The Shattered Empire (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 2) (15 page)

“But this is just as important,” Kate said.  “We're
building
something here.  We're laying the foundation for a strong, vital nation.  You can't rush a foundation or you end up with crap, just like the Colonial Republic or the Centauri Confederation.  They were dozens of different star systems thrown together when Amalgamated Worlds started to fall apart.”  Kate waved an arm, “Hell, I'd say the main reason half of humanity lives under dictators and the other half in anarchy is because there was no transition, just a power vacuum that people rushed to fill.”

Lucius snorted, but he didn't argue.  The tyranny of Amalgamated Worlds had been terrible, but their bureaucracy had at least provided some governance.  Their collapse, almost a century ago, had left the more technologically advanced colonies to band together into the Centauri Confederation while the frontier worlds had formed the Colonial Republic.  Some handful of systems declared their own independence or, like Nova Roma, established their own empires.  Most of those nations had fallen apart in the time since, with the exception of Nova Roma and one or two other, smaller nations.

“Baron, we're creating something new... a baby of sorts,” Kate said with a smile.  “And just like your daughter, don't expect things to be easy... or to happen overnight.”

Lucius shook his head at that, “Alright.  But, don't expect me to be here all the time to shake hands and kiss babies.”  Lucius's dark eyes went cold and hard, “I owe it to my homeworld to do what I can to protect them, to liberate them from the Chxor.  For that matter, I owe it to their new Emperor, who has helped us in freeing Faraday.”

“Of course,” Kate said.  “That's what you do... it's who you are.  And we wouldn't have elected you as leader if you
didn't
feel that way.  Just as long as you don't forget your loyalties and duties to us.”

Lucius sighed and for a moment he thought about the long, late nights where the crushing responsibility kept him awake... and the worries that he wasn't up to the task.  “Trust me, it's not something I can forget.”

***

Lucius stepped into the comfortable suite with a slow pace.  He had thought that he would be able to put his pride and past behind him for this meeting.  It was humbling, in more ways than one, to find that he couldn't, quite, manage to do that.

He stopped before the desk.  Admiral Balventia did not stand from his chair.  “You wished to see me,
Captain.
”  He purposely left off his title, Lucius knew, and from the smug tone in his voice, he knew that Lucius would know.

Lucius managed a polite nod, “Lord Admiral Balventia, I wish to express my sincere apologies as to your treatment and processing.”  He paused and took a deep breath.  “I had not known you were a prisoner aboard the Chxor station.  I've contacted Emperor Romulus IV and informed him of your survival and that we've moved you to more comfortable quarters, pending the Nova Roma contingent finding quarters for you.”

The polite expression faded from Valens' face.  “From your apology, either you didn't realize they had me or you didn't expect the potential fallout from my detainment, either way, I can't say I'm surprised at the level of incompetence that suggests.”

Lucius felt his face go rigid.  “Understand, Duke Balventia, that while I am still a landed Baron of Nova Roma, I am also the head of state for a nation with its own military.  A nation which is the ally for the government-in-exile of the Nova Roma Empire.”  Even as he said the words, Lucius knew it was a mistake to let his anger get the better of him.   Still, over fifty years of rivalry was not something he could easily put aside.

“You can play your little game with the
puers
out here,” Valens said.  “But we both know how little meaning that has.  And truthfully, pretending to have found the Dreyfus Fleet?  Please, I might be impressed if I didn't know you well.  But I've taken your measure, Giovanni.  You've half the ability of your father and every bit of his ambition and bitterness.  I'm certain it must have pained the Emperor to have to rely upon you, as his senior officer.  I wonder how much you threatened him with the possibilities of a coup that he bent his head to acknowledge this alliance?”  Valens smirked, “I wonder just how long that meaningless document will last now that he has someone ever so much more trustworthy and capable to rely upon?”

“Longer than you might think,” Lucius said, his teeth gritted.  He had hoped that an apology might go some distance to maintain at least some measure of discretion between them.  Valens Balventia's words, however, were a shot across the bow.  The other man would not rest until he undid everything that Lucius stood for... because to accept anything else would be to admit a personal defeat.  He didn't know how the Admiral had discounted the evidence that the United Colonies was strong and that Nova Roma itself had fallen.  Lucius wondered if his imprisonment had... damaged the other man.  Yet because of their shared history, that suggestion could not come from him or anyone tied to him.  Otherwise it would be discounted as slander or worse.

