Legacy Fleet: Invincible Read online

  “None,” the Admiral replied. “Based on their response at Ganymede, we assume the worst.”

  “We understand, Admiral,” Baltasar said, rising. “We will meet the Swarm at Mars.”

  “Before you go, Captain.” Kilgore was smiling now. “We have a surprise waiting for the aliens when they reach Mars space. It should make your job much easier.”

  “Surprise?” Baltasar sat back down. To Addison, his face did not look like a man about to receive good news.

  The screen changed again to a 3-D rendering of space around Mars with Kilgore’s voice narrating again. “What I’m about to tell you is highly classified. For the past three years, there has been a top-secret program in development on Mars called GILD, or Global Intelligent Laser Defense. The unmanned system deploys an ultra-high-power laser on multiple platforms.”

  As she spoke, a cylinder in the screen burst apart into a series of wedge-shaped craft.

  “How is it controlled?” Baltasar asked. Addison did a double-take. Her captain was pale.

  “Artificial intelligence,” the admiral replied. “It works off a hive mind principle, allowing each member of the collective to operate independently or in a pack. An intelligent swarm, if you will.”

  Addison found herself nodding along with the rest of the room. This was the first bit of good news they’d had about the alien invasion so far.

  “Why wasn’t I told about this before, Admiral?” Baltasar demanded.

  Kilgore sat back in her chair at the captain’s tone. “The very existence of this system had the potential to throw the fragile balance of power between the Earth nations into chaos. It would most likely trigger an arms race in unmanned AI warfare.”

  “How do we know that GILD won’t turn on us during a battle?” Baltasar pressed the admiral. “If there’s no human intervention, aren’t we at risk for collateral damage?”

  Kilgore smiled. “Relax, Captain. We have that covered. Mars will send you a safe code. As long as you transmit this code during initial contact with the GILD system, you and any fighters will be registered with GILD and remain unharmed.”

  Baltasar continued to shift in his seat. “Will that be all, Admiral?” he asked.

  “Nearly. If you could clear the room, Captain, I need to have a word with you and your XO.”

  The captain stiffened in his chair, then turned slowly to Addison. “Clear the room, people,” he said without taking his eyes off her.

  When the room was finally empty, Admiral Kilgore cleared her throat. “Captain Baltasar, I received a very distressing after-action report from Commander Halsey. Is it true you fired on and destroyed a Russian warship?”

  Baltasar’s frame quivered with tension. “Admiral, I’m not sure what Addison sent you, but I can assure you we were saving an innocent merchant from certain destruction—”

  “The logs that Commander Halsey sent along as supporting evidence tell a different story, Captain,” the admiral interrupted.

  Baltasar glowered at the screen. “Admiral, I—”

  Kilgore cut him off with a chop of her hand. “Enough, Captain. The service records of both of you are exemplary and a matter of this magnitude is not something we can deal with right now. I wanted you to know that I have retained these files in my personal logs until such time as I can perform a proper investigation. As for now, I need both of you to work as a team against our common enemy: the Swarm.”

  Baltasar bowed his head. “I understand, Admiral.”

  “Commander Halsey?” The admiral directed her attention to Addison.

  Addison nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Godspeed, Invincible. Kilgore out.” The screen went blank.

  Baltasar wheeled on her. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done, Commander?” His face was flushed and he pressed far into her personal space. Addison held her ground.

  “What was that malarkey about saving an innocent merchant?” she shot back. “It was a smuggler and you commandeered their ship. You fired on and destroyed a Russian warship! In any other circumstances, that would have been an act of war.”

  Baltasar’s eyes glittered, and Addison wondered if her captain had lost his marbles. Her eye caught a glint of color in his breast pocket, a glowing green.

  His hand slapped at the pocket to cut off her view, but not before she saw the vial of material Baltasar had taken from Laz.

  “We’re finished here, Commander,” he said. “I’ll deal with you later. For now, make preps for the q-jump.” He stalked out.

