Loyalty to the Cause (TCOTU, Book 4) (This Corner of the Universe) Read online

  Loyalty to the Cause

  By Britt Ringel

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  LOYALTY TO THE CAUSE

  Copyright © 2014 by Britt Ringel

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  K—My Love, Always

  Author’s Acknowledgments

  First and foremost, thank you Karen for all of the time you devote to this endeavor. It’s unlikely that our readers know just how big a part you are in all this but I know and that counts for something.

  Mom, thank you for your unending support.

  Carol, I can’t believe how many things you caught while editing that we missed. I apologize if I’m making you cross-eyed with all my mistakes but it’s nice to know that you’ll catch them.

  Law, as always, your input is invaluable. You take on the characters that I often marginalize. I’ve come to think of you as their champion. Brewer thanks you (yet somehow belittles you in the same sentence).

  Derek, you were a machine in this book. I’ve never been beaten over the head with so many “hads” and “ands” in my life. Thank you for that! Oh, and you also gave me some tremendous help phrasing sentences in ways I would have never thought of by myself. Just one more to go.

  A BIG thank you to Orpheus7 on DeviantArt. It’s his incredible work that created Elathra. If you enjoy this book, a big part is due to his generosity and talent. His work inspires me and, frankly, I can’t see Elathra as any other starship than what he created. Please check out his profile at DeviantArt (it’s amazing): http://orpheus7.deviantart.com/gallery/. It’s certainly worth it.

  Speaking of generosity, I owe much to the owner of http://all-silhouettes.com/. His creativity and support for independent artists made the Order of Battle visual possible. It goes a long way in helping the readers keep track of a complicated battle. He also does more than star ship silhouettes. You may want to click the link and see everything he offers.

  I didn’t include any system maps in this novel but I still want to acknowledge the software program, Universe Sandbox Creators. I actually did create the Anthe, New London, and Erriapius star systems while writing the book and they were of great help to me personally. The maps may not appear in the book but you can see them on my website. Thanks for supporting independent authors, Universe Sandbox Creators! If you have any interest in how star systems work, you should look at their website: http://universesandbox.com.

  The last acknowledgment goes to you. If you’re reading this, it probably means you’ve read the first three books and have stuck with me now for over a year. I am humbled by the reviews and comments I have received from you or read on Amazon and Barnes&Noble. The things you write mean a lot to me. And I really do take them to heart. Thank you. I hope this book is a worthy addition to the series.

  For more maps, layouts and information regarding the books in the TCOTU series, please visit http://www.thiscorneroftheuniverse.com.

  Contents

  Colossus-Class Snow

  Galactic Map

  Order of Battle

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Elathra Organizational Chart

  Lesser Magellanic Corporate System Zone

  Officer Ranks of the Terran Navies

  Colossus-Class Snow

  Armed Vessel - Elathra

  Tonnage: 3,480 tonnes

  Length: 107 meters (351 feet)

  Beam: 22 meters (72 feet)

  Draft: 29 meters (95 feet)

  Crew Complement: 65 (8 Officers, 57 Enlisted)

  Armament: 2 Bredalin neutron particle cannons, 2 Lyle Dual General Purpose (GP) pulse lasers, 4 Blackings laser carronades

  Drive: 4 Junkkers-Dalmer -213A1 drives powered by Kuritan 910 power plant

  Sensors: Standard Blue-Suns sensor suite, Twin Argus VSP-14 “Fisheye” Array

  Defenses: Duralloy armor, Endrix AIPS Screen

  Galactic Map

  Order of Battle

  Prologue

  A wide wall screen inlaid into Envoy-3’s outer corridor translated the light from Anthe’s M8V red star to yellow. Long shadows followed the Internal Security troopers and their prisoner as they walked past the view. The captive looked furtively at the vast, open expanse of space on the screen, a sharp contrast to the tiny cell that had been her home for the last forty-eight hours. An armored hand reached out and grasped her right arm to signal the arrival at their destination, a door bearing the simple title “Interview Room Beta.”

  Locking mechanisms rotated inside the portal and the door noiselessly slid open. Komandor Podporucznik Isabella Lombardi stood defiantly immobile at the threshold, moving into the room only after feeling a forceful shove against the small of her back. Reaching twin chairs at a conference table, she thrust her magnetically bound hands toward one of her escorts, who made no move to release her prisoner identification bracelets. Instead, a firm hand guided her into one of the small, metal chairs. The I.S. guard then pulled her restrained hands to the conference tabletop and Lombardi felt powerful magnetic forces lock her wrists to the surface. She tried to lean back but found she had been secured just far enough forward to not be able to reach the back of the chair. Sighing, she sat bolt upright but realized her position would become quickly uncomfortable. Her escorts turned and left, leaving her solely in the accompaniment of the cameras mounted in the corners of the chamber.

