by Mike Smith
It was fast and economical, but spartanly furnished.
But here she was, roughly twenty light-years from the nearest celestial body, in a shuttle less than a tenth of that size, with only its present owner for company. He was waiting, impatiently she assumed, in the main living quarters of the ship, surrounded by luxury that her father could only dream of. From hand carved oak panelling, thick Aubusson carpets to a massive silk draped bed. She knew that some families possessed ships, several times larger, who travelled in equal luxury, but surely none had a view quite like this? For seated alone in the cockpit, she was surrounded on all sides by an encompassing, wraparound window that gave her an unimpeded view. With no flight controls or instruments in sight, she could bathe in the starlight, seemingly floating along with them.
Just another star, lost amongst their multitudes.
Involuntary her eyes slid closed and she took a deep breath, releasing it slowly, feeling all the tension ebb and flow out of her, for her own problems seemed to pale in comparison, insignificant, but not unforgettable. Sighing, she opened her eyes and raised her right hand. Summoned by her gesture, as efficient as any servant, the flight computer appeared hovering by her side. She still marvelled at it, being far more efficient than the endless displays and consoles on her father’s ships. She wondered why nobody else had thought of it before. She picked out of mid-air the communication sub-system, entering the personal code for her father. Her finger hovering over the virtual keypad for a second longer than necessary when, with a further sigh of acceptance, knowing she was just delaying the inevitable, she activated the communication system.
The view from outside instantly dimmed, surrounding her in darkness, but only for a second, as a light appeared a few feet in front of her, a pin-prick at first but rapidly grew larger to nearly fill the cockpit. Jessica shook her head in disbelief, why talk to someone dozens of light-years away, when she could transport herself there, virtually, instead? Her father also possessed such technology, which was the size of a large house, but here, on this ship, it seemed almost mundane.
“Father,” she announced in greeting, suppressing a laugh at his startled expression. To have a daughter, missing for several weeks as a result of a violent kidnapping, suddenly appear in front of you, in your own home, would rattle even the most composed individual.
“Jessica, darling,” he cried, instinctively taking a step towards her. He said her name with such heartfelt relief that it brought a tear to her eye. Alex had been right all along; she had been terribly selfish to wait so long before contacting him.
“I’m fine,” she blurted out, to hurriedly reassure him. Not wishing to draw out his torment a moment longer. “I’m sorry I couldn’t contact you earlier, but things have been, well, crazy.” Which was certainly the understatement of the century, she thought.
“We’ve been so worried…where are you?”
“Right now, I’m not entirely certain,” she replied truthfully. As while Alex had given her access to the flight computer, he’d withheld access to the navigational systems. Not that she needed his permission to know that currently they were in the middle of nowhere. She had decided not to mention where she’d been, with Alex and Sheriff Abercrombie’s conversation about battle fleets still at the forefront of her mind. While she had resented Alex’s plan, she acknowledged that it was far more prudent. Too many innocent people would be caught in the crossfire if she let slip the whereabouts of his home.
“Well, if you don’t know where you are, at least tell me who has you?”
On this topic Jessica felt on even more shaky ground, as Alex had been vague about what to discuss, beyond insisting that she pass on his message. He’d left her alone with the reminder that he would be monitoring their conversation closely and wouldn’t hesitate to terminate the connection if she mentioned anything she shouldn’t.
“He calls himself Lord Greystone,” she answered cautiously. “I’ve never seen or heard of him before,” she added truthfully, purposefully trying to put an end to the topic.
“But what does he want?” High-Lord Hadley asked, bewildered.
“Money Dad, nothing else.” She didn’t need to hide the anger behind that declaration. If Alex was monitoring the communication, then this wouldn’t come as any surprise to him. Certainly it was all she meant to him, a walking, talking, pot of gold. He even admitted that she would return home, in exactly the same condition as he found her. Probably worried he might not get paid, she thought.
“That won’t be a problem,” another, far colder voice suddenly interjected into the conversation.
A shiver ran down Jessica’s spine as another man stepped forward, into the projection. From a distance he shared more than a passing resemblance to Alex, tall, broad shouldered, but with blond hair, compared to Alex’s darker hair. He was also considerably paler, almost albino, devoid of all colour. Alex was more bronzed, probably from all his time spent outside, Jessica realised, recollecting Alex, covered in sweat, swinging his axe against the tree. Shaking her head in disbelief, she recognised that she shouldn’t be comparing Alex with her fiancé, as while they’d never met in person, she instinctively recognised the figure of High-Lord Stanton.
“My Lord,” she straightened instinctively. “I wasn’t aware that you personally knew of my situation. Your participation isn’t necessary; this is most decidedly a family matter—”
“Your father, quite rightly, immediately informed me of the situation and requested my assistance in retrieving you. We’re betrothed and therefore practically family, hence my involvement. Now what are the terms of your release?”
Jessica bit her lip, torn by indecision, but in the end she had promised Alex to deliver the message. After all, even if she requested to speak to her father, alone, it was likely that he would relay the message to High-Lord Stanton anyway. She wondered why her betrothed being involved suddenly filled her with such fear.
