The Dead Sun(Star Force Series #9)

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I think the key to a successful coup is not letting anyone know what your intentions are. It also doesn’t hurt to have an ace up your sleeve. In my case, my ace was made of metal. He had about fifteen cameras and twice that many limbs.

Marvin didn’t even hesitate when I told him what to do. That part almost bothered me. What if I’d ordered him to hack into NORAD and send nukes at every world capital? I had the feeling he’d do it cheerfully excited at the prospect of a new hacking challenge.

My first move was to silence the fleet. All transmissions other than traffic control with Earth were cut off. We’d left with about ninety percent of Earth’s ships in tow. They’d built a few since then but not many. I didn’t want any of my captains taking orders from anyone other than me.

“Sir?” Newcome asked about twenty minutes after Jasmine and I had sealed our deal in bed. “There seems to be a communications malfunction. I can’t open any channels to Earth.”

I gave him a flat stare. “Is that right? Well, is there anything special you’d like to tell the people on the ground?”

He froze. I think his time under Crow’s harsh rule had given him some kind of post-traumatic disorder. When he sensed he was in political trouble, his mind shut down for a second. When it started operating again, his only instinct was to run and hide.

True to form, about three seconds later he spoke again, this time in a soft voice: “Colonel, I recall an engine malfunction. I’m needed in the aft section of the ship. If you would excuse me—”

“No,” I said. “Man your post, Admiral.”

Without another word out of him, he quietly went back to tapping at his screen. Soon, others were complaining about the communications blackout. It was time to make an announcement.

I opened a fleet-wide channel to everyone in the command ranks. I knew a number of them had heard about the parliament’s action or at least they’d heard a twisted rumor about it. I had to tell them something.

“Star Force officers,” I said, speaking into my com-link. As I did this, I suited up in my full armor. This is an elaborate process but, we’ve managed to make it easy with design improvements. First, I vaulted onto my suit, which was kept on a rack along the wall. Then I shoved my feet down into it. Once the legs were on, they squeezed up of their own accord.

“I know we’ve all seen a lot of combat together,” I said. “At times, we’ve been faced with hard decisions. This is one of those times.”

I tapped at the enclosure, lining up my arms and wrists with the openings. They contracted and my arms and chest were now covered. Only my helmet was still separate from the rest and hanging directly over my head.

The staffers all around the command center were staring with wide eyes. Normally, I only walked around on the ship in armor if we were in a battle. They were all wearing lighter suits, Fleet gear that we marines liked to call “pajamas”.

“As you might have heard, I’ve been contacted by the politicians back home. They figured since we weren’t in their skies, they were free to reinstate Crow’s Empire—but they thought wrong.”

My helmet was descending now, about to enclose my head. That was the last chance anyone would have to take a shot at me—and they went for it.

A lieutenant commander fresh from Earth was on deck. She had impeccable references and had been assigned to the nerd table for navigation. I’d heard she’d been a disappointment to the team so far. Now, I learned why.

“I want every ship to stand by for—” I’d turned to face the crowd of officers. Before I could say anything else, a flash of light blinded me, and my mouth went numb.

A beam had struck my cheek. It was only about as thick as a pencil, but it lanced through taking a path through the back of my throat and out the other side. Fortunately, it missed my spine and my jaw. I suppose that’s because I was in the middle of talking and had my mouth wide open at the time. I only lost a few teeth, and my tongue was intact afterward.

Two more beams flashed a second later, and staffers shouted in alarm. They dove for cover, ducking under the command tables, but it was already over. The assassin was down, barely twitching.


Kwon and Gaines stepped forward from opposite ends of the command deck, wearing full armor and aiming their rifles at anyone who dared to peep out from behind the furniture.

The helmet finally closed over me, and I felt pretty good about that.

Less than a second later, Jasmine was practically climbing over my suit.

“Open the faceplate,” she told me. “I have a patch in my hand.”

I turned away from the confusion, and my visor went up. She reached her hand in around my head and applied the patch to the back of my neck.

“I don’t believe it,” she said. “I can see right through to the back of your helmet when you open your mouth.”

“Yeah,” I said, gargling a bit. “Feels funny.”

“That was a foolish stunt. I told you not to do it.”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

“There are less dangerous ways to expose an assassin.”

“But none work faster,” I pointed out. “And we don’t have a lot of time.”

