Judgment of the Bold Read online

  "You're dismissed, Captain Chen." I embraced her as she walked toward the door to leave. "Keep my girls safe, okay?" I whispered in her ear.

  "You counting me in that?" Ada asked, waggling her eyebrows.

  "What? Of course," I replied, not thinking it through completely. I quickly realized she might have been referring to the 'my girls' part instead of the ‘staying safe’ piece. "You’re a wicked woman, Ada Chen."

  "Glad you finally see that." She gave my bottom a pinch – which caused me no end of confusion. Fortunately, she left the conference room before I could dwell on it further.

  "What are you proposing? That we move York to the Mhina system?" Hog asked.

  "There's not much to move," Mez Rigdon, York's sheriff, added. "Most of the homesteads on the other side of Quail Hill are completely ransacked."

  "There are twelve hundred citizens," Hog said. "We have more than you'd think. Hornblower is plenty big, but she can't get it all."

  "Not in one trip," I agreed. "It’s up to you all. If you come to Dorf, you'll be under Abasi rule – specifically House of the Bold rule. That might be hard for some folks to take."

  "The moon you’re calling Dorf, is named Kito," Nick said. "The planet is Elea, unless you plan to rename them."

  "Can we do that?" I asked.

  Nick rolled his eyes. He knew me so well. "No. Call it Kito, please."

  "Let me get this straight," Hog said, ignoring Nick and me. "You're saying you'll give us a ride to this Kito moon and you become what? Our king?"

  "It's not a fair comparison," Nick said. "He'd no more be your king than Mshindi Prime is your queen now. You'll owe House of Bold taxes, just like you do House Mshindi. We'll be responsible for providing protection, just like Mshindi does."

  "Mshindi's protection hasn't been very good," Mez Rigdon spoke up. "I'm not just talking about the invasion. We've mostly been on our own."

  "When we visited Kito," I started. "We found four cities evenly spaced around a large lake. Around each of the cities we saw farms with equipment that had been stored neatly away. I have no idea what shape any of this is in because we didn't stop long enough to inspect anything. My guess is that after two centuries, it's in bad shape."

  "Might not be as bad as you think," Nick interjected. "Felio building materials should last well past a couple of centuries. With replicators, we should be able to replace whatever rot has destroyed. Hog, I don't even see what the counterargument is. An ancient city with no bugs is worth a lot more than anything you've got here."

  "I hear you clucking, big chicken," Hog answered. "One of the things we liked about living here was that Mshindi mostly left us alone. Aside from the taxes, that is. I understand what Mez was saying about security. Fact is, for almost two centuries, Mshindi hasn't allowed anyone to build next to us. That's been good security. It'll be hard for us to give up our independence."

  "Then don't," I said. "You pick a city and your town council manages it. Only things we want a say in are taxes, law making, and real estate purchases."

  "Hold on, I've looked at York's charter," Nick said. "They basically follow Mars Protectorate law with a few modifications. We should agree to what is on your books right now."

  "You'd do that?" Hog asked. "Give us a town and let us manage it?"

  "It's not a gift and we'll reserve one percent of it for House of the Bold," Nick said. "You get to manage it as long as you pay taxes and keep the peace."

  "No real estate ownership for our people?" Hog asked.

  Once again, I was glad to have Nick at the table, negotiating for us.

  "I've thought about this some. My ideas aren't fully thought out, but here's where I'm at," Nick said. "What if you claim up to four times the space you had in York? These claims would be temporary for the first five years. After that, they become permanent ownership but will be subject to taxes."

  "Curtis Long would love that," Mez Rigdon said, bringing up the name of a farmer who controlled a significant portion of land. I could see the inequity of allowing him to claim four times that much space within the city.

  "Farmers. Right," Nick said. "Like I said, I haven't thought it through entirely. I'd say it becomes a problem for the town council. You could get everyone to submit their requests and then review them all next to each other. If you find inequity, you fix it then. For example, maybe you require the land be of similar use. I've done preliminary calculations. Each of the cities on Kito is at least fifty times the land-mass of York. There will be a lot of vacant space, even if each of you take four times what you had before."

