by Mike Smith
“Very well. Then I have also calibrated this device to pick up the signal emitted by the tracker,” Jason concluded, continuing to support Miranda. Jason then whispered something softly to her that made her smile and place her head against his chest, wrapped firmly in his embrace.
Jon was secretly pleased, but did not let it show. It looked as if there was hope for the boy after all and he did not spend all his life with his head glued to his computer. “I’ll meet you in the hangar bay,” Jon exclaimed in farewell, referring to the datapad in his hand. He set off, following the moving dot on the display, which he knew to be Sejanus’ location.
As the Commander turned a corner, disappearing out of sight, Gunny mouthed to Jason, “Family?” Jason only shrugged his shoulders, not understanding the comment either.
At this movement, Miranda looked up and exclaimed, “Where is Jon?”
“He’s gone to get Marcus, he will meet us there,” Jason explained reassuringly.
“By himself?” Miranda exclaimed in disbelief.
“I wouldn’t worry about the Commander,” Gunny replied softly. “The last time that I saw that expression on his face was after he massacred a ship of slavers, when he found out they had raped a little girl. The only reason for sending somebody with him would be to try and restrain him–some hope of that. Let’s move it people. You heard the Commander, we have a ship to secure.”
*****
The explosion shook the complex so violently that were it not for Sejanus’ tight hold on Sofia’s arm, she would have gone sprawling on the floor. The entire group froze, but after a while it became apparent there weren’t going to be any further detonations, so Sejanus turned to the guards, snapping, “Find out what the hell that was.”
The guards turned to glance at Sofia doubtfully.
“I can handle one brash girl and an old man. Now find out what is going on and report back to me immediately.”
With a quick salute, the guards hurried off down a side corridor, in the direction of the sound of the explosion.
“Problems?” Sofia smiled, immediately picking up on the sudden tension in the group.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” Sejanus hissed back at her. Grabbing a fistful of her hair and yanking on it sharply. “Now move. After all I promised you your first wedding present and we do not want to keep the old man waiting.”
Old man? Miranda wondered, unsure whom Sejanus was referring to. However, she was soon to find out as they came to another door.
Sejanus looked around surprised, as if he was expecting somebody else to be present, then shrugging his shoulders, pressed his hand against the doorplate. The door slid open and Sejanus pushed Sofia into the well-furnished apartment. Stumbling on the thick carpet, she fell to the floor on her hands and knees.
Looking up slowly, she noticed a pair of legs dangling in front of her. Following them with her eyes, she observed they were encased in pair of comfortable slacks, the owner perched on the edge of a wide sofa. Her eyes followed the body up along a broad torso, to an angular but pale face, before coming to rest on a pair of emerald green eyes, wide-open in astonishment.
His eyes are exactly the same shade of green as mine, Sofia thought in astonishment, before blinking, finally bringing into focus the face of the person whose eyes she was staring into.
“Father?” She asked timidly, as if afraid that if she voiced the thought out loud, the mirage would waver before her, then disappear and be gone forever.
“Sofia?” Her father replied stunned. “But what are you doing here?” However, whatever else he was going to say next was forgotten, as his daughter threw herself into his arms.
Suddenly it seemed to Sofia as if no time had passed at all and her father was holding her safely in his arms, just as he used to do when she was a child. She could not believe it and hugged him tighter, as if to reassure herself he was real, because for so long she had assumed him to be dead. She could still clearly remember the moment on the Eternal Light Harkov had so solemnly informed her of his death. At that moment her world had come crashing down around her, as ever since her mother died her father had been her bedrock, the cornerstone of her very existence. If Jon had not been there at her side, to catch her, both physically and figuratively… The thought of Jon brought further tears to her eyes. All she wanted to do was hold her father tightly and tell him all her fears and worries, just like she used to do as a child.
