The Queen thought for a few moments.
"Do it. Once the connection is severed, move us towards Kingdom space. I assume the fleet are all loyal? Or are we going to see a repeat of what happened in Gaia?"
"The fleet is loyal Ma'am. We made sure of it after Gaia. Get your son Ma'am, and we'll move you to the throne room."
Liz kicked her husband awake, leapt out of bed, and shifted her suit belt straight into protection mode. Her husband looked at her leaving the room in a hurry, took in the Brigadier leaving after her, and quickly followed, also shifting his belt into a protection suit.
Across eight stations, anyone with a title was being woken, and they and their families moved towards safety.
SAS teams on duty rushed to the joining area between stations seven and eight. The first teams found themselves under attack almost as soon as they'd taken up position. The remaining teams took up positions as fast as they could be roused, armed, and could get there. Several teams took shuttles to collect families from other stations.
A battle was soon raging. The attackers had numbers, but the SAS were the best trained forces in the Federation. All the same, they were pinned down and the best they could manage was to deny access to the attackers.
Repulse knew something was going on as soon as Jane did, and the ship came to action stations, while only coms were being lost. The rest of the fleet followed, and the long line of joined stations was soon ringed by ships looking out for any ship launching unexpectedly.
With the SAS bogged down preventing an incursion into station seven, Jane and Repulse quickly realized they had nothing available capable of reaching the station connections on the other side. In order to unjoin the two halves, the connections had to be unmade on both sides. This was a simple enough task, but it had to be done manually. Several attempts to get cargo droids there, had resulted in the destruction of the droids. Jane cast around looking for any unit which might be able to do it.
Fred had finally dozed off.
"EVERYONE TO THE BRIDGE NOW. WE HAVE A MISSION."
Lyana sounded excited, but had a lid on her emotions. Or at least she hoped she did.
Fred jerked, sat up, wondered for a moment if he'd dreamed it, and heard running outside his suite. He jumped out of bed, shifted into 'slinky red', and joined them.
Jane was on a hollo, as her Brigadier avatar.
"Baron Fred. There is a coup going on aboard the British stations. Queen Jane has seconded your team to me for a mission. You will immediately head towards the station join between seven and eight, where your team will board station eight. Your objective is the station couplings, where you will do anything necessary to separate the stations, short of a hull breach. Do you understand the mission?"
"Yes Brigadier. We're on our way."
The channel closed.
"How far are we?" he asked Lyana.
"Half an hour. We have briefing materials, and it seems the SAS are all pinned down. We're an unknown and unexpected factor, so should be able to get the job done. We'll take the ship in close, but launch in the Dropship to dock."
A plan of the station popped up, with a droid airlock near the station connector area marked.
"That’s our entry point. Justine, can you pick the lock for us?"
"I can," said the ship. "I'm sending a security droid to the Dropship now."
Fred managed not to cringe when he heard the voice. Lyana turned to him.
"My Lord, you have the center seat. The rest of us gear up."
There was a rush for the door, and Fred found himself alone. He sat in the captain's chair, and began thinking about exactly how close the ship should get before the Dropship launched.
Fifty Seven
The stations had been joined together using simple hubs, designed by Jane well before the Darkness War had begun. It was a simple length of station with a conventional ship airlock at each end, and several bulkheads at each end in case of catastrophic failure of the airlocks. The docking clamps were larger and stronger than normal, and on both sides of each join. Its sole purpose was to hold each station far enough away to avoid any sort of collision, and hold them together so both could jump at the same time.
The SAS held the space between the open airlock and the first now closed bulkhead, on the station eight side of the hub. The anti-monarchy forces held the airlock on the other side. Neither was able to effectively do anything against the other. All were in protection suits, so stunner fire didn't affect them, and no-one was stupid enough to use heavy weapons, which was what was needed against the suits. Even pulse rifle fire in the wrong place would result in explosive decompression, and no-one wanted this.
For the anti-monarchy forces, it was frustrating because they'd planned to get to the Royalty station before anyone set off an alarm. In fact, they had no idea how the SAS forces had been alerted so fast. They went to plan B, and started launching shuttles.
Repulse detected the launches as soon as they happened, warned the pilots to return to their docks, and started carefully using IR missiles on the engines when they ignored her. She used salvage droids to tow the crippled shuttles back to their docks.
By the time Justine's Pride arrived, both sides had come to a complete stalemate. The SAS had tried to storm the airlock, but it had simply resulted in a brawl where no-one actually got hurt. Suits started to degrade slightly with each contact, and from constant hits by stunners trying to give their own side an advantage. Eventually, suits would wear down, and everyone knew it. But it would take days, and no-one had the stamina to last that long. So in the end, the brawl petered out through sheer exhaustion. After tempers cooled down on both sides, the SAS had withdrawn to their side of the airlock, and the stand-off continued.
Jane had even considered going there herself with a sniper rifle. But there was always the danger of a hull breach, and a single rifle wasn’t going to get the job done in a hurry, especially since the suits the enemy troops were wearing would require a dozen fast hits each to shred. Even the civilian version they were wearing could take a lot of fire before shredding.
