by Chris Hechtl
Malwin frowned thoughtfully, stroking his goatee as he glanced at the others. Lewis shrugged. "I think it's possible," Lewis ventured carefully. He turned to the countess.
"We can look into it, sire. But I suggest we have a backup set of orders. Should they fail in their timing, they should fall back or … do something else," she said, ending on a weak note when the emperor turned a glare at her for her lack of support.
"It's wise to have a backup plan," Theo said instantly coming to her defense. "An all or nothing strike is a good way to get into trouble," he stated.
The emperor frowned, pursing his lips, but he couldn't refute that logic. He nodded grudgingly to the countess and to his minister of war. "All right, that is true."
"What I suggest is, if we can't get the timing right, we switch the objective to a raid in force. Get in, hit them enough to throw them off while getting as much intelligence as we can, then get out. We can even let the partisans on the planet know we're still out there, trying to liberate them. That will serve as a morale burst for them," Malwin stated as he got back on track.
"If we come in at a different location like they did in Garth, it would avoid any fixed or mobile defenses near the jump point," the emperor stated, eyes gleaming.
Lewis winced. The emperor noted it. "What?"
"Sire …," Lewis paused and then tried again. "Sire, in order to do that we have to have detailed maps for our navigators. We have to map everything, down to the smallest rock in the attacking ship's flight path as well as their arrival point. If anything is in the way, it will cause mass shadows to throw them off or even damage or destroy the ships."
"That's why they had the couriers in Garth!" the countess said. All eyes turned to her. "It wasn't just to keep an eye on things; it was to map where they wanted to come out at!"
Malwin and Lewis nodded. "Makes sense," Lewis said. "But we don't have that ability."
"Then figure it out!" the emperor said in exasperation as his patience began to ebb. "You are starting to test me! It is like you don't even want to win!"
"We do, sire, but we believe they used their prowlers to map Garth space for their attack. We don't have that ability."
"Then find another way!"
-~~~///^\~~~-
Malwin wasn't the only one to have a mixed reaction once they were out of sight of the emperor and relaxing later that evening. "This plan, the timing alone!" He threw his hands up in the air in despair.
"I know," Lewis stated. "I don't think he realizes how tight it is. And I don't think he realizes how emotionally evocative it is either."
"Repeat that last?" Malwin asked, wrinkling his nose as he swirled his drink.
"Evocative. Attacking them on Federation Day? An attack on a holiday and not only any holiday, but the one celebrating the founding of the Federation?"
"You'd rather they attack on Christmas?"
Lewis shook his head. "Even I wouldn't taunt the spirits with that sort of thing."
Malwin nodded.
-~~~///^\~~~-
The more the palace in the form of the Herald's Office tried to assure the public everything was fine, the more certain pirate lords latched onto the idea of the Old Guard. Viscount Sydney Knoles latched onto the idea and dug into as many sources of research material as he could get his hands on. He had the others do as much digging as they could as well. But all quietly, very quietly.
Once they had something, he gathered the others together. "I hope you brought your checkbooks; this is going to be costly," he stated.
"No risk, no reward," Evin Frost stated. "It takes money to make money," he said with a shrug. "What do you have?"
"A bit and more," Sydney stated. He laid out what he'd found. "From what I've found, there was a program to put some of the best fighters, soldiers, mercenaries, and others into stasis because of some sort of terminal illness or for pay. Some are cyborgs. Some were once supposedly great leaders." He saw a few look dubious. "I suspect there is some fake info there and the truth is somewhere in-between."
"But they are there?"
"Yes, with caches of equipment. They are a last-ditch cadre of forces to be used in defense of Horath. That's what the material stated."
"Okay, so, where?"
"They are supposed to be all over the planet and even on one of the moons. Some of it might have been taken by grave robbers," Sydney stated. "But I found one," Theo Varbossa stated, taking up the narrative. He showed them an image of a sand enshrouded techno pyramid in a desert canyon.
"There?" Sydney asked, "Why there?"
"It makes sense; it is outside the city and away from potential hot targets. And it allows privacy. It's so remote on one goes to it. The access road is just about gone under the sands and earth. We'll have to fly in."
"Ah. Well, there is that."
"It has power. Thermal readings are higher than ambient. Most likely geothermal as well. Some of those openings might be wind turbines."
"Hell of a thing if it has lasted this long without anyone maintaining it," Bree Stuart stated.
Sydney grunted. Jason had bowed out, so he'd taken the lead. He'd wanted to leave the planet, but the mystery had him. The itch was there, and the idea that he might find something of value. Gold rush he thought.
"There are others. We've identified four others. The Death's Head have at least one that I know of. But they won't let us in. Theirs is the only one where the crypt is maintained and added to. Everyone else seemed to have forgotten about the things," Theodore Varbossa stated. The others had reluctantly brought him in because he had access to satellite feeds.
"What about this pyramid? Will it have defenses?" Sydney asked. "You know, to prevent grave robbers?"
Theo shrugged. "You know, I have no idea. We might need to look into that carefully."
"Well, count me out of the people who are going to charge in blind!" Bree said. "I'm not going to get my ass killed by some automated gun or bomb!"
