Conviction (Scattered Stars: Conviction Book 1)

by Glynn Stewart

  The final connections latched on as the Marine shuttle was supposed to arrive. They were late, which was the last thing she’d expected.

  “RRM Shuttle K-Two Seven Six, what is your status?” she transmitted, attempting to locate the spacecraft.

  “Apologies, Memorial Actual,” the shuttle pilot told her. “We picked up a life sign on a weird vector and no one else was in position for pickup. A detour seemed justified.”

  “Fair enough, K-Two Seven Six,” she conceded. “New ETA?”

  “Forty-two seconds and counting,” the shuttle pilot replied. “And we just IDed the bogey we pulled aboard, Commander. Looks like a Hoplite-IV ejector seat. I’m pretty sure the relieved idiot waving at my cameras is yours.”

  Kira exhaled like she’d been punched in the gut.

  “You picked up Hoffman?” she asked.

  “I’ll have Gunny ask his name once she’s done cutting him out,” the pilot replied. “But last I heard, you’d only lost one pilot, so I’m guessing.”

  “Thank you, Two Seven Six,” she said. “What’s your name, pilot? I owe you and your entire crew beers when we’re back in Redward.”

  “Lieutenant Brynhildur Ó Foghladha,” the woman replied. “Part of the service, sir, but we’re not going to turn down free beer, either.”

  “I make it twenty seconds to contact, Lieutenant Ó Foghladha,” Kira told her. “They’re supposed to be waiting for you unarmed, but move as quickly as you can. We’re keeping the area clean, but I’ll be happier when we can get this chunk of metal moving out of the debris zone.”

  None of her pilots were even consciously involved in that process. The fighters’ guns had a lot of flexibility and were currently using all of it, rotating them around to hit any chunks of debris approaching the station with minimum-energy shots.

  “Oorah, Commander. Gunny’s got it in hand.”

  49

  It was over eight hours after they started towing the fabricator station out of the debris field—and over ten since they’d initially launched to sortie against the Clan base—when Kira finally shepherded her fighters home.

  There were no manual landings today. Last Denial and the combat-capable destroyers hovered over the carriers and the damaged ships like angry eagles protecting a barely hatched chick.

  Today had been both the worst losses ever suffered by the Redward Royal Fleet and said Fleet’s greatest single victory. There’d be stories told about today, Kira was sure.

  She was also grimly certain that the role of the mercenary destroyers and nova fighters would be talked down in those stories. Give it ten years and the mercs would barely be mentioned. Thirty, and they’d be a footnote in the history-book list of ships present at the battle.

  Today, however, she knew what her contract and Conviction’s contract said for payouts for this mission. She trusted Redward to pay their obligations—and those obligations were huge.

  If she was lucky, they’d even let her buy a class two nova drive from the new line. She could fabricate all of the other parts to replace Hoffman’s fighter, but they hadn’t succeeded in retrieving the nova drives this time.

  Two of the fighters they’d lost today were gone forever, with no way for Conviction to replace them. Kira now fully understood how the carrier had gone from over thirty nova fighters to eight.

  With only eleven other fighters on the transfer pads, the retrieval bay felt disturbingly empty as she dropped out and looked around. The only other vessel present was what looked like a Redward Royal Marines assault shuttle.

  She’d barely registered the shuttle before Hoffman was there, wrapping her in a bear-armed embrace.

  “Gods above and below, I thought I was a goner,” he told her.

  “We thought you were gone,” she replied. “We never found your fighter, even.”

  “Power core overload,” he said grimly. “She was breaking up even as I spun out, and there was nothing I could do but eject and hope I got clear. It stayed intact long enough that I didn’t see her go, but it was a matter of minutes, not hours, sir.”

  Kira saw Patel drop out of his fighter, the younger man staring at Hoffman like he wasn’t sure the pilot was real.

  “Get over here, Dinesh,” she told him, stepping back to allow the two lovers to embrace. “Someone was listening to our prayers,” she told both men. “The Marines picked you up in passing on the way to grab the contractors. You okay?”

