The Shattered Empire (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 2)

by Kal Spriggs

  “Well, sir,” Garret said, “I got your message the other night and I looked into what I could find out about the Faraday colony.” The War Dogs didn't have an intelligence officer, Captain Josh Wachope normally covered those duties. He was very busy though, working with the mercenary company's expansion, as the operations officer. Since Commodore Pierce had sent him the message on their encrypted private network, Garret had tried to do his research in a circumspect manner. “I couldn't find a lot of details as far as history, but there is plenty of chatter about current events.”

  The Commodore took another sip of the coffee and leaned against his desk. “Go on.” There was something to his voice, almost as if he wasn't certain what he wanted to hear.

  “Well, sir, Faraday was a colony much like Halcyon, initially,” Garret said. “Off the books, colonized by folks who wanted to get out and away from Amalgamated Worlds. They went a lot further out, but not as far out as they should have if they wanted to avoid attention forever.” He shrugged, “They got a lot of refugee traffic, had some of the same issues there as anyplace that didn't have active war: flooded with refugees.” Garret took a moment to mentally review what he'd heard about their recent events. “They had some mercenary support, not guild level, just some thugs with guns. I'm not sure what happened, exactly, then, but it sounds like they got 'liberated' by the Chxor. Lost a quarter or more of their population in the occupation. Then some warlord, a Nova Roma officer by the name of Giovanni, came in and kicked the Chxor out, thrashed them pretty good. As far as I can tell, the reason he did so was because he stumbled across information on the Dreyfus Fleet. From what I can tell, he found it, too.”

  “Interesting,” The Commodore said. His eyes had narrowed as he thought through the implications.

  Garret had spent a good portion of the night doing so himself. The single largest fleet humanity had ever built was now in the hands of some two-bit colony out on the edge of space. The second and third order effects of what the man in charge of it might do were staggering, particularly if he took it into his head to attempt conquest much like Nova Roma had. “Well, the big news after that is that they defeated two major attacks on the system, either one right after the other or at the same time, I'm not sure of the details. One by the Chxor and the other by the Balor. The rumors are that they destroyed at least one Balor dreadnought.”

  Commodore Pierce's eyebrows went up in surprise. To date, the human race as a whole had managed to defeat only one of the Balor's major pushes. That battle had been extremely costly, with something over half a million personnel killed in the fighting and losses so severe amidst the Colonial Republic forces that the entire power structure had shifted virtually overnight. “Really... what has this Giovanni done since then?”

  “Apparently he's not a very good dictator,” Garret said dryly. “Faraday formed what they are calling the United Colonies, which seems pretty grandiose, since they apparently have all of three or four planets in two or three systems. They're allied with some Nova Roma elements, who claim to be following their Emperor and they're fighting the Chxor.”

  “Hmm, so my contact was right,” the tone that the Commodore used suggested that he wasn't sure what he thought about that.

  “Well, if he keyed you in on Faraday, then he definitely knew what he was doing,” Garret said with a scowl. “Remember those warheads we transferred for that raid that Admiral Mannetti led?”

  “Yes,” Commodore Pierce said. “And I remember we charged them extra for that.” His tone was one of suspicion.

  “Well, we should have charged them more,” Garret said flatly. “There was a raid there at Faraday by 'unknown' Colonial Republic vessels. I'm not sure of the exact details, but they apparently attacked a civilian station and some other orbital infrastructure, before withdrawing. I checked the timing, it matches one of the shorter routes to and from Faraday with when that raid went out.”

  The Commodore swore savagely, “And they used our missiles for it.”

  “Worse, sir,” Garret said, “I'm betting that they used a mix of the Colonial Republic stocks and ours, that would be the best tactic. And you know how bad their missile maintenance was, I'd be surprised if these United Colonies people didn't have at least one or two missiles that failed during the attack. They can probably track those back to this system if they do a thorough analysis of the components.”