With a strong jerk of her hair Sejanus pulled her away from him. “Family reunions, aren’t they so touching?” Sejanus said sarcastically. “Kneel,” he ordered when once again Sofia moved towards her father. Angrily, he pulled her away again and when it became obvious she was not going to remain still, he unsheathed his sword, putting it inches in front of her neck. “Kneel!” He ordered again, pushing her to her knees a few feet away from her father. “That's much better,” he chortled. “A dutiful daughter kneeling before her father.”
“Sofia,” her father said, finally finding his voice. “But what are you doing here? You should be safely on Eden Prime protected by the Commander. Where is he?” Marcus asked, confused.
“He left me!” Sofia cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. “He didn’t want me, all he wanted was an Imperial Princess, not me. Not Sofia. He found what he was looking for in the arms of another woman.”
Marcus could only stare at his daughter in shock, in disbelief, unable to believe what he was hearing. Surprise and shock all competing for his attention. Marcus wondered how he could have been so wrong. Not once, but twice. His eyes turned to Sejanus. After Sejanus he had been so careful, he couldn’t believe he had misjudged the Commander so badly.
He had been so sure.
The look of love on the Commander’s face as his eyes had lingered on Sophia, astonished life had been gracious enough to offer him such a priceless gift. For Marcus had immediately recognised that expression. It was the same way he had looked at his wife, during the short time they were together. Wondering what he did right in an earlier life to be so blessed in this one. Marcus was speechless, and several times he tried to open his mouth to say something, but the words would just not come out.
In the end it was Sejanus who recovered first and with an equally astonished look on his face, started to laugh. “Oh this is perfect, the great Praetorian Commander. The defender of the weak, poor, downtrodden and helpless. Abandoning his charge, his sworn duty to defend and protect and for what? Another woman. So much for your replacement Marcus. Anyhow as much as I would like to reminisce further, time waits for no-man and I have a destiny to fulfil. So this is what is going to happen next. As promised, Sofia is going to marry me immediately.”
“Never!” Marcus interrupted, his voice barely concealing the anger in it.
Sejanus however just whipped his sword around and held it hovering just a few inches from Marcus’ throat. “Take care with your words, old man,” he warned. “Otherwise you might not live to see your daughter much longer.”
“I’ll do it,” Sofia said in a quiet whisper. “Anything, but please, just don’t hurt him.”
“Observe your obedient daughter Marcus. You should take note of what she says. Now for the next step, once married you are to make a public announcement, endorsing our marriage and at the same time stating you will step down due to ill health and that all your power will transfer to me.”
Marcus just sneered. “Never! You have already tortured me before and I would not yield. Nothing you can do to me would make me submit.”
“I was hoping that you would say that,” Sejanus replied with sheer delight. “I promise you I will enjoy this far more than you,” he said. Turning once more to Sofia, he walked around her, running his hand through her hair and across her cheek until he stood directly behind her. “I’ve been dreaming about this for years, ever since Gideon interrupted our last little session. Once I am finished and, as I said to your precious Commander, I am not a selfish man, I’m happy to share her. In fact, I have promised your daughter to ma
ny of my employees and I will enjoy watching each of them taking their turn, as you watch them. I wonder how many it will take before you break, as I am so curious to find out.”
With that he brutally pulled off the blouse Sofia wore, leaving her naked from the waist up. Marcus shot out of his seat, as if electrocuted, moving towards his daughter.
“Sit!” Sejanus screamed, spittle flying everywhere. “Sit or I will slit her throat while you watch.” Marcus froze mid-stride, staring in complete disbelief at the scene in front of him.
“I’ll do whatever you say,” Marcus confessed, lowing his head in defeat. “Anything that you ask for I will gladly give to you, just please don’t hurt her.”
Sejanus only leaned his head back and roared with laughter. “Oh Marcus, how long I have yearned to hear those words. However, this is my prize and my reward. I will take my dear wife-to-be anyway I want her and right now I want her begging on her hands and knees before me with you watching. For I want you to finally understand how powerless you really are and I want you to feel it. Just how I felt when Gideon cast me out, taking everything from me that I was promised. Everything I deserved.”
