Skirmishes (31 page)

“I’ll—um—put him through to the conference—”

“In here, Sherwin, and the entire damn fleet can listen in. You now know this man Cooper doesn’t bluff, and I’ve been through what he’s thrown at us before. I survived—barely. He says he has more this time, and I believe him. So get me the goddamn Flag Commander and tell him we’re fucking short on time.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sherwin said.

She paced the back of the bridge. Damn this Cooper. He had given her no choice. Nine ships gone, which she couldn’t think about. She had known going into the Nine Planets’ territory was a risk—they all had—but she had expected the loss of only a few ships, and a fight for the remainder.

She hadn’t expected to lose them all in one big attack—before the ships should have shown up on any sensors at all.

She had no idea how the Nine Planets had gotten so far ahead in technology. It was as if they had taken a quantum jump—going from ocean-faring vessels to star drives in ten short years.

“Commander Trekov,” Sherwin said. “I have Flag Commander Janik.”

Flag Commander Janik appeared on the big screen in the center of the bridge. He was wearing full dress uniform and looked a bit red-faced. She wondered if he had come from dinner.

“Commander Janik,” she said. “We’re in a terrible situation here.”

She briefed him on the Lost Souls disaster, and then explained Cooper’s ultimatum.

“Commander,” she said, “I’ve encountered this Captain Cooper before. He’s the man who masterminded the attack on the Room of Lost Souls, resulting in the loss of a fleet of ships and six hundred lives. He does not bluff, and we’re running out of time, sir.”

“Get more time,” Janik said. “We’ll send in reinforcements.”

“I tried to stall before, sir,” Trekov said. “He doesn’t stall. He has no qualms about taking hundreds of lives. I am suggesting a tactical retreat for now. We regroup and figure out how to retaliate in the future.”

“I thought this was a retaliation for all those attacks on our facilities,” Janik said.

“It is, sir, but—”

“You said we have superior firepower, and you see no superior firepower on his end,” Janik said.

“That’s what our sensors say, sir,” she said, feeling like a goddamn cadet. “But I read no weapons on his ship four years ago, and he destroyed us as if we were made of paper. If I had the authority to order the changed borders, I would, sir, but I don’t.”

‘You’re recommending a retreat without a shot fired?” Janik asked.

“Beg pardon, sir, but shots were fired. We lost nine ships already. We have fifteen remaining. I don’t think that’s enough, sir.”

“Against two rebuilt Dignity Vessels and sixteen tugboats? Commander, have you lost your mind?” Janik asked.

She stiffened. He was the one who had seen the carnage from the Room of Lost Souls. If anyone knew what this Captain Cooper could do, it was Janik. He should have been on her side.

“No, sir, I have not lost my mind,” she said. “I just have experience with this weapon and—”

“He knows it, doesn’t he,” Janik said.

“Knows what, sir?” she asked.

“That you’re the commander he met before,” Janik said.

“Yes, sir, but I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

Janik grinned. The grin was almost feral. “Commander, it’s basic strategy. He defeated you once with a lucky shot against some kind of ancient technology. He’s bluffing, and he knows that you’re the only person who’ll believe that bluff. He expects you to retreat. I’m ordering you to attack. He’s not prepared for it, and he won’t survive it.”

“Sir,” she said. “I—”

“I’m
ordering
you, Commander,” Janik said. “And when you get back, we will have a long talk about your work in the field. Understood?”

Her cheeks heated. He was going to take her command from her, and he had said so in front of the entire armada. They wouldn’t listen to her now, even if she could countermand his orders.

“Understood, sir,” she said. “We’ll carry out your orders on one condition.”

“You’re in no position to make conditions, Commander.”

“Still, sir,” she said. “I want it on the record at General Command that you are denying my field experience with this captain and this weapon. This attack is
your
idea, not mine, and if it goes awry, I am not taking the blame for it, sir. Do
you
understand?”

“I don’t think it’s anything we need to worry about, Commander,” Janik said patronizingly, “so long as you do what I say.”

