“I'm a man of my word. Hunter, if you'll do the honors? And then I want all senior staff to report to the briefing room..”
“We don't have one,” Hunter said, frowning.
“This is a merchant ship, Teddy,” Rojek added.
“The mess, then, in half an hour.” Holding up a datarod, he said, “We got what we came for. Now we have to work out what to do with it.”
Chapter 12
“Struve 2398,” Curtis said, gesturing at the flickering holodisplay. “A distant binary star, less than a dozen light-years from Earth. We're going to the smaller of the two.” Tapping a control, he waited for a second to allow the display to swoop down on the target. “No planets around this one, just a mass of close asteroids. The first explorers called it the Cinnamon Belt.”
“A star that near Earth, and Polaris was never found?” Norton asked. “That seems unlikely.”
“Space is pretty damned big, Roxy, and nobody visits the smaller of the two stars. It's far enough from its twin that you'd have to use Tau Drive to make the trip, and aside from a handful of surveys, nobody goes there.” Gesturing at the drifting asteroids, Curtis added, “Which only makes it a better target. I'm not surprised the old Rebellion had a ship stationed there. Perfect place to launch an ambush on some of our transports.”
“It must have been searched, though,” Kani said. “Surely the Federation wouldn't just let one of its ships vanish without a trace.”
“There was an extensive search, Squadron Leader,” Rojek replied, “but it never turned up anything. This star was visited, by Borealis, I think, but it wasn't considered a high-priority target. They went, spent a week scanning, then left.”
“Could Polaris have been moved, after the fact?” Voronova suggested.
“That's certainly a possibility,” Curtis replied, “but there's more to it than that.” He hit another control, and a purple sphere appeared on the display. “Keranos didn't put everything in the files we retrieved, but we do at least have his flight plan now. He took a Remora...”
“A what?” Nguyen asked, wincing as her wounded arm brushed the table.
Rojek turned to her, and said, “The bigger survey ships don't carry small ships of their own. Usually the Prospecting Collectives supply them, along with the occasional independent scout. Payment either in shares of whatever they find or a big cash deposit. Or both, depending on how corrupt the mother ship's commander is.”
“Why Remora, though?”
“Sharks.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” Curtis said, struggling to suppress a smile. “We can discuss oceanography later. For the moment, suffice to say that he rode the Krakow out to Struve about four months ago. The ship was there for a week, and that represents its maximum radius of action.”
“What were they looking for out there?” Hunter asked. “That system doesn't have anything of interest.”
“According to the data, that's the very thing that drew them,” Curtis replied. “The Cinnamon Belt ought to have rich pickings of all sorts of valuable raw materials, but there's nothing there to speak of. I saw a documentary a few years ago that suggested that it had been mined out by an alien race, millions of years ago. Looks like someone in the Parliament decided to check it out.”
“Krakow recently finished a series of upgrades to her sensor suite, and Struve is close enough to Sol that it can be reached in a single warp run,” Cordova said. “Our guess is that they were field-testing those upgrades, and that Struve was just picked as a convenient target. That might have been what attracted a maggot like Keranos. Cheap passage.”
“I've always wondered why the Committee authorizes so many survey missions,” Moretti mused. “They never seem to seriously exploit anything they find. There haven't been any new settlements established since the Revolution.”
“Ever notice how many of these missions are close to the border?” Norton said. “Smuggling. Any cargo too large to sneak through at frontier stations like Sinaloa. If you're operating in an unpopulated system, you don't have any witnesses to worry about.” She looked at Kani with a smile, and said, “Am I on the mark, Squadron Leader?”
“Just about,” Kani replied. “I've run escort on those runs a few times. One of our more normal missions. That the Parliament turns a blind eye...”
“Hell,” Rojek said, “They run most of those rackets themselves. You don't think the higher echelons would want to go without all those little luxuries they don't dare produce at home, do you?” Shaking his head, he added, “If we were serious about the blockade, we'd have brought the Commonwealth down decades ago.” Looking belatedly at Kani, he added, “No offense.”
