by Terry Mixon
“Not quite,” Murdock said. “They’re undoubtedly after our research, but it’s not going to do them much good. The computers are locked down, and only our top people have the codes.”
The older woman smiled. “And they’re not going to have very much time to consolidate their gains. They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to have visitors very soon. Much sooner than they’d planned for, I imagine.”
That would be the fleet of ships that had come into Dresden space right after Princess Kelsey had captured the orbital. They were still probably trying to figure out what had happened. Annette hoped they found a weak flip point so they could escape before those vessels came after them.
The senior Rebel Empire officer shook her head. “No, our captors aren’t going to be pleased at all. Meanwhile, we need to come up with plans to escape our confinement and free our fellow officers. I’m not going to sit on my butt waiting for someone to come rescue me. We’ll get out of here on our own.
“I want you to join Commander Irons and assist him in any way that he requires. He’s much more familiar with the orbital layout than you are. After all, you’ve only been here a few hours.”
The older woman sighed. “You’re not seeing us at our best, Commander Renner, but that’s about to change. Dismissed.”
Annette came to attention and saluted. She spun on her heel and walked over to the table where Irons was sitting with several other senior officers. She’d seen most of them at the briefing, but hadn’t learned their names.
Their conversation ceased as she stepped up beside the table. Irons gestured for her to take the open seat beside him.
“Everyone, this is Violet Renner. As you might remember, she arrived just before the current unpleasantness.
“Commander Renner, allow me to introduce the rest of the command staff. To my right is Commander Andrew Gomez. He’s our hardware guru.”
The slender Hispanic man inclined his head.
“Across from you is Jeannette Martin. She’s the civilian computer specialist that oversees all aspects of our research computers. She’d normally have our chief scientist with her, but our captors have her somewhere else.”
Martin was a somewhat overweight brunette woman with a darker complexion. She smiled at Annette shyly.
“Finally,” Irons said, “the man you were here to replace. Commander Raul Castille is our senior security officer, of course.”
The tall man smiled coolly. “Commander Renner. I’m sorry we didn’t have an opportunity to get together before the Commodore’s briefing, but I had other tasks that kept me occupied. I must say that the image in your personnel file doesn’t do you justice.”
Oh, crap.
3
Kelsey tapped in to the scanner feed as soon as they were through the flip point. As the probe had said, the new system seemed deserted at first glance, but they were only operating off passive scanners.
That meant they’d pick up active fusion plants eventually, if the people that built them hadn’t shielded them well enough. If there were any ships moving out there, they’d spot them if they were moving fast enough.
That’s where the risk came in. The system might have a Rebel Empire picket force that they wouldn’t notice right away. They had to go slow and be careful.
“Take us out of the flip point,” she ordered. “Launch a dozen stealthed probes and get them scanning the rest of the system. If there’s something out there, I want to know about it.”
The process of thoroughly vetting an unknown system could take days. They didn’t have time for that, so she’d just have to do the best she could. If after three hours, they hadn’t detected signs of people, she’d declare it safe enough for them to move forward.
“Colonel,” Lieutenant Jack Thompson—her helm officer—said. “The computer has generally located this system in relation to the Old Empire maps we have. If the estimate is accurate, the Old Empire wasn’t aware of it.”
Kelsey smiled at the man. “That’s good news. It might mean we have some breathing room to get ourselves in order. It also means that the system might have flip points that lead somewhere useful. Like taking us partway home.”
If they could avoid going into the Rebel Empire, that would be amazingly good luck. Now that they knew her people existed, it wouldn’t be so easy to slip home again without them noticing.
“What do we know about the system?” she asked.
“It has a main sequence G-class star, and we’re picking up indications of several planets,” Angela said from her console. “We won’t know for a while if any are in the habitable zone. It’s roughly three hundred light years from the system we just left.”
A habitable planet would be good. It would allow them the luxury of moving their prisoners to a location where they’d be both more comfortable and less dangerous. As long as they continued housing the prisoners on the station, there was always the chance they might stage a breakout.
“Take us into the system at half speed,” she told Jack. “Continue scanning with passives. If you pick up anything unusual—no matter how small—I want to know immediately.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
While her ship and the probes began fanning out into the new system, she resumed considering how she was going to deal with her mother. Justine Bandar was a complication that Kelsey really didn’t have time for, but the woman wasn’t going away. Unfortunately.
From what Kelsey had heard, her mother hadn’t stopped yelling at the poor lieutenant tasked with guarding her. Persephone was too small to have a brig. She’d used the word with her mother to make a point, but she’d really housed her in the smallest stateroom on the ship.
Having recently occupied several different cells, Kelsey knew her mother was just fine. A brig would only have a bunk, a desk, and a chair that didn’t move. Oh, and a toilet that only barely protected someone’s modesty from the guards.
