"Impossible, no one has sublight engines that fast."
"It's true, Captain. I looked away from sensors for just a few minutes and when I looked back, there they were."
Rather than lose herself in the endless debate, Van asked, "Distance?"
"Fifty thousand kilometers, ma'am."
"That's right on top of us. Raise the shields." She quickly opened an intra-ship communications channel. "Commander Byra, report to the bridge immediately."
Van kept her voice calm with some effort and checked the forward portals. Through the transparent gallium, she saw the usual backdrop of space, but in the distance was a tiny speck. As she watched, the speck grew until it took on the clear lines of a space vessel. It hurtled toward them, increasing in magnitude as it advanced. For one insane moment, Van thought it would collide and continue on its way, never aware that another ship had existed.
"Hail them," Cade ordered when Van didn't.
"No response, Admiral. They're firing laser cannons."
"Return fire," Van directed seamlessly.
The woman at the helm station pressed a series of buttons, but hadn't completed the sequence when Pandora rocked under the assault. Even without the aid of magnified viewing, Van could see their weapons made little difference.
"Fire plasma torpedoes."
"We can't, Captain," the helmswoman responded. "Those systems aren't online."
"Whose brilliant idea was that?"
The lift to the rear of the bridge opened and Paul staggered out. He had a knot on his temple and looked a little dazed. "What the hell's going on?" Then his eyes tracked to the front window and he blanched as he received his answer.
Everything around her suddenly seemed to slow down as Van's mind raced ahead. There was no logical explanation for this unprovoked attack inside the Andromeda system. Roving outlaw raids weren't uncommon in space, but they generally confined their attacks to the outer regions. Besides, even a first-day cadet could tell this ship had nothing to do with barely organized marauders. It was too big, fast and well equipped. She'd told Cade the first time they met that she was good at tactics and that ability told her this was another attempt on the crown princess.
"Captain, they've stopped firing and are hailing."
Van ignored the lieutenant. "Cade, get down to the captain's yacht. The hull is an alloy of trinium and alumenethal. It should be more resistant to scans than the Pandora." This was exactly where those tiny details of knowing one's ship came in handy.
"I'm not going anywhere," Cade said stubbornly.
"Now."
Cade went from stalwart to pissed off in an instant. "Who the hell do you think you are, Captain?"
Van fought the anger that surged through her when Cade attempted to pull rank. Instead, she allowed her true feelings for the princess to show in her eyes and softened her voice. "Please, we don't have much time before they start shooting again. This is about you, don't ask me how I know but I do. Asking you to hide out in the shuttle is the only way I know how to keep you safe."
Cade's expression softened at her admission, but then she caught on to the content of Van's explanation and held up her wrist. "My bio-chip."
All Coalition personnel had a device implanted to track bio-signs as a matter of course. Each was unique to the individual and easily distinguishable with a specialized algorithm.
"That ship is more advanced than anything we've ever seen. What makes you think they won't be able to pick you out from everyone else onboard? Please, Cade. Go."
Cade stood without another word and started for the lift. She paused briefly when she reached it, waiting for the doors to open. "If this does come to a firefight, I'll launch Prometheus to back you up."
Van had swiveled around in her chair to watch her leave. "Sounds good. Now get going...oh, and Cade?"
Cade waited, but Van couldn't say the words. They stuck in her throat and she knew if anything happened to Cade, she'd never forgive herself. Apparently, she didn't have to.
"I know," Cade assured her. "Me too."
As soon as the doors closed, Van turned back around to face front. "Connect the transmission."
Audio-visual technology interfaced with holographics to display the communiqué directly over the forward portal. Van flinched, treated to a twenty by fifteen foot view of a man at once familiar and unknown. She recognized the white hair and elongated joints from the top of the staircase at the banquet. That he was a Gothoan wasn't in question, but she'd seen him before and it wasn't when he kidnapped Cade.
Commander Byra gasped and Van thumbed the mute control on her console. "What is it?"
"That's Senator Benter Mentis, the Gothoan rep on the Sector Council."
