Defiant (Lightship Chronicles) Read online

  “Standard POW protocol. Take anything, down to their underwear, that might be a weapon. Turn their rations over to the prisoners, then tell them to get the hell off this mountain. I want you finished and off-planet in two hours. Can you do it, Chief?”

  “Sure as hell can, sir. What about the damaged shuttle?”

  “Fix it,” I said as I turned and walked away. “Verhunce.” I waved to my marine pilot. “You’re with me.”

  We made our way to the working shuttle, and Verhunce took over from the pilot, whom I ordered to oversee the repairs to our damaged shuttle. We were locked in and in the air five minutes later as our incoming gunship circled, waiting to land and take our place.

  I used the shuttle com to call Babayan again on the longwave.

  “Status, XO.”

  “Sandosans are scrambling to exit the government buildings, sir, and they’ve been warned it’s going to be a pile of ash soon. Suicide drones have been neutralized within one hundred clicks of Defiant. There are a few more scattered throughout the system, but not close enough right now to cause us any trouble,” Babayan said.

  “Is it safe for us to come up?” I asked.

  “Safe enough, sir. If one of the drones comes after you, it will never get close enough to get a whiff of your tail, sir.”

  I smiled. “I’ll hold you to that,” I said, then signed off.

  “Take us up, Corporal. Full burn on the engines. I miss my captain’s chair,” I said. Now Verhunce smiled.

  “It’s a pleasure, sir,” she said.

  The next morning, after numerous protests, I agreed to meet with Harrington about the Sandosa situation. He, Janaan, Karina (because she represented Carinthia’s vote on the Union Council), Babayan, and I met in the command deck briefing room. To say that Harrington was steaming mad was an understatement.

  “Every bilateral agreement we’ve made with the government of Sandosa has been abrogated by your actions, Captain. Do you know what that will cost?” he said, storming out of the gate at me. I sat back in my conference chair, eyeing him, trying to keep my emotions under control.

  “There is no government of Sandosa, Chief Merchant. As of this moment Sandosa is under Union protection for her own safety and will likely stay that way for quite some time,” I said. Harrington slammed his fist on the table.

  “That’s precisely what I mean! Who gave you the power to upend a whole culture at your whim simply because you have such great military power at your disposal?” he demanded of me. I was having none of it.

  “The power doesn’t come from me or my ship but from the Rule of Law, Mr. Harrington. Specifically the Union Code, which your Special Secretary should be very well aware of,” I said, glancing at Janaan, who seemed perturbed that I’d brought her into the discussion so quickly.

  “I’ll have you know I’ve already filed a protest with the Union Council about your actions. They’re indefensible,” Harrington said.

  “So is making a whole ethnicity slaves, Chief Merchant,” I replied. I wasn’t in the mood for this today, so I pressed on, trying to draw things to a conclusion as quickly as I could. “As for the Union Council, I’ve already filed my own brief. Commander Babayan has the details.” Babayan cleared her throat before starting, reading from a tablet plasma.

  “We estimate that more than 1.25 million ethnic Iberians were being used as full-on slaves. Now that we’ve released them, they are all asking for asylum, which it seems likely the Union will grant. You might note that about two-thirds of the Iberian population are women, and we’ve recommended they all be relocated to Pendax immediately,” she said.

  “But we can’t handle that many refugees!” protested Harrington.

  “You can and you will,” I said. “It meets the need of your population for immigrants, as outlined in the agreements the Special Secretary negotiated with Sandosa.”

  “But what about my precious metals as compensation? Will those agreements still go forward?”

  I looked to Karina. She spoke up.

  “Mr. Harrington, my husband and I represent two votes on the Union Council. Earth and Levant represent the other two votes. As an associate member, Pendax may be allowed a vote on these matters if the council can’t agree unanimously. I can guarantee that at least one of our worlds will not allow you a vote if everything goes just the way you want it. In short, you’re going to have to earn your status, and aiding Sandosa in becoming a suitable member to join our Union will go a long way toward getting you what you want,” she said. I smiled at her adroitness with Harrington. Harrington started calming down immediately, apparently accepting his situation as unavoidable.

  “Please continue, Captain,” he said. “We are anxious to get to work.”

  “As I was saying, the first priority will be relocation of healthy members of the Iberian population, especially those with important technical skills who wish to leave. Any women from Sandosa who indicate a preference to emigrate will also be allowed to queue up in the initial stages. So that will meet or most likely exceed your initial desire to increase the number of marriageable women on Pendax,” I said.

  “But—” I held up my hand to silence the Chief Merchant. At this, Karina stepped in again.

  “These women will not be taken from one kind of slavery into another, Mr. Harrington. You will set up a program, and perhaps the Special Secretary can help here, that will place these women into safe and economically viable relationships, preferably marriages. To get to your point about your precious metals, they will be under Union control, but if you hire the local populace to work the mines at fair wages, allow union organizing, and provide proper housing, health, and safety protocols to be followed in the mines, then that control may be released back to you, as long as the trade benefits both Pendax and Sandosa. You can also enhance your position with the Union Council by guaranteeing the safety and security of the immigrant women once they reach Pendax,” she said.

