Ronan: Ziva Payvan Book 3 (30 page)

“It doesn’t look good,” Ziva said, simply repeating what the medic had told her.

Based on the way Sedna had maintained some semblance of composure throughout the afternoon, the sudden fit of hysteria she threw herself into was totally unexpected. Ziva couldn’t understand what she was saying or even if she was saying anything specific. She thought she heard her call to Aroska, beg him to do something, but the two HSP agents were dragging her away and her words were unintelligible.

“Take her home, get her kids, and make sure she gets to Noro,” Ziva instructed. One of the officers responded with a quick salute.

“Captain Payvan!”

She bristled and closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath before turning around to locate whoever had called to her this time. The stress of venting to Aroska combined with the stress of the past few minutes was beginning to take its toll on her already-exhausted body, and it was growing increasingly tempting to just leave the scene.

“Captain, you need to see this.” It was the Salex agent who had first showed her around the abduction site the previous afternoon. He beckoned to her and took off at a jog toward the docks and the downed ship.

The look in his eyes – some mixture of excitement and dread – was all the encouragement she needed. She wondered what they’d found that had evoked such a reaction in him.

They arrived back at the ship in a matter of moments; it appeared the fire crews had the situation under control, but the rear end of the vessel was still smoldering. They entered through the same hatch as before and angled toward the cockpit rather than the labs. Several other agents were already gathered there, eyes fixed on the readouts displayed on the control board’s viewscreens.

“Take a look at this, Captain,” someone else said, stepping aside to give her a better look.

Ziva moved forward, sweeping her gaze across the screens as she looked for a starting point. According to the internal computer, the ship was called the
Titania
, and just as they’d suspected, it was registered to a medical facility on Kovis. She doubted it was actually
used
by that facility – having a legitimate registration was just an added layer of protection from Federation police. The galaxy only knew where it had come from and where it was headed.

Based on some of the readings she could see, the
Titania
had been designed with clever shielding technology that kept it from being identified by any scanners that weren’t set to a certain frequency. It was no wonder Port Control had been unable to get any readings from it. It was likely that the only ships that could communicate with it were other Resistance vessels.

“This is what we found most interesting,” one of the agents said, indicating a specific screen. “This vessel has been in contact with a trade ship from Forus called the
Vigilance
—”

Ziva’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of Forus.

“—and they’ve been communicating only via encrypted text-based messages. No voice transmissions, no holo-communication. Must be a security precaution. According to the logs, this ship came from a rendezvous with the
Vigilance
just outside our system. They stuck close enough to the major FTL lanes that we didn’t pick them up. A memo from a Commander Payne states that the
Titania
had orders to return the children before meeting back up with the
Vigilance
as it passed through the system.”

Why would the Resistance risk bringing the children back, especially if the entire Haphezian population was on the lookout for their ship? Perhaps that was the key. Give HSP and the GA something they wanted to see. Force them to focus on a specific thing while something else was happening behind the scenes. The extent to which Ronan had gotten the best of them was already demeaning, and Ziva dreaded to think of what else the Resistance might be planning.

“So the
Vigilance
is here? Somewhere in the system?”

“We believe so, yes.”

“Then forward this data to Na and HSP Headquarters immediately,” she said. “We need to find this ship and take it out.”

“Will do, ma’am. But there’s one more thing.”

She’d started to turn and leave, but the agent’s words stopped her dead in her tracks.

“According to the computer, the
Titania
sent out a distress signal during the crash. Commander Payne’s original orders stated that no one was to be taken alive.”

Ziva had expected as much, but she swallowed as what he was saying sunk in. The agent they’d captured in Haphor…. His bluff about the Resistance coming to finish him off to keep him from talking hadn’t seemed too far-fetched. But he was just one man, a skilled Nosti agent who had no doubt undergone vigorous training to withstand even the most brutal of interrogation tactics. In the grand scheme of things, Ronan probably wasn’t worried about him giving out any information.

But these men aboard the
Titania?
They were mere soldiers. No better than Tobias’s thugs. Maybe not even Nosti. They were each good with a gun and probably knew a thing or two about the medical equipment aboard the ship, but they were by no means covert operatives. None of them wore stealth suits with hidden pockets for suicide pills. On top of that, there were now at least four of them in HSP custody, which meant the chances of Ronan’s secrets being revealed were four times more likely. If the
Titania
had sent out a distress signal, it meant the
Vigilance
knew exactly where it was. And if this Commander Payne didn’t want the soldiers talking, there was no telling how the Resistance might react to their capture.

“We need to move away from this area,” Ziva said.

“What? Why?”

“Because I doubt the Resistance is going to take kindly to us having possession of not only their men but one of their ships as well. Get a copy of this data sent off and get everyone away from this warehouse.”

She stared at them until they leaped into action and then strode out of the ship, not entirely sure what she expected Ronan to do. All she knew was that any action taken to destroy evidence of Resistance presence would be drastic.

