One of the thugs took a step forward. Salchar’s arm came up and stopped them with a gesture.
“Remember to muzzle your pets, too.” Edwards looked over the power armor-covered creature with a demeaning glance.
Salchar bunched his fists together and Edwards stared at him, a gloating smile on his face as he shook his bag again, much in the way someone might shake a toy in front of a dog.
“America the great still fears what they do not know.” Salchar shook his head.
Four Commandos came up next to Salchar and his group.
“You four have been briefed?” Salchar asked them.
“Yes, Commander,” one said.
“Good. I will be on the bridge. See that he doesn’t get himself in any danger,” Salchar said.
The Commando who had answered him tapped two fingers to his head; Salchar did the same and left Edwards.
“Take my bag,” Edwards demanded.
The Commandos looked confused for a second.
“It’s rather simple—you hold the handle here and carry it until I require it or its contents,” Edwards said, as if he were talking to a child. Hell, I probably am. They’re just hiding in that powered armor to look bigger.
One of them took it and Edwards made a note on his pad: No respect for authority figures and don’t know how to even salute properly.
“Take my bags to my quarters and show me the way to the bridge. I hope you can manage that much at least.” Edwards wondered how these Commandos could even wipe their backsides.
“We can’t take you to the bridge at this time. The commander said that we can take you on a tour of the ship instead. They are dealing with sensitive information at this time. At a later time, the commander wants to show you the bridge,” one of the Commandos said. The one who had his suitcase moved with another to grab the rest of Edwards’s belongings.
“Very well. Take me to the weapon systems and power plants as well as medical areas,” Edwards said.
“You have been cleared to look at the mess, your quarters, medical facilities, and various training areas. Engineering is off-limits due to the sensitive nature of the systems, same for—”
“Show me the medical facilities. I will expect to see the rest of the ship as I desire shortly. Go tell your commander I order him to do so.” Edwards waved.
“Those are the commander’s orders,” the Commando said in a tone that few had ever taken with Edwards.
“Commandos are unable to follow simplistic orders and think too highly of their amateur performances. Their underage tendencies are clear at all times and make them an ineffective force,” Edwards said, giving the Commandos a smile that seemed to ask if they wanted him to add anything.
“We will show you what the Commander said—nothing more, nothing less. We will go to the med bay first.” The Commando ground their teeth as they turned and started walking.
***
“Thanks, gents.” I pulled my hair back from my face into a fierce ponytail as I entered the main bridge.
My entire protection detail wanted to try to re-educate Edwards to the new realities going on around him, mainly by trying to pound that information in with sheer physical force.
It was hard to keep my own anger at bay. The way he had treated not only me but everyone else was demeaning and annoying. He reminded me of the bullies at my orphanage.
He had power that allowed him to do as he desired without repercussions. It was obvious that he thought that power extended over the Free Fleet. He was going to have one hell of a time of readjusting.
If he ever does readjust, I thought sourly. People like Edwards had their points and stuck to them no matter what evidence they were shown. They knew the facts they had were right; anyone who said differently were incompetent or a complete idiot and their opinions didn’t matter.
Rick stepped out of my seat and into his own, pulling his work from one to the other.
I settled into the familiar seat, putting my helmet on a rack beside it. My computer rolled out my preset screen and began filling it with information I’d be interested in.
I sat back in my chair for a second as I felt the humming of the war machine beneath me. Even though I couldn’t see the other ships of the fleet, I could feel the power I commanded—the power to destroy star systems, to rip asteroids apart as if they were piñatas. A thin grin spread across my face. I looked at the numbers I’d already seen dozens of times by now. It was certain death for my fleet, I knew on some level.
But with my ships in their condition, personnel levels, and armament readiness, it would make one hell of a dent and hell if I was looking to make the biggest damned dent I could. My best bet was that Parnmal would survive. My fleet would see to that. If I was gone, the command structure was strong enough that Monk or Cheerleader could take over. Cheerleader had her own fleet, which was off somewhere; she’d use that to keep Parnmal and the rest going, as well as the ships we’d seeded in Earth, AIH, and Chaleel. The Free Fleet would recuperate, even if I and my fleet weren’t there.
I looked to Rick, who looked up at me, sensing my stare as he reflected on my half-crazed grin. We both knew—all that they could do to us was kill us. It was comforting, in an odd way, to know that death awaited us all, and that it was not something to be feared. It was something to make the best use of and be prepared that eventually it all comes for us.
“Ben, are we all set?” I asked my navigation.
The Kuruvian turned and grinned to me. “Yes, Commander.”
“Combined, Helm, and Nav—get us out of Nancy and into formation Romeo Foxtrot Alpha Three.”
The bridge came alive as commanders began talking in business tones and Milra, my helmswoman, proceeded to undock from Nancy.
“Releasing clamps and moving free of Nancy’s supports.” She paused as she confirmed that. “Powering main engines.” A few minutes later: “We’ll be free in twenty seconds. Following Nav’s plot.”
