Wreaths of Empire

by Andrew M. Seddon

  Through the haze of pain and blood she saw Maricic shove Kuchera aside. Maricic fired again. Stalker lurched and fell. Another shot sent Emmers sprinting for cover behind a console which erupted in a great gout of flame as a bolt ripped into it. Wicked shards of metal scythed across the room.

  Jade coughed as smoke from the flaming console burned her throat, and fumbled with her uninjured left arm for her Linar. Her fingers slid over the cool stock and slipped away. They wouldn’t move where she wanted them to. Tears clouded her vision. She tried again.

  Kuchera had a grip on Maricic’s arm, forcing it upwards. A shot flew to the ceiling. Kuchera and Maricic careened in a bizarre dance, Kuchera trying to wrench the gun away and Maricic fending him off. Despite the advantage of Kuchera’s height, Maricic’s fury made her a match. She must, Jade thought, have also had muscle enhancement, because Kuchera was no weakling. Maricic yanked her arm down. Kuchera wavered, off balance. Maricic maneuvered her foot behind his ankle and pulled. Kuchera toppled.

  The Linar was in Jade’s hand.

  Her vision blurred. She squinted, trying to focus.

  Kuchera lay on his back, Maricic standing over him.

  Her hand wavered. Aim it. Pull the trigger.

  Her vision fogged again. Don't hit Troy.

  Raise your hand. She was going into shock.

  The Linar slipped.

  Troy…just like Gregory…

  The Linar was torn from her grasp.

  A bolt scorched across the room.

  Georgia Maricic screamed, and pirouetted, her weapon clattering to the floor. She beat her arm, encased in a crumpled mass of burning lizard-silk, against her side.

  Jade slumped.

  Kuchera scrambled over to her. “Jade! Are you all right?” He slid a hand behind her back, half raising her.

  Pain cut through her injured shoulder. She gasped.

  “Sorry.” Kuchera pillowed her head.

  Jade gulped down a wave of pain and nausea. “I’m…I’m all right.” She forced herself to her knees, leaning on Kuchera’s arm.

  Admiral Cylena Koharski stood, her legs spread, Jade’s Linar held in a tight grip, aimed at Maricic.

  “You’re a weakling, too,” Maricic sneered. “I thought better of you.”

  “I refuse to be a party to genocide,” Koharski replied.

  “You’ll pay for this,” Maricic said.

  “You’re the one who’ll pay. I’m placing you under arrest for treason against the Hegemony.”

  “I think not.” Maricic took a step towards the door.

  “Stay where you are!” Koharski ordered.

  Maricic’s glance was mocking. “If you kill a Central Committee Member, you sign your own death warrant, Koharski. So shoot me if you dare.” She took another step towards the door. Then another.

  Koharski’s weapon followed her, but the admiral didn’t shoot.

  Maricic reached the door. “Fools!” she said, and stepped through.

  Koharski pocketed the Linar. “We’ll deal with her later. I suspect that her seat on the Central Committee is not as secure as she thinks it is. There are those who would like nothing better than to see Maricic go down. She overestimates her abilities if she thinks the Committee will side with her.” She stooped over Jade. “Can you stand?”

  Jade gritted her teeth. She gestured to Kuchera. “Help me up.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Do it.”

  He put his arm underneath her uninjured shoulder and eased her up. Her right arm hung limply by her side.

  “Can you make it?” he asked.

  “I have to.” She looked around the ruined room. A haze of smoke from the smouldering console hung in the air. Travers lay deathly still. A low moan came from Stalker. “The others?”

  Koharski answered. “Travers is dead. Stalker is badly injured.”

  “Emmers? Rick—where are you?”

  “Here, ma’am.” Emmers staggered forward. His hand covered his eyes. “I…I can’t see.” He moved his hand, showing his blackened and burned face. Empty eye sockets leaked fluid. “When the console went up…”

  “Oh, Rick,” Jade moaned.

  She was interrupted by her commlink.

  “Get it, Troy,” Jade asked.

  He answered it. “Kuchera for Lafrey.”

  “This is Lieutenant WhiteWolf on Cheshire Cat.”

