Sedmamin said in a voice tinged with desperation, “I didn’t know about this part of it, Antar. The Chron part. You must realize that.”
Wait, Antar? Sedmamin had called Mauronet by his first name. They knew each other?
Lanar must have been as taken aback as I was, but he said, “It’s true. He wasn’t responsible for any of this. He’s here on the orders of Fleet Command, assisting us in a reconnaissance mission.”
“Fleet Command,” Mauronet snorted, walking a little closer to Sedmamin. Jahelia followed him with her weapon. “Regina Holles, I suppose you mean. You know what this looks like to me, Admiral? It looks like maybe I wasn’t the only one who put my trust in the wrong place.”
Lanar shot a glance at Sedmamin, but his face revealed nothing. “I don’t know what you mean, Mauronet.”
“I could take him out,” I heard Jahelia whisper, just barely loud enough to be heard. I was sure Lanar caught it, but Mauronet probably did, too. If so, he ignored it.
Lanar shook his head minutely but didn’t look her way.
“PrimeCorp screwed us both over, Antar,” Sedmamin said. “They were dealing with the Chron behind our backs.”
Mauronet spat on the concrete floor. “I figured that out when the PrimeCorp ship came out of the wormhole with two Chron. And messaged me to help them! After all the risks I took—”
Lanar twitched as if something physical had hit him. “You. You were the mole in the Protectorate,” he said in a flat voice. “The one who was leaking information to PrimeCorp.”
“He thought what many in Nearspace think,” Sedmamin said. “That the Worlds Council is ineffective and doesn’t get things done, and that if PrimeCorp was in control of Nearspace it would be better for everyone.”
“But you didn’t know they were in league with the Chron,” Lanar said.
“Shut up, traitor,” Mauronet told Sedmamin in a growl. “I should shoot you right now.”
“I did not know about the Chron,” Sedmamin said slowly. “I’m here trying to help stop this.”
Lanar had recovered his equilibrium. He spoke to Mauronet in an artificially friendly voice. “Look, Mauronet, we don’t like each other very much, but we’re both loyal to Nearspace. Let’s concentrate on getting back there in one piece and then we can sort out all the rest. Were any of your crew wounded? We saw blood in the outer room.”
“No-one was wounded but the PrimeCorp traitors,” Mauronet snarled. But he wouldn’t be so easily distracted. “And why should I believe you? You’re not even in uniform. Sneaking around with that sister of yours, just one step short of a criminal. Maybe not even a step.”
Lanar tensed at that, but kept his head. He and I—and Jahelia—might heal quickly, but we could still be killed if Mauronet decided to shoot. And Sedmamin was the most vulnerable. Our best chance was to keep Mauronet talking.
“You’ll have to prove that,” I said, to give Lanar time to think, “or I’ll see you in court back in Nearspace. That sounds like slander to me.”
Mauronet didn’t have a chance to respond because the right-hand door in the back wall opened and two Protectorate officers, a man and a Vilisian woman, emerged and closed the door behind them. At this distance, I couldn’t see their starburst pins well enough to determine their rank, but they took only a few steps toward Mauronet until they followed his gaze and saw us.
“I’d stop right about there,” Jahelia said. “Your Admiral is having a chat with our Admiral, and it’s all nice and cozy so far.”
“Admiral?” one of them said uncertainly.
“Are the prisoners secure?” Mauronet barked at them.
“Yes, sir,” the woman answered. “But the injured one needs medical assistance. We heard voices and thought the ship—”
They must be waiting to hear from the Dorland the same way we were waiting to hear from the Tane Ikai. I wondered if the two ships had possibly encountered each other, and felt suddenly glad I’d left Yuskeya on board. At least we had a Protectorate presence up there.
“Not yet,” Mauronet snapped. “Get back in there with the prisoners. I can manage out here.”
The male officer looked askance at the four of us, two obviously armed, and then at Mauronet. He was severely overmatched if we chose to make this violent, and they could see it. Then he looked sharply at Lanar. “Admiral Mahane?”
“Commander Yu, isn’t it?” Lanar returned.
