Fortitude (Scattered Stars: Conviction Book 4)

by Glynn Stewart

  The NRC had rearranged ships to create a battle group that was unquestionably loyal to Maral Jeong, and then they’d sent them to exactly the right place.

  “That…” Kira bit off several scatological observations about their employer.

  “Jammers are live, turrets are live, we are scanning for targets,” Soler reported.

  “Nova in forty-five seconds,” Konrad added.

  “They’re coming,” Kira said softly. “They knew where to find us. They knew where we were going. They aren’t going to let us go easily.

  “Nova emergence!” Soler barked. “Engaging!”

  There was no time to report what they were facing. Dozens of flashes of bright-blue radiation lit up the battlespace, met almost instantly by stark-white plasma blasts. The computers struggled to provide a map through the self-inflicted chaos of the jamming zone, but Kira knew enough to pick out the bombers at the core of the formation.

  “Target those bombers,” she ordered. It wasn’t a necessary order. Everyone knew that—and Fortitude’s lighter turrets were already concentrating their fire on the heavy torpedo platforms.

  Incoming fighters died. Plasma blasts washed over Kira’s ships and she watched, stone-faced, unable to do anything. She was a nova-fighter pilot. This helplessness went against everything she’d learned, everything she knew how to do in a fight.

  “Multiple hits,” Konrad reported. “Dispersal networks and armor holding. No critical damage—

  “Nova!”

  Kira had barely registered that her engineer boyfriend had interrupted himself before the universe changed, the chaos of the battlespace vanishing to be replaced by calmer void.

  That void was then instantly filled with new static as their jammers threw chaotic energy into it, but there were no fighters there.

  “Cut the jammers, report,” Kira ordered.

  “Everybody made it,” Soler said instantly. “Fortitude’s jammers are down; trying to establish links for damage reports.”

  Kira exhaled a long breath.

  “We made it,” she murmured. “Send the canned ransom demand as soon as all the jammers are down.”

  It would take almost as long for the ransom demand to reach Guadaloop and its orbiting battlegroup as it would take her fleet’s nova drives to cool down.

  That was the plan. That much was going according to plan.

  “How the hell did a carrier group catch up to us?” Konrad growled. “Even if someone from the first trade-route stop reported in, we shouldn’t have seen them already.”

  “They used another security point to go around that trade-route stop,” Kira told him. “So they could surprise us there, but they got the timing slightly wrong.”

  She shook her head.

  “They’ll be here in twenty hours, adding to the dance. And unlike Admiral Avagyan, they know we’re the enemy.”

  “But…how did they know where we were going?” Soler asked.

  Kira looked at her lover. From the tired expression on his face, he’d guessed.

  “Panosyan leaked that part of the plan,” Kira said quietly. “The key components of the Sanctuary and Prosperity loyalists in the NRC are now out-system, heading right at us, while the Crown’s agents move against the SPP headquarters.

  “That was their solution to the SPP’s partial control of the military. Everything the SPP controls is coming after us.”

  48

  “Pegasus got handled more roughly than I like,” McCaig rumbled on the all-Captains channel a few minutes later. “We’re still sorting out the damage, but it looks like we lost a turret and we’re down almost twenty percent of our sublight maneuverability.

  “The turret is outright gone, but we might be able to rig up replacement Harrington coils,” he continued. “I’ll keep you all updated.”

  Kira nodded. Pegasus had taken the brunt of the fighter strike, at least in terms of damage. Both Deception and Fortitude had taken more hits, but their heavier armor and more powerful dispersion networks had spared them major damage.

  “Sublight maneuverability shouldn’t matter too much for the moment,” she told McCaig. “But we are going to need every scrap of everything we can get, people.”

  A mental command brought the shared sensor data up in front of everyone.

  “I’d wondered why they’d sent a carrier group to the trade-route stop,” she admitted. “They wouldn’t have known we’d be there without knowing we’d be coming to Guadaloop, and the odds of catching us there were low.

