Michael Anderle - [Heretic of the Federation 03]

by Time to Fear (epub)

  “This might be true, but they have Teloran friends, and those suckers are as sneaky as a girl going on a forbidden date.”

  “How is your daughter, by the way?”

  “Enjoying her time in boarding school and finally making something of the opportunities she’s been given.”

  “So, not much choice then.”

  His partner shook his head and smiled grimly. “No. Regime military schools are very strict and there aren’t any windows on an orbital.”

  The first man snickered. “Or anywhere to go if there were.”

  “Exactly.” His colleague took a coat from the rack near the door.

  “What did the boyfriend think of it?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. I had him apprehended as a suspected Talent.”

  His partner gaped. “And is he?”

  “It doesn’t matter. If he doesn’t pass the tests, they’ll terminate him, and if he does, he’ll be on a leash so tight he won’t ever come back. Either way, he’s out of her life.”

  “And his parents?”

  “They don’t know.”

  The first man shook his head. “That’s brutal.”

  The grim smile returned.

  “Perhaps, but it’s certainly effective.” He turned the handle cautiously and eased the door open slightly to make sure their exit was clear. “Enough chit-chat. It’s time to do what they’re paying us for.”

  Once he’d confirmed that the stairwell was empty, he opened the door fully. They both flinched as another transport rumbled overhead.

  “My, aren’t we busy boys tonight?” the second man murmured and stepped into the stairwell to track it as it passed over.

  “That’s a clan transport,” the first man stated as he moved beside him and noted the markers on the shuttle’s belly.

  “And it’s heading to the base.”

  His partner paled. “How close do you think we’ll have to get?”

  “Close enough.” From the sound of it, the second man didn’t like the idea, but he was the senior of the two and the one who’d bear the brunt of the Regime’s displeasure if they failed.

  His partner might survive, but he’d walk a very short, cold journey out an airlock and his family... It wasn’t a fate he wanted to face.

  “They’ll be patrolling,” he warned, “and the Regime needs that data.”

  “It looks like they’re gearing up for war,” his junior observed.

  “More fool them.” He signaled for quiet, and they pressed themselves into the stairwell’s shadows.

  Boots crunched in the street above. When the sound faded, he motioned for his partner to check the street and tapped his earpiece to indicate that they should go to clicks.

  The other man nodded and headed up the stairs. He remained low and slowed as he reached the top. When he’d checked that the street was clear, he gave two soft clicks with his tongue and darted across the road.

  His partner followed, and they hurried down a walkway between two walled houses. In the human quarter, wall-mounted cameras weren’t as much of a problem as the Dreth and Telorans patrolling the streets.

  As far as the two men were aware, every human in their neighborhood was loyal to the Regime. None of them would betray them.

  They moved swiftly and paused at the end of the walkway to check for another patrol. Seeing none, they walked closer to the base, careful to remain at a pace that wouldn’t raise suspicion.

  On the open street, they walked side by side and talked about their official day jobs as traders’ representatives—and the meal they would have at the base-side café. To all intents and purposes, they were merely two guys out for a quick meal after a late finish at work.

  Their chosen route brought them past the houses lining the edge of the base. Here, there were no walkways between each property, but there were unattended side gates—and humans loyal enough to the Regime to keep them unlocked.

  The two men made sure the street was clear and that the curtains on the houses alongside the road were closed. They also watched the lamp-mounted camera.

  They entered through the front gate, but they didn’t head directly to the side gate and instead moved toward the front door. As soon as the camera began its sweep the other way, they changed direction and vanished rapidly through the gate.

  For all intents and purposes, they had knocked and been allowed inside. The house remained silent with its windows lit but no movement beyond their curtains. The two men didn’t stop or slow but vaulted the back fence using a conveniently placed rock.

  Who knew landscaping could be so useful?

  Crouched in the fence’s shadow, they listened cautiously, then turned their attention to the base itself.

  “Is there a convention we don’t know about?” the junior partner asked and noted the markings of six different clans on a dozen different shuttles.

  “Not that I heard,” his colleague replied, “and these guys don’t usually work together. Look—you have Karnach and Echgrech shuttles side by side.”

  “But those two…” his partner began, but his words trailed off as he frowned in bemusement.

  “I know.” He tapped his junior’s shoulder and indicated two shuttles partially obscured by buildings. “We need to know who else is here.”

  The man licked his lips nervously. “What’s your plan?”

  “We get footage of this meeting, all the shuttles, and maybe some of the leaders if they’re around, and then we call it in.”

  “Gotcha.”

  They studied the field and their options for a better view. When the senior partner indicated for them to go left, his colleague nodded.

  Their path took them across a road leading to the patrol road around the base’s perimeter and they crossed it warily. They were careful to avoid the cameras as they sought shelter behind an outcrop of rock and some branches thrown over a back fence.

  Stopping to film as they went meant it took almost a full Dreth hour for them to reach a point where they could see the half-hidden shuttles.

  “Is that…Meligornian make?”

  “Yeah…but it’s probably a left-over from the last conflict.”

