Starbound (20 page)

She addressed the tribunal. “I understand the ruling but I do not agree,” she said sharply. My heart raced. She was getting out with her life and her career intact. “I am a Union Navy off—” she started until Commack's pounding of the gavel drowned out her voice and she stopped speaking.

“This tribunal's judgment is final,” stated Commack. With assistance from the ever-present guards she was pressed back into her seat. She glanced at me but I gave her no hint of my own emotions. Commack turned to me.

“Mr. Cochrane,” he said, “please stand.”

“I will not,” I said defiantly. “To do so would give this court respect which it does not deserve.”

Commack merely nodded and my
Feldjäger
keepers “assisted” me to my feet. Commack then started in. “Mr. Cochrane, you are found guilty on all charges. It is you who this court holds responsible
for the death of Claus Poulsen aboard the shuttle. It is you this court holds responsible for the destruction of
Impulse
and the loss of her crew. These actions in and of themselves would be grounds for your execution, but the fact that you are in addition to all of this an agent of our ancient and sworn enemies, the Cochrane family of Quantar, this demands swift and careful justice. You are sentenced to be executed by firing squad. You have one hour to consider your guilt before your execution takes place.”

“No
 . . .”
cried out Dobrina. The guards swiftly handcuffed me and took me under the arms, lifting me as they started me toward the door. I couldn't see her, so I shouted over my shoulder, “It will be all right,” even though I knew that was a lie. In front of me the door was kicked open and I was dragged into the bitter winter's day. Behind me I heard Commack slam down the gavel and adjourn the tribunal. I could hear Dobrina weeping, but there was nothing I could do. I looked up into the dim gray sky as tight, dry snowflakes fell stinging on my face.

I would need that miracle after all.

The drone of the transport VTOL planes landing at the airstrip came fifteen minutes before my scheduled execution. They were no doubt called in the moment my conviction was finalized. From their sound they were clearly larger than the personal craft I had heard Tralfane depart in earlier. It was also clear this entire court would be hustled away from the airbase and vanish as quickly as they had come once the deed was done.

I tried to control my breathing, but found I couldn't. The shivering I was experiencing back in my tiny shack wasn't only due to the cold. As I contemplated my circumstances, I was riddled with anxiety. I felt totally alone. There seemed very little that could save me now.

My ever-present
F
eldjäger
escorts knocked promptly at five minutes to the hour. I was cuffed again and led out into the cold winter day. The snow was as unceasing as my trembling. There was a small contingent of five MPs standing in line as I was led down a short path to a single metal pole standing between two old and battered buildings. None of the court participants were there, not even Commack, though I had no doubt they were watching from the safety of the adjoining buildings. There was no sign of Dobrina or Karl Poulsen either. The duty captain said nothing to me as I went past the firing squad, the MPs dragging me to the pole, then turning me and unlocking one of my cuffs before swiftly reattaching it around the pole behind me. My heart was pounding and my head filled with the sound of the wind, some from the cold winter weather, some from the burning engines of three VTOL transports on the airfield tarmac, and some no doubt from my own blood rushing through my veins. I stared down my firing squad as they took their positions, coil rifles at the side. The squad captain gave his first order, in German.

“
Bereit!”

They raised their weapons to their shoulders, aiming them at me.

“Aufladung!”

They charged their weapons. I waited an eternity, blinking bleary eyed into the wind while the old-style single shooters filled their firing chambers with oxidized ion gas. My thoughts turned to Dobrina, and Derrick, my father and mother, all swirling through my mind in a flurry of confusing emotion. I couldn't believe my life was about to end.

The squad captain drew and then raised his ceremonial sword. I refused to look away. I couldn't. These could be my last moments alive.

The sound of rushing in my ears suddenly accelerated, I assumed from my pounding heart, fighting for its last beats in this reality. I closed my eyes and turned my head away, holding my breath, waiting for the final blow, the blast from the coil rifles. It didn't come. Instead,
I heard a roar coming from the tarmac. I opened my eyes again to see one of the VTOL transports rising behind the shooters.

