Veil of Shadows (Book 2 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  He really needed to come up with a plan for capturing some prisoners. They’d been reacting to the attacks thus far with lethal force. Kelsey had a neural disruptor that could stun. The scientists needed to get more of them refurbished.

  “Captain,” the pilot said over the communications channel. “We have line of sight, but I don’t see them on the scanners. They may have landed in an area that’s obscuring them. I’ve tried hailing them without success.”

  That worried him, but they might not be in a position to respond. If they had an enemy presence in their area, they might maintain communications silence. He’d give them a little more time to respond before he sent a team after them. Courageous could send some drones to look around without tipping anyone off to their presence.

  “Understood. Take us home.”

  Still, he could do something. He accessed the communications suite and blocked one of the arrays from showing changes on the flight deck. He then tasked the unit to continue broadcasting the data he’d uploaded and a message with his thoughts across the area where Kelsey’s pinnace should be. The other pinnace would route it to Kelsey if it received it. Then she’d know what he was thinking.

  He rode in silence to Courageous once he finished. The ship loomed reassuringly large in front of them and he relaxed when the pinnace settled home with a soft thud.

  The marines helped him strip off his combat gear. He let them put it away as he headed for the bridge. He split his attention between greeting the people he passed and accessing the computer.

  Jared was starting to download the ship’s status when his connection terminated. He frowned and attempted to reconnect. The computer didn’t respond. Something was wrong.

  He trotted to the nearest lift and waited impatiently for its arrival. The world went dark before the doors had a chance to open.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “That’s impossible,” Kelsey said flatly. Bell was old, yes, but not half a millennium old.

  The old man grinned. “True enough, though we’re not talking about me living that long straight through. The Empire had medical devices called stasis units. They would keep a person with traumatic injuries alive until they could receive medical care. Very cutting edge stuff developed by Fleet.

  “It was never intended to keep a person alive for hundreds of years, but with adequate monitoring and adjustment it can do exactly that, it seems. I was the last surviving person with military implants, so they asked me to try, not knowing if anyone would ever come. Frankly, I’m astonished that I woke up again. Though I’m grateful to have the chance to be here at this historic moment.”

  He let her stunned silence go for a few seconds before continuing. “I was twenty years old when the rebellion broke out. I was already a midshipman at the premier Fleet academy on Terra. Annapolis, in the North American District.

  “Things were looking very bad by the time they sent me to Courageous. Another year and we were on the run. I came down to Erorsi with a team to help stiffen the defenses. I assumed the rebels destroyed Courageous after I left. We all did. The rest, as they say, is history.”

  His age astounded her. “How old are you?”

  “Five hundred and seventy three next March, though without stasis I’m a mere Two hundred and seventy six. The medical nanos common in the Empire, combined with good medical care, made two hundred years a common occurrence. The ones given to the military added another hundred years to the lucky. Or the unlucky, if the rebels caught you. Thank God those poor souls are long dead. They deserve peace after they hell they’ve been through.”

  Dear God, he’d seen the Empire at its height with his own eyes. Jared would faint. The man before her was Fleet. The real Fleet.

  Then it struck her like a hammer. He knew how to control his implants. The old Empire had trained him and he had lifetimes of experience. He knew what was possible and how to do it.

  He could teach her.

  She took a deep breath. “You are the answer to our prayers. Certainly to mine. I was captured by the Pale Ones—the rebels—and implanted. Our Captain rescued me before they could reprogram the implants, but I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. All I know is that I have what they called a set of commando implants and they do the damnedest things. Do you know anything about them?”

  “Commando! That’s the very highest level of modification in the Imperial Service. Do you have the full body modification?”

  “Everything. Coated bones, artificial muscles, and a chip that’s trigger happy.”

  Bell leaned back in his chair. “We had commandos on board. Their modifications were highly classified, but we all heard things. What you call trigger-happy is something they called combat mode. The implants take over combat processing and act under the rules of engagement to speed human reaction time.”

  “Well, I’m pretty sure that there are no rules of engagement in my head.”

  “If a child pointed a gun at you, would you open fire?”

  “I hope not,” she said with a certain dread, “but I don’t really know.”

  “If your implants were never overridden, I’m certain there are basic safeguards in place. Have you ever attacked a non-combatant?”

  She shook her head.

  “There you are. The Pale Ones, as you call them, have no such restriction. I don’t really know much more about commando implants, but I can give you some basic instruction with more conventional implant operations. If we have time. Right now, the rebels are down, but you need to finish them.”

  She rubbed her eyes tiredly. “Are you suggesting that we attack them? I’m certain the Captain would be happy to evacuate you from the system. I’m not so sure he’d agree to any kind of ground action. We don’t exactly have a sky full of ships.”

  Bell smiled. “Far be it from me to tell a Fleet Captain what he should be doing, but you may not realize just how badly you’ve hurt them. We once had marine reconnaissance drones. We know roughly where the controlling AI is located. The reverse is also true, unfortunately. They can’t precisely locate us, but we can’t directly attack them, either.”

