“The store’s still open in back. Take whatever you think you’ll need.”
“Your client won’t mind missing some clothing? Although, whoever it is has some…interesting…taste in fashion.”
Galen chuckled.
“He won’t mind at all,” he explained. “He’s a well-known female impersonator on Haljaco, but you definitely look better in those clothes than he ever will. Under the circumstances, he’d probably consider it an honor to contribute to the cause. And if he doesn’t, I’ll cut him a discount on my delivery fees.”
“That’s nice of you.”
“Not really, it’ll be the same percentage I already overcharge him on my delivery fees,” he added a wink and got rewarded with another smile before she headed off to pack.
“Galen Dwyn flirting,” Cassandra chirped. “I never thought I’d live to see the day.”
“I’m just trying to make her feel better,” he protested.
“Sure, boss, you keep telling yourself that one.”
“Shouldn’t you be opening the screen below so we can park under the camouflage instead of on top of it?”
“It’s already open.”
He looked out the window and saw that it was in fact open and ready to receive the Tempest.
“Good,” he covered. “Now take us in and get us undercover before someone spots us.”
“Yes, Boss, right away, Boss.”
He didn’t bother telling her to shut up. She probably would just ignore him anyway.
* * * * *
“You weren’t kidding,” Rhiannon remarked as she stepped off the ramp outside the ship. She had found another pair of sandals and a sundress for her excursion out into Belisama. “This place is amazing. And it’s all yours?”
“All mine,” he said. “It’s handy when the heat is on, and I need to lay low; or there’s nothing going on at all, and I need to get out of the ship for a while.”
Building the beach house in such a way that it literally melted into the trees as far as overhead visitors were concerned had been a chore. The Tempest’s hiding hole was only a few dozen feet away, in case he needed to affect a hasty exit. The house itself was only six rooms; but they were spacious, and the place was well-stocked. It really was a perfect place to lay low or just take a break—or to hide a Princess easily recognized anywhere else.
“That view,” Rhiannon exclaimed, gazing at a large, white sandy beach and nothing but blue water and a blue sky occasionally dotted by a fluffy white cloud. She fixed him with an odd look that he couldn’t decipher. “I’ll bet you impress every woman you bring out here.”
“I’ve never brought anyone out here,” he replied, heading over to where he kept the water skimmer stored. “Until today.”
He pushed on the trunk of a tall tree with huge fronds, twice to the north then a hard tug to the south. A large clicking sound seemed to bubble out of the ground. Out on the beach, the sand parted, and a water skimmer rose up, just on the edge of the surf.
“Come on,” he said as he walked over to the skimmer. “Let’s go introduce you to my mentor.”
“You keep your skimmer buried under the sand?”
“Can you think of a better way to announce that an uninhabited island is in fact inhabited than leaving a skimmer out in plain sight?”
“I guess I can’t,” she admitted.
He gave her a “there you go” shrug and boarded the skimmer, holding out a hand to help her climb aboard. Within a minute, they were racing across the surface toward the mainland, which was just now showing on the horizon.
* * * * *
“Galen Dwyn!” the old man exclaimed as he got out of his chair, a look of pure pleasure on his face. “And traveling with a fair maiden, too. To what do I owe the honor, my boy.”
The old man embraced Galen, clapping him on the back a few times.
“My need for your wisdom,” Galen replied. “Lir Fiachra, professor of history and mythology, may I present to you…”
“The late Princess Rhiannon Muriel Neasa,” Lir finished. “Who is looking quite well for someone who is supposed to be recently departed, I must say.
“Oh don’t give me that look, boy,” he scolded Galen. “We may be way out in the backwaters, but we still get the news out here. It is my pleasure to meet you, your highness,” Lir bowed, took Rhiannon’s hand and kissed it lightly.
“I’m happy to meet you to, sir,” she replied with a genuine smile at the old man’s courtesy. “But I don’t appear to be official royalty any longer.”
