Starbound (Lightship Chronicles) Read online

  “I’ll do as you say, son. Expect me there by the early evening. But I’m going to want an explanation when I arrive,” he said.

  “You will get that explanation, sir, I promise. Thank you, sir,” I said. We said our goodbyes then and I broke the encryption link. I stood up from the desk and walked to the window, looking down on the assembling palace guard.

  “And now the hard part begins,” I said out loud, to no one in particular.

  At the North Palace

  My father’s plane touched down at 1815 hours local time. I had him escorted by military convoy directly to the palace without incident. I was there to meet him as the military ground car pulled up to the palace’s back entrance.

  I nodded to the guards as the car came to a stop and one of them peeled off and opened the car door. My father stepped out into the cold January air, quickly followed by Admiral Wesley.

  I turned to Walther and waved the guard detachment, four armed men in all, forward to the car to bracket my father and Wesley.

  “Has the admiral filled you in about Carinthia?” I asked my father. He nodded.

  “And I’ve chided him for keeping me in the dark about your situation,” he said by way of explanation. “He’s got some very important new information about the situation on Carinthia.”

  “Not as important as the information I have, I’ll venture,” I said back. I was angry at Wesley for keeping my father in the dark, but I also realized that both of these men still regarded me as a junior navy officer, one whom they could order around as they pleased. Perhaps it was fighting the dreadnought at Levant, or the automatons at Jenarus, or my narrow escape from execution on Carinthia, but I wasn’t that young officer anymore, and they were both about to find that out.

  I turned to Walther. “Escort the admiral to the library. The Director and I will be along shortly.”

  “What’s this?” demanded Wesley as two palace guardsmen stepped up.

  “Peter? What are you doing?” said my father, clearly unhappy. I held up my hand to stop him. There would be a time and a place for this discussion. My father didn’t challenge me further, and at my signal the guards escorted a fuming Wesley through the doors and into the palace. I turned back to my father, the royal Director of Quantar and my superior, both militarily and in royal standing.

  “What I have to tell you is for your ears only at the moment. If you’d like to join me, I have a lot of explaining to do, about a great many things,” I said.

  He continued to look unhappy but said, “Very well,” and followed me inside.

  We dispensed with hats and coats in the foyer and made our way down the long hallway toward the library. I walked next to my father with a guard escort a few steps behind.

  “Explain yourself, son,” he said to me as we walked. I didn’t hesitate.

  “A great many things happened on Carinthia, sir. I want you to know that not all of them were under my control. I need you to trust my judgment on what is happening here at the palace,” I replied.

  “And what is happening here?” he said. That stopped me.

  “Something that will determine our immediate futures, and possibly the future of the entire Union,” I said. He looked at me with what I thought I could read as respect.

  “I’m still in charge on this world, Peter.”

  “I understand that, sir. But I’m asking you to trust me on this, and let me work things out as I reveal what is going on here at my own pace and time,” I said. He hovered over me, still bigger than me by far, both in physical size and personality. But I read a sense of pride in him as we engaged as near-equals in these matters.

  “I’ll let you carry on for the time being, son. But I reserve the right to take over at my own discretion,” he said.

  “Thank you, sir.” With that we started down the hall again and went into the library. Walther and two of his guards were at the closed door. They opened it and we went inside. Wesley was seated alone in a large leather chair, looking angry. I motioned my father to the next chair over. Walther shut the library doors so that we could talk privately.

  “Now what’s this all about, boy?” said Wesley, trying to take the initiative away from me. I crossed my arms and leaned against the library desk.

  “You’ll know that presently, Admiral. The Union has allies on Carinthia, but not many. Some of those allies were in great danger after my escape, and we were forced to help extract some of them off-planet,” I said.

  “I never authorized that action, for you or Zander,” started Wesley. “Listen, son, I am your supreme commander—”

  “You are my supreme commander in the Union Navy, Admiral,” I interrupted him. “But please understand that in these matters I was acting as crown prince in the interests of the royal family, and I am therefore your superior in this particular matter.”

  He looked frustrated at this, but then he stood up, followed by my father.

  “I think it’s time for you to tell us what this is all about,” Wesley said.

  “I agree,” said my father.

  “Very well,” I said, standing again. “But I think it’s better to show you rather than tell you so that you can make your own judgments.”

  I opened the library doors again and then signaled to Walther to dismiss the guards. The four of us then departed the library and went to the utility service lifter, quietly loading into it and then making our way up to the third floor guest apartments. I stepped out and asked them to follow. We went to the main suite, where I knocked on the door. A military nurse opened the door and escorted us into an anteroom, and then I dismissed both the nurse and Walther.

  “What you’re about to see is why I came here to the North Palace instead of New Briz. What’s inside that room changes everything,” I said, motioning toward the double doorway. My father and Wesley exchanged glances but said nothing, so I opened the doors and stepped through, followed by my two superiors.

