The Lost Stars (29 page)

Most of the ship had been overrun, the survivors of the crew being herded into compartments under guard, but the three citadels were locked down, armor sealed and defenses active. While the controls on another blast door were hacked, Gaiene paused, evaluating the situation.

Main propulsion-control citadel, weapons-control citadel, bridge citadel. The last-ditch defensive barriers put in place on Syndicate ships to defend against enemy boarding parties, as well as against mutiny by crews of workers who lacked loyalty to their masters and were kept in line by discipline, fear, and the ever-present snakes of the ISS. “How does it look, Safir?”

Lieutenant Colonel Safir sounded annoyed. “Not too bad. We lost some people taking out the snake stronghold. The power core has been overrun and the remote operating cables cut, so the snakes or the other Ulindis can't overload it. I think the propulsion citadel will surrender, but I'm guessing we'll have to crack open the weapons citadel.”

“Get into the weapons citadel and make sure they can't fire on the battleship, which they may realize they can attempt if they are given time to think. I'm closing in on the bridge citadel,” Gaiene said. The blast barrier blocking him whooshed open, and he took off at a trot, surrounded by the soldiers with him, their movements in the power-assisted armor oddly dainty as they used the gliding steps most effective inside a warship's confined spaces. “I'll give the bridge crew a chance to do this the easy way as soon as I get into position.”

Danger signs popped up on Gaiene's display, warning that the defenses around the bridge citadel were near. He had the means to break those defenses and get into the citadel, but that would cost time and lives as well as messing up parts of this ship. Gaiene ordered the soldiers with him to halt in a safe area outside the bridge-citadel defenses and looked around for a comm panel. “Here we are. Bridge. Acknowledge, you fools.”

The panel lit to show a mobile forces officer in the command seat on the bridge. Gaiene knew the look in the man's eyes. He had seen it many times before. Disbelief. Shock. Fear. Confusion. That look meant Gaiene had to keep pushing, keep the man from recovering, keep him from thinking clearly. “We have your unit under our control and will soon breach your citadels. However, in the interest of avoiding excessive damage, we are willing to offer you the chance to surrender, open the citadels, and deactivate their defenses.
If
you surrender, you will be allowed to live, and given your freedom. We'll keep our word. We're not snakes. Every snake in this star system is dead.
If
you refuse to surrender, and we have to blast our way in, there will be no mercy shown, and your dead bodies will be tossed into space. Or perhaps you'll only be mostly dead when we toss you into space. We'll keep that promise as well. Make your decision now. I am not a patient
man.”

Shouting could be heard in the background of the bridge citadel while the battle cruiser's commander stared at Gaiene. After several seconds Gaiene prodded him. “Now. Surrender or die. I won't ask a third time.”

The man looked toward something behind him and must have seen what he needed to see, since he turned back to face Gaiene and nodded in a jerky fashion. “I agree. Surrender. I surrender the ship.” A hand that Gaiene could see was trembling danced spasmodically over the controls at the command seat. “Deactivating defenses.”

“Make sure the other citadels do the same.”

“I don't have control of the weapons citadel! Haris's snakes are in there!”

“Lieutenant Colonel Safir, the weapons citadel
is
occupied by snakes. You will have to take that one the hard
way.”

Safir replied with grim satisfaction. “I thought so. Everything's ready. Commencing assault.”

The danger markers on Gaiene's display were winking out as defenses around the bridge citadel shut down. He gestured, and several soldiers scuttled forward, around the corner of the passageway and toward the massive armored hatch sealing off the bridge.

No attacks erupted from hidden traps, so Gaiene and the rest of his soldiers followed, additional units closing in on the bridge from other sides and the decks above and below it. Armor and defenses were in place in those locations, too, but the ship's commander appeared to be abiding by his agreement to surrender.

Vibration could be felt as the heavy bolts holding the hatch locked ponderously retracted, then the hatch itself pulled back.

Soldiers stormed inside, their weapons ready. Gaiene came with them, a last rush of adrenaline fueling the elation of victory.

