“Can we know that?”
“They didn’t use them against the Shan.”
Burgton frowned. “True, but they might be in development.”
“Anything is possible, but I would bet against it.”
“Are you a betting man then, Sebastian?”
He smiled slyly. “In a way. I like counting cards and I have a system.”
“A man after my own heart. Well,” Burgton said and sighed heavily. “I’m glad Tony died as he lived. True to himself.”
Sebastian knew exactly how Degas had died. He wouldn’t say he’d done it true to himself. The poor man had died completely alone, thinking about his wife and desperately defending an impossible dream of escape for the other prisoners.
“Merkiaari have their methods and we have ours. We use nanotech, and they have expertise in genetic engineering.”
“I’m not certain that’s true, General. I think it’s possible one of their client races services that particular need.”
Burgton frowned. “Evidence?”
“None, but it fits the available data. The Merkiaari are adapted to combat. They’ve bred themselves to fight and control their empire. We have no data, not even a hint, they’re more than they appear.”
“That’s always been a problem. I’ve pushed for recon missions more times than I can count.”
Sebastian knew of at least eight public attempts. He had no idea how many times Burgton had pushed for it privately.
“A survey of Merki held systems including the resources they control would be optimal.”
“By resources you mean their client races I assume.”
Sebastian nodded. “Oracle relies upon good quality intelligence. It’s voracious. Any data regarding the enslaved planets and their population’s usefulness to the Merkiaari will improve its predictions.”
“Knowing the enemy’s capabilities is always important,” Burgton agreed, but then he sighed. “The navy is stretched too thin. Even with Dyachenko sympathetic to my cause I’ve never succeeded in persuading the Council to act on this. Commodore Walder’s defeat at the hands of a huge Merki fleet in the Border Zone, its whereabouts unknown, means I have zero chance now.”
“Then General, I think it requires a privately funded effort.”
“I’ve thought about it,” Burgton admitted. “The SDF is ill-equipped for survey missions of that sort, and drones are too limited. I don’t have the resources!”
Sebastian remained quiet as Burgton struggled with the problem. Oracle’s earlier prediction had a bearing, but he didn’t want to reveal it. Doing so too soon, like many of Oracle’s predictions, could sway the outcome negatively. He wasn’t sure where the line between positive and negative lay this time.
“I’ll think on it,” Burgton announced. “If there’s nothing else I’m going to visit the archive. You can reach me there for the next few hours.”
Sebastian nodded but in reality he could reach any viper via the net on Snakeholme. Location was irrelevant. He watched the general enter the elevator and allowed this instance of his avatar to fade.
Oracle demanded attention before he proceeded. He reviewed its latest prediction, still amazed by it. He’d never have thought himself willing to risk such a thing. If he continued he’d have a lot of work to do.
If, he continued.
If was a tiny word with great consequences to him. He could easily ignore the latest prediction. Indeed, it was his role to evaluate and discard those not useful to Burgton’s vision for the Alliance. No one but he could do it. Only he had the processing power to run the simulations that comprised Oracle, and only he knew of this result. He could discard it but knew he wouldn’t. It had too much potential. The problems were there to see; very obviously there, but the benefits were huge. The risks seemed of lesser concern when he weighed them against the benefits.
He contacted Liz Brenchley’s office. As the head of Snakeholme’s department of industry her cooperation was essential. He reached Jamie, her assistant, and ascertained Liz was in a meeting. He made an appointment for later in the day and turned his attention to other things.
Come the time, he appeared on schedule in Liz’s office. He could have asked her to use a headset and conducted the meeting in her virtual office but he wanted to use her holo-table. Liz didn’t notice his appearance at first. She was typing at her comp.
“Interesting shopping list, Liz.”
Liz jumped and glared up at him. “You could warn a body before sneaking in like that.”
“I don’t sneak.”
“What do you call what you just did then?”
“Arriving promptly for a scheduled appointment?”
