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CHAPTER 1
A four-note call from a bosun's pipe sounded over speakers through His Majesty's Starship Victoria. The traditional announcement, "Insertion into Q-space in thirty seconds," followed, and every complink displayed a countdown. For a century, there had been no real need for the warning. In the early centuries of Q-space travel, it had been necessary to shut down a ship's artificial gravity before making the transit to or from Q-space because the early Nilssen generators had been unable to support the power demands of both of their functions simultaneously. Current engines had no such difficulty. In addition, the dimensional translation was no longer accompanied by the gut-wrenching sense of dislocation that the early generators had produced. But traditions died hard within the Royal Navy of the Second Commonwealth.
Two thousand feet aft of the ship's bridge, in one of the six dozen troop bays that occupied the bulk of the ship's volume, Sergeant David Spencer of the First Battalion, Second Regiment of Royal Marines looked up from his inspection of the Intelligence and Reconnaissance (I&R) platoon to the nearest speaker when the bosun's call sounded.
"Third time pays for all," David whispered after the announcement. After fifteen years in the Marines, David had lost count of his Q-space transits — well over a hundred. But this was the third transit of this particular voyage, the final jump.
There were no noticeable feel to the ship's translation to Q-space. Victoria's navigator locked onto a point-mass dimensional complex. The ship's Nilssen generators deformed the point and expanded the resulting sphere around HMS Victoria. David knew the rudiments of the theory, though the mathematics were beyond his imagination. During the jump, the ship existed in a virtually independent universe, a bubble whose diameter would be scarcely greater than the longest dimension of Victoria — slightly over five miles. Once inside Q-space, the ship would rotate until it was aimed at the proper exit point, and then transit back to normal-space. The amount of distortion forced on the sphere during the exit determined the normal-space distance covered during the jump. Properly plotted and executed, three Q-space transits could carry a ship to any point in the known reaches of the galaxy. Two snags kept Q-space transport from being effectively instantaneous between any two points. First, a ship had to climb away from the gravity well of a planet before making the first transit of a voyage. Second, ships had to make lengthy normal-space passages between Q-space transits, traveling away from their last jump points in normal-space until the last distortion ripples had damped out completely. That meant five days in normal-space before the first transit and three days after each jump. A captain in the Royal Navy didn't cut corners, not if he or she wanted to retain that commission.
Victoria's journey home to Buckingham from Devereaux had been something of a lark for most of the troops. Their posting to Devereaux had been long and boring. The first, second, and engineering battalions of the Second Regiment had spent nearly two years helping the new colonists stake out townships, build houses, clear forest, prune back the local predators — that sort of job. It hadn't been proper military work, but it was work, and Marines had to be kept busy, if only to keep them out of mischief. But there had also been time for military training. The Royal Marines never passed up the opportunity to train their people on new terrain. Now the Second Regiment was going home, looking forward to catching up on overdue holiday leave and a little civilized debauchery. A colony in its first years had little to offer visiting military men — no pubs or dance halls, no unattached and available young women.
Sergeant Spencer finished his inspection, then moved out into the cross aisle. "All right, lads. Do try to keep the area looking shipshape longer than thirty seconds. You've earned your free afternoon. Dismissed."
"Three more days," Jacky White said, immediately dropping onto his bunk. The men chosen to serve in the I&R platoons tended to be rather below average in height and weight. Stealth was an important weapon for them. But Jacky was slightly shorter than average, even for the I&R. Fully dressed, he looked slight, no particular threat to anyone. But there was a wiry, muscular body hidden beneath those clothes, and the bland face concealed the mind of a proficient infantryman. "Three days to home and then it's civie street for me. Bloody time too. My enlistment was up six weeks ago."
"You're not a civilian yet, White," Spencer said. "You know the drill, 'Enlistment continued for the Good of the Service.' "
"Aw, c'mon, Sergeant," Jacky said, laughing. "You mean, 'enlistment continued because the RM are too cheap to provide special transport home.'"
"As you will." Spencer held back his smile until he turned away from Jacky. His face was so weathered that his men sometimes said that his smile could start babies crying. "Mind, you've had your lark. I haven't had a decent day's work out of you in longer than six weeks."
"What will you do with your leave when we get home, Sergeant?" Lance Corporal Tory Kepner asked. Tory was still on his feet. Spencer turned to him, liking what he saw. Kepner looked as if he had stepped out of a recruiting poster, tall and obviously strong, clean-cut, the exception to the "small men go to I&R" rule. He would make full corporal soon, replacing Norwood Petty, who had transferred to the Second Battalion when he made sergeant.
