The Prodigal Emperor (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 3)

by Kal Spriggs

  Alarms shrieked and Jenny dropped the coffee. The Yarris had vanished, replaced by a cloud of debris as it was struck from several sides by energy fire.

  Her gaze shot to her screen and her eyes widened as she saw the targeting sensors that had lit up her ship... and from how many directions. A veritable fleet had appeared on her sensors... and as soon as she realized that, all the ships but one vanished again, gone back into stealth mode. We are surrounded, she thought.

  The lone ship remaining had an active transponder. It read as a battlecruiser... the Revenge.

  A face appeared on her display. The man was tall, handsome, and dressed in black. “Attention, crew of the Ranger. You know who I am, right?” His voice was a light drawl... somehow intimidating while sounding friendly.

  Jenny's hand shook a bit as she activated her communications, “Yes, sir, I know who you are.”

  “Good,” he said. “You will make no hostile move. You will maintain your picket. I was never here, understood?”

  Jenny just nodded, too awed to say anything.

  “Good,” Tommy King cut the connection.

  Jenny looked around at her bridge crew. “Maintain communications silence."

  “What do we do if Admiral Mannetti sends someone to talk to us and they see, that?” Her communications officer said as he pointed at the wreckage of the Yarris.

  Jenny waved a hand, “Some kind of engineering malfunction. I don't know, make it sound convincing.” It wasn't like they would have to draw it out for long, she knew. Tommy King was in the system... and Admiral Mannetti was about to find out what a real pirate was like.

  Jenny stroked the arm of her command chair, Oh, boy, she thought, If I play this right, then I may get to see him in action. She absently wiped a smear of brown coffee-flavored water off her stained environmental suit. “Call all hands to their stations, bring our systems online...” she smiled, “tell them that Tommy King is about to ream Admiral Mannetti and we've got front row seats.”

  She completely ignored the fact that Admiral Mannetti had offered her pay to watch her back out here. This kind of opportunity came only once in a lifetime... and Jenny wasn't going to miss it.

  I wonder if I can get him to sign the Ranger's hull, she wondered.

  ***

  Lucretta Mannetti frowned as the War Dogs continued their approach. They had to know that they were outnumbered and outmatched. While her carrier, the Harpy, had only minimal onboard weapons, her Interceptor fighters could launch a massive salvo. If the Hammers mounted a mix of light and heavy missiles, she could saturate their defenses with her fighter strike alone. The Warwagon had substantial close-range defenses, she knew, but against a thousand or more missiles from her fighters and that of her allies, that wouldn't matter.

  Her eyes narrowed, “Still no word from our picket ships?” Captain Oronkwo's corvettes had departed after Spencer Penwaithe had pushed President Monaghan out of power. The mercenary captain hadn't struck her as the type to retain his loyalty after his employers fell from power, but it wasn't beyond consideration that the War Dogs had offered him some form of payment to stick around. His corvettes had excellent stealth systems, they might try to slip in and flank her main force and the best route to do so was from behind Halcyon's moon.

  “No, Admiral,” her communications officer said. “They reported in, but they've dropped below the horizon again.”

  Lucretta grimaced at that. Halcyon's colony had never had the money to install proper communications satellites. Unless she sent one of her ships, she wouldn't be able to communicate with the picket until they came back around on their patrol. A glance at her console showed that another twenty minutes remained. “Order Vandar to send one of his frigates to relay to the picket. I want to hear what they have to say.”

  She waited, it would take seven minutes for the frigate to move into position. Her fighters could do it in five, but then they would be drastically out of position for when the enemy drew near. Lucretta gave a last glance at the moon and then back to the Kraken on her screen. “Lourdes, what's the update on the woman?” Despite Mendoza's experience on the ship, she had appointed the assassin to be in charge of the vessel. Mendoza had screwed things up when he put the ship on lockdown trying to gain access to the main system.

  Besides, Lucretta thought, Theresa Lourdes wouldn't hesitate to space her own mother, Mark Mendoza would probably piss his pants if I told him to kill Lucius's spy.

