The Shattered Empire (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 2) (17 page)

As the
Kraken
cleared the outer ring of Port Klast's automated defenses, Lauren looked over at the ship's commander.  “Mason, how extensive are these defenses, anyway?”

“Stavros,” Mason said.  His voice was harder and harsher than his usual lilt.  For that matter, his face looked harder, the cheekbones more pronounced.  He had also slicked back his brown hair with a dark oil or gel of some kind.  “Remember, I am Stavros Heraklion.  Our lives depend on that.  Just because we're alone don't assume someone won't find a way to eavesdrop... or even hire a psychic to read your mind.”

“Right,” Lauren sighed, “
Stavros,
how extensive are these defenses?”

Mason shrugged and he brought up a display of the planet.  “Kaid's people don't allow active sensors, so all anyone can pick up on entry is whatever their passive sensors can find.  What with the dust clouds of the nebula, that means we can only see the largest and only from relatively close.”  He toggled a key and a web of light appeared around the planet.  Lauren leaned close and could see that each line was made up of tens of thousands of objects.  “As you can see, that is very extensive.”

“How did he build this much, all the way out here?” Lauren asked.  It seemed ridiculous, in the face of it.  The man had, from what she understood, been on the run, hunted by his former allies and enemies alike. 
How does one go from refugee to warlord so quickly? 
She thought, suddenly, of Baron Giovanni's rise to power. 
Yet the Baron is a heroic figure, surely there was no similarity
, she thought.  Thomas Kaid was infamous, a terrorist, pirate raider, and criminal mastermind who had helped to bring down Amalgamated Worlds.

“No one really knows,” Mason said.  “But he opened up the planet for commerce and as a haven for anyone with the money around sixty years back.  No one ever found out what happened to the ships that the Colonial Republic and Amalgamated Worlds sent after him.”

“Did he and Tommy King get along?” Lauren asked.

“They had something of a disagreement,” Mason admitted.  “But they did business from time to time.  Tommy King has called on this port before.  I have as well, though it's been a long time since Stavros Heraklion has come to cal0l.  Almost fifteen years, long enough that some of the old grudges should have faded.”

“Grudges?”

Mason smirked, “I'm something of a ladies man, you understand.  Women love Stavros.  It is easy to see why.” He gestured down at his baggy bright red shirt and tight black leather pants. 
Evidently
, Lauren thought,
whatever his history, Stavros had terrible taste in clothing
.

“I'm sure,” Lauren grimaced.  Her suspicion was that Mason did most of his act to annoy her. 
Yet it is disturbing how easily he adopts this Stavros act,
she thought,
to the point that sometimes I wonder if
Mason
is as much of an act.

“In any case,” Mason said, “We'll follow our proscribed route to the assigned orbit and remain there.  You and I will go down, first to pay our greetings to Thomas Kaid and then to recruit additional crew so our current fellows can go home.”

“They won't be staying on?” Lauren asked.  Despite her attempts to talk to them, most of them had proven difficult to speak with or had simply avoided her entirely.

“No, Khalid and his boys will be shipping out of here back towards home,” Mason said.  “They have nothing to do with this.”  He cleared his throat.  “We'll take on a crew, mostly pilots and crews to tend to whatever fighters we lay on.”

Lauren nodded.  She'd seen the ship's hangar bay, which at the moment was cavernously empty, other than the single combat shuttle that Mason had flown aboard just prior to their departure.  He had yet to explain its purpose.  “I'm still not certain how this ship functions on so few crew.”

“It's something of a convenience, isn't it?” Mason asked.  He held up his hands, “Keeps down on overhead costs and makes it easier for me to vet the entire crew.  Practically flies itself, though for me that's a bit of a drag.”  He chuckled, “For that matter, the ship repairs itself quite well, given time, resources, and sufficient power.”

“Oh?” Lauren asked.  She glanced again at the odd text on some the displays.  It looked familiar, yet she couldn't read any of it.  Even so, everything seemed placed intuitively, so she knew what buttons she would need to hit to make her console go live.  Thankfully, the main systems all seemed translated.

