Phoenix Imperiled: Phoenix Empire, #3

By Dietmar Arthur Wehr

Twenty years have passed since the 2nd battle for Marduk. The System States Coalition, which now includes all Old Federation colonized planets, has become unwieldy and rigid. Powerful member states like the Terran Imperium are resorting to corporate warfare and commerce raiding (disguised as piracy) to sidestep the mutual defense clause that open warfare would activate. Regent Gail Foley-Bentrik, will have to face difficult decisions if there's to be any hope of reversing the current slide down the slippery slope toward the new Dark Age. With tensions rising and the Coalition powder keg ready to explode at any moment, can she keep the multi-planet Kingdom of Marduk from being overwhelmed by the forces of chaos?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dietmar Arthur Wehr
• Release date: Oct 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215792964

Dietmar Arthur Wehr

Dietmar started writing SF novels when he was 58 after a career in corporate financial analysis. He got tired of waiting for David Weber to write another Honor Harrington series book so he decided to write some military SF of his own. He lives near Niagara Falls, Canada. In his spare time, he dabbles in steampunk cosplay, pursues his interests in science, history and free energy. He can be contacted via his website.

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Cast of Major Characters:

The Kingdom of Marduk :

Regent Gail Foley-Bentrik – Sovereign leader of the multi-planetary Kingdom of Marduk

Prince Victor Bentrik – Heir to the multi-planetary Kingdom of Marduk

Grand Admiral Zambrano – RMSN Chief of Space Operations

Admiral Salvador Mendez – Director of Marduk’s Magic Section (Gandalf)

Admiral Byron Arraez – Head of RMSN Intelligence

Lance LaRoche – Senior Fleet Admiral in the RMSN

Linda Cronenworth – Fleet Admiral in the RMSN

Tanner Stanek – Fleet Admiral in the RMSN

Johann Fliesher - Fleet Admiral in the RMSN

Cornelia Granger – Captain of the starfreighter Euryalus

Max Kepler – Executive Officer onboard Euryalus

Kensuke Matsu – Tactical Officer onboard Euryalus

Yuli Soto – Helm Officer onboard Euryalus

Jeimer Gallo – Astrogation Officer onboard Euryalus

Raimel Dylan – Engineering Officer onboard Euryalus

Elise Konig – Captain of RMSN light cruiser, Foxbat

Aubry Zimmerman – Captain of the light cruiser, Cormorant

Jerman Sorrieta - RMSN Intelligence operative

Amanda Braun - Captain of the light cruiser, Intrepid

Ryon Castellano – Captain of the carrier, Colossus

Kristine Sagan – Attack boat commander/Cag

Martin Turner – Captain of the light cruiser, Audacious

TERRAN IMPERIUM:

Chancellor Vladimir Manhoff – Leader of the Terran Imperium

Nomar Orlitz – Manhoff’s Chief of Staff

Sakura Gato – Grand Admiral, ISN Chief of Space Operations

Trent Chisholm – ISN Fleet Admiral

Masimo Polanco – CEO of Kapstaad Chemicals

Alfonso Ramirez – Kapstaad Chemicals Vice-President

Brent Daro Baraclaw – Executive of Kapstaad Chemicals

Ortega Robles – Major in Terran Imperium Space Navy Marines

Vice-Admiral Dansby Hanover – ISN Fleet Admiral

EXCALIBUR COLONY:

Huang Takano – Hereditary Leader for Life

Akinori Takano – Son of Huang Takano

Alcides De Azo – Captain of freighter Spirit of Avalon

Shelby Morel – Director of Xochitl Colony

Masato Aoki – Captain of freighter Spirit of Akari

OTHERS:

Conn Maxwell – Junior analyst, Magic Section

Rodney Maxwell – Storisende spaceport Deputy Manager (Poictesme)

Curious Toby – A Fuzzy on the planet Zarathustra

Trevor Lothar – Curious Toby’s adopted human.

