The Iron Admiral: Deception

by Greta van Der Rol

  She swung around. A second man stood next to the door through which she’d entered, a taller, stronger looking man dressed in Fleet training clothes. Smiling slightly, he stepped toward her.

  “This is Sergeant Erascu,” said Werensa. “He’s one of our senior martial arts instructors. Now, I understand you have been training with Lieutenant Wong, in the techniques of the Takrit school.”

  “I’ve no idea what the school is.” Tensan was skilled at martial arts and he’d consented to train Allysha and the others once a week. “But yes, we train with Lieutenant Wong. Is there an issue with that?”

  “Not at all,” replied the humorless Werensa. “If you will spar with the sergeant, please?”

  Werensa stood by the wall, data sheet in hand, while Erascu faced her and made the slight bow that started a match. She responded, sizing up her opponent as she did so. She practiced Tensan’s routines twice a week with Todd Bristol. Erascu was a big, strong man, but not as big as Todd. This man would be more experienced, though, and faster. She adopted a defensive stance. His first move was probably a

  test of her speed and skill, a kick that she evaded easily. He followed with an open handed blow that she

  was able to duck beneath, always ending up facing him, ready for the next move. He smiled a little, acknowledging with the barest nod that she had done well. She fought the urge to relax; they had barely started.

  For the next half hour, Erascu pushed her to the edge of her ability and training. He teased out every defensive move she knew and forced her to improvise. She backed away but he followed, pressing her, trying to get her to panic. Werensa made no move to end the bout, even though Allysha was so clearly outclassed. Several times Erascu struck her and it hurt, but even then, Werensa simply watched, expressionless. Was he going to wait until she was black and blue before he accepted she was out of her depth? The bout finally ended when the sergeant sent her flat on her face to the floor, his knee in her back so she couldn’t move. Panting, winded and exhausted, Allysha relaxed.

  “All right, Sergeant,” Werensa said. “That will do.”

  The knee shifted; she rolled over and sat up, heart pounding. She rested her head on her bent knees sucking in deep breaths. She poured water from a bottle Erascu offered her into her mouth and over her face.

  “You did quite well, considering your inexperience,” Werensa said. “You have balance and athleticism and you are able to use the moves you know. You know how to fall and how to recover. We’ll need to work on particular moves and teach you how to improvise so that your opponent cannot predict your next action.” He made a few more notes on the data sheet. “That will do for this evening. I will see you here tomorrow morning at oh-nine hundred.”

  Allysha brushed her fingers through hair lank and stringy with sweat. Thank goodness the session was short. Her arm hurt and her ribs. And her left thigh. She’d be bruised for sure. What she wanted now was a shower. She’d wash her hair, too.

  “Thank you, Chief Werensa.” She accompanied the words with the little bow that signaled the end of a class. She looked around to extend the same courtesy to Sergeant Erascu but he had disappeared. Oh well. She put on her training suit jacket and headed for the door.

  Outside the cool evening air felt pleasant on her heated skin. A slight breeze blew from the west, stirring the leaves in the trees that lined her route. She walked across the park toward her building, her feet crunching a little on the path. She caught a glimpse of a moon in the sky and stepped onto the grass to look, wondering which of the three was up tonight. Melkor or Illassar, she’d guess. She stepped back onto the path. Was that a rustle in the bushes? She gazed around but even her enhanced eyesight saw nothing unexpected. She shrugged. Either she’d imagined the sound or she’d disturbed some night creature. She walked on.

  Gravel crunched behind her. She tried to turn but one arm grabbed her around the waist, another clamped over her mouth, stifling the cry of surprise as he dragged her backwards toward the bushes.

  Allysha crumpled her legs under her to drop her weight, then she kicked herself back up with all her strength. He swore and teetered backwards. She twisted to break his grip and ran, eyes fixed on the path, toward the beckoning lights of her apartment building.

  She hadn’t covered a dozen paces when a second person caught her from the side. The outstretched arm winded her and swung her around. Before she could react, both of her arms were pulled tight behind

  her back.