  “Go ahead, Lieutenant. Commander Lafrey is listening.”

  “Those Roessler-space waves are increasing in intensity. Building rapidly.”

  “Thank you,” Kuchera said.

  Jade whispered, and Kuchera repeated her instructions. “Clear the system, WhiteWolf.”

  “Blow our cover, ma’am?”

  “The conference is over. Don’t take any more risks. Rejoin the Third Fleet.”

  “Aye, ma’am. WhiteWolf out.”

  Jade stared at Kuchera. “We’re running out of time.”

  Koharski said, “There may not be a way to stop the weapon.”

  “Do we believe what Maricic said?” Emmers asked.

  “Regardless, we have to try to deactivate it,” Jade replied. She glanced at her chrono. Had it only been minutes? “We’ve got less than half an hour.”

  Emmers’ voice was tight with pain. “We don’t know where it is.”

  “Sector D,” Jade replied. “Probably a level not marked on the plans.” She took a tentative step, staggered and recovered herself. “I can walk, Troy,” she said as he reached for her.

  “You can’t go alone,” Koharski said. “I’ll come with you.”

  “So will I,” Emmers added.

  “If I may suggest, Admiral,” Jade said. “I think it would be better if you escorted Admiral Stalker to a doc. Somebody has to take word to the Third Fleet and the Central Committee, as well as the Gara’nesh. You’re the senior officer and the logical choice.”

  Koharski nodded. “You’re right.” She moved over to Stalker, and helped him to his feet. The Naval Intelligence chief was pale and swayed. “You need a shipboard doc. Come on, Charles, let’s get you to a shuttle.”

  “You go too, Rick,” Jade said.

  “No, ma’am,” Emmers replied. “You’ll need me.”

  “Your eyes—”

  “They can wait. If it’s a sophisticated program…”

  Jade sighed. Emmers had a point. His computer skills were orders of magnitude superior to her own. “OK. Take his arm, Troy. Lead us.”

  The wounded procession steered an awkward course down the corridor. Each step sent a renewed wave of pain tearing through her. Thankful for Kuchera’s supporting arm, Jade was conscious of his continual scrutiny. She appreciated his concern but wished he’d stop staring at her. She made her face as impassive as possible, trying not to let the pain show.

  But she couldn’t hide the chill sweat that dripped off her forehead and trickled down the back of her neck.

  They paused at a junction in the corridor.

  “Good luck, Commander,” Koharski said. She handed Jade’s Linar to Kuchera. “Take this.” Then she steered Stalker towards the shuttle bay.

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Jade said. “Good luck to you, too.” She and Emmers and Kuchera proceeded straight ahead.

  Jade breathed in relief when they reached Sector D. They entered the primary lifter. She leaned against the wall, taking the weight off her wobbly legs.

  “What do I do, Rick?” Kuchera asked. “If there’s a lower level it’ll need a pass-code which we don’t have.”

  Emmers stood in the center of the lifter. “Can you open the access panel?”

  Kuchera dug his fingernails into the narrow seams and pried the panel off. “Yes.”

  “Is there an override?”

  “What does it look like?”

  “Ought to be a small chip with a red stripe.”

  “Got it.”

  “Slot it in.”

 

  “It works!” Kuchera said.

  “Try for
a lower level,” Emmers said.

  The lifter descended. It came to a stop and the door slid open.

  “This must be the place,” Kuchera remarked. He eyed the deserted corridor, and kept the Linar trained ahead. “Come on, troops.”

  A door labeled Reserve Auxiliary Power Control stood wedged partly open.

  Jade looked at the foot protruding from the opening into the corridor. She held onto Rick Emmers while Kuchera pried the door open wide enough to admit them. She brushed sweat from her eyebrows and lashes.

  The foot was attached to the body of a heavy-set, darkly complected man in a gold uniform. Jade took one glance at the ragged wound in his chest and looked away.

  Kuchera steered Emmers around the corpse.

  “Who do you suppose that was?” Kuchera asked.

  “Another expendable,” Jade replied curtly. “The leaders of the Hegemony believe there’s a never-ending supply of them. Over there.” She indicated a console.

