The Prodigal Emperor (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 3) Read online

  A moment later she bounced off the floor hard enough that she blacked out for a moment.

  She pulled herself up, shook her head to clear the stars, and ran a quick functions check of her armor and weapon. That done, she spoke up over the radio, “This is Alpha Five, continuing to target.”

  ***

  “As you can see, sir,” Colonel William Proscia said as they watched the feeds from the academy training exercise, “we've got a fully configurable layout for almost any design of station or ship.”

  Baron Lucius Giovanni nodded as his eyes ranged from the holographic display that showed the overall exercise and then to the individual monitors that showed training underway. This was, he'd been told, an evaluation exercise where a 'company' of power armored cadets assaulted a captured station, defended by three companies of infantry, albeit without powered armor. He glanced around to make certain that none of the Marine Colonel's staff was within earshot. “I can't help but notice that the current layout is a very similar design and layout to our Skydock Station in orbit.”

  Colonel Proscia gave a very slight nod, “Yes, sir, it is. In fact, it is based upon the latest modifications, currently underway. I figure it is best to train for the fight I expect.” He gave a grim smile, “If it comes to a fight, I have units of cadets, backed by cadre, who can be airborne and ready to assault any of our key infrastructure as well as any of our ships in orbit, all of them in powered armor.”

  Lucius felt a chill at that, yet he couldn't argue with the Colonel's preparations. The recent revelations that there was some sort of cabal or conspiracy within the ranks of the Fleet with unknown goals and a playbook that had already included assassination had made Lucius more than a little paranoid. A heavy battalion's worth of powered armor infantry, backed by combat shuttles could destroy almost any conventional ground or security forces. In all likelihood, he wouldn't need that kind of support, but if he did, he would really need it. After all, he thought, the enemy may well have three battalions worth of “disappeared” Marines and equipment.

  Lucius winced as he watched one of the cadets bounce sharply off the ceiling, firing at the enemy and then hammer into the floor of the corridor. “You might want to tell that one that this is just training,” he said. It looked as if whoever it was had activated their jump boots, which should have been locked down in such close confines.

  Colonel Proscia glanced at the cadet's biosensors and gave a slight smile, “She's within safety parameters. That was a nice bit of hacking to get around the safety lock outs and then good gunnery to hit two targets in those conditions.”

  “She could have seriously injured herself,” Lucius said. “We don't need officers who are a danger to themselves and their people.”

  “Well,” Colonel Proscia said, his tone light, “Perhaps you could tell her yourself, sir, she's your sister.”

  Lucius's jaw dropped. He had known, consciously, that his sister was here at the Academy and participating in the training, but he hadn't thought of her in these types of conditions. “Well,” he heard himself say, “I suppose I should let you do your job and stop meddling.”

  ***

  The conference room with it's landing pad sized table hadn't changed, the officers around it were mostly the same, but to Lucius, this meeting felt far different from those which had taken place there before. Part of that was the fact that they had gone to war, not just once but several times. That gave Lucius a better appreciation for the skill and measure of each of the officers in the room.

  The other part, of course, was knowing that a significant number of the officers in the room belonged to a cabal whose apparent goal was to institute a coup de tat followed by a military dictatorship. The fact that they had tried to kill his good friend, Captain Anthony Doko, and and his friend's wife, Lizmadie, made him that much angrier. If I knew who all was involved I would move on them now, Lucius thought darkly, yet if I miss even one or two of their key people they may still be able to take action and get too many good people killed.

  Lucius found it difficult to keep a polite face while knowing that some of the men and women here planned to have him and his friends killed. The roiling anger he felt about their petty selfishness and ambition made it that much harder to appear calm. The human race as a whole was at stake, yet these selfish bastards refused to put aside their own interests to save it.

