The Price of Conquest

It was a revelation of sorts, Richard Shaw thought as he contemplated the uniform worn by the woman standing before him, and something of an irony. Tara Katherine Shaw, Kressa Bryant, his daughter, was an ensign in the Confederate Navy, his new… allies? Yes, that was the correct word. They had fought and died to support his claim to Calton, and even with their ulterior motive—their need to do business with House Moorlan—they believed in that for which they fought. That much he knew from the conversations he'd had with several of their wounded.

He studied Kressa anew.

Looking into her astonishingly familiar eyes, there could be no doubt she was his daughter, yet there were subtler aspects he suspected only he recognized, aspects inherited from her mother. The exquisite fine-boned features and shapely figure were Kaitryen's, as was the hard-headedness and rebellious disposition for which Bryant was so well known. But Katy had never had the self-discipline necessary to wear a uniform—any uniform. She'd had trouble merely living up to the responsibilities expected of the daughter of a minor Nepurhan royal household, and been unable, or unwilling, to care for her infant daughter—or even continue her marriage to Shaw—when circumstances required them to be apart. Because of that, Shaw had been forced to turn their child over to the care of the Patrol Academy on Terra—something he regretted to this day.

"You wanted to see me about something, sir?" Westlex's query interrupted Shaw's momentary reverie.

"Yes, Captain, but our appointment was not for some time yet."

"I came down early to visit the hospital," he said.

"I hope you've found everything satisfactory."

Westlex smiled warmly. "I'm not on an inspection, sir. I just came to see some of my people. How is Commander Renek?"

Shaw glanced through the open door behind him where Lieutenant Commander M'lis Renek, one of Westlex's engineering officers, was recovering from injuries received when Gaunis's bombs hit Stingray One.

"She's doing well," Shaw said, "although I'm afraid she found us a rather ignorant audience when it comes to the intricacies of your vessel's systems."

Westlex frowned slightly, obviously concerned about what Renek may have said, and then his smile returned.

"I think I'll have a talk with her." He disappeared through the opening.

Shaw turned to the three guards standing silently to one side. "I won't be needing you for anything further," he said. "You're dismissed."

The men hesitated.

"Sir," the leader of the trio said, "Captain Maeller gave us orders to remain with you at all times during his absence."

Shaw controlled a frown. "I appreciate your dedication to duty, however I believe that between Ensign Bryant, Captain Westlex, Mister Terling, and myself, we can handle anything that threatens our safety. We are all armed, and I doubt we're in much danger at the present."

"Yes, sir," the guard said reluctantly. "But—"

"I promise you that when Captain Maeller returns from his work at the Salkair Residence, he will hear only glowing reports regarding your service to me," Shaw said to the soldier. "And I will assure him that you never left my side. Now, it's a miserable day outside, and it's bound to get worse. Go home to your families or find a warm tavern somewhere. That's an order."

"Yes, sir." The guard turned away.

An instant later, his two companions followed.

Shaw watched them leave, and then rolled his eyes at Terling and Kressa, giving them a helpless look. Kressa responded with a nervous smile. Terling turned a gruff look on her.

"I assume you can live up to the governor's assurance to those men, Ensign," Terling said.

Her smile faded. "What's that, sir?"

"That you can—and will—protect him."

"Of course," she answered, standing straighter, her dark eyes flashing assurance. "I protected him from Gaunis's assassin, didn't I?"

"And he released you in exchange for that favor," Terling said. "You might assume that makes you even, but it does not discharge you from your respon—"

"All right, Aidan," Shaw interrupted with a short laugh. "Leave her be. She said she'd do it." He gave her an apologetic smile. "You'll have to excuse him, Ensign, he has a tendency to suspect the worst in people."

"That tendency has kept you alive, Richard," Terling said.

Shaw shrugged, not taking his eyes from Kressa. Less than a meter of physical space separated them, but he could feel the slow resurrection of a wall that could transform that short span into an insurmountable distance. He reached forward to touch the gold winged insignia on her uniform's collar. She did not move.

