their speed is significantly hampered. Can you think of anything else that we need to know?”

Swayze shook his head. “I wish I had something that would be useful, but the only thing that stands out as unusual was a trio of ships that came through the system maybe a month before you picked us up. Had to be some of that hyperdrive stuff because we didn’t see where they came from or where they went. We wouldn’t have noticed them at all if they hadn’t passed between us and the sun. Not sure what they were up to because they didn’t go to Vesuvius.”

Jack felt his spine stiffen a little. “How long did you have them under observation? Any guess where they might’ve come into the system from?”

“We didn’t do much searching of the archived data because it didn’t matter. Our morale was already rock-bottom, so there didn’t seem to be any point to it. More aliens doing alien things.”

Jack nodded and stood. “That tells me what I need to know. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask for me.”

Swayze gave him a crooked smile. “You have to introduce yourself for that.”

He had gotten sidetracked from introducing himself, so Jack extended his hand. “Admiral Jack Romanoff. My mother is the senior physician, and I’m the ship’s commanding officer. As I said, we’ll do everything we can to get your people back to somewhere safe as quickly as possible, but at the very least, we’ll get you healthy. Don’t hesitate to contact my staff or me if you think of anything else, day or night.”

The man had straightened a bit at Jack mentioning his rank, but if it disturbed him, he didn’t let it show. His grip was firm, and his smile seemed genuine. “You bet I will. Thank you, Admiral.”

Jack made his way out of the examination room and spotted his mother giving him the eye. No doubt she’d been watching the time closely. He gave her a mock salute and headed for the hatch. It was time to run what he had just learned past his people because those would not have been alien ships. The survivors on the freighter had almost certainly witnessed three of the ships belonging to the Poseidon Group. If that gave them information that would help triangulate where they’d come from, it was priceless.

He despised the thought of leaving billions of people under the heels of alien invaders for one second longer than he absolutely had to. If there was a way they could lure the Novarites into a decisive battle where he had the advantage, he was willing to take the risk.

Derek and Amanda were going over the recovered data in the operations center. There were a lot more consoles available for their use in that environment and plenty of rooms that allowed for a bit of privacy. They were working hard at two of the consoles.

“How goes the parsing of the data?” he asked.

Derek half turned in his seat toward him and raised an eyebrow. “We’ve gotten everything into our system and have been going over it at a very high level. The sensors were on the entire time, so we’ve got about eight months of data. That’s a lot to parse, and we’re using the computer to help refine things. It’s going to be some time before we have a report for you, sir.”

“What if I gave you a bit of information that might narrow things down for us?” he said as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the bulkhead. “According to the senior survivor, three ships showed up unexpectedly about a month ago. I think they might have inadvertently caught a glimpse of three cruisers belonging to the Poseidon Group.”

That got the two searching the data to see if they could find anything. Within a few seconds, Amanda nodded. “I have them. Since we’re looking at passive sensor data, and they were quite far from the freighter, the resolution is junk. What I can tell you with certainty is that those are not Novarite or Tardan warships. The profile is all wrong. If anything, I’d have guessed they were Confederation Navy cruisers. Since we suspect the Poseidon Group is working off plans they stole from the Confederation Navy, I suppose that’s not a big surprise.”

“Can we tell anything about them?” Jack asked. “Maybe where they arrived in the system or perhaps departed? How long were they here? What were they looking at? Were they even interested in what was going on at Vesuvius, or was this simply a waypoint they had to traverse through in spite of the fact it was occupied?”

“The passive sensors aren’t exactly omnidirectional, but we might be able to pick up some information,” Derek said. “What I can tell you for certain is that the ships were traveling slow enough that detection from deeper in the system was almost impossible. I can scroll back and see the moment the computers realized those were ships and even a little bit further back to where they were just ghosts. Unfortunately, they almost certainly entered the system sometime before that.”

“As for departing, they were outside the range of the passive sensors when they left the system, but there was still some data coming in that makes me think I know when they left,” Amanda said. “We’ll get the computer to scrub the interference out of this data. That might help us refine things a little. There’s only so much we can do without rendering it completely useless, but we’ll do our best.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less. What about our current situation in Vesuvius? Have you refined what we’re looking at?”

“Yes, sir,” Amanda said. “We’ve identified four large Novarite warships and an even dozen cruiser-sized vessels. There are twenty-seven Tardan colony ships that are being escorted by four additional cruisers. My recommendation isn’t one you’ll want to hear, but that’s too large a force for us to deal with. Our hull is compromised in several places where we’ve taken significant shots from the antiproton beams. The cruisers are less of a threat, but so many large vessels is problematic.”

“Even so,” Jack said, “we’ll have to face them before much longer. I’m not advocating we rush in where angels fear to tread, but we have a few technological surprises to spring on them. They’ve never encountered the independent quantum drive, and we can use the hyperdrive deeper in the system than they can. For that matter, if things get dicey, we can utilize the independent quantum drive and the hyperdrive in tandem, though we’d probably want to stay just a bit farther out than last time so as not to strain our systems again. We can’t afford to leave our major systems under the control of aliens.”

The two junior officers glanced at one another before Derek spoke. “I don’t like being an advocate for standing back and doing nothing, but this is the only battleship we have, Admiral. If we make a mistake and they bring us to heel, that’s it for the cluster. That might even be it for the Confederation as a whole. I can start working on plans where we use all our advantages, but the odds of taking out all four large vessels before they fire on us multiple times is low. What if they punch through engineering?”

Jack pushed himself away from the bulkhead. “Welcome to the command track. If we can’t come up with a plan I think has a decent chance of success, we won’t execute it. That said, I don’t want to give up unless we absolutely have to. Put everything under a microscope and start wargaming things out. I want your best assessment of what we can do tomorrow morning.”

He took two steps toward the hatch and stopped to turn back. “And before you think not coming up with a plan means failure on your part, it doesn’t. Sometimes what we want to do is impossible. I won’t hold it against you if you can’t come up with something, but I don’t want you to hold anything back in your brainstorming sessions. We’ve come up with some very unusual ideas, and they’ve been successful. Keep running with that theme, and we might just win here, too.”

With his caveat thrown in, Jack left the compartment. They were bright, dedicated officers. If there was an answer to be found, they would find it. If it turned out they couldn’t relieve the Vesuvius system at this time, then he’d make the hard call, and they’d go somewhere else. They still had one major system that needed to be scouted, though he had no doubt that what they’d find there would be similar to what he was looking at now. The scout they’d sent there would report back to Argent, and then they’d know.

Thus far, they’d been dealing with enemies arriving at their doorstep even as they fought. Now the Tardans and Novarites would have either settled in or been defeated by the other side. It would’ve been nice if the Novarite warships had been reduced in number by the Tardan defenders, but they were outgunned. He expected that every location the Novarites showed up would be theirs in very short order.

There were undoubtedly small Tardan forces on the move inside the cluster. Would any of them try to mount a retaliatory strike against the Novarites? Possibly, but the timescale of traveling without the quantum gates made that unlikely.

This was one of those situations where having a second battleship would’ve been a tremendous boon. If he could lure the defenders out to attack one of the battleships, the second could pin them between the two Confederation ships of the line and grind them to dust. He didn’t expect Sara to produce miracles, but maybe—if they were lucky—they’d have a second battleship online in three or four months. Even if it was just a decoy with most of its weapons still nonfunctional, that had its uses.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. If wishes were horses, they’d all be hip deep in manure. He had to deal with the situation as it was. With that grim thought, he headed for the bridge. He’d sit out the rest of the shift there and then get something to eat before trying to get a good night’s sleep. If his helm and tactical officers came through, tomorrow might be a hectic day.

12

Lisa worked until deep in the night, wandering through the facility and plugging her code reader into various locations that the assassin might have used to upload the program. They’d been able to recover snippets of the code in the security systems where Patrick—the name he’d given David—had been, which gave her clues about where to look for the origin point, but it certainly didn’t make it easy in a facility this size.

The idea that a trained killer had had the audacity to come down to her workspace made her shiver. She’d seen Patrick, but remembering what he looked like was almost impossible. He’d just blended in to the point where she’d forgotten he existed as soon as he left. David had sketched what he remembered, and she supposed it helped, though the sketch might be prompting her to see things that hadn’t actually been there.

One thing was certain, this Patrick was a damned ghost when it came to walking through security measures. The Marines still weren’t sure how he’d gotten into the facility. Better yet, they weren’t sure how he’d gotten back out once David had raised an alert. It was as if he’d teleported through the defenses.

She didn’t believe that for a second. People didn’t bypass everything without there being a logical explanation. He’d gotten through the outer perimeter on the surface via means that weren’t obvious but had to exist.

The thought made her purse her lips as the latest upload point proved just as empty as the rest. The Marines had emplacements outside the fence and people roving the perimeter. To get in, he’d have had to find the pattern they were using, make a run for the fence, and get through it—or over it—without anyone spotting him. That seemed like an awful lot of risk.

He certainly hadn’t flown in. The Marines would have spotted any incoming craft, meaning there had to be some angle they hadn’t thought of yet.

She was reminded of an old Sherlock Holmes quote. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had been dead long before spaceflight took the first humans away from the world of their birth, but the Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes, lived on. “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” Holmes had asked of his friend Watson.

While it was a logical fallacy to think that anyone could eliminate all the impossible options, it didn’t make the underlying thoughts untrue. If she were an assassin, she’d be looking for ways in that no one had considered. With an old military facility like this, there was always the possibility of something unexpected.

That made her think long and hard about how much they knew about the old planetary defense headquarters. It had been abandoned for a very long time, and they still didn’t know all that much about it. The place was huge.

Could there be underground transport no one was aware of? Would someone want a planetary defense headquarters to be connected to the outside world through something like that? If you were expecting an attack from space, having something come in from underground might be a positive thing.

The problem was that they had no idea if such a thing existed, but perhaps there was a way to find out. The original computers in this place were still intact, though they’d been shut down long ago. Checking them had been a low-priority item.

Maybe it was time to go take a look. Having worked aboard Hunter for months, her skills with the old computers were almost as good as with the modern ones. If there were secrets still buried in there, she could find them.

Locating the original computers for the facility only took a few minutes, but gaining access to them took almost an hour. The doors had been secured to keep anyone from getting in, and tracking down the right person to open them for her had turned out to be more challenging than she’d expected.

Of course, she could have broken in, but that would have taken longer, considering how secure the room was. It had mechanical locks as well as electronic ones. Whoever had built the compartment hadn’t wanted anyone getting in without the appropriate keys, both physical and electronic.

Once one of the junior Navy officers had tracked down the keys, she let herself in even as she wondered where the Navy people had found them. Had they been stored in some admiral’s office? It didn’t really matter, though. She had access, and that’s what counted.

From what she’d been told, the expectation had been that the system had been erased, but they’d found it intact. That certainly made the chances of finding what she was looking for easier, but it was poor security. The Navy had abandoned this facility and had no idea who would take it over. In fact, a bunch of companies had tried to make things work here. If they’d been able to access the main computer, that might have given them secrets they shouldn’t have had.

Well, at least it was secure now. Or at least as secure as it could be, all things considered. It was ancient.

Lisa sat at the old console and brushed some of the dust off the keyboard. She hoped it still worked. The screen came to life, presenting her with a login prompt. She’d been given administrator login credentials—more terrible security since someone had obviously written it down—so she used them to gain access and then created an account for herself before logging back out. It was always best to have a spare administrator account in case you screwed something up.

Once she’d logged back in as herself, she began searching the system for a map of the facility. It might just be the key to locating how Patrick had gained access without anyone being the wiser.

<I hesitate to say anything, but you do realize this entire situation feels wrong, don’t you?>

In what way?

<This person took an unmitigated risk coming here and revealing his presence. What did that gain him?>

She felt herself shrugging. I haven’t got the slightest idea. Do you have any clue?

<I don’t, but I believe there may be more to the story than breaking in to show off his skills. Physical access to this facility had to have granted him some advantage. Just because he killed someone belonging to the Poseidon Group—if they truly do—we’re simply supposed to accept it? It seems that someone who kills for money is untrustworthy in all things.>

There’s something to what you’re saying. I hadn’t considered that, but maybe once we track down where he’s been inside the facility, we’ll be able to find out if he’s done something else. The only places we can be sure he’s been are in the engineering section where the computers are set up, and David’s office. If he had visited some other location, it would almost have to have been before he visited those. If one has a secretive task to perform, one would want to do it before stirring the hornet’s nest.

<I have some vague memory of what a hornet is, and it seems best to avoid having those creatures stinging them. That’s a very painful metaphor. Let’s try to avoid being attacked by something like that.>

Agreed. Now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I need to find maps for this facility. There’s got to be another way in that we’re unaware of.

It took her about ten minutes to locate image files containing a complete facility map. Everything was neatly labeled with its purpose back in the old days, but there was no telling what might have changed in the intervening years.

If there was underground access, it would probably be deeply buried. She started searching each building’s lowest layers first and finally found a hit. It wasn’t in the building they were occupying, but one nearby that they hadn’t taken full possession of yet. That building was a storage facility and had an underground monorail system linked to it. That made sense.

The maps didn’t indicate where the rail line went, but if there was unauthorized access for her to find, that’s where it would be. She locked everything down, though she kept her account active, and made certain there were permissions in the firewalls that would allow her to get in from her other computer system.

When she had time, she could pull the files off this old computer and put them into the modern one she was using. That would make things significantly faster. If she set up a nightly backup, any files that changed could be automatically brought over to her system.

The Marines following her around had to have been bored, and they perked up quite a bit when they left the main facility building and walked through the cross-connecting corridor to the new building. In fact, they called for backup.

“We need to wait until the others get here, ma’am,” one of the Marines said. “This facility hasn’t been explored, and we don’t know if the intruder is still here.”

She smiled at the young man. “He’s gone. There’s no way he would have any reason to remain close by once his mission was accomplished. Still, you’re in charge of security, so I’ll amuse myself while you’re busy.”

She stepped over to one of the video cameras mounted on the wall and used her tablet to access its memory. The thing recorded when something changed, so it was easy enough to find when the intruder had come through and then left. Interestingly, his entrance to the main building took place almost an hour before he’d shown up in the computer center. That only strengthened her suspicion that he’d been up to no good.

The image was still completely screwed. Whatever he’d done to overload the cameras had to have been active before he’d arrived at the facility. Why take chances?

The way the lights seemed to play over his entire body was spooky, but it gave her an idea of what she was dealing with. Either something in his clothes or perhaps even underneath his skin was generating some output that was messing with the cameras. That would be pretty darn useful if you wanted to avoid being identified, but there would be records of this type of thing in the planetary security system someplace. Rather than running a search for Patrick’s face, going through and looking for anomalies that resembled this might tell them places he’d been, at least while he’d been on the job.

She wouldn’t have it running all the time if it were her. That would just lead to questions. Far better to walk around like a normal person and then activate it when on the job.

After waiting about five minutes, an entire squad of Marines came jogging down the corridor in full battle rattle. She raised an eyebrow and looked back at the first Marine. “Don’t you think you’re going a little overboard?”

He shook his head. “It’s a big building, ma’am, and we were instructed not to take any chances with your safety. Two Marines watching over you while we were in a familiar area seemed appropriate, but now that we’re heading somewhere unexplored, it’s better to break off a couple of fire teams and send them ahead to make sure we don’t run into any booby traps.”

What do you think, Regex? Are there going to be booby traps ahead of us?

<It seems unlikely, but a person that kills for a living is obviously insane, so predicting their behavior is not a precise science. It never hurts to be a little cautious, and that prudence might end up saving our lives. I say let them do their jobs and be happy that someone cares enough about us to take these precautions.>

He was probably right, but having so many people hovering around irritated her. She was used to living her own life, and these changes weren’t to her liking.

Now that they had a vast herd of Marines watching over her, some of them did break off and lead the advance once they understood where the ultimate destination was. She and her expanded guard team of Marines remained behind until each team called out that things just ahead were cleared.

Getting to the maglev train station took almost half an hour, which was ridiculous, but at least they got there. And, to her amusement, no one found any indication of booby traps or ambushes. Still, better safe than sorry, she supposed.

Everything down here was covered in a fairly thick layer of dust, making it evident that someone had come out of one of the tunnels and gone into the facility. There was a set of tracks leading back out that strongly implied that the person had left. The Marines had spread out to secure the area but were courteous enough to avoid stepping on the evidence, which she appreciated.

That allowed her to follow the tracks to the very first computer station inside what was probably a kiosk used to keep track of the maglev trains. Interestingly, there were none at the station. Where had they gone?

Since Patrick had accessed the computer in the kiosk, that was almost certainly where he’d first uploaded his program. It was made to spread throughout the system once he had sufficient access, so he’d probably been here for quite a while to allow the program to fully infiltrate the computer systems. Once she had the entire program, she could figure out what it did.

All the old hardware had a buffer that wasn’t standard in modern equipment. That’s where she’d found the snippets of code so far, and she certainly hoped she’d find the program where he’d uploaded it. A quick check of the buffer made her smile as she began copying its contents to her tablet. She wouldn’t be certain this was the whole program until she had a chance to examine it in more detail, but it was large enough to contain most of the code if it wasn’t complete.

Based on the time it had been uploaded, Patrick had definitely penetrated the facility at least an hour earlier than they’d guessed. Where would he have gone next? What required his time and presence?

And how did he expect that they wouldn’t notice where he’d gone? They had a very distinctive appearance, so there should be no doubt about exactly where this man had gone. After all, she’d seen him in the video feed above.

But would that have made it into the archives? Maybe that was one of the things this program did. If it were her, she’d use a mixture of stealth and obviousness to lull her opponents into a false sense of security. If he’d erased the camera feeds for the areas he didn’t want to be seen in, then what was left would stand out all the more. After all, he could have erased everything, so the security people would be wondering what they’d missed.

She brought up her tablet and accessed the primary computer system. Doing work remotely through a tablet like this was time-consuming and not nearly as easy as sitting at a console, but she could at least verify a few things. First, she checked the archives for the tunnel where she’d found the image of their intruder. As she’d guessed, it showed nothing. Patrick had erased all evidence of his passage in the archives, and the only reason she’d spotted him was that she’d checked the camera’s buffer. That oversight would cost the intruder.

It would be a long and tedious task to track down exactly where he’d gone, but it was possible. Thankfully, she had a lot of assistants to help with that. She turned to the Marine standing closest to her.

“He’s gone, but we’ll need to post some people down here to make sure no one else slips in unnoticed. Meanwhile, I need help plugging tablets into video cameras throughout this facility so we can track exactly where the intruder went. That means you folks will have to help me.”

“Ma’am, we’re supposed to protect you, not do your work for you.”

“Now that we’re sure he’s gone, I don’t object to having a few of you play guard duty, but we need to know where he went,” she said in a tone that brooked no argument. “He could have sabotaged something significant. Send someone for more tablets, and I’ll copy the necessary software onto them. We’ll scan every camera that could have caught sight of him.”

The man looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. Instead, he sent two Marines to retrieve tablets, and she spent the next twenty minutes updating the software on them once she had them in her possession. Then, she showed the Marines how to plug the tablets into one of the video cameras watching over the station.

It accessed the buffer and pulled out the video that had been saved. On the screen, they watched the shining image of a man covered in light walk out of the tunnel, climb up onto the platform, and go to the kiosk. He worked there for a time and then headed into the tunnel leading to the stairs.

“Now that we know he went up the stairs, we’ll scan each of the cameras in the stairwell until we find where he exited. I’d suggest we don’t trust anything, though it’s likely that his footprints in the dust will tell us everything we need to know. We’ll lose him once we get back to the main building because we’ve cleaned up there. Assume nothing though. Check everything.”

She didn’t expect any surprises during this portion, just like she’d explained. Still, it would give the Marines practice in doing the task. Once they’d gone through the steps a few times, they became comfortable with the process, and she could trust them out of her sight.

The initial steps of tracing Patrick were slow, but the Marines picked up the pace as they got to the tunnel where he’d been last detected. That led them back into the building where everyone else was housed, and the tracks in the dust vanished like she’d known they would.

“This is where we’ll need to split up. Whenever we come to a place where he could have stepped away from this corridor, somebody will have to check it. If anyone finds that he went their way, notify us so we can back up and come with you.”

With so many Marines assisting her, following the path he left didn’t prove difficult at all. They made a few wrong choices when they had options but figured out where he’d gone when someone checked the camera that showed him going down a side passage or doing something else, like going through a compartment and exiting on the other side. He was being clever, but his lack of knowledge about how the old equipment worked had bitten him on the ass.

One of the things that confused her was how he knew so much about this facility. According to the way he was moving, it was as if he had a map. How would he have gotten something like that? Of course, she could also ask how he knew anything about the maglev train system. He’d gotten his hands on plans for the planetary defense headquarters somewhere.

It took them over an hour to track down where Patrick had finally stopped, and she smiled when they did. The compartment they’d ended up in looked very much like the security center. If she was right, it was a backup. It would have access to all the same systems the security people were monitoring. They’d be pissed when they found out how Patrick had played them.

While the Marines spread out to continue tracking their target, she stayed there, working with the two guards nominally assigned to her. The computer had definitely been accessed, and she could even tell which station he’d been sitting at because it had all been recorded.

She logged in to the system using her credentials and accessed the secure buffer. Not only did it have everything Patrick had done while he was here, but it also had another program he’d uploaded. No. Not a different program, but the same one she’d already recovered from the system.

She copied it onto her tablet and compared it to the one she’d recovered from the kiosk. Yes, they were identical. That being the case, she had the complete program and could study it at her leisure. Once she figured out what he’d been up to here.

Based on the commands Patrick had entered, she’d be able to look into the code itself and see what type of programs were executed. Yes, it was a single program, but there were many different tasks it could do, she was sure.

Or, she could allow Regex the honor. He needed practice working with their equipment, after all.

Why don’t you figure out what he was up to? Put a copy of that program into a secure virtual instance and see if you can determine how the various commands make it work.

<It’s still awkward for me to work using your language, but it’s getting easier. Let’s see what I can do.>

The alien took control of her hands and began typing. His speed was improving, and so was his accuracy. That was good. If he ever had to do anything like this without her direct input, he’d need to hone his skills.

After a couple of minutes, they both saw what Patrick had been up to. <In the kiosk, he uploaded the program and spread it throughout the main system from camera to camera. It wouldn’t shock me if all the cameras in the facility—both in buildings we occupy and in others—have been modified to look for his presence and erase it other than the very specific ones he told the program to exempt.>

And what does that tell you?

<That he planned his route in advance. Not only that, if he spread the program far and wide, he also intends to come back at some point. I’m not certain what he intends to do when he gets here the next time, but we might want to have the Marines be a bit more covert in how they place their observation team. Perhaps putting them further up the tunnel on the other side, so they’re not visible right away, would allow them to determine when someone was coming.>

She shook her head. They can plant monitors inside the tunnel that warns them if anyone is coming. It might not be able to get a clear look at Patrick, though I wouldn’t rule that out now that they know what he’s doing. Surely that type of equipment can be hardened so it isn’t affected the same way. In any case, it will certainly notify them when we have another visitation. What did he do here in this room?

<It looks like he uploaded something to record video and audio in every room. He’s given some video and audio profiles that match Admiral Romanoff, Vice Admiral MacKinnon, Commodore Nastasi, President Ibarra, Councilor Wong, and you to use in the filtering process. It looks like he wants to spy on us and see what we’re up to.>

The question is, what does he hope to do with that information? Was there anything else?

<Actually, there was. He put a link into our comm system. It’s cleverly hidden but should allow him unfettered remote access without being detected by the security personnel. He’d blinded them from seeing what he did here.>

We’ll want to let them know, but let’s use his own tricks against him. Lisa sent the appropriate commands to erase everything they’d done from the archive. It being the middle of the night, there was little traffic, so she had no trouble replacing the search of the other building and her accessing this room from the record. Now he’d be in the dark about what they knew while she could monitor his access closely.

“Tell the Marines to finish up,” she told her guards. “We need to be back where we were before all this started before everyone starts moving around.”

The man nodded and pulled his comm to do so.

Once she’d cleaned up after herself, she’d create a program to monitor the line of access Patrick had created. Whatever he was really after, she’d figure it out at some point, and then they’d have him. Let the games begin.

13

Mac looked up from the report he was reading when the chime on his hatch sounded. “Enter.”

The hatch slid open, and Commander Danek and Lieutenant Harris walked in. He briefly wondered what could bring the chief engineer and their tactical officer to visit Marine country.

He gestured toward the office chairs on the other side of his desk and leaned back in his chair. “What can I do for the two of you this fine afternoon?”

The women sat, and Danek leaned forward. “We’ve devised a plan we’d like to run past you. This assumes the admiral will engage the Novarites here but that taking it wholesale might be beyond us. What we’re thinking of won’t change the course of that battle, but it might get us some hardware we could really use.”

Mac considered the chief engineer for a moment before nodding. “I’m always ready to listen to a plan, but fair warning, if I think it’s unworkable, I’ll reject it. I assume the fact that you need the Marines implies we’re doing a boarding action.”

The brown-haired woman nodded. “They’ve got four of those big ships that we can detect. There’s no guarantee there aren’t more. Our passive sensors are pretty good at this range, but if they’ve got ships parked out of our line of sight, we can’t see them. At a minimum, we’re looking at significantly more firepower than we’ve ever engaged at one time.”

“The last time we got into a fight with the Novarites, they punched a bunch of holes through our ship,” Harris said. “I feel confident that will rear its head when the decision is made on an attack plan.”

For his part, Mac agreed with that assessment. It still didn’t explain what they needed the Marines for, though. “What are you hoping to retrieve?”

“Some key pieces of equipment in the antiproton beam weapons,” Danek said. “We recovered one undamaged after the fighting earlier, but we hope to house two of them, so we need some parts to make the second one work. Also, having spares on hand would be useful. I think we all know how much of a pain in the ass having something break and not being able to fix it can be.”

He’d seen with his own eyes how problematic that could be. “I’m with you so far, but an operation like this will come with all kinds of problems. If we’re in a running fight, how do we intend to get to the parts while the Novarites resist? Second, with that many big ships around, how can we be sure we won’t be harassed? And third, leaving the front half of the ship undamaged will be a challenge, won’t it?”

The tactical officer nodded. “I’m not sure I can make it work, and if not, we’ll call off the entire plan. Based on some tactical pre-positioning and me refining my targeting algorithms, I should be able to hit one of the big ships with a lot more missiles to the rear than the front. If that works out, they’ll have bigger problems than boarders looking to steal their equipment to worry about.”

Mac chuckled and shook his head. “You haven’t had to fight the Novarites. They’ll put themselves in a lethal situation in order to shoot you. If they figure out we’re there, they’ll come after us with everything they have, no matter what other problems they have. Also, with four of those big ships, Hunter isn’t going to be able to sit, so if we do this, my Marines will be on their own. How can we be sure the admiral can come after us if we succeed?”

“We never said it would be easy,” Danek said with a shrug. “As far as them becoming aware that you’re there if you go in through the bore of the weapon, you should be safe enough. I doubt they have anything in place to monitor that for intrusion. What kind of idiot climbs into a ship through its main weapon?”

“Uh-huh,” he said in a flat tone. “That’s not helping. After all, somebody’s control board will light up once we start disassembling the critical pieces. What are you after, anyway?”

“The weapon pours out a heavy beam of antiprotons,” Harris said. “That’s the most basic form of antimatter. One would think they have some means of generating and storing them for use with their weapon, but that isn’t the case. They use a specialized hyperdrive—a very small one—to open a link to a band of hyperspace that must have a lot of antiprotons. We’d be destroyed immediately if any of us were unlucky enough to try and take a ship into hyperspace through that band.”

“Without power, that weapon can’t fire,” Danek said. “There is no residual antimatter left in the weapon once it’s done firing. There’s a cool-down required for the hyperdrive and the associated gate that it opens, too. If anything can prove the hyperdrives and independent quantum drives are connected, I think this is it. The gate we’re talking about is very much like the ones we use to move ships from one location to another, only it’s connected to that one hyperspace band and doesn’t have anything on the other side. At least, I assume not.”

He considered the two and inclined his head, giving them the point. “Okay, so we can get into the weapon if it’s not prepared to fire and their engineering section is wrecked. That assures our safety during the boarding, at least during the initial stages. You want me to get this gate, but I’ll wager you’re after something more. What’s that?”

“The bore of the weapon is lined with magnetic field generators,” Danek said. “They keep the antiprotons from touching the normal matter of the ship as it’s firing. That results in a jet of focused antiprotons launching directly at the target. It’s well compacted and doesn’t disperse quickly enough to become ineffective before it can reach the target. We’ll want as many of those as you can get. There should be a dozen pairs of these generators, one on either side of the bore. Twenty-four units in total. Based on salvaging them in the past, disconnecting each unit is a relatively straightforward task that we can show you how to do.”

Mac pursed his lips and reached out to tap his fingers on the desk while he thought about that. “It sounds simple when you put it that way, but as someone that’s been on many boarding actions, I can assure you that things will go wrong. Potentially very wrong. When it comes time for us to evacuate, we’ll have to run for it. I can send enough Marines to provide a protective force, but if you want these items removed in a timely fashion, you’ll need to risk some of your engineering people to do the work. If we can get enough people to remove all the equipment simultaneously, that would be best.”

That made the engineer grimace. “I can’t do that. While we’re fighting, I might need those engineers to save the ship if something goes wrong. I don’t mind sending some of my people—volunteers only—to assist with the gate and hyperdrive portion, but I can’t spare enough to do all the mechanical work. I wouldn’t suggest having the Marines do it if it wasn’t straightforward.”

He didn’t like that, but he understood. When it came down to it, the ship was more important than any individual crew members. If he agreed to their plan, there was every possibility he could lose most or all the Marines sent on the mission.

“I can see why we might need to get the gate that produces the antiprotons,” he said, “but why do we need the magnetic portion? Can’t we make our own?”

“These produce an extremely strong, localized magnetic field that perfectly fits the weapon’s bore,” Danek said. “We have people on Argent and New Copenhagen working on duplicating them, but it’s going to take time. Time that we probably don’t have if we’re to be completely honest. I’ve got everything I need to start putting together a weapon, but I’d prefer two.”

“And there’s another angle to this,” Harris said. “Right now, the weapon will punch into a major ship and cause tremendous damage, but if we ever run into a lot of smaller vessels—like the Locusts—it will be useless. However, if I take some magnetic generators and stick them at the very front of the ship outside the bore, we might be able to generate a magnetic field that somewhat disperses antiprotons. That would vastly reduce the weapon’s range, but it would become deadly to groups of small craft that come in close.”

Mac tapped his finger on his desk and continued giving their needs some thought. What they presented him with didn’t qualify as a plan. He and his team would have to go over what they knew of the enemy ship’s layout and devise a real plan.

“I’m willing to consider this, but it depends on the battle plan we come up with. I can’t see a set of circumstances where we’d have the time to do something like this without one of their vessels shooting up my pinnaces. How do we work around that?”

“I’ve been working with Derek to come up with an approach plan that I think will draw them out,” Harris said. “If we can come in using the hyperdrive, we’ll look like one of the Tardan colony ships. That’s going to draw a response to meet us. With our hyperspace detector, we can keep an eye on where they are when they exit hyperspace to ambush us. Then we can come out short of that and use our independent quantum drive to jump into the most advantageous firing position and let them have it. When we disable one of the big ships, we can let it sit and jump back to it later so your pinnaces can get away from the ship before we jump away again. They won’t see the small craft if they’re far enough from the wreck.”

“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you exactly how dangerous that sounds,” he said in a tone that indicated he knew the risks. “If you intend to convince me to support this, you’ll need more than vague promises and potentially unrealistic hopes.”

The tactical officer raised an eyebrow. “Not to tell you your business, Colonel, but you know as well as I do that there’s only so much we can work out in advance. The battle plan—whatever it ends up being—will be worked over in as much detail as we can manage, but it will all be contingencies and probabilities. Nothing is certain other than the fact that we can probably sucker the first group they send after us. Beyond that, we’ll be playing it by ear, just like every other battle we’ve been in so far.”

Well, that was certainly true enough.

“I’ll talk it over with my people, and we’ll begin training to do the work. I’ll have to see how the circumstances are set up before I give the final go order. That’s the best I can promise.”

Danek took the hint and stood, with the tactical officer following a moment later. “That works for me. If you can send whoever you select for this task down to engineering, I’ll go over the details of how the magnetic generators are mounted and what needs to be done to remove them. As I said, it’s really simple, so don’t be afraid that you’ll need to send your brightest people. Anybody with mechanical aptitude can handle this.”

“Marines get a bad rap when it comes to not being the brightest people in a group, and you might want to keep that in mind going forward, Commander. I’ve got people just as intelligent as any of your engineers.”

“No offense intended, Colonel. I didn’t want you to focus too much on who you thought could do the work. Anyone that can do basic mechanical work can handle this task, so don’t be too narrow in your thinking. Since we don’t know when we’ll strike, we want to get things set up as quickly as possible.”

“I’ll have people on the way within the next half hour. I’ll also get everybody on a war footing. Thanks for the heads-up.”

Once they’d left, he opened a comm channel to Major Beth Cassidy, his executive officer. Like him, she’d been in Marine Force Recon before her retirement. She hadn’t been an officer then, but she’d been exceptionally good at what she did, and he wanted to run everything past her.

While he waited for her to get to his office, he put in a call to some of his senior noncommissioned officers and had them gather up forty-eight Marines. That would give them two per magnetic generator. If they were unhindered, it would make things go faster. If they were attacked, they could take casualties and still accomplish the mission.

He was wrapping that up when Beth opened his hatch and walked in. She had carte blanche to enter when she needed to as his executive officer, and they had been friends for a decade, so their relationship was mostly informal, just like the work they’d done in Force Recon.

“Have a seat while I run what Commander Danek and Lieutenant Harris came to see me about past you,” he said. Once she’d seated herself, he launched into a brief explanation of the mission they’d proposed. His friend frowned as he did so, and by the time he was finished, she was scowling.

“That’s a crap mission. If it’s not a suicide job, it’ll be a miracle. I presume you told them we’re not interested.”

“I said they’ll need to do some convincing, but I can see where this might be beneficial. I’ve got people on their way down to engineering to go over how difficult this will be. I’ll also tag the admiral and see what he thinks. If I were you, I wouldn’t rule out this mission.”

She sighed and nodded. “I suppose I can see that, but it doesn’t make me happy. Is this something you want me to head up?”

“No. I think I’ll take this one myself.”

Beth raised an eyebrow. “As the commanding officer, you’re not supposed to put yourself on the front lines, Colonel. That’s my job.”

“Agreed, but I’m going to do it anyway. We can either fight about it now, or you can accept I’m going to do what I want in this one case.”

“If I let you do this without argument, I want a veto card. At some future point, I can tell you no, and you have to accept it.”

He frowned. “That’s a pretty big ask. You could literally stop me from doing anything.”

“Credit me with good sense. I won’t be an idiot about it. So, you want to fight now or later?”

“Fine. You get your veto, but you know that if I really think you’re wrong, I won’t let you use it.”

“You’re the commanding officer,” she said with a smile. “We all have our limits, and you’ll respect what I say if I play it, even if you decide not to honor it. It’s a complicated game we play, Mac, but if you want my support in this, that’s the price you have to pay.”

“I already said yes, so let’s take a few minutes and talk to the admiral. He probably doesn’t know about this yet, so I’ll wager this will be a big surprise for him.”

The two of them headed toward the bridge, and he called ahead to see where the admiral was. For once, Jack was in his office rather than sitting in the command seat, so he asked one of the Marines on guard to signal their arrival. Moments later, they were let in.

Jack was seated behind his desk, looking over a report. He wasn’t wearing his hat or greatcoat, and a glance to the side showed they were on the hat rack by the door.

Their commanding officer raised an eyebrow at their approach before gesturing toward his seats. “I didn’t expect to see my senior Marines today. What’s going on?”

“I just had a visit by Commander Danek and Lieutenant Harris. They’ve got a plan they want my people to execute, and while I haven’t turned it down, I haven’t accepted it either. I want to get your input.”

He proceeded to explain the plan that had been presented to him.

The admiral listened without interrupting. “While I’m not skilled in that type of thing, it sounds… chancy. They haven’t presented an attack plan to me yet, but I have to say I like the idea of trolling the enemy into coming after us by making them think we’re a colonization vessel. That’s clever. Derek and Amanda never cease to amaze me with their creativity. Just when I think there’s no way to pull something off, they come up with an option that might work.”

“While that’s true, I’m a bit nervous about committing my people to board a damaged warship without the guarantee of rescue. Hell, even getting to the ship will be problematic. Let’s say Harris manages to disable the ship. When Hunter pops out, and we make a run for them, they might use their phased packet plasma guns to take us out. Those things have capacitors and might get a couple of shots off before they run out of power.”

Jack nodded. “We’d have to sit there and take whatever shots they intend to level at us until we’re sure they’re out of power. Then we can deploy the pinnaces. At that point, they’d certainly be aware that you’re there, and you’d have a hostile audience when you arrive. I suggest taking more than the basic teams you might otherwise have on hand. If we’re going to penetrate so deeply into their ship, we might as well make the raid worth our while. We’ve gotten our hands on some of the lower-level Novarites, but based on their ship’s plans, you might be able to reach their bridge before they can respond to your unorthodox entry plan.”

He worked with his computer for a moment and brought up schematics of one of the big Novarites warships. Lisa Gane had pulled the information off the recovered computers and converted it for their systems. The admiral highlighted the weapon’s location and how deeply it went into the ship. The bridge was literally right behind the gate that produced the antiprotons.

“That doesn’t seem very safe,” Mac muttered. “What if something went wrong and the magnetic field failed? They’d instantly lose their command team.”

“Let’s be real,” Beth said. “It doesn’t matter if the bridge is right behind the weapon because any failure of note would cause the loss of the whole vessel.”

Jack nodded. “That’s our thought as well. The one weakness it does give them is if a missile went right down the throat of one of these things, it would take out the bridge with very little trouble. That’s not thinking ahead, but missiles aren’t something the Novarites here have had to face, so we’ve got an edge there.”

“All right, let’s suppose that’s true,” Mac said. “If we land a bunch of Marines inside the bore of that weapon, we could probably swarm the bridge and the area around it. That might give us some prisoners, or it might mean we slaughter everybody. Don’t forget these people resist when surrender is in their best interest.”

“What would you do with something that could knock them out?” Jack asked. “My mother has been working on their biology for a while, and if she doesn’t know of a chemical agent that we could use to disable them, I’d be shocked. Their warriors will be in armor and potentially even suited up to resist something like that, but officers sitting in the most secure area aboard won’t.”