  Half of the conference room was empty, a pointed reminder that Admiral Dreyfus and a sizable portion of the Fleet remained in position at Tehran and Danar. Once again, Lucius wondered just how he would break the news of the conspiracy to the old Admiral... and if he could fully trust the man. In part he was grateful that Admiral Dreyfus's wounds and the damage to his ships had kept him in the Tehran system. At least gave Lucius more time to consider how to go about the difficult tasks of figuring how to tell the old war hero and a bit more time to identify more of the conspirators.

  “Well,” Lucius said, “Let's begin. Captain Beeson, would you give us a status of forces update?”

  “Yes, sir,” Captain Daniel Beeson stood, his face impassive. The once beefy-young man had lost a great deal of weight since he first signed on with Lucius's forces. He had also lost his eager smile and much of his optimism, which saddened Lucius a great deal. Then again, his entire extended family, one of Faraday's oldest military families, had died under the Chxor occupation of Faraday and that would be enough to change anyone. “All of our Crusader-class ships are at ninety percent capacity or better, with Admiral Dreyfus's flagship, Paladin, in the worst shape after his battle at the Tehran System.”

  Captain Beeson paused and brought up an overlay of the fleet as a whole. Lucius winced, again, as he saw the swath of red across the lighter elements of their fleet. The most painful among those losses were the battlecruisers and heavy cruisers whose firepower and staying power had filled a vital role in their fleet. Those losses were all the worse for the fact that their shipyards were not up to replacing ships of that size yet.

  “Our lighter forces, as you can see,” Daniel Beeson said, “are at less than seventy percent overall strength. Twenty percent of those ships are at thirty percent combat effectiveness or less.” The obvious reason for that was the bad mauling that Admiral Dreyfus's forces had received at the Tehran system. Lucius blamed himself, for it seemed as if many of the officers in command of the legacy ships of the Dreyfus Fleet still thought in terms of the era of warfare from the time of Amalgamated Worlds. They didn't understand – or didn't want to understand – the changes in tactical and strategic paradigms. Admiral Dreyfus's ships had closed in a close range fight against a numerically superior Chxor force at Tehran.

  While the Dreyfus Fleet's ships were better, the lighter ships of his screen were also far smaller and less armored than the Chxor dreadnoughts they had engaged. They'd annihilated the Chxor fleet in the system, but only at severe losses and even his massive Crusader-class ships had taken heavy damage.

  “Admiral Dreyfus's Task Force Two remains staged at the Tehran System undergoing repairs, other than the three vessels that returned here for more serious repairs. Task Force Three retains the Danar system. Our Nova Roma allies,” Daniel Beeson nodded to where Emperor Romulous IV, Admiral Mund, and Lord Admiral Balventia sat, “have finished refitting and upgrading their vessels and they are staged to assist in the defense of Faraday or to go on the offense as needed.”

  “That ends my status of forces estimate and I'll be followed by Captain Magnani,” he said calmly. It was some measure of his self-control that he didn't let any of his antipathy for Captain Magnani to show in his expression or tone.

  Captain Magnani was not his equal in that regard. “Yes, well, thank you, Captain Beeson.” Her moue of distaste could not have been more obvious. “Unfortunately, our logistic situation has been exacerbated not only by the losses suffered by Admiral Dreyfus, but also by the large expenditures of munitions in both battles. In fact, I estimate that we will be at only sixty percent of our total munitions in any fut
ure battle.”

  “Sixty percent?” Lucius asked sharply. That didn't match with the estimates that he had already seen. By those estimates, they had two complete load-outs of munitions. The heavy antimatter warheads that the Dreyfus Fleet ships used were far more powerful than the equivalent fusion warheads used by both the Chxor and Nova Roma.

  “Yes, sir,” Captain Magnani seemed to relish the opportunity to deliver the bad news. It was a pointed reminder to Lucius that his investigation had so far implicated her involvement in the traitorous cabal. “Unfortunately, it looks like our prior estimates of warhead reserves were overly optimistic. After going back and doing a thorough inventory, it appears that almost three quarters of our stocks were actually consumed in the Third Battle of Faraday.” She shrugged slightly, “It appears there was an accounting error on the part of Commander Jin Wong, who was killed in the Tehran System. I think that she had noticed the error but actively worked to cover it up in order to prevent disciplinary actions.”

