The Artemis Trap

by DN Farrell

  They still found themselves inside a dungeon complex and Trellon was concerned about their safety, so looking around to Saron and the princess, he ordered them to "Stay here, I'll be back with help" and with that he carefully wandered off into the dungeon system.

  The dungeons were quite extensive and they were a strange mix of old and new. The dungeons had obviously been a grim and hopeless place once, filled with medieval styed torture devices, but also they had been revamped recently. From what Trellon could see, the old dungeons were maintained to be a sort of museum, as the princess noted for "school children"! A hell of a school trip, Trellon thought to himself, but then as he wandered around, he could also see some rather new sections including more up to date electronically locked doors and so on.

  As he wandered down one corridor he heard a voice, so carefully very carefully he looked around the corner and saw a guard standing outside of an electronically sealed door, speaking with another guard. Chances were that the away team was probably been housed within that section of the castle. But for now they would have to get on with things, as Trellon wanted to beam the princess back onto the ship. So instead, he walked off in the opposite direction and after a while he found himself at the main entrance to the dungeon system.

  Carefully he slipped outside and found himself in the castle courtyard. He then looked on the wall of the courtyard and saw a diagrammatic map outlining various sections of the Castle. He decided to head upstairs to the first floor, where the communications center was located. From there he could somehow contact the ship and get help.

  Trellon had just made up his mind, when he felt a large hand on his right shoulder. Suddenly gripped by fear, Trellon whipped around with dagger at hand, only to find the grinning features of that big marine Colonel kell, looking back at him. Trellon was about to gasp, when kell covered his mouth, with the palm of his hand and then he dragged him off to one side, out of plain sight.

  As Kell lifted his hand from Trellons face, he exclaimed "kell, boy am I glad to see you here!"

  "The feelings mutual kiddo, Trell what kind of a mess have you gotten yourself into?"

  "What do you think happened Kell, what are the authorities telling you?" Trellon enquired.

  "They're showing video footage of you shooting the princess!"

  "Get away kell, the princess is still alive, I saved the princess, she's down in the dungeons, along with Saron the kings Champion, the royal guard turned on us and tried to kill the princess and frame me!" Trellon exclaimed, anger rising in him as he explained their situation.

  Kell just smiled and nodded and then enquired of Trellon. "So Commander what do you want to do now?"

  "We have to get the princess and Saron out of here, she's not safe here." He said.

  "Well we can go down into the dungeons and save everyone, the away team are also down there." Replied Kell, in a whisper as he wanted to maintain their low profile.

  “No Kell, look here, we just disappeared, everyone presumes we have been eaten by the Murcu, so let’s play dead for a bit and find out who the conspirators are, otherwise we will reinstate the princess only to have the same thing happen again next week or the week after that."

  "I see." Said kell, with a thoughtful look on his face. "But what about the away team?"

  "They should be okay for a day or two. If the authorities loose it and decide to execute them, they should give us notice, we can keep an eye on them from the ship and perform an emergency beam up if necessary." Trellon said, outlining his plan.

  "Okay Trellon, I'll call Chandrima and ask her to join us down here." Kell said and Trellon appeared to be surprised,. "Chandrima's down here, oh cool, okay Kell get her down here and we'll get things moving."

  Five minutes later Chandrima gracefully appeared in the laneway and once again kell grabbed a hold of her and pulled her off to one side. Over the next minute or so, Trellon filled her in regarding the situation they had found themselves in.

  "Well Chandrima did you find anything of use to us?" Trellon enquired.

  "The Chief Minister Regis, is pushing for their immediate execution!" She exclaimed.

  "Great that's all we need." Replied Trellon, who looked over at kell with an enquiring expression on his face.

  "So whats the story Trell." Replied Kell. "You don't want to free the away team, as it will blow of any chance of catching the real conspirators, but if we leave them here, they'll probably end up getting executed."

  "Not if we pinpoint their exact position and keep an eye on them." Chandrima chimed in and Trellon nodded, as unwittingly she was thinking along the same lines as him.

  "Good thinking Chandrima," Trellon replied, "but these dungeons are a good fifty feet underground, so we can't rely on an accurate beam up, based upon the ships sensors."

  “Don't worry about that Trell, just get me near the dungeons and I'll place one of these little suckers somewhere." Responded kell, while holding a tiny surveillance device in his hand. The device was no bigger than a button, but it could provide an in-depth scan, within a radius of a hundred feet or so. If kell could get anywhere near the dungeon, where the away team where held and he could plant that device, then it would be a piece of cake to get perfect co-ordinates for beaming the away team back to the ship.

  "Ok Kell, what do you want to do?" Ask Trellon.

  "Don't worry about a thing commander, you and Chandrima get on down to the princess and her champion and I'll be down in five minutes." Replied kell, with his usual effervescent expression on his broad manly face.

