Free Democracy 1: Democracy's Right by Christopher Nuttall

armoured Marines, who had orders to keep an eye on her, but not to offer her any help unless she asked for it.  He hadn't asked for a report on what she’d done since she’d recovered from the stun bolt.  “My family...”
     
    Colin felt no pity, even though she looked young and innocent.  She had used the power of the Roosevelt Family to get whatever she wanted from life, be it a genetically-engineered boy-toy or command of an entire superdreadnaught squadron.  Now that power would turn on her...although he doubted that they would kill her, or disinherit her.  It wouldn't do for the commoners to see the Thousand Families turning on one of their number.  It might give them ideas.
     
    “The alternative is worse, trust me on that,” Colin said, dryly.  “You can't stay here.  If you refuse to go back and give them my message, you will be sold into slavery somewhere along the Rim.  We’ll remove your indent and anything you could use to prove that you are who you are, leaving you trapped forever.  Do you still want to stay?”
     
    Stacy shook her head with an audible gulp.  “No,” she said.  “Please...”
     
    “The message will be on a datachip for Admiral Percival’s eyes only,” Colin continued.  He was tempted to insist that she called him sir , but that would have only been a distraction.  “You and the loyalists will be sent back on a transport ship.  Once you arrive, the ship’s controls will be unlocked and you will be able to steer her into dock.  You can give him the message and then...do whatever the hell you want.”
     
    He looked up at the Marines.  “Take her to the transport,” he said, tightly.  Stacy’s eyes widened as she realised that she was being dismissed.  “Put her onboard with the others...”
     
    “Wait,” Stacy said, desperately. “I can give you anything you want...”
     
    “I’m afraid that it’s too late for that,” Colin said.  Quite apart from the fact that over two hundred thousand people were now depending on him to keep them alive and free, there was no way he could trust her.  She would betray him as soon as she could and laugh afterwards, once she was safety back with her family.  “Goodbye, Stacy; God grant we will never meet again.”
     
    He watched the Marines drag her out and then keyed his wristcom, issuing orders for the prisoner transfer.  Stacy might have failed to bribe him, but she could offer everything, up to and including a whole planet, and someone less responsible might be tempted.  Anderson would see to it that she was sedated until the transport pulled out of orbit and flickered back towards Camelot.  She could wake up then for the trip.  She’d hate spending the time in close quarters, with hundreds of commoners for company, but it wouldn't kill her.
     
    Colin shook his head and turned back to the near-orbit display.  The nine captured superdreadnaughts hung together, work crews scrambling to outfit them with external racks and load the racks with missiles.  By Colin’s most conservative estimate, they had at least two more days before they had to depart in order to make the rendezvous with the Annual Fleet, but they’d need the time to shake down the crews and get back up into fighting trim.  They’d moved too many crewmen around the fleet for them all to fall together without heavy drilling.
     
    A handful of other icons remained dark red, mocking him.  The heavy troop transports, loaded with enough Blackshirts to conquer and occupy an entire planet – at least if backed up by orbital fire, as the Marines had pointed out – represented a major problem.  Colin had ordered the Blackshirts back into stasis, where they could wait until the heat death of the universe if necessary, but he had no idea what he could do with them.  He didn't want to commit mass slaughter by opening the ships to space and suffocating the soldiers, yet he didn't want to return them to Admiral Percival or keep them prisoner