Hero's Return, page 11
“Which, while we can still fire them in non-hyper attacks, aren’t nearly as capable as the Mk II design,” Paul finished the thought.
The original hyper missile, the Mk I, had been born out of an idea Emperor Hazard had based on the original missile designed for the missile dreadnoughts. Engineers literally strapped the hyper sections of recon and message probes to the body of a missile. The only difference between the Mk I and Mk II was that engineers created and installed a three-foot section in the missile containing a hyper-generator and emitters.
The newest missile, the MK III, was a totally overhauled missile. Engineers upgraded the original human-designed fusion power plant with a new Swarm-based design. The smaller power plant design allowed for a shorter missile. The engineers shortened the length even more by reducing the fusion plant’s fuel supply. After all, the missile would fly through hyperspace to reach its target. The fusion engine only needed to boost the missile’s speed up to get through the micro hyper portal the weapon created, then continue speeding up the missile toward the target when it re-entered normal space. That left the MK III with a range of roughly one light minute when used in non-hyper attacks.
“Let’s table figuring out how to attack Doay for the moment,” Anderson said. “I want to rearrange our forces here. I still want to keep a destroyer squadron hidden out here in the asteroid belt. Signal the 1st Missile Destroyer Squadron to proceed out here as soon as they finish refueling. They’ll mate up with the two destroyers they sent to escort the Zenkarr admiral.”
“You’re going to send the 4th Missile Destroyer Squadron to Genesis?”
Anderson nodded. “Just as soon as they finish refueling.”
“What about the rest of the 1st Strike Force?”
“Everything except 2nd Missile Destroyer will head for the gas giant to top off fuel and head for Genesis. They’ll provide overwatch while we move. When 1st Missile Destroyer gets out here, 2nd Missile will jump for Delta Pavonis to join up with the 3rd Swarm Defense Force. Right now, they’re a little thin on ships after sending the 1st and 4th here.”
Paul stood and headed toward the hatch. “I’ll start issuing the orders.”
“And Paul—” Anderson called. When the chief of staff turned to look, Chuck continued “—make sure the Cats understand what we’re doing. Tell the pack leader, or whatever their commander’s rank is, that I’ll message her myself later, and we’ll meet when I reach Genesis.”
“Will do, Boss.”
“Will do.” Chuck chuckled at his friend’s energized attitude.
At least one good thing came out of the meeting with Nieqids, Chuck thought. I was worried about being able to continue to defend this colony. Paul and I talking through things helped me see a new way.
“Okay, Chuck,” he mumbled to himself as he got off the sofa. “You’ve got things to do, too. Like drafting a message to Dorothy Evers.”
What was so important that she had to go tearing off to Pegasus, of all places? the commander of the 1st Strike Force asked himself as he sat down at his desk to draft what he knew would be a fascinating message.
And because we figured out a different way to defend the system, that will free up enough ships to attack Doay.
* * * * *
Chapter 7: Decisions in Sol
Sol System
United Federation Space
Empire Date: Feb 1049
Hearing the distinctive whine of a shuttle’s gravity drive, Allison looked out the window. She was in her office on the second floor of the mansion she and her husband occupied when they’d arrived on Earth. That was almost two years ago.
And a lot has changed in that time, Allison thought.
Princess Allison Kane, daughter of former Empress Elizabeth V, sister of the previous Emperor Hazard, and aunt to the current Emperor Edward, had come to Earth with her husband, Kyle Kane. The family hadn’t responded to the marriage well. In fact, her brother had hated it. But Allison hadn’t cared. She loved Kyle because he accepted her for who she was, and because, as a member of the nobility—Kyle was the 6th Earl of White Hall—he could provide her with the style of living she’d grown accustomed to.
Her family had come to respect and even like Kyle. When her brother had come to Earth on his secret mission and retaken humanity’s homeworld from the aliens who had conquered it, it put the Imperial government in a tough situation. Earth, and other former human colonies now under the control of the Empire of Britannia, were a long way from the Imperial capital—over a thousand light years away—and trying to rule them from Britannia would be impossible. It took a courier ship almost four months to make the trip back, which meant the answer to a question would take eight months to be received. That was no way to run an Imperial colony.
But like he always had, Allison’s brother had come up with a unique solution. Hazard had declared the Sol and Pegasus Star Systems Imperial colonies and appointed Kyle as viceroy to oversee both. Viceroy was an old position the Crown hadn’t used in generations. Kyle had wielded the same powers the empress had, but only in two star systems. Funding still had to come from the Imperial Senate, but as viceroy, Kyle only answered to the empress.
And now he’s the ruler of the Human Confederation. It’s a change in name only, since it covers the same two star systems, but it’s independent, totally separated politically from the Empire of Britannia.
Allison didn’t have to wait to see who got out of the shuttle. Its sides bore the crest of the viceroy of the Human Confederation, so she was certain her husband was on board. Just as she started to turn, two more shuttles came into view.
“My husband is finally home,” Allison told her secretary, sitting on the other side of the desk, taking notes. “Maybe I can finally find out where he went and what he was doing.”
