Interstellar Incident: An Alicia Jones Novel 02 Read online

  He leaned back in his chair a little, “As long as you’re here, I’m curious, could you tell me why Earth is building so big a fleet. At last numbers, they had… over three hundred I believe.”

  Ah, now the lenience made sense. Talk and I’ll send you home with a slap on the wrist, don’t talk and… I wasn’t sure what the second part was yet, but I needed to be careful. Immediately after I had that thought, I wondered why it took them so long to come get me, surely they caught this earlier. It occurred to me that this might well be the true reason I was in the room, so they could question me about Earth’s intentions.

  “Defense, and exploration. But mostly defense,” I said quite truthfully.

  He frowned, “But what about your allies, surely such a buildup seems rather overdone.”

  I shrugged, “What happened at Leira upset some people, we are at the edge of the empire the same way they are, just the opposite side. Suppose we’re attacked by someone else that lives toward the rim of the galaxy outside the empire? What if the new folks aren’t interested in simply taking control like the Seltan but would destroy our world? I’m sure the Knomen and our other allies would come, but by then it might be too late. From what I understand Alnot is building up a lot more as well, the rim worlds are at higher risk after all.”

  It sounded reasonable, and it was all true. I just hadn’t mentioned that on the list of people we needed to protect ourselves from, the Knomen were at the top. He knew I hadn’t lied, but he also knew I was shading things. I knew that because I can see that in people too. It just wasn’t convenient at the moment, for me I mean. I threw out one more bone reluctantly, hoping he’d see that as what I had been hiding earlier.

  “We also intend to explore of course, and we’ll need enough ships to protect any new systems we find that can be legally claimed.”

  He frowned and leaned forward, “Let me be blunt, do you, or Earth, have any intention of attacking Knomen?”

  “No,” I answered back unequivocally. And we wouldn’t, not unless it was in self-defense.

  We didn’t want to take over the empire or anything stupid like that, what a headache that would be. It would be a nightmare, we just wanted to go our own way, and maybe make our own allies farther out toward the rim. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t be able to trade with anyone anymore in the empire.

  He frowned, “What aren’t you telling me Alicia?”

  Damn, he didn’t go for it, so I just sat there not sure what to say. I couldn’t say nothing, I’d only be proving I had something to hide. Kind of a damned if I do, damned if I don’t situation. Still, saying nothing seemed to be the only thing that came to my mind, since the silence dragged out for a while, until the room felt… stifling.

  The emperor blew out his breath, “Carl, find somewhere for my cousin to rest and think things over, perhaps she’ll be more willing to tell us in a week or two.”

  A week or two? Well at least I didn’t have to worry about torture.

  Carl said, “Yes Sire,” and stood up.

  I was taken down the hallway and down a stairwell underground. I almost laughed, were they putting me in a dungeon? Not quite, but I was underground, behind a very solid looking metal door. It was also the nicest jail cell I’d ever seen. It had a firm but soft mattress that felt really good to lie on, like a foam memory mattress or something. It also had a full bathroom with all the amenities, with a privacy wall and door.

  I hadn’t been expecting this at all, and I had a suspicion I shouldn’t have been quite so critical in front of my grandmother. She was too kind and honestly so, but perhaps she’d turned me in without a second thought. It wasn’t easy, but with concentration I could control my emotions to the point of making me feel a specific one, and Elira had been an agent.

  Suddenly I wondered if she really was a kind grandmother, or just a superb agent who’d faked it. I hoped I was just overthinking it, maybe the emperor was just overly suspicious, and we did have over three hundred ships now. Hopefully… they wouldn’t move for a while on anything.

  I created some messages, including the trial footage, explaining what I did and why, and sent it to the usual list of people. Then I read through my vice admiral’s reports, and just for fun, the upper admirals as well, just to take an independent pulse of things. Things were going well, of course, all we were doing was building and training, there was no real threat yet.

