by D. M. Pruden
“I’ll bet the relatives of Hitler or Stalin wished people thought that way. I’ll trust your judgement, Cora.” His brow creased as another thought developed. “If it was Stromm, then our people are in the hands of a man capable of doing anything. They are in grave danger.”
“What should we do?”
“Right now, we can’t do anything. Scimitar is undermanned and hardly in a position to mount a rescue operation.”
“So what’s going to happen?” she asked.
“We are going to proceed with our mission: find the erganium and get this ship’s FTL back online. After that, we might have a better idea of what happened to Pavlovich and the others.” Thoughts of Stella flashed across his mind, and his stomach tied into a knot.
“Perhaps I’m wrong and the villain is Malkovich, and not Stromm,” said Cora. “Maybe they are in the best hands possible.”
“I hope so. But you’re right about one thing. There is definitely a monster on the loose in this system, and we will come up against him soon enough.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
A Game of Chess
“WHAT ARE WE going to do?”
“Not so loud,” said Pavlovich. He appeared untroubled, his chair tilted on its back legs and his feet perched on the top of the table.
Stella was aware, however, of the emotional turmoil the captain tried to conceal. Her eyes searched the small, sparse room they were confined in.
“Are they watching us?”
“Of course. They spied on us during the trip.” He lowered his feet to the floor and leaned forward. “Damn! Ten years away made me addle-brained.”
“Listening in on others’ conversation isn’t something normal people do.”
“It was common. You always had to watch what you said aboard another ship.” He shook his head. “How could I have forgotten that crap?”
She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you just learned to trust people.”
He patted her hand. “Yeah, well, I won’t be making that mistake again.” He looked up to the ceiling as if ensuring his message was clear to those who eavesdropped on them.
They fell into silence. Stella sat on the only other chair in the room on the opposite side of the table.
“What is going to happen to us?” she asked.
Pavlovich shrugged.
She sighed. “Sometimes I wish I was a telepath.”
“It would be a handy skill at the moment.”
His eyelids narrowed, and he studied her closely. “But you’ve been known to be...influential on large groups, with your own particular gift.”
Stella frowned, unsure to what he referred. “You are the persuasive one. The way you convinced me—” She caught herself before she mentioned Hayden’s name.
The captain smiled at her conspiratorially. “Yes, but not like you—not like at Mu Arae. You had the entire crew under your spell at one point.” He raised his eyebrow slightly.
Stella realized he was attempting to speak in code, but she was at a loss as to what it might be. Then it came to her.
Pavlovich referred to a time when she had less control over her empathic ability; a time when she inadvertently incapacitated most of Scimitar’s crew because they all had active LINK modules in their heads.
She scowled at him. “I told you I won’t do that.”
He stared at her, unconvinced.
“Besides,” she said, “I don’t know if I could...persuade enough people for it to help us. And even if I could, what good would it do?”
“It isn’t something to try at the moment, but when the opportunity presents itself, I trust you’ll consider it?”
“I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all I ask.”
Another silence fell between them. Stella scrutinized Pavlovich as his wandering gaze seemed to examine every corner of the room.
“Well, I suppose there is only one thing that we can do,” he said. He spoke loudly into the air. “I’ll just have to inform Stromm that I know where he can find Cesar Malkovich.”
“You do?” whispered Stella.
He nodded.
“But why would you do that?”
He lowered his voice. “You’ll see.”
She didn’t have to wait long before the door to the room opened and a junior officer stepped in. As the door closed, she caught a glimpse of the armed guard who remained outside.
“Captain Pavlovich, will you please accompany me? General Stromm has some questions for you.”
“What about my XO?”
“I’ve been sent only for you.”
Pavlovich shrugged. “I’m not going anywhere without her.”
“Sir, neither of you are prisoners.”
“Oh, my apologies. I tend to think that way when I am locked inside a windowless room for a period of time. She’s with me, or Stromm can come here.”
The young man regarded Pavlovich for a few seconds before turning his attention to Stella. After a brief moment, his smile sagged, and he sighed. “Very well. Will you both come with me to see the general?”
Pavlovich’s smug grin matched the satisfaction Stella read from him. “We would be delighted. Please lead on.”
They followed the man through the door. Two armed soldiers fell in step behind them. The officer who led them through the labyrinthine corridors of Stromm’s headquarters seemed pensive. Even without her empathic ability, Stella could tell he and the guards were nervous.
After a long walk, they passed through a security checkpoint, where they were handed over to two different men. Though not as well armed as the previous escort, they still displayed a high degree of vigilance. She noticed an increase in the tension of every person they encountered as they approached what she assumed to be Stromm’s inner sanctum. She could not help but wonder what put so many on edge.
Double doors opened to a large office where Stromm and Kovacs were hunched over a table, studying something. Both men looked up, but only the general smiled. The other man maintained a stony visage. Though she tried to read him, she was surprised that she could detect no emotional leakage from the man. She’d never encountered anyone from whom she could not sense at least rudimentary emotions.
