Starclash (Stealing the Sun Book 4) Page 7

  “So,” Kel said. “What’s happening?”

  Deidra held her tongue. She wanted to say something, but she wasn’t sure what. How do you decide to tell the person you share everything with that you can’t share this?

  “I don’t know. But it’s going to be bad.”

  “Talk to your father. Tell him what you think.”

  “He already knows.”

  “Maybe try again?” Kel said through a crooked smile. Her voice raised in that gentle wave she got when she was telling Deidra to calm down, but didn’t want to say the words calm down. “This time without the yelling and screaming?”

  Deidra laughed.

  Kel was right, though. She had to talk to Papa again. Had to find a way to get him to see what a colossally bad idea this was. Didn’t he read history? Didn’t he understand what the UG was?

  Deidra thought for a bit.

  What would Katriana do? How would she respond to this thing her leadership was going to do?

  A ring grew out in the middle of an alcove.

  One of the water creatures that was half-fish, half-lizard, rising to feed on a water bug.

  Maybe Papa was just getting old, she thought, senile, or maybe just growing soft as he aged. Maybe he was pretending he could make the UG into something it wasn’t. Whatever. All she could say for sure was that while she and her Papa shared ideas about what Universe Three’s perfect world would look like, they clearly disagreed with what it was going to take to achieve it.

  She shrugged, and her shoulder rubbed against Kel’s.

  “Yes,” she finally said. “I’ve got to try again.”

  * * *

  An hour later, Deidra ignored privacy protocol and stepped directly into her father’s office. Since he was old-school and hadn’t allowed an automatic controller to be installed on the entryway, the door slammed against the wall as she burst in.

  “I cannot believe we’re going to do this,” she said without hesitation.

  She had to sidestep to keep from getting hit as the door swung back at her. The day hadn’t gotten any cooler, and the thirty-minute power-walk she had taken to gather her thoughts had resulted in a line of sweat that rode on top of her forehead. Her face was flush with exertion.

  The office was cluttered.

  Papa sat on a couch in the corner, holding his arm out for Dr. Iwal as the physician reseated a C-Pak band around the upper half of his biceps. Gregor Anderson stood across the room, his arms clasped behind his back and his head down as if in contemplation.

  A projection display of the Eta Cass system hovered on one side of the low table between them, and a layout of what she recognized as Atropos City’s growth plan was sitting on the other side of the table.

  “Are you all right?” Deidra said.

  “Yes,” Papa said. “I am fine.”

  He glanced at Dr. Iwal to dismiss him.

  “Leave it on for the next three hours,” Iwal said, standing up and shaking his head as he picked up a scanning device. He gathered up scraps of sterile paper that until a few minutes ago had been a packet storing an antibiotic pad. “And—I don’t care if you feel like you’re superhuman or not—fifteen minutes with the compression jacket every day.”

  Casmir Francis, leader of Universe Three, grumbled.

  Gregor cleared his throat as the doctor picked his way past Deidra and closed the door behind him.

  The time it took for the doctor to leave was long enough that the rawness of her anxiety began to creep back. On the other hand, it also allowed her to catch her breath.

  Papa donned the shirt that had been laid over the back of the couch. “It’s time to try a different path,” Papa said, already beginning to explain himself as he rolled the shirt sleeve over the C-Pak.

  “It’s time to take control is what it is,” Deidra replied.

  “That is not what the gathering said.”

  “I heard them. But we both know it didn’t have to be that way. Or that it doesn’t have to be that way. Even now. You’ve turned them to your side before.”

  Papa patted the seat next to him. “Come and sit, my fervent daughter.”

  “I’ll stand, thank you.”

  He let out one of those blustery sighs Deidra had come to hate. Her father could be an ass sometimes.

  “It’s not too late, Papa,” she said. “This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. We can change the plan.”

  Papa sat back on the couch, resigned to be alone there.

  “You’re right, Deidra. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. It’s the moment when we arrange for our own sovereignty. It’s the moment when we can begin to develop the agreements that will allow us to live free of the specter of the United Government.”

  “Not if it’s a trap.”

  “The UG would not risk Orion if it wasn’t dire for them. I think it’s time to take that chance.”

  Deidra put her hands on her hips but didn’t say anything.

  Despite his earlier stonewalling, she had hoped her father was on her side, that he had merely been swayed to take a different path than he would have otherwise. But here he sat, with his most pedantic expression and a holier-than-thou attitude flowing out of his pores like it was some kind of invisible cloud.

  “I can’t believe this,” she finally said.

  Anderson came to stand behind a side chair between them, and gestured to the map of the Eta Cass system. He was older than Papa, and his hands showed it. “We aren’t blind to the idea that it could be a trap, Deidra,” he said. “We’re working out the mechanics of a defense and retaliation plan now.”

  She looked closely at the display.

  A representation of Orion sat at coordinates in orbit above Galopar, the plot of land the UG had used to create the secret base they had launched their original attack on Atropos City from many years ago.

