The Last Spartan: Different Paths

by A. E. McCullough

  “Enter young one,” came the voice of Madam Aleksandra from inside the sacred chamber.

  Moving slowly into the room, Talia kept her eyes lowered as was the custom but she couldn’t resist peeking at her surroundings. The room was a simple square with two other doorways visible. The wall she entered through was draped in green silks, while the wall to her left was draped in red and to her right was draped in blue silks. The wall straight across was draped in yellow and along its center wall was a large stone tablet surrounded by four candles. In the center of the room was a low table carved entirely out of black marble and surrounded by pillows.

  Talia bowed low before her mistress. “You called madam?”

  Madam Aleksandra gestured at the table between them. “Read the cards. What do you see?”

  Talia saw that the cards were laid out in one of the most complex patterns known to the Sisterhood. However, it was one that she had studied in the Seminary, so she calmly sat herself at the table and began to count her breathing. Feeling herself fall into the meditative trance needed to read the cards properly, Talia held her hand momentarily over each card, feeling the meaning in the placement.

  “The hound of darkness shall harry the paladin of light and his fate shall rest on a knife’s edge.”

  Madam Aleksandra nodded her head in agreement. “That is nearly the exact interpretation I got when I read these cards.”

  “But what does it mean?”

  “My analysis? The bounty hunter Spartan is in trouble.”

  “What can we do about it? We have already warned him as much as the Directive allows, have we not?”

  Madam Aleksandra stood up and began to pace slowly around the room. Even agitated, her grace and poise was something to admire.

  “Talia Stargleam, I will be blunt. The Empire is in trouble and without the aid of the Terrans the Empire will fall. Every divination I have cast shows this to be true.” Stopping at the ancient stone tablet, Madam Aleksandra caressed its rough surface before continuing. “There is a great debate within the High Council concerning the Terrans. Many see them as the slaves of the past while others see them as the saviors of our future.”

  Turning back to face Talia, “I left the service of the Emperor over this debate. I could not sit by and watch others poison his mind any longer.”

  “But mistress, the Directive clearly states that we are not to directly intervene or aid the Terrans, only observe and guide through our wisdom.”

  “So it does,” Madam Aleksandra responded. Moving back to the table, she knelt down opposite her newest pupil. “Have you ever wondered why I asked for you to be posted here on Terra?”

  “The question had crossed my mind from time to time. I realize that I am barely out of the Seminary and yet I received this posting over more senior sisters.”

  Madam Aleksandra gestured at the cards. “Somehow your fate is intertwined with the paladin of light. See for yourself, turn the next card.”

  Doing as she was told, Talia drew the card and placed it in the proper spot in the layout. They were confronted by the image of two lovers intertwined in the act of fornication. The Lovers card signaled the union of two forces working together toward the same goal.

  Talia chewed on her lip slightly before she asked, “But mistress, if I aid the Terran won’t I be branded a traitor?”

  “Only if you fail.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Simple. If my fears are correct and you are successful, then no one on the Council would dare to speak out against you.”

  “And if I do fail?”

  “Then you will be dead and beyond caring.”

  Talia thought for a moment before asking, “Does this have something to do with my sister Medea?”

  “Yes. She was my finest pupil. She was more gifted than anyone currently sitting on the High Council and she was the most talented reader I have ever trained. However, she was a bit reckless and moved too soon. This allowed our enemies within the Empire to move against her.”

  “You are asking me to take up where she left off?”

  “Yes. I had hoped we would have more time together. I had expected to further your training but my friends in the Seminary assure me that you are the most capable and gifted student they have trained in a decade. I am forced to rely on their judgment because time is not on our side. Our enemies seek to move against Spartan this very evening. We must aid him or perish.”

  Madam Aleksandra reached over and drew the next card but held it face down. “This card holds the answer to any question your heart desires. All you have to do is give the question form and speak it aloud.”

