Chapter 17
* * *
"Your Lordship!" A short, dark-skinned servant in white overalls bowed to the lord and looked up as he waited for him to pay attention. "We are approaching your position. Do you have any requests for a landing site?"
"No, as long as it's not in the lake." Alex smiled and leaned back against the railing of the platform.
The open circular platform glided as a thin, silvery disc over the purple-reddish sea of Voigrom's jungle. Below, emerald patches of clearing and small lakes, covered in a shimmering ripple of glare, flashed intermittently. The melodic pulsing hum of the platform's traction generators startled the scarlet creatures as their swarms rose in bloody clouds into the sky, leaving a melting scarlet trail behind the flying platform.
Baroness Rionale, dressed in a stylish hunting costume of light red leather adorned with large black crystal, finally broke the silence that reigned by this side:
"I love Voigrom! Especially this continent - it's so beautiful here," she fixed her disheveled wind-blown hair and gave Alex a charming smile.
"Yes, it's very beautiful!" He sincerely appreciated both the view and the smile. "But how to look for Oikers in such thickets, I have no idea."
"Come on, they're big, and when they go through the jungle, there's such a rattle..."
The platform sprang out into the open and hovered in a wide semi-circle on the ground. A part of the side went down into a wide gangway.
"Their Lordship Lord Cassard's number!" The usher proclaimed and bowed, making an inviting hand gesture towards the dais.
Taer unlocked the safety of her hunting rifle and, fixing the white shoulder pad with the scarlet griffin was the first to step onto the green ground. The thick layer of moss softly sprang to take her weight, and small puddles of brownish water appeared around her feet.
"It's a bit wet," Dudo looked suspiciously at the bump he had made under his boot.
The hunt began at noon station time, but it was still early morning in the hunting area of Voigrom. The foliage, illuminated by the dawn sun, glowed red, and the dense moss carpeting the ground was steaming with moisture. The fog clung to the ashy gray branches of the trees in whitish wisps and rose in a solid wall over the still surface of the small lakes.
Imagine what will happen if it starts to rain.
"Yes, indeed, it's a bit wet," the Lord got off last.
"Good luck, Alex!" Baroness Rionale shouted from the platform as it began to slowly take off. "I'll bet my Oiker will double..." her last words were drowned out by the melodious hum of the traction generators gaining power.
The silver disc of the platform tilted slightly, took to the right, and drifted off towards the sunrise, towards the rest of the numbers.
"Shall we look for the Oikers?" Taer glanced at the platform and made sure it was out of sight. "Or..." she patted her pocket meaningfully.
In her pocket was an info stick obtained from Lady Liora's attendant during the loading onto the platforms. And, as they call it, "burned the hands" - there was supposed to be a video on the stick with information about who exactly wanted to kill the lord. But watching the footage right there on the platform, surrounded by guests?
"I think we can..."
A loud low roar from somewhere above drowned out Alex's words. The coal-black machine, with its wide-spread, triangular stabilizer wings, looking like a dagger with a wide diamond-shaped handguard from below, flew over the treetops and disappeared, heading somewhere to the north.
"Prism-E," commented Dudo. "The Imperials are vigilant."
"I guess we can at least pretend we're looking for an Oiker." Alex repeated, tearing his gaze away from the fighter and gripping his hunting long-barreled rifle. "And, Dudo, you brought the infoblock with you, didn't you?"
"Yeah," he nodded.
"As I understand it, the Oikers are grazing at this time, eating roots in shallow water..."
Taer waved her hand toward the gleaming lake in the dawn's light and froze - the still water swelled up to form a small hill in the middle of the lake and, a moment later, exploded into a huge splashing fountain, spitting the air out of a small aerial vehicle.
Taer felt the 'accelerator' pick her up - the world froze and became slow and draughty. Streams of water glistened in the sun and flowed smoothly down the dirty grey sides of the aircar. Each drop became clear. The sights of a lightning-quick rifle slowly entered her field of vision. The vehicle, howling with the thrust generators and gleaming glare on the cockpit glazing, began to turn smoothly sideways.
The Taer ducked into the scope and aimed the red dot of the marker at the side door of the aircar that appeared in her field of vision. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dudo shouting something, very slowly - from her point of view - raising his weapon. In fact, it was almost instantaneous.