  Kelsey nodded. “We saw at least one large city. I assume they’re in some place like that.”

  “Then you’d be wrong. They used kinetic strikes to take out every population center with spaceport facilities, but they left the rest alone. Those cities probably still have people living deep under them, but the rebels only go there when they want to capture more people to convert. They have their own area further to the east. The deep woods there are full of rebels. It was a massive nature preserve before the invasion. They’re set up somewhere inside it.”

  She glanced over at Lieutenant Reese. “Lieutenant, do you think we could re-task some of the drones we brought with us to check out that area?”

  The marine officer smiled a bit sardonically. “That would necessitate us being able to signal them. It’s not as though the Pale Ones don’t already know we’re here. However, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We need to come to an agreement about this communications blackout. Either these people trust that we won’t give them away, or they don’t.” He tipped his head in Bell’s direction. “No offense.”

  “None taken. Now that you know who we are, I have no objection to dropping the communications blackout. I just ask that you go some distance away before you open any long-range communication. By all means, please speak with your Captain. As for what we want, we want to take our world back from those things. We want to take our Empire back.”

  Kelsey could certainly appreciate how he felt.

  “Then if you don’t mind, we’ll go back out to talk this over with Captain Mertz. We’ll come back and work out the best way to get what we all want.”

  The old man stood slowly and the others followed suit. “Even though you have an Imperial battlecruiser, we have people here that have worked with Imperial systems all their lives. They don’t have implants, but they have experience. We each have strengths the other lacks. Help us make that f
inal push. Help us defeat the rebels.”

  Kelsey could hear the unspoken addendum. If Courageous didn’t help them, they wouldn’t gain access to that knowledge base. Or perhaps she was reading too much into what Bell had said. In any case, she needed to talk with Jared. Based on what they’d done so far, he might green light the final attack, just on the basis of gaining control of the AI. She’d certainly encourage him to do that. The information in its databanks was priceless.

  Da Silva escorted them back to the entrance. Talbot and his men formed up around her as they withdrew from the gully. Reese, who still hadn’t put his helmet back on, looked over at her as they walked. “I know what you’re going to recommend, and I’d like to urge you to be cautious. We need to scout out the enemy position before we make a commitment. The Pale Ones overthrew the Empire. We’re just one ship.”

  “Believe it or not, Lieutenant, I agree. We need to see what we’re up against, and then we can make a reasoned decision on what’s in our best interest. Of course I’d like to see this planet freed from the control of the Pale Ones. If there’s any way that we can pull that off, we should finish them while we have the chance. This place is a direct threat to everyone on Pentagar, and that’s a threat to the Empire.”

  She put on her helmet when Reese did, and listened to him give instructions to the marines. Everyone pulled back into the pinnace and he buttoned up the landing craft. “Pilot, let’s get out of here. Take us back down the mountain chain at a leisurely pace. I don’t want any transmissions until I give the word.”

  The pilot acknowledged and the pinnace lifted off smoothly.

  Kelsey sat next to Reese and started to take her helmet off. She stopped when she saw a message waiting light at the corner of her heads-up display. She accessed her armor’s communications unit and saw that the pinnace had forwarded her a message.

  She played Jared’s message and saw the information he’d forwarded to her. The loss of life on the shipyard horrified her, but she knew deep down that her half-brother had made the right call. Possession of the shipyard could give them a critical edge.

  The narrowed search data on the AI jibbed with what Bell had told them. It looked like he’d been on the level, as her father used to say.

  She opened a private channel to Lieutenant Reese. “It looks like the Captain sent us a message while we were down below. I’m going to send you the transmission.” She relayed it to his armor.

  “That’s very interesting,” he said after it ended. “The pilot also indicated that we received several transmissions while we were down below, but he couldn’t contact us and let us know that we had them. We’re in control of this system, though the price was high.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “And I’m going to have to have a talk with him about getting into pitched battles, too. Is it genetic with you two?”

  “Probably. Could we capture the AI if we located it?”

  “If we could capture the AI intact, the data would be invaluable. I’m just not sure how realistic that goal is. We might have to settle for a kinetic strike from orbit. Let’s contact the Captain and get the green light to bring Bell and some of his people to negotiate. We can send out the drones to gather additional information. In fact, I think we should have them begin searching the area that the Captain highlighted at once.”

  The marine officer looked at Talbot. “I’m sending you some coordinates. I want to re-task every drone we have to search this area for signs of any Pale Ones strong points.”

  “Aye, sir.” The marine noncom began tapping on the console that had control of the drones.

  “And while you do that,” Kelsey said, “I’ll go ahead and fill the Captain in on what we’ve discovered.”

  Kelsey opened a communications channel and signaled Courageous. She expected an immediate answer from the communications officer on duty, but she had to signal several times before a small window opened inside her HUD.

  The man standing on the bridge was unfamiliar to her. Or rather, he did look vaguely familiar, but she didn’t think he was part of the regular bridge rotation. His uniform indicated he was a Pentagaran.

