Chapter 9

Consular Alden Duryss sat in his pristine office, looking out across the cityscape. The pink Sietaen sunlight that streamed through the clouds gave the city a warm glow. He always found the teal hue of the daytime sky on Emen charming. It usually lifted his mood, but not today. Today he felt heavier, despite the half-standard gravity of the planet. He rubbed at his temples to assuage the pounding in his head, but there was no escaping it.

He turned to his desk and tapped a button on the console. A tone chimed with a sharp stab in his ears. A young woman’s voice replied almost immediately, “Yes Consular, what can I do for you?”

“Emilia, my dear, would you bring me some Emelixir? I’ve a headache the size of Mount Aratia and I must be clear of thought for the call.”

“Right away, Consular.” Another short tone signaled the terminated connection. Every sound was an annoyance.

He drummed his fingers along the desk. The Colonel’s inability to deliver the prototype created problems. While the plan could tolerate some delay, the longer they waited, the more it put the entire enterprise at risk. There were an incredible number of moving parts to manage. It was inevitable that someone would notice the longer it went on, and that would undermine everything he’d worked for—everything he’d given up.

His office doors opened to the young, lithe form of his office assistant walking toward his desk. The long walk usually gave him plenty of time to enjoy the side sway of her youthful figure. His headache robbed him of that simple pleasure as well. She came to a stop next to him and held up an injector device. He leaned his head over to expose his neck, and she clicked the top of the injector with her thumb. The jet-injection shot the dose of medicine directly into his bloodstream, bringing near-instant relief.

He took in a deep breath and relaxed. “Ahhh,” he let out a reflexive breath. “Thank you dear. That is sublime. Yes, much better. I think I can actually get some work accomplished. Remind me of my schedule today?”

Emilia nodded and pulled a datapad from her pant-suit pocket. His head now clear, he was able to admire her form as she carried out the task. She tapped about her datapad to pull up his schedule. Her hair was pulled back into an upward twist revealing the smooth skin of her tall neckline. He let the edges of his mouth curl with pleasure. Of course, he couldn’t pursue her. The obligations at hand required focus, but he could still enjoy beauty when the opportunity presented itself.

“You have a call in ten minutes with Senator Madius Draden’s office regarding the funds you pulled from the Find Sylus Draden Campaign. Then you’ll be meeting representatives from the Sironistula Exchange on the trade terms with Sibito Industry for Thermic Alloys. And, this evening you have the Sietaean Gala in Nahavandi City.”

“Mmm, very well. Thank you Emilia. And, have you arranged a companion for me this evening?”

“Uhh, no, sir,” she stammered. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize-”

He chuckled softly. “No child, it’s quite all right, though it would make the evening more enjoyable. Perhaps you might join me this evening?”

Emilia put her hand up to her neck, her face frozen in stunned bewilderment. “Consular, I’m not- I don’t have anything to wear for a formal event like that.”

He chuckled lightly, “I assure you, a minor inconvenience, my dear. We have ample budget for these sort of things.” He smiled with quiet confidence. It was a self-assured victory, as though he had the upper hand in a business deal.

She bit at a fingernail with a soft smile. “Alright, sir. If I can find a suitable dress, I’ll join you.”

He knew her fondness for dress shopping would become an advantage someday. “Wonderful! Use the supplemental ‘Rec’ account and buy your heart’s desire. You’re already familiar with the itinerary. Meet me at the docks at nineteen-thirty.”

Emilia nodded, still smiling, before she turned and walked out of the office. She would provide an ideal diversion at the gala—the perfect antidote for the stress he was shouldering.

He turned to his desk console and noted the time. The call with the Find Sylus Draden Campaign was looming. Bemused by the name of the campaign, he half-chuckled to himself. As his father had always told him, “hide in plain sight and they’ll never see you coming.” His father was, insufferably, always correct. It grated on him.

He shook off the feelings of inadequacy. It was no matter—his legacy was now in his own hands. He was determined to show this galaxy he was every bit the statesman of his father before him.

