Command Decisions (Book 3 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  “This isn’t how I saw things going,” Meyer said ruefully. “I still can’t quite imagine how I ended up opposing my captain.” He opened the hatch and scanned the corridor. “Just walk like nothing is wrong.”

  She followed him out into the corridor and tried to behave normally even though the skin between her shoulder blades itched. Everyone they passed stared at her.

  “You did what was right and what’s best for the Empire,” she said as they walked.

  “I did what my oath required of me, in any case. You are the voice of authority and the captain is wrong to disobey you. I don’t agree with everything you’ve done and I’m worried that you’re leading the Empire into a war we cannot win.”

  He waved his hand at her when she started to speak. “I’m not trying to be argumentative. I’ll do my duty even if I don’t agree with you.”

  “That wasn’t what I was going to say. I want to hear opposing points of view. I certainly don’t think I have all the answers. What I will say is that it’s easy to look back when the dust settles. It’s harder when you’re in the moment. Like when you made the decision to free us. Tomorrow the perfect plan will pop into your head. If you wait for the perfect plan, you’ll never do anything.”

  They entered a lift and she had to shut up since there were other people present. Meyer took them up a few decks and exited. “We’re going to the brig. I’m going to get Commander Mertz out of his cell and we’re going to make our way back to your cutter. I’ll call Captain Breckenridge to get him to allow your cutter to depart. By the time he realizes that I’ve helped you escape, you should be most of the way back to Courageous.”

  “You mean ‘we’ don’t you? You’re coming with us.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not going to be possible. He’ll discover the ruse much too quickly if I’m not here to distract him. I’ll likely go right into the same cell your captain occupies now,” he said with a wry smile. “Talk about a career limiting decision.”

  “He’s going to be furious. You need to come with us.”

  “It’s the only choice. If he has you in his sights, he might do something drastic to prevent your escape. I cannot and will not risk your life when I can prevent the danger in the first place.”

  “Well, come up with an alternate plan. I’m ordering you to come with us.”

  He sighed. “You don’t make things easy, do you, Highness? Aye, ma’am. Orders received. Follow my lead and please try to avoid hurting anyone too badly. These people are just following orders.”

  Two marines outside an armored hatch came to attention as they approached. The hatch was open and Meyer headed inside with a sharp nod to them. Three Fleet personnel manned the inside of the brig. Two ratings, one male and one female, flanked one of the cell hatches and a female officer sat at the console.

  The officer stood when she saw Meyer. “Commander.”

  “Lieutenant Jacobs. Captain Breckenridge has instructed me to bring Commander Mertz to him on the bridge. Bring him out.”

  She frowned. “That’s contrary to my instructions, sir. He ordered me to lock him down and only to release him on his direct orders. I’ll need to call him and verify the order. Sorry, sir.”

  Meyer smiled. “I completely understand. Please do. I wouldn’t want you to get into any trouble.”

  As soon as she lowered her eyes to the console, he drew the neural disruptor from inside his uniform tunic and shot her. The blue beam took her down and he whirled to face the hatch.

  Kelsey had been primed for something like that, so she was able to draw her own pistol and rush the guards as they gaped at the unexpected attack.

  The female guard was slightly quicker on the uptake, so Kelsey shot her. The princess’ augmentation brought her into hand-to-hand range of the man before he could draw a bead on her. She ripped his weapon right out of his grip and ducked far enough to the side to allow his fist to pass by her head.

  Just because she could fight didn’t mean she wanted to take a fist to the face.

  She heard Meyer firing behind her and hoped he got both the marines before they opened fire.

  A shove sent the man she was fighting into the bulkhead and she shot him. He collapsed without any further trouble.

  Commander Meyer didn’t need her help. He’d dropped both the marines without any problem.

  “It looks like you’re a much better fighter than I expected, Commander,” she said. “I didn’t need to give you a talk before the boarding, did I?”

