by Ken Wolfson
"Engineering reports the board is green," Amelie said.
IPX-88 was listed by every atlas onboard as 'barren, extremely hostile.' A blue supergiant nearby raged and hurled radiation into space. Sensors painted a blurry-half image of the system due to that interference. The collection of rock worlds orbiting her were baked red-hot and irradiated until they glowed. There were 30-odd of these planetoids orbiting, a symptom of a young star system still coalescing into stable planetary orbitals. They'd never get a chance; in half a million years the blue star would supernova with enough force to sweep the system clean, leaving a black hole and fresh nebula in its wake. And hopefully the next star to form would be less violent.
All of the planetoids had been probed, but none held any ore worth the expense of extracting from such hostile conditions. And the radiation prevented any habitats from foraging for local water, or even maintaining an outer hull for prolonged periods. The sole registered habitation was a fleet outpost housing ten-thousand personnel on double pay and two escort carrier groups, mean to hunt down smugglers that maintained boltholes on the outer planetoids and used the system as a relay point for running illegal goods through the region. There were plenty of those, and spending a few weeks hunting them was 'blooding' for any fresh crew straight out of Tollyon. Adrian had done it during his first command, on the BC Malediction.
"Recon report?" Adrian said.
"Initial scans detect at least twenty fleet transponders broadcasting from around orbital twelve. Aside from that, normal traffic and background radiation," Zoey said.
"I need the names of those ships," Adrian said.
"Sir, here you go," Zoey said. A spreadsheet appeared on TACNET. Every ship was listed by hull designation, then transponder ID number.
"Very good," Adrian said, genuinely impressed. There was a collection of ships from third fleet, and a couple of lesser House warships that would've been on duty at Tollyon before the shooting started.
Then there was Molyneux, the only capitol ship in the group.
"Well, how about that."
"Sir, at our range the radio delay will be forty-five minutes, if I can power a signal through the interference," Zoey said.
"Think it's a trap?" Amelie said.
"No, I trust Molitor," Adrian said.
"I concur," she said. "But there could be oathbreakers hiding in this mess; between the planetoids and radiation it'd be easy to hid a fleet here by spreading them and going to passive sensor mode. The fleet's run a few exercises doing just that."
"You're right. Go to condition two and combat shifts until we've gotten in instantaneous contact range of Molyneux and united with her own sensor perimeter. Launch the CSP and keep them close, and set the sensors to high-intensity," he said. He'd authorize drone sentries too, but in the radiation their attrition rates would be hours instead of weeks.
Adrian's radio buzzed. "COS, this is Cross."
"Go ahead."
"The radiation out there is above the Furie and Jotunn's safe shielding limit. According to radiological, there'll be enough leakage over a six-hour CSP patrol to give us 300 rads. That's enough to cause hair loss," she said.
"I understand. However, I need the early warning and rapid response. And if we have a fight then you'll be out there far longer. Modify the patrols to three hours, and get out there," he said.
"Yes, sir. CSG out," she said. The squadron of twenty interceptors launched and spread about Vindication at a range of fifty-thousand kilometers. The supercarrier's sensors blazed into the fog, mapping out every speck of dust for ten-million kilometers.
"Helm, proceed at cruising acceleration towards Molyneux," Adrian said.
"Yes sir," Grissom said, and poured power into the plasma drives. Vindication limped up to 8 gs.
Adrian spent a few hours on duty, then he ate, got in some sparring practice with a drone for the first time in weeks, shat, slept five hours, then returned to the bridge.
Helm had flipped Vindication so her thrusters pointed towards her destination, and begun the deceleration burn. Molyneux loomed in the sensors; a knife-shaped hull with sleek lines and uniform armor plates, two kilometers in length. Her point defense guns were tri-barrel rotary cannon instead of Vindication's dual autocannons, giving higher rates of fire and a longer optimal range. Her barriers were 40% stronger and armor a meter thicker with no drop in thrust-mass ratio. A perfect ship for the fleet's rising star.
"Sitrep?" Adrian said.
