Harbinger

by Charles R Case

  “You do not have the authority to negotiate on behalf of the Elif empire. You go too far, Mage. There is a way things are done, and they do not include you, unless you are ordered to do your part,” he growled.

  “So you would have rather fought this battle to the bitter end, losing countless Elif lives in the process, because… why?” Sara asked, feigning confusion. She was goading the admiral, and she knew she should stop, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

  He blinked slowly, and over-enunciated his words, as if he were talking to a particularly dense child. “If there were to be negotiations with the Teifen, it is my job to make sure my people gain the advantage in any agreement. You do not have the authority to make claims on behalf of my race. I am sure you left more on the table that could have been taken from them.”

  Sara closed her eyes and took a calming breath before continuing. “Admiral, while I understand your concern at not getting more from the ceasefire, I assure you that you got more than you were going to if you kept shooting at them.”

  “I guess we will never know now, will we?” he said haughtily.

  “What leverage do you think you could have brought that would have gained you more than an end to the war, and the security of several contested planets?”

  Admiral Zett set his jaw. “We had the Teifen on the run. They knew we were coming, and had begun fleeing before our might. Obviously they fear annihilation in our vengeance.”

  Sara bobbed her head and held up a hand to forestall the admiral. “Ah. I see, we finally get to the root of the issue. Vengeance. You’re upset that I was able to end this conflict before you could kill more of them, is that right?”

  “How dare you. I am an admiral of His Majesty’s Navy. Vengeance is below me. This is an issue of you presuming to know our emperor’s will, and making deals with the enemy behind our backs. This is treason,” he roared, his face contorted with rage.

  Sara stared back at the admiral, stone faced. She let the moment drag out for several seconds, watching as he slowly realized how angry he was, then waited longer, until he fully felt the embarrassment of his outburst.

  I am done with this clown. They can speak of orders and rank ‘til they are blue in the face for all I care. I am a War Mage of the first order, and I have nothing but their best interests at heart. If they can’t see that, they can all go to Hell.

  Before he could speak again, but not before he was fully composed, Sara began talking in a low, even voice.

  “Admiral Zett. I used words to save millions, if not billions, of your people, and you stand there telling me I am a traitor? I didn’t force a ceasefire at the end of a rifle barrel. I didn’t mass an attack on a world filled with civilians as an example of my might. I used words and reason.

  “There is a threat out there in the form of an aggressive alien species we call the Vitas. They don’t care about your rank, or your orders, or your feelings. They are not motivated by politics, or emperors, or vengeance. They are programmed to destroy, and they will stop at nothing until they have accomplished their goal.

  “I have sent you a recording of the battle the Raven just fought against one of their ships. In it, you will see that we barely made it out alive. Knowing what you know of our capabilities, tell me, Admiral: what chance do you think you and the rest of the galaxy stand if you are continually fighting amongst yourselves?”

  Zett blinked slowly, and took a calming breath. “I will review your report, but know that I am lodging a formal complaint with your commanding officers. You are an out of control fire, tearing through the galaxy, and eventually, you will burn the hand that tends you.

  “I am giving you one hour to leave my system. Never return. Is that understood?”

  Sara sighed. I tried. At least the civilians don’t have to pay for this fool’s arrogance with their lives.

  “I understand you, Admiral,” she said, cutting off the communication. “More than you realize.”

  The thick silence on the bridge lasted for several seconds before Mezner spoke up. “Ma’am? We still have the Catagain on the line. Do you want me to put them through, or tell them we will contact them later?”

  Poor Mezner, Sara thought, giving the blonde woman a smile. “No, it’s fine. Just give me a minute, okay?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” she conceded, relief in her voice.

  Grimms stepped up next to her. “You all right, Captain?” he asked quietly.

  She gave him a nod and a smile. “Just fine, Commander. How long ‘til we hear back from the UHFC?”

