by Mike Smith
As she said this, Sofia started to transmit her own set of personal codes to the almighty warship. For a moment nothing seemed to happen then, as if a switch had been thrown, one-by-one the lights on the ship vanished, the powerful engines flickered and then died. The ship that had previously been maintaining close formation with the other warships, started to drift away, powerless, helpless.
The effect on the bridge was even starker, as the lights suddenly vanished, the flight controls, one-by-one shutting down. The life support systems falling silent. Within the space of a few short moments, that once bustling command deck had fallen silent, the only source of illumination coming from the emergency lights.
“I warned you Alexeyev,” Sofia hissed. “I told you that you serve me and you didn’t listen.” Sofia left the threat unspoken. “We will be docking shortly. I expect you to be waiting for me, ready to bow down before me and accept my authority. No need for docking approval, I’ve already granted it,” she snapped before closing the communication channel leaving a stunned Admiral in her wake.
As if the ship had been waiting for permission from its master, the portside docking bay suddenly lit-up, the flight deck hanger doors opening at their own will.
“Commander, you may proceed to dock,” Sofia ordered calmly. When no response was forthcoming Sofia turned to look at Jon. He was just staring at her, mouth agape.
“What the hell just happened?” He asked in astonishment, looking at the flagship adrift in front of the shuttle.
“Why Commander,” Sofia replied demurely. “You didn’t think my family was ever going to be locked-out from one of its own ships did you? You can proceed with the docking.”
*****
Jon insisted on being the first to disembark from the shuttle, worried that they would be faced with a volley of gunfire instead of the usual welcoming committee, considering their less than usual arrival. However, he was relieved to see that instead of a security team, Alexeyev, with the Captain and his senior officers lined up behind him, awaited their arrival. Once he was sure that there was no risk, Jon offered his arm to Sofia who exited the shuttle, her face calm and composed. However, Jon knew it all to be an act as he could feel her hand trembling.
Once they had reached the bottom of the ramp, Alexeyev took a step forward. The Admiral had lost a good deal of his earlier self-confidence and his face was pale, but he still looked Sofia angrily in the eye, then Jon.
“Princess,” he said in greeting, with little warmth.
“Commander,” Sofia queried, turning to Jon questioningly. “What is the proper form of respect for a Fleet Admiral upon greeting a member of the Imperial family?”
“A bow, while on one knee, my Lady.”
“I thought so,” Sofia said. “Can you please assist the Admiral in demonstrating the proper form of respect please?”
“Certainly my Lady,” Jon replied, releasing her arm. Within the blink of an eye he had his sword in his hand, it pointing unwaveringly, inches from Alexeyev’s throat. “On your knees Admiral,” Jon growled.
Alexeyev cast a quick glance to his side, but the Captain and Senior Officers were all averting their eyes, none supporting the Admiral in his act of defiance. Hesitantly at first, especially with the deathly sharp blade hovering in front of him, Alexeyev carefully lowered himself to one knee, bowing. “My sincere apologies, my lady,” Alexeyev copied Jon’s respectful mode of address, although not sounding apologetic in the slightest.
“Much better,” Sofia murmured, gliding right past the Admiral, not even giving him another glance, and coming to a stop in front of the Captain and his senior staff. “Captain?” Sofia left the question hanging in the air.
With a quick glance at the blade still hovering inches from the Admiral, the Captain quickly fell to one knee, bowing his head respectfully. “Jefferson, ma’am,” he replied, his eyes still downcast. He was astonished to feel Sofia’s hand rest lightly on his shoulder.
“Please stand Captain, I would be delighted if you could spare the time to give me a tour of your magnificent ship?”
Taken aback by the warm tone of voice, the Captain stood, uncertainly. “Of course, ma’am,” he said.
“Please call me Sofia,” she replied with a warm smile, offering the Captain her hand, which he responded to automatically by offering an arm in return.
“My senior officers, ma’am? Sofia?” he added, almost choking on her name.