That idea made Mac tap his chin in thought for a few seconds. “That would certainly help,” he admitted. “If we can devise a decent plan for getting all their ships off us, we might be able to manage. My advice to you, even though I don’t know a whole lot about space battles, is to disable one ship early. Lead everybody else as far away as you can and try to make sure that they don’t even see us when we return to the first vessel. You’ll have to be ready to come in when we’re ready, and since you’ll be a long way away, that will be problematic.”

“Maybe not,” Beth said. “If we start transmitting that we’re ready to go, Hunter can jump back into range with the independent quantum drive and pick up the signal. If there’s no signal, they can keep on going.”

“Work on your plan and let me know when you’re ready,” Jack said. “I’ll get what information I can from my mother and have her send something down to you. I’d wager Derek and Amanda will present their idea to me shortly. If we come in via hyperspace, you’ll have plenty of time to prepare.”

Mac stood. “We’ll be ready. Thank you for your time, sir.”

Once Beth had risen, they made their way out of the admiral’s office. He wasn’t surprised to see the lieutenants they’d been talking about waiting to be let in. He inclined his head toward them but said nothing as Beth and he headed back to the Marine section.

“Do you think this cockamamie scheme has a chance?” she asked.

“I’ve worked with worse plans, so I think it might. Let’s get everybody trained so we can do what we need to, and then everyone gets some food and sleep. We’ll need to be ready for the mission when launch time comes. Leave nothing to chance, and make sure everything is checked twice.”

“Will do,” she said.

What they were talking about was incredibly risky, but the payoff would be worth the risk. What would a senior officer on one of their major warships know? They’d also send someone to that person’s office to get what they could. Time might be limited, but they’d use it to the best of their abilities. The Novarites wouldn’t expect them to penetrate so deeply so quickly. They had to use that advantage and use it ruthlessly.

He smiled to himself. This would be fun.

14

Sara felt tired and dirty. She’d spent three days climbing through Scorpius with the engineering teams. The vast majority of the ship was in vacuum, and that meant spending more time than she wanted inside a suit that smelled dreadful.

The ship had initially been occupied by squatters who wanted to displace Port Royale’s government, believing they were the ones destined to save humanity. The group had been religious, and while there was nothing wrong with that, it allowed for strict rules on behaviors by their members. They’d chosen isolation from the rest of society because they were the chosen ones, and everyone else was flawed. In other words, they’d been a cult.

After they’d been stopped from carrying out their plans, the survivors had been exiled to the areas Port Royale used to grow food. Those planetoids deeper in the system weren’t fit for human occupation, so some domes had been constructed to make the work possible. She didn’t envy the people watching over the religious zealots, but so long as they’d been broken into small groups and compelled to work with others, the majority of them would hopefully moderate their ways.

Undoubtedly, there would be some who clung to their beliefs even harder, but there was nothing she could do about that, so she’d cheerfully leave that problem to the governing Council of Port Royale.

That left Scorpius unoccupied, and she’d moved her staff in to begin trying to figure out how they could work with any planets Jack liberated. Luckily for her, that wasn’t going to be such a huge problem since it looked like the first two worlds they’d encountered were mostly intact.

They’d begun moving some of the critical parts over from Port Royale and storing them here, but that was only a stopgap measure. There was nowhere near enough space, and they would have to trust the people in the system. So far, things had worked out, and now that they’d been recognized by the Confederation Council in the cluster, that gave them added incentive to play nice. Besides, if the people of Port Royale wanted to live, they had to help win this war.

And to do that, the Confederation needed more ships. That’s what the last few days had been all about. Inspecting this vessel’s critical areas to see whether it could be restored. The engineering area was a shambles, but otherwise, the ship was more intact than she’d expected.

Rather than smelling like her own funk, she went to the quarters she’d been assigned and took a quick shower. She eyed the vacuum suit with displeasure and locked it in her bathroom. She’d get someone to clean it out before the next ship.

When she arrived at the captain’s meeting room–not that Scorpius had one of those–she found the two senior engineers already present and making coffee. Since she had a stash of the special stuff that Lieutenant Commander Joby Hutton had gotten from somewhere, they wouldn’t be suffering.

DiBartolomeo turned to face her while stirring sweetener into his coffee. “Commodore.”

“She’s not a commodore right now, Brad,” Zoe King said as she sat down with her own coffee. “Call her Sara.”

“Feel free to call me whatever you like,” Sara said. “Just don’t call me late for dinner.”

Brad squinted in her direction. “Is that a joke?”

“More like an old saying. It used to be a joke, but then it became so clichéd that it was funny in a completely different way. So, what do you think?”

“In some ways, she’s in better shape than I expected, but in others, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said, settling into a serious expression. “The hull is intact, which is a plus. A visual observation of the other battleships indicated one of them—Taurus—suffered an impact to her bow at some point. Basically, it’s broken and fractured to an extreme degree. The other ships have varying amounts of surface damage, but nothing in that league.”

“If it was that badly messed up, I wonder how they got her here after the incident?” Zoe asked. “It should have been almost impossible to maneuver that thing with the hull broken up the way it is. I suppose if they weren’t using their fusion drives for anything more than a little thrust, they could have used the independent quantum drive. That doesn’t explain how they accelerated to the point where they could insert themselves into orbit the way they are. It didn’t happen after the ship was parked because that would have changed its orbital path and probably sent it either into the gas giant’s atmosphere or somewhere else in the system.”

“Unfortunately, we’ll never know the answer to that,” Sara said. “Or it’s buried somewhere in the official computer system. I’m no expert in maneuvering ships, but all we can say with certainty at the moment is that she’s here but not going anywhere. Let’s accept that and move on. What about Scorpius?”

“Once you start digging into the interior, the corridors and other physical works are pretty solid, though it looked like the squatters might have started digging into other portions of the hull in ways that aren’t conducive to stability. Basically, they were mining inside the ship at the cost of her integrity. We’ll have to do something about that, but that problem can be solved with a little time and effort.”

“Absolutely nothing was maintained, and the engineering area is a real mess,” Brad said. “Weirdly, all the ripped out cables and piping will make our job easier. None of the fusion drives are what I would call functional, though a couple might work in a pinch. The independent quantum drive is disassembled. I wouldn’t trust it even as parts, so we’ll have to bring in a new drive and put it together.”

“And the weapons systems?”

“It was only possible to spot-check a couple of things,” Zoe said, “but it looks like most of the hardware is still there. It will have to be refurbished, and that will take time. You’ll need hundreds of trained engineers and their skilled assistants to swarm the ship working on a grand plan that we’ll have to come up with. Getting most of the major systems functional would take a couple of weeks. Call it a month to have weapons systems beginning to come online and real confidence that she can start to fight.”

Sara frowned at the answer, but inside she was relatively pleased. A month to get most of the primary systems working again? She knew Jack would authorize whatever payment was necessary to make that happen. He’d be an idiot not to.

“I don’t know how many engineers are available on Argent, but the timescale is acceptable,” she said. “We’ll want your team to do a similar assessment on each ship, so we know whether any of them would be a better candidate than Scorpius. Can they do that without you, or should I plan on heading back alone?”

“I think it would be best for at least one of us to stay here,” Zoe said. “It can be either of us, so we can figure that out amongst ourselves. We can have the rest fully examined in about two months.”

She’d wanted the assessment done quicker but supposed that wasn’t possible. Something of her thoughts must have been written on her face because Brad leaned forward a little. “The team needs about three days of hard work to look everything on a ship over. They can have a few days to unwind while we put the data together to help the follow-on teams do the work.”

“I understand you want to get this project done as quickly as possible, but one doesn’t mobilize every single engineer on a planet in twenty-four hours,” Zoe said. “Why don’t I return with you and present our findings to him?” Zoe asked. “As one of the descendants of the founder, I have a little more pull than Brad does because we still own a sizable minority of the company. If it comes to horse trading, I’ll be able to lean into him a little.”

“How long do you think Ringwald will take to sign all the contracting companies?” Sara asked. “How long will it take them to get all the people and equipment ready to travel? Bottom line, how soon could they be working on one of the ships?”

“If Lu hasn’t been reaching out to everybody he can already, I’d be shocked,” Zoe said. “He knows this will happen, no matter what. He’ll even have opened feelers on New Copenhagen. Even so, working out the contract details and getting everyone marching to the same drum will take six to eight weeks. If Brad’s estimate is right—and I have no reason to expect otherwise—we’ll probably be getting most of the engineering people and equipment here when the initial inspection is nearing the end stage. We’ll know which ship is the best to go for at that point.”

“That’s better than I expected,” Sara said. “I’m used to hearing time estimates based on the crew we have available, and trust me when I say that it takes a long time to get things done. I suppose we need to throw a bunch of people at Hunter to take care of all the renovation that hasn’t been taken care of at this point. They’ve focused primarily on everything that increased their combat effectiveness. The life-support system is a little shaky in places, and I’m sure other systems could use some attention. The problem will be keeping the downtime to a minimum.”

Brad leaned forward and crossed his arms. “That’s not as much of a problem as you think. They already have an engineering crew taking care of what’s necessary to keep the ship moving and tactical people to keep the weapons in operation. I don’t know if they’ve got every battery operational at this point, but if they haven’t gotten them all, they won’t be far from that mark, I’d imagine. That means whatever team gets assigned to that ship stays with it and keeps working on everything that needs to be done until it’s finished. They’d operate separately from all the other groups, and since these are nonessential systems, they’d mostly be able to work without impinging normal operations.”

“Since we don’t know where Hunter is right now, we’ll want to get folks experienced doing the work on one of the ships first,” Zoe said. “At that point, we’ll be able to pick a team of experienced professionals and throw a lot of inexperienced engineers that are coming in to provide the hands to make everything work. They’ll learn fast.”

“And how long would something like that take?”

Zoe shrugged. “We have to inspect her first, but I’d expect a complete renovation of the nonessential systems to take a month with the smaller team. A battle in the middle of that will disrupt the schedule, but that’s outside our control.”

Sara was about to say that that would be fine when the hatch opened abruptly and one of the engineers stuck her head in. “We’ve got a problem. Something just happened with Taurus. The front half of it exploded.”

She blinked in shock for a moment before she surged to her feet. “Was anyone aboard?”

“No, ma’am. None of our people were there.”

“How is that even possible?” Brad asked as he stood.

“What happened is far less important than what we do about it,” Zoe said. “The explosion will knock the battleship off course, and we don’t know whether that means it’s going into the gas giant’s atmosphere or somewhere else. I doubt it’s enough to take it completely out of orbit, so both the debris and what’s left of the ship have to go somewhere, and we need to make sure it’s not the station or one of the other ships.”

“If we’re only talking about the debris, the other battleships aren’t in danger. The station is another matter. A cloud of debris from a nickel-iron asteroid could shred Port Royale.”

“The back half of that ship could wreck another battleship,” Sara said. “None of this is any good, and we need to take steps right now to protect the civilians and our repair parts. If one of the other battleships gets struck by something large enough to damage it, we’ll have to accept that. The lives that are in danger take precedence. Let’s go.”

The engineers followed her out of the meeting room, but Zoe shot her a confused look. “What could we possibly do to mitigate any damage to the station?”

“Sometimes you have to take one for the team. This ship has two semi-operable fusion drives and one functional fusion plant. It’s not capable of fighting, but we can change its orbit. We’ll take a good look with the sensors and figure out where this ship would be best placed to intercept any debris that might impact the station. It’s a lot bigger than we are, but if we work things right, we might be able to make this less of a tragedy than it might be.”

The engineer blinked at her. “Ah… not to tell you your business or anything, but do we have anybody aboard that knows how to fly this ship?”

“While you figure that out, I’ll grab as many people as I can and head down to engineering,” Brad said. “We’ll do everything we can to be ready to move the ship. Call me before you engage the fusion drives because I have to at least do a baseline inspection on them to be sure they won’t blow up in our faces.”

The engineer jogged off, leaving Sara alone with Zoe and the Marines acting as her guards. Since they weren’t that far from the bridge, it only took them a couple of seconds to get there.

Unlike the facility aboard Hunter, this bridge was mostly dark. Almost none of the consoles had power, the main screen was dim and flickered, and the overhead lighting was spotty at best. Everything was dirty, and it felt like she was aboard a ghost ship.

“So, about that pilot,” Zoe asked as Sara sat at one of the hopefully operable consoles. “What do you hope to gain by trying to move the ship without the skills to do so?”

“Ever since I learned that Derek Calvo and the rest of them learned how to run the essential ship’s systems by playing a videogame, I invested some time in learning the rudiments of helm operation. I’m not trained, and I wouldn’t dare take a ship into combat. Hell, I don’t even want to move it now, but if the sensors show the station is in danger, we won’t have a choice.”

Sara brought the active sensors online and began scanning ahead of them. To her shock, they worked well enough to see the general area. Taurus was almost out of sight around the curvature of the gas giant, but she was within detection range. What she saw chilled Sara deeply.

The front half of the ship was gone, and a cloud of debris floated all around, expanding as she watched. The vast majority of it was probably not going to be a threat to the station, but there was enough flowing back toward it that she was confident the station would be struck by something. The debris was moving slower than it could have been, but that wouldn’t be much consolation to anyone killed in the incident.

It took her a few moments to remember how to open a comm connection to engineering and get Brad.

“What did fusion drives look like?” she asked without preamble.

“They look like crap. That said, two of them are probably functional. We won’t be able to move fast, but we should be able to alter our trajectory. Engineering is standing by for your orders, Captain.”

“I don’t think we need to get carried away with titles. Let’s focus on the job. The reports about Taurus are correct, and there’s a lot of debris. Weirdly, other than slowing down a little, what’s left of the ship is in about the same orbit. That’ll need to be addressed, but it will have to wait. The explosion must have been somewhat balanced because the debris was heading off in every direction. Most of it isn’t even going to pose a danger to Port Royale. If I can plot a course that will work, we might be able to save them from most of that.”

“We’re ready when you are. We won’t be in serious danger from the impacts if it’s just debris.”

“Stand by for action, then. Bridge out.”

The active scanners weren’t working as well as she would’ve liked, but the resolution was sufficient to tell where the greatest concentration of debris was. Using the small amount of experience she’d gotten playing Locust War Online over the last eight months, she plotted the best course to bring the ship through those areas just as the debris arrived at that location.

The debris would strike Scorpius and bounce off, and it would then float along in orbit at the same pace as the rest of the ships, give or take. It would still require a significant amount of cleanup after the fact to make sure that the shipping lanes were clear, which was a problem for another time. As was making sure what was left of Taurus didn’t hit any other battleships. That would leave a mark.

The course she came up with had her swinging wide and coming in at a sharp angle. It wouldn’t catch everything, but it would at least stop most of what was threatening the station.

Just in case they hadn’t caught on, she should notify them. It took her longer than she’d have liked to figure out how to open an external channel and call the station, but she managed. “Port Royale, this is Scorpius. It looks like Taurus has blown up, and a lot of debris is coming your way. We’ll move the ship and block some of it.”

“Scorpius, this is Port Royale. Send us your projected course. We’re planning on firing missiles at the debris to incinerate what we can and following it up with the phased packet plasma guns we have. They tell me they can weaken the plasma containment and make it more effective on the debris, though we don’t have as many of them as I’d like. It would be best if we don’t shoot you with any of that.”

“I don’t know how to do that. I’m heading off to starboard, and I’ll be circling in a corkscrew rotation around the orbital path of the battleships. I’ll keep my speed constant, so you should be able to shoot around me. Sorry, but that’s the best I can do.”

“Thanks for the update, Scorpius. We’ll try to avoid shooting you. No promises, though. Thanks for doing what you can.”

“Let’s hope it works. Scorpius out.”

With a silent prayer, she engaged the fusion drives at a low setting along the course that she’d plotted. The ship jolted a teeny bit, enough to be felt and nothing more, and then they were moving. Unfortunately, they were moving too slowly to maintain the course she thought she could keep. She gritted her teeth and increased the thrust for the fusion drives until she was on the plotted course. That put them at almost eighty percent thrust for those drives, and she knew that was taking a considerable risk. They hadn’t been used in a very, very long time and were in awful shape.

“Are we in danger if they hit us with one of those missiles?” Zoe asked, taking a seat nearby. “Should we be strapping in?”

“You’ll note that the seats don’t have straps. The only time I’ve ever seen Hunter need them was when they rammed a ship accidentally, and it was a big ship. I’m not planning on anything like that, so we should be safe even if they hit us. We might lose pressure, and that would force the hatch to close and seal us in, but that’s it.”

“Maybe I should check to make sure that the hatch works,” the engineer said as she stood.

Sara quickly saw that while she’d had some practice playing a game, it wasn’t translating across cleanly. Her maneuvering was ragged, and she could already tell she wouldn’t be able to maintain the precision she needed. That was probably because she only had two fusion drives out of the twelve she should have had, and she didn’t have the experience to compensate.

Well, she’d do the best she could and hope it was good enough. It had to be.

The sensors pinged for her attention as Port Royale fired missiles at the oncoming cloud of debris. Unlike in an atmosphere, nuclear explosions would have no shockwave. Only the sphere in which energy overwhelmed the matter would make a difference.

Whoever was firing the weapons was doing a much better job of taking her course into account than she was of flying. Thank God for that.

Everything went well on her first pass, but as she attempted to change course and sweep through another area of the debris, the ship jolted, and her thrust dropped by half. One of the fusion drives had failed. She hoped it hadn’t been catastrophic enough to put any engineers in danger.

With only one fusion drive, she’d get a single pass against the debris, which would be ugly. The ship wasn’t even flying in a straight line. It was spinning slowly, and she was terrified to attempt to level them out, fearing losing the last drive. That would be catastrophic as Scorpius was now edging toward the gas giant. Any failure would mean the loss of the ship and potentially everyone aboard.

She crossed her fingers and clenched the arm of her chair tightly as the ship passed through the debris cloud once more, clearing a wide swath of it out of contention for striking the space station. She hoped it would make a difference because that was all they had in them.

As soon as they finished passing through the debris, Sara gently applied thrust from the remaining fusion drive and edged them up until they were no longer in danger of being drawn into the gas giant’s atmosphere. A little additional thrust raised their orbit to the point where they were once again near the other ships. She’d ended up in an odd orbit and would have to correct that.

Of course, that’s when the last fusion drive failed. That was bad, but the ship was safe enough. They even still had power. She quelled that thought because she didn’t want to jinx herself.

“Are we done?” Zoe asked.

Sara stood, holding onto the console because her legs felt weak. “Oh, we are very much done. All our fusion drives are dead. Thankfully, we’re in a stable orbit that won’t put us in direct danger. It’s a stable orbit, but we’re a bit lower than everybody else, so unless something goes drastically wrong with one of the other ships, we shouldn’t hit anyone.”

The woman’s eyes widened. “Just how close will we come to the other ships when we pass?”

Sara turned back toward the console and brought up their course. The projection was shaky, so she’d have to add a bit of padding to her guess to be sure. “No closer than five kilometers.”

“Five kilometers? We’re talking about orbiting battleships. Isn’t that a little close?”

“Very close, but that’s with everything going against us. We’ll probably pass farther away. Maybe ten or fifteen kilometers. We might as well head down to engineering and see what our status is.”

She took a moment to verify that she’d locked the console down and that there were no commands in the system that might inadvertently kick in if one of the fusion drives came back online. That would be utterly disastrous.

As she made her way back to engineering through the central corridor, she was grateful that what lighting they had was still working. The engineers were busy swarming the fusion drives when she and Zoe entered the vast engineering space with their Marine guards. As the two massive pieces of equipment looked intact, their failures must have been less than catastrophic. That was good. That was very good.

She found Brad with one of the maintenance panels off a fusion drive, grimacing at whatever he was looking at. He turned to face her and shook his head. “It’s fried. We’ll have to tear it down and replace many of the components before we can even begin testing it. The other one is in just as bad condition. I hope we’re on a decent course because we can’t change it.”

“We’re all right,” Sara said. “We’ve probably still got half an hour before whatever will hit the station makes contact, so make sure everything down here is as secure as possible. We’ll take our cutters over to help repair any damage they sustain.”

“I’ve got everyone that isn’t here gathering our vacuum suits and tools. As long as the damage isn’t too bad, we should be able to make a difference. It’s going to be a toss of the dice, though. It could tear the center part of that station apart or miss it entirely. The people should be running for secure zones, so I’m more worried about our parts and supplies. If those areas of the station are gutted, this project is doomed.”

“I wonder if that’s what whoever did this intended?” Sara asked. “How could they have planted enough explosives without us noticing that anyone was even there? It used to be that Port Royale was somewhat lackadaisical about keeping track of that sort of thing, but they supposedly tightened up everything. How much explosives would it have taken to blow the front off that ship?”

“It was fractured pretty heavily,” Zoe said. “Even so, it would take a lot more explosive than most people would think. Particularly since it blew the entire front of the ship off. There’s no way someone slipped something like that on board in a matter of days. Whatever happened, it had to have already been there.”

“And you didn’t see anything?”

Zoe shrugged. “We noted that the hull was severely fractured over much of the front half, and we didn’t dig into it any more than that. There was no need to. Once we determined the ship was unusable, we stopped the inspection.”

“I’m no expert when it comes to explosive modeling or demolitions, but I think that to get this degree of blast, there had to be a lot of small charges—relatively speaking—buried in the hull itself,” Brad said. “That would have taken a lot of time to put in place. As for why they’d do it, I’m at a loss. There was far too much explosive to break the hull apart and mine anything out of it. This was meant to create as much chaos as humanly possible, but whoever did this had to have been working for weeks or months.”

Sara grimaced, but she couldn’t say the news surprised her. Someone had wanted to put a crimp in their plans, and they might very well succeed despite all she’d done to help mitigate the destruction. Everything was now in the hands of chance and the people firing nuclear missiles to clear out the worst of the debris before impact.

“We won’t be anywhere near the station when the debris hits, so we need to get to the cutters now,” Sara said. “Lives are on the line, and we want to get there as quickly as possible.”

They stayed long enough for the engineering team to verify the fusion plant was running in good order and put it into standby mode. With that done, they boarded the cutters and began the journey around the planet’s curvature. She’d hope for the best, but someone had just tried to ruin the war effort. She’d be on pins and needles until she knew if they’d succeeded.

She’d get what data she could and hope it pointed to whoever was responsible. By now, everyone aboard Port Royale would be more than happy to devote every effort to help identify who had tried to kill them and destroy their home. If they survived.

15

David sat at the table and looked at the electronics they’d collected at the address the assassin had sent them. The local coroner had already told him that the man had been beaten to death and tortured before his execution. That didn’t speak well to Patrick’s character, but when one was paid to take cash for killing others, that was already a pretty big negative.

He’d spent the evening going over everything with his wife before they’d gone to bed, and now he was back at it and wanting more coffee. Tina wasn’t Lisa, but she had skills when it came to penetrating electronics and finding out what interesting secrets they held. Nothing here was hidden well enough that she couldn’t find it, so they had a pretty good idea who they had been dealing with.

The problem was the information wasn’t making much sense. The person was definitely associated with the Poseidon Group, but he was a low-level player. There was no indication of where he’d have gotten the funds to pay an assassin to kill these important people. Unless he was an idiot, the killer would have insisted on half up front.

Nothing in the computers they’d recovered held information about other safe houses or members of the conspiracy. Apparently, this guy was just a lackey doing whatever he was told. Had someone ordered him to hire an assassin? Was this other person acting against the orders of their leadership? Or was there a fracture in the group, and someone wanted them dead?

Sadly, he didn’t know.

He was still considering that when his wife walked through the door with a smile. “Oh, you’re going to love this.”

“What?”

“Lisa and her people tracked down where Patrick got into the facility. Did you know we have a maglev train that connects us to the capital? None of us did. She found the station.”

He cursed. “That’s a pretty important thing to miss. How did it happen?”

She shrugged. “Unfamiliarity with the computer system and not thinking ahead? We did have a lot on our minds, after all. You should cut us some slack.”

“As if. That’s a big thing to miss. I thought the Marines went over everything? How could they miss something that big?”

“We haven’t explored every bit of this facility because it’s huge. As I said, we’ve been pressed for time. The important thing is that we did find it before it could be used against us again. Unfortunately, while our friendly killer was in the building, he uploaded a program to spy on us. Good thing we don’t have cameras in the bedroom.”

“He’d have gotten a good look at us sleeping. This guy was a bit player. It doesn’t make any sense for him to be paying a hitman. There’s no indication of where he might’ve gotten the money from or anything in his electronics that ordered him to do so. The hardware built into his comm makes it clear that he worked for the Poseidon Group, but he wasn’t a mover and shaker. Someone was pulling his strings, and I’m not sure who that might have been.”

“So you think he was getting money from an outside source?” Tina asked as she headed toward the door. “The conspirators seem to be pretty firmly against working with anyone else. The three prisoners we took might not be telling us everything they know, but they’re the equivalent of middle management. If anyone were tasked with hiring a paid killer, it would be someone like them. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, no one even attempted to send them instructions on that. The Poseidon Group doesn’t even know we have them in custody.”

“Not that having them talk has done us a lot of good. They mentioned a couple of places the conspiracy used, but all of them have turned up empty. It’s like the group picked up stakes and vanished. Not just the leadership but the underlings as well. They were well trained in how to disappear, and because of the nature of their organization, none of the three we have our hands on know anyone that’s still where we can get our hands on them. At least not that they’ve mentioned.”

“It is annoying,” Tina agreed. “Let’s go talk to Lisa and see if she has anything to add to what we’ve found.”

They left the guarded room and entered a lift down the corridor. Tina pressed the bottommost button.

“It’s like we had a plethora of opportunities, but none worked out,” she complained. “Some of their people have to still be on the planet, and we’ll eventually get our hands on them. Now that we’ve been able to start going over the traffic data around their known headquarters, our hacker friends have been busy identifying people for further study. Some of them will be interesting.”

“We’ve got too many irons in the fire. Even with the new help we’re getting, we can’t follow up on everything quickly enough. We need to clear some of the planetary security forces to hand this off. Maybe we should bring some people in from New Copenhagen. They shouldn’t be tainted by the same sort of thing.”

“That’s an assumption,” Tina said as she exited the lift. “The Poseidon Group is almost certain to have people on New Copenhagen. If we get people from there, we’ll get some live ones, too.”

“You’re far too cheerful for such bad news,” he grumbled as he walked up to Lisa as she worked on one of the computer terminals a bit off to the side of the rest. “I hear you had an exciting night.”

The hacker turned and raised her portable coffee cup in salute. Then she took a big drink. “I wouldn’t say it was exciting, but it was certainly illuminating. Do you know what ticks me off? Somebody hacked the facility’s computer before I did. That’s a professional affront.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Tina said, patting her shoulder. “You were busy. Surely by now you’ve dug up something useful. You are the master hacker, after all.”

“Is that a title?” Lisa asked, perking up a little. “Everyone’s ego needs a little stroking. Any word on figuring out how Patrick accessed the maglev train tunnel or where the trains are?”

“They’ve searched the tunnel in both directions and found the train,” Tina said. “Turns out that just past the planetary defense headquarters is a turnaround and servicing station. It was parked there and didn’t look functional, at least without work being done to refurbish it. No clue where Patrick entered the station. We’ll have to figure that out soon.”

“One more thing to do,” David said under his breath. “I wonder what else Patrick has been up to? Watching us remotely?”

“No. He’s been receiving doctored footage of the people he wanted monitored. I’ve been careful to be sure he didn’t get anything useful. Since Jack and Sara are away, that means President Ibarra, Councilor Wong, you two, and myself. Councilor Wong has been getting some additional medical treatment in the capital, but President Ibarra was here. Fortunately for her, her office isn’t monitored. What kind of things have you two been up to?”

“We’ve mostly been out of the facility,” Tina said. “Most of our time was spent at the house where Patrick killed that guy. We came up dry for the most part, but we were able to confirm he was a member of the Poseidon Group based on his comm unit. What we haven’t been able to figure out is why he was paying a hired killer to come after us or determine where the money came from.”

Lisa frowned and scratched her chin. “We’ve got prisoners from the Poseidon Group, and none of them know anything about hiring an assassin?”

David shook his head. “Nothing, or so they claim. Things are getting a little odd, and I believe we might have a new player, though I can’t imagine who they might be or what they have to gain by killing us.”

“Do you think this could be something from Rear Admiral Allen?” Lisa asked. “I know he’s dead, but he really hated Jack. Could that spur someone to hire a paid killer?”

“Maybe,” Tina said, “but how did he know the guy that was murdered? Everything we’ve looked at said that as much of an ass as Allen was, he wasn’t involved with the Poseidon Group. The idea of him hiring someone through one of their lackeys makes no sense. The two have never met or communicated in any way we’ve discovered.”

“We’ve wandered a bit afield,” Lisa said. “I’ve had my people running facial recognition on the traffic footage from around the old Poseidon Group headquarters. Running them past the planetary security databases gave us names and addresses. A few stood out.”

She brought up the profiles, and David read over her shoulder. The first was a woman whose image showed her to be affluent and fit. Her dark hair was done up in a style he was unfamiliar with, but it certainly looked like it cost quite a bit of money to maintain. According to the planetary security database, her name was Eva Lamont, and her occupation was as a high-end hairstylist.

Was it possible that people from the Poseidon Group were getting their hair done privately? He supposed so, but it seemed unlikely since the woman never carried any gear to do her work.

The second was a man who was just a bit too thin and short to be average. He was older and slightly balding. A check of the planetary databases ID’d him as Adam Irles. He was a senior accountant with a large financial firm in the capital. That made him a lot more interesting to David because an individual like that could probably get his hands on a large sum of money if he wasn’t worried about leaving a trail.

The third person was young and rotund. The images showed him dressed in somewhat outrageously colored shirts every single time. That was not the kind of person who would blend in very well. His employment was listed as a travel agent. David was willing to bet there wasn’t much work in that profession after the invasion.

“We should go scout them out,” he said. “I’ll follow the money. Tina, do any of the others strike your fancy?”

“I’ll take the hairdresser. She sounds interesting.”

“I’ll take the travel agent,” Lisa said. “If he was involved in moving people from place to place, he might have a record of where everyone went, and that could be where their shipyards are. I’ll want to take extra Marines to be sure he doesn’t have a chance to erase any data. They can bring their net guns and make sure nobody gets froggy.”

“That’s fine by me,” David agreed. “It sounds like we’ve got everyone covered, so let’s move out.”

To make sure that everything went smoothly, the Marines had tapped a trio of pinnaces to deliver them. David was confident that his target was at the accounting firm. That meant he would have to go through a building that had security and avoid tipping off the person by getting into a confrontation.

He also didn’t know if any of the security people would be on the payroll for the Poseidon Group. Honestly, that seemed likely. To avoid any serious complications, he’d need to go in alone and secure the prisoner before anyone else got there. The Marines could come in after the fact and make sure that nothing terrible happened.

To do that, he’d need a plan that involved more than a hint of bluffing. First, he had to be the kind of person security would allow in. Second, he also needed to be someone the target wouldn’t mind seeing. In fact, he wanted to be someone the target wanted to talk to. Getting into the man’s office would be the first step in making sure that nothing was deleted.

David thought about it for a few moments and then smiled. He scrolled down the list of numbers in his comm and found the entry for Anton Drake. He’d made sure Jack had acquired it, and Drake owed them a favor. Hell, he owed them several favors, but this probably wouldn’t even count as one. This fell under patriotic duty, and he knew the older man would do what was necessary to help them catch members of the conspiracy. He’d been there for the attack and had taken it personally.

“Drake,” the man answered.

“It’s David Chen, Mister Drake. I work for Admiral Romanoff. I have a favor to ask that might let us get our hands on somebody working for the Poseidon Group.”

“Whatever it is you need, it’s yours. You don’t even have to ask for a favor. I owe those bastards.”

David smiled. “We appreciate your assistance. I want to talk to a certain person at a major accounting firm. I intend to misrepresent myself as someone that works for Drake’s Distillery. They’ll probably call to verify who I am, and I need you to tell them that I represent the company.”

“Easy as pie. Give me five minutes, and I’ll have everybody in the front office aware that any calls from an accounting firm come straight to me. I’ll give you a call back once I’m ready.”

“Thank you for your assistance. I’ll let you know how it turns out.”

“You do that. Also, I wouldn’t mind having some of your people out to my place for a little get-together when time permits. I realize the admiral isn’t here, but I’d certainly like to give you a tour of the distillery.”

“I think we can work something out,” David said with a smile. “Thanks again.”

Getting into the firm proved much simpler than he’d expected. Merely mentioning who he represented had gotten him escorted to a waiting area where someone provided him with coffee. It was decent, too. While he enjoyed it, they were no doubt contacting the distillery and verifying his bona fides.

Ten minutes later, just as he finished his coffee, a young man in a suit arrived to take him up. That meant he’d passed the initial screening, and now the accounting firm would definitely be interested in talking with him. The problems would come when he met Irles. Odds were good the man would not be alone. If an accounting firm was anything like other businesses, they’d have a dedicated staff that dealt with acquiring clientele. The target wasn’t part of that if he was working with the money directly.

His suspicions were confirmed when the young man delivered him to a large meeting room that already held three people. One of them was the senior accountant he was looking for, which made the mission a success so far. The other two looked like people who would convince someone to join their firm. They radiated an aura that told one they were reliable and completely honest.

That was a neat trick. If he could figure out how to do something like that for himself, there was no telling what kind of things he could get away with.

“Mister Andrews,” the man on the left said, using the assumed name that David had provided. “I’d like to thank you for coming to speak with us at Montgomery and Associates. Drake’s Distillery is a well-known name, and its owner is deeply respected in the community. We’d be honored to make a presentation and try to secure your business. My name is Ian Marks, and this is Veronica Saunders. As you requested a meeting with Mister Irles, I assume you’re already familiar with his impressive resume.”

David shook each of their hands and smiled as he sat and placed his comm unit on the table. He discreetly pressed one of the buttons on the screen as he did so, sending a signal to the Marines that he was ready for them to make their entry. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too noisy.

“I have indeed heard of Mister Irles, and he’s what drew Mister Drake to send me to consult with your organization. I won’t say we’re dissatisfied with the firm we’re currently using, yet we feel we could be getting more. Does it make any sense?”

Missus Saunders nodded. “That’s not as uncommon as you might think, Mister Andrews. No matter what they do, every corporation falls into certain ways of doing business, and often looking around at what the competition is doing can turn up someone more in tune with what their business is trying to accomplish. Even the very best can develop blind spots and not service the client as well as they should, so we don’t need to denigrate whoever is fulfilling these obligations for you, but I feel confident we can lay out an excellent case for why we might be able to do a better job.”

A low buzzing preceded Irles pulling out his comm and blanching when he stared at the screen. “Excuse me for a moment. I need to take this call,” he said as he stood abruptly.

“Actually, I’d feel a lot better if you could focus your full attention on me and Drake’s Distillery,” David said in a stern tone. “Being ignored and having our interests set aside is one of the reasons we’re pursuing someone to represent our operations. I won’t take up much of your time, I promise.”

Marks scowled at Irles. “Have a seat, Adam. Surely whatever it is can wait.”

“In fact, it can’t,” the target said as he continued around the table. “I regret stepping out, but this is a personal emergency of the highest order.”

David waited until Irles was near him to stick out his leg and trip him. The accountant never saw it coming and crashed to the floor in a heap, his comm skittering into the wall. In that moment of sheer shock, David leaped onto Irles, then yanked the man’s arms behind his back and secured them with cuffs he had in his pocket.

“What is the meaning of this?” Saunders demanded as he bolted to her feet. “Release him at once. Ian, call security!”

“Do call security,” David said as he planted a foot in the middle of Irles’s back. “By now, the lobby is full of Confederation Marines, and a team is on their way up here to take possession of Mister Irles. I regret to inform you that he’s been linked to the Poseidon Group and that the government has some very pointed questions for him. They’ll also be searching his office and your systems looking for what he’s been up to.”

“Impossible,” Marks said with a shake of his head. “First, there is no way that Adam is part of any subversive conspiracy. That’s outlandish. Second, no one will be allowed access to our computer systems. We’re responsible for our customer’s financial data, and no one will get into it without an appropriate court order. I don’t care who you represent or what you think. We will fight you tooth and nail on that.”

The door behind David opened, and a quartet of Marines came in with their weapons up. That caused shocked gasps from the two executives, but David simply stepped to the side and let them take possession of the prisoner. Two of them dragged Irles out while the other two remained to flank him.

“I feel confident that the subpoena is already in the system. Representatives from planetary security should be here in a few minutes to serve it. Until then, take me to his office because I want to make absolutely certain nothing is removed before they arrive.”

“This is outrageous,” Marks said, puffing out his chest. “We will do no such thing.”

“That’s unfortunate because under the emergency orders signed by President Ibarra, we have wide latitude in fighting this conspiracy. Marines, take these two into custody.”

They huffed and puffed, but they had no real choice. The Marines locked their hands behind their backs, and each one was escorted out into the hall.

“This can end one of two ways,” David said. “I let them take you downstairs, and we perp walk you out to our pinnace where everybody and their third cousin can see some of the top people at Montgomery and Associates being arrested, or you can show us to the appropriate office, and we’ll all stand there until the subpoena arrives. It’s your call.”

The two looked at one another, and then the woman nodded. “Fine. It’s three levels down. You’re still not going to get away with this. We’ll have a team of lawyers all over you, and this will be litigated for the next decade. You won’t see a bit of our clients’ data. I can promise you that.”

“We’ll see about that. Now, let’s go wait for that subpoena, shall we?”

Personally, he wasn’t sure what they’d find in the man’s office. He might have something of interest there, but the real find would be buried in the accounting data. The money that would have paid off the hit on him and his friends had to come from somewhere, and he was willing to bet he’d find the evidence somewhere in the servers under this building.

Now he just had to do it.

16

Jack sat in his command chair and watched the screen as it showed what they were picking up with the hyperspace detector. They’d been inbound to Vesuvius for a dozen hours, and the enemy had definitely spotted them. In fact, they were now lying in wait for their arrival.

Being as they were coming from the same general direction as the other colony ships would’ve come from, he was relatively certain that’s what they thought Hunter was. The sensors wouldn’t tell them anything more than the speed of the hyperspace drive, and it had come from a Tardan colonization vessel, so they’d see what they expected. Maybe they thought this vessel had fallen behind the others they’d already dealt with.

He and his people spent the time refining and expanding on Amanda and Derek’s battle plan. Many of the contingencies would really depend on how many ships—and what types—came out to meet them. He’d doubted they would delegate any of the larger vessels to deal with a single colony ship.