  Two ships hung nearby the outpost, Einstein posted between Orion and Atropos, and Icarus, posted on the opposite side of Galopar. From that position, Icarus would be able to use the planet to edge out of direct line of sight with only a moment’s notice. Data readouts showed both ships’ weapons were trained on Orion.

  Strings of smaller vessels were laid on a line parallel to both U3 ships—skimmers and jumpers that Deidra didn’t need a military education to see would have made the trip to the rendezvous point in the bays of the Excelsior craft. Their weapons were smaller than Einstein’s or Icarus’s, but they were also trained on the UG craft, creating a crosshatched killing field of sorts.

  She glanced to Papa.

  “We will destroy Orion if they take any action against our negotiating party,” he said. “We will find a way to broadcast that to them in advance. And if there is one thing we both know, it is that losing Orion will be unacceptable to the United Government, even if they were able to destroy one of ours in the process. They cannot manage if we have a Star Drive craft and they do not.”

  Deidra couldn’t argue that.

  Any game of pure attrition would leave the United Government without interstellar jump capability, and Universe Three with a free rein to hit any base or outpost that the UG might have.

  “What if they attack both our ships at once?”

  “That’s what the skimmer lines are for,” Anderson replied.

  She chewed her bottom lip. “What if they are okay with two-for-one?”

  “That’s the right question. They will need to know we’re ahead of them in our ability to produce another Star Drive. As long as they understand we will have a period of time when we can ride the stars and they cannot, we should be safe.”

  Deidra scanned the flashing model. “I still don’t like it,” she said.

  “Good,” Anderson responded, the tone of his voice carrying a strong undercurrent.

  “Why do you say it that way?”

  Anderson pursed his lips and glanced at Papa.

  The twist of Papa’s eyebrow was affirmative.

  “I want you to be part of the implementation team,” An
derson said. “When your father and I are finished here, I want to meet with you to discuss the details of our plans. Specifically, I want you to lead communication and training of the weapons commanders of each ship.”

  Deidra brought her brows together.

  “You’re promoting me?”

  “You’ve been in navigation,” Papa said, smiling. “And you’ve participated in the planning of the city. You have managed several smaller ops.” He pointed to the display of Eta Cass and her planetary system. “We’ve even had you sit in on some of the conversations about how to expand our population across the system as we gain more access to Star Drive systems.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “It’s time for us to be clear that you are preparing to take command of Universe Three,” he replied. “You’re very young. The fact that you reacted so quickly to this situation shows you’re not ready, yet. But it’s also clear to everyone by now that you’re the right person to become my successor. You’ve got the drive. You’ve got the background. It’s time that you step into a bigger role now. When this action is finished, I’m going to want you to become Gregor’s assistant.”

  Discord between being upset at the tactics Papa was proposing, and the thrill of hearing that she was actively proposed as the future leader of Universe Three pulled at her.

  “As it stands now,” Papa said, “Gregor will lead in the interim if anything untoward happens to me, but he is not of the right generation to lead us across the universe. You are. Being his assistant will give you access to everything we do.”

  “I see.”

  A grin fought to come to her face, but Deidra pushed it back and turned to Anderson.

  “Where should we meet?” she said.

  He rubbed his fingertips over the wood of the chair back he had been leaning on. “Your quarters would be fine. Or anywhere else, really. Just leave word.”

  “All right,” she said, realizing that the two men wanted privacy now.

  Deidra opened the door, left the room, and closed it behind her. She leaned her head back against the hard surface. Only then did she allow herself to break out in an expression of full-fledged joy.

  CHAPTER 7

  UGIS Orion

  Local Date: January 24, 2215

  Local Time: 0845

  If Torrance knew anything right now, it was that he had to find a way to bring Commander Yuan into the team. He found her leaning over a table at Weapons Command.

  A gathering of ensigns surrounded her as she pointed to targeting zones on the datascreen. “It’s all a big game of 3-D tag,” she said to the gathering. “But inertia is a bitch, and you just can’t get around good old Newton at serious subluminal.”

  The gathering gave a polite chuckle.

  “May I have a word with you, Commander?” Torrance said.

  The room grew an awkward silence.

  Yuan straightened and met Torrance’s gaze. She was short and thin, her dark hair styled off her face. Her rounded eyes were brown flecked with gray, her skin smooth over high cheekbones. Her lips had been painted on in what was outdated, but understated perfection. From her arched eyebrows to the crease in her trousers, her entire being radiated precision.

  “Can it wait, sir?” she replied with an expression that said she was busy.

  “No, I’m afraid it can’t.”

  She shut off the display with a deliberate motion, then walked away from the gathering with a gait that gave a message somewhere between direct confrontation and submission to his stature as her commanding officer.

  “Have you come up with any ideas as to what might be causing our H-MADS difficulties?” Torrance said when they were away from earshot of her weapons team.

  “I would appreciate if, in the future, you would call me out of this type of session in a less embarrassing fashion.”

  “Pardon me?”

  “You’ve shown my team that I am subordinate to you. It erodes my credibility.”

  Torrance considered several responses.

