Imperial Echoes

by Eric Thomson

  He’d received his promotion from President Mandus’ hands in the Wyvern Palace the day before, under the benevolent gaze of Vice Admiral Johannes Godfrey and the amused eyes of Ardrix, the Colonial Service’s leading Sister of the Void Reborn. Bolack was searching for a new title, something that would convey her status as equal to a prioress, but so far couldn’t come up with anything that passed muster among the Order’s senior Brethren.

  “Why not keep it simple and call her Leading Sister of the Colonial Service?” He muttered to himself. “That’s the problem with theologians. They’re always arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.”

  Today was his first day of duty as the newest branch’s inspector general, which suited him fine. He’d been as surprised as anyone at hearing the President appointed Nero Cabreras Chief Commissioner for State Security. When he remarked on the fact, his new commanding officer merely smiled and said Cabreras passed Mandus’ test with flying colors but wouldn’t elaborate beyond a cryptic statement to the effect that personal ambition beats ideology ninety-nine times out of a hundred. However, seeing Ishani Robbins take Cabreras’ place as the Wyvern Group commander pleased him.

  Torma made his way to the Wyvern Palace’s Blue Annex, a free-standing two-story office building within the security perimeter. It was where Godfrey was setting up the Colonial Service’s temporary HQ, close to the President and inaccessible to the grifters who would inevitably clamor for a piece of the action. They’d started soon after Mandus’ announcement the previous week and only backed away after Cabreras threatened them with charges of harassing government officials, a serious crime under Hegemony law.

  The Commission’s new chief also quietly spread the word that the era of influence peddling, graft, and corruption was over. Guilty parties, however, wouldn’t face execution or a long sentence in the Hegemony’s penal system but permanent exile as involuntary colonists on the worlds opened for resettlement. Whether it was working, Torma couldn’t tell, but he’d likely find out once the deportations began and the guilty parties became his problem.

  The Wyvern Palace’s rear guard post let him through without fuss, his biometrics having already been entered into the security system. He parked in front of the Blue Annex in the spot marked ‘Inspector General’ and climbed out, eyes taking in his surroundings. If nothing else told the entire Hegemony that President Mandus wasn’t taking half measures with recolonizing the former empire, then placing her new Colonial Service HQ on her back step did.

  Torma found Godfrey, Ewing Saleh, now wearing a commodore’s star as chief of staff, Lieutenant Commander Krennek, and Sister Ardrix in the admiral’s office, enjoying a cup of coffee.

  “Ah, Crevan?” Godfrey waved him in. “The general officer’s uniform suits you. Serve yourself.”

  He pointed at a coffee urn on the sideboard. When Torma had done so, Godfrey raised his cup.

  “To the Colonial Service, my friends. May we reunite our species under the Hegemony banner before Lyonesse does so under hers.”

  — 46 —

  ––––––––

  Lannion

  Republic of Lyonesse

  Coalsack Sector

  “Admiral, please come in and sit.” President Aurelia Hecht, a tall, lean, dark-haired woman in her late sixties, wearing a warm, welcoming smile, rose from behind her ornate desk to greet Admiral Farrin Norum.

  The Lyonesse Defense Force’s Supreme Commander was an old Defense Force Academy classmate from longer ago than either would admit. She nodded at her aide, who stepped back into the corridor, closing the doors behind him.

  “Martin said you needed to see me urgently.”

  “Indeed, Madame President.”

  “It’s just the two of us right now, Farrin. There’s no one within earshot who’ll be scandalized by overt familiarity.” She gestured at the settee group by the window overlooking the Haven River. “What’s up?”

  “We received an encrypted report from the Void Ship Serenity an hour ago over the subspace net. She was within hailing distance of the new Parth relay at the time of transmission, on her way home from Hatshepsut.”

  “The newest of our Void missions. Is it well? Did they encounter problems?”

  Norum nodded.

  “You could say so.” He gestured at the presidential office’s primary display. “May I?”

  “Sure.”

  He reached into his tunic pocket, withdrew his service issue communicator, and linked it with the Government House network. Moments later, the display came to life, showing starships orbiting a planet.

  “That, Aurelia, is Hatshepsut, and those are not from the Lyonesse Navy.”

  A gasp escaped the normally staid Hecht’s lips.

  “What in the name of the Infinite Void are they?”

  “Two cruisers, two frigates, and a transport whose designs clearly evolved from the old empire’s naval architecture. Their lines resemble those of Ruggero era warships enough that it makes us one hundred percent sure.”

  “Oh, dear. I hope you embargoed this information.”

  “Yes, and the only folks who handled Serenity’s report deal with top-secret special access intelligence all the time. It’ll stay embargoed until you say differently. But the story gets worse.”

  Hecht let out a sigh.

  “Of course, it does.”

