Her hand crept up to grip the crystal hanging around her neck, scrabbled at nothing until she remembered again he wasnʼt hanging there.
She would do whatever it took to never let him fall back into Tecran hands.
He would truly become a monster if that happened, and whatever the Tecran thought, they would never hold him for long again.
“Strategy it is.”
They had decided, Sazo, Rose and himself, that it would work better if Dav returned to the Barrist before they began discussing their plan with the admiral.
Anything that he said from the bridge of the Class 5 could be considered a forced cooperation, and while they didnʼt need Admiral Hoke to agree, her agreement would help.
Dav was greeted in the launch bay by Hoke, Valu and Appal, and as he stepped down, he felt a hard tug of regret that heʼd had to leave Rose behind. And that the last private words between them had been tainted by his accusations of her hiding things from him.
The thought that sheʼd lied to him had dug at him, the memory of her sitting in the runner from Harmon, staring at his feet, telling him it was acceptable for someone who had been in solitary confinement to talk to themselves, when all along, she hadnʼt been talking to herself.
Sliding around the truth, she called it.
Whatever it was, it had stung, but he was sorry they hadnʼt had time to talk it through. That she couldnʼt have taken the runner over with him to the Barrist to clear the air.
There was no way Sazo would allow her off the Class 5, and he couldnʼt blame him, but it left something cold and hard lodged in his throat to fly away from her.
“Well, you look fine.” Admiral Hoke said, her voice blunt, but not unfriendly.
“I am fine.”
“We were worried when you stopped checking in.” Appal caressed the stock of her shockgun. “Sazo said you were sleeping, but we didnʼt know whether to believe him.”
He grimaced. There was no excuse he could offer that was acceptable. But he would not apologize in front of the admiral. He could speak to Appal in private, later. “Sazo said he needed to think about a plan I advanced to him, and cut off comms until he engaged with me again this morning.”
“Well, you actually look as if you did get some sleep at least. Iʼm surprised you could rest knowing where you were.” Valu eyed him with a quick, thorough evaluation.
“What do you mean, where I was?”
“On a Class 5 with a thinking system in control. He could have killed you at any time.”
Hardly, given Rose had been lying curled up right beside him. But Valu still didnʼt get it. “Heʼs just as in control of the Barrist. You were no safer than I was.” In fact, Dav knew, heʼd been far safer, as Sazo would do nothing to harm Rose or upset her.
“What have you got for us?” Hokeʼs voice was sharp.
“Letʼs talk with the rest of my senior officers present.” Dav strode off, leading them to the conference room, and Appal got in step with him.
“Are you really all right?”
He gave a nod.
“And Rose?”
“Sheʼs fine. Sheʼs safer there than she is here.” But something was niggling him about that. Something he was sure he should have caught earlier.
“There was panic when you didnʼt call back.” She scrubbed a hand down her face. “It was a long night.”
Dav could see the dark rings under her eyes. “Iʼm sorry.”
She shrugged. “Not your fault.”
But it was, and he shook his head at her, then tapped his comm unit before he said something he regretted. “Borji, Kila, Havak.” He hesitated a moment. “Dimitara. Conference room in five minutes.”
They must have all been hovering on the bridge, because they got there before he did, Appal and the admirals in tow.
“Status on the UC councilors?” He directed his question to Appal and Dimitara.
“Fu-tama is in holding here on the Barrist. The rest are back on their carrier, but theyʼre demanding a senior officer be stationed on board, not only to show respect, but to reassure them the Grih wonʼt attack their ship.”
“Thatʼs ridiculous.” Hoke lifted her chin. “We donʼt have anyone we can spare.”
“Iʼll do it. It might not be a bad idea to have eyes and ears over there, especially with the Tecran councilors on board.” Valu tapped his chin.
Hoke hesitated. Dav didnʼt blame her. It was unlike Valu to take himself out of the sphere of action, but it was true it would be useful to have someone who wouldnʼt be intimidated by the councilors watching over them.
