The Shattered Empire (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 2)

by Kal Spriggs

  “Such as battle damage?” Lucius asked. “You do realize that we've been attacked once, already. For that matter, there's enough debris in this system that impact with that is a possibility.”

  “Yes, well,” Rory said with a nervous glance at Feliks. “We didn't quite take that into consideration.” He ran a hand through his thinning brown hair, “I assure you that it is stable and we think we have enough power set aside to jump start the Balor Bane Sidhe.”

  “I thought you said it would take the entire output of the array?” Lucius asked.

  “It might,” Rory admitted, “For the destroyer, almost definitely, but we think we can do a short, modulated burst from this, instead. One heavy discharge to kick start the reactor.” He shrugged, “Also, I might have been wrong about the reason the reactor is cold.”

  “Oh?” Lucius asked.

  “I think–”

  “We think,” Feliks interrupted.

  “Fine, we think that there was some kind of power-down code, that the Balor have built into their ships. When they took a certain level of damage or when their crews realized they couldn't hold out against the boarding parties, they sent the power-down code so that we couldn't use the ships.”

  Feliks hurried over, his heavily accented voice excited, “Sort of like a safety mechanism, so that their enemies cannot use their weapons against them!”

  “So... basically what I said before?” Matthew Nogita asked dryly.

  “Yes, well,” Rory said, “Sometimes even someone without the appropriate expertise can get lucky and guess correctly.”

  “What about the possibility of other safeguards?” Lucius asked. He remembered his earlier discussion with Matthew Nogita and the possibility of some kind of self destruct or scuttling charge.

  “We think that it would be possible to override any such safeguards, with the use of the controls we have already installed,” Feliks said.

  “Unless it happens before you could react,” Matthew Nogita said. Yet, Lucius could tell, the engineer was torn. He had already had a chance to handle Ghornath technology when Lucius had first come to Faraday. Clearly the idea of taking apart new technology excited him, especially with the potential applications.

  “I'm entirely certain I can stay on top of it,” Rory said.

  Lucius gave the engineer a level look, but the other man didn't so much as flinch. “This is alien technology. Something all of us have very little experience with.”

  “I may not look like it, but I have a wealth of experience with this,” Rory said fiercely. His back straightened and he stood tall, “I've studied Ben-Yam-Gar ruins, Illuari technology, even an Zarakassakaraz ship. I have three doctorate degrees, two of them in advanced alien technology. When I tell you I can do this, I mean that I can do this.”

  Lucius nodded slowly, “Alright. If this works, you get the fighter operational. Then what?”

  “We can go to a larger scale,” Feliks said eagerly. “Use the fighter to jump start one of the larger vessels, then go larger still. We could, potentially, get all of the vessels operational with just this one fighter.”

  “Risks?” Lucius asked.

  Feliks didn't answer immediately. Lucius looked over at Rory.

  “There's the possibility that we'll cause the fighter's reactor to overload when we apply that much power all at once,” Rory said softly. “But we are ninety–”

  “Fifty,” Feliks said.

  “Seventy percent confident that we can prevent that with proper safeguards,” Rory said confidently.

  “And if you can't, what's the yield from one of these reactors?” Lucius asked. He didn't like the thought of losing a fighter, much less whatever personnel assisted Rory and Feliks in their attempt.

  “We are still uncertain as to the total energy output,” Feliks said. “From the models we've run, we estimate that an overload on the fighter would be in excess of one gigaton.”

  “In excess of a gigaton?” Lucius demanded. “That's mounted in a fighter that you have setting in the station next to a power coil that could go off like a bomb?”

  “We are being very, very safe, I assure you,” Rory said quickly. “The reactor core cannot be opened by anything short of a large explosion and even then it's likely just to be destroyed rather than overloaded. It would require a very particular set of circumstances to accidentally overload it.”

  “What about if a Balor infiltrator were to sneak aboard with that express purpose?” Lucius asked sharply.

