by Blaze Ward
It took a moment for the realization to sink in. Followed by the panic.
Heads turned towards three people. The Chairman, his aide Brant, and Senator Tomčič. Hanging was in the cards, from those looks.
The Chairman, Patriarch of one of the wealthiest shipping clans on Anameleck Prime, sputtered as he worked up the words. “She must have done something,” he tried to thunder. It came out weak and indecisive. “Why else would she drop a bomb on the planet and kill people?”
Nils stepped forward at this point. When better to kick an old enemy, than when he was down?
“Premier,” he said, “according to Keller’s report, the device was aimed at the uninhabited north pole of the planet, and detonated at an altitude of approximately 73,000 meters above sea level. The nearest town of any size was approximately 8,000 linear kilometers away from the blast.”
“Thank you, First Lord,” Tadej said graciously. He turned to the rest of the room with a warm smile, and a velvet hammer. “So we have Keller’s report. I have read that one in great detail, by the way, something none of you have done yet, I promise. That leads me to another interesting question. Where did your report originate?”
Even Nils was astounded at the mastery with which the Premier sprung his trap. And he was, oh so happy that he wasn’t in that net.
The silence stretched awkwardly.
“Wilankadu,” Tomčič finally spoke up.
“Ah,” the Premier smiled. He reached out and opened a copy of the report in question and flipped through it until he found the page he desired. “I see. The Independent Cantons managed to complete a detailed investigation of Ao–Shun in just eighty days, despite not having any resources in the region. In fact, it appears that this report, in footnote 143, specifically requests that the Independent Cantons of Wilankadu conduct just such an investigation. And how, just how, did it arrive here to Ladaux so quickly? Anyone?”
He scowled furiously down the table at the uncomfortable faces.
One of the quieter Senators spoke up finally. It was hard to hear his voice. It would have been lost in any greater level of noise. “It was my understanding,” he said, “that it was delivered to the Chairman by the Imperial Ambassador, under seal.”
Tadej smiled at the group. “Is that so? And we immediately take the word of our sworn enemy and use it to try to destroy one of our own naval officers? Is that how the Senate works, these day?”
Nils watched him walk angrily down the front of the table now. He stopped exactly midway between the Chairman and Senator Tomčič and turned towards them.
“Because if that is the case, ladies and gentlemen,” he continued, voice rising louder, “then I believe we could make a strong legal case for collaboration. The crime is Aiding and Abetting Enemies of the Republic. The Fribourg Empire is our enemy, although some of you seem to have forgotten that in your mad quest for revenge.”
He slammed an open palm on the table for emphasis. “This will end, right here, right now. If you want a witch hunt, I will provide the press enough witches that the Senate needs to hold new elections in order to seat a quorum. Am I understood?”
Heads nodded. Nils found his own unconsciously among them. He kept his smile inside. There really was no doubt why this man was in charge.
Tadej pointed at the Chairman with a finger that looked like Zeus’s bolt ready to fly. “You will print an apology to Keller and a retraction in the press. I don’t care if it is buried on page six. I want it in print. Tomorrow.”
Tadej turned to Nils with that same finger. “And you will make sure that that apology is delivered to her with the next supply run, so she is not spending her time worrying about fools on the home front when she should be fighting a war.”
“Aye, sir,” Nils nodded. “It will be done.”
Tadej turned back to the rest of the room. “Here is the deal I will offer you. Keller is now under my protection, not just the First Lord’s. If you decide to go after her, I will forward this entire affair to the Grand Justice Of the Republic and ask her to investigate everyone in this room, absolutely everyone involved, for treason. Senatorial immunity will be revoked for the course of such an investigation.”
Even Nils hung on his words. Short of an actual execution, this was about as dangerous as politics in the Republic ever got.
The silence became oppressive. “I see we have an understanding, then, ladies and gentlemen. Please convey it to all the key players not in this room as well. I am not happy. I am not bluffing.”
He turned his back on the Senators at that point and deliberately smiled at Nils as he began walking towards the door.
“First Lord,” he said, “I would greatly appreciate if you would join me for dinner. We will need to see how we can salvage the Cahllepp Frontier from all this amateur meddling.”
They exited the room, arm in arm.
Ξ
Nils looked at the bottom of the bottle owlishly. That was the fourth? Fifth?
It had been very good wine, wrapped around an amazingly good meal. He looked across the private booth to his old schoolmate chum, Tadej, equally owlish.
The man burped.
“We’re going to have to publish at least some of Project Mischief in the press soon,” the Premier muttered darkly. “Otherwise, too many people will be calling for her head on a pike.”
“Not all,” the First Lord replied evasively. “Just the bits about how the bomb was constructed. Some of the other ideas need time to be used on the Fribourgers.”
“So, Nils,” he began, “what will you do with Keller?”
“Well, Tad,” Nils hiccupped, “I had hoped to leave her out there for a year under an independent command and let her cover herself and her crew in such glory that we had to promote her to Fleet Lord and bring her back to the main action. Not sure what to do now.”
Tadej nodded sagely and looked at the shattered remains of his tiramisu. “I think it might be wiser to leave her there for a while, Nils. If she’s causing this much grief to the Fribourgers in the first six months, imagine what she could do with time and support.”
