Gunboat Diplomacy (Book 14 of The Empire of Bones Saga) Read online

  “In another piece of the news, Elise is going to have twin boys, and they were successfully transferred. The pods are aboard the destroyer, and Elise is on Persephone. It’s complicated, but there’s a reason for that.”

  If the fact that Kelsey was pregnant rocked Zia’s world, the news that her former commander and the admiral of their fleet was going to be a father was like a brick falling on her head. A good brick, but still.

  “I’m looking forward to hearing that story, but I suspect that you have other news we need to hear first. What’s been going on for the last eight months?”

  Kelsey grimaced. “The good news is that we beat the Master AI. It’s now completely under our control, even though I’m not sure just how much that’s going to help us with the Clans rampaging through the Rebel Empire.

  “The bad news is that Jared’s fleet is destroyed.”

  That news was like a brick to the face—an awful brick thrown at high velocity.

  “I think you’d better tell us everything,” Zia said gravely. “What about the admiral and Talbot?”

  “Jared’s alive and in good health, and so is Talbot. Invincible survived the fight, but she’s destined for the scrapyard. We lost most of our ships outright, and the rest are severely damaged. Caduceus is the biggest ship that survived intact.

  “The Master AI wasn’t located at Twilight River. That was a trap. It was actually hidden in Alpha Centauri. We went all the way out and had to come back. I’m going to send you all the data we have on the fight itself and the details of our plans going forward.

  “But first, I need to tell you about Raptor and the rest of Eagle Squadron.”

  Kelsey’s sad expression and dispirited voice told Zia what she would say before she continued, and she felt her heart clench.

  “During the final assault on the Master AI, we launched every marine and Marine Raider we had, but we weren’t going to be able to get through the station’s battle screens. I had a front-row seat when Raptor and the rest of the pilots used every weapon they had to destabilize the battle screens, but it wasn’t enough.

  “So they rammed them. There were no survivors.”

  That really was a punch to the gut. She hadn’t known Gus Grappin for very long, but he’d been a cheerful soul, a dedicated officer, and a friend.

  Now he was gone. Now they were all gone.

  “Did they complete their mission?” she asked quietly. “I assume so, since you’re here, but I want to hear it.”

  Kelsey nodded. “With distinction. Their sacrifice allowed us onto the station. Without them, I’d be dead, so would everyone else, and humanity would still be enslaved.”

  The short blonde woman’s gaze never wavered, but she had tears gathering in her eyes. “It was a slaughter. Every Marine Raider, except Talbot, myself, and Persephone’s bridge crew, died in the attack. Less than a dozen marines survived. Fleet lost almost two-thirds of their people.

  “It was by far the closest fight we’ve ever been in, and if we hadn’t attacked with surprise and Eagle Squadron hadn’t made the ultimate sacrifice, not only would we have lost, but we would all have died.”

  Zia swallowed hard. She started to say something, but Veronica took her hand and squeezed it hard.

  She took a breath, and then she took another. No one said anything.

  “We’re going to have to have a wake,” Annette said. “I’m so proud of them. They did what I’d hope we’d all do under similar circumstances and trade our lives for those we protect.”

  “I’ll give you the details later, but I recognized each of them for their bravery as much as I could,” Kelsey said as Veronica handed her a tissue to wipe her eyes. “Promotions and awards don’t mean much to someone when they’re done posthumously, but they didn’t exactly give me a chance to order them to abort. Not that I expect they’d have obeyed me anyway.

  “In any case, I’ve made a few changes that are going to impact you. First of all, Eagle Squadron is now the Princess’s Own Fighter Squadron. You’re going to have to figure out how to reconstitute them, but they’ll carry that distinction wherever they serve.

  “And this last thing is probably going to cause you a big, fat headache. Having a class of fighter called the Hornet is all fine and good, but from this day forward, whatever the design may be, the New Terran Empire’s frontline fighter will be called the Raptor.”

  “That is going to be… so very complicated,” Zia said. “Do you know how much of a pain in the ass that’s going to be for headquarters? Not just changing the name but changing it every single time there’s a new iteration of fighter. You’re saying that the ones that are currently called Raptors revert to being Hornets later? How would that even work? Are you sure about this, Kelsey?”

  “I’m sure, though I have no idea what happens to the names after they’re replaced. Maybe these are now the Raptor Mark 1. I want every single fighter pilot to think about him every time they get into their fighter. His example—all their examples—are what set the bar going forward.

  “Besides, that’s not nearly as bad as what I did to Jared. I declared that the fleet that trashed Alpha Centauri while providing us the distraction we needed to get aboard that station would now be called Alpha Fleet.”

  Zia laughed. “You know that Fleet uses numbers for that sort of thing, right?”

  “I do now. Well, it’s not exclusively numbers anymore.”

  “Yeah, we definitely got the easier end of the deal,” Annette said with a low chuckle. “You know they’re going to stop you from changing any other names when you get back, right?”

  “I imagine they’re going to stop me from doing a lot of things when I get back home. Talbot was supposed to come with me, but we made a last-minute decision that he needed to be with Jared.