  The response was hesitant, “We're working on it, Admiral. We just got her to the bridge.”

  Seriously, she thought darkly, what took them so long?

  ***

  Lauren winced as the two guards set her stretcher down none too gently. Neither had seemed particularly happy about carrying her to the bridge, but then again, they had both told her that they were survivors of her rampage through their base, so she couldn't say she was very surprised.

  She hadn't entirely feigned the need to be carried, either. She was painfully weak, she knew, and she wanted to conserve what strength she had for when it would matter most.

  “Here you are,” Theresa Lourdes said, her voice acid. “You said you had to be on the bridge.”

  “It's a biometric lock,” Lauren said, “Reese should have told you that.”

  “He did,” she responded, “But that doesn't mean I trust you up here... or your sudden helpfulness.” Theresa Lourdes had shed her previous friendly nature. Mason had hired her as the ship's doctor, but Kandergain had told Lauren the woman often worked as an assassin for Admiral Mannetti. “I think you're just stalling for time. That won't work. Now do your thing.”

  Lauren gestured for someone to help her to set up. One of the guards leaned over and jerked her roughly upright. Lauren didn't have to fake the gasp of pain that brought. She felt several of her wounds tear open and the room spun before her eyes. She sagged against the guard, unable to do more than focus on staying conscious for several moments.

  “Well?” Theresa Lourdes asked impatiently.

  “Commander's chair,” Lauren gasped. She looked around the bridge and saw while Admiral Mannetti's spies from before remained at their positions, they now wore her uniform and they had been joined by a half dozen other crew, also in her uniform.

  The guard all but dragged her over. The other guard had his weapon leveled at her. Lauren activated the command console and brought up the system as she had seen Mason do once before. Among the panels she brought online, in a cascade meant to distract Lourdes and her guards, Lauren also brought up a sensor feed. She didn't recognize the ships inbound, but she realized enough to know that someone was coming to attack Admiral Mannetti.

  Lauren heard the communications officer speak up. “Ma'am, Admiral Mannetti wants an update.”

  Lourdes looked away from Lauren, “Tell her we're working on it.”

  In that instant, Lauren activated the last sequence and then passed her hand over panel. Lights and alarms flashed and her guards both looked around in confusion. Lourdes's gaze snapped back towards Lauren, but before she could bring her pistol up, the deck shifted under her and she had to leap back as it retracted.

  As before, a cocoon of wires and machinery opened up out of the floor. Lauren didn't hesitate. She leapt for it. She heard a single gunshot and felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, but then she landed inside the alien device. It closed down around her and Lauren felt machinery hum to life even as the thing seemed to adjust itself around her.

  For just a moment she heard shouted commands, but then the device retracted and the deck closed overhead, leaving her in the dark.

  Lauren shivered. She didn't know if she had made a terrible mistake or not, but this had seemed like her only opportunity to stop Admiral Mannetti... or at least to prevent the Kraken from being taken over.

  Around her in the darkness, she thought she heard something slither. A moment later, she felt warm liquid touch her feet and before she had even realized what was going on, it had risen to her knees. Lauren felt a sudden pani
c, she could be missing some simple thing like a breathing tube and be drowned in this, her effort for nothing.

  The slithering noise grew louder, it sounded most like metallic scales sliding against each other.

  Lauren fought against the machinery that held her, she shouted out for help, even though she knew that no one was there to help her. She felt something brush past the restraints that held her ankles. A moment later, she felt something cold and metallic slither up her spine.

  The warm fluid had risen to her chest. She took deep breaths and tried to calm herself, yet she could feel something slither through her hair and cold, metal tentacles crawled across her scalp. “Someone, please, help me!” she gasped.

  And then the thing behind her struck.

  Pain lanced through her body as the metal tentacles on her scalp bored into her head. Lauren screamed shrilly as pain rolled through her. She felt its bite all along her spine, along her wounded side, and she even felt the icy, stabbing pain in her shoulder.

