Tia stood off in the corner of the bridge while Chagger and Wu conversed with a figure on the viewscreen. She recognized former Major Janine Renner of the CDF with a slight scowl, remembering Renner's brutal attack on Pieter and Samina so she could sabotage the Shadow Wolf. Nevertheless, she remained silent as Renner spoke to the others.
"So the rumors are true?" Kaiya's voice was tight with displeasure.
Renner nodded. "The resignation was made official this morning. Barton played Rhodes' hatchet-man for it. Ostrovsky's gone silent, probably heading back to New Israel. Honestly, I'm expecting an arrest warrant any day for him."
"We sent Ostrovsky our evidence," Wu said, his disbelief obvious. "Didn't Fuentes see it?"
"Maybe, maybe not. It doesn't matter. Barton made sure Rhodes has seen it, but she's apparently convinced it’s all forgeries. She thinks it’s a CDF plot to destroy the peace treaty. Barton's already issued a formal apology and a vow to court-martial any CDF officers proven to be involved."
"So we've been disavowed." Tia heard the pain in Kaiya's voice.
"Just about."
"What about you, Renner?" Wu asked. "Why are you the one calling us? Won't they arrest you?"
Renner shook her head. "I'm just a civilian working for a communications equipment firm that does minor contractor work for the CDF. They've got no surveillance on me, and since I'm experienced with these kinds of communications, General Ostrovsky left instructions with me just in case this happened." Renner pursed her lips. "There's nothing more that can be done. Rhodes believes that there's another cabal in the CDF trying to restart the war. Given what the press shows and what Ostrovsky's told me, she's maniacal about it. Barton's the only general officer she trusts because he is completely on board with the treaty."
"They only named me," said Wu. "Maybe I can stay behind and Captain Chagger can bring her ship back, at least?"
"I wouldn't go anywhere into Coalition space right now," Renner warned. "You were there. That's enough for Barton to order the court-martials. I'm sorry, Captain, but if you come home, the only thing you'll accomplish is the Majha getting reclaimed by the fleet and your crew treated like rogues."
Kaiya clenched a fist and closed her eyes. The frustration burned in them.
"Ostrovsky had some final requests for you," Renner continued. "Two, actually."
"Yes?"
"'Keep up the fight', and 'warn Captain Henry to stay out'." Renner's voice choked up a little at the name of the CO she'd once betrayed.
Tia couldn't stop herself. She spoke up. "Warn him about what?"
Renner seemed nonplussed by Tia's sudden entry into the conversation. She answered immediately. "Rhodes wants him, wants you all, arrested on terrorism charges the moment you show up in Coalition space. The CBI'll do it too, after you embarrassed them in Tylerville."
Tia clenched her fists. "Doesn't this woman give a damn about what Rigault's done? About the oppression my people face? The fact that they're going to turn us all into literal puppets?"
Renner shook her head. "The only thing Rhodes cares about is keeping the peace treaty. It's her crowning achievement. Like I said, she's maniacal about her belief that it's threatened by the CDF. She won't accept any evidence of League duplicity against the peace. She'll think it's a lie to justify tearing her treaty up. And Fuentes' entire administration will collapse if she turns on him, so he's trapped." Renner shook her head. "I'm sorry, Miss Nguyen. You're not going to be getting CDF help here. Not officially. The CIS, I don't know about, but I wouldn't hold my breath there either."
Tia bit her lip and nodded. "I see."
Before she could step out of the frame, Renner spoke up. "Extend my condolences to Captain Henry, please. I know Colonel Rothbard meant a lot to him. I… I can't believe he's dead."
"I will." Tia returned to her seat dejected. The Coalition was her best hope, and now she knew there wouldn't be anything there. There simply wasn't time to try to rally people inside the Coalition against Rigault and the League.
I'll have to go elsewhere. Trinidad Station, Lusitania, the ISU, the Saurians, the Matrinid... anyone who'll listen, who might help us fight!
The call ended. "She may have just gotten herself arrested," Wu said, speaking of Renner. "If the CBI finds out she talked to us."