Sofia finally looked up into her father’s frightened eyes and asked the question she needed to know, but had always been too frightened to ask. “What is he talking about father? What prize? What reward?” The question seemed to hang in the air, taking on a life of its own, sucking the air from all around it, until everything seemed to be consumed in the room.
Even Sejanus froze with shock. Finally looking Marcus in the eye in disbelief, he said, “You never told her?” He further uttered in delight, “She doesn’t know, does she?”
Marcus just averted his eyes, unable to look his beloved daughter in the eye, unable to let her see the truth of his deceit.
“Tell her,” Sejanus insisted. “I want her to know the truth before I take her and I want her to realise the full extent of your deception as it will make her pain so much sweeter. Tell her Marcus, from the lips of her own father, how you offered her to me. Tell her!” He screamed.
Marcus finally turned back to his daughter, the shame and self-loathing clearly visible in his expression. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, so quietly Sofia strained to hear the words. “I thought what I was doing was the best for you and I worried about your future. I wanted somebody to look after you and to protect you, after I was gone.”
“What did you do father?” Sofia pleaded, the fear and horror slowly creeping into her voice, as she guessed what he was going to say, but praying it was not so.
“I promised you to Sejanus, to become his wife, as he was to be my chosen successor.”
Sofia just dropped her head in despair. Unable to believe the words coming from her father, but in her heart knowing them to be true. “He tried to rape me,” she uttered. “He would have succeeded had Gideon not saved me and instead you offered me to him? To this monster,” Sofia screamed.
If Marcus could have been more surprised, it did not seem possible, for he fell back as if punched, his face a deathly shade of white, trembling. “I didn’t know,” he said, shaking. “Gideon never said anything. He just told me Sejanus was not suitable and he would be removed from the Praetorian Guard. I didn’t know…” he trailed off in despair.
“And what of this replacement that he,” Sofia practically spat the word, “refers to. You mean Jon don’t you? He was meant to be the replacement for Sejanus, for me.” Sofia’s eyes suddenly widened in understanding. All those years thinking Jon had betrayed her when instead this hadn’t been the case!
“Please don’t tell me that you made the same offer to him? Please by the Maker say it’s not so.” Sofia, still on her knees, begged her father. “That you offered me to him as some sort of consolation prize, a reward for becoming your successor. Please father, tell me you didn’t do this?”
For Sejanus was sick and twisted, having spent the past decade consumed by the promise of the future her father offered him, but not Jon. Jon, he would have viewed such an offer far differently, if she was offered to him as a reward, part of some sort of twisted prize from her father upon agreeing to become his chosen successor. No, Jon would have been horrified by such an offer and he would never have agreed to it. Never!
Suddenly Sofia’s mind flashed back to the scene in her apartment years before when Jon asked her if her father had ever asked about them being together. She remembered her off-the-cuff remark about her father having loved him as a son. He had known, or at least suspected. She realised she had not imagined the flash of despair in his eyes at her response, at the time thinking it a strange reaction, but now she finally knew. After all those years, the answer to the question of why Jon had betrayed her was because he never really had. Instead her father had betrayed him, betrayed them both, in the worst possible way.
Sofia just cried for the past that had been taken from her and the future, for the family that was so cruelly denied to her. Mostly she cried for Jon. Alone with a secret he could never share with her. For it would destroy all she had left of her father, her memory of him.
“You are nobody’s prize Sofia,” a voice rang out clearly across the room.
“Not a gift to be handed out. Not to him,” the owner of the voice spoke towards Sejanus, “and most certainly not to me. You are your own person, a beautiful, warm, loving, caring person and you deserve better than that.”
Sofia, Marcus and Sejanus all turned to stare, open-mouthed at the sound of the voice coming from the direction of the door to the apartment. So involved were the three of them, that none had heard the door quietly open moments before.
“Jon!” Sofia gasped, her heart leaping into her throat, not able to believe what her eyes were seeing.
