Imprint of Blood

by Phil Huddleston

  “Execute.”

  Thrusting past the compensator limits by 50g, the Kleitos blazed upward through the atmosphere, a meteor in reverse.

  ***

  Eugenius noted with satisfaction the Medusa had come to a geostationary orbit directly over the city of Aronte. The Tac Officer turned to him. “In position, sir.”

  Eugenius paused. He wanted to savor this moment. He closed his eyes, remembering the thousands of comrades killed or maimed in this war. This was for them, he thought. Then he nodded to the Tac Officer.

  “Launch the assault shuttles, and open fire with the railguns, Tac,” he said.

  Those were the last words he ever said. The Kleitos, coming up from below, plowed into the Medusa at a relative velocity of slightly under 80kps. Both ships were reduced to a boiling cloud of debris instantly. The collision had such force that the blast took out both the troopships tucked in close to the Medusa and the two rebel destroyers following her as well. Behind them, the single rebel cruiser Freedom and her two destroyers, in the process of rejoining formation, found themselves suddenly alone - nothing in front of them but an expanding cloud of hot gas mixed with fast-moving chunks of starship. They broke hard to skyward to avoid the mess.

  By now the AEN Berenice beyond the Greater Moon had reversed her course and was accelerating directly toward the rebels, with her two destroyers joining up as she came inward. Skyward, the AEN cruiser Leto, having gotten her weapons online and finally ready to fight, had turned to challenge her pursuers Valiant and Revenge, joined by another cruiser and two destroyers from the Greater Moon.

  The Valiant and Revenge, along with their destroyer squadrons, turned and ran for it, making max emergency accel out of the system, with the rebel cruiser Freedom right in front of them. The AEN fleet, now a hornet’s nest of pissed-off sailors, chased them all the way to the mass limit, taking out two more destroyers and the rebel cruiser Valiant before they quit the chase.

  The Fringe Rebellion wasn’t over. But it would be a long while before it dared come out of the Fringe again.

  10 Ribbons of Fire

  My mother was a true warrior. She raised me to be a true warrior. That is our family business, and we do it well.

  - Statement attributed to Callisto Ligeia Satra, daughter of Ligeia Iona Satra, dated to approximately 2162

  City of Aronte

  1 March 2141 - 19 Years after Pandora

  It was getting late. The sun was low as the sloop came up the estuary toward the city. A very pregnant Princess Antiope reclined in the cockpit on a pile of blankets, watching the streamers of fire streak across the sky over Aronte. Hundreds of small fireballs fell every minute, as parts from the gutted remains of ten starships decayed from orbit and fell into the atmosphere. It was a heartrending, achingly beautiful sight.

  Antiope sighed and glanced at Jake. He looked back at her, face solemn. By the time the warning had sounded on their comm beads that Aronte was under attack, they were already well out in the estuary, making their last sail together before the baby was due. They decided it was just as well to stay where they were, a good ten miles from the center of the city. If the bombardment happened, they would be safer in the boat than back in Aronte. So, they waited, and watched, as the battle unfolded above them.

  Antiope was still a Reserve Naval Officer, so she had access on her comm bead to most of the events of the day. She had patched Jake in and they had listened, stone-faced, as the ships above them fought and died. Antiope cried at the end, when she realized what the Kleitos had done to save them and their city. Jake had held her as she cried it out, sobbing, in a broken voice telling him how she had grown up with Ligeia Satra, a distant cousin.

  Finally, they started back. By early dusk, they were in the main channel, going up-river with a good following wind. Antiope had dried her tears and was now alternately cursing the rebels and vowing to get on a ship and chase them down, pregnant or not. Jake steered silently, knowing this was not a time to speak.

  Eventually she calmed, and as they docked, met by their security detail, she was once again the consummate Amazon princess, looking neither to the left or right as she marched heavily down the dock to their flitter. People nearby, recognizing her, cheered as she passed; but she never broke step or acknowledged them. Landing on the Palace grounds, she exited the flitter and went straight to their chambers. Jake followed well behind, uncertain if he should remain with her or go stay in the Barracks tonight. But as he entered, she whirled on him and flung herself into his arms, a few more tears coming down.

