Veil of Shadows (Book 2 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (25 page)

“Aye, sir.” The marine noncom began tapping on the console that had control of the drones.

“And while you do that,” Kelsey said, “I’ll go ahead and fill the Captain in on what we’ve discovered.”

Kelsey opened a communications channel and signaled
Courageous
. She expected an immediate answer from the communications officer on duty, but she had to signal several times before a small window opened inside her HUD.

The man standing on the bridge was unfamiliar to her. Or rather, he did look vaguely familiar, but she didn’t think he was part of the regular bridge rotation. His uniform indicated he was a Pentagaran.

“Princess Kelsey,” he said. “I’ve been expecting your call.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t remember your name. Where’s the duty communications officer?”

He ignored her question. “My name is Commander Rawlins and I’m now in command of
Courageous
.”

“Excuse me? What the hell is going on up there?”

The balding man leaned toward the screen and smiled widely. “Technically, I suppose that this is a mutiny. In actuality, this vessel has always been the property of the Pentagaran people, even though we didn’t know it was there. Now that we do know, we’re taking possession.”

She sent a signal to Lieutenant Reese and forwarded him the communication channel so that he could watch. “You know that you can’t possibly expect to get away with this. Even if you did seize the ship, your people don’t have the know-how to operate it.”

“You make me sound like a video villain. Your Captain and everyone under his command are my prisoners. Now, before you begin resorting to threats, allow me to make our status clear.

“I don’t expect that you will surrender. And I don’t care. I control the weapon systems on this ship. So long as you don’t attempt to leave the surface, I have no interest in interfering with you.

“We will be breaking orbit shortly and returning to Pentagar to consolidate control of our government. Interfere and we will destroy you. Worse yet, I’ll kill the people that your Captain left on the shipyards. I’ve dropped jammers to ensure you can’t send a message back to Pentagar through the probes at the space-time bridge. Be a good girl and we’ll come back to rescue you at some point. If you’re still alive. Good luck, Princess.
Courageous
out.”

The transmission terminated. Kelsey swore using every new word she’d picked up from the marines. They had her trapped on a planet full of Pale Ones and Jared was in grave danger.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Jared woke cold and stiff, his face pressed against the deck. He groaned and rolled over onto his back. His head was pounding. What the hell had just happened? He felt like he’d been on an all-night bender.

He sat up gingerly and looked at his surroundings. He was in the officer’s mess and he wasn’t alone. Dozens of others lay on every available section of the deck. He reached out and touched the person nearest him, a woman in engineering uniform, and was reassured to see she was breathing.

It took all his focus to climb to his feet and stumble to the main hatch. It didn’t open when he pressed the key.

“Ah, Captain Mertz,” a voice said from the overhead. “It’s good to see you up and about. I’m sure you have many questions, but let me start by introducing myself. I am Commander Jacob Rawlins, the new commanding officer of
Courageous
. You, sir, are my prisoner.”

Nothing came out the first time that Jared attempted to speak. His throat was parched. “What kind of game are you playing? You know as well as I do that your King is not going to sit still for this.”

“I don’t see that he’s going to have much choice. One of the very first things we’re going to do when we return to Pentagar is stage a coup in the Fleet and replace our weak monarch with a much more powerful one.”

“Your Fleet isn’t going to be intimidated into backing you. They’re going to fight you every step of the way.”

The unseen man laughed. “Oh no, you misunderstand. I have no desire to rule a planet. None whatsoever. I leave that to those with bigger egos than I. You see, my patron’s plans have been in motion for quite some time. In fact, they would’ve been complete right about now if you hadn’t arrived. Everything was staged and ready to execute. And then you had to show up and kick the Pale Ones back out of our system. My patron was most wroth.”

Jared staggered back to a table and sat heavily in the chair. “You can’t possibly expect to be able to man this ship without the cooperation of my crew. I’m sure you managed to slip a few people aboard, but nowhere near the number that it would take to move the ship anywhere. Your plan will not work.”