  "Very well," Repleid Trellon "I passed a heavily secured corridor on my way up here. On the way back down I'll show you it, just do your thing and then follow Chandrima's homing signal to find us, we'll be waiting in one of the dungeons."

  Kell just nodded and the trio made their way down the length of corridors, which brought them deep into the dungeon system. When they got near to the heavily secured corridor, Trellon slowed down the pace and then pointed out to kell. Then taking Chandrima by her left elbow, the two of them swiftly moved on towards the dungeon where Saron and the princess were held up, while kell waited for his opportunity.

  Kell waited for a couple of minutes for the others two to get away, then relying upon his bravado, he simply walked straight down the hall, which had three security guards, one at the entrance to the corridor and two guards who were guarding a doorway, which was at the end of the secure corridor. Kell just walked straight past the first guard and straight down the hall to the other two guards.

  The first guard yelled after kell, but Kell just ignored him, while the two guards who were at the door, pulled out their blasters, ready to shoot him if need be. The guards were royal guards and were dressed in white trousers and brown boots, with blue, green and red colored cloaks, with blasters and ceremonial swords attached to their buckles and red turbans on their heads.

  The two guards shouted out to kell to "Halt," but he just ignored them and used his brusqueness to overpower their reliance on orders. Kell had served in the marines for decades and knew by now instinctively how to dominate an enlisted man. Consciously the guards themselves didn't know why they held their fire, but kell knew only too well that they were simply obeying his non-verbal orders. Kell might look like a trader, but he walked like a colonel and on some subliminal way the guards knew this.

  Kell leaned over the two guards, who stood over the door and resting his head against the display window, on the door, he peered along down the hall, while supporting himself with his right hand. But what the guards didn't see, was him planting the surveillance chip up high over the door, a good eight or so feet up in the air, as he leaned his hands against the wall on the pretence of looking through the window, which was built into the wooden door. The guards attempting to grab him, but he nonchalantly pulled himself away from their hands and standing back now he addressed them.

  "Is this it?"

  "is this what?' One of the men said back to him, not entirely sure what he should say.
<
br />   "The conspirators who murdered the princess?" Kell asked.

  The two guards immediately relaxed while the third one retook his position, at the end of the corridor. Outrage from a citizen was something which they could believe in. So the three of them stood there for a few seconds without talking.

  "Federation scum!" kell exclaimed and the two guards just looked at him, one of them with a stony faced look and the other with small grin.

  The guard who grinned a little addressed kell. I know what you’re feeling citizen, but they are under Artemesian law now, the law will take its tole on them, don't worry about it."

  "Regis is putting the proposal to execute them right now as we speak." Echoed the other guard, in an effort to appease the outraged Kell.

  "Well it can't happen soon enough." He said, then once again he leaned in to take a look down the long hall, which contained several corridors running of off it, and this time he leaned against the door, with his left hand, and panted a second button sized device over the door, just in case the first one fell off at some stage. Although they were good little sensors, with a camouflage feature which would make them invisible once planted.

  "Come on off it citizen!" Exclaimed the smaller of the two guards, who was more or less crushed under the weight of kells physique. Not wanting to push his look Kell, immediately pulled back then asked the guards. "And were shall the execution be then?"

  "Probably in the main courtyard at dawn, if Regis gets the kings permission." Said the tall grinning guard.

  "Don't worry citizen, the public will be allowed to see it, just come early on to get a seat and you won't be disappointed." The small fat one said and then asked kell to leave. "Please citizen if our CO finds you here, we'll be in big trouble!"

  "Of course," replied Kell, "I'll be on my way, much appreciated and keep up the good work, don't let them break free, whatever you do!" He exclaimed, as he strode back down the length of the corridor to affirming nods from the two guards. As he reached the end of the corridor, he took a definite left hand turn, as if he were leaving the dungeon completely, only to quietly and deftly turn back and sneak past the same guard a couple of minutes later.

  Kell followed Chandrima's homing beacon and a few minutes later, he found himself in the dungeon where Trellon, Chandrima, the princess and Saron were patiently waiting. The princess looked as if the weight of the world were on her shoulders, while Saron looked like he was about to faint.

  "What happened to him?" Enquired kell.

  "The Murcu," replied Trellon, "he had to fight the champion of the Murcu king, a six hundred pound ape man."

  Kell just nodded as he looked over at Saron, the warrior in him trying to assess what kind of injury he had.

  "The other guy fared far worse, believe me Kell," Trellon added, " I don't think I'll sleep for a week, the picture of his garish death just keeps running around in my head."

  Kell shrugged, not knowing what to make out of Trellons testimony.

  "Well Kell you planted the bug?" Chandrima asked.

  "Two of them my dear," he said, as his eyes lit up and reaching into the pouch which was sewn into his cloak, he pulled out his tab and dialled in the sensors, which revealed a deep scan of the corridor, where they had been planted. Since he had planted two sensors, the data was automatically cross linked into one information matrix. Out of this the tab produced a 3 D accurate display, of the corridor and the dungeons, which came of off it.

