Alpha Fleet (Rebel Fleet Series Book 3)

by B. V. Larson

  I frowned. “What crime, specifically?”

  “As if you don’t know. Your every word is a falsehood—but I will play along so all can see the depths of your dishonor. The Imperial phase-ships you’ve been escorting destroyed an unarmed colony ship—a ship bearing two million civilians.”

  Hagen and I exchanged worried glances. Lael had never mentioned what she’d been up to that might have gotten people so upset with her—now we knew.

  “I understand your anger. Those aboard the last of the phase-ships have perished. The Devilfish has finished your mission for you.”

  “As slippery as an oiled worm,” the voice said, and for a second, I thought I recognized it. The voice was female, but deeper than the norm. Where had I heard that voice before?

  “Listen, old friend,” I said, hoping they knew me as I did them, “I’m sorry for your loss. But we didn’t help these Imperials do anything. We destroyed the Diva system with the help of the Nomads. We—”

  “I doubt the Nomads are involved. Their fleets were all destroyed centuries ago. I don’t even understand why you’re convinced you’ve met them, Blake.”

  “They’ll be in range in five minutes, sir,” Chang said quietly.

  “Listen,” I said in the calmest voice I could muster, “how could Earth build a starship in just a few years? There’s no way we could have done it without help.”

  “That proves nothing. You could have had help from a dozen different Rebel Kher worlds. The Nomads? It’s too much to believe.”

  “All right then, we will send proof,” I said, and I ordered Chang to send multiple brief recordings to their ship. The channel balked at the upload at first, but then whoever was running the boards on the other side decided to relent. They allowed us to transmit our data.

  A full minute went by before they spoke again.

  “This is surprising,” the voice said. “I don’t think even a human could fabricate so many details…”

  “Then stand down your ships,” I said. “Close your gun ports and I’ll close mine.”

  “No,” she said. “You will shut down your ship. You will submit to being boarded and searched. You will do this—or I will be forced to destroy you, Leo.”

  Just then, finally, I knew who I was talking to.

  “Ursahn?” I asked in surprise. “That’s you, isn’t it? Ursahn, you have to listen to reason. We didn’t know the Nomads were as bad as the Imperials. All we knew was that they were the enemy of our enemy, and they gave us technological help.”

  “I opened this channel, Blake,” Ursahn said, “because you indicated that you were willing to surrender your ship. If you’re telling the truth, a peaceful finish to this day is possible—but I can’t guarantee anything.”

  I was left with a terrible decision. Mia looked at me, her head turned so I could only see one eye. She whispered in a harsh voice.

  “Let them come close,” she said. “I’ll shut our gun ports, and we’ll play dead. But when they come very near—I’ll tear them apart. I promise you three kills—maybe as many as five.”

  “There are thirty of them, Mia.”

  She snorted. “I’m not a god. Five kills—that’s amazing! Doesn’t your heart thrill at the prospect of such a glorious finish?”

  “We can’t win,” Commander Hagen pointed out.

  “Of course not,” she said, “but at this moment we can decide how we die. Isn’t that the best thing any Rebel can say? No one lives forever.”

  I took her council seriously. If we could destroy five of them by suckering them in, playing dead… Earth might stand a better chance. But they would still outgun everything else our planet had. Worse, they wouldn’t be in a merciful mood after our treachery.

  “No,” I said at last. “We’ll play it straight. I’m going to have to talk to them and get them to see reason.”

  Mia was disappointed. She sagged in her harness and shook her head.

  “To captain a starship you must be born a predator. You lack the killer instinct that war in space requires.”

  It was insulting, but she could have been right, so I didn’t argue. The truth would become clear soon enough.

  “Stand down,” I ordered. “Everyone drop shields, cycle down our weapons.”

  My orders were met with reluctance and groans all over the ship. But my crew obeyed. I was proud of them, no matter what our fate was to be. They’d all proven Earth ships had good discipline at least.

