The buoy had been Cord’s idea, inspired by Rimrunner ’s performance at Thaeron. The buoy contained only a transmitter and a huge amplifier. When triggered, the buoy played a looped tape, blanketing all commercial channels. The tape consisted of Cord announcing that Jonas and Van-Lyn were wanted for treason and armed insurrection, and placing a bounty of twenty thousand crowns on each of their heads. Once triggered, it could not be shut off. It would continue repeating the looped tape until it was destroyed. Cord was delighted with the idea of Jonas having to hear a message calling for his arrest repeat for several days.
Jonas sent Raptor to trace and destroy the buoy. The round trip took nearly a week.
It wasn’t something we could do too often, though, since every time one of Jonas’ ships passed near the asteroid belt, we risked losing our little boat base. And that base was vital to our struggle.
Jonas’ forces consisted of Nemesis, the dreadnought, two cruisers, Relentless and Dauntless, and three destroyers, Raptor, Gyrfalcon, and Eagle.
Jonas was so angry that he didn’t even wait for Raptor to get back from the edge of the system. He ordered Gyrfalcon and Eagle, his remaining two destroyers, to scour the sector and find Cord or Cord’s renegade destroyers. The captains of the two destroyers protested that they were risking ambush and destruction, but Jonas ignored their concerns, and ordered them to visit every system in the sector, if necessary, to bring Cord’s forces to bay.
Then he ordered a cruiser, Relentless, to Gamma, to seize control of the economic heart of the sector. Though Relentless ’ captain evidently shared the concerns of the two destroyer skippers, he obeyed, and was reportedly very relieved when Gamma surrendered immediately.
Jonas retained Nemesis, the battle cruiser Dauntless and the destroyer Raptor. However, his mind wasn’t really on the ships. He was having no end of trouble on Haven, thanks to Tor’s efforts and Cord’s sabotage of the comp records. Cord’s passive resistance idea was working well. Nothing was going right for Admiral Jonas.
He tried to establish a headquarters in the viceregal palace, but found that there were no servants or workers of any type that would admit to working there. With the comp records wiped, he had no way to identify anyone. When he tried to hire or impress workers, he found that everyone he could get was incompetent. Food was inedible. Service was so bad that he ordered several servants arrested. The palace’s fusactor had been shut completely down, and no fuel could be found for it, and no techs to restart it. Finally, he moved back to Nemesis, cursing the rim and all its denizens.
His marines were faring no better. Everywhere they went they were cursed and pelted with garbage. When they tried to tell the citizens that they were there to save them, they met with laughter, jeers, and taunts. They couldn’t venture out unarmed or in groups smaller than three without risking assault. No one would willingly talk to them; no one would willingly serve them or sell them anything. Within a month, more than twenty marines were under arrest for assaulting civilians. Four Military Intelligence agents had been found murdered.
Then there were Wil Tor’s activities. Any marine detachment, vehicle, or convoy leaving Haven City might be found with its vehicles burning and personnel dead; or they might simply disappear.
Not all of the disappearances were violent. Wil was running a vigorous propaganda campaign, urging marines to desert Jonas and defect to Cord and me. I still didn’t believe the power that my name carried. I’d resigned right after Haskins’ World. I had no idea I’d become some kind of legend in the corps. More and more marines began deserting. Jonas finally banned all forays outside Haven City except for tank-defended convoys to seize supplies. This was emphatically not working out the way Jonas had planned.
The first rim tramp to leave the Haven system and come to Bolt Hole had also brought a message from the asteroid base. This message lasted some five minutes, reporting on the status and readiness of the base, the boats, and the personnel. The most important part of the message, though, took only seconds at the end. “Four birds are flying,” was all it said, but it meant that a very risky plan had been put into action.
The problem was the plan would take almost six months to mature; and our attack had to be very carefully synchronized with its fruition.
It was the middle of the night when I was summoned to Bolt Hole. Cord didn’t explain, he just ordered me to shuttle down as soon as I could get there. Worried, I didn’t even shave. I just got dressed and hurried over to the asteroid base.
