The Sacred Stars (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 4)

by Kal Spriggs

  “You're assuming we could evacuate the planet in time,” Commander Bowder growled.

  “Oh, you'd have weeks, even months to figure that out,” Rory waved a hand. “And, anyway, turns out it wasn't a problem. I'm going to go write a paper on this one, coming Feliks?”

  “Of course,” Feliks replied nodding his head, “We should title it 'Exotic Matter Perturbation of Manmade Magnetic Fields'.”

  Forrest stared after the two engineers as they left the bridge. He didn't know if he wanted to kill them both or kiss them.

  ***

  Reese ducked his head as he went up the ramp of the ship. Rackham's small, fast frigate's drives were already spun up. The time to leave had come and he'd felt more than a little sad that Alannis wouldn't be joining him.

  He didn't even seriously consider having Rackham fire on the bunker where she and the Ghornath had overcome Rackham's men. So close, Reese thought as he walked to the bridge, I know if I had some more time I could have brought her around. For that matter, maybe if he had her father try to convince her, to bring her around...

  It wasn't something he could reveal under these circumstances, certainly. Marius Giovanni's survival was a secret that Reese couldn't reveal. Marius had made that plain enough. But maybe if Reese brought Alannis to him, maybe if there was no way for the information to get out...

  Bringing Alannis to her father might be the best option, he figured. Certainly it would be worth the effort if Alannis could only see how hard Reese was working for not just himself, but for a future for their family.

  He'd have to think about that, Reese decided as he stepped onto the bridge. He nodded at Rackham who ordered the ship to lift off, joining the dozens of other vessels fleeing the fighting. Now that Reese knew the United Colonies Fleet didn't know of his mission here, he wasn't too worried about being intercepted.

  Reese didn't give a thought for the hundreds who had already died in the fighting or for the officer who'd died when Rackham's strike team ambushed Alannis. He regretted it, but there were bigger stakes at play than individual lives. Reese's mission might well be all that could save humanity. What were a few lives measured against that?

  ***

  Chapter XIII

  Sapphire City, Sapphire

  Neutral Space

  December 18, 2407

  “Well,” James Conley put his feet up on his conference table, “that's settled.”

  Captain Daniel Beeson gave the pirate a level look. “A few thousand people died in the fighting.”

  Conley gave an airy wave, “They were mostly slavers plus some pirates that no one will miss.”

  “A few dozen ships escaped,” Daniel said. “Including a known fugitive who killed one of my officers and attempted to kidnap another.” Thank God that Chuni rescued her, Daniel thought as he looked over at where Alannis stood, her datapad in hand. He didn't know what had gone on between the Emperor's sister and her ex-husband, but if it was bad enough that one of his officers had died for it, then he wouldn't hesitate to shoot the bastard if he had the chance. Lieutenant Commander Douglass deserves that much from me, he thought with sadness.

  “That's your problem,” Conley said with another wave. “You have unequivocal proof that I wasn't any part of that.” He put his hands behind his head and looked very satisfied. “I'm a 'sovereign ruler of a nation.' that means I can't be held responsible for the actions of pirates and bandits even if they take place on my fair world.”

  “Perhaps not... but pursuant to our earlier agreement, the United Colonies did recognize you as the sovereign ruler of the colony of Sapphire. In doing so, you retain all rights and responsibilities as the representative of your nation, which includes responsibility for the actions of citizens of your 'fair world' when they attack

  “This,” Ensign Alannis Giovanni said, holding up her datapad, “is paperwork recognizing Reese Leone's arrival here on Sapphire, signed by your representative. Your recognition by us as a free nation made all residents of Sapphire citizens. Thus, his actions as well as those of the other pirates and slavers here are still your responsibility.”

  James Conley had gone pale and his feet hit the floor as he sat up straight. “You can't hold me responsible for the actions of a few elements...”

