Knight of the Empire

I had forgotten how cramped it was inside the MRECV. I remembered some Terran expression about sardines in a tin. That was what this felt like. I was wedged between Captain O’Donnell and Sergeant Matthias the two Terran Marines. Although I couldn’t see their faces I knew that they were unhappy about having to relinquish their weapons. Besides General Osward and a medic the rest of the compartment was filled with GF and Marines. Only General Osward and I were not in armour. I felt like one of those sardines in a tin.

“Sir?” I had to ask the question. “I can understand a few coming to my rescue but you seem to have involved the whole division?”

“Everyone here is a volunteer. When the news came through about your kidnapping they all volunteered nearly the whole command. I couldn’t take them all someone had to stay behind. ”

I couldn’t comment on that I had no words to express my feelings. Oddly I knew he was right we had to finish this. The ATL was a distraction one we could ill afford to pass by. I and anybody I was associated with would be in danger as long as I was in the Confederacy. Cutting and running back to the Empire wasn’t an option. I had to confront the Rhosani and anything else was a sideshow. Deal with the ATL and get back to my true mission stopping the Rhosani from destroying both the Empire and the Confederacy. The Guardians had made me a weapon and at this moment this weapon was pointed at the ATL. But in the back of my mind was the worry over the political fallout from our actions.

“Do we have any air cover?” I said making a military assessment of our situation.

“The Havok and the Sovran are covering our rear while the Issakoi and the Alpha Crucis are on point.”

“Captain Batares and Captain James Hanyard,” I said sounding surprised. The last I had heard both the Issakoi and the Alpha Crucis had been stationed above Aurelius Prime. I didn’t know who the captain on the Sovran was. The last time I had been aboard the Sovran I was the temporary commander of a crippled ship and frightened crew. “Who’s in command of the Sovran?”

“A Captain Bartolomaios you won’t know him. He oversaw the repairs but I think you know his First Officer a Lieutenant Devseen. You did recommend him after all?”

I was glad that he had been promoted. He kept his cool while the others panicked. “And Commander Dicythel Gorana?” We nearly had something going but the war called him away. I hadn’t thought of him for a long time. I thought of him fondly but my mind kept going back to Tony. Since my rescue he had been on my mind more than a few times.

“He is with the rest of his battalion from the 3rd Marines, they’re heading towards Com Ops.” General Osward paused and nodded to the soldiers around him. “Despite what you may have seen on the news feeds a lot of ordinary citizens are on your side.”

I swiftly changed subjects I felt uncomfortable under all this scrutiny. “Do you know what we’ll be facing at the senate building?”

“Katares was closed mouthed about that but he’s confident we’ll meet little opposition once he plays his trump card.”

It took a gruelling two hours to get from the industrial hub to the senate plaza. I heard the engines rumble to a stop and we exited into a deserted plaza. Normally it would have been buzzing that this hour but was now eerily deserted. In front of me rose the dome of the senate building. Wide sweeping steps led up to the columned frontage. I had seen a similar building on Earth at some place called Washington. That was a museum called the Capitol Building. I had no interest in visiting it but Ellie had pointed it out on one of her trips as we flew overhead. She had told me more about it but as usual I hadn’t been listening closely. The senate building that was a total contrast to the tall T’Arni spires that surrounded it. On our journey here I had time to speculate on Katares foolhardy plan. We couldn’t just waltz into the senate and arrest the ATL sympathisers hiding inside. The Confederacy held the senate as inviolate and I was sure there was something in charter stating senators couldn’t be arrested within the confines of the senate building. I surveyed my surroundings noting our positions and that of the planetary security force drawn up in front of the steps up to the senate building. Lightly armed and armoured they would be no match for the GF and Marines with our MRECVs. I felt reluctance to fight those just doing their jobs.

Flanked by the two Terran Marines and General Osward I headed towards the waiting line of security forces both GF and Marines taking up combat positions. At least I wasn’t limping so badly but with all my bruises I was struggling to keep pace. Between us and the steps of the building were a good five hundred metres of open plaza. If fighting started the brightly coloured paving slabs would be running red with blood. All it took was one itchy trigger finger to start a war. A war we could ill afford to fight. The sudden roar of shuttle engines above our heads had us taking up defensive positions and we all hit the dirt or in the case of the plaza its hard stone surface. Two shuttles landed bearing the crest of the T’Arni royal family of Nthus. Nthus was one of a handful of T’Arni planets that boasted of having a royal family. The T’Arni like old Earth had as many forms of government as there were planets. Guards in the palace colours exited the shuttle surrounding two figures at the centre. I instantly recognised both of them. One was Admiral Katares and his companion was the crown prince.

