The Princess & The Privateer

by Peter Rhodan

  Gording was nodding and spoke to his Flag Lieutenant.

  “Kevan. Priority dispatch. Code Ultra. For Admiral Klugar’s eyes only. Sir. We believe there is a threat against Her Highness who has been assigned to the destroyer Thister by deliberate corruption of one or more Personnel officers. You are ordered to dispatch whichever battlecruiser you have that can sail immediately. It is to be accompanied by any smaller ships that are likewise able to sail immediately. The fleet is to follow at flank speed whatever course the Thister has taken. Unfortunately we are expecting a superior enemy will attack the Thister at some time during this voyage. And send a recall notice to the Thister as well. Communications are crap out there in the boondocks, but they may get it in time.”

  He paused, thinking about the orders, and nodded to himself.

  “By my authority, etc., and get that off now!”

  The Admiral’s aide was already busy typing. “Yes, sir!”

  Travgar turned to Lomar. “Get onto Jervios. Tell him to take his force and find Major Gundar.”

  While his aide was busy calling Jervios, Travgar commed Major Gundar himself.

  “Arno? Travgar. Got a job for you. Grab the entire ready reaction force, including a squad under Jervios, who will be joining you shortly, and head over to Naval Personnel. Seal the building and then start a search for whoever was responsible for issuing the orders Princess Gizel is operating under. Someone has deliberately changed her orders between them leaving Gording’s office and them being sent out from the Personnel office. This person or persons wwere also able to change the orders for our chaps guarding her. I want them found! And I want them alive!”

  There were muffled sounds for his comm, but he also had another thought.

  “Check who is rostered off today first thing, and have men sent to their homes to bring them in as well. Got that?” There were more muffled sounds from the comm.

  “Good man,” he said, and then nodding more to himself than anyone else then closed his comm device.

  “The Navy is about to be invaded I’m sorry Mycus.”

  Gording shrugged, his expression one of concern, more than any sign of resistance to Imperial Security stomping through a naval facility.

  “Can’t be helped. We need to get to the bottom of this business. I just don’t understand why they keep targeting the Princess and not Prince Lucas?”

  Travgar shook his head. “I don’t either. It makes no sense at all. And why the huge time gap. You’d think if they were serious about killing or getting control of her they would have acted again before now. Perhaps being in the Naval Academy made it too hard for them to get to her, but you’d think they would have tried something when she was traveling to Krestar Station. Rather than whatever this somewhat complicated plan they currently have is trying to achieve. Even if the Thister suffers some accident out there, surely they must realize that the change of orders will come to light, which will immediately set off alarm bells!”

  The Admiral stared off into the distance for a moment.

  “I would think it was some sort of nefarious plot to blacken the Navy’s name, but that seems a little too baroque!” He stopped staring and a crease appeared in his forehead as some other thought occurred to him. “Have you told their Majesties yet?”

  Travgar looked like he had bitten into something sour. “No. I needed to check with you about the orders first. Damn, another fine mess. I am not going to enjoy heading back to the Palace I can assure you!”

  Gording nodded. “Better you than me old man, even if the mole was in Naval Personnel. Hopefully, you can get a line on who is pulling the strings. It’s just so, I don’t know, bizarre, oblique or, I don’t even know what the hell it is!”

  He scratched his head, which was rapidly thinning of hair. The few remaining strands would turn a whiter shade of grey after this treasonous act.

  Travgar nodded in agreement.

  “We shall have to wait and see what, or who, my men can find out. Damn. Your ships will be a long way behind the Thister won’t they?”

  “Yes. Damn it all. They will gain rapidly mind you, at flank speed going jump to jump, as opposed to the Thister, who would be cruising from point to point, and possibly calling in at the odd planet as well. Even so I doubt the cavalry will arrive in time to do much more than comb the wreckage!”

  Travgar slumped, knowing the Admiral was almost certainly correct. Then a thought occurred to him and he turned to his aide.

  “Can I borrow your pad for a moment, Johan?”

  The young officer looked surprised but yielded the pad almost immediately. Travgar turned back to the Admiral.

  “Roughly where is the Thister supposed to be patrolling?”

  Gording looked at D’Armand. “Any ideas Kevan?”

  The Lieutenant shook his head.

  “Give me a moment to check operational requirements for anything special that matches their departure time, but if they are just on a routine patrol I will need to contact Second Fleet operations to find out precisely.”

  He looked down at his pad for a few minutes tapping away at it without a lot of enthusiasm.

  “Hmm,” he offered after a lengthy period. “Second Fleet was asked to send a ship to patrol out past the fringes in a coordinated sweep with the Brythons. Given the timing, my guess is that the Thister would be the ship we’d send. There do not seem to be any other sailings close enough to that of the Thister to be more likely. I imagine Klugar will know and he will direct the fleet wherever they are most likely to find the Thister. Two weeks late, unfortunately.”

  He was starting to sound annoyed. This whole thing was going to reflect badly on the Navy and especially on him, as the aide to the Admiral of Home Fleet.

  “Any idea what systems they were heading to out on the fringe?” Travgar asked patiently.

