Paying the Price (Book 5 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (16 page)

Mertz shrugged. “I didn’t ask for a promotion, so I’m good either way.”

Yeats nodded. “What you’ve accomplished here—all of you—is tremendous, but it’s going to go before a board. There’s no question. You’ll have to justify everything.

“But I’ll tell you right now that I am proud of what you’ve done. You’ve served Fleet and the Empire well.”

He turned to Princess Kelsey. “I think your argument of having the authority to do any of this is threadbare. If they decide to ignore the edict, then the entire house you’ve built comes crashing down. I honestly have no idea how this will play out.

“And there will be people like Breckenridge that say you’ve been driven mad by the torture those things subjected you to. They’ll speak with voices full of pity while they try to undo everything you’ve accomplished. It saddens me to say that.”

“You look so normal,” Quinn said. “I have difficulty believing what I saw is anything other than concocted. And I know I’m not going to be alone.”

Kelsey stood and casually lifted the end of Mertz’s desk with one hand. “I can demonstrate the changes, I believe.”

“So you can,” Yeats said faintly. “And I’m certain any number of cyberneticists will be coming along to verify you really have an AI on this ship. I doubt that the Imperial Senate it will accepted it as a person or a Fleet officer, though. No offense, Marcus.”

“None taken, Admiral. I’m content to see how this plays out before I get cranky.”

Yeats smiled in spite of himself. The concept of a cranky computer was funny. And possibly indicative of real sentience.

“I need to call your father, Highness. I can only imagine how chaotic this is all going to be.”

“I’ll go with you for that, if you don’t mind,” she said.

“Actually, I do. You’ll have time to have your say. This isn’t it. I need to give my liege an unedited report. Privately.”

He looked at Jared. “For the moment, I want these ships to stay right where they are. Captain Quinn speaks with my voice. You will obey every order she gives. Including you, Highness. Am I clear?”

Jared nodded. “As crystal, Admiral.”

Kelsey also nodded. “I’m not going to mess things up now. We’ll do what she says.”

“See that you do. Don’t make my life any harder than it needs to be. Now, where can I make a private call?”

Jared stood. “Marcus will direct you to a conference room, Admiral. You have my word that no one will monitor your conversation.”

He’d have to accept that, but he’d act as though they were monitoring him anyway. “Very good. Marcus?”

The computer—or AI if you chose to believe it was sentient—directed him to a conference room on another level. “I can initiate contact with Orbital One at your command, Admiral.”

“Please do so.”

Once he had someone on the orbital, he had them patch him through to the Imperial Palace. Only the emperor wasn’t there. He was on the Imperial yacht headed for Mertz’s fleet.

Perfect.

It took a few more minutes to arrange a connection with his liege. Karl Bandar looked stressed. Yeats understood that perfectly.

“How are Kelsey and Jared, Robert?” the emperor asked. “Is it really them?”

“It’s them, Majesty. They seem whole, if not completely unscarred. And they’ve brought back an incredible fleet of ships and even larger stories for us.

“If they’re to be believed, the Old Empire is still alive, only under the control of mad artificial intelligences. And we’re at war with them. Still.”

“The only reason we weren’t conquered centuries ago was because the computer in charge of this sector got bogged down with the planet Pentagar. If it weren’t for
Athena
, we’d likely already have Rebel Empire ships moving towards us.”

Yeats sighed. “The Imperial Senate is going to go mad. And Fleet isn’t going to be happy, either. Gargantuan doesn’t begin to cover it. I’m not sure that Hercules could perform the required feats to fix this.”

“You know how you eat an elephant, Robert? One bite at a time. I’ll be there in less than an hour. Then we’ll cut the problems into manageable chunks. Don’t do anything hasty before then.”

Yeats smiled. “I think I can restrain myself, Majesty. I do have one bit of unambiguously good news, though. Jared and Kelsey seem to have resolved their differences. She’s stoutly defending him and they seem quite friendly. I suppose everything they’ve been through would do that.”

The emperor smiled widely. “That’s
excellent
news. Now if we could just get Ethan to come around. Maybe Kelsey can finally make him see reason.”

