Colin’s eyes went wide. “You’re lying,” he protested, unwilling to believe it. Daria had been a comrade since before the first mutinies, the person who had introduced them to the Geeks, the Nerds and so many others. She had been a part of the Provisional Government and… and if Colin and so many others had died, she would have been the only person left of any statue. “Why?”
“Don’t you get it?” Gwendolyn said. She broke down into a bitter laugh. “She’s the missing Empress. She always has been. And now she’s clearing the path to the throne.”
She collapsed into helpless laughter.
Colin stared at her, stunned.
Chapter Forty-One
Being on the massive orbital fortress was just like coming home. Charlie had anticipated that there would be all kinds of changes, as there had been at Earth, or on the starships of the Shadow Fleet, but instead the routines were almost the same. The enlisted men and women, which included both himself and Sasha, were assigned to a maintenance pool, with orders to do as they were told and otherwise be seen, but never heard. The Empire had never invested much in educating the enlisted men and women and, when not on duty, they tended to do as they pleased.
Admiral Wilhelm, it seemed, had decided against democratising his fleet. It made sense from one position — there had been starships that had tried to join the Shadow Fleet that had had to vote on going into battle or not — but it was also a weakness. Charlie would have bet good money that the fortress actually had a lower efficiency rating than the Shadow Fleet’s starships, where ideas and contributions from the lower ranks and enlisted men were actively encouraged. They certainly wouldn’t have moved enlisted men around from fortress to fortress, breaking up friendships before they could form and preventing the men from developing any loyalty to their fortress. It might have prevented conspiracies from developing — although it had proved surprisingly unsuccessful at that — but it also hampered the planet’s defences.
Midshipman Quinn had performed his task perfectly. Enlisted men and women were normally housed in the barracks on a first-come, first-served basis, but he had ensured that all of the conspirators were sleeping in the same place. It made sharing information, once the handful of bugs had been located and neutralised, much easier, while they could plan their next step in some comfort. Charlie had been relieved to discover that Quinn was genuinely liked and respected by most of the enlisted men, rather than acting like a tyrant or a boy afraid of his own shadow. That was a rarity in the pre-revolution Imperial Navy, but the Midshipmen and women who listened to the enlisted men tended to go further in the fleet before they hit the glass ceiling. It was amazing just how much the enlisted men picked up in their long careers.
The other advantage of being enlisted men and women was that very few senior officers really paid attention to them. “We kept an eye on the armoury as you instructed,” one of the enlisted men said. Charlie hadn’t been introduced to him and had refrained from accessing his file in the computer databanks. What he didn’t know, he couldn’t tell, if everything fell apart. “There are two guards, both reprogrammed SD Troopers, and of course there’s the computer locks.”
Charlie dismissed the second concern at once. The Empire’s persistent refusal to develop any form of AI ensured that their computers were stupid enough to accept anyone whose details were on the authorised list. Quinn, or himself for that matter, would have no difficulty accessing the armoury once the guards were removed, allowing them to take over the fortress. The fortress had been carefully studied and, like a starship, most of its monstrous bulk was irrelevant to its operations. Once they’d taken the command centre, the power generators and the life support systems, the remainder of the crew could surrender or die. With the armoury, the only source of weapons on the fortress, in rebel hands, they wouldn’t be able to offer resistance. If all of the fortresses fell at once, if the plan worked perfectly, Cottbus would have the choice between surrender or being bombarded into submission. If the plan didn’t work perfectly, the resulting chaos would still weaken Admiral Wilhelm’s rear area.
“Good,” Quinn said. He shared a long look with Sasha. “I think it’s time to go now.”
He led the way as the small group headed down through the corridors, looking for the entire world as if they were just another bunch of enlisted men, carrying the standard toolboxes of their trade. It was amazing how many components on a fortress failed on a regular basis and few of the enlisted men knew how to repair them, if repair was even possible. The vast majority of failed or defective components would have to be replaced. It was, in fact, the main task of the enlisted men. They had access to almost everywhere on the station and hardly anyone would even think to question them.
Sloppy, he thought, tiredly. It was a security weakness that Colin, and hundreds of others, had taken ruthless advantage of to launch his mutiny. It was a weakness that was inherent in the way the Empire did business, but Admiral Wilhelm, for all his bombast and tactical competency, couldn’t change it. The culture the Imperial Navy had encouraged, to strengthen their own position, meant that that couldn’t even question their own preconceptions. Enlisted men were harmless, stupid and barely competent. Everyone knew that…
The armoury itself was in the heart of the fortress’s security zone. It should have been manned by Marines, who would generally use it for their own training simulations, but Admiral Wilhelm had moved all of his fleet’s Marines to other postings. Charlie hoped that they were alive, wherever they were, but they would have represented a clear and present danger to Admiral Wilhelm’s survival. Colin had worked with his ship’s Marines to take the ship, but Admiral Wilhelm wouldn’t have such links, would he? The safest course of action would be to kill them all.
He pushed Quinn to the rear, insisting on Sasha and himself leading the way towards the reprogrammed SD Troopers, who watched them with dull unconcern. Admiral Wilhelm’s mind techs had reprogrammed them with a complete lack of concern for the consequences, or their own later well being. SD Troopers were completely expendable. Everyone knew that. They were loathed, hated and feared all over the Empire, men — always men, no women — who had been altered to serve the Empire without question. They committed horrendous atrocities without batting an eyelid, looting, raping and burning their way across any world that had displeased the Empire. They had no consciences. They’d been burned out of them.
“You may not enter this area,” the lead SD said, lifting a plasma rifle to firing position. He was slow, too slow, and Charlie caught him with his knife. The SD didn’t even have a chance to press the firing stud before Charlie cut his throat and sent his body falling to the ground. Sasha threw her knife directly into her SDs head and sent him staggering back against the bulkhead. He was dead before he hit the dead.
“Nicely done,” one of the enlisted men said.
Quinn looked sick. “Did… did you have to do that?”
“Yes,” Sasha said, flatly. “They would have killed all of us without hesitation if they had caught us doing something we shouldn’t be doing. They cannot be reasoned with, or converted to your cause, whatever they may have been in their previous lives.”
Charlie nodded, concentrating on opening the access hatch. The computers accepted his access codes and opened for him, allowing him to step into the armoury. It was loaded with hundreds of weapons, including enough heavy weapons to outfit an entire Marine division. Puzzled, he inspected it carefully, trying to understand why they were there. No one in their right mind would fire such weapons onboard a fortress — the incidental damage would be too great — and there was little point in keeping them in orbit. They were designed for use on the surface of the planet.