“Hold it,” Tanner said. “I have an incoming message.” The signal came from the direction and region of the anomaly.
-16-
Tanner opened channels, putting the incoming image onto a larger screen.
A second later, he stared into the face of a Coalition deputy superior. The woman looked old, with a wrinkled face and a cap situated low over her forehead. Tanner doubted she had any hair left. The woman definitely looked as if she’d used extended life treatments. When she opened her mouth, her teeth seemed metallic. Behind her moved the bridge crew.
Tanner drank in the details. It was a Coalition cruiser all right. He’d only faced their destroyers before. A cruiser was much bigger, possessing laser cannons. Was the cruiser here alone or did it have escort vessels with it?
It would appear that Acton had been dead right about a cruiser being back there. That was deep in Nostradamus territory. There was no doubt the Coalition was playing hardball.
“You have just destroyed Coalition property,” the deputy superior said. “Worse, by your profile and raider markings, you once belonged to the Remus AirSpace Service. Almost five years ago, they unconditionally surrendered to Coalition Forces, making all their former members subject to our laws. You have broken Coalition law—”
“Wait a minute,” Tanner said. “I’m innocent of all charges. How was I supposed to know the drone belonged to you? No one warned me. I believed it a danger to my ship. Under interstellar law, I am allowed to defend my ship from all unknown objects.”
“So you’re a space lawyer, are you, Centurion Tanner?” the woman said.
She knew his identity.
“I am engaged in legal business,” Tanner said. “Unless you state your name and purpose, I am cutting communications between us.”
“Have a care, puppy, lest you anger the Coalition and bring about your destruction.”
Tanner slapped the switch, cutting communications with the woman. He turned on the intra-ship comm. “This is the captain speaking. We are about to make a slight course correction. I will begin the burn in ten seconds. Please find a safe location and secure yourself.”
He timed it, hating the idea that a laser beam could already have targeted his ship and be on its way. He would only know as it struck, as there was no way to see a light-speed beam coming at you.
Ten seconds later, the fusion engine thrust them at 0.25 G’s. Tanner stopped the thrust after fifteen seconds, having given the ship a slightly new heading.
The comm light blinked once more.
“Let’s see if you’ve learned some manners,” Tanner whispered, seeing that it was the cruiser again. With a tap, he accepted the message.
“That was rash, Centurion,” the deputy superior said, her features having tightened.
“Who am I speaking to?” Tanner asked.
“You may call me Deputy Superior Pallis. Now, I demand that you decelerate and await my ship. We will be there—” She checked a screen to her left before looking up at Tanner again. “We will arrive in thirty hours.”
“I am about to call Calisto Grandee Space Central,” Tanner said. “I’m sure they’d be interested in your piratical threat against a registered vessel.”
“You are incorrect,” Pallis said. “Your ship must follow Coalition law and procedures.”
“Negative,” Tanner said. “I do not recognize your authority over me, especially not in the Nostradamus System.”
“Do you or do you not belong to the Remus AirSpace Service?”
Tanner wanted to take a deep breath. Here it was; the big question. He tried to speak boldly and forcefully. Instead, he said as if winded, “I do not.”
“That is a curious statement, Centurion. My speech meter tells me you are conflicted.”
“How about that,” Tanner managed to say.
The old woman scowled, leaning forward. “I suggest you speak to your employer, the former Patrician Ursa Varus.”
They knew about Ursa, too? This was bad, very bad.
“Former patrician?” Tanner asked.
The deputy superior showed her metallic-colored teeth. “Remus no longer recognizes such outdated social hierarchies. She is now Citizen Ursa, no more.”
“I know no such person.”
“You lie!” Pallis said.
Tanner’s back stiffened. It wasn’t because the Coalition officer called him a liar. He didn’t care what she thought. It was because of what he saw on the sensor board. The cruiser had just begun a 3 G burn toward him.
He concentrated on the deputy superior. She did not seem discomforted by the hard acceleration. So the cruiser had the latest gravity dampeners. It must be nice.
