A new hyper portal. That was…unlikely to be good news.
“Thank you, Commander,” she managed. “I’ll be on the flag deck in three minutes. Can you have an update waiting for me when I get there?”
“Of course, Your Grace.”
Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs, Annette dove for the bathroom attached to her quarters. She couldn’t do much about the uniform, but she could at least wash her face before she strapped herself back into a combat vac suit.
#
Annette missed her promised timeline by a little over fifteen seconds, but she beat Admiral Villeneuve back to the flag deck, so she still managed a flash of success as she dropped into her console.
“What have we got?” she asked aloud, the question a general one, as the only members of Villeneuve’s staff she knew had gone to rest at the same time she had.
“CIC is making it five ships,” a blonde scanner tech named Lang informed her. “None of them are showing in our files or in the Imperial warbook. Two are definitely warships; our best guess puts them at two point five million tons and six hundred and fifty meters, moving at point five cee.”
Cruisers, then. Big cruisers—bigger than Tornado, and Tornado was ten percent bigger and thirty percent heavier than her Imperial counterparts—but cruisers nonetheless.
“Kanzi attack cruisers are about that size, correct?” she asked.
“A couple of their newer classes approach that size but not that mass, ma’am,” Lamb replied. “The energy signature is wrong to be Kanzi, too. Looks…well, ma’am, looks more like Tornado than anything else I’ve ever seen.”
That rang a bell, but no answer popped into Annette’s head just yet.
“What about the other three ships? A landing force?” she asked.
“Freighters,” the tech replied instantly. “We don’t have their exact type, but they’re all around a cubic kilometer or so and ten million tons. All three are pulling point three cee. Can’t be certain, but I’d say two are running Imperial interface drives and the third is running a Kanzi drive.”
That…added up. All of it added up, but Annette wasn’t entirely sure what the picture it was adding up to was.
“Do we have a visual?” she asked.
“We received a flash pulse from the Ceres base a minute ago,” Lamb told her. “They bounced it off a few of the automated platforms, so the Kanzi shouldn’t have picked it up, but we’ve got a rough visual.”
“Show me.”
The holotank flickered and resolved into a hazy image of five ships, taken with pure optics at a massive distance. Three of them could have been anything. Freighters had a lot of variety, and all three of these freighters were different.
The two warships, however, were identical ships painted dark red. They had a domed shape with forward projecting nacelles for weapons systems, reminiscent of a scarab beetle.
Or a Laian.
“Those are Laian cruisers,” Annette breathed. Studying them carefully. “In fact, those are Tortugan Laian cruisers. What the hell are they doing here?”
Wellesley coughed behind her.
“We did say that if they wanted to settle on Earth, they could,” her Guard commander pointed out. “It seems at least some of them took us up on it.”
“Their timing could be better,” Annette said, studying the vectors. “The Kanzi can intercept them with everything and we can’t stop them.”
The old Laian ships were powerful vessels, capable of punching well above their weight class compared to A!Tol or Kanzi warships… but their cruisers couldn’t fight battleships.
“Get me a channel to those ships,” she ordered. “And let me know the moment Alwa sends anything in their direction.”
#
When they finally managed a two-way link with the Laian flotilla, there were two Laians standing in the center of the dimly lit bridge. One was large, with a dark red shell, the other smaller, with a mostly black carapace that glimmered with a pearlescent blue. Both were familiar enough to Annette for her to identify them despite the species barrier and she inclined her head toward the camera.
“Captain Tidikat. Dockmaster Orentel,” she greeted them. “What brings the Crew to my space?”
She waited. The alien ships were still almost a light-minute away. This was going to be a slow conversation.
“You extended an invitation to our people that we could make a home among yours,” Orentel said eventually. The small Laian spoke softly and quickly, her chitters almost inaudible over the translation, but Tidikat was clearly deferring to her.
“Many of us would build a new life,” she continued. “But none we have trusted have ever made us offer such as yours. High Captain Ridotak approaches the end of his life and wishes a legacy other than bloodshed and crime.
“So he granted my mate and me the right to ask others if they would come. And here we are, Duchess of Earth.”
Tidikat inclined his carapaced head to his mate, then turned his black gaze on Annette.
“This is Shades of Yesterday,” he told her. “My companion vessel is Memories of Laughter. We are escorting transports carrying eleven thousand, two hundred and forty civilians—the Laian exiles who would breathe the air of a world again.”
He raised one mandible in warning.
“We are not permitted to transfer technology to you,” he told her. “Shades of Yesterday and Memories of Laughter will join your Militia as a gesture of good faith, but their systems have been secured against…dissection.
“We have no technological databanks, no resources beyond what it is in our minds and memories.”
Orentel’s mind alone, Annette suspected, would make allowing the immigrants worth it. Two Laian cruisers? She shivered but eyed the tactical plot.
“You are welcome,” she told them, “but your timing is…complex. Our situation is tenuous, and I cannot promise an escort to Earth orbit. The Kanzi fleet seek to conquer our world.
“If you wanted to turn back and return when things are…more stable, I would understand.”
She didn’t know Laians well enough to judge the expressions that flashed across their faces, but she guessed it wasn’t positive.