Fred brought the Frigate in as close as he dared. Team coms was on, and he told Lyana to drop. The Dropship fell clear of the hanger, and proceeded rapidly to the droid airlock. Fred cringed as the ship docked just a little too fast. Jack Weaver was the best pilot among them, but even he needed a lot more practice.
The security droid opened the outside airlock, and the team entered. With a flow of information coming from the SAS, through Brigadier Jane, they'd decided this was not a time for combat suits, although they'd moved some of them to the Dropship in case they needed them. Fred followed their progress into the station. Part of him wished he were with them, and the other part of him was very glad he was not.
They reached the room where the connection controls were located.
"Damn it!" exclaimed Lyana.
"What?" asked Fred.
"Someone destroyed the controls here. I guess they don’t want the stations separated."
"You'd be right in that," said a gruff male voice behind them.
They turned in surprise and exchanged stunner fire until it was obvious no-one was getting hurt. Serena lost her temper and ran at the nearest man, taking him on in hand to hand combat. The rest followed, and a wild melee began.
Fred sat there, knowing it was pointless, since the team were grossly outnumbered.
A channel opened.
"Fred," said Brigadier Jane, "I need you to go to the Armoury, and get into a combat suit."
"And do what?"
She told him. His mouth hung open for a long minute.
"Move it mister!"
Fred moved. He ran to the access shaft, and jumped straight in, swinging out and running for the Armoury. His combat suit was standing there in its charge bay, back open. He stepped in, the back closed, and he powered the suit up. His pulse was racing, and he was breathing too quickly. But he stepped back out of the bay, and turned to the gun racks. He took down a Meson St
reamer for each hand, and activated the suit's charging mechanisms for both.
Walking as quickly as he could, since the last time he'd tried running in a combat suit, the rest of the team had laughed at him for hours when he ended up face down on the deck, he moved towards the main airlock. He cycled through and opened the outer doors.
For the first time, he was standing in space.
"No time for sightseeing," said Jane in his ear, so the team couldn’t hear.
Fred sighed, and launched himself away from the ship towards the docking clamps holding the two stations together. The thrusters on his suit legs came on, keeping him moving in a straight line, at a constant speed. As the first of the clamps came into view, Jane tweaked the thrusters and their grav component, to bring him up alongside them.
Standing next to the actual clamps made Fred feel small. He'd never stood next to them before, and hadn't ever really thought about how big they were. The ones for the joining hub were retracted, the ones for station eight, were still clamped tight.
Jane's voice told him what to do. He lifted the Meson's, pointed them at where the clamps on station eight originated on the station, and pulled the triggers. Two streams of Meson fire began cutting through the first clamp. Now he knew why he'd been told to take streamers instead of pulsers. The streamers could be used as a cutting torch. The first clamp cut though without any problem, and he began on the next.
"On our way back to the Dropship," said Lyana, as the second clamp sheared off.
Fred started on the third, wondering how the team had managed to get clear.
He found out just as the third one sheared, and his suit started registering hits from pulse rifles. He brought up his suit HUD, and found a dozen people in space suit mode, all firing at him from a distance. More than half the pulses were missing, but they were aiming so as to miss the station itself, if the shot missed him. Still it was risky.
Fred started on the fourth and last clamp. But he was getting worried. His combat suit was slowly taking damage, and the people were getting closer.
Jane whispered in his ear.
Fred sighed. He took his finger off the trigger of one of the Mesons, swung it around to point at the people shooting at him, and pulled the trigger again. His aim was lousy, but he hosed the stream towards the nearest person, who tried desperately to get out of the way and failed. The Meson cut across his suit at chest level. It almost kept the man alive, but the suit shredded as the beam crossed over the man's heart, and suddenly he didn’t have one. The beam continued moving across him, cutting completely through the remainder of his body, and then severing one arm.
Fred was so shocked, he took his finger off the trigger as a reflex action, and couldn’t take his eyes off the corpse. The nearest person grabbed the body and the arm, and leg thrusters fired on all of them, as they frantically tried to get out of range. Fred let them go.
"FRED!" yelled Jane in his ear.
The other Meson was still cutting, but now it was cutting into the station hull, and not the remainder of the clamp. He quickly shifted it, brought the other one around, and finished the job.
"Done," he said, taking his fingers off both triggers and slotting the guns onto the suit's back holsters.
He heard Brigadier Jane giving orders to the SAS troops to clear the airlock, and heard confirmation it was closed both outside and inside. By now, he was jetting back towards the Frigate.
"Need a lift?" said Jack, as the Dropship appeared from under him, with its ramp extended.
He let the thrusters carry him up to the ramp, cut them, and let the ship's gravity catch him.
Oops, wrong. He crashed to the deck of the ramp face down. The ramp started to retract with him on it, and soon he was inside the ship with the rest of the team unhooking from air points, as the ship aired up and heated itself.
