The Terra Gambit_Book 8 of The Empire of Bones Saga Read online

  The Terra Gambit

  Book Eight of The Empire of Bones Saga

  Terry Mixon

  Contents

  The Terra Gambit

  Also by Terry Mixon

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Mailing List

  About Terry

  The Terra Gambit

  Book Eight of The Empire of Bones Saga

  by

  Terry Mixon

  Sent on a mission critical to the survival of the New Terran Empire, Jared Mertz must travel deep into the AI-dominated Rebel Empire on an operation of deception.

  Only there are games afoot that no one could foresee and players at the table that no one could expect. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

  When unexpected enemies deal themselves in, Jared must bet everything on a single hand. Bluffing might get him killed but folding isn’t an option.

  The Terra Gambit

  Copyright © 2018 by Terry Mixon

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including information storage and/or retrieval systems, or dissemination of any electronic version, without the prior written consent of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review, and except where permitted by law.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Yowling Cat Press ®

  Digital edition date: 2/23/2018

  Print ISBN: 978-1947376083

  Cover art - image copyrights as follows:

  DepositPhotos/Tristan 3D (Daniel Kurle)

  DepositPhotos/innovari (Luca Oleastri)

  DepositPhotos/100502500 (Natalia Romanova)

  DepositPhotos/TsuneoMP (Junichi Shimazaki)

  DepositPhotos/CoreyFord (Corey Ford)

  Donna Mixon

  Cover design and composition by Donna Mixon

  Print edition design and layout by Terry Mixon

  Also by Terry Mixon

  You can always find the most up to date listing of Terry’s titles on his Amazon Author Page.

  The Empire of Bones Saga

  Empire of Bones

  Veil of Shadows

  Command Decisions

  Ghosts of Empire

  Paying the Price

  Reconnaissance in Force

  Behind Enemy Lines

  The Terra Gambit

  The Empire of Bones Saga Volume 1

  The Humanity Unlimited Saga

  Liberty Station

  Freedom Express

  Tree of Liberty

  The Fractured Republic Saga

  Storm Divers

  The Scorched Earth Saga

  Scorched Earth

  The Vigilante Duology with Glynn Stewart

  Heart of Vengeance

  Oath of Vengeance

  Want Terry to email you when he publishes a new book in any format or when one goes on sale? Go to TerryMixon.com/Mailing-List and sign up. Those are the only times he’ll contact you. No spam.

  Dedication

  This book would not be possible without the love and support of my beautiful wife. Donna, I love you more than life itself.

  Acknowledgments

  Once again, the people who read my books before you see them have saved me. Thanks to Alan Barnes, Michael Falkner, Cain Hopwood, Kristopher Neidecker, John Naiser, Bob Noble, Andrew Olivier, Jon Paul Olivier, John Piper, Bill Smith, Tom Stoecklein, Dale Thompson, and Jason Young for making me look good.

  I also want to thank my readers for putting up with me. You guys are great.

  1

  I left her there,” Jared Mertz said. “This is my fault.”

  “Have you met my daughter?” Emperor Karl Bandar of the New Terran Empire asked his son. “Kelsey has a streak of what we’ll generously call impulsiveness. If she thinks she has a better plan than you, she’s likely to execute it and then beg forgiveness while you pick up the pieces.”

  Jared stared at his father for a moment and then laughed softly. “I suppose you’re right. Still, I should’ve seen this coming. I let her talk me into leading the attack on the Dresden orbital to recover the data on manufacturing the Marine Raider implants. I figured they’d be in and gone before trouble came looking for them, but I was wrong. Again.”

  The two of them were sitting in the Emperor’s private quarters at the Imperial Palace, sipping on aged whiskey. Jared had left his task force at the sealed Erorsi flip point a day ago and come home alone to report.

  Based on the FTL probes they’d deployed as they’d fled the Rebel Empire, the enemy had only been about twelve hours behind them when they’d transitioned to Erorsi and put the flip-point jammer there back into service.

  Even though he’d destroyed the FTL probes as his fleet had fled, he’d decided to leave the ones in the system just past Erorsi intact. He positioned them far enough out to avoid any chance of detection and could always send the self-destruct signal if anyone seemed to have detected them.

  Jared had waited in the Erorsi system with his fleet in case the Rebel Empire made a concerted attempt to force their way through, but they hadn’t. The FTL probes didn’t have the best view of the enemy using passive scans at extremely long range, but he could tell that most of the Rebel Empire ships were setting up around the Erorsi flip point.