  “Or mercs.”

  “It could be that. Either way, it’s time to report it.”

  They turned to head back and froze when they stared down the barrels of several very large guns. The Dreth holding them were even bigger.

  When they saw they had the two humans’ attention, the warriors smiled and their ivory tusks gleamed. The smiles were less of a welcome and more pure satisfaction at having found their prey.

  “But how—” the junior spy whispered as the warriors parted so they could see the dark glitter of a portal and the gray-robed Teloran standing before it.

  “Hello, spies.”

  John threw himself into a roll and cleared Lars’ boot by a scant few inches. Instead of landing, the young Talent created a platform for himself and elevated. Vishlog’s hand barely missed his ankle, and he took a moment to catch his breath in relief.

  He looked at the woman who floated in the room’s center and sweat beaded on his forehead.

  “I told you,” she said. “Your limitation is your imagination.” She waved a hand peremptorily. “Now stop limiting yourself.”

  The platform vanished from beneath him and he plummeted toward a grinning Dreth. Vishlog raised his fist, and John wished he had wings.

  “Wishing it and creating it are two different things,” Stephanie remarked as the boy fell onto the Dreth’s fist and folded before the warrior turned him over and thrust him toward the floor.

  At the last moment, a portal opened under his feet and let the mage in training slide through.

  John might have laughed if he wasn’t trying to catch his breath and focus on opening a portal on the other side of the gym. That part worked well. What he didn’t account for was Vishlog diving through it after him.

  Or the portal opening five feet above the floor, or having half a ton of Dreth warrior la
nd on top of him as he tried to regain his feet.

  “Now, blast him off you,” Stephanie instructed.

  “Wha—” John mumbled as the Dreth’s fist collided with his face.

  Two Stephanies floated beside him when he woke, and the way they drifted into and out of each other didn’t help with the nausea.

  “Ow.” He scowled and tried to make her come into focus.

  “Next time, don’t stop to ask stupid questions,” the two of her chorused. “Do as you’re told.”

  “It’s easy for you to say,” he muttered. “You didn’t just have—”

  The words stopped like someone had put a hand over his mouth. His eyes widened as he felt for his lips and found nothing.

  Frog started to snicker but stopped abruptly as she turned her head toward him. He raised both hands and backed away, and Stephanie looked at the young Talent again.

  The pressure eased and he gasped. “Let’s not—” he began and caught the slight smile playing over her lips.

  He scrambled to his feet and backed away.

  Her expression settled into once of concentration.

  “Let’s take it from the top, shall we?”

  John didn’t bother to look. He simply created another portal, stepped through it, and closed it immediately. This time, he came through the wall on the opposite side of the gym.

  Stephanie floated to where he stood and watched the three guards approach while he tried to work out what to do next.

  “This isn’t how you won the last two fights, is it?” she asked and added, “You can’t hurt them, you know.”

  Lars’ single epithet showed he wasn’t happy with her advice, but Frog didn’t waste time with words. He merely drew both pistols and opened fire.

  John laughed, put a shield up, and deflected the rounds with one hand while he fired a burst of lightning with the other. At the same time, he conjured a platform of light beneath his feet and floated himself over the other man’s head.

  “Sonuva—” the team leader’s epithet cut short as he fired into the platform—which was when the boy learned it had no shielding value.

  The first round tore through his thigh, and he gasped with pain, lost concentration, and fell as the platform vanished out from under him.

  “Stabilize!” Stephanie shouted, and he swept a coating of blue around himself to stop his fall and shield himself with one swift gesture.

  Lars drove into the other side of it, but he was the least of John’s problems. His leg was bleeding and dizziness threatened to pull him into the nothing of unconsciousness. Ignoring the way the security guard pushed him across the gym toward Frog and Vishlog, he held a hand over the injury.

  By the time the pain had eased, the three guards had begun to beat on the outside of the shield and his eMU was running low. Wondering how that worked in the virtual, he used what he had left to send a pulse through the shield.

  It catapulted his three opponents away, and he wasted no time in following up his advantage. He dealt with Lars first and returned the favor when he used the last charge in his blaster to fire two quick bursts into his chest and head as the guard rolled to his feet.

  “Well, f—” the man muttered as he disappeared.

  John chuckled and pivoted to redirect his fire at Vishlog as the Dreth charged. The empty click as he pulled the trigger let him know he was carrying little more than a club and he threw the weapon aside.

  Movement alerted him that Frog was closing too. He backed away as he delivered bursts of eMU toward each of his opponents as he tried to work out what to do next.

  “Portal them!” Stephanie shouted, and he didn’t hesitate.

  He raised one portal in front of Frog and spun to create a second in front of Vishlog. Negative emotion washed over him, but he pulled more eMU from the gym and used it to power a third portal, a shared exit high in the center of the training area.

  Stephanie snickered as the two collided and began to fall.

  John didn’t wait to see which of them would attack when they landed. Anger swirled through him, and he launched two clusters of balled lightning at their descending forms.