Meygin Rooker – Director of the Fafnir Colony

Jorge Astudillo – Deputy Director of the Fafnir Colony

Hideo Murakami – Fafnir recolonization expedition leader

Fletcher Brantley – President of Republic of Aton

Admiral Ocuiffo – Head of Tetragrammaton Space Navy

Tracie Valaika – Captain in the Tetragrammaton Space Navy

Kendrys Bellinger – Captain of the freighter, Stoner Three

Royce Hutt – Captain of the freighter, Terra Savannah

Jason Kinsler – Captain of the freighter Peenemunde

Gilian Arroyo – Captain of the freighter Terra Pacifica

Glossary of Terms:

ASM – Anti-ship missile

AMM – Anti-missile missile

Comoff – nickname for communications officer used to avoid confusion with CO (Commanding Officer)

TacNet – A network of linked tactical systems allowing multiple ships to share tactical data and orders

Ecliptic – The two-dimensional disk that contains all the orbits of planets.

FCO – Fleet Commanding Officer

FTO – Fleet Tactical Officer in charge of coordinating a fleet’s battle tactics

FAO – Fleet Astrogation Officer in charge of coordinating a fleet’s movement.

Graser – Stands for gamma ray laser

Umbra – Shadow cast by a planetary body.

CSO – Chief of Space Operations

CAO – Chief of Army Operations

CO – Commanding Officer

XO – Executive Officer

EO – Engineering Officer

TO – Tactical Officer

HO – Helm Officer

I wish to gratefully acknowledge the following Patreon supporters, who have made pledges at the Vice-Admiral Level.

Prologue:

TWO DECADES HAVE PASSED since the decisive 2nd battle for Marduk that established the multi-planetary Kingdom of Marduk under Aren Bentrik. Queen Gail Foley-Bentrik is still Regent with several years left before Prince Victor reaches the age that his late father set down in his Will as the age when Victor will assume the Throne.

The project to avoid or at least delay the descent into a new Dark Age is in trouble. With all Old Federation colonized planets now members in the System States Coalition, any attack by ships on a planet or its defenses will automatically activate the mutual defense clause in the Coalition Constitution. This means that aggressive planetary states such as the Terran Imperium expand their influence by less overt means such as economic pressure, corporate warfare using ‘mercenaries,’ and commerce raiding disguised as piracy. The growing use of those last two options is having the effect of accelerating the long-term decline in the level of civilization that will run its course unless Regent Gail and the Bentrik dynasty can stop it.

For reasons known only to the Chancellor of the Terran Imperium, he uses his Merlin-type supercomputer to encourage the decline, thereby neutralizing whatever measures Marduk’s Gandalf computer has come up with to resist the decline. The further down the slippery slope of decline the situation gets, the harder it will be to reverse the trend. Gandalf’s projections show a gradually narrowing window of opportunity to pull out of the dive before the trend becomes irreversible.

While all this has been going on, the refugee colony of Excalibur has set up a forward base on Xochtil in Old Federation space, disguised as a new colony. With a fleet of small star-freighters using the faster jump drive technology and false transponder IDs to search for emerging new technologies among Coalition planets, Excalibur hopes to exploit those technologies, including artificial wombs and cloning, to quickly expand the size and scope of its power.

Chapter One

MALVERTON, MARDUK, 903 A.E.

Regent Gail put down the data tablet and sighed. The latest projection from Gandalf was even more depressing than usual. Despite her efforts and Gandalf’s recommendations, the downward spiral toward anarchy and chaos was continuing and was, in fact, accelerating. Why is Manhoff acting this way? His M4 has to be telling him the same things that Gandalf is telling us, yet the Imperium continues to block all our efforts to pull civilization out of the dive we’re in. Gandalf says Manhoff wants the decline to continue, but that makes no sense. Has he gone mad? Or has M4 given him an answer to a question that we haven’t thought to ask?

[Vice-Admiral Mendez is here as requested] said her avatar via the brain implant she now carried.

