Defiant (Lightship Chronicles) Read online

  I looked at the massive star display on the far wall. Beyond Union Space, the stars identified as yellow dots, the G-type stars of the Imperium were identified as red. That red bubble extended out from about fifty light-years to a hundred light-years from Sol. While it seemed the Empire and Union areas of space were nearly identical in size, the fact was that there were some 448 potential stars with habitable worlds within that Imperial red bubble, nearly eight times as many as in Union Space. The stellar topography greatly favored our enemies in terms of potential numbers of colonized worlds. That was an advantage they could use to crush the Union if we didn’t get stronger and more numerous, and soon. The Historians told us that there were some 350 known colonies in the old empire at its peak, before the war, and as we now knew, fewer than twenty of those were on our side of the line. Whether the old empire had ever colonized beyond that hundred-light-year bubble was an unknown.

  I turned away from the star display and back to the conference monitors, which were slowly flickering to life. We were now at eight operational Lightships in the fleet, if you counted Vanguard, Pendax’s ship, which was near enough to ready. I feared that wouldn’t be enough ships, despite my confidence in both our Lightships and their captains.

  Valiant, commanded by Wynn Scott of Earth, was conducting the long-delayed First Contact mission at Jenarus, which I had previously visited when I was third-in-command aboard Starbound. Resolution, commanded by Devin Tannace, Maclintock’s former number two, was on-station in her home system of Levant. Avenger was captained by Mehzut Ozil, a man I had met briefly on Carinthia during the recovery operations there. Fearless, commanded by Dietar Von Zimmerman, son of Carinthia’s Air Marshal Von Zimmerman, was stationed in her home system. Neither Fearless nor Avenger had ventured very far from Carinthia since the attack.

  Impulse II, captained by my former lover Dobrina Kierkopf, was at High Station 3 in the Carinthian system, prepping for a survey mission to a system called Skondar for possible First Contact. Skondar had been a robust mining colony in the old Imperial days. It was unknown if the colony was still inhabited, but it was known that she had been a treasure trove of metals such as lithium and magnesium, not to mention less exotic but nonetheless valuable gold and silver repositories.

  There would be one addition to our virtual table; Captain Lucius Zander, my first commanding officer aboard the original ill-fated Impulse, was joining us today as the future captain of the Lightship Vanguard from the Union’s newest member world, Pendax. Vanguard would be joining the fleet in another month or so as our eighth commissioned Lightship.

  As the techs finished up their work, I took my seat at the conference table next to Maclintock. We faced a broad, curved plasma in the office’s conference work area, just a part of the massive facility the commodore had at his disposal. One by one, the six Lightship captains’ faces appeared on the big screen hanging above us. When the last connection was made—that of Grand Admiral Jonathon Wesley in his office on High Station Quantar —the techs departed the room, leaving Maclintock and me alone with our virtual group.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Wesley started, “I hope all is well where you are.” There were nods and general acknowledgments all around. “Good,” he continued. “Let’s get on with it, then. First order of business is new deployments, of which I have three. Captain Ozil, I’m uploading an order packet to you that outlines your new mission, which is a first survey of the Ceta system.”

  “Thank you, Admiral. We’re anxious to get back out,” said Ozil, an odd-looking man with short dark hair and big bulging eyes.

  “I’m sure you are. This one will be standard stealth-running survey protocols: observe and catalog, but do not engage or participate in any activity that might arouse interest in Avenger. And at any sign of Imperial forces in the system, you are to bug out and return to station immediately, no exceptions.”

  “What are our rules of engagement?” asked Ozil. Wesley looked up sharply from his desk display, staring right into the camera.

  “There are none, Captain. You are to bug out, period,” he said. The fact was that the Lightship fleet had had no interactions with the old empire since the battles at Levant and Pendax almost a year ago. Wesley apparently wanted to keep it that way.