  “This isn’t the same. These people trusted me. This was more like a sucker punch than a fair fight.” He looked at the small weapon in her hand. “And that little thing is even more unfair. I had no idea you were armed.”

  “That was kind of the idea. Senior Sergeant Talbot tells me that fair fights indicate a lack of planning and imagination. Mostly on my part.”

  Meyer dragged the marines through the hatch and closed it. “When those people were trying to kill us, I didn’t see any lack of planning or imagination on your part. Unlike myself. I froze. I’ve never been in anything like that.”

  He tapped the controls on the console and the cell opened up. Jared stood there, gaping at them. Meyer extended the neural disruptor to him.

  “If you intend to get out of here, Commander, you’d best get moving. The escape window is closing.”

  Jared took the neural disruptor from the other man and tucked it into his tunic. “You’re helping us?”

  “My oath to the emperor doesn’t agree with Captain Breckenridge’s plan. We have just a few minutes to get to your cutter.”

  When Meyer headed for the hatch, they followed. “How are we going to get away from Spear? They have to release the docking clamps or the cutter won’t be going anywhere.”

  “I’ll call the bridge when we get down to the docking level. I can get them to release it.”

  “What about Captain Breckenridge?”

  “I have a plan, but the princess has forbidden me to execute it.”

  She looked at Jared. “He wanted to send us off and call Breckenridge away from the bridge. He’d be captured for sure.”

  The lift deposited them at the cutter deck. Jared followed Meyer out. “You’d do that for us?”

  “No,” Meyer said. “I’d do that for her. And for my own sense of honor. It’s still the best plan. I recommend you change her mind. Time is short.”

  Jared opened his mouth to say something, but the alert klaxon went off. Captain Breckenridge’s voice came through the overheads. “All hands, this is the captain. We have two escaped prisoners on the loose. Be on the lookout for Commander Jared Mertz and Princess Kelsey Bandar. Both are armed and dangerous. Commander Meyer, call the bridge at once.”

  Meyer gestured toward the cutter. “Get inside. I’ll call him. I may be able to get it released if I make him think you haven’t made it here yet.”

  He touched the communications panel on the wall. “Bridge, this is Meyer.”

  “Sean,” Breckenridge said, “Mertz has escaped. The princess’ guard is not responding. She escaped somehow. Where are you?”

  “I’m on the docking level. They haven’t made it here yet. If their ride has left, it’ll make it much easier to recapture them.”

  “Good idea. I’ll send them away right now. Take command of the search. I want them found at once. The very safety of the Empire lies in getting that deluded woman back under our control.”

  “I won’t fail the Empire, Captain. Meyer out.”

  He turned to them. “If I go with you, I won’t be able to delay the moment he discovers you’re truly gone and opens fire. I’m sorry, Highness.” He spun on his feet and headed for the lift.

  She wanted to argue, but she knew he was right. “We’ll be back for you. Don’t lose hope.”

  Jared pulled her into the cutter and Kelsey closed the hatch behind them. Jared rushed for the flight deck while she strapped herself in. The cutter unceremoniously undocked and acceleration pressed her into her seat.r />
  All she could think about was the man who’d just doomed himself for her. She had no idea how she could make it right.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Commander Meyer’s ruse worked far better than Jared had hoped. The cutter made it almost all the way back to Courageous before there was any sign of activity from Spear. Jared had already sent a tight beam alert to Graves. Courageous was at battle stations, their weapons on hot standby and battle screens ready at a moment’s notice.

  Jared wasn’t sure what Breckenridge would do when he figured out where they’d gone. Everything was on the table with that man. In the end, he didn’t even bother to call them to rant.

  The heavy cruiser and its two remaining destroyer escorts began accelerating away from Shadow in formation toward the weak flip point. They didn’t respond to calls from the confused Pentagaran warships or Courageous. Jared more than half expected him to open fire on the crippled light cruiser, but he left her be.

  Their cutter docked without incident and they made their way to the bridge. He interfaced with the ship’s scanners and watched the three ships fleeing the system.

