The Queen's Gambit

by Jessie Mihalik

  He tensed. I pulled back, afraid I’d overstepped. After a second, he caught my hand in a gentle grip. I forced myself to stay relaxed. I hadn’t been kidding about not being used to sleeping so close. Normally when I was lying this close to a man, sleeping was the last thing on our minds.

  I promptly shut down that line of thought before it could get off the ground.

  “Thank you,” Valentin murmured.

  “You’re welcome,” I whispered back.

  Valentin’s breathing slowly changed until it was deep and even. I relaxed into the rhythm. I thought his closeness would keep me awake, but my body was far too tired to care. I sank into sleep like an anchor.

  For the second time in as many days, I awoke to alarms. My eyes felt leaden, like I’d barely closed them. A body moved next to me and my eyes popped open to an unfamiliar room.

  Right, I was in the living room of the guest suite with Valentin. Sometime in the night, I’d crossed the distance separating us. I was pressed up against his side through layers of blankets.

  “Why is the alarm going off?” Valentin mumbled. “Is this normal?”

  I sat up and blinked. Neural links were coming in faster than I could answer them. I recognized Ari’s signature and opened the link.

  What’s going on? I growled without moving. I wasn’t getting up if this was Ari’s idea of a fun time for a training exercise.

  A quartet of warships just tunneled on top of us—a battle cruiser, a destroyer, and two corvettes. They have at least a squadron of fighters in the air and they’re shooting anything that moves. They’ve already taken out most of our outer defenses. Two platoons are on the ground. The ships are unflagged, but the soldiers are wearing what looks like Kos armor. Watch your back with the Emperor.

  That woke me up. Evacuate the civilians now, I sent through the link. Tell them to head for the tunnels. Do not engage the enemy troops unless it’s to get people to the evac zone. We’ll hold the tunnel doors open as long as we can. I will deal with Valentin.

  Valentin sat up. “What’s happening?”

  “I told you I would kill you if you betrayed me,” I said. My voice sounded eerily calm to my own ears. “You have ten seconds to explain why Kos soldiers are attacking my city.”

  Valentin blinked at me as the alarm tone changed to the tunnel evacuation cadence. He held up his hands. “I swear I didn’t order an attack,” he said. “Are the ships broadcasting Kos allegiance?”

  “No, but the soldiers are wearing Kos armor.”

  His eyes went distant before they narrowed. “Son of a bitch,” he growled vehemently. “Those aren’t my troops, but they are wearing prototype Kos armor.”

  I realized that he had tapped into our surveillance video as easily as if it were broadcast on an open com. I needed to figure out how his neural ability worked and if there was any way to block it, but right now we had more immediate problems.

  Fury laced his voice as he continued, “Kos scientists spent years developing that armor. It was supposed to be top secret, in testing only for our elite squads, not on two fucking platoons of Quint Confederacy mercenaries.”

  “You think these are Quint soldiers? How did they get their hands on your armor? Your advisors?”

  “They are definitely Quint. I don’t know how they got our armor, but I’m going to find out,” he said, his voice deadly.

  “Get up,” I said. “We have to evacuate.”

  With fighters in the air it would be suicide to launch evac ships from the main base. We had a secondary launch point five kilometers away via tunnel, but not enough ships for everyone. It would be chaos.

  “I thought you said you could hold off Commander Adams?” Valentin asked while he pulled on his boots.

  “We could, but he brought backup, and we can’t hold against four ships. If you have a fleet within range, call them in. Otherwise, you’re going to be evacuating with us.”

  Valentin says the troops are Quint, but they’re wearing prototype Kos armor. I don’t think he’s lying. I told Ari as I hustled Valentin from the suite.

  Whoever they are, they are running silent, Ari said. Our attempts to hail them have been ignored.

  I ran for my quarters, Valentin on my heels. Inside, I slammed open the doors to my personal armory and started pulling out gear. I wrapped a utility belt around my waist and strapped a plasma pistol on each hip. I secured a combat knife on my right flank. A dozen extra magazines filled with lethal, highly illegal armor-piercing plasma rounds went in a pouch on my left flank.