“None taken,” the young pilot replied. “As far as I'm concerned, it's just one more example of the inherent flaws in your debased system of government.”
“More to the point,” Cordova interrupted, forestalling an argument before Curtis could intervene, “either those sensor modifications didn't work, or Keranos managed to find something that the other ship missed. If Krakow had found Polaris, we'd have heard about it by now. The ship's out at Delta Pavonis at the moment on a long-duration mission.”
“Are we sure about that?” Hunter asked.
“Positive,” Cordova replied. “We've got people on board.” She turned to Curtis, and said, “What you're saying is that this isn't going to be as simple as flying into the system and sending a shuttle across. We're going to have to do whatever it is that Keranos did, without knowing exactly what that was.” She paused, then said, “Are there any clues on the data?”
“From appearances,” Rojek said, “he was extremely paranoid. There's almost nothing in the files about his activities in the system. Just the fact that he went, and the baseline capabilities of his ship. We can match those with three of our shuttles.” Turning to Curtis, he said, “I'll set up a search pattern. Who's going to fly?”
“How's your arm, Gabi?” Curtis asked.
“It'll be fine by the time we arrive.”
“Then you get one, Kani gets one, and Voronova gets one.” Looking at the Commonwealth contingent, he said, “I presume you're willing to assist with the search.”
“Of course, Commander,” Voronova replied. “Our mission might not have gone quite as we'd planned...”
“That's an understatement,” Nguyen said.
“But our goal remains the same. I'll fly for you, sir.”
Folding his fingers together, Rojek said, “There is also the question of time.”
Nodding, Norton added, “That trick with the escape pod was pretty damned good, Commander, but it won't take them long to repair with the facilities at Sinaloa Station. Six hours would be my guess. They'll want to complete the pacification of the local population as well, but the two ship's assault teams can handle that.”
“Bloodily, I suspect,” Rojek replied. “They won't be making many friends over there today. When they did that at Leonov Base, they had to bring a thousand more workers out. Casualties were almost five percent of the population. And Sinaloa's more confined than Leonov.”
“There's nothing we can do about that, I'm afraid,” Cordova said, a grim frown on her face. “Except that it makes it ever more clear what exactly we're fighting for.”
“For the present,” Norton pressed, “It gives us a window, albeit a small one, to find Polaris.”
“Six hours,” Kani said, shaking his head. “It doesn't seem possible.”
Holding up a datapad, Curtis replied, “It just might be, Squadron Leader. Keranos was planning on using this data as a pitch, and he gathered a lot of information on the condition of the ship. His report makes it clear that the vessel is borderline functional, that there was no major damage and that everything was intact. Now he wasn't an expert, a trained engineer, but for all his many sins, he was an experienced pilot.”
“Assuming he wasn't ros
e-tinting the condition of the ship,” Norton replied.
“Possibly, but he was taking enough risks already. He might not have wanted to take any more, and would have known that if he'd tried to sell damaged goods, the highest bidder would have come back to have words with him. I'm not saying everything is perfect, but there seems to be a reasonable chance that we can get the ship back into service in the time.” Looking around the room, he continued, “And realistically, we don't have a choice. We've got six hours, eight at the outside, to find Polaris, board her, and get her into a condition that allows us to leave the system. Or at the very least, maneuver with sufficient speed to stay ahead of the pursuing squadron.”
“We won't be able to stay in Struve for long,” Rojek said. “As soon as they realize where we're going, they'll warn Earth. Three ships in the Reserve Flotilla, and you can be damned sure they'll send them out for this. Which means they'll have reinforcements on the way in twenty-four hours at the outside. We're going to have to move quickly.”
“Are we sure they can follow us?” Nguyen asked. “If we have the data...”
