Tides of Mars (Omnibus Version) Read online

  “That day will come, Highness, and I’ll be right beside you when it does,” Bri’tell said. “But for now, we need to get our people out of here.”

  Ariel sighed. “Send the messages, Cole. Try to sound official, and convincing.”

  “I don’t actually need to do anything, Ariel. Several of the incoming craft are equipped with radiological detection sensors. I am currently sending a strong false positive to all of them,” Cole reported. “The NSA helo is also equipped, but I’m telling them that something crashed out by Henderson; which is only slightly off the trajectory of the Righteous Fire. I am directing them to investigate immediately, and telling them that fighter cover is being launched. Which it is, but the fighters are going to a point well west of here; which is in the opposite direction from Henderson.”

  “Whatever it takes, Cole. What’s the timeline for the shuttles and getting the lift fixed?” Ariel asked.

  “The lift will be fixed in ten minutes, and the shuttles will arrive in fifteen minutes. The launch tunnel will be cleared enough for us to leave at about the same time,” Cole reported.

  “How fast can the remotes demolish the control center and this facility?” Ariel asked.

  “Faster than we can get out of it,” Thorn smiled at Ariel. “They know what to do Ariel, let go now, and let it happen.”

  “Welcome aboard the Divine Light, Highness,” a man wearing the cluster of Commander saluted. “The Admiral sends her regards, and apologizes for not being here...”

  “Relax Commander. It’s infinitely more important to save as many of the crew of the Righteous Fire as we can. There is no need to apologize,” Ariel replied to him. “However, is there an Ensign or someone that can guide us someplace that isn’t in the middle of your landing bay?”

  The Commander grinned. “If you’ll follow me Milady, I’ll show you to one of our ready rooms and send Ensign D’espie to act as your liaison.” At her nod, he led the group to one side of the large hangar and into a smaller room that had windows looking out into the bay. The room was lined with lockers, and had benches for people to sit on. “This ready room is for Theta squadron. They are currently assisting in the search and rescue operations, and shouldn’t be using it. I do apologize for the rough accommodations...”

  “Commander; as I said, relax. This will do just fine. You don’t need to worry about us getting in your way,” Ariel said as disarmingly as she could. Just as the commander was about to reply, there was a soft rap on the door. It opened to a very handsome young man, smartly dressed in parade uniform, and wearing the tabs of a Senior Ensign. His assignment signet said he was from the liaison office.

  The commander looked relieved. “Highness, may I introduce Ensign D‘espie of the liaison office here aboard ship. Ensign, Her Imperial Majesty, Lady Princess Ariel Parker.”

  The handsome Ensign bowed deeply to Ariel. “My Lady, I am here to serve.”

  The words gave Ariel a warm feeling low in her stomach, and made her breasts tingle. This man was definitely attractive.

  “I’m honored to have you, Ensign,” Ariel said and blushed when she realized how that had sounded. She cleared her throat and turned back to the waiting commander. “Commander, two of my guards are holding a prisoner aboard my ship. Could you have them escorted to a secure medical facility? We’ve already removed one suicide device from her, there may be more.”

  The Commander bowed, “At once Milady,” he said and left hastily.

  Ariel turned back to the handsome Ensign. “I don’t know how long we’ll be staying up here, so I don’t know if we’ll need quarters for everyone. Would it be possible for me to see the Admiral to discuss it?”

  “I’ll put in a call to her immediately, Highness,” D’espie said, smiling.

  “No, I think you misunderstood, Ensign. I’d like you to find out if it would be a good time for me to go see her. She’s very busy with the rescue operations; I don’t want to take her away from that,” Ariel replied. “Cole, I have an idea to cover our butts tonight with the officials on planet. Would you please ask any remaining remotes down there to make sure no trace of our vehicles are found in the rubble? I want to make it look like we all were at the new house.”

  “We brought all of them back with us, Ariel. However, I’ll see about getting one or two dropped to take care of that. They can hide until we can get them picked up again,” Cole replied.