“Yes, sir! Good to see you, sir!” He stared at Lanar now as if he were trying to convey a very important silent message.
“Admiral Mauronet, will the Admiral and his companions be making camp with us while we wait for the Dorland?” he asked carefully.
“What?” Mauronet seemed about to explode, then went suddenly quiet. “Yes, of course, Commander. You’re quite right. They should stay here until the Dorland arrives.”
“We’re just waiting for my ship as well,” I said, “but they’ve been out of communication. I’m starting to wonder if signals off or to the planet are being blocked. Could we question your prisoners about that? They may know if it’s a security measure.”
Mauronet’s face became crafty. “I’m afraid I can’t allow civilians to interact with the prisoners,” he said, “but I will see what they have to say about this.” He pointed at Sedmamin. “Alin. Come with me.”
Sedmamin spluttered. Mauronet waggled the gun at him.
“Go ahead,” Lanar told him. “The Admiral is not going to harm you.”
“No,” Mauronet said, “We’re old friends, Alin and I. Commander Yu, Lieutenant Merlian, stay with our visitors until I return. They’re not to leave,” he said sternly. Motioning Sedmamin ahead of him, he kept one eye on us as they moved toward the door at the back where the other officers had emerged. Sedmamin opened the door and passed through, but Mauronet paused. “Oh, stand down,” he told Jahelia in an exasperated voice. “My officers aren’t going to harm you.” Then he turned and followed Sedmamin out of sight. The door closed behind them.
Immediately, Yu strode over to Lanar and said urgently, “Admiral Mahane, I need to lodge a formal report concerning Admiral Mauronet.”
Lanar held up a hand. “Commander, I think perhaps it’s not necessary. Has he been like this for long?”
“Ever since we encountered those ships that came through the Split—the Chron and the PrimeCorp corvette. We followed the last Chron ship through to this system, and took it out. Then the Admiral discovered we couldn’t activate the wormhole back to Nearspace with our skip drive,” the Vilisian officer said rapidly in a low voice. “At first he acted as if the Engineering crew were to blame for that—like they had sabotaged the drive or were lying about it not working. I managed to talk him down. Then he ordered thorough scans of this planet. He was convinced the Chron must have a base here. Eventually we noticed movement in this area. He sent the Commander off to look for other wormholes while he brought a dozen of us down here with him to investigate.”
“You have a ship down here?” Lanar asked.
The Vilisian officer, Merlian, nodded. “A shuttle, about a mile west. Five crew still there, five in back with the techs, and the two of us.”
“We came from the opposite direction,” I said. “Did you encounter security drones?”
Yu nodded. “We took down two of them. But the actual security here wasn’t very tight. We pretty much just walked into the base. No real security forces, only technicians. There was a scuffle, but they weren’t prepared to put up much of a fight.”
“And not very many of them,” Merlian added. “Only seven. The techs say the operation here is being phased out.”
“You mentioned an injured technician—how bad is it?” I asked. If Yuskeya were nearby, or a medic from the Dorland, they could treat it.
Yu and Merlian glanced at each other. “There are actually several injured, but the worst—the admiral shot him in the leg,” Yu said. “The man was unarmed. Mauronet admitted he did it more to get everyone’s attention than anything else. He’s�
��he’s really not himself.”
And that was enough for a court-martial, I thought. I glanced at Lanar and caught his eye, and an unspoken acknowledgment passed between us. Suddenly, this had turned into a rescue mission. We had to get ourselves, Mauronet’s crew, and his “prisoners” out of here in one piece.
Chapter 23 – Lanar
Duty and Honour
IT WAS TEMPTING to get Luta and the others out of the base while Mauronet was in the back with his “prisoners.” The man had obviously suffered a break with reality. Fortunately, Yu and Merlian recognized the situation for what it was—otherwise it might have been easy for Mauronet to sow doubt in the minds of some about my peculiar circumstances.
