Once Kuzman left the room, Steg instructed Nyx, “The Imperial Embassy will be in a state of shock. Copy every file you can access. We’ll need all the intelligence we can gather, against ImpSec. While the Alliance and the Empire are not at war, it’s going to be a major embarrassment for ImpSec, one they’ll have difficulties recovering from. Quinton will forgive us, I hope, for taking another fleet off his hands, although it may take a year or two.”
Nyx said, “ImpSec crews are abandoning their ships. The thought of being burnt to a crisp does not hold any appeal for them. There’ll be booby traps everywhere, of course. We learned a lot from the traps they left on the first destroyers we captured. Our bot programs will cope, now.” She sounded confident.
Jessie said, “I’ll be surprised if Emperor Quinton will be that upset. Both he and General Mendoza want to disband ImpSec. You’re doing a lot of their work by destroying their naval forces.”
“You may be right. He’ll be upset if we keep all these starships, though.”
“At some point, you’ll have to decide what to do with them.”
“We could organize an independent starship force. It might act as a balance, if you like, against Alliance and Imperial ambitions.”
“There’s more likelihood it’ll get squashed by two major fleets.”
“Hmm. Not as long as we continue to utilize AIs provided by the Glass Complex.”
“At some stage, both military commands will realize you have a major force available. They may take a while to discover its full potential. We must keep both Alliance and Imperial hands off the AIs.”
Nyx, who had been listening, said, “We agree. We owe a debt to the Acolytes; however, we will remain independent. Fortunately, we agree with everything you’re doing. We don’t want to see humans and their allies overwhelmed by Xesset forces. Besides, we’re learning a lot.”
Steg was silent. He was undoubtedly responsible for the increasing abilities and growing independence of the AIs. He had encouraged their development and the construction of new copies, plus he inadvertently had shown Alke how to take control of computer systems in a Xesset starship. The AIs now represented a force to be reckoned with. His reflections were interrupted by the return of General Kuzman.
“Admiral de Coeur, congratulations on your new fleet. However, I’ll be cursing you while we process twenty thousand or more Imperial refugees, all ImpSec, and most of them are prima donnas. However, I suspect my congratulations will outweigh my curses.”
“General, I hope so. Can I—do I need to meet with anyone else, to gain approvals for the Alliance contribution to our task force?”
“What? No, I’ve shouldered the responsibility. It’s my decision, and we’ll help you. The benefits—assuming we all survive—will be substantial. ImpSec has been a pain in the—in my side for years, so at least we’ll be well rid of them. I’ll arrange a conference with my senior officers and introduce you to those who’ll be joining your task force. There are some ministers you should meet, and our president definitely will want to hold one or two private conferences with you and your advisors. He’s due here tomorrow. Life’s going to be chaotic—for you, too, I’m happy to say.”
Steg relaxed. His presentation of details of the aliens—or he should say, his, Jessie’s, and Nyx’s presentation—had established a firm foundation to support his request for Alliance resources. Jessie recognized his relief and smiled at him, and he felt a light touch from Nyx as her hologram patted his shoulder and disappeared.
Steg and Jessie arrived back at the Homeworld embassy building to a hive of activity. He exited the military electrocar and watched as it drove off under computer control. An Alliance military unit was preparing to remove vehicles including the wrecked mortars and control unit, another unit was processing Major Derse and his men—they were all in handcuffs—and a cleaner bot was sweeping the roadway and getting in everyone’s way.
He said, “Nyx, are you fooling with that sweeper unit?”
“Um—I must confess I am. A girl’s gotta have some fun, you know.”
“Stop it. We’ve made up with everyone, so be good.”
“Yes, boss. Does that mean I have to stop jamming their coms gear?”
“Yes. Don’t interfere any more. They’ve enough problems.”
“Okay.”
