Paying the Price (Book 5 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (17 page)

She nodded, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. “I’m past it, mostly. The nightmares still come sometimes, but I’ve become accustomed to the changes and they eventually meant the difference between life and death for all of us and Pentagar as well. In the end, it was worth suffering through everything, but that won’t take away one bit of the pain I’m about to cause you. I love you and I’m so sorry.”

Kelsey took another calming breath and continued. “I was stupid. I went somewhere Jared didn’t want me to go and they captured me. I defied common sense and this was
not
his fault. He blames himself, but I don’t. And I don’t want
you
to, either. Am I clear?”

He allowed a small smile to touch his lips. “Yes, ma’am.”

That made her smile in turn. “Sorry. I’m going to have to get used to someone else being in charge.”

“What happened to you?” he asked gently.

“The computer forcibly implanted me,” she said. “Not just with the cranial implants, but with something called Marine Raider enhancements. Graphene coated bones, artificial muscles, a pharmacology unit with advanced combat drugs, cutting edge medical nanites, and more. They turned me into the most deadly fighter the Old Empire could produce.

“But that didn’t come without a steep personal cost. The machine that did the work was programmed by an AI that didn’t give a damn and I’m
very
sorry to say it used no painkillers whatsoever when it cut me open.”

His heart stopped. He could barely grasp what she was saying, but he felt the horror of what she was describing.

Before he could say anything, the display came to life, showing a scene from someone’s helmet cam. He’d seen enough video like it during his time in Fleet. A group of Fleet personnel was pushing a medical cart through a ship’s corridor at a breakneck pace.

Kelsey was on the bed, and something was wrong with her face, but he couldn’t quite catch it with all the movement.

When they boarded a lift, he recognized one of the people as the medical officer from Jared’s ship. What was her name? Stone. The marine cam was pointed at the door, so he couldn’t see Kelsey.

When the door opened again, they raced out of the lift as soon as the doors opened and into the medical center. He had enough experience to recognize there were two complete trauma teams standing ready to receive his daughter.

Stone pushed the cart near some equipment he didn’t recognize. “Get the regenerator ready. If we don’t get these incisions healed now she might have permanent scarring.”

The image froze. Terrible, raw scars covered his daughter’s face.

He rose slowly to his feet, his heart frozen. “My God.”

“Those cuts covered my entire body,” his daughter said matter-of-factly. “The agony was indescribable. I didn’t want you to see this without knowing that I’m fine now. It was horrible, but it’s over.”

He pulled her up and into his arms. It was his turn to weep while she comforted him.

* * * * *

Jared finished his presentation to Admiral Yeats. It had taken hours to go over every aspect of the basic situation. At least his commander now knew the full danger they faced.

The older man rubbed his eyes. “I have to say that I’m horrified at the scope and power of the enemy you found. And very impressed with what you did to stop them.

“Would I have made different choices? Yes. I can’t tell you if they’d have worked, though. It’s very easy to judge with the luxury of hindsight. What counts are results. And you brought more of your people home than I’d ever have expected.”

Jared shook his head. “So many people didn’t make it. And that brings up another matter. Where do we put them all? The grounds around The Spire are too small.

“We have our people and all the Fleet personnel recovered from the ship’s we’ve refurbished or scrapped. Almost a hundred thousand bodies. And that doesn’t even begin to count the rest of the ships. The final count from the graveyard will be in the tens of millions.”

Yeats rubbed his eyes. “I have no idea. I’ll get a team of people working on that as soon as possible. There are so many hot items on my plate that I’m not sure where to start.”

The hatch behind them slid open. Since Admiral Yeats had ordered the marines to leave them undisturbed, it could only be one person.

His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Karl Bandar, walked into the compartment. “Gentlemen, no need to stand on my behalf.”

Jared stood at attention, saying nothing. This was Admiral Yeats’s show.

The admiral shook his head. “The day Fleet officers don’t stand for you, I’ll retire in disgust. How was your meeting with Princess Kelsey?”

“Heartbreaking and eye opening. She’s been through so much.”

