My Friend the Emperor

by William Lee Gordon

  “Do? I don’t understand.”

  “We all have choices to make,” the Captain said. “We need to know if you’re with us. We’re not rebelling against the Empire but the ways in which we choose to serve it might not always be condoned by those in power.

  “We need to know if you can accept that; we need to know if you’ll willing to support us.”

  I let his words wash through me. I wasn’t totally sure how I felt about our Captain; I now knew there was a depth to him I had never suspected. I realized I didn’t want to turn these people away; I didn’t want to lose them… But could that be resolved with my loyalty to the Empire?

  “Captain, I’m still confused about a lot of things,” I said honestly. “What I know for certain is that I’m not against you. I want to serve with you and your officers,” I said while glancing at Monica.

  After a moment the Captain nodded his head and said, “I suppose that’s good enough, for the moment. But Jac you need to understand… There may very well come a time when you’ll need to choose. I hope it won’t come soon and I hope it won’t be difficult when it does, but I can pretty much promise you that the time will come. All I ask is that when it does you think about what’s important to you, about what you believe in. I’ll place my faith in that.”

  Chapter twenty-two

  ENSIGN JACOBY NICOLAY

  Chasing Consuelo

  We were traveling at top speed to the Archimedes sector. The captain hadn’t wasted a moment in ordering the new destination once he learned where the captives were being taken.

  I knew he considered it important to understand why the Grand Duchess Tauri was doing what she was doing, but his urgency seemed almost personal. It was yet another facet of our situation I still didn’t fully understand.

  The twins were both adorable and at the same time a pox upon my existence. Although they had made it clear that the only liberties they issued were to the Captain they flirted with everyone. And since I was around him more than most other Citizens that meant they flirted with me incessantly.

  I don’t know how much time you might’ve spent around 14-year-old girls but if you’ve ever been exposed to one that has a true crush on you it’s immediately obvious that they don’t understand the boundaries of mature decorum. They’re still testing their limits and abilities of subduction. Things a 20-year-old would never be able to get away with the twins could be excused for simply because of their youth. Unfortunately, their physical appearance was far more advanced than their level of maturity allowed for.

  I, of course, was a moral Citizen of the Empire and was immune to their ministrations. That doesn’t mean I didn’t find myself sometimes holding my breath when one or both of them entered my personal space, walked into the room wrapped only in a towel, or let their warm breath tickle my neck when they bent over to whisper something in my ear.

  All of this, of course, was happening against the backdrop of my new perspective of the Halcyon and its crew.

  There were definitely patterns that for whatever reason I had been blind to before. For example, on this ship D Watch was the top crew. D Watch, which had the midnight to 0600 shift, was also Captain Acamar’s morning.

  While everybody else was asleep was when our captain preferred to carry out the more visible aspects of his duties. D Watch was normally a skeleton crew and that didn’t change, but the Citizens and section heads that manned D Watch were unquestionably loyal to him. This arrangement had neatly played into my perception that our Captain was an immature dilettante – someone that partied all night and slept all day. The odd thing was, I realized, that the personnel of A Watch considered themselves to be the best at their duties. That the captain typically slept off his overindulgences during their watch was a sign of honor for them. After all, he must have faith in them, right?

  I discovered that much of the crew were just as confused about the true intentions of our Captain as I had been. They just didn’t know they were confused. Many of these Citizens didn’t see through the charade; they believed in the captain regardless of his debauchery.

  That’s not to say they weren’t good Citizens and competent officers; most of them were. It’s just that on this ship the inner circle had an inner circle and if you were in it you knew it; no secret handshakes were required.

  That also doesn’t mean that they were spit and polish good. This ship prided itself on throwing convention to the wind. Out here on the fringe results are what counted, not how you looked while performing your duties. It wasn’t just the Citizens; the crew was like that as well, maybe more so.

  Since offenses to Imperial Code of Conduct regulations no longer left me with a physical nausea it was easier to see what had been right in front of me. While almost all crew serving in the Imperial fleet had been vetted and trained by the Empire, the Halcyon manifest supported at least a 70% exception to this. Apparently, over the years, the Captain and his Citizens had weeded out those they would have difficulty working with. I don’t think they killed anybody, but to leave a handful of untrusted crewmen stranded on some backwater planet or other had certainly happened more than once. Instead of replacing them through official channels qualified crewmen had mysteriously shown up after certain ports of call.

  I had at first looked at it is an unnecessary statement of defiance against the Imperial protocol, but as I better got to know the Captain I understood the necessity… at least from his point of view. Our crew consisted of the largest gang of criminals, murderers, extortionists, smugglers and violent offenders outside of a penal colony.

  Most of them had been discovered by the Captain’s inner circle.

