The Little Ships (Alexis Carew Book 3)

by J. A. Sutherland

  Peppermint … cinnamon … peach … what are these people thinking?

  “What do you do?” Balestra whispered.

  Alexis shook her head; anything she said might be heard by Reinacher. She heaved the empty bottles, one by one, over the couches.

  Reinacher laughed. “I would allow you a last drink, frauleins, never fear.”

  She waited for the next snap of Reinacher’s laser, then stood and threw the contents of the bucket over the back of the other couch. Balestra rose at the same time and fired another stream of flechettes. Alexis caught her lip between her teeth and motioned to Balestra to be ready.

  The next snap of Reinacher’s laser was a accompanied by a thwump and a scream. Alexis and Balestra both rose, the commodore firing and Alexis grasping the now empty ice bucket.

  Reinacher was standing and flailing about. His left arm, from wrist to shoulder, was aflame, as well as his hair. Balestra fired, but Reinacher was moving so rapidly that the flechettes barely caught his arm. Reinacher spun and dashed for the side of the compartment. Balestra fired again and Reinacher staggered, but made it to the bulkhead. He flung open a hatch hidden there and disappeared behind it.

  Alexis and Balestra rushed after him. Alarms began sounding as they reached the bulkhead and when they opened the hatch the corridor beyond was filled with jets of fog. Balestra slammed the hatch shut, coughing.

  “We have to go after him!” Alexis yelled over the alarms.

  “Non!” Balestra shook her head. “The fire! In the smaller space, it is enough — we cannot breath the gas!”

  Alexis reached for the hatch, but Balestra stopped her and as she did the alarms stopped.

  “That must mean the fire’s out. We can go after him!”

  Balestra held the hatch closed. “The service corridors of a station, they are a maze, Lieutenant Carew. Reinacher is well gone and we must be as well.” She examined her flechette pistol. Alexis could see that the magazine was almost empty. “We would soon be weaponless, in any case.”

  “But —”

  “La Baie Marche fleet, it is in révolte. That is the message I have sent. La mutinerie has begun. Even now my officers fight for control. I must return to my ships.”

  “The message? ‘Allez’? That was to have your officers take over the ships? How can you have made plans so quickly?” Alexis asked. “I only told Delaine last night.”

  Balestra grasped her arm and pulled her toward the main hatchway. “Lieutenant Carew, La Baie Marche fleet has plans for this since ma grand-mère was l’aspirant …” She paused and Alexis looked at her. Balestra’s eyes were filled with generations of pain and hope. She shrugged. “We have waited only to know we were not alone.”

  Chapter 37

  There was a rapid knock on the compartment’s hatchway. Alexis and Balestra looked at each other.

  “Reinacher’s man,” Alexis asked, “did you leave his body out there?”

  Balestra frowned. “There was no one.” She frowned further. “You think that I have killed this man?”

  “Well, I assumed you’d done something with him. Reinacher left him to guard the door.”

  There was a second, louder, knock.

  Alexis scanned the compartment. The flames had burned out on the couch Reinacher had hidden behind. Luckily its material wasn’t flammable and the compartment was large enough that the little bit of heat and smoke had not set off the fire suppression system as it had in the service corridor. Still there was no way to hide the damage fire, laser, and flechettes had done to the room. Or to her dress, she realized, as she saw that a seam had split all down one leg from hip to hem.

  I don’t even remember that happening.

  Balestra gestured with her flechette pistol. “You beside the hatch and I will have a clear view as they enter,” she said.

  But before Alexis could move, the hatch was slid forcefully open. Alexis looked around for anything to use as a weapon and Balestra raised her pistol, but it was Delaine and Dansby who rushed into the compartment, both holding pistols of their own. Alexis noted Balestra and Delaine in their uniforms and Dansby in his formal wear, all with plenty of places to conceal weaponry. She grasped the side of her dress, trying to keep the torn pieces together.

  It was lovely, but I do miss a uniform.

  “Reinacher?” Delaine asked.

  “Disparu,” Balestra answered. She nodded at the hatch. “We must go.”