  As the trio of Kell, Trellon and Chandrima looked down at the bluish lit display, they could clearly see the outline of their three shipmates, in the fourth dungeon to the left, for anyone who walked down the corridor and the GPS details, were there in vivid detail.

  "Okay Trell we now have their coordinates, so what do you suggest we do next commander?" Kell asked, knowing full well that Trellon had some sort of plan, up his sleeve, to catch the conspirators out.

  "We need to beam the princess and Saron back to the ship, nobody here will even know they are gone," said Trellon, "and then we can discuss with the captain the best way forward to catch out the conspirators."

  Chandrima nodded and said, "Sounds like a good plan to me." While Kell simply nodded assent. With that the Kell called out on his comms unit to the teleportation room, "Five to beam up at these coordinates." And with that seconds later the five forms shimmered and shaked and then promptly disappeared from view. Seconds later they would rematerialize in the teleporation room, with the princess and Saron looking slightly shocked, by the sudden change in surroundings, as while the kingdom of Artemis 11 would occasional have visitors beam down, they themselves lacked this technology and this had been the first time either the princes or Saron had been teleported. Meanwhile for Trellon, Kell and Chandrima, seen the familiar teleportation room, brought about an immediate feeling of safety, of being home and each one demonstrated a subtle look of relief on their faces.

  Chapter Twelve – The Stress of Being a King

  The Court Room of the King

  Sitting alone in the kings court room, sat the King, King Kegimon III and his chief minister, Chief Minister Regis.

  "Your majesty we must set an example by executing the three remaining conspirators straight away!" Exclaimed Regis, his face a flame with emotion and his hands gesturing widely.

  "With all due respect chief minister, although my heart is torn by the loss of my daughter, we should not rush into such actions, we are in a tenuous position regarding the Galactic Federation." The King said while sitting in his throne, his shoulders slumped forward and all in all, looking like he was shrunk fit into the chair.

  But his chief minister was in no way interested in listening to the king, as his long established prejudice against the Federation could clearly be felt by the tones in which he spoke about them. "Your Majesty, why are you so worried about these interlopers? They have come here just like the Analusians and the Galbraggians, in order to seek their own fortune, we are just pawns in their great game."

  "Chief minister! “The King exclaimed. "In the last four weeks, twenty eight thousand people have succumbed to Comarin’s Fever and now the Federation are here with medicines, to prevent further deaths from occurring."

  "Who knows Your Majesty, maybe Federation spies spread the fever in the first place."

  "Regis, what are you thinking!"

  "Your Majesty," Regis said, as he approached the kings throne, bending over and staring maliciously into the face of the king as he went, "how convenient that they arrive here and suddenly one of their members kills the princess!"

  "Are we sure that it was Commander Trellon, who murdered my daughter?"

  "Why of course sire, we have the testimony of thirteen royal guards." Regis responded vehemently.

  "Are they to be trusted Regis, after all the video footage does not directly show Trellon to be the one firing at the princess." The king said, while sitting up a little straighter now, as he attempted to fend of the vocal violence of his chief minister.

  "Sire, why are you now the grand defender of the Federation, they did not shoot my daughter, they shot yours and yet you are so confident in their innocence!" Regis replied, while now sitting down in his seat beside the king.

  The king looked back at Regis and said. "Chief minister your hatred for the Federation blinds you to the reality of your situation. The Federation have come to help our people and even if one of their members loses his sanity and attacks the princess, this does not mean that the Federation is bad or that the medical team are conspirators."

  "Oh come now sire, now you are the one who is been delusional." Regis replied and then leaning over carefully, he motioned towards the large red curtain, which separated the king's court from the rest of the Castle and he whispered out the words, "Your Highness I hate to say this, but it is the grim reality, you are holding onto your crown by threads Your Highness." Then pointing directly at the red curtain while making a strained and scary looking smile, he said. "The people think you are weak Your Highness, and now th
ey think you have become a pet for the Federation, this medicine just been a biscuit that they throw their dog!"

  The king just sat there and stared for a bit, and then finally dragging himself out of his chair, he turned and faced the window and looked out of the window, onto the beautiful Artemisian landscape below.

  "So Regis you are telling me that truth does not matter anymore, even if the Federation is good and these three Federation officers, who are confined in our dungeons, are innocent of any wrong doing, that it doesn't really matter, that I have to sacrifice them to save my own head, is that what you are saying?"

  Regis immediately jumped up and came over to the king and stood beside him with an empathetic look on his face. "Your Majesty," he said slowly and carefully, his anger subsiding now, "as king you must make political decisions. If you execute these Federation officers, it will make you look strong, not just in front of your people, but also to your fellow Kings from neighbouring planets, Your Highness."