I’m beginning to recover, maybe thanks to the energy drink. “Inducing fear. Tell me more. Why do all this? Why the elaborate setup?”
The Scorpion leans back in her chair and sips from her own fruit juice. “When I was twelve, the Blood Empire invaded and the first Sector War started. I managed to escape, but my planet was not so lucky.”
I gesture for her to go on.
She waves her hand noncommittally. “Vaporized. Unfortunately so were my parents and four older brothers.” She looks at me with sad eyes. “I see the Jovian rise to power; their growing control of our energy supplies, and the possibility that they will take the Sector by force. I can’t allow that to happen again.”
I feel my brow furrow. “But why all the drama? Why not just lead and persuade? Why the cartoon-style memes and the dumbed-down sloganizing?”
She snorts. “You’ve obviously not studied the same leaders of history I have. It’s populist messages and the idea of unseen threats that mobilize the masses. Not informed strategy and reasoned voting. Sad to say.” She takes a breath. “If I’m to get the majority of Takao behind me, I have to speak in a way that they understand. That they feel.” She taps her chest.
The door slides back and my crew file in, brought up at the rear by Sloper, still being carried by the same two goons. They dump him in the nearest seat and leave, tapping the door closed. I nod my head at Danielli, Aktip and the rest, and they take seats around us.
“We waiting for this Scorpion?” Plexi says, looking around the room, bright-eyed. “Like to tell him to his face how dumbsnark those rallies are.” She looks at me, embarrassed. “Watched them on the holo on the way in to Takao, Ma’am.”
“You can tell him to her face right now,” I jerk my thumb at the Scorpion sitting next to me, displaying an amused smile.
Plexi stands up. “No shit?!” Her hand flies to her mouth. “Oops. Beg my pardon, Ma’am.” She sits down.
The Scorpion leans forward, looks around at my crew, and at Sloper, whose eyes are wide. He obviously didn’t know either.
She has a serious expression. “I’m not what you think, and I need your help. I’ve already taken a significant risk disclosing my identity to you.”
“Why would we help you?” Mitch asks. Clearly brighter, he still looks the worse for wear. “You and your scum over there nearly got me killed.”
“And I thought Sloper rescued you from Errikson? Isn’t that right, Sloper?”
Sloper says nothing. He looks to be in overload. The Scorpion smiles at Mitch. “But I see you harbor resentment. Should I dispose of him for you?” She reaches down and draws up a laserpistol, aims it directly at Sloper, but before she has a chance to do anything else, I slam her arm to the table. She looks back at me. “Oh. Sorry.” She hands me the laserpistol. “You want to do the honors.”
I push the pistol away, across the table. “No executions. Not even him. There are bigger problems to solve.” I look around the room, slowly taking in my team. “The Scorpion is on our side. Her goal is to prevent the Jovians using the Constellation to dominate the Sector. My question is, why take the Constellation anywhere? If Errikson and the Jovians have the drive, the ship is no threat. It can’t be used against Takao.”
I see the nods of agreement and I turn to face the Scorpion. “So if you are serious about protecting the Constellation and dismissing the Jovian threat, you need to prove to us you can be trusted.”
Confusion flickers across her face. “How? State your request.”
I point along the table to the Rykkan Chief. “Meet your new trading partner.”
The Chief seems almost as startled as the Scorpion. Almost. Then he breaks out into an enormous red grin.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
All eyes are now on me, and I wait for the hubbub to diminish until I speak again.
“Here’s how it will work. Sloper’s power resides in his control over the trade routes he runs for you.”
The Scorpion—I wish I had another name for her, but that can wait—waves her finger for me to continue. I do. “So we don’t need to kill him; just remove his power. Or rather, give it to someone else.” I flick my eyes to the Rykkan Chief, who has not lost his grin.
Sloper however, starts to protest. The Scorpion shuts him up with her palm, and looks at me. She seems fascinated.
I take this as a positive. “You have a problem on your planet, yes?”
She nods.
