A King's Ship (Empire Rising Book 2) (5 page)

“Our mission is to bring Chang home alive so that he can stand trial publicly. Given the anger and rage Johnston is dealing with I’m not sure he is operating under the same rules.”

As James was talking Becket kept nodding prompting James to ask, “You’ve noticed all this then?”

“Yes Sir,” she answered, “it’s hard to miss. I’ve only bumped into Major Johnston a couple of times since he was on board
Drake
but the change is unmistakable.”

“Good, then we’re in agreement. I’m actually surprised his superiors haven’t picked up on it,” James said.  “In any case, the problem has now fallen on our shoulders to remedy, or I should say, on your shoulders.”

“Mine?” Becket said, raising her voice in surprise.

“Yes yours,” James said with a smile. “He took a liking to you during your combat training onboard
Drake
. I think he looked at you as a kind of daughter. I want you to try and rekindle those feelings. Ask him to continue to train you in hand-to-hand combat while you are both on the freighter. Talk to him, befriend him, get him to feel again. We need him at his best, especially if things go south during one of the landing missions. We can’t have Johnston putting his personal vendetta above the lives of those under his command. Do you think you can do that?”

Becket hesitated. She liked Major Johnston and she wanted to help him but she wasn’t sure she could break through the Major’s defenses and she didn’t want to let the Captain down.

James could sense Becket hesitate, but he didn’t have time to try to persuade her nicely. Johnston had him worried, in his current state he could very easily undo any plan they put into motion. “I’m making this suggestion because I want to help Johnston, but if you aren’t on board with this I will involve Gupta. She will have to monitor Johnston and remove him from command if she thinks he is a risk. I know neither of us wants that. If we can get the Major we met on
Drake
back, then it will be good for all of us. What do you say?”

Becket felt trapped, she didn’t know if she could get through to the Major but she didn’t want to ruin his career either. “I’ll try,” she said with an obvious lack of enthusiasm.

“Thank you,” James said with a touch more energy. “In that case you can go talk to Lieutenant Ferguson about those extra crewmen for the freighter.”

“Yes Sir,” Becket said as she rose to leave.

“And good luck Lieutenant,” James called after her, “I know you will continue to do me proud.”

Once the door slid shut James leaned back in his office chair and sighed. The thought of having to leave Gupta and Becket behind was not a pleasant one. Yet if they were caught he would have no choice. Britain couldn’t afford to get into another shooting war so soon after the war with the Chinese. Many of the fleet’s heavy warships were still undergoing repairs. Ordinarily the Indian navy was only a mild concern for the Admiralty but if the Indian government wanted to make a point, their fleet could cause a real headache.

There was nothing he could do other than make sure everyone was as prepared as they could be. That wasn’t much of a comfort though. They would plan and run simulation after simulation on their way to Indian space, but when it came down to it, there would be no way to predict all the variables.

To distract himself he brought up the proposed route to New Delhi. Agent Bell believed India’s largest colony and she hoped there would be a trail there she could pick up. Yet it was over four weeks travel away and she had planned a number of stops. It would look suspicious if a trading freighter didn’t actually call into some of the ports it passed through to trade.

At New France they would be stopping to unload some mining equipment Bell had brought from Earth. Then the freighter would make a stop at Cartier to unload some fresh fruit for the fleets stationed there. That would be exciting James knew. Outside of the Sol system Cartier had the greatest concentration of warships in the entire Human Sphere.

Cartier was the only French colony that had a shift passage connecting French colonial space with the colonies owned by the Russian Star Federation. After the Russians had tried to invade and conquer the French colonies twenty years ago it was now heavily defended. The French stationed more than half of their fleet in the system and there were a number of flotillas from other nations as well.

James was especially looking forward to getting a glimpse of the American battleship stationed there. Boasting fifty eight missiles in each of her broadsides the Americans claimed the USS
Freedom
was the most powerful ship ever constructed. After seeing the British fleet go toe to toe with two smaller Chinese battleships he didn’t doubt it – at least as far as the rest of the other Earth nations went. No one quite knew what the Russians had been building for the last twenty years.

