Battle at Zero Point (2 page)

Though the Empire had been at war for centuries with space pirates, outlaw mere armies and other space trash out on the Fringe, the realm itself had never been
invaded
before. Even worse, no one had any real idea who the invaders were. They had appeared as if from nowhere farther up the Two Arm and, despite their relatively small numbers, had created widespread panic in that part of the Galaxy, causing a flood of refugees in the sector that had still not slowed down.

For a while, it even seemed the invaders were heading for Earth itself. The Empire's Starcrasher warships traveled in the Seventh Dimension at speeds reaching two light-years a minute. This made a trip to the far end of the Galaxy possible in less than a month. Earth, on the odier hand, was located about two-thirds of the way out on the One Arm. Thus, the Two Arm was only a few days' travel away.

When news got around that the invaders had managed to steal six Supertime-capable cargo ships, a shock wave went through die Empire. The enemy was only forty-eight hours away from the mother world! The crisis produced enough concern that O'Nay was forced to cancel the Earth Race, die centuries-old contest that was the most important social and political event in the realm. That had never happened before, either.

The situation out on the Two Arm seemed to resolve itself, however, after a fierce battle on a crossroads planet called Megiddo, when the invading force, consisting of six ancient warships and the six stolen Starcrasher cargo haulers, was met head-on by a fleet of Solar Guard warships near a place called Thirty Star Pass. What happened next was still being hotly debated both inside the Imperial Court and diroughout the Empire.

Simply put, the Solar Guards claimed they destroyed the enemy and its ships. Indeed, the SG force that met the invaders was die elite Rapid Engagement Fleet, probably the best-trained, best-equipped unit in the Solar Guards. The REF boasted three times as many vessels as the invaders, plus it had been armed with specially adapted antistarship weapons designed to home in on the stolen cargo 'crashers control circuits. When the battle was joined, the half-dozen stolen cargo ships were annihilated first, followed quickly by the invaders' six original warships.

Or at least, that's what the Solar Guards reported to the Emperor. But even though the official SG brief on the incident had been accepted by the Imperial Court with much relief, rumors soon surfaced that the battle did not go the way the Solar Guards had claimed. In fact, some whispered that there hadn't been a battle at all, that the invaders' entire fleet had vanished just microseconds before the SG force unleashed its barrage of antistarship weapons at it.

But how could a fleet of twelve enormous warships just disappear? Strange things happened across the Galaxy every day, but few things as strange as that. The lingering doubts, bodi in the Imperial Court and on the streets of billions of planets around the Empire, had caused the SG to close ranks and become more defiant than usual. Declaring the whole matter top secret, Black Rock started issuing decrees. Any SG soldier caught talking about the "Thirty Star Pass incident" would be thrown in prison.

Any civilian found doing the same would suffer a similar fate. At one point, the SG's high commanders even considered ordering every enlisted man who'd been involved in the alleged encounter to undergo a brain wipe, this to cut down on the number of potentially loose lips. And indeed, hundreds of SG personnel who were on the periphery of the action were forced to have the painful procedure, including many lowly staff people who just happened to be on duty that day inside Black Rock.

All this served to shut a lot of mouths—but still, the question remained.

What really happened out there?

Bonz reached the huge SF headquarters and was immediately cleared to go inside.

The building was lit up as always, each of its many levels glowing brightly. A full shift was on duty within, more than

50,000 people, most of them lording over millions of superfast communications bubbles from which the reports of the nonstop comings and goings of the vast space service gurgled up.

He rode the air tube up to the ninety-ninth floor, stepping out into a long hallway with very subdued lighting. There was only one doorway here. It was marked Advanced Logistics, but this was just a cover.

Behind the door lay the main offices of the Space Forces Special Intelligence Service, the unit better known as SF3. It was the Empire's most secret spy agency.

While SF3 had millions of branches throughout the Empire, this low-key place was the office of the Boss, the man who had summoned Bonz here, the Secretary-in-Charge of all Space Forces military intelligence.

