The Price of Freedom

by William R. Forstchen

  The clash of the titans completely overshadowed the fighter duels in front of it. The small craft slashed and attacked, mirroring the vast combat in the background. Torpedo bombers from the Intrepid began their runs against the huge carrier, drawing the defenders back towards their own ship. Border Worlds Hellcats followed, doing their best to fend off the Confed birds.

  Blair stayed under cloak, hunting Confed Black Lances that pounced on Border Worlds fighters. Confed Lances returned the favor, giving the emphasis to hit-and-run, flicker-in-shoot-fade-out tactics. Blair found cloaked combat bizarre, even as he smoked his second Lance.

  He glanced down to check his ordnance and saw the flash-pak and mines glowing green in his centerline bay. He looked up at the Vesuvius, still trading hammerblows with the St. Helens. He grinned, seeing the damaged areas of the Vesuvius where the St. Helens had taken out her secondary turrets. He armed a flash-pak and turned to begin his attack run.

  "Tiger to Base," he said. "I'm going to try and ring their bells with one of their secret weapons."

  "Be careful," Wilford replied. "Our analysis suggests that you probably won't be able to penetrate the hull. These two ships carry improved shielding to protect against what you're trying to do." Wilford paused. "You're going to have to get inside for the thing to work."

  "Damn," Blair replied. "All right, I'm breaking off."

  He swept back around in time to see a Black Lance drop out of cloak, rip a Hellcat, and turn away. A second Hellcat slashed in and fired, flaring the Lance's shields.

  Maniacs face appeared in Blairs comm-screen. "Yee-Haw, take that, you son of a bitch!" He fired again, hitting the Lance as it turned to engage. Blair took advantage of the moment to drop his own cloak, and fire his fusion guns. The Confed Lance, caught in a pincer, tried to cloak.

  Maniac let it, painting it with his lasers to give Blair a solid target. He pounded it with his guns, until it decloaked and slowed. Maniac fired again, his shots piercing its upper hull. The fighter detonated a moment after Blair saw its pod eject.

  His comm-screen crackled and steadied. He glanced down, expecting it to be Maniac. His heart leapt into his throat as he saw the cold, cold eyes and expressionless face behind the helmet. "Hello, Colonel," Seether said, "I know you're out here. Close by, in fact. I've come for you, Colonel. You personally. Are you ready to die?"

  Blair felt his heart hammer in his chest. He thought back to the moment in the bar, when Seether had held him helpless and begun to squeeze his throat. He realized he was afraid of the black-suited pilot. He swallowed. He would never be rid of that fear unless he confronted it. A piece of him wanted the confrontation, to resolve the issue… one way or the other.

  "All right," he snapped. "Where are you?" Seether smiled coldly. "Just off the Vesuvius' stern. Come and get me."

  Maniac cut into his screen. "Who was that?"

  "Seether," Blair replied tightly. "You put a gun in his ear back on Nephele."

  "Him?!" Maniac replied, "That's Seether?"

  "Yeah," Blair grunted. He rotated his Lance and dove on Seether's ship, hovering astern of the Confed carrier. Seether dodged to the right, inviting Blair to take the first shot.

  Blair was more than willing to accommodate him. He punched his Lance forward, slashing his stick to the right and standing the fighter on its tail as he slewed it around and fired. Seether broke hard left. Blairs first salvo glanced off of his phase shield. He pulled his yoke back, autoslid, fired again, and missed again as Seether snap-rolled his ship out of trouble.

  "Not bad, Colonel," Seether said, "but not good enough." Blair gritted his teeth. He pulled his stick back, bringing the Lances nose up sharply into an inside loop. Midway through the loop, he eased the fighter into a half-roll, executing a classic Immelman turn that placed him level with Seether, who promptly broke away into his own corkscrewing dive. Blair dove after him, trying to align his fighter for a missile shot.

  Seether easily outmaneuvered him, widening his spiral into an outside loop that cut across Blair's course. Blair, surprised by the sudden move, jerked his stick to the right, and blundered into Seether's fire. Rattled, he pulled back to the left. His phase shields flared again as Seether fired. Seether stayed one step ahead of him, breaking down his shields and taunting him.

