by B. V. Larson
I nodded and waved for him to speak quickly. “I’ve got to figure out the disposition of my forces.”
“That’s just it, sir,” he said. “They aren’t your forces anymore…technically speaking.”
I slowly turned my head to face him. He was avoiding my eyes.
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
“It came in over the command channels.”
“I didn’t see anything.”
“No—no, I’m not surprised. The parliament held a secret, midnight meeting, sir. They deposed you. You’ve been officially removed from your post. I’m sorry, sir.”
I stared at him. I lifted my gaze and stared around at the staffers. The news was traveling as I could see. Already, people were avoiding my gaze. They were murmuring to one another quietly while pretending to work.
“So that’s what Miklos was talking about,” I said. “That man will do anything to build up his damned fleet.”
-32-
It wasn’t my first defrocking, but I wondered seriously if it would be my last.
“Crew,” I said, looking around at everyone.
They all looked back with worried faces.
“There has been some kind of misunderstanding at Earth Command,” I said calmly. “I’m looking into it, and there will be an announcement made soon.”
For some reason, this calmed the staffers. They liked the idea of a quiet resolution. I couldn’t promise them that, but I had to play for time now.
“In the meantime,” I said, “carry on with your battle plans. The Macros are coming. No matter what else happens, they must be stopped.”
That played well. Now they had a goal and a platitude. They went back to work, and soon their screens were humming again. Certainly, they were wondering who their real commander was at this point, but they weren’t obsessed with the topic.
Star Force people are a tough breed. We have to be. We compartmentalize and function even in a chaotic environment. The people present had heard Crow and their own governments denounce me in the past. In every case, Kyle Riggs had won through in the end. That was good enough for them today.
But it wasn’t for me. I left the bridge, headed to my quarters, stretched out on my bunk and had a beer. Then I poured a shot of whiskey into my second bottle, and I drank that, too.
When I’d finished my third round, I was feeling pretty good. A tapping came at the door followed by a tweedling sound I hated. It was a chime the doors were programmed to make. I ignored all of it.
Finally, the door melted open. Jasmine was standing there looking concerned. She saw the drink and the look on my face.
“So that’s your answer? To go back to your room and get drunk?”
“Seemed like a pretty good idea at the time,” I said. I took another sip. “Still does.”
“This isn’t like you, Kyle.”
“They made their choice, honey,” I said, patting the bunk next to me.
She didn’t move from the doorway.
“I can’t believe you’re quitting.”
“This might be the best way,” I said. “Think about it: either I was going to rule the cosmos, or they were going to kill me. This way, I just retire. If the Macros win, well, I won’t have to stress about it. If we win, life will be fine. Did I ever tell you that I used to have a farm? I loved that place.”
Jasmine finally stepped into the room, and the nanites closed the hatch behind her. She came over and sat on the bunk beside me.
“It has to be Miklos,” she said. “He engineered it.”
I shook my head. “Maybe, but it doesn’t matter. He can run the battle that’s coming if he wants to.”
“Kyle,” she said, taking my hand. “Do you feel this?”
She put my hand on her belly. There was a bump there now. Not a big one, but she was thin, and it showed more than it might have on other women.
I smiled. “Yeah, that’s great. Let’s hope for the best. I’d like to be a father again.”
“Then you can’t screw this up. Get off that bunk and go kill the machines for me—for our child.”
I heaved a sigh.
“Aw, come on,” I said. “Do you really think—”
“Kyle,” she said, “is Miklos as good of a commander as you are?”
“Well, probably not in an all-out fight. But he’s good.”
“Is he half as good as you are?”
“Sure.”
“Is he ninety percent as good as you are?”
“Um, I’d give him a seventy,” I said, grinning and taking another swallow of my beverage.
“Right, well, I want the other thirty percent. I want that extra chance for my baby to live. Are you willing to help save our kid?”
She struck a chord with me then. Sure, she was being manipulative, but she meant what she was saying. I could see it in her eyes. She was calling me to duty. It was a call I didn’t want to hear right now.
“Look,” I said, “how about we make love right here and right now. We’ll worry about the end of the species afterward.”
“No,” she said firmly. “That’s not happening. Not unless you promise to kick Miklos down the steps of the parliament building.”
I considered it, I honestly did. I figured I had a fair chance of success, and sex right now was pretty firmly in my mind. The drinks and her presence after a long, stressful voyage had me in the zone.
“Kyle, there’s something else,” she said. “I didn’t put it all together before, but I investigated that bombing at your office.”
“You did?”
“Yes, on the side. They never found the bomber, you remember?”
“Yeah, well, I have a lot of enemies.”
“Didn’t you say the Turks had given you that golden head thing?” she asked.
“That’s right.”
“They denied it. They said they didn’t give you anything at all on that trip. At first, I didn’t believe them. I don’t think anyone did. They just didn’t want to be blamed. But now, I’m not so sure. Who told you about the gift? Who presented it to you personally?”
I blinked and frowned trying to remember.
