Last of the Chosen (Spirit of Empire, Book One)

by Lawrence P White

  Ellie spoke for herself. “I’m fuzzy on the jump computations, but I can help with running the ship. That will free Mike up for navigation. Mike needs rest before we ask much more of him, though.”

  Mike was appalled. “You want me to do all this without George?” he demanded incredulously. “You must be crazy. I can’t navigate us all over the galaxy all by myself. That was never part of the plan.”

  “You can, and you will,” Otis stated firmly. “What other choice do you have?”

  Chapter Eleven: Struthers

  Jirdn approached Struthers hesitantly. “She did it again, Sire.”

  “Did what?” Struthers demanded, looking up from a challenging report.

  “She’s away from Earth, Sire. She made it past Admiral Shuge, Sire.”

  “You must be mistaken. She could not possibly evade a cruiser.”

  “She jumped, Sire. From very near the planet. We don’t know yet if she survived.”

  Struthers slammed his hand down on the desk. “Get me Juster,” he demanded.

  “He’s away, Sire.”

  “I know that,” he snarled. “Get him on the hypercom.”

  He was called to the communications room two hours later. “Is the hook-up complete?” he asked, looking suspiciously at the communicator in his hand.

  “It is, Sire.”

  “Okay, everyone get out,” he ordered. The room cleared quickly. “Struthers here,” he spoke into the handset with distaste. He hated these new contraptions.

  “Juster, Sire,” came the reply after a long delay.

  “Do you know what your sister is up to?” he yelled into the handset.

  Another long delay. “No, Sire, I do not.”

  “Well, she got away from Dorwall, holed up on an emerging world for a few months, and now she’s out in space somewhere.”

  “How many ships does she have?” came back the distant reply.

  “Just herself, and we don’t know how she’s doing it. Bross is testing a Guardian.”

  “That must be it, Sire. Not to worry. Brodor is part of the plan. We’ll take care of the cats, it will just take a while. Her ship has a tracker. We’ll find her.”

  “I don’t trust these new contraptions. You know that. I deal in people. Who will she go to?”

  A long silence ensued. When Juster’s voice returned, he spoke confidently. “She’ll come to Triton, Sire.”

  “Not if she knows what’s happened here. She’s outsmarted us twice. We absolutely have to deal with her. We can’t take any chances. I want to have our men ready wherever she’s most likely to show up. Give me some names.”

  “If she doesn’t come to Triton, she’ll go to Uncle Sterl at Gamma VI. I just came from there. He’s dead. I think the next in line would be Chandrajuski at Centauri III. I’m on my way there now. He’s become a problem for the new governor.”

  Struthers considered what he knew of Daughter. “I think you’re right. I’m going to dispatch someone to both places. And let’s keep Chandrajuski on ice for a while. He might come in useful if she ends up there.”

  “Nothing to worry about, Sire. They’ll find her with the tracker.”

  His next call was to Admiral Shuge. “How did she get past you?” he demanded.

  “Sire, she did not get past. She jumped at the last minute. I was just about to lock onto her with a tractor beam when she disappeared. We have her tracker signal.”

  “What were you doing with a tractor beam, you idiot?” Struthers raged. “Your orders were to destroy her, nothing else.”

  “I’m sorry, Sire. It won’t happen again.”

  “It had better not. Any more showing off, and you’re through, do you understand?”

  “I do, Sire. Not to worry. We have her tracker. We’ll have her in a few weeks.”

  “If you lose her, she’ll probably head for Gamma VI. I want you there just in case.”

  “Very well, Sire, but remember, I have the delegation to Soreesia aboard. I was called away from that mission to go to Earth. The ambassador and his Guardians are understandably nervous. The delay is making it that much harder for them.”

  Struthers had forgotten. Ships with the hypercom were still so rare that he hadn’t had any choice but to send Shuge. “Of course I know, Admiral. Daughter comes first. Everything else is on hold until you take care of her. Do you understand?”