  I looked at production numbers, the third run of the new ships was almost done. That would make ninety-six battle cruisers, and twelve carriers each carrying eighty combat shuttles each, so nine sixty. That didn’t even count the twenty shuttles in each battlecruiser, which was another nineteen twenty. Add the three hundred older battlecruisers we’d already had… It just wasn’t enough, I had a feeling I’d be stuck here for a while. Another month we’ll add a hundred sixty battlecruisers, and twenty carriers with thirty-eight hundred combat shuttles. At that point, our numbers will be good enough taking into account missile boats and stationary emplacements. It was probably enough, as long as we didn’t leave our solar system for at least a year while we finished building up our home fleet.

  I knew I was erring on the side of caution, by a lot, but to fail meant losing Earth so it wasn’t an option.

  Actually, if our combat shuttles did as good as I believed they would, we probably wouldn’t have to build up so high, maybe just make a greater ration of carriers, maybe four to one, instead of eight to one. I made a note of that and sent it to the vice admirals, curious what their advice would be. Either way we probably shouldn’t make a change until we see how they actually perform. They were deadly little things now, especially against an enemy in FTL, but not in FTL they just didn’t have the throw weight of a battlecruiser. I think I just talked myself out of the change, and cancelled my message.

  Either way, I guessed I’d have to sit here at least a month before getting the green light to try and escape. It shouldn’t be too hard, they left me all my toys, and Al can bring me a shuttle easily enough.

  I also took a moment to go over Carmine’s, Shelly’s and Caroline’s research status. Caroline was getting closer, but she wasn’t quite there yet. Shelly and Carmine were about where they were a few weeks ago, working hard but not getting a breakthrough yet.

  I sighed, and then sent more personal messages to Kristi and Nathan. I missed both of them, although for very different reasons of course. Then… I brought up Netflix in a virtual window, and watched a couple of movies…

  Chapter 12

  I hated my jail cell after a week, but only on principal. It felt like a comfy hotel room. I’d even talked them into bringing me a coffee maker and a snack bar of sorts. I was also able to command as easily from here as I did my bridge, with the exception of the personal contact that is. I couldn’t really feel how Kristi was doing, or my admirals, everything was through virtual meetings. I was also careful to subvocalize just in case my room was bugged.

  Carl came in a few times the next week, trying to get me to talk. I played the name and number card, and so far no torture. They were even feeding me really well. I compiled a projection of what our resources would be in three weeks which would be the one-month point I was in prison, I explained how we’d be able to defend at that point, and hoped they’d approve the breakout plan I’d also attached.

  I’d stay here if I had to, if they said no, it was more important to prevent another stone age on earth, rather than getting me out of a jail cell.

  But I was pretty sure at that point we’d be okay, unless they had something we didn’t know about, that would rip through us like paper. But if that were true, it wouldn’t matter if we waited another nine more months to get home fleet up to full strength, which was two thousand ships. We’d be doomed regardless.

  Kristi did her best to cheer me up during that month I waited, but I could see she was worried about me. Nathan called more than a few times as well over that time. Like I said, it wasn’t that bad. I was going stir crazy in one room, but it could have
been so much worse. I even got to be productive with my two jobs, since not only did I have time to review my employees work, I looked into those up close scans of the black hole my probes started gathering a few days ago. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was telling me yet, or even if it would lead to anything besides educational information.

  There was nothing wrong with that of course, I just preferred to focus on things that had practical applications, and might make a difference in peoples’ lives.

  It was about three days after my first full month in my comfy jail that I got approval for my breakout plan. Apparently the vice admirals I’d promoted completely agreed with me, we’d either defend, or be so badly outclassed that waiting wouldn’t have made a difference. General Denton agreed as well, so the USFS board gave me the green light on my escape plan, and William told me in a private message to give the Knomen the finger on the way out.