And it turned out he’d been wrong. Based on their hyperspace detector, the Novarites had sent two forces consisting of a large ship and two cruisers apiece. The first group was at what would be a perfect ambush site for a ship coming in without a worry in the world. The second was off to the side and out of weapons range but close at hand in case more force was needed.

If they thought Hunter was a colonization vessel, this was overkill. Then again, the Novarites were the most xenophobic species humanity had ever heard about. Surrender was not an option for these people, and slaying anything that stood up to them seemed to be the order of the day. That didn’t speak well for what was happening down on Vesuvius and only made their task all the more important.

They were at battle stations and waiting to make the magic happen. Since the enemy had never encountered Hunter, this would be an ugly surprise for them. The plan was for his ship to exit hyperspace well short of where the enemy could engage and then use the independent quantum drive to pop out beside them before they could react.

That would get Amanda into point-blank range for their missiles without having to come under fire by the antiproton beam. The phased packet plasma guns would still chew them up, but his hull could withstand that kind of abuse. So long as they kept the rather large hole in the side of their ship turned away from the enemy, that wouldn’t be a problem.

“Thirty seconds until we drop out of hyperspace,” Derek said. “All sections report ready for combat.”

“Seal all critical areas of the ship,” he ordered. “Amanda, what’s the status on the Marines?”

“Colonel Turner says they’re ready for action and can deploy as soon as we disable the big ship and take out the cruisers,” the blonde tactical officer said. “If we pop out where I expect, we should be able to fire before they even realize what’s happened. If we’re a little off-center, that may delay us enough for them to take us under fire.”

“Follow the plan,” he said. “Try to take that ship mostly intact, but I don’t want them to have an engineering section when this is done. If the ship blows up, that’s unfortunate, but I’ll take the win.”

Derek tapped his console. “Dropping out of hyperspace in three… two… one…. Engaging quantum drive.”

“Firing missiles,” Amanda said. “Large vessel struck multiple times, hull breach at engineering. Not reading any operable fusion plants, sir. I think we did it.”

“Open fire on the cruisers,” Jack ordered. “Launch the Marines as soon as they’re destroyed and set course for the second group via quantum jump.”

Derek sat up straighter. “Passive sensors are picking up a large group of Novarite warships about two hours deeper in the gravity well. Sir, it’s most of the other Novarite ships, I think. Two big ships and eight cruisers.”

That wasn’t what Jack had expected to find. The ships outside the jump limit were overkill for a colony vessel. This was an order of magnitude more. Who had they been expecting?

Well, they wouldn’t be able to get to the larger group without using the skip drive, which had burned out their quantum drive last time. At least they could eliminate the direct threats to the Marines before they broke off to pursue the other vessels.

The cruisers had an opportunity to fire their phased packet plasma guns, but they were outclassed. Even though they hit Hunter at that ridiculously short range, the lasers they got off in return diced them. One of the ships exploded outright, and the second simply came apart.

“The wreck of the big ship has fired all its phased packet plasma guns,” Amanda reported. “Their capacitors are drained, and they are unarmed. Marine pinnaces launching. Launch complete. We are clear to jump.”

“Turning to face group two,” Derek said. “We’ll come out on their inner side.”

This second group was more prepared than the first. Amanda was firing as soon as they emerged, but the enemy had already acted. The space between his ship and theirs was filled with small craft that Jack recognized far too well. They were the boarding pods that the Novarites preferred, and they were already racing toward where Hunter had popped out. Whoever was in command over there had made an assumption and guessed right.

That didn’t save them. A swarm of missiles pelted the forward half of the large ship since it had already begun turning toward them. How the other commander could’ve known what they’d do on such short notice and with so very little information, Jack didn’t know. Sometimes one made a guess that seemed stupid but turned out to be righter than they could’ve imagined.

Amanda’s fire obliterated the front half of the large ship, rendering it almost combat-incapable. The antiproton weapon was out of action, and that’s what mattered. The fate of the cruisers was almost anticlimactic. One died firing, and the other turned and looked like it was about to jump into hyperspace before the missiles blew it up.

“Both cruisers are gone, sir,” Amanda said. “It looks like the big ship is combat ineffective, though they still have some phased packet plasma guns. Their engineering section looks intact, but with their hull integrity shattered, they won’t be able to use their hyperdrive.”

“Use your lasers and take their weapons out of play,” he said. “I want to isolate their engineering section as much as possible. If you can cut most of what remains open and leave it in vacuum, we might be able to come back and salvage something later. They’re still shooting, so they’re a valid target unless they surrender.”

“Fat chance of that, sir. Firing.”

“Boarding vessels will impact us in ten seconds,” Derek announced.

“Jump the ship,” Jack responded. “Get us far enough clear that they’re not a threat and then cut them apart with our lasers.”

The helm officer took Hunter off to the side and allowed plenty of space for the tactical officer to use the lasers to obliterate the boarding pods. They never stopped coming, so they perished.

Once that was done, Jack raised an eyebrow. “What should we do with the bigger group? For that matter, any guesses why they all came out to attack a colony ship?”

“It’ll be a bit before they realize what’s happened, sir,” Derek said. “Since our hyperdrive works deeper in the gravity well than theirs, we can arrive far more quickly than they’d expect. We can’t get all the way to them without using the skip drive, and you indicated we should hold off on that. If we use the quantum drive to get as close as possible, we can use the hyperdrive to come out about an hour away from them. They’d either have to come for us or run. What do you think they’d choose?”

It was tempting to go straight in and tear them apart, but that was a lot of firepower. Two big ships and eight cruisers could hurt them now that they knew what they were facing.

“No,” he said slowly. “We’re going to let them come to us out here. Or, at least, that’s what we’ll let them think. They don’t know we can use our hyperdrive deeper in the gravity well than them. If we sit here and look like we’re doing something, that will draw attention away from the other wreck and leave our Marines to do their business.”

“I recommend we do something more provocative, sir,” Derek said. “We know we can take other ships with us on a quantum jump. Let’s grab what’s left of that big ship and haul it off to another system. We could do the same with the other ship, and they don’t have time to respond. That leaves our Marines needing to worry about the survivors aboard the ships. Meanwhile, once we return here, if we sit and wait, they’ll either have to come for us or retreat, which seems out of character.”

That meant turning their engineering section toward the enemy, so there were some risks. Was it enough to justify taking a chance? He considered the options and nodded. “Make it happen.”

Maneuvering the ship so that it swung by the wreckage of the big ship nearest them took only a few minutes, and then they jumped to an unoccupied system nearby. Returning to Vesuvius took another few moments, and they repeated the process with the other ship, sending an update to the Marines to let them know what they were doing.

By the time they’d finished, the first group was just seeing the first attack because of their distance. Jack guessed they’d rushed forward at full speed, but he wouldn’t know for sure until they acted and word got back at the speed of light. Or Hunter jumped deeper into the system.

Combat against two big ships that knew his capabilities, along with eight cruisers, would be a real fight. Those antiproton beam weapons could tear through his ship, and one good shot into engineering would be the end of them. That had to be avoided at all costs.

Much to his chagrin, the Novarite vessels turned and headed back for Vesuvius at full speed. He hadn’t expected them to run.

“I need new options,” he said as he adjusted himself in his seat. “Ones that don’t leave us open for critical damage.”

“We could use the skip drive to get in front of them and launch several waves of missiles before we back off,” Amanda said. “They don’t have the speed to come after us unless we’re deeper in the system than we’d go. That’s going to strain our quantum drive, and it is a risk, but we do have a spare.”

“Why don’t we use our hyperdrive to get as close as we can?” Derek asked. “If they see us chasing them into an area where they can’t use their hyperdrive, it may cause them to turn and fight. They won’t know we can’t get all the way to them. We can still do something else if they don’t slow down.”

Jack didn’t like the sound of these plans. Even though they had two independent quantum drives now, one had only been used a couple of times and never in conjunction with the hyperdrive. The skip drive was an amazing breakthrough in meshing the two technologies together but was mostly untested, and they’d used it when they had no choice. He’d rather do something more conventional if he could.

“I know we can go about twenty percent deeper into the gravity well than a regular hyperdrive ship can. I want to use the hyperdrive to go about half that distance in before we drop out. We won’t be able to see what they’re doing while we’re under, but they still should be some distance away even if they turn around and come after us. We have room to act if we guess wrong, so let’s run with that. When we come out, I want you to be ready if they do something unexpected. I can’t tell you what that would look like, but anything that would threaten us is of concern. Understood?”

The helm officer nodded. “Understood, sir. Ready to engage the hyperdrive.”

“Take us in.”

They’d be in hyperspace for a bit, so he watched the timer in the quarter of the main screen as it began counting down. He wasn’t sure what he was worried about, but the way the Novarites were behaving made him nervous.

“Fifteen seconds until we exit hyperspace,” Derek said. “Standing by to engage the hyperdrive again if needed.”

The remainder of the time bled out, and they emerged back into real space, ready to fight. The Novarites had continued deeper into the system and were past the point where Hunter could catch them with the hyperspace advantage they had. If he wanted to engage, he’d have to take risks he’d hoped to avoid.

“Fusion plants detected deeper in the system,” Derek said. “In orbit around Vesuvius. We may have missed them previously because they were on the other side of the planet. It’s difficult to tell at this range, but I’m detecting at least another dozen vessels. I believe that either three or four of them are large ships.”

That changed the complexity of what they were attempting. In fact, it made Vesuvius too tough a nut to crack. Ambushing ships that had no idea what they were capable of was one thing. Coming after other vessels that were fully prepared to deal with his methods of breaking them was another.

“Realistically, what kind of chance do we have against a force like that?” he asked. “I’m pretty sure I know the answer already, but let’s see if you can tip me off to something I’m not thinking of.”

Amanda turned in her seat, her expression grim. “If we have to fight that many large ships at once, they’d punch holes through us at every turn, and the odds of them getting our engineering space are far too high. I don’t like leaving this system in enemy hands, but I’m not sure we can take it against these odds. If we had another battleship or two at our disposal, it would be possible, but with just us, we’re too vulnerable. I recommend we withdraw.”

Derek nodded. “I think we should stay and gather as much intelligence as we can, but we don’t have an edge that we can use against them. Even if we go deeper into the system using the skip drive, they’ll be able to figure out how we’re moving, and like Amanda said, one unlucky hit leaves us completely disabled. The Novarites aren’t the enemy Hunter was constructed to fight. Maybe if we had operable antiproton beams of our own, or we’d refined the ability to create an energy shield, we’d have a better chance, but we don’t.”

“At this point, they’ll have knowledge of our independent quantum drive and at least some information on how it works. They know we have a hyperdrive that can get us somewhat deeper in the gravity well, too. It’s probably best if we don’t give away any more secrets until we have a chance to eliminate them all in one fell swoop.”

He gritted his teeth and gave the order. “Pull us back outside the jump limit. Once we’re in place, we’ll begin scanning with our passive sensors and see exactly what we can pick up. I’d like to get a firm count on the enemy warships.”

“Changing course,” Derek said. “I hope the engineers on New Copenhagen get us those probes they’ve been promising us. It would be worth a lot to send something deeper into the system to gather information without putting the ship at risk.”

Jack nodded. “It is a vulnerability we’ll have to address at some point. Now that we’ve reconnected with Argent, they should have plans for building them. Hopefully, the engineering teams on New Copenhagen sent out for the information, and that’s going to make their jobs easier. Derek and Amanda, I want you to take the information we get here and start coming up with options for assaulting the system based on what they know about us.”

The two of them looked skeptical, so he continued. “I’m not saying we have to take insane risks, but I’m authorizing you to include using the skip drive. I don’t want to go deeper into the system than Vesuvius itself because that’s begging for trouble. In fact, I’d like to stay somewhat farther out. We can’t afford to have a critical failure in a fight like this.”

“We’ll work on that as soon as possible, sir,” Amanda said. “Fair warning, it won’t be an easy fight. This is by far the most dangerous grouping of enemy ships we’ve encountered, other than the swarm of Locusts in the gateway system. The skip drive allows us to move ahead faster than light, but we’re not coming from nowhere. They’ll know where we are at some point and be able to make guesses about where we might appear next. That will make things far more dangerous.”

Jack nodded. “We knew we couldn’t run the board forever. I don’t know why there are so many Novarite warships here, but they’ve come in sufficient force to give us pause. It doesn’t seem like they were pursuing the colony ships, at least not solely. Maybe one of the two ships we’ve pulled away from here can give us information. I can’t help but think we’re missing something.”

He sat back and watched as they withdrew from the system. He hated the idea of leaving the people of Vesuvius under Novarite control, and he truly hoped they weren’t doing something horrific to them. It galled him that they’d run into a group they couldn’t beat, but at least they’d come out of this unscathed. Oh, they’d taken some surface damage, and the engineers would have some work to do there, but on the whole, the first part of this operation had gone as smoothly as he could have hoped.

They’d come back to Vesuvius. It might not be immediately, but they would return and free the people here. But first, they needed to know what was happening and make new plans.

17

Lisa informed the Marines that she wanted them to land the pinnace several blocks from the travel agent’s office. Then, to the young officer’s annoyance, she told them she was going in alone.

“That’s not safe, ma’am,” he said. “These people have already proven they’re more than capable of violence, and you need to be escorted.”

“How unobtrusive do you think you’d be, Lieutenant?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “Even if you got rid of your armor and weapons, you’d still be in uniform. You’d stand out like a sore thumb, whereas I’m in civilian clothes and won’t.”

“That might be true, but how are you planning on subduing him?” the officer asked with a raised eyebrow. “If he does work for the Poseidon Group, it’s likely the outside of the building is monitored. If we try to rush in, he has every opportunity to see us. What would you do then?”

“Tangle him up until you came in to hold him down. Look, I’m not suggesting that I fight the man, but I can keep him distracted and away from any weapons if he’s inclined to fight. Have you seen his picture? He won’t be a martial arts specialist. He’d probably be out of breath just walking around his desk.”

The Marine crossed his arms and stared at her without any amusement. “That’s the kind of assumption that gets people killed, ma’am. As ridiculous as this sounds, we should stop somewhere and get at least one of my people outfitted in suitable clothing. If someone needs to fight the target, let it be someone trained to do so. Surely it’s acceptable for your cover to have a significant other.”

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, his words made sense. “I suppose so. We don’t want to delay too long, though. Once they figure out we’re onto some of their other people, they’ll likely send out another alert, and things could get dicey.”

“I’ll make sure the pilot sets us down in an area where someone can buy second-hand clothes. Those will stand out less.”

The young officer headed toward the front of the pinnace, and shortly, they were making a pass over a commercial neighborhood. That probably had everybody down below a little freaked out, which only became worse when the pinnace landed and disgorged a fire team of Marines to watch the area while the officer and one of his people went inside a run-down second-hand store.

The Marine selected as her fake significant other for this operation was a bit younger than her and had an earnest look about him. His hair was far too short for her taste, but nothing could be done about that.

When he came back out, it looked like he’d gone for clothes even more grungy and rumpled than hers were. The shirt had the name of a band she didn’t recognize but it would fit in perfectly. He even wore a low-slung cap at a jaunty angle. It had some product name on the front, but that hardly mattered as long as it didn’t blow their cover.

The Marine had divested himself of his armor and weapons, but he had a pistol that he tucked into the back of his pants. According to the officer, that wasn’t the safest thing to do, but it would have to work for this mission. The man’s job was to make sure the travel agent didn’t do anything untoward if an alert came in, giving the Marines time to swoop in.

Having seen exactly how much of a kerfuffle the arrival of a pinnace created when it landed, she had them land almost half a kilometer away. From there, they could walk. They’d be in communication with the Marines, and if need be, they’d come in and land the pinnace right in front of the travel office and storm the place. That would be a lot faster than racing in from down the block.

<You’re surprisingly calm. Have you been involved in enough dangerous things that you’re becoming blasé?>

She smiled at the symbiote’s words. Aren’t you the wordsmith? I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I’m the distraction in this case. The real work for me comes when they’ve secured this guy and I start going through his systems. I can already taste something there. It’s far too coincidental that a travel agent is part of their organization. If they need to move people from place to place, he’d be the perfect one to arrange everything. That might not tell us where their shipyards are, but I can guarantee it will narrow things down.

<If, of course, you don’t get shot in the process. Do remember to duck when the trouble starts.>

Yes, Mother.

The two walked into the travel agent’s office and found it was a one-person affair. The room was large, and there were colorful posters spread across the walls showing places on Argent and other systems that would make wonderful vacation spots, if one accepted what one saw at face value, which she didn’t.

This was marketing hype, and the locales wouldn’t be near as good as what was being displayed. It was selling a dream, and reality always fell short.

Just like her impression of the travel agent himself. He undoubtedly thought he looked good in his colorful shirt with his welcoming grin, but he was a bit… homely. His grip was firm, so she made a mental note not to let him grab her in a scuffle.

“Welcome to Lavelle travel agency,” the man said in a booming voice. “I’m James. What kind of vacation are the two of you looking for today?”

<I want somewhere sunny. Somewhere warm.>

Why? Are you cold?

<My people prefer a somewhat warmer environment. Baking for a while on some beach sounds very relaxing.>

I can get on board with that plan.

“Something with sun and beach,” she said aloud. “We’re on a budget, but I’ve got a little set aside if it’s really enticing.”

Lavelle grinned in a way that made her feel slightly uneasy. It was the same sort of expression one saw with most used vehicle salesmen. He was trying to project a sense that she could trust him, but it wasn’t working.

“I have the perfect place. Have you ever been to the beaches down in the middle of the southern continent? Because of how everything is placed, it’s not only near the equator, but it also benefits from the warm waters flowing from the area that catches the most sunlight out of the open water. The sand is a brilliant white, and the water a mesmerizing sapphire blue. There are resorts down there that can cater to every level of desire you might have. If you’re budget minded, we can find a place that makes you happy, but if you put in a little extra, we can put you in a resort that will pamper you in a way you and your young man can truly appreciate.”

“That sounds very nice. If you could point out one of the posters that shows us what we’re looking at, I’d like to book the trip.” She looked over at the young Marine. “Don’t you think so, honey?”

“Wherever it is, I need a good gym,” he said with a grin. “I don’t want to stop my workout regimen.”

She found herself smiling. That was undoubtedly a true statement based on his physique, but it certainly fit into helping disarm any suspicions Lavelle might have.

Before the man could answer, his comm unit went off, and he held up a hand while smiling apologetically. “If you give me a moment, I need to take this.”

“Now,” Lisa said, catching their target’s slight stiffening as he looked at the screen.

The Marine delivered a devastating right cross to the travel agent’s chin, sending him staggering to the left, already unconscious on his feet before he slammed to the floor. He didn’t even move after he landed.

She ducked forward and grabbed the comm unit that had gone skittering across the floor. It wasn’t locked, which was poor security on his part, so she could see the text clearly.

The Confederation is making a push to pick up some of our other people. All second-rank members are to go into hiding at once. Go through your devices and purge information that might prove compromising. Initiate a purge of the data backups, and all custodians need to contact us as soon as it’s done.

Interesting. She wondered if someone had seen them taking one of the three in custody or if one of their targets had managed to escape. Thankfully, that was someone else’s problem. For herself, she’d worry about the computers here while the Marines went to secure Lavelle’s residence. They already had a team that should have begun moving to secure it the moment they took him down, but best to make sure.

She looked at the Marine who was rolling their prisoner onto his stomach and securing his hands. “Call the pinnace and let them know that we’re ready. They also need to secure his residence as quickly as possible. According to public records, he only lives about four blocks from here. I want them to kill all power and comm connections to the building and disconnect electronics. It’s possible the Poseidon Group can erase things remotely. Let’s not give them a chance.”

“Will do, ma’am. They’re on their way. They were monitoring through my comm, and they heard everything you said.”

The front door to the building shook as the pinnace came in for a landing directly out front and then burst open when the Marines came in with their weapons up. There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the building, but if they wanted to search the place from top to bottom and post guards, she’d let them.

For her part, she raced into the target’s office. He had several computers set up, and she quickly disconnected them from the external power and dug into her bag to pull out a jammer. At short ranges like this, it probably wouldn’t overwhelm the Marines’ ability to talk back and forth, but it would make sure no external access attempts over a basic comm channel worked. Even encrypted links would fail if they weren’t very close by.

“I’m kicking on a jammer,” she said. “It’s going to hash some of the communications, but I need you to make sure nobody comes close to this building. If they get really froggy, they could have someone walk by on the outside and potentially erase the information I’m looking for.”

Even as she said that she heard the pinnace takeoff, heading for their target’s residence. While they did that, she pulled out some tools and began extracting data drives to throw into a Faraday cage. If no signals could reach the system, the data would remain secure. While this office probably had remote connections elsewhere, she doubted if any of the most critical records were kept off-site. That would mean that the data would have to be transferred over a public channel, and that meant that it might be intercepted.

Once she’d secured the data drives from the office, she went through the building looking for any hidden electronics. Nothing turned up, but she stared at the back corner of the building with suspicion. The room didn’t go back far enough in this direction. It was possible there was some support equipment in there, but how was it accessed? These look like blank walls.

The Marine acting as her escort stepped over when she waved. “I think there might be something behind this wall, but if so, we need to gain access without destroying it. Is there a way to look for a secret entrance?”

He eyed the blank walls. There weren’t even bookcases to hide a secret entrance. “If they went to this much trouble to hide it, what are the chances it’s booby-trapped?”

“I have no idea.”

He pursed his lips and then looked up. “How much do we care about this building?”

“If we can get the secret data, not at all.”

“I think we should come in through the roof. People never plan for people cutting through what’s above their little secrets.”

“Make that happen, and once it’s open and you think it’s safe, I’ll go in and see if there’s anything we can recover. If, of course, there’s anything in there.”

He laughed. “People don’t create hiding places if they don’t intend to put something in them. There’ll be something there.”

He went and spoke to several Marines, and the group went outside. A few minutes later, she could hear them moving across the roof. Would they use a cutting device to get in through the roof? Without knowing the details, it was hard to guess.

That question was answered when there was a sharp crack from somewhere above, and she heard something heavy fall into the area behind the wall. Explosives. Of course that’s what the Marines would use. She hoped it hadn’t damaged anything important.

Deciding she didn’t want to wait, she headed outside. There was a ladder propped up against the wall. Where had they found it? That was really handy.

Once she got on the roof, she saw where they’d blown a gap in the area over the secret zone. All three of them were as close as they could get without going over to the edge, shining lights down to see what was below.

“Did you drop the roof on something?” she demanded. “If you broke it, you bought it.”

“I might be paying for something then,” her companion said. “Looks like part of the roof landed on a big computer. It doesn’t look like there’s any room for people to be in there with the equipment, so someone installed it and then sealed it up. I can see some explosives planted on the computer. If anyone tried to breach the concealing walls, I bet it would have detonated the equipment. Good thing the collapsing roof didn’t set it off.”

<If someone went to the trouble of booby-trapping in the hardware to prevent intrusion, why didn’t they do something with the roof?>

I think they must have. If it was me building the place, I wouldn’t have missed that. Odds are it malfunctioned.

“Does it look like the floor is also being monitored?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Just the walls.”

“Do you think the ceiling was also monitored? If so, do you think it’s already erased the data?”

“This stuff is wired to explosives. If we’d set off the alarm, it should have blown up. Maybe it’s not armed.”

“I think we’ll get off the roof and let the experts disarm that before we collect the equipment,” she said. “That’s outside my bailiwick, so I’ll see about his residence.”

Her companion turned and stepped away from the destroyed area of the roof. “The report is that they’re in his rooms, the power is off, and they’ve been recovering equipment. Nothing bigger than small computers. I don’t think they had any of those protective boxes you brought with you, but they’ve got a jammer out to make sure no one can send a signal in.”

She considered the odds of him keeping crucial information in his home when he had the computer here rigged for self-destruction and discarded the idea that the good stuff was there. What she was looking for would be here. The fact he had dedicated storage told her that this computer was more important than even that. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so large, hidden so well, or rigged to explode. This was a mother lode, which meant the unconscious man was one of the custodians that were supposed to have reported in. By now, they likely thought he was compromised. Good thing she had Marines all around the place.

“I want you to tell everyone to be careful,” she warned as she climbed down the ladder. “The odds of this being something big are high, and I don’t want to lose it. We’ve got to get it out of here and back to the planetary defense headquarters as quickly as we can.”

“This isn’t the kind of thing you can rush,” he warned her. “Anytime you work with explosives, you take your time and do it right. We won’t delay things unduly, but you don’t want to skip a step with something this important.”

As much as she wanted to argue the point, she knew he was right. “I suppose. How far away do you think we need to be?”

“At least a block,” he said as he ushered her up the street. “We haven’t cleared the area, so I’ll stick by your side.”

“What’s your name?”

“Seth Hayes. I’m a corporal.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Seth. I’m Lisa Gane.”

“I know. We’ve never met, but I’ve seen you around.”

They picked up two Marines that were fully kitted out and walked the block to wait for the arrival of someone that could deal with the explosives. Rather than stand in the open, Seth insisted they step into a shop the Marines had cleared to get out of sight of anyone walking up. She didn’t think that was necessary, but after the number of times they’d been attacked, it paid to take no chances.

<You find him attractive?>

The question surprised her, and she narrowed her eyes. I’m not sure what you mean.

<Your body is having certain physiological responses when you speak with Seth. I’m no expert on human behaviors, but it leads me to believe that you find him attractive. Do you think the two of you will mate?>

She coughed into her hand and turned away from Seth. Seriously? You’re just going to drop that question right there with no warning? I barely know the man.

“Are you okay?” Seth asked.

“I’m fine. Just got a bit of something in my throat. Do you suppose they have any water here?”

“I’ll check.”

As the young Marine walked off, she tried to figure out how she could glare at someone that was inside her. Whether I feel attracted to someone or not isn’t any of your business.

<Since I’m connected to your nervous system, it’s certainly my business if the two of you decide to copulate. I’m just trying to figure out how I feel about that.>

Now she really did feel like she wanted to choke. You’re a symbiote. You could be placed inside of a male or female, so shouldn’t you be open-minded about that kind of thing? And besides, I just barely met the man. I don’t think you need to worry about us popping right into bed.

Seth returned with a bottle of water for her, and she gratefully took a drink. This was not the conversation she’d anticipated having.

<Oh, my people are open-minded about biological needs, but I’ve never had a female host before. The mechanics of such a relationship would be quite different than what I’m used to, and I’m trying to get myself in the right frame of mind to be supportive.>

You’re trying to embarrass me, aren’t you?

<Perhaps. Is it working?>

You’re going to pay for that. I promise.

“So, how long do you think it’ll take for them to disarm the explosives?” she asked Seth, ignoring Regex.

“Could be an hour. Might be more if things get complicated. The goal is to get the computers out of there without setting off the explosives, so that means they need to verify everything is disarmed or inactive and then clear them away from the machine before they lift it out. Do you think it’ll have anything important enough to run the table on the Poseidon Group?”

She nodded. “The way they’ve set it up almost screams something like that. If it didn’t have critical information, they wouldn’t have hidden it so well and protected it so heavily.”

“If they planned on protecting it, they should’ve put it somewhere they have more guards. As it is, planetary security could have seized it.”

“Not without it blowing up,” she said. “I’m not certain what went wrong with their plans, but I’m not going to complain.”

One of the other Marines touched his hand to his ear and frowned. “They’re picking up unusual activity in the area. Air cars moving in. The backup pinnace is almost here, and we’ll have it drop down in front of this building to pick us up.”

Were they about to be attacked again? The last time had been terrifying. Even if they did come, they’d go for the main building. She just needed to accept that there would be some danger, but she wasn’t personally the target. If anything was happening. It might be a misunderstanding or someone being a bit too paranoid.

That’s when the front of the building exploded inward, sending her into the counter hard enough to rattle her teeth. She blinked for a moment looking around in confusion and wondering what had happened. Then she saw Seth lying beside her with a bloodied gash across the side of his head, not moving.

The Marines with them had been bowled over but were back on their feet and firing at something through the smoke. Somebody was shooting back at them, and bullets whizzed through the air around her.

Her instincts screamed at her to jump over the counter, but she couldn’t leave Seth lying there. She wasn’t strong enough to lift him, so she grabbed his collar and dragged him around the side of the counter as fast as possible while bent over double to minimize her profile.

Which, on reflection, wasn’t moving that fast. In fact, she was slow enough that something hit her leg. Probably not a bullet, or it would have hurt a hell of a lot more.

Only when she was out of the direct line of sight did she check to see if Seth was breathing. He was, and she sighed with relief. He was unconscious but alive. With the attack ongoing, it was an open question about how long that would remain true.

She grabbed the pistol at the small of his back. She wasn’t very good with that sort of thing, though having hung around the Marines as much as she had, she at least wasn’t terrified of them. They were a tool. A very loud tool that could kill someone, but still just a tool.

Lisa patted him down and found a spare magazine in his back pocket, which she stuffed into hers and crept away from Seth and down the back of the counter. The firing out front hadn’t abated, so she knew the Marines were still resisting. She needed to see if she could help.

<This is very dangerous. You should stay low and avoid being shot. We both know that it’s easy to die under these circumstances.>

I know. Shut up and let me work.

About two-thirds of the way down the counter from where Seth lay, she raised her head slowly and scanned the battlefield in front of her. The smoke was clearing somewhat, and one of the Marines was obviously down. The other was still firing from the right side of the shop, and shadowy figures were coming in with their weapons up, trying to kill them all.

A quick count showed three intruders. There might be more out there, but she couldn’t see them. Even as she watched, one of them went down, and the remaining two zeroed their fire in on the surviving Marine.

There was nothing in the shop that could stop bullets, and that meant that he was hit many times and collapsed. That left her against whatever the enemy decided to throw at them. If she wanted to live, she needed to act.

Lisa lined up the pistol sights on the first target and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.

<Safety on the left.>

She felt with her thumb, found a switch, and moved it. The click sounded loud to her ringing ears, but it was unlikely anyone could have heard it with the fighting. This wasn’t the only site where an attack was happening because gunfire was still raging farther down the block. Probably around the building where the computer was.

Lisa once again lined up the pistol and aimed lower than she thought she might otherwise need to. She’d heard that these weapons jumped when fired, and she had no idea how much that was the case. Might as well try to hit him somewhere important.

It turned out that the pistol rounds didn’t jump nearly as much as she’d expected, but that didn’t save the person she was firing at. He grabbed his crotch and fell down with a scream.

Ouch.

The other attacker sprayed the interior of the building with bullets, probably because he couldn’t see where she was. That didn’t fill her with confidence, considering that the counter in front of her face exploded in splinters. A random shot could kill her as quickly as an aimed one.

After turning the weapon onto the other invader, she squeezed the trigger rapidly until the slide locked back. One of those bullets—or more—must have landed because he went down. She ducked behind the counter as the one she’d wounded was shooting now. He apparently knew where she was as the bullets tore up the area around her as she scurried back toward Seth.

She stopped partway and recovered the other magazine from her pocket. It took a second or two to figure out how to eject the spent one and insert the new one. Sadly, it fell right back out.

<Push until you feel it lock in place.>

How do you know that?

<I was paying attention when someone was talking about firearm safety. You were drinking coffee and listening to something else.>

I’m glad. Thanks.

She pushed the magazine in until it clicked and stayed in place. Then she looked at the side and found another switch. The slide slammed forward when she pushed it down, hopefully arming the weapon.

Unfortunately, the loud noise was enough to draw the attention of the living attacker, and he began shooting at her again. This time, she felt a burning in her left leg. Crap!

Forward or backward? Not having time to focus on the issue, she decided forward was better than backward. She crawled forward a little and prepared herself. When she came up, she would be a target, and she didn’t know where the fallen fighter was now. That put her at a significant disadvantage.

Of course, she didn’t have to pop up over the counter. She grinned to herself and continued crawling over the unconscious Marine until she was at the far side of the counter and could peek around at the floor level. That gave her an excellent view of the man shooting at her from the floor as he scanned the top of the counter, looking for her.

Lisa brought the pistol up and fired five times. She had no idea how many bullets hit the man, but at least some did because he collapsed.

Was he dead? Did she dare go find out? No. Probably better to wait right where she was and make sure that nothing happened to Seth. He was her responsibility, and she wasn’t going to leave him behind.

I don’t suppose you know how many bullets this thing holds, do you?

<I don’t. Why don’t you take a moment to look at the magazine?>

She did and saw little holes in the back that showed via numbers how many bullets were left. Seven. Oh, and there was one still inside the gun. If she had to fight, she only had eight bullets to do so with. She hoped that would be enough. In fact, she hoped she didn’t have to fire again. Maybe the Marines would come to rescue her.

When two more figures came through the smoky front of the ruined store, she thought they were Marines, but the way they opened fire at the counter quickly disabused her of that notion. She ducked as much as possible and fired around the counter at the one on the right. Her aim was atrocious, but at least one of the bullets must’ve hit something important because the attacker went down and stopped moving.

She leaned out a little farther and yelped as the other man’s weapon fired enough bullets to chew up the side of the counter above her head, sending splinters into her face. Thank God nothing hit her eyes.

Lisa fired blindly around the counter but doubted she hit anything. When the slide locked back, she knew she was dead because she was out of ammunition.

That’s when someone in the front of the building screamed. Risking everything, she looked around the counter and saw the final attacker writhing on the floor, clutching his throat.

Standing behind him in the smoke was an older man dressed in civilian clothes. He was looking around the store’s interior with wide eyes, and when he saw her, he made an urgent gesture for her to come his way.

“I can’t,” she said, her throat tight. “There’s a Marine back here, and he’s hurt. We have to get him out.”

She was taking an awful chance because she didn’t know who the civilian was, but anyone could kill her at this point. If the man was part of the group attacking them, there was nothing she could do to stop him.

He stepped beside her and crouched low, touching Seth’s neck. “He still has a pulse, so he’s in better shape than any of these other people. Are you okay?”

She nodded and found herself frowning as she looked at her rescuer more closely. He looked vaguely familiar. Where had she seen his face before?

Something of her confusion must’ve reached her face because his hand darted out, and she heard a hiss as something injected itself with the sting into her neck.

“What the hell?” she demanded.

That’s when she realized she was looking at Patrick the assassin. It seemed he’d caught up with her. She tried to stumble back, but her vision was already wavering, and her legs gave out.

He snatched her out of the air before she could fall and tossed her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. “I’m sure this is a terrible surprise, but I was in the neighborhood and thought the two of us should talk. Why don’t you take a little nap, and I’ll see you shortly? Nighty night.”

Before she could say anything, her world narrowed down to a single point of light that promptly vanished as he carried her deeper into the store.

18

Once the pinnaces launched, Mac and his people were committed. Beth was aboard another pinnace just in case his took damage on the way in, but he hoped all the weapons on the ship were either without power or destroyed. If not, a lot of his people were about to die.

Even if they got in without being shot at, he suspected the casualties would be higher than he’d like. He wished they could carry out an operation like this without losing people, but that wasn’t how combat worked. People under his command would die no matter what he did or how good he was. All he could do was reduce that number as much as possible.

They’d planned ahead, knowing the layout of the alien ship as well as they could based on the diagrams and deck plans Lisa had provided. They were detailed and showed many aspects of the alien vessel that he was pretty sure its designers hadn’t believed an attacker would ever have access to. He’d use that to his best advantage now.

Flying into the bore of the beam weapon was terrifying in its own right, but since he was in the back of the pinnace, he didn’t have to look at it. If the thing had a capacitor that was charged and could fire, he and everyone else would die. That was extremely unlikely as the weapon powered itself directly from a dedicated fusion plant in the engineering space. With that destroyed, the weapon was harmless. Or so he hoped.

The pinnace jolted as it attached itself to the bore wall and the hatch at the rear opened, allowing his people out. Everyone knew their part of the plan, and they raced to implement it. Two Marines per magnetic field generator would work on getting that initial goal completed. The pinnaces would then take them far out into space where they wouldn’t be damaged and return to pick them up.

The rest of his team would assault the bridge while the engineers they’d brought with them disassembled the gate connecting to whatever hyperspace realm generated so many antiprotons. They’d done this task before, or so he’d been informed, so he hoped it went without trouble.

He stopped toward the weapon’s rear, reaching the bulkhead closest to the bridge. It wasn’t meant to connect, but there were maintenance passages that would provide more than enough room for his people. The Novarites were giant humanoids, meaning they needed a lot of space. More than a Marine with gear. The Novarites wouldn’t have any idea they were there until they attacked.

His sappers placed their explosives, and everyone turned their backs on the bulkhead as they detonated. A bit of air rushed out, but they’d come prepared, and his people quickly slapped an emergency airlock in place over the breach. That would allow them access without killing the prisoners they wanted to take.

Someone, somewhere, would likely notice the decompression, but as it was in a maintenance area, they would have other problems to deal with. After all, Hunter had blown off the ship’s stern. They were likely still rescuing trapped crewmen and trying to make sure the pressurized areas maintained that status.

Squad after squad of Marines moved into place inside the maintenance tube. It was still in vacuum and would remain so until they blew their way onto the bridge. That would reduce the usable atmosphere there, but it shouldn’t kill anyone in the short term. Not before they could secure the prisoners anyway.

The sappers repeated the process of laying the charges when they got to the end of the maintenance tube. It wrapped around the bridge, and they planned to blow their way through one of the interior bulkheads. They put the charges far enough around the bend to avoid posing a direct threat to them and retreated. Moments later, they blew the bulkhead, and debris and air started flowing past them.

Like a well-oiled machine, his troops flooded the bridge and discovered that the crew was in vacuum suits and prepared to resist. That was unexpected, but they’d planned for the possibility. Shots were fired back and forth as they moved into position, and the enemy warriors positioned at the back of the bridge went down first.

They were the ones with the rifles, so they were a more significant threat than the officers. Since only the captain of one of the cruisers had had a flechette pistol, he hadn’t expected the officers to have them, but he was wrong. Likely, half of the people on the bridge had pistols out and were firing at his people, earning them some extremely negative attention.

Someone threw several concussion grenades into the compartment, and even though the officers were in vacuum suits, they weren’t armored enough to stand up to the concussion. The blasts disoriented them long enough for his people to use the net guns to entangle them. With the lack of gravity, the Marines shot down the remaining resistance and disarmed everyone on the bridge.

They had patches for vacuum suits, so it was a simple matter to find where the air was leaking from on the people they’d shot and seal them up. In these circumstances, the prisoners would either survive until they got medical attention, or they wouldn’t. There was no way he could check them in a low-pressure environment, even if they hadn’t been resisting as strongly as they could.