  “I apologize if you feel that way, Commander,” he said, hoping to at least deflect any direct confrontation. “But this is important.”

  “No, sir. I don’t have any ideas about how to fix your H-MADS issue—but, then, that’s not really my problem, is it?”

  “H-MADS is a weapon system,” Torrance stated.

  “With all due respect, sir, the weapons component of that shipboard system checks out fine. The laser’s targeting algorithm is accurate to within ten-thousandths of a degree, and the firing mechanism has proven one hundred percent reliable.”

  “You and I both know that interface issues can be caused by either side of any system, and therefore can be fixed in the same fashion.”

  “My laser interfaces just fine with every other firing assembly on the ship.”

  “I don’t care about that.”

  “Since you are Orion’s Systems and Weapons commander,” Yuan said, “perhaps you should.”

  She stared at him like a prideful cat. He had never commanded someone so overtly insubordinate.

  “I’m not going to argue with you, LiJuan.”

  She remained transfixed.

  “A moment ago I was informed that we will jump tomorrow morning. That means we have until then to get this thing under control. You will work with the H-MADS team to fix this problem. If they go down, you go down. We all go down. Is that clear?”

  “Clear as vacuum, sir.”

  “Good.”

  They stood together for several seconds, Torrance waiting for Yuan to break off, Yuan standing with defiance in her gaze.

  “You are dismissed, Commander,” Torrance finally said.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Yuan pivoted and returned to the gathering of technicians.

  * * *

  Still upset with the confrontation, Torrance stepped into his office and threw himself into his chair.

  Damn it!

  There was too much to do, too much to adjust to.

  His team was new. Douglas was looming over him like a vulture, and Yuan was, well, Yuan was Yuan. The mission would launch tomorrow, and that in itself meant he had a thousand things to deal with outside of fixing this singular problem. Somehow, for example, he had to complete the full prelaunch shakedown in the free time he had between bouts of attempting to get H-MADS running.

  He gripped the armrests hard enough that his fingers hurt. He hadn’t been aboard long enough to clutter the desktop, so the system monitor stood out against the starkness of the flat surface. The carpet was a dark green synthetic that still had its plastic smell of newness.

  “May I order something from the mess, sir?” the computer asked.

  “No thanks, Abke.”

  He glanced at the clock and scratched the back of his neck. Past noon. Now that he had told Abke not to get him anything, he realized his stomach was empty.

  A knock came at the door.

  “Enter,” Torrance said. The door clicked open, and footsteps rustled against the carpet.

  “Do you have a moment?”

  Torrance looked up to see Landis Marin, a group leader for the ship’s atmospheric control team. She was nearly as tall as Torrance, and wore a pair of standard-issue blue workday pants and a collarless white shirt opened a single button at the neckline. Her hair was blond, cut in a short buzz that accentuated the startling edges of her Germanic features. Her shirt was marked with Orion’s insignia on the left shoulder, and the double crimson-rimmed stripes that noted her rank.

  “I always have a moment, Lieutenant. Come on in. Have a seat.”

  She took a step further, then folded herself into the chair beside the desk. Her demeanor suggested she was being cautious, which made sense to Torrance. He was a new CO for her. Apprehension was always wise.

  “What’s the problem?”

  “We can’t get the air system balanced,” Marin said. Her arms wrapped around themselves so that her hands cupped her elbows as she spoke. “The environmental processo
r is pulling from the starboard oxygen tanks but not from the port.”

  “Suggested action?”

  “Take the port system off-line.”

  “And?”

  “Flush the line to see if we’ve got obstruction in the filters or the antibacterial systems. Assuming nothing’s there, then we start with the regulator system and work our way backwards until we find out what’s wrong.”

  Torrance nodded.

  Marin’s performance reports indicated she was bright and very good at what she did. Structured in her approach to issues, and diligent to the point of annoyance to those who were not so driven toward perfection. But reading reports and seeing someone firsthand are two different things. This first face-to-face with her told him Landis Marin was as good as reported. She had an embryonic sense of confidence that rode just under a fragile shell of awkward discomfort.

  “You’re on the right track. Go ahead and follow that approach and see if it works.”

  “Thank you, sir. I will.” Marin rose from the chair and turned toward the door.

  “Landis?”

  She paused in the doorway.

  “Things are not going well on the H-MADS integration, and the captain is very interested in seeing that system working prior to launch.”

  “I can imagine that.”

  “It’s also going to be announced shortly that the mission has been moved up.”

  “Moved up?”

  “We’re going to jump tomorrow.”

  Her eyes got wide and her eyebrows arched.

  “So you see why I need to focus my energy on that effort.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Yet we still have to complete the prelaunch shakedown of the service and support systems.”

  “They’re almost finished anyway, sir.”

  “That’s true. But being almost finished and being finished are two very different things—as you see with this issue with the O2 balance, right?”

  Marin pursed her thin lips.

  Realizing she had taken his example as a reprimand, Torrance raised a hand.

  “That’s all right, Lieutenant. I didn’t mean that as an accusation. I think you’re doing a fantastic job.”