  Blair returned fire repeatedly, and hit nothing.

  Seether laughed chillingly. "No, Colonel, like this." His Lance slashed in, its tachyon beams hitting Blairs shields, making them flare and coruscate under the abuse. Blair saw-bucked his ship to escape the probing beams, then cut right and plunged into a steep left-hand spiral. Seether stayed hard on his tail, peppering him with shots. Blairs rear shield flared again and again, weakening under the pounding. Seether pressed his attack.

  Blair saw his chance. He feinted left, then point-turned his Lance, cutting his drives and pivoting it backwards along its axis. He switched his weapons toggle to tachyon and fusion guns and fired, catching Seether's Lance on the chin as the pilot swept in for another burst at Blair's vulnerable stern.

  The big fighter lurched upward, then angled sharply away.

  "You're almost out of time, Colonel," Seether taunted. "Any last thoughts?"

  Blair saw a bright flash to his right. Maniac came up from below Seether's Lance, firing his twinned ion cannon and particle guns from a classic no-deflection, rear-hemisphere position. The salvos punched through Seether's weakened shield and chewed into his armor, but appeared to do no internal damage. Seether rolled tightly away, hitting

  Blairs damaged fighter again in the tail section as he passed. Blair heard the warning as his right engine failed, effectively crippling him.

  Seether rolled hard around, firing at an impossible deflection angle towards Maniac. Hits rippled along Maniac's front shield. Maniac cut away and fled for the shelter of the Vesuvius' nearby bulk. Seether tore after him in hot pursuit. Blair punched his afterburner, hoping to coax enough speed out of his remaining engine to stay in the fight.

  Maniac gave Seether a run for his money, using the destroyed hulk of a Confed fighter as an obstacle. Maniac then cut down along the Vesuvius' hull, where Eisen's ship had skinned away the defensive turrets. Seether, close behind, poured a long volley into Maniacs stern. Blair switched to tachyon cannon and plinked from long range to distract Seether from Maniac. Seether ignored him and fired at the Hellcat, punching through the ship's rear shield and causing a small explosion.

  Maniac slowed and turned. Blair continued firing, using single shots and short bursts to preserve his rapidly diminishing capacitors. Seether fired at Maniac, this time with fusion guns. Maniacs crippled fighter couldn't take much more.

  "And here comes the other one," Seether said casually. "Come to watch your friend die?"

  Blair fired. Seether rolled up and over, using his superior speed to clear Blair's front arc. Blair, swearing sulphurously, kicked out a missile that arced helplessly into space. Before Blair could turn and evade, Seether had cut through his rear shield. His remaining afterburner failed, as did his capacitor and inertial dampers.

  He drifted close to the Vesuvius, again grateful that Eisen had obliterated the carrier's side turrets. He fired his maneuvering thrusters to keep him from bouncing against the carrier's side. Seether made one playful pass, then another. With his capacitor damaged, Blair knew the only weapons energy he had was what little remained in his banks.

  "Colonel, you get to watch while I kill your friend, then I'm going to kill you." Seether's voice grew colder. "And you, Major, have you anything to say before you die?"

  "Yeah," Maniac replied, "kiss my…" Static fuzzed out the rest of his epithet as his comm system foiled. Blair watched Seether lining up on Maniac's fighter. He looked at his graphic and saw he still had four missiles, the flash-pak and the twelve mines. Mines. He looked at them, then back up at Seether. It just might work.

  He toggled his ordnance to mines, then used his maneuvering jets to orient himself away from the massive carriers hull. Seether made a slow pas
s past Maniac's fighter, now dead and tumbling in space. He accelerated towards Blair, then pivoted to begin his attack run on Maniac. "You're next, Colonel." Blair saw his drives flare.

