After the Crown

by K. B. Wagers

  Rai skidded to a stop at the same time, and narrowly missed being shot in the head. “Thirteen—” He peeked around the corner again and fired back. “Make that ten Marines camped out in the crossroads up ahead.”

  “Here,” Ragini said, slapping her hand to a door panel. It slid open and we rushed inside. “There’s another service tunnel there.” She pointed at the bulkhead on the far wall.

  “I need to broadcast, Emmory. How much time do we have?”

  “Now?” He looked around. “Five minutes, maybe. Less if they figure out which room we ducked into.”

  “They can’t blow the station up if the news gets out,” I said. “The Solarians would tear them apart for such a blatant violation.”

  “That will bring us a lot of comfort when we’re little pieces of debris,” Hao said.

  “Politics,” I replied. “They won’t do it. They can’t.” The station shook again and Emmory grabbed me. “Plus if we’re headed for the planet I want the people on Major to know we’re here. It might give us the edge we need.”

  “Okay.” Emmory nodded. “I need the communications back up to be able to broadcast it.”

  “No problem, sir,” Yama said. “Just say the word.”

  “Get that bulkhead hatch open. Cas, I want you, Iza, and Kisah on the door. Get anything that’s not too difficult to move in front of it.”

  Rai was already knocking a table loose from its floor mountings and with Johar’s help they wrestled it across the room toward the door.

  I ran my hands through my hair and straightened my stained top as best as I could. I gave Emmory a nod, cleared my throat, and waited for his signal.

  “We’re on, Majesty.”

  “Citizens of Indrana, people of Canafey. You may have heard that I died.” I smiled. “It is obviously not the truth but a lie set forth by Prime Minister Phanin to take control of my empire. I am here on Darshan Station in the Canafey system, where we have successfully liberated the Vajrayana ships from the Saxons illegally occupying our territory.

  “My citizens on the ground, rise up! Take back your homes, your cities, your planets. We are here to support you and to protect you. We ask only that you do the same for us. Spread this message.

  “The Saxon Alliance has broken the treaty and Indrana is at war. Within and without, it makes no difference. We will prevail.”

  Emmory nodded. “Recorded and sending. I’m beaming a copy directly to the Solarian consulate on Major. Let’s hope it does some good.” He gave me a less-than-gentle shove toward the hatch. “Move, Majesty. We need to get out of here.”

  This time Emmory didn’t let me make sure everyone else went first, and I dove into the tunnel after Nakula. We crawled through the maze for what seemed like an eternity but was only about ten minutes by the clock on my smati. I checked the countdown I’d started. We were still forty minutes or more from the arrival of Admiral Hassan’s fleet and I didn’t know how much longer the station defenses could hold up.

  “Shields are down to sixty-seven percent, ma’am.” As if she’d read my mind, Yama greeted me with the update when I boosted myself up out of the hatch.

  “They’re not even hammering at us with all their firepower,” Nakula said. He put a hand on my arm and squeezed.

  “Maybe the marshal is still hoping I’ll surrender?” I tried for a reassuring smile and, judging by the look he gave me, failed.

  “Ragini has the ship online. Life-support systems are holding steady, but she says there will be suits in the docking area we can grab on our way by just in case things go sideways.”

  “Where are we?” I held out a hand to Zin and hauled him from the hatch.

  “Storage room, Majesty,” Ragini answered. “About forty meters from where V23 is docked. The way is clear.”

  Hasa muttered a curse. “I’m about to get shut out of the communications system. When that happens they’ll be able to pinpoint our location.”

  “We’d better move then.” I turned back to the hatch to make sure everyone was through, but Ragini’s sudden gasp stopped me.

  “Holy Shiva!”

  37

  What?” Emmory and I demanded at the same moment.

  “I’m showing warp signatures, ma’am—twenty-three of them, with more coming through.” The grin spreading across her face told me what I needed to know.

  “I didn’t think Inana could get the ships up to speed that fast,” I said, but Emmory was already shaking his head.

  “She doesn’t have the Vajrayana ships with her, ma’am. It’s just her fleet.”

