He put his hands on the desk and leaned toward her, looking directly into her eyes. “Do you think you’d have any trouble selling that?”
“Not in the least. I like it,” she acknowledged. “There’s nothing more unifying than a common fear.” She hesitated, “But what if we can’t achieve a majority.”
“We’ll make it a two-pronged attack,” he answered. “Besides your persuasiveness in favor of seceding, we can organize a revolt. Convince enough people that the only way to avoid being evicted to Persephone is to forcibly break away from the Republic.”
“But a military takeover isn’t the same as a majority vote. The Republic would never recognize it.”
“No, but a strong military position could favorably influence the vote.”
“Intimidate, you mean.”
He shrugged. “Call it what you want. If we play this right, it will give you the power base to ease you into permanent control.”
“I like the sound of that,” but she frowned. “What am I missing?”
He spoke slowly, as if to a stubborn child, “If we bring in mercenaries to ‘guide’ the revolt, they can form a cadre of loyal troops to keep the revolutionaries in line once the vote is taken. All you have to do is persuade enough of the citizens that the danger isn’t over, that we have to be ready to repel the Republic in case they don’t accept the vote.”
She remained silent for a moment, frowning. Then she nodded and smiled, “Okay. So now I need to work up a convincing story and figure out how to get it out to the public without alerting the governor’s office.”
A few minutes later Quan stepped out of McKillip’s office. He nodded vaguely at the receptionist as she said, “Good night, Mr. Quan.” Once in the hallway he pulled out his communicator and opened it. “She bit,” he said, and broke the connection.
Chapter 3
As Colt hung the last of his uniforms in the wall locker, he took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders, trying to relax. He looked around his stateroom. His glance fell on a video frame on the desk. He picked it up and stared at the image. A young woman and a ten-year-old girl looked back at him. His face darkened and his eyes moistened. Five years and it still hurt. He could still remember their last conversation.
“You’re going to miss Caitlin’s first regatta, you know,” Rachel had said.
“I know, and I hate not to be there, but this is an important assignment. It could be a big step in my career.”
“Nursemaiding a royal for a year?”
“Having her signature on a glowing effectiveness rating would move me up the list better than almost anything.” Of course, he knew that wasn’t all of it. It was a whole year in close company with a real princess, even if all he ever said was, “Yes ma’am” and “No ma’am.”
“Can’t you put it off until after the race?”
“She’s leaving tomorrow for her goodwill tour. I have to be on the ship. That’s out of my hands. Besides, Caitlin will only get better. I’ll get to see her race next year.”
It hadn’t worked that way. The shuttle Rachel and Caitlin were in crashed on approach to Perth Spaceport. “I’m sorry, Rachel,” he whispered, “I should have been there.”
He forced his thoughts to the briefing he had just received. The information about the situation on Corona really was as sketchy as Wessler had given the reporter. There had been sporadic incidents where citizens calling themselves separatists had taken over towns or cities. The fighting itself had been minimal, although there had been a few skirmishes. What hadn’t been in the news reports was that the governor general had just reported to the Colonization Board that natives had been found on the planet. That put a whole new light on the situation there.
He wondered how the survey team that cleared Corona for colonization could have left out an important detail such as natives. The Colonization Board would never have permitted settlers if they had known about them. Now, more than likely, they would have to evict all the colonists. That wouldn’t sit well with people who had been there all their lives.
The AI announced, “Lieutenant Commander Orsini is at the door.”
“Open,” Colt responded.
A tall, heavyset lieutenant commander stepped in. He threw both arms around Colt and gave him a bear hug. When he stepped back, it was Colt’s turn to be surprised. Tony Orsini had been Colt’s last roommate at the Academy. He had put on weight since graduation, and every time Colt saw him he had lost more hair. But he still seemed to attract beautiful women.
“First Officer Colt, I presume.” Orsini held out a bottle of bourbon. “Congratulations, Gus.”