  =55=

  Ursahn herself came aboard Devilfish. She had a squadron of her heavy marines at her back, big hulking figures with thick necks and even thicker arms. They marched onto my ship as if they owned it.

  “Welcome aboard Devilfish,” I greeted her. “Let us meet as friends.”

  Ursahn regarded me with suspicion. We’d once been friends, but now—I wasn’t so sure. She had a cold glitter in her eyes.

  “You surrender your ship?” she asked.

  “I’m here to be boarded and inspected. Let us make our case. Let us become friends again.”

  “No,” she said. “Not so easily. We’ve brought detection equipment—old tools that we haven’t utilized since long before I was born.”

  Blinking in confusion, I tried to keep my attitude upbeat. “Fine,” I told her. “We’ve got nothing to hide here.”

  “That will be determined.”

  She then ordered her troops forward. My own team ruffled at their brusque manner, but I waved for them to let her spacers go where they wanted.

  “While they’re searching our ship,” I said to Ursahn, “perhaps we can share some refreshment.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Well then… perhaps you’ll accompany me? I’m famished.”

  Ursahn eyed me strangely. “You do not eat before battle? Does this tighten your senses?”

  “Yes,” I lied. “It’s a human trick. We stay hungry because that way, we’re more focused on the kill.”

  “Interesting… I will allow you to demonstrate your hunger.”

  Playing it by ear, I led her down to the mess deck. Putting on a great show, I ate a pile of rare meats. She watched with a wrinkling snout.

  “You have burned your food.”

  “It kills bacteria and enhances flavor.”

  She laughed. “On Ursa, we feed burnt meals only to cubs. Adult guts can tolerate any kind of rot. You eat like a baby.”

  I dropped my fork, and let it clattered on the platter. I looked at Ursahn flatly. I was getting tired of her disdain.

  “Let’s discuss the situation plainly, Ursahn. You’ll soon find we’re telling the truth.”

  “I have no way of foretelling the future.”

  “Well, I do. You’ll find traces of the Nomad creature we chased from our decks. Isn’t that what the devices you brought aboard are built to do?”

  “No… not at all. The Nomads are almost legends, as I explained to you earlier. Our equipment is attuned to the spoor of the Imperial Kher. It’s been a long time since we needed to locate one of them. They rarely hide and cower, but this is a unique occasion.”

  My alarm grew as she spoke these words. They were bound to pick up Lael. The people of Ursa weren’t overly imaginative, but they were horridly suspicious. They’d assume that I was harboring Lael, and they’d take the situation as clear evidence that I’d lied to them.

  “I have to admit,” Ursahn was saying, “you have piqued my interest with these smells of yours.”

  “What?”

  “That substance—you called it tri-tip? Would you permit me to try it?”

  “Uh… sure.”

  My first instinct was to summon a steward and order more meat—but then I realized that might take too long.

  “Take mine,” I said, pushing the plate toward her. “I’ve eaten my fill.”

  She sniffed at it warily. “This is a good gesture. What man salts his own meat with poison and eats it before passing it to an enemy? Not even a human is so underhanded. I will try your portion.”


  Ursahn took my plate and began wolfing it down. Red juices ran from the corner of her mouth and down onto her fuzzy neck and chest.

  “I must see to my ship as you feast,” I said, “I’ll be right back.”

  “Urmph,” she said indistinctly. Evidently, tri-tip tasted good to her kind as well. She was eating with relish. “You have burnt it and salted it. So strange… it has an excellent flavor.”

  On the way out of the mess, I tapped a steward and ordered the kitchen staff to keep fresh platters heading to her table. They assured me the Kher wouldn’t go hungry.

  Once out in the passageway and out of sight of her staring guards, I began to run. I had to get below decks before they did.

  I had to get to Lael’s cell first.

  When I arrived at the brig, I was out of breath. My heavy magnetic boots had clumped all over a dozen metal decks.

  To my surprise, there was a group of them already circling her cell door. An emergency team from Medical was there as well.

  They had the door open, and a figure lay draped over the deck.

