The Bright Black Sea (64 page)

And just as malleable.

I met D'Lay in the bistro and told him of my decision
and my restrictions on Molaye. 'And I want your promise you'll not
put her in the rotation if there's any danger at all.'

'I'll promise not to put her in. If it should just
happen, I'll do everything I can to see that she has every chance
to get out of it. More than that, I can't promise, Wil. You realize
we're facing a lot of unknowns... That ambush has put us on notice
– things may be more challenging that we'd anticipated. And there's
nothing we can do about it.'

'Now you tell me. Well, sign me up too. You'll put
Molaye in only over my dead body...'

'Fair enough. Should it come to that, I'm certain I'd
not be able to keep her out of an operational boat.'

05

Rafe found the first bogey on the edge of our long
range radar two days later. It was far out of range of our jump
fighters and though it closed with us over the next several
watches, it stayed outside the operational range of D'Lay's jump
fighters. It seemed clear that it was now stalking us, since on
first contact it had been only coasting in the direction of Boscone
but fired its rockets on our appearance, building up just enough of
a velocity to pace us. We were clearly expected.

After I'd finished a two hour session of jump fighter
training and docked the fighter in its dock in the cargo hold
operations center, I stopped by Captain D'Lay's small, bare office
for his take on the shadowing pickets.

If he was concerned, he wasn't showing it. He sat
back in his chair, resting on his hands at the back of his head.
'Surprise plays no part in my plans, Willy. The ambush of the
Striker knocked that idea on its head. I know you want to stay well
clear of the battle, and without the element of surprise, it would
be prudent to assess the tactical situation before I commit my
forces, so I'm pretty much of the same mind. Boscone's Reef is
quite large, has several wide passages and we've a good chart of
it. At last report they still controlled nearly all of it, so if we
can align our approach properly, we can hit a passage and can come
in hot and fast, blow past the Despar blockade and put off our
final decel until we're safely within the reef. With my fighters
escorting your ship in, most likely facing mostly merchant raiders
I don't anticipate any problems making Boscone. Once there, you're
job is done,' he added, daring me to challenge that.

'I'm less certain than you are about those merchant
raiders. But why couldn't Despar have hired mercenary jump fighters
of their own, or even mercenary warships? You've said that there
are other mercenaries available, and well, come to think of it,
they could just as easily be Saint Bleyth mercenaries, which, if
I'm to accept you at face value, are nothing to be scoffed at.
Plus, I seem to recall the captains back on Zilantre mentioning
that Despar had a professional navy of its own.'

He shrugged, 'The Despar Navy consists of eighteen
small frigates, or did until they met the Striker. Probably only
fifteen are operational now, plus several dozen smaller vessels,
thirty meter ships at most, and they're threatening or attacking
several dozen drift settlements in half an au sphere. They've
stretched their forces thin in an effort to get big and powerful
fast – before anyone else can mount an effective challenge to them.
We could take on six of their small frigates, and they can't spare
more than several for Boscone alone. And I assure you, as far as I
know, my jump fighter wing is the only one within a 100 aus of
Despar, and by far the best in the drifts. Anything is possible in
the Neb, but I can't imagine we'll find anything we can't take on
and win.'

'And I'd imagine there's a Saint Bleyth tactician
admiral on the Despar's flagship telling much the same thing to the
Despar admiral as we speak – Eight little jump fighters are no
threat, sir, short ranged and they burn through pilots – my
frigates can take them on and extinguish Boscone's last hope.'

He laughed. 'That's exactly what I'd be saying...
Still I'd be surprised if there's Bleyth ships in the in the Despar
fleet off Boscone. A tactician yes, a ship or ships, no. Of course
that's just a feeling I have. We'll just have to see...'

'Just how likely is it that we'll be facing St Bleyth
frigates as well? That seems, well rather hard on the members of
the Order, not to mention being wasteful. Are there that many of
you that the Order can afford to expend at least half their agents
in any conflict fighting each other even if it doubles its
profit?'