“Tony, how are you?”
“Great. I just got word that my third stripe has been approved,” he said. He looked at Colt appraisingly. “How long has it been?”
“How about just last year on Ridgeway? Remember the casino in New Vegas where you left me to pay the bills?”
“What're a few hundred credits between friends?”
Orsini looked around. “So these are the first mate’s quarters. Where are the glasses?”
“Try the sideboard,” Colt pointed and then lifted a bubble wrapped package out of his footlocker. He carefully peeled back the wrapping.
Orsini pulled out two glasses from the sideboard and turned around. “Here we are ― What’s that?”
“My Colt 45. You’ve seen it before.”
The revolver was mounted on a highly polished piece of Teakwood. At the bottom, a tarnished bronze placard read, “Colt 45 Peacemaker.” Colt moved to an empty place on the wall and held the plaque up to it.
Orsini opened the bourbon and poured for both of them. Before he handed a glass to Colt, he asked, “Why not put it over your bunk? Then the inscription could refer to the gun or to you.”
Colt looked at him.
“I mean, really. You’ve always been a peacemaker,” Orsini continued. “I remember the time at the Academy when you broke up a fight between two upper classmen by flattening both of them. That’s my kind of peacemaker!”
“I’d forgotten all about that.” Colt thumbed the mounting switch and stepped back to look at the plaque. He turned to Orsini, “How are you doing these days?”
Orsini smiled. “Well, things have been looking up.”
Colt continued to unpack his footlocker while Orsini waxed enthusiastic about his latest girlfriend. “She’s fantastic! We’re sharing quarters. She has some really interesting political ideas. We sometimes stay up half the night talking about them.”
“She’s not a Dissolutionist, is she?” Colt asked referring to a political party that seemed to be gaining favor back on Earth. They advocated breaking up the centralist government because the cost of maintaining a widespread republic was supposedly draining the government’s resources.
“Yes, she is. I think it makes her even more interesting.”
Colt made a mental note to spend some time talking to her about it. “Sounds like you walked into a good deal there,” he said.
“Speaking of walking into good deals, remember what’s-her-name, Peggy Walker? What a knockout. After you ‘persuaded’ Graf Fairbanks to get out of her apartment, you could have had her by just crooking your little finger.”
“I was still broken up over losing Rachel and Caitlin.” Colt stood silent for a moment as he thought about his dead wife and daughter. A look of intense grief flickered across his face, then he continued, “That was five years ago. I could use someone like Peggy now.” He smiled wolfishly. “So tell me more about this girlfriend of yours.”
“I saw her first,” Orsini replied.
Chapter 4
“Captain on deck!” Colt announced. He came through the main hatchway onto the bridge, stepped to the side, and stood at attention facing Captain Wessler as she entered.
“Carry on,” Wessler barked. She turned to Colt. “Gus, I’m going to introduce you around. Then I want you to command our lift off.”
As soon as Wessler had said to carry on, one of the officer
s turned from her station and walked up to them. “Captain,” she said.
Wessler nodded to her. “Gus, this is Lt. Commander LeBlanc. She’s the chief navigation officer. She’ll be your second in command on the bridge.”
“It’s a pleasure, Commander,” Colt replied, shaking her hand.
Wessler walked him around the bridge. As Colt was introduced he took in the layout. A transpex canopy wrapped over the entire bridge. The captain’s and the first officer’s command station stood in the middle. The pilot and copilot sat directly ahead of the command station. The navigation station occupied most of the port side. A similar imaging system on the starboard side allowed the gunnery officer to direct the ship’s weapons at hostile targets. Along the aft bulkhead were the tactical stations, engineering, communication, and the science station.
“Spock?” Colt asked, referring to a placard above the science station that said simply, SPOCK.
The science watch officer glanced at the placard. “Folklore, Commander. A legendary science officer of the twentieth century.”
The engineering watch officer announced, “Preflight checklist complete, Captain.”