  The two scientists looked at each other with expressions of surprise. “We hadn't really thought about that,” Rory said. “I suppose a Balor would have the necessary expertise, probably one could just turn everything on... and from there they could do whatever they wanted. But there are security guards and Marines and whatnot for that kind of thing, right?”

  Lucius sighed. He glanced at Matthew. “I'm going to make sure there's a team assigned to guard their work. I'd like you to arrange for an external site for them to do their work, preferably someplace or something that we don't mind losing.” He turned his gaze back to the pair. “In the meantime, you two will pause your experimentation or at least avoid doing anything drastic or with even the slightest possibility of catastrophic failure. Am I understood?”

  “Yes, of course,” Rory nodded quickly.

  “Good.” Lucius sighed. “And on that note, I'm going to attach one more member to your little group. Someone with a few degrees of his own and a lot of real world experience as well. He's not there to override you, but he's going to be there to check your numbers and prove to me that this whole thing could work. He's a pain in the ass and he'll search over everything you do looking for the slightest mistake.”

  He saw Matthew Nogita wince as he realized who Lucius was talking about. “His name is James Harbach and I'll send him down here soon, so prepare yourselves.”

  ***

  “Well, that was interesting,” Lucius said as he finally stepped into the control room.

  “I'm sorry about that, Baron,” Matthew said. “I should have had some more supervision on those two. There's just been so much going on of late...”

  “Not your fault,” Lucius said. “I'm not unhappy with their efforts, just a little surprised.” He shook his head, “It would be wonderful if they could get those ships operational.”

  “Dangerous, too,” Matthew grunted, “At least until we could figure those ships out. Basic operations is one thing, but it takes years of working with equipment to really become familiar.”

  Lucius nodded. He remembered the first generation of ships after the looting of the Ghornath technology base. Those first ships had not functioned as designed, as often as not, and the crews hadn't really known how to take care of the equipment, so things broke down quickly. Most of those ships had been scrapped after only a decade of use, the ones that had lasted that long. “We can afford to take it a little slow, but we need every advantage we can muster against the threats we face.” He thought, suddenly of the conspiracy within the Fleet, of the two men who claimed to be his father, and of their respective masters. That doesn't even consider the Balor or the Chxor, he thought, our true enemies.

  “Well, boss,” Matthew said, “here is our new control room.” He waved at the larger room. “As you can see, we have more personnel manning the sensors, but we have also taken over local traffic control from ground-side, and we are even tied into the Nova Roma elements, both their picket ships and their main fleet. Also, we have a work station over there for military traffic control.”

  Lucius nodded, “Excellent. I assume when the defense stations are online they'll take over the military traffic control?”

  “Yes, boss,” Matthew answered. “But even then I think we'll act as the overall relay for transmissions and sensor data, especially from the outer sets of sensor arrays. The orbital defense stations communications arrays aren't really designed for the level of traffic we are.”

  “Hmm,” Lucius said. They planned to install an overal
l command bunker either buried deep under the surface of one of the nearer planets or possibly in an undersea location on Faraday itself. The issue with putting one on Faraday was making a large military target on the planet itself. The issue with the near planets were their orbits were different, and that would potentially place the system military command light minutes away from Faraday itself. The other issue was both time and resources. Deep buried bases provided an edge of security and protection against surprise attacks. Several of the old mining companies had put asteroids in orbit around Faraday, but the largest was only five hundred meters in length and wouldn't be secure against large yield warheads or kinetic strikes, not without giving it the ability to maneuver.

  Lucius walked up to the sensor display. “Anything on the screens?” Lucius asked. He saw a number of vector tracks, both civilian and military.

  “Just the standard milk runs, sir,” the civilian tech said. “A couple mining ships headed out after resupplying, an ore freighter headed to the Apex asteroid mine, and two of the Nova Roma vessels on patrol.”

  “Excellent,” Lucius said. He could see that the sensors were not only being fed planet-side where they'd be scanned, but also to the Nova Roma picket ships, who were sending their sensor feeds as well. In theory, with three sets of eyes examining the data, there shouldn't be any issue with missing anything. That's the theory anyway, Lucius thought absently.