Then he severed the connection.

She took a deep breath and looked at the bridge. They looked back at her, all of them, trying to hide their emotions. She saw everything from fear to anger to confusion.

“We’re going to attack that little ragtag force,” she said. “We go in traditional formation.”

She gave the rest of the orders so that the armada heard.

Then she looked at Sherwin, and gave him the signal to momentarily cut off communications with the rest of the armada.

“I want you to set a backup course as far away from this location into the Empire as we can get,” she said. “I want that course to be ready at the touch of a finger. Have the star drive ready to go as far as it can as fast as it can.”

“We’re not going to join the attack?” Sherwin asked.

“Oh, we’ll join,” she said, “and we’ll lead from behind like traditional formation dictates. But if I give the word to ignite that star drive, you do it, understand?”

“Why ma’am?” he asked.

Everyone was suddenly discounting her. Maybe she should have spoken to Janik alone.

“Because,” she said, “I’ve experienced that weapon Captain Cooper was describing, and there’s no beating it. We are not going to die today, do you understand me, Commander?”

“Respectfully, ma’am, shouldn’t we give the same order to the other ships in the armada?”

She blinked at him, knowing that the ships in the front of the formation would have no chance at all. But better for the crews to believe they had a chance than not.

She punched some information into her console. “That’s the signature of the weapon. If our ships see anything like this coming their way, they have my permission to retreat as fast as their damn vessel will take them. Please let them know.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Sherwin said. He sounded relieved. He hadn’t been disrespecting her. He had been as frightened of the weapon as she was, and he wanted to make sure everyone else survived.

They wouldn’t. It was going to be a bloodbath.

The only difference was that this time, it wasn’t going to be her fault.

FIFTY-TWO

COOP SHOULDN’T HAVE felt compassion, but he did. His entire bridge crew had listened to the exchange between Commander Trekov and her superior officer, Flag Commander Janik. Trekov had believed she was on a secure channel, and she had sounded both sensible and realistic.

Her commander was an ass.

Her commander should have known what happened at Starbase Kappa. He should have respected the woman’s opinion. Coop had half a mind to butt into the conversation, but he didn’t.

Although he did wonder this: if he hadn’t insisted on that moved border, would Trekov have retreated? She was in charge of this operation, after all. Would she have had more leeway? Would she have been able to move back, to retreat, without major repercussions for her?

Probably not. She would have had to have that talk with her commander no matter what happened. But giving her the opportunity to retreat would have caused Coop more problems.

It would simply have forestalled the inevitable. The Empire would have come back, with more reinforcements, and they might have brought enough numbers—or enough waves—to make it through any
anacapa-
like attacks that Coop could pull off.

“Captain,” Kravchenko said, “they’re powering up weapons.”

He toyed with contacting Trekov one last time, then changed his mind. Trekov had done all she could.

Now it was time for him to do what he needed to.

“Tell Lynda to prepare the
anacapa
weapon like we had discussed,” he said. “Then have all of the Nine Planets’ ships retreat as fast as they can.”

That should scare Trekov. Maybe she thought he wouldn’t make the attack because the Nine Planets’ ships wouldn’t survive it. Well, this was the first volley.

“They’re already on the way, sir,” Kravchenko said. “And Captain Rooney wants to know if she has the privilege of firing first.”

“Tell her we’re doing it together on my mark,” Coop said. “We each take a side of this armada. Then we activate our
anacapas
and go back to Lost Souls as fast as we can. Got that?”

“Yes, sir,” Kravchenko said.

“We’re ready, Captain,” Anita said.

“All right then,” Coop said. “Let’s teach these people a lesson they’re never going to forget.”

FIFTY-THREE

THE JUNK SHIPS RETREATED, and Elissa’s stomach twisted.

“You need to fire on those Dignity Vessels now,” she said to Sherwin. “Before they can do anything to us.”

He gave the command, and the front part of the armada fired, blue weapons’ light flaring across the blackness of space.

Elissa saw that out of the corner of her eye. She wasn’t focused on the actual fight. She was watching for the switch in energy signature.

