Starbound (28 page)

Benfold
for her part had docked at High Station and began unloading her regular cargo. Zander had offered to come down when he had cleared everything, but I told him to hold off until I called him. I was fairly sure I would need his help regarding our unexpected guests.

The ground was covered in snow, as was typical for the Northern
Continent in January. As we had come down to land I had pointed out the city of KendalFalk, covered in winter white and snuggled up against the Nandewar Mountains, to the princess. It had a population near 500,000, with most inhabitants working in the mining and timber industries, or in work related to the palace and other royal facilities. Our family's presence here on an annual basis for several decades had turned the town from a dusty, cold, outpost into a much more cosmopolitan city.

When we disembarked from the shuttle it was midmorning on the local clock. I made sure the princess and her father were safely ensconced in the palace before calling on the necessary medical and technical personnel to begin the process of bringing the grand duke out of stasis. It was a complex but well defined procedure, and I didn't want the medical staff to know who they were dealing with until they got here. I asked the princess to list what kind of assistance she would need to care for her father, then assigned the proper staff to see to her needs. I also swore the staff to secrecy about our guests, as a precautionary protocol.

I then excused myself and met with the Captain of the Royal Guard, a man named Walther, in the palace library, to see to heightened security arrangements.

“How many men do you have on duty currently, Captain?” I asked. He looked at me for a moment, like it was an odd question, then answered.

“We have two hundred men in palace barracks at any one time, Sire. Fifty share the active duties of the palace and grounds on six-hour rotations,” he said.

“Do you have reserves in the city?” I asked. Again he hesitated before answering.

“We rotate troops from the city garrison on a weekly basis, Sire. There's sixteen hundred total at the royal barracks in the city,” he said.

“Good. Call them up to the palace immediately, save two
hundred for the city garrison. I want a hundred soldiers on duty inside the palace itself and another seven hundred patrolling the grounds at any one time. Two twelve-hour shifts. Do you have a plan to go to a heightened state of readiness at my command?” I said.

This time he answered quickly. “We have three levels of heightened security, Sire, above where we are currently. What level did you have in mind?”

I just gave him my exact desires rather than wait for a list of the different security levels. “I want barricades erected at the palace perimeter with constant patrols. All vehicles coming in or out of the palace are subject to search. Shut down the military airfield in KendalFalk and no units except the city garrison come in or out. I also want armored vehicles on the roads with multiple checkpoints between here and the city. All navy or army air units in the city are to stand down and go cold until further notice. Tell them this is all on orders of the crown prince,” I finished.

“Yes, Sire. Immediately, Sire. Is there anything else?” Walther said, his pace of speaking and tone indicating he got the message that this was not a drill of any kind.

“Yes. Set up an encrypted line to New Briz, Government House. I'll be speaking with my father directly. Have it ready in an hour. That's it,” I said.

“Yes, Sire,” said Walther. Then he saluted, pivoted, and moved quickly out of the room to carry out his orders.

I went to the library's working desk and pulled out my encryption key, then entered my royal security code. It spat out a sequence of numbers and letters, which I then keyed into the main computer plasma display. Once inside the royal network, I began a search for nearby military units, especially navy ones. After just a few minutes of this I was interrupted by one of my guests, the Princess Karina.

I stood and greeted her. “Please come in Karina,” I said, making sure to use her proper name as she had requested. “What can I help
you with?” She smiled at me. She seemed to be getting more comfortable with me every day.

“I just came to tell you that my father is awake in his stateroom. He's groggy and a little confused, but physically he's doing well,” she said.

“I'm pleased,” I replied. She glanced around the room.

“I have noticed there is increased military activity around the palace,” she stated.

I nodded. “I think it's necessary. Things are very delicate with the grand duke here, and we can't take any chances,” I said. She eyed me pensively.

“Surely you're not worried about an attack on us here, are you?” she asked, a worried frown crossing her face.

“There are legitimate security concerns, Karina. I don't think at this point that we can afford to take anything for granted,” I said.

“I see,” she replied. I turned back to my desk.

“I was just about to call my father and request that he come up to the palace as soon as possible, to meet you and your father.”

She smiled wryly. “I hope that won't be too uncomfortable for you,” she said.

