My Life: An Ex-Quarterback's Adventures in the Galactic Empire

by Colin Alexander

  Jaenna turned away. She disappeared into a gap between two buildings across the alley. I could hear the sound of retching. For political advantage, her father had sold the emperor to Carrillacki and her brother had sold her to freebooters. Wonderful galaxy.

  I leaned back against the wall to collect my thoughts. Jaenna hadn’t reappeared, although there was no further sound from her. I strained my eyes to spot her, not looking at Tyaromon’s former military advisor at all, when I happened to see a rectangle of dim light in the area where we had entered the alley. It was just enough to stand out against the pitch-black of the street. That was odd, I thought; it looked like a partially opened door. Norboh had been very clear about keeping the guards out of the alley while we talked. At first, I thought that Jaenna had returned to the restaurant, but I should have seen her crossing the alley. Then I saw a shadow move in the dimness. Too late I shouted at Norboh. Too late I tried to pull him down. There was the unmistakable crack of a handblaster and flame shot out of Norboh’s head. He collapsed, unmoving. I dove for the ground. By reflex, I reached for my blaster. It wasn’t there, of course. Jaenna was also unarmed, but I had scant time to worry about it. Two more bolts scorched past me as I rolled toward the cover of the rubbish on the other side of the alley. Then, there came the crash of more blaster fire and lightning flashed in the doorway. A moment later it was quiet. The only change from before was that Norboh lay face down in the alley, dead.

  At length, the silhouette of a person appeared in the doorway. It moved outside to become a barely visible blob in the starlight.

  “Advisor Norboh?”

  It was Anders’ voice. Had he been the assassin, now looking to finish his job? I wished I knew for sure, but it seemed unlikely. Being in charge of the guard detail, he would have had far better opportunities before this one.

  “Norboh is dead,” I called back. Then I stood up to see what would happen.

  Anders walked over to the body, blaster at the ready. From his other hand, the beam of a flashlight picked out what was left of Norboh’s features.

  “Shit!” There is no doubt in my mind, Anders would have been happier if the body had been mine.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Reykingar betrayed us,” he said bitterly. “He killed Hrif by the door and then fired on you and Norboh. Oswar and I ran to the back as soon as we heard the firing, but he burned Oswar down before I got him. Haranyi will not be pleased.”

  “I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” I said. “You did what you could.” I was being truthful. Haranyi, in fact, might breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe, he had arranged everything. I asked Anders why the assassin had waited until tonight.

  He replied with a snort. “He didn’t wait. Reykingar was new, just posted to us last night after Arle became ill the night before. This was the first opportunity he had.”

  With that, the events of this night began to make a nasty kind of sense. Two nights ago, Valaria had suddenly needed to go into the city on business. Even Jaenna had found it peculiar that he would absent himself from the Residence then. Now I knew why. Norboh had been telling the truth. Valaria must have discovered Norboh’s whereabouts and worked up a plan to dispose of him before his information could be passed along. This probably explained Angel’s murder. It also suggested that if it were known that Jaenna and I had talked with Norboh, we were as good as dead ourselves. But, who knew? Of the living, only Anders and the driver.

  “Anders, do you know our driver well?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is he reliable?”

  “Grayarmon? Absolutely.” There was no hesitation in his answer.

  “Good.” I was beginning to see a way out. “You will report what happened to Haranyi, as you must. But, when you report it, you will say that we arrived after the shooting. Is that clear? Norboh was dead by the time we arrived. Haranyi will not want it suspected that we saw Norboh.”

  “I understand,” said Anders. “But I don’t think I can report it that way. I think it would be better if I reported that you lured Advisor Norboh out here so that Reykingar could kill him.” He said it so matter-of-factly that the words did not register at once. When they did, his blaster was aimed squarely at my midsection.

  I don’t know whether he decided on that course of action as the best way to save his own ass, or whether he was just reacting against my high-handed attempt to take control. Either way, it was bad news. Anders could only make that story stand up if I was a corpse. There was no place to run, no way to take cover. He was barely three feet in front of me. Anders hissed as his thumb closed on the firing stud.

  It didn’t have its intended result, however. Something flew out of the night and smacked into his hand. The hiss turned into a yelp and the beam was off line when the blaster flared. That change of direction was enough to save my life. Instead of burning a hole through my gut, the beam caught me across the left thigh. There was a searing pain there and suddenly my leg would not hold me up. It was the same sensation as I’d once had when I caught my cleats on artificial turf in Kansas City and the leg collapsed. I went down in a heap, but, as I was falling, I could see a smaller shadow leap at Anders. Both of us had forgotten Jaenna.

  There was a flurry of punches and kicks, some of which came from impossible angles, or maybe it was just the bad light that made them seem that way. Size alone won’t determine the outcome of a fight, not if the smaller fighter can use speed and technique to offset their opponent’s advantage. Unfortunately, when two opponents are otherwise equally matched, the odds always favor the bigger, stronger fighter. They drew apart after the first engagement, circled and then closed again. There was a muffled thud and I saw Jaenna fall. Anders leaped to kick her in the head to finish it, but somehow she rolled, hooked his leg, and sent him crashing to the ground on top of her. For a moment, it turned into an almost blind wrestling match, each one clawing for the other’s throat or eyes. Given time, though, Anders was sure to win.