“Give me a moment, Deputy Superior,” Tanner said. He muted her, freezing the picture. Then, he turned on intra-ship communications. “This is the captain speaking. I am sorry to inform you that a Coalition cruiser has begun hard acceleration toward us. It is presently five hundred thousand kilometers away. I will check soon, as I believe that puts us in range of their heaviest lasers. No doubt, they will soon launch interceptor missiles. Before that happens, I will call Calisto Grandee. At the moment, though, we will restart our own acceleration at two gravities. That is all.”
Tanner engaged the fusion engine, readied the thrusters and waited. Once everything was ready, he began acceleration. Immediately, it felt as if a giant pressed against his body, forcing him against his seat.
He tapped the comm. “What were you saying?” he asked Pallis.
“I imagine you have begun acceleration,” the deputy superior said. “That is a mistake, compounding your penalty.”
“Listen, lady, I don’t take orders from you. I despise your government. You would do well to stay out of my way. I am seconds away from informing Calisto Grandee about your threats.”
“I don’t think so,” she said.
“Yeah? Well, you think wrong.”
“You will refrain from calling Calisto Grandee unless you wish to see your friend, hmm, punished before your eyes,” the deputy superior said in a triumphant tone.
Tanner’s eyes narrowed. If they had Jordan—
“Permit me to show you,” Pallis said. She snapped her fingers. Her picture moved leftward so the camera could center on two large marines. They held a wide-shouldered but short old man wearing an orange jumpsuit. His skin was a sickly gray and his head slumped forward with a weird metal band around it. One of the marines used the old man’s hair as a grip and yanked up the head.
Despite the old man’s blank, bloodshot eyes and slack features, Tanner whispered, “Consul Maximus.”
“Ah, you recognize him,” the deputy superior said. “That is good, as it will help expedite the situation. Now, unless you wish me to—”
“What’s around his head?” Tanner snapped.
“That,” the woman said in a silky voice, “is a re-trainer.”
The metal band didn’t touch the consul’s head. Instead, prongs jutted inward from the band to press against Maximus’s skull.
“Let me demonstrate,” Pallis said. The deputy superior held a clicker and pressed a switch.
The effect proved immediate. The old consul stiffened, his head jerking up. His eyes bulged outward and his mouth opened as wide as possible. He didn’t speak, but croaked with dismal pain.
The woman clicked the device again.
Maximus slumped forward, kept from falling onto the floor by the marines.
“Do you see what I mean?” the deputy superior asked. “Unless you do exactly as I say, you shall watch the consul wilt into nonexistence as he attempts to resist the re-trainer.”
-17-
Tanner seethed against the Coalition. Social unity fouled whatever it touched. They claimed to help and heal but always hurt and destroyed.
He was about to utter fateful words when a hand latched onto his shoulder, squeezing hard.
Tanner twisted around to stare into Patrician Ursa’s stunned features. She didn’t look at him, but at poor Consul Maximus on the screen.
“Citizen Ursa,” the deputy superior said, as if savoring the bite of her favorite meal.
“I am Patrician Ursa of House Varus,” she said proudly.
Deputy Superior Pallis sneered. “That is such a noble title for a privileged individual. I’m curious. Do you truly believe yourself better than the rest of us?”
“I am proud of my heritage. My forebears built a strong civilization.”
“An exploiting system that devoured wealth and energy from the poor,” Pallis said.
“Wrong on both counts,” Ursa said. “My forebears enriched Remus through hard work and intelligent decisions. It was our sweat, our thinking—”
“That weighed down the poor with your enforced sense of shame,” the deputy superior said.
Ursa shook her head. “If you hate the taint of privilege, give up your rank, Deputy Superior. How is it possible for you to give orders to anyone? You exploit those lower-ranked than you, do you not?”