“Very well.” I saw a smile appear on Milra’s face.
Now I just have to wait till we get there. I continued to look over my fleet and see what else it needed as my two dreadnoughts, three battle cruisers, one destroyer, four cruisers, and fifteen corvettes came into formation.
And hope that my crazy-assed plan works.
It would be four days until we made it to the jump point and then off to Chaleel, AIH, and finally Parnmal.
“Sensors, pass me the latest readings for AIH.”
The map populated my screen and I threw it up on my personal hologram so it floated above my head and in front of me as I rotated it around.
“Nav, could you give me a best time plot through AIH?” It took a few minutes but it appeared. I saw where the fleet would pass through.
“Engineering,” I said to my computer and it connected me to Eddie.
“Commander?” He sounded tired already.
“How are the power plants?”
“Purring like kittens, sir!” Eddie said. His voice seemed to regain some energy and pride.
“Good going there, Chief. Now we’ll be able to pummel these bastards.”
“Yes, sir, we will do that. I have my people suiting up to install the remaining guns we have in our hold. The Resilient still won’t be near her prime.” The sadness crept in again.
“But she’ll plow on as she’s always done,” I said.
“That she shall!” he said, his pride evident.
“Good luck.”
“Thank you, sir.”
I cut the channel and I ran some simulations to see whether my crazy idea would work. About an hour later, I sat back and stretched. “Rick, conference room.”
He looked at me quizzically. The watch officer took my chair as we moved to the room.
I threw a hologram into the middle of the table.
“The hell is that?” Rick took a seat.
“Armor.” I had the hologram show its schematics.
He looked up at me. “Damn.” Rick whistled as he sat back in his c
hair. “That’s some armor. Good thing we made fusion plants replacement the top priority.”
“Yes, and timing is going to be hell.”
“Yes, plus, getting some the right size would be a pain.” He grinned. He was clearly already sold on the idea.
“I’m working on a sensor algorithm for that.”
He looked in my eyes. “So, one last charge.”
“Yes, right down their damn throats.” My Avarian changes appeared and I growled; Krom growled with me, his eyes dark. Whereas a normal human would have been scared, Rick grinned like a wolf with us.
“Well, sir, I don’t think Eddie will like it, but I have one alteration.”
“Oh?” I asked as Rick expanded the hologram and modified it. “Oh.” I nodded appreciatively as Rick grinned like the proverbial cat with the canary.
After a few more hours, we emerged.
“All right, take a break. I’ll run the shop for a few hours. Go check on our people,” I said to Rick as he gave a two-finger salute before he wandered off.
I sat back in my chair and looked over the goings-on of my fleet. We continued to near the jump point while I worked on my side project. I figured I’d tell Eddie when we were in AIH so he had less time to throw a fit over the idea.
I looked over reports from Henry on the readiness of the Commandos. They were eager, though this wasn’t out of bloodlust or war mongering, just a sense of duty to their friends. They had families and people they knew on Parnmal station. People they loved.
After a few hours, I wandered my way to the sparring rooms of the Commandos and I went through a few rounds with the men and women there. It felt good to be down where the meat met the metal. These people were different from everyone, even most of the other people of the fleet. They were the ones who would see death coming and charge it down a corridor in another warship. Their humor wasn’t kind and neither were they. But there was a kind of camaraderie that couldn’t be explained that linked all of them together and would make them die for the one to the left or right of them, even if they didn’t know them much.
I divided my attention between roaming the ship and seeing my people to checking on the condition of my other ships.
Time passed quickly and I found myself on the bridge as the wormhole generators hummed. They started their now reduced six-hour charging cycle. Helm and navigation were already interlinked across the fleet and with one another.
My personal comms chirruped with a private channel.
“Commander Salchar, this is Chief Brusk. I found a Mr. Edwards looking around my weapon mounts.”
“Send him my way with a pair of guards.” I wondered what happened to the last pair.
“With pleasure, sir.” He cut the channel.
I opened a private channel with Mr. Edwards’s guards. Their vitals were fine as I accessed their Mecha readouts. “How is the prisoner?”
“Been in his room for the past five hours, Commander. We were aiming on getting him when we made jump.”
“Could you check on him?”
“Yes, sir.” A few moments later: “Sir, it seems that he’s escaped. We’ll search him down.” The Commando’s voice was harsh.
“It’s okay, Commando. Come to the bridge. We’ve got Mr. Edwards in our custody again. I just wanted to see how he got out.”
“I will take full responsibility.”
“It’s not your fault, Commando. You didn’t know what you were dealing with beforehand. Now you do. Report to me soon.”
“On our way, sir.”
I’m just not going to get a break with this guy. Edwards had treated me and mine like we were a doormat. He had been found trying to get into every area we told him not to be in. He raged about the food, and then complained that we weren’t feeding him when he didn’t accept it.
The man had no regard for anyone but himself. He couldn’t care less what we thought of him, and he only saw our attempts to stop him getting into secure areas as some kind of impingement on his rights, which he still quoted from the United States. After trying to reason with the man, I’d given up and given him guards. Guards he’d learned to dupe.
