The Cockroach Crusade, page 15
“So, you haven’t actually seceded. They understand that Daisy Hub is still part of Earth.”
Mentally crossing his fingers, Drew replied, “Of course.”
Rodrigues’s face assumed a stern expression. “The problem is, you’ve represented yourself to them as an independent political entity, and that’s not just a con, Townsend. It’s the kind of fraud that could get us both executed for treason — you for committing it and me for not reporting it.”
“With all due respect, Paul, we both know that Daisy Hub is an orbiting gulag, so how could it be treason when Earth’s own government has effectively disowned us? Everyone who’s posted here knows that there’s no going back home to Earth, ever. The powers that be would love to forget that we even exist.”
“Yes, and that’s precisely why this station has been co-opted by the EIS. Look, I sympathize. I know it feels as if you and your crew have been abandoned out here, but as long as there are operatives aboard the station, each carrying an EIS-issued decryption device, Daisy Hub belongs to Earth Intelligence. And so do you and I. No thanks, by the way, for removing any deniability I might have had. Now we’ll both have to answer for what you’ve done.”
Involuntarily, Townsend smiled. “I’m glad to hear you say that, Paul.”
“Oh?”
“If we’re to have any chance at all when the Corvou arrive, we’ll need all forty Houses of Nandor backing us up. The only way to ensure that is by finalizing the alliance between Daisy Hub and Trokerk. And to do that, I need your help.”
Leaning back in his seat, the Ranger captain said warily, “What kind of help?”
“Nothing dangerous. I just need you to personally ferry one of my crew to a secret meeting with a Nandrian official and back, and not tell a soul what you see and hear while you’re there. I’m told it’s a four day round trip.”
He let out a snort of laughter. “Are you serious, Townsend? You’re asking me to drop everything and disappear for four days without explanation, and then lie to everyone about how I spent them?”
“You won’t have to lie, Paul. We’ll do it for you.”
“You’d run a con on Zulu?”
“It’s not like we’ve never done it before,” he pointed out reasonably. “Besides, if the detachment commander gives his permission, is it really a con?”
“I see splitting hairs is another of your many questionable talents,” Rodrigues growled. “And what about Earth Intelligence? You and I both know we aren’t the only operatives posted out here. There’s at least one other agent, filing separate reports with HQ. Are you planning to con your own crew as well?”
Actually, he was already doing it. Rodrigues had no idea how deep the crew’s resentment ran against the “faceless authorities” on Earth, including the EIS.
“Look, if you’d rather not transport Ajda Gray to this meeting—”
“Wait a second. Ajda is the passenger?”
“Yes. Didn’t I mention that? I thought I did.”
Townsend watched for a tell and found it, in the flush of color creeping up Rodrigues’s neck and along his jaw.
“And it’s two days out and two back, you said?”
“Yes. If you’d rather not accompany her yourself, I’ll understand. Ruby is quite an accomplished pilot and can take her instead. But we don’t have our shuttle anymore since Odysseus made off with Devil Bug, so I’ll need to borrow one of yours.”
“No.”
Townsend feigned confusion. “No?”
“I can’t let you have a shuttle without a Ranger at the controls. It’s regulations.”
“I see,” he said, doing his best to sound disappointed.
The Ranger gave him a long sideways look. “What happens if Ajda doesn’t make this meeting?”
The subtext was impossible to miss. Convince me. Please!
Townsend happily obliged. “The alliance will fall apart. And that would be disastrous, not just because of the Corvou, but because Daisy Hub would be breaking its word to House Trokerk. The Nandrians take betrayal very seriously. They’d hold everyone on the station accountable, and would probably save the Corvou the trouble of blowing us all to kingdom come.”
“Well, when you put it that way, I guess I have no choice but to help you,” Rodrigues concluded. “But you’ll have to come up with a damned good reason for me to give my second in command when I leave my post for four days.”
“Piece of cake,” said O’Malley, the Hub’s resident hacker, when Townsend met with him back on the station to explain the situation.
And so it was that later that day, Captain Rodrigues was summoned to testify at a top secret Space Installation Security briefing in deep space, regarding the first contact incident with the Corvou. The message was appropriately worded, with embedded verification codes to prove authenticity. However, rather than originating with SIS Headquarters on Mars, it appeared to have been forwarded from another off-world detachment’s data server. Lieutenant Carlisle, Rodrigues’s trusted second, was quick to point out the irregularity. However, as Rodrigues was equally quick to explain, it was, after all, a top secret meeting, no doubt relying on misdirection to keep it that way.
The lieutenant was doubtful, but he eventually conceded the point.
The summons instructed Rodrigues to provision his shuttle for an interval-long voyage, and to make a stop at Daisy Hub to pick up a second witness who would be testifying at the briefing as well.
Four people (none of them Ajda Gray) were waiting for him as he stepped through the docking portal onto A Deck the following day.
“Where’s my passenger?” he demanded.
Ruby replied, “She’s collecting the rest of her luggage.”
