44
The Alliance spread out their defenses along a short section of Joshua Tech and Matayan space near Nuratine-5, on the borders of their contested empire with their former Triaxian masters.
Space now patrolled by Joshua Tech forces spread very thin.
Klyne summoned them
all to another strategy meeting in the conference room on their way to Nuratine-5.
Naero and Jan met Aunt Sleak
and the others there.
“
Bad news,” Klyne told them. “This just in. Sleak, there’s no good way to say this. Your ships were intercepted by the Triaxian Navy just outside of Alpha Arae-5, on their way here.
Aunt Sleak braced herself for the worst.
“Zalvano protested, calling their seizure attempt illegal. When he resisted arrest and tried to fight his way out, additional elements of the Triaxian Navy that just happened to be in the area closed in on them to assist.
“
The Shinai, Nevada,
and
Ardala
all escaped. They’re with the Shadow Fleets now, and they’re well-hidden; their crews safe.”
Naero had never seen Aunt Sleak look so pale.
Sleak couldn’t help asking. “What about
The Slipper
? And
The Dromon
?”
“
They’re gone, Sleak. I’m sorry.”
Naero sucked in an amazed, terrified breath.
Aunt Sleak looked as if someone had struck her with a hammer.
“
The Dromon
? They destroyed
The Dromon
?”
Naero felt as if her own circulation had stopped.
Her Clan. Her friends. Chaela, Saemar, Tyber, and Zhen. Everyone she knew.
Haisha
. How many survived and for how long?
“
It took a lot of doing,” Klyne said. “But they were outnumbered and outgunned by the Triaxian Navy. Even planetoids can be busted up–with enough firepower. I’m sorry, Sleak.”
“
Zalvano? The rest of my people?”
“
All remaining hands fighting on those two ships were reported lost or shot down while resisting arrest. Triax wanted to make an example of them. It looks like they did. By our reports, the bastards even blasted escape pods and bubbles.”
Aunt Sleak nodded her head slowly
; then she broke down and put her head into her folded arms.
“My crews, my
Zalvano...my gentle Zalvano. I should have married you when I had the chance.”
“
You may still get that chance,” a voice suddenly said.
Naero looked around the room, and saw an image shimmer.
“Get down!” Klyne said, and pulled Aunt Sleak behind him. Naero dove on top of Jan.
Intel guards trained their pulse rifles on the image taking form on the floor of the
conference room.
Naero looked up in time to see Baeven. He carr
ied someone. It was Captain Zalvano, beat to hell and wounded but in stasis, his condition frozen.
Aunt Sleak let out a little cry and sprang up. She took Zalvano from Baeven and lowered him gently onto a nearby couch
. “We need a medbed. Hurry!”
Klyne snapped one right out of the wall.
Baeven smiled at Naero and Jan and took a step toward them.
“
Hold it,” one of the Intel guards said.
“
Make the slightest move,” Klyne said, “and my people will cut you down. I’ve waited a long time for this, outcast. How did you find us? How could you possibly know to reach us here, in the middle of nowhere in a warzone? Only you could do this.”
Baeven smiled
. “I’m me; I have my methods.”
“
You will find it difficult to leave the same way you came,” Klyne warned.
“
I’m sorry to hear that,” Baeven said. “And, of course, you don’t want to hear this, but you don’t know how badly you need me out there. Ten of me, a hundred of me if it could be managed. But even I am only one, and I can’t be everywhere at once.”
“What have you done and why have you done it?” Klyne asked. “You always have many reasons for every move you make.”
Baeven shrugged. “This one was simple enough. I owed Sleak a big one here. I had rather hoped that all of you would be a little more grateful.”
S
leak glared at him, but her glare softened somewhat as she looked back down at Zalvano.
Baeven frowned. “
Actually, I owe Sleak a lot more than one. I lost track of her for a time, so I trailed after her people, hoping that they’d link up with Jan and Naero again at some point. When Triax got vengeful and went after her ships, and the others jumped, it was all I could do to salvage Zalvano. I’m sorry about your people Sleak. They went down fighting bravely, for whatever that’s worth.”
“
Thank you,” Aunt Sleak said, holding Zalvano’s hand. “This changes little between us, but thank you.”
“
Outcast,” the Intel leader said, with utter contempt. “This changes nothing concerning the many charges heaped against your years of villainy and destruction. You are hereby under arrest for high treason.”
Baeven clucked his tongue. “Oh, p
lease...”
