Fortitude (Scattered Stars: Conviction Book 4)

by Glynn Stewart

  Probably because Diligent was chasing ghosts around the outer system, not yet warned that Kira had arrived at Guadaloop itself.

  Finally, clearly in answer to an order from on high—or at least Final Usury—Temperance’s battle group joined the larger carrier in a parade-ground formation. With fighters and destroyers on the wings, the combined Navy of the Royal Crest fleet was now in the shape of a hollow swan that “swam” out of the umbrella of GODCom’s fortresses.

  They stopped well inside range of the fortresses’ guns and well outside weapons range of Memorial Force, but the immense flying swan was very clear in open space, pointed at Kira but not attacking.

  “Show-offs,” she muttered. “Konrad, how long until the drive is cooled?”

  “Twenty minutes,” he reported. “Whoever was chasing us around in the outer system will be able to nova back in fifteen.”

  “And how long for Collections Agent to show up?” she asked.

  “Eight more hours, assuming she’d made a full jump to get to the trade-route stop and ambush us,” he concluded. “Right now, Commodore, I think everything is swinging on Admiral Avagyan. But when Agent gets here…”

  “Admiral Matevosyan is senior to Avagyan,” Kira agreed. “But he’s also Maral Jeong’s brother-in-law. So, I guess what happens then depends on how much his husband likes his sister.”

  “Sir, incoming transmission from Final Usury,” Soler reported. “Admiral Avagyan is requesting a channel.”

  “Put her through,” Kira ordered.

  She leveled her best not-quite-a-pirate face at the recorder and smiled coldly as Avagyan appeared.

  Dafina Avagyan was a classic Armenian-Korean-extraction Crester, with angular eyes and a sharp hawk-like nose against her shadowed skin and pitch-black hair.

  “Commodore Demirci,” she said quietly. “You have us at a disadvantage.”

  “Admiral Avagyan,” Kira greeted her. “You must forgive, I’m afraid, my compensation for your larger fleets and more powerful warships. I can afford to take no chances.”

  “If you wished to take no chances, Commodore, you should perhaps not have kidnapped my Prime Minister,” Avagyan said. “I also apparently find it necessary to remind more people than I should that Em Jeong has no authority over the Navy of the Royal Crest.”

  Kira let that lie where it fell, arching a single eyebrow at the Crester Admiral.

  “I won’t bluster and beat my chest about how many more fighters and ships I have, Commodore,” the other woman continued. “We both know I can destroy your fleet. The price would be far higher than I like, but you are completely outgunned here.

  “Hence your human shields.”

  “Indeed,” Kira confirmed calmly. “The Prime Minister is useless to me unless someone is prepared to pay me for her. That requires me to be somewhere you can find me. Her orders were clear, though, weren’t they?”

  “And she has no authority to give them,” Avagyan said. “The Crest does not traditionally negotiate with terrorists and kidnappers, Commodore Demirci. And yet, I do hesitate to blithely accept the head of my government as collateral damage.”

  “I have already suggested my solution to this impasse,” Kira pointed out. The two fleets were a million kilometers apart. They were outside the range of the standard weapons of either fleet.

  Both of them were perfectly capable of fabricating Harrington-coil smart missiles, but multiphasic jamming would render those missiles instantly dumb and blind. The moment either of their nova fighters jumped, both sides would raise their jammers.

  “You do realize, Commodore, that there is no way in hell you are keeping that carrier, right?” the Crester Admiral said calmly. “Even if we agree to pay your ransom for Jeong and her Cabinet, we will hunt you forever for that ship.”

  “The Crest doesn’t have the resources to hunt me forever,” Kira pointed out. “Fortitude is nonnegotiable, I’m afraid. The only thing in question from my side is how much Jeong and her Cabinet are worth.”

  Avagyan grimaced.

  “I have no choice, I suppose,” she admitted. “Know that you cannot run and cannot escape, Commodore Demirci. We will await the decision of the Crown and Parliament of the Royal Crest.