A tone sounded, and the holofac system lit up. The projection of a well-dressed young man in his late twenties appeared in the chamber’s dim light. The translucency of the projection rippled in and out, fading at the edges of the projection cone.

“Consular Duryss, good day to you. I am Minister Kyle from the office of Senator Madius Draden.” The young man’s unmistakable Imperial tone was dripping with the expected faux formality.

“Minister Kyle,” the Consular nodded. “I’m delighted to take your call. How may I be of help to Senator Draden?”

“The Senator wishes to express his sincere gratitude for your government’s support of the Find Sylus Draden Campaign.”

“Why, of course Minister. I can’t imagine the heartache of losing a son.”

“Ehem, yes,” the Minister cleared his throat. “Yes, indeed. The Draden family is quite devastated. Given the generous donations from the Sietaen holdings of Sirius Gov, the Senator has asked to speak to you in person.”

“Minister, I am honored. We only wish that it could have helped more.”

“Of course, as have we all. To express his heartfelt gratitude, the Senator has decided to donate the remaining funds to your anti-Thargoid defense efforts in the Hyades region.”

Alden gave the young man the satisfaction of a surprised expression. “That is very generous, Minister. It is admirable that a family that has felt so deep a loss would be willing to donate such a significant sum to our corner of the galaxy.”

“The Senator has asked to speak to you directly,” the young man reminded him.

“Yes, please. I’m honored to speak with him. I presume it is a formality?” Alden adjusted in his seat, becoming slightly agitated.

“I’m sorry Consular, but I’m not privy to the Senator’s agenda in this matter.”

“Not at all, Minister. I’m sure it will be a useful discourse regardless.”

“To ensure privacy I’m transferring your call to Senator Draden’s encrypted commlink now. Please, standby.”

“Thank you, Minister Kyle. Fortune and favor to you.”

Minister Kyle nodded as his arm reached beyond the edge of the projection. The display flickered then reformed into an image of an ancient-looking man, hunched behind an ornately polished wooden desk. The designs were intricate. Undoubtedly the most exquisite details were lost over the commlink. The gleam from the desk created pinpoints of bright blinding light from the projection. An official seal of the Imperial Senate hung on the wall behind the figure.

“Alden Duryss,” the voice was powerful, regal even, even as advanced age began to dampen it. The lines of elder were worn deep into his fair skin. His wavy silver hair was still full, though wiry. It spread like a mane about his shoulders. He wore a tunic with an intricate collar of geometric designs that stuck up beyond a luxurious suit jacket. As all Imperial fashion did, it gave the man a larger-than-life persona.

“Senator Draden, it’s an incredible honor. I know your schedule must be far more demanding than mine. To what do I owe this auspicious call?”

“I am,” the man paused as a grim look set in his face. “Disappointed.” The ancient-looking man held a withering gaze.

Duryss didn’t miss the Senator’s intentional slight. Omitting his title went against the expected decorum of formal Imperial greetings.

Alden felt anger boiling up from his gut. “It could not be avoided,” he replied, keeping his tone flat, trying to maintain his control.

“This has been an embarrassment from the beginning. The schedule is tenuous at best.” The booming voice echoed in the great chamber of the Consular’s office. It was deep and resonated with decades of oration experience.

“There has been interference. It couldn’t have been predicted.”

A thin bony fist slammed onto the ornate desktop. “Your incompetence jeopardizes the entire project.”

“With all due respect Senator, I am keeping this endeavor alive in spite of these setbacks. We will have the engineer in hand shortly and with the influx of funds, we can wipe out the remaining Resistance cells.”

“I do not share your optimism, Consular. Without this technology, we have no way to move the scale of assets necessary for the operation. We cannot risk them being-”

Alden cut him off, “Senator, my most trusted military commander is hunting down the engineer and his technology as we speak. You have my word, they will be in our possession in short order. The Vilant is aiding the search now. We’ve moved our staff to an in-system facility to expedite production once we have him in custody. The plan will succeed.”

“We shall see Consular. The hunted always has more motivation than the hunter.” There was a warning edge in the Senator’s tone.

