Deadly Betrayal Read online

  “The promenade?”

  “Closed. We’re running on a minimum crew.”

  “You sound like we’re going to war.”

  He nodded. “I think we are. I would advice you and John to leave too, but you’re both so stubborn I doubt you’d listen.”

  I probably looked like an idiot, staring with my eyes like round saucers. “What’s going on? We weren’t away that long.”

  “This has been in the works for a long time. There is a power struggle in the Confederacy. Up until now we’ve been explorers. We have negotiated and made treaties, member worlds have been treasured and respected. If the new faction gets its way, all this will change. They feel we should take and strive for power, not ask. They feel building on diplomacy is too lengthy a process.”

  I hoped he was joking, but it didn’t seem likely. Didn’t these people know anything about history?

  “Let me guess. This comes from one or a few persons who covet power but hide it well. They probably want everyone else to think like they do and like whatever they like.”

  Blake nodded. “Charismatic and dangerous. You’ve probably seen it before.”

  Same old power struggle, but on an interstellar scale. The enemy might not even be human.

  “What are you going to do?”

  He ran a hand over his face. “Several of the top Confederacy leaders are already dead. We have size on our side. Something happening on a few worlds doesn’t necessarily affect all the others, at least not at once.”

  “I hear a but.”

  “Yes. They have already attempted to send out new orders to the fleet, through several admirals even, but for all we know the messages might be computer generated. The admirals might be dead. I want to head for Earth, but we are far away.”

  What a mess.

  He said, “Most of the people on the ship don’t know. They think we’re preparing for training exercises.”

  I took another sip. The drink was good thinking on his part; I needed it. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Use your unique perspective. They have requested, well, ordered us to meet up with their new flagship. I think they will attempt to persuade me to back them. When I don’t, they’ll try to take the Bell, and when they can’t, they will destroy her.”

  “Sounds like a reasonable scenario.”

  And scary.

  “I was afraid you’d say that.”

  As far as I could see there was only one way out of it. “Don’t go.”

  “We have to.”

  “In that case, make sure we win the battle. Bring a good strategy, and backup.”

  Blake grimaced. “We can’t win this by pure force. We’ll need another tactic. Something stealthy and sneaky.”

  Stealth and deception wasn’t exactly their strong side. Not mine either, but I was better at it than they were. My strategies in the past were based on Hollywood movies and TV shows, but worked as long as the other side hadn’t seen the same thing. In this place and time, Adam and I were the only ones who even knew what TV was.

  “I’ll see what I can come up with.”

  “Don’t think too long. We’re scheduled to meet them tomorrow.”

  My instincts on arriving to the Bell had been right. We should have hurried in the other direction.

  *****

  I had a lot of new information to take in, and barely noticed my surroundings when I left the Captain’s office and headed for the elevator. If this rested on my shoulders, if Blake really hoped I would come up with a viable plan, we were in trouble. The situation must be more serious than he wanted to let on, and we were all going to die.

  Hopefully he had more viable ideas than asking me. Maybe I was just a backup.

  The floor disappeared under my feet as the ship jerked. For a moment I hung suspended in the air, and then gravity returned, sending me sprawled on the floor.

  Oww. And, what the hell?

  An alarm sounded, making me want to cover my ears. The ship vibrated, and I recognized the movement all too well. We were firing at someone, and receiving shots.

  A hand grabbed my arm and pulled me up, and before I knew what was happening, the Captain tugged me onto the bridge. Not a place I liked to be. It was a large and oval hall filled with mysterious consoles and indecipherable holograms.

  Adam turned his head towards us and lifted an eyebrow, but was clearly too busy keeping the ship together to ask any questions. Blake pushed me towards a chair.

  “You’re my new advisor. Here.”

  He slapped a rank insignia on my blouse.

  “This is a bad idea.”

  “So give me a good one.”

  Holograms flickered on around the room, showing an enormous gray ship with antennas sticking out in all directions. It must be at least four times the size of the Bell, and she was huge.

  Blake said, “The Grendl. Guess they didn’t want to wait until tomorrow.”

  That was the new flagship? Ugly monstrosity.

  One of the lieutenants said, “Sneaky bastards.”

  Adam reported, “They’ve taken out propulsion. Shields at thirty-five percent. Starboard weapons array malfunctioning. Port weapons array at forty-two percent.”

  So, this was it. We were all going to die, sooner than I expected. Not the way I thought it would happen, but death tends to come as a surprise.

  Blake made a grimace. “They have us right where they want us.” He glanced over at me. “They probably don’t want to destroy the ship. Not if they can take it.”

  His tone of voice made it seem okay to ask questions. “How could they cause this much damage if we still have shields?”

  Blake frowned. “That is an excellent question.”

  Adam reached for a switch to the radio. “Jia’Lyn.” No answer. “Commander?”

  Nothing.

  He said, “Lieutenant Watanabe, go to engineering and report in from there.”

  “Yes, Sir.” A man I could swear I never saw before disappeared out the door.

