Owner 03 - Jupiter War (30 page)

Earth

‘Admiral Bartholomew,’ enquired Serene, as the man’s image popped up in a small frame at the top corner of the main screen, ‘how much longer before you can undock?’

‘Once all the troops are aboard, which could be any time now, we can separate,’ he replied. ‘All our other supplies are in.’

‘And, thereafter,’ Serene continued, ‘how long until you can head out?’

‘If we run our vortex generators up to speed and forgo any further testing and diagnostics, then twenty-two hours.’

‘Keep me updated,’ Serene concluded and, after a moment, the small frame closed.

Undocking the
Command
and the
Fist
from the construction station the moment the supplies and troops were aboard would shave off almost a day, but only if the drives functioned as predicted and there was no requirement to dock the ships again for further work. It was a risk Serene felt it necessary to take in light of the images she was now viewing.

She’d seen just how fast things were progressing here on the construction station, but this development outpaced it tenfold. Saul was building his ship at a phenomenal rate. That skeletal ship had arrived in orbit about Jupiter just a few weeks ago and, despite a lack of clarity to the images because of the ionization thereabouts, the moment it plugged into the flux tube, activity aboard the craft had ramped up so high that its image in infrared showed clearly even beside Io itself. Now the outer skeleton was more than halfway enclosed with hull plates, while the interior had filled up rapidly – even the docking pillars being moved inside with the ease of shifting a few planks rather than thousands of tonnes of metal and the complex support technologies.

‘What have Tactical got to add?’ she asked without turning.

Elkin stood silently behind her, along with her two aides. Calder was also present, but currently off studying something on one of the other consoles in the control room, as if he wanted to disassociate himself from this scene; while Sack was looming close, having detected the tension in Serene the moment she began viewing the video feed.

Elkin replied, ‘They say that his ship still could be ready before the
Command
and the
Fist
are ready to launch.’

‘Still could be?’ Serene enquired, silently putting a call through her fone and linking it to the screen before her.

‘This progress is faster than anyone believed possible, so all base parameters have to be changed,’ Elkin stated. ‘It may also have some bearing on the coming conflict.’

‘Some bearing?’ remarked Serene acidly, noting that one of the aides was trying to attract Elkin’s attention. ‘That’s even supposing there is a coming conflict!’ She was starting to get angry now, receiving some intimation that things were beginning to spin out of control.

Elkin had now taken note of something on her palmtop and frowned.

‘What now?’ Serene demanded.

‘I’ve just received a notification, ma’am, from security team leader Vaughan,’ Elkin replied. ‘Apparently our undercover operatives here were relocated with the . . . less trusted staff.’

‘And I need to know this why?’

Elkin clammed up and, even though Serene had asked what had drawn Elkin’s attention, she felt no guilt about harassing the woman.

‘Well, you can tell team leader Vaughan— What is it?’ she snapped at Bartholomew, who had now reappeared in that tiny frame on her screen.

‘Ma’am?’ he asked carefully.

‘Do go on,’ she said acerbically.

‘I’m just letting you know that all the troops are now aboard, and we will be undocking directly,’ he announced stiffly.

‘Well, get on with it.’ Serene used the chair console to switch views to an exterior cam that showed the spinning-top shape of the
Command
, with the
Fist
bulking just beyond it. Already umbilicals were detaching and the scaffolds enclosing them were being whittled away by a veritable swarm of EVA units and robots. She allowed those images to calm her, but Calder’s abrupt arrival at her shoulder set her irritation level rising again.

‘You have something for me?’ she asked, wondering if he had come to present more irrelevant detail, which by now she realized seemed to be the resort of those around her when they understood that her mood wasn’t at its best.

‘We’ve received a communication from the
Scourge
,’ he said, sounding puzzled.

She turned in her seat to look at him. ‘Look, the concerns of the crew aboard your tug are not exactly my priority right now.’

‘No, ma’am,’ he agreed, ‘but this communication is not from them but from the
Scourge
itself. It seems there is someone alive aboard that ship. We just received a video file from someone called Clay Ruger.’