Even this far out on the very edge of the Imperium, I’ve heard the rumours that Greystone and Stanton have—history.
Sheriff Abercrombie’s statement in his office continued to rattle around her head, while she repeated the message that Alex had insisted that she deliver, word-for-word.
“You are to meet us, three days hence, in Elysium Fields. If you want me returned safe and unharmed, you are to come alone and bring fifty million credits, in raw Al-Keishi pearls. If you don’t—” she trailed off, refusing to say the words, not with the firm gaze of her intended staring intently at her.
“I think we can assume the worst,” High-Lord Stanton said dryly.
“Lord Greystone said that he’ll return me to you anyway but, I quote, High-Lord Stanton certainly will not marry you. He won’t want soiled goods.”
At these words her father turned a deathly shade of grey, having to reach out for a table to steady himself, but High-Lord Stanton’s reaction was nothing more than a brief flicker of surprise in his eyes, before they returned to their usual steely-grey.
With a brief glance in the direction of High-Lord Hadley, Stanton nodded his acknowledgement of the message.
“We’ll be there, with the money.”
*****
It was almost thirty minutes later when Jessica stepped from the cockpit into the main living quarters. She wasn’t surprised to observe Alex reclining in a chair, with his feet propped up on a table, intently focused on a data-pad. Probably what he’d been using to monitor her conversation in real-time, she surmised. However, she was amazed to see that he was still paying such attention to it, her conversation having finished several minutes before. He seemed to have failed to observe her entrance, so intent on the device in his hands.
Curious to know what he was studying so attentively, she quietly approached and just as he registered her presence, she flicked out her hand, snagging the device from his grasp.
“Hey, I was reading that,” Alex said irritably. “If you want to read it, go and find your own.”
Jessica twisted the data-pad ar
ound until the text was the right way up, blinking in surprise, when she read the title.
The Three Field System applied to Tidally Locked Planets.
“You’ve been reading this?” she demanded, angrily. “The whole time?”
“Yes, now give it back. It’s got some really useful suggestions of how I can increase my crop yields with the minimum of expenditure.”
“You said you would be monitoring all my communications!”
“No,” Alex said, “I warned you that I could monitor your communication. Which I could, if I knew how. I’m sure that I could, probably by accessing the communication sub-system from this device and piggybacking the carrier signal onto it, but frankly I’ve got absolutely no idea how to go about doing that. This ship didn’t exactly come with an instruction manual,” he added grumpily, snatching the device back from her.
“But I could have told my father anything. Who you really are, where you live, how to find me. You could have a fleet of warships on their way to your home, right this very minute.”
“Did you?” he asked curiously, swiping at the data-pad to turn the page.
“No.”
“Didn’t think so,” he said smugly. “And how is Dad?”
“Fine,” she hesitated, before taking the vacant seat next to him. “He was worried about me.”
“I told you he would be. I’ve no children, but I imagine that if I did, and one was taken from under my roof, I would be extremely concerned.” He flickered to the next page, turning the device upside down, making neither head-nor-tail of the diagram, scratching his nose in puzzlement.
“High-Lord Stanton was there,” she suddenly blurted out, before snapping her jaw shut. She had no idea why she said that out loud, especially after he’d just admitted to not listening in, but perhaps it was because he hadn’t listened.
Alex tensed for a moment, before shrugging, turning the page. “How is your fiancé doing? Probably relieved to have you home soon, so he won’t have to go to all the trouble of rescheduling the wedding.”
“I told him what you said.”
“I see,” Alex replied coolly, “and what did he reply?”
“He didn’t say anything, really,” she shrugged. “He just looked, surprised.”
This response seemed to incense Alex. For he discarded the device, angrily tossing it onto the desk, before dropping his feet to the floor and jerking his chair back.
“What?” she demanded, taking a step back as she could feel the anger emanating from him, a terrible, tangible thing.
“You don’t even know any better, do you?” Alex derided. “Or perhaps you just don’t care.” He turned away from her, back towards the cockpit.
“What is your problem with High-Lord Stanton?” she shouted after him. “Whenever I mention him you ignore me, or change the topic.” Perhaps this was why she’d really brought up his name, because this time she was determined to get an answer.
“My problem with Stanton?” Alex replied angrily, pivoting back round to stare heatedly at her. “Is that he doesn’t even care enough to fight for you.” He stalked over to her, trapping her against the chair, putting an arm either side of her to stop her escaping. “For your future reference, the correct response when being told that somebody you care about, no, somebody you love, is in danger; are shock, anger and outrage.” As if to reinforce the point, he made a fist and punched the arm of the chair. “You look that person you love in the eye, and tell them you will find them. No matter how long it takes, or the cost. That you’ll tear the galaxy apart, system-by-system looking for them if that is what it takes. You’ll never stop and, when you eventually find that person who you love so much, you’ll take them into your arms, to protect them from all the ills in this universe, and never, ever, let them go.”