But I didn’t feel right leaving Sedmamin, and I doubted Luta would agree to do that. She’d made promises, and she wouldn’t abandon them. I also didn’t want Mauronet to come after us—we were still stranded until the Tane Ikai showed up. And if I needed another reason, I had a duty not to abandon Mauronet’s crew if their commanding officer had become unreliable.
So, before Mauronet could return, I turned to Luta and Jahelia. “I have to help out here.”
“That guy’s gone freneza,” Jahelia said bluntly, retrieving Pita from the computer console. “I don’t trust him for a second. We should get out of here while we can.”
“No, Lanar’s right,” Luta said. “I can’t abandon Sedmamin, and if Mauronet’s gone over the edge, we can’t leave his crew and those technicians. We have to help them get control of the Dorland.”
Yu looked uncomfortable. “This sounds like mutiny.”
I shook my head. “Mauronet’s judgement is impaired. It isn’t mutiny to remove an officer who’s become unfit for duty.”
We stood in uncomfortable silence for a moment. Yu and Merlian shared a glance. “Sir,” Yu said finally, “something else. Admiral Mauronet ordered the destruction of that PrimeCorp corvette. We were both on the bridge at that time.”
I nodded. “It was attacking our ships. You did nothing wrong in carrying out his orders.”
“But you had asked him not to do that.”
“I wanted to disable it and question the crew,” I confirmed. “But I’m not your Admiral’s commanding officer. It was his call.”
Merlian appeared to come to a decision. “He received a very strange message from that ship, Admiral, before he ordered us to go after it. It made him very angry. He muttered something about being ‘betrayed after all I’ve done for them.’ We didn’t understand it, but we didn’t question.” She looked down at her hands. “Perhaps we should have.”
I couldn’t berate them for following orders like good Protectorate officers, but this only confirmed Mauronet’s involvement with PrimeCorp. “Well, all we can do now is face this head-on. We should go and speak with the Admiral—and it would be a good idea if your crew mates in the back were present as well.”
“More witnesses,” Jahelia agreed with a lupine grin.
At that moment, the lights winked out and an alarm klaxon began to wail. The lights blinked back on, but now they were red. Almost as one, we ran for the door through which Mauronet had taken Sedmamin.
The room beyond was large, housing multiple computer consoles and work stations. A long bench covered with electronics stood against the back wall. The room was crowded, with three Protectorate officers and four others I assumed must be some of the PrimeCorp technicians packed into the small space. One woman had an arm in a makeshift sling and was shouting something at one of the officers, and a man tugged and pounded at a door on the left-hand wall. Almost everyone was yelling. Mauronet and Sedmamin were not in the room.
“Atenton!” I commanded, and the Protectorate officers focused on me. “Where are the others?”
The officer at whom the injured woman had been shouting saluted me and said, “Admiral. Two officers and two prisoners downstairs in the living quarters. Admiral Mauronet and a man who looked like Alin Sedmamin took another tech and went into the control room.” He gestured over his shoulder to the door the technician was trying to open, then pointed to the angry woman. “She says we should evacuate. The alarm—”
The woman cut him off. “That alarm means a self-destruct sequence has been started,” she said. Her eyes flicked over me. She didn’t look impressed. “If you’re really Protectorate, you need to make them listen. We really don’t have much time.”
IT DIDN’T SURPRISE me that PrimeCorp would make plans to cover their tracks by destroying the evidence. If the woman was telling the truth, we needed to get out of here quickly.
“Luta, you and this officer get everyone from downstairs,” I said. They nodded and moved toward an open door on the right-hand wall. Steps led down to a lower floor. “Jahelia—”
“I’ll get that other door open,” she said, and without waiting, pushed past the bodies in her way, shoving the frantic technician away from the door. Foregoing the plasma rifle, for which I was glad, she pulled a smaller weapon from a pocket in her jacket.
I turned my attention back to the woman. “Can you stop it?”
“If I can get in there, maybe,” she said, pointing to the door Jahelia was planning to open. “Maybe not.”
“All right. You’re with me. Commander Yu, get the rest of these people out of here,” I told him. “Head east, there are ruins that might provide some shelter.” Without waiting for his reply, I followed Jahelia. If he was behind that door, I wanted Mauronet. The klaxon continued to blare.
