Empire of Bones

by Terry Mixon

  She sighed. Well, if her father had lived this way, so could she. The thought brightened her mood. She’d be able to share some stories with him that would bring them closer. Besides, this was an adventure—the adventure of her lifetime. She didn’t need to think about what she didn’t have. She needed to think about what she was getting.

  Kelsey sat down at the desk with a smile. She keyed in her thumbprint and started sorting through the publicly available files on the network while she waited for her luggage to arrive.

  Let the adventure begin.

  Chapter Seven

  Jared spent the next three weeks reviewing personnel files for the scientific staff and consulting with the senior scientists over the communications channels. They’d need to have another face-to-face meeting soon, but Jared thought that would have more impact if he waited until they were ready to jump into the unknown. The delay gave him time to review the scientists’ background.

  He already knew his crew, including the marines, in detail. Adding familiarity with several hundred scientists and almost that many merchant officers and sailors took time, but he could at least begin the process. He needed the distraction to take his mind off his unwelcome guest, even if only for a little while.

  He hadn’t gone out of his way to ignore Princess Kelsey…or rather Deputy Ambassador Bandar, but he hadn’t sought her out, either. He’d focused his attention on her boss instead. Ambassador Vega was a levelheaded man and went out his way to work with Jared and his officers. He fit in so well that it was hard to believe that he hadn’t been aboard for months.

  Any time Jared encountered Kelsey was a different matter. She was always distantly polite, almost like a silent rebuke for his reaction to her presence. His overreaction, rather. She hadn’t stepped over the line once. She hadn’t really come close. Somewhat to his disappointment.

  Now that they’d passed through the fourth flip-point and were travelling in unclaimed territory, he needed to address their problematic relationship and call a truce.

  He ran into his first obstacle when he went to find her. Since she had no assigned station, she could be almost anywhere on the ship. Well, not engineering, the bridge, operations, or the missile tubes. He decided against paging her because that would make it seems as though he’d summoned her. Rather than get her back up, he’d just have to play ‘Find the Princess’.

  Jared started leaving word for people to call him if she showed up, but he hadn’t found her in any of the places he thought most likely. He considered searching the maintenance shafts, but he wasn’t sure how she could’ve gotten into them. It was as if she’d vanished.

  Time to form a search and rescue party, and no one was better for the task than the marines. He made his way to marine country and stopped dead just inside the large hatch blazoned with their unit flash.

  Deputy Ambassador Kelsey Bandar, second in line to the Imperial Throne of the Terran Empire, sat at a table with four burly men and a wiry woman dressed in battlefield trousers and black tee shirts. Cards and chips covered the tabletop. More than half the chips sat in front of the Imperial scion.

  The Princess had dressed down in a plain blouse and slacks, and she’d pulled her unruly blonde hair back into a loose ponytail. She took a sip of what looked like beer and tossed some cards out face down. The dealer slid her some replacements with a look of wary respect.

  When some of the watchers spotted him, Jared held up a hand to stop them from announcing his presence. The sight of the Imperial Princess gambling with some of the roughest, toughest men and women in space boggled his mind.

  There was no one he’d rather have at his back than a squad of marines, but he’d never in his wildest dreams let his sister—if he’d had one growing up—gamble with them. She’d come home scratching herself and swearing. If she didn’t come home pregnant.

  Lieutenant Timothy Reese, the detachment commander, slid around the compartment until he stood beside Jared. “Captain. I’ve been keeping an eye on things, but I’m starting to think I never needed to worry. She’s bonded with them like their little sister.”

  The odd parallel to Jared’s thoughts made him glance sharply at the marine officer. Reese grinned. “Their sister, not someone else’s.”

  Jared shook his head. “Are they letting her win? That’s a first. I thought the Imperial Marine motto was to never give a sucker a break.”

  “That’s pretty close to the unofficial motto. When it comes to cards, they don’t cut anybody any slack. She doesn’t need any help, though. She’s beating the proverbial pants off all of them, despite their best efforts. I’ve been watching to make sure she wasn’t cheating. Though I have no idea what I’d do if I found out an heir to the Imperial Throne was cheating card sharks like my people. Probably applaud.”

  Jared tried to imagine where she could’ve learned to play poker at this level and failed. It seemed wildly out of character for her. He made a mental note to ask about it one day.

  Kelsey picked that moment to stretch and she must’ve caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye. She spun her chair toward him and stood. “Captain Mertz. I didn’t see you come in.”

  “My apologies for interrupting your game, Deputy Ambassador. Might I have moment of your time?”

  She counted out her chips, gathered the Imperial credits the dealer paid her, and bowed to her fellow players. “I’ll come back and get the rest later.”

  “You wish,” the burliest of them said with a grin. “We’ll get ours back next time.”

  “How’s that working out for you so far?”

  Everyone at the table laughed. Obviously no hard feelings there. Any intimidation they may have felt at her Imperial stature wasn’t apparent now.

  Kelsey joined him at the door. “Thanks again for making me welcome, Lieutenant Reese.”