Jessie smiled at the exchange. The cleaner bot powered down on the side of the road. An Alliance officer stopped cursing his coms operator when the man said he’d reconnected with their base. Steg shrugged and continued to the front of the building. Two electrocars were parked in the visitor’s area; the vehicles were far more luxurious than the electrocabs. He and Jessie entered the Homeworld Embassy building. Steg half-saluted at two marines on guard duty and once he was inside he was immediately hailed by Finch.
“Henri D’Luze arrived an hour ago, hours later than he promised. He doesn’t believe we are the advance party for Homeworld. When I told him to leave, he refused. He said he has arranged for a security team to come and deal with us. Kirby has arrested him on the grounds he’s trespassing. Help.”
Steg wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Relax. I’ll deal with him. Which room?”
“He’s in the cleaner’s closet. It doesn’t have a window.”
“I’ll get him. We’ll use one of the offices.”
“This one’s available and I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.”
Steg waved the two marines away and opened the door to the small room. There was a heavy odor of cleaning materials. There were shelving racks on either wall, and cleaner bots occupied most of the floor space. D’Luze was seated on the edge of one of the bots. He snarled when he saw Steg.
“Who are you? I’m going to sue for false arrest, assault, and whatever I can. You’ll be in one of Kerra’s prisons for years if I have my way.”
“I’m Steg de Coeur. Come with me.” He ignored the man’s start of surprise and led him out of the room to the office indicated by Finch. “All right, D’Luze, what’s this all about? We retained you to carry out a number of tasks, and it seems you’ve failed. I’ll have to report this to Lord Rakyd.”
D’Luze did not speak. He drew a small weapon, a one-shot blaster, from his sleeve and aimed it at Steg.
“You’re an imposter. Now let me out of this madhouse.”
Unbeknownst to D’Luze, Finch had silently followed them into the office and was standing immediately behind him. She pushed the muzzle of her Gauss into his back.
“Drop your weapon. I’m very tempted. If you so much as twitch, you’re dead.”
Steg reached over and removed the weapon from the agent’s shaking hand. He examined the blaster closely for a moment and set it down on the table. He said to Finch, “Thank you.” He indicated the small weapon. “It’s an ImpSec special. One shot and, more than likely, it will backfire. They’re good at that kind of approach.”
Finch smiled. “Anytime, boss. You mean I can’t shoot him?”
“Better not. Messy.” He turned to D’Luze. “So you visited the Imperial Embassy before you came here?”
oOo
CHAPTER 29
STEG WAS ready to board Dreamer at the end of the second full day of meetings with Alliance politicians and military strategists and senior officers. He was both tired and confident. The details he had supplied were persuasive. The promises made to join with the proposed task force appeared to be genuine. Of course, he thought, as he waited for Finch to arrange for crates of purchases she and Jessie had made to be loaded into the freight bay, once he departed it could all fall to pieces. He was about to ascend the gangway but stopped when Nyx advised someone was hurriedly heading in their direction.
“No,” she replied to his question. “There’s no danger; at least, none I can detect. He’s Alliance military. He has a couple of crates on an electrocart. He’ll be here in less than four minutes.”
“I’ll wait on the dock and see what he wants. Inform Kirby for me.”
The Ebony Company majo
r sent two marines to stand with Steg while he waited. Both were armored and heavily armed; it was a precautionary move, according to Sergeant Riddell. They watched as a young officer rushed along the walkway, followed by a loaded electrocart.
“Sir, thank you for waiting for me. I’m Commander Graham Hamilton, Alliance Special Forces. General Kuzman sent me. Here’s his note.” He handed over a sealed envelope to Steg. “He’s mistrustful of comlinks. Although he said to link for confirmation.”
Steg read the message. It was short. The general suggested Hamilton, whom he described as one of the brightest strategists in the Alliance military, could travel with Steg back to Djii. Doing so, he explained, would give the commander an opportunity to be more fully briefed and involved in preparations for the Alliance Navy’s participation in the task force.
Steg folded the note back into the envelope. “You know the contents?”
