Dark Alliance: Rim Chronicles Book Five, #5

By Edita A. Petrick

One giant conflict. One treacherous enemy to light the fuse. And one tiny ship to stop it all….

 

For the past five years, Kitaya DeWynter has been a virtual prisoner on her mother's home world, Bollidor. Very little human contact was permitted. Although she was enrolled in a fleet academy, she had never set a foot in classroom. Her battle skills were polished in a simulator. Her friends were holograms. Her graduation was a distance-learning affair. Her friend Karin is the only one who understands the need to escape and sail out there among the stars. She secures an assignment for both of them.

 

As first assignments go, it is mundane…or so it seems. They are to be part of a taskforce that will provide escort to a drone convoy carrying supplies for worlds that lie on the other side of the Neutral Zone—in the enemy's backyard.

 

It is billed as the greatest humanitarian effort in the last thirty years. In reality, it's a test and a trap—and they both know it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edita A. Petrick
• Release date: Nov 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386600923

Edita A. Petrick

I'm a writer. That's all that can be said here. I love writing and I absolutely hate marketing. It just goes to show you where your natural talents lie. Writing comes easy. Marketing...that's something I will be learning until the day I die. All I can say about my books is that they're meant to entertain.

Book preview

Chapter One

The moment Karin stepped out of the shuttle and walked across the security strip, she became trapped inside a smuggler’s fence. Every world had its own version of the force-field trap installed at its main point of planetary entry, but only the Bollipend Starport would use a fragrant rainbow as its model for a perimeter fence. The two arcs did not join together to form a loop around the prisoner; rather, one remained oscillating just above Karin’s waist while the other arc seemed to be trying to tie itself into a love-knot above her ankles.

Is this really necessary? Karin spoke to the sentry robot hovering in front of her, way above her eye level. Last year, when she’d come to Bollidor to visit her friend, she had asked about this peculiarity. She’d been told it was to increase the suspected smuggler’s discomfort since he would have to keep his head upturned at an unnatural angle if he wanted to speak to the first level of port authority.

We are in a heightened state of alert, the sentry said in a young girl’s voice. Depending on the Cycle of Succession, Bollidor could be in patriarchal or matriarchal mode. Six months ago, when Karin had come to see Kitaya’s virtual/distance graduation from the Reohoun Fleet Academy on the Riopelle Luna Five, hers seemed to be the only female voice around. The world was in its patriarchal mode and Kitaya’s grandfather was the reigning monarch. A lot can happen in six months, Karin reflected, like a throne shuffle. It's what the outsiders called the planetary change of ornamental government, since that’s precisely what it was: the king took a step back, and his queen took one step forward to rule her subjects. Of course, ruling was mostly ceremonial, since Bollidor had a government-at-length, with a duly elected Prime Minister, and his Cabinet. All the necessary civil servants were elected according to the Allied Federation’s economic infrastructure template for its core-system worlds.

When is the throne shuffle taking place? Karin asked.

Queen Sonata took a step forward three weeks ago, the sentry replied.

Then things should have long settled, don’t you think? Karin shrugged because the upper half of the rainbow ring had crept up her chest and was threatening her neck. The lower ring kept puffing out small clouds of scent-of-the-moment, and Karin started to feel nauseous.

We are in a heightened state of alert, the sentry repeated.

What color? Karin asked. Bollidor assigned not just colors but hues of color for every state of emergency.

Admiral Blue, the sentry said.

Bollidor’s under attack? I didn’t see a thing, and your port authorities let us hang in orbit for hours.

We have reached the Fourth Degree of Admiral Blue, the sentry said.

The Fourth Degree of anything is reserved for the Pericleidan conflict once it reaches the state where war with the Shoultain is imminent. The Neutral Zone is three thousand light years away. So are the Shoultain warlords. No one is attacking Bollidor. Deactivate the rings and stop this continuous air pollution, Karin said and wiped her face with her hand. The release of fragrant mist was turning into a rain.

The perimeter security fence will remain in place for the duration of your stay, the sentry said.

I’m not a smuggler, and neither am I a terrorist. I’m a fleet officer, and I’ve come to visit my friend. Remove the force field at once, Karin ordered.

Your credentials are in perfect order, Doctor Vexley. Welcome to Bollidor, and may your stay be pleasant and relaxing. You may go about as you please. The sentry capitulated so quickly that Karin was left slack-jawed. It turned its flat backside to her and rushed away. However, the rainbow arcs continued to restrain her.

