New Contract (Perimeter Defense Book #3) (34 page)

* * *

Ayna placed a mug of roast-firo-nut beverage in front of me. My cousin, though, refused her portion of "coffee." Basically, Katerina was looking unusually scatter-brained today and very uneasy. I asked her why she was in such a pensive mood, and my cousin just shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't like any of this one bit, Georg. Whether our plans work or not depends on factors that are entirely beyond our control. I understand the general idea: you want to pressure Svetlana ton Mesfelle with her fleet and negotiate certain concessions from the Orange House. But what if the Perimeter Sector Nine Fleet isn't in the Forepost-4 system?"

"It is there, dear cousin, and it won't be moving.
Eleven
saw it when it was returning through Sector Nine. And also, little Florianna confirms that the fleet is still there."

Katerina thoughtfully twisted a lock of hair and told me her opinion:

"Cousin, I do agree with you that the plan might work. Svetlana ton Mesfelle is very ambitious, and she no longer has any reason to remain faithful to the Orange House. Also, she does not know that the Swarm ships will not go on the attack, and will only see that her enemy has five times as many ships as she does. If you make her choose between complete annihilation, which would be inevitable given the balance of forces, and some political concessions, she would have to choose the latter. In my opinion, she will agree to cancel the blockade."

"Cousin, I want more from her than mere political concessions. Svetlana ton Mesfelle cannot know that we are very pressed for time. She will have to think that a fully-fledged invasion of the Unatari State into Sector Nine has begun, and that switched off warp beacons are somehow not holding us back, and that we will capture one system after the other until we take the whole region. You know Svetlana well, and I want you to talk to her face-to-face. Promise her a title, money, glory, star systems, whatever you need, but she must join our side. The Sector Nine Fleet is the only significant military force in the area, and all these many minor aristocrats are just like weathercocks, and will change their orientation as soon as they see that the political winds have shifted, and that their only protector has joined with Unatari."

"I will try, Georg, but I cannot make any guarantees." My cousin threw herself wearily back into her chair. "I really feel that the strain of the past days is growing, like a spring being compressed before it shoots back up. Cousin, you've put a lot at stake, but some of the decisions are based only on your intuition, and not at all on accurate calculations or common sense. For example, what if the Alien
Queen
does not leave Himora? Or doesn't make a mental attack? Or does attack, but the Truth Seekers find themselves weaker than her? Also, to change the topic completely: why did you give your newest technologies to the Swarm? For illusive loyalty points with the Queen? Nai Igir will be dead soon, and all of the dividends from your act will evaporate in an instant. In the more distant future, you have empowered a potentially dangerous neighbor, which one day could think itself more powerful than us, and stop respecting our border."

I went silent, as I had nothing to respond to my cousin with. Yes, I had bet precisely on increasing the Swarm Queen's loyalty, hoping to pump up my personal relationship with Nai Igir, which made the news of her forthcoming end an extremely unpleasant surprise.

"Alright Georg, let's go to headquarters already. Ten minutes until the fleet comes out of the warp tunnel."

Having finished what was left of my cold "coffee," I went on to my work desk in the fleet headquarters. It was quite animated here today. Military officers from
Joan the Fatty
were clearly starving for real action after nine months of calm, so they were excited and perceived the conflict with the Orange House as a great reason to return to active life.

"To your places, dear officers. Let's kick it into gear. All systems check. As soon as we come out of the warp tunnel, I need a tactical grid. Mark the Fastel and Red-Blue fleets as our ships, and the Swarm as allies. The enemy has two
Monarch
-class battleships:
Svetlana the Magnificent
and
Svetlana ton Mesfelle
. Our priority is to capture both battleships with disruptors. They cannot be allowed to leave no matter what. And basically, make sure we work in an organized fashion. The enemy has fifty ships. That is nothing to scoff at."

"Thirty seconds to start," stated my new assistant, Tactics Officer Max Gregor, who was seated to my left.