  The last two days seemed more like years to Lombardi. She had fled with Kapitan Marco Romano and Starzy Sierzant Nilis Vidic to a lifeboat before her heavy cruiser, Phoenix, had bared its core to Engineering. The immense relief of escaping certain death was tainted with the knowledge that a large portion of her Hollaran crew had not been as lucky. Staring at Phoenix’s white fireball on the lifeboat’s monitors had been like looking at a funeral pyre for hundreds of her shipmates. Her morose thoughts drifted to her departed first officer and mentor, Anatoly Valokov. At least he is at peace. All of them are… now. The exact number comprising “them” remained a mystery to Lombardi in her captivity.

  Making matters worse, the heavy cruiser, BRS Claymore, and its insufferably arrogant captain had recovered her lifeboat. Lombardi weathered the indignity of her personal encounter with the condescending Brevic ship commander considerably well thanks to a mixture of combat shock and grief over the loss of her crew. Durin
g Claymore’s twenty-minute voyage to the Anthe space station near the system’s habitable planet of Pallene, Lombardi conspired with her shipmates while Phoenix’s chief medical officer, Komandor August Timoleon, performed rudimentary first aid on Romano’s injured thigh. Upon docking with the Anthe orbital, Lombardi was immediately separated from her crew and interned in a two-meter by two-meter cell. Her only respite from the drab environment had been a brief interview with a supposed Brevic representative of the Anthe system, prior to her current excursion to Envoy-3.

  The portal to Interview Room Beta slid open to reveal an aging man, perhaps in his late sixties. His clothes were plain but their quality bespoke of someone with refined taste and desires. The grey-haired man nodded humbly as he took his place opposite Lombardi. He smiled and began, “Hello, my friend. I believe I have made some progress on one of the many requests you had during your first interview.”

  “Surely you mean ‘interrogation,’ Mr. Angelo,” Lombardi replied bitterly while returning his smile. She ached to call the man by his real name, Brewer, and end his charade as a low-level civilian assistant to the Brevic Navy instead of the head of the Bureau of Internal Security and one of only three secretaries under the Minister of Intelligence. However, she knew revealing her knowledge would only serve her enemy. “Where is the lackey you first had speak to me and why am I even remotely surprised that the ‘Vics continue to refuse to abide by the Laws of Armed Conflict.”

  Brewer shrugged in a manner suggesting an apology. “You must understand that our navy’s position is that your ship violated Brevic space under the guise of a false truce. They maintain this negates your crew’s status as prisoners of war under LOAC.”

  Lombardi felt anger welling inside her. She tried to resist the surge but failed. “Your troopers invaded my ship! We simply defended sovereign territory of the Hollaran Commonwealth. We did not even fire upon the ‘Vic ships stationed near us.” Lombardi knew this was a distortion of the facts. She had ordered Phoenix to fire but the Brevic ships had wisely moved out of range before the I.S. “Trojan horse” operation had commenced. It sounded convincing though.

  Brewer casually poured himself a drink from a pitcher of water on the table. Unlike the first interview, only a single glass rested on the alloy counter. “It is possible you may face trial without the protection of the Laws of Armed Conflict, Isabella,” Brewer stated gravely. “Of course, I am doing everything in my power to prevent that. However, you must give me something I can work with. My political masters insist on an official, public statement from you admitting Hollaran culpability in starting this war.”

  Lombardi’s melodic laugh filled the room. “‘Vic optimism always delights me. What could you possibly offer me in exchange for that?”

  “What you campaigned so hard for during the last interview. The status of your surviving crew.” Brewer let the statement settle in as he drank deeply from his glass.

  Lombardi shook her head even as her heart wrenched. “Not good enough. I would not even begin to consider such treason unless you returned all my remaining crew to the Commonwealth.” She contemplated her offer and added, “And then only after I have verified their return would I consider such a statement.” Lombardi’s eyes tracked Brewer’s glass as he drank, her lips curling upward involuntarily at the memory of the refreshment offered to her during the first interrogation.

  “Isabella, you ask for too much,” Brewer confided solemnly. “Between you and me, I am being pressured to initiate trials against your crew for what they are calling the murder of the innocent Brevic civilians. Innocents who were invited to your ship and then brutally slain by Hollaran treachery.” He feigned fear before giving an irritated look at the cameras behind him. “You must give me something to forestall this, Isabella,” he pleaded. “Do it for the sake of your crew! I’m just a junior manager for the Navy; you have to give me something that will make them listen to me.” He sighed dramatically as a look of remorse came over him and he slowly shook his head. “There are those who would see your crew treated horribly… I don’t wish to see more lives lost.”

  The display of false emotion impressed Lombardi. Does he believe his own lies? How else could he appear so sincere?

  “How did you know those shuttles carried armed troops, Isabella?” Brewer evaluated her intensely. “Did Commander Heskan warn you during that brief communique?”