The side door of the aerocar slowly crept to the side and, at the same time, her long barrel shrieked, sending the first shot through the opening. A bright blue glowing ball of discharge flew into the opening and shattered against the mirrored morass of the shield. The door finally opened, revealing the dark interior of the aircar and what Taer feared most: the HGM launcher and the red glinting eye of the passive guidance channel.
Damn!
The launcher was under the shield, and the long rifles could not do any damage to it.
Maybe if I cover the lord with me, the combined power of the personal shields would be enough?
But her body, under the control of the installed skills, kept sending out discharge after discharge into the opening, probably hoping to dazzle the operator or interfere with the aiming device.
Although the aerocar was two hundred paces away, she saw the membrane of the first compartment in the launch container become covered with a network of fine cracks and burst under the pressure of the missile's sharp nose. The HGM pierced the cloud of shrapnel with a silver needle, the stabilizers flashed with a sharp glare in the sun, and the rocket very slowly began to move to a safe distance from the launcher on the soft launch engines.
The long rifle in her hands gave a long howl, and a swarm of discharges pulsed toward the missile, followed by a second one fired by Dudo.
The rocket, rotating slowly, drifted through the stream of gunfire until one of the blue lights touched the edge of the stabilizer, bursting into a bright flash. The silver hull needle folded in half and, engulfed in sparks and smoky flames began to fall.
There was movement in the interior of the aerocar. Metal gleamed faintly, gunfire pulsed rhythmically, and a string of purple flashes curved in a predatory arc. The trail of tracers, which stung the Taer in the leg and smashed into the mirrored glow of the flaring personal shield, drew a trail of bursts toward Dudo, knocking out fountains of earth and steam in its path.
Lance Dudo was still firing when one of the discharges struck him in the chest. The bright flash of the hit immediately disappeared into a burst of smoke and sparks from the instantly burnt form. Slightly shaken by the impact, Dudo began to fall slowly, gradually tumbling onto his side.
Taer's first impulse was to lunge at him, but the guidance system decided otherwise - seeing a second missile begin to emerge from the container as it tore the membrane, the guidance system hurled her body in the direction of the lord. The aerocar's heavy assault speed gun howled behind her, sending a whirlwind of discharges in its wake. Scarlet tracers whirred around her with angry wasps, bursting with a loud dry hiss and showering her with waves of heat. The shields erupted, enveloping them both in mirrored ripples, as Taer knocked the lord to the ground and collapsed from above, pushing him into a small hollow.
She had time to think that it would hardly help if the missile hit them directly when suddenly she heard a familiar low rustle that drowned out the howling and hissing of bursting discharges.
Around them, covering almost the entire clearing in a swirl of glittering firepower, the shield being formed spun.
The central funnel went somewhere upwards, gradually dissolving into the sky. A white-tailed missile struck the still-forming cone of the shield and disappeared, shattering into a mirror-like ripple.
The attackers' aerocar jerked, trying to gain altitude, but froze, enveloped in flashes of static, nailed by the glowing rod of the force grip that had struck it.
Nearby there was a deafening cracking sound that turned into a rumbling noise, a tight wave of air hitting the ground, tearing down leaves and pressing tree branches to the ground, and knocking a white haze of water drizzle from the ubiquitous moss.
A landing null-boat appeared near the ground, dropping its visual camouflage and hovering between the aerocar and the shield, roaring with its traction generators. A scarlet griffin stood on its black side, and beneath it shone the golden eye of the search branch, the emblem of House Fyron's Intelligence.
The landing ramp touched the ground, and the forward eight in heavy assault suits immediately rumbled across it. Leaving deep trails that quickly filled with water, the paratroopers ran under the shield that opened in front of them. Behind the stormtroopers came four men in light blast suits carrying bulky white overalls and airbags. Medics.
The "guidance" "released" her.
She rolled off the lord and sprang to her feet, wanting to punch the paratrooper with the field biomonitor as hard as she could. The only thing that stopped her was that he was wearing armor.
Those bastards knew about the attack beforehand and didn't warn us! They used us as bait! They endangered the lord's life! They put Dudo under fire!
Taer gritted her teeth as the blue glow of the medscanner slid across her eyes.
