Spoils of War

by Terry Mixon

  There was some construction not too far from the innermost gas giant in the outer system, but she’d ignored it because no one did anything of importance in the hinterlands of a system. Perhaps that assumption was where her fault lay.

  Before she could really dig into what was going on, Na spoke up.

  “I think I see what you’re talking about,” the woman said, her eyes still intently studying her slate. “That’s a large installation for such an out-of-the-way place. The information that you’ve provided doesn’t say what it does, but it does tell us how much of that asteroid it takes up.

  “It’s big enough that it could easily serve a major world as its primary hub of trade. Why put something like that out on the fringes of an occupied system?”

  Kayden grinned at the woman. “I think you’ve grasped the significance of the target, Fei. The reason for your confusion probably lies in your unfamiliarity with how trade works inside the Singularity.

  “Main worlds are responsible for their own trade, yes. What they don’t oversee is the transshipment of goods from system to system. Unlike inside the Empire, a different network of stations is used for that purpose.

  “That is a transshipment center. Cargo making its way through the Singularity passes through orbitals or bases built into asteroids like that. Since they’re located closer to the flip points than the main worlds, that cuts travel time by a measurable amount for every cargo container. Those little increments of saved time mean higher earnings, particularly when done in such large numbers.

  “The Aponte transshipment center is the central trade hub for this entire sector. Because of this system’s fortuitous location and the web of flip points that encircle it, all of the trade coming from the major manufactories across the sector comes through here.

  “In addition, the center also has a significant manufacturing capability of its own. It’s responsible for taking in the rare elements mined in several different systems and building flip drives.

  “In fact, it’s the only location that manufactures flip drives in this sector. The loss of that capability would cripple shipbuilding in the area for years to come.”

  That information made Alan Kyle smile widely. “Now we’re talking. If we can take out something like that, it’s really going to make the Singularity suffer, but not in such a way that it’s going to harm the regular people.

  “Yeah, taking out all the trade goods stored here for transshipment would hurt a bunch of people, but it’s going to be the ones with money. I like it.”

  “I’m glad you approve,” Kayden said with a self-satisfied smile as he leaned back in his chair. “I understand that it’s not a major military target, but a ship the size of Bright Passage really isn’t suitable to attack something like that. We’d prefer to avoid an engagement altogether.

  “And that’s another reason why this system is such an excellent target. There are several destroyers stationed here, but they spend almost all of their time patrolling elsewhere.

  “As Imperial Intelligence is interested in that kind of information, I’ve made it my business to understand the Singularity military’s patrol patterns and where their ships might be found at any given time.

  “It’s our good luck that I was in Aponte six months ago, and my sources passed along their schedule for the next year. Barring any changes, we can be relatively certain that no military threats are waiting for us there.”

  Anders grunted and shook his head. “We can’t count on that. Circumstances change, sometimes without warning. There’s a chance that we’re going to find at least one of their ships is still there.

  “If we do, we’re going to have to abort. We can’t strike at something with a hostile destroyer that close. Bright Passage isn’t fast enough to get away, even with her upgrades. We’d probably get out of the system, but they’d catch us in the next.”

  “Under those circumstances, we’d abort,” Kayden agreed. “I’ve selected several secondary targets should this one prove too difficult a nut to crack. None of them are as good as this transshipment center, but if circumstances don’t permit a strike here, they’ll make excellent consolation prizes.”

  Grace spent the next several minutes reading up on the alternate targets and decided that the man was right. They’d be useful to add to their account but weren’t worth as much as the primary target, even when added together.

  Eventually, she sighed and nodded. “We’re going to have to take the chance. We’ll go with the information that we have and strike. The next question I have is about how we achieve maximum disruption. I know Bright Passage is armed, but I’m not sure that we can take out an asteroid that big, even if it has surface installations.

  “If we intend to destroy the entire thing, we’re going to overload their fusion plant. That means boarding and securing that portion of the center for long enough to carry out the mission and prevent them from undoing it once we’ve left.”

  “We’ve got all the gear we need to make that happen, ma’am,” Na said with a cold, professional smile. “Rigging the fusion plant isn’t all that difficult. If we put secondary and antipersonnel charges in the right places, the locals won’t be able to stop it either. We just need to factor in enough time for the locals to get clear of the blast radius.”

  “And don’t forget the rare elements used to build flip drives,” Anders said, rapping the table with his knuckles. “If we can identify where they’re stored, we can boost them. Either we can load them into some of our empty cargo containers or jettison ours and take theirs if time is on our side. Then we’ll have quite the haul when we get out of here.”

  Considering how costly the rare elements used in making flip drives were, that would be quite the feather in their caps. Actually seizing them would be worth far more than the fee for destroying them. That was just how the tables the Empire used to calculate their rewards worked. A bird in the hand was worth many more in the bush.

  “Do we have any idea where the stuff is located?” she asked. “It’s not exactly like we’re going to have a map of where all the cargo is stored in that asteroid.”