Kyle’s departure three weeks ago had miffed her. She’d been away at a recovery site, sorting through storage vaults half-buried in rubble in what had once been France. Hazard had tasked Allison with finding the remnants of Earth’s great artworks. As a long-time patron of the arts, the princess was well-suited to the job.
What had miffed, even angered Allison, was that her husband’s explanation had been vague. All she’d been able to determine was that he was going somewhere to do something, and it was a secret. When she’d returned to Atlanta and tried getting answers, there weren’t any. She’d finally been able to find out that he’d gone to the Pegasus System, but that was it.
“Can you ask the nanny to bring the baby down to the viceroy’s office?” Allison asked the secretary as she rose.
“Of course, Your Highness,” the secretary responded. She rose and went to the side door that connected the office to the nursery next door.
Knowing her husband’s sense of duty, Allison was certain that Kyle would go to his office first before coming to see her and their baby, Stephan.
He’ll be making sure nothing urgent’s come up, she thought.
* * *
Allison opened the double doors to her husband’s office and stepped into the room.
“I’m so glad you’re home, Love,” she began, then stopped abruptly, both verbally and in movement.
Frozen in place, she scanned the room full of people she hadn’t expected to be there. Most she knew. Julie Adams and her wife, Annalese. Scott Conners. Marine Major General Roberts. But there were some she didn’t recognize.
“Kyle, you should have warned me you were bringing so many guests into our home. I would have had something to eat prepared. I’d at least have had coffee ready.”
Allison knew what most people thought of her and didn’t care. But she wasn’t the addle-brained diva many thought her to be. Oh, sure, she was a diva and would readily admit to that. But she would have never survived the cut-throat social politics of Britannia’s capital if she was indeed an idiot. So, she didn’t miss the look Julie Adams and her husband exchanged. Nor did Allison miss the slight nod Kyle gave the Federation president in response to the unspoken command.
“I would have messaged you, but your schedule showed you’d still be in Paris,” Kyle stated. “Please forgive me.”
“When you left so abruptly, I came home early to find out what was going on.”
Kyle looked around the room.
“If you’ll all make yourselves comfortable—” Kyle gestured at the many chairs as he walked toward Allison “—I need to discuss the situation with my wife. I’m thinking I should do that in private.”
The grunts and even a few chuckles Allison heard in response to that statement confirmed her suspicion that something important was going on.
“Kyle?”
“Let’s go to the sitting room,” Kyle said and guided her out of the study.
* * *
Hazard’s alive!
Allison was still trying to process what her husband had told her. Her relationship with her famous brother had always been hot and cold. A lot of that had to do with his idiotic notion of not wanting to be a prince.
How could you not want to be a part of the imperial family and all the benefits it offers?
Of course, all that had changed when their older brother Edward went off the rails and tried to take the throne. Hazard had thwarted the coup and replaced Edward as crown prince. And as crown prince, her brother wasn’t the soft-spoken teenager she’d once known, Allison discovered. She’d painfully learned how hard and cold Hazard could be when he felt the Empire or his family were in peril.
But he always honored his promises. Hazard gave his word he’d take care of me, and he did. And he did it even as I made it difficult by being a bitch.
“Okay. So Hazard’s alive but in a stasis pod,” Allison summarized. “He’s been there before, after he got hurt in that one battle.”
“Following a serious injury during the Tarrant System Battle,” Kyle said.
“You could have told me that in the study,” the princess observed. “Why did you want to do it in private?”
Before her husband could answer, Allison raised a hand.
“You need something from me.”
Kyle’s sudden smile surprised Allison.
“You know, as much as your body turns me on, it was your brain that made me fall in love with you,” Kyle said. “Yes, we—the Federation and the Empire—need something from you.”
Kyle then explained about the medical nanites Allison had inside her. How they could help fix Hazard if they could get samples of the nanites to replicate. Kyle also explained that no one would force her. If she didn’t want to provide the blood samples, they would just have to wait till they could get Hazard back to Britannia.
“So, my brother is in no immediate danger right now?”
“No, as long as he remains in the stasis pod and it has power, he’s fine,” Kyle answered. “Of course, there’s the off chance the pod could fail, but they have safeguards in place for that.”
“And my mother had these nanites injected into me without my knowledge?” Allison asked with a hint of anger.
“I can’t speak to that, my love,” Kyle responded. “You’d need to speak with your father and mother about it, but Julie Adams is pretty sure you have them inside you. At least, that’s what Hazard told her.”
“I was wondering how you and the rest knew about these things floating around inside of me,” Allison said with a shiver.
“Julie said Hazard confided in her after the assassination attempt on Icarus. He only gave her the basics, saying the imperial physician had injected the empress and all her children to protect them.”
“So, there will be no repercussions if I refuse.”
“For Hazard, no,” Kyle said, frowning, “and I believe Julie when she says no one will force you. But…”
“But I’d become a pariah.”
“I’m afraid so,” Kyle said with a nod. He waved in the direction of his office. “Those are some of the most influential people on Earth and in the new Federation, and as honorable as they are, word will get out. Others will learn that you refused to help Hazard.”
