Lacuna: Demons of the Void (23 page)

“Sounds simple enough Captain,” offered Lieutenant Yu. “So what’s the catch?”

Liao flashed a sardonic grin. “We don’t call it Hades for
nothing
. This is a dead system – about a hundred thousand years ago the star went supernova. The inner planets were consumed by the star’s expanding mass, while the midrange ones were severely irradiated and baked to a crisp, the solar winds blowing their atmospheres clean off. When the star’s mass finally collapsed, the outer planets couldn’t be held in by the star’s much-reduced gravity and were flung away, becoming rogue planets. All this shifting of planets, loss of mass, and general chaos lead to anarchy in the system, every planet’s orbit is unstable, so it’s
practically impossible
to jump into the system without up-to-date charts.”

Yu nodded. “Which we have.”

Commander Iraj spoke up. “Yes, which we have. Lucky us.”

Lieutenant Yu raised his hand. Liao indicated that he wouldn’t have to do that, so he put it down again. “Captain, do we even know what’s on the other side?”

Liao shook her head. “Not really. Saara’s been there once, but it’s not like she could see much. That’s why we’re going to fly in there and start shooting as soon as we see a target.”

Yu spoke up again. “What about the
Sydney
and the
Tehran
?”

“The
Sydney
is going to be busy laying gravity mines in the Sol system to prevent a counter-attack, so they won’t be coming. No friendly fire that way, and only one ship to jump out if things go sour. We are, however, overstocked on nukes and railgun slugs. We’re jumping in with our missile tubes loaded... All we have to do is open the tubes and fire. As for the
Tehran
, well... although Fleet command believed it would be better if we send just one ship on this mission, the good Captain had other plans.”

Liao nodded to James, who spoke next. “I certainly did. The
Tehran
will be jumping to support the
Beijing
’s assault, but to a different jump point. We’re
hoping
that the two ships can create enough carnage covering two jump points to knock out basically everything of worth in the system. We don’t anticipate their assets to be very spread out... They’re not expecting an attack and spacing apart their assets would make their defences much more solid, but would also hamper the facility’s main purpose of resupply.”

There was a moment of silence as the whole of the crew digested the plan. Then, Iraj spoke up. “Any questions?”

Summer, who had been uncharacteristically silent the entire briefing, spoke up.

“Yeah. What am I gonna do?”

Kamal regarded her. “From the technology recovered from Saara’s fighter and the wreck of the Forerunner… what do you have that we can use?”

Summer paused a moment, collecting her thoughts. “The blue goo is already in use on the ship. It’s a simple compound to make when we had a sample. We’re using it as further insulation on the nuke reactors, to keep the heat down. It’s also used on the Wasp strike craft.”

Kamal nodded. “Any luck with their weapons?”

Summer shook her head. “Nope. They’re tricky to get right... Sorry. We’re still working on it.”

“Keep us informed.”

With no other business, Liao gave a curt nod and dismissed them all to their tasks. Soon it was just James, Iraj and her in the room; the three of them stared down at the table, a picture of the star chart displayed upon it, including the jump coordinates.

Grégoire spoke first. “...Lots of
guesswork
in this plan.”

Liao nodded. “Can’t say I disagree, but sometimes you just have to roll the dice and take an opportunity when one comes along.”

James gave a playful smirk. “Hey, I’ll be with you, you know. If you get into trouble, don’t worry... I’ll jump out at the first sign of trouble.”

Iraj gave a chuckle. “Thank you for the vote of confidence, Captain.” He stretched his back, yawning. “With your leave, Captain Liao, my shift ended hours ago. I wouldn’t mind some rack time.”

Liao nodded and the man left, leaving the two of them alone. With just her and James occupying the whole briefing, room the tone softened.

There was something on Liao’s mind, however.

“James... why
are
they sending the
Beijing
, anyway? I’m sure the
Sydney
is clamouring for some action by this point... They must be chomping at the bit. We’ve been the hero enough, I would have thought... for morale...”

Grégoire shrugged. “It had to be
someone
. It might as well be you.”

“... I suppose it had to be someone. Also, we’re the ones with the Toralii computer, so if we need to recalculate for any reason... we’ll need it. That, and the
Sydney
’s mechanical problems...” It was a concession by Liao, and she didn’t make it easily.

There was a brief silence as the two regarded each other. Finally, James spoke up. “...I mean, there’s all that, and... I wouldn’t trust anyone else by my side when the shots start flying.”

Liao blinked a couple of times, slowly letting that little bit of information settle in. “I... I’m touched. But wait. Wait. You specifically
requested
the
Beijing
instead of the
Sydney
? Just because I’m in command? Because of
me
?”

James nodded, giving a soft smile. “That’s right. Called in a favour with command, and as I said, they had to send
someone
. You’ve had some combat experience against the Toralii scout ship, and Fleet Command is grooming you for Captain... You just needed a little bit more on your CV, that’s all. I want you to succeed - I want you to make Captain - so I pulled a few strings. Don’t get me wrong, the
Sydney
’s a fine ship, but-”

Liao was gripping the edge of the conference room table so hard her knuckles began to turn white. Her voice was icy. “-but you thought you’d do me a
favour
. You thought you’d help me out, give me the choice assignment because we’ve shacked up together. Is that it? Is that how it was?”

