Equilibrium Read online

  Deception’s armor diffused sixty-five percent of the impact energy of the first plasma bursts that hit it. That ratio degraded noticeably as more hits came through, but not as much against simultaneous impacts.

  First Crown’s armor, on the other hand, was only rated for a dispersal of somewhere between thirty and forty percent. Kira had never got a solid number out of the RRF on that metric.

  “The nova fighters retreated in good order after we and First Crown took out a quarter of the bombers and a third of the interceptors,” she continued. “The gunships continued to press the attack until over three-quarters of them had been destroyed, then bailed as well.

  “They were focused on Crown,” Kira concluded. “We only lost three fighters and one pilot, but the attackers were pros.”

  “Any idea who?” Hoffman asked. “The Clans definitely don’t have forty Crest-built fighters.”

  “A few Brisingr ones from the Institute’s meddling, but that’s it,” she agreed. “Redward Intelligence is noting that the flight group would be exactly right for a Liberty-class strike carrier—and the Institute’s mercs had one of those at Ypres.”

  “That would fit with the Crest-built fighters,” Hersch agreed. “Assuming someone wasn’t playing games.”

  “There’s an RRF destroyer and a gunship division sweeping the battlespace for their survivors, so we should have some answers on that front soon,” Kira said. “Joseph, I need you to sign off on moving three more Hoplites over to Deception. I don’t like stealing your fighters, but we’re going to need a full deck on Deception sooner rather than later.”

  “And we are back to where we were when you gentlemen arrived,” Estanza interjected. “May I make a suggestion, Kira?”

  “You’re the man in charge around here,” she said. “I’m just a subcontractor.”

  “Just,” Estanza echoed. “The subcontractor with the most powerful warship in the Cluster. I feel a bit outclassed here.”

  He grinned to remove any bite from his words.

  “But my thought is that Conviction is in dry dock for at least sixteen weeks and Deception is going to get called up for whatever the RRF does next,” he reminded everyone. “I suggest we rearrange the fighter wings again. Move the greenest pilots from Deception to Conviction and send the vets who aren’t commanding squadrons the other way.

  “That way, we can run exercises here with the pilots who need them, and you have old hands on Deception. Not just a full deck but an experienced deck.”

  “There’s only one way to get an experienced deck,” Kira warned, but she nodded. “We’ll go over it.” She gestured to Hoffman and Hersch. “See who we can best move.”

  “What happens next?” Mwangi asked, his voice soft.

  “The nova fighter part of the attack is almost certainly Equilibrium-backed,” Kira said. “The Queen thinks that the Institute has their fingers back into the Clans—but it doesn’t really matter.”

  “Why not?” the carrier XO asked.

  “Local politics,” Estanza and Zoric said simultaneously, in a chorus that reminded Kira that Zoric had been the old man’s XO for a long time. Estanza leaned back and gestured for the newly minted cruiser Captain to speak.

  “Redward’s Parliament has long been divided into three camps on the Costar Clans,” Zoric explained. “Basically: contain them, ignore them, destroy them. The theory behind containment has always been that humanitarian efforts in the Costar systems will remove the underlying desperation that drives their raids.

  “So, they destroy any Clans forces that attack shipping on the one hand and try to lift the actual home stations out of their desperate poverty on the other.” Zoric shook her head. “My own impression is somewhat uneducated and biased by the RRF’s prejudices, but it does appear to be working.

  “But the cost is too damn high. It requires more patrols and countermeasures to engage the Clans in the act of piracy than to eliminate their anchorages.” She shrugged. “The ‘Ignore’ grouping is pretty small, basically the last bastion of Redward isolationism, and very much an ‘I’ve got mine’ movement.

  “Basically, they hold that doing more than protecting Redward shipping is a waste of money, and the Clans should be ignored if they’re not bothering us. It’s a bloody stupid position, especially given the creation of the SCFTZ and the definite policy and plans of the King and government.”

