Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (38 page)

“No.
This ship is going to Vril.” She could see from their expressions that they
didn’t like that reply at all. The last thing she needed was for the XO to
organize a mutiny and relieve her of command before the ship jumped. He had
displayed just enough initiative in the past that a mutiny was a real
possibility.

“I’ll
make both of you a promise. Trafalgar will return to the Fleet from Vril
regardless of what we find there, unless both of you agree otherwise. You two
can log protests over this trip to Vril. In fact, I want you to do that. That
should protect your careers from any repercussions.” A thought suddenly jumped
into her head. “I promise one more thing. When we get to Vril, I’ll resign my
commission and give you command of Trafalgar with my written recommendation
that your field promotion be made permanent. How’s that, XO?” She saw the
wheels turning as he contemplated gaining command of Trafalgar by a voluntary
transfer of authority as compared to the questionable legalities of leading a
mutiny.

“Okay,
Skipper. One last trip. I hope you know what you’re doing. You may end up being
stuck on Vril for a long, long time, you know.”

“I
know,” she said as she looked at the AO. “How about you, Trevor?”

He
just smiled and shrugged. “Hey, I’m just a lowly Astrogation Officer. If the XO
is okay with this, who am I to object?”

Day
332/2549

Remington
watched the main display show what the ship’s opticals were recording as
Trafaglar descended through Vril’s atmosphere for a landing near the largest
urban center on the planet. As the ship broke through the cloud cover, her
heart sank. There were no ships on the ground, and with no ships in orbit, it
was clear to her that she got here too late. She turned to the XO who was
standing nearby.

“There’s
nothing here. If they were here, they’ve already gone somewhere else.” The XO’s
expression started to look worried. Remington held up her hand. “Don’t be
concerned that I’m going to want to take the ship somewhere else, XO. I intend
keeping my word. When we land, I’ll turn command over to you, log my
resignation and leave the ship with my gear, which is already packed. At that
point, you decide what this ship does next.”

An
hour later, she was standing close to a group of local officials in front of
the spaceport admin building. Everyone was watching as Trafalgar lifted off and
quickly accelerated back into space. She watched until it had penetrated the
cloud cover, and then she looked around. She had her gear, which didn’t amount
to much, and she was wearing one of the few civilian outfits she had with her.
An older man with short white hair came over to her. She already knew that he
was the Colony’s CAO. He smiled at her.

“Well,
Commander ah, Ms. Remington, welcome to Vril. I confess that I’m curious about
why you decided to end your military career here on the edge of nowhere, so to
speak.”

Remington
decided she might as well tell him the truth. As she spoke, his expression
changed from polite interest to sympathy and finally to surprise.

“Your
long lost love is a man named Drake? Would that be Roland Drake?” he asked. She
nodded. She hadn’t mentioned Drake’s first name. Before she could ask him
whether Roland had been here, he said, “Have I got a surprise for you.”

Day
144/2550

Drake
stood at the top of the ramp and looked out at the crowd standing not far from
his ship. He was glad that he had made the decision to personally oversee the
return convoy to pick up the locals who would be emigrating to the new colony.
It would be his last chance to command a fleet of ships before settling down to
his new administrative duties as Acting Chief of Space Operations for the new
Republic of Excalibur. As he started to walk down the ramp, he noticed that
everyone in the crowd was grinning but otherwise completely silent. He would
have expected shouts of greeting at least. The crowd parted, and a woman
stepped through. Drake didn’t recognize her at first, but as soon as he did, he
began to run down the ramp. She ran to him, and when they threw their arms
around each other and kissed, the crowd erupted with cheers.

Later
that evening, after the parties and celebrations were over, the two of them
were standing out on the balcony of the best suite at the best hotel in the
city, compliments of the Management. It would take a few days to get everyone
and everything loaded aboard the 12 freighters that were now sitting on and
around the spaceport. They were both naked and had a blanket wrapped around
them to ward off the chill from the cool night breeze. She had just finished
telling him about Majestic’s prediction, Trojan’s plans for Empire and his
black-uniformed fanatics.

“I
wonder if he’ll pull it off,” she said.

“Make
himself Emperor? With Majestic in his corner, I think the odds are that he
will. What I’d like to know is whether he can build an Empire that’s stable
enough to last after he’s gone.”

After
a short pause, she said, “The jump drive breakthrough is a tremendous
achievement, but it’ll take more than that for Excalibur to be able to liberate
the SSU.”

“Yes,
I know, but we have plenty of time now. You and I may not see the day when we
come back in strength and take on the Empire, but our children might.”

She
stood on her toes so that she could whisper into his ear. “Or we could return
in peace and make nice with the Empire and the Emperor.”

“I
guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the future brings.”

This
is the End of Rumors of Honor.

Final
Author’s Comments: If some of you are thinking that this series sounds
familiar, it’s because I used background information from a couple of H. Beam
Piper’s classic space opera novels of the ‘60s as inspiration. His Cosmic
Computer and Space Viking novels are engrossing tales with lots of action and
character development. Space Viking is also a gritty tale of revenge and
redemption. I highly recommend them. You can find free copies from
Gutenberg.org. With regards to my Rumors series, there will be at least one
more book. The next book’s working title is Rumors of Salvation. I keep my
mailing list up to date on my progress on each new book. If you’re not already
on my mailing list, you can join by clicking
here
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You’ll get a confirmation email plus a welcome email with links to a free
download of my Retro War ebook. The welcome email is sometimes slow in coming
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Because
my success as an author depends heavily on getting lots of good reviews, I’m
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is much appreciated. Long Live Space Opera!

Dietmar
Arthur Wehr