  Lombardi’s face flushed red and the blood vessels in her neck began to bulge as she angrily spat, “Commander Heskan is a liar and I will kill him with my bare hands if I see him again. He lured my ship to your space under the deception that if we cooperated with his squadron we would be treated fairly by his government.” She leaned forward with eyes flashing and said, “The only thought that sustains me during these times is that if I survive, I might once again face him on a field of battle to exact my revenge.”

  Jaw muscles clenched tightly and her unadulterated look of hatred threatened to destroy her interrogator. Inwardly, she hoped her outburst was convincing. She knew that unlike the man in front of her, she was no sociopath and had great difficulty compartmentalizing her emotions. Lombardi held no illusion that she would ever see Heskan again but his final deed for Lombardi had given her the ultimate power over her captors. Phoenix’s destruction ensured her beloved ship would not yield any secrets to the enemy. Only Lombardi and her crew remained as potential sources of information and propaganda for the Republic. That fact buoyed her. The only additional advantage the ‘Vics can gain from this situation is what I give them.

  Brewer subconsciously rocked back from Lombardi’s vehemence and stated, “The next time we meet, Isabella, you must give me what I need or I might be forced to employ more aggressive forms of questioning. I hope to avoid that, but there is only so much I can do to protect you, unless you give me something.” The man stared deeply into her eyes to drive his chilling threat home.

  Lombardi exhaled wearily and nodded in fatal acceptance. “Mr. Angelo, I want very much to do so but you must convince your superiors that the key to everything they wish from me rests in the safe return of my crew. I would willingly stay in the Republic and confess to whatever lies your government desires but not before my crew is safely in the Commonwealth.”

  Brewer started shaking his head but Lombardi continued. “Imagine the boons I could give your Republic if I were to fully cooperate.” She smiled as she dangled the fruit in front of him. “And you would be the man who delivered such gains. I would make it well known that you, Sebastian, were the key to my cooperation. With the information I might reveal, what doors could that open for you?”

  Lombardi watched gears spin furiously behind the man’s eyes. “Mr. Angelo” had never told her his given name and she had just used his real identity. Careful, Isabella, you cannot afford to play this man’s game. He will rip you to shreds if you fence with him.

  After nearly a minute of inscrutable silence, Brewer stood. His voice was strained. “Make no mistake, Isabella, this is not a negotiation. The next time, you must offer something.” He moved through the room to the door, crossed the threshold and was swallowed by the closing portal.

  * * *

  “We’re missing something,” Brewer declared angrily as he entered Interview Room Beta’s observation chamber. “That bitch knows who I am! All this time she’s been toying with me.” He brought his hand down quickly as if he might slam his datapad onto the table in front of him but recovered and placed it gently on the surface. “How does she know who I am?” he asked while looking expectantly to his assistant. “What have you uncovered?”

  Assistant Secretary Jackson Neal nervously shook his head. “Nothing conclusive,” he mumbled apologetically. “Academy graduate at New Roma, top ten percent of her class but we’re missing the majority of her records from there. Her background is in Support, what we call Operations, where she demonstrated strong command aptitude. She assumed command of Phoenix at the age of twenty-nine after a two-year captaincy of a destroyer. She also has a
n early line number for promotion to komandor porucznik. This won’t be her first below-the-zone promotion.”

  “She took command of a destroyer in her mid-twenties?” Brewer repeated dubiously. “That’s too young.” His eyes tilted toward the ceiling. “If she commissioned at twenty-two, that means she’d have made Grade O-5 in only nine years. That’s too fast to be normal. She has leverage over someone up high, I can feel it.”

  “It would explain her arrogance,” Neal said in support while he subconsciously swept the location on his shirt that Lombardi had drenched with the “refreshment” he had offered her during her first interview.

  Brewer noticed the subtle gesture. He grumbled, “She avoids the traps nearly as fast as I can place them.” His wrinkled, right hand found the scar on his chin. “You need to discover who she has influence over in the Hollaran command system and then the dominos will start to fall.”

  Neal’s head dipped as he spoke. “Our people inside the Commonwealth are working to uncover all of her academy records. They’ve been very difficult to obtain so far but once we do, they’ll contain her academy recommendations. We’ll also have her childhood.”

  Brewer nodded in agreement. “She has something incriminating; someone in a high place is serving her. It all fits and once that piece of information is mine, she will serve me.” Brewer removed the earbud from his right ear. He cast the tiny device onto the table beside his datapad.

  “Some good news,” Neal offered. “The prisoner transport should arrive in a few weeks.”

  “It’s about damn time. The interrogation facilities on Titan will speed things along.”

  Neal arched an eyebrow and suggested, “You could always send her forward on Envoy-Three and catch up to her via the transport.”

  Brewer shook his head fiercely. “No, she is the key and she’s not leaving my sight. I won’t have Cromwell or Michaels steal my intelligence asset from underneath me this time. As long as I’m stuck in Anthe because of the Kite situation, she’s not leaving this star system.” He looked sharply at Neal. “Now update me on the escape of the pilots. Who was responsible for that fiasco?”