by Kal Spriggs
“I have no idea,” Tommy said. His puzzlement increased as the Kraken hit his ships with targeting sensors. What was she doing? For that matter, who did she have to operate the other systems, since he saw the ship whip up and around. He could manage three systems at most from the command chair... yet he was seeing four or five systems under control at once.
Yet a moment later the ship powered down and then, with the backdrop of Baron Lucius Giovanni wiping out Admiral Mannetti's allies, the Kraken lay still. “Hail her,” Tommy said. As they drew closer, he could see trails of vented atmosphere and bodies from the Kraken, yet he saw no external damage. Someone vented the crew to space, he thought with a chill. It was a bad way to die, and he somehow doubted that many of the lax crew had their suits close at hand.
“No response,” his sensors officer said a moment later. “Baron Giovanni has finished off Admiral Mannetti's allies, by the way, he thanks you for the assistance and says he'll be headed for orbit. He asks if you'll be sticking around and what your intentions are.”
Tommy stared at the silent Kraken. “Tell him I intend to board the Kraken, Lauren Kelly might be alive aboard.” Yet as the ship hung motionless, he wondered more and more if it had been some desperate last action taken by the woman he loved. Please, he thought, you must live.
He looked over at Kandergain, “You sticking around?”
She just nodded, “Though I'm not going to advertise my presence, I do need to speak with Lucius.” Something about the way that she didn’t meet Tommy’s gaze told him that it wasn’t a talk she looked forward to having.
Tommy just shrugged. “Fine,” he thought the two had some kind of relationship, but he didn't really care. The only relationship that he cared about just now was the one he might have just lost.
Then his command console came alive with an audio comm channel. “Mason,” Lauren's voice said, “I'm glad to see you came back with friends. Come aboard, but just you.”
Tommy frowned at that. There was something wrong with her voice, a note of hesitation that he didn't recognize... and something else. Yet before he could respond, the channel went dead.
“How the hell did she do that?” his communications officer demanded from his console.
“I guess you need to upgrade our defenses and figure out how to prevent it,” Tommy said with a grin. His communications officer scowled, but he got to work all the same. I like my people, Tommy thought, they're the best at what they do and they know it... and they work hard to stay that way.
Tommy arched an eyebrow at Kandergain, who gave him a nod, “I'll take care of my own transport, go see your girlfriend, Captain.”
“Thanks,” Tommy said. He looked around the bridge, “Order our people into parking orbits, lots of space between us and our allies, I don't want any mistakes. I'll have a Captain's Council in two hours.” His eyes went narrow, “Oh, and tell Captain Jenny of the Ranger that she's invited aboard for that as well.”
He took his own private shuttle over to the Kraken. As he docked, he saw that someone had repressurized the ship. As he stepped aboard, the ship seemed eerily still, more so, even than when he had boarded it the first time. Lauren was nowhere to be found at the airlock. Nor was she in the crew quarters as he came there.
Tommy walked the familiar corridors and his unease grew until he finally came to the bridge.
The lights on the bridge were turned down, leaving most of it in shadow, but Tommy's eyes made out the female figure seated at the command chair. “Lauren?”
“Hello, Mason,” she answered. Her voice was hesitant and he saw her lean back into the shadows of the chair a bit more.
“What's going on?” Tommy asked. “Are you okay? Are you injured?”
“I'm not injured,” she answered, “not anymore, anyway.” Her tone was equal parts resigned and bitter. “I thought... well, I thought this would be easier.” She took a deep breath and then the bridge lights came on.
The sudden light dazzled his eyes and Tommy had to blink his eyes against the light. “Well,” Lauren said with some bitter amusement, “At least I see I'm not the only one to change a bit... I take it you are once more Tommy King?”
Tommy's eyes finally adjusted and he hissed as he saw what had been done to her. Metallic wires wound over and through her skin. A tangle of wires crisscrossed her naked scalp and sank into her skull. A cluster of wires and metal tubing bored into her side and also at her shoulder. “Jesus,” he said, “What did that bitch do to you?”
Lauren looked away, “She didn't do this... I did this. I opened the neural connection with the ship and it... changed me. She looked back and met Tommy's gaze, “I'm not entirely... human anymore.” Her eyes welled up with tears. “Can you still love me?”
Tommy rushed forward and caught her in his arms. “How could I not?” He said. “You're still you, whatever this is, we can either fix it or adapt, alright?” Yet as he touched her, he could feel that the changes were more than skin deep. Wiring and tubing worked deep inside her body... Lauren had become a part of the Kraken. What could he do to help her?
“We'll get through this,” Tommy said, even as Lauren began to cry.
***
Chapter XIII
Halcyon Colony, Garris Major System
(Status Unknown)
May 5, 2404
Jessica Penwaithe looked at her husband expectantly as he stepped into the office. “Well?”
“Public opinion is very hard to measure,” he said with a shrug. “There's a lot of support for you and I, quite a bit more for my brother and the War Dogs, and actually quite a bit for Baron Giovanni... though who knew our people would be so eager to embrace a warlord?”