  I did not plan to take prisoners.

  I handed Valentin a plasma pistol, a holster, and three extra magazines. “I’m trusting you.”

  He nodded solemnly, then slung the holster around his waist. “I have a battle fleet within range, but your communication satellite is terrible. By the time they get the message, they should’ve already detected the Quint ships.”

  “Send it anyway,” I said. “We’ll hold as long as we can, but we are not equipped for a full-scale attack. How did they get ships here so quickly?”

  “They must’ve been nearby. This sector is usually pretty quiet, but we’ve had a few skirmishes with Quint ships within tunneling distance of Trigon Three.”

  We just had to hold long enough for the Kos fleet to show up. The fact that we needed rescue annoyed me, but I wasn’t stupid enough to turn down help with enemies standing on my doorstep.

  I slung a compact plasma rifle over my shoulder and closed the armory. I headed for the door. “Let’s go.”

  Where are you? I asked Ari across the link.

  I’m headed for the market, she said, sounding breathless. I’ve got a squad and Malcolm has a squad. The rest are still trickling in. We’re setting up blockades in the western hallway. I’m sending Malcolm to you.

  No, I countered. Keep him there. I have Valentin. We’ll check the rooms on this side, then make our way over. Keep the civilians safe. Link me again if things change. I closed the neural link before she could protest.

  From the air looking down, the underground part of Arx was roughly T-shaped. Arx’s main hallway was the top of the T and ran east-west. The shorter southern hallway was the T’s base. The surface-level entrance was located where the two hallways met.

  The market, primary hangar, and most of the residences branched off the main hallway west of the entrance. The evacuation tunnel started at the far western end of the main hallway.

  Besides my quarters and the guest suite, the eastern half of Arx included various storage and utility rooms, the secondary hangar, and the mess hall. The southern hallway led to the large maintenance areas.

  Unfortunately, because we were on the east side, Valentin and I were on our own until we hit the market.

  I took the stairs down two at a time while I pulled up the base’s outside vid feeds. Sure enough, at least fifty soldiers in full combat armor were creeping across the base directly toward the main entrance. The entrance was not obvious from looking at the above-ground base layout, even from the air—they’d gotten their hands on the plans.

  They were not being bombarded by plasma pulses, so they must’ve taken out the automated turrets, which meant they had an open path to the door. We needed to haul ass.

  13

  The main hallway echoed with the shrill cadence of the evacuation alarm. All of the fire doors were closed, narrowing my view to a small sliver of the long hallway. Around us, nothing moved. Valentin followed as I did a quick sweep of the storage and utility rooms, but anyone who had been over here had already cleared out.

  We ran toward the center of the base. I burst through a set of fire doors with Valentin just behind me on my right. Ahead of us, Eddie Tarlowski, the head chef, emerged from the mess hall with a plasma pistol in his right hand and a huge kitchen knife in his mechanical left hand.

  He paused when he saw us running toward him. “Boss, what’s going on?” he yelled.

  I slowed down to a jog as we caught up to him and he fell in on my left. “T
he Quint Empire is attacking. We’re evacuating through the western tunnels. Why are you here?”

  “Couldn’t sleep,” he said with a half shrug. “Decided to get started on the day. Then the alarms went off. Thought it might be a drill, so I put the food away. Brought the knife in case it wasn’t.”

  “It’s not a drill,” I said as I checked on the vids. The soldiers outside had nearly made it to the main door. The door was two levels up, but the entryway was a three-story open atrium. Once the door was breached, we wouldn’t have any cover. They could pick us off from the balcony.

  “Come on,” I ordered. “We have to get past the entrance before they blow the door.”

  I sped up and Eddie and Valentin easily paced me. My thigh burned with a distant pain, but whatever drugs Stella had given me were awesome. I’d likely pay for it later, but for now, I’d take it.

