The Sentinel (The Sentinel Trilogy Book 1) (24 page)

“You’ll be here, too. Smythe will handle your duties.

“Lieutenant Capp is injured,” Tolvern said, “out of fighting condition for several days, depending on the bone regrowth stimulators, but she’s still the best ground tactician we have. As a former Royal Marine, she’s the one I want directing the attacks.”

Li eyed Capp doubtfully. Maybe if she were alert she was all of that, but the woman wore a perpetual grimace of pain.

“Smythe and I will monitor and direct events from the command module,” Tolvern added.

Koh gave Li a narrow, suspicious glance that neither of the Albionish seemed to pick up on.

Li addressed Koh in Chinese. “Do you think she’s telling us the whole story?”

“Commander,” Koh said in a warning tone, “Smythe has access to all our software. He’s no doubt reverse engineered whatever gives us a language ability.”

Tolvern smiled. “It’s being translated,” she said in English, “but I can’t speak it myself. Only hear it. We don’t have the right hardware in the brain.”

“Same thing,” Li said, his face warm. “You understood.”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t mean to question your authority, Captain. Please accept my apologies.”

“If you have concerns, Commander, by all means voice them. But don’t second-guess me behind my back. Are we clear on that?”

“Yes, sir.” Li licked his lips. “I only thought that it sounded like a good way to get wiped out. We took plenty of casualties last time, and Anna has only had more time to prepare.”

“Your sister was clever in taking the farm. With its equipment and vantage points, it’s as defensible as anywhere else on the base. And it’s a choke point to the critical systems she now controls. We have to get through there, you understand.”

She pulled a hand computer out of her pocket and brought up a base schematic. Many of the yellow, unknown zones had turned blue, but the swath of red controlled by the Sentry Faction was unchanged in size.

“The initial assault will come through these corridors—almost all your people, I’m afraid. I need mine fresh for the final push.” Tolvern pointed to a third corridor. “I’ll mass
Blackbeard
’s forces here. Once you break through in one of the corridors and can cover us from fire, we’ll burst through here. That will give us a quick run down the corridors to the oxygen plant, and from there we’ll roll up the whole mutiny.”

It sounded so simple when she said it, but anything could go wrong at any point and destroy the operation. They’d already seen that in their first attempt. Capp and Carvalho, for all their experience and confidence, had fallen back in the face of determination and superior positioning by Anna and her people.

“I want the initial location of
Blackbeard
’s forces a secret,” Tolvern said. “You can tell your people they’re being held in reserve for the final push, but don’t share where they’re coming in. You’ll have Capp—that will show people we’re not abandoning you to your fate. But I’m not confident that word won’t get out to your sister.”

Li glanced at Koh, whose pinched expression remained worried, though he knew she wouldn’t balk. When he turned back, he caught Tolvern’s lips moving, subvocalizing something through her com link. Capp moved her head slightly, in that way that said she was in turn receiving a message. There was something passing between them they didn’t want the two Singaporeans to know.

“Do you understand your orders?” Tolvern asked.

“Yes, sir,” Li said, still wondering about that message the Albionish had been exchanging. “I figure either way, it will be over soon.”

“No,” the captain said, shaking her head. “It’s only the first step. Then we face Apex. Let’s hope it’s with Sentinel 3 under our control, and not in the hands of the mutineers.”

#

It was two hours after her meeting with Commander Li, and Tolvern was back on her own bridge, sitting tensely in the captain’s chair. So many pieces were about to be set in motion. If any one of them slipped a gear, the whole machinery would shake itself to pieces. And then what?

Li was poised to attack, hopefully deceived as to his role in this operation. Yet she couldn’t throw him into the fray without the successful execution of the other elements, could she? Meanwhile, CO2 levels were rising across her ship, in spite of the use of emergency scrubbers, and the Apex ships drew ever closer. Only hours, now, and Tolvern would be in combat with or without full control of the battle station.

Meanwhile,
Blackbeard
’s deck was shorthanded. Nyb Pim sat in the pilot’s chair, and would shortly take over the helm itself, while Lomelí manned the tech station in Smythe’s absence. Three ensigns handled fire control and the defense grid computer, but there was no copilot and nobody filling the role of first mate.