Evin Frost scowled. "No one said anything about that! Great. So, this has all been for nothing?"
"I didn't say that. We can get into this one. It was set up a decade before the Xeno war by some group of mad scientists. I'm talking wicked good at cybernetics, so we'd see some powerful cyborgs," Sydney stated.
"Okay, now we're talking," Theo said with a gleam in his eyes. "One question, why didn't they wake them during the Xeno war?"
Sydney shrugged. "According to my research they were going to do so only if the Xenos got close. The Xenos never did."
"Oh. Okay, that makes sense."
"Okay, so, when?"
"We need to mount an expedition. That means we need to secure the right people. You know, to be out front," Sydney said with a slight malicious tone of voice. Bree snorted. "And equipment, sensors, whatever. I'd like to do a little more research on site too."
"If you are going, I'm going too," Bree insisted.
He lifted an eyebrow at her. "I thought you weren't the frontline type."
"Hell if you are going to leave me out of the cut!" she growled. "I'll just hide behind your fat ass. There's plenty of room back there," she said, pretending to look behind him.
Sydney scowled but the others snorted.
"When are we going to do this?"
"Give me a couple of weeks to get things sorted out. I'll keep you posted."
"Yeah, well, don't go without us," Bree growled. He feigned mock hurt, with one hand over his chest. She glowered at him. "I mean it," she said, waggling a finger at him.
"Yeah well, be ready to clear your schedule for a week or more. I have no idea how long this will take," Sydney said. "We'll need to have some sort of cover story in case people start asking what we're doing."
Bree nodded. After a moment so did the others.
-~~~///^\~~~-
Bree pulled Evin aside once their meeting broke up. "You think we can get the right people in to the entourage?"
He nodded slowly. The Stuart family was normally known for their loyalty to th
e Ramichov family line because of Marina's marriage to the late Prince Adam. Since Adam had perished, the royal family had leaned heavily on Stuart support without giving them anything in return. That wasn't sitting well with the family elders. Some were quietly pushing for a change, especially after the debacle of the war.
"Can we use them to … make changes?" Evin asked suggestively.
"It's possible," Bree said slyly, fighting the urge to lean in with a conspiratory whisper. That usually drew unwanted attention. "All sorts of things are possible."
Evin nodded. If things did move in that direction, he might have Bree and the others on the hook for the assassination of the Ramichovs. Even the attempt would be good blackmail material he could use later.
That was, if his family's attempt failed. He put the odds of success at below 10 percent. That was probably why the family wasn't pushing for plans to take over if it succeeded. Besides, such planning could be noticed.
"One way or another something needs to change. Soon," he said.
Bree nodded. She wouldn't commit herself further.
-~~~///^\~~~-
H001
So far so good, Captain Vanessa Stuart thought as she studied the plot. They'd said hello to the picket in the star system. The picket commander, Captain Tenders, had thought she was there to relieve them or reinforce them, but she'd quickly dissuaded him of that. No, she had her own fish to fry.
He hadn't been happy. The nine ships had been left with precious little to show for it. Just two support ships had come to resupply them. She didn't know what to tell them other than that additional relief forces were coming but she had no idea when.
Her beloved Armando Diaz was a recently thoroughly refitted Resolution class heavy cruiser. She'd been specifically selected because she might be able to blend in with the enemy. That was the theory, though she was pretty sure an IFF challenge wouldn't allow them to pass muster.
No matter. The plan was starting out conventionally; she needed to get into H002 and then from there the real fun would begin. They had to jump from there through hyperspace to Nuevo Madrid, a distance of over forty-one light years, all without a map. She hoped the water dwellers and Harry, her navigator, were up for the challenge.
From there they'd hop through B-95a3, skipping if necessary, then take the long jump line north through B-94E1 to Senka's backdoor. All with the hopes that the enemy wouldn't notice them and that there wasn't much defending Senka.
From there the Admiralty was sure the defenses were thin to nonexistent. She'd be on fumes by then but a little back-to-basics piracy off the rich booty of the Feds would quickly change that. And, after that they'd be in the enemy's backyard, able to hopefully stay clear of them while sowing their cargo of death and destruction.
She knew that was all built on a tissue of ifs and maybes. She also knew that survival was slight. At the moment it didn't matter. She had a tough mission in front of her, and she was aching for some payback.
-~~~///^\~~~-
In hyper between Bd1r17 and New Horizon
Rear Admiral Quartermain rubbed his temples as he checked the status board. His force had been forced to slow down in hyper when one of the light cruisers had picked up a harmonic.
It had to happen after they'd passed through the star system too; it couldn't have been before that. Oh no.
There was no way they could catch up to the enemy. He was only fooling himself into thinking he could. That hadn't been the real issue, and the decay of the ion trail told him they were laughingly weeks beyond reach. No, the real issue was that the slower speed and the enemy racing ahead of him was going to be a danger to his command. The more time it took to get moving, the more likely the enemy would be able to use their speed advantage to move a blocking force in place to hit him.
They might not be able to stop him, but if he took enough damage, he'd almost have to retreat. And that could spell disaster for his career as well as the plan to throw the enemy off balance.