  The doors to the atrium loomed just ahead. On the security vid, soldiers stuck explosives to the main entrance door. The timing would be dangerously close.

  We burst into the atrium just as the soldiers pulled away from the door. “Move!” I shouted. I dashed into a sprint. Eddie and Valentin easily kept pace, proving they both had speed augments.

  The fire doors on the west side of the atrium were open and I could see all the way to the market, where a makeshift barricade made out of what looked like hull shielding blocked the hall just behind an open set of doors. Ari stood in the middle of the havoc, shouting orders.

  We had barely cleared the first set of doors into the western hallway when the building shook with an explosion. Two seconds later, I heard the distinctive sound of grenades hitting the atrium steps.

  Valentin tackled me to the ground. The rifle across my back dug in painfully as he covered me with his body. Eddie kept running. Behind us, the atrium exploded into a fury of sound and light. At least our unwelcome guests were only using stun grenades. Valentin pulled me up and pushed me in front of him. We bolted for the barricade.

  Once we were safely behind cover, Ari looked me over, checking for injuries. “I’m glad you made it,” she said.

  “Me, too. What’s the situation?”

  “I’ve got most of our soldiers helping the civilians evacuate. Imogen took a squad to lead the way to the ships, just in case they meet resistance on the way. We’ll hold here as long as we can, then close and blockade the doors to give us time to fall back.”

  “The Quint soldiers went straight for the entrance,” I said. “They must have a map.”

  Ari nodded. She was linked in to the security feed, too.

  “They’re here for Valentin, but I embarrassed Commander Adams, so they’d be plenty happy to grab me as well,” I said. “Valentin has a battle fleet within range, so we need to hold until they arrive.”

  “And if they don’t arrive?” Ari asked with a frown.

  “We’ll cross that canyon when we get there,” I said. “For now, we focus on getting the civilians into the tunnels and holding the line.”

  Deeper in the market, Stella and two of her nurses stood beside three huge duffels emblazoned with red crosses. She’d cleaned out medical in preparation for casualties.

  I dearly hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

  I hunkered down behind the barricade, Valentin beside me. The hallway to the atrium was clear. I checked the outside video. Soldiers were entering the building in teams of four. They crept down the east stairs, sweeping for targets.

  Outside, a team launched a Ghost miniature surveillance drone. Nearly silent, the drone was smaller across than a typical dinner plate and only ten centimeters tall.

  I turned to Valentin. “They have a Ghost. Stay out of sight.”

  Valentin’s jaw clenched, but he nodded.

  The drone pilot’s teammates covered him as he directed the drone inside. In the atrium, both the east and south tunnel doors were closed, so the drone headed our way. Yay.

  Ari caught my arm before I could stand up. “You should stay hidden,” she said.

  “Probably,” I agreed. “But it is my responsibility.”

  I stood from behind the barricade before she could argue further. I drew my plasma pistol as the drone came into view. “I am Queen Samara Rani. This wing contains civilians, including children. If you continue, we will be forced to defend ourselves.”

  The drone paused. I mentally watched the security feed as the pilot relayed the information. His commander held up a hand.

  “Samara Rani, we meet again,” Commander Adams said, his voice tinny from the drone’s speaker.

  “Commander Adams, I don’t see you on the ground, so you must be hiding in your ship. Afraid to face me when I’m not chained to a chair?”

  I kept an eye on the vid of the inside soldiers. I’d long ago learned to split my focus, and I wouldn’t put it past them to use the drone as a distraction to get a shot at me.

  It’s what I would’ve done if I were in their place.

  Commander Adams laughed. “It’s cute that you think you’re a threat. Give me the Emperor and I won’t destroy your city.”

  “Okay,” I agreed easily. Valentin tensed beside me. “But you have to come down and get him yourself.”

  “Show me proof that he’s there.”

  “No can do, I’m afraid. He’s confined and your soldiers have me pinned down here.” The longer I could keep him talking, the more time my people had to evacuate.

