Ghosts of Empire (Book 4 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (34 page)

He immediately called Zia to hold two pinnaces. He then compiled a list of crew members that would be of use on the Marine Raider ship. He sent the list to
Invincible
with instructions to summon them to marine country.

Then he called Lord Hawthorne’s cutter and informed the pilots of his plan to meet them out there. He ordered them to keep that information to themselves. It was time to turn the tables on Princess Kelsey and do something to help save them.

He left for marine country at a run. He’d have time to get into unpowered armor and vacuum gear. He’d also make sure that every man and woman was as heavily armed and well protected as possible. If they got into a fight, they might need every bit of damage they could deliver.

Chapter Thirty-Two

It took almost an hour for Sean to get the situation at the farm locked down. A hardcore group of fighters took some of the prisoners hostage. Eventually, he sent the marines through the roof and stunned everyone after sharpshooters took out the most fanatic of the defenders with flechettes through the wall.

They’d accounted for the missing Fleet personnel, even if some of them were a bit battered. Seeing Gina the marine holding a sobbing Fleet crew woman was the highpoint of his week.

There were a number of other prisoners. Sean suspected they were Coordinator West’s political allies. He sent some men to round her up.

And they came back empty-handed.

Worried, he sent everyone he could spare to scour the area for her. They found the bodies of her guards near the forest, but found no sign of the coordinator herself.

“Find me whoever was in charge of this facility,” he told one of West’s people.

That turned out to be a scientist of some kind. Two grim faced guards held the man up between them. It looked as though they’d prefer to be marching him outside and shooting him.

Sean followed their lead and gave the man in the lab coat a hard look. “My name is Commander Sean Meyer. These Fleet personnel are my people. I’m told you drugged them and questioned them against their will.”

The man drew himself up and stared down his nose at Sean. “I’m Doctor Paul Nelson and you have no right to—”

“I don’t care what your name is or what you object to,” Sean said, cutting him off. “You’re guilty of kidnapping, torture, and a host of other crimes against people under my command. I could have these men frog march you outside and shoot you in the head. No one would care and many would thank me. If you want the opportunity of dealing with the civilian authorities instead, you’d better start cooperating. Do you understand?”

The man swallowed noisily and nodded convulsively, unaware of the grins his captors were sporting at the deception. At least Sean hoped they knew he was lying.

“What do you want to know?”

“Someone kidnapped Coordinator West,” he said. “I want to know who.”

“I have no idea.”

“Take him outside and shoot him. Dump the body in the woods near the coordinator’s guards.”

“Wait!” The scientist dug in his heels as he shrieked. “Wait! Deputy Coordinator King probably took her. She left just after the fighting started and went toward the woods.”

Sean held up his hand and stopped the men. “She was here? I thought she was at the council building.”

“She wanted everyone to think she was there, but she came here with the political prisoners. When you attacked, her guards took her out toward the woods.”

“Where were they going?”

“How should I know?”

He considered the scientist. King hadn’t taken him with her, so he might be telling the truth. Maybe. Or perhaps he knew more than he suspected.

“That’s not good enough. I need someone here who can lead me to her. If you’re not that man, you’d better come up with someone else for me to focus my attention on before I give these boys their marching orders.”

“Her personal assistant was here,” the scientist said in a voice filled with desperation. “I saw him lying near the questioning equipment. I’ll show you. Just don’t kill me.”

Sean gave the man a long, searching look. “Show me.”

The scientist led them to a young man laid out with the other wounded. He’d been stunned, but was coming around. Someone had bound his hands together in front of him.

Sean gave the scientist a cold look. “You’d best hope this man has the answers I’m looking for. Put the good doctor into one of the cages he kept my people in.”

The guards took the scientist away while Sean knelt at the young man’s side. He only had to wait a few minutes before the man was able to process his surroundings.

“What happened?” the man asked.

“I think you can guess,” Sean said. “You’re Deputy Coordinator King’s personal assistant?”

