16
When Clement woke up, he was in the infirmary aboard the Corvallis with several IVs and monitoring wires attached to him. He’d been out for nearly sixteen hours, so the doctors and nurses told him, he was sure more than once.
He asked the main doctor to get him Captain Samkange, and after about twenty minutes of casual chatter with his crewmates, Samkange showed up to spoil the party. Clement was still foggy from the effects of the LEAP jump, as well as from the g-forces in the escape pod and the medication they had been giving him. He asked Samkange for a situation report as his friends scattered. The cruiser captain pulled up a chair and sat down next to Clement’s cot.
“Well, first and foremost, Admiral, you succeeded in planting a nuke right inside the enemy flagship’s reactor room. I don’t know if it was luck or great planning, but you literally split her in two. There must have been a thousand escape pods pushed out while she burned. At that point the enemy fleet panicked and scrambled away while the rest of us made our way back at full burn to get to Bellus. When you completed your jump, your LEAP reactor overloaded and the resulting stream of released energy vaporized the enemy flotilla over Bellus.”
“But no harm to the planet or to any of our ships?”
Samkange shook his head. “No, sir. Your navigator placed you in a perfect position to take out the enemy ships, and your man Nobli said he set the reactor to the absolute minimum setting to accomplish the jump.”
“Well, at least we didn’t destroy the entire Trinity system and several million people.”
“Yes, sir. You and Lieutenant Adebayor were picked up by the Antietam shortly after the event, and I had you transferred here because we have more experienced doctors and a much better infirmary.”
“Where’s the Solar League fleet now?” said Clement, noting the croaking sound in his own voice. He’d been out a long time.
“The sight of their flagship being split in half spooked the hell out of them, sir. They managed to regroup. I have no idea who was in charge of that operation, and they eventually vacated Bellus space and headed back out toward their Ark ship parked out near Trinity-6, sir.”
“The icy gas planet. Better them than us.”
“Yes, sir.”
Clement cleared his throat. “What about Agamemnon?”
Samkange took in a deep breath. “We pulled her home. She was badly damaged in the battle, sir. Captain Yan says she doesn’t think that the ship is salvageable. She expended every weapon she had in the fight, sir. Right now she’s in a decaying orbit, slowly being pulled into the planet’s gravity field. Her engines are so badly damaged that it seems unlikely she can be saved from burning up in the atmosphere.”
Clement took that hard. Agamemnon had been their most modern ship, and now he was going to lose her. “What else do we have left?”
Samkange looked down at the floor and then back up to the admiral. “Not very much, sir. Corvallis, the Yangtze, both of which have sustained considerable damage, and one destroyer, the Benfold.”
“You said the Antietam picked me up—”
“Yes, sir. Three of the gunships survived, they’ve been on nearly nonstop search and rescue since the battle broke up, sir.”
“You said I’ve been out for sixteen hours?”
“More or less, sir.”
“Those escape pods only have enough environment to survive twelve. Call the Antietam and find out when the last time was they pulled in an escape pod with anyone alive in it. If it’s been more than two hours, recall the gunships immediately.”
“We’re suspending search and rescue operations?”
Clement nodded. “There’s likely no one out there to rescue anymore, Captain. And it sounds like we’re going to have to evacuate the Agamemnon before she goes down.”
“I’ll see to it immediately, Admiral.” Samkange stood and started to go, then came back. “Admiral, when you’re good enough to get out of that bed—”
“I’m good enough now,” said Clement, pulling off his sheets and sitting upright in the bed while unplugging himself from several of the monitoring wires. He wobbled for a few moments, then closed his eyes and quickly opened them again, blinking, hoping to steady himself.
“Yes, sir. What I meant was, when the doctor’s cleared you . . .”
“Spit it out, man,” said Clement, growing impatient.
“There was some more bad news, sir.” The look on Samkange’s face was grave. He looked down to the deck, sighed deeply, then, “Kayla Adebayor, sir. She didn’t make it.”
Clement looked away. “She was in the escape pod with me. How . . .”
“When we opened your pod she wasn’t breathing. She . . . the doctor thinks she fractured her skull when the Beauregard disintegrated. We tried everything to save her, sir . . .”
“I’m sure you did.” Clement fought back tears; sitting on the edge of the bed, he put his feet on the deck, then covered his face with his hands for a few moments.
“How . . . how did I survive? I wasn’t even in the safety couch,” he asked.
