Fallen Empire: Discovery and Flight (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Choi and Watson Book 2) Read online

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  Discovery and Flight

  By Matthew W. Quinn

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Prologue

  SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE THE KIR ASTEROID BELT

  Imperial Navy Rear Admiral Catalina Alvarez stood at the head of the hexagonal battle-management table in the center of the bridge of the Imperial battlecruiser Kir's Fall. Holograms of the half-dozen long gray ships Emperor Markus himself had dispatched to crush the Alliance force that dared to make itself a nuisance to Avalon Shipyards. At the far end of the table floated one of the small asteroids that edged the Kir Belt.

  The doorway to the bridge hissed open. Lieutenant Jim Linz, her short and dark-skinned aide, stepped through, stopping a respectful distance away from her towering red-armored cyborg bodyguard. "Admiral, the instructions have been delivered by shuttle courier as you ordered."

  Alvarez's dark eyes fell on him. "Engine burns and transmissions kept to a minimum?"

  Linz nodded. "Yes ma'am. We're giving the rebels' sensory networks as little as possible."

  Alvarez's thin lips curled into a slight smile. Stealth in space was all but impossible — the science behind the stealth ships the Empire had recently brought online still gave her headaches — but minimizing the drives' heat signatures, minimizing transmissions to avoid loose signals, that was doable.

  "Good. Have the scouts been dispatched?"

  "Yes ma'am. The first Alliance sensors have been found and spoofers installed. No indication they were spotted."

  Alvarez nodded. "Good." Although she suspected most of the rebels' sensors were oriented on the shipyards' major convoy routes, they'd be fools not to have eyes elsewhere. Sooner or later they'd miss something or somebody in the Alliance command would notice their sensors acting oddly, but Suns Trinity willing it would be too late. The traitors would get their just desserts and peace would be restored to the Tribus Solis System. "Excellent. How long until we reach their base?"

  Linz scratched his nose. "A few hours at most."

  "Good. Where is Lieutenant Carver?"

  Linz barely checked a frown. Carver was the flotilla's political officer, responsible for maintaining loyalty to Emperor Markus and the Sarellian dynasty among the soldiers and officers. Especially the officers. Political officers wore two hats, one for the Navy and one for Imperial Intelligence. Someone whose suspicions could send someone to the mind-techs or the torturers didn't have a lot of friends. "I believe he's in his quarters, ma'am."

  "Tell him to keep a close eye on the sailors. Make sure they get what they need, and watch for anybody wavering. We don't want trouble aboard, not now."

  Linz nodded. "Yes ma'am."

  "Dismissed."

  She turned to the communications officer. “Put me on to the whole ship.”

  The thin-faced woman at the console to her left nodded. After a moment, she cleared her throat. “All personnel aboard the Kir’s Fall, this is Admiral Alvarez. At the command of our beloved Emperor, we are entering the asteroid belt from where we got our name to root out a nest of treacherous, murderous rebels. These criminals have already destroyed multiple unarmed cargo ships supplying the Avalon Shipyards, killing hundreds of innocent civilians and preventing the construction of the ships needed to destroy their equally vile allies elsewhere in the system. This ends now.”

  She paused. What came next would be the order Carver would be the busiest quelling the crew’s doubts about. “At the Emperor’s command, no quarter is to be given, no plea for surrender entertained. Every rebel dies today.” Another pause. Don’t linger. Give nobody time for thought, for doubt. “I have every confidence that every man and woman aboard the Kir’s Fall and aboard our sisters is capable of doing our duty to the utmost. The Imperial Navy is the service that crushed the Starseers in the Order Wars and has crushed every enemy of House Sarellian since then. This battle will be no different. Admiral Alvarez out.”

  She returned her attention to formation floating ahead of her. It would be a few hours until they reached the enemy.

