Brest and Mason thanked Sir Stymo and left the room.
“What do you think?” Brest asked.
“We did a good job. Old Stymo agrees. We’ll find out what the others think, I daresay, when we return.”
###
Brest was killed three days later in a water skiing accident. The driver of the boat that ran him down was never identified. A day later, Mason was killed by two men when he stopped to assist them with their vehicle, which appeared to have mechanical problems. The assailants were not identified. ImpSec reported that their investigations had failed to uncover any link in the two deaths. They did not address possible links to a recent report submitted by the representatives.
*****
Chapter 12
Steg spent most of his spare time on the starship’s bridge. It provided an environment in which he felt at ease. He was impressed by the obvious efficiency and professionalism of the bridge team. Weapons, as usual, had twelve people from her section’s full complement of forty, on shift, at their workstations, diligently focused on training exercises while maintaining a watch for other starships. The Systems team maintained the huge computing and communications environment, fielding ten people per shift. Engineering had most of their team in the engineering control section, amidships, typically with two or three on the bridge. The Astro team, smaller than either Systems or Weapons, with only four people per shift, was extremely proficient, and Steg spent a lot of time working with their star maps and multi-dimensional displays of space.
A large portion—there were still major gaps—of his tattered memories had returned, and he was aware of the extent of his experience as pilot on a variety of in-system craft and as an astronavigator. Sometimes he experienced peculiar sensations, which discomforted him; he would hear faint voices and very high frequency bursts, the latter sounding like high-speed data transfers. He did not mention these odd events to anyone, in case they thought he was delusional in some way.
Commander Joyce Gillespie, Wasp’s captain, encouraged his visits. She said it helped to break the monotony while she and her bridge officers guided the starship to the system next on Monty’s list. Gillespie was tall, of slim build, with light blue eyes. She wore her red hair tucked under her cap. In Steg’s assessment, she was a capable captain, and he’d been told she had more than twenty years of command experience. He thought her senior officers were equally capable.
“Why does Monty want us to visit Eo 3?” she asked Steg, almost rhetorically. It seemed the alien did not often share his preliminary strategic reasoning. “It’s not on a nexus, and we’re not a destroyer. We don’t want to use the juice to jump directly, and it’s taking us too long to get there.” Wasp was designed, configured and sized as a frigate, and the starship was fast and well-armed; while it had power to drill its own s-t jumps, generally that was reserved for longer transits or in the case of emergencies when the energy cost would be offset by the starship’s survival.
“He said a conflict’s building on the main planet; you’ll see it’s on the charts as Eo 3d. The locals call it Eos. You, know, I continue to be surprised at the scope of his intelligence gathering. It seems pirates are smuggling arms and military equipment to a rebel force on Eos. Monty expects the legitimate government will be amenable to an assignment with our mercenaries. There’s likely to be a starship engagement, too,” Steg said.
“Oh. So he talks to you?”
“Sometimes. Enough to keep me interested, I think.”
Colonel Attwood joined them on the bridge. “Steg, Monty said you were here, wasting everyone’s time. His words, I hasten to add. Commander, we’ve a planning meeting this evening. I’d like you and your senior officers to join us. Steg, you, too. Main conference room. Twenty-two hundred. Suffering from long distance boredom, huh?” He did not wait for any acknowledgments and turned away and left the bridge.
“So we’ll hear what our cephalopod friend’s planning?” Gillespie mused.
“Yes, I believe so. I’d better stop wasting your time, too. I need to see how the armorers are progressing with my order. I can’t deploy my company without exo-armor.” In Steg’s opinion, the sooner his men were issued with the same type of armor used by Attwood’s marines, the better it would be for their training and potential for survival in any engagement. The skeletal structure of the exo-armor provided additional strength and endurance, and its shields protected the wearer against most projectile weapons, shrapnel, and radiation. It also provided protection in space vacuum, providing the wearer with an oxygen-rich atmosphere for up to twenty-four hours.
###
Wasp’s officers, consisting of Commander Gillespie, the lead Astrogator, Chief Engineer, Weapons, and Systems leads, were already seated around the oval table when Steg arrived. He was almost immediately followed by the mercenary officers including Colonel Attwood, Captain Dean, Major Fowler, and other captains and lieutenants whom he scarcely knew. He counted—there were twenty attendees.
Attwood called the meeting to order. “Everyone, thank you for attending. Monty produced an outline proposal for discussion. Monty?”
“Good evening, all.” Monty’s baritone was accompanied by his image on a large viewscreen located at the end of the table. “As some of you know, we’re heading to the Eo 3 system, or to be more precise, to Eo 3d, known as Eos, which is the inhabited planet of the system. It was first occupied by a humanoid species—probably Terrans—about five hundred years ago. The settlement’s been successful with agriculture, manufacturing, and export trade, the population’s now close to one billion, and the planet is wealthy. This wealth has given rise to their current problems.