Yeats doubted that very much, but kept his opinion to himself. The heir was going to be one of their problems. He just knew it.

* * * * *

“Senator Breckenridge, I need a moment.”

Nathaniel Breckenridge looked up from his meeting with his Senate allies, not bothering to conceal his irritation. His assistant knew better than to interrupt him at a moment like this.

He rose to his feet. “Pardon me, gentlemen. Ladies. If my man feels the need to disturb me, I should probably hear what he needs to say.”

“And it better be good,” he said softly to the man as they stepped over to the far side of the room.

“I received word that a large fleet of ships has arrived in the system. Not, I might add, by any of the flip points Fleet protects.”

Breckenridge frowned and turned his back on his Senate allies. It wouldn’t do for them to read his expression. Or his lips. His man knew well enough to shield both.

“That’s very interesting, but what does that have to do with me?”

“One of the ships in the group is the destroyer
New York
. It’s assigned to your nephew’s task force. None of his other ships is present, but it strongly implies that he is somehow connected to the events.”

That didn’t bode well. Wallace was usually a problem to solve. Or cover up.

“I see. Well, if these people didn’t come through the flip points, where did they come from?”

“Supposedly through a newly created flip point, according to my contact. And Senator, I’m told there are over a hundred vessels. Many powerful Old Empire warships.

“Frankly, my source is hearing so many stories that I’m certain most of them have to be tall tales, but one comes across as ominous. She said that Wallace lost his entire task force and is under arrest. Rumor has it that the emperor is considering adding treason to the list.”

Shit.

“We need to get in front of this if we’re to salvage anything,” Breckenridge said. “I’ll wrap up the meeting as quickly as possible. As the head of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, I can get some answers and start changing the narrative.”

He walked slowly back over to the conference table.

“My apologies, but I’m going to have to bring this meeting to an unexpected close. If you’ll check with your staffs, I believe you’ll hear some of the same rumors I was just told. If any of them are true, we have a lot of work ahead of us. Call my assistant and he will schedule a follow up where we can plan.”

He watched his associates depart with a blank expression. What had his idiot nephew done now? How much was it going to cost to fix it and who would he need to ruin in the process?

* * * * *

Ethan Bandar read the information again, slowly.

How was this even possible? Not only was Mertz still alive, but he’d come home with more firepower than the Empire. In one ship. The others were apparently just for added emphasis.

All the Bastard had to do to seize the throne was reach out and take it. And instead of stopping him, his sister was to all appearances aiding him. They’d become allies.

There were so many aspects of this that he didn’t understand. He was certain there was more to the story than what his contact in Fleet had heard. He wasn’t on the scene, after all. And they were treating everything as classified.

But he would. He had the clearance to hear everything. Once he knew precisely what the Bastard was doing, he’d stop him. The man was no match for him. No one was.

He’d need to be certain he cleaned up any loose ends from the assassination attempt. There would be no strings for the Bastard to pull is plans apart before Ethan ended him and the threat he posed. He couldn’t allow anything to stop his ascension to the Throne.

It bothered him that his father had gone out without him. Had he turned against Ethan, too? He’d thought he could trust his family, but perhaps that was a mistake.

Or perhaps his father had finally sensed some of the threat Ethan had been warning about for the last decade and more. Perhaps he wanted to be certain his heir was safe while he determined how dangerous the situation was.

No. His father had rushed out to embrace the man who’d take everything away from his son if he could. Now he’d become one of the ever shifting list of people that put on masks of deference while they plotted to ruin him.

And what was Kelsey thinking? She’d always been stubborn and slow to see the truth about Mertz, but Ethan had been certain he’d finally opened her eyes.

Now she’d taken it into her head to make the Bastard an admiral. God only knew what else she’d done. He needed to find out everything he could and take steps to eliminate Mertz as a threat as soon as possible. Had she turned on him as well?

Well, he’d have to take steps to eliminate the growing threats to his rule before they realized he was onto them.

