Petron

by Blaze Ward

  “I shall convey your wishes,” Cameron smiled conspiratorially. “However, it will take time to get the message out. Things might happen in the meantime.”

  “I am aware of that, Cameron,” Casey nodded. “Send as many fast couriers as you can, with instructions to deliver their messages and keep going. The border fleets can remain on a war footing for another six months or a year while we let Horvat decide if he wants to keep escalating things. Without his allies in the House of Dukes, he loses the ability to manipulate things quite so easily.”

  “What about Warner and Rosson, Your Majesty?” Cameron asked, circling back. “They are in this almost as deep as Gerig.”

  “Let us draw the line at almost, then,” Casey smiled cruelly. “Let them know how thin the line is separating them from official discipline, and watch them like hawks. Rosson is just a fool being played by others, unless something has happened to change the man from a sheep into a lion. Warner can still be sanctioned, if he gives us any reason to, starting tomorrow.”

  Casey paused to study the six men in turn.

  “I need a half a decade, gentlemen,” she said. “In that time, we can stabilize everything and lay out a new future that the people of this galaxy can embrace, both Empire and others. That’s why Horvat moved. If we can push him back and hold him that long, we can make sure he loses. If Jessica has to fight our war on the galactic fringe for us, then we need to figure out how to help her without making it obvious. Trade with the former worlds of the Protectorate will help, as will things closer to home, so perhaps we can blackmail Salonnia into behaving and supporting her as well. Bend your minds to how we can do this thing. Demand trade with Aquitaine, if necessary, on unfavorable terms for us. Perhaps we take their old treaty and demand an equal number of demilitarized worlds on both sides, just because it will hurt them more than us if they misbehave subsequently. But find me options.”

  “We’ll do what we can,” Em replied.

  He rose, as did the others. It was obvious from her speech that she was done with them for now, at least until they came up with ideas that could be implemented.

  But she would have peace for now. Regardless of the number of heads she had to crack together to achieve it.

  CHAPTER LXIV

  IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF JESSICA KELLER, QUEEN OF THE PIRATES: OCTOBER THE SECOND AT PETRON

  “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?” Jessica heard someone ask in an entirely disbelieving voice as the scanners came live with information.

  “That’s a very good question, Jakob,” she replied. “All those ships are currently flying Corynthe flags, but I didn’t build them. Get me Arnd and Reif on a secured line.”

  She leaned back and studied the system plot while her Flag Commander worked.

  “What was it you said about leaving the pirates without adult supervision, Jessica?” Reif asked with a laugh as he came on the line.

  “We don’t know that they are friendly, Reif,” she countered. “They might have come in and taken things and be wolves in sheep’s clothing right now.”

  “True, but those images look like someone put a Fleet Carrier through a hamburger machine, Admiral,” Reif’s grin was irrepressible. “And the cruiser got the bad end of a spiked stick as well.”

  “Agreed, but Qin Lun got it almost as bad,” Jessica noted. “Form up in a triple ring, like standard escorts, and send a message down to the station forces letting them know who we are. All ships maintain battle stations and prepare to flee to Waypoint Hector at the slightest provocation. I’d rather escape than get trapped.”

  “Understood, Admiral,” her Flag cCommander said. “Message transmitted. Fifty-three light minutes inbound lag.”

  “I’m going to get some paperwork done,” Jessica announced. “Assume someone will come along to chat fifteen minutes after they hear the message and keep the squadron at red alert, but don’t fire first.”

  It actually only took eleven minutes, but Jessica couldn’t fault the defenders for being keyed up. She had spent the last hour studying the results of what had been a major, pitched battle, and one that David’s forces should have lost precipitously.

  Jessica was looking forward to hearing how they had won instead.

  “Admiral, Corynthe flagship Kali-ma just came out of Jump at a safe distance and is hailing us,” Li said.

  “Bring all the captains into a circuit so they can see, Jakob,” Jessica replied, leaning back and sipping some of the mediocre coffee her stewards had delivered.

  “Hiya, boss lady.” Wiley’s smile could normally light up a room. Today, it might compete with a supernova. “Welcome home. There’s been some developments.”