  Of course, just as he thought that, alarms started to wail.

  “What the hell,” Matthew Nogita snapped, “That's the collision alarm!”

  Lucius winced, anything close enough to sound that was only a few hundred meters from their hull at most. “What is it?” For all he knew, they had no time, but it was best to act as calm as possible. The worst thing in this kind of situation would be panic.

  The sensor tech's face went pale and his voice lost the edge of confidence as he spoke. “I've got a huge sensor contact, right on top of us!”

  Lucius's first thought was that the ship had come out of shadow space dangerously close, but there were none of the indicators, no energy discharge and certainly no emission burst. For that matter, as close as it was, if it had come out of shadow space it probably would have caused damage to the station in it's emergence. Instead it was as if the ship had simply appeared.

  And it was a ship, Lucius saw, as sensors from the station and in orbit over Faraday started to report. A massive ship, so close that it blotted out a vast swath of their sensors on that side of the station.

  “Attention, Skydock Station,” a cultured, pleasant voice said. “This is the warship Baramis. We have come here with peaceful intentions and merely wish to talk.”

  Lucius moved over to the communications station. He could hear frantic chatter on the Nova Roma net, but the lack of hostile action and the ship's proximity to the station prevented them from firing. “Attention, Baramis, this is Baron Lucius Giovanni. You picked an odd way to introduce yourself if you have peaceful intentions.”

  “Well,” the voice responded, “I wanted to let you know how important it is for me to speak with you and I wanted you to take me seriously. I think this avoids the whole debate over finding time in schedules, don't you think?” There was an edge of good humor in the voice, one that Lucius couldn't help but smile at. Likable bastard, whoever he is, Lucius thought.

  “I suppose,” Lucius said. “Who are you and how did you penetrate our security?”

  “As for the latter, my ship possesses a very advanced cloaking system, a benefit for slipping through defenses unknown. For the former... I am Shadow Lord Invictus.”

  “I see,” Lucius said. He closed his eyes, “Well, I suppose I should clear some time to meet with you directly. Would this evening work?” Two of the three Shadow Lords who had leveraged Emperor Romulus I were involved here at Faraday now. Lucius wasn't sure why... but he knew that he needed to know more.

  “Absolutely,” Invictus said. “That would be fine. You are more than welcome to come aboard, with whatever escort you feel appropriate. You and your escort will be honored guests and I assure you that no harm shall come to you.”

  “Thank you,” Lucius said, even as he wondered how much he could trust the psychic. Kandergain said that their word is law, Lucius thought, but would they keep it to a non-psychic? He turned to the communications tech, “Patch me through to the planet. I need to make a call.” He only had one real resource to call on, and he hoped that Reginald would finally provide some answers.

  ***

  Faraday

  United Colonies

  October 13, 2403

  Reginald took a seat across from Lucius. His face was composed, but Lucius could see the man tap nervously at the hilt of his sword. “You called, my Lord?”

  “I need to know more about the people I'm dealing with,” Lucius said, his voice calm. “The Centauri Confederation, I've dealt with them before, I know their motivations and can guess at their goals. The Chxor I can handle, especially their rank and file. The Shadow Lords... I feel like I'm grasping in the dark. I don't know anything beyond rumor and superstition. I don't know their capabilities, their alliances, their motivations... I have to know what I'm dealing with to effectively fight them.”

  Reginald looked away, “Baron... this is dangerous information. I can give you some of the details you seek... but know that the Shadow Lords have killed people to keep themselves mysterious. Half the superstitions and rumors are spread by them as disinformation. Ignorance is as much their ally as their abilities, so they spread it where they can and enforce it where they must.”

  “So tell me, starting with the ones we're dealing with,” Lucius said. “Start with Imperious and Invictus.” He watched the other man's face, saw the worry, yet also the determination. This was a man who had opposed the Shadow Lords and what they stood for and had obviously paid for it.