  “Understood, sir,” replied Ozil. I could see he was disappointed, but Wesley’s orders were probably prudent. The Union was looking for as many allies as we could find, but if a system was already under Imperial influence, our orders were to leave that system alone, regardless of proximity to Union space.

  “Admiral,” came another voice, this one from the other Carinthian captain, Dietar Von Zimmerman. “Fearless has been passed over twice now for missions away from home. Can I ask why?” His Carinthian accent was lighter than most, and I hadn’t found communicating with him a problem at all, as his Standard English was very good. Wesley nodded to Commodore Maclintock, who had operational command over deployed Union forces, for an answer to the inquiry.

  “The facts are, Captain Von Zimmerman, that I would like to send you out and get your feet wet. Unfortunately, Carinthian Navy Command has insisted that at least one Lightship remain in-system at all times until Bismarck is commissioned next year. As of this time, that ship has been designated as Fearless,” replied Maclintock.

  What he was really saying was that Von Zimmerman’s father, the Air Marshal of Carinthia, was keeping his boy close to home. It didn’t sit well. Von Zimmerman got a sour look on his face, then said, “So, Ozil and Dobrina get to have all the fun again, and Fearless and I get to go back and forth between High Stations, never leaving our home star.”

  Maclintock shrugged. “Captain Kierkopf does have battle experience with the Empire, Dietar, and the Carinthian Navy Command is requesting that you stay in-system. There’s really nothing I can do about that, except in an emergency. And I think we should all be thankful there have been no recent emergencies. Using any quiet time we have in this conflict is to our ultimate advantage, Captain.”

  “Aye, sir,” Von Zimmerman said with more than a trace of resignation in his voice.

  “Next up: Captain Tannace of Resolution,” said Wesley, comfortable with overseeing if not running the meeting.

  “Aye, sir,” replied Tannace. He was an agreeable man in his mid-forties, a bit old for a Lightship command, but he had been Maclintock’s loyal number two for many years. His appearance was always spit-polish clean, and I was told that’s the way he ran his ship. He was a by-the-book commander, and every fleet needed its cache of those to balance out the more risk-friendly types, like me.

  “Afraid it’s the milk run to Carinthia again, Devin,” said Maclintock. “There’s another shipment of food goods from the bazaar at Artemis. Even live goats, I’ve heard—part of the rebuilding efforts. It’s not glamorous, but if you manage to pick up some Carinthian schnapps on the way back through and drop them off here at Candle, well, I’m sure you’ll get a good evaluation on your next rating.”

  Tannace laughed and responded with an “Aye, sir.” Then we were on to the next issue at hand. Wesley cut in and asked for a report on the Jenarus negotiations by Valiant’s Captain Scott.

  “The Jenaurians are real shits to negotiate with, sir,” said Scott frankly. He was a tall, sinewy, Earth-born African man, darker than any I had ever met. We had our share of aboriginal descendants from the Australian continent on Quantar, but none like him. When he spoke, it was with authority and experience. “They want massive concessions from the standard Concord Agreement, and I’m not of a mind to give in to them. The biggest hurdle is establishing a representative democracy. They have an authoritarian bent to their planetary government, and there are three or four other nation-states that also want a seat at the table, so negotiations may take a while. Still, whenever I tell them we’ll come back at another time when they’re in better moods, they rush to give in on things. It will take time, Admiral, but I expect they will eventually come
to an agreement with us.”

  “Good news, Wynn. Please keep me informed of your progress, and remember that the Union Council has the Jenarus system at the top of their list for expansion,” said Wesley.

  “Will do, Admiral,” said Scott.

  Wesley nodded, giving the floor back to Maclintock, who turned his attention to Zander’s report on Vanguard’s progress. Zander’s transformation over the last eighteen months, since the attack on his shuttle at Levant, was nothing short of miraculous. He now had two eyes again, his skin was a smooth pink, and he even had wisps of white hair hanging down to his shoulders, Bohemian style. It was a far cry from the charred face I had pulled into Impulse’s Downship that day at Levant.