  Chapter One

  "Are you ready?" Alliance First Lieutenant Geun Choi asked. He sat in the full cross-legged position with his feet on their opposite thighs on the blue and white exercise mat across from his friend Lieutenant Tamara Watson. She frowned and adjusted her long legs, bringing her feet onto her thighs to mimic his own position. Her green eyes met his dark ones. She nodded.

  "Good." He took in a deep breath. "First breathe. In, then out." She followed his lead. Calm fell over Geun. The duo practiced the calming breaths for several minutes. Then he felt it was the proper time to talk. "Is everything all right?"

  A moment passed. "Jackie." Tammy's voice was thick, but no tears stained her face.

  "You miss her."

  Tammy nodded. "It's been a month since she died. There are days where I come by her old bunk and expect to see her plotting out something on her netdisc. She had such grand ideas for when we won, Geun."

  Geun hadn't been nearly as close with Jackie — Lieutenant Jackie Albertson — as Tammy had been. They'd attended a cooking class one of the mechanics taught in his off-time, and he'd learned there that she'd wanted to be an engineer. If she'd fled the light after she died like most not ready for enlightenment, hopefully she found her way to a new set of parents on some world untouched by the war. Maybe Indra or Demeter would have the means for her to implement her dreams. "What were some of these ideas?" There were, after all, many types of engineers.

  "Jackie was from Arkadius. Twenty people died when a bridge collapsed near where she grew up. The local government was always short on cash, and the Empire never seemed to have any grants to fix it. People went miles out of their way to cross that river, and at least one person died because ambulances couldn't get to them. Arkadius's senator got sick of demonstrators pushing him to get the bridge fixed and sent in goons. Jackie's brother ended up addicted to painkillers after he got his leg broken." Tammy paused. "She always told me that when we won, she'd have that bridge rebuilt. She had a design and everything."

  "Do you still have it?"

  Tammy nodded. "Jackie sent it to me just before she died. I think she might have had a premonition."

  Geun thought back to the attack on the cruisers. Jackie had been awfully concerned about redlining the engines. Maybe she'd thought a malfunction would have killed her, not the storm of blazer fire from the Achilles.

  "Make sure you don't lose it, then. Save it in many places in case you drop your netdisc or there's a power surge."

  "Good idea." A brief smile crossed her face.

  Now comes the tricky part. The Buddha taught that excessive attachment was the cause of suffering. If Jackie had been a stranger or mere acquaintance to Tammy, she would not be nearly as upset.
But telling people to let go of their dead friends and loved ones too bluntly risked offense. The faith of the Suns Trinity didn't emphasize the impermanence of life the way the Buddha's teachings did.

  Before Geun could open his mouth, the door to the room off the main gym swung open. He frowned. He didn't need to be interrupted while he helped Tammy work through her grief...

  Damn it. It was Captain Bradford Tomich. Although Tomich wasn't in Geun's immediate chain of command, he wasn't going to tongue-lash a superior in rank.

  Tammy beamed. "Br...Captain Tomich!" She waved him over, her earlier sadness evaporating. "We're meditating."

  And discussing some things that are really none of that man's business. Heck, some of this might not even really be his business, but the Alliance wasn't exactly brimming with grief counselors or trained psychologists. Geun forced himself to smile and nod. Tammy seemed to like him, although her judgment was often...questionable. He blamed the Rioters. The Noble Eightfold Path provided a more reliable method of communing with the Divine that didn't require pharmaceutical enhancement.

  Tomich smiled entirely too broadly. "Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to let you know I'm meeting with the CAG later this afternoon about another raid on the convoys supplying the shipyard. We'll need to push coffee back."

  The shadow of a frown crossed Tammy's face, but she nodded. "That works. When do you think the meeting will end?"

  Geun inhaled, then exhaled. Captain Tomich was ignorant of the Five Precepts and the Eightfold Path. He was a sensualist devoted to the pleasures of the flesh, particularly sex. And ignorant of the attachments that could bring, and the pain that could cause. And in particular who he could hurt.