  They decided that Delaine and Balestra would exit first, so that all four of them would not be seen returning to the reception at the same time. The two would collect any officers from Balestra’s fleet who had not gotten her message and were still at the reception, then return to their ships. Balestra thought they had, perhaps, an hour before the other Hanoverese ships in the system began noticing something odd about her ships — less if Reinacher was not lying dead in a service corridor and was able to raise the alarm. Both the Berry March fleet and Röslein had to set sail as quickly as possible.

  Alexis wrapped her arms around Delaine and buried her face in his chest.

  “Be careful,” she whispered.

  Delaine grasped her shoulders and pushed her gently back. He looked around the compartment at the shredded couches, the scent of Reinacher’s burning hair still lingering in the air.

  “Moi?” He smiled and caught her nose between thumb and forefinger. “Toi!”

  Alexis dug her thumb into his side. “As careful as we may be then, the both of us.”

  Delaine nodded, kissed her, and hurried after Balestra.

  “We’ll give them a minute or two to clear the ballroom and then follow.”

  “Reinacher had a man watching the door,” Alexis said. “He may come back.”

  Dansby shook his head. “Not that one.” At Alexis’ look, he explained, “I followed along when he took you out of the reception. Waited a bit, then staggered up on Reinacher’s man with a bottle in hand, like I was a drunkard.” Dansby slid the hatch shut so no one would see the damaged room if they happened to pass by. “Had a knife up under his ribs and in his heart before he knew it.”

  Dansby smiled and Alexis couldn’t find it in her heart to pity Heinrich if he’d chosen to work with a man like Reinacher.

  “So there I am,” Dansby continued, “one arm holding up a corpse, the other wiping my blade on the gent’s jacket, and trying to keep his blood from getting on my finery, when your young Frenchman comes around the corner.” Dansby crossed to the sideboard and examined the bottles. “No schnapps?”

  “We’re right out,” Alexis said, glancing at the shredded couch.

  “Pity. I like a drop of the peach now and again.” He took up a bottle of something, poured himself a glass, and gestured toward the hatch. “Time enough, do you think?”

  They left the compartment, making sure the hatch was well-shut behind them.

  “Your Frenchman, there,” Dansby continued as they made their way out of the reception hall and into the station’s main corridors, “was all for breaking his way right in, but he saw the sense of us disposing of Herr Reinacher’s man first. He helped me drag him down to a maintenance compartment around the corner, but no sooner had we got him there than these bloody Hanoverese blokes come into the corridor.” He shrugged. “So we’re stuck there while these fellows stand about and chatter. Couldn’t very well let them see us coming out of a maintenance closet, so we were stuck. That Theibaud boy was ready to kill the lot of them — didn’t like the waiting one bit. Balestra must’ve followed just a bit after we’d carted the body off.”

  Alexis frowned. “But what were you doing at the reception to begin with? How did you get in?”

  Dansby gave her a pained look. “Have you not learned yet? Getting in and out of places is what I do.” He shrugged. “I assumed you’d get in some sort of trouble — didn’t expect there’d be so many others trying to get you out of it. What became of Reinacher?”

  Alexis related Balestra’s arrival and the subsequent firefight with Reinacher. When
she was done, Dansby shook his head and muttered a string of oaths.

  “What?”

  “Do you not see it?” Dansby glared at her. “Shot and set on fire and you let him get away? Are you a fool?” He picked up the pace, hurrying toward Röslein’s place on the station’s quayside. “Did you learn nothing from the business with Coalson? Fail to kill a man the first time and he’ll always be back to bite you on the arse.”

  Chapter 38

  There was none of Röslein’s previous dawdling after leaving Dietraching. Though Dansby gave them no specifics, his sense of urgency communicated itself to the crew and the ship sailed for New London space without stopping. The only deviations from their course were to avoid systems that might slow their journey or expose them to Hanoverese shipping.

  Whether anyone from Hanover was actually pursuing them was open for debate. Dansby believed it was far more likely that all of Hanover’s attention would be on Balestra’s fleet, while Mynatt, after she’d been informed of events aboard the station, thought that Reinacher would be focusing his attention on Röslein and Alexis.