He took a deep breath and gave peace something of a try.  “Valens, despite our personal differences, our families' heritage, we need to work together.  This is a fight for the survival of our species.”  He saw some shift of emotion in the other man's face and he continued.  “I know you are an enormously capable officer–”

Admiral Valens Balventia burst out into harsh laughter.  He waved a hand, “Oh, this is just too precious... how desperate you must be to try
that
course to make peace with me.  This is too absurd.  How it must have tempted you to have your people quietly kill me.  It must have gnawed at you, those weeks of my imprisonment, knowing you had me, yet you didn't dare to kill me, not when the Emperor, no doubt, would find out.”

Lucius locked his jaw and stepped back.  “Valens, you stupid fool, if I wanted you dead, I'd have a dozen men and women willing to kill you and bury your body in the mass graves that litter this world from Chxor occupation,” Lucius snapped.  “Our stupid little rivalry is a waste of focus on both our parts.  We are at
war
!  The Chxor will exterminate our entire species if we don't find some way to work together.  What part of that do you not understand?!”

Valens opened his mouth to speak, but Lucius cut him off.  “You can play your petty games of politics all you want.  I will do my damned duty... and if you get in the way of that, I will bury you.  I will see to it that, despite your skill and ability, you won't command so much as a
tugboat.
  And Emperor Romulus, knowing what I bring to the table, will call you out on it for irritating me.”  Lucius took a deep breath, but it didn't restore calm, instead it just seemed to fan the rage, “Not a damned person out here cares who your great-grandfather and my grandfather were, nor do they really care about rank and position and lineage.  The people who are left care who can defeat the Chxor, who can defend them against the raiders and other scum that want to tear things down.  While you were hiding under a false identity on a Chxor station, I destroyed eighteen Chxor dreadnoughts with one battered
battleship.
  You have to realize one thing, Valens, about your little game of prestige... I'm beyond it, I just don't care anymore.”  Lucius stared at the other man's angry face for a long moment.  He wondered if anything he said would penetrate the other man's preconceptions.  Finally, after a moment of silence, he said, “I'll do you a favor, just this once.  I'll let you talk things over with Admiral Mund and Emperor Romulus and I'll forget this conversation happened.”

If he hadn't been so furious, Lucius would have treasured the look of consternation and shock on Valens Balventia's face.  Instead, Lucius turned away and headed to the door.  As he stepped out, he heard Valens final response, “You may forget this, but I never will, Giovanni.”

***

Chapter IV

Faraday System

United Colonies

August 16, 2403

Baron Lucius Giovanni sat down at the briefing table with a subdued sigh of resignation.  What he wanted, yet again, was to command a ship or ships in combat.  The endless briefings that had come with his new position had grown almost intolerable.  He was a man of action... and it felt like the only progress they made since the defeat of the Balor was incremental, at best.  For that matter, as he'd expected, relations with the Nova Romans, while not icy, had become discernibly cooler.  Lucius glanced down at the end of the table, where Emperor Romulus IV, Admiral Mund, and Admiral Balventia sat. 

“Baron, thank you for making time for this meeting,” Admiral Dreyfus said.  “I know how busy you've been of late.”  He turned, “And thank you, our allies, for also making this meeting.”

“Of course,” Valens Balventia said.  “How could I miss such an important meeting with our most trusted allies?”  He managed to put a mocking edge to his tone.

“Yes, quite,” Admiral Dreyfus said.  He gestured to the end of the table where his chief of staff stood, “Captain Franks will brief.”

Captain Franks nodded impatiently.  “Gentlemen, I've got two parts to cover.  First, I'd like to go over what we've been able to find out about our latest attackers.”  He activated the briefing table's holofield and a missile appeared on the screen.  “This, is the one missile we recovered.  It was one of their normal missiles that took a glancing hit from an interceptor, just enough to damage it.  We've been able to match the serial numbers to a lot of munitions manufactured in the Garris Major system.”

He looked around expectantly, “Yes, gentlemen, we were attacked by Colonial Republic ships.”  Lucius shifted impatiently and thought,
is that all they've found after almost two weeks? 
Captain Franks looked somewhat disappointed that no one exclaimed at his skills.  He cleared his throat, “We, uh, have also matched the emissions from at least two of the ships to vessels which we believe were assigned to Garris Major.”

“What about the stealth ship that attacked the array?” Emperor Romulus IV demanded impatiently.  The young man looked stressed, this attack had pushed their attack preparations back as they reorganized to protect Faraday from other such surprise raids.

“They array and the station,” Captain Franks corrected.

“That should be: 'Your Highness,'” Valens Balventia snapped.

Captain Franks looked between the two of them.  “Excuse me?”

Valens gritted his teeth, “When you address the Emperor of Nova Roma, you will refer to him as 'Your Highness' am I understood?”