  “I’ve already drawn up a plan to implement just such an immigration program, Chief Merchant. You’ve had it on your desk for a month,” said Janaan.

  Harrington looked at her, irritated, then shrugged toward me. “Why is immigration such a big issue with you, Captain?” he asked. Karina answered for me.

  “Because Pendax’s inheritance and divorce laws favor males very strongly, Mr. Harrington. It’s an antiquated system that does not promote property equity, which is one of the stated goals in the Union Council charter.”

  “It’s also one of the reasons you’re having so much trouble getting your full membership approved by the council,” I added. “So it’s in your best interests to reform. I’m sure the Special Secretary will be more than happy to review her plan with you at your earliest convenience, which should be soon, since we plan on relocating the first batch of asylum-seekers immediately.”

  Harrington looked chagrined but said nothing. I continued.

  “There are many other individual issues, but they will all be included in my full report. The main points, though, come down to this.” Now Harrington brightened up. “As part of its final steps to becoming a full member of the Union, Pendax will take Sandosa under administration, with help from the Union, of course. But primarily they will be your responsibility.”

  “What specific responsibilities would I have?” asked Harrington, eyeing me as if he were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  “Everything from the sewers to the health care system to the roads and pension plans,” Karina said. “The full monty.” I wasn’t sure she knew what that actually meant. “How well Pendax performs in this role will determine how much gold and silver you receive as compensation and how quickly your status as a full member will be granted by the council.”

  “And of course, how capable a leader you will be seen as by the council. It may seem costly now, but in a year or two Pendax will be thriving and Sandosa will be rising up the scale t
oward full membership herself,” I said. Then I reached into my brief folder, pulled out a formal Letter of Agreement from the Union Council, and slid it across the table to Harrington. “If you agree to the terms laid out in this agreement and you help both Sandosa and Pendax flourish, Pendax will be granted full membership, and you personally will be named Head of State, with full hereditary royal titles for you and your gentry classes. All you have to do is sign.”

  Harrington looked inside the brief, thumbing through the pages, then stopped and looked to Janaan. “You’ve read this, I assume?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “And you think I should sign it?”

  Again she nodded. “Yes.” At that he pulled out a pen and signed the first page. Janaan signed it as well, and I let Karina sign for both Carinthia and Quantar. Then the paper went back to Janaan.

  “We’ve done good business here today,” she said with a smile.

  “We have,” I agreed. With that Harrington stood.

  “I’ll have to go prepare a speech to the people of Sandosa, something to give them confidence that we are on their side,” he said.

  “We should urge as many as possible of the skilled Iberians to stay,” said Janaan. He nodded.

  “That would be a positive. I don’t pretend it’s going to be easy—”

  “Well, it’s not,” I said. “At least the speech-giving part.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Harrington. I looked to Babayan.

  “We destroyed their entire satellite communications array while we were fighting off the suicide drones,” she stated.

  “You what?”

  I shrugged and stood up myself. “That may well be the first thing you have to fix.”

  “But how will I communicate . . .” he trailed off. I smiled.

  “Perhaps you’ll find some old planet-bound digital communications networks. I believe they called it ‘broadcast radio’ or something. Either way, I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” I said. With that I gave a nod, and everyone started to leave the room, save for Harrington and Janaan.

  “What have I gotten myself into,” I heard him say as we got into the hallway. Karina started to laugh, and then Babayan, and soon I was joining them as we made our way back to the bridge.

  Six hours later, H.M.S. Vanguard, commanded by Captain Lucius Zander, late of Carinthia but now of Pendax, burst through the dimensional barrier and arrived in-system, accompanied by half a dozen Wasps. It was the first group sent through by the Union to provide supplies, skilled workers, and military reinforcements to Sandosa. Harrington had requested that Vanguard deploy even though she was technically still a few weeks from her formal commissioning. It seemed Harrington wanted me and Defiant out of his system as soon as possible, and I couldn’t blame him, but I was also very comfortable with what we had accomplished here. Sandosa was on its way to modernization and Union membership, and we had freed more than a million slaves from hard labor and ethnic cleansing. I counted that as a good week’s work.

  About an hour through the gate, Vanguard was hailing us, or more specifically Zander was hailing me. I took the call in my bridge office with the sound barrier on to prevent eavesdropping. After our formal greetings, Zander jumped right into it.

  “Why is someone always trying to kill you?” he asked. I laughed.

  “I wish I knew.”

  “Well, if you’re done mucking about on that dismal planet, you could get your arse in gear and get out here and meet me,” Zander said.

  “I was planning on leaving soon anyway. What’s the rush?” I asked.

  “My boss wants you gone—you’re a ‘polarizing figure,’ it seems—and Wesley wants you back in the hunt,” he said.

  “The hunt for what?”

  “Our girl is forty-eight hours overdue to report from Skondar,” said Zander. I knew what he meant by “our girl.”

  Dobrina and Impulse II.

  “That’s troubling,” I said.

  “But not altogether definitive. Wesley wants to conference via ansible about it at 2200 hours, after we rendezvous and make your upgrades.”

  “Upgrades?” I bristled. “Defiant is the best trimmed Lightship in the fleet.”

