The Terran Privateer (42 page)

“He would be a fool not to.”

“All right. Sade, I want you to return to the Alpha Centauri rendezvous point once everything is set up with Ondu,” she ordered. “If we haven’t shown up after one month from today, it’s up to you what you do. I would suggest getting in touch with the Weber Network—the proceeds from these freighters should suffice to purchase multiple heavy warships to help liberate.”

“You may have a problem finding someone willing to sell them,” Ki!Tana pointed out, “but unless Ondu does dramatically worse than I expect, the proceeds should suffice to buy one, possibly even two,
ships of the line
.”

Annette checked the value on her communicator. She hadn’t looked at it in that light, but Ki!Tana was right. Even her most pessimistic valuations would enable Earth to acquire a capital ship with a full escort—a force potentially capable of kicking the A!Tol out.

“This raid may have enabled us to achieve our main objective,” she finally allowed. “We will attempt to return to Alpha Centauri with the rescued prisoners before that month is up. If we do not, it will be because, for whatever reason, we are unable to.”

She turned to Lougheed.

“Captain Lougheed,
Of Course We’re Coming Back
will accompany
Tornado
to KXT,” she ordered. “I’m thinking we’ll have you drop in on the opposite side of the gas giant from us to act as a second set of eyes. With everything these people are trying to pull, I have to assume they have a contingency plan for being discovered.

“We are talking about a level of scum that kidnapped thirty thousand people to enable them to murder a hundred
billion
sapients,” she continued, her voice firm. “We will not allow them to escape. We will not allow them to run. I want our people rescued. I’d like to get my hands on those starkillers. But we will
not
let these sons of bitches escape.

“Is that clear?”

“Admiral Villeneuve?” a voice interrupted Jean’s thoughts.

His thoughts weren’t much to write home about. While his hosts had been wonderfully polite and respectful, it had been strongly suggested that he not return to the planet beneath him. Jean’s impression was that if he really forced the issue, Governor Medit! would let him return home, but the Imperial government of Earth didn’t feel he would be safe.

He rose from the comfortable chair in the simply appointed quarters they’d given him aboard Medit!’s battleship flagship and crossed to the door, opening it with a tap on the control pad.

“Yes, what is it?” he asked. He’d given up on trying to get the A!Tol personnel not to call him by his old rank. They seemed determined to give him more respect than he felt he deserved.

“Captain Lira sends his compliments and requests for you to join him on
Shield of Innocents
’ bridge,” a junior Tosumi officer told him. Jean didn’t have enough exposure to the four-armed species to judge, well,
anything
about the officer, but he suspected they were both young and nervous.

“I am not busy,” he admitted. He was also curious—even now, he had yet to set foot on the bridge of an A!Tol warship. “Lead the way.”

The Tosumi made an odd swirling gesture with all four arms and set off at a gentle pace, one Jean could easily keep up with. Modern medicine meant he was far haler than he might have been at his age even a century earlier, but he was still seventy, not thirty.

The pristine white walls and corridors of the Imperial warships were still mentally jarring for him. He’d now seen the small robots that scurried along floors and walls, cleaning as they went, but the ship was still too smooth and too clean for his brain to process as a warship.

Nonetheless, he could tell when they passed beyond the small area around his quarters he was familiar with and into the deeper core of the battleship. The translator they’d given him did a good job of reading the signs and iconography, and he
thought
he could make his way back to his quarters.

Finally, though, the Tosumi brought him to an immense, triple-layered security hatch. The hatch was currently wide open, but its presence was obvious and intimidating as Jean stepped through onto the bridge of the Imperial battleship
Shield of Innocents
.

In many ways, the circular bridge resembled the ones the UESF had built for years. There were two semicircular balconies rising up above the main floor, occupied presumably by the same kinds of analysts and backup teams that filled them on a UESF ship, and main consoles on the lowest level for the senior officers to coordinate their departments for the captain.

The bridge was a busy place, with members of at least six different species swarming over the consoles, chattering in at least as many languages. Each member of the crew wore the earbuds of translators, actively translating between their native languages as they worked.

In the center of the chaos, a raised dais held a command chair occupied by a tall alien with blue skin. As Jean approached, the figure rose and turned to face him, revealing a face with no hair, small dark eyes, and a flattened beak instead of a nose or mouth.

“I am Captain Lira of
Shield of Innocents
,” the figure introduced herself. “Welcome to my bridge, Admiral Villeneuve. I hope your stay aboard my vessel has been pleasant?”

“So far, Captain,” Jean allowed. “I was surprised to be asked to join you. Is something going on?”

“Look to the screen, Admiral,” Lira told him, gesturing to the massive holographic tank occupying the easily fifteen-meter-tall front of the bridge. The view was focused on a group of ships, and Jean studied them carefully.

He couldn’t read the A!Tol iconography without using his translator, but from his studies of his world’s conquerors, he could tell he was looking at a full Imperial battle group. Eight battleships—a half-squadron, the same size of force that had conquered Sol—plus escorts and transports.

“That’s a lot of ships to be here,” he said carefully. “What happened?”

“Fleet Lord Tan!Shallegh wanted to be absolutely certain his passengers reached Sol safely,” Captain Lira told him. “We have retrieved many, though sadly not all, of the humans kidnapped during our occupation of Earth. Those transports Tan!Shallegh escorts are carrying over fourteen thousand rescuees.”

Jean stared at the screen in shock. He’d
believed
Medit! when the Governor had said they would find Earth’s missing souls, but this was…unexpected. The sheer scale of the rescue boggled belief.