“Well they are of course welcome to join us, unless they have more pressing business? I do not want to interrupt the routine of your ship, any more than I already have,” she replied sweetly. “Shall we begin?”
With a sharp nod of his head, the Captain dismissed his senior officers, and escorted Sofia towards the exit.
As they neared the door, Sofia paused a moment turning her head back towards Jon, who still remained on the flight deck, hovering over the prostrated form of the Admiral. “Commander, do you want to join us?”
“Please go ahead, my Lady. The Admiral and I have some unfinished business to discuss first. I’ll join you later.”
“Very well,” she replied, gliding from the room, with Jefferson still beside her, leaving the flight deck empty except for the Commander and the Admiral.
Jon waited until the doors had firmly closed and that they were alone, before he turned his cold stare back upon the Admiral, still on his knees. Secretly Jon was impressed with the way in which Sofia had handled the situation. Many times before had he stood at the side of her father, the Emperor, as he had berated an officer. He had shouted at them, sworn at them, even threatened them, but never once had he simply ignored them. Jon felt that it was highly effective and surprised that the Emperor had never thought of it before.
“I expect that you are very angry right now,” Jon mused aloud for the sake of the Admiral. “Probably even furious, imagining all the ways that you could take your revenge for this humiliation.” Jon’s blade flashed up, touching the Admiral just under the chin, forcing him to lift his head and look him in the eye. “So you can give up any and all of those ideas, right now. For the Princess is protected, by me. Any scheme or idea that you come up with, you will need to get past me first, and that won’t happen. But an even better reason to abandon any ideas you might have, right here, right now, is that if I suspect, I even think that you are plotting against her, I’ll kill you. Without giving it a second thought.”
Alexeyev looked Jon in the eye and sneered, “Then why is Harkov still alive? Perhaps you are not as infallible as you thought?”
“Harkov is still alive because the Emperor ordered it. If I had my way, Harkov would have been dead and buried many years ago. Unlike the Emperor I don’t make a habit of leaving live enemies behind me. Anyway, I am busy at the moment, but Harkov has not escaped my attention. I’ll very soon get around to dealing with him. However, I am happy to let him live, for a little while longer. As I know with absolute certainty that he is terrified of ever closing his eyes, as he knows that one day he will open them and I will be there and it will be the last thing that he ever sees. So Admiral you have a decision to make now, do you want to live, or die?”
“The other fleet Admirals will never follow her,” he hissed.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Jon replied. “But perhaps she will surprise them too, the same way as she has surprised you. For there is an inner strength in her we have all underestimated. She is her father’s daughter, the latest in a long line of rulers. Anyway it matters little to me as either they’ll follow her or I’ll replace them with somebody who will. So what’s the decision, Admiral?” Jon demanded.
Alexeyev looked into Jon’s steely eyes, which were hard, cold and unforgiving. He well recognised the truth of his words. He could either choose to live or die this day.
Not unsurprisingly he chose to live.
*****
Several hours later, after Jon had re-joined Sofia and the Captain on the remaining tour of the ship, they were finally ready to depart.
“Th
ank you for your hospitality, Captain,” Sofia said. “You have a fine ship and crew, you should be proud of them.”
Jon was amused to note the slight flush that appeared on the Captain’s face at Sofia’s high praise. It looked like the Captain was half in awe and half in love with the young woman already. Jon did not mind, as he was secure in Sofia’s affections and as long as the Captain remained only in awe…
“Admiral Alexeyev is not going to be present for our departure?” She asked in surprise.
“He had an upset stomach, he gives his apologies my Lady,” Jon was quick to inject. Actually Jon had no idea where the Admiral was, suggesting to him that he make himself scarce for the rest of the visit. Hopefully he was currently in his own quarters, contemplating his future and own mortality.
“Very well,” Sofia said. “Bill, in that case will you please pass on my instructions to the Admiral?” She addressed the question to the Captain.
“Of course, Sofia,” Jefferson replied, with another small pink spot appearing on his cheeks.