  “Now we know why.”

  A collection of starships in high orbit above Guadaloop flashed red.

  “Admiral Avagyan was an unknown—potentially a neutral or even an ally, given her relationship to the Panosyans,” Kira reminded everyone. “Unfortunately, that, ladies and gentlemen, is Carrier Group Temperance. Temperance is an older carrier, sister to the previous Fortitude who was decommissioned five years ago, but she still has a hundred nova fighters aboard.

  “If she still has her regular group, she’s also accompanied by the assault carrier Diligent to make up the numbers. We’re still working on resolving the escorts, but we can confidently expect that Collections Agent will now be joining them in-system in about twenty hours.”

  There was a long silence on the channel.

  “That gives the NRC three, potentially four carriers in-system, plus four cruisers and twelve destroyers,” she concluded. “We are badly outgunned and outmatched, but the plan never called for us to fight them here.”

  “We were expecting to stand off their fighters, though,” Zoric pointed out. “We’re not going to be able to do that against over four hundred of them.”

  “Is there any reason we should not relocate to a different system to send our ransom demand?” Michel asked. “The plan was Guadaloop, but given this much firepower…”

  “Only one, really,” Kira admitted. “And that one, people, is that all of this—everything we’ve done—is a distraction. Our entire operation was intended to seize the Prime Minister and draw the SPP out.

  “Now, I do wish the Crown Zharang had told us that we were going to be used as bait to lure the SPP part of their fleet out of the system, but the logic is sound,” she told them. “I fully intend to find ways to convince the Crown Zharang that we are owed more money because of that.”

  Blackmail was an ugly word, but Kira was certainly willing to at least threaten full publicity of the Zharang’s involvement to get value for her people.

  “But…to complete the intent of the mission we took on, we need to keep those carrier groups out of the Crest for, mmm, at least a few days. A week would be best—and conveniently, that’s how long it should take to get updated information back from the Crest in response to our ransom demand.”

  “That was a reasonable ask against one carrier group whose Admiral we expected to be somewhat ambivalent about the whole affair,” Zoric noted. “Against three? With at least two flag officers and a lot of senior and mid-level officers who are loyal to the people we have locked up in our brig?

  “We can only dance so much when someone has four hundred–plus nova fighters to play with.”

  “And that, my friends, means it’s time to change the music,” Kira said with a chuckle. “We had one set of dances planned, but that’s not going to work.

  “Which means we need a new dance, new music and a new plan.”

  “And you’ve got one, haven’t you?” Zoric asked, not even trying to conceal the long-suffering sigh that followed.

  Maral Jeong looked no less composed after several days of imprisonment. Even given the amenities in Fortitude’s cells, that was surprising to Kira. She’d expected helplessness to wear on the Prime Minister more.

  “So, you return to me, mercenary,” Jeong said calmly after her guard had manacled her to the chair again. She ignored the coffee in front of her, focusing her strangely green eyes on Kira.

  “Are you ready to deal?”

  Kira chuckled.

  “Tha
t’s an interesting question,” she noted. “What kind of deal are you thinking?”

  “It’s been several days and several novas,” the Prime Minister murmured. “And I am reasonably sure I felt weapon impacts several hours ago, which means the Navy of the Royal Crest is catching up with you.

  “You begin to feel the noose tighten around your neck and realize you cannot escape. You cannot survive the wrath of the Crest. Your only hope is to cut a deal.”

  “You’re perceptive, I see,” Kira said. “You do realize, of course, that you are aboard this ship as well? If the NRC destroys Fortitude, you will die.”

  “I know,” Jeong agreed. “And I would prefer not to, which is why I am prepared to consider a deal. Surrender myself and the rest of your prisoners to the NRC. Surrender this carrier. You will be allowed to go free in exchange for our lives and this ship.”

  “I see your offers grow less generous with time.”