He was doing everything right. An assistant should warn his commander before their ship leaves warp. But I was tripping up on the thought that he was starting to annoy me. I mean, Max was a talented tactician, one of the best in the Unatari fleet. However, I had grown so accustomed to Nicole Savoia sitting in that place, that basically any other officer being there caused me distress. In order not to display my groundless vexation to my subject, I turned toward my synthetic translator:

"Bionica, as soon as we exit, use your connections to figure out where exactly the commanders of the Sector Nine Fleet are located. I am interested in Svetlana ton Mesfelle herself, as well as her senior officers."

"Yes sir, your Majesty," the android girl assured me.

The time had come! We tumbled out into the Forepost-4 system forty miles from the border station, right next to the totally motionless ships of the Sector Nine Fleet.

"Carriers, release
Leeches
! Frigates, advance! Two webs and a disruptor on every small ship. Heavies, go out to firing range, but do not open fire!
Curses
, don’t you just stand there, capture the battleships under disruptor, and set your energy neutralizers on them. Electros, blind the enemy antisupport!"

"Crown Prince, for some reason the Swarm ships are also carrying out your orders!" Max Gregor drew my attention to my allies' strange behavior.

And in fact, around a thousand
Safas
were rushing off in a thick cloud, covering the Sector Nine Fleet, securing all the ships tightly with stasis webs and warp disruptors. But, just like my ships, the Swarm ships did not open fire.

"My Prince, Commander Svetlana ton Mesfelle has been located on the battleship
Svetlana ton Mesfelle
. She is taking a shower. Both admirals have also been detected on the same battleship. They are sleeping in their bunks. On the map, I have marked the locations of these individuals," Bionica brought up a cutaway of a
Monarch
-class battleship on the big screen, showing three bright red markers, indicating the location of the enemy commanders. "I have blocked all doors on their flagship and turned off internal communication systems."

"Great! Bionica, open the airlock. We will land a boarding party. General Savasss Jach, I need their commanders brought here immediately, alive and well!"

I watched on the tactical map as the nearest
Tria
shot ten guided landing modules toward the enemy battleship. All the Sector Nine ships marked with red markers on the map were sitting motionless as before. It seemed to me that the time had come to have a talk with our enemies before their torpor had passed. I took the microphone and ordered myself broadcast on the common channel:

"Attention! This is Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle, Unatari Fleet Commander. I order all Perimeter Sector Nine ships to remain motionless. Any starship that attempts to turn on its thrusters or activate its weapons systems will be destroyed immediately. I remind you that we are in a state of war, so you should heed my word and not provoke my soldiers. Soon, I will hold negotiations with your fleet commander, Svetlana ton Mesfelle, and her senior officers. What I do after that depends on them. In any case, you have my word that anyone who doesn't attempt to break the rules will retain their lives. I swear it as an Imperial Crown Prince!"

I had to end my speech, because several huge Alpha Iseyeks had burst into fleet headquarters. The praying mantises fairly carelessly tossed three silvery, inflated bags on the floor before me and froze motionless, waiting for further orders. I looked in confusion at the insects' quarry, not understanding the meaning of it until one of the bags started moving. Only then did I realize what was inside, and gave a cheerful belly laugh. I took a look at the timer and commented between laughs:

"It's been just four minutes seventeen seconds since we arrived in the Forepost-4 system, and all the leaders of the five-hundred-ship enemy armada are already captured and have been brought before you, commander! I'm sure that record won't be beaten any time soon!"

Popori de Cacha appeared from invisibility and pulled the cord on the bags’ air valves one by one. The fragile- sacks immediately deflated. Two middle-aged men of athletic body type, both wearing nothing but underwear crawled out of two of them, squinting in the bright light and looking very embarrassed.

I read the information on both, which told me their names were Admiral Vajek Lavaelle and Admiral Stefan Antri-Mesfelle. They were old dogs of war, but without any especially impressive achievements. Their fame wasn't too magnificent either. Whoever was in the last bag, though, was in no rush to come out.