“You are a snake-tongued devil,” Pallis said. “You delight in arrogantly repositioning yourself—”
“Why don’t you answer the question, Deputy Superior? I’ll tell you why, because you don’t have an answer. You’re a hypocrite following a lying creed.”
“Enough!” the deputy superior said. She raised the black unit. “Surrender at once or I shall cause the ex-consul to plead for his life to you.”
“Oh, Maximus,” Ursa whispered. “You must forgive me.”
Tanner looked at her. There were tears in Ursa’s eyes. Her fingers tightened against his shoulder. She took a deep breath as she bit her lower lip.
“Have you decided on wisdom, Citizen Ursa?” the deputy superior asked.
“We are in Nostradamus System territory,” Ursa said weakly. “The Coalition has no jurisdiction here.”
“You deluded fool. We know your plan. Stop this foolishness at once and come home to Remus. You belong on your planet, not racing throughout the galaxy on some fool’s errand.”
Tanner saw the tears leak out of Ursa’s eyes, sliding down her cheeks. Had Coalition Special Intelligence interrogated Maximus? Yes, of course they had. How much had he told them? Likely, Maximus had told them everything.
Tanner slapped the switch, putting the deputy superior on mute. He turned around, prying the patrician’s fingers from his shoulder.
“Now what do we do?” he asked.
Ursa had to blink several times before she could look at him. She seemed confused, stunned, close to broken.
“They tortured him,” she whispered.
Tanner said nothing. The look in Maximus’s eyes would surely haunt him for the rest of his life.
“They must have broken him,” Ursa said. Her left hand flew to her mouth. “What has he told them about the plan?”
Tanner shook his head.
“We’re finished,” Ursa said. “If they know the plan, Remus is done.”
“We can’t surrender,” Tanner said.
“Nor can we watch them torture our friend. If they know our plan…it will never work. It’s over. The great plan is finished. I can’t believe it.”
“Lady,” Tanner said softly. “Maximus is finished. I admired the man—”
“We can’t let him die!” she shouted. “Not now, now that nothing matters.”
“It does matter, and we can’t surrender to the enemy. We must fight no matter the cost. This is the hard road, the hard choice.”
“No,” Ursa whispered.
“Consul Maximus would do the same thing in our place,” Tanner said.
“I don’t believe that.”
Tanner realized he would have to do this himself. It was a dirty, foul task. He loathed it, but someone had to take matters in hand.
“I suggest you return to your quarters, Patrician,” Tanner said. “You’ll pull a tendon if you remain on your feet during heavy acceleration.”
Her eyes were shiny with growing horror and despair. “We can’t outrun a Coalition cruiser.”
“We may not have to,” Tanner said. “We just have to get to the hyperdrive region fast enough.”
“And go into hyperdrive at this velocity?”
“No,” Tanner said. “We’ll go in even faster.”
“That will destroy us,” she whispered.
“Maybe,” he said, “maybe not. I’d rather die a clean death than fall into their hands. But that’s not even the point. As long as we have a chance, we have to take it. We have to free our world from these monsters.”
“You shouldn’t throw that into my teeth now, Centurion. This is…” The tears began to fall more freely.
Tanner faced forward, tapping the comm, bringing the deputy superior back online.
Deputy Superior Pallis took them in. After examining Ursa, the woman smiled triumphantly.
“The truth is always difficult,” Pallis said, “but you will be better off accepting it. Shut down your engine, turn the ship and begin deceleration. You must submit to social justice. You have flaunted the conventions too long. After you list your failures in committee and beg for reinstatement into the fabric of public life—”
“No!”
Tanner heard the agonized cry and saw Consul Maximus rip a hand free from one of the marines. The old man took something from a pocket. It looked like a glassy object. He stabbed the object into the thigh of the second marine. It all happened fast.