"Are you going to stay there?" asked Wanda.
"Sure, I like it down here."
The team all laughed, but they were laughing with him this time. Serena and Winona helped him upright, and he walked the combat suit over to a charge bay.
Stepping out, he turned and faced the team.
And threw up all over the deck, ending up on his knees with Lyana holding him by the shoulders.
Fifty Eight
"We're moving ma'am," said Jane.
"What took so long?"
"Neither side wanted to risk heavy weapons, so our troops couldn’t get to the release controls on the other side. As luck would have it, Baron Fred and his protection team were on their way through the system, and I had them make an attempt for the release controls. Unfortunately, they found them destroyed. In the end, Baron Fred went out himself in a combat suit, and severed the clamps."
"Is he a soldier now?"
"No ma'am. And his team are all teenagers. I only sent them in because they are good, but I expected them to be unexpected, and thus a wild card. They fought their way out as soon as some of those blocking their exit went after Fred instead. Fred had to kill someone I'm afraid."
"Was he prepared for that?"
"No. When the team recovered him, he puked his guts out."
"Good. He's too nice a lad to get a taste for killing."
"Yes."
"Can you have them present themselves please?"
"Too late. Fred is on his way to become Kingdom ambassador to the sector council. So the moment their Dropship docked, their Frigate went back to full speed. It's almost as fast as a Concorde class."
"I still want one of those."
Jane chuckled.
Queen Liz sat at her desk, and pondered what to do next. She knew what her Dukes preferred, having discussed this exact situation with them just after the Gaia insurrection. She knew what her husband would tell her. She even had a fair ideal of what her loyal subjects thought.
She sighed. This had been inevitable, and there really was only one thing to do now. She chuckled to herself, thinking about the Scots who had been discovered recently. They had wanted autonomy, escaped it for a few centuries, and now found themselves back within the boundaries of another Kingdom. She wondered if they would actually become a duchy, or not. Did she really want to take the risk of losing the whole tradition of Britain by becoming a sub-entity of something greater? Would she go down in history as the last Queen? Then she wondered what history she was thinking of. There was none, since no-one remembered any, and nothing was recorded. So did it really matter in the scheme of things?
A channel opened and she found herself looking at Jane on a hollo vid.
"Your Majesty, I've been informed of your predicament, and I'm glad Baron Fred was able to help you. I'm returning from the Owl homeworld, having ended the war. There are stations of mine not far from you, so if you’d like the security of traveling with stations protected by a much larger fleet, I'll contact Admiral Bentley and have her co-ordinate the two sets of stations meeting up. There is no longer any outgoing blockade in G036, but going through with my stations should ensure there is no problem there."
Jane paused, and Liz waited.
"I can offer you a system in the Hunter's Run core systems if you wish to join the Kingdom. The planet in HR7 can comfortably support up to around a billion people. The system would technically be a Duchy within the Kingdom, but as far as I'm concerned, you remain the Queen of Britain or whatever you wish to call the new system. You would sit at the Duke's table as an equal, with me being the only person with a veto vote over what the Dukes decide. There will be other irregular arrangements. I've offered seats at the Duke's table to Generals Price and Patton, should they bring troops to the Kingdom, and I've extended invitations to a number of alien species, with their own unique social structures, who will provide a Leader to sit the Duke's table when it meets. This includes the Scots on HRA6, who's Chief would be counted a Duke in the Kingdom. So you won't be the only head of state at the table."
"If you don’t like the position of HR7, there is also HR1, but I have reasons for preferring you take seven
instead. If this is an issue, we'll discuss it when we meet up in Prime as soon as you can get there. There is also the dead planet of HRA3, but I'm loathe to allow anyone down there until we've done a full analysis of what's happened to the biosphere. It may be perfectly safe now, but I'm not going to take the risk in the short term. For now, we have plenty of dirt space for all who want it, and if need be, you could also have a continent on Prime, since you will be the largest population group of humans within the Kingdom."
"I've attached the details of the planets and systems, and also the current laws and tax arrangements for the Kingdom, which you would need to adopt. If you decide you don’t want to join the Kingdom, I can let you have one of the systems without a habitable planet for a temporary home, and once Ambassador Walsh returns to the Apricot Mapping Service, he could start looking for a new home for you and your people, so far unfound by any other species. The decision is yours. If you need further information, ask."
"Liz. Jon would have been sorry to see Britain fragment like it has, but he would be making the same offer I am, to join his Duchy. You are a member of his family, and he would see you retain as much as he could, and so will I. One day your son will be King of Britain, and also the Duke of Britain, while his brother is Duke of Hunter Prime."
Jane smiled at her.
"No pressure. You need to decide your own fate. I'm here to help, if you'll allow me to. Jane out."
Liz held back tears. She didn't remember her parents, or Jon, but she felt a strong friendship with this person who'd known Jon so well, and cared for his family. She liked the Hunters. She knew they would honour what Jane offered into the long term.
A.I. Destiny 2: Queen Jane Page 23