  “Very well,” Reginald said. “There are five Shadow Lords: Sanctus, Imperious, Gargant, Invictus, and Lachesis. You are uniquely blessed in that you have thus far dealt with four of them and survived.” He sighed, “Imperious is generally thought to be one of the most powerful, both in psychic ability, intellect, and in ships and troops. He is a skilled manipulator and his preferred tactics are to subvert and control potential allies until they become his subjects. The main weakness in his people, that we've seen so far, is that they have little initiative of their own, they do what he commands them to, no more, no less. Imperious seems driven by the idea that he, alone, should unite and rule humanity.”

  “So that's probably his goal here?” Lucius asked.

  “Maybe,” Reginald said. “But he's a devious one. He has a number of powerful followers, so his emissary here may be present to sow discord while he strikes elsewhere or just to scout out the potential weaknesses in your defense.” Reginald grimaced, “It is not unusual for one of the Shadow Lords to have a fleet setting in shadow, ready to pounce upon a system after their scouts have finished their evaluations.”

  Lucius felt his stomach clench. That kind of assault would be almost impossible to defend against, particularly if they had real time information on their targets. “How likely is that?”

  “Well, it's difficult,” Reginald said. “They still need supplies and fuel, just like anyone else. Time spent in one area is time they aren't being used to enrich themselves elsewhere or at least defray the cost of operations. I would say that the longer we go without an attack makes it more likely that they won't... except they may be gathering their forces in preparation and not have even set out yet.”

  Lucius sighed. “Very well, what about the others?”

  “You've dealt with Lachesis. She's generally considered the weakest, both in ships and troops and also psychic abilities. She's been at a disadvantage since Invictus betrayed her thirty years back in a battle with Imperious. Lachesis is a schemer and a manipulator. While Imperious will try to subvert an ally's will and turn them into a tool, Lachesis will provoke allies into turning on one another and enemies into al
liances to their detriment. She makes use of assassins and turns political leaders into puppets.” He shrugged, “She has no loyalty to anyone but herself.”

  “That matches what I remember,” Lucius said. He shivered a bit. “Though, she said something to Kandergain, 'there's more than one Giovanni...' do you think she knew my father lived? Do you think she might know more?”

  Reginald grimaced. “I'm not sure. I do know that you can't trust her to tell the complete truth, not when a half-truth will do. Like the others, she's good for her word, but she'll do her best to bend that around backwards.”

  “Right,” Lucius said. Still, he filed the knowledge that Lachesis might know more about his father... and that she somehow knew something of importance about his family. “The others?”

  “Invictus...” Reginald grimaced, “He's the most mysterious of the lot. Everyone had him pegged as a schemer, like Lachesis, relatively weak in power and troops, yet he's been the most successful, particularly since the fall of Earth. You've seen his flagship. What makes him truly unique is how hands-on he has been, particularly in the past few decades. He's almost impossible to figure out and even when it seems like we've foiled his main thrust, he has a dozen alternatives figured out.” Reginald sighed, “He's also a likable bastard, friendly, charming, charismatic. He uses non-psychics and psychics alike, with the only consideration being that they are loyal to him. From what I understand, he treats them with respect and care, we've seen none of the plotting that is standard to Imperious's and Lachesis's courts, with underlings killing one another for the chance to rise a bit in status or power.”

  “Sounds like an interesting fellow, for a bloodthirsty pirate,” Lucius said.

  “He's the hardest to tie to anything, also. Half the time, we only know that an attack was him because none of the other Shadow Lords knew about it. He cultivates mystery, we don't have a good image of him and most of the audio transmissions he sends are heavily distorted. We also suspect that he has some of his followers pretend to be him to make it harder to pin down where he actually is. He doesn't make use of thralls, either, all his people are either intrinsically loyal or paid well enough that they might as well be. We don't know his endgame, but I wouldn't doubt it has him in charge of things,” Reginald grimaced.