"I know what you'll do," David said, avoiding the question. "You'll be off to see that new son of yours."
"Not so new. He's eighteen months old, and I haven't seen him yet." Tory had bored his mates to tears through most of those eighteen months, and through the last five months of his wife's pregnancy, talking about his wife and child.
"Not to worry," Alfie Edwards called from across a half dozen bunks. He was the only man in the squad shorter than Jacky, but outweighed him by fifteen pounds. He had grown up in a rough, lower-class neighborhood and looked it. Even though his hair was worn short, there was no mistaking the "almost red" color or the fact that it was uncontrollable. Alfie had been dangerous in a fight before enlisting. Training camp had merely refined his skills. He had never been bothered by any yearning for a "fair" fight, wanting every possible advantage. "You were there for the important bit."
"He thinks," Jacky said, sotto voce.
"I didn't hear an announcement that we've left Q-space," Roger Zimmerman said. He leaned against the end of a tier of bunks. "Hasn't it been long enough?" He was less worried about the transit than he was about the discussion he was interrupting. Roger fancied himself the glue that kept the I&R platoon's first squad from disintegrating into a constant brawl. He claimed to be older and wiser than the others, but had stopped mentioning that when the others said it was a matter less of years and wisdom than of the fact that he was simply going bald.
"Maybe the navigator's got the shakes and can't line us up," Alfie said, and there were laughs from most of the others.
Then the transit announcement came. After another thirty-second countdown, Victoria was back in normal-space, and in its home system.
"I'll be in my room," Spencer said. "Lunch will be called soon. Leave a bit for the rest of the battalion, will you?" He used that as an exit line, heading for the hatch on the inboard side of the compartment while the squad groaned and called out retorts. Sergeants were quartered separately, normally four to a room — except for company lead sergeants and above, who were two to a room, and the regimental sergeant major, who had a cabin to himself. On this voyage, with only half the regiment aboard, David shared a stateroom with only one other sergeant, Malcolm Macdowell, HQ Company's quartermaster. And Macdowell used the room only to sleep in.
There was a message flashing on the complink screen when David got to the stateroom. "SERGEANTS' CALL AT 1215 HOURS IN THE SERGEANTS' MESS."
"Right after lunch," David mumbled. "I wonder what's cooking now." He smiled at his pun. Finally alone in his sanctuary, David let his body relax. After fifteen years, it was an automatic reflex, the putting on and taking off of proper military posture. Barely thirty-two years old, David had enlisted while he was still underage. He had planned from the start to make a career out of the Royal Marines, and he had worked with almost maniacal determination to make himself the best Marine he could possibly be. Almost textbook average in height and weight, David looked deceptively mild, with pale blue eyes and thin blond hair. The look was simply another advantage to make use of.
He glanced at his watch. Mess call wouldn't sound for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes to kip out, David decided. He lay on his bunk and stared at the overhead. It would be good to get home to Buckingham and civilization. Two years was an unusually long posting to a frontier world like Devereaux, and David was no different than his men — he was anxious to enjoy some of the pleasures of a civilized world again. The twenty minutes of daydreams were only a start.
David put on a fresh uniform before he went to the mess, undress blues with standing collar. Captain McAuliffe could sometimes get sticky about appearance. Heading back to garrison after a two-year absence, he was almost certain to start.
Lunch was served from 1100 to 1200 hours, ship's time. Most days, David made it a point to get to the mess late enough that he didn't have to stand in line. But today there would certainly be rumors about the meeting. There might even be hard information.
"It's all three battalions," H&S Company Lead Sergeant Landsford told David just inside the entrance to the mess. "Colonel Laplace himself will be conducting the meeting."
"What's on the cooker?" David asked.
Landsford shook his head. "Something about the war is all I've been able to find out. No idea what."
"The war's still on then?" David asked. "The war" had been something of a joke on Devereaux. The Confederation of Planets had formally declared war on the Second Commonwealth — rather, on the worlds that belonged to the Commonwealth, since the Federation didn't recognize the existence of the Commonwealth itself. The Federation had reasserted its claims to sovereignty over all of the worlds settled by humans. But they had always claimed that. No word of any actual fighting had ever come to the troops on Devereaux.
"Colonel had officers' call ten minutes after the last jump," Landsford said. "Must have been a priority signal waiting." There wouldn't have been time for Victoria to report its return to Buckingham and get a message back.
"You know what I think?" David said sadly. "I think we've wasted our time making plans for furlough."
"I dare say," Landsford said.
"You know, Peter, if this war has turned real, it won't be like any of the campaigns we've known before. This won't be a mop-up of a tiny colonial civil war."
