Imperator

by Timothy Ellis

  While coffee was being consumed at the end of the meal, I stood, and looked around the smaller than it should have been group. George wasn’t there. Grace neither. And while Aline was there, she wore red like me, instead of green.

  And suddenly, I didn’t know what to say. I sighed, and they all picked up on it.

  “Don’t say anything,” said Amanda, as she rose, came around the table, and hugged me.

  Aleesha did the same, and it rapidly became a group hug, leaving a somewhat bewildered Chinese gentleman sitting alone at the table, and a crowd watching us.

  When the hug broke up, Annabelle nodded to me, and I opened a rift back to BigMother. All but Aline and I walked through, the rift closing after them. They were walking back to Haven, with butlers already having moved their stuff there. Aline and I sat back down.

  It was the end of an era, or felt that way.

  They were all off to their own commands now.

  The alpha team was effectively no more.

  We’d come together for social occasions, I had no doubt. But the team going in together was done. Aline took my hand, and we sat there in silence.

  “Fortune cookie?”

  The interruption brought us back to the present, and I smiled at our host.

  “Sorry. An ending of sorts just happened.”

  “Ah,” he said, “but all endings are really beginnings. Which is something I wish to discuss with you, if you will allow.”

  “Sure. How can I help?”

  “I have made enquiries about your Imperium, and wish to expand my chain of restaurants to all your stations. Is this permissible?”

  “We certainly have Chinese food restaurants already, but only on a few stations. It hasn’t been announced yet, but the Imperium will have three stations along the spine soon, plus our main stations back home. Those are just our version of human stations. There are many more in the Imperium, as well as its other members. Anyone is welcome to rent premises on any Imperium station, as long as the local owners agree to the rental.”

  I had a thought.

  “If you want a challenge, think of a way a big cat would enjoy your food, and you could have a much larger market than you think.”

  Aline was grinning.

  “Big cat?”

  “Some of the Imperium members are much larger versions of our tigers and other large feline animals. If you could figure out how to cook what they prefer to eat, with a Chinese presentation, you could do very well.”

  “Or get eaten by the first cat to throw your food back up,” laughed Aline.

  “Opportunities often come with risks,” he said.

  It sounded like something in a fortune cookie.

  Thirty

  When we woke in the morning, the two stations were already in Last Hope and Iceland.

  They were positioned about fifteen minutes in from the jump point, and had a CAP of a squadron of Brawlers doing a circuit between them. I didn’t ask, but assumed Jane or one of the other AI’s had cloned a new station AI for each, and the AI was flying the fighters.

  Not much on them in the way of facilities yet, but a Lufafluf cuisine restaurant was being fitted out, and work had started on a Bhockah steak house. What sort of steak, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. It showed how long I’d been in space now, and how little time I’d spent watching the Imperium merge its civilian establishments across the stations. Just in food varieties, there was a lot to catch up with.

  There was also a battlestation at each jump point as well, and an email in the queue from Bob telling me he wasn’t a miracle worker, and he couldn’t keep pulling stations out of his arse when I wanted them.

  I told him to get a bigger arse.

  The various media along the whole spine were in an uproar again, over us claiming systems for the Imperium without consulting anyone. Although the up spine media did at least report the various new Imperium members had been in on the decision. Which just incensed everyone else. David did some quick talking with the new applicants, and their media quickly added to the fire dousing effort.

  And that was all before Aline had finished breakfast. We’d gone down to the pilot’s mess for one last meal with them, although I’d not eaten anything myself.

  When they were done, we headed down to the launch bays, and after Lacey gave me a quivering salute and a hand shake, all the pilots loaded their gear into their Excaliburs, and launched.

  As soon as they were in formations, the whole lot jumped out, bound for Orion’s Stars.

  It left only eight people and a cat on board. And six of those were Aline’s security team.

  The ship suddenly felt empty.