That was why she wasn’t particularly surprised to see the massive shadow descending from the sky when she stepped back outside. The ship was hardly more than a dark gray shape standing out against the pink light that was beginning to appear on the horizon. This was without doubt the
Vigilance
, responding to the
Titania’s
distress call as it traveled past Haphez. She was sure there were plenty of Resistance fighters aboard, but she didn’t know how they expected to accomplish anything with a trade ship. There wasn’t even anywhere to land a vessel that size in the area.

Unless the trade registration is just a ruse, just like the
Titania’s
medical registration.

She saw that was exactly the case when the first bombs began to fall.

-42-

Patrol Frigate
Vigilance

Haphezian Airspace

“But ma’am, are you sure?” the officer cried, regarding Sadey with a look of horror as he jogged along beside her en route to the bridge.

“We have our orders from Forus,” she answered, certain her own face mirrored some of the same discomfort the man was showing. “Start dropping charges now. Follow the
Titania’s
flight path and knock out any law enforcement vessels that may have been trying to catch it.”

The officer gave her an uneasy salute and rushed off, leaving her alone with her thoughts. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined actually taking the
Vigilance
into Haphezian airspace, much less entering the atmosphere. Bringing the stolen fighter near enough that it could fly to the military base was the closest they’d ever come, but even then they’d been able to keep their distance. This, however, was suicide.

Ronan had gone insane, Sadey decided. Having them fly through the Noro system to rendezvous with the
Titania
had been risky enough, but sending them in so close – and having them directly engage the Haphezians, at that – was going to render all their efforts toward maintaining secrecy totally futile. According to the news, HSP agents had killed Jalen during interrogation, so there was no need to worry about him giving them away, but now here they were showing themselves anyway. The enemy now had a face, and it wouldn’t be long until the Resistance had the Haphezian military on their tail. They might even be willing to involve the Federation, independence be damned.

The handheld holoprojector clenched within her fist buzzed, reminding her of the transmission she’d muted long enough to address the officer. She took another split second to compose herself before re-activating the hologram. The three-dimensional image of Ronan stood there in her hand, less than half a meter tall but as menacing as ever.

“I’m not going to risk someone getting their hands on the data the
Titania
is carrying,” Ronan said, picking up the conversation right where they’d left off. “Destroying it is our only option.”

“Our scanners are already picking up police activity at the scene,” Sadey said. “How do you know they haven’t already found the data?”

“Our men are better than that!” Ronan snapped. “They’ll have put up a fight, bought us some time. Someone down there was in good enough shape to send out the distress signal. They won’t have let the Haphezians get that close.”

Sadey pursed her lips and moved faster, skirting around a couple of officers who sprinted past her. As some of the only Nosti who had survived the Federation’s attacks, she and Tav Ronan had been close friends for over two decades. But once their plan for retaliation had gotten underway, they’d begun to have their differences. Sadey wanted results and she wanted them fast, while Ronan was the patient, calculating type who could sit and wait – for years, if necessary – for the enemy to make the first mistake.

Now, it seemed, their roles had been switched. Sadey was trying to remain level-headed while Ronan was the one calling for action. The leader of the Resistance had never been one to be reckless, but as their plan reached its final stages, everyone’s patience was running thin. Losing the
Titania
had been the final straw.

“I know what I’m doing,” Ronan said. “Bomb the whole warehouse. Destroy the
Titania
and kill anyone in the vicinity, including our men and the prisoners.”

“We’ll be starting a war with Haphez.”

“The nostium was a dead end. Without nostium, the Federation won’t come wipe them out like we planned. If we ever wanted to expand here, we’d have ended up going to war with them anyway.”

Sadey stopped dead in her tracks. “I told you we were close! The children were promising! We just need a little more time.” The familiar apprehension was creeping through her mind again. Unless she was mistaken, this was Ronan’s way of telling her she’d failed.

“We’re
out
of time, Commander. The longer we try to incorporate the Haphezians into the plan, the more time they have to figure out who is behind these attacks. If we write them off, they become just as much of a threat as the Feds.”

“Tav, think about what you’re asking us to do.” Sadey couldn’t even remember the last time she’d addressed Ronan on a first-name basis; despite their former friendship, it had been months. “We’ll be trapped down here. Exactly how are we expected to get out of this?”

Even with the silvery-blue hue of the hologram, it was plain to see the cold look on Ronan’s face. Sadey swallowed past the lump that had formed in her throat and forced her feet to continue forward. The answer was clear: they
weren’t
expected to get out of this.

“If you go through with this, two decades of work may be wasted,” she said.

“It’s too late now,” Ronan replied, black eyes emotionless. “Your people have been working on a nostium formula for the Haphezians for over a year and you still failed. Do you want to see the plan succeed or not?”