“
Any
resistance, and you will be destroyed, immediately. I repeat. I don’t suppose you will explain how you found out where we were or how you got on board our ship in the middle of a war zone?”
“
Intel and I still have many of the same sources,” Baeven said. “Your networks are ahead of the Corps, but then I know what to look for. Don’t worry–to my knowledge they’re not onto you directly yet. But I can’t say how long that’s going to last. They still want the Kexxian Data Matrix very badly.”
“
Forgive me if I can’t trust anything you say,” Klyne said. “You’ve already betrayed Naero and nearly handed her over to our enemies. I won’t take a chance on you betraying our people again.”
Baeven seemed offended, as if he
’d been slapped. “Why would I come here, then, and go to all the trouble of rescuing my old shipmate Zalvano?”
“
Easy,” Klyne said. “To ingratiate yourself to us, play upon our emotions like you always do. You may have even organized that Triaxian naval attack, for all we know.”
“I might have at that, but that
would not have served any purpose of mine,” Baeven said. “My time is extremely valuable. I seldom waste it…Leonidas.”
“That’s Klyne, to you, outcast. Well you’re going to have a lot of time on your hands to waste now.
You just don’t get it, do you? We don’t trust you. We never will.”
“
That may well be to your misfortune, and that of our people.”
“
What do you care about our people?” Jan said.
Baeven stared into his eyes. Part of him seemed genuinely hurt
. “I care so much for our people that I serve them in ways no other agent can. I travel in circles that even Spacer Intel cannot match. And what is my reward? I am declared outcast, and traitor.”
“
You were going to sell my sister to the Corps,” Jan said. “To the highest bidder.”
Baeven waved a hand. “Oh, please. That was a ruse;
even Naero knows it. I needed vital information about the Kexxian Matrix. We obtained it and virtually gift-wrapped it for Spacer Intel. I admit there was risk involved, but that is sometimes necessary. Tell me this, Naero: Who was it that tried to set off your suicide device. Me, or Intel?”
Naero glared at Aunt Sleak and then Klyne. “He’s right about that.”
Neither even blinked.
“
I’ve heard enough duplicity,” the Intel leader said. “I’m going to enjoy this. Put him in restraints. I want a constant guard of four around him at all times while he awaits the order for his execution. If he tries anything, terminate him.”
“
Wait,” Aunt Sleak said. She rose, stood before Baeven, and looked him in the eye for a long moment.
“
I believe him,” she said.
“
Sleak, you can’t be serious,” the Intel leader said.
“
No, he was my brother at one time. That is no more, but when he claims that he only poses as the liar and the traitor, I believe him. He has done many amoral, unethical things, but always his intent has been directed at the positive welfare of our people, even when things have gone badly. Think about this and look at his record and you will see that this is true.”
Klyne snapped. “How can you defend him, Sleak? What about your dead crew and the ships you lost at Toraga-5?”
“Trust me. I have gone over that incident–many times. I think we were all triple-crossed, even Baeven. The Fourth Spacer War was about to be unleashed, no matter what any of us did. Toraga-5 was a wake-up call.”
Baeven bowed to her slowly
. “I thank you.”
“
I believe him too,” Naero said. “You cannot put him to death.”
“
Come on, sib,” Jan said.
“
No, I agree with Aunt Sleak. Baeven puts himself above every law and authority, but in his own warped, twisted way, I think he still works for the good of our people–perhaps all peoples.”
“
Yeah, right,” Jan said.
“
I will not execute him outright,” the Intel leader said. “But he will be restrained and kept under guard and he will face Spacer Justice. We have many questions for him.”
“
I may yet prove useful,” Baeven said with a smile and a sigh. “What a relief.”
Despite all that had passed, seeing Baeven restrained and taken
away saddened Naero a great deal.
What worried her
, and probably Intel even more, was the fact that Baeven had found them so quickly and easily.
If he could do so, eventually the wrong
people could do the same thing.
Naero returned to her quarters, so much on her mind.
When she pulled her bunk panel out to grab some rest, she saw a small glowing disk waiting in the very center.
A message played across the surface.
Bring this device to me. Urgent. B.
At first she wasn’t sure if she should.
Om, what is this device?
Let me have a fixer examine it. It gives off very strange temporal readings. It seems highly dangerous.
A fixer floated down and tried to examine the disk.
And screeched as it got sucked into it.
Another message played across the surface.
Do not delay. Millions will perish each instant you wait.
Naero grabbed the disk.
I would not do that if I–
Even Om cut out as the disk absorbed into her hand and vanished. Other than a little tingly and numb, she felt just fine.