  “We can,” Daniel said with a leveled glare. “Wars have begun over less. Nations have fallen and planets have been seized under such circumstances. When you signed those documents with me, you made Sapphire into a nation... and your cooperation and lack of cooperation became far bigger than you might think.”

  “Under a variety of treaties,” Ensign Giovanni said, “all it would take would be an official representative of the United Colonies Parliament --and in this case I would do-- to authorize Captain Beeson to seize control over this planet. With our ansible network, we could have a detachment of ships here within a month, either from our own forces or from allies. This colony could be seized in recompense for hostile actions.”

  “What do you want?” Copley asked in a defeated tone.

  “Clean this place up. Get rid of the other slavers, abolish slavery, and arrest the remaining pirates. You know, make this place a real colony world,” Daniel said. “Oh, and also have one of your fastest, most trustworthy ships take a message back to United Colonies space. We'll be back through here soon after we finish our other business. If you haven't made significant progress, then by the letter of the law we are 'allowed to seek proper redress for our grievances.'“

  Daniel Beeson smiled as Ensign Giovanni said in an earnest tone, “That means we seize your planet.”

  ***

  The Cutthroat, flagship of the late and unlamented Two-Fingers, had seen better days.

  “Well, what do we know?” Commander Bowder asked.

  Ensign Medica restrained a sigh. Not for the question itself, but more for all the explanation that it would take to answer such a seemingly simple question. He opened his mouth to begin and then Rory stuck his head into the compartment.

  “Ah, Colonel, could you give me a hand?” Rory asked as he dragged a heavy conduit over towards them.

  “Commander,” Commander Bowder hissed.

  “Oh, I don’t actually have a military rank, do I, Feliks?”

  “Uh, no,” Feliks shook his head from where he peered at a fried console.

  “Right, so you can just call me professor or doctor,” Rory said. “Here, hold this.” The engineer passed the end of the conduit to the XO and then walked away.

  Ensign Medica rushed over to take the power conduit away from the XO. Commander Bowder looked down at his now-sooty hands and wrinkled his nose in distaste. This is not good, Ensign Medica thought to himself.

  Ensign Medica didn't like the color that the XO had turned. It probably wasn't healthy and since most of their medics were all down on the planet trying to help those who'd been effected by the event.

  “What are you doing?” Commander Bowder demanded. “We asked for you to look the ship over, to see what you could discover...”

  “Oh, yes,” Rory said, “We did that already.” He blinked, seemingly surprised that the XO still didn't have his power conduit. Rory looked around and then spotted Ensign Medica. He snapped his fingers peremptorily and Ensign Medica sighed as he dragged the heavy cable over. To think, he thought, I could have been a civilian engineer, with an expensive apartment and a fat bank account...

  Rory took the conduit and then quickly began to splice it into the panel. “So,” Rory said, “this ships has definitely had a lot of upgrades done to it, judging by some of the parts, I'd say in the Centauri Confederation.

  “The Delta Pavonis system, without a doubt,” Feliks interrupted, “the manuals are all in Russian but the notes are in Chinese.”

  “Right,” Rory said, “which means this pirate of yours has a highly advanced prototype weapon.”

  “He wasn't just a pirate, he was a slaver too,” Commander Bowder said. “Go on.”

  “All that was easy stuff, something anyone cou
ld put together. We already got the power systems and engines online and I'm going to recommend sending this ship back to the United Colonies so that we can study the weapon. At this point, it's not a technology issue, it's an engineering one, and even someone like James Harbach could handle that.”

  “He would whine about the interruption and drag his feet, I am sure,” Feliks said.

  “So if you're done with all of that, what are you doing now?” Commander Bowder demanded.

  Rory ignored him for a moment as he started to boot up the console, “Ah, perfect!” He brought up the console and then began to go through data logs. “This was the targeting system for the weapon. It's a bit rudimentary, basically a directional discharge, but...”

  “But?” Commander Bowder asked.