“There’s a small group of violent political dissenters on the planet who want to overthrow the current democracy and install their own form of government. They want to impose a dictatorship, benevolent, of course, at least to them. These dissenters, rebels I suppose, are about to receive a shipment of heavy arms, more than enough for them to overwhelm local defense forces. They’ve arranged purchase and delivery with pirates who have their own objectives for the planet. I suspect, based on data I’ve accessed, when the rebels and legitimate government are engaged in mutual destruction, the pirates will step in. Once they’ve achieved control, they’ll strip the planet of its wealth, and given its location, use it as a base or supply point for their operations in the region. Questions?” The alien paused, allowing for reactions from his audience.
He continued when no one spoke. “The freighter is on its way to Eos with its load of arms. It has an escort, three small corvette-sized starships. I suggest the following for consideration. Option one: we capture the freighter and its contents. I estimate we can recover five billion standard credits on the open market at Sicca or Tacia, and our costs would be two billion, assuming we’re able to drive off the pirates without expending too much ammunition. A net of three billion. We need a contract with the planetary authorities to make it legal, otherwise we’re the pirates.
“Option two: we negotiate for a dirt-side action against the rebels and combine it with the freighter contract. The gross to us—both contracts—would be close to ten billion. Deducting our costs, the return’ll be six billion. Option three, and the last option, is to add defeat and capture of the pirates. The probability is high that they’ll defend the freighter anyway, so an action against them is likely to be inevitable. Additional cost of eliminating the pirates is one billion, covering missiles, power consumption and repairs. We may be able to salvage one or more of the pirate starships.”
“What’s the likelihood of a contract with the local authorities? For either the ship, or the ship and the rebels?” Fowler asked.
“Major, I sent a message to the Eos Minister of defense, and he replied yesterday. The government has no significant military starship resources. They’ve local asteroid mining craft, some shuttles, two or three light frigates, and a small space station supporting modest inter-system trading operations. They’re exposed. Their decision making process
is lethargic—it lacks urgency. However, this local group of rebels is becoming more open and aggressive in their attacks. When I provided a copy of the freighter’s manifest and asked if they wanted those arms in the hands of these people, their reaction was almost immediate. I forwarded a letter of undertaking for their acceptance, authorizing us to capture the freighter and its contents. I expect their reply tomorrow. The contract gives us authority to act as customs inspectors with rights of forfeiture. We get the freighter and its contents, if they are in breach of local customs laws. If we manage to capture the freighter, I expect the planet-side contract will follow.”
“What details do you have of the pirate ships, their crew, tonnage, military supplies, and so forth?” Colonel Attwood asked.
“I prepared a summary. If you open your pads and access the top file, you’ll see the first page summarizes the pirate force. Please read and when you’ve finished, we can discuss the details, and I’ll try to answer questions.”
Steg opened the file and perused the summary details. There was something vaguely familiar about the description of the pirate starships and their configuration. He wondered if he’d encountered them or some similar force before he was injured. He closed his eyes. A synapse triggered, joining others, and another tatter of broken memory surfaced.
“Monty, I’ve some additional information,” Steg said. “I recognize these starships. The pirates are non-humanoid. They’re called Xesset, and I believe they’re a hive-like civilization. Their starships are small and exceptionally fast. If they think they’re losing a battle, they’ll trigger self-destruct mechanisms without consideration of the crew’s survival, to prevent their vessel falling into non-Xesset hands. They’re aggressive and effective fighters. If they take over the planet, those whom they don’t kill, they’ll enslave.”
Everyone was silent, even Monty. After a long moment of consideration, the alien spoke. “You’ve had experience with these Xesset?”
“Yes, I believe so. The details in your briefing file triggered a memory link. I recall engaging with a team of Imperial Special Forces to help capture a Xesset ship. It was almost a disaster. We managed to board the target and took over the engine room. Our destroyer was unable to keep pace. We disabled the destruct device and stopped the drives, so the destroyer could catch up. We had a major battle on our hands. We won.” Everyone around the table stared at Steg, intrigued by the brief details.
“Steg, meet with me after this. I want details, everything you can remember,” Monty said.
“I’ll do what I can, of course. I think Xesset are from way out the other side of the Rim.”
“Does this alter any of your strategy, Monty?” Colonel Attwood asked.
“The basic outline stands. How we handle the pirates requires reconsideration.”
“Please address those details. I like the idea of capturing the freighter and its cargo, plus of course, the ground effort. I want to know how to cope with these aliens.”
“I agree.”
“Steg will meet with you after we conclude this meeting. Review his data. Let’s meet again tomorrow, same time. I want a plan to defeat these Xesset.” The colonel looked around the table. “Any other questions?” Heads shook. “Good. Meeting ended. Steg, go visit with Monty.”
###
Steg spent an hour sitting in front of the huge glass window as Monty drilled into Steg’s recollections, asking question after question and repeating the process with variations of each question. The process was both physically and mentally draining, and his shirt was soaked with perspiration by the time Monty decided he had extracted everything of value from Steg’s memories of the aliens.
“Steg, your information is invaluable,” Monty said. “I’ll change my strategy—it might’ve been disastrous for us, if we’d tried to capture the Xesset, without knowing more of their tactics. If you can recall anything else, for example, how you disarmed the self-destruct device, please let me know as soon as you can.”
