Admiral's Gambit (A Spineward Sectors Novel:)

by Luke Sky Wachter

  Tremblay stared at me like I’d gone stark raving mad. “As First Officer I could not support such a decision,” he fumed, his fists clenched at his side.

  I narrowed my eyes at him and resisted the urge to clap him on the shoulder with my power armored gauntlets. I’d knock him over for sure, which was why the thought was so tempting.

  “I’m sure Parliament will be very reassured at your purity of thought. I, on the other hand, am unable to standby and do nothing if there is even half a chance that I could stop these raids,” I finished with more than a hint of superiority in my voice.

  I turned and dismissed the First Officer from my mind and headed back up to the Admiral’s Quarters. My quarters. At least they supposedly were, when I wasn’t busy being ejected from them by my Sword-Bearer of course.

  First thing on our agenda was returning to Tracto System. I’d reassess the situation and go from there. In the meantime I had a lot of thinking to do. It was infuriating running around in a big lumbering Battleship trying to catch all these fast little pirate vessels. The more I thought about it, the more appealing the thought of learning the location of a secret pirate base became.

  It’d be a nice change of pace to go and smash them up where they lived for a change. The reports of at least one pirate group running around with a handful of genuine capital ships was disconcerting. On the other hand, all that meant was we needed to be more careful in our planning. I figured there was nothing in the hands of pirates that a Dreadnaught class Battleship like my Clover couldn’t handle with the right game plan.

  Slowly a shark like smile spread across my face. Assuming we survived long enough to mount an effective counter raid on the pirates, I think I was going to have to take the captured Primarch up on his offer.

  Chapter 24: A Heart-To-Heart

  When I first heard she was coming back to the ship in a shuttle, I have to admit I was eagerly anticipating a long conversation with the Lady Akantha. Unfortunately, the next thing I learned was that her power-armor had sprung an air leak during combat with the gene-uplifts, or Sundered, as they called themselves.

  All I could do at that point was order a medical team to stand by in the shuttle bay, ready to rush her to sickbay. Even though it was pointless, I found myself waiting with the medical team. There was nothing I could do the medical team couldn’t do ten times better, but I still couldn’t pull myself away. I had to be there.

  As the Lancers pulled her limp body out of the shuttle and she was transferred to a stretcher for quick transport, I knew I’d made a mistake. I felt ten times worse than if I was just sitting in my quarters worrying.

  Despite this realization, I followed the stretcher to medical. I kept trying the same thing and hoping for a different result. Was this the definition of insanity? To think that just by your very untrained presence, you could somehow will someone to get better?

  By this point, the ship actually had a handful of people who knew what they were doing. They no longer needed my untrained presence on the bridge to give them the confidence, or fear. What they needed was to not panic and just do what needed to be done.

  So I said to Hades with my responsibilities for a while. Instead of dealing with anxious planetary officials and overseeing the disposition of the remaining prisoners and single recaptured SDF ship, I parked my Royal rear in the infirmary.

  When a doctor came over to give me the verdict, I had to brace myself to stop from demanding Dr. Presbyter. I had to remind myself that he’d been on the New Dream along with everybody else I trusted. Unhappily, I held my piece. The good Doctor wasn’t here when Akantha needed him because of my selfish plan, if it could be called that, and it was no good asking for something I couldn’t have any longer.

  “Admiral, before we get started, I just wanted to thank you for waiting here so patiently,” said an older man.

  Since all I wanted to do was grab someone by the neck and throttle them until they told me what I wanted to hear, I took a deep breath and confined myself to a curt nod. There was a pause that then went on slightly too long for me to tolerate.

  “How is she,” I demanded. Then I was immediately disgusted with myself. I’d meant to just let him tell me, and here I couldn’t even wait half a second before jumping in.

  “She’ll live,” he hastened to assure me.

  “But I heard her suit was damaged and she ran out of oxygen,” I said, surprised to hear the desperation in my voice.

  The Doctor’s brow furrowed. “That was only a temporary issue. As far as we can tell, the oxygen deprivation was already successfully treated in the field long before she arrived,” he said.

  “Then why is she still in sickbay!” I barked. I couldn't help it, I was feeling completely helpless, and that was a condition which I hadn't experienced in quite awhile. It angered me more than I ever thought it would.

  “Her battle suit received a number of hits during the boarding action. One of these penetrated around the same time she started running low of breathable air, at least as far as we can tell. The resulting blood loss and trauma are what we are currently treating. We didn’t want to risk her going into hypovolemic shock from fluid loss. So to counter that, she’s just received a massive transfusion of blood. The Lady Akantha will need to be closely monitored until we can be certain she won’t have a reaction to such a large transfusion,” the Doctor said, too matter-of-factly for my taste.

  But then, the lives of thousands of colonists and the small issue of planetary piracy weren’t resting solely on his shoulders, should Akantha die. To say nothing of what my mother would say if she learned that I let my wife get herself killed in combat before I even got the chance to bring her home for dinner.

  The doctor eventually let me into the room, with strict instructions not to disturb anything, and I sat at her bedside.

