Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Turmoil Page 30

  Sitting at the head of the table and cuffed to the chair was Velk, still looking dignified despite days in captivity and being bound to a chair.

  "I suppose I can release these now," Garrett said, and tapped a button on the touchscreen on the bulkhead. Velk's stunner cuffs clicked open and the Priman removed them, setting them on the table in front of him.

  "Representative Velk," Admiral Bak said solemnly as he walked toward him. "May we have a seat?"

  Velk indicated the chairs at the table. "We have much to discuss."

  The Confed officers sat down, though they gave Velk some empty space. Loren figured he could draw his SSK in plenty of time if Velk decided to get up and charge.

  "As Mr. Drayven told you, I believe it is both our people's interests to find a way to end this war as soon as possible."

  "It would work well for us if you surrendered," Admiral Bak began.

  "You know my people wouldn't do that; I wouldn't, either. Make no mistake, as I have already told Mr. Drayven. I do this for my people more than for yours."

  "So let's cut to the chase," Admiral Bak continued. "We've heard the argument, and I can't say I disagree; your hard liners are working with Senator Dennix and want the dissolution and subjugation of Confed and everyone else. What would make them happy short of that?"

  "Them?" said Velk with a sneer, "Nothing. I can hope for more moderate voices among our Council and perhaps within the next Commander. We just want a home. We assumed the galaxy would be ours, but what's the point in taking our message to the galaxy if we have to destroy it and our own souls first? I believe that if we had a place to settle, call our own, that we could return to the peaceful thinkers we once were."

  The three Confed officers pondered that shocking offer for a minute before any of them managed to think up a reply.

  "I don't think there are a lot of planets just sitting out there that we could dig up," Loren began. "Anything in this part of space that's truly valuable is pretty much claimed."

  "What about the former Enkarran Empire?" said Velk. "We've already settled many of their worlds, and their empire is as much as dissolved in any case. Let us call that region of space home, and I truly believe we might end this."

  "I sort of think the Enkarrans might object to that," Elco interjected.

  "Would you defend them?" Velk asked in surprise. "They allied with us against you, you'll recall. And in any case, we as a culture are many times more valuable in the contributions we can offer."

  "Well," added Admiral Bak, "technically we're allies with what's left of the Enkarrans."

  "Tell me that your populace wouldn't support that option," Velk commanded, and Loren knew people would. They'd vote for it in a heartbeat if it could end the war. Nobody would care that the Primans displaced an entire civilization to do it. Would that be a solution people could live with morally?

  "So you're saying all we have to do is get the combined leadership of both our peoples to agree to those terms?" Bak asked.

  "They won't," said Velk with confidence, "not now. My people are led by the hard-liners, the corrupted ones who seek their own power more than the good of the people and led by a Commaner who wants to scorch the galaxy bare and start over. Your leaders are in league with them and serve their own selves first as well."

  "Oh, so all we have to do is get rid of the leaderships of both sides?" asked Loren easily. "No problem."

  "I never claimed it would be an easy proposition," said Velk acidly, "but if there are people who would be willing to risk themselves for their homeland, I assumed it would be you."

  And it all made sense to Loren in that instant. If their leaders were all dirty, they all needed to go. Just clean house and start over with people who would be willing to find a way to solve the problem. It sounded so simple, but it would be next to impossible to actually put into action.

  It was Admiral Bak that spoke next. "Just between the five of us here," he said conspiratorially, "suppose I'm willing to play with this idea. Suppose I believe our leadership is compromised, and yours has lost their way. What would we do? Our leaders are elected; we can't just go drag them out of office if we don't like them. The people have spoken; they elected or at least support the government, for better or worse."

  "What if you can prove without a shadow of a doubt that the Senator is corrupt and conspiring against the Confederation for personal gain?" asked Velk.

  "Oh, I suppose that would make it easier," Bak admitted.

  "Then a gesture on my part is in order," said Velk softly. "You're familiar with the rings our operatives have worn while on-planet?"

  "They disguise Priman biosigns, let you pass cursory body scans," Loren said, and Elco even fished the ring out of his pocket that he'd kept since Loren had given it to him after Velk's breakout. Elco placed it on the table in the middle of everyone.

  "Like this?" Avenger’s captain asked.

  "Yes," Velk allowed, then dropped the thermonuclear bombshell. "They also record, in three dimensions holographically with audio, everything that goes on within a few arm-spans of the wearer."

  Chapter Seventeen

  "I heard what you said," said Loren softly, "but please say it again anyway."

  "Everything that your Senator Dennix has said since putting on that ring has been recorded," Velk said. "I saw it on him during one of his many press conferences after you captured me at our secret research facility. I'll bet you your flagship that it was Ples Damar's ring. Damar was Priman, of course, and I will assume that the Senator had something to do with my operative's death. But in any case, every plot, scheme, plan, and dirty secret he's made since then is preserved forever. I can help you retrieve it. In return, I might need your help in returning to Priman space. You see, I wasn't supposed to make it there, so I will need to arrange my own transportation."

