My Friend the Emperor Read online

  Torres laughed. “Yes Captain Acamar, you’re an Imperial son. And I suspect your life will be worth more denars than I could spend in my lifetime. As a matter of fact, it looks like you were kind enough to bring that famous side arm with you. Hand over your pistol, Acamar,” he said while holding his hand out. I want to see if those jewels in the handle are as large as they say they are.”

  The Captain slowly drew his gun and handed it over butt first.

  “Now, you four, into this holding cell,” he said as he motioned Sergio and his men to an open door.

  It’s no wonder this didn’t look like a medical bay; we were in the stockade.

  “So where is the Citizen,” the Captain asked. “I take it he’s not sick.”

  “Oh, the Citizen is sick all right. Sick of life, and you’ll be just as dead if you don’t do exactly as I say.”

  My eyes had been darting around the room taking stock of our situation. Just like my academy training had taught me I was evaluating everything, looking for my opportunities. But what was I supposed to do if there weren’t any?

  “You’re not going to kill me,” said the Captain. You’re not the type to throw away a fortune. As a matter of fact I’m probably safer with you right now that I am with my own crew.”

  Torres laughed again, and this time it seemed to be truly genuine.

  “You may be right about that Captain, but as far as I’m concerned your aide here is just extra baggage. Should I burn a hole through his heart just to show you how serious I am?”

  I know I should’ve been staring at Torres but I’d been unable to look away from the Captain. He still had that weird tone in his voice. I couldn’t tell if he was actually enjoying the situation or just high on the adrenaline, or worse yet, truly insane.

  What he said next didn’t help my mood any.

  “Well, of course you could. The truth is I could use a new aide. But wouldn’t that increase your penalties needlessly? I can tell you’re a smart one, Torres. Kidnapping for ransom is one thing, murder of a Citizen is something totally different. And even in a godforsaken out of the way portion of the galaxy like this you know the Empire always avenges its Citizens.”

  I jerked my attention back to Torres as I saw him holding the Captain’s pistol in one hand and lifting his own personal side arm to aim at my head with the other.

  The Captain sighed loudly. “Okay Torres, you win. I’ll play along. What do you want?”

  Just then a small beep came from Torres’ pocket. He lifted a small communicator to his ear and listened.

  “That’s a very smart decision Captain. Especially in light of the fact that we now have the rest of your men rounded up. If you do anything stupid it won’t only be the Ensign you never see again.”

  The Captain was still keeping up his insanely nonchalant disposition but I noticed the brief look of concern that crossed his eyes.

  “Did you really think that Simone and I were the only two people on the station? Maybe you really are as stupid as they say you are. We knew that Sergio would send a backup and we were ready for them. So let’s make our way back to the loading bay, but first you’re gonna contact your ship and tell them you’re returning with the Citizen. If you say anything else or give any indication that something’s wrong… Well, you know what will happen.”

  “Look Torres, you can’t fit enough men in our shuttle to take over the ship. Your plan will never work.”

  “I don’t need to take it over, you idiot. I’ve got you and your head of security right here and you’ve been stupid enough to operate without a First Officer. There’s no one left over there to stand up to me. With you as a hostage they’ll do exactly as I tell them. Come to think of it, if they fold really quick maybe I will tell them to turn over the ship! She’d make a nice prize!”

  The more he talked the more excited he got – but his gun never wavered.

  “Now make that call!”

  The Captain did as requested and as far as I could tell he played it straight.

  It was a long walk back to the loading bay. Torres was a big man, and a strong man. I’d been trained in hand-to-hand combat and on a good day I might be able to take him, but I couldn’t do it faster than he could pull the trigger. Now Simone… that might be another story. I’d known a number of women that could break me in half, blindfolded and with one arm tied behind their back, but I didn’t think Simone was one of them.

  We passed some more of Torres’ men on the way; a heavily armed group of them were waiting just outside of the loading bay’s inner hatch.

  Torres motioned us through and one by one we entered the bay, but as soon as the first four of us were inside the hatch slammed shut.

  Because the loading bay was open to the outside environment, just like in all Imperial facilities, the inner hatches were heavy duty blast resistant.

  The Captain, myself, and Torres had made it through fine but the heel of Simone’s boot had been caught by the slamming hatch. She screamed and barely jerked it through. She kept yelling and cursing and her limping quick-hop now spread a bloody spray.

  Torres had holstered his own pistol but still had the Captain’s. He grabbed him from behind and held the gun to his temple.

  “What’s going on!” he shouted.

  As well as he could with Torres’ arm clamped around his chest and the gun muzzle screwed into his temple the Captain responded, “Wait! I don’t know. I have no idea.”