  I sent some commands to Al, and my personal combat shuttle launched and headed this way. I didn’t want to risk lives on a rescue, plus the thing would get here in a day, that was half a day faster than the quickest Knomen vessel I’d seen, and three times faster than the speed of Carl’s shuttle. Or at least, his apparent top speed. Hopefully that and a little luck would enable me to escape. If it did fail, I hoped it would fail on the way to the planet… before I got on the thing.

  Carl came in early then next morning, a few hours before my shuttle would get here, and watched me for a moment before speaking. I decided to beat him to it.

  “Are you finally letting me return to Earth?” I asked in an annoyed voice. I knew we wanted to leave communication open with the Knomen, Earth didn’t want war, but his presence and questions were really getting on my nerves.

  Carl raised an eyebrow, “Actually talking today? Why don’t you just tell us what we want to know?”

  I shrugged, “Why do you have to know every little thing? I already told you Earth has no intention of attacking you, or anyone else in the Empire. Is that not enough? Would you like to root through my closet? I’ll even give you a good look at my kitchen junk drawer, it’s full of all kinds of interesting things. Scissors, tape, thumb tacks, all that stuff.”

  He frowned and I could tell he completely missed the point of my diatribe.

  “You told me that first day we met, that you didn’t care about anything we did in the confines of our solar system, so why all this? Surely all the races have their own secrets. I’m the fleet admiral of Earth’s unified fleet, the information is not for me to dole out, and you and my cousin are holding me without charges of any kind. Does that even matter to you? Have you even considered asking the leaders of Earth your questions?”

  He shook his head, “You are part of the Knomen family, you’re required to answer…”

  I stopped him with my hand up.

  “No, I’m not. I chose and my loyalty goes to Earth. I’m not opposed to having a family relationship with any of you, I’m not looking for enemies or trying to be difficult, but Earth is where I was born and my chosen planet, it doesn’t make me a built in spy for you or his majesty. If he needs to banish me because of that, fine, but I don’t have to answer those questions.”

  He looked… really annoyed. My lips twitched. I wasn’t really trying to be a pain, but I was hardly crying about the fact it was working out that way.

  He sighed, “Even if that were true, as a member of the Empire you’d still have to answer our questions.”

  I raised an eyebrow, “Really? So all that stuff you said about, do what you want to in your own solar system was just crap? What else have you lied about? Our solar system is sovereign, I don’t have to answer shit about what we do there, and Knomen law backs up my position, does it not?”

  He growled, “I liked it better when you weren’t talking at all.”

  I snickered as he stormed out. Way to be political Alicia. Damnit.

  It was quiet for a while after that, but he was back about fifteen minutes before my shuttle would arrive. I’d estimated they’d have figured out where it was from and where it was going a lot sooner, but maybe they got a new sensor officer who was a little clueless, or something.

  He stood stiffly after entering, “Why is there a shuttle from Earth inbound?”

  I smiled, “It’s here to pick me up of course. You wouldn’t take me home so I had to get my own ride.”

  He shook his head, “You can’t leave, not until we release you.”

  I sighed, “Might as well tell you the truth now, it doesn’t matter anymore. You see, when I bought that tech from Tressia, I was also searching for the truth. The truth of the Empire. We read all about how you double talked yourselves into putting several civilizations back in the stone age. The truth of the Empire is that you suppress dangerous civilizations, but also the peaceful ones if they happen to be independent.

  “On Earth we would call that being a control freak, you fear losing control. So anyone that doesn’t welcome the Empire with open arms is automatically suspect. I said and meant we would never attack you, but I left out the part that the large fleet defending Earth is also there to defend against the Knomen Empire if you should attack us. That was the only thing I left out.

  “I imagine right now your Emperor is receiving a communication to that effect, we are pulling out, and going our own way. We’ll respect your laws, stay out of your space if you ask it, or we can be friends, even allies, but that’s entirely up to the Empire. We did pick your good rules, we’ll leave primitive civilizations alone, even protect them. But we will be exploring toward the rim at our own pace.”