“Yeah, came in pretty handy when I took her from Sta–” Mason cleared his throat, “That is, the previous owner.  Nasty little fight and the ship was in a bad way.  As you can see, though, it's up to full capacity after a short time to repair itself.”

“Where was she built?” Lauren asked.

Mason smirked, “Good question.  My best guess?”  He quirked an eyebrow at her suggestively.  Lauren waved her hands impatiently and Mason straightened to toggle some codes on the command console.  A moment later, it pulled up a set of star charts, labeled in the same odd text.  “Alien.”

“Alien?” Lauren couldn't help her tone of sarcasm.  There were rumors of alien ships and technology recovered all the time.  Most of that was just rumor.  No one really believed the tales, particularly the more wild tales.  And besides, while the ship looked exotic... “Well, if it's alien, why is everything so human-like?”  She gestured at her seat, which fit her more comfortably than most ship's seats she'd sat in.  For that matter, the ceilings were of good height, the hatches were obviously designed for human-like bipeds.  The atmosphere was comfortable.  Other than the odd text and the outward appearance of the ship, it could have passed for any human vessel. 
Well, some of the systems are pretty advanced,
she acknowledged privately,
but it would be just like Mason to try to pull the wool over my eyes in some weird joke.

“Alien,” Mason said.  “Older than the Egyptian Pyramids on Earth.”  He cocked his head, “Oh, I doubted it myself.  But I took some serious time to study this ship after I captured her.  For that matter, there are some very quality records on her that you can review as well...”

“Attention,
Kraken
, this is Port Klast Traffic Control, we have additional inbound craft that are in a group and wish to stay that way, we're adjusting your orbit accordingly.  Please adjust course by five nine three degrees along vector two.”  The woman's voice was calm and professional, not what Lauren had expected of the pirate haven.

“Acknowledged, Traffic Control,” Mason said.  “Adjusting course now.”  As he did so, Lauren noticed he activated another series of commands on his console.

“Problem?” Lauren asked.

“Maybe,” Mason said.  “Not with Traffic Control, they're about as incorruptible as they come.”  He pulled up the passive sensor feed for the ships inbound from their rear.  “Hmm, those are Nova Roma drive signatures.  Military drives on three of them.”

“Admiral Mannetti?” Lauren asked.

“Or mutineers, deserters, or just refugees,” Mason said softly.  “When nations collapse, you get all kinds of flotsam boiling around everywhere.  Something interesting, to be certain.  Possibly something to do with our business here.”

Lauren watched the icons for a moment, then looked up at Mason.  “So, Captain Stavros, what's our plan... our real plan?”

He grimaced, “What, taking on a crew and going pirating doesn't sound legitimate?”  She gave him a level look and he smiled.  “Well, Stavros is a skilled enough pirate, but well known for being a big spender and a poor businessman.  He was an independent sort, but he occasionally signed on with larger bands, particularly when he had a hard run of luck.”

Lauren's eyes narrowed, “So...”

“We make port, buy some fighters, preferably cheap, sign on a new crew, preferably cheap, and make some noises about looking for work, a group that can pay well enough to keep us eating and all that, but not one that sucks away autonomy.”

“Mannetti.”

Mason shook his head, “No.”  He rubbed at his clean shaven face and the lack of stubble seemed to surprise him for a moment.  “From what I can tell, she runs a very tight-knit group.  No outsiders into her inner circle... especially not outright independents like us.”  He took a deep breath, “Our way in will have to be through one of her allies, hopefully one that's part of her overall organization but not in her inner circle.  Mercenaries, but ones she trusts enough to recruit from.  I've got a short list.”

“So we prove ourselves, move up into her organization, figure out her plans...”  Lauren frowned, “I suppose that means we'll be doing actual piracy?”