“Please, come in,” said Stromm in an inviting tone. “Can I get you anything? I have some exceptional brandy, Yegor.”
“Just water,” said Pavlovich as he sat, uninvited, on one of the comfortable-looking chairs around the table. “We didn’t get much to drink during our confinement.”
Stromm seemed to be surprised. “What do you know of this, Kovacs?”
“A standard security precaution. It seemed reasonable given recent events, don’t you think?”
Pavlovich arched an eyebrow. “Having troubles, Ullie?”
The general invited Stella to take a seat then assumed one of his own. Kovacs remained standing, one hand resting on the sidearm at his belt. He said, “We’ve had a series of incursions into our headquarters over the past few weeks. There have been a few close calls.”
“That explains your security,” said Pavlovich. “What happened?”
Kovacs studied him, as if weighing the wisdom of saying anything. “We recently discovered Malkovich’s agent among our people.”
“A sleeper?”
“Yes.” Stromm rolled up his sleeve to reveal an ugly, recent scar. “My own chief of staff did this to me two months ago.”
“Holy shit, Ullie. You need to give your people a pay increase.”
Kovacs scowled at him. “It is hardly a laughing matter.”
Pavlovich nodded. “You believed we might be agents for Malkovich?”
“You, or members of your crew.”
“I take it they are all confined?”
“Until we can vet them.”
“But Yegor has been outside of this system since he left Mu Arae,” said Stromm to Kovacs. “It is not plausible that he is involved with the rebels.”
“He is related to Malkovich. They are cousins.”
&nb
sp; “If you are going to condemn a man because of his genetics, we know from history where that goes.”
Stella did not detect any of the expected emotional variance from Stromm in his defence of Pavlovich. She was convinced that they played out a well-rehearsed scene. It was no coincidence that they had been removed from that cell the moment the captain mentioned he was prepared to betray his relative.
“We may be cousins, but that doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
“Easy words to say,” said Kovacs. “Without access to your ship’s comm logs, we are forced to take your word that you have not been in communication with him. That situation will soon be rectified, however. What will we discover, I wonder?”
Pavlovich crossed his arms and put his feet on the table. “I’ll save you the trouble. I contacted Cesar when I entered the system, the same as I did you, Ullie.”
“I knew it!” Kovacs undid the clasp of his sidearm holster.
Stromm signalled him to calm down. “Explain yourself, Yegor.”
“It’s simple, really. I had no idea what the situation was. To the best of my knowledge, the old government was still in place and Kwong still in charge of the fleet. I first reached out to him because, well, he may be an asshole, but he is family. He gave me his version of what happened, and, frankly, knowing him as I do, I thought it smelled hinky. So I contacted you.”
“You led us into an ambush,” Kovacs said. “One that cost me three good ships.”
“It seems to me that Cesar lost a few more than you. It couldn’t be helped. I thought I’d let you guys demonstrate who was the stronger before I declared myself.”
“You always were one to hedge your bets,” said Stromm.
“The one thing that had me confused was what you boys thought so special about my ship. Why risk so many of your own for an old tub like Scimitar? Then you tipped me off when we met, Ullie. You and Cesar both knew about our encounter with the Glenatat.”
“We suspected you had some kind of advanced weaponry; maybe something that can end this bloody war, once and for all.”
“And it does.”
Stella’s mouth fell open. Besides her own emotional upheaval, the only other person from whom she detected a reaction was Stromm. Pavlovich appeared as calm as ever and Kovacs remained unreadable.
“You’re only telling us now because our ship has almost arrived at yours,” sneered Kovacs. “You are just trying to curry favour and save your ass.”
“Not only mine, but my crew’s, too.”
Stromm smiled. “What’s your play? What do you have up your sleeve, Yegor?”
He grinned. “In addition to weapons, Scimitar has a pretty sweet security AI. Anyone who sets foot on her decks without my authorization will be a steaming lump of protoplasm before they leave the airlock.”
“So what?” said Kovacs. “We’ll tow her back here.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
“What do you want, Yegor?” asked Stromm.
“I want my ship back, along with my people. I knew you wouldn’t simply return them to me, so, I am offering to help end your little disagreement with Cesar.”
“That’s it?” Amusement danced in Stromm’s eyes. Stella did not like what she saw.
“You could spend several months, and possibly even hack into Scimitar’s systems,” said Pavlovich, “but I’m betting you don’t have that kind of time, do you?”
Stromm and Kovacs exchanged a knowing look.
Pavlovich smiled. “Ullie, you never could play poker worth shit. Put us back on Scimitar. We’ll use our weaponry and take out Cesar’s base.”
“And what do you want out of this?”
“We get the freedom to go wherever we want when this is over. I’ll make you king, and you’ll let us go.”
“What will prevent you from turning your weapons on us?”
“Ullie, it’s one vessel. A powerful one, but still a single ship. Besides, I expect you’ll want to put some babysitters aboard to keep an eye on us. I understand that.”
