Wreaths of Empire

by Andrew M. Seddon

  “Should only be a few seconds at this distance.”

  A few seconds. The same length of time it would take a burst from Remorseless’ weapons to reach Starwind.

  The commscreen illuminated. “What the devil are you doing, Lafrey?” Miriam Vespage’s normally expressionless face was suffused with anger beneath her piled-up copper hair. Her brown eyes flashed. “You know the restriction. Get that ship out of there!”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am,” Jade replied. “But I have to reach Covenant and Member Maricic immediately. I have information that can’t wait. Request you let us pass, ma’am.”

  “Commander—”

  “Ma’am,” Jade interrupted, “if I don’t get through, we’ll have a full-scale battle on our hands and a war that will never end.”

  Vespage hesitated.

  “Please, ma’am,” Jade urged.

  “Member Maricic ordered the recall of all non-essential personnel from Covenant. I’m not sure if that includes you.”

  Jade’s nerves tingled. “If she’s ordered the evacuation of the planet then it’s critical that I not be delayed.”

  Vespage turned her head to listen to someone off-screen. She nodded, and turned back to Jade. “Major Iverson on Vindictive,” she said.

  The screen split. Iverson’s freckled features occupied the other side. Any illusion of friendliness in his round face had disappeared. His sandy hair was disheveled.

  “Admiral Vespage,” he said without preamble, “that vessel contains a traitor to the Hegemony. You must destroy it before it reaches Covenant!”

  “I must?” Vespage bristled.

  “Yes!”

  “By whose authority?” Vespage demanded.

  “Fleet Admiral Gellner’s,” Iverson replied.

  “I’ve received no such order.”

  “Admiral!” Jade interrupted, making a quick decision. Iverson’s image shifted, and Jade realized he was monitoring her side of the conversation too. “There’s a plot to destroy the Gara’nesh homeworld. Admiral Gellner is party to it. I must reach Covenant to meet with Member Maricic.”

  “She’s lying,” Iverson countered. “The only plot is in her mind. She wants to disrupt the peace conference.”

  “You’re the liar, Iverson! You’ve been wreaking all the havoc your little mind could concoct to ensure the failure of the negotiations.”

  “Why were you meeting with a ship with a Gara’nesh energy signature?” the Political officer retorted.

  “Trying to get to the bottom of this!” Jade snapped. “Ferreting out the trail you murdering war-mongers have laid!”

  Vespage’s eyes flickered back and forth, following the conversation.

  “This man,” Jade continued to Vespage, “was responsible for Milford Fromberg’s shuttle crash.”

  Vespage’s eyes narrowed.

  Iverson hesitated. Briefly, but long enough to confirm Jade’s guess. “Another lie, Lafrey.”

  “Admiral,” Jade said, “I swear to you I am telling the truth. It is Major Iverson who is the traitor. Stop me and the Gara’nesh homeworld will be destroyed and neither you nor I will ever see peace.”

  “Let Lafrey go,” Iverson said. “And we’ll lose the war.”

  The image from Vindictive widened. Captain Robert Ullie appeared next to Iverson. “May I speak, Admiral?”

  “Yes, Captain?” Vespage said.

  “If I had to choose between believing Commander Lafrey or Major Iverson, ma’am, there’s no doubt in my mind whom I’d pick. Frankly, Major Iverson’s behavior on my ship has been irrational and erratic.”

  Jade flashed a look of thanks to Ullie.

  Iverson’s face purpled. “You’re as much a traitor as she is, Captain! And so are you, Admiral, if you don’t destroy that ship!”

  Vespage’s expression hardened. “Nobody calls me a traitor, Iverson, especially not some junior Political flunkey! Captain Ullie, put Major Iverson under arrest.”

  “You can’t do that!” Iverson blurted.

  “My pleasure, Admiral,” Ullie said. “Security!”

  The transmission from Vindictive ended.

  Vespage spoke to Jade. “If what you say is true, Commander-”

  “It is, I assure you.”

  Vespage nodded. “Make haste.”

  Starwind flashed away from the Third Fleet.

  Emmers said, “Remorseless and Vindictive resuming their stations with the fleet.”

  Jade nodded. “Now we only have to hope that Member Maricic listens to us.”

