Fire on the Border by Kevin O'Donnell

Author:Kevin O'Donnell [O’donnell, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WordFire Press

Kajiwara looked up at Admiral Maria Graysun, a ninety-three-year-old woman with faded blue eyes and gray hair cropped recruit-short. “I want an explanation for your behavior, Admiral.” His anger did not show on his face, or in his voice, except perhaps to someone who had stood beside him through dozens of fleet maneuvers, but inwardly he raged.

“Sorry.” She paused just long enough to stoke his fury. “Sir.”

“Your division had custody of the New Dublin chips and did nothing with them, even though the information they contained might have saved tens of millions of lives. Why?”

“It’s classified. Sir.”

A silver light flashed on his desk. He reached, noticed that she watched intently, and pulled his hand back. “Dismissed, Admiral.” He would get nowhere with her anyway. He would have to take it up with her immediate superior, Over Commander Forwood.

“Thank you.” She did an about-face. “Sir.”

He waited till the door had closed before he activated the message display.

Frank Munez’s voice filled the room. “Sir, the New Zealand just returned from Longfall—it entered the system roughly forty minutes ago, began to decelerate, then changed course and ramped back up to threshold speed. It bounced out without explanation. Is there something going on that I ought to know about? Please advise. Thanks.”

Silence fell as Kajiwara Hiroshi stared at his desktop. In and out without a word of explanation? Something stank here.

He imagined himself in Daitaku’s position, and mentally retraced his clone’s steps.

Bounce to Longfall. Kajiwara checked the summary of message traffic on the special channel set up for the New Zealand. Yes, the fleetship had announced its intention of going there, and then had confirmed its arrival.

Capture the pirates. Back to the summary. Indeed. Two fighters, one cargo ship, captured with all hands unharmed.

Bounce to the Cheyenne. And again, the summary recorded the message.

Dock at base, and interrogate the prisoners. No messages to that effect, though.

What would have caused Daitaku to change plans without informing Kajiwara or Octant Sagittarius HQ? An incoming message?

Not if Kajiwara could believe the summary. Luna had neither originated nor relayed any messages to the New Zealand in over two hours.

Something the prisoners had said?

He pondered that for a moment. Eyes closed, seat tilted back, he visualized one of the Intelligence staff calling up, bursting with news, news so urgent that the fleetship could not stop, but had to bounce back out without delay.

News so urgent that Daitaku would not drop a SitUp? Kajiwara shook his head and sighed. No, that he could not accept. Perhaps a Wayholder attack on the fleetship could justify that sort of silence, but Munez would have reported a firefight in the Cheyenne.

What, then? What could cause him, Kajiwara Hiroshi, to execute that sort of maneuver without informing anyone of what he was doing?

His blood ran cold. He knew what had happened.

Mutiny. Flight. And, probably, desertion to the Sagittarian Guard. Nothing else could explain the silence.

How dare they? To mutiny against his continuation was offensive enough, but to hijack the ship he controlled vicariously through

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