Rebel (11 page)

He paused to see if anyone was going to walk out right then and there—and sure enough, three captains and their crews did just that.

"They made an honest decision, and I don't want anyone here to hold it against them," he said when the last of them had left the theater. "Now, as for the immediate future: After tomorrow's deadline, we will disperse throughout the Frontier, recruiting spotters on each world, giving them secure channels to report the comings and goings of Navy ships. We'll pass the word that we're also recruiting ships and crews. I don't care what they've done in the past. If they'll pledge their allegiance and take our orders, they're welcome.

"Now," he continued, "once we start, we'll have to pick our spots very carefully. On any given day we're outnumbered on the Frontier, let alone in the Republic. There can be no survivors—at least none that are allowed to return to the Republic—until I say otherwise; it's too soon to let the enemy know who or what they're up against. When the time comes, we'll make sure a survivor or two gets back to tell them that they are no longer allowed here." He paused for a moment, ordering his thoughts. "Now understand, I am not ordering you to kill those who surrender or are too badly wounded to fight. They will be incarcerated in a prison and kept incommunicado until such time as we're prepared to let them return to their homes."

"I may know a world that can serve as a prison," offered one of the captains.

"Good," said Cole. "Talk to me about it when this meeting is over." He paused. "Now, sooner or later the Navy is going to find out where we are, so we're going to have to make Singapore Station impregnable, and give it ten times the defenses and firepower we supplied it with when we chased Csonti and his crew out of here a few months ago. Some of you are going to continue to accept commissions from the Duke and David Copperfield in order to pay for these improvements."

Cole looked around the room. "If there are no questions, that concludes this meeting."

"I've got one," said a crewman from the back of the room. "The Navy has been abusing the Inner Frontier since long before any of us were born. Just what did they do to Commander Forrice to elicit this kind of response?"

"It wasn't what they did to Forrice," replied Cole. "It was what they did to Braccio II."

"I'd still like to know."

"All right," said Cole. "I'll make the holo we received of Commander Forrice available to all of our ships, and you can draw your own conclusions."

And I hope that doesn't scare half of you off,
he added mentally.

"Well?" said Cole as he reached the bridge the next morning. "What's the bad news?"

"We lost eight more ships, sir," said Rachel Marcos, who was at the main computer station.

"Can't say that I blame them," replied Cole. "They didn't know Four Eyes, they don't give a damn about the Republic, and there's no money in it for them."

"And we still have a fleet of forty ships," added Rachel.

"Yeah, when you're up against all those millions, I don't suppose there's a hell of a lot of difference between forty and fifty," said Cole wryly. "By the way, this is still red shift, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"So where's Jacovic?"

"I believe he's at the station, sir."

"His first day on duty and he's already deserted his post," said Cole. "I've seen better beginnings."

"I'm back," said an alien voice, and they turned and saw Jacovic approaching them.

"You weren't supposed to be gone," said Cole.

"The ship is docked, and I saw the possibility of adding to our fleet," said Jacovic. "Two Teroni ships arrived I last night. I took the liberty of visiting them, and they have pledged their support."

"Of course they have," said Cole. "They get to shoot down Navy ships."

"If I misunderstood you yesterday," began Jacovic, "I can tell them that—"

"You did fine," said Cole. "Executive officers are supposed to use their initiative. In fact, you might spend some of your time at Duke's Place and the non-human restaurants. There are bound to be other Teronis there. See if you can get them to convince their captains to join the cause. We're going to need all the help we can get."

"Yes, sir."

"And while I'm thinking of it, we've still got some Lodinites, Mollutei, and a couple of other races aboard the ship," said Cole. "Suggest to each of them that they spend some time on the station, recruiting members of their races and anyone else they know."

"I'll do that after I seek out Teronis on Singapore Station," promised Jacovic.

"Do it now," said Cole. Jacovic looked at him questioningly. "You're still on duty. This qualifies."

"Yes, sir."

He turned to Rachel. "Are you dating anyone at the station?"

"No, sir."

"As young and blonde and pretty as you are?" said Cole. "What a pity You've taken one of my best recruiting tools away."

"Thank you," she said. "I think."

He looked over at Domak, a warrior-caste Polonoi with more natural body armor than some perfectly healthy men could carry, and decided that she wasn't seeing anyone socially—or, if she was, he was just as happy not meeting the object of her affections.

