Auberon (The Jessica Keller Chronicles Book 1) (22 page)

Now, it was on to Phase 3.

Chapter XXXV

Date of the Republic March 17, 393 2218 Svati Prime system

She would have liked to have been up on the bridge with Jež and the rest, but she needed the much–better communication facilities down here on the Flag Bridge, so Jessica watched the scene unfold from her comfortable chair.

As usual, her command staff was present virtually, with Enej being one of the few people seated around the conference room table. In addition, three new faces were on–line. Anastazja Slusarczyk, commander of
Necromancer
, watched from one side while her pilot maneuvered the GunShip into position.

On the projection of the system, it was like a bit of oil had been dropped onto a bowl of water. Other ships skittered away like bugs as the gunship approached.

Seated next to Jessica, Moirrey had been invited to join the group for this session. She was the most instrumental in what was about to happen.

The evil engineering gnome didn’t look the least bit cowed to be in such company, even though she kept mostly to herself. According to her personnel file, she did that anyway.

The final screen was Jessica’s Dragoon, Senior Centurion Phillip Navin Crncevic, commonly called
Navin the Black
by the crew, as if he were some ancient Viking come to life.

She hadn’t had much interaction with the man. He tended to stay down in the training and arms bays and work with his people, but she could see the reason for his nickname.

He was at least two meters tall, and felt like two of her wide at the shoulders, with big hands that looked like they should be holding a boarding axe right now instead of a clipboard. His skin was ebony black and the shaved skull made him look extra–fierce, although the barely–there van dyke showed itself to be all gray with age and maturity.

Probably a figure from nightmares for some of the civilian medical workers and contractors on the hospital ship.

Or he would be going forward.

“Crncevic,” Jessica said once everyone was organized, “any problems over there?”

She watched the man’s image shrug at the camera. It looked like a minor earthquake moving a small mountain.

“I would have said my daughter could have handled this lot,” he said with a voice that matched the frame, Biblical in depth and tone, “but she’s all grown up now and serving as a marine Cornet on
Athena
. Maybe my wife.”

“Is that the same wife who’s a retired drill instructor, Navin?” Jež chimed in with a tease.

The big man smiled. “There’s always that.”

“Maybe we should have sent your son, you old viking,” Tamara said. “The doctors over there probably would have appreciated having a librarian instead of a Norseman, anyway.”

Jessica held her command scowl in place as the Dragoon looked down at himself and back up at the camera. “Do I look Finnish?” She really wanted to giggle.

Jessica had been to
Ballard
once, on an early deployment, transporting a group of medical researchers to the ancient university there, the Earth–born AI system that was Alexandria Station. The population of
Ballard
primarily was Finnish, but the planet had maintained a long and close trade relationship with one of the other Founders of modern civilization,
Zanzibar
, even after both worlds were absorbed into the
Republic of Aquitaine
.

Navin the Black
would have fit right in on the streets of Ithome. She would have to tell him that, sometime.

“Enough, people,” Jessica said instead. “
Necromancer
, Anastazja, what is your status?”

The woman had a no–nonsense air about her in everything she did, a quiet professional who stood in sharp contrast to
Cayenne’s
commander, Hollis Dyson aka
Gaucho
.

Anastazja nodded at the screen as a placeholder while she looked down to check something on a panel in front of her. “In position,
Auberon
,” she said, “ready whenever you give the word.”

Jessica looked at each face around the table.

Expectancy greeted her. Smiles, even. The kind from people who had just survived doom. They had become a team. She would be able to do a great deal of damage to the Empire with a team like this.

Jessica pushed a button to send the audio channel to the whole squadron, encrypted at the highest level. Everyone wanted to hear what was coming next.

Moirrey was turning into a radio star.

“
Necromancer
, this is the Flag,” she said, “you may fire when ready.”

Anastazja looked down and pushed a button.

Jessica nodded at her evil engineering gnome with a smile and let the woman take over narration of
Ao–Shun’s
doom again.