  I tried to stand and could not. I could crawl, though, and there was not far to go. I got my hands onto Anders just as he caught Jaenna in a choke hold. He tried to ignore me but I was able to lever myself up his back and rake one hand across his eyes. He screamed and lost his grip on Jaenna, who promptly drove a knee into his groin. That brought another scream from him and he fell sideways, trying to roll away from us. I scrambled after him, felt a leg under one hand and pulled myself along. My right hand landed on something solid and hard, just about the size of my palm. I grabbed it and swung it at Anders’ head. I could feel his head recoil from the impact. I swung it again and again until I realized, with a shock, that his head was jelly. The body twitched a couple of times and was still.

  The next thing I remember was Jaenna’s hands, trying to help me to my feet. “Danny, please, you have to get up. We must have that aircar. There’s no way we can walk out of here.”

  The words didn’t make much sense to me, but I was able to gain my feet. This time, the leg held. Jaenna left me for a moment to retrieve Anders’ flashlight, and his blaster. A quick look showed that my leg wound was superficial. The beam had cut across the surface, charring a groove that hurt like blazes but did not cripple the leg. I found a moment to be immensely glad that I hadn’t gone in my pants when it looked as though Anders was going to kill me.

  As we expected, there were three bodies in the back room, one with his throat cut. In the light, I could see that Jaenna looked all right, although there were angry red marks across her throat. I collected a blaster from one of the corpses. There were other munitions in the back room. Jaenna looked them over, selected one and did something to it.

  “Once we leave,” she said, “this place will blow up. I don’t have time to find the monitors, but they all have to be here. Haranyi would not chance even a beamed transmission.”

  “Why the concern?”

  “Simple. I heard your proposal to Anders. It was a good one, but he was too much the fool to see it. It will still work, though, if we de
stroy the surveillance records and Grayarmon plays his part.”

  “And you trust him to do that?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “‘I’ve known Grayarmon a long time.”

  “Jaenna, you’ve known all of the people who are involved in this a long time.”

  She said, “We have no choice,” and headed for the door.

  We both breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the front door: the aircar was still there. It had been moved, as Norboh had ordered, to block the alley. Grayarmon must have heard the sounds of fighting, but he had stayed at his post. Jaenna spoke to him briefly, then waved for me to join them.

  The trip to the port was tense, even though no one challenged the vessel. My leg still hurt. It seemed that there was no way I could position myself that didn’t rub the wound against some surface. Jaenna sat like a statue, her blaster hidden by her cloak but trained on Grayarmon as an added precaution. I could guess what she must be thinking, but there was nothing I could say to her. Even if I had some magic words, I wouldn’t have been able to say them in front of Grayarmon. The real magic came when we reached the port. After witnessing, being threatened with and committing murder, at the port entrance it was as though none of it had ever happened. Possibly it was because one of Haranyi’s guards was driving. Possibly it was only that none of the bodies had been found. Regardless, they passed us through with no hesitation.

  After sending Grayarmon on his way, our own sentry’s hail and salute when we reached the landing boat was a glad sight. It even seemed to brighten Jaenna a bit. It certainly brightened me. We had returned home. Even though, sitting on Kaaran’s surface, we were far from safe, it made me feel better. Harvangi met us in the main passenger compartment, his appearance betraying the fact that the sentry had rousted him from bed. His surprise at our arrival turned to concern when he saw my limp and I told him that Angel was dead. It wasn’t the fact that shocked him, death being part of a freebooter’s job description, but the location. No one would look for it in the governor’s Residence on Kaaran, at the heart of the civilized empire.

  Harvangi, Jaenna and one of the troopers sat me down in the boat’s medical unit, not much more than a first-aid station really, and pulled my pants off. The burn had bonded one edge of the fabric into the wound. None of us noticed until they yanked on the pants. Then it was all I could do to stifle a scream as it came free. The actual wound wasn’t too impressive, a thin, blackened crease across the top of the thigh now covered with blood oozing from the spot where the pants had pulled loose. Harvangi plucked a tube from the locker and squirted a line of what looked like shaving cream into the char. A thin patch of clear material then went over the top, sticking tightly to my good skin on all sides. The pain began to ease off as soon as the cream hit the wound. By the time it was covered, I could flex the leg without wincing.

  “That’ll heal it in about three days,” Harvangi said, “as long as you take it easy, although you should be able to walk without much of a limp by tomorrow. Ramorir, I’m sure, could fix it so you’d never know it was there, but I’m afraid this way will leave a scar.”

  That should be the worst scar I have on my body. With the pain almost gone, I ceased to think about it. “How fast can you get us into orbit to rendezvous with the Francis Drake?” I asked him.