"The second is normal - a slight sensory overload!" A muffled sound came from beneath the visor of the spacesuit.
"The first one is fine - minor bruises!" The second paratrooper medic, who was checking on Alex, who was spitting up mud, responded.
The communicator of the nearest paratrooper clicked, accepting the call, and Taer heard what she least wanted to hear.
"The third one is red, zero response! Urgent resuscitation!"
One could tell that the Third was not normal without a biomonitor. When Dudo was turned over on his back, the remains of his clothes were still smoldering, there was a huge smoking wound in the center of his chest, covered in a black crust, and the skin on his face and neck were burned and flappy.
There was popping and hissing - Dudo was flooded with cooling foam, a white triangle of the applicator was applied to his neck, a puncture was pressed - and bright scarlet blood gushed from the receiver...
"What the...!" started shouting at the paratrooper Taer...
Suddenly a scarlet beam of ignitor flashed across the attackers' aerocar, frozen in a storm of static. The machine's shield flashed white and immediately burst from the overload. The beam burned through the hull, and purple tongues of faint, barely visible flame erupted from the open side door. There was a rumbling noise inside, and black smoke billowed out.
The Imperial Prism appeared from behind the treetops, and with a dry rustling crackle, it flew overhead before disappearing from view again.
"Damn," the nearest paratrooper said from behind his visor.
"...demons, you waited so long with the shield if you knew about the attack!" Taer finished her tirade in an angry whisper, rather than a scream, as they hoisted her, just as they had the Lord, into the null-bot.
"Mistress Guards Sain Lieutenant! The shield was given in three and a half seconds! It was technically impossible to give it any faster!" The paratrooper who was carrying it replied as the ramp went up behind them.
Taer thought ten or fifteen seconds had passed - she wanted to yell to stop being bullshitted but remembered that she was under 'guidance' and 'acceleration'. So she shut up.
The null-bot howled with its generators, the ground on the small overview monitor dropped somewhere down, and only a column of black smoke rising above the downed aircar show a line at the location of the attack.
In the narrow landing compartment, Taer found herself sandwiched between guardsmen in assault suits.
In the passage between them, in the pale light of the decontamination lights, covered with white triangles of applicators, covered with foam and blood, lay Dudo. Due to his burned brow and wide-open eyes without lashes, he seemed to be very surprised about something.
Damn it, why did I only take two shields! Mentally howled Taer as he watched the doctors methodically cut open his clothes and apply applicators to his arteries.
Inaudible in the hum of the generators, the puncher clicked, and blood spurted from the intake opening, a bag of blood substitute was inserted into the intake, and it began to shrink with a loud hiss, squeezing out its contents. The dark red blood mixed with the bright blue blood substitute and flowed through the stretcher onto the floor, where a small dark purple puddle had already formed.
On the opposite side, also sandwiched between the paratroopers, sat the lord - crumpled, muddy with blood, and dazed.
"What's the matter with him?" He asked, muffled, nodding at Dudo.
"Very severe injury, Your Lordship, fifth-degree penetrating burns and barotrauma. The left lung is badly damaged, four of his ribs are burned, and his heart is damaged," one of the medics answered without turning around. "He was wearing a blaster-foam waistcoat that saved him from a penetrating burn and severed his spinal cord. But now the melted remnants of the waistcoat and clothing are obstructing access to the damaged organs and preventing cooling."
Saying this, the medic never stopped deftly wielding the vibroscalpel, crunching into the gummed crust on Dudo's chest.
Taer glanced at the stretcher's biomonitor - the automated system had detected a cardiac arrest forty seconds ago. She looked away from the screen to avoid seeing those numbers.
Damn, this sucks!
Another applicator slid into place, the puncher clicked, and a stream of blood splashed the lord and the guardsmen sitting beside him. Lord wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand and looked into the eyes of the Taer sitting opposite:
"Let's find out who sent them..."
She only nodded grimly in response.
* * *
Alex, absent-mindedly chattering wine in his glass, gazed longingly at the plate where a cephalopod called "arbuds under black salt, with a side dish of sweet Tallan turnips and amber caviar" was spread out picturesquely.
For some reason, he craved Navy macaroni and ice-cold Coke. A hot dog or something.
The ship's cook must have decided to show his best.