  “A bit flash-frozen around the edges, but the ejection pod worked perfectly,” Hoffman told her. He hadn’t let go of Patel yet—but it didn’t look like Patel was planning on letting go of him, either. “Kept me warm and breathing. We might want to check the beacons on the other ships. I was fixing it when Two-Seven-Six found me, but it didn’t work when I told it to.”

  Apollo’s education program for the pilot academy included enough secondary courses to be generally accepted as both an electrical and spaceframe engineering degree and an electrician’s apprenticeship. Kira had very few fond memories of the academy, but she admitted that it left her pilots able to rewire most of the things in their fighters that weren’t molecular circuitry.

  “We’ll have Waldroup triple-check them all,” she promised. She glanced past Hoffman to the assault shuttle. “We still have Marines aboard?”

  “Helping McCaig secure our not-quite-guests,” the deck boss’s voice told her. Kira glanced up to see Waldroup emerge from behind a moving array of tools. “I caught the word on the beacons.”

  She grimaced.

  “Fuck checking them,” she concluded. “That’s a tiny piece that we can’t afford to fail. I’ll replace them all.”

  “Agreed,” Kira allowed, looking around the retrieval deck. “Need anything from me, Waldroup?” she asked. “Because I don’t think there’s a pilot that just came aboard that should be going anywhere except a shower and a bed, hopefully in that order.”

  Most of her people were on their way to their quarters in a familiar exhausted shuffle.

  “I don’t, but I think the Captain was waiting for you to get aboard.”

  Kira got the chime from Estanza in the middle of the deck boss’s sentence and sighed. She checked.

  Report to the bridge as soon as you can.

  “Not much of one for detailed instructions, is he?” she asked rhetorically. “All right. Hoffman, Patel—get the hell off Waldroup’s deck.

  “Waldroup, check those emergency beacons and get at least four fighters prepped for relaunch.”

  “You’re not planning on launching anytime soon, are you?” she asked. “I don’t think there’s a bird on the deck that doesn’t need a six-hour run-through at least.”

  “And you’ll give them that,” Kira agreed. “After you crash-prep two Hoplites and two One-Fifteens for a security blanket. Get me?”

  “Security blanket sounds nice, gotta say,” Waldroup conceded. “Go see the Captain, boss. Deck is under control; your people are going to go fall over. Situation normal.”

  Kira snorted. She knew how that sentence usually ended.

  To Kira’s surprise, the bridge was actually guarded for the first time since she’d come aboard the mercenary carrier. Milani, distinctive as always in their red dragon armor, flanked one side of the door, with another armored grunt on the other side.

  “Do I need to show ID?” Kira asked dryly.

  “Nah, we’re just making sure our guests don’t get any ideas,” Milani replied. “You can go right on in, Commander.”

  “We’re letting them roam randomly?” Kira said.

  “Officially, they’re passengers,” the merc pointed out. “But no, not that I know of. But McCaig said guard the bridge, so here I am. For now, at least.”

  She snorted and gave the other guard a nod as she stepped onto the bridge.

  “Ah, Demirci, good,” Estanza greeted her. “Get up here.”

  She stepped up to stand next to his seat and saw that he was already on a visual call with several other officers, including Shang and Kim.


  “Commander Demirci, it’s good to see you,” the Vice Admiral acknowledged her. “I didn’t have time earlier to speak to you directly; but thank you. Your actions may have completely changed the course of this battle.”

  “None of us expected the bastard to blow the entire facility,” Captain McNee, a flat-faced and pale-skinned woman, noted harshly. “That’s a degree of sheer viciousness we don’t normally see from the Clans.”

  “Davies appears to have been unusual for the Clans,” Kim agreed. “The final count, people, is that we extracted sixty-two hundred and eighty-five people from the wreckage. Their friends and family aboard the hab stations are ecstatic to have them back but worried about what happens next.”

  She sighed.

  “The locals are now being extremely cooperative, which means we now know that there were just over eighteen thousand people working in the shipyard complex. Anthony Davies just murdered about twelve thousand people.