“And as popular as he was—I guess I should say is—I’d become an outcast.”
Allison slumped back on the sofa she and Kyle were sitting on, but held onto his hand.
“What should I do, Kyle?”
When her husband chuckled, it touched a nerve inside Allison.
“I wasn’t trying to be funny.”
“I’m sorry, Love, but I gave up trying to tell you what to do halfway through our first date,” Kyle said, fighting to keep the smile off of his face, and losing. “But I will point out that having a resurrected emperor owe you is not a bad thing.”
A smile spread across the imperial princess’ face. “No, it isn’t. Go and tell them I’ll do it. But let’s get it done soon, before I change my mind.”
“Soon” turned out to be twenty minutes. Kyle brought in and introduced Commander Solinger. Allison recognized him as the fleet officer she’d seen in Kyle’s office, whom she didn’t know. Two nurses came in behind them, wheeling a serving cart piled high with equipment.
“I just want to give you a quick once-over to make sure you’re in good health,” Solinger stated as he took Allison’s vitals. “It’s just a precaution, mind you. I know you have your own doctor, and he takes excellent care of you, but it would be embarrassing if you passed out while we take the samples.”
“I appreciate that, Doctor,” Allison responded, “but I’m not the fragile flower many portray me to be. How is this going to work?”
“My nurses will actually draw the samples. I assure you, you don’t want me doing it,” Solinger stated. “I’m a doctor. Yes, I know how to do it, but I’m not proficient at doing it. They are. We’re going to use an IV needle, since I’d like to draw a large sample.”
The fleet doctor saw the concerned look on Allison’s face and quickly continued, “Nothing dangerous, mind you, but you may feel a little tired when we’re through.”
Allison nodded, and the doctor moved aside, allowing the nurses to set up. Allison found the procedure to be relatively painless. During her pregnancy, nurses and technicians had poked and prodded her many times, taken blood samples, and administered IVs. She noted that the doctor was correct. The nurse who inserted the IV needle was a pro. She’d only felt the slight sting of the needle being inserted.
The whole procedure only took ten minutes. Allison stayed on the sofa, reclining as the nurses drew the sample. As they wheeled the cart out of the room, she started to sit up, then, feeling dizzy, slumped back.
“Easy there,” Doctor Solinger said as he reflexively checked her pulse. “Remember, I told you about feeling tired.”
“Well, that is an understatement,” Allison said. “I think I’ll just lie down here and take a nap.”
“Why don’t you do that, my love?” Kyle said, helping her to stretch out on the sofa. “I’ll ring for a maid to bring a pillow and a blanket.”
“You should go and see to your visitors, Dear.”
“Nonsense. I’m going to stay here. Doctor Solinger can inform them that I’m taking care of you.”
“I’ll do that,” the doctor said, rising. As he did, one of the two nurses reentered the room. “I’m going to leave a nurse here to keep an eye on you, if that’s okay?”
“We appreciate that,” Kyle said, answering for both of them, since Allison was already asleep.
* * *
Keefer Solinger looked over the shoulder of Doctor Jennifer Pratt as she analyzed a small sample of Princess Allison’s blood.
“Well?”
“Don’t get your panties all twisted, Keefer,” Jenn responded without looking away from the monitor she stared at. “Yes, there are nanites in her blood.”
“Excellent!”
“But…” the word echoed like a pulsar blast in the room, instantly deflating the fleet doctor’s enthusiasm.
“Don’t tease me like that, Jenn.”
The nanite expert rapidly punched commands into her terminal, then turned to look at Keefer. Jennifer Pratt had been one of the first to join Doctor Carl Brougham’s nanite team when he formed the special research center at Britannia’s elite Imperial Science Academy. She’d been a grad student at the time and had worked her way up the ladder to become one of the medical researcher’s senior assistants.
When Carl decided to send one of the portable nanite manufacturing plants to Earth, he’d asked for volunteers to go with it. The then Crown Prince Henry, worried the Black Dragon Virus might reach Earth, had asked Doctor Brougham to send one of the prototype units, just in case. Jenn had jumped at the chance, not only to visit the birthplace of humanity, but to pore over the old medical records the Empire had discovered in the ruins of the planet.
“There are nanites,” Jenn repeated, “three separate versions of them. It took some effort, but I finally isolated each one of them. Now we have to wait for the computer to analyze each one and compare them to the data we have. Then we’ll know for sure.”
“Did you compare the ones you found to what we found in the emperor’s blood sample?”
“Duh, first thing I did.”
Keefer had to bite back the response he was about to give. A career fleet officer as well as a doctor, he wasn’t used to being responded to in such a flippant manner.
I have to remember that she’s a civilian and an expert in this.
He waited, and finally she continued.
“The emperor’s sample has only one of the three nanite versions present.”
“Which one?”
Jenn chuckled. “The Black Dragon nanites are the only ones present.”
“That makes sense. The other two are the universal medical nanites Doctor Brougham originally injected and the latter medical repair one he developed later,” Solinger said.
“And if your theory is correct, his body used those up trying to fix itself.”