  D’espie’s smile faded somewhat, but he seemed to realize it and renewed its brilliance. “Of course, Highness. I’ll find out immediately.” He bowed slightly and turned to a complicated looking console on a bulkhead.

  Ariel turned to Alex, who was still looking around her in wonder. “Mom? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, this is just a lot to take in all at once. I had a hard time accepting this when you told me about it. Now that I’m faced with the reality, I think I only accepted it on the surface; none of it was truly real. Now, I can’t help but look around me and see its all real,” Alex explained.

  Ariel touched her arm in sympathy. “Are you going to be okay with this? I mean, it’s pretty likely that you’ll be going off world again at some point.”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Alex smiled softly. “I just have to make the adjustment from fantasy to reality. I have to move my boundaries, and that’s not always an easy thing to do.”

  “Huh?” Ariel asked brightly.

  “I had a Professor in college that said; ‘Reality is defined by where each individual places the mental boundaries of what is ‘real’ and what is not.’ Of course, she was trying to describe the definition of insanity at the time, but I think the description fits here as well,” Alex said and nodded out the window to the landing bay. “I’m pretty sure she’d believe she’d gone insane; that woman had absolutely no imagination.”

  “Do you think you could talk to the construction foreman on the new house and get him to say that we had begun to move in, and that we were all there last night? We’ll need the whole crew to be able to testify to that.”

  “It might take some bribes, and outright threats, but I’m pretty sure they won’t say anything. Estelle had all of them sign a nondisclosure agreement before they started work. All I really have to do is point that out and remind them that failure to comply means total forfeiture of payment for all work and materials, and that will convince the manager. However his people might need something more... personal to convince them,” Alex explained.

  “Hell, offer them permanent jobs with us. Just don’t tell them that most of what they’ll be building will be off-world. We’re going to need workers for our projects; it might as well be them,” Ariel said in a low voice so no one else could hear.

  “Actually, we already own that company, they don’t know it since it isn’t a direct ownership. But I think I know what you’d like. I’ll see about making it happen. You might need to talk to the men down there personally, but I think you can count on them.”

  Ariel smiled and wondered how Alex could know that. “Okay, Cole will be at your service to make any calls you might need. I plan on letting the techs up here take him into the shop to let him get the upgrades he’s missed. So I won’t be able to go anywhere for a while, but I’ll make sure a shuttle is available for you and the others.”

  “That would certainly be less suspicious then recruiting the workers from here,” Alex said.

  Ariel smiled. “You know what I’d like to pull off then?”

  “I think so; I can always call you if I run into a snag.” Alex kissed Ariel softly on the lips. “Be careful, sweetheart.”

  “I will, take Taylor and a few guards with you if you return to the planet, but I’d like Wendy to stay up here with me. You be careful too, I’d be willing to bet those ass-holes will be back, and looking for us.”

  Alex chuckled. “Which set of ass-holes are you talking about; the ‘Slavers from Planet X’ or the ‘Men in Black’?” The titles were clear in her question.

  “The ‘Men in Black’ were the ones I
was thinking of, but I suppose either group would fit the statement; just be careful,” Ariel said.

  Alex patted her arm and headed for Denise and Tara. D’espie had turned back to her from the console and was politely waiting for her to finish her conversation. “The Admiral said you could come to the bridge anytime you wished, Highness.”

  Ariel waved for Thorn and Wendy to follow her, and told the Ensign to lead the way. Bri’tell saw that she was leaving and grabbed another guard before hastily following her.

  Outside, in the hanger, Cole and Tewney were being towed toward the maintenance shack.

  “Highness, I’m glad to see you got aboard safely,” Sean said rising from her chair. “We would have stayed to assist, but we had to rescue several hundred stranded sailors.”

  “I understand completely, Admiral. How is the operation going?” Ariel asked.

  “Pretty well actually; we’ve managed to secure most of the life-pods and are tracking several more. We have accounted for all but thirteen pods, and those are the ones that would have been for the bridge crew.”