  The Commodore grimaced. “This gets better and better.” He looked down at his coffee as if regretful that it was such delicious roast that he couldn't spit it in disgust. “So Admiral Mannetti is trying to get us engaged with a nation that has the Dreyfus Fleet at its disposal...” He frowned, “And they're allied with the Nova Romans. There's got to be more, there, as far as her priorities, but that's not essential right now.” The Commodore turned to his desk and brought up a display on his computer. “This is another bit of leverage, I think. I wouldn't be surprised if what she has planned is to use the threat of them to push Halcyon closer to her or to get them to give her what she wants.”

  “That's some of what I was thinking myself, sir,” Garret said. Actually, his thoughts were of the smoldering wreckage that the Dreyfus Fleet would leave of his homeworld if Mannetti succeeded in getting them to attack. One more reason to oppose her, Garret thought.

  “Well,” the Commodore said. “As I understand it, you were invited to visit your family, right?”

  Garret winced. He really didn't want to have some awkward meeting with his estranged brother. “I suppose so, sir.”

  The Commodore chuckled, “Well, take that cute young ensign of yours and go meet your nephews. Try to mend some bridges with your family... and try to get them thinking about alternatives to Mannetti or at least thinking about insurance policies against her.”

  Garret grimaced, “I'm not sure I'm the best person to try that.”

  “You've got the best chance, believe it or not,” Commodore Pierce said. “Your ex-girlfriend may come off like she hates you but she wouldn't get that angry if she didn't feel anything for you anymore. Try an olive branch. Do whatever you have to do. Hell, if we could turn your brother against Mannetti that would give us something here. If we can't get anything, she'll leave Halcyon in a pile of smoking rubble.”

  ***

  Garret stepped out of the taxi and then held out a hand for Abigail. She stuck out her tongue at him and hopped out on her own. Garret sighed and passed the cab driver a pair of scrip bills. “Thanks, and keep the change.”

  He turned away and looked up at the impressive house and then around at the well-groomed grounds around it. It was on one of the few spots of flat land near the summit of one of the peaks looking out over New Telluride. The view was absolutely breathtaking, but the manicured lawn and topiary was a sharp contrast to the rugged peaks. It was, he felt, a bit ostentatious for his own tastes. Then again, since his brother was in politics, he probably had to entertain guests of various types. Or else he's just like father and he enjoys this sort of thing, Garret thought.

  Abigail gave a low whistle, “Looks like your dad's place.”

  “You haven't been here?” Garret asked, surprised. Jessica had always been close to her family. He would have imagined that they, especially her younger sister, would have all but moved in with her.

  Abigail shrugged and smoothed her sun dress, “Jessica came by the house some, especially with her boys... but she never asked us up here. Mom said she actually asked us to not come up, not unless we were invited.”

  Garret felt a wooden expression form on his face. That kind of attitude sounded far too much like his father for his liking. He didn't know what had happened or why, but it sounded as if Jessica had somehow fallen into the position that his father had tried to put him in.

  He forced himself to smile, “Well, we've been invited, let's see what there is to see, eh?”

  She gave him a shy smile and Garret had to remind himself, not for the first time, that she was almost a decade younger than him... and his ex-girlfriend's littl
e sister no less. Hell, he thought, she's my sister-in-law.

  He extended his arm to her, even so and after she took it, he walked her up to the front door and knocked. As expected, a doorman opened it a moment later. “Yes?”

  “Please inform Mister and Misses Penwaithe that Garret Penwaithe is here to see them,” Garret said formally. He hated how easy it was to fall back on his formal behavior. It had served him well as an officer in the War Dogs, but here it felt strangling, like he'd tied his tie too tight.

  “Of course,” the doorman said as he stepped back. “You are expected, if you'll wait here, I'll inform them of your presence.”

  Garret led Abigail into the foyer. She let out another incongruous whistle at the marble floor and grand staircase and balustrade. Garret's eyebrows went up, however, at the family portraits along the staircase. In some ways, it was a mirror of his own childhood, with the immediate family first, rising up in age... yet the portraits cut off after his mother's. There was no picture of his father, nor their grandparents. Among the upper-class families, that was tantamount to saying that they were dead to them. If his father's portrait wasn't here, maybe Garret had misjudged his brother a bit. Then again, Garret thought, there's no portrait of me hanging around either.