The man blinked at him. “You obviously know that.”

“I want to know where your boss is.”

“If you don’t already know, then I won’t tell you.”

Sean had heard that tone before. This man wasn’t going to cooperate, even if threatened with death. Sean needed another plan.

He searched the man’s pockets and found his com. It was locked, of course. “Give me the code.”

“No.”

Why did everything have to be so hard? He gestured for one of the guards to come over. “This man is an important prisoner. Segregate him and make sure nothing happens to him.”

While that was happening, he searched out Coordinator West’s tech guru and handed her the com. “Abigail King’s personal assistant is here. Another prisoner says that King was here, too. I think she took your boss. Can you crack this?”

The woman took the com and plugged it into a portable computer. It took a ridiculously short amount of time for her to access its contents. “Here we go. I have his contact list, and he’s thoughtfully labeled her private com code. It looks like she tried to contact him after the attack, probably to see if he’d escaped. Let’s see if she left a message.”

An audio only message began playing. “If you got away, meet me back at the council building. I have West in my custody.”

The message terminated without any further pleasantries.

“My, she’s a friendly sort,” Sean said. “Can you locate that com and confirm where she is?”

“Maybe. I used to have access to all the major planetary systems, but they’ve been locking me out. That one isn’t high priority, so let’s find out.”

She worked at her computer for a few minutes and grinned. “I’m in. They blocked my original access, but I found a backdoor. Yes. The com is at the council building. It seems to be in the executive wing. I’d wager she’s in Coordinator West’s office.”

“Do you have floor plans for the council building? It might be advantageous to get in through a less obvious route.”

She shook her head. “Those kinds of plans aren’t available to the general public, and they’re not kept on a system I can access from here. That said, it should be possible to find or create access with the right tools. I’d have to be on site to make that happen.”

“Gear up. The main force of marines will be ready to assault the building before dawn. Let’s see if we can get inside before then. If need be, we can make a hole to let the marines in after we reconnoiter the place.”

* * * * *

Kelsey was pleasantly surprised at how much work the engineering team from Boxer Station had completed on
Persephone
. They’d not only verified the grav drives were fully functional, they’d vetted the fusion plants and sealed off the damaged sections of the ship. The makeshift crew could access every functional area without vacuum suits.

They’d also moved the dead into the damaged section of the ship. That was a relief. She’d not been looking forward to moving the bodies. She could only imagine how bad that would be when they started clearing out the derelicts. There must be millions of dead on those hulks.

She stripped off her armor and put it in a handy corner. Getting out of the overcrowded cutter and being able to stretch her arms felt wonderful. Still, she wished they’d managed to stuff twice as many people into the small ship. They were going to be very undermanned for this flight.

Okay, Ned. Let’s have that code. If it doesn’t work, we’re screwed.

The code will work. Unless, of course, I changed it and don’t remember.

You’re filled with positive thoughts, aren’t you? The code.

He gave it to her and she accessed the computer. It digested the code for a moment and granted her access.

“I’m in! Holy cow, I’m in! Computer, do you recognize my command authority?”

“This unit has received the appropriate codes from a qualified Marine Raider. This vessel is yours to command, Princess Kelsey Bandar. Or would you prefer the title of captain?”

“Kelsey is fine. I want a system status check. Is this vessel capable of in-system movement and a stealth approach to a military installation?”

“Grav drives are operating within nominal parameters. Stealth systems are in passive mode. Weapons systems are degraded. Four of six beam emplacements are not operational. Flip drives are offline. Warning, with the hull breached, this vessel cannot withstand a high speed insertion into atmosphere.”

Like the small Pentagaran ship she’d flown on,
Persephone
was capable of landing. It was significantly larger than that other vessel, but the layout of the hull had told her it was possible. No one wasted time streamlining a hull on a ship that had no need to enter atmosphere.

