New Contract (Perimeter Defense Book #3)
Page 5
I closed my eyes and took a heavy sigh.
"Ayna, I need a full account in one hour. Whether it will be you or your replacement that gives it to me is up to you. Miya won't be here for more than a month, and I don't have enough time to wait for my wife's return to ask her permission. So don't be afraid, you can blame it all on me. Say the Crown Prince ordered it. In the future, I really don't like it when information is hidden from me. I hope this will be the last time."
"My Prince, my mistake will not be repeated. I promise that I'll be as honest as possible with your Highness from now on."
"Alright. Then tell me, what instructions did Miya give you before her departure? I'm having a hard time believing that Miya and the child simply disappeared without a word."
Ayna looked at me like she was expecting a trick, then looked at the others in the room, after which she sighed and said, in a fairly faithful imitation of Miya's timbre:
"The Prince will wake up soon. Help him figure out what's going on. After crystals, sometimes a person doesn't remember where they are or how they got there right away. Partial amnesia is not rare. As such, don't be surprised if he asks you weird questions. It’s up to you to help Georg do everything. I also have a more specific request. My husband is a Mystic and should probably not have too much interest in the opposite sex. But that hound dog has figured out a way to chase skirts in spite of the crystals before. Your mission is not to allow that under any circumstances. If you see the Prince in an overly playful mood, dress yourself up, shake your ass and grab his attention..."
Admiral Mike ton Sid suddenly began whinnying like a mare. Ayna quickly grew embarrassed and stayed quiet. I, though, tried to reassure my blushing assistant:
"At the very least, you were honest. Ayna, you are free to go. I expect a full account of the valuables on this ship."
The girl left, and I returned to the conversation with the admiral, wondering about the state of the fleet in Unatari. He frowned in dissatisfaction:
"The fleet ships have been sitting motionless at the docks for six months, which has taken a toll on the crews’ spirits. In the last few months, combat officers, especially the most capable and active, have been resigning in droves. Most of them are going to other Imperial fleets that really are fighting the Aliens. The most popular destination is Sector Fourteen, which now has the most serious problems in the whole Perimeter."
The admiral let out a heavy sigh.
"I tried to keep them here, Prince. But even paying them bonuses didn't help. People kept resigning anyway. The only thing that could stop the epidemic flight of valuable staff was the Alien capture of the Hnelle system. It may seem strange and paradoxical, but the reaction of the Unatari military has been twofold: of course, they were scared at being trapped and outnumbered, but many were actually glad that a reason to fight finally came knocking on our door. In general, we have staff shortages in the fleet, some ships are missing up to forty percent of their full crew. That’s why, a month ago, I retired the more outmoded ships: all the Tusk frigates and Curse cruisers. I transferred their crews to our more modern ships."
After the admiral's words, I gave a start. It was as if a red light had turned on in my brain. Error! Fighting the Aliens with my usual methods looked like the wrong approach now, especially with the serious shortage of people. That was why I thought it might be the right moment to test out the light fleet concept I had thought up in the last days of my previous contract.
"Admiral, all our heavy ships would be doomed in the upcoming battle. The enemy has too much of an advantage in volley weight, so an 'honest' exchange of fire would simply lead to immediate defeat. We need the most mobile fleet we can muster; one capable of staying out of range of the enemy's largest guns while maneuvering and gunning down the little ships, as well as individual ship groups that get separated from the main armada."
The man heard me out with rapt attention, clearly in no mood to argue. I saw a very positive sign in that. Despite all the disappointment brought on by the previous months, Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky's reputation as an excellent strategist was hadn’t suffered one bit.
"Admiral, my order is for the heavy ships to be placed on the docks and for work to begin to return them to the setup that I had them in when I made the raid through Swarm space. As for the people from the battleship and the five heavy cruisers, use them to fully crew all the Thrush light electronic combat cruisers, all Curses, Flycatcher and Surgeon destroyers, and the Pyro and Warhawk frigates. Also, check the preparedness of our cloaked bombers and load them with our most powerful warheads. Tomorrow, at ten in the morning, I will announce a big practice session. Together, we can train ships to work in this atypical, light formation."
