by Kal Spriggs
“Oh, right,” the Baron answered. “I remember that report. Ownership shares for once things are up and running, for a transfer over to private industry.” He shrugged, “I gave it my approval, but my grasp of the economics is lacking, I'll admit.”
“Oh, it's just some cutthroat capitalism at play, sir,” Matthew grinned. “But since it's the workers involved, there's a sense of ownership at the same time. I haven't seen this much excitement since we screwed over Schultz Enterprises.”
Lucius grinned at that, “Yes, that was exciting times.” He frowned then, “What ever happened to Randal Schultz, the industrialist?”
Matthew's smile faded a bit, “He was one of the Chxor collaborators. Bastard lost half his ships in their initial occupation, but he weaseled his way into their good graces by maintaining ore production from his mining ships.”
The Baron's eyebrows went up, “He must have been very convincing, I'm told the Chxor prefer to oversee any types of space operations.”
“I'm not sure of the details,” Matthew admitted, “But his own staff testified against him. He was using prisoners from the Chxor labor camps to run his ships, basically as slaves. He also acted as an informant for them, turned in some of his own ships officers who tried to smuggle people out of the system. The Chxor turned him over after their surrender. Only reason I know any of this is that my dad worked aboard one of those ships and he and my mother told me about it.”
“I'm glad he made it through,” the Baron said and put a hand on Matthew's shoulder. “There weren't many families who were reunited happily after the Chxor occupation.”
Matthew nodded. His father had survived the Chxor occupation aboard one of Schultz's mining ships while his mother had survived with some relatives out in the countryside. Still, he felt quite a bit of anger at the people like Schultz who had sided with Faraday's occupiers. “Well, Schultz was executed by a war crimes tribunal.” He couldn't help a tone of satisfaction at that... or at how his father had said the magnate had died on his knees in tears. He shook his head, “Well, my Lord, would you like a full tour first or would you like to settle in?”
The Baron shrugged, “I'm short on time, I'm afraid. I'll need to speak with Captain Beeson in regards to my schedule, but I think I only have time to see the highlights.”
Matthew Nogita gave a nod, “Understood, Baron. Right this way.”
***
Lucius stepped into the office that Matthew Nogita had supplied and found Captain Beeson in discussion with Ensign Perkins. They both broke off and turned to face him, “Good evening, sir,” Captain Beeson said.
“Good evening,” Lucius said. He shook his head, “I thought this would be the least likely place to have military oversight, but it appears I was wrong.”
“We've swept the room, sir,” Forrest said. “It's clear. We can still speak openly here, at least.” Lucius had cut orders for the Nova Rosnik to remain here at Faraday. He'd also asked Admiral Dreyfus for a number of 'excess' officers to assist in forming a staff here to manage some of the rear area military issues. Unsurprisingly, Captain Harper had immediately detached the young ensign.
Lucius just nodded. He quirked an eyebrow at Captain Beeson. The younger man took a nervous breath, “Sir, before we begin, I want you to know we are being very cautious, not just to avoid tipping our hand to any possible conspirators but also to avoid leaping to any conclusions about the possibility of a conspiracy or the goals of any alleged conspiracy.”
Lucius nodded, “Go on.” He felt the evidence was already there, but he admired their diligence.
“Sir,” Forrest Perkins said. “We're trying to be objective... but things are starting to add up and we really don't like this math.” There was an edge of fear in his voice, but also anger. Lucius had some initial doubts when the young man had signed up as far as his professionalism and bearing, but he had none about his bravery or dedication to the cause. The ensign had lost everything, but retained a stubborn core of strength that Lucius respected. His bravery in leading a tiny mining vessel into the guns of a Chxor Dreadnought had established him with enough flair that Lucius thought he would go far... assuming his bravery wouldn't get him killed.
“It starts with the rumors, sir,” Daniel Beeson said. “Normally, rumors are broad spectrum, that is, everyone spreads them and you get a variety of messages, sometimes pretty mangled by the time it goes around.”
“Right,” Lucius said. He knew all to well how rumors went around, especially back on Nova Roma. He had to bury a mental connection between the rumors of his childhood and the presence of not just one, but two men, claiming to be his officially traitorous father.
“Well, these rumors are all the same, almost word for word,” Daniel Beeson said, his voice level. “And from the people we've contacted, it's coming from the same two or three people. There's some secondary spreading, after that, but not much. There's too strong a sense of loyalty to both you and to Admiral Dreyfus.”
“To Admiral Dreyfus?” Lucius asked.
“That's the thing, sir,” Forrest said. “The rumors that Captain Beeson and I heard, we think those were some of the initial feeler rumors. It looks like those were designed, and yes, I said designed, to generate uncertainty, to sow a bit of confusion. The next set of rumors seems more targeted.”
“Discussion that Admiral Dreyfus is getting old, that he should let younger men step in. Rumors that he doesn't have the strength of will to do what needs to be done,” Daniel Beeson said. “It looks like a direct undercutting of his authority to command. This next set of rumors posts you as some kind of ridiculous tin-pot dictator, who will get the entire Fleet destroyed on some grandiose quest to destroy illusory threats.”