  Captain Acamar had the final say on any new crew replacement and vetted each with a personal interview. Some interviews lasted five minutes and some lasted for hours. By a formula known only to him he would decide whether to make a job offer or not. If he did the prospect was asked to make a choice.

  The crew’s stories of these interviews were legend, but the gist seemed to be that your past would be forgotten as long as you pulled your weight and the Halcyon gained your total loyalty. The penalty for forgetting that would be severe – probably along the order of trying to breathe vacuum.

  The reward though, was a fresh start, a job that paid in Imperial script, and a trusted comradery that many had never experienced before. Since most of the interviewees sitting in front of the Captain were facing prison sentences, or worse, it was an easy choice.

  On one occasion Sergio had casually remarked that the Halcyon purposely tried to avoid ports of call where other Imperial ship crews might be present. I had replied indicating that I agreed it would be a good idea to keep a low profile – there was no reason to advertise our unorthodox recruiting methods. He quickly corrected me… He assured me that the only reason for concern was that we didn’t want to cause so much trouble that we’d lose crewmembers to charges of assault and murder. Our crew was intensely loyal to the Captain, and given free reign, would stand up to any disparaging remark some other poor bastard might innocently utter. Even if they were outnumbered 3 to 1.

  After thinking that over I realized it was really very cool. Captain Acamar had demanded their loyalty to the Halcyon; but the result was that, to a person, they felt allegiance to him.

  My situation was somewhat reversed. The ship was full of misfits and I was realizing that I fit right in.

  In the weirdest most uncomplicated sort of way… for the first time since I’d graduated The Academy, no… For the first time since I’d left my home world I felt truly proud to be a part of something. There wasn’t any way to explain it. I couldn’t yet rationalize putting all my faith in this man. I still loved the Empire for crying out loud… but one thing I was clear on, I was proud to serve on the C.E.S. Halcyon.

  ΔΔΔ

  The Archimedes Cluster was made up of three stars. Two of them rotated each other and formed the inner binary system.

  The third star in the system rotated around the center of gravity of the
first two.

  All of them contained habitable planets.

  The gravitational complexities of the system provided a natural defense from aggressors. The grand Duchess Tauri Acamar had chosen this system as her base of operations for just such a reason. Unless you believed the offhand comment of our Captain. He claimed that his sister wasn’t smart enough for such strategy, she just liked the triple sunrise.

  Whatever the case might be, our astrogator, Felix, showed his skill when we emerged from our skip at the edge of the cluster. He didn’t follow normal protocol; he rejected using the typical gravitational alignments that required taking five skips into the inner system. Instead, we took one giant complicated skip directly to Archimedes Prime C, the base for Grand Duchess Tauri Acamar’s rule.

  I was on the bridge when we emerged from the skip. Immediately alarms started sounding. Captain Acamar, Monica and the rest of D Watch were on station when Maria reported that we were being hailed at the same time as Durand indicated that we were being targeted by no less than 16 different defense systems.

  “Maria, record this and send it to all incoming hails,” said the Captain. “This is Grand Duke Alyster Acamar commanding the C.E.S. Halcyon. Screw off.”

  I think it was a credit to my new mental freedom that I didn’t even raise an eyebrow.

  “Maria, contact Tauri’s château directly. Inform her that it is of the utmost priority that I speak to her. Let me know as soon as she responds.”

  It wasn’t long before Maria informed us that we had an incoming transmission.

  “Put it on the screen,” said the Captain.

  Unless the Grand Duchess had undergone a sex change the figure that appeared before us wasn’t her.

  “Grand Duke Acamar,” he said. “Welcome to the restricted space and domicile of the second heir to the Imperial throne of the Celcium Empire, Her Highness the Grand Duchess…”

  Irrespective of whoever this pompous figure was, the Captain cut him off in mid-word…

  “Cut the crap and put Tauri on the vid.”

  I had to hand it to this mannequin; he took it in stride…

  “The Grand Duchess Tauri Acamar is not present in the system, your highness. We, of course, have standing orders to welcome your Imperial self to our worlds. How can we accommodate you? Might I take a message for the Grand Duchess?”

  “Where is she, Aston?”

  “My name, sir, is Benton.”

  “I don’t give a ravit’s ars who you are,” Captain Acamar said. “Where is my sister?”

  Benton remained nonplussed.

  “Apparently you haven’t heard, good sir. She has departed posthaste for the Imperial capital Celcium. I would think you would be making best speed for that destination as well.”

  “She returned with prisoners, Bentley. Where are they?”

  “I assure you sir, I couldn’t say. I must ask, however, are you aware of the reason for her travel to the capital?”

  The Captain leaned towards the screen and said with a voice of steel, “Benson, if I have to insert a squadron of Imperial Marines into your bed chambers and torture everyone in sight until I get the information I need I will do so… Where. Are. The. Prisoners?