  “So, they’ve been following containment as a policy?” Mwangi asked.

  “Exactly. But ‘Destroy’ has always been a powerful force in Parliament, not least because it’s the preferred choice of many of the RRF’s senior officers. Different levels involved, but they want to move against the Clans’ home stations and colonies and destroy them as anchorages.

  “Since most of the Clans’ bases are also their homes and are marginal at best, this isn’t a…”

  Zoric trailed off.

  “It’s genocide,” Kira said bluntly. “Which is why King Larry and Queen Sonia hate it as an option. There are people in the ‘Destroy’ grouping who recognize the consequences of what they’re suggesting and have ideas for reducing the impact, but in the main, they see pirate bases as legitimate targets.

  “Regardless of whether those bases are home to thousands of innocents who are one system failure away from starvation or asphyxiation.”

  “But the Clans keep attacking,” Estanza said grimly. “And while the King holds together a coalition in Parliament, much of that is personal loyalty. A lot of people who’d follow him on the current plan because it’s his plan are going to see this attack as spitting in the face of their help.”

  “That was what he told me, yes,” Kira agreed. “I don’t think they’re going to be able to keep their plan as it is. He said something about ‘getting out ahead’ of the demands, so I hope he can come up with a better plan.”

  “Either way, he’s probably going to be hiring Deception,” Estanza told her. “But…”

  “It depends on the plan,” Kira said bluntly. “I have enough money that I can and will pay back my bloody retainer if they want to contract me for genocide.”

  She felt as much as heard Bueller shift uncomfortably next to her. She didn’t think anyone was explicitly looking at Deception’s ex-Equilibrium executive officer, but the thought had to be on everyone’s minds.

  The reason Konrad Bueller and dozens of his shipmates were now part of Deception’s mercenary crew was because the ship had committed genocide under Institute orders. That had been a step too far for many of them, and they’d joined her after she’d taken them prisoner.

  Their help was the only reason Deception had managed to be involved in the Battle of Ypres at all…but they’d all been aboard her and involved when then-K79-L had murdered thousands of innocent people in the DLI-O54 System.

  “I can’t see King Larry signing off on any operation that would count as that,” Estanza admitted. “Though he may well end up counting on our refusing an immoral contract as part of his argument against it. The RRF is stretched damn thin at the moment.”

  “Their two new cruisers are still at least a year from completion, even after their shipbuilders and I went through everything I could think of to improve their construction time,” Bueller said quietly.

  Most of what he’d contributed, as Kira understood, was schematics for more efficient equipment. The actual processes and people involved were already effective. He’d just helped them build better gear.

  “The big ones are going to be at least twice that,” Estanza agreed. “So, for the foreseeable future, Redward is running around with three cruisers and three carriers plus us. Including Deception, there’s only seven cruisers in the entire sector.”

  “If my being unwilling to commit war crimes for Redward helps keep things stable, I’ll call it a win,” Kira replied. “Details are messy, though. It’s not like I’m going to go sit in their Parliament and listen to the arguments.”

  “RRF will brief us when the contracts come up,” Zoric said calmly. “
Unless the Queen decides to invite you to another private party.”

  Kira snorted. Queen Sonia had a tradition of holding small private parties with carefully selected guests that she felt would do well out of knowing each other. The first of those parties Kira had been invited to, though, had been to recruit her for the covert op that had ended in her ownership of Deception.

  “She probably will, but I doubt I’m getting another covert-operation briefing at a party,” she told them. “The last one I went to was just a party.”

  “The contract should technically come through me,” Estanza noted. “I’ll keep an eye on the terms and plans—though if it’s just Deception being deployed, I’m leaving the final call to you, Kira.”

  “Of course, sir,” Kira said. “I’m looking forward to Conviction not being quite as vulnerable. The refit specs I saw looked promising.”

  “I haven’t had a yard I trusted that was capable of doing the work needed before,” the carrier’s Captain admitted. “Redward’s earned that trust, at least, even as we’ve helped them get to the point where they can do the work.

