Edge of Redemption (A Star Too Far Book 3) (8 page)

The information William received was even more interesting, at least for the Navy. Encrypted inside of the civilian datastream were bits of Naval intelligence. Sa’Ami raiders were assaulting ships.

The Sa’ami had set remote mining operations with additive manufacturing cells. These cells produced strider drones specifically designed to hit ships coming into systems. The gangly limbs would slash into a ship and disable or destroy. Since most ships heading back for Earth contained minerals it was a self-sustaining operation for the striders.

William studied each report and knew it was only a matter of time until he too ran into it.

The farther away from Earth they went, the more the debris from these attacks was seen. Data repeaters on the edge of systems would blare warnings. At each blink the convoy would go to full battle stations and William would blink his ship through first. But after every blink all they saw was debris.

*

“C
onvoy standby for blink. Shift through fifteen minutes after we do, unless engaged,” William ordered. He released the keybind and nodded to Huron.

The ship’s Engineer was hunched over the console. Beside him sat Lieutenant Shay, leaning back as if in a hammock, relaxed and calm. The displays showed everything ready, everything loaded. The passages echoed as the airlocks sealed throughout the ship.

“We’re green for blink,” Huron said.

“Ms. Shay, you call it.” William said as he engaged the weapons program. Lines of contingencies rolled and flowed before him. He caught bits and pieces of it, mass driver executions, if-then statements, missile protocols. It was a dance and he liked to watch it play out.

“Here we go,” Lieutenant Shay said softly. She slapped the console.

The displays blinked to white and the starscape shifted. Sensor arrays waited, each sucking in every bit of information they could. In the span of a few milliseconds every instrument absorbed every bit of local space. The starscape was calculated, observed, and the position verified.

Then the mass drivers opened fire.

William could almost sense it before they blinked. His fingers danced on the console. The commands between the bridge crew were rapid. The data was still coming in and already the mass drivers had halted and quieted. The initial wave of violence stopped.

The displays showed nothing more in the immediate vicinity. The blink had brought them a step closer to a barren system with nothing but automated mining systems. Clouds of debris twinkled in the dim starlight.

“Clear, Captain,” Lieutenant Shay said. “Here’s the vid.”

One of the screens blanked out followed by a shift of starscape. Red icons were overlaid onto shadows scattered around the ship. A group of four Sa’Ami striders had been barely a kilometer away. Acceleration icons flared followed by an immediate juking and dancing. Mass drivers opened up a moment later and the targets were vaporized.

“That was quick,” Huron said, as the playback cycled once more.

“Go live, Ms. Shay, make sure nothing else is nearby. We’ll cover an AU or so before they come in.” William looked up to the system chart.

The ship released a trio of energy bursts that scattered in all directions. The energy ranged through various spectra and cast out at the speed of light. It plunged through the emptiness around them and returned scattered signatures of dust, micrometeorites, and the accumulated debris of space travel.

“Clear,” Lieutenant Shay said.

“Can they blink?” Huron asked.

William had been afraid that they could. He pictured the striders attacking away from him and began to scratch the palm of his augmetic hand nervously.

“Blink!” Huron called out. The display lit up with both the Core personnel carrier followed by the bulk of the
Grouper
a second later.

Comms chatter tore through the silence from both ships. “They’re on us!” a voice howled from the
Grouper
.

“There!” Lieutenant Shay called out and zoomed in on the outside of the
Grouper
. A pair of large striders leaped along the top of the shipping containers. Each was humanoid and massive with an elongated bulb hanging off the back.

“
Grouper
, seal hatches,” William called as he keyed up the weapons program and fired.

A pair of mass drivers stitched rounds into the
Grouper
. The first strider tumbled away with the bulbous back slapping against it. Sparks and delicate flame erupted.

The second strider leaped and powered down at an odd angle. It had fired a grav drive and pushed itself behind the mass of the freighter.

“Roll
Grouper
! Roll!” William yelled.

“You’re shooting at us!”

“Shut up and roll!” William yelled again.

“Blink!” Huron yelled.

The form of the
Gallipoli
appeared a kilometer on the opposite side of the grouper.

