New Contract (Perimeter Defense Book #3) (23 page)

"Don't forget about the Fastel system. There are two inhabitable planets there with decent industry. They probably have quite a few development projects as well. Plus, it just seems like the human thing to do, supporting my father-in-law and paying him back for all he's done."

Katerina nodded in the affirmative. The time had come!
Bride of Chaos
emerged from the warp tunnel into regular space. I was instantly inundated by a wave of messages that had accumulated over the last few days. Something important flashed by. A large font system message, so I took a closer look:

The Head of the Orange House, Duchess Inessa royl George ton Mesfelle has died at age 152.

ATTENTION! The new head of the Orange House will be Duchess Silva royl George ton Mesfelle (50.3% of votes)

Utterly flabbergasted, I looked at my cousin. Katerina was looking at me, no less lost herself.

"Gather all the information you can on the death of Duchess Inessa immediately!" I ordered my officers, continuing to read incoming messages as I did.

There it was! The pre-established signal from the Parn system. The little birdie flew right into the trap!

"Communications officer, I order you to open the envelope and send the enclosed signal to the warp beacons in Forepost-31, the Closed Laboratories, and Parn."

Around a minute went by, and a series of new system messages ran before our eyes:

The Orange House has lost sovereignty over the Parn system

The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Parn system

The Orange House has lost sovereignty over the Closed Laboratories system

The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Closed Laboratories system

The Orange House has lost sovereignty over the Forepost-31 system

The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Forepost-31 system

"That's all, cousin. Now we wait for the Green House to react. They should realize what's happened soon enough. And yes, send congratulations to my brother Roben royl Inoky ton Mesfelle in my name. Somehow, Roben has become Count of the Orange House, first in line to the ducal throne!"

* * *

I was in a shuttle
en route
to the orbital laboratories, when a call came in from my brother Roben royl Inoky. To be honest, my first reaction was apprehension. My brother hadn't called me in a very long time, and with the very harsh limits on all contact from Unatari, such a call looked, at the very least, strange. But Florianna confirmed that it really was my brother on the line.

"Hey there, little brother!" Roben was looking tired and haggard. "I received your belated congratulations, and decided to get in touch."

"Sorry, Roben. We were under complete communications blockade, which is why we just found out about the death of Duchess Inessa. But, tell me, what happened to her? I can't find any information, everything is classified."

Roben took a heavy sigh and even slumped a bit.

"What really happened there, I don't even know myself in earnest, little brother. According to the official version, the Duchess was on her yacht on the way from Sector Nine to the Throne World, accompanied by a large escort of ships. And in the Kammo system, when trying to dock at the station to charge her yacht, the mechanical hauling arms punched through it broadside, breaking the vacuum seal. As a result, two neighboring cabins lost pressurization and fifteen people died instantly. One of the damaged cabins happened to belong to Duchess Inessa. And also, for some reason, the automatic danger alarm didn't sound. The emergency repressurization system and rescue system both malfunctioned as well. Her experienced bodyguards, who had almost twenty seconds of time after the disaster, got confused for some reason, not able to even do simple tasks like lowering the face masks on their armored space suits, so they all died together with the civilians they were guarding."

"That's not possible!" I confidently declared to my brother. "I have watched bodyguard training with my own eyes a number of times, and have even participated in spacesuit demonstrations so they could practice rescuing me. Those guys pressurize their space suits as a reflex at the first sign of any abnormal situation. In a whole twenty seconds, they should have been able to secure themselves and remove the individuals they were guarding to a safe place, providing them protection and air to breath along the way."

"You're right, it isn't really possible. But are you not bothered by the rather improbable accident, as well, brother? How often do upper aristocrats' pleasure yachts, having the best captains and crews around, crash into space station equipment? The last time something like this happened was around three hundred years ago, and I'm not even sure
that
was an accident. The fact that the Duchess’s cabin precisely was damaged, that doesn't surprise you either? Brother, it's no coincidence. In the last, not-even-full year, the Orange House has changed leadership four times! And how many other aristocrats have been removed from the list of heirs, including Crown Princes, Viscounts and others! Little brother, I'm really scared, because I don't understand what's going on. Someone's clearing a path to the Orange House throne. That much is obvious, but who? Of course, it couldn't be you or Violetta. I do not suspect you. All the more so now that you’ve voluntarily crossed yourself out of the line of succession. But then who? I mean, you congratulated me for receiving the title of Count, but my gut tells me the higher I go up the line of succession, the shorter my life gets. Remember my words, Georg. It won't be even a year before I’m also out of the picture. I’m having some very bad premonitions, little brother!"

"If it's all so rancid, then to hell with the Orange House. Join Unatari!" I offered, but my brother could only laugh in reply:

"If only it was that easy... Right now, the Orange House spooks and troops placed in Tesse number many times more than my forces. All I have to do is mention leaving the Orange House in passing, and that same day I'll be replaced, and maybe even buried immediately. I cannot allow that, even if it is for my son and heir. So, forgive me, Georg, I'll have to take a pass again. I do not want to take part in any new adventures. I will follow all laws and norms of the Orange House to make sure no one suspects me of separatism, and I will be left in peace."

"But does this conversation not constitute a breach of Inessa royl George's rules?"

"Don't remind me of that name! That bitch is dead. She died and turned into a desiccated hunk of meat. On Tesse, we had a state holiday to mark the occasion. The whole planet hated the Duchess. Over the few days her harsh rule lasted, she put thousands of people behind bars and nationalized the property of hundreds of Tesse companies for the Orange House's benefit. The new Head, Silva royl George has yet to confirm whether these recently passed laws are still in effect, though she has spoken on the blockade of Unatari."

