Ghost Hour (Book Two of the Rogue Academy Trilogy), page 26
“I see,” said the Captain, clearly not understanding what happened at all. “I think you and I need to have a private conversation, Cadet Roux.”
“Yes, sir.”
As she followed him out of the room, she heard James ask, “Are we under arrest?” and Lyric answer, “Not yet.” If Nadine had her way, none of them would be, but if anyone of them needed to be arrested, she’d try to make sure it was just her. Only time—and her conversation with the captain—would tell.
Captain Morse took her to another office. “Sorry about the lack of gravity. We didn’t have cargo to help with the gravity maneuver, nor do we have the fuel to spend on it. Now, explain how you got in the escape pods.”
“Yes, Captain.” Nadine thought about how to begin. “Specifically, the escape pods, sir? There’s an awful lot to tell you…”
“Start with as close to today as possible. I’ll ask questions when I need to. Right now, I’m going to have to explain how three cadets ended up in my DropShip.”
Nadine nodded. She succinctly summarized the ongoing war and Baron Vogel’s order to fight and make Emporia not worth it. “And then I had the idea that if we took out one of the enemy’s DropShips, that should hurt them enough to make them leave. Once they started bombing us on Hoff, they didn’t stop. That’s what they were going to do to Emporia. I know it. I couldn’t think of any other way to make them leave.”
The captain had kept a neutral face until she got to the idea of using a commercial DropShip to destroy a military one. His eyes hardened and narrowed. Then he rolled his hand in the air for her to continue.
Nadine did, explaining how she and the rest got on the Lady Errant and how Sotheby had changed the plan and betrayed them. That he was going to eject an escape pod with the cadets in it to be picked up by the Draconis Combine. That they’d then overpowered him and enacted Nadine’s plan.
He held up a finger. “You caused the DropShip collision?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How?”
“Linked escape pod deployment at the correct acceleration.”
He thought about it, frowning. “Did you set off the deployment?”
“No sir, that was Cadet Henry Cobb. He sacrificed himself to make sure my plan worked. He insisted. He was already dying.”
Captain Morse waved a hand in the air like he was erasing her words. “No. There was no plan to crash a civilian DropShip into a military one. You were stowaways attempting to get help. Sotheby locked each of you into the escape pods and set them off himself, not realizing what that would do to his ship’s trajectory.”
Nadine was dumbfounded. “Sir?”
“Repeat after me…you were locked in escape pods, and Sotheby ejected them.”
She paused, still unsure.
Captain Morse squeezed the bridge of his nose with two fingers. “Cadet, please.”
Nadine nodded. “We were each locked in an escape pod. Sotheby ejected them all at once. I blacked out. When I woke up, the Lady Errant had crashed into the enemy…Draconis Combine DropShip.”
He relaxed. “Very good. I’m so glad to hear that you didn’t break a centuries-long code of honor that could turn this border skirmish into an all-out war between the Draconis Combine and the Federated Suns. That an errant civilian captain did the deed, and it was on accident.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And I’m so glad your peers will agree with you.”
She nodded, knowing she could count on both James and Lyric to back her up. “Yes, sir. I’ll need to talk to them.” She paused. “But, sir, the Draconis Combine bombed us. They targeted the civilian capital city and my academy.”
Captain Morse grimaced. “War on the border…”
The communications speaker in the room came to life. “Sir, you’re needed on the bridge.”
He glared at the voice. “Can’t it wait?”
The speaker, undaunted by a look they could not see, said, “No, sir. They’ve begun shelling the planet.”
34
VENGALIL ESTATE
LIEGEDEN, EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
17 APRIL 3150
1242 HOURS
About thirty seconds after the Vengalil’s personal ’Mech bay door closed, backup generators kicked in and lit the bay with a weak, wavering, yellow light. There was room for five ’Mechs but not much else. The Locust was already in one of the cradles and the Catapult shifted into one as Jasper watched. This was good. It was nowhere as big as the academy ’Mech bay, but it was more than he’d expected. There wasn’t much room to maneuver. One ’Mech at a time could walk through the center of the room from their cradle to the ramp or back. He remained on the ramp behind the Rifleman.
Delany radioed again. “We’re in the bay, Lady Sana.”
While they waited to see if Lady Sana would—could—respond, Delany piloted the Rifleman into the next open cradle and Jasper shifted the Commando off the ramp and into the middle of the room.
Explosions rocked the bay, knocking out the lights. Mia and Elias lit their lights as another explosion rumbled the underground bay again. Jasper kept his ’Mech upright and waited for the ground to stop moving. After a couple minutes of silence, he asked, “Do you think it’s done?”
The answer hit the Vengalil estate before anyone else could say a word.
Jasper blinked his eyes open. He was still in the ’Mech cockpit, but the Commando now sat on the floor of the ’Mech bay, and his head rang from whatever he’d knocked it against. Only his neurohelmet kept him from having a concussion. Blaring alarms cut off as he got to his feet again.
“What happened?” he asked as he looked over his cockpit to make sure the ’Mech was still in working order. From all immediate signs and sensor readings, it was.
“Something either hit the estate or really, really close to it,” Delany said. “Is everyone all right?”
