And yet, after a long, torturous path, here she was. Captain in the Royal Navy, and sitting across the table from the man who’d bedded her one week and betrayed her the next.
“Well?” she snapped when she couldn’t wait any longer. “Are you going to keep pleasuring yourself with your charts, or are you going to tell me what this is all about?”
He looked up from the other end of the table in the war room. She glared at him. She’d dredged up old memories, and the anger she’d held onto for so long came out.
“I’ve got work to do,” she snapped, “a ship to repair, and a colonist fleet to lead. Meanwhile, there are five Scandian star wolves lurking in the system. What are we going to do about that?”
McGowan tapped his hand computer, and the chart shifted to show the smallest world of the Great Bear System. It was a burnt-orange planet orbiting the reddish-yellow star, which had been filtered to cool the intense light so that the planet could be visible. He expanded the view until its sun-scorched surface stretched across the screen.
“Moloch,” he said. “That’s what the Scandians call the planet. Not where you’d expect to find them. The surface is hot enough to melt lead.”
“You could melt lead on my forehead right now,” she said. “That’s how hot I am. You either tell me what this is about or I’m leaving.”
“HMS Forge,” he said. “The missing destroyer. We found it. It’s right there, hiding on the surface of Moloch.”
“So that’s it. You’re still going on about that?”
His tone turned peevish. “Yes, I’m still going on about it. It’s a Royal Navy warship. There are dozens of crew on board, and I’ve made a commitment to bring them back, no matter what the danger.”
“The fact that it’s your old ship has nothing to do with it?”
“The fact that it’s my old ship has plenty to do with it. It doubles my determination. The captain was my first mate, hand-selected by me. At least twenty other men and women on Forge served under my command. My duty is to bring them back. My loyalty says that I’ll risk my own life to make it happen.”
“Oh, yes, the always-loyal Captain Edward McGowan.” She let sarcasm drip from her voice.
“What is that supposed to mean?” he demanded.
“You know damn well what it means, you treacherous snake.”
McGowan’s eyes widened. “I’m the treacherous one? Oh, that’s rich. You gained my trust through lies and subterfuge.”
“I did nothing of the kind.”
“Really, Lady Catarina Richards of Tasmania? Where did that name come from? Fabricated in your own head, or stolen from someone you killed in a pirate raid?”
“My maternal grandmother, if you’d like to know.”
“Stolen whatever its origin.”
“What do you know about it?” she said. “You never bothered to ask, that’s for sure, or I might have explained. I was reclaiming the name and trying to reclaim my honor. I never asked to be a pirate’s daughter, and if you hadn’t turned on me, I would have never gone back to that lifestyle. I would have been as cultured and sophisticated as any woman in the McGowan family.”
He openly scoffed at this, his laughter so mocking it cut. “Listen, Vargus. You couldn’t have become a highborn lady any more than my sister’s golden retriever could turn himself into a fine hunting hound. You were born to that business. A pirate wench born to a pirate wench.”
She sprang to her feet and slammed her fist on the table. “You take that back!”
“I will not.”
The two of them glared at each other, Catarina standing, breathing heavily, and McGowan sitting, staring at her with a lizard-like gaze.
One of McGowan’s officers chimed in over the war room speaker. “Everything all right in there, Captain?”
“Fine, Harding. We’re discussing strategy, is all. Carry on.”
“Yes, sir.”
McGowan’s tone calmed as he turned back to Catarina. “Please, this arguing is unseemly. We have business to discuss.”
She eased into her seat, still fuming, but no longer feeling like she’d hurl herself over the table just to get her hands around his throat.
“I’ve found Forge,” he said, “and I mean to go after her. I don’t need your help. I don’t want it, in fact. But given the change in circumstances, I must give you new orders.”
“I have my orders from Admiral Drake. I don’t need you telling me what to do.”
“Think of it more as strategizing, in that case. You won’t have Peerless or my support vessels at your disposal. Naturally, this will change your approach to the target.”
“You’re proposing we divide our forces,” she said. It was not a question. “There are at least five star wolves still out there. We’re no match for them unless we stay together. Who even knows where they are?”
“We’ve put them to flight. They’ll pose no more threat.”
“Oh, yeah? And how, exactly, did you figure this out?”
“I didn’t bring the Singaporean war junk for its superior firepower. It’s their scanning tech I wanted. But of course you wouldn’t know about the wolves because you don’t have it installed on your ship.”
“Plus the fact that you don’t bother to share your data.”
He continued talking over her interruption. “My tech officers have tracked them down. The Scandians are on course to leave the system through a jump point a hundred million miles from your target and over two hundred million from mine.”
She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “I’m skeptical, but go on. So you go down to this rocky world and pick up Forge, while I make my way alone to the asteroid belt?”
“You will build your base here.”
McGowan manipulated the console until he found a cluster of asteroids, the largest of which was as big as a small moon. A planetoid, really, in size and shape. Six smaller asteroids circled in loose, elliptical orbits. They ranged in size from two to ten percent the mass of the large one.
