“Aye, Admiral,” Kitty said. “Do you want to cancel your afternoon meetings?”
Kat tapped the datapad, bringing up the schedule. “Yes,” she said. She had a feeling that the conference would go on for some time. Besides, none of the meetings were particularly important. Everyone involved could get some work done for a change. “Cancel the first two and place the third on the back burner.”
“Aye, Admiral.”
CHAPTER FIVE
UNCHARTED STAR SYSTEM
There was nothing to recommend the star system to anyone, save for a handful of orbiting asteroids and a couple of comets that had gone unremarked during the first and last official visit by a survey ship. A dull red star marked the system as practically useless, as far as the Theocracy was concerned. There was certainly no large population of unbelievers to enslave for the greater glory of God. The only people who might be interested in the system were pirates, smugglers, and colonists who wanted to remain undiscovered. It didn’t even have a name!
We’ll have to fix that, Admiral Zaskar thought, as Righteous Revenge made her slow way towards the asteroids. Perhaps something with the proper tone.
He kept a wary eye on the display, expecting enemy icons to pop into existence at any moment. The long-range passive sensors were picking up nothing that might suggest there was any technological presence in the system, but he knew better than to take that for granted. Commonwealth cloaking technology had been dangerously advanced even before his remaining sensor nodes had begun to decay. It was quite possible, as some of his officers had pointed out, that they might be flying directly into a trap. But he’d chosen to take the risk. They didn’t have much choice.
“Hold position on the edge of the asteroid cluster,” Askew said. The mystery agent had shown no signs of discomfort on the superdreadnought, even though the ship’s slow collapse had to be obvious. “We’ll take a shuttle into the base.”
Admiral Zaskar gave him a sharp look. “Did your . . . backers . . . build this for us?”
“I’m afraid not,” Askew said. “The settlement originally belonged to a bunch of colonists who launched themselves into space to find paradise. They hollowed out one of the asteroids and established a colony, only to discover that they were short on practically everything they needed to live. The last of them passed away twenty years ago. My backers made a careful note of the colony’s location for future use.”
“And no one else knows about it,” Admiral Zaskar said.
“As far as we know,” Askew assured him. “There weren’t many records left behind.”
Admiral Zaskar scowled. He wasn’t sure he believed the story, not completely. There were thousands of colonies, mainly asteroid settlements, which existed off the books, but they were alarmingly close to the Theocracy. He found it hard to imagine an isolationist group that wanted to remain unnoticed setting up shop here. And yet, he had to admit they might have been right. The unnamed system had attracted no interest, even during the height of the war.
A pirate base would be more believable, he thought. But too many people would know where to find it.
“Hold position,” he ordered the helmsman. “And have my private shuttle prepared.”
Askew looked impatient, the first genuine emotion Admiral Zaskar had seen on his face, but he waited quietly while the shuttle was prepared. Zaskar was mildly surprised. Any experienced spacer would have known that prep could have been done more quickly if the crews had started work before they reached their destination. But then, he’d been determined to sweep as much of the dull system as possible before risking exposure. An enemy force lurking under cloak might just give itself away . . .
“We’ll go,” he said to Moses. “Are you coming?”
“Of course,” Moses said.
Admiral Zaskar tried to keep the tension off his face as they made their way to the shuttle and cast off, heading straight for the asteroid. Askew took the controls, handling the craft with a grace and precision that suggested he’d flown such a vessel before; Admiral Zaskar resisted, barely, the temptation to ask Askew where he’d flown before. It didn’t have to be in the Theocracy, he had to admit. The shuttle design had been stolen from New Washington and put into mass production. Askew could have flown such shuttles anywhere.
“There are actually four habitable asteroids,” Askew commented, steering a course towards the nearest. “One was designed for constant rotation, but we canceled the spin when we took control. It would have been far too revealing. The other three were mined for raw materials and later converted into living space. They never had gravity in the first place.”
“That may be an advantage,” Admiral Zaskar commented. “We’re going to have to refit the ships anyway.”
“And reload with newer weapons,” Askew told him. The asteroid came closer, a bulky shadow looming against the darkness. “Give me a moment . . .”
His fingers worked the console, sending an IFF code. There was a pause, just long enough for Admiral Zaskar to wonder if something had gone wrong, then a chink of light appeared on the side of the asteroid. He leaned forward, trying to see as much as possible, as the light rapidly expanded into a giant hatch. Inside, he could see a handful of crude machines predating the Theocracy, he thought, and a number of crates lashed to the rocky wall. A giant hangar bay . . .
“Here we go,” Askew said. He steered the shuttle inside and gently landed it on the deck. Low vibrations ran through the craft as the hatch slid closed. “We’ll have to wait a few moments for the chamber to pressurize.”
Admiral Zaskar glanced at him. “No forcefield?”
“No,” Askew said. “I believe the original founders didn’t have forcefields.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Moses said. “As long as the supplies you’ve promised us are here . . .”
“They are,” Askew said. The hatch popped open. “As you can see, we’ve been ready for quite some time.”
But you needed to find us, Admiral