Remove the perimeter fence! Karin yelled after the port sentry. The starport was deserted. The heightened state of alert must have turned away a lot of travelers who normally went through the port hall, on their way to conduct business elsewhere on the planet. The sentry picked up speed and disappeared into the mist that had turned the cavernous port hall into a haunted cave. Karin took a couple of steps to test the perimeter’s resilience, and the half-rings moved with her.

This can’t be happening, she mumbled and flexed her shoulders, to see if she could loosen the rainbow shackle.

You are perfectly safe, doctor. The perimeter will not harm you, came a voice from somewhere ahead in the misted hall.

I’m not worried about my safety, but yours will be in question if you don’t remove this rainbow shackle, Karin said, watching the approaching figure emerge as if through a curtain.

Welcome to Bollidor. I am Talint, Queen Sonata’s Senior Protocol Officer. Please allow me to offer you our hospitality, and may your stay be pleasant and restful.

What’s really going on here? Why shackles, Officer Talint? Karin swatted the lower ring that had crept above her knees.

There has been an attempt on the life of a royal family member, he said.

Which family member? Karin asked. Bollidor’s royal family members ran into hundreds. That’s why they needed to claim an entire city as their seat.

The undeclared daughter of Melody Sawan Triest, the hereditary Princess Royal of Bollidor, the late Lady DeWynter, the Duchess of Khaliman, he said.

Karin was about to say that the Protocol Officer had indeed satisfied the royal protocol when the name struck home. You mean Kitaya?

I believe I just said that, Talint said with a hint of irritation in his voice.

No, you did not. You gave me a string of meaningless titles…her name is Kitaya DeWynter, and the sooner you learn to say just that, the better for all Bollidor. What happened?

There was an attempted kidnapping when Lady DeWynter visited the Children’s Charity Hospital in Marine Cove, he said.

You actually let her out of Payronhei…I’m impressed, Karin murmured then caught herself. What happened, Mr. Talint? And spare me no details.

Five years ago, when Karin had accompanied Kitaya to Bollidor, the world had been in the patriarchal mode. Kitaya’s grandfather, King Omaran, handed down a regular scroll of rules to be observed by Kitaya of the Rimworlds, otherwise known as the Rimworld savage. One of the conditions of allowing Kitaya to engage in academic studies of her choice was that she conduct all such academic pursuits from within the firewalls of the royal seat on Bollidor, Payronhei. If she ventured out into the open markets, she would have no less than four bodyguards trailing her, making sure that the undeclared princess royal did not come to any harm. When it came to public appearances and duties, the bodyguards would do almost everything on her behalf. They would shake the hands outstretched from the crowd, while she oversaw such action so that it became a true-form-moment the citizens could boast about. They accepted (and scrutinized) all gifts, whether they be crafts, arts, flowers or animals. They tagged them with the name or business card of the donor; a team of secretaries back in the palace would write thank you notes. They inspected, cleared, pre-screened, and swept all the places where the royal family member wished to visit hours prior to the said visit taking place They removed anything they deemed a potential threat. They scrutinized, sanitized, and sterilized even the famous public Undulating Gardens that the princess wanted to visit. One bodyguard always walked ten paces ahead of the princess royal, while the other three positioned themselves in such a way that any possibility of attack from behind was removed.

And in spite of such paranoid security measures, a kidnapping attempt was made when the princess royal was doing her community service, a final requisite of her academic studies that should have been completed before graduation and, precisely because of all the paranoia, wasn’t.

All staff members at the hospital were cleared. Those who could not be cleared were removed, Talint said.

But one or more of the cleared staff members proved to be…not so secure, Karin said, smirking.

Just one. A female doctor, Talint said and stared at Karin.

She knew his silent implication. Kitaya would trust a female doctor because her friend was a doctor. Then again, the protocol officer did not know that the princess royal could incapacitate an army of kidnappers with an effortless twitch of her mind. She could not only take control but make them do whatever she wanted them to do. She could glean whatever was there to glean from their minds, strip or reform their memories, disable, kill or paralyze them, or just remove all bad intentions. She could practically do anything that a frontier witch who had not yet finished her training could do, and that meant she was untouchable by mere mortal kidnappers. Still, Karin worried.

But the kidnapping was averted, correct? Karin said.

The kidnapper came ill-prepared, Talint said. She did not have the correct layout of the hospital and confronted Lady DeWynter in the playroom when she was surrounded by hospital staff members. Her bodyguards were practically standing beside her.

Well, that must have been awkward. How did the kidnapper get away?

She had a ship in orbit and a time-delay beam-up crystal disk. Five more seconds and the bodyguards would have subdued her and removed the disk, but unfortunately, she had time to activate it and got away.