"Without Ostrovsky's mercy, she would’ve gone to Lambert's Lament already." Kaiya's voice was hollow. She could only return to her homeworld at the risk of arrest and trial. Like Tia, she was now an exile, and Tia could hear that pain in her voice. "We will need to change our IFF codes and designation. Ostrovsky's successor will be one of Barton's people. Even if we're not hunted, we're going to lose our financial support within days."
"Any plans?"
Kaiya shrugged. "I am tempted to simply return the Majha to Khalistan anyway. Let them do as they please. I know how to disappear back home, and my people will help us do so, whatever Rhodes and her pets in the government say."
"I understand, Captain, but first, I'd like to ask your help." Tia kept the fury from her voice, since Kaiya didn't deserve it. "If the Coalition won't use this data, other people will. Lusitania, Cyrilgrad, Trinidad Station; they all need to be warned."
"I can share the information with your contacts, certainly." Kaiya smiled bitterly. "I am a 'rogue operative' after all, aren't I? A very bad one, as I won't even charge you for it."
"And maybe more," Tia continued. "If we can get allies, the Majha can serve in a fleet to bring us to Hestia. Weapons, arms, fighters."
Kaiya folded her arms. "That may be more than I can promise. Our funds will not last long without access to CDF Intelligence accounts. I need to get this ship working if I'm to wait out Rhodes. I can't afford to sit here for however long it takes you to rally a fleet."
"Give me a few days, at least," Tia urged, trying not to sound too desperate. "I know it's asking a lot, but what we're facing… you can't just ignore it."
There was a twitch on the Sikh woman's face. "No, I cannot," she admitted. "I will remain in orbit for forty-eight hours to give my crew time to consider their choices and to find potential work. If you've got something solid by then, I'll add the Majha to your fleet. If not, I'll have to move on. I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do."
"I understand. Thank you for that. I mean it." She turned to Wu. "Major, what about your team?"
He shrugged. The news from Canaan clearly had them reeling. "They'll be in for a fight. They saw the other prisoners with those things in their heads. We need to eat, though, and our own discretionary funding won't last forever."
Tia got the message. She went for the door. "I'll keep in touch," she promised. I've got two days to prove we've got allies to win this. Just two days…
* * *
Tia's next destination was the ship's mess. As she'd requested, the Shadow Wolf's crew was present. All showed bereavement in their own way, from Samina's reddened eyes to Brigitte's subdued expression. "So, bad news from Canaan?" asked Vidia.
"We're all terrorists and fugitives, apparently."
"Bloody pacifist sassenach," Cera grumbled.
"If Felix were here, he'd be giving a good rant about the Peace Union," Piper observed. Her left hand was curled around the crystal hanging from her necklace, her fingers lipping around the edges. It was a nervous tic one didn't see often from her, but the situation wasn't normal either.
"So, I know we've all taken a blow," Tia began, "but I—"
"Yes."
Tia glanced toward Miri. She blinked at the brunt interruption.
"You're about to ask us whether we're up to joining you in trying to stop Rigault, even if it means overthrowing Hestia's government," Miri said. "We already voted. We're all in to stop them."
Tia swallowed and nodded. "I can't promise anything. I can't even say we'll get a chance to do this. Captain Chagger gave me forty-eight standard hours to show I can do this, or she's going off to do other jobs."
"Then we'd better get started. I'll see if al-Lahim can get us any
intel, and get that data from the raid sent on to Cyrilgrad and Lusitania."
"Chief Khánh can send it to Trinidad," Samina offered.
"If we are to participate in any return to Hestia, we will require a ship," rumbled Yanik.
"That's my next item of business, trust me." Tia's eyes filled with tears, forcing her to wipe them away to see. "I thought I'd have to come in here and encourage everyone. I was ready to hear you say 'no'."
"That wasn't happening." Pieter shook his head. "We've come too far now."
"This neural device issue is too big. We can't back out," Piper added. "The League has to be stopped, and so does Rigault."
"We all feel the same way," Oskar assured her. "No more running. We fight, if at all possible."