Rodrigues watched Hagman stride through the portal, a suitcase in each hand. “All that for a four-day trip?”
“Yep. She wanted to take more, but I talked her out of it.”
Holchuk stepped forward then and handed him a datawafer. “This contains your destination coordinates, plus everything else you need to know in order to pass for a member of the palace guard.”
The Ranger’s eyebrows shot up, seeming to straighten his spine in the process. “This is an undercover assignment?” he sputtered. “By whose authority? Townsend, I swear, if you’ve made me for a mark—!”
“No, Paul, that’s not what this is about. The Nandrians will be expecting two Humans at this meeting — our counterpart to their high official and her special escort, who has to be a member of Daisy Hub’s palace guard.”
The Ranger scowled. “They believe you have a palace guard?”
“Think about it for a moment,” Townsend told him. “The uniforms, the patrols, the lack of weapons aboard the Hub…”
“As far as the Nandrians are concerned, Zulu has been part of House Daisy Hub from the beginning,” Holchuk chimed in. “You’re not going undercover. You’re just pretending to be what they’ve always assumed you were — a member of the Second Shield, the elite force charged with protecting the leader and high officials of the House at any cost.
“Second Shield gives you status, but also a great deal of responsibility, and because you’re Human, the guard accompanying their high official might decide to test you. In fact, he might even have been assigned to do it. That datawafer is your crib sheet. Make some time to study it before you reach the rendezvous point.”
“Will do.” Rodrigues tucked the wafer into his uniform jacket pocket. “Townsend, I need to warn you about something—”
Everyone turned at the sound of the tube car door opening and watched Ajda Gray step onto the deck. She was holding a container carefully packed with glass and metal objects.
“I nearly forgot my measuring tools,” she explained, the words coming out in a nervous rush. “Lord knows what units of measurement the Nandrians use—”
When she saw Rodrigues, she nearly tripped over her own feet. He hurried to catch the box as it slipped from her grasp.
“Here, let me carry that,” he offered.
She said nothing, but the rosy glow in her cheeks was enough to light up the deck.
“I’ll bet a liter of lemon juice she doesn’t open even one of her suitcases,” said Ruby, just loudly enough for Townsend and Holchuk to hear. As they watched the “high speaker” and her pilot walk through the portal, she added, “Are you sure it’s safe to leave those two alone together for four whole days? Ajda could end up growing more than a tree.”
“Actually, I’m sort of hoping for something like that,” Drew told her.
“Matchmaking, Chief? I didn’t think that was your style.”
“Why not? Let’s grab all the happiness we can before the Corvou arrive.”
“Carpe diem,” ‘Mom’ murmured, nodding sagely. “Works for me.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Doomsday minus 519 Earth days.
“Welcome back, Marco Polo! We’ve been expecting you.”
Dedrick and Takamura had been studying the display at the tactical console on the bridge. Hearing no sign of distress in the female voice that had just greeted them, they exchanged speculative looks. It had been more than two intervals since the time stamp on the last message from the Hub. A lot could have happened during that time. In fact, if the report filed by Zulu’s commander was to be believed, a lot had.
Takamura signaled to Brandt to take Daisy Hub off speakers. “Your opinion, Mister Dedrick?”
He gestured at the screen. “Other than that small debris field we detected, everything outside the station looks perfectly normal, Captain.”
“Could that be the wreckage of Odysseus’s ship?” Takamura inquired tautly.
“No, sir. Tsieng recorded everything he could about the Mitradean shuttle while it was on our landing deck, and according to our databank, the space flotsam we just passed isn’t made of the same materials as the craft Odysseus was flying.”
Takamura breathed a sigh of relief. The SIS report had described a disastrous first contact, resulting in the death of the alien. He’d been fearful that it might have been their carapaced friend.
“Sirs?” Brandt broke in. “Daisy Hub Control has cleared us to dock and assigned us a portal.”
“Do they still require us to take all weapons offline for final approach?” Dedrick asked.
“Yes, sir. And, Captain? The station manager is requesting a private meeting with you at your earliest convenience. He says it’s of utmost importance.”
“Interesting,” Takamura remarked. “Has he specified a venue for this meeting, Mister Brandt?”
“No, sir.”
“Then we’ll have it in my office aboard ship, at his earliest convenience once we’ve docked. Send the reply, Ensign.”
“Aye, sir.”
“What are you thinking, Captain?” asked Dedrick.
Takamura paused briefly before replying. “I am entertaining several possibilities, Commander, none of them reassuring. Clearly, there has been an incident of some kind. If the events summarized by Vice-Admiral Nelligan transpired in the way she described, we’re at war with an alien race. If not, we may still be facing consequences arising from the death of an alien in Earth space. And if Odysseus was in any way involved and the Great Council finds out how we freed the Mitradeans, there could very shortly be more than one alien race trying to wipe us out.”
“Townsend seems anxious to speak with you about it.”
“And that does not bode well either. I don’t think it’s wise for us to be letting our guard down, not until we are in possession of all the facts in this case.”
