My Friend the Emperor

by William Lee Gordon

  “And father has put up with it?” the Captain asked in a surprised voice.

  “It’s the politics of the matter,” Lord Namagashi responded. “Your father needs the Carrington resources but he can’t disclose the real reason behind that need.”

  “Yes, I’m sure he’s got some convoluted reason for all of his machinations. José, this is exactly the reason that I stay out of it. I am more than content to spend my time on the upspiral edges of the Empire and let the rest of you kingpins play your deadly political games.”

  “Alyster, you need to understand. You won’t be able to stay out of this one. No one will.”

  There was something in the advisors voice, something that made me hold my breath. Apparently the Captain had noticed it too.

  “Let me bring you up to speed,” he continued. “Almost a decade ago we started seeing migration inward from down the spiral arm. Over the Empire’s history refugees have tended to run away from us not migrate towards us. This represents a total reversal of everything we’d previously experienced. Still, it was surprising but not alarming.

  “The migration numbers have continued to increase. So much so that a number of years ago we halted our expansion and turned to a defensive setting. The inflow of refugees is such that it’s all we can do to protect our borders.”

  Again, the Captain was silent. This time I thought I could probably imagine his thought process. Why would the Empire need to devote its military resources to defending against refugees? It didn’t make a lot of sense.

  “What am I missing?” asked the Captain.

  “The refugee tide is not coming piecemeal, Alyster. Lately we’re seeing massive civilian populations accompanied by their own warships trying to flee into our territories. Fortunately, we haven’t run into any groups that can match our military strength, or at least not each group individually. But the growing size and number of groups is… Impressive.”

  “What are they running from?” asked the Captain, echoing my thoughts perfectly.

  “For the longest time we thought that our worst fears were materializing. We felt certain that somewhere out there on the outer ends of our spiral arm was a civilization that was technologically far superior to us.”

  “But now?” prodded the Captain.

  “Now the fears of an advanced civilization are all but confirmed, but that’s not the reason I’m telling you this. The rumors are that this new civilization isn’t human.”

  ΔΔΔ

  It was a surreal experience sitting here and listening to these two men talk. I felt totally invisible, like a spectator watching a high quality holo-vid.

  And that was a very good analogy, I realized. Nonhuman? Alien? That couldn’t be right. Lord Namagashi was playing some kind of game with us.

  What the Captain said next made me realize that I had a lot to learn. I was focused on the sensational part of the revelation whereas he was focused on the practical…

  “Just how much more advanced is their technology than ours?” he asked.

  “We don’t know. But judging from how high tech some of the refugee groups are they either have massive numbers, massive advantages, or both.”

  “Okay José, you need to explain to me why my father can’t just go to Lord Carrington and explain all of this. Why is he risking him withdrawing his support?”

  “Oh, the situation is much more dire than Lord Carrington just pulling his support, but we’ll get to that in a moment. The reason your father can’t confide in Lord Carrington has to do with cosmology.”

  Once again I experienced an epiphany. It was that pattern recognition thing. I instantly understood what the Lord Advisor meant.

  Growing up on Lightspar I’d realized not everybody was good at geography. Most people have the ability to conceptually understand the concepts of north and south, mentally layout a grid in their mind, and navigate to a destination.

  Captains of seagoing surface ships need an even stronger ability. Some of the landmarks on their mental map are moving targets. Especially in crowded sea lanes it can be a constantly changing map that they need to keep track of. It’s a skill that most people don’t naturally have but many have been able to learn.

  Commanding a submarine is a whole different ballgame altogether. Many of your targets are still moving but now you’re dealing with a three-dimensional grid. Reefs, the seafloor, and shallow water shorelines are stationary but surface ships and other submersibles are constantly changing position and require a sense of awareness that only a small percentage of the population had ever been able to master.

  Cosmology, among other things, is the geography of space. Take the navigational challenges a submarine commander faces and multiply it by 1000. It’s not just that the distances and speeds are so much greater, it’s not just that there are so many more objects to keep track of, it’s that all of these objects have a gravitational influence on each other. Some more than others.

  Add to this the limiting parameters of a Gravitational Lens. Now, physical proximity didn’t necessarily mean that a planet was closer in travel time. This is why Felix’s abilities at astrogation had saved his hide; it was a rare talent.

  What I was intuiting now, though, wasn’t just astrogation… the Lord Advisor was referring to the geography, or cosmology, of the entire spiral arm.