Alex, wrinkling painfully, leaned back in his chair. The ribs on his right side ached as if he'd been hit by a truck rather than a dainty girl.
If it hadn't been for the protective field, I'd have been guaranteed a couple of cracks or even a broken rib.
"Shall we go straight to dessert?" Flag Captain Dimo Gradam politely suggested, seeing the longing on Lord Cassard's face.
Alex glanced at Taer and, noticing the hungry glint in her eyes at the word 'dessert', nodded to the captain:
"Yes, I suppose that would be just great!"
The captain pressed the communicator button and, after asking for dessert, continued to smile at his guests. A little strained, though.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Considering how we yelled at him in two voices, the man has nerves of iron and an angelic temperament!
A polite conversation did not go smoothly - Alex and Taer were not inclined to discuss the weather after the assassination attempt and asked mostly about when they would finally be told "what is going on here" and what about Dudo. And they were asking in very angry tones.
The captain sympathetically shook his hands and said that, of course, he understood and shared their emotions but that he knew absolutely nothing. The planetary operation was handled by Intelligence. He and his ship were here solely to provide security from the "space" side, so to speak. And offered to wait for bearing Captain Sarvola, who was overseeing the operation on the intelligence side of House Fyron. But Lord Cassard and his guardsman were a little on edge after the incident and did not listen to the Captain's 'voice of reason', mostly demanding something... and clearly unfulfillable...
A man of steel. I couldn't do that.
Alex stared at the captain, a tall, trim, and gaunt man in his forties or forties-five with a hard face and the same hard light gray eyes. He wore the dark scarlet uniform of the House Fyron Guards, which added another "+10" to the overall sternness.
The captain, on the other hand, did not give the impression of being "dry" and tried his best to be courteous and hospitable.
Now Alex - washed, soothed, and changed into a clean blue jumpsuit with a "Lord Cassard" patch on it ("when did that happen, I wonder!") - understood the moral cost of dealing with two not quite adequate people, one of whom was also a lord. A lord of very scandalous reputation.
He could have told us he had business to attend to and dumped us on some deputy. Especially since he's the one who's been handed the scouts, and the navy's got nothing to do with it!
But Flag-Captain Gradam kept up the good work keeping a close eye on the guests and even offering them a tour of his ship, which they declined. Which Alex now regretted a little.
"Does Your Lordship prefer teymar or tea?" There was a mechanical, rattling voice near his ear that snapped "his lordship" out of his reverie.
"Аh? Better tea," Alex allowed the droid, who was holding a tray of cups and teapots.
The other two droids were at this moment displaying saucers with some cakes and some very appetizing-looking buns decorated with pink foam.
"I apologize for the humble table and the lack of proper servants. But I think you understand that this is a warship." The flag captain sighed sadly and, for argument's sake, circled his arm around the officers' quarters they were in.
The decorations were indeed very... "humble".
The walls of the room were black marble with light blue streaks and wrought-gold vines, and it was spacious and perfectly circular. The vines were woven around the walls, starting at the amber-tiled floor and stretching up to the dark blue ceiling, on which a mural glowed softly from within - a fleet of spacecraft frozen against the blue disk of some planet.
The whole furnishing consisted of a massive round table carved from a solid piece of dark green stone and twisted silver chairs surrounding it, fixed on a single rotating support.
"Not at all, Captain!" Alex smiled. "Everything is just fine. It's just a pity that the occasion that allowed us to enjoy your hospitality is sad," the smile faded.
The captain nodded sympathetically and went on to say some platitudes appropriate to the occasion. Alex nodded absently, nodding in agreement as he watched a droid, resembling a small pole on wheels with a single long arm and a fixed stand of cups and teapots, pour tea for him.
The locals treated droids like furniture, paying no more attention to them than, say, chairs. But from personal "interaction" and questioning of Taer, Alex had concluded that most droids could safely be called fully sentient.
A sensible stool is another matter entirely, Alex watched as the droid, whirring softly, placed a cup of tea in front of him and poured it perfectly to a golden border. A stool like that needs an eye on it.
Alex reached for the cup, but Taer, who was sitting next to him, was sooner. She took his cup, slipped the tip of an analyzer that looked like a fountain pen into the tea, and after waiting for the green light to turn on, she returned the stolen item to Alex.