The emperor stepped over to Jared and gave him a long, intent look. Then he pulled him into a hug. “Thank you for keeping my little girl alive. And for bringing her home to me.”

Jared might have adjusted to this kind of thing from Kelsey, but it was never going to feel natural with his father.

“I screwed up so many times, Majesty. What happened to her is my fault and I accept full responsibility for it. I could have stopped her, stopped them, but I was too slow.”

“Sometimes, the biggest regrets come from the shortest periods of time. I don’t pretend to understand the full scope of what they did to her, but I know enough of the circumstances to be sure you did everything you could to protect her. For that, you have my unreserved gratitude.”

He waved at the chairs. “Sit. We have a lot to discuss. We’ll want food and drink, because we’re going to be here for a while. I want to get a plan of action agreed on before we let this story go wide. It’s already leaking, but we have a little time to shape the way it’s received.”

Jared sat back down. “Before we stop talking about Kelsey, there’s something you need to see to understand the person she is now. She left home—forgive me—a pampered little darling. That’s most assuredly no longer the case.

“Both of you have heard what the Pale Ones did to her. That doesn’t really explain it. I have several videos you need to see. They all came from either her own implants or from security recordings. I’ll lay out the background for each one before I play it.”

He queued the assassination attempt at the Pentagaran parliament building. “This was just a few days after we got her back. Before she could reliably walk again. Some people tried to assassinate the King of Pentagar, Crown Princess Elise, Kelsey, and myself.”

He played the recording.

The two men sat there, their jaws hanging open when it finished.

The emperor turned to stare at Jared, his eyes glazed with shock. “That’s my little girl? She took them apart with her bare hands. Six armed men. She killed all of them.”

Jared nodded. “That’s exactly what she did. With her bare hands. She calls that combat mode. Her Raider implants have hardwired threat responses. All she has to do is direct them and they can deal with some very hairy situations.

“You saw how fast she was? That was a combat drug from her pharmacology unit called Panther working in tandem with the modifications made to her brain by the implants. Together, they speed up the nerve impulses and the ability of the brain to process information. Doctor Stone said something about nerve conduction velocity.

“Basically, she had all the time in the world to figure out what to do. She’s had a year to master her implants and learn how to fight for herself. Now she can do things like this.”

He played the video of her assault on the asteroid base where they’d recovered the hardware for Marcus. Then without letting them recover, he played the video of her on Boxer Station. Some was from her own implants, but more was from marine helmet cams. For good measure, he added the attack she’d led on the hidden battlecruiser base at Harrison’s World.

The two men looked shell-shocked when the videos ended.

Jared waited for them to wrap their minds around what they’d seen. “That last video was about three months after the first video. She’s had nine additional months to work on her form under what I would call expert instruction. In everything from hand-to-hand combat to fighting in powered armor with weapons you can’t begin to imagine, she has few peers and no masters. Princess Kelsey is a warrior now.”

“Training from who?” Yeats asked. “From the marines?”

“Some, but not exactly. This next part is going to be difficult to understand. Even our experts are having some difficulty with explaining it.”

He ran them through the AI ghost of Ned Quincy and how it had taken up residence in Kelsey’s implant storage. He stressed how the man’s detailed knowledge of Old Empire special operations was invaluable and how he could help them in ramping up for war. They rightfully looked alarmed.

“Let me end by saying that he has only the access she grants him. Kelsey is always in control of her body and can put him to sleep, if she chooses. His memories, though incomplete, provide a wealth of training that she could never have gotten about being a Marine Raider.”

“That concerns me in spite of your reassurances,” the emperor said. “Could he be relocated?”

“The scientists haven’t had any luck building a computer he can run on. Frankly, he shouldn’t be possible, so we’re leery of doing anything to risk him. He’s one of a kind and all attempts to recreate lightning in a bottle have failed.”

“And you’re sure that he can’t influence her in any way?”

Jared nodded. “They’ve done a lot of testing and the hardware only allows Kelsey to control her body and mind. She can allow him access to see through her eyes or control her movement, but she’d in charge. And her thoughts are her own. There is no possibility of mental influence.”