"Yes sir, my Prince!"
After Admiral Mike ton Akad left to arrange for a light fleet, I stayed in the office alone with my thoughts. It was very difficult not to fall into despondency and despair, but I tried to look for the silver lining. Sure, a lot of staff had left the fleet, but the only thing at fault for the loss of so many talented officers from the Unatari fleet was the sharply changed behavior of Crown Prince Georg. Earlier, I had actually required that my employees have an earnest desire to fight for the future of humanity. It was my main criterion in choosing who to hire. There was nothing surprising in the fact that, after quitting his job as Sector Eight Fleet Commander and falling into a difficult-to-understand state of lethargy, Crown Prince Georg's subjects would gradually start to leave and move to wherever there were more serious battles with the Aliens happening.
That was why there was no reason to raise salaries, or use other methods to artificially plug up the leak. I would just have to show the soldiers that Prince Georg had awoken after a half a year’s nap and would be returning to fight once again. That was why I absolutely could not avoid battling the Aliens, as it would cause the fleet to fall apart once and for all. In fact, the battle for the Hnelle system would have to be done as showily as possible, to remind all Imperial citizens that Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle can take on the Aliens and win.
"My Prince, may I come in?" Ayna peeked through the door apprehensively. "Your mission is complete. Here is the full list of all valuables on Queen of Sin."
I took the tablet, and pointed my assistant to the armchair next to mine, and the girl sat, crossing her legs.
"Ayna, prepare the first twenty items from the list for sale, excluding the trophy emeralds."
Ayna gaped in shock, as if considering objecting. After that, she made a bold move:
"My Prince, we'll hardly be likely to find buyers on Unatari who can afford these pieces."
I smiled mysteriously.
"Did I say anything about Unatari? Ayna, you just prepare the auctions. Leave finding a way of telling the Empire about it up to me. I'll get around this blockade. Also, pick out something pretty to gift Katerina ton Mesfelle. I'm flying out today to personally apologize to my cousin. And choose anything you want from the list for yourself. That's my present to you. Think of it as compensation for all the trouble."
My new assistant's eyes immediately lit up. No matter how you looked at it, there were some very luxurious items in that list, and any person would dream of owning them. I couldn't hold back a smile. At the end of the day, women were the same everywhere, be they back home, or in Perimeter Defense. Not a one will refuse the temptation of taking a pretty piece of jewelry.
After looking actively through the catalog for a minute, Ayna pointed to one item:
"Prince Georg, may I choose this pair of ruby earrings?"
"Of course. I did say any item, didn't I?"
"I know, it's just that they're really expensive. The rubies are exceptionally pristine and large. They're worth seven hundred thousand credits!"
Standing change. Ayna Mentor's opinion of you has improved.
Presumed personal opinion of you: +28 (amicable)
A fifteen-point bump in personal opinion over nothing but a pair of earrings? A normal person might cons
ider this a completely useless waste of expensive jewelry, but I was of a totally different opinion. The loyalty of my personal assistant was extremely important. I needed to be sure that Ayna would remain true even in hard times, despite all the temptations, threats and blackmail that she'd be sure to face. And if I could raise my assistant's loyalty with jewelry, then why not?
"Less than a million?" I made a showily wry mouth. "Then take the whole set. There's a ruby ring that goes with it. A gift from an Imperial Crown Prince must be fashionable, if nothing else."
Standing change. Ayna Mentor's opinion of you has improved.
Presumed personal opinion of you: +43 (friendship)
"Prince Georg, I'll never forget your benevolence!" Ayna promised, as teardrops began shimmering up from her eyelashes.
"Now then... No need to cry! Accept the gift. Go prepare invitations to the auction. As soon as you're done, get me a line to the Sigur system warp beacon security team."