  Graves gestured at the screen. “We can catch them before they make the flip point.”

  “And do what? Open fire on them? That’s not an acceptable course of action, Charlie. We let them go and hope for the best. What’s the situation?”

  “Recovery operations are still under way. It’s possible we’ll find more trapped survivors on Shadow, but not very likely. At this point we’re only expecting to retrieve the dead.”

  “Do we have any of the survivors aboard?”

  The exec shook his head. “Breckenridge was adamant that all survivors be brought to Spear. He knew what he was going to do before we made it back. They’ll be in position to flip in about nine hours. Are we really just going to let them go? They could run right into the bad guys.”

  “Give me a plan that doesn’t require me killing several thousand Fleet personnel. In the meantime, what’s the status of the interrogations?”

  “The officer still isn’t talking, but some of the enlisted are. We’re trying to make sense of what they’re saying, though. It seems like they don’t really have a clear picture of their own Empire. All of them that have talked are part of what they call the lower orders. I’m guessing that’s a social distinction. The officers come from the higher orders.

  “And Jared, they’re afraid of their officers. Genuinely afraid. Just seeing me in uniform caused a physical reaction. They mostly answer the questions I give them, as if they can’t imagine not responding to something an officer asks them.”

  Kelsey cleared her throat. “Have you tried having one of the ratings talk to them? Or a civilian?”

  Graves nodded. “They responded much more openly to our ratings, but they didn’t seem as likely to answer questions. I haven’t tried any of the civilians. I don’t want one of them to attack someone unable to defend themselves.”

  “I should talk to them,” Kelsey said. “They might open up to me. In any case, they won’t be too much of a threat to me physically.”

  Jared agreed. She’d be perfect for the job. “I like it. What about the officer?”

  Graves shook his head. “Even without the viral programing in his implants, he’s uncommunicative. At least he isn’t aggressive anymore. Courageous reports that he’s attempted to access the ship’s systems numerous times.”

  “Perhaps you should let him,” Kelsey said. “A limited set of files. Historical ones of the Old Empire. Nothing that pertains to our current circumstances, of course. What have the enlisted prisoners said about the rebellion?”

  “That it took place. That they overthrew the corrupt emperor and freed the people from slavery. Detailed questions about the Old Empire confuse them. Apparently their history books are a little vague.”

  “That sounds like propaganda,” Jared said. “Tell people something long enough and they’ll believe it. What about the AIs?”

  “Nothing. The officer’s implant code was corrupted, so they must be lurking somewhere behind the scenes, but the general population seems to be unaware of them. That matches up with the data we’ve retrieved from the destroyer. They wiped the main computer, but we recovered a number of tablets and data chips. We’re still putting everything together, but it’s obvious that they didn’t exterminate the core worlds of the Old Empire like we thought. There are specific mentions of Terra as the hub of the Rebel Empire.”

  Kelsey’s face paled. “They kept the major population centers and remade society in the way they wanted. At least some of them. The rebels won.”

  “The AIs won,” Jared said. “For now. We still don’t know the scope of space they occupy. We’ll need to gather all the data we can about that. Damn that idiot Breckenridge. He killed our one chance of taking a computer intact. And he vaporized all those implants. Honestly, I’m not sure how he could have executed the plan any more ineptly. Other than getting all his ships destroyed.”

  “Captain, we have an incoming call from a ship at the Pentagaran flip point.”

  Jared turned toward the front of the bridge. “On screen.”

  The main screen cleared to show the bridge of a ship. Admiral Walter Sanders, the freshly promoted commander of the Pentagaran Fleet sat in the center seat. Crown Princess Elise Orison stood at his side.

  The sight of her made him smile. “Elise! Welcome to Erorsi. Admiral.”

  “Lord Captain,” she said with a smile of her own. “Kelsey. I came to see how things are going for myself.”

  That took the edge off his pleasure. “It could’ve gone better. We lost three ships and far too many people. Plus, there are other complications. Captain Breckenridge has decided to strike out on his own.”