Then you know who she was, right?

Talint hesitated. Karin saw he was unwilling to continue, which meant that he would have to reply in the negative.

Come on, she stood next to Kitaya. The whole place has to be monitored, down to the last square inch of the floor. You have to have a picture of her.

She wore a Persona Cloak, he finally said.

Really? I’m doubly impressed. Camouflage was one thing, Karin thought, but using a cloak that would wrap around the body and make its wearer appear to be someone else was…well, expensive and not your run-of-the-mill kidnapper for ransom.

Persona Cloaks were illegal, but that’s not to say they were not used. The Fleet Military Intelligence held several patents on Persona Cloaks and used them, whether the fleet liked it or not. And since the intelligence officers, more often than not, had to penetrate deep into the Shoultain Territory, the Allied President, the Honorable Esteban DeWynter, had given Director Bartholomew blanket permission to approve the use of a Persona Cloak as he saw fit. Had Military Intelligence found out about Kitaya’s extraordinary powers, and had they started again to pursue the legends about the magic that lived in the jungle? Or was it just one particular intelligence officer?

As I said, Lady DeWynter was not harmed, Talint said. She is expecting you in her apartments. I have been sent to welcome you and offer you transport.

Ah, how nice—you’ve brought a shuttle, Karin said.

Talint blinked. I’m afraid not. Shuttle landing is no longer permitted within the palace grounds. I have a jeep waiting for us outside.

Payronhei meant high nest in all three official Bollidor languages, and the city indeed resembled a messy nest—one sprawling low in a valley, rather than positioned high on a mountain. Even mirrors on Bollidor often did not reflect true form but enhanced it with little lies meant to make the form more appealing. High held a noble connotation, while low implied a lack of energy. However, since geography was a little more difficult to enhance without a full-scale terraforming, Bollidor citizens enhanced words with new meanings so that valley became synonymous with high nest. The Khem Dyonaire Palace was like a pearl inside an oyster. The four cloche temples, nine spiral towers, and endless assembly of white-walled buildings with rounded corners were connected by skyways and bridges. These spanned artificially created lakes, and patches of greenery were stuck in between the white structures to break the monotony. The rest of the city, like the oyster flesh surrounding the pearl, served the palace and its occupants. The Allied technology ran things that made life easier for both the masters and the service staff. And the planetary government approved, year after year, a generous budget for security upgrades for its ornamental monarchy.

Six months ago, Karin had cleared three security checkpoints before being allowed into the inner sanctum of the Khem Dyonaire Palace. One attempted kidnapping had changed all that.

If we have to clear one more security check, I’m going to fall asleep, she said to Talint as they cleared the tenth and last post.

Queen Sonata has put forth before the Advisory High Council a motion to have Lady DeWynter formally recognized as the Princess Royal of Bollidor, Talint said.

Good for the queen, Karin murmured, exhausted from sliding her hands across numerous energy pads, offering her eyes to the retinal scanners, and even enduring a DNA check. She had long been entered into the palace security net; her entire service record had been scrutinized and then vetted; why was all this endless checking necessary?

Lady DeWynter has been asked to choose a proper name. Perhaps you could extend your influence…? Talint finally came to the point.

She’s Kitaya DeWynter. What’s not proper about that? Karin said, suppressing laughter. She could just imagine Kitaya’s reaction when Talint presented this condition of her formal recognition as princess royal.

There is a list of names that the king and queen approved before their daughter, Princess Melody, was born. Perhaps Lady DeWynter might like to take a look at it….

Perhaps. Who knows? Why don’t you ask her? Karin said. It was time to get out of the jeep and brace herself because Kitaya was running toward her with outstretched arms.

You can’t be this stressed out over a name, surely? Karin said when Kitaya let go, and the two walked away from Talint, heading for the Singing Gardens, where the newly restored fountains, waterfalls, and geysers would be good white noise to dampen the sound of their conversation. Karin always thought that the gardens wailed rather than sang, but today was perhaps not the day to quibble over such artistic differences.

Kitaya shook her head. Name’s not an issue. I can stall them for as long as I want. It’s something else.

Yeah, I’ve heard about the kidnapping attempt.

It’s not that, either, Kitaya said, surprising Karin.

Then what is it?

I’m eighteen now, Kitaya said.

Yeah, I know. We celebrated your birthday six months ago—a little early, but so what?

A search has commenced for a suitable consort for the Princess Royal, Kitaya said quietly.

Oooh, Karin said, equally softly.