She snorted. “Right. What can I do for you today? There was nothing in my diary except your name and the time.”
“I was purposefully vague.”
“Vague? I wouldn’t say vague. How about downright secretive?”
Sebastian grinned. “I have a special project I need your help with. It’s something for General Burgton.”
“Buuuut?” Liz said. “Come on, out with it. A special project for George that’s so special you wouldn’t tell Jamie when he specifically asked you? He knows the details of every project that goes through this office.”
“You won’t want to tell him about this one. Not until the general signs off.”
Liz frowned. “Cloak and dagger isn’t usually your thing. George doesn’t know about this, does he?”
“Technically? No.”
“No. As I thought.”
“But he will, as soon as we have something worth telling him about. He visited my centrum earlier today and told me to think about this. I did, and now I need your help with it.”
Liz threw her hands dramatically into the air. “Fine. What do you need?”
“A ship to find the Merkiaari homeworld.”
“Holy shit,” Liz whispered. “The Merki homeworld. Just like that?”
“Obviously not. I need a fast ship, a stealthy ship, a ship that can protect itself in every imaginable way. It needs to be able to operate independently for an indefinite length of time and handle its own refuelling.”
Liz just stared at him.
“Well?”
She raised her hands palms up, and shook her head. “So you need a ship able to destroy anything it meets, outrun anything it meets, and remain invisible while it does it?”
“Exactly.”
“I’m not your girl. You need a magician.”
“You’re what I have.”
“There’s no such ship, and I can’t do magic. Even if I could design something like that, which I can’t, I couldn’t build it here. I’d need full-scale yard facilities like those in the Kalmar Union. It would take years to design and years to build, but it’s a moot point, because... There is. No. Such. Ship!”
Sebastian scowled. He knew there wasn’t a ship like the one he wanted but he had to start somewhere. “Imagine for the moment there was a ship like the one I describe.”
“But there isn’t!”
He activated her holo-table remotely via the net. “Work with me here. Pretend there is.”
Liz gaped. “How did you do that?”
“It doesn’t matter how,” Sebastian said and accessed what he knew of the navy’s inventory. “These are all the ships currently in service.” Ship names, grouped by class and displacement, appeared. He accessed a different file. “And these are the decommissioned ships kept in reserve.”
Liz rounded her desk to join him at the table. “Okay,” she said.
“If you could have anything listed here, what would you choose?”
“Courier ships have the range and speed, but not much else,” Liz muttered, and deleted them. “The entire auxiliary fleet has to go as well. Much too slow and under armed.”
Sebastian deleted them for her. “Frigates, light cruisers, destroyers?”
“Destroyers are good. They’re quick, but they’re lightly armed compared with cruisers. Missile stora
ge is low, and that limits you in combat.”
“All right. Let’s keep them for now. Shall I delete the frigates and light cruisers?”
Liz nodded.
“What about dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts?”
“Too slow and I thought you want to be invisible.”
“So they’re gone, and with them all of the various transports. Carriers?”
Liz snorted.
Sebastian deleted them. “That doesn’t leave much does it? Washington Class heavy cruisers, Excalibur Class heavy cruisers, and a few destroyers.”
“This is your thought exercise not mine, but if I was on extended patrol in enemy territory I’d prefer the heavy cruiser’s armour wrapped around me.”
Sebastian looked at her sharply, but she didn’t seem to notice. Probably just a figure of speech. He deleted the destroyers leaving behind two classes of heavy cruiser. He went ahead and deleted the Washington Class heavies. They were the most modern and therefore the most desirable, but they were new. There was zero chance of stealing one. He pulled up the blueprints of the Excalibur Class heavy cruisers and zoomed in until they filled the table’s surface.
Liz frowned. “I still can’t make it invisible, but it does have a decent stealth capability. I could retrofit one. The Washington Class components might plug straight in. Let’s say I can for now. It’s not the fastest ship in the list, but it’s no slouch and it has decent armour. It doesn’t have huge missile storage compared to a dreadnought, but I could easily increase magazine storage if you limit crew numbers. Do you need Marines?”