  He looked down at his tablet. “If they don’t take too long getting the message to Admiral Franklin, and they understand the instructions Cora sent for the communications feature of the core they have, it should be twenty minutes or so.”

  Sara nodded.

  They had decided that the instant communication feature of the core was too vital not to tell Command about. Honestly, Sara wondered why she hadn’t done it sooner. It would have taken the techs on Earth years to figure out all the capabilities of the cores, unless they had by chance decided to hook up the one old core they had from colony 788 to a controller——but that core was being used as a data mine, so they would not risk installing it on a warship.

  Cora had access to the only ‘experienced’ core in the galaxy, and they were finding it to be a huge advantage, much like starting up a computer with all the software already running, instead of a fresh, out-of-the-box model, like the ones they were creating back on Earth.

  “Mezner, you can put the Catagain through now,” Sara said, smiling at her communications officer.

  “Aye, ma’am. On screen now.”

  A dour looking Reese turned to stare daggers at Sara. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Admiral Zett is in a rage over this deal you made behind our backs. He is contacting the UHFC and threatening to withdraw Elif support over your treachery,” he nearly spat.

  Sara held up a hand, stopping the tirade in its tracks. “Can it, Rodgers. I’ve already spoken to the admiral and sent my reports to Command. Throwing around words like ‘treason’ could cause you more trouble than it’s worth.”

  “Oh? And what would you call making backroom deals with the enemy?” he asked smugly.

  “I would call it ‘peace talks’. Politicians have been doing them for years.” Sara raised an eyebrow. “What’s with all the hostility, Rodgers?”

  Reese sniffed and stood tall. “I was told to watch you. You have a history of sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, and the Admirals Council has concerns. I would say this constitutes sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, wouldn’t you, Captain?”

  Sara began to laugh; she couldn’t help herself. This whole situation had gone from a tragedy to a comedy.

  Reese Rodgers didn’t think it was a laughing matter at all, however. “What is the matter with you? Don’t you see that your actions are putting humanity in danger? If we lose the support of the Elif——”

  “What?” Sara cut him off. “If we lose the support of the Elif, what? What changes? Did you see a fleet of Elif come to defend Earth when the governor’s dreadnought showed up? Did you hear the warnings of imminent attack that the Elif prince gave us? No? Oh, that’s right, they left us high and dry. The only reason Earth is not a burnt-out shell of a planet is because I scared that little shit into telling us he had sold us out to our enemies. This ship went toe to toe with a dreadnought and won, because we had to.

  “If the Elif can’t see that we just handed them a victory they could only dream of, then they’re too stupid to be of any help to us!” Sara felt her eyes bulging with rage.

  The bridges of the Raven and Catagain were both silent in the wake of her verdict.

  Reese stared at her as if she had just grown a second head, and it had begun singing. “Admiral Smith was right; you’re like a wild animal. You need to be put down,” he said, shaking his head sadly.

  Sara felt a spike of panic at his words and cut off the communication with
the swipe of a hand.

  “Cora, jump us here now!” Sara shouted, marking a location at random on the holo display.

  “Jumping,” Cora said, and the view suddenly changed to empty space.

  “Mezner, did the Catagain try to send us a message right before we jumped?” Sara asked, a gut feeling shouting to check, but hoping she was wrong.

  “Yes, ma’am. It was cut off, though,” she reported.

  To everyone’s surprise, it was Grimms who shouted, “Fuck!”

  36

  “Baxter, there is a bomb or some other device on this ship, and we need to find it now,” Sara said into her comm.

  The bridge was still reeling from Grimms’ sudden outburst, but the captain was right there with him.

  “A bomb? From the Vitas attack?” he asked in confusion.

  “No, it looks like it was slipped aboard by our own people.” She took a breath to calm herself. “I think I’ve been pushing some folks a little harder than they’d like.”

  When Baxter came back on the line, he was breathing a little heavier from running. “Enough that they would kill their War Mage? You turned the tide. You should be a hero to them.”

