Dreadnought (Starship Blackbeard Book 3) (25 page)

“We’re getting messages from the other three ships,” she said. “They want their money. They aren’t so keen to stay on and fight the Hroom.”

“That ain’t the half of it,” Capp said. “Some of them blokes will be drinking a toast to the Hroom Empire after today. Them kind don’t care much for Albion.”

“I would not blame them for running,” Drake said. “They are probably seeing the same reports we are, and know that it will be an ugly fight. But I don’t intend to let them go, all the same.”

“Sir?” Tolvern said.

“Tell them to hold still. The silver should keep them quiet for a few minutes, at least. Then they’ll get their payment.”

Drake studied the green and blue sphere of Albion on the viewscreen. The Zealand Islands lay below them, and a deep longing stirred in his bones. He stood.

“You’re going to see your parents now, sir?” Tolvern asked.

“Not yet.”

“Sorry, you stood, and I thought—”

“One should always stand before one’s king. Call the palace. I need to speak to him.”

Tolvern’s eyes widened. “To King Bartholomew, sir?”

“Yes, Commander. To the king. I would call fleet headquarters, but you know their position on this ship and her captain. His Majesty spoke with me earlier, and I hope he will hear me out a second time.”

It wasn’t easy getting through, but after a few minutes, the viewscreen blanked out Albion, and King Bartholomew appeared. He was still in his library, and although there were two armed palace guards visible behind him, the same fire was crackling on the hearth, the same dogs sleeping there.

“Your Majesty,” Drake said, “shouldn’t you be on your way to the countryside to wait out the battle?”

There was a several-second delay as Drake’s message traveled to Albion and the response returned to where Drake hovered near the orbit of the moon.

“To what purpose, Captain? If the Hroom break through, there will be no kingdom left to rule. No, I will stay in York Town and share the fate of my people.”

“As you wish, sire. For my part, I am prepared to show my loyalty by defending Albion against the Hroom as if I were still an officer of the Royal Navy. I will work with Captain Rutherford and the orbital fortresses to drive them off. But I have two conditions for my support.”

The king’s bushy eyebrows raised. “You would set conditions on
me
? Haven’t I as good as promised a pardon should you help us?”

“There can be only one flag officer in this battle. That will be me. I must be allowed to organize the defenses and command all forces. You know my qualities, sire. You understand why I ask this.”

The king nodded. “Very well. And the second condition?”

“I have three ships with me, plus another frigate fighting alongside Captain Potterman. They are not loyal to me, they are hired guns. Pirates and smugglers. I hired them to help rescue my parents, and now that we have finished that task, they are anxious to collect their payments and be off. We need them in the fight, and I don’t have the money to pay them.”

“And you want Albion to pay their fee?”

“I do not have the necessary funds, your majesty.”

“Very well. How much?”

“Given the circumstances, the cost of hired guns is rather dear. Their aid will cost the royal treasury.” Drake didn’t wait for the king to point out that they’d already stolen a hefty deposit from said treasury. “And what’s more, I am afraid that my credibility with these people is rather strained—or will be, once they realize I am unable to pay what I already owe. It would be better if you could make the offer yourself.”

Drake hadn’t thought the king’s eyebrows capable of climbing higher, but now they did. “You want me to speak directly to pirates?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“And how much should I offer them?”

Drake named an obscene sum. The royal eyebrows now reached their maximum altitude. But it was, indeed, a seller’s market, and the king agreed.

#

Drake entered his quarters to find his parents staring in wonder through the viewscreen, which showed the cool blue sphere of Albion. The planet was growing larger on the screen by the moment. The king had made an offer to the pirates, and it had been accepted.
Blackbeard
and the others were moving into position around the forts to offer support fire.

Fort William came glittering around in orbit, her lights on.
Blackbeard
was above Britain now, where it was still night, and York Town was a glowing yellow metropolis almost directly beneath them.

His parents didn’t seem to have heard him enter, and he watched them quietly for several seconds. His father, still proud and erect, and his mother, upright, her face and form so familiar he was transported back to his childhood just looking at her. How he had admired them, how he had thought them so wise and all-powerful. And how strange to look at them now, staring at the viewscreen, and realize they’d never been in space before. They must be frightened, almost terrified, as they considered the vast empty spaces, the void only inches away.