“Places, everyone. It’s show time!” Wessler turned to Colt. “Gus, take the con and carry on.”
“Aye, Captain, I have the con.” Colt addressed the pilot. “Lieutenant Yamamura, request clearance, please.”
“Bremerhaven tower, HMS Invincible requests clearance for lift off.”
“Invincible, you are cleared for immediate lift off.”
Colt winced inwardly as he repeated the traditional, “Cast off mooring lines. Raise ship, lieutenant. Engineering, defense condition green, set colors to white.”
“Aye, sir.” The exterior colors of the Invincible switched from gray to white for in system peacetime travel.
Yamamura eased the ship off the tarmac, turning her until the steering bars in the flight director display centered on her assigned flight path. “Departing,” Yamamura transmitted to the control tower.
“Roger, Invincible. Have you departing at zero four hundred. Contact departure control on 256.5 Megahertz. Bon voyage.”
The communications officer entered the new settings as Yamamura applied forward thrust.
“Bremerhaven departure control, Invincible on outbound vector.”
“Invincible, we have you in sensor contact. Cleared for Victor five trajectory to 10,000 meter release altitude.”
Colt said, “All ahead five percent.” He turned to Wessler. “Lift off was at zero four hundred, Captain.”
“Join me in the Ready Room as soon as we go to overdrive. Carry on.”
Captain Wessler walked rapidly off the bridge, Commander Claiborne following close behind.
The communications officer broke in, “Commander Colt, HMS Mercury reports they have been delayed by twenty minutes.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant Soriescu, we’ll continue to the rendezvous point and wait for them.”
Moments later departure control announced, “Invincible, we show you passing ten thousand. Assume vector Kilo twelve for rendezvous with HMS Mercury, and contact them on three five three point two. You are released.”
“Vector Kilo twelve. All ahead twenty-five percent,” Colt directed. “Lieutenant Yamamura, contact HMS Mercury and forward our ETA.”
The Invincible rapidly accelerated clear of the atmosphere and arced over into low orbit. Commander LeBlanc reported, “Intercept vector to the rendezvous point is nominal.”
“Lieutenant Yamamura, you may assume manual control at your pleasure.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Commander, I’m picking up two flyers at the rendezvous point,” LeBlanc announced. “No transponders.”
Colt was immediately alert and suspicious. “Any evidence of armament?”
“The scans are being processed now, sir. Another thirty seconds.”
“Roger. Yellow alert. Shields up.” The ship’s lighting switch to yellow, and the external color switched to black.
Lieutenant Yamamura spotted the flyers first. “Commander, I have visual.”
Colt nodded. “Jeanette, those scans …”
“They’re finishing now, sir.” She paused briefly. “Each flyer is equipped with anti-spacecraft blast cannons.”
“Thank you. Fire control, lock tractors on them and give me an acoustic link.”
“Aye, sir. Locking. You have voice.”
Colt touched the talk pad on the chair arm. “Unidentified flyers, you have five seconds to power down your blasters. Five, four, three, …” Both flyers exploded.
LeBlanc said, “Sorry, sir. The scans didn’t show any explosives.” She looked at her display and frowned. “Come to think of it, they didn’t show life forms either.”
“Someone was going to play nasty. What were they out here for?” He tapped the pad for the Captain’s ready room and reported the incident. Then he turned back to LeBlanc, “Any debris worth examining?”
“Negative, sir.” She hesitated. “Considering the attacks on shipboard personnel lately, perhaps we were supposed to bring them aboard before they blew. They could have done a lot of damage and delayed our departure.”
“Good point.” He added her comments to his report. Then he turned to fire control. “Mister Quayle, sweep up the debris and vaporize it. We don’t want the Mercury running into pieces of it.” Colt touched a pad on the chair arm. “Secure from yellow alert. Flight deck, prepare to accept the Mercury.”
