Starbound (25 page)

“What the hell are you doing here?” I said a bit more sharply than
I would have liked. I quickly roused myself and looked again, just to confirm what I was seeing.

“What's going on?” said Lena, waking slowly.

“I'm sure I have no idea,” I said to her.

“I'm protecting my father, like I said I would,” Karina replied. “Do you have some objection?”

“Wait—what . . .
what
are you doing here?” I said again. She looked at me, wearing the coveralls of a cargo worker, not looking the least bit like the princess of the palace.

“I told you I wanted my father off of Carinthia, and conveniently you provided the opportunity. Arin granted you safe passage in return for Benn's surrender. I couldn't live with that, and I wasn't leaving my father in Arin's hands. So I made other plans,” she said.

I looked to Lena and then back again. “I don't understand. Your father . . .” I looked around the cabin just to be sure, “your father isn't here.”

“Oh, but he is, I assure you. Come and see.” She unstrapped herself and Lena and I followed suit, trailing her out of the cabin and back down to the cargo hold. It was cold and dark, but she illuminated a pair of overhead lights. I followed her between two of the large containers that had been loaded as cargo. Two longshoremen were standing guard on the containers. The third, I realized now, must have been Karina. The princess used a magnetic key to unlock one of the crates. A control panel slid out and she entered a code, at which point an entire side of the container slid away.

Inside, behind sealed glass, was the Grand Duke Henrik Feilberg.

He was in stasis field, monitor lights flickering his vital signs, which looked steady to me. I was shocked at the brashness of the action, but not surprised, as it was obviously born out of desperation.

“You can't be serious?” I said.

“Completely,” she replied. “These crates contain absinthe and schnapps for Carinthian troops on Union bases. As such they were
perfect for smuggling my father off of Carinthia. There is a stealth field around the crate which should protect him. With luck, no one will find him, and he will ride with you and me all the way back to the Union. To Quantar, in fact.”

“This is insane,” I started. “The political ramifications—”

“Are completely secondary to my father's safety. You have to face the facts, Peter. My world is in the midst of a takeover by forces who are working with the old empire. That makes Carinthia your enemy, and that makes it unsafe for all of us, and it means trouble is coming,” she said.

“And what trouble will come of Union officers being involved in the abduction of the Grand Duke of Carinthia?” asked Babayan.

“That's how they'll couch this, you know,” I said. “The Union and I will be made the villains, more fodder for war,” I said. The princess stepped back, hands on hips, as I had seen Dobrina do so many times. I wondered if it was a Carinthian affectation.

“War is coming anyway, Peter Cochrane, war against the Union, don't you see that?” she said.

I looked down at the grand duke. All I saw was a frail old man in a very dangerous position, and a precarious strategic situation that seemed to revolve around me. All I wanted was to get back to
Starbound
, and to my duties there. That was where I knew my place, not in these roiling waters of politics and intrigue.

“This is insane,” I repeated. Then I walked away from her, like I wished I could walk away from all my
troubles.

On High Station Three

T
welve hours late
r we were docking at
High Station Three.
I had slept fitfull
y and intermittently
, and I'd hardly spo
ken to Karina. She w
as a resourceful you
ng woman, and I resp
ected her for that,
but she had put me i
n an untenable posit
ion, both here in Ca
rinthian space if we
were found out, and
no doubt back on Qu
antar when I arrived
at the Admiralty wi
th a surprise guest.
I resented being pu
t in this position,
but I knew those fee
lings were selfish,
and I was trying ver
y hard not to be tha
t way under the circ
umstances. She was a
fraid for her father
's life, and I under
stood that. I probab
ly would have done t
he same thing in her
position. And I had
promised the prince
ss I would do anythi
ng I could to help h
er. I just hadn't th
ought it would be th
is.

Karina was back in her coveralls as we docked and the cargo doors were opened inside the station. I was glad to be back on what could be termed friendly territory, if only marginally so. She stayed undercover with the work crew as the crates were being transferred through the station to
Benfold
, under Captain Lucius Zander's command. Colonel Babayan and I were walking the station's cargo deck
trying to locate what berth
Benfold
might be in when I heard a voice call my name from behind me.

“Commander Cochrane?” I turned to find the curly-haired Lieutenant Daniel from
St
arbound
.

“What are you doing here, Lieutenant?” I asked, surprised to see a familiar face. Then I glanced at his garb and I had my answer. He was out of uniform and dressed as a merchantman.