“So here’s what I am going to suggest, and what you will agree to. You assign all of Sloper’s trade deals and treaties to the Rykkans.”
“You can’t—” Sloper forgets he is badly injured and tries to jump up. He only succeeds in crying out in pain, slowly sinking back into his seat and glaring at me.
I continue. “My friend, the Chief here, will look after the entire operation—”
I have to hold up both hands to stop everyone chiming in. I wait for silence.
“The Chief owes me a lifetime debt.” I look at the Rykkan. “This cannot be undone. True?”
“True,” he says. His grin is fading a little. I look at Aktip and raise my eyes.
“Ma’am Captain, I cannot tell if he speaks the truth unless he drops his block.”
The Chief looks over to Aktip and spreads his hand and claw. “Is truth now, yes?”
Aktip looks at me. “Madam Captain, he is telling the truth, but ...”
“But?”
“He is correct to be concerned. You are still considered a criminal on Rykkamon.” She looks confused for a moment. “As am I.”
The Rykkan Chief waves a claw. “Can all be fixed with story for politician-father of injured boy. And a special gift from Takao I think.” He eyes the Scorpion. The Chief might be forced to be in debt to me now, but that doesn’t stop him from being wily. I’d almost forgotten that somewhere, thanks to me, there is a young Rykkan minus one arm.
I hold the Scorpion’s gaze and carry on. “I will personally vouch for the Chief’s trading skills, and rather surprisingly for his general philosophical understanding of what needs to happen. And since I didn’t finish, before, I will add that Sloper’s operation includes the official trade”—I pause for effect—“and the unofficial trade. Which the Chief happens to be particularly well qualified to oversee.”
“Presumably at some point, you’ll tell me what is supposed to be in this for me?” The Scorpion has played into my hands.
“The Chief and his men will, with your announced amnesty, seek to redeploy all the Rykkan mercenaries as trade ambassadors engaged in the execution of the new trade operation.” I have to hold up my hand again as everyone wants to speak. But the Scorpion just waits.
“You will also acquiesce to almost all the demands from the Resistance, in return for their agreement to work together for a peaceful solution.” Not that they’ll have much choice without their paid mercenaries, but I leave this for the Scorpion to piece together. “Their supporters will be glad of your peace offering, when you could have just crushed them. Your own followers will praise your ending of the bloody violence. You will control Takao, secure your trade routes; have brought peace and be ready to repel any Jovian offensives.”
Now no one speaks. Danielli and Plexi look at me with admiration, the Rykkan Chief still has a slight smile, and Sloper looks haggard and beaten. Herg, Zhang and Ortiz watch the Scorpion intently.
The Scorpion’s mouth turns up a little at one end. “Touché, Madam Captain. I have one condition.”
I incline my head. “Let me guess. None of this can be negotiated over hyper-relay, so we need to bring the Constellation to Takao, and you and I will travel ahead in our other ships to make the new arrangements.”
Her face breaks out into a broad smile. “I like you. Even more so that you’re on my side, and not the Jovians’.”
I smile back. “Then we have a deal. Now ... apparently you have a way to transport a battlecruiser?”
CHAPTER FIFTY
I stand at the warship’s panoramic vi
ewport and watch two giant hyperDrive units being maneuvered out of the warship’s cargo hold and slowly propelled to the Constellation with tugdrones. The Scorpion tells me it will take two to three days and an entire team of twelve engineers to complete the task of attaching the drives. I tell myself she seems all too well prepared, but what other choice do I have? I’ve not told anyone except my own close crew and Mitch that I am the Constellation’s Captain. I intend to keep that very close to my chest.
I sense a presence at my side. Danielli. He nods to me and watches the operation. I sometimes wonder about Danielli. The strong silent type ... yet he clearly enjoyed that kiss. He catches me looking at him. “Yes, Ma’am?”
“You’re not on duty, Danielli. Indy is my name.”
He shifts uncomfortably. “Yes, Ms Jackson.”
I smile. “That will have to do, I guess. But you came to ask me something.”