  “It’s the pregnancy, I know it is, I don’t cry like this!” she exclaimed, but held on to him anyway. “It’s ridiculous!”

  Jake held her, quietly rubbing her back, until once more the tears stopped, and she was quiet. Finally, she pulled back, looking into his eyes, then turned and went to a chair. She sat and waved him down.

  “Jake, we need to talk. About after.”

  Jake nodded. “OK.” He sat across from her. She gathered her thoughts for a few seconds, staring deep into his eyes.

  “When the baby is born, you’ll be exiled back to Barcam.”

  Jake nodded. “I know.”

  Antiope stared at him. “You’re not from Barcam.” She said it as a flat statement.

  Jake, surprised, could only look at her. Antiope made a half-smile.

  “Don’t look so shocked. I’ve known almost from the first.”

  Jake, amazed, could only reply, “In that case, where do you think I’m from?”

  Antiope smiled a mischievous smile. “Not from around these parts, I think.”

  Jake froze. He was afraid to speak.

  Antiope laughed out loud. “Don’t worry, lover. You are in no danger. Nobody knows but me - and maybe Prince Adrian. You are quite safe.”

  She crossed her arms and leaned forward. “I don’t expect you to tell me the whole story. I know you must have a very good reason for being here. I’ve known you – and loved you - long enough to be sure you would never do anything to harm us, or our child. So, I am quite content to trust you. But…Zeno, please…give me some hint. Some reassurance that my intuition is correct. That’s all I ask of you.”

  Jake nodded. “I think I can do that much.” He lowered his head and thought for several seconds, deciding how to present the information. Finally, he raised his head and looked at her again.

  “Imagine a star nation much like Aeolis, with many colonies, like this Empire. Imagine it under great threat – a threat that cannot be met with only the resources of that people. A threat that will kill them all, if they cannot find a way to meet it.”

  “Imagine this people discovered their long-lost descendants, far away. And they knew with the help of their descendants, they could survive the threat. And if they did not get that help, not only would they die, but the threat would travel on and destroy their descendants as well.”

  A shiver ran down Antiope’s back, visible even to Jake. But she remained silent.

  “I came here to discover how we might reconcile with our descendants,” said Jake. “The survival of both races depends on it.”

  Antiope turned her face away in thought. After a while, she turned back to Jake. “And have you found the solution?”

  “Partially,” said Jake. “But you are not ready. You are at war with yourselves – men against women, nobles against commoners, slaves against their masters. Your Empress is determined to kill all who even mention the smallest hint of … our homeland. Until those things are resolved, I don’t believe there is any chance of reconciliation.”

  Antiope nodded. “And how much time is there?”

  “Enough,” said Jake. “Seventy to eighty years yet. But it will come. Not for your generation, or even our child’s. But our grandchildren will have to deal with it.”

  Antiope stood and paced around the room, holding her swollen belly. “I almost wish I hadn’t asked.”

  Jake nodded. “Myself as well.”

  Antiope turned to him.
“What should I do?”

  Jake went to her and held her, smelling her sweet hair, caressing her, rubbing her arms. “Lead toward peace. Lead toward reconciliation. Give a little, equalize a little, flatten your society.”

  “That won’t be easy - for Star’s sake, Zeno, they tried to kill us today!”

  “Still,” said Jake. “That’s the way to survival. For all of us.”

  He pulled back from her, his brow furrowed in a frown. “Will you tell our daughter?”

  Antiope turned away from him. “I don’t know. I suppose I will, when she is old enough.” She turned back toward him. “Let’s just focus on the few days we have left. I don’t want to think about this anymore.”

  ***

  At the tavern, Metrodora sat with Prince Adrian, holding his hand. They were both devastated by the destruction and death of the battle and were just sitting, trying to get past it, holding each other in their hearts. Metrodora realized that something was happening to her, something she had not planned on. She was falling in love with this man - this Aeolian prince, who had no concept of who she really was. An impossible situation. She had been on Aronte for well over four years now and was scheduled for permanent rotation back to Earth in another six months; this was a most inconvenient time to fall in love, she thought. Especially with someone like this.