  I leaned over and held her limp hand. I firmly reminded myself I was only concerned for the political and familial complications, and I even managed to almost convince myself. But the first time she twitched slightly in her bed, my heart leapt before crashing straight back down into the gutter as soon as I realized it was just an unconscious bodily reaction. I knew then that it was useless trying to convince myself why I was concerned.

  This was not a good situation to be in, I tried to tell myself. But I wasn’t listening anymore. I mean what’s the point of listening to someone who’s just going to lie to you? I was better off sitting in mental silence. I didn’t need some false bill of goods.

  ***********

  When her eyes fluttered open, my heart once again clenched and I wondered if I was having my very first heart attack. The sensation passed after a second as her eyes blinked then stayed open.

  Akantha looked on my side of the bed and as her gaze settled down at her hand, she looked puzzled. I followed her gaze and discovered I’d been holding her hand so tightly that my own was turning white. Patting her awkwardly, I transferred my grip further up her forearm.

  Her eyes bugged slightly as she became aware of her surroundings and beheld me.

  I wanted to say ‘yes, I was the one squeezing your hand,’ but I didn’t.

  “Hi there,” I said instead, with a small smile.

  She stared at me in what I presume was confusion. At that very moment an orderly bustled into the room.

  I settled back into the uncomfortable padded chair I was sitting in. The orderly ran a wand over her and then tapped on his data slate. After giving her a glance, and only now focusing on the fact she was awake, he then proceeded to ask her a series of standard medical questions.

  Apparently satisfied, the Orderly left after admonishing her to remain in bed and not exert herself. This last included a stern look in my direction, as if I was a greater risk to the woman than she was to herself.

  The break while the orderly did his thing gave both of us a chance to regain our composure.

  “I didn’t expect to see you here,” Akantha said.

  I frowned. “You’re my wife, where else would
I be but at your side?” I asked with a wave, struggling to put a light, unconcerned and yet at the same time Regal air to the motion. All the while I was secretly hoping I hadn’t betrayed just how concerned I’d been while she was unconscious.

  Her brow furrowed, so I rushed to fill the silence before it became uncomfortable. “Besides, I sincerely doubt you expected to wind up in the infirmary in the first place,” I babbled.

  Her mouth quirked, but her eyes looked irritated at this reminder of her battered physical condition. “We were triumphant over these new demons that have the hearts of warriors,” she said coolly.

  “Right, they call themselves the Sundered People, but they‘re really genetic-uplifts based on gorilla stock I‘m pretty sure. We’ll know more after the medical staff runs a few gene scans,” I said, covering a flash of irritation with a hand to my mouth. “The whole ship rejoices at your safe return, of course.”

  “Of course,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me.

  I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a second. The previous hour, or however long it turned out to be once I looked at a clock, had been stressful enough. The last thing I needed or wanted was the old ice maiden rearing her contrary head right at this particular moment. Couldn’t we just have a halfway tender moment before diving back into our roles as Admiral and Land Bride?

  “Look,” I began, shifting my weight so I leaned forward, putting an earnest look on my face but Akantha was having none of it. I must have shifted my hand when I leaned forward because she shrugged her arm out from under my grip. I leaned back nonplused.

  “There is no need for such concern, Protector,” she said, frost creeping into her voice. “I feel quite well, your healers have once again worked their healing magic.”

  My face started to harden at her tone, but I forced my features smooth through sheer force of will. “I’m sorry if I offended,” I said stiffly, “I was deeply concerned for your well-being, and only wanted to stay by your bedside until you’d recovered.”

  “Well, I’ve recovered,” she said harshly. A tense pause filled the space between us. I wondered where I’d gone wrong? “So unless there was some other business between us, you are free to return to your duty,” she said, her eyes flashing. For a moment I thought she looked slightly ashamed before anger filled her face and I dismissed my previous thought.

  “I see,” I said neutrally, making my face a courtly mask. Inside, I seethed with anger at this reaction to my frantic concern for her well being. “In that case, there is something else I would like to discuss with you.”

  The blond ice maiden of my original meeting on the Bug ship seemed to have resurfaced under stress, although she did look a little taken aback at my utterance.

  “What is it you wanted to talk about,” she demanded.

  “Until the rump-assembly gets organized and gives its blessing on our endeavors, if you should die, tens of thousands of colonists, not to mention myself could all be executed for planetary piracy if you get yourself killed,” I said bluntly, staring deep into her eyes. I had wanted to take a more gentle approach to the entire matter, but her reaction to my presence at bedside made that impossible.

  Akantha glared at me. “So you think I’m some kind of dainty castle flower that needs to be kept away from battle,” she sneered.

  I was taken aback, I know I shouldn't have been as this was about par for the course. I guess I’d been lured into a false sense of security by the ‘new’ Akantha, but right now she was not the ‘new’ anything. This was the same pit viper of old, the same sharp-tongued damsel who’d put me into a state of physical and mental distress at each and every turn.

  “I didn’t say that,” I said as soon as I found my voice.

  “You didn’t have to,” she said her voice as cold as ice. “The same man who throws himself into danger, floats off the ship at every turn and has to be rescued before he dies, wants to tell me that just because I’m a woman I can’t go out and earn my own honor with the Lancers,” she ended with a snort.