“Posh!” Lir gave her a dose of scold this time. “You’ll always be royalty.”
“I tried to tell her that,” Galen said.
“Yes, but I probably did it a lot nicer than you,” Lir shot back with mock glare that Galen only smiled at. “Your idea of being nice is to hit someone over the head with a club instead of a brick.”
“He wasn’t quite so gruff about it,” Rhiannon admitted.
“Really? You getting soft in your old age, Galen?”
“If we could get to the more pressing matter at hand?” Galen tried to steer the conversation back to the question of what he was going to do next.
“Of course,” Lir flashed a conspiratorial wink at Rhiannon. “You’re here with a presumed dead Princess, which means you probably can’t take her back to Salacia, for some unknown reason. You also, for some other unknown reason, can’t figure out who you can go to. Which means you’re caught up in something political and that anyone you turn to could be, and probably will be, the wrong person to trust. And you hope I can come up with a brilliant idea to save the day?”
“Something like that,” Galen admitted, holding out a data chip. “Here’s all the information I have.”
Lir slipped the chip into his monitor and watched the series of recordings intently. Rhiannon found something of interest on the other side of the room, clearly not wanting to have to hear it all again. Galen split his time watching Lir for any reaction and keeping an eye on her.
“Well,” Lir said when he finished. “My boy, you are screwed.”
“Tell me something I don’t know, old man.”
“I can see one way out.”
“Well, don’t keep us waiting,” Galen prodded as Rhiannon walked back to the desk.
“You two get on your ship, point it directly in the opposite direction of Salacia, and take off. Don’t ever turn around either, just keep flying. They’ll never catch up with you if you start now.”
“You mean run,” Galen asked.
“It’s the only way you two will stay alive,” Lir replied. “And you’ll live a lot longer that way than if you try to go back. Even if you could get her to Napat, get him to believe her story, and get the Senate to believe it too, the Bata’van will be waiting for you.”
“That was a long time ago,” Galen dismissed.
“They have very long memories,” Lir shot back. “If you go back, you’ll have to surrender your ship and your weapons before they’d let you get anywhere close to being on the same planet with the Chancellor. You’d be a sitting duck, and they won’t be so reluctant to come for you if you’ve been defanged and declawed.
“Besides, Napat may not survive this even if you got to him,” Lir continued. “The Senate will be in session soon and word has it that Napat is done. Don’t you see, Galen, the odds are too high against you this time. You’ve got no choice but to take her and run.”
“Not an option for her,” Galen said.
“You mean she won’t run, or you won’t let her,” Lir asked sharply.
“Excuse me,” Rhiannon tried to get in.
“I. Won’t. Let. Her. Old man,” Galen said as quiet as a thunderstorm.
“Excuse me,” Rhiannon said a little louder this time. “But I believe I’m the one who makes that decision for me.”
Galen looked at her grimly.
“You really want to live the rest of your life that way? Even if we headed for deep space, even if we got lucky and found ways t
o resupply along the way, we’d spend every day looking over our shoulders. And every minute of it spent wondering if anyone was going to be standing there with a gun in their hand every time we looked. Is that really what you want?”
“No,” she said, a quiet counterstroke to his storm. “No it isn’t. Not for either of us.”
She turned her head to look at Lir.
“I’m not going to run.”
“Atta, girl,” Lir burst out laughing. “Now that I’ve told you want any sensible person would do, I’ll tell you what you’re going to do.”
“I’m going to Salacia and kill Iodocus,” Galen announced.
Even Lir looked shocked.
“That wasn’t what I had in mind,” Lir said when he recovered his voice.
“Why not?” Galen replied, talking more to himself than the others. “Kill Iodocus and the whole plan collapses, doesn’t it? With him gone, the whole reason to hunt Rhiannon down dies with him. Maybe even the plot against Napat would collapse with no one to step into the vacuum?”