  Inside the Princess Karina of Carinthia stood by a large fireplace in her Union Navy uniform while her father, the Black Duke, Grand Duke Henrik Feilberg, slept in a side chair next to the fire, snoring gently.

  Wesley took a few steps into the room, then looked back at me, furious.

  “By the Great Gods, boy!” he said. “What have you done?!”

  We sat in the anteroom together a few minutes later: Karina, myself, the fuming Wesley, and my father. I made the introductions and we started talking.

  I told the story of my capture, trial, near execution, and attempted assassination on Carinthia. Karina told the story of how she got her father off of the planet, and why it was necessary. After a few more minutes of back and forth, we got down to the business at hand: what should we do now?

  “You’ve put us in a pretty pickle, son,” said Wesley. “We’ve been getting reports of unrest in the Carinthian military for several months, but nothing this extensive. But taking the grand duke off-planet—that could be seen as an act of war.”

  “I’m his daughter and a crown princess, Admiral. I will vouch for the necessity of our actions in bringing my father here,” said Karina.

  “That might not matter, Princess,” warned Wesley. He rose and started to pace. “If your brothers both present a solid case for their actions, it’s you who could be seen as being in the wrong by the Carinthian people. It’s clear this Prince Arin wants Carinthia out of the Union, which means any provocation could be used to justify their exit and canceling of the Concord Agreement. You may have just provided them with that provocation, Princess.”

  Karina bolted up from her chair, standing up as tall as she could to Wesley. “There are three worlds in this Union, Admiral. If the Earth Historians withdraw their support, Carinthia will be at a tactical and strategic disadvantage,” she said.

  “Not if they replace the Earthmen’s technology with assistance from the old empire,” retorted Wesley. Then he lo
oked to my father. “This is your call, Nathan. How do we proceed now that your son has participated in the kidnapping of Carinthia’s sovereign?”

  “I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t couch things in such terms, Jonathon, even in private,” said my father, more than a bit testily. He sighed, a sign of the stress we were all under. “I will contact the Historians’ Guild on Earth and advise them of the situation. Princess Karina, if you could get your father into a state where he can speak for himself, perhaps even record a statement for the people of Carinthia, that could be of great use. Our primary goal must be to try and slow things down. Right now it seems that events are accelerating out of our control, and that’s always a bad thing. The admiral and I will return to New Brisbane while we work the diplomatic and military channels. I’ll ask the Historians to set up a protocol for open negotiations with the new government on Carinthia as soon as possible. Perhaps we can defuse this situation before it blows up in our faces,” he finished.

  Karina was indignant. “What new government? My father’s is the only official government on Carinthia.”

  “With respect, Princess,” said my father, “Your father has been only a figurehead for some years now. Whether it was fully legal or not, your brother Arin has assumed the de facto power of the Regency and has become the real power broker on Carinthia. We will have to deal with him on those terms. But right now my only goal is to settle things down and see about your father’s safe return to his home as soon as possible.”

  “You can’t do that! We just escaped from there!” Karina said. “You don’t understand, sir. Arin will kill him.” My father looked pensive at this.

  “Obviously, that’s not the desired outcome, Princess. But these actions you’ve taken, you and Peter, they’ve brought us to the brink of war, perhaps even pushed us over it already. If I can stop this war before it starts by sending him home I will do so, despite what my personal feelings might be about the matter.” At this he stood and went to the door, preparing to go.

  “Sirs, I request permission to return to Starbound immediately and resume my duties there,” I said.

  “Denied,” snapped Wesley. “Right now you are a spark to the kindling in this situation, young man. It would be best if you stayed out of sight, at least until Starbound is ready to go out again. And I can’t think of a better place for you to stay out of sight than here in KendalFalk. That is, of course, if you wish to place yourself under my command again and rescind your royal authority over these matters?”

  His meaning was clear enough: follow my orders or resign your commission. It would have solved a number of political problems for him if he could stash me away and get me out of the navy, but I wasn’t ready to be done with my military career quite yet.

  “I understand and accept your orders, Admiral,” I said.

  “Good,” he replied. And with that both he and my father were out the door. I looked to Karina, feeling helpless.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Don’t be,” she replied. “It’s not your fault. And at least I know that for now my father is safe.”

  I thought about that. “How safe are any of us now?” I asked rhetorically.

  “I want to stop the war, too, Peter. But not the way they think to do. My father is still beloved by the people of Carinthia, and he is our greatest asset. It seems as though you and I may still have to take matters into our own hands,” Karina said. Then she returned to her father’s suite, leaving me alone to contemplate what she meant by that.

  I spent the next day kicking around the North Palace, doing nothing and feeling useless. Neither my father nor Wesley sent an update all day, and my calls to my father’s office were taken by his office secretary but not returned. They were clearly letting me know where I stood in their eyes at the moment, and I didn’t like it at all.