  “What is she doing? She’s going to get herself killed. I told her to wait.”

  “I think she disobeyed you, Majesty.” Emmory’s voice didn’t betray the slightest hint of amusement, but I shot him the Look anyway.

  “All firing on the station has ceased, ma’am,” Yama reported.

  “We still need to move,” Emmory said, taking me by the arm. “Hasa, are you locked out yet?”

  “Not yet, sir.”

  “Can you hold them off until we get to the ship?”

  “We’ve got them chasing their tails for about a minute, Emmory,” Hao replied. “If we go now, we might make it.”

  Indula opened the door, checked the corridor, and stepped aside so Cas and Kisah and Johar could take point. We sprinted down the vacant dock, feet pounding on the metal surface, the sound echoing up and bouncing back at us off the walls.

  A massive Saxon stepped out of a doorway. Johar didn’t slow. She flew through the air, kicking the man in the chest and knocking him back a step.

  He caught her fist before it could connect and twisted, sending Johar spinning toward the wall. She continued her roll, but he came after her like the interplanetary trains of the Kyoto system.

  I couldn’t stop the inhale when his massive foot narrowly missed her head. Rai chuckled and I punched him in the arm.

  Johar rolled backward, her own foot shooting out and up into her opponent’s chin. There wasn’t enough power to knock him out, but it was enough to stun him and buy her the time to get on her feet again.

  She didn’t wait for him to finish shaking his head to clear it and moved in, landing several vicious punches to his solar plexus and right kidney before he backhanded her and sent her staggering back several paces.

  With a roar, the man rushed at Johar. She pivoted out of the way, almost avoiding his gigantic paw, but he grabbed her and pulled her into a back-breaking hold.

  “I don’t have a shot,” Emmory said.

  “She’s fine,” Rai replied. “Give her a moment.”

  Johar grinned, blood streaming down her face from the cut above her right eye. She dropped to the deck, flipping him over her head and breaking his hold.

  Johar lunged at the Saxon as he scrambled to his feet, punching him once in the head. As he turned to defend himself, she snapped a long leg out in a brutal kick that caught him right at the line of his jaw and his neck. Her opponent hit the floor hard, silence echoing at the sudden end to the fight.

  Johar dusted off her hands and jerked her head. “Let’s go.”

  Our trio of techs had the airlock open before the rest of us had reached the ship, and Hao shook his head at me before I could join them. “Let us go first,” he said and closed the door.

  “We’ve got to be on their scanners by now.” I gripped my gun, my ears straining to hear the approaching sound of boots.

  Rai put a hand on my shoulder and smiled. “Not quite yet. Johar and I had a little trick up our sleeves. I’ve never tried to mask so many people with this cloaking device, but it seems to be working so far.”

  The airlock cycled open again, and the rest of us piled in, except for Rai and Johar, who set about collecting environmental suits from the nearby lockers.

  “The bridge?” I asked as soon as the airlock opened into V23.

  “This way,” Hao said, and I followed him down the corridor with Emmory and Gita on my heels.

  The Vajrayana ships hadn’t deviat
ed from the basic design of the Indranan fleet, so we walked down corridors with the same rounded white walls and grated floor. But everywhere the half-finished—or half-torn-apart—state of the ship was evident.

  Wires hung from the ceiling and large sections of the bulkhead were stripped away. When we got to the bridge most of the terminals were still covered in protective plastic, with a few recently opened. Ragini sat at one terminal, her fellow techs huddled around her.

  “Shielding is up, Majesty,” she said. “They don’t know we’re in here, at least according to the chatter I’m picking up.”

  “Admiral Hassan? And can I sync my smati with the computers?”

  “She’s holding her own, ma’am. They disabled several Saxon ships with their surprise arrival.” Ragini’s fingers flew over the terminal screen. “I’m working on the com systems now to see if we can get in touch with the Vajra.”

  Hasa peeled off from the group and with Indula’s help removed the plastic sheeting from another terminal. A few minutes later, the positions of the various ships engaged in battle appeared in the air in front of us.

