Traitor's Duty (9 page)

 “So go public!” Cunningham said.

 “No,” Marshall replied. “For the same reason that we didn’t tell the whole fleet about our little discovery. If this got out, it could bring the whole government down, and then we’d get our war – with one hand tied behind our backs. We can’t let this get out.”

 “Which means we’re fighting them off with one hand tied behind our backs,” Caine said.

 “Not now we’re here,” Logan said. “We’ve got a task force behind us.”

 “What task force?” Cunningham replied. “Have you seen the damage reports? We had to abandon Griffon, and neither Wyvern
n
or Dragon are going to be in condition to do anything for months. You did about two weeks’ damage to Thermopylae yourself, and Gilgamesh got pasted as well. None of that would have mattered that much if we only had to win a straight victory – we’ve got plenty of resources here to put everything back together again. If it comes to a battle, though, it’s just Alamo.”

 “All this way…” Ryder said.

 “We can certainly spare crew, though, especially from the scouts. Once we’re done here, John, I want you to go through the fleet for volunteers. Anyone who doesn’t mind throwing their career onto the scrapheap. No details,” Marshall said. “And no sales technique. I don’t
want
anyone pushed into something they’ll regret.

 “I think we can pick up a few,” Cunningham said. “Enough to give us a reasonable chance, if nothing else. Spares and components as well, get Alamo ready for action.”

 “Fighters and Espatiers too,” Ryder suggested.

 “Only
the flight Alamo has already,
and
Cooper's
platoon,” Marshall said. “We went to a lot of trouble to take this station, and I don’t want to just hand it back to the enemy without a fight. We’re going to be leaving this system stripped bare enough as it is.”

 “Sir,” Ryder asked, “May I ask who is going to relieve me?”

 “Relieve you of what?” Marshall replied.

 “My position, sir. There are several officers who outrank me for the position of Alamo’s Exec.”

 “Hmm. Logan, is she doing a good job?”

 “We wouldn’t have got here without her,” the agent replied with a smile. “And I certainly don’t want the damn job.”

 “Ryder, at least for the present, I need you where you are. Deadeye, you can take Tactical, and I presume you’re happy to revert to Supercargo, Logan?”

 “Always a pleasure to have next to nothing to do,” he replied. “I’ve thrown everything into a very highly classified report for you to go through on our trip home, though I’d have something strong around to wash it down with. Bad taste.” He paused, then said, “Theoretically, we’re operating under a Presidential order, but he didn’t have any authority to issue it. Which means everyone on this ship will be up on all sorts of charges when we get home.”

 “Understood.”

 “What do you want me to do, Danny?” Cunningham asked.

 “Logan, could you go and get
the prisoner
for me? Deadeye, Ryder, you’d better get up to the bridge and start pulling together some status reports, and see where we can integrate some crewmen.”

 “Right,” Caine said, and the three of them left the room, leaving Cunningham and Marshall alone.

 “This is going to be one of those unpleasant orders, isn’t it.”

 “You’ve got to stay behind,” Marshall said. “And this is not subject to argument.”

 “Danny…,” he began.

 “I mean it, John. For two reasons. The first is that I need someone good to take command here. You’ll need to push the repairs as fast as you can, try and get at least one of the battlecruisers ready for action, preferably both. If war breaks out this is the front line, and there just isn’t anyone I trust.”

 “Gorski…”

 “Is perfectly competent, but I don’t know him well enough to trust him with something like this, not when there is a better choice. The only other possibility would be Brownworth, and she’s Espatier. Good but not for this – it’ll be a fleet battle if there is one.”

 “What’s the second reason?” 

 “Almost everyone who knows the truth is going to be shipping out on Alamo. I want to keep this as tight as possible. You’ll be the only one left behind, and if it all goes wrong when we go back to Mars, I need someone as a backup. I can’t give you any orders, but do what you need to do to make things right.”

 “That’s a hell of a hot seat to leave me in.”

 “Trust me, this one’s worse.”

 “What are you going to do?”

 “That depends very much on my conversation with Frank.”

 The door opened, and Cooper was standing outside with Logan, Frank Rogers in front of them both with a resigned look on his face. He walked into the office and looked around.

