Ghosts of Empire (Book 4 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  “Chief Yancy. I want the prisoners moved out to a facility my assistant will designate. Quietly. I don’t want anyone to know they’ve been moved.”

  He nodded. “I’ll see that it’s done, but some people are going to see them being moved inside the building. I can minimize that by clearing the area around the parking bay, but people will notice.”

  “So see that anyone that knows goes along for the ride. You’re imaginative. My private file on you makes that abundantly clear. I don’t care what you have to do, or who you detain to make that happen.

  “Also, I’ll have a special delivery coming in later today. Grant the people bringing it full access to the vault. They’ll be incorporating some new equipment. It’s very secret, so no one is to hamper them or attempt to inspect anything. They’ll seal the vault when they finish. Understood?”

  He bowed again. “Yes, Coordinator.”

  “Excellent. Now, I’ll be going out in advance of the prisoners. Let’s get things set up so that no one is aware that I’m gone.”

  Her assistant smiled. “I have just the thing, Coordinator. If you record another public address, we can send it out after everyone has left. Mention that you’re staying in the council building until you capture the criminals behind this despicable deed. Then everyone will see what you expect them to see.”

  “I like that. Let’s go take care of that little detail and get the hell out of here.”

  * * * * *

  Kelsey was exceptionally glad once she got to shallower water. The light filtering down from above made walking through the muck easier. Once the silt changed to sand, it became simple.

  She wasn’t sure what people would think when her head broke the surface, but that turned out not to be a problem. The beach was deserted.

  The city in the distance was burning. Based on the number of air cars she saw, the people that could were fleeing, most likely afraid of radiation or a second explosion. Those that weren’t running away were heading toward the city. People there needed rescuing. That covered both sides of human nature.

  With no one standing around to gawk at her, she popped her helmet and took in a deep breath. The smell of fire dominated even the salt of the ocean. Her suit’s built in rad detector was reading higher than normal background, but not outrageously so.

  It would be worse the closer one got to the city. Many, many people would die before they could get adequate medical treatment for radiation sickness. The Rebel Empire’s rejection of medical nanites would seal their fate.

  “Ned, can we bring down the medical nanites from Boxer Station and help these people?”

  I’m afraid not. They require implants to function. Civilian implants are fine, but they take time to build and install. These people don’t have that kind of time. Realistically, every ship and medical center on this planet will need to make rad pills as fast as they can. It won’t be nearly enough, but it’s all we can do.

  The realization that millions of survivors would still die crushed her, but she didn’t have time to mourn them now. She linked her implants to the Fleet com and saw that Ross was still in range. Kelsey breathed a sigh of relief and called him.

  “Princess Kelsey?” he asked.

  “Command Master Chief. I’m glad to hear your voice. Are you okay?”

  “We’re fine, but we feared the worst when you didn’t answer our calls.”

  She looked back out over the waves. “That’s what happens when you sink to the bottom of the ocean. Where are you?”

  “We’re in the outskirts of the city. We’re digging people out of the rubble and using the lifts to get them out of the radiation zone.”

  She hadn’t expected anything less. “What are the radiation readings? I don’t want anyone staying longer than they can tolerate. Medical care is going to be hard to come by for a while.”

  “We’re good, actually. The buildings in the city center took most of the damage and shielded the suburbs from a fair share of the fallout. Also, we have rad pills. The military cordon around the island is lifted and we have pinnaces inbound with medical supplies and more troops.”

  “What about Invincible?”

  “They’re alive, but the ship is damaged. They need to get the drives back online as soon as possible to avoid entering the atmosphere. Once the pinnaces drop off the medical supplies and marines to help with SAR, they’ll join the rest going up to help.”

  “Give one my location. I’m going up. I’ll be the short woman in powered armor.”

  “Will do, Highness. Ross out.”

  She only had to wait a few minutes before a pinnace came swooping out of the sky and landed near her, blowing sand in every direction.

  Kelsey charged up the ramp and grabbed on as it lifted off aggressively. The bay was empty except for one marine acting as the crew chief.

  “Highness, the pilot asked for you to come to the flight deck, but I don’t think you’ll fit.”

  Not a chance in this armor. “I’ll take the marine command console and call him from there, Sergeant.”

  She strapped herself to the wall behind the console and opened a channel to the flight deck. A Fleet officer with a headset on appeared. That was new. He must have implants.

  The man glanced at her. “Princess Kelsey, Admiral Mertz asked me to brief you. We’ll be docking with Invincible in about twenty minutes.”

  “Lay it out, Lieutenant.”

  “The ship’s drives are offline. The admiral doesn’t think they’re going to be operational soon enough to help. He’s ordered the crew to prepare to abandon ship while we use all the small craft to try and shift their course.”

  The idea made sense. When they’d found Courageous, they’d had to stop her spin with a pinnace. A lot of them working together might be able to affect a ship as large as the superdreadnought. If they had time.

  “What are the chances?”

  “Invincible gives us maybe thirty percent.”

  “Not good enough. There has to be something else we can do.”

