Never Surrender (The Empire's Corps Book 10) (16 page)

Jasmine pointed a finger at her.  “
That
, Kailee, is one of the lies you were told at school,” she said, sternly.  “A person who spends all of their time passing exams will not be good at anything beyond passing exams.  The ability to do the job matters far more than a piece of paper
saying
you can do the job ... particularly when the exam is often tied up with other exams, none of which are important to the job.  Besides ... I'm pretty sure Gary doesn't have anything saying he can work in a spaceport.”

“He doesn't,” Kailee confirmed.  “But this is different ...”

“No, it isn't,” Jasmine said, shortly.  “I ...”

The doorbell chimed, again.  “There's an empty room to the left,” Jasmine said, as she opened the door.  It had once housed a pair of slaves, who had divided their time between housekeeping and servicing the Wolves.  “Start reading through the files and let me know what you find.”

She looked past Kailee to see Paula standing in the door.  “Come in,” she said.  “I trust they got you out of the camp without problems?”

“They captured the guards, then tore down the fence and walked off with us,” Paula said.  She stepped to one side as Kailee walked past her, then sat down as the door hissed closed.  “I didn't believe it.”

Jasmine’s lips curled.  “Why not?”

“It just seemed impossible that three people could capture a space station by themselves,” Paula said.  “No matter what help you had ...”

“Nothing is impossible if you try hard enough,” Jasmine said.  She'd learned that lesson as a child, although age and experience had led her to temper it a little.  “How is your boss?”

Paula sighed.  “He’s planning a coup.”

Jasmine blinked.  “Is he mad?”

“He spent the last couple of days trying to organise support from some of the other political prisoners,” Paula said.  “Basically, he plans to unseat you, take the station, take the next ship that arrives ... and then head back to Wolfbane, where he will be welcomed in triumph.”

“He’s delusional,” Jasmine said, sharply.  She doubted Stubbins could organise a piss-up in a brewery, let alone taking a space station ... but then, the space station had already changed hands once in the last week.  “All he’ll do is get a great many people killed.”

She slapped the table.  “And if he
does
manage to get back to Wolfbane,” she added, “all he’ll do is get
himself
killed.”

“So it would seem,” Paula said.  She looked up at Jasmine.  “You might want to dissuade him first.”

Jasmine looked back at her, evenly.  “
You
can't dissuade him?”

“When he gets an idea into his thick head, it is rather difficult to get him to give it up,” Paula said.  “It was hard enough to steer him when he was a General in truth, rather than merely in name.  Being tough-minded kept him going through some pretty dark moments ...”

She made a face.  “Suffice it to say that my steering skills aren't going to be enough,” she admitted, ruefully.  “All I can really do is warn you and hope you can deal with him.”

“I see,” Jasmine said.  “Why have you stayed with him, anyway?”

Paula shrugged.  “Being the secretary of a powerful man made me powerful,” she said, “but it also made me enemies.  I was seen, rightly or wrongly, as his hatchet woman.  There were people just licking their lips on Wolfbane at the mere prospect of my fall from grace.  I would have been lucky to wind up selling myself to stay alive.”

“So you said,” Jasmine remembered.

“It seemed better to go into exile with him,” Paula added.  “But right now, he’s not going to listen to me and he’s just going to get me killed.  Or dumped on Meridian again ...  I want to go home.  I think it’s time to start looking after my own interests.”

“I can try and get you to Wolfbane,” Jasmine said.  “And, whatever happens, you won’t be dumped on Meridian.”

“Thank you,” Paula said.  She looked down at the deck.  “Are you going to let him commit himself before you move?”

“No,” Jasmine said.  She could see the logic in allowing a suspect to run free, just to see what he would do, but it wasn't something she was inclined to try.  “I think I don’t want to take the risk.  Who has he suborned so far?”

“Just a handful of political prisoners,” Paula said.  “He was reluctant to approach anyone who might feel loyal to you personally.”

Jasmine felt a flicker of relief.  Most of the political prisoners were harmless, or at least not on the station.  She could handle the affair by arresting Stubbins, then interrogating him ... there was no need to purge everyone who
might
have been touched by him.  And if Paula hadn't told her about the plan, it might have ended badly for everyone.

“I’ll deal with him now,” she said, flatly.  “Do you want him to know that you came and told me?”

Paula hesitated, then nodded.  “It might shock him into actually being helpful,” she said, slowly.  “I don’t think I’ll be going to bed with him for a while.”

“No,” Jasmine agreed.  She reached for the intercom and called Stewart and Watson, then looked back at Paula.  “He might try to strangle you in your sleep.”

Chapter Sixteen

When it comes to the laws of war, where a whole country may be the criminal, enforcing the laws almost certainly requires war.  This would require outside powers to invade the offender’s territory, if all other methods of persuasion failed.

- Professor Leo Caesius. 
The Empire and its Prisoners of War.

Meridian, Year 5 (PE)

“Go,” Jasmine said, as General James Stubbins stepped into her office.  “Now.”

