Conquerors' Pride

  "Give it a try," Holloway said. "Have them inform Commander Quinn and Aric Cavanagh that they're to bring their ships back to ground immediately and to make themselves available for questioning."

  McPhee snorted. "You don't really expect them to comply, do you?"

  Holloway ignored him. "And get Number Two crash-prepped to fly. I want it in the sky in fifteen minutes."

  "Yes, sir," Gasperi said, keying in the order. "Sir, we've also just picked up a new tachyon wake-trail coming in toward the system. Baseline identifies it as an Effenzeal-Royce star yacht. ETA about two hours."

  Holloway looked at Melinda Cavanagh. "Yours?"

  "My father's."

  He nodded and looked back at the comm. "Keep an eye on it," he told Gasperi. "And get that skitter in the air."

  "Yes, sir."

  "You'll be wasting your time," Melinda Cavanagh advised as he keyed off the comm. "They'll be gone before the skitter can reach them."

  "It's our time to waste, thank you," Holloway said. "I take it there's not much chance we'll find Wing Commander Bokamba aboard that ship?"

  She shook her head silently. "Terrific," Holloway growled, keying the comm back on. "Gasperi, what's the status on that skitter relay?"

  "Sorry, sir," the other said. "There's no response. The signal's probably not getting to them."

  "What about Number Two?"

  "Still being prepped, sir. It'll be another few minutes."

  Holloway clenched his fist beneath the desk. "We may not have a few minutes," he said. "Move it."

  "Yes, sir," Gasperi said, starting to look a little frazzled. "I'll have the-"

  He broke off, turning his head to the side. Another voice said something, and Holloway saw Gasperi wince. "What?" he demanded.

  "Sorry, sir," Gasperi said, turning back. "The fueler's just meshed out. From the wake-trail it looks like the Corvines went with it."

  "And the Counterpunch, too, no doubt," Holloway sighed. "All right. Secure from launch prep on Number Two. Everyone back to normal."

  "Yes, sir."

  Holloway keyed off the comm and turned to Melinda Cavanagh. "Congratulations," he said, hearing an edge of bitterness in his voice. "You and your brother seem to have gotten away with it. Whatever 'it' is."

  He had the minor satisfaction of seeing a flicker of pain cross her face. "I'm sorry, Colonel," she said. "Our intention wasn't to get you or anyone else in trouble."

  "Well, you've succeeded in that, too," he told her. "Under the circumstances I think you owe me an explanation as to what's going on."

  "Again, I'm sorry," she said, looking at McPhee. "Under the Official Secrets Regulations I'm not allowed to talk about it." A faint smile twitched at her lips. "All I can say is that you're partly to blame for getting the whole thing started."

  Holloway frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "That's enough," McPhee said sharply. "Colonel, I don't know what's going on, either. But if she's not lying-if this does come under the Official Secrets Regulations-then the conversation is now over. Just lock her up somewhere until I get my ship ready, and I'll take her off your hands."

  Holloway looked up at him. "I'm afraid you're jumping the gun a bit. If you want her arrested, you'll have to wait until we've done a proper interrogation."

  McPhee's eyes narrowed. "Are you deaf, Colonel? I said the conversation was over. You're officially out of the circle."

  "I suggest you brush up on your military law, Mr. McPhee," Holloway said, standing up and looking McPhee straight in the eye. "This woman is on my planet. She's in my garrison. She's under my jurisdiction. If I want to interrogate her, I can do that."

  McPhee glanced at Takara, the first signs of uncertainty beginning to crack into that arrogant surface. "You're exceeding your authority, Colonel."

  "On the contrary," Holloway said. "In case you missed it, we're in a war zone here. I can declare full martial law anytime I choose; and the minute I do, your magic carte blanche becomes nothing but a moderately interesting souvenir."

  "Are you declaring full martial law, then?" McPhee demanded.

  There was a beep from the comm before Holloway could answer. Leaning over, he swiped at the key. "What?" he demanded.

  It was Gasperi again... and his face had gone white. "Colonel, we've just picked up a new group of wake-trails," he said, his voice hoarse. "Same baseline as the others. The first ones."

  Holloway felt his stomach tighten. "You're sure it's not a resonance between the fueler and that incoming yacht?"

  "I'm positive, sir. It's the Conquerors."

  Holloway glanced at Takara. He couldn't hear the other end of the conversation, but it was clear from his expression he'd already guessed what was happening. "How many?"

  "It's hard to tell," Gasperi said. "Looks like five. Maybe six."

  And it had taken only four Conqueror ships to demolish theJutland task force. "And they are incoming?" he asked, just to be sure.

  "Yes, sir," Gasperi breathed. "I think so. I'd say two hours before they hit the system."

  "Understood," Holloway said. "Give the colony-evacuation order. All ships and vehicles to be prepped at once; senior officers to meet me in the command room in five minutes. And start prep on Number Two again. When it's ready, get it out to Edo with the news."

  "Yes, sir."

  Holloway keyed off the comm. "The Conquerors?"

  Takara asked, his voice sounding like someone walking through a graveyard.