  “We’ve got ten more signals coming in from Minor,” she announced.

  “Bugger me.” I’d hoped that the ships from Minor would stay put, but it didn’t look like that was going to be the case.

  “Get me an ID on those,” Hao said, and the gunrunner grinned when Hasa read one of them off. “Those are ours. I figured Mel would want to come in from the other direction.” He looked at me. “If they can just get those damn ships up and running and back here, we’ll be okay.”

  I couldn’t dare let myself hope.

  “Two squads of Marines are headed down the dock in our direction. There’s no indication from the Saxon fleet that they know this ship is online, right?” Emmory leaned over Ragini’s other side.

  “None, sir.”

  I shared a look with Emmory as the rest of our group filed onto the bridge. Get moving or stay put? Neither option was great, but I’d never liked sitting still. “Ragini, how are the shields?”

  “One hundred percent, ma’am.”

  “Do we have flight controls?”

  “Yes, ma’am. And everything is automated, tied into the bridge computers. But if we take a hit and don’t have someone down in engineering or wherever a problem may develop, we’ll probably all die…” She offered an apologetic smile.

  “It’s a risk, but I’d rather get us out of this shipyard before someone realizes we’re here and starts taking shots at us. Is this the right one, Ragini? Emmory, help me with this.” At her nod I started pulling at the plastic on the terminal for the flight controls. Once we got it cleared off, I sat down.

  “Majesty?”

  “What?”

  “Have you ever flown a capital ship?”

  “No,” I said. “I’m a very good pilot. How hard can it be?”

  “Perhaps someone else should…” Emmory looked around the bridge.

  Hao laughed and held his hands up. “She really is a better pilot than I am.”

  “Uncoupling from the dock,” Yama said. “You’re cleared to maneuver, Majesty.”

  “Hold on to something,” I said, and hit the thrusters. V23 came loose from the dock as smoothly as an Indranan dolphin slicing through the water. The sleek ship responded instantly to the slightest correction and I felt the slight tug as the internal dampeners kicked on when we hit full drive power.

  “I’ve got communications up, Majesty. You can sync up now.”

  I started the process as I punched in the coordinates for the nearest Indranan vessel. Emmory issued orders behind me, but I only paid partial attention as Nakula and three others left the bridge.

  “Majesty, I’ve hailed the Vajra, and they’re responding; should I put them through?”

  “Yes.”

  Admiral Hassan’s face appeared on the screen.

  “Inana, what in the fires of Naraka do you think you’re doing? Where are the Vajrayana ships?”

  “We got your message about the 17th Fleet, and when you didn’t return with the ships I figured something went wrong. I thought it was best to run some interference while they got the other ships up and running. What are you doing, ma’am? You’re supposed to be on a ship back at the safety of the rendezvous point.”

  “We had some problems with our transportation. It blew up.” I shrugged and grinned at her. “We’re managing. This ship is pretty but her legs are short.”

  “I’m sending two ships your way to defend you. I want you to stay out of the battle, Majesty.” Admiral Hassan gripped the arms of her chair as the Vajra shook and alarms started going off. “I’ll see you after.”

  “You’d better,” I said, and cut the link.

  “Two ships headed our way, Majesty,” Hasa said. “The Moksha and the Devaki; they’re both Sarama-class ships. Looks like they’ve picked up some tagalongs.”

  “Can we fire the weapons on this bucket?”

  “Not yet, ma’am,” Emmory replied. “Nakula and Kisah are working on it.”

  I shot him a grateful smile. “Remind me to buy everyone a drink when this is over.”

  “Ma’am, the Devaki is hailing us.”

  “Put them on screen.”

  “Your Majesty, Captain Ellie Skel here. Admiral Hassan instructed us to cover you. Can you warp out?”

  “I don’t trust this thing to hold together, Captain. We’ve got everything else at our disposal though,” I said after a glance in Yama’s direction. The tech was shaking her head with a resigned look on her face. “We’ve got shields, and we’re trying to get weapons back up. You’ve got company on your tail. Go take care of them, we’ll hang back.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” She gave me a sharp nod and the com link went back to the scanner overview.