“Their shields are stronger than anything we’ve seen, sir,” one of the officers said.

“Fire again,” Sherwin said.

Then the energy signature appeared on Elissa’s screen. She involuntarily clenched her right fist.

“Now,” she said, and her voice squeaked. She cleared her throat, so that she could be heard. She wasn’t going to let her own fears get in the way of saving these lives. “Now, Sherwin! Get us the hell out of here
now
.”

He gave her a frightened glance, then repeated her order, not just to his crew, but to the entire armada.

She felt the ship shift, then the screens went dark as the star drive kicked in.

She hoped to hell this weapon couldn’t follow them now. She hoped to hell she had spoken fast enough. She hoped to hell the rest of the armada got out as well.

THE DIVE

NOW

FIFTY-FOUR

THE SHIP VIBRATES a third time. Everything shudders. I’m beginning to wonder the wisdom of my plan.

“Denby?” I say.

“I’m firing up the drive now, Boss,” he says.

I grab the console. The ship stutters. The stutter feels odd, bigger than usual. Usually it feels like we’ve all tripped over a rug simultaneously, but this time—this time it feels like we nearly fell.

I hope to God I’m imagining this.

“Anyone have visuals?” I ask.

“I just have coordinates,” Denby says. “We’re in foldspace.”

I don’t ask him if it feels like we’ve been in foldspace too long, because it certainly does to me. Elaine looks at me from across the engineering section. I can’t see her face well from this distance, but her posture looks fearful.

Then the ship stutters again, and this time it feels normal. Or maybe it just feels that way because I want it to.

“The coordinates say we’re at Lost Souls,” Denby says.

Unknown vessel
, the words—in Standard—blare through the engineering section.
This is the Lost Souls Research Corporation. You are violating our space. Identify yourself.

I hit the comm on the console but nothing happens. “Elaine, can you let them know it’s us?”

“I can’t get this part of the console working,” she says from her location.

Unknown vessel
.
This is the Lost Souls Research Corporation. You are violating our space. If you do not identify yourself, we will be forced to destroy you.

What the hell? I haven’t authorized that message. I never want to tell anyone they’d be destroyed.

Are we in the future, then? Lost Souls exists. We’re in the right part of space. I can’t get the console to work, and then I realize just how panicked I am.

I use the comm in my suit.

“Lost Souls, this is Boss. We’ve brought a Dignity Vessel from the Boneyard. Sorry you didn’t get warning.”
We didn’t either,
I think but don’t add.
“The
Two
is on the way. Don’t shoot at us.”

“Boss?” the voice belongs to Ilona Blake. “Really? It’s you?”

“Yes, Ilona,” I say. “What the hell is going on? How long have we been gone?”

“Two weeks,” she says.

“Oh thank god,” Elaine says behind me. Apparently she was as terrified as I was about getting trapped in foldspace or ending up in a weird future.

“Then why the hell are you trying to shoot us out of space?” I ask.

“Long story,” Ilona says. “We’re newly tough.”

She sounds proud of that, whatever it means.

“You’re only bringing one ship back?” she asks. “We were hoping for more.”

As if I didn’t know that. “Only one, Ilona. We’ll end up with more.”

I hope. If the Boneyard lets us.

If we can get back in.

So many ifs.

“We’ll need help docking this thing. We’re essentially flying it blind.”

“We’ll send a skip,” Ilona says.

“Make sure the team is suited up,” I say. “Not everything works on this vessel.”

“Copy that,” she says. “And welcome home.”

Welcome home indeed. I grip the console in front of me. I’ve never been so relieved to be back at Lost Souls in my life.

I usually like the risks, but this one was a bit too dicey for me. Or maybe I’m too aware of what can go wrong.

“Is Coop back?” I ask.

“He got here just ahead of you,” Ilona says. “He’ll be coming over to your ship.”

Coop, diving after all. I haven’t been able to stop him, even though I wanted to.

Then I grin. I can’t wait to see him.

I am so happy to be home.