Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (37 page)

Not
saying anything, Remington just nodded and continued on her way.

She
had to wait another 89 hours before an opportunity came to follow up on
Foster’s information. During that time, she pondered Foster’s answer to her
query on why Zanzibar, and she thought she had figured out what Foster had been
hinting at. Zanzibar really was a backwater colony on the very edge of explored
space. There was no good military reason for the Rebels to do anything there,
and therefore it was highly likely that it would be a long time before Earth or
Majestic, depending on which side came out on top, would get around to sending
a ship there. And that made it the perfect place to hide something or to hide
out for a while. Foster had said that she doubted Drake would still be there.
That meant that Zanzibar was a temporary stop leading to something or somewhere
else.

Remington
kept asking herself what Drake could be involved in that would require that
kind of secrecy. It couldn’t be a secret fleet. That made no sense. If the
Rebels had a secret fleet, then why not use it to defend Sparta? But if not a
fleet of warships, then what? Could it be a fleet of freighters…carrying
important equipment…or important people? They couldn’t be political leaders.
She had recognized Chancellor Belloc before the gunfire pushed him off the top
of the tower. So if not leaders, then who? The only answer that made any sense
was that a small group of hard core fanatics, who refused to accept defeat, were
trying to find or set up a hidden outpost or colony in order to what…fight
again another day, or just live beyond the Federation? Maybe they were refugees
looking for a peaceful place to call home. Maybe. A peaceful place to call home
sounded pretty good to her right now, especially if Drake was with her.

By
the time Trafalgar’s new orders arrived, she knew what she was going to do.
Romanov had decided to speed up the process by taking two troop transports
escorted by one cruiser with his stealth squadron to Hekla. Remington waited
until they were ten minutes from jumping to Hekla in formation with Romanov’s
ships. She then called the Astrogator and the XO out into the corridor outside
the Bridge.

“We’re
not going to Hekla,” she announced in a calm voice. “I have very good reason to
believe that the Rebels are conducting a secret operation that’s based on
Zanzibar, but I don’t have any evidence to support it, and Vice-Admiral Romanov
has refused to change his plans. I’m prepared to go out on a limb and take
Trafalgar to Zanzibar on my own initiative. If it turns out to be a wild goose
chase, then I’ll take the blame. So I’m not asking for your consent, but I am
explaining why I’m disobeying Romanov’s order. AO, I want you to adjust our
planned jump for a short, micro-jump, after which we’ll line up for a jump to
Zanzibar. We’ll continue with the same vector so as not to tip our hand to the
Admiral. They won’t know that anything’s amiss until we fail to show up at
Hekla. I order both of you to keep this information to yourselves for now. I’ll
inform the crew after we’re on our way to Zanzibar. Let’s get back to our jump
stations.”

As
they broke up the meeting, she went over to the Communications Station and
leaned over to speak with the Com Tech privately.

“As
of right now, no transmissions of any kind leaves this ship until after we
jump, understood? Not even if it’s from the XO.” The Com Tech’s eyes widened.
This sounded very dramatic and a little bit ominous. Was there some kind of
private power play going on?

“Understood,
Skipper, no transmissions of any kind.”

“Good
man,” she said as she patted him on the shoulder and headed back to her Command
Station.

Chapter Twenty-one:

Day
277/2549

Arriving
at Zanzibar turned out to be anticlimactic. There was nothing in orbit to
suggest that anything secretive was going on. On her orders, the ship kept
radio silence while it passed over the main colony location and scanned the
surface with opticals. There were no ships on the ground either. She had this
sinking feeling that whatever had been going on here was now gone, and that
implied that Drake was gone too, but she had to be sure.

Fifteen
minutes later, the ship was touching down on the small, bare bones spaceport
that undeveloped colonies typically had. The Colony administrators didn’t seem
to be surprised to learn that Sparta had fallen and that the SSU was now
defenseless. That by itself spoke volumes. Even as part of the SSU, it was
unlikely that this colony would be visited frequently, so how would they know
about Sparta?

When
she stepped down the ship’s ramp, there was a small group of civilians waiting
for her. They turned out to be a delegation from the Colony’s governing body,
and they looked scared. Remington resisted the impulse to use that fear to intimidate
them. After introductions were made and a few pleasantries exchanged, Remington
explained to them that her ship was here to accept Zanzibar’s request to return
to the fold, as it were. She worded her explanation in such a way that the
delegation would appreciate that doing exactly that would be in their best
interests. They got the hint. When she accepted their request, on a provisional
basis pending approval from Earth, they all relaxed with the realization that
there wouldn’t be any punitive actions imposed on the Colony. After a little
more chitchat, Remington decided to try her bluff.

“We
know about the secret operation that the Rebels conducted here. I’m sure they
didn’t give your people any choice in the matter, and it’s clear that they’ve
pulled up stakes and left. Apparently they did accomplish their goal.” The
sudden silence was striking. None of the dozen delegates said anything, and
their demeanors suddenly changed from smiles to frowns and expressions of fear.

Finally,
a woman stepped forward. “Yes, they did force us to co-operate. You’re right
about that. We had to build living quarters for almost 10,000 people and all
kinds of laboratories for their equipment.”

Before
Remington could say anything, one of the other delegates said in a loud voice,
“Tell her about Drake threatening the CAO.”