"Thank you." Tia redoubled her efforts to fight her tears back, but they still leaked through. "Do what you need to do. I have to go see Henry. We're going to need a ship."
* * *
After finding Henry was missing from his assigned quarters, Tia raced to where she expected to find him.
She arrived at the ship's launching bay in time to catch him preparing to embark on one of the Majha's shuttles. "Jim?" She rushed up to within a few meters of him. "Where are you going?"
She knew the answer to the question the moment she saw his face. The deep pain in his eyes, the way his face seemed to just barely be holding back the emotions beneath—it was clear what he wanted. He barely seemed to be trying as his voice was barely a mumble in reply. "Going down to visit the dealers. Going to see about a new ship."
Seeing him like that hurt. With everything he's lost, I can't be angry. I want to be. I need him, we need him, now more than ever. But he's in so much pain, I can't be angry with him.
"Jim, I know it hurts. But getting drunk won't bring back Felix. It won't bring back the Wolf. They're both gone."
"I know. So's my rifle, and my old digital reader, and the crystal tumbler set Charlie gave me." He leaned against the shuttle. "I've got to process it."
"I know, and I want you to. But this isn't processing. It's just putting it off." Tia took a step toward him. "Please. We need you now, more than ever. You're the captain of this crew."
"Not anymore," he said. "I lost that right when I stopped leading. That's you now, Tia, just as it was meant to be."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that you're the leader of this crew now," he said. "You're the one who can rally everyone. You've got the heart to keep them together, inspire them. You're already doing it." He gestured toward her. "Look at you. Everything they did to you, and you never gave up."
She heard the admiration in his voice at that. "I almost did." She shook her head. "It hurt so much. I'm not sure I could've lasted much longer."
"Maybe, but I never went that far. I gave up far earlier than you did." Shame burned in his eyes. "And they didn't torture me. Didn't turn me into a puppet. They just pushed me, and I folded. You didn't."
"Jim…" Tia fought back the anger she felt, but couldn't quite keep it from her voice. "Jim, you've got to stop this. Stop this… this whole thing with your past. I know what happened with Erhart hurt you, but you've let it take you over. You need to let go and move on. You define yourself by this thing in your past so much that you ignore what you've shown to all of us. Every member of the crew knows how good a person you are. You've been there for each and every one of us. In lean times, you've foregone your own pay to make sure we got ours. Whenever someone threatens us, you've stepped in. You're a far better man than you give yourself credit for, and all of us can see it! Why can't you?"
He closed his eyes. "Because I don't feel it. Because I gave in when I shouldn't have. Erhart nearly killed billions and would've torn the galaxy apart, and he would've never gotten that far if I'd held fast that night on the Clemenceau."
"You don't know that," Tia said hotly. "With the way he had the deck stacked, it's far more likely you'd have spent the rest of your life in prison, and he wouldn't have been stopped!"
"It's not about whether I'd have won!" he roared. "It's about the fact I didn't try. The moment I faced defeat, I gave up! Maybe I'd have lost anyway, but at least I would have tried." He held a hand out. "And look where we ended up. I've become a mess, and we both know it. Now that my friend is dead and I've lost my only real home for the last sixteen years, I'm even worse! I'm not fit to lead this crew anymore." He said each word with the voice of a man uncertain of anything.
"You're selling yourself short," she retorted. "They still believe in you and I still believe in you. We've seen what you can do."
His face twisted into frustration. "I can't. Not anymore." Without saying another word, he slipped into the shuttle.
Tia nearly lunged for the door, ready to join him and continue pleading her case. She was stopped by the hand that settled on her shoulder. Her head turned to see Vidia standing beside her. "Ya can't argue a man inta forgivin' himself. Ya can only stand back an' encourage him."
"We still need him."
Vidia nodded. "An' he needs us. But we can't make him be somethin' he's not ready ta be. Give him time."
Both heard the shuttle engines and stepped away, giving the vessel a clear berth.