Once she’d applied the nanite patch, the little devils went to work. They were specialized for emergency damage control. Rather than rebuilding flesh, which took hours, they simply replaced it by mimicking my missing body parts with gluey metallic nanites. They filled in my cheek, my tooth and the flesh at the back of my neck. I immediately had an overpowering taste of metal in my mouth, and the sensation was electric. I was reminded of the taste of car keys from my early childhood.

When she was done fussing, I closed my helmet and turned around. Gaines and Kwon still had the staffers on the floor.

“Get up, get up!” I said irritably. “This isn’t a bank robbery.”

Slowly, they got to their feet.

“Now,” I said, “I’m going to give everyone left alive in this room a choice. You join me, or you can resign now and forget about Star Force.

“What else will happen if we choose to ‘resign’?” Newcome asked warily.

“Nothing. You’ll be confined to quarters until this war is sorted out. We’ll drop you off then, and that will be that. You won’t be prosecuted or anything. But you can forget about flying a ship again.”

Newcome looked thoughtful. “What about our pensions?”

“Come on, man,” I scoffed. “Have a spine! The machines will be here in a month or less. I’ll give them your damned pension!”

The admiral looked miffed. “Very well then, I’ll be staying at my post if you’ll have me.”

“That’s the spirit, Newcome!” I said with bravado. I looked around at the rest of them expectantly.

Moving slowly and wearing expressions like sightseers caught inside a tiger cage at the zoo, they returned to duty. Every one of them had stayed loyal. I smiled and slammed my gauntlets together.

“This is the kind of team-building I like to see!” I said, rotating my helmet to take it all in.

I was bullshitting, of course. They were hardly enthusiastic. I’d say they were intimidated and uncertain at best. But I knew I had to have my command staff on my side. The rest of the captains would take their cue from the top brass, I felt confident about that. I knew most of my officers felt a sense of loyalty toward me, but they’d also accepted Earth’s right to direct her military. For the time being, that had to change.

“Newcome,” I said, “get on the staff channel with everyone. Tell them to get into formation and follow this ship. We’re heading back to Earth.”

Newcome didn’t argue for once. Maybe he’d gotten the idea that the complaint department was closed today. That was just fine with me.

Soon, the entire fleet was moving again. We changed course. Instead of heading to our designated position out at the very edge of the Solar System where we’d planned to meet and do battle with the Macros, we were heading sunward. The third rock out was our destination, and there would be hell to pay when we got home.

Marvin had disabled all transmissions from the fleet to Earth, but from my command table I could still listen to their messages.

“Central Command from Geneva is trying to hail us, Colonel,” Jasmine said quietly.

“Don’t open the channel,” I said.

“They might be changing their minds, Colonel,” Newcome suggested.

I glanced at him. “No, not yet. First, they’ll bluster and give speeches. They’ll order me to turn around. When that doesn’t work, they’ll attempt to contact all my junior officers personally demanding that they not listen to anything I say. That was their plan from the beginning. By the way, are all the ships following our lead?”

Jasmine went over the rosters. “So far, sir. They fell into formation. Several captains are complaining, but they’re all following us so far.”

“This must be what it felt like to Caesar,” I said.

“Sir?” asked Newcome.

“Gaius Julius Caesar,” I repeated. “This must be what it felt like when he took his legion across the Rubicon and marched on Rome about two thousand odd years ago.”

“More like Napoleon,” Newcome muttered.

“What was that, Admiral?”

For a second I thought Newcome was going to cower, but he straightened his spine again. “More like Napoleon returning from Elba, sir. After all, this is your second time around.”

I nodded, eyeing him. “I’m not sure I like either analogy, but they do fit. I feel both elated and depressed. It’s an odd sensation.”

No one answered me, which was just as well.

Seven hours passed. That’s all it took. Inexorably, my fleet cruised closer to the homeworld.

During that time, the government messages had changed in tone. They’d gone from demanding to threatening, and, finally, to pleading.

“They’re beginning to piss their pants,” I said, looking over transcripts of various messages. “Think about it from their point of view. A thousand ships are approaching Earth, silently, purposefully. We’re not talking. Not a single ship has broken ranks. They have nothing to face these ships with. If they can’t direct this fleet, they’re powerless.”

“Sir?” Jasmine said.

I turned my head to her because I caught the worry in her voice.

“What is it?”

She pointed to her screen. I looked down. She’d put a map of the Solar System up. Our fleet was a constellation of green contacts. But there was a red contact now—a big one.

“It’s coming in from the Tyche ring,” she said.

I eyed the big ship knowing what it had to be.

“Phobos,” I said. “They got to her. I wish Marvin could have disabled her communications too. They got to her commander and turned him against me.”