As the squad captain prepared to lower his sword a blinding flash of orange light impacted just behind the firing squad, sending them all scrambling for cover. A single firing squad man's rifle misfired and a shot of coil laser energy singed the air over my left shoulder as I instinctively ducked away. I went into a crouch, or as close to one as I could get to chained to a pole.

The squad captain started shouting orders in German as confusion broke loose around me;
Feldjäg
er
came scrambling out of the buildings, running past me with their weapons drawn. Soldiers in winter camouflage broke from behind the VTOL transports and started firing at the
Fel
djäger
. The VTOL itself hovered up to about twenty meters and started slowly advancing toward me, firing coil and incendiary rounds at anything that moved, quickly taking out an electronics shack and a communications tower as it came. I turned my attention to the squad captain. He had gathered himself as his firing squad had scattered, and now his attention was on me. He came toward me, ceremonial sword drawn. I rose to my feet from the crouch as he started toward me at a full run. He raised his sword to strike and I leaned back against the pole, using my leverage to raise both of my legs and kick him in the midsection as he came, sending him tumbling off to my left. He got up quickly and with a low growl charged at me from the side. I was in no position to defend myself further.

A blur of green flashed by me, then someone in a Carinthian Navy uniform crashed into the squad captain and knocked him to the ground again. The two bodies scrambled at my feet, struggling for control of the sword. I watched as the navy officer snapped back the thumb of the squad captain, who howled in pain, and freed the sword. Then she scrambled to pick it up off the ground before driving it into the squad captain's gut with force. He gurgled once, mortally wounded, then collapsed, dead. The navy officer pulled out the sword amidst a
crushing volley of incoming fire from the rapidly advancing Carinthian Regulars. The
F
eldjäger
MPs were being routed.

Then the Carinthian officer came up and kissed me hard on the lips.

“Thank you, Captain Kierkopf,” I said between scattered breaths.

“My pleasure,” she said, then turned and yelled. “Poulsen! Get over here!” I turned to see the lanky figure of Karl Poulsen running through the field of fire, a coil pistol drawn. He rushed up to me, and for a moment I feared betrayal as he charged the chamber, but he lowered the weapon and cut my cuffs from the pole with the laser.

I had my miracle.

I threw my arms around Dobrina and kissed her again, but she pushed me away. “Later,” she said, and we ran for cover, although there was precious little of that. We dug in under the crawlspace of a barracks building and waited for the firefight to die down. We didn't have long to wait. Ten minutes later and all was quiet except the shouting of the Carinthian Regulars as they secured the airbase. Then I heard someone calling my name.

“Commander Cochrane!” I signaled to Dobrina and Poulsen and then led them out of our crawl space cover with a nod.

“I'm Commander Cochrane,” I said to the nearest regular. He nodded and called in a report in German, then snapped to action in a defensive mode when he saw Dobrina and Poulsen emerging. “They're with me,” I said to the private, and motioned them over. He hesitated a second, as if he didn't quite understand my English, then relaxed a bit as two more ratings came up to support him. We were quickly surrounded by friendly faces and we were then led off the base proper to the tarmac. The three VTOL transports were now secured to the ground with their engines idling. We walked past a row of soldiers who had Commack, Kobin, the prosecutor, and the rest of the tribunal in cuffs on their knees. Only a few remaining
Feldjäger
were among the captured. The rest had met a more permanent fate.

“I should have known you'd get into trouble without me,” said a familiar voice coming from the nearest transport. I turned at the sound of the voice as Colonel Lena Babayan stepped down from the VTOL and approached us, removing her pilot's helmet as she came, allowing her flaming red mane to fly free in the wind.

“Colonel Babayan, why aren't you aboard
Star
bound
?” I asked in my best mock authority voice.

“Because she's still in dry dock, sir. And a certain Captain Lucius Zander relayed to me that you might need some help,” she replied.

“Nonsense,” I said, spreading my hands. “We had everything under control.”

“Yes, and if I'd hesitated another second you'd have been coil dust. Very well under control,” she said, smiling.

“Thank you for that, Colonel,” I said. She hugged me, and then Dobrina. Poulsen stood to the side awkwardly. I thanked him as well for his part in saving my life, but he remained cold and distant to me. Babayan then waved off the privates and we started back to her VTOL plane.

