Defiant (Lightship Chronicles) Page 5

  “Were they loyal to the Empire or the republicans during the Imperial Civil War?” asked John Marker, my master chief, from down the table.

  “Officially neutral,” replied Gracel, “but behind the scenes there is strong evidence they were loyal to the Empire. The founding families wanted to maintain the status quo, essentially cutting the new colonists out of the planet’s prosperity.”

  “If they were loyal to the old empire, then why are we going there?” followed up Marker. “Aren’t there more promising systems out there waiting for us to come?”

  “Perhaps,” Gracel said. “But Sandosa and Pendax were beneficial trading partners before the war. Pendax merchant interests are anxious to reestablish those trading routes.”

  “Well, that explains it,” said Marker. “What Harrington wants, Harrington gets.” There were chuckles around the table at this. It was a common saying on Pendax itself and one heard many times before in the Union services.

  “True enough,” I interjected. “There isn’t a more important merchant than Admar Harrington on Pendax. But he will soon be a guest on this vessel, and regardless of what you may think of Pendax’s political system, I expect you all to treat him and his team with respect.” The fact was that Pendax was having trouble converting to a democracy from a merchant economy, and Harrington was the most likely cause of the trouble. He was an influential man there, but he had also been instrumental in providing crucial technology for the rapid cleanup of Carinthia after the atomic attack by forces loyal to the regent, Prince Arin. For that, the Union Council was grateful and gave him much leeway in conducting his own world’s business. Pendax was a full member of the Union now, and we would back them, and Harrington, in any way asked of us. He had also been instrumental in my escape from Carinthia after my trial and near execution there, and I personally owed him a great deal.

  I moved down the table to Ensign Lynne Layton, the younger sister of my third-in-command and Defiant’s com officer. I’d plucked her from Maclintock’s staff on Starbound as a favor to George so he could “keep an eye on her,” as he liked to say. “Com status report, Ensign,” I requested. She straightened in her chair and delivered her report confidently.

  “Com systems are linked with the Historian’s ansible network at 100 percent efficiency, sir,” she stated. I nodded to encourage her to go further. She was still a bit reserved in staff meetings with her peers, and I attributed that to her relative youth at only nineteen. But to make it through the Lightship Academy at that age, she had to be very talented. She cleared her throat before continuing. “The Historians have upgraded the com systems so that they can link through the ansibles in real time using the longwave system, no delays with the signals traveling through normal space. Anywhere the ansibles are active and Historian Gracel has tied us into the hyperspace longwave network, we can communicate in real or near-real time to any planet or ship within our instantaneous jump range.”

  “What about ships or systems that require us to use traverse space?” I asked.

  “A minimal delay, sir—usually a few hours. Nothing like we experience with the ship. A hyperdimensional longwave apparently carries much less ‘baggage’ than an actual Lightship. I’ve tested these systems myself both on Defiant and Starbound, and they seem to work flawlessly, sir.”

  I turned back to Gracel. “Care to comment on this new technology, Historian?” I asked, smiling. I received a pleasant if reserved smile in return.

  “Only to say that the network is not yet complete, and I haven’t been authorized to link you into all possible outlets yet,” Gracel replied.

  “I’m clear on the network. I was more inquiring about the technology itself,” I said. She shrugged.

  “Let’s just say the principles are similar to the hyperdimensional drive, but without its accompanying limitations for traverse time, and leave it at that,” she said.

  I wasn’t quite willing to let it go yet, though. “I think we’re all curious how messages and telemetry can travel such great distances with no time delay,” I said.

  She looked annoyed but answered nonetheless. “Perhaps it’s your perspective that needs adjusting. The messages and data don’t actually ‘travel’ the distances between ansibles. They enter a higher dimension at one point and exit at another, similar to the hyperdimensional drive. That’s the most I can tell you, I’m afraid. I’m not a trained physicist.”

  I nodded to her. “Indeed.” Satisfied for the moment, I turned to Karina. “A report on your new assignment on the longscope, please, Lieutenant Feilberg?” I asked. She had kept her maiden name for her Navy duties and for most of her royal ones as well. Only on Quantar was she referred to by my last name, Cochrane.

  “Fully operational, sir,” she said, all business. “She has the latest upgrades, and Historian Gracel and I have spent two hours daily training on her. I feel I’m ready to take over the station as your number one on the ’scope, sir.”

  “I concur,” piped in Gracel.

  “Well then. If all goes well on this mission, I may have to put you in for a promotion, Lieutenant,” I said.

  “Thank you, sir,” Karina replied. She tried to suppress an embarrassed smile but wasn’t completely successful.

  With that I turned to George Layton, my helmsman and third officer. “Commander?”

  Layton opened his plasma reader at my prompt and began his intel report.

