by Taylor Smith
She seemed sad as she said, “Chaos was near. That is why the changes came. But in every war, there is a winning side, and they alone write the history of those changes to control how future generations think of them.”
“You see, the new governmental power wasn’t a theocracy, it was a monarchy. Not an absolute monarchy, mind you,” she said with a grin. “That would be disastrous. It was a political system based upon several key combinations between a democracy and a monarchy. Previous governmental systems simply weren’t adequate to keep up with such a vast populace spread across multiple worlds. The solution was to give the colonies freedom to govern themselves, while ensuring they held to certain principles and guidelines.”
Cade narrowed his eyes in thought. “So where does the Church of the Divine Voice come into play? Everyone is taught that they tried to take control over all the colonies and –“.
“There was no Church of the Divine Voice, Dorian,” Adrianna interrupted. “The Divine Voice was the legislative concept of this new form of government. The Church, and its evil plot to destroy religious freedom, was a pre-planned propaganda play by those who refused the new form of government.”
Cade shook his head. He’d seen actual, physical churches of that religion. He’d heard the preaching’s of some of their leaders. It didn’t sound all that bad to him; the belief that the Divine Voice, as they called it, was a sort of combination or crossroads for all other religions. He didn’t understand it but he never tried. He’d never been very religious himself. Andy beat him to his objections, however.
“The Church is real,” Andy said. “Several of our council members are believers, and we actually have dedicated space here on the station for their church.”
“Of course it’s real now,” Adrianna said with a wave of her hand. “But it’s not what was intended.” She looked above them in thought and then said, “Do either of you recognize the name Alexander Chase?”
Cade nodded. “He was the leader of the Alliance when it was formed against Earth. A senator from Adara, I think. He led the colonies in the revolt against the Church of the Divine Voice.”
Adrianna laughed a mocking laugh. “You may not find records of this now, but Alexander Chase was a political powerhouse on Earth before he packed up for Adara. He actually helped design the new government on Earth. And when he began to realize that he, and his closest political allies, would lose the ability to profit from their constituents, he began planning what would become known as the Divinity Wars.”
“He created the Church,” Cade said, putting two and two together.
Adrianna smiled. “He created the falsification of the Divine Voice, yes. He created a shadow, a brand, and spread it quietly through the known worlds as if it were a ghost story. We believe he even opened several branches of the religion on some border worlds, just out of sight. By the time the new plan was released, the phrase “Divine Voice” was already known as a religion, not what it was intended.”
“So what exactly is the Divine Voice?” Cade asked.
“The new form of government for the colonies,” Adrianna answered, “entailed splitting the legislative and executive branches into separate entities: Colonial, Planetary and Interstellar. It involved a supreme ruler, an empress, who held interstellar power across all worlds. That seat would be on Earth, but had no true power over the planetary or colonial legislation. The separation was complex, as it needed to be to facilitate so many worlds and people, but suffice it to say: The Empress looked after the welfare of the Empire as a whole, and made sure planetary governments were abiding by interstellar law. She also commanded the imperial military.”
“On the planets themselves,” she continued, “each colony would be in direct control of their own laws, as long as they abided by the planetary government which included three seats: Political, Military,” she paused before saying, “and Voice.”
“That’s easy enough, I guess,” Cade said. “The political leader for the people, military for armed forces. But what was the Voice for?”
“The Voice is the lead seat of each planet, and the unanimous decisions of all combined planetary Voices, is called The Divine Voice.” Adrianna answered. “It is, in effect, the united voice of all people of the known worlds under the protection of the Empress, who cannot ignore the Divine Voice.”
“That was what the Divine Voice was supposed to be,” Cade said. “But it’s not that anymore.”
“No,” Adrianna said grimly. “But it will be again.”
Andy leaned forward and said, “This is the war we’ve been hearing about.”
Adrianna nodded. “When the Divinity War broke out, it was soon obvious that Earth would be victorious. The Alliance simply didn’t have the manpower or the military might to resist Sol Fleet, even after dealing with the fact that most of our manpower came from those colonies. The majority of Sol Fleet’s officers and crews didn’t support the uprising, and wanted to minimize the fighting as best they could. But Sol Fleet didn’t count on the levels to which the Alliance leaders would stoop to win.” She lowered her head and said, “After months of fighting, Alexander Chase threatened to detonate pre-placed weapons of mass destruction on Earth unless we withdrew.”
Adrianna looked up and produced an indignant visage. “Admiral Jace Granger of Sol Fleet surrendered immediately.”
“Wait a minute,” Cade said with an upheld hand. “The Divinity War lasted a lot longer than several months. At least that’s how history is written.”
“It was a farce. All Sol Fleet officers and crew were executed as they surrendered, and their ship’s computers were slaved into wargame enactments in which the Alliance fleet won each battle. That’s the history you saw. Those images and video of battles were deliberate, planned by only a few very smart people. Even the crews of the Allied vessels in the war didn’t know the difference as they deftly and heroically overwhelmed a single battleship here, or a lonely pair of heavy cruisers there.”
“Until nothing was left,” Andy muttered.