  “I’m looking forward to flying something with actual guns again.”

  The gathered officers chuckled, but Kira spotted the moment where Estanza froze and flicked his eyes upward—an almost-universal tic of people receiving an unexpected headware message.

  “Link to the office audio and repeat, please,” he ordered aloud.

  A moment later, the voice of one of Conviction’s com techs echoed through the room.

  “Sir, we have an unknown shuttle on approach to Conviction and requesting docking clearance,” the young man reported. “They have no identity or authentication codes the system recognizes, but we’re only detecting one person aboard.

  “He has identified himself as ‘Platinum Cobra’ and says he’s an old friend of yours, Captain.”

  Kira inhaled sharply. Moranis had sent her out to Redward with his old White Cobra handle as a key to get into Estanza’s presence, but she’d had a few other points in her favor: not least, six nova fighters in the time before Redward had acquired a class two nova-drive factory.

  “That’s…” Estanza trailed off. “I was going to say impossible, but I suppose I don’t know that Lars Ivarsson is dead. Send my headware whatever imagery or audio you got, son.”

  He paused again, watching a video only he could see, then swallowed hard.

  “The decades haven’t been as bad for him as I figured,” he admitted. “That’s Ivarsson. That’s Platinum Cobra.”

  “Sir…Cobra were Equilibrium,” Kira warned quietly. Everyone in the room knew that both Konrad Bueller and John Estanza were former Equilibrium Institute operatives. Their experiences made the existence of the organization inarguable to their comrades.

  “We deserted,” Estanza argued. “But…you’re right. I’m not sure why he’d be here.” He exhaled.

  “Mwangi, get back to the bridge,” he ordered. “Scan that shuttle for everything.” He looked around the office. “Kira, could you and Bueller join me in a meeting room by the flight deck?

  “We’ll brief everyone else after, but I think we want this quiet and private—but bringing both of the ex-Equilibrium agents and my second-in-command makes sense to me!”

  6

  One of the disadvantages of a carrier having a massive flight deck was that the designers had seen no reason to provide the ship with an additional shuttle bay large enough for the incoming shuttle. Every spacecraft of that size arriving at or leaving Conviction came through the flight deck, which also gave strangers a potential look at the carrier’s fighter wing.

  Kira watched a video feed via her headware as the “Platinum Cobra” shuttle touched down in a designated spot. A squad of mercenary troopers in intentionally mismatched armor immediately surrounded the spacecraft—but almost more importantly, several of the flight deck’s mobile carts swung large white screens closer to it.

  Those screens had been between the shuttle’s scanners and the fighter wing from the beginning, Kira presumed, keeping the unknown vessel from having a perfect count of Conviction’s fighter strength.

  It wouldn’t be a perfect block, but hopefully this Ivarsson was still partially in the dark. If they were lucky, he wasn’t an enemy…but something about the situation didn’t leave Kira thinking that.

  The shuttle’s sole occupant took the presence of the armed guards calmly as he exited the spacecraft. He was a tall man with almost translucently pale skin and pure white hair.

  “Guards will search him and bring him here,” Estanza told her.

  They’d taken over a tiny office next to the carrier deck, usually used by one of Waldroup’s team leaders, and removed everything they could. All that was left was four chairs, three of them facing the fourth.

  Kira watched Ivarsson the entire time as he was searched, and shivered when she saw his eyes. They were a piercing unnatural golden color, suggesting either cosmetic surgery or long-standing genetic modifications—and his movements as the guards brought him across the deck spoke to other modifications.

  Soldier boosts were rare, even among mercenaries like those on Conviction. From a distance, she couldn’t tell if Ivarsson’s boosts were genetic, cybernetic or organic, but he moved like an angry cobra.

  Of course, the mercenaries around him wore armor that could duplicate anything his boosts could do. That was why soldier boosts were rare—but it said something that a presumed fighter pilot had them.

  Kira just wasn’t sure what that something was.

