Fregg disabled safety protocols and opened all exterior hatches.
Phantom bucked beneath her feet. It took a lot to make her react that way.
Engineering’s door was already pressure sealed. Outside, the cutter was hot and ready for action, but its operators had disappeared along with the air.
Running through flight deck status monitoring, Fregg saw that it had lost half its air before the boarders manually shut the door. One of them had been sucked out into the passageway, leaving two and the big bad. They were struggling to breathe.
She turned the flight deck heating up to maximum. Every little bit of pain helped.
Checking that there was still no one in the vacuum outside Engineering, she hooked into the main comms and directed a hail at the ship they were headed for.
“Phantom to the big metal ball fighting the space dragon of Rho-Torkis, do you copy?”
“Phantom, maintain course. We will acquire you.”
Fregg didn’t like the sound of being acquired.
The situation on the flight deck was much more cheerful. The boarders were still trying to find a way to take control of life support, but Catkins had hacked it good and proper to conduct his air tests. The Corrupted were fading by the second.
“Phantom, please respond.”
“Who are you? Why should I trust you?” Fregg and Hubert looked at each other. They’d taken on the Corrupted, but Fregg didn’t think a loading boss and her goat had much chance against that enormous battle sphere.
“Standby, Phantom.”
She heard a click and then another voice. “Well done, Justiana. You’ve done us all proud.”
“Oh, Captain!” She was so happy, she squealed. “I thought I was on my own.”
“I never forgot you, Fregg.”
“Captain, what should I do?”
“Maintain your course. Keep steady and don’t worry. The rest of us are on our way to that big ship. The Steadfast, it’s called. The woman in charge is an old friend of mine.”
She laughed. Wherever Phantom went, the captain was forever bumping into dangerous friends. It was just like old times.
* * * * *
Chapter 56: Tavistock Fitzwilliam
Hangar Bay Delta, Steadfast
Fitz stood in the cavernous hangar bay, watching the tugs bring in his ship.
He’d never seen a hangar like this. It didn’t just contain Phantom. A score of Alvie dropships had already made it back from Doloreene’s surface, many of them showing the scars of the evac. Annihilation was there too.
“Nice place you’ve got here,” he told Kanha Wei.
The deep ops woman gave the slightest of smiles. She was wearing the uniform of a commander in the Legion Navy, intelligence branch.
He’d worn that uniform once.
Wei was a younger and sharper version of himself, with a better ship.
Izza was with the rest of Chimera Company, checking that they were okay. She glanced at him, and he smiled back. Wei might be the younger model, but he was blessed in a way she would never know.
“I’m confused,” he confessed to Wei. “Aren’t we in a battle with the Andromedan ship from Rho-Torkis?”
“It’s a standoff,” she replied. “It knows we can hurt it. We’ve taken our lumps too, and I don’t just mean the dropships and the jacks who didn’t make it back. It seems to be content with making sure we get the hell off its planet.”
Muscles still tense, he didn’t speak again until Fregg emerged from Phantom, escorted by Legion Marines. Only then could he relax.
“Well, that’s that, then. We’re all back.” He paused. He hadn’t seen Khallini or his robo-dog for some time, but they weren’t his problem. As long as the sorcerer survived and paid up. “Time for the debrief. I’ll go first. What the hell is this ship and how is it filled with Legion Marines that I’ll bet a million credits are officially assigned to phony units that don’t exist?”
“Steadfast is the flagship for Operation Redeal.”
He took off his shades and stared at the young woman in the smart officer’s uniform. Proto-dimples dotted her cheeks to either side of her slightly upturned mouth. Was she smiling? Or was she just annoyingly youthful? Damn those gold shades of hers. Without seeing her eyes, he couldn’t read her. And that special power that linked him sometimes with Izza…wasn’t connecting with her.
“You have to be kidding me,” he said. “Operation Redeal was a game I used to play with Cisco Malix and other young guns, back when I was young and invincible. It was a fantasy. A scenario-planning wargame about what we could do if the Federation finally imploded, and someone had to step in and fix it.”