  “They also contain a highly detailed electromagnetic sensor set, in order to provide as much control and fine-tuning over the weapon as possible,” Feliks said as his console booted up. “It should provide us with precise measurements of what happened when the weapon fired.”

  “Which is why we've got it booted up,” Rory said, “in case you were too stupid to interpolate.”

  “What did you find?” Commander Bowder asked. To his credit, he ignored what Rory's addition. Ensign Medica was a bit surprised. Then again, the two scientists took a great deal of patience to handle. Maybe I can get shot, Ensign Medica thought, not lethally, but enough so that they put me on convalescent leave and I don't have to deal with them.

  Rory threw his hands in the air, “There's over seventy petabytes of data here, it will take us months to parse all the data! You want an answer right now?!”

  Commander Bowder gritted his teeth, “Clearly it was important enough that you felt the need to immediately check it, can you at least tell me what you're looking for?”

  “Oh, we're just confirming a theory,” Rory waved a hand. “Feliks was concerned that we might have generated a powerful enough current that we caused detachment of Sapphire's magnetic field. That would have caused a massive-scale electromagnetic burst.”

  “Okay,” Commander Bowder nodded, “That's what we wanted to avoid, right?”

  “Exactly,” Rory said. “You see, it's very interesting, because the magnetic force required apparently isn't as much as we'd thought. In fact, you could probably manage it with a ship half this size. In fact, if my rough calculations are correct, then I give it an eighty percent--”

  “Hmm,” Feliks shook his head, “Sixty percent, at most.”

  “Ninety percent,” Rory continued, “chance of success at utilizing the planet's magnetosphere to generate a high-level directional pulse.”

  “Which means what?” Commander Bowder asked.

  “Essentially, a weaponized planet,” Feliks said. “Which is what could have happened if our calculations had been off, which would have destroyed all systems aboard the Constellation.”

  “Wait, wait,” Commander Bowder held up a hand, “did you say weaponize a planet?”

  “Yes, it's very trivial,” Feliks waved a hand.

  “At least we would have survived an attack like that, right?” Ensign Medica asked. “I mean, we wouldn't have been hit by the high intensity radio and microwave frequencies that cooked everyone here.”

  “Oh, that's true enough,” Feliks said. “We were much too far away for that to happen. Of course, we'd be trapped aboard ships without functioning power, radiation shielding, or environmental systems. So it would be likely that we would either freeze to death or suffocate and if we didn't, we'd likely die of radiation poisoning within a few weeks or months.”

  Ensign Medica's stomach fell. “I thought this weapon was designed to neutralize a ship for capture...”

  “Oh, yes,” Feliks nodded, “but this planetary-scale discharge would completely destroy all functional technology not only where we were, but also for everything in orbit, on the surface of the planet, and for many hundreds of thousands of kilometers around.”

  “No,” Rory shook his head, “there's no way we'd die from suffocation, much less radiation exposure.” Ensign Medica breathed a sigh of relief, but Rory's continued words stilled that, “The Constellation has antimatter warheads and a power core. Although they're all shielded to a large extent, there's no way they'd hold up against such a focused bombardment. We'd have lost containment on something over fifty kilograms of antimatter before we even realized we were dead.”

  “Oh,” Ensign Medica said, his stomach feeling hollow as he tried to calculate the yield of that much antimatter meeting matter as their electromagnetic matrices failed all at the same instant all in close proximity.

  “Why didn't you tell us this before?” Commander Bowder asked.

  Rory blinked at him, “Well, I thought all that was all pretty obvious.”

  Feliks nodded, “Yes, it was very trivial.”

  ***

  Alannis stood crisply at attention as the six officers carried the casket past.

  She watched as they settled the casket in the airlock, covered by the blue and green flag of the United Colonies. They had his official military holograph on display against the bulkhead, but all that Alannis saw was his ruined face after the pirate had executed him. He never had a chance, she thought, and it's all my fault.