The
woman nodded. “Yes! That’s right! Back when the research project was still in
the setting-up stages, this Commander Drake threatened to come back here and
personally kill the Chief Administrative Officer if he felt the war had been
lost because of a perceived lack of co-operation on our part.”

My
God, Foster was right! He was here. That sounds like something Roland might say
to motivate someone.
She
tried to keep her expression from showing the excitement she was feeling. “And
did he?” she asked.

“Ah,
nooo, he didn’t, but he wasn’t happy about what was happening in the war. I
guess he was too concerned about evacuating the Brain Trust as quickly as
possible to bother shooting Malcolm.”

Remington
nodded sympathetically, but inside she was shouting a mental eureka. It now all
made sense. Zanzibar had become the SSU’s R&D center for the war effort.
Keeping those scientists and technicians, and no doubt their families too, out
of FED hands would be just the kind of desperate act that Belloc would assign
to someone as dedicated as Roland Drake.

“Well,
that’s very interesting, and I thank you for the information. It’s clear to me
that the people of Zanzibar were never really enthusiastic about joining the
Rebellion. I’d like to be able to say in my report to the Federation Council
that the colony leadership was completely co-operative. Naturally, we would
need to know where Drake and his Brain Trust went.”

The
woman frowned and looked around at the others, most of whom nodded. “We don’t
know for certain, but some of us heard from a few of the crew that they were
evacuating everyone to the colony on Freiland, Commander.”

Freiland?
Remington tried to
remember any tidbit of information on Freiland that she could but nothing came
up. She doubted the ship’s data library would have much on Freiland beyond the
obvious astrogational and environmental basics. There was no reason to carry
more information than that on hundreds of planets.

“Why
move everything there?” she asked.

The
woman shrugged. “We never did learn the answer to that, but speculation here is
that Freiland supposedly has extensive networks of underground caverns that the
Brain Trust could hide in until the coast was clear.”

As
speculation went, that almost made sense, except for one thing. It appeared
that Drake hadn’t made any effort to keep their next destination a secret,
which undermined the reasons for leaving in the first place. If the FEDs sent
ships to Freiland and searched all known cavern networks, the Brain Trust would
be found. Could it be that the delegates were lying to her. She looked at their
faces and concluded that they weren’t. They believed what they were telling
her, but that didn’t make it true. Drake could easily have spread false
information about a bogus destination. A few more questions elicited nothing
new. When Remington was satisfied that further talk were pointless, she told
the delegates that they were free to head home. She stared at the horizon, deep
in thought as to what she should do next, when she sensed that one of the
delegates, a young woman, was standing beside her.

“Will
you be taking your ship to Freiland now?” she asked.

After
a slight hesitation, Remington said, “I’m not sure. Why do you ask?”

The
young woman looked embarrassed. “There was a young scientist that I got to know
well. He and I…you know. He wanted me to go with him, but I was afraid to leave
Zanzibar. It’s the only world I’ve ever known. Now I wish I had said yes.”

Remington
sighed, another life ruined by this fucking war. “I know how you feel. I became
involved with a man before the war, and we ended up on opposite sides. We met
briefly during the war, and he said he’d be waiting for me when it was over.
He’s one of the officers of that expedition, and Freiland is the only clue I
have to work with now.”

When
the young woman said nothing, Remington smiled at her and turned to walk back
up the ramp. She stopped when she felt a hand on her left arm holding her back.
She looked back at the young woman, who stepped closer and said in a low voice.
“Don’t go to Freiland. That’s a false trail. My guy told me they were headed to
Vril, just in case I changed my mind, which I have, AND had the opportunity to
get there, which I haven’t yet.”

Remington’s
mind was awhirl now. She was sure that this woman believed what she was saying,
but that also could be a false clue. And yet, the fact that this clue was not
widely known lent credence to its legitimacy.

“If
what you say is true, then you’re potentially putting your guy in danger if
he’s still on Vril when my ship gets there. Why would you tell me this
information?” asked Remington.

The
young woman lowered her gaze. When she spoke, Remington could barely hear her.
“I know I’m being selfish and that I should put the good of the Cause ahead of
my own desires, but I don’t care about politics. My hope is that you’ll get
there before they leave again, and put a stop to this whole project. Then, when
the dust settles, he can come back to me here.”

“What
do you mean ‘before they leave again’? They’re not staying on Vril?” asked
Remington with some skepticism in her voice.

“Vril
is just meant to be a temporary stop where they can gather supplies for the
trip to their final destination, and before you ask, I don’t know where that
destination is and neither did my guy. I don’t think this Drake person had
figured that out yet.”

For
some reason that Remington couldn’t understand, she suddenly felt a powerful
sense of urgency. A voice inside her was telling her to get to Vril as fast as
possible. On a sudden impulse, she put her arms around the young woman and gave
her a quick hug, then turned and ran up the ramp. As Trafalgar ascended through
Zanzibar’s atmosphere, Remington brought the XO and AO up to speed on the Rebel
R&D project and her decision to take the ship to Vril.

This
time the XO looked very uncomfortable. “Listen, Skipper, Trevor and I went
along with your decision to come here, and you were right. Something was going
on, so your decision to come here has been vindicated, but taking the ship to
Vril on this hearsay evidence will in my opinion be interpreted as exceeding
your authority. We need to take the ship back to rejoin the Fleet.” He stopped
when he saw Remington shake her head.