Time to pay the outcast a visit.
45
Baeven escaped later that same night. No one else guessed how.
Naero had felt the strange disk transfer over to him, after he touched her briefly.
Om came back online in her head an hour later.
Intel searched the entire ship and turned up nothing.
The four flabbergasted guards in the outcast’s cell reported a bright, disorienting flash, and in the next fleeting instant, the outcast was gone without a trace before they could even lift their weapons.
Vids and security scans showed the same thing.
Klyne and Aunt Sleak questioned Naero briefly. She was the only one who had visited him.
Naero had no answers for them.
On the eve of the coming battle, they raced to a planning session at the Nuratine-5 Naval Shipyards with High Admiral Nathan Joshua, prince and scion of his noble house. Supreme leader of all Joshua Tech forces.
On approach, Naero showed her friends Nuratine-5 on the view screens. All of them nervous about the coming war.
“This is just part of what we’re fighting for, my friends. Joshua Tech and Nuratine-5 are living proof of what can be accomplished with wisdom, compassion, and the right balance of enlightened thinking.”
Tarim snorted. “I always heard of Joshua Tech being referred to as ‘the good’ Gigacorporation. But I thought it was just a joke. Aren’t all Corps evil? Even the other Corps despise them.”
Naero waved her hands at the Intel data on the viewscreens. “Study the facts about Nuratine-5 and all the other Joshua Tech worlds. Compare them to any of the other Corps. And, of course, Triax is always the worst. They seem to revel in their tyranny.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Ellis said, gawking at the stats. “Joshua Tech worlds encourage personal freedom and human growth potential for their populations. They have free education, healthy population growth for their expansion policies into the uncharted regions, excellent social services, and about one tenth of the crime rate of the best of all the other Corps.”
Naero smiled. “It makes perfect sense. Common sense. Joshua Tech merely uses power directly for people, not against them. They understand the flaws of human nature and protect their systems against those flaws with systems of checks and balances. They openly admit that a corporate system rigs, manipulates, and controls literally everything.
“But what if that power could be used in an enlightened, controlled, managed way for the good of everyone, and not just the greed and power of a few? The Corps don’t have to be evil and oppressive and lead to the tyranny of a few over the many. Joshua Tech is living proof of that, and for that, the other Corps hate and seek to destroy them.”
“Look at them economically,” Jan noted. “Their consistent profits and stable systems pay many dividends. Stable, sustainable economies. Happy, thriving populations and cultures. Very little poverty, and with their focus on education, their growth in innovation and research and development are off the charts.”
Naero punched up data screen after data screen. “Because they free up their populations to achieve as much as they possibly can, and promote human growth and individual liberty, freed from the chains of unnecessary poverty and ignorance.”
Ellis laughed. “I will speak to my uncle about implementing such policies on the Matayan Worlds. Right now, the best education only goes to the wealthy and the strong, and there is constant rebellion, rampant crime, and discord on our worlds. It does not have to be that way.”
Naero smiled at the prince. “No. It doesn’t. There’s no reason in our huge economies of stratified scale that we all can’t do well, if we simply have the will to make things that way. But we must design and make them function in those ways. The Corps rig their systems more or less against their populations to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a corrupt and debauched few. To exploit and oppress. But a more open and enlightened system could also be rigged in favor of everyone, and in the end, the rich are only a little less rich, and gain the added benefit of being a vital part of a more stable, sustainable society.”
Jan laughed. “Half of the Corps still post higher profits than Joshua Tech, but they are also among the most oppressive.”
“Of course,” Tarim said. “You can always make more profit by hurting and crushing it out of people. Like they do with the miners. But it doesn’t have to be that way. And that’s why the miners were only too happy to be annexed by Joshua Tech.”
Ellis looked grim.
“And precisely why Triax and the other Corps have to destroy us all, and any who oppose their tyranny.”
That made them all grow quiet and very uneasy.
They boarded a Joshua Tech naval shuttle and accompanied Klyne and Aunt Sleak on board the High Admiral’s flagship, an enormous combined battle ship and fleet carrier,
The Kenteron
.
It surprised Naero and the others to see fixers already bobbing around like pets among the flight command crew.
Prince Nathan Joshua, the High Admiral himself, even had one. An athletic-looking man of just over medium height and age, he possessed keen black eyes set in a stern face. They glittered, as if they were chiseled out of shining stone. His dark brown hair hung straight down his back, set off by several platinum and gold clips.