“I’m good,” Mia said.
Elias echoed her words. “I’m good. The Catapult has seen better days, though.”
“I had a bit of a look before the lights went out. Assuming this place is still viable, we could keep a couple of the ’Mechs here. Get them worked on.” Delany shone her spotlight around the bay. “I think it still could be. Assuming we can get that door open without having to break it.”
Jasper, closest to the door, shined his spotlight on it, running the light along the edges. “It looks viable. At least, it doesn’t look collapsed or otherwise compromised. I just don’t know if it has the power to run.”
Elias cleared his throat. “Maybe we should leave the ’Mechs here and go out one of the manual side doors. See what’s going on.”
Jasper’s immediate response was an emphatic no, but Delany responded before he could.
“I don’t think that’s a wise idea. I think we need to keep control of the ’Mechs until we see what we’re up against. They didn’t want to all out destroy my ’Mech. They wanted to capture it. That’s why they kept scrambling my controls with the STEMP.”
Jasper relaxed, then backed her up. “I agree. Menard’s right. We do need to keep control of the ’Mechs and the Kuritan MechWarriors were looking to capture and not just destroy us. I think they’re as short on ’Mechs as we are. That was part of the information that came back to us after we rescued the civilians from here.” He paused. “But, if the Vengalil estate is still standing, it might be a good place to move the academy survivors to.”
“We’ll asked Lady Sana,” Delany said. “When we see her. Now. Suggestions on getting us out of the ’Mech bay with the power out?”
“I think we’re going to have to do an in-person search,” Jasper said. He didn’t want to get out of his ’Mech—he felt protected within it—but they couldn’t see or do as much within them. Especially when they needed to be on the ground, working with the equipment on hand.
* * *
OKINAWA-CLASS DROPSHIP ENDEAVOR’S RUN
LOW ORBIT, EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
17 APRIL 3150
1245 HOURS
Nadine followed Captain Morse from the office, back to the bridge. She floated near the back of the room, next to the ready room door, keeping her mouth shut and her eyes open. Silence was her best ally right now. Silence and letting Lyric and James know what the captain had decided their story was.
The monitoring screens showed every Draconis Combine DropShip deploying weapons that sped towards the planet’s atmosphere, then disappeared below the clouds. The ripples of force through the cloud cover were beautiful in their own horrible way, but Nadine knew every single one of them meant more Emporian deaths.
She opened the door to the ready room and slipped inside. James and Lyric waited there. She closed the door behind her as Lyric grabbed her hand. “Are you okay?”
Nadine nodded, squeezing Lyric’s hand before letting go. “Yes. But we’ve got to agree on something and I think this is the only chance I’ve got to tell you unmonitored…” She gave them a quick version of what had “happened” on the Lady Errant from Captain Morse’s point of view and why, nodding at the way their eyes got big, then narrowed.
“But they bombed our planet,” James protested. “How is that a “border skirmish” and not a declaration of war?” His waving hands pushed him out of his place.
Lyric shrugged. “Politics. It’s something for the diplomats to argue over.”
Nadine looked them each in the eye. “So we’re agreed. We were stowaways in hopes of getting help. We got caught and shoved into escape pods. Sotheby deployed us. That’s all we know.” She held the look until they each agreed. “As for politics…there might not be anyone left to argue it out.”
“Why?” Lyric asked.
Nadine pointed at the closed door. “The bridge crew is watching them bomb the planet again.”
James was the first one out of the ready room and onto the bridge. Lyric was a close second. Nadine was last. She’d already seen what she needed to see. At this point, she didn’t know if there was going to be an Emporia to go back to. That meant that she might not have a brother waiting for her there either.
It was a thought she’d been trying hard not to think, but it still wormed its way to the forefront of her mind. It made her wish she’d told him she loved him. Or that she was proud of him. Things she might never get another chance to say. They’d both worked so hard to get to where they were, and it was all being stolen from them again.
An argument on the bridge pulled her out of her head.
The bridge crew was examining the image of three missiles, arguing about them.
“That’s not what you think,” Private Rule said. “It can’t be.”
Private Lo jabbed a finger at the screen. “I’m telling you it is. I’ve seen something like it in history books.”
Captain Morse cut the argument off. “Sergeant Sprinter, get a copy of this up to the Golden Sail. The doctor onboard will know for sure. In the meantime, package all of this information up for sending back home. We’re not going anywhere for the moment. Major Hanover has to decide what to do about this right now. We’re outmatched and outgunned…and the Golden Sail isn’t Jumping anywhere for a week.”
Nadine spoke up. “What about us, Captain? Will we be sent home?”
Captain Morse looked at her as if he’d forgotten the cadets existed. Then he ushered the three of them back into the ready room. “How old are you?” The question was directed at all of them.
“Sixteen,” Lyric said.
James shrugged. “Same.”
“Almost seventeen,” Nadine said. “All of us are…were…graduating this year.”
The older man shook his head. “I don’t exactly know what to do with you right now. But I cannot, and will not, in good conscience, put you back on the planet as it is. You are all witnesses and survivors. And until we know for sure what those last three bombs were, for the safety of this DropShip and its crew, you need to stay put.”