"What, didn't you let her get dressed after her shower? You animals!" Katerina said indignantly, walking over to the captive, removing her jacket as she went. "Svetlana, throw this on, and let's go to my cabin. I'll give you some normal clothes."

What happened next I wasn't expecting in the slightest. The naked Sector Nine Fleet Commander stood up abruptly, reached for Katerina's belt holster, removed her laser pistol and, now holding my cousin by the neck, took cover behind her hostage and backed up to the wall.

"Everyone back, or I'll shoot her through the head! Did you already think, Georg, that you had won again? Let's see how happy you'll be with the victory when your cousin is dead! Order your Chameleons to appear and not come near me, otherwise I'll blow her brains out!"

Popori de Cacha gave a modest whistle, and three more Chameleons appeared next to him. Insofar as I understood, there were another three still hiding somewhere in the room. At that time, my cousin Katerina, despite her desperate position, was doing her best to stay calm and even tried to negotiate with the woman now holding her hostage:

"Stop, Svetlana! We came to offer you a title, power and money! The greatest systems in Sector Nine could be yours!"

"I don't need any charity from you! After all the perturbations of the recent days, the line of succession to the Orange House throne has moved forward significantly. I'm already number five. And I'll become number four right after Georg renounces Crown Princess Deia's right to it. And he will do that, otherwise I'll shoot his cousin through the head! And that'd be it. The only ones remaining before me would be old guys. So, what do I need your pitiful charity for, now that I’m sure to become Head of the Orange House one day?! No, I'm not the one who lost here, Georg, you are! You will take your ships out of my zone of responsibility and do everything else I say!"

"She is not all there, Georg. She is really going to kill her hostage, if you do not agree to all of her demands. And these demands will grow with every passing minute, as she thinks herself in control of the situation."

"And could you neutralize her?" I asked Florianna mentally.

"I could, but she wouldn't die right away, so she would still be able to kill Katerina."

"Arite, take a closer look at this woman," I said, turning to an otherwise totally normal looking guard soldier. "Copy her and approach her. I want Svetlana to understand how little I care whether she lives or dies. We can issue any orders we need her to without her."

Svetlana froze in complete surprise when one of my bodyguards stepped forward and changed into a naked girl with wet hair identical to herself. But Svetlana was not able to react to the appearance of her double. Her laser pistol was flung away from Katerina's temple and flew onto the floor. Meanwhile, a bloodied, razor-sharp, Alpha Iseyek appendage poked through the front of her head, extending a whole yard out the other side.

Rosss squeamishly tossed the lifeless body of Svetlana from his upper right appendage, then becoming nearly invisible again. All that remained were the dark red contours of his terrifying pick hovering in the air.

"Why did you have to kill her?" Katerina royl Unatari objected. "Svetlana was just very worked up, which made her overreact! You bruised her ego very badly. After all, she considered herself a great warrior and the commander of a frightening fleet, and you captured her and made her a laughing stock!"

"Cousin, you are mistaken. My Truth Seeker confirmed that Svetlana was about to kill you, so we had to neutralize her. Phobos, tell your partner that he did everything right and will be rewarded for what he’s done."

I ordered the Arite to get dressed, but stay in the form of the dead commander. While her body was being removed and her blood mopped up, I turned to the admirals who were still in shock at what had happened:

"So, I'll explain. For your purposes, Sector Nine Fleet Commander Svetlana ton Mesfelle is alive and, in a few minutes, she will be giving a passionate speech on the common fleet channel. She will declare to her captains that she invited us here, and ordered the warp beacon turned on for us because the Orange House is steeped in corruption, embezzlement, and dirty political struggles, leaving it totally discredited. The Sector Nine Fleet will join the Unatari State. An hour from now, there will be a swearing-in ceremony for your captains and officers. You must remain silent on the incident that happened here until the ceremony is over. I hope you understand all that."