Admiral's Challenge (A Spineward Sectors Novel: Book 8)

by Luke Sky Wachter

  “It’s starting to get a little crowded in here, isn’t it?” the Major said lightly, apparently trying to break the suddenly tense again atmosphere.

  But as the minutes rolled by—and instead of breaking out into a free for all combat, the two formations of ships joined forces—my tension level lowered.

  “I’m going to strangle that man,” I said darkly, thinking about the Commodore from the Wolf-9 Starbase.

  “I have a transmission from the new arrivals. It’s addressed to you personally, Admiral,” the Comm. Officer eventually reported.

  “I’ll take it at my Throne,” I said after considering for a few seconds.

  Moments later, the image of Commodore LeGodat appeared on the small screen built into the Admiral’s Throne.

  “Well, we finally got here, safe and sound and without too many delays. But you’re not going to believe who followed me home,” the Commodore said with a crooked smile, “we need to talk in person. LeGodat out.”

  “That was cryptic and uninformative,” I swore unhappily.

  “I guess we’re just going to have to wait for more information,” Lafiet offered most unhelpfully.

  I gave him an unimpressed look.

  “We’re going to be busy here for a while; you might be more comfortable in my office. That is, if you don’t have urgent matters awaiting you at your office,” I hinted.

  The Major opened his mouth and then braced to attention. “Of course, Admiral,” he said a twinkle in his eye, “with your permission…”

  “Granted,” I said, waving toward the blast doors.

  It was a tense several hours until the newly-arrived warships crossed the system to the Tracto’s main station. But by the time they had come into easy communications range I was no longer certain I wanted to speak with any of them. While I’d been expecting LeGodat, what I hadn’t been expecting was a second fleet squawking the IFF code of the New Sector Guard. Whatever the ‘New’ in their name meant, as far as I could see it all came down to the same thing: Sector Central and Assembly-level entanglements. And that was the last thing I needed right now.

  ****************************************************

  The door swished open and Commodore LeGodat swept into the room, looking just as professional as ever.

  “It’s good to see you again, Admiral,” he said smiling broadly as he walked over with an outstretched hand.

  I stood up to exchange the handshake. “You as well, Commodore,” I paused a beat, “your hangers-on, I have to say…not so much.”

  He smiled ruefully. “I can’t say I didn’t expect that. They showed up with orders placing them under my command before we even left Easy Haven. I decided it would be easier to explain things in person than by communiqué than get bogged down with back and forth replies,” he said.

  “You decided correctly, because if you had asked beforehand there is no way in Hades that I would have agreed to let the Guard into Tracto,” I said angrily. Ignoring the likelihood of the Sector Guard trying to arrest me or one of my officers—which I placed as ‘high’—I had far too many secrets orbiting this world, or squirreled away elsewhere in this star system. Droids, uplifts, and their ships and manufacturing complexes—which seemed to have sprouted up like weeds when I wasn’t looking

  “I understand you’re probably feeling a little hot right now, but just hear me out,” the Commodore asked.

  “I’m listening,” I replied. After all, he was already here and the Guard was already in Tracto. At this point, short of declaring war on the Sector Government and ordering an attack on their ships, we were already exposed. Which was assuming they hadn’t known about the shady deals I’d had to make—first to capture the Omicron and then to save two Sectors of human space—in the first place.

  “You’ve done an amazing job here, and I’m not just talking about this Star System. Saving two Sectors from droids, and reclaiming four functional battleships? Not many men—not many Admirals—can say as much,” said Colin LeGodat.

  “Stop blowing sunshine into my ears and tell me what you have to say,” I grunted, refusing to be jollied into something I knew was going to turn around and bite me in the back at the first opportunity.