“You’re wrong. Operation Redeal’s been in play since your father was adventuring across the Federation and beyond. Before he met your mother. In fact, he helped set it up.”
“Dad?”
He pictured his father the last time he saw him, before the deployment no one had returned from. Fitz admired him in so many ways, but running secret ops? He couldn’t reconcile that with his memories of the man.
An alert tone sounded through the PA. “All hands. All hands. This is the captain. Brace for emergency jump.”
The ship shook. Fitz felt the familiar falling sensation and the invisible hand clutching at his internal organs.
Then it was gone, and he knew they were in jump space.
Navy ship it might be, but around him, half the people were staggering with arms out. A few were retching. And a crisply attired lieutenant he hadn’t noticed before was jogging their way.
“Excuse me, Commander Wei,” said the officer. “Compliments from the captain. He wishes to notify you that five more of the Andromedan ships arrived in system, less than a light second away. He thought it prudent to make a rapid withdrawal.”
“Five!” Fitz exclaimed. “Please tell me you’ve an entire fleet of ships like Steadfast to take them on.”
“No, Fitzwilliam. Just the one.” She stiffened, suddenly oozing Legion discipline from every pore of her body. “It’s up to us to make sure one is enough.”
“Hold the line,” Fitz responded on instinct.
Drent! Where had that come from?
“That’s why you’re here,” she told him. “Why we came to retrieve Chimera Company at such cost. You’re part of the plan now.”
“Wait a minute. I said I’d help you. Not that we’d join your secret army.”
“Too late now.”
“We’ll see about that. Who’s running operations? You?”
“No. I’m just a senior agent. Redeal is run by Silent Hellion.”
“Ooh! Nice codename. Can I have one?”
“No, again. I’m to take you to her. Just as soon as we’ve debriefed Ree and her two Kayrissans.”
Fitz nodded. “Finally, someone is going to give me answers.”
“No.” Wei laughed. “Silent Hellion is going to give you orders.”
The mysterious woman removed her gold glasses. Now, she was smiling.
* * * * *
Chapter 57: Osu Sybutu
Secret Planetoid Base, Deep Space
The three sappers of the Legion sat in silence, buttocks planted on the padded seating curved around one of the antechamber’s pillars.
Osu was deeply contemplating the friends he had lost. And Urdizine, who he’d left behind on Rho-Torkis. Colonel Lantosh, too.
This bare space seemed designed to encourage contemplation. They were here to await a mission briefing from someone senior in this shadowy branch of the Legion. Osu took comfort from the ghostly presence of the jacks who had waited in this place over millennia. He was with the true Legion here.
The only decoration was a fabric hanging that covered one wall. It depicted several planets of which he recognized only Earth. That feature was different. In other respects, the space was identical to ancient blast-strengthened bunkers he’d seen before, right down to the shade of midnight blue coating the walls. A color that was supposed to be calming for h
umans subjected to severe mental strain.
Behind those walls would be a latticework of shock-absorbent ceramalloys. The core of the pillar he sat against would be an extrusion of the same advanced material. The ceiling would be an armored dome maybe twenty meters thick at the center.
This planetoid in the depths of nowhere was a fortress. And he could see the Legion had built it. Long ago.
The other two SOTLs had also picked up on the Legion essence of the place. Fitzwilliam hadn’t appeared to. He paced around the place in animated discussion with his wife and partner.
The rest of Chimera Company engaged in nervous small talk. Except for Enthree. The Muryani trooper was excitedly asking questions for which no one had answers. She did that a lot, even though they all said openly she knew more than any of them.
Only Kanha Wei shared the contemplative silence of the SOTLs from Rho-Torkis. She’d swapped her Navy uniform for the leather jerkin and calf-length polished boots of smuggler chic, but the mutant retained a Legion core as resilient as the ceramalloy running through the pillar at his back.