  “This one has a talent for leaving live enemies behind her,” Mynatt said as the three of them dined in Dansby’s cabin one evening, “and being set afire is the sort of thing that sticks in a man’s mind.”

  “Assuming he didn’t die of the fire or the suppression chemicals in that corridor,” Dansby said, “he’ll still have more on his mind with a missing fleet than us.”

  “He’s a navy to send after them. This would be personal.” She turned her gaze to Alexis. “You should have followed him into the service corridor and finished him.”

  “I had no weapon and Commodore Balestra’s was almost out of flechettes.”

  Mynatt grunted. “You’ll regret leaving that one alive.”

  If Mynatt was correct, or even if Reinacher was alive, it didn’t show in the remainder of Röslein’s flight from Hanover. They made New London space without incident, though also with no sign of Balestra’s fleet.

  “Balestra knows where she’s to go as well as we do, Carew. Röslein’s faster than they’re likely to be, regardless,” Dansby said after Alexis again expressed concern. “And I’d just as soon not run across them. They’re likely to have a Hanoverese fleet on their tail right to the border.”

  That last did nothing to alleviate Alexis’ concerns.

  * * *

  Alchiba was a small system, newly settled, and quite near the border. They had no station in orbit around the single habitable planet, and the navigation summary in Marilyn’s plot — all her records changed back to her original name upon entry into New London space — told them not to even expect a pilot boat hovering around the system’s Lagrangian points.

  Alexis was somewhat surprised, then, when Marilyn was challenged by a pair of New London frigates still two days out from the system, and more surprised by the pair of 74s and the 92 that were patrolling darkspace around the planet’s transition points. She was sad to see that neither of the 74s was Shrewsbury, as she was longing to see her ship again. Perhaps Shrewsbury was in normal space at the system proper.

  Dansby frowned at the navigation plot once they’d transitioned to normal space and were able to see all of the ships in-system. Mynatt joined him and frowned as well.

  Alexis had filled them both in on the full purpose of their mission during the sail back to New London space, and now they turned to her with worried looks.

  “That’s all there is?” Mynatt asked.

  Alexis scanned the plot. Marilyn’s computer had quickly identified and counted the different ships in-system. There were a little more than a hundred transports and over forty warships, including a massive 104, HMS Impregnable, in orbit around Alchiba. With Shrewsbury close aboard, she noted with pleasure. Mynatt’s words struck her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “She means,” Dansby said, “that you led us to believe the entire invasion force was to be here waiting for that Commodore Balestra’s arrival.” He tapped the plot. “This would appear to be … not nearly enough.”

  “Glad our bit’s done,” Mynatt said.

  Alexis frowned. “It’s the number of ships Mister Eades —”

  “Oh, yes, Eades,” Dansby said. He sighed. “War on the cheap and always a plan.” The signal console pinged and he brought the message up on the plot. “Speak of the devil …” He glanced at Alexis. “Much as I’m sure you’re as sad to see it come as I am, it’s time we say farewell. A boat’s being sent for you and our business is done.”

  “Good riddance,” Mynatt said. She left the quarterdeck without a backward glance.

  “You’ve about an hour before that boat reaches us,” Dansby said. “Just time enough to pack your things.”

  Alexis felt oddly uncomfortable at the thought of parting. Marilyn was in no way the sort of ship she’d like to sail aboard, the crew was still standoffish, perhaps even more so than ever, and she certainly hadn’t come to care for Dansby. She eyed him, looking just as uncomfortable as she felt.

  “I suppose this is farewell, then,” she said.

  “It appears so.” Dansby shifted his eyes to the plot and cleared his throat. “You’ll be back aboard your ship and part of this?”

  “Yes. Aboard Shrewsbury, just there behind Impregnable in orbit.” She cleared her throat as well. No, she’d certainly not come to care for him any more than she had at the start, pirate, smuggler, and snake that he was. Still, she thought of the moment when they’d been under fire by Coalson’s men aboard the Baikonur station and how the excited grin on his face had exactly matched her own feeling of being fully alive in that moment of danger. “Mister Dansby —”

  “I’m sure there’s none of us could say it’s been a pleasure, Carew,” Dansby interrupted her. “Certainly not Anya, what with you shooting her and all.” He gave her a small smile.