The fact that they were in vacuum suits made it easy to get them out of the ship and aboard several pinnaces. These high-value targets would be kept isolated from everyone else, and even if they got loose from the nets, they wouldn’t be able to harm the pinnaces from the compartments they were stored in. Mac had made sure of that. In just a few minutes, the Marines were alone on the alien bridge.

Their presence hadn’t gone unnoticed, however. His people had taken up positions to fire on the hatch leading into the bridge, which the officers had helpfully sealed for them. Unfortunately, the warriors on the other side had more than enough explosives to blow their way in.

A hurricane of air and debris rushed into the bridge, making it hard to see clearly. All his people were under cover and firing toward the hatch. The warriors seemed unconcerned with their safety as they leaped in and tried to fire.

His people were in a decent position to resist, and they cut down the attackers, though they took casualties doing so. In a few moments, the fight for the bridge was over.

While it was an optional objective, Mac knew the captain’s office and living quarters would be adjacent to the bridge, if it followed the blueprints they’d been provided. He led a squad into the compartment, and they began searching for classified materials. Some things were too important to put into computers.

Just like the cruiser, this ship had a safe. In fact, it had two. The first one was a decoy that had a lot of important things in it but not the most critical items. He left the rest of the squad breaking into it while searching for the one in the captain’s personal quarters. It was well concealed but where the plans said it would be.

He had seen one like it because the wreckage of one of the Novarite big warships they’d destroyed had left the captain’s quarters and bridge mostly intact. Still, he was glad to see this one followed the same layout as the previous one.

Knowing exactly how the safe was put into the bulkhead, he and his people planted explosives a little farther away from the safe than might generally be prudent. When they stepped out of the rooms and blew the charges, it left the safe loose enough for them to pull it out. That allowed them to take it with them and work on it at their leisure.

Just as they were getting it ready for transport, a Marine came in. “Sir, we need you to take a look at something.”

“What have you got?” he asked, gesturing for the other Marines to finish securing the safe.

“As per the plan, we’ve had teams scouring the ship to look for areas where there might be survivors. We found a deviation from the deck plans. Whatever’s inside this area still seems to be secure.”

Mac followed the Marine out into the corridor, and they pulled themselves deeper into the ship. The area in question became obvious when they arrived because there was a massive hatch set to the right side of the primary corridor in an area that should have been crew quarters.

He eyed the hatch suspiciously. It was enormous, so that implied something inside was important and large. What could it be?

“What’s the status on the rest of the ship?” he asked.

“The teams have just about finished. We’ve found a few survivors, and we’ve used the net guns as well as we could once we broke into the areas they were trapped in, but the number of Novarites that lived will be low, outside the bridge officers. Except, of course, if there are any in this area.”

Mac floated in the zero-G and considered the risk. “Have the teams finish searching the ship, then we’ll get everybody back together before penetrating this zone. Whatever’s in there might be heavily guarded, so we’ll have to be ready. I want all my people at my back when that happens.”

“I’ll let you know as soon as we’re done, sir.” The Marine hurried off, tugging himself so that he coasted down the corridor at a fairly high speed.

While waiting for everything else to be settled, Mac explored the open areas to the sides of this high-value area. It looked like it was about as wide as a dozen compartments put together. The bulkheads were just as heavy as the hatch, so somebody had wanted the contents protected.

Following a hunch, he went up two decks and found that the protected zone was present in the first and absent in the second. The deck below was normal. So, it was reasonably wide and two decks tall. Again, an enormous zone to protect with such heavy armor. The most interesting thing was that there was only the single entrance.

By the time he finished the survey, he’d gotten a report that the engineering teams had removed the antiproton beam weapon. They’d even found some spare parts stored not too distant from the weapon itself and six spare magnetic generators. That would be good for the modifications Amanda Harris had discussed.

With those personnel freed from their tasks, they now had to break into this protected area and take its secrets for themselves. He’d be happy for the backup. It was possible it was heavily guarded, and they’d have to work their way through whatever was on the other side.

Mac wanted to know what that was, so he brought one of his teams to the upper deck and off to the side before setting up another emergency airlock. Once they were sure they wouldn’t be draining any of the atmosphere, he had them use some of their tools to burn a hole through the bulkhead. Not a very big one because this was only meant to spy on the contents. If possible, he’d like them to remain unaware of what he was doing.

Burning a hole through the bulkhead took about twice the amount of time they’d been planning on, but he was able to have them run a fiber-optic cable through to take a look. The other side was brightly lit.

The lighting made his eyes narrow. The ship had lost its engineering section, so how was the power on?

It was one wide, deep, tall space. To his shock, there was a full-size fusion plant, and it was operational. Scattered out around it were literally hundreds of hibernation chambers.

All of them were open and seemed unoccupied, but their presence in such a weird configuration made no sense. They’d already found other areas where the crew had slept during their long journey, so why have something like this?

They widened the hole they’d created until they could get a small drone inside and sent it scurrying around the bulkhead. Its legs were designed to hang on even in zero-G conditions, but if it came loose, it had a small gas thruster that could get it where it needed to be.

He had it go to the large hatch and look at the controls. Whereas the outside was devoid of means to open this chamber, it was simply a matter of pressing a button here to trigger the hatch.

Mac warned his people he was about to open the hatch. It proved slightly awkward for the drone, but it managed to do so. Even with the pressure differential, the hatch opened and the pressure equalized. Once the way in was clear, he headed down to join the rest of his people as they searched the compartment.

His people quickly verified that there were no Novarites in the compartment, which made the situation even stranger. As protected as this zone was, it wasn’t for the regular crew, so several hundred someones had been transported in. Who had they been, and why had they been given such an exalted area?

The interior of this compartment had its own fusion plant and life support system. The only thing it didn’t seem to have was gravity.

There was a difference in quality between the hibernation chambers in the front quarter of the compartment and the rest. It wasn’t that they were shabbier, but they weren’t as brightly chromed and decorated as the ones behind them.

Based on the equipment racks at the front of the area, he guessed that the initial group had been guards of some kind. Had the Novarites brought high-ranking civilians? Maybe some of their leaders? That didn’t make any sense.

“Colonel, we got something over here,” one of the Marines said over the command channel. “It’s behind the fusion plant.”

He quickly made his way to the back of the compartment and saw what they were looking at. The fusion plant had been shielding a compact, yet advanced-looking Novarite computer. Mac didn’t know much about the alien hardware, but he’d seen the ones they’d salvaged from the other ships, and this was a completely different model.

“Send for the engineers,” he ordered. “We’ll take this with us when we leave.”

It took them almost an hour to get everything out of the ship and ready for transport. By the time they’d done so, Hunter had arrived. He was disappointed to hear they hadn’t been able to liberate Vesuvius but happy their casualties had been relatively light.

Unfortunately for him, the work wasn’t done. They’d brought the back half of the other big ship, and the engineers wanted to salvage their hyperdrive and any other interesting equipment. Having a second hyperdrive aboard would undoubtedly be helpful, and they knew that this one could go twice as fast as the Tardan version. That might help them fool someone into believing they were a Novarite warship next time.

There would be survivors, so he’d let Hunter make the first pass and take out any operational weapons. Once that was done, the Marines would clear the ship. They’d capture as many of the aliens as possible and get them back to Argent at some point in the near future.

They could move the surviving Novarites to the front half of the ship they’d just cleared once they sealed the significant leaks. The fusion plant, and the built-in life support, would be enough to keep them alive for now. It would also keep them from sabotaging any of the hardware on the other ship if they had a mind to do so.

With the orders given, he set out to make that happen. While they hadn’t succeeded in freeing Vesuvius, they’d damaged the enemy badly. What happened next was up to the admiral.

19

Sara sat in the small office, looking across a desk from Connor. She hadn’t even known he had an office. It seemed designed to be a place where he could talk with someone privately rather than do any work.

Considering the diligence with which his minions had gone over the office while looking for listening devices, she was confident they wouldn’t be overheard by third parties.

Which was good because the situation was still serious. It had been less than twelve hours since the front half of Taurus had exploded. By dint of Herculean effort and good luck, Port Royale hadn’t been badly damaged. Some sections had taken impacts, but there’d been no serious injuries. It was a bloody miracle.

Connor had exchanged his usual alcoholic drink for coffee. She didn’t think she’d ever seen the man drink anything without alcohol mixed into it. Then again, she couldn’t be sure the coffee was untainted. Well, his, anyway.

When she sipped at her cup, she felt her eyes narrowing. This was the same excellent blend that had been aboard Hunter. She wasn’t sure where their supply man had found it, but it looked like Connor had found a way to get a share for himself. Shady people should never be underestimated.

“Have you had your pilots check out Scorpius’s orbit?” she asked. “I want to make absolutely sure it won’t hit anything or drop out of orbit.”

“Triple checked by our best,” he said. “You threaded a fine needle there. The battleship is at about a thirty-degree angle to our orbit. It’s not stable over the long term, but the engineers should be able to repair at least one of the fusion drives before things get chancy. It doesn’t look like it will hit anything, though it’ll come close. In all, that was some good flying for someone who doesn’t have a license.”

“I hadn’t planned on actually flying anything,” she said, not bothering to hide her relief. “It was something to pass the time and get used to the systems. Being a lawyer aboard a warship leaves one with a lot of free time.”

“I’ll bet it does. The more interesting story is the explosives aboard Taurus. Turns out—and your engineers agree, by the way—that they had to have been emplaced a long time ago. I guess the leadership of the religious cult that was running Scorpius planned to use that to either threaten or eliminate us. Back before we had any weapons at all, a shotgun effect like that would’ve destroyed the station. Even with our new weapons, your assistance saved a lot of lives and our structural integrity, and we’re in your debt.”

She took another sip of the steaming coffee. “The engineers and their equipment have begun arriving from New Copenhagen and Argent. They’ve begun turning up a lot faster than I’d expected. We haven’t even signed the contracts. I suspect they’ll start on Scorpius, but I’ve got to head back to Argent and seal the deal. I don’t know what they’ll need, but there will be a bunch of people coming, and some will need housing in the short term.”

“You’re not wrong. Very few areas aboard the derelict ships are fit for human habitation.” The man leaned back and scratched his head. She’d never seen him without his ridiculous hat either, so it amused her that he was developing a bald spot. They had the technology to correct that sort of thing, and she wondered why he didn’t take advantage of it.

“They said they could get Scorpius’s life-support system back up and running throughout her hull in a week. They’ll be doing that hand-in-hand with working on her other systems. They seem to think they can get most of the ship to some level of operation in a month. I don’t know if I believe that, but that’s what they’re telling me.”

“One thing I’ve learned over the years is that you should trust the experts when they tell you something. It may sound wonky, but they know what they’re talking about. You still need to keep your eye on them, of course, because crooks come in all flavors, but if you’ve got that many engineers telling you it’s possible, then they’re more likely right than wrong. That would be a bloody miracle, but it would certainly be something I’d imagine Jack would be thrilled to see.”

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes and finished their coffee. She needed to find somewhere she could lay her head and get some sleep, but things were moving too quickly for her to give up the time. The next freighter headed for New Copenhagen and Argent would leave in about three hours, and she intended to be aboard it. That meant she needed all the details taken care of before she left.

“I know they’ve put a bunch of people onto getting the nuclear weapons refurbished on New Copenhagen,” she said. “What about the missiles they have to be mounted to? A battleship needs a lot of missiles to fight.”

“True enough. Your people have control of the weapons side of the storage, though we can draw a share and are doing so to replace the ones we’ve lost and to arm more of the launchers we have. The governing Council made the call that we needed to come up to full armament just in case the station ever comes under real attack. That will require a lot of missiles, and we don’t have the people with the experience to make that happen. Not in the kind of timeframe we’re talking about.”

“So that means the work is taking place on New Copenhagen. How’s that going?”

“Better than you’d think. They have a lot of skilled people, and with the destruction of the two major planetary population centers, many of them were displaced. They rigged up something of an assembly line to take missiles and nuclear warheads and refurbish them. They built up quite a stockpile both for Jack and for use in other locations like here at Port Royale. We’re also ready to start deploying the remote weapons platforms I told you we could put together. They’ll serve as planetary defenses, but it will take a lot of them. That should free Jack to take the fight to the enemy.”

“That’s good news,” she agreed. “It’ll mean even more missiles are needed, though.”

“The operation I mentioned can be scaled up. Since you’re talking about a month before the next warship comes online, even in a limited capacity, I’d imagine getting the weapons systems operational will be part of that. You’ll have to communicate with New Copenhagen to make sure they’re ready to send you all the ammunition you need. You can handle that on the way back to Argent.”

Sara stood and walked over to the coffee maker. Part of her wanted to get another cup, but she rinsed the mug out and hung it up to dry. She was already going to be jittery, and she didn’t need more caffeine in her system before she tried to sleep on the trip back to Argent.

“With Taurus out of the picture, do we need to move the wreck somewhere else?” she asked. “Maybe it can be mined for raw materials.”

He walked over to stand beside her and poured himself another cup. “I think you might be selling that ship short. True, it’s no longer a battleship, but the engineering section is in as good a shape as any of the others, and the ship could be moved. As a smuggler, I think a few aspects of that vessel might be worth considering.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“If you get someone to refurbish the engines and life-support, that ship has a full-size independent quantum drive, which means you can move a lot of something with it. I’m not saying to use it as a freighter, but didn’t you people say you were hunting for the Poseidon Group’s shipyards? What if those could be broken down into roughly half the size of one of the battleships and moved to a different system?”

She found herself frowning. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Well, while I haven’t seen this particular set of shipyards, I’ve seen a few in my time, including ones that built cruisers. They might have several slips side-by-side, but with some judicious cutting and disassembly, you could break them down into sections that might be transportable without complete disassembly.”

She’d never even considered the possibility. “You’ve obviously been thinking about this. Why don’t you make whatever pitch you have in mind?”

He smiled in a way that she knew he’d practiced. It wasn’t that he seemed insincere, but he had a kind of swaggering charm when he wanted. “I’m still looking out for Port Royale. As I said earlier, we’ve been building asteroid batteries for missiles and lasers, and we’re starting to build a reputation for getting things done. Think about what having operational shipyards here would do for us? We’ve got handy refineries in the asteroid belt that can get lots of supplies to build ships and other things like stations. We’re the obvious choice.”

She found herself nodding. They’d lost everything for refining materials and building anything in space in those systems. If they could get the shipyards here to Port Royale, that might be much simpler than the other plans that were undoubtedly being bandied about.

“So what would you want for something like that?” she asked, getting to the point. “You’ve obviously got a plan, so let’s hear it.”

“It’s a simple one,” he assured her. “We’re doing a lot of work for the Navy. One of the Navy ships put us in a lot of danger, and even though you managed to save us from the vast majority of it, there’s a debt over there as well.”

“Hold up,” she said, interrupting him. “It was your own citizens that did that. The Navy can’t be responsible for what they did before we even knew about this place.”

“That could be argued since without the battleships being here, those people couldn’t have done what they did.”

Sara shook her head. “Bull. The station wouldn’t have been here if the Navy hadn’t put the battleships here. You’re caught in a circular argument. Without the old Navy’s actions, you’d never have possession of this station in the first place. Try again.”

He laughed. “I can see the lawyer in you now, but what we want is pretty small in the scheme of things. Relocate the shipyards here when you find them. We also want ownership and control of Taurus. It’s no longer useful as a fighting vessel, but it could make Port Royale an economic powerhouse in the cluster. After all, you’ll have to have someone to do the work and do it someplace that the enemy isn’t likely to visit. That’s Port Royale.”

“If our people capture the shipyards, we’re not just giving them to you,” she said, rejecting his initial offer and smiling as the bargaining commenced. “We could lease them to Ringwald Engineering or some of the other engineering consortiums and allow them to work here while Port Royale gets a cut of the profits. That’s a deal we’d have to work out, but I’m not objecting to it in principle.”

He grinned, obviously relishing the dealmaking. “I’ve discovered over the years that principles are entirely overrated. Still, your bargain is not unreasonable, but we can do better. It’s going to be years before any of the other systems get their asteroid mining and refining capability back to anything like what we have. We’ll have to greatly expand what we’re doing, but drawing in people from other systems to do the work is much easier than building things from scratch. A cut of the profits isn’t enough. We want a stake.”

She didn’t disagree with his thoughts, but she didn’t want to give in too easily, either. The governments in question would be working to restore their capabilities as quickly as possible but wouldn’t have to waste the materials and equipment doing so right this second. The plan had a lot going for it, but she needed to talk it over with Jack and the Confederation leaders before she made a binding decision.

She had no idea how extensive the shipyards were or what condition they’d be in once Jack finished with them. Military exigencies being what they were, it was entirely possible they’d be destroyed if Jack found them occupied by enemy cruisers. She didn’t see the Poseidon Group surrendering, so if the shipyards were armed, they’d also likely resist.

“I can’t give you any promises, but I’ll think about it. Right now, it means nothing because we have no idea where the shipyards are located. We might never find them.”

The ex-smuggler laughed. “You talk a good game, but we both know you’ll track them down. There are only so many places they can hide, and they’ll have left a footprint somewhere. No matter what happens, we’ll still want Taurus. If we can start building stations or even more asteroid-based weapon systems to defend the various planets in the cluster, that’ll be a very brisk export. A ship like that could move a lot that a freighter couldn’t. It has value to us, and for all the things that we’ve been through on behalf of the Navy, I’m laying claim to that vessel.”

She considered the pros and cons and then nodded. “I’ll see that whatever necessary paperwork is drawn up, pending a final deal. We’ll even leave the weapon systems intact though I don’t expect you need to be heavily armed. With the front half gone, that’ll restrict what you can do with the weapons in any case. If we find out you’re using it for something of a military nature, we’ll destroy it and then come back to have a conversation you won’t like. Understood?”

He held up his hands. “I’m an ex-criminal, not a pirate. I have no desire to do anything that harms someone else with those kinds of weapons. I’ll make sure the crew we pick for her is well-trusted and that the weapons are locked down so they can only be used under the right circumstances. You’re getting quite good at this negotiation, Sara. Did being a lawyer prepare you for it?”

“You might say that. Being a judge and a lawyer means negotiating terms for settlement deals. Those are often unpleasant exchanges, so you have to find the best possible balance between justice and saving time and effort. By comparison, negotiating with you is almost a party.”

She stared at the door for a moment. “And speaking of parties, I should probably make my way around to the various engineering groups relaxing aboard your station and let them know my plans. I’ll head out on the next freighter and come back with an official deal drawn up for you on the contingency that we actually capture these construction slips. Try not to have any other ships blow up while I’m gone.”

He chuckled. “You can bet we’ve got people going over everything, both our own and your engineers, just to make absolutely sure there are no more surprises. The leadership of the religious group that set this up didn’t survive being captured, and none of the underlings claim to have known about what was waiting there. I’m not sure I believe them, but we’ve got to dig in deep because that didn’t happen randomly. Someone in the system would like to sabotage what we’ve got going on, and I’m willing to wager that whoever they are, they had contact with the people working in the gardens that used to be in the religious organization. I’ll make some inquiries and see if we can drum up some information that leads to a suspect or two. Once I’ve got them in hand, we’ll see if they can tell us something interesting.”

With all the shady characters working here at Port Royale, she wasn’t sure. Someone had to have been behind what happened, and it had to have been triggered by the engineering teams arriving to assess the battleships.

Was it an outsider? Was it one of the religious fanatics they hadn’t managed to capture? At this point, guessing wouldn’t do her any good. They had so many enemies on the board. Connor had all the incentive he needed to find the truth, and he was the legal authority here, so she wasn’t going to complain if his methods didn’t quite meet her standards, so long as he figured it out.

“I should be back in less than a week,” she said as she headed toward the hatch. “If you find anything interesting before that, don’t hesitate to send a message ahead. Particularly if it’s connected with the Poseidon Group. I don’t know exactly what they’re up to, but it seems they still have plans in motion, and we need to figure out what to do about them.”

“Don’t worry about that,” he said in a voice that didn’t have the slightest bit of humor. “I’ve already got my best people asking questions. We’ll find out who did this, and I’ll get the truth out of them once we do. You can count on that.”

“I’m sure I can, but do me a favor and keep the details of how you do that to yourself. I might not be a JAG officer anymore, but I can guarantee that I don’t want to know what Confederation laws might be violated in the process. I’ll assume you’re doing everything by the book and leave it at that.”

“I like the way you think,” he said as he picked his hat up off the table and set it on his head. “I should probably make the trip around with you. Once all the work on the battleships is done, you can rest assured many of those engineers will be staying here at Port Royale, and I want to make the best impression I can. If I play my cards right, Port Royale might become the engineering and shipbuilding powerhouse of the cluster.”

Sara wouldn’t bet against him. Even though he was an ex-criminal, he was smart. He’d survived the unforgiving environment to become semi-legitimate, and he very well might be able to do something about that if he got his hands on some of the shipyards. Though the Navy would probably maintain ownership of any they captured, she was certain Connor would use the profits from such an endeavor to build his own, and he’d have a leg up on the competition when he did so.

That was good for the Confederation in the cluster and good for the Navy. He and Jack might have one of the oddest friendships she’d ever heard of, but that could work in their favor.

After all, she had to think about the future as well. If they could start building space stations closer to where the work was taking place, the Navy could finance that in some manner and move the civilians off of Port Royale. That would allow them to regain control of the space station with all their parts. That was also a far-off dream, but it would make sense because it got everyone closer to their food and livelihood. Once that was done, Jack and the Confederation Navy would be set up very well for the future. She’d wager Jack would trade a couple of shipyards for that.

She’d keep that idea to herself, but she’d be shocked if Connor hadn’t already considered it. The man was no idiot.

Until a deal was finalized and they had shipyards, it was up to her to get the next battleship ready to fight as quickly as possible. To do that, she needed to get busy because events were already underway that might make their lives very difficult over the next few months.

20

David held the fort at the accounting firm until some of Lisa’s hackers arrived. With the attack on the travel agency, the Marines had called for backup, and the building he was in was quickly becoming fortified.

His wife had gotten backup as well, and she’d already reported that she was okay. One less thing to worry about. He was concerned the Marines at the travel agency hadn’t located her yet, but there was nothing he could do about that, so he remained focused on his part of the puzzle.

He was grateful he’d had the forethought to send the Marines down to the computer center inside the building and force the operators to power everything down. Some of the Marines knew something about how to use computers and had watched them like hawks to make sure they didn’t do anything untoward.

In fact, they cut the power cables without getting into the system itself and then killed the backup power supplies as well. The Poseidon Group had proven that they were ruthless and competent.

They would extract data drives and take them to the planetary headquarters building. That’s what the hackers were there for. He didn’t want anyone to trip a booby trap that might wipe critical data. The executives at the firm were screaming bloody murder, but David couldn’t care less.

While he was backing up the data from the equipment from Irles’s office, his wife sauntered through the door. He stopped what he was doing and raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t expect you back so quickly. Shouldn’t you be busy with the person you arrested?”

“I didn’t arrest her,” Tina said as she sat in one of the office chairs. “She wasn’t a conspirator. She’s a hairdresser. An extremely good one, from all the evidence I saw. Apparently, she was hired to come in a few times a week to work on people that didn’t like coming out of the building. She was more than happy to dish on them, and even a check of her background and home—which we did—showed she wasn’t connected with them in any other way than her business. We had a nice chat, I learned a lot about people here in the capital, and then I went on my way.”

“Well, I suppose not everybody can be guilty,” he admitted. “At least you didn’t get attacked like Lisa did. They still haven’t found her, and I’m worried.”

“They’ll find her. If they don’t, we’ll tear this city apart.”

“Damned right. Want to help me get our prisoner and all the gear out of here? I feel like we might be attacked by all the accountants. They’re outraged that we’re taking everybody’s financial data. I’m confident that many individuals high in the government are being contacted and screamed at about what we’re doing. How many laws do you think we’re violating?”

“Probably a few. Still, it’s a time of war, and we have some limitations placed on what we could do with the data, and there will be some oversight to make sure it isn’t misused.”

“You’re not wrong,” a male voice said from outside the office.

David turned toward the door, not worried because the Marines were guarding the area and wouldn’t have let anyone through that wasn’t cleared. He was surprised to see a rather short man with a bald head carrying a briefcase. “Can I help you?”

“An excellent question, but I’m afraid the appropriate one is, can I hinder you? My name is Tom Rosen, and I’m a senior financial analyst in government affairs. President Ibarra has tasked me with overseeing this data and making certain it isn’t misused. She doesn’t want to stop you from getting the information you need about the Poseidon Group, but it is now my duty to be certain nothing else is used in a way that would violate Confederation law.”

David stood and walked over to the door with his hand extended. “David Chen. This is my wife, Tina. I’m sure we’re already breaking quite a few laws, but we have no intention of even looking at anyone’s data that doesn’t fall under the criteria of Confederation security. I’m utterly certain we’re going to see plenty of things that we’re not supposed to, but none of the data will be copied or used in a manner that isn’t appropriate to root out the conspiracy. If you can live with that, then I’m more than happy to work with you. If not, I’ll call President Ibarra and see what can be worked out.”

“I’m flexible in how we handle this,” the older man said. “Now, why don’t you take a few moments to fill me in on exactly what we’re doing?”

“I will once I verify that you’re who you say you are and that the government really did send you.”

David called his contact and quickly vetted the new arrival. Only once that was done did he continue. “I have people downstairs extracting the data drives from the computer, which has everyone in an uproar. We’ll make copies when we get to the planetary defense headquarters and start scanning it for things that stand out as potential Poseidon Group activity. I’ll disassemble the computer in this office as we’ve identified the occupant as a member of the conspiracy.”

The man set his briefcase on the desk. “You realize it will probably be quite the task to find what they were doing unless you have a thread to pull on, don’t you? This institution has data on thousands of companies and billions of transactions. Without having someone with the skills to interpret that, simply going through the data isn’t going to tell you much. You can’t even rely on the fact that you have the identity of one of the people involved. It’s likely he’s in charge of the accounts you’re looking for, but it’s also possible he’s burying transactions in another company’s doings. Criminals are amazingly sly on occasion.”

Tina raised an eyebrow. “And are you skilled at finding that sort of thing?”

“I am. I’m a trained forensic accountant, and I can and will put my skills to use under your oversight, looking to find the patterns you want. We can probably screen out the vast number of transactions simply because they won’t be in worthwhile amounts. Can you give me any clues about what we’re looking for?”

David pulled the chair from behind the desk and waited for their new compatriot to sit. “The Poseidon Group has been siphoning money intended to fund the maintenance and repair of a dozen battleships for around a century and a half. That’s a lot of money over a long period of time, and I’m willing to bet it made its way here before it was siphoned off for their use. That would be the first thing I’d look for. The second would be their ongoing operations, which will be more difficult to ferret out.”

Rosen nodded. “My suggestion is to copy the data you’re interested in and not remove the hardware. You can take everything and save it aside to be looked at, but using the computers here that are already built for looking at these transactions would be significantly faster than trying to rig up something on your own. In fact, I’d wager I can find the trail you’re looking for in relatively short order, at least for amounts meant to maintain dozens of major warships. There’s going to be very little doubt what I’m looking at when I find it.”

He pursed his lips before nodding slowly. “I’m not necessarily against that idea, but we have to make sure the Poseidon Group doesn’t erase the data we’re after. Let me contact the people we have working on that and see what they have to say.”

Rather than trying to use his comm, he used a hard line. Jamming down there would keep him from reaching the people he wanted to talk to. The person in charge was Big Bill Marzouk. BB to his friends.

When the gruff man answered, David launched right to it. “We’ve got a government accountant here who says it would be easier to review the financial data using the computers and programs in-house. He suggested we copy the data off to our own drives in case there’s a booby-trap and let him do his work here. What do you think?”

“He’s probably mostly right,” the hacker said. “We’re in the process of copying the data using portable storage right now via a computer setup I brought in. There’s a lot to go through, but I should have it done within the hour. Once that’s finished, he’s welcome to do what he wants. We can go over our own stuff without him there.”

“President Ibarra has indicated this gentleman is to have oversight over what we’re doing to protect the interests of everybody that’s not part of the Poseidon Group. We might have to go over the data ourselves, but I’d much rather let him have an opportunity to find what we’re looking for. The faster we can do this, the more likely we’ll catch them with their pants down.”

“I’m good with that.”

“Let me know as soon as you finish making the copies,” David said. “I’ll see if our guest can start here in the office and work with what we’ve got. I’ve already pulled the data off the local drives. Thanks for being on top of this.”

“My pleasure. Talk to you soon.”

David gestured toward the desk. “As I said, I’ve already pulled the data off this computer, so if you’d like to take a look at what he’s been doing, we’ve got about an hour before they’re finished downstairs. They wanted to take the financial data off-site and start looking at it, but I told them we’d wait and see what you turned up. We’ll keep it under guard and make sure nothing happens to it, but we’ll keep it on-site so you know where it is.”

The balding man smiled. “I appreciate the gesture. It would be easy for you to work around me, and there’s almost nothing I could do to stop you, but you seem to be cooperating fully, and that means a great deal to the Confederation Council in the cluster.”

David sat next to Tina, watching as Rosen got to work. He wouldn’t have immediate success because that wasn’t how things worked. Still, it was better than wasting an hour doing something else.

Almost immediately, Rosen frowned. “You say you haven’t started working on these drives? It certainly looks like someone has. There are large blank areas inside the time frames that someone would be using it. Not inactivity, but erased activity. The logs in a facility like this are comprehensive and extensive, and the computers know when someone is using them versus when they’re idle. Someone went to a lot of trouble to erase what they were doing. I wonder how thorough they were?”

He continued working on the computer for another five minutes and then raised an eyebrow. “Going over the activity logs for the last six months, it’s quite apparent that your suspect has been doing a lot of off-the-books work. Or he’s been viewing an inordinate amount of pornography. It’s interesting that his management didn’t realize he was erasing activity from the logs. If I were you, I don’t think I’d let any of the partners or executives out of your sight until you figure out who the suspect was working with because this would not go unreported.”

David gestured for the Marine standing outside the door to step inside. “Are the partners still in the building?”

“Yes, sir. We’ve got them up in the executive suites.”

“Make sure they don’t go anywhere. No one in, no one out.”

Once the Marine had departed, David turned his attention back to Rosen. “Is there any way to tell from the files who might have been covering for him?”

“It won’t be in the files, but it will probably be his direct superior. Or, potentially, someone at the very top of the company. If you follow the chain up, you’ll find someone who was doing something they shouldn’t have. The suspect’s immediate superior would have been the one to get the notification about his workstation activity. You should see who they blame and decide whether or not there’s merit in it.”

“Very well,” David said as he headed for the door. “Why don’t you keep working while I see what I can find out? Tina can keep an eye on you.”

“Doesn’t Tina get a say in this?” she asked with something of a pout in her voice.

“I’ll make it up to you later.”

There were far more executives in the room he was directed to than he’d expected to find. There had to be at least a dozen and a half people standing around, drinking something and complaining loudly.

When they saw him come into the room, somebody loudly whispered that he was the one that had caused all the problems, and half a dozen people zeroed in on him even though a couple of Marines stepped in front of him to make sure they didn’t attack.

“This is outrageous,” a woman said. “You have no right under the law to do any of what you’re doing. We’ll sue you into oblivion.”

“Once word of what you’re doing gets out, confidence in the Confederation government will drop to an all-time low,” a man added. “The number of lawsuits from our clients will make what we do look like a friendly get-together.”

“Pretty words for someone that had a high-ranking member of the Poseidon Group working inside their organization to funnel an unspeakable amount of money directly into trying to overthrow the Confederation government,” David said smoothly. “Let’s see, what does that make you? Oh, that’s right. Co-conspirators or accomplices after the fact. I’m sure that won’t look good on your resumes.”

He smiled when they sputtered. “I wonder how many of Montgomery and Associates’ clients will like the idea that they have been working hand in hand to help finance someone going to war with the Confederation? Me, I’m not too worried about the lawsuits coming my way since the government itself gave me permission to do what I’m doing. Once the truth comes out, you’re in deep trouble. The only way you come out of this intact is if you cooperate, and this does not look like cooperation.”

The woman who’d first confronted him narrowed her eyes. “Do you have proof of anything, or is this just a fishing expedition?”

“Mister Irles has definitely been doing things he shouldn’t have been doing. There are vast areas where the logs on his computer have been erased. We’re still looking at exactly what he was doing off the books, but his direct superior should’ve known what was going on or at least raised the issue with him. Who is that?”

The woman considered him for a few seconds and then turned back to the people behind her. “Where is Lorraine?”

“Right here,” another woman said. This one was younger, taller, and a bit more hawkish than her superior.

“Perhaps you can explain to this gentleman what Adam was doing? I have to admit to some curiosity myself.”

The woman glared at David. “My name is Lorraine Marx, and Adam was doing work for the Confederation government. Classified stuff that couldn’t be kept on the regular system. He logged into a specialized area of our computer, and everything was billed as usual and paid straight through a Confederation representative. There was nothing out of line, and we have all the paperwork authorizing us to do what we’ve done.”

“You realize that the Poseidon Group has penetrated the Confederation government quite deeply, right?” David asked. “While it’s possible—probably even likely—that you thought you were working on something completely above board, this was indeed one of the darkest parts of the conspiracy. Since the Confederation government sent us to find the answers, perhaps if you reveal the name of this project and how we can access it, we can get out of your hair quicker. We don’t care about the rest of what your clients are doing. Give us something to focus on so we don’t have to look at everything. Then we can leave the Confederation to send auditors to figure out if there are any other irregularities without having Marines with guns in the building.”

Marx had a sour expression like she’d bitten into a piece of rotten fruit. “I don’t like responding to threats with anything other than lawsuits, but if my superiors tell me to, I suppose I’ll cooperate.”

“Tell him,” the old woman said. “I’ve already confirmed the Confederation government is behind his presence, and since they’re supposed to already know about this, it shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. If it is, there’s definitely something wrong.”

“Project Argosy,” the younger woman said. “It’s a long-term Confederation Navy project to build something. I’m not certain what, but there’s a rather large amount of money moving through it. Everything was authenticated and verified. We picked up this account more than a century ago. This isn’t going to be a conspiracy because nothing could be kept secret for that long.”

David found himself smiling slightly. It looked like the enemy had finally made a mistake, and if they could capitalize on it, they might catch them with their pants down. “I’d imagine that would be the shipyards the conspiracy has been using to build warships to fight the Confederation Navy. Once President Ibarra told everyone that that was what they were doing, I’m shocked none of you thought this should be looked at independently. I’d be thinking about how you explain that in short order. Now, how do I access the data for Project Argosy?”

“Everything is locked down tight. Only Adam has the codes. That’s the way the Confederation Navy set it up. There were people before him, but they’ve either retired or passed away.”

“Don’t you have the codes? After all, someone needs to review his work, don’t they?”

“The government has its own auditors. They’ve never indicated anything was wrong, and if they found something, they’d have investigated themselves. I can’t help you access the data in Project Argosy’s files, but they’re in our system. Somebody has to manage where the money is going, and that’s us. We oversee everything to make sure payments are made on time and that everything is appropriately logged. Maybe you should speak with the Confederation representative in charge of reviewing those files? His name is Deacon Lorenz.”

“You can rest assured that I will, but I expect he’s already fled,” David said. “If this checks out, maybe we can get you released shortly. Thank you for your cooperation.”

He ignored the shouts and demands for more information and headed back to Irles’s office. On the way, he passed the name of the supposed auditor on to his government contact. If the man was still around, it would be a miracle.

He found Tina standing behind Irles’s desk as the auditor worked. She glanced up and raised an eyebrow. “Any luck?”

“I have a name. It appears the suspect was working on something called Project Argosy. Montgomery and Associates have been overseeing this project for more than a century, and it handles a lot of money, so that project almost certainly has to be the shipyards. This is where the incoming funds that were meant for the maintenance of the battleship division were redirected. Now all we have to do is access the data. I was told that only the suspect has the codes to get in, so I suppose we’ll have to bring in our hacker once he’s finished copying the data downstairs to see if he can gain access. Meanwhile, I’ve got a name to contact the Confederation government about, though I suspect whoever this person was either doesn’t exist or has fled.”

“It may not be as difficult as you think,” Rosen said. “People are entirely too predictable. When they have complex codes they need to input regularly, they rarely memorize them. Instead, they’ll either write them down or put them into an innocuous file. I haven’t found any written materials, so let me do a search for recently accessed files and see what pops up.”

He tapped on the keyboard for a few seconds and then began reading the results. “A lot of these are accounting files, and the few remaining ones seem to be logs of some kind where he’s writing up what he’s doing to make reports. There are a couple of text files. Let’s see within those.” He worked for a few more moments and then smiled. “And there we have it. A project number and a very long and impossible-to-guess code. I think the odds of this being Argosy are high. Once your hacker is done copying the data, and we can access the files remotely, we can check.”

They spent the next half hour chatting about the work each was doing. The accountant’s stories were surprisingly entertaining. Then the call came in that they could access the data.

Rosen sat behind the desk and began typing. “Entering the project number brought up a prompt. Looking around in the system, they don’t seem to have anything about this project number listed, meaning it must be classified to some degree and hidden in their system. Let’s put in this code and see what happens.”

David walked to stand next to his wife and looked over Rosen’s shoulder as he worked. The code was… significant. No one would have guessed what it was, and memorizing it was absolutely useless. He supposed it could be done, but people sometimes got too complicated for their best interests.

Worse, the system didn’t allow for the cutting and pasting of data. The balding man had to carefully enter each character and then verify everything before hitting the return key. The screen cleared, and a new window opened that was clearly bordered by a red band, indicating this was likely classified material. Across the top of the window, it said Project Argosy.

“You did it,” David said, impressed in spite of himself.

“I did very little of note. Human beings are lazy. They’ll do what’s easy, and there will always be a weak link in every chain. That’s something you should keep in mind. No matter how secure you think you’ve made something, somebody looking to simplify their lives will short-circuit your efforts. Now, let’s see what we’ve got here.”

David was no accountant, but even he could see the transfers of large sums of money. Many seemed legitimate on the surface, but that was likely an erroneous conclusion. It was like a spider’s web of transactions that he knew he wasn’t going to be able to penetrate.

“We’ll need you to go through everything and try to figure out who got what money so that we can send people to talk to them,” he said. “My guess is that everything here went to paying for the Poseidon Group’s operations and the construction of their shipyards. We need everything mapped out so we can begin arresting people and seizing things.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Rosen said. “I can’t promise it’ll be fast or easy, but I should have a preliminary report within twenty-four hours. It’ll take somewhat longer to get a full accounting done, but perhaps that will identify the folks you need to speak to the soonest.”

