New Contract (Perimeter Defense Book #3) (7 page)

First of all, I was interested in how the ice-asteroid-rich Tivalle star system, which I long considered my property, had fallen into the hands of Viscount Sivir ton Mesfelle, Katerina's former classmate. I had sent him only to manage the ice processing facilities but now he had somehow become owner, not only of the processing plants, but the star system itself! What was more, that all happened, I suspect, with Katerina's hand in the mix somewhere, given that I had put her in charge of keeping track of the output of the Tivalle system’s factories.

Having left some other manager in his place, Viscount Sivir had long been back in the Orange House Capital where, every month, he received a profit from the quickly growing rare-isotope-processing facilities of the Tivalle system. Speaking of that, increased demand for ice-processing equipment was the very reason the decision was made to turn the Hnelle warp beacon on permanently again, which is what led to the Alien invasion and the whole crisis I was now in.

To put it briefly, Katerina and I had a serious scrap, and I left her palace without even giving her the gift I'd brought. The whole three-hour flight to my island home, I couldn't relax or concentrate on my work. That’s just how upset I was after the botched meeting. Katerina ton Mesfelle, Master of Rhetoric had played an important role in my plans to repair my standing, which had been so screwed up by Mr. G.I. Because of that, I knew I would have to secure her support one way or another. But how could I make peace with her?

The plane arrived to my island as the sun was rising. In this time zone on Unatari, morning had come. I refused an early breakfast (or would it have been a late dinner?) and heard out a report from Ayna, who also had yet to sleep. Everything had gone completely according to plan with her, though. In the short minute and a half that the Forepost-12 warp beacon was visible, a whole lot was able to be accomplished.

First, a prearranged encrypted message was sent to the Parn system for retransmission to
Space Mutt
. Crown Prince Georg had returned to actively playing
Perimeter Defense
, so the time had come for my companions to leave their sanctuary. Astra, and our son; the paralyzed Florianna, and her overgrown cockroaches; the Arite; Phobos; and Valian could all make their way back to civilization now. The coast was clear.

Second, forty-five million credits collected from the "rats," who had tried to flee Unatari were successfully transferred to the
Uukresh
. In the accompanying message addressed to Captain Clay ton Avelle, I wrote: "Hold in there, boys! I'll send the rest of what you're due in a couple days." The transaction went through without a hitch, so the severity of the problem with the long-unprovisioned fleet, I hoped, had at least been somewhat reduced. To fully cover all the debts that had piled up, according to my calculations, I would need another one hundred seventy million credits. I was hoping to find this money through the sale of the valuables from
Queen of Sin
. The announcement of the twenty auctions also made it through to the Empire successfully.

Ah, and the most important thing was that, after two days of communications blackout, a message went out to the Empire that the Unatari star system was holding out, and that Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle was back in command of his fleet.

* * *

"Ruslan, I need to talk to you quick and explain a whole bunch of stuff," Mr. G.I. stammered. As usual, he was interrupting my dream at a very bad time, just as I was trying to get a little rest after an action-packed day.

While I was struggling with the very strong temptation to send him down a footpath of erotic thoughts, Georgiy continued:

"I know that you are very unhappy with what happened during the first contract. Yes, I admit that I didn't always do right by your body. It's hard not giving into temptation and enticement when you suddenly find yourself thirty years younger. It's as if everything was suddenly in color again. Girls, dancing all night, free-flowing sex and alcohol... After so many years of health problems, all that fun tore my roof clean off, and it was hard to keep myself in bounds..."

"Well then what were the drugs for?!" I screamed in reply, but he ignored my question, continuing his speech.

"I know that Miya offered you generous compensation for all my outings. I hope you're not bitter..."

I started boiling in rage and screamed with my full throat:

"Not bitter?! If I could, I would break your arms and legs right now, then claim that’s how I found you! You animal! Jackass! Bastard! You destroyed my body!"

"So then, I hope these old grievances can be considered fully settled." As if nothing had happened, totally ignoring my screams, Georgiy just continued droning on. "I'm not in your body now, so don't worry. It won't happen again. Now, I wanted to tell you why exactly seven months have gone by in
Perimeter
..."

* * *

The conversation ended abruptly in the middle of his sentence. I was awoken by someone shaking me hard by the shoulder. I opened my eyes.

"My Prince, you were screaming in your sleep!" Ayna was standing over my bed in pistachio-colored semi-transparent pajamas.

"I was having a bad dream," I explained, trying to calm her down and speak in a tranquil tone, though it wasn't easy.

Mr. G.I. clearly wanted to give me some important information, which could have explained the rift in time. Ayna had woken me up at, of course, a very bad time. On the other hand, it was also good that she woke me up. I might have said something out loud. I smiled at my assistant:

"Thanks for your concern..." I wanted to finish the sentence and send the girl back to sleep, but my gaze got caught on the knobby stitches and scars on the girl's stomach.

Ayna followed my gaze and explained, giving a slanted smile:

"An old wound from my sporting days. After conquering the no-rules fighting and survival contests, I tried my hand at gladiator combat as part of a women’s team,
The Ulia Valkyries
. The draw at the eighth-finals had us going against the former champions, though. The central attacker from
The Tesse Killers
, much to the fans' delight, disemboweled me with her trident. My entrails were strewn about the whole arena. They had to pick them up with a shovel... The medics saved me and sewed me up, though some of my internal organs are still damaged or even totally missing..."

"So that's why Miya isn't worried to leave you alone with her husband?" I guessed in a stroke of genius.

The girl nodded in silence and, after a bit of waiting, whispered, barely audibly:

"Yes. My womb and ovaries have been totally removed. I can't have children, and no operations or money can help me now..."