He dialed a number from memory. “Victor. Ethan here. How would you like to get together for drinks this evening? I have some work for you.”

Chapter Fifteen

Karl Bandar came through the docking hatch and caught his daughter as she threw herself into his arms. He held her close as she cried, saying nothing.

He’d heard enough to know that she’d been through some kind of trauma. He didn’t have the specifics, but it had been bad. He knew it deep in his bones.

Only a marine officer stood at the far end of the corridor, so he knew she’d arranged to have it cleared. His guards surrounded them, but it was as though they were alone.

When she’d cried herself out, he tilted Kelsey’s chin up. “I’m so glad you made it home safely, dear one. If I’d known what this trip would subject you to, I would never have allowed it.”

She wiped her red eyes. “And you would’ve been wrong. I don’t know what you’ve heard, but it was worse. Worse than you could ever imagine. Yet, without it, everyone would have died. And then our enemies would’ve come for you and the Empire.”

“You make it sound grim.”

“There were moments when I was certain we would all die. We showed a basic vid to Admiral Yeats. I need to show you the part of it that I know will hurt you first. I need to do it alone.”

His heart sped up. “You fill me with dread, Kelsey.”

“If it makes me cry when I see it, I can only imagine what it will do to you. I want to have privacy and be there for you. Come.”

She gestured to the marine. “This is Major Angela Ellis. She’s acting as my guard commander. I’d like to keep it that way.”

He inclined his head. “Major.”

She saluted. “Majesty. Your daughter is a brave woman and an inspiration to us all.”

“She inspires me every day.”

They took a lift to the largest set of quarters on a ship he’d ever seen. Two armed marines stood guard outside the door.

“Are these Jared’s quarters?” he asked.

“No. They’re mine.
Invincible
has a lot of space and this was originally for visiting VIPs. I’d prefer your guards wait outside. There are no other entrances and I need to show you this alone. Major Ellis has seen it, but will also stay outside while we talk.”

There was a note in his daughter’s voice he’d never heard before. Command. She couched her words as a request, but they were really an order from someone that expected obedience.

Of all the changes to his daughter, that was one he thought he’d never see. And that wasn’t the only one. Her face was leaner, he thought. Her body more toned. Though small, she’d always had a hint pudginess in the face. That was gone now replaced by flat planes and a hawkish stare.

Based on her arms, she was more muscular, too. She’d never been a physical child, though active. She looked as though she worked out regularly now. Shed changed a lot in the last year.

“Colonel Andrews, wait outside with Major Ellis. I’ll be fine.”

The man nodded. Considering Karl’s somewhat rusty hand-to-hand training and his daughter’s petite size, he no doubt felt he was safe enough.

Once they were alone, he put his hands on his daughter’s shoulders. The muscles under her skin were even more pronounced than he’d guessed. “Don’t drag this out. Tell me what hurt you.”

She gestured toward a couch in front of a wall-mounted vid screen. “Sit. Part of this is visual.”

Once they’d both sat, she took his hand in hers. “The Old Empire enhanced their Fleet personnel with equipment implanted in their brains and bodies. This allowed them to interface with equipment and ships.

“That’s how the rebellion started. Someone corrupted an AI and it in turn hacked Fleet officers and crew. It literally forced them to fight against their friends.”

He nodded slowly as he considered that. “It would explain so much. The speed of the change and the ferocity of the attack. I understand now.”

“I don’t think you do. The poor bastards were still alive in their own heads. Forced to watch as they did horrible things. And the Old Empire had something called medical nanites. They greatly enhanced a person’s life span. Those first people might have lived for centuries.”

Karl was horrified, of course. That was a terrible story. “I accept that it’s worse than I can know right now. What does that have to do with you?”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “There was an old ship’s computer still forcing the changes on captured prisoners near the Kingdom of Pentagar. Pentagar is one of the allies we found. Crown Princess Elise is here as head of their diplomatic delegation. And as Jared’s girlfriend.”

“I…see. Well, that might complicate matters, but you were in charge of any diplomatic work, so perhaps not too much. That ship’s computer did something to you?”