  Geun cleared his throat. "Captain Tomich, we were beginning counting the breaths. Are you familiar with guided meditation?" If the oaf had to be here, that gave Geun a chance to make the world a better place by spreading the wisdom of the Buddha. Perhaps the captain needed a lesson in distancing himself from worldly pleasures?

  Tomich shook his head. "I had a little bit of that mindfulness training back in school, but that's it." He sank to the mat entirely too close to Tammy and folded his long legs in the same pattern. Geun nearly raised an eyebrow. Tomich might be a bit further along the Noble Eightfold Path than he'd thought. "At the time I'd thought it a bunch of crap" - Geun nearly scowled - "but Tammy tells me it works wonders for one's peace of mind."

  "And one's karma," Geun replied. "The best reason to walk the Eightfold Path." Tomich nodded. "Very well. Let's get started." He inhaled, then exhaled. "One." Inhale, exhale. "Two." Tammy and Tomich followed. Geun led them through ten and then started counting them backward. Tomich hesitated a moment. Had he lost track? Would he need to start over again? Geun suppressed the thought. It would be improper to wish failure on Tomich because of his ignorance.

  Tomich resumed the count at just the right place. Geun could have made him restart the count, but he hadn't hesitated that long. Geun resumed the count backward to one.

  "Now focus," Geun said. "Concentrate."

  Tomich smiled briefly. Geun wondered if he were concentrating on something to do with sex. He nearly shook his head. Tomich was ignorant and lecherous, but he was no fool. He would probably meditate on the planned meeting with the CAG. Given the Empire's offenses against its population, surely making war on it more effectively would improve his karma. Instead of being reincarnated as a beggar in one of the cities the Empire's favoritism toward the rich had made it too costly to live in, perhaps reincarnated as a factory technician? However immoral Imperial policies toward impudent workers were, learning humility could be good for Tomich's next turn around the wheel.

  Breathe...

  A high-pitched keening wail slammed through Geun's consciousness. Tomich snapped to his feet immediately, somehow avoiding wrecking his knees in the process. It took Geun and Tammy a few seconds to unfold their legs and get up, with Tammy hitting her feet first. Geun refrained from shaking his head. He'd need to work on his flexibility. "General Quarters, General Quarters," a robotic voice began. "All hands man your battle stations." A loud throbbing beat began. Geun's head began to pound.

  "Has the Empire found us?" The alarm was clear in Tammy's voice, and Geun knew exactly why. The Empire hadn't served her the Big Chicken Dinner - a Bad Conduct Discharge - when they caught her using Rioters to commune with the Suns Trinity. Instead, they tried to forcibly meddle with her mind. Owing to their higher ranks, Geun and Tomich could look forward to a treason trial and a bullet if the Alliance fell, but at least they'd die who they were. Only the Buddha of the Three Suns knew what might emerge wearing Tammy's face once the mind-techs were done with her.

  "Almost certainly," Tomich said. "They're probably pissed about those two cruisers." A smile cracked his boyish face. "Good job waxing those, by the way."

  Pride rose in Geun's chest despite himself. Two Imperial cruisers, the Sarpedon and the Achilles, ambushed and destroyed by Alliance fighters he helped command. And not destroyed to the point they couldn't be looted before Alliance salvaging teams blew both of them to tiny, tiny pieces so the Imperials couldn't rebuild them. The Alliance detachment based in the asteroid had a real fleet now, with ships carrying heavy blazers, torpedoes...

  Be careful, he told himself. If you are proud, you are not enlightened, and the enlightened are not proud.

  The base's intercom crackled. "Imperial fleet units have been detected within the outer defense perimeter," stated one of Admiral Banerjee's minions. "All pilots, report to the briefing room."

  "Meet you guys there," Tomich said before taking off running. Tammy moved to follow.

  "Tammy," Geun said softly when she was almost at the door.

  His words stopped her cold. "Yes?"