  Estanza waved the door open as the mercenaries escorted their guests over, and all three of the officers watched as Ivarsson walked into the office like he owned it and took a seat in the empty chair.

  “John,” he greeted Estanza with a nod. “It’s been a long time.” He looked at the others. “I know Em Bueller, by reputation at least, and this must be Kira Demirci.”

  Still sitting, he bowed slightly to Kira.

  “You have made quite an impression in a single year, Commander,” he told her. “Apollo is poorer for your leaving.”

  “Their choice, not mine,” Kira said flatly. Too many of Apollo’s ace pilots had died mysteriously for her to believe that her government hadn’t allowed Brisingr’s assassins to operate in Apollon space.

  “You’ve managed to track me down across about six hundred light-years and three decades,” Estanza said quietly. “Somehow, Lars, I don’t think this is a social call.”

  “No,” Ivarsson agreed. “I owe you my life, John. We both know that. At least four or five times over, so I felt obliged to make a call once we were in the area.”

  Kira swallowed her response and looked over at Bueller. Her lover looked unsurprisingly nervous and she realized there was only one way Ivarsson could know him by reputation.

  “We, Lars?” Estanza asked.

  “Cobra Squadron, John,” the stranger said. “Not all of us failed to find the moral fiber necessary to carry through on our ideals and our missions. We lost a lot of people to your little propaganda coup, but Cobra Squadron survived.

  “We’ve been working our way across the Rim, just like we always did,” Ivarsson continued. “Legends proved a pain in the ass, so we’ve tried to draw less attention to ourselves, but we’ve helped a dozen sectors find equilibrium and peace.”

  “Betraying allies, breaking contracts and committing atrocities along the way?” Estanza asked, his voice icy.

  “Where that was what was necessary to bring peace to a dozen star systems, yes,” the Institute operative agreed. “You and Bueller both understood that once. When the future peace and prosperity of a hundred billion people is on the line, the qualms of the moment are meaningless. The hard calls must be made.”

  “Everyone here has heard the pitch, Lars,” Conviction’s Captain noted. “What’s to stop us from turning you over to Redward for interrogation? That would be one of those hard calls, wouldn’t it?”

  “I suppose,” Ivarsson said. “Of course
, the three-hundred-megaton fusion warhead in my shuttle will object if I’m not back aboard in an hour. I don’t think this ship is in good-enough shape to survive that, do you?”

  “You fucker,” Kira snapped.

  “I’m here to offer you and your people a chance, John,” the man continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “Cobra Squadron is here now. I’m not going to tell you who we’ve been contracted with, but you know we work for the Institute above all.

  “Everything here has proceeded along the projections of the Seldonian calculations,” Ivarsson said. “The Institute’s attempts to divert the psychohistorical projections have been countered at all turns by you and your Redward friends.”

  “Because you keep funding pirates and coups, perhaps,” Estanza growled. “How many people have died because of the Institute’s meddling?”

  “I have no idea,” the golden-eyed man said calmly. “But I’ve seen the projections, John. If the SCFTZ takes shape as planned, without any intervention, it will slowly degrade into two factions: one centered on Redward and one centered on Ypres.

  “Without a central power with both the economic and military might to keep the Syntactic Cluster from splitting in two, your much-vaunted Free Trade Zone will dissolve into warring factions in twenty to thirty years, splitting the Cluster into an interstellar war that will claim millions, maybe even billions, of lives and set the cultural and technological development of the region back decades.

  “The Institute will do everything in our power to prevent that, John, and if you keep getting in our way, I will have no choice but to destroy your carrier and kill you,” Ivarsson admitted. “I don’t want to kill you. I owe you my life, so I’m here with a warning.

  “Leave the Cluster, John. Take your ships and your people and get the hell out.”

  “Not going to happen,” Estanza replied. “The Institute has broken more worlds than it’s ever fixed. You’ve never even tested the damn projections, just assumed they are true and killed millions to stop them.”