Get in there, get it done, then rush everybody back to
Blackbeard
in time to face the alien fleet.

Tolvern called the command module on the battle station. “Smythe, are you there? We’re ready to go.”

His answer came back in that strange, muffled way that meant he was subvocalizing. “By ready, do you mean you won’t immediately break into a million pieces when you cut loose from the gravity net?”

“More or less. Oh, and if the plasma engine doesn’t blow up on restart. I put the question to Jane, but the computer declines to give a percentage chance of success. Not enough data, she says.”

“That hardly inspires confidence,” Smythe said.

“No, it doesn’t. Barker gives us fifty-fifty odds. That doesn’t inspire much more.”

“He’s an old grump. If he says fifty percent, it’s at least ninety.”

“That’s what I’m counting on,” she said. “But sooner or later, he’ll be right. Let’s hope it’s not today. Okay, stand by. On my word, cut the net.”

Tolvern glanced at Nyb Pim, who looked up from the nav computer and tossed his head in what passed for a nod from the Hroom. She opened a channel to engineering and patched Smythe and Barker onto the same line.

“Okay, boys. Here we go. Cut the net and start the engine.”

The ship moved slightly, a nearly imperceptible shudder. A split second later came a hum and a second shudder, this one a violent jerk, before the artificial gravity stabilized. That was the engine firing up. Tolvern braced herself, though there was no point. The detonation, if it came, would destroy them so quickly she’d never know it had happened.

“Engine online,” Nyb Pim said. A hoot that was either a nervous laugh or satisfaction. Maybe both. “Twelve percent. Thirty percent. Forty . . .”

The containment fields held. The ship did not destroy itself. Soon, it was lifting away, nudging clear of the battle station. It wouldn’t go far. Only to the other side of the station, as a matter of fact. Not a moment to waste.

“Pilot, take the helm,” Tolvern said. She left the bridge and made for the lift. As she did, she called Capp. “We’re off, and still in one piece. Anything odd from your end?”

Capp answered the way she’d been told. “Aye, sir. All good here. We’re ready to go.”

It meant that no suspicions had been noted in the assembled Singaporeans. Tolvern had cut Li’s people off from their own critical systems in case of traitors in their midst. Now, let them do their job bravely so that
Blackbeard
’s crew could do theirs.

“Smythe is monitoring from the command module,” Tolvern told her. “He’ll give you the word as soon as we’re in position. It won’t be long now.”

The graceful curves of Sentinel 3 filled the viewscreen as they slid around its perimeter. She turned over command to her pilot, then headed for the lift.

Tolvern soon reached the armory, where the others were suiting up in their pressure suits. She stripped out of her jumpsuit and reached for the pressure trousers.

Carvalho winked as he grabbed his helmet. “Seems like we’ve been in this position before, Captain. You in your underwear, me showing my muscles.”

At one point his innuendo would have irritated her, but she’d survived the jungles of Hot Barsa thanks in part to the big Ladino. He was rough around the edges, but had proven his bravery and loyalty. Well, and proven certain other things. Neither ever mentioned the night they’d spent together before the assault on Lord Malthorne’s base.

“Yes, but no crocodiles or three-foot long mosquitoes trying to turn us into dinner.”

His face turned serious. “No, but
someone
is, are they not?”

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan to be eaten by giant turkeys, either. Let’s do this thing right.”

Moments later, they were in the launch tubes, five crew strapped onto each of the seven boarding rockets. Thirty-five boarders in all.

The rockets looked like long green bananas. They had tungsten noses for penetration and enough rocket fuel beneath them to turn each rocket into a giant bomb if they failed to ignite properly, which was why the rockets were hurled out first. That was the most nerve-wracking part of the whole operation.

But Tolvern’s nerves had another source, her complete dependence on the success of this plan. If the rockets misfired or there was unexpected opposition on the other side, there wouldn’t be enough crew to fly
Blackbeard
, let alone mount another operation against the mutineers.

“Do you think the Singaporeans suspect anything?” Carvalho said as they waited. He wore his helmet, and his voice came directly through the com. “The ones on our side, I mean.”

“I hope not. We need them to have just enough information to think the farm assault is legit.”