  “As Historian Gracel reported, the Sandosa system seems to have undergone some significant social upheaval in the last few decades. Most of the contacts the Union has established there report that the ranking government officials are almost all from the second wave of colonization, so much so that there were some concerns expressed in the early reports that the minority founding ethnicities weren’t included in any of the original contact discussions. The Sandosa government corrected that by producing some originalist representatives, and it has since gone out of its way to extend every courtesy to our survey teams. They are said to be extremely enthusiastic about the pending arrival of a Union Lightship and the delegation from Pendax and opening full negotiations,” she said.

  “So they know we’re coming in?” I asked. He nodded.

  “They know generally, sir. Last reports from three days ago indicate they are anxious to receive us at our earliest convenience.”

  I tilted my head at him. “Is three days our last report? I thought forty-eight hours was the maximum protocol between contacts with the survey teams. With the enhancements to the Historian’s ansible network, I shouldn’t think getting clear communications would be a problem.”

  Layton ran his hands over his plasma, checking data and searching through files. I didn’t want to put him on the spot for circumstances beyond his control, but I didn’t want to go into an unknown system with stale intel either. It was the third officer’s responsibility to keep his captain fully informed at all times.

  “Seventy-four hours since the last survey team report, sir,” he admitted after reviewing the files. Well overdue.

  “I can help reestablish contact with the survey teams,” offered Ensign Layton. George looked pensively down the table at his younger sister, clearly not wanting to be shown up by her.

  “Let’s do that,” I said to them both. “Work together and get me an update. And if you need help you can also bug the Historian.”

  “Thank you for volunteering me, Captain,” Gracel said with mock cheerfulness.

  “Oh, you’re welcome,” I replied. This set off a round of chuckles. At that, it was time to close the meeting and get on to business.

  “XO, prep the ship for the jump to Pendax. Mr. Marker, have your marines trained and ready. I don’t know if we’ll need them on this mission, but I expect top form regardless,” I said.

  “Aye, sir,” said Marker. I stood then, and the staff stood with me.

  “Call me in my cabin with fifteen minutes to go be
fore the jump, XO,” I ordered. That timing meant that I expected them to be ready when I got there. “I expect updates from all of you on my arrival on the bridge. You’re dismissed.” And with that they all scrambled to their duties, and I made for my stateroom to prep for my first active duty mission as captain of Defiant.

  We flashed into Pendax space with extreme precision, so much so that we were actually fewer than five hundred meters from the jump point’s designated “center.” This achievement was worthy of a public compliment, and I duly gave one to the ship’s astrogator, Lieutenant Arasan.

  From there we made the two-hour trek from our ingress jump point to High Station Pendax. The purpose of having a deep space station so close to the jump point was to be prepared in case of any hostile arrival. The two-hour distance, accomplished at a standard sub-light cruising speed of .005 light, which would obviously vary with the speed of any approaching craft, was to give a time cushion to any forces scrambling to deploy to face a potential enemy. So you always wanted a High Station close to the jump point, but not too close. Pendax was busy building a second High Station in orbit around the planet, something the Union had recommended and for which it was happy to provide the skills and materials.

  We docked the ship without incident, and upon arrival I received two invitations: one for dinner from Captain Zander of the under-construction Vanguard, and the other for a late evening cocktail reception with Admar Harrington. I accepted both on behalf of my wife and myself.

  After running the crew through standard post-docking procedures, I announced on the shipwide com that all non-duty personnel had liberty until midnight. With the changing of shifts, that meant almost 70 percent of the crew would have at least a few hours to knock around on a new High Station in a new system and sample her wares.

  The dinner with Zander went by quickly with his usual grousing about this and that, but the upside was that Vanguard really was ready for commissioning at any time. The Lightship fleet was getting stronger, and that was important news. I begged off of further conversation on account of the 2100 hours cocktail reception. Zander understood, even if he didn’t like it. He knew how persuasive a man his new boss could be.

  Karina and I arrived a few minutes early, both of us in our formal navy attire, and were quickly ushered into an already crowded receiving room. This was clearly to be a combination business and social event. We spent a good few minutes meeting and greeting dignitaries of various rank, all of them no doubt important on Pendax itself. After a few minutes of this, Harrington made his entrance.

  He was certainly a man comfortable with the pomp of office, being the richest and most powerful merchant prince on a world full of them. He was a large, balding man with an oversized winged mustache and a gray military uniform complete with dozens of sparkling service medals on his chest. He sported an unlit pipe in one hand, probably as an affectation, and an ornate walking stick in the other, with a pair of wire-rimmed glasses thrown in to make his appearance complete. By every measure this was a man who wanted for nothing, and he was in his element. He made his way across the room, greeting numerous dignitaries as he came. Karina and I waited patiently by the room’s fireplace, making conversation with lower-level merchants and their companions.