  “From the reports you’ve sent, you have an impressive amount of heavy units and a decent number of light units. If anything, you’ve underreported your corvette numbers,” the Confederation Officer said seriously, “but what you’re lacking is depth in the medium range units. My group from Easy Haven can help alleviate that a bit, but the Sector Guard almost matches the Wolf-9 reserve squadrons I’ve brought with me. If this threat is as serious as it seems—an outside force capable of conquering a Core World—then we’ll need all the help we can get. Two battleships and a Command Carrier, with who knows just how many lighter units?” he shook his head. “We can’t afford to send them away—not lightly, in any case.”

  “We can’t trust them,” I said flatly, “they’ll turn on us the instant they think they see an opening—and that’s if they don’t have orders to manufacture such an opening. Bringing them into our fleet, where they can do real damage, is a fool’s gambit.”

  “Either this Reclamation Fleet plans to raid and run, or they’re in this for the long haul. If it’s the latter, at a minimum they must think they can weather whatever this Sector can throw at them—if not increase their gains as they go,” LeGodat said seriously. “If it’s the former, they’ll run at the first sign of stiff resistance and the Guard won’t cause any problems we can’t handle. But if it’s the latter…” he trailed off slowly, “then we’ll need every ship willing.”

  “Space-rot,” I swore.

  “You’ve been out here long enough that you know I’m right,” the reservist Commodore paused, “unless you’ve unexpected reinforcements preparing to show up…say, from Sector 24?” he asked.

  “Quite the opposite, in fact,” I reluctantly admitted, “I’ve already sent ships to that Sector to hopefully stabilize things, at least on the border. A Heavy Cruiser and a Special Actions Reconnaissance team, with a few lighter units, and a freighter in train. As far as forces, except for a couple ships still undergoing major repairs, what you see inside this Star System is what you get.”

  “You’ve assembled an impressive force, and don’t think that I don’t appreciate your recruitment convoy stopping at Wolf to offload almost three thousand fresh recruits. But we have more than enough forces here to safeguard against betrayal,” said the Commodore.

  My face scrunched up bitterly. He was forcing my hand and I didn’t like it. “There’s also the fact that there are uplifts in this system,” I said.

  “I was aware of that…but I assume that since you’re bringing it up you mean they have enough combat power to be a consideration,” LeGodat nodded slowly.

  “They have warships, to be precise, and the promise to use them in the common defense. And their soldiery is not to be dismissed when they choose to bring it out,” I admitted, “though, as a group, they’re more technically Tracto-an SDF than MSP.”

  “Semantics but, given your dual hats, I take your point,” LeGodat said. “The Confederation charter refuses to allow genetic variants into the Fleet without a signed waiver, but we are encouraged to utilize local system forces to the fullest extent possible. More practically, if they have warships then I don’t think we can afford to turn them away—no matter what the Guard’s position on the subject.”

  “And, of course, there are the Droids,” I tried to add, as if it was of minor consequence.

  LeGodat froze, and then started rubbing his lower lip with a pointer finger as he eyed me assessingly.

  I raised a forestalling hand. “I made the mistake of sending a pair of recruiters on ahead of the Fleet, who made it clear I would accept the help of anyone or anything that would help me fight the Invasion Forces,” I said helplessly, working as I could to slant things into the best possible light—even to the point of fudging or glossing over a few inconvenient truths along the way. �
��How was I to know a fleet of droids would actually show up and want to avail of my offer? Besides, getting droids to fight droids seemed like a no brainer. Of course, then Lady Akantha went and made a binding treaty between the Droids and Tracto…” I finished doing my best to project helpless victim of tragic circumstances forced into something far above and beyond his initial expectations.

  “That could be a problem,” Commodore LeGodat said finally, “even if what you say is true, an alliance with Droids…”

  “Are you calling me a liar?” I demanded hotly. Truly, there was no greater outrage than that felt by being caught spinning a lie. Well not, a lie, exactly. But for these purposes, I figured the feeling was pretty much the same as if I had been. I mean, blue blazes; they were droids after all!

  “No,” he said slowly, “I’m not.”

  “Now can you see my problem with the Guard?” I said going on the attack. “When this leaks out they’re going to go ballistic.”

  “Just how powerful are we talking about—these droids, I mean?” he said, eyeing me sharply.

