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  Platus came to the bridge. He was a guest, not a prisoner. The Imperial didn’t need an escort. The computer knew his whereabouts at all times. There was no need to worry about Platus, assuming he even harbored nefarious intentions. Aaron didn’t think much more on it. There were no contacts to meet with aboard Phoenix and if the Imperial tried accessing the computers, he’d be in for a nasty surprise. Aaron felt the Imperial was smarter than to even try.

  Platus saved his life, helped prevent a war to end all wars, and that made him an ally in his book. Despite what Shepherd had said.

  “Platus, enjoy the view.”

  Platus held that same dead-pan expression. It might well be permanently fixed to his face. “One-point-five million minor planets, eight thousand comets, nine hundred natural satellites. Hardly anything to notice.”

  Next to him, Aaron heard Max say to Rachael. “Remember what I told you about appreciating things?”

  “Ensign, plot a course to take us past the Oort Cloud. In loving memory of Jan, we’ll fire off a salute. Feed the view of the Cloud to the lounge observation screens as we pass.”

  The powerful sensor suite and optics together with the computer, would display a visual representation of the phenomena on the polarized viewscreens in the lounge. The ship didn’t have actual windows.

  “Once we clear the cloud, you can jump us the remaining way to the system’s edge, take us beyond, lay in a course for Hosque and engage warp. XO, relaxed watch rotations until we’ve departed Sol.”

  “Aye, Commander.”

  Aaron passed close to Vee on the way to the lift. “Have the crew assemble in the briefing room in six hours.”

  “Done.”

  ***

  Aaron entered the briefing room on the operations deck after everyone else. This deck, four decks below the dorsal hull plating, housed the main bridge, briefing room, and the captain’s ready room. Everyone was assembled.

  High level briefings were usually reserved for senior staff, but since everyone was senior staff or had a major role to play, it made little sense to exclude anyone based on rank. Vee sat to the right of the head chair and opposite him was Rachael.

  First things first. “Lee?”

  “We’re clear, Commander. Unless Platus built an eavesdropping device since he boarded—which I wouldn’t altogether disbelieve—I’ve swept the ship and this room. Clean.”

  “Good. Lieutenant?” He turned to Rachael.

  She nodded as she stood and moved to the center in front a large panel with an interactive screen. The center of the table had a holoprojector for displaying visuals.

  “Phoenix is tasked with the simple but critical job to return the recently rescued Platus Scipio. By returning the Urbanae to his brother, the Lord Commander, we’ll set ourselves further in his favor and that of the Emperor who trusts Quintus implicitly. Particularly so since the betrayal of the late Brutus Bannon.”

  She quickly glanced at Aaron when she said the name. Brutus Bannon was the one who shot him on the Imperial ship Phalanx when he boarded it to save Quintus. All things considered he preferred the outcome. Aaron was here. Bannon wasn’t.

  He was floating somewhere out in space with a hole in his forehead.

  “The Lord Commander is not aware his brother lives. We’ve chosen not to dispatch a message ahead of our arrival for security reasons.”

  Dawes leaned forward unexpectedly.

  “Commander, if you weren’t the captain of this ship, me and my boys wouldn’t be escorting a lost Imperial puppy home.”

  It didn’t matter whether the Sergeant’s comment was proper. Aaron wouldn’t reprimand him with others present. He got the feeling it was something deeply underlying and personal. Such an issue required a more subtle approach and intervention than chewing the marine’s head off in front his men and the other crew.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sergeant,” Aaron said. “Please continue Lieutenant Delaine.”

  She cleared her throat.

  “When we’ve completed the first leg of our mission. We’ll set course for the edge of Imperial space where we’ll rendezvous with our sister ship, Valiant. Valiant won’t be visible to Imperial sensors at the time. She’ll be stealthed. We’ll then engage our own stealth systems, Valiant will drop hers, and she’ll continue along our former vector until she’s returned to our side of the border. The Imperials will believe their sensor nets are still tracking Phoenix. We’ll then set course for Draconis. A system deep within Imperial territory.