“Until nothing was left, Andrew” Adrianna agreed, “They even detonated the warheads they’d hidden on Earth, destroying everything.” She paused and gauged Andy and Cade’s reaction. “Oh yes. Our home is scarred, and everything we built was destroyed; except seventh fleet.”
Cade stirred from his shock of the Alliance annihilating the surface of Earth. “You’re seventh fleet.”
Adrianna gestured to Captain Pierce, who had remained silent through the conversation. “Captain Pierce is seventh fleet. I am Empress Adrianna Nyest the Sixteenth, though I prefer Admiral, and I will never rule beyond a military purpose. That burden will be placed upon my daughter, Addison Nyest the First. Pierce’s ancestor commanded the secret reserve fleet during the war, and evacuated my ancestor, Adrianna the First from Earth before the Alliance blockaded the system and destroyed humanity’s home.”
“A solar system named Hagbard held a top secret compound of Sol Fleet. It was a doomsday scenario; a plan B, if you will. It’s been our home for the past five centuries. With its sister system, Signy, we’ve had all the resources to rebuild Sol Fleet and plan our retaking of the known worlds.”
Cade was still trying to wrap his mind around what the Alliance had done. That is, if this woman was telling the truth, of course. “Do you have proof of all this? There’s a lot here that is so far-fetched that I’m having trouble believing it.” He knew the Alliance was dirty, but he hadn’t expected what Adrianna had told them.
“We have centuries of documentation, reports, and recordings. And of course full backups of the Sol Fleet mainframe from that time period. You’re welcome to them,” Adrianna answered.
“So you intend on taking back the colonies,” Andy intervened. “What does Clew have to do with all of this?”
“Now we get to it,” Adrianna answered and leaned forward. “You haven’t put it together yet?”
Cade had. “Clew is an extension of Sol Fleet, isn’t it?”
The woman’s brow ro
se at that. “Very astute, Mr. Cade. Julian Neese was a Sol Fleet operative.”
Andy groaned.
Cade shook his head and looked to Andy. “It makes sense, if you think about what she just told us.” He looked back to Adrianna and said, “A forward intelligence base? Clew gathers information on the Alliance and dissuades colonies from joining, while you prepare for war?”
“Again, very good. Clew has been our main source of information, along with the added bonus that goes with its piracy cover: slowing the expansion of the Alliance. We sent Julian Neese in near the time of our initial planned attack. Unfortunately, when we learned of the strength of the Allied Fleet, we decided to push back the invasion to better prepare. The Bonnell massacre presented itself as an opportunity to create what you know as Clew Station.”
Cade took a deep breath and tried to let all of it soak in. For some reason he felt excited about the fact that Sol Fleet was still alive, and about to wage true war against the Alliance. After what they’d done to Haley, he almost admired the thought, though he still held his reservations about Adrianna. He wasn’t ready to trust her yet. “What’s Clew’s role in all this?” he asked.
Adrianna looked to Captain Pierce, then back to Andy and Cade. She raised her hands to them and said, “That’s what we need to discuss. Ideally, Clew assets would run reconnaissance for major fleet actions and continue gathering general intelligence. I’d like to see that plan carried out. Though I understand things have changed. The capabilities of Clew have been diminished due to the Deshi attack several years ago. Also, Amanda Rudain is missing. She was my most valued intelligence officer. We need to find her.”
Cade cocked his head to one side. “Who?”
“Jerry,” Andy answered, then turned back to his mother. “So Amanda was one of yours?”
Adrianna nodded. “She was instrumental to gathering enemy fleet movements, computer entry, officer bios and keeping an eye on potential Alliance moles.”
Andy sighed at his mother in contempt. “Who else do you have on Clew spying on us?”
Adrianna’s stiff complexion broke into sadness as she said, “Andrew, I –“.
“Admiral,” Captain Pierce interrupted.
Adrianna’s gaze shifted to the air above the table as she focused on something her implant was displaying for her. “There’s a ship out there. It’s small, cloaked, approximately two hundred kilometers from the station.” Her gaze focused back on Andy. “It’s an Alliance reconnaissance vessel.”
“Here?” Andy exclaimed.
Cade sat straight in worry. “It has to be the same ship that was at Bonnell.”
“Destroy that ship, Captain,” Adrianna said.
“No!” Cade and Andy both shouted.
Cade looked to Andy, then to Adrianna and said, “They’ve got Saundi.”
Chapter 14
Haley adjusted Strix-9’s passive sensors for what felt like the hundredth time. The mere trickle of information was maddening, but she dared not throttle her electronics up, or her attempts at gathering data would undoubtedly register on the Stations watchful systems. What worried her most, however, was the Sol Fleet warship that sat unmoving before her.
Only civilian vessels such as passenger liners and personal yachts were so brazen as to display their bridge openly. Perhaps even some science vessels sported a command center near the outside hull, but most starships, and especially warships, protected their nerve centers close the center of their structure. The behemoth she studied now, though, was a paradox to her.