  I checked in with Karina and the nurses a couple of different times. Her father was still very incoherent, and that was worrisome. The stasis field had had residual effects on him, and he still hadn’t fully recovered. I did manage to get her to have dinner with me in the private family dining room on the third floor, but it was a somber affair. We both were very down about being cut out of the decision-making process, perhaps permanently.

  We were waiting on dessert when Walther interrupted us.

  “Sire, there’s an urgent communiqué for you in the library,” he said. I glanced up at Karina.

  “May I—” she started.

  “Please, join me,” I said. “This concerns you, too.” I asked the servants to bring us coffee in the library and then we and Walther went out of the dining room and made for the nearest lifter.

  I sat down in front of the desk plasma console and keyed in my private code to de-encrypt the transmission. It was a text-only message from Zander aboard Benfold:

  “Have made the run to Candle and back. Arrival expected at 1900 hours your local time.”

  I checked my watch. Thirty minutes from now. I resumed scrolling the message.

  “Harrington aboard with urgent news regarding Carinthia. Request permission to land at Palace and consult with you directly.”

  I replied in the affirmative and sent the coded packet back to Zander with the palace landing coordinates, then passed the arrival time on to Walther. I shut the library doors again and turned to Karina.

  “Zander says Harrington has urgent news about Carinthia. I hope it’s good, but I doubt that it is,” I said.

  “I agree, I have my doubts,” said Karina. “Should we consult with your father and Wesley?”

  I thought about that for a moment. “Not just yet. They haven’t exactly been forthcoming about keeping us in the loop, so I would prefer to handle this first myself. Zander is requesting to consult with both of us, not them. But I’ll have Walther set up the link just in case. We can decide after we hear what they have to say,” I said.

  Zander was ten minutes late on his arrival time, and for a man as diligent to promptness as he was, it was almost an offense. I nodded to him as he arrived at the back entrance to the palace, with Harrington in tow as promised. I led them both into the library where they greeted Karina again, poured them both a warming drink of brandy, and we sat down together.

  I looked to Harrington. “So tell me your news.” He looked grimly down into his glass.

  “There is nothing good, I’m afraid. The reports about the grand duke’s ‘abduction’ have been made public by the Regency. They are blaming it on ‘anti-Carinthian agents’ and have vowed to track down the perpetrators and bring them to justice, that sort of rhetoric. There is no mention of you, Princess, but it is very clear in the government-controlled media that they are pursuing young Cochrane here,” he said, then turned back to me. “They are doing everything but blaming you directly for the abduction. They are making it very hard for anyone associated with Quantar or the Union to do business with Carinthia, so much so that as of today I have suspended my merchant operations there and withdrawn my people. I won’t be going back any time soon,” he finished.

  “So now I’m a criminal?” I said. Harrington nodded.

  “At least on Carinthia you are.”

  “I have to make a statement,” said Karina. “Get a message to my people, tell them why we’re really here. Can you get a message broadcast in Carinthian space, Mr. Harrington?” He looked to Zander.

  “Aye, it can be done, Princess. We’d have to jump in, drop a longwave ansible and jump back out again. The message would be picked up on any media device that has a longwave receptor, which if I’m guessing right is pretty much every Tri-Vee, personal communicator, and plasma network on the planet. You’ll get to most of the people that way,” Zander said.

  “Would it be dangerous?” she asked. Zander shrugged.

  “It might be, a bit. But danger and I are old friends, Princess. And we’re not at war. Or at least we won’t be until you make this br
oadcast,” Zander said.

  Then they looked to me. “I think it’s best if we bring in my father on this now,” I said. I called Walther in to set up the encrypted longwave link to Government House on the library’s main wall plasma display. I sent the communications packet with an urgent request, and this time it was answered. I navigated around my father’s secretary and she agreed to get him on the line. His image came up a few seconds later. He and Wesley were seated in his office.

  I introduced Harrington and Zander and the merchant proceeded to fill in the two leaders on what he had just told us.

  “We’re aware of the government line on Carinthia,” said Wesley, “and about the blame being placed on young Peter. So far they have refused all Union overtures, either from us or the Earthmen, on diplomatic negotiations. They are threatening withdrawal from the Union, but we’re not sure what else they may be planning.”

  “Then let me fill you in, Admiral,” said Harrington. “I’ve withdrawn all my merchant operations from the Carinthian system. Doing business there has become impossible. They are interdicting all foreign cargo ships that dock at the High Stations under the guise of a search for evidence on the abduction, then taking the cargo and rerouting it to Carinthia.”

  “Hoarding supplies,” said Wesley, nodding his head.

  “For what?” I asked.

  “For war, son,” answered my father. “Prince Arin is threatening military action against any planet found to be harboring these so-called ‘anti-Carinthian agents.’ Carinthia has demanded the return of all their sailors and soldiers to their home bases. Some are already going. We don’t know how many will stay with the Union. We’re on the verge of war.”

  We all took that in soberly.

  “There will be a formal war council tomorrow at 0900. It will be up there, at the North Palace,” said Wesley. “It would be helpful, Princess, if your father could participate.”