“Father, Mother,” he said awkwardly.

They turned. Relief and sorrow flashed across his mother’s face. His father looked stern, yet there was a burning pride in his expression as he took in his son.

They were not the hugging sort in the Drake family, and so they didn’t embrace. But his father gave him a powerful handshake that lingered for several seconds, and his mother clasped his hands in hers, tears in her eyes.

“You heard about Helen?” Baron Drake asked in a low voice, near the breaking point.

“Yes, Father. I am so sorry.”

“They shot her like an animal,” he said. Anguish showed on his face. “Left her where she fell and burned down the house around her.”

Drake worried about his other sister. “What about Madeline? Is she . . . ?”

“She is fine, thank heavens,” his mother said. “Her husband is stationed on Mercia, and they were away when it happened.” Her eyes flashed with sudden anger. “Make them pay for it, James. Make them pay.”

He was taken aback by this hard edge. “Yes. Admiral Malthorne will answer for his crimes. I promise you.”

“Colonel Fitzgibbons, too,” she said. “His men assaulted the estate, Fitzgibbons pulled the trigger that killed Helen. The lord admiral has given him our property as a reward.”

“And the colonel, too,” Drake agreed. He glanced back at the door, anxious to leave and return to the bridge. “Are you comfortable here? Can I get you anything? I’d send you somewhere safer, but at the moment, there is nowhere to go.”

“We will be fine here,” his father said. “Go, do your duty.”

Drake left them in his room, troubled to see them in this condition. Even should he get them back to the estate, the manor house was in ruins, and his father didn’t have the funds to rebuild it. Drake could have given them money for the rebuilding effort—the estate would some day be his, anyway—but he’d already surrendered everything he had to the other pirate captains. None of that mattered in the slightest if he didn’t stop the Hroom assault. If they got through, there would be nothing left of Albion civilization to rebuild.

When he got to the bridge, Drake began to organize the defenses of Albion. All the orbital fortresses were his to command. Even St. George had acquiesced to the king’s demand that it aid Drake’s defense. Of the pirates, only Paredes and his schooner had declined the king’s offer. They’d taken the looted silver as full payment and fled for parts unknown. But Drake still had
Pussycat
and
Outlaw
, and together with
Blackbeard
, they could provide powerful support for the orbital fortresses. He positioned them between Fort William and Fort Ellen, while he took
Blackbeard
back beyond the orbit of the moon to wait.

A few hours later, the first death fleet arrived for its suicide mission.

Chapter Twenty-two

Blackbeard
engaged the enemy fleet while it was still a million miles out from the planet and decelerating for its final run. Drake ordered a barrage of missiles and torpedoes sent directly into the path of the oncoming fleet, which forced them to change course. Only one of the missiles hit, doing minimal damage, but the sloops swung wide of Albion, even as they continued to slow, and the maneuver cost them significant time. By the time they came back around, Rutherford’s forces were forty minutes closer to joining the fight. Drake counted that an important victory.

Drake took a slingshot around the moon and moved to cut the Hroom off again. He didn’t dare engage eight sloops at close range, but this long-range harassment was nearly as effective.

He called the gunnery. “I want a pair of Hunter-IIs laid down on these coordinates.” He nodded to Capp to send over the data she’d charted with the nav computer.

“Don’t have them, sir,” Barker said over the com.

“What do you mean?” How could they be running low on torpedoes already?

“We’ve been in a whole lot of battles since the mutiny, and most of what we’ve got left we picked up on San Pablo and Leopold. And they aren’t exactly selling Hunter-II torpedoes out there, if you know what I mean.”

Drake had known of some of the improvisation required in the gunnery, but he hadn’t realized they were running so short on the high-tech navy stuff. He should have tried to get ordnance from the forts while he still had the chance. But no, that would have taken too much time, and he wouldn’t have been in position to fight that initial engagement.

“What
do
we have?”

“Eight Mark-IVs and plenty of Mark-IIIs. Still want me to lay them down?”

“Belay that order.”

“Aye, sir.”