29
The Majha shuttle descended toward San Salvador's largest city and provided a glimpse of the kind of mid-sized capital city common on many of the less-important Neutral Space worlds. San Tomas Correlo was built with the kind of baroque architecture popular to worlds settled by the descendants of the Latin American diaspora, whether they came with the initial Exodus or the various follow-on fleets fleeing the rise of the League and its gradual conquest of the Orion Spur.
The city's traffic control was anemic. Henry relied on his own piloting skills and sensors to guide the shuttle down to the spaceport near the center of the city. He paid for a pad rental out of his own accounts and went through the usual motions of securing the craft behind him.
While San Salvador was not a major world even by Neutral Space standards, it had enough population to command some interstellar trade, and that meant it had starship dealers. Henry used his link to bring up a list of them. The list was small and the names, mostly Spanish, didn't win any recognition. Most would probably have only lightweight haulers and cargo runners, and anything even near the size of the Shadow Wolf would likely be so run down as to demand extensive refurbishment.
Just like the Wolf did, he remembered. That brought back a flood of memories, of the months spent slowly repairing the ship's damage from meteor impacts alongside Uncle Charlie. They'd work as much as Charlie's job would let them, sealing up hull breaches, refurbishing the launching engines and the GXRs, replacing the carbon filters on the life support tanks…
Those cherished memories no longer warmed him. Every image was a repeated stab to the heart with the reminder of what he'd lost. Charlie, Felix, his ship…
By the time he was walking out of the spaceport, all thought of checking the dealers evaporated. He found himself walking down an avenue that straddled the city center with one of the dilapidated barrios. His link guided him to his desired destination.
The bar was as good as one would expect for the neighborhood. The lighting was turned low. Neon signs declared that certain brands of ale and beer were in stock. A 2D holovid projector showed the flat image of a football game from Darien for the benefit of the employees more than the patrons.
He lowered himself onto a stool near the end of the bar. The barkeeper, a man with an olive tone to his complexion and a scarred face, wordlessly presented himself to Henry while wiping down a glass. Henry fished his credit chit from his jacket pocket and dropped it to the bar. The barkeeper scanned it. "Tab's open," he said in a rough, accented voice.
"Whiskey. Bourbon, if you've got it. Leave the bottle with me."
The barkeeper checked his stock. He set down a bottle. One of the brewers on the planet Bluegrass, which was a mark in its favor, although the label design was old. At Henry's accepting nod, he receiv
ed a tumbler, which the barkeeper poured a shot into. A wave of Henry's hand warded any additions to the drink.
The bourbon had the smooth taste he enjoyed, a little on the sweeter side, but the alcohol still hit as potently as he'd hoped. After letting the drink burn its way to his stomach, Henry took another drink.
By the third drink, his thoughts were drifting back to the painful matter before him. His ship was gone and he wasn't sure what he'd do next. If he could do anything.
We kept pushing it, he thought. Getting mixed up with that business at Lusitania, then Erhart, now this… our luck was always due to run out.
He considered drink number four while the haze of the prior drinks gently settled in his thoughts. Why was he doing this? He was supposed to be looking for a new ship, wasn't he?
But what was the point? He was barred from his home again because of the politics back on Canaan. Any world that did business with the megacorps that ruled Hestia were denied to him as well. Could he do enough business on the other worlds? He wasn't sure.
What were his alternatives? Go off and become a mercenary? There were security firms that would value his CDF experience, certainly, but making enemies of the HBC megacorps would be a major impediment.
He could embrace his pariah status. Forget being a smuggler and turn to raiding the people who hated him. Get a ship with armaments and hunt HBC and League ships. Maybe sign on with the Tokarevs or the privateers out of Trinidad.
I'm not a damn pirate. That thought was followed by another. I'm a damn coward.
That was the start and end of it all, wasn't it? Deep down, he knew that when he faced defeat against overwhelming odds, he picked surrender. He could’ve fought Erhart that night. Could’ve fought to clear his name. It might've stopped Erhart from getting so close to winning. A couple thousand lives wouldn't have been lost at Erhart's hands. Instead he surrendered and Erhart went on to become an even greater threat.
Breach of Trust: Breach of Faith Book Four Page 23
