Beyond Death (Perimeter Defense Book #2) (15 page)

Standing change. Chameleon race opinion of you has improved.

Chameleon race opinion of you: +20 (loyal)

I laughed thoughtfully. There were still some definite benefits in being considered the elder Chameleon female. But, having noticed the sideways glances from fleet officers, some of which were having a hard time restraining smiles, I got embarrassed and gave a sharp start:

"Alright, that's enough of that. The ore freighters will soon be full. Prepare the fleet for warp. The Swarm and the Aliens attacking them are waiting for us!"

F
or the second day, my fleet was sitting by the Forepost-13 warp beacon, waiting for permission from the Swarm to cross their borders. It was surprising, but the Iseyek, who had in fact requested aid from the Sector Eight Fleet, were now refusing to allow us to enter and were blocking the Oort warp beacon. My cloaked frigate, which had been able to sneak into Oort before the beacon was turned off, was reporting on a fully-fledged fleet with hundreds of starships that the insects had rolled in from systems deeper in their territory.

Ambassador Triasss Zess and Admiral Kheraisss Vej reassured me that everything was alright. The reason for the delay was purely bureaucratic, the Yayho border fleet was already based in the Oort system for reasons totally unrelated to my fleet. But, for some reason, I was believing them less and less with every passing hour. A sense that something was afoot was gnawing at me. I just had an intuitive feeling that there were some complicated negotiations going on around my fleet, and I definitely did not like all the behind-the-scenes games.

Unfortunately, I could not use the Truth Seeker to figure out the situation. Flora had gone into another untimely crystal sleep. Even my advisor Katerina ton Mesfelle was worried. All she could figure was that the Swarm was hesitating. In the two months since we signed the agreement to help one another, the situation had changed drastically. The Sector Eight Fleet had become many times more powerful and, in its current state, already presented a serious threat to the Swarm. All I would have to do was break the agreement and treacherously attack the systems belonging to the Iseyek.

It should be noted that that possibility was also seen by the other side. I had a long conversation with an official representative of the Imperial Joint Chiefs, Count Timur royl Nayt ton Miro. The conversation was started by the Count and was rich in allusion and unclear hints, though I did understand the main idea: the Imperial Joint Chiefs were covertly promising to help me if I thought the situation ripe for launching a second invasion of the Iseyek. I was even, though in euphemistic phrases, told the criteria for this "ripeness:" if an unexpected attack from the Sector Eight Fleet would allow humanity to capture no less than four Swarm star systems, the Emperor would look on breaking the peace treaty with the Iseyek with nothing but grace. If I see the possibility of capturing six or more star systems, then... No, I did not hear a direct order, but the Count read me a whole lecture on the history of humanity's expansion in space and the unpleasant solutions, which were nevertheless necessary for humanity's further colonization of the remote cosmos.

In the long wait at the border, there was an unexpectedly positive moment: ninety small-class ships came to join my fleet. The fifty
Pyros
, twenty
Warhawks
, ten
Flycatchers
and ten
Surgeons
I had ordered with the Purple House arrived, crewed with people recruited on Tesse. And if you consider that several days earlier, during my stay on Sss, the Sector Eight Fleet had been also joined by the cloaked frigates, you could say I had the legal right to be proud of my accomplishments.

With the new additions, my fleet had a grand total of four hundred thirty combat starships: two battleships, twenty-five heavy cruisers, thirty-four light cruisers, ninety-five destroyers, two hundred thirty-seven frigates (none of which were outdated
Tusk
models anymore, all were now modern
Pyros
and
Warhawks
), thirty-six cloaked frigates and one
Tria
landing ship. For the first time, I heard Admiral Kiro Sabuto say what would have seemed positively mutinous just a month ago: that in a direct conflict with the United Orange House Fleet, the admiral himself would bet on the Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet winning.

