Warrior Chronicles 5: Warrior's Curse (14 page)

Kim looked thoughtful for a moment, then made a small smile. “I don’t need to know. I know you well enough that I can probably guess anyway.”

Cort stood up and walked to her. “Yeah, you probably could.”

Nine

“Poppa, when can I play with George again?”

Cort looked up from the waffle he was making and met Kim’s eyes.

“It’s going to be a while, honey. Doctor Pan is making George a new body because he broke his old one.”

“I know, Momma. You told me that last week. But how much longer?”

“We don’t know. I will ask Doctor Pan today, but he’s going to be different.”

“How, Momma?”

“We aren’t sure yet. George is deciding what he wants to look like.”

“Last night, when I talked to him on the flexpad, he said he might look like a grownup. I don’t want him to. I like having him as a boy like me.”

“I know,” Cort carried a stack of waffles to the table. “But George has to decide for himself.”

“How come I don’t get to decide for myself?”

“Because you have to grow up first,” Kim said.

“Why can’t George grow up? Jaif is gone, and now George is gone. Everybody is different but me.”

Cort looked at Kim and was about speak when his comm activated. He stepped into the other room and touched his ear. “Ares here.”

“General we have some information.”

“What is it, Kate?”

“Fuck me,” Cort said a minute later.

“I don’t think Kim would appreciate that, sir.”

“What? Oh. Yeah. No I don’t think she would. We might both end up dead. Okay, get the staff together.”

When he went back into the kitchen, Kim and Dalek were almost finished eating. He ate silently until the boy asked to be excused, then he looked up at Kim and said, “That was Kate Williams. The crash wasn’t an accident, It looks like treason.
Again
. I’m getting tired of worrying about getting shot in the back.”

Kim was at the counter. He asked her to refill his coffee and said, “We do know that the target wasn’t George this time, it was the ship itself. The ship he borrowed for his experiment had been mothballed and since it was supposed to be in dock at that point, the people responsible didn’t know that George was taking the ship from the docks. The saboteur or saboteurs had attached a smart box to the ship’s drive. The engine was supposed to come online, switch to autopilot, then warp into the center of Phobos, blowing up the moon and the yards. We don’t know yet what the objective was, only that Phobos was the target.”

“Who was behind it?”

“Kate’s still working on that. But there’s no doubt it was sabotage. She’s got Quinn Faulks recovering the debris and George’s old avatar.”

--

Cort was sitting at the conference table when JJ walked in.

“I’m supposed to be dead right now.” Looking around the room, she added, “Most of us are.”

Cort put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Jade, you’re alive and so is Wynn. Just be thankful for that.”

JJ looked up at him. “How did you know?”

“What?” he asked as his hands fell to his sides.

JJ looked around at the other admirals and generals who had been on Mars the morning of the attack. “You ordered us all off Mars that morning. You even gave George the ship to work with. That’s the only reason we are alive. If he had not been on it, the shipyards would have been destroyed. Aeolis was the secondary target. Either way, thousands of us should be dead. How did you know?”

“I didn’t. I called you here because I was tired of vidconferences. And after we lost Dar, it made sense to have everyone here where we can protect the government.”

“It’s not just now, General. There was the attack on Mars by Atlantica. You knew the order of battle they would use. You knew about the modules at the pole being a military base.”

“She’s right Gramps,” Rand added. “You knew about the Nill when they first went to Mars. You knew what to do about the Cuplans and about the Tapon.”

“You always know, General,” Kate Williams observed. “Bazal calls you the god of war. Is he right? You should have died a half dozen times since coming to this time. Humanity
would
have died a half dozen times if you weren’t here to protect us. Do you understand death so well that you cannot lose? Or are you so adept at war that you hold dominion over it?”

Cort looked around the room. He remembered the attacks by Atlantica. Most of his staff begged him to not attack the unknown colony site. It turned out to be the staging area for an attempt to take Mars back. He also remembered losing Rand’s mother Kay in that brief war.

“If I held dominion over death, Dar would still be here. Along with thousands,
hundreds
of thousands of others. If I held dominion over war, I would end it. No, I don’t hold dominion over either death or war. They hold dominion over me. They try to break me by taking my friends and loved ones. By killing my wolves and my family. They turn the people I love against me. They cost me my daughter Diane, and my first wife. Hell, they cost me my first
life
. And I accepted it. I lived with what death and war had taken from me, because I followed orders and that’s all I could do.”

Cort waved his hand at a window overlooking the base. “Those men and women out there, and all of you, have changed that. I can’t stop either death or war, but I can damned sure make the other guy pays more than I do, more than we do, when death and war come calling.”

The room fell quiet as the officers considered what he had said. Kate broke the silence. “Sir, should we get started?”

Thankful for the distraction, Cort nodded and sat down. “Go ahead, Admiral Williams.”