At the sound of her voice, Jon turned to face her, his eyes softening. It had been so long since he had last seen her or heard her voice that he could feel himself being physically drawn towards her. Taking a step forward he cast his gaze carefully over her, inspecting every inch of her, as if needing reassurance that she was safe and unharmed.
Sofia could feel his gaze roaming over her, being almost a living thing. Stopping at each scratch, each discoloration, pausing, as if to reassure himself she was unhurt. She knew she should have been embarrassed at the state of her undress, but all she could feel was the heat of his gaze. Bathing in its warmth, it felt like the first time she had been warm in many, many years. For she knew now Jon was here everything would be fine. Sofia was amazed at how her feelings had turned from absolute despair to complete euphoria in such a short period of time. It had always been like that with him, as she always felt completely safe when he was around. Secure in the knowledge there was nothing he couldn’t handle and he would never, ever let anybody hurt her.
Once he appeared to have completed his inspection and satisfied himself that she was unharmed, he turned his gaze back to Sejanus. Any warmth or softness swiftly vanished from his eyes, leaving nothing but a cold grey darkness, the same colour as a winter’s storm, unforgiving, relentless and just as deadly.
“I warned you Sejanus,” he whispered in a quiet tone of voice, which seemed to carry easily across the room. “I warned you of the grave consequences of your actions. I gave you a chance and a choice, which was more than you offered the girl whose life you so delighted in taking. I gave you the chance to walk away, but you didn’t take it.”
From a great distance away a rumbling noise could be heard, as if a freight train was approaching. The noise grew constantly louder and the shaking got steadily worse.
However, Jon ignored everything else, never once taking his gaze off Sejanus. “I told you what would happen,” he said in an increasingly loud voice, to be heard above the deafening noise. “I told you that I would crack open the gates of hell, and unleash their forces upon you. I would take apart this complex and, if necessary, I would pull this planet apart, rock-by-rock.”
By this time the roaring had reached a crescendo, the building shaking so hard, reaching such an
intensity the others were thrown to the floor, unable to remain on their feet. As if the hand of the Maker had reached down and picked up the building and was shaking it furiously, much like an irate child would shake a toy.
“But most of all,” Jon continued in a deadly tone of voice and by some miraculous ability, he was able to remain standing. “I told you that by following through with this course of action you would forfeit your life.” With those final words he reached for the sword at his side, releasing it from its sheath.
As if stilled by this very action, the sound suddenly ceased and the shaking stopped, leaving three frightened individuals on the floor staring up at the Commander. Obviously the shaking had damaged the building’s power supply as the main lights had long since extinguished, leaving only minimal illumination from the emergency lights, which cast long shadows in the gloom. With his white uniform and sword glistening with a pale blue light, Jon looked like an avenging angel sent from the heavens to distribute divine justice.
The sudden silence in the room was abruptly broken by a terrified voice announcing over the building’s emergency broadcast system. “Enemy ship detected in orbit, we’re under attack!”
The Sunfire had arrived, right on schedule.
Chapter Fourteen
The Sunfire, outskirts of the Sigma Draconis System
Captain Paul Harrington slowly made his way towards the bridge of the mighty warship, taking his time to talk to any of the crew he met on the way, answering questions, giving reassurances as and when necessary. He knew they had plenty of time, as they were not scheduled to depart for at least another half-an-hour.
Good Captains lead. Great Captains inspire.
Paul wondered momentarily where he had once read those words, dismissing the thought after a few moments as he needed to stay focused.
Upon hearing a whispered conversation down the corridor, Paul stopped suddenly and looked in that direction, only to find another empty corridor. It had been like that ever since he had stepped aboard this ship. Whispered conversations that seemed to drift through the air, but with nobody in sight. Cold breezes, blowing at random intervals, as if a chilled wind had suddenly picked up. Paul was not a superstitious man, he had seen too much in life. He had learned to trust what he could see and touch, but it was times like this he cursed David and Jon for broaching the subject in the first place. If he was completely honest, he would admit this ship frightened him a little, as it seemed to have a life of its own. A presence. Shaking such thoughts from his head he stepped into the lift that took him to the bridge.