On the projection, they all watched four bolts of lightning spring out from
Necromancer
and fall into orbit around
Ao–Shun’s
equator.

“Ooh,” Moirrey began, falling into her lilt, “what’s this? Mean, nasty
Auberon’s
come back for more trouble? Haven’t ye bastards done enough already, with the plagues and nightmares and blowin’ t’ings all ta hell? Oh, crap, shooting stars now? Headed south from the pole? Not like last time. That one jes blew itself up and poisoned the whole damned planet.”

A long minute passed as the four missiles fell into formation, a perfect square girdling the planet.

They held their formation for a ten seconds and then began broadcasting static as loud as they could on all channels, with the anthem of the
Republic of
Aquitaine
playing very softly underneath it.

That was an extra special touch.

“Uh oh,” Moirrey continued, “something just knocked out me afternoon soaps, and the game. Haven’t they left yet? What do they want with us? Hey, is that music? Weird.”

On the screen, the four probes brightened slightly as they moved forward with their choreography. From a porthole, Jessica knew she would be able to actually see at least two of them as they began to burn giant magnesium bars, each a wrist thick and three meters long.

From the ground, everyone should be able to see at least one new star in the sky, daytime or night.

“What’s this then? Have we gots a new supernova next door? That thing’s almost as bright as the sun. What hae those Republic bastards done naow? Ohmygod, they’ve come to finish us off fer good this time. AAAUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!! Somebody does something, please. Call the fire department. Call the police. Call the navy. Can’t anybody do nothing about this?”

On the screen, the four lights flickered out as the probes burned themselves out and dove into the atmosphere to burn up.

Moirrey’s voice dropped to almost nothing.

“And then, darkness fall across the land. The Evil Witch of the North cast her great and deadly spell upon
Ao–shun
and turned all the wee little people into newts. Can’t anyone find a handsome prince to come save them? Or a beautiful princess to give ‘ems a kiss and break the spell? All was woe as she turned her army and rode off into the ascending darkness.”

Jessica just shook her head as she listened to the barely–suppressed giggles around the table.

“We now return yous to your regularly scheduled war,” Moirrey concluded. “Please join us next week for more adventures of Denis the Hedgehog, In The Land Of the Giant People.”

Jessica turned to her First Officer with an eyebrow. One translation of Jež was
hedgehog
.

He grinned back and her and shrugged.

So, an inside joke for the family. Another thing that would keep them going.

“Squadron, this is the Flag,” she said crisply, “proceed to rendezvous at point
Omicron
and prepare for transition to Jumpspace.”

It was almost time to go home and see what waited her.
Ao–Shun
was likely to rattle an awful lot of cages.

Chapter XXXVI

Date of the Republic March 23, 393 Qui–Ping system

She expected a lot of yelling shortly. What was unclear was who would be doing it.

Jessica sat in the big conference room down in Engineering for this meeting. She hadn’t really needed the physical space for what was coming, but for the emotional volume it would be better.

Upstairs, the small conference room had a much more militaristic, judicial feel to it. That’s why it was used for those sorts of things.

This conference room was where her evil engineering gnomes did their work. Probably while giggling and singing songs. They were that weird.

The door opened and Senior Centurion Denis Jež entered, dressed in his best field uniform, but not his formal dress attire. This was not a Court, nor was it a reception for visiting dignitaries. At least, not friendly ones. Not yet, anyway. The day was young.

The woman following Jež was extremely tall, taller even than he was. She was long and lanky, but moved with the smooth confidence of a ballerina.

Dr. Yuda Alyona.

She would have been Russian, once upon a time, back when it still existed as a place instead of a frame of mind. Ash–blond hair French–braided and down nearly to her waist. Bright eyes, sharp, somewhere between blue and green, depending on her mood. Her mind was just as sharp, with advanced degrees in medicine, chemistry, and several other things.