“And then Commander Li spreads the information to his sister?”

“No, not him. He’s loyal, I’m sure of it. I’m ninety percent about Koh and Swettenham too. Probably someone else would tell her.”

“
Someone
knew,” Carvalho said firmly. “Capp was ambushed. The enemy was already in position when she entered the farm. They knew where the attack would come, and they knew when.”

“That’s what I’m counting on,” Tolvern said. “Someone is leaking information and hacking the battle station’s com, or else Anna Li wouldn’t keep getting through to her brother. She’s got help from a fake Opener. That someone has no doubt told her about the second farm attack, too.”

So Tolvern’s plan was to send an even bigger assault against the farms. That would force Anna to respond. She’d have the farm stuffed full of her men and women, prepared to make a final, bloody battle of it. The winner would take full control of the ship.

Except that the farm attack was a feint.

Jane’s cool, collected voice entered the captain’s helmet. “Twenty seconds to launch.”

Tolvern’s heart kicked a nervous complaint. All around her, hands checked harnesses, fumbled one last time over pressure suits. They’d be exposed to the void. One bit of carelessness, one faulty seal, and you’d be extruded from your suit like toothpaste.

“Ten seconds to launch.”

Was it just Tolvern’s imagination, or did Jane sound more stern than usual? More serious? The consequences were immense. They had to win this battle, had to find a way to defeat Apex. The future not just of HMS
Blackbeard
but of Albion depended on it.

“Three . . . two . . . one.”

The port dilated. The rail hummed. They hurtled into space. Almost instantaneously, the rockets ignited, spewing hot gas behind them. Ahead—or rather, below—lay the looming dark shape of the battle station, nearly invisible against the copper gas giant around which they orbited. Stars mapped the cosmos in an array of hard, merciless points of light on either side of the planet. The ice field gleamed above them like a milky-white rainbow.

Tolvern turned her head right, then left. Other rockets flanked her on either side, each on a tether, invisible against the background light of thrust and planet, which guided them to their target.

Jane’s voice sounded in Tolvern’s helmet. “Deceleration in two seconds.”

Already. A final, tiny course correction, and then the rapid deceleration shoved Tolvern forward against the restraints. The base loomed. The banana’s nose broke free, shoved ahead on its own rocket. It slammed into the side of the station with a flash of light. Debris vented into the void as it penetrated.

Tolvern braced herself. She tumbled from the boarding rocket, released automatically from the restraints, and found herself between two hulls. The inner hull was also breached, and spewing air and debris past them. Tolvern struggled to her feet and let her mag boots engage so she wouldn’t be sucked back into the void. Carvalho was ahead of her, already pressing at the gap to get through the inner hull. Air buffeted Tolvern’s helmet.

She squeezed her way through, with the final two members of her party coming through after her. The last one unslung what looked like a pistol attached to a hose on his suit, which he pointed back at the gap, where air continued to rush out. White foam sprayed out the muzzle, and he squirted it over the gap, starting with the edges of the hole and working his way in. The foam expanded the instant it hit, and he soon had complete coverage, but he continued to spray back and forth to thicken the seal.

Meanwhile, Tolvern and her companions were unfastening the weapons they’d carried strapped to their bodies, unsealing helmets, popping seals on their pressurized clothing, and checking ammo. Elsewhere up and down this section of the base, six other teams would be performing the same tasks. She heard no gunfire. Perfect. No opposition. The initial infiltration was a success.

Tolvern hefted her rifle in one hand and touched her ear with the other. “Assault team to bridge. We’re in.”

Chapter Eighteen

Koh kept trying to get Li’s attention, but he had no way to speak to her privately, and so he didn’t respond. Not with Capp standing so close. The Albion lieutenant may have had one arm and shoulder immobilized from her injury, but that didn’t keep her from shouting at the Singaporeans, ordering them into position, and issuing a variety of threats and pep talks that kept everyone alert.

Smythe had shared the basics of Capp’s story with Commander Li. Henny Capp had started as a Royal Marine, been court-martialed after punching her commanding officer, led a mutiny, dabbled in piracy, and somehow ended up as the first officer on one of the most powerful warships in the Albion fleet. Broken bone or no, she wasn’t the sort you wanted to cross.