Falcone Strike (7 page)

He stepped through the hatch and into the shuttlebay, where a large shuttle waited for him. It would be at least nine hours to Hyperion, he was sure; there would be no swift jump through hyperspace for
him
. But he’d have a chance to get some sleep, thankfully. He’d need to be on alert when he boarded
Lightning
for the first time in six months.

The pilot greeted him curtly, showed him where to stow his bag in the cabin, and then returned to the cockpit, leaving William alone. He sighed, then glanced at the other passengers: three men wearing black uniforms and a woman wearing civilian clothes, her hair falling down to her shoulders. Her face would have been attractive, he was sure, if she hadn’t been sneering at the datapad in her hand. He sat down and opened his datapad as he felt the shuttle power up its drives, then put his device aside. It would be better to get some sleep before it was too late.

He must have fallen asleep quickly, because the next thing he knew, the pilot was announcing the approach to Hyperion. William took the opportunity to go to the fresher and splash water on his face, then he followed the others off the shuttle as soon as it docked. A grim-faced officer pointed him towards another shuttle, one designed for shorter hops. William sat next to the pilot and watched as he flew towards a large repair station.
Lightning
was clearly recognizable, but the ships hanging next to it were ancient. It made no sense to him.

Unless she’s in real trouble
, he thought.
Those ships might be her next command
.

Captain Kat Falcone met him at the airlock as soon as the shuttle docked with
Lightning
. She looked older than he remembered, although her face was unchanged; she held herself like an experienced officer rather than someone doubting her fitness for the command chair. Her long blonde hair, tied into a ponytail, hung down her back; William couldn’t help wondering why she’d allowed it to grow longer while she’d been on Tyre.

“Captain,” he said.

“Welcome back,” she said. Her lips twitched humorlessly. “The good news is that I’ve been given command of a squadron.”

William felt his eyes narrow. “And the bad news is it’s composed of the ships out there?
”

“
Yeah,” Captain Falcone said. She looked tired, all of a sudden. “Put your bag in your cabin, then join me in my office. I have some briefing notes for you.”

“Understood,” William said.

Lightning
felt different, somehow, even though it was barely nine months since Kat had left the yards and entered active service. It wasn’t just the atmosphere, which had lost the scent of newness that had once pervaded it like a shroud; it was the sense that she’d seen
real
action, that enemy fire had struck deep into her core. William checked his cabin— larger than his cabin on the asteroid, but equally bare—stowed his bag in the locker under the bed, and then walked back to the captain’s office, next to the bridge. She was standing in front of a coffee dispenser, pouring them both something to drink.

“I don’t have a steward yet,” she said by way of explanation. “We have plenty of engineers, mostly conscripted civilians, but shortfalls in almost every other category. It’s not going to be easy to depart on schedule.”

William nodded as he took his coffee and sipped it carefully.
Lightning
had carried a full crew when she stumbled back home; there was no way the Admiralty would allow so many trained officers and crewmen to sit on their hands when there was work to do. The crew he and the captain had known had been split up and scattered over a dozen starships, save for a handful of engineers. It wouldn’t be easy to assemble and work up the crew before they had to depart.

“And they want us to leave soon,” he mused. “What do they want us to do?
”

“
Raid the enemy,” Captain Falcone said. She outlined the mission, quickly and concisely. “I expect we will have a great many problems to solve.”

“At least they’re honest problems,” William said, seriously. He considered it for a long moment. “If I work on the personnel issues, do you want to handle the engineering problems?
”

“
I may need you to command one of the ships,” Kat said. “But yes, for the moment I need you helping with the personnel. It won’t be easy to get them to blend together.”

William smiled. “Then we’d better get on with it,” he said. “But I would be astonished if we leave in less than a week. That would be a bloody miracle.”

“Tell me about it,” Kat said. She ran her hand through her long hair. “The Admiralty is insistent, William. They need us out there as soon as possible.”

“Kat,” Marine Captain Patrick James Davidson said as he sat down next to her. “Do you want the good news or the bad news
?”

“The good news is that I’m going to shoot the next person who says that,” Kat said. “And the bad news is that I will probably enjoy it way more than I should.”

Davidson smiled. “The good news is that I have managed to scrape up enough Marines to fill a single company, although most of them have never actually trained together before,” he said. “The bad news is that the rest of the groundpounders are even worse.”

Kat cursed under her breath. When the Admiralty’s personnel department hadn’t been giving her hell over her demands for experienced officers and crew, they’d been denying her requests for several companies of Marines. She knew they were in short supply—everything was in short supply these days—but she needed a solid bloc of Marines to allow her to capture freighters or engage targets on the ground. A full company was more than they’d wanted to give her, yet it was much less than she
needed
.