After their fleet had been beaten back in the last war the Russian government had abandoned Earth and fled to their colonies. At the time there hadn’t been the political will to invade their space and so they had been left alone. Very quickly relations had soured to the point that all communication had ceased. Now the Russians had become a great unknown and both America and Britain felt they needed to station some ships in the Cartier system to deter the Russians from any rash moves.

The combined fleets in Cartier were constantly on high alert and regularly carried out live fire mock fleet engagements. For a moment James entertained an idea that had popped into his head. It didn’t exactly fall in line with the spirit of the orders he had been given. Yet it wasn’t specifically forbidden.

With a nod he made up his mind. He was going to get as close a look at the
American
battleship as he could.
Endeavour
was meant to be the stealthiest ship the Admiralty had ever constructed. It would do his crew good to get some real experience avoiding detection. Plus it would be fun testing out the effectiveness of the American’s detection capabilities. They could take some close up visuals of the battleship and when they got back to Earth, they could send them to the US Space Navy headquarters as a gift. No doubt their intelligence division would love to know the British had snuck a ship close enough to picture the worn paint on their prized possession.

With a bit more excitement for this second leg of their journey he set down his datapad. Gupta would be heading back to the freighter soon and he wanted to go over a few ideas with her face to face. They probably wouldn’t get another chance to talk in person until they found Chang. After that he needed to tour the ship with Ferguson. Being fresh out of the shipyard meant there was always something needing their attention.

In the first Interstellar Expansion Era terraforming technologies were just in their infancy and so mankind was largely limited to Earth like worlds. Nevertheless, in the desperate race to claim new territory the human nations did settle some planets that today’s citizens wouldn’t even consider.

- Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD

15
th
March 2466, HMS
Innocence
, New Delhi System

Five weeks later Commander Gupta stood adjacent to the main docking hatch awaiting the freight inspectors.
Innocence
had entered the New Delhi System over eight hours ago and had slowly made her way to the colony of New Delhi itself. They had been ordered by the planet’s orbital traffic control to dock with one of the main trading stations in orbit over the colony. Now they were just waiting for the freight inspectors to give the go ahead for
Innocence’s
crew to begin unloading the cargo she had to trade.

Already Gupta had endured two such inspections in French colonial space but she doubted the procedures would be much different here. Thankfully their mission didn’t require the freighter to carry any illicit cargo and the inspection should be routine.

With a groan of frustration she checked the time again. The inspectors were almost twenty minutes late. This wasn’t something new either. It seemed the inspectors at New Delhi, as well as those in the French colonies, liked to make sure independent freighter captains knew who was in charge. Already they were a week behind schedule. The larger trading companies would never stand for these kinds of repeated delays for their ships. Independent captains didn’t have the same clout so Gupta had to work to their schedule.

Her frustration wasn’t helped by the fact that she knew James and the others on
Endeavour
had been having a much more stimulating cruise. While she had been enduring inspections and overseeing cargo manifests James had been testing
Endeavour’s
stealth technologies.

A combination of the latest stealth coating and improved heat sinks allowed the ship designers at HMS
Vulcan
to claim
Endeavour
was the stealthiest ship yet produced by the RSN. When her reactors and all non-essential systems were powered down,
Endeavour
became a dark hole in space. She couldn’t maintain it for more than a few hours but even then she had the same technologies all RSN ships had. By incorporating heat vents RSN ships could vent their waste electromagnetic radiation out into space along specific vectors. This allowed them to remain in stealth mode for prolonged periods of time. The vents weren’t nearly as effective as
Endeavour’s
heat sinks but the combination of the two put
Endeavour
in a class of her own.