 “Quite an audience, Danny.”

 “You will address me as ‘sir’, Mr. Rogers.”

 “Is this a preparation for a court-martial?”

 “I’ve got enough officers of the right rank to call one right here and now. I suspect that the end result would see you in front of a firing squad. Give me a reason why not?”

 “Publicity?”

 “The Captain told you to call him ‘sir’,” Cooper said, a scowl on his face.

 “Get in here,” Marshall said. “John, Logan, you stay. Cooper, make sure we are not disturbed, and if I call, get inside instantly.”

 “With backup. Yes, sir,” the Espatier said, stepping back to allow the door to slide shut.

 “Quite an attack dog you have there,” Rogers said. 

 “Look, Captain,” Logan began, “You’re part of this little conspiracy, and while Captain Marshall might have a conscience about such things, I don’t. You are talking for your life, quite literally.”

 “You’re bluffing.”

 “It won’t take a firing squad. An airlock accident. And don’t pretend that your side hasn’t organized a few, because I’ve already seen the evidence. The charge is treason, and we’ve got you well and truly caught.”

 “Thermopylae…”

 “Had no significant damage,” Cunningham said. “Look, think of this another way. Convince us that what you were doing was right.”

 Shaking his head, he said, “This was meant to be a one-way mission. It was meant to fail. Either in the assault, or during the fleet battle. Preferably the first.”

 “Cooper was right,” Marshall said. “The Espatiers…”

 “Dregs of the training program. Expendable.” He looked up at Logan, and said, “All of them volunteered, Captain. And when they signed up, they knew that it might require them to sacrifice their lives.”

 “Not throw them away!” Logan yelled. “And who the hell decides what this greater good is, anyway?”

 “You’ve been to the Cabal,” Rogers said, turning to Marshall. “You know what sort of bastards they are, and that they have to be stopped. After the next election, there will be the majority in the Senate to call for a war, and we can’t have the lame-ducks sign us up to a peace treaty.”

 “That’s not how the system works, damn it! The Senate are the representatives of the people, and their job is to decide whether to ratify a treaty or not.”

 “The President has committed…”

 “Does that have anything to do with the treaty? In any way? Is he accused of treason, perhaps? Spying for the Cabal, or taking money to influence his decision.”

 “No.”

 “Then why not sign the treaty?” Sighing, Marshall said, “I have been out there, and unlike you, I’ve fought them for most of a year. We could easily lose this war, and then what? We’re subjugated under the Cabal, and everything we have fought for his lost.”

 “Not that it will matter if you toss it all into the dustbin,” Logan added. “The Senate could vote to bypass the impeachment and vote on the treaty, but there are just enough people opposing that to prevent the two-thirds majority. In the meantime, you come out here to fight a war of aggression, and with the greatest irony yet, collaborate with the Cabal to start it.”

 “What?” Cunningham asked.

 Nodding, Marshall said, “It’s the only way that this make sense. Someone leaked our plans, and that they would be pulling out of the battle line at the last minute.”

 “We’ve already found the data trail in Thermopylae’s systems. Everything is being copied and deleted; the
re
’ll be no trace of it for anyone else to find unless we want them too.” Turning to Rogers, he said, “That is treason.”

 “My orders were to leave this system with news of the defeat. If the Cabal commander needed some encouragement to push a battle, I was happy to provide it. Once news that they had knocked out a fleet on a mission of peace had circulated, the majority for war would have been absolute.”  

 Marshall looked across at Logan and asked, “All of this is documented?”

 “A nice smoking gun for us.” 

 “Who else was in on this?” Marshall asked.

 “I won’t…”

 “One thing I can leak is that a Triplanetary officer has committed an act of treason. No-one needs to know where the dots connect,” Marshall snapped. “Co-operate and I’ll see that you are charged instead with cowardice in the face of the enemy. That’s a prison term. Or maybe I’ll just tell the Espatiers that you considered them as expendable rejects and let them take you on a tour of the asteroid.” 

 “I didn’t want it to go this way, Danny.” He sighed, then said, “I’m operating under Presidential orders, all the way. Though talking to the enemy was my idea; I was improvising. Fleet Captain Hayes was in charge of this operation. Admiral Pierce didn’t know.”

