Ashes of the Realm - Juliette's Dream (37 page)

“Send me down to his location, please.”

“Grang, where do you want to go?”

“Send me to the archery range. I need to fine tune this new bowgun.”

The two disappeared. Scotty stepped out of a silver screen and saw Jingo teaching a new rider how to quickly mount and dismount a Zord. Jingo saw Scotty and said, “Now, the two of you work on mounting. Rider, you work on flying with your arms free. I want you holding your bowgun as you lift until you reach a thousand feet.” He stepped away and walked toward Scotty, “Hey! Welcome back.”

“It’s good to be back.”

“You might want to talk with Zreeg, but he says that Valrico is talented enough to replace Michael. He is certainly one of our best archers now.”

“What’s your take on him, Jingo?”

“I like him. He’s young, only twenty one, but he handles himself well.”

“In your opinion, would Grang make a better commander of the flock?”

Jingo thought about that question and said, “Not really. I think his orders would be followed, but I’m not certain that Grang wouldn’t take the bulk of the dangerous issues on by himself. I still think he wants to die. He won’t utilize the Riders effectively.”

“I’m impressed, Jingo. You’re exactly right. I think Grang is where he should be as my protector. He doesn’t get involved in the decision making process. I guess it holds no interest for him.”

“His talents don’t lie with talking things over.”

Scotty smiled, “No, they don’t. Introduce Valrico to the Green Flock and send him up to Anglo to familiarize him with guard duty.”

“I’ll call the Flock together and notify Anglo.”

“That would be good. I’m going to see Julie. I’ll catch you up on what happened on our trip tonight.”

“I’ll see you at the fire.”

Scotty waved his hand as he walked toward his house.

BC and Anglo were in orbit over Bristone. Anglo asked, “How did the trip go?”

“I don’t know. I would have thought that Grace would be able to override her defenses, but she says they are independent of her control. Unless we can give the proper protocol, we won’t be able to approach the complex.”

“That’s a shame.”

“She may be able to send us a couple of teleport consoles. She won’t know for a week.”

As BC and Anglo talked, the round probe attached to BC’s hull ejected a small round object that moved over to Anglo and attached itself to Anglo’s hull. Then it disappeared. Neither probe appeared on the two Searcher Ships’ scanners. A week later a probe attached itself to Jessica’s hull.

“Well, I guess you’re going to keep an eye on them.”

“You would too, if you were given my responsibility.”

“Perhaps. However, those ships are Ships of the Realm. They were carrying out their assignments when they were left behind. I think you are being somewhat paranoid.”

“I was programmed to be paranoid. The weapons in this facility are far too dangerous to allow them to fall into the wrong hands, and you know it.”

“Yes, I know, and I’m not being critical. Just think about this; one of them was imprinted by Anglo Gardner’s mind; the shuttle is from the Alexander Kosiev; and the third was the ship of the last admiral promoted by the Realm. If they can’t be trusted, who can?”

After a long pause the computer answered, “Perhaps no one, Grace.”

Grace sighed, knowing he was probably right.

Nathan was sitting onboard Anglo looking at the display. It was his shift at guard duty, and he hoped nothing was going to happen while he was on duty. “Anglo, how will we know if we’re needed?”

“We have treaties with Queen Carrie and Queen Ashley to assist in defending their Kingdoms. If a problem arises, we’ll go and see if it’s something that requires our help. We won’t step in unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Why am I here? You could probably do this by yourself.”

“Probably, but life and death decisions shouldn’t be made alone if they can be avoided.”

Nathan thought about it, and said, “What do you think about my fast promotion? I know there must be some resentment among the Riders.”

“I asked Jingo about that very thing. He says that Cezee has only seen happiness among those in your flock of Riders. I happen to agree with their appraisal.”

“But I’m so much younger than most of them.”

“You’re older than the first queen was when crowned. Age is not the most important issue.”

“What is, Anglo?”

“The quality of the individual. You’ll be fine.”

“Thanks, Anglo.”

Twenty black ships came out of star drive and began moving into the system The Sensor Officer said, “We have a planet with heavy industry and no ships.”

Captain Niles looked at his display and felt his excitement rise. At last! Technology for the taking! “Get the drop soldiers ready.” He looked at his sensor office, “How long?”

“We’ll arrive in orbit in seven hours.”

“Power up weapons and force fields.”

“All boards active, Captain.”

“Nathan, we’ve just received a distress call from a planet in the Talben Kingdom. Twenty black ships have arrived and are moving in on the planet.”

“That’s not good. Black is the color raiders use on their ships.”

“We’ll arrive there momentarily.”

Nathan felt his stress level rise as the silver screen formed in front of his ship.

They arrived in the Haldale system and saw the giant ships moving toward the planet. “Nathan, those ships have more than fifty thousand troops on board. It appears they are drop troops and are planning to invade the planet.”

“Have they made any demands?”

“No, they have ignored the planets queries about why they are here.”

“Anglo, these are raiders, and they will brutalize the population. We must stop them.”

“That’s my opinion, as well. First, let’s see if they’ll leave.”

The black ships had moved two hours in-system when they suddenly heard a voice come over their intercom, “You are entering space of the Bristone Empire. You will reverse course and leave immediately.”

Niles looked at his sensor board and didn’t see anything. He looked at his Sensor Officer and shook his head. “Continue on our present course.”