  “If you have any ideas, Highness, I’m sure the admiral would love to hear them.”

  “I’ll think about that. Get up there quick while I take care of one last thing.”

  * * * * *

  In the end, Sean hadn’t had to stop the marine from giving the man the closest shave of his life. The prisoners hadn’t been able to give them a decisive clue, but they’d obviously told her everything they could think of that might be relevant.

  The best piece of information they had was something the woman had overheard one of the Deputy Coordinator’s guards mention. He’d said something about “the farm” and another man had quickly shut him up. So, their comrades were probably somewhere outside the city.

  With all the nuclear explosions, that might be for the best.

  All they had to do was figure out where this farm might be located. For that to happen, they needed information that he didn’t know how to acquire.

  His civilian com chirped. It was an unknown number. He considered not answering it, but decided that Ross or the admiral might have picked up a new unit.

  “Hello?”

  “Commander Meyer,” a female voice said. “This is Coordinator West. I hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time.”

  He blinked in shock. She was the last person he’d expected to be calling him. He almost disconnected, but if she were tracking them, she already had their location.

  “No, this is a perfect time, Coordinator. We’re just sitting around mulling over a problem. What can I do for you?”

  “I have a favor to ask. And, before you become overly concerned, I’ve formed an alliance with Admiral Mertz and Princess Kelsey. Yes, they’ve read me in on your secret. I’m not sending anyone after you. You’re perfectly safe.

  “Well, unless the security forces catch you first for all the damage you caused in that wild ride through the city. Have you considered a career in racing?”

  More like the demolition derby. “If things don’t sta
rt looking up, I might. What can I do for you, Coordinator?”

  “I need some people skilled in combat to undertake a rescue operation under fire. Princess Kelsey said that you might also need my help in finding the lost prisoners. I’ll give what help I can in any case, but there are some important people that need saving, too.

  “She and Admiral Mertz have more pressing matters to attend to and you’re the senior Fleet officer left on the planet. His Fleet, anyway. There are a number of your marines available, but only if you agree.”

  Sean considered her offer and decided he had nothing to lose by sharing what he knew. “I’ll need to make a call first. Who are we rescuing and why don’t you have the people to do it?”

  “The military is sitting out my struggle with Abigail King. I have some skilled fighters, but we’re talking about storming the planetary council building. It’s a fortress. Abigail has a number of my allies in that building and I’d like to get them back alive. And put her on trial for mass murder, too.”

  He snorted softly. “There’s nothing I’d like more than to make that woman pay. Not only for what she did to my people, but for what she did to yours. As I said, I’ll call you back once I see what I can find out. Do you know anything about a farm that might be associated with King?”

  “Not off the top of my head. You make your call and I’ll make a few of my own. Then we’ll see if we can’t ruin Abigail King’s day.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Olivia had a brief conversation with her tech wizard and started the woman searching for data on any farm that might be associated with Abigail. By the time she had that in motion, Commander Meyer had called her back.

  “I’ve spoken with the marines on the ground,” he said. “They managed to get through to Admiral Mertz. I have his blessing to help you.

  “Here’s what I’m proposing. You’ll need to get the marines out of the city by the coast. They’re assisting in search and rescue. Take them to the island and they can draw combat gear. Once they have that, you’ll need to provide their rides. All the pinnaces are helping in orbit.”

  She nodded to herself. That matched what she’d heard. “I have the transport available. With all of this moving around, I think we’ll need to hit the council building sometime before dawn. That leaves us time to rescue your people, if I can find any farm or rural property that is associated with Abigail in any way.”

  “That works for me. I can give you an address to pick us up. We’ll need combat gear for a dozen marines. I suggest you pick us up now and we can coordinate what needs to happen next.”

  That suited her just fine. “Give me the address and I’ll send someone right away. Thank you.”

  She disconnected the call and turned to William. “We’ll need someone from Grant to bring the pinnace, if they have it put back together, and some weapons for Commander Meyer. I don’t want to divert any of the other transports.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not going to be possible. We’ve already sent the pinnace to assist Invincible. I spoke with Captain Black and authorized him sending it. In fact, I’m going to be joining him in trying to save that ship.”

  Olivia blinked in surprise. “Okay, I can see sending the pinnace up to help. Exactly how is your presence supposed to improve their odds?”

  “Because I’ll be flying another ship up to add one more set of grav drives.”

  “You can fly? All they have left is the fighter. Surely that won’t help something so large.”

  “You don’t think I could fly a fighter? I’m sure I’d be dashing. No, there’s another ship. It hasn’t flown in a very long time, but the automatics say it’s still functional. It might just make the difference between success and failure. And yes, I’m trained to fly a ship. It’s just been a while.”

  She didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t as though he needed her permission. “Good luck. Come home to Craig. And me, of course.”

  He gave her a florid bow. “I shall return. And I’ll want your promise that you’ll be careful. If Abigail kills or captures you, I’ll be devastated.”

  “We have a pact, then.” She rose to her feet and gave him a hug. “Good luck.”

