The Shattered Empire (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 2) (34 page)

Something else gave Lieutenant Commander Harper the confidence to all but spit in Lucius's face.  Something else was wrong here, something that had the foul stink of politics.

***

Faraday System

United Colonies

September 28, 2403

Princess Lizmadie Doko stood up as the door chimed.  She looked over at Tony with a raised eyebrow, but he shrugged.  Alicia Nix had attached a team of her agents to protect their house after the attack.  Alanis hadn't come by in over a week, though she had commed to say that something had come up.  They weren't really expecting anyone, and Tony's isolation had come to feel almost like a different kind of prison.  Finally she answered it, “Yes?”

“Ma'am, there's a... Nova Roma gentleman with his escort to see you,” Anderson said.  He was the team commander, if Lizmadie remembered correctly.

“Liz, it's me,” she heard her brother's voice and her eyes went wide.  She had not expected to hear him, not since his last angry diatribe right before she and Tony had eloped.

“You can send them in,” Lizmadie said.  She suddenly felt distant, she had been through enough in the past two days that she didn't really want to fight.  Still, best to get it over with, she supposed.  As she heard the front door open and a mutter of conversation outside she steeled herself for the coming confrontation.  It wouldn't be easy, she knew.  She could already foresee his arguments.  She had estranged herself, she had disgraced herself with this unauthorized marriage.  The hurtful comments were all the worse for the fact that she had thought her younger brother was different from her father and older brother.  He, at least, had seen her independence and strong will as being of value... and he had been the one to come find her before she even knew they were related.

Tony came up to put a reassuring arm around her.  “We'll face him together,” he said softly.  Emperor Romulus IV swept into the room.  She straightened, ready for his explosion.

“Thank God you're both alright,” he said.  The Nova Roma Emperor rushed over to embrace them both.  Lizmadie started to stiffen in response, but instead she found her arms hugging him back.

The young Emperor released them and took a step back.  Lizmadie was surprised to see tears in his eyes.  “I just heard the news last night.  They're keeping the whole thing very quiet... I couldn't even find out if you both were still alive until this morning.”

“We're alive,” Lizmadie said with a crooked smile, “as you can see.”

He nodded, “And I'm grateful. 
Very
grateful.”  He looked at Tony and Lizmadie saw the young man straighten.  “I... owe you an apology, Captain Doko.  I've known about you and Lizmadie's feelings for one another.  I also knew my father's opinion on the matter, such as it was, and I didn't want to disgrace his memory.  I shouldn't have rejected your offer, like I did.  It was rude and I should have known what effect it would have on my sister.  Can you forgive me my arrogance and pigheadedness?”

Tony shrugged and Lizmadie could see his discomfort.  He hadn't expected an apology.  “Your Highness, I...”  He also, Lizmadie knew, felt too much respect for the Nova Roma Imperial Family to feel comfortable with such an abject apology.  “Could we just forget about all that?”

Emperor Romulus IV smiled, “Of course.”  He glanced over his shoulder at the pair of Nova Roma Marines.  “These two fine gentlemen are from my new bodyguard.  I've got an entire platoon of them.”  He looked back at Lizmadie. “If you two would accept it... I'd like to attach a team of them to provide you some additional protection.”

“Uh...” Tony looked both surprised and confused.

Lizmadie smiled though, “Of course, that would be very generous.”

Her half-brother gave her a nod, “It makes me feel a bit better knowing you'll have a full team of Marines handy in case of any other
issues.
”  He all but spat the last.  “Do they know who it was, yet?  Was it some kind of terrorist group or Chxor sympathizers?”

Lizmadie grimaced, “They have no idea.  Not yet.  The FIB is keeping what they do know very close to their chests, but our attackers took the body of their man with them.  All they have are the bullet holes and some shoe prints, and a bit of their hacking code from when they took down our home network.”

The Emperor looked angry, “That sounds like some kind of professional team.”  He shook his head, “Admiral Balventia warned me that the United Colonies is too lax on their internal security, it looks like he was right.”

“We trust our people,” Doko snapped, “That's not being lax, it's avoiding a police state.”  The vehemence in his voice belied his own current status of house arrest, which Lizmadie couldn't help but feel bitterness about.

Emperor Romulus IV shrugged, “Either way, if you'll have them, the team of Marines will be here.  And if you'll both accept it, I'd like to make that permanent.”  He cleared his throat, uncertainly, “I've also withdrawn my earlier order for you to be prosecuted for working for Admiral Mannetti.”

“It took
this
to change your mind?” Lizmadie said with a level look.  She knew her family could be pigheaded, but she was surprised it had taken him this long to see through the obviously false charges.

Her half-brother shrugged, uncomfortably.  “It took me some time to separate my personal and professional opinions... and then Baron Giovanni was already off-world.  I still believe that there is an informant, but I think it more likely that this was
his
work, possibly to silence you both or to kidnap you for additional leverage.”

Lizmadie shrugged, “I'm not certain, myself, how I feel about that.”  In truth, she thought this informant was some ploy by Admiral Mannetti to sow confusion in their ranks.  It seemed too bizarre that someone might have worked under Lucius Giovanni for years, if not decades, and betrayed him. 
Then again,
she thought,
he does have certain blind spots where his friends are concerned
.  It bothered her, but now was neither the time or place to bring that up.  “Still, I'm just glad we're both alive and well.”

“Well, I just happen to have brought a bottle of muscato,” Emperor Romulus IV said with a slight smile.  “How about we drink to that?”

***

UCS
Nova Rosnik

Shadow Space

September 29, 2403

Forrest glanced up at a chime at the hatch.  “Come in,” Forest said, surprised that anyone on the destroyer had come to see him. The destroyer wasn't big enough for him to have his own quarters, of course.  He shared it with three other junior officers.  All three, however, were on day shifts.