  “I will, of course, need to see evidence that the Prime Minister and her Cabinet are still alive, however,” she growled.

  “I have no intention of killing the golden goose, Admiral,” Kira replied. “Give me one moment.”

  She froze the cameras and looked over at Soler.

  “I need footage from every cell,” she told the tactical officer. “For the crew and the MPD officers, too. Everyone we captured. Ten seconds, fully time-stamped. No games this time…but mute their microphones.”

  She turned back to Avagyan.

  “We will forward proof of life for the Prime Minister, her Ministers, and all of the members of Fortitude’s crew and the Ministerial Protection Detail,” she told the Admiral. “I will also provide a list of the known dead.”

  Avagyan nodded slowly and thoughtfully.

  “I…appreciate that,” she admitted. “The crew and detail personnel are not part of the ransom demand.”

  “They are not,” Kira agreed. “They are not the government of the Crest, merely servants of the Crest’s people, doing their duty. If we can come to a mutually agreeable solution, I am prepared to return them to you immediately.”

  That apparently surprised the Crester officer, who took a moment to regain control of her expression.

  “I will have my people examine the proof-of-life clips,” she told Kira. “And then we will speak again. We…very well may be able to come to that solution.”

  50

  “Nova contact!”

  “Close up the defensive formation; stand by the jammers,” Kira snapped. This was probably Diligent returning from the outer system, but the assault carrier might not have received any updates from Admiral Avagyan yet.

  And while Kira was certain that her offer to return the non-politicians had sealed the deal with Avagyan, things were still…fragile.

  “Confirm, Crest assault carrier and two destroyers,” Soler reported. “Profile matches Diligent. Range is eight light-seconds. She’s launching fighters!”

  “Don’t wait for the order, Soler,” Kira instructed. “The moment you see a nova flash at close range, trigger the jammers. Cartman, Sagairt, Patel.” She turned to the CNGs. “I’d love to get through this cleanly, but if those fighters come in, put them down.”

  She wasn’t sure Avagyan would let that pass—she wasn’t sure she would in the Crester’s place—but she also wasn’t going to stand by and let Crest fighters fire into her ship.

  “Nova flare—multiple fighters emerging around Diligent,” Soler reported.

  Kira sighed in relief.

  “From Final Usury?” she asked.

  “Looks like. Diligent flight group is holding position.”

  Kira forced herself to breathe as she watched the display. Eight seconds delayed. She’d know if Diligent’s fighters attacked when they arrived in her formation. So far…nothing.

  “Diligent fighters powering down and returning to the carrier,” Soler reported as the data updated again. “Diligent is bringing up her Harringtons. Course projection on the display.”

  The initial vector was away from Memorial Force, but Soler’s projection had the assault carrier and her escorts making a long curve to join Final Usury’s formation.

  One more crisis passed.

  “Are we ready to nova yet?” Kira asked.

  “Just a few more minutes,” Konrad replied. “Should we start recalling the fighters?”

  “Not until we’re fully ready,” she said. “No chances.”

  Seconds ticked by like years and Kira watched the displays around her. Finally, a chime and an icon advised her that Avagyan was hailing again.

  She didn’t even wait for Soler to tell her. Kira had the channel open herself inside a second.

  “Admiral.”

/>   “Commodore.”

  Avagyan studied Kira in silence for a moment.

  “We have confirmed your proof of life,” she finally said. “I want to speak to the Prime Minister. Live.”

  “That’s not happening,” Kira said bluntly. “I have no idea what kinds of code words or other bullshit you could get up to. If I give her coms, she could play all kinds of tricks with her headware.

  “Those recordings are all you’re getting. You know she’s alive, and you know her orders.”

  Kira wasn’t exactly a fan of the position her mission put her in. She was trying to get through this with the minimum amount of bloodshed—but that was already far too high.

  “And if I say that there’s no truce if you don’t let me talk to her live?” the Crester said grimly.

  Kira glanced over at Konrad, who gave her a thumbs-up. She smiled at Avagyan.