  “With the new War Mages being trained and instilled with an undying loyalty to the Admirals, I’m becoming more of a liability. They think they can’t control me.”

  There was a few seconds of silence before Baxter said, “Well, they can’t. That’s kind of what makes you effective.”

  Sara smiled, despite the circumstances. “While I would agree with you, there are some who are stuck in the old ways of politics where their word is law.”

  “Huh, and here I thought your word was law,” he joked, but it stung her a little.

  Shit, is that the way my people see me? As if I think I’m above the law?

  “Baxter,” Cora cut in, “whatever the device is, it had to have been loaded onto the ship when we resupplied. I’m sending you a copy of the manifest now. Get your people searching through everything. We don’t even know what they sent us.”

  Alister began pacing back and forth on her chair. “Merow,” he growled.

  Sara leaned down and raised an eyebrow. “You know where it is?”

  “Merp,” he said excitedly.

  “Is it in a storage locker?” she guessed, knowing he could only communicate ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

  However, instead of answering, he sat down and closed his eyes, becoming perfectly still. Nyx hopped over from Grimms’ chair and stared at Alister intently. Obviously he was trying to communicate, but Sara couldn’t hear anything.

  Suddenly a memory flashed in her mind. The perspective was off, so it took her a second to realize the view was from her own shoulder. It was only a split-second flash, but she immediately recognized the room.

  “The cargo bay?”

  “Merp!” he exulted, jumping up and down.

  She wracked her brain, trying to remember anything unusual that happened in the cargo bay. Then it hit her.

  “The extra crate of warheads!” she exclaimed, and Alister nearly did a flip in his excitement. She again spoke into her comm. “Baxter, inside Dropship One there’s a cargo crate strapped down in the hold. It contains what we thought was an extra shipment of warheads. Do not open it; they could have triggered it to go off when opened.”

  “Aye, Captain. What do you want us to do with it?” he asked, huffing into the comm.

  “Throw it out the bay door,” she said, as if that were the obvious option.

  “Captain, if we just throw it out, we won’t know if that was actually the bomb, or if we threw out a perfectly good case of warheads,” Grimms reasoned.

  “Shit. You’re right. We need to open that case,” Sara said, trying to come up with a plan.

  “Why don’t we just X-ray it?” Baxter asked, his voice calmer now.

  He must have reached the cargo bay, Sara thought.

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s a way better plan.”

  “I’ll have Gonders bring me a medical scanner. Last I spoke to her, she was getting a little antsy to get out of the med lab, anyway,” Baxter said, and his line went quiet as he called Gonders.

  Sara began tapping her lip and she closed her eyes in thought. Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding. Grimms and I have been looking for the devil in the bushes a little too hard… Maybe we’re just jumping to conclusions.

  “I found the crate,” Baxter reported, coming back on the line. “It looks pretty standard to me. Give me a few minutes, Gonders is on her way.”

  Grimms muted his comm and turned to Sara. “We need to know how deep this goes.”

  She muted her comm as well. “What do you mean? How deep what goes?”

  “The plot to have us blow up in an ‘accident’, or during the battle to take back the Elif home system. We need to find out who’s involved. Is it multiple people, or just Admiral Smith?” he explained, raising an eyebrow.

  Sara smiled, teeth and all. She couldn’t help it.

  Grimms gave her a sideways look. “Captain? Did I say something funny?”

  She shook her head. “No. Sorry, I just never considered that it wasn’t the entirety of the UHFC after me. I suppose I should put a little more trust in my own people.”

  “Captain,” he began, trying to sound reasonable, “the vast majority of Earth and her people see you as a hero. They don’t care that you’re bucking the system. They care that, because of you, Earth was not destroyed in the Teifen attack. You’re famous, ma’am. If whoever is behind this can’t make it look like an accident, they’re not going to try it. There would be riots in the streets if you were assassinated. You did sort of save the human race, and the people know who you are now.”