“Blind luck, the doctor thinks. There was a shockwave after the Beauregard exploded. Somehow you survived, but she didn’t.”
An overwhelming sense of sadness came over him. Healthy twenty-three-year-old women weren’t supposed to die, even in space.
Even in battle.
“Schedule a memorial service for her. All honors. And preserve the body. Her family deserves to get their daughter back.”
“Yes, sir. There are still some pressing matters before—”
“Obviously I meant we’ll have the service when this crisis is over, Captain,” snapped Clement. His rising grief was bubbling over as misdirected anger.
“Of course, sir. I do need to tell you that we’ve picked up quite a few enemy escape pods. There is one prisoner, sir, down in our brig, that I think you might want to talk to personally.”
“That will have to wait, Captain. Right now I have to figure out what this fleet has left to fight with, if anything.” Clement started looking around the room for his uniform. “Now get that goddamn doctor in here,” he said, “and find me my fucking clothes!”
Once he was dressed he left the infirmary with a nurse trailing behind him at the doctor’s insistence. He made his way to the bridge of Corvallis, and once there he went to the communications console and asked the com ensign to raise captain Yan aboard Agamemnon.
“What’s your status, Captain?” he asked when the line was open.
“Admiral, it’s good to hear your voice,” replied Yan. “I just want to say that I’m sorry about Kayla. We all loved her.”
“We did, but there’s no time to talk about her now, Captain. I’d like a situation report,” he said, testy at being reminded of his grief.
“Of course, sir. We took quite a battering from their heavy cruisers and their flagship. I can quite easily say that without your maneuvers and your nuke, we would not be here at this moment. Currently our engines are doing everything they can to keep us in orbit over Bellus, but we’re being inevitably pulled in. We took so much damage and this ship is so big we simply don’t have the power left to push away from the planet and keep ourselves afloat.”
“How long until we lose the ship?”
“Best estimates are seventeen hours, Admiral. I’ve got my entire engineering team and every tech I can spare working on getting the engines repaired, but it’s a big ask.”
“Tell me about the condition of your LEAP reactor.”
“It’s completely trashed, sir. The enemy clearly knew where it was located on the ship.”
“They did have the advantage of advance knowledge of the design,” replied Clement, staying very businesslike, but it was yet another betrayal by Elara DeVore. He tried to shake that feeling off. “Status of your weaponry?”
“All of our kinetic weapons have been expended. We have a couple of dozen torpedoes left and about thirty heavy missiles, including six nukes.”
“Get those weapons organized and down to the loading dock. I’m going to be sending over the gunships to pick up all that weaponry. Prioritize off-loading the nukes. Do you have small armaments left?”
“Quite a bit, Admiral; in fact, that’s almost all we have left. Are you planning to shoot at the enemy ships from EVA suits floating in space?”
“No, Captain, and I wish you would stay on subject,” he snapped. His head was starting to hurt. “Make sure those weapons are also off-loaded onto the gunships and taken down to the surface. We may need them there.”
“Permission to comment, sir?”
“I can’t seem to stop you anyway, can I, Yan? Go ahead.”
“Are we planning on fighting this out on the ground?”
“Once Agamemnon goes down there’s really no point in trying to fight a space battle. We still have thirty thousand settlers to protect on the ground and that’s what we’re going to do, protect them. If that means hand-to-hand fighting in close proximity with energy weapons and stun grenades, then that’s what we’ll have to do.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Last bit of business, Captain. I want your crews to stop working on trying to repair the engines. All of your efforts need to be turned toward getting the weapons and food supplies off of your ship and down to the surface. That’s where we’ll have to make our last stand. I’m sorry Agamemnon won’t be there for the fight, but I don’t know what else we can do.”
“I’ll give the orders right away, Admiral. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a ship to disassemble.”
“One more thing before you go, Yan. Start organizing your crew into vital and non-vital personnel. Start moving the non-vital crew off the ship as fast as you can. I don’t want people staying onboard simply because it’s their assignment.”
“Of course, sir,” she replied, and the conversation was over.
Clement turned to Captain Samkange.
“I may be the senior officer, Captain, but this is still your ship, and I trust you. Right now everything has to be focused on getting personnel and equipment down to the surface. And send orders that I want the other camps to break up, and all the settlers and any natives you can find need to go to Camp Alpha. That’s where we’ll concentrate our defenses.”
“Aye, sir.”