Tell him to come in. The double doors to her study slid back to allow the entrance of a tall man wearing the Royal Marduk Space Navy uniform with the infinity symbol patch on his shoulders denoting the Magic Section he supervised. He came to a stop and saluted. Regent Gail returned the salute and pointed to one of the two comfortable chairs facing her desk.

Have a seat, Salvador. I’ve just finished reading the latest bad news.

Thank you, Your Majesty. I found it troubling too. He sat down and waited for the Regent to speak.

I can’t help wondering if we’ve overlooked something; some question that we’re not asking Gandalf that Manhoff has asked his M4. Any idea of what that might be? she asked.

Mendez thought for a moment before responding. I’ve had the same suspicion, and I’ve asked my staff to brainstorm possible questions and avenues of inquiry. They’re as stumped as I am, Your Majesty. Perhaps General Augustin might have some insights that we’re overlooking.

Gail’s eyebrows rose at that last sentence. After Leonhard’s retirement, his recommended successor had gone out of his way to avoid any suggestion that he was incapable of running the Magic Section without his former boss’s help. To suggest asking Augustin now implied that Mendez viewed the current situation as extremely serious. The Regent already viewed it as serious, and it was disconcerting to think that she had to revise her assessment upward to the higher level of extremely serious.

I’ll ask the General to consult with both of us. But in the meantime, let’s do a little brainstorming ourselves by looking at basic assumptions. We’ve been assuming that Manhoff is sane or at least rational. What if he isn’t?

Mendez sighed. If that’s the case, then I don’t see any way of avoiding the tipping point where the decline becomes irreversible. As Your Majesty knows, the further down the slope we go, the harder it’ll be to pull up, and the window of opportunity before we reach the tipping point is shrinking fast. I find it difficult to imagine that the entire senior leadership of the Imperium is either just as irrational as Manhoff or is rational but is letting him drive civilization off a cliff without doing anything to stop him. What makes more sense to me is that they see some short or long-term benefit to the Terran Imperium from letting the crash happen.

Have we asked Gandalf about that question? asked Gail.

Mendez nodded. We have. Specifically, we’ve asked whether the Imperium would survive the crash better than the rest of the SSC and should it follow the optimum strategy for itself regardless of what happens to everyone else. The answer to the first question is no. The second question has a mixed answer. Their beggar thy neighbor strategy will benefit the Imperium in the short run but not in the long run. Perhaps that IS the answer. Manhoff and his senior leadership will all be dead in the long run and may not care about what happens after their gone.

Is it that simple? Earth has certainly produced a lot of leaders whose first priority is themselves. Marduk has too come to think of it. I’ve resisted the temptation to shift the Kingdom’s strategy from what’s best for civilization to what’s best for the Kingdom. Maybe it’s time I did that too. That thought made her uncomfortable. Not only was it going against the grain of over 20 years of decision-making, but it also felt like a betrayal of what her husband had died for. She mentally rebuked herself for entertaining that thought even for a second.

Let’s assume that Manhoff is rational and that M4 is not malfunctioning and is therefore giving him accurate results. We’ve been looking primarily at minimizing the depth of the decline. Have we asked Gandalf how to speed up the recovery after a crash?

Ah, not that I’m aware of, Your Majesty, but it’s certainly worth looking into. I’ll have my staff come up with several different ways of asking that question and run them past Gandalf today.

Good. I’ll want to see those results as soon as you have them. Now, let’s look at Gandalf’s recommendations regarding the agenda for the next SSC Council meeting. I see it’s recommending that I accept the three applications for joining the Kingdom by Fafnir, Uller, and Kwannon. I frankly don’t understand why Gandalf is recommending that. I accepted Amaterasu, Beowulf, Zarathustra, and Freya because they could offer resources or exports that would benefit the Kingdom. But these three all have net negatives. The Colony on Fafnir is barely surviving its fight against the ultra-large reptiles that roam all the land areas. Uller requires a large garrison to keep the locals from being tempted to revolt again, and Kwannon has no resources worth exporting and would be a net drain on the Royal Treasury.