“
Persephone
, do you have any knowledge of how this ship was damaged or of how Captain Ned Quincy died?”

“Affirmative. This vessel attempted to escape enemy pursuit in the Valhalla system by going through a particularly heavy ring of debris orbiting a gas giant. A small, but fast moving object destroyed this vessel’s flip drive and killed eight crew members.

“Captain Quincy was critically injured during the ensuing rescue operations. His actions saved the lives of three engineers trapped in the wreckage. The medical officer doubted Captain Quincy would survive his injuries, but placed him in the stasis chamber.”

Kelsey considered that. “How did you escape pursuit? And how did the crew die?”

“The pursuing vessel was significantly less fortunate in crossing the ring. Its terminal course took it deep into the atmosphere where it was destroyed. This vessel escaped into the outer system.

“Repairs to the flip drive proved impossible. The crew used their remaining supplies over the next several months and made the determination to take their lives with drugs in their pharmacology units. Several decades passed before this vessel once more made its way into more traveled areas of the system. At that point, it was recovered and brought here.”

“Why didn’t you self-destruct or at least wipe your memory?”

“This unit hypothesizes that the rebels believed this vessel to be without power. They never boarded, so this unit was not obligated to wipe its memory.”

That was certainly to her benefit. She doubted she’d have been lucky enough to find another one of these vessels intact.

“Warning. Unknown vessels approaching.”

Kelsey tapped into the ship’s passive scanners. There were two Fleet pinnaces approaching at high speed from the direction of Harrison’s World.

“Open a channel to them. Unknown vessels, identify yourselves.”

“Kelsey, you’re in big trouble.”

“Jared, I didn’t expect you to chase me down.”

“I’m sure you didn’t. It just so happens that I have some free time and I brought some extra Fleet personnel and marines. I assume you don’t have a problem with that?”

Considering how shorthanded she was, she was ecstatic. “The more the merrier. I’ll meet you at the docking area.”

She considered how their arrival changed the mission. “Computer, the crewman I have with me are not Marine Raiders. Can I authorize them to operate the ship’s systems?”

“Yes, Kelsey. Marine Raider vessels are often partially crewed by Fleet officers, though always under the command of a Raider.”

“Excellent. One additional question. Do you have complete specs on my implants and all Raider equipment?”

“Yes.”

A thrill ran up her spine. It felt like Christmas.

“Upload them to my implants. All of them. Include any classified files you have in storage. I’ll review them as time permits.” She accessed her implants and granted the computer access to some memory.

“Upload complete.”

Kelsey made her way to the docking area with a bounce to her step. She skimmed the implant specifications and grinned. She’d been in the dark for so long. Finally, she had the manuals. Now she wouldn’t have to guess what she was capable of anymore.

If, of course, she survived the next few hours.

She transmitted copies of everything to Boxer Station,
Courageous
, and
Invincible
. This information was so difficult to come by that she couldn’t chance it being lost again. She locked it down so that only someone of the rank of captain or above could access it, but only if she didn’t make it back. After a moment, she added Carl Owlet and Doctor Leonard to the list.

The docking hatch slid open as she arrived. Jared and a stream of Fleet officers and marines came out. Most headed for the areas of the ship where they’d be working, but some followed Jared as he stepped up beside her.

“We’re really going to have to work on our coordination,” he said as she led him back toward the bridge. “If you’d simply asked me for help, I could’ve sent a lot more people.”

“I was afraid you’d try to stop me.”

He shook his head. “Not this time. One way or the other, we need to stop these bastards. If they get those battlecruisers online, we’re screwed. Does this ship have weapons?”

“Not many. It comes with six beam emplacements, but only two are working. Other than that, we’re ready to go. I’ve accessed the computer and it has accepted me as its commander.”

He smiled. “So, now you get to command in space, too. You can appoint yourself an admiral.”

“That’s not funny. I’ll never know enough to command a ship in space. I’m happy to have you to lean on.”