  “I understand, Sire. I will not let you down.”

  Struthers signed off, feeling better already. It did the soul good to yell at people from time to time, and it made them pay attention. But he still worried. Everything else was proceeding according to plan. There were some hardheaded governors and sector commanders still to deal with, but they had expected that. All they needed was time, and they had plenty of that.

  Governor Veswicki was still missing, but that was no surprise. It was a big galaxy out there. They’d find him eventually, but it still concerned him. Of all those he’d failed to take out that night, Veswicki worried him the most. Veswicki would oppose him to the very end, and if anyone was capable of organizing an uprising, it was him. Not that it would do him any good. The rebellion was too well entrenched already.

  But Daughter. Gods, how had she escaped the trap? It was inconceivable. His whole plan would fall apart if she survived. She must not. She would not.

  Back in his office, he prepared instructions to his fleets. Resolve was to be destroyed on sight, no questions asked, and he was to be notified the moment it happened.

  Chapter Twelve: Tracker

  George was dead. Mike couldn’t get his arms around the concept of a dead Artificial Intelligence. He had counted on George’s presence, had never even considered the fact that he might not be there, and now there was no one but himself to compute jumps. Ellie and Jake had failed that part of the training.

  And with the Chessori tracking them, they had not truly escaped the trap set for them on Earth. They had just delayed its completion by a few weeks.

  He looked at Otis. “It’s a major undertaking to change our course from Gamma VI. I’ll have to get a fresh start on it after I get some sleep.”

  “Agreed, Mike, but you’re not done yet. The net is dead. Someone has to show us how to give life back to it, to be George. We absolutely have to monitor the Chessori tracking us. We can’t stay blind.”

  “I can do it, and I can show Reba how to do it,” Ellie responded from Mike’s chest.” She lifted her head to look at him. “Can you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Take me home?”

  He opened his eyes to her. “That remains to be seen, doesn’t it? Theoretically, it’s just a matter of churning out jumps, one after another. The process is the same for each one, I just have to work on the variables. I’m afraid your timetable is changed.”

  “I know. We’ll just have to do the best we can. How long?”

  “Longer than we have. The enemy squadron will find us long before then.”

  “You’re creative. You’ll figure something out. How long?”

  “Earth is way out on a spiral arm of the galaxy. We have some 800 light years to travel, and we might have some obstacles in the way, things like dust clouds and nebulae and neutron stars and who knows what else? Without George, I’ll have to go around anything I’m not certain of.” He did some quick calculations in his head and Jake backed him up, both of them reaching the same conclusion. “With George doing the driving, it was going to take three weeks. It could take me as much as a year, Ellie.”

  Her lips tightened. She nodded, then settled back into his arm. “I’ll have to see if we have enough supplies. We might be on short rations for the journey.”

  “Our first priority is the Chessori tracking us,” Otis growled. “We must find a way to deal with him.”

  “Tomorrow, Otis. Okay?”

  “Tomorrow is acceptable, Captain. Get some rest.”

  Ellie untangled herself from Mike and headed for the bridge with Otis and Reba right behind. Mike went to his bed and gat
hered an armful of bedding, then joined them. His place was on the bridge for as long as the ship was threatened. When he arrived, Ellie was already in the net attempting to bring the Chessori ship onto one of the screens. Mike almost went into the net to help her, but Jake stopped him.

  >Let her figure it out,< he suggested. >It’s going to be a long voyage, and she’s up to it. Your job is to get us there, nothing more. She and I will take care of the ship.<

  >Jake, it’s just the two of you if I’m focused on navigation. We’re talking about manning the bridge every hour of every day.<

  >That’s tomorrow’s problem. You need sleep, and she needs to build her confidence. Let her be.<

  Mike settled into a corner of the bridge and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, a process Jake might have helped. Though just an intelligent mass of protoplasm within his body, Riders provided a lot of benefits to their hosts, and this was one of them.