The older torpedoes didn’t have the range, speed, or maneuverability to do what he was asking. He had missiles, but they didn’t pack the same punch as a two-stage torpedo, which made them easier to ignore.

“Sir,” Tolvern said. “We have to do something.”

“Get me Fort William. They’ve got the firepower.”

It was risky letting the Hroom get in so close so soon, but he couldn’t face their pulse cannons alone, and he needed a way to hit them. To start doing real damage.

As the Hroom came in for an assault on the planet, three different orbital fortresses launched a barrage of torpedoes. They were too slow and distant to hit the enemy, but they forced the Hroom to take evasive maneuvers, and while they did,
Pussycat
and
Outlaw
lunged in from either flank. It was an attempt to box the Hroom in where all those torpedoes could get at them. The Hroom veered to starboard, straight at
Outlaw
, which forced Isabel Vargus to flee for her life.

Meanwhile,
Blackbeard
came up behind, using the Hroom fleet to shield herself from the torpedoes, which were zipping around looking for targets. Drake blasted away with his belly cannon and nearly disabled one sloop’s rear armor before he was forced to screen
Outlaw
’s escape toward the moon. The Hroom fleet withdrew to a safe distance and prepared another run at the forts. They hesitated at about a million miles out. Drake soon realized why.

New forces were arriving on the battlefield. First to appear were the six sloops of war pursued by
Orient Tiger
and HMS
Philistine
. Catarina and Potterman had been harassing them halfway across the system by now and had left the six sloops battered, but the two pursuing vessels had suffered significant damage. The difference was the six sloops didn’t need to stand and fight, they only needed to penetrate the planet’s defenses and reach the atmosphere.

Rutherford arrived at almost the same time, pursuing the first fleet. In addition to
Vigilant
, he had the corvette HMS
Lancelot
, plus two destroyers and several torpedo boats. There was another task force a few hours behind that Malthorne had sent, but Drake and Rutherford would have a terrific fight on their hands before that arrived.

Drake hailed his old friend. Rutherford appeared, looking sharp in his red-and-black uniform. Drake felt shabby in the tan canvas vest Tolvern had bought for him, with its loops and brass buttons. Rutherford looked him over.

“So, you’re in command,” Rutherford said. “Mutiny, turn to piracy, and the king still makes you flag officer.” He said it lightly, but there was a hint of irony in his tone, as well.

“Are you asking me to step down so you can lead?”

“No time for that now. Tell me what to do.”

“Pull into orbit as soon as you are able. Once we string our forces between those forts, we should be able to hold off the enemy a few more hours. Get those incoming cruisers, Potterman’s destroyer, and the final pirate frigate into the fight, and we can defend the planet indefinitely. Once Admiral Malthorne arrives, we’ll finish them off.”

“There is something you should know about Malthorne,” Rutherford said.

Drake glanced at his console, which was screaming with information flying in from all quarters. The Hroom had joined forces into a massive flotilla of fourteen warships and were coming in for another run.

“Tell me after this fight,” Drake said.

“No. There might not be an after. If I die, you must know.”

“Quickly, then.”

“Malthorne has ordered me to kill you. In spite of everything, in spite of your defense of Albion, I’m to look for the right opportunity and destroy
Blackbeard
. Of course, I will do no such thing.” Left unspoken was that disobeying the order would leave his own career in tatters.

“Thank you.”

“But you can bet that Malthorne will do it himself. If not when he arrives, then the instant the Hroom are finished. Stay away from
Dreadnought
. You can’t stand five minutes against her guns.”

“Forewarned is forearmed. Again, thank you.”

“Good luck, James. You’ll need it—we’re in for a devil of a fight.”

“You too, Nigel.”

#

The sloops targeted
Pussycat
in the first main skirmish, trying to run her down and break past the forts. She clawed back with her heavy armaments, but serpentines knocked out her gun carriages, and pulse cannon obliterated what was left of her shields. For a moment, it looked like
Pussycat
was doomed; a sloop was right behind her, firing its pulse cannon. But curiously, the Hroom warship didn’t use its serpentine batteries, and the frigate managed to limp from the fight, bleeding plasma, her top speed barely reaching fifty miles per second. The Hroom warship let her go and turned back toward the planet.