by Terry Mixon
He was right about the boredom, so she allowed him to help her into the chair. The controls were straightforward and they were soon on their way. The marine guards fell in around them.
The trip through the massive carrier took a bit. She still marveled at the sheer size of the warship. The Empire no longer had anything like it. The AI Lords had seen to that.
Eventually, the doctor guided her chair through a hatch into what was obviously an observation room. The far wall had a viewscreen showing another compartment. There was a very strange man standing in the displayed compartment.
Remembering her manners, she noted that Colonel Talbot was not alone in this one. A tall, well-built woman stood beside him. She wore the uniform of a marine major.
“Thanks for bringing her down, Doc,” Talbot said to Zoboroski. “We’ve got it from here.”
The doctor departed, but the marine guards stayed. Yeah, they weren’t trusting her very far at all.
“Colonel Talbot,” Veronica said. “The doctor said you needed my opinion. I can’t imagine why, but I seem to have some time on my hands. What can I do for you?”
“Commander Veronica Giguere,” he said. “Allow me to introduce Major Angela Ellis, Persephone’s executive officer.”
Interesting. Why a marine rank rather than a Fleet one?
The woman stepped over and extended her hand. While it was very subtle, Veronica noticed the other woman stumbled just a little bit as she walked.
“Are you okay?” Veronica asked as she shook the woman’s hand.
The tall marine nodded. “I had some work done on my legs and I’m still getting used to moving around. I’m told that in a couple of days no one will even be able to tell. Other than me.”
“What kind of work?”
The tall woman glanced at Talbot and he nodded.
“I’ve gone through the initial procedure to become a Marine Raider. They’ve fully enhanced my legs and put the pharmacology unit in. Once I recover from that, I’ll get my upper torso done and get the more subtle add-ons. I’ll be a fully functioning Marine Raider in a week or two. Until then, I’m still getting used to walking again.”
Veronica nodded, impressed in spite of herself. She’d seen what Princess Kelsey could do. Not only her physical prowess, but they’d showed her a couple of recordings of the woman in combat. If an untrained woman of that stature, raised in the higher orders of her society, could cause such destruction, Veronica could hardly imagine what a trained marine of Ellis’s size could accomplish.
“I’m impressed,” she admitted. “I didn’t believe your people be able to begin the process so quickly after seizing the equipment on the Dresden Orbital.”
Ellis shrugged. “We already had the implant equipment. We didn’t have any hardware. We got some of that before we even got to Dresden. It’ll be a while before we can set up manufacturing for something like that, but we can handle all the marines we have on this mission, if we decide its safe.”
That was frightening. Audacious carried a lot of marines. More than a ship her size should have. From what Veronica had heard, the New Terran Empire had stuffed a battalion of marines onto the carrier to seize the Dresden Orbital.
“In any case,” Talbot said, cutting off her thoughts. “That’s not why I asked you down here. I’m much more interested in hearing what you think about the gentleman on the screen.”
Veronica edged her chair closer to the display. The man seemed normal enough, if one discounted his clothing and those outrageous tattoos. Who put tattoos on their faces?
“He can’t see us, can he?” she asked.
“No,” Talbot said. “He can see the camera, however. He’s been watching it for the last half hour. Frankly, I’m not certain what he finds so entrancing.”
After considering the man for a full minute, Veronica shrugged. “I have to confess that I’ve never seen anyone quite like him. Admittedly, I didn’t interface with the prisoners down on that planet when we escaped. Is that where he’s from?”
The marine officer smiled. “He’s from much farther away than that. Unless I’m very much mistaken, that gentleman is from a political entity called the Singularity. Have you ever heard of them?”
She shook her head. “Not that I recall. Of course, the Lords aren’t exactly forthcoming when it comes to talking about people outside the Empire. Do I need to know something about them to give you my opinion?”
“I think it would be more useful to get your opinion without tainting it beforehand. I’m going to step inside and question him. You’ll pick up some of his history from the questions I ask, but I’d like to get your take once we’re done. Unless I miss my guess, this is going to be an educational meeting for you.”
“For us, too,” Ellis said sourly. “And probably not in a good way.”
3
Kelsey examined the city as their new companions escorted Jacob Howell and her to what they’d declared as the Clan Dauntless chapterhouse. She was making the assumption that it was something like an embassy, but didn’t know enough to be sure.
They searched Jacob for weapons and confiscated what he’d been carrying: a sword, two knives, and that flechette pistol he’d tried to use on her when they’d first met. To her amusement, they didn’t check her at all.
Boy, that was going to embarrass someone.
Derek had excused himself, indicating he was going to go speak with his father. The four men that had come for Jacob and Kelsey didn’t attempt to stop him. Whether that meant they had no authority over the Pandoran or they just figured it wasn’t worth their time, she didn’t know.
The chapterhouse was a low building on the outskirts of the city. Only two stories tall, it covered a fairly large area. It was the equivalent of an entire city block, she guessed.