  He hadn’t interrupted me, and he looked at me coldly when I finished, “That would be a mistake, and do you really think we’ll let you leave now?”

  I shrugged, “You should, as of now you’re holding a representative of a neutral foreign power against her will. One might even call it an act of war if something was to happen to me.”

  I could tell that didn’t register at all, and I was afraid it was inevitable that they would attack Earth. They wouldn’t get it until they got a bloody nose, and possibly not even then. It wasn’t arrogance on their part, or at least not just arrogance, he and the empire by extension, simply couldn’t conceive of not getting their way or being obeyed. All my speeches about self-determination and rights… I might as well have been talking to a rock.

  I thought for a moment that he might attack me, but he turned and stormed out. I had a little over five minutes before my ride got here, so I got to work. The metal door was sturdy, but applying two hundred gravities at the right angle, and it was ripped right out of the wall. There were no guards outside the room either. Were they always so… blasé about security or was it because I was part of the royal family?

  After all, it would be rude if I tried to escape. Maybe even cause a fine. Okay, I knew I was getting a little sarcastic in my head but I couldn’t help it.

  I made it down the underground hall and up the stairs, and halfway down the hall to an exit before I ran into anyone. It was two of those guys with no sense of humor. They pulled some kind of weapon and pointed it at me.

  “Freeze!”

  I subvocalized instructions to Al, and applied some gravity to the situation. I didn’t pull them down though, I slowly ramped up to six gravities sideways, and they were both stuck against the wall, their arms pinned down. One of them managed to bend their wrist and shoot at me anyway, and I was hit by some kind of energy burst, but my EM shield bustier deflected it easily.

  Once I walked past them, they couldn’t stop me, of course the field would release them when I got sixty feet away, the maximum range of the device, and the door outside was eighty feet or so away. So I ran as fast as I could and burst out the door, I took a couple of hits on my back, but my shield held and I raced into the trees. I could hear a pursuit, but I managed to keep my lead, and when I stumbled into a clearing I called Al, and my shuttle was there a few seconds later.

  I hopped on, and we were in space and in FTL and racing f
rom their solar system in a few eye blinks. I was pretty sure that meant Al hadn’t been worried about breaking the sound barrier, and laughed a little hysterically at the thought. I’m sure there’d be a fine for that… loud noises were bad.

  I breathed out a sigh of relief, I had been half afraid they’d take me down with automated defenses. Maybe they’d been too arrogant to think I could escape? So they hadn’t warned anyone about the incoming shuttle? I brought up a status screen, there were thirty ships following me.

  Although twenty of them were falling behind fast, they were going about two thirds the speed I was, which was what I’d expected. It was the other ten, who seemed to have no trouble keeping up but weren’t catching up either, that concerned me. I ran some scans on their field configurations. They’re faster ships were more like my bustier than my shuttle.

  Let me explain that.

  The old or original way, was to wrap the ship up in one spiraled superconductor and create a field. The improvements I made were the long tubes, making it several overlapping and combining fields. Which both made it immune to the anti-mass particle weapon, strengthened the EM shields by about five times, and increased the ship’s speed by fifty percent.

  But when I made the protection suit the newer way, it had been bulky, and shaped as required, which is to say not at all humanlike. More like an oval tube. So I created the new set up, with thousands of pinpoint shields. The difference was between a group of poles, or a lot of small beads equidistant apart which allowed the field… and the suit, to conform to the curves of a human body.

  Thus satisfying my vanity.

  That last part was how their faster ships were configured, a lot of very tiny pinpoint fields all combined together. I did some math, and the benefit of doing it that way, compared to poles, as far as speed and power of the shield was negligible. The only solid benefit I could see was if one of my poles failed, the two surrounding it would compensate with more power, but there was a limit, if two poles failed concurrently the EM and anti-mass field would be very weak on that side, of course the chances of that happening were slim.