Alex, sighing heavily, took the returned cup, took a sip, and with a strained smile, put the cup back on the table - the tea tasted like brewed hay.
The next few minutes passed in complete silence. Taër was absorbing cake after cake with a sort of absent-mindedness, not even seeming to taste it. Alex stared thoughtfully at the drawing on the ceiling, occasionally taking small sips of tea.
The captain remained diplomatically silent.
Finally, the door to the wardroom hissed open, revealing a young man, about thirty at the most, with blond hair, large brown eyes, and a wide, slightly upturned nose. And with an almost square chin. A black shoulder pad with a gold eye, worn over a dark scarlet Guard uniform, accentuated the width of his shoulders. All in all, the Peleng Captain Sarvola was far from the image of a scout as Alex had imagined him to be, but more reminiscent of a boxer with a track record of... let's say, somewhere in the middleweight range.
Seeing the looks on his face he raised his hands in a conciliatory manner:
"I apologize, Lord Cassard, Mistress Saine Lieutenant, for keeping you in the dark for so long. Unfortunately, it's taken me a while to get to the bottom of this. But now I am ready to answer all your questions," he added as he sat down at the table.
"What's with Dudo?" Taer blurted out before Alex could open his mouth.
"Honourable Guwar, as you already know, has suffered a very serious injury. Fortunately, thanks to the successful action of the field doctors and the timely treatment, his life is currently out of danger."
Hearing this, Alex let out a sigh of relief.
Everything was happening before his eyes, literally at arm's length. The red face with white flakes of sloughing skin, eyes wide open and empty, a black, melted stain on chest, blood, and the smell of burning everywhere.
And then, back on the ship, Alex felt nauseous as he washed someone else's blood off him. He thought he could smell it even there. He'd seen dead people before, and a corpse was not a sight that would shake his peace of mind much, even in this form: fried with a blaster, 'seen worse'. But here it was different - the man had died because he was trying to protect him, and the thought evoked a heavy, oppressive sense of guilt and 'duty' in the back of his mind.
If it wasn't for the captains with their grim faces, I'd be jumping and shouting for joy, thought Alex, who had never felt so relieved in his life.
"He has been taken to the hospital ship Mareide of the Bentar fleet and placed in the intensive care unit," the peleng captain continued. "The doctors assess his current condition as moderate."
Sarvola fell silent, opened the leather folder he had with him, and pulled out an info stick:
"And in anticipation of your next question, here..." he held out the rod to Taer. "Here are the contact details of his attending physician."
"Why weren't we warned?" Taer snatched up the outstretched stick.
"Mistress Diltar, I can assure you we knew nothing...," Sarvola began.
"Don't turn my ears back on me. I'm not a skurf!" The "security specialist" interrupted, getting hotter and hotter. "You want medals and titles? Show up as heroes and save the day?"
"Sain Lieutenant Diltar, I assure you, we had nothing but suspicions," Peleng Captain Sarvala stressed at the rank of Taer. "But we have tried to give Lord Cassard maximum protection."
"We almost got fried in there!" she almost shouted. "All because someone thought they were in control, and by their criminal inaction they endangered the life of a Lord of the Great House! That, by the way, qualifies as a crime against the foundations of the Empire and the Emperor himself. I want to know whose idea it was to use us as bait! Otherwise, I will see to it that your criminal negligence reaches the Imperial Tribunal, and then immunity will save you... So do not even think of lying to me... Peleng Captain!"
In the last word Taer managed to put such a range of feelings that temporarily the rank of "peleng-captain" became equivalent to at least a three-floor profanity construction.
Well... communication was clearly not working. Alex looked at the purple-faced peleng-captain and the same Taer. Something had to be done.
"Saine Lieutenant!" Sarvala tried to equal the volume with Taer. "You are essentially calling me a liar, and as an officer, I will not tolerate..."
"I'll...," Taer was already showing the peleng-captain a clenched fist.
Alex, seeing that this was heading for a trivial brawl (in which he thought Sarvola's chances were better) or even a duel, which would not be desirable at all, sighed heavily and drained his cup of leftover tea in one gulp. He gave Flag-captain Graydam an apologetic look, held the cup high and slammed it to the floor.