“Galen,” Lir pleaded, “you’re talking about cold-bloodedly killing her father. Even after what he’s done to her, how can you expect her to sanction that?”
“That’s right,” she agreed. “Whatever he’s done, he’s still my father…”
“A father who put you into the clutches of a monster?” Galen fired back. “A father who tried to have you killed for political expediency? You would call that a father?”
“Galen,” Lir placed a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “Not everyone had the kind of childhood you did. Most children can forgive their parents for much that would outrage an outsider. This isn’t the way, my boy, and you know it.”
“It’s the only way to ensure she lives,” Galen said, heading for the door.
“Where are you going?” Lir asked, alarmed.
“I can’t fly to Salacia in the Tempest,” he replied as he opened the door. “I know a pilot on the other side of the mainland who can help me get another ship.” He looked at the Princess. “Stay here with Lir until I get back. You’ll be safe.”
He was out the door and gone before she could utter a word of protest. Lir sat down heavily.
“He really isn’t going to…”
“Yes, my dear, he really is. The galaxy’s greatest unstoppable force and the gods help anyone who thinks they are an immovable object and tries to stand in his way. How long have you known him?”
“Only a few days,” she replied.
“Well, you must have made quite the impression,” Lir observed with a sad shake of his head. “I’ve never seen him like this before, especially not over a woman. He’s made a decision, my lady. He’s decided you must live in this universe, no matter how many men he has to kill to ensure your survival.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“How long have you known him?” Rhiannon asked while they waited for Galen to return.
“Since he was an orphan boy of six cycles,” Lir replied, smiling at the memory. “At least, that is what they estimated his age was when they hauled him in off the streets. Mind you, it took four grown men to do it. But they brought him to the Academy because they didn’t know where else to take him. Not for his safety, mind you, but for others.
“I was an instructor there at the time, and I was present when they brought him in,” Lir continued. “To be honest, at first I thought he was a hopeless case. Who knew how long he’d been abandoned to the streets to fend for himself. We never did find out who his parents were or even what planet he was born on. All we know is that he is definitely of the Hominid species.”
“But the DNA scans would have discovered that?”
“Yes, you would think they would, wouldn’t you?” Lir agreed. “But they didn’t. It was as if whoever dropped him off on Levendi had erased all traces of his heritage. What caught my attention was the reports of his having organized some of the other discarded children. They called them street rats back then, and he was seeing to it that they all got fed. He organized the theft rings they used to obtain what food and clothes they needed. A boy of just six cycles, mind you, doing all that!”
Lir shook his head and chuckled.
“Crime syndicates should be as efficient as his little mob was,” Lir carried on with his narrative. “I thought I recognized something in the boy. Something you are either born with or you’re not. Something that can’t be trained into existence either. He had the soul of a Knight. He was using his might and his skill not for avarice or for some perverse pleasure in being evil. He was using might for right. To provide food, shelter and safety for those who could not provide such things for themselves. I knew then that I had to find a way to reach that core, nurture it, shape it into a force for good like the Knights of old.”
“It looks like you didn’t quite succeed,” she observed.
“Oh, my dear lady, I succeeded all too well,” Lir shook his head. “A Knight of old would charge right into the mouth of hell and slay the dragon to save his lady fair. Which is exactly what he has in mind right now.
“No, I started him on this path cycles ago,” Lir got up and walked around the desk. “It took a good cycle to get the boy to trust me while the rest of the Bata’van did their damnedest to break him. But he wouldn’t break. Oh, he became the best of his class, yes. Became feared on the training field and even more so in actual battle. But they never touched that core, the one I meticulously encouraged and strengthened. And then…”
“What happened?” she asked when Lir fell silent.
“Some idiot decided to let a sadist hook Galen up to a Jakamal,” Lir all but spat the words out. “It was standard training, to help the cadet resist actual torture in the field. There were limits to what was supposed to be done.”