  “Yell and I’ll break your arm,” he grated in her ear.

  The man forced her forward, into the bushes at the side. Allysha groaned, heart thudding. Another man waited, there in the darkness under the trees. Oh, no. Not again. And this time Chaka Saahren wasn’t here to help her. Fear clutched at her throat.

  ChapterSeven

  Breathe, stay calm and breathe. In… out… in… out. Wait for a chance.She sucked air into her heaving lungs and willed her heart to slow down.

  “Thank you gentlemen, that will do.”

  Her assailant released her immediately but stood close behind her. His companion hovered nearby.

  Weak with relief, Allysha rubbed her sore arms and tried to stop her legs from trembling.

  “Hmmm. Not very good at all, really,” the third man said. He stepped in front of her so she could see him.

  Chief Werensa. Now she looked at the two other men and saw the second one, the one who caught her, was Sergeant Erascu.

  “If you’ll come with me, ma’am,” Werensa said, “we’ll discuss what just happened and evaluate it.”

  She nodded and followed him, feeling foolish and at the same time angry. They’d tricked her, hurt her.

  She thought she was finished for the evening. It wasn’t fair.

  Werensa must have understood some of her emotion.

  “Believe me, real attackers would not have been so gentle or considerate,” he said as he led her back to the building she had just left.

  “Considerate? I thought he’d ripped my arms off.”

  “You will have some bruises, yes. But a real attacker could have killed you, assaulted you or abducted you,” Werensa answered calmly. “You had no real defense.”

  “I fought off the first one.”

  “He allowed you to escape.”

  Allowed? Oh, buckrats.

  Werensa took her to a different room, one with an HV, and told her to sit.

  “The first thing you must learn to do is look around you.” He turned on the HV. Allysha saw herself enter the training room where Werensa waited. Erascu leaned against the wall to the left of the door.

  “You did not see the man standing to your left because you focused your attention in front of you.

  Danger

  can come from any direction. If you enter a room, evaluate it, and continue to evaluate.”

  She flushed. “I know I tend to tunnel vision. It’s part of the reason I’m good at my job.”

  “It will not help you in a survival situation. If we now continue on, when you walked across the park.”

  She emerged from the building, heading for the pathway. “Notice here and here,” said Werensa, pointing to two different parts of the building’s façade. “This is Sergeant Erascu in the shadows of this doorway and over here is Corporal Essa, who emerges from the trees for a moment to follow you.”

  “I wasn’t expecting—”

  “You expect attackers to warn you? Carry a sign, give you a fair chance?”

  She shook her head. Buckrats, what an idiot she’d made of herself.

  “I am not training you for a bout where you earn a brightly colored belt,” he said. “I’m training you to survive. Based on what I’ve seen, that wouldn’t be for very long even against a fairly incompetent attacker. You must learn to be aware, to think quickly and react in such a way that you forestall the danger. The best defense to an attack is to prevent it from happening at all.”

  ****

  “A week is not long enough,” Werensa said, shaki
ng his head. “Not long enough at all. But…” He shrugged. “It is certainly better than nothing.”

  Allysha gave him a half grin. “I’d love to say it’s been fun, Chief, but it hasn’t. If it’s any consolation, I know I’m much, much better equipped to look after myself than I was last week.”

  Werensa humphed and Sergeant Erascu swallowed a grin while her attacker clambered to his feet.

  They’d set her one last test when she came back to the Fleet buildings. Allysha noticed the assailant as soon as she walked through the door and countered his attack, a final proof to Chief Werensa that she’d learned her lessons.

  “What must you remember?” Werensa barked.

  “APE. Assess, Plan, Execute.” Allysha said.

  Keep your eyes open, know where you are, notice the details, what you can use. Think about what you could do even if you don’t anticipate any problems. The canon was drilled into her over the week on isolated, beautiful Eastmark Island. Rugged, sea-sculpted cliffs rose from the ocean. Further inland, dense forest surrounded a lake. Allysha would have liked to explore but she never had an opportunity.

