Battlecry: Sten: Omnibus One (Sten Omnibus)

by Allan Cole, Chris Bunch

‘Th’ lad hae luck, until th’ last min,’ Alex considered.

  Sten nodded.

  Rykor tsked. Given the otarine structure of her head it came out more like a Bronx cheer, but the proper intention was obvious.

  ‘You two disappoint me. Mahoney told me that you’ – Rykor was about to say Mantis soldiers, but reconsidered, unsure whether Haines and Collins knew. – ‘people don’t believe in luck.’

  Sten looked at Alex.

  ‘We’re missing something.’

  ‘Aye. The wee crab-eater hae somethin’. Gie her th’ moment a’ triumph.’

  Rykor savored it a minute before continuing. ‘Who recommended Gades to that exclusive military school? Who suggested to a certain admiral that Lieutenant Gades would make an excellent aide? Who boarded him for the flotilla command? Who got him those – I think you would use the phrase “fat” – diplomatic assignments? …

  ‘One person – and one person only.’

  Sten scrolled Gades’ record and read the signatures at the bottom of those glowing recommendations and requests.

  ‘Oh Lord,’ he whispered softly.

  The rank and even the signature changed over the years. But the name was the same. Mik Ledoh. Imperial Chamberlain and the man closest to the Emperor!

  ‘And now we know who is at the peak of the conspiracy, do we not?’

  ‘But why Ledoh? What in blazes did he have to do with Gades?’

  Rykor flipped her own computer terminal open. ORDER: COMPARE LEDOH AND GADES, ALL CATEGORIES. REPORT ALL SIMILARITIES.

  And eventually the computer found it.

  In the gene pattern …

  Regicide sometimes springs from very small beginnings – small, at least, to those not immediately involved. Philip of Macedon died because he chose public instead of nonobjectionable private sodomy; Charles I could possibly have saved his head if he’d been more polite to a few small business people; Trotsky could have been less vitriolic in his writings; Mao III of the Pan-Asian Empire might have survived longer had he not preferred the daughters of his high-ranking officials for bedmates. And so forth.

  Admiral Mik Ledoh’s attempt to kill the Eternal Emperor was rooted in equally minuscule events. Ledoh’s first assignment in logistics was as supply officer on a remote Imperial Navy Base.

  The base sat outside even what were then the Empire’s frontier worlds. Though a long way from nowhere, the base was positioned on an idyllic planet, a world of tropical islands, sun, and very easy living. Since the base’s function was merely to support patrol units, dependents were encouraged to join wives or husbands on that assignment.

  Understaffed, the patrols and patrol-support missions were long. A probe ship would be out for four months or more before returning to duty. Compensation was provided by an equivalent time on leave.

  There was not much for those soldiers and sailors assigned to this tropic world, beyond fueling and maintaining the probe fleet. Bored men and women can find wondrous ways of getting into trouble. Ledoh, a handsome lieutenant, found one of the classics – falling in love with the wife of a superior officer.

  The woman was an odd mixture of thrill-seeker, romantic, and realist. Two months into their affair, one week before her husband returned from long patrol and subsequent transfer, she told Ledoh that she had chosen to become pregnant. While the young officer gaped, she listed her other decisions – she would have the child; she loved Ledoh and would always remember him; under no circumstances would she leave her upward-bound husband for a young supply officer.

  First real love affairs are always gut-churners. But that woman managed to make the memories even worse for Ledoh. He never saw her again, but he managed to keep track of her – and his son.

  The woman’s husband burnt out young, and became just another alky probe-ship cowboy. Ledoh had hopes that … but she never left the man. The best that Ledoh could do was to shepherd his son’s career. He was delighted to find that, from an early age, the boy wanted to follow in his ‘father’s’ footsteps. Ledoh made the necessary recommendations.

  When Rob Gades graduated from his military academy, a very proud Mik Ledoh watched from the audience. But he was never able to approach Gades, even later in the man’s career.

  Someday, he promised himself. Someday there’ll be a way I can explain.