I suspect that my assistant did not understand the connection between my two last orders. It should be said, though, that it was quite a direct one. I was preparing to send the information about the valuables auction through the Forepost-12 beacon that became visible periodically from the Sigur system and, a day later, to receive the money from the buyers in the same fashion.
* * *
"Aw, to hell with her! I'll do it myself!" A golden statuette of a long-legged bird with sapphire eyes was sent flying into the far end of the plane's main cabin.
The shuttle was taking off rapidly. A moment later, we were on our way to my palace flying above the dark restless ocean of Unatari. The conversation with Katerina ton Mesfelle did not go well from the very beginning. She was frightfully resentful of me. There were many reasons, but the main thing was that, four months earlier, Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky had completely ignored her marriage to Corwin ton Ugar.
The young couple were very hurt by my blatant refusal to attend their wedding, and even the four months that had passed since then had done nothing to heal the bitter wound. Corwin ton Mesfelle-Ugar still gave a forced smile to his unexpected highborn guest, but Katerina ton Mesfelle told me her honest opinion right to my face, making no effort to restrict her language. I have never been good at bearing insults, so I started firing back with a volley of hurtful questions and remarks of my own.
First of all, I was interested in how the ice-asteroid-rich Tivalle star system, which I long considered my property, had fallen into the hands of Viscount Sivir ton Mesfelle, Katerina's former classmate. I had sent him only to manage the ice processing facilities but now he had somehow become owner, not only of the processing plants, but the star system itself! What was more, that all happened, I suspect, with Katerina's hand in the mix somewhere, given that I had put her in charge of keeping track of the output of the Tivalle system’s factories.
Having left some other manager in his place, Viscount Sivir had long been back in the Orange House Capital where, every month, he received a profit from the quickly growing rare-isotope-processing facilities of the Tivalle system. Speaking of that, increased demand for ice-processing equipment was the very reason the decision was made to turn the Hnelle warp beacon on permanently again, which is what led to the Alien invasion and the whole crisis I was now in.
To put it briefly, Katerina and I had a serious scrap, and I left her palace without even giving her the gift I'd brought. The whole three-hour flight to my island home, I couldn't relax or concentrate on my work. That’s just how upset I was after the botched meeting. Katerina ton Mesfelle, Master of Rhetoric had played an important role in my plans to repair my standing, which had been so screwed up by Mr. G.I. Because of that, I knew I would have to secure her support one way or another. But how could I make peace with her?
The plane arrived to my island as the sun was rising. In this time zone on Unatari, morning had come. I refused an early breakfast (or would it have been a late dinner?) and heard out a report from Ayna, who also had yet to sleep. Everything had gone completely according to plan with her, though. In the short minute and a half that the Forepost-12 warp beacon was visible, a whole lot was able to be accomplished.
First, a prearranged encrypted message was sent to the Parn system for retransmission to Space Mutt. Crown Prince Georg had returned to actively playing Perimeter Defense, so the time had come for my companions to leave their sanctuary. Astra, and our son; the paralyzed Florianna, and her overgrown cockroaches; the Arite; Phobos; and Valian could all make their way back to civilization now. The coast was clear.
Second, forty-five million credits collected from the "rats," who had tried to flee Unatari were successfully transferred to the Uukresh. In the accompanying message addressed to Captain Clay ton Avelle, I wrote: "Hold in there, boys! I'll send the rest of what you're due in a couple days." The transaction went through without a hitch, so the severity of the problem with the long-unprovisioned fleet, I hoped, had at least been somewhat reduced. To fully cover all the debts that had piled up, according to my calculations, I would need another one hundred seventy million credits. I was hoping to find this money through the sale of the valuables from Queen of Sin. The announcement of the twenty auctions also made it through to the Empire successfully.
Ah, and the most important thing was that, after two days of communications blackout, a message went out to the Empire that the Unatari star system was holding out, and that Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle was back in command of his fleet.
