by Sean Danker
“His disappearance,” Mao corrected.
“No, it’s defection. That’s all in the open now. He has also officially slipped the net and gotten away clean. If you know our security, you know how to beat it, and IS is focused on New Unity right now. They’re not going to pull people from these big counterterrorism operations to go chasing after Cophony when he already has such a head start. But we think he had help. Probably New Unity. They’re looking into it.”
Mao took her place with Bjorn and the others, letting Nelson address them all.
“How many of you know Tenbrook?” Nelson asked.
A couple of hands went up. Bjorn’s didn’t.
“Will your AI work with me?” Nelson asked Mao.
“Lydia, help Major Nelson with her presentation.”
Nelson held up her wrist, displaying her holo. “Can you access this?”
“Yes, Major Nelson,” Lydia replied.
“Put Tenbrook up.”
A man appeared on the shield. He was unremarkable to look at, probably around Major Lucas’ age, or a little younger. He wasn’t exactly handsome; there were dark circles under his eyes, which seemed vaguely sunken. He looked vaguely bored.
“This is him,” Nelson said. “Your typical good privateer will amass a lot of wealth, but not much of a legacy. You keep your lights on, you take scores, and you try not to run out of ways to turn them into untraceable money. But some people aren’t in it for the money. These are the guys that end up with miniature fleets, like Baron Magnus. He’s got ten ships, and plenty of people are afraid of him. Tenbrook’s different. Show Perdita.”
A vast space station appeared on the shield, replacing Tenbrook.
“Perdita isn’t a ship. It’s a mobile battle station. It’s Tenbrook’s base of operations, and he never leaves it. He’s got a lot of pirates on his payroll, and he owns dozens of private military outfits. He’s the main person Commonwealth leadership has been dealing with for their outsourcing. If Tenbrook doesn’t have it, he can get it. And he’s not afraid to take a hand in things personally.”
“Did the Ganraens use him to extract Cophony?” Mao asked, folding her arms.
Nelson looked at her, and hesitated. “We aren’t ruling it out,” she said finally.
Bjorn let out a long breath. He could see where this was going.
“We know Cophony reached Payne Station. But security caught up with him, and he vanished. He also killed four agents. He got quite a bit of acolyte training before he washed out of Valadilene, so he’s basically a weapon of mass destruction. A couple of major Tenbrook ships were there at the time.”
“What was he doing on Payne Station? Was he taking the long way to Commonwealth space?”
Looking troubled, Major Nelson began to pace again. “No, we don’t think he was trying to get past us. Cophony’s not leaving. He’s getting involved. He wants to hurt us.”
“By the Empress,” General Dayal said, face bleak. “Has this man no honor?”
“Honor is what he thinks he does have. He feels betrayed by the Service. What happened to his fiancée isn’t pretty. Mistakes were made,” Nelson said.
“We aren’t perfect,” Major Compton said simply.
“But we say we are,” Nelson replied at once, pointing a finger at him. “That we’re the best, the elite. The Service comes down hard on you when you make a mistake, and maybe Cophony thinks it should go both ways.”
Bjorn saw Mao looking at him. He ignored her and focused on Nelson, who cleared her throat.
“He has a grievance, and it clearly motivates him. This is a good illustration of how the actions of one can affect many. Having to go up against our own guy will cost us, I promise you. He’s dangerous, and the things he knows just make it worse.”
Nelson’s gaze fell on Kladinova.
“You were the one who partnered with him during the tactics course? The Earth girl?” Nelson said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Kladinova said, though her eyes flashed at being called an Earth girl.
“Then you know how good he is. At first we thought he went to Payne Station to make a play for the Julian.”
Bjorn was taken aback; that seemed like a little much. The Julian was Evagard’s newest and most powerful battleship.
The Empress’ personal flagship.
“The Empress is aboard the Julian right now,” Captain Woodhouse said, looking puzzled. Then his eyes widened.