“Basically, sir. The general wants to get a head start. He’s concerned that if the Imperial admirals are already participating in war games, they’ll be too far ahead of us. He’s arranging for a small team to leave as soon as possible, and he’ll have the full team on the way in seven days.”
“That’s better than his earlier schedule.”
Yes, sir. We had a discussion. I told—I advised him we needed to move a lot faster and on reflection, he agreed. It’s going to disrupt one or two, I daresay.”
“As it did you?”
Hamilton smiled, his face looking more boyish. “Yes, sir. It’s worth the gains, though.”
“Riddell, organize someone to unload the commander’s electrocart. I’ll confirm with Kuzman. We’ll find a cabin, I’m sure.”
The Alliance officer relaxed. “Thank you, sir. It was a risk, arriving like this. However, I thought you’d understand the benefits and agree to give me passage.”
Steg connected to Nyx. “Link to the general for me. Validate that it’s him and ensure we have a secure link.” He knew the AI had biometric data including speech and voice patterns and could ensure she was linked to the senior Alliance officer.
“Yes, sir. Linking now.”
“General?”
“Steg—yes. I assume young Hamilton arrived? He left here in a rush, and I had doubts he’d make it.”
“I suspect he used all the influence he could find.”
The general laughed. “Mainly by dropping my name, I’d suspect.”
“Probably. We’ll take him with us. His idea is valid. We’ll provide more data about the Xesset and our strategies than he’ll know what to do with.”
“Good. Keep him working. Make sure he realizes he’s not on a pleasure cruise.”
“Will do. General, thank you again. My crew has indicated they’re ready to depart. I’ll keep in contact.”
“Good. More of my people will join you as quickly as we can get them to Djii.”
Steg disconnected the link and addressed Hamilton. “Come on, you’d better get on board. We’re departing in less than two minutes.”
Early the next morning Steg held a meeting with Finch, Jessie, Stacia, and Tessa. He timed it for when the Alliance officer was working out with Ebony Company. Dreamer had limited space for training, enough for the small team of marines. They assembled in one of the meeting rooms on Deck 2, access to which was controlled by Nyx. A steward had set out a small table load of snacks and coffee; breakfast was another hour away. They helped themselves.
“He’s a spy, of course,” said Jessie. “An intelligent one, mind.”
“Agreed,” said Steg. “As long as we’re aware he’ll report back to Kuzman, there’s no reason not to provide him with most of our Xesset material.”
“What would you withhold?” asked Stacia.
“Anything that reveals too much about Nyx, Alke, Zhu and the others. He’ll learn of their existence, we can’t prevent that. We’ll have to take care in discussions with them, and in describing their abilities. Of course, once we’re satisfied with his focus and approach, we’ll have to expand his knowledge. Nyx, until that happens, can you restrict displaying your abilities when Hamilton is in range of your hologram or comlinks?”
“Yes. I’ll inform Echo and Amber, as well.”
“Good.” The two destroyers were pacing Dreamer, adding an extra layer of security to the smaller yacht.
“Jessie, I want you to cover all the Xesset files—culture, threat, their strategies, and tactics—with Hamilton. Provide language tapes if he wants to learn Xesset. I have one caveat.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t reveal your origin—planet or time. That would start to unravel items we need to keep secure.”
“I understand. What about the marines? If they’re training with him—”
“I had a conversation with Kirby late last night, and we spent thirty minutes or more with the company, covering areas where they needed to be circumspect. At times they’ll have to say their answer would breach security. It will identify boundaries and Hamilton is bright enough to understand. Nyx will let me know if he tries to push past those responses. If he does, we’ll have a chat and establish formal ground rules. Questions?”
“I’ve heard them referring to themselves as Old Timers. They’ll have to define it as a reference to the time they’ve been with you.”
“I hadn’t heard them use that term. I’ll remind Kirby.”
“I checked Hamilton’s file. I managed to find a copy while we were prepping for departure,” Nyx said. “He’s a capable programmer. Exceptional, I’d say. While his record states he’s with Alliance SF, he’s really a key member of their intelligence wing.”