  Addison let the silence of the room soak into her senses, welcoming the calm after the last few minutes of storm. She needed to find out more about this mysterious vial. She gritted her teeth.

  For that, she needed to see Laz.

  Chapter 16

  ISS Invincible – Brig

  The thought of seeing Laz again triggered a rush of conflicting emotions and indecision. Should she act like they had no past and he was just a prisoner? No, she needed him to open up. Should she greet him like the friend—and lover—he once was? She bristled at the thought. He’d hurt her more than anyone else in her life. There was no way she was going to forgive that, not in this lifetime, anyway.

  In the end, it didn’t matter. Laz’s cell was tiny, just large enough for a fold-down bunk and a chair bolted to the floor. He was lying on the bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling. When the marine guard let her in, he sat up and said, “Addie.”

  It wasn’t so much the word as the way he said it. He still cared, she could tell. Even after all this time and distance, he still cared.

  Addison glared at him. “This is not a social call. I’m still mad at you.”

  He held up his hands. “Fair enough.”

  “And no one calls me Addie.”

  “I used to.”

  She intensified her glare, trying to put all the hateful things she’d wanted to say to him into that stare. Laz didn’t flinch.

  “That was a long time ago,” she said finally. Was that her voice breaking? Dammit!

  “Agreed.” Laz looked away. “I suppose you’re going to tell me why you came all the way down here to talk to a guilty man.”

  “What?” Addison said. “Oh, right. This cargo you were carrying. Tell me about it.”

  Laz pinched a tuft of his close-cropped beard and pursed his lips. “I suppose it doesn’t make much difference now, so why not? It was a double-blind job.” Addison gave him a blank look. “That means I didn’t know who the seller or the buyer was. Strictly courier stuff. They gave me a pick-up point and a drop-off point, that’s it. I was as surprised as the next guy when the Chinese showed up and even more surprised when the Russians joined the party.” He smiled at her, a smile she remembered well. “And totally stunned when the Invincible flew in guns blazing. I suppose the Old Man is going to get relieved over that stunt, right?”

  Addison realized Laz had no idea about the Swarm. When she filled him in, he sank back against the wall in stunned surprise.

  “Aliens?” he said. “I never thought I’d see that day.” He peered at her closely. “So why are you down here talking to me? You have a world to save, woman.”

  That was a good question. What was she doing here? When she thought logically about a connection between Captain Baltasar and Laz’s cargo, it made no sense.

  “I don’t know exactly, Laz,” she said. “But up until a day ago, I was serving under one of the most professional commanding officers in the entire Fleet. Total hard-ass, but the best in the business. The man practically had the regs committed to memory, and then he crosses Russian-controlled space to destroy a Russian warship—without orders or any kind of provocation. All he cared about was that cargo you were carrying. What the hell is that stuff?”

  Laz shrugged. “Beats me. We did manage to open the case, which had some pretty ingenious crypto on it, but all it held was twelve test tubes. My best guess was a bio weapon, but someone went to great lengths to obscure where it was coming from. I kept one to make sure I got paid. I wa
s going to give it back, honest.”

  “And you got paid for the delivery? How much?”

  Laz hesitated. “Five million credits.”

  “Five million?” Addison said. “Wow, smuggling pays well.”

  “That’s just it—it doesn’t. Not normally. This is the biggest score of my career, by far. Someone wanted this done fast and no questions asked.”

  Addison nodded. “And now my former four-point-oh skipper has turned into Gollum carrying around his gold ring.” She faced Laz. He met her gaze again and it felt . . . comfortable. “I think this is going to get worse before it gets better, Laz.”

  Laz let his eyes roam around the cell.

  “Well, you know where to find me, Addie.”

  Chapter 17

  Mars Station

  Martin Shasta paused as the lift doors opened, allowing himself a moment of satisfaction at his glorious creation.

  They were thirty stories below the surface of Mars, in a bunker that didn’t exist on any government document. This is what fifty billion credits looks like, he thought as he surveyed the control room. The space was humming with activity, with technicians calling out to each other and stabbing at their control panels.

