“Lord!” spoke the lead guard. “What has happened?” He looked from the crumpled form to Xylan, then to the raised gun. His own rifle came up to point at the officer. “Commander, your weapon!”
Talxen walked around the desk and pushed back the dripping chair with disgust, giving up on it. Instead, he crossed his arms and nodded to Xylan. “This officer has just murdered his aide in anger. Keep your weapons trained on him.”
“You’ll not find many allies in the fleet, Talxen,” said Xylan carefully.
The Prime laughed. “My father has as many allies as you, old one. Your loyal officers are even now being removed from their posts with force. The fleet belongs to me.”
Xylan was thankful that the jumpdrone from Prax with the news of the coup had reached him before responding to this summons. It had taken only an hour to get his most trusted commanders on the comms and planned the defense of key ships ahead of a possible mutiny. The blinking transponder in Hrodax’ pocket had been the signal; the coup was imminent, protect your vessels. Now he said nothing, for nothing needed to be said. All would play out as fate dictated as it had so many times before in his career.
“Shall I kill this mutinous officer, Lord?” The Prax commander with the pistol asked.
Talxen looked from the astonished three guards to Xylan, then to the gun-toting officer. “No. Imprison him. But first, administer punishment for his crimes.”
Xylan exhaled as the guards came toward him. The bully was smiling; the Admiral would receive no quarter in his beating from this one. That much had backfired, but Xylan’s calculation that Talxen wouldn’t kill him outright made the upcoming pain worth it. He’d live to fight again another day. To the fallen.
“Lord, we have secured twenty-six of the fleet. Fifteen cruisers, two of the heavies, nine smaller craft. Eight cruisers and the last heavy—the Dexellan—remain in the hands of the traitors.”
“Too many!” The Prime pounded one hand with the other fist. “What happened?”
The Prax Captain on the screen looked unhappy. “Somehow the officers uncovered our forces and eliminated them quickly. All communications with them have been lost.”
The Prime’s face was contorted into a vicious combination of frustration and anger. “That’s too many to defeat easily!”
“The nine traitorous ships have moved off and formed a defensive perimeter, overlapping their shields. It was if they had fully planned for our attack, Lord.”
Xylan. The Prime’s thoughts ran to murder, but came back to reason. He addressed the waiting aide. “Please send word to Prax that Xylan’s family be executed for treason.”
The fleet officer’s voice burst from the speaker. “Lord! No—.”
The Prime pointed a finger at the screen. “—No, you listen, Horax. Re-establish communication with your compatriots aboard those ships! We must disable them from within. You will never convince the crew members of your own ships to fire on them openly. Loyalty to Xylan runs deep in your commands.” It pained him to think of it as he cut the communication and shot a look at the aide, who scurried off to send the message. Xylan and his house would pay for his insolence before the new Premier.
“Lord, a word if you would?” One of his loyal officers stood nearby.
Talxen walked over, feeling spent and in need of libation. “What is it?”
“We have received a distress message from Tavar.”
“The contents?”
“They have been discovered and are in need of evacuation.”
“Evacuation! We need that steel, now more than ever!”
The Prax flinched in the face of the Prime’s outburst. “Should I prepare a ship movement from the home system, Lord?”
“No,” Talxen said firmly. “You should instruct Horax to form an attack flotilla from our loyal vessels and have them jump to the Struve system immediately. The humans only have three or four heavy units in that system—they’re stretched too thin.”
“But, Lord, they have a flotilla of their own within jump distance. We have avoided this battle for many cycles due to the strategic situation.” The officer winced at his own temerity.
“Your objection is noted, and your insolence as well. Order the attack.” Talxen rubbed his hands together with satisfaction. “My first victory will be the conquest of Tavar…at long last.” The officer made to leave but Talxen stopped him. “And inform the medical unit; I want my son aboard the Horax’ ship before they jump.”
“As you wish, Lord.”
“And prepare my personal escort; I will depart for Prax immediately; The First Advisor will assume the lead role until my return.”
The Prax bowed and was gone.
The day was looking up. Talxen had no ultimate concern for the Prax infiltrators on Tavar; they could be easily mopped up by the humans now that they’d been found out. But the pretense for a Prax attack on Tavar and its valuable military resources was perfectly timed with the taking of the Premiership. Within a few days, his star will have ascended firmly over the empire for a generation to come.
Part Four - Resolve
Chapter 22
Tavar, Struve System
The shuttle angled in through the opening clamshell, bringing the cold in with it. Thankfully, the opening began closing again the instant the small vessel descended past the safety point.
Halloran stood with Chief Parker behind a thick window at the flight deck level, watching their craft descend. The close-in message from Kendra that she was on her way back had been received. As Halloran watched her land the ship next to another shuttle-style vessel, arms crossed as a defense against the cold that managed to find its way in everywhere, he said, “Let’s hope this is what we needed.” His chin was bare for the first time in a long time, and it was raw to the temperature. “Never thought a shave and a buzzcut could feel that good.”
Parker also had a fresh shave that made him look decidedly Navy-like. In fact, they’d all grown accustomed to the beards over the last month. Now with access to shaving kits, everyone had availed themselves with gusto. Now the Chief looked at his skipper. “Sir, I am personally very ready to get back to work.”