  Her eyes widened. “What? That’s sheer folly! You should order him back at once, Kelsey.”

  Kelsey shook her head with a wry smile. “That’s not likely to be effective after he attempted to take me prisoner. He’s made his choice and I can’t do much about it.

  “On the good side, we captured the destroyer escort. Unfortunately, Captain Breckenridge destroyed the freighter with all its cargo. We have prisoners, so we’re hopeful we can get some badly needed data on our opponents. At the very least, we’ve put off the day they discover your presence. That gives us all a fighting chance.”

  Admiral Sanders grimaced. “That’s better than it could’ve been, but worse than I’d hoped. I see that your wayward officers are heading for the weak space-time bridge. What are the chances that it leads somewhere disconnected from the areas controlled by the enemy?”

  “Unknown. I pray it leads close to Avalon and far away from this Rebel Empire. We’ll send a probe once they’re gone and see how it matches up to the flip point maps in Courageous’ data banks.”

  “We’ll be at your location in a few hours,” the admiral said. “Perhaps together we can come up with a plan to make things right.”

  Jared nodded. “We’ll get a tow on Shadow and start moving her toward Erorsi. If nothing else, we can put her in the operational shipyard to see what repairs are possible. The same for the destroyer.”

  “That sounds like an excellent first step. Sanders out.”

  Jared rose to his feet. “Zia, see if our Pentagaran friends will tow Shadow and the destroyer to Erorsi. Pasco, what would you estimate their arrival time to be?”

  Ramirez checked his console. “Probably sometime tomorrow.”

  Kelsey stood. “That’s better time than Athena made out to the Courageous flip point. Why did it take us four days?”

  Jared put his hand on her shoulder. “Because I was too stubborn to ask for a tow. That was Athena under her own power. We need to go work on the prisoners.”

  She nodded. “I should probably make a run at the officer. Come with me. Perhaps the two of us with implants can make some headway on him.”

  He doubted that. The man seemed determined not to talk with them. Still, what could it hurt? “Okay.”


  They’d housed the majority of the prisoners on the cargo deck, but the officer warranted a cell in the brig. A man with implants might be unexpectedly dangerous. Jared should know.

  The layout of Courageous’ brig was similar to the one on Spear. Except that he didn’t have extra marine guards in the corridor. He trusted the ship’s AI to keep unauthorized people out of the facility.

  The duty officer stood when Jared came into the compartment. “Captain.” Three marines with sidearms stood along the bulkheads.

  “Lieutenant Gonzales. How is the prisoner?”

  Lieutenant Junior Grade Benjamin Gonzales had been a supply officer on Athena. The destroyer hadn’t needed dedicated security people. The young officer had stepped up when Jared formed the new department.

  “He’s been fed and is just as uncommunicative as before, sir.”

  “Open the cell.”

  The marines moved to have a better line of sight, but Jared waved them back. “Let’s keep this as casual as we can.”

  The hatch slid open. The cell was spartan enough: a bunk, a head, and one small shelf, empty. The prisoner had been lying down, but he sat up as they entered. His already closed expression soured when he saw who his visitors were.

  Kelsey stepped around Jared and centered herself on the bunk. “Lieutenant Commander Richards, my name is Kelsey Bandar. We’ve met, though under less than preferable circumstances. In your computer center.”

  She paused, perhaps to allow him to speak, but he remained silent.

  “Fifty-seven of your people survived the battle. We have them on board Courageous. Would you like me to give you an update on their status?”

  He looked torn, but shook his head.

  “Not even the people in the computer center with you?”

  The man looked down for a long minute. “Yes.”

  That was the first word he’d said since his capture. Jared suspected that it wouldn’t be his last. Kelsey was a miracle worker.

  She waved Jared back and squatted to bring her eyes close to the man’s level. “One woman had some broken bones in her hand, but they’ve been set and she’s going through a regeneration regime. The others all came through the fight without injury. If you like, I can arrange a visit.”