“The judge’s actions were a disbarrable offense,” said Mazer. “But I don’t concern myself with the matter. My focus is the war, sir, the present. As for the evaluations by Rear Admiral Vaganov and others, I take great comfort in knowing that you, sir, are more than capable of making your own judgment of my character.”
“On that we agree,” said Dietrich. “But I doubt you’ll find any comfort in my judgment. You were brought here, Captain, to be an instructor to the marines here and a teacher to these boys. So far you’ve done neither.”
“No, sir. I am confined to quarters. By your orders, sir.”
“Yes. By my orders. And yet you left your quarters to have a secret meeting with Colonel Li. You violated my direct order. You broke military law. Don’t deny it. Because I have all the physical evidence in the world. You then proceeded to steal a service shuttle and take it on a joyride around this facility, without any authorization from me or the docking officer on duty. More broken laws. You then colluded with Colonel Li to orchestrate a coup in this facility and forcefully remove me from command.”
Mazer somehow kept his expression flat and avoided laughing. “With all due respect, sir, I think you’ve mischaracterized my interactions with Colonel Li.”
“Have I now? Then explain these items.” He produced the tablet and the data cube and anchored them to the holodesk.
“One of those items is a tablet, sir. The other is a data cube.”
“Don’t be a smartass,” said Dietrich. “I want to know what’s on them.”
“Those items belong to Colonel Li, sir. He loaned them to me so that I might assist him with a matter that’s classified. I’d recommend that you ask him for further clarification.”
Dietrich’s expression hardened. “Are you daring to tell me how to do my job, Mazer? Is that what they taught you in New Zealand? To disrespect your superiors by coaching them on their duties?”
“No, sir. I merely mean to suggest that this concern of yours can easily be resolved if you were to contact Colonel Li.”
“Your co-conspirator?”
“There is no conspiracy, sir.”
“Now you’re calling me a liar?”
“I’m merely suggesting that you have reached inaccurate conclusions.”
“This tablet and data cube are password-protected,” said Dietrich. “Tell me the passwords.”
“As I said, sir. The contents are classified.”
“You’re refusing to obey a lawful order?” said Colonel Dietrich.
“With all due respect, sir, the order is not lawful. The action you request is in fact unlawful. I can’t share classified information with anyone who does not hold the necessary clearance. If you have top-secret clearance, sir, I’m certain Colonel Li will be more than willing to share the information with you.”
“Colonel Li is not here,” said Dietrich. “I’m not speaking to Colonel Li. I’m speaking to you, an officer under my direct command. Are you refusing my lawful order?”
“With all due respect, Colonel Dietrich, your concerns are valid. I want nothing more than for you to access the intelligence. But that is not in my power to grant. Might I suggest that you consider asking a higher authority to intervene?”
“I am the higher authority! This is my space station, Captain. Mine. Anything within these walls is my responsibility. Colonel Li is a guest here, as are these boys. I tolerated them when they arrived. But I’ll be damned if I sit back and allow a traitor in our midst.”
Mazer stiffened. “Sir?”
“Did you think me a fool, Captain? In all the time Colonel Li has been here, do you know how many messages we’ve received for him at the helm? Zero. Not one. No emails. No memorandums. No letters from home. Nothing. I’ve got marines here who haven’t a friend in the world who get more mail than that damn colonel. Do you know why that is, Mazer?”
“No, sir, I don’t.”
“Don’t lie to me. You know as well as I do that Colonel Li has his own quad.”
“I don’t, in fact, know that, sir. I’ve never seen a quad, either on a ship or in Colonel Li’s possession. I have no idea what one looks like.”
“Well, he has one,” said Dietrich. “His own damn quad. I’m the commanding officer of the biggest training facility this side of Mars, and even I don’t have one.”
Mazer said nothing.
