by Alex Guerra
“What guarantee do you have that the empire would even bother listening to our demands after capturing the princess?” I asked.
“There are none. As of right now, we are hoping that the princess would be an asset the empire would not be willing to throw away so easily. Prince Ibram has two children with Princess Ellia and they’ve been married for the last six years. We’re hoping that the prince actually does care for her, or at least cares enough for the sake of his children,” said Councilor Kol.
“We understand how this may be difficult. We did not tell you sooner for the sake of keeping the intelligence centralized until you got here. I am sorry we are asking so much of you at this time,” Onna said, placing a hand gently on Seya’s shoulder.
“No, it’s alright. I know this is the correct course of action, and I will do my part. I turned my back on my family and empire many years ago. This changes nothing. I assume you have already devised a plan as to how we go about capturing the princess?” Seya asked.
“We have. Princess Ellia is scheduled to arrive in the Vallus system in two days’ time. Our own undercover agents will be piloting the receiving vessel. Once the empire unknowingly hands over the princess and along with the diversion at the outpost, we will begin our assault in the city. We hope to secure the princess while we cripple the empire’s infrastructure in Nadune. It will throw them into a panic,” explained Jan Kol.
“One condition,” replied Seya, “I request that my partner and I be on the receiving ship with the princess. I realize my role here is as a negotiator, but you should consider my presence on that ship as insurance.”
“Insurance for what, exactly?” asked one of the councilors.
“That the empire doesn’t have a fair-weather relationship with a figurehead. I can guarantee that that so long as the princess and I are together, no harm will come to her because they won’t kill me—not while they still have the chance of making a public spectacle out of my death first anyway. I doubt they will try to tie the two of our deaths together as it would lose its potency,” she explained.
Jan Kol gave Seya’s plan some thought. “What does the council say? Do we place Seya and her companion aboard the vessel then?” she asked, looking around the table at the four other councilors. It was unanimous. “Very well Seya, Arthur. We will get you on that ship, but do not take any unnecessary risks,” the Codari elder jabbed a skinny finger at the two of us.
“Our resupply will be arriving tomorrow from Gwei-yon. This will mark the final part of preparation. I suggest you make any final arrangements before we begin. May you both feel free to return to your quarters or look around the base in the meantime,” Councilor Kol said, concluding the meeting.
THIRTEEN
We returned to the quarters assigned to guests in the eastern wing of the main building. The room was luxuriously huge, painted entirely white with freshly cut bouquets arranged around them. Used as another tool to persuade important investors and ambassadors into helping the conglomerate, I could see why they lavishly decorated them. A luxury such as a temporary living space was a small price to pay for the potential backing gained.
I placed my helmet and armor neatly onto a shelf lining the wall. It felt good to get out of my armor after having spent the last ten hours in it. I tied the arms of the bodyglove loosely around my waist, letting my bare upper body breathe as I walked around my room. I felt the gelatinous carpeting materials against the soles of my feet through the thin material of the bodyglove. There were no windows in the entire suite, which I realized was probably the reason why there were so many decorations and flower arrangements present.
Not wanting to go right to bed—despite it being the most comfortable one I had ever felt in my life—I investigated the quarters some more. The suite was actually larger than the first floor of my own home. There were several bedrooms, bathrooms, and a living room with the absence of a kitchen, as our host was providing our food needs, although it hadn’t been very tasty. Lucky for us, we brought some of our own provisions. Seya had claimed her room on the opposite side of the suite, leaving a few empty rooms between us for privacy.
I relied on Dotty warning me if anything was potentially harmful before I did anything. The water in the shower wouldn’t burn my skin off or even irritate it, and the materials in the bedding were hypoallergenic in nature. It was the perfect habitat for a human or humanoid being with similar physical attributes. There were, however, many things that could be difficult to navigate without wearing a suit, such as the planet’s surface. Nonetheless, I was grateful that I didn’t have to spend the entirety of this trip suited up. Considering the bizarre and alien nature of this operation, that was nearly a miracle in itself.
Also, seemingly miraculous, was that humans and Darkkon were so similar. Even the Codari here had a rather human look to them besides some physical traits. Perhaps this galaxy or even the universe naturally geared towards having humanoid attributes as the most common result for physical appearances in intelligent lifeforms. Plenty of creatures so far had very alien physiques, but it did not appear as often among the conglomerate forces in the two bases I had visited so far.
On the other hand, the galaxy was full of horrors as well. I briefly thought about the Okidna—the large spider-like people on Tudok—and a chill ran down my spine. I pushed the thought aside and slipped into the more casual attire I had Dotty fabricate me for hanging around the ship or training.
I peered into the living room where I found Seya scanning through her dataslate. I was about to speak up when I decided to give her some space. It felt better to give her some time to think things over in private for now. Returning to my room, I put on my boots and left the suite for a walk.
While I made my way through the hallways, I thought about the meeting we had with the Council. Seya surprised me when she offered to put herself in the middle of the conflict to ensure the conglomerate’s success. She was true to her convictions.
