The Lost Stars: Shattered Spear (12 page)

“What will we do, Kommodor? He has sent us the orbit we are supposed to remain in.”

Marphissa thought, the image of the devastation at Iwa filling her mind. “I cannot risk this fool’s slowing down the warning I must give. Comm specialist, set up a signal tagged for military and civilian leaders here in Moorea, no matter who they are loyal to. I want the signal aimed to intercept the orbit of the primary world and those warships orbiting near it. Kapitan Diaz, while I send my message out, you are to take
Manticore
toward the primary inhabited world at a velocity of point two light speed.”

Diaz grinned. “Yes, Kommodor! And if Mahadhevan and the
Mahadhevan
react in a hostile manner?”

“That HuK does not have sufficient firepower to hurt us on a single firing run. We will see, Kapitan, if Mahadhevan has enough brains to
realize that. If he does not, we will have to show him that attacking warships of Midway without provocation is a serious mistake.”

Surely President Iceni would want her to act quickly, and to refuse to be easily intimidated by a single ship far weaker than her own. But Marphissa still waited, outwardly calm but inwardly tense, to see what the worker-turned-commander would do when his orders were ignored.

Manticore
could easily handle a single HuK. But that battle cruiser could smash
Manticore
if Imallye decided to back even a foolish decision by one of her subordinates.

And she knew almost nothing about Imallye.

“Shields at maximum strength,” Marphissa ordered. “Do not power up weapons.”

Manticore
accelerated out of orbit, heading down the long path to where the primary inhabited world of Moorea would be in sixty hours.

“THE
Mahadhevan
is changing vector,” the senior watch specialist announced.

Marphissa eyed her display, watching the HuK accelerating and coming around, using her experience to guess its path even before it had settled out. “An intercept. The man is a fool.”

“Power up weapons?” Diaz asked hopefully.

“Not yet.” She slouched back a little in her command seat, then tapped the control to contact the HuK again. “
Mahadhevan
, I am happy to accept your offer to serve as our escort while
Manticore
heads to a meeting with Imallye.” Marphissa could only guess that the pirate queen would be aboard the battle cruiser, but Imallye’s forces couldn’t include that many ships of that size. Imallye would almost certainly be riding the battle cruiser, and perhaps was acting as the warship’s commanding officer.

“Just let me know if
Mahadhevan
requires specific stationing instructions relative to
Manticore
,” Marphissa continued with cheerful
confidence. “It would be very unfortunate if any accidents occurred while your ship was close to my heavy cruiser. For the people, Marphissa, out.”

Diaz looked from Marphissa to his display and back again. “May I ask what you are doing, Kommodor?”

It was an exceptionally bold question for anyone trained in the Syndicate system of absolute obedience. Marphissa gave him a stern look, then laughed. “I am responding to Mahadhevan on his own terms. Do you not recognize what he was doing? Trying to overawe me and dare me to dispute his status and his orders?”

“I saw that,” Diaz said. “And now you are going back at him in the same way?”

“Exactly. You must have seen the same game played a thousand times or more when you were in school.”

“Yes.” Diaz looked at his display again, where the HuK
Mahadhevan
was continuing on a course to intercept
Manticore
. “But I have never seen that schoolyard game played with warships carrying arsenals of deadly weapons.”

“The ball is in his court,” Marphissa said. “He must decide whether to throw a punch or take advantage of the out I gave him and pretend that it was always about his escorting us to his superiors. That’s what he’ll do if he’s smart.”

“And if he’s stupid?”

Marphissa gave Diaz a serious look this time. “He is in command of one of the warships of Granaile Imallye. What intelligence we have on Imallye says that she has amassed a significant fighting force and established control of more than one star system. We see evidence here at Moorea supporting that intelligence. Would such a capable commander allow a reckless fool to command a warship? The Syndicate may see HuKs as throwaways, warships that last only moments in most combat situations, but neither we nor Imallye have so many warships that we can afford to think that way. So, if what we have been told of Imallye is
right, if what we see here at Moorea before us is as it seems, then for all his posturing Mahadhevan must have some intelligence and skills. I tell you this to explain my reasons for acting as I am. I am not simply responding to a schoolyard bluff with another bluff, but made my decisions based on analyzing this particular situation.”

“Thank you, Kommodor,” Diaz said. “Even after serving with you for a while I am still surprised, and grateful, to have you explain your reasons and plans to me.”

“If worse came to worst for me, you’d have to carry out this mission,” Marphissa said, waving away his words to cover her inner embarrassment at Diaz’s admiration. “And you may command a force on your own someday. I hope to provide you with good training for that.” She smiled. “Despite my own lack of experience.”