  "Shouldn't real estate taxes typically go back to the city?" Hog asked.

  "Ninety percent," Nick said. "House of the Bold will take ten percent. Bold will collect a value-added tax. City will get ten percent, Bold will get ninety. We'll keep the tax-rate down to encourage people to report correctly."

  "No one will have any credits," Mom said. "Can't pay taxes with money we don't have."

  "Says the woman who is going to represent House of the Bold in all this," I said.

  "I'm asking for the people of York," she said, which earned her an appreciative grunt from Hog.

  "Look, Bish is right. York took us in when we needed it most," I said. "Shoe is on the other foot now. York needs us and we're going to make this work."

  Nick looked at me and raised an eyebrow, cutting me off. "To make this work, York has to be self-sufficient. While we have impressive credits for a small company, we could burn that up in a single project. We're looking for partners, not employees."

  "Bish doesn't believe you'll stick around long enough to make this work," Hog said. "Way he sees it; the last time you ran off, Kroerak invaded and killed half our town."

  "That's an ad hominem attack. Kroerak were coming regardless of our actions," Nick said. "Besides, you won't be negotiating with either me or Liam."

  "Who then?"

  "I'm hoping Mrs. H. will do it," Nick said, looking to Mom. She'd successfully run Petersburg station and I was certain she was up to the task.

  "At what point did I become your go-to administrator?" Mom asked.

  "Will you do it?" Nick asked.

  She raised her eyebrows. "I assume you'll stay involved, just like you did with Petersburg?"

  "Of course, Mrs. H," he answered.

  "Let me work out details with Hog. We should also get Bish back into the process," she said. "Let me guess, you want to lift off tomorrow."

  "Seems premature. York hasn't agreed to any of this," I said.

  "I'm not sure you understand your leverage here, son," Hog said. "We have little choice in the matter. I'm just trying to figure out what you want from us."

  I gave him a grin. "Hog, that's easy. Help us create an environment where Patty can be back in the restaurant business."

  "She does make some damn fine chili," he said, chuckling.

  "I think Cap's been hoping for more of those cinnamon rolls," Marny added.

  "That hurts just to think about," I said.

  "I'll talk to Bish and the council tonight," he said. "If you wouldn't mind sending over the maps for those four cities. I suspect there'll be quite a lot of interest in your offer."

  "Done."

  Chapter 9

  In the Rearview

  "This is sloppy," Ada snapped, clinging to the side of Intrepid's hull and inspecting the damage caused by a Kroerak lance wave. "I want stealth armor over the top of all of this."

  "She'll hold atmo," Roby defended. "And we can't do much more than a stealth skin. Even that would take two hours with the replicator hive. I don't know if we're allowed to re-task the machines or if we even have materials. Besides, Kroerak see right through our stealth."

  "Mr. Bishop, I picked you for this crew because I believe in your ability to think creatively," Ada answered. "You have fourteen hours to complete this task. If you are not up to it, please let me know."

  "If I may," Jonathan offered over the comm channel Ada reserved for her own command crew. "I
n reviewing data-streams from the sortie into the Mshindi compound, we believe a large supply of the necessary raw material is available. I have been in contact with the Mshindi inventory console. They have recently lowered the price of their material – we believe, in preparation for departure."

  Ada raised her eyebrows and didn't have to wait long for Roby's response.

  "Captain, I need you to authorize a re-task of the replicator hive," Roby said.

  "Authorized." As third in House of the Bold, Ada had theoretical boundaries to her power that she was ready to test. "I want this mess of a hull patch taken out and cleaned up. Last I saw, Jester Ripples was hanging on Liam's leg. I suspect he'd appreciate it if we gave our little frog friend something to occupy his mind."

  "Aye, aye, Captain," Roby answered somberly.

  "Is there a problem, Mr. Bishop?"

  "You were a lot more fun when you weren't Captain."

  "Roby, you're an amazing natural engineer. You took shortcuts here because you're only considering Kroerak. What you failed to grasp is that this part of the universe just became a lot more dangerous."

  "Nothing's more dangerous than a Kroerak invasion," Roby pushed back, crossing his arms defiantly and settling in for a debate.