  Loren's head was spinning. He couldn't even begin to think of what to say, and Captain Elco spoke up.

  "So you'd be willing to help us secure those recordings, and then we should just let you go? You'll have to realize that sounds like a potentially bad deal, letting you walk out of here."

  "How so?" replied Velk. "You will have all you need to remove your leader from power and restore your government. If you let me go, one of two things could happen. I could be killed by my own people, or I could succeed and a new, more visionary Commander could come to power."

  "Or you could take over and finish conquering us," Bak completed.

  "My word, warrior to warrior, is not enough?" Velk asked.

  "I'd go with him," Loren said in surprise, shocked by his own words. "If that's what it takes.

  "Mr. Drayven," Admiral Bak said, rising to his feet. "I think we need to discuss this a bit. Sirian?" he said, indicating Captain Elco. "I'd like you to come with me. Loren, could you stay here with Mr. Drayven and the Representative?" Loren nodded and got up as the Admiral did, then walked over to Garrett with a mildly astonished look on his face.

  "Well, I didn't expect my day to end like this when I got up this morning," Garrett said first. They looked at Velk, still seated at the table. Of course, he couldn't leave the ship or he'd be seen by the crew. In fact, Garrett's sensor shielding suite was preventing the Thunderbird's internal sensors from seeing the Priman life sign. In keeping with the need to have Velk’s location stay secret, hiding aboard Garrett’s sensor-shielded ship was an ideal solution.

  "I assume you'd like me to return to my quarters?" Velk asked.

  "I think it would be appropriate," Garrett replied. "Though you never know; you might not need to do that much longer."

  "I am patient," Velk said. "Waiting a thousand years to complete our quest has given my people nothing if not patience." He walked slowly down the corridor a few paces, then stopped at a hatch. He opened it and nodded at Garrett and Loren before entering. As the hatch closed, Garrett tapped a few commands into the panel on the door frame.

  "I don't exactly have cells aboard my ship," Garrett said self-consciously, "but I do h
ave need to sometimes prevent a passenger from roaming the vessel. He can't get out or do anything from in there."

  They walked further down the corridor in silence until they reached the flight deck. I was elaborately fitted out, with displays, old-fashioned switches and toggles in gleaming chrome, and leather accents.

  "You certainly have style," Loren said as he sat down in the copilot's chair and leaned back. "Or is that for appearances as well?"

  "Nope," said Garrett proudly. "This is for me."

  "So, this is the real Garrett up here?" Loren asked, taking in the surroundings again in a new light. "What do you think of Velk?" Loren asked. "Is he the real deal?"

  "I think I'm leaning more towards yes than no at this point," allowed Garrett.

  "Wow," said Loren. "Imagine, I could live a normal life again."

  "Be careful about too much daydreaming," Garrett chastised seriously from the pilot's seat. Loren turned to look at the fixer curiously. "What I mean," Garrett continued, "is don't fixate on this perfect, unattainable dream or fantasy. Dreams get destroyed too often. Sure, maybe this war will end soon. Or it may never end. Or maybe you won’t like the way it concludes." Garrett looked down as he said that, and Loren realized Garrett was actually showing a personal side.

  "You know this from experience?" Loren asked gently.

  "I suppose I did," Garrett replied, staring out the front viewport and around Thunderbird's bustling hangar bay. "I had a dream for a future once. Had a wonderful woman and everything." His face changed and a look of pain flashed across it with the memories he was recalling. "But it ended badly, and I had to let her and the dream go." He looked at Loren again. "I don't ever tell people about my past because even the most insignificant detail could lead to something bad happening to me or something I need to protect. But I'm saying this to you, Loren, because I know you have a parallel with your wife. You'd do anything to keep her safe. Well, I did that once, too. But in order to keep her safe, I had to force her away from me. I guess I'm happy for you, is what I'm trying to say, but also throw in a word of caution. Don't become too fixed on that one goal, one ideal, because it probably won't happen the way you wanted anyway. Have options, a few different plans you're willing to go with, and be happy with what you can carve out for yourself. But don't spend your present planning your future after the war. Enjoy what you have right now."

  Admiral Bak was in a much better mood than Garrett as he strode purposefully through the corridors of Thunderbird, Captain Elco on his right side.

  "I need to run this by Admiral Privac, of course," Bak was saying. "Now that I actually have enough to game plan with, he'll want to be brought in." He looked at Elco. "This could be an amazing day for us. I have more good news," he said, and waited for Elco to raise an eyebrow and acknowledge the prompt.

  "I managed to get construction started on new-build Starshaker-class battleships," he said proudly, as if he were a parent announcing the birth of a chid.

  Elco was impressed. "How'd you manage that? I thought the Senate would never approve funding for something like that."

  "I gamed the system," Bak said with a grin. "There's a standing budget to refurbish mothballed ones, but we're starting to run out of the ones in good shape. I managed to get a revision pushed through to build brand new ones to the original specs. We'll improve systems where we can, but since technically it's not a new-build design, the navy doesn't need approval, just funding. We're printing out parts and putting together a half dozen of them right now."

