by Rob Buckman
"Good. Let the fun begin,” he murmured. No sooner had he said it when the anthem of the Empire blared out from the hidden sound system.
CHAPTER - FORTY TWO: Confusion and Misdirection
The music droned on interminably, while a hidden chorus sang stanza after stanza of unintelligible verse. Richard wondered if this wasn't deliberate, another of the Emperor's sick jokes, no doubt he spared himself the ear-splitting noise. As the music ended, an overweight chamberlain in jewel-encrusted robes stepped forward, banging his staff on the podium floor, making it boom like a huge drum. A second discordant tune swelled behind him.
"Kneel and pay homage to your Emperor!” He bellowed, his voice straining over the music. ”Emperor of the Tellurian Empire, King of kings, the savior of the universe, redeemer of Krill…”
"Really fancies himself, doesn't he?” Ellis whispered loudly.
All around thousands of dignitaries, ambassadors, princes, and lords fell to their knees in reluctant homage. All except two dressed in silver and black. Behind the chamberlain, the Emperor walked slowly from behind the royal purple curtains to take his place on the ornate throne, eyeing the kneeling mob. Idly he wondered if he shouldn't have the whole lot shot so he could start over with a fresh bunch of sheep. At that moment, he saw two members of the crowd weren't kneeling. He couldn't remember the last time that happened, at least not in his lifetime. The tune ended and silence descended.
"Who dares offend their Emperor?” The chamberlain shrieked in outrage, as if trying to hammer Penn and Ellis to their knees by volume alone. Behind him, the Emperor leaned forward, his interest piqued for the moment by this unusual event.
"We do!” Richard's voice thundered back equally loud. Humans do not kneel to someone they have not chosen of their own free will!” The power of Penn's voice shocked the chamberlain, and he staggered back as the waves of sound battered him. Penn and Ellis walked slowly toward the raised dais, people scrabbling out of their way less they get caught in the crossfire that was sure to come, and stopped a few feet away from the dais.
"And we never will!” Penn thundered.
“You, you…” The chamberlain began to splutter. The guards around the perimeter leaned forward, their weapons rising, safeties off. ”You dare!” He said, finding the words at last, flinging them at the pair.
"We dare!” Penn thundered back.
"Who... who are you?" He spluttered, unable to think of anything else to say or do. This was so unusual and irregular to his perfectly orchestrated birthday tribute is bordered on insanity.
"PENN!” The Director cursed, his eye glued on the pair as he came out from behind the curtain to stand by the throne. “Mother of heaven, how did you get in here?”
He mentally skipped back through the data files. He watched the events in fast forward, seeing the beauty and timing of each move and how Penn and the woman managed to walk through three layers of Palace Security. It was like witnessing some perfectly choreographed dance. He shook his head in disbelief.
"How could they all be so stupid?"
"My name is Richard Penn, and I am here to render judgment on this abomination of an Empire, and on you!” Penn's thunderous voice hammered the podium, his outstretched arm, and forefinger, pointing accusingly at the Emperor.
Richard thought his rage would get the better of him, but to his surprise, he felt calm. He'd reached his goal at last, and was about to do what he'd promised the ghosts of so many dead that he would. Emperor laughed at him, and some breathed a little easier, thinking it might be some elaborate joke.
"And to what do I owe the honor of this visit, Richard Penn?” The Emperor asked in a sneering tone. Even so, it shook his being to the core to find his most sworn enemy standing in front of him.
"The death of four billion people, and the destruction and rape of my planet.”
"Is that all?" the Emperor brushed the accusation away as if it were nothing but an annoying fly. ”I thought for a moment you had a real grievance. Go away child, you annoy me.” Penn felt Ellis hunch her shoulders, as if ready to charge the podium.
"That is such a pity, and I came all this way to bring you this.” Penn's expression would make a church gargoyle look happy.
He brought a brightly colored sphere out of his pocket and held it up. It looked like an ornament the people of Earth once placed on their Christmas trees when there was such a thing as Christmas. The Emperor looked at it just as the Director leaning down.
"Kill them, your Majesty! Kill them NOW!” Emperor Cytec shook his head, his hand caressing the arm of his throne.
"You think to harm me, child! I think not!” He touched a sensor on the arm, instantly bringing the force shield around the podium to maximum. Richard and Ellis grunted sagging to their knees as the gravity under them increased. “And you will kneel to me.”
"Shit!” Penn grunted. ”Crafty sucker put a gravity plate under the fracking floor!”
“Yeah, and he's got a damn energy shield surrounding him, and the damned Director. We don't have anything to get through that.”
“Stick with the plan Ellis. Let's do what we came to do, and get out hell out of Dodge.” Penn gasped as he forced himself upright, activating the defense shield on his right arm. Pressing a button on his wrist comp, he saw Ellis's arm shield come to life out of the corner of his eye.
At that moment, responding to some inaudible command, the guards opened fire, but at the same moment the Palace was rocked to its foundation by a massive explosion, plunging the Palace into darkness as planned. As the lights went out, deadly lances of cobalt colored fire crisscrossed the room. Penn let go of the sphere ,and turned his back on the Emperor, switching places with Ellis as the sphere drifted up.
