The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy

by Greta van Der Rol

  “Already on the way, Sir.”

  He forced himself to breathe, calm down. “She should recover. Ptorix disrupters aren’t designed to kill humans.” But they hurt, they jangled nerves. She arched against him, white-faced, moaning in pain. All he could do was hold her close, close to his heart.I love you, Allysha .

  He laid her on the stretcher himself, watched as they strapped her down, still twitching, tossing her head from side to side. Galbraith hovered, dithered next to him, wanting his attention. Damn it, he couldn’t leave her; not now.

  “President Galbraith, I’m going with her.”

  Galbraith frowned. “Admiral, we have some matters to—”

  “Senior Commander Butcher should be able to answer any further questions. If not, he can contact me.

  I’ll return as soon as I can.”

  He followed the stretcher out to a waiting ambulance and climbed into the back beside the attendant.

  The woman shot him a glance, thought better of whatever she was going to say and busied herself with

  the equipment instead. Saahren held Allysha’s twitching hand while the medic fitted an oxygen mask over her face and attached diagnostic patches.

  “Heart rate’s erratic. That’s the biggest factor. We need to relax her, stop those spasms.”

  At Malmos General Hospital she was installed into a private room. He watched their every move as she

  was transferred to the bed. Her breathing had steadied but the heart monitor was attached to assist her if needed. She shivered but not from cold. He could feel the tiny convulsions against his fingers where he held her hand in his.

  “She’ll be okay, Admiral. Just a day or two and she should be fine.” The senior doctor stood beside

  him. “Disrupters aren’t—”

  “I know. I’ll stay for a little while, if I may.”

  The man shrugged. “Sure. Let the nurse know if you need anything.”

  The door soughed closed behind him, leaving him alone with her. Colored lines traced across the screen, too jagged, too uneven, too many peaks and troughs. He couldn’t even hear her breathe, just see the

  slight, rhythmic rise and fall of the sheet over her breast, feel the jump of her pulse at her wrist.

  Her face was almost as white as the sheet. If he looked closely, he could see the muscles twitching under the skin of her face. God, after all she’d been through to have this happen at the last hurdle. And for him.

  His heart aching he pushed a strand of hair back from her cheek. She’d taken a shot for him, protected him. She loved him; she had to, even if she wouldn’t admit it.

  Her eyes opened so suddenly it startled him. The green looked different; not new leaves, more that livid green you saw sometimes on ponds. Fear stabbed into his soul. Maybe something had gone wrong.

  “Allysha? Are you all right? I’ll call for a nurse—”

  “Brad? Admiral?” Her voice was a whisper. Her fingers tightened on his hand with surprising strength.

  She looked up at him, into his face, into his eyes. “You’re all right. I’m so glad. I… he was going to kill you. I’m so glad.”

  Her face blurred. “It’ll be okay,” he said, blinking away the moisture. “The doctors say you’ll make a full recovery.”

  Her eyes closed. On the monitor, the lines smoothed, settled. Smiling, he placed her hand carefully on the sheet beside her, bent over her and kissed her on the lips.

  “I’ll, be back when I can, darling. I love you.”

  ****

  Sitting up in bed, head against a pile of pillows, Allysha chewed thoughtfully on a piece of toast. She had a room to herself in what she’d learnt was Malmos General Hospital. She’d watched the news. The

  Confederacy military was absolved from direct involvement in the Brjyl incident and the press was

  baying

  for an apology from Governor Anxhou. A few other things, too, that she hadn’t understood. Like the fact that Tesso’s attack wasn’t mentioned.

  She put the breakfast tray on the table next to the bed and held out an arm, fingers stiff. Steady, not even a tremor. The doctor had said if the tremors were gone, she should be able to check out of the hospital this afternoon. She did most sincerely hope so, if only to get out of this dreadful, shapeless, sexless hospital gown. Sunlight streamed in through the window. It would be good to get some sun on her face

  again, instead of wind, rain and spaceship air; feel the grass under bare feet.