  Blair rotated his fighter so that the stern pointed at the nearby Vesuvius, then launched a mine at the carrier. A red graphic appeared on the lower corner of his heads-up display, counting down from five. He quickly toggled his missiles to volley fire. The mine counted down to zero, then detonated. Blair heard himself yelling as the explosion picked his fighter up and hurled it forward, towards Seether's Black Lance. He fired what weapons he had left as he closed, then toggled off his remaining missiles at once. Seether's Black Lance never deviated course. It flew straight towards Maniac until it was hit once, twice, three times. The last pierced the rear shield, clearing the stern for Blair's last shot, a dumb-fire missile. The heavy rocket pierced the hull, then detonated, shredding the stern. An expanding globe of fuel detonated, immolating the front half. Blair executed a victory roll as the shattered fighter hit the Vesuvius' side and rolled along it, breaking up.

  "Got him!" Maniac shouted.

  Blair looked up as the stern of the Vesuvius passed into view. The St. Helens had sheared away, badly damaged by its exchange with the Vesuvius. Fires raged along the entire length of the rebel ship. The Vesuvius had been damaged as well, but not as badly. Eisen's ship was dearly out of action, while the Confed still had fight in her. He pulled his own limping fighter around, intent on hauling back to the Intrepid for another ship. A nagging memory tugged at him. He looked down at his stores board and saw the flash-pak still winking green. He looked up, saw the Vesuvius' landing bays ahead, and smiled.

  He armed the weapon, giving the waldos time to screw in the detonating mechanism and arm the device. He then angled towards the Vesuvius using his IFF to signal that he was in distress with a shot-out radio. The landing bay flicked its lights twice, indicating it understood. He let it vector him in, using the tractor beams to guide him across the threshold. He fired the flash-pak before the electromagnets could grab his landing gear, then hit his full reverse. Flames shot out of his damaged engine as super-hot fuel mixed with the air and an electrical short. He barely got the damaged ship back into space, tumbling almost sideways through the rear force curtain. The Vesuvius' tractor beams tried to catch him again and missed.

  He watched the carrier slowly ease away from him, then saw a gigantic blue-white ball of fire spread through the launch bay.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Eisen looked at Blair. "Are you ready?"

  Blair adjusted his dress uniform collar. "I don't know."

  Taggart, resplendent in his senatorial robes, put one hand on his shoulder. "It'll be okay, son. The worst is over."

  "Is it?" Blair asked. "Can we really stop this?'

  "Well," Taggart replied, "we are'na gonna' know till we try, nae are we?" He stepped forward and hit the doors to the Assembly Hall with the heel of one hand. They swung silently open, revealing Admiral Tolwyn standing behind the lectern.

  "… and as my fact-finding mission has shown," he said, concluding his remarks, "the Border Worlds are to blame. My forces have recovered evidence of a concerted plan to raid Confederation shipping. It is a matter of public record that they have attacked and destroyed Confederation fighter craft, a Fleet cruiser, and even a factory base. They have killed Confederation military personnel by the hundreds and civilians by the thousand. This is public record and…" He paused dramatically. "… more than sufficient provocation for war." He raised his voice. "I have gained painful evidence that they seek to offset their weak military forces by using biological weapons to weaken our population. We have evidence that one such bio-agent got loose on one of their planets and killed ninety percent of the population." He lowered his head in humility. "Please, ladies and gentlemen of the Assembly, give me the tools I need to stop this perversion. Give me a declaration of war."

  He looked up as a ripple of noise ran through the packed chamber. Paladin, Blair and Eisen stepped forward, entering the gallery. The hiss of noise as they were recognized worked its way around the chamber.

  "I am Master of the Assembly," Taggart said, his voice electronically enhanced, "and am so empowered by this body to conduct fact-finding missions on my own authority. The facts I have learned are at odds with the admirals."

  "They're traitors!" a senator shouted. Others picked up the theme, until Taggarts raised fist silenced them. "Yes, they are," he snapped, "and that makes their tale doubly interesting." He gestured for Blair and Eisen to move towards the dais. The noise in the room grew louder and more chaotic as Senators stood and yelled for or against Taggart. Taggart might have been strolling in a park for all the reaction he showed to the hisses and catcalls. Tolwyn stood at the lectern, his hands gripping the wood possessively.

  "Admiral, if you please?'

  Tolwyn looked defiant a moment, then gave way. Taggart took his place on the dais and signalled Blair to the podium.