I myself wasn’t so optimistic. According to the latest data, Duke Paolo royl Anjer had gathered around two thousand combat starships under his banner, including fourteen battleships and up to a hundred heavy assault cruisers. But, in any case, my side had a lot more momentum. I was gaining strength faster than the Duke, and if I waited for the cruisers I bought in Sector Seven, plus the completion of the two battleships under construction for me, and the
Uukresh
... I tried to drive the deranged smile from my face. A head-on collision with the head of the Orange House did not enter into my plans and I thought of the possibility only as a "best to bury the hatchet next to your enemy" option, to be used only under the most extreme circumstances, if the time allotted by the Emperor for peace was going to run out soon.

Of course, the arrival of more ships meant more and more training, which I ordered the admirals to schedule. While the fleet was in Sss waiting for the shipments of tantalum ore to be loaded onto the freighters and for all issues related to the ownership of the Chameleon’s system to be sorted out, the fleet practiced hard every day. We devoted an especially large amount of time to using the cloakers. Bombing moving targets required the captains and navigators of the stealth bombers to have excellent reaction times and amazing talent at orienting themselves in a tactical grid. The chance of burying your own ship and all other cloakers in the attack wave when a thermonuclear bomb gets lobbed at an enemy was simply too high. At the first training sessions – with dummy ammunition, naturally – the loss percentage among cloaked bombers reached eighty percent in just one attack. The best cloaked frigate captains turned out to be Chameleons, as a result of which I appointed Ravaash individuals as the captains and navigators of the first ten
Surprises
.

My fleet only had one full-fledged eight-hour practice session in the Forepost-13 system, before the long-awaited message came in from Triasss Zess:

"Crown Prince Georg, the Oort star system warp beacon will be activated in the next twenty minutes. The Swarm officially apologizes for the delay. To avoid similar incidents sullying our relationship in the future, the Swarm has appointed me authorized representative of the Iseyek, responsible for all issues connected with the Sector Eight Fleet’s aid mission."

Standing change. Your relationship with Triasss Zess has improved.

Presumed personal opinion of you: +45 (friendship)

Standing change. Iseyek race opinion of you has improved.

Alpha Iseyek race opinion of you: +10 (trusting)

Beta Iseyek race opinion of you: +6 (warm)

Gamma Iseyek race opinion of you: +8 (warm)

Practically right after that, a call came in from Angel royl Mauri, the captain of my cloaked frigate, reporting that the Iseyek fleet was on its way out of the Oort system. I sighed in relief. No matter what kind of incomprehensible negotiations the praying mantises were having, the final decision was positive, and my fleet was allowed to cross the border. Also, the fact that the Swarm had appointed Triasss Zess, who I knew so well, to be the coordinator of the operation meant that the insects wanted to show me that they were glad to continue working together.

"Attention, all ships! At the ready in twenty minutes. The Swarm will turn the Oort system warp beacon on for us. I remind all combat ships to immediately make for the station to recharge as soon as we leave the warp tunnel. The ore freighters are to first unload ore at one of the orbital factories, then return to Imperial territory all together, and go on to Tesse."

What I wanted to do was stand up from the console and leave the headquarters, but Bionica, sitting next to me, asked me to hold on:

"Your Highness, I’m afraid I have to send you the bill for monthly fleet maintenance. It's supposed to be payed the day after tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make the payment as usual from Swarm territory."

"Alright, go ahead," I confirmed, taking a look at the numbers.

Seventeen and a half million credits for fleet maintenance... A month ago such expenses would have been a blow to me, but now I could pay the large bill with my mind at ease. Just the taxes from the purchase of tantalum ore to me, as the "Chameleon elder female," came to over two billion credits plus a few freighters packed with finished armor plates for my docks. Also, my brother Roben suddenly decided to stop paying taxes to the Orange House head, instead sending the funds to my account. Add to that the taxes from Unatari and the ice factories of Tivalle that I was entitled to as ruler, and my share of the sale of pirate property... There I was reminded of something that had somewhat fallen out of view:

"By the way, Bionica, what happened with the last of the three pirate Kings? Somehow I missed the news of his capture."