  “Attention on deck!” someone called, and everyone in the room rose to their feet and fell silent. Martin strode out of the lift, waving his hand as if their gesture of respect meant nothing to him. “As you were, people. As you were.”

  He wondered who had thought up that little stunt. After thirty-five years in the Fleet, Martin had been forced into retirement, which he fully expected to be a life of boredom. That all changed a week later when the CIA showed up at his door asking him to lead the development of a completely new weapons system, an intelligent laser platform capable of independently killing Russians by the bushel. Even better, as a “black” project, he had unlimited budget; every dime was completely off the books. The only oversight he had to deal with was one Senate committee, but even that was led by Senator Beauregard, or FDB to friends like Martin. His semiannual visits to Washington to brief FDB were more like an excuse to drink heavily and chase women.

  But all that had changed overnight. The Swarm. Hell with the Russians, they had a real enemy to fight now. Real aliens, big bad ships, and heavy-duty weapons, just like in the movies. Well, he had just the antidote for that shit. Earth was going to be saved and he, Martin Shasta, the admiral they’d forced out after thirty-five years, was going to be the freaking Hero of the Millennium.

  “Status report,” he barked at his aide, CJ, a washed-out-looking young man with a terrible nail-biting habit. But the kid had a brain like a computer and never seemed to sleep.

  “We’ll be ready to launch in ten minutes, Admiral,” CJ said with one finger in his mouth. “The safe codes are standing by for you to approve, sir.”

  Martin slipped into his command chair. He’d modeled the control room after the bridge of a Constitution-class warship, with his chair at the center. In truth, this feature was excessive, since they had almost nothing to do once GILD was launched, but he’d been given an unlimited checkbook and he wanted his own command chair.

  CJ sidled up next to his chair, pointing at the screen with a wet finger. “All our ships are given a safe code. When they come into contact with a GILD drone for the first time, they transmit the code and that registers their ship with the system. They are locked in as a friendly for a twenty-four-hour period, then they have to reregister.”

  Martin scanned down the list of ships being given safe codes. All the expected Fleet heavies like Invincible, Constitution, Victory, and Independence, then a host of smaller ships, and finally a long list of Russian warships. Russians! The very people we built this system to protect us against were now being given safe codes.

  “The Chinese still have not responded?” he said.

  CJ shook his head. “No, sir. I heard they walked out on the president when he told them about GILD.”

  Martin huffed. Stupid bastards; he’d show them what good old American ingenuity could do with a few years and a shit-ton of money. “Sounds good, CJ. What do I need to do?”

  CJ’s finger left a wet smudge on the screen. “Just put your DNA authorization right here, sir, and we are ready to launch.”

  Martin pressed his index finger on the spot and waited until the light turned green. CJ nodded. “All ships acknowledge receipt of the codes. We are ready for launch, Admiral.”

  “Start the countdown,” Martin called.

  Viewscreens overhead showed the blast doors on the red surface of Mars opening as the countdown sounded. A burst of flame licked out of the opening, then the GILD rocket lifted off. The screens shifted to off-planet mode as the booster punched the rocket into space at double-digit g-forces.

  “Three minutes to deployment, sir,” called one technician.

  “Very well,” Martin said, watching the timer.

  The GILD system was like a series of stacked pies. At predetermined intervals, a “pie” would deploy by breaking into eight equal pieces, each about half the size of a fighter. After linking with the hive, the GILD units “cleaned” a segment of space by destroying any man-made object bigger than a breadbox that hadn’t preregistered with a safe code. The units could act independently or band together like a pack of wolves to attack a larger target.

  “First level deploying now.”

  Martin watched the screen as eight perfect wedges broke off from the mother ship. The room erupted in applause. He sat back in his chair and punched CJ on the arm.

  “Perfect,” he said.

  Martin Shasta crossed his arms. He couldn’t wait until those alien ships crossed into his space.