  Behind the drone, two teams of four crossed the doorway. I tensed to dodge behind cover but they crossed without taking a potshot at me. Leaving cover was ballsy, though at this distance a plasma pistol with standard ammo wasn’t a serious threat with them in full-body combat armor—but they didn’t know that I wasn’t using standard ammo.

  I gritted my teeth and let the soldiers pass unscathed.

  “Adams, if your people keep entering my home, I’m going to start shooting at them. Are you coming down, or are you going to continue leading from the back while your soldiers take all the risk?”

  “A leader leads while the soldiers soldier. You would know that if you led anything more than a bunch of criminals and vagabonds.”

  “You tell yourself that, but cowardice by any other name is still cowardice,” I taunted.

  “I’m going to enjoy bringing you and your people to heel like the dogs that you are, you little—”

  Before he could complete that sentence, I pulled my pistol up, aimed for a weak spot in the drone’s armor plating, and squeezed the trigger. The pulse tore through the drone’s armor and shredded the internals. The fuel exploded in a flash of light and sent shrapnel skidding down the hallway, then the drone dropped to the ground, dead.

  Well, that got someone’s attention.

  All of the soldiers in the atrium froze, then two teams moved down the stairs with swift efficiency and stacked against the entrance to our hallway. I edged back until I was mostly behind the makeshift barricade and watched as the lead soldier peeked around the corner for a heartbeat before ducking back into cover.

  There was a very thin line between brave and stupid, and I wanted to stay on the right side of it. Quint had a few well-known sharpshooters and while I didn’t know they were out there right now, I didn’t know they weren’t, either. I moved farther into cover.

  “Nice shot,” Valentin said when I crouched down beside him.

  “Thanks,” I said. It wasn’t the first Ghost I’d shot down and hopefully it wouldn’t be the last.

  “How close are we to having everyone in the tunnels?” I asked Ari.

  “Not close enough,” she muttered.

  “Have you heard anything from your fleet?” I asked Valentin.

  He silently shook his head.

  An arm appeared at the soldiers’ end of the tunnel and slid a small puck-like object down the hallway toward us. A blink later, the atrium disappeared and my reflection stared back at me, mostly hidden behind the barricade.

  It was one of the better active camouflage units I’d seen. The technology was typica
lly used to hide large vehicles by taking a video from behind the vehicle and displaying it on the front, effectively rendering the vehicle invisible. In this case, they’d flipped the camera around. When I shifted slightly, there was no visible lag between my movement and the reflection—it looked just like a mirror.

  I checked the internal security video. Three teams were positioned outside the southern hallway and three more teams were outside the eastern hallway.

  Four teams waited at the entrance to our hallway. The only consolation was if they tried to enter, they would have no cover. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel, something they very well knew.

  I settled in to wait for Quint to make the first move. Waiting would let them get more soldiers on the ground, but it also gave my civilians more time to evacuate.

  And maybe it would give Valentin’s fleet enough time to arrive.

  It had been ten minutes and Quint still hadn’t attacked. I shifted to prevent my legs from cramping, the only fidgeting I allowed myself. What were they waiting for?

  More Rogue Coalition soldiers had arrived from the barracks. We now had superior numbers to the Quint troops on the ground, but the hallway worked against us. The narrow entrance meant only a small fraction of our troops would have a clear line of fire.

  “Where’s our next fallback point?” I asked. Ari had experience planning battle strategies. I had experience flying solo, so I left the details to her.

  The market sprawled to our north. It provided plenty of cover, but any troops stationed there would be cut off from quick escape to the tunnels. They would have to go up and around through the main hangar—which might be an attack point by then.

  Ari must’ve shared my concerns because she said, “On the other side of the market, at the hallway to the barracks. Soldiers are setting up a blockade, but we won’t be able to hold it long. It’s mostly to buy us time to get the last of the civilians out.”

  The tunnel entrance was twenty meters past that hallway intersection. If we lost the intersection, anyone left in the residential part of the base would be unable to escape. We needed to hold it as long as possible.