“You would say that?” she asked, shocked.
“Yes, for that is what it means to be in love. To care for another, above all else. Why, what would you say?”
“I don’t know,” she replied honestly, having never given the question any thought before, but remembering her father’s violent reaction upon hearing the news. She wondered what she would have done, had their roles been reversed. Still, she instinctively knew that Alex was right, as she adored her father and younger sister and would do anything to protect them. Even marry a man that she’d never met, that she would never love…
“Alex,” she asked hesitantly. “What would you have said, if it had been me, taken from you?”
“It hardly matters, does it?” he replied rhetorically. “You have Stanton to fight those battles for you now.”
“But what if he didn’t exist, but it was just you, and me? Would you have come looking for me?”
Alex stood still, facing away from her, seemingly torn by indecision, before replying softly, “No. I would not have come looking for you.”
“Oh,” she replied. With his back to her, he failed to observe the momentarily flash of pain across her face.
“I would have no need to come looking for you,” he explained. “For if you were mine, I would never, ever, have let anyone, or anything, take you from me. Now, if you’re finished I need to go and set a course for Elysium Fields.”
“What?” Jessica said bewildered. “I thought we were meeting my father there in three days, that is what you said, and what I told him.”
“We are, but I didn’t say anything about us waiting three days before we leave. You must start listening to what I actually say and not what you thought I said.”
“But I don’t have anything to wear,” she motioned at the roughly spun shirt that she was wearing, along with worn jeans and ankle length boots. When Alex said they were taking a journey she assumed they were walking to the nearest transmitter and had dressed appropriately.
For the first time since she had entered the living quarters, Alex laughed. “Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of time to do shopping before your father arrives.”
Along with High-Lord Stanton, Jessica thought morosely, but that was one piece of information she was determined to keep to herself.
*****
Alex had invited her into the cockpit for their arrival at Elysium Fields. She had no idea why, as she’d visited numerous space stations of varying sizes and designs over the years, but Alex had insisted that Elysium Fields was different, unique. Therefore, her curiosity piqued yet again, she took the seat next to him, as the shuttle dropped out of faster-than-light and she got her first glance at the station.
Alex was right, it was nothing like what she had imagined.
It was difficult to gauge proportions in space, but based on the size of the freighters that were buzzing around it, like fireflies, she estimated it to be several kilometres in length. It was shaped like a rectangular wedge, with what could only be sloping gun decks at the fore, tapering back towards its massive fusion reactors and a huge drive-engine was clearly visible at the rear. As the shuttle flew alongside, she could only marvel at the blisters of weapons that ran the full length of the ship, but they appeared long since dormant. As Alex angled the shuttle up, onto the station’s foredeck, she gasped, for here was obviously the main armament, as the guns here dwarfed anything she had ever seen before, larger even than their own shuttle.
“I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “You said Elysium Fields is a space station, but this, this is a battleship.”
“No,” Alex shook his head with a rueful expression. “This is the pinnacle of human folly. An arms race of biggest-is-best, taken to the extreme. The Nova Class Dreadnought is five miles long, with a mass of two and a half million tons and a crew of a quarter of a million. This was one of only a handful ever built, mostly because the maintenance costs almost bankrupt the Mega-Corporations. Eventually an armistice was signed and a process of mutual disarmament agreed. That process included decommissioning all of the Nova Class Dreadnoughts. Hence this ship was stripped to the shell, but discarding a five–mile long ship is no easy task. They tried scuttling it…�
�� and at this he laughed. “But they discovered they didn’t possess any weapon system that could do it harm. Furthermore, planting explosives along the ship length only resulted in a few bent bulkheads. Finally, after running out of ideas, they simply towed it here and abandoned the ship. It didn’t remain deserted for long, because once they had incorporated a few simple life-support systems it was habitable once again and has been occupied for the past century or so.”
“Habited? By whom?” Jessica enquired.
“Anybody and everybody that could afford a ticket this far out, you would consider them to be the scum of society, the dregs of civilization. Which is broad in scope, but includes thieves, murderers, prostitutes, lawyers and accountants. Personally, I would have thrown the politicians into the mix as well, but they managed to talk themselves out of deportation. Present company excluded, of course,” he laughed.
Meanwhile the shuttle had proceeded into the belly of the beast, literally, as it seemed that the flight deck protruded from the underside of the ship. Jessica couldn’t help but feel that they were flying down its very maw.
“You’re staring my dear,” Alex said, and with a deft flick of a finger he shut her mouth. “It makes you appear disingenuous, hence not your best look.”
“But this ship, it’s gigantic,” she exclaimed, craning her neck upwards, to observe the stars vanish, swallowed along with their shuttle, by the massive cavernous hall. “It could easily swallow one of my father’s battleships. Who is in charge of it now?”
“Now?” Alex replied, “No idea. But the last time I was here Lord Granville was still in charge.”
“Why, when were you last here?”
“About ten years ago.”
“You mean before—” she left the sentence hanging, not sure how to finish it.
“Yes, before that,” Alex replied calmly.