  “What we’ll find there, no one knows for certain. But our intelligence suggests the Imperials have established a subspace weapons research and manufacturing complex orbiting Draconis-2. Our mission is to confirm the presence of such a facility and whether it is indeed researching or manufacturing such weapons.

  “We all know subspace weapons research was banned by the 2230 Nova Convention on the Prohibition of Research of Weapons of Mass Annihilation.” She nodded to Aaron.

  “Questions?” Aaron asked.

  Everyone began to talk at once.

  Aaron held up both hands.

  “Sergeant Dawes.”

  “How do we confirm it without being detected, sir?”

  “If we’re caught exposing the research, it won’t matter since we’ve found evidence of it. If we’re caught trying to expose research which doesn’t exist, then I suppose we’re in for it.”

  Rachael added. “We’ve known for some time the Imperials are dabbling with subspace weapon research. That much isn’t in doubt. Intel has narrowed it to the likelihood of being Draconis.”

  “Intel has been wrong before,” Vee said.

  “To mitigate that best we can, we’ll be using Star Runner. The ship isn’t built by the Fleet. It’s a Cheetah-class high-speed courier sold by Orion Interstellar. The Intel services have used retrofitted versions for their purposes with undocumented upgrades, which can’t be pinned to the Fleet. If we’re discovered, we’re on our own. It doesn’t matter whether the Empire believes it or not. Shepherd feels it’s more important we learn whether they’re developing these weapons right under our noses, than preserving a peace treaty, if they’re bent on using these weapons in the future.

  “If they aren’t developing such weapons and things return to the way they were before the conspirators tried to push us to war, then it’ll still be peace. Though a fragile one. If they are developing those weapons, and it can’t be thrashed out on a diplomatic level, then I have no doubt Fleet would consider a preemptive strike. Beginning at Draconis.”

  “Aren’t we besties with the Lord Commander?” Dawes asked.

  Aaron regarded the marine. “Quintus Scipio might be the Lord Commander, and he might have peace and coexistence at heart, and greatly influence the Emperor, but things have happened without his knowledge before, and the same might be happening now.”

  “Why don’t we take him along with us?” Garrett asked. “In the interests of peace and cooperation, he would see firsthand if someone is undermining the future.”

  The brass should answer these questions. Aaron certainly didn’t have the answers. “I am sure our esteemed admirals and the Supreme Commander discussed this to death. They’ve obviously concluded that while Quintus is willing to meet half way on most things, anything which he believes borders disloyalty to the Empire, he won’t consider.”

  “Peace or no peace,” Rachael said, “the Empire won’t tolerate the USS dictating to them what they can and cannot research despite what Interstellar Conventions we wave at them.”

  “Do we have a plan?” Lee asked.

  Aaron smiled. A handful of them in the room knew that smile and what it meant.

  The rest would soon find out.

  ***

  Aaron asked Dawes to remain when the briefing was over. He didn’t know the marine intimately, but he knew enough about people to know Dawes had more than an ordinary distrust and dislike of the Empire.

  The sergeant sat across from Aaron.

  �
��What’s troubling you, Sergeant?”

  His resolute eyes betrayed nothing. “Nothing is troubling me, Commander. I am a particularly troubled individual already.”

  Aaron smiled. There were layers of complexity to the marine sergeant he hadn’t quite unraveled.

  “Allow me then, Randall,” Aaron said, pointedly calling the marine by his first name. “I’m pretty sure both our feelings about the Imperials aligned before. When Shepherd briefed me on my mission to the Border Worlds and the threat of war, my thinking was, let them come. We’d smash them for good this time.”

  “What changed for you, Commander?”

  “What changed, indeed…” Aaron tilted his head slightly. “It’s easy to judge someone or something from far, without anything to challenge your preconceptions. Dare I say—it’s human nature. To me, it isn’t a failure. But what sets one man or woman apart from another, is your willingness to challenge your preconceptions. I may not have been willing to challenge mine, but mine were certainly challenged for me.”

  “You’re referring to the Lord Commander.”