  The door slid aside. A visitor. The doctor?

  Saahren. She shoved down the momentary flush of pleasure. She didn’t want to see him; she didn’t. She wished with all her heart that he really was Sergeant Stone. But he wasn’t and she must never, never

  forget that. Besides, he’d certainly taken his time coming to see her.

  He came in and sat down. As usual, he filled the room with his presence. “How are you?”

  “Fine.” It was true. The shoulder itched a little but that was all. She stretched out her hand to show him.

  “Steady as a rock.”

  “Very good.” He took a deep breath. “Disrupters work better on ptorix than on humans, but even so,

  the shock may well have killed me if it had hit my chest.”

  A spot on the wall was suddenly more interesting than him. “Don’t ask me why I did it. I didn’t think.

  Maybe I just felt too many people around me had died. I watched the news but they didn’t mention

  Tesso. What happened? To Daizhen? And Tesso?”

  “Daizhen is dead. Marratrax restrained Tesso. He’s been taken into custody and will probably be

  returned to Ullnish to stand trial. The incident wasn’t mentioned because we didn’t want any other excuse for an inter-species riot.” He smiled faintly. “It’s called politics.”

  She sighed. “Why? Why did Tesso kill Daizhen? And try to kill you?”

  “Do you know what Daizhen said to Tesso before he went berserk?”

  She nodded. “He said ‘Lord Anxhou will not take this lightly. Neither will I, human.’”

  Saahren scratched at his scar. “That’s the way of it. Remember I told you what happened to Anxhou’s

  son after Forenisi?”

  She nodded.

  “Daizhen would probably have been executed. He knew that. Either he was going to make sure that

  Tesso shared his pain or possibly he was going to offer Tesso to Anxhou as the real culprit.” He paused.

  “Me… well, if he killed me, Anxhou would probably give him a medal. I just think at that point, the man had lost his senses completely and forgot that he had no chance of getting out of the building.”

  “Why did he go himself? To Brjyl, I mean?”

  “I don’t expect we’ll ever really know. My guess is he wanted to be involved in something daring. He’d probably arranged the forgeries of the Qerran authorizations and thought he’d make a hero of himself.”

  “Huh.” Allysha remembered the little man in the conical costume. Mister Cone. “Yes, I can believe that.

  What else has happened?”

  “Well, I’ve just had word that McKinley’s won a no confidence motion, so the Government has fallen.

  They’ll call new elections very soon.” Saahren grinned at Allysha’s expression. “It means President

  Galbraith has lost his job.”

  “What about the warship in Qerran orbit?”

  “It will take a day or two but I’m certain Anxhou will withdraw the ship.” He frowned. “Make no

  mistake, Anxhou is implicated in this up to the top of his conical head. But he’ll blame Tesso and Daizhen and claim it had nothing to do with him. He’ll apologize to the Suldan and withdraw with dignity. Until next time.”

  “So everything’s back to normal and I can go home.”

  “Not quite normal.”

  Allysha stared at him. What now? All she wanted was to go home, talk to Xanthor and sort herself out.

  “What?”
/>   “Didn’t you wonder how Marratrax knew your name?”

  “Yes?”

  “The Qerran authorities know you were involved in an incident that led to the death of a ptorix worker at Shernish University.”

  Heendrax. She sighed.

  “Nothing official will come of that,” Saahren continued, “we explained the circumstances. The Qerrans agree with us that public knowledge of the virus is unwise. However, lots of people knew you were

  there. If you return immediately, there’s likely to be a public outcry.”

  She pushed both hands through her hair, eyes closed. “And I suppose nobody wants to admit Admiral

  Saahren was with me.”

  “It would be unwise.”

  Her hands dropped onto the covers. “What you’re telling me is I can’t go home.”

  He’d folded his arms. “I’m sorry.”

  “Are you? Are you really? Isn’t that what you wanted?”

