The Price of Conquest

They reached the dim-lit corridor outside the Cheops' secondary bridge several minutes after leaving the brig, with no one the wiser. An armed Patrol officer was waiting for them when they arrived, a lieutenant commander with angular features, short brown hair, and green eyes.

Vel greeted him with a friendly smile. "Commander Hartos, how are things on the bridge?"

"Comfortably normal," he said. "Why the change of plans?"

Vel stepped aside and gestured to Betz.

Hartos smiled. "Captain," he sketched a mock salute, "how nice of you to join us."

Betz gave him a hate-filled look.

While they awaited Nait's signal, Dahl jacked his data pad into a wall terminal and started to work. The uniformed rebels and renegade Patrolmen redistributed the weapons. Moments later, Vel's commlink beeped.

"Nait here, Commander. We're in position. Your people were waiting for us when we arrived. Resistance was light. No alarms triggered. Looks like the old man did his job right. Again."

Kressa glanced at Dahl and found him lost in his work.

"All right, Nait, stand by," Vel said. "Dahl, how's it coming?"

"Almost ready," he said without looking up. "Secondary bridge controls coming online, and… Got it."

Vel keyed her commlink. "We're ready for you to cut the power, Nait. Give us a three count." As she spoke, she moved to the bridge door and placed her hand near the controls.

Dahl moved forward to join her, with Telsin close behind.

Nait started his countdown.

Vel palmed the opener, and the door slid aside. Nait finished counting, and the lights in the corridor and room beyond winked off. An instant later, dim emergency lighting flickered on, and lights from several of the control boards in the secondary bridge glowed to life.

Dahl slipped into the room and plugged his data pad into one of the stations almost before the door opened fully. Telsin followed. Vel, Hartos, and the others moved in behind them.

Kressa joined Dahl and Telsin. The boy had plugged his pad into an auxiliary outlet and was already hard at work. Dahl motioned Kressa into a seat at a dark board adjoining the one where he stood. As she sat down, the control screens came to life.

"I'm rerouting the main bridge alerts," Dahl told her. "When the power comes back on, we'll get them all in here so no one will realize what's happening. Tel's taking care of keeping the new reroutes intact, but I'll start sending you overflow soon. Be ready."

"Bridge, this is Commander Vel," Vel said into her commlink as she and Hartos made their way to the command station and the others took their places around the room. "What's going on?"

"We're not sure, Commander. There seems to be a ship-wide power fluctuation."

"Can you tell where it's coming from?" She glanced at Dahl, brows raised in question.

"Almost," he said quietly.

"No, sir," came the reply from the main bridge. "Most of the monitor systems are being affected."

"All right, bridge, I'm on it. Stand by." She glanced at Dahl again. "Come on, old man…"

He kept working, using both the control screen on his pad and those on the board before him. Finally, he nodded. "Go."

Vel touched a control on her commlink, switching channels. "Ready, Nait. Return power."

The main lights came on in the room, accompanied by the hum of systems powering up. Red lights winked from the command and security boards, and a synthesized voice blared over the room's comm, "Warning. Secondary bridge has been accessed."

The commander flashed a smile at Dahl. "Keep up the good work." She changed the channel on her commlink again. "Bridge, we've isolated the problem in engineering. Power should be restored to all systems momentarily."

"Acknowledged, Commander… Sir, we're picking up non-standard coded transmissions inside the ship."

"Try to isolate it. I'll be there as soon as we can get this power thing straightened out." She set aside the commlink and began working at the board before her. After a moment, she gestured to the two men guarding Captain Betz. "Bring him here and uncuff him." She turned back to the board and put her hand flat on the control screen. "This is Commander Dania Vel requesting transfer of all control functions to the secondary bridge. Authorization TF-63791-alpha."

"Transfer command acknowledged," the computer said. "Awaiting additional authorizations."

She looked at Betz standing beside her. "One way or another, Captain, I'm going to get control of this ship. You know I can do it eventually with the people I've got here and in engineering, but you could make it so much easier," she drew her gun and placed its tip against his temple, "and live to tell about it."