  “Dammit,” I said, “what happened to the prisoner?”

  “Nothing,” a doctor said, looking up at me. “This is her victim—Dr. Williams.”

  Surprised, I took a better look at the person they were clustered around. I saw Theresa Williams. Her face was bloodied, and one eye was sealed shut. It looked like it had been gouged out. There was blood everywhere.

  “What the hell…?” I demanded. “Guards, where’s the brig officer?”

  A man hustled up to me. He was stone-faced. “Captain?”

  “How could you let this happen? Why was Dr. Williams allowed into the brig with a dangerous prisoner?”

  He seemed prepared for this moment. He produced a sheet with orders written on it with a flourish.

  “I believe that’s your signature at the bottom, sir,” he said.

  “Yes… I recall now. She asked me if she could study Lael. She’s a xenobiologist… but I never expected… What happened?”

  The stone-faced brig officer opened his mouth, but Lael answered for him.

  “I grew tired of her questions,” she said. “She’s weak, Blake. She doesn’t belong on a warship.”

  Stepping over the fallen scientist, I faced Lael in her cell. She was restrained with cuffs. It occurred to me she should have stayed in bonds for the entire trip.

  Her face told me a tale of hate. I’d kind of realized before that all of her sexual hints had been attempts of manipulation—but now I realized I’d been completely taken in. She’d used every trick she had to get revenge on me and my crew.

  “Dr. Williams isn’t a combatant,” I told her. “She’s a scientist. She was only trying to learn more about you.”

  “Well then, I gave her a good lesson, didn’t I? Quit whining about it. She doubtlessly has another pen to take notes with back in her office, and I’m sure your medical people can grow her a fresh eyeball.”

  “Our medical technology hasn’t progressed that far yet.”

  “No? How embarrassing for you… but I guess that’s why you’re born with two. She’ll just have to use her spare.”

  I’d heard enough. “Get Lael out of her cell,” I ordered the surprised guards. “Move quickly!”

  By this time the emergency team had taken Dr. Williams to Medical. The guards threw the hatch wide and soon Lael was dragged into the passageway.

  “So,” she said, “is it time for my execution?”

  I looked at her, and I almost admitted that it was.

  If we shot her now, and we ditched her body in the waste tanks—they wouldn’t detect it, would they? I couldn’t know for sure with these Ursas and their sniffing machines.

  “I see it in your eyes,” she said. “You do mean to kill me. I’m surprised—I would have thought you were too frightened to execute a helpless Imperial officer. Perhaps it was the weakling I stabbed? Was she dear to you?”

  Narrowing my eyes at her, I decided I could give her one last chance.

  “The Ursas are aboard,” I told her. “They’re searching the ship, looking for any sign of you.”

  “Ah!” she said. “I understand completely. “You’ve been defeated in battle. The great Leo Blake now grovels before his own Rebel officers!”

  “Look,” I said, “if you want to live, you’ll help me.”

  “Help you with what?” she asked. “Even if I shot myself, they’d still find the body.”

  “Is there some way we can fool their detection equipment? Some way we can cover your trail?”

  She gave me an odd look. “Why would you bother? Are you so weak that you can’t—?”

  Taking out a sidearm and putting the barrel in her face, I made her flinch, and she shut up.

  “You don’t have long. If you help me hide yourself, you live. If you can’t, or won’t—you’re dead.”

  “What you ask is dishonorable,” she complained.

  “To hide?”

  “Not just that—it’s where I must hide.”

  At last, I got it out of her. The Ursas detected creatures with a machine that sniffed for them. Lael, her clothing, and everything she’d touched in her cell had to lose her scent.

  “But how can we—?” I began, but I caught her glowering at me fiercely, and I suddenly caught on. “Oh…”

  It only took a few minutes. I contacted the maintenance crews. Plugging pipes, reversing them, flushing sewage into her compartment—the whole process was disgusting, but I thought it might just work.

  The last thing I saw of her, Lael was floating in a pool of the ship’s waste. Her whole cell was full of it.