  “Well, maybe so, but our Historian has codes to present to your Historian, Gracel, to activate certain systems that might be of use in the near future, as I understand it.”

  I was again taken aback by the fact that my ship had weapons systems and capabilities I knew nothing about but that the ship’s Historian knew of. I decided that in the future, perhaps Lightships and the Union fleet would be better off without the Earthmen and their hidden agendas and oversight.

  “What time do you want to rendezvous?” I asked.

  “1600, lad. That will give the two Historians time to trade codes and make their adjustments before we have to talk to the grumpy old man,” Zander said.

  “Just a minute,” I replied. I put Zander on hold, shut off the aural shield, and made my way onto the bridge deck.

  “Mr. Layton,” I asked, “how long until we can rendezvous with Vanguard?” Layton scrambled, looking at his dashboard for a quick answer.

  “All our shuttles are still down on the planet, sir. I’d say about forty minutes to get our people off the ground—”

  “I asked how long until we can rendezvous,” I stated, interrupting him. He silently scanned his board again.

  “I’d say about four hours at best speed, Captain,” he finally said. That would put us at rendezvous at about 1545 hours.

  “I’ll hold you to that, Mr. Layton,” I said, then turned to Babayan. “Button us up to bug out, XO. No slipups,” I ordered. She stiffened.

  “Aye, sir,” she said, accepting the challenge in her stoic Carinthian way.

  “So ordered,” I said to the whole bridge crew. Then I went back to my office and re-engaged the aural field.

  “We’re on for 1600 hours, Captain Zander. Dinner at my place, nothing formal,” I joked. Inside I wasn’t laughing. This Dobrina business was what I had feared earlier. Occupy us here at Sandosa, then strike on two or three other fronts . . . It was a solid strategy.

  “I’ll see you then, Captain,” said Zander, then signed off. I did the same, then sat back, watched my now very busy bridge crew, and worried.

  Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

  We were in shuttle range of the rendezvous point fifteen minutes early, just like Layton had promised. Zander requested permission to drop in on my landing deck, but that would use up all the time we’d saved en route, and I wanted to get to the bottom of this Dobrina business as soon as possible. Instead, I ordered Layton—whom I regarded as the finest helmsman in the Lightship fleet—to take us into umbilical range, which would save precious minutes but would require some tight flying within thirty meters of Vanguard. Zander was put out when I denied him landing privileges, but he couldn’t argue with the efficiency of an umbilical tie. I had other reasons to request the umbilical; I wanted some of his marines.

  I watched from my bridge chair as Layton decreased our speed relative to the stationary Vanguard. By the time he shut the propulsion drives down and started flying us in on reverse thrusters, slowing our speed as he locked Defiant to Vanguard’s relative station, we were less than a kilometer apart. Three minutes later the distance was a few hundred meters. A minute after that he shut us down with twenty-eight meters between Vanguard’s Landing Deck and ours. He started extending the umbilical to establish an airlock connection between our two vessels.

  “Well done, Mr. Layton,” I congratulated him.

  “Thank you, sir,” he replied. I nodded to Babayan and Karina to join me, and we quickly made our way down to the umbilical airlock. Gracel was already there when we arrived.

  “I’ll expedite the upgrades, Captain, then brief you once we’re finished,” she said.

&
nbsp; “I appreciate that, Historian. But all this secrecy about what my ship can actually do has me a bit put out,” I said.

  “I understand your reticence about us, Captain. It seems to run high among Lightship captains,” she said.

  “Yes,” I replied, but gave no further comment. The airlock doors parted, and the first person through was Vanguard’s Historian, an incredibly tall and lanky man that Gracel introduced as Lenkowsky. I couldn’t tell if that was a first name or a last name. After the introductions, the two Historians went off together, and I stepped up to the threshold.

  Lucius Zander always surprised me. This time he came through the umbilical with a series of technicians trailing him, but he walked in front without any assistance and stepped up to shake my hand.

  “Captain Cochrane,” he said.

  “Captain Zander,” I replied. Then he greeted Babayan and shook her hand. Finally, he stepped to the side and gave Karina a head bow.

  “Highness,” he said.

  “I’m having none of that,” she replied. “Give me a hug.” He looked embarrassed, but he complied, then turned back to me.

  “Fine bit of flying by your pilot,” he said. “Any closer and I’d have had your arse for the meat in my sandwich.”

  I laughed; I couldn’t help myself. “Yes, well, that’s what I pay him for,” I said. “Lots to discuss. We can eat in my stateroom.”

  “Indeed. I hope your cuisine has improved,” he said.

  “Markedly,” said Karina, smiling and taking credit. She took Zander by the arm, and they headed off chatting while I took care of business with Babayan.

  “You have the con, XO. We’ll only be locked for a few hours, so get as much done as you can, trading technical equipment and the like. And just so you know, I’ll be asking Zander for more marines.”

  Babayan looked surprised. “How many?”

  “At least thirty,” I replied. “No point in having two heavy shuttles and two gunships with only sixty marines. Besides, I know he left dock with a double squad. Make sure we have the bunks and other facilities to make them at least marginally comfortable.”