She squinted at the rest of the ship as more data dripped in, and shook her head at the airy feel of the vessel. Armor plates were present and numerous, but rose above areas she would guess as sensitive, allowing unobstructed views into the delicate equipment below.
The side of the warship sported a large maw that was obviously a docking port, and again she wondered why it was so unprotected. One well-placed missile would end any conflict.
She knew she was missing something, but all she could do was speculate as she waited as patiently as she could for more data to dribble in. Her first thought was that it all retracted during combat, even going so far as to bring the overly-exposed fly bridge down below its armored hull. That might be sufficient to protect most systems but not the bridge as it would still be too close to outside forces.
“Proximity Alert,” her computer chimed, pulling her attention back to her tactical systems.
Haley sighed. There was debris floating around out there, obviously leftover from the damage done to the Leviathan, and she’d had to nudge her tiny ship out of its way every thirty minutes or so since she’d arrived. She made a minute course correction to avoid two incoming bits of flotsam and returned her attention to the surveillance data.
Something didn’t feel right. Her brow furrowed and she glanced back to her tactical scanners. There was something different about its readings this time, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She stared calmly at the screen, which clearly showed the massive signals of the station and battleship, but also a multitude of random blips of information scattered here and there that denoted bits of metal or even dust that caught the faint light from the station or a distant star.
There was nothing out of the ordinary as far as she could tell, but for some reason alarms had begun going off in her mind. Over the years, she’d learned to trust her gut instincts, and had even questioned one of her professors at the academy about the validity of such intuition. His response was winded and overreached in some areas, but it boiled down to good training. Her unconscious mind realized something before her conscious mind caught up.
Right now, her unconscious mind was screaming at her.
“Time to go,” she muttered to herself and brought her ship around to leave Clew space. It wouldn’t take more than an hour to get back out of range and make the jump to subspace. False jitters or not, she needed to get the data she had back to command. Nothing else mattered.
As Strix-9 edged its way further from the station, Haley caught herself glancing nervously back to the sensor readouts. Something wasn’t right, and Jonas may question her nerves when she returned, but at least she would return.
Claxons suddenly blared, and Strix-9 bucked violently. Haley was thrown against her console and slid to the floor. She shook her head, leapt back into her chair and buckled herself in. “Combat mode!” she shouted, and brought all her systems to full power and dropped the small ship into a tight dive relative to the station.
Her hands flew across the console and she activated all of her ships offensive and defensive weapons, which weren’t much, but Strix-9 did have a hefty ECM package installed. She initiated its basic multi-frequency jamming system and directed the ship’s computer to begin examining the area of space around her. She needed targets.
She glanced to her sensor screen, which had moved closer to her field of view and now displayed tactical data. Two unidentified cruisers of war were bearing down on her, spreading out to trap her between them. It was a bad situation, but she had a chance; if she could just outmaneuver them long enough to get a straight shot to enter subspace, she would survive.
Strix-9 was rocked again as it took fire from the two attackers and she rolled to starboard to avoid most of the incoming ordinance. Damage reports began winking into existence above her console, and she couldn’t help but wonder at them. There wasn’t enough damage for cruisers of that size to be inflicting on her small craft, especially from that first volley.
She initiated the auto-repair on her engines, which was nothing of the sort. The in-a-pinch system would repair what little it could, but it would mostly redirect power around damaged conduit and run constant rebalancing procedures on the core when needed; bandages to keep her fighting as long as possible.
Another round of shots, sounding slightly different this time, pinged all around her. She continued her evasive maneuvers by swinging Strix-9 in a spiral to port. Her attackers were big, but agile and smart. She should have had the
m both out of position by now, but they were working well together, not giving her a clear, straight path so she could activate her star drive and escape.
A chime from her sensors indicated that yet another contact had been sighted. She found it to be a smaller ship, perhaps a frigate, exiting the hangar bay of the Sol battleship and burning heavily toward them.
Haley suddenly realized that the cruisers she fought had no grapple systems to catch her, and were simply trying to keep her from escaping before this new ship, more than likely armed with a grapple, reached her. She had to ditch the cruisers before that ship caught up to them. If not, she would have to think about activating Strix-9’s self-destruct.
Haley checked her analytical system to see if it had built a profile of her attackers yet. Even with her systems at full power it was maddeningly slow. She needed to return fire but it would be futile without something soft to target. Her head tilted to the side as she glanced at the results. Oddly, the two cruisers bore a striking similarity to the Reaper, but were registering as Sol Fleet cruisers.
The data was still incomplete, but she knew Andy’s ship well enough to know where its sensitive systems were. If this was the same hull design, she might have found her way out.
She targeted the cruiser to her starboard side, just aft of its dorsal midline and fired. She didn’t have anything else to go on yet, but if the Reaper was indeed of Sol Fleet design, she should have just targeted the ships main sensor and communications array.
The tiny Strix-9 swung wildly to port as the two larger predators circled expertly around it. The cruisers fired at regular intervals, but as Haley had realized, not at full power. Finally, Haley turned her ship into the path of one cruiser and let loose a hail of small missiles. The ten weapons streaked away from Strix-9 in random directions, and then suddenly arced in unison toward their target.