James frowned, now, straightening his back. “...
Yes
. I did you a
favour
... I helped your career, because I care about you... What’s the problem with that?”

Liao leaned forward, hissing slightly, barely able to contain her rapidly mounting rage. “The
problem
is that I am
not
your
whore
, James, to be paid for services rendered! I fought hard to get where I am – I fought hard to become an officer - and while I may have had some extraordinary luck I’ve also
earned
this command... I do
not
need your favours. I do
not
need your help!”

Commander Sheng had referred to her as James’ whore before, an insult she had dismissed as childish and incorrect. Now, it seemed, his words were coming back to haunt her.

James’ face clouded over, frowning slightly, the man tilting his head to one side. “I didn’t mean to offend-”

“Oh, of
course
you didn’t...” Liao’s voice dripped with acid. “Fuck, James, this isn’t some small thing, you know? This is starting to get
dangerous
. A pretty little string of pearls slipped around the neck of an officer you’re fucking is one thing, but if you’re starting to give them the choice assignments, starting to help out their career by making tactically unsound decisions, then that’s a whole other kettle of fish. That’s a
serious problem
! People are going to notice this kind of thing!”

“Look, nobody will notice... The
Beijing
is very capable; you’ve proven that over and over-”

“I’ve been
lucky.
” Liao hated to say it, but it was true. “The
Sydney
’s CO – Matthew Knight? He’s been a naval Captain for
years
. He was one of the rising stars in Operation
New Dawn
and from all accounts he is one of the
best
. He has real, genuine experience in real combat since he served in Iraq... Further, the
Sydney
is holding the lion’s share of the nukes at this point. They’re carrying about fifty more warheads than we are... which means that we’re going to unload the nukes from the
Sydney
, then ship them over to an
exactly
identical ship
which we’re going to send instead, lead by someone whose seen combat exactly
once
and been in command for a few
months
.”

Crossing her arms, Liao regarded the man, her face stamped with a deep frown. “There’s
no
logic in sending the
Beijing
instead of the
Sydney
.”

James blinked. “All of that
is
true, but there are justifications for having the
Sydney
step aside for this one and putting in the
Beijing
. They’ve had a history of mechanical trouble and we need our most
reliable
ship for this operation... The
Sydney
needs to complete its mine laying operation to make sure, once and for all, that the problems with her systems are fixed.” He held up his hands. “I promise you, nobody’s said anything about you going instead of Knight and they
won’t
, because there’s a good reason-”

“-but not the
best
reason!”

James leaned forward slightly, trying to placate the furious woman. “It’s
a
reason, and it’s good enough! I want this operation to succeed as much as you do, you know, and that’s why I want you with me! I want you to fight with my ship!” He shook his head. “I can’t
believe
you’re getting all offended at this. I’m putting you in danger! How would you feel if I was pushing you to the safe spots, huh? How would you feel if I kept you
from
combat?”

Liao folded her arms defensively, her face screwed up in anger. Her tone was so cold it could have tempered an overloading nuclear reactor.

“If you’d done that,
Captain
, I would have punched you in the head instead of just telling you that we’re
through
. This... ‘arrangement’... we’ve got ends.
Now
.”

James stared, his eyes growing wide, and then his vision narrowed. “... As you wish. Consider the arrangement void.”

He turned his back to her, staring at the crew roster drawn up on the wall.

“
Dismissed
, Commander.”

“Yes
sir
.”

Turning on her heel, Liao marched out of the conference room and down the corridors of the
Beijing
. The woman barely noticed the passage of time as she travelled. The surprised looks on the faces of her crew went unnoticed as she stormed her way down the ship’s passages, taking the most direct path to her quarters. A junior crew member tried to hail her with a report, but she tersely told him to take it to Commander Iraj instead.

Once inside her quarters, the mask – a picture of anger and righteous indignation – began to crack. Angrily pulling off her belt, Liao threw it into a corner. Her boots were tugged off and hurled haphazardly on top of her belt, and then – still wearing the body of her uniform – she threw herself into her bed and stuffed a pillow over her face.

She desperately did not want to cry. Not over this man, not over
any
man, but Melissa Liao was not made of stone. James’ actions were a sting to her pride; they hurt her all the more with their noble intentions.

Soon, despite her best efforts, despite summoning all her strength and courage, the iron wall that held back her emotions bowed and broke away. The pillow stuffed against her face serving to muffle her quiet sobs.

Chapter XI

“Into Hell’s Maw”

*****

Operations Room

TFR
Beijing

L1 Earth Lagrangian Point

A day later

Liao was
stronger
than this. She was stronger than tears, stronger than the hurt Grégoire had done to her, stronger than the realization that she had unwittingly used sex to further her career.

It was something that had always eaten at her, the idea that she might, one day, seek the easy path, simply take the low hanging fruit that was offered to her... And there were many offerings. Naturally, most of the members of the armed forces were men, and in modern Chinese society – again, thanks to the One-Child Policy – a pretty woman of reproductive age and function even in her early thirties was something valuable. And she could, even now, without too much difficulty find an easy life.