He'd find out when he got out in New Horizon. Their intel said there had been something going on there too. No doubt if the enemy had sent a CruRon to Finagle they'd put something in New Horizon too.
He glanced at the clock. Well, another fifteen days and he'd find out, one way or another.
Chapter 27
Antigua
Admiral Irons was grateful to see more ansibles in Pi come online. He was also happy to see that the Ptah flotilla had finally arrived. He was not so happy about finding out about the fate of Io 11 as well as some of his friends when Tasty Teat's reports were transmitted.
There was quite a lot of information to process. The bullet points were there though for his morning briefing.
“The good news is they stopped that attack force cold,” Sprite stated.
“That is good news, except for what it cost them,” the admiral said, rubbing his temple.
“There is a request for more ships. Tir na Nog has put out rather pointed requests, almost demands for a small flotilla to defend them and the surrounding area.”
“Not going to happen. We've been trying to send them a mixed squadron again, but we can't even manage that! We're just lucky we can send convoys without escorts,” Admiral Irons growled.
“How do you want to handle this with the media? Most of the staff do not know at the moment, Admiral,” Protector stated.
“Senior staff eyes-only briefings for the moment.”
“We're going to sit on it?”
“No, I don't want our people blindsided, and I want to give Yuri's people some time to process what they've got.”
“Ah,” Protector stated.
“That way we can formulate responses. I can brief the cabinet,” Sprite offered.
“Do that when all of the initial information is in.”
“Understood.”
“There is something else,” the admiral said as he looked on to Varyag's name and captain. “Emily Meia.”
“She sacrificed her ship to stop the pirates. We can play that up …”
“That's not what I meant. Not at all. You know I hate doing that,” the admiral growled. “I'm talking about the woman. Not what she was, but the woman. She and I never got along well. You know that. But, in the end she did it right. She charged into the fire to protect her family and her greater family. No greater sacrifice can be delivered like that, Sprite. No one should be asked that. And I feel for Mags. She had to watch her adopted granddaughter die.”
“Sir …”
He held up a restraining hand. “Let me finish,” he said flatly. “That tells me, it is less about the origin of the clones that matter over how they are raised and by whom. It is the choices we make that shape us. No more. No more paranoia. No more crap about them. Enough is enough.”
“Aye aye, sir. I still have my reservations.”
“Which are in part due to your interactions with Meia. I get that. I also get that she wasn't perfect. No one is. But she did her duty. Others have done the same. Don't cheapen her sacrifice or question her motives. She didn't know she was a clone. Leave it be.”
“Can I still watch?”
“That's ONI's job,” Protector interjected.
“Yes, but there are unanswered questions. Like where they come from and why,” Sprite insisted.
“Then observe but don't color things with paranoia until you have more information that proves duplicity and ulterior motives are at work. Don't make them pay for the perceived sins of their origin. I believe they are innocent. Let's keep it that way.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“We need to inform the Molly and Faith Meikle. They deserve to know this before it gets to the media,” the admiral stated.
“I'll handle it, sir.”
“Good. Tell them they have my condolences on their loss. It's a loss for all of the Federation,” he said.
“I'll pass that along, sir.”
“Good. Now …”
-~~~///^\~~~-
After the meeting, Sprite sc
heduled some ansible time with the Epsilon Triangula ansible. It took a few minutes to get a surprised Faith Meikle online. When she was on, Sprite quickly passed over the small talk to outline what they knew about the battles as well as the loss of Varyag and her friends.
“Ah. I thank thee lass for informing me. I'll let the others know,” Faith replied.
“I had so many questions about Emily Meia,” Sprite admitted.
“Why?”
“There are classified reasons. I needed to know more about her history. Like where she came from. Where she was found I mean,” the A.I. replied. “I guess now we'll never know. Not that it matters.”
“Triang,” Faith replied.
“Excuse me?”
“Triang. Her pod was found in Senka I think. She was sold in Triang but got away. She fled into the slums near the spaceport there. The captain found her there. She was four? No, three? I'm not sure.”
“Ah. And how do you know this? Oh, because you were chief engineer of Io 11 then?” the A.I. asked as she logged the information.
“Oh, nay,” Faith replied. “I came on after.”
“So, how did you know this?”
“Tis simple. I took the pod apart,” Faith replied.
“You …?”
“Oh, aye. The captain bought it for parts the ship needed or I should say Vanessa did. ‘Twas a fair bit of trading. We tore it apart for parts to repair the ship.”
Sprite recognized that finding the pod again was a lost cause. “Oh. Okay, anything else you remember?”
“No, well, there was one thing. None of the chips had IDs. They had nary a manufacturer ID I mean,” the woman replied. “Tis odd now that I think of it. They use that to track quality control, but I didn'a know that at the time,” she said. “I guess my time in the hot seat here made me think of that,” she stated.
“Ah, yeah, that is odd. Anything else you can remember, please write it up. And if you know of anyone else who was there, ask them as well.”
“Why the interest?”
Sprite considered replying it was classified again; in the microsecond she thought about an answer but decided to be a bit evasive. “I don't like loose ends. I'd like to know what ship she came from. There might be more pods out there after all.”