  “I can wait. As the reality of the situation sinks in, your desperation will grow and your negotiating position will weaken,” the Prime Minister said calmly. “The Crest will not allow this to stand. We can end this, you and I, before you and yours suffer the due punishment for your crimes.

  “I am biased,” she admitted. “I wish to live. Therefore, I will permit you to escape that punishment and we will end this without further bloodshed.”

  Kira leaned back in her chair and took a sip of the mediocre coffee to conceal her smile.

  “I’ll make you a counteroffer,” she told Jeong. “You sign a document transferring ownership of this carrier to me, have the NRC provide one billion crests in bearer chits and order the ships here to stand down.

  “I’ll leave you and your Cabinet in a sublight-capable shuttle on the edge of the system and leave with the carrier and the money. I’ll never come back to the Crest Sector, and you’ll live.”

  “No.” Jeong stared at Kira like a trapped predator. “I will never order the NRC to stand down. We will pay you nothing. In exchange for our lives, I will permit you to leave this sector no richer or poorer than you entered it, but you will not benefit from this transgression.”

  Kira took another sip of the coffee.

  “You realize that your stubbornness risks all of our lives?” she noted. “If I fight your fleet, your chances of survival are no better than mine.”

  “I will take those chances,” the Prime Minister told her. “I am willing to die, if I must.”

  “And your Cabinet?” Kira asked.

  “They may be weak, but they will follow me in this,” Jeong snapped. “They have no authority to act alone, regardless of what threats you apply. I have made my offer, mercenary. Do you have anything else to say?”

  Kira smiled.

  “No, I think I have everything I need,” she told the other woman.

  49

  “Start the countdown,” Kira ordered calmly. “They should receive our ransom demand in the next few minutes and spot our arrival. How long till nova?”

  “Countdown is five minutes,” Konrad replied.

  “Are we ready?” Kira glanced over at Soler.

  “We’re ready,” she confirmed. “If I’d known we’d be doing this much of this kind of thing, I’d have suggested we bring an actual artist.”

  “The thought would never have occurred to me if you hadn’t done such a great job with Moon,” Kira pointed out. “We’ll be fine.”

  “There is a hundred-and-thirty-second gap between our message arriving and our being able to nova,” Zoric warned from the command channel. “They may have fighters ready to go.”

  “And that is why we’re almost three light-minutes away from where we sent the message,” Kira reminded them. “Yes, they can spread out and locate us, but not in two minutes.”

  Plus, nova fighters jumping twelve light-hours would have a ten-minute cooldown. Shorter than the one for a class one drive, but not by much—one light-week was where the two cooldowns converged.

  If they sent out a wide fighter sweep, only some of the fighters could possibly be close enough to be a threat. The biggest threat was if they sent a carrier who then deployed fighters to search.

  But even that would take more than two minutes to locate Memorial Force and launch a strike.

  “Message will now have arrived,” Konrad reported. “Count is at one hundred twenty-five seconds.”

  Kira nodded silently and studied the tactical display. Even if someone jumped immediately to the source of their message, she wouldn’t see them for three minutes. Unless someone actually landed fighters right on top of her people, she’d never see them.

  “Sixty seconds.”

  Nothing. There was probably someone at their origin point now, but nothing was near them.

  “Thirty seconds.”

  “Nova flare at ten light-seconds,” Soler snapped. “I have a four-fighter section of Cavaliers at ten light-seconds!”

  “Scouting sweep,” Kira concluded. “They probably have a carrier out here, but they can’t even go back for sixty seconds.”

  She mentally saluted the fighter pilots as the counter ticked down.

  “They’re going to be real pissed when they find out where we went,” she noted aloud.

  “Ten seconds,” Konrad said. “We better be ready.

  “Everything is ready,” Kira promised.

  “What happens if this doesn’t work?”

  “We die.”

  The countdown hit zero.

  Memorial Force emerged from nova in perfectly aligned formation. Parade-ground formation, even, with all of the lights and beacons and glittering array that came with that. Fighters spilled from all three launch decks and flickered into formation with perfect precision.