Jessica grimaced at that, but not for the reason that Harris had. She had worked far more closely with the military than Harris in her time as the Councilor of Military Affairs. In that time, she had seen a variety of military figures who ranged from naked ambition like Admiral Mannnetti to those who were so anti-political that they couldn't seem to comment favorably on the weather.
Baron Lucius Giovanni was like no one she had ever dealt with. All politicians had a touch of ambition, her husband no exception. They wanted to control the levers of power, they wanted to feel in control. Quite without apparent effort, Baron Giovanni was in control. He spoke and people listened. He gave orders and they were carried out. He seemed to have a rudimentary grasp, at best, of the political process, yet his United Colonies had a remarkably stable government for all that it had lasted only a year.
True, she thought, they had the coup attempt... but they squashed it and moved on. In fact, if anything, the government and popular opinion of not just the Baron, but all their elected leaders were far higher than anything she would have expected... and all of that came back to the Baron.
She didn't know how he did what he did. It was almost as if he simply expected people to do their jobs and they had no other choice than to match those expectations... or fail. That might be why he's seen so many betrayals, she thought, the expectation of competence might just be too much for some people.
“I thought we offered to put joining the United Colonies to a vote?” Jessica asked.
“Well, yes,” Harris said, “But we need to lay the proper groundwork for that. The right administration could do that. I think we could ride the popular swing right now into leveraging that.”
Jessica didn't need to parse the bullshit to know what he meant by that. “You want to take over as President?”
“Interim President,” he said. “Until we are stable enough to hold a proper election. We can put a referendum to vote at that point on the United Colonies, too.”
Jessica leaned back against her desk, “That could take some time, months, maybe years.”
Harris shrugged, “You saw the fleet they have, it's not like they need us right away...”
Jessica wasn't so certain. She felt like the Baron had sent this mission on a shoestring, certainly the planning had been... creative. She wondered
just how badly the Dreyfus Coup had hurt his Fleet... and how much the twenty ships at Heinlein Base might help.
“I think hasty action on our part is the last thing that anyone needs,” Harris said confidently. “I think we can both agree that a gradual shift would be best for all parties in the long run. I mean, really, they're talking about integrating Tehran into their United Colonies... perhaps we should allow public opinion some time to settle, right?”
“Perhaps,” Jessica said.
***
“This is a terrible idea,” Garret muttered to himself as he followed Abigail out of the taxi.
“What was that?” Abigail asked.
“Nothing,” Garret said with a false smile.
“Well, cheer up, grumpy guts,” Abigail said as she took his arm. “You're going to explain things to my father and he's going to be thrilled, and then we're going to go to his favorite bar, where he can tell all his friends about it.”
“Right,” Garret said. Despite his acquiescence, he felt far more nervous about the outcome of this particular discussion. Abigail's father, Daniel, had been far more of a father figure to him than his own father. The respect he felt for the old soldier was hard for him to even put into words... and the last thing he wanted to see was disappointment in the man's eyes when Garret told him the news.
They stepped up to the door and Garret knocked. Okay, he thought, at least Abigail agreed to let me tell him my way, we'll go in, get coffee, make some small talk and then...
The door opened and Daniel stood there.
“Guess what, dad?” Abigail said cheerfully, “Garret proposed and we're getting married!”
***
Much to Garret's relief, Daniel Gordon did not act with the instant homicidal rage that he had feared. Instead he had congratulated them both, invited them in for coffee, and then asked Garret if he wanted to join him at the local bar for drinks.
“What do you think about this United Colonies thing?” one of the other old-timers at the bar asked Garret.
Garret shrugged a bit, “Their military is good,” he said. “Professional, none of the looting and thuggery I've seen under a lot of governments.” Even in their coup, from what he understood, the military had conducted itself in a fashion that only threatened legitimate targets.
“What about their Baron Giovanni?”
“I can answer that,” a man down the way said. He was stocky, with Asiatic features. “I've been with the Baron for a couple years now.”
The entire bar went quiet then, they hadn't realized any of the Baron's people were there and Garret could see that many of them felt suddenly uncomfortable.
“He's alright,” one of the older men said, “Tam, here brought my son Jack back from Brokenjaw Mountain, alive and safe when we thought that he would be dead. I invited him down here.”
“Oh,” the oldtimer said, “well, tell us about your Baron.”
“He's a good man,” Tam said. “Trusts you to do your job... trusts everyone to do their jobs. When he gives an order, you just do it. It's not that you don't have a choice, you do... but he just seems to know what has to happen.”
Daniel nodded at that, “Got some charisma, then?”
Tam shrugged, “Smarts. He thinks four, five, six moves ahead. And he does everything he can to protect people and especially those who follow him. I was there when he defeated the Balor at the Third Battle of Faraday...”
***
“...so that's when Caela turned her gunboat and fired,” Garret said. “Took the station out... but the gun shredded her. She could have lived... but she died so that the rest of us could live.”
“Absent companions,” a half dozen voices said in unison and the group at the bar raised their tankards in salute.
“You young fellows get all the glory,” an old man said, “my time, there wasn't a good side. PCRA bastards were just terrorist thugs and those of us who served in Amalgamated Worlds were stuck cracking heads on stubborn miners. That's why I gave it all up and came out here.” The old man teared up, “Wish I was young enough for a proper war like this one. Then I could be a proper hero.”