“If you donʼt mind,” Hoke said, at last.
Valu gave a nod.
Dimitara made a small moue of distaste, her smooth golden skin crinkling at the corners of her mouth. “Commander Appal wonʼt give me the details of Farso Lothricʼs confession, but I agree Fu-tama needs to be confined until we can hand him over to the UC guard if heʼs mixed up in this.”
“He is.” Dav kept his words short.
“I believe you, but the other UC staff and councilors donʼt know you as well as I do, and theyʼre panicking about this.”
“What do they think weʼre doing?” Hoke focused her penetrating stare on Dimitara, but the liaison officer shrugged, unintimidated.
“They suspect youʼre trying to subvert the UC. Trying to claim illegal ownership of the Class 5, too——well, thatʼs what the Tecran councilors are claiming.”
Hoke snorted. “Sounds like youʼll have some fun over there, Valu.”
Dimitara smiled, her sharp little teeth a reminder that the Bukari may be the diplomats of the UC, but they could bite, too. “As the Tecran have more than a slight personal stake in advancing that notion, the others havenʼt take them very seriously, but they are disturbed.”
“And what do they have to say about the appearance of a Tecran Levron class battleship in our territory?” Appal didnʼt keep the sneer from her voice.
Dimitara lifted her already arched brows. “They are disturbed by that, too, and the Tecran councilors canʼt contact their leaders to discover whatʼs going on.”
“I can help with that.” Dav couldnʼt help a quick glance at the lens in the corner of the room. He hoped Sazo would let him talk first. Lay the groundwork. “Sazo has communicated with the Levron, and threatened to destroy it if it so much as moves a milli. But he wants to bring it home very clearly to the Tecran that he is in alliance with us. That weʼre cooperating together.”
“I like the sound of this,” Hoke said. “Whatʼs the catch?”
“No catch.” Although there was. And Dav would have to find a way to work it into the conversation. “Heʼs agreed to align with us, and he will lift the comm ban, and the Barrist, the Class 5 and the two battleships will surround the Levron in a coordinated maneuver.”
“With the comm ban lifted, the Levron can send lens feed of the attack and show the Tecran High Command that we either have control of the Class 5, or, if they know about Sazo, that he is working with us.” Appal spoke slowly. “I agree, what is the catch?”
“The catch is that they will be sufficiently afraid of the consequences of my alignment with you that theyʼll send in more firepower.” Sazo inserted himself smoothly into the conversation, the volume from the speakers just loud enough for everyone to hear him, as if he were standing among them.
“That would be an outright declaration of war.” Valu finally stepped forward. “The Tecran could perhaps argue the Class 5 arrived here by mistake. And at a very long stretch that the Levron was simply sent here to watch over the welfare of their own people and guard their property, but anymore than that, and they will have no diplomatic rock to hide under. They will be declaring war.”
“Is that an acceptable risk for you?” Sazo asked. “That by doing this, they may send in more ships?”
“That depends.” Admiral Hoke looked up at the speaker.
“On what?” Dimitara asked.
“On whether they send in another Class 5.” Dav decided he might as w
ell say it. From the looks on their faces, Appal and Hoke had gotten Sazo message just fine.
“Two Class 5s facing off against each other.” Valu sounded far too intrigued.
“I believe my self-awareness means I have more chance of winning against any Class 5 they send against me, but whatever happens, I wonʼt let them take me back. Iʼd light jump away before I allowed that to happen.”
“What if you light jumped anyway?” Hoke asked. “Drew the Class 5 away? We can deal with the other ships, and you and the other Class 5 can go at each other where there wonʼt be any collateral damage.”
Dav went still. “Where would Rose be, in that scenario?”
Sazo hadnʼt agreed to it, but Dav knew the suggestion was a good one. Good for everyone but Rose.
There was silence as everyone in the room turned to look at him.
“She would be no safer with us than on the Class 5, surely?” Dimitara asked.
Dav tried to keep his face neutral. “If Sazo light jumps, how would they know where heʼd gone?”