“We have the advantage.” Alden replied with his own forceful edge.

“Hmph,” the Senator gave a disgusted grunt. “You wield your advantages with all the grace of a guerantan. It costs a fortune to pay off GalNet reporters to keep your activities off of the wire. Your team’s stunt at the outpost in that insignificant system was clumsy and ill-considered. It has raised suspicions in both the Federation and the Empire. It brings with it ever more scrutiny.”

“It is an unfortunate circumstance, I’ll grant you. We’ve already taken steps to color the attack as quelling a terrorist uprising. The media has turned popular sentiment against these petty resistance groups. We’ve also taken control of the local government in the system. My team is closing in on the ships that we believe the engineer used to escape the outpost. They are now cut off. No one is coming to help them. And, if they jump we can follow them.”

“You’re naivety is appalling. Your advantages blind you. The more cornered your prey, the more desperate and random they react. You have the same brand of idiocy my son was famous for. That the hope of my Imperial legacy falls on you, Consular, terrifies me beyond all reason.”

Alden’s anger burned. “We’re in this together Senator. Our destiny is bound, like it or not.”

“You have two weeks, Consular. Two weeks to deliver the system modules. If you can’t deliver, I will ensure your destiny will be your own destruction and no one will ever remember you.”

“No matter my fate, you’ll always be remembered with the same contempt, Senator,” Alden spat.

“But I will be remembered.” A crooked smile spread across the Senator’s face. He knew he’d won the game of verbal barbs. “Good day, Consular.”

Alden grabbed the model of the planet Emen off of his desk and threw it at the projection, but the holofac faded before the projectile could strike. Owing to the low gravity, it bounced off the marble floors, made it all the way across the room, rebounded from the back wall, and came flying back at him. He didn’t budge or flinch as it came to rest just in front of his desk. He was seething. It took him several minutes to recompose himself.

There was no denying the delays put the entire plan at extreme risk. He began to run through his options. The only recourse was to make his moves earlier.

He tapped his comm system and called up the Decimator.

It took only a moment for the Decimator comms officer to put him in touch with Colonel Reeves.

“You have not delivered the engineer and his technology to me.”

“Consular, we have them cornered, but we’re unable to pinpoint them in the rings. If they jump, we can track them immediately, but they appear to be running dark.”

“I am quite done with excuses, Colonel. The Vilant was dispatched to help you find them. I expected to have Mister Xohn in hand two days ago.” His tone was threatening, but he maintained a calm composure despite the ire that still burned inside him. The Senator had been right—the schedule would not tolerate any more delays.

“Yes, I completely understand sir. We only need to flush them out.”

“The last time you flushed out our target from those very rings, we lost it entirely. That set our timetable back three years. We need that engineer. We cannot afford any more mishaps.”

“I hope I’ve proven I won’t make a mistake like that again. I understand what needs to be done.”

“I don’t think you do. We are out of time. Take whatever measures short of blowing up the system to find him.”

“Yes, Consular.”

“Colonel, let me be painfully clear: either you get this done or you will be done.” He tapped the commlink to disconnect it.

The scenario was grim, and his options were limited. If they were unsuccessful at securing the engineer, it would require a new playbook.

He turned the problem over in his head. The Senator would be shrewd and work to expose him. Any contingency plan would first and foremost need to preserve his position of power and influence as the appointed Sirius Gov Consular of the Hyades region.

An idea began to take shape, and best of all it included entrapping the Senator in his own deception. He pitched his fingers together and smiled. Even his father would be proud of such a masterful play.

“Huxley, raise Captain Brooks on the Vilant.” Reeves snapped, barely able to contain her fury after the call with Consular Duryss.

“Aye, sir.” Within moments the Captain was on the comm.

“Captain, I need a progress report on your long-range scans.” Reeves demanded, despite his rank at the command of a capital ship. She knew her immediate directive gave her authority from the Consular’s office, and she had no qualms using it.

“Our active scans picked up four EM signatures. We’re running the models to correlate them to recent traffic reports. There’s not a lot of traffic data for this system. I expect we’ll have an answer for you in the next few minutes.”