What I can say regarding that is that the projection where all three applications are rejected shows a slightly faster decline over the next decade. The basic difference in the two projections is the greater number of additions to the Kingdom, including some that offer a net benefit, over that period, if these three planets are allowed to join now, Your Majesty.

Regent Gail hesitated. Normally she accepted Gandalf’s recommendations without question, but this time she had a feeling that the recommendation was wrong. Basing decisions that can affect millions of people on a feeling is not how a Kingdom is supposed to be run, but Gandalf isn’t omniscient. It can only calculate probabilities based on what it knows, and sometimes the demon god Murphy throws the probabilities out the window. Shit happens, as I know all too well.

I’ll defer the decision on those applications for the time being. There’s no time limit on them, after all.

Yes, Your Majesty.

The next recommendation is a tweaking of fleet asset deployment....

MENDEZ RETURNED TO his office to find a young man waiting. A quick check with his avatar via his implant reminded him that the young man was Conn Maxwell, who the head of Malverton University’s computer department had recommended for a job with Magic Section. Maxwell stood up as Mendez entered. He really didn’t want to do the interview right now, given the urgency of getting the staff working on the new questions that the Regent wanted answers to, but the recommendation to hire this Maxwell was unusually insistent. An idea occurred to him.

Thank you for waiting, Mister Maxwell. I’ve just finished conferring with the Regent, and I have some urgent business to attend to as a result of that meeting. Rather than wait here for who knows how long, why don’t you come along as an observer when I meet with my staff? We can then conduct the interview afterward.

That would be fine, sir.

Mendez had his avatar inform the staff to meet in the conference room right away. When he and Maxwell entered the room, the staff were already seated around the oval table. They looked at Maxwell with curious stares. To his credit, Maxwell didn’t seem to be flustered by the attention. Mendez made a mental note of that.

This is Conn Maxwell. He’ll be observing this meeting before I interview him for a possible job offer. Conn, why don’t you sit over there, said Mendez pointing to one of the chairs lined up against one wall.

Thank you, sir.

As Mendez took his seat at the head of the table, he looked around at his staff. There were 12 of them. That number never failed to amuse him. Were they his apostles or his knights of the oval table? If Maxwell joined the group, the number would be 13, which Mendez remembered was a Fibonacci number. One of the mysteries of life was that Fibonacci numbers and the ratio between them appeared quite often in living organisms on every planet that contained life. Don’t get too mystical. It’s just a number.

I’ve just met with the Regent about Gandalf’s latest projection. It should not surprise anyone in this room that she wasn’t happy about it, and neither am I. The Regent wants Gandalf to look at the long-term trend from a different point of view to see if there’s something that the Imperium’s M4 is seeing that Gandalf hasn’t. Instead of asking it what we should do to minimize the decline, we’ll ask it what we should do to speed up the recovery after the crash has hit bottom. That generated some surprised looks around the table.

The next ten minutes were spent examining the wording of several questions to the supercomputer to cover multiple permutations of the analytical approach. When a consensus had been reached, Mendez leaned back and nodded.

Okay, to summarize, we’ll ask Gandalf what the best overall strategy is to recover from the crash as well as what the Kingdom’s best strategy is to recover from the crash and finally what the Kingdom’s best strategy is vis a vis the Terran Imperium. Once we get the results to those questions, we may have more questions, but this is a good start. He was about to start assigning specific tasks when he noticed that Maxwell, who had been leaning back in his chair with a relaxed expression, had suddenly leaned forward with an intense expression on his face. The others saw Mendez look at Maxwell and turned to look at him too.

Is there something you wish to say, Conn? asked Mendez.