Ayna spent some time in silence, then suddenly gave a tortured smile:

"That made it very easy to undergo certification and get licensed to work with members of the upper aristocracy as a bodyguard or personal assistant."

"But for some reason, it doesn't look like that makes you too happy... Ayna, I don't yet know what can be done with you. But I assure you that if there is any way, I will help. You have my word as a Crown Prince!"

Standing change. Ayna Mentor's opinion of you has improved.

Presumed personal opinion of you: +58 (trusting)

* * *

After seven months of absence, Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky was about to make his first speech to his fleet. There was a huge amount riding on how it would be received, so I was feeling very anxious, though I was trying not to show it. The small hall of the space station had been able to fit all the captains and senior officers from the Unatari Star Fleet, but it wasn't easy. On my way up to the platform, I saw that many of those gathered were wearing Black Stars on their Orange House uniforms. These people had made it through many battles with me, but were now trapped in a fog. They had absolutely no idea what to expect from me, their unpredictable commander.

I greeted the officers and got a discordant mumble in reply. Off to a bad start! Once, their reply to the Prince had been an elated roar. Without showing that I was disheartened by the cold reception, I began my speech:

"The most recent intelligence from our cloaked frigates shows that the Alien fleet is still in the Hnelle system. Their reports indicate that the Aliens have one
Queen
; five
Mammoths
; one hundred seventy
Behemoths
; four hundred cruisers, both
Sledgehammers
and
Chainsaws
; and two thousand five hundred smaller starships. That means this must be the remnants of the very same Alien fleet we went up against in the Aysar Cluster. That is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good in that the Aliens were not able to reinforce their heavy ship losses in the ten months since our last battle. That means their resources are, in fact, limited, and that they are not capable of replacing lost ships. What's bad is that this exact Alien fleet has already met with us in combat and demonstrated its ability to learn from mistakes. We won't be able to pull the same tricks as last time. That's why we're going to have to change tactics. Only light ships will be headed to the battle in the Hnelle system this time."

"But that's suicide!" Someone screamed out from the depths of the hall.

The rest of the officers started grumbling and turned to see who had been bold enough to dispute the fleet commander's decision like that. Admiral Mike ton Akad, scrolling through a list on his palmtop computer, pointed me in the right direction:

"It's the captain of
Curse-36
, a total greenhorn. He graduated from the Space Military Academy just last year, and has only fought in one battle."

While I listened to the admiral speak, another two captains loudly voiced their own objections:

"How will we survive the six hours needed to recharge our energy drives? That's plenty of time for the Aliens to make minced meat out of us!"

"Do you not understand that the Prince doesn't give a shit about us? We'll be there dying and distracting the Aliens, while
Queen of Sin
slips past the dangerous system to safety!"

The audience began buzzing in discontent. Here, the microphone was taken up by Tamara Vuzhek, the highly-decorated captain of
Warhawk-4
.

"I want to remind you all that this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Remember before the battle in the Nayal system? The Crown Prince explained clearly what is to be done with cowards," the girl exclaimed, reaching for her holster.

"
Warhawk-4,
stand down!" I hurried to interfere and ease my subject’s nerves. "Let them talk. This is all understandable stuff!"

I saw on Tamara Vuzhek's face that she did not understand. Many other officers seemed to feel the same, which is why I immediately explained:

"The Alien
Queen
has one very unfortunate ability: she can attack people's minds. She must be trying to fill us, her potential victims, with a feeling of dread, hopelessness, and futility. The strong of spirit will bear such a mental attack easily, but the weak will break and give in to the suggestions. They will start to believe that the Aliens will reward anyone who joins their side. During our raid through Alien-controlled Swarm space, we had a few officers come under the
Queen
's sway. Fortunately, our Truth Seeker detected it before they could betray us, and they were arrested in secrecy. Now, we have another meeting with the
Queen
ahead of us, so it's important to pick out all those who have already given up mentally before the battle begins. It's better to replace these people with more reliable officers than to have them stab us in the back later. So, ladies and gentlemen, who among you thinks this situation is hopeless? Who among you supposes that Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky has nothing better to do than send his most experienced and loyal people to their deaths?"

I took a close look at the silent crowd. No one was making a peep or voicing their doubts about the forthcoming battle. I could relax a bit. The rebellion was suppressed before it even got off the ground. The officers were listening to their commander with rapt attention once again. I continued my speech:

"And now, let's talk about another thing I heard said – that 'the Prince will flee on his yacht.' We won't point fingers now at the one who said it, but let him think long and hard on whether these thoughts truly belonged to him, or were inspired by the enemy. If I wanted to run, I could have done so long ago on a cloaked frigate. But, as you see, I remained here with you. And one more thing, I'll be going into battle on one of your ships, so I wouldn’t be able to flee even if I wanted to."

Standing change. Empire Military faction opinion of you has improved.

Present Empire Military faction opinion of you: +18 (warm)

Oh! Better already. I was on the right path. Now was the time to build on my success.

"No one in the Empire has such vast experience fighting Aliens as the veterans gathered in this hall. Sure, we may no longer fly under the banner of the Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet, but our experience and abilities remain as they ever were! We have defeated the Aliens in Hnelle two times before. We have met with the
Queen
, and come up against even larger enemy armadas in the past. If anyone can take the Aliens in Hnelle, we can! We've never been defeated! The whole Unatari star system has placed their hopes on us. The lives of sixty-three million people are hanging in the balance. It’s our job to save them. My mission is to figure out how we can do that. Your mission is to practice our new approaches and tactics over the next two days until they become second nature. They are what will help us survive the forthcoming battle. Notice here that I didn't say 'win,' as I myself do not yet know how to destroy the
Queen
. But I did say 'survive.' We are capable of not dying and thinning out the Alien fleet a good deal. That much I promise you!!!"