I don’t want to get married. That’s the last thing I want to do right now. I mean, can you see me married? I want to get out of here before they formally install me in their royal ranks, Kitaya said, grabbing her hand with both hands.

I think you’re pretty much stuck, Karin observed, tongue-in-cheek.

Don’t say that. You’re my only friend. I thought you’d understand.

I do, but I don’t have all the answers to your royal problems.

My mother was twenty-five and working on her second doctorate when she married, and a year later, I was born. I want at least another ten years before I even think of marrying, and if I ever do, it won’t be to satisfy their royal protocol.

You’re yelling at me, Karin said.

I’m sorry, but I want your help.

Yelling will only bring security, and the way things stand in the royal land, I’m liable to be shot or tossed in prison. Have you spoken to your grandparents?

Queen Sonata won’t even see me. This is her last forward move, and when this period of matriarchal reign ends, it’s time to abdicate—for both the king and her; that is, if they’re still alive. I think next in line are my aunt and uncle. I don’t know. These things don’t interest me. I want to get out of here.

Did you arrange that kidnapping so you could get out? Karin asked with suspicion-narrowed eyes.

No, but I might do it if that’ll get me out. Help me; you’re supposed to be my friend. You said if I graduated with honors, without the use of my Treetop Magic powers, you’d use your influence to get me posted on the same ship as you.

When are your Bollidor royal graduation ceremonies? Karin asked. Kitaya had graduated six months ago from the Reohoun Academy without setting foot in the said prestigious academic institution. For convenience and security reasons, the fleet made allowances for members of certain royal families and allowed them distance education hook-up to all its academic facilities. Kitaya insisted on Reohoun because Karin had graduated from Reohoun. However, according to the academy headmaster, Rear-Admiral Benson, Karin Vexley had spent altogether five hours in the venerable institution before graduating, with highest honors, at that. Kitaya was fully capable of repeating her friend’s accomplishments, but she heeded the warning that Karin had given her when the two first came to Bollidor. Kitaya had regained her powers quickly enough. It was something the Treetop Witches, hiding from the galactic populations on Synoor, had not expected. But she was out of Calamora now, living amongst regular human beings, and she told Karin often enough that her four hundred and forty-three mothers would have to drag her back to the Rimworlds kicking and screaming. Karin pointed out often enough, and Kitaya understood, that unfortunately, the Allied fleet was not ready for a Treetop Witch who could travel halfway across the galaxy in the blink of an eye. Then there was the other end of the spectrum—the crowd that lived in New Hebrides and routinely ambushed the allied merchant and commercial ships, keeping the cargo and the passengers; both would be sold for great profit, since slavery was a way of life in New Hebrides, the privateer haven. The Outer Limits, which was a buffer zone between the Fahrvolden Quadrant and the Rimworlds, were full of lore and legends, and the most famous one was that of the magic that lived in the Synoor jungle. If some trader or a freelance scout learned that one kernel of that magic was actually living within the Allied Territories, the said kernel’s days would be numbered. Kitaya would be forced to return to Synoor, and she would have to spend the rest of her life living with the Treetop Witches. The Calamora Fort would be the only safe place for her. It’s why Karin had run through several what if scenarios with Kitaya when they’d returned from chasing Suwillin and asked her to promise to do as much as possible by human means—day in and day out, please live the human experience, Karin had said.

I’ve had my graduation ceremony—the one that mattered and meant something. But, like all things in this color-obsessed place, two weeks from now, I will have to watch, from my quarters, a celebration of my graduation, since the queen won’t let me attend in person, Kitaya said.

You’ve already been robbed once, what a shame. Another holographic presence is not nearly as meaningful as being there, Karin said, sighing. Even I left my internship post on Franmore’s World to attend my graduation on Riopelle.

I want a posting, Kitaya said, fighting tears of frustration.

For a telepathic consultancy posting, they’ll have you doing five more years of apprenticeship on some research colony, and then you might get contract posting on a ship—you do know that consultant’s status means just that? When they need you, they’ll give you a five-six-month contract, and then you’re back on solid ground, writing papers from a research institute.

You don’t mean that. You said you would help. You said that I could not declare my telepathic status when I applied to the Academy. You said it was dangerous for me, Kitaya said quietly. Karin looked at her and then closed her eyes. She’d known this moment would come and dreaded it. Now that it was here, she hated it even more.

Two years ago, we spent seven days chasing the reddix neutralizer and Suwillin. And other than the last few hours in that research silo, our adventure was powered entirely by your Treetop Magic. Didn’t that teach you anything?

Kitaya looked away. I’ve spent two years practicing. I have much better control now. And at the Academy, I picked my options as navigation, strategy and logistics, and shuttle pilot, she said.

