“I was planning to have you kick ass at Luna Base and get them to assign us more experienced crewmen,” the Admiral informed her. “But you’re not in any shape for a proper argument. Instead, I want you to start devising tactical problems based on what you’ve seen from the rebels. Make sure you give them as many advantages as possible.”
Penny nodded. Tactical simulations — the ones that weren’t planned out in advance — frequently gave the enemy advantages that they shouldn’t have in real life. Missile broadsides might be larger, individual missiles might be faster; in theory, practicing against a stronger opponent was good practice for fighting a real enemy. But most live-fire exercises were carefully planned to ensure the right side won. Nothing was left to chance.
She smiled. Maybe Admiral Wachter would insist on holding a random exercise, inviting his subordinates to actually compete. It might teach them more than they’d learn otherwise.
“After that, I want you to start thinking about what other surprises the rebels might come up with,” the Admiral added. “I suspect that they will have full access to the Geeks and Nerds — they’ve always been trying to push the limits of the possible. What else might they be able to devise to give themselves an unfair advantage?”
Penny considered it. Arsenal ships weren’t a real innovation — she had no doubt that the ships could be duplicated — but the Admiral was right. The Geeks had always pushed the limits and the rebels had every interest in encouraging them. After all, they knew that they were still massively outgunned by the Empire. If they could come up with something completely new, it might prove disastrous.
And the Empire, as a general rule, didn’t encourage innovation. Why should it, Penny asked, when the Thousand Families already had everything they wanted? But there were always scientists trying to push the limits, no matter what discouragement was thrown at them. The Geeks might just have a lead on the Empire.
“Yes, sir,” she said, again. She looked up at the holographic display, silently calculating ship transit times. The rebels would have to knock out a dozen bases before they reached Morrison, she suspected. “I won’t let you down.”
Admiral Wachter reached out and squeezed her shoulder. If Percival had done it, she knew, it would have been unpleasant. But Admiral Wachter seemed genuinely supportive.
“I know you won’t,” he assured her. “Have fun.”
Compared to Percival, Penny decided over the following weeks, Admiral Wachter was a brilliant commanding officer. The cynical side of her mind pointed out that anyone would seem brilliant compared to Percival, but it seemed harder and harder to maintain her detachment when the Admiral was genuinely caring. He didn’t object to her occasional trips to sickbay; he even ensured she had enough time to recover every time she suffered a panic attack.
It wasn’t just her, too. The Admiral cared for the entire crew. He might have conscripted men and women, but he’d ensured that they didn’t simply vanish into the Navy. They had permission to send messages to their families, collect their pay and all the other little details that made it easier for them to settle in. Penny still worried about a mutiny, particularly among the conscripts, but nothing materialised. But then, there were few places less conductive to a mutiny than Earth.
Home Fleet was not in good shape, she realised, after she started reading the reports from the Admiral’s repair crews. Half of the superdreadnaughts had real problems going to full power, let alone leaving the Sol System. The smaller ships were in better state, but a number of ships in the reserve were effectively nothing more than dead hulks. They’d been cannibalised to keep the other ships functional.
“It will be worse at Morrison,” Admiral Wachter predicted, as they made their final preparations for departure. Several repairs would have to be carried out while the ships were in flight. “But at least we can purge officers there. Their patrons will be hundreds of light years away. By the time they find out their clients have been purged, it will be too late.”
Penny smiled. After years spent wrestling with the supply department under Percival, she couldn’t wait. The bureaucrats were in for a nasty surprise.
Chapter Four
“I think they’re on the alert.”
Commodore Adeeba Hamil nodded in agreement as the light freighter drifted towards the giant station orbiting Mars. The Imperial Navy had deployed several squadrons of light cruisers to screen the planet, with a squadron of superdreadnaughts in reserve. Others, according to the civilian-grade sensors mounted on the freighter, were gathering near Jupiter, preparing to go to war.
“It looks that way,” she said. Colin would have to be warned of the enemy formation, but they wouldn’t be going back to Jackson’s Folly for months. “Are you sure we can get down to Mars?”
“As long as the DNA reprofiling worked, you should be fine,” the smuggler assured him. He’d introduced himself as Fred, when they’d made contact at the independent asteroid; he’d assured them that it was easier to reach Earth by contacting the underground on Mars. “If it didn’t…”
He let her fill out the rest of the details for herself. Adeeba had been a Commander in the Imperial Navy — and one of the original mutineers at Jackson’s Folly. Her DNA pattern was registered within the Navy’s databanks, along with everyone else who had ever even considered joining the Navy. If the reprofiling had failed, she would be caught the moment the inspectors tested her DNA. And, at that point, the implants in her head would kill her.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” she said. She’d always been happier on the command deck of a starship, but there were only a handful of rebels with any experience of Earth. Colin hadn’t had many choices when the time came to pick envoys to Earth’s underground. “And if we’re not, you can plead innocent and pay bribes.”
“Maybe,” Fred groused. “But I will be in deep shit anyway.”
Adeeba nodded, running her hand through her long dark hair. She’d grown up on Earth, experiencing enough along the way to convince her that the Empire was neither fair nor reasonable when it felt that it’s security was threatened. Fred would probably be held responsible for shipping them to Mars, even if he hadn’t had the slightest idea who they were or what they represented. It wasn’t just her and Neil who were at risk, but the Mars Underground itself.
She looked up as Colonel Neil Frandsen entered the compartment. The Marine was trying to slouch, but it wasn’t working very well. There was no mistaking the extensive discipline that had been hammered into the former Imperial Marine, or the fact he was a very dangerous and experienced man. Like Adeeba, he’d seen the dark side of the Empire and had been unable to remain silent. And, just like her, he was risking a fate worse than death if they were caught.
“I’ve got our papers ready,” Frandsen informed her. “Everything has been checked and checked again.”
“Just don’t forget your lines,” Fred advised them, as the freighter advanced towards the station. “One mistake, right now, and they will interrogate you extensively. Unless, of course, you pay them a bribe.”
Adeeba rolled her eyes. Mars was humanity’s oldest colony world, home to nearly five billion humans, most of them living in the teeming rat warrens under the terraformed landscape. Like Earth, corruption and decay were a fact of life. There was so much competition between the families that ran the planet that there was no room for the ordinary citizens to gain power, let alone independence. No wonder, she decided, that there was an underground on Mars.