Stubbins blinked, then gasped as Stewart and Watson grabbed him, forced his hands behind his back and snapped on the cuffs, then searched him roughly.  Somewhat to Jasmine’s amusement, he wasn't carrying anything apart from an automatic pistol he’d probably picked up on Meridian.  Given his lack of shooting practice - it was rare to see a general in the shooting range - Jasmine had a private suspicion he wouldn't actually have managed to hit her, even if he had drawn it before he’d been grabbed.  But she wasn't inclined to give him the chance.

“This is outrageous,” Stubbins protested, as he was forced into a chair.  “I ...”

He stopped as his gaze fell on Paula.  “You!  You ...”

“That will do,” Jasmine said, sharply.  She hated to do it, but it was important to make it clear to Stubbins that he was completely in her power.  “You were plotting to take over by force, General.  I could not allow that to happen.”

She rose from behind the desk and paced around to face him.  “I have every intention of getting us back to friendly space,” she added, “but your coup plot would have gotten us all killed.  There was no choice.”

Stubbins glared at her.  “I have to go back,” he said.  “My people ...”

“Have done nothing for you in five years,” Jasmine said.  “If you had the connections you claim to have, they would have sent a ship to pick you up by now.  Instead, you were left here to rot.  Now, if you cooperate with me, I will ensure that you have your chance to go back to Wolfbane.  If you don’t, I will drop you back on the surface and let the locals deal with you.”

She winced, inwardly, at his expression.  It was never nice to hurt a person - and Wolfbane hadn't bothered to supply any truth drugs, lie detectors or anything else she could have used to ensure the interrogation was reasonably pleasant.  Hell, it was quite possible Stubbins had implants designed to make it impossible to force him to talk.  He was certainly convinced of his own importance ...

At least we know Wolfbane wasn't planning to interrogate any of us
, she thought, savagely. 
They were just going to leave us here to rot
.

Stubbins sagged, visibly.  “You can get me back home?”

“Yes,” Jasmine said.  She doubted Stubbins would find anything beyond a quick death when he reached Wolfbane, unless he had a fleet at his back, but he could have his chance.  “Tell us everything you know and we will get you home.”

Stubbins stared at her, then shot a glance at Paula that promised later mayhem and murder.  “What would you like to know?”

“Start with Governor Brown,” Jasmine said.  The files were vague - Governor Brown hadn't been considered
that
important - but she knew enough, she hoped, to catch him in a lie.  “Tell me about him.”

Stubbins scowled.  “Corporate rat,” he said, bitterly.  “The damn corporations put him in power to make it easier to squeeze the last bit of blood out of the sector.  He did a damn good job of it too, dispensing patronage to make sure his people were in important places.  And then the news from Earth reached us and he just took over.  He had troops on the streets and in key positions before anyone else quite realised what had happened.”

Jasmine nodded, slowly.  That accorded with what she knew of Governor Brown.

“He started telling everyone that such measures were only temporary,” Stubbins continued, slowly.  “I thought we'd make contact with whoever took command in the Core Worlds and then reassume contact with the rest of the Empire.  But all hell broke loose there instead and ... and Governor Brown just took power for himself.  I didn't have time to protest before it was too late.”

“I see,” Jasmine said.  “All hell broke loose?”

“There was a conference on Terra Nova, according to the reports we got,” Stubbins said.  “I think it was to try to sort out the post-Earth universe.  It failed, spectacularly, and everyone started to go to war.  That was the last we heard from the Core Worlds.”

Jasmine sighed, inwardly.  There was so little reliable news from the Core Worlds.  Hell, they hadn't known anything about the Fall of Earth until the first encounter with Admiral Singh ... and then only the barest details.  There was no shortage of rumours, of course, but they ranged from unlikely to impossible.  What sort of idiot would believe a giant bird had been incubating inside Earth and it’s birth had cracked a planet like an eggshell?

“I see,” she repeated.  “There’s nothing else?”

“Not as far as I know,” Stubbins said.  “But the Governor might have kept something to himself.  He always was a devious bastard.”

“Yeah,” Jasmine said.  “Tell me about the fleet.  How many ships does he have at his disposal?”

Stubbins gave her a sharp look.  “He had seven squadrons of battleships and over three hundred smaller ships,” he said.  Stewart let out a low whistle.  “Half of the battleships were being cannibalised for spare parts to keep the remainder going ... I think most of the smaller ships were in full working order.  The Governor had enough industrial capability to keep them maintained.”

Jasmine resisted the urge to swear.  The Commonwealth had only three squadrons of battleships, all captured from Admiral Singh.  True, there were quite a few pieces of advanced technology that might tip the balance in the Commonwealth’s favour, but Governor Brown still had a major advantage.  Clearly, the only thing that kept him from winning the war outright was his own natural caution, perhaps made worse by bruising encounters with new technology. 

“We’re going to have to go through it in some detail,” she said.  Stubbins had been in the camp for five years, after all.  Governor Brown could have repaired the remaining battleships by now, if he was prepared to devote the resources and manpower to keeping them in active service.  “Can he build new ships of his own?”

