Honor Bound

be facing an imminent threat. I recommend breaking orbit and taking up a tactical posture at the closest LaGrangian point and launching combat shuttle patrols immediately.”

Behind McKay, Vinnie and Podbyrin slowly came to their feet, concern on their faces. Jock seemed unmoved, but he silently began reassembling his carbine.

“Our active scans aren’t showing anything, McKay,” Minishimi protested over the link. “Are you certain about this?”

“Captain,” McKay took a deep breath and reminded himself she wasn’t his subordinate, “our working hypothesis is that this is a hub system for their wormhole matrix… and if that’s the case, they will not be leaving it unguarded. It’s my feeling that there are either enemy ships already insystem or else some sort of automated sentry that launched a message buoy through the gate the minute it spotted us. If I’m right, we could have anywhere from days to no time at all, but I would recommend we err on the side of caution.”

“Roger, McKay,” Minishimi acknowledged with, he thought, a little reluctance in her voice. “We are launching patrols and then will engage the drives and move out of orbit. We’ll be out of contact once the drives activate, but I will instruct the patrols to keep contact with you. You have a shuttle on the ground right now… do you want them to stay there for possible evac?”

“If it’s all right with you, Captain, we’ll keep Commander Villanueva’s shuttle here just in case.”

“I’ll send them the word, and then we are out of orbit. If we don’t see anything in twenty four hours, we’ll drop the Eysselink field and contact you.”

“Talk to you then, Captain.” McKay tapped a new frequency into his ‘link. “Lieutenant Dodd, this is McKay.”

“Dodd here, sir,” came the reply.

“Lieutenant, what’s the disposition of the Marines currently onplanet?” McKay asked. Jock had finished reassembling his carbine and he loaded the magazine, chambering a round and moving to stand in the open door of the building.

“Sir, we have two platoons down,” the young officer reported crisply. “One is in a defensive perimeter around the shuttles at the landing zone; the other is assisting the investigation team in bringing their equipment to the Protectorate pod you discovered.”

“Call back the investigation team,” McKay instructed. “Have them report back to the outpost. Get the platoon with them to set up a perimeter around the outpost buildings and report back to me when it’s done. We may not be alone here, Dodd.”

“Aye, sir,” there was an urgency to the man’s voice now as he signed off.

“You think they will attack here?” Podbyrin asked, voice wavering. There was a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead despite the cool temperatures.

“Jock,” McKay spoke to the big NCO instead. “Take Colonel Podbyrin to the shuttle and…”

“Colonel McKay!” A voice… he thought it was Commander Villanueva’s voice… came over his ‘link. “We’ve got…”

Whatever she’d been about to say was lost in a thundering explosion that shook dust from the ceiling and echoed through the woods around them.

”Bozhemoi!” Podbyrin swore, ducking instinctively as the explosion was followed by the faint sound of gunfire in the distance, first to their front and then more distantly to the rear. Jock crouched down in the doorway, not seeing anything. scanning the immediate area but

Too fucking late, McKay snarled at himself silently, a cold surge of fear welling up in his gut that he hadn’t felt since a Protectorate drop pod had almost landed on his head six years ago on Aphrodite. I was too fucking late.

Chapter Ten

“And so,” Colonel Lee clasped his hands in his lap, looking as if he were trying very, very hard to avoid panicking, “We have… we have confirmed your findings.” It was a mark of how serious the situation was in his eyes that Ari, Lee and Hassan were meeting in the Colonel’s office instead of someplace more unofficial. The Colonel was squirming in his chair uncomfortably, while Hassan Ali sat morosely by his side, looking as if his world had collapsed around him. “We dug deeper, in the right places, and it was there, just as you said. We… we have a serious problem now.”

And it only took you four fucking days, Ari thought, trying to hide a sneer.

“We have to kill her,” Hassan snarled, slamming a fist into the arm of his chair. “I will do it myself, with my own hands.”

“That aside,” Ari spoke for the first time since entering the office, keeping his voice calm and measured, “how does this affect our plans? Does she know enough to stop us?”

“The bitch knows enough to have us arrested!” Hassan Ali blurted. “Being in jail would stop us fairly certain.”

“Yet we are not in jail, my friend,” Ari pointed out to him. “That tells us that either she wants to collect more evidence, or, more likely, she has, as my American friends used to say, bigger fish to fry.” He looked to Colonel Lee. “She knows this plan goes beyond and above your position, sir, and that is her target. She knows if they arrest you and the rest of us here, the plan could still go forward.”

“This cause does not go above me,” Colonel Lee said peevishly, his anxiety briefly turning to annoyance. Then he sighed. “But it does go beyond me…” He glanced at Hassan Ali, who shrugged demonstratively.

“If this does not prove he can be trusted,” Hassan said, “I do not know what would.”

“I will lead the Guard in this operation,” Lee asserted, looking back to Ari. “But it does reach beyond the Guard… we could not hope to hold out for long without assistance from other elements of the government and even the private sector. This is about more than what is important to us as Guard officers… when it is finished, many other things will be changed as well.”

Ari nodded, silent for a moment. This wasn’t unexpected… neither he nor Major Stark had ever believed that this was something the Guard could pull off on its own.

“The question I have,” Ari began carefully, “is whether this could all be moved up. If we can start now, before those opposed to us are ready, then even Alida’s infiltration could not stand in our way.”

“That is, unfortunately, not possible,” Lee told him, shaking his head in obvious frustration. “We could advance the timing of the uprising, but not the distraction that will draw the Fleet ships away from the colonies; and, without that distraction, our forces would be vulnerable to orbital bombardment and would be forced to fight Marine reaction platoons. The signal will be sent when the Republic government is decapitated by an orbital strike, and that will happen only when the Fleet returns to Earth.”

Ari nodded thoughtfully. “Such an attack could only be accomplished with the complicity of the Spacefleet. I can only surmise that whatever elements with which we are allied in the Fleet need the time to consolidate their influence.” He glanced up at Colonel Lee, eyes narrowing warily. “Sir, I mean no disrespect by this, but how certain are you of the… steadfastness of our allies? Can they do what they say they will do? Or will they allow us to sacrifice ourselves while they decide if it’s worth it?”

Ari noticed Hassan Ali cast a glance at Lee as if saying I’ve been wondering that myself, but the man held his tongue. “I am convinced they will go through with it.” Lee told him. “It is in their interests even more than ours. The multicorps need cheap labor and the Fleet needs a reason to exist. If we do not reestablish order in the colonies, our whole civilization will collapse and the peasant rabble will sift through the ashes for food and wish for the days when they had the option of leaving this world.”

“You are a far-sighted man,” Ari said, affecting a deep respect. “I can only hope our allies have such vision as well. Yet, I still wonder… how did they ever find the wormhole gates? It has been talked about for years in the Marines, the search for the gate in the asteroid belt, but nothing has ever come of it.”

“Ha!” Ali snorted derisively. “And in whose interest was it to keep that discovery a secret? The multicorps, of course. With the help of the Fleet, they control all access to the star colonies. If people could use the wormhole gateways, anyone who could afford an insystem shuttle could set up shop in the colonies and where would their monopoly be then?”