Osu was a little surprised Zavage was sitting with him and not Green Fish.
A faint smile came to his lips. The pair had used the journey here to acquaint themselves with each other.
And what a journey it had been! Steadfast had jumped conventionally until dropping off Ree and the cat sisters. After that, the ship had traveled here in a sequence of short jumps across interstellar space, far away from any gravity wells. It meant Steadfast had new jump drive technology.
Osu’s instincts told him this wouldn’t be the last of the surprises to hit him.
“What I don’t understand is how anyone knew this planetoid was here,” said Zan Fey, passing nearby in the wake of Fitzwilliam’s pacing.
“I know,” said the captain. “Technically, we’re within the Oort Cloud of the nearest star, 31-Ferax, but Ferax is over a light year away. The chances of locating a tiny place like this must be minuscule.”
Osu interrupted. “Look at this place.” They stopped and looked at him in surprise. “This wasn’t found. It was built and then towed here. Or directed in some way.”
“Very good,” said a voice from behind the hanging picture of the ancient worlds. It was a woman’s voice. Human and surprisingly young. Strangely accented too.
Wei had referred to Silent Hellion as her. Was this the commander of Operation Redeal?
“This facility was placed here in the early days of the Federation,” said the hidden voice. “There are several secret trails of planetoids like this. They predate the invention of the jump drive. The early Federation had too many enemies, so they made these bolt holes. They remain an impressive accomplishment.”
Fitzwilliam faced the hanging picture. “Are you seriously telling me this organization, Operation Redeal, or its predecessor, towed this world here?”
“Not quite. It was our rivals and co-rulers who moved this planetoid to its current location. My forces captured it. I led the assault myself.”
“You did?” Osu got to his feet. “Ma’am, what are you implying?”
The hanging curtain rolled up into the ceiling. The wall behind slid away to reveal a wizened old woman atop a plump cushion on a wooden chair.
Wei saluted her. “Chimera Company, this is your commander. This is Silent Hellion.”
Hellion? The name didn’t suit the woman.
She wore something functional and dark that might have been a ship suit, her body poking out of it like a bundle of gnarled twigs lashed together by sinew cords. A tight-fitting cap dug into her scalp. Unlike her clothing, the cap was plump and full, and he wondered whether life support machinery was inside.
She had the diminutive stature of an ancient Spacer, the same as Khallini. But she looked much older. Perhaps she was simply shrunken with age. A great deal of age, judging by her skin which was like cracked candle wax. She was a desiccated being who shouldn’t be alive, held together by technological sorcery and the strength of will to clutch onto the spark of life. Osu could see that powerful will blazing in her eyes.
He’d half expected those eyes to be purple, but they weren’t.
This woman had been a regular human, once.
“Lord Khallini, as that wixering ass-turd has decided to call himself, has stopped circle jerking with his pet AIs and moved into the open.” The woman’s voice was so young, it felt eerie to hear her speak.
Silent Hellion rubbed at an ugly flap of skin on the side of her neck. An old scar perhaps? “So, I guess it’s time for me to do the same. It means I get to finally wipe that smugness off your face, Kanha.” She licked her lips as if tasting the pleasure of the moment. “One thing first. Kanha, didn’t it ever occur to you that my name is freaking stupid for a bent old woman?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Then you lack imagination. Do better in the future. Silent Hellion was my gaming handle, back when I was a kid growing up on a starship. Before I was forced to start the killing. I miss my youth. It was cut short.”
Silent Hellion’s lower lip quivered. The skin flap on her neck trembled too.
He noticed a matching patch of skin on the other side of her neck.
They were gills!
Gills…implanted so she could command a fleet of water-filled Littorane warships.
Osu sank to his knees and bowed his head and slapped his hand to the tattoo over his breast.
Tears came to his eyes.
He heard others whispering prayers and dropping to their knees too.
“Shite!” said the old woman and issued curses in languages Osu did not know. “You stole my big reveal. At least you show some intelligence, Sergeant Sybutu. You may lift your eyes. I’m not a sodding goddess.”