Clement sighed. “Now, as to that prisoner in the brig. I’m betting I know who it is, and I’m not happy about having to have this conversation. At all. And I want you to know I blame you.”
Samkange nodded, uncertain how to respond to that. Clement then gave him a slap on the shoulder. “You’ve done an excellent job, Harry. Now let’s finish it.”
And with that he was off for the Corvallis’ brig.
He found the brig two decks down, near the conference room he had been in when he first came aboard. He ordered the guard to unlock the heavy metal door, which he promptly did. Inside there were three metal-barred cells, no fancy monitoring equipment of any kind and no amenities. The third cell down, furthest from the door, had a single person in it. A woman with dark hair and a very familiar face. He took six short steps down to her cell and then sat on a metal bench facing her. She sat on a metal pallet for a bed, and there was a small sink and a toilet. Otherwise the cell was dull and gray.
Elara DeVore just stared back at him from the pallet, her face smudged with grease on one cheek. Her uniform was a stark crimson and black, with several rank ornaments on it. The uniform jacket she wore was torn in several places and it was clear she’d been through a very rough time. She was noticeably thinner than the last time he had seen her, in exile on the planet Alphus. Her eyes, though, were as they always were; clear, dark, and compelling.
“Are you here to gloat, Clement?” she finally said.
He shook his head. “Not in the slightest, Admiral. What happened today didn’t have to happen, and too many good people lost their lives because of you.”
“Because of me?” She stood up, angry. “What about you? How many of my people did you kill today? Do you think I’m the only one responsible here? And I agree with you, this didn’t have to happen, but you made it impossible. Your bullheadedness, your inability see beyond the simple fog of the battlefield makes it impossible for you to see any bigger picture. You’re a soldier, Clement, and nothing more. I should’ve just taken you out at the first opportunity, but I thought I could reason with you. That was my mistake. Ultimately, you’re just not that kind of man.”
“You forced my hand, Elara,” he snapped back at her. “You knew I could never give in to a ‘peace’ that would end up with the Trinity natives subjugated, and we both know that’s what would have happened.”
She started pacing her tiny cell, not looking at him. “You blew up my flagship,” she said softly, almost like he’d hurt her personally.
“I’m sorry about that, but it had to be done. And it’s not like it didn’t cost me anything dear.”
She stopped to look at him over one shoulder. “That was quite a trick you pulled. I never learned that one in battle school.”
“I’m a student of history, you know that. I got the idea from a little personal reading I did, many years ago. You should read up on a man named Thomas Cochrane and the H.M.S. Speedy, in the Napoleonic wars, when you get a chance.”
“Well, I have plenty of time, but we appear to be short of reading material in here.”
“I’m sorry our accommodations aren’t everything a Fleet Admiral would expect.”
She turned away then, unwilling to continue the banter, and sat back down on her “bed.”
“I will get you a mattress, though,” he said.
“That’s very thoughtful, but we still have important issues to discuss.”
“Then let’s do that, Admiral. I’m all ears.”
She sat forward, eyes down, clearly thinking about what he was going to say. As she started talking, she chose her words carefully. “As I told you before, you’re wrong about the Solar League. They are honest and virtuous people, they want humanity to unite, and the LEAP drive gives them the opportunity to do that, for all humans, the ones in the Sol system, the Five Suns, the Rim, and Trinity.”
“I’m not sure that being under their leadership would be a good thing, and the fact is I don’t know anything about them except what you’ve told me. That’s not a lot to go on given our recent track record of cooperation.”
She shuffled her feet, unwilling to look up and meet his gaze. “I know you don’t trust me, Clement, and frankly I don’t blame you for that. I did have ambitions for Trinity, but you stopped that. Eighteen months on the surface of Alphus gave me plenty of time to think. Foraging for your own food and water to stay alive once your rations run out will do that to you. In my thinking, I kept coming back to the ambitions of the Solar league. Higher ambitions than mine had been. You taught me a harsh lesson, Clement, one I’m not likely to forget anytime soon.”
“It’s lovely to hear how you faired on your holiday, Elara, but I can honestly say I’m not sure where you’re going with all of this.”
She stood now and came up to the bars, grasping the cold rolled metal as she looked down at him from a few feet away. “Come with me out to Trinity-6, to the Ark ship. Meet the commanders there, the men and women that serve in the Solar League Navy with honor and dignity. I think you’ll be impressed with them, and I believe once you’ve talked to them we can reach an agreement, an agreement that brings a lasting peace to the Trinity system and ends the conflict over these beautiful worlds once and for all.”