I smiled back. “It shouldn't be. I'm slowly getting used to making bigger and bigger decisions.”

“I'll leave you to it, then,” she said. We said our goodbyes and she left, and I returned to my analysis of navy materiel in the area of the city.

There were about fifty aircraft at the combined military airfield in KendalFalk, a mix of fighters, escorts, VTOLs and personnel craft, with some Light Aerial Vehicles as well. There was also a reserve Royal Infantry unit of five hundred soldiers and light armor stationed at the airfield. Those infantry units were part-time volunteers and we had more armor and full-time soldiers in our Royal Guard units, so I
was comfortable that we had what we needed to defend the palace for the time being.

Sixty clicks away, though, was Laverton Airfield, the main military base on the Northern Continent. She had a full complement of soldiers, aircraft, a spaceport, and both light and heavy armor. If a foreign power decided to launch an assault, either overt or covert, on the North Palace and KendalFalk I was confident we could defend anything short of an atomic attack.

Walther chimed in then with my encrypted channel to Government House in New Briz, some two thousand kilometers to the south. “Your father on line three,” he said, then signed off. The royal crest on my screen was replaced with an image of my father, bordered in red to indicate the encryption security was active.

“Hello, sir,” I said. He nodded back at me. I could see he was taking my call from his official office, not the private apartments.

“Hello, son. I was surprised to hear from you so soon. I thought you'd still be on Carinthia soaking up some of their infamous hospitality,” he said lightly. His look changed when he took a longer look at my expression. I couldn't help myself. Things were serious. “What's wrong?” he said.

Clearly Wesley had chosen to keep him in the dark about my misadventures on Carinthia. “Sir, we have a serious situation here in KendalFalk, one I think is of the highest import to our family, Quantar, and the Union. I need to you to come up here straight away,” I said.

“To KendalFalk? In
January
?” he replied. When my look didn't change he quickly regrouped. “What's happened, son?”

I shook my head. “I can't tell you that over this channel or any other. You need to come here and see the situation firsthand, to see it for what it really is. Carinthia was an ambush, sir. Rogue elements of their military put Dobrina and me on trial for losing
Impulse
, tried to
blame me for her destruction. They tried to execute me, and they nearly succeeded.” The part about
Impulse
struck close to home for me as I was at least partly responsible for her demise, but not for her being put in that position in the first place.

“I can't believe this. The Union—”

“The Union is in grave peril, sir, and Carinthia is on the verge of civil war,” I said as plainly and emotionlessly as I could. “You must come here immediately. There are things here you have to see for yourself that I can't explain over any open channel, encrypted or not.”

He looked shocked. “But Admiral Wesley hasn't told me about any of this. How can that be?” he said. I had a ready answer.

“Because for whatever reasons, he didn't want you to know,” I said.

“I'm going to call Jonathon and get to the bottom of this,” my father said.

“Sir, that would be inadvisable at this time. Have the admiral brief you on the way up. I need you to see things here for yourself in order to make proper decisions. Please, sir. This is vital to Quantar, the Union, to all of us.” He looked shaken at this, but finally nodded his head.

“I'll do as you say, son. Expect me there by the early evening. But I'm going to want an explanation when I arrive,” he said.

“You will get that explanation, sir, I promise. Thank you, sir,” I said. We said our goodbyes then and I broke the encryption link. I stood up from the desk and walked to the window, looking down on the assembling palace guard.

“And now the hard part begins,” I said out loud, to no one in particular.

At the North Palace

M
y father's
plane touched down a
t 1815 hours local t
ime. I had him escor
ted by military conv
oy directly to the p
alace without incide
nt. I was there to m
eet him as the milit
ary ground car pulle
d up to the palace's
back entrance.

I nodded to the guards as the car came to a stop and one of them peeled off and opened the car door. My father stepped out into the cold January air, quickly followed by Admiral Wesley.

I turned to Walther and waved the guard detachment, four armed men in all, forward to the car to bracket my father and Wesley.

“Has the admiral filled you in about Carinthia?” I asked my father. He nodded.

“And I've chided him for keeping me in the dark about your situation,” he said by way of explanation. “He's got some very important new information about the situation on Carinthia.”