Nadine tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
Captain Morse’s face went neutral. “I’ll tell you once we know for sure. I don’t guess. I wait for facts. As it is, both the Golden Sail and the Endeavor’s Run are working on less than full crews. So, we have room for you three, and can probably put you to work. I’ll have one of the privates show you where and how to berth.”
“But—” Nadine began.
He cut her off. “Did your Ritza Academy teach you to question a superior’s orders, Cadet Roux?”
Chagrined, Nadine dropped her eyes. “No, sir.”
“Then I suggest you do as ordered. There will be time enough for questions to be answered later. For now, get settled.” He left them there without another word.
* * *
VENGALIL ESTATE
LIEGEDEN, EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
17 APRIL 3150
1358 HOURS
It took a good hour for all of them to figure out where and how to activate the Vengalil’s emergency power banks. However, once they were activated, the ’Mech bay door opened on command with only a minimum of protest.
Back in their ’Mechs, the four of them stood at the top of the ramp after they opened the barn doors. The manor house looked stable enough. It wasn’t until they walked all the way out of the ’Mech bay that they saw what had hit the bay so hard and knocked the Commando to the floor.
The ground had been hit just outside the ’Mech bay, on the opposite side of the doors. The ruins of the back half of the obfuscating barn stood with parts of the hardened walls of the underground ’Mech bay exposed. Whatever had hit the estate had barely missed the barn. Only the hardened walls kept the bay from being destroyed. As it was, the ’Mech bay’s exposure wasn’t good for anyone.
Delany got their attention. “We need to get back to the academy. Radio silence unless I say otherwise.”
The run back to the academy shouldn’t have taken more than a few minutes, but much of the ground was disrupted and broken. The closer to the academy they got, the more the destruction slowed them down—not just the old destruction that hadn’t begun to be fixed, but new craters and fallen debris. This time, it wasn’t just a single missile that had been aimed at the academy.
Jasper felt his throat go tight as they entered academy grounds. The cleared roads were gone. The neat piles of concrete and metal were gone. The Sable dorm building was gone and the Dewitt dorm building was only half standing.
The lance slowed as they walked onto the academy proper and Delany broke radio silence. “Lady Sana, this is Cadet Menard. Do you copy?”
They held their collective breath.
Jasper saw movement in and around the Dewitt building.
“Lady Sana, this is Cadet Menard. Do you copy?”
“This is Cadet Osborn. Lady Sana is dead. Don’t get out of your ’Mechs. I repeat, do not get out of your ’Mechs.”
Jasper blinked at Noah’s words.
“Copy that, Noah,” Delany said. “What’s happening?”
“A couple of people have died from something. I don’t know what. I haven’t seen it before. I think I’m okay, but Lady Sana. She…just started coughing blood and throwing up. Another cadet did, too. If it’d been one person…but it’s two and several more cadets feel really ill. We don’t know why. Something…something’s been weaponized.”
Jasper rubbed his face. Noah was the one with the medical experience. He wasn’t a doctor, but he’d done enough with his parents and then the academy hospital to be one of the most experience with medical mysteries.
“Right,” Delany said. “We can stay in the ’Mechs for now, but that’s not a viable option for the long term. What else have you got for us? And in the meantime, what can we do to help you?”
“I don’t know. There are so many dead…”
Jasper grimaced. Noah sounded beyond tired. His roommate’s voice had a defeated quality that he didn’t like.
“I’ll figure out something,” Noah said. “Maybe start at Sable. What had been left of the infantry had been in there.”
* * *
OKINAWA-CLASS DROPSHIP ENDEAVOR’S RUN
LOW ORBIT, EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
17 APRIL 3150
1345 HOURS
Nadine scowled. She, Lyric, and James had been assigned berths in the same pod. Each one looked like a closet with one padded side and a myriad of tech on the other. From the sleeping sheaths, she suspected that the Endeavor’s Run spent most of its time without gravity, and she was not happy with the idea of spending the next week floating around. Nothing reacted the way she thought it should.
She felt eyes on her. Coming back to her present surroundings, Nadine found James and Lyric watching her. “What?”
“That is the question,” Lyric said. “What are we going to do? I didn’t sign up to become annexed as part of a DropShip crew.”
“No. You signed up to be part of the military, and agreed to go where they said to go and when.” Nadine sighed. “But I understand. This is not what I thought was going to happen. We’re needed on the planet.”
James amused himself by spinning his noteputer in the air and watching it tumble over and over without going anywhere. “If there’s anyone left, that is.”
Nadine nodded. “You’ve got a point. We do need to help. We need to get home. I’m going to talk to Captain Morse again.”
“Careful he doesn’t throw you in the brig.”
She shrugged. “How is that any different than this? We’re trapped here as it is.” Nadine pulled herself out of the pod before James could answer. It was hard to square your shoulders and hold your head high while bumping into walls and ladders, but no one stopped her as she headed to the bridge.
The entire crew was focused on a conversation the captain was having with a man on the screen.
“You’re sure, Doctor?” Captain Morse asked. “It can’t be anything else?”
