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

by Terry Mixon

  The man’s expression closed down again, but Jared sensed some relief under the surface. “For a price, I assume. Tell me, what exactly do traitors like you want? I’ll never betray Fleet or my oath to the Lords like you did.”

  “It might surprise you, but I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t know your civilization existed until a few months ago.”

  Richards sneered. “Tell me another one. Only members of the higher orders or Fleet officers get implants. You’re no Fleet officer, so you were a Lord. You and your traitor friend broke all the oaths you ever swore. I can’t imagine how you stole those ships, or crewed them for that matter, but Fleet will find you and crush you.”

  Kelsey pursed her lips. “I know you’ve heard of the rebellion against the Old Empire. The rebels crippled this ship. We only found it a few months ago. As for my implants, you can thank those psychopathic monsters you were trying to resupply for them. Tell me, why would civilized people aid a rogue AI in enslaving savages and turning them into ravening beasts bent on destruction?”

  To say her words surprised the man would be an understatement. He gaped at her. “You’re lying.”

  “I am not. I was just a normal person before they captured me, cut me apart, and made me one of them. I’m just lucky my brother rescued me before they altered the programming in my implants. I’d imagine your implantation wasn’t nearly as traumatic as mine was. We used the Old Empire techniques to remove the viral code from your implants, by the way. You’re not under anyone’s control now. At least not in your head.”

  “I wasn’t under anyone’s control before,” he snarled. “What did you do to me?”

  Jared spoke for the first time. “We overwrote your implant with the original Imperial code, Commander. That’s the only reason you’re not frothing at the mouth and trying to kill us with your bare hands. Unless that’s how you normally behave.”

  If the man’s eyes had been weapons, he’d have burned Jared to a crisp. “How could you betray Fleet, traitor? After everything they did for you. What were you before? A lieutenant? An ensign? Why settle for being a commander? Why not go for captain? Or admiral?”

  “Because I’ve never been part of your Fleet. Our people escaped the rebellion. I’m the other Fleet. The one your rebel ancestors tried to destroy.”

  The man gaped. “That’s not possible. We overthrew the Old Empire and crushed its corrupt masters.”

  “You’ve been sadly misinformed, but it’s not my duty to correct that lapse. You’re aboard the Fleet battlecruiser Courageous. You and your fellows are my prisoners. In case you don’t remember my name, I’m Commander Jared Mertz, commanding officer of this vessel. I’ve been a Fleet officer for over two decades, just not your Fleet.

  “At Princess Kelsey’s suggestion, I am going to authorize you to access the ship’s library. You should be able to find enough to entertain and educate yourself. I’m sorry to inform you that the contents are sadly out of date, but the ship has been floating in space since before the Fall. We’ll speak again.”

  The man stood abruptly, but made no aggressive move. Kelsey stood slowly and the marines outside brought their neural disruptors up. She waved for them to lower their weapons.

  “I will not be fooled by your propaganda,” the man said through clenched teeth.

  Kelsey turned toward the hatch. “We all have to decide what we believe in, Commander Richards. I’ll come back later with your people. If you want to talk to me, you have my implant code. Call at any time.”

  The two of them left the man standing in the middle of his cell. Jared gave the instructions to Courageous to allow him access to the library of unclassified data. The AI would ensure the man didn’t access anything sensitive or recent. Considering the vast library of data available, Richards might actually learn something.

  “Do you think we’ll convince him?” he asked Kelsey.

  “Eventually. The foundation of his beliefs is a lie. That makes for a lousy building. We’ll see if it comes in time to make a difference. If you don’t mind, I have some other things to look into before bed. I’m sure you and Elise can find something to talk about without me.” She said the last with a slight smirk.

  “Don’t be snide. I’m sure that you and Talbot will find something equally interesting to do.”

  She smiled. “You have no idea.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kelsey headed down to marine country as soon as she left the brig. She’d convinced Talbot not to come hunting for her, but there were limits to his patience. Hers, too.

  It surprised her how many people were there when she arrived. Not just marines, but scientists. She spotted Doctor Leonard standing beside Lieutenant Reese and headed over toward them. The two of them were examining one of the captured plasma cannons.

  “Doctor, Lieutenant. So, is it better than ours or just bigger?”

  The older man smiled. “We’ll need to put it though some tests, but the technology is remarkably consistent, considering the passage of time. One would’ve imagined more than minor improvements over the last five hundred years.”

  Reese held it out to her. “We tried to fire it on the range, but it seems to be locked out. Mister Owlet is looking at the armor in the armory or I’d have had him check it out.”

  “I can do that.” They rebels had locked the weapon, but not in the same way as her new pistols had been. This was more like an on/off switch. It didn’t require an implant to fire it like hers did, but it did need one to make it operable. She, of course, didn’t have the correct code.

  “It looks like it requires an authorization code to become operable. Carl should be able to reset the code so that I can turn it on. It looks like it has a kick. Perhaps too much for someone without powered armor or enhanced muscles. Let’s go find out.”