“No.”
“Shuttles, pinnace?”
“Probably not, but we should keep at least a minimum capacity. I can’t foresee a need but you never know.”
Liz shrugged. “Reduce it to two boat bays then and convert the others to lend extra missile storage. Energy weapons are decent already. Excaliburs are tough.”
“Excellent,” Sebastian said.
“Is it?”
“Now then. Could you fit me into the space currently occupied by the computer centre?”
Liz stared at him.
“Could you?”
Liz ran the numbers. “No. Your cryo-plant would fit, but not your matrix. You’re not seriously thinking of doing this are you?”
“Me? Not precisely. You have a spare matrix in storage. I’ll donate a clone of me. He or she will quickly develop a new personality once we’re separated.”
“Holy shit,” Liz whispered.
“You already said that.”
“Holy shit...”
“Quite,” Sebastian said, and then looked back to his brainchild. A child in truth if he could make it work. “Let’s delete CIC. My child will be his own combat information centre.”
Liz swallowed still wide-eyed, and nodded.
They got to work.
* * *
16 ~ Broken
Silver Bay, Duchy of Longthorpe, Faragut
There was no pain in the void, but Ellie wasn’t grateful. There was nothing at all. No light or sound to lend her a direction. Nothing to guide her steps. It was so cold. She couldn’t feel her feet as she wandered in the darkness. She shouted for help, but no one answered. She shouted again, but a blanket of silence enfolded her. She couldn’t hear her own breathing, or her desperate cries for aid.
Was this death? Was that why she couldn’t feel anything? She screamed, or thought she did, but no sound escaped and no one came. She forced herself to move on through the darkness, looking for something precious. Something she’d lost, or had she given it away? The thought confused her. If she’d given it away, why would she be searching for it?
“Major Hutton?”
Ellie tried to locate the voice, but it seemed to surround her from everywhere at once. She struggled to answer.
I’m here. I’m here. Please take me out of the dark. I don’t like it here. I’ll be a good girl. Daddy please save me...
No wait, that was a long time ago. He’d found her, and they’d gone home to... they’d gone home to... She drifted away, and the silence of the void reclaimed her.
Ellie wandered the dark searching for... searching... for... for someone. Someone more important than life. Her thoughts were slow as if she’d been drugged. She’d lost him. A brief surge of panic quickened her breathing. She was on duty and she’d lost him. Wasn’t she on duty? She wasn’t allowed to lose sight of... of... Nicky! She tried to think what to do but she sank back into that dullness of thought a moment later. She needed to find him... The void sucked her back down, and oblivion reclaimed her wandering thoughts.
“Major Hutton? Can you hear me?” a masculine voice said.
“I hear you...” Ellie croaked, and a brief burst of excitement sped her breathing turning it to a pant. The voice was back. “I need... I need to find him...” she tried to say, but began drifting away again. “No please...”
“Bring her out of it a little more.”
“Yes Doctor,” a female voice this time.
“Slowly... a little more... hold her there for now. Major?”
Ellie swam back up and out of the darkness. There was light ahead. Just a faint glimmer and she realised her left eye wasn’t working properly. She tried to rub it clear but she was so weak she couldn’t lift her arms. She tried to blink her sight clear instead, but only the right eyelid twitched.
It didn’t help.
“Where is... where...?” Ellie croaked, trying to ask where Nicky was, but her strength was fading rapidly.
“You’re at Silver Bay Major. Beneath it I should say. Beneath the castle I mean. I’m your surgeon. Doctor Michaels at your service.”
Ellie tried to turn her head to him, but couldn’t. That realisation sped her pulse again. “I can’t move,” she gasped.
Michaels leaned into Ellie’s field of view. “Stay calm, Major. You’ve been in an accident but your long term prognosis is good.”
“Where’s the king? I want to see him. Where is he?” she said fearfully. She’d committed the worst sin a royal bodyguard could commit. She’d let her primary out of her sight. “I want to see him!”