“So I began to investigate. I have contacts in the FIA, Mazer. That’s the Fleet Intelligence Agency, the intelligence arm of this military. I connected with my contacts there and asked them for a favor. Could they tell me about Colonel Li, who is obviously one of their agents? But lo and behold, I was informed that they don’t know who this man is. He’s certainly not one of ours, they told me. Not with his record. Big empty holes in his record in China. Very strange, very shady, they said. Tread lightly. This is a man with a past that he’s worked hard to conceal. So I’m going to ask you this only once. Fail to answer, and I’ll have you arrested. Who do you and Colonel Li work for?”
“Sir, you’ve been misinformed. I am a captain of the International Fleet. That’s my only association.”
“Don’t play stupid, Mazer. I’ve got three decades in the German navy. I’ve seen your type before. Maybe marital problems, bankruptcy, something not right in your life. And then you meet someone who tells you they can make all your problems go away. Give you all the money in the world. If you help them just a little bit.”
“With all due respect, sir—”
“Save your respect, Mazer. I’m not a fool. You’re an agent of the MSS. You and Li both.”
Mazer couldn’t help but smile then.
“You think this is funny, Mazer?”
“No, sir. You’ll forgive me. But … I’m just caught off guard here. I assure you, I am not Chinese intelligence.”
“And I’m to take you on your word?” said Colonel Dietrich. “When all the evidence suggests otherwise?”
“May I inquire what evidence you’re referring to, sir?”
“The only reason someone at CentCom would put a troublemaker like yourself at this school is because that someone at CentCom was looking for a troublemaker, someone who could disrupt operations from the inside, someone who could find fault with my command. That was your play with Vaganov as well, wasn’t it? To ruin him? To take his command for yourself? Your plan with Vaganov may have failed, but Colonel Li’s people clearly saw in you what they needed in an agent. So they made you a subordinate to Colonel Li, one of their most trusted agents. And they created this whole false school, filled with, surprise, Chinese nationals.”
“You think the boys are Chinese intelligence as well?”
“They’re up to something in their barracks, and you can be damn sure I’m going to find out what it is.”
“I’ll save you the trouble,” said Mazer. “They’re trying to win this war. Not for the Chinese, but for every living human alive, including you, sir, who suspects the worst of them. They are not Chinese intelligence. I am not Chinese intelligence. You may pursue whatever investigation of me you deem appropriate, sir, but I assure you, you’re wasting your time.”
“You’re done, Mazer. I’ve tolerated your lies and insubordination enough. You’re no longer confined to quarters. I think a cell would better serve you.”
He nodded to the lieutenant, who went outside and returned with the MPs, who each took Mazer by an arm and escorted him out into the corridor. Mazer did laugh, finally. A small amused release of exasperation. This was Vaganov all over again. Except Dietrich wasn’t unethical. He was simply ludicrously paranoid. How a man like that could rise to any level of command was baffling.
He wondered then if Colonel Dietrich would try to arrest Li as well. But no. Dietrich might be paranoid, but he wasn’t foolish enough to apprehend a fellow colonel without probable cause and an assurance from CentCom that Dietrich’s career would be safe if he made such a move. For the time being Li was fine. But with Mazer, Colonel Dietrich could take all the liberties in the world.<
br />
The MPs took Mazer to the brig, locked him in a cell with a thick glass front, and left him there.
The humor was out of him now. His amusement at the absurdity of it all had dried up. This is why the Hive Queen will win, he thought. She knows no division. Her soldiers are never petty, or spiteful, or selfish. They never fight for position or prominence or more bars on their shoulders. They obey. They learn their duty and then fulfill it without deviation.
There was no free will, perhaps. No self, no identity. But her strategy had its advantages, including the only one that mattered: a clear path to victory, with Earth as her prize.
CHAPTER 13
Rescue
Ansible transmission between the Hegemon Ukko Jukes and Polemarch Ishmerai Averbach. File #474750. Office of the Hegemony Sealed Archives, Imbrium, Luna, 2119
* * *
UKKO: You’re the military. You have the biggest guns. And yet you keep losing supply ships to thugs and pirates.
AVERBACH: Calling them thugs paints a false impression. These aren’t bumbling thieves. They’re highly sophisticated and well equipped.