  Torres was glaring at me and said, “If you try to pull anything your Captain will be the first to go. I don’t care how much money it will cost me.”

  It was a surreal experience. This is the slow-motion scene that will be forever burned into my memory…

  Simone was a few steps away. Panting, and struggling to keep her gun on me.

  Torres was directly behind the Captain and holding him tight. Not 25 yards behind him were the massive open doors of the loading bay. Beyond its thin force field the silent blizzard still raged.

  When time slows down like that, in the heat of the moment, you notice the smallest of things. That’s probably why I noticed a darker smudge emerging from the blizzard-like gloom. As that smudge walked through the force field and resolved itself into the visage of a heavily bundled human being, Torres must’ve realized that something had caught my attention.

  He spun around, still holding tightly to the Captain. He jerked his gun from the Captain’s temple to the calmly approaching and heavily padded figure. But it was too late, before he could pull the trigger the sizzle of burning flesh and brain matter filled the air.

  I hadn’t been able see what type of gun the padded figure was using, I was already in mid-launch at Simone.

  ΔΔΔ

  If time was running in slow motion before, it now suddenly accelerated sharply.

  I tackled Simone and pile-drove her into the floor. Then I hit her, and hit her again. It was the Captain that stopped me and brought me back to reality. Simone wasn’t going anywhere soon.

  The weirdly padded figure had walked up to us and just stood there. Now that I had more time I could see that over the top of a severe weather parka huge slabs of insulation had been strapped and taped to the body. It looked like a makeshift job; it looked like it’d been done by somebody determined to survive.

  The Captain and I were both still on the floor staring up at the figure whose face was obscured by the heavily furred hood of the parka. The Captain stood up and said, “You know from that distance you could’ve easily hit me instead of him.”

  The figure slowly reached up and pulled the parka hood back, revealing the most dazzling set of almond eyes that I’d ever seen.

  In a voice that carried no humor whatsoever she said, “What makes you think I was aiming at him?”

  ΔΔΔ

  As it turns out, Lieutenant Monica Stiles had been assigned to the station just four months previous. What I hadn’t known, and what everybody else surely did, was that a posting to IS 417 was one of the Empire’s worst forms of pun
ishment. Banishment to hellholes like this was reserved for out-of-favor Citizens the Empire wished would just commit suicide.

  It also turns out that Lieutenant Stiles didn’t much care for our Captain. Actually, that’s putting it mildly. I think she outright detested him.

  Once she showed us that she had remote control of the station’s functions it was an easy matter to close off corridors, isolate the remaining intruders, and free our own men. After that it was simple mop up.

  We all returned to the Halcyon and Lieutenant Stiles reported to our medical bay where the doctor replenished her fluids, treated her for exposure and frostbite, and fed her a large meal.

  Our team had suffered a few injuries but no casualties.

  Six hours later we were all gathered in the Captain’s inner sanctum, sitting around his conference table for an after action report.

  I had thought the Lieutenant attractive before, but now I realized that words couldn’t do it justice. Like all healthy Citizens she had no obvious defects. She was also physically fit. But in addition to her eyes she had a uniqueness about her. She carried herself with an unconscious, uncommon grace and self-confidence. It didn’t surprise me at all to discover that she had formerly been one of the Empire’s top athletes.

  Surprisingly, the Captain was sitting back and letting Sergio conduct the debriefing. It started, of course, with questions to Lieutenant Stiles.

  “Okay, the first thing we need to know Lieutenant is who are you and how did you end up posted to IS 417?” Sergio asked.

  “Are you really asking me to believe that you don’t know who I am?” she replied.

  Except for the Captain whose focus never veered away from the Lieutenant, we all exchanged glances.

  “Is there some reason we should know you?” Sergio asked again.

  “So I’m supposed to believe it’s just a coincidence that another Acamar shows up on my doorstep.”

  “Look Monica…” Sergio said reasonably.

  “Don’t say that. You have no right to use my first name. I am Lieutenant Stiles and you will do me the dignity of addressing me as such.”

  Beautiful or not, it was obvious that this woman was a real ball buster. Still, there was something about her that was just fascinating to me.

  I wasn’t thinking or I never would’ve had the courage to interrupt my superiors. But I interjected by saying, “Lieutenant Stiles my name is Ensign Jacoby Nikolay. I just arrived on the Halcyon a short time ago, but I don’t think anyone here is making anything up. I don’t know anything about you and I don’t think anybody else here does either.”

  Since no one stopped me, I continued…

  “It sounds like there’s a lot we don’t know but I’m thinking that maybe we should? Please, fill us in from the beginning. If we better understand the situation we can better protect you and ourselves.”

  After a few moments of consideration she said, “Anything I tell you is going to be reported to the Empire and I don’t want my name mentioned in official circles ever again. So just forget it.”