  Someday, he felt, was shortly after Gades was promoted to admiral.

  But the Mueller Wars happened, and Ledoh found himself organizing and leading the Crais System landings. He succeeded brilliantly – unlike his son, who was relieved of command after Saragossa.

  Ledoh protested the board’s decision, but uselessly. At that point he wanted to go to his son and tell him what would happen – that sooner or later sanity would return.

  But he couldn’t find the words.

  Before he did, his son died, a suicide.

  Two weeks after hearing of the death, Ledoh applied for retirement, to the shock of the Imperial Navy. Since the Crais landings were one of the few bright spots of the Mueller Wars, there was an excellent possibility that Mik Ledoh was in the running for Grand Admiral.

  The conspiracy might even then have been avoided if anyone had known of Ledoh’s ties to Gades. But Mik Ledoh hewed close to the old and stupid military adage: ‘Never explain, never complain.’

  Men who have spent most of their lives in company do not handle the solitude of retirement well, and Ledoh was no different. Retirement only gave him the chance to brood at leisure, and brooding led him to the conclusion that the reason for his son’s death, the reason for the deterioration he had come to see in the Empire since the Mueller Wars, and the reason for his own unhappiness was the Eternal Emperor himself.

  Kai Hakone’s sixth vid-tape, built around the premise that Admiral Rob Gades had been a true hero and a scapegoat, provided the spark.

  The rest, from his use of the old-boy’s network to return from retirement for a position in the Imperial household to his subversion of bright Colonel Fohlee to his friendship with Hakone to the building of the conspiracy’s octopus-links made perfect sense.

  Or would have, if any historian had been permitted to dig into what happened that year on Prime World.

  Instead, two policemen, two soldiers, and one walrus-like psychologist sat in a room over a rural pub, staring at two displays on a computer screen: father and son.

  In an age when limb transplants were as commonplace as transfusions, and a medico needed to know the proper factors to prevent rejection, gene patterns were automatically recorded for any member of the Imperial military, just as blood type had been recorded a thousand years before.

  Sten finally got to his feet, blanked the screen, considered a drink, and regretfully decided against it.

  ‘Orders group,’ he said. ‘Haines, I want a full strike force available. Kai Hakone is to be secured immediately. Imperial warrant.

  When you have him in custody, all other conspirators on Rykor’s list are to be taken and held incommunicado.

  ‘Sergeant Kilgour.’

  ‘Sir!’

  ‘We’re to the palace.’

  And Sten and Alex were in motion, headed for the only com-link to the Emperor.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Sten’s alarm should have gone off when he and Alex doubled into Arundel’s gates. But the fact that the two Praetorians on duty were in parade battle dress instead of their normal monkey suits just did not register. Nothing else would have given away the revolt. Clerks scurried about, dignitaries mumbled in corners, and the palace was normal.

  Normal, until Sten and Alex came out of the lift on the Emperor’s private level. And then it was Alex who realized something was wrong.

  ‘Captain,’ he said. ‘Wha’ be y’r Gurkhas?’

  And Sten came back to immediacy. Those Gurkhas the Emperor hadn’t taken with him on the Normandie should have been patrolling the corridors. Instead there were Praetorians, all in full Guards combat dress.

  The realization was very late, as four of
the Praetorians snapped out of an alcove, willyguns leveled.

  ‘Lads,’ Alex started. ‘Ye’re makin’t a wee mistake.’

  And then Kai Hakone, in uniform, stepped out of the chamberlain’s office. He nodded politely to the two. ‘Captain Sten, you are under arrest.’

  Chapter Forty-Four

  NG 467H was a maelstrom of blinding light and howling interference that blanked the two fleets hanging in the white shadow of the spinning neutron star.

  The Normandie and the Tahn battleships were motionless in their orbits, support and escort ships patterning around them. Since the pulsar eliminated conventional navigational methods, the ships maneuvered using computer-probability screens, computers that were normally used only for navigational instruction and simulated battles. Communication between ships was either by probe ship or by unmanned message-carrying torpedoes.