“Yes.” Sadey shuffled forward into the elevator, grateful for the momentary isolation. The
Vigilance’s
crew was already confused and anxious as they scrambled to fulfill Ronan’s orders; the last thing she wanted was for everyone to see her so discouraged.

“I’m giving you one last chance to contribute here, Commander. The Haphezians were the final barrier keeping us from putting the plan into motion. We may proceed at any time, but they will need to be dealt with first. The last thing we need is to be fighting them and the Federation simultaneously.”

The elevator opened onto the bridge and Sadey strode out, squaring her shoulders as best she could. “Deal with them how?”

“We’ll begin by focusing exclusively on them. Target their police and military forces. Use the bad nostium if you have to. Do what we must to cripple them and render them incapable of retaliating. The Federation is unlikely to respond to an altercation on an independent world. I’m currently assembling the fleet and the remainder of our Fringe resources, and we should arrive in the Noro system in less than two days.”

Even without looking up, Sadey could sense every pair of eyes on the bridge looking at her. “And in the meantime?”

“That’s where your contribution comes in, Commander,” Ronan answered in a nonchalant tone that sent chills up Sadey’s spine. “You understand how our plan works. We expose Fringe civilizations to nostium. The Federation moves out to investigate. Our forces come around and take them from behind while they’re otherwise occupied, and we gain control of the Core. This will be very similar, but
you’ll
be keeping the
Haphezians
occupied.”

In that instant, Sadey understood what was expected of her. Ronan’s plan had always assumed the targeted Fringe civilizations would be annihilated when the Feds arrived to look into the nostium presence. If the
Vigilance
and her crew were the Fringe civilization in this scenario, they would likely be wiped out by the Haphezians before Ronan and the rest of the Forus fleet arrived. The ship’s presence
would
keep the Haphezians distracted and allow Resistance forces to sneak up on them, but that advantage came at a higher price than Sadey had ever expected to pay.

“I trust you’ll think of something creative,” Ronan said. With that, the hologram flickered and disappeared.

Everyone on the bridge had no doubt overheard the last part of the conversation. Ever since the war with the Federation, every Resistance agent had to be willing to give their own life to protect the cause. If the Feds ever found out what they were planning, all the years they’d spent covertly rebuilding the Nosti culture would be wasted. That was why they couldn’t let the Haphezians get their hands on the data aboard the
Titania
, why Ronan had sent them into Haphezian airspace in the first place. Everyone understood that, and they were all ready to sacrifice themselves as a last resort.

But this situation was different. Sadey couldn’t remember a single time when Ronan had
ordered
Resistance troops to take their own lives. There was a difference between warning people against being taken alive – something she’d done herself a number of times – and blatantly telling them to kill themselves for the cause. Worse yet, this was all her fault. She was being punished because she’d failed to stay on schedule with the nostium development, and the rest of her crew had to suffer because of it.

The bridge remained silent as everyone contemplated what Ronan had meant. A low rumble vibrated the ship as the bombs fell, obliterating the warehouse complex where the
Titania
had crashed. Sadey had no desire to disobey orders, nor did she have any desire to make two hundred other people pay for a mistake she’d made. If she was careful, she might be able to save them and still buy the Resistance fleet enough time to get there. Ronan hadn’t specifically said this had to be a suicide mission, though the idea was implied. The
Vigilance
was a fast vessel; if they were able to leave the atmosphere, they could run. Leading the Haphezians on a wild goose chase was a surefire way to keep them occupied until Ronan arrived. It might even be enough to scramble their military and keep them spread thin enough that the Resistance forces wouldn’t have any trouble taking them out.

Her navigator and lieutenant commander approached and stood at ease a respectful distance away. “Your orders, ma’am?” said the latter.

Sadey looked up to find all eyes on her. The only people who weren’t paying her any mind were the helmsman and whoever was down in the main battery.

“Orders?” the lieutenant commander asked again.

She stood still for a moment, eyes fixed on the readouts displayed on the viewscreens around her. Each bomb had hit a structure of some sort, effectively wiping out the
Titania
, its prisoners, and, she hoped, any Haphezian police who were at the scene. The med ship’s crew would have put up a fight, successfully keeping investigators from getting too close and discovering evidence before it could be destroyed. In the event that they hadn’t been able to take their own lives, the bombs would have destroyed them as well.

They would travel to the nearest city, she decided. It would give the Haphezian military more time to react, but she doubted they’d be willing to shoot the
Vigilance
down over a heavily-populated area. If they were lucky, they could slip into one of the busier traffic lanes and use the civilian transports as a shield until they reached open space. In the event that they were unable to make it off the planet, they’d have no choice but to make do with the resources they had available. That included the
Vigilance’s
weapons systems and maybe even the ship
itself. They had enough firepower to cause some real damage, but they would cross that bridge when they came to it.

“Make sure there’s nothing left of the
Titania
,” she finally replied, “then set course for Noro.”