  Aaron nodded. “Indeed I am, Sergeant. If he wasn’t one of those such people, willing to challenge his, then we wouldn’t be here. Truly, he made the first step towards giving peace a chance by releasing me after he’d captured us.”

  “I’m afraid my rage, if you will, goes a little deeper, Commander.”

  Aaron waited for him to continue.

  “Nova was never a good place to be since the war. Not only did it see the worst of the fighting near the end, but it’s right on the border.”

  Near the end of the war with the Baridian Empire, both sides had been locked in a brutal, prolonged battle near Nova, a tech-4 USS world. The fighting on and near Nova had accounted for twenty-five percent of the entire war’s casualties!

  “Not long after the cease-fire the raids began. Not wanting to compromise the cease-fire, the Fleet looked the other way. Oh sure, they patrolled the border, but they weren’t willing to confront the Imperials about it.

  “My younger sister, Megan-Ann was taken in one of those raids—bandits making a huge profit off kidnapping USS citizens and selling them to the Imperials. When I joined the marines, I imagined myself storming across Hosque to save her. It seemed every night I dreamed of blasting through every last Imperial centurion. Now I’m left to wonder if she’s still out there. Does she remember me? What have they done to her? Will I ever see her again?”

  Aaron’s father had once told him, if you aren’t sure what to say, say nothing. Not a word escaped him as he listened to Dawes.

  “I don’t doubt you for a moment, Commander. And I don’t doubt your faith in Lord Commander Scipio. But for my part, I can’t ever forgive them. And if I had my way I’d storm the damn planet and free all of their so-called well-treated Imperial slaves.”

  A part of Aaron knew that for such a cause, he would join his marine.

  “The only thing I can tell you, Randall, is the USS is pushing hard for a reform on their thinking, and an end to their oppressive policies. The Empire argues the Imperial slaves are freed once the debt owed is repaid, but it sounds a whole lot more sinister to me than what they let on. As for Megan. I will ensure the Lord Commander himself has someone search for her. I promise you that.”

  “Very well then, Commander.”

  “Thank you, Sergeant. I’ll see you in the gym.”

  As Dawes left, Aaron couldn’t escape the feeling that although Dawes seemed composed, there was an eruption of emotion waiting to explode from the marine.

  He hoped it wouldn’t explode during the mission to the Imperial homeworld.

  Chapter 18-New Friends

  “Not quite the welcome I got last time” – Aaron Rayne

  Phoenix

  Orbiting Imperial homeworld

  They had been in orbit for one day, and Platus had already reunited with his brother. On the Lord Commander’s invitation, an Imperial transport collected the XO, Lee, Rachael, Dawes, Max and him from Phoenix and was now on its way to dock with Phalanx.

  The Imperial warship Phalanx appeared as menacing as the first day Aaron had seen it, near the Border Worlds. That day it had leapt from the X-1501-D nebula like a large bird of prey intent on snatching its quarry from open grass plains. The same day he’d shot a face full of fusion torpedoes into its bow and watched as it limped away licking its wounds. He smiled at that one. Using Hammerhead, they’d chased Ben James and his high-speed ship into the nebula like a big space-bully.

  And suddenly the hunter became the hunted.

  An Imperial squadron lay wait in the nebula. Overconfident and arrogant as they are, the Imperial battleship thought to swatt Hammerhead as if she was a mere fly. That day he taught the Imperials that big ships are only one way to gain a tactical advantage.

  “Truly a beautiful ship,” Vee said.

  Aaron chuckled. “You and I remember her a little differently.” His thoughts shifted to Quintus.

  The Lord Commander’s elation should have worn off by now. Undoubtedly, he’d spent the last full day engaged with his brother. Maybe his brother’s tale of being at the mercy of slavers might compel the Imperials to rethink their attitudes about Imperial slaves—despite their claims that they treated the slaves well. That single issue could well be the deciding factor between full diplomatic relations and an alliance, and merely a formal peace treaty. If Aaron had anything to say about it, he would demand an end to it.