Well, sir, ah, one of the classes I took at the University was called the history of supercomputer use from the System States Alliance War to the present. And in that course, we studied how Merlin and later Gandalf used second-order analysis to win battles. I was just wondering if Imperium’s M4 is basing its recommendations on what the Kingdom of Marduk is doing. For example, if the crash happens faster, is the recovery faster or slower? Suppose the speed of the recovery reflects the speed of the decline. By resisting the decline and thereby building up pressures, the Kingdom might be making the final plunge faster than if it let the decline move at its natural rate. In that case, M4 might be telling the Imperium that the optimum long-term strategy is to let the Kingdom succeed just enough to keep the pressure building as long as possible to make the final plunge as steep as possible.

Mendez looked around the table. The reaction was mainly dismissive, but a couple of people seemed to be having an ‘aha’ moment. Mendez himself was having an ‘aha’ moment. We’ve been thinking that we’re reacting to M4’s analysis, and it never occurred to us that M4 might be reacting to our actions. He looked back at Maxwell. You’ve just earned yourself a job, Maxwell.

I think that’s worth checking out. In addition to the three questions we’ve already discussed, I want to add the following. Does the speed of the recovery depend on the speed of the decline? Does the recovery speed depend on whether the decline is delayed from actions that the Kingdom is taking? Will the Kingdom be better off in the short and long run if it stops resisting the decline? And finally, what is our best counterstrategy if the Imperium is reacting to our actions? In other words, second-order analysis on a strategic level. He paused, then smiled. Second-order might not be the correct term. We could be looking at third or even fourth-order analysis. Okay, this is how we’ll proceed. When everyone at the table had been assigned specific tasks and deadlines, Mendez adjourned the meeting and turned to Maxwell.

Let’s you and I head back to my office, Conn.

When Mendez was settled in his chair behind his desk, and Maxwell was seated facing his desk, the Vice-Admiral leaned back and smiled. Your comments were quite interesting, Conn. Having someone look at the situation with a fresh eye can often result in a new approach that others missed. My team and I have allowed ourselves to develop blinkers in our thinking that have narrowed our focus. So, thank you for your out-of-the-box approach. But I’m wondering how you know so much about the situation?

Maxwell shrugged. Ah, well, it’s no secret that supercomputers have been predicting a long-term decline. And that course I mentioned included Merlin and Gandalf recommendations up to six months ago. We were told that the Regent had approved sharing that data after a six-month lag, sir.

Oh, yes. I had forgotten that. I wonder.... Mendez continued after a pause. At the time when the Regent approved the University’s request for that data, Gandalf’s calculations showed no significant impact on future events if the data was lagged by at least six months. But now I’m wondering if that analysis took in second-order effects. What do you think?

I...don’t know, sir.

Mendez chuckled. You’re careful because you don’t want to say anything that might jeopardize being offered a job in the Magic Section. Well, you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve already decided to offer you a position with us. Normally, a new person would be given the junior tasks such as making sure Gandalf is updated with all the data on events happening elsewhere in the Coalition, including economic, military, scientific, cultural, and political data. It’s not exciting, but it has to be done. As people get experience with Gandalf and as staffing opportunities come up, there’s the possibility of advancement to a more senior position involving analysis of Gandalf's output. Your comments in the meeting demonstrate an analytical approach that I think we need. Therefore, assigning you to junior-level tasks would be a waste. Letting you jump the line to a higher-level analyst position would be unfair to those who joined before you and would hurt morale as well as their ability to work with you. I’ll have to think of another way to bring you into the fold without ruffling anyone’s feathers.

But right now, I want to hear more ideas from you. I’ve been running the Magic Section long enough to know that the Regent will have a hard time accepting the idea that the best long-term strategy now is to let civilization crash and concentrate on the recovery. Can you think of any possible way of avoiding the crash altogether from a second-order perspective?

Maxwell took his time responding. We know that the collapse has an economic trigger. As interstellar trade declines, planetary economies shrink, causing unemployment, political instability, and revolts or external aggression in the form of piracy or outright war. Planets that depend on imports to maintain their standard of living and technology gradually decivilize to a lower tech level until ships stop traveling altogether. I always wondered if a group of planets that collectively were self-sufficient in everything they needed might be able to halt the decline within the group.