UKKO: Yes, equipped with ships and tech that they stole from the Fleet.
AVERBACH: We’ve lined supply routes with escort vessels, but the Fleet is spread thin. We’re fighting two wars at once here, and I’m more concerned about the Formics and the possible annihilation of the human race than I am about a few emboldened criminals.
UKKO: Then allow me to give you a lesson in economics. Wars are won with coin. Ships and supplies are not made from thin air. They are bought and paid for by the free citizens of Earth, who pay heavy taxes to the Hegemony to sustain your efforts. How long do you think they’ll continue paying those taxes if they believe their precious money is being wasted on ships and supplies that never reach their destinations or engage the enemy? And how long do you think we can keep fighting once our war chest is empty?
AVERBACH: I can only do so much. I’m high above the ecliptic, leading an assault. Would you have me pull our ships out of the war effort to run down pirates?
UKKO: You got this job because you’re a brilliant strategist. Be creative.
* * *
Imala was cradling her newborn in the airlock and trying to ignore the pain in her abdomen when the final stage of the rescue operation commenced. The Gagak had reached the wrecked asteroid-mining ship deep in the Kuiper Belt and was now extending a docking tube toward the ship’s emergency escape hatch. From what Imala could see, the damage to the mining ship was catastrophic and beyond repair. Its thrusters were either mangled pieces of shredded metal or missing from the ship entirely, having been blown off by devastating firepower. Long scorch marks down the side of its hull from high-powered lasers had taken out solar panels and various scanners with deadly accuracy. The largest wound, however, was aft, where the structure of the ship had twisted and caved inward, suggesting a collision so violent that whoever had hit the ship could be accused of trying to break it in half. If pirates had indeed orchestrated the attack, they had done so with brutal savagery.
“Whoever hit that ship used military-grade weaponry,” said Captain Mangold. He stood beside Imala, along with Lieutenant Owanu and Rena, all of them watching the feeds from the exterior cameras projected on the wall inside the airlock.
“See here?” said Mangold, pointing to scorch marks along the ship’s exterior. “See how straight these cuts are? How accurately they hit all the scanning equipment? That’s not good shooting. That’s off-the-charts accurate, precision-guided shooting. Only IF targeting systems could have done that. No crew of two-bit pirates could have pulled it off.”
“What are you saying?” said Imala. “That the Fleet did this?”
“It wasn’t pirates,” said Mangold. “Or not any pirates I’ve ever seen. This is too good, too strong.”
“Then maybe these people are the pirates,” said Lieutenant Owanu. “Maybe they’re the bad guys. The Fleet tracked them down and took them out, and so they pretended to be miners and called for help.”
“If the Fleet had hit a pirate crew, they would’ve taken everyone into custody,” said Imala. “They wouldn’t have left people on the ship to die.”
Captain Mangold shrugged. “Maybe they did. Maybe the IF ship didn’t have capacity for so many prisoners. Or maybe they didn’t want the hassle of taking them into custody. Maybe that was too much trouble and too much paperwork. Maybe carting prisoners off to a holding station somewhere would have disrupted the IF ship’s plans or mission. Maybe they couldn’t spare the fuel. And rather than put a laser through the pirates’ heads, which no marine would have the stomach for, the IF ship destroyed the pirate vessel as much as they thought was necessary and then left them here to die.”
“No captain of the Fleet would do that,” said Imala.
“I would,” said Mangold. “If my superiors ordered it. Or if doing anything more than that might endanger my crew. This far out, this far from any outpost, you don’t take stupid risks. And going inside a scuttled ship to arrest a bunch of savage pirates would be a risk. They’re facing death or capture. You can be sure they would do all in their power to kill the marines and take the Fleet ship. It’s their last, desperate option. That’s a battle no Fleet captain wants to fight. It would be much easier to cripple the ship and move on.”
“I basically said all this before we came,” said Rena. “That this could be a pirate trick. Now you’re agreeing with me?”
“I’m saying what’s possible,” said Mangold, “based on this new intel. No one’s saying you didn’t warn us of this possibility.”