“There must have been backup copies,” Rojek dourly replied. “We've got to assume that they'll be able to work out everything we have in fairly short order. Certainly before they can leave the system. And Arcturus was close enough to get a good line-of-sight on our hyperluminal track. That alone would narrow our destination down pretty tightly.” Shaking his head, he said, “Always assume that the enemy knows more than you do. Right, Teddy?”
“Right.”
“There's something bothering me about all of this,” the hitherto silent Moretti said, looking over the datapad. “What happened to the crew of Polaris.” Curtis' face darkened, and she added, “If Keranos' report is anywhere close to accurate, then her life support systems were functional, her reactors intact. So why the hell didn't her crew just fly her home? Or at least get into a position where a search could have found them. That system's been visited nine times since the Uprising. Someone should have spotted them.”
“Unless there's a good reason they wanted to stay in hiding,” Kani suggested. “Maybe something on board?”
“Keranos made it onto the ship, and lived for four months after leaving her,” Curtis replied. “The only thing that killed him was a greedy security officer.”
“She might know more about that,” Nguyen suggested. “Maybe we could try a little interrogation. Do you have the equipment on board?”
“No, thank God, and I wouldn't use it if we did,” Curtis said. “I know you're only on board temporarily, Flight Lieutenant, but we're out to make the universe a better place, not to wallow in the same moral sewer of our enemies. The old Rebellion made that mistake, twenty years ago, and it's one of the reasons they lost. We're not going to walk that road, no matter how tempting it might be. I hope that is totally clear to everyone at this table.”
“Speaking purely personally,” Norton replied, “It's nice to be on the side of the angels for once. I can go along with this quite easily, Commander.” She glanced at Cordova, and added, “We'll get a lot more support from the population if we're able to set a good example.”
“I'll talk to her,” Cordova said. “She seemed eager enough to help us get away from Sinaloa. Maybe she'll still consider that our interests coincide.”
“She murdered Keranos, betrayed us,” Kani said, bluntly.
“And then saved all of our lives by reprogramming the defense network,” Norton replied. “Yes, she saved her own life in the process, but she was right about one thing.” Pushing across a datapad, she said, “The latest updates from the news network have her listed as a known rebel, right along with the rest of us. She doesn't have anywhere to run to. Especially as she's wrecked her reputation with the Commonwealth.”
“I'm just suggesting that you should be careful accepting everything she says,” Kani pressed. “She's got something of a history of twisting the truth to suit her ends.”
“The first step to avoiding a trap, Squadron Leader, is knowing of its existence,” Curtis said.
“That doesn't help if you still step in it, Commander.”
Cracking a smile, Curtis replied, “Very true. I think that brings this meeting to a close.” He paused, then said, “Oh, one more thing. Captain Hunter, I think I can turn command of Hanoi over to you once again.”
“Commander,” Cordova said.
“That's my decision, Major. I think you've proven yourself, Captain, and Hanoi is your ship. Besides, I'll be transferring over to Polaris as soon as we find her.” He paused, then said, “How many people do you need to crew Hanoi?”
She frowned for a moment, then said, “Just point-to-point? Nothing fancy?”
“That's the idea.”
“Eight, if I can pick them.”
“As long as your picks don't include Norton, Moretti and Montgomery. I'm going to need all three of them on Polaris.” Raising a hand, he said, “Polaris has to take absolute top priority.” He looked at the expression on Moretti's face, and added, “Go on. What's on your mind.”
“We're pushing Hanoi's Tau Drive far too hard, sir. Far too hard. Normally we have two or three days in between transitions to check everything over and allow the systems a chance to recover. We haven't been doing that, and we're already starting to show some signs of degradation. It's a one-way street, sir, with catastrophe at the end.”
“Bottom line?”
“One or two more transitions after Struve, sir, and then I'm going to have to spend at least a week overhauling the systems. Frankly, it's a job for a spacedock, but I think I can manage it myself. If necessary. Though once this mission is over, I suppose...”
“Don't get the idea that this mission is going to be over any time soon,” Rojek warned.