I turned to Dave. “Seems that Mr. Edwards slipped his room and got onto the gun deck.”
Dave’s face turned sour, an expression I had rarely seen. “We’re going to have to put that guy in the brig for his own good.”
I nodded. “We’ll see what information he’s gathering and then we’ll decide.”
Calerd and Dave tensed behind my seat as Edwards was guided in front of me with two gun monkeys in their specialty gun crew Mechas.
Edwards straightened his back, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently as he stood in front of me, still wearing a suit instead of the battle suit provided to him.
“Are we wasting your time, Mr. Edwards?” I said lightly, but there was no missing the iron in my voice.
“Yes. I was sent here to evaluate this ship and this fleet, not to be pulled around this ship at your whim, like some kind of warlord.”
“What gives you the authority?”
“The United States and the entirety of planet Earth,” he said defiantly.
“You see, I don’t hear anything about me or one of my subordinates allowing you to do that. Calerd, if you had someone walking around your base, trying to take the plans of your nuclear weapons, what would you do?” I asked, my eyes not leaving Edwards.
“Restrain them, place them in complete isolation, and then send them off to be interrogated and their information spilled.”
“I thought as much.” I raised an eyebrow to Edwards.
“You want to compare rail guns to a nuclear bomb?” Edwards asked. His face showed how ridiculous he thought it was.
“Are you an idiot?” Marleen asked, voicing my thoughts from her place at tactical. Her helmet was off, her head recessed in the armored shoulders that held the exoskeleton.
“Comparing them to a nuclear device—” Edwards said, as if talking to a three-year-old and getting clearly angry by the reddish tint his face was taking on.
“Is stupid if you’re talking about Earth’s nuclear devices. With a single rail gun round, I can take out the majority of America. Few rounds of plasma, and I can cook cities.”
Edwards pulled out his touch pad. “Thank you for that information.” He put the protective cover back over it with a slap.
“Giving those kinds of weapons to a jumped-up gamer turned dictator with delusions of grandeur and ships crewed by brainwashed minors is ridiculous. This fleet is falling apart at the seams—judging by the disgusting state of the engine rooms and gun decks—and that only highlights how ridiculous it is.This fleet belongs in Earth’s possession, not yours, James Cook. It’s time you went back to being a drunk gamer who loves attention, money, and fame.” He smirked as he looked at me, as though the game had been won.
I barely stopped myself from squeezing my armrest into uselessness. I kept my face clear as everyone stared at Edwards. So this is where the expression you could hear a pin drop comes from. I let that pause calm me as I looked at Edwards. I barely remembered being James Cook anymore. I no longer had to think I was playing a role. I was Commander Salchar. The man who fought battles in a hospital gown, without an arm and would take on forces that greatly over-powered him without blinking.
“I do hate pretentious little pricks like you. You think that you’re everything in the damned universe. Well, Mr. Edwards, you might not give a shit about me or my people, but I will show you what we do before we die.” You could taste the bile spewing from my voice.
Edwards flinched away from my eyes as I continued to look at him.
“We might very well all die on this mission. The odds for our survival are slim to none. So, Keith, let me give you the fine print. No one gives a shit what you say. We’re dead already. Look around you.” I did so myself, seeing the eyes of every bridge member.
With my words, they seemed darker and deadlier than I’d ever seen them. They’d all known
that they’d probably die on this mission.
I’d heard the gossip while I walked the Resilient.
But now that I’d vocalized their doom, it seemed to cross from the realm of possibilities to reality. Edwards looked somewhat cowed by their faces as he looked back to me.
“That language is unaccept—”
I talked over him. “Do you think I would take brainwashed people into battle? What use would it be if they just followed me? I have relied on them more than they have ever relied on me. They are the Free Fleet. I’m just the guy who got stuck with all the damned paperwork. Their smarts is what has kept this fleet going. You want to see the true power of our fleet? It’s not our damned guns. It’s our people.
“From now on, Edwards, you will keep to me like my damned shadow.”
I turned to his security detail. “He’s yours now. Secure him to his seat.”
The gun crew moved out of the way and the Commandos picked up Edwards none too gently by each arm as he yelled threats before being put into a chair behind me. Its harness was pulled down and locked out.
“Thank you, gentlemen, for securing him. Pass on to Chief Brusk my regards.”
They nodded, leaving as Edwards’s previous guards took positions on either side of the man, who was still making a ruckus in his locked seat.
“If you do not shut up, I will have you gagged, Mr. Edwards.” I looked at him with cold, uncaring eyes.
“I’ll have you court-martialed for this! I’ll have you thrown in prison!”
“Because I restrained you, and you call us children?” I shook my head. “Commandos, put his hood up.” One of them pressed the activation button on the neck. Edward’s complaints disappeared and I focused on the goings-on of the bridge.
“Hopefully, that’s the end of that!” I said and a few grins appeared.
Free Fleet Box Set 1 Page 77