  “I can see that,” Jessica grinned back, infected by the woman’s humor. “What happened?”

  “Second Petron,” Wiley announced with a laugh. “It did not go the way those fools were expecting it to. RAN Adamant is probably repairable. RAN Alexandria is actually in pretty good shape. RAN Washington got the short end of Galen’s bungstarter, so we’re not sure if the cost to repair her is worth the expense. What did you bring me?”

  Trust the Rear Admiral of Corynthe’s fleet to see Jessica’s ships as midwinter presents to unwrap, if a little early. Still, if they had captured an entire Aquitaine force that powerful, she might have the largest battle fleet in the periphery, save for Tom and Vo. That altered all equations.

  “An old battlecruiser, a tug with a battle pod, three war destroyers, and a D-Class squadron of the newest vintage,” Jessica said. “With crews for now, but we’ll end up having to recruit soon. What in Vishnu’s name happened?”

  “Aquitaine pissed off Pops, Yan, and Moirrey, Jessica,” Wiley replied, her voice growing more serious. “And then me, Galen, and a few others. I sent the crews back to Ramsey on a trio of cargo transports, but the Crown owns these hulls under common law.”

  “Common law?” Reif spoke up without realizing it.

  “They were flying Aquitaine colors when they attacked, buddy,” Wiley explained with a growl. “The Republic has not declared war on Corynthe even yet, although I expect that to change when those poor folks get home with their sob stories. That made this a pirate raid, so their ships are forfeit. They’re lucky I let them go without time on a prison planet. As soon as we get them repaired, I plan to man this squadron with whoever I can scrape up. If you’re here for a while, we need to have a major conference and plan strategy. This many warships means we can get utterly stupid. And I’d like to.”

  “Understood, Wiley,” Jessica said. “Gentlemen, may I introduce you to Shiori Ness, aka Wiley, Rear Admiral of the Corynthe Fleet and your new commander. Wiley, this man is Admiral of the White Reif Kingston, and will generally be your peer for the time being. The rest are former Imperial captains under your authority, so we’ll need to figure out what we can do to take some of my crews and put them on the new hulls.”

  “Good,” Wiley said. “Was hoping that you had something like that in mind. David is ready to meet on the station and talk turkey, as soon as you want to.”

  “You lead us in, Wiley,” Jessica replied. “I was afraid that Aquitaine might have already struck here and I’d have to take the system back, or end up as a proper pirate and rebel, fleeing back to Fribourg one step ahead of a battle fleet. Now it looks like we can get mean.”

  CHAPTER LXV

  IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF JESSICA KELLER, QUEEN OF THE PIRATES: OCTOBER THE THIRD AT PETRON

  WILEY STUDIED the captains that Jessica had brought along with her. At least they were already used to taking orders from a woman, but the Fribourg Empire had a very small percentage of its overall population that qualified as African Diaspora. Most of her ancestors had ended up either further out, in Aquitaine and places like Corynthe, or clear across the galaxy, in the land known as Buran.

  She could tell, just looking at them, that they weren’t prepared for someone with skin this dark, or curly, black hair, even if there was an unhappy level of white coming in now.

  Tough,
boys, you’ll just have to deal with it.

  They were all aboard the station now, waiting for David and Jessica to arrive last in the secondary throne room. Hopefully, this would just be another boring meeting, but Wiley couldn’t help but think about the day two kings had died on this very deck.

  The Imperials made a compact party. Ten captains and an admiral she had at least heard about from Jessica. She and her boys had them outnumbered and surrounded, but everyone was behaving.

  The admiral finally approached and held out his hand.

  “Tom Provst has told me a lot of good things about you,” Kingston said with a smile as she shook his hand. “He didn’t tell me how tall you were, though.”

  “Tom’s good folk,” Wiley smiled back, eyeball level with the man. “You must be pretty good, if he and Jess put you on her flagship.”

  “Only after threatening my career and my soul, ma’am,” the man laughed.

  Wiley laughed with him, and that seemed to break the chains holding the others back. They crowded around and introduced themselves, at least trying to be all friendly and such.