  Talia absentmindedly chewed on a stray strand of hair as she contemplated the offered card. After a brief moment, she gingerly took the card. “But at what price?”

  Madam Aleksandra smiled ever so slightly. “You are indeed your sister’s sister. She asked the exact same question, so I will answer it the same way. Every gift has a price but truth is the cheapest. This question and answer are yours alone.”

  She pointed to the red door on her right. “If you choose to aid Spartan, everything you will need is behind that door.” Nodding her head toward the blue door she added, “If not, that door will lead you back to the library. I shall return to my chambers to await your decision. May the Living Stars shine on you now and always.”

  Standing, Madam Aleksandra moved out of the sanctum leaving Talia alone with her dilemma.

  Fearing to ask the wrong question, Talia thought about everything that Madam Aleksandra had told her. Of course, it did illuminate many things that had happened to her during the Seminary. She had always felt that there had been some sort of guiding hand in her training. Now she knew that to be true. However, the thought of the Empire failing was almost preposterous…almost.

  Since her graduation, she had seen the decadence and corruption that plagued her homeworld. Many Sylvans just wanted everything to stay the same or better yet, go back to how it was millennia ago but one thing that she had learned by watching the Terrans in the short time she had been on Earth, if you are not moving forward, then you are moving backwards. The only constant in the universe is change. Nothing stays the same...nothing.

  This of course led her back the question at hand, the card.

  One of the most gifted mystics of her people had given her a prophetic card. One that held the answer to any question she could fathom. She could ask anything, yet the grey eyes of Spartan kept coming back to haunt her thoughts. Seeing that as a sign from the Living Stars, Talia spoke softly to the darkness.

  “Is it my destiny to aid Spartan?”

  Flipping the card over, Talia let it fall to the center of the layout and was confronted by the image of the Chariot.

  The Charioteer is a man on the move and he’s in the driver’s seat, both literally and metaphorically. It is the card of forward motion and change. It depicts the timeless quest for exploration and conquest but it also embodies a certain amount of contradiction since it hints at an unstoppable destiny that can’t be avoided.

  With a simple nod, Talia moved to the red door and stepped through intent on confronting her destiny.

  CHAPTER 11

  Agent Smith hadn’t stopped talking since they climbed into the skimmer. The young agent was trying to impress the Galactic Marshals with greatly exaggerated tales of his detective skills and trying to regain some measure of confidence after the blow he’d received from the handcuffed bounty hunter.

  Iaido hadn’t really been listening but even so, his yapping was starting to grate on his nerves.

  Finally Cassius turned around and asked, “Don’t you ever shut up?”

  The shock on Agent Smith’s face at being spoken to in such a manner lasted all of about ten seconds before turning to a mixture of anger and embarrassment. Leaning forward in the chair, he pointed his finger at the small marshal. “Now listen here, you’re in my jurisdiction and at my request. All I have to do is snap my fingers and….”

&n
bsp; Whatever threat he was going to make died as Cassius shoved a ten inch piece of metal into Agent Smith’s neck. The dying agent grasped feebly at the protruding knife as his life blood spewed all over the cabin, including covering Iaido’s keikogi.

  Cassius looked over at Iaido and winked. “Damn he was annoying!”

  The driver began bouncing the skimmer all over the air lanes. It bucked so violently that Iaido had to use his recently freed hands to hold himself in place.

  Brutus noticed his freed hands through the rear view mirror and gestured towards them with his head when he asked, “How long?”

  Iaido shrugged. “Before we were three blocks from the dojo.”

  Brutus smiled slightly to himself as he took the skimmer into a steep dive. Warning lights flashed red all across the instrument panel. Pulling up sharply on the controls, the skimmer leveled out a few feet above the colossal rock of granite known as Stone Mountain. Landing heavily, the landing gear collapsed under the strain. Before the damaged ship came to a complete stop, all four doors popped open and the two Marshals leapt out.