“Yes. Imperial Security and Evagardian Intelligence both know there’s a plot brewing concerning the Julian—it has been for a while. We’re not sure if Cophony’s involved. We haven’t found any ties between him and New Unity, but we think he’ll work with anyone who can help him. And New Unity would love to help him.”
Bjorn rubbed at his temples. War, defectors, and pirates weren’t enough. Obviously the Lydia’s crew needed to be worrying about Evagardian terrorists as well.
“The nerve of this guy,” Mao said.
Nelson didn’t look amused. “Tenbrook has him.”
“His last known location is Payne Station. Far away from us,” Mao said. “Why’s this our problem?”
“Because he’s here now.”
“I knew it.” Mao folded her arms. “Why, though?”
“We can only guess, but the analysts at EI think they’re pretty deep in Cophony’s head. He knows this ship and he knew about this mission plan. That means Commonwealth leadership probably knows about it too. We think he’s coming for you. Cophony wants to hurt the Empress, and Tenbrook wants your ship. Probably to sell it to the Commonwealth, who will just hand it to Cophony. It’s harmless without someone who can use it. Cophony can use it.”
No one said anything. Nelson looked at Kladinova, then at Mao.
“We’re afraid he’s going to train pilots. And the Commonwealth isn’t so primitive that they can’t figure out the technology if they have it in hand. It’ll take time, but they’ll be able to turn it on us.”
That was it, then. Bjorn felt numb. The mission was over; the fleet wouldn’t risk the ship—not like this. If pirates got lucky and destroyed the Lydia, that was one thing. But this was someone with the knowledge and resources to capture her. The Imperium couldn’t have that.
“That’s why you haven’t been getting contacts,” Nelson told them. “They know you’re coming, and half the pirates in this system answer to Tenbrook. He’s clearing your path.”
“Why?” Mao asked.
“Because he wants you for himself, and having you as a destabilizing force in Demenis gives him a way to grow his operation. Pirates are happy to sign on with Tenbrook, rather than taking their chances alone with a mysterious Evagardian warship that can’t be detected and takes no prisoners.”
“Fair enough.”
Nelson shrugged. “He’ll find you before you reach Oasis.”
“What are our orders?”
“You can’t engage him. You might be quite the little warship, but you can’t fight an armada by yourselves. He’ll kill you. Or worse, he’ll capture you. Cophony knows the Everwing system. None of your tricks will work.”
Mao put her hands on her hips and gazed at the floor. The air in the bay seemed to have gotten cold. Bjorn looked around him. DiJeur looked openly terrified. Morel was stony, as always, but Compton and Lucas looked troubled as well.
“Do we turn around?”
“No. You have to let him chase you.”
Mao sighed. “I knew it.”
“You’re only one ship, but if you can monopolize Tenbrook’s time, you’ll account for a disproportionate amount of resources. If you can keep him busy, then everyone else can focus on the Ganraen navy. And the High Command knows we can beat the Ganraen navy.”
“How much time do they want?”
“As much as you can buy.”
“That’s it?”
“Your AI has everything we have on Tenbrook and Cophony. For the past few years Tenbrook’s been out of the spotlight because he’s been happy just to run his little mercenary empire from the comfort of his station, which hasn’t been doing anything noteworthy. Perdita hasn’t moved in a long time. He started out a pirate, but just before the war he was as close to being legitimate private military as anyone. Now that the war’s on, he’s back in it. Nobody paid very close attention to him when he was a businessman. Intelligence watched him, but a man who owns a hundred ships isn’t the same as a man who’s commanding a hundred ships. Now he’s commanding. And that makes him, in a way, the commander of one of the largest forces in this war. And don’t forget the battle station.”
“I won’t. I’ve studied Perdita.”
“Of course you have. I forgot you didn’t start out with ship duty. One more thing. Cophony had a lot of data on the Lydia when he ran.”
