Rising Star

by Donald Nicklas

  Incoming message, “Attention mercenaries, your hull has been coated with nanobots known as lure mines. They will attract swarm bombs when we release them. This is your final chance to surrender.”

  “Lock on to them and fire our missile and cannon now.”

  “Yes, general.”

  The scout fired its single cannon and a ship killer missile. The cannon shot was a clean miss and the missile was distracted by a flare propelled out of the side of the Gladius. Tavia fired her rail guns and the slugs slammed into the front of the scout and partially disarmed it. “Fire the swarm missile,” Alaya ordered and the missile sprang from the second missile tube. The missile was propelled towards the scout ship and when a kilometer from the target, it opened, and detonated, sending a swarm of small, spherical bombs in the direction of the scout. Had they been allowed to continue as they were, they would have functioned as a shotgun and most would have missed. However, the Lure Mines sent ahead were attached to the scout and they transmitted a constant signal that caused the side of each bomb facing the vessel to send out a magnetic field. In a frictionless medium such as space, this diverted their course and pulled them into the target. When they reached the target, they magnetically attached to the hull. Alaya nodded to Deadeye, who pressed a button and the bombs detonated. The scout ship came apart at the seams and the occupants never knew what happened as their ship was opened to the hard vacuum of space. This was the final act of the battle of Saint Petersburg.

  “Captain, there is a solid container floating in the rubble of the scout ship,” Raul reported.

  “Pull us slowly into the debris field and let’s retrieve that container.”

  “Yes, captain,” Tavia stated and moved the ship forward until the container was just above the wing. Alaya, Hatch, Raul and Blue Scale put on vacuum suits and moved into the hold. When they were in the hold, they depressurized it and opened the door over the wing to the vacuum. The group went out and grabbed the container as it hovered just over the wing. Though it was weightless, it had a lot of mass, which led to inertia, which made it difficult to move. After some effort, they moved it into the hold, closed the hatch and re-pressurized the hold. They stripped off their vacuum suits as the rest of the bridge crew and the snipers came in.

  “Ok Alaya, what was so important in that container that we needed it?”

  Alaya popped the magnetic locks, the top opened and the front dropped down to expose three tons of gold ingots. The humans eyes lit up at the sight, the serpents couldn’t have cared less. They never understood the human’s love of the yellow metal, but they did know they could buy items from the humans with it, so they would take their cut of the salvage.

  “Blue, take us back to Petrovia,” Alaya ordered and they left the mercenary bodies to drift in the uninhabited system.

  Consul Lorenzo gave the legion a day of rest after the battle, and then he called a meeting of the primary centurions and ships captains in the camp. The Gladius had gone after the mercenary commanders and it was not back yet. The resistance leadership was also invited to the meeting, as was Dalton to observe. The Consul landed dressed in his regalia as a Consul of the Republic, since this was going to be a diplomatic as well as a military meeting. When all were seated, the twelve Lictors filed into the room and stood six on either side of the head of the conference table. There were axes affixed to their fasces. Between them was a chair, which the Consul took when he entered. On the back wall was the symbol of Nova Romae, a golden eagle with outstretched wings facing right, a wreath in its talons with the old planet Earth within the wreath. Below the wreath were the letters S.P.Q.N.R., which stood for the Senate and People of Nova Romae. Lorenzo wore his purple armor with gold insignias and a purple cape. Instead of his war helmet, he wore his usual purple, broad brimmed hat with the long feather trailing backwards. Slone had to admit, Juan Lorenzo always looked dashing with this hat and his mustache and goatee. He placed his hat on the table and told the staff to serve refreshments. After everyone had some light food and drink, he began.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a lot of ground to cover. First I would like to hear from our medical corps as to casualties.”

