by Rachel Ford
He glanced around the room, to the transmitter. It had stopped broadcasting, and receiving. Just as well. He’d have one of the bridge officers send parliament a brief update. This fiasco would have to be rescheduled for after the resolution of the new one.
“Sir,” Kerel’s voice came over the line, higher and more urgent.
“Ensign?” He picked up the pace.
“I’m seeing ships, sir. On the sensors. Coming for us.”
Son of a bitch. “Copy that. How many? Do we know whose they are? And what we’re dealing with?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t tell. There’s…some kind of dampening effect on our sensors. None of the readings are clear. They keep fluctuating.”
“Did the mines get our sensor grid?”
“No sir. I…I don’t know what’s going on. Engineering is working on it, but…” She seemed at a loss for words.
Elgin broke into a run. “Do you have visual confirmation of the incoming ships yet?”
“Not yet.”
“As soon as you do, tell me.”
“Copy that.”
Chapter Fourteen
Governor Nees smiled as Tig stepped into her breakfast room. From the corner of her eye, she saw Tal roll his eyes. She ignored him, though, like she ignored the way her heart seemed to skip a beat at the sight of Tig. “Hey you. What are you doing here? Don’t you have work today?”
“I did, but I picked up Farell’s weekend shifts the other week, so he owed me one.” He glanced at the seat opposite her. “Can I join you?”
“Of course.” She flushed a little. He wasn’t one to ask, and she wasn’t one to forget her manners. She wasn’t sure of what to think of that. Had one walk in the moonlight, a little while in his company, talking about their lives and where they’d been and where they wanted to go, really changed their dynamic? Hell, they hadn’t even held hands. They’d brushed shoulders, and walked close as the evening chill set in. How was it possible to be so affected by something so straightforward and unprepossessing? “Do you, uh, want anything to eat?”
Tig shook his head as he took his seat. “I’m not hungry.”
“Coffee, then?”
Here, he nodded. “That, I’ll never say ‘no’ to.” He reached for the carafe at the same time she did, saying, “But I can get it.”
She froze as their fingers met, each wrapping around the handle. For a moment, so did he, his eyes locked on hers. Her stomach seemed to do backflips, and she was too surprised by the reaction to take herself to task for behaving like a teenager.
She cleared her throat and pulled her hand away, saying, “Sorry.”
“No worries.” He smiled. “It’s just, coffee’s my specialty, remember?”
She grinned too. “That’s right.”
A low sigh sounded from the corner of the room, and Tal Imari cleared his throat. “Governor, I’m going to do a perimeter sweep.”
“Oh. Uh, okay.”
“Hey Tal,” Tig greeted her head of security.
“Hey Tig. Imagine running into you here.”
She felt her cheeks color at the words, and saw the same effect in her companion’s. Good gods. Blushes were for teenagers and lovers. She was neither. She was a mature woman of good sense, with far too much on her plate to be dragged into any such nonsense. Adopting a brusquer tone, she glanced back at her breakfast, and asked, “What can I do for you today, Tig?”
“Oh.” He shuffled in his seat. “Well, uh, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go for another walk. Or maybe a drive.”
“I’ve got a pretty full schedule today.”
“I know you’re busy,” he said. “But maybe over lunch?”
There was something so hopeful in the question – and something in her so inclined to say ‘yes’ – that she glanced up. That was a mistake, because his eyes were fixed on her, and they were a tender sheen of green in lieu of the usual golds. “I…I think that would work.”
Breakfast passed quickly after that. Indeed, it moved so quickly she barely made it to her first meeting on time. As soon as she was in her office, though, the morning seemed to drag. Now and then over the months, she’d considered taking a less hands on approach to her work. She had staff who helped filter the contracts that landed on her desk. But her philosophy had always been that the more crucial the task, the more important direct oversight was. And what could be more crucial than a smooth transition to independence?
She still maintained that there was wisdom in that philosophy. But, trying to force her mind on task, trying to force her eyes – and brain – to attend to the endless legalese before her, she wondered if, perhaps, there wasn’t some room for flexibility in her stance after all.
Captain Elgin stepped onto a bridge thrown into disarray. He saw injuries like his own – bruises and cuts – but he saw something far more serious: confusion.
“Captain on the bridge,” someone called.
“As you were. Status report.”
“Sir, engines are not responding,” a voice called.
“We lost power after hitting the mines.”
“Still no change with the sensors, sir. Time to intercept with unknown ships: six minutes.”
It was pandemonium, but Elgin took it in stride. The fact was, he preferred this kind of atmosphere to the one he’d come from minutes earlier. He’d take a firefight over politics any day of the week. And he felt in his gut that a firefight was exactly what lay in store.
“Engineering,” he said, tapping his comm, “I want a full status report.
“Tactical, what did we hit?
“Lieutenant Dagir, I need you on the sensors. Tell me what the hell’s going on: why can’t we see what’s out there?
“I need a damage report.
“Vor, get word to parliament, let them know that we’ll have to pick up where we left off some other time.
“And bridge? Prepare for battle stations.”
A flurry of yessirs preceded the answers he needed. The damage report came first. “No structural damage. We lost power in engines three and five, and we’re registering reduced output in two and four. We’re at about sixty percent capacity, sir.”