"Every ship hailed us with basic greetings traffic, but aside from that all quiet," Major Carter Winchester, chief of the second watch, said.
"Good. You are relieved," Adrian said. The second watch departed and the first manned the bridge.
"Comms range?" he said, eager to speak to his old friend.
"Four minutes-thirty," Zoey said.
"Close enough. Hail Molyneux," Adrian said.
"Or throw Anvils at them," Amelie muttered. Cage clamped a hand over his snicker. Adrian pointed at both them, and drew a finger over his throat. Amelie smiled; Cage ducked out of sight.
"Sent," Zoey said. TACNET showed twenty red signatures closing around Molyneux's blazing red triangle. IPX hovered two-hundred million kilometers in the background, glaring at all.
The reply arrived twelve minutes later. "Adrian, my tacticians insisted you were KIA, but I knew you'd survived that, especially when no wreckage from Vindication was found. It's good to have someone I trust for when we hammer every oathbreaking motherfucker back into the cosmic dust."
"Sir?" Zoey said. "How would he know they didn't find any wreckage from Vindication?"
"He could've been listening in while he ran from the system," Amelie said.
"The enemy had switched codes by the time the shooting had stopped. I studied the records," Zoey said.
Sweat trickled down Adrian's neck. What was that meeting Molitor had tried to drag him to? Adrian shook his head. No fucking way.
"Helm, increase deceleration. I want us at a relative dead stop to Molyneux," he said. "Launch sensor probes. I want everything within fifty-million kilometers scanned until its rubbed raw."
"Copy that." By the time they were in stable position, the comms delay had become nonexistent.
"Molyneux's hailing us requesting a live visual feed. I think their signal is clean," Zoey said.
"Is it, or isn't it?" Adrian said.
"I-it is."
"Then put him on the main screen," Adrian said.
Molitor appeared on the view screen. The mountain sagged at the foundations. His eyes were puffy with sleep deprivation, and stared over heavy bags. The rest of him looked deflated, and breathing heavy. A freshly sprayed bandage hugged his left eye and that half of his face around it. A blotchy red burn seeped out around its edges and flowed across the bridge of his nose.
"Adrian, I knew you'd make it out of Tollyon. You're too stubborn to die," he said. He smiled, and winced as his burnt skin tore.
"Likewise, I knew your boisterous ass wouldn't let some oathbreakers vent it," Adrian said. "So, how'd you make it out here?"
"When First deployed Molyneux had been selected for point carrier duties, so we were a million klicks from the Anchorage when the shooting started." His wife's connections had saved him, ironically. "One minute we were on edged alert for some deep-striking Wendago band. Next, my escort BCs fired on my supercarrier, and the Anchorage was on fire. My chief engineer tried to sabotage a reactor. He locked himself into the radiation compartment when that failed."
"Same here. The missiles started all at once; I didn’t see who fired the first shot," Adrian said. "I broke out of the dry dock, and ran for open space with Tarly on my ass, running her mouth the whole time. There was nothing else I could've done; Vindication was in no condition to engage in a major fleet action, and she's only gotten worse since."
"You did right. And damn, Tarly's thrown in with this Emoche Hulle?" Molitor said.
"Yeah, he's naming her heir of house Artreyas in exchange for high treason,
" Adrian said.
"Bitch," Molitor said. They exchanged a nod out of exasperation. "So how's Alyssa? Is she taking this alright?"
"I left her behind," Adrian said.
Molitor gaped.
"I’d retrieved her from that social worker and was returning when the shooting started. A bulkhead came down and she was on the wrong side. There was no way back. I was so close I could hear her crying and there was nothing I could do."
"We'll retake Tollyon for her," Molitor said. Adrian nodded along. With Molitor, he still had a chance.
"And your family?"
"Oldest son is somewhere on the Anchorage. The rest of them are safe on Vulk, for now." Molitor clenched his fists. He was probably planning how he was going to kick sorry rebel ass all the way back across the border. He hated his family, but they were his family.
"Any word from the other fleets?"
"None. We might be commanding the last loyal capitol ships in the region," Molitor said. "You fought Emoche in the Burn; did you have any idea this was coming?"