“I believe that it will. Not all of my countrymen are mindless drones willing to follow a weak monarch. And since you’ve been good enough to train them, I believe that we’ll be able to make our way back home without any real trouble. Even if we do have a problem, it won’t be very difficult to convince the necessary personnel to cooperate. We have plenty of airlocks handy. It’s astonishing how quickly one’s resolve crumbles when they watch their friends spaced one by one.

“Now, rather than get into some useless discussion with you about the rightness of my actions, you’re going to listen as I tell you what’s going to happen. We have accounted for every single member of your crew. Well, those I’ve allowed back aboard the ship, anyway. You have no loyal forces in a position to stop me. But if you attempt to escape, I will execute your crew one by one and pipe their screams down so you can hear. Accept my control of this ship and your people will live. You have my word.”

“The word of the mutineer isn’t very good in my book. What about the people who’re not on board this ship? What happens to them? Where is Princess Kelsey?”

“Your precious Imperial Princess is perfectly safe. She’s still on the planet’s surface, with an entire landing party of marines. Since your people still have control of both shipyards, she can fly up to them and be perfectly safe. Once the situation on Pentagar stabilizes, we’ll come back for them. You see? All very bloodless.

“And it will stay that way as long as you’re smart. I’ve left the hatch to the kitchen unlocked, so feel free to eat as much as you like. The remainder of your crew is in the main mess, which is also accessible from the kitchen. I’m afraid the heads are going to be quite popular, so you might want to set up a rotation and ration the toilet paper. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a ship to run. Goodbye.”

Some of the others in the room were beginning to stir. Jared figured he woke a little faster than the others because of his implants, but had no way to be sure.

Rawlins had to be watching him. Jared hadn’t known the mess had a camera, but it made sense. All the common areas probably had them. That complicated his escape plans. Or it would when he finally got around to thinking one up.

First, he needed to know what they could see. And what resources he could muster.

He put his head in his hands and looked around for the camera feed through his implants. There it was. The camera was in the corner by the door behind him. He had an odd view of himself slumped over the table. Thankfully, there was no audio. That must’ve terminated when Rawlins killed the direct communications link.

Jared felt around for the computer, but it wasn’t available. They’d either shut it down or isolated it. That was probably how they’d managed to take control of the ship.

The only other feed in range of his implants showed the corridor outside the mess. A half-dozen Pentagaran marines in armor with weapons at the ready stood guard. His people wouldn’t get past them without terrible bloodshed. He had to find a different way out.

First, however, he needed to get his people on their feet. Feeling a little steadier, he began searching for his senior officers. He found lieutenants Anderson and Ramirez piled together in the kitchen. Charlie Graves lay next to them. His Chief Engineer and Doctor Stone were in the crew’s mess. None of them was awake yet.

He had no idea if water would help, but he filled a glass and poured it over Charlie’s face. That merely left him with an unconscious—and now wet—First Officer.

While he waited for them to wake up, he made his way through the kitchen and looked for cameras. He found one overlooking the main cooking area, but the remainder of the kitchen was not under view. He made that blind spot his new headquarters. Everyone in the two mess areas would be easily visible to the mutineers. If he wanted to act without their knowledge, it would have to be from in here.

He might be able to override the cameras, but he didn’t want to count on it. One mistake and they would figure out that he had access to them through his implants. Once they realized he had implants, the edge they gave him would be gone.

The kitchen took up quite a bit of area with freezers and refrigeration units. He remembered coming through here when they’d first discovered
Courageous
. It was like a maze. A maze that might hold a secret exit.

He was beginning to lose confidence in that possibility when he sensed something through the floor. A major engineering node, complete with repair remotes. There wasn’t any direct access between the kitchen and engineering space, but he might be able to overcome that obstacle. It was time to bring the rest of the team in on his plans.

He made his way back to his officers and found them awake. Graves looked as though a grav truck had run over him. He’d found a hand towel to dry his face. “What the hell is going on? Captain?”