“Not as important as the information I have, I'll venture,” I said back. I was angry at Wesley for keeping my father in the dark, but I also realized that both of these men still regarded me as a junior navy officer, one whom they could order around as they pleased. Perhaps it
was fighting the dreadnought at Levant, or the automatons at Jenarus, or my narrow escape from execution on Carinthia, but I wasn't that young officer anymore, and they were both about to find that out.

I turned to Walther. “Escort the admiral to the library. The Director and I will be along shortly.”

“What's this?” demanded Wesley as two palace guardsmen stepped up.

“Peter? What are you doing?” said my father, clearly unhappy. I held up my hand to stop him. There would be a time and a place for this discussion. My father didn't challenge me further, and at my signal the guards escorted a fuming Wesley through the doors and into the palace. I turned back to my father, the royal Director of Quantar and my superior, both militarily and in royal standing.

“What I have to tell you is for your ears only at the moment. If you'd like to join me, I have a lot of explaining to do, about a great many things,” I said.

He continued to look unhappy but said, “Very well,” and followed me inside.

We dispensed with hats and coats in the foyer and made our way down the long hallway toward the library. I walked next to my father with a guard escort a few steps behind.

“Explain yourself, son,” he said to me as we walked. I didn't hesitate.

“A great many things happened on Carinthia, sir. I want you to know that not all of them were under my control. I need you to trust my judgment on what is happening here at the palace,” I replied.

“And what is happening here?” he said. That stopped me.

“Something that will determine our immediate futures, and possibly the future of the entire Union,” I said. He looked at me with what I thought I could read as respect.

“I'm still in charge on this world, Peter.”

“I understand that, sir. But I'm asking you to trust me on this, and
let me work things out as I reveal what is going on here at my own pace and time,” I said. He hovered over me, still bigger than me by far, both in physical size and personality. But I read a sense of pride in him as we engaged as near-equals in these matters.

“I'll let you carry on for the time being, son. But I reserve the right to take over at my own discretion,” he said.

“Thank you, sir.” With that we started down the hall again and went into the library. Walther and two of his guards were at the closed door. They opened it and we went inside. Wesley was seated alone in a large leather chair, looking angry. I motioned my father to the next chair over. Walther shut the library doors so that we could talk privately.

“Now what's this all about, boy?” said Wesley, trying to take the initiative away from me. I crossed my arms and leaned against the library desk.

“You'll know that presently, Admiral. The Union has allies on Carinthia, but not many. Some of those allies were in great danger after my escape, and we were forced to help extract some of them off-planet,” I said.

“I never authorized that action, for you or Zander,” started Wesley. “Listen, son, I am your supreme commander—”

“You are my supreme commander in the Union Navy, Admiral,” I interrupted him. “But please understand that in these matters I was acting as crown prince in the interests of the royal family, and I am therefore
yo
ur
superior in this particular matter.”

He looked frustrated at this, but then he stood up, followed by my father.

“I think it's time for you to tell us what this is all about,” Wesley said.

“I agree,” said my father.

“Very well,” I said, standing again. “But I think it's better to
show
you rather than tell you so that you can make your own judgments.”

I opened the library doors again and then signaled to Walther to dismiss the guards. The four of us then departed the library and went to the utility service lifter, quietly loading into it and then making our way up to the third floor guest apartments. I stepped out and asked them to follow. We went to the main suite, where I knocked on the door. A military nurse opened the door and escorted us into an anteroom, and then I dismissed both the nurse and Walther.

“What you're about to see is why I came here to the North Palace instead of New Briz. What's inside that room changes everything,” I said, motioning toward the double doorway. My father and Wesley exchanged glances but said nothing, so I opened the doors and stepped through, followed by my two superiors.

Inside the Princess Karina of Carinthia stood by a large fireplace in her Union Navy uniform while her father, the Black Duke, Grand Duke Henrik Feilberg, slept in a side chair next to the fire, snoring gently.

Wesley took a few steps into the room, then looked back at me, furious.

“By the Great Gods, boy!” he said.
“What have you
done?!
”

We sat in the anteroom together a few minutes later: Karina, myself, the fuming Wesley, and my father. I made the introductions and we started talking.