  “We had the Master AI summon as many of the computer-controlled ships that were hidden around as possible, and Marcus is going to control them for us. We’ve decommissioned the Master AI, and we’re putting it somewhere that it’s never going to be easily accessed again.

  “The problem is that the Clans aren’t working alone. The Singularity was behind this from the very beginning. One of their agents perverted the master AI and started this whole thing back during the Fall.

  “Not only that, they’ve been supplying and guiding the Clans since who knows when. They’re the puppet masters. The only thing that prevented them from taking complete control of the Empire five hundred years ago is that the Master AI found a loophole that allowed it to keep them on their side of the border.

  “Somehow, we have to find a way of stopping the Clans with just the forces we can gather without stripping the borders of the defenses that keep the Singularity out. I suppose that’s going to be up to Jared to figure out, since we’re just passing through to give you the information, and then we’ll be headed for Avalon.”

  Zia felt her eyes narrowing. “Kelsey, that’s an incredibly dangerous journey, particularly with just a couple of ships.”

  “Not if you have a map and a secret way of getting there. One of the little side trips that we took on the way to Twilight River put us in contact with an alien artifact from a long-dead race. One of the things that we found was a map of the flip point system, including a couple kinds of flip points that we didn’t know existed.”

  Zia perked up at that. “Over what kind of area? Is it enough to get you all the way home?”

  Kelsey grinned. “You’re not going to believe this, but it covers the entire Milky Way. Every. Single. Flip point. However it’s doing it, the map is current and seems accurate.

  “That means that we know where every single multiflip point is and where all of its branches go. There’s also a kind of extremely far flip point that sits way out past where that kind of thing normally exists, and it can go up to ten times farther than a far flip point.

  “One of them brought us from close to Twilight River all the way back to Alpha Centauri in a single flip. A six-month journey completed just like that. Sadly,
there’s not one that leads from close to here back to the New Terran Empire, but with the map, we can take all the time we need and never come close to being detected on the way home.”

  They all sat in silence for a while, adjusting to everything that Kelsey had said. Then Zac spoke up. “I’m sure you’ve been looked at any number of times by now, but I’d appreciate it if you’d stop by the medical center so I can give you a checkup. I know that Commodore Anderson would feel better that way.”

  “Why do I have the feeling that everyone is going to want to put me through the medical wringer every time I turn around?” Kelsey asked rhetorically. “Sure. It’ll give me time to plan out what I do next.”

  “And what will that be?” Zia asked.

  “Something a lot more dangerous than anything I’ve done so far. I have to go tell my mother that she’s going to be a grandmother.”

  2

  Carl Owlet walked into his main lab aboard Audacious with Ralph Halstead and Austin Darrah at his heels. The compartment was far roomier than the makeshift one he’d had aboard Persephone, and he was ready to enjoy the extra space for as long as they were going to stay and use some of the advanced equipment that he had here to study the alien device that followed Elise Orison around like a puppy.

  They’d done the best they could aboard Invincible, but the makeshift equipment he’d been able to salvage wasn’t up to the same standards as what he’d been forced to leave here. Sadly, all of that other equipment was gone now, having been in a section aboard the superdreadnought that had been destroyed.

  At the very least, Carl intended to salvage as much as possible and put it aboard the destroyer for the trip back to Avalon. He wouldn’t be able to take Elise or the strange alien robot on the destroyer because that was where the gestation pods holding her children were, though he could at least bring some equipment over to Persephone later if needed.

  “I forgot how big this place was,” Ralph said, looking around. “We’re never going to be able to take all this stuff.”

  “No,” Carl agreed. “Most of it will have to stay. Still, there’s a lot of sensitive equipment that we can bring along that might make a difference in studying the picotech. Heck, we might even be able to detect some of the femtotech if we’re lucky.”

  “That stuff is like magic,” Austin said.

  “That’s what sufficiently advanced technology looks like,” Carl said. “I doubt very seriously that we’re ever going to understand how femtotech works. We just don’t have the tools to examine the little things. I can’t understand how you even program something that small, yet it’s obvious the aliens did so.”

  “Are we going to bring the robot over here and put it in one of the big scanners?” Ralph asked. “We might be able to pull more of its programming out and use Fiona to help break it down for us when we get back to Persephone.”

  “That’s the plan if Commodore Anderson agrees to let it on board.”

  “Do you think she’ll say no?” Austin asked.

  “I’m not going to assume the answer is yes until I hear it. We’d best plan on taking all of the equipment that we can back to the destroyer. We could disassemble the main scanner and move it over. That would be a huge pain in the ass, but it’s doable. We won’t do anything unless we have to. This is just a planning trip.”

  “What’s our end goal?” Ralph asked. “I understand that you want to examine everything you can about this alien technology, but don’t we have more pressing things to do? There’s still a war going on.”

  Carl turned and faced his friend. “There is, but what exactly are we supposed to do to win it? This is a war being fought with ships and on the ground. There’s nothing that we can add to the mix that will improve our odds. Not really.