  She stayed in an apartment in a special training block where they could wake her at all hours of the night, test her in the forest, lock her in a dark room, and interrupt her meals. She was glad to board the shuttle that returned her to the Fleet complex. She didn’t envy the people who did a longer course.

  “Sergeant Erascu will see you home,” Werensa said. He didn’t say ‘dismissed’ but she knew his intention.

  Erascu picked up her bag before she could. She murmured her thanks as they left the room. “Buy you a drink?”

  “Sure. Why not?” She liked Erascu. He had trained her in martial arts, not only in self-defense but in modes of attack. She learned about pressure points and where to find them, how to exploit weaknesses, how to bring a man down with a well-aimed kick or the side of the hand. How to fight dirty, as Erascu himself had described it. Don’t worry about a fair fight; fight for your life.

  She paused in the doorway of the ‘Grenadiers’, an obviously popular watering hole in one of the Fleet accommodation towers, and looked around. Washrooms over to the left. Exit behind the bar. Glass doors leading outside. One man at a table by himself looked nervous or irritable. His eyes were on the door, not on her; probably waiting for someone. The place was well lit, noisy with conversation and laughter. The latest popular music played in the background. Glasses and bottles stood on tables, both options for weapons if needed.

  Erascu grinned at her and gave her a brief nod. Well done. He led her to a table in the corner. Several people called out a greeting, which he returned.

  “What can I get you?”

  “Oh, just a mineral water, I think.” She glanced around the room as he punched in the order. Most of the people were Fleet and in uniform. “No officers?”

  He shook his head. “We wouldn’t feel comfortable with any of them here.”

  No, she supposed not.

  A pretty attendant gave Erascu a smile when she delivered the drinks. When she’d gone, he raised his glass in salute. “You did well. Here’s to success.”

  “The Chief didn’t seem too impressed.”

  “Chief Werensa isn’t impressed with anybody’s performance, but that’s just his way. You did great, considering.”

  Considering. “Thanks.” She smiled and raised her glass.

  Erascu looked at her over the rim of his glass. “You know, I’ve never come across anybody as good at getting around in the dark as you. Or as good at finding sensors. Have you done those things before?”

  “I’ve spent quite a lot of time in caves and things, so the dark doesn’t worry me. And the sensors…

  well, I work with information systems. Just lucky, I guess.” And maybe a little help from the fact that her eyes had been modified so she could see in the dark and she could access data systems directly. But Saahren was the only one who knew that. She didn’t think he’d even told Vlad Leonov.

  “Well, they’re very useful bits of luck. Sure, you need to practice the physical stuff but that’s just practice.” He fiddled with his glass. “How come you did the course?”

  What to tell him? Grand Admiral Saahren said she had to? “Um. Vlad—my boss—thought it would be a good idea.”

  “Vlad…?”

  “Vlad Leonov.”

  Erascu’s eyes widened. “AdmiralVlad Leonov?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “You call him Vlad?”

  “Um. Yes. Look, I’m a civilian. All this rank stuff…” she waved a hand over the top of her head.

  Erascu eyed her. “Gee. I guess this place is a bit—”

  “This place is just fine. Have you been in the Fleet long?”

  He nodded. “Twelve years next month.”

  “Twelve years, I guess you like it.”

  “I do. It’s a great life if you work with a good team. I’ve worked with Chief Werensa for about three years. Before that, I served onProserpine .” He drank some more beer.

  Proserpine. Allysha’s hand tightened on her glass. “Wasn’t that one of the cruisers that hit Jossur?”

  “That’s right.” Erascu grinned. “The ship jumped into the system, blew away a toe rag battle ship and jumped out again. It was all over in a few minutes.” He arced his hand over the table to illustrate—in, attack, out.

  “Had you practiced before hand?”

  “Oh, yes. Endless blasted drills.” Still grinning he rolled his eyes. “We didn’t know why, of course. And troopers like me—we just watched while the weapon crews went through their paces. It all made sense later, of course.”

  “No planetary bombardment?”