“Well, yes,” Nils said, “but I don’t want her forgotten out there. I’ve read the dossiers on her officers and many of them should never have been sent that far from the main fleets. Something is wrong in my own organization to allow it.”
“Well, you do your job and sort it out,” the Premier said quietly, “I have long term plans for that woman.”
Nils couldn’t help the shudder than ran down his spine at the Premier’s words.
What plans?
Chapter XXXII
Date of the Republic March 17, 393 Top of the 2218 Svati Prime system
It was seductive, watching the big projection slowly rotate above the table. Jessica sat in her big, comfortable Flag Bridge chair and contemplated the possibilities it offered her.
All the usual faces were ghosts around the edge of her command table, comfortable in their own chairs on their own bridges.
“So, people,” she began, “normally we drop out of Jumpspace fairly close, and then hit them quickly. Today, we landed as far out as we could scan, and clear at the top of the system, rather than below or on the ecliptic. I was reminded recently of the need to be unpredictable.” She smiled at what Jouster had done for her, even accidentally.
It felt strange, both owing that man good favor, and smiling all by itself.
“I wanted time to see what we were getting ourselves into, since they’ve already seen us once.”
She paused to sip her coffee. Others hit their own mugs.
“Giroux, you’ve had thirty minutes to listen to signals traffic. What do we know?”
She was caught by surprise when the man actually looked up from his panels and gauges and made solid eye contact with her projection. He did it so rarely. He dialed up the scale of the projection.
“Sir, you really need to see this,” he said, centering the image on a blue dot orbiting Ao–Shun closely.
Jessica
read the transponder display next to the signal, twice.
“Confirmed?” she said softly.
“Aye, sir,” Giroux smiled at her. “She is the St. Albertus Magnus, a hospital and research ship from the Independent Cantons of Wilankadu.”
They shared the smile for a moment until the others began to grow restless.
“So,” Jessica said, “they’ve brought in a medical research ship to uncover what we’ve done. People, we’ve just doubled the cost the Empire is paying to maintain their forces along this frontier, although the ship itself represents a problem.”
“No, sir, an opportunity,” the Flag Centurion spoke up suddenly from across the table. He was practically vibrating with energy.
“Go on, Enej.”
“Aye, sir,” the young man said. “The ship in question flies mercy missions for plagues, disasters, that sort of thing, right? Usually under private and very expensive contract to whoever needs them to come in, sometimes as a charity. It is still a very expensive ship to operate.”
“Correct, Centurion,” d’Maine said from the bridge of Rajput. His scowl might have been used to polish granite. “She is also a neutral vessel. Anything we do to her will reflect very poorly on us at our later court martials. You blow her up and you might as well hang yourself and save the Admiralty the trouble, lad.”
“Yes,” Enej agreed, “but she happens to be working in an active war zone, probably under contract right now, directly for the Emperor. That means she’s not a neutral. We could capture her under the formal Rules Of War and ransom her back to Wilankadu later, maybe for a single Lev, maybe for the value of her hull. And maybe, just maybe, for a pirate’s ransom.”
Jessica watched the shark smiles grow around her. Her people were finally beginning to think like pirates.
“Enej, it sounds like you have some ideas for how to handle it. We’ll talk off–line, but you’ll be in charge of capturing St. Albertus Magnus while the rest of us go to work on the defenders.”
Jež cleared his throat at that. “Sir, are you sure it is a wise idea to adopt this particular formation?”
“Meaning, am I insane for putting Auberon on point, the whole Flight Wing on one flank, and Rajput and CR–264 on the other?”
“Your words, sir,” Denis agreed with her, “but essentially yes. Are you nuts?”
She smiled. Six months ago, he would have simply nodded and figured out how to execute her orders. Now he was trying to anticipate her and have his own contingencies in place.
She could leave the ship to him and command just the squadron for the first time.
It felt good.
She took a moment to let her smile encompass all of them. “Auberon was built on a Heavy Cruiser hull, people. We don’t have all the firepower of a Heavy Cruiser, but they don’t have anything over there heavy enough to fight us toe–to–toe. If they divide three ways to engage us, we annihilate them. Not just defeat them. Annihilate them.”
She took another sip of coffee and let that sink in.
They were a main–line combat squadron, keyed up and trained, taking on country militias, with surprise on their side. As long as the odds stayed in their favor, they just had to be careful and hit with sledgehammers instead of snowballs. Most of the time.
Ao–Shun had required a snowball the first time. What was coming next would be even worse. Meaner at least. Something like kicking puppies.
“So I expect them to have to decide who to go after, an up–gunned Flight Wing with a Gunship in the middle, a Heavy Destroyer with a Fleet Escort riding shotgun, or a Strike Carrier.”
“They’ll go for you,” d’Maine said, “biggest and most important ship. Best return on their investment.”
Jessica smiled. “I’m counting on it.”
Chapter XXXIII
Date of the Republic March 17, 393 2218 Svati Prime system
The launch tube was a dark, forbidding place. It felt cold, but that was purely psychological.