Made of a mixture of stone and wood, it blended in seamlessly with the buildings around it. There was nothing to indicate that it housed humans as opposed to Pandorans.
Just inside the open front door, two men stood guard. Based on their relaxed stances, they weren’t expecting any trouble.
One of them grinned at Jacob and extended his hand to him. “I knew it was only a matter of time before they brought you in. What did you do this time?”
Jacob laughed. “Not what they think. Arturo, allow me to introduce Kelsey Bandar.”
The man turned his attention to Kelsey, raising a hand to stop the escort leader when he opened his mouth to object, based on his expression. “I’ll hear what you have to say in just a moment, Isidro. Don’t you know it’s impolite to speak over a woman? Behave yourself.”
The man examined Kelsey with eyes that seemed far more discerning than her escort. “There’s more to you than meets the eye, Kelsey Bandar. I must confess unfamiliarity with your name.
“At first glance, one might take you for a child or a very young woman. That does you a great disservice, I think. After all, not very many women of any age wear swords underneath their robes.”
“What?” the escort leader demanded, rounding to stare at Kelsey.
She’d arranged things so that the hilts of her swords rode low, but they were still high enough that she could control them if need be. Since they weren’t all that long, concealing them hadn’t been too difficult so long as she used the over the shoulder harness that had come with Ned Quincy’s old weapons.
Kelsey saw the moment where the escort leader spotted the weapons riding over her shoulders. She raised a hand as soon as he reached toward her.
“Let’s just get this out in the open. I don’t answer to you and I will not accept anyone attempting to put their hands on me. Rather than see you get hurt or deeply embarrassed, I suggest you stop right there and allow cooler heads to discuss this matter.”
If anything, her words seemed to inflame the man’s anger. Too damned bad.
“I will not be spoken to in that manner, least of all by a woman.” He batted her hand aside and reached for the hilt of one of her swords.
Rather, he attem
pted to bat her hand away. What happened instead was her stopping his hand cold, twisting his arm behind his back, and forcing him to his knees as he cried out in anguish.
The man’s three companions began drawing their swords but stopped when Arturo laughed and held his hand up.
“Hold!” the man called. “There will be no fighting inside the this chapterhouse. Rash actions serve no one. Am I clear on that?”
When the three men hastily removed their hands from their weapons, Arturo gestured for Kelsey to release the man she was holding.
She complied, taking a step back and reaching up to flip her cloak away from the hilts of her swords. If someone else drew a weapon, she’d make a much more dramatic demonstration of why that was an exceptionally bad idea.
The man they’d called Isidro leapt to his feet and whirled toward her with a snarl on his face. “You will pay for your insolence!”
“Get in line, pal,” she advised. “I’ve got far more dangerous people eager to make me pay for various things. You’re not even in the top ten.”
The man called Arturo grabbed Isidro’s wrist as it darted toward his weapon. “Now, now, let’s not be hasty. Tempers are up and people are likely to say things that get under our skins. Walk it off, Isidro. Now.”
Isidro tried to jerk his hand out of the other man’s grip and failed. Only when that was readily apparent to everyone did Arturo release him. The offended man stalked deeper into the building.
“I’ll be wanting my weapons back very shortly,” Jacob called out after him. Earning him a finger shot up over the departing man’s shoulder in the universal sign of offended negation.
Arturo stood there with his arms crossed giving Kelsey a deeper examination. “I can’t recall ever having seen a woman under arms. And, in any case, I’m unfamiliar with the material used in your hilts and I thought myself as very educated when it comes to weaponry.
“We’ve come to something of an impasse. You’ve been summoned to account for yourself, but I cannot allow anyone to bear arms before a tribunal of the clan. Yet here you stand, armed and defiant, completely unknown to me. How shall we solve this conundrum?”
Kelsey gave him a flat look. “How you solve this situation isn’t my problem. I was going about my business when your people insisted that I come along whether I wanted to or not. Well, here I am. How are you going to solve this problem?”
The man threw his head back and laughed again. “You do have spunk! I cannot wait to find out what the true story behind your presence—and weapons—means. Yet I must insist that you disarm. I give you my word as a lesser chief of the clan that I will hold them safe and return them to you as soon as the tribunal dismisses you.”
She shook her head. “Nope. I’m not here willingly and I will stay only as long as I decide to. You don’t get my weapons. Try again.”
Jacob cleared his throat. “The situation is… complex, Arturo. I’d rather not explain it standing here in the foyer. Can we perhaps speak alone on this matter before you escort us to see the tribunal?”
The big man snorted. “That’s rich, you saying something is complex. Everything you touch is complex. Very well. We’ll make a stop along the way and you can explain to me in private why this young woman needs to have a pair of swords riding on her shoulders and likely other weapons scattered about her person.
“You can also explain to me how she has the training—or the strength for that matter—to put a trained warrior’s hand behind his back. And I confess that I cannot wait to hear you try to sweettalk this situation with the tribunal.”
He gestured for them to follow him deeper into the building.
The situation did have its amusing elements, Kelsey decided as she went in the indicated direction. Jacob had been right about that. With any luck, she’d still be laughing in a few minutes.