  In the midst of small talk, Misra appeared at the door and thumped his staff loud enough to rattle the fixtures. He was like that.

  “All hands, Her Majesty comes,” Misra announced. “To stations.”

  Wiley took up a spot at the front of the crowd as Jessica entered, with David in tow and Desianna and Uly close behind. Those four walked up onto the low stage and studied the mob before them. Wiley had brought most of the war captains and Tactical Officers with her, just to provide enough weight to offset the Imperials.

  Although, after that battle, she and Galen could hold their own with anybody in the galaxy.

  “Talk to me,” Jessica fixed her eyes on Wiley and Galen and grinned fiercely.

  Ainsley was down on the surface of the planet with the design team, but Jessica wanted the blow-by-blow now, in a public way. Probably to impress the boys she brought with her.

  Wiley and Galen made sure they looked good, without explaining the best parts, even when Jess asked.

  “How did that work, again?” Jessica asked.

  “You’ll have to ask the pirates,” Wiley replied, referring to Pops and Yan as she normally did. “It did, and we messed up all their nifty plans. With you here and bringing all this help, we might not even have to give those ships back when someone thinks they’ve got enough ships to demand them.”

  “That’s exactly the case, Wiley,” Jessica said, sharing a smile between the two women.

  Jessica expanded her smile to include the rest of the various captains here, pirate and pretend pirate alike.

  “This is even better news than I had expected, ladies and gentlemen,” the Queen announced. “For my new recruits from abroad, this means that I will need to make some promotions shortly, moving men up to command slots far earlier than I had originally intended, and far sooner than you probably expected. In turn they will need to grow into their roles, because I have a whole set of ships that will need crews, and experienced line officers to command them. Wiley, you will work closely with Admiral Kingston and Captain Gorzen to thin the various crews down and recruit new hands off of older ships. Maybe we need to take Ares, Warduck, and possibly Sky Dancer entirely out of commission in order to get enough men and women for all the new ships in the short term. You will need to tell me. For all of you, this means that we might be able to go smash Lincolnshire once and for all. I don’t plan to conquer their worlds, but until they apologize, they’ll have to live in fear of us coming to get them. Plan accordingly and you’re dismissed.”

  Wiley had already chatted privately with Jessica, so she grabbed all the captains in the audience and pulled them into a side conference room to deep dive into details, now that she had the official word from the boss.

  Corynthe was finally in the ass-kicking business.

  CHAPTER LXVI

  DATE OF THE REPUBLIC OCTOBER 10, 405 CITY OF CORYNTHE, PETRON

  MOIRREY HAD jess gone and installed a whole second set of everythin’ in the Bartender’s suite, includin’ a changin’ table fer the rugrat. Dina liked the mobile that the publican had designed, so Moirrey had added one at home, too, but this one were all pretty planets and starships moving around with the music o’th’spheres.

  Jess dinna look like she were quite comfortable with a baby in her arms, but Dina’d settled right down and cooed a lot, gurgling happily as Jess rocked back and forth.

  The bar were folks-in-the-knowed-only today. Her and Digger. Yan and Ainsley. Pops and Marcelle, although they were more of an occasional thin’ than a regular romp. Least fars as Moirrey knew. Weren’t askin’ since both seemed comfortable nuff with the arrangements.

  Jess had brought Reif Kingston with her. Moirrey’d been a wee surprised at that, but he knew fightin’ ships better than anybody what lived here normal-like, so maybe he were gonna become a fightin’ admiral. They had enough big ships now to warrant it, with what Jess had bought.

  “Ainsley, would you be so good as to introduce Reif to our other guest?” Jessica asked.

  “Publican, would you join us please?” Ainsley grinned.

  They always made Ainsley do it. He were her special friend, end of the day.

  Reif muttered a particularly colorful profanity under his breath as the rest of the bar faded into existence around them, from the bare walls it normally were with strangers about. Door were locked and all, so they was safe from bystanders. Plus, he wouldn’t pops ups if he dinna think it were safe.