  It was a show—and it was a show with one hell of an audience, because Kira’s entire mercenary fleet had just appeared four light-seconds from Guadaloop itself. They were outside range of GODCom’s fortresses and the two carrier groups still in orbit, but everyone saw them.

  “You’re live,” Soler told Kira.

  “GODCom and Navy of the Royal Crest forces,” Kira told the camera. “I am Kira Demirci, commanding officer of the Memorial Force mercenary company.

  “Before anyone takes any precipitous action, I must advise you that the Prime Minister of the Crest is aboard Fortitude—and her Cabinet has been parceled out across my ships,” she said calmly. “I don’t like using people as human shields, but I need you to listen to me.”

  She smiled.

  “Besides, do any of us soldiers really regard politicians as people?” she asked. “You have received my ransom demand. If you are smart, it has already been forwarded to the Crest. If it has not, you should get on that. Now.

  “And then we will wait for an answer, and you will leave my ships alone. And if you want to argue that plan, well… Listen to the words of your own Prime Minister.”

  The feed of Kira cut away to the recording of the meeting in the cell.

  “I am ready to deal,” the edited recording of Maral Jeong told the camera. “I feel the noose tighten. I am prepared to consider a deal,” she repeated.

  The editing was careful, utterly changing the woman’s original intent…but the words were all Maral Jeong’s.

  “Very well,” Kira’s own voice said. “Tell your fleet what we are going to do.”

  That had been recorded later, but Kira wasn’t in the video feed. Maral Jeong’s own intentional impassivity worked in her enemy’s favor there.

  “I am biased. I wish to live,” Jeong’s recording said. “I order the NRC to stand down in exchange for our lives. We can wait.”

  “And your Cabinet?” Kira’s recorded voice asked.

  “They will follow me in this,” Jeong said. “Our only hope is to cut a deal.”

  Kira’s people, led by Soler and her work on the AI avatar of Captain Moon, had done an incredible job on smoothing the cuts. That Maral Jeong was a politician, with the controlled and frozen body language of six decades of political life, h
ad only helped.

  Kira now smiled thinly at the camera as the transmission cut back to her.

  “We’re not asking for your surrender,” she told the defenders. “But the Prime Minister of the Crest has agreed to our deal. We will wait to hear from the Crown of the Royal Crest as to whether her ransom will be paid.

  “And we are all going to peacefully sit here and glare at each other over our guns until King Sung Panosyan has his say, aren’t we?”

  She cut the recording and leaned back in her chair, allowing her nerves to finally hit her.

  “What now?” Soler asked.

  “All ships remain at battle stations,” Kira ordered grimly as she massaged the knot forming in her neck. “If they come out after us, we’ll have plenty of warning.”

  For a few moments, Kira was worried she’d overplayed her hand. Starfighters spilled out of the two carriers in their dozens, and the escorts closed up under the defensive umbrella of GODCom’s fortresses.

  “GODCom has not deployed fighters,” Soler noted, her voice admirably steady. “Our reports suggest they have at least a hundred nova fighters aboard the fortresses, but they are remaining in their hangars.”

  “Guadaloop thinks this is the Crest’s problem,” Kira said. “And the NRC isn’t going to lean on them, not unless they really don’t think they can take us.”

  The fighter patterns on the displays were…wrong.

  “Zoric, Cartman, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” she asked softly.

  “Those aren’t attack formations,” Cartman said instantly from her own nova fighter. “They started as them, but they’re confused and…”

  Now a pattern was starting to emerge, and Kira only half-swallowed a bark of laughter as Final Usury’s ships and fighters formed into a parade-ground formation facing her.

  It took Temperance’s escorts longer to follow suit. For at least a moment, the second carrier group seemed to strain at an invisible leash—long enough for Kira to confirm that it was just Temperance, and her usual backup carrier was missing.