“Give me the best you can, and thank you,” David said as he headed for the door. “Tina, keep an eye on him and make sure the evidence stays intact. No offense meant, but she should be watching everything you do. I’m headed back to the planetary defense headquarters to see what the status is on a missing friend.”

Personally, he wasn’t sure they would get the financial data in time to make a difference, but they’d try. If they could catch the Poseidon Group before they launched a horde of cruisers into the Confederation, they could avert a coup. If they couldn’t, all this might have been for nothing.

21

Jack stood inside the strange hibernation chamber that Mac had discovered aboard the Novarite warship. He’d never seen anything like it. It was similar to the layout aboard the Tardan colony vessels—though not multilevel or as grand in scope—but significantly more ornate. Mac’s guess that this was for high-ranking civilians or members of the leadership caste was probably dead on.

To find out, they’d have to get their high-ranking prisoners to talk, and he didn’t see that happening anytime soon. Or, Lisa would have to go through the computer that had been in this chamber and see what it had to say.

They were almost ready to begin moving the captured Novarites into this area. They’d scavenged what food and other supplies they could to make the living conditions bearable, but it would still be a rough haul for them. The portable sanitary facilities would be far less than they were used to. They’d just have to deal with it. At least his people had managed to connect the grav plates and restore their ability to move about normally.

Mac and his people had finished their assault on the other vessel and were ready to send prisoners this way. The only people that wouldn’t be stored here were the high-ranking officers captured on the bridge of this vessel and one from the engineering space of the other ship. They’d go into detention aboard Hunter. They’d no doubt be unhappy about that, but they wouldn’t be at risk from the crew nominally under their command. He wasn’t about to take chances with high-value assets like that.

Even with their failure to retake the Vesuvius system, the probe hadn’t been a wasted effort. They’d determined there were a large number of Novarite warships in the system, and they had done so without getting themselves blown up. They’d also destroyed two of the largest ships present and four cruisers.

That left at least six big ships. Taking Vesuvius now that the invaders were aware of some of his tricks would be hard, and he’d have to come up with a new plan to make it happen.

On the positive side, they’d captured senior Novarite prisoners for the first time, recovered a computer that likely had information they desperately needed, taken a hyperdrive they might be able to put to good use, and gotten all the equipment they needed to install a second antiproton beam weapon.

None of that would be useful without a lot of hard work, but the weapons would give them an edge going forward. One hit from an antiproton beam would cripple one of the big warships. It would also be a terrible surprise to them, based on the data they had from this fight.

The situation was ever-evolving, and even though the number of people they were contesting with and the difficulty of the fights was growing, they weren’t outmatched yet. If they could get a few lucky breaks, they might be able to turn this situation around. He wasn’t going to hold his breath, but it would be nice for a change.

He finished his inspection, boarded his cutter, and headed back to Hunter. Once he was again safely aboard his ship, he made his way to the bridge and sat in the command chair. “How are things going, Amanda?”

The tactical officer had had nominal command of the ship while he’d been away. Derek had been getting a lot of time in the center seat, and Jack felt like sharing the love. She needed just as much seasoning as Derek did, which was a perfect opportunity for her to get it.

“Colonel Turner reports they’ve finished the third pass on the ship, and there’s nobody left. All the prisoners are en route to the first wreck, and the engineering team reports they’ve shut down power to the second. We should be ready to start moving within an hour.”

Jack nodded. “How long to get back to Argent at our best speed?”

“We should be able to get there in about four days. We’re not moving cautiously this time and will be skipping around the outside of systems. The Marines tell us that the prisoners will have more than enough food and life support to make that trip. Getting them down to the planet’s surface will be a huge pain in the butt, but it’s something they’ve done before.”

Derek turned in his seat. “What do you think the odds are that we’ll have a new target, sir? They have been digging into those computers pretty hard while we’ve been gone, and I’m hoping for an opportunity to pay the Poseidon Group back for what they’ve done to us.”

“We can hope, but I wouldn’t count on it,” Jack said. “We’ll make plans for either that or one of two other options. We can return to Vesuvius and try to clear them out, but I don’t think that’s the best course of action at the moment, or we can go to the third rally point that the Tardans had set up and see if it’s a little clearer. If we can rout the enemies in that system, we can focus our attention on Vesuvius. The other exploration ship should be back with word of what they’ve found there shortly after we get back.”

“I don’t know if you’ve looked at the map, sir, but Vesuvius is in range to have received a lot of the Locusts from the gateway system by now. If they were running back to their masters, wouldn’t this system have been a primary rally point?”

Jack frowned. “If they left the gateway system at their best speed, how long ago would they have gotten here?”

“At least a month, sir.”

That was terrible news. It was easy to forget the vast number of robotic warships that had been present in the gateway system, but with them out of sight, they tended to fall off his mental list of things to be worried about.

“If they didn’t come here, where did they go?”

“I think the obvious choice is that they’re on their way to the Confederation,” Amanda said. “If the motherships are limited to ten times the speed of light, they’re still quite a ways away. At that speed, getting to the closest location they could reasonably know about would still be a two-year journey. If they guessed wrong about a target system and there was no gate there, that would add months more.”

While the delay would be good for them—if their understanding was correct—it would be terrible news for the Confederation. The vast number of motherships and Locust drones would obliterate the industrial might of the Confederation. They might not do anything to the people on the surface of each world, but they would create a massive dark age that would take centuries to undo.

The irony was that if the Poseidon Group and their warships attacked the Confederation first, they might win that fight and then be on the receiving end of the devastation. Talk about a Pyrrhic victory.

India was on her way to talk with the Navy now. They’d discussed the concept of dropping gates along the way, but he had decided that speed was more important, so she would already be there and having those discussions. Depending on who she spoke with and what their orders were, she might very well be back to Argent within a week. Maybe a bit longer if there were discussions.

At the moment, that fell into the category of someone else’s problem. If Sara could get some of the other battleships operational, they could be redeployed into the Confederation to wait for the Locusts and give them a very unpleasant surprise. Hunter could be there as well, if they liberated the cluster.

On the other hand, if the Novarites were doing something truly unexpected, he might not have that option. The Tardans had almost become a non-issue at this point. There were probably still Tardan warships inside the cluster, but they were few and far between. Either the Novarites had destroyed them, or Hunter had. The colonists needed to be handled, but they weren’t a military threat. That was a social problem that the civilians were better suited to handle.

“Incoming message from Colonel Turner,” Amanda said. “He indicates the last of the prisoners are situated, and his cutters are inbound. We should have them all back aboard in twenty minutes, and we’ll be ready to jump immediately after that. We’ll have to get the two half ships situated fairly close together if we’re going to use our extended jump bubble to take them with us.”

“I’ve been considering how best we can do that,” Derek said. “The bow of our ship is reinforced enough for a gentle nudge. If we push the stern half of the pair toward the other ship with some momentum, it will close the distance, and eventually, the two will make contact. If we’re ready to jump when that happens, I believe that will grab any remaining momentum they have and leave them paired together. It’s one of the side effects of making a quantum jump, but it’s usually not relevant to a single ship.”

“How long will it take?” he asked.

“Probably about an hour, sir. They’re moderately close together, and we’re not talking about much speed.”

“Make it happen. I’ll be in my office waiting for Colonel Turner. As soon as he arrives, see that he heads up. Do everything necessary to get those ships together and start making the jumps back to Argent at your discretion. There’s no need for us to delay any more than we already have.”

As soon as they acknowledged his orders, Jack rose and headed for his office. He took a moment to hang up his greatcoat and hat before sitting down. Then he brought up their attack and began considering if any might be workable in the third system they knew the Tardans or Novarites would be in.

He was still working on that when Mac arrived, knocking at his hatch and stepping in at his gesture. The Marine looked tired.

“Grab a drink and have a seat,” Jack ordered. “I haven’t seen the final reports. How many losses did your people take?”

“More than I liked, but less than we could have,” the Marine officer said as he poured a drink and sat. “Surprise worked in our favor for once. What’s the plan for taking Vesuvius?”

Jack grimaced. “Things turned sour there pretty quick. They’ve got at least six big ships, so I don’t think it’s wise for us to make a go at it right now. We just don’t have the kind of advantage we need to take them out. As soon as the two halves of the ships are close enough together, Derek will start us back toward Argent.”

“I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not. We were bound to run into a situation we couldn’t handle. We’ve been lucky so far, and we’re still lucky in that we didn’t get our asses handed to us.”

“We’re stretched pretty thin, that’s true,” Jack admitted. “I don’t see that changing any time soon, either. We’re building up a couple of advantages, but those can only carry us so far. Something in the calculus will have to change, or we’ll lose this war.”

Mac leaned forward and set his drink down on Jack’s desk. “It might not be the place of a lowly lieutenant colonel to give an admiral advice, but I have some that I’d like to share anyway. If you focus on the big picture too much, you’ll watch everything come undone. You need to focus on the tasks you can accomplish and work on checking them off your list as cleanly and expeditiously as you can. We have to pull back to recuperate, then we’ll figure out what we should do. The only way you can lose this war is if we lose this ship.”

Jack sighed and nodded. “I know you’re right, but that doesn’t make it any easier. We have to save the Confederation, but there are so many balls in play right now that I’m not sure what taking any of them out will do to the overall pattern. The Tardan military has become a minor player at this point, but they might still surprise us. What if they’ve come to one of the planets in the cluster they were unaware of? What if they continue their research and enslave human bodies to their will? I can’t just stop worrying about that.”

“And you shouldn’t. You’re a firefighter trying to put out a dozen blazes. You can’t be everywhere at once, so you have to pick your priorities. If you had your druthers, who would you go after first? The Novarites at Vesuvius? The shipyards the Poseidon Group built? We already know the rest of the cluster has fallen, and while everyone has their share of hardships and destruction, there’s nothing we can do about what’s already happened. We have to focus on what still might happen.”

“Don’t forget the Locust armada that’s almost certainly on its way to the rest of the Confederation,” Jack said. He then filled Mac in on what his junior officers suspected.

Now Mac grimaced. “At least we still have time to deal with them. That would give you a chance to figure out how to fight things in the cluster before they arrive in the Confederation proper. With enough warning, all it will take for the Confederation Navy to keep those bastards at bay is to destroy any gates that would let them into the rest of the Confederation more easily. That’s a simple solution and an effective one. It’s no panacea, but it will keep the Locusts from doing what they did in the cluster.”

Jack pressed his lips together and shook his head. “Every time we’ve made an assumption about how something will go, there’s been a complication. I’m nervous about a curveball coming out of nowhere with a force that size. Let’s say we go after the shipyards. How would you plan your end of it?”

The Marine officer picked up his drink and took a sip. “That depends on how extensive the shipyards are and if warships are still present. We don’t know how long they’ve been in service, and we don’t know what kind of forces they’ve built up. Since they’ve been planning an operation to destroy the Confederation Navy, they must think they have an overwhelming chance of victory. What would you guess would make them feel comfortable? Double the forces? Triple?”

Jack thought about that for a few moments. “If it was me, I wouldn’t count on surprise, though they might be hoping for it. If they had Confederation Navy transponders, they could make their way deeper into the Confederation in small groups or alone. What if they sent their groups with two ships? It’s possible they could decimate the Confederation Navy without needing to come together into a massive force. Honestly, that’s the best way to do it. By the time the Admiralty figures out something is wrong, the Confederation has already fallen.”

“And even if they figure out something early, what could they do against those numbers?” Mac asked. “Say they only have twice as many cruisers, a two-to-one advantage when they’ve got a level of surprise that would be devastating. These being civilians, they might not have the necessary skills to run the ships the way that a true Confederation Navy crew would. The Poseidon Group has likely gotten their hands on a fair number of people capable of fighting the ships the way they should, but they won’t all have Navy crews. We’d probably best consider three-to-one odds for planning purposes. How many ships would that give them?”

That assessment made Jack even grumpier. “Before the invasion here in the cluster, I’d have been shocked to hear that there were three hundred cruisers in active service across the entirety of the Confederation. With what we’ve lost in the cluster, that number is probably closer to two hundred and fifty. Maybe even lower. The Poseidon Group would have been working with the higher number, so we have to count on there being between six hundred and nine hundred cruisers in their service. There’s no way they could have former Navy crews for all those, even if they’d been picking off every retiree they could for decades. Hell, how long would it take to build that many ships? Each one takes more than a year to build. How many slips would their shipyards have?”

He stood, went to the bar, and poured himself a little of the Carstairs’ Reserve. He swirled the amber liquid in the glass and then took a sip. “If it was me, I’d have been working up a training regimen. They’ll have been recruiting people as needed once they got closer to the time frame, but they’ll have staff doing this for a long time. Almost anyone can be brought up to the appropriate level of competence. They won’t be as good as active duty service members who do this sort of thing all the time, but quantity provides a quality all its own, as they say.”

“So, we plan on there being nine hundred ships,” Mac said. “Maybe even a thousand. I can tell you right now that Hunter can’t fight that kind of force. If those ships are still there when we come in, they’ll be able to take our engineering section out of action very quickly, though we’d hurt them in the process. By now, they had to have gotten word on the fights we’ve already conducted and know our weaknesses.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jack said. “If we catch them all in one place, we have to try to stop them. We swore an oath to defend the Confederation, and we can’t let a force like that get away from us. That would be madness.”

“How would you fight them? I realize the original question was how I would utilize my forces, but I couldn’t board that many ships. It’s one thing if I’m going after the shipyards alone, and I’ve drawn up plans to deal with that based on the size of what we’re dealing with, but if there are a lot of cruisers present, those plans go out the window. We’ve been focusing on the aliens, but the Poseidon Group is just as dangerous, even if their crews are individually less experienced. We need to plan on what to do.”

Jack rubbed his face. “Right now, we don’t even know where the shipyards are. Maybe our people will get lucky, and we’ll figure it out before they kick off their coup. Maybe we won’t. I know Derek and Amanda will do the best they can to come up with a tactical advantage, and if we get the antiproton beam weapons installed, that kind of punch might change the calculus of the entire battle.”

“Ifs, woulds, and might bes aren’t going to help us, sir. If we come across their entire force at one time, they’d take us. That might ruin their invasion plans and set them back a decade, but we’ve still got an invasion—two invasions—to deal with. I think the best we can do is warn the Confederation about what’s coming as quickly as possible—which Vice Admiral MacKinnon is doing—and leave that particular problem to them. Our task is clear. We’ve got aliens to fight.”

Jack’s comm went off. He took it off his belt and answered. “Romanoff.”

“We’ve got the ships in position and are about to jump, sir,” Amanda said. “Just giving you a heads-up.”

“Carry on. Romanoff out.”

He turned to face the Marine officer. “I don’t know what we’ll be able to do, Mac. Every time I look at the big picture, it seems to get worse. We might get other battleships into the fight at some point, but that won’t happen soon enough. We’ve got to deal with these problems with what we have on hand, which means Hunter. One of those fights is probably going to kill us.”

Mac stood, finished off his drink, and rinsed out the glass. “No one wants to be Horatius at the bridge, but sometimes we don’t have a choice. If we must die, let it be for the benefit of the Confederation. Sometimes a good commander has to know that he’s going to lose people—maybe everyone—and he has to figure out how to spend those lives most effectively. That’s our job, Admiral. The Marines and I are ready to do what’s needed, as is your crew. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to eat, shower, and grab some sleep.”

“You’ve earned it. Pass my gratitude on to your people.”

Once the Marine officer had departed, Jack sat on the edge of his desk and considered the bleak future. They could win some fights, but others were beyond their power. Somehow, he had to come up with a way to change that. Even if victory was impossible, maybe he could put defeat off. Somehow.

22

Lisa came back to consciousness slowly, blinking in uncertainty at where she was. She’d been in a fight to the death, and now she was sitting on… a couch. What had happened?

Then the final moments of the fight inside the storefront came back to her. How the mercenary had been about to kill her before someone had killed him. It had been Patrick, the assassin. She’d tried to run, but he’d injected something into her neck. Something that had knocked her out almost immediately.

She looked down at her arms, somewhat surprised to see that she wasn’t bound. He’d taken her prisoner, but he hadn’t made certain she wouldn’t fight back? That didn’t make any sense. What was really going on?

The man himself stepped through the door leading to what she assumed was the kitchen since he was holding a small tray with a teapot and a pair of teacups, as well as what looked like a sugar dispenser and perhaps some milk. This was getting bizarre.

“I see you’re awake,” he said as he set the tray on the coffee table in front of her. “Excellent. We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

Her heart was racing, and she started looking for potential exits. She had to get away.

“I can see that my presence is disturbing you,” he said in an almost fatherly tone. “You don’t need to worry, my dear. I have no intention of harming you. In fact, it’s imperative to me that you continue doing what you’re doing. You and the being inside you may be the key to saving the Confederation, and perhaps even more than that. I’m certain nothing I say can ease your concerns, but if I’d wanted to harm you, you would have woken up bound to a chair and unable to resist. Or not woken up at all. Leaving you free is the greatest token of trust that I can give you. Now, you should have some tea. It’s quite good.”

<I’m glad that you’re awake. Whatever he injected us with, it was much more effective than the paralytic that was used on us before. It knocked me unconscious for almost as long as you. I thought it best not to do anything while you were asleep.>

Could you move me while I was out? I always assumed you needed my brain for that.

<I wouldn’t try to move you while you were asleep under normal circumstances because your eyes would be open, and your brain would see what was happening around us. I can’t stop what travels along your nerves, so the stimulation would likely wake you. In any case, that’s an experiment we can conduct later, if we survive. We’re in deadly danger.>

I get that. Now we just have to figure out how to escape without the crazy man killing us.

“I don’t understand why you’re interested in me,” she said as she tried to pour some hot tea into her cup. Her hand shook badly enough that Patrick reached out and took the teapot from her, before smoothly completing the pour himself. Once he had done so, he poured some for himself.

She eyed the cup suspiciously. It could be poisoned. No one knew anything about Patrick or what his intentions were. He was a cipher. A mystery.

He seemed amused at her expression. “Would you prefer my cup? Of course, knowing that you’d be suspicious of anything I served you, I could have poisoned my cup instead. But you’re smart. You’d realize that, so you’d know that your cup was safe. However, as I’ve done this for many years, I would know that you would catch on, so I could, in turn—”

She waved a hand at him before he could finish confusing her. “That made my brain hurt. It also sounds vaguely familiar. Did you get that from an entertainment video?”

His smile grew slightly wider. “Indeed, I did. A very old one called The Princess Bride. I thought it was brilliant, and I’ve been waiting for a chance to use that bit for many years. I’m not sure if it annoys me that you recognized it or not.”

He took her cup, sipping a bit at the tea. Then he did the same with his cup. “Of course, I could have taken the antidote already, and both could be poisoned. You’ll either have to accept that I mean you no harm and enjoy your tea or not. I won’t be offended either way.”

“Says the man who kills people for a living.”

“But not for personal reasons, at least not until the Poseidon Group was revealed. Once, a long time ago, when I started my first career, I worked for a group of people that would have absolutely loathed conspirators like that. In fact, I was trained to look for them and others that might have malign interests in destabilizing the government, and I still find myself inclined that way in this case. Killing people for money was more of a retirement thing.”

She felt her eyes narrowing. “So you worked for Confederation Intelligence?”

“No. It probably won’t surprise you to learn that there are many arms in a government that those in power use to protect themselves, but I’m not ready to have that discussion yet. When the time is right, we’ll talk again. Kidnapping you was a last-minute impulse, and I’d much rather have something civilized next time.”

She took a few moments to taste her tea and added milk and sugar. It was strong and dark. She wasn’t sure she liked it, but the flavor was interesting. She’d probably never know if it was poison until she fell over sideways.

I don’t suppose you can detect poison in my system, can you?

<Not like you mean, no. I have no way of interpreting what’s happening unless your body starts behaving in an unusual manner. Even then, all I’ll know is that something is wrong.>

She noticed that the assassin took just a bit of sugar and quite a bit more milk. Then he leaned back in his seat, crossed one leg over the other as he sipped his tea, and considered her. She took a good look at him this time, putting everything she could about him into her memory. She wished she could take a picture.

I don’t suppose you have an eidetic memory, do you?

<I have an excellent memory, but I’m very good at accessing your memory. It will be good for at least a week unless it moves to long-term memory, which it very well might. I know that David Chen was working with someone, and we can look at his drawing and see how it needs to be changed.>

“I don’t understand why you’re letting me see your face,” she admitted. “You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to mask your appearance, and now you’re just showing it to me. That doesn’t make me feel any safer.”

His slight smile widened a little. “It’s a dangerous game I’m playing, but by the time all this is said and done, I believe it’s better for you to know who you’re speaking with than for me to protect this particular identity. I have others, and I’m more adroit at changing my appearance than one would expect. Perhaps even this really isn’t me. A master of disguise and an assassin? Who would’ve expected that?”

Lisa wasn’t sure how he could change his appearance enough to make a difference, even using modern technology, but then again, he had the hardware somewhere that could block video cameras from recording him. She wasn’t going to rule out what he was saying. She was already his prisoner, so she might as well listen to what he had to say.

“What’s so important that you needed to speak with me face-to-face, Patrick? If, of course, that is your real name.”

“It’s not. As for what I want to talk with you about, you probably suspect I broke into the planetary defense headquarters to spy on you as a group. You’re partly right. I did want to know what you were doing, and I must admit that I’m very impressed that you’ve rooted out most of my programs. Not all, but most. That is a true testament to your skill and one of the reasons I’m loath to harm you. Such talent should never be extinguished.”

“That’s not even slightly creepy.”

He laughed. “I find your candor refreshing, Lisa. You don’t mind if I call you that, do you? I feel like we have a bond.”

She tried to hide her swallow. That was a terrifying admission.

“What do you want to talk about? Why spy on us?”

“I need to know everything you know about the Poseidon Group,” he said in a much more serious tone. “Oh, I was also curious about your summary of information about the aliens. It isn’t every day that one meets that kind of thing, after all. You didn’t see me plug the data chip into your computer because you were busy digging out the reports you wanted to send to Mister Chen, though I know you’ve found my decoy program and cut off most of the methods I could get data out.”

He smiled again. “You didn’t think that was the real program, did you? I’ll admit it is one I use often, but I have a much more sophisticated one that I rarely need. Also, I did realize ahead of time that the decoy would be caught in your buffers. Sorry to disappoint, but I needed your attention to focus on that while I got the data I was after.”

The news was almost like being punched in the gut. Had she fallen for something like that, or was this a ploy to put her off her game and make her waste time looking for even more programs? Paranoia wasn’t helpful right now.

“I see,” was all she said.

“I’m sure you’ll look for it as soon as you get back. You won’t find anything. It erased all traces in the logs—and itself—after it sent me the information I required. Thankfully, there were at least a few options for getting data out of the facility that hadn’t been closed up yet. You really should have your people go over everything thoroughly. There is far more to that facility than I think you realize. Whoever designed it put in a lot of redundancy.”

“As you said, I’m good at this sort of thing,” she said. “I might be able to find some traces that you don’t expect.”

His smile grew wider. “Anything you find will be because I either left it for you or you’re just that good. Now, are you ready to hear what I found and why I wanted to speak with you?”

“Sure. I’m something of a captive audience.” She took a sip of tea to stifle the shudder that almost ran through her at toying with someone who killed people for a living.

“I do admire your spunk. In any case, I’ve been busy since I visited the planetary defense headquarters. The first individual I questioned gave me the names of others with useful information. That’s how I knew to watch that travel office. I hadn’t gotten around to questioning the owner, but I would have. Unfortunately for you, now that the computer they had there was destroyed, you’re at something of a loggerhead. I was at the man’s home before your Marines arrived and was able to get away with a backup of some of the critical information. I’m willing to share that with you, but I figured I should go through the highlights in person.”

She considered him. “I’m not buying this. There’s got to be something more to what you’re doing and why. You’re risking your life and potentially a very long prison term for your actions. You tortured a man to death. The Confederation doesn’t take that kind of thing lightly, so why are you helping us? If you really are helping us.”

If her suspicion bothered him, his pose didn’t show it. Instead, he looked just as relaxed as he had been before. He sipped his tea and nodded slightly. “There’s much more going on beneath the surface than you know, but I won’t enlighten you. It’s conceivable that my worries are overblown, and this can all be resolved more simply than I imagine. Think of this as me doing contingency planning in case the worst-case scenario does come to pass. None of us wants our past to catch up with us, after all.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a data chip, then set it on the table and slid it over to her. “On that, you’ll find some very interesting itineraries. It seems your travel agent has moved tens of thousands of people over the last few decades. They came from across the Confederation and ended up in the same system. It is a vacation destination, but none of them ever left. How odd.”

She picked up the data chip and studied Patrick. “And you found that in his backup computer? It seems he wouldn’t want it just lying around.”

“It wasn’t lying around. In fact, it was very well hidden. I believe this particular set of files was an insurance policy to make certain that if anything ever happened to him, certain parties might get a heads-up to go looking for it. He might dress loudly, but the man’s sophistication in hiding this particular data chip was remarkable. In any case, I suspect the computer you found at the travel agency had data that was much more important to the Poseidon Group than the travel plans. It’s a shame you lost access to it.”

She didn’t want to show weakness, but she had to know. “Was the building really destroyed? What about the Marines?”

He gave her a sad expression. “The building is gone. Whatever data was on that computer was lost. As for your associates, I know they took casualties, but they won the fight. I can’t give you any details because things were still in progress when we departed. My apologies for that.”

Lisa nodded, not surprised. “Do you really want us to stop the Poseidon Group?”

“Most assuredly. I like my life here, and what they’re doing threatens everything I hold dear. As you said earlier, my life always has the threat of death or imprisonment hanging over it. I find that exciting. I realize my life will become more complicated now that you’ve had a good look at me, but as I said before, I’m very good at disguises.”

He took another sip of his tea. “I can deal with that, but if the Confederation becomes an oligarchy, I would be pushed into a place I don’t want to go. I’m no fan of that form of government. Some of the worst repressions you can imagine become possible when the entitled feel free to do what they want. Humanity might not be slaves under the conspirators, but serfdom isn’t much better. They’ve succeeded in doing something very difficult: they’ve made me angry. Find them and end the threat they pose to the Confederation, and I will be in your debt.”

He rose, finished his tea, set the cup back on the platter, and stepped toward the front door. “You can leave anytime now that we’ve had our chat. I left a comm number in the kitchen. Please, don’t try to get me on and then trace my location. I can assure you that it won’t work and that you’ll lose the only contact number you have. Only call when you know a lot more about what’s going on, and when you’re ready to talk about the things that have been hidden from you. Make sure to have your admiral and his people prepared to ask pointed questions. Time will be short since I won’t stay on long enough for you to locate me.”

He grinned. “On the flip side, I now have your number if I need to pass on more information from a burner comm. We’re friends, and that’s what friends do, after all. Maybe we can send occasional texts. Are birthday gifts out of the question?”

She shuddered at the thought. Time for a new comm.

Patrick opened the front door, picked up a large canvas bag—one big enough to hold a person—with a strap, and looked back at her with a wide smile. “In case you’re wondering, this isn’t my home or even a place I’m associated with. You won’t find anyone in distress or dead here. They’re simply at work, and I left more than enough to compensate them for the intrusion and tea. Good luck in tracking down the Poseidon Group.”

And with that, he was gone.

She stepped over to the door and looked out into the hall. This was an apartment building, and there was no one there. It didn’t seem like he’d had time to get to the lifts or the stairs, yet he was gone. The man was spooky.

She closed the front door and took the tea set into the kitchen. Her comm was sitting on the counter. There were numerous incoming calls in the log from numbers she didn’t recognize, but she assumed they were associated with the Marines and some from David and Tina. It seemed they’d been worried.

There was also a new contact on her list. “Patrick, the assassin.” He’d actually spelled it out. Unbelievable.

Lisa called one of the numbers she suspected of being the Marines while she poured out the tea. Well, some of the tea. She refilled her cup because she might as well have a little more while she waited for rescue. She had a lot of work to do, and more caffeine was always a good thing.

23

Mac sat in his office with Beth and watched the videos they’d found inside the computer they’d salvaged from the destroyed Confederation Navy cruiser Hawkwing. The ship had gone through a refit several years ago, and there were sensor readings from when the ship had arrived and departed.

The refit slip was probably different than a full construction yard, but he knew ships were built in similar facilities, so it was good enough for their initial planning. The slip was constructed near an asteroid belt where materials were readily available and were large enough to handle even large freighters. The Navy had fast freighters that carried supplies and munitions for task groups, so it made sense to build the repair and construction facilities big.

He had no idea if the Poseidon Group would use anything similar, but if they’d already stolen the plans for a Navy cruiser to use as their own, then it made sense their contacts inside the service would get them the plans for the shipyards as well.

The shipyard itself was a station adjacent to the slip and somewhat smaller. It held everything the crews working on the vessels needed, from parts to materials. Anything larger would be brought in and secured outside the slip. A vessel would be put inside the slip, giving the people working on it a chance to secure it firmly, so it didn’t drift while they were working.

In the system where Hawkwing had gotten her latest refit, there had been four refit slips floating near one another, all controlled by the same shipyard station. None of them were connected, but they didn’t need to be. They were just specialized stations with numerous workshops to build specialty parts for space vessels. That made capturing one a relatively straightforward task if they could get to them.

None of the stations had been armed, but there had been numerous Navy craft in the area at all times. He supposed that made sense. Would the Poseidon Group feel the same way, or would they arm their shipyards? If he was a betting man—and he was—they would. Probably not heavily, but depending on how many stations they had, that could add up.

He tapped the table with one finger. “What do you think, Beth? How many of these will the Poseidon Group have?”

“Not as many as we think, I suspect. The admiral’s right to worry that they have hundreds upon hundreds of cruisers, but I think that’s unrealistic. Yes, they were getting a lot of money from the Navy that was meant to maintain the battleships, and they no doubt have wealthy backers that are providing money as well, but their funds aren’t infinite. Why build an overwhelming force when you know you have tactical superiority and can show up in numbers that would overwhelm a sector before the Confederation even knows they were there?”

“We can’t plan on that. We have to assume the worst case and make plans for it.”

“Worst case, they’ve got fifty or sixty of these shipyards—and they have a thousand cruisers ready to go—they’ll be armed to the teeth, and the admiral will have to blow everything to smithereens. That’s the worst case. More likely, there’ll be a dozen or so of these stations and a minimal number of guard ships. What’s the build time on a cruiser?”

He shrugged. “I think it’s a couple of years to finish laying down the hull and building it out. Might be faster. Maybe eighteen months. Two years if you have inexperienced hands.”

“If that’s the case, let’s say they have twenty-five stations with four slips each. You could build a hundred cruisers at a time. Let’s say you want to have the same number of cruisers as the Confederation. That’s less than five years. The admiral’s worst-case force of nine hundred cruisers would take thirteen and a half years.”

“They’ve been at this for a long time. They won’t need that many shipyards.”

“We’re talking worst case. This would be it.”

Well, it didn’t hurt to plan for something terrible. “The Poseidon Group has been around for roughly hundred and fifty years. What would they have been doing before then if they’ve been saving the ship construction till last?”

“Building a network. Have you noticed how they seemed to be everywhere on Argent and inside the cluster? That didn’t happen overnight. It takes time to insert your people into various places so they can make way for others to join. If they’ve done the same thing inside the Confederation proper, I can see it taking a hundred years to get people everywhere you want to them. Frankly, they probably didn’t need to build warships. They could’ve conducted a coup by assassinating all the people in control.”

“Maybe that was their initial plan,” he ventured. “If they decided that wasn’t feasible, they might have started building the shipyards as a backup. After all, even if they assassinate everyone, they’ll have to deal with the Confederation Navy. There’s no way we’d stand by and just let it happen.”

Beth raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t we? We already know Vice Admiral LaChasse was a member of the conspiracy. What if she had pulled all the Navy cruisers under her command into one system after she’d replaced the commanding officers with those she could trust, just like she did with the admiral. By now, senior officers everywhere might be affiliated with the Poseidon Group. After all, those they can’t trust might have… accidents.”

“That’s not what I wanted to hear, but I suppose it makes sense,” Mac said with a sigh. “Dealing with a few dozen construction slips would be challenging, but we can probably still make something happen. There’s no way we could attack them all at the same time. We don’t have enough Marines or pinnaces to get to every place we’d need to be. Not even considering whatever protection they have.”

“It’s also possible they’ll have people aboard the stations with the hardware to resist. If they have a Marine force to protect their shipyards, it will turn bloody in a hurry. Even though we have these sensor readings, we don’t know how everything is laid out inside these places. That will put us at a tactical disadvantage, and the stations we can’t attack immediately will have time to prepare for us. We need an edge.”

They were about halfway back to Argent and would arrive within forty-eight hours. Odds were good that the people they’d left behind didn’t know where the shipyards were, but they couldn’t count on that. If they arrived and had to head out immediately, it would prove challenging.

“If we have to punch our way through heavily defended areas, we’ll need something armor-piercing,” he said. “We’ve collected a lot of the Novarite Gauss weapons. I’m not saying we should replace everyone’s firearms, but having a person per squad with that kind of firepower might make a big difference. As they said in basic training, with the right kind of penetration, what you thought was cover can easily end up only being concealment.”

She laughed. “True enough. Nothing quite like hiding behind something you think is solid and having someone shoot something straight through it and you.”

The Novarite Gauss rifles were about half again longer than what his people currently used. That would make them unwieldy in human-sized spaces, but they might still have their uses. It was too bad they didn’t have more than a dozen pistols like that.

Unfortunately, the armorer hadn’t been able to fully discern what went into making these weapons work. He was making progress, but things had progressed too quickly for him to even design a working prototype. Mac didn’t want to use weapons they couldn’t replace or repair themselves. That particular need would have to be filled at a later date.

“What are the odds that the shipyards will be inside the jump limit?” he asked.

She shrugged. “There’s probably a better than average chance they’ll be outside it, but we have no way to know for sure until we find them. If it’s inside the jump limit, they’ll see us coming. If they’re outside, it’s possible Hunter could be in the middle of them before they even suspected we were there.”

“Even if they have sentries posted, that’s not going to do them a lot of good against a battleship. They could run, but they couldn’t fight. That wouldn’t be true if hundreds of cruisers were in the system. Something like that could chew us to pieces.”

“That they could, but it would certainly keep the invasion of the Confederation from happening on their schedule. Hard to fight the Navy when your fleet has just been blown apart.”

“While that’s true, I’d rather avoid dying needlessly. The job here is to make the other guy die for his beliefs. We need to start working on plans to get aboard these stations under fire. That’s not going to be fun, but if you wanted to live forever, you should have probably become an accountant.”

She shuddered. “I’d have hung myself years ago. I hate doing taxes. I’ll work out some plans and have everything ready for you to review before we get to Argent, but that won’t make the job any easier. We’ve only got a thousand Marines aboard this ship. Let’s say we toss two hundred and fifty at each station. No. Two hundred. That’s five stations at a time. It’s going to give the rest a chance to harden their positions. Maybe they’ll surrender when they see how badass we are.”

He laughed. “I like the way you think, but let’s not get carried away. You work on those plans, and I’ll go down and see what the armorer has for us to work with. Maybe he’ll surprise me with something that’ll make our jobs easier.”

When she gave him a half-hearted salute, Mac made his way out of the briefing room and headed for the armory. No matter how good their man was, he wouldn’t have anything worthwhile for him in such a short time. That was just wishful thinking.

When he walked into the armory, he found Horn working on one of the Novarite rifles. He’d set up something to cut through the stock, and it looked, from the pile on the floor, like he had been doing this for a while. That chopped about a foot off the stocks, so Mac supposed it made it more usable in tight spaces.

“What have you got for me, Master Sergeant?” he asked.

“Makeshift weapons, sir,” he said as he turned to face Mac. “I figured some of these might come in useful, so I’ve been shortening them down to the point where we could use them, even if they are a bit long. As it is, it won’t be a comfortable fit against our armor unless I use a band saw to put a curve into it.”

Mac grabbed one of the rifles on the table and brought it to his shoulder. It was flat and uncomfortable. A curved indent would definitely make things easier.

“That was one of the things I wanted to talk with you about. Odds are that we’ll be assaulting some space stations before very much longer. We won’t know the internal layout, and the defenders will have had time to get behind cover. How good are these at punching through something a Marine would think was safe?”

“Better than is really safe,” Horn said with a laugh. “Body armor is worthless against them. A bulkhead impedes them, but it won’t slow them down long. It’s unlikely that any defenders will have anything tougher than that.”

“Well, then, I suppose that helps. I don’t suppose you got anything else?”

“Actually, I do. I spent some time going through the armory aboard the most recent Novarite capture. They have grenades that use the same technology. It’s like setting off a full-blown antipersonnel mine in the middle of wherever it goes off. As I said, I don’t know if I’d want to be anywhere near one when it went off. Cover turns into concealment right fast.”

“I said the same thing to Beth a few minutes ago,” Mac said with a chuckle. “Show me one.”

Horn stepped back into the armory and came back out with a grapefruit-sized grenade. Well, this would be awkward. It would take two hands or someone shot-putting it.

“Have you tested them out?” Mac asked.

“Yep. A strong magnetic burst, so no loud bang. It beeps loudly when it’s a few seconds from going off, and they speed up the closer it gets to party time. Not much of a surprise weapon, but very, very effective. I intend to make dummies that only beep to force people to pull their heads down while you charge. Shouldn’t take long.”

“That’s evil. I like it.”

The weapon was interesting and might help clear out entrenched enemies they couldn’t get to, but Mac was nervous about the idea of using munitions that they hadn’t trained with. Maybe arming a few people with them to use on the first assault would be okay, but he was leery about relying on alien technology too much.

“What about manufacturing these for ourselves? Have you made any progress on that?”

“Some. Interestingly, the pistols are more manageable. You’d think something miniaturized would be harder, but the technology seems a bit simpler. The pistols don’t hit quite as hard, so they don’t need as much in the way of magnetics, and the barrels aren’t as complicated, though the tech seems more advanced. I’d imagine somebody on Argent or New Copenhagen could work out what we need to do to build more.”

That surprised him a great deal. He hadn’t thought Horn would be able to reverse engineer something like an alien weapon, but if he had, that might be a game changer.

“I like the sound of that,” Mac said. “I don’t know how long we’ll be in Argent, but I want you to contact the people already working on the rifles. I want production started as soon as possible on both rifles and pistols once they are designed for humans, and the kinks have been worked out. This is a classified military project, so that needs to be made clear to whoever’s doing the work. We want to keep this to ourselves, which means we need to screen people to try to stop any possibility of being penetrated by the Poseidon Group.”