  “Admiral Gellner will be there to deny everything,” Kuchera said.

  “I know,” Jade said.

  “There’s activity on scan,” Emmers reported, indicating the readout which showed a small fleet of shuttles—both human and Gara’nesh—departing from Covenant.

  Jade pursed her lips.

  The Hegemony hangar bay loomed cavernous, its brightly illuminated interior nearly empty. Several shuttles bearing admiral’s insignias and Georgia Maricic’s craft were the only vessels remaining.

  Starwind eased into the bay and docked.

  “Call coming from Cheshire Cat,” Emmers reported.

  “Tell WhiteWolf to wait,” Jade began, then changed her mind. “Better let me take it.”

  Emmers put the call through. Jade nodded as the spyship officer reported. Cheshire Cat had pinpointed Sector D as the source of the abnormal waves. She thanked him and ended the transmission.

  "Meeting room," Jade said. "You two come along."

  Kuchera needed no urging. Emmers looked wary but fell into file.

  Jade pushed aside the pair of guards positioned outside the doors as she stalked by. They made as if to bar entrance to Kuchera and Emmers, but hesitated long enough for the two men to keep up with Jade.

  The conference room was in an uproar.

  The negotiating team was on its feet, Georgia Maricic in the center. Stalker was waving his arms wildly and talking in a frantic rush. Gellner shouted something Jade couldn’t distinguish. Travers and Koharski stood shoulder to shoulder.

  Jade looked across the partition. She was just in time to catch the last of Ambassador Halaffi, heading towards the exit. The ambassador’s skin was bright yellow. Jade caught a few words over her implant—“…of these Terrans! Prepare this one’s craft for departure!”—before Halaffi disappeared out the opposing door in a swirl of khaki robe, leaving the Gara’nesh half of the room unoccupied.

  Gellner caught sight of Jade, and stopped in mid-sentence. His jaw sagged, and then he closed his mouth with an audible snap.

  “What are those two doing in here?” he glared, fingering Kuchera and Emmers. “Guards!” he shouted. “Escort them out!”

  Jade thrust herself forwards. “They’re here with me.”

  “How dare you countermand my order!” Gellner’s bloodshot eyes flashed.

  Jade became conscious of Stalker’s scrutiny. She gestured behind her back to Emmers. He moved forward to stand beside Stalker. He dropped his hand to the console and waited.

  Jade stopped directly in front of the man who had once been her commander. As she stared into his dark eyes, anger boiled up within her and she leaped off the second precipice. “It’s over, Admiral! This is the end of your wretched plan!”

  The fleet admiral’s lips thinned to a narrow line. “You’re mad, Lafrey.”

  “No, Admiral, it’s you and your crony, Iverson. I don’t know what happened to you, why you changed…you, whom I respected.”

  Gellner jerked forwards, his fist raising.

  Stalker gripped Gellner’s arm and held the smaller man back, his knuckles whitening with the effort. “Perhaps you would explain this accusation, Commander.”

  “I would be delighted, sir,” Jade began.

  “No.” Georgia Maricic placed a bare arm between Jade and Gellner. “This is not the place.”

  Gellner breathed heavily. “The Member is right. Major Iverson can ferret an explanation from you, Lafrey.”

  “Iver
son is under arrest,” Jade said.

  “By whose order?” Gellner barked.

  “Second Admiral Vespage.”

  “Then she also has a lot of explaining to do. Later.”

  “Now,” Jade insisted.

  “Later, Commander,” Maricic said, her voice as frigid as Covenant’s surface.

  Jade made another gesture to Emmers. “Would you care to comment on this word, Admiral?” Jade asked. “I believe you know what it means.”

  Nahanni, she thought, forgive me. But it was only the name. Not the co-ordinates.

  The word flashed up on the console.

  Nessh’uarin.

  Gellner jerked. “Blank that!”

  “An explanation, Admiral,” Jade said.

  “This is treason!”

  “I agree,” Maricic cut in. “Your conduct is inexcusable, Commander.”

  “I would like to hear an explanation,” Stalker interrupted, staring at Maricic. “With all due respect, Member.”

  “And I.” From Travers.

  Cylena Koharski pushed closer. “As would I, Lewis.”

  “Explain, Admiral,” Jade insisted.