Serene stared at him, struggling to fit this new information into recent events but just feeling baffled.

‘Clay Ruger?’ she echoed.

‘He was your political officer aboard that ship,’ Elkin interjected.

‘I know who Clay Ruger was . . . is.’ He was a man who should have died months ago, strangled once she sent the signal to his collar. And if he had somehow avoided that, then he was a man who should have died a short time afterwards when Alan Saul sent the Scour activation signal to all those aboard the
Scourge
, or when Argus Station’s warp bubble had brushed against the ship and torn it up. ‘Video file?’ she queried.

Calder pointed to the icons ranged along the bottom of her screen. ‘It’s available there.’

Suddenly her anger and her irritation were gone, and she found herself thinking clearly. It was as if this new information had hit a reset button in her brain. Clay Ruger had survived, which meant that, in some quarters, strangulation collars and Scour implant chips did not offer the degree of control she might have supposed. Abruptly she sensed danger all around her. Suddenly she understood how the arrogance of power could be an ultimate weakness. Glancing beyond Calder, she noted that, while her own security personnel were assembled here, the number of original Inspectorate enforcers had increased. She swung back to her screen and dragged a cursor down to the video icon, clicking it.

Ruger gazed out at her from the screen. He looked pale and ill and very, very thin. She saw at once that he wasn’t wearing a collar and also noted shadowy movement to one side – he wasn’t alone.

‘This is Clay Ruger, the political officer aboard the
Scourge
,’ he said. ‘I need whoever records and first views this video file to get it to Serene Galahad as quickly as possible.’ He paused, wiped at his face with grubby fingers. ‘It will no doubt come as a surprise to you, ma’am, that I am alive. I can get into lengthy explanations about why, but would need to speak to you alone to give you the full detail. Let it suffice for me to say that Captain Scotonis, after having learned something about the death of his family, turned traitor. Even as I boarded the
Scourge
, he took control of all readerguns and inducers, and so effectively gained complete control over me and his command crew.’

Serene felt the skin on her back creeping as Ruger waved a hand dismissively. If Scotonis had learned about the source of the Scour, then his turning against her might be considered perfectly understandable. It seemed likely that Ruger also knew, but was being careful not to broadcast such knowledge.

‘The man was insane,’ Ruger continued. ‘He demanded that we free ourselves totally from Earth, and so ordered the removal of all implants and other security devices.’ Ruger reached up and touched his bare neck. ‘However, he said nothing of this to Commander Liang and his troops, because their loyalty to Earth was unquestioning. This was why he carried on through with the attack on Argus, just so he could get Liang and his troops out of the
Scourge
and onto that station, and there abandon them just as he did. Subsequent events killed most of those remaining, including the captain himself, and have wrecked much of this ship.’

Serene paused the video to give herself time to think. Ruger was obviously making his excuses and hoping he could return to Earth without blame. Though his story was all very interesting, it was probably full of half-truths and outright lies, all of which would be uncovered in an adjustment cell on Earth, prior to his execution on prime-time ETV. Meanwhile, there were other things that now needed her attention – things that she had, in her arrogance, neglected. First and foremost was her personal safety.

‘Have him, and whoever is with him, arrested once the
Scourge
is in orbit,’ she instructed. ‘I’m sure his story will soon take on a new shape.’ She began to stand up. She would go now to Calder’s apartment and, while heading there, ensure her scattered security team was called in close. Perhaps it also might be an idea to ensure that Calder himself remained at her side . . .

‘I think you should look at the rest, ma’am,’ suggested Calder. ‘He does have something important to say.’

As she studied him, she deliberately assumed an expression of boredom. ‘Oh, very well.’ She set the video running again.

‘Pilot Officer Trove and I tried to take back control of the ship, for you and for Earth, and therefore presented the greatest danger to Scotonis, so he had us locked in the forward chamber used for storing inert railgun missiles. By imprisoning us he actually ensured our survival, because that part of the ship did not suffer as much damage from the tidal forces of the Argus warp. We’ve since managed to escape that storage chamber, and are now on a shuttle aboard the
Scourge
, and we are ready to come into one of the Earth orbit stations. But, of course, you are probably wondering, ma’am, what point is served by my sending this message.’