Garret shrugged uncomfortably, “I'm just a mercenary.” He looked over at Tam Chen, “The Gunny here is the hero.”
“Hah,” another man clapped Garret on the shoulder, “That is a funny one. You've saved our world, Garret Penwaithe, and that's not something anyone here is going to forget. Hell, the fact that you came back when we needed you puts lie to the whole idea that you're just a mercenary.”
Garret shrugged, “I just did what needed to be done. Plenty of others did the same thing.”
“But you're from here...” the man said, “And better, you're marrying Daniel's daughter Abigail... so we'll have a pair of heroes with ties back here.”
Garret flushed, but he didn't argue anymore. He wasn't used to being told he was a hero. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate it, it just made him feel uncomfortable. He hadn't done it for praise or thanks, he had done what he did because it was what he had to do.
A moment later the door opened and Jessica stepped into the bar. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of cheap beer. “Garret,” she said with a note of resignation. Abigail said I could find you here.”
“Hey, no women in the bar!” one of the old timers said, “This is sacred ground!”
Jessica gave the old man a level look and he looked down and muttered into his beer. She cocked an eyebrow at Garret, “We need to talk. Alone.”
“All right,” Garret said. He gave the others, including Daniel and Tam Chen nods and then stepped out into the street. Jessica had a sleek black car waiting and she waited for Garret to get in before she joined him. “What's up?” He asked as the car pulled away.
“Your brother Harris is making some sort of power play,” she said. “He's not going to outright violate our agreement with Baron Giovanni... but he is going to drag his feet as much as he can. I think his thought process is that he would rather be a big fish in a small pond.”
Garret stared at her. He had been more than a little buzzed when he got in the vehicle. He had half expected some sort of angry tirade about taking advantage of her little sister or something like that... he had not expected high level politics.
He sobered up quickly as he thought about it. “We promised him we would support him... he's not going to like being lied to.”
“Worse,” she said, “half of our people are pretty excited about the idea of annexation and the other half are willing to at least give it a try. If Harris drags his feet, he's likely to burn up that positive momentum in just building his own political apparatus... and leave us with nothing but a lot of enemies as a result.”
Garret frowned at that. It was basically what he'd said, in his mind, but she seemed to see a difference. “So, what do you want me to do about it?”
“Tell the Baron,” she said. “And if I make a move, I'd appreciate your support.”
Garret winced, “I'm not sure I want to get involved in politics between my brother and his wife.” It was even worse for the fact that he was going to marry her sister.
She looked at him for a long moment with an unreadable expression. “Is that all that I am to you?”
Garret leaned back, this had taken a turn into very dangerous territory. There wasn't really a right answer to that, so finally he decided to be honest. “Whatever feelings I had for you, Jessica, you married my brother. That basically put an end to them. I can't afford to think of you as anything other than my brother's wife, the mother of my nephews, and maybe as a friend.” He took a harsh breath as he thought back to how things had been before he left. “Maybe if I had stayed, things would be different.” Certainly they had been intimate, he could even admit that he had thought he loved her... but she had made her choice and he had made his. He had left her behind when he abandoned his family and past... and she had apparently fallen for his brother and married him only months after Garret had left. He met her eyes, “And whatever my feelings may
have been... I love your sister. You might think I'm taking advantage of her–”
“I think she's been planning this conquest for the past decade,” Jessica said with a roll of her eyes. “But I am glad to hear that you're marrying her for the right reason.” She sighed and her gaze went to the window as they drove through her old neighborhood. He wondered if she missed it, in her big house with Harris. “There's something else I need to tell you.”
“Oh?” Garret asked. He felt entirely sober now and he felt worry roil in his guts. She had already told him that his brother was just as murky in his politics as their father, what did she hesitate to tell him, now?
“When I thought you were dead...” she trailed off. “When I thought Stavros had killed you for Mannetti, before I knew that Tommy King was pretending to be Stavros.”
Garret nodded, “Which still gives me a headache.” Popular support had trebled for the pirate. Stavros had been a scoundrel and hero... Tommy King was a notorious pirate who had made good and come back to save them in the bargain. It doesn't hurt that he looted Presidente Salazar's worlds a few decades back and that he funneled some of that wealth back through here with crew he had hired.
The damnable thing was that he honestly seemed to want to go legitimate... and Garret found it hard to wrap his head around what could make the man change so much. A woman, Garret thought, it's got to be a woman, women mess everything up.
“There are a lot of things I regret,” Jessica said. She gave a bitter smile, “I'm a politician; my job is to make compromises that most people would regret. I regret not spending more time with my boys. I regret having ever accepted the plan to hire people like Admiral Mannetti to help liberate our world... but when I thought you were dead there was one thing that I realized I regretted more than anything else... one thing that if I had any power to change, I would.”
She looked back and met his gaze, “And it turns out that I can change it.” She let out a ragged breath, “I couldn't live with myself knowing that you didn't know the truth: Garth isn't Harris's son, he's yours.”