  Gellner licked his lips. A wary expression replaced the furrows of anger. “Why don’t you tell us, Lafrey.”

  Jade nodded. “Very well.” She spoke louder. “Nessh’uarin has great meaning for the Gara’nesh. It is a word no human should know. It is the name of their homeworld.”

  Gellner snorted. “Fantasy! Nobody knows—”

  “There is a plot,” Jade said. “There is a secret weapon. But it’s not Gara’nesh. It’s human, engineered by the war-mongers of the Hegemony. A supernova-triggering device, tested at Markher 12, and targeted for the Gara’nesh home sun!”

  “Prove it!” Gellner demanded, but less vigorously.

  She was sailing on the thermal updrafts, confident in her abilities…

  “Abnormal transition waves indicate that Markher 12 was detonated intentionally. Identical abnormal waves have been detected emanating from Covenant.”

  “It is them!” Gellner flailed an arm towards the empty Gara’nesh side. “They’re the ones—”

  “The waves are coming from Sector D,” Jade hammered, glad of Cheshire Cat's update. Hal WhiteWolf should rate a commendation.

  Koharski edged Jade aside. She gripped Gellner’s shoulders and shook. “Is this true?” she demanded. “Is it true?”

  Gellner’s narrow moustache writhed. “Yes, it’s true! After fifty years we’ll be rid of the Gara’nesh threat once and for all! Annihilation! Sudden and complete!”

  Koharski’s nails gouged into Gellner’s upper arms. “Why, Lewis? Why?”

  Gellner shrugged out of Koharski’s grip. “Why?” He turned towards Jade.

  His bluster vanished. Suddenly, she thought he seemed smaller, pleading. “It had to be, Lafrey, don’t you see? Negotiations won’t accomplish anything. Eliminating the Gara’nesh is the only way of ending the war.”

  “It will only increase the hatred and prolong the violence,” Jade said.

  All at once, Gellner seemed to crumble. “I’m tired, Jade,” he said. “Tired of fighting. I can’t…I can’t handle the death…all the letters to families…” Tears streaked his cheeks. “Good ships…good people…all gone…gone…I want the war to end, can you understand that? To end.”

  “We all do, Admiral,” Jade said softly. “But this isn’t the way.”

  He spread his hands. “We had to do it…to end the killing…”

  “We?” Jade asked. “Who is ‘we’? Who’s backing you, Admiral? The Politicals?”

  Gellner shook his head. His brow furrowed, as if he groped for thought. “I can’t tell you.”

  “Lewis…” Koharski began, an edge to her voice.

  “I was only following orders,” Gellner mumbled.

  Jade stared; Gellner now hardly seemed the commanding figure he had been earlier—certainly not the man she had known years ago. What had war done to him?

  “Tell us, Gellner,” Stalker said.

  Gellner fumbled for speech. He raised his hands to his temples. “My head…”

  “Lewis…”

  “The neuralstim…somebody…” Gellner’s face contorted with pain. He appeared to struggle to pull his thoughts together. “You’d…you’d have to ask…—Aaagh!” he screamed. “The pain…!”

  “No.” Georgia Maricic’s single word lashed across the Fleet Admiral’s cry. “Admiral Gellner is obviously in distress.” She touched a diamond brooch on her dress and said, “Guards.”

  The two men Jade had noticed outside the conference room jogged through the doors.

  Maricic motioned towards Gellner, who stood rocking and moaning, clutching his head. “The admiral is unwell. Take him to my shuttle and remain with him. See that he speaks to no one.”

  The senior guard saluted. Then the two men gripped Gellner by the elbows and steered him unresisting from the room.

  Maricic spoke to Jade, her tone now pleasant. “Thank you for uncovering this heinous plot, Commander. The Hegemony is in your debt. Even though the conference has foundered, I’m sure there will be a commendation for you.”

  Jade found herself transfixed by Maricic’s grey eyes. With an effort, she averted her gaze and stared in the direction the guards had taken Lewis Gellner. A flicker in her peripheral vision was light reflecting off Maricic’s brooch; and then a light of understanding dawned. Jade looked back to the Central Committee Member.

