Counterstrike

by D. J. Holmes

  “I would have done the same for anyone,” Keller responded. “But I am happy that I have been able to serve you both in this way.”

  “Can I go and see her now?” James asked as he turned back towards Christine.

  “If you like, but keep the noise down,” Keller said as his eyes flickered to Jonathan who was still asleep with his head on James’ shoulder. “Her hearing and eyesight will be quite sensitive. But the sedatives should be wearing off. She could wake up at any minute. Especially with her augments, they will flush out the sedatives we were using quicker than normal.”

  “We’ll go to her now,” James said. “Don’t worry, we’ll be quiet.” Not waiting for Keller’s response, James moved past him and entered Christine’s suite. Gently he lifted a chair and pulled over to sit where he would be directly in her line of sight when she woke up. Reaching under her cover, he found her right hand, took it in his and gently squeezed it while rocking Jonathan back and forth.

  James sat with her until he felt the slightest twitch from Christine’s hand. Stopping his rubbing, he waited to see if he had imagined it or not. A couple of seconds later there was another twitch. Then Christine’s eyelids fluttered. “It’s okay,” James whispered. “It’s okay, I am here with you.” Christine’s eyelids fluttered again, and then they opened. A strange croak came out of her mouth. James guessed what she was asking for and quickly let go of her hand and reached over to the glass that had been left near her bed. Ever so gently he moved it to her lips and gave her just enough to wet her tongue. “You’re in the hospital dear,” he explained. “In Geneva. They had to operate on you but you’re going to be okay.”

  “Why…” was all Christine managed to say before her voice broke again.

  “Your shuttle was attacked,” James said. “Don’t you remember? I found you on the ground, you were thrown from the shuttle.”

  Christine closed her eyes, then they shot open again. “Jonathan,” she managed to say, her voice filled with panic.

  James smiled as he twisted slightly to bring Jonathan more into Christine’s line of sight. “Don’t worry, he is here, fast asleep. The doctors have checked him over. He is perfectly fine. Though it was quite the ordeal for him. He hasn’t let me go since the doctors gave him back.”

  “And me?” Christine asked as her voice firmed. “Everything hurts. How am I?”

  “You did get knocked about. Your left arm and leg were all but shattered in the crash. But the doctor assures me they put everything back where it’s supposed to go. They had to do some work on your spleen and liver as well, but everything is fine. You going to hurt for a while. I don’t think you’ll be walking out of here any time soon, but they assure me you’re going to make a full recovery.”

  Christine lay back as she closed her eyes again. “It does hurt everywhere. I think some of their drugs are wearing off.”

  “I’ll speak to the doctors,” James said. “Your augments should start to help with some of that as the drugs wear off.”

  Christine twisted her neck slightly so she could look at James once again. Though she began to speak slowly her pace quickly increased. “Have you spoken to Fairfax yet? Do we know who did this? What about a public statement, what has been said? Do the news broadcasts know what has happened? How long have I been here for?”

  James shook his head to all the questions. “I don’t know anything. I’ve been waiting here with Jonathan. You know as much as I do.”

  The smallest of smiles appeared on the edge of Christine’s lips. “You are a buffoon. You know that don’t you? An attempt was made on the Empress’s life. The whole system will be up in arms. We need to assure them that I’m okay, that you’re okay. Where are my maids?”

  “They are nearby,” James answered. “They brought food for Jonathan so they can’t be far away.”

  “You need to get them,” Christine informed him. “They can take Jonathan off you. You need to meet with Fairfax. You need to make a public appearance, reassure everyone that you’re alive and still in charge. You should probably get the surgeon that operated on me to give a run down on my condition.”

  James shook his head. “There’s no way I’m leaving your side. Not until you’re well enough to come home. You’re my wife, that’s my priority.”

  “I am your priority dear,” Christine replied as her right hand appeared from under the covers and sought out James’. “You said it yourself, I’m going to be in pain, but I’ll be okay. There’s nothing more you can do for me at the moment. Look, Jonathan’s asleep, the maids can take him from you and bring him back to his crib in the Palace. Better yet, they can bring his crib here so he’s with me. I think I’d like that. But you don’t need to be here, not all the time at least. There’s more people than just me who need you. And I’m the one who’s telling you to go.” James opened his mouth to argue but Christine squeezed his hand much more firmly than he expected. “I don’t have the energy to argue with you. This is something you need to do. You can go and do all that and be back in an hour or two.” Letting go of his hand, Christine waved at her body and all the machines connected to her. “I’m not going anywhere. If something happens the hospital can contact you right away. The Palace is no more than a couple of minutes shuttle ride away. It’s not like I am ordering you out of the system.”

  James wanted to argue. The last thing he cared about was making a public appearance or statement. Yet he knew Christine well enough to know the look on her face was not one to be argued with. She intended for him to go and though she didn’t have the strength for it, she would fight with him until he finally gave in. Not wanting to waste what little energy she had, James reluctantly nodded. “Fine, I’ll go,” he replied as he let out a deep breath. “But if there is even the smallest of problems, you are to contact me right away. Do you understand?”