  “Are there any kind of services scheduled for them?” Ariel asked.

  “Our people have a wide range of beliefs, but we do try to honor our fallen. Nothing is scheduled as of yet, we are waiting to see what condition the rest of the crew is in.” Sean said.

  Ariel nodded, “Do you have a moment to speak in private, Admiral?”

  “I think so; Captain Gr’eis, I’ll be in my ready room,” Sean said turning to the smartly dressed woman off to one side. Sean leaned closer to the Captain and whispered for her ears only; “I’ll introduce you later; right now everything is a little busy.”

  The Captain smiled sadly at her, and winked. “I know; I’ll take care of this.”

  Sean returned her smile and led Ariel down a hallway to an office. After locking the door, Sean smiled. “I am glad you got off the surface, Ariel. It couldn’t have been any fun down there. How much damage did the Righteous Fire do?”

  “A lot, but far less than if that bomb had been allowed to detonate. I just wonder how they had responded so fast. How did they even know the bomb was there?” Ariel asked.

  “Every ship in the fleet was watching you go after those assassins. All of us knew almost as fast as you did. Righteous Fire was only the fastest to react. Personally, I would have chosen a smaller ship, but time didn’t permit the choice. All we could do was make sure the exit vector was clear,” Sean said sadly and shrugged her shoulders in helplessness.

  Ariel nodded in agreement that Sean had done all she could. “Did we get any of the slavers’ ships?”

  “Not yet,” Sean replied. “We missed the ones that managed to get off planet before the incident. However, the ship that the assassins landed in is still on planet somewhere. We’re not even sure that you got the whole team. I’ve ordered a detailed survey of an area five kilometers in all directions from your house. Unless the ship was picked up or destroyed, we’ll find it.”

  “I released Cole and Tewney for updates. I guess I should have waited; their scanners would be helpful with that search,” Ariel said.

  “Don’t worry about it. We’re using the bombers to do the scan. Their sensor suite is almost as sensitive as a scout’s. Anyway, Cole and Tewney will be done with upgrades in about an hour,” Sean smiled like a shark. “You won’t even recognize them when we get done. We’re moving each of the AI to a new shell.”

  “A new shell? What class? How big are they going to be?” Ariel asked, excited.

  “The shell is a new design my techs came up with here. It hasn’t even been added to the Imperial data base yet. They have improved replicators, more armor and weapons, and have space for the crew to live in a bit more comfort. It’s very loosely based on our marine assault shuttle, though it is a bit larger. In fact, it’s large enough to be assigned a name in the registry; so you’re going to have to think one up so we can commission it.”

  Ariel was stunned and impressed. “A crew?”

  Sean nodded. “Yeah, you’ll have the option of a pilot and a weapons officer. You’ll also have room for a six person assault team, though in this case, I imagine your personal guard will insist on filling that role.”

  “Oh yeah, if I tried to leave them behind, I’d find them strapped to the hull or packed into the holds,” Ariel grinned. “I bet I can tell you who Thorn’s pilot is going to be!”

  Sean grinned back, “No bet! She’s already put her name down as his pilot; of course, he has no idea about it yet.”

  “Are all the Guardians going to get this upgrade?” Ariel asked.

  Sean shook her head. “No, in fact, the design specs are going to be encrypted and downloaded into Cole’s and Tewney’s memory cores, and erased from ours. The two techs that came up with this design will be assigned to you as support staff for your... project. No trace of the design or them will be left on board this vessel, or in the Imperial Database. These new ships will be all yours.”

  “Won’t that make it easier for them to be recognized? What about the IFF modules?” Ariel asked.

  “This is the only class that has the ability to mask, or disable, its IFF unit. They are capable of reducing all emissions to point three nine-nine percent while not under power; twenty-seven percent under full acceleration. The hull has a special coating that scrambles all our sensors. It doesn’t actually blind you to them, but you’ll show up as something other than a ship. Of course, once you lock onto a target, they’ll see you,” Sean explained.