He watched as she removed her cap and shook out glossy lilac hair that glowed in amethyst strands.
“I hate this damned thing,” she said, throwing the cap to the floor. “Mader zagh! Itches like a bitch.”
Osu noted that Kanha Wei was as shocked as everybody else.
“Let’s get this over with,” said the immortal lady. She pointed at Sybutu, and he felt his heart quicken. “Legionary, take off your shirt. You too, Kanha.”
Both removed their clothing and stood, turning so the others could see.
The comparison was obvious, but he stared at the tattoo over Wei’s left breast the same way she was staring at his. At the lilac-haired girl inked into their flesh.
Then they looked back at the ancient woman the young girl had become. The Immortal Empress.
“There she blows! Yes, you weak-kneed pussies. I’m here. I’m real. And I’m hissing mad at how you dungering asshole turd brains have pissed over the Federation I bequeathed you. It’s time you made amends.”
Izza spoke with an air of reverence. “What must we do, Immortal Empress?”
“First, you can stop calling me empress. Someone dreamed up that freaking stupid-ass title centuries after I left for a long-overdue retirement. You can address me as ma’am because that’s good manners, or admiral because that was the rank I earned. No. On second thoughts, the regular military would explode with confusion if they found an admiral not on the current payroll. You may call me ma’am or Lady Indiya. Is that clear?”
Osu didn’t think ma’am would cut it for him, so he replied, “Yes, my lady.” That was worse. He sounded like Fitzwilliam talking to Zan Fey.
“Second,” she continued, “stop splitting yourselves up, chasing your own tail, and getting yourselves captured. I didn’t set up Chimera Company to go gallivanting on adventures. You have important jobs to do. Fucking well do them.”
“We’re working for you, ma’am?” Osu asked.
“You have been, right from the start. I have scores of other teams, but I like yours the best. You’re all so different from each other, and that makes for a killer team backstory. Plus, you’ve got the coolest name. Chimera Company. You know why I like it so much?”
“No, ma’am.”
; “Because I didn’t come up with it. Gives me hope there are still a few sparks of intelligence within the Federation, and I haven’t wasted my valuable time coming out of retirement to fix the mess you made. Honestly, you’re such a bunch of useless cretins. I’m glad my husband—bless his soul—isn’t around to see what you did to his legacy.”
No one spoke. How could they? Osu had sent prayers to this woman before battle. Half the Legion had, and the other half had her image inked into their flesh. What do you say to such a person?
Lady Indiya rolled her eyes. “Mother dog! I can’t stand pig-licking lollygaggers who are so overwhelmed by the obvious that they stand around with their jaws hanging open. I demand better of Chimera Company.”
Osu knew what to do. He got to his feet and took a step toward the empress. “What is our mission, ma’am?”
“You, I like already, so don’t disappoint me. See if you can tell me what you think your mission is.”
“I don’t know the tactical objective, ma’am, but our strategic purpose is to repel the invasion of the Federation by this…I know it as the Andromedan Corruption.”
She regarded him coolly. Her denials of divinity were ineffective. It felt as if he were bathed in the indulgence of a goddess. “Satisfactory. You are essentially correct, except in one respect. I retired over a thousand years ago. Went on a grand tour of the Muryani Expansion and ended up touring the outer defenses across the galaxy.” Indiya pointed at Enthree. “Your Muryani trooper knows the error you made in your statement. Explain it to him, Enthree.”
The alien bug flopped in what might have been a curtsy. “Sergeant Sybutu, the Andromedans care nothing about conquest as we understand it. Politics or trade are of no interest to them. No negotiation is possible. Andromeda is not even their origin. It is a staging area. The Triangulum Galaxy is their origin, or at least, their attacks on Andromeda were launched from that direction. They wish only to absorb all biomatter and corrupt it to their own genetic code. The invasion is not of the Federation. It is of the entire galaxy.”
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