"What guarantee do I have that you won't kill me afterward?"

"None, other than my word. I trust you know that's worth something. Right now, you have my word that in ten seconds I'm going to pull this trigger if you don't put your hand on that scanplate and give your transfer code. Ten. Nine. Eight…"

His face paled.

"Commander," another call came from the main bridge, "the computer's reporting unauthorized tapping."

She glanced at Dahl.

He shrugged. "I'm doing the best I can."

"Sir," the bridge officer said over Vel's comm, "I think we should call the captain."

Betz started to say something, but Vel shook her head sharply and pressed the gun harder against his temple.

"Don't bother him yet," she told the bridge. "That power spike seems to have caused all sorts of erroneous readings. Stand by." She looked at Betz. "Three. Two. One—"

With a snarl, he slapped his hand onto the screen and gave his authorization. Hartos followed suit.

The computer acknowledged the commands, and Vel holstered her gun.

"Olun, you're a dear," she said to the captain, and then glanced at his two guards. "Cuff him, and take him to the back of the room. Computer, this is Commander Vel. Secure and lock down the main bridge. Transfer all functions to secondary bridge. Nait, she's ours. Cut power to the main bridge." She glanced at Dahl with a smile. "Do your magic, old man."

Dahl worked for another long moment before replying. "Fleet computer online."

Vel's smile grew as the Cheops' computer linked passively into the other ships in the fleet.

"Got 'em all, Commander," Dahl said moments later. "Ready to transmit false sensor readings on your order."

"Go ahead." Vel looked at the woman at the communication station.

"Rebel channels open, Commander."

Vel glanced at Betz, and then switched on the comm at her station. "Attention all units, this is Esora. You're clear to move."

The control screen at Kressa's station began to display the red spheres and three-dimensional lattice-work of Dahl's rerouting program. She tore her eyes from the satisfying look of consternation on Betz's face and turned to the screen.

"Kressa—" Dahl started to call out to her.

"I'm on it." She studied the screen briefly as the first loops formed and the computer-spheres began searching for different routes. New loops appeared, and Kressa worked to stay ahead of them. At this level of activity it took only a portion of her concentration; she kept the remainder of her attention on the activity in the room around her.

"Get me a channel to the fleet," Vel said.

"Ready, Commander."

"This is Commander Vel aboard the Cheops. We've been attacked by hostile forces. Captain Betz has been wounded. I am in command. The attack on us may only be the beginning of a move by the Vsunan rebels. Increase sensor sweeps and activate fleet computer access."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

An instant later, the activity on the screen in front of Kressa increased dramatically as the Patrol vessels began actively linking into the fleet network and Dahl started rerouting the ships' control systems. In less than a minute, the lattice of computer nodes and comm lines had doubled in size, and the activity had grown to match one of the higher levels of Dahl's simulation. Kressa narrowed her attention to the task at hand. Time and place ceased to have any meaning; there was only the screen, the spheres, and the ever-changing lines.

For how long she worked like that, Kressa could not say, then she caught a quick movement out of the corner of her eye, and a pulse gun flashed from the rear of the room. The shot exploded into the board in front of Dahl. Kressa drew her gun and spun toward the back of the bridge.

Captain Betz stood before an open doorway, a pulse gun in each hand. He fired shot after shot into the room as he backed through the opening.

Kressa brought her gun to bear on him, but shifted her aim minutely when she remembered Vel's no-kill order. Her shot burned into Betz's right arm. He dropped the weapon in his right hand, fired a wild shot at Kressa with his other gun, turned, and dashed through the opening.

The door closed, blocking the shots of those who had reacted an instant after Kressa. They dashed toward the door. As the first of them reached the barrier, Betz's voice came over the ship's comm.

"Attention crew, this is Captain Betz. Rebel forces led by Com—"

Vel's comm officer cut the channel, and the soldiers at the door charged into the room beyond.