I told the story of my capture, trial, near execution, and attempted assassination on Carinthia. Karina told the story of how she got her father off of the planet, and why it was necessary. After a few more minutes of back and forth, we got down to the business at hand: what should we do now?

“You've put us in a pretty pickle, son,” said Wesley. “We've been getting reports of unrest in the Carinthian military for several
months, but nothing this extensive. But taking the grand duke off-planet—that could be seen as an act of war.”

“I'm his daughter and a crown princess, Admiral. I will vouch for the necessity of our actions in bringing my father here,” said Karina.

“That might not matter, Princess,” warned Wesley. He rose and started to pace. “If your brothers both present a solid case for their actions, it's you who could be seen as being in the wrong by the Carinthian people. It's clear this Prince Arin wants Carinthia out of the Union, which means any provocation could be used to justify their exit and canceling of the Concord Agreement. You may have just provided them with that provocation, Princess.”

Karina bolted up from her chair, standing up as tall as she could to Wesley. “There are three worlds in this Union, Admiral. If the Earth Historians withdraw their support, Carinthia will be at a tactical and strategic disadvantage,” she said.

“Not if they replace the Earthmen's technology with assistance from the old empire,” retorted Wesley. Then he looked to my father. “This is your call, Nathan. How do we proceed now that your son has participated in the kidnapping of Carinthia's sovereign?”

“I would appreciate it if you wouldn't couch things in such terms, Jonathon, even in private,” said my father, more than a bit testily. He sighed, a sign of the stress we were all under. “I will contact the Historians' Guild on Earth and advise them of the situation. Princess Karina, if you could get your father into a state where he can speak for himself, perhaps even record a statement for the people of Carinthia, that could be of great use. Our primary goal must be to try and slow things down. Right now it seems that events are accelerating out of our control, and that's always a bad thing. The admiral and I will return to New Brisbane while we work the diplomatic and military channels. I'll ask the Historians to set up a protocol for open negotiations with the new government on Carinthia as soon as possible. Perhaps we can defuse this situation before it blows up in our faces,” he finished.

Karina was indignant. “What
new
government? My father's is the only official government on Carinthia.”

“With respect, Princess,” said my father, “Your father has been only a figurehead for some years now. Whether it was fully legal or not, your brother Arin has assumed the
de
facto
power of the Regency and has become the real power broker on Carinthia. We will have to deal with him on those terms. But right now my only goal is to settle things down and see about your father's safe return to his home as soon as possible.”

“You can't do that! We just escaped from there!” Karina said. “You don't understand, sir. Arin will kill him.” My father looked pensive at this.

“Obviously, that's not the desired outcome, Princess. But these actions you've taken, you and Peter, they've brought us to the brink of war, perhaps even pushed us over it already. If I can stop this war before it starts by sending him home I will do so, despite what my personal feelings might be about the matter.” At this he stood and went to the door, preparing to go.

“Sirs, I request permission to return to
Starbound
immediately and resume my duties there,” I said.

“Denied,” snapped Wesley. “Right now you are a spark to the kindling in this situation, young man. It would be best if you stayed out of sight, at least until
Starbound
is ready to go out again. And I can't think of a better place for you to stay out of sight than here in KendalFalk. That is, of course, if you wish to place yourself under my command again and rescind your royal authority over these matters?”

His meaning was clear enough: follow my orders or resign your commission. It would have solved a number of political problems for him if he could stash me away and get me out of the navy, but I wasn't ready to be done with my military career quite yet.

“I understand and accept your orders, Admiral,” I said.

“Good,” he replied. And with that both he and my father were out the door. I looked to Karina, feeling helpless.

“I'm sorry,” I said.

“Don't be,” she replied. “It's not your fault. And at least I know that for now my father is safe.”

I thought about that. “How safe are any of us now?” I asked rhetorically.

“I want to stop the war, too, Peter. But not the way they think to do. My father is still beloved by the people of Carinthia, and he is our greatest asset. It seems as though you and I may still have to take matters into our own hands,” Karina said. Then she returned to her father's suite, leaving me alone to contemplate what she meant by that.