  Along with the pain came a cacophony of sounds, dazzling lights, and a gibberish of voices and words. The stabbing pain grew worse as Lauren shrieked. She fought against the restraints, fought to escape, everything beyond her fight or flight instincts completely overwhelmed.

  And then, most terrifying of all... she felt a presence in her mind. It loomed over her, dwarfing her intellect in every way, a black and looming existence that peered down at her from impossible heights. Lauren's every instinct shrieked at her to flee, to tear free of her restraints or to abandon sanity and hide in madness.

  Some stubbornness gave her the willpower to stand against it, for just a moment. She was Lauren Kelly, she wasn't afraid of anything. I will fight you, she thought.

  To her horror, the force responded, its voice so powerful that it pushed every other thought out of her head. YES, it said, FIGHT. There was an unholy glee to the powerful voice, as if it wanted nothing less... and Lauren whimpered as it came for her, rolling down and pouring inside her mind.

  The pain it brought dwarfed the physical pain she felt. The alien presence burned like molten metal as it poured through her brain, and Lauren Kelly screamed as her brain burned.

  ***

  “Right about now, our shuttles should be arriving at their destinations,” Lucius said quietly.

  “I'm sure they'll do fine, sir,” Captain Beeson said.

  “I've no doubt,” Lucius said with confidence, yet he still felt more than a bit of unease about the mission. It wasn't the first time he had sent people in on a risky mission and he knew it wouldn't be the last, but he hated to be dependent upon untested equipment.

  The five stealth shuttles weren't the only discoveries they'd made after dismantling the conspiracy, but they certainly might prove among the most valuable. Lucius didn't want to even know how expensive the craft would be to reproduce, but he had already put Matthew Nogita and James Harbach to studying the schematics.

  Just now, he was more concerned that the prototypes seemed to work. Two of them were headed to the planet, to seize the alien facility. Each shuttle carried two platoons of United Colonies Marines in powered armor along with the two engineers who Lucius hoped could seize the base.

  Equally important to him was the other three shuttles. Colonel Wiliam Proscia commanded that group, almost a full battalion of Marines in powered armor, whose goal it was to seize Heinlein Base and free the local crews that Admiral Mannetti had interned. Lucius didn't expect them to get their ships online before the battle was complete, but if Mannetti controlled the base, she might order them killed when she realized that she had already lost the battle.

  And that moment is coming up soon, now, he thought with a slight smile.

  Some of the other windfalls from the coup was that they had located a large stockpile of munitions that the conspirators had set aside for later use. While it hadn't ended their problems in terms of replacing their missiles, it had given them enough that Lucius had authorized a full load out for the War Dogs' vessels. The seventy-two Hammer-class gunships could carry the missiles converted for use by the Nova Roma ships with only slight modifications. The Warwagon didn't mount missile tubes or racks at all, so it really was a relatively minor expenditure compared to what he had already given Emperor Romulus IV's forces.

  In all, the nine ships in his force were similarly a small expenditure. If he had the choice, he would have sent more... but the sad truth was that he had nothing else to send. The converted Balor destroyer didn't have a flag bridge, but Lucius had retained command of it for the moment in any case. He had cited the most experience with the alien ship, but in reality, he simply loved how fast and maneuverable it was... and its full sensor and communications suite was enough to justify his use of it as a flagship. Rory had seemed absolutely certain that the upgraded engine control system would work, even though Feliks had seemed somewhat more doubtful. Captain Boris Kaminsky crewed the largest, his battlecruiser Roosevelt Forest. Most of the rest of the ships were also captained by officers who had been part of the counter-conspiracy and who had preserved their ships and crews intact through the coup. Captain Tyler Markos commanded the heavy cruiser Tyro, Captains Anoshav and Nagora commanded the light cruisers Gallant and Lancer. Two pair of Archer-class and Kukri-class destroyers rounded out the force.

  In all, there were eight ships of the United Colonies Fleet, backed by a partially converted Balor Dagger-class destroyer. It wasn't a huge force. In fact, in Lucius's opinion it was far lighter than he felt comfortable with... but it was everything he could bring.