  “Now I’m excited to see it. But before I forget, I’ve asked Alex to...” Ariel explained her plan to return to the surface, and cover their tracks with the local authorities. Sean made sure to authorize the use of one of the shuttles for the members of House Parker until they could build a shuttle of their own.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “So now that everything is up in the air, what are your plans?” Sean asked.

  “I think Alex and a few of the others are going to head back down tonight to get our cover story in place,” Ariel replied. “I’d like to stick around for the services for the Righteous Fire, and I’d like to get started on the training facilities, but I think we need to find a way to increase security here. These cloaked slaver ships can pretty much come and go as they please. The Baron will probably have better reports faster than the Emperor will.”

  There was a soft buzzing heard from Sean’s desk. She touched a button. “Yes?”

  “Admiral, sorry for disturbing you, but Wrangler flight thinks they might have caught something,” the Captain’s voice said from the intercom.

  “Thank you, we’ll be right there.” Sean looked up at Ariel, who had already risen to her feet.

  When they returned to the bridge, the captain had the flight’s tactical plot on the main screen. Six fighters didn’t have a sensor lock on the target yet, even though it was well within range, however, they could see the forming trail of distortions made by a cloaked ship moving through space.

  Ariel and Sean walked in just as the flight leader was firing a missile to disable the ship. The missile streaked toward the invisible ship at nearly twenty times the speed the ship was moving at, so it took only seconds for the missile to close the distance, reach the target... and pass right through were the slaver should have been. The missile turned around, and came at the target again, only to pass through the area once again.

  The guidance computers built into the missiles are pretty intelligent; the missile reversed course one more time, however when it reached its target this time, it detonated regardless of contact with its assigned target.

  Minutes later, when the fighters reached the area, they only found pieces of the missile. Two fighters continued following the distortion, closing the distance as quickly as they could, while the rest of the flight examined every particle in the volume of space where the missile detonated.

  “Command, this is Wrangler six. The only thing I can detect is a slightly elevated anti-tachyon level that is dissip
ating very fast. Otherwise, there is no evidence that there was ever a ship here. We’re gonna keep looking, but this is starting to feel like we’re hunting a Crylan Snow Wraith.”

  “Captain, could we have a copy of the flight’s sensor logs sent to Engineering Commander D’vrese and her team?” Ariel asked.

  “It is already being done, Highness. They’re gathering data from all the ships in the fleet. D’vrese is really sharp; if anyone can figure this mess out it’ll be her and her team,” the smiling woman replied.

  “What the wonderful Captain so tactfully isn’t saying is that Commander D’vrese is her youngest daughter, and she’s very proud of her,” Sean said, grinning.

  Ariel smiled at the Captain. “Well, from what I’ve see of the woman, there’s a lot to be proud of.”

  Faintly, Ariel heard the intro to the song ‘Radar Love’ by Golden Earring and it occurred to her that was an odd sound to be hearing on the bridge of an Imperial warship. “Captain, I recognize that song as one from Earth. It strikes me as odd to be hearing it while standing on the bridge.”

  The Captain chuckled a little before answering. “I do apologize, Highness. It seems a good portion of our sailors have discovered a like for the music and other entertainments of your home world. If you would prefer, I could have it restricted for being played on the bridge, but I’ve found that it seems to help with morale, and makes long watches a bit shorter. It does get turned off during emergencies.”

  Briefly, Ariel wondered if Metallica would attempt to file suit in Imperial court against the fleet for ‘stealing’ their music. She had a quick fantasy of a company of Imperial marines storming the RIAA headquarters, or the other agencies that like to sue the common citizen for listening to music that had been played on the radio, or watching movies that had already aired on television. It really was a wonder how anyone that had the money to fight back never seemed to get sued.

  “No Captain, this is your ship and your crew; I’ll not interfere with how you run it. I’m actually kind of flattered that our entertainments are so popular here,” Ariel replied.