  Holloway nodded. "Two hours out. Five ships, maybe six." He looked at McPhee. "The answer is yes, Mr. McPhee. As of now, Dorcas is under full martial law."

  16

  The last red light on the fighter-status board winked orange and then turned to green. "This is Shrike," a heavily Russian-accented voice came over the fueler's speaker. "I show positive docking."

  "Confirmed," Quinn said, glancing at the course setting and then at the status boards. "Final check; all fighters."

  One by one the six pilots checked in. "Acknowledged," Quinn said. "Stand by for mesh-out."

  He keyed off the intercom. "All right, Max," he said. "Let's go."

  "Yes, Commander," the computer answered. "The Peacekeeper base appears to be attempting communication. Do you wish an orbit plot that will bring us into full contact range?"

  "Negative," Quinn said. "We don't have the time. Kick it."

  "Acknowledged." There was a flicker from the boards, a creak of metal from some uncompensated stress line, and they were off.

  Aric took a deep breath. "Well," he said. "Here we go."

  "I guess so," Quinn said, doing something with the board. "You ready for this?"

  In the distance, from all around them, came a series of dull thuds as fueler/fighter interface hatchways were sprung. "I hope so," Aric said. "You're Hydra and I'm El Dorado, right?"

  "Right," Quinn nodded. "When I was a pilot, fighter crews always used tag names when they were together and away from other personnel, which would mean pretty much from now on. I suppose that could have changed in the past few years, though. Masefield will introduce us to the others; listen to see what he calls them and take your cue from that."

  There was a flicker of a shadow outside the control room, and a slender young man with close-cropped sandy hair appeared at the doorway. "Commander Quinn?" he said, offering his hand. "I'm Tom Masefield; Clipper. Good to meet you, sir."

  "Same here," Quinn said, taking the other's hand. "This is my tail, Cavanagh-El Dorado. I'm Hydra."

  Clipper cocked an eyebrow. "Really. I understood it was Maestro."

  Quinn glanced at Aric. "It was. Once. What else did Bokamba say in that private message?"

  "Not much," Clipper said, giving Aric a speculative look. "All I know is who you are and that Bokamba has transferred this command to you. Unofficially, I presume?"

  "Quite unofficially," Quinn agreed. "Did he say anything about the mission?"

  Clipper shook his head. "He just said to trust him. And you."

&nb
sp; He broke off and moved aside as a second man, dark in hair and complexion, floated into view beside him. "Hydra, El Dorado, this is my tail," he introduced the man. "Lieutenant Sieyes; Delphi."

  "Honored, sir," Delphi said, offering his hand to Quinn. "I noticed on my way in that the others were assembling in the wardroom."

  "Good," Quinn said. "Let's go get acquainted."

  The last of the other ten men were squeezing their way in as Aric and his group arrived. Even empty, the wardroom had always struck Aric as being pretty small. With fourteen men filling it from floor to ceiling, it was long past the borderline into claustrophobic.

  "All right, men, dress it up," Clipper called, easing past Quinn into the wardroom as the others deftly repositioned themselves to line up with their commander's definition of vertical. "In descending seniority order. Khirkov and Asquith: Shrike and Crackajack. Bethmann and Marlowe: Jaeger and Watchdog. Vanbrugh and Hodgson: Wraith and Augur. Atkinson and Young: Paladin and Dazzler. And Kempis and Savile: Harlequin and Bookmaker. Don't ask about that last one, by the way. Gentlemen: this is Quinn, our temporary commander, and Cavanagh. Hydra and El Dorado."

  "Good to meet you all," Quinn said. "Let's get right down to business. If you'll look at the display there-"

  "A question, first, if I may, sir," Jaeger spoke up. "I'd like to know what exactly our authorization is on this."

  "You saw our orders, Jaeger," Clipper reminded him.

  "Yes, sir, I did," Jaeger nodded, his eyes still on Quinn. "I don't recall any mention of a Commander Quinn in them. Watchdog also noticed something else unusual as we were bringing the fighter into dock. The Peacekeeper markings on the side of the fueler seemed to be a bit smeared."

  "You're very observant, Watchdog," Quinn complimented him. "You're right, the markings are fresh. This ship has only recently been recommissioned into service."

  "I see," Jaeger said, his voice studiously neutral. "Have you official orders confirming that, sir?"

  Quinn glanced at Clipper. "Let's go ahead and cut through the noise here," he said to Jaeger. "This is not, in fact, a sanctioned Peacekeeper mission. I have no orders; I'm not even a reserve officer anymore. I needed an escort on an unofficial but important mission into unknown space. Bokamba offered to get me one. You're it."

  Aric looked around the tiny room, his mouth dry. He'd known this moment would eventually come, but he'd hoped they would be too far along for anyone to turn back easily when they learned the truth. Here, barely minutes out, Quinn was not only inviting them to leave, but to arrest the two of them in the bargain and haul them straight back to Dorcas.

  "Quinn," Wraith said suddenly. "Of course. Maestro."

  A murmur of surprise rippled through the room. "Maestro?" Dazzler said."The Maestro?"

  "There was only one," Clipper said, his voice and face both a little pinched. Small wonder; with Bokamba's private message to him, he was effectively an accessory before the fact here. The team could haul him in, too.