His tailored, sky blue uniform looked impeccable, the long coat decorated with gold and platinum brocade and accents.
The command deck of the fleet flagship was constructed and crewed in great rings, with an enormous holographic display projected in its center.
Naero’s sensitive nose caught the scent of several energy drinks on hand, as well as Jett.
The admiral paused as they drew near and welcomed both Klyne and Aunt Sleak as if he knew them well. He shook their hands and embraced them.
“Klyne, Sleak, my friends. Welcome. We haven’t much time; let me update you. Ahh…Lythe and Tarthan’s children. A bitter loss. Prince Ellis of the Matayans. All of you, welcome.”
He invited them into a lift up to the center command circle.
He motioned at the holo display with his fingers like an orchestra conductor and it zoomed into their position, displaying their units and their tactical locations and stats in blue.
Aides handed them all data pads.
“Here we have our forces, spread out and layered in a G-level defensive pattern,”
Admiral Joshua said. “With fast attack sorties waiting to sweep in on the best assault vectors.”
“How many strong are we here, Nathan?” Klyne asked.
“Joshua Tech has seventy-three major worlds to protect and only nineteen fleets with which to do so. Our navy is spread very thin, but we’ve managed to send myself and one entire fleet of our best ships. Top of the line. Fifty of our finest craft.”
He continued to smile while Aunt Sleak blinked and just stared at him. “One fleet? The last we heard, Triax alone had three fleets right next door, waiting to attack.”
Nathan grinned. “Actually they have five fleets.”
“Five?”
“Yes. Five. And five more one or two weeks away.”
“That’s ten. Ten to one odds, Nathan.”
“Those are only the Triaxian fleets. They also have a Matayan Fleet, which they always spend as shock forces. And their allies from the other Corps–Omni, Stellar, Matashi, Krupp, and Gelden–also have three to possibly five fleets positioned close by to join in, if need be. With more on the way.”
Aunt Sleak took a breath and looked away, glancing up at the holo display of the enemy’s known forces.
A raging fire of endless little red dots spreading out in arcs and fans and various strategic vectors in front of them and to either side.
“What about our allies?” Naero asked.
Small patches of green blips appeared near the blue ones. Not many.
“The miners have pieced together about two dozen vessels that could loosely be called warships,” Nathan said. “After their civil war, the Matayan Prime Minister has about half a fleet left. Good solid ships with good crews. We have the fixers and other programs running, but there aren’t enough ships and not enough time.”
“Two fleets,” Aunt Sleak said flatly. “Two fleets against thirty to forty enemy fleets. That’s twenty to one odds.”
“The call has gone out,” Klyne said. “At least one of the Shadow Fleets will be able to reach us by the time things heat up.”
“I feel so much better,” Aunt Sleak said. “Three fleets against forty. One hundred and fifty warships against three thousand or more.”
“We can do the math,” Klyne said.
Aunt Sleak shook her head. “We might as well float out there and throw rocks at them.”
Jan giggled.
She rounded on him. “You think that’s funny, boy? In a week or two, most of us are going to be dead hunks of meat, frozen in space. Or blasted to pieces on some rock. I went through the last Spacer War. I know what’s coming.”
“We’re ready to fight,” Naero said. “Don’t yell at us, and don’t try to scare us. What about our people? Will they send any help? Have we heard anything? Will they get here in time?”
Admiral Joshua looked to Klyne.
Klyne gritted his teeth. “We won’t know until they show up, if they can even make it here in time. Until that happens, we need to fight with what we’ve got and make the most of it.”
Aunt Sleak studied their stats. “All right then. We’ll fight the same way we defended the Spacer Sectors. Flat out, all or nothing. Victory or Death.
“Nathan, I want everything that can fly up in space. Freighters, transports, shuttles, yachts, pleasure boats, everything. Everything and everyone fights. Every Spacer is trained to pilot and fight; let’s suit them up.”
“We still have more pilots than ships,” Naero reminded them.
“That needs to change. We’ll use the fixers to convert all drones and probes into weapons. If it can’t shoot, we’ll pack it full of explosives and ram it down their throats. We fight smart. We lure them in, make them think they have us bent over. Then we hit them with everything we’ve got from all sides.”
Admiral Nathan Joshua smiled. “I like your thinking, Sleak.”
Aunt Sleak snarled. “
Haisha
! Nobody’s gonna like any part of this. We keep at them until they’re finished…or we are. Pass the word. We all better get ready for sheer hell, because it’s coming.”