“Illusory?” Lucius asked.
“There are... well, call them war weary personnel,” Daniel said softly. “They left everything they knew behind to save the future of their race. They've participated in the largest battle they've ever dreamed of, against not just one, but two alien fleets. They thought the hard work was done, but now they're facing the entire Chxor Empire.”
“Some of these personnel have difficulty believing that the Chxor built such an empire in only eighty years,” Forrest said. “To them, the Chxor are just those odd, humanoid aliens human explorers had just discovered.”
Lucius shook his head, “Alright, so two sets of rumors, from point sources.” That didn't sound good. In fact, it sounded very similar to the charge of mutiny. “What else?”
“There's also a cabal of senior officers in the Fleet,” Forrest said. “They seem to be trying to control the selection of Fleet and Marine commanders. I think it's one, Captain Beeson thinks there's actually two or three.”
“Two or three?” Lucius asked
“Yes, sir,” Captain Beeson said. “I've been reading through the personnel files you gave me and I'm seeing a sharp delineation on personality profiles, particularly in break-downs between Admiral Dreyfus's staff, the late Admiral Chien Lu's staff, Senior Captain Gronsky, and Senior Captain Ngo.”
Lucius frowned in thought. Vice Admiral Chien Lu was once the second in command for the Dreyfus Fleet. He was a scion of the bureaucratic families that ruled Amalgamated Worlds, but he was also something of a humanitarian. Admiral Dreyfus had mentioned his death, it had happened at the same time as Admiral Dreyfus's wife was killed. “Admiral Chien Lu, he died in an accident of some sort?”
“Officially, yes,” Captain Beeson said. “There was a shuttle between the Crusader and his command vessel, the Patriot. The late Admiral, several of his senior staff, and Admiral Dreyfus's wife were aboard. It suffered a power failure and fell into Sanctuary's depths.” Lucius winced at that. It would have been a relatively painless death, he supposed, when the shuttle was crushed by the pressures of the gas giant. Even so, the anticipation and powerlessness must have been terrible.
“Admiral Dreyfus was supposed to be aboard as well,” Captain Beeson said. “But he received a priority call from Senior Captain Gronsky.”
Lucius blinked at that, “Wait, you're telling me the entire command for the Dreyfus Fleet was supposed to be on that shuttle?”
“Yes, Baron,” Daniel Beeson said. “And what I think is that Senior Captain Gronsky was part of this conspiracy and he got cold feet, but too late to save the shuttle, just early enough to make sure that Admiral Dreyfus wasn't aboard. I did some digging and the logs show that Admiral Dreyfus reached his flag bridge just after the shuttle lost power. He directed rescue operations for the next hour, until they confirmed that the shuttle was lost... and only then did he call back Senior Captain Gronsky.”
“Who at that point knew that if he came forward he would incriminate himself in the death of the Admiral's wife and his fellow officers,” Lucius said softly. “Okay, that's an interesting theory. He looked at Ensign Perkins, “Why just one?”
“The rumor campaign and screening of officers is too unified,” Forrest said. “If it were two separate groups spreading this, then there would be some differences. It's like they're reading from the same script, sir.”
Lucius frowned, “Interesting.” He glanced at the clock. “Alright, I want you to continue. I'd also like a list of personnel that you've vetted and know are trustworthy as well as a primary list of conspirators and a secondary list of those tied into it. How long, do you think, to get enough details to move on this?”
“We've got a lot more work to do, sir,” Captain Beeson said. “There's all kinds of irregularities in their logistics and supply chain... I think Captain Magnani is either directly involved or being leveraged by one group or the other. The power expenditures for some of their factory ships are way off, which is part of why the power shortage is such an issue, I think, sir.”
“There's also the issue of some of the civilian personnel,” Forrest said. “In particular there's this civilian by the name of Newbauer, he's had extensive communications traffic with several of the senior officers that we know are involved... to include an ansible call right after the Centauri Ambassador's event.”
“He's our new Minister of War,” Lucius grimaced. “Which suggests all kinds of ugly things if he's directly involved.” He glanced again at the clock, “Alright, I need to get out and look at some of what our people are working on here. I want a full report on what you have. Also, I'd like you to begin recruiting personnel towards the endgame of this investigation. Get with Colonel Proscia, you're authorized to bring him in on this and get him started planning how we would go about arresting the actual conspirators.”
“Understood, sir,” Daniel Beeson said. “With your permission, we'd also like to get with Miss Nix's personnel and begin coordination, I think they should be involved.”
Lucius nodded slowly. “I'll talk to her, once I get the full report, and bring her in. Then I'll put you in contact with her so you can coordinate.” He felt somewhat sick at the thought of how badly this could explode if the conspirators realized that Lucius was onto them. They had, apparently, already arranged for the murder of Admiral Dreyfus's wife and his second in command. How far would they go to achieve their goals?
***
“Well, Baron,” Matthew Nogita said as Lucius stepped out of the elevator, “This is the part you've been waiting for, no doubt.”
“Oh?” Lucius asked. He had been impressed with the industry he had seen so far. Granted, in peacetime, some of the corners cut would have caused any safety manager to get gray hair. Given the priorities of the wartime effort, safety was waived in the name of efficiency.