  When he finally arrived, he bowed graciously to my lady. “Princess,” he said, then turned to me and repeated the bow. “Sire.” I extended my hand in greeting, and he shook it.

  “Captain will do just fine for me, Mr. Harrington,” I said.

  “My friends call me Admar,” he said. “I would be pleased if you would do the same.”

  “Thank you, Admar,” said Karina, smiling. He waved us over to a set of chairs around a low wood coffee table. We were escorted over by a cadre of Harrington’s assistants, both male and female, and sat down with our drinks and hors d’oeuvres. The women in his employ, I noted, were strikingly beautiful and impeccably dressed.

  “I’d like to discuss the Sandosa trip, if we might,” he started in.

  “I’m pleased to do so, Admar,” I replied. It seemed a bit informal to call him by his given name, but even as the richest man on Pendax he had no official title except “Chief Merchant,” which was bestowed on him by Union negotiators during the admission agreement negotiations.

  I explained the latest intelligence from Sandosa and that he could probably expect a different culture than the one Pendax and Sandosa had shared prior to the war.

  “That’s a disturbing note. If the government there has become paranoid socialist, they may not desire the mutually beneficial trading agreements we had before,” Harrington said.

  “What were the details of those?” I asked.

  “Mainly meat, livestock, coal, and timber from our side. Precious metals and magnesium ore for manufacturing from their side, plus other exchanges on smaller scales. As I recall from reading the records, arable land is somewhat scarce there, and they couldn’t keep livestock very well because of the lack of grazing land. Plus the planet is mainly limestone, not very conducive to farming and the like,” he concluded. Then he looked up at me.

  “This is why the Merchant Council has authorized me to bring along a Special Secretary for Union Negotiations with Sandosa. We may need to offer them the full benefits of Union membership to make this work.”

  “Seems logical,” I said, taking a sip of my drink. “So tell me, Admar, what progress have you made with fulfilling the Union Concord agreements?” At this Harrington got a sour look on his face. The Concord agreements were certain social contracts required in order to receive the full package of benefits from the Union Council. Failure to comply could even result in economic or technological penalties.

  “Things aren’t progressing as fast as we or the Union would like,” he finally admitted. “It’s difficult, converting from a merchant-based oligarchy to a representative democracy. In some ways, the way we have things, with the Merchant Council running affairs, is far more efficient than your Union proposals.”

  I smiled. “Quantar has a strong merchant class tradition as well, none more rich and powerful than the Cochrane family. But we’ve managed to adapt to a local parliament and having only a single seat on the Union Council. The first step is often the hardest.”

  Harrington’s sour look didn’t dissipate. “It may sound easy to you, Cochrane, but your family always had a working parliament, even in Imperial times. Pendax has been run by the merchants for so long . . .” He trailed off.

  “Change is difficult, Admar, but in the end it is beneficial. Sharing a bit of your wealth with the people of Pendax will reap its own rewards,” I offered.

  He eyed me askance, as if sizing me up. “Spoken like a man who is the heir to the wealth of two worlds, not just one,” he said.

  “True,” interjected Karina, smiling. “But isn’t this mission about opening up interstellar trade routes again, to make you even more rich and powerful than you are now? And isn’t a tidy little democracy for the common welfare worth the economic and technological benefits you will gain from the Union?”

  Admar smiled, and I could see he was charmed by her. “Yes,” he said. “That it is. But still, when you’ve run things one way your entire life, change is not easy, even in the face of greater profit. Especially at my age.” Then he turned back to me.

  “Which brings up another point. As I sit here with you I am the most powerful man on my world, but I have no title to back my great wealth and success. Both your and your wife’s family’s wealth and status are secured by your adherence to the old Imperial peerage system. You are prince and princess, but I sit here as merely a common man. The Imperial system on our world was abandoned long ago.” I considered this for a moment.

  “I’m not authorized to offer any such standing, as I’m sure you know. But I could see my way clear to present a case for your entitlement to your council, if things proceed as planned on Pendax. When we complete this mission, and if my fath
er and the new Duke Benn agree, the Union Council could move to approve such titles and sub-gentry classes,” I said. This seemed to please him for the moment.

  “And now you see why I needed a Special Secretary to negotiate such things. I understand you’ve already met.”

  “That we have,” said Karina, smiling again. Harrington nodded.

  “The Princess Janaan came to my attention during our ascension negotiations with the Union. She has a fine mind for both business and diplomacy, and she’s a master negotiator. Having her is an enormous asset, Princess,” said Harrington.

  “I understand, sir,” Karina replied. Then Harrington looked to me for affirmation.

  “You’ll get no argument about your business decisions from me, Admar. They’re yours to make as you see fit.”

  “I’m sure,” he said with a nod. And then we drank to the success of the mission.