My Friend the Emperor

by William Lee Gordon

  “You have to find out. It’s the main reason we’ve risked coming here.”

  “Why is it so important?” that same male voice asked.

  “You don’t need to know that. You just need to find out, now.”

  “That’s impossible, I can’t reach my sources let alone hear back from them before you’re scheduled to depart. That’s just not going to work. But there are other things you need to know.”

  “Doctor, there is not a single thing you could tell me that is more important than where Tauri is holding those prisoners.”

  “Look, I’ll do my best but do you want to have this other Intel or not?”

  She must’ve nodded because the doctor continued.

  “We’ve had reports coming in from all over Home Fleet. The only thing we can deduce is that the Prince is systematically purging any senior Citizens not personally loyal to him. That by itself wouldn’t raise any eyebrows, but the urgency and breadth of it are unparalleled.”

  “So was it the Prince that was behind the attack on the Meri Acá? We thought it was Grand Duchess Tauri working autonomously.”

  “Yes, it was Tauri. She and the Prince can’t stand each other. She would never take his orders and it’s hard to see how that could change. She does, however, know much more about the Meri Acá then we thought. But don’t be misled, we don’t believe that’s the main reason for her amassing her forces.”

  “Well, it’s obviously a reaction to the Prince consolidating his new position.”

  “Maybe, but she started realigning her forces well before the Prince started his own maneuvering.”

  “Than what is her objective?” asked a voice that was starting to sound a lot like Monica’s.

  “Nobody knows. But for some reason she wanted to eliminate any threat the Meri Acá might pose before she moves on to the next step of her plan. And it’s not just the Meri Acá. There’ve been several other quasi-rebel groups that her task force has eliminated over the last number of standard months. It’s obvious she’s preparing for something but nobody knows what.”

  Rebel groups? Had I heard correctly; was the Meri Acá much more than I’d been told?

  As curious as I was to know the answer to these questions I couldn’t help but noticing another phenomena. My emotions weren’t automatically bending towards outrage. It was almost as if my intellect had been disconnected from my emotions. Certain thought patterns were no longer artificially dumping loads of hormones into my bloodstream. I was… free to think on my own.

  I set up on the side of the bed expecting to be dizzy, but I seemed to be just fine. I looked up to see both the doctor and Monica staring at me. The sheets I’d been laying on were sweat soaked and that was apparently the reason I was dressed only in my underwear.

  The doctor looked astonished but Monica wore a small smile.

  “I think I’ll be needing my clothes back,” I said. “And then Monica, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

  Chapter twenty

  LEUTENANT MONICA STILES

  Traded In for a Newer Model (or two)

  72 Hours Earlier

  It was all Monica could do not to laugh.

  Of course, that wouldn’t be appropriate. She needed to maintain a stern countenance.

  At the regular 1900 hrs. dinner meeting in the Captain’s cabin the twins fawned all over him. Their attire was subtly… suggestive. But there was nothing subtle about their actions. One would occasionally hand feed him a morsel of food while the other massaged his neck.

  Even when not sitting at the table their body language was possessive. They didn’t hesitate to grab him around the waist or lean a head on his shoulder – and the Captain didn’t hesitate to respond.

  Nothing publicly tawdry, but to return a hug or to put his arm around one or both of them seemed natural to him.

  The reaction from the rest of the Citizens present was mixed. A few were outright entertained while most seemed slightly embarrassed. The Ensign was the most visibly disgusted.

  The Captain seemed unconcerned; to any outside observer there was no question about the relationship.

  Monica, of course, was not a normal observer.

  She’d been both relieved and a little shocked when the Captain had first approached her with this new twist to the act.

  “Monica, I want to thank you for your complicity in the charade. Under the circumstances I can understand why posing as my lover has been distasteful to you but I think I have a solution,” he’d said.

  If she was going to act as a spurned lover it might accomplish several goals, he’d explained. First of all, it might help ferret out still unknown Imperial spies; they might think her approachable. The fact that not everyone on board could be trusted was the reason for the charade in the first place; we just don’t always know who’s who. Secondly, it would provide cover for him to spend a lot of time with the twins. Third, well… As ego enhancing as it was for him to have others think that a woman of her caliber would think so highly of him as to share his bed, it had to be as strongly repugnant for her. He was glad to release her of that torture...

  Monica felt that she understood the Captain better than most others, even many that had served with him for years. But there were still times, like right now, when she wasn’t sure if he was giving her a true complement or acting out a well-practiced role.

  But then in the big scheme of things, it hardly mattered.

  “Do you really think there are other spies on board?” she asked.

  “I think it’s almost a certainty,” he replied. “It was confirmed when Torres took your station and set an ambush for us.”