  Based on the amount of debris that had come through, they’d sent several waves of probes to test his defenses. No ships had attempted to flip, so the complete lack of response had spooked them. That wouldn’t last.

  The flip-point jammer set up a gravitational resonance in the wormholes that allowed travel between star systems up to hundreds of light years apart. Nothing had survived the transit. Eventually, they’d figure out what he was doing and then the real fun would start.

  Eventually his people would have to take the flip-point jammer down for maintenance, but that day was over a month away. He’d worry about that once he had no other choice.

  “We’ll just have to hope she finds another way home,” the emperor said. “I have every confidence in Kelsey’s resourcefulness. Besides, she has Commodore Anderson and Audacious to help her get the technology home.

  “The Raider implants might be the most useful militarily, but learning how to build AIs could help win this war. That would make all the trouble worthwhile.”

  The fact that the Dresden Orbital had held facilities to build sentient AIs had been a game-changing surprise. One they couldn’t pass up. Kelsey had stolen the entire orbital with a ship used to transport large vessels that couldn’t move themselves and fled in the only direction open to her.

  The Fleet carrier and swarms of fighters in her belly would make for a very stout defense as well as an improbably strong arm of attack. Jared knew the Rebel Empire didn’t use fighters. It would be a very unpleasant surprise for anyone that chanced across his sister.

  “For the time being, Erorsi is secure,” Jared said. “The downside is that they know exactly where to find us now. They’re going to build up quite a Fleet element on the other side of the Erorsi flip point and they’ll keep probing it.

  “Sooner or later, they’re going to catch us while we’re performing maintenance on the flip-point jammer. Then they’re going to come through and try to swamp us.”

  His father nodded. “We’ll keep your entire task force there. In fact, we’ll transfer as many ships and fixed defenses as we can from Harrison’s World to back them up. That’s going to leave Commodore Meyer shorthanded, but such is life.”

  Sean Meyer had once been executive officer for one of the worst Fleet commanders Jared had ever met. Meyer could be arrogant and condescending. To his pleasure, Jared had discovered the commodore was also an exceptionally capable man.

  “He’ll manage. I’ll make certain that Erorsi stays secure.”

  “Actually, you won’t. I have a different mission in mind for you.”

  Jared raised an eyebrow and sipped his drink. “What might that be, Majesty?”

  “I thought I told you not to use titles when we’re alone.”

  “When you start giving orders, this isn’t a social call anymore.”

  Karl Bandar laughed. “You’re an interesting mix of contradictions, Jared. While I certainly believe we need to keep Erorsi secure, we also h
ave another very important mission that requires the most capable commander possible.”

  “You mean sending a destroyer from Harrison’s World to give an annual status report to the AIs?”

  Jared and his original makeshift force had managed to ambush and defeat the artificial intelligence controlling the Harrison’s World system. He’d very much like to keep the other Rebel Empire AIs in the dark about the change in management.

  The AI had been housed inside an old Fleet sector base called Boxer Station. After the civil war that had destroyed the Old Empire, the triumphant AIs had brought all the wrecked ships that had survived the fighting to orbit the station and created a gigantic graveyard.

  He and his people had worked with the leadership on Harrison’s World to bring the repair bays at the station back online. That allowed them to begin recovering and restoring the ships that were least damaged. Even the first of those had provided a very powerful fighting force for the New Terran Empire and their allies, the Pentagarans.

  The crown princess of Pentagar—Elise Orison—was Jared’s wife and he wished he’d had the opportunity to spend more time with her after his return from the Rebel Empire, but he’d had to make do with just one night of her coming to visit him in Erorsi.

  She wouldn’t be pleased to learn the emperor was sending him away again so soon.

  “Understood,” Jared said. “So far as I know, the automated destroyer the Harrison’s World AI sent to report every year goes to a specific system and transmits a very basic report of all the events that occurred since the last report.

  “We have records of everything sent since the AIs suppressed Harrison’s World a decade ago. It should be a simple matter to send a captured ship to deliver a forged report.”

  Harrison—the newly formatted AI on Boxer Station—would be able to create one that would raise no electronic eyebrows. The friendly AI had none of the murderous core rules that its predecessor had. He was firmly allied with the New Terran Empire.

  And allied was the appropriate word because the Imperial Senate had recognized AIs as individuals worthy of all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

  Boy, had that caused a ruckus. Jared just wished they had more of the sentient computers to help them.