  Ellie got the screen configured and took a short break. She went over to Mike and stared down at him for a long time. In spite of knowing that all eyes were on her, she kneeled down beside him, brushed a few strands of hair back into place, then kissed his forehead. He was utterly unaware, but she suspected that Jake was not. Besides, one of the benefits of royalty was doing what you wanted to do.

  He felt drugged when he awoke. Yesterday had been an ordeal he did not want to repeat. He showered and shaved, then made his way back to the bridge. Ellie, completely drained, unplugged. Her many hours swimming through the net without George’s help had been a true ordeal. Mike studied her and decided this was not going to work. They had to find another way to keep an eye on things. She got up from the command seat, gratefully turning the ship over to him.

  “Thanks for letting me sleep, My Lady,” he said, deeply concerned for her.

  “You needed it, but now it’s my turn.”

  “Sleep until you wake up. We’re not going to put a clock on you.”

  “Thank you, Michael. We’ll have to structure something, and soon. When we do, we have to take Alexis into our plans. I’m her mother. I’ll need some time with her, too.”

  He nodded, and she left. Reba was in the net, and he joined her there. “Where’s Otis?” he asked.

  “Sleeping in his gun turret,” she answered.

  “Have you slept?”

  “I did. I feel great, just bored. I wish there was something I could do to help.”

  “There is. The Chessori ship is on the forward screen, so we’ll know if it does anything. Let’s unplug. I want to talk.”

  He got up from his command seat and joined her, sitting at the work station next to her. They stared at each other for a time, both thinking the same thing: they were the only two from Earth on the ship.

  “We have a short-term problem and a long-term problem,” Mike said. “Before we go gallivanting around the galaxy, we have to set some management in place.”

  She let out a long sigh. “My thoughts exactly. I’m glad to hear you say it. Management of our resources, which is mostly the crew, is critical over the long haul.”

  “Assuming we have enough supplies.”

  “We do. Ellie checked.”

  “That’s a relief. Let’s talk about the long-term needs first. I’m going to be completely engaged with navigation. I’m not going to have time to deal with schedules and such. Will you do it for me? Will you be my executive officer?”

  She grinned. “Gladly. I’m great with details, and I need something to do.”

  “It’ll be a challenge. Someone has to be in the net all the time, or at least most of the time. If the ship fails us, we’re through. We have to do George’s job of keeping all systems perfect, and only me, Jake, and Ellie are fully integrated into the net to do it. Clearly, if I’m out of the net, so is Jake. Ellie can’t pick up all the rest on her own.”

  “She could if you and she went on alternating shifts, maybe four hour shifts if the job is that draining.”

  “Can we do that for months on end?”

  “Sailors do.”

  “I don’t think I can set up a jump in four hours. I suppose I could pick a jump point far enough out that I could take a break, but it’s better if I stay with it until it’s done. I’m still pretty clumsy with the process.”

  “We need to find a way to use Otis and me. Can I learn to access more of the net than I’ve been shown?”

  He sat back in contemplation. “I don’t know! I don’t know if George set actual restrictions on you before he died.”

  “I don’t think he did, Mike. Remember when we were training and I had him take you out of the net?” He nodded. “I tried to take your place. It didn’t work, but I think it was only because I was overwhelmed, not because I didn’t have access. Maybe Jake and Ellie can work with me, show me the ropes so to speak.”

  “That would remove a huge burden from Ellie.”

  “And it might allow Jake to help you with jump computations,” Reba added.

  “Hmm. It might. Can we get Otis involved?”

  Reba considered. “Maybe,” she said after a time. “He and I talked about it. He and his men flew the ship when they were fighting the Chessori, so he can get into the net. The problem is that his training was focused only on flying and fighting. He doesn’t know Resolve’s systems, and he doesn’t know his way around the net without George. He’s willing to try, but none of us can be in the net with him. He claims we’d be driven crazy by his thought processes. That means we can’t train him.”