“Understood, Chief.” Halloran glanced at the man with profound appreciation. “I want you to start on the steel project now. How much time will you need?”
“With the Tavarran help lifting the steel to Serapis and patch-welding? I can have her tightened up in forty-eight hours.”
“What about our Fleet friends?”
Parker sighed. “Sir, that’s above my pay grade. I think you need to figure out what to do about them. Just keep ‘em from shooting my butt off while we’re manhandling that chunk of steel up there.”
Halloran nodded. “Take a man with you. Not DeBartelo; I want him with the assault team.”
Parker considered the suggestion as they both saw Kendra coming across the deck dressed in her bulky snowsuit. The clamshell had closed above her. “I would have taken Patredes, but I’ll go with Wilson, sir.”
“Very well, let him know.”
“Aye, sir. Um, permission to get going?”
Halloran nodded. “Granted, Chief. Keep me in the loop.”
As Parker walked back the way they had come, the hatch door swooshed open and popped outward, letting in a blast of frigid air. Kendra stepped through the portal and glanced around for the controller. As she tapped the button to close the hatch Halloran said, “Welcome back, Captain.”
She slid off the exposure suit headgear, giving her hair a shake to clear it. Halloran was struck by her rosy cheeks framed by that hair. “I see you received my message. Oh…” She was staring at him as he took her headgear from her hands.
“What?” He grinned.
Her eyes were on his crew cut, then down across his features as she took back her headgear. “You’re shaved.”
“Do you like it?”
She dropped her eyes and fidgeted in fishing out a data chip from a hip pocket. “Here’s what you sent me out in the snow for. Anto
nov is worried about you.” She held it out as if blocking the space between them.
He took it and grinned again, motioning down the passage. “This way.” They shouldered past several colonists coming the other direction into the hangar. “I’m sure you like it better landing in a nice bay rather than blind out there.”
She caught up to him and matched his pace in the widened corridor. “What’s the situation down here? The comms blackout is frustrating.”
“I think it’s what is allowing us to plan this out ourselves. Remember, I’m still a renegade and you’re technically dead.” They came out of the passage and into a large, open chamber. Hundreds of colonists moved about the network of structures as they conducted their business of the day. “We’re about to penetrate into the deep recesses of the mountain. Frankly, we’ve been waiting to get that chip from you. So?” He looked at her as he walked.
Two Tavarran women walked toward them. As they passed, both looked admiringly at Halloran and he smiled back.
Kendra coughed. “Lieutenant Carruthers and Travers did a full scan of the mountain in question. I think the Governor will find it useful. Faint but clear life-form readings that should help pinpoint their location on the colony mapping software.”
“Good, that’s good news. Nothing from the Fleet ships I presume?”
“The ship needs to alter course periodically to anticipate the defensive orbit patterns of the cruisers. Someone called it ‘zig-zagging’ as I remember.”
Halloran nodded, then frowned. “Are they expecting trouble?” They reached a lift, and he pushed the control. “This one gets us up there, I think.”
Kendra stepped in after him. “I don’t think so, but it’s standard protocol if the senior commander designates the threat level sufficient. Tavar would certainly qualify, in my mind.”
As the car rose Halloran leaned against the wall, looking her thick clothing over. “You look frumpy,” he said with a smile. He felt more peace here than he had at any time since the time jump. With her.
“Frumpy?”
“It’s an Earth term. American. Means something like a ball of dough.”
“Dough?”
He laughed. “Never mind.”
She grew serious. “I’m sorry.”
He cocked his head. “About what?”
“That you can’t be there. Your home.”
Halloran looked down, feeling the sense of peace freeze cold. After a moment he said, “Frankly, my home was gone before all this. When Cindy died, I planned to throw the rest of my life into the Navy; without them it was all I had left.”
“You said you had other children?”
“Out of the house. Yes, I have them. Had them.” Halloran shook his head. “I think we’re all in denial that any of this really happened.” He looked away. “Oz,” he said softly.
“Oz?” She had moved closer.
“It was a movie. Made long before me. About a magical world that a kid gets sucked into.” He chuckled. “Through a tornado. But she got to wake up.”
Kendra laid a hand on his arm. “I don’t know what any of that meant, but I do understand being stuck somewhere where you don’t want to be, not knowing how to get back.”
He was looking at her oddly. “Yes, I can bet you might.”
She straightened and dropped her hand. “Anyway, I also know you can’t talk about it with your crew. And that Jackson and the colonists are potentially unsafe. That leaves me, right?”
He grasped her upper arm, enveloping it with his long fingers. “Thanks, Captain. I might take you up on that once we get through this.”
The car slowed prior to arriving. Halloran moved his hand to his belt and withdrew a new Tavarran security forces cap. He plopped it on his freshly cut head of hair and pulled it down snugly. “Now we help our fellow Tavarrans root out an infestation.”
Aboard the Argon, orbiting Tavar
Lieutenant Treela kept her head down at her station both in an effort to study the scan data coming up from the planet surface and to avoid eye contact with the Captain, who was pacing the bridge directly behind her and currently experiencing intense frustration.