  “I’m not following…” Monica said with a confused look on her face.

  “Yes, well I think you were still out in the cold when he let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. Not only did he know Sergio’s name and position, but he also knew we were flying without a First Officer. The only way he could have gotten that information was through someone on this ship.”

  “And you really think whoever that is might approach me? Why?”

  “Because Torres was lying when he said he was taking me for ransom; he was being paid to eliminate me. It’s obvious that your standard pirate wouldn’t have the resources to embed a spy on my ship, so he must have been working for someone official. Someone high-up in the Empire.

  “If it was just about ransom then no, they would never approach you. But if they truly believe you’ve been scorned once too often they might feel you out just to see how far you’d be willing to go for revenge. It’s a long shot but I don’t have a lot of other ways to identify him or her.”

  “How have you identified all the other spies?” she asked.

  “Oh, they’re easy. The Freighter Captains they pass their reports to are friends of mine.”

  “So, our new spy is working for someone else and wants your blood, not just reports… Any idea who’s behind it?”

  “I have some guesses, but I’m sure it will all come out in the end.”

  Monica wondered how complicit the twins would be but she shouldn’t have worried.

  Apparently they did have a crush on the Captain. They’d invited him into their bed on more than one occasion, he’d calmly told Monica. But as it was their habit to retire shortly after dinner, it permitted them to sleep while he pursued his nightly D Watch duties. It was true that they used his bed but they understood his requirement to vacate it before he returned in the morning.

  It wasn’t clear whether the twins had agreed to the charade willingly or resignedly, but they seemed to relish the role. They eagerly threw themselves into advertising their relationship with the Captain. They were very convincing, but remembering her own youth Monica had to admit that 14-year-old girls could be the greatest actresses in the universe.

  “So just why is it that you need to spend so much time with the twins?” Monica had asked.

  “That’s a rather long and complicated explanation,” the Captain responded.

&n
bsp; Monica didn’t say anything; she knew if she waited him out he would explain.

  “Very well, but you need to understand that you’re getting drawn deeper and deeper into something you might regret.”

  “I’ve already decided to stay on after the three months is up,” said Monica.

  “I’d assumed as much sense that three months ended last week,” said the Captain. “But I wanted to make sure it was intentional.”

  “You would’ve honored the agreement to drop me off somewhere even though I missed the deadline?”

  “Of course, the last thing I need is a reluctant First Officer. Surely you see the sense in that?”

  Monica was starting to notice a habit. Every time the Captain did something noble he rationalized it by making it sound like he was using common sense. So was he more noble or practical? It certainly kept everyone guessing.

  “The twins…” she prodded.

  “Yes, the twins are from the Trinidad Trade Consortium. That particular consortium has trade offices spanning every sector of three quadrants. That’s hardly large compared to the traditional families in the interior of the Empire but it is immense for anything on the fringe. To really understand how important it is though, you need to realize that it’s like an iceberg. What anyone sees officially of the consortium is only about 1/10 of its actual size. They are the true power broker along the entirety of the Hades Forest frontier.

  “And the twins…” she prodded again with a thin smile.

  “Yes well, they’re a fountain of information and they’re kind of like royalty to the consortium.”

  “Kind of like?”

  “Okay, more like actually are. They’re the favorite nieces of old man Krypto, the head of the family. In fact, I can’t rule out that the whole raid wasn’t for the purpose of kidnapping them. It might be sheer luck that they escaped.”

  “But how could your sister Tauri have known they were going to be there?”

  “I have no idea. Also, it seems that if she really wanted to kidnap them it would’ve been stupid to kill 99% of people in the system first and then hope they survived; but I’ve never been up to figuring out the way my sister thinks. Maybe the twins, if they survived, would just be a bonus or maybe she didn’t know they were there at all. Right now, we just have no way of knowing.”

  “And you’re never going to find out, Alyster. You’re not exactly on the inside of Imperial circles. I know you have a fondness for many of these people out here on the fringe, and I suspect that fondness entails a fatherly concern for these people whether you want anybody to know it or not. But the truth is you’re not exactly in a position to help them.”

  “Um, well… That might not be exactly true.”

  Monica looked up suddenly; she knew that tone.

  “It just so happens, that the… organization of the groups on the fringe isn’t as disparate as many might think.”

  “Alyster, just what have you gotten yourself into?”

  “Well, it’s not so much what I’ve gotten myself into as it is what I have, uh… helped create.”

  ΔΔΔ

  Monica was fascinated to discover that the Hades Forest wasn’t near as empty as what she, and everyone else, had been led to believe.