I had no problem going along with someone like that. This was what the A.I. tasked me with after all. I found myself wondering what would happen if I were to refuse. Would Dotty influence my body into action again like on Earth, or was I actually an independent consciousness?
That would depend on the significance of the action, or lack thereof, at the time.
So, you may take over my body, is what you are saying, I thought back.
There is a good possibility. I will allow you to make the initial decision.
I had a good laugh at that one. Great, the illusion of choice is better than having none, right? Gee, thanks! I scoffed.
“Oof!”
I turned a corner taking out a trooper, who stumbled back a few feet.
“I’m so sorry. I didn't see you!” I apologized, reaching after them.
“I-It’s okay. It was an accident,” the trooper winced, looking up at me and I realized it was Commander Kol.
“Captain Holland! I was just going to check in on you, is everything okay?” she asked, fumbling with a package tucked under her arm.
“Commander Kol, I didn’t expect to see you here. You said you were coming to check on me?” I asked, noticing she was still wearing the same combat gear as earlier today.
“Yes, well, I was just wanting to bring you and Seya something to eat. I wasn’t sure if anyone offered you anything after your meeting. The council can be very to-the-point and forget hospitality at times,” the commander recalled.
“Ah, well, there was some food at the meeting, but if I didn’t know better, I’d say it was spiced up rations,” I admitted.
“Rations? That’s typical,” she sighed. “I suppose luxuries are hard to come by, but they’ve never been great hosts. That’s usually left to someone like me to fill in.” She eyed me briefly. “You’re out and about late, Captain. Not one to stay in one place long?” she asked.
“I wanted to stretch my legs a bit and give Seya some time alone. Some interesting details popped up during the meeting and I think she’ll need her s
pace for a while. You can call me Art, by the way. I’m only a captain in the sense I have a ship of my own, well, two, actually,” I added, remembering The Pillar, “but I’m not military.”
“Two ships? And a cloaking device? Let me guess, just lucky, Art?” she joked.
“Actually, that’s exactly right” I mused, scratching the dark brown stubble on my chin.
“You really need to do some high stakes gambling, because that’s incredible,” she beamed with excitement. “You mentioned that Seya needed some time alone? Well, perhaps you could give her one of these food packs when you go back?” she asked, gesturing to the container under her arm.
I looked at the package for a moment. “Tell you what, Commander, I’ll save those for later. What I could use right now is a drink. You know a place?” I asked.
“A drink, huh? Now you’re speaking my language. Yeah, I know a place we can go, follow me,” she beckoned with a quick nod. “Oh, feel free to call me Kayton.”
We made our way towards a parking garage and climbed into one of the rover-like vehicles from earlier. I hadn’t given it much of a look before because we were rushing, but the vehicle had an aggressive appearance, with large off-road tires—no doubt a necessity on this jungle planet. It had an olive drab and brown color to it, good for camouflage. It could seat five in the cabin, up to three or four in the bed and judging by the thickness of the door when I entered, the vehicle was heavily armored. I could only imagine what kind of punishment it could take.
A large, menacing turret sat idle and pointed towards the sky in the rear truck bed. When the weapon activated, it slid up and over the roof, targeting enemies automatically with a tracker. It would fire by a crew member after verifying the enemy, or they were able to manually aim the weapon when needed from the safety of the cabin.
Kayton climbed into the driver’s seat and engaged the engine, which growled with a low pitched idle. She placed her hands on the controls—two controls sticks on either side of her seat with the absence of a steering wheel. A holo-display lit up before her, reading the status of the vehicle’s systems. The dual control sticks permitted the vehicle to move in an omnidirectional way, allowing it to traverse crowded jungle floors more easily when not following set paths.
I wished I had one of these back in Colorado.
We took off, heading out of the parking garage and into the large cavernous bay, which made up most of the hidden base’s structure. She veered the rover into another lane, the vehicle pitching into the turn like the way a motorcycle moved. The lane broke off towards the right and into the mouth of a tunnel, which wasn’t much larger than the rover—you were just able to squeeze something larger through the tight space. I’d bet there wasn’t a large demand for deliveries wherever it was we were going. The tunnel ended, opening up into a small city down below, their streets lined with the pale glow of the lights available. The road corkscrewed around the perimeter like a slowly decaying orbit, the city drawing us in with each passing second.
“Whoa…” I let escape from my slack mouth.
“You like it?” asked Kayton, seeing awe plastered across my face.
“This is amazing, something of this size is hidden within the mountain itself?” I asked.
“That’s right, the city houses thousands of troops and civilians loyal to the cause. It’s almost completely self-sustained, which limits the number of suspicious resupplies we need to make under the watchful eye of the Darkkon and Vael Empire. However, we wouldn’t have any issue with expanding if we had fancy invisible cloaks on our ships like yours does. We might actually get special request items for cheaper too if that was the case,” she hoped. “If you ever decide to stick around once your work here is done, you could make a lot of credits importing goods—just saying,” she gave a shrug.
“We’ll see how things play out. I take it one day at a time and right now, I’m just thinking about this drink,” I licked my lips in anticipation.