  Iaido shifted his position slightly but was still inside the doomed craft.

  “I guess the story will be that I killed Agent Smith with a knife that I had hidden in my keikogi. During the struggle inside the skimmer, you were forced to make a crash landing here on Stone Mountain and regrettably of course, I was killed in your attempt to recapture me. How did I do?”

  Cassius nodded his approval. “That’s almost exactly how I was planning on writing this in my report. Of course, I will add how we tried to talk you down, even after your brutal murder of a federal agent but eventually we had to shoot you.”

  Iaido snickered. “Unarmed? That will do wonders for your career.”

  Cassius pulled out a second pistol and tossed it to Iaido’s feet.

  “I never said you weren’t armed. In the struggle with Agent Smith, you were able to get his service blaster and so, regrettably of course, we had to blow you away.”

  Looking down at the gun at his feet, Iaido could tell it wasn’t a standard issue blaster but a Peregrine Disruptor Mark II from the distinctive flaring of the barrel ports.

  The PDMkII was a close combat sidearm that fired a beam of energy that was deadly up to fifteen meters. The main advantage of the disruptor over other blasters was its capacity to disable or kill its targets. With a disruptor there were hardly any minor wounds. Disruptors were originally developed for medical use; the beam was designed to re-align the molecules of a wound causing them to knit back faster. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The energy beam caused some sort of feedback in the atoms of its targets, causing them to fly away from each other. This tended to take several seconds but when it did, the target area would literally explode, causing a wound nearly one-hundred times the size of the beam. For example, a soldier struck in the shoulder area with a standard blaster would be severely injured but still slightly functional and could return to combat after seeking medical aid. The same wound with a disruptor would cause the soldier to lose the affected arm and possibly die from blood loss and shock.

  It was said to be extremely painful and had been outlawed by the UNCF for nearly three decades for being inhumane, although many were still found in use in the outer regions. Unfortunately, disruptors were slow to fire and also known to be unreliable. They needed a lot of maintenance to keep in good working order. A misfire in a disruptor usually sent the energy blast back through the weapon engulfing the weapon and shooter.

  Reaching down, Iaido slowly picked up the disruptor. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Marshal Brutus had moved into a flanking position armed with a large bore carbine and had it trained on his chest. Without taking his eyes off Marshal Cassius, Iaido began to breakdown the pistol.

  “You don’t mind do you?”

  Cassius shrugged. “Not at all, I would do the same.”

  “So, I guess this is the end of the line for me?”

  Cassius nodded, “Yep. It’s a shame really. I’ve always wanted to meet you.”

  “Really?” By this time Iaido had the disruptor broken down into its three basic parts; barrel, energy cell and frame but needed more time so he kept the marshal talking.

  “Why is that?”

  Cassius scoffed at the question. “You’re a legend. Achilles the invincible warrior; your exploits before and on Gilese are legendary.”

  Using his handcuffs as a jumper between the positive and negative connections of the energy cell, Iaido could already feel it starting to heat up. Dropping the energy cell inside the skimmer’s back door, Iaido moved towards the edge of the cliff.

  “I haven’t gone by that name since Gilese. In many ways Achilles died on that mountainside with the rest of Omega Squadron.”

  Cassius shifted slightly closer to the skimmer to get a better angle on Iaido. “Judging from your actions since then I would have to agree. The funny thing is you weren’t even supposed to be involved.”

  “But I am…the moment you killed the Sgt. Major I became involved.”

  Cassius shook his head. “But we didn’t, we planned on killing him but his wife had already done the job for us before we arrived. We’ve just been cleaning up loose ends since then; the Fed, you and the gypsy next.”

  Taking a gamble that the marshal wouldn’t shoot him in the back, Iaido turned away and scanned the terrain down this side of the mountain. It was steep but a rapid descent looked survivable and there would be cover for his escape. With the beginning elements of a plan forming Iaido asked, “So…you and I are going to have a shootout like two gunslingers in the Ancient West?”