  “Admiral Reif Kingston, on loan from the Fribourg Fleet, this is the Bartender,” Ainsley grinned as she moved close and poured herself a glass of something brown and malty from the taps facing outward.

  “Honored, sir,” the Publican half-bowed as everyone got a chuckle.

  “How is this possible?” Kingston asked, turning to Moirrey like she were responsible or something.

  “Not me, bubbles,” Moirrey chirped merrily. “Ainsley and Yan doed it.”

  Bedrov blushed a little and stepped up.

  “This gentleman is a projection, Kingston,” Yan said simply. “He was the Bartender on EASC Carthage. A Mark XXII Skymaster. Earth Alliance Sentient Combatant. One of the war gods from the Concordancy Era. Lady Casey sent him home with us when we came to Petron, rather than destroying him.”

  Kingston knew a lot of good profanities, from what done slipped out of his mouth at that. But he were a sailor. Were expected. Dina were too young to pick ’em up from the Captain. Would get them from her and Digger, most like.

  “So how did the group of you manage to mousetrap an Aquitaine flight squadron so badly that you not only won, but captured them?” Jessica asked, rocking back and forth as the wee one laughed.

  “I will accept no blame, Queen Jessica,” the Bartender said sharply. “I am merely a mechanic that was able to perform certain calculations at Lady Moirrey’s behest faster than she or the gentlemen could have done on their own.”

  “Were you now?” Jessica asked, turning this way. “Okay, Pint-sized. Out with it.”

  Moirrey turned to study Kingston something fierce. He blanched and blushed before takin’ a half-step backwards.

  “He’s safe,” Jessica were willing to vouch fer the dude, which were good nuff.

  “I might’s have broke JumpSpace,” Moirrey offered sideways. “Nasty surprise when you gots Jump-capable bombers all set to be surprisin’s n’stuff.”

  “You broke JumpSpace?” Jessica asked in a quiet voice.

  “Ya bounces in, and I bounces your ass right backs out,” she grinned. “Nasty whoops. Had to retire Neon Pink and Rocket Frog into new ships fer now. Yan and Pops gots even better ones planned.”

  “Show me,” Jessica turned to the Bartender with a royal demand, but Moirrey dinna mind.

  The projection of the mine and the new missiles comed up right like she had designed them. And then improved things once they built a few.

  “What have you done?” Jessic
a whispered in fearful awe as she and Dina walked close to it.

  “We’ve ended the Age of the StarFighter, Your Majesty,” Pops broke in. “With a new suite of beams and heavy weapons Moirrey and the Kid have invented, missiles and Jump-capable assault fighters become a thing of the past. With what you’ve brought home, we could take a year and refit some of those captured ships to use the new technology, and forever alter the balance of power on the periphery.”

  “How?” Jessica turned to Pops, eyes HUGE.

  “Primaries is lovely things,” Moirrey interrupted. “But damned expensive to use, just like missiles. Yan can Pulse a Three now, and we tested it in battle. I gots a design fer a plasma cannon that’s kinda a light Bubble Gun and fires faster. Wanna use those as heavy weapons. We gots a fleet now. Bartender says that nothin’ we’re doing violates his agreements with Casey nor Carthage, least nots because ain’t him designin’. Nots too sure, but maybe we could mess up even Aquitaine, somethin’ fierce, if’n you wants to.”

  “I wanted peace,” Jessica breathed.

  “Oh, can gets you that,” Moirrey grinned. “But next goober comes out here all mouthy’n’stuffff gone get smacked in the teeth pretty hard.”

  “Yes,” Jessica said slowly. “I can see that.”

  CHAPTER LXVII

  IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF JESSICA KELLER, QUEEN OF THE PIRATES: OCTOBER THE FOURTH AT PETRON

  DEAREST, Jessica wrote.

  I’m not sure how long it will be until these words can reach you, but by the time they do, the galaxy will have changed again. While my new fleet was smashing Ramsey, a Republic force attempted to do the same at Petron. I say attempted because they failed so miserably that the battle itself will go down in history as the start of something new. Something terrible. Something that will mark a new era in naval warfare.