“Calm down or I’ll sedate you. The king is busy.”
“But he’s here?”
“He’s here,” Michaels said avoiding her eyes. He pulled away, but was back a moment later with a damp sponge. He dabbed at Ellie’s lips to moisten them. “Tell me, what do you remember?”
“Everything. You’re sure the king is well?”
“As I said, he’s busy. There’s a war on you realise?”
“The Merki. The capital. I remember. The rescue squad said the capital is gone.”
Michaels nodded and used the sponge again. “Are you in any pain?”
“I can’t feel anything. My arms and legs are numb. Why can’t I move?”
Michaels pursed his lips. “There’s no easy way to say this—”
“Just tell me.”
Michaels nodded. “Nurse? The mirror?”
Ellie stared at the ceiling willing herself to remain calm no matter what he showed her. It couldn’t be worse than her fears for Nicky. Nothing could be worse. Michaels angled a small mirror and she looked at the pitiful stump of a person she’d become. She forced herself not to react. Her eyes burned with the need to cry and her throat closed up preventing a wail of grief escaping. If she let it out she didn’t think she’d be able to stop. Instead, she glared at the poor naked creature, and she... the thing glared back from the shiny surface. There were tubes and wires going in and out of her body, some carrying drugs she was certain, others taking away waste products. It was a shocking sight.
“Tilt it back up to my face,” Ellie croaked. “More to the left. My eye?”
“I managed to save it but the damage was severe. Can you see out of it at all?”
“Not much,” she admitted. “Blurry shadows. Irreparable?”
“Yes. I removed the debris but the damage was already done.”
She made herself accept it
along with the rest. The left side of her face was black with bruising and very swollen. Her entire body, what was left of it, was black and blue. She was lucky to be alive and doubly lucky she couldn’t feel the bruises and broken ribs. When she blinked, her left eye and lid barely twitched. Muscle and nerve damage there for sure.
“The rest?” she said coldly. She was alive and so was her king. Anything else was irrelevant. “There was no saving them?”
“If I could have I certainly would’ve tried to salvage them,” Michaels said. “You’re lucky to be alive. You’d be dead if not for your enhanced IMS. A quadruple amputation was all I could do under these conditions. I realise it’s a bit of a shock.”
“A bit,” Ellie admitted. Royal bodyguards were elite in more than just their training. They all had special forces backgrounds, and that included their IMS. It allowed them to function with serious wounds and ignore pain. “I’ll adjust.”
Ellie clinically studied the broken thing in the mirror. She wasn’t a woman anymore. She was a lump of meat. Just a stump who refused to quit. Not an elite bodyguard trained by the best to protect the royal line. Not a soldier and certainly not a lover. She forced herself to accept all of it. She’d sworn to give her life for her king. For Nicky. Instead, she’d given her body, but she hadn’t failed him. That was enough.
“What now?” she said.
Michaels gave the mirror back to the nurse, and dragged a chair closer. Ellie heard it but she couldn’t see him sit beside her bed.
“In the long term, assuming any of us survive the war, your eye and limbs are replaceable. I don’t have the facilities here but any well-equipped hospital can grow them for you.”
“And in the short term?”
“There isn’t much I’m afraid. Stasis would be optimal, but again, I don’t have the facilities. All I have is sedation.”
Ellie’s breathing sped. “I don’t want to sleep. Get the king, he’ll tell you.”
“Calm yourself, Major. Put her back under please.”
“No wait! Why won’t you call... the... king?” Ellie said faintly, as the drugs pulled her back under.
Banished back to the void, she wandered lost and alone with her fears. She’d betrayed Nicky when he’d needed her the most. She hadn’t believed in him. She hadn’t supported his decision to confront his father and now she’d done worse than that. She’d let him out of her sight—the worst thing any bodyguard could do. She had to find him.
Incursion: Merkiaari Wars Book 5 Page 12