Clement thought about her words, spoken softly and (he thought) sincerely. She had deceived him before, and even if his heart wanted to believe her now, his head told him not to trust her. “I have thousands of settlers, and perhaps millions of natives on the planet below, on Bellus, that I am responsible for. I can’t abandon them and leave them leaderless when you still have an active fleet and a ship out there powerful enough to destroy everyone in this system.”
“But that’s the point! If you go to them under a flag of truce, with me at your side, I’m certain they will receive you, and not as an enemy. We can begin peace negotiations then and can bring this all to an end with no more bloodshed.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then they have standing orders in my absence to come to the inner system and take control of Bellus. We knew you would come back, but we didn’t know you’d be coming with thousands of civilians. I moved the Ark ship out of the way so that your fleet could make its way here. Hell, I even dropped that buoy in LEAP space to help you find your missing people. Haven’t I proven I’m worth taking a risk on? Especially a risk that could save everyone, every human, in this star system?”
Clement stood to leave then, staring at a woman that he used to love just a few feet away from him. “I’m sorry, Elara, but I just can’t trust you, at least not now. If your people would agree to leave representatives in this system, without weapons, then I would be willing to negotiate with them. But that Ark has to leave this system.”
“But I just told you, Clement, they have standing orders and without a signal from me they will carry them out.”
Clement looked at her, trying to make a judgment about her real intentions. It was something he had mistaken many times before. “Then I have to prepare for your force’s arrival, and defend the people I’m sworn to protect. Any negotiations like what you propose will have to wait until I’ve secured my people.”
“Then they will come,” she said, “likely soon. And you no longer have your ace in the hole, your MAD weapon. It, and the Beauregard, are gone.”
That hurt. She knew how important the ship they had both served on was to him. Clement eyed her. She seemed sincere, but then she always seemed that way to him. “I understand the situation, Elara. But, for now, I have a lot of work I have to do.” With that he took the few short steps toward the brig door and tapped on it to signal the guard to let him out.
“Clement, don’t do this,” she said in a calm voice. “Don’t give up on a chance for real peace.”
“You’ll have my answer shortly,” he said, then the door opened, and Clement stepped through without another word.
Two hours later and Clement sat across from Elara DeVore at a small eating table in the tiny galley of the Five Suns gunship Antietam. Clement watched her as they shared coffee together.
“This isn’t bad for military rations,” she said. “Of course, it’s not as good as what we grow on Helios.”
“I’ll bet it’s been a long time since you’ve had a cup of Sumatra Gold,” he replied, referencing what he knew was her favorite coffee blend.
“True enough,” she said, then she set the cup down and looked across the table at her former lover and current adversary. “I appreciate all of this, Clement, but why am I on this ship and where are we going?”
Clement kept his gaze on her steady, giving away nothing of what he was thinking or feeling inside. “The simplest explanation would be that I took your advice, and that we’re on our way out to Trinity-6 to meet with your Solar League representatives.” The Antietam was two hours from Bellus, where Clement had left Yan, Harry Samkange, and Marina Lubrov in charge of preparing the Five Suns defenses, as much as they could prepare for an impending invasion that they couldn’t stop.
“That would be the simplest explanation but I doubt it’s the complete one, knowing you as I do,” said DeVore. “First I’m in your brig, then you ignore me and my pleadings for peace, and then suddenly I’m here, and it appears that you’re taking my advice, which I highly doubt is your true intent. Tell me, Admiral, does this gunship come with your MAD weapon too, like the Beauregard? Did you bring me along to watch the annihilation of my fleet, and the only people that can help you achieve peace in this star system?”
“If I told you that I would be giving information to the enemy, and that would mean I’d have execute myself for treason.”
She smiled. “Not likely, I agree. So what then?”
“You’ll know soon enough, Elara,” he replied cryptically. “Now enjoy your coffee. We do have some MREs here if you are hungry.”
“I’ve lost my appetite, frankly. And the coffee is just fine for me.” Then they sat in awkward silence, each of them taking the occasional drink. This went on for several minutes, neither of them willing to break the deadlock. Eventually, though, DeVore had to ask the unasked question.
“If there was peace in the Trinity system, there might actually be some hope for you and I.”
“As a couple?” Clement scoffed at that. “I’m not sure that would be good for peace in this system.”