The porcelain-looking cup, black with a fine red pattern and fancy handle, had accomplished its task by crashing to the floor with a loud clang, shattering into small pieces.
After this loud non-verbal argument, there was silence in the wardroom.
"After all this turmoil, I've become a bit clumsy," Alex repented to the officers who turned to him in sync. "I apologize for interrupting the discussion, but my Blade and I will be leaving you briefly and will be back in just a few minutes."
He took Taer, who was sitting next to him, under his arm and dragged her towards the exit.
"What's wrong?" Taer fumed as soon as the door closed behind them. "Can't you see that we've been used by these freaks? They're trying on their medals now. Saved the Lord and his retinue! It was a miracle we survived! We hit the first missile. If it had, those "saviors" would still be looking for ashes to identify us."
Alex interrupted her, pointing his eyes at the figure in the dark blue jumpsuit approaching down the corridor, and pressed a finger to his lips. Taer remained silent as the crewman walked past them in surprise and was about to start her denunciation again, but she didn't have time.
"You know, Taer, I totally agree with you!" Alex was momentarily ahead of the "specialist", who had already opened her mouth. "I called you here for a different reason."
Taer closed her mouth and looked questioningly at Alex.
"I have two very important questions that I don't want to discuss in front of outsiders." He leaned against the warm, slightly rough wall of the corridor. "First, what about the info stick you were given? Is it in one piece?"
"Yes," she patted the side pocket of the same blue jumpsuit with the 'Saine Lieutenant Diltar' patch on it. "It looked intact, but there was no way to check."
"That's great! Second question... can you go back in time?"
"What do you mean?"
"The fact that after you shout at this captain, information he is willing to share with us won't make it any more true. And it won't get any truer, either."
"Don't you understand?" Taer burst out angry. "The frigate Artela," she slammed her palm against the wall. "A House Fyron battleship! And we're in Bentar space! She's been brought in ahead of time, negotiated passage with the Bentars! All this for suspicion? This is nonsense! They brazenly lie to us!"
"And if you yell, will they tell the truth?" Alex squinted. "If you're going to poison them with an imperial tribunal, don't threaten to do so. At first, you have to find out what it will gain you besides moral satisfaction."
Taer opened her mouth to say something harsh but then changed her mind and waved her hand with a heavy sigh.
"So, let's go and listen quietly to what this guy has to say, and then we'll think about what to do and whether he lied to us or not. All right?" Alex looked into Taer's eyes.
"So, let's go and listen quietly to what this guy has to say, and then we'll think about what to do and whether he lied to us or not. All right?" Alex looked into Taer's eyes.
The captains in the wardroom were discussing something, but they all simultaneously fell silent at the appearance of Lord Cassard and his Blade. By the look on their faces, they seemed to be the subject of the discussion. There was an awkward silence, broken only by the quiet whirring of the droid as it finished picking up the shards of the cup from the floor.
"Sorry again for interrupting your story," Alex sat back in his seat. "Please, Captain Sarvolla, continue."
"So..." Sarvola coughed into his fist. "After analyzing the previous attempt on Your Lordship's life, the Intelligence Analysis Division suggested the possibility of a second attack. It was then assumed, on learning that you would be participating in a Voigrom, that this was the best place to conduct another attack. Intelligence had no other evidence to support that theory," the captain said emphatically. "Otherwise, we would certainly have warned Your Lordship."
Taer had already gathered air to say what she thought of this version but held back, limiting herself to a very expressive grimace.
Peleng Captain, distinctly ignoring the expression on Taer's face, continued, occasionally glancing at the infoblock screen lying on the table in front of him:
"Suspecting a possible attack on Your Lordship's yacht, we contacted the House Bentar fleet and asked them for an escort to House Melato station. We also asked them for permission to use the frigate Artela in their space, which has been assigned the role of controlling the near sphere of hyperspace. We also negotiated with our partners from House Bentar the possibility of using a reinforcement team, which was to be used if a situation requiring forceful intervention arose on the planet or station." Sarvola broke away from the screen and looked at Alex. "Fortunately, Your Lordship, House Bentar had responded in agreement, aided especially by the ruling lady's position. Lady Valerie's help was invaluable in negotiating with the House Bentar fleet."
"I hope I can thank her properly," Alex said with a slightly strained smile.