Mendez shook his head. We thought of that too. Defining self-sufficiency is a grey area. Do you only look at basic resources like food and minerals, or do you also include manufactured goods and high-tech goods? If the latter, the group becomes so large and widely dispersed that it becomes extremely difficult to defend it against aggression. That being said, the last time we asked Gandalf to look at that option was at least two years ago. Since then, the RMSN has just about doubled in size, allowing for the defense of more systems. But what we didn’t ask Gandalf the last time was the second-order question. Even if the self-reliant group strategy has a less than fifty percent chance of success, is it a better option than continuing our current strategy? It’s these kinds of special projects that we need to pursue in an organized and systematic way. Mendez snapped his fingers. That’s the answer to what your position will be. Junior Analyst: Special Projects. You’ll report directly to me, but you’ll have to coordinate with the senior analysts to get access to Gandalf. I’ll make sure they know to cooperate with you and you with them. If you find cooperation lacking, let me know. Any other ideas?

Not at the moment, sir. If I think of something else, I’ll bring it to your attention.

Okay then. Come back tomorrow by zero nine hundred hours. I’ll have a cubicle set up for you by then, and I’ll introduce everyone to you one at a time. By the way, what part of Marduk are you from?

I’m from Poictesme, Admiral.

And you decided to attend University on Marduk instead of Earth?

That’s right, sir. I did consider applying to the University of Montevideo. They have the best computer school on Earth, but I decided to come here because I wanted to work on a supercomputer. That meant either M4 or Gandalf and the Terran Imperium isn’t very popular on Poictesme anymore. We’ve lost a lot of the autonomy that was guaranteed when Poictesme voted to accept TI’s offer of Protectorate status decades ago. Our economy used to be based mainly on melon brandy and tobacco exports, but it’s now mainly providing support services for the industrial activity on Koshchei. Koshchei’s needs come first, and Poictesme’s needs come last.

Mendez kept his expression from showing his reaction. Will future historians reflect on your decision to come to Marduk instead of Earth as the turning point where civilization changed course? How close did we come to you making a different choice?

Well, I’m glad you decided to come to Marduk, Conn. I won’t keep you any longer. Any questions?

Ah, yes, Admiral. May I ask what my salary will be?

Mendez laughed. Yes, of course! How silly of me to forget that. Junior Analyst positions typically start at fifty-five thousand a year. Given the cost of living here in the Capital, that’s enough to live at a modestly comfortable level. Annual increases depend on the length of service and performance. Our senior analysts earn considerably more than that. Because of the special projects you’ll be working on, I think we can do better than the fifty-five thousand. I’ll know by tomorrow how much better. How does that sound?

That sounds fine, Admiral.

Good. In that case, I won’t detain you any longer. I’ll see you tomorrow morning then.

TWO WEEKS LATER:

Gail Foley-Bentrik put down the data tablet and sighed. The final report on the initial nine questions and the dozens of follow-up questions had finally been presented to her. The logic of the conclusion was so complicated that she now felt a headache coming on. Each question came back with a range of probable outcomes. Each outcome generated more questions about what M4 would advise Chancellor Manhoff to do with another range of probabilities. Each of those would be examined by Gandalf for a range of countermoves and so on. Visually, all those possible outcomes looked like the branches of a tree laying on its side. Gandalf had eventually analyzed the equivalent of looking ahead eight moves in a chess game. With hundreds of outcomes with different probabilities, the challenge was to pick one branch that was superior overall to all the others. Admiral Mendez’s report had concluded that branch numbered 144 was the recommended strategy. The long-term focus on building a self-reliant group of planets that would grow over time was a daring change from the current strategy of trying to keep all planets from engaging in open warfare. The initial move of withdrawing from the System States Coalition would shock everyone, including Manhoff. The range of Imperium countermoves included a significant probability of an attack on the Kingdom. That was the risk that made the Regent shiver. But unless the Imperium won an overwhelming military victory, the choices it would have for any given Kingdom countermove ranged from poor to only marginally positive. And the further the Imperium moved down that branch, the worse its prospects got. If it didn’t attack the Kingdom, its future prospects were actually slightly better overall, and the Kingdom’s future prospects would be slightly worse. Taken as a whole, the chances of successfully pulling a significant percentage of humanity out of the dive toward collapse was 51.67%. That was a major improvement compared to the 21% chance of success with the old strategy, but it was still a toss-up. The larger the self-reliant group got, the lower the chances of success. Gail foresaw a situation that she or her son or perhaps his heir might face where a decision to add another planet to the group had to be weighed against the added risk to the planets already in the group. Does a high chance of helping millions count for more than a low chance of disastrous results for billions? That was a decision she did not want to face. She made up her mind to approve the branch #144 strategy at the next strategy meeting. If Manhoff wanted a war, she would give him one. Gaining military intelligence on the Imperium would be essential. There was one person who might get that intelligence but attempting to do so would be risky. On the other hand, Captain Cornelia Granger was used to taking risks.