  “Oh, a couple squadrons of Cruisers and a few more of lighter ships,” I hedged, “I don’t know about gunboats.”

  “Demon Murphy! You’ve let in all his imps this time,” LeGodat swore.

  “I can’t just leave them here!” I shot back.

  “They could turn on the planet and seize this system to get at the Trillium while you’re away,” he agreed, scowling furiously.

  Well, that wasn’t exactly my concern when I first spoke up. I’d been more concerned with losing their combat power, but now that he mentioned it, his concern was quickly becoming one I shared.

  “This is a fine fix you’ve put us into,” LeGodat glared.

  “Hey now, I’m not the one who trailed the New Sector Guard along behind him when he came to this Star System,” I snapped.

  “Who, in their right mind, settles droids in his home system?” Commodore Colin LeGodat snapped. “It’s not only insane, it’s against Confederation Law!”

  “I’m an Admiral, not a dictator; I don’t control this Star System—especially not when Tracto-an honor comes into play,” I declared with righteous indignation, recent memories of all the honor challenges I’d had to fight coming to the fore of my brain. “And I’ll also note,” I said, taking a calming breath, “that, technically speaking, Tracto is a protected world and not a Confederation Member System. I’m not sure if the law applies to non-members within their own sovereign space.”

  “It will if you’re planning to take them out into the rest of the Sector,” LeGodat growled.

  “Just who’s going to enforce that law? Practically speaking, we control the last Confederation forces in this Sector—and maybe the entire Spine, for all I know. The Sector Assembly can go take a flying leap for all I care,” I said, my gaze hardening with each word I spoke.

  “We’re going to have to figure out how to put a patch on this until after the battle is over,” the Commodore swore.

  “I’m all ears,” I replied dryly.

  “Did I mention I brought a Representative of the Sector’s Central Government along with me?” LeGodat said.

  “No, but that would have been good to know before you arrived,” I retorted.

  “I would have thought twice before walking into this mess, had I known about it before hand,” said the other officer.

  I cocked my head at him. Really? I thought exasperatedly.

  “Doesn’t help us now, does it?” I said.

  “I might as well get the rest of it out of the way, since we’re already knee-deep in it,” LeGodat sighed, “in addition to sending the Guard, the new Sector Governor is calling for a joint fleet and, thanks to your actions in Sector 24, has preemptively appointed you its Leader.”

  “Lies,” I said with disbelief.

  “Believe it,” he said pulling out a data-slate and sliding it across the table toward me, “according to the Representative of the Central government, they take the threat of invasion very seriously; a Sector-Wide Grand Fleet is being called for, and they’re supposed to assemble in Easy Haven.”

  “It’s got to be a trap of some kind,” I mused, wondering what the Sector Government’s angle was in all this. “Who ordered this Grand Fleet to be formed?”

  “Sir Isaak, the former ambassador from Capria,” replied the Commodore.

  “Well, there you go; Isaak hates my guts and tried to kill me more than once. There’s no way this is on the up and up,” I said flatly.

  “Whatever it is, you need to show up and lead or it’s going to fall apart at the first stiff wind,” Colin said stiffly. “And even if you’re somehow being set up to fail, this is the best chance you’ll have to turn around the opinion of those that matter—the Admirals and officers of the Sector’s SDF’s. I don’t’ think you could pass it up on those grounds alone.”

  “Oh, I certainly could and in fact I intend to do just that,” I retorted coldly. “I’m a pariah in this Sector; the so-called Tyrant of Cold Space. There’s no way they’ll follow me.”

  “CNN has been working hard to rehabilitate your image for almost two months now. With features and documentaries about your humanitarian work and relief efforts during the Droid Invasion,” he said.

  “What humanitarian work!? More lies,” I said with bitter resentment, realizing only then that I had missed out on a genuine opportunity to score brownie points with the locals by doing precisely what CNN was falsely claiming I had done.