“Then he’s got our frequencies and signatures,” Mao said. “He can track the ship.”
“Not if you make some changes. If you’ve got someone with some imagination, you should be able to engineer your way out of that one. Changing your combat tactics won’t be so simple, though. It’s possible Tenbrook’s locked onto you already. That’s why you can’t stay here. Give me the tour. Then push off. You’ve got work to do,” Nelson said, looking sympathetic.
Mao pointed at Morel. “Take Bjorn and Grigori. Make sure that whatever Cophony’s looking for, we’re leaving something else behind. He might be able to adapt, but make him work for it. Without stealth we might as well just autodestruct right here.”
Morel nodded and caught Bjorn’s eye. Rada followed as they broke away from the group.
“By the Empress,” Rada hissed. She looked close to panic. Bjorn said nothing; he felt the same way.
Even General Dayal had been shaken by Major Nelson’s news. Mao had been working hard to keep her reaction neutral.
That told Bjorn all he needed to know.
8
THE engineering control room was especially cramped. There was a console, a generous dock of interface ports, and access to the ship’s maintenance crawl spaces.
Some large vessels had crawl-space layouts like labyrinths, but the Lydia had only four routes.
Morel called up the Lydia’s support system. Bjorn wanted to say something reassuring to Rada, but he was just as shaken as she was.
Nelson’s mention of a communications blackout. The fleet’s sudden willingness to take risks with an irreplaceable, strategically critical new weapon. Bjorn was trying to read between the lines, and he didn’t like where his imagination was taking him.
Worse, there was no other way to read it: the Lydia Bennet and her crew had gone from being the hunter to being the hunted.
“Grigori,” Morel rumbled, looking over his shoulder at Rada, “how would you track us?”
“Our active stealth is the best and latest. I wouldn’t know where to start.” She leaned on the bulkhead and closed her eyes. “The only things we can’t hide are radiation density and the aether trail. Radiation density doesn’t matter because the ship’s so small, so someone would have to get pretty close to pick it up.” Rada shrugged. “There’s only the trail, sir.”
Bjorn wished there was a little more room to move.
“You can’t hide an aether signature,” he said. “Not from someone who knows what they’re looking for. Ours is unique—that’s the problem. If we can’t make it go away, we have to disguise it.”
Rada suddenly smiled. “It’s easy. It’s too easy.”
“What have you got?” Morel asked.
“If you’re looking at two trails, how do you know which one is imperial?”
“The clean one,” Bjorn said.
“Exactly. That’s what they’re looking for—not just our specific signature, but something pretty subtle,” Rada said confidently. “So let’s just run dirty. And if Cophony sees that signature here in Demenis, he’ll probably just think a pirate went by.”
That struck Bjorn as a bold idea, but Ensign Grigori had a point. If Tenbrook knew what to search for, the Lydia’s trail would be detected one way or another. The only way to protect against that now was to make sure that when someone did spot it, they didn’t realize what they’d spotted.
Morel nodded. “Lower the coolant, scramble the levels. It’ll reduce the life span of our drive, but I’m more worried about next week than next month.”
“I don’t know what kind of trail that would leave, but no one’s going to think it’s us,” Rada agreed. “But it won’t work twice. Once we show our faces they’ll put it together.”
“We’ll worry about that later,” Morel said.
Bjorn peered over Morel’s shoulder. He was looking at a feed of the signature their drive was creating, and running simulations to predict what sorts of effects he could create by tweaking the output.
It was a relief to have a solution. Out here alone, stealth was crucial. If the ship could be tracked, it was useless.
“We’ve got it,” Morel said to Bjorn. It was a dismissal; Morel and Rada didn’t need him hovering over their shoulders.
He stepped into the spine in time to see Mao lead Major Nelson back into Red Bay. Nelson was leaving. Bjorn followed.