After recounting the method of the sabotage and how George prevented it, Kate dropped another bombshell. “Quinn Faulks’ mothers were hiking Mons Olympus. It was their first time off Earth. Both of them were killed when George’s crash started a landslide. The only small blessing in it is that while she was in command of the recovery, Faulks wasn’t the one who found the bodies.”

“How is she now?”

“She’s not right, sir. She was supposed to meet them in a few days at the southern rim. They were going to explore the crater together. I know what she feels. I found my dad dead in the backyard when I was young. She needs a distraction.”

Cort didn’t hesitate. “Okay. Let’s find something for her to do. But let her grieve too.”

New protocols were set up to prevent the attack from being repeated. Then the meeting turned to how best to utilize the already thin ranks of the military to both protect the federation and carry out its current missions.

“Jaif, we are going to need a lot of your people.”

“Of course, General.”

Liz Munroe added, “We need to step up recruitment on Earth, too.”

“Commercial exploration,” Rand blurted out.

“What?” Cort asked, turning to him.

“Think about it, Gramps. Let the civilians lead the way, like the old west on Earth.”

“It’s not a bad idea, sir,” Kate said. “We can put drones in orbit and small military vanguards on the planets we want. Then have a lottery or something for civilian settlement.”

Cort considered the idea. “We could give people incentives to colonize.”

“But you have to let business in on it too,” Rand said. “Otherwise it will take too long.”

“You guys can figure that out. But I want at least a small military contingent on every planet we open up to civilians or business. I want to get back to our missing people.”

“What about the trust?”

“What about it, Rand?”

“We still have a responsibility to our family, sir. We might be the government, but that doesn’t mean we can’t protect our own interests as well.”

“Who are the trustees right now?”

“Me, Kim, and Carl James.”

“I don’t know Carl.”

“Yes you do, Gramps. He emceed Grandfather’s funeral.”

Cort thought back to the day. As pain washed over him, he remembered meeting Carl James. A distant cousin, Cort couldn’t remember anything about the man, other than his hands seeming unusually small.
How bad was that day, that all I can remember are his hands?

“Okay, I sort of remember him. What does he do?”

Rand seemed to shake himself from his own memories before he answered. “He’s private sector; minds the family investments.”

“Okay. This is family business, but everyone here needs to know where my interests are. You are to step down from the trust immediately, Rand. You might be as honest as the day is long, but the press would have a field day if I have you running my government and personal matters. Get Carl here so I can meet with him.”

“Okay. What about Kim?”

“She stays on the trust. The press won’t like that either, but I want someone I already trust there.”

“You don’t trust me?” Rand asked with a smile.

Cort ignored him and went on. “Carl will be the senior trustee, leaving one empty spot. Suggestions?”

“I’ve got nothing.”

Cort recognized the change in Rand’s tone.
That’s because all the people we loved and trusted are gone.
“I understand, Rand. Does anyone else have input?”

Liz suggested, “Find someone who isn’t a family member. Someone who has no vested interest in the trust itself.”

Cort thought for a moment. “That’s not a bad idea. We give someone a salary to sit on the trust.”

“Sir,” Mike Rage began, “do it right. Name three. One to replace Rand, and two more. Maybe even a non-human. With five trustees, three of which being
non-
Addison, no one could claim favoritism.”

“Someone will always claim I’m playing favorites, Mike. And they’d be right. It’s human nature. But we can mitigate it some.” Turning to Jaif, “Get me a young Jaifan that you think would be good for this. A Vagabond Queen preferably. I’m not willing to turn over control of the trust to non-family, so a Jaifan is a good compromise. She’ll be loyal to Dalek, but won’t have any interest in the trust itself.”

“That should work,” Rand thought aloud.

“It’s as far as I’m willing to go with it, anyway. But Mike is right; five is better than three. We need two more civvies. If Thorn’s wife will take it, I’m giving one spot to her. Rand, you find another.”

Kate Williams said, “Whoever is chosen, you should have Bazal scan them.”

“Good idea. Let’s move on for now. Liz and I will return our focus to the wormhole. We’re taking Quinn Faulks and her people with us. It’ll get her mind off things, and they’ll be ready to save a human or two instead of just recovering bodies.”

“That’s going to ruffle some feathers, sir.”

“I know Mike, but it has to be done. I can’t keep our most experienced people for a rescue mission when the entire military has lost so many.” Cort looked at Liz and added, “Frankly, I’d rather not take you.”

“I’m not staying, sir.”

“I know that. I’m just telling you that you’re needed here. Also, make Quinn a lieutenant colonel.”

“What?” Rage demanded. “She was a cadet two weeks ago! You can’t give her a jump like that!”

Cort looked calmly at the general and said, “Mike. I’m ordering it. It’s not your choice. I need someone who thinks on her feet and she’s proven that. Bazal believes she is a rising star in the ranks. I’m just hurrying that along because of the crisis we are facing. We need to go get our people.”