  Pilots, whether Tahn or Imperial, were of course well-skilled in instruments-only conditions, but so near NG 467H, most instruments were equally useless. So, using known (by computer projection) locations, cruisers eased around the bloated hulks of the Normandie and the Tahn ship, hoping none of the Big Ugly Clots had altered their orbits, and the destroyers and probe ships ran infinitely variable patrols using a central plotting point cross-triangulated from the three nearest stars, and crossed fingers.

  The vicinity of NG 467H was the ultimate whiteout, and the two leviathans and their pilot fish and remoras were as blind as if at the bottom of a deep.

  BOOK FIVE

  THE RED MASS

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Sten lay on his bunk, running progs.

  After their arrest, Alex had been frog-marched away to join the Gurkhas in their dungeon. However, to his initial surprise, Sten was merely ordered to his quarters. But after analysis, the move seemed to make sense – at least sense from Hakone’s point of view.

  Hakone was obviously thinking beyond the obvious next moves.

  Nevertheless, having been involved in more than a few coups d’etat, Sten thought Hakone had his head up. If he were Kai Hakone, he would have ordered Sten, Kilgour, and the Gurkhas shot instantly, and worried about explanations later.

  Sten may have been sent to his quarters, like any officer ordered under Imperial hack, but Sten’s room had been fine-combed for weaponry and three armed former Praetorians had been stationed outside. Sten’s only real weapon was the knife in his arm, which had gone undiscovered.

  Sten was somewhat uncomfortably coming to the conclusion that he was gong to die rather quickly. He’d already checked his layered maps of the castle, but the nearest chamber that accessed the wall passages and tunnels was some fifty meters away.

  Sten didn’t even consider the window, assuming that Hakone would have a couple of hidden sharpshooters on the ground below ready for Sten to try that exit.

  Keep thinking, Sten. Assume, for the sake of stupidity, that you can go out the door, immobilize three guards, and then get into the palace’s guts.

  Ho-kay.

  Then you head for the radio room, the room with the sole link to the Normandie. Further assume that you have time to broadcast a warning to the Emperor; that your broadcast gets through to the ship; and that the call isn’t fielded by Ledoh.

  Clottin’ unlikely again.

  But assume it, lad. Assume it. Then what happens?

  What happens then is Hakone kills you. Then the Emperor comes back (hopefully), retakes his own palace, and, if that happens, gives you some sort of medal.

  A very big medal.

  Sten had never wanted the Galactic Cross. Especially posthumously.

  He dragged his mind back. Hell with it, man. You can’t even get out of your room yet.

  A fist thundered against his door, and Sten rolled to his feet.

  ‘Back against the far wall, directly in line with the doorway.’

  Sten obeyed.

  ‘Are you against the wall?’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘This door is opening. If you are not immediately visible, I have an unpinned grenade ready.’

  The door opened, and there stood a man he was already considering his chief warden, grenade ready. The other two guards stood slightly behind him, willyguns up.

  And behind them was Kai Hakone.

  Sten stayed motionless as the guards came in and flanked him, carefully staying meters to either side, as Hakone paced into the room.

  ‘Captain Sten, a word?’

  Sten grinned – a lot he had to say in the matter. ‘Outside. As an officer in the Guard, will you give me your parole?’

  Sten considered lying, then discarded it. He still had a job, and being inside the palace made its accomplishment slightly more possible. ‘No.’

  ‘I thought not.’ Hakone beckoned, and four other guards came into the room. ‘But I still would like to discuss matters with you.’

  Sten had a fairly good idea that, if the Emperor survived and returned, he would have a major case of the hips. His gardens were being busily dug up and entrenched or sited for ground-to-air missile launchers by Praetorians. Hakone seemed to notice none of the activity as he walked beside Sten.

  The seven Praetorians held diamond-formation around Sten, their weapons leveled and aimed.

  These also Hakone ignored. He was, like any thinker-turned-activist, in the middle of a near-compulsive explanation. ‘It would have been simpler if Phase One had been successful.’