"Does this mean what I think it does?" he asked.

"Sir?"

"That you're one of those crazies who fly around in those armed coffins called fighters?"

She smiled again, and Shaw felt the unstable wall collapse. "That's what it means, sir."

"Then I guess you're another one of the people I have to thank." He held out a hand to her and she took it in a firm grasp. "Well done, Ensign."

Her smile grew. "Thank you, sir."

He held her hand a moment longer, his eyes locked on hers, and then turned away as Captain Westlex stepped into the hallway, an amused smile on his face.

"Satisfied we aren't walking away with any of your secrets, Captain?" Shaw asked.

Westlex snorted. "You can have them, but you have to take the engineers, as well."

"Trouble with your crew?" Terling asked.

"Only with their sense of reality. There seems to be a bad case of delusions going through my engineering staff. They're convinced I've come up with a way to use Gaunis's planet-busters against him."

Terling's expression did not change. "Have you?"

"I'm—working on it." He looked at Shaw. "Shall we get on with our meeting, Admiral?"

"Of course. We'll go to my office. Feel up to a walk?"

The captain hesitated. "Uh, it was starting to rain when we arrived, sir. It's probably coming down fairly hard by now. Perhaps we should call for a car?"

"Don't worry, Captain, we'll be traveling underground." Shaw cast a sidelong look at Kressa. "Your friend Torch isn't the only one who knows how to get around Calton."

* * *

"I want to thank you for taking the time to see me, Captain," Shaw said as he settled into the chair behind his desk.

Jonathan smiled from his seat in front of Shaw's desk. They had arrived in the governor's office moments before, having traversed a series of well-lit underground walkways leading from the hospital to the administration building.

"I wanted to see you anyway, sir," Jonathan said. "In fact, I was planning to make an appointment as soon as I got things aboard Stingray One straightened out. But, as it turns out, my crew's got everything under control without me."

"When will your people be bringing the ship down?" Terling asked from his position beside the door.

Jonathan glanced at him. "Within a couple of hours, I'd guess. The sooner we get her into the atmosphere, the sooner we can get her cooled off." He turned his head as Kressa stepped up beside his chair, a drink held out to him. He took the glass with a smile. "Thank you, Ensign."

She frowned long enough to let him know she was still sore about being delegated to serve as bartender for the three men, and then passed a second drink to Shaw. The governor received it with a smile.

"Sure you won't join us, Aidan?" Shaw indicated the drink he held and gave his friend a questioning look.

"No, thank you."

Jonathan waited while Kressa fetched her own drink from the bar and took a seat in the chair beside him. He turned to Shaw. "What did you want to see me about, Admiral?"

Shaw took a sip of his drink, gave Kressa an appreciative look, and then set the glass aside. "Several things, actually. I think we may have found a clue how Gaunis's people discovered Kressa was coming to Calton."

Raising an eyebrow in interest, Jonathan lowered his drink, and then gave Kressa a quick glance. Her attention was riveted on the governor.

"What clue, sir?" she asked.

"The Salkair records make reference to several credit accounts at Arecian financial institutions. One of them has been in steady use for several years, but the others have been relatively inactive, until recently. One of them shows sudden heavy activity."

"Any way to identify who's been using the accounts?" Jonathan asked.

Shaw took another swallow of his drink, and then shook his head. "Unfortunately not. They're general-access accounts registered to a nonexistent Arecian travel service and set up for use by anyone with an account card and the correct access code. There are three cards drawn for each account, but only one card has been used on each of the two active ones."

"Excuse me, sir," Jonathan said, "but all this information wouldn't be in the Salkair records."

"It wasn't. I had my people check into the accounts."

"But those accounts are Arecian, from an Arecian bank…" He paused at the governor's smile.

"Captain Westlex, Gaunis is not the only person with outside resources. As admiral, I was responsible for Arecia and the other Free Worlds for over four years. I still retain many of the contacts I set up to handle that responsibility."