Kelsey wondered how ex-Empress Justine Bandar would react to someone tossing her into a real cell. The mind boggled.
The next three hours proceeded without incident or unexpected discovery. Persephone edged deeper into the system, all her electronic senses straining to detect anything unusual. All they found was a seemingly empty system.
Kelsey drummed her fingers on her armrest and considered the situation. “We don’t have time to search every corner of the system just now. Leave the probes in place, and take us back to the flip point.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
The Raider ship turned in a tight arc and returned to the flip point. When she was in place, Kelsey gave the order to flip. They appeared back in the original system without any problem. At least Persephone could flip back.
The latest information from Carl indicated that nothing much larger could go back. The weak flip point was one way for ships of any real size.
Kelsey opened a channel to Audacious. An image of Zia Anderson appeared. The other woman looked a little worn around the edges.
“Give me some news, Highness.”
“Initial scans show the target system is probably empty.”
Zia visibly relaxed. “Oh, thank God. I’ve been sitting here worrying that we were jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. If this flip point had led to a heavily occupied system deeper inside the Rebel Empire, we’d have been screwed.”
“I was a little worried about that myself,” Kelsey admitted. “That doesn’t mean all the news is good, though. The flip point is one way for ships larger than Persephone.”
The other woman sighed. “It could be the other way around. That would suck.”
“Agreed. Any sign of our friends?”
The Fleet officer shook her head. “The probes we left watching the flip point leading back toward Dresden are still clear. No sign of any pursuit. That won’t last much longer.”
That was true. They needed to get a move on, if they hoped to escape unnoticed.
“So, what’s the plan?” Kelsey asked.
“We’re goin
g to take a chance and attempt to send the recovery ship through,” Zia said. “I don’t think we can risk hoping for a better option in the next system.”
Kelsey thought so too. Sooner or later, their luck was going to run out.
“How are we going do this?” she asked. “Do we want to send some ships through first to wait on the other side, or send the recovery ship first? Also, what about the prisoners? Do we evacuate those we can, or does everyone take their chances together?”
The Fleet officer seemed to consider that for a moment. “I think we’ll send Persephone through again, and then the recovery ship. We’ll leave the prisoners aboard the orbital. We don’t have room to house them anywhere else.
“Even if we could, moving them would take too long. We need to do this now. Head back over and wait for the recovery ship.”
Cain Hopwood and his team of specialists were crewing the recovery ship for her. Their eclectic skills actually made them well-suited to handle it. If anyone could get the orbital through, they would.
“Roger that. We’ll let you know as soon as the recovery ship arrives.”
Kelsey killed the channel and turned toward her helm officer. “Take us back through.”
It only took a few minutes to flip Persephone back to the other system and move away from the flip point far enough to be safe. The next few minutes were nerve-racking, but the recovery ship appeared without obvious signs of damage.
Kelsey let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, and then signaled the crew manning the recovery ship. A quick response indicated that everything looked good on their end.
She grinned. “We’re going to pull this off. Send a probe back to Audacious. Let them know that everything went just fine.”
Five minutes later, the rest of their ships appeared through the flip point. They’d escaped the Rebel Empire’s clutches. Now all they had to do was find another way home.
Raul Castille considered the woman sitting beside him. One thing was certain: she wasn’t Violet Renner. If someone only had a basic description of Renner, she’d fool them, but he’d seen the real woman’s personnel file.
From the look in her eyes, the imposter realized the game was up too. It would be interesting to see how she responded.
What had her plan been? Whom did she truly represent? Did he actually want to unmask her now?
After a moment’s contemplation, he decided to keep his discovery to himself.
The revelation of her true identity would probably spark a small-scale riot. Her compatriots were undoubtedly ready to rush in and save her. His companions would likely attack her as well. Predictable and boring.
It would be much more entertaining to let this play out a little further. The life of a security officer was often one of drudgery. This was a rare opportunity for him to play at the top of his game.
“Yes, indeed,” he continued coolly. “Your picture doesn’t do you justice, Commander Renner. Then again, official pictures rarely do.”
He smiled, being certain to show his teeth. “I can’t begin to tell you how much I’m looking forward to working with you. Particularly under the circumstances we find ourselves in. This should be utterly fascinating.”
The woman quickly regrouped and cleared her throat. “I agree, Commander Castille. This is going to be a unique experience.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself. And I insist you call me Raul.” He turned his attention to Irons. “I believe you were running down our options to escape confinement, Commander. Please continue.”
Irons nodded, completely unaware of the byplay between Castille and the spy among them.
“Right. We can’t be certain what conditions the rest of our people are being held in, but no matter how many marines they brought with them, these people can’t have everyone covered as well as they’d like. All we have to do is look for an opportunity to escape.