“Come on,” she said, “there's someone you need to meet with.”

I nodded and then followed her up the ramp and into the VTOL transport, then went forward to a command cabin just behind the pilot's nest. There were three men inside, one seated at a desk. He stood to greet us.

“Commander Cochrane,” said Prince Benn Feilberg as he extended his hand to me. “I'm glad to see you again, and glad we got here in time.”

“So am I,” I said in reply, taking his offered hand and shaking it. The moment passed quickly, however, and things turned very serious again.

“It's essential that we be on our way. This incident is unfortunately not isolated. I'm afraid you've arrived on Carinthia just as we stand on the brink of civil war,” said the prince. “That's something I
couldn't tell you on High Station One, for obvious reasons. It's best if we take our seats for takeoff.”

“Prince Benn, just one question, how did you find me?” I asked, not ready to cede the conversation just yet.

“Your friend Captain Zander relayed to us that you were overdue in New Vienna. Something about a transponder signal?” he said. I gripped my left forearm.

“Apparently very helpful Historian technology,” I said. The prince nodded.

“He relayed your location, and as soon as I saw the latitude and longitude I knew you were in trouble. We haven't had operational bases this far north in decades. Now, if you would please take your seats?” he said.

I nodded as the transport began filling with soldiers and we made our way to the nearest flight couches. Dobrina strapped in next to me and held on to my arm so hard I thought she might stop the blood flow. Then the prince gave the order for our departure.

“From the frying pan into the fire,” I muttered to Dobrina just as Lena Babayan fired the engines for
takeoff.

To New Vienna

I
was told the
flight to New Vienna
would take six hour
s. The air base we w
ere held at was in t
he extreme north of
the primary continen
t of Carinthia, at l
east the most popula
ted one anyway. New
Vienna was apparentl
y in a more temperat
e zone, though it wa
s still winter there
and I was told we c
ould expect temperat
ures at or below fre
ezing.

I found it interesting that both Quantar and Carinthia were in winter seasons at the same time. They didn't always match, as Quantar had a 382-day year traveling around its primary star Beta Virginis. Carinthia had a 407-day year as it traversed the mighty Zeta Herculis. Because of a rather unique orbital anomaly, attributed to its companion star, winter tended to be the longest season on Carinthia by a few extra weeks. It was something that I remembered took some getting used to for the first colonists, as well as the 1.15 Earth normal gravity, as opposed to Quantar's rather quaint
.
92. It seemed we were smaller in every way, except in naval power. I'd put our Royal Navy ships up against theirs any day.

Interestingly, both worlds were about thirty-five light-years from
Earth, but only about twenty-four and a half from each other. If we'd had Hoagland Jump Drive capability before the Historians had brought it to us on the first Reunion Day we might have rediscovered each other first on our own.

I sat on the transport contemplating these things with Dobrina on my right, her head on my shoulder, sleeping, and Karl Poulsen on my left. He had stayed silent for much of the trip. I had thanked him for his part in my rescue but he'd remained stoic toward me so far. Prince Benn was ensconced with his military advisors inside his private cabin, and except for the occasional order coming from one of his advisors they had remained out of sight. I had slept some sitting up, with Dobrina and I using each other as pillows. The last few days had taken their toll on both of us. After about an hour of snoozing I woke up and found Poulsen awake as well. I shifted Dobrina to a more comfortable position (for me), and she moaned a bit before settling back down. Then I turned my attention to Poulsen.

“Do you blame me for your brother's death?” I said flatly. No reason to couch it in softer terms. He looked at me, clearly uncomfortable with the question, then leaned forward, staring at the floor, not willing to meet my gaze.

“I don't know,” he said through his heavy accent. “It became apparent to me during the trial that the testimony was being manipulated against you, and so was I. It's been very difficult for me to put aside my feelings of blame on you, and I think in the end that made it easier for them to accept me as being sincere in wanting to see you dead. During the trial I tried very hard to close my personal feelings off and just do my job to protect Captain Kierkopf.” She stirred a bit at the mention of her name, and Poulsen took his tone down lower. “In the end when the rescue opportunity came, it was clear I was just one of their pawns in the game. I'm not sure that I don't blame you still for Claus's death, but clearly there was more to it than I was initially led to believe.”