  He chuckled. “I suppose so, yes. But come on, Allysha. You can’t pretend to hate me if you’re willing to sacrifice yourself to save me from injury.”

  She pulled a face. “I don’t know why I did it. I didn’t want you hurt, but that doesn’t mean I like you.”

  It meant she needed to think about everything that had happened since she left Shernish only a few

  weeks before, find out what was real and what was manipulation, understand the truth.

  “Of course not,” he said.

  “What about Sean?”

  A shadow passed across Saahren’s face. “We’re looking for him.”

  She felt a certain relief.

  “You’re far too tolerant of that… that….” He frowned. “Just in case you’re in the mood to protect him a little further, you should know that he sold your house and cleaned out your bank accounts before you left Carnessa.”

  Her heart jolted. “What?” That couldn’t be true. If it was, she’d be in trouble. “Let me see.”

  “Pick up the report from my implant.”

  It showed the sparse facts; credits to Sean’s account, where the money came from, the amounts.

  “The bastard! The two timing, conniving, insufferable bastard! So that’s where he got the credits to

  gamble.”

  She felt used, manipulated, stupid, naive. He’d left her with nothing; nothing. She’d go home to Shernish and have to start all over again. She’d have to borrow just to pay rent.

  “I’m surprised that you didn’t at least have a separate bank account,” Saahren said, eyebrow cocked.

  “I’m not completely stupid. But he’s a good engineer. He fiddled my account.”

  “A good engineer, but not enough to do the job on Tisyphor.”

  “No. He’s not as good as me. Besides, he can’t work on Tor systems.”

  “And does he know how you do things? Without a keyboard?”

  “No. Father made me promise, I’m glad to say.” Too trusting, too honest. Stupid. Well, things were

  going to change. “I only told you because you already knew. What now?”

  He grinned and crossed one leg over the other. “Assuming you’re not ready to marry me—”

  “No.”

  The grin widened. “Will you at least work for me—or, more to the point, Admiral Leonov?”

  “Doing what?”

  “Your system skills are remarkable. There’s so much you could teach our experts.” He jagged his

  fingers around the word experts. “Teach them how to find the weaknesses in our security systems, how

  to match an InfoDroid; teach them how to think. And if there’s time, teach people some of the things you know about the ptorix—how to understand them better.”

  “I don’t want to stay here forever.” She didn’t want to stay here at all. But if she had no choice then…

  she needed the money.

  “I’m offering a contract, a business proposition, that’s all.” He paused. “Five months, Allysha, that’s all.

  Half a year with a competitive salary and accommodation thrown in.”

  “What sort of salary?”

  “Thirty thousand Confederacy credits.”

  Her jaw dropped. Thirty thousand credits.Thirty thousand . At home that would buy a house on the

  beach with plenty left over to furnish it. And these were Confederacy credits. She wondered what the

  exchange rate was.

  “At the moment, the exchange rate is about two point three.”

  She rubbed her hand across her face. Sixty nine thousand. She felt faint. “What about you? I wouldn’t have to work with you, would I?”

  His face showed no hint of what he thought. He was good at that. “I’ll be in space onArcturus . You’ll be here on Malmos. As I said, you’ll report to Vlad Leonov and you’ll work in there.”

  He jerked his head and went to stand at the window. Allysha slid out of the bed and padded over to join him, conscious of the shapeless white hospital gown slipping down one shoulder. Sunlight reflected off a multitude of towers that soared into the sky beyond the gardens surrounding the hospital. Malmos wasn’t the urban jungle she’d expected. Tall buildings, sky-lanes crowded with traffic, certainly, but large tracts of what appeared to be forest, with pathways and walkways separated the buildings, adding life and

  color.

  “See over there? Three tall towers with a number of lesser buildings around them?”

  She nodded. The three buildings formed the hub of a network, all connected together with walkways

  and bridges like a multi-layered spider’s web.