The information created a hundred new questions, but now wasn't the time to pursue them. It looked like Mentis was winding down from his opening spiel. Van switched on the volume.
"...if you surrender her now, I promise to forego the execution of your crew."
She was right. This was about Cade.
Van's mouth went dry and her hands started to sweat, but she responded with her usual bravado. "Over my rotting corpse. I thought your client wanted her humiliated. Why do I get the feeling the rules have changed?"
"We should've eliminated the Meryan threat from the beginning," Mentis asserted angrily. "Our agent will control the throne of Alara and when we invade, there will be nothing the vaunted Coalition can do to stop us."
He'd told her more of the enemy's plans in the last thirty seconds than they'd discovered during the entire mission on Tokar. Van hoped needling him would cause Mentis to be even more forthcoming.
"Spare me the super villain riff, Mentis. No wonder you're not calling the shots. I bet someone really has to keep a tight rein on you."
"I see you've heard of me."
Talk about an ego. "Actually, I hadn't. My first officer had to tell me who you are. Did you know," she said casually, "that in the old Earth language, Latin, your last name means mind? Of course, no one speaks Latin because it's a dead language. But that's not important. If you switched your names around, last to first instead of first to last it might translate to Mind Bender. Appropriate I suppose since you're clearly psychotic..."
"Enough. Surrender Princess Cade to me or I'll destroy your ship."
It looked like her time to stall was up and Van hoped she'd given Cade enough time to evade the enemy ship's instruments. She frowned in disapproval that he dared use Cade's first name even if it was the custom when referring to her by the formal title.
"You know I'm not going to do that or you wouldn't have fired first, and if you'd bothered to scan my ship, you'd know she's not here."
Mentis looked surprised and turned to one of his people.
"She's right, sir. We're no longer detecting the princess's bio-signature."
"Find her."
"Forget it, Mentis." Van didn't attempt to conceal her amusement at his reaction.
The senator's face reddened in anger. "I know she's there somewhere; there isn't anywhere else to go. But since you won't give her up, you've left me no choice."
The transmission ended abruptly and Van instinctively reacted to what was coming next. "Brace yourselves. Fire all available weapons. Chang, get us out of here."
Pandora turned sluggishly to port. It wasn't that her systems were ineffective or damaged, just that the assaulting vessel pounded her so hard. Mentis's ship dwarfed Pandora, like a man standing on an anthill. Yet Van realized that for all their size, ants could sting a man to death.
"Lieutenant...?"
"Marbrey, ma'am."
"Right, concentrate the cannon fire on their central shield grid. Chang, evasive maneuvers, try to put some distance between us without getting us blasted apart."
"Ma'am," Marbrey said, "the cannons can't penetrate the shields."
"Just keep firing at that point. Admiral Meryan, what's your status?" Van considered firing the engines just as she had during that fateful encounter with the Falcon,
but held back. This time her crew was a group of technicians, civilians. They wouldn't know how to react if they had to abandon ship. It was straining the limits of their capabilities to respond to an armed threat. This had to end quickly.
"I'm here, Captain. I'm ready to launch on your word."
Van swallowed hard and looked at Paul. He stared back with a grim expression. She didn't want to risk Cade this way, but they all knew they needed the support. "Do it," she ordered gruffly. "Keep targeting the shield grid. The concentrated fire should weaken them in that area. If we can disable the shields, we can take out their weapons and engines."
"I understand. Launching in ten seconds."
"Cade, watch your ass." Van didn't know if she heard her, but she turned to Byra. "Give her some cover fire, Paul. Protect her."
He nodded and turned to his board, firing as fast as the systems rearmed.
Van watched the enemy vessel turn its fire toward the Prometheus. It was almost as if he knew Cade piloted the small yacht. Without the additional protection provided by Pandora's hull, the scans had finally located her. For all their efforts, Cade evaded the plasma torpedoes and laser cannons, zigzagging her way toward the behemoth.