"We'll earn our pay," Landsford agreed. "But it's no good speculating. The colonel will have his say and then we'll know, won't we?"
The speculation didn't stop, of course. David got his meal and took a seat. He ate slowly, listening to the talk — questions and speculations, no solid answers.
The regimental sergeant major and the three battalion sergeant majors came in together, just after 1130 hours. RSM Dockery brushed aside the first questions directed at the group, quite brusquely, and the questions ceased.
"They know what's up," David mumbled.
"But they'll not let the cat out of the bag," Sergeant Eric Dealy of Engineering Battalion said. "Dockery could keep mum about his pants being on fire if he was ordered to."
The laugh that earned was subdued, but prolonged.
"They'll sit there in their corner and pretend there's not a thing different about this meal," Macdowell said from the next table.
"You don't think they'll send us out again straightaway without even a stopover on Buckingham, do you?" Norwood Petty asked.
"We'll have to reprovision, if nothing else," Macdowell said. "Victoria's been out for two years, after all. The old girl needs her bit of maintenance, and she needs to fill her larders and storerooms."
"Doesn't mean they have to let us ground out," David said, just to puncture Macdowell's confidence. "They could load the rest of the regiment, do a rush job on the tune-up, and have us heading out-system in forty-eight hours."
"That'd sure have the lads feeling mean enough to fight," Macdowell said.
"It would have me feeling mean enough to fight," Dealy said. "And I'm a pacifist at heart." That earned a generous laugh. In his younger days, Dealy had been one of the most frequent barroom brawlers in the regiment. It had taken him extra years to earn his stripes because of that.
Precisely at noon, Sergeant Major Dockery got up and spoke with the chief mess steward. A moment later the stewards started setting pitchers of coffee and tea on the tables. Then they cleared away dishes and closed down the serving line. By 1212, the last of the mess stewards had left the room. Two minutes later, the colonel arrived. A sergeant by the door called attention and everyone sprang to their feet.
"As you were," Colonel Arkady Laplace said without breaking stride. He had his operations chief and all three battalion commanders in tow. The regiment's executive officer had remained on Buckingham with the other three battalions. The senior officers marched to the head of the room. Colonel Laplace took up a position looking out at his sergeants, who had already returned to their seats. The other officers sat with the sergeant majors.
"I know how quickly rumors spread aboard ship, so I want to get the facts out even more rapidly," Laplace started. "I've already briefed the officers. Now it's your turn. If it were practical, I'd address all the men myself, but I could only do that over the speakers, and that's little better than hearing it in a letter-chip from home."
That earned a few laughs. After forty years in the Royal Marines, Laplace had his timing perfected. He was at ease with his authority, and felt no need to artificially protect his "dignity." His men tended to award him their highest praise for an officer: "He's better than most."
"There was a dispatch waiting for us on the buoy when we bounced out of Q-space," the colonel said. "I expect a few of you have already guessed this, but we won't get to take all of the furlough we've accumulated over the past two years. We'll be lucky to manage seventytwo hours in port before we're off out again." He held up a hand to forestall questions.
"I know. We should have at least six months in-system, plenty of time for everyone to take furlough and get in a score of pub crawls besides, but the war appears to have taken a turn. Fighting has actually started."
That brought a low buzz of comment. Colonel Laplace waited for it to fade before he continued.
"The news isn't particularly good. The first engagements apparently occurred in the system of Camerein. The only losses we know of were Commonwealth, three frigates. More recently, there's word that Federation troops have invaded an independent world on the marches between our respective core regions. I don't have full details, just the barest outline. But the Federation has taken a world known as Buchanan, and we're to chase them back off.
"The reason we're going straight out again is that there isn't another full regiment to be spared on Buckingham just now. Two regiments are being retained as home defense, in case it should come to that. The other three regiments based on Buckingham have already been dispatched on other missions, and Buchanan apparently can't wait."
CHAPTER 2
Flight Lieutenant Josef Langenkamp was dozing in the fourth squadron ready room aboard HMS Sheffield when the alert klaxon sounded. Before the horn went silent, Josef and his comrades were moving toward the hangar and their fighters. They helped each other don and seal their helmets before stepping through to the ramp leading out to the airlock and hangar. They had been in their flight suits since coming on shift. The fourth was the alert squadron, on two-minute response. All of the pilots were young. A few were still teenagers, but most, like Josef, were in their twenties. Even the squadron commander was only twenty-six. Flying a Spacehawk required young reflexes.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Buchanan Campaign"
by .
Copyright © 1995 Rick Shelley.
Excerpted by permission of Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc..
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