Voice of the Chosen (Spirit of Empire, Book Three)

by Lawrence White

  “The Empire will never permit genocide, Serge.”

  “No? What do you call this? Struthers will come. He will take as much as he can and destroy the rest. That’s his way. He likes to make examples.”

  “He is not the Empire. We are, and we will not abandon you. What sort of capacity are you talking about?”

  “We came in 50 mother ships. None of them is a fast ship, but all of them are operational. One of the first things I did after your arrival was to ensure that.” He looked to Jons. “You know we do a lot of manufacturing in space. Each of those facilities is capable of interstellar travel.”

  Jons gulped. “They’re space ships? They can jump?”

  Serge nodded. “And you’ve toured our artificial intelligence manufacturing facility here on the surface. What did you think of it?”

  “It’s a modern factory.”

  “Cleverly camouflaged. The whole facility was created inside a mother ship. You never knew, and that is by intent. The list goes on and on. Each mother ship is prepared to escape with some portion of our culture. It might be a factory, it might be a repository for books, entertainment, and records, it might just carry people, animals, seeds, and building equipment. We even have a destination world picked out. It is unclaimed, further down the arm of the galaxy and just as far out on the frontier as Shipyard.”

  “It’s too soon to move, Serge,” Ellie said, clearly upset that any society in her Empire would ever feel such need.

  “I know,” he said with grim intent. “I am, however, going to relocate all the production facilities we are using to carry this war to the Chessori. I will include sufficient staff and support people to keep them operational. It would help if you can supply local resources to support them. I think we all know where they’re going.” He looked directly at Trexler.

  Trexler stepped across the room and took Serge’s hand in his own. “Emerging pride is along for the ride. We won’t let you down.”

  * * * * *

  Everyone in the room turned to stare at Akurea. She straightened from where she had been leaning against a wall.

  “I thought you were assisting Serge’s engineers with the hypercom?” Ellie demanded.

  “They’re building it, Your Majesty, not me. I’m just an advisor, and they haven’t needed much help. You also tasked me with preventing the Chessori from getting upgraded power plants.”

  “I tasked you with evaluating the information brought back by Serge’s traders.”

  “No, Your Majesty. You tasked me with solving a problem, and Serge’s traders are just one aspect of that solution. What you really want is to prevent Chessori ships from receiving upgraded systems, and that’s what I intend to deliver. In the process, I want to strike back at Struthers personally.”

  “What?”

  Most of the people in the room had become Akurea’s friends. She held her arms out wide as she turned to them. “On one hand we have an exceedingly complex mission to identify and take out overhaul facilities. And, if any of them are like the one I ran, there are a lot of good people in them that will die. I don’t want that. On the other hand, we might have a manageable mission. The goal is to prevent upgraded power plants from going into Chessori ships. To upgrade the power plants, they need our power bottles. I want to take control of the power bottle supply chain.”

  Jaws dropped around the room. No one spoke for a few seconds, then everyone spoke. Ellie held up a hand. “Can it be done?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I haven’t mentioned it to you yet. I’m working on three approaches at the moment. First: there are a lot of manufacturing facilities in the Empire but only a handful of them make the large bottles required by the Chessori. If I can keep them from shipping new units to the Rebels, the Rebels won’t have the means to upgrade ships. Second: I’ve asked some of Serge’s programmers to see if they can develop a program that would cause power bottles to fail sometime after installation in Chessori ships. If we could do that, I won’t limit production, I’ll send them all the units they want. The drives will fail at some point after leaving the overhaul facility. I don’t know or care where the ships are when it happens.”

  She looked around the room. “The Chessori are not stupid. When every modified ship turns up missing, the finger will point right at Struthers.”

  A look of wonder filled Ellie’s face. “I’ve been searching for more ways to hit back at him politically. Your plan is perfect. Can you do it?”

  “I don’t know. It’s up to Serge’s people. Bottle software is way, way beyond my skill set. It is replete with checks and balances that will be looking for exactly what I’m proposing. The engineers I’ve met here talked circles around me.” She shook her head in wonder. “The fact is . . . they know a lot more than they need to know for overhauling ships. I’m convinced most of them are scientists as well. If anyone can come up with a solution, they can.”

  Ellie shot a sharp look to Serge. “Will they?”

  “Well . . .” He glanced nervously at Jons, then back to Ellie. “Uh . . . I really can’t say, Your Majesty.”

  “Can’t, or won’t?”

  The ensuing silence was broken by Jons. He snapped his fingers and pointed toward Serge. Everyone stared at the two of them. “Why you old scoundrel,” Jons said, his eyes glaring. “So that’s how you’ve been doing it all these years.”

  “Well, how else?” Serge retorted, lifting his chin. “Your ships have been on the receiving end of my largess. These things don’t come from thin air, you know.”

  The two old adversaries, now friends, stared at each other. Jons finally addressed Ellie. “The costs of manufacturing power bottles is so high that the Empire licensed only a limited number of facilities. Each of them is a separate corporation, a major corporation, and they run at full capacity around the clock. There are just enough of them to ensure price competition, quality, and regulatory compliance. The penalties for manufacturing bottles by anyone else are grievous, and for good reason. The bottles would be unregulated and subject to quality issues. Serge has been building his own all along. No wonder his ships are more powerful than regulations permit.”