  Kuchera gave her a hand into a seat, and pointed Emmers in the right direction. Jade leaned back, taking her weight on her good shoulder. With her left hand she positioned her injured arm across her lap. The fingers of her right hand were numb. She couldn’t move them. She could barely move her neck.

  “How are you going to do anything if you can’t see?” Kuchera asked Emmers.

  “My visual implant will still work,” Emmers replied. “I can have the computer feed its display straight to it. I should be able to do most of this with auditory commands.” He rested his hands on the edge of the console and began working.

  Kuchera wiped Jade’s forehead with his sleeve. “Can he do it?” he whispered into her ear.

  “If anybody can, it’s Rick.” She shivered. She felt cold inside, and it wasn’t fear.

  “You need a doc,” Kuchera said. He peeled off the top of his uniform and draped it over her shoulders, snugging it tight.

  “Later.”

  “There may not be any later,” Kuchera replied.

  “Then it doesn’t matter.” She spared another look at her chrono. “Twenty-three minutes. What have you got, Rick?”

  Emmers leaned back. He gave a low whistle. “This is some device,” he said. “Maricic is right, I don’t think I can deactivate it, not in time.”

  “We’ve lost,” Kuchera said. He turned away. “After all this.”

  Jade fought to remain conscious.

  “Maybe not,” Emmers replied. “I can’t deactivate it but I may be able to retarget it.”

  “Even just enough to miss?” Jade asked, rallying enough energy to lean forward.

  “No,” said Emmers. “The program incorporates a basic artificial intelligence. It won’t accept anything other than the coordinates of a star. Empty space is out.”

  “So some star has to explode.”

  “Yes.”

  “There are plenty of barren star systems,” Kuchera suggested.

  “Again, not that easy,” Emmers said. “It takes a while to set up a targeting program. If it’s not complete in time, then the original program will take over.”

  “What then?”

  “I need a close system. The only one I could be sure of inserting in time is Gamma Hydra 4.”

  “That means Covenant will be destroyed too,” Kuchera said.

  Jade had a vision of Covenant’s sun exploding. “Do it, Rick. We can notify the Fleet. They’ll have time to transition out of range. Covenant won’t be any great loss, and we should be the only ones left here by now.”

  “One other problem, ma’am.”

  Jade wished that Emmers would just do it and quit raising objections. She knew she was being irrational. “What?”

  Emmers seemed reluctant to speak.

  “What is it?” Kuchera prompted.

  Emmers spoke softly. “It will take a few minutes to insert the program. I can do most of it, but right at the end I’ll need somebody who can see to enter some manual functions. By that time…it will be too late to get out of range of the shock wave.”

  Jade’s insides lurched. She felt sick. “That means two of us have to die.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I’ll stay,” Kuchera said. “You can make it to Starwind, Jade.”

  “No,” she replied, trying to think clearly, mustering what little strength remained. “I’m too weak to make it to the shuttle bay. And I know more about systems like this than you do, Troy.”

  “You’re more important than I am. To Intelligence, and also to the resistance.”

  “My work is here, Troy.”

  “Then I stay, too.”

  “No!” She countered. “There’s no need for all three of us to die. You get out of here.”

  “Jade—”

  “That’s an order, Troy,” she stared him down. “Remember our agreement. No heroics.”

  His mouth worked beneath the overhang of his moustache. “Jade, I want to stay with you.”

  She smiled sadly. “I appreciate the offer, Troy, but we haven’t got time to argue. Get out of here, and don’t be an idiot.”

  He bent over her. Their lips met.

  “I don’t want to lose you,” Kuchera said.

  “It won’t be forever,” she whispered. To have reached this point and then have it snatched away…it wasn’t fair!

  “I love you, Jade,” Kuchera murmured, his face in her hair.

  “And I love you too,” Jade replied as tears filled her own eyes.

  She pushed him gently away. “Go.”

  Kuchera started to turn.

  Jade glanced towards Emmers. A sudden, sharp pain cracked from her jaw to her skull. A wave of bright light bloomed and faded, dropping her towards a dark well of oblivion. Kuchera’s voice came from a great distance, “Forgive me, Jade.” She tried to speak, to pull back, but the blackness surged upwards, enveloped her, and dragged her down.