The crew was hard at work preparing the ship for its new, less predatory campaign. Bjorn had things to do as well, but he was hoping to hear something from Nelson that could shed some light on her bizarre words from earlier.
He joined Mao and Nelson at the shield. The outpost was still linked to the Lydia, both of them drifting together in the debris field.
“Bjorn, what have you got for me?”
“We’re changing our signature. They might find our trail, but they won’t recognize it for what it is.”
“Good deal.” Mao turned back to Major Nelson. “I liked this mission better when it had us actually coming back.”
“I don’t care what your odds are. I’d come with you in a second,” Nelson replied.
“I wish you could.”
They embraced.
“You didn’t see that either,” Major Nelson said to Bjorn. “I wish we had more time.” She backed up a few paces from the force shield. “See you on the other side,” she said to Mao, who nodded.
“Let her through,” the commander told the AI.
Major Nelson activated her helmet. She got a running start and jumped through the shield. Her aim was good, but not perfect. She pushed off the force tunnel and made it to her airlock. After a wave to Mao, she disappeared inside.
“Lydia,” Mao said, staring after her, “get us out of here fast.”
“Yes, Commander.”
“Were you two close, ma’am?” Bjorn asked Mao, who shook her head.
“Not at all. But when you’re alone out here, any friend is your best friend. She seemed pretty sane, considering.”
Already the Lydia was moving away from the outpost. Bjorn lost sight of it as the ship turned.
“She’s not telling us everything,” he said, and Mao looked at him sharply. She’d been thinking it as well. “Ma’am, you can’t believe they’d use us just to waste Tenbrook’s time.”
“Maybe,” Mao said, stepping close to him and lowering her voice. “Maybe they would. If there was something important about to happen, and having him here instead of somewhere else would make the difference.”
“Do you believe that?”
“I believe it’s plausible.”
“And communications? Evagard suppressing contact out of Demenis?”
“Not illegal,” Mao pointed out. “Now that it’s Evagardian space. Everyone who didn’t leave Demenis is now an imperial subject, whether they like it or not. Subjects don’t have rights, and the Imperium can’t violate what you don’t have.”
“It was unregulated space,”
Bjorn hissed. “They already didn’t have any rights. This was never about rights or legality. The Empress suddenly wants Demenis? And an entire system has to go dark? For what?” He glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was close enough to hear. “Is Tenbrook even really here for us? Or is there something else the High Command wants us to distract him from? Something we don’t have clearance to know about?”
Mao was no longer meeting his gaze; she was only as tall as his sternum, and she gazed at it, her eyes distant.
“Bjorn, I told you that I’m actually a battle-station officer, not a ship commander.”
“I remember.”
“I really have studied Perdita. I haven’t studied Tenbrook, not really. But I know who he is, and how he got to where he is. I can see how valuable this ship would be to him.” She took a deep breath and looked up at him. “Based on the intel we have, I believe he wants it, and I believe he’ll make an effort to get it. And I think not only does he have information from Cophony, but he’s got Cophony with him.”
“And what about Demenis?”
She sighed. “Let it go. We can’t be worrying about the war when we aren’t sure how we’re going to win the battle. Keep your suspicions to yourself. We have to stay focused.”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Bjorn watched her walk away, then sought out Kladinova. She was standing beside the fighter, her hand on the cockpit shield.
“You okay?” Bjorn asked, making straight for her.
She turned toward him, her face unreadable. “Did you figure something out?” she asked.
“We’re gambling. The commander’s probably going to address us, but not until she’s figured this out for herself. It was scary enough coming out here in the state we did.” Bjorn shook his head. “Now with this Tenbrook guy and Cophony, I don’t know. I’m a little worried.”
“A little worried,” she echoed, looking down at the deck. “Me too.”
“Relax. You’re a better pilot than Cophony, aren’t you?”
“Maybe.” She gave him a funny look.
“And he hasn’t got an Everwing. We can handle him. It’s what he knows that’s going to make problems for us.”