Admiral's Challenge (A Spineward Sectors Novel: Book 8) Read online

  The Sector Judge heaved a sigh, “I take it from this performance you aren’t going to make this easy?”

  “What performance?” I deadpanned before adding a wink that entirely ruined it. After all, it wasn’t like I was trying to hide anything. Like the man had just said: the United Sentient Assembly droids were broadcasting most of their salvage operations in the clear—and wasn’t it nice to have a super-sized constructor available while I swept up the ship’s we’d captured as well as a few derelicts on the side?

  However, back to the Judge’s point, I simply refused to choose between backstabbing the allies who’d made the victory at Elysium possible—and thus saved at least Sectors 23 and 24 for humanity—and being forced to fight the rest of the Grand Fleet.

  At least, I would refuse to make that choice for as long as a blank look, a little deception and the selective use of the truth would suffice…okay, a lot of deception. Of course that also begged the question: was it really a deception if everyone, their sister, and their angry uncle knew what you were up to?

  “Well I suppose there’s nothing I can do about it if you insist on being obstinate on the subject,” the Representative said.

  Not as long as I had enough combat power to damage or destroy the still crippled battleships of the Grand Fleet, I smugly noted. However, at the same time, it wouldn’t do to allow the ingrates of the so-called Grand Fleet—in the form of their Representative—talk down to me. I had a reputation to maintain, after all.

  “Obstinate,” I repeated in that aggressively neutral tone of voice that I’d seen used to great effect in the holo-vids.

  The Sector Judge stiffened his face becoming even blanker than usual. “Perhaps I misspoke,” the Judge said finally, “please excuse me.”

  “No, I believe you spoke exactly as your masters in the Grand Fleet intended,” I said coolly.

  “I am not privy to the innermost councils of the Fleet,” Kong Pao started to object, but I cut him off with a downward slash of my left hand.

  “I’m sure you’re better regarded than you give yourself credit for,” I said cryptically, “besides, I suppose there is some truth in your accusation.”

  Pao pursed his lips and started to look distressed. “It is my greatest desire to help you,” he paused.

  “However…” I helpfully prompted.

  Looking far more upset than normal, the usually imperturbable Asian frowned before taking a deep breath, “You are right: I have been directed in the strongest terms possible to forcefully inquire into the matter of the droids operating with impunity within this star system, as well as ensure they are destroyed before they can do any harm. Am I to take it from your last words that you are admitting such a state exists?”

  I gave the Sector Judge a cold look. “The only thing I am admitting to is the saving of Elysium by this Fleet after the Grand Fleet—under command of Grand Admiral Manning, along with the Elysium High Command—bungled the operation,” I said flatly.

  “Bungled?!” Pao swore with surprise.

  “Despite being offered command of the Mutual Defense League Fleet prior to arrival—an offer extended by no lesser personage than yourself,” I said easily, and the Judge had the grace to start looking red-faced at this point, “upon my actual arrival, the MDL was rolled into the Grand Fleet and placed under the command of the Grand Admiral. Despite not being placed in charge of the MDL components of the Grand Fleet as promised, I still joined the defense of Elysium with my fleet and, when events turned against the Grand Admiral, I rallied what I could and ultimately defeated the hostile Droid Tribes attempting to subjugate these two Sectors. Having failed to witness the execution of one promise—a promise accepted in good faith on my part—I certainly do not intend to fail again!”

  Or, in other words: you lied to me, or failed making promises you couldn’t keep, therefore regardless of your failures I certainly won’t be following your example and breaking my promised alliance with the droids of the United Sentients Assembly.

  “I can only swear that my offer of Fleet Command was indeed made in good faith while I acted under direct instructions from the League,” Kong Pao said shame-facedly. “However, it is also true that I did offer what I was unable to ultimately give. I can only thank you for assisting our worlds anyway, despite my multiple repeated failures to give you fleet command. “Only a fool or an outright traitor to humanity would turn his back on the brave defenders of this Star System, especially when it was the critical battle in a Sector-wide attack,” I said dismissively. “Despite the trail of broken promises, slights, and failed actions that led us to this point, I couldn’t live with myself if I’d just turned my back on the people of these Sectors and stormed off in a huff. I mean, what the blazes are we out here for if not to stop things like this?!”