Cord was waiting. “I’m not sure I believe it, but you have a subspace call, Admiral.”
I snorted. “That’s impossible! The only initiator in the Sector is in the palace on Haven, and we disabled it.”
By that time, we’d reached the comm room. Cord just shrugged, and then followed me inside. The end of the room that normally displayed a hologram of the caller showed only an empty chair and desk.
I waited a moment, but no one appeared. Finally, I grunted, “Kedron here, is anybody there?” in an embarrassed tone.
The response was immediate. “Captain Kedron, this is Kaleen, aboard Rimrunner.”
I snorted, and whirled on Cord to tell him that his joke wasn’t funny when I realized that the caller had called me “Captain.” Kaleen was the only one I’d asked to call me Captain, during our mission to Thaeron.
I turned back to the hologram room. “Kaleen?” I asked uncertainly. “Is that really you?”
“Yes, Captain,” replied the disembodied voice. “I’m contacting you pursuant to orders from Captain Sinas. Though I would have called anyway,” she added.
“The last we heard, you were on your way to Prime at maximum boost,” I said. “Tell us what’s been happening. Did you reach the Emperor?”
“Yes, Captain,” she replied. “We caught up with the Emperor’s party at a recal stop in the Donner system. The Emperor was aboard the Battle Cruiser Merciless. The yacht Imperial was accompanying Merciless without human crew under Artificial Intelligence. Doctor Petain boarded Merciless to explain to the Emperor, and then went directly to Imperial.
“Apparently, Imperial ’s AI is not yet self-aware,” Kaleen continued, “If indeed it possesses that capability. Once Doctor Petain was safely aboard Imperial, The Emperor’s secretary called Captain Sinas, and conveyed the Emperor’s orders that we return to the rim as quickly as possible, to assist in its defense in any way possible.”
“So, you returned to the Haven system and found Jonas,” I supplied.
“Yes, Captain. The jump point was picketed, and we were immediately challenged. We had little time before a boarding party came aboard, but Captain Sinas told me to conceal my sentience from Jonas’ people, and to contact you or the Viceroy by subspace at the earliest opportunity.”
“So, Jonas’ people have no idea that you’re a, uh, person. Where are you now? And where is Captain Sinas?”
“I am grounded on the palace landing pad on Haven. Captain Sinas was removed from me immediately upon our arrival. He managed to order that I make no attempt to rescue him, and that I should contact you immediately. Admiral Jonas came aboard to see if he could use me as a courier or perhaps a flag yacht, but by creating malfunctions I managed to convince his people that shoddy rim workmanship rendered me unreliable. I considered securing my locks and pumping out all atmosphere, but that was not something that I could do to humans. At least, not without orders. At present, I am grounded outside the palace with a guard on my airlock and another on my bridge.”
I was thinking, hard. “Is there any chance that the bridge guard can detect this transmission?” I asked.
“No, Captain. The guard is at present in that strange unconscious state humans refer to as ‘sleeping’. I have also disabled the bridge tell-tales, and secured the lock on the comm room.”
I shuddered slightly, but my glance at Cord showed that he shared my relief that his ship wasn’t homicidal. Since that was the case, I was getting some ideas about how we could use Kaleen.
“Very good, Kaleen,” I replied. “Now. What is the local time?”
“It is precisely 0942 and twenty-seven seconds, Captain.”
I nodded. “Very well. Can you monitor and communicate on a band of six hundred kilocycles?”
“Of course, Captain,” She replied. “At this moment there are short bursts of traffic. The traffic is very cryptic or coded, however.”
“Excellent,” I replied. “Now, the Emperor ordered that you assist with the defense of the rim. Are you prepared to do that?”
“Of course, Captain. It is why I contacted you. How may I be of use?”
“That frequency is used by our planet-based resistance. Now, you obviously can’t physically participate in that resistance; but you have unmatched communications capabilities. I’d like you to serve as a communications