Suddenly the Platinum Duke's face appeared in front of Cole.

"How did your meeting go?" he asked.

"Don't pretend you don't know," said Cole. "I saw the holo camera blinking up in the balcony."

"Just in case you said anything momentous."

"Good. Shoot it over to the ship, and I'll have Christine send it out as a recruiting holo."

"No problem."

"I assume you watched it?"

"Of course," said the Duke. "You should have made me sound more heroic, donating Singapore Station to the cause."

"And simultaneously not losing more than five hundred drinkers and gamblers," said Cole with a smile.

"Well said," replied the Duke. "By the way, I haven't seen David Copperfield since your speech. I wonder where he's hiding?"

"Beats me," said Cole. "All I know is that he's not in a bulkhead. He used to hide there during battles, but then he found out that our sensor system could always pick him up. He's probably somewhere on the station."

"How did such a coward get to be the biggest fence on the Frontier?"

"He's a damned good businessman."

"But wasn't he terrified of the people he did business with?" asked the Duke.

"He always met them on his turf," replied Cole. Suddenly he smiled. "The first time I met him he had eight or nine hidden guns trained on me. That has to boost a coward's confidence."

"And he joined you solely because you called yourself Steerforth?"

"He joined me because I offered him protection and used the name of a character from
David Copperfield.
He stayed because he was able to earn a lot of commissions for us when we became mercenaries."

"Interesting little character, always dressing like something from Charles Dickens."

"Well, we can't all be things of metallic beauty like yourself,'' said Cole.

"Of course you can," said the Duke. "All it takes is a lot of time and even more money."

"Money's going to be in short supply for a while. We've got to turn Singapore Station into a fortress, remember?"

"It didn't take that much time or money the last time, when you had that little skirmish with Csonti."

"Probably because it
was
a little skirmish," replied Cole. "Csonti had fewer than thirty ships, and a number of them were not what one would call loyal. The Navy could come here with a hundred ships, each of which could do more damage that fifty Csontis."

"Point taken," said the Duke. "How do we go about it?"

"I'll send Mustapha Odom—that's our chief engineer—over later today. He's not much to look at, and even less to talk to, but he knows his stuff, and there's no one I'd trust more to make a place like this attack-proof. Probably I'll send Val over, too. Not much gets by her."

"We could just stand her on one of the docks armed with a thumper and a laser rifle, and that's all the defense we'd need," said the Duke.

"You won't need any for a few weeks, unless we screw up pretty badly," said Cole. "Then you'll wish you had five thousand of her."

"How soon do you expect to see conflict?"

"I don't know. No one fought those other five ships, and they're safely back in the Republic by now. I wish we could make them our target, but they may never even enter the Frontier again." He paused and ran a hand through his hair. "That isn't to say that there aren't a couple of hundred Navy ships here right now. We'll try to pick one that's all by itself, and destroy it so fast it hasn't got time to send out a message. We're not ready for the Republic to come looking for us yet.

"You're forgetting something, Wilson."

"Oh?"

The Duke nodded. "They know the
Theodore Roosevelt
is in the Inner Frontier, and they know you killed the
Endless Night.
Won't it be logical for them to assume you've killed any other ship that suddenly vanishes on the Frontier?"

"Perhaps. But if we do it right, if we don't leave any trace, if we prevent the ship from sending out an SOS, then I don't see what they can do about it short of sending in a couple of thousand ships they can't spare to do a really thorough search."

"That's a lot of ifs," noted the Duke.

"We're drawing a line in the dirt—well, in space—and telling the greatest military power in the history of the galaxy that they can't cross it," said Cole. "I don't know how you do it
except
with a lot of ifs."

"To say nothing of maybes."

"Yeah," said Cole grimly. "Let's not even think of
them."

The next day the Duke showed Cole an unused building and offered to let him use it as his headquarters, a place that would be the nerve center of the operation, through which all orders and messages would pass. Cole thanked him politely, but turned it down.

"But
why?"
insisted the Duke. "Surely you realize the importance of keeping in touch with all your ships and all your spies and spotters."

"Of course," said Cole. "But I also realize the importance of being a moving target rather than a stationary one. Christine and Briggs can handle the operation from the
Teddy R."