  The Sector Judge nodded his head, “I’ll not try to persuade you further on the subject, I understand your position and all I can say is you are a man of honor, Vice Admiral Montagne. Thank you,” he said.

  “The people of your worlds sure seem to have a funny way of showing such sentiments, Judge,” I said standing up to shake his hand and then my face brightened and I clapped him on the shoulder, “although come to think of it, people back home aren’t much better. So I guess I can’t hold it against your lot too much, biting the hand that saved you and all that,” however my hands tightened on his as we shook, “just don’t go abusing my better nature a second time, else you and your high-minded principles find me in a far less charitable mood.”

  “I pray it never comes to that; you have done so much for us already,” Kong Pao said.

  “Politician’s rarely answer our prayers in a form we can appreciate, Representative,” I said cynically.

  “I will do my utmost to see such a thing never comes to pass, you can count on me, Vice Admiral Montagne,” said the Judge, “we’ve been through too much together to allow such a thing to happen.”

  “I’ll hold you to it, Sector Judge,” I instructed and then gestured toward the door. If the man wasn’t planning to stay and enjoy a Tracto-an breakfast then I didn’t feel the need to stay around bandying words for the next hour.

  Chapter Two: Caught in the Middle

  “Did he agree to turn those captured ships of his back to their rightful planetary owners?” demanded Admiral Manning.

  “I’m afraid such a thing is impossible, Grand Admiral,” Kong Pao said with a deep bow.

  Archibald Manning growled but, in all honesty, he hadn’t expected much movement on that subject anyway—he just had to ask because of his family back on Elysium Prime.

  “Did you at least get him to agree to let us help purge those blasted droids from his fleet?” the Grand Admiral asked hotly, “I’ve no problem allowing him to keep his hands on whatever hardware the machines currently have their hands on, whoever helps clear their ships—his or ours—despite what the home office says. I just want them gone from our Star System, having droids under our proverbial skins—technically inside our own Fleet—is…” he trailed off.

  “I’m afraid the Admiral proved quite intractable on the subject,” the League Representative bowed his head.

  “Intractable?! I’ll show him intractable,” Manning started to stand up before catching himself. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, “Well, what did he have to say in defense of himself? This ought to be amusing in a sick, anti-humanist way, at least.”

  “He denied any knowledge of hostile machine intelligences within his fleet, pointing to the plethora of captured droid ships and gear for any stray communications—” started the Judge.

  “Stray transmissions?! The droids are transmitting in the clear!” cried Manning.

  “Before,” Kong Pa cut in with a quelling look, “proceeding to comment on the seeming ingratitude toward himself—who was promised top command of League Forces—and his fleet, which he clearly states, ‘saved the Elysium Star System and thus two Sectors of human space’ from what he terms ‘hostile droid tribes,’ for even bri
nging up the subject, let alone continuing to persecute the saviors of this star system.”

  “The cheek!” Manning snapped, fuming as he turned a withering look upon the League Representative. “Blast it, man, we got nothing of what we wanted—and a bucket full of complaints I wouldn’t tolerate from a deckhand, to boot. What good are you if this is all you can do for us?”

  “As everything I promised—except a battle to the death against overwhelming numbers—failed to manifest, making me look like a liar to Jason Montagne, I am frankly surprised I was even picked for the job in the first place,” the Judge said coldly.

  “The blighter wouldn’t let anyone else from the League or the Grand Fleet onto his ship,” Manning muttered picking up his cup of coffee and staring at it instead of the judge’s accusing gaze.

  “I am not used to be taken to task for fulfilling my duties as assigned, High Captain,” Kong Pao said cuttingly.

  “Just who do you think you are, Pao?” jerked Manning, rising out of his chair to glare down at the smaller man.