James had certainly shown
Endeavour
was a new breed of warship. While she had been unloading a cargo of fruit for the warships in the Cartier system, James had snuck up on a flotilla of American ships carrying out some war simulations. Gupta had already seen the images James had taken and she knew that if they were ever shown to the Americans they would be less than happy. The level of detail was impressive; whoever had been manipulating the optical sensors had been able to find a small two-meter scrape in the armor of one of USS
Freedom’s
heavy plasma cannons. No doubt the Americans would think the image doctored but if they analyzed it they wouldn’t find any signs of manipulation.

At first Gupta had thought James was pulling her leg, there was no way
Endeavour
could have gotten so close. Granted, the Americans hadn’t been using their active sensors to scan the area of space
Endeavour
had used to approach them. Even so, their passive sensors should have been good enough to alert them to something unusual. That they hadn’t only served to bolster Gupta’s view of the scientists and engineers who had worked on
Endeavour’s
design.

As footsteps echoed down the trading station’s metallic floor her mind was brought back to the present.
Finally
, she thought,
the inspectors are here
.

Without waiting for permission to enter, four Indians in grey uniforms walked through the docking hatch. Gupta nodded to the tallest of the four, the decorations on his uniform seemed to suggest he was the senior inspector. Without showing any expression in return he stepped forward. “I presume you are the captain of this freighter?” he asked.

“Yes, this is my pride and joy,” Gupta answered as she tried her best to actually sound pleased about having to command a slow pondering freighter.

“Name and registration details,” the inspector said almost before Gupta finished speaking.

Frowning, Gupta answered him as she handed over a datapad with
Innocence’s
registration details and documents identifying her as the owner and captain, “Neysa Avvari.”

“I see your ship has been to New Delhi a number of times before. Yet I don’t have any record of you having been here,” the inspector said with an air of disdain.

“That’s right,” Gupta said, “I bought her a few months ago. My family owns a number of factories back on Earth that produce items for the Bharati Cooperation. I didn’t want to take a role on the firm’s board so I bought
Innocence
and set off to make my own fortune.”

She had to hide a smile as the inspector’s demeanor changed. The Bharati Cooperation was one of the largest Indian manufacturing companies on Earth and they controlled a lot of the industrial operations on New Delhi along with those in the other Indian colonies. RSNI had worked up her cover carefully. Having family connections to the Bharati cooperation was obscure enough that no one would be surprised that they hadn’t heard of her or her father. Yet, at the same time it suggested she might have enough influence to make life difficult for anyone who caused her any trouble.

With a bit more respect the inspector handed back her datapad and said, “Everything seems to be in order here. If you are ready we can begin the inspection.”

“My crew are waiting for you, if you’ll follow me,” Gupta said as she turned and walked deeper into the freighter. With her back to the inspectors she let out the smile she had been restraining
. I could get used to having connections,
she thought to herself.

*

Forty five minutes later Gupta was at the docking hatch watching the inspectors leave. As far as she could tell they had completed their inspection in record time. Finally, it was time for the real mission to begin.

Once they left the ship she keyed her COM unit, “Agent Bell, the inspectors have left, they have granted us permission to send trading teams to the surface. Our mission is a go.”

“Affirmative,” Bell replied. “We’ll meet you at the docking hatch.”

Gupta switched the channel on her COM unit, “Becket, I’m heading down to the surface with Agent Bell. You have command of
Innocence
. Make sure the crew aren’t too efficient at unloading our cargo; we might need an excuse to stay docked longer than necessary. Oh and see to it that no one else comes on board the freighter. Some traders might try to come here and make deals, just tell them you can’t authorize any trades without me present.”

“Ok Commander,” Becket responded, “I’ll keep the freighter on standby in case we need to make a quick exit. Good luck down there.”

“Thank you Lieutenant, see you when we get back,” Gupta said as she keyed off her COM.