  “Then you don’t get your spacers back and I nova out of here before you can do anything,” she told the Admiral. “I am prepared to trade everyone except Maral Jeong and her Cabinet for a five-day truce while we wait for a response from the Crest.

  “I don’t plan on spending that five days sitting in your clear view, waiting for you to change your mind,” she added.

  Avagyan chuckled.

  “That’s fair, I suppose. I want the prisoners and the bodies, Commodore. Everyone, living and dead.”

  “Several of the wounded aren’t safe to travel without medical supervision,” Kira admitted. “While I have no hesitation in turning them over to you, I do not want to risk anyone for that.”

  “I had guessed from the recordings,” the Admiral conceded. “I have a suggestion.”

  “Go on.”

  “My math suggests that we will require six shuttles to transfer all of the prisoners,” Avagyan told her. “I will send six shuttles, including a fully equipped medevac unit with medtechs aboard, to the midpoint between our forces. You will send five shuttles, with the non-wounded prisoners and whatever security detail you feel is necessary, to the same point.

  “We will transfer the prisoners between the shuttles, and your security people will board and search the medevac shuttle. Once they are satisfied it is not a trap, your shuttles and my medevac shuttle will return to Fortitude, and my medtechs will take over responsibility of the wounded, seeing them to the shuttle and back to Final Usury.”

  Kira could see a thousand different ways that Avagyan could still be plotting a trap. The parameters she was offering were fair and about as good as Kira could hope for, but it could still oh so easily be a trap.

  But…Kira had two commando battlefield medics trying to provide serious trauma care for eleven badly wounded Cresters. They were doing everything possible, but it was still all too likely that it might not be enough.

  It was a risk. But she owed it to those people, enemies they might theoretically be, to try.

  “I agree, under one additional condition,” she told Avagyan. “A nova fighter will accompany my shuttles, in case your people decided to do something stupid. And if any of your medtechs attempt to access anything they shouldn’t, my people will shoot them dead on the spot.

  “Understood?”

  The Crester Admiral winced.

  “I understand,” she allowed. “You’ll forgive me if I’d prefer your unconditional surrender.”

  “And you’ll forgive me if that isn’t happening,” Kira told her. “We both have a goal here, Admiral, but the fewest people die if I achieve mine.”

  Kira sighed as she watched the Hoplite-IV attach itself to the shuttle.

  “Dawnlord,” she hailed Patel. “Isn’t that something you should be sending a junior to do?”

  “Maybe,” he conceded. His tone was calm, vaguely dark. It had rarely been light since Joseph Hoffman’s death. “But this sounds like it might require some split-second judgment calls. Who else would I trust to do that?”

  Kira chuckled.

  “Nightmare drew the short straw?” she asked.

  “We had Helmet flip a coin,” Patel replied. “That way, neither of us could influence it. And he’s disturbingly sensible.”

  “I won’t stop you,” Kira admitted. “Like you say, who else would I trust?”

  Herself…but she really couldn’t go.

  She mentally flicked to another channel.

  “Any problems, Milani?” she asked them.

  “A few of the Ministerial Protection Detail really didn’t want to abandon the Prime Minister,” the commando told her. “Fortitude’s crew were pretty cooperative, though we had to stun one officer who tried to make it to an override panel.”

  Kira chuckled. None of the Fortitude’s former crew had the codes to override anything anymore—but normal pirates wouldn’t have been able to pull that off.

  “So, no real trouble,” she observed.

  “Not really. I have the team that’ll search the medevac shuttle,” they told her. “And we’re back in full boarding armor. Unless they have something unexpected, we’ll be fine.”

  “Good.” Kira shook her head. Why did none of her subordinates delegate? They all seemed to be right in the middle of everything, leading from the front.

  She knew perfectly well where they’d learned it from, but that didn’t make it any less annoying sometimes.

  “Good luck,” she told Milani. “Get those people home safely—but get our people home safely, too.”

  Kira watched the medical team from the moment the five women came aboard. Five women, all in their early thirties, dressed in standard white shipsuits. Except…four of them looked nervous. Even more so than she’d expect from the mercenaries escorting them.