“The only guy who was there that day…” I said then my face darkened. “Miklos did it.”
“Yes,” she said, “that’s what I thought.”
She moved to stand up, but I ran my arm around her and pulled her back down. I kissed her.
She pushed at me, and I smiled.
“I said no,” she complained.
“You said yes—if I agreed to kick Miklos’ ass down the parliament steps. Remember?”
“Oh…that’s right.”
She smiled, and we got busy.
-33-
I think the key to a successful coup is not letting anyone know what your intentions are. It also doesn’t hurt to have an ace up your sleeve. In my case, my ace was made of metal. He had about fifteen cameras and twice that many limbs.
Marvin didn’t even hesitate when I told him what to do. That part almost bothered me. What if I’d ordered him to hack into NORAD and send nukes at every world capital? I had the feeling he’d do it cheerfully excited at the prospect of a new hacking challenge.
My first move was to silence the fleet. All transmissions other than traffic control with Earth were cut off. We’d left with about ninety percent of Earth’s ships in tow. They’d built a few since then but not many. I didn’t want any of my captains taking orders from anyone other than me.
“Sir?” Newcome asked about twenty minutes after Jasmine and I had sealed our deal in bed. “There seems to be a communications malfunction. I can’t open any channels to Earth.”
I gave him a flat stare. “Is that right? Well, is there anything special you’d like to tell the people on the ground?”
He froze. I think his time under Crow’s harsh rule had given him some kind of post-traumatic disorder. When he sensed he was in political trouble, his mind shut down for a second. When it started operating again, his only instinc
t was to run and hide.
True to form, about three seconds later he spoke again, this time in a soft voice: “Colonel, I recall an engine malfunction. I’m needed in the aft section of the ship. If you would excuse me—”
“No,” I said. “Man your post, Admiral.”
Without another word out of him, he quietly went back to tapping at his screen. Soon, others were complaining about the communications blackout. It was time to make an announcement.
I opened a fleet-wide channel to everyone in the command ranks. I knew a number of them had heard about the parliament’s action or at least they’d heard a twisted rumor about it. I had to tell them something.
“Star Force officers,” I said, speaking into my com-link. As I did this, I suited up in my full armor. This is an elaborate process but, we’ve managed to make it easy with design improvements. First, I vaulted onto my suit, which was kept on a rack along the wall. Then I shoved my feet down into it. Once the legs were on, they squeezed up of their own accord.
“I know we’ve all seen a lot of combat together,” I said. “At times, we’ve been faced with hard decisions. This is one of those times.”
I tapped at the enclosure, lining up my arms and wrists with the openings. They contracted and my arms and chest were now covered. Only my helmet was still separate from the rest and hanging directly over my head.
The staffers all around the command center were staring with wide eyes. Normally, I only walked around on the ship in armor if we were in a battle. They were all wearing lighter suits, Fleet gear that we marines liked to call “pajamas”.
“As you might have heard, I’ve been contacted by the politicians back home. They figured since we weren’t in their skies, they were free to reinstate Crow’s Empire—but they thought wrong.”
My helmet was descending now, about to enclose my head. That was the last chance anyone would have to take a shot at me—and they went for it.
A lieutenant commander fresh from Earth was on deck. She had impeccable references and had been assigned to the nerd table for navigation. I’d heard she’d been a disappointment to the team so far. Now, I learned why.
“I want every ship to stand by for—” I’d turned to face the crowd of officers. Before I could say anything else, a flash of light blinded me, and my mouth went numb.
A beam had struck my cheek. It was only about as thick as a pencil, but it lanced through taking a path through the back of my throat and out the other side. Fortunately, it missed my spine and my jaw. I suppose that’s because I was in the middle of talking and had my mouth wide open at the time. I only lost a few teeth, and my tongue was intact afterward.
Two more beams flashed a second later, and staffers shouted in alarm. They dove for cover, ducking under the command tables, but it was already over. The assassin was down, barely twitching.
Kwon and Gaines stepped forward from opposite ends of the command deck, wearing full armor and aiming their rifles at anyone who dared to peep out from behind the furniture.
The helmet finally closed over me, and I felt pretty good about that.
Less than a second later, Jasmine was practically climbing over my suit.
“Open the faceplate,” she told me. “I have a patch in my hand.”
I turned away from the confusion, and my visor went up. She reached her hand in around my head and applied the patch to the back of my neck.
“I don’t believe it,” she said. “I can see right through to the back of your helmet when you open your mouth.”
“Yeah,” I said, gargling a bit. “Feels funny.”
“That was a foolish stunt. I told you not to do it.”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“There are less dangerous ways to expose an assassin.”
“But none work faster,” I pointed out. “And we don’t have a lot of time.”
Once she’d applied the nanite patch, the little devils went to work. They were specialized for emergency damage control. Rather than rebuilding flesh, which took hours, they simply replaced it by mimicking my missing body parts with gluey metallic nanites. They filled in my cheek, my tooth and the flesh at the back of my neck. I immediately had an overpowering taste of metal in my mouth, and the sensation was electric. I was reminded of the taste of car keys from my early childhood.