  She put it onto her shoulder and headed for the armory. She felt ridiculous. The weapon seemed like it was bigger than she was. The armory was adjacent to the range and the marine armorer was examining some of the captured ammunition while Carl Owlet had the top of the massive armor opened up. The graduate student turned to face them when they came in.

  “Highness, Lieutenant, Doctor. How can I help you?”

  She held out the weapon. “I need you to reset the implant control in this. It has a code like the console and the safe.”

  He took the massive weapon with some bobbling and set it on the table. “If it works like the console, I should be able to make it give you the access code. Once you have it, you should be able to reset it yourself. Or disable it.”

  “How’s the armor?”

  “About the same, I think. It doesn’t need implants to operate, but someone with the right code needs to turn it on. Very strange.” He tinkered inside the rifle until he found something. “Try to access it.”

  It only took half a dozen attempts to get the weapon to spit out the code. Kelsey gave Owlet the high sign and he put it back together. When it was ready, the boy stepped back. “Give it a try.”

  She sent the code and the weapon turned on, giving her complete access to the internals. She reset the code to one of her own choosing and began looking for a way to deactivate the need for a code at all.

  Only there wasn’t an option for that. Once someone activated the weapon, it would lock out when someone swapped out the power supply. Someone wanted complete control over this weapon.

  The specifications indicated that it required armor to fire. She couldn’t find a reference to use by unarmored commandos. She might be able to use it.

  “I’m going to the range. I think it might be best if I try this without spectators. Just in case.”

  Talbot looked mulish. “If you’re not sure that it’s safe, you probably shouldn’t use it.”

  “If the range tells me it can’t handle it, I won’t. I’m using some of the caution you recommended.”

  Reese eyed the weapon. “It looks ridiculously powerful. Go armor up. That’s being cautious.”

  She sighed, but
did as ordered. They’d put her spare armor here in the armory. Her damaged set sat in the corner, awaiting the armorer’s pleasure to replace the damaged section. It only took a few minutes to seal it up. She didn’t bother to use a skinsuit, since she wasn’t going to be in it more than a few minutes.

  Even in her armor, the weapon seemed vastly oversized for her. She made her way onto the range and brought its systems online. A quick query confirmed the range could handle it. Barely.

  Kelsey cranked the protective field to maximum and put the target at fifty meters, which the weapon indicated was the minimum safe distance.

  The kick when she fired it was…substantial. The plasma weapon she normally used was too powerful for an unenhanced person to use. This might be too much for her without armor.

  The detonation of the plasma seed sent her staggering back a step. It was an order of magnitude more powerful than anything she’d used before. Use of this weapon on a ship would be suicidal. Which explained why the armored marines hadn’t had any on them. These were for use on the ground.

  She’d try one of the large flechette rifles, too, but right now she wanted to conduct an experiment. She returned to the armory and began stripping out of her armor. “That worked. The range can handle one of these with the safety system set to max. It packs a kick. I want to see if I can fire it without the armor.”

  Talbot looked unconvinced. “Is that safe?”

  “The range shields us from the blast. I just need to see if the kick is too much for me outside my armor.” She turned to Owlet. “We’ll need to unlock one of the oversized flechette rifles, if they’re set up the same way.”

  Kelsey headed back to the range, but stopped Talbot when he started to come up to the firing line. “Let’s be cautious.”

  “Then take out all the ammo. If you only have one shot, you can’t accidentally fire a second one.”

  “Good idea.” She laid the rifle on the bench and pulled out the magazine. The pellets were significantly larger than the ones she’d seen before. She stripped all but one out and pocketed them.

  Without the armor, the rifle really did feel like a cannon. Her strength allowed her to support its weight, but it was massive. She brought the range up, put a target out at fifty meters, and fired.

  The recoil knocked her off her feet and sent her sliding on the deck. She ended up almost halfway back to Talbot. Her shoulder ached and she stared up at him. “Wow. That was something. It kicks like a mule.”

  He held his hand out to her. “Have you ever been kicked by a mule?”

  “Nope.” She took his hand and let him pull her up. “This is definitely not useable by unarmored people. Even me.”

  “What would happen if I fired it? I’m more than halfway temped.”

  “I’m pretty sure it would break your shoulder. I recommend you give it a pass. Besides, if we can get the marine armor working, you’ll be able to give it a try.”

  “You think they can get the armor working?”

  She nodded. “Why not. Owlet seems to have figured out how to unlock them. The system only works because I have implants, but he and I have a system.”

  They headed back to the armory. She handed the weapon and the ammunition over to the armorer. “This is too much for anyone in unpowered armor.” She looked at Carl. “Any luck?”

  “The lockout is exactly like the plasma cannon. Go ahead and give it the original code.”

  She did and the weapon came online. Kelsey changed the code and looked at Talbot. “Come on.”

  This weapon didn’t require the maximum protection from the range. She loaded it and interfaced her implants with it. Her implants couldn’t bring up a firing interface. Interesting. She made a mental note to have Carl examine the code in the weapon.

  Kelsey had the range create a small hoard of Pale Ones. They all charged, howling like beasts.

  The targeting software in her implants located them all and she fired a burst at the first one. This weapon, unlike the normal flechette rifle, had recoil. Not enough that she couldn’t control it, though.