  There was actually no one alive that could juggle all of these complexities in their head. But there were patterns of travel, patterns of commerce. There were extrapolations that my subconscious could make. I don’t think I was unique but I’m probably one of the few that didn’t need a computer to tell me what the advisor was getting at.

  “If Lord Carrington knew what was happening,” I found myself saying. “He would withdraw his forces and concentrate them defensively around his home worlds. Or, at least the Pyrenees sector. That would leave some of the Empire’s most heavily populated worlds at risk. Perhaps even the capital itself.”

  Both the Captain and the Lord Advisor turned and gave me a surprised look. They were no more surprised than I was, however. I had just blurted it out.

  “Interesting…” said Lord Namagashi.

  “I didn’t know you could do that,” said the Captain.

  “I, uh… I’m sorry for interrupting,” I said.

  “Well, now you can see the situation.”

  “I know it’s probably futile to ask you this, but has my father even thought about welcoming the refugees instead of fighting them off?”

  “It’s not a matter of compassion, Acamar. I don’t think you grasp the massive number of refugees that we’re talking about. They’re not coming to assimilate into the Empire, they have no intention of giving up their culture. Within just a few years unabated migration like this would change us forever. Our culture would be gone and revolution would be a certainty.”

  “Change isn’t necessarily bad, José. There are things about our Imperial culture that could stand to be changed.”

  The Lord Advisor sighed. “Alyster, allow me to instruct you one more time. I pray that you remember these words. Change for the sake of change is seldom good. If you’re going to change your culture you must have a very clear picture of what you’re changing it into. Cultures can both progress and be enlightened or they can regress and transform mankind into a dark age that can take centuries to recover from. Any responsible civilization has the duty and the right to control that change. Remember this, less evolved cultures always try to pull down enlightened cultures. Low-tech cultures always try to bring down high-tech cultures. That is the type of change we must resist.”

  It was obvious that Captain Acamar still wasn’t convinced. But it was just as obvious that he wasn’t totally dismissing the lesson.

  I wasn’t sure. This conversation was way over my pay grade. But knowing the Captain he would get around to asking me my thoughts.

  Once again my Captain showed his practical side…

  “So, is invasion imminent?”

  “We think we have at least four
or five decades… maybe a little longer, but nothing is certain.”

  “If we have that much time then why are you speaking to me now?” the Captain asked.

  “Because your brother is about to create an unmitigated disaster.”

  “And that surprises you because?”

  “This is serious, Alyster. Lord Carrington is filling your brother’s head with thoughts of moving against the Emperor. He wants the Prince to take the crown now.”

  “I’m sure he does,” said the Captain. “That would make his daughter the Empress. But he can gain the same thing by waiting. Why move now?”

  “Lord Carrington believes your father is ruining the economy of the Empire. He believes he has the strength. And now that he has the Prince as part of his family, he sees no reason to wait.

  Your brother doesn’t want to inherit an economically ruined Empire. Also, in addition to the support he believes he already has amongst the fleet he is mulling over the possibility that the Carrington’s could influence three additional fleets to declare for him.”

  “I’m going to ask you again, José. Why are you telling me this now? What is it you want me to do?”

  “You need to talk to your brother.”

  “What! He won’t listen to me.”

  “Perhaps, but you’re the only person he might listen to. If anyone else approaches him with this, if anyone else tells him some fanciful story about aliens, he will assume it’s political lies and be forever closed to the idea. You are the only one that he sees as somewhat impartial. You’re the only one that doesn’t have a vested interest. Even if he doesn’t believe you up front you can plant the seed so that when the time comes he will be more likely to accept it.”

  “And you think it might give him pause in planning a coup,” the Captain said flatly.

  “That too,” the advisor responded.

  After a moment the Captain said, “What else? You said there were two things I needed to know.”

  “Yes well, now that you understand the situation you need to realize that we may not have much time. The second thing you need to know has to do with your mother.”

  “Yes?”

  “She was poisoned.”

  Chapter twenty-five

  LEUTENANT MONICA STILES

  Formulating a Plan

  48 Hours Earlier

  To be aboard a ship that was parked in orbit around Celcium was enough to make Monica’s skin crawl. She wanted no reminders of her former life; so how had she wound up second in command of the ship captained by the third in line for the throne, parked next to the ship that was captained by his sister who was the second in line for the throne?

  The danger to her being found out and apprehended by the heir apparent was palpable, but she wasn’t scared; she was mad.

  She was mad at everything the Empire represented and she hated the political intrigue.

  Or did she?