 “Tramiel?”

 “He was the one who passed the orders to me.”

 Leaning forward, Marshall asked, “Will you testify?”

 “I was doing my duty as I saw it. I was willing to die in the line of that duty, and I’m willing to die now, for the good of the Confederation.”

 Nodding, Marshall said, “Get him out of here.”

 The door opened, and Cooper escorted him out of the room. Silence descended after he left, Cunningham sitting down on the edge of the desk.

 “The Cabal officers we’ve captured will likely testify.”

 “How will that help?” Marshall asked. “No-one will believe a word they said. We’ve got some evidence, but they’ll just say it was faked. Or throw everything at him, and clear themselves in the process.”

 Frowning, Logan said, “We’ve got a gun to point at them, Danny. They don’t need to know that we’re firing blanks. There’s a chance that simply threatening them with his testimony will be enough, especially with a treason charge hanging over him.”

 “That’s a weak hand to play with, Logan,” Cunningham said.

 “You’ve got to take the cards you’ve been dealt.”

 Nodding, Marshall said, “It’s all we’ve got. Alamo will head home as soon as possible, and present everything we’ve got to the Senate. There’s a chance that Orlova might have put together some more information as well, and we can continue to work on Rogers.”

 “He won’t talk. He’s got no reason to,” Cunningham replied. “All he has to do is wait until the coup succeeds, and he’s in the clear. He knows that, and
also
that you won’t just kill him now.” 

 “What’s the other choice, then?” Marshall asked. “Sit back and watch all this happen? Let them start a war? If they get away with this once, how long before they do it again?”

 “I’m not going to let this coup succeed,” Logan said with an air of finality.

 “Then it’s settled,” Marshall said, looking up at the clock. “In four days, Alamo makes course for home. I want to meet with the Cabal leadership, in whatever neutral ground we can manage.”

 “What are you going to tell them?” Cunningham asked.

 “The truth. As much as I dare.”

Chapter 9

 The buggy pulled up outside a battered, windswept dome with a long strip of concrete running down one side, a tall antenna looming over the horizon and a series of glowing blue lights, only half of which were working. Orlova stepped out, the Commandant and Talbot behind her, and hurried into the airlock, willing it to cycle quickly.

 Waiting for her at the other side was a nervous-looking Harriet, alone inside the all-but empty dome, just a trio of sleeping bags, a stove, and some monitoring equipment for company. She tossed aside the datapad in her hand and hustled over to them, looking at the Commandant.

 “Is this him?” she asked.

 “Not impressed?” Orlova replied.

 “No horns, no forked tail. Not what the press briefings made us expect. Maggie, we can’t stay here. I just got a report from Harper up on Phobos…”

 “She made it, then?” Talbot interjected.

 “Yes, yes, no problem, but she’s spotted a couple of convoys heading this way, local planetary defense forces. They’ve got both major routes covered, but she thinks that we should be able to make it to Clarke City. If we leave immediately. My buggy’s charged and ready to go outside.”

 Smiling, Orlova replied, “That would be letting them dictate our course of action. They’ve got the resources to have blocked off every point of retreat, at little or no risk to them. Which means they are trying to force us somewhere. We need to get to the Ragnarok Embassy, get the Commandant in a meeting with the President. That’s our top priority right now.”

 “How?” Harriet asked.

 “Aren’t you curious what this base was for?”

 “Just another abandoned military site from the War, I figured. Mars is littered with them.”

 “This one was a little special. My father worked here on the admin side for a while. Back in the day, it was a flight test facility.”

 “Shuttles?” Talbot said, beaming. “Then we can get up to Phobos, or make a ballistic trajectory all the way to our target.”

 “No,” Orlova replied, shaking her head. “Aircraft.”

 “Military aircraft? In the Martian atmosphere?”

 “There’s enough of an atmosphere to fly. Search and rescue uses them all the time.”

 “Only for spotting and quick response,” Harriet replied. “I covered them for a while when I was starting out. There’s nothing around that can carry more than a couple of men, and…”

 Looking down at the floor, Orlova said, “In an underground hangar is a pair of two-seater fighters, designed for the Martian atmosphere. They never put them into service, but they’ve been tested, and they work.”