“Thank you Captain. Can you relay the signals?”

“Sending them now.”

The HUD lit up with signal markers plotted at various locations within the rings. She studied them briefly, noticing one marker plotted on the other side of the planet. The closest signal was to their port side, only forty klicks away.

“Ready the fleet to jump to their signal when you’ve confirmed their location. I want them surrounded.”

“Colonel, I will only bring the Vilant as close as seven klicks of those rings. I won’t risk stray fragments striking the ship.”

His uncooperativeness poked at her short temper. “I understand the precaution, but you’ll have to bring the ship as close as necessary for the fastest possible wake scans. We cannot lose them again.”

“The Vilant has a scanning range of over fifteen kilometers. That gives us a great deal of margin to stay out of the rings; away from any potential conflict.”

“Very well Captain, but I want the rest of your escort to jump with the Decimator’s signal.”

“You’d leave us completely defenseless!”

“You said it yourself that you’ll stay out of range of ’any potential conflict.’”

“But should they break through your line, we’ll be completely vulnerable. That is unacceptable. Standard operational guidelines require us to have support escorts at all times.”

“Captain Brooks, this isn’t open to debate. All ships will be in formation with the Decimator to assist in capturing the targets. I intend to overwhelm them. If they’re smart, they’ll stand down and submit. If not, they’re going to try to jump away. The Vilant will keep the wake scanners active and send the destination to all ships for a coordinated jump.”

“Very well, Colonel. But I disagree with this course of action and will note it in my report.”

“Is that a threat?”

“Consider it an official protest.”

“Duly noted.”

There was a brief pause over the comm channel. At the flight consoles, Reeves saw Asher and Sloane exchange glances.

Captain Brook’s voice broke the quiet, “Colonel, standby.” The comms remained silent for a few moments more. “We have isolated them to the signal marked 6a, forty-seven clicks from your position. Your orders? Sir?”

The signal off the port bow lit up, highlighted with the Vilant’s data.

“With them that close, we can slip into range at space-normal speeds and avoid an FSD cool down. We need to keep our drives ready to spool in case they bolt. Captain, rendezvous with us at this position, still thirty klicks out.” She added a new signal point to her system orrery chart and sent it along the comm channel. “We’ll meet there and stay in formation with the Vilant trailing us by five klicks. I assume your distance will impact how quick the scanners can resolve a jump destination.”

“Yes, it takes longer at the edge of our range. Inside of five kilometers will take less than five seconds to scan and calculate.”

“Then if we see their drives spooling the Vilant will need to close to within five klicks of the targets to optimize the wake scanners. If they’re jumping they won’t be attacking and you’ll end up being closer to your escort.”

“Acknowledged and agreed, Colonel. We’ll be at the rendezvous point in ten minutes.”

“Thank you Captain.” Reeves nodded at Huxley to cut the transmission. “Mr. Huxley, coordinate with the Scythe and Scorpio. Let them know the Vilant’s escorts will be joining the party. Helm, take us to the rendezvous coordinates.”

“Aye, sir.”

Reeves felt the deck under her move as the Decimator accelerated and changed heading for the waypoint. Out of the corner of her eye on both sides, she could see their flanking Viper escorts flying formation with them. She moved to a side console on the bridge to work up a simulation of the upcoming encounter. Their trip to the waypoint wouldn’t be long, but she’d have plenty of time to work on it waiting for Vilant’s arrival. She didn’t care for making combat models. She found them a tedious exercise, but the stakes were too high for any shortcuts.

By the time they arrived at the rendezvous point, she had a basic model adding in the Vilant’s escorts: two nimble Sidewinders and two sturdy Cobras. She programmed in three command scenarios for the fleet to disable, capture, and, if necessary, track the targets. By the time the Vilant arrived, she was putting the finishing touches on the capture sequence.

She opened a channel to the fleet and broadcast a holofac of the simulation, narrating it as it played out.