  Someone reported, “Shields at twenty-seven percent.”

  One of the projectors showing the Grendl switched to damage reports from different parts of the ship. There were many.

  Blake said, “Advisor, advice.”

  I had nothing.

  My mouth blurted out, “Stall. We need time.”

  I didn’t expect anyone to agree, but Adam said, “I concur. There are other ships in the area. We have sent out a report and a distress call.”

  Blake nodded. “And we need time for repairs.”

  The room came to life with Watanabe’s voice, but it wasn’t intended for us. This transmission went out on all decks. “Medics to engineering. All off-duty engineers, report in.”

  That couldn’t be good.

  Not my problem, I needed to focus on the things in front of me. Ima would deal with engineering. She was Blake’s wife, the ship’s doctor, and the first alien I ever met.

  A voice sounded from further in the room. “They’re hailing us.”

  Blake and Adam answered at the same time. “Put it on.”

  *****

  I had seen the bridge communications systems before, but I was still unprepared for a larger than life face appearing in mid air. The man had graying temples and cold blue eyes.

  “Captain, surrender your ship.”

  Blake smiled, looking relaxed at a level beyond my wildest dreams. “You know I can’t do that.”

  “Come over here and discuss.”

  Adam gave his head a slight shake. I agreed. Nothing good could come from setting foot on that monstrosity of a ship.

  Blake said, “We can discuss here.”

  An explosion rocked us and a young voice exclaimed, “They didn’t fire.”

  A split second later, the air shimmered and our Captain was teleported away.

  A crewmember said, “We have lost shields, Sir.”

  “Yes, I can see that.” Adam sounded weary.

  “Dispatching repair crew.”

&n
bsp; I recognized the voice. Energetic, blonde, and beautiful Laura was the only person on the ship I couldn’t get along with no matter how hard I tried. She disliked me at first sight and I could never figure out why. Of course she had to be on the bridge the second time I visited it in my life.

  I glanced at the damage reports still coming in from all over the ship. A miracle we were still alive.

  Adam turned to a young man. “Try to locate the captain. If he’s on that ship, we need to know where.”

  He fixed his eyes on the rank insignia Blake gave me and frowned. “Lieutenant, over here.”

  I got to my feet and obeyed, but muttered, “It wasn’t my idea. I did not intend to be recruited when I woke up this morning.”

  Adam stood by the far wall with his arms crossed. “We have enemies out there and enemies in here. Suggestions?”

  I shook my head. We would have had a chance in a fair fight, but not with the ship being destroyed from the inside.

  “I think it’s reasonable to assume other ships are being sabotaged as well.” His voice was quiet. These words were not meant for the crew.

  “Which means there won’t be any help coming.”

  He nodded.

  As much as I thought, I still didn’t have any ideas. “Can we sabotage them back? Send something over?”

  “No, their shields are still up, but that gives me an idea.” He took one of the symbols from his uniform and attached it to me. “Field promotion. Lieutenant Commander, you have the ship.”

  He said the last words in a loud voice, so everyone would hear.

  I hissed, “No. Stop doing that.”

  No use objecting; he was already heading for the door.

  I understood the point: right now anyone could be a traitor and he needed someone who wouldn’t give the ship away with a big red bow on it, but I was not a good choice.

  Many pairs of eyes stared at me. These people were terrified.

  I was afraid too, but that didn’t matter.

  “He’ll be back. Resume whatever you were doing.”

  It took less than a minute before a woman approached me. “Ma’am… Sir… I have intercepted messages from other ships. The Amazon had an explosion in the engine room. The Kentucky reports problems with the Tokamak field. The Durango intercepted saboteurs before they could cause any major damage. She is on her way, but won’t arrive for another fourteen hours.”

  “Thank you. Good job.”

  Fourteen hours. It could just as well be a lifetime. We would need a miracle to last one hour.

  Where had Adam gone off to, and why wasn’t he coming back? It hadn’t been that long, but roaming off in a crisis wasn’t his style. And why didn’t we hear anything back from engineering?

  Adam’s voice rang on the bridge. “Lieutenant Commander Smith, I need you on deck four, section seven A.”

  I shook my head. He clearly got a kick out of calling me a rank.

  Not funny.

  I headed for the door but paused when I sensed them all stare at me.

  Who was next in the chain of command? It didn’t really matter since we weren’t going anywhere and the situation was grim enough to use me, but I could at least try. Having someone in charge would make them feel better.

  When I made a real effort I did recognize the rank insignia. “You.” I pointed to a woman with red hair. “Your turn. Call me, or even better Adam if something happens.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  They were uncertain of what to call me. Good thing, because I didn’t have a clue. Proper military protocol had not been a part of my upbringing.

  Chapter Three

  Adam stood staring into space through a force field. The Grendl loomed in the distance, probably many miles away, but still much too close.

  I took his insignia off my shirt and put it back where it belonged.

  He said, “You need those.”

  “No I don’t. You do.”