  “Auntie Abigail!” A shrill voice shouted. A moment later a young boy darted out of a side corridor and almost tackled Abigail in a hug. The boy suddenly noticed Garret and he stepped back, surprise on his face. He almost hid behind Abigail, eyes wide. He was tall for his age, Garret would guess, at over a meter in height. He had skin the color of coffee with cream and dark brown eyes with curly dark hair to match.

  “Garth,” Abigail said, “This is your father's brother, Garret. He's your uncle.”

  “Really?” the boy asked. He had an expression of doubt on his face, as if already used to the idea of mistrusting adults and authority. Good on him, Garret thought.

  “I am,” Garret said with a nod, just as the door behind him opened.

  “Garth, get over here,” Jessica said, her voice at once protective and at the same time almost defensive. Garret snorted to see the hangdog expression on the boy's face, but he didn't miss how quickly he moved to obey.

  Garret turned and gave Jessica a nod. Her attention, however, was drawn to her sister and she wore an expression somewhere between a scowl and a frown.

  “Hey sis,” Abigail said cheerfully. “Garret said you invited him and I hadn't seen the munchkins in ages, so when he invited me as his guest, I couldn't say no.”

  Jessica sighed and the look she leveled on Garret spoke volumes. “I'd be a lot happier if I didn't know the reason you aren't able to see them as much.”

  “Aw, sis, the War Dogs are almost like family, you know? I mean, they took the contract without pay until we could afford them and they're totally cool, they are recruiting people from here to beef up their company. There's even talk about seeing if they can set up some kind of permanent base here!”

  “I know,” Jessica said sourly.

  “Well,” Garret said, eager to change the subject. “We aren't here to talk about all that, right?” Beyond her, he saw a library, much like the one he remembered from his childhood. Granted, Harris had always been the bookish one, while Garret had gone out and gotten in trouble more often than not.

  On cue, his brother walked out of his office. He stood, not far away with a mixed expression on his face. His skin was a few shades lighter than Garret's own black as coffee shade, clearly he still spent a lot of time indoors at his desk or in meetings. He was just as tall as Garret, but lighter in frame and without the years of muscle that hard work had given Garret. Finally Harris just gave him a nod, “Brother.” It was not the warm hug that Garret could privately admit he would have wanted. Neither, though, was it the angry accusations of abandonment that he had feared.

  “Harris,” Garret said with a nod. For some reason, he felt his throat close up a bit. He cleared it and gave a polite smile. “So, how's things?”

  Some dark emotion flashed over his brother's face. He looked, for a moment, as if he wanted to start shouting those accusations. Instead, he finally just shrugged, “Complicated, as always.”

  Jessica had a frazzled look on her face, but she spoke up, quickly, “Let's take this out back, shall we? Garth and Henry can play and we can... catch up.” Garret only then noticed his other nephew, Henry. The boy, much like his father at that age, had a book tucked in his hands and his nose practically buried in it, even as he stood there behind his mother.

  “That sounds great,” Abigail said. “Hey, munchkins, I'll race you outside!” Jessica managed a smile as Garth and Abigail raced for the back door, with Henry following at a more moderate pace. Jessica followed them, while Garret waited as his brother walked up and paused on the threshold of the library.

  “It's been a while,” Harris said.

  “Yeah,” Garret answered. He thought about all the diatribes he had practiced on late nights on distant worlds. Finally, he shrugged, “Sorry.” It seemed inadequate, a sort of generic apology, not even for what he'd done and said, but simply for not being around.

  Harris snorted, “You're a damned liar. But I'll accept it anyway.”