  “As best we can tell from what Serenity pieced together, they belong to something called the Hegemony, a polity which has maintained roughly pre-collapse level technology. They abducted eight of the ten Lyonesse Brethren from the Hatshepsut Priory during compline service. The other two were at sea aboard a sailing vessel at the time and escaped.” Norum went on to relate Rianne and Horam’s adventures, as recounted by Captain Al Jecks. “The two are now running a priory staffed only with locals apart from themselves. They’ll need reinforcements from the Lyonesse Abbey as soon as possible, so work on bringing the Republic of Thebes into the industrial age doesn’t falter.”

  “Whatever is necessary once I make this public knowledge.” A grimace briefly twisted Hecht’s finely sculpted feature. “Or perhaps not. This Hegemony now knows we exist and will probably learn quite a bit from their prisoners. Including, I fear, our long-range plan of establishing Void missions on fallen worlds, followed by military outposts once a given planet has attained the minimum required technological level to offer basic support.”

  “And Hatshepsut is still twenty or thirty years away from entering our military sphere. We should decide whether we reinforce the place at once and make it the gateway into Lyonesse space from wherever this Hegemony holds sway or whether we should withdraw the mission. One risks a clash with the Hegemony. The other will erase three years of work and abandon a key star system. Letting our current mission wither on the vine isn’t a choice I’d consider. Besides, I’m not sure the Head Abbess will send another group of Brethren if there’s no longer a definite schedule for our establishing military control of Hatshepsut.”

  Hecht allowed herself an un-presidential snort.

  “Withdrawing from a major wormhole nexus like Hatshepsut will cause a political crisis, as well you know. Jonas Morane established the grand plan to reunite humanity almost two hundred years ago, and so far, we’ve been keeping faith with his vision and his overarching timetable. Most people would consider a step back just short of blasphemy, especially if it’s because of an unknown Hegemony which might be just as far from Hatshepsut as we are. After all, that expedition was there to discover who was distributing advanced tech on a mostly pre-industrial world. They are surely as surprised, worried, and disturbed as we are.”

  “But they took eight of our best citizens, volunteer missionaries whose breadth of knowledge and experience gives them insight into most facets of the republic, and we know merely what the last two Brethren on Hatshepsut and Serenity picked up.”

  When she opened her mouth to reply, Norum he
ld up his hand.

  “Before you say it, Aurelia, no, we can’t send reconnaissance expeditions into the wormhole network past Hatshepsut just yet. The Void Ships are already over-tasked and operating at the very limits of their effective range, and we cannot afford a squadron of regular units gone for months at a time. The Hegemony sent a force capable of fighting off anything they might meet on a mere chase for information. That should tell you something. Besides, with the number of wormhole branches leading into the rest of the old empire from Hatshepsut, it’ll most likely turn into a snipe hunt.”

  She contemplated her old friend in silence for a few moments, then nodded.

  “Fair enough. I was a naval officer longer than I’ve been a politician, so I understand the constraints only too well. What advice will you present to the Secretary of Defense when you let him know about this?”

  Norum wasn’t surprised that she figured he hadn’t yet spoken with his nominal civilian superior. Secretary of Defense was the most critical cabinet position and second in the line of succession after the vice president. Only one SecDef ever became the republic’s chief executive after both president and vice president were incapacitated, which was in the republic’s early years. But the defense job was widely seen as the best way of gaining the sort of profile, and track record demanded of presidential candidates. As such, it attracted the ambitious and politically connected. The days when the position almost automatically went to a retired Defense Force supreme commander were long gone.

  Though the current incumbent was no worse and no better than average, he was a career politician. In both Hecht’s and Norum’s opinion, he displayed a politician’s almost unconscious habit of triangulating so he could draw the most advantage from any situation. Since Serenity’s subspace message would shake the Republic of Lyonesse to its very core, it was precisely the sort of thing he shouldn’t find out about before the president did. Or the rest of the cabinet, for that matter.

  “Let me rephrase that,” Hecht, who’d been thinking along the same lines as Norum, said. “What advice will you present to the cabinet when I call it together late this afternoon so you can brief everyone at once?”

  “You plan on including Sister Gwendolyn, I hope? She should find out along with the other top decision-makers.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t dare forget our Summus Abbatissa.”

  Though not a member of the administration, the Void’s chief abbess attended cabinet meetings whenever decisions or discussions would touch on her Order.

  “Then my advice is skip garrisoning Parth for now and send the ships, orbitals, and troops destined for it to Hatshepsut. Suppose the Hegemony returns and finds vessels more advanced than theirs, orbital defense platforms, forts along with traffic control buoys at each wormhole terminus, and a battalion of Marines on the ground. In that case, they might think twice about being hostile. Then, we can demand they return our mission’s Brethren. We’ll just keep controlling entry into the republic’s part of that wormhole branch via Takeshi. The Hatshepsut garrison will simply have to adopt an all-around defensive posture and become an island in the wormhole network.”

  Hecht smiled.