  Benson or Bentley or whatever his name was now started showing a few cracks in his composure… “Captain, I assure you…”

  My vantage point of the captain’s visage was in profile, but I now added the look of pure determination to my catalog of facial expressions.

  “Yes, well… It is my understanding that the Grand Duchess Tauri did return from her latest excursion with some guests, however, she did not leave them here. I believe she is taking them with her to Celcium,” he ended with a dry mouth.

  “Very well, now you may tell me why she is heading to the home world.”

  “For the best of reasons, I assure you. Your mother, Empress Elaina, has died.”

  Chapter twenty-three

  ENSIGN JACOBY NICOLAY

  The Grieving Son Returns Home

  Celcium was the capital of the Empire.

  The Academy was also located on Celcium and I had spent four years there. I had spent less than one day of those four years, however, anyplace other than on The Academy grounds.

  Both when I had arrived as a cadet and left as an ensign I had travelled in general seating on either a transport or a freighter. Because of that I had not had a long amount of uninterrupted time to study the famous planet from space.

  It was magnificent.

  Everyone in the Empire knew what it looked like, of course. Three of its four moons were artificial and spaced equidistant along the same orbit. These orbits were fast enough to permit the passage of three moons across each night cycle’s sky, yet slow enough to keep the ocean tides gentle and life supporting.

  In addition to the moons the planet was ringed by an unconnected series of geosynchronous space platforms, construction yards, restricted research stations, and the terminus of 47 great space elevators.

  Tens of thousands of miles further up in High Celcium Orbit (HCO) were the 28 Traffic Control stations that monitored everything in the restricted space between the planet and its moons – at least everything larger than a beach ball.

  All incoming traffic to the planet first parked itself in a lunar orbit around the appropriate moon before being cleared to move in deeper and dock with the appropriate ring facility. Flight plans were automatically controlled and manual deviation would be met with force. That force was primarily made up of Home Fleet’s incredibly dangerous High Orbit Maneuverable Defense Drones.

  These drones were perfectly safe to any object identified as friendly but immediately became a deadly minefield to any foe.

  The restricted space surrounding the Celcium gravity well started at the 22,000-mile orbit of its artificial ring, and extended all the way out to those moons which were 235,000 miles up.

  Someone once told me that at any given moment the number of ships and shuttles in this restricted space numbered in the millions. Without the help of the HCO Traffic Control stations it would be impossible for any astrogator to plot a course through to the ring.

  Normal procedure for an arriving fleet ship after achieving lunar orbit was to wait for HCO Traffic Control to program your course and take control of your helm.

  Of course Captain Acamar didn’t have a reputation for following normal procedure.

  “Grand Duke Acamar,” said the figure on the screen. “Welcome to Celcium and let me be the first to convey my condolences. I am assuming you are requesting clearance to join the Emperor at his palace?”

  “Actually, I am inquiring as to the location of my sister Tauri. Do you know where she might be?” replied the Captain.

  After a moment the Citizen on the screen replied, “My records indicate that the Grand Duchess Tauri Acamar is indeed at the Imperial Palace. Would you like clearance?”

  “Where is her flagship, the Hateful Hag?”

  “Ah sir, if you mean the I.D.F. Femme Fatale then I can tell you that she has a priority orbit at station 16 of the House Acamar elevator terminus.”

  “I’ll get back to you.”

  The captain glanced over at Maria and said, “Hail the Femme Fatale.”

  One of the sharpest looking Citizens I’d ever seen peered out at us from the view screen. In a highly affected aristocratic voice he said, “Lord Acamar on behalf of the I.D.F. Femme Fatale and the Grand Duchess herself we extend our condolences.”

  “Yes, how nice of you. Whom am I addressing?”

  “I am First Officer Chadwick von Dirksen, my Lord. How may I assist you?”

  “You can prepare to receive me Chadwick. I have urgent need to speak with your prisoners.”

  “Prisoners?” He asked somewhat uncomfortably. “I am afraid I’m not sure whom you are referring to, my Lord.”

  The captain stared back at him, saying nothing. Finally, he spoke, “Do we really have to play this game? Whether you call them prisoners or guests I need to speak to the people
you acquired on the frontier.”

  Now it was First Officer Chadwick Stern’s turn to sit back and think. The only sign of his nervousness was the protruding vein on his neck as he subconsciously clenched his jaw.

  “My Lord Acamar, I would like nothing more than to accommodate you but I have standing orders to receive no guests, especially of the Imperial Family, unless the Grand Duchess is on board to receive them. I’m sure you can understand my position, my Lord.”

  “Chadwick you need to understand that I don’t care about your position… However, I will grant you this boon. Simply confirm to me that the prisoners are still on your ship and I will obtain my sister’s permission. That would make you feel little bit better, wouldn’t it?”