Was Molitor hinting that he was a traitor? "None. I told you everything; the man wanted Vykhor for some reason. Were there any Wendago mercenaries?"
"The only people shooting at me were my own carrier group," Molitor said.
"I'm not sure where to go. Tollyon definitely wasn't the only system to mutiny. This could be the start of something big, the first major war since the Rebellion," Adrian said. If that was the case, he could be years from seeing Alyssa again. "Do you know whose side Venko was on?"
"Theirs," Molitor said with a grimace.
"Shit."
"Perhaps we’re doing this wrong, and Emoche has a point." Molitor shrugged in defeat. No—was it defeat?
Adrian exchanged a worried look with Amelie. "Emoche's a warlord from Wild Space. We've hammered a dozen like him.."
"Did you listen to the speech?" Molitor was grinning now. Not with a victor’s arrogance but the gentle encouraging of a teacher. Adrian had smiled to his students many times like that.
"He can talk all he wants, I’m hearing blood, credits, and a lot of rape. A mutiny this large could collapse the Armada in the entire Expanse," Adrian said. The way Molitor was talking had his fists clenched. Something was up.
"That’s the point, one war to purge the old," Molitor said. "Remember, Jacob Hallard never got to finish his job of building a nation. He vanished five years in."
Grissom waved Adrian's attention over, then pointed at a secondary display. He had a camera drone orbiting one of Molitor’s battlecruisers. A gutted wreck tumbled end-over-end through space forever, a tiny corvette with big EWAR dishes keeping pace. A decoy.
No fucking way.
"Maybe you can't see it from up here," Molitor said. "The people Emoche is killing are the greedy. They disgraced you, ended your career and stole Alyssa. And I had to marry into his shit family and watch the abuses heaped upon my people in the name of profit. Is our job as lord and Commander not to protect the weak from evil? That's what I'm doing. That's what Emoche's doing."
"What have you done?" Adrian said. He couldn't believe it, that his best friend...
Whispers spread across the bridge. Cage's hands dropped to the targeting computer on his fire control station. Grissom placed a hand on his throttle, and one of his assistants punched calculations into her own computer. Recognition flickered across Molitor's face. He knew Adrian knew, and wouldn't try to deny it.
"I believe in Jacob Hallard just like you. I read his original constitution, as it was before he disappeared and we flawed humans corrupted it. I got tired of watching helpless as our nation eat itself alive. So I made a change." A sad smile spread across his face. "If only I could wipe the nobility out without good lives being lost."
"You're not making any sense, Molitor," Adrian said. He scrambled for words. "You're damn brilliant and you’ve always done our duty to protect the people. I know you'd never break your oath to the fleet because some lunatic with voices in his head told you to betray us. You're my brother. I know you, and you know me."
"I know you're my brother, but this is big. I'm doing my duty in a different way, by saving the people of the United Systems from our own greed. That's you, me, Alyssa, and every other man and woman and child stuck under the thumb of the High Lords using Jacob Hallard's name in vain. I'm going to save them all right now." Molitor's voice wavered as he spoke. Maybe he could crack Molitor's resolve and talk him out of the worst crime a soldier could commit.
"And how many people are going to die in the war to come?" Adrian locked eyes with Amelie, and then pointed at the recon department. She walked out of the camera feed and organized an additional survey of the debris field.
"Many, without a doubt," Molitor said. There was a timbre of regret in his voice, and sorrow in his eyes.
“And the Wendago?”
“Believers.”
"They are the monsters we enlisted to fight. Do your duty." Now he glared at Molitor.
"All are believers in Emoche’s eyes,” Molitor said. “The war will be brutal, but if we do this now, burn away the corrosion, we can save the foundation of Hallard's dream and rebuild our new golden age based on that. If we wait any longer, we'll have nothing left but impoverished ruins and the nobility and corporations fighting over them."
"You'll stab me in the back to do it?" Adrian waited, while his best friend's face churned from frustration to rage to sorrow.