  Vanguard was officially one month from being commissioned, but Zander already had her crewed up and ready to go. In a pinch, I suspected she could be ready for a fight in days. In fact, I figured Zander could launch her in twenty-four hours if he wanted.

  “My intent is to take her out next week on a traverse run to Minara. It’s forty-two light-years, so that should be a good test of the traverse drive system,” said Zander in his gravel-rough voice.

  “Sounds good, Lucius. No contact with the locals, if you please, but you might find your way clear to leave your IFF signal beacon on for a while. The tech survey team said the Minarans seem to have a high level of technology and may have even detected our probes. So don’t be afraid to let them know you’re there and friendly,” said Maclintock.

  “Aye, Commodore,” replied Zander.

  “Captain Kierkopf,” said Maclintock. “All ready for the Skondar mission?”

  “Ready as we’ll ever be,” said Dobrina. “Skondar is close to the borderline with empire space. Based on our Historian’s longwave probe reports, I have my doubts that we’ll find any kind of functioning colony or camp there. But we’ll investigate it thoroughly. We’ve added another thirty marines to our complement and dropped our Downship in favor of the two reinforced marine gunships the Earthers offered. If anybody is alive down there and wants a fight, they’ll get one.”

  Maclintock looked up at her image, unsmiling. “The mining operation is on Drava, the moon of the fifth planet in the system. We need to find out if that operation is still intact and can be exploited. In Imperial times there were valuable minerals there. They may not be valuable to the empire today, but likely it’s different for us. That’s my way of saying don’t blow anything up you don’t have to, Captain.” That set off a round of low chuckles.

  “Understood, sir,” she replied. I could see from her stone-faced look on the display that she wasn’t amused. At all. I could still read her moods.

  Then Maclintock turned to me.

  “Lastly, Captain Cochrane and Defiant,” he started.

  “Ah yes, the golden boy,” chimed in Zander. This drew another round of laughs from the other captains.

  “Thank you, Lucius,” I said, to a few more chuckles.

  “Well, he has drawn the plum assignment,” said Maclintock, turning to me. “You’re ordered to take Defiant to High Station Pendax, there to rendezvous with a certain merchant named Admar Harrington. The mission is First Contact with the government of Sandosa. They are already in contact with our survey team and anxious to meet us face to face. And since your ship carries both a duke of Quantar and a princess of Carinthia, it seemed to the Admiralty that you were the best option for this mission, diplomatically speaking.”

  “Understood, sir, but why will we be taking Mr. Harrington?” It wasn’t that I minded the man; he was a likable enough chap and a great negotiator who had helped me escape Carinthia at the height of the conflict there. I just wasn’t sure I wanted his company aboard my Lightship.

  “Pendax and Sandosa had a very strong trading relationship under the old empire. Harrington would like to get first shot at cracking the market. And since Pendax is our newest member, the Union Council had a hard time saying no to him.”

  “Understood, sir,” I said again, but I didn’t really like it. Still, diplomatic missions had their bonuses. They tended to be full of state dinners and lots of merrymaking. The negotiations were more tedious, but I found I was able to distance myself from the hardcore horse trading more easily as time went on, using both my royal standing and my position as a Lightship captain to avoid the tough work.

  “Full contact protocols will be sent via communications packet, along with a history of Sandosa and any relevant information from the survey teams. Departure from Candle will be at 1000 hours on 02.19.2770. Understood, Captain?” Maclintock finished.

  “Yes, sir,” I said. That was the day after tomorrow. More than enough time to prepare my crew and go. We hadn’t been out in nearly a month, so the space time would be a welcome break from our leisurely port schedule.

  When Maclintock was finished with me, he turned things back over to Admiral Wesley. “Last orders, Captains,” the Admiral started. “The criminal Prince Arin is still at large. The Empire is out there, also a threat, but we don’t know how big anymore. Until the prince is brought to justice and the Empire’s intentions are fully known, we are on a war footing. If you encounter empire forces, disengage, contact the Admiralty, and we will organize a response. If you sight Prince Arin or the Vixis, your rules of engagement are shoot to kill. No mistakes, Captains, and no mercy for our enemies.”