“Am I that obvious?” He studies me for a while. “Do you think our new Rykkan ambassador can pull it off?”
I suck in air through my teeth before I reply. “Yes. Yes, I believe so. There’s something stoic about the Rykkans. They are both forthright in their integrity and their corruption. It had me puzzled for a while.”
Danielli tilts his head. “And?”
“I realized their sensing ability and the harsh climate must have built a resolve to cope no matter what. It’s not a place for hiding anything. Or if you do, everyone knows. Our friend is no idiot—and he is beholden to his debt to me. He’ll make it work.” Though I may have to lend a helping hand. If I ever get the chance.
It’s my turn to study Danielli, who has turned to watch the activity outside, and I give him a long look before continuing. “What do you make of this?”—I gesture to the viewport—“Have you seen anything like it on your travels?”
He shakes his head, continuing to stare out at the oversized cosmic ballet unfolding in front of us. Or below us. Or above us. Directions are not important. Until you need to go somewhere.
“No, Miss. Uh, Indy. I’ve never seen it before. Though I have heard of such portable drives used to move large constructions across the Sector. Never a battlecruiser though.”
“There’s only one Constellation, eh?” I smile at him. “Presumably no one was expecting to have to do this with it.”
He twists his head and looks at me sharply. “Someone must have, Ma’am.”
“Do expand, Danielli.” I watch the huge hyperDrive units get maneuvered to either side of the massive battlecruiser, and we lose sight of one of them as it “orbits” the mothership’s circumference.
“The ship’s original drive was removed with surgical precision. Now this Scorpion turns up with a salvage solution that just happens to work with two of the Constellation’s hangar bays.”
I see the tiny figures below us busy themselves around the bristling hull of the battlecruiser, connecting data cables and powertrains. Occasionally bright lights reflect off the impervious alloy of the ship’s weapons turrets, caught in the transitory sweep of some engineer’s headbeam. Small pod-units accompany the mechanical engineering team. If I look carefully, I think I see tiny laserwelder flashes.
“Ma’am?”
I drag myself from my reverie. “Thinking, Danielli. About what you just said. But I have no answer. Except to say you may be right.” I look him in the eye. “You don’t trust the Scorpion?”
He hesitates. “I’m not a politician, Ms Jackson, I’m a soldier. But I do know you don’t get to a position of power such as she commands by being wholly trustworthy.”
“Hmm. And when you’re actually a woman in disguise.”
“That I wouldn’t know, Ms Jackson. She took a big risk confiding in us. We need to take care she doesn’t decide to keep her identity a secret by disposing of us.”
I tap my finger on my lip and survey the scene. “Very true. But call me Indy. Please.” And with that, I pirouette around to the walkway behind us, and head down to the medbay, leaving Danielli watching the slow motion space theater against a silky-black backdrop.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Mitch is on a medbunk again, a tangle of tubes draped around him.
One condition I added to the Scorpion’s list was that I would not disable my “hacked defense” of the Constellation until I was happy that Mitch was receiving the warship’s best treatment. Takao is well reputed for its standard of medical science, and I figured that the Scorpion’s warship would naturally be at the forefront of technology.
For good measure, I suggested she send Sloper along for a renovation job too. I had an idea he could still be useful to us.
I smile at my brother, who now looks the picture of health. “Hey, Michelangelo. S’up?”
He curls his lip at me. “You know I hate that name.”
“It’s the one your parents gave you. You should be thankful.”
“What—that I had parents, or that they were historical art nerds?”
There’s that word, “were,” again.
“I don’t know that Papa was anything other than a pure spacemath geek. Mama was the arty one, as far as I know. He just liked her cute vocabulary. But hey, small talk can wait.”
He looks at me with a baleful expression. “What kind of a world do we live in, when talk of your dead parents is considered ‘small talk’?”
I change the subject. “You said you stumbled across information. On Ganymede. Must have been important if you had to leave in a hurry. Care to share?”
“And I thought you were here to check on my health.”