  Ellie stared at Jons for a long time, then turned to Serge. “So you have people here with intimate knowledge of the software?”

  Serge surrendered. “I told you she was too smart for you,” he said, thrusting his chin toward Akurea. Still looking at Akurea, he added, “That doesn’t mean they can develop what you need. It’s a complex task. Every part of a power bottle undergoes extensive testing during the assembly process. They have to come up with a highly sophisticated program that remains undetectable, and if they do, you will need the cooperation of the manufacturers to get it installed. It has to be installed prior to the bottle’s first start-up.”

  “How do we get them to cooperate?” Ellie demanded.

  Serge turned to her with a tight smile. “That’s her problem, but it’s a more manageable problem than your fleets attacking all the hundreds and hundreds of overhaul facilities.” He paused, then added, “You might as well know that she’s asked for help on one other small project.”

  Ellie turned to Akurea. “And that is . . .?”

  “Even if we come up with the software, I won’t get all the manufacturers to cooperate. I want to shut down the facilities that don’t cooperate. I might be able to do it if I can identify a few critical parts that come from a limited number of suppliers. For example, specialized, hardened crystals are required by the computers that control the electromagnetic field inside the bottle. I don’t know how many suppliers there are for these crystals, but if there were only a few, I might be able to buy up all the supplies and dole them out only to those manufacturers that cooperate. There are thousands of parts whose sources need to be investigated, and I’m told we won’t be able to complete the process here.”

  “Why not?”

  Only Serge knew the answer to that question, and now that his secret was out in the open, he gave it. “Our suppliers are not
necessarily the same ones used by these legitimate corporations. She’ll need help from at least one of the Empire manufacturers.”

  “Where is your facility?” Jons asked.

  Serge’s mouth formed into a tight grin. “You’ve seen it a thousand times. It’s an orbital manufacturing facility, but unlike Empire facilities, it’s enclosed. It’s a risk we were willing to take. Anyone who sees it thinks it is just a run-of-the-mill, large satellite. We’ll move it to Earth now, of course.”

  Trexler intervened. “Akurea, the ships you were working on were not big ships were they?”

  “No, sir.”

  “The ships that attacked Earth were big ships, on the order of frigates and cruisers. Will any of this apply to them?”

  She considered, but she was not an expert on space battles. “I would think those would be the first ships upgraded by the Chessori.”

  “But they’re huge. It would take years to rewire them.”

  She shook her head. “No, sir. The drives are immediately adjacent to the power bottles. That’s where most of the extra energy will go. The work is comparatively simple and quick. Anyone can make the big drives - they just convert energy into space warps, a simple process. They don’t even have moving parts. Power bottles are the hard part. If I was running the overhaul I’d want to install our drives, but only because they’re perfectly matched to the power bottles.

  “The Chessori tell me they have already upgraded their AI’s, or whatever it is they use to manage the ship. As for guns and shields, new cables will have to be routed through the ships, but ships’ designs provide for easy upgrades as improvements come out.”

  Her gaze rose to the ceiling for a moment, then settled back on Trexler. “The work might take a month for each ship. With enough supplies, workers, and parking space, I could turn out as many as one capital ship a day. If there’s major cutting and refitting required for the guns, that would delay things, but on the ships I worked on, that wasn’t necessary. The limitation was power, not output.

  “Tell me you’re joking about one per day.”

  “No joke, sir. And that’s one per day from each facility.”

  Ellie’s gaze moved back and forth between the two. She stepped around her old desk, sat down, and leaned over the desk with her hands folded. “The Code may be broken, but we are not. We have issues requiring solutions, but I have been blessed with more wonderful guidance than any Queen could ever hope for.”

  * * * * *

  Serge left to speed up the movement of his people and facilities to Earth. Time was not on his side.

  Ellie let her gaze move around the room, slightly in awe of the feelings she felt. So much talent here, and the fact that she was Queen held little sway among them. They spoke plainly, and she reveled in the sense of belonging she felt. She could imagine every single one of them remaining with her throughout her reign. Not all of them were Knights, but she felt that everyone in the room was a knight. She knew without reservation that each of them would give his or her life for her if called upon to do so. Had her life been free to give, she knew she would reciprocate. So many cherished friends were out on missions, and these would be soon too, but for the moment she reveled in the feeling of belonging that filled this room.

  “We are going to map out our strategy for the next year,” she said. “Certain things are already in place. Waverly is freeing sectors from the Chessori. We do not want to interfere in that process any more than necessary. A team of four is in place on Triton to plan my performance there. We do not yet know when the next senate convocation will occur, but it cannot be more than a year, two at the most, from now.”

  She paused, then said, “Those projects are well established. We will support them as we focus on protecting Parsons’ World and Shipyard, and we have to help stage Serge’s production facilities to Earth. We have to prevent the Rebels from developing fast ships, and we have to prevent them from improving Chessori ships.