  ” ‘Assassinated’? Don’t you think that’s a bit over dramatic?” Sara asked.

  Grimms shook his head. “Not at all. That’s exactly what this is: an assassination attempt. We just happened to figure it out first.”

  Sara bit her lip and frowned. “Am I really that much of a threat?”

  Grimms frowned. “To some. But those people are not thinking of the big picture. All change comes with discomfort. Some people can handle that better than others.”

  The main view screen flipped over to Baxter’s helmet cam, giving them a view of the crate in question.

  “I’m patching in Sergeant Major Baxter’s feed, ma’am,” Mezner said, stating the obvious.

  “Thank you, Mezner. Baxter, we have your camera feed up here. Has Gonders arrived yet?” Sara asked.

  Before he could answer, Gonders ascended the ramp of the dropship, a small device in her hand. She was in black medical scrubs, probably taken in lieu of the patient’s gown she would have been wearing, and it was obvious to Sara that Gonders was favoring her left arm.

  “Howdy, Gonders. How’s the arm?” Baxter said, reaching out for the scanner.

  Gonders raised a pretty eyebrow. ” ‘Howdy’?”

  Baxter gave a short laugh. “Yeah, I tend to get a little country when I’m nervous.”

  “Seriously? That might be the weirdest nervous tic I’ve ever heard of,” Gonders said, leaning on the bulkhead behind the crate.

  “Uh, you may want to clear the area. This could go off any time,” Baxter said.

  This is like watching a bad police show, Sara thought, then laughed as she imagined Baxter delivering his tag line of ‘Howdy, put your hands up’.

  Grimms gave another raised eyebrow at her laugh, but turned back to the action before she could explain.

  “If this goes off, will it destroy the ship?” Gonders asked calmly.

  “Hell yeah it will. This is an entire crate of warheads.”

  She gave a shrug. “Then it doesn’t matter where I stand.”

  There was a tense moment, then Baxter’s camera began to bounce up and down, and a deep laugh could be heard. They watched as the camera stilled, and he began cycling through the scanner’s menu, looking for the X-ray setting. The scanner didn’t actually use X-rays—–i
nstead relying on better and safer tech—–but some terms just stick.

  Flipping on the device, Baxter began slowly sweeping the scanner over the crate. It took several minutes, but eventually he found what they were looking for.

  “Captain, I found the device. It looks like they replaced one of the warheads at the bottom with a comm relay. It looks like they also have the lid triggered. This is it. What do you want me to do with it?” he asked, disappointment thick in his voice.

  Sara felt the same way, and from the look on Gonders’ face, she was right there with them. “Get it off my ship. Throw it out the bay door, and we’ll hit it with a gauss round.”

  “Aye, ma’am.” He stood and went about looking for a hand cart. He found one strapped to the wall. “Gonders, give me a hand,” he said, tilting one side of the crate up and sliding the lip of the cart under it.

  Gonders came around and took the cart’s handle, as Baxter pushed the opposite side up, levering the crate onto the two wheels. They carefully made their way down the dropship’s ramp and turned to the bay doors.

  “Hey, hit the switch,” Baxter called out to a marine standing close to the door’s controls.

  The marine punched in the code, and the huge double doors began sliding open, a plasma shield filling the open space and holding the atmosphere in.

  “Here, I’ll take it, Gonders. You don’t have your armor on,” he pointed out as he took her place at the handles.

  As soon as he had control of the cart, he began to pick up speed. After a few quick steps, he was jogging toward the opening, the cart rolling with ease on the level bay floor. He continued running, right up until the crate and cart both rolled off the deck and out into open space.

  Baxter stopped with a bone-jarring jerk. Sara smiled when she realized he had activated his mag boots to keep from following the deadly cargo over the edge.

  “Package away, Captain,” he reported with relief.

  “Connors, put some distance between us and that crate. Hon, fire when we’re clear,” Sara ordered.