That made him frown. What were the odds that the Poseidon Group already had weapons like this? If the defenders used flechette weapons, they would be very deadly. Of course, they’d also chew up the bulkheads and penetrate the outer hulls of whatever ship or station they were fighting on. That wouldn’t be good.

Maybe on a planetary surface, something like this would work better, but it would be risky to defend something in a vacuum with a weapon that poked holes in everything.

“I’ve already got some plans together and some samples to give to whoever’s doing the work,” the armorer said. “I’ve also begun putting together the tools I’d need to build something like this myself. I am a weaponsmith, after all. I’m not nearly ready to do a bit like that, but it’s on my list of things to accomplish.”

Mac clapped Horn on the shoulder. “That’s good to hear. Keep working on that, and once we have some breathing room, I want to see what you come up with.”

“You got it, sir.”

Mac left the armory happier than he’d arrived. He wasn’t sure this would help them, but having options was better than not having them. Worst case scenario, they’d leave straight from Argent to head for the shipyards. If they weren’t too distant, it might only take them days to get there.

No matter how this played out, they’d either have time to work out a detailed plan, or they’d be thrown into the deep end with little warning. Personally, he knew to bet on the latter.

24

Sara was on the cramped freighter’s bridge when they transitioned to Argent. She didn’t have any real reason for it, but she felt antsy. The quarters she’d been assigned for the trip were microscopic, and she’d spent most of the time in the cramped galley. Freighters weren’t made to carry passengers, and they really didn’t have room for extra people.

The crew took her presence with good grace, but she hated imposing on them. That still didn’t stop her from accepting the captain’s offer to be present when they jumped through the gate.

A freighter’s sensors were much less sophisticated than a warship’s, but she was quickly put at ease when she saw the system was still under human control. No one had arrived to contest their control while she’d been gone. She’d been afraid more Novarites would come. After all, one of the cruisers that had attacked the system had gotten away. There was no telling where it was going or who it was reporting to.

“We’ve got another ship in the system,” the sensor operator said. “It’s coming in from out beyond the jump limit. It looks like one of those exploration ships. Her transponder is on, indicating she’s the ship that went back to the Confederation, not the one that went scouting.”

“How far away are they?” Sara asked. “Can we get a message to them?”

“They’re not that far, so we’re only looking at about a ten-minute round trip for a radio message. Should I open a channel, Captain?”

The shorthaired woman in command of the ship gestured for him to do so. “Make sure they know that Commodore Nastasi is here. If they want to talk to her, we don’t want to bury that information.”

Sara wasn’t acting as a commodore, but she wouldn’t argue with the woman. Being on temporary duty sort of meant having the best of both worlds.

After waiting ten minutes, the sensor operator nodded. “They’ve changed course and are headed our way. We should get a response shortly. And here it is. I’m putting it on screen.”

The main screen on the freighter wasn’t large, but it didn’t have to be. These people didn’t need to know the tactical situations in the systems they visited. They just needed a way to display basic information to achieve the orbits they required and to be aware of obstacles in space around them.

If she’d thought the freighter’s bridge was small, the one on the exploration ship was tiny indeed. With the camera set up the way it was, she could see everything. India and her crew had every station manned, and right behind the command chair stood a tall man in a modern Confederation Navy uniform with vice admiral’s tabs.

Uh oh.

“Fast Transit III, this is the exploration vessel Magellan,” India said. “We are moving to match course and request that Sara Nastasi transfer to our vessel. We apologize for inconveniencing you.”

“That’s no inconvenience, Vice Admiral,” the captain said. “By the looks of things, we’ll be in range to send her over in about twenty-five minutes. Do you want to continue the briefing via radio?”

A little less than ten minutes later, the response arrived. “Negative. We’ll wait for her arrival. Thank you. Magellan out.”

“I suppose I should go get ready,” Sara said. “I didn’t bring that much, so it’ll only take a few minutes to put it all together and get down to the cargo shuttle. Thank you, Captain.”

“It’s our pleasure, Commodore. Good luck.”

In less than ten minutes, she was aboard the cargo shuttle. It wasn’t made for passengers either, but the pilot kicked out the copilot and let her take his seat.

“For such a short trip, we’ll be fine,” the man said.

She settled into the acceleration couch and strapped in. Moments later, the pilot disengaged the docking clamps and slowly separated from the freighter. When they’d achieved a little distance, he accelerated toward the incoming exploration ship.

It had a cutter, so there was a common docking mechanism they could use. The small craft attached to the exploration vessel had to disengage to make room for them, but there was no trouble clamping on. He gave her a jaunty salute as she headed toward the airlock and boarded the exploration ship. India was waiting on the other side of the airlock with the unknown vice admiral.

It took quite a bit of self-control to keep herself from saluting. She’d known India since the woman had been rescued as a commander, two grades lower than she was. Now she was two grades higher. Life could be odd sometimes.

“Sara Nastasi, meet Vice Admiral Doug Tobin,” India said.

“Admiral,” Sara said with a smile. “Welcome to the cluster.”

“I wish I could say it’s a pleasure, but we live in dark times,” Tobin said. “We arrived about an hour ago, and I’m glad you could take the time to join us. She gave me a rundown of why you took a leave of absence, and I suppose I can understand them. It’ll be hard not to refer to you by rank, though.”

“You can call me whatever you like, sir. I’m doing this so I can better serve the Navy in the circumstances we find ourselves in. I’ve been getting updates from Argent, but I’m sure there’s been something going on while I’ve been gone. Nothing during this invasion has been straightforward or simple.”

“Why don’t we adjourn the mess compartment?” India asked. “It’s bigger than my office, and we can have some coffee.”

As the three of them walked, she continued talking. “I briefed Admiral Tobin on the events up to the point where I departed. Has anything changed?”

Sara chuckled. “You could say that. We had an incident in Port Royale, but it didn’t turn out to be connected to the Poseidon Group. At least, I don’t think it’s connected. On the positive side, we might be able to get a second battleship back into operation—loosely speaking—in a month or so. It really depends on how quickly I can get everyone on Argent working and verify the Confederation Council in the cluster will pay the no doubt exorbitant fee that Ringwald Engineering will rightfully demand.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Tobin said as he sat at one of the two small tables in the mess compartment. “Admiral Romanoff—his father—is backing him to the hilt, and I’ll make the magic happen if President Ibarra doesn’t.”

That was a relief.

“With that kind of backing, we won’t have any difficulty getting the engineering companies moving,” Sara said as India put a cup of coffee down in front of her. “I’ve seen some rough drafts of the contract, but there will need to be some final back-and-forth. The engineer that was with me on the freighter will have sent the specifics of how much work is required by now, so they have enough information to set a price for everything, with stipulations that unexpected work will cost extra. They promised they wouldn’t overcharge us, but everything has to be examined to make sure it still reads like that. I can’t rule out last-minute gotchas, and what is signed is what has the force of law, not any verbal promises.”

The admiral nodded, taking a sip of his coffee. “Have the communications officer request a copy of what they have. I don’t intend to wait for Admiral Romanoff’s return before we go looking for him. We’ve already received word from Argent on the likely location for the Poseidon Group’s shipyards.”

She blinked in surprise. “That was quick, and it’s good news. That’s really all I can tell you, then. What's been going on in the Confederation in the last eight months? Did our warning get there in time?”

He grimaced. “Admiral Romanoff—this will get confusing at some point, so I’ll call him ‘the elder’ to keep making sense—successfully took Vice Admiral LaChasse into custody. She denied everything, but there wasn’t much she could do about it once he had her. Or so everyone thought.”

That comment filled her with dread. “What happened?”

“Less than twenty-four hours after Admiral Romanoff captured her, she escaped confinement. Everyone in the security detail was knocked out, but we suspect at least one of them was on her payroll. It had to be some kind of drug or gas. I suppose it’s possible that it was a third party that somehow got into the brig, but whatever the method, she escaped. Several ships had left the fleet during that time to take word of everything that had happened, and she must’ve been aboard one of them. We searched everywhere, but she was gone.”

That was terrible news. If her ex-friend Robin had been a high-ranking member of the Poseidon Group in the cluster, LaChasse had been somewhere in the senior leadership of the Confederation proper. Sara thought that that particular problem was out of play, so it was just their luck that they now had yet one more issue to worry about.

“I think it’s likely at this point that a number of senior officers inside the Confederation Navy are compromised,” India said. “I must not have fit the criteria they were looking for because no one approached me. In any case, we’ve already received information from Argent that they’ve located a candidate for the nearest occupied system to their shipyards. Tina is heading out to join us with the briefing materials to get us up to date. We’ll meet her in about ninety minutes and then head toward Vesuvius. With any luck, we’ll meet Jack in a system or two and be on our way.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, if you’re not assuming command, what are you doing in the cluster, Admiral?” Sara asked. “Please tell me they aren’t sending cruisers to fight any of the enemies here. That wouldn’t turn out well.”

“At the moment, I’m assessing the situation. I agree with your belief that cruisers would not do well against anything except perhaps the Poseidon Group.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think you can even assume that’s the case, sir. They’ve had a long time to plan what they’re doing, and if they intended to overthrow the Confederation and replace the Council, they’d have enough force to make that happen. As India said, it’s likely the upper ranks of the Navy have been compromised. How many ships will surrender when confronted?”

The question made him grimace again. “If you’d asked me that question a week ago, I’d said it wouldn’t be possible. Now? I have no idea. As far as bringing some cruisers here to assault their shipyard, why do you think that would be a bad idea?”

She shrugged. “There’s no telling how long they’ve been putting cruisers together, and they’re almost ready to strike. If we find them with most of their fleet in one place, they will outnumber any force you could field by a wide margin.”

He frowned. “Just how many ships do you think they’ve built?”

“If you were going to overthrow the Confederation, how many would you build if you had virtually unlimited funds and the time to construct them in secret? Because of the high level of penetration they probably have in the Confederation Navy, I’m confident they used our plans. What if they matched the size of the Navy? What if they’ve doubled it?”

The man sat silently for a few moments. “I wish I could argue with that logic, but I can’t. Do you think Admiral Romanoff, the younger, will have enough force to make it happen? He’s only got that one old battleship.”

Sara smiled. “I don’t know how thoroughly India has briefed you on some of the new capabilities Jack and his people have come up with by combining some of the alien technology with our own. Let’s just say that while I don’t think he could take all those cruisers on his own, he could definitely blow a hole through the middle of them and keep ahead of them as he ran. The real question is whether the ships will be there at this point. Surely they’ll have launched their attack on the Confederation by now.”

“They hadn’t by the time we’d left. India left a gate we could use to get from the Confederation to the cluster, but there is no gate network on this side we can use. Not yet.”

“The Navy is working on that,” India said. “While we didn’t assemble the gates as we went, I dropped enough off for them to get ships moving between the Confederation and Argent. They’re the new style, so they won’t be useful even if the Locusts find them. Ditto for the Poseidon Group.”

“That would be a lot more useful if we didn’t suspect the Poseidon Group was about to attack the Confederation,” Sara said with a sigh. “Still, we’ll do what we can. I’ll send a message to the lead engineering firm and get them to send the most recent contract iteration. If you want to go over it with me, admiral, we can see if there’s anything objectionable while we wait to pick Tina up. Maybe by the time we jump out of the system, we’ll be able to give them a verbal sign-off.”

Tobin nodded. “That sounds like a plan. Let’s make it happen.”

India stood. “If you’d come to the bridge, Sara, we’ll get that started. With the time it takes for a message to make a round trip, I don’t think you’ll be able to do very much refining, but if there’s a major problem, you should be able to tell them about it.”

“They seemed confident they could come up with something we’d find acceptable, and though we’ll have to go through it line by line to be sure, they’ve got just as much to lose as everyone else. Besides, even at a discount, it will be a lot of money, and they don’t have any of the equipment to do the necessary work elsewhere. The industry in the cluster is ruined.”

“Then I’ll let you catch up and enjoy a bit of elbow room.”

The two left the admiral to his thoughts and walked to the bridge. “Do you really think we’ll have a chance when we get to the shipyards?” India asked.

“If we do, it’ll be because they’ve moved most of the ships out already, which means the Confederation is in deep trouble. Either way you look at it, this will be bad news. All we can hope is that Jack finds a way to make it work.”

The blonde officer nodded. “He’s good at that. In any case, it doesn’t sound like we’ve got much to look forward to.”

“Maybe. If we find the shipyards mostly undefended, we might have a way to move them to Port Royale. That could speed things up. Not by much, perhaps, but even a few days makes a difference.”

“Then let’s hope that we can manage to pull something off. Every other group we’ve fought seems to have a scorched-earth strategy. We’ll have to figure out the best way to make this happen fast once shots are fired, or the Poseidon Group might think it’s better to blow them up.”

She hoped not. They could use a break. “What do you think? Can we can trust Admiral Tobin?”

“Eric Romanoff insisted that they’ve thoroughly vetted him, but who knows?” India said quietly. “The best we can do is keep our eye on him. I’ve got orders for Jack that allows him to remove Admiral Tobin if he proves problematic. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. We’ve got enough problems and could use someone the local Navy types will accept without reservation.”

“Let’s hope we catch that break then,” Sara said. “Once we find Jack, we’ll have other things to worry about.”

25

David looked over the composite sketch the artist had made of Patrick. He’d worked with Lisa after she turned back up and told them the story of her abduction. It was a good drawing, capturing aspects of the man he hadn’t noticed. Then again, she’d had two people doing the remembering, so that had probably helped. She’d also seen his face clearly, whereas he hadn’t been paying attention.

It had been good enough to run against the law enforcement databases but had come back without a hit. Either Patrick didn’t have identification or had paid someone to erase it at some point. Personally, he bet the latter.

Even if his appearance was a disguise, Patrick was not a young man. He’d have had something in the system from before he’d taken up this career. It might not be on this planet, but they had access to information from across the Confederation. A couple of people came back as similar, but they weren’t him. That would have to be verified at some point, but that was someone else’s problem.

What he could do was go over all the traffic data where Lisa had been held and see if he could get a decent picture of Patrick. He had a one-way feed of the data to his system, which retained a copy but sent no commands back. Nothing he did would trigger any automated alerts.

Now that they’d gotten someone into the traffic control systems to make sure no one was busy deleting everything related to the Poseidon Group, that made his job easier. Or, at least he thought it had until he’d started searching.

No matter where he looked, there was no Patrick. He didn’t see any indication of the strange light that covered the man when he was being recorded, and he found no sign of him either. Had he gotten out of that apartment building a different way? The building had a basement, but it didn’t connect to anything. He’d had planetary security check to be sure. There was also no indication anyone had landed on the roof. How had Patrick gotten in unseen with an unconscious woman?

It seemed impossible, but he must’ve landed on the roof. Just because they didn’t see any indication of the lock having been forced or a vehicle having settled in didn’t mean someone else hadn’t dropped them off and then returned. Admittedly, a vehicle flying so low over the buildings should’ve drawn attention, but Patrick seemed to have a knack for getting in and out of places without being noticed.

What he’d found more concerning was that although there were some false positives, a search of the traffic system failed to pick up Patrick anywhere. Did Patrick never go out in public? None of this made any sense.

“How goes it?” Lisa asked as she stepped into his office.

“Poorly,” he said as he turned away from his screen. “The man’s a damn ghost. There’s no indication of him going into the building with you or leaving alone. Are you having any better luck?”

“If the information he provided is accurate, then our travel agent friend sent a ton of people to a nearby vacation spot. Each of those trips over the last several decades has been one way. Pretty suspicious if you ask me, which is why Tina is taking everything to India’s ship. This is real.”

She walked over to his coffee pot, sniffed at what was in it, and poured it out. Then she started a fresh batch brewing. “I’ve gone over the wreckage of the computer in the travel office, and that’s a bust. Not only did the explosives rigged to the data drives go off, but the mercenaries’ rockets also caused significant damage. We won’t get anything from that.”

“So they’ve been sending people to the shipyards for twenty years, give or take? That doesn’t seem like a long time. Could they have been doing it beforehand? Somebody had to build everything before they started building the ships, right?”

Lisa shrugged. “If so, they used someone else to get the people there. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me to learn there were multiple streams of people headed to this location, but they would’ve come from inside the Confederation itself, I’d wager. Sadly, it won’t give us enough information to guess what kind of forces they’ll have available.”

The coffee was partly made, so she poured herself a cup and sat across from him. “How about you? I realize you haven’t found anything about Patrick, but what about running all the cameras on that building simultaneously and seeing if something pops up?”

He hadn’t tried that, but it was a decent idea. He put the hall feeds on one monitor, and the street feeds from various locations on another. He started them about half an hour before Patrick would’ve left the building and started them running at a fast pace. Unfortunately, he didn’t see anything that stood out.

Failing there, he ran the cameras from the time that Lisa would have been abducted and looked again for anything that stood out of place. This time, he saw something strange. A vehicle parked in front of the building disappeared from one side of the road and appeared on the other. It had not seemingly traveled between those two points. He backed the feed up, slowed to normal speed, and confirmed that he’d been right.

“What the hell?” he asked. “Did you see that?”

“A teleporting air car,” Lisa said. “That’s unusual. Try to get it from multiple angles.”

Unfortunately for him, they couldn’t get more than two different cameras that saw what was happening, but they definitely indicated there was some type of time glitch. A few people on the street also vanished, and some new ones appeared, simply walking along about their business. Someone had gotten into the feed and erased a segment of time.

“I thought we had the traffic control feeds locked down,” he grumbled. “How could someone get into these and still be mucking with them? The interior feeds came from a local server, so I can see that, but I thought we had this figured out.”

“I’ll go back to the main computer and see if I can dig anything up,” she said as she stood. “If I were you, I’d focus on the human intelligence angle. Look right across from the building. There’s a guy sitting there talking with somebody on his comm unit, and he was there the whole time. Maybe he’ll remember something.”

“If I can figure out who he is. Maybe the planetary security folks talked with him. I’ll give it a try and see what they can dig up.”

Once she’d left, he contacted planetary security and asked them about the man sitting across the street. He gave a description of him and even sent a screen capture. A few minutes later, they had the man on the comm unit. Apparently, he’d still been sitting outside. His name was Bryce Butler.

“Mister Butler,” David said, “I’m very sorry for interrupting you, but I’ve got a couple of questions. There was an incident across the street about two hours ago. Someone messed with the traffic cameras, but it looks like a vehicle moved from directly across the street to park right in front of you. I don’t suppose you remember anything about what happened, do you?”

“Actually, I do,” Butler said. “The sedan you’re talking about belongs to a nice lady that lives across the street. She came out to run a short errand, and while she was gone, a panel van pulled up in front of the building, and she had to park across the street. It was some kind of company vehicle. I don’t remember the name. It was white.”

While Butler was talking, David searched the traffic cameras around the area, looking for any white panel vans. “I don’t suppose you saw what they took inside or brought back out, did you?”

“It was just one guy, an older fellow. He took a pretty large bag inside. I figured he was doing some work on the lift. It’s always having problems.”

“If you could talk with any of your neighbors that might’ve been outside and see if they remember anything more, that would be helpful,” David said. “Did he have the bag when he came back out?”

“Yeah, but it looked empty.”

“Thank you for your time and assistance, Mister Butler. You’ve been more helpful than you can imagine.”

Once he’d disconnected, David began looking for glitches in the traffic cameras leading away from the area when Patrick would’ve left. Unsurprisingly, he found some. While that still didn’t give him any clue what kind of vehicle they were talking about other than just some kind of work van, it showed him the direction of travel.

He wasn’t a computer specialist, but he could set up the parameters of a search as well as anyone else. He asked the system to look for other glitches. If he could find a pattern, he might be able to narrow down where Patrick could have gone.

The data he got back was significantly larger than he’d expected. There were indications that this type of behavior had happened all across the city and was still happening in various locations. That made no sense.

Or did it? If he wanted to hide his activity from someone, the best way to do so was to bury it inside a lot of similar occurrences. If someone like David came along and started looking for glitches in the traffic feeds, there would be no way to use what he found.

This Patrick was fiendishly clever. David wasn’t sure how he was hiding his presence, but there had to be something on his vehicle or a person that was cluing the traffic cameras not to record him. That meant other vehicles or people were doing the same.

The only way to solve this particular problem was to locate one of those vehicles and find whatever was disabling the traffic cameras. It had to be something the cameras were made to detect, so he was willing to bet it was a variation of an emergency vehicle transponder.

Odds were, whenever the camera detected specific vehicles, it simply stopped recording and blanked a few seconds of what had already been captured. That would seem like it would leave a blank spot that could be detected, but there was something else going on. He didn’t have the skills to figure that out, so he’d leave it to Lisa. What he needed to do was find a pattern.

Looking at what was currently active in the network, there were maybe a dozen vehicles operating that had this type of protection. Some of them were across the city, so he could exclude those. Leaving a reasonable margin of error, he narrowed it down to three potential locations where this vehicle could be.

He reached for his comm unit, ready to call the planetary defense forces to search the areas, then changed his mind. All that would do was alert Patrick that they were looking for him. Right now, Patrick wasn’t aware he’d figured out what the assassin was doing.

Instead, he called the Marines. They’d send pinnaces to each of the locations.

While he waited for them to go to the initial searches, he considered what was likely happening elsewhere. His wife should’ve reached the exploration ship by now, which meant they’d be on their way out of the system to find Jack. They had a potential location, though the shipyards wouldn’t be right there at the vacation hotspot. It would be in a nearby system that wasn’t occupied and was unlikely to be visited.

There would be a gate in that system leading somewhere. The Poseidon Group had not been using independent quantum drives before the destruction of the network, so that meant there would be a path to finding them if they could locate that gate and pull its data.

Or Jack could just search the nearby systems looking for one that was likely. There was a lot of data from the initial search of the cluster buried on the old computer that ran Delta Orionis. That information might be ancient, but the Poseidon Group wouldn’t have had a chance to scrub it.

He checked his chronometer. There was just enough time to send his wife a message about that before the exploration ship left the system. She was smart and might think of this on her own, but comparing the survey data for the cluster on the old computer versus the one from Hawkwing would highlight any differences. If they’d felt the need to conceal anything about the system they were working in, that would be a red flag. He cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner.

His comm sounded right after he’d sent his update to his wife, and he answered. “Chen.”

“This is group bravo,” one of the Marines said. “We found an emergency vehicle at the location, and we’re searching for it. It’s an ambulance, and I can give you the transponder number.”

David made a note of it and thanked the man. He then entered that data into the search parameters and found the locations where it had been detected. The video feed might’ve been erased, but the fact that the vehicle had passed was still there. That allowed him to eliminate a third of the anomalies in the area he was interested in. Since this was an ambulance, it wouldn’t be the panel van that he was looking for.

Five minutes later, he had the transponder number for a planetary defense cruiser. Not even waiting for the last group to tell him what they found, if anything, he pulled the transponder number in question out of the traffic control system.

It was registered as another planetary security vehicle. Interestingly, the code only showed in the system for a few days. It was also no longer active. It looked like the assassin was using some type of variable transponder and knew how to create numbers that the system thought of as valid. Maybe they even were.

He pulled out a list of valid emergency transponders that had been in use for a significant amount of time. Once he had that, he compared it to the ones he was looking for and began striking them off his list. The process was not quick, and he got a report from the third set of Marines that they couldn’t find an emergency vehicle. That wasn’t surprising, so he called them back to the headquarters.

At the end of his search of all the codes, he’d found roughly fifty transponder numbers that had either never been used or had only been used for a few days. That seemed unusual enough to make a note of them. The ones that had been used in the past weren’t going to be of interest right now—though they might be in the future—so he focused on the unused numbers that might be active.

And he got a hit.

After plugging the transponder number in, he began looking at the traffic feeds to see what it was. He was pleased to note that it behaved the same way Patrick’s vehicle had. Any feed that should have caught a glimpse of it instead didn’t record anything and began recording again once it was gone. Somehow the timestamps were tweaked around so that nothing stood out, but anyone looking directly at the feed itself would know something was wrong.

Then it vanished, and a check of the transponder showed it as inactive. Gotcha.

His first impulse was to send the Marines and planetary security in, but he restrained the urge. It was near a mass transit center, and the odds were good that the assassin would be gone by the time they got there. If he let on that he knew where the vehicle was, it might ruin things. Better to covertly search the area after a bit.

David began working on locating any patterns and repeating locations that the assassin might have visited using the transponders he suspected had been compromised or illegally inserted into the system. Patrick didn’t choose to travel very often, but when he did, he visited numerous areas of the city. That wasn’t going to help him.

The other thing he couldn’t determine was if there was a parking area that the man preferred. During the hours when it wasn’t being used, the vehicle seemingly parked at a new location every time and all over the city. Once again, Patrick was covering his tracks.

He eliminated every single instance where the vehicle had stopped at a location that was never repeated. That left him with a couple dozen blinking dots with numbers beside them. Almost all indicated he’d visited a place twice. David eliminated those and was left with one spot that had nine visits. Quite the jump.

Those indicated something in the vicinity was important to the assassin. It was a place he felt important to him, and thus one they needed to explore in more detail. They’d do that virtually first, but at some point, they’d go in and see what was really there.

The location was out at the spaceport. Interesting. The emergency vehicle—or whatever it truly was—parked in a spot reserved for emergency vehicles, so he supposed that made sense. Looking at the duration of the stays, it is evident that Patrick was traveling elsewhere because the vehicle didn’t move again for between forty-eight and seventy-two hours.

David didn’t have any video feeds from the spaceport to go over, and he was leery of doing so. There was far too great a chance that the assassin would have a program watching for that very sort of thing. Every step they made now to capture the assassin needed to be carefully considered and executed precisely.

The spaceport was far underutilized since the invasion, but it was once again open to the public. With a single space station left in orbit, the traffic going up and down was restricted, but with freighters once again bringing goods in, it wouldn’t stand out to anyone to have a couple of people wandering about the spaceport looking for things.

He smiled as he stood. He’d thought his time searching around on the computer would be boring. Now he and Lisa would have an opportunity to see if they could finally get their hands on the enigmatic killer.

David would stop by the cafeteria and pick them up something to eat. They’d have time to meander about the spaceport, which meant having a good meal ahead of time. If called for, they could stop at one of the more expensive eateries on the concourse itself, but he’d prefer to not stay in one place too long.

He’d definitely send someone to look for the missing vehicle while they were gone. A few people walking around the area like they belonged wouldn’t raise Patrick’s hackles. Patience was a virtue. They might find something, or they might not. Time would tell.

Scouting the spaceport might unravel the mystery and take one piece off the board. Besides, this would be fun.

26

Hunter had almost made it back to Argent when Jack woke to the chiming of his comm unit. He checked the time and saw that it was the middle of the night. That generally meant something terrible was about to happen.

He sighed and answered the comm, leaving it on the nightstand as he reached for the uniform he’d laid out before he went to sleep. “Romanoff.”

“Bridge, sir. We’ve detected an incoming exploration ship. They don’t have a transponder running, but it’s definitely one of ours.”

“I’ll be up there in ten minutes.”

He dressed, went to his bathroom, washed his face, and brushed his teeth. There’d be enough time to be presentable. It was either India or the scout ship sent to the other likely Tardan strong point. It seemed early for India, so he was leaning toward it being bad news from the other scouting location. That would be the only reason they’d come looking for him rather than waiting for him to return to Argent.

Jack made his way to the bridge. Third shift was still running, and while he knew the officers, he couldn’t say he was as familiar with them as his primary team. “What have we got?”

The young woman running the watch stood and allowed him to sit. “Still no message, but it’s possible they didn’t detect us immediately. We were almost ready to jump to the next system, so we weren’t in a good position for them to see us.”

“We do have an incoming message,” said the communications officer. “Going on the screen. Round-trip communication time is nine and a half minutes.”

The image of the system they were about to leave vanished, and he was looking at India. That was something of a relief, though that feeling might not last.

“We’re back from the Confederation, Admiral,” she said. “We’ve got news from that end and a potential location for the shipyards we’re looking for. Permission to match course and join you?”

In fact, they’d already changed course and were headed in his direction, but it was polite of her to ask. “We’ll be ready for you, India. See you shortly. Romanoff out.”

“We’ve got some follow-up data, sir. She sent us the name of a system in the cluster, but it’s unlikely to have any large-scale hidden structures. It’s a vacation world, according to the summary. She suspects—and I concur—that one of the nearby systems hosts the shipyards. She suggested we compare system information data from our computer and the one we salvaged from Hawkwing. That should reveal any changes and maybe highlight the system we should be looking at.”

He hadn’t considered doing something like that, but it was worthwhile to try. “Run the comparison and tell me what you find.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll have to go to the more modern computer in person to gather the data I need and load it into our computer to run the comparison. Or perhaps do it the other way around. It will take me a bit to get the answers you’re looking for, sir.”

“That’ll give us time to set up for Vice Admiral MacKinnon and her people. Let me know as soon as you have any answers.”

It would take India an hour to get to their location, so he had time to wake up his primary crew for the briefing. He left the third shift working the bridge and retreated to his office. Even this late at night, his stewards had been paying attention, and one of them quickly brought in a light breakfast and some coffee. He thanked the man and then focused on waking select members of the senior crew. He instructed each to meet him in the primary briefing room after they’d gotten something to eat.

That done, he focused on his own meal and quickly polished it off. He was about to rise from his seat when a chime sounded from his hatch. He ordered whoever it was to come in, and the Marines on guard duty passed the third watch communications officer into his office. The man had a tablet in his hand and a smile on his face.

“We’ve got something, sir. There’s a system one jump away from the vacation world that has significant alterations to the data we have in our old records versus what the new ones indicate. Primarily, somebody erased all evidence of two asteroid belts and a marginally habitable moon orbiting a gas giant between the two. Our records indicate someone in the Navy once considered putting a base there but was overruled. The fact that it’s gone from the newer data suggests someone didn’t want that information to be public.”

Jack took the tablet. A quick skim of the data showed other minor modifications to the system data. All of them seemed to be things that would make the system less attractive. They’d even changed information about the star itself to make it seem a little unstable. Who wanted to build anything in a star system that might go through some type of catastrophe?

“Did you find any other systems that had modifications like that?” he asked.

“Port Royale, sir. It looks like somebody scrubbed a lot of information out of it as well, but I suppose that makes sense that they had the battleships there.”

Jack nodded. “Nothing else?”

“No, sir.”

“Good work. Return to your station. We’ll adjust course to get to the suspect system as quickly as possible once Vice Admiral MacKinnon and her staff are aboard. Her ship can accompany us and scout, but we’ve wasted enough time looking around.”

With those thoughts still buzzing around his head, Jack headed for small craft bay number four. It was the one Hunter primarily used, and he was confident that was where India would board. Fifteen minutes later, he was proven correct when her cutter flew into the open space and settled to the deck in front of him.

He started to grin and say something, when the hatch opened, but it wasn’t her standing there. Instead, there was a man dressed in a modern Navy uniform wearing a vice admiral’s tabs. His name tag said Tobin.

Jack restrained the urge to salute as the man approached. Not only did he outrank him, but as a living recipient of the Confederation Medal of Honor, he wasn’t obligated to salute anyone who wasn’t of a higher rank that also had the award. Thankfully, as a full admiral, very few people would have to change their routine.

Tobin stopped in front of Jack and saluted. “Permission to come aboard, sir?”

“Welcome to Delta Orionis, Admiral Tobin. I wasn’t expecting to see someone like yourself so soon, and I have to admit I’m more than a bit nervous about what orders you might have for me.”

“We can discuss that in private, sir,” the man said smoothly. “What I can say is that it won’t change what you’re doing very much.”

India stepped out of the cutter and saluted. “I hope the information we brought proves helpful.”

“It already has,” he said as he returned her salute. Then he inclined his head as Tina and Sara stepped out of the cutter. His heart warmed seeing Sara. Their relationship might still be a bit new, but having her here meant a lot to him.

“If that’s everyone, we should adjourn to the briefing room to figure out what we’re doing next. I’ve already given orders to proceed to the system I suspect holds the shipyards. We’ll bring your ship to help us scout everything once we get there, India.”

India, Tina, and Sara were familiar with the way to Jack’s briefing room, but he took his time so the new man could get a look at the sheer scale of the battleship. Being as it was third shift, the activity level was lower than it otherwise might be, but there were still a large number of people rushing from place to place carrying out their duties. Even as much work as had been done on the ship, there were still things to be repaired or refurbished.

Once they arrived at the briefing room, Jack noted with satisfaction that the rest of his officers were there, looking well caffeinated and wide awake. He took the seat at the head of the table and gestured for the rest to join him.

“First things first, as you can see, India made it to the Confederation. Everyone, this is Vice Admiral Tobin. Take a moment to introduce yourselves.” Once everyone had done so, he continued. “We have a potential location for the Poseidon Group shipyards. I’ve already given orders to head in that direction, though I’m not sure how long it will take to get there.”

“I already checked, and we’re closer than you think, sir,” Derek said. “If we were using the gate network that existed here before the invasion, it would take us a week to get there. Since we can jump from system to system, I can get us there in about eight hours. Basically, we’re cutting across an open area and coming in through a zone that doesn’t have any inhabited worlds. They shouldn’t be expecting us so soon or from that direction.”

Jack restrained a blink of surprise. “Eight hours? Really?”

“We’re not going deep into the systems we’ll be passing, so yes. Since I know where we’re going in advance, we’ll jump into the edges of the systems, targeting an area of the jump zone where we can immediately jump to a new system and keep going. When a ship like ours knows precisely where they’re off to and isn’t bothering to scout the systems they’re passing through, travel can be done much faster than we’ve been doing so far. This seems like something we don’t want to sit on, so I already calculated the least time course to get us there safely. We should have already made the first jump, and so the clock is already running.”

“Impressive,” Jack said with an inclination of his head. “First, let’s see if Vice Admiral Tobin has anything to add.”

That caused the tension in the room to pick up a couple of notches. Tobin stood and inclined his head. “First of all, I should fully introduce myself. My name is Vice Admiral Doug Tobin, and I’ve been assigned to command the support forces here in the cluster. With the passing of Rear Admiral Allen, it needs a flag officer to make certain that you get what you need to fight as expeditiously as possible.”

Tobin smiled slightly. “No, I haven’t come to take command of the battleship division. In fact, Admiral Eric Romanoff—your commander’s father and the man in charge of fighting off the invasion should it reach the main portion of the Confederation—has endorsed and confirmed Admiral Jack Romanoff’s promotion. It’ll still need to be run past Grand Admiral Carbonaro and the Confederation Council, but as it was done by the Confederation Council in the cluster, I don’t anticipate undue political pushback. Particularly if the troubling information that Vice Admiral MacKinnon passed along turns out to be accurate. They’ll have far more to consider closer to home.”

“I’m sure I speak for everyone in saying that’s a relief for us,” Jack said. “The skills needed to fight a battleship in this kind of war—especially with some of the technology we’ve cobbled together—aren’t taught in the modern Navy. Since you’re with us, you’ll get a chance to see firsthand what a battle looks like from our point of view, if we get lucky and catch these bastards with their pants down.”

Tobin pulled a data chip out of his pocket, slid it across the table toward Jack, and sat back down. “The orders on this data chip will document everything I just said, and there are a few things for you from your father. He won’t tell you how to fight this invasion, but he needs certain things accomplished. First of all, he wants a selection of the prisoners so they can be questioned by the professionals deeper in the Confederation. He needs to understand everything you’ve done thus far in as much detail as possible, so someone will have to make the trip back as a liaison. Sadly, they’ll be flying back and forth a lot, so I’m glad it’s not me.”

There was a general chuckle at his joke.

“If you could possibly stop the Poseidon Group from launching this attack in the first place,” he continued, “that would be preferable, but if you miss the mark, they need to know quickly. That means sending Vice Admiral MacKinnon’s ship back to let them know what happened, though she doesn’t have to be with them. I’ve got my own orders to give some initial instructions based on what’s going on, but that’s not to imply that I am in command. These are orders and contingency plans that your father worked out and are more along the lines of strategic directives rather than tactical instructions.”

Jack wasn’t happy to have anyone directing how he did his business, but he understood the Navy wanted some control over the general shape of the war. He inclined his head and tucked the data chip away for later perusal.

“We have more tactical options than you might be aware of,” Jack said. “By combining the Tardan hyperdrive with our independent quantum drive, we’ve made a few discoveries. First of all, we can use their hyperdrive to get about twenty percent deeper into a system than one of their ships because of the mass of our ship. That allows us to use faster than light travel in a zone they can’t. This applies to the Poseidon Group and their ships, too. Even we are bound by the same limitations when jumping with the quantum drive.”

Tobin shook his head and scowled a little. “India mentioned that, but I have to say I don’t know how happy I am that we’re incorporating alien technology we don’t really understand. In any case, you’ve used it in combat, and you know how effective it is. I’ll make a report about what happens on this incursion. I doubt he would disallow something like that, but I know he’d say that he wants you to be careful. You are the only operational battleship fighting, and if you go down, we all go down.”

“Direct use of the hyperdrive isn’t dangerous, Admiral,” Kelly Danek said. “The more dangerous combination of technologies is what we’re calling the skip drive. Basically, we engage the independent quantum drive at the lowest possible setting—too low to actually move the ship—and then engage the hyperdrive. That results in the ship skipping through space a short distance ahead in a manner that is faster than light but very brief. We’ve tested it out, and we can use it most of the way to the habitable zone, though the deeper into the gravity well we go, the more strain we put on the independent quantum drive. When we come out of that skip, we have about five seconds where there’s an energy field bleeding off around the ship that provides some protection against things like phased packet plasma guns. It was even moderately useful against the Novarite antiproton beam weapons. It’s not something we want to use very often, but under the appropriate circumstances, it can provide a deadly surprise for our enemies.”

Jack nodded. “One thing I can add to that is that we’ve taken the time to install a second independent quantum drive aboard the ship, and we’re working on getting another hyperdrive extracted from a Novarite ship to add in as well. That would allow us to have multiple redundant drives. We could use the ones in engineering for independent motivation and the isolated units as the skip drive, if necessary.”

Tobin sighed but nodded. “That’s all inside your purview, Admiral. Do you really think you can fight a lot of cruisers at the same time? How many are you expecting to find?”

“To be safe, I’m estimating they would’ve built and manned roughly nine hundred cruisers. That’s a lot, and considering the tactics they probably intended to use, almost certainly more than they really needed. Nevertheless, we might get a terrible surprise if we don’t plan for the worst case. The median guess would be six hundred cruisers. If those are sent to the Confederation through a backdoor that we don’t know about—but that we suspect exists and might have a line on—those ships could wreak havoc, particularly if many of the Navy have sympathizers or members of the conspiracy in command already.”