Captain Franks looked over at Admiral Dreyfus with a confused expression.  Lucius could see that the Admiral was torn between maintaining the alliance and snapping at the arrogant Nova Roman Admiral.  Emperor Romulus IV looked slightly irritated, though Lucius wasn't certain whether it was with Captain Franks or Valens.  Valens Balventia's face was flushed and his dark eyes narrowed with anger.  Admiral Mund sat silent, his lined face clearly uncomfortable.

Lucius cleared his throat, “The Emperor's question is still valid, what have we learned about the stealth ship?”  He could feel Valens' glare, but he ignored it as Captain Franks pulled up the data.

“Yes, Baron,” Captain Franks said.  “As you can see, we have limited data available.  The Nova Roma sensors were unable to identify the ship.  Also, their return fire on the ship caused its fusion plant to overload, so we don't have any debris to analyze.”  Lucius didn't need to glance over at the Emperor and Valens to see their expressions of anger at the implied insult.  Captain Franks looked up, “As far as we can determine, the ship was a corvette or frigate.  As we saw in the battle, it carried twelve shipkiller missiles.”

“The battle where we saved your precious array,” Admiral Valens Balventia snapped.  Lucius glanced over to see the other man's face flushed.

“We can't properly express our gratitude for that,” Admiral Dreyfus said.  “We have adopted more of a dispersed formation to defend against another such raid, but that single blow could have effectively ended any offensive operations until we could find some other way to secure antimatter for our vessels.”  His words were designed to appease the Emperor and Valens, Lucius knew.  Still, if anything, they understated the risks.  They had already discussed some contingencies, but almost no other option would produce sufficient quantities of antimatter for the Dreyfus Fleet to run at anything more than standby mode.

Captain Franks spoke up, “Gentlemen, to return to the briefing, we have uncovered additional information about the source of the attacks.”

“You already said it was Garris Major,” Valens Balventia said sharply.

“That was the origin,” Captain Franks nodded, “But we have additional information about the system.  Some of our intelligence assets have reported an element of the Garris Major system is in revolt.”

“The raiders?” Admiral Mund asked and leaned forward, suddenly interested.  Lucius caught a flicker of expression on the Emperor's face, as well.

“That's what we we are starting to believe,” Captain Wu said.  The female intelligence officer stood, her face serious.  “We are seeing conflicting reports about who is actually in charge there.”  She paused and brought up a news clip, which showed several different people in some kind of announcement, “President Joe Monaghan of Halcyon announced their independence from the Colonial Republic.  They also made mention of privateers as well as their own defense force striking those allied with President Salazar, the Colonial Republic member of the Garris Major system.”  She zoomed in on one woman in the picture.  Blown up it was easy to recognize Admiral Lucretta Mannetti.  “As you can see, they have rather odd allies.”

Dead silence met that announcement.  Lucius looked around the table and the anger and irritation on the faces there showed how they all felt about that.  “How certain are we of that information?” Lucius asked.  Imagery could be forged and this could be some scheme to draw them out in an attack on an innocent system.

“We have confirmation from several sources on Halcyon's declaration of independence as well as the space battle where they seized several grounded ships from the Republic Liberation Fleet.” Admiral Dreyfus said.  “That includes an actual copy of the report, in addition to firsthand reports from Wenceslaus from those who received it.”  The Colonial Republic's officer corps were notoriously corruptible, so it was no surprise that the United Colonies intelligence personnel had that level of access.

Lucius turned back to Captain Franks.  “Please, Captain, continue your briefing.”

Captain Franks nodded, “Gentlemen, that is all we've assembled on the attack here, at this time.”  He took a deep breath and shot a glance at Admiral Dreyfus.  The Admiral nodded and Captain Wu brought up a different display on the holofield.  “Gentlemen, this is what we've assembled on our current investigation into the rogue Admiral Lucretta Mannetti and any possible agents she has here on Faraday.”

Lucius pursed his lips.  He still wasn't confident that they were correct that one of his personnel was her collaborator.  He had served with all of the suspects and each of them had held his life in their hands multiple times.  It just didn't make sense, yet there seemed to be no other explanation for how someone had broken her out and helped her to escape the planet after her capture.

“As you can see,” Captain Wu said.  “Our investigation has shifted to her known activities.  It appears she also has some ties with Halcyon, but we've pinned down her probable base of operations to Port Klast,.”  Lucius nodded at that.  The system was a known pirate haven, open to whatever ship made port.  It was so far out on the edge of human space that its isolation provided some security against a retaliatory strike.  The star system also lay within a stellar nebula and the dense clouds of dust and debris made sensor readings problematic.  For that matter, Thomas Kaid controlled the system.  The infamous terrorist and agent provocateur had a reputation for ruthlessness and paranoia.  The two Colonial Republic attempts to capture the system had failed, destroyed by the extensive defenses and the pirates themselves.