“I don’t think I want to know,” she groaned. “What’s wrong with them?
”

“
Well,” Davidson said, “there’re five hundred of them in all, mainly drawn from local defense forces. A relative handful has experience boarding starships; the remainder have none. Indeed, quite a few consist of refugees from the Theocracy who escaped as children and have now joined the military. They’re quite eager to tear into their enemies, but their experience is lacking.”

Kat rested her head in her hands. “Are they serious about the mission?
”

“
The Admiralty?” Davidson asked. “There actually aren’t that many Marine units that aren’t earmarked for local defense or ship-to-ship operations. Getting a full company made out of dribs and drabs wasn’t easy. We’re lucky to have that many. As for the others . . .”

“Train them,” Kat ordered. “Train them
hard
.”

“Believe me, I shall,” Davidson said. “You want to hear the
real
joke?
”

“
No,” Kat said.

Davidson ignored her. “The ones who
do
have experience are exmilitary police . . . former redcaps, shore patrolmen, and customs officers,” he said. “You have the making of an instant feud between them and your crewmen right away.”

“Fuck,” Kat muttered. Fistfights between the shore patrol and groups of roving starship crewmen were depressingly common and grudges tended to run deep. Davidson was right; if anyone found out, it was likely to cause problems. And what was a minor matter on a planetary surface might be far more dangerous in deep space. “Tell them to keep that to themselves.”

“I’ve already done so,” Davidson said. “Officially, they’re ranked as part of a reserve formation that was activated over the last few months. There shouldn’t be anything to tip off our more observant spacers that the groundpounders used to be redcaps.”

“Good,” Kat said. “And their training?
”

“
I’m running them all through the simulators, as well as a heavy program of combat exercises,” Davidson said. “However, we don’t have the time to train them up to Marine standards. They might not be
bad
, on the ground, but in space . . . it’s a whole different ballgame.”

He leaned forward. “And the refugees want revenge,” he added. “They may do something stupid at the wrong time.”

Kat frowned. “And can they be
trusted
?
”

“
They’ve been vetted thoroughly,” Davidson assured her. “I think the oldest was six years old when his family fled the Theocracy. They were checked for any form of programming, which came up negative. I don’t think it’s even
possible
to program a young boy.”

“I hope not,” Kat said. If there was any interstellar power that could, it would be the Theocracy. Imagine being able to program children to do precisely as they were told, worship whom they were told to worship. “But what about his family?
”

“
They were vetted too,” Davidson admitted. “They’re clean.”

“Good,” she said. But it wasn’t
all
good. The laws on using interrogation technologies without due cause would have been bent, if not broken outright. God alone knew what that would do, in the future. There was always someone willing to play stormtrooper. “In that case, train them, but keep them aware that we don’t have time to deal with rogue operatives.”

“Of course,” Davidson said. He pulled a datapad from his belt and held it out to her. “I’m planning to keep half of the trained Marines on
Lightning
and detail the others to serve on training missions, at least while we’re
en route
to enemy space. It will be at least two months before we get there, so there should be plenty of time to knock the edges off. I can rotate them through the simulators here so everyone gets a chance to test themselves . . .”

He paused. “I do have some ideas regarding deployment, if you wish,” he added. “It wouldn’t be hard to deploy Marines from either
Oliver Kennedy
or
Henry Crux
, according to the engineers. They’re both heavily modified light cruisers, with shuttlebays; hell, we could deploy the shuttles to the hulls and then use a tube to scramble the Marines, if necessary.”

“I wasn’t planning to launch a full invasion of an enemy world,” Kat said, amused. “And anything else probably wouldn’t require a scramble.”

The thought made her smile. She knew very well she didn’t have the firepower, not if the Theocracy had invested time and effort building up the local defenses. The intelligence staff had been unable to decide just how much enemy forces would have invested, pointing out that they would have seen advantages and disadvantages in defending worlds that weren’t part of their core territory. On one hand, they’d get to keep the locals under control if they lost control of the high orbitals; on the other hand, the locals might manage to snatch control of the defenses and turn them against their builders.
That
would be awkward for the enemy
!

“
It would also give them a great deal of experience,” Davidson pressed lightly. “And they do need it.”

“Then see to it, once we’re underway,” Kat said. “Did you even manage to get extra assault shuttles?
”

“
After a long argument with the bean counters,” Davidson said. “Luckily, we were able to lay claim to a dozen extra shuttles, as the Corps isn’t currently planning any opposed landings.”

“Good,” Kat said. She looked down at the datapad, then up at her lover. “What do
you
make of it? Honestly?
”

“
I think they’ve given you a right bitch of a job,” Davidson said flatly. “The only good news is that no one is going to make much of a fuss if you lose any of the older ships.”

“I think three of them don’t have any better use than decoys,” Kat admitted. Sasha might have been determined to get all of the remaining ships into service, but Kat had decided that several of them weren’t worth the effort. They were too weak even to soak up incoming enemy fire. “We might be able to get
something
out of them . . .”