“If that’s Katares backup then I’m impressed?” I said aloud.

“Well, well,” Osward chuckled. “No wonder Katares was so cagey about his trump card.

After some discussion between the crown prince and Admiral Katares they strolled across to our positions. Everywhere around me soldiers were getting to their feet and standing to attention. I followed suit it would be disrespectful not to.

The crown prince made a beeline to towards me at first I thought he was going to stop in front of General Osward but he halted and bowed to me. The crown prince was of average height for a T’Arni and very handsome with long blonde hair and hazel eyes. His frock coat was emblazoned with symbols in a riot of pastel colours. I had heard he had one for the ladies and had never married. Considered young for a T’Arni at two hundred he had seen more than most humans had seen in their entire life times.

“Your highness,” he said smoothly his voice echoing around the now silent plaza.

I blinked in surprise wondering why he was addressing me as such. His eyes seemed to take in my mottled skin and the plastic cover on my foot. I certainly wasn’t a princess unless Ellie had said something. In my current state I definitely didn’t look like it. “Your highness,” I replied.

“Firstly I must apologise for your treatment at the hands of a few malcontents and extend a welcoming hand to you.” His voice raised a few octaves sounding loud as it echoed towards the lines of security between the senate building and us.

Before I could form an answer three more shuttles landed bearing the insignia of the senate their engines scorching the pavement of the plaza.

The shuttles disgorged Ezaran, Fandaren and Valkyrie delegations. Compared to the dowdy colours of the Fandarens and Ezarans the Valkyrie were dressed in sky blue and silver. Marsha’s clan colours. Although that didn’t predispose the Valkyrie would be friendly towards me. A tall blonde woman with flecks of grey in her hair headed the Valkyrie. A clan mother if my guess was correct. She wore a robe in the clan colours open at the neck plunging down to her breasts. Quite daring for any Valkyrie with a senate badge on her left breast. The rest of her party was dressed in traditional Valkyrie garb consisting of skirts to their knees and leather greaves and vambraces. Each had a long bladed sword strapped to their backs. Give them one of those conical helmets with the horns like I saw at a Wagner opera and they would look just like the Valkyrie the Terrans imagined them to be. I had left after an hour I hated the screeching songs they were belting out. The prince bowed to me and went to greet them. Politics, I understood his actions better with what Ellie and Camelia had drummed into me.

“Welcome friends,” he boomed out clearly playing to a captive audience. For a short man he had one heck of a voice.

“Excuse me your highness,” the clan mother interrupted him. “I’m here on a different matter. An injustice has been done to a bond sister and this must be addressed.”

I had never heard of a bond sister. Obviously the clan mother seemed to think it more important than us confronting security in front of the senate building.

An elderly Ezaran spoke next. “I’m here to champion a friend of the Hegemony.”

“And you old friend?” the prince asked the Fandaren leader of their delegation.

The Fandaren just smiled and winked patting his belly. “I’m just here for a free meal.”

I thought that odd considering all Fandaren were thin and not known for eating large meals. It must have been a private joke between him and the prince.

“Come,” the prince said. “I must introduce you to her highness.”

“Your highness,” I protested, “I’m only the Duchess of Mars.”

“But are you not third in line to the throne?”

“Yes,” I had to admit. “That wasn’t my idea.”

“Yet you still are. Do not belittle yourself.”

That was me told off. I decided to go with the flow. I should have been seething in anger yet I felt unnaturally calm. Then I had been since my collapse after my bout with Marsha. “Yes your highness,” I said meekly.

He nodded to me and introduced the three Senators. “Clan Mother Sigrunn Yanik of Clan Yanik. Fern’ad speaker for the Ezaran Hegemony and Joras of the Fandaren Navigators Guild.”

Both Fern’ad and Joras took my hand and shook it in a Terran greeting style. Sigrunn just grasped my hand and looked deep into my eyes. Then released it and stepped back a thoughtful expression on her face.

“May many fallen enemies litter the ground at your feet,” she said.

I had heard that expression before from those Valkyrie we had in the GF. “May enemies quake at the mention of your name.” I knew enough to know that was the appropriate reply.

She smiled at that.