  There’s no question that she resented what had been done to her. There’s no question that the events of the last year or so had opened her eyes to the unfairness of the Empire. And even though her first attempt at intrigue had gotten her exiled to the armpit of the galaxy, the thought of Prince Acamar’s embarrassment still buoyed her. Her mission on the C.E.S. Vindicator would’ve paralyzed a younger version of herself. Yet she had played her role and walked into danger with a newfound confidence that had surprised even her.

  Intrigue. She mulled the word over in her mind. Imperial intrigue was a high-stakes game and the odds were it would end only one way but she was starting to think that maybe she had a flair for it. She certainly had a great mentor to learn from.

  Captain Alyster Acamar handled intrigue as if he were born to it which, of course, he was.

  She hadn’t seen through the Captain’s façade until he’d wanted her to. She realized that. Why he’d wanted her to, why he’d chosen her, why he’d decided to trust her was a question she still didn’t have all the answers for. The Captain played his intrigue by presenting himself as a bumbling fool to the outside world. The very fact that he could do this separated him from the arrogance and ego of Imperial insiders. No one would ever believe he wasn’t a fool because no one could stand the thought of being disrespected that way; it just wasn’t something you would ever do to yourself. As much as she hated to admit it she was no better; this was a tactic she’d never be able to emulate.

  She had too much pride to act the fool.

  No, if she was to play at intrigue she would have to find her own niche. Fortunately, she had some ideas.

  ΔΔΔ

  As satisfying as it might be to dwell on the unfairness of the Empire it couldn’t occupy her full attention.

  As important as it was to think about what kind of future she wanted… she found herself bored out of her mind.

  She couldn’t contact any of her friends groundside, and the fact is there just wasn’t that much to do while she waited for the Captain to return.

  She found herself thinking about the Ensign.

  He was a handsome enough man, in a common sort of way. He didn’t have the aristocratic beauty that the Captain or his brother had – thank god!

  She’d never really given him much notice until their mission on the Vindicator.

  Actually, it was the debriefing after the mission that had impressed her.

  She’d never noticed how strong he was.

  It was a good thing she was in her cabin because she’d laughed out loud at the thought. When she thought of Jac it was the word naïve that had always come to mind – and she couldn’t stand people that were naïve…

  No, that wasn’t true. She resented people that were naïve. As she thought about it though, she realized where it came from – she’d been told that what you dislike in others is usually what you don’t like in yourself.

  She hated the part of herself that had been so naïve to Eridanus Acamar. To let herself be used that way; to actually believe they had a future together…

  The funny thing is that most onlookers thought she’d been swooned by the idea of royalty. In truth, in hadn’t been that at all. She’d been won over by his confidence, his sophistication.

  Ever since she’d been a little girl growing up in the mountains with her dad she had been absolutely sure of herself. She knew how to cure hides and dress for the cold. She knew how much fuel needed to be collected for the family cabin to operate throughout the winter. She knew how to track the deadly hyenbeast and how to protect herself when it doubled back on her, which it inevitably would. Even the politics in the big cities were understandable - just unimportant to her.

  There was almost nothing on her home world that could shake her confidence, but life after The Academy had been a different story.

  Academy life itself had been different but she had managed it. It was when she had started travelling for biathlon competitions that things had really started to get weird. Suddenly she was the center of everyone’s attentions and friends had turned out not to be friends. She’d been smart enough to know that many were trying to manipulate her and she’d thought she’d had a handle on it. It had been devastating to realize they were all trying to use her.

  That was humiliating enough, but no… she’d had to debase herself one more time…

  When she’d first met the Prince of course she was guarded, but he didn’t try to ingratiate himself to her. He was so obviously not trying to win her affections that she had let her guard down.

  The most attractive thing about him, however, had been his ease and comfort in any situation. His self-confidence was natural. In the whirlwind circles of high Imperial society he had been an oasis of calm.

  Monica realized that her eyes were wet. It wasn’t a broken heart that angered her so, it was the embarrassment of her own naïveté. She may have developed a hard outside shell to protect herself, but even now the memory of it was strong enough to cause a reaction.

  So when she saw that same type of naïveté in others naturally she disdained it.


  Except… Jac was overcoming it.

  The Empire had ruthlessly exploited his inexperience and burned his brain beyond any standard measure to reinforce his loyalty and willingness to ignore inconsistencies, yet he had broken through it.

  And when she’d shot Torres in IS 417’s loading bay he’d reacted instantly to take down Simone.

  He had courage and guts. The fact that he’d also been naïve shouldn’t have blinded her to it, but it had.