A minute later, Brandt announced, “A message from Daisy Hub, Captain. Station Manager Townsend accepts your invitation. He’ll join you in your office immediately after the Marco Polo docks.”
—— «» ——
Takamura had ordered a Security detail to escort Townsend directly to the door of his office adjoining the bridge. As it slid aside, the captain got to his feet and bowed from the shoulders, then gestured to his visitor to take a seat. There was some gray visible in the station manager’s hair, Takamura noted. It hadn’t been there the last time they’d met.
“Welcome aboard, Mr. Townsend. We received your message and came as soon as we could. In the meanwhile, I hope Odysseus hasn’t given you too much trouble.”
Townsend fell silent.
Takamura hesitated, dreading the moment when his earlier suspicions would be confirmed. “Is he still on the station, at least?”
“No. He stole our shuttle and hightailed it back to alien space.”
“Why would he return to alien space in an Earth-made shuttle?”
“It’s not Earth-made. It was built by a Corvou.”
Takamura’s eyebrows rose briefly in surprise. That detail had not been part of the report to Space Installation Security. Evidently, he was now speaking with the right person to fill in the gaps.
“Corvou? I know that name. We heard about the Corvou from an alien who served aboard the Marco Polo a couple of standard years ago.”
Townsend’s eyes narrowed. “Really,” he murmured, then added, “Captain, what I’m about to tell you is not common knowledge yet, but it soon will be. Can I rely on your discretion until then?”
“Of course. Considering how many of my secrets you’re keeping right now, the least I can do is return the favor.”
“I’m sure you noticed the debris floating just beyond Helena’s gravity reach.”
“Indeed,” Takamura replied. “We wondered about that.”
“It’s what’s left of a Corvou ship. Unlike you, we had no advance information about this particular alien race. As a result, a first contact situation went sideways on us.”
Takamura could sympathize. The Marco Polo’s first contact with Nandrians was still painfully fresh in his memory. “And how did the alien ship come to be destroyed?”
“The kill shot came from a Nandrian vessel that happened to be in the vicinity. The Corvou pilot had just declared war on Humanity, and the Nandrians were trying to prevent it from informing the rest of the hive back on its home world. Unfortunately, they failed. I realize it’s a lot to process, but time is short, and—”
“War on Humanity,” Takamura echoed numbly. So the report was accurate. From the moment he’d read it, he’d been hoping it would turn out to be a hoax. “All of Humanity?”
“I’m afraid so, Captain. The Corvou are mobilizing. In approximately forty-five intervals, a huge alien armada will be invading Earth space with the express intention of wiping our species out of existence. They’ll destroy not only our home world, but also every space installation and colony they can find. According to our sources, the Corvou have done this before.
“We want to draw the line here, at Daisy Hub, but there are too many other ways for them to enter Earth space. There are at least thirty Gates connecting us with alien star systems and the Fleet doesn’t have enough firepower to guard them all. That’s why we need your help, to ensure that the first battle is fought as far away from Earth as possible, at coordinates of our own choosing. When O’Malley was aboard your ship earlier, he noticed references in your logs to a group of aliens with a technology that could seal up Gates. The Kularian brotherhood, he called them.”
Takamura stiffened in his chair. Guardedly, he replied, “He’s correct. The brotherhood do have that technology. However, I’m afraid they’ve gone into seclusion and are currently unreachable.”
“By ordinary Humans, perhaps,” said Townsend, matching the captain’s posture. “But I understand there is someone aboard the Marco Polo who can communicate with them telepathically. Or am I misinformed?”
Takamura paused before replying. He’d hoped the connection with Noris could be put in the past. Evidently, it was not to be.
“You’re not misinformed, Mr. Townsend. That passenger is still aboard. However, she is just sixteen years old, and the telepathic bonding was severed intervals ago at the behest of her guardian. Commander Dedrick is extremely protective of his young cousin, and vehemently opposed to anything that will put Lania back in contact with the brotherhood.”
The station manager’s expression softened for a moment, then hardened again. “Even if you make it an order?” he demanded. Then, apparently reconsidering his tone, he added, “Look, I understand how Dedrick feels. Believe me, I do. Family is precious. But there aren’t strong enough words to describe the disaster that’s about to be visited upon us. Anything that can possibly tip the scales—”
“I’m not disagreeing with you, Mr. Townsend, just warning you that he may need to be persuaded to give his consent. As for making it an order…? Commander Dedrick has already notified Fleet Control of his intention to resign his commission. I suspect that a command from a superior will not carry the same weight as it once did. Not where Lania is concerned, at least.”
“The brotherhood and their technology can give us a way to limit the battlefield and buy Earth some additional time to evacuate the population. No one is asking Lania to risk her life. All she has to do is transmit a request for help and relay the response back to us.”
Takamura nodded thoughtfully.
“Will you ask Commander Dedrick to let Lania reach out to the brotherhood on our behalf?”
“No. You will.” Takamura swung his chair around and pressed a button on his deskcomm. “Mr. Brandt, please find Commander Dedrick and Miss Dedrick and have them report to my office right away.”