The bridge crew were standing with raised arms, hands resting on their heads, most of them at their duty stations. But several were gathered around the spot where a man and a woman in the standard suits of the ISS lay on the deck. Gaiene gave the snakes a dismissive glance that took in the unnatural angles of their heads that bespoke broken necks. “Make sure they're dead,” he ordered one of the officers with him. “Make sure everyone else up here is disarmed, then get them down to one of the holding areas. Lieutenant Bulgori, get on the comm controls and let the battleship know we have the bridge of this unit and will soon have the rest in hand.”

A series of faint shocks registered through the hull of the battle cruiser. Gaiene switched his attention and his display to a close-up on Lieutenant Colonel Safir's portion of the brigade. The defenses outside the weapons-control citadel had been destroyed, allowing soldiers to get close enough to place breaching charges powerful enough to defeat even the protection around a citadel. The shocks had marked holes being blown in the armor guarding the citadel, and now antipersonnel and electromagnetic-pulse grenades were being fired in through the openings, followed by assault forces with rifles blazing.

A few snakes were still standing, their outlines barely visible through the murk created in the weapons-control citadel by the breaching charges and grenades. Gaiene barely had time to focus on the remote images before the shapes of the snakes were torn ragged by scores of shots and tossed aside.

“We have the propulsion-control and weapons-control citadels,” Safir reported. “Propulsion surrendered as soon as their defenses deactivated.”

“Thank you,” Gaiene replied. “I fear we're going to hear some complaints from our shipyard people about the damage to the weapons-control area.”

“We did try to minimize the damage,” Safir said with a grin.

“Yes, but the repair people will be unreasonable. You know how they are.
You broke it.
It's our job to break things, but they never understand that. Speaking of jobs, you did a good one as second-in-command, fulfilling every expectation of your superiors in the finest tradition of etc., etc., etc. Let's get the internal sensors back online and make certain there aren't any crew members hiding in out-of-the-way places.”

“We're on it, Colonel. It looks like we captured between four and five hundred crew members. This ship was a little short-handed.”

“Not as much as it is
now.”

“We have comms with the
Midway
,” Lieutenant Bulgori reported. “A minute after our attack began,
Gryphon
and
Basilisk
opened fire at close range on the four HuKs escorting this battle cruiser. Three of them were destroyed, and the fourth surrendered after taking propulsion damage.”

Thank you, Kapitan Stein. A pity you don't seem inclined to celebrate our victory with me in a very inappropriate fashion.
Gaiene looked around, weary, sensing the color flowing out of the world once more. They had won. It didn't really matter, nothing really mattered, but at least the attack had provided a momentary lift to his deadened spirits. And it had provided a victory for Artur Drakon, who had kept him from dying in a labor camp or a gutter. It was all as good as anything could be in a universe that had ceased to hold meaning.

The commander's seat on the battle cruiser's bridge lay vacant and somehow forlorn. Gaiene walked over to it and sat down, half of his mind monitoring his soldiers as they went about the business of making secure the battle cruiser they had just captured, and the other half wondering how long it would be before he could get drunk again. Secure the ship, turn it over to the mobile forces people, then find out where the shipyard workers kept their booze.

It was always good to plan things
out.

GIVEN
how their last private conversation had ended, Drakon was surprised to see Iceni smiling at him when she called on their secure line.

“I wanted to thank you, General, for my lovely new battle cruiser.”

“
Your
lovely new battle cruiser?” Drakon asked.

“Now, don't spoil the present by getting tightfisted.” Iceni smiled wider. “I may be a witch at times, but I'm not an ungrateful witch. In all seriousness, I know I owe this to your soldiers and your decision to participate in the operation. Once we get the battle cruiser back in shape and the battleship operational, we'll have a defense for this star system that will knock Boyens on his butt if he shows up here again.”

“Colonel Gaiene said there wasn't much damage to the battle cruiser,” Drakon said.