  “His people.”

  Kim shook her head.

  “Worse, we’ve confirmed that he was aboard the destroyer that escaped. We’re still in the process of sorting out where the destroyers came from, but the two we engaged were not built here.”

  “Couldn’t we just ask the contractors we pulled off that fab module?” Kira asked.

  “In exchange for disabling the self-destruct code, we promised safe transport to Ypres,” the Admiral replied. “We have confirmed that the contents are exactly what Em Burke said they were, which means he has handed us a critical component of a new strategic balance in the cluster.

  “I hate where it came from, but we’ll honor the deal,” she concluded. “You’re welcome to ask him questions on your way to Ypres, but an actual interrogation would violate the spirit of our promises.”

  “Which leaves us with very few answers as to where Davies got his hands on multiple Inner Rim warships,” Estanza said. “What do you need from us, ma’am?”

  “At this point, this area is now effectively Redward territory,” Kim replied. “Perseus and Last Denial basically can’t leave until that is official and unquestioned, but I have cripples we need to send home, and I want Em Burke as many light-years from anything I want to keep intact as possible.

  “So. Commodore Shang: there’s nothing in your contract for this level of damage to one of your vessels,” she told him bluntly. “We did commit to regular repairs and munitions costs, however, and I do not believe the spirit of the contract would be honored by leaving you with a wrecked ship. Can Zheng Chenggong make nova?”

  “Not much more, Admiral, but yes,” Shang answered carefully.

  “If Liu Bei will join Grumpy Cat in escorting our damaged vessels back to Redward, I would be grateful and pay your full rate,” Kim told him. “Regardless, I will provide secured and validated orders for our yards to carry out full repairs and as many upgrades as possible to Zheng Chenggong at Their Majesties’ expense.

  “I am also activating all contingency bonus payments in your contract. Some of them weren’t technically fulfilled, but the scale of our accomplishments today justifies them.

  “I know money isn’t much of a trade for your people’s lives,” she said gently, “but it’s what I have available to recognize your efforts and sacrifice.”

  “You’re right, but we are mercenaries,” Shang Tzu told her. “I appreciate both the money and the recognition it represents. We would be honored to help escort our wounded comrades home.”

  “Thank you,” Kim replied, then turned her attention to Estanza. “I’ve issued the same orders for you, Estanza. All of your contingency bonuses will be paid. I don’t believe you have any damage that will require a yard for repairs, correct?”

  “Correct,” he said. “There are conversations we’ll need to have about that fabricator when we all get back to Redward.”

  “You might beat it back there,” the Admiral admitted. “The RRF only has two ships capable of hauling that facility, and I hesitate to take apart the fabricator without a lot more study. Commodore Shang will be carrying my reports home, and I expect to see one of those ships here in a few days.

  “Your trip to Ypres will be faster.”

  “I hope so,” Estanza said calmly. “I’m not enjoying our guests.”

  There were layers to that only Kira understood, she suspected. It had to go against the grain for Estanza to have people he was certain were Equilibrium Institute agents aboard. What choice did they have?

  Burke had demanded his ride be on the carrier, so the carrier it was.

  “Using a carrier to haul thirty-odd hostile contractors annoys me as well,” the Admiral replied. “If you’ll allow it, I’d like Gunny De Soto and her people to remain aboard Conviction until you return to Redward. An extra twenty Marines will make me feel much happier about their security team.”

  “I won’t turn them down, Admiral,” Estanza said. “So long as they follow orders.”

  “De Soto is under your command until you deliver her to Redward. She’s already been made aware of that,” Kim told him. “Any other concerns, Captain?”

  “Many, but they are irrelevant to the topic at hand,” Estanza said with a chuckle.

  50

  There was still no alcohol in Estanza’s office, a lack that his body language suggested he was feeling as he led the way in and took a seat.

  “Equilibrium,” he snarled. “I knew it was a possibility, but I didn’t expect it to be quite so obvious.”