Karl Bandar rubbed his eyes. “I’ll want a full report and regular updates on that situation. It, too, is an Imperial secret. I don’t want that even put into writing. If word got out that she had someone living him her head or was hearing voices, certain segments of the senate would go insane. Absolutely no one else is to know until more time has passed. Is that all?”

Jared smiled. “Much to my chagrin, she’s also assumed command of a Marine Raider ship,
Persephone
. The computer will only accept a Raider as a commanding officer, so she’s it. She’s learning to command a ship in space, too, and not doing so badly. You have every reason to be very proud of her, Majesty.”

The emperor looked as though he’d been run over by a grav bus. “I am proud of her. It’s just going to take a while to get my head around this.”

Yeats shook his head. “She’s smaller than my youngest granddaughter. She doesn’t look like she could lift, well, anything.”

Jared nodded. “And yet she can do this.”

He played the video of her lifting the weight machine in
Courageous
’s gym. The whole thing, weights and all.

“Gentlemen, Princess Kelsey is the most dangerous fighter in the Empire today, bar none. And that’s what we were fighting. What we
will
be fighting if the Rebel Empire figures out we’re still alive.”

“Colonel Andrews is going to kick himself for leaving me alone with her,” the emperor mused. “Or he would if we allowed this to get out. I’m declaring it an Imperial secret as of right now. I want all copies of this locked away and everyone that knows about it needs to be warned to keep their mouths shut.”

“That might be difficult,” Jared said. “The first video is widely available on Pentagar. They’ve even produced a vid drama about us with sterling reviews. This information is going to leak.”

“We have control over what comes in from Pentagar at the moment,” Yeats said. “We can warn everyone to keep it close. If she has even a shade of the respect I think she does, we’ll keep a lid on it for a while.”

“We only need a bit of time,” the emperor said. “I don’t want to cause panic in the streets. Eventually, we’ll have to spread word of the enemy capabilities. Right now, there are enough other shocks to bury this one.”

Karl Bandar shook his head. “Let me see the recording from Emperor Marcus.”

Jared played it for them. The two men watched in reverent silence.

“Well,” the emperor said, “that’s as clear as crystal to me. The sitting ruler of the Terran Empire issued an edict that no emperor since has rescinded. It doesn’t matter that we didn’t know it existed on Avalon. We’re at war and Kelsey had exactly the authority she claimed. I hereby endorse and approve of my daughter’s actions.

“That might not solve all the problems, but it should make things a bit easier for you to manage, Robert. That means her promotions for you and your fellow officers are valid and sustained by me, Admiral Mertz. Congratulations on a well-deserved promotion.”

Yeats nodded. “That will clear away many of the distractions. The Imperial Senate is going to scream, though.”

“Let them,” the emperor said. “This is an Imperial function. We’re the same Terran Empire as the one Marcus headed. Lucien took over as emperor after his father’s death. The line is unbroken. I might not be able to sweep the table clear, but I can definitely say this one matter is settled.”

He smiled at Jared. “And I hear other kinds of congratulations are in order. A certain little bird tells me you and Crown Princess Elise are…shall we say, good friends?”

Perfect. Now his father knew about his love life.

“I can assure you there was never any impropriety.”

The emperor raised his hands. “I never implied anything else. I’m certain you’ve done everything humanly possible to bring our peoples closer together.”

Wow. Did the emperor just make a bawdy joke? It made his head spin.

And then he smiled. “Well, then you’ll be delighted to hear that your daughter has been making friends, too. Remind me to introduce you to Marine Major Russ Talbot. He and your daughter are living together.”

The emperor rubbed his temples. “I thought her quarters had a few male touches. Dammit. I wonder how angry she’ll be if I ship him off to Thule?”

Jared laughed. “If that’s the least of your worries, you’re in good shape. Frankly, the public is going to be causing you a bigger one. We arrived through flip points that didn’t exist before. With the help of an alien intelligence orbiting a black hole. One that can open gateways to other universes. How the hell do you keep something like that under the rug?”