“Captain Maclintock sent me,” he said. “He thought you two might need some assistance, and, well, I volunteered.”

“I see,” I replied. I was impressed with the slight young man's desire to be more than the ship's purser.

“Captain Zander and Mr. Harrington would like to meet with you both aboard
Benfold
as soon as possible,” said Daniel.

I nodded. “That was my plan exactly. Lead the way, Mr. Daniel.” Daniel weaved his way quickly through the crowded loading dock as he led Lena and me down a series of passenger terminal hubs and connectors and then through a large umbilical dock and onto
Benfold.

Once aboard we walked onto a gangway above
Benfo
ld
's hangar deck just as the crates containing our secret cargo were being delivered. As I looked down to the deck below a group of six Carinthians were inspecting the crates. Not Loyalist guards, but rather the military police, the
Feldjäg
er
, the same type of troops I had encountered at the military base where I had been put on trial.

“What's with the MPs?” I asked Daniel.

“While you were in transit a preliminary agreement was reached between the two princes. The MPs were put in charge of station security as part of the agreement,” he said. I eyed them nervously.

“This might not be good,” I said. As I watched the MPs were probing each of the crates with some advanced scanning devices, nothing like I had seen before. Karina and the two longshoremen, who I took to be her personal bodyguards, stood to the side as the inspection continued. The bodyguards were getting agitated, though, shifting from side
to side every few seconds, something that didn't go unnoticed by the
Feldjäger
. Karina stayed stoic and covered under her hood and mask.

“Stay here,” I said to Daniel and Lena. “I'm going down there.” I made my way down an open metal stairwell and headed straight for the cargo crates. Against my orders I heard Lena trailing behind me, but I didn't have the time to correct her.

“Say there!” I called to one of the
Feldjäger
military police as I approached. “Those are my supplies!” My yelling seemed to confuse them temporarily as I approached. Then two of them peeled away from the pair of investigators and approached me with weapons at the ready.

“Zeugenstand
verlassen!”
one of them yelled at me in German as I kept coming, which I took to mean “stand down” or something similar. The second brought his weapon to bear on Babayan as she came up beside me.

“Sir, wait!” I heard Daniel's voice from behind me. I waved him off.

“Get back, Daniel!” I turned and ordered. Just then one of the inspectors was at the crate containing the grand duke. It only took him seconds to sound the alarm. He started yelling something in German and then everything exploded into a flurry of action. One of Lady Karina's bodyguards pulled out a coil pistol and shot both guards approaching me in the back. The first one fell neatly but the second got off a reflex shot that burned past Lena and me far too close for comfort. The second bodyguard dispatched another
Feldjäger
as Karina ran for cover. I scrambled to gather the rifle from the nearest fallen MP and Babayan did the same. We ran for cover, firing at one of the inspectors as we went. A bolt of energy from my rifle went right through one of the inspector's handheld devices and pierced his chest. The second inspector went for cover as the lone remaining MP dispatched one of the princess's bodyguards. The second guard took cover behind some crates, protecting the princess behind him. The problem now was that from either direction the crate containing the grand duke was in the way for one of us. Babayan and I then took up
a sniper position behind some barrels. The second inspector was in my sights, but so was the crate just past him. If I missed . . .

Meanwhile the two MPs and the princess's lone remaining bodyguard were exchanging potshots to no avail. We were at a stalemate. This exchange went on for several more tense seconds before I heard the sound of someone calling out and demanding attention.

It was the Princess Karina.

She yelled at the two remaining
F
eldjäger
in German, some commands that I didn't understand. She stood up and pulled her hood down off her face so that they could see her. That was all the distraction I needed. The second inspector raised his head clearly into my line of fire and I took him out with a sniper shot. The last MP was so startled at seeing his sovereign that he had dropped his rifle and stood up to surrender, hands in the air. It didn't stop the princess's bodyguard from dropping him with a shot to the chest. I jumped up and ran to the princess.

“Are you all right? What the hell did you think you were doing?” I demanded. It was the second time I'd asked that question of her.

“Giving orders to my subjects,” she said. “It worked, didn't it?” I looked around at the carnage on the deck.

“Seven of your ‘subjects' are dead, Princess,” I said.