Forrest jumped to his feet as the Baron stepped through the hatch.  “Uh, good morning, sir.” He felt a bit of panic at his current state of dress.  Last time he'd met Baron Giovanni he'd been dead drunk and dressed in slovenly coveralls.  Today, again, he was in coveralls, fresh from his night shift, grease stained and dirty.

“Take a seat, Ensign,” the Baron said with a wave.  He closed the hatch behind him and gave Forrest an odd look.  “I thought you were assigned to navigation?”

“I was,” Forrest said and he couldn't keep a bite of anger from his voice. “I've been reassigned.”  Forrest had been told by the XO that for 'causing problems' he was no longer attached to navigation, instead he was attached to engineering as a shift supervisor.  Officially, of course, it was a 'broadening' assignment to improve his base of knowledge.  But since he'd arrived there, the Engineer had basically ignored him and put him on night shift.

“I see,” the Baron said.  Something angry flashed behind his eyes, but Forrest couldn't guess if it was aimed at him or someone else.  “I'm here in a purely unofficial fashion... I want to know more about what happened from when this contact initially showed up to when you notified the XO.”

Forrest looked away, “Sir, I'm not sure I should talk about that.”

“Putting aside the issues of chain of command and whatever conversations have gone on about this already,” the Baron said, his voice level, “I want to know because the implications of another vessel intercepting us in shadow space are extremely dangerous.”

Forrest licked his lips.  He had been told, in no uncertain terms, not to discuss the incident with anyone else by not just the Executive Officer, but also the
Nova Rosnik
's Captain.  Still, if there was anyone who could override them, it had to be the Baron...
but then there's what some of them say about him,
Forrest thought darkly.  Not that he believed it himself, but he was pretty certain at least some of the officers of the Fleet must or else why would they repeat it?  Forrest met the shorter man's dark eyes and finally gave a sigh, “Sir, it all started when Navigation Tech Haines forwarded me a sensor contact.”  Forrest ran through the entire event chain, to include the technical details he remembered.  He didn't bring up the full hour that it had taken him to convince the XO to notify the Captain... or the dressing down he'd received from both of them.

“Right,” Lucius said.  “That's even worse than I'd thought.”  He looked down at the deck plates for a long moment.  “I'm getting some very odd responses and attitudes here, Ensign.  Could you explain some of them?”

Forrest instinctively shook his head.  It would be bad enough if they found out he'd told them what had happened with the sensor data.  It would be far worse if they thought he was going behind their backs to discuss things they'd said in private.

Yet, when he looked at the Baron, he remembered the ideals that had made him agree to sign up with Boris.  In particular, he remembered the importance of taking a stand for the ideas of freedom in the face of the Chxor's tyranny.  He remembered how the Baron could have made himself into a warlord, yet he'd encouraged the development of a constitution, instead.  “There's discussion, among some officers,” Forrest said, in a low voice.  “Especially some of the original Dreyfus Fleet officers... about you, about Admiral Dreyfus...”

The Baron cocked his head, “And?”

Forrest looked away, “Some of it is just rumors, that Admiral Dreyfus commands the military, that you're more a figurehead.”  He paused a moment, then admitted, “Some is worse, that Admiral Dreyfus is running things behind the scenes, that he's just waiting to defeat the Chxor before they seize power and restore things to how they used to be... to reinstate Amalgamated Worlds.   They say that the United Colonies is just a cover, that soon things will be just like they were before they left.”

“What?” The Baron asked, “That's absurd.”

“There's more,” Forrest said in a low voice, “There's some who have talked about how if Admiral Dreyfus doesn't... then there are officers who will... and they'll take the necessary steps.”  The last smacked of either a mutiny or a coup, either of which would be a violation of their oaths.  That was bad enough, but the thought of them trying to use the Dreyfus Fleet to restore the defunct Amalgamated Worlds smacked of outright conquest.  Amalgamated Worlds had controlled all of human space.  The bureaucrats who'd managed it had wielded extreme power and the military under them had done some atrocious things in the name of preserving the peace.

“Really...” the Baron said.  Forrest looked up and he saw an iron expression of determination on his face.  “We'll have to see about that.  Thank you, Ensign.”  He turned and left before Forrest could respond.

***

Faraday System

United Colonies

October 2, 2403

Lucius leaned forward in the jump seat near the command chair of the
Nova Rosnik
.  They had only minutes until their arrival at the Faraday system.  The contact remained, but had shown no activity or interaction.  Then again, communications in shadow space was difficult without using an ansible.  The odd energies of the realm caused all manner of interference.

Lucius squashed a hopeful idea that Kandergain had returned.  While he would like to think she would... this didn't fit with her earlier behavior.  She would have come straight to him and she would not have stalked his ship.

Right now his current fear was that the other ship would emerge almost on top of them when they left shadow space.  Like most systems, Faraday had established military and civilian zones for shadow space emergence.  The the transponders that allowed for rapid identification of friend or foe functioned for both civilian and military vessels.  The civilian zone was much further out, to allow for better security and screening besides the automated system.  The military zone was closer in, because of challenge and acceptance codes that allowed Faraday's defensive forces to verify identities.  The civilian zone was well outside energy weapons range of anything in Faraday orbit, while the military zone had several cleared corridors that ran all the way down into lower orbit to allow for damaged vessels to receive assistance immediately upon arrival.

The
Nova Rosnik
would emerge within the military zone.  Upon their arrival, Lucius knew, the automated systems would challenge their IFF and codes and then clear them... but the mystery ship would emerge close to them... maybe close enough that automated systems couldn't fire and would need authorization from humans.  That delay might give this mystery ship long enough to do significant damage before being destroyed.