  “Of course, I’ll call for you,” Christine promised. “Now go, the sooner you leave the sooner I can close my eyes for a bit and the sooner you’ll be back.”

  “All right,” James said as he stood, new determination filling his voice. He didn’t particularly care about doing the things Christine wanted him to, but he wanted to be back as quickly as possible. “I’ll leave Jonathan with the maids and go back to the Palace. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he added as he lent down and kissed Christine’s forehead. Christine had already closed her eyes again. Not knowing if she had fallen asleep or not, he didn’t say anything more. Instead he quietly left the medical suite.

  Outside he wasn’t surprised to find Jonathan’s two maids waiting. Nodding to one of them he gently prized Jonathan from his chest and handed him over. “Christine wants him to stay here with her. Can you arrange to have his crib brought down to her room?” he whispered.

  “Of course, Emperor, we’ll do that right away,” the maid responded.

  Behind the maids, James saw Alfaro waiting. He was moving back and forth from foot to foot. “What have the doctors said?” he asked as James’ eyes met his.

  “They are both going to be okay. Christine has a difficult few weeks ahead of her, but she should be fine,” James answered. “She sent me out here to start to deal with the fallout from all this.”

  Alfaro let out a deep breath of relief. “I am very pleased to hear that Admiral. What do you want to do first?”

  Though several of the things Christine had instructed him to do sprang to mind, as he thought about the question, the anger he had felt before returned with a vengeance. Someone had tried to kill Christine and Jonathan. Yet he knew nothing about who they were or why they had done it. “Contact Admiral Russell and General Johnston,” James said as an edge crept into his voice. “I want to meet them at the Palace immediately. I want a full update on everything they know about the attack.”

  “I’ll message them immediately Admiral,” Alfaro said as he pulled out his COM unit and began to type furiously. “Fairfax is in the hospital. He’s been waiting to speak to you. I’ve done my best to keep him at arm’s length.”
<
br />   James smiled at his Flag Lieutenant despite his anger. He knew it couldn’t have been easy to keep Fairfax away. “Tell him we are going to the Palace. He can ride in my shuttle and we can talk about whatever he likes on the way.”

  “Yes Admiral, right away Admiral,” Alfaro responded.

  James was happy to talk to Fairfax, it would probably be a good distraction from the anger that was building within him, but he was dealing with Russell and Johnston first. Whatever political considerations Fairfax wanted him to worry about came second.

  *

  When James stepped into the small side office Alfaro led him to, he was happy to see Russell and Johnston were already there. Slipping into a seat, he waited for Fairfax to come in and then met Russell’s eyes. “I want to know everything you’ve got so far,” he demanded in an emotionless tone.

  “It has only been six hours,” the head of the Imperial Intelligence Division responded, “So things are still very much in the preliminary stage. I have my best operatives working on it though.”

  “We both do,” Johnston interjected, a hint of shame clearly perceivable in his voice. The Imperial Marines were the ones tasked with protecting the Emperor and Empress.

  James waved a dismissive hand at both of them, he wasn’t interested in their overlapping jurisdictional problems. “Just tell me.”

  “We found the shooter,” Russell informed him. “It wasn’t hard. Several of the Palace’s security sensors detected the launch location. Plus his remains were splattered across a twenty-meter radius. Whoever he was, he wasn’t meant to survive his mission. The second hyper velocity missile he was carrying exploded just seconds after Christine’s shuttle was hit. We are still seeing if we can get a DNA match. He’s not in any of our military or relocation records, but all the national records haven’t been combined into one database yet. We will find out eventually.”

  “I want to know as soon as you do,” James demanded.

  “Of course Emperor,” Russell responded. “We also found something else. Our initial analysis of the blast area found remnants of a video recorder. We think the shooter streamed his attack to someone else. I have our best analysts tracking the feed. We know it passed through at least eight relay stations. That number is probably going to double or triple, but eventually we’ll track down where the images were sent to. What we know is that someone was watching. They were probably waiting to see if the attack was successful before detonating the bomb. It would be an efficient way to cover the tracks of whoever organized the attack.”

  James felt his anger rise. Someone had meticulously planned the attack on his wife and son. Not only that, they had watched it live. They had probably celebrated when the shuttle had been hit and crashed into the mountainside. Fairfax had told him almost no news had leaked to the public about Christine’s condition; his wife’s attackers would be gloating over how they had killed Christine and Jonathan.

  “We also think they weren’t just targeting Christine,” Johnston said. “You changed your schedule to return to the Palace early to meet with Rear Admiral Yamata at the last moment. Whoever planned the attack likely hoped to kill both you and Christine. It’s clear they wanted to decapitate the Empire.”