“Yes, this is where your favorite engineers are attempting to retrofit some of the Balor ships for our use,” Matthew said, just as the hatch in front of them opened.
“No, no, no, no, no!” the short, pudgy man in the lead said as he rubbed his hands through his thinning brown hair, “You're wrong, Feliks. It won't work.”
“Maybe, Rory, if we adjust the power modulation...” the tall, thin man said as he followed Rory out into the corridor. His voice, heavily accented, seemed to trail off in anticipation of Rory's interruption.
“No, because if we adjust the power modulation, then we'll have to completely overhaul our control systems,” Rory snapped. He didn't seem to notice Lucius or Matthew as he and Feliks moved past and into a side corridor.
“Not if we adjust the frequency to match the power modulation...”
Lucius shared a look with Matthew Nogita. The engineer shrugged and they followed the two into the next room. Lucius did a double take at the size of the chamber and the accumulated equipment and parts that littered it. The sleek lines of a ship loomed over the rest, and it took Lucius a long moment to recognize one of the Balor Bane Sidhe fighters. He hadn't realized they'd captured any of those intact, but this one showed no signs of damage.
Rory was shaking his head as he walked up to a desk littered in equipment and tools. He froze, though and turned around, “You know, you might finally be onto something! Not elegant, maybe, but with some finesse...”
He rushed over to a large piece of machinery, “If we adjust the frequency and power modulation, like you said, that may solve the compatibility issues. But,” he said sharply, “You didn't take into account the synchronization issue with the controls. If you take that into account, we'll need to also adjust everything manually, but we can do that in just an afternoon. That means we can hook this up and start this sucker up, we could probably do this before dinner!”
“Start what up?” Lucius asked. He had a fair idea he already knew the answer and wouldn't like it.
Rory turned back around and his face fell, “Oh, hello.” He shot a look at Feliks, “Why didn't you tell me the Baron was here?”
The taller engineer shrugged, “I thought you saw him.”
Rory sighed, “Well, thanks for that, Feliks.” He turned back to Lucius, “Sir, we have been working non-stop on this power issue. I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty–”
“Mmmh, fifty percent at most,” Feliks muttered.
“–ninety percent certainty,” Rory said, “That we can power up this Balor fighter, not only that, but we've fully repaired it and all its systems are fully operational.”
“We have also installed a fully operational standard control system, tied into all the fighter's systems so that any human pilot could fly it,” Feliks said.
“Of course, we installed that,” Rory said in an exasperated tone. “He has to know we'd do that, otherwise we wouldn't offer!”
“I would say that's good news...” Lucius said. “But the fact that you haven't told anyone yet means there's something you're not telling us now. So either there's substantial risk or cost or both.”
Rory couldn't meat his gaze. He gave a nervous laugh, “Well, risk is such a broad word, I think that if you were to weigh the costs and benefits against one another, you really would find–”
“What are the potential costs?” Matthew Nogita asked sharply. “We've already given you this entire section for your research and repair efforts. For that matter, we're providing you a lot of power from our auxiliary generator for your repair efforts, as well.”
“Yes, well,” Rory looked uncomfortable. “We actually completed the repairs on the fighter and the destroyer already.”
“You did, then where is all that power...” Matthew Nogita trailed off. “You're storing it?”
“We can't get access to the array, so we came up with an alternative,” Rory said. He had a hunched posture, almost as if he expected a blow.
“I told him it was a terrible idea,” Feliks said in a low mutter.
“Thank you so much for that support,” Rory snapped. “Look, Baron Giovanni, I know we don't have approval to do this, but we think–”
“You think,” Feliks muttered.
“I think that this is vital to the war effort,” Rory said, his face concentrated and utterly confident. “Imagine if we could use these ships against the Balor or the Chxor, maybe even build some of our own! We'd be able to eliminate their advantages overnight. Hu
manity hasn't had a chance like this since the Agathan Fleet!”
Lucius sighed, “Before I even think about giving you the go-ahead, how about you explain to me and Mister Nogita, who you are supposed to keep informed, exactly what it is you are doing.”
Rory gave a relieved sigh, “Excellent, that's just the opportunity I needed!” He waved his hands at Feliks and the tall, skinny engineer scurried over to a platform which contained a huge assembly. From the angle, Lucius wasn't certain, but he thought it was the power coil from a weapon system, though it was huge, if that was what it really was.
“We borrowed a main battery power coil from the salvage from the Chxor wrecks,” Rory said, confirming Lucius's initial impression. “Now these things are hugely inefficient, clearly the Chxor just go for something big to do the job. Well, we modified it, a lot, so that it can store a lot more energy than it was originally designed for.
“How much more energy?” Matthew Nogita demanded. “I've seen the Chxor specs, those coils are rated for petawatts.”
Rory smiled nervously, “Well... we got it up into a discharge of exawatts.”
“You realize if that crystalline matrix were to fail you could easily destroy this entire section, right?” Matthew demanded.
“We ran simulations before we did it,” Rory said.
“It would be almost impossible for that to happen,” Feliks said. “There would have to be some kind of external impact to the matrix itself...”