  "I see," Dazzler said, pushing himself gently away from the wall to drift toward Quinn. "You're the one who made all the noise that forced the Peacekeepers to reevaluate their screening procedure. Kept a lot of people out of the Copperheads. Including my brother."

  "That's enough, Dazzler," Clipper said. "Get back to your position."

  "No, that's all right," Quinn said, his voice sounding tired. "Let him have his say."

  "Thank you, sir," Dazzler said, maneuvering to a stop directly in front of Quinn. "It was my older brother, sir. Charleston; four years older than me. He'd wanted to be a Copperhead since he was fifteen. The day after his eighteenth birthday he went down and enlisted. He went through the tests, the preliminary pilot training-the whole slate. He was two weeks from getting his Mindlink implant when the NorCoord hearings forced everyone to undergo new certification. He didn't make the new cut."

  "I'm sorry," Quinn said.

  Dazzler shook his head. "Don't be," he said. "It took him six months to get over it; but at that point he realized that going into the Copperheads would have been the worst mistake of his life. He wasn't anywhere near to having what it took to be a professional warrior."

  And to Aric's surprise Dazzler held out his hand. "A long time ago he told me that if I ever ran into you, I was to thank you for saving him from the rashness of youth. His words."

  For a pair of heartbeats Quinn didn't move. Then, looking as if he didn't quite believe it, he reached out and took the other's hand. "Thank you," he said quietly.

  "No thanks needed," Dazzler said, releasing Quinn's hand and floating back toward his place in the group. "You helped take some of the glamour out of being a Copperhead. Speaking strictly for myself, I'd rather not fly with people who came in looking for glamour. I want the best. You helped make sure that's what we got."

  For a long minute the room was silent. "You were going to tell us about the mission," Clipper said.

  "Yes." Quinn took a deep breath, and Aric could see the effort in his face as he forced the ghosts of the past back down where they belonged. "You all know about the Conqueror attack on theJutland task force," he said. "What you don't know is that the body count came up one short. Commander Pheylan Cavanagh, captain of theKinshasa. "

  "Cavanagh?" Harlequin asked, looking at Aric.

  "My younger brother," Aric said.

  "Ah," Augur said knowingly. "So that's why we're going off half-cocked this way?"

  "It's nothing of the sort," Aric said, keeping his voice level. "We tried to get the Peacekeepers to mount a proper rescue mission. Admiral Rudzinski turned us down."

  "All the more reason we shouldn't be here," Jaeger said. "This is well past just being unsanctioned, Maestro. It's been effectively forbidden."

  "Is there any evidence Cavanagh's still alive?" Delphi asked.

  "Nothing positive," Quinn said. "Just the fact of no body and no debris from his escape pod. And the reasonable assumption that the Conquerors would want to take at least one live prisoner for examination."

  "I watched those recordings very carefully," Shrike said, his finger fidgeting through his beard. "It was my understanding that all pod emergency beacons had been silenced before the watchships left the scene."

  "That's true," Clipper put in. "But there's been some speculation that the Conquerors were using the beacons to locate and destroy the pods. It's possible Commander Cavanagh figured that out and shut his off before they got to him."

  "And had his prudence rewarded by being taken prisoner," Crackajack said. "Some deal. You have any idea where to start looking?"

  "We have the incoming vector that theJutland and Dorcas garrison computed," Quinn said. "My plan was to look for likely systems that direction and check them out."

  "That will take time," Jaeger pointed out. "And meanwhile the worlds of the Commonwealth are open to enemy attack."

  Crackajack snorted. "After what happened to theJutland, I hardly think six Corvines are going to make a lot of difference."

  "That's irrelevant," Jaeger said sharply. "Our job is not to decide whether our presence is important or not. Nor is it to take our ships wherever we ourselves think proper. Our job is to go where ordered and to do there whatever needs to be done." He looked at Quinn, then at Clipper. "We have no legitimate reason to be here, Commander. I respectfully but strongly suggest we turn around and go back."

  A muscle in Clipper's cheek twitched. "Maestro?"

  "You're welcome to go back, Jaeger," Quinn said. "All of you are, in fact, if you don't want to continue. El Dorado and I are going on, whether you stay or not."

  "I'm staying," Dazzler said. "You're going to need a tail, anyway."

  "Sorry, Dazzler, but you can't lose me that easily," his partner Paladin said. "Looks like you've got yourself a wingman, Maestro."

  "Delphi and I are in, too," Clipper said. "Call me old-fashioned, but I don't much care for the idea of Command simply abandoning Cavanagh to the Conquerors. Our people deserve better than that."

  "So do all th
e people of the Commonwealth," Wraith said. "We're wasting time, Jaeger."

  "Yes," Jaeger said, looking around. "Who else is coming back with us?"

  "And if you want to leave, this is the time to do it," Clipper added. "If you don't go now, you're in for the duration."

  Aric looked around the group. None of them looked especially comfortable, but none of them spoke up, either. "I guess it's you two, then," Clipper said at last to Jaeger and Wraith. "You'd better get going before you lose any more distance. Maestro, you want to go back to control and mesh us in?"