“Everything up to and including battlecruisers,” Stubbins said, flatly.  “He had a shipyard even before the shit hit the fan.  By now, it could be a great deal larger.”

Jasmine’s eyes narrowed.  “A shipyard?”

“A military-grade shipyard, in the Wolfbane System,” Stubbins said.  There was something almost taunting in his voice.  “Quite a big industrial base too.  I fancy he dragged nodes from every system for fifty light years, just to keep them all under his personal control.  Thousands of workers too, all from shitholes like Meridian, working hard for the greater glory of the corporate rat.”

“Said rat thoroughly outmanoeuvred you and dumped you here,” Jasmine pointed out, tartly.  “And if he hadn't, you wouldn't be here.”

She gritted her teeth, thinking hard.  The more she thought about the news, the less she liked it.  Wolfbane might have a numerical superiority that would off-set anything the Commonwealth could put up against it.  Given five years, and the combined industrial base of every system within fifty light years of Wolfbane ... the odds didn't look good.  She needed to get the intelligence back to Avalon, but how?

“There will be more questions,” she said, tiredly.  Maybe Kailee could sit down with Stubbins and write down his answers, perhaps with someone from the CEF to supervise.  “And you will answer them.”

Stubbins looked at her, sardonically.  “Don’t you wish you let me go back to Wolfbane?”

“In five years,” Jasmine said, “you never even
tried
to escape.  Now, when someone else comes up with a plan, you try to take control.  And you don’t even have a ship that will get you back to Wolfbane.  Surely, you should have waited until you had a ship!”

She sighed.  “We will endeavour to get you back to Wolfbane,” she added, “
provided
you answer our questions.  If we catch you in a single lie, you're going to be hurt.”

“I’m a General,” Stubbins protested.

“The Empire you served has gone,” Jasmine said.  “And I think whatever titles you had afterwards were taken by Governor Brown.”

She nodded to Stewart, who marched Stubbins out of the cabin and down to the cell they’d prepared.  He would be under guard at all times, with no one permitted to talk to him without Jasmine’s express permission.  Hopefully, her precautions would be enough to keep him from doing something else stupid.  And if they weren't ... she thought wistfully about airlocks, then pushed the thought aside.  She didn’t want to kill him when he could spend the rest of his life on a penal farm, on the planet below.

“Good God,” Watson said.  “Are all Generals so self-centred?”

“They do tend to have large egos,” Paula confirmed.  “And a certain reluctance to recognise reality does keep them going, when lesser souls have given up.”

Jasmine scowled.  If the generals on Han had realised that the planet was about to explode, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved.  Instead, they’d fiddled while the arsonists prepared to burn the planet to the ground.  She hated to think of just how many lives had been lost, both civilian and military, or ruined by the uprising.  Millions had been killed and millions more had been driven away from their homes, or forced into refugee camps where they had been abused, raped and sometimes murdered.  And yet, if the Core Worlds had exploded into war, the death toll on Han would merely be a drop in the bucket.

“I will have him interrogated, time and time again,” she said, reluctantly.  Paula might not be able to supervise, but she could write down his words and summarise them.  “We need to know everything he knows about Wolfbane.”

“Everything he knows will be five years out of date,” Watson warned.  “If they really have been collecting every industrial node for light years around ...”

Jasmine nodded.  Wolfbane would be powerful ... and probably capable of training up new manpower in a hurry.  She didn't know enough to calculate how long it would take to repair the battleships, but the Commonwealth had started to produce its own fleet of ships within two years of being abandoned.  Wolfbane had definitely had a head start on the Commonwealth, even if they stuck to tried and tested technologies. 

And going after Thule did considerable damage to our long-term plans
, she thought, morbidly. 
We didn't have that many worlds with solid industrial bases
.

“I should talk to him,” Paula said.  “Maybe I can calm him down ...”

“Or he will want to beat you to death,” Watson said, dryly.  “He’ll see what you did as a betrayal, not as you saving him from himself.”

“You could protect me,” Paula said, batting her eyelashes at him.  “I can hide behind you ...”

Jasmine coughed, loudly.  “Wait outside,” she said, shortly.  “Carl, I need a quick word with you.”

Watson waited until the door had firmly closed, then snapped to attention.  “Yes, boss?”

“I would suggest you didn't let her try to seduce you,” Jasmine said, “but I know better than to give an order I know won’t be followed.”

“I don’t think she’s trying to seduce me,” Watson said.

“You mean she’s
succeeding
?”  Jasmine asked.  “Carl, do you remember what happened to Blake?”

Watson smirked.  Everyone knew the only reason Blake Coleman had missed the Battle of Camelot had been the fact he’d been seduced by a pretty girl, then drugged and held prisoner by the Crackers.  He hadn't told them anything, but his fellows hadn't let him forget it until the day he’d died.  There were easier ways to take a pratfall. 

“Just watch yourself,” she said.  “That woman is a woman on the edge.”

“I’ll behave,” Watson said.  “But ...”