  Once he was gone, she went out to find her tech. “Tell me you have something.”

  The woman looked up from the console she was working at. “Several things, actually. Deputy Coordinator King—now styling herself with your title, by the way—made another public statement. It was more of the same, but she did confirm our suspicions she was inside the council building by word and deed.”

  “How so?”

  “The address was filmed in your office. She also mentioned she was going to stay there ‘working for the good of the people of Harrison’s World’ until you were brought to justice. The number of security people around the building is becoming ludicrous. Surely all those people have something better to do than guarding some political gasbag.”

  The woman paused for a moment. “Present company excluded.”

  “Thanks for that,” Olivia said dryly. “Any word on where this farm might be?”

  “Possibly.” The woman manipulated her screen and a map of the area. “Deputy Coordinator King’s family owns a number of agricultural facilities in the area surrounding the capital.”

  Olivia examined the map closely. It showed a dozen large properties. “We’ll need to scout them. Can you get an enlarged image of all of them?”

  “I’m not plugged into the satellite network and someone has been cutting off my access. They haven’t frozen me out, but I’m certainly not able just to waltz into that kind of system anymore. It might take me a while.”

  “Unless you’d care to drive out there personally, I’d suggest you get busy.”

  * * * * *

  Jared resisted the urge to go down to engineering. That wouldn’t make any of this go faster and it might slow them down. The pinnaces and cutters were doing what they could to alter Invincible’s course, but it was increasingly looking as though they wouldn’t make enough of a difference to save the ship.

  The crew would be able to use the escape pods, but the loss of the massive ship would hurt the Empire badly. The loss of the AI would be even worse. They didn’t have enough time to get the computer removed.

  Ginnie Dare and New York were racing in from the flip point, but they’d be hours too late to do any good. Unless of course he managed to save the ship. Several pinnaces had managed to match the ship’s uncontrolled tumble and were using their drives to stabilize her as much as they could.

  The lift doors opened and Princess Kelsey rushed onto the bridge. She wore a massive suit of armor, though she held the helmet in the crook of her arm. “It wasn’t my fault.”

  He felt the corners of his mouth twitch. “I must not have heard what happened yet. What disaster did you not cause?”

  “Any of this. I just wanted the record to show that for once. How are we doing?”

  “Not good. The small craft are giving everything they have, but it’s not going to be enough. I’m preparing to give the order to abandon ship. Unless, of course, Baxter pulls off a miracle.”

  Kelsey stood beside one of the backup consoles. “Do you think there’s much chance of that?”

  “Honestly? No. And you know what galls me? We’re not that far away from having enough thrust. If we had three or four more pinnaces, we’d squeak by. We’d skip off the atmosphere and probably burn off every external fixture on the ship, but we’d survive long enough for the destroyers to get here.”

  “How long do we have?”

  He checked the countdown timer in his head. “Five minutes until I have to order the crew to the pods. Ten minutes until we enter the atmosphere. I’ll order the small craft to break away as soon as we begin the evacuation.”

  She shook her head. “There has to be a way. Invincible, is there anything on the ship that can give us the extra boost? What if we vented the atmosphere out the back?”

  “While clever, that would not generate s
ufficient thrust,” the AI said.

  “We need more ships,” Kelsey said.

  He agreed, but they were using all they had. “The resistance sent up their pinnace. It’s helping. Lord Hawthorne is bringing a ship up. It won’t get here in time. That’s it for every small craft in the area.”

  “Actually, it isn’t,” Invincible said. “Scanners are back online and I’m picking up another pinnace. It has already left the area around Harrison’s World.”

  “What?” Jared accessed the scanners through his implants and saw that Invincible was correct. There was a pinnace racing toward…a gas giant in the outer system away from the flip point? That didn’t make any sense.

  Kelsey must’ve been checking it, too. “Why is it going all the way out there? It has to be the pinnace that tried to kill Coordinator West.”

  “And we have no way of catching it, either.” Jared checked the clock and their updated trajectory. “Time to call this. I’m sorry, Invincible.”

  “As am I, Admiral. If only the engines in these small craft were more powerful. I’ll miss seeing how this story turns out. Good luck.”

  Kelsey frowned. “Wait. Can’t we make them more powerful? What limits their thrust?”

  “Safety interlocks,” Jared said. “Those grav drives might explode if pushed too hard.”

  “And an explosion would be worse than our current problems how?”

  He followed her train of thought and decided she might have a point. It would put the pilots in grave danger, but if they volunteered…

  “Invincible, contact the pilots. See if they’re willing to take the risk.”

  A few moments later, the AI responded. “All are prepared to risk it, Admiral. The danger is high, though. I recommend everyone abandon ship before you put your plan into effect.”

  “Open a ship-wide channel. Tie in every suit com as well.”

  “Ready, Admiral.”

  “All hands, this is Admiral Mertz. We’re going to try one last thing to save the ship, but we can’t do it with you on board. Abandon ship. All hands abandon ship. Godspeed.”