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Jonathan nodded and smiled to himself. Shaw may have lost a rank, but that was all he lost.

"I believe the Arecian accounts are payoffs on blanket contracts for Gaunis's agents on Arecia," Shaw said. "Find the person who has the access cards and you'll find your leak." He picked a data card out of a pile on his desk. "I've recorded the account numbers and other information here." He leaned forward to hand the card across his desk.

Kressa took the card, looked at it thoughtfully, and then glanced at Jonathan. "Who knew I was going to Calton?"

He thought for a moment. "Halav and I had been talking about sending you for a while; someone might have heard about it then. There are also the people who work in documentation and arranged for your travel credentials." He shook his head as he realized how many people knew about Kressa's trip as part of their regular responsibilities, not to mention those who could have found out without too much difficulty. "You'll have to work on it with the general when you get back to Arecia. Maybe you can use the dates those credit accounts were reactivated as a clue."

She nodded, once again staring at the data card, as if simply looking at it would reveal its secrets.

"I'll find out who it was," she vowed and slipped the card into a pocket. She looked up with a stern expression and met Shaw's gaze. "I'll find out. For Emre."

Jonathan watched as Shaw held her eyes for several long seconds, sharing something with his daughter Jonathan could never hope to fully comprehend.

When at last the almost reverent silence was broken, it was Terling who spoke.

"We need to decide what to do with the rest of the Salkair information."

Jonathan looked at him. "That depends on what that information is and how you think it can best be used safely." He turned to regard Shaw. "Gaunis got away knowing you have the information. What will he do to prevent you from taking advantage of it?"

Shaw hesitated only an instant before answering. "He'll try to further discredit me among the admirals, and I suppose he'll fabricate stories and other evidence to contradict what we have against him."

"What about moving against you here on Calton?" Jonathan asked. "If not to destroy the records, then at least to exact some sort of revenge for what's happened."

"Colliard Gaunis does not resort to revenge, Captain," Terling said with assurance. "If he does something, he does it for much loftier reasons than personal satisfaction."

"Like personal gain?" Kressa's tone held a snide ring.

Terling looked at her, his expression unreadable. "That is one possibility."

"Then he might try to take Calton back," Jonathan said, slowly swirling the glass he held, watching the shifting patterns of liquid and ice. "But I doubt he'll try the direct route again soon." He shifted his gaze to Shaw again. "How safe are you here on Calton, Admiral? What kind of control do you have now that Salkair's broken?"

Shaw smiled wryly at the question. "Calton will never be a safe place for anyone in government, Captain. Not for a long time to come, anyway. But with the establishment of the new Salkair House as an arbitration facility, and with myself holding some control over those arbitrations, I don't expect too much trouble. Not from the inside anyway. However, as you seem to be suggesting, we will have to be careful that no outside influences are allowed to sway the actions of any of the Houses. We can't let Gaunis—or anyone else—get a hold on any of the Calton factions."

"But you think you'll be safe enough here?"

Shaw nodded. "I believe so."

"All right. I'm going to give you those Patrol fighters Gaunis left behind. You can start your own fleet if you'd like," Jonathan said with a hint of a smile. "And you can consider the Confederacy on call if you have trouble with anything too big for you to handle." His expression grew momentarily serious. "Our presence here was not a one-time arrangement, Admiral."

"I appreciate that."

"Use the Salkair information as you see fit," Jonathan went on, "but be careful about calling attention to yourself. And if you think it will do you any good, I have proof that Admiral Len's death was a result of sabotage. There's no evidence Gaunis did it, but if you find someone who's willing to take the Confederacy's word for something like that, I don't think the identity of the perpetrator will be much of an issue."

"There are several area commanders and other officers I'm still in contact with," Shaw said. "I may just put the information out there anonymously for anyone who wants it. Something like that could act as a catalyst for strife among Gaunis's loyalists."