“We have been able to locate some of her accounts and from there do some tracking of her sale of loot and her own network of spies and informants.”  Captain Franks hesitated.  “That is where we found a breakthrough.”  He looked suddenly uncomfortable.

“Captain Franks,” Emperor Romulus said, “Any information you've uncovered that can lead to the arrest of the pirate Lucretta Mannetti is invaluable.”

Captain Franks pulled up a bank account.  Lucius stared at it for a long moment, confused, as he read the data.  The account held almost two hundred million Colonial Republic Solari, a substantial sum, enough to live comfortably on almost any world.  What confused him, however, was the picture of the account holder.  It was Anthony Doko, Lucius's former Executive Officer from his time aboard the
War Shrike.

“We traced some of the money transfers to a bank on Tannis,” Captain Franks said.  “As you can see, gentlemen, the account seems to belong to Captain Anthony Doko, of the United Colonies Fleet.”

Lucius felt the blood drain from his face, “No.”

Admiral Dreyfus spoke, “Baron, I know you have served with Captain Doko for many years, but the evidence suggests that Mannetti has him in her employ.”

“I don't think this is enough evidence to convict him,” Lucius said.

“This traitorous piece of filth is married to my sister,” Emperor Romulus snapped.  “I say he be remanded to Nova Roma custody and face the trial and execution he deserves.”

Lucius clenched his jaw.  He saw a smirk on Valens Balventia's face.  Lucius doubted that the man even knew Anthony Doko, but the chance to embarrass Lucius and to remove a trusted officer, without a doubt, made him happy enough.  The Emperor's past with Anthony was enough to turn him against the officer, despite the slim evidence.  Anthony had married Lizmadie without the Emperor's permission... in fact, he'd done it after the Emperor had expressly forbid it.  The fact that he and Lizmadie had known one another for decades didn't matter to him, he cared only that his authority was overridden and that a lowborn commoner had married his sister.

Lucius spoke up, “He is an officer of the United Colonies Fleet, so jurisdiction lies with us.”

“Sir, that's an issue,” Captain Franks said.  “He has not renounced his rank or citizenship with Nova Roma.  So therefore, it is still under their authority to convene a courts-martial.  That's why we brought it before them, as well.”

That did not mean that Lucius had to turn Anthony Doko over to them, though.  Still, it would be better if he could get them to see reason without shattering the alliance over this issue.  “First of all,” Lucius said, “I think the evidence is slim.”

“Two hundred million Solari?” Valens said with a slight smirk.  “From a pirate on the run, after losing her ships and primary source of income?” 
It appears that someone has brought him up to speed on what had happened with Lucretta Mannetti
, Lucius thought.

“How much is she worth, from what you've been able to tell, Captain Wu?” Lucius asked.  He waited while the short, stocky woman pulled up the data.

“Uh, somewhere between twenty and thirty billion Solari,” Captain Wu said.  “Not including her other ships.”

“Other ships?” Admiral Mund asked.  “We were led to believe that she brought everything she had for the fight with the Chxor at the Second Battle of Faraday.”

“I think it more likely she brought everything she had available, Admiral,” Captain Franks said.  “We've identified at least six additional warships that she has, to include a Centauri Enforcer-class destroyer, a Port Klast built Ravager-class cruiser, a Nova Roma Helot-class carrier, and three Colonial Republic built destroyers.”  His report was met with shock.  Lucius bit his lip as well.  The Colonial Republic's destroyers were, by themselves, the least dangerous.  However, they could provide excellent support to the other ships.  The Centauri Confederation, despite their ongoing civil war, produced some of the best human ships, easily on par with Nova Roma.  Port Klast's shipyards were more of an unknown, but rumor had it that they had black market access to some of the best military technology available in human space.  The carrier, especially was extremely dangerous.  Helots were the old-style carrier, purpose built for delivering an entire wing of fighters directly into a battle.  Nova Roma had phased them out because their tactics had shifted towards capital ship engagements and away from fighter strikes, but that didn't mean the ship wasn't a huge threat. 
Hell,
Lucius thought,
I'd love to have a Helot to use against the Chxor.

“Okay,” Lucius said.  “That does change things, somewhat.  But my point stands.  Two hundred million is a drop in the bucket for her.”  No one challenged that statement, not after Captain Frank's information.  “Moreover, Tannis's banking system is notoriously secure and they value their clients privacy.  How did we get this information?” He genuinely doubted that Admiral Dreyfus's intelligence people had managed to infiltrate the Tannis banking system.  Nova Roma's Imperial Intelligence Bureau and Imperial Security had tried and failed for over fifty years, with the leverage of trade sanctions and even the threat of military force.  The independent star system had ignored such threats and responded with similar tactics and the value of their currency and trade had caused the Nova Roma merchant families to speak out in their favor.