  The legion’s chief medical officer stood up and reported that the ground combat added an additional 1834 casualties among the humans, most among the resistance, and 23 serpents. Thanks to the presence of the serpents, and the weakness of the mercenaries, the rout was complete and they had over six thousand mercenary prisoners. The rest of the twenty thousand mercenaries, who started the battle, succumbed to the combat. The Romani had no illusions that this would have gone differently, had the enemy been Sinclair trained ground forces. The use of second-rate troops suggested they didn’t really plan to have to defend their conquest.

  The doctor was dismissed and Consul Lorenzo turned his attention to the prisoners. “We have a great many prisoners. Between the Sinclair fleet and the ground troops we have just under 20,000 prisoners. They will be housed on the planet until we can return them to Sinclair space after they are ransomed.” Lorenzo now looked at General Golov, “They are Romani prisoners and you are now our protectorate. Just as we prevented your mistreatment at the hands of the residents of New Wales, we expect the same of you.”

  “We will do as requested, but some of them may be guilty of atrocities, and the fleet took our food and kept us starving,” Lt. Col. Teplov said.

  “We are aware of that and will take measures to correct that. Any individuals among the Sinclair forces we can prove committed atrocities will be handed over to you for punishment. I have my supply techs scouring the planet for foodstuffs hidden or held by the enemy. We are also collecting all the food from the Sinclair fleet, but your planetary population is too large for ship rations to take care of the food.”

  General Golov responded, “Consul Lorenzo, this is an arid planet, almost all of our food comes from off world agricultural colonies. The Sinclair fleet would block those shipments and only let a small amount through. They rerouted all of our freighters to Sinclair worlds.”

  “When we are finished here, give me a list of your agro colonies and their location. We will find freighters and send them there.”

  “Thank you that would be a great help. May I ask a question, before we go on?”

  “Certainly, General Golov.”

  “If we are a protectorate of yours, will you determine the type of government we should have?”

  Lorenzo had gotten this question before when they were working on New Wales. “General, you may have any form of government you like. We do not control that. As a protectorate, you will have a non-voting representative in the Senate. Even the established members of our Republic have many forms of government, even corporate governance. Only the overall government that deals with matters affecting the Romani as a whole is based on Republican principles. There will be representatives coming to help you decide and explain your new place in the galaxy. You will find that you will prosper as never before.”

  “We all look forward to that. Thank you for your response.”

  Lorenzo now turned to the condition of the fleet. “It will be close to a month before we receive word about repair materials and techs. Until then we will continue to use the space dock to repair what we can. I want to thank the Petrov techs who have been helping us with the repairs. It also helps to have full repair facilities available. My engineers tell me there is room to repair six ships at a time. Besides our own and the Petrov ships, we have 23 Sinclair dreadnoughts and 13 Sinclair cruisers to repair. When they are finished, we will see about filling out the Petrov fleet. Any ships that can still fight, I want battle ready at all times. I plan to send a message to the Sinclair home world and have no idea how they will react to the loss of their fleet.”

  After hours of further discussion about logistics and assignment of people to handle different tasks, the meeting broke up. The captains went back to their ships, whereas the ground troops stayed on the planet to manage the prisoners and help with any rep
airs needed from the invasion. Messages were also sent to Nova Romae for instructions concerning further prosecution of the war against Sinclair Corp.

  Two days after the meeting, Christopher Slone was touring the Invicta, since that was technically his ship, and few repairs were done to the battleship. As he was down in engineering watching them rewire damaged areas, he was contacted by Tom Gardner on the Rising Star. “Captain, the Gladius has just entered the system. Transit time is seven hours, twenty-two minutes.”

  “Tom, let me know when they are an hour out.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  As was becoming their custom, Christopher had his daughter with him in the hangar to greet his returning wife. The Gladius had been ordered to dock on the Invicta. Alaya had already reported the success of her mission to the Consul and registered the gold with the legionary accountant to be added to the spoils. The final loose ends in Petrovia space were now settled. As promised, the mercenaries who had helped with the defense of the Rising Star were paid their ton of gold. Spider wanted to enlist their services with the Romani, but was disappointed to hear that the Romani do not use mercenaries. A freighter entered the system to drop off foodstuffs and the captain was contracted to take the mercenaries out of Petrov space. The Petrovians did not want to hire mercenaries who recently were part of the Q-Ship. Spider was warned, if she does anything against the freighter and her crew, she will be treated as a pirate and hunted down by the Romani.