A few moments later Agent Bell and her team arrived. Five marines including Major Johnston accompanied her. Only two of them openly carried small side arms for protection. Heavy weapons were banned on New Delhi and they didn’t want to draw too much attention to themselves. Gupta knew that each marine could easily take care of themselves in hand to hand combat and no doubt many of them had more than one concealed weapon of one type or another.

“All ready?” Bell asked when she joined Gupta.

“Yes, I’m good to go,” Gupta replied.

“Good,” Bell responded as she gave Gupta a light punch on the shoulder. “This is going to be fun. You spacer types need to learn to spend a bit more time on solid ground.”

“I’m not sure about your definition of fun,” Gupta said with a snort, “but it will be good to stretch my legs.”

“Of course it will,” Johnston said gruffly, “I’ve spent more than enough time cooped up on this freighter for several life times. Let’s get this mission started. The sooner we find Chang the better.”

“Agreed,” Gupta said in an understanding tone. She knew it couldn’t have been easy for the marines to spend so much time in so small a ship. “Thankfully the main shuttle hanger isn’t too far away so we will be on the surface soon.”

Gupta brought out her datapad and opened up the schematics for the trading station. It wasn’t the largest in orbit around New Delhi but it was still impressive. With a diameter of over three kilometers it had docking stations for over fifty freighters. She had already checked and found that thirty six of the berths were taken by ships from the other naval powers. New Delhi was certainly attracting a lot of foreign trade, suggesting the colony was developing at an impressive rate.

No doubt as a money making scheme, freighters docked at the station were not allowed to launch their own shuttles. The station’s regulations said it was to avoid any collisions with incoming freighters. In reality it was to ensure all the freighter crews had to pay for the station’s shuttles to take them to the colony if they wanted to enjoy some leave. Gupta wasn’t too concerned though, the Admiralty was footing the bill for all their expenses.

With the schematics open in front of her she set off at what she thought was a brisk walk towards the main shuttle bay. Five minutes later they arrived and as Gupta paused to look around at the various shuttles and catch her breath Bell gave her a poke in the ribs. “I see we might have to factor slow walking naval officers into the timing of our plans for future missions,” she said in a whisper so none of the shuttle crews could overhear.

Gupta stuck her tongue out at the intelligence agent and pointed at one of the smaller shuttles. “That should do us, we don’t want to book a flight with one of the larger shuttles and end up waiting around for it to fill up before departing.”

“Very well,” Bell said, “I’ll do the haggling, and everyone else can get themselves on board.”

Five minutes later Gupta stared out of the shuttle window at the approaching planet, deep in thought. The planet looked beautiful. Over ninety percent of the planet’s surface was water and the cloud cover was much thicker than on Earth where she had grown up. There was obviously a storm passing over the capital city of Bhopal as there was a maelstrom of swirling and twisting clouds. Through the occasional breaks in the clouds she could see the deep blue of the sea and the thin green of the peninsula Bhopal was built on. Despite the storm the city looked peaceful and tranquil and not at all what Gupta had expected.

Her grandparents had left New Delhi over seventy years ago. Her grandfather had been a shop assistant for a small equipment shop that supplied a number of rural mining operations on one of the south continents. They had spent years eking out a living and saving enough for one-way tickets back to Earth. They had been seeking to escape the dreaded caste system that had been exported from India to her colonies.

Her family was from the Sudra caste and her grandparent’s grandparents had been forcibly moved from India to New Delhi. There they had made up just two of the hundreds of thousands of migrants the Indian government had thrown onto the planet to help jump start its economy. Of course, being from the Sudra caste they hadn’t been allowed to use the many opportunities a new colony presented to colonists to make their fortune. Instead they had been forced into mind-numbing menial jobs. 

When her grandparents had finally managed to escape and return to Earth they had stayed well clear of India. Instead Britain had offered them all they wanted, freedom from the caste system and an opportunity to better themselves through their own merit. Thanks to the hard work of her grandparents and parents, Gupta had been able to afford the education that had led her to the naval academy and space.