Zia led Carl and Efrain deeper into the ruined battlecruiser. She’d thought she’d known the fastest way to the main engineering compartment, but collapsed corridors and gutted areas made her circle around to take less direct paths.
Rather than taking ten minutes to get there, it took almost twenty. The low level of lighting meant that virtually all of the large compartment was lost to the darkness, but she could see areas where people were working in pools of dim illumination. None of the Pandorans even looked over at them.
“Which fusion plant is running?” she asked Carl.
“I’m not sure. The computer and support systems are either locked down or offline. Not even the engineering systems are available to my implants. I suggest we follow the power lines.”
He pulled a powerful portable light from the bag over his shoulder and started tracing the lines of lights.
The brighter light drew some attention at last. Everyone turned to stare at them as the scientist led Zia and their guide deeper into the cavernous compartment. By the time Carl had stopped beside a fusion plant, a delegation of Pandorans was at their side.
Zia left the scientist to his work and smiled at the men. “Good morning. I’m Zia Anderson.”
The leading Pandoran, an older man based on his darker skin tone, pointed at Carl. “Where did he find that, why is he using it, and what do you think you’re doing?”
Efrain cleared his throat. “Commodore Anderson, allow me to introduce Overseer Halbreth. He is in charge of this site. Overseer, the commodore is here with Derek’s approval. She has his full confidence.”
The interruption only seemed to irritate the older man, so Zia wished the alien hadn’t bothered.
“Overseer, my associate brought the light with him,” Zia said. “He didn’t find it here. That is true for everything in his bag.”
The alien’s eyes narrowed. “That isn’t an acceptable answer. What is a ‘commodore?’”
“A military rank. My associate and I are from…ahem, elsewhere.”
Efrain didn’t look pleased at her just saying that, but it wasn’t as if she had a lot of choice. The aliens would know the truth as soon as Carl started trying to access the ship’s systems.
Halbreth blinked. “Elsewhere? What does that mean?”
“We’re from another star system,” she said matter of factly. “We’re not of the Clans or even the places they came from before they crashed.”
The older Pandoran barked out a harsh laugh. “Impossible. How would one even prove something like that? What kind of game are you really playing?”
Before she could answer, Carl opened the access panel he’d been working on and peered inside.
Halbreth took a step forward. “Get away from that! You’ll break it or kill yourself. I can live with the latter, but not the former.”
Carl looked back at the man and shook his head. “I’m fully conversant with the safety procedures for this piece of equipment.”
He turned his attention to Zia. “The implant access is manually switched off. I need to turn it on. That should be safe enough to allow me to assess the plant’s condition.”
“Do it,” she said.
Before the overseer could do anything, Carl reached into the fusion plant and touched a button. It changed from amber to green.
“The equipment is accessible,” Carl said, stepping back and raising his hands. “Its status is remarkably good, but someone ramped it down below the rated minimum output and shut off the safeties. It was never designed to work that way and the logs show a downward trend in safety margin over the last few years.
“It really needs to be taken offline and serviced, but it can probably keep going for a while if I bump the output up to minimum. There are risks of systems overloading, but if I don’t, this plant will fail sometime in the next year or so. At that point, getting it online again will take significantly more effort on our part.”
She turned to the Pandoran overseer. “You heard my associate. He can make this system provide more power for your lights and other uses and make it safer in the long run. Would that prove anything to you?”
The man snorted. “It would prove
your insanity. Even the crash survivors knew little of this power generator. No one can change anything about it and I refuse to allow anyone to touch it.”
“He doesn’t need to touch it. Carl, bump it to a safe minimum output.”
That was a pretty substantial risk. If something went wrong, they’d be in trouble. Hell, they’d be in hot water even if it went perfectly.
The scientist didn’t move, but the lights around them started coming on. The makeshift lights brightened, too.
Halbreth stared up with a shocked expression as the overhead lighting came up to about sixty percent of normal and revealed the full extent of damage to the compartment.
Of course, along with the success came some failure. One of the consoles near the front of the compartment started smoking and abruptly shorted out in a cloud of smoke.
“Stop what you’re doing,” the overseer shouted. “Stop it! Guards!”
His cry drew several men into the compartment at a run with their swords drawn.
Zia hadn’t anticipated this level of confrontation, so she raised her hands as she headed for the fire suppression unit nearest the smoldering console. “I’ll put this out, if you don’t mind.”
She half expected the now suspicious aliens to stop her, but they allowed her to pull the fire suppression unit off the wall. It was as simple and uncomplicated as possible, so it was still good. She knew it would be because of the recovery efforts on Courageous.
Frankly, the console would stop burning on its own, but she wanted to be seen doing something that “corrected” the damage she’d caused.
It only took a moment to slap the console release, causing the top to spring up. She unleashed a spread of retardant powder on the smoking boards and then hit the kill switch to cut power to the console.
Zia noted the guards closing in as she set the fire suppression unit down and kept her hands where they could see them.