“Anything yet?” He was demanding of Tech Janyson.
“No sir, nothing new.”
Orris paced over behind Treela and she heard him grinding his teeth as he stood nearby. She’d served with him on two ships so far in her career, first as a Tech and then as a commissioned officer. As the ship’s sensor specialist, she was at the moment his focus of attention.
“New readings, Lieutenant?” he eventually queried the back of her head.
“Last pass shows the same data, sir.”
He paced off a few steps then asked, “And how many were there?”
“One hundred and thirty-six, sir.”
“And what levels?”
“Descending through level fourteen according to the colony schematic overlay.”
He grunted and continued across the bridge. Treela glanced over the readings again, looking for new information that could ease the Captain’s concern over not knowing.
Orris had stopped behind the communications officer. “Still no answer?”
The young Tech shook his head. “Sorry, sir. I’m hailing them on the usual channels, but no one’s acknowledging down there.”
“Irregular.” Orris stalked back to his seat and dropped in. Treela glanced over and saw him, head in palm, lost in thought.
It was irregular. For all of the two months they’d been circling the planet, the Tavarrans had kept to a consistent pattern of behavior. The life-form readings would change locations on each pass of the sensors, going about their daily routine within the cavernous spaces of the mountain range that the sensors were attuned to. During the night cycles, only a few security personnel could be seen moving about. The computer recorded the total human count faithfully, and it never varied beyond acceptable norms given the traffic back and forth between the spaceport and surface.
But in the last day cycle things had changed dramatically. First, the sensor sweep had picked up a small craft somewhere in the periphery of its sensitively cone, alerting the bridge watch to extend the scan. But the blip had disappeared just as quickly and not reappeared. The event had been evaluated by the computer to be a cross between an atmospheric anomaly and a small patrol craft of the Tavarrans that had popped up too high into the atmosphere. Orris had dismissed the reading after reading the log.
But that was before the strange movements of groups of people deep in the colony. Energy readings had indicated that some weaponry was involved. When the groups had descended too deep in the planet for the scans to be reliable, Orris had called up the colony police and requested a conference with Jackson, but received only vague responses about needing more information before reporting in. Since then, nothing.
But things had become troublesome. Most of the population was on the move, heading up the lifts and stairwells to higher levels. To an observer it looked suspiciously like an evacuation. When Orris had seen the report of the large body of armed people were descending in force, it had been too much.
The last officer conference had entertained the idea of sending a shore party—also armed—to investigate. But Orris, always a cautious thinker, had elected instead to notify the Fleet and ask for additional ships to their three currently in orbit. He was beyond frustrated that the others on station had been called away just days before to the battle currently underway in the Epsilon System. Two capital ships and three frigates, and two of those off in outer-system picket duty at that.
“Captain, communication coming in.”
“Finally!” Orris jumped up.
The screen brightened over the tech’s head and an officer’s face and shoulders took form. Treela watched out of the corner of her eye, listening closely.
“Captain, Orris,” the recording began. “Your advisory of unusual activity on Tavar has been received. Fleet leadership has appraised the current tactical situation in the Struve System and
deems the threat level low.”
Orris pounded the back of the tech’s chair with a fist.
“However, we have a unit traversing to Sol system from an assignment in the Luyten system which we have directed to reroute to your location for as long as you deem it necessary. Valor will join Argon, Usar, Saranin, Borelin and Vanguard as part of the Tavarran defense flotilla. Please advise Captain Heres as to the updated situation upon his arrival and update Fleet as needed based on your discretion.”
The comm screen went dark, leaving the Argon bridge crew waiting in suspense for the Captain’s reaction.
After a moment of silence, Orris straightened and looked directly at Treela, catching her watching him. As she dropped her eyes he announced, “Recall the picket ships to Tavar; I want them close.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Pass the word to the watch crew to expect the arrival of a Fleet unit into the system. Track that vessel upon its approach to Tavar.” He glanced down at the comm tech. “What class is the Valor?”
“Heavy cruiser, sir.”
Orris nodded. “Thought so. Well, it’s as good as we’re going to get. Carry on, and keep me updated.” He walked over to Treela’s station and put a hand on the back of her chair. “Lieutenant,” he said softly, “I want you monitoring the activity personally. Any additional anomalous behavior is to be reported to me immediately.”
Aboard Valor, entering Struve system
“Struve system, sir,” announced Grisa the sensor tech.
“Very well, set course for Tavar.” Captain Heres slumped in his command station, looking to all the world bored out of his skull. He set his head back on the battle rest, staring at the overhead. “Renno, got anything interesting?”
“Sorry sir,” answered the Lieutenant. “Scans indicate the Fleet units orbiting the planet. The spaceport is where the computer says it should be.”
“Ugh. After all this we need an extra week’s leave on Mars.”
“Mars, sir?”
He sat up slightly and waved at the air. “Okay, I’ll settle for patrolling between Mars and the belt. Anything but chasing ghosts around the shipping lanes.”
Resolve of Steel (Halloran's War Book 2) Page 17