  "Excel at the tasks given to you, Mr. Bishop," Ada answered. "When you come to an understanding of why your sloppy approach put us in danger, please set aside time so we can discuss it."

  "How was I supposed to know you wanted this to look perfect?"

  "Add that to the list for us to talk about," she said coolly, releasing her hold on Intrepid. With her grav-suit, Ada gracefully glided around to the main airlock, fifteen meters above the ground.

  Intrepid was primarily a single-deck ship with its heavily-armored bridge set just aft of center. Located forward were crew bunks for up to sixty souls, a large galley, mess hall, exercise gymnasium and what used to be an observation deck atop a large cargo hold.

  Turning forward toward the gym, Ada marveled at the damage caused by the Kroerak lance wave. Having watched a replay using the combat data-streams, she'd seen Silver Hoffen, Liam's mom, turn Intrepid into the wave, sacrificing the one part of Intrepid that had the least impact on survivability for the majority of her crew. It was a maneuver Ada knew she was physically capable of, but one she was terrified she wouldn't consider when her time came.

  "You are a sexy beast in that pirate getup," Tabby said, slapping Ada on the butt as she caught her from behind. "We need to get you back into a man-rich environment so someone other than Liam can appreciate all of this." Tabby waved her hands together, outlining an imaginary hour-glass, while waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

  Initially annoyed at Tabby's lack of decorum, Ada's irritation immediately dissipated at her best friend's perhaps too-close-for-comfort observation. Early on, Ada had developed a crush on Liam when he'd taken her in. While she had no illusions that Tabby and Liam would ever separate, she still felt something for the man.

  "I don't know, maybe you've got it wrong. Maybe it's Liam who should be worried. Maybe you're all the man I need," Ada said, huskily. "You're so sweaty. So strong."

  "Point to Chen," Tabby laughed. They had a long-running competition of saying inappropriate things to each other and Ada had definitely won this one. A moment later, a flutter of discomfort ran through her and she looked back at the smaller woman. "You are joking. Right?"

  "I'm going to count that as two points," Ada answered, turning serious. "How much more workout time do you have? I wanted to talk to you about the mission. I can jog with you. I'm surprised you're not outside, hunting bugs and all."

  Tabby set off at a pace most would consider a hard run and Ada followed, directing her AI to pace the grav-suit a meter back. "Too many of them," she said. "I'd spend all my time in combat and my legs are aching for a workout."

  "How many kilos are you adding?" Ada asked. Tabby's synthetic muscles were too strong for her to gain meaningful exercise by simply running unencumbered.

  "Grav suit is only adding forty kilograms. Seriously, I'm in horrible shape," she said.

  "Look pretty good from back here," Ada quipped, mischievously.

  "Man, you really are a horn dog," Tabby said.

  "What do you know about the system we're headed to?" Ada asked. While she enjoyed the playful banter, she had issues that needed to be worked through.

  "Four jumps from Mhina," Tabby said.

  "There's another wormhole in Mhina?" Ada asked.

  "That's the good news. If my dreams are real, the wormhole will be there. Otherwise it's a short trip."

  "Are the systems in between occupied?"

  "Not clear."

  "What about the system we're headed to? What's their level of technology? How are they standing up against the Kroerak?"

  "I saw a lot of firepower and heavily entrenched positions. But they're fighting each other more than Kroerak," Tabby said. "I didn't see many Kroerak: twenty ships maybe."

  "What's that about?"

  "I guess we'll find out," Tabby answered.

  Ada slowed as they passed the entrance to the bridge and allowed Tabby to continue without her. Her friend didn't have much information and there was a lot of work left to do. "I'll catch up with you at breakfast."

  "Copy that," Tabby called back.

  "Captain on the bridge," Sendrei announced as Ada entered.

  "As you were," Ada answered. "Gunny, how are we for ordnance?"

  "We've replicated an Iskstar harness for three of our blasters and I'm pulling four missiles from Hornblower to top off our load. We've transferred fuel and forty thousand credits in precious minerals for trade," he answered. "I've also started drilling the fire-control team. Thanks for bringing Clingman and Brockette along. Nice to have a couple of vets in the mix."