“I appreciate your honesty, Karl,” I said. “Thank you.”

“You've done that once already,” he replied.

“I know. But when a man comes as close as I was to dying, I guess you just can't say it enough.” This time he nodded in silent acknowledgment. “Lieutenant,” I said, using his rank for emphasis, “who were those people? What the hell is this all about?” He looked at me and then shook his head.

“I wish I knew,” he replied. “There have been changes in leadership going on above me for months. Commanders being replaced, some being reassigned to distant outposts. That sort of thing. I don't know much else.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Karl,” I said. “I want you to know that I liked your brother very much, and I did everything I could to rescue him.”

“Thank you for telling me that, sir,” he said formally, but without commitment either way. That put an end to the conversation, and I had said what I needed to say. I moved again and got up to stretch, being careful not to disturb Dobrina, then decided to make my way up to the pilot's nest and see if I could gather any more information about what was happening on Carinthia, and get it from a source that might know more.

“Hello,” I said, sliding into the empty copilot's seat. Lena Babayan smiled back at me from under her flight helmet without taking her eyes from the com board. I looked outside the cockpit window to see that we had collected a sizable fighter escort on our journey.

“Hello, sir,” she said back. “Happy to see you in one piece.”

I exhaled deeply. “You and me both.”

“That was a close call back there.” I nodded and raised my hand, trying and failing to hold it steady.

“I'm still feeling it,” I admitted.

“No shame there,” she said. That much was true.

“I'm curious, how did you know where I was?” I asked, quickly changing the subject from my close brush with death. “Last I heard you were still at Candle, recruiting new marines.”

“Captain Zander sent a private com to Wesley that you might be in some kind of trouble. He relayed that to Maclintock and he sent me along on the next transport, thinking I could help,” she replied in between checking her flight controls.

“That you did.” She nodded without taking her eyes from her board. My experience with Colonel Babayan was that she didn't like to leave anything to automated systems if she could put her hands on it instead.

“I had some leave time coming so the captain
suggested
I take it on Carinthia. When I got here the Royal Navy Command put me out on one of their search patrols immediately. The orders came from above to deploy to this location early this morning. We knew we were looking for you, we just didn't know
wher
e
we might find you. I assume someone up the chain of command got an intelligence break. And from the looks of it we got here just in time.”

“
Just
,” I agreed. “Any idea who
they
are?” She shook her head.

“They didn't look like Carinthian Regulars to me, sir. They were almost all
Feldjäger
,” she said. I put my hand to my chin, contemplating.

“What was it with all the MPs?” I speculated out loud, not really expecting an answer. I got one.

“They've been building up the MP ranks for more than three years, sir. It's something that didn't go unnoticed by the Royal Navy Command. Almost like someone was trying to build a small, multidisciplined military force that went across all services,” she said.

“Makes sense,” I said, “if you're planning a revolt.” I leaned in closer to her and spoke softly. “Lena, is civil war really coming to Carinthia?”

She gritted her teeth under her flight helmet. Clearly she was reluctant to talk about this subject.

“It could be, sir,” she finally admitted. “And those of us loyal to the Royal Navy and the grand duke are caught in the middle, between
our loyalty to him and our service to our world. And for those of us serving in the Union Navy, it's even worse.”

“And you don't want to have to make that choice. I'll do anything I can to stop it from happening,” I said. She nodded.

“Thank you, sir, I hope things aren't out of your hands already. I work for you and the Union, sir. Hell, I believe in it, but I'm Carinthian first,” she said.

“Understood, Colonel,” I said.

“Thank you, sir,” she said.

With that I patted her on the shoulder, which I hoped was reassuring, and then headed back to the passenger compartment. As I passed Prince Benn's cabin one of his lieutenants stuck his head out the door and invited me in again. I went in and sat down at a desk across from the prince while the other two men stood to one side.