“How?” he asked.

“It is a long story and it appears we cannot take all of the credit,” Lira told him. “My understanding is that the Fleet Lord wishes to speak with you personally, both to explain where we found your people and to deliver his apologies for failing your world so badly.”

#

It was over two hours later when Tan!Shallegh’s shuttle finally made it over to
Shield of Innocents
and the A!Tol Admiral joined Jean in a plain visiting officer’s office. The Fleet Lord’s uniform didn’t hide the mixing and shifting hues of his skin: green mixed with orange and blue.

Jean
had
managed to find some information on A!Tol skin hues. The Fleet Lord was determined to see this through, but was also angry about something and curious about something, enough so in both cases to at least register through the determination.

He could see why Earth’s new overlords tended to be an honest species. Successfully deceiving each other had to be impossible; they wouldn’t have even learned the skill before meeting other races.

“Admiral Villeneuve,” Tan!Shallegh said quietly. “Is Miss McQueen still aboard?”

“Unlike me, Medit! allowed her to return to Earth,” Jean told him dryly. “She needed to get back to work.”

“I would have liked to speak with her directly, but I do not believe I will have time,” the Fleet Lord admitted. “I owe you an apology, Admiral. I swore to
you
, personally, that something like this would not happen. I failed to prevent it.”

“I am not who you need to apologize to, Fleet Lord.”

“I know,” Tan!Shallegh agreed. “I have spoken to many of the rescuees we are returning in person and via communicator. I will shortly be going on your—Global News Network, I think it is?—to speak with your Jess Robin and present my apologies to your entire world.”

When Imperial Fleet Lords felt contrite, they apparently apologized like Canadians.

“You managed to get them back,” Jean pointed out. “That’s…impressive. I didn’t expect that so quickly.”

“I am not responsible for that,” the Fleet Lord replied. “All I did was order all of our logistics shipping short-stopped until it could be inspected. I presumed, correctly it appears, that your people had been smuggled out on our logistics ships.

“It seems they were relaying everyone they removed from Earth through one of our logistics bases, and when I accidentally cut off their supply channel, they got desperate.”

Jean winced. “What happened?”

“It appears one of our more notorious pirates was in league with them and pulled together a massive alliance of pirates to attack that logistics base,” Tan!Shallegh told him. “Including your Captain Annette Bond.

“While he needed her firepower to defeat our defending task force, I suspect he regrets hiring her now.”

Jean considered just what Annette’s reaction would be to learning there were thousands of human slaves on the planet she was raiding. “
Mon dieu
,” he whispered.

“When the dust settled, Captain Bond was in control of our logistics base, and piracy in this sector had taken a blow I do not believe it will recover from soon,” the A!Tol said with relish apparent even through the translator. “I want to give your Captain a medal.” A wash of shadow swept over the Fleet Lord’s skin. “Instead, it appears I will have to kill her.”

The sudden change in tone washed over Jean like a bucket of cold water and he stared at Tan!Shallegh in shock.

“What did she do?”

“It’s not what she’s done, or even what I think she’s about to do,” the A!Tol Fleet Lord admitted. “It’s what she’s going to come into possession of.

“It appears our slavers were working with a rogue faction in our own military to try and start a war with the Kanzi,” he continued. “While I do not like the Kanzi—they are vicious, murdering slavers at best, in my experience—their military is powerful and efficient.

“This rogue faction has developed a starkiller weapon the size of a missile instead of a starship,” Tan!Shallegh noted. “This is in violation of more treaties than I can count but would enable them to launch a decapitating strike on the Kanzi. One that would be responded to in kind.”

Jean had watched a single half-squadron of battleships wipe out his entire fleet. He wasn’t sure he
could
grasp the scale of the war that would follow if the A!Tol clashed with an equal power—with weapons that could kill
stars
?

“What did Annette do?” he asked, surprised at how level his voice was.

“She has gone after them. I do not know her intent, though her actions to date suggest she intends to fight my battle for me. But.”

Tan!Shallegh shivered, his tentacles fluttering as he let the word hang in the air.

“But, Fleet Lord?” Jean asked. “Why would you have to kill her?”

“Either Captain Bond joins them or kills them, but either way, she will shortly be in possession of weapons of mass destruction that aren’t supposed to exist,” the Fleet Lord told him. “Her honor speaks well for her, but I would not trust
myself
with these, let alone a woman on a quest to liberate her star system.

“I have issued a shoot-on-sight order for
Tornado
,” he continued. “I must return to the Fleet Base at Kimar immediately to await any information on her location. I have scout ships sweeping the sector and will deploy all necessary force to neutralize her once located.”

Jean’s heart was cold and he was silent for a long moment. He
understood
where the Fleet Lord was coming from, but after all Annette had done, it didn’t seem right that she would end that way—not when, as Tan!Shallegh said, she was about to fight the Imperium’s battle for them.

“Why are you telling me this?” he asked.

“I want you to come to Kimar with me,” the Fleet Lord told him, his skin suddenly flashing completely to dark green. “I want you on the bridge when I find her, Admiral Villeneuve—because if she surrenders when I find her, if she turns those weapons over to us to be destroyed, I won’t have to kill her.

“And I think if there is anyone in this galaxy she will listen to when he calls on her to surrender, it will be you.”

Villeneuve sighed. Elon Casimir would have been better—he was
very
sure Annette would have surrendered if Casimir had asked her to. If he asked… He wasn’t sure.

But Elon Casimir was dead, and if his words might help save Annette Bond’s life, then he had no choice but to try.

“When do we leave?”