It took a lot of will power on Jon’s behalf not to roll his eyes in disbelief. They had only known each other for a couple of hours and were already on first name terms?
“Sofia,” Jefferson requested embarrassedly. “Could you please return control of my ship?”
“Of course,” she replied, wide-eyed as if the very thought had never crossed her mind. For the ship’s internal systems had returned to normal soon after they had docked, but the external flight controls, including engines, weapons and sensors had stubbornly remained locked out to the crew. “I’ll do that as soon as we depart, except for your weapon systems, of course. They will remain locked out for several more hours after our departure. However, I am sure this will not be a problem, after all you don’t have anything you need to shoot at.”
She concluded the visit with her own parting shot.
*****
Several hours after departing from the Invincible, Jon was still at the flight controls of the Eternal Light. He was exhausted from the events of the day. Having long since unbuttoned the neck of his tight uniform and, with his sword resting beside him on the co-pilot seat, he was reflecting on the events of the day. All-in-all Jon thought it had gone better than expected, although he was still astonished at the sight of Sofia so effortlessly bringing a battleship to its knees. He was reminded of one of his sister’s old fairy tales about a princess who had befriended a dragon. How the massive and mighty dragon had bowed down before the diminutive princess. Jon thought his long dead sister would have appreciated the comparison.
He had questioned Sofia closely about the event soon after their departure and Sofia had confessed her father had given her the master command codes for all Imperial Navy ships. Jon had long since given up wondering how it seemed she could sneak around the Imperial Star with impunity, suddenly rematerializing elsewhere without a trace; no wonder.
With the shuttle on autopilot and still several hours from their next rendezvous with the fleet, Jon leaned back in the pilot seat, fully planning on getting some rest before their next encounter. However, no sooner had he closed his eyes than Sofia’s voice blared out of the ship’s intercom, the device doing nothing to hide her frustration.
“Commander, I need your assistance. Immediately,” Sofia ordered.
Stretching his tired muscles, Jon slowly got to his feet, wondering what the problem was this time. Sofia had certainly found her inner authority and was making full use of it. Jon had lost count of the number of times, since their departure, he had been ordered to check on something, retrieve this or deliver that. What was more, Jon was almost certain Sofia was doing it just to antagonise him for some reason. Probably her way of reminding him of her new found status and power.
Eventually Jon found Sofia standing in the middle of one of the master cabins, a look of complete and utter frustration on her face. “You called m’Lady?” Jon asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Help me out of this thing will you?” She insisted. “I cannot reach the clasp.”
Rolling his eyes, as a Commander’s job was never done, he approached her, once again admiring how the robes clung to her figure. Reaching to the back of her neck, he helped her unfasten the clasp.
With a simple shrug of her shoulders, the robe slid to the floor. Jon could only gape at the endless expanse of back suddenly revealed. He had spent a considerable time wondering what Sofia was wearing underneath the robes, the answer had suddenly become clear. As aside from a pair of lace white panties, she was completely nude.
“Enjoying the view Commander?” Sofia asked, glancing over her shoulder, eyes twinkling, a hint of breathlessness in her voice. “Anyway I thought that the proper form of greeting to a member of the Imperial family, was on your knees?” She suggested, sweetly.
Jon thought that was an excellent idea, as his legs currently felt that they had turned to jelly. He thankfully sank down to one knee, which gave him an even more fantastic view of the endless flesh on display in front of him. Sofia was not the only one that was breathing raggedly.
Once Jon was finally on his knees, Sofia turned to face him. Gently running a finger down his cheek, she inquired. “As the Empress, I believe you need to follow my every order, to the letter, is that not correct?”
At this point Jon was having trouble speaking as his mouth had gone completely dry, so instead he gave a small nod in reply.
“Then I am ordering you to kiss me, Commander,” she breathed, eyes sparking in anticipation.
With eyes now almost black with desire, Jon did not need to be given the order twice. In one swift movement he rushed to his feet. Lifting Sofia into his arms and fusing his mouth to hers, he carried her to the bed, never once letting go.