Much smaller than Mentis's vessel, Prometheus ably avoided the bulk of weapons fire on her approach, hovering just outside the larger ship's protective bubble. Her proximity prevented him from targeting her. Cade opened up with the yacht's laser cannons and an occasional octanitro bomb. Van still couldn't breathe easy, not until this ended and Cade returned safely.
Pandora twisted into another evasive roll and Van clasped the arms of her chair. Their new position prevented her from seeing the captain's yacht. "Paul, how are we doing?"
"We're getting through, their shields are weakening."
Chang brought the ship back around, darting toward the larger vessel so Marbrey and Byra could fire freely. Suddenly, the ruby beams of laser fire conjoined, contributed by Byra and Marbrey, and Cade aboard the Prometheus. Just before the shields failed and a lucky shot punched through, Van saw it.
"Cade, you're too close. Get out of there."
She watched the shuttle heel to starboard, executing a half-roll away from Mentis's vessel. An explosion ripped through a point of space directly in front of them so intensely that Van had to look away. When the brilliance faded, she discovered she was standing though she didn't remember doing so. Huge chunks of metal flew away in every direction and there wasn't any sign of Prometheus.
"Cade, are you there? Respond, damn it. Cade."
The Gothoan vessel had stopped firing, presumably because the explosion damaged the weapons. Cade could come out of hiding now and return to the Pandora.
"Captain," Commander Byra said softly. "We're being hailed."
She assumed it was Cade. "Patch it in."
Mentis's gray visage filled the image, resembling a grinning praying mantis. "I thank you for your assistance, Captain. Coercing the princess into piloting the other ship to her own demise was very clever."
Fury surged through her, fast and hot. She wanted to tear through the holographic image and wrap her hands around his throat. "You bastard."
"Don't worry, I'll keep my word. You and your crew are free to go."
The communications link ended abruptly. "Blow that ship apart."
The men tried to comply, but the scarlet light shot out into the emptiness of space. Mentis's navigator had engaged the faster than light drive and they were already gone. In the vacuum of space, there wasn't even a wake of displaced air to tell them it had left.
"Stop shooting. You might hit Admiral Meryan. I want sensors searching every piece of debris within a parsec."
The crew looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. Paul's expression hinted that he was fighting with his emotions, but no one moved to carry out her orders.
"Do it. She could be floating out there in an environmental suit."
Marbrey turned away, unable to maintain eye contact. "Scanning." His voice broke.
Paul stood and walked up to her. He rested a hand on her shoulder. "Captain..."
"No, don't say it." Van felt tears threaten, but wouldn't allow them to fall in front of the crew.
"Captain," he said a little stronger, "she's gone. I'm sorry, but she's gone."
Through a watery haze, she looked around the bridge. No one would meet her eyes. She wanted to deny it, to make Paul take the words back. She knew he wouldn't. Cade was dead. Van had given the order that cost Cade her life. Mentis was right about that. Only now that it was too late could she admit the truth. She had loved Cade and that final explosion would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Disregarding the truth of Commander Byra's words, Van spent another twelve hours searching before she relented.
"Ensign Chang, turn us around. Best possible speed back to Alara." The words tasted like ash in her mouth.
Chapter Sixteen
SORROW AND ANGER competed for dominance within her as Dorma grieved the loss of her eldest child. Along with the death of her daughter, Alara had lost their beloved heir. Dorma loved her young son, but he could never replace Cade in the eyes of the people since the ruler had to be female. She had scheduled a planetary day of mourning for the day after tomorrow, and Dorma prayed she could make it through the opening ceremony without breaking down.
She felt the fury surge anew that the Gothoan military were finally successful in killing Cade. No one had considered them a serious threat in the last decade, since their defeat during the Border Wars. The knowledge that a Gothoan emissary, grudgingly trusted on the Senate Council, was responsible for such an atrocity was like a stab in the back. Dorma had never trusted Mentis, though he went out of his way to ingratiate himself, but she never expected him capable of such horrors. The fact that his actions revealed the latest Gothoan threat provided little comfort.