She laughed, a sound he found unexpectedly pleasant after their strained relationship of recent weeks. “That's a ground forces assessment. Your soldiers, and I know they had no choice, trashed some important equipment, blew out a lot of hatches, and even blew some holes in bulkheads that aren't supposed to have holes in them. That all has to be fixed. Most of the survivors among the crew appear willing to join us, but there aren't that many survivors compared to the size of the crew a battle cruiser needs.”

“If we're lucky, Colonel Rogero and your Kommodor will solve that problem. They should be bringing back enough veterans to crew both
Midway
and the new battle cruiser.”

“Yes. What should we name it, Artur?” She gave him a happily inquiring look. “I named the battleship. You should give a name to our new battle cruiser.”

“Really?” Gwen
was
in a good mood. Of course, he couldn't expect to produce a battle cruiser for her every time she got inexplicably moody, but, hopefully, that wouldn't be necessary too often. “Do you want to name battle cruisers after stars,
too?”

“I think it would be a good idea. But . . .” Iceni pursed her lips in thought. “If we name the ship after one of the nearby stars, they might either take that as an indication we feel a sense of ownership toward them or give them the mistaken impression that they have some rights to the battle cruiser.”

“That's a concern,” Drakon agreed. “How about if we name the battle cruiser after a star nobody occupies? Pele.”

“Pele? A star occupied by the enigmas?”

“The enigmas kicked the Syndicate out of Pele,” Drakon said, “but according to what Black Jack's fleet found, there's no enigma presence there.”

“Hmmm.” Iceni looked sideways, considering. “We are the frontline defense of humanity against the enigmas. Declaring some sort of tie to Pele would emphasize that.”

“It might not please the enigmas,” Drakon felt constrained to point
out.

“Who the hell cares what pleases the enigmas? Who the hell
knows
what pleases the enigmas? Even Black Jack couldn't find out. The enigmas just keep attacking us and tried to depopulate this entire planet.” Iceni nodded. “I'm good with
Pele
. And I will freely admit that you were right in your assessment of Colonel Gaiene. Kapitan-Leytenant Kontos was very leery of your colonel, but was awestruck by how well he and his unit carried out the capture of the battle cruiser.” Her smile became tentative. “I'm going to have to learn to . . . trust . . . your assessments.”

Trust?
And she hadn't used the word in a mocking way. “Are you sure?”

The smile faded away completely, replaced by a serious gaze at him. “No. I may never be sure. Can you live with that?”

“I have so
far.”

“You've lived with far worse than that from me, General Drakon, even if you seem curiously unable to figure out such things. But you pushed me to approve an action that has left me in a far stronger position. Either you truly intend to work alongside me without betrayal, or you are the biggest fool in the history of humanity, or you are far more subtle and cunning than Black Jack.”

Drakon smiled sardonically. “I don't think I'm a fool. Not usually, anyway. And I know I'm not Black Jack.”

“A man doesn't have to be Black Jack to be important to— To this star system,” Iceni finished. “Thank you again, Artur.”

It was only after she had signed off that Drakon realized Iceni had been worried. Was that why she had been so upset at their last meeting—because she had known that if the attack on the battle cruiser succeeded, Drakon's own soldiers would then have control of the most powerful warship in the star system? She hadn't known for certain that he would abide by their agreement, their partnership, and turn the battle cruiser over to Iceni's mobile forces personnel as soon as the warship was confirmed secure.

Why didn't it even occur to me that I could have double-crossed her and ended up with both the most powerful mobile forces and ground forces here? But it didn't. We made a deal. I don't break deals. Even when someone is being as unpleasant and cold as . . .

She's not going to betray me. If Iceni had planned to stick a knife in me, she would have been all sweetness and light the last few weeks, and especially the last week, trying to lull me into doing what she wanted. Standard CEO tactics.
Of course I'm your friend . . . sucker.
Then when she had her hands on the battle cruiser, she would have gone all ice and fire on me. But she did the opposite.

Why didn't the option of keeping the battle cruiser occur to Malin? Maybe it did, but he just assumed that I must have already considered the option and rejected it. But that doesn't explain why Morgan hasn't gone ballistic at the idea of turning the battle cruiser over to Iceni. Morgan hasn't objected to the operation at
all.