Chapter Eight
Present Day,
The Sunfire, Outskirts Beta Hydri System
The small fleet of shuttles dropped into ‘normal’ space almost simultaneously, maintaining a tight formation heading towards the second planet of the system.
“We should shortly be approaching the coordinates that you supplied,” Miranda broke the silence. Over the past hour the tension in the cockpit had intensified to a level where you could cut it with a knife. “Still nothing on sensors,” she added.
“She’s out there, I can feel it,” Jon added, staring out of the cockpit window intently.
Paul, the third and final occupant in the cramped cockpit of the shuttle exchanged a worried glance with Miranda. It had not been the first on the journey, for while Jon had always been a man of few words, since departing Terra Nova he had said almost nothing at all, beyond reassuring the two of them the massive warship would still be there, and safe to board.
“Jon,” Miranda said hesitantly. “Is everything alright?”
“Sure, what makes you think otherwise?” Came back the nonchalant reply.
“Well it’s just if you squeeze that flight control any harder you are likely to break it,” she quipped, motioning towards his hand, which was white with strain.
Jon blinked, glancing down at this hand and, with a conscious effort, released his hands from the controls, flexing them to regain the circulation. “Fine,” he confessed. “So maybe I’m just a little edgy.”
“Something you want to share with us?” Paul inquired, giving him a worried look out of the corner of his eye.
Sighing deeply, Jon tried to put his feelings into words. “If you must know, I didn’t think I would ever come back here. I spent six months of my life on that ship, I was close to the crew. I’m not looking forward to going back. Too many memories.”
Biting back the sudden pang of jealousy Miranda felt upon hearing his explanation, she added, a bit more sharply than she intended, “I thought fraternising with the crew was prohibited in both the Imperial and Confederation Navies?”
Jon looked at her, shocked, before laughing. “I wasn’t talking about fraternising with them, it’s just—” Jon sighed. “Many of them were very young and straight out of t
he academy. For some of the crew this was their first tour of duty, they looked to me for direction and for me to keep them safe.”
Paul patted Jon on the shoulder reassuringly. “They knew the risks when they signed on. I’m sure that you did everything that you could.”
“But it wasn’t enough, was it?”
“We’ve arrived at your coordinates,” Miranda interrupted sharply, swiftly changing topic. “Still nothing on sensors.”
“She’s there, waiting,” Jon replied distantly, once again zoning out. Miranda and Paul exchanged worried glances. Moving closer to the flight controls, Jon started to broadcast the necessary command codes to reactivate the long dormant systems on the ship.
Miranda stared ahead at a solitary star, which she was sure was not there moments ago. Blinking, trying to focus, for it seemed that a shadow had detached itself from the greater depths of space. It only finally dawned on her, when a second star appeared, that they were not stars at all, but navigation lights. Slowly, but with quickening pace more and more appeared, further highlighting the massive superstructure of the ship. Miranda was in awe at the size of it, never before had she been so close to such a massive ship. “By the Maker,” she murmured aloud.
“I told you so,” Jon reassured the other two. “I told you she would be here, waiting for us, just sleeping. Ready to awaken in the time of need,” Jon breathed, speaking out loud to himself. This time Miranda and Paul’s worried expressions were interrupted by the chime of the shuttle’s communication system.
“Jon, Neil here,” the Doctor interrupted them. “I have completed scans of the outer hull and radiation levels seem to be within safe levels, however we need to scan inside to ensure that no residual radiation remains.”
The Doctor’s voice roused Jon, who had been lost in the past. It reminded him of another task that was still required and this one being particularly unpleasant. Tapping the communication controls he broadcast the message to their fleet of shuttles. “All ships are to hold this position at a minimum safe distance. I will take a security team on board to escort the doctor and his medical team while they conduct final scans. We will signal when it is safe to commence docking operations. Neil, Gunny, David—follow us in, we will use the upper flight deck.”