Dr. Alyona scowled at the room as she entered, locking eyes with Jessica even as she made her way to her seat at the head of the table, rather than across from Jessica.

Jessica guessed that the doctor wanted communication today, not confrontation.

Denis sat across from Jessica, next to
Auberon’s
Surgeon, Dr. Zephan Samara, a fussy little man who had to be pried out of his Medical Bays to be here today, and only consenting to come when she informed him who their guest was.

Apparently, Dr. Alyona was his idol.

She was probably that for a number of people, considering her life and her work. She had even impressed a newly–minted officer on her very first cruise after Academy, twelve years ago, while being given a ride by the
RAN
to a field visit at Ballard.

Not that she was likely to remember Jessica.

Dr. Alyona sat primly, calmly, quietly. She suffered to be waited on. Tea, hot and black, with a dash of honey.

She fixed her gaze on Jessica. Studied her. Weighed her soul.

“So,” she said finally, “the bright–eyed young Cornet has grown up to be a common pirate?”

Yes, she still had that razor–sharp tongue to go with the razor–sharp mind.

Jessica smiled to herself as she took a sip of coffee. It would be easy to get into an argument with this woman.

It would also serve no purpose.

She hadn’t brought her Purser,
Auberon’s
Legal Affairs Officer, to this meeting. That would just look like she was trying to hide behind legalisms. She had not brought her Flag Centurion, who really should have been here, simply because he would be a knot of contention with Dr. Alyona over the whole affair.

“It’s good to see you again, as well, Dr. Alyona,” Jessica replied politely.

“The Imperial Authorities at
Ao–Shun
are demanding that you be arrested and extradited to
St. Legier
to stand trial for a whole range of crimes, including, but not limited to Biological Warfare and Crimes Against Humanity.”

“I’m aware of that,” Jessica nodded.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched the impact of the conversation on Jež and Dr. Samara. Both seemed relaxed.

“However,” Dr. Alyona continued, “Admiral Emmerich Wachturm, who is, I might add, a cousin of the Emperor, was not so sure. He said it didn’t fit your personality.”

Really, the Admiral had made enough of a study of her to say something like that to a civilian?

Jessica wasn’t sure whether she should be honored or paranoid that she rated such attention. But, it was attention well wasted on this frontier.

If he was that focused on her, he would not be lending his tactical and strategic genius to the War Frontiers. On balance, it helped the
Republic
. That was no small thing, considering her mission.

“I’m surprised that I rate that highly in his eyes, Dr. Alyona, or yours. Especially if I am, to use your words, a common pirate.”

The woman leaned forward and redoubled her intensity.

Jessica felt the impact of that personality concentrated on her. It was almost physical in its visceral tones.

“What did you do, Keller?” she bit off each word angrily as it came out, like bitter lemons, or nails driven into her flesh.

Jessica smiled enigmatically and let the moment hang.

“I am not at liberty to discuss that with you right now, Dr. Alyona,” she said simply. “What you don’t know won’t hurt you. Your ignorance, in fact, lets me ransom you with a minimum of fuss. If you did know, you might have to be held as a prisoner of war for a very long time. I would like to avoid that, if possible.”

The tall woman leaned back in her chair. A canny look, came over her face. “So why am I here, then?” she asked quietly. The anger had been for show, apparently, or was, more likely, just masked for now.

Jessica opened a folder on the table in front of her. “I had to check,” she began, “because I simply could not remember. The medical community that is the hospital ship,
St. Albertus Magnus,
actually dates back to before the founding of the Republic by over seventy–five years.”

Dr. Alyona looked confused now. Probably a safer way to get her off track.

“That’s right, she said warily, “I plan to retire completely from public service during the quincentennial celebrations. What does that have to do with you?”

“I would like,” Jessica continued, “to ask for your oath and your assistance.”

“Would you?” The look she gave Jessica might wilt flowers. At least, the soft, weak kind. Not the ones with thorns that grew in aggressive brambles and crowded out the lesser vegetation.