“We have some new information, Duke Peter,” said Prince Benn. His face was grim as he talked to me. “Some Loyalist forces have withdrawn from New Vienna and returned to their barracks, and unauthorized deployments have taken place from several airfields in and around the capital. Right now New Vee is under our control, but it's being ringed by apparently hostile forces, trying to contain us. There's no shooting yet, but the city is on edge.”

“What type of forces?” I asked.

“Military police and their equipment,” said the taller of the two nameless advisors.

“Paratroopers, light tanks, and other armor,” said Prince Benn, more specifically. “It appears as if the military is splitting along the lines of those loyal to the grand duke and those loyal to my brother.”

“Arin?”

He nodded. “As I explained on High Station One, he's been running the government for most of the last three years. Since our mother died, my father has become . . . somewhat distant. My father still retains nominal authority, but Arin has moved very swiftly, building
loyalties, buying favors and alliances. Most of the movement in our military has been to his side, and away from the grand duke and the Union.”

“Is he actually challenging your father? Is this civil war?” I asked.

“I don't know,” the prince admitted. “But I do know that those men back at that base that had you on trial were loyal to Arin. If it hadn't been for the transponder signal . . .” He trailed off, but I knew where he was going. I changed the subject.

“There was an Earth Historian at my trial. Tralfane, the man who hijacked
Impulse
and led it to its doom. Last I saw of him, he was in the Altos system, and his Historian's yacht was missing. How did he get
here
?” I asked.

“I'm sure I have no idea,” replied the prince. I pressed my point.

“He could only have had help from the empire. If Tralfane is in league with your brother's revolt, and working with elements of the empire, then we have much bigger problems on our hands than Arin,” I said. The prince shifted in his chair, clearly uncomfortable with this news.

“Be that as it may for now, my experience with Earth Historians is that they are ‘in league' with no one but themselves,” said Benn.

I sat back at this, to let him know through my body language that I disagreed with his assessment. “One of my best friends is an Earth Historian,” I said.

“Yes, Serosian. He is known to us. But he is from a different Historian school than that man Tralfane, and they appear to have competing agendas, neither of which seems to be to our benefit,” said the prince.

I thought about this, and admittedly I couldn't really argue with his point, because I didn't know enough about the subject. Serosian had been my mentor since the day Derrick had died, and I trusted him and his motives. I wanted to defend him vigorously, but refrained for the moment.

“If Arin is working with Tralfane, and Tralfane is working covertly with Imperial forces, then it seems highly probable that your brother is being influenced by those forces as well,” I said. Prince Benn tapped on his desk with a pen for several seconds.

“The situation is fluid,” he admitted. “But my primary concern is for my family first, Carinthia second, and the Union third. If I have to abandon New Vienna to keep our people safe from civil war I will do it. If I have to denounce the Union to keep Carinthia and the royal family safe, I will do that as well.”

“And if you have to denounce me?” I asked directly. He smiled, I thought sincerely.

“It won't come to that,” he said.

“And if it does?” He didn't blink.

“It won't,” he said. I cocked my head, not taking that as reassuring, then changed subjects again.

“If New Vienna is surrounded by potential hostile forces, then how are we going to get this very obvious aerial convoy past them and into the city?” I asked.

“We have a distraction planned,” interjected the tall advisor again. Benn nodded affirmation.

“But we also have a massive number of very similar convoys going in and out of the city right now. Everyone is getting in position, but so far no one is interfering with anybody else's flights. There have been no hostilities. Yet,” the prince finished.

“And what forces do you have in the city?” I asked. Benn nodded to the smaller advisor, who stepped forward.

“We have heavy armor all around the city, superior in total armament to the Regency force's light armor, though not superior in total number. The Royal Square is reinforced with tanks, mobile infantry, heavy ground guns and antimissile defenses. We have air superiority over the city and control the two most important airfields, Aspern and Leopoldsdorf, as well as the Royal Spaceport. There is a safe
corridor above the spaceport through which we are bringing in supplies and moving Loyalist troops back and forth. We have enough food and water supplies for perhaps six months, if there is a siege. So far all the roads into and out of the city remain open, but Regency forces are taking up positions near the roads in the exurbs as we speak, tightening the noose,” said the advisor.