“We…no longer have anywhere else to go,” Tidikat said finally. “We are no longer Crew, Duchess Bond. If you will not have us, then we are truly exiles.”
“You are more than welcome here, Captain, Dockmaster,” she told them. “But I cannot guarantee your safe approach to Earth.”
“I will take care of that,” the Laian Captain said firmly, glancing aside at a plot of his own. “I would prefer not to engage their entire fleet, but it appears they have not yet decided what to make of us.
“We will join you in orbit of your world shortly, Your Grace,” he continued. “There, I will place my vessels at your command, to assist in the defense of our new home.”
The channel ended and Annette stepped over to study the holotank more closely as Villeneuve and Ki!Tana entered the room.
“Did I hear what I thought I heard?” the big Ki!Tol asked.
“A contingent of the Laians from Tortuga have asked permission to settle on Earth,” Annette confirmed. “If they can make it, they are more than welcome.”
“Huh.” Ki!Tana stepped up next to her, the alien’s massive size casting a massive shadow across the holotank.
“They have never even considered this before,” she warned Annette. “Strange.”
“Has anyone ever offered before?”
Ki!Tana’s beak clacked as the big A!Tol laughed.
“No,” she admitted. “Everyone assumed, I think, that they were happy with their station. How many are coming?”
“Eleven thousand.”
“That’s almost of the quarter of the Laians on Tortuga,” Ki!Tana told her. “And ships too?”
“If they survive to reach us,” Annette said warningly. “They also warned me they’re bringing no technological databanks except what’s in their heads.”
“But Orentel is
among them?”
“Their leader, so far as I can tell.”
“That one’s ‘head’ contains more data on Laian technology than I’ve forgotten about A!Tol tech,” Ki!Tana said.
“I have no concerns about them being worth it,” Annette agreed. “But I can’t risk sortieing to bring them in safely, so…”
“Your Grace, the Kanzi are deploying,” Lamb reported. “Looks like they’re sending six cruisers after the Laians.”
“Three-to-one odds,” Villeneuve noted. “How powerful are these Laian ships?”
“I am absolutely certain Tornado couldn’t take one on her own,” Annette told him calmly, an evil grin spreading over her face as she watched the Kanzi detachment close on the Laian flotilla.
“Oh,” her Admiral replied.
“They’re sending six Kanzi attack cruisers after two Laian war cruisers. That’s not a mistake I intend to stop them making.”
#
The Laian flotilla was limited by the speed of the freighters, none of which could pull over point three cee. Their trip to Earth orbit would still take less than ten minutes, a mind-bogglingly short time by any objective standard.
And far too long by the standard of whether or not the Kanzi could intercept them.
Annette watched as the six Kanzi ships approached the Laian flotilla, easily heading them off well before they reached Earth. They were being almost hesitant, carefully skimming just inside missile range for twenty seconds without doing anything.
Then a single missile blasted out, shooting across space to cross the bow of the lead beetle-like cruiser and self-destruct fifty thousand kilometers out. A warning shot.
The Laians ignored it, Tidikat’s two cruisers continuing to lead the way toward Earth at a steady thirty percent of lightspeed. If he was being hailed or otherwise challenged by the Kanzi squadron, he was completely ignoring them.
With their warning shot ignored, the Kanzi started acting far more aggressively. They cut directly in front of the Laian ships and started to close the distance rapidly. A second warning salvo, this time of five missiles, shot out.
They detonated in front of the Laians, one per ship, the Kanzi clearly starting to get concerned.
“Is Tidikat planning on doing anything about them?” Annette asked. “I would have thought his advantage was more pronounced in missile range.”
“I suspect he may also have longer-ranged beams,” Ki!Tana replied. “While I worked with the Crew, I never served on one of their ships. I don’t know what weaponry he has.”
“And neither do the Kanzi. They know enough to be sure they don’t know what they’re fighting,” Villeneuve pointed out.
“There they go,” Lamb reported. “Full salvos from all six cruisers at five light-seconds.”
Still well outside effective beam range, but far closer than Annette would want to get if she was planning a pure missile duel.
A moment later, the Laian ships returned fire. Their missiles weren’t any faster than the Kanzi birds, she noted, though the speed with which Duchess’s sensors lost any exact idea of their location suggested far superior ECM.
Then two of the Kanzi cruisers simply disappeared. One moment, they were heading toward the Laians at half of lightspeed. The next, they were disintegrating as something punched clean through their shields and the full length of their hulls.
“What the hell was that?” Villeneuve demanded.
“They shouldn’t have that,” Ki!Tana said slowly as the Kanzi missiles on the screen ran into the Laian’s rainshower defender suites. “That was a plasma lance, and the Laian Republic didn’t deploy those for a hundred and fifty long-cycles after Builder of Sorrows went into exile.”
“Apparently, they have it and it’s terrifying,” Annette replied. “What is it?”
“It uses a charged beam to latch on to the target’s shield, then fires a multi-kilogram packet of superheated plasma along the guide beam at near-lightspeed,” the A!Tol told her. “The Imperium only barely understands the concept, let alone how to build one. It’s slow-cycling and not quite powerful to take down Kanzi capital-ship shields.