“Eight.” She pointed behind me. I turned to look. Ensign Daniel lay in a bloody pool, a neat hole the size of a melon in his chest. He'd been cut down by the reflexive coil rifle shot from the fallen MP. Damnable luck. He was a good kid, or at least he had been.

“He was one of ours,” I said, but there was no time to waste now on sentiment. “We've got to get these bodies—”

“Get them off my deck!” yelled a voice from behind me. I swiveled, rifle still drawn, to see Lucius Zander and a group of his men rushing to the scene of the shootout. “Lock down the hull! We're breaking station in two minutes!” he bellowed. I went to him as he stood over Ensign Daniel's scarred body. “He was a good lad, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Like us?” I said.

“Not if I can help it,” replied Zander. Then he bowed as the Lady Karina came up. “Highness,” he said.

“Captain Zander I presume,” she said, then removed her gloves and extended her hand and he kissed it. “How long until we can get underway?”

“Thirty seconds if I have my way, Highness,” he said. “The station's been taken over by those
Feldjäger
bastards. Part of your brother's ‘Peaceful Resolution.'”

She nodded. “Unfortunate. But we have to go. Time is of the essence, Captain.”

“I understand, Highness,” he replied and then turned to Lena and me. “If you're done shooting up my cargo hold, Mr. Cochrane, perhaps you'd like to join me on my bridge,” he said.

I handed the rifle to one of his men. “Gladly, sir. Anything to be out of this star system.”

We were rushing on full impellers toward the primary jump point out of Carinthian space. It was still a two-hour trip from our current position. Time enough for trouble to find us.

“What happened to Harrington?” I asked once things had settled down. Zander sat in his captain's chair, ever-present coffee cup in hand, monitoring our progress on his main plasma screens, which included forward visual, longscope, tactical, and infrared. It was an impressive display for any vessel less than a Lightship. I sat next to him in what was clearly a military XO's station, actually quite an array for a “merchant” vessel.

“He got off of Three in his yacht. Not to worry though, it's better equipped than
Benfold
and a far sight snazzier. I imagine he'll be in touch at some point in the future, once he can create enough plausible deniability about that shootout you had in my cargo hold,” he said.

“I am sorry about that,” I replied, “but our cargo—”

“Is of the highest priority. I understand that, lad.” I sat back in my chair. Lena and Princess Karina and her lone remaining bodyguard were standing watch in the cargo hold over the grand duke. My thoughts turned elsewhere.

“I didn't even have the chance to thank Harrington for getting me off of Carinthia,” I said between sips of some of Zander's famous exotic coffee. This batch was from Levant, and the mere thought of that lush green world and its most beautiful and popular ruler, the Princess Janaan, sent a pang of loneliness through my body. I put those feelings, and the coffee cup, aside for the moment.

“No need to thank him. It was your Admiral Wesley who sent me to pick you up. Harrington was just doing his job,” Zander replied.

“Job?” I said. “You mean—”

“Harrington works directly for Wesley and the Union command, lad, as do I. Our merchant status is only a front. Wesley thought he would be useful in an intelligence-gathering role, moving agents about, that sort of thing. Turns out he was right,” said Zander. It made sense, especially the way
Ben
fold
was trimmed out.

“And what about you?” I asked. Zander shrugged.

“Wesley offered to hire me in the same capacity. Truth is, there's been rumors of trouble with the Carinthians for years. Wesley, and the Earthmen as well, saw the Merchant Marine as a way of surreptitiously supplementing the official navy forces. Of course, when he offered, I said yes. Rather be out in the midst of things than on some glorious Lightship doing First Contact negotiations when trouble hits,” he said.

“So there's a surreptitious navy?” I asked.

“As I just said, lad.”

I thought about this. It must mean that my father and Wesley both believed that war with Carinthia was a possibility, if not inevitable, and for quite a long time. Ships like
Benfold
didn't just spring up full-born overnight.

“What's this ship's military capacity?” I asked, glancing down at the XO's station console. Zander took a sip of his coffee before answering.

“My Wasp's got the same firepower as a
Hobart
-class missile destroyer, and she's faster, harder, and more nimble by a long ways. Your father and Wesley commissioned these ships as a backstop against trouble with Carinthia, trouble that has now arrived. Since these are classified as merchant ships, they don't count against either Earth's or Quantar's navy allotment, which has to stay relatively equal to Carinthia's. And Harrington runs twenty-two of them for your Admiral Wesley in his merchant fleet,” he said.