  “We can boost within half an hour, allowing for clearance,” he said. “Without waiting for clearance, I can be ready in ten minutes, but the defenses may shoot.”

  “I can stand the wait,” I replied. I would have to. There was far too much firepower on and around Kaaran to tempt fate that way.

  “At your order, then, I will obtain clearance and prepare to lift.” Harvangi stood up.

  He was about to go when Jaenna broke in. “No, wait,” she said. “We can’t do that yet, Danny.”

  Jaenna’s voice, so soft it was almost to the point of being inaudible, brought Harvangi to a halt. He looked at me with a puzzled expression.

  “What do you mean, ‘we can’t do that yet’,” I asked her.

  “We can’t leave. Not yet.”

  “Why, in the name of little green space rocks, not?”

  She didn’t meet the question directly, not at first. Instead, she asked me if I intended to give Norboh’s information to the Fleet. In truth, I had almost forgotten that I had it. But now that she raised the issue, I couldn’t think of any alternative.

  “That’s why we can’t leave,” Jaenna told me. “We’ve been so rushed that I haven’t had a chance to think everything through, but now I have and I just don’t believe it. My father and brother cannot have betrayed the emperor. It cannot be true.”

  She was trembling from head to toe. “Is it that,” I asked, “or is it that you can’t believe they betrayed you?”

  She ignored the question. “My father is one of the great rulers of the empire,” she said. “He is one of the leaders of the independent worlds. What could he gain from Carrillacki? The idea is absurd.”

  Unfortunately, it didn’t sound absurd to me. “What of Norboh?” I asked her. “He was your teacher; you trusted him as much as anyone. Even if you didn’t, we have whatever information he found.” I held up the little card in its plastic sheath for emphasis.

  Jaenna dismissed it abruptly. “That means nothing. Norboh could have been fed false information, it happens all the time. Angel could have been killed to prevent us from helping, however unwittingly, the ones who planted that information. I can’t leave until I’m sure.”

  “Fine. Then let’s beam this to the Fleet squadron here. If it has half the information Norboh led us to suspect, they will answer the question for us.”

  “And that would be just what Carrillacki wants. Even so, nothing would happen right away. You don’t think a squadron commander would take a message out of the black and move against one of the chief Imperial governors. No, this would cause a delayed explosion when it reached Fleet Command, or Jonthar a Jerem if he is really in command. It would cancel out all the advantages from the tie to Duromond.”

  I was sure she was stretching to make the logic fit. “Do you really believe what you are saying, Jaenna?” I asked.

  She slumped, the fire out again. “I don’t know,” she whispered miserably. “I don’t know what I really believe, but I can’t lift off until I find out.”

  “Maybe we should see what’s on the card,” I suggested. When she said nothing, I gave it to Harvangi who fed into the boat’s computer. Would it read it? Zilch. Nada. Nothing. However the data were encrypted, our computer couldn’t read it. “So much for that idea,” I said. “Do you have a plan for finding the truth?” I asked Jaenna.

  She smiled then, but it was more a death’s-head grin than a real smile. “I once swore to my brother that I would be here for his ceremony,” she said. “I intend to do exactly that. When I see my father, I will know whether this is just another plot.”

  “Jaenna, if you do that, the only other plot involved is going to be the one you’re planted in.”

  “That may be so,” she said. “But I will know.”

  “I can’t talk you out of this?”

  “No.”

  I sighed. “So be it. But if you’re going, so am I.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Danny.”

  “I know. Don’t remind me.” I was already reminding myself that I had casually agreed to commit suicide. It is amazing what women can do to male equilibrium. “There’s no point going now, though,” I pointed out. “If we’re going to walk into this, we might as well be rested. I want you asleep between now and the time we leave, even if it’s chemically induced.”

  “At your order, Command.” There was no hint of Jaenna’s usual grin as she left.

  The landing boat was large enough to hold several individual cabins, one of which was Jaenna’s. As a result, she had some privacy, and so did we. The moment her door had closed, Harvangi turned to me, a troubled look on his face.

  “Danny, I don’t know all of what has happened, but
I can guess,” he said. “If there is going to be trouble, why not take the strike force with you?”

  “Thanks,” I said, “but no. It won’t work. Two or twenty-five will be all the same. Anyway, I think there is a good chance they will let us in. There’s no one alive, other than us, who knows that we have learned anything significant. What will happen after Jaenna has her say is another matter, but the strike force wouldn’t be enough to make a difference.”

  He looked puzzled, so I kept going. “Can you communicate with the Fleet flagship?” I asked.

  “Not directly. The Avenger will be below the horizon for another four hours. Until then, I can channel through the Francis Drake.”

  “Forget the relay,” I told him. “The direct beam is safer.” Four hours was just about the time we would need to leave for the Residence. I made my mind up quickly. “As soon as we’ve left the boat, beam the information on the card to Avenger. Use a tight beam, I don’t want anyone else picking it up