The second marine howled, releasing Maximus. Freed from restraint, the consul lunged at the deputy superior. Pallis shrieked, trying to leap from her chair. Maximus knocked her back against it. The once powerful old man made a horrid strangled sound. He might have tried to choke her, maybe bash her face. Maybe Maximus realized his time would be incredibly short. As the sick sound rose from his throat, Maximus ripped the black control unit from the deputy superior’s shaking fingers. The consul pushed back from her and thus saved himself from the first rush of a marine. The big soldier slammed against the deputy superior so they both collapsed on the chair.
“What’s he doing?” Ursa whispered.
Maximus whirled around, facing the camera. His eyes shined crazily. “They don’t know!” he shouted. “I kept the secret from them!”
The second marine, the one with a shard in his leg, clamped huge hands onto Maximus shoulders.
Maximus’s eyes became wide and staring. “Go with the Lord!” he shouted. “Remember your oaths! Remus must be free!”
The consul jabbed his thumb against the black control unit. Immediately, his head jerked upright and his mouth opened wide. At the last moment, he made a wretched gurgling sound as smoke curled from his head.
A marine ripped the control unit out of his nerveless fingers. The big man pressed buttons.
At the same time, Consul Maximus collapsed onto the floor as if his bones had simply vanished. He twisted several times and then his air expelled. A second before someone froze the scene Tanner saw the peace of death settle onto Maximus.
The consul was dead.
Then, someone severed the connection between cruiser and raider, leaving the screen blank.
Tanner exhaled and found that he was shaking. He couldn’t believe it. Maximus had…had… He looked up at Ursa.
She dried her eyes with both hands. “He’s dead,” she whispered. “He’s dead. He killed himself in order to save the plan, to save Remus.”
“He died for us,” Tanner said. “He killed himself so they couldn’t hold him hostage over us.”
The comm light began to blink.
With a trembling hand, Tanner turned it on.
A new person faced them. He was lean and tall with stooped shoulders. He had wisps of hair on an otherwise bald dome. The man had a hooked nose and eagle-like eyes. He wore the black uniform of Coalition Special Intelligence with an interrogator prime’s insignia.
“Where’s the deputy superior?” Tanner asked.
The man seemed to lack emotion except for his eyes. “You must surrender at once,” the man said in a low-pitched monotone. �
��Otherwise, the consul will continue to suffer.”
“You’re a bastard,” Tanner said. He realized the man was trying to pretend that Maximus still lived so the man could have an advantage over them.
“Decelerate at once,” the man said.
Tanner gave the interrogator a one-fingered gesture of contempt.
The man reached up, letting the tip of his right index finger—a long finger—slide across his lips. “I urge you to stifle your emotions, Centurion, as the next few moments will prove vital to you and your people.”
“I’m about to call Calisto Grandee,” Tanner said.
“It is a baseless threat,” the man said, “as we have purchased the right to hunt you in the Nostradamus System. Or do you not realize that everything is for sale here? That is the weakness of a pure capitalist system. They will always sell the rope that hangs them. The lust for profit knows no bounds.”
“We’ll see.”
“Yes, we shall,” the interrogator said in his monotone.
Tanner cut the connection and called Calisto Grandee Central. They refused to accept his transmission.
“It’s true,” Ursa said in horror.
“Just a minute,” Tanner said. He made another course correction, applying thrust to change their heading slightly. Afterward, he regarded Ursa again.
“Can we beat the cruiser to hyperdrive territory?” she asked.
“It’s questionable,” Tanner said, “but I don’t see that we have any other option than to try. We can’t let Maximus’s sacrifice go in vain.”
“Yes,” Ursa said. “You’re right, of course.”
“There are several problems, however,” Tanner said. “One, the cruiser can accelerate much faster than we can. Two, it can launch torpedoes either to destroy us or to try to incapacitate our engines. Finally, they have lasers. I’d imagine they can’t fire the lasers with a high probability of hitting us until they’re within two hundred thousand kilometers range.”
“What about your particle beam weapon?”
Tanner shook his head. “Against pirates and drones, we would have a chance. Against a Coalition cruiser, forget it. We’re outgunned twelve ways to Mayday.”
Star Raider Page 11