"Whatever you think is best, Admiral," Jonathan said. "You know that crowd better than I ever will."

"What will your next move be, Captain?" Terling asked.

"If you don't mind him asking," Shaw added with an admonishing look at his friend.

Jonathan smiled. "No, I don't mind at all. You deserve to know what the Confederacy's going to do to support you." He took a long drink without really tasting it, and used the time to go over several scenarios he had constructed for the immediate future.

"Obviously our first step is to get Stingray One back in shape as quickly as possible," he answered finally. "Then we need to find a way to counteract the effects of Gaunis's planet-buster bombs. Now that he knows what they can do to a Stingray, I have the feeling he may use them again."

"He will use them again," Terling said. "You can be sure of that. Is there some way you can detect and destroy the devices before they reach your ships?"

"Now that we know what to look for, we may be able to do that—to a point. They were designed to be hard to hit, though. Worse than that, they don't need to reach their target to do damage. The EMP they create causes more problems for a Stingray than the actual force of the detonation, something I'm sure Gaunis was counting on."

"Is there some way you can shield against the pulse?" Terling asked.

Jonathan shook his head. "Trying to shield against that much EMP would be like trying to shield against…" He hesitated. He had almost said "time," but Teneian engineers were working on a stasis field generator that would provide an effective shield against the effects of time, for a short while anyway. "…like trying to shield against fate," he concluded finally.

Shaw glanced up from the shallow remains of his drink. "What about using the effect against Gaunis? If the devices were forced to detonate close to the vessel that launched them…"

"You'd never be able to do that," Terling answered before Jonathan had time to consider the suggestion.

He followed Shaw's gaze to Terling.

"During the battle, Gaunis kept the Esprit well away from Stingray One," Terling said. "Obviously, he is aware of the danger of being too close when the devices are detonated. Given that knowledge, he undoubtedly had them designed so they cannot be set off prematurely."

"However, there's still a chance we can use them against him," Jonathan said as one of several ideas he'd been toying with came to mind.

Terling caught his gaze. "Then your engineering staff is correct in their assumption that you have a plan?"

"I'm working on it," he repeated. "But even if we do come up with a workable plan, we'll need time to implement it."

"We don't have a lot of time right now," Kressa said. "There are still four dreadnoughts on their way to Dar."

Shaw glanced at Jonathan. "Those dreadnoughts will be arriving soon, won't they?"

He nodded. "Within a few hours."

"I hope Gaunis didn't give them any of those bombs," Kressa said.

Terling looked at her. "I don't believe he would. He'd want to test the devices' capabilities before trusting the others with them. Plus, he is not expecting much resistance at Dar."

"Then why send four dreadnoughts?" Kressa asked.

"As a show of unity and strength among the admirals," Terling said. "He wants to let the Confederacy know just what they're up against, to intimidate them." He turned to Jonathan. "I assume you'll be sending Stingray Two to Dar," he said, and then continued at Jonathan's nod. "Will Two alone be enough?"

"Two won't be alone," he said. "There's a defense force waiting there now, including four Enforcers and a Patrol heavy cruiser."

"Commander Vel's Cheops?" Shaw asked.

"She's a captain now," Jonathan said. "She promoted herself."

"A well-deserved promotion, I assume."

Jonathan smiled. Obviously, Richard Shaw had more than a passing knowledge of the indomitable Dania Vel. "She kept you from regaining Vsuna," he said, reminding the man of his unsuccessful attempt to recapture the world.

"She had help from a Stingray," Shaw said.

"True. And now Stingray Two will have help from her, as well as from Stingray Three."

Beside him, Kressa groaned. "Mathan isn't going to try that again, is he?"

"Do you have any better ideas?" Jonathan asked.

She sighed, and then shook her head. "No, I suppose not. And if we're trying to convince Gaunis we have five ships, Stingray Three might as well make an appearance. But how's Mathan going to convince the admirals that one Stingray is two?"