“Easy now, I can’t go any faster here or I’ll get written up again for speeding. We’ll get there soon enough,” she joked.
We entered the underground city, which came to life with a few bright lights in front of shops. I wouldn’t say the streets were necessarily bustling, but there was a fair amount of movement for something so hidden. How does the conglomerate keep this place so well under wraps? I thought.
As if reading my thoughts, Kayton piped up. “Wondering how an operation like this stays quiet for so many decades now, huh? Yeah, I had similar questions over time. When you’re just a low-ranking trooper, you only have one focus, keeping your mouth shut. When I became a lieutenant and eventually a commander, I found out how the conglomerate kept people quiet,” she let the sinister words float about the cabin.
“So, what do you do?” I asked, breaking the silence with my morbid curiosity.
“We only let out the most trusted individuals, those with a reason for actually leaving the base on their own. These are people with the highest clearance. People like me, you, or the ones you see here,” she pointed her chin at some pedestrians, “We’re all locked in here until the conglomerate says otherwise or we move out on orders. No fighting happens here on Vallus. We move out looking like civilians on mining ships or something similar, all the way until we exit the system,”
“You all willingly live in a cage? That cannot be good for morale,” I challenged.
“It’s not ideal, no. But, we didn’t join up thinking this was going to be a great time. We joined because we are tired of dealing with the empire bullying species out of their own space. It’s not right,” she frowned.
“And if someone doesn’t have such a strong devotion to the cause, such as yourself? What do you do with someone with a big mouth?” I asked.
“We send them to do hard labor, working double shifts with the expansion crews until they change their minds or die of exhaustion. If they’re repeat offenders, we send them off to the firing squad,” she said, resigning with a grim look.
I was taken aback, blinking hard a few times. “Did you say you shoot them?” I blurted.
“We haven’t had to do that in many years. Usually, a few days of manual labor gives them enough reason to stay quiet. This is not some child’s game, Art. People’s lives, homes, even planets are at stake. We can’t let anyone jeopardize that for us,” she gave me a hard look.
“Damn. I mean you’re right, but…damn,” I said.
“I’m sorry. Like I said, I could use some unwinding too. Look, here’s the place,” she pointed and pulled the rover into an empty spot near the front of a building.
Someone painted wonderful murals all over the buildings, although most of their symbolism was lost on me, unfortunately. From the number of colors present, it looked as if rainbows lined the streets. When you were stuck living underground, I’d imagined earth tones would begin irking the shit out of you.
The design of the buildings, however, were very basic in shape. The exterior didn’t have any decorative accents such as siding, columns, or even door frames, but paint covered nearly every square inch. I wondered exactly how many different murals they painted over this building in the past few decades. There were no signs in this area telling you what each building was, which didn’t necessarily matter considering outsiders rarely came around here. Most conglomerate business with the outside would likely occur in the drab upper levels with the council.
Kayton led me inside where the interior was, as you can imagine, just as decorative. Trinkets of all varieties more than made up for the subdued colors They lined the walls, hung from the ceiling, and filled up shelves almost to the point of mild hoarding. As I continued looking over the items, there was an order to the chaos, noticing that the things were damaged empire equipment and vehicles. These weren’t trinkets…they were trophies!
Following the commander to a booth, she received nods and small greetings from other troopers and regulars as she passed through the moderately filled room. Either my appearance or accompanying
the commander, brought me strange looks as I trailed behind her.
In the center of the booth was a small crystal dome embedded into the table itself. She tapped the feature with a black fingernail, bringing a holo-screen to life and flicked through some menus.
“So, what are you in the mood for?” she said, looking at me through the screen between us.
“I have no idea. What are you getting?” I asked.
“Hmm, so many choices…I’ll be going with this one for now.” She made a twisting motion with her hand and showed me something that looked like a glass of orange juice.
Dotty, is this safe to drink, and most importantly is it alcoholic?
It is safe for you to drink, and yes, it contains alcohol.
“Alright, let’s give it a try.” I drummed on the table.
Kayton jabbed a couple of commands into the menu and pressed the dome again, turning the holo-screen off. A device lowered itself from the ceiling and placed two glasses in front of us. The machine whirred to life, soft blender-like noises droned from within before it dispensed the liquid into the two glasses. It plugged its nozzles after giving itself a brief wipe and retracting back into the ceiling somewhere.
“That was, interesting…” I grinned.
“Wait until you try the drink,” she said, claiming one of the glasses.
I grabbed the other one and took a quick whiff. It didn’t smell citrusy at all, despite its appearance.
“Well, cheers—” I said toasting the glass. She gave me a strange look, not knowing how to respond. I clinked my glass against hers and took a swig.
“Whoa!” I coughed. “Damn—that’s some strong stuff!”
“I know, right?” Kayton beamed, taking another gulp. “Ah! This is one of the better homemade drinks here,” she said, examining the glass in approval.
“So, Lucky Art, you get to go around space with the Seya Aranis, you own two ships, and get to help make some power plays with the conglomerate. So, this was what an entire lifetime worth of luck and achievements brings you then?” she asked.