Chapter Two

GRANGER WALKED DOWN the boarding ramp of her freighter, Euryalus, and took a deep breath of Poictesme air. A thunderstorm had just finished passing through the area, and the air still had that fresh, clean smell that seemed to be common on all planets after a storm. A groundcar was approaching from the spaceport administration center. It undoubtedly carried admin staff eager to subject her to the usual bureaucratic torture of filling out pointless forms. As she watched the vehicle approach, she wondered if she had made the right decision to accept the RMSN Intelligence offer to command a very special starfreighter to gather naval intelligence on potential enemies. After a long career as a naval officer in five space navies, a part of her wanted to retire and settle down. And if the Euryalus had been any ordinary freighter, she would have done just that, but it wasn’t. Not only did it have sensitive equipment to detect, record, and analyze radar, lidar, and radio transmissions from both civilian and military sources, it also was armed with short-range anti-ship missiles, an anti-missile laser turret, and a relatively low power graser, all hidden from casual view. It wasn’t intended to fight warships. Its armament was intended to fight off pirates (unless the pirates were real warships!) The ship’s crew was special too. All of them were ex-naval personnel who would keep their cool in a battle, and some of them were ex-RMSN marines who could don powered combat armor (the ship did have some) and give any pirates attempting to board Euryalus a real surprise. But the anti-pirate capability was strictly for self-defense. Intelligence gathering was an altogether different risk.

As the groundcar came to a stop in front of the ramp, a man got out and came over to her. She guessed his age in the mid-’40s. He seemed to be slightly taller than average with a slim build, a craggy face, and a little white hair mixed in with the natural brown. His expression was friendly.

Welcome to Storisende spaceport. I’m Rodney Maxwell, the spaceport Deputy Manager.

Captain Sofia Drake of the Superswift Shipping Company freighter, Euryalus.

Maxwell offered his hand, and Granger shook it. Pleased to meet you, Captain Drake. This is your ship’s first visit to Poictesme, correct?

Yes, that’s right. First time for my ship and for me too.

We’re always happy to see new freighters here. I assume you have cargo you want to sell and are interested in buying cargo?

Absolutely. Melon brandy and tobacco plus anything else that I think we could sell for a profit, but mainly brandy and tobacco. There’s a market for those just about anywhere.

Maxwell laughed. Yes, we have good brandy and excellent tobacco. Too good, perhaps. If we locals didn’t consume so much of both, we’d have more to export.

Granger allowed herself to smile. I hope the prices won’t be too high. My company expects me to make a profit on everything my ship carries. Should I assume that you want me to accompany you back to your offices to fill out some forms?

Maxwell nodded. You assume correctly, Captain. I know all freighter captains loath filling out spaceport paperwork, but my boss insists that it be done. If you get in, I’ll take you over to my offices and have a car bring you back when you’re done.

Granger nodded and began walking to the groundcar. The sound of a sonic boom caught her attention. As she looked up, she saw a triangular shape emerge from the clouds and