“Some injuries reported on decks four and five. No casualties.”
Lieutenant Commander Gul at tactical offered, “We struck unknown munitions, sir. They avoided detection on any of our sensors. Moderate payload, enough to scuttle a freighter or a merchant ship. But not enough to do more than put a dent in the Supernova.”
“Was it a targeted attack? Or did we happen to get lucky, and step in it.”
“Unknown, but my guess is that it was targeted. Those ships showed as soon as we took the hit. That can’t be a coincidence.”
“Captain,” Vor piped up, “I can’t get through to Central. I can’t tell if they’re getting the signal and not responding, or if something’s blocking us.”
“Engineering here,” another voice came on the line before he had a chance to respond. “We are reading no physical damage to the engines, sir.”
Elgin frowned. “Engineering, repeat.”
“No physical damage to the engines. Captain, whatever took down three and five – it wasn’t those mines.”
“Sir,” Kerel’s voice cut in. “I just lost access to engine four. It’s nonresponsive.”
“Engineering, what the hell is going on?”
“Sir,” Lieutenant Kulari’s voice came on the line, “Kulari here. Vitre’s right: that blast was not enough to knock out our engines.”
Vitre was an ensign in the engineering department, and though Elgin didn’t know him well, he knew him to be competent. Still, having this confirmed by Kulari made his blood run a little colder. “So if it wasn’t the mines…what are we dealing with? And how could that timing be a coincidence?”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence, Captain. We have very limited sensor data from the explosion – our whole grid has been compromised. But I don’t think the mines were meant to hurt us.”
> Elgin felt his brows knitting. “Explain.”
“They’re a distraction, Captain. The real attack wasn’t physical. It’s a cyber-attack. I think they hit our system with some kind of virus. And the explosion is meant to throw us off track.”
Chapter Fifteen
Two minutes had passed since Kulari’s report. Dagir and his team confirmed the engineer’s theory. “Sir, right before the explosion, we picked up some kind of transmission from Omicron Station.” Omicron was the unmanned surveillance and relay space station to which they were headed. It was still a good six or so hours away.
“What kind of transmission?”
“I don’t know for sure. Half our systems are down, now. It’s going to take hours probably before I can parse it. But I suspect it was an instruction.”
“To the Supernova’s computer system?”
“Yessir.”
“So why the farce with the mines?”
“So we’ll spin our wheels. And maybe it’s not for our benefit at all. Maybe it’s for Central’s, so they won’t realize what he’s capable of.”
“He? You mean, Lenksha.”
The other man nodded. “I can’t think who else, sir.”
Neither could Elgin. No one else would be capable of pulling off a plan like this – hacking the empire’s own defenses to use against her, crippling the Supernova with a single remote command, and deploying cloaked armaments in some madcap scheme into the bargain? No, this was no pirate or lone, disgruntled defector. This was someone with as many resources as brains.
It had to be Lenksha, and he’d operated under the assumption since he realized that.
Lt. Kulari was running accelerated diagnostics on the ship’s command and control modules, trying to locate and isolate recent changes.
Lt. Dagir and his crew had started a tiered reboot of the weapons systems. “It’s a manual process. I need to take each station offline one at a time, and do a complete reset. It’ll take about ninety seconds per station, sir. We’ll pull the targeting builds straight from locked storage, so any changes since launch date will be wiped. But so will any customized user settings, targeting programs – anything like that. They’re all going to go.”
That, though, was the only way to truly wipe any malicious code that might have been injected into the weapons systems. Elgin gave the order to do it.
The bridge crew were working on their own systems, restoring what could be restored in the timeframe they had left, and trying to figure out how to work with the rest of it. Elgin refrained from pacing the deck only with an effort. “Vor, where are we at with communication to Central?”
“Working on it, sir.”
“Any luck on clearing up our sensor reads?”
“No sir. Nothing yet.”
Godsdammit. They were sitting ducks, with half their engines down, weapons systems hamstrung, and no way to warn people back home about what the enemy was capable of. There had been no disappearances of fleet ships. That meant the Supernova was the first hit, Lenksha’s trial run – his bloody proof of concept. And if the admiral could succeed here, he could cripple the entire fleet anytime, anywhere. He could strike when they least expected it. He could carve a bloody path through the Tribari military, straight to the home world itself. “Central needs to know what’s happening here.”
“Yes sir,” Vor said.
He didn’t want to hound the other man. But more important than anything, even their own survival, was alerting the rest of the fleet, alerting parliament, to what they were up against.
“Sir,” Kerel’s voice sounded. “I’ve got visuals on the incoming vessels.”
“Onscreen.”
“Copy that.”
A moment later, and Captain Elgin found himself staring at a trio of Tribari starships. Well fuck.
“Time to intercept is one minute and fifty seconds, Captain.”
“Understood. Dagir, how are we coming on those tac stations?”
“We’ve got about half of them done, sir.”