“Your highness we invite you and a dozen of your companions along with the two observers from the Terran Embassy to accompany us on a tour of the senate,” the prince said and held up his hand. “I wish we could take more but we have a sizeable group as it is?” He looked at General Osward and Admiral Katares. “I’m afraid old friend you and your men must remain here for the moment. Please choose your best to accompany her highness as her honour guard?” He smiled but it never reached his eyes they turned cold and flinty. “Perhaps on the way we’ll be able to meet the senators you wish to talk to?” He paused. “And when we reach the senate steps let me do the talking.”

We all nodded our assent.

The way he said that didn’t bode well for those ATL sympathisers if I had heard him correctly. The malicious grins on the faces of the Valkyrie confirmed my suspicions. I could practically imagine them sharpening their swords and using them.

Suddenly the prince snapped his fingers breaking me out of my thoughts. “A chair for her highness!”

Two of his guards ran to his shuttle and returned with a hospital chair on wheels. The design of which had not changed in two hundred years. I could see it wasn’t one of the newer computerised ones that were self-driving. This looked as if belonged in one of those museums that Ellie kept bugging me to visit.

“I’m sorry for keeping you on your feet for so long. You have been badly injured and here I am compounding the sin of the malcontents. Please sit and my personal physician will see that you are comfortable?”

I wondered how much of that was him playing to his audience. I had no choice but to play along I was feeling better than I had been a couple of hours ago. I guess I healing fast thanks to the Guardians.

The prince waited until I was settled before he made his next pronouncement his voice echoing across the plaza. “Those malcontents will pay for the assault on your person.”

General Osward under the prince’s suggestion formed up an ‘Honour Guard’. Consisting of the Havok’s squad under the command of Lieutenant Tutor and a second squad of GF and Marines. I along with the prince and the senators formed up in the middle with the Valkyrie in a V position at head. The rest of the senator’s delegations and GF and Marines formed either side of the centre. The royal guard formed up at the rear. It almost looked like a carnival parade. A carnival parade in the form of a deadly spear. At the prince’s signal we marched forward or in my case wheeled forward. What surprised me was that Sigrunn Yanik was the one doing the pushing. I would have though it beneath a Valkyrie to do that. As we reached the security cordon it parted to let us through. The security officers saluted as we passed relief on their faces. I guess none of them wanted to fight their own, a sentiment I could live with. Up the steps we went two Marines carried me up the stairs still seated in the chair. I felt uncomfortable about that. I wasn’t worried that they would drop me rather I felt it was unnecessary. The prince was playing a political game and I had to play along. At the doors a number of senate guards blocked our way unlike the security detail in front of the steps these were all human. I wondered how many were ATL supporters. The prince and the senators pushed through to the front.

“Halt!” the officer of the senatorial guard, shouted his hand on his sidearm, “You will not enter this most holiest of places.”

“Great not just an ATL sympathiser but a religious nut to boot.” I kept the thought to myself.

“Son?” the prince said mildly although I heard the rebuke in it. “I was here when Marcus Jones laid the first stone. I toiled beside him while everyone else thought him mad. But I could see his vision. What would the great man say if he was alive today?” A gentle reminder the prince was older than the Confederacy.

I hadn’t really thought about it just what we were taught at school. I think the prince actually meant what he said. The early days of the Confederacy were a confusing time. I remembered that the navy had been formed first to stop the Terrans retaking their lost colonies and the senate had been a afterthought bring all races together to talk.

The officer pointed at me and screamed. “Traitor!”

Definitely an ATL supporter to my mind. The Valkyrie response to the officer’s tirade was to fan out and draw their swords. I could see where this was headed if it wasn’t defused quickly. The GF and Marines around me raised their weapons. The senate guards responded in kind.

“Peace,” the prince said indicating for everyone to lower their weapons.

The Marines and GF automatically lowered their weapons the only reluctance came from the Valkyrie but I had expected that.

“YOU! Cannot enter!” the officer shouted some of his companions looked uneasy.

“I see,” the prince said sounding sorry.

I doubted he was sorry for himself I waited for his next move feeling out of my depth here.

“I’m sorry, for you since you are in violation of the charter, page three hundred, lines fifteen to thirty-five and I’m afraid you and the senate have forty-eight hours to quit the building.”

I noted several of the guards had datapads and seemed to flicking through the screens obviously checking to see if the prince was correct. I noted a number shaking their heads unhappily.

“You can’t do that!” the officer shouted.