"He'll be using satellites to bounce sensor traces and comm signals. If that doesn't convince them, he's willing to use the ITD to appear to be in two places at once—or nearly at once."

Kressa grimaced. "I'm glad I won't be aboard for that."

Jonathan shared that adversity to Mathan's plan. Single ITD transfers were bad enough; multiple transfers, instants apart, would be almost intolerable. But Two's crew were aware of the plan and had agreed to it.

"With luck, they'll be able to keep the number of transfers down," he said. "All they have to do is convince the admirals to back off. And since they almost certainly don't know we're expecting them, they won't be prepared for organized resistance."

"I hope you're right," Kressa said. "It seems to me that Mathan's pushing his luck. After the chance he took calling his ship Five…" She broke off and shook her head.

"Actually, Captain Mathan's strategy against Gaunis was quite ingenious," Terling said.

The unexpected comment drew Jonathan's attention.

"Under the circumstances, the plan was perfect," Terling said. "Gaunis knew you had at least two Stingrays, but he had no way of knowing whether you had more. Captain Mathan's claim to be Stingray Five forced Gaunis to face the fact that you might."

Kressa turned to Terling. "Still, sir, don't you think that claiming to be Five was stretching it a bit?"

"On the contrary, Ensign, it was quite an intelligent choice."

Jonathan watched Terling as he spoke and wondered if he was toying with Kressa, but he continued in a serious tone.

"Claiming to be Three may not have had the impact Captain Mathan needed to intimidate Gaunis into leaving, and calling his ship Four would have sounded too much like he was merely doubling the Confederacy's known strength. That left only Five, which was as high as he dared go."

Jonathan nodded to himself as Terling concluded his assessment. He'd had little time to delve into the reasoning behind Mathan's actions, content merely with the fact that the scheme had worked.

"And saying he was Five was just far-fetched enough to make Gaunis think twice about disbelieving it," Jonathan said.

"Precisely," Terling agreed.

"Then you think the ruse will work at Dar?" Kressa asked Terling.

He studied her for a moment, and then pushed himself away from the door and crossed to the bar. He remained silent, his back to the room, as he poured himself a drink and took a sip.

"I think it will work," he said finally, and then turned to face the room. "Richard and Gaunis are the only two admirals who have faced a Stingray in battle. In fact, they are the only admirals alive who have faced any opposition greater than a few rebel or pirate vessels. The men headed for Dar are not prepared to fight a real battle, and since they are expecting little to no resistance, the presence of a powerful defensive force will be that much more of a deterrent." He crossed his arms and leaned back against the bar, his blue-gray eyes focusing thoughtfully beyond the opposite wall. Finally, he switched his gaze to Jonathan.

"Captain Westlex, I would like to accompany Stingray Two to Dar, and then on to Arecia to assist in making plans against the High Admiral."

Jonathan looked at the older man, surprised, and then took the time to consider the offer. It would be foolish to turn it down; Terling's qualifications as a military strategist were well known, not to mention his knowledge of the High Admiral's methods. But could Mathan accept Terling, a man he would consider a one-time enemy? And beyond the question of Mathan's acceptance was the problem of whether Halav would be willing to work with him. The general had much more tangible reasons for mistrusting Terling, for it was Terling who masterminded Shaw's takeover of Arecia, a strategy that cost Halav a good portion of his Guard personnel. Still, the general was pragmatic almost to a fault and not one to readily toss out an advantage as great as the one Terling's services offered.

Jonathan became aware that Terling was watching him, waiting for an answer. He met the man's eyes, his thoughts going over the considerations a final time.

To hell with it, he decided. He would order Mathan to accept Terling, if that's what it took. He looked at Shaw.

"Sir, what are your thoughts on the matter?"

The governor held Jonathan's gaze and then took a moment to study Terling. Finally, he shrugged.

"I hardly think it's any of my concern," Shaw said. "The man's a civilian, and a citizen of the United Galaxy; I have no control over him." He gave his friend a warm smile. "He can do as he chooses."

Terling returned the smile.