  Across the table from her, Prince Adrian was having similar thoughts. He too felt the tug of love at his heartstrings. He also knew the difficulties in making a match work with a commoner. And there was more. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he knew there was something strange, unique, about Metrodora. She didn’t exactly think and act like most Aeolian women.

  Finally, he spoke. “Metrodora. How do you really feel about me?”

  Metrodora gazed at him, taking her time. “I would like to see if this relationship could go somewhere, Adrian. If you are of a mind.”

  Adrian squeezed her hand. “I’m of a mind.”

  ***

  A few weeks later and 100 light years away, on Maia, Anicetus slumped against his table, drunk, at the same bar where he had last been with Eugenius before the raid. The carefully gathered rebel fleet had dispersed to their hiding places, awaiting the retribution they knew would be coming. Anicetus himself was no longer afraid. He had stared into the abyss and the abyss had stared back. Now he was angry. Now he knew how Eugenius had felt. And he had decided. This was not over. This could not stand.

  They would have their freedom, if he had to personally kill every AEN starship captain in the Empire. Anicetus slid off his chair and fell, his beer glass crashing to the floor and breaking into pieces. His last thoughts before he passed out were of revenge. He would find a way.

  ***

  One month later, Antiope's yell echoed down the corridor. Jake started from his chair, but Lt. Pallis grabbed his arm and pulled him back down, a grin on his face.

  "Not yet, Zeno," he said.

  Sheepishly, Jake returned to his seat. Their chairs lined up against the wall, the four men held cigars, a rare dispensation from Antiope as her labor began hours earlier.

  "Go!" she had yelled at Jake and Prince Adrian, when it was clear that her labor was starting. "Wait outside! Smoke cigars! Be men! But stay out of here!"

  Now, it was just after eleven pm; the Palace was quiet. Antiope's occasional yells echoed through empty hallways. Antiope's chambers were far from those of the Empress Miranda, and Jake was glad.

  To his right, Lt. Pallis and Captain Kyrkos sat, puffing on their cigars. To his left was Antiope's uncle, Prince Adrian.

  Prince Adrian tapped his arm.

  "It takes a while, with these women," he said, jerking a thumb toward Antiope's chambers.

  Jake bowed his head and shook it back and forth. "I don't know why I'm so nervous," he said. "It's not like I've never been through this before."

  Prince Adrian snorted.

  "Yes; but how many Princesses have you fathered?"

  Jake nodded. He fiddled with his backup wrist comm but couldn't concentrate. Finally, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He thought about his future.

  Was he prepared to lose Antiope now? He and Antiope had talked about it. He knew the rules. They were crystal clear. A commoner who fathered a Princess had only one path. Tomorrow, he would hold his newborn child one time; kiss Antiope goodbye; and he would be shipped off to Barcam and exile. He would never see them again.

  Was it worth it? These last months? His heart did not yet know. His life in Aeolis was over, that he understood. But could his heart survive?

  He had buried two wives already. After that, he had thought he would never love again; but Antiope had brought him back to his youth, back to the feelings he had as a young man. Back to life. And now it would all be gone.

  Jake sighed. Beside him, Pallis put a hand on his shoulder, thinking it was about the waiting. But it wasn't the waiting. It was the heartbreak.

  Three hours later, another yell from within Antiope's chambers, and Jake thought this one was different. It seemed a yell of triumph. Suddenly he heard a baby cry. Jake jumped to his feet. Pallis slapped him on the back. "You're a father, by the Stars!" he yelled. Prince Adrian, overtaken by excitement, grabbed his hand and pushed it, the Aeolian handshake. The door to Antiope's chambers burst open and a young nurse stuck out her head.

  "The Princess is born! She is healthy, and loud!" She turned and rushed back into the room, the door banging behind her.

  Jake grinned. Tears popped into his eyes. Now he knew. It was worth it. It would always be worth it. Any amount of pain. Any amount of loneliness. It would always be worth it.