  Blair looked up at the galleries, gone silent in anticipation of the spectacle. He wondered if this was how a gladiator felt just before going to face his death. He tried to speak, cursing his nervous and halting voice.

  "It's true," he said, "that I fought on the side of the Border Worlds, and against my former comrades. I had to do this as a result of provocations and illegal activities I witnessed being committed by then Fleet Captain Paulson of the TCS Lexington and his right-hand man, a pilot named Seether.

  "Captain William Eisen and Major Todd Marshall also found it necessary to take the same route I did, and for different reasons. All three of us were men regarded as highly loyal to the Confederation. For us to turn our coats, doesn't it follow that we'd have to have good reason?"

  A few Senators hissed and catcalled. One stood and shouted "Money'll do it!" Many in the galleries seemed willing to listen, judging by their focused, intent expressions.

  Tolwyn looked up at the Assembly. "Who is to say why corruption festers in their hearts?" he said, using the acoustics of the hall to project his voice unaided. "Did they try to work within the system? Did they bring their concerns to higher authorities? No, they turned traitor without so much as a by-your-leave. Now that treason and murder have been done, now they want you to listen when they tell you they served a higher cause?'

  Blair ignored the taunt and tried to recapture the Senate's attention. "The Border Worlds have fallen victim to a plot which—if allowed to proceed—will victimize all of humanity. Captain Eisen has recovered files which show that Confederation forces, operating from the Lexington, as well as the base on Axius, engaged in acts of terrorism against both Confederation and Border Worlds forces. I myself infiltrated the secret base on Axius. There, I saw both the bio-weapon canisters and heard Admiral Tolwyn give a speech to the raiders." He paused to fish a memory chip out of his pocket. "Captain Eisen's data is ready for your inspection. I will submit to a psych-scan to prove that what I'm saying is true and that I'm not suffering from a personality overlay."

  "This is outrageous!" Tolwyn snapped. "That these… traitors come here, wearing Confederation uniforms and mouthing this filth!"

  "Our first desire," Blair said, trying to appeal to reason and logic, "was to take this up with lawful Confed authorities. I even spoke to Admiral Tolwyn on that point" He sighed. "The problem is that with the Emergency Decrees and the Admiralty Court

  still in place, there was no authority outside the military that could be trusted. And if we were right, they would never let our information get to you."

  "This is preposterous," Tolwyn snapped. "Those mechanisms keep order in the human sectors. Without the Decrees and the Courts, central authority would fail."

  Blair looked over at him. "What about the concepts of law and justice? Aren't they important, too?"

  "What about them?" Tolwyn snapped. "What does an arbitrary standard of justice have to do with an orderly society? Given a choice between justice and food, Colonel, what do most people choose? The Decrees have ensu
red the populace survives."

  "The entire populace, Admiral, or just the worthy few?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about," Tolwyn snapped.

  "Don't you, Admiral?' Blair pressed, feeling more tired than angry. He could recall the man Tolwyn had been, the man who grieved for their losses after the Battle of Earth yet spent his crews like water to preserve the Mother Planet, and who had cried for the thousands of frail civilian craft that sacrificed themselves to give Duke's Marines some cover for their assault.

  He looked closely at Tolwyn, and saw only the fire of duty and the drive. He saw none of the humanity that had been there, often hidden, but usually present. The change nearly broke Blair's heart. "What happened, Admiral?" he asked. "Why did you do this?"

  "I don't know what you mean," Tolwyn replied.

  Taggart glanced down at Blair. "You'd better get on with it, Tiger, you're losing 'em."

  "What about the Black Lances, Admiral?"

  Tolwyn smiled. "If I may remind the Assembly, as Commander of the Strategic Readiness Agency, I am empowered to marshal whatever forces necessary to protect our galactic interests. The Lances are a new type of fighter craft. Unfortunately, Colonel Blair and his cohorts raided their base and stole several prototypes."

  Blair nodded. "I have thirty-one depositions from Telamon survivors saying that the plague came from your Black Lances."

  "They might have come from a Black Lance," Tolwyn said coolly. "I just admitted that several were stolen. The toxin you mentioned might even have been manufactured there, before it escaped. Any one of a dozen possibilities, none of which require the Confederation."