  “I floated-was knocked off the ship, one time,” I said angrily, thrusting a single finger in front of myself.

  “You almost get yourself killed so often, if you didn’t have such amazing healers you’d be dead or permanently crippled by now,” she scoffed. “Who are you to tell me what to do, and whether or not to go into combat? I risk the Promethean and Caprian tribes who I granted life, sustenance and land right on Messene? You risk my entire planet! Each and every person, everyone and everything I’ve ever known, could be destroyed by the Sky Demons if you die, and you dare talk to me of staying away from combat,” she finished furiously.

  I stood up and slammed my fist down on the movable tray table beside her bed. Water spilled and a control disc clattered to the ground. Akantha looked distinctly unimpressed. Another disadvantage of having a wife who was physically larger than myself.

  I bared my teeth at her. “Fine. If you won’t stay on this ship while I’m leading boarding actions of my own, I promise to stop. I won’t leave this ship for hand to hand combat without asking your permission first,” I grated.

  She shook her head disdainfully.

  “As for being a woman, pfffh,” I made a spitting sound. “After the rump-assembly regularizes our status and gives its blessing, you can keep running around trying to get yourself killed, for all I care,” I roared, and stomped out of the sick-bay.

  I felt a pang of regret as I walked out. She had a bigger point than perhaps I wanted to admit about the way I’d thrown myself into combat, first with the Bugs, then with the Imperials on the Strike Cruiser. That dig about floating off the ship on the other hand had been a low blow, and she knew it.

  I tried to show concern and be a nice guy, and all she could do in response was throw it right back in my face. I was through being nice to that woman. At least for today, I reluctantly added, moderating my newfound resolution.

  Chapter 25: Akantha in the Sickbay

  She glared at her Protector as he ran away. 'Go on and run, you coward,' she wanted to shout at him, but as soon as the door closed shut on his stiff, angry back, the wind seemed to go out of her sails.

  Akantha slumped back in bed and raised a shaky hand to her face. Why was it that this man had the ability to make her so frustrated she couldn’t think straight? He had no right telling her what to do and trying to keep her away from the fray.

  Inside her head she listed all the many slights and wrongs he’d done her. Starting with forcing her to become his Sword-Bearer, all the way to killing her uncle and then running off to serve an unseen overlord, this 'rump-assembly,' when her people were in dire need of this ship to protect them. She ignored all the extenuating circumstances, like his not knowing the tradition of her people when he gave her a sword to protect herself and the other captives with, or the fact her uncle was trying to marry her off to one of his cronies (against her will) instead and started the fight.

  About the time she was done listing each and every thing both large and small he’d done to wrong her and was getting ready to nod her head in self-vindication, she burst into tears.

  Pulling the coverlet over her head, she lay back and shook with reaction. The battle for the Corvette had been terrible, not at all like when they captured that Medium Cruiser in Easy Haven. At the time she’d been filled with a fierce satisfaction at finally getting to face combat without her position as Land Bride and now Hold Mistress keeping her back.

  But toward the end, wounded and gasping for air to breathe in the cold void between the stars, it had been much more…if she had to admit it, the feeling hadn’t just been intimidating, it had been absolutely terrifying.

  The last thing she remembered was panicking with no air in her lungs. Waking up to the sight of her Protector’s concerned face had just been too much. The sight of that compassion, quickly masked instead of comforting, had only served to irritate her instead.

  All she wanted was a few moment to gather her composure and take stock of her injuries,
but she had to deal with Jason Montagne instead. He deserved to suffer for badgering her like this when all she needed was time, just a few moments to recover, she flared. She sat halfway up before collapsing back onto her bed, pain flaring through her torso.

  He deserved it. Everything she chose to lambast him with was something he deserved, that much was certain.

  Why then did her heart feel like it was being cut out of her chest? She’d never before heard of a man willing to ask his Sword-Bearer for permission before striding into battle. It was like something out of a fireside tale.

  She gritted her teeth because as usual, he ruined the grand gesture and goodwill he could have built up by telling her that she shouldn’t let being a woman stop her from going out and getting herself killed. She could go out to battle with his full support and permission.

  What kind of man urged his woman to go out and fight where she could get herself killed? Did he really value her so little, or was he actively trying to get her to kill herself? He didn’t act like a proper man at all!

  She hoped it was just because he was from the Stars. These Caprians, Prometheans, and so forth seemed unusually tolerant of women serving in their warbands, and not just steriles or ones that had already borne their children, either.

  Then she was freshly furious. The thought of him not caring for her sent a pang through her chest, and it shouldn’t. She wasn’t some common woman. She was Adonia Akantha Zosime, Land Bride of Argos, Hold Mistress of Messene, and Sword-Bearer of Bandersnatch…

  Another grand gesture out of legend, giving her a Dark Sword of Power. One that he also managed to ruin, she thought seethingly.

  She was so furious she could scream. What was she supposed to tell her daughters when they grew into womanhood? Her love story wasn’t very conventional, and her Protector could just as easily be portrayed a villain as a hero.