Confident they were well on their way to stopping the captain, Kressa glanced to where Dahl was working to see what damage Betz had done.

Instantly, she wished she had ignored Vel's no-kill order.

Dahl lay sprawled across the control board. From where Kressa stood, she could see where one of Betz's shots had hit the controls, but there were at least three hits on Dahl's back. Amazingly, he was still breathing.

Telsin leaned over him. His hands hovered near the man's body as if he wanted to help but was too frightened to touch him. One of Betz's shots had burned into Telsin's side, but the boy seemed oblivious to the injury.

He looked at Kressa, blue eyes brimming with tears. "Help him," he begged.

Kressa glanced around, searching for Vel.

The commander stood in the middle of the bridge, a stern expression on her face as she watched three rebel soldiers drag Betz back into the room. Despite his wounded arm and a fresh pulse gun burn on one thigh, he was doing a valiant job of resisting his captors. Then one of them struck him on the side of the head with the butt of a gun, and he slumped in their grasp.

"What happened?!" Vel snapped.

One of the men holding Betz glanced to where his two former guards lay dead from pulse gun blasts, an open pair of security cuffs and a soni-key abandoned on the floor beside them.

"He must've had the key on him and used it to open the cuffs."

Kressa remembered Vel in the brig, approaching Betz with the cuffs, then Betz struggling and collapsing onto one of the dead security officers.

"I think he got the key in the brig," she said, "when he fell on the dead security troops."

Vel snarled. "Cuff him!" she said to his captors. "And watch him this time." She cast a meaningful look at the bodies of his former guards.

"Commander, Dahl's been shot," Kressa said.

Vel turned to the weapons control station. "Hartos, get the emergency medkit. See what you can do."

Hartos started for a cabinet at the back of the bridge.

Kressa frowned. "That won't do it, Commander. He needs more than a medkit."

Vel returned her frown. "Do what you can, Hartos." She turned her attention to the communications console where the comm officer was working frantically.

"What is it?" Vel asked.

"I've got calls coming in from every part of the ship wanting to know what's going on."

"Clear all channels, and get me a ship-wide circuit."

"Ready, Commander," the comm officer said after a moment.

"All crew. This is Commander Vel. Everything is under control. Mind your stations and keep the comm clear for essential communications only. Sickbay, send a trauma team to the secondary bridge."

Kressa turned back to Dahl and Telsin. The boy had placed one hand on Dahl's shoulder, head bowed, eyes closed, his Gendzet amulet grasped tightly in a fist. A pale, blue-white glow surrounded his hands. Kressa blinked hard to clear the strange sight, and then realized she was not seeing it with her eyes. Rather, she was sensing it with her mind.

Something inside her reached out to join the pale illumination. Surprised, she placed her hand on Telsin's where it rested on Dahl's shoulder. The light expanded to surround her hand, and a tingling ribbon of energy flowed along her arm.

Telsin's eyes snapped open. He stared at her for a moment, then his lips twitched in a hint of a smile, and he closed his eyes again.

The ribbon of energy grew, and Kressa turned her full attention to it. She caused it to ebb and grow with a thought, and she believed she could stop it, but she wasn't sure how to start it again, and although she knew the energy could not heal Dahl, she sensed it was helping him hold onto life.

"Is everything all right, Commander?" Nait's voice came over Vel's commlink, full of worry.

"Everything's under control," Vel said. "Mind your post. I'll let you know if we need your help with anything."

There was a brief pause, and then Nait's voice returned, the concern in his tone undiminished. "Commander, I'm certain I felt Telsin--"

"Mind your post!" Vel switched off the link.

But Nait's concern could not be so easily dispelled, Kressa realized as she sensed his presence enter the remarkable psychic link that bound her and Telsin to Dahl. In her mind's eye, she saw the dark man's hand wrap around his Gendzet amulet. His presence surged through the link, taking control of the power within it and channeling it to Dahl. After a moment, he seemed to sense the extent of Telsin's injury and stopped drawing energy from the boy.

Beneath Kressa's hand, Dahl stirred and raised his head.