  “That’s the Fleet complex. You’ll work in the center building and we’ll get you an apartment in one of the blocks close by. The Parliamentary complex where we were the other day is just over there.” He

  pointed. “The city center—the shops and entertainment areas and so on—is over there.” He pointed at a cluster of buildings that seemed closer together.

  “It’s not what I expected.”

  Saahren looked down at her. “Malmos? What did you expect?”

  Allysha absently tugged the hospital gown back up her shoulder. She hadn’t actually thought much about the Confederacy’s capital, beyond an impression.

  “Claustrophobic, I guess. A crowded city. Lots of tall buildings, lots of people, lots of vehicles. Not much room.”

  He smiled. “They try to keep a balance. The city coexists with the planet. But as you can see,” he waved a hand at the multitude of vehicles traveling past in ordered lanes, “there’s plenty of traffic, even if most people do use public transport.”

  She pulled at her lip. She’d made up her mind, really. It seemed she had little choice, but she wasn’t prepared to concede quite so quickly. “Can I talk to Lord Marratrax? Just to confirm what you told

  me?”

  His smile surprised her. “Very good, Allysha. Don’t believe everything you’re told. I’ll arrange for him to come by here.”

  “No, thanks. I want to have something reasonable to wear.” She sat down on the edge of the bed. “And

  I expect I still have a pretty necklace.”

  “I’ll have Butcher book you into a hotel for now and arrange for Vlad’s wife to help you with wardrobes and such… And yes, your neck is still bruised but Marratrax knows about that. It won’t hurt for him to see what was done to you.”

  “How much does Marratrax know?”

  “Everything. He’s a most reasonable ptorix. Well, Allysha? Do you accept, at least on principle?” He

  stood beside her, looking down at her with that familiar half smile.

  “If I’m anything, I’m pragmatic.” She shrugged. “I have no choice. Book me into a hotel, give me a

  chance to talk to Marratrax and get me a copy of your contract. I’ll read it tonight and subject to details, I’ll sign it tomorrow.” She’d earn his thirty thousand, go home to Carnessa and look after Allysha for a change.

  He hadn’t gone. “Tell me, do you remember me
visiting you before?’

  Before? “No. You haven’t been here before.”

  His lips curved in a slow smile. What was he thinking? What had she missed?

  “I came here an hour after you were admitted. You spoke to me.”

  She searched her memory. No, the last person she’d seen was the nurse to help her to the shower.

  “You did? I don’t remember.”

  His smile widened. “I love you, Allysha.” He walked out, leaving a vacuum.

  She punched the pillow with a clenched fist. Damn it. Love was one thing; common sense was another.

  She’d get over him. In time.

  ****

  Saahren closedthe door behind him and leant back against it for a moment, the metal cool against his

  hands. So far, so good. The Admiral was satisfied; now for Chaka Saahren.

  Patience; that was all it needed; time for her to accept facts. He wasn’t very good at patience but he was willing to try; for a while, at least.

  The End

  Turn the page for a glimpse at the next exciting adventure.

  The Iron Admiral: Deception

  The Conclusion of the The Iron Admiral Series

  Chapter One The Iron Admiral: Deception

  “You have a visitor, Allysha.” Albert, the apartment’s Information System, pronounced the fact in its usual measured tone.

  Allysha rolled over in the bed. “Who is it?” she mumbled. “And what time is it?” She buried her head

  back into the pillow.

  “The time is ten hundred hours and the visitor is Grand Admiral Saahren.”

  Saahren. Oh, good grief. She’d spent the night dreaming about him. Just when she thought she’d

  consigned him to history.And now he shows up . “Tell him I don’t want to see him.” She tugged the sheet back up over her shoulder.

  “That’s too bad. You’ll have to.”

  Allysha’s eyes snapped open. He stood by the bed, looking down at her, wearing simple blue trousers

  and a white shirt that accentuated his dark skin and black hair. Brad Stone revived. Her skin tingled while scenes from those erotic dreams tried to replay in her mind. She pushed them away. The physical