“It seems we have a mutiny in our hands. A number of Pentagaran personnel have seized the ship and used the anti-boarding systems to take us out. Their intent is to return to Pentagar and overthrow the Monarchy. I’d imagine they’re affiliated with the people that tried to assassinate King Raymond.”

Graves shook his head. “That’s insane. This is a powerful ship, but not to that degree. The Pentagarans have a fleet of their own and the mutineers can’t overwhelm a planet full of people with one undermanned battlecruiser. We don’t even have that many missiles left.”

“They obviously disagree. I’m beginning to formulate a plan to take the ship back, but we have a problem. They have us locked up in the mess halls and kitchen, and they have armed and armored men in the corridors ready to shoot anyone that comes out. Even if we manage to unlock the doors. They also have cameras watching the main areas.”

Baxter pinched the bridge of his nose. “That limits our options pretty significantly. We have no weaponry, they have us locked in an isolated area with no easy exits, and they took the main computer off-line. I was just getting a team together to go find out why it went down when they took us out. Come to that, whatever weapon they used is probably capable of taking us down right here if we get froggy. How do we overcome that?”

Jared shared a glance with Doctor Stone and his first officer. “We may have some extra resources at our disposal, but first let’s get everybody on their feet and get the marines grouped. Doctor, if you would go check anyone that’s not awake to see if they need medical assistance, that would be a good start.”

“Aye, sir.” The doctor gestured for Zia and Pasco to follow her and went into the crew’s mess.

Graves looked around. “Are we under surveillance right now? Can they hear us?”

“They can see us, but they can’t hear us. Walk with me and we’ll get out from under the eyes of our enemies. There’s an engineering node one deck down under the freezers. I may be able to use the remotes to open the floor and let us into the conduits. For this to work, it’s going to have to be small teams so that the mutineers don’t figure out what we’re doing.”

The XO nodded. “What are you thinking? One team to go to the armory, another to seize engineering, and one to bring the main computer back online?”

“We can send some of the marines to armor up in case we don’t succeed, but if we can bring the main computer online, this fight is over.”

“I’m surprised that you’re so up to date on where the repair remotes are housed and what angles the cameras can see,” Baxter said. “They must’ve had somebody in the computer team. The equipment we used to isolate the main computer is still in place. If they had the right codes, isolating it would be easy. An obvious oversight on my part looking back, but I wasn’t expecting a mutiny. I was more worried that the main computer would get ideas.”

“And what do we do if we can’t restore the computer?” Graves asked. “What if we have to take the ship back by force? Are we going to be in a position to do that?”

“I certainly hope so,” Jared said.

Baxter looked around at the people who were starting to filter into the kitchen. “It looks like we’re getting some attention. How, might I ask, are we planning to give the engineering remotes instructions? Morse code tapped on the deck? This plan may be over before it starts because I can’t imagine how we’re going to get the damn things to open up the deck.”

Jared smiled. “It turns out I have a little surprise in store for you and the crew. I think I’ll hold onto the specifics for the moment, but trust me when I tell you that we’ll be able to give some instructions to the remotes. Charlie, I want you to coordinate with the marines and get some assault teams ready to go. Dennis, you do the same with your engineering people. Once we’re ready, we’re going to have to move fast.”

The two officers nodded and made their way out past the growing crowd.

Jared cleared his throat. “Everyone, listen up. I know you have a lot of questions and that you’re very worried, but I don’t have time to address everything individually right now. I want everyone to move back into the mess halls. As of right now, the kitchen is a command post. Find your section leaders and make sure that they have a good head count. Be ready for orders. Move out.”

He found a place to sit at one of the tables as everyone filed out of the kitchen. He’d best start thinking about contingency plans because, as sure as anything, something would go wrong in a big way once they broke out.

He’d have one shot at taking control of
Courageous
. If he blew it, his people would die. And, on top of that, his only allies in the sector would probably be overthrown. He had to get everything right the first time.