“You’ve given me an interesting offer,” said Stromm as he signalled the guards who had remained by the door. “We will discuss it and get back to you.”
Pavlovich stood, smiling confidently. “Don’t take too long. I don’t think Cesar is going to give you much time to dwell on it.”
After their escort had returned them to the windowless room and left, Stella whispered, “Why did you tell them about the weapons? I read Stromm like a book. He didn’t know anything about them until you blabbed about it.”
He smiled. “I had to sell it. Now, they have no choice but to take us back to Scimitar, and once there, we can find out what they are really after.”
“And what about the others still out there? What happens when that repair ship arrives?”
“Presumably, Stromm will signal them to hang around and wait. I just hope your boyfriend has the good sense not to blow them out of the skies. If he does, we will definitely have a problem.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Best of Poor Choices
“THIS IS A crazy idea,” said Hayden.
“It’s the only one with a tactical chance,” said Gunney.
The two of them were in the conference room. The central sphere that housed Cora’s essence glowed and pulsed with light, as if she were thinking.
“What kind of probability are you giving it?”
“Thirty percent, tops.”
“Shit!” Hayden lowered his head to the table. He hadn’t caught more than three hours of sleep since the rest of the crew had departed aboard Iliad. “Isn’t there anything else we can do?”
“Captain, our options are limited. We either follow through with this plan to distract the other ship, or...” Gunney shrugged.
“I won’t fire on them. Not unless we have no other choice.”
“Sir, that repair vessel will be in scanning range in seventy hours. If we don’t act soon, we will lose our only window of opportunity. Then the only action remaining to us will be to destroy both ships.”
“Pavlovich might be aboard it.”
“That isn’t possible, Hayden,” said Cora’s disembodied voice. “It is approaching on a completely different vector. There is no way he could have transferred to it. I think it was dispatched as soon as Iliad left here.”
“I don’t have the personnel to defend us in a boarding situation,” said Gunney.
“Do we have time to adapt Glenatat technology into a security system?” asked Hayden.
“They provided external shielding and dark energy cannons; nothing else can be adapted for use inside the ship without weeks of testing,” said Cora.
“Remind me to put that on the maintenance list, if we get out of this.”
“Noted, Captain.”
He winced internally when they addressed him by that title. This was Pavlovich’s ship—it had been for decades. Perhaps, once, long ago he might have coveted a command of his own, but those days and dreams were far behind him. What he wanted was to retreat to his cabin and dig out the hidden bottle, but Gunney and Cora both depended on him to keep his head and remain sharp. He wouldn’t put them in any more danger than they already were.
He sat straight. “Okay, let’s go over your idea again, Gunney.”
“We haven’t had an opportunity to launch the shuttle because of the unpredictable search pattern the ship they left behind is using.”
“Cora?”
“Their movements are random. I can’t predict where they’ll go next, so the chance of them spotting you are too great.”
“So what we require is some way to know where they will be?”
“Precisely why Gunney’s plan creates our best opportunity.”
“Okay,” said Hayden, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Give me the details again.”
“We have to time things for when Elgar is between us and the approaching repair vessel. That will be trivial. The more complex part involves the relative locations of the search ship,
us, the moon we want to get to, and our target.”
“And it needs to be that particular one? It’s no more than a captured asteroid, isn’t it?”
Cora said, “It has to be a large enough body to attract the other ship’s attention when we destroy it. There are other asteroids in Elgar’s orbit, but most of them are too small or in the wrong position to do any good.”
“And you’re sure the dark energy cannon will supply the kind of fireworks we need?”
“Given the composition of the asteroid, the explosion should be spectacular enough to get anyone’s attention without leaving a detectable radiation signature.”
“What is the power draw to pull this off?”
“We will tax the engines.”
“Meaning?”
“We only have the opportunity for one shot,” said Gunney. “After that, we’ll be defenceless until we can recharge.”
“During which time I have to launch the shuttle and hope the search ship doesn’t notice.”
“Yes.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound so difficult,” said Hayden as he rolled his eyes.
“That is the easy part,” said the cyborg. “The problem will be getting you back to Scimitar.”
“Even if everything goes flawlessly once you land,” said Cora, “the elapsed time to complete your mission will mean the approaching repair ship will be within sensor range.”
“Then we must avoid being spotted by them as well. I get it.”
“Captain, I won’t bullshit you,” said Gunney. “Like it or not, we may need to destroy one or both of those ships to get you back here.”
Hayden shook his head. “Those people are not our enemy.”
“If they try to board us, or open fire, they are not our friends. I will act accordingly to defend you and this ship.” After a pause, he added, “Sir.”
“Thank you. I appreciate your concern for Scimitar’s and my welfare.”
The cyborg uttered a grunt and nodded.
“Hayden,” said Cora, “the probability is that we will not be able to avoid a conflict.”
“That may be so, but if we do end up in a fight, we will put the lives of our people in grave danger.”