  Sergio made eye contact with the Captain who nodded. Then, in a calm measured voice Sergio jumped back into the conversation, “Lieutenant, if that’s what you’re worried about I can promise you that we will leave your name out of any report. If necessary we’ll pretend all of this never happened. But it’s going to be pretty hard for us to do that if we don’t understand the situation. Will you trust us at least that much?”

  Personally I didn’t know if Sergio was being sincere or if he was just a very accomplished liar and interrogator. I mean, after all he was a Security Officer. After a time, though, the Lieutenant sighed. Then she started her story…

  ΔΔΔ

  “I was on the All-Academy biathlon team. I grew up in the mountains on my home planet and hunting was more than just a sport for us. I’ve been shooting laz rifles since I was six. So when I reached The Academy and they explained that there was a sport called a biathlon and that it combined cross-country skiing with marksmanship I thought they were joking. It turns out I was a natural.

  “After graduation I spent the next several years touring the Empire, competing on every planet I’d ever heard of and 100 more. A little over a year ago I was promoted to the All-Empire biathlon team.” After a small hesitation she continued, “And that’s when I met…”

  “My brother,” the Captain suddenly interrupted.

  “Eridanis Acamar IV,” she said with a voice full of vitriol.

  Talk about an unexpected turn. Acamar IV was next in line for the Imperial throne. It should’ve been a rare honor for any Citizen to meet him. Yet this woman spoke as if it had ruined her life. As if it were a curse.

  After a moment of silence filled only with the lieutenant’s poisonous glare aimed squarely at the Captain, Sergio continued, “And…”

  “And we became engaged,” she said clipping off each word. “Or so I thought.”

  “He told me it had to be kept secret; it was a matter of state. I believed him,” she said simply.

  “In reality I was just foolishly naïve. I was a plaything with a great story. A trophy to show off to his friends until…”

  “Until he very publicly announced his real engagement to the lady Diana Carrington from the Pyrenees sector,” the Captain softly interrupted again.

  “That’s right. Everything changed,” she said strongly.

  She might be putting up a good front but I thought I detected a mistiness in her eyes.

  Sergio jumped in, “I’m guessing you didn’t fade quietly into the night.”

  She looked him square in the eyes and said, “I’m not the quietly fading type.”

  “No, I don’t suppose you are,” said the Captain almost to himself.

  “And,” she said with sudden strength in her voice. “If you think for one moment that I’m going to let myself be passed off from one Acamar to another you’d better think again… because I will slit your throat.”

  I am not sure what kind of response I expected from our Captain but his sensitivity surprised me.

  “I can promise you, Lieutenant Stiles, I have no intention of doing so. You won’t have to worry about that here.

  “But I am curious,” he continued. “Whatever your protest was it must’ve been pretty spectacular… for you to end up on IS 417, I mean.”

  “I hope they’ll still be talking about it for years,” she said with a thin smile.

  “Okay, it sounds like we both agree that my brother is the biggest arshole I’ve ever met, but why are you so angry at me?”

  “You’re an Acamar! You expect me not to hate you?”

  The Captain just sighed.

  ΔΔΔ

  After we all paused to refill our coffees Sergio picked the questioning back up.

  “Now that we know how you got assigned to IS 417, what the hell happened?”

  It turns out that our Lieutenant, disappointed as she was, had been determined not to let exile get the better of her.

  Every Citizen on the frontier was in constant vigilance against pirates. Out here, unless an Imperial Citizen is pointing a gun at you or for you, there is no law. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any trade. There were actually a number of rare and very high-quality goods available on the black market; like exotic cognacs for example.

  Lieutenant Stiles had started charting the comings and goings of all the merchants in her area, and collecting the stories they brought her. Except for the occasional merchant ship and the two crewmen that spent less than a third of their time with her it was a lonely existence.

  “And Kriton do I hate the smell.”

  Suddenly, the Captain jumped in and took back over the questioning. “So you’d already pissed off important people in the Empire and you followed that up by pissing off people out here on the frontier too. Is that about right?”

  “You could put it that way if you want. I prefer to think of it as doing my duty,” she said stiffly.

  “Well, how’s that working for y
ou?” asked the Captain somewhat sarcastically.

  Apparently his strategy didn’t include winning over the heart or mind of this Citizen.

  “Actually, it worked out quite well. I’ve faced my demons and my temptations. For a long time I wanted nothing but revenge against the Acamar’s and I would’ve had no problem settling for your blood. The fates even handed you to me on a silver platter… but I didn’t lose control. I didn’t lose myself. I’ve been tested and I passed.

  “I will never forgive but I am no longer in danger of my emotions overcoming me. So yes Captain, it’s worked out quite well.”