  ***

  Out on the back porch, the house seemed far less ostentatious. His brother had a secluded area, screened by trees, for a patch of lawn and a barbeque pit. The area looked a lot more rugged than the manicured front area. While Abigail and Garth horsed around, Henry sat on a rock and read, and Garret, Harris and Jessica sat at a table. Harris finally said, “It's been interesting times since you left.” He pulled some beers out of a refrigerator tucked under the table and passed one each to Garret and Jessica.

  “So I heard,” Garret said as he popped the top. He grimaced a bit at the sour hoppy flavor. His brother's taste in beer hadn't changed a bit.

  Jessica laughed, “Clearly, Garret's been off-world, he's lost his taste for good beer.”

  Garret smiled at that, “Never had a taste for this stuff, anyway, though both of you always did. I just smiled and drank it because I didn't want to stand out.” It seemed to him that, looking back, much of his younger life had been that way.

  Harris shook his head, “No accounting for taste.” He took a long pull of his own beer and sighed contentedly. “Anyway, you've probably heard what happened with father after the business with Nova Corp went public.” Garret just nodded. “Well, Joseph Monaghan came out of it all as the only one who wasn't in someone's pocket... and I threw my support behind him. He won the elections by a landslide and his party has had control of the government ever since.”

  “Father couldn't have been happy about that,” Garret said cautiously.

  “At that point, I really didn't care,” Harris said. “He... well, let's just say he wasn't happy with me anyway.” Garret didn't miss the look of affection on Jessica's face... or the way she squeezed his hand in support. They must have married against his wishes, Garret realized. Suddenly the estrangement seemed to take on a new light. If his brother really loved Jessica and his father had put his foot down, Garret could understand entirely too well the reaction his brother would have had. Let's face it, Garret thought sadly, it was half the reason I ran off... because I couldn't stand to live here and not have her.

  “Well, things have shaken out fairly well. Joe Monaghan has managed to play Nova Corp and President Salazar off one another and get us a bit of freedom, particularly a few sources of income, both in tourism and then later with a small merchant fleet,” Harris said. He looked off in the distance, “We were going for a long game plan, but then Salazar made some kind of deal with Nova Corp and suddenly they were in here with their goons, shutting down businesses and paying in their company scrip. We saw the way it was going. We had some options then and we called in some favors, got Admiral Mannetti and Admiral Collae both on our sides... but we knew we couldn't trust them. So we hired you.”

  “You hired the War Dogs,” Garret corrected with a slight smile.
/>   “No...” Jessica said softly, “We hired you.”

  Garret froze, beer halfway to his mouth. “Wait... I could imagine that you knew I was in the War Dogs, but you couldn't have hired them just because I was there.”

  “Oh,” Harris waved a hand, “We knew they had a good reputation, even for guild mercs. We knew that we'd be getting what we paid for... and that they'd be loyal enough to us.” He glanced at Jessica who squeezed his hand again. “But we were looking long term. Yes, we wanted a loyal and capable element to support us. But we also wanted someone with military experience... the experience to command our own forces.”

  “What?” Garret asked, shocked. He looked between the pair of them. “You can't be serious. I walked out of here... walked out on both of you, ten years ago. Why would you even think I would be what you needed... that I would even be capable no less?” His voice raised and he saw Abigail look up from where she and Garth played.

  “I've tracked your record,” Harris said quietly, with a glance at his two boys. “You may have turned your back on us... but that didn't mean you weren't family. Hell, did you think I argued with you about leaving so much because I didn't agree with you?” He shook his head, “We had to change things and we have a bit, but we have a lot more to do here, I'm well aware of that.” He sighed, “But while you stayed away, we knew you hadn't given up on the values that made you leave. You still care about people, still fight to make the universe a better place. Hell, you signed up with the company with the highest ethical rating in Tannis's Mercenary Guild!”

  Garret looked away. He wanted to explain that it was business ethics, that he still killed people for money... yet he didn't want to see disappointment in their eyes, either. “So what exactly are you saying?”

  “We want you to step in as our overall force commander, probably in a few years as our secretary of defense, though that will be a toss up between whether we need you to command in battle or prepare and train our forces.”