My secretary suddenly stopped smiling and lowered her eyes to floor:

"Crown Prince Georg, King Velesh the First still has yet to be caught. His bank card has only been used one more time: ten days ago on Tesse he paid for an air-taxi to a popular mineral-spa resort town."

"On Tesse? Well, I'll be damned! That means he was able to escape Unatari, the ratbag!"

"Yes, my Prince. But the criminal police haven’t yet announced the end of the hunt to the residents of Unatari, so the authority of the new rulers and your Highness will not suffer."

"And thank you for that. For some reason, that story about an uncatchable pirate King has suddenly spoiled my mood." It would have seemed that he had run far away, but for some reason I was still sure that I would meet Velesh the First at the most importune moment, and he would try to get revenge for all the offenses and losses he had suffered at my hand.

* * *

In the next star system after Oort, Yal, I was met by the authorized Swarm representative. Triasss Zess appeared in person on my flagship
Joan the Fatty.
Since I'd last seen him, my acquaintance had become even lighter in color. And the praying mantis had already managed to grow rudimentary arms to replace the ones my bodyguard had ripped out. Triasss Zess was accompanied by four Beta Iseyeks, but I could not figure out what their role was in the coordinator's retinue. The hump-backed pill bugs with a huge number of small legs could hardly have been bodyguards. They probably served the ten-foot-high Alpha Iseyek, given his missing pair of mobile arms caused him difficulties with elementary day-to-day tasks.

After a short welcome, the praying mantis told me the news from the front:

"The Kej defense divisions are still holding out in the lower levels of the underground cities, but they are growing weaker by the day. All hotbeds of organized resistance are constantly being bombarded from space by the Aliens with missiles and depth charges. Only at a great dept
h–
four hundred yards from the surface and belo
w–
can they find cover from the orbital bombardment. But the Aliens are also quite comfortable with underground warfare and are burning a path deeper and deeper down with their plasma guns. According to Swarm analysts' calculations, in five or six days, Kej will ultimately fall. And then the Aliens will keep moving..."

"What is the strength of the Alien fleet in the Kej system?" I wondered.

Triasss Zess waved with his huge upper appendages and jumped excitedly:

"Prince Georg, on that account we can provide you with the very latest information: the last transmission from Kej, exactly one half hour ago, reported eleven cruisers and a significant number, up to fifty, of small class ships."

Sixty Alien ships... Eleven
Sledgehammers
or similarly-powered ships... It would be simply impossible to take on such a force without serious losses, that is, if we even could beat them... I did not immediately answer Triasss Zess, and instead turned to the large window in thought. Behind the thick armored glass, I could see a giant under construction, one of the enormous transport ships the Iseyek were planning to use to evacuate their eggs. The colossal size of the starship would have made even the
Uukresh
look like nothing but a little fleck. But, from looking at it, I would say that its construction had begun very recently. The only thing that was recognizable, though still not finished, was the external chassis.

"I need a map of all Swarm systems!" I demanded from the praying mantis, and Triasss Zess sent me one.

I pulled up the map on the screen and didn't even try to hide my surprise. The Iseyek warp tunnel system was much more complicated than humanity knew. And the size of the territory under Swarm control was also impressive. It wasn't just ten star systems, as Imperial maps showed it, but twenty-seven!

I mentally thanked fate that I hadn't made any promises to Count Timur royl Nayt ton Miro. Based on what I could see, if I had agreed with the Joint Chiefs' proposal to attack the Iseyek, humanity would have repeated its century-and-a-half earlier mistake and started a war with an enemy whose power they had seriously underestimated.

"Mark systems under Alien control on the map," I asked the praying mantis messenger, and Triasss Zess quickly marked a number of systems on the touch screen.

Can that be? It turned out that a whole eight star systems had been lost, and not just the two that I had inferred from the information the Iseyek had so sparingly provided.