  “Do we have any info on that patrol request Kevan?” the Admiral asked his aide.

  The aide tapped his pad a few times.

  “If that is indeed the mission she was sent on we agreed to have one of our ships patrol out to a system called Bamma, which is one of our friends, and meet the Brython patrol coming the other way at a system called Holdfast. There is some pirate activity out that way and our aid was requested, likewise the Brythons, so we are jointly patrolling. Diplomats came up with this mission of course.” He finished with a disparaging tone. It sounded very much like he was using Diplomats as a swear word. This was a common trait amongst all branches of the military.

  Travgar began typing into the pad he had purloined.

  “Let me just check something.” he said while tapping away.

  Okay, he thought to himself, that mercenary ship we use occasionally is over near Iskander space so that’s out, what about … ah, hmm no current position, but their last noted position was not that many systems away. The others watched him, brows creased as he tapped away at the pad wondering what he was up to. He sent a message to that ship, as high a priority as he could over the normal network, then looked up and shook his head slightly, finding the others studying him.

  “Just trying a long shot. It may prove to be an inside draw and most likely nothing will come of it.”

  He and the Admiral occasionally played poker at the Callaghan Club.

  “All right, I don’t think there is much more we can do here. My lads will be locking down Naval Personnel any time soon, so you should probably head back to your office to handle all the complaints!” he smiled at the Admiral who nodded ruefully.

  Gording sighed. “Maybe today is the day I do a surprise inspection of the Fleet Munitions works. Hmmm. Sounds like a good idea.”

  Travgar smiled at the Admiral’s words. The Fleet Munitions works were on the moon of the sixth planet out and was highly restricted. A good place to hide from his subordinates!

  “Yes, well, I on the other hand have to go to the Palace and face their Majesties!”

  He stood up and began to turn away, then turned back.

  “ImpSec will pay
for today.”

  Admiral Gording acknowledged this with a wave of his hand.

  “Appreciated. We will no doubt be in touch regularly over this.”

  Travgar nodded. “Oh yes. I imagine we will be seeing a lot more of each other over the next few weeks as we deal with this disaster. Probably when we’re chained to opposite walls in the same cell in the Palace dungeons.”

  Gording snorted and they split up, he to get back to his office at Naval headquarters and Travgar to fix up the bill and then head for the Palace. Given the failure of ImpSec to resolve the previous attack on the Princess he was pretty sure his reception would be rather frosty. He wasn’t to be disappointed!

  Chapter 18

  Cavalry of a sort

  Karvon Alistair looked at the seemingly innocuous message on his screen, which he had just received. It contained the code words for a high-priority signal embedded in the message. The message had arrived at the ship almost as soon as their identity had been registered upon their arrival in the Vegas system. The Kormorant was en route to the planet with a load of high-tech gambling machine updates that needed to be hand installed into the machines on the planet. The Vegas system was the gambling capital of the known galaxy and the planet Lucky Strike was almost totally dependent on the hordes of punters who came to the planet hoping for that big score!

  The ship was traveling under her Blue Sky identity at the moment, one of the main ones they used when not on covert missions. Karvon’s mail server on Brython would have re-routed the message to the ship, automatically changing the delivery address to match the ship's current identity. The system he had in place worked well, except it relied on him sending a code to the mail server to change the delivery point of the messages to the name of the ship they had decided to operate under at the time, and sometimes he forgot!

  The security of packages like the gambling machine updates was a serious issue. The casinos used both overt and covert means to protect their profits and the casino bosses were not afraid to use deadly force when needed. The system was located just outside Kimerian and Brython space but had close ties to both polities. Regular junkets from planets in both realms were run by the casino operators as well as several independent operators. There was even an indirect route to Lotharian space which boosted the tourist numbers even more.

  Big Tony’s was the name of the orbiting space station they were head to. It was named after the man who had first seen the advantages of a planet devoted to gambling, and it was Tony who had opened the first casino for gullible tourists. People certainly got their money’s worth on the planet, with nightclubs, dinner shows, even free public performances, and other special events all paid for by the Combined Casino Operators Guild. Ultimately though the aim was to separate the punters from as much of their money as possible during their stay.

  The crew of the Kormorant had been looking forward to a week of relaxation and downtime after this latest cargo run to the planet. This was a trip they had done a couple of times before. The ship’s reputation for speed and security making them one of the go-to carriers for highly sensitive material, such as the gaming machine updates. It was these occasional but high-paying and legally above-board shipments that were the icing on the cake financially and they also made a nice change from the more clandestine activities the ship often engaged in. Karvon’s tab deciphered the embedded coded message and he stared at the small screen for a long time.

  They had been asked to help find a Kimerian destroyer of all things! The request had come to him personally, straight from Baron Travgar, head of Imperial Security on Kimeria! What the hell was going on? The crew had all gathered in the communal lounge room at his request. All apart from Andreas Vorburg, who Karvon had left on the flight deck keeping an eye on things as they headed towards the planet. Being an officer in the Kimerian Imperial Security forces he felt Andreas was the obvious choice to miss the meeting.

  Once everyone was seated, he smiled at their wary expressions. Communal meetings were rare, to say the least, and they never ended with good news.