“Shall I remind you that you are alive because someone who cares about you wouldn’t be told what to do?” I raise an eyebrow.
He grunts. “Fair enough. But I’m not sure you’re going to like what I discovered.”
I wait.
Mitch shifts on the medbunk to look at me square on. “The Jovians are rumored to be developing an energy source that will make 3He redundant.”
I’ve almost forgotten my past life. I groan. “Great. So even if we manage to get out of this mess, there’s nothing to go back to except an energy market ruled by the Jovians.”
My brother nods. “I was right.”
“About what?”
“That you wouldn’t like it.”
“You’re lucky you’re already badly injured. Means there’s no need for me to beat you up.” I sigh. “Not that it matters anymore. Energy trade, I mean. Not your injury. Strange as it sounds, we might have bigger problems than the Jovian’s energy trade schemes. Danielli seems to think that someone expected to be able to refit the Constellation’s drive.”
Mitch sits up, bringing a web of tubing with him. “Really? But from what you showed me, it’s a clean-cut extraction. No terminations, no obvious reconnection points. Anyway, moot point I guess. Who would want to refit it—we’d only end up with the Sector’s greatest liability, with no Captain and no General Garnek to make sense of it all.” He looks at me. “Sorry. But you’re no battle—”
I place my finger on his lips. “That conversation can wait. But you’re right. The fact that someone went to a great deal of trouble to remove the drive, and leave the Constellation drifting seems to imply we are better off with it hobbled.”
He laughs. “Yeah. Just imagine the Jovians and the Scorpion teaming up; putting the Constellation back together and ...” he trails off and stops laughing.
I look at him. “Exactly.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
I leave Mitch alone with his thoughts and meet with Danielli, Plexi and Aktip back on my own lightCruiser, now out of the warship’s hangar and docked to its side.
“Aktip, as far as anyone else knows, I’ve managed to give you limited access to the Constellation’s comms and unsecured databanks. I told them it was a hack I engineered so that you could help coordinate activity while I’m on my way to Takao, but in reality you have the Captain’s comms authority level. Make sure you keep it hidden. Use Ortiz and Zhang if you need help. Herg will be on hand if
you want someone to create a diversion.”
I want Aktip to be across all comms. She’ll send an encrypted hyper-relay if she senses any foul play with the massive battlecruiser. Or if, for some non-nefarious reason, the twin hyperDrive operation goes belly up. It shouldn’t, as the engineers have assured us the slow hops they’ve programmed are less than twenty-percent of the power levels that both the hyperDrives and the Constellation could easily tolerate.
But we are better to be completely paranoid, and the Scorpion agrees.
She and I will head off to Takao separately. She in her scoutcruiser, me with my limited crew and Mitch in my own lightCruiser. We will arrive first by a small margin; the Slingshot being one of Errikson’s finest, trumping even Takao’s superb tech. I argued for the two ships, purely for redundancy, or if one of us needs to make an emergency errand.
Aktip nods and heads off to the warship’s commsroom.
I look at Danielli and Plexi, who seem to be expecting me to say something.
“Right now I haven’t the slightest idea how all this will turn out, nor what we should or shouldn’t do with the Constellation and its drive. As far as I can see, it’s a giant mess that everyone wants a piece of.”
Plexi turns up the corner of her mouth, her pixie eyes sparkling. “Then our mission is to make sure they don’t, is that right, Ma’am?”
I grin. Plexi is always on it. “Yes, Plexi. At the very least, we will make sure things don’t get worse.”
But they will, of course.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
My lightCruiser is only a couple of hours adrift of our final leg back to Takao when the hyper-relay flashes on my commPanel. I accept the message and Aktip appears on the holo for everyone in the helmroom to see. She, of course, cannot see us. Hyper-relays are one way only, and normally the message can be delayed by days or weeks. But I see from Aktip’s code at the bottom of the holo that not only is the message encrypted and flagged as emergency status, but she has waited until the delay between us will only be around thirty minutes.
Constellation (Blood Empire Book 1) Page 17