  “We can’t train him from inside the net. I wonder if there’s any way to train him from outside the net?”

  She shook her head. “Doubtful, Mike. You’re talking about ground school, something like our astronauts go through. They spend years learning systems from specialists. We don’t have years, and we don’t have trainers.”

  “Okay. Focus on yourself first, then him. It’ll be okay to leave the ship on its own for a few hours each day as long as the screens are active and someone’s watching them. Otis can do that, so you can build that into your schedule as well.”

  “Okay. We also need to manage ourselves. When’s the last time you exercised?”

  His eyebrows rose in surprise. “I haven’t. Not since this all began.”

  “With Jake keeping you healthy, you might not need exercise, but exercise is good for the mind, too. We should all have a plan that includes daily workouts. Healthy bodies lead to healthy minds and all that. You know.”

  “I do. You might even want to give some thought to our menus, make sure they’re balanced.”

  “I will. I don’t have a clue what to do if someone gets sick, though.”

  “The ship carried a doctor. From my training with George, I know there’s a medical facility, but I didn’t spend any time at all learning how things worked there.”

  “I’ll look into it.”

  “Okay, now to our immediate problem, the ship tracking us. Got any ideas?”

  “Maybe. Otis and I discussed it. We need to take it out, Mike, and it has to be done within the next three weeks.”

  “I know.”

  “I don’t know how much, if any, military training you’ve had, but let me simplify the goal. Your job is to get this ship within firing range of the target, nothing more. If you can do that, your crew will do the rest.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “Let’s set a timetable first. We know it will take the squadron near Earth three weeks to reach a safe jump point. Let’s shoot for an engagement at two weeks. That will give you plenty of time to exit the battleground, so to speak.”

  He nodded in agreement. “Two weeks. What am I looking for during that two weeks?”

  “Study his behavior. Look for patterns. Look for some kind of activity you can predict.”

  “I can predict that he’ll continue following.”

  “You can, and you might be able to do more. How long does it take for him to follow? Is it a few minutes or is it an hour? Is it possible to set up some
jumps that are identical to previous jumps, or nearly identical? Can you make it easy for him, maybe lull him into repeating a pattern that you can predict? If you can predict where he’ll exit hyperspace, can we be waiting for him?”

  Mike stared at her, then nodded slowly. “I can try.”

  “While you’re doing that, Otis and I will try to come up with alternate plans. There might be some way to outsmart him that we haven’t thought of yet. What you need to know is that this game will be played in our heads. Right up until the shooting starts, it’s a purely mental exercise.”

  “I wish we’d had time to train you. You’re a natural for command.”

  “I am trained, Mike. Even admirals have battle staffs to develop plans. I’m one of your battle staff, and I don’t have to know how to fly the ship to do the job. I do need you to get us into position, though.”

  “Okay. You’ve given me and Jake something to focus on. We’ll do our best.”

  “Keep your focus, Mike, but keep looking for other ideas, too. You’re going to be the one most intimately connected with that ship out there. You might come up with some ideas on your own.”

  Mike turned to study the forward screen. The Chessori ship had not moved, not a bit. Could he outsmart it?

  “It really comes down to me and him, doesn’t it,” he said softly.

  “That’s exactly what it comes down to, Mike. Otis and I even considered opening a channel to him so you two could meet, but we decided we’d be giving too much away if we did.”

  “How so?”

  “Mainly, it’s the language barrier. The ship is a Chessori trader. It’s possible that the captain speaks Galactic High Standard, but you don’t, at least not very well, and I don’t speak it at all. It might give him an advantage to know the ship is being flown by someone from Earth. Ellie might be able to talk with him, but then he’d know for certain that she’s aboard. If Otis talked to him, it might give away the fact that the Great Cats can suffer the mind weapon and still function. So there you have it. No communication with the guy, at least not at the moment. That might change.”

  “I’d like to know him, I sense the power in that, but I agree.”