  “Aye, sir,” I said, as did all the other captains.

  At that the formal portion of the meeting broke up, and we proceeded to break into side conversations. I found myself wandering over to Dobrina’s large image on the plasma display.

  “Looks like we got the plum assignments,” she said.

  “That’s the way I arranged it,” I joked. She laughed at that.

  “So, I take it you’ll be coming through High Station 3 on your way to Pendax? Maybe we could have dinner—you and your lovely bride, of course,” she replied.

  “I’d love to. I’ll have to make excuses to Maclintock about the layover, but that shouldn’t be a problem, as long as I bring him a case of your best schnapps,” I said.

  “I can deliver on that,” she said, smiling. Then I thought of something else.

  “One more thing,” I said. “I’m looking for a qualified astrogator, and I’d like it to be a Carinthian. Right now Lena Babayan and Karina are the only Carinthian senior officers aboard. I’d like to move Karina from astrogator, as I’d much rather have her on longscope for experience reasons.”

  Dobrina tilted her head at me. “Actually, I have someone in mind. He’s very talented but kind of blocked here as a senior lieutenant. If you were willing to offer an eventual promotion to lieutenant commander, I could see my way clear to letting him go.”

  I crossed my arms in mock angst. “What’s the price going to be? And don’t say a fencing match,” I said. She laughed.

  “We can negotiate that over dinner,” she replied.

  “It’s a date. Karina and I will see you on Monday night.” She seemed to hesitate. “Yes?” I prompted her.

  “Just so you know, I’ll be having a guest for dinner,” she said.

  “Oh. I see,” I replied. The possibility that she had moved on from me romantically wasn’t something I’d really thought about much, nor was I really sure what my feelings were on the subject. But it was here, and I’d have to face it. “I’ll look forward to meeting him, then,” I said. Her very large face looked down at me from the display, eyes fixed, her features giving away nothing.

  “And I’ll look forward to seeing the both of you Monday evening,” she finally said. I acknowledged with a silent nod, and she broke the connection. I lingered a bit to see if there were any more casual conversations to be had, but as the meeting dwindled away I said my goodbyes and headed for my stateroom. I eagerly anticipated what was waiting for me there.

  I wasn’t disappointed.

  I entered our rather spacious stateroom and
could only see Karina’s bare legs and feet beyond the partition that separated our personal space from my work station. I had a desk big enough for six to sit around, a small dining table, bookcases, and a sofa in my office, and then came the partition and our bedroom area, plus the full private bath with a tub. I had insisted on that feature, and I’d never regretted it—what with being a young couple and all, we needed the extra bit of luxury for our more romantic moments together.

  As I watched from behind the partition, Karina kicked her legs back and forth slowly, enticing me into the bedroom.

  “How was your meeting, dear?” she asked, with mock emphasis on the last word. I said nothing in response, but instead walked up and leaned against the partition to get a full view of my wife.

  She was stark naked on the bed, her long dark hair still wet from her shower, swiveling her legs back and forth playfully. I had an excellent view of one of my favorite features of her body, and as always, the sight aroused me. She teased me, twisting curls into her wet hair as she read the local tabloids from a tablet plasma, seemingly oblivious to my presence. But I knew better.

  “My meeting wasn’t nearly as interesting as this,” I said, quickly unbuttoning my shirt.

  “Oh, really?” she replied, turning to me and giving me that practiced, impish smile that always melted my defenses. I hurried out of the rest of my clothes, discarding them all on the floor, and was quickly on the bed next to her, running my hand up and down her body. I gently rubbed her smooth skin, then rolled her onto her side and kissed her deeply. I soon set myself to exploring her other God-given gifts. Our passion accelerated quickly, and we found ourselves fully engaged in lovemaking in a matter of just a few brief moments. From there, one thing led to another and, well . . .