  “It wouldn’t have been if they hadn’t had someone from the Cobras out here,” Kira pointed out. “In the absence of that, I would have assumed we were looking at a Brisingr operation.”

  “We might still be,” Estanza conceded. “Or, fuck, both. The Kaiserreich has every sign of being fully in bed with the Institute. The fact that somebody had two of Brisingr’s destroyers to throw around suggests that the Kaiser is at least involved.”

  Kira grimaced.

  “Should I be worrying that Burke’s people are going to try and knife me in the back?” she asked.

  “Unlikely. They were here for one mission, and that didn’t include you except maybe as a target of opportunity.” The Captain snorted. “And they’re not dumb enough to start a fight on their ride home.”

  He sighed, looking back to where the bar would have been for a long moment.

  “Coffee?” he finally asked.

  “No thanks. I need to sleep sometime soon,” Kira pointed out.

  “Fair enough. Sorry, I needed you to hear at least some of that briefing, and I needed to touch base with you, as well.”

  “I’m at your disposal,” she said. “Falling asleep in the chair here, but at your disposal.”

  She was exaggerating. Her headware wasn’t going to let her fall asleep by accident, even if the chair felt a lot more comfortable than it had in the past.

  “You can go rest soon enough,” Estanza conceded. “Sorry. I need you to field Burke, Commander.”

  “Define ‘field Burke,’ sir,” she asked slowly.

  “He’s already made two requests to meet with me, and he’s been aboard for five hours,” the Captain told her. “I need you to meet with him and keep him under control. Ypres is a long way from here and we’ll have to stop along the way to discharge static. That’s at least three days I have the man aboard my ship.

  “If he has something of value to say, I’ll talk to him. Otherwise, I want him to sit down, shut up and be a good passenger. I’m pretty sure you can get him to do that.”

  Kira snorted.

  “If he needs to still be breathing afterwards, that’s a soft maybe,” she told her boss. “All right. I’ll talk to him once I’ve slept. He can wait until then.”

  “He most definitely can,” Estanza agreed. “Right now, I want to put a bug in your ear. You need to think on something as we make this cruise.”

  “Sir?”

  “The schematics and fabrication plans we have for the Hoplite and its parts are copy-protected,” he reminded her.
“That kind of military-grade security is hard to breach, but it can be done. You could potentially sell Redward the design for the Hoplite.”

  Kira swallowed a harsh immediate response. That would be, inarguably, treason. On the other hand, Apollo’s Council of Principals had made very clear what they thought of her loyalty to them.

  The attempt would risk slagging one of the fabricator terminals she had. On the other hand, she’d brought a parts fabricator for each fighter, so she now had one to spare.

  “I’d have to think about that,” she admitted.

  “I know,” he agreed. “That’s why I raised it. We spent a lot of time over the last twenty years breaking the encryption on the data I have for the PNC One-Fifteen. I have every intention of selling those designs to Redward in exchange for a refit of Conviction, new-built PNCs for my own use, and a fuckton of money.

  “As my CNG, you’re going to get a dramatically expanded fighter group out of that…but as things currently stand, the Memorials will become a much-reduced portion of that group.”

  Where if she did what Estanza was suggesting with the Hoplite design, she could expand the Memorials and the Darkwings equally. Conviction would be better served with thirty interceptors and thirty fighter-bombers than five interceptors and fifty-five fighter-bombers, that was for sure.

  “Without doing something, your Memorials will shrink over time,” he said gently. “So, do you want them to forever be just the six of you and those five fighters? I’ll happily lease you a One-Fifteen for Longknife once I’ve acquired more, but it’s a question for you, Kira.

  “Do you want to go forward as my Commander, Nova Group first and leader of the Memorials second? Or do you want to keep the Memorials half the weight of this carrier? I’ll back you either way and adjust contracts to match, Kira, but you have to decide whether you’re willing to hand that data over to Redward.”

  “A nation whose enemies appear to be supported by Apollo’s greatest enemy,” Kira admitted aloud. “I have to think about it,” she repeated.