  Next to Aaron, Lee kept tugging at his white dress uniform. Aaron didn’t like the thing either but protocol was protocol, this was an official visit and a diplomatic mission. How odd for a covert operations crew. Ah well . . . the Baridian Empire were all but allies now, and they knew by now everything there was to know about Phoenix, her captain and her crew. Not the least of which was the thrashing Phoenix gave the Imperials at the Battle of Atlas Prime under his command.

  Aaron smiled at Lee. “Suck it up, Lieutenant. You cast your lot in with me and these are the burdens we bear.”

  “Life was so much simpler when we were just a ship exploring the frontier, Commander.”

  Aaron clapped Lee on the shoulder. “It certainly was, my friend.”

  “I think your tunic is a size too small, Lieutenant,” Dawes said, regarding Lee.

  “No,” Lee shook his head. “This thing has never fit me. Custom made, custom fitted, nothing. It’s telling me it just isn’t for me, all this protocol business.”

  “Why are you here then?” Dawes asked him.

  Lee eyed Aaron. “Commander made it an order.”

  “Ah,” Dawes said.

  Aaron noticed something odd about Lee.

  “Lieutenant, I know you’re not carrying a weapon to the Imperial homeworld,” Aaron said.

  Lee patted the bare noticeable bulge in his waist. “Commander, you know I’m always prepared for anything.”

  “Lee . . . we’re honored guests. This is a diplomatic overture until our real mission begins. Lose the pistol. No weapons are allowed in the Great Hall. The only weapons permitted are swords, so I’m told.”

  Lee was genuinely displeased. He unholstered the projectile pistol and stored it in the arms locker.

  Aaron caught Rachael’s eyes on him. She was smiling. His heart skipped. He smiled back. She winked back at him. He suddenly felt calm. The memories of his first trip aboard Phalanx faded. Whenever she was around the darkness retreated. She was the light. His light. She dominated his thoughts of late. The curled ends of her hair, falling perfect below her ears. The way she slipped her hair behind her ears if it fell forward. Her perfect lips, the mischievous smile she gave him every so often. He didn’t know how to approach her after Atlas, but since then, this ship, this command, would feel empty if she wasn’t here.

  He learned towards her. “Think of this as us spending quality time together. The first Fleet officers to visit Hosque—officially—in nearly a hundred years.”

  She smirked. “Quality time with you always seems
to dissolve into disaster.”

  An almost imperceptible vibration signaled the touch down on the Imperial warship’s deck. The pilot’s voice came over the cabin.

  “We’ve touched down on the hangar deck. The ramp has extended. You may disembark at your convenience.”

  Aaron ushered his crew out first.

  They made their way down to the shuttle’s receiving deck and down the ramp where at the bottom Quintus waited with Decimus by his side and a troop of Imperial guards in formation behind them.

  Platus stepped forward to greet them.

  He gave them an ancient Roman salute—fist across the chest. The Imperials really had carried the whole Roman traditions to the extreme. Capes, ranks, society . . . salutes. What else had they adopted?

  Platus gestured to Aaron while looking at Quintus. “I would present you to one another, but I am told you are already much acquainted.”

  “Indeed,” Quintus said, with a half-smile.

  “Not quite the welcome I got last time,” Aaron said.

  “You’re almost a bad news good news conundrum. The first time we met you brought bad news,” Quintus said, as he looked at Platus.

  That was when Aaron told Quintus of his brother’s death in a not-so-subtle way.

  “The second time, you blew a hole into my ship to save me from my own.”

  There was a distinct pause.

  “The third time you bring Platus, alive and well. I wonder what the fourth meeting will bring. I am of course in your debt, Commander Rayne.”

  “It’s nice to be rid of the burden of owing the Lord Commander of the Imperial Baridian Navy a favor.”

  Quintus smiled. “I believe you remember Sub-Commander Arias Decimus.”

  Aaron nodded. Decimus did the same.

  The Lord Commander’s eyes fell on Avery. “I look forward much to the next round of negotiations on Hosque. I’ve wondered if you would be present then due to your invaluable contributions so far. But it seems you got a unique opportunity to be here before they’ve even begun.”