No one said anything. They were all looking at me and one another, but mostly we were all staring at Phobos. I might be able to beat that ship. Maybe. But it would cost me half my fleet to do it. Unfortunately, the action would be suicidal. I would be costing Earth any chance she had of stopping the Macros.

“Sir?” Jasmine said again. “There’s another call from Earth. This one’s different.”

“What’s different about it?” I asked.

“It’s Miklos himself.”

I nodded and slowly opened my visor. Then I opened the channel.

Miklos had been one of my top commanders for years. We went way back together. We’d fought on several campaigns, and it hurt to have him turn on me.

Maybe, I thought to myself now as I looked into his familiar, bearded face, I’d considered giving up when this whole thing had started because he’d been part of it. If your own right hand turns against you, well, you start to think it might be time to quit. Could the rest of my species all be wrong? Every last one of them?


I’d seriously considered exiting the stage and letting someone else take all the glory and blame. Only Jasmine had reversed me by using my kid-to-be as a goad. That was unfair, but I wasn’t sure it was uncalled for.

I remembered long ago reading that every ruling group came to a decision point eventually—a point such as I’d met up with several times recently. Rulers were always challenged by rebels and had to decide whether to give up or to fight their own people. Historically, the ruling group would almost always win if they took quick action. If they had the guts, their regime would usually survive. It was all a matter of resolve.

In the last century, the governments of Russia and China had both faced their day of decision. The Russians had blinked, not having the heart to order troops to fire on their own people in Berlin and later in Moscow. The Chinese, on the other hand, had held firm, slaughtering protesters in Tiananmen Square. Neither sequence of events was rare in history. There were often moments when a leader faced a coup or a rebellion. The trick to staying in power was to act quickly and ruthlessly.

Earth loomed closer on my screen as did Phobos. I’d moved quickly, but the question in my mind was an internal one: did I have the hard heart to do this deed? I wasn’t sure—and I knew they weren’t either.

“Colonel Riggs,” Miklos said. “I’m not sure why I’m speaking to you, sir. I would prefer to talk to Admiral Newcome, who is now in charge of the fleet.”

I chuckled. “Is that really your best line, Nicolai? The man in charge of any fleet is the one giving the orders. Right now, I’m in command.”

Miklos hesitated, but didn’t seem too flustered. “Is Admiral Newcome still alive?” he asked.

“He’s right here.”

I swiped the screen, and Newcome’s face filled the camera. He looked alarmed, and I knew he wasn’t happy I’d done that. He was now on record as being a willing rebel. Newcome hadn’t lived this long by openly taking sides in political conflicts. I knew all that, but I wanted him to feel committed.

“I see,” Miklos said. “I can hardly believe all your officers are lockstep in this rebellion, Colonel.”

“There was one woman, a lieutenant commander, I believe. She had her convictions, but she did not survive.”

Miklos’ face shifted showing a thread of surprise for just a second. Then he nodded.

“Look, Colonel, we don’t have to do this.”

“No, we don’t,” I said.

“In fact, this entire thing is madness.”

“I absolutely agree.”

We stared at one another for a few seconds.

“It sounds like we are in agreement, but I sense we’re not,” Miklos said. “Are you really prepared to destroy Earth’s fleets, pitting one half against the other?”

I shook my head. “No,” I said. “That’s not going to happen. Let me tell you what is going to happen. I’m going to fly to Earth. We’re closer to Earth than Phobos, and we’ll be there about a day before the big ship arrives. That’s all the time I need.”

Miklos’ lips worked. He looked wary now.

“All the time you need for what?”

“I’ve removed one government from the face of my planet, and I will not hesitate to remove a second. Your supporters will run like rats, but they will not be able to hide. They’ve already been identified and tagged. Really, I’m only concerned with collateral casualties. That’s the unfortunate part.”

Miklos opened his mouth then closed it again. “You don’t have resources to—”

“Did you think I told you everything?” I shouted at him. “Did you really think I left you with the keys to the planet? That I had no one else? No watchful eyes? No supporters in the wings?”

“Yes. I did believe that. You’re a very solitary man, Colonel.”

I nodded. “We all make mistakes. I’m sorry, Miklos,” I said. Then I suddenly closed the channel.

Jasmine and Newcome were staring at me. I smiled back.

“Pretty good, huh?” I asked them. “Do you think he bought it?”

No one knew what to say.

“Jasmine,” I said, “get Marvin to open a private channel for me. I need to talk to General Kerr.”

“Kerr? Why?”

“He’s my one-man secret network, that’s why.”