  A month and a half after the battle, a large fleet of freighters arrived from Nova Romae with escort cruisers carrying engineering techs. These were placed in orbit near the space dock and the Romani fleet was brought in, six ships at a time, for major repairs. The entire repair project took six months. Throughout this time, not a single message was received from the Sinclair home world. Apparently, Horatio Sinclair had every confidence that his fleet was safe. It was time to dispel the misconception. The Slones were called to the Longinus for a meeting with Captain Lorenzo.

  “Have a seat, my friends,” and Lorenzo directed the Slones to comfortable chairs in his quarters. He poured them each a drink and got down to business. “We have been here for six months now, and not a single message from the Sinclair home world. I find that odd, it is almost as if the Mobile Fleet was sent here into exile. Since you were both once members of the Sinclair military, any ideas?”

  The Slones looked at each other and Christopher was the first to respond, “I was stationed at a remote mining base where we rarely heard from the home world unless there was a slowdown in the ore shipments. How about you, Hon?”

  “In the scouting service, I had little contact with my stepfather, which is not unusual. He has the habit of thinking, once he gives an order it is carried out with success and no longer on his mind. If the fleet was contacted at all, it would be from the vice president of military affairs, and then usually to complain about something that the military was doing wrong. In a corporation, the boss kicks you and you kick your subordinate, who then kicks theirs. It all flows down hill, but never up. I am sure my stepfather is blissfully ignorant of what is going on and no one will give him bad news.”

  “So typical,” Lorenzo said. “The corporations all suffer from the arrogance of their CEOs. I have a job for you two, but only if you think you can do it.”

  “Ok, you have our attention,” Christopher said.

  “I want you to go to the Sinclair Corporate headquarters and deliver our terms to end the war.”

  Christopher and Alaya looked at each other. Then they smiled at each other and Alaya said, “I can’t wait to see the expression on my stepfather’s face when I walk into the room.”

  “Excellent, you leave tomorrow on Captain Rand’s ship. I will have the terms delivered to your quarters. Now let’s have some dinner.”

  The Slones left the following morning for the month long trip to the Sinclair home world. They ran invisible through Sinclair space until they reached an uninhabited system two jumps from the home world. Alaya told Oskar Rand it was safe to become visible here and no telemetry was pickup up on sensors. As they moved towards the outbound slipstream, they sent a message capsule to Sinclair headquarters indicating they were on a diplomatic mission, in a destroyer with weapons unloaded. This message was now also broadcast in the clear on a continuous loop, the 32nd century equivalent of a flag of truce. After the message capsule was sent, the destroyer remained visible and continued its journey. When they were in the final slipstream to the Sinclair home world, they met with Captain Rand in his quarters.

  “Alaya, what can I expect when we arrive in the home system?”

  “The home fleet should be there and there is a lot of ship traffic. Not dissimilar to the traffic around Nova Romae.”

  “Do you think we will have any problems?”

  “Best keep Lot ready to make us invisible if there is. If they follow procedure, we should be challenged when we enter the system.”

  When the transit time ended, the Primo Cohortem Alpha came out of the slipstream. They were immediately challenged and told to follow the scout ship awaiting them at the slipstream and they should not deviate from the course. They were not allowed to enter the space dock, but told to orbit the planet and take a shuttle down. This was a very unusual way to receive envoys. They did as requested and landed on the roof of the government building in the capital city of New Chicago. Sinclair was the first and wealthiest of the space-mining corporations and the size of their capital city reflected that. However, there was still no beauty to it, just the practical sameness of all corporate cities. Captain Rand stayed with his ship, since the Slones were the envoys. They were dressed in their finest Nova Romae dress uniforms consisting of black leather jackets over black trousers and white dress shirts. The uniforms had red appointments and gold emblems signifying their rank and legion. They had their gold hilted daggers on a red belt. They were led into the reception room and told to wait a minute. After a very short time, someone came out and asked them to follow. They were taken into a large room with guards along the wall at intervals. At one end of the room sat Horatio Sinclair and also present, but standing in front of the desk was Femi Okar, Vice President of Inter-Corporate Affairs.