"No, I would never betray my best friend. Emoche wanted to kill you and all your crew and descendants. The Wendago screamed for blood. He had the Venko spawn waiting for you and Alyssa to retire after the ceremony." The sentiment hung in the air. There had been people with trusted access to the fleet plotting for Alyssa's life. "I wasn't going to let that happen. I convinced him to give you one chance. He needs elite commanders, and you're one of the best there is. I planned to let you into the loop after your decommissioning ceremony."
"Instead, shit hit the fan, and two of my own ensigns tried to kill me anyways," Adrian pointed out. He waited for Molitor to justify himself.
"I'm sorry. I let my attention slip away to great machinations, when as your friend I should have gotten you to that meeting at all costs. I'm sorry I put Alyssa in danger." Molitor took a long drink of water. “I did get the word out when I saw you fleeing with Tarly in pursuit.
So earnest was his apology that Adrian was ready to accept it.
"I know you’re sorry. I know you better than anyone else does. Tell me, are you still going to stab me in the back?"
"No, I'm going to save you. Think about this—what do the Systems mean to you?"
"They are the best hope for humanity. Jacob Hallard's chosen gave me a chance that I wouldn't have in any other nation. And it's my duty to live up to that," Adrian said. He remembered signing that enlistment form, the satisfied smile of the recruitment sergeant.
Molitor smiled. "Look at this recording. The people are with us."
A data file was broadcast between ships. It was cleared as clean, and accepted. Zoey put the video on a second screen.
It was Founder's Square in Tollyon's capitol city. The park thronged with thousands upon thousands of blue-clad civilians. Families cheered together, while schoolchildren in uniform and blue facepaint did pep chants together. The skyscrapers were decked with blue banners and cheering faces. Troopers in hastily dyed blue armor had cordoned off the center of the square with coil fences and swords. The floor slid away and an elevator rose. Venko soldiers in blue and green armor, Lord Venko the Greater, and a dark figure.
It was proportioned like a man, shrouded in a blue cloak. Through the folds Adrian saw glinting armor. When the figure turned to survey his subjects, the armor flowed about him in an organic fluidity Adrian had never seen before.
The crowd roared when they saw him. Adrian felt them through the recording. The figure raised his arms, and the crowd knelt, falling silent.
"My people."
He spoke in a soft baritone, shaky and
as scratchy.
"My students. My brave soldiers. Forty years ago, we thought we'd won the war. That Jacob Hallard and we, his chosen, had banished the darkness and ignorance of the old order, and ushered in a new golden age. That we'd live like humanity did at the apex 2 millennia ago. Instead our future was stolen from us by the weak and the corrupt. Jacob Hallard left us in good faith, and we betrayed his trust. All will commit penance for betraying his vision and spurning his love for humanity." He took a bottle of water from Venko the Greater, and drank deeply.
"However, you have been given another chance. The Great Lord has summoned me forth to right humanity's path once more. This is your chance at absolution, my people! We will strike forth with our loyal ships and soldiers and nobles, and we will banish the monsters in the night before us. We will fix the United Systems to the Founder's original vision. I am Emoche Hulle, the fifth prophet of humanity. Do you accept me as your leader?"
The crowd roared once more. A panel in the podium slid away. A grey man in liqui-cuffs rose up. Lord Mathis Venko the Lesser.
"Let’s start here. This is Mathias Venko. He is guilty of graft, theft from the military budget, sexual abuse of a minor, and war profiteering against planets fighting for survival in the Crescent. He has also murdered several officers loyal to his brother, Venko the Greater. He is one of the darkness. He has been wired with an explosive collar to his neck. If the audience reaches a certain volume, the collar will detonate. My people, do you find this man guilty?"
The crowd roared again. Adrian's ears popped. He looked about. Cage was gritting his teeth; Amelie had covered her eyes, as had many other officers. He looked on. Venko the Lesser squirming was satisfaction. Justice.
Venko's head splattered. The cheers continued. Venko the Greater drew his glowing relic blade and knelt, offering it to Emoche. Emoche took it.
"Thank you, my soldier."
The recording ended.
"So, you've always been a commander of the people. You should understand what we're doing."