“Maybe,” Mason said with a sour grimace.  “I'd prefer to sign with some of the more tolerable sorts, rather than the bloodthirsty, rabid types, but it might come to that.”  His hand dropped to his belt, where his prayer beads should have hung.  Lauren didn't miss the motion.  He met her eyes, “I warned you that you might not like the sorts we'll have to deal with.”

“Doesn't matter,” Lauren said.  “We'll do what we have to.”

***

Faraday System,

United Colonies

August 20, 2403

Lucius had to stifle a yawn as he stepped into the briefing room for what seemed like the millionth time.  In addition to the series of meetings over the past few weeks, his daughter was not sleeping well.  The wet nurse said it was a growth spurt, that she just was more hungry and irritable as a result, but hearing her cry at night was wrenching for him.

He took a seat next to Admiral Dreyfus.  “Morning.”

“Good morning, Baron,” Admiral Dreyfus said softly.  “Late night?”

Lucius nodded, “But I understand that this is a meeting your people have wanted to give me for a while and from what I understand, it's something that should be a high priority, so let's begin, shall we?”

Admiral Dreyfus nodded and gestured to the end of the table.  Two people in civilian clothing sat there.  The first was an Asian woman, who stood and gave Lucius a polite nod.  Admiral Dreyfus spoke, “Doctor Sheryl Gaspodschin is our head researcher, she's very accomplished, both in general research as well as applied engineering concepts.”

The woman gave a nod, “Baron Giovanni, I've been waiting for some time to really dig into some of the applied research that my teams have planned since the fleet arrived at Sanctuary.”  She gestured at her male companion.  “Doctor Randal Wade and I have accumulated a great deal of potential projects which we think will prove to be of long term benefit to us.”  Her companion was tall, blonde haired, and of pale complexion.

“That's good,” Lucius said.  He frowned a bit, “Though I wonder if you'll be including research into the Ghornath technology as well as the captured Balor technology.”

“That's a matter of priorities, of course, Baron,” Doctor Wade said.  “While I'd agree that military technology from both could be beneficial, we are hoping to adopt a more broad spectrum of research.”

“We are involved in a war,” Lucius said.  “I would think that military technology would be the priority.”  He looked over at Admiral Dreyfus with a raised eyebrow.

Before the Admiral could speak, Doctor Gaspodschin interrupted, “Baron, no one is saying that military technology isn't the priority, but we've spent decades preparing resources and running simulations on existing research.  We don't want to throw that away.  We will allocate resources towards this other research, but we prefer to lend our resources towards sciences which we better understand and that are more mature.”

“Mature?” Lucius asked, his eyes narrow.

Doctor Wade spoke up, “The Balor and Ghornath technology is poorly understood.  Some of it is far advanced to what we're at the position of reproducing.  Our fear is that we'll spend countless hours of research in fruitless endeavors.”

Lucius frowned, “Nova Roma has managed to reproduce and utilize Ghornath technology and to implement it during wartime conditions.”

Doctor Gaspodschin's frown of distaste showed what she thought of that, “Baron Giovanni, the Nova Roma engineers and scientists obviously have a limited grasp of the forces they are working with.  While their accomplishments towards applications are notable, their knowledge of theory is painfully absent.”

“Yet the guns they managed to design have an effective range almost nine thousand kilometers further than those of your own fleet,” Lucius said, eyes narrowed.

“Yet they have only the vaguest idea of what happens to the energy going in one end, much less how it reacts with the target on the other,” Gaspodschin snapped.  “Worse, their 'translated' Ghornath manuals are riddled with errors and mathematical equations that make no sense.”  She shook her head, “And as for the two 'scientists' that your ally loaned us, they fumble with technology that is far too dangerous for us to engage.”

“That dangerous technology is what we face from our enemies,” Lucius said.  “For that matter, we'll have to find some way to match or beat it, we cannot rely upon the enemy being predictable in the future.”

Doctor Wade spoke up, “Sir, I think this has gotten a bit emotional.  Perhaps if we could continue with the briefing, you can see what we are currently working on, and how it relates to the war effort?”