Serene certainly was, and really wished he would hurry up and get to the point. Her sense of personal danger had just ramped up, especially when she glanced round to see Elkin frowning at her palmtop, and her aides obviously busy receiving a heavy com load.

‘I wanted to be sure that, upon leaving the
Scourge
, we would not immediately be fired upon. I also want utter assurances, from your own mouth, ratified by all the delegates of Earth, that neither Pilot Officer Trove nor I will be punished for real or imagined crimes or handed over to the Inspectorate for interrogation. We have done the best we possibly could in a very bad situation, and we also now have in our control something of great value to the human race.’

Cue the dramatic pause. Really, just for inflicting that irritating bit of theatre, Serene decided Ruger’s public execution should be a spectacular. However, his next words left her dumbfounded.

‘Scotonis informed you that there were no communications with Argus Station, but he lied. Alan Saul tried to buy his way out of being attacked by transmitting all of the Gene Bank data to us. It now resides within computer storage aboard the
Scourge
, under my personal access codes. I can at once set that data to transmitting on any frequency, coded or otherwise, that you decide.’ Ruger shrugged, sat back a little from the cam. ‘It being subject to my personal coded access, I can do anything with it . . . anything at all.’

The implication was plain: Ruger had the power to give her the Gene Bank data; he also had the power to wipe it completely from the
Scourge
’s system.

Serene turned slowly to Calder, thinking fast. ‘Send him a reply. Tell him that once his shuttle leaves the
Scourge
it will certainly not be fired upon. He must dock here on your construction station. Tell him that I will communicate with him shortly afterwards, once I can ensure that my delegates will ratify a full pardon for his or Pilot Officer Trove’s real or imagined crimes against the state. You may also add that, in my opinion, Earth is as much in need of heroes to laud as villains to pursue and punish.’

‘Certainly, ma’am,’ said Calder, somehow seeming more confident and together, all of a sudden.

Did he suppose that, because she was now close to obtaining at least some portion of what she wanted out here – seeming likely to get her hands on a workable cure for Earth’s ills – she would be leaving soon and he could therefore return to enjoying the prime position in charge, and thus rule over his realm here without interference?

‘What kind of reception should we prepare for him?’ he then asked.

‘I intend to meet him, in person, and I’ll want that meeting broadcast on ETV.’ If necessary, she could pull the security teams closer in around her then – if it turned out that her growing suspicions about Calder were true. ‘We’ll have the broadcast relayed up on screens in the space dock he arrives in, along with the ratification of his pardon from the delegates of Earth. That will go a long way towards assuring him that no blame for previous failures will attach to him, and of course encourage him to begin his transmission of the Gene Bank data.’

Calder nodded thoughtfully. ‘Our new shuttle dock would be the best place. The cam network there is more modern and it has the requisite screens.’

‘Very well,’ said Serene, though slightly suspicious of this latest suggestion.

‘So he is to be a hero,’ remarked Calder.

‘Until the broadcast is over,’ Serene stated. ‘We’ll then extract the full truth in an adjustment cell.’ It annoyed her that a spectacular of Ruger’s execution would never be witnessed. Instead it would have to be something for her private consumption.

‘I see,’ said Calder, his expression hardening. He nodded once, and with a tight ‘Ma’am,’ he moved away, heading across the control room to sit at the console he had been using previously. Casually glancing around her, Serene noted that there were now at least ten of those Inspectorate uniforms nearby – most of them clustered near Calder – while her own security personnel, scattered around her, numbered just eight.

She stood up, realizing she had just made a serious mistake. She had let Calder know that she intended to go back on her word to Ruger, that public knowledge of someone’s status made no difference to whether or not they ended up in adjustment or with a bullet through the brain. Equally, all her promises to Calder himself were therefore worthless.