You don’t say, Karin said pensively. And you read the fleet requirements for such choices patiently and all the way to the end—correct?

I’m willing to work cargo transport routes to get my navigation and shuttle pilot hours, Kitaya said.

So you did read the requirements, Karin murmured.

I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was afraid of what you’d say….

Karin interrupted. Which is precisely what I’ve just told you, so what was there to be afraid of? You knew all along what you wanted and went after it. I’m just…disappointed, I guess, that you didn’t think I would understand.

An uncomfortable silence settled on the charming spot under a pink-leaved tree where the two had sat down on extruded tulips that rose from the ground. Finally, Karin said, You know you can attend the Bollidor ceremonies in person and you can get a posting on a starship if that’s what you want—all you have to do is take control of the minds that stand in your way, and whatever you want is yours.

I know, Kitaya said and sighed.

Then why don’t you do it, since you obviously know what you want?

Because I gave you my word that I would not abuse my Rimworld status, Kitaya said.

Talent, not status, Karin corrected.

Yes, I was born with it; it’s not just something that I learned. Joshua wanted so desperately to learn the things that the Treetops were teaching me, and there was nothing they could do for him. His mind was closed—and normal, like most human minds.

If you’re shopping for sympathy with ‘I’m not normal,’ you’re out of luck, Karin said.

You know that’s not the case. Besides, we share a link. You’re not normal, either. I’m just saying that I know exactly why the Treetops have secluded themselves out there on the Rim and taken up residence in the jungle of a dusty little world. The temptation to use the kind of power they have, the kind of power I have, can be, at times, overwhelming. They can’t really remove themselves from temptation, so they chose to stay as far away as possible without leaving the galaxy. But I can remove myself from temptation—I have you to yank my leash.

I’m not your overseer, Karin objected.

You’re my friend, my life-line, and you’re linked to me, like it or not.

Hm, so what about this inept kidnapper who can’t even find his way around a hospital? Karin changed the subject.

It was Suwillin—I felt her presence. But I perceived danger days before she actually arrived on Bollidor.

You had a premonition that our beloved Captain Grim-Reaper was coming to visit you?

No, not in a regular sense. About two weeks ago, I was sitting in my study theater, doing shuttle runs in the simulator, when everything around me hazed over, and I found myself staring at a scene; it was just as if I were staring at a stage where one of the players was me. It was a three-dimensional vision, if you will, and I saw it from all vantage points. The kidnapper had three choices—that is, three ways to approach and intercept me when I would be alone. All such choices depended on the surveillance of the existing floor layout. There is one place where my bodyguards do not follow me, and that’s the washroom. It would be the most logical place to accost me. The pediatric ward is on the sixth floor, and I normally work with the kids in the playroom that has an adjoining washroom that also has a second door leading to the corridor. The playroom door is yellow, while the external washroom door is blue. The day before I went to the hospital, I asked my bodyguards to switch the doors, literally, between the playroom and the washroom. Then I asked the doctor in charge to occupy the children elsewhere, while I prepared the room for a birthday party. The rest, as they say, is history.

Clever, if a trifle elaborate for my taste, Karin said. But you could have used your mental probe to distract and disorient Suwillin without all that effort.

I could have, Kitaya agreed calmly. But if I am going to break my promise to you—and, in a sense, to myself—then it’s going to be over something far more serious than Suwillin’s coming to kidnap me.

Are you saying that you didn’t think she was a threat to you? Karin asked.

She came wearing a Persona Cloak again. That’s military camouflage—expensive. My vision, for lack of a better word, let me see her with the cloak and without it.

How did you describe the kidnapper to the royal police?

Stop testing me, Karin, and yes, I was tempted to make a mental sketch, but I decided to do what any other academy cadet would do in my place—I asked the computer for a list of military intelligence operatives that are cleared to work on contract in the fleet. I didn’t recognize the image that Suwillin assumed. But I figured that Suwillin would pick someone from the contractor ranks to copy.

And did you find the poor woman that Captain Om’Rey probably killed for her image?

No, Karin. I was really, really disappointed and tempted like you won’t believe to go hunting with my mental probe…but then I had a brainstorm.

And since the Bollidor has not imploded, I take that to mean figuratively speaking, Karin said dryly.

Kitaya ignored her sarcasm. I asked the computer to give me a list of disavowed intelligence operatives.

You figured that Suwillin would go after the black-listed agents?

"Partina Oh’Melish is a recent addition to that list. She was suspended because of unsanctioned cybernetized enhancement. She may regain her contractor status