  "Did you take your Psilex?" She nodded. "Are you sure?" It was a miracle of bloody-eyed Begtse, all the other bodhisattva, and the Buddha himself that she hadn't died when she flashed back during the battle with the Achilles and the Sarpedon. Geun had nearly jumped out of his skin when she'd told him about that afterward.

  Mild annoyance flashed in her green eyes. "Yes Geun."

  Geun smiled. "Good."

  Chapter Two

  The fifty Alliance pilots gathered in a cavern beneath lights dimmed to minimize power consumption. Captain Allen Wills, the commander of the base's air group, stood behind a simple wooden podium. The CAG's dark blue eyes took in the assembled pilots in their stiff black chairs. Behind him a giant flat screen hung from the stony wall.

  And on that screen floated a blurred image of an Imperial battle group. Six gray spears of varying degrees of bulk, all bristling with deadly weapons. The ships had clearly been picking their way through the outer asteroids of the Kir Belt for some time. Geun frowned. The Alliance had seeded sensors throughout the belt to avoid this very problem. How in the million hells had the Imperials gotten that far in before the alarm was raised?

  "The Imperials clearly haven't forgiven us for the Sarpedon and the Achilles and all those convoys we've raided," Wills said in his strangely high voice. "They've come loaded for Octarian bear. They've sent Imperial Marines out ahead as they advanced, hunting down and sabotaging our sensor networks, so this image is the best we've got. The formation is centered around an Imperial battlecruiser. We think that one's called the Kir's Fall." Many breaths were drawn among the assembled pilots. The Kir's Fall was one of the newest ships in the Imperial Navy."There are two cruisers and three frigates to screen it." Despite himself, Geun's heart began to pound. Frigates weren't very tough but they packed a mean punch and could provide additional screening fire against torpedoes. The Alliance didn't have torpedoes to waste.

  Wills paused. "I know you're thinking that maybe we can repeat what Dragon and Raptor Squadrons did and rock their world with torpedoes, but it's not going to be that easy." Geun bristled at "easy." Several pilots who'd dived into the waves of blazer fire coming off that cruiser hadn't come back. Breathe. And listen. On the screen a square appeared halfway down the
hull of one of the cruisers. The square magnified to reveal several of what looked like barnacles hanging from the cruiser. "Best we can tell, those are Striker-18 fighters."

  Geun's heart sank. He whispered a prayer to the Buddha. The blazer fire from the two cruisers had been dangerous enough, and it would be much worse this time. Now they've had to face fighters on the way in?

  A dark hand rose from the assembled pilots. Wills nodded to him. "Are we going dark?" Lieutenant Maximus Thorpe asked. "The Imps have come around before, but they never spotted us."

  Wills shook his head. "We thought about doing just that, but, but the sensory data we do have shows they're heading straight for us. Too deliberate to not know where we are. Command estimates they'll be here in two-odd hours. Perhaps less if they decide to risk casualties and just bull through the asteroids."

  A map of the nearest sectors of the Kir Belt materialized on the screen behind Wills. The Alliance base was marked in green and sat alone in empty space. Alliance command had picked the asteroid primarily for the cave network that required minimal modifications to make it a habitable base. The clear entry and exit were a nice bonus. The clear space around it would become a liability if the Imperials got close though. A nice open free-fire zone against any Alliance craft attempting to flee or attack.

  "Fortunately we've got a lot of built-in surprises for them, and we still had enough warning to set up defenses in their path." The map zoomed out behind him. Further out from the base, in the direction of the gas giant Aldrin and its many moons, over a dozen asteroids floated close together. "Admiral Banerjee has chosen to meet them at the Douglass Cluster. Going over, under, or around it will cost the Imperials hours if not days, time enough for us to bug out. They're probably under a lot of pressure from their own bosses if not the Emperor himself to retaliate for the Achilles and Sarpedon, so the admiral thinks they'll choose speed even if it means more losses."