  My words brought a small smile to his lips, but he didn’t look happy.

  “This is the plan. I’m putting up another force field right here. I will be on that side, and you will be on this side. When I run in that direction, you turn the outer field off.”

  “What?”

  He held up a small, black box. “Their shields deflect energy and objects moving at a high speed. It won’t deflect me. I can get onto the ship and set off this device.”

  “You’re going to jump into space? You want to get onto that ship through jumping into space?”

  I had heard some bad ideas in my life and come up with quite a few myself, but none as awful as this.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  “It’s logical. I can survive in space for some time and it’s our only chance. Take this.”

  He pushed something into my hands. A switch. Nothing good ever came from Adam handing me switches.

  “No, I’m not taking this. I can’t let you do that.”

  “Of course you can. You will help me. If we don’t do this everyone will die.”

  “But…”

  “When you’re done, go back to the bridge. Make sure everyone behaves.”

  This time, there would be no discussing with him. No reasoning. He had decided to jump into space.

  Idiot.

  But he was my idiot.

  I wanted to cry, but held it back the best I could.

  “If you’re absolutely sure about this, go save us, but come back to me. Okay? I need you. I need you to come back to me.”

  He gave me a tender kiss. “I love you.”

  Even I understood it was a goodbye. The words didn’t mean “I will” or even “I will try.”

  I should say it back, but my voice didn’t work anymore. Hopefully he knew.

  I watched my husband take two steps away and press his hand against a switch on the wall. A force field hummed to life, separating us. He did impossible things all the time and survived, but this was insane.

  His eyes lingered on mine a moment longer and he winked before turning away, facing the gaping hole in the hull.

  “Madness. It’s madness.”

  No one heard.

  No one answered.

  Adam ran and I squeezed the device he gave me. I would have to flip the switch at just the right moment. No pressure…

  I almost waited too long. I flipped it as he took the last step and jumped headfirst towards the force field that separated him from empty space. My hesitation made the timing perfect. The sudden exposure to vacuum and the room’s pressure equalizing with space gave him an extra boost.

  “You’d better come back.”

  Talking to myself was futile, so I dried my cheeks with the back of my hand and headed for the elevator.

  *****

  When I returned to the bridge, the redhead rose from the Captain’s chair and nodded to me. “Ma’am.”

  I said, “Sit down. Let’s do this together.”

  “Together, ma’am?”

  I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to go home and weep, but Adam asked me to watch over the ship, and it might be the last thing he ever asked of me.

  “Yes. Our captain wanted me here because I have a different way of seeing things. That is still valid, but I don’t know the first thing about how the ship works. I am sure you do. If we cooperate, we can achieve great things.”

  My new best friend smiled. “Right now it’s easy. The ship doesn’t work.”

  “Repairs?”

  “Underway, but will take time. We have sublight back so we can maneuver, but we can’t outrun anyone with that.”

  “Weapons?”

  “Not yet.”

  She sat in silence for a few minutes, and I forced myself to read damage reports instead of thinking.

  “Where is Commander Adam?”

  “Mission. It’s you and me for now. Did we ever hear anything from engineering?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  She was probably as scared as I was. An inner voice claime
d I should be making a plan instead of just sitting, but I had nothing.

  Someone said, “There’s a power fluctuation in the lab.” Half-way through the sentence, the whole bridge lit up as the holograms of the Grendl showed a bright explosion.

  The ship was gone. Most likely with Adam and Blake aboard.

  I stood up, slowly. “I have to go.”

  I didn’t have anywhere I needed to be, but I couldn’t stay on the bridge. If I had really been one of the crew, I would have come up with some encouraging words. Being me, I was proud to make it to the door without breaking down.

  I didn’t know for sure if Adam was on the ship, but odds were. He might still be in space, but I doubted it. The Grendl wouldn’t blow itself up. He had been there, and he did it.

  It was too much to take in. I should try not to think at all until I reached the relative safety and privacy of home.

  The elevator door opened and Blake stepped out. He was dirty and wrinkly with bruises forming on his face and a long cut over one cheek, but he was alive. Seeing him gave me hope for a second, but he was alone.

  He said, “Oh Alex, I’m so sorry.”

  A moment later I wept in his arms, barely aware of him leading me to my room.

  Adam was supposed to outlive me at least a million times to one. In what world was I the one left behind?

  Blake said, “I know this is little comfort, but he saved the Bell and everyone here. Deeming from who were aboard, I think he saved the Confederacy.”

  The words came from the other side of a great abyss.

  What was that strange wheezing?

  Oh, just my breath. Nothing to worry about.

  I said, “You need to go to the bridge.”

  “I know. Will you be okay?”

  “No, but that doesn’t matter right now. Go deal with things before someone destroys something else.”

  “I’ll call for someone to keep you company.”

  I made a dismissive gesture. I just wanted him to leave so I could wail and grieve in peace and quiet.

  *****

  I didn’t have to be alone with my tears for long. Someone banged on the door, making more noise than the doorbell.