Roben suddenly grew gloomy, his tone becoming anxious and tragic.

"I complete forgot... Georg, did you know that your daughter Likanna has disappeared? Investigators recently came to my palace. They had information that she had allegedly been invited to Tesse, together with some friends, and that she had promised to return some papers from here to her school. But, I swear to you, brother. I know nothing whatsoever of your daughter nor the other Crown Princesses that disappeared. Information on what happened is subject to very strict censorship, but rumor has it that the group of girls disappeared directly from the Throne World school they were studying at."

I scratched my head in contemplation, digesting the information I'd received. Afterwards, I tried to calm my brother in any case:

"Everything with Lika is fine. All it is, I've been told, is that there are some unknown figures using fake documents who want to kidnap my daughter directly from school, but I managed to hide her in a safe place. As for the other girls, I have no idea. My trusted representatives were only supposed to pick up Likanna."

Just then, I discovered a letter from Lika among the bunch of information that came in four days ago, and I opened it right away:

"Dad, everything's fine. We already left the Throne World. I asked my two best friends, Crown Princess Joan royl Reyekh and Crown Princess Natalie royl Cruz to come with me, and they agreed happily. The girls didn't write to their parents, though. They were afraid their parents would say 'no.' So, you should warn the Purple and Blue Houses before they get worried. Everything over here is good. Cool even. The captain gave each of us one big Alpha Iseyek, and I taught my friends how to paint them. Not too long ago, we picked up a tired old lady named Marian Sabati at a station, and now she's coming with us. She's been sleeping for three days already. She hasn’t even woken up once. Joan royl Reyekh even gave the old lady a new haircut so she’ll have something to be happy about once she wakes up. Kisses. Dad, you're the very best."

I released a dying groan and held my head in my hands. So now, beyond sheltering the wanted Marian Sabati, I would also be accused of kidnapping three Crown Princesses. Just what I needed. Ugh. Why am I being punished like this?!

The proper thing to do here was immediately inform the Purple and Blue Houses of what had happened. And also inform the Imperial secretariat. No matter how you looked at it, the missing Crown Princesses were studying on the Throne World, which meant they were technically under the protection of the Emperor. But there was one small nuance. After announcing the fact that the girls were safe, I would certainly be ordered to say where they were as well. And I couldn’t get away with just lying, either. The consequences were too serious. If Triasss Zess's ship was still in Perimeter Sector Nine space, it would be captured, regardless of its diplomatic status, all the Princesses, including Likanna, would be picked up, and Marian Sabati would be arrested. Triasss Zess didn't answer my attempt to call him. Clearly, his ship was in warp jump and thus unavailable. I would have to wait to figure this all out.

* * *

The huge orbital laboratory complex that had earlier been removed from Unatari to the Fia star system had sprouted a number of whole new facilities, laboratories and hangars for starship testing. Samantha ton Kruger, still head of the combat drone laboratory, came out to meet me, informing me that there were currently over thirty thousand individuals of six different races living and working on the station. In fact, it was already a whole space city, specialized in studying Alien technology.

We began by looking over the new stuff in the combat drone laboratory.

"Your Majesty, this is my pride and joy: a next-generation drone assembly line! We have practically totally reverse engineered Alien drone technology, and would be capable at this point not only of producing copies, as we were nine months ago, but also significantly improving their combat characteristics. And we have also learned to create totally new weapons based on our new knowledge. First of all, I would like to present you with a super-heavy combat drone model we’re calling
Barbarian
," the woman pointed at a ship the size of a five-story building.

I gave a respectful whistle and walked up closer, craning my neck to see the drone from every angle.

"It is the same concept behind the Alien
Sledgehammer
cruiser. In fact, many of the technologies used in it were reconstructed based on fragments of ruined
Sledgehammers
. It has huge firepower from the
Sledgehamme
r’s conjugate plasma blasters, which are capable of destroying any ship from the frigate, destroyer, or even corvette classes in just one shot. It is highly resistant to damage, as it's shields can recharge themselves fully in just two seconds. Basically, this is an unmanned
Sledgehammer
. Unfortunately, we were also not able to avoid its predecessor's drawbacks, though. It's effective firing range is no more than 45 miles, because of its high-energy plasma rounds, the drone's low movement speed on the battlefield, and, most importantly, the cannon's low rotation angle. The
Barbarian
is intended for destroying slow or motionless targets, but it is practically useless for firing on smaller, more maneuverable ships."

Here I interrupted the report, demanding a more in-depth description of the cannon's characteristics and those of the drone itself. Would the
Barbarian
be able to hit small targets like frigates trapped under stasis web? Would a group of
Barbarians
be able to coordinate their actions amongst themselves and, for example, shoot at the same target in simultaneous volleys from multiple drones? The answers left me completely satisfied. Before me was a unique weapon with huge firepower that required some preparation before it could be used. Also, I held in mind what Samantha ton Kruger had said, that a group of three
Barbarians
would be able to take down one Alien
Sledgehammer
every twenty seconds.

The large dimensions of the heavy drone made it impossible to use with light-class ships. It would be possible to attach
Barbarians
to the external suspension rods on
Flambergs
or
Katanas
, though. I could fit two drones per cruiser. I would also be able to attach two
Barbarians
to the Iseyek
Legash
heavy cruisers past generation four. But the main purpose of the heavy drones was increasing the firepower of the battleships and carriers. I would be able to install eight
Barbarians
on
Tyrant
,
Monarch
and
Meresh
battleships, in addition to the weaponry they already had. On carriers like the
Uukresh
or
Quasar
, I would be able to use the heavy drones both on the external suspension rods, thirty per ship, as well as inside, replacing the light ships currently in the hangars.