He shrugged. 'I don't know. Those types of
calculations are made by the Masters of the Monastery. But, you
see, many of our services – the non-combat ones – are in constant
demand. Our various experts are often engaged as advisers, or hired
on retainer, to be called on as needed. Our combat services, like
mine, can go for years, just training without ever seeing combat.
In the often tangled affairs of the drift, our advisers and
trainers are hired out to many rivals. It's only when things go
Bang
! – like they have now – that these tangled arrangements
may result in brothers and sisters of the Order actually fighting
each other. I've no idea how big a client Despar is, but because it
and its allies have made such a bold and far-ranging play for power
against the major powers in the quarter of the Myzar Drift, I'm
certain the Order is deeply involved in every aspect of the
conflict on both sides.

'That said, I think it very unlikely that our Masters
would take on an obligation that would inevitably result in the
destruction of the Order's jump fighter wing and one or more of
their own frigates as well. It simply wouldn't pay to deploy such
major resource intensive investments like jump fighters and
frigates against each other. Advisers and other support resources
are another matter. I'd not be surprised if a brother or sister of
the Order would be in charge of handling the siege of Boscone.
Still he or she would still have to work with the cobbled together
material at hand, so I'm not very worried. It's all rather strange,
I know, but we have, after all, been providing these services for
the better part of four hundred centuries, so it does all work
out.'

'Since the founding?”

'Our legendary founder, Niclo Bleyth, is said to have
come to the Nebula in one of the first settlement ships...'

'Legendary?'

He laughed. 'The half life of even recorded facts is
far less than forty thousand years, Wil. No one knows the half life
of legends.'

'I seemed to have run into several very old ones
already. But you were saying that your Order's founder came on the
founding ships...' I said, curious about this Order of Saint
Bleyth.

'Aye, in those old days, there were always warriors
aboard those first ships, and Niclo Bleyth was one of those. Even
if we strip the veils of legends that now surround her, she must
have had both a religious dimension and charisma about her, since
her memory lingered long after her passing in both the spiritual
and martial arts tradition. Eventually, as the Unity evolved, this
dedication to martial arts meant that the followers of her way had
to migrate to the drifts in order to carry on with her, by ,
legendary tradition. And so we have, for as long as the people have
lived on the worlds of the Nine Star Nebula.'

'Where is the Order located, or is that a
secret?'

'A deep and dark secret, I assure you. We have, of
course, branch monasteries scattered about this quarter of the
drift, but our Prime Monastery is a well kept secret.'

'I'd imagine you've made enough bitter enemies over
forty thousand years that some would have succeeded in finding
it.'

'Many may have, but none have ever returned,' he
laughed. 'The fact is that I've no idea where to find the Prime
Monastery, even though I grew up in it. When we go out into the
Neb, we go out in sleeper-pod and we don't return to the Monastery
until we're recalled, usually well into middle age, past our prime
as operatives and ready to settled down and raise a new generation
of brothers and sisters of Saint Bleyth.'

'Are there many of you, or is that a secret?'

'Compared to what, Wil? We are insignificant compared
to most Unity worlds, but in the drifts, we're, oh, say on the
order of Boscone or Despar, taking both exterior and interior
members. Most of us are only lay brothers and sisters who live just
as any drifteer does, mining, building, farming, creating art or
any other occupation needed to make a viable society. We have
scientist and scholars just like any well rounded society. Only a
few are selected to the full martial order, mostly from a few
hundred families that specialize in the martial arts.'

'Still, it must be hard to have kept it such a world
secret for so long, especially one so involved with the affairs of
the drift.'

'Not if the world is inside out, or outside in,' he
replied with a sly grin.

I considered his hint. 'Ah, a hollow asteroid, or a
moon?' Even a small moon, if hollow could house a world's full of
people on its interior surface, its spin producing a pseudo-gravity
on the surface. It'd have to have some source of light and heat,
but those technologies are common in the First World systems.