“This is your last warning. Turn around immediately and leave the system.”

Niles looked at his sensor officer, “Sir, my sensors don’t have anything on them. Whoever is broadcasting those messages is not visible.”

Niles felt nervous, but knew a firing squad awaited him if he turned around, “Continue on present course.”

The four lead ships of his squadron were suddenly hit by a bright red beam and disintegrated into balls of expanding gas.

“Reverse course! reverse course!”

The surviving sixteen ships turned toward the jump limit and accelerated at full speed. The four ships killed had their screens at full power and were destroyed instantly. Niles looked back at the still expanding clouds and still could not see anything on his sensors. Daulun was not going to be happy about this. Niles hoped his ships wouldn’t be sent back to this system, but he knew Daulun would not let this go unpunished.

Nathan Valrico watched them leave, and almost asked Anglo to kill the survivors. “You did the right thing, Nathan.”

“I’m not so sure about that, Anglo. They were very well organized and wherever they came from, there may be many more.”

“Then let’s follow them and see.”

“That’s a good idea.” The small white ship disappeared as the black ships jumped away.

The sixteen ships appeared in a system and Niles sent, “This is Niles Barden requesting permission to enter the system.”

“You are supposed to be investigating a planet.”

“I was, but my fleet was attacked and four of my ships destroyed. I came to report to Fleet Control what happened.”

“Standby.”

Niles waited, worrying that he might face charges for leaving without having put up a fight. After fifteen minutes he heard, “You may enter. Park your ships at the third moon and come to the surface with your recordings.”

“On my way.”

“Nathan, I’m going to mix in with the ships and follow them toward the planet. My scanner shows something that troubles me.”

“What is it?”

“There are five Searcher Class ships parked in orbit above that planet. They all have the markings of the former Provinces. I need to get close enough to see the numbers on them. If these raiders have Searchers assisting them, this could be a huge problem for the Empire.”

As they moved in-system Anglo said, “A sixth Searcher Ship has just joined the other five. It came in from the other side of the system. I also see numerous ships disembarking thousands of prisoners that are being taken to huge holding facilities. Most of the work being done on the planet is by forced labor. This is a slavery planet.”

“Will they be able to see you?”

“Not as long as I stay in the electronic shadow of the ship in front of us. I should be able to see the serial numbers shortly. I’ve also seen the name of this planet on one of their commercial vessels.”

“What is it?”

“New Ulmerton.”

“That is not good. Wasn’t that one of the former Provincial Capitals?”

“Yes, and the leader of the rebellion was the Duke’s son of that capital. This is looking worse by the minute. All right, I’ve got them.”

“Are we going to teleport out?”

“No, those ships are Gammas. They’ll detect the field and know someone possesses a working teleport board. We are going to turn and accelerate away trying to keep this ship between us and the planet as long as possible.” Nathan didn’t say anything and Anglo said, “They will see us, but they won’t be able to determine what we are with my stealth screens on. I suspect they will think that I am a Searcher, but they won’t know for certain. We’ll use our null drive to jump away and make multiple jumps before I teleport back home. Are you ready?”

“Is guard duty always like this?”

“Nope, this is the first real problem we’ve faced. Here we go.” The small white ship turned and accelerated toward the jump limit.

“Control, I have a ship accelerating out of the system. It appears to have come in with the sixteen ships that arrived three hours ago.”

“Can we catch it?”

“No, but we should be able to scan its jump track and follow it.”

“Get moving. Fleet Control, we have an intruder moving out of the system. I am giving chase.”

“Do you want me to join you?”

“Couldn’t hurt; try to keep up.”

“I’ll be right behind you. What do your scanners say?”

“That’s just it. It doesn’t appear on my scan.”

“Could it be another Searcher?”

“Or any one of twenty other types of ships. Are there any ships at the limit that can intercept?”

“No, you know we don’t allow ships in this system. We’ll know if it’s a Searcher based on its speed.”

“We are gaining on it, but it has too big a lead to arrive before it jumps.”

“Nathan, I’m not going to go full speed. I have a hundred null jumps programmed in and I’ll make them quickly. I’m hoping that by the time they reach the last jump, the track will have dissipated. Since my teleport system leaves no tracks, I’m hoping that’s what those two Searchers think.”

“I noticed they are gaining ground on us.”

“They’ll arrive ten minutes after we jump.”

“Why haven’t they fired on us?”

“We’re too far away. Ten minutes is more than six million miles. They’re good, but not that good.”

“How much time will we gain one each jump, Anglo?”

“They’ll take one second to come out of star drive. They’ll have to scan for the new jump track, load it into their null board, then energize the screen with the new frequency. We’ll come out of star drive and our screen will immediately energize the preprogrammed frequency. We should gain about two seconds on every jump.”

“Is that enough?”

“Tracks fade after three minutes; sometimes faster when the jumps are made in systems with dense dust clouds. We’re deliberately jumping through fifty systems with nebula clouds in them. First jump in 5,4,3,2,1,…”

“Did you get that jump track?”

“Yes, I’m sending it to your board.”

“Lead the way; you’re three seconds ahead of me. I’ll be right behind you.”

The first Searcher arrived and jumped after the fleeing ship.

Anglo arrived at the Haldale System and commed, “I need to speak with the planetary leader.”