  “Princess Kelsey,” he said. “I’ve been expecting your call.”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember your name. Where’s the duty communications officer?”

  He ignored her question. “My name is Commander Rawlins and I’m now in command of Courageous.”

  “Excuse me? What the hell is going on up there?”

  The balding man leaned toward the screen and smiled widely. “Technically, I suppose that this is a mutiny. In actuality, this vessel has always been the property of the Pentagaran people, even though we didn’t know it was there. Now that we do know, we’re taking possession.”

  She sent a signal to Lieutenant Reese and forwarded him the communication channel so that he could watch. “You know that you can’t possibly expect to get away with this. Even if you did seize the ship, your people don’t have the know-how to operate it.”

  “You make me sound like a video villain. Your Captain and everyone under his command are my prisoners. Now, before you begin resorting to threats, allow me to make our status clear.

  “I don’t expect that you will surrender. And I don’t care. I control the weapon systems on this ship. So long as you don’t attempt to leave the surface, I have no interest in interfering with you.

  “We will be breaking orbit shortly and returning to Pentagar to consolidate control of our government. Interfere and we will destroy you. Worse yet, I’ll kill the people that your Captain left on the shipyards. I’ve dropped jammers to ensure you can’t send a message back to Pentagar through the probes at the space-time bridge. Be a good girl and we’ll come back to rescue you at some point. If you’re still alive. Good luck, Princess. Courageous out.”

  The transmission terminated. Kelsey swore using every new word she’d picked up from the marines. They had her trapped on a planet full of Pale Ones and Jared was in grave danger.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Jared woke cold and stiff, his face pressed against the deck. He groaned and rolled over onto his back. His head was pounding. What the hell had just happened? He felt like he’d been on an all-night bender.

  He sat up gingerly and looked at his surroundings. He was in the officer’s mess and he wasn’t alone. Dozens of others lay on every available section of the deck. He reached out and touched the person nearest him, a woman in engineering uniform, and was reassured to see she was breathing.

  It took all his focus to climb to his feet and stumble to the main hatch. It didn’t open when he pressed the key.

  “Ah, Captain Mertz,” a voice said from the overhead. “It’s good to see you up and about. I’m sure you have many questions, but let me start by introducing myself. I am Commander Jacob Rawlins, the new commanding officer of Courageous. You, sir, are my prisoner.”

  Nothing came out the first time that Jared attempted to speak. His throat was parched. “What kind of game are you playing? You know as well as I do that your King is not going to sit still for this.”

  “I don’t see that he’s going to have much choice. One of the very first things we’re going to do when we return to Pentagar is stage a coup in the Fleet and replace our weak monarch with a much more powerful one.”

  “Your Fleet isn’t going to be intimidated into backing you. They’re going to fight you every step of the way.”

  The unseen man laughed. “Oh no, you misunderstand. I have no desire to rule a planet. None whatsoever. I leave that to those with bigger egos than I. You see, my patron’s plans have been in motion for quite some time. In fact, they would’ve been complete right about now if you hadn’t arrived. Everything was staged and ready to execute. And then you had to show up and kick the Pale Ones back out of our system. My patron was most wroth.”

  Jared staggered back to a table and sat heavily in the chair. “You can’t possibly expect to be able to man this ship without the cooperation of my crew. I’m sure you man
aged to slip a few people aboard, but nowhere near the number that it would take to move the ship anywhere. Your plan will not work.”

  “I believe that it will. Not all of my countrymen are mindless drones willing to follow a weak monarch. And since you’ve been good enough to train them, I believe that we’ll be able to make our way back home without any real trouble. Even if we do have a problem, it won’t be very difficult to convince the necessary personnel to cooperate. We have plenty of airlocks handy. It’s astonishing how quickly one’s resolve crumbles when they watch their friends spaced one by one.

  “Now, rather than get into some useless discussion with you about the rightness of my actions, you’re going to listen as I tell you what’s going to happen. We have accounted for every single member of your crew. Well, those I’ve allowed back aboard the ship, anyway. You have no loyal forces in a position to stop me. But if you attempt to escape, I will execute your crew one by one and pipe their screams down so you can hear. Accept my control of this ship and your people will live. You have my word.”

  “The word of the mutineer isn’t very good in my book. What about the people who’re not on board this ship? What happens to them? Where is Princess Kelsey?”

  “Your precious Imperial Princess is perfectly safe. She’s still on the planet’s surface, with an entire landing party of marines. Since your people still have control of both shipyards, she can fly up to them and be perfectly safe. Once the situation on Pentagar stabilizes, we’ll come back for them. You see? All very bloodless.

  “And it will stay that way as long as you’re smart. I’ve left the hatch to the kitchen unlocked, so feel free to eat as much as you like. The remainder of your crew is in the main mess, which is also accessible from the kitchen. I’m afraid the heads are going to be quite popular, so you might want to set up a rotation and ration the toilet paper. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a ship to run. Goodbye.”