  When the inspection team got down to the brig, we told them it was a sewage holding tank. They wrinkled their noses and ran a forked instrument around for a moment which smelled nothing.

  Nothing but shit.

  =56=

  Ursahn clapped me on the shoulder. The blow hurt, but I grinned at her and she bared her teeth at me in return. We were both trying hard to mimic the other’s customs—and failing.

  But it was the thought that counted. We were trying to reestablish our old bonds, our comradery from the wars with the Imperials.

  “Tell me,” I said, “now that we bleed again for the same cause, why did the Imperials attack your colony ship? Have they decided to begin the hunt again?”

  Ursahn’s bared teeth vanished under her dark lips. She looked troubled.

  “We’re not sure. The actions of the Imperials are unusual. They do like to kill wild Kher for sport, of course. But they performed this strike secretly. We almost blamed other Kher for it…”

  “Really? Like who?”

  She appeared uncomfortable, and I removed my hand from her shoulder. Perhaps long physical contact was too much for her people.

  “You Earthers, for one. We knew it was done by phase-ships. The vessels were unmarked and stealthy. The captain managed to get out a report from the doomed vessel before she was completely destroyed.”

  “So… you saw a phase-ship and assumed it came from Earth?”

  “No other Kher would build such a dishonorable ship. Not even Fex and his unscrupulous people would dare.”

  “Right…” I said, reflecting on the dangers we’d invoked by building phase-ships. Rebel Kher considered them dirty weapons, like chemical weapons back on Earth. But we’d been behind in the tech game and possessed no fleet. In order to rapidly build at least a deterrent force, Space Command had felt they had no choice. Phase-ships were cheap and quick to assemble. Since they cruised out of sight, the enemy could never be sure exactly how many of them you had in the region.

  “It wasn’t you,” Ursahn assured me. “We know that now—but when we figured out it was the Imperials, we were still confused. They’re acting strangely. We fear they’ve already launched a new campaign, but we’re in the dark as to its nature.”

  Thinking it over, I came up with an idea.

  “You’re not going to like this suggestion,” I sai
d, “but maybe their plan is to sow discord among us. To get one planet to blame the next. To play us off like pawns riling up our populations until we destroy one another.”

  She struggled to grasp the idea. “Such a diabolical plan… How could you even imagine such a thing?”

  I considered admitting that Human nations fought in just such a manner, through proxies and instigated bush-wars, but I quickly ditched that idea. She already had a dark opinion of my species.

  How many times in Earth’s past had a nation killed another country’s leader and blamed a third, innocent party? I didn’t know, but I was sure the practice was still going on my homeworld somewhere.

  “I don’t know how I thought of it,” I told her. “It just seemed like something dirty that an Imperial might come up with.”

  “Exactly!” boomed Ursahn. “That’s how I felt about it once I realized what had really happened. So… if you’re right, our old enemy is out to destroy us from within. To think we came within a hair of destroying Earth’s only legitimate starship. That would have been a shame.”

  “Agreed,” I said, “but what are we going to do now?”

  “Simple enough, we’ll wait here on station for the rest of our fleet.”

  “Okay…” I said, keeping my pasted-on smile going. “There are more ships coming here?”

  “Of course.”

  “Are these ships we’re talking about coming from Ursa?”

  “No, no,” she said. “The battle-group you’ve encountered is the majority of what we’ve got. The rest of the armada is being led by Fex. Somehow, he’s gotten control of the Gref crews, and they’re quite loyal to him now.”

  My blood chilled, but I didn’t let it show. Fex wasn’t my friend. He never had been. At the very least, his imminent arrival meant that I was going to have to perform diplomatic judo all over again.

  It didn’t help matters to have our suspicions confirmed that his ships were all crewed by Grefs. If anything, they hated me more than Fex did.

  “That’s great,” I said, forcing my smile to widen a notch.

  She pulled back her dark lips to bare her teeth awkwardly in return. At least we were both trying.