  "Impressive," said Elco, and he was in fact truly impressed.

  "I had to take money away from destroyer construction," said Bak with a little wince, "but they're not really important in the Order of Battle when it comes to fighting Primans. Against the Enkarrans, for example, they did torpedo defense, picket and patrol duty, ECM, that sort of thing, but the Primans don't have a similar ship in any numbers, so the destroyers are always outclassed in fleet engagements. I either have to send them away or keep them clumped together and hope they can gang up on someone. Battles with Primans are all about big ships."

  "So it's a great day for Confed, eh?" said Elco as they returned to Bak's working space. It was now brightly lit and had several staff members scurrying about, working on whatever projects he'd set in motion before they'd left to meet Garrett.

  "Yes, Captain, it is," said Bak with a wide grin.

  "Admiral," said a staffer, a young Qualin Lieutenant, who walked over carrying a data pad as if it were some sort of diseased animal. "Flash message from navy HQ for all Confed units."

  "Interesting," said Bak with a nod as he took the pad. The screen displayed a scrolling message about priority due to imminent danger to the Confederation, a serious claim considering there was currently already a war going on.

  "Oh no," Admiral Bak muttered softly as he read the dispatch. Elco stood rock-still. He didn't know if he was cleared for whatever the Admiral was reading, but he hadn't been dismissed either, so he waited.

  "Sirian," Bak began, "it's starting." Elco looked at Admiral with a confused look, and Bak simply handed him the data pad and sat down. Elco read.

  The briefing was mostly bullet points, and already much of the Confederation would had read and responded to the situation that the brief was about. Paired signal repeaters all over the Confederation as well as the Galactic Data Network allowed for near-instant communications across Confed, and in this case it was for the worse.

  Senator Dennix, on behalf of the Governing Committee, had made his speech. He'd revealed that there were disguised Priman operatives in the Confederation, and that his own staff had been penetrated. While not impossible to discover, the covert Primans were impossible to distinguish in day-to-day scans. He'd managed to get the full Senate to give him authority to draw more power to his office, and he'd taken off with a vengeance.

  He'd declared martial law across the Confederation. He'd created a new department, reportable to the Governing Committee directly, tasked with monitoring Confederation citizens and infrastructure to root out possible Priman saboteurs. He'd said it was necessary for society, that there was no reason to be afraid of the measures. After all, if you were a law-abiding citizen, what did you have to fear?

  He'd made it illegal to secede from the Confederation, retroactive to the very first planet that had done so since the conflict started. Any planet that had pulled out was considered a security risk and would be subject to force if necessary to bring them back into Confed. For the safety of all.

  Then he'd announced the treaty with the Primans.

  The Enkarrans, what they had in the way of spokespersons, had announced their withdrawl from Confederation service. Dennix had declared them a rogue threat as well, traitors that would be attacked on sight.

  The Priman treaty, as negotiated by Enric Shae under the direction of Senator Dennix, called for a cease-fire effective immediately. It also called for pulling the Confed navy light-years back from the old front lines, freezing borders and occupied planets and calling off all raids and recon towards occupied Enkarran and Talaran space. Essentially, he'd ordered the entire Confed navy to park in orbit and wait. As a result, recruiting and war construction would be put on hold while a permanent truce was brokered.

  "This is insane!" Elco finally had to stop reading. "We're going to open the door to them! They'll be able to creep in bit by bit and take our territory while we keep slinking backwards towards Delos. And we'll be forbidden from even going out to see if that's what's happening."

  "Or the Primans could just gather their forces and toss a massive alpha strike our way and be done with it," said Bak dejectedly. "It gets worse. Keep reading." He beckoned for his staff to leave, which they gratefully did. Bak tapped the table and turned the lights down.

  Elco's heart froze as he continued. There were already a dozen planets that had declared independence from Confed. They'd announced they would band together, set up a new government, and continue to fight the Primans. And Confed warships wer
e disappearing. There was a small but steady stream of them; IFF transponders going dark and leaving their assigned sectors. Were ships defecting as well, crews deciding to align with the breakaway planets? Elco shuddered to think of entire warships, with thousands of crew of a dozen species from dozens of different planets, siding with the newly organized independents. He wondered what the crew of Avenger would think. Did they want to leave? Stay? Would they fight another Confed warship if it came to that? More to the point, could he even give that order?

  "What the hell is happening here?" Elco said in horror to Admiral Bak.

  "I think our Senator has just started a Civil War."

  Ryan is a lifelong sci-fi fan and lives in Wisconsin. He has a blog at:

  http://rekroom.wordpress.com/

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  Image Compendium

  Confederation of Systems L-11 Talon Fighter

  Confederation of Systems L-7 Intuder

  Confederation of Systems Crusader Class Hunter/Killer

  Avenger

  CSS Avenger Bridge

  C3 Briefing Room

  I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the novels in the Birthright series so far. More are in the works, but if you like those, you might want to consider some of my other novels, samples of which follow.