DeVore eyed him from across the table. “You can’t deny there’s always been something between us, something that went beyond just the normal casual or convenient relationship. Serving under you was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make because it meant giving up our love affair. I think in many ways, that decision is what led me down the path I took after the war.”
“You betrayed me, and the ship,” he reminded her.
“And which one of those hurt you more?”
Clement shook his head at her. “Ending our relationship was something that had to happen for us to continue serving together. Betraying the ship, that was your choice.”
“And so you’ve answered my question without really answering it.”
“I think I’ve been fairly clear with you, Elara. I don’t see that we have a future of any kind, under any circumstances.”
“We could have taken a different road. We could have found each other again, been together, perhaps even have a family.”
He shook his head, arms crossed, looking down at the tabletop, unwilling to look her in the eyes. “All I can see when I look back on that time is pain, and no sane person would want to go back to that pain again.” She looked away then and he raised his eyes to study her face. Even after so many years between them he still found her to be an unparalleled beauty. But it was what he knew of her heart, and of her betrayal, that made it impossible for him to feel love for her again.
“When this is over, if you survive, you’ll have to end up somewhere. I could make your life satisfying if you chose to serve in the Solar League,” she said.
“And what about happiness, Elara? Is there any room for that in your fantasies?”
“Always, Clement. And no matter how hard I’ve tried, I’ve never felt anything close to what I felt with you. Circumstances got in the way of our being together. I made choices, I know I’m responsible for them. But I had to do what I did, if not for myself then for the greater good of humanity. Now we’re at a tipping point, and whatever happens in the next few hours or days will determine whether mankind goes forward, or takes a massive step back, one we might never recover from. Please come with me and make peace. I’ll guarantee that you will have your place in this sun, a home, even love and a family if that’s what you want. And, if not with me, then with someone else of your choosing.”
“Sweet words, Elara, but it really changes nothing. Neither of us knows how this is going to end; we’ve both escaped death more than once. I don’t believe we have nine lives, so whatever we choose to do next will ultimately decide our fate.” At that the ship-wide com rang in.
The voice belonged to the Antietam’s Captain Jim Kagereki. “We’ve reached the designated coordinates, Admiral.”
Clement clicked on the com panel to respond. “Prepare the shuttle as ordered, Captain. I’ll be down in the landing bay in five minutes.” He shut off the com and faced DeVore again.
“I’m afraid this is our exit, Admiral.”
“Are you going to take the shuttle out to the Ark ship? Are you going to take my advice and negotiate peace?”
Clement set down his coffee and stood to leave. He gestured toward the gantry way. “After you,” he said. He followed her out as they made their way down the metal ramp to the Antietam’s landing deck. Her only shuttle was warm and prepped, just waiting to be rolled into the airlock to make her exit. DeVore stood beside Clement, looking at the ship.
“I take it you can pilot this thing?”
“I can,” he said as a half dozen technicians scrambled around the shuttle, making their final adjustments. “But I’m not going to. The shuttle will run on autopilot, a preprogrammed course to take you back to your fleet.”
DeVore looked startled. “So you’re not coming with me? Is this some kind of a stunt?”
“No, Elara, it’s tactics. I’m sending you back as a gesture of peace. If these people you speak so highly of understand the gesture, then they will take their Ark and their remaining forces, and they will leave Trinity space. My terms, which you are to convey, is that they may send one ship, unarmed, to Bellus where we will open up negotiations. You, however, are not allowed to stay in this system. You’ll have to go back to Earth with the rest of the fleet. If these people are as sincere as you say they are, then perhaps we can work something out. That’s the only thing I’m offering you.”
She looked at him, disappointed. “I should’ve known you’d never be willingly kind to me. If I agree to your offer then I live in permanent exile on Earth. If I don’t take your offer, then once again I’ve proved myself to be the villain. It’s perfect for you. It eliminates any guilt from your own mind about me. But you said this was tactics, and I don’t see how—”
“I’ve just bought myself and my forces at least six hours to better prepare our defenses. Two hours out to this point, another four in the shuttle for you, and then you’ll have to discuss what your next move is with your compatriots face to face, because I cut off your long-range com.”
“I see,” she said, in a quiet voice. “Naturally I’m disappointed. It appears this is all we have left, Clement. Using each other for our own ends.”
“And that is something you taught me, Elara. Now goodbye,” he said, motioning over a pair of guards to put her on the shuttle.
Then he walked away, not turning to look back.