  Kayden inclined his head. “While I’ve never been to this particular center, I have some familiarity with the cargo management systems in use inside the Singularity. If your people can get me into the computer systems, I can locate the most valuable containers. If I had the supervisory codes—or a good hacker—I might even be able to have the automatic systems load them onto the ship for us.”

  “I like that plan,” Grace admitted. “We’re not going to be able to formulate anything more detailed until we have eyes on the target. Worst case, we don’t strike this one at all and move on to one of the secondary locations. Moderate case, we can destroy the center itself but can’t take anything. Best case, we take the most valuable containers and blow up everything else.

  “No matter what we do, though, we need to allow time for the personnel to escape. I’m not going to be in charge of a massacre. We have to allow enough time for the civilians to get clear.”

  With that decided, they spent the next half hour settling on the specifics of their ingress and egress. It was going to take Bright Passage three weeks to get to Aponte from their current location. If things went well, they’d only be there for several hours before they began their retreat back out of the Singularity.

  Even if they struck all of the secondary targets on their way out, they should still be clear of the Singularity in another two weeks.

  Of course, that calculus changed if they ran into a warship. If that happened, they’d die.

  They were taking a significant risk by going that deep into the Singularity. Most of the other raids had hit border systems and then raced back into free space before any response could be mounted.

  If the Singularity had ships in the area they were going to, she and her people might be trapped.

  Well, one didn’t expect a marine to die in bed. Sometimes you had to take a calculated risk to complete the mission.

&
nbsp; The money really wasn’t that much of a driving factor for her. She was far more concerned with doing the Empire proud and making the Singularity bleed for everything that they’d done to her beloved Corps over the years.

  “I think we’re good,” Grace said at last. “We’ll keep going over the data and refining our plans, but let’s make this happen. Next stop: Aponte.”

  11

  One Twenty-Four spent the next few weeks worrying about what Thirty-One planned to do next. She tried to formalize her own plans about how to stop the girl from killing her but found herself reacting to psychological warfare instead.

  At seemingly random points throughout every day, she’d find Thirty-One or one of her lackeys staring at her intently. It unnerved her every time. Then at night, there’d be noises and bumps against her bunk as different girls went back and forth to the bathroom. She always woke up terrified that another attack was upon her, but nothing came of the incidents.

  All that resulted was her being tired all the time and suffering from increased paranoia. She knew that that had to be the girl’s plan. Her enemy was intent on exhausting her and would strike as soon as she felt she could safely do so, counting on all the other disruption to mask her moves.

  One Twenty-Four knew that this situation couldn’t last. She was exhausted and jumping at shadows. Thirty-One was setting her up for something, and she knew that she was playing into the other girl’s hands. She needed to change the parameters of this conflict, or she was going to die.

  One Twenty-Four was still seriously considering staging an attack on herself that she could then blame on Thirty-One. She could control all the parameters of the event and make it as dangerous as she needed it to be yet still give herself a method to survive.

  She needed to be very careful with that, though. She couldn’t afford to seriously injure herself, because any true disfigurement would be cause for expulsion from the crèche, and that meant death.

  The slight deformity to Thirty-One’s nose didn’t cross that line, but if One Twenty-Four lost an arm, she’d doom herself.

  In the end, though, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She didn’t have it in her to bring about the other girl’s death in such a cold-blooded manner.

  She knew that Keeper was watching the pair of them closely. How much longer would the woman tolerate their dithering around? If she chose to act, One Twenty-Four was virtually certain that it would not be to intervene on her side.

  Her insight into Keeper’s background might be useful in turning her situation around. As much as the woman didn’t want to show it, she had a history that One Twenty-Four could use to evoke pity.

  Sadly, there wasn’t much pity in Keeper. Relying on emotion was probably a certain path to death.

  What was she going to do? How could she stop Thirty-One?

  So her thoughts continued to circle around one another as she sought an answer to her problem. Then one night, one of Thirty-One’s lackeys bumped up against her bunk and woke her from a troubled sleep. Even as the girl chuckled and continued on to the bathroom, One Twenty-Four was struggling to remember the fragments of her disrupted dream.

  Like most dreams, it was mostly nonsense. Still, there’d been the kernel of an idea buried inside it about how she could flip this situation around. It had provided her with a revelation.

  It was time to stop reacting to Thirty-One and make the other girl fear her instead, just like Keeper had advised.

  As the bare bones of her scheme became clearer in her mind, she realized the odds against this plan working were high. Still, anything that unsettled Thirty-One was worth the time spent doing it.

  If One Twenty-Four could start giving the girl second thoughts about her current approach, that bought her time. What did she have to lose?

  She lay there until long after the girl that had disturbed her had returned to her bunk. She had to allow enough time for her to go back to sleep, because she didn’t want any witnesses to this confrontation.

  Once One Twenty-Four was sure that everyone was asleep again, she made her way to Thirty-One’s bunk on quiet, socked feet. She moved carefully, being certain of everything around her so that she didn’t make any noise at all. She couldn’t afford for the girl to wake up too soon.