He just shrugged. 'I'm giving nothing away when I say
that there are millions and millions of large rocks or minor moons
in the drifts that, if they were hollow, could house billions of
people, without showing anything out of the ordinary at all. Quite
frankly, our rivals have given up the quest as being too expensive
to be worth it. And pointless. The nebula is vast, and there's work
for us all on every planet, moon and rock in it.'

'It would seem you're right.'

'Ah, yes. I'm sorry, Wil. You were unfortunate, the
wrong companion in the wrong place and time.'

'And my dear Leith, that's all there's to it. They
must think I know something I certainly don't, and I believe I can
say the same for Min. It seems a terrible waste of...well
everything really. I'd think you can live in the Nine Star Nebula
as you will, without killing people.'

'Well, I'd think so too...'

I gave him a look. 'But you don't live so.'

He shrugged. 'I am who I am, and who I was made to
be. I was chosen and entered the Monastery’s academy at the age of
eleven. I've taken my sacred vows – think what you like of them,'
he added when I waved a hand to discount them. 'And I'll live up to
them. And when I've served my time, I'll settle down and live a
peaceful life...'

'And raise a new generation of tacticians.'

He smiled. 'I rather doubt that.'

06

The following day we had another stalker in range and
a likely third one at the extreme edge of our radar range. We were
still three weeks away from the reefs of Boscone.

'An ambush and now three shadows three weeks out of
Boscone? You're not a very popular fellow, D'Lay,' I said as he
slipped into one of the chairs in my office.

He gave me a wicked grin. 'I'm so flattered. I never
realized I was this dangerous.'

'So any change of plans? Cup of cha?'

'No,and no. I'm going over to my control station
shortly. I'm just here to keep you briefed. I don't want you losing
any sleep over these developments. Nothing in our plans depends on
surprise anymore. So in and of itself, our shadows make no
difference. And the latest intelligence I had before leaving
Zilantre indicated that there were no major reinforcements outside
of Boscone, so if they're using their ships as distant pickets,
they would've had to reduce their forces deployed besieging
Boscone, making our entrance that much easier.'

'But can you rely on your intelligence? You seem to
have enemies within the upper levels of the Monastery,' I pointed
out, adding, 'And if a Bleyth tactician is directing their
operations, you can't assume that they're being foolish using three
ships for shadows.'

He shrugged. 'Could be a bluff. The thing is, Willy,
I'd not be afraid to take on the whole Despar Navy with my wing. I
don't see how this changes anything.'

'Yet they don't appear to be alarmed either, even
knowing what you're bringing to the party. They're not bothering to
hide the fact that they're waiting for you. Which, in turn suggests
that you don't know something, something that gives them the
confidence to show their hand so blatantly...'

'True. It is as I said, it might just be a bold
front, a bluff. I believe my intel on Despar is solid and I don't
know of anything in their fleet that can stand a chance against my
eight jump fighters. I doubt they could afford more than a frigate
or two – they lost two to me and several in their first bid for
Boscone – for this operation. If they decide to try and crush us
with sheer numbers, they're bound to loose so many ships that it
would cripple their siege. Boscone is big, important, and rich.
They just failed to capture it in one bold move early on in the war
after luring all the CTC guard boats deep into the drifts with
their raids on CTC mines and survey operations. They've no recourse
now except to blockade and lay siege to the reef. You need a lot of
ships to do that, so they can't spare too many on us without
letting up on the siege. I think these stalkers are a bluff.'

'Not that it matters. You're going to go in against
any odds,' I said, bitterly.

'I've my commission, my dear Wil. I don't have a lot
of leeway.'

'You're making me nervous, D'Lay.'

He looked across at me. 'You didn't think I handed
over seventeen million credits to escort me to a ball, did
you?'

'No. I suppose not, but truth be told, a major reason
why we accepted those credits is because we were pretty certain you
wouldn't accept no for an answer.'