"The security team was divided into two sub-groups - an operational and a reinforced one. The operative was stationed on the station as an entourage of Count Decero, who is also the Sain Lieutenant of House Fyron's Intelligence service. The reinforced, equipped with assault suits and heavy weapons - waited in space aboard the null-bot, ready to intervene at any moment...
"Captain, House Melato didn't object to the presence of a frigate and our House nullbot near his station?" It was an obvious misunderstanding from Alex's point of view. "After all, I understand we have a bit of a strained relationship."
"The Nulbot was in Null Mode..." Sarvola began to explain, clearly trying to find simpler words. "It was hard to detect in that mode, all the more so because it was camouflaged by the interference of House Bentar's hospital ship. And as for the frigate, I think the Flag Captain can explain it to you." He nodded toward the Greydam.
"The frigate was positioned a great distance deep in the system, Your Lordship," the flag captain explained. "Ready to make a short hop to the station on signal, for which purpose our drive beacon was located on the Bentar ship, and the spectrum used by such beacons was allocated to us."
"I see," Alex understood almost nothing except that the null-bot was a kind of local stealth. "What, in fact, about the assassination attempt itself?"
Captain Sarvola sighed sadly and lowered his eyes to the infoblock screen again:
"At 4:53 local time, a small flying reconnaissance drone detected the appearance of an aerocar-type vehicle in threatening proximity to Your Lordship and raised the alarm. Upon receiving the alarm, the hospital ship Mareide began to put up a shield and the force support team began to move out to provide protection and fire support."
"The primary shield outline was formed within three and a half seconds of receiving the signal. At that time, the attackers' aircar had time to fire two heavy guided missiles and a heavy assault blaster. In the course of the firing, the respected Dudo Guwar of your lordship's entourage was seriously injured. The warheads of both missiles failed to fire, the first because the missile was destroyed by fire from the ground, the second because it made contact with the surface of the shield before the safety fuse was disengaged by the safe distance. Six seconds after receiving the alert, the Artela frigate completed a short jump and blocked the attackers' aircar with a power grab."
"At the tenth second, the null-boat of the force support group landed near Your Lordship, and the landed guardsmen immediately proceeded to evacuate Your Lordship and provide medical assistance to the injured. At the fourteenth second, the attackers' aerocar was fired upon from heavy igniters by a Prism-E type fighter of the Imperial Security Forces. Since the fighter's intentions were unclear, Lieutenant Arali Teigro decided to speed up the evacuation...
"Can you tell me more about the imperial fighter?" Alex interrupted the captain. "As I understood, once the shield was installed, the attackers were no longer a threat and could be captured. Right?"
"Right, Your Lordship. That was the original plan, but unfortunately, there were no survivors in the aerocar after the Imperial fighter attack. Regarding the attack itself," Sarwalla frowned. "Unfortunately, I can't give you any more information than the report the SS sent me," the Peleng Captain drew two more info blocks from his infoblock folder and handed them to the Taer. "Briefly, the Imperial pilot detected the intruder and detected the rocket. He said he didn't use his weapon because of the danger to the people on the ground but chose to approach and engage the target with his onboard ignitor fire. Which he did."
"During the attack, he also detected a power group nullbot and, assuming they were also intruders, went for a second run. Fortunately, the pilot also saw the emblem of our House on board the nullbot and started requesting instructions from his superiors, so the nullbot was able to leave the danger zone in time. We received this information in the form of a report from the SS. We were not allowed to speak to the pilot in person. Her Lordship Ergo-Captain Durlurl has been notified about the incident, and negotiations with the Imperial Security Sector Directorate are ongoing.
"Sadly," Alex sighed ("how fortunate that Imperial had made a move, all ends up in the water!"). "So you couldn't get any information on the attackers?"
"There's something I've been able to find out. But, unfortunately, not much. Three of the six attackers have been identified as Bentar, two of whom were educated at the University of Tallana, and there is no further information, but I think we will be able to find out more shortly. Analysis of the missile wreckage has revealed the model of the HGM. "Dagger-2U" manufactured by Zonn-Merr with a reinforced warhead - this model was purchased in our sector only by the Guards of House Bentar. Peltar's Azure twin-skinned aerocar. Presumably, the attackers were camouflaged in an artificial underwater shelter or a natural cave in a lake. When the transport from Bentar with special underwater equipment arrives, we will be able to say more...