  “I am, first and foremost, the duly appointed Sector Judge of Sector 23—of which Elysium is a member Star System,” Kong Pao said coolly, “despite whatever secondary assignments I have voluntarily taken on for the good of our worlds, our Sectors, and humanity as a whole!”

  “This is wartime and sometimes tough calls have to be made; I’ll remind you that martial law, not civilian, is still in effect,” Manning stated his voice like iron.

  “It seems to me that Elysium and the League-at-large forgets that I am just as powerful in peace time, as the Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet and its ‘Confederation’ Admiral are in wartime; your and their heavy-handed tactics risk alienating both,” the Sector Judge said calmly, “besides, I am not as powerless during a ‘martial law’ situation as you seem to think.”

  Manning waved his hand in the air as if to clear it. “I’m following orders just the same are you are, Judge; there’s no need to get your back up. None of this is directed against you—at least not as far as I can see—although it may feel that way at times,” he said in an attempt to smooth the waters.

  “That is where you, and possibly the rest of the league, are wrong,” the Sector Judge said, drawing himself up to his full height. “A Sector Judge’s rank is equal to a Sector Governor’s, and answers to no one but a duly-commissioned investigatory panel of his peers. So unless Elysium and the League are being secretly—and, I’ll add, illegally—run by the Sector Judges of at least three other Sectors, there is no conceivable way that I would in any way answer to them.”

  Manning spluttered, “I said I didn’t mean to insult your position, but we’re dealing with the aftermath of a major battle here, Judge Pao! Forgive me if I forget all the civilian niceties of your position while you’ve been acting as an ambassador and representative.”

  Kong Pao twisted his neck from side to side, the pops and crackles as he did so clearly audible and he once again assumed a neutral mask on his face.

  “Simply remind your superiors that, whatever they foolishly think about MSP’s beloved Little Admiral, I am neither a naughty errand boy fit to be scolded nor an enemy to be taken lightly—and remind them that we will not always be at war,” he said calmly and then turned to the room leaving behind him a quietly stewing Grand Admiral. Pausing in the door way he added, “An eventual change of circumstance, I might add, which is in no small part due to the Admiral you feel so free to curse and yell about.”

  Chapter Three: Elysium: Profit and Loss

  Stepping onto the Bridge of my new Flagship, I looked around with a frown. I could have moved back to the Phoenix—although she was still terribly damaged thanks to me. But the thought of seeing the faces of all those crewmen I had failed in the very place I had failed them, not to mention have to deal with the obstinate Captain Laurent after doing so, left me ill at ease.

  Oh, I knew intellectually that the crew didn’t blame me. After all, we’d won, and besides many of them were over here on the new Flagship but for some reason, perhaps cowardice, I didn’t feel up to the task just yet. For now I’d let the former Caprian Captain have fun with his independent command and see where the chips fell later.

  Since the Furious Phoenix was out for the moment—officially because of battle damage that couldn’t be fully repaired outside of a fully equipped shipyard—I could have transferred over to the Parliamentary Power, Commodore Druid’s command. But something about the very name of his ship put me off my feed, which was beside the fact I’d feel like I was either stepping on Druid’s toes or not measuring up to the expectations of a proper fleet officer even after all this time. After all there’s only so much manuals, rule books, and simulations can teach you.

  Which left me with…this: a banged-up human battleship, captured by the droids, and then recaptured by the MSP.

  Forcibly putting aside my concerns, I turned to the bridge crew. It wasn’t a bad bridge crew, just short-handed. In essence, I’d taken half of the Phoenix’s Strike Cruiser bridge crew and brought them over to run things here, though there were more than a few new faces thrown in here and there—Tracto-ans among them. It was surprising, but something I reluctantly expected after this amount of time.