  Captain Beeson stepped forward as they filed out of the airlock and assembled. There wasn't a large area for this final ceremony, not here by the airlock. They'd already had a larger memorial service. This was a final farewell. “In the tradition of the service, we commit our dead to space, into the stars from which we all come.”

  Alannis didn't know Lieutenant Commander Douglass's faith. She wondered if one day she would have a similar ceremony... or if her remains would be lost to space in the destruction of a ship or the violence of space combat. Or if I'll live through all that, she thought, and be haunted by the dead like my brother.

  “Farewell,” Captain Beeson said and gave a nod.

  Lieutenant Forrest Perkins cycled the airlock. A simple rocket assist launched the casket out the airlock, set in a declining orbit that would eventually bring the officer's remains to the system's star.

  Just like that, he was gone. According to her faith, gone on to a better reward... but Alannis and the others were left with the world they lived in. Alannis couldn't do anything for him... nothing but to swear to avenge him.

  A pirate may have been the one to pull the trigger, but Reese had killed him. She would bring her ex-husband to justice and she would make certain he paid for his crimes... even if it was the last thing that she did.

  ***

  Chuni caught up to her not long afterward, just outside Alannis's quarters.

  “Ensign, I need to formally apologize to you,” Chuni said. “As your friend and companion, I should have remained by your side and fought.”

  Alannis blinked at her in surprise, “Chuni, you helped to rescue me. If not for you, I'd be dead or still captive.”

  “But I could have acted,” Chuni said. “I might have stopped them from killing Lieutenant Commander Douglass. I could have stopped them from kidnapping you. I hesitated because I wanted to avoid the risk, perhaps if I had not...”

  “It isn't your fault,” Alannis said. It was my fault, she thought. “It was more important that word get out to the Captain. You did that, which gave him some time to react. If you had just charged in, you would be dead.” Certainly the pirates had been ready for armed resistance. She didn't see how fighting at that time could have changed anything.

  “Still, I feel as if I owe you a debt,” Chuni said in a subdued voice. “I was too worried about... about my own situation that I did not think of your safety first.”

  “You don't owe me anything,” Alannis said and she couldn't help a trace of bitterness in her voice. “In case you haven't really thought about it, my family has a direct responsibility for what happened to you. My brother was a part of the raid that took down your homeworld's defenses. My distant cousin, the Emperor, was the one who ordered the attack that
made you an orphan and forced you to grow up in a refugee camp.”

  Chuni's hide went dark blue. “There is much dishonor on both sides. Sometimes I fear that were I to spend my entire life I could never avenge all the dishonors done to my people.”

  Alannis shook her head at that, “At least it isn't your job to do that, right?”

  Chuni's hide shifted in a series of colors and then she spoke in a low voice, “Alannis, my friend, could we speak in private?”

  “Sure,” Alannis said and led the way into her quarters. Ashtar Shan was back on shift, so she had their quarters to herself.

  Chuni stooped low to draw inside. “Do you happen to have any coke?”

  Alannis hid a smile as she pulled some out of the tiny refrigerator. She occasionally drank such drinks to give her a bit of a boost between shifts, but if she understood right, caffeine had a very different effect upon Ghornath.

  Chuni cracked open the bottle and then drained it in several deep swallows. She belched, “Excuse me, I don't normally indulge myself... but that hit the spot.” Her mirror-like eyes were inscrutable, but her hide had shifted to a more neutral brown. “I apologize to you, Alannis, for I haven't been entirely honest with you. I have a secret that I have not shared with nearly anyone, not even those of my own race. In fact, only two of my people even know the truth: Rastar and the warrior who raised me.”

  Alannis leaned back against her bunk. She didn't know what this had to do with her friendship with the female Ghornath, but she could respect that Chuni felt it was important.

  “My name,” her friend said, “is Hycar Barratta Annar, I am the daughter of the old Emperor and the sister to the murdered Emperor Hyrune. I am the last of the House of Annar and the rightful heir the throne.”

  Alannis stared at her, “Wait... you're a princess?”