“On cruisers, however…”
The four remaining cruisers went to full evasive maneuvers, continuing to exchange missiles with the Laians as they tried to run.
The Kanzi were landing hits, but the Laians’ defenses were shredding their salvos, and there weren’t nearly enough missiles to bring down their shields. The Kanzi ships had no such defenses.
The plasma lances didn’t cycle before the Kanzi were out of their range, but it didn’t matter. None of the attack cruisers survived to leave Tidikat’s missile range.
The rest of the Kanzi fleet seemed frozen in shock. They didn’t even move as the flotilla of Laian ships slowed down and entered Earth orbit.
As Shades of Yesterday settled in underneath the existing warships, Tidikat reappeared in the holotank. His mate was elsewhere now, and something in his body language suggested that he was very pleased with himself.
“Duchess Bond, let me know where you would like my ships,” he told her. “Unfortunately, it appears we may not have time to coordinate our data networks, but I feel we can still contribute.”
“I agree,” she replied. “If you can join Tornado and Geneva in the upper line, that would be preferred. Emperor of China lacks any active defenses at all, and keeping missiles away from her is our priority.”
“Of course,” he agreed. “Would it be possible for our freighters to land somewhere on the surface? Orentel is arranging the transfer of the civilians aboard our two cruisers to the other ships, but I would very much like them to be out of the line of fire.”
“Certainly. Are they capable of ground or water landings?”
“Water would be preferred.”
She gestured to Villeneuve. “The Pacific, Jean?”
“Yes,” he agreed. “If they land off the Australian coast, we can have surface vessels in place to provide any needed medical aid or food supplies inside a few hours.”
“We should be fine for a few days, but that would be appreciated regardless,” Tidikat told them. “Thank you, Your Grace.” He paused. “We were…concerned about our welcome, regardless of the invitation.”
“We’re pleased to see you, Captain,” Annette told him. “I’m not so certain about the Kanzi.”
“They are shell-mold and will learn their place,” he said calmly. “We will teach them together, I think.”
#
Chapter 60
With three cruisers and a destroyer now hovering in orbit above Emperor of China, Andrew was starting to feel a little less exposed and vulnerable.
He doubted any A!Tol officer would understand feeling vulnerable aboard the command deck of one of the most powerful warships in the Imperium, but he’d also watched Queen of England get ripped apart by the same fleet that hovered menacingly just out of reach of Terra’s defenders.
Every minute the Kanzi decided to delay was a minute closer to reinforcements arriving to relieve the system. The Laians had been an unexpected boost and had clearly worried the Kanzi commander, but their two cruisers didn’t change the balance of power that much.
Between them, Tornado, Shades of Yesterday and Memories of Laughter were probably worth two Kanzi battleships. If Andrew was optimistic about the value of Duchess’s upgrades, they might match the Kanzi’s capital-ship strength.
But, of course, there were still nineteen cruisers and seven destroyers out there. Waiting.
They’d been waiting for over a day now, twenty-six hours since the Laians had arrived, and it was starting to wear on Andrew’s nerves. He was running one level below battle stations, with two shifts on deck and one asleep, but there was only so long his understrength, undertrained, crew could maintain that.
The Kanzi, of course, could rest their crews until Fleet Keeper Alwa decided to strike. They had enough of an advantage that the defenders couldn’t go out to meet them. Only the defense platforms gave them even
a remote chance of standing off the enemy.
“They’re forming up again,” Maksimov reported. “I think the Laians gave them a nasty shock, but they’re coming our way at last.”
His tactical officer was apparently feeling as edgy as he was. Andrew confirmed it himself, looking over the Kanzi formation in the tank.
They’d moved the cruisers and destroyers forward, intentionally rendering the smaller vessels more vulnerable to help absorb hits that would destroy the capital ships. If they cycled them fast enough, it could make a huge difference…but they hadn’t been having much luck with the tactic so far.
“Take us to battle stations,” he ordered. “The constellation is gone, and they’ve done whatever upgrades they’re planning on to their missiles. This is going to be the main event.”
#
The defense platforms weren’t what anyone would call mobile by the standards of an interface-drive age, but they were capable of repositioning themselves in Earth orbit to face the oncoming hammer.
The super-battleships moved into flanking positions, Emperor on one side of the triangle formed by the platforms and Duchess on the other. The cruisers and Geneva swung out in front, where their drones and turrets could sweep missiles away from the more-vulnerable platforms and Emperor.
The whole formation gently moved outward from Earth. With the satellites reduced to a fraction of their original strength and the missiles exhausted, the constellation was useless now. Moving the platforms outward helped protect the Lunar Yards, which would be required to continue refitting the super-battleships if the Duchy survived this.
“How are our magazines?” Andrew asked as his ship gently vibrated under his feet, the interface drive almost straining more to sustain a speed this low.
“Fifty-two percent,” Maksimov replied instantly. “They can’t be much better off.”
“They have a lot more ships, Vitya,” Andrew said. “But yes, their magazines have to be even lower.”
Duchess of Terra (Duchy of Terra Book 2) Page 40