  “Ragini, link us in to the main command channel on Admiral Hassan’s ship.”

  Status reports began to flow down the side of the main screen, and the verbal reports from the ships in the fleet filled the air. I kept one eye on the fight going on between the two battlecruisers and the five Saxon destroyers while I tried to take in the chaotic dogfight going on with the main group.

  The countdown in the corner of my vision courtesy of my smati showed we still had seventeen minutes until the Vajrayana ships would reemerge from warp. And that was if they didn’t have any problems bringing the ships fully online.

  “We’re seeing heavy fire on the planet side.”

  “Shields down to seventy-three percent.”

  “This is the Alix, I’ve lost main firing controls.”

  “Alix, fall back to the Devaki’s position in the rear guard.”

  “Hull breach! Warp drive containment failing. Abandon ship!”

  Light flared on the screen and I sucked in a breath as the Alix blew apart, the explosion engulfing several of the Saxon ships that were swarming it.

  “Mother Destroyer,” I whispered, pressing my hands to my lips, heart, and forehead.

  A second flare of light, this one much closer, went off as the side of one of the Saxon destroyers vented flame into space.

  “Shields down to twenty-two percent,” the Moksha reported. “I’ve got a hull breach, sectors eighteen and nineteen.”

  “Do we have anything yet?”

  “Majesty.” Nakula’s voice sounded in my ear as if he’d heard me. “We have limited firing capabilities. Not sure for how long, so you might want to use them while you’ve got them.”

  “Captain Skel, we have firing controls. Repeat, we have firing controls, how can we help?”

  “Roger that, V23, could use your help putting down that wounded destroyer.”

  “Hao, pour everything we’ve got at that dying ship.”

  “Won’t take that much,” he replied, tapping the screen in front of him. “Firing plasma beam.”

  The improved firepower of the Vajrayana ships obliterated the destroyer, and Hao turned his attention to the other four without pausing. Molten iron, propelled to ninety-five pe
rcent of light speed, cut through their shields, destroying a second ship before the final two turned tail and ran.

  “I like this ship,” Hao said.

  “You don’t get to keep it.” My laughter at his glare was cut short with Ragini’s cry.

  “Ma’am, Admiral Hassan’s ship has been hit!”

  The air rushed out of me, the crushing certainty of losing yet another person. “No…”

  “Shields are down. I can’t raise anyone on the bridge.”

  “Warp signals incoming.”

  I tensed, my timer still ticking away the minutes. We had more than ten left by my estimates.

  Forty-five bolts of lightning dropped out of warp just behind the main fleet, opening fire with amazing precision right into the heart of the battle.

  Several Saxon ships exploded, their light bright enough to be seen even without the scanners. Cheers and prayers echoed across the com lines for just a moment before returning to damage and casualty reports.

  “Captain Skel, who’s taken command of the fleet?”

  “Admiral Zellin has, ma’am, aboard the Helena.”

  “Put me through to her.”

  The bridge of the Helena Bristol was filled with smoke. Admiral Zellin had a cut by her hairline that was bleeding badly, but her eyes were clear. “Majesty,” she said, her exhale one of profound relief. “Fleet Marshal Kreskin just surrendered.”

  “Tell your ships to fall back; let the Vajrayana play cleanup. We’ll meet you back at Darshan Station. I want a status report within the hour.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Find Inana, please.”

  “We’ll do our best, ma’am. Admiral Fon is already on her way.”

  I rubbed my hand over my face with a muttered prayer for the crew of the Vajra. The loss of Admiral Hassan would hit us hard, not just emotionally but for the cause itself. She was our best strategist, the face of Home Fleet, and I—

  Stop thinking of her as dead. You don’t know if she is, idiot.

  I let Hao take over for the flight back to the station and took the stairs up to the observational deck. Emmory was a silent ghost on my heels.

  The damage to the station was mostly self-inflicted. Debris floated around the remains of the command center and on the bay where the Falki had been docked. I watched as several fast-moving shuttles docked at the shipyards and Royal Marines disembarked with guns at the ready.