"Ready?"
"You need to ask?” Ellis snapped as she deflected a sizzling plasma bolt.
Clearly, the guards could see, and didn't care about the safety of the other guests, as their fire increased. Richard and Ellis each slipped on a pair of eye shield moments before the sphere exploded into an eye-searing flash of light, and mind numbing sound. Even so, some of the guard kept firing, and they had to angled the bolts off their shield, deflecting the cobalt beams into the packed, screaming bodies around them.
"And don't stop to take souvenirs!” Ellis yelled.
"Me!” He grunted as he took the first step and moved off the gravity plate.
Behind his virtually impenetrable shield, Emperor Cytec II watched in stunned amazement, protected by his shield, he was un-blinded by the dazzling explosion of light and sound. He thought it impossible for anyone to move, let alone walk under three gravities, yet these two did. He swallowed hard as the two silver and black figures became a blur of motion ripping through the panicking mob and guards alike. In the darkness, the guard's bolts left a trail of dead and dying behind the couple as they weaved their way out of the audience chamber. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, they were out and gone, their progress illuminated by the bright flashes of plasma fire down the hallway. Now littered with the bodies of the dead guards, as the last Imperial weapons fell silent. Not so the audience chamber, where the screams and moans of dying people filled the air already thick with the smell of smoke and burned flesh. The floor was now more colorful with the blood of his subjects. The scene held no more interest to the Emperor than a field full of dead and dying sheep. He turned to look the Director in the eye.
“Find them and kill them,” he murmured in a low voice, feeling a cold shiver run up his spine.
“Yes, your Majesty.” Director Markoff wasn't fooled by the soft words, and wondered if he should be seeking a way to escape as well.
Just then, the emergency power came on, and he could see the carnage below. This time he knew Penn wouldn't stop, and he'd have to kill him. Penn was warned what would happen if this day ever arrived, and he'd just condemned the rest of the human race to death. The Emperor momentarily blanked the rear part of the shield, and with guard in front and behind, Director Markoff quickly returned t
o his office. Once there, he activated his own defense shield, and tried to follow Penn's progress through the Palace with the internal Security cams. The blur of motion about the Palace, and the on-going firefight had to be Penn, and that traitorous Major Ellis who he now realized was the stunningly beautiful woman beside Penn. He very much doubted they'd gone far; knowing Penn, he was looking for another way to get to the Emperor. Not that it would do him any good. The personal shield the Emperor carried, would stop everything, up to and including a nuclear explosion. The question was. Did he have the means, or was he just searching in the hopes of discovering some way to turn off the force shield around the throne? A pointless exercise as the shield generator was inside the shield. Either way it didn't matter, they were trapped now all the outer blast doors were closed. He quickly sent out orders to pull more troops into the search, and ring the Palace before they found a way to escape. He worked the mental controls faster and faster in an attempt to catch up with the speeding shadow, cursing softly, unable to understand what Penn was doing, or where he and the Sub Major was going. After a while, all he could do was sit back and wait, coordinating the Security forces as they poured in and begin the room-to-room search. He then started to wonder how Penn and the Major got here at all. They should be trapped on a Sigma Alpha Prime. If they managed to turn the gravity effect off, it was impossible for them to get here since they crashed onto the surface. He discounted the possibility that they weren't even on the shuttle, he'd seen the video of them loading. Even with the flashest ship available, there was no way they could reach Telluria Prime for another 30 day cycle, and why was there still no word from General Tandy, or Captain Melche?
CHAPTER - FORTY THREE: Reckoning
“Ready here.” Ellis announced, gathered up the last of the frightened slaves and shepherding them into the common area of the slave quarters.
“Yes Major Ellis. Transporting you all now.”
In a moment, the back room in the slave quarters vanished, replaced in less than a blink of an eye by the large open area inside the antique ship. Behind them in the same room they’d just left came a clattering sound over the pop of displaced air of the slave collar and bracelets hitting the cold stone floor. It took a few moments for Ellis to calm them down, but in the end, they all understood they were now free. As arranged earlier, the non-human slave soon departed. Wiser, fed, clothes and provided with Imperial credits they returned to their home worlds, and hopefully a new life. The handful of human slave stood, or sat around the room, watching, round eyed at this strange commanding female who seemed too magically appear and disappeared at will. In the Palace behind her, confusion reign as Penn provoked the guard units into firing at him.
“I think it time to make like the good shepherd and get the flock out of here.” He panted, discovering he'd turned down a dead end hallway.
“Yes, Sir.” Penn shot past a surprised Ellis in the control room as he appeared, coming to a skidding half before crashing into the control consult. An errant plasma bolt dissipated in the air over his head.
“Wow! That was fun.” He laughed. Ellis just sniffed and gave him the 'look' of 'boys will be boys while the women do all the work'.
“Hey!” What's with the look? I took the chance of getting my butt shot off while you were safely wandering around collecting lost waifs.” He said in his defense.