“If we can get to one of the armories, we’ll turn this around. Even a small number of armed personnel can free others. Once we start a breakout, they won’t be able to stop us without killing everyone.”
Castille allowed himself a small smile. “What makes you think they won’t be willing to do precisely that? Obviously, these people planned long and hard for this operation. Simply acquiring the restricted weapons and powered armor must’ve taken years and an incredible amount of money. Surely they will kill to obtain what they want.”
He glanced at “Renner” as he said the last bit.
Her presence actually argued against what he’d just said. If the enemy was willing to send a spy among them, they still needed something. Most likely access to the restricted computer systems.
“What are they really after?” he continued. “Considering the effort required to seize a classified research station like this, they must believe the return is worth a lot of blood and treasure. As we all know, the work we do here is not something one can sell on the open market.
“That means they have a backer. Someone in the upper reaches of the higher orders, I’d wager. Someone in a position of power that believes they can use this technology to advance their cause, whatever it is.”
“I can’t see that,” Jeanette Martin said. “So much of what we’re doing here is oriented toward Fleet. There’s absolutely no way the lords will allow anyone in the higher orders to have that type of technology.”
Well, that was certainly true, Raul conceded. The lords would not allow anyone to obtain the technical specifications for an artificial intelligence. Perhaps that was what the woman and her compatriots sought.
If so, it wouldn’t do them one bit of good. They’d locked the information down tightly enough that not even he could access it alone.
Only Commodore Murdock, Jeanette Martin, and he acting in concert could access the computers controlling the manufacturing process for the artificial intelligence hardware. The lords had instituted that level of protection to be certain that this type of situation never occurred.
He suspected, however, that their attackers were unaware of this. They probably believed that they could just waltz in, take whatever they wanted, and escape before anyone noticed. That wasn’t going to happen.
Truly, that was another reason to play this out and give them hope. He’d overheard Commodore Murdock mention the expected Fleet reinforcements to the false officer. She was aware their time was quite limited. What the woman didn’t know was that the odds of her escaping were almost zero.
When the orders had come to send their protective force on their current mission, he’d argued against them. Not that he’d truly had a chance of amending the System Lord’s instructions in any way. At least Murdock had arranged for a new protective force. They’d only been uncovered for a few weeks and that was coming to an end in the next day or so.
With the battle stations covering every exit to Dresden, these people would be pinned like bugs as soon as the Fleet vessels arrived. The longer he could delay them, the better this would work out.
“Well, they certainly came for something,” he assured the computer specialist. “And they certainly wouldn’t have brought the forces they did if they didn’t expect to capture something worth their time. What else could they be looking for?”
“Perhaps they came for the restricted implant upgrades,” Irons said. “That type of enhancement could prove very useful under certain circumstances.”
Castille considered that. “Perhaps. That does seem to be the only technology that would be of use to someone in the higher orders, though I’m certain the lords would take drastic action to exterminate anyone that possessed it.”
He turned his eyes toward the spy among them. “Do you think they came for the supplies on hand or the manufacturing equipment, Violet? I think your point of view would be quite helpful in this situation.”
The woman shook her head. “I can’t say that I’m familiar with the upgrades you’re speaking of. Commodore Murdock didn’t cover that during the briefing.”
Raul nodded. It was possible she didn’t know anything about the illegal upgrades. In any case, it would be educational to brief her on them and see how she reacted.
“Of course,” he said smoothly. “The enhancements we’re speaking of are restricted technology from the dictatorship. The old Emperor used illegal enhancements on his personal guard to increase their strength and combat ability to a mind-boggling degree. When the lords overthrew him, they banned this technology.
“It was quite invasive and irreversible. I’m told that it increased their strength tenfold and made them killing machines. It also used drugs that turned them into mindless monsters, forced to obey every command given to them.
“That dehumanizing aspect is perhaps why the lords have forbidden this technology. Would you ever want to see someone turned into a monster like that, Violet?”
“That sounds horrible. Of course I wouldn’t. No one would. That said, these attackers had many armed marines already in their group. This technology would make them much more powerful.”
The spy looked at each of them in turn. “What if they don’t work for the higher orders? What if they’re ghosts?”
Castille opened his mouth to reject the idea, but stopped. If one of their captors suggested the idea, he should at least consider it. Could they be ghosts?
No one really knew anything about the ghosts, but he’d read the classified briefings. They were undoubtedly some remnant of the dictatorship. No one knew precisely where they based themselves, but old ships occasionally attacked shipping or isolated warships.
What could someone like the ghosts gain from this research facility? Quite a lot, he decided. It wouldn’t help them build more ships, but it might make the ones they clearly possessed deadlier.
“That’s an interesting idea,” he said after a moment. “I think it’s worth exploring in more detail, but that doesn’t really answer the question of how we can turn the tables on our captors. Tell me, Violet, if you were leading us, how would you break out of this compartment?”