Jack smiled. “This may be unpleasant for you, but we’ll keep a very close eye on you because we can’t be certain you haven’t been turned, Admiral. It would be bad for us if you somehow managed to send a signal when we get to the system, so we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I wish I could disagree with your logic, but I can’t,” Tobin said. “I’ll accept whatever restrictions you place on me, Admiral.”

Jack checked his chronometer. “I woke most of you up, so I want you to get things in motion with your departments, then try to catch another few hours of sleep. I want you to be at your best when we kick this off. Admiral Tobin, I’ll assign some Marines to keep an eye on you and a steward to see to your needs. They’ll escort you to your quarters and keep you there until it’s time for you to come to the bridge. They’ll confiscate your comm unit and search you to make sure you don’t have another. Other than that, you won’t be allowed any weapons but will otherwise be left unmolested.”

“Weapons? I assure you that I’m not armed.”

“Even if you were, it wouldn’t be as much of an imposition as you might imagine. Everyone?”

All his officers stood and opened their great coats, showing the holstered pistols on their hips. “I’ve reinstituted the rule that all officers are armed aboard ship. If anyone were so unwise as to draw a weapon on the bridge, the Marines would handle the issue, but if they didn’t, the rest of the bridge crew certainly would.”

“I see,” Tobin said, looking a bit nonplussed. “That will take some getting used to, but it’s your ship.”

At his gesture, two Marines escorted Tobin out of the compartment. Once he was gone, Jack continued. “You all have your orders. It will be a truly ugly fight if we find their cruisers still there. Come up with the best plan you can and toss in some alternatives for where we run into a lower number of cruisers, all the way down to potentially none. I want to keep the shipyards intact if at all possible, and if we can do so, I’d like to slip our Marines onto at least a few of them before the fun starts. Mac, I want you to work out how many of the shipyards you can assault at a time without putting your people at undue risk.”

“Already done, sir. My people and I have been running through this for days now, and we are ready.”

“Excellent. Be at your battle stations in six hours. Dismissed.”

India and Sara hung back after everyone else had left.

“Based on the people I’ve spoken with, Tobin is probably not a member of the conspiracy,” India said. “I understand we can’t trust him until we know for sure, but he’s a very well-liked officer, and he doesn’t seem to have the personality type to want to overthrow the Confederation government.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, but we’ll be careful. If you need to get anything else from your ship, consult with our helmsman and make it happen. You’re not in command of the exploration ship anymore, so you’ll need to pass it on to someone else. You know your people better than I do, and I’ll endorse whoever you select.”

She nodded and headed for the hatch. “I’ll get it taken care of. Don’t stress too much, Jack. We can handle this.”

Jack certainly hoped she was right. If she wasn’t, this would be a real pain in the ass.

He turned to Sara. “What’s the word on getting the battleships back up and running?”

“Both good and bad. The good news is that Ringwald Engineering submitted a final contract and bid for the work, which Admiral Tobin already approved. The on-site engineers said they can bring Scorpius back up to a minimum level of fighting readiness in roughly a month, though I’d count on it taking longer than they expect.”

The news made him smile. “That’s excellent. What’s the bad news?”

“You remember those religious fanatics that had to be dealt with? Apparently, they planted a lot of explosives along the crushed front half of Taurus. Something or someone set them off—I’m more than willing to bet it’s a saboteur of some kind that somehow got in from the outside—and blew away the entire front half of the ship. Port Royale wasn’t damaged in the attack, but it was close. The ship is useless for combat, but we could use it to move the shipyards. With her large independent quantum drive, depending on what the shipyards look like, I’d wager we could extend the jump field around one and get everything back to Port Royale.”

He frowned at the news. “I don’t like the sound of that. What else might they be up to? And are we sure that putting everything under Connor’s control is a good thing?”

“Good? No. Still, I talked to him, and he understands that having access to and using something like that will help Port Royale in the long run. It will make that system an industrial powerhouse. Imagine this. If we build another station closer to the belt for the people of Port Royale to use—something more along the lines of what their population actually needs—I’d wager we can get the Navy space station back. We’d undoubtedly have to turn some of the shipyards over to Connor and his people, but I think there’s a deal there that makes everything work for the both of us.”

Jack wasn’t so sure, but he wasn’t going to say she was wrong. In any case, that was something that could be worked out once this particular fight was over.

“I’ve already had something to eat, and for me, it’s the middle of the night, so I need a bit more sleep, but if you want to join me for something in about three hours, I’d be happy to have you.”

She smiled. “That gives me time to get settled in, though I don’t even have a place to sleep right now. Would you be willing to give up one of your guest bedrooms?”

“That might make tongues wag, but it would be my pleasure.”

When they returned to his quarters, he saw her settled in, and took a three-hour nap before he woke refreshed and ready for a second meal that his staff had already laid out for him and Sara. By the time they were just short of arriving at the target system, he’d already gone over the plans everyone had sent him and reviewed the orders his father had sent.

There was nothing overly objectionable in those orders, but his father wanted regular updates about what was happening. His father also had a bad habit of micromanaging, so Jack expected him to try to tweak what he was doing if he could. That could be worked around, particularly if he was creative in how he sent the reports back and what their timing was.

It would be good to have more people coming in from the Confederation. They needed to man those ships, and even if the Poseidon Group made their move, it should be possible to get some people out. With ten other vessels the size of Hunter to man, they needed a lot of people, and they wouldn’t be able to find as many as they needed in the cluster without training them from scratch.

With Sara, India, Tina, and Vice Admiral Tobin arranged to either side of his command chair, he watched the timer pass fifteen minutes. “I hope everyone is ready for this. We’ve already dispatched the exploration ship to take a look and come back with some details. They’ll only be able to use their passive sensors, but since we know roughly where to look, I wager we’ll get more than enough information to come over and use the more powerful passive sensors we stole from the Novarites.”

“Did you ever get those integrated into your systems?” Sara asked. “I thought they didn’t work right.”

He nodded. “Regex and Lisa, in conjunction with Commander Danek, figured out how to create translation equipment. It’s still a bit quirky, but it’s more powerful than what we typically use. Honestly, the passive sensors that came with Hunter are more powerful than what is in use by the Confederation Navy right now because they needed to know where the Locusts were when they attacked. We’ll be fine.”

“We really think those are headed for the Confederation, too?” Tobin asked. “That would be an utter disaster on top of everything else. They could end humanity’s ability to get off any world, even if we managed to stave off the Poseidon Group. If there are as many of them as you think, even joining forces with the conspirators wouldn’t be enough to save us.”

“It’s hard to say,” Jack said. “If they’d been coming back into the cluster, they would’ve already reached Vesuvius by the time we got there. Since there was no sign of them, my guess is that they’re making their way toward the Confederation, but it’s always possible they have a different destination in mind. The Tardan military isn’t talking, and we haven’t pulled any information out of their computers that say one way or the other what the Locusts would’ve done without somebody to order them into action.”

“The Tardan military is pretty much finished,” India said. “That’s ironic since they’re the ones that control the Locusts. I’m hopeful we can get whatever control algorithms they were using into the hands of their civilian government so we can send them a stand down order.”

“Anytime we start thinking that it’ll be that easy, then we’re in for a real problem,” Jack said. “The Confederation is fighting different groups that each has the power to end it. Just because things are quiet right now doesn’t mean they’re not going to get desperate again really fast. There were a lot of Novarite ships at Vesuvius, and there are indications they may have brought some of the leadership with them. If that’s true, something’s going on, and it has the potential to get even worse than things are now.”

“Incoming quantum jump,” Derek said. “It’s the exploration ship. They’re less than thirty seconds transmission time round-trip from us right now. I expect to get their report pretty quickly. I’ll put it on the screen as soon as we have the data.”

Thirty seconds later, the main screen switched to a view of the target system. Dots represented active fusion plants, and he could at a glance tell there was a presence in the system, though nowhere near as many ships as he expected to see.

“The blinking lights you see here are space stations arrayed along the outermost asteroid belt,” Amanda said. “According to our records, it’s richer in heavy metals than the innermost one and has segments that are pretty thick, relatively speaking.”

He watched the blinking lights and did some mental arithmetic. “That looks like twenty-six space stations. I assume those are shipyards.”

“No way to tell at this range, sir. You’ll also note that there are at least thirty mobile units near the semi-habitable moon. Not sure why they’re there, but it gives us a baseline for how many ships might be in the system. When we go in, we should be able to sit out there for a little while and firm up the data. From there, we could jump to the shipyards.”

Jack considered what they knew so far and grimaced. “I’m afraid that means they’ve already departed for the Confederation. We’re too late to stop them, but maybe we can get something from their computers. That means we’ll have to go with the plan to insert the Marines onto the shipyards as quietly as possible, so we’ll have to make a lot of noise elsewhere in the system. How close is the semi-habitable moon to the jump limit?”

“Those ships could reach the jump limit in about forty-five minutes,” Derek said. “As they’re positioned right now, they’ll be unable to use their quantum drives, making them vulnerable to us if we use the hyperdrive. If we jump in just outside the jump limit and hyper in, we can be among them before they even realize we’ve arrived. Is this one of those situations where we need to call for them to surrender?”

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and turned to consider Tobin and India. “They’ve had mercenaries attack us on the ground, and we know they’re sending armed military vessels into the Confederation for a coup. Even so, we haven’t exchanged shots in space yet. I’m of two minds on the subject and want your opinions. Should I consider them hostile to the point where a sneak attack is acceptable? If it is, we can wreck them in one salvo.”

“They’ve gone to the point of building shipyards inside a hidden system and are building ships based on our own designs to attack us,” Tobin said. “If we announce our presence, they’ll have a chance to mobilize, and the shipyards will be able to erase critical data. If you’re looking for my opinion on the matter, sir, I think they’ve demonstrated their hostile intent sufficiently for us to engage them without warning.”

“I concur,” India said. “We’re not fighting by Queensberry rules here. Pop out right in front of them and punch their lights out. We can sort out everything once that’s done.”

That’s about what he’d expected India to say, so he nodded. As far as Tobin, he hadn’t been sure what the man’s advice would be. If he had worked for the Poseidon Group, he’d probably have cautioned against an outright attack. Was Tobin being a bit more aggressive than he might otherwise be to prove his loyalty? If so, it was working.

“Take us in, Derek. Instruct the exploration ship to hit the other side of the system and give it a good look. We don’t know that these are the only cruisers waiting for us, and we don’t want to be surprised by a group on the other side of the system. Once we get deeper into the gravity well, we’ll have the advantage in movement, but if we can prevent any of the ships from warning their compatriots that they’ve lost the shipyards, I think that’s to our benefit.”

Sixty seconds later, they jumped into the outer limits of the target system. They were far enough out that he wasn’t worried about any of the ships or stations detecting his emergence.

“I can now confirm that most of those space stations are indeed shipyards,” Amanda said. “I’m picking up construction slips attached to each of them. Six per shipyard. Sir, it looks like there are incomplete ships inside the slips. Using passive sensors, I can’t tell what condition they’re in, but they don’t have active fusion plants.”

“You said that most of them are shipyards,” Jack said. “What are the others?”

“One of them seems to be a standard Navy orbital space station. It’s pretty much in the middle of the shipyards, so I’d wager it’s their command center.”

Jack tapped the comm button on the arm of his chair and signaled Mac. “We’ve identified a command post in the middle of the shipyards. Standard Confederation Navy layout space station, I’d imagine. Does that fit into the plans you’ve already made, Colonel?”

“It does, sir. With the number of Marines I have available, I’d be able to assault that station and the closest few shipyards. If we take out their command and control, it’s possible we could convince the others to surrender.”

“Incoming quantum jump,” Derek said. “It’s the exploration ship. Twenty-five seconds until we get their report.”

“Get your people ready to go, Mac,” Jack said. “Do you want us to drop you right in their faces or come in with stealth?”

“Stealth has too much of a chance of them picking up one of my pinnaces on the way in,” the Marine officer said. “I’ve looked at how they’re laid out, and even with the asteroid belt right there, there’s not enough cover. If they were orbiting a planet, we could probably make that work, but not out in the open like this. If we’re ready to launch the moment we appear, that will give us the best chance of successfully taking the station before they do anything irrevocable.”

“Then get your people ready. We jump in fifteen minutes.”

“We’ll be ready, sir. Turner out.”

Derek spoke as the new data appeared on the screen at the front of the bridge. “It looks like there’s a second group of cruisers deeper in the gravity well, sir. At least fifty vessels. They may not be ready to deploy if they’ve got relatively inexperienced crews.”

Something like eighty cruisers were in the system, not counting the hundred and fifty still under construction. He had no idea what their total number of ships was, but it was possible that they’d deployed the rest already. In fact, it was an almost certainty.

He wondered if they’d practiced fighting against a battleship. They certainly wouldn’t have experience with some of the tricks he could pull, even though the data about his capabilities was not a secret to their leadership.

“Amanda, when we pop out near that station, I want you to use the lasers at the lowest possible settings. I understand that will burn holes right through them, but I would be grateful if you could steer clear of anything that will cause that station to explode. We need what’s in their computers, so keep them as intact as possible. Clear?”

“Clear, sir. If we can pop in on one side and let me make a pass while we drop off the pinnaces, then jump out and come back on their other side, I should be able to do that very quickly. They’ll have a lot of phased packet plasma guns, but other than chewing off the surface of our hull, that’s not a threat in the short term. That will change when we engage a large number of cruisers, and they can target their fire on specific areas, but we’ll have benefit of surprise this time.”

“Good enough. Make it happen.”

They waited to give the Marines time to prepare to deploy, and when Mac called about five minutes early, saying they were ready, Jack gave the order to engage. In a moment, they vanished from their current location and appeared directly next to the space station. It was so close that he was certain collision alarms were ringing on the station.

“Firing lasers,” Amanda said. “I’m getting good hits, and the station is laid out exactly like the big one orbiting Argent. That means we know where their weapons are, where their computers are, and where their fusion plants are. This side is clear. Launch the Marines.”

Jack gave him the order, and Marine pinnaces started flying out of his ship as fast as they could launch. A few shipyards were in plasma gun range, but none opened fire. Either that meant they were unarmed, or they’d been caught so flat-footed that the weapons weren’t ready to fire. That wouldn’t remain true for long, so he was hoping for the former.

The moment the Marines were clear, Derek took them out of the system and returned to the other side of the station. Amanda opened to fire even as the phased packet plasma guns on that side started peppering them.

Another fifteen seconds and the station was disarmed. None of the shipyards had engaged them. “Amanda, go to active sensors and tell me if those shipyards are armed.”

“Full active sensors online. No weapons detected. That cost-saving measure will likely cost them everything. The cruisers in the slips are mostly complete. Looks like the hulls are done, and they’re being built up on the inside. No active fusion plants and likely no weapons. They’re not a threat. Also, the slips look to be configurable. Rather than supporting a single cruiser, they could be redeployed into a much larger array that could build stations like the one they’re using as a command post, if it were built in chunks. I’d bet that’s how it was constructed.”

“Excellent. Worst case, we might have interdicted almost a third of their planned attack force. Best case, maybe almost half. That’ll hurt them. Jump back out of the system and reposition Hunter nearest the smaller group of cruisers. As soon as we come out, engage the hyperdrive and take us in.”

“Just a fair warning, sir. While we’ll hit that group without them being aware of what’s going on, the larger group will have a chance to see what’s happening to the station before we can get to them,” Derek said. “They’re too deep into the gravity well for us to beat word of our attack. They’ll be ready for us.”

“Then we’ll give them a chance to surrender after they see what we can do to their other ships. Get us moving. It’s time to kick some ass.”

27

Lisa was glad that she’d convinced David to hold off trying to follow up on his lead until she’d made certain everything would be undetectable. Patrick had spooked her pretty badly with his talk about how she hadn’t found all the programs in their system, so she’d been scouring things for days to make sure they weren’t monitored.

She’d even gone to the trouble of disconnecting their computer systems—except for the one that came with the planetary defense headquarters—from one another to be certain they were properly isolated. The odds of him being able to get into one of the alien systems were incomprehensibly low, but at this point, she wasn’t willing to rule it out.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t turned up anything, making her pretty sure he’d been yanking her chain. It had worked, too. Even though they’d gotten the information off to Admiral Romanoff, she still worried it was a trick. After all, she was going solely off the word of someone who killed people for money.

That didn’t keep her from worming her way into the traffic control system illegally—well, it would’ve been illegal if she hadn’t had tacit permission—and looking over it for any hacks. To her amusement, she found several. Some of them were blatant, and then there was the program that Patrick preferred.

A lot of people wanted to know what was going on in the traffic system, but she supposed that made sense. None of the lesser hacks was as intrusive as what the assassin had done, and the way he’d rigged the cameras to respond to his specialized transponder was genius. First of all, he’d had to break through the security protecting those emergency transponders and add numbers of his own without triggering a response from the people who should have been monitoring them. Based on how long he’d been doing this, he was either paying someone off, or they were incompetent. Maybe both were true.

Interestingly, she was able to use one of the hacks that was already present for her own ends. The hacker had been sloppy, but since his work hadn’t been detected by the authorities but had probably been found by Patrick, she could use that to her advantage.

The transponder code that David had wanted to follow up on had stopped working about twelve hours after he’d found it, but another one that was on their marked list of suspicious codes activated shortly after that. She followed each of those codes as they did their business and wondered if she was watching an assassin go about his work. Was Patrick busy scouting out a target? Had he actually killed someone?

Even knowing what the assassin looked like, she hadn’t made any headway in identifying him. He was a ghost. That had to be by design, which meant the man knew how to erase himself from the system. If he hadn’t bothered to poke at them, no one would likely be aware of him.

She didn’t know what his motives truly were, but she doubted he’d been telling her the truth. Whatever his goals, they’d be more concrete than just fighting back against the conspiracy because it represented a threat to his comfortable world. There was a deeper story, and she needed to figure out what it was.

The first step was getting inside that underground storage pad she’d finally identified as the parking area where the van had been parked without triggering any alerts. Even better, they needed to get in without leaving a trace that they’d been there. Patrick had come to the spaceport more than once, but the visits were separated by long periods of time. Whatever was down there wasn’t something he was constantly accessing, but it was important to him. That meant he’d go out of his way to either protect it or make sure he’d be notified if it were messed with.

Probably both.

To counteract at least some of the initial danger, they’d be using small drones to scout the facility through the air vents. These weren’t flying devices but ones that looked like insects. In fact, they were designed to act like actual bugs, and so long as they didn’t do anything out of the ordinary or have a betraying signal, they should be fine.

Interestingly, the best person to run the drones turned out to be Christine Hooghuis. Pulling her out of the work she was doing on part two of the documentary about defending the cluster against the Locusts has been difficult, but Lisa had managed by promising her a lovely dinner. Now the two of them were sitting in a small civilian aircar about half a kilometer from the storage pad.

The bugs had been making their way in for fifteen minutes now, and it was about time for one of them to make its way back out and send them some information. Depending on what it showed, they would know if it was safe to go inside. The problem was that even if things were clear, they wouldn’t know what security precautions were in place.

It was a risk, but one she was willing to take. David was nearby with a bunch of Marines, ready to come in if there was a problem. Once they had the storage pad open, he’d go over whatever they found inside.

“We’ve got our signal,” Christine said. “The bug didn’t find anything transmitting, so if we cut the hardwired comm cables and jam it pretty good, we have a more than even chance of remaining undetected.”

Personally, Lisa didn’t think that would work out for them, but if they got more information about the assassin, it would be worth it. Rather than argue, she simply smiled. “I’ll make that happen.”

She pulled out a borrowed comm and called David. He was also using a new number, so Patrick shouldn’t realize it was them.

“You’ve got Ray,” David said. “What’s up?”

“Want to do dinner tonight?” she asked in a flirtatious voice. “It’s been a while, and I could use a bit of dancing and some nice wine. Maybe more if the mood strikes.”

That was the code that everything looked good, and he could kill the hardwired comm signals.

“That sounds good. I don’t get off work until about three hours from now, so how about we say seven?”

“Works for me. See you then.”

She disconnected and opened the door to the air car, then hefted her satchel over her shoulder. They’d be coming toward the storage pad’s entrance from the side, so the odds of them being detected before David got the jammers in place were low.

“Do you really think this will work?” Christine asked as she walked beside her.

“Not really, but it’s worth a try. I think there’s probably a signal we’re not detecting, or there’s going to be something inside that has a way of getting information out that we’re not monitoring. This guy has proven that he’s exceptionally resourceful. We’ll do the best we can and see what happens.”

Walking around the outside of the enclosed storage pad, she placed jammers at various distances around its perimeter and stopped near the entrance to get the last one in place without the camera seeing her. Then she backed up a little and used her tablet to activate them. David should be monitoring for the jammers, and he would know to come in.

Right on schedule, a Marine pinnace flew over the spaceport from the other side and came in for an abrupt landing directly in front of the storage pad. The Marines came rushing out to guard the perimeter while two of their number went straight for the personnel hatch. They could’ve gone for the larger door where spacecraft were moved in and out, but the smaller one was much more manageable.

Almost immediately, they ran into trouble getting through the security. It was nonstandard, and resisted their attempts to force it. She’d volunteered to handle that aspect, but the Marines worked off a different playbook. One that involved high explosives.

As soon as she saw them putting shaped charges up against the hatch, she jogged up the ramp and into the pinnace with Christine at her heels. Far better to be protected from the blast than caught by surprise.

The Marines came flooding back in after a few moments, and the pinnace lifted off to circle around above as the explosives detonated. It was always possible that whatever was in the storage pad would explode. That was one sure way to make certain that no one who breached any of the doors got anything to use against the assassin.

She wasn’t in position to see the blast below, but she didn’t feel anything heavy enough to be dangerous to the pinnace before it circled around and landed again. The Marines raced back out and rushed into the hole in the side of the pad where they planted their explosives.

Neither she, David, nor Christine followed them immediately. Making sure that the area was clear was their job.

Her comm chimed. They were parked far enough away that the jammers didn’t affect it, even though it kept the storage pad completely isolated. The only person with this number was standing right next to her, so this couldn’t be good. “Hello?”

“Hello, Lisa. This is Patrick. Just checking in to see how you’re doing after all the excitement.”

“Since this isn’t even my comm unit, you obviously know where we are and what we’re up to,” she said with a sigh. “I thought I had the communications systems locked down at the spaceport, but you’re a lot better than I expected. How could you figure out which comm was mine so fast?”

He chuckled. “I’ll never tell. Sadly, now that you’ve found my little hidey hole at the spaceport, I have to reassess my security measures. You, my dear, are amazing. Almost as good as me.”

“Let’s not get carried away.”

That made him laugh outright. “Let me assure you there’s nothing that’s blatantly dangerous inside. Not in the condition everything is stored, anyway. In any case, I’m sentimentally attached to the contents, so try not to break things I might want back later.”

“How did you know we were here?” she asked.

“If you search the storage pads adjacent to mine, you’ll find detectors made to sense jammers. Me finding out you were there was inevitable. I must say, you make a very competent adversary.”

She felt her heart do a little flip-flop. “I’m not sure I want an assassin to think I’m their adversary. This isn’t personal.”

He laughed again, seemingly unbothered that they’d found his secret stash. “I knew this day would eventually come, and nothing in there will lead you to me, though it will confuse you a great deal. I’m not ready to explain what you’ll find, but it will raise some questions. I’m aware you’ve isolated all your computers in the planetary defense headquarters, and that does make my job a little harder, but I can’t wait to find out what you really think about what you’ve found.”

“Why not just tell me and hear my comments for yourself?”

“Where is the fun in that? Now listen closely as this is very important. One, seven, twelve, nine, five, one. Right to left, top down. Don’t screw up the order, even though it might not be presented in the way you expect. That would be dangerous. Now repeat it back to me.”

She did so, wondering what the code would open and why he’d presented it as being posted backward.

“Excellent,” he said. “This game of cat and mouse is different than hunting people that need to die, and it’s a refreshing change of pace. I can’t wait to hear about your next move. Until then, keep looking over that pretty shoulder. One day, I’ll be there, and we’ll have another chat. Ta.”

Patrick disconnected without waiting for her response, and she was pretty sure that trying to trace the number would prove useless. She gave it to David anyway, and he started the process, but Patrick would’ve already gotten rid of the device.

She gave the other two an exaggerated shudder and walked down the ramp. Whatever was in there, she had to see it.

Christine followed her out, and she was amused to see that the woman had deployed one of her flying drones from inside the pinnace. She hadn’t expected her friend to bring one, but it didn’t surprise her. Everything was good fodder for her documentary.

The Marines were still searching, and they didn’t want to let her in, but she waved off their objections and stepped inside anyway. If Patrick had wanted to kill her, he’d already had the chance. She wanted to see what mystery they were about to uncover.

The storage pad was designed to hold a private cutter or similar vessel. Based on the tarp-covered object in the center of the room, it did. There were also containers and crates scattered about the periphery of the bay. The Marines were still searching underneath the tarp, so she contented herself by walking over to a table set up along one wall, grabbing one of the containers, and placing it on top of it.

It almost certainly wasn’t booby-trapped because this was a simple flip case with no lock whatsoever. It was randomly selected and should be perfectly safe. She opened the lid and found a sleek-looking rifle that had been broken down into component parts and put into little niches in the protective foam.

She knew a little about guns, and this one didn’t look right to her. In fact, it didn’t look like a gun in the way that she knew them. It had more in common with the Gauss rifles used by the Novarites.

“David, you need to see this,” she said when he came in.

He stepped over and looked into the case. “That’s a variant of one of the Novarite Gauss weapons, but it’s a lot sleeker,” he said. “Look at that long barrel and how narrow the magnetic field generators are. How did he get his hands on something like this?”

She started wondering what was in the other boxes, crates, and containers. Patrick had warned her that she would find something he thought she wouldn’t be able to understand, and he wasn’t wrong.

One of the Marines stepped over. “Everything looks clear, but there might still be some explosives somewhere. There’s a sealed cutter under the tarp, but it looks weird.”

“Weird, how?” she asked.

“The proportions are wrong. It’s long and slender but has a bulbous rear end that looks like it’s got a lot of equipment in it. Based on the number of antennae, this thing has a lot of passive sensor capability. As I said, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

Without waiting to hear more, she grabbed the tarp and began pulling. David and the Marine joined her, and they quickly had it on the floor. There were ropes on the other side, which was obviously how Patrick had managed to get the cover on top of the cutter, but she only barely noticed them.

As the man said, the cutter was long and sleek with a bulbous rear end. A ramp led out the rear, so she walked over to it and started up. The answers she was looking for were inside.

The hatch at the top didn’t look like a standard Confederation design. It was laid out roughly the same, but it was taller and more slender than the ones she’d seen before.

Sitting next to it was a numeric keypad, but it was just as strange as the rest of the ship. There were twelve keys, and each had an unknown sigil on it. Not numbers like she would’ve expected, but seemingly random squiggles that didn’t make any sense. It was three across and four tall.

Patrick had told her that she needed to go from right to left and top to bottom, so she mentally shrugged and typed in the code he’d given her, making certain she pressed hard enough to feel that the key had actuated. When she finished, the hatch slid open.

“I’m going to assume that he gave you that code, but how in the world could you recognize it by looking at it?” David asked.

“His directions, while succinct, were straight and to the point. What language is that?”

“No clue. Let’s take a look around.”

She followed him into the cutter, and her guess that the rear end was filled with passive sensors was immediately confirmed, though the equipment was strange to the eye. She could guess what some of it was meant for, but none of it was Confederation standard. For that matter, it didn’t look like it was made by the Novarites or their Tardan slaves either.

David ignored the equipment and headed straight toward the front of the craft. The middle section of the cutter seemed to be made for long-term occupancy. It wasn’t luxurious by any means, but it had everything one could want. Who built a cutter that someone could live aboard long term?

The control area up front was made for a single person, and the acceleration couch was slightly recessed into the floor, allowing the occupant to utilize the ceiling and every spare centimeter of space to either watch a screen or manipulate controls. This was far more than any cutter she’d ever seen before. It was overkill.

“Let’s see if we can get this couch to slide back so we can slip inside and take a better look,” David said. He examined the chair and found a latch to the side that he could manipulate and pull the chair back along a rail. That gave him more room to slide into the acceleration couch and edge his way forward.

“Why build something like this?” she asked. “What kind of purpose does it serve?”

“I don’t know the answer to that, but I’m pretty sure we’re not going to like it when we figure it out,” David said as he brought out his comm unit and began taking a video of all the controls. “You know how the numeric keypad in the back had a strange language on it? All these controls have something similar. I have no idea where this came from, and it worries me.”

She stuck her head behind the acceleration couch to get a look at some of the controls herself. She wasn’t a pilot but seeing the foreign language confirmed everything she’d been afraid of. The mystery of Patrick the assassin had just gotten a lot more complicated. Unless she missed her guess, this cutter hadn’t been built in the Confederation. It was an alien ship.

Who was Patrick, and what was he doing with an alien ship? Was he part of some branch of the Poseidon Group, and they’d found this cutter somewhere? Whatever game he was playing, it had just become a lot more serious.

“I’ll try to access the computers in the back after you send me the video you took,” she said. “We need to know what he’s up to because he’s not a random player.”

“You do that. I’ll get to work trying to find what language this is. I suspect I’m going to be looking in vain, but there are certain steps that have to be followed. We’ll go over this cutter and everything in the storage pad with a fine-toothed comb. Whoever Patrick is, whatever organization he represents, I suspect the answer isn’t going to make us happy.”

She shook her head. “No, I expect it won’t.”

Once she had the video, she examined it closely as the footage played. Have you ever seen anything like this?

<I see similarities between the weapon you looked at and what the Novarites built, but I don’t believe they come from the same technological base. I’ve never seen the language or this particular design of small craft. It looks to be a higher technological level than either the Novarites or my people. Lisa, I believe this craft might belong to the aliens that the Novarites have been fighting.>

That makes sense, but it raises even more questions that I don’t like. That acceleration couch was designed for something very much like a human. They are roughly the same size as us, using arms on the upper torso. Those look like a couple of foot switches at the bottom. I don’t believe in parallel evolution, so they won’t be human, but it raises the question of how Patrick got his hands on this.

<The next time you talk to him, you should ask. As to whether or not this came from the enemies that the Novarites have been fighting, I’d wager there will be something buried in the classified files on the computers recovered from the large Novarite ships. It just became a priority to get more information about them.>

Why is it that you haven’t heard anything about them? Why would the Novarites keep basic details secret?

<Because we don’t fight wars, and they don’t see us as deserving to know any of this information. The same is true with the lower-ranking members of their crews. Whatever the answer is to this mystery, it seems Patrick was being straightforward. It has definitely raised more questions than we had before.>

She headed back toward the rear section to search for a computer. There would be something aboard the ship to record whatever data was pulled in by the sensors, and she and Regex would have to figure out how to access it. They wouldn’t have a roadmap about how to do so either because neither of them would’ve ever interfaced with anything like this.

That probably meant the task would be impossible, but she wasn’t going to rule it out until she tried. Hopefully, none of this technology had ended up in the hands of the Poseidon Group because a surprise like that at the wrong moment could be deadly.

28

Mac let the first wave of pinnaces board the station before he went in. Hunter had cleared all active weapons emplacements, but that didn’t mean their entry would be unopposed. These people had to know that they faced a death sentence for treason, and they’d fight to the death if he allowed them the opportunity to dig themselves in.

The station was the same size and design as the one in orbit around Argent. That gave them the benefit of knowing its layout so they could designate specific teams to kill the power and seize the engineering spaces. Under normal circumstances, those would be heavily guarded, but they’d struck without warning, and the defenses would be hasty.

Some teams would use the maintenance corridors to get close, and those would likely not be guarded during this initial combat wave. The enemy just didn’t have time to think of all the potential places his Marines could strike, and he wasn’t going to give it to them.

He’d split his attack force into five different parts, with the largest attacking the station but the other four hitting the nearest of the shipyards. He needed to know what they would face there and whether those things were armed. Depending on what they found, it was possible they would strike the other shipyards once the station was secured. The goal was to take as much of the system intact as possible, so long as it was safe to do so.

He expected the stiffest resistance to come from the station and the cruisers that Hunter would engage. The shipyards themselves would be filled with engineers and technicians. After all, this was their secret base, and there was no way anyone could know they were there. Besides, they were protected by dozens of cruisers, so there was no call for the crews aboard the shipyards to be armed to the teeth.

The initial reports began coming in from his boarding parties, and they were meeting some resistance as they penetrated the airlocks they’d selected, but nothing as heavy as he’d feared. The Marines were heavily armored and ready to face the equivalent of Novarite resistance, so regular human beings with small arms weren’t going to stop them.

The only thing that had him feeling uncertain about what would happen was his companion. Sitting beside him in the command pinnace was Sara Nastasi. She wasn’t a Marine, and even though she’d killed people in combat, she wasn’t a fighter. She was a lawyer and a judge by training, and if what he suspected was true, his commanding officer’s girlfriend.

Her presence ensured he’d be a bit more cautious than he might otherwise be, and he was second-guessing allowing her to talk him into taking her with him. Her logic might have been valid in that having someone that wasn’t a Marine do the talking to the enemy would be helpful in perhaps convincing them to surrender, but he was taking a chance. When Jack found out, he might be pretty angry.

He’d taken all the precautions he could, strapping her into an armored vac suit just like he wore and arming her to the teeth. She wouldn’t know how to use the rifle strapped across her chest, but if she was pinned down, he’d wager she could figure it out. The goal was to keep her out of the conflict, but things happened in a firefight.

“All teams have penetrated their airlocks and are proceeding toward their targets,” Beth said over the command channel. “Resistance was moderate, but it doesn’t look like they were prepared to repel us. Only a couple were in armor, and their weapons were light for what they needed to do. We’ve taken some casualties, but nobody is dead yet.”

Utter surprise could do that to someone, he knew. Hunter had appeared directly off their flank and chewed up their exterior weaponry. They’d had maybe fifteen seconds of engagement time before he’d begun launching his pinnaces.

Getting to the station took a couple of minutes, but that was nothing in a combat situation where they’d be running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The panic they’d no doubt felt had impaired their ability to respond.

“We’re thirty seconds out,” the pilot said over his private channel. “I’ll latch us to the hull, and you’re free to go.”

“Copy that.” He switched channels to talk to the rest of the command squad. “Thirty seconds. Deploy as planned.” He turned to Sara. “You’re with me. Don’t get ahead of us, and do everything your minder tells you to do. Clear?”

“Clear,” she said evenly. “Try not to shoot all the prisoners. We need to know what they’re doing so we can send information back to the Confederation. We also need their computers intact.”

“Everyone already knows that. Right now, they’re still disorganized, and we won’t give them a chance to get organized. My people will hit them from unexpected angles and keep them off-balance. We’ve got the maps to this station, and while they might know it better than we do, we’ve had time to plan exactly how we’ll do this, and they won’t be able to respond quickly enough. Just keep yourself safe, and you’ll have prisoners to talk to.”

Seconds later, the pinnace latched itself to the station’s hull, and the ramp came down. All his people were trained in zero-G operations and quickly used their suit’s built-in thrusters to get to the airlock they were targeting. He was pleased to see that the Confederation overrides still worked—someone had really screwed the pooch on that—and they were able to access the interior of the station without any trouble.

Based on the attack plan, this area should have already fallen, and they wouldn’t be walking into a hot zone. He wasn’t about to take that for granted, so his people went in expecting combat. All they found was a pair of Marines waiting for them.

“Report,” Mac said as he entered the station, hearing gunfire somewhere off in the corridors through the external microphone and then an explosion.

“We’ve got the general area around this airlock under lock and key, sir,” the Marine said. “Some squads report they’re beginning to run into organized resistance, mainly centered around the armory. The teams hitting the command-and-control areas are making good progress and should have breaches within the next few minutes.”

“If I can talk to them, I might be able to get them to put their arms down,” Sara said. “They have to know that they won’t be able to keep you out. Once you seize the fusion plants, their ability to destroy the station is gone.”

“I don’t have any objection to you talking to them, but it’s going to be from a distance,” Mac said. “As for the engineering spaces, we either have those under control already, or we’re about to. My tactical display shows they tried to hold them but didn’t have the personnel to keep us pinned down. This station is ours. The only question now is how much more blood we have to spill securing it.”

The command squad advanced until they were near the control areas and found a compartment they could hole up in. He had his people watching the maintenance access ways because if it was him, he’d have had people buried in the station looking for where they could cause trouble. Even if it wasn’t official, some people would try to escape the fighting by hiding there. It would be a pain to flush them out, but he’d done it before.

“All engineering spaces are fully under our control, sir,” Beth said. “Ready to proceed to stage two.”

“Go to proceed.”

The overhead lights went out, and the emergency lights came on. Gravity slacked off over about thirty seconds, and the Marines activated their magnetic boots. Mac made sure Sara had done the same.

Then the life-support system shut down. They’d keep it off until the air got bad enough to drive any hideouts into surrendering. Why shoot your way through someone if their inability to breathe would send them right into your arms?

“So, how do we do this?” Sara asked. “You’ve got them where you want them, but I need to talk them into giving up. If Robin is still here, I might be able to use our former friendship to convince her to do what’s best for herself and the people here, but I need to talk to her to make that happen.”

Mac walked over to the communications unit built into the wall. It was a standard Confederation design, so being able to ping someone in the control area wasn’t hard to figure out. He walked her through connecting the comm unit in her suit to it and then how to initiate a call to the control area. There was no telling who would answer—if anyone—but they could forward her to someone in a position to negotiate if they were willing to talk at all.

No one answered, but that didn’t seem to bother Sara. She disconnected and called again. She could keep doing so as long as she needed to.

“I’ll leave some of my people with you,” he said. “This is a secure zone, and they’ll keep you safe. Whoever is in there will want to talk at some point, but I want to get the station secured before they get a chance to do something stupid.”

She nodded as she continued to try and get a hold of someone. He wished her luck. Her success meant he didn’t have to kill even more people. Or have any of his people killed.

Examining the tactical map, he saw they hadn’t fully taken over the area around the armory. That was still a hotspot, but the rest of the station was falling in the line. Running into the random people with sidearms wouldn’t keep a squad of Marines from advancing. All it would do was leave dead defenders in their wake.

“Beth, we need to secure the armory and put down the last of the resistance,” he said of the command channel. “Bring some of your people in from your side, and I’ll do the same from the other. We’ll catch them in between and force an engagement. There’s no maintenance access to the armory, so we’ll have to fight our way in. Let’s make it quick and not give them a chance to harden their defenses more than they already have.”

“Copy that,” she replied. “We’ll be in position in five minutes.”

“See you there.”