Jahelia aimed at the door handle and turned her head away. I put a hand up to shield my eyes, and the weapon spat a gout of energy. Jahelia lifted one booted foot and kicked the door, hard. Metal squealed and bent. The door flew open.
The room beyond was smallish, holding only a traditional desk and a corner computer console. Other than that, it was empty. Another door in the back corner was closed.
“Fek,” Jahelia swore. She blasted the door, but it was tougher than the one she’d just kicked in. Likely it led to the outside, although there must be at least a short tunnel into the mountain to reach it.
The female technician had followed us in and bent over the console. Her fingers skidded over the screen, and she swore under her breath. After a moment, she stood back. “It’s locked down,” she said. “I can’t stop it. I bought us some extra time, but we have to move.”
“How much time?”
She chewed her lip. “Maybe fifteen minutes.”
Behind us, Lieutenant Merlian called, “Admiral, we have everyone upstairs and heading out.”
Jahelia aimed another shot at the door, to no more effect than the first.
“Leave it,” I told her, putting a hand on her arm. “We’ll get them outside.”
She glared at me for an instant, then relented. “All right, let’s go.”
The nameless technician had already left the room, hurrying past the derelict Chron ship toward the large entry doors. Everyone else had gained the outer room. I caught up to the woman and asked over the strident call of the alarm, “Is there a comm shield over this area? We haven’t been able to reach our ship—”
She was already nodding. “I’ll shut it off at the door.” She glanced over her shoulder at the rooms we were leaving behind. “Bastardo. All my stuff is still back there. And all my work—”
The alarm continued to scream and we hurried on. Ahead of us, Luta and the others broke into the sunlight and turned east. Yu and another officer carried a man between them on their shoulders, the bandage around his leg evident. I felt a surge of rage at Mauronet. He had no business taking matters here into his own hands. I’d catch up to him. And when I did—
The woman ahead of us stopped outside the main doorway, at the keypad where Sedmamin had first put in his code. She punched numbers and turned to me. “That should take down the comm block,” she said, then went after the others.
A distant whine filled the air and I spun around, seeking the source. A blur of motion to the west side of the mountain caught my attention. A whe
eled vehicle much like the groundcar hurtled away from the base.
Jahelia heard it too, and saw what I saw. She squinted. “Three inside, I think. He took Sedmamin and the tech with him. Making for the Dorland’s shuttle?”
I didn’t answer, just turned and ran to where we’d left the groundcar from the Tane Ikai. Luta was there, helping the injured technician into a seat, but I called, “No, I need it! I’m going after Mauronet!”
Luta looked up, startled, then nodded. She and Yu helped the man out again.
“He’s headed for the Dorland’s shuttle, but the comm block should be down,” I told her. “Get the ship down here. Tell Yuskeya what happened. Maybe she can raise the Dorland and tell them about the Admiral. You get to the treeline and make for the ruins. Any cover you can find.”
Her green eyes were bright with worry. “What if it blows? You’ll be out in the open.”
“I don’t know what to expect. Just get to whatever protection you can find. I’m going to get Sedmamin.” And take down Mauronet, I thought, but didn’t say.
Luta read it anyway. Her eyes hardened. “Stay safe,” was all she said.
When I turned around, Jahelia was already in the groundcar. She raised her eyebrows as if to say, did you really expect anything else?
I hadn’t. At least she’d had the decency to let me drive.
THE GROUNDCAR JOUNCED crazily over the uneven terrain, engine roaring. It wasn’t made for high-speed, off-road pursuit. “Think he’ll make the shuttle before we catch him?” Jahelia asked. I didn’t have an answer for her. The PrimeCorp vehicle he’d commandeered seemed evenly matched with the groundcar for speed.
“I’m more worried about his crew and what they’ll do,” I said, letting the groundcar drift to the right a bit to avoid the worst of the dust trail Mauronet’s vehicle kicked up. “If he didn’t have Sedmamin I’d think seriously about letting him go and catching up to him later.”
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