  She’d brought along her pillow, because it was integral to her plan. She held it tightly against her chest, already anxious about what was going to happen next.

  One Twenty-Four had dreamed about using this very pillow to smother her enemy many times, but again, she wasn’t sure that she had it in her to murder someone while staring directly into their eyes. That would probably disappoint Keeper. It would certainly get her killed for so blatantly violating the rules.

  When she arrived at Thirty-One’s bunk, she stared down at the sleeping girl. She didn’t look malevolent now, but One Twenty-Four knew that a monster lurked behind the girl’s peaceful expression. Thirty-One didn’t dream of happy things. She was probably imagining One Twenty-Four’s death even now.

  Part of her still wanted to call this off. When she made her move, she was committed. If this plan didn’t work, she could count on swift retribution.

  Of course, that was true even if it worked.

  Holding her pillow to her chest, One Twenty-Four grabbed the sleeping girl’s hands, clenched them tightly together, and threw herself on top of her.

  Thirty-One awoke immediately and began struggling, but she was completely pinned. The girl froze for a moment, fear etched on her face as she stared up into One Twenty-Four’s pitiless eyes.

  “Are you afraid?” One Twenty-Four whispered. “You shouldn’t be. I wouldn’t start screaming if I were you. It’ll only make you look weak.”

  The other girl’s shocked and frightened expression immediately morphed into one of rage and arrogance.

  “You truly are an idiot,” Thirty-One hissed. “You’re weak, and Keeper will execute you.”

  One Twenty-Four smiled. “We’ll see. Personally, I think Keeper will kill you instead. You see, I’m going to frame you for ineptly trying to kill me. I’ll make you look so incompetent that Keeper will have to expel you.”

  Her words struck the other girl like a slap. Thirty-One blinked and opened her mouth as if to say something but then closed it again, seemingly utterly confused.

  That was perfect. It was exactly what One Twenty-Four wanted.

  “Yes, I think you finally begin to understand,” One Twenty-Four said quietly. “I don’t have to use force to stop you. All I need to do is set up a particular set of circumstances in which you lose your reputation with Keeper. She’ll kill you for me.

  “I’ve seen how you operate now. All I have to do is make certain that whatever attack I arrange for myself is credible and seems to have your fingerprints all over it. And do you know what the best part is?”

  She leaned forward and allowed the tip of her nose to touch Thirty-One’s. “If you try to stop me, all you’re going to do is strike early and create the exact impression that I want. You’ll be playing into my plan.”

  Without waiting for Thirty-One to say anything, One Twenty-Four rolled off her and headed back toward her bunk without another word.

  Her plan was insane, but now that it was in motion, she felt manic. What would Thirty-One do next? Would she attack her right now?

  One Twenty-Four’s ears were peeled, listening for sounds of the girl coming after her, but there was nothing but silence behind her.

  She’d probably shaken Thirty-One to the core. Her enemy was thinking about everything she’d said. That was good. The more she could get inside Thirty-One’s head, the better.

  Whatever plans the other girl had had in motion, One Twenty-Four had probably just upset them. Thirty-One was on defense now, second-guessing everything and trying to figure out how she could adjust for One Twenty-Four’s insane plan.

  A plan that wasn’t even real. One evoked to cause the other girl to panic and doom herself with her own actions.

  One Twenty-Four r
eturned to her bunk and lay in the darkness, a smile spread across her lips for the first time in weeks. Her heart was pounding, but she felt alive. This might be crazy, but she’d never felt happier in her entire life.

  Whatever came next was going to be complicated. Thirty-One was going to be even more vicious than she usually was. One Twenty-Four had frightened her, and the other girl couldn’t allow that to stand.

  Thirty-One was probably going to strike soon, and One Twenty-Four had to be ready. Within a month, this situation was going to be settled one way or another.

  Or perhaps Keeper would tire of their antics and kill them both.

  Either way, One Twenty-Four was satisfied that she’d at least acted decisively. In the crèche, sometimes that was all one could do. She was done living in fear. Never again. Better death than that.

  12

  Grace had expected crossing the Singularity border to be a nerve-wracking situation, but it proved anticlimactic. In fact, their ship wasn’t even inspected by customs after it made the transition—another benefit of having an owner with a sterling reputation.

  That wasn’t to say that the border wasn’t protected. Far from it.

  The Singularity version of Fleet had a significant force in the system they’d chosen for their ingress. According to the files that Kayden had provided, the system sported a dozen destroyers, about the same number of light cruisers, and a core of three heavy cruisers. The Singularity kept the force in this system to ward off invasion.

  In addition to the flip-capable warships, some non–flip-capable system defense boats were watching over the orbitals. They also patrolled the areas around the flip points and ran along the major transit corridors.

  These boats were tasked with keeping the peace in the system and providing an early warning should problems occur. That was when the heavier units would make their appearance.