When she was done fussing, I closed my helmet and turned around. Gaines and Kwon still had the staffers on the floor.
“Get up, get up!” I said irritably. “This isn’t a bank robbery.”
Slowly, they got to their feet.
“Now,” I said, “I’m going to give everyone left alive in this room a choice. You join me, or you can resign now and forget about Star Force.
“What else will happen if we choose to ‘resign’?” Newcome asked warily.
“Nothing. You’ll be confined to quarters until this war is sorted out. We’ll drop you off then, and that will be that. You won’t be prosecuted or anything. But you can forget about flying a ship again.”
Newcome looked thoughtful. “What about our pensions?”
“Come on, man,” I scoffed. “Have a spine! The machines will be here in a month or less. I’ll give them your damned pension!”
The admiral looked miffed. “Very well then, I’ll be staying at my post if you’ll have me.”
“That’s the spirit, Newcome!” I said with bravado. I looked around at the rest of them expectantly.
Moving slowly and wearing expressions like sightseers caught inside a tiger cage at the zoo, they returned to duty. Every one of them had stayed loyal. I smiled and slammed my gauntlets together.
“This is the kind of team-building I like to see!” I said, rotating my helmet to take it all in.
I was bullshitting, of course. They were hardly enthusiastic. I’d say they were intimidated and uncertain at best. But I knew I had to have my command staff on my side. The rest of the captains would take their cue from the top brass, I felt confident about that. I knew most of my officers felt a sense of loyalty toward me, but they’d also accepted Earth’s right to direct her military. For the time being, that had to change.
“Newcome,” I said, “get on the staff channel with everyone. Tell them to get into formation and follow this ship. We’re heading back to Earth.”
Newcome didn’t argue for once. Maybe he’d gotten the idea that the complaint department was closed today. That was just fine with me.
Soon, the entire fleet was moving again. We changed course. Instead of heading to our designated position out at the very edge of the Solar System where we’d planned to meet and do battle with the Macros, we were heading sunward. The third rock out was our destination, and there would be hell to pay when we got home.
Marvin had disabled all transmissions from the fleet to Earth, but from my command table I could still listen to their messages.
“Central Command from Geneva is trying to hail us, Colonel,” Jasmine said quietly.
“Don’t open the channel,” I said.
“They might be changing their minds, Colonel,” Newcome suggested.
I glanced at him. “No, not yet. First, they’ll bluster and give speeches. They’ll order me to turn around. When that doesn’t work, they’ll attempt to contact all my junior officers personally demanding that they not listen to anything I say. That was their plan from the beginning. By the way, are all the ships following our lead?”
Jasmine went over the rosters. “So far, sir. They fell into formation. Several captains are complaining, but they’re all following us so far.”
“This must be what it felt like to Caesar,” I said.
“Sir?” asked Newcome.
“Gaius Julius Caesar,” I repeated. “This must be what it felt like when he took his legion across the Rubicon and marched on Rome about two thousand odd years ago.”
“More like Napoleon,” Newcome muttered.
“What was that, Admiral?”
For a second I thought Newcome was going to cower, but he s
traightened his spine again. “More like Napoleon returning from Elba, sir. After all, this is your second time around.”
I nodded, eyeing him. “I’m not sure I like either analogy, but they do fit. I feel both elated and depressed. It’s an odd sensation.”
No one answered me, which was just as well.
Seven hours passed. That’s all it took. Inexorably, my fleet cruised closer to the homeworld.
During that time, the government messages had changed in tone. They’d gone from demanding to threatening, and, finally, to pleading.
“They’re beginning to piss their pants,” I said, looking over transcripts of various messages. “Think about it from their point of view. A thousand ships are approaching Earth, silently, purposefully. We’re not talking. Not a single ship has broken ranks. They have nothing to face these ships with. If they can’t direct this fleet, they’re powerless.”
“Sir?” Jasmine said.
I turned my head to her because I caught the worry in her voice.
“What is it?”
She pointed to her screen. I looked down. She’d put a map of the Solar System up. Our fleet was a constellation of green contacts. But there was a red contact now—a big one.
“It’s coming in from the Tyche ring,” she said.
I eyed the big ship knowing what it had to be.
“Phobos,” I said. “They got to her. I wish Marvin could have disabled her communications too. They got to her commander and turned him against me.”
No one said anything. They were all looking at me and one another, but mostly we were all staring at Phobos. I might be able to beat that ship. Maybe. But it would cost me half my fleet to do it. Unfortunately, the action would be suicidal. I would be costing Earth any chance she had of stopping the Macros.
“Sir?” Jasmine said again. “There’s another call from Earth. This one’s different.”
“What’s different about it?” I asked.
“It’s Miklos himself.”
I nodded and slowly opened my visor. Then I opened the channel.
Miklos had been one of my top commanders for years. We went way back together. We’d fought on several campaigns, and it hurt to have him turn on me.