"Then why have you got your engineer walking every inch of Singapore Station and its docks, making copious notes on our defenses or lack of them?"

"This is where all the ships will be coming for fuel and for supplies whenever it's possible. We can't keep it secret forever, so this is the place we have to spend most of our efforts protecting."

"I just wonder how much this is going to cost me," muttered the Duke.

"If it's too much, tell Mr. Odom you won't pay it and that he shouldn't install it."

"Have I mentioned what I think of your sense of humor?" asked the Duke.

"Not since yesterday."

"Well, it hasn't changed."

Suddenly Christine's image popped into existence. "Exuse me, sir, but we've got an urgent message coming in from Captain Velasquez."

"He's one of the ones who joined us after the Slocomb III operation, right?" said Cole.

"That's right, sir."

"Okay, put him through."

Velasquez's image appeared. He was a middle-aged man, carrying several scars on his face and body from his experiences on the Inner Frontier.

"This is Marco Velasquez, Captain of the
Purple Streak"
he said.

"What can I do for you?" asked Cole.

"We've just spotted a lone Navy ship traveling from Mariano II toward the Stromboli system. Our sensors indicate that it has Level 4 thumpers and laser cannons."

"Can your ship stand up to that kind of firepower?" Cole asked him.

"Definitely not," answered Velasquez promptly. "But we have two other ships in the vicinity, and I think we can triangulate and take him out before he knows we're here."

"Did he do any damage in the Mariano system?" asked Cole.

"None that our instruments could find, sir."

"Stay out of his firing range, track him, and keep an eye on him, but take no action except on my direct order," said Cole.

"Yes, sir," said Velasquez.

"And report to me if he fires on anyone or forcibly takes anything that isn't his."

"Yes, sir."

Cole broke the communication.

"What was
that
about?" asked the Duke. "We've got three ships out there, and it's very likely this Navy ship is on some solo mission. Why not destroy him right now?"

"He doesn't seem to be on the warpath. We'll keep an eye on him.

If he starts taking food or other supplies at gunpoint, we'll move in on him, otherwise no. I want our first few actions to be against Navy ships that are in the actual act of harming, robbing, or intimidating citizens of the Inner Frontier."

"So you're just going to let this one go?" said the Duke.

"Don't worry," replied Cole. "We're not going to run out of targets."

"I just hope this doesn't bring us a million new ones."

"It won't," said Cole. "If they sent the fleet here, the whole Republic would be speaking Teroni by next month."

"How long before some of your pirate crews revert to form?"

"If we can give them some action and let them share some spoils, they'll stick around. If not, we'll go out and get more."

"You don't seem very concerned," noted the Duke.

"I've made my decision, and I'm comfortable with it," said Cole. "The crew of the
Teddy R
has been a lot of things we weren't trained to be—mutineers, pirates, even mercenaries. We're a military unit, and we still believe in all that crap military people are supposed to believe in. We joined up to help the helpless, to protect the weak, and to stand up to the bad guys. Somewhere along the way we made the same discovery about the Republic that Jacovic made about the Teroni Federation: The bad guys are
us.
We went to war against Csonti and Machtel and the others for money. Now we're going to war for the right reason, the same reason each of us enlisted in the first place. There's something very wrong going on, and we're going to put it right."

"I'm sure that brings you spiritual comfort," said the Duke, "but there are still a lot of them and very few of you."

"We've been aware of that from the day we left the Republic," replied Cole. "Maybe if we'd paid it a little less attention, Four Eyes would still be alive. Maybe two million inhabitants of Braccio II would be too."

"And maybe
you
wouldn't be."

Cole shrugged. "Maybe," he admitted. "Choices aren't always easy, and you don't always know right away if you've made the right one."

"Everything's a crapshoot," offered the Duke. "One Molarian whore comes into season last week and Forrice stays here, he and the other crewman live, the
Endless Night
lives, Braccio II lives, the next ship you're going to blow apart lives. All because she's not in season. Think about it."

"I try not to," answered Cole. "Think about it enough and you start to convince yourself that it's not the Republic's fault, that Four Eyes is really dead because of a fluke of timing right here on the station, that the villain isn't the
Endless Night
but Fate." Cole's face hardened. "But it wasn't Fate that tortured him to death, and it wasn't Fate that incinerated two million innocent people."