Dorma had sobbed until there weren't any more tears. Her son, Andres, tried to get her to eat something. So consumed with worry for his mother, he'd followed her around until she lost her temper and chased him from her side. She regretted the outburst, but her pain numbed her to the point where apology was beyond her abilities. Now, she wandered the palace grounds like a shade, visiting all of the places her darling Cade loved best.
The Gederium Falls concealed a small cave behind the cascading waters and a deep, subterranean pool resided there. Cade had loved to dive the dangerous waters and hid the knowledge from her mother so she wouldn't worry, but Dorma had always known. The falls still ran just as clearly and powerfully as before, but somehow Dorma thought they'd lost their majesty. She knew she'd never look at them the same way.
From there, she explored the reesha pastures, watching the muscular animals race across the expanse. Standing on two legs, the muscled thighs bunched and stretched while the tiny, monkey-like front legs dangled at chest height, all but useless. Cade's favorite mount, a chocolate male named Rahmeed, saw her and scampered near to beg for a treat. He'd appeared to look around, searching for his master. Dorma had stroked his massive, bony head, her soul heavy with the knowledge that Cade would never ride him again. When she couldn't bear to look at him anymore, Dorma walked out across the open fields toward the Solstice Canyon.
Her bodyguards, two brave and beautiful young women, followed at a respectful distance. Even in her grief, the queen wasn't allowed the full solitude she craved. The sun began its graceful descent as she strolled along. Shadows lengthened and the heat of the day abated slightly.
Cade had adored summers on Alara and all the growing things she found there. She loved the rare life forms the planet offered and had traversed this region of the castle grounds as a child and into adulthood. Trees loomed thickly here and the rough wallick grass stood thigh-high, grasping with soft, claw-like thorns at her heavy trousers. Dorma reached the marble stepping-stones that led to the canyon rim and turned back to her escorts.
"Wait here, please."
Her words sounded hollow, devoid the strength and certainty she
felt a monarch should always possess. Regardless, she read the suffering and respect in their eyes. Both clapped their right fists against their chests in the Alaran form of a salute and nodded in compliance.
The distance from here wasn't far. Dorma walked the last twelve meters to the edge of the gorge. Resting her hands on the wooden rail, she gazed into the distance. For once, the breathless beauty of this sacred chasm failed to move her. Captain Swann's words returned, permanently etched in her memory and on her heart.
"I'm so sorry, Queen Dorma, but I wanted you to hear it from me. A Gothoan warship attacked us and Cade is...she's gone. Oh Gods, I'm sorry. I failed you and she's gone."
How the young woman's voice had broken, the misery she felt clear for anyone to hear. Her pain stemmed not in breaking the terrible news to Cade's mother, but from her own loss. Dorma hadn't been sure at the banquet, watching them dance together as if no other couple existed, but now she knew for sure. Vanessa's heartrending admission confirmed what Dorma had suspected. Van had loved her child. The tragedy of her daughter's demise seemed compounded all the more by the loss of a romance not yet realized.
Shouts from a short distance away drew her attention. She turned to see flames leaping high into the air, a cloud of black smoke drifting on the wind. The stables were on fire. Her guards turned to face her, clearly caught in a dilemma. They resisted the urge to rush to assist in putting out the blaze, concern for the queen's safety paramount.
"Go," Dorma urged. "I'm fine, go help the others."
The warriors didn't hesitate, bolting back toward the reesha stables. Dorma watched the fire, the image standing out sharply in the coming darkness, and puzzled over what could have started the blaze. Stable hands used modern cobalt-ion lanterns, eliminating the threat of an open fire near the livestock. The only thing she could imagine was that someone had carelessly harvested some green wallick grass. If not properly dried before bailing and storage, it would spontaneously combust.
Sighing, Dorma took a step toward the stables intending to oversee the fire-fighting operations. From the corner of her eye, she saw something dart from the shadows beneath the trees. When it struck her, Dorma realized it was a person wearing black from head to foot. A dark covering concealed the attacker's features.
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