  Chapter 18

  ISS Invincible – Bridge

  “Standing by for q-jump, sir,” Addison said. As XO, it was her responsibility to check and recheck the q-jump coordinates, especially for a high-risk, in-system jump like this.

  “Very well, XO,” the captain replied. He seemed calmer than he’d been in the admiral’s briefing, but Addison could still see the slight bulge in his breast pocket where he was carrying the vial.

  “Execute q-jump on my mark,” he said. “In three . . . two . . . one . . . mark.”

  The room shifted and Addison felt her stomach quiver as they made the hop across space-time. She consulted the screen. “Jump successful, Captain.” Gnat’s ass accurate was more like it, she thought.

  “Very well, XO. Sensors, what have we got?”

  “Five Swarm ships. Putting them on screen now, sir,” said Ensign Proctor.

  Addison had seen the video footage, but the new images gave her a fresh spike of fear. The ships were big, much bigger than the Invincible.

  “The Swarm ships will cross into the GILD system operating area in eighteen minutes, sir,” Proctor said.

  Comms called out, “Captain, I’m receiving GILD safe codes from Mars. Ready to transmit on your command, sir.”

  “Very well, Comms.” Baltasar swiveled in his chair. “XO, let’s close on the enemy ships. I want to try a hail.”

  Addison tried not to frown. “Sir, our orders are to engage the enemy, not talk to them. The Eagle tried that, Captain. The admiral used the words ‘unrestricted warfare.’”

  Baltasar scowled at her. “XO, if you are unable to do your job, I will have you replaced.”

  Addison could sense the tension on the bridge. Everyone was staring at their workstations in an effort to avoid hearing the argument between the two most senior officers on the ship.

  “Yes, sir,” she said. “Helm, intercept course to the lead Swarm ship. Full power.”

  “Aye-aye, ma’am.” The Invincible leaped across space. The now-unmistakable sound of the Swarm fleet filled the speakers.

  “Turn that noise off, sensors,” Addison said.

  “Leave it on,” Baltasar said. Addison watched her captain listening to the sound, his eyes held in a thousand-yard stare.

  “Captain?” Addison said.

  The man start
ed in his chair. “Let me see the safe codes, XO.”

  “Aye-aye, sir.” She sent the pending message to the captain’s screen. He reviewed it, then nodded. “Very well, XO. Send it.”

  Addison transmitted the safe codes message to the GILD system.

  “GILD system acknowledgment, Captain,” said the weapons officer. “They have the Invincible registered in their weapons profile.”

  Baltasar nodded. “Comms, open a channel to the lead alien ship.” The room went quiet as the captain pressed a button on his personal screen.

  “Alien vessel, this is Captain Jason Baltasar of the ISS Invincible. You are about to enter a restricted area. Please respond.”

  Nothing, just the drone of the Swarm fleet.

  Baltasar sat back in his chair. “Bring us to a safe stand-off distance, XO.” Addison busied herself with orders to the helm, then turned back toward the captain. He was watching her again. “Time to GILD system engagement, Weapons Officer,” he said.

  “Three minutes, sir.”

  Baltasar nodded. “Let’s see what the best of mankind can do against Swarm technology.”

  Addison looked at him sharply. While the rest of the bridge crew, including herself, were battling nerves, Baltasar looked relaxed, almost playful in this moment of ultimate crisis.

  “One minute to GILD engagement, sir.”

  Everyone leaned forward in their seats, eyes locked on the main screen. The Swarm lead ship crossed the line projected on the screen and they waited to see the mass of tiny dots converge on the massive vessel.

  Nothing happened.

  A collective gasp sounded throughout the bridge.

  The comms officer called out, “Incoming message from Mars Station, Captain.”

  “On screen.” The man on the screen had a florid complexion made even more pronounced by the fact that his face was twisted in rage. “Invincible, this is Admiral Martin Shasta—what have you done? The alien ship got access to the safe codes. You were the only vessel that made contact with them.”