  “Now, I know you were all looking forward to a holiday on Lucky Strike, but I have received a priority request from no lesser person than the head of Kimerian Imperial Security, Baron Travgar himself, personally asking for our help.”

  Corrine and Moxton groaned, and Krevis shook his head looking glum.

  “Knew it. Got my new crack for the Big Rotation machines all set to go, too!”

  Lothar snorted. “Probably good zing we have new job zen, before you get us all arrested!”

  The others sort of smiled. There was too much potential truth in that statement to be truly amusing.

  Krevis didn’t look impressed with this comment, or the response of his shipmates.

  “Ye of little faith. I could have made our fortunes!”

  “Increased our criminal records more likely!” Came over the intercom from Andreas on the bridge.

  “Everyone’s a critic.” Krevis moaned.

  Karvon smiled and broke in before the banter could continue.

  “As this is a personal request from the Baron, I feel we should expedite matters at Big Tony’s and get out of here as soon as we can.”

  He looked around at his crew seeing if anyone was really going to object to missing their downtime on the casino planet. Apart from Krevis, that is. He ran a pretty odd, easy-going operation, but ultimately he was the Captain and he made the final decisions. Generally, his crew, being highly trained security professionals, agreed with his decisions.

  Lothar looked over at him raising his eyebrows.

  “Personal request eh? What does he want us to do?”

  Karvon pulled up the controller for the screen on the far wall that they used mostly for entertainment and switched it on to a blank screen.

  “Kondar, show the star map for the region around the Holdfast system.”

  The ship’s new computer that they’d purchased at Nordland had been installed two months earlier. It was a semi AI one, it was not quite fully self-aware, but it was the closest to true sentience that the Kimeria Accord permitted computer builders to make available. The human race that lived in this area had not enjoyed the development of fully self-aware computers and had banned both the further development of AI and also use of them. Every state enforced the ban with draconian measures. Their ship’s new computer was about as advanced as was allowed, cost as much as a small starship, and operated under the name Kondar.

  A star map on the screen appeared, highlighting the Holdfast system.

  “Ok people our task is simple. Somewhere out there is a Kimerian destroyer on a routine patrol, part pirate hunting, part public relations. It is heading to the Holdfast system where it is supposed to meet up with a Brython patrol coming from the other direction. It will be coming up this chain here.”

  He stood and moved over to the screen, pointing at the chain of jump points leading to Bamma and then Holdfast.

  “As you can see, if we cut across here, we can jump through these unclaimed systems and pop up in the Holdfast system without anyone realizing we are there until the last minute. From there we can backtrack towards Victoria until we find the Kimerian destroyer.”

  They all studied the map for a few moments. Krevis studied Karvon's expression.

  “I can see you are expecting trouble, and the head of Kimerian Imperial Security wouldn’t have sent a personal message if he didn’t think the matter was real serious, so care to tell us what’s so important about this particular destroyer?” Krevis asked.

  The others echoed his question with their expressions.

  Karvon shook his head.

  “I don’t know,” he saw their expressions. “Honestly. The message only said that it was of utmost importance that we intercept her and transmit a coded message that accompanied the one I received. Why they can’t message her directly themselves is the bit I don’t understand.”

  Krevis considered this, looked at the map, and frowned.

  “Communi
cations are a bit spotty out there. It is quite possible that messages may need to be relayed by cargo ships traveling between a few of the inhabited systems, or some such. There probably isn’t any direct communication through those empty systems. Wouldn’t be the only fringe area where the dedicated communications buoys are only in the inhabited systems. On the other hand, the Kimerians may not want someone to know they are sending a message to the ship. This is an Imperial Security operation so it may not even be a Navy matter at all. Perhaps there is a foreign spy aboard the ship or something.”

  Karvon nodded at Krevis but frowned at the map again.

  “It just seems odd to me. Anyway, they are paying, and generously I might add, so we will offload our cargo as fast as we can, and then charge off into the night. Any questions? No? Good. Let’s eat. Who’s on kitchen duty?” he looked around and saw all the fingers were pointing at him.

  “Damn,” he muttered.

  Then he shrugged in resignation and headed for the food preparation area as the others laughed.

  Chapter 19

  Doing the Royal duty thing

  The Thister entered the Victoria system without incident and headed for the main habitable planet, which was called New Melbourne. Just to confuse everybody the capital city was called Melbourne. This was slightly different from a lot of planets that simply used the planet name plus the word city for the capital or main city. Such as Rathage City on the planet Rathage.

  The system appeared to be nothing special, the six planets being made up of three gas giants, one in a close-in orbit, a large frozen world as the outermost planet, and two human-sized between the close-in gas giant and the innermost of the other two gas giants. There was an asteroid field between the close-in gas giant and the inner, very hot more Earth-sized planet and another between the two outer gas giants. Working on the inner asteroid belt would be difficult she decided, being that close to the star. Both the two human-sized planets had small moons with New Melbourne having two smallish ones. New Melbourne had been discovered by the freelance exploration ship Grondar, a hundred years or so earlier and was claimed by one of the crew who had decided it was time to retire.