At this point, the people gathered around the armory would be the most hard-core defenders. Everyone else seemed to be lightly armed and mostly unarmored. Those they’d fought this far were probably general security forces, but there would be a core group that wasn’t ready to give up. As they were situated around the armory, they’d be armored, armed, and pugnacious.

His people advanced up the corridors carefully, using the zero-G to their advantage as they slipped into the area around the armory. The people inside were most likely unused to working without gravity because no one really had to do so, and only the most dedicated fighters trained for that. People like his Marines.

The defenders would run into problems dealing with the recoil from their firearms, and their accuracy would be crap. They’d find ways to deal with that, but it wouldn’t help them in the short run. To learn, they had to survive, and he’d make sure that didn’t happen.

Mac put out a call for people using the Novarite Gauss weapons to join him. While they still had to deal with recoil, the armor penetration of the flechettes would be enough to make a real difference once they’d penetrated the armory itself.

They had drones working in the life-support system to spy on the area around the armory. That wouldn’t get them anything from inside the secured zone, but it let them know where the barricades were set up in the corridors. Right now, the armory doors were halfway open, and they were still passing weapons out. Looking at how uncoordinated they seemed to be, he was willing to bet they hadn’t trained in zero-G at all. That would cost them.

“We’re in position,” Beth said. “Are we going to use the lawnmowers first?”

He laughed at how she said it, but he knew she meant the Novarite Gauss weapons. They would pretty much cut down anything in their path, so perhaps the analogy worked.

“Yes. Have our people toss a couple of grenades to get their attention, and then our people can chew up the barricades. As soon as we’ve got an opening, I want everyone to rush in and keep pressing the enemy. If we can get a rocket into the armory before they get that door closed, there might be some truly impressive secondary explosions. I like fireworks.”

“We’ll see what we can do. Moving in thirty seconds.”

“Copy that. See you on the other side.”

He had one of his grenadiers moved up to just around the corner from the enemy. Behind the woman, two Marines carrying the Gauss weapons took position with their teammates helping to hold them ready. It really would take a village to keep the recoil from sending them back the way they’d come, but his people were prepared.

When the timer hit zero, he ordered them to advance, and the grenadier fired three grenades down the corridor. Two hit the barricade, and one hit the bulkhead behind the defenders. Their armor was good, but it wasn’t that good. He saw signs of people thrashing behind the defenses and knew they’d struck flesh.

Then the people wielding the Gauss weapons opened fire. The heavy flechettes blew their way through the barricade and chewed up everyone behind it. After spending a lot of momentum going through the obstacle, he was still amazed that some of the projectiles pierced armor well enough to kill.

When he judged the time right, he ordered them to cease fire, and the Marines advanced on the barricade. The defenders were in disarray, but some of them were still firing. The barricade would be contested for at least a little bit, and this was his opportunity to try and end this fight before it spiraled out of control.

He launched himself around the corner and adroitly slipped to kick off the wall just as he threw one of the Novarite grenades. He aimed for the partly open hatch leading into the armory, but even a miss would decimate the defenders.

To his surprise and pleasure, the grenade sailed through the closing hatch. The detonation was quiet, as it was only magnetic generators sending lethal slivers of metal flying. A secondary explosion blasted flame, debris, and body parts through the narrow opening, but most of the blast was contained.

His people quickly overwhelmed the remaining defenders and killed or captured them. Beth made her way over after the fighting had ceased and shook her head. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”

“Everybody else was busy, so I felt it was my duty to make sure they didn’t get to lock themselves inside the armory with all those pretty weapons.”

She eyed the smoking hatch. “Let’s give that a few minutes to let the fires go out, and then we’ll go in and see what’s left. Frankly, I can’t imagine anybody survived. In any case, that’s it for the organized resistance. We took the computer core intact, and the fusion plants can be brought online whenever you’re ready. The only area we haven’t breached yet is the command-and-control section. I’ve had my people disconnecting everything but the comm connections to that zone, so they won’t be able to do anything in about ten minutes. We’ll be able to start bringing the power back online under local control and restore gravity and life support once we’ve searched every little nook and cranny.”

“Play this like every other mission where we have to search and seize. I want every place the enemy can be hiding eyeballed three times. Sweep from one end to the other, and make sure nobody gets missed. If they want to give up, let them. If they’ve got a weapon, shoot them.”

“Can do. Are you going to join Commodore Nastasi?”

He nodded. “We need to get our hands on some high-level prisoners so they can start answering some questions. We need to know if we’ve caught them with their pants down or if they’ve already run. That would make a big difference in what we do going forward.”

“Understood. I’ll make it happen. The four shipyards we sent people to didn’t have armed defenders. In fact, they seemed shocked that we were attacking them and surrendered. I guess they never thought anyone would come looking for them.”

“Hubris comes in all shapes and sizes,” he said as he pushed himself around to head back up the corridor. “Have them secure the personnel and then send people to every shipyard. Tell them we’re coming and see if they’ll surrender in advance. I want them all locked down before the admiral finishes fighting the ships in the system.”

“Will do. I hope they don’t have any ugly surprises for him.”

“Me, too.”

29

About every five minutes, Sara tried to get someone inside the command control section to respond, but there was no answer. The Marines nearby would no doubt be happy to breach the area and take out any resistance, but she was hoping to avoid that. Getting their hands on some high-ranking prisoners could be critical, and she wasn’t going to give up on a chance at making it happen. Sooner or later, someone would answer.

Mac showed up after a while. “We’ve secured the rest of the station and are searching for any holdouts. They don’t have access to heavy weapons or the engineering spaces, so this fight is over except for the cleanup.”

“That sounds great. I wish I could get someone in there to actually acknowledge my presence. It’s like they’re ostriches, and they’ve buried their heads in the sand.”

He smiled at her through the faceplate of his helmet. “I think we can get them to raise their heads if you don’t mind a little noise. The hatch they have securing the command-and-control area is pretty thick, but we brought along a plasma torch that can get through it. They might be more willing to talk if we start cutting a hole in the hatch. I’ll also restore the lights and gravity out here, but not life support. These people might have an ace up their sleeves, so I don’t want to wait them out.”

She nodded her acquiescence and watched as he began maneuvering his breaching team to cut their way into the command-and-control area. There were other Marines set up to open fire if the people inside decided to swarm out, so they were covered one way or the other.

Fifteen minutes later, after the lights and gravity had been restored, there was a blinding light down the corridor, and the cutting was underway. Less than two minutes later, her comm chimed with an incoming call. It looked like their knocking at the door might be having a salutary effect.

She answered after it buzzed a couple of times. “Are you ready to talk?”

“Is that you, Sara?” Robin Monahan asked. “What are our options?”

“Surrender or die. If the Marines have to cut their way through that hatch, they will come in shooting. That means anyone with a weapon gets killed, and anyone unlucky enough to be hit by a stray round also dies. If you want to avoid that, lay down your weapons and open the hatch on my command. You’ll be taken into custody, and that will be the end of the shooting.”

“And what about terms for our surrender? What do we gain by giving ourselves up without a fight?”

“If you’re looking for a reduction in what you’d be punished for, you don’t have that much to negotiate with. We’ve captured your computers, and you already know how good our hackers are. We’ll find out what we need to know, and I’m not willing to give you anything I don’t have to. This is an unconditional surrender, and the offer will not be repeated once the hatch is breached. If you want to bargain for anything more, you’ll have to make it worth our while, so I’d talk fast.”

It was quiet for a few seconds before Robin spoke again. “What do you want to take capital punishment off the table? Don’t say that you want everything because that won’t happen. We’re all true believers here and won’t betray everything we’ve worked so hard for, but I’m certain that there are things that we can give you to make it worth your while to allow us to live out a life sentence. Let’s work out a deal.”

“You know what a plea agreement is for, just like me. It’s a tool to save people from having to do the hard work. Sometimes you know you’ve got someone dead to rights, but it will take an awful lot to get them convicted. As a former judge and lawyer, I know you get it. Unfortunately, I’m not willing to give you an out.”

She took a deep breath and continued before the other woman could speak. “Each and every one of you has been caught red-handed. You’ll be convicted and sentenced to death unless you give up a lot more than I suspect you’re willing to part with. You personally executed a Navy officer, and you’ll die for that. Nothing you say or do will convince me you deserve to live. The only real question left is how you die. Will it be today, or will it be after years of litigation? Will it be painless, or will it be screaming in agony?”

“You really need to work on your negotiation skills,” her ex-friend said. “That kind of deal won’t get anyone to surrender. I’d rather not die today, but if that’s what’s called for, I’m willing to pay that price for what we gain. Do your worst.”

Sara chuckled without the slightest bit of humor. “You have no idea what Marines can do when they break into that control area and start shooting everything in sight. The blood, the screaming, and the death you will have to deal with is unimaginable. So, you’re not willing to surrender and answer our questions in detail. I can accept that. What about all the people listening to this? Do you think they have the same level of commitment? Let me put it on the line for you. Everyone that surrenders right now will live to be tried another day, and those that fully cooperate expediently might—might—find a way to have their sentence reduced to life in prison. As I said, this is a one-time offer, and it ends the moment the assault begins.”

“You’re going to be very disappointed,” her friend said. “Nobody in here is will—”

A loud shot made Sara twitch. “We surrender,” a different voice said. “All of you stay back. I’m not going to die today. Put that gun down. Put it down!”

Whoever the man was talking to didn’t put the gun down. In fact, several people began shooting as the people inside the command-and-control area turned on one another. That hadn’t been her intention, but on reflection, it might’ve been inevitable. She wanted to grieve for the woman she’d gone to the academy with but only felt hollow inside.

“Allow me to compliment your negotiation skills,” Mac said in a wry tone after he reached over to mute the outgoing signal. “My people will cut their way in, and we’ll see which way this goes. If they want to keep talking to you, try to keep them from shooting each other.”

“I’ll admit this has not been my finest moment negotiating a plea agreement,” she said with a grimace. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”

The sound of fighting inside the command-and-control area wound down over the next thirty seconds, and she could still hear moving and screaming. Maybe it was more than one scream. She couldn’t tell.

She un-muted the channel and tried to get someone to answer, but either they couldn’t hear her or were too busy to pay her any attention. She muted it again and raised an eyebrow at Mac. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t kill everyone in there.”

“We’ve got specialists that can go in and take down anybody that’s resisting. We won’t shoot them if they’re not armed or fighting. I’m not sure anybody in there will be able to answer questions immediately, though.”

“It is what it is. We all have to fight the war in our own way, and these people made their choices. Cut your way in, and let’s lock this place down. If they’re willing to talk to me, maybe I can get some information to help Jack.”

“You’ll have to stay out here until we have that room secure,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument. “Once we do that, we’ll bring the prisoners out and do whatever we can for the wounded. This is still my show until it’s over.”

“It’s your show,” she agreed, “but I will watch from the corridor until it’s done. I deserve to see this end.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn’t, and the two of them stood outside and watched the Marines work.

It took another ten minutes for the Marines to finish cutting through the hatch. They planted charges along the edges that had not been cut, peeled to either side of the hatch, and set them off. The portion holding everything together parted, and the hatch fell into the compartment.

The Marines rushed in, and there were a couple of shots and a lot of shouting. Any remaining fight went out of the defenders, and the battle was over.

It looked like there were half a dozen uninjured people that had surrendered, and they came out of the compartment with her hands bound behind their backs. Sara stepped over and saw medics working on several others inside the compartment.

The place was an abattoir that she knew would feature in her nightmares for years to come. There was blood everywhere, and dead bodies lay scattered across the floor. It looked like the Marines only had a few people they were working on, and they’d given up on the rest.

Seeing that it was safe, she stepped in and looked around for Robin. To her shock, the woman was one of the wounded being worked on. Someone had shot her in the back, but she was still alive. She was still conscious, though it didn’t seem she could speak.

Sara knelt beside her and looked into her ex-friend’s eyes from only a foot away. “Our choices have brought us where we are today. I chose to stand for the Confederation, and you chose to destroy it. I’ll see you brought to trial and executed with my own eyes. Remember how being shot feels because I wouldn’t be shocked if they brought back the firing squad for you and yours.”

Without waiting for a response, she stood and walked out of the compartment.

Mac was waiting in the corridor. “You can be hard, Sara. I like it. You realize you don’t have to do that, right?”

“I might not have to do it, but I will. She and the people like her swore oaths to the Confederation and worked actively to undermine it. They’ve gone so far beyond the pale that none of what they’ve done can be excused. Those people that we captured alive will have a chance to earn a life sentence, but I won’t make it easy for them. I’d much rather see them die for what they’ve done.”

He nodded and led her back to the compartment she’d been in. The half-dozen living prisoners had been strapped to chairs and were sitting there, their expressions showing shock and terror. Their eyes snapped to her when she came in and popped her helmet. Not even counting the poor air quality, the smell of gunpowder and blood almost made her gag, but she repressed her reaction.

“The six of you have been captured alive while committing treason against the Confederation,” she said. “The sentence for that is death. It’s within our authority to march you right to the nearest airlock and space you. I suggest you convince me to spare you for now by talking fast.”

“Some of these people aren’t going to cooperate,” one of the women said, “or they’re going to lie about everything they say. You’d be better off putting us in different compartments and asking us the same questions to see which ones you think are speaking the truth.”

The woman’s words sparked a lot of abusive language from some of the other people, and Sara gestured for Mac to have the Marines remove everyone else from the room. She’d deal with this one first and then talk to the others.

“My name is Sara Nastasi,” she said. “Who are you?”

“Kim Winters, one of the leaders here. I was in charge of the construction program.”

Sara pulled a chair over and sat in front of the bound woman. “Well, Miss Winters, I must commend you on your ability to create something like this. What I can’t commend you on is how you’re choosing to use those skills. Will you be one of the people that cooperates?”

Winters grimaced but nodded. “It won’t matter in the long run anyway. You’ve missed the fleet. They’re gone. They left more than a week ago. By now, they’re probably into the Confederation itself.”

That wasn’t the news she’d wanted to hear, but it wasn’t a huge surprise either.

“I gathered it was something like that since we didn’t find all the ships we expected here. Let’s start off with how many ships you built in total. I assume they’re all cruisers, but please correct my guess if I’m not correct.”

“That’s all we built,” Winters admitted. “We’ve got a hundred and fifty cruisers in the shipyards that are about eighty-five percent of the way done. We can have them finished—or we could have—in about another three months. Excluding them, we built four hundred and fifty cruisers.”

“Some of them are still in the system. Why?”

“You found us, and we didn’t expect that. Well, some of us were afraid you might, and that’s why the other ships have already departed. They figured they had enough to get things rolling, and the reserve here could leave as soon as they were trained and ready to fight. They’d go to any areas that needed reinforcements.”

“Where are the crews for the unfinished ships?”

“Here on the station. You’ll have killed or captured them. And, since you’re going to find out when you get into the computers, only the managers on the shipyards are ours. All the workers—or at least most of them—think they’re working for the Navy. They’ve worked hard, and I don’t want to see them killed because we duped them. It was easier to get workers that didn’t know.”

“We’ll verify that, and if what you’ve said is true, they have nothing to fear.”

So the attack on the Confederation had already started. That was bad news, but with eighty ships still here in the system, that gave the Poseidon Group a much smaller number of vessels than they’d initially planned for. Now that word had gotten to the Confederation that they were coming, maybe that would make a difference, though they’d still be outnumbered.

“There are fifty ships maneuvering in the system itself, doing what I suspect is training,” Sara said. “There are also thirty ships around a semi-habitable moon between the asteroid belts. What are they doing?”

“They’re disassembling a weapons project that didn’t work out. Ten of them are freighters meant to take it to storage somewhere.”

Sara turned to Mac. “Is there any way we can get that information to Jack in time to make a difference?”

He shook his head. “Light speed is not our friend. It’s already too late.”

Jack would figure it out. If he went to the planet first, that should be a relatively quick fight. The second group would be more of a challenge. Not as much, perhaps, as a Novarite task group, but a threat nonetheless.

“What kind of weapon are we talking about?” Mac asked.

“Something recovered from the original mission following the Locusts,” Winters said. “It’s classified, but I know it has something to do with antimatter projection.”

Sara felt the blood drain from her face. One of the Novarite antiproton beam weapons was a real threat. If that’s what was in orbit around the planet, and it was operational, Jack could be walking into something seriously bad, and there was no way they could warn him.

“Mac, we can’t control what happens next, but we can make sure that the shipyards are under control. I want you to take this woman somewhere where she can send the message. Note that this is part of her cooperation. If she screws us, she screws herself. She’s to order them to stand down and not resist our boarding parties. I want us to have complete control over everything in this system other than the ships by the time Jack is done. Clear?”

“Clear, Commodore. And yes, I know you’re not on active duty, but I know an order when I hear one. I’ll take care of it.”

The Marine officer released the bindings holding Winters to the chair and had two of his Marines frog march her out of the compartment. Once Sara was alone, she rubbed her face. They’d got lucky so far, but things could go bad very quickly. It was in Jack’s hands now, and she could only pray he and his people wouldn’t get caught by surprise.

30

David paced his office, thinking hard about what this new revelation about Patrick meant. Having an assassin involved in what they were doing was complicated enough, but now they had a genuine mystery.

The cutter they’d located was definitely of alien make, but not Novarite or Tardan. The only other alien species they had any word on were the ones fighting the Novarites. The ones that had been doing so for over a century. The problem was that he didn’t know for sure this was connected to them. If it wasn’t, that raised a whole different set of issues they had to deal with.

Who was Patrick, and how had he gotten his hands on a cutter like that? He’d claimed he hadn’t any idea about the Poseidon Group, but David was beginning to doubt that. If one was willing to kill for money, lying about something was undoubtedly within the realm of possibility.

They’d moved the cutter to the old planetary defense headquarters to be absolutely sure of its security. It also had an around-the-clock detachment of Marines guarding it in the reinforced landing pad where they’d stashed it. And, since Patrick had managed to get in undetected once before, he’d ordered them to scan every centimeter of that place and make sure there were no hidden ways in.

Someone—likely Patrick—had modified the power hookup in the storage pad, so they’d brought that with them. It looked like the cutter wanted its power in a somewhat different format than its Confederation equivalent. The engineers said the work looked competently done but could be improved upon. He’d let them do that but also trust that what was in place worked.

Lisa and Regex had started examining the computers aboard the cutter—one for controlling the boat, and another, somewhat more powerful one, for controlling the sensors—but had run into a hard limit on what they could do as neither one of them understood the principles under which these computers worked. Without an understanding of the language, they wouldn’t be able to interpret anything.

While he wasn’t a computer expert, he was an intelligence officer, so he went over what he could of the equipment toward the back of the cutter. The passive sensors were of an unfamiliar design, but form sometimes fit function, and he knew that’s what it was. This little craft was a spy ship, much like the one they’d captured from the Novarites, only this one wasn’t hyperspace capable.

Had it been captured along with the critically damaged Novarite warship? It didn’t look like it had ever been in a fight, so maybe it had been scavenged from a larger vessel that had been ravaged in the fighting. If so, how had Patrick gotten his hands on it without learning about the Poseidon Group?

A knock on his hatch pulled him from his thoughts, and he turned to find Lisa standing there with a tablet in her hand. Her expression was grim.

“More bad news?” he asked.

“I’d shelve this under disturbing rather than bad,” she said as she came in. “I gave up on trying to penetrate the computer on that cutter. I don’t have enough information to make that work, so I dug into the classified sections of the computers we’ve recovered from the big Novarite ships. I figured they had to have some information about the enemy they were fighting, and I was right.”

She handed him the tablet. “This is a series of images I’ve arranged from the most general to the most specific. I think that by going through them, you’ll get a general idea of what I discovered and what it means. Frankly, the last one confused me, and I hope you can explain it to me.”

He took the tablet and looked at the first image. It was of a large ship that had obviously been torn apart fighting. Definitely not Novarite or Tardan, but he could see some of the same design elements that went into the cutter they’d taken from Patrick. If this confirmed that the cutter belonged to the Novarites’ enemies, at least that was something.

The following image showed a bridge area with acceleration couches and controls, much like what was aboard the cutter, confirming his guess that the two were related. The third image showed another small craft that wasn’t quite the same as the one he’d been looking at, but the front half was virtually identical. It didn’t have the passive sensors at the rear of the cutter, but there was no denying the two were built by the same people.

The last image mentally stopped him, and he had to enlarge it to look closer. It was of a trio of bodies laid out on what was obviously the deck of a ship. They’d been torn apart by Gauss weapon fire, so it was an ugly scene, but their heads were intact, and enough of their bodies were still together to see what had her confused.

The dead people in the image were just as human as he was.

David looked up from the tablet and raised an eyebrow. “Human?”

“I found other images of dead people, and they look human. I talked with the professor, and while he’s not an expert in this sort of thing, he said the idea of parallel evolution isn’t possible. He said it makes for nice science fiction, but something like that doesn’t happen naturally.”

She leaned against the wall. “Let’s consider someone’s face. The nose is a pretty odd sort of thing when you think about it. Then you’ve got that little fold of skin on the lip underneath the nose. That’s even more specialized. The eyes and the mouth are just like our own. No, this isn’t some weird species that happens to look like a human. They are human.”

David examined the images more closely. Even the hair coloration matched what he would consider normal for a human being with the skin pigment each of these people displayed. One of them was fair-skinned and had light reddish hair, the second had more of an olive complexion and long, dark, straight hair. The third was very dark and had black, curly hair.

Human beings had spread out amongst the stars and intermingled, but as he was proof of, there was still a genetic heritage that they each had. His ancestors had come from China on Earth, which showed in his complexion, eye structure, hair, and build. Any of the people he was looking at in this image could have come from Earth or anywhere in the Confederation.

As could Patrick.

“Oh, crap,” he muttered. “Patrick is one of them.”

“That’s my guess,” Lisa said. “I have no idea how he got here or what his intentions are now that he is here, but I’ve been through the records I could get from planetary security, and I believe he’s been acting as an assassin for decades. He’s not a recent immigrant. He also didn’t arrive two centuries ago unless these people are radically different from us or have medical tech we can’t imagine. That’s possible since the tech on the cutter is more advanced than what we have.”

“The Novarites didn’t develop the Gauss weapons. These people did, based on what we found in the storage pad. The relative crudity of the Novarite version is obvious when you compare the two. Maybe those few pistols we’ve recovered were war prizes. Did the antiproton beam weapon come from them, too?”

Lisa shrugged. “We have no way of knowing. If these people are so advanced, why have they been fighting the Novarites for a century? They should’ve curb stomped them.”

“Quantity has a quality all its own. Perhaps they are a small nation. We’ll have to ask Patrick if we ever catch him. He speaks our language just as well as we do. I’d have never known it wasn’t his native tongue. How many others are scouting us out for this other star nation?”

Lisa shrugged. “The only person that can answer that question is Patrick. Somehow, I don’t think he’ll give us the truth. He’s playing a game of his own. He seems to dislike the idea of the Poseidon Group trying to overthrow the Confederation. Why would he care?”

David considered that and began pacing again. “Let’s say for the sake of argument that he arrived a few decades ago. Considering his age, maybe as many as thirty or forty years. He’s been watching us and learning about the Confederation all that time. Maybe he’s decided he likes it here better.”

“If that’s the case, he’s got a ship around here somewhere,” she said. “This cutter didn’t arrive by itself.”

That made David rub his face. “True, but maybe not in a helpful way. The gate network was destroyed, but there’s no proof of exactly where the ship would be. What if he stashed it in a different system and had the cutter transported here? He’d have been as trapped as everyone else.”

She shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he move it away from his ship? He obviously needed it to get to a planet, but if he’s been here as long as we suspect, he could’ve chosen to park his ship wherever he liked. If I arrived in a space with strange humans, I’d want to do a lot of monitoring to try to crack their language first. To get an understanding of what the society was like.”

He nodded in agreement but didn’t interrupt her train of thought.

“Then, once I felt comfortable blending in, I’d move to a location where I could interact with them in person. That might mean flying in with that cutter and putting it somewhere in the wilderness. Eventually, it could be flown back, and he could arrange another cutter for regular use. Being only one person, that might have been a little complicated to work out, but the man is an assassin. He could have someone fly him out to his ship in a regular cutter and kill him.”

“If you’re taking two cutters out at the same time, then you’d have to find a way to get aboard the other cutter to deal with the inconvenient pilot,” he said. “If you’re working with somebody from the shady side of things, they’d be suspicious of anything that seems unusual. It would be far better to arrange for them to deliver a cutter to some location that’s out in the middle of nowhere and then abandon it. They wouldn’t have to know the ship was close by. In any case, you’re right that this entire setup smacks of us not knowing the full story.”

“What do we do about that?” she asked.

“I’m not sure there’s anything we can do about it right now. We don’t have any way of contacting him—other than the number he told you not to use without knowing more and having Jack on hand—and he’s not in our custody. Until that situation changes, we’re at the mercy of someone that likes to play games. This seems to be a relatively low priority, even though it’s something important in the long run. We’ll have to tell Jack as soon as possible and try to get more information on Patrick while we’re doing it.”

She nodded. “I’ll dig the information about this other human civilization out of the computers. The Novarites don’t have a lot because they’re more about shooting things rather than building up an intelligence briefing about their opponents. It seems they cared more about their technical capabilities than how they were put together as a society.”

“Anyone that could fight the Novarites to a standstill for a century isn’t someone to sneer at,” he said. “And we can’t make the mistake of assuming that just because they’re human, they’ll be friendly. History is replete with examples of humans doing terrible things to other humans. If they ever locate us, they might very well be the next set of invaders.”

Lisa shuddered. “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, and Patrick didn’t need to report what he’s found. What I don’t get is how they located the Confederation. The only people that came here were the Locusts two centuries ago, the ships we sent to explore the path the Locusts came from a couple of decades later, and now this most recent invasion. For Patrick to have come and found us on his own without following someone else seems unlikely.”

“He’s obviously been here longer than the most recent invasion,” David said as he tapped his chin. “Maybe he’s one of their descendants. Anything capable of carrying a cutter and going through hyperspace will have more than one crewman. The Novarite spy ship we captured had dozens of people. Why would this ship be any different?”

His comm chimed, so he pulled it off his belt and saw it was the communication center. “Chen.”

“The second exploration ship just dropped into the system, sir. They sent an update and requested that whoever was in charge be informed immediately.”

That didn’t sound promising. “Send it to me.”

“Bad news?” Lisa asked.

“We’ll find out in a minute.”

His tablet chimed with an incoming file, and he began reading the report. “The exploration ship says the Locust swarm that tried to chase everyone out of the cluster is at the other system the Tardans were using as a strong point. They’ve wiped out the Novarites, if they were ever there. It looks like they let the Tardans live, but the ships are scattered across the system. There’s no telling if any of the colonists are alive.”

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Lisa asked. “If we have them all in one place, we can deal with them.”

“I doubt very seriously they’re going to stay in one place, and they can still destroy Hunter if they try to engage. That swarm was created to destroy a dozen ships like her, and even with all the tricks Jack can pull out of his hat now, they’re still badly outgunned. No, this isn’t good news.”

He rubbed his face. “Go get all the information about this other human species you can.”

“On it,” she said as she headed out of the room.

It seemed like everything was coming to a head at the same time, but if Jack was lucky and took the Poseidon Group out of play, they might be able to weave their way between disasters. At this point, it was all on his friend’s shoulders. He hoped they were strong enough to bear the load.

31

The quantum jump only took a moment, and Hunter dropped into hyperdrive immediately upon emergence. They were on their way to the semi-habitable moon and would arrive in less than three minutes. The ships there wouldn’t have time to detect them before the battleship popped out in their midst. Whatever they were doing, it was about to get ugly for them.

His real concern was what the fifty cruisers deeper in the gravity well would do once they knew what was happening. Even though they would hit the other group as quickly as they could, they’d see the battle at the shipyards before Hunter could get to them. They’d be ready.

Well, so would he and his people.

“Fifteen seconds to emergence,” Derek said.

“Laser and missile batteries standing by,” Amanda added.

“Engage soon as we emerge,” Jack ordered. “Don’t give them a chance to react.”

The young officers acknowledged his orders, and he watched the countdown on the main screen until it hit zero, and they popped back into normal space. Derek was getting a lot better at this because they emerged right in the faces of the enemy ships. The range was ridiculously short, and he honestly doubted Amanda would even need her missiles.

Interestingly, his tactical officer hesitated a moment and then reconfigured what she was doing before she opened fire. The lasers lanced out at somewhat more than half the ships. There were explosions as some of them self-destructed, and others were turned into wreckage.

“Ten freighters detected,” she said. “Not sure if I should be firing on civilian ships, so I’ve only targeted the cruisers. That’s it, sir. The armed combatants are out of it.”

“And just like that, you’ve destroyed the equivalent of one of the largest task forces I ever commanded,” Tobin said. “Hunter is deceptively powerful.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” India said. “Wait until the next fight, and you’ll really see what she can do.”

“Communications, general signal to the freighters,” Jack said. “Do not attempt to flee, or you will be fired upon. Stand by to receive Marine boarding parties. Any resistance will be met with lethal force.”

Derek raised an eyebrow. “We don’t have that many Marines left aboard, sir.”

“We’ve got enough Marines if we leave pinnaces to chase anyone that feels frisky. Those freighters aren’t armed, are they, Amanda?”

“Don’t look to be, sir. That said, it looks like they were disassembling something in orbit. It’s weird, and I’m not sure exactly what I’m looking at.”

“Put it on screen.”

The image the tactical officer put on the screen looked like a giant scaffolding with equipment bolted on in multiple places. He’d never seen anything like it.

He was still trying to figure it out when Amanda stiffened. “Sir, the very rear end of that construction is a hyperspace portal used to get antiprotons for the Novarite beam weapons.”

Once that was pointed out, everything else fell into place. The scaffolding was meant to be like the bore of the Novarite weapon, and those were probably magnetic field generators strapped on in various places. It looked like the Poseidon Group had gotten their hands on this during their trip a few centuries ago, and now they were building something to use as a weapon. He was glad it was partially disassembled. At this range, a hit would have been devastating.

“Sir, look at the moon,” Derek said with a hint of confusion. “What’s with those weird cloud formations all over the surface?”

Amanda changed the display on the main screen to show the moon. Its atmosphere was thin and somewhat yellowish. Worse, the ugly purple clouds seemed to be swirling around the equator, making it even less appealing. He was no meteorologist, but he had never seen anything like that outside a hurricane or cyclone.

“I think they fired the beam weapon at the moon,” Amanda said. “We’re seeing the remnants of a matter-antimatter reaction.”

That made Jack’s heart freeze. It was one thing to target ships, but something else to attack a planet. If Amanda was right, that was just as much a war crime as dropping asteroids onto a city.

“The beam weapon fires for a very short period, and it doesn’t seem like it should be able to penetrate an atmosphere like this,” he said grimly. “What did they change?”

“Maybe they kept the weapon firing for as long as it took to burn a hole all the way down to the surface,” Derek said.

“It’s a weapon of mass destruction,” he said grimly. “One we’ll make them pay for at some point. At least we took it away from them, and they likely don’t have another. Dispatch the Marines we have and take those freighters into custody. Have the crews continue disassembling that weapon. The only thing they are not to take possession of is the hyperspace gate. The Marines can keep an eye on it until we get back. Meanwhile, we’ve got fifty cruisers to take care of.”

Using the hyperdrive to reach the jump limit allowed them to use their independent quantum drive to get to a nearby system and then turn around and appear as near as they could to the enemy ships. Even though they didn’t see them reacting at this point, they would’ve already received the light from the battle at the shipyards and would undoubtedly be aware of what was happening. They would know that Hunter was coming for them, and this fight wouldn’t be the big surprise that the first one had been.

They entered hyperspace and dove into the gravity well. The battle plan called for them to emerge short of the enemy and launch missiles. At the proper range, they could pound them to scrap.

Whoever was in command of the enemy formation must have realized that because when Hunter dropped out of hyperspace, the enemy ships had changed position dramatically. They’d dove deeper into the gravity well and were in the process of running away, still outside missile range.

“Take us back into hyperspace and get us closer. Once we’re forced out into normal space, use the skip drive to get us to where we can emerge next to them. I want them to know roughly where we’ll pop out, so they have to fire right at that moment to get us. That means the energy screen the skip drive throws off will disrupt their plasma packets and give us a chance to really hurt them. Amanda, you’ll fire missiles at our last exit point, so they’ll have to split their attention between the ship and the incoming fire.”

That was similar to the plan they’d execute against the Novarites, which had been pretty successful. With any luck, this particular group wouldn’t have heard about their capabilities in that area, and this would be a shock. Even if they knew what was coming, they were limited in what they could do about it.

When the ship dropped out of hyperspace, Derek began activating the independent quantum drive at its lowest setting while the hyperdrive was active, sending Hunter forward in short skips that were faster than light but much lower speed than the hyperdrive itself. Even if the enemy knew what was coming, their first indication that they’d arrived would be when Hunter opened fire right in their faces.

Conversely, he and his people wouldn’t be able to see what the enemy was up to, as every time they came out of a skip, the energy from their emergence would blind their sensors. They knew roughly where the cruisers would be but were at the mercy of any last-minute maneuvering. This wasn’t a Hail Mary, but it wasn’t the way to fight a war. Maybe once this was over, they could find a better way to use this technology.

The final emergence before they made the last skip to where the enemy cruisers would be, they paused long enough to allow the energy field to dissipate before they fired the missiles. If they fired too soon, the energy would fry their guidance packages, and they’d become useless.

Whoever was in command of the enemy task force had split them into two groups and separated them slightly. Maybe he hoped that when half of the cruisers began taking fire, the other half would be able to engage them more effectively. They had never dealt with a battleship using the technology he would use, so this would hurt them.

“Take us in between the two groups,” he ordered. “As soon as we emerge, open fire with our lasers. Give them a good couple of salvos right through the energy screen and keep firing until Derek takes us out just before the energy screen collapses to the point that it’s no longer disrupting the plasma packets. And keep our open hull clear of them.”

“Yes, sir,” the two said in unison. Derek engaged the skip drive again after a brief countdown for Amanda’s sake, and they skipped forward into the fight.

Their arrival was nothing like he’d expected. The energy screen hadn’t even had a chance to start degrading before a massive explosion forced Hunter to starboard. It was far too solid of an impact to have been even massed plasma fire. They’d physically hit something—though it was less intense than when they’d rammed one of the big Novarite ships—or something had blown up far too near them.

“The energy screen is down,” Amanda half shouted. “Firing lasers. The enemy ships are on top of us. It looks like a couple of them got caught in the energy screen when we came out, and their fusion plans catastrophically failed when we hit them like a bug zapper.”

“Moderate damage to the port bow,” Derek said. “The rapid energy detonation destabilized the hyperdrive, but it’s coming back into tune. Ten seconds until we can jump again.”

Amanda didn’t wait for Jack to update his instructions and began firing nuclear-tipped missiles at targets at ludicrously short distances. The phased packet plasma guns tore into the sides of his ship even as the massed laser and missile batteries obliterated the enemy cruisers that were dancing all around them. It was savage, brutal, and ultimately one-sided.

“All enemy cruisers disabled or destroyed,” Amanda said before Derek could jump the ship. “There are probably a lot of survivors in the wreckage, but we tore them up pretty good.”

“Get us away from them in case somebody brings a weapon back online,” Jack said. “We remain at battle stations while we begin rescue operations. We don’t have any Marines to send over, so we’ll have to use the crew. If they meet any resistance, they’re to back away immediately. Make sure they know that only surrendered parties will be pulled out of the wreckage until we get our Marines back.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, tapping on her console and speaking to someone.

“What happened?” he asked Derek.

“They must’ve pulled back together right before we skipped,” the helm officer said, his voice shaky. “My guess is that we emerged in the same space as at least one ship, and they were catastrophically displaced. I’ll have to talk with Commander Danek, Professor Prescott, and Regex. Maybe between the three of them, they can figure out what happened. All I know is that I’d rather it not happen again anytime soon.”

“You and me both,” Jack agreed. “If that’s the case, why do you think they exploded rather than us? Was it because we massed more?”

“Potentially. It may also be because we were generating the energy field when we arrived that they took the hit. That’s not an experiment I’d like to perform again, sir. It’s an educated guess that I could very well be wrong about.”

Once Hunter settled a moderate distance away from the wreckage, they began dispatching cutters to rescue whomever they could. As badly mauled as those ships were, they weren’t going to find a ton of people, but they’d do what they could.

“Send a signal to Colonel Turner and ask his status,” Jack said. “If he can take the shipyards, we’ve captured the system. If they’ve gotten their hands on some high-ranking prisoners, we might even be able to find out if it was worth it.”

Based on the distance, he’d be waiting at least half an hour to get a response to that query. He had utter confidence in his Marines and was more than willing to bet they’d succeeded in taking the station. So long as the shipyards were lightly manned and didn’t resist, they should be able to seize them mostly intact.

No matter how this turned out, they’d obviously missed most of the ships the Poseidon Group had built. The coup was in progress, and there was no way he could do anything to stop it.

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. As badly as the Navy had been infiltrated over the years, it was likely that a significant portion of the defenses would simply surrender. The lower-ranking officers and personnel would follow the orders given to them because they didn’t know about the conspiracy or the coup they were planning.

These people have had a century and a half to build their organization, and probably decades to construct the shipyards and the ships they’d built. Since he’d found out about the conspiracy less than a year ago, even though he felt terrible about it, there was really nothing he could have done. Attacking the system and trying to take them out had been his best option, but that had failed.

Whatever happened inside the Confederation now, he had an invasion to fight off. Two of them. There was also a vast swarm of Locust drones somewhere in the cluster, potentially headed for the Confederation proper.

That would be ironic, he thought. If the Locusts made their way to the Confederation proper and began attacking various systems, it would fall to the Poseidon Group and the oligarchy they intended to put into power to defend the human-populated worlds.

Ironic or not, it wasn’t his fight. Not yet. He could only put out one fire at a time. In addition to the Locusts, there was an unusual population of Novarites at Vesuvius. He had no idea what they were doing, but their numbers and the fact that they appeared to have brought some of their leadership didn’t bode well for what was happening. It was entirely possible they were the vanguard of even more of the warlike aliens.

Each of those problems could be dealt with, but he needed more ships. Sara had started that process rolling, but it wouldn’t be complete soon enough for them to count on any reinforcements. It was always possible that some of the Confederation Navy ships would flee into the cluster, and he could utilize their personnel to help train new crews, but the break they’d had in fighting off the invasion was at an end.

He had dozens of worlds to free, and it was time to get to work. The people of Vesuvius were counting on him, and it was time to take the fight to the enemy.

* * *

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Jack and the crew will return in FOG OF WAR. Find it on Amazon.

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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.

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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.