  “That’s the plan. I realize that you would rather have a blade in your hand but this is my fantasy, not yours.”

  Iaido gestured toward the second marshal. “And if I win?”

  “It won’t happen old timer, I am the fastest Myrmidon ever designed. According to the official records my reflexes are even faster than you or your brother.”

  “Really?”

  Cassius nodded toward his left. “Look the crows have already arrived to feast on your carcass.”

  Iaido watched as Edgar landed on a nearby branch with a loud squawk.

  “Actually, it’s a raven. There’s a difference.”

  “Semantics.” The Marshal shifted his weight slightly and lowered his right hand over the blaster in his holster in the classic gunslinger pose. “Now, are you ready to die old timer?”

  At that moment the disruptor energy cell overloaded and exploded inside the skimmer; which in turn ruptured the fuel cells causing them to explode. The flying wreckage knocked Cassius to the ground. Brutus was further from the blast but still ducked to avoid some flying debris which was all the distraction Iaido needed.

  Launching the disruptor barrel sidearm, Iaido watched as it spun end over end until it struck the larger marshal right in the forehead and knocked him to the ground. Without hesitation, Iaido leapt off the ledge.

  The descent down the mountainside was somewhere between a controlled run and long stumble. If it weren’t for the scrub bushes and trees along the way, Iaido would’ve fallen an untold number of times but Edgar’s cawing would lead him toward more passable area of the mountain. When Iaido reached the bottom of the mountain, he wasn’t surprised to find Talia sitting astride a black motorcycle with the raven perched on the handlebars.

  However, the change in her appearance did surprise him. Gone was the fancy, formal attire. In its place, she wore a tight fitting black leather outfit with matching boots and jacket. Her waist long silver hair was pulled back and braided.

  “How did you know?”

  “The cards never lie.” Talia said as she flashed him a crooked grin. “Actually, it was Madam Aleksandra’s cards. She foretold that you would need assistance at this spot and at this time. She is a very gifted reader.” With a nod toward the mountain she asked, “Are they dead?”

  Edgar launched himself as Iaido approached. “I doubt it. They are merely stunn
ed and without a vehicle for the moment.”

  “Then we should be off.” Firing up the bike, the engine’s deep throaty roar echoed off the rocks.

  Iaido pulled off the bloody keikogi top and tossed it aside as he climbed on behind her. He slipped on a set of tac-goggles which allowed the rider to interface with the machine and the traffic control grid of New Atlanta as Talia pulled onto the main road which lead out of the National Park.

  Although a great majority of New Atlanta residents used the mass transit system, nearly one fifth of its residents still used their own private transportation. For those with the funds, this meant skimmers or speeders; the major difference between the two was the height and range at which they could travel. Speeders had to stay within twenty feet of the ground which allowed them more flexibility than ground based vehicles but still less than a skimmer which was only limited by the atmosphere. Of course, both speeders and skimmers flight paths were strictly controlled and regulated by the Central Traffic Control Grid more commonly known as Central.

  Ground based vehicles were also monitored and regulated to a degree. The main freeways were strictly controlled, once on the freeway the driver only controlled which exit he or she wanted. The side streets weren’t controlled but regulated, speed and traffic patterns mostly. If letting your vehicle speed up spread out the traffic and cause less problems, then that’s what Central would do, or vice versa. However, motorcycles were completely different; Central Control didn’t like them since they were the only vehicle which operated independent of the grid.

  Tapping into the bike’s control panel, Iaido set up a secure feed to Talia’s tac-net helmet and asked, “Not that I’m complaining but where are we going?”

  “Not sure, I’m just trying to put distance between us and them.”

  “Okay. Change of plans, take this exit.” Iaido directed Talia down several side streets while using the comlink in the tac-goggles to contact Diana. “Hey doll, I need your skills.”