The combat systems specialist broke into their conversation. “The HuK
Mahadhevan
will be within our weapons range in seven minutes, Kommodor. He will be close enough to fire on us in eight and a half minutes.”

On Marphissa’s display a translucent globe appeared around the Hunter-Killer, depicting the effective range of its weapons. Another, larger, globe centered on
Manticore
showed the longer range of the missiles and more powerful hell lance particle beams that the heavy cruiser carried. After the heavy cruiser had changed vectors to accelerate toward the inner star system, the HuK had been positioned slightly above and just forward of
Manticore
. As the HuK dove toward an intercept with the heavy cruiser, its relative position did not change, but the other warship drew steadily closer.

Marphissa watched the edges of the globes approaching each other as the minutes passed.

“Kommodor,” Diaz said respectfully, “the
Mahadhevan
will be within range of our weapons in three minutes. I recommend targeting the
Mahadhevan
at this time but holding fire until the HuK fires upon us.”

“Do not target the other ship yet,” Marphissa said. “We must allow
Mahadhevan the man to pretend that his actions are not driven by fear of us.”

Diaz nodded, biting his lip as he watched the distance between the two warships dwindle. “You appear to have an insightful knowledge of the workings of the male mind, Kommodor.”

“One of the benefits of an unsuccessful dating history,” Marphissa replied dryly. “Ah,” she added with satisfaction as her display showed new movement. “Here he goes.”

“
Mahadhevan
is altering vector,” the combat systems specialist reported. “Rate of closure has dropped . . . rate of closure has come to zero.
Mahadhevan
has taken up relative position just ahead of us, proceeding along the same vector toward the primary inhabited world.”

“As if he is escorting us,” Diaz said scornfully. “But he is staying just outside of our weapons range. That’s foolish. We could put on a burst of full acceleration, get him inside our missile engagement range, and launch at him before he could accelerate out of reach again.”

“Yes,” Marphissa agreed. “But Mahadhevan the man is not experienced enough in command to know that. We won’t tell him. With any luck, we won’t have to engage any of the forces of Granaile Imallye.”

“How close are we going to get to that battle cruiser?” Diaz asked.

“No closer than I have to in order to carry out a real-time conversation,” Marphissa said. “We’ll see whether Imallye contacts us before we get that close.” It would still be about fifty-nine hours before
Manticore
intercepted the planet along its orbit and the warships near it. Plenty of time for Imallye to hear Marphissa’s message, which, traveling at the speed of light, should arrive in about five more hours, and send a reply, which would take almost five hours on top of that to be received by Marphissa. Light was very fast, but in the immense distances of space it often felt very slow as well.

It actually took nearly twelve hours before Imallye’s reply came in. In the interim, Marphissa had worked for some hours, ate, slept, had a breakfast, then returned to the bridge to work on some more of what
was still called “paperwork” even though little of it was ever printed out on paper.

Imallye, sprawled in the fleet command seat on the battle cruiser, wasn’t wearing a cast-off Syndicate CEO’s suit. She was in a skin suit meant to be worn under battle armor, the suit’s dull, black shade set off by gold insignia that glittered at her neck and on her sleeves. A large sidearm in a worn-looking holster was on one hip. A big, standard-issue Syndicate close-combat knife was sheathed on her other hip. It was, Marphissa had to admit, a very effective image.

“I have received your message, Kommodor Marphissa,” Imallye said without any indication of how she felt about the warning it contained. “Proceed to a rendezvous with my flagship
Vengeance
so we can conduct a real-time conversation about these critical matters.” Imallye paused, then smiled. “Please proceed. We will speak again when you are less than one light minute from
Vengeance
. Imallye, out.”

“Vengeance?”
Diaz said. “That’s not a very reassuring name for a battle cruiser.”

“No.” Marphissa called up a still from the message and studied Imallye. “What do you think of her?”

“She looks . . . strong,” Diaz said. “Confident. Powerful. Dangerous. Overtly so.”

“Yes,” Marphissa agreed. “It’s a show, but a very good one. That skin suit she’s wearing. Maybe Imallye is former Syndicate ground forces. No one else wears those.”

“Vipers do.”

“Mutinous workers following a former viper? I don’t think so. They would rip her into pieces no matter how dangerous she looked.” Marphissa scowled at the image. “What’s her game? How did she get her hands on that battle cruiser? I admit to being worried about getting too close to that warship, but we need to find out more about Imallye. I need to talk to her, and I am certain if we try to talk again from any distance farther out than one light minute, she will refuse to answer.”