  Not that I had time for anything as mundane as feeling like I was rattling around a ghost ship.

  I spent the whole day doing what we’d planned, putting all the basics in place. I rifted us to the Finland system, advised a set of traders heading down spine of Delhi to wait, joined the jump point to Nepal, and told the traders to go through. On the navmap, they appeared in the right place, with days now removed from their journey.

  BigMother then scared the hell out of a lot of people, as Jane jumped us down the spine, appearing near any freighter which we thought might now be stuck. Those heading for a system not now available, I rifted straight there. Those heading up spine were informed of jump changes, and decided to be moved back to their home system, or would from now on base off the Iceland station, and use the rift network to move cargo home.

  By the time we made it back into Moscow, a trade hub station was already there, and Syrinx had joined it up with the main civilian station in orbit of the planet. The hub itself was practically an empty shell, with only the container movement facilities set up. It was no wonder Bob was narked. David had accelerated the whole process of getting the new members joined into the trade network in order to keep them happy about our claiming the two systems.

  My next task was closing the Moscow Nippon jump points at both ends, the Nippon Beijing points, and the Beijing Delhi points. And also the Delhi point going to Nepal, and the Moscow point going to Finland.

  That was the easy part. It left a lot of unhappy traders on the wrong side of the cut off space, and it took us much of the rest of the day to visit every inhabited system, and rift all the traders back into their own space. Which made many of them even unhappier, since they were not going to make their deliveries as planned.

  Fortunately, making people happy wasn’t in my job description for the day.

  Diplomats and media types were getting the message out about how trading would now work, and while there were now too many ships trying to dock at the rift enabled stations, most of them should be able to make their deliveries on time, or even earlier.

  Jane didn’t look happy either. I gathered she was supervising AI’s new to running stations and cargo, and all drawing on her experience. Seeing her look unhappy had a very definite effect on me, lightening my mood dramatically. I made sure I was out of her way, just in case she decided to vent my way. Venting wasn’t her thing. Still, best to be out of sight all the same. I did most of my work from my ready room when I could.

  By dinner time I was completely knackered, and Aline and I watched the first episode of Firefly while we ate off our laps in our living room on deck two. We were about to head off to bed, when Jane burst in through the door.

  “We’re on!”

  “What’s on?”

  “Firefly.”

  “I know, we just watched the first episode.”

  “Not that silly. I bought the rights to reboot it.”

  “What did that cost you?”

  “You don’t want to know. But it included the deed to one of the Haven penthouses. The family of the original series creator are moving to Haven next week.”

  “I assume I get my cut of the sale price?”

  “No. That’s part of your buy in to the production company.”

  “So it’s an investment?”

  “Yes.”

  I looked
at Aline, and she shrugged. I’d noticed this when Jane and I had these little banter sessions. Aline kept right out of them, and never took sides. It was annoying, in an endearing sort of way.

  “Was that it?”

  “Yes. I thought you’d be happier about it.”

  “I’m too bloody tired. If you don’t mind, I’m going to flake out.”

  “Enjoy,” she said, and did the uniformed version of flouncing out.

  “Don’t you dare,” said Aline a few moments later in the bedroom, as I crashed down on the bed.

  I managed to shift my suit back to a belt, but nothing more.

  I came too somewhere else.

  There was a triangular table in front of me, and I was sitting at it, fortunately back in uniform. It looked vaguely familiar. Next to me appeared Amanda on my left, and moments later, Aleesha on my right.

  “Jon?” asked Amanda.

  “What’s going on?” finished Aleesha.

  “Why do you think I know?”

  They both gave me a ‘you always know’ look, but all I could do was shrug. But the place did look familiar, and I felt certain we’d been here before. It was only when two figures appeared on the adjacent side of the triangle, I figured out where we were. Apparently the twins did as well.

  “Is this…?” asked Amanda.

  “Seems like it,” answered Aleesha.

  “The Pure Land,” I added.