Jouster sat in his cockpit and listened to the comm traffic. Southbound had taken command in his absence, and was doing a competent job. Far less flashy than he would have done. But wasn’t that the point? He would sit here and do his job and convince the Dragon Lady on the bridge that he was fit to fly. Growing up sucked, but sometimes it had to be done.
Everything out there looked pretty on the scanner.
The four M–5 Harpoon fighters rode escort for the two Saturation bombers, Damocles and Starfall, with the big Gunship, Necromancer holding station just below them. da Vinci rode above and behind, like the stinger on a scorpion.
It was a formation he had originated and perfected.
And he wasn’t there with them. There was nothing else to do but watch them on the scanner and let them do the fighting.
Now he understood how da Vinci felt. All Ainsley had to do in battle was watch the screen and keep the bad guys from sneaking up on them. When was the last time she had actually fired her guns?
Below, it was just like the tactical simulator had predicted. The station they had gutted last time was repaired and operational again, probably at a stupidly great cost.
The pilots over there were much faster off the block than last time, as well. And, instead of the normal twelve fighters that made up an Imperial squadron, he watched sixteen signals emerge from the station.
Nobody seemed to be paying attention. And she hadn’t ordered him to be silent. Maybe it was time to act like a Flight Leader.
“da Vinci, this is Jouster,” he said, trying to maintain a bored tone to his voice for everyone else listening. He felt like he was being graded by the Dragon Lady every time he spoke. He probably was.
“Go ahead, Jouster,” she said after a moment, probably of surprise.
“da Vinci, take a really hard look at those last four signals, the group that is at the back of the diamond formation. Imperials don’t break squadrons of fighters up, ever. Live together, train together, fight together.” He took a breath, fighting the urge to look backwards over his shoulder to see if Keller was standing there. “I’m guessing they brought something heavier to the dance and don’t want us to realize it until they get close.”
“Roger that, Jouster,” she said. “Stand by.”
Jouster let out a breath. Nobody had said anything sarcastic or rude.
“Squadron, this is da Vinci,” Ainsley announced over the general push. “Credit Jouster with the catch. Enemy fighters consist of a standard squadron of A–7b fighters, escorting a quad of A–3f strike fighters. Expect a lot of missiles in your immediate future. All craft, make sure your counter–measures are armed.”
“da Vinci, this is Auberon,” he heard her voice over the comm. Keller really had gotten into his head. He flinched, waiting for the next words. “Acknowledged. Good eyes, Jouster. Thank you.”
Wow. Really? Credit? But I’m just sitting here in the forward launch bay, twiddling my thumbs.
Another voice sounded in his head. The woman who had been his original flight instructor, once upon a time. Back when he was a punk. A bigger punk.
Yeah, Pavlovic, she said, but instead of sulking, you found something useful to do. Something that will keep your teammates alive.
Oh.
He went back to the scanner and rotated it 150 degrees to see what things looked like to someone standing on the surface of the planet. What else could he find?
Ξ
Jessica nodded. Wachturm had justified her paranoia, once again.
That man, that Admiral, that tactical genius was damned good. Mixing up fighters and strike craft, and having them all act alike until they got on top of someone, that was a recipe for disaster for her. But only if she was unprepared.
Hopefully this would work.
She watched the projection in the big tank. Rajput and CR–264 coming in softly on the right flank. Out front, but not far out front. Enough to make you pick your poison. The whole Flight Wing, minus Jouster, flying hard and aggressive on the left flank.
&nbs
p; Right now, her fear was that the defenders would go after the ships on her right. If they went at the fighters, it would be roughly even for firepower, plus all the surprises she could bring to bear with Auberon. But that many defenders could swarm Rajput and CR–264 and do crippling damage before the two ships could be extricated.
“Flag Centurion,” she said, “status on the Imperial squadron?”
She waited as he continued to study his screen. “So far, sir, they are still tracking on us. Sixty seconds to the point of no return.”
“Anybody else threatening us?” she asked, mentally counting down the seconds.
“Negative, per the Science Officer,” came the reply. “Giroux says the station is being very quiet. Most of the traffic in the system is staying put instead of trying to run from us, this time.”
“That’s good,” Jessica observed. “They learned to stay close on the expectation that we aren’t staying around. We should do something about that.”
“Sir?”
“Next time, Enej. We’ll stay on plan today.”
“Roger that. Imperial fighters have passed the way point. If they try to turn now, they’ll miss everything.”
“Roger that, Enej. Tell Jež to alert Jouster and Tamara. I expect all hell to break loose shortly.”
“They confirm ready status already, commander,” he said.
“Ahead of me?”
“On plan, sir.”
“Good.” She turned and looked over her shoulder. “Marcelle, could you bring me some fresh coffee, please. They seem to have things under control here.”
“Aye, sir,” The woman unbuckled and rose with a smirk on her face. At least some things never changed.
It was nice not having to share Marcelle with the rest of the crew.
Jessica watched the projection for perhaps ten seconds when the center flashed bright and lights in the room turned red. A mournful horn played softly in the background, in case anybody was not paying attention.
Time for war.
She watched Jež’s face on the projection, even though he wasn’t paying attention to her.