“Sazo could send a message to the Barrist, informing us he was going to light jump out, and giving us his location. Thatʼs what an ally would do.” Borji shifted uncomfortably under Davʼs gaze.
“As long as you could do that in a way that didnʼt look like we were setting them up, it could work.” Appal gave a thoughtful nod. “But we wonʼt be able to help Sazo against the other Class 5.”
As Sazo had no intention of firing on the other Class 5, that was a moot point. And if he wasnʼt going to fire on it, how was he going to protect Rose?
Dav looked at the lens in the corner. He would tell them Sazo had no intention of harming the other Class 5 in a heart-beat if it meant keeping Rose safe . . .
“I appreciate the concern, Commander Appal, but I wonʼt need help with the other Class 5. Youʼll have your hands full with the Levron and whatever else the Tecran send in,” Sazo said. “Iʼll lift the Grih comm ban now and you can call for some more battleships, if you want to. So youʼre prepared if they send in their fleet.”
“Appalʼs right that theyʼll suspect a trap if youʼre too obvious about sending your jump points to us before you leap,” Hoke said. “Youʼll have to encrypt your comm, and if youʼre unlucky, they wonʼt be able to decipher it.”
“Send it on the same frequency Fu-tama used to contact Farso Lothric.” Borji darted a quick look at Dav as he spoke. “Itʼs clear enough if youʼre monitoring for it.”
“Thatʼs a good idea.” Sazoʼs voice seemed to warm when addressing Davʼs chief engineer, he realized. He must have developed a liking for him.
“You still havenʼt answered, Sazo, where will Rose be when you light jump?”
“Rose is right here and can answer for herself.”
Dav could hear the surprise and annoyance in her tone.
“Iʼll be with Sazo, helping him. Iʼm deadwood to the Grih in a battle. I have no combat experience, but Sazo can use my help, so Iʼm with him.” Her voice was calm.
He wanted her off the Class 5. He couldnʼt help her there, and the thought of her so far out of reach made him feel strangely out of control.
Again, everyone turned to look at him, and he realized his fists were clenched and his jaw was locked down tight.
“So what happens now?” Dimitara asked eventually.
With no choice but to keep quiet, Dav flicked the screen, and brought up a map of the Virmana system. There would be time afterward for a conversation with Rose and Sazo. One he planned to win. “Now we plan our attack.”
36
“Weʼre ready to move on the Levron when you are.” Dav looked straight at her from the screen which showed the Barristʼs bridge. He looked tense, and the anger sheʼd heard in his voice earlier seemed to cling to him in the way he held his body and the downward slash of his brows.
The short, brutal conversation theyʼd had while the Barrist and its two battleships got ready to engage was still ringing in her ears.
He was so angry with her. So angry with Sazo.
She was sorry, both for the way theyʼd parted and the tension that was between them now. Dav was suspicious of what she was going to do for Sazo, she could hear it in his tone. There was anger there, but there was desperation, too.
It made something flutter inside her that he would react that way to her situation, made her smile at him now. He blinked back at her, confused.
“Ready?” Sazoʼs voice held the edge of excitement.
She nodded.
It was going to feel good, making threats to the Tecran she could actually carry out. Sazo opened up the comm link to voice transmission only. She didnʼt want them to see her or to be able to identify her at all.
“This is the captain of the Class 5 ship 5AZ0.” She tried to sound authoritative. Sazo had told her heʼd identified himself as the captain of the Class 5 before when heʼd used her voice, so they would keep up the charade now. “Disengage all weapons and open your launch bays for immediate surrender to boarding parties from Grih Battle Center.”
Sazo was transmitting the message to the Barrist as well, and Rose wondered if Admiral Hoke believed she really was in charge of the Class 5, or if she understood how little influence Rose had over Sazo.
On the screen to her left, Dav stood off to the side of the Barristʼs bridge. He was looking at the massive screen in front of him that showed a birdʼs eye view of this part of the Virmana solar system, and the placement of every spaceship. He looked calm. Competent. And aloof.