  Both the beings in front of us had four arms, and one had a trunk instead of a nose.

  “I thought we were past seeing you two,” I moaned.

  They both laughed. Really hard. The twins both had expressions mirroring mine, somewhere between annoyed and concerned. The two stopped abruptly.

  “So,” said Kali.

  “Indeed,” added Ganesha.

  “Mud,” I muttered, and the twins smiled.

  “It begins,” said Kali.

  “What does?” I asked.

  “The power of three.”

  “What?”

  I knew I sounded confused, and more than a little pissed off.

  “Is it because we’re on different ships?” asked Amanda.

  “So this is one of our shared dreams?” asked Aleesha.

  “Yes,” said Ganesha.

  “And no,” added Kali.

  “Mud,” I muttered again.

  “Would you like me to drop you in some?” Kali asked me sweetly.

  “No thanks. Just a friendly reminder we have no idea what is going on here.”

  “And you would like to?” asked Ganesha.

  I was about to say yes, when I suddenly thought it might not be a good idea.

  “Yes,” said the twins, together.

  “We didn’t remove your connection after the Darkness War was averted,” said Kali, “and it turned out not to be needed.”

  It had been weeks since our last shared dream, and I’d thought the connection was finally severed once Aline and I formalized being a couple. Apparently not.

  “So?” I asked.

  “And it will be needed again.”

  “That’s why we’re here? To be told that?”

  “No, of course not,” said Ganesha.

  “We wanted to give you these,” added Kali. “You’ll need them soon.”

  The two of them vanished.

  On the table in front of each of us, was a swagger stick. Amanda laughed. We looked at her as if she was crazy.

  “All we need now is a monocle.”

  “For?” I asked, but Aleesha obviously got the joke, as she started laughing as well.

  “Jon,” said Amanda. “Swagger sticks are traditional for colonels to carry. And those old style colonels all had a monocle as well. Very British in fact. We’ll need to practice our stiff upper lip when we carry these.”

  The whole thing coalesced in my mind, and I joined them in laughing.

  The table vanished, and I woke up in my bed, Aline and Angel sleeping beside me.

  On the bedside table was a swagger stick.

  As I watched, it turned into my staff, then my sword, and vanished.

  “Was that real, Jon?” I heard Amanda say in my head.

  “Do you both have a swagger stick on your bed side tables?” I asked.

  “Yes,” they both responded.

  “Mine turned into my staff and sword, and vanished.”

  “Mine is still on my bedside table,” said Aleesha.

  “You think we were just given a link to the sceptre?” asked Amanda.

  “Absolutely no idea,” I said.

  “Stop talking in your sleep, Jon,” said Aline, who promptly turned over, and didn’t look like she’d been awake at all.

  “Goodnight Jon,” said Amanda.

  “Goodnight Jon,” said Aleesha.

  “Goodnight,” I said.

  “MEOW!” said Angel, and glared at me through one open eye.

  Thirty One

  Another day, another boring round table meeting.

  This time was to sign up the lower spine sectors. I endured it like I had the previous one. And escaped as soon as I could. I took BigMother back to Haven again, as I needed to talk to Bob about ships, and priorities.

  But before I could do anything, Jane brought up the navmap for the system, and highlighted the shipyard, grinning madly.

  I lost it.

  Aline did too when she saw what I was laughing at.

  Bob had joined all the shipyards together into a single large structure. And it finally had a name.

  Bigger Arse.

  He met us at the airlock after we docked. The dock itself was designed for even the Explorer ships, so BigMother had no problems at all. We took a trolley to his office, and a butler brought us drinks and nibbles.

  “I was joking,” I said.

  He grinned at Aline, who grinned back.

  “I know you were m’boy. But it was too good not to use.”

  “All the same, you better change it before someone notices it.”

  “Someone who might get upset about it,” added Aline.

  He looked like a football with the air let out.

  “Spoilsports.”