Bonz cleared the last security beam and went through the door. The office beyond was made entirely of bright super-glass. The view from here was spectacular, despite the dreary weather. He was greeted by a pretty SF aide. She was young and blonde and wearing a tight SF uniform. Nice shape, nice eyes.

She asked Bonz how his trip up from Earth was; it was a customary question for all those visiting the floating city. He replied it had been fine. She led him down the hallway to an enormous glass room.

Inside, the Secretary was sitting behind a huge hovering desk, looking blankly out at the gray clouds of the morning.

"With all the resources those damn weather engineers get," he was mumbling, "you'd think they'd be able to produce a nice day every once in a while."

The aide announced that Bonz had arrived and then disappeared with a smile. The Secretary spun around and gave Bonz a quick salute. Bonz returned the formality, then stepped forward and they shook hands. The Secretary was nearly fifth century—he was 488 years old, and had spent a huge amount of that time in the service of the Space Forces. He was still a tall man for his age, ruddy face, long white hair, which was the custom of the Space Forces' Old Guard, and wearing a long blue gown. He was highly respected both inside and out of the SF and was one of the few people on Earth who could have the Emperor's ear within a few days' notice.

He rarely smiled, though. And on this dark day, he seemed particularly glum.

He motioned for Bonz to sit down and then got right to the point.

"You've been following this Thirty Star Pass thing, I assume?" he asked.

"As much as I can," Bonz replied.

"Well, what are your thoughts on it? Do you believe a battle took place out there?"

Bonz shrugged. "I hate to take the SG's side—ever. But obviously
something
must have gone on."

"Maybe so," the Secretary grumbled. "But you know how they are. If it had been the all-out victory that they've claimed, the SG Central Command would have run its own victory parade up and down these streets for a week. Hell, the Imperial Guards wouldn't have been able to step off the curb without running into them. Yet no such festivity ever took place."

"A good point, sir—"

"Glad you think so. Here's another one. No signs of a battle were ever picked up on our superstring net; no disruptions in any of the ultra-radio frequencies near the alleged battle area. No spikes at all on any of our subspace scanner systems. A battle like that would have made a lot of noise. Yet I've seen the readouts myself. They are still top secret, but I can tell you they look like just another normal day on the Two Arm."

"But as long as the SG sticks to its official version of events, most people have no choice but to believe them," Bonz said.

"Precisely," the Secretary agreed.

Bonz leaned forward in his seat. "Has anyone done a sub-atomic particle sweep of the area? If this battle happened as the SG claims, at the very least there should be clouds of stuff floating around out there. Infinitesimally small stuff, certainly, but enough to register on a SAP string. With the right gear in the right place, just about anyone could collect a starton of data."

"That's a good idea—but there's a problem," the Secretary told him. "Late last night the SG issued another decree. They declared the entire sector off-limits to all space vessels, including many of its own.

They're calling it a 'No-Fly Zone.' "

"You've got to be kidding…"

The Secretary just shook his head. "They drew a box one hundred light-years around the alleged battle zone and are not allowing anyone inside—except for the Rapid Engagement Fleet. We've got reports this morning that the REF is evacuating all inhabited planets inside this zone, moving the people out, sometimes with less than an hour's notice. Now, they've been drastically restricting traffic into the area since whatever the hell happened out there took place. But last night they made it official. No one but them can get in or out."

"A No-Fly Zone?" Bonz said. "I've never heard of such a thing."

"Neither had we," the Secretary replied. "I think they just made it up."

"Well, what's the official reason they are giving for this?"

The Secretary retrieved a small document by snapping his fingers. "This is from the SG command staff to the Imperial Court, and I quote: 'So that the REF's science ships can better study the aftereffects of the battle against the invaders.' "

Bonz almost burst out laughing. "
Science ships
? When the hell did the REF get any science ships?"

"That's just it," the Secretary said. "They don't have any— and wouldn't know what to do with them if they did. My sources inside the Imperial Court tell me they know this is all just a cover story, and a bad one at that—"

"A cover story for what, though?"

"Well, then, that's the question, isn't it?" the Secretary said in a hushed voice. "But between you and me, some people up here think the SG is still trying to find those twelve invasion ships. That they didn't destroy them at all."