  “Twice, come to that,” Alexis said with an answering smile. “I’ll speak to Mister Eades about that bounty on Coalson. I’m … I’m sorry if you receive nothing … due to my actions with him, I mean.”

  Dansby shook his head. “No, I think it’s best if you mention nothing at all about the matter.” He shrugged. “The money would be nice, but I expect they’d find some way to keep it from me. And that was … it’s not a thing you’d be wise to bandy about.”

  Alexis met his eyes and he looked away. It surprised her that he’d give up even the chance of a bounty. Perhaps he was worried what might happen to him, given her actions. If Eades and the Navy disapproved of what she’d done enough, they might take it out on Dansby as well.

  “I suppose you’ll be leaving then?”

  Dansby shrugged. “I may hang about and see just what comes of this.” He cleared his throat. “This next bit of business you’re about will be neither easy nor clean.” He nodded to the plot. “I hope you know that.”

  “What do you mean? The Berry worlds are rightfully French and we’re to help them rejoin the Republic. If ever there was a proper thing to fight for —”

  Dansby shook his head. “Those worlds have been part of Hanover for generations, no matter what language the people speak. There’re Hanoverese who’ve settled there …” He shrugged. “It’s civil war and revolution all rolled into one. There’s no good comes of that.”

  “Mister Eades —”

  Dansby cut her off again. “Eades is Foreign Office. He has his own agenda and likely a few more beneath the one he shows you. Don’t ever think he has anyone’s best interests to heart. Not yours and not those of the Berry worlds.”

  “No, I’m certainly not so foolish as to think that.”

  “Good.” Dansby looked as though he might say more, but then shrugged. “You should be about that packing.”

  Alexis nodded and started for her cabin.

  “Rikki,” Dansby called when she was at the hatch. She turned and raised an eyebrow. “Watch yourself.”

  “Concern for a mongoose, Mister Serpent?”

  Dansby cleared his
throat again. “Just be cautious, Carew.” He paused. “And for God’s sake, stop leaving live enemies behind you.”

  Chapter 39

  Alexis returned to her cabin to pack and then boarded the boat from Shrewsbury to find Isom aboard with two others of the crew to handle her baggage.

  “Civilian clothes,” she said in answer to his questioning look at the extra chest she had to be moved. “I doubt I’ll have need of them, but find a place to store the chest in the hold if it won’t fit under my bunk, will you?”

  She carried a bundle with her new weapons. Those she’d transfer to her cabin herself.

  Her things were loaded aboard the boat and the boat on its way back to Shrewsbury without another word from any of Marilyn’s crew.

  I don’t suppose I can blame them for being glad to see the back of me.

  Her welcome aboard Shrewsbury, though, was quite different. Every hand seemed to have a nod and a smile for her as she made her way from the boarding lock aft to Captain Euell’s cabin. He’d sent word that he wished to see her instanter, and Alexis was regretting not having a proper uniform aboard Marilyn as she now had no opportunity to change.

  The marine sentry at the hatchway announced her arrival and she entered. She saw that she’d have to adjust herself to Shrewsbury’s time, as Captain Euell was just finishing his breakfast while it had been nearing suppertime aboard Marilyn.

  “Welcome back, Carew,” Euell said, gesturing for her to sit. “Did you have a pleasant cruise? Something to drink?”

  “I wouldn’t go so far as to call it pleasant, no, sir,” she answered, then turned to the captain’s steward who was hovering nearby. “Tea, perhaps, Littler? Thank you.” She settled herself in her chair. “I believe it was productive though.”

  Euell grunted. “That Eades fellow’s taken himself aboard Impregnable and good riddance. Likely still abed, else he’d have had you sent directly aboard there the instant you transitioned.” He paused as Littler returned with Alexis’ tea. “They’ve finally filled us captains in on the whole of this plan. Hard to keep it a secret now we’ve seen so many transports gathered in one place. Were you successful in reaching that Hanoverese fleet?”