“Did I say anything?” Ellis asked innocently.
“Humm…” Penn cocked an eyebrow at her before turn to the consult. “Looks like we drew off all the troops as expected.”
“They might still have a few guards wandering about inside the Startography Institute.”
“Nothing we can't handle.”
“True, but we want to do this as quickly, and as quietly as possible.”
“I'd say we have about thirty minutes until all the courier ships and drones get underway. We need to give them time to upload their nav data before we erase it.”
“That should give us plenty of time to sneak in there and get to the main data access interface at the core.”
“Which one is going to Earth, Richard?” He smiled over at her.
“The first one of course, and by the way,” he said off-handedly, “you'll never guess what I found in Markoff's data base.”
“Richard!” She snapped, giving him her narrowed eyed look. She wasn’t in the mood to plat guessing games with him right now, and her said as much.
“Alright, already. I found a list of all humans who joined the Empire military, the ones still alive that is.”
“Wow. How many?”
“Several thousand, but I didn't have time to count them all.”
“And?”
“I sent out sealed orders under Markoff's signature to have them all transferred to a little out of the way planet Michael was kind enough to find for me.”
Silence greeted his revelation, and looking over his shoulder, Penn saw the look on Ellis's face. The look said she obviously wasn't in the mood to play his usual ‘guess what I know’ games. Penn let out an audible sigh. Sometimes she was no fun at all.
“If I know Markoff, one of the first things he is going to do is order the execution of all humans in the Empire military, besides ordering the destruction of Earth.”
“You're right, he will. Now he can't, but what do we do with them?”
“The sealed order said to drop them off on a particular planet and leave.”
“So what does that get us?”
“What Mr. Penn is trying to tell you is, that the planet still has a working portal connected to the planet you call Alpha Sigma Prime.”
“Well I'll be… Jesus! That means well have several thousand human troops wandering around there tearing up the place.”
“Not to worry, they will be safely tucked away inside the pyramid.”
“So what do we do with them?”
“Isn't that obvious? We remove the implant devices and show them the light, so to speak.” Ellis looked dubious.
“You don't really expect them to change sides at the drop of a hat, do you?”
“No, but once we explain the situation, I think they will come round.” A smile pulled at the corner of Ellis's mouth and she nodded in understanding.
Getting into, and erasing the startograph database was something of an anticlimax. The remaining guard stood around outside the front entrance watching the on-going fight fire around the Palace.
“Ellis,” Penn whispered as the stood in the shadows, “they are still at it.”
“I can see that, but good grief, we left an hour ago.” Ellis chuckled softly.
“The troops have no idea who they were firing at, each other probably.”
With the main power to this part of the city still out, and with just the emergency lighting to provide spotty illumination, it was easy to move from shadow to shadow, not as it turned they needed to. Penn felt a certain satisfaction as he downloaded the erasure program into the core of the computer. It would ferret out all current data to Earth's location, and any backup copies related to that region of space. As an added precaution, imbedded, in the 'handshake' protocol between incoming, and outgoing starship, or drone, navigation systems, was a secondary program to erase the same information from any inbound ships. By standing order, all ships connected with the Startograph Institute the moment they arrived, and downloaded their voyage nav data. This information updated the central navigation systems for any changes, or new anomalies they had encountered in their travels. As a precaution, Penn added a subroutine to the outbound message drone to Earth, to download the same erasure program to all nav beacons along its flight path. This would propagate outward with ships, and message drones, to other nav beacons going elsewhere in the Empire. Now the Empire would have a great big hole in its star data, much as it did for anything beyond its frontiers. How long it would take to explore, and refill that hole was unknown. Penn was betting at least five to ten years before Earth could expect a revisit from the Empire. Any longer than that was just
a bonus. Hopefully they could put together a respectable force to meet that eventuality.
* * * * * *
For Director Markoff, an hour passed with nothing more than sporadic report of sighting, or the occasional firefight, but no confirmed reports of anyone actually seeing either of them. By then, the Palace complex was ringed with troops, with heavily armed parties searching every nook and cranny of the Palace to no avail. The Director looked around his office in frustration as he tried to understand what Penn was up to. He could not get to the Emperor behind his defense shield, nor could he get to him for that matter. Or could he? That thought made the Director look around his office to make sure Penn wasn't hiding in a corner waiting for the right moment to strike. He then noticed the statues. They'd all been rearranged. He felt an icy cold finger of fear worming its way up his back. Penn had been in his office, but why come here? For a moment, he concentrated his mind on bringing up the one file he hadn't looked at yet, the video of his office. In shock, he watched Penn enter and sit in this very seat, completely bypassing his Security system. He placed what looked like a block of crystal on the interface port on his desk, and Markoff let out a snort. No way was Penn going to get into his computers. The database was protected by a one hundred and fifty bit encryption code keys to his brain. The blood drained from his face as the wall screen came to life, becoming a blur as Penn scrolled thought his private files. A last the blur stopped, and it took a moment for him to realize what Penn was doing.