Elgin nodded. That would be enough for his crew complement anyway. In better days, a starship prepared for battle would be manned by a force twice as large. But when swaths of the military up and defected, or, worse, turned on the empire, you took what you got. And fortunately, he’d gotten some damned fine men and women. Not as many as he would have liked, but enough. “Finish what you’re working on. Then get to the hangar. I want you and your squadron in the air.”
“Copy.”
“Gul and Zatar, I’m sure our friends over there are banking on us not being able to fire. Hopefully, Dagir’s taken care of that. But hold your fire until I give the word. I do not want them to know we figured it out.”
“Yessir.”
“Aye-aye.”
They didn’t have many advantages right now. They were three-to-one, with half their engines down, and no way to signal about their plight. The only thing they had going for them was that they’d caught on in enough time – that, and the hope that the enemy didn’t realize it yet.
“Have we ID’ed the incoming ships yet?”
“Negative, sir. They’re flying completely silent.”
“Alright. Then-”
Elgin broke off as a holographic transmission sprung to life from the central bridge’s hologenerator. Admiral Lenksha appeared, rendered in ghostly blue-greys, glancing around his deck.
He threw a glance at the comm station, and Vor scrambling furiously to figure out how Lenksha had managed to project without requesting or being granted access to the system. “Cut the comm.”
“Yes sir.”
Lenksha offered a supercilious sneer, and spoke. “He can try, Elgin, but it won’t work. You may have noticed: some of your systems are down.”
The satisfaction in the admiral’s voice rankled, but he forced a placid demeanor. “I take it we have you to thank for that? Those were your mines?”
Lenksha’s lips twitched. Elgin didn’t miss the expression, but he did manage to contain his own. The admiral didn’t realize that they’d already figured it out, then. “That’s right.”
“So what the hell are you doing on my bridge?”
“Giving your crew a chance to surrender. I remember the complement onboard the Supernova. There’s some good men and women there. I’d hate to see them answer for your crimes.”
Ensign Vor glanced up now, catching the captain’s eye. It was a subtle move, but Elgin took his meaning. It meant he was ready to cut the comms. He lifted a finger, ever so slightly, to signal a pause. “Let me make a counteroffer, Admiral: surrender yourself, so your men don’t have to answer for your treason. Velk is dead. The old regime is fallen. Whatever you’re fighting for, it’s not the empire. Now, you’re just fighting the empire.”
Lenksha’s smile hardened. “Oh, I’m not there, Drake. I’m on my way…” He spread his hands. “Well, never mind the details. Suffice it to say, there’s more in motion than you know. I’m sorry you decided to play it this way, though. I’d really like for you to see all your treason come undone. I’d like you to see that old regime rise again, and all your traitors strung up.” His smile broadened a little. “Well, we can’t have everything. You’re about to meet some true sons of the empire. And then, you’ll meet the gods.”
Elgin signaled for Vor to cut the connection. He’d heard enough.
The blue gray figure disappeared mid-sentence, and the ensign said, “Sorry, sir. Looks like they used an old set of imperial keys to access the display network. I locked them out.”
“Good.” Now, Elgin punched in the command to open a system-wide broadcast channel. “Crew, this is the Captain. Admiral Lenksha’s forces are mobilized. The attack we’ve been waiting for: it’s here. We’re about to meet three starships, and there are more en route to Central. It is imperative that we win this fight, and get word back home.
“The fleet needs to know what’s happening. And the only way that happens is if we survive.
“This is the moment, ladies and gen
tlemen: every oath you’ve taken, every vow you made. It was all leading to here, now. Either we win this fight, or the empire falls.
“We will win this fight.”
Chapter Sixteen
Nees had cancelled her meetings for the day. Her head wasn’t quite in the game today, and the fresh air, she decided, would help clear it. She’d be that much readier tomorrow, or this evening – whenever she and Tig got back.
They were still sitting in her car, and her head was far from clear. She’d chosen to drive herself today rather than engage autopilot. He was in the passenger seat beside her, and though she’d parked already, they’d been sitting here for the last half hour, talking about everything and nothing.
“Ari?” Tig said now, and his voice was low.
“Hm?” She glanced up at him, and was again surprised to see the warm, affectionate greens of his eyes peering down at her. She was surprised by the fluttering of her stomach at the sight, too.
“Can I kiss you?”
“I barely know you, Tig,” she objected, with less resistance in her tone than she’d intended.
“Is that a ‘no’?”
“No,” she admitted. “It’s not.” Of course it wasn’t. It was insane. She was insane. She was the governor of Trapper’s Colony, with the future of the planet waiting for her back at her desk. And instead of tending to that, she was in a car in the middle of nowhere with an ex-con she’d only met two months ago, give or take. Sure, there were extenuating circumstances to his situation. Certainly, she didn’t make a habit of playing truant. But still, if she’d heard those bare facts about anyone else, she would have thought them mad.
Hell, she thought herself mad too. But right now, she wasn’t thinking. Right now, she was lost in the warmth of his eyes, lost to the sensation of his nearness and how positively giddy it made her feel.
“Good,” he said, a moment before their lips met. He was hesitant and a little awkward at first, but it didn’t matter. The contact of his skin on hers was enough to set her heart dancing. And he found his stride quickly enough, and Nees found she enjoyed the experience even more.