  An hour later, they called him in. Antiope was propped up in bed, holding the child. Jake was escorted over to her by Captain Kyrkos and Prince Adrian. Lt. Pallis hung discreetly in the background. Antiope smiled at Jake and grasped his hand, pulled him closer to her.

  "See your daughter," she said, and handed him the baby.

  Jake cradled the child, looking at her perfect face, her perfect hands. One tear, alone, fell from his face onto the child's cheek. He looked at Antiope.

  "She is so beautiful, Antiope" he said.

  "Her name is Deinomache," said Antiope. "She will be a great warrior."

  Jake touched the back of his hand to the child's cheek. He felt the slight fuzz of hair. Another tear fell from his eye onto the baby. He leaned to kiss her, feeling the heat of her skin and the wetness of his tear on it. Then he felt the hand of the nurse, sliding under the child to take her. He let her go to the nurse and looked at Antiope. Slowly, he sank to his knees beside the bed, holding Antiope's hand. He looked at her and whispered, "Take good care of our child, Antiope."

  Antiope pulled him in and they kissed, a long, steady kiss that could never last long enough for either of them. Then she whispered something in his ear. Jake looked at her, and said very quietly, “I’ll remember, dear.”

  Then Jake felt the hand of Prince Adrian on his shoulder. He pulled away slowly. Antiope looked at him with eyes burning like fire.

  "I will guard her well, Zeno," she said. "I will teach her about you. She will know you. She will love you."

  Jake nodded. Then he felt Prince Adrian turning him, leading him to the door. His will was gone. He moved like a robot. He turned at the door and looked back at Antiope and the child. Then the door closed, and they were gone.

  Beehive Cluster – Planet Barcam

  Standing on the landing pad at Barcam, Jake watched the shuttle departing to the destroyer Tyche, taking Lt. Pallis back to Aronte. It was a week’s journey to Barcam, and Pallis had tried to keep Jake’s spirits up. They drank, played cards, sparred in the workout room, tried to make a bad trip into a good one. It had almost worked; Jake had gotten through it without too much pain showing on his face. But now, standing on the tarmac alone, he felt the wind whistling around him like the cut of a knife into his soul.

  Pallis had read the riot act to him before he left, which was his job. Friend or no friend, he ha
d a responsibility to perform and he did it well.

  “Zeno of Barcam,” he had intoned, reading from a tablet, “You are banished from Aronte and Aeolis. On pain of death, you are not to return to either. If you are seen in those environs, any woman of rank may kill you without thought or recourse to trial. So it has been decreed by the Empress of Aeolis. Take note and follow this warning well.”

  Jake had just nodded. There was nothing to say. Pallis gave him a handpush, climbed in the shuttle, and left.

  Turning, Jake walked toward the terminal building, knowing that Metrodora would have someone there to greet him. Once inside, he quickly spotted the man, someone he knew well.

  “Hello, Gunner,” he said in English, not too loud, “Good to see you.”

  “And you, sir,” said Gunner Carlson, still Chief of Staff to the head of the RDF in his absence, Admiral Lois Vetton. “I’ve got a shuttle on the other side of the field.”

  “Sounds good,” said Jake. “They’ll probably tail me for a while, though, to see what I do. Do you have a plan in place for that?”

  “We do, sir,” said Gunner, looking around the empty terminal carefully. “We’ve found a body double for you, and if you’ll follow me, we’ll take care of the swap.”

  Gunner led him to a restroom, where another man Jake recognized from the tavern in Aronte had placed a sign on the door, “Out of Service”, and was standing outside with a bucket and a mop. They entered. Inside, Jake found himself face to face with someone who could be his twin. The man was dressed identically, right down to the smallest detail. Taken aback, Jake stood for a second, assessing the man’s look and outfit. Finally, he shook his head.

  “Amazing,” he said in Aeolian.

  “This is Zeno of Barcam,” said Gunner, smiling. “He will faithfully perform the role for as long as it takes, until they forget about you.”

  “I trust you are being well paid,” Jake said to the man.