  Sten, equally compulsive an intelligence officer, wanted more information.

  ‘Phase One, Sr. Hakone? I don’t have all the pieces. You were intending the bomb to stun the Emperor, correct? He was then to be hustled to Soward Hospital, where Knox would take over the case.

  ‘What would that have given you?’

  ‘The Emperor traditionally withdraws from the public after Empire Day for a rest. One, perhaps two weeks. During that time he would have been reconditioned.’

  ‘To follow whose orders?’

  ‘Ledoh and others of us who recognize that the Empire must be redirected to its proper course.’

  ‘But now you’re going to kill him.’

  ‘Necessity is a harsh master.’

  Sten mentally winced – Hakone couldn’t really think in those clichés.

  ‘So he dies. Why did you take over the palace?’

  ‘Once the Emperor is dead, and with us holding the center of all Imperial communications, no false information will be broadcast.’

  ‘Like who really did it?’

  Hakone smiled and didn’t bother answering.

  ‘By the way, Hakone, if you don’t mind my saying, who is going to be your judas goat?’

  ‘The Tahn, of course.’

  ‘Don’t you think that those delegates might have their own story? And be listened to?’

  ‘Not if they’re equally deceased.’

  Sten’s poker face melted. ‘You’re talking war.’

  ‘Exactly, Captain. With a war starting, who will be interested in a postmortem? And a war is what this Empire needs to melt the fat away. That would also settle the Tahn question.’

  ‘When is this going to happen?’

  ‘We have no exact timetable. The Praetorians and I were supposed to take the palace three days from now. Your discovery of the Zaarah Wahrid forced us into premature motion. The actual termination of the Emperor will be decided by Admiral Ledoh.’

  ‘You really think this committee, or whatever you’re calling it, could run the Empire?’

  ‘Why not? Twenty minds are obviously superior to one, aren’t

  they?’ Sten could have answered by stating the obvious – no, because any junta becomes an exercise in backstabbing as each leader tries to take out the others. Instead he went in another way.

  ‘Twenty minds don’t know the secret of AM2.’

  ‘Captain, you really believe that drivel?’

  Drivel, hell – Sten had spent enough time around the Emperor to realize the man had that ace up his sleeve.

  ‘There
is no way I can believe that one man – one mortal man – controls AM2. That the answer is nowhere in his files.’

  They continued to walk, Sten maintaining silence, waiting for the offer.

  It came.

  ‘The reason I wanted to talk to you privately,’ Hakone finally continued, ‘is that after the … event, there will probably be a certain amount of resettlement. You could be of service.’

  ‘To you personally, or to your committee?’

  ‘Well, of course, for us all. But I would want you to report to me.’

  Sten didn’t let himself smile. Already Hakone was figuring on having his own people to guard his back. The man didn’t even believe his own theories. ‘What would be my new job description?’

  ‘You would be allowed to maintain your present position. But I – I mean we – would have you detached for special assignments in the intelligence area.’

  ‘You’re forgetting I swore an oath. To the Emperor.’

  ‘If the Emperor no longer existed, would that oath be valid?’

  ‘Suppose I say no?’

  Hakone started to beam, then studied Sten closely. ‘Are you lying to me, Captain?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Hakone’s smile was subtly different as he beckoned to the guards.

  ‘You are a careful man, Captain. Let us leave things as they are. You are restricted to your room until notified otherwise. After the Emperor’s death, perhaps we should rehold this conversation.’

  Sten bowed politely, then followed the guards back toward his quarters. He was not interested in Hakone at the moment; he’d figured a way out of his confinement – and a way that gave him almost a 10 per cent chance of surviving the ensuing debacle.

  That was better odds than was normal for Mantis.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Lord Kirghiz ignored the grumblings of his fellow Tahn lords, fitted himself into the lighter’s bare-frame jumpseat, and buckled in. After getting Kirghiz’s curt nod, the co-pilot hissed orders to the pilot, and the lighter broke lock with the Tahn battleship and arched toward the Normandie.