  “Time to give her the bad news,” Lucius said with a final glance at the chrono before he nodded at the helmsman, “Fire it up.”

  The helmsman gave a grin as he brought the engines up from standby mode.

  The eight ships engaged their drives and at the same time, the War Dogs' formation shifted. The Warwagon began to drop back along with the Hammers and Lucius's ships swept to the fore, forming up something like a proper battle line. The move was based off of Mason’s cryptic message, his statement about his intention to return and have a battle like at Trinity. Lucius hoped that he had properly understood what he had meant, otherwise he was giving up the element of surprise. Mannetti's forces were drawing up, her carrier had withdrawn to the rear and her fighters had swept forward into a screen.

  Lucius keyed his communications online and set it for a full spectrum broadcast. With the destroyer's transmission power, it should reach the entire planet and every ship in orbit. “Attention, this is Baron Lucius Giovanni of the United Colonies. I am here to apprehend the rogue officer Lucretta Mannetti, for an assortment of crimes and misdemeanors including treason, piracy, murder, torture, and assassination.” He had actually looked at her formal list of charges for the first time on his way to Halcyon and he could privately admit, they were impressive. “I am also here to free Halcyon from her forces and to return civilian control of the government.”

  Lucius paused a moment, “Any who aid Lucretta Mannetti or her agents will be punished. Any who oppose me will be destroyed. I await your surrender. Baron Lucius Giovanni, out.”

  ***

  Admiral Lucretta Mannetti scowled at her communications feed as Vandar's frigate relayed to the Ranger. “What do you mean 'accident'?”

  “Well, we're fine, here, everyone's fine... but the Yarris is gone. Captain Mesalle said he was doing some kind of drive calibration–”

  Lucretta cut him off. “Put your Captain on,” she snapped. A moment later the petite blonde Captain appeared. “Why didn't you immediately shift position to notify us?”

  “We were engaged in rescue operations,” Captain Jenny Bole said, “It wasn't an attack, so we didn't think it was high priority traffic, or not as high as rescuing some of your people.” Her voice was calm, yet there was a touch of something in her voice, almost as if she were too smug about her answer.

  Lucretta barely caught herself before she spoke. She could care less about the late Captain Mesalle's people, they were
n't hers. For that matter, the loss of the frigate had left her rear exposed, and Lucretta would far rather have known that than even the rescue even some of her own people. She couldn't very well say that, though, or the other pirates who had signed on with her might realize how little she valued their survival.

  “Get back in position as soon as you can,” Lucretta snapped, “Captain Vandar's frigate will remain in position as a relay. I want periodic status updates for the rescue as well as–”

  Her feed cut out and her head snapped up, “What was...”

  She trailed off as a broadcast overpowered the connection. She felt a bit of horror as she realized the sheer broadcast power required to overwhelm a radio transmission like that... and then more as she recognized the face on her screen.

  “Attention, this is Baron Lucius Giovanni of the United Colonies. I am here to apprehend the rogue officer Lucretta Mannetti, for an assortment of crimes and misdemeanors including treason, piracy, murder, torture, and assassination.” Lucius looked disgustingly pleased with himself as he spoke, entirely the prim and proper officer, with none of the ambition that drove her. If he only knew how much I hated him as my Executive Officer, she thought, every day a reminder of my own failures, my own inability to look past opportunities for my own advancement. “I am also here to free Halcyon from her forces and to return civilian control of the government.” Of course he was, she thought, the insufferable bastard probably believed that the peasants of this world could rule themselves.

  Lucius paused a moment, “Any who aid Lucretta Mannetti or her agents will be punished. Any who oppose me will be destroyed. I await your surrender. Baron Lucius Giovanni, out.”

  Just like that, her world went to hell. Her communications officer looked up, her face pale, “Admiral, we have over a dozen ships hailing us...”

  She gnawed on her lip as she thought about what Marius Giovanni would do to her if she did succeed here and killed his son. The punishment he had leveled upon her for nearly succeeding the past few times had been painful enough. She didn't think that he would react to the death of his son with anything approaching acceptance.