  …she was threading her way through the most dangerous of the pinnacles, a place where one wrong move would spell disaster. Yet not far off was the landing place, where she’d have to locate a suitable site to land among the rocks that strewed the beach. And suddenly, she saw it…

  “Who was Admiral Gellner going to suggest we ask, Member?” Jade asked, ignoring the compliment.

  Maricic shrugged, her lizard-silk gown shimmering. “I’m sure I don’t know.”

  “It was a convenient moment for his neuralstim to malfunction.”

  Maricic’s grey eyes chilled. “Your insolence is grating on me, Commander.”

  “Even the Central Committee isn’t above the law, Member.”

  “What are you getting at, Jade?” Stalker asked.

  “I don’t think Admiral Gellner was the brains behind this, Admiral,” Jade replied, keeping her attention on Maricic.

  “Of course he was!” the Central Committee Member said. “Admiral Gellner is obviously mentally unstable—”

  “Exactly. And I don’t think he had the backing, the funding, or the ability to carry through such a devious operation. I believe he was, as he said, following orders.”

  “Who, then?” Stalker asked.

  “Someone who was influential in arranging this conference, in particular making sure it was held on Covenant. Someone with power and money. Someone who sent me on a futile chase, making sure the Gara’nesh were implicated, while at the same time buying time – presumably for for the weapon to be made operational. Someone who wasn’t surprised by the supernova at Markher 12. Someone high enough to issue orders to a Fleet Admiral.”

  Stalker and Travers exchanged a glance.

  “What do you mean?” Koharski asked.

  Jade stared into unfathomable grey eyes. “I mean Member Georgia Maricic.”

  A moment of uncomfortable silence was broken by Maricic’s harsh laugh. “Oh, very good, Commander. Very good.” A palm-sized weapon appeared in Maricic’s slender hand. She trained it on Jade’s chest.

  “Member?” Travers expostulated.

  “Don’t look so surprised, Governor,” Maricic said.

  “But you seemed so…”

  “So reasonable? Diplomatic? A game, Travers. A role.”

  “But why?”

  “For the exact reason Admiral Gellner stated. To put an end to the Gara’nesh threat once and for all.”

  “And to shift the blame so that public revulsion wouldn’t bring you down,” Jade said. “Convince the Hegemony that
the Gara’nesh have a star-killer weapon, and then when their own sun novas, why obviously it was a malfunction and their own fault. At the same time, blame their deception for the breakdown of the conference, and seize the pretext to take out their main battle-fleet as well.”

  “Neat, don’t you think?”

  “Insane!” Travers exclaimed.

  Maricic smiled. “Far from it.”

  “Destroying whole stellar systems?” Koharski interjected.

  “You’ll never get away with it.” From Stalker.

  “But I already have. Even as we speak,” Maricic said, “the weapon has been activated. In just over half an hour, it fires. A few days from now, the Gara’nesh sun turns into a supernova. There’s no way to disarm the weapon, and no way to detect it once it’s launched.” She raised her rounded shoulders. “So you see, we’ve won. And you sentimental weaklings have lost.”

  Her weapon roved over the group. “What a shame that all of you have to die. You couldn’t leave well enough alone, Lafrey. You should have played your role in my drama then kept your mouth shut.”

  Jade’s blood drained from her face.

  Maricic saw it. “You don’t think I could possibly let you live after this? Unfortunately, the Hegemony is full of sniveling fools who share your point of view—weaklings who could cause problems if they knew the true nature of the Gara’nesh’s sudden demise. While they could be dealt with in time, I really don’t want the bother.”

  “What are you saying?” Jade asked.

  “Merely that you’ll prove a convenient excuse. I’ll tell everyone how you were killed by the Gara’nesh. Only I survived their treacherous ambush. What an excellent provocation for retaliation.”

  Travers took a half step.

  “Would you like to be first, Governor? Very well.”

  Maricic’s hand turned, and her finger tightened. The bolt impacted dead-center on Travers’s chest.

  Travers gasped and pitched forwards.

  Jade dove towards Maricic, but Maricic was faster, smashing her gun in Jade’s face. Jade landed on all fours, spitting blood.

  The weapon pointed at her.

  A split second too late, Kuchera came flying out of nowhere and lunged for Maricic’s arm.

  A white-hot needle lanced through Jade’s right shoulder, dropping her face first on the floor. She struggled against the agony that threatened to plunge her into darkness.