  The fifth, though… The fifth didn’t look nervous enough and Kira focused in on them.

  “Milani,” she pinged the commando leader. “Redhead is not a fucking nurse.”

  “No,” the commando replied. “Soldier boosts. Covert commando. I’m standing by with a squad just around the corner. We’re watching.”

  If the woman was smart, she’d realize that. There were ten mercenaries in standard armor escorting the five medtechs. That should have been enough to keep most people in order, but the redhead at the back of the med team was continually looking around, watching for an opportunity.

  Kira’s fingers twitched toward a stunner she wasn’t even wearing, watching the woman make her way through Fortitude’s corridors. It was always possible that the woman was a commando medic who’d happened to be available…but Kira didn’t buy that.

  Unfortunately, the infiltrator knew her job and chose her time perfectly. The medtechs set to work as soon as they entered the sickbay, accessing the equipment they needed to do their jobs and corralling their escorts into acting as mules.

  The desire to help fellow humans was strong, and Kira didn’t begrudge the guards willingly helping—except that everyone, including Kira, missed the fifth tech slipping out a side door that shouldn’t have opened for her.

  “Milani, she’s loose,” Kira snapped. “Surveillance systems are blank… What the hell?”

  “That’s…not good,” Milani replied. “We’re sweeping. She’s either got a worm in the system or some kind of portable jamming field.”

  “Konrad,” Kira turned to her engineer. “Someone’s playing games with our internal scanners. Find them for me?”

  “On it,” he told her, switching from systems management to the internal surveillance in a blink. “Oh, that is…nasty.”

  “Konrad?” Kira was more worried than patient.

  “There’s a worm in our system and it’s not new,” he told her. “Inactive until triggered by someone flashing a visible data code to the cameras. As soon as it got the right input, it started wiping that person from the internal surveillance.

  “What kind of military builds that kind of hole into their security?”

  “One in a country on the edge of a civil war,” Kira said grimly. “Can you track her?”

  “Not yet,” Konrad admitted. “Soler,
I need you. We need to burn out the virus, and Fortitude’s software defenses think it’s part of their code.”

  “Damn. Milani, she’s using a backdoor built into the ship to hide,” Kira told her ground-force commander. “She’s almost certainly headed for the brig.” She paused. “Shoot to kill.”

  “Understood. We’re sweeping,” Milani replied.

  Kira knew how limited their ground troops were. That was part of why she’d agreed to send the vast majority of their prisoners over to Final Usury. Just watching them, even with full brig tech, was wearing her people out.

  “This is Bertoli,” a familiar voice said. “I’m at the brig; everything is intact. I am physically sealing the doors.”

  “How…physically?” Milani asked.

  “You’re going to need to send someone with a cutting torch as soon as this is over,” Bertoli said with a chuckle. “Two more entrances; I’m moving on them.”

  Kira’s cameras now showed the exterior of the brig door—which, as Bertoli had promised, had just been flash-welded shut. She couldn’t see anyone at the door, but the camera did pick up the attempt to open the door. And then the attempt to force it open.

  “She’s at the brig.”

  “And so am I,” Milani snapped. A blaster crackled on the camera Kira was watching. She couldn’t see the shooter, but she did see the blaster bolts flashing back up the corridor—and the responding fire.

  A suit of heavy boarding armor with a holographic red dragon around its shoulders stepped into the camera view, nudging at a body Kira still couldn’t see.

  “That is really fucking weird to watch,” she noted. “Is it done?”

  “Handled. She’s dead, though…and I shot her in the leg.”

  “What?” Kira snapped.

  “I took off her leg just below the hip. She should be in shock but not dead,” Milani said grimly, kneeling by the invisible body and running a suit scanner. “Fuck. Headware suicide charge. She self-activated when she got hit.”

  “I really don’t like these people,” Kira said flatly. “Get the wounded and the medtechs off my damn ship, Milani. I need to call Avagyan out on her bullshit.”