“All ships will fly to within ten klicks of the targets, then divert full power to engines and boost to engagement range. We’ll be on the edge of their scanner range, so our fastest ships need to close the distance as quickly as possible. The Vilant will trail the offensive force staying around five klicks to keep clear of the engagement, but within range for wake scans.” She highlighted the groups as she narrated and waited for the simulation to play through before continuing.

“Alpha Wing will target the Fer-de-lance. Bravo Wing is on the Asp Explorer.” The simulation depicted their ships dividing behind the two red targets.

“When their shields drop, we target and disable their drives.” Then she reiterated with emphasis, ”Disable only.”

The projection showed the Fer-de-lance and Asp Explorer escaping the same direction putting their forces behind to give chase. The targets’ drive signatures, highlighted by glowing spheres, showed both wings in a perfect position to target and disable the sub-system. Reeves changed the simulation to the jump scenario.

“If instead they manage to jump, the Vilant will close in and scan their wake signatures. They’ll then broadcast the destination to the fleet. I have a pre-programmed jump subroutine for each pilot to install that will immediately jump to the destination reported by the Vilant when your nav system receives it. After arriving in system, we continue the ‘disable’ operation. If they low-wake, the Scorpio will interdict the Fer-de-lance, the Scythe will pull the Asp Explorer.”

She advanced the simulation to the ‘capture’ scenario.

“We’ll use the Decimator’s grappling tethers to tow the ships to the Vilant to extract the occupants. Only when the occupants are aboard the Vilant, alive, will the operation be considered a success. Any questions?”

Attack simulations were tedious, but, done right, significantly increased their odds of success.

“Very well. We’re distributing the jump subroutine now. Alpha and Bravo wings, form up. When the jump routine is in place and you are in formation, signal the Decimator.”

It took a few minutes for the wings to position into formation. The last ships signaled their readiness. Reeves stood in the center of the bridge and took a moment. Taking part in the orchestration of a military force felt good. She reveled in it.

The flight crew of the Decimator turned their chairs toward her, standing with her command pose in the center. Appearances, after all. She looked to her comms officer Huxley who had the face of a scared puppy and nodded. He opened the fleet comms channel, and she gave the command they all were waiting for:

“Commence the operation.”

She gave Huxley a gesture to mute the comms channel so she could address the flight crew. “Helm, full speed to the targets.”

“Aye, sir,” Asher acknowledged.

The Decimator eased forward, accelerating to lead out its wing, including a Viper and two Sidewinders. The rest of the fleet flanked them with the Vilant lumbering behind. The offensive wings covered the distance to the targets in a matter of minutes. Reeves let the exhilaration of the operation fill her. This time she would prove to the Consular she could deliver.

A proximity alert sounded as the fleet reached the ten klick mark. Here we go, she thought while spreading her feet and holding onto a console to brace herself for the jolt. “Mr. Sloane, divert everything to the engines. Asher, punch it!”

Her magboots kept her feet planted to the deck. She noticed the rest of the flight crew slam back into their seats. Reeves watched the Scorpio, a significantly faster ship, with its main engine light ablaze. It surged far ahead, followed by the two Sidewinders in a trailing delta formation.

In seconds they were in sensor range. Reeves kept her eye on the displays. In a breath, the signals appeared. There were two contacts, a single contact and another energy signature: a wake signal. She mentally noted that one of their targets had already jumped. A moment later, the contact signal disappeared, replaced by another wake signature.

Reeves signaled the Vilant. “Captain, they jumped before we could reach them.”

“We’ve already scanned the first signal. Transmitting destination now.”

A low rumble began. The Decimator’s onboard COVAS announced:

Frameshift drive charging.

Sloane shouted above the COVAS announcements, “Destination auto-jump initiated. Course plotted to HIP 20935.”

The voice of the COVAS continued: three… two… one…

Space stretched into an eternal tunnel with a single pinpoint of light in the center. The ship lunged into the tunnel wrapped in a mesmerizing light show of colored patterns. The few seconds of transit ended with the blinding white light of the primary star.

Reeves blinked to help her eyes adjust. The ship’s sensors came online and all hell broke loose.