  When he reached for more eMU, he found he was out. Vishlog managed to twist in the air and balled himself to fall below the lightning. It impacted harmlessly on the ceiling as the Dreth’s landing vibrated through his feet.

  With an angry roar, the warrior unslung his blaster and swung the muzzle toward him. Time slowed as Frog’s limp body thumped into the mats behind the Dreth and the blaster aligned.

  Instinctively, the boy reached for the largest cluster of energy he could sense, threw another shield up, and sent a flurry of blue shards laced with black to swirl around the Dreth. Dark satisfaction rolled through him as Vishlog vanished in a lightning-filled maelstrom.

  Stephanie’s eyes widened. “I told you! Don’t mix those!”

  He began to turn toward her and screamed as he was shredded from within. She opened a portal and had taken a few steps toward it when the training room exploded in a firestorm of blue, purple, and black energy. Darkness and flames filled the space it had occupied and thundered outward, engulfing the portal and exploding a second time.

  John landed on the white room floor and wrapped his arms around his middle as if he could hold himself together. Curled into a ball, he groaned.

  Vishlog looked at Lars, and the chief security guard shrugged. They both looked at Frog, who gave them a “search me” gesture, and they all focused on the young trainee again as he whimpered and tried to draw himself into a tighter curl.

  “He killed you, right?” the team leader asked, looking at Vishlog, and the big Dreth nodded.

  “He killed me too,” Frog added.

  “And me,” Lars said, “so I don’t get it. Why—”

  Stephanie appeared and landed on her knees with a gasp before she pushed to her feet with a frustrated shout. “Of all the stupid, self-defeating, dead-headed, tark-brained—”

  She broke off when she realized her three guards were staring at her and seemed utterly confused.

  “Dr. Oblivious, here,” she snapped and nudged John with the smoking toe of one boot, “mixed nMU and eMU and MU simultaneously!”

  The boy groaned and remained curled as if that would stop the pain.

  Frog snickered. “He even took you out, huh?”

  Stephanie glared at him, then sighed. “Mental note: Don’t give children a red button that says, ‘Only Push When Excited.’”

  “Oh, God,” John moaned. “A little help, please? Aren’t we supposed to get healed once we’re here?”

  She nudged him with her boot, and he whimpered.

  “I’m letting you feel your stupidity,” she told him, “so you know never to do this again.”

  He flinched away from her foot and opened his mouth to say he got it, but the AI cut across him.

  “Time to exit the simulation for real-life integration,” it said as the white room faded.

  Chapter Twelve

  As he watched the Navy destroyer live up to its name, David Thomason smiled. Even if his Marines and commandos had missed someone, surviving that barrage would have been impossible.

  Buildings melted to slag and mine entrances ran red with molten rock. The ground burned and bled, and organics flared into brief flame before they sank into a sea of red.

  “Good,” he acknowledged and flicked to another screen. He scrolled through the reports from the different units involved in the attack and nodded. “Is there anything else?”

  The man waiting on his third screen exhaled a breath of relief and took another. “It will take the Dreth a while to discover the loss, although we’ve timed it so we have a week to clear the system before the next ore carrier arrives.”

  “A week?”

  “Any sooner and the carrier would have been in-system before we’d exited, and that would have meant them seeing Regime ships on the system’s edge.”

  “So? We could have told them we’d only just arrived.”
/>
  “We could,” the admiral conceded, “but our ion trails wouldn’t have dissipated, and they’d have worked it out before we could have executed the next phase.”

  For a moment, David considered executing the admiral, then he decided he could do without the instability that would cause.

  “And?” he asked and decided not to challenge the man on the time they’d lost by having to wait.

  “We have to get the ships to where you’d like them to be, sir. I assume you have something specific in mind.”

  “Do they know the kind of numbers they face?” the CIO asked, and Admiral Deverey shook his head.

  “We’ve never let them get an accurate count. I doubt they even know how many ships we have in their sector. Orders are for the fleets to keep moving and breaking into squadrons to patrol the six systems.”

  He nodded in satisfaction. “Very good,” he noted. “Very, very good. They can’t prepare for what they don’t know is coming.”

  “Exactly, sir,” the other man agreed.

  “And we have enough ships in place to prevent Meligorn from coming to their aid?”

  “More than enough, sir. If they so much as shift a scout in our direction, we can eliminate their border fleet before they know what’s hit them.”

  David raised an eyebrow in interest. “And follow it up?”

  “Not once they call their auxiliaries in from their colonial estates, which could be in position before we reached the homeworld. Not without calling in half the fleet from Earth.”

  “Only half?” he asked, and Deverey frowned.

  “That would depend on how many we lost in the initial battle.”

  “I’ll bear that in mind. Now, regarding Dreth…”

  The admiral straightened, his face expressionless. “Our in-system number is sufficient to take the planet, but they still have ships on patrol and guarding their outpost worlds.”

  “All of which would take time to recall,” David pointed out.

  “Also bear in mind that we have yet to account for all the pirate fleets.”

  His face darkened and Deverey held his breath, glad he was on the other side of a screen and not within easy shooting range—not that it would stop his revered CIO.