* * *
"Ruslan, I need to talk to you quick and explain a whole bunch of stuff," Mr. G.I. stammered. As usual, he was interrupting my dream at a very bad time, just as I was trying to get a little rest after an action-packed day.
While I was struggling with the very strong temptation to send him down a footpath of erotic thoughts, Georgiy continued:
"I know that you are very unhappy with what happened during the first contract. Yes, I admit that I didn't always do right by your body. It's hard not giving into temptation and enticement when you suddenly find yourself thirty years younger. It's as if everything was suddenly in color again. Girls, dancing all night, free-flowing sex and alcohol... After so many years of health problems, all that fun tore my roof clean off, and it was hard to keep myself in bounds..."
"Well then what were the drugs for?!" I screamed in reply, but he ignored my question, continuing his speech.
"I know that Miya offered you generous compensation for all my outings. I hope you're not bitter..."
I started boiling in rage and screamed with my full throat:
"Not bitter?! If I could, I would break your arms and legs right now, then claim that’s how I found you! You animal! Jackass! Bastard! You destroyed my body!"
"So then, I hope these old grievances can be considered fully settled." As if nothing had happened, totally ignoring my screams, Georgiy just continued droning on. "I'm not in your body now, so don't worry. It won't happen again. Now, I wanted to tell you why exactly seven months have gone by in Perimeter..."
* * *
The conversation ended abruptly in the middle of his sentence. I was awoken by someone shaking me hard by the shoulder. I opened my eyes.
"My Prince, you were screaming in your sleep!" Ayna was standing over my bed in pistachio-colored semi-transparent pajamas.
"I was having a bad dream," I explained, trying to calm her down and speak in a tranquil tone, though it wasn't easy.
Mr. G.I. clearly wanted to give me some important information, which could have explained the rift in time. Ayna had woken me up at, of course, a very bad time. On the other hand, it was also good that she woke me up. I might have said something out loud. I smiled at my assistant:
"Thanks for your concern..." I wanted to finish the sentence and send the girl back to sleep, but my gaze got caught on the knobby stitches and scars on the girl's stomach.
Ayna followed my gaze and explained, giving a slanted smile:
"An old wound from my sporting days. After conque
ring the no-rules fighting and survival contests, I tried my hand at gladiator combat as part of a women’s team, The Ulia Valkyries. The draw at the eighth-finals had us going against the former champions, though. The central attacker from The Tesse Killers, much to the fans' delight, disemboweled me with her trident. My entrails were strewn about the whole arena. They had to pick them up with a shovel... The medics saved me and sewed me up, though some of my internal organs are still damaged or even totally missing..."
"So that's why Miya isn't worried to leave you alone with her husband?" I guessed in a stroke of genius.
The girl nodded in silence and, after a bit of waiting, whispered, barely audibly:
"Yes. My womb and ovaries have been totally removed. I can't have children, and no operations or money can help me now..."
Ayna spent some time in silence, then suddenly gave a tortured smile:
"That made it very easy to undergo certification and get licensed to work with members of the upper aristocracy as a bodyguard or personal assistant."
"But for some reason, it doesn't look like that makes you too happy... Ayna, I don't yet know what can be done with you. But I assure you that if there is any way, I will help. You have my word as a Crown Prince!"
Standing change. Ayna Mentor's opinion of you has improved.
Presumed personal opinion of you: +58 (trusting)
* * *
After seven months of absence, Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky was about to make his first speech to his fleet. There was a huge amount riding on how it would be received, so I was feeling very anxious, though I was trying not to show it. The small hall of the space station had been able to fit all the captains and senior officers from the Unatari Star Fleet, but it wasn't easy. On my way up to the platform, I saw that many of those gathered were wearing Black Stars on their Orange House uniforms. These people had made it through many battles with me, but were now trapped in a fog. They had absolutely no idea what to expect from me, their unpredictable commander.