  The young officer smiled. “Anytime, Kelsey. Consider marine country your second home. Come down in a couple of days and we’ll give you a tour of the firing range. The assault rifles might be a bit much for you, but we have some kickass pistols.”

  The young noblewoman grinned. “I’ll hold you to that.”

  Jared raised an eyebrow at the marine, but said nothing as he followed Kelsey out.

  She turned to him in the corridor. “What can I do for you, Captain?”

  “You can help me figure out how we can work together going forward. I realize neither one of us is overly fond of the other, but we need to get past that. At best, we’ll be together almost two years. At worst, three or more.”

  She nodded slowly up at him. “We have a lot of history to get over, but you’re right. This mission isn’t the time or place for allowing our feud to continue.”

  He nodded. “Allow me start off by apologizing for not having sought you out before now.”

  “No apology needed. I’m certain you’ve been very busy. I may not know precisely what a Fleet captain does, but taking on a second ship full of scientists and coordinating a mission of this magnitude must occupy a lot of your time.”

  A wry smile crossed her lips. “And I’m sure that an official stowaway wasn’t the most anticipated part of your day either. I don’t blame you for being angry with me. It wasn’t my idea to come, but I didn’t object when the opportunity presented itself.”

  “Have you gotten a tour of the ship?”

  The Princess nodded. “Only the common areas. It’s fascinating.”

  “Then let’s tour some of the restricted areas. Starting with engineering. Perhaps you can explain what you mean while we walk.” He started them toward engineering. “Who else had a hand in your being here? Your father, I assume.”

  “Our father,” she corrected him. “I know that hasn’t exactly been a pleasant truth for either of us, but it’s a fact we need to accept.”

  He sighed. “It seems like we could manage to forget that for the time being.” He closed his eyes and sighed even deeper. “Fine. Our father.”

  She explained her late night discussion with the Em
peror. “Then he woke me early the next morning and hustled me onto a shuttle. I didn’t know where I was going or why until Carlo explained it to me.”

  Against his will, he found himself nodding. “You do know how to take the fun out of a good mad, don’t you?”

  “I’m sure I’ll do something to legitimately piss you off soon enough.”

  He chuckled. “I am sorry that our circumstances have put us at odds. I’ve often considered what my life would be like if I hadn’t joined Fleet. If I’d stayed at home and done anything else, everyone’s lives would be so much simpler.” He gave her a serious look. “I truly regret what this has done to your family.”

  She sighed. “Me, too. Yet there isn’t one thing we can do to change the past. All we can do is make a better tomorrow.”

  “That sounds like a slogan. Here we are. Stay beside me and don’t touch anything without asking.”

  He touched his thumb to the pad beside the double doors and stepped inside when they slid open. The area just inside engineering opened up quite a bit. The ceiling was three stories tall and the room spread the full width of the ship. Massive machines with attached consoles filled most of it and a subtle humming seemed to make his teeth vibrate a little. There was also a subtle hint of electricity in the air.

  “Dennis.”

  Lieutenant Commander Dennis Baxter turned and gave him a high sign. He said something to the people clustered around him and strode over. “Captain. What can I do for you?”

  “This is Deputy Ambassador Kelsey Bandar. Kelsey, this is Athena’s Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Dennis Baxter. Dennis, I’d appreciate it if you gave her the grand tour.

  Baxter’s eyes widened. “I’d heard you were aboard, Princess. Welcome.”

  She took his hand and shook it. “Thank you. Please, call me Kelsey. Or Ambassador. I’m not acting in an Imperial capacity and we’re all going to be together for some time. Treat me just like you would anyone else.”

  “As you wish. Call me Dennis. Come on over and I’ll give you the highlights.”

  He led the two of them to the center of the huge compartment. “Toward the aft are the ship’s grav and flip drives. The fusion power plants are under our feet. These consoles here, here, and here monitor everything to be sure we’re in good shape. Andrew, give the lady your seat.”

  One of the men rose and stepped to the side of his console. Baxter gestured for Kelsey to sit.

  She sat gingerly, making a show of keeping her hands as far away from the console as she could while looking at the bewildering layout of graphic displays. A large screen directly in front of the seat showed some kind of complex flowchart.

  Jared only had a general idea of what he was looking at. Fleet kept its officers focused on their primary fields of study. He’d come up the tactical track, so weapons systems were more his speed. He’d heard of some officers that jumped tracks, but they were the exception rather than the rule. Besides, engineering officers didn’t have the combat skills the command track required.

  Baxter leaned over Kelsey’s shoulder. “Let’s take a look at the inside of the port fusion plant. Press that big green button right there.” He pointed to one right in front of her.

  She pressed it and every light on the console flashed red just as Baxter said, “Not that one!”

  Kelsey threw herself out of the chair, terror etched across her face. Until Baxter’s chuckles gave him away. Her eyes narrowed and she hit the Chief Engineer in the arm as hard as she could. “How could you! That’s mean!”

  Then she whirled on Jared. “Did you know what he was doing?” she demanded.

  He held up his hands in a gesture of innocence. “I had no idea what that button did. I did fail to mention that Dennis is something of a practical joker, though. And you did tell him to treat you just like everyone else.”

