Starbound by Dave Bara

Author:Dave Bara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2015-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

I saw Prince Benn’s “distraction” from the air about an hour later. A large tanker loaded with fuel had gone down at an airfield about thirty kilometers outside New Vee, in the zone controlled by the Regency forces. The crater it left and the smoke from the crash were visible kilometers into the air. As we looked out the windows black smoke billowed from the massive wound in the ground. I hoped silently that the plane had been unpiloted when it went down.

We all strapped in securely as our convoy made a high-speed approach to the Loyalist-controlled Aspern airfield. We barely slowed as we hit the ground rolling, the VTOL aspects of our plane abandoned in favor of speed. We rolled directly and at an uncomfortable speed into a large military hangar protected by tanks, coil cannons, and missile batteries, then disembarked quickly. The prince and his entourage got into an armored military vehicle and we—Dobrina, Colonel Babayan, and I—followed in the second group. I filled in Dobrina and Babayan on the situation report as it had been conveyed to me by the prince. Both had strong opinions as we convoyed along the city streets of New Vee, presumably to the grand duke’s palace.

“Prince Benn can’t abandon the Union. It’s our only hope for the future,” Dobrina insisted as we were driven to the palace.

“I agree,” replied Babayan. “But I’m Carinthian first. I want to see our world protected from harm, and a civil war would cause plenty of harm.”

“You can’t protect Carinthia by isolating us from Quantar and Earth. We could easily fall under the influence of the old empire again, and I’ll be goddamned if I’ll allow that!” Dobrina said, her voice rising.

“I understand, but—”

“Look, you both swore an oath to the Union,” I cut in, “and right now your commissions are with the Union Navy, of which I am the highest ranking official on this mission. We will act in the Union’s best interests. If you have a problem with that, you can resign your commission to me now, or agree to follow my orders on this.”

“I don’t want to resign,” said Babayan after a moment’s hesitation.

“Good,” I said. “Then we’re all in this together, and we have to stay together. Agreed?”

They both nodded and replied “agreed” at the same time.

“Thank you. Now the bigger question is, what happens next? Prince Benn wants me off Carinthia for political reasons, and I can’t say I don’t feel the same way after the welcome I received here. How are our communications with the Union Navy, Lena?” I asked.

“Not good,” she said. “The last time I was in the staff office here was two days ago, and communication was intermittent and not considered secure. High Stations One and Two are controlled by forces loyal to Arin’s pseudo-Regency, and they routinely block longwave and diplomatic packets to High Station Three, which is controlled by Loyalist forces. Any hope of getting help in or a signal out to the longwave ansibles is moot at this point.

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