"Lie still," she said.

"Bryant, how are the reroutes holding?" Vel asked.

Kressa looked at the commander, dumbfounded. How could she worry about such a thing when Dahl was dying? Didn't she—?

Kressa cut the thought short as she recalled what she'd said to Dahl about the difference between what Vel was doing on Vsuna and what Kressa was used to doing on Arecia. Vel was not about to abandon her plans because of the death of one of her people, or even half of them. This was too big for that, too far reaching.

Kressa eased her hand from Dahl's shoulder, severing the link with Nait and Telsin, and returned to her board. The reroute loops were disappearing as the computers failed to verify the orders. "They're dropping off fast, Commander."

"I'll take care of them." Telsin staggered to his chair.

"But your side—" Kressa started to protest.

"Someone's got to hold them." He began working to reestablish the broken links. "If we don't do it and Dahl dies, what was it for?"

"What's it for anyway?" she asked. "Without him running the rest of the programs, we can't— Wait… Dahl went over all of his programs with my ship's computer. Maybe she can do it."

"She can," Dahl whispered.

Kressa glanced at him. Hartos had arrived and was trying to keep him still, but he pushed himself upright and turned his pain-clouded gaze on Kressa.

"Connie can do it," he said.

Kressa turned to look for the commander.

She stood at the command station, directing what remained of her control of the fleet.

"Commander Vel," Kressa said, "call my ship, the Conquest. She's at the Tranur commerce port. If we can establish a link with her, I think we can keep this going."

Vel's brow furrowed, but she signaled to her comm officer. "Get a link to Bryant's ship."

"Route it here," Kressa said, and then looked at Dahl. "Are you sure…?"

"She can do it," he said, and then slumped into Hartos's arms, unconscious.

"Bryant," the comm officer said a moment later, "I've got your ship."

Kressa keyed the comm at her station. "Connie, this is Kressa. I need your help."

"Unable to comply," the computer said. "Authorization required."

Kressa pursed her lips. Years ago, she had ordered Connie to answer any call from a Patrol channel like that in case the Pattys ever tried to force Kressa to use the ship or computer for their own ends, but she had also set up an override.

"Connie, authorization CT-5593-delta."

"Acknowledged. Awaiting command."

Which meant she knew it was Kressa. What Kressa said next would tell the computer to either do as Kressa ordered or use her best judgment to the contrary.

"Azano was right," Kressa said.

"Understood, Kressa. What do you need?"

"Connie, remember what you and Dahl were working on earlier, about controlling the fleet computers? If I got you a link to the Cheops' main computer, could you do that on your own?"

"I could. However, the programs I reviewed were written for specific scenarios. I would require guidance when to deploy them."

"We can do that," Vel said from nearby.

Kressa glanced up to find the woman standing beside her.

"Is that your ship's computer?" Vel asked. "The one Dahl helped build?"

Kressa nodded.

"Tell it we'll get it whatever it needs." She turned to her comm officer. "Get a secure link to that computer, first priority, and then get me a channel to the fleet." She cast a concerned look at Dahl and then returned to her station.

While the comm officer established the link, Kressa checked on Telsin.

He was pale, his breathing shallow, but he continued working.

She touched Hartos on the shoulder and nodded toward the boy. "See what you can do for him."

"Ready, Bryant," the comm officer said.

Kressa turned to the comm pickup on her board. "Connie, do you have the link?"

"I've got it, Kressa. Beginning rerouting."

Kressa looked at the computer board and watched in amazement as Connie began to reestablish the broken routing loops. She returned to her task of helping Telsin keep the loops intact. Behind her, Vel gave orders to the fleet.

"This is Commander Vel. The Cheops experienced a second attack by rebel forces. They attempted to break into our control systems, causing us to lose many of the fleet links. We are working to reestablish those we lost. Once the links have been reestablished, I will issue new orders. Until then, continue to act on previous orders and report on activity in your sector. Vel out."

Kressa turned her full attention to the work at hand.