“Spectral analysis shows heavy metals, rare earths, and fissionables. Your mines will have plenty of production, while there’s ample space to dig in and build your spaceyards.” He zoomed in on the smaller asteroids. “This one is spongy rock and ice—too bad, as it would be perfectly positioned for gun emplacements. But these two are adequate. This one here is well placed for a supply depot.”
Catarina listened grudgingly as he continued. The second largest asteroid in the cluster would make a fine secondary fortress to defend the first, and vice versa. She could dock her ships on either fortress. Youd mines could be placed along the approaches, and nearby objects not in the cluster could be nudged away so as not to provide cover for enemies.
“I was going to find my own target,” she said when he finished.
“Do you think you’ll find anything better?”
“But it wasn’t your decision. It was mine.”
“You’ve got an ego, Vargus. Considering your background, your arrogance is breathtaking.”
She’d deflated since her earlier outburst, and forced herself to wait three seconds before responding. He was looking for more reasons to deprecate her, and she wasn’t going to provide them.
“So come in with me, help me secure the terrain, then go after your destroyer.”
“That will take weeks. I need to rescue Forge now.”
“It has stayed hidden so far.”
“We have no information about her life support systems,” McGowan said. “I sent a message, but there was no specific response, only a general distress signal. They may not even be able to send one, depending on the nature of the damage. If things get desperate enough, they might try to lift off, and that will put them back in danger.”
“And you’re sure the star wolves are gone?”
“Positive.”
Catarina turned it over. On the one hand, dividing their forces was foolhardy, given the situation. On the other, if McGowan were a hundred million miles away, she could wo
rk in peace and quiet without him micromanaging her affairs.
Catarina sighed. “All right. I understand the plan. Let’s try to carry it out.”
Chapter Thirteen
Carvalho launched first. There was a slight, almost imperceptible movement as the falcon slid along the rail. A blur as the launch tube streaked past, then the void, the endless swath of bright, hard stars ahead of him. He took the stick and ignited the engines. The striker craft rolled away from the ship.
Behind him, the long, lethal shape of Void Queen. They’d come to a halt before approaching the asteroids, and only a cool blue glow from the battle cruiser’s engines showed that she was even active. The distant sun glinted off her deck, but left most of the ship in sharp lines of shadow. The light up top illuminated battle scars. Black streaks and blemishes where the enemy pummel guns had struck the armor. Carvalho liked the look. The scars gave her character. She needed a few more, though, before she’d look fully broken in.
Several other ships clustered near Void Queen. The most impressive of these was Vargus’s old frigate, Orient Tiger. A battered ship bristling with guns. After that, there was the warthog-like Pussycat and a mismatched collection of schooners, war junks, and Hroom sloops. Then, the looming barges. All the goods, supplies, arms, and gear, plus thousands of colonists in stasis. By the time they finished, these asteroids would be a bustling collection of mines, factories, and of course, a major military fortress and spaceyard.
A second falcon burst from Void Queen’s hull. The launch bay doors retracted at once, even as the second falcon fired its engine. It burned orange, not green like Carvalho’s engine. The second ship twisted a little as it stabilized, and cursing came across the com.
“Try not to wreck your striker a second time,” Carvalho said.
“Bite me, Carvalho,” came the retort. Greeves didn’t sound irritated, but playful. “You try flying this thing with the wrong engine strapped to your back. She isn’t behaving.”
“Is that going to be your excuse when you smash it up again?” He turned serious. “Is it a real problem?”
“Don’t know yet. There’s plenty of muscle—about what you’d expect from a spare torpedo boat engine stripped and repurposed. But the instruments don’t know how to read it, so they keep overcompensating with the stabilizers.”
“That’s why you’re out here and not Judkins. You can mess around with the handling, and we will give engineering the data. See what they can do.”
Greeves came wobbling up to him in little bursts until she sat off his starboard. She came so close that he could see her through the canopy, and she lifted a gloved hand to give him an ironic salute. He returned his middle finger.
“All right,” he said. “Keep your distance. My girlfriend is already jealous. Oh, and I want to keep my falcon in one piece.”
He thumbed the accelerator and zipped away from the other ship, which gave chase. Above them lay the outermost asteroid in the small cluster. It was roughly the shape of a potato, and no more than two hundred yards across, but Catarina had nevertheless decided to land one of her scrapers to dig an emplacement for a missile battery. Fortify it behind heavy bombproofs, and it could launch salvos before an enemy could approach the main fortresses.
The captain had given him instructions by audio, and he replayed them now.
“There’s a pair of rocky outcrops on either end of the asteroid,” Vargus said. “They both look adequate for my needs, but one is going to be better than the other. Approach and burn off any surface dust and ice so we can get a good scan. Take pictures when you’re done. That will help the engineers with their designs.”
That was the official mission for the two falcons. When he was done, he was supposed to take a couple of passes through the entire cluster of asteroids.
“Just to check things out,” Vargus had told him. “Oh, and you may as well take Greeves to run some tests on her new engine.”