  Femi was the first to speak, in her deep exotic voice. She should have recognized Alaya, but didn’t. “We have received your message capsule and granted your request for an audience, but your capsule did not indicate the Corporation you represent.”

  Christopher Slone responded, “We are here on behalf of the Petrov Corporation.”

  This statement caused Horatio Sinclair to perk up. Slone could see that the years had not been kind to him. He hoped that it was his guilt gnawing at him. “Have you finally come to surrender the rest of your space?”

  Alaya touched her husband’s arm and moved forward. “We are not here to surrender, father, we are here to tell you your Mobile Fleet has been destroyed.”

  Recognition now came into the eyes of both Femi and Horatio. Femi spoke first, “Alaya Sinclair, how can this be. You were reported killed on a scouting expedition.”

  Before she could respond, Horatio Sinclair stood up and looked at both Alaya and Christopher. For the first time they could see madness in his eyes. “You, both of you, are dead. Why do you haunt me? Aren’t you satisfied to destroy my sleep?”

  At this moment, Alaya knew her stepfather was bordering on madness. “You sent us to our deaths, but a few of us survived. Now we are back to exact judgment on you and your corporation.” Alaya drew closer and slammed her hand on the desk. “Is your conscience bothering you now? It didn’t when you sent the entire crew of the Hayden as a gift to aliens from another galaxy. Or, when you sent Dane to make sure we didn’t come back. Or, when you had your goons kill every man, woman and child in the Purgatory mining base. Now suddenly you have a conscience?”

  Horatio pulled back from this onslaught and looked so distressed, some of Alaya’s old love for the only father she once knew, came to the fore. She fought the urge to com
fort him, since even monsters had their sad moments, but they were still monsters. She then continued, “Your Mobile Fleet no longer exists and Admiral Wilson put a bullet in his own head. A state of war exists between the Sinclair Corporation and the Petrov Corporation. The Petrov Corporation is now a protectorate of the Republic of Nova Romae and here are the terms to end the war. We have just fewer than 20,000 captured Sinclair naval personnel. Their ransom is set at 20 tons of gold with an additional 5 tons for the damage done during the invasion and 5 tons more for the Romani fleet’s repairs. If the gold is not delivered within the next two months, we will continue to wage war against your corporation.”

  For a moment, the madness left Horatio when he heard the name Nova Romae. “Nova Romae, Romani, they thwarted my takeover of the Balin Corporation, now you tell me they rescued Petrov as well. They fought Petrov for Balin.” Alaya could see the madness returning to her stepfather’s eyes as he looked in the distance and said, “Alexei Petrov, incompetent, incompetent, yet he plagues me. After I shot him his eyes just stared at me and now they never leave me.” Horatio Sinclair got up and started mumbling. He walked out as if no one was there, mumbling, “Alaya, Dane, Alexei, leave me alone. Alone, so alone.” He walked to the back door and exited.

  Alaya turned to Femi, “How long has he been like this?”

  “The last few years. Your sisters have seen it but don’t care. He keeps talking about crystals and methane moons, and then he talks about you, Dane, and the lost cruiser Hayden. No one has any idea what he’s talking about.”

  Alaya reached into her pocket and handed over a tap node. “Watch what is on that node and you will know what drove him mad. I no longer feel revenge is necessary for what’s on that node. Let him suffer until he breathes his last. Our terms are also on that node. Don’t fail to abide by them or you will suffer.”

  “Alaya, you’re the only daughter who was worth anything. If you stay, I will see to it that you become the head of the corporation.”