  The Princess crossed her arms over her chest and glared at them both for a moment before she smiled a little. “Okay. That was pretty good.”

  “I couldn’t help myself,” Baxter said. “All you did was lock the console. In any case, we were running a diagnostic routine so it’s offline. There was never any danger.”

  “You’re still going to pay for that. Now, let’s get a real tour.”

  Jared followed them as Baxter led her deeper into the bowels of engineering. She was a lot different than he’d imagined. Their interaction had always been uncomfortable and stiff. To see her with a sense of humor and such a natural ability to bond with total strangers had him reevaluating everything he thought he knew. Perhaps she was more suited to the role of diplomat than he’d realized.

  Baxter took her deeper into engineering. “These are the flip drives. More precisely, the Osborne-Levinson Bridge initiators. No one calls them that. When we dump the capacitors into them, they trigger the gravitational fault in the flip point in such a way that it reverses polarity and takes us to the other side. It’s all over before we can even measure the event.”

  She looked at the massive machine and shook her head. “Just the concept of going light years in the blink of an eye boggles my mind. How do you get your head around something like that?”

  He shrugged. “I’m an engineer. I can understand the practical results without knowing all the theory behind it. That’s for the scientists over on Best Deal. When they start droning on, I flip myself to the other side of the room.”

  Kelsey laughed. “Have you talked with them about it? I think that would be a fascinating conversation.”

  “I have. They wanted to change the parameters of what our probes look for so they had to explain it to me. I immediately went for alcohol once they were gone.”

  She laughed again. “I’m looking forward to meeting them.”

  Jared inserted himself there. “We’ll have a few combined meetings to plan out things once we reach the kickoff system. I know they love to find someone willing to listen to them explain things, so you’ll have plenty to hear.”

  He turned to Baxter. “What kind of changes did they make to the scanning parameters?”

  “They wanted me to increase the sensitivity threshold. There are apparently some competing theories about how weak a flip point can be and they wanted to be sure that they didn’t miss something. I warned them they’d probably get false positives, but they thought that would be acceptable. In any case, I can always change the settings back.”

  The next stop on the tour was at the grav drives. Baxter rested his hand against one. “These are just like the gravs on every car you’ve ridden in, just a lot more powerful. Since we use more power and make them very large, they provide much more thrust. Enough to make the trip between flip points in a matter of days.”

  “I’ve heard that and we’re making good time, but what about that acceleration? Shouldn’t it mash us into jelly?”

  “Absolutely not. I’d look terrible in a sandwich. Grav drives work by altering the gravitational gradient of the space-time around a ship. Think of it like falling. You don’t feel acceleration as you fall. A failed drive would leave you going exactly the same speed you were already going.”

  The communicator on Jared’s belt beeped. It reminded him that he should issue the diplomatic team some of their own. That would’ve made tracking Kelsey down significantly simpler. He brought it to his lips. “Mertz.”

  “Lieutenant Anderson, Captain. We need you up on the bridge right away.”

  He felt his gut tighten. “Is something wrong?”

  “Best Deal just signaled their test probes located a flip point.”

  He whistled. “That’s pretty good range to find it from this far away.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. I should’ve been clearer. They found a previously undetected flip point between here and the target point.”

  He shared a look of surprise with Kelsey and Baxter. “I’ll be right there.”

  Chapter Eight

  Kelsey followed Jared to the bridge. He was so intent that he seemed to have forgotten she was with him. She wasn’t about t
o remind him. She wanted to know what was going on.

  He strode out of the lift and directly to the console in the center of the oval-shaped compartment. The curved front wall held the largest vid screen she’d ever seen. Two large consoles sat in front of them. Two unoccupied consoles behind him faced the rear wall, while a third sat on the far side of the room.

  Commander Graves surrendered his seat to Jared. “Doctor Cartwright seems pretty sure that the flip point he detected is real.”

  “Put the system up on the screen.”

  The view of the star field vanished, replaced by a graphic of the system. Kelsey found it easy to read. The star and planets were obvious. The small blue circles represented the ships. That meant the green circle behind them and the one in front of them had to be the flip points.

  An amber circle appeared between the ships and the most distant flip point. To her eye, the new flip point looked like it was about a quarter of the way toward the flip point they’d been heading toward.

  Graves pointed at the screen. “The area in question is almost directly ahead of us and about eighteen hours away at our current speed.”

  Jared studied something on his console. “What exactly did Cartwright say?”

  “The discussion became unintelligible when he tried to explain in more detail.”

  “Zia, get the good doctor on the screen for me.” He looked over and seemed to notice Kelsey for the first time. “Oh. Everyone, this is Deputy Ambassador Bandar. Kelsey, you know Commander Graves.” Graves smiled bowed his head in acknowledgement.

  Jared pointed toward the man and woman seated in front of him. “Lieutenant Pasco Ramirez, my helm officer. Lieutenant Zia Anderson, my tactical officer.” Both turned and nodded briefly toward her before returning their attention to their consoles.