  James ground his teeth together as he met Russell and Johnston’s eyes. “Who did this? Who is behind this attack against my family?”

  Both men glanced at one another and Russell shook his head slightly. “It’s too early for us to say for sure. The motive is clear but there are a number of groups who are opposed to the Empire’s formation. None that we thought were prepared to go to this extreme length. But they are out there. We are monitoring every group we know about. If there is any increased traffic or even a hint that they know something, we will take them in for questioning.”

  James slammed his fist down on the armrest of his chair. “But we know nothing right now!”

  “We don’t,” Johnston confirmed as he raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “But we will find them, I promise you that as my Emperor and my friend. You just have to let our people do their jobs. We’ll run down whoever did this.”

  James wanted to scream. He wanted the scum who had attacked his wife brought to justice. He want to see them lined up and shot. The constitution didn’t spell out what fate awaited traitors to the Empire. Yet there were more than enough nations with a history of capital punishment. He and Christine would be perfectly within their legal rights to see that capital punishment was the appropriate response for such a cowardly attack. The anger stirring within him was pushing James to lash out at Russell and Johnston and order them to get the answers he wanted immediately; the rational part of his mind knew they were doing everything they could. Getting angry at them wasn’t going to accomplish anything. Full of frustration he turned to Fairfax. “There’s nothing more we can do here. You may arrange for me to do whatever you think needs done.” He turned back to Russell and Johnston. “I want to be kept abreast of every development. I want these bastards hunted down and brought to justice. There will be no excuses for failing to do this.”

  “We understand Emperor,” Russell answered for both of them.

  “Let’s go,” Fairfax said as he stood and placed a hand on James’ shoulder. Though he wanted to shake the other man’s hand away, James allowed Fairfax to lead him out of the office. Venting his frustration wasn’t going to quicken Christine’s healing or aid the search for the culprits. Yet knowing that and containing himself were two different things. James was sure that several years ago he would have been lashing out at everyone around him. Even if he wasn’t doing that now, the desire was still there.

  Chapter 6

  I have seen it many times, a marine or naval officer can fight on through the loss of just about anything; friends, comrades, spouses and homeworlds to name just a few. One thing that is not on that list are children. A parent should never outlive their child. Officer cadets should remember this when caring for those under their command.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.

  Imperial Palace, 16th November 2483 AD (four days later).

  Though he had two offices in the Imperial Palace and his own office on Drake, for the past three days James had set up shop in an auxiliary office barely big enough for a desk and chair. He had moved in as soon as Christine had returned to the Palace. Just a day after Christine had woken up from surgery, she had insisted on being moved there. Despite James’ protests, she had argued that the people of Earth needed to know she was okay. And being back home in the Palace at least nominally carrying out her duties was the best way to do that.

  News of the attempted assassination had broken just as James had held his first meeting with Russell and Johnston. Since then the news broadcasts had been running wild with theories and guesses as to what had happened. Some had suggested that both Christine and James were dead and others that the attack had failed completely. Even James’ public appearance hadn’t quelled the commotion. In the end Christine had won the argument about returning to the Palace by flicking between some of the news broadcasts and settling one of her smoldering gazes at James. It had been clear that no argument known to man would change her mind. So with more than ten heavily vetted news crews at the Palace’s entrance, Christine had been flown home and wheeled in for all the world to see.

  James had spent the last few days squashed into the side office adjacent to the Palace’s medical suite. He had spent what little time not at Christine’s side in the office trying to work through the mountain of work Fairfax kept sending his way. With Christine essentially consigned to bedrest, he had to cover both of their duties.

  A piercing cry made James set down his datapad. Stepping through the doorway into Christine’s suite, he smiled at the maid who was bending over Jonathan’s cot and waved her away. “Don’t worry, I’ll take him,” James insisted. The maid returned his smile, curtsied, and backed away. Taking her place, James reached down and picked up Jonathan as he let out another cry. Gently he rocked his baby ba
ck-and-forth as he turned to Christine. When he saw her eyes were open he smiled at her. “I think someone is a little hungry,” he said as he felt Jonathan’s jaw moving up and down on his chest. “I’m afraid I’m not qualified to handle this problem.”

  Christine’s right hand appeared from under her blankets and reached for Jonathan. “Bring him here then. I suppose this is one thing I can’t hand off to you.”

  “Thankfully not,” James said as his smile turned into a grin. “Besides, we can’t have you doing nothing. You’ll become downright lazy with all this time spent lying around.”

  Christine’s eyes narrowed as she unhooked her top and took Jonathan to give him a feed. “Given how much time you spend sulking around me, I’d be more worried that you are the one who is going to turn lazy. Have you even returned to our quarters or are you sleeping in that room as well?” James didn’t answer, he knew his silence would give him away in any case. “Exactly,” Christine continued, “so you can’t start accusing me. I’m sure you’d have got twice the amount of work done if you’d left my side for more than twenty minutes.”