  FIFTEEN

  Consciousness.

  A sharp stab of pain from ear to ear.

  Her skull splitting open.

  Her brains a sea of molten lead.

  A horde of devils chipping away at her head.

  Chip. Slash. Stab.

  Light.

  Bright light, a burning sword, more brilliant than the fierce dazzle of the sun.

  Afterimages on her eyes, the imprints of her retinas, a tangle of arteries and veins.

  Pain.

  Everywhere, pain.

  Jade concentrated on her body, searching, trying to separate the sensations from the clutter of pain. Pressure on her upper back, buttocks, and heels. She was lying supine, flat. On…? Something firm. Not cushiony soft or rock hard, but in-between. Arms by her side, straight out. Left one moves. Right shoulder—a dull mass of fiery ache. No go. Legs—OK.

  She peeled her eyelids open and squinted against the radiance that made her eyes water.

  A featureless white plain, without texture or substance. Near, or far away? She couldn’t decide.

  Was this what death was like?

  She closed her eyes.

  The light didn’t disappear.

  Time to look again.

  She opened her eyes and found that this time she was able to focus. She turned her neck to the side, and blinked as a lancing pain shot from her neck to her shoulder.

  She felt a pinch in her left hip. Relief flowed almost instantaneously. The pain began to subside.

  Fine metal wires drifted around her, attaching to her arms, scalp, chest. A web of gossamer, too fine to feel.

  She moved her left arm, stretching out, judging distance more by sight than by feel. Her fingertips brushed a translucent panel of a different substance, cool, slippery.

  Panels? Wires? Light?

  A doc!

  The word flashed into her mind.

  A doc? Why was she in a doc? The only doc was on Starwind.

  Starwind?

  Troy!

  Jade brushed her left hand across her body, sweeping off the network of fine wires. They parted easily, painlessly. She pl
aced her palm against the translucent panel and pushed. It slid aside soundlessly. A breath of cooler air flowed over her. The shelf she was lying on slid out through the opening and stopped.

  Gingerly, Jade swung her legs until they hung over the edge, her toes barely brushing the deck. Even more cautiously, she raised herself to a sitting position.

  The room spun.

  She clutched the shelf for support, and leaned forward as an upwelling of nausea released itself.

  A sudden hammering in her head followed the retches. She waited for it to subside.

  She willed her eyes to focus on the doc’s readout. Kuchera must have been in a hurry—the stasis field hadn’t been activated. Then the doc would have kept her unconscious until she was fully healed; or until someone deactivated it.

  As it was, the machine had responded to her returning consciousness.

  She listened.

  Normal ship sounds.

  Starwind’s insystem drive.

  “Troy!” she called, surprised at her voice. Could that hoarse croak possibly be coming from her mouth? Her jaw throbbed; she fingered a knot on her chin. “Troy!”

  No answer.

  Why couldn’t she think? Her mind felt enveloped in fog. She couldn’t recall—or…had Emmers and Kuchera completed the retargeting sooner than expected and abandoned Covenant in Starwind?

  She clutched her wounded arm to her chest to minimize movement of the shoulder, and eased herself to a standing position. Whatever the doc had given her for pain was working. Her shoulder ached, but there were none of the searing pains as when she’d first been wounded. Her fingers still wouldn’t move.

  She guided the nerveless hand into a pocket and let go. Her arm sagged but remained reasonably close to her side.

  Her left hand on the wall for support, she crept into Starwind's lounge.

  “Troy? Rick?” she rasped.

  The lounge was empty.

  The bridge door stood open. Jade looked through the opening at the deserted seats.

  Covenant hung on the viewscreen, dark, austere, forbidding. As she watched, the planet seemed to shrink. Starwind was receding.

  Memory returned. She hadn’t passed out. Kuchera had knocked her out.

  “Troy, you idiot,” she muttered.

  Jade staggered to the pilot’s seat and ran her eyes over the console. Starwind was on automatic pilot, following a course away from Covenant, towards the Third Fleet.