  “What?!” Lucius asked. To level such an accusation, whatever the founding, in the middle of a brief was unacceptable. This was the kind of thing that was handled through appropriate channels, not thrown in front of the senior commander of the fleet in a casual manner.

  “Baron Giovanni,” Captain Wu said quickly, “I'm afraid that Captain Magnani spoke out of turn. This was something I wanted to bring up, personally, as my people were doing the investigation.”

  Lucius sat back and he felt a wave of cold wash over him as he caught Captain Magnani's slight nod at Captain Wu. Whatever the two of them had said, this was not something that had happened on accident. From the smooth fashion in which Captain Wu stood and her confident expression as she spoke, Lucius could tell that this was something that they had planned and possibly even rehearsed. “Ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid that it appears that Captain Magnani's statement is correct. After she noticed certain discrepancies within logistical inventory, I ordered a full investigation. What we have uncovered so far appears to be either a deliberate cover-up of incompetence or quite possibly a conspiracy on the parts of senior officers to protect Commander Jin Wong from the consequences of her failures. My staff is continuing the investigation, but there are implications that someone of senior rank had assisted Commander Jin Wong's delinquency, possibly as a result of an improper relationship.”

  Her calm, matter-of-fact voice made the statement sound suitably grave. Had Lucius been unaware of the cabal, he would have had no reason to doubt her words... or to look any deeper than the evidence she had no doubt carefully arranged. Thank you, he thought to himself, for showing yourself to me. As far as he knew, Captain Beeson and Ensign Forrest Perkins had not previously had any suspicions of Captain Wu. Yet the implications of her collusion with Captain Magnani along with her own incredibly valuable position as the head of intelligence for the Dreyfus Fleet suggested that she must have a very high rank within the cabal. But not the leader, Lucius thought, that would be whoever put them up to this... possibly to gauge my response.

  Lucius nodded slowly, “That is a serious set of allegations, yet I trust that you wouldn't bring them up without having conducted at least a preliminary investigation.”

  “Of course, sir,” Captain Wu said. “Yet, my people have gone as far as they could without further approval. Thus, I ask for you to authorize me to follow this investigation to its conclusion.”

  And there it is, Lucius thought. A blanket approval, probably crouched in some vague terms, would give her carte blanch to “uncover” crimes and misdemeanors on the behalf of whatever officers the cabal wanted removed. It would then be a simple matter for them to have the officers that they wanted appointed to the vacated positions.

  How long, Lucius wondered, have they worked their way through every aspect of the Fleet, all the while unknown to Admiral Dreyfus?

  Part of Lucius wanted to blame the old Admiral, yet how could he? Lucius himself knew the trust that built up over time between officers. Admiral Dreyfus had served with many of these officers for over a century. Before their self-imposed exile, they had fought and bled together against the Provisional Colonial Republic Army, two Wrethe Incursions, and a host of other threats. These men and women had all volunteered to leave their nation behind, to abandon everything they knew, in order to be the last, hidden hope of humanity.

  And some of them, Lucius thought darkly, either planned to hijack that hope from the beginning or have come to want payment for their sacrifices.

  Lucius realized that he had been quiet too long when Captain Wu cleared her throat. Lucius shook his head and gave her a slight smile, “I'm sorry, Captain, the implications are disturbing, I must admit. Have your request written up and forwarded to my Flag Lieutenant. I'll look it over and authorize it as long as I don't see any legal issues.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Captain Wu said.

  “Now, then,” Lucius said, “Let's continue the briefing, shall we?”

  ***.

  Lucius paused as he stepped into his office. He wasn't certain what had made him pause, not at first. It was as if there were something wrong, subtly about the entire room. Something that felt not just wrong, but dangerous, hostile in such a way as to almost make him turn around and shout for help. The moment passed, though, and Lucius walked forward, his gaze searched for anything out of place. He frowned, then, when he saw a small slip of plasfilm setting square in the center of his desk.