The two small craft approached the asteroid. It didn’t look so small anymore, but a big, floating chunk of rock turning lazily in space. He spotted the first outcrop, which stuck out like an enormous stone nose. The light from the sun hit it directly, making it gleam.
“Hold here,” he said, “while I give it a good scrubbing.”
“You see that?” Greeves said.
“See what?”
“On the instruments just now. Is someone else out here?”
He studied his display. “No, nothing here. Are you sure?”
She hesitated. “I thought I was. Maybe not. Looked like another striker, but I don’t see anything now.”
Carvalho touched the stabilizer rockets and turned about to give his instruments a wide, slow view of their surroundings. Nothing else was showing up, but his suspicions had been roused.
“Hold here,” he said. “Don’t watch me. Keep an eye out for anything strange.”
He dipped away from Greeves toward the asteroid until he was only a quarter mile above the surface, where he hovered over the rocky outcrop. He launched explosives, which detonated as they hit. Frozen methane and CO2 vented into space, and he’d soon scoured the outcrop and its surroundings.
“Everything okay out there?” he asked Greeves over the com. “You see anything funny?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Guess it was a glitch. Something else for the boys to look over when I get back. Want me to clear the other outcrop?”
“No, I can take care of it. I am almost done here. Hold your position.”
“I should be testing the new engine, remember?”
“Plenty of time for that later. We will take a pass through the asteroids together.”
“All right,” she grumbled.
As the haze dissipated around the asteroid, Carvalho went in closer to collect data, mostly simple photographs, then hooked around the back side. It lay in complete shadow, so he worked by scans instead of visually. When he’d finished, he dropped a flare so he could get the pictures.
Something leaped from the surface. The movement was so rapid that his hand jerked the stick and thumbed the accelerator on pure reflex. His first thought was a star leviathan, which had been lurking in a dormant state, ready to snag passersby with one of its tentacles.
But as it shot past him, he caught a glimpse of engine flare. A small ship. Dammit. It darted toward the largest asteroid in the cluster, and Carvalho took off after it.
“What the devil—” Greeves started to say, then stopped. “I see it! On my way.”
The unknown craft was small, no more than half the size of his falcon, and its engines underpowered relative to his own. But it scattered his scans, and he couldn’t get a reading on what the thing looked like. Unmanned? Manned? Armed? Or just a probe? He’d have to get right on top of it to get a good look.
His falcon caught up with it seconds later, but it veered sharply before he could get a visual. He cut around to follow, but by the time he pulled in behind it, it was veering again. He almost lost it on his scans, even though it couldn’t have been more than a mile away. It darted toward the main asteroid in the cluster. The white, pockmarked surface loomed, but the small ship didn’t change course. The blasted thing was going to ram itself to destroy any evidence it might be carrying.
Or maybe just to lure its pursuer to his death by exploiting its greater maneuverability. When Carvalho guessed as much and started to pull up, the fleeing ship hooked away and made for deep space. Again, his sensors struggled to hold its location. The constant twisting and jerking of its course didn’t help matters.
“Got you!” Greeves said.
She had stayed on the outskirts while Carvalho darted in among the asteroids. She sliced in at an angle before the small ship could flee into deep space.
“Wait, hold up!” he said, but it was too late.
Greeves fired a burst from her pulse cannon. Streaks of light flashed out, directly in the path of the small craft. The ship veered to change direction, but Greeves had anticipated this, and her gun was already tar
geting its path. It flew into the line of her fire, and exploded. She whooped in triumph.
Carvalho grunted. “Good shot.”
“Don’t sound so excited,” she said sarcastically. “You wanted me to let it go?”
“No, but now we’ll never know. I was hoping to capture it and figure out who it belonged to.”
“Huh. Never occurred to me. Better dead than escaped, I figure. Anyway, we got plenty of data. I’m sure Smythe and Lomelí will be able to figure it out.”
Even as Carvalho pulled in beside Greeves, his com was shrieking with messages. Capp called from the bridge, demanding to know what had happened, and there were messages from the gunnery, the launch bay, and even three other ships in the fleet. They’d spotted the action, had seen Greeves firing her guns, and wanted answers.
Carvalho was irritated by the time he’d explained it for the fifth time. Vargus had better get that chain of command down in a hurry. It was too messy by far.
#
Sven looked grumpy as he appeared on the viewscreen. His curled lip and crumpled brow made Olafsen smile. Sven had never been one to hide his emotions. He still wore the bandage around his head from the injury he’d taken in the fight with the Albionish several days earlier—the bigger of the two cruisers had hit Thor’s Hammer hard enough to split the armor above the deck and knock through one of the bulwarks—but Olafsen didn’t think that was the cause of his half-brother’s irritation. What was one more scar but another battle trophy to impress the boys back home and bed voluptuous wenches who were impressed by such things?
“Are you angry because I was right?” Olafsen said. “Or did you eat raw meat for breakfast again?”
“Raw meat makes me feel better, not worse. Hardens the bones and toughens the muscles.”
Queen of the Void (The Void Queen Trilogy Book 1) Page 13