  His eyes glazed for a moment, and Janine, the shipyard AI, popped up a navmap.

  Now it was labeled ‘Bob’s Fantasyland’.

  “Better,” I said, and Aline nodded.

  I had a sneaking suspicion it was going to change regularly, as the whims took him. But I definitely was not going to say anything which might be taken as a suggestion.

  “What’s our status?” I went on, before he could say anything.

  “You’ll have those three captured tree ships tomorrow for troops. I finally managed to get the two battleships to carry Cobra’s, and without needing accommodation now, they just need to dock and be jumped to where they’re going. The tree turrets can then do protection while the dropships go in. The transport version is now rigged for landing on the surface like our assault cruisers do.”

  “Good. Allocate them to Annabelle for second tier troops.”

  “She’s already expecting them.”

  There was a twinkle in his eye, and I gave him a sharp look.

  “What colour are they?”

  He grinned, and flashed his eyebrows up and down a couple of times. A screen popped up showing them still in their bays. They were of course a vivid, almost fluorescent, green. I shook my head, but what did I expect?

  He took me through the other bays, where ships of all sizes were being worked on. Some to be troop ships, others to be big fighters, and one specifically spitting out Excaliburs every ten minutes or so. The latter went straight into jump, and Jane piped up they were going to the Explorer ships first, to finally give them the fighters we’d never had for them, and then to the stations on the spine to augment the Brawlers in local defense.

  Part of the shipyard was building more shipyard bays, other parts were building battlestations, rift network stations, Chaos class dreadnaughts, and several sections were building Cobra class dropships.
The new mark two Cobras were also designed to carry ground vehicles, now we had a lot of them coming from mainly the Americans. And some of the troop cruisers being made now, were also getting entire lower decks designed to carry transport and mobile firepower for the divisions.

  And idea popped in, and we discussed the possibility of redesigning farming mowers for wide scale Trixone mowing. Obviously they needed to be much more robust, and capable of taking heavy fire. As well as being able to handle the new plant armour George had come across.

  Bigglesworth popped up on hollo at that time, and we addressed the pilot situation, which was improving now all the time. A lot of the more experienced sector pilots were testing out on the Excalibur really quickly, and when they failed out on something bigger, were being assigned to an Excalibur which didn’t have a pilot.

  He expected the Explorers to be fully operational as carriers within the next day. The stations getting fighters operational without needing the AI’s for pilots the day after. Some of the Excalibur pilots were also doing cross training on the Cobra’s, which some of them were managing better than the destroyers, and were expected to become dropship pilots instead. Given how much Dreamwalker had loved flying the Cobra in combat, the pilots would be more than happy with a dual role.

  We needed plenty of all of them. Bigglesworth was also monitoring Lacey’s selection of pilots for his special wing, and suggested the wing be expanded to include a mixture of bigger sized ships, allowing mages to be aboard some in case the Excaliburs got chewed up one day. He also suggested a few cruisers be added to the Claymore task force, and I agreed if he could talk Chris into it.

  Bigglesworth went back to his own work, and Bob and I took a look at Lacey’s suggestions for his new long range fighter. With the way the Excaliburs were working out with jump drives installed, I couldn’t see a benefit in a long range version, but there were advantages to having such a ship as a long range recon vessel, and as a proper bomber.

  The navmap continued to expand day by day as Jane mapped outwards in all directions now. But it was still a very small percent of the core of the galaxy. We still hadn't reached the edges along the Keerah and Ralnor frontiers.

  But what was happening now, was message traffic, from well outside our comnavsat network, feeding in towards us as civilian ships in all three zones rebroadcast messages now being picked up by the comnavsats, and sent on to Jane and a group of AI’s now monitoring what was outside our ability to see. In a lot of cases we knew of planets who needed help, but not yet where they were. And there were systems inside Trixone space which were holding out on their own, or had so far been ignored for unknown reasons.