  It should not be there. His office was in one of Faraday's former government buildings that the new United Colonies government had appropriated. The building itself had extensive security from the prior government, the Chxor occupation, and then from Alicia Nix's Federal Investigation Bureau. Due to the sensitive nature of the information that went across his desk, only a handful of people had access to his offices.

  Not long ago, a psychic had managed to gain access, but he had since become a part of the additional layer of defenses. Even if all the other precautions failed, his secretary, Cindy, should have notified him if anyone had accessed the office.

  Lucius almost called her in to ask about just that, but he hesitated. There was every possibility that his security had been compromised, which itself was a threat. However, there was also a strong likelihood that whoever this was, they didn't mean him any harm.

  Lucius reached out and picked up the note. He blinked as he saw that there was nothing on it, just an empty slip of plasfilm. Then, the surface rippled. Biometric plasfilm, he thought, as it reacted to his touch, a message meant only for me.

  A message that could just have easily been a tailored neurotoxin, he reminded himself.

  The short message contained only two things: a name and a twenty-four character ansible code. The name Lucius recognized very well. Lucretta Mannetti had twice tried to kill him and was a renegade Nova Roma military officer and a highly successful pirate. The ansible code, however, was one he hadn't seen before but he could assume that it would work.

  He set the slip of plasfilm down and its text disappeared again. The message itself told him several things, one of which was that his benefactor, if he could call him that, had valid biometric data on him. That in itself was notable, as it implied a high level of access to either the Fleet's databases, Alicia Nix's files in the FIB, or possibly Nova Roma's data.

  Lucius frowned over the possibilities as he picked it up again and committed the ansible code to his memory. If it was a direct connection to Admiral Lucretta Mannetti as it seemed to be, then it might be very valuable, indeed. A direct link to her would give him the opportunity to confirm several things and perhaps even to clear Anthony Doko's name. Certainly Lucius would have to approach any such contact very carefully.

  He sat down as he thought about his friend, Anthony Doko. The recent attempt on his life, possibly by the same conspirators who planned to seize control of the Dreyfus Fleet, made Lucius feel both guilty and angry. The evidence against Doko, while circumstantial, was enough that Lucius had no choice but to pull him out
of his position. That evidence suggested that Captain Anthony Doko had been a long time agent for Admiral Mannetti. Anthony had accepted house arrest while the investigation continued. Only quick thinking on he and his wife's parts and skilled training in self-defense had prevented their deaths.

  In all likelihood, the person who had provided this information was the agent who actually worked for Admiral Mannetti. Lucius couldn't guess at the reasons that he'd provided the information. For that matter, given Lucretta Mannetti's hatred for Lucius, it was even odds that she would have ordered her agent to plant a bomb in his office as likely as it was for her to want to talk to him. Well, Lucius thought, more likely that she'd have him plant a bomb under my chair so that she could see my face when I called her.

  Lucius glanced under his chair, just to be certain, before he stood. Best, he thought, to have security sweep the room... just in case. That was a call that could wait, after all.

  ***

  Captain Daniel Beeson waited while Baron Lucius Giovanni took a seat in the small, secure briefing room. It had been difficult to arrange for this gap in his schedule, at a secure location where they could be certain that no one from the conspirators would get wind of it. Aboard ship, it was easier, but here on Faraday, it seemed that everyone wanted some of Baron Giovanni's time. Whether it was military officers with briefings, engineers briefing their infrastructure upgrades, or politicians wanting to get a feel for their commander in chief, everyone wanted some of the Baron's time.

  And I don't trust the politicians, Daniel thought darkly, half of them would blab it out in order to meet their own goals. Daniel had a low opinion of politics in general, especially after his entire family had paid the price when Faraday's politicians had surrendered to the Chxor. The fact that the Chxor had executed those same politicians when they outlived their usefulness didn't make him any more inclined to forgive them.