“
Gallipoli
is priming weapons,” Lieutenant Shay said. “We’re in line.”

William calculated the ordinance; he could take a few rounds. “
Gallipoli
! Fire mass drivers on the strider assaulting the
Grouper
!” He leaned forward and watched. Every beat of his heart was like a hammer in his ears.

The
Gallipoli
wore meager armaments, barely enough to show her as a truly armed corvette. But even with a handful of mass drivers, it would be enough.

The green winks came and William’s heartbeat dropped just a touch. The taste of metal was in the back of his mouth.

Mass driver rounds slammed into the
Grouper
in flashes of green and white. The
Gallipoli
ceased fire and all was silent.

“
Grouper
report,” William called over the comms.

“Our cargo! Have you any idea what those containers are worth? They’re irreplaceable!” a voice wailed over the comms.

William keyed the mute for the main speaker. “If they have anything important to say, let me know, Ms. Shay.” He cleared his throat and didn’t relish hailing the
Gallipoli
. He’d made a point of criticizing the Captain of the ship when he discovered he was a mercenary. All he could picture was the mercs who had enslaved the planet Redmond and were going to turn it over to the Hun. Maybe he’d been too harsh, he thought. “
Gallipoli
, well done. Thank you for the assistance.”

“We’ll send you the bill,” Mustafa called back in a heavy voice.

William smiled and nodded. He’d earned that one. “Huron, see if the
Grouper
needs anything, otherwise we continue on.” He kicked back and reviewed the footage of the attack. These weren’t weapons of war, they were designed to inhibit shipping but not destroy it. All signals pointed to a weapon designed to stop the flow of shipping.

Natyasha felt the anger rise. She turned and snapped her head to the Ambassador. “Don’t lecture me about necessities, Myint.” She turned away and looked up to the raw stone of the wall behind her. It was one of the few places around that didn’t weep corrosion. Mineral poor, and safe from prying eyes.

“When the time comes, we will offer support,” Ambassador Myint said in a low voice.

“Why not explain it? Put it to the council? Surely they’ll see the logic?” Garth said. He swirled a wide-mouthed glass before him and stared into the oily brown liquor.

Natyasha pictured the stoic faces of those small minded council members. “Half of them are with, or imported here, by Core. The others are old school colonists, they won’t see the necessities.”

If only it was so easy, she thought. None of them would see that they had to nurture one suitor while exploring all the other options. She looked up to the Ambassador. Slimy bastard, she thought, but weren’t they all?

“What of Core?” Ambassador Myint asked as he paced.

“What of them? They’re the root of the problem here. No tariffs from the Harmony Worlds right?”

“No unequal tariffs.”

Natyasha glared back at the Ambassador. Slimy, she could almost feel it. She needed leverage. The Ambassador would bring troops, foreign troops, and if she didn’t have a counter, they’d be in control. “How tight is the Harmony front?”

Myint raised an eyebrow and shrugged slightly. “I’m an Ambassador, not an Admiral.”

“But surely you must know if the Harmony Worlds will spare starships for us?” Natyasha asked. “How long can we remain free of Core and the UC?”

“How long do we have to? Really?” Garth asked as he leaned forward in his chair. “Once the borders have shifted it’ll be difficult for them to come back in. Cast off that tariff and it’ll be impossible to bring back in.”

Natyasha didn’t buy it. “Core has a claim here, a lot of infrastructure, they won’t just let us walk with it.”

She hated to admit how much of the planet was Core owned. The layer of corporate nanites was thick on damn near everything.

How to get that leverage? She pictured a Hun garrison, her own militia could counter that well enough. Even if they were outgunned, the colonists would have a numerical advantage. She glanced at Myint and watched him expound the details of Burmese origins. It was difficult to keep the disgust off her face. The Ambassador was nearly slavering over the chance to seize the colony, her colony.

Bark spoke and startled Natyasha. “Ma’am, a moment?”

Natyasha nodded and the pair walked out of the room and down a slender hallway with a peaked ceiling.

“We’ve got a convoy coming in, ma’am,” Bark said.

Natyasha looked down at the stout woman. A convoy, she thought. “Who?”