“We don’t know that they’re pirates,” said Imala. “We’re making assumptions based on the damage to the ship’s exterior.”
“I’m telling you,” said Mangold. “A Fleet ship did this damage.”
“That may be,” said Imala. “But it could’ve been a Fleet ship controlled by pirates. They’ve been hitting supply lines all over the Outer Rim. Maybe they’ve taken a Fleet ship or two in the process. We don’t know. What we do know is that these people who asked for help sounded legit. We checked their creds.”
Captain Mangold turned to Rena. “You’ve seen more pirate attacks than we have, Rena. Are we about to unleash a mob of pirates on our ship?”
“They claim to have children,” said Rena. “And we’ve told them to send up the children first. We have the marines ready, and we see what happens. We came here to help them. If they are legit and we deny them rescue now, we’re as monstrous as whoever hit them.”
A team of marines was waiting outside the airlock. Mangold ordered them to come in and take position.
Owanu frowned at Imala. “You should be in the clinic, Imala. You had a C-section and then did several Gs with a surgical wound. Plus you’ve got a baby in your arms. We can handle this.”
“I told her the same thing,” said Captain Mangold. “But she won’t listen to me, despite the fact that I’m her commanding officer and practically ordered her to stay in the clinic.”
“Practically ordered isn’t the same as ordered,” said Imala. “There’s a narrow loophole in there. But I’m getting out of the way.”
She carried Chee outside the airlock and watched from the corridor. The docking tube locked into place, and the buzzer announced that the seal between the two ships was secured and the tube was ready for use. That meant the airlock could remain open and pressurized, giving Imala a clear view of what happened inside.
Was this whole rescue a ruse? she wondered. Was she about to expose her newborn to murderous pirates?
“I want everyone on alert here,” said Captain Mangold.
The marines had their weapons up and were down on one knee in a firing position.
“If there are children, you’re going to terrify them,” said Rena.
“I’d rather do that than be shot,” said Mangold. “Sergeant, open the hatch.”
The marine nearest the control pad punched in the order, and the airlock exterior ha
tch hissed and slid open. The long docking tube was empty, and Imala couldn’t see beyond where it curved into the mining ship.
A moment later a child came into view, wide-eyed and haggard and dangerously thin. She flew up the docking tube and into the airlock, and Imala’s heart broke at the sight of her. The girl was maybe four years old, with an old, threadbare jumpsuit at least a full size too small. A child’s oxygen mask covered her mouth, and a supplemental tank of O2 was at her hip. The little girl looked at the marines and their weapons pointed at her and she seemed on the verge of tears.
“Put your weapons down,” said Rena.
Mangold nodded his agreement, and the marines lowered their guns.
Rena made herself small and approached the child at eye level, smiling. “Well, hello there. My name is Grandma Rena, and I am so happy to have you on our ship.”
The girl glanced back down the docking tube, perhaps regretting having left the people she knew behind. They had told her not to worry, that these people were good and kind, but the look on her face revealed she didn’t believe it.
“Don’t you have the most beautiful hair,” said Rena. “My goodness. I bet a girl with such beautiful hair will have a beautiful name to match it.”
The girl’s eyes wouldn’t stop moving. She looked to Captain Mangold, then to Lieutenant Owanu and the marines, as if she feared any one of them might attack at any moment. It was only when the child’s eyes fell upon Chee, wrapped in a blanket in Imala’s arms, that Imala saw a change in the girl’s expression. A subtle relaxing of the muscles. An easing of her fear.
That is the power of a baby, Imala thought. Its mere presence suggests peace and goodness and safety.
“I bet I can guess your name,” said Rena. “I bet your name is, hmm, let me see. I’m going to guess … Cattywampus. No, no. That can’t be right. Not Cattywampus. You look more like a Pumpernickle. Yes, that’s it. Your name is Pumpernickle. Oh, and judging by that smile I see I must have guessed right. Nice to meet you, Pumpernickle. Welcome aboard.”
The Hive Page 22