  “Oh, we’ve done a few things that’ll make a difference. The portable battle screens that the marines can strap to their arms will help protect them. The improved communications radius that the upgraded implants have is important too, but those are only incremental things. That fight is going to be in someone else’s hands from this point forward.”

  Carl smiled at Ralph. “Are you going to go visit your aunt and uncle while we’re here?”

  The young man rolled his eyes. “I should, but I’m afraid of what they might say.”

  “You think that they’re going to be upset that you’re helping us?” Austin asked.

  “This is going to be really hard for you to understand, but they’re criminals. Not just run-of-the-mill criminals but ones that really care about earning as much money as they can while breaking the law. It’s almost like a religion with them.

  “I’m doing real science, and they’re going to see that as a waste of time. Hell, they’ll probably try to buy information off me that they can sell somewhere else if they ever escape the resistance. It’s almost like knowing someone that’s addicted to drugs. You can’t trust them because you never know what’s going to drive their next action.”

  “But you’re still going to go see them, right?” Carl asked pointedly. “No matter how much you don’t like them being criminals, they are your aunt and uncle.”

  Ralph sighed. “Fine, I’ll go see them. What are you going to be doing while I do that?”

  “I’m going to bring in some of the big guns to help us figure out the alien technology. Jacqueline Parker and the rest of the people from the Dresden Research Facility are here. I know that they’ve been continuing to work on the secret projects that they were overseeing before, but I suspect that they’d be more than happy to set some of that aside and take a look at real alien technology.”

  His friends nodded, their expressions granting him the validity of his statement.

  “They probably have better equipment than you do, too,” Austin said. “Perhaps they can probe the robot in ways that we haven’t thought of yet. There’s something to be said for bringing in a lot of new eyes to look at a problem.”

  “We can’t count on that,” Carl said with a sigh. “Now, get to making that list while I go talk with Commodore Anderson. If need be, we’ll gather the small things that we can move quickly and make a list of the bigger things that we can move later.”

  While they started the task of inventorying the lab, he headed for the flag bridge. Time to be as convincing as possible.

  Justine Bandar stood in front of the full-length mirror and examined the conservative dress she was wearing, turning slightly to the side in either direction, and frowned. Too formal. It needed to be more cheerful.

  She headed back to her closet and began rummaging through it, looking for something that would be suitable for a casual yet thoroughly planned meeting with her daughter. She hadn’t heard much more than the fact that Persephone had arrived in the system and that Kelsey was aboard, but she knew that meant that her child would be along sooner or later.

  Or that she would have to go confront her again, though she hoped that wasn’t necessary.

  “Isn’t that something like the sixth thing you’ve tried on?” Don Sommerville asked with a drawl. “This isn’t a state dinner or something like that. Just pick something that looks okay and roll with it.”

  She shot him an incredulous look. “Have you lost every brain cell in that pretty little head of yours? One never gets a second chance to make a first impression.”

  “This is your daughter we’re talking about,” he said as he came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “I believe you’re way past the first impression stage.”

  Justine wanted to argue, but she wasn’t sure whether he was right or not. She and her daughter hadn’t been on the best of terms for years. They’d had a rapprochement just before Kelsey had left with Mertz, but it had been almost eight months now. Were things still the same, or had they gotten worse? She wasn’t sure she could take a chance.

  “My relationship with my daughter is… complicated. I just want things to be perfect this one time.”

  Don turned her around and pulled her into a hug. “Trust me w
hen I say that everything is going to be just fine. You can be proud of the things you’ve accomplished while she was gone. Don’t fret over something that isn’t going to happen.

  “Besides, her cutter docked ten minutes ago, and she’s almost at the door.”

  “What!” she shrieked, jumping out of his arms as a feeling of panic washed over her. “If you’re joking, I’m going to kill you.”

  He shook his head with a smile. “Apparently, they were keeping her itinerary under wraps. Somebody just gave me a heads-up that she’ll be at the front door in less than thirty seconds. I suggest this is a bad time to try getting into a different outfit.”

  Justine whirled and ran to put on just a bit more makeup. She stared at herself in the mirror of her vanity and decided that it was just going to have to be good enough. The sands of the hourglass had run out.

  The chime at the front door sounded, and she raced into the living room. She stopped just inside the door, took one calming breath, pasted a welcoming smile on her face, and opened the door just as Don stepped up behind her.

  In the corridor stood her daughter. Kelsey had a smile on her face, but Justine could tell that something was wrong. There was a hint of tension around her daughter’s eyes, and something in her posture looked… off.

  She opened her arms and pulled her daughter close. “I’m so glad you’re safe. I’ve been worried the entire time you were gone.”

  Kelsey hugged her back tightly, which only confirmed the fact that something was drastically wrong. Alarm bells rang in Justine’s head, telling her that some kind of crisis was at hand, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.

  “It’s been a trying time,” Kelsey said. “Can I come in?”

  “Of course! You know Don.”

  Kelsey extracted herself from the hug and extended a hand to Don. “It’s good to see you again, Commander.”