“No,” Curtis said, looking around the table. He tapped a control, bringing an image of the starfield onto the display. “We're already committed to this, people. Make no mistake about it.” Looking at the viewer, he said, “We're already in far too deep to get out now. Commander Diaz gave some of us a possible escape route, but I think I can definitively say that it is well and truly sealed. There's no way back.”
“You could still run to the Commonwealth,” Kani said. “One long jump gets you to our border. We'd happily take Hanoi in exchange for sanctuary for the crew, if the worst came to worst.”
“Let's call that a last resort,” Curtis said. “Our goal remains the same, and we've got a bigger problem that I don't think any of you have considered. The Federation knows where Polaris is now. They've got the same lead that we have, but unlike us, they've got the resources to throw into it. Long-term, they will find it if we don't, and the opportunity we've lost two lives to secure will be wasted. I don't intend for either Alvarez or Krieger to have died for nothing. Our job, people, is to see that they didn't. I hope that is perfectly clear to all of you.”
A chorus of nods and approving noises echoed around the table, and Curtis said, “Dismissed, then. And make sure you all get some sleep before we emerge tomorrow, and pass the word for all hands to do the same.”
“What about the prisoners?” Hunter asked. “We didn't have time to leave them at Sinaloa.”
“Probably as well for them that we didn't,” Cordova said. “They'd have been shot down out of hand, at a guess.”
“We'll leave them at Struve, with supplies for a month,” Curtis said, after a moment's thought. “Someone will certainly be coming along to investigate, one way or another, long before then. They'll be rescued. Make the arrangements, Captain. One shuttle, equipped for extended flight.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then that is all, I think. I'll see you all later.” As the group rose, dispersing to their posts, Rojek remained in his seat, looking across at Curtis with a wry smile on his face.
“Just like old times, isn't it,” the veteran said. “Though I don't think I coul
d get away with citing uniform violations today.” Watching the staff walk into the corridor, he asked, “How are you holding up, Teddy?”
“With difficulty,” he replied. “None of this seems quite real yet, Felix. A week ago I was sitting at a bar on Titan. Now I'm leading a group of rebels in a bid to steal a starship and trigger a second Uprising.” With a sigh, he said, “Poor Tom. He didn't want to come. Cordova had to force him at gunpoint. But he came anyway, and he's probably given his life for us.” Looking up at Rojek, he continued, “I'm enough of a realist to know that there's almost no chance they'll save his life. Even if they do take him to medical, his first visitor will be a ColSec interrogator. I shouldn't have left him.”
“If you hadn't done what you did, then his sacrifice would have been for nothing. You're going to have to get used to making those sorts of decisions again, Teddy.” He frowned, then added, “I know what you mean, though. I've spent fifteen years getting ready for this, preparing for the day when we can start our revolt, and now that it's finally here, I wish we had fifteen years more.” Glancing at the starmap, he asked, “You still think this is suicide?”
“Maybe,” Curtis replied. “Though maybe I'm beginning to think we might have a chance of actually pulling this off.” Taking a deep breath, he continued, “Come on. We'd better get those search patterns prepared. In twenty-five hours or so, the fun really starts.”
“I think we have different ideas about what that word means, Commander,” Rojek said with a soft smile.
Chapter 13
Cordova walked down the corridor, nodding at the guard standing at the entrance to the temporary brig. She paused at the hatch, then reached across to a wall communicator, tapping a code to access the internal intercom system.
“Saxon, step into the airlock on the double. I need to speak to you.” She looked across at the monitor panel, watching as the former ColSec commander rose to her feet, walking past the lethargic Federation loyalists lying on their couches. She stepped through the hatch, and Cordova worked the mechanism to cycle her through the airlock, drawing her pistol to level it at her as she emerged. Saxon looked down at the pistol, a faint grin on her face, then up at Cordova.
Starcruiser Polaris: Blood of Patriots Page 13