  She fired bursts into each of the charging enemy until they were all down. She handed the large rifle over to Talbot. “I’m not sure you’ll be able to control this, but it won’t hurt you to try. Much.”

  Talbot braced it on the rest and fired single shots at targets. “The recoil is pretty stiff. I doubt I can control full auto. Be ready to grab it if I lose control.” He fired short bursts and managed to keep all the shots on the range. Barely.

  He rubbed his shoulder. “Yeah, that isn’t going to be useable by anyone outside of powered armor. It’s too hard to control. Too bad. It’s a badass weapon.”

  “Then the only thing left to try is getting that armor online.”

  They made their way back to the armory again and turned in the weapon. “Carl, did you get the armor unlocked?”

  “I’ve been digging into it while you were gone. It’s harder to get to the control mechanism. And it seems to have some lethal add-ons.”

  “What does that mean?”

  The graduate student gestured at the armor. “It has a self-destruct package. I found explosives at various locations inside. They’d wreck the armor and the marine.”

  “Seriously?” She shook her head. “What kind of manic wants their marines to blow up? How long before you can defuse it?”

  “I’m almost there. Give me ten minutes.”

  Talbot pulled her aside. “That kind of adds to the theme. It seems like the implants were restricted to officers. Perhaps only senior officers. Someone locked the weapons. The armor is locked and booby-trapped. They didn’t trust the crew. They’re afraid of a mutiny.”

  “It sounds paranoid, but you’re right. They wiped the AI rather than let us capture it. Not just the data, but also the hardware. The captain encrypted her console and her files in a way that made recovery unlikely. There’s no way anyone was getting them, unless you factor in someone like me with implants and a major hacker like Carl.”

  She scratched her chin. “It sounds like their society is ruled by AIs with a favored class of citizens who watch over the rest. They don’t even trust the rank and file military. The ratings and crewmen aren’t even familiar with the layout of their Empire. Which I will now be calling the Rebel Empire for clarity. They have no idea the AIs even exist.”

  Talbot nodded. “Too bad none of the marines is talking yet. I’d love to talk to them. We might be able to convert some of the crew. Release them from their chains, so to speak. What about the officer?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. If he’s one of the ruling elite, he might be hard to reach. Though he did call me a renegade Lord, but thought Jared was only a Fleet officer. That might mean that the real aristocracy chooses the cream of the middle layers of society and trains them up for Fleet command. I wonder if the lords have corrupted implants like the Fleet officers.”

  Carl Owlet waved at them. “I’ve removed the last of the bombs. I also found a power pack that would fry the advanced circuitry. Everything else seems harmless.”

  “Are you willing to bet someone’s life on that?”

  The young man nodded. “There’s nothing else in there that could damage the system or the wearer. I’m ready to trigger the code when you are.”

  Kelsey stretched her neck. “Go ahead.”

  This set of controls was significantly harder to hack than the captain’s console. It took hours and Carl almost gave up several times. Someone really didn’t want their armor falling into the wrong hands.

  Eventually, though, she got a code. Ten times longer than the previous codes. She fed it back to the armor and it powered up. She changed the code with a sigh. “Got it. It looks like the armor is set up like the weapons. If you replace the power supply, the armor locks down. Can you do something about that, Carl?”

  “Possibly. I’ll need to work with Doctor Leonard. Give me a few days to consider the possibilities.”

  She directed her implants to interface
with the armor. They did, but it wasn’t as seamless as when she linked up to her commando armor. Like the weapons, the implant receptors didn’t seem optimized to allow someone like her to control the equipment.

  That wasn’t to say that she couldn’t manage. It was just clumsy. She’d see if the computer experts on Erorsi could assist them in cleaning up the interface. These two sets of armor could make the difference going forward.

  It only took her a moment to find out why this suit had been in the armory on the destroyer. One of the legs wasn’t working. It had a control fault.

  She looked at Owlet and the armorer. “This unit has a problem. Let’s bring the other one online.”

  That took a few minutes more, but the code she’d gotten from the last set of armor allowed her to access it much more rapidly. This unit had a fault in the torso.

  “Okay, this one is more broken than the first. I guess that’s why they didn’t use them. The control unit for the left leg is bad in the first one. Can we salvage that from the damaged unit? The upper torso is broke on this one. Are any of the ruined units suitable for salvaging parts?”

  The armorer nodded. “We have the damaged equipment in one of the holds. I’ll see what we can recover.”

  Owlet opened the leg on the second unit. “I might be able to swap the control units and get one of these operating.”

  A few minutes later, he held up something that looked like a long, thin data chip. “I think this is it. Let me put it in the first set of armor.”

  Once he finished, Kelsey accessed the armor again. The check this time was amber. It read as operational, but still seemed to have some kind of problem. “That did it. Mostly. Let’s see what this thing can do.”

  She started to climb into the suit and immediately discovered a problem. The legs were too long for her. The arms, too. Apparently, these Rebel Empire types thought marines needed to come in extra-large packages.

  “Oops. They built this thing for someone a little larger than I am. Talbot, you want to give it a try?”