  As a matter of fact, there was a thriving, multi-planet civilization growing at an enormous pace. The large city that had just been destroyed by the Grand Duchess Tauri was but a small outpost of the full Meri Acá movement.

  As the Captain relayed the story to her Monica was both questioning and in awe of what these people had accomplished. According to him the 332 star systems of the existing Meri Acá were certainly no threat militarily or industrially to the thousand suns of the Empire, but sometimes ideas are more powerful than any fleet…

  Starting at least a generation before Captain Acamar was born, people disgusted with the Empire had begun settling the Hades forest.

  For any growing civilization like the Empire it was undesirable territory; the natural riches of its planets had been mined out millions of years ago. But for people that simply wanted to escape, that simply wanted to be left alone and to have the freedom to create a life for themselves and their family unimpeded by Imperial correctness or conditioning, the territory was like the Promised Land.

  The Captain insisted that he was not of the Meri Acá, and for whatever reason Monica believed him. But it was just as obvious that he believed in them and supported them in some small ways. Or, as she was beginning to suspect, in some big ways too.

  “So, you see. I didn’t create the Meri Acá, but I have set up an information network to help keep it separate from the Empire. That’s in the best interest of both, don’t you think?”

  Monica closed her eyes; it was all she could do to keep from shaking her head. She’d gone from loving the Empire and thinking she had a grand future in it, to being betrayed by it, to being exiled from it, to being rescued by one of its sons, to looking forward to dropping off the grid, and now finding herself smack dab in the middle of… What?

  The Captain insisted that the Meri Acá wasn’t a government; it was just a group of cooperating like-minded people. So the way he described it didn’t sound like a rebellion, but it certainly wasn’t anything the Empire would approve of either. Of that she was sure.

  So, did she care? No, she didn’t care anything about what the Empire thought, but she realized she did care about how it impacted her and some other people. People that she was coming to realize she had a lot in common with. People like the Captain, Felix, some of the other eccentric Citizens, and even the naïve Ensign.

  “So you think Tauri knows all about the Meri Acá and is on a mission to destroy it?” she asked.

  “Maybe, and if that’s true she’s probably on her way deeper into the Hades Forest as we speak. On the other hand, if she thinks she’s already eliminated the problem she’ll be taking the prisoners back to the Empire. My dilemma is that I have no way of knowing which scenario is true - and that leaves me with a big decision.”

  After thinking about it for a moment Monica leapt to several conclusions that just felt right. Anticipating what the Captain was thinking she said, “Even if you knew her fleet was headed deeper into Hades Forest territory what could you accomplish by following her in?”

  “Probably not much. I’d like to think that she’d listen to me, at least long enough to work out a solution that didn’t involve millions of people dying. But when it comes to dealing with Tauri I’m not naïve. It would be a longshot at best.”

  “If you knew her fleet wasn’t heading deeper into the Hades Forest what would you do?”

  “I’d be looking for answers. I have contacts on various planets and ships in the sector, and beyond. If I go talk to enough of them someone will have answers.”

  “If you remove the Halcyon from its patrol people are going to notice.”

  “Yes, but I’m the Emperor’s crazy son, don’t you know?” He said with a wry smile. “It’s not like I haven’t done it before.”

  “I guess this is what First Officers get paid the big denars for,” she said. “Your course of action seems obvious to me. You have very little chance of improving the situation if you head deeper into the Hades Forest, but it sounds like you have a good chance of increasing your overall knowledge of the situation if you pursue your contacts in the Empire.”

  “Thank you Monica. Are you sure you don’t want out? We could probably find a nice backwater planet along the way…”

  “No, I’m not sure why but I’ve made my decision. I’ll stick around for a while longer. Just don’t expose me to any high-ranking Citizens and I’ll be fine.”

  “Ah, well… As to that…”

  ΔΔΔ

  It was 0400 hrs. and Monica, the Captain, Sergio, Maria, and Felix were sitting around the captain’s conference table.

  The twins were asleep in the captain’s bed – Monica had checked.

  “Felix, you’re probably closer to him than anyone. Do you think he can handl
e it?” Captain Acamar asked.

  “Saying I’m close to him is something of a stretch. He’s not exactly the Best Buddy type, but I think underneath it all he’s a good sort. Strong too. Your guess is as good as mine on whether this will break him or not, but I hope it doesn’t because I’m rather fond of him.”

  What they were discussing was Ensign Jacoby Nikolay’s mental health. Imperial Deep Core conditioning was tough enough on a person’s psych but the Captain was convinced that the Empire had doubled down on the Ensign’s treatment. The chance to place a qualified spy as his aide would have been too tempting an opportunity for Admiral Tanakh to pass up.