She sighed, and then turned her head at the ping of an incoming comm. The Levron had opted for voice comm only, as well, so she couldnʼt see who was speaking.
“We havenʼt moved, as agreed.” The Levronʼs captain sounded angry, but he must surely have known that further demands were coming. They could hardly lurk behind Virmana indefinitely.
“I know.” Rose couldnʼt keep the impatience from her tone. “However, now Iʼm telling you to surrender.”
“If we refuse?”
“Then your ship will no longer exist.”
The screen in front of Rose showed the real-time outside lens feed, and as she spoke, she and Sazo rounded Virmana within sight of the Levron.
The Barrist appeared on the other side, having come around the opposite way in a pincher movement. The two smaller battleships flanked it on either side.
Sazo had allowed the Grih back into their own systems, allowed them to control their own vessels. It had gone a long way to warming Admiral Hoke up, although Sazo could lock them out again whenever he wanted to. Rose supposed it was the thought that counted.
“Theyʼve sent three distress calls to Tecran High Command since I lifted the comm ban,” Sazo said into the speaker on Davʼs bridge. “One included a request for immediate assistance.”
“We got that, too.” Borji said. “Good thing weʼve had a couple of hours jump on them to organize assistance of our own.”
The comm unit linked to the Levron lit up again.
“Who are you? Because youʼre not the captain of 5AZ0.” The Levron captainʼs comm silenced the talk on the private channel. “Where is Captain Gee? You have no authority to command a Class 5 Tecran vessel.”
“Finally got some information from High Command, have you?” She wondered just what their high command had told him. As little as possible, she would guess. “Captain Gee is in custody for a gross breach of UC space area law and for contravention of the SBA. Who I am is none of your business, except that Iʼm in command of guns ten times more powerful than your own, and they are trained on you. Disengage your weapons and surrender peacefully to the Grih who will shortly board your ship or I will open fire.”
There was silence.
“You will regret this.” The Levron captainʼs voice was just short of a screech.
“No, I wonʼt.” Rose couldnʼt help grinning. “Now, disengage your weapons.”
Sazo brought up a schematic, and she saw all but two guns were disengaged. They waited one beat, then another.
“Merely a technical difficulty.” The Levronʼs captainʼs voice was expressionless.
“Perhaps I can end that difficulty for you.”
Sazo didnʼt need to be told, he simply locked on to the two primed weapons.
It would be easy to shoot, but whoever was near those guns hadnʼt had any say in the decision to keep them engaged, and Rose was sure the captain was merely acting out of wounded pride and machismo.
The guns shut off but Sazo kept the lock on them.
“If any weapon should happen to engage before the Grih are in full control of your ship, you will personally regret it.” Rose spoke quietly. “Iʼm not part of the UC or its rules, and I will execute you if you make me kill anyone unnecessarily.”
“If you arenʼt part of the UC, who are you?” The Levronʼs captain seemed a little more subdued.
Roseʼs response was to cut him off.
She switched to Davʼs bridge. “All their weapons are disengaged. Go carefully, they are extremely unwilling to surrender.”
Appal smirked. “If they werenʼt, Iʼd be worried.”
The Barrist approached the Levron, and the two Grih battleships flanking it moved to position themselves on either side of the Tecran ship.
Sazo moved the Class 5 behind the Levron, and the Barrist hovered directly in front of it, right next to the launch bay.
It was neatly boxed in, and its external lenses would have uninterrupted feed of every ship involved in the maneuver.
“Tell the Grih they can board. Weʼre ready for them.” The Levronʼs captainʼs voice trembled with frustration.
“Let me be very clear.” Roseʼs hands clenched on the large captainʼs chair. “You, personally, will pay if harm comes to a single Grih. I hope you understand me.”
“Understood.”
“Good.” It was as much as she could do without simply blowing them out of the sky before Dav, Appal and the rest of the crew boarded. And that would set a bad example for Sazo.
Dark Horse Page 26