“UC Navy, Core transport, a civilian corvette and an ancient freighter.” Bark shifted where she stood and flexed her augmetic arms. The bared alloy frame hummed and sang lightly.

Natyasha felt a shiver as she watched the mechanical arms. “Send an invite to the Captain of the UC ship. A cruiser?”

“I’m not sure, it’s not a design I’ve ever seen.”

A new design? A ship no one had ever seen? Now that was an interesting bit of leverage. Natyasha turned to the dark hallway and saw the Ambassador gesticulating something to Garth. Leverage indeed. “Could we take it?”

Bark smiled. “Yeah, I think we could.”

Natyasha pictured a starship. Winterthur’s starship.
Her
starship. “Organize a welcoming party. Keep it discrete, your people. None of the riot squad. Save Malic’s boys for something else.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Bark said.

The pair separated and Natyasha walked back to the Ambassador. Garth slouched across from the Ambassador with his head on his chest. Both men were silent.

“Tell her,” Garth said.

Ambassador Myint turned and smiled crookedly at Natyasha. “Can you secure control?”

Natyasha crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “Yes.” Enough bantering with the Ambassador.

The Ambassador’s face turned from the polite tilt of a politician to that of a bargaining opponent. “Riots?”

“We have a riot squad.”

Garth snorted.

“Mr. Garth doesn’t sound convinced,” Ambassador Myint said.

“They’re a bit raw, but effective,” Natyasha said.

“Brutal,” Garth murmured.

Ambassador Myint shrugged. “I have no problem with brutal. But it must be effective!” He snapped his finger at Natyasha. “Once this begins, if you cannot secure control,
we
will. Then I can do nothing, it will be a military matter.”

Natyasha smiled back politely and nodded. Good cop, bad cop. She’d seen it before. He was jockeying.

But what if there was no agreement? What if this was a ruse, and the Ambassador was here to seed dissent? Contingencies flowed. She’d need to attach one of Bark’s crew to the Ambassador. “And your side of the bargain? I’m not going to trade one overlord for another. We need independence.”

Myint smiled and the warm edge of the politician returned. “The Harmony Worlds has no interest in Winterthur as a conquest but only as a trading partner. You are a long way from our space.”

Garth looked to Natyasha. His face wore lines of worry and unhappiness. He opened his mouth as if to speak but instead said nothing.

Natyasha saw her opportunity. Secure the UC starship, secure the colony, and use that leverage against the Harmony Worlds. It might only be one starship, but this far out, one starship was worth a dozen treaties. “Excellent, Ambassador. We can all agree to that, yes?”

Garth looked up through bloodshot eyes and nodded weakly.

Ambassador Myint settled back into his chair and clasped his hands over his breast. A smile of satisfaction rested on his face like it was slathered on. “Of course.”

To add a bit of shock, she thought. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Ambassador, we have a convoy coming in that I must prepare for.”

The look on the Ambassador’s face was exactly what she was waiting for. His eyes betrayed him: he was surprised,
very
surprised. She liked that. Information always made the best leverage.

Garth saw it too and smiled back at Natyasha.

“Well, you are my ride back,” Garth added as he stood and walked towards Natyasha. “Good evening, Ambassador.”

“Good evening indeed,” Ambassador Myint mumbled as he sat alone in rocky silence.

Natyasha walked out feeling satisfied that the Ambassador would have plenty to keep him up at night. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that on one side was an enemy she knew and the other an unknown enemy. It was an option, a start, a place to leap off from. A leap, she thought, that might have a hard landing.

E
milie took a deep breath and tasted the tangy recycled air in the back of her mouth. She was ready to be out of this bucket. As ready as she ever was. She stood and listened to her knees crack.

“Ms. Rose,” Salamasina’s voice purred over the intercom.

Emilie felt her hair rise just listening to the voice. She tapped her fingers against the intercom but didn’t push the button yet. Did she want to talk? “What is it?”

“We’re in system, scans coming in, as you requested.”

The excitement started to rise. The first time she’d been back since leaving all those years ago. Would she know anyone? “Great, send it to my console,” she said in as level a tone as she could manage.