  “At Jossur? No. We didn’t stop, the ship hardly slowed down. You could call it a fly-by shooting.” He laughed at his own joke.

  “What about the other ship?Intrepid ?”

  “Hey, I’m impressed. Not too many people know about the attack on Jossur, let alone the names of both ships.”

  “What didIntrepid do?” Allysha pressed, leaning at Erascu across the table. He looked a little startled.

  She backed off and forced a smile. “It was an interesting maneuver. Quite daring and unexpected, I’ve heard. I’m curious to know what it was like actually being there.”

  Erascu smiled. “Yep, daring and unexpected. That’s Grand Admiral Saahren. He is amazing. Best there is.” He drank some more beer. “Intrepiddid what we did—jumped in, blew away a target and jumped out again.”

  Allysha rotated her glass between her hands. No planetary bombardment. Back home on Carnessa, everyone believed the two Confederacy cruisers deliberately bombarded the planet from space. Her father had died there, collateral damage in a war that wasn’t his concern. Saahren had told her he hadn’t ordered a planetary bombardment but she didn’t believe him. Maybe Erascu was mistaken. After all he was just a trooper; he said so himself.

  “We had a kind of competition going betweenProserpine andIntrepid while we were practicing. You know what I mean? Who’d get the first kill, who’d get out first? Ended up, there was nothing much in it.

  ButProserpine won. The captain announced the results when we finished training.” He said the words proudly.

  She chewed at her lip. “You know, the ptorix version of the story is that the planet was bombarded.”

  He waved the remark away. “Didn’t happen. I don’t know how anyone could believe that. We found out later the battleshipProserpine blew away crashed into their orbital space station and they both came down on the planet. Sounds right to me.” He shrugged. “Anyway, all you have to do is look at our logs of when we exited shift space and when we went in again. No time to achieve orbit, let alone bombard anything.”

  “Can you be certain?”

  “About that, yes. See, when you come out of shift space and go into orbit, the ship has to slow down a lot or it’ll overshoot. Troopers get a feel for it. You go into orbit, soon you’ll be in action. She hardly slowed down a
t all, just like in the drills.”

  “What made this maneuver so different?”

  “The timing and the pin point accuracy. We transferred in very close to the target. They don’t usually do that because if you make any sort of mistake…” He lifted his shoulders. “And then the shot had to be just

  so or we would’ve missed.”

  She nodded. Everything Erascu said meshed with what Saahren had told her. Damn it. Always assuming that he hadn’t planned that the crippled warship would hit the space station. She supposed that was possible.

  He finished his drink. “Another one?”

  “Er… no. I’d better go. I’ve got work tomorrow and it’d be nice to get some uninterrupted sleep.”

  He smiled in sympathy. He would have known almost as well as Allysha how many times her sleep was interrupted during the past week. “True enough. Come on, then.”

  Carrying Allysha’s bag, he maneuvered his way between tables. The bar was even busier and louder as more people came in after work. Somewhere under the chatter, a popular song struggled to be heard.

  As

  they passed one group a fellow sergeant called out to Erascu. “Hey, Ras. Introduce us to your girl.”

  Erascu smiled and shook his head. “Not now.”

  “I’d like to ask you out,” he said as they walked through the park. “But I get the feeling you’re a bit beyond a mere sergeant.”

  “Hey, I’m just a techo.” Allysha liked him, he was nice. Saahren’s face materialized in her mind. What would he do if she hooked up with a new boyfriend? No, not a wise move, especially with someone as vulnerable to his wrath as Erascu would be. “But actually, I’m married.” She shrugged. “Sorry.”

  “Sure. I should’ve realized.” They walked on for a few moments in silence. “He’s a lucky man.”

  Huh. If Sean was a lucky man he had a strange way of showing it. Whereas Saahren was always gentle, always considerate, always attentive. Then again, maybe he’d change if she married him. Into the dark, vengeful being she’d seen at Lake Sylmander. She had feared him for a moment. And then she remembered a frightened kid watching his sister being raped. There was so much she didn’t know about this man.