  “That’s what I wanted to hear. Although you’ll likely find opposition around the cabinet table because this will be a massive disruption in the plan and leave what? Two inhabited and three sterile star systems between our most advanced garrison in that branch of the network and the republic’s secure sphere? I can give you the names of the objectors right now.”

  “I think I know them already. My argument will be simple. The inhabited planets have Void missions on them, so it’s not as if there’s a break in continuity on that axis of advance.” Norum grinned at her. “Besides, you’re in favor, I’m sure the vice president won’t demur, and our dear SecDef, after seeing which way the wind blows at both ends of the cabinet table, will back me up. This is one of those history-changing events where everyone will be desperate to end up on the winning side.”

  “Will there be enough time between now and sixteen hundred hours for a comparison between the Hegemony ship design with Imperial Navy roots and our own home-grown naval architecture, based on Serenity’s passive scans?”

  “My intelligence folks are already on it. I’ll have something solid for the cabinet meeting.”

  She gave him a wry smile.

  “You always were a step ahead of me, even at the Academy.”

  “And yet you made flag officer before I did.”

  “The luck of the draw.” She glanced at the time. “I think it’s best if I call the vice president and see if he has time to join us. He’ll be less annoyed with me if he finds out now rather than this afternoon.”

  “A good idea.”

  The vice president, another career politician, wasn’t Hecht’s pick. Presidents and vice presidents were elected separately by the senate and chosen for a variety of reasons. Mostly the relationships were good, but wise presidents took pains to make sure they didn’t cause resentment, even for minor things.

  To Norum’s surprise, Vice President Derik Juska proposed moving up the garrisoning timetable once he absorbed the briefing. No political triangulating there.

  “Any idea where they might come from?” He asked.

  “Nothing concrete, but my gut reaction and that of the intelligence folks who read the message was Wyvern. It would make sense that Wyvern escaped the Retribution Fleet’s depredations, no matter the rumors that were circulating at the time. And perhaps a few of the surrounding star systems escaped too. That part of the empire had a solid industrial and technological base, capable of rebuilding if the damage wasn’t overly severe. Besides, Dendera wouldn’t vaporize her own nest, and I’m sure the Imperial High Command at the time valued their skins more than their personal oaths to a loathsome sovereign.”

  “Funny how we thought we were alone, the sole guardians of humanity’s accumulated knowledge, and yet there was another who probably thought they were also alone. And now, after two centuries apart, we finally meet in the Hatshepsut system of all places.” Juska shook his head. “The Almighty moves in mysterious ways. Let’s hope we can reunite peacefully, notwithstanding their abduction of our citizens. Otherwise, it might have been for naught.”

  Hecht smiled at her vice president.

  “Always the pessimist.”

  “Realist, Madame President. I try to see the universe as it is, not as it should be, and won’t shy from admitting this news shocks me to the core. And it will make for an exciting cabinet meeting.”

  “Will anyone object to our claiming Hatshepsut immediately, without telling the locals, let alone ask for their opinion on being made part of the republic, and then fortifying it against any attempts at Hegemony adventurism?”

  Juska let out a bark of laughter.

  “Half of them will cry bloody murder on principle. Not because we propose annexing a star system so distant from our current sphere. But because we plan on doing so without consulting its inhabitants, thereby violating one of the basic tenets of the reunification plan laid out by Jonas Morane, consent of the governed. A good thing we can get this going without salving the purists’ wounded souls. But expect a hue and cry from the senate in due course. Not that they’ll try to remove you from office over the matter, but there will be plenty of public posturing and chest-beating for the voters’ sake.”

  “Fine by me. In the meantime, Admiral Norum can get on with it. The next time a Hegemony battle group shows up in the Hatshepsut system, I want it met by our own forces. Whether that will be peacefully or not is up to them. We certainly won’t open fire first, even though we’re currently the aggrieved party.”

  “That’s what I would suggest,” Norum said. “Once we’ve secured Hatshepsut and established a naval base, we can run reconnaissance missions through the wormhole network between it and every system in the Wyvern Sector, if we so wish. That will allow us to confirm whether a few of them not on
ly survived but thrived.”

  “Make it so, Admiral.”

  Norum inclined his head.

  “Yes, Madame President.”

  Ashes of Empire continues with

  Imperial Ghosts

  About the Author

  Eric Thomson is the pen name of a retired Canadian soldier who spent more time in uniform than he expected, both in the Regular Army and the Army Reserve. He spent his Regular Army career in the Infantry and his Reserve service in the Armoured Corps. He worked as an information technology specialist for several years before retiring to become a full-time author.

  Eric has been a voracious reader of science fiction, military fiction, and history all his life. Several years ago, he put fingers to keyboard and started writing his own military sci-fi, with a definite space opera slant, using many of his own experiences as a soldier for inspiration.

  When he is not writing fiction, Eric indulges in his other passions: photography, hiking, and scuba diving, all of which he shares with his wife.

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  Also by Eric Thomson