Sarvola closed the infoblock folder and pushed it away from him:
"That's all I can tell you at the moment, Lord Cassard."
"You mean I've been attacked by Bentarans...?" Alex wondered. "What did they have against me?"
"I urge you not to jump to conclusions, Your Lordship," Sarvola said.
About my far-reaching political conclusions, he was specifically instructed, Alex realized.
"There is no certainty that Bentar is behind the attack," the captain assured him. "After all, the Bentars has been a great help to us in keeping you safe. But we can't deny that there might be some group within House Bentar who have a vested interest in your death, either."
It's clear that the case is unclear.
Alex rose from the table:
"Well, thank you very much for the information and your timely appearance - I am incredibly grateful to you, Peleng Captain Sarvola, for your foresight and to you, Flag Captain Gradam, for your hospitality and assistance," he shook hands with the approaching officers.
Taer stood up from the table without a word, but she might as well have said nothing, for her expression was so full of thoughts about the organizers of this operation. The thoughts were, by all accounts, profane.
"Lord Cassard? Perhaps you could come and stay with me. You'll be safer on the frigate." Flag Captain Gradam, who had been aware of Alex's intention to move to his yacht immediately after his conversation with the Intelligence representative, suggested.
"I thank you for the offer, but Baroness Rionale and Marquis Degrasto, with whom I have been traveling, are due to arrive on the boat soon. I think they're worried enough as it is. And to stay with you all this time is to give rise to unnecessary doubts." Alex, with regret in his voice, as if to emphasize that he would certainly love to, but...
"Perhaps you would agree to take a few of our men with you?" Sarvola interjected. "To enhance your security."
On the one hand, some extra barrels have been shown to be quite useful, but on the other...
And on the other hand, Alex never doubted for a second that this heightened security would be just as much of a snitch to Countess Durlurl.
And I still have the footage sent by the rebels to watch...
"Thank you, but no. I think the fact that my yacht will be escorted by a frigate is more than enough. On the boat itself, my Arm, in which I am more than confident, will be able to ensure my safety.
"As Your Lordship wills..."
Accompanied by the captains, they reached the flight module (No, Your Lordship, the hangars are where the machines are stored, this is the flight module), where the curious public, Lord Cassard, was shown the thrilling spectacle of the opening of the receiving port directly into space.
And I know that the protective fields... Alex looked out at the green continent, overcast in a haze of clouds - the frigate was in low orbit, and the huge airlock door, which had gone somewhere down, offered a spectacular view of the planet. Still, it felt a little uncomfortable.
The view was not to be admired for long. With a booming roar, the scarlet wall of Istal's starboard side emerged from somewhere below and hid the planet behind it.
The docking began. The low hum of the engines blended in with the ship's noises, gradually intensifying as the ship, which was not much smaller than the frigate, drew nearer. The transparent tube of the intake port, which swung out with a low hiss, encircled the opening of the airlock door, beyond which the light oak panels and the scarlet carpets of the Istal interior were already visible.
Exactly midway down the intake port tube, Alex and Taer stopped. The walls of the boards loomed up against the blackness of space, the scarlet hull of the Istal behind, and the white of the frigate in front. The white surface of the hull, instantly covered in frost, smelled cold, so the farewell to the captains was brief.
"Strange man," Alex shuddered as the airlock door closed behind them.
"Just trying to make a quick career, 'saviour'!" Taer snorted.
"I mean the Flag Captain," Alex gestured for the boat captain to leave. "According to you, people like him either hate me or despise me."
"Maybe he was hoping to make a good impression." Taer shrugged. "So that you could put in a good word for him with the Council of Privy. Or one of your father's admirers. I don't know."
"Where are you going?" Alex tried to catch Taer by the elbow as she turned to the side, but to no avail.
"Change," she pointedly pulled back the high collar of her overalls with her finger.
"That's for later, but for now, march with me to the bedroom."
"What for?" Taer was taken aback.
"What do you normally do in the bedroom... I'll get you into bed... Right! Easy, easy, easy! That was a joke!" Alex hastily backed away when he saw the change in Taer's face. "We'll watch the info-stick before Kayrin and Marquis come running in..."
* * *