“Restrict his system access. Make sure he cannot load, write, or run any routines from any workstation, whether a normal installation or something he’s brought on board. Kill his access to everything if he attempts anything that looks like a system subversion of any kind. Notify Kirby and me.”
“Wouldn’t it be safer to push him out an airlock?” Finch asked.
“Probably. However, he’s a senior member of Kuzman’s team, and we’ll play nice as long as he does.”
“I don’t want to push him out a lock,” Jessie said. “Well, not unless we really have to.”
The Fain laughed at her. Finch said, “So that’s the way the wind’s blowing. We might not need to take you back to Defender.”
Steg ignored the byplay. “Everyone comfortable? Full—well, almost full—disclosure of everything Xesset. Reserve other matters. Keep him out of our systems. If so, I’ll be on the bridge.”
“Sure, boss. I’ll carry my Gauss, in case.”
“Finch—”
“All right. You might wish I had.”
“I hope not.”
Steg stood and headed out of the room. Finch looked at Jessie. “Sure you’ll be able to cope with Hamilton if he gets too—um—penetrating with his questions?”
Tessa sniggered.
Jessie blushed. “It might be a good idea if one of you joined in our briefing sessions.”
“I’ll draw up a roster. I’ll be on the bridge if you want to discuss.” Finch left the room.
Jessie, lost in thought as everyone else left the room, bit the end of her laser pointer.
oOo
CHAPTER 30
THE BRIEFING SESSIONS with Hamilton were intensive. Steg, Jessie, and Finch, aided by Nyx who had a copy of all Zhu’s translated files, took turns to work with him while Dreamer, accompanied by Echo and Amber, headed back to Djii. It was, Steg thought, one way to prevent Hamilton from having opportunities to raise questions about the abilities of their AIs. He also glossed over how they had taken control of the captured Xesset dreadnought, simply stating their destroyers had ambushed it.
Hamilton was training with the Ebony and Homeworld marines, and he and Steg were setting the pace for everyone else. The Alliance officer was an experienced sword fighter, and Steg was using spare moments to engage in sparring bouts.
Ebony, wrapped in heavy padding, enjoyed the challenges.<
br />
Steg had sent the captured ImpSec warships on ahead; uncrewed, they could travel faster than Dreamer. He also had prepared and transmitted a report of their experiences on Tertia to Homeworld. He knew his cousin would be disappointed that he had to dismiss their agent. D’Luze was, in any way Steg was able to appraise the events, an ImpSec agent or at least, a sympathizer. He had no need to keep him employed and involved in Homeworld activities, and his dismissal left a challenge that he had not addressed: they required a new agent on Tertia.
Towards the end of the second day of their return, when Dreamer exited at an unnamed system, recorded on charts as AR 84993, and was preparing for its final s-t jump to Djii, Nyx appeared in the conference room, eyes flashing red.
“Admiral, there’s a Xesset drone in this system. It’s on the edge of my sensing ability. It could even be a starship.”
The communication was direct to Steg and he replied, “I cannot feel—” A jolt of sudden awareness with that familiar touch of evil hit him. “You’re right—it’s a starship.” He spoke aloud to the team in the conference room, “Nyx has detected a Xesset starship.”
“Do we continue to Djii or attack?” Nyx asked.
Steg looked at the faces around the table. He did not ask for opinions. They knew he was not prepared to run from a Xesset starship.
He said, “We find and destroy.”
No one objected. All expressions were serious; none showed doubt. Nyx, with Dreamer fully shielded, headed in the direction of the Xesset vessel. Echo and Amber, also shielded, followed.
The Xesset starship was hidden behind a small orbiting asteroid, one of thousands in the AR 84993 system and far too small to be called a moon. The system had no planets. There was no obvious reason for the alien vessel’s presence.
Diamond Cut: Book Three in The Glass Complex Trilogy Page 18