  “Exactly how often have plans proceeded precisely as we wished?” the emperor asked. “No, I think it might be best to send a team of our very best people to be sure this critical mission goes off without a hitch. And you, my boy, are the right man to lead it.”

  The older man grinned. “I realize that command of a destroyer is a big step down for an admiral, but I think you’ll remember what needs to be done.”

  Jared laughed. “Considering I was commanding a destroyer just a couple of years ago, I think it’ll all come back pretty fast. When do you want me to depart? I need to get back and brief Charlie Graves about taking command of the defenses at Erorsi.”

  “Immediately,” his father said. “The fast courier will take you straight to Boxer Station. Then she will deliver new orders for Commodore Graves to assume permanent command at Erorsi. The mission is scheduled to depart any day now, so you need to get familiarized with this new ship and assemble your crew at once.

  “And with the Rebel Empire now aware of our presence, the chances that you will need to improvise are even greater than normal. I think we need to plan on things working out differently than we imagine.”

  The older man leaned back in his chair. “I said immediately, but I suppose we can have dinner first. I wouldn’t want to send you out on an empty stomach.”

  Commodore Sean Meyer considered Coordinator Olivia West across her dining table for a long moment. “I don’t think so.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Olivia said as she sipped her wine. “Of course I’m going.”

  Sean and she were supposedly having a working dinner at her residence on Harrison’s World. He suspected no one was fooled by their charade that this was a professional visit, but he had to keep up appearances.

  The two of them had discovered a spark as they worked hand-in-hand to restore Harrison’s World to its former glory. He hadn’t been involved in a serious relationship for many years. She had lost her fiancé years ago.

  Fleet Captain Brian Drake had taken his own life on the flag bridge of the superdreadnought Invincible when the system Lord suppressed Harrison’s World a decade ago, making it impossible for their rebellion to succeed.

  The man had held on as long as his supplies had allowed inside the superdreadnought that they’d secretly restored. Then, once he and his people had no other option, they’d taken the painless way out.

  The fact that Olivia and he were lovers now didn’t change anything, he told himself. Her presence on board the ship wasn’t necessary. He didn’t need to risk their strongest ally in the region.

  Even he had to admit that sounded like a lame excuse.

  He gave the ruler of Harrison’s World a quelling stare. It bounced off her smug expression ineffectively.

  Sean sighed. “Why in the world would I send you on a mission involving a Fleet ship? You wouldn’t know the first thing about what to do in a crisis.”

  “Wrong. I know exactly what to do first in a crisis. Stay calm.”

  “Let me rephrase,” he said repressively. “What would you contribute to the mission? We’re sending a destroyer to send an automatic message and then come back. It’s not going to interact with anyone.”

  She pointed her fork at him. “Are you certain of that? Just because it hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it won’t happen this time. What will you do if you’re required to have inside knowledge of how the Rebel Empire operates? You need someone that knows.”

  “I hear what you’re saying,” he said after a moment. “We already have someone like that. Commander Michaels, the computer specialist we captured at Erorsi. If they need specialized information, he’ll have it.”

  “That assumes the emperor will allow him to accompany you,” she said. “That’s doubtful. In any case, meaning no offense to the good commander, he’s only of the middle orders. If your ship has to deal with someone from the higher orders, it’s a completely different—what’s that term you use?—kettle of fish.

  “Perhaps sometime you can explain why anyone would keep a kettle of fish around and exactly how they differ from one another. No, you need to have someone on hand that can explain what the rulers of the Rebel Empire are actually thinking. That means me.”

  He wished he could argue, but she was probably right. In any case, he knew by now that he was going to lose this fight.

  “Admiral Mertz arrives tomorrow,” he said at last. “The Emperor appointed him to command the expedition ship. I just got the word of that a few hours ago.

  “If you’re going, then I’m going, too. It should be a short trip, so my absence here won’t make any difference.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “And you think that Admiral Mertz is going to just allow the station commander to go along on this mission?”

  He grinned. “You’re not the only one that can be persuasive. We need to have the very best selection of people aboard. I feel confident that I can wiggle my way into the executive officer’s position. I have quite a bit of experience in the role, you know.”

  “Weren’t you fired the last time you were an executive officer?” she asked archly. “I seem to remember hearing a story about you being thrown into a cell. Well, two cells, if you count what I did.”