He sure liked the sound of his own voice. The old me probably would have shot him by now but I restrained my slowly burning anger. I still felt calm but my anger had awoken. I had been beaten up and scheduled for execution and here was a petty man preventing us from ending a threat to the Confederacy.

Sigrunn patted my shoulder. “Time enough for that later,” she whispered in my ear. “For now we watch the play.” She seemed to know what I was thinking.

Odd words from a Valkyrie they were less restrained that I was. I often wondered if there had been any Valkyrie blood in my ancestry on my mother’s side. I did have a tendency to fly of the handle now and again.

“Under the charter I can,” the prince replied. “So what’s it going to be?”

Minutes ticked by I wondered if this was a delaying tactic so the ATL could escape. I doubted they would get far since the starships overhead were on overwatch.

The door opened and a man more senior than the officer confronting us exited. He quickly surveyed the situation and frowned at the officer.

“Let them through they were expected moron!” he shouted at the officer reminding me of several drill sergeants I had encountered.

I was surprised that he used a Terran expression. Two other guards pushed the protesting officer aside and we entered.

“I must apologise your highnesses.” The senior officer saluted. “New guy and a bit of an asshole.”

“That’s fine we all have to start somewhere,” the prince brushed it off as a minor incident.

We entered the public lobby. A large rectangular room with sweeping stairs and elevators on the right and left sides. Opposite the doors was a large reception desk. Flanking the desk were two sets of double doors. A colourful mural spread across the back wall and sides depicting the beginning of the Confederacy to the present day. Normally busy the lobby was all but deserted. One T’Arni manned the reception desk when there a dozen or more while the senate was in session. Guards stood in front of the double doors and the stairs whether to keep us out or people in I wasn’t sure. I did see a few officials as I was wheeled in. I’d rather have walked in but the prince seemed to be playing injury card to the hilt. The other thing I noticed was a lone human reporter with camera drone floating over her head. She was in her forties and dressed in a smart business jacket and skirt in a pale crimson. Her hair was as red as her clothes. I recognised her as a royal reporter. That was her official title but rumour put her warming the prince’s bed as well. She hurried over as soon as she saw us.

“Leonto!” she cried a smile lighting up her face.

I stared hard wondering what I’d missed since I had gone. She had just addressed the prince by his first name.

“Sheila,” he replied smiling as he hugged her close abandoning royal decorum.

I wondered about the age difference and gave up. Her life was brief compared to his. I couldn’t see this being a long term relationship.

She stepped back and straightened her jacket. “I wanted to meet you on the steps but we were locked in.” She glanced to me and the others around me interest sparked in her eyes. “Busy?”

“I’d love to make the time but we have business,” the prince indicated our group. “I have a few introductions to make and then we’ll speak later.”

The prince introduced us seeming to enlarge the injuries and abuse I had been through.

Sheila looked thoughtful. “Your highness,” she said directly to me. “I know you have a busy schedule perhaps we can arrange a time for an interview at some time?”

“I’ll think about it,” I wasn’t really interested in speaking to a reporter.

The prince wrapped his arm around Sheila’s waist and whispered something in her ear. Still with his arm around her waist he walked over to the reception desk and spoke to the nervous looking official behind it.

“Will you let the president know we are here and we are on the way up?” He gave the T’Arni on the desk a smile and led us to the left-hand stairs.

Two guards at bottom of the stairs stepped out of the way and saluted. I had thought we’d take the elevator up but the prince had other thoughts and I was lifted up and carried up the stairs. I had never been up here before. The furthest I had been was the floor of the senate. Here we were above the senate and into a corridor that was carpeted from wall to wall in Confederacy grey. The walls were covered in murals and unlike the ones in the lobby these were a T’Arni design and in their trademark pastel colours. I noted that they depicted the history of the T’Arni Homeworld from the time they were freed. I couldn’t but help to notice the Guardian symbol in one section of the mural it reminded me on the mark on my hand. I closed my fist to hide it. Finally we halted in front of a door off a short corridor.

The prince who hadn’t let go of Sheila turned and spoke. I must admit none of us felt in the mood to say anything. “Senators and her highness’ party only from here on in,” the prince said. “Soldiers and the aides must wait here.” He turned sombre. “I wish we were here on better circumstances but I can say justice will be served.” He gestured to Lieutenant Tutor. “Lieutenant your squad with her highness.”

“Yes sir!” Tutor saluted.