  “Report?” I said crisply, and the newly-minted acting captain of my current flagship straightened and walked over with composure. I shook my head slightly; if Tracto-ans on the bridge were surprising, then having actual Confederation Officers on my bridge—not the self-trained up-jumped provincials that I’d been dealing with until now—was almost shocking. I briefly wondered why I was worried about how I looked in front of Druid, who was just another provincial officer—though a professional one—when I had an actual Confederation Commander underfoot. But for some reason I just wasn’t getting the same worries—probably because I was an idiot.

  “The Flagship is now rated hyper capable by the engineering staff, Admiral,” the acting captain, Lieutenant Commander Leonora Hammer, said after stiffening and saluting, “no significant changes observed in the combat posture of the provincial forces.”

  I easily returned the salute. “Not quite what you were expecting when you came out of cryo-freeze was it, Lieutenant Commander?” I asked wryly.

  “No Sir,” she said with a scowl, “although I was informed of the changes in known space since our time in cryo-stasis,” she emphasized the word stasis versus my word ‘freeze’, “I still find the level of disrespect shown to this fleet both shocking and unacceptable.”

  I quietly took the correction on the freeze versus stasis without comment. It was important to stay focused on the important things after all.

  “The Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet was never intended to be anything more than a paper titan sent out to wave the flag on the border for political purposes. Up until quite recently, it consisted of nothing but provincial ships and their officers,” I said dismissively, “so I’m not really surprised myself.”

  It took me a moment to realize that my new flag captain was looking at me like something to be scraped off a shoe.

  “Yes?” I drawled as she clearly had something she wanted to say.

  “Frankly, Sir, that’s hogwash and completely unacceptable,” she said with no little heat.

  I lifted an eyebrow. Taking this for permission she continued in an intense determined voice. “This is a Confederation Flagged Fleet with a duly recognized and appointed officer in command. The fact that the worlds of these Sectors were signatories in legislation that formed this Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet does not make their actions here more understandable, but in fact the very opposite!” she exclaimed, her face hard and unyielding. “This fleet was not something that was somehow forced on them; they actively requested its formation!”

  “And yet clearly they do not share your position on the subject,” I said coolly, trying to head off an impassioned tirade.

  “You respect the uniform, even if not the man wearing it,” Lieutenant Commander Hammer stated as if reciting something she’d learned lon
g ago. “That respect is not optional or something you can just set aside when you feel like it.”

  “Is that a respectfully worded comment on your new commanding officer?” I asked with a smile.

  “Sir?” she looked at me and then hesitated. “That wasn’t what I was trying to say, Sir,” she said looking perplexed and focused inward at the moment.

  “Well, in any case,” I gave my head a shake. Maybe I was just paranoid about my lack of credentials when it came to new (read: questionably competent) officers? “we’re not dealing with members of the Confederation Fleet. These are local Sector SDF Officers; a few rough edges are to be expected.”

  “The same thing applies to the Flag of the Confederation, Admiral,” Leonora Hammer said direly, meeting my eye and holding it.

  “Look, I hear what you’re saying,” I said, taking a breath, surprised and in some small way pleased at what she was saying, “but I don’t see what we can do about it at the moment. When it comes to Confederation forces in the Spineward Sectors, we’re it; other than the base at Easy Haven, there is literally no one else. I don’t have a big stick to call on to make them behave, or some magic wand to wave that can instantly repair things. When the Empire pulled out and abandoned us, it struck a blow and we’re still pulling relationship repair duty out here.”

  “Listen, sir, if they don’t respect you then they don’t respect the Confederation. And though they may not think it, they’re spitting on the sacrifices of every single ship—and person—who has died protecting their worlds, their liberties, and their ways of life,” the Lieutenant Commander said in a low voice, and then she tapped her chest right over her heart. “I can’t pretend to know how it was for these people when the Fleet pulled out two years ago, nor can I internalize the history of the last century and a half as the Confederation declined—at least, not here, in my heart,” she tapped her chest pointedly. “But what I can do is say this: you have been running around for the last two years fighting pirates, Bugs, and insurgent would-be warlords and this fleet—this Confederation Fleet—just saved every world in these two Sectors from droid occupation forces.