  “I want to use the synergy of group thought to formulate a plan of action during the next year that encompasses all our efforts, and I want to use that same synergy to figure out what Struthers is going to do. I want to stay ahead of his game plan.” She looked to Tarn. “Before we do, we have one other important item of business to attend to.”

  “We do, Your Majesty. We have Nancy Shaw’s vision.”

  “You have given it consideration?”

  “I have, Your Majesty.” He got up and moved two empty chairs to the desk. He called Ellie and Nancy to sit in them. His primary focus was Nancy Shaw, but his words carried throughout the room.

  “Your vision came in two parts,” he said to Nancy. “Krys saw you and the Queen together, heads down studying something. We have no clue what you were studying, so that item is probably not important. What is important is that you are side by side. The vision came with the following words:

  “Triton calls, the Queen holds, the twin dares, the unseen hunt.”

  Nancy spoke up. “I’ve been living with these words since Krys first spoke them. I don’t understand everything they imply, but I understand this much: I am going to Triton, and I’m probably going to be a decoy there. I am not Her Majesty’s twin, but I can be made to resemble her.”

  She looked across the room to Trexler who was peering at her through narrowed eyes, then she turned to Ellie, “I don’t know most of you very well, and I know even less about your Empire. What I have learned over the past few months is that Earth’s survival hinges on the survival of your Empire, so my choice is clear. I refused once before, but I will not do so again.”

  Krys’ voice carried clearly across the room. “You have heard the call.”

  Nancy nodded her head deeply. “Heard and accepted, My Lady.”

  “Your path will not be easy.”

  “Has anyone’s path in this room been easy? Certainly, not your own.”

  Krys nodded. “Welcome, Nancy Shaw.”

  Nancy turned to Tarn. “What does my future hold?”

  “Triton calls. You’re right. I believe Triton calls both you and the Queen, most likely for her address to the Imperial Senate. The vision calls for her to hold and for you to dare. I believe the two go together. She will hold while you dare.”

  “Dare whom?”

  Tarn turned to Chandrajuski with hooded eyes. Chandrajuski’s head lifted above everyone else in the room as he spoke. “The unseen were mentioned in my vision. The Queen fell to one of them.”

  Ellie sucked in a breath. “Not again.”

  “Your Majesty,” Tarn replied, “I believe this is a vision of warning and of instruction. I don’t know what plan Sir Mike is working on, but this vision offers guidance to him, as well.”

  “Or to Joshua,” Krys added from across the room.

  “Speak plainly, Tarn,” Ellie demanded.

  “I sense that during your attempt to enter the Senate Chamber you will hold. While you are holding, Nancy will be daring. More specifically, I expect Struthers to bring gleasons, and she will pull the gleasons to the one they believe is Queen. They will hunt her. Once they have found her, your holding is over.”

  Nancy Shaw raised a hand to her mouth. Suddenly, she bolted from her chair and disappeared in the direction of the bathroom. Ellie got up to follow her, but Trexler waved her back down and went after Nancy himself.

  He found her on her knees in front of the toilet. The odor told him the rest. He held her until she was done, then pulled her away. He maneuvered himself to the floor with her sitting in his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and wept.

  “Why me?” she asked later.

  He had no answer. He just held her. After a time he wondered if she’d fallen asleep, but she had not. She lifted away from him and stared into his eyes.

  “I can’t believe I’m sitting in Earth’s most senior admiral’s lap crying into his shoulder.”

  “You’re sitting in Earth’s senior admiral’s lap thousands and thousands of light years from our home. You’re in exact
ly the right place. This was never my intention when I brought you here.”

  “What was your intention?”

  “I don’t know. I can use help in a hundred different ways.” He paused, then said softly, “Maybe just as a friend, Nancy. I like you. I’d like to get to know you better, but I never intended you to be in the direct line of fire. I am against the choice you’ve made, for purely selfish reasons.” He pushed her slightly away so he could see into her eyes. “You can still back out.”

  “No,” spoken without hesitation. “The Queen never intended Krys to be in the direct line of fire either, and she’d prefer that none of you were in that line of fire. None of you have refused, and neither will I.”

  He sighed. “In that case, you are now a part of the most amazing group of people I know, people you will grow to love and who will grow to love you just as I have.”

  Her lips trembled. “Just as you have?”

  He pulled her tight. “As I have. I love you, and as important, I respect you. I think you know.”

  Her hold on him tightened. “I do know. This isn’t fair. I want to be around long enough to enjoy you.”

  “Then help us to help you. You’re not going this alone. You know how good the President’s security is. Yours will be as good or better. Probably better. You’ll have Great Cats protecting you.”

  “From creatures more hideous than your worst nightmare.”

  “I have never seen one,” he agreed, “but yes, they’re bad. These kinds of missions are intense but usually brief. I don’t know if your feet will even touch the ground. Our Delta guys will carry you if necessary.”

  She leaned away from him. “Oh, Ray, you’re so wrong.”

  His eyebrows rose. It wasn’t often someone told him he was wrong. He reached up and pushed strands of hair from her face, then he wiped tears from her cheeks. “Tell me how I’m wrong.”