She shook her head. The engineering problems were bad enough, but the personnel problems were a minor disaster. If her XO hadn’t been there to take over, she knew she would have managed to get into worse trouble. He simply had far more experience in sorting through files and separating out the decent officers from the troublemakers, the ones that every other captain wanted to lose. And he really
should
have been granted one of the ships . . .

I’ll have to make sure he gets a proper command
, Kat promised herself.
God knows he has the experience
.

Her intercom bleeped. “Captain, this is Lieutenant Ross,” Linda Ross said. Kat was mildly surprised her communications officer hadn’t been snatched away, but she wasn’t about to complain. “We have a personnel shuttle inbound. One of the occupants has requested to speak with you immediately after boarding. There was no name attached to the request, but they do have a priority code.”

Kat exchanged looks with Davidson. A senior officer or politician would have announced his impending arrival . . . unless he hoped to catch her by surprise. Who else could it be? A reporter . . . no, a reporter might not have announced himself, but the Admiralty would have made damn sure she knew one was on his way. And, given the secrecy of the operation, it was unlikely the Admiralty would allow a reporter to join them anyway. If one
had
managed to somehow get onto the shuttle, he was going to spend the rest of his time on
Lightning
in the brig.

“Understood,” she said. “Please have the . . .
occupant
escorted to my office, once they have been checked by the duty officer.”

“Aye, Captain,” Linda said.

“Odd,” Davidson said as Kat closed the connection. “Your father, perhaps?
”

Kat shook her head. She couldn’t see her father leaving Tyre for at least a day, probably longer. He’d never taken a vacation, as far as she knew, since the day he’d assumed control of the family assets. Hell, he’d never even managed to attend most of her birthday parties . . .

“I doubt it,” she said. One of her brothers? The grand admiral? No, none of those seemed likely either. “I’ll just have to wait and see.”

Davidson rose to his feet. “If you don’t mind, I’ll return to Marine Country,” he said. “Or do you want me to remain here?
”

“
No, thank you,” Kat said. She glanced around her office, making sure that anything classified was out of sight, then checked her appearance in the mirror. “I’m sure it won’t be anything serious.”

She watched him go, then bent her head over the latest set of engineering reports. Sasha might have complained hugely about updating all of the reports and paperwork, but at least they now had a good idea of what they’d actually done to the flotilla . . . and what needed to be done, if only to make themselves more of a threat to the enemy. Some of the engineers might have been civilians or spent years in civilian service, but they’d put their time to good use, coming up with all sorts of innovative improvements to the older ships. At the very least, the Theocracy would get a few nasty surprises . . .

Sure
, her own thoughts mocked her.
Right before they blow our star ships to bits
.

The buzzer rang. Kat hesitated, then keyed the switch. “Enter.”

She lifted her eyebrows as the newcomer stepped into the office. It was hard to be sure, but she looked to be at least ten years older than Kat, with brown hair tied up into a stiff bun and a face that looked as if she was permanently chewing on something sour. She wore a long dress rather than a military uniform; it spun around the deck as she walked forward. Kat rose to her feet and held out a hand, hastily checking the woman’s face against the files stored in her implants. They didn’t find a match.

“Captain Falcone,” the woman said. She shook Kat’s hand firmly, then smiled in a manner that suggested she was out of practice. “My name is Rose. Rose MacDonald.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Kat said. Who
was
this woman? An offworlder, she was sure; her accent didn’t match anything she’d heard on Tyre, although there was
something
oddly familiar about it. And how had she obtained a priority code? “I was not informed you were coming.”

“I was told that it was a secret,” Rose said. “No doubt they assumed the priority code would be enough to gain your attention. As it happens, I am the Observer to Sandy McNeal, the Most Honorable Representative of Hebrides to the Commonwealth. My current assignment is to accompany you on your voyage and report back to my superiors.”

Kat blinked. Hebrides? That explained, at least, why the accent was familiar; her XO’s accent was lighter, but it was definitely similar. And she
had
heard of Sandy McNeal, although she’d never met the man. A Most Honorable Representative commanded considerable political clout . . .

But his homeworld is under occupation,
Kat thought.
Does he still command any authority?
She pushed the thought aside ruthlessly. “Might I enquire as to
why
you have been assigned to
my
command?
”

“
The Most Honorable Representative was concerned about the preparations being made to liberate his homeworld from the Theocracy,” Rose informed her. Kat could
hear
the capital letters slamming into place. “It is my task to report on your deployment and reassure him, or raise issues to be debated in public, should he not be reassured.”

Kat frowned, motioning for the older woman to sit down. Someone was playing games, but who? And why? Kat had no intention of taking her squadron anywhere near Hebrides, not when the latest intelligence reports had suggested there were at least two enemy battle squadrons hanging in orbit around the occupied world. Hell, at the very least, Rose would be away from her political superior for at least four months . . .