Several minutes later the Mercury slid smoothly into the flight deck, took Commander Hernandez aboard, and backed out of the hatch. Elapsed time, two minutes and sixteen seconds.
“Mercury is clear,” Commander LeBlanc reported.
Colt grinned. “Let’s see what this tub can do. Engage navigation vector and full shields. All ahead full.”
###
“Have a seat, Gus,” Wessler said as he walked into the ready room. “Any thoughts about why those flyers were there?”
Colt took a chair at the oval briefing table. “I suspect that Jean Marie was right. They were there to damage us so we couldn’t continue our mission. The only other possibility I can come up with is that they were hoping to catch the Mercury by surprise and destroy it so we’d have to wait around before departing the system. Why they would want to delay us, I don’t know.”
Wessler nodded. “You can go ahead now, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, Captain.” The briefing officer, Lieutenant Rasmussen, touched a pad on his remote controller. Several images appeared in the display field. They formed a composite of GNN newscasts.
“The latest reports we’ve received from Corona show the conditions have continued to deteriorate. As you know most of our information comes from GNN broadcasts, although we have been getting sporadic information from the governor general’s office. We do know that a group of citizens on Corona is engaging in civil unrest. Strikes, protests, and even some riots have created havoc on the planet. We’ve confirmed that while there have not been any significant battles, the Home Guard did fire on one riot, killing a high profile college student. If the information is correct, she was the daughter of Duncan McInerny, a prominent industrialist. The unrest is disrupting local businesses and travel, especially off-planet. The legislature was ordered into recess because half the legislators are supporting the rebels. As you know, the loyalists have asked us to mediate a truce.”
“So there is actual fighting?” Colt asked.
“The information that rebel groups have taken over several towns appears to be an exaggeration. At least, we can’t confirm it. The few towns we know they have taken over were uncontested. Some of our sources did indicate that the rebels are trying to assemble a united army, but we can’t confirm that either. So far, we have no information from Imperial Intelligence, not even at the highest classification levels. The governor general’s reports did say that some of the rebels are calling on the central government to secede from the Republic.”
Wessler looked at the brief
er. “Why do I get the feeling something is missing here?”
“Well, ma’am, there’s been no new contact with the planet in over eighteen hours. None of the subspace transmitters in the system seem to be operating. Even GNN is off the air. No ships have departed the planet in the past sixteen hours, and the ones on the ground aren’t responding.”
“How many?”
“Six commercial carriers and at least thirty-two private cruisers.”
“All without working subspace transmitters?” Colt asked. “I don’t like the sound of that. I’d say it’s clear the rebels have taken over at least part of the planet.”
“I agree,” Wessler responded. “However, we won’t know for sure until we get there.” She turned back to the briefer. “What’s the military situation there?”
He touched another button on the remote. “The Home Guard is the only trained military force on the planet, and there aren’t many of them. There are five battalions planet wide. There’s one in New Perth, one in Johnstown, one in First Landing, one in Victoria, and one here at Kyoto. Each is equipped with a flight of Patton armored troop carriers, a Super Cobra flight, and six Hercules heavy transports. Every guardsman is issued a sidearm, the rifle platoon has M44 blast rifles, and the artillery platoon has 155 millimeter blast cannons and 75 millimeter mortars. Also, each platoon has an anti-spacecraft squad using 75 millimeter blast rifles with sensor directed fire.”
“Considering that less than a fourth of the planet is settled, that’s a pretty substantial Home Guard,” Wessler observed.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Is there anything else we should know?”
“I believe you’re aware that the GNN reporter on the scene is Princess Jana Stewart.”
Colt almost sputtered. To cover his personal feelings he groaned, “Oh great, a royal. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve met Jana, and I like her, but if she’s out of communication, the royal family probably has their shorts in a knot back home.”
Wessler smiled, “I guess we’ll just have to put her back in communication.”
Interlude
Peacemaker: The Corona Rebellion 2564 AD Page 2