  “There’s also the fact that if the enemy fleet is even bigger than we think, we’re going to need every ship we can get. Command of the joint forces is being offered to you on a golden platter; can we really afford to have a dispute over who’s in command later on if this thing blows up in our face?” he asked.

  I clenched my fist. When I’d been stuffed inside a dungeon ship and slated to be executed, I would have jumped at the chance to have this kind of recognition and to take command of the Sectors forces. Now, having seen the local politicians for what they were—and after watching Grand Admiral Manning crash his ship against the shores of a coalition fleet—my enthusiasm had evaporated.

  Still, I couldn’t just throw this away, not if the risk was real—which, unfortunately for everyone involved, it was.

  “We’re going to take a crack at dealing with these invaders by ourselves; I don’t trust any so-called Grand Fleet to assemble in time to do anything quickly. Just the transit time between here and Easy Haven alone will leave this Reclamation Fleet time to invade another world,” I said finally, realizing I probably couldn’t pass this up without a lot more thought than I could give it right now.

  “I can work with that,” said LeGodat.

  I picked up the data-slate and started looking through the writ of authority from Governor Isaak, my lip curled.

  “Regarding the Guard,” LeGodat said carefully.

  “We can’t very well let them go and spread the word of just what exactly that insane Tyrant of Cold Space is doing in Tracto now, can we? We’ll have to try and pass the droid ships off as captured ships, manned with volunteer crews,” I said helplessly. “We could say they’re run primarily by cyborgs and their robots…because they’re better able to run a droid built ship than normal people?”

  “Cyborgs?” Commodore Colin LeGodat asked skeptically.

  “Have you got a better idea?” I asked irritably. “If so, say it now.”

  “It won’t hold for long,” he warned after a moment’s consideration.

  “It doesn’t have to,” I said darkly.

  We were both silent, thinking about the potential problems those droids could cause us when the console built into my desk buzzed.

  I slapped the button to open a channel. “What is it?” I asked harshly. “I’m in the middle of a meeting.”

  “Sorry, Sir, but a courier from Aegis just flashed into our system, transmitted a message, and then jumped out before we even received their download—let alone had a chance to reply,” sai
d Lieutenant Steiner. “I think you’re going to want to see this.”

  “Paraphrase, if you would, Lieutenant,” I instructed.

  “Aegis Space Command reports…” she paused to take a breath, “that New Pacifica has just been invaded by the same forces that took Prometheus.”

  I felt a chill run down my spine. “Thank you, Lieutenant, that will be all,” I said and cut the channel. There was nothing I could do other than start a panic if I went running out of the room right this instant. So, instead, I turned away from the console.

  LeGodat and I shared a long look, and I could see he wasn’t liking this new development any more than I was.

  “I think we’re going to need to expedite our departure,” I said.

  “Agreed,” he nodded.

  ****************************************************

  Two hard-looking men stared at each other across a work bench. Neither wanted to give an inch or to be the first to speak, but eventually one had to be the first to go.

  “Just what the blue blazes was all that about?” Spalding growled.

  “I’ll keep from pretending not to know what you’re speaking of, but why don’t you just go ahead and tell me which part upsets you the most,” Persus said finally.

  “Upset? Upset?!” the old Engineer barked. “You’ve got a lot of nerve speaking to me like that, Lancer.”

  Persus’ eyes narrowed.

  “You and your lot were all set to overthrow the Admiral and you want to know why I’m the one who’s upset?” Spalding roared slapping the table. “Why, I’ve half a mind to—”

  “I think you’ve already made your point,” Persus said.

  “Made my point? MY POINT!? Oh, I don’t think so,” Spalding declared, “not by a long chalk I haven’t, Persus. Mutiny aboard a Caprian Warship—aboard a warship under my care? I haven’t even begun to make my point! It’s going to feel like I was handing out raindrops and lollipops the last time I went down to Lancer country unless I get some answers I like on the double quick!”

  “You think I owe you answers, or that I somehow answer to you?” Persus bristled. “I may respect what you do but there’s only one person I answer to and she is not you, old man!”