“Notice what we can see of the bridge of the
Vengeance
?” Diaz added. “It looks neat and well kept. The bridge of
Mahadhevan
had some signs of sloppiness, but what is visible inside
Vengeance
shows a tight ship.”

“She knows her business,” Marphissa agreed. “Let’s hope she is willing to work with President Iceni. I have no doubt that Kapitan Kontos and
Pele
could take apart
Vengeance
, but
Pele
might take a lot of damage in the process. We couldn’t afford that, not with both the Syndicate and the enigmas to worry about.”

She could not share with Diaz the confidential words of President Iceni before
Manticore
had left Midway. Marphissa had replayed that private message again just a few hours ago, studying the somber expression on Iceni’s face as she spoke.
“Kommodor, be wary of Imallye. What she has accomplished already indicates that Imallye is both resourceful and driven. She could be an important ally. Or an implacable enemy. Do all you can to convince her of the need to work together against the enigma threat to this region of space. But just because she is an enemy of the Syndicate does not mean that she will be a friend to us. General Drakon and I are former CEOs, and if Imallye is driven by a desire for reprisal against senior Syndicate officials, our prior status may be all she cares about.”

In light of that warning, the name of Imallye’s battle cruiser, the
Vengeance
, felt even more worrisome.

Point two light speed worked out to about sixty thousand kilometers per second, an almost unimaginably fast velocity for humans to contemplate. But the distance to cover to reach the primary inhabited planet along its orbit was about six light hours, which came to nearly six and a half billion kilometers. A distance so great that even light required six hours to make the journey did not quickly yield to velocities measured in mere thousands of kilometers.

And so it was nearly two and a half days later that
Manticore
reached the vicinity of the planet, swooping in from the outer star system on a curving path that intercepted the world as it raced along its
orbit about the star Moorea at a piddling twenty-eight kilometers per second.

“I want us brought into an orbit exactly fifty-nine light seconds from Imallye’s battle cruiser
Vengeance
,” Marphissa directed. “Make certain we are at a dead stop relative to
Vengeance
. Do not use more than seventy-five percent power on your main propulsion when braking. I want to conceal our maximum capability.”

Manticore
’s automated maneuvering systems could handle that kind of challenge fairly easily. Pivoting under the push of thrusters so that her bow faced backward and her main propulsion forward along their path,
Manticore
began firing her main propulsion, fighting momentum and slowing her progress through space. The ship’s inertial dampers ran their stress readings up toward the red danger zones, but stayed well out of trouble as the heavy cruiser braked.

It took a while to kill such immense velocity, but eventually Diaz smiled triumphantly as
Manticore
came to a halt relative to
Vengeance
. Both ships were still moving through space along their orbits, but their vectors matched exactly, so they were apparently sitting still compared to each other. “Exactly fifty-nine light seconds from
Vengeance
, Kommodor,” he announced.

“Thank you, Kapitan,” Marphissa said. “Well done. Now, let us see what Granaile Imallye will say to us.”

This time, Marphissa sat straight and tried to look as professional as possible. She couldn’t match the informal deadliness of Imallye’s outfit and posture, and so did not even try. Imallye would see that Midway’s Kommodor was no slacker.

“Honored Granaile Imallye,” Marphissa began, “I have come to Moorea on orders from President Iceni of the Free and Independent Midway Star System. I am to convey to you and everyone else the dangers posed by our discovery that the alien enigma species has developed enough range on their jump drives to reach Iwa Star System directly. I am also to offer our willingness to reach peace agreements, trade
agreements, and even mutual defense agreements with the star systems under your control.”

It would only have taken two minutes for a reply (one minute for Marphissa’s transmission to reach
Vengeance
and another minute for the return journey of Imallye’s reply), but more than ten minutes elapsed before the answer came. Imallye was clearly trying to establish herself as superior in status to Marphissa.

The pirate queen was wearing the same outfit and was in nearly the same pose as before. But her expression was harder as she gazed out at Marphissa. “So, you came to offer us deals and favors, Kommodor. And a peace agreement. On behalf of CEO Iceni.”

The reference to Iceni’s Syndicate past brought up worrisome memories of Iceni’s warning. Marphissa tried to look unruffled and to keep her voice even. “
President
Iceni sent us here. She has renounced the Syndicate and their ways, and governs Midway Star System by the will of the people. We do not wish hostilities with your forces. The Syndicate is a threat to us all, and so are the enigmas. I have sent you our records of what the enigmas did to Iwa Star System. Moorea may be their next target. A mutual defense agreement would serve us all well.”