Rhiannon shivered, remembering her own experience with the device, and felt a flood of sympathy for the young Galen.
“The operator went way too far with Galen, then erased the memory on both units so the damage could not be fully undone. The medicos did what they could, but they couldn’t get it all out. I still have my own nightmares of his screams at night…”
She shivered again, harder.
“Forgive me my dear,” Lir said, understanding the cause of her shivering. “I did not mean to remind you of your own experience with that thrice-be-damned machine.”
“What happened after that?” she said trying to get her mind of those dark memories.
“The sadist presented the case as an experiment,” Lir said in disgust. “And he received a nice promotion. I should have realized what was going to happen next. Perhaps in a dark corner of my mind, I wanted it to happen. One night, Galen decided that he’d had just about enough of the Academy and the Bata’van.
“He slew his assaulter with the man’s own Sabre, walked out onto the flight line, and selected a cargo ship—you know it now by the name Tempest—and took off. They sent men and ships out after him, of course. I tried to warn them not to do so, to let him go and count their blessings that he’d been satisfied with the one killing, but they didn’t listen to me. For two cycles, they pursued Galen. No ship sent out ever returned. No man within any of those ships was ever heard from again.”
Lir let the silence hang for a few seconds.
“I argued Galen’s case all the way up the chain of command. That he’d been driven to his actions by the assault and the Service’s lack of disciplinary action against his assaulter. But the dead man had ‘political connections’ and they wanted Galen hunted down and punished. After a cycle of arguing his case, the upper echelon at the Academy decided my services were no longer required.”
Lir sat back down with a shrug.
“So, I came out here to teach history and mythology to young inquiring minds not being trained to be killers. Galen showed up one day a few cycles later. The Bata’van had finally given up pursuing him. Seems it was becoming too costly for them to chase after one man. From time-to-time he drops in, and we talk. He won’t admit it, of course, but I think
he enjoys my stories of the Galactic Knights of the old galaxy even if he doesn’t believe that they are true.”
“The Galactic Knights of the old galaxy?”
“Oh, my dear, they were a great force to behold,” Lir said, his face lighting up as he spoke on the subject. “They stood for all of the good things, might for right was not just a collection of empty words to them. Those words were their very lifeblood. Wherever evil arose, they were there to face it. Whenever an injustice was done, they were there to make it a right.
“When the great darkness closed in on the old galaxy, where all life originated,” he continued, “they stood against it, buying time for the old galaxy to be evacuated. Down to the last Knight, they gave their lives so that we Hominids could be brought here to the Andromeda Galaxy and survive.”
“I’ve never heard of these stories before,” she said. “It sounds so…fantastic.”
“But true,” Lir insisted. “Our species originated on a world called Eden, though some claim it was called Earth, millions of cycles ago. This Eden was located in a galaxy we used to be able to see in our night sky. Those that called it home named it the Murky Way, and Hominids populated every corner of it.
“Then the dark force arrived, and nothing could stand against it for long,” Lir continued. “Legends say a mysterious race appeared and began clearing whole planets of their populations and bringing them to this galaxy, every planet was cleared, save Eden. It is said Eden and everything living upon it, along with its parent star suddenly vanished. These aliens hid something the dark force was seeking somewhere on Eden and sent it off somewhere in the dark space between galaxies and far, far away from our galaxy lest the evil be drawn here, too.”
“While this was going on, the Galactic Knights formed a line and held it against the dark force until the evacuation could be complete. Tens of thousands died on that line, led by the greatest Knight of them all, Galen Underwood.”
“Galen?”
“Yes, Galen, the very name I assigned to that young street rat years ago when he was brought in, as namelessas he was homeless and without family,” Lir admitted. “Galen Underwood was the last knight to fall, the legend says. His sword is floating somewhere out in space. If it is ever located, it will have his DNA on it. It would not surprise me in the least to be able to match that Galen’s DNA to that of our Galen. They are cut from the same cloth.”
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