We entered a small atrium containing chairs and was tastefully decorated with T’Arni pictures and ornaments. The style of the room reflecting the current President of the Confederacy. A desk sat at the far end of the room near the door the President’s office. Two guards in full armour stood in front of it their AR 32’s strapped to their chests. Both T’Arni from what I could guess. A pleasant looking T’Arni woman sat at the desk typing on a terminal she looked up at us and smiled.

“Is he in?” the prince asked her.

She nodded and pressed a button on her terminal. “Sir, his highness and some VIP guests are here to see you?” She smiled again and added. “He’s with the vice president.”

The door slid open to reveal a larger hexagonal room with a hexagonal desk at the centre. The back and sides of the room were windowed but like my apartment at the palace these were fake. They showed the exterior of the building including the line of security and the combat positions of the GF and Marines. So the President was well aware of the situation outside. Two men occupied this room. A T’Arni sat behind the desk his long dark hair had faded to grey. To me it meant he was old. The other was a human. I recognised him as one of those on the list I felt a chill up my spine the leader of the ATL was also the Vice President. We would have to walk carefully here. I sensed something odd about him. The fingers in my marked hand tingled. He was leaning across the desk an angry expression on his face his finger pointing directly at the President. He straightened up in alarm his eyes widened on seeing me.

Sheila stood to one side her drone hovering over her head. I wondered how it kept pace with her then realised that she had an implant. Briefly I remembered doing the same to handle my comms but I had ended up with an AI. I doubted she had one and again I wished I had Lottie with me.

“Who let them in!” the human demanded.

“I did!” the prince responded. “As is my right!” his rebuke again was deceptively mild.

“I take it the show outside was your idea?” the President said equally mild.

I heard the threat behind it.

“I take every precaution since a royal guest was assaulted in my city. If that means a show of military force so be it!”

I winced that was very blunt. My attention turned to staring at the human there was something very wrong about him. My earlier calm had fully dissipated and the slow angry burn replaced it. I felt myself slip into combat mode.

The human pointed a finger at me. “What are you doing here!”

“Please Jeff let’s all calm down,” the President made a placating gesture.

“Why not, you did expect me to wind up dead?” my unease about him increased.

“Bitch!” he replied.

That was it I felt my control slip and I struggled to rise.

Sigrunn held me down. “Not yet sister,” she whispered in my ear.

The shock of her words had a sobering effect. “I have proof that Jeff Norton is the leader of the ATL,” I told the President.

The President glanced at Norton then at the senators behind me. “Proof?”

“We have a datapad taken from a secret ATL base here in Athanasios,” I said my eyes watching Norton. I flicked my squad a set of signals hoping I’d got them right.

Immediately both Bacare and Kriaeusus moved left and right while the senators clustered behind me. I felt uneasy I was unarmed. I would have rather had an AR 32 rather than a symbol etched into my hand. But I wasn’t without a weapon although it wasn’t a conventional one. The prince strolled over to the table and handed the President the datapad.

“We have copies,” he told the President.

The President examined the information on the datapad while we waited in baited breath for him to finish. I watched Norton closely there was definitely something odd about him he seemed to be watching me as carefully as I was watching him.

The President looked up a weary expression on his face. “I take it this is correct?” I noticed that he avoided looking at Norton.

Norton seemed more interested in what I was doing than on the contents of the datapad. The evidence was damning for him and those implicated.

“Sheila?” the prince said quietly and then said to the President. “We’ve had the images verified by a telepath.”

Her drone moved forward projecting a holographic image into the space between the President and us. It showed two figures one heavily cloaked and hooded and another I couldn’t recognise but it seemed the President did. I heard him draw a deep breath when the hooded figure spoke.

“Make certain you move your forces into place once he dies. I want a quick and clean transfer of power with no interference from the T’Arni slaves.” I recognised Norton’s voice.

Suddenly things clicked into place. “Rhosani!” I yelled rising from the wheelchair and pointing directly at Norton.

He went berserk and leapt towards me. Both Bacare and Kriaeusus fired and like my effort against Colonel Franklin the bullets didn’t seem to phase him. I saw a Valkyrie charge him and was thrown aside like a rag doll her sword flying from her hands. I fell backwards toppling over the chair as he reached for me his hand clutching at my throat. Something wet a slick soaked my hand. Before I had time to throw it he was on me his hands around my throat. I choked feeling his grip tighten all around me my squad and allies fought to pull him off.

“Use the shuriken,” I gasped close to blacking out. Faintly I heard a scream and darkness closed around me.