Steg sat back in his chair. He had exhausted every thread of his current memories and repeated and repeated the details for Monty. It had been an intense interrogation. He did not know, did not yet recall, all of his own actions on board the Xesset ship. There was a gap; he was missing a key item of data, and it worried him. He had recalled and described in detail the Special Forces strategy, their shuttle ride and entry into the alien starship, their battle with the crew, and their successful capture of the alien ship, over and over. He had described his impressions of evil, of his awareness of an immense threat to Imperial, Alliance, and other regions of civilization posed by the aliens, but was unable to describe why he had those feelings.
“Xesset are dangerous,” he had concluded. “They’ve no compunction, no inhibitions against killing non-Xesset, no concept of our morality. We were unable to communicate with them—we had no common terms. I believe we must destroy their starships without attempting to capture them.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” Monty said. “We can put our stealth shields to good use. Wasp’s been modified using some of our, let’s say, combined cephalopod, Terran and other alien technology, and while the energy demands are high, the shields are extremely effective. We’ve been within ten thousand klicks of an Imperial destroyer while it was engaged in search mode, and they didn’t detect us. Point is, we can get close, drop shields, and fire our weapons. We can raise our shields and move away—we’ll be difficult to track. If I’m correct, we’ll be invisible to them while we’re shielded. Their targeting will be based on guesswork. We have missiles, grasers, and rail guns. We’ll use the rail guns to destroy the pirates if we think we can’t capture them.”
Monty later presented his modified strategy to Colonel Attwood and the combined command team. It reflected changes arising from Steg’s recollections of the Xesset, of their fighting abilities, and of their starships.
“I’ve an improved risk assessment, based on information from Captain de Coeur. In basic terms,” Monty said. “We must obtain a contract to eliminate the starships escorting the freighter. It’s the most critical task. Worst-case scenario is if Xesset are crewing the freighter and decide to blow it up rather than allow it to be captured. The risks are higher, far higher, than my first assessment.”
“Are you confident de Coeur’s data is accurate?” Major Fowler challenged.
“Yes. I’ve confirmed it using a number of sources. His information provides a keystone; it holds the rest of my data together, supporting and completing it.”
“So, do we still want to do this?” The speaker was one of the other mercenary captains.
“The return is high. We can increase our fees, based on this new data. The Eos government will understand the risks posed by Xesset occupation when I hand over this additional information.”
“Very well. Monty, you’re charged with finalizing negotiations with the authorities. Aim for a complete package. We want authorization to destroy the pirates, capture the freighter, and to take out the terrorists on the planet,” Colonel Attwood said. “While we want the best price, we can’t let these aliens take control of a populated planet, if we can stop them. The probability is, if we travel anywhere near the freighter, based on Steg’s information, they’ll attack us. We’d be entitled to defend ourselves.”
Steg met with the colonel after the strategy session to determine how he and his new, as yet untried, force would assist with the proposed attacks.
“I’ve a concern, Colonel,” he said. “We’ve had these men for less than two months. They’re fit and we’ve been providing combat training. They’re equipped with exo-armor. Some are experienced; some aren’t. They all have potential. However, I’ve no idea how they’ll react in battle conditions.”
“Hmm. I’ve made the same assessment. My suggestion: we hold your unit in reserve and use it if we need to support an assault on the freighter. Later, I’m sure we can deploy your men against inexperienced rebels on Eos. We’ll have opportunities to assess your company’s abilities
, after which we can better plan its future utilization.”
“Yes, sir, I agree.”
“Very well, that’s how we’ll do it. Commander Gillespie estimates we’ll be on station, ready to deal with the freighter, in fifteen days, so you have time for more training. Good luck.”
*****
Chapter 13
The next week passed rapidly, with training exercises taking every spare minute of each day. Steg participated in all the sessions, pushing his sergeants who, in turn, drove the men in the small mercenary company. They all tried to outdo their captain, which gave Steg an extra edge of motivation. He arranged for some of Wasp’s crew to build a mock-up of the freighter’s bridge in one of the empty bays using plans provided by Monty. He split his men into two groups, one attacking and one defending the mock-up. He switched their roles, again and again, until everyone was exhausted. At the end of the week, he was far more confident about the capabilities of his small force. Of course, there were no guarantees—the bridge on the freighter might be completely different or his company could be ordered to attack or defend the freighter’s engineering control room or be held in reserve and not see any action.
“What do you think, Kirby?” Steg wiped perspiration from his face.
“Very good, sir. The men are familiar with their exo-armor, and they’re learning to work together. When they’re under fire from a real enemy, they’ll either fall to pieces or perform as a unit. There’s only one way to find out.”
“You are a sad man, Sergeant, a sad man.”
“Yes, sir. I’m not paid to be happy.”
“Let’s see what happens with this venture. If we see action, and we’re successful, you’ll get a bonus.”
“Yes, sir.” The sergeant maintained his morose expression.
Fracture Lines (The Glass Complex Book 2) Page 8