"So they
have been
lying then," Bonz said.

The Secretary just shrugged. "If they are, they're playing a very dangerous game. And a desperate one as well. Lying to the Emperor can carry very dire consequences. Plus, it would mean the whereabouts of those twelve ships is still unknown. Thirsty?"

The Secretary snapped his fingers again, and an instant later they were both holding goblets filled with crystal-H water, the slightly intoxicating drink that was considered acceptable for consumption in the early morning.

"There's more, if you want to hear it," the Secretary went on after sipping his drink.

"Absolutely, I do—"

The Secretary took a moment to activate the room's hum beam. With the push of a floating button, the walls of the office began vibrating ever so slightly. This meant the room was now immune to physical intrusion or eavesdropping.

"We intercepted some string comms from the SG two days before anything took place out there," the Secretary told Bonz. "Did you know the kid, Joxx the Younger, was responsible for that battle on Megiddo?"

Bonz shook his head no. Joxx the Younger was an extremely famous, extremely heroic, but extremely arrogant SG space commander. His father, Joxx the Elder, was the Supreme High Commander of the Solar Guards. His mother was sister to the Empress, O'Nay's wife. Therefore, Joxx the Younger was in line to become Emperor some day.

"What the hell was the kid doing out there?" Bonz asked.

"The old man sent him out—alone—when the SG got the first reports of large refugee movements," the Secretary replied. "Frankly, no one had any idea what he was getting himself into. He found the situation very chaotic as soon as he hit mid-Two Arm. By the time he reached Megiddo and Thirty Star Pass, it was out of control. Millions of refugees were on the move, and the invaders were just on the other side of the Pass—and were about to hit Megiddo. Joxx scrabbled together some ships, put prisoners on them, and sent them out to meet the invasion fleet. At the time, he thought the invaders were flying more than a hundred ships… but of course, now we know it was only the original six."

"How could Little Joxxy make a mistake like that?" Bonz laughed. "I thought he was supposed to be smart."

"Well, he is, but he ran into someone who was smarter, or at least smart enough to fool him into thinking they had fifteen times as many ships as they actually did. And somehow those six ships were able to destroy Joxx's cobbled fleet. Then, while Joxx wrapped Megiddo in wall-to-wall blasters, expecting the sky to fall in on him, the invaders hit a place called Trans World 800 instead. It's an SG supply dump about ten light-years from Megiddo. That's how they stole the six cargo 'crashers, which, I don't have to remind you, are unarmed but still have the ability to travel in Supertime."

"No wonder our friends at Black Rock are feeling cranky these days."

"There's even more," the Secretary said, pouring out another round. "Did you know the Emperor's daughter is missing?"

"
Xara? Missing
? Since when?"

"No one has seen her in more than a month. The Imperial Family has been very low-key about it; they claim she's way the hell out on the Seven Arm, 'visiting relatives.' But we know that's not the case—mostly because they secretly have half the Imperial Guard forces out looking for her. And many of the Earth Guards as well. But what's particularly disturbing is that it adds a whole new twist to this Thirty Star Pass affair."

"You mean they're connected somehow?"

The Secretary nodded. "It's being said around the Palace that Xara vanished at the very moment the invaders' fleet disappeared—or close enough to it. Even stranger, Captain Vanex is missing as well."

"Vanex? The Imperial Janitor? He's seven hundred years old! Certainly no one is thinking Xara ran off with
him
?"

The Secretary grinned, another rare occasion. "Well, I haven't heard that particular spin on it yet," he said. "But we do know that they both disappeared at just about the same time."

Bonz ran a hand through his hair. "This is getting very strange."

"Well, I'm glad I got your attention," the Secretary said. "Because it gets even stranger."

He snapped his fingers, and an image materialized in front of them. It was a 3-D portrait of a man in his early thirties, wearing the uniform of the Empire's third major service, the Expeditionary and Exploratory Forces, more readily known as the X-Force. The man was strikingly handsome, with a strong jaw and large, intelligent eyes. He also looked, well, a bit
different
than a typical citizen of the Galaxy, though just what that difference was could not be easily explained.