  "Marny might not love me for it, but we can't afford to make this a training cruise," Ada answered. "Jonathan, how are primary systems?"

  She sat in the elevated captain's chair toward the aft of the bridge and pulled up the holo-display in front of her.

  "We're looking into a number of small system failures most likely caused by the abrupt landing on Zuri. With functional replicators and transit time, we believe each of these items to be addressable," Jonathan answered. "We will require manual assistance for many of the repairs and request two hours of down-time in zero-g to resolve the repair on your starboard panel." Ada turned her attention to a wire-framed animation of a repair to the armor just beneath a grav-repulsor plate.

  "Sendrei, please coordinate with Jonathan on personnel," Ada said.

  "Roger that, Captain," Sendrei answered.

  "Ready for some breakfast, sleeping beauty?" Tabby asked, nudging Ada awake from where she sat, still in the captain's chair.

  "What?" Ada's eyes flew open and she tried to straighten, but instead brought a hand to her back, wincing in pain. "What time is it?"

  "0600," Tabby answered. "Everyone else was afraid to wake you up. Did you know Garcia was such a good cook? Is that why you brought him along?"

  "Garcia? Jose?" Ada asked, her mind still spinning on the details of repairs and last-minute decisions. Her sleep had been anything but restful. "The other pilot?"

  "Did you bring a bunch of Garcias aboard?" Tabby asked.

  "Stop already," Ada admonished. "My brain hurts."

  Tabby handed Ada a mouth-fresh strip and a cup of tea as she helped her from the chair. Setting the cup aside for a moment, Ada leaned forward to stretch her back and pull the dreadlocks from her eyes.

  "What's that smell?" Ada asked, as Tabby turned her toward the front of the ship instead of aft, toward the wardroom.

  "Seriously, the man has mad cooking skills," Tabby said. "Apparently he had a whole chicken thing going in York and traded for enough eggs to get us going."

  "That's not eggs I'm smelling," Ada said.

  "Bacon. The livestock was scattered, but the Kroerak didn't kill 'em. They've rounded up most of the escapees and Jose twisted some arms so w
e could have fresh meat for our trip."

  "Meat?" Ada wrinkled her nose.

  "It's bacon. Trust me," Tabby said.

  Having skipped dinner the night before, Ada's stomach demanded attention.

  "Attenshun!" Sendrei announced as Ada entered the crew mess hall. Ada had assembled twenty-eight crewmembers for their mission and while she didn't know them all personally, she'd selected each person carefully.

  "As you were," she said, returning the salute she was still uncomfortable with.

  The external repairs had been delayed by her insistence on fixing the stealth armor, but she was pleased to discover that Roby had pushed through and completed his work. He'd even asked Jonathan to review the repairs. Catching Roby’s eye, Ada thought he looked as tired as she felt. She gave him a nod of approval and mouthed 'thank you' across the busy room.

  "My friends, today we're sailing into the unknown in our continuing push to rid the galaxy of Kroerak. I appreciate the effort required to get us to this point. Since Mr. Garcia has gone to all the trouble of making a fantastic meal for us, I won't bore you all with a long speech. To Intrepid!" She raised her tea cup into the air and was rewarded with a return salute from the crew.

  "Captain." A man with dark hair approached, holding a plate with a small biscuit, scrambled eggs and a single strip of red-brown meat.

  "Mr. Garcia, thank you for a great send-off. I didn't realize you were a cook as well as a pilot," Ada answered.

  "My flight skills have mostly been deliveries to and from Petersburg," he answered. "I hope my skills have not been overstated. I do not consider myself capable of sailing a ship such as this."

  Ada accepted the plate and gestured to the end of the table, inviting the man to sit with her. "Do you believe you could get us to orbit just like you did with your freight runs?"

  "Aye, I would not expect that to be overly difficult," Garcia answered. "I have been reviewing combat data-streams. I would be most concerned to be in that situation."

  "Good," Ada answered. "Honest assessment is critical for advancement. I placed the standard Mars Protectorate curriculum on ship handling into your message queue. Get started with that and consider me your mentor. If you have a question, ask. Be prepared. If I feel you're being lazy, I'll go hard on you."