Suddenly the image of Marco Velasquez appeared again.

"What's up?" asked Cole.

"The Navy ship we've been tracking has gone into the Stromboli system and taken up orbit around the fourth planet. None of their weapons have been activated, none of their defenses are in operation, and they haven't communicated with the populace."

"They're just showing off their muscles and reminding everyone they're there," said Cole. "All right, Captain. Keep a watch on them and stay out of range of their weapons."

"What if they head back to the Republic?" asked Velasquez.

"They get safe passage," said Cole.
"This
time."

"Yes, sir."

The transmission ended, and Cole turned back to the Duke. "Thanks again for offering this building, but like I said, we'll run all the communications through the ship."

"I'll keep it empty anyway," said the Duke. "You can never tell when you might need it."

"That's up to you," said Cole. "I think I'd better be getting back to the
Teddy R."

"Whatever for?" replied the Duke. "What can you do there that you can't do here?"

"Sharon might blush if I told you," said Cole with a smile.

"She never struck me as the blushing type," said the Duke.

"Now that you mention it . . ." said Cole.

"Go ahead," said Sharon's disembodied voice. "Just keep talking about me as if I wasn't here."

"You
aren't
here," said Cole. "And isn't your spying supposed to end at the ship's hatch?"

"I'm not spying, I'm eavesdropping," she said.

"I assume you have some reason other that an incredibly misplaced jealousy?"

"You announced that we were at war, and then you failed to order an attack on the first enemy ship we spotted," said Sharon. "I was curious to know why."

"We'll catch one in
flagrante delicto
soon enough," said Cole. "That is, after all, what they
do
on the Inner Frontier."

"Are you coming back for lunch?"

"Yeah, I'm through here."

"I'm sorry to steal him away from you, Duke," said Sharon.

"Then don't," said the Duke. "Be my guests at the casino. I hired a new chef last night."

"Sure, why not?" said Sharon. "Ten minutes?"

"That'll be fine."

Sharon broke the connection, and then Cole and the Platinum Duke made their way through the corridors and levels of the station to Duke's Place, where they found Sharon already waiting for them.

They had gotten halfway through their meal when Cole received another transmission, this one from Vladimir Sokolov.

"What's up?"

"We've got one in our sights, sir," said Sokolov. "The
Bajia
out of New Brazil."

"Where are you?"

"I'm just outside the Rogentus system, sir, and the
Bajia's
on Rogentus III."

"What's it doing there?"

"Appropriating farm produce that had been packaged for export."

"You're sure?" said Cole.

"Yes, sir," said Sokolov. "This has been confirmed by Mr. Moyer's ship, which is also in the area."

Cole looked across the table at Sharon and the Duke. "I told you it wouldn't take long."

"I didn't understand that, sir," said Sokolov.

"Sorry," said Cole. "I was speaking to someone else. Has the Navy ship got any visible defenses other than the standard screens?"

"No, sir."

"Okay. You and Moyer know its weakest points. Attack at will. Survivors are acceptable, provided they are apprehended and brought back to the station." He paused. "Escapees are unacceptable. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir. Anything reasonable gets captured, anything else gets killed."

"That's right," said Cole. "No exceptions."

"Stay connected and I'll give you a report in just a minute," said Sokolov.

"Will do."

There was a moment of silence, and then Sokolov spoke again.

"We nailed him right where he sat on the ground, sir."

"Any survivors?"

"I sure as hell doubt it. Let me check . . . No, neither Moyer's sensors nor ours can spot any, sir."

"Stick around to make sure you're not missing anyone. If you do find any survivors, take them prisoner and then return to base."

Sokolov frowned. "To
base,
sir?"

"I'd rather not name the exact location on a subspace transmission that can be intercepted," said Cole. "Would calling it headquarters make it any easier?"

"Yes, sir," said Sokolov with a guilty smile as he broke the connection.

"Well, it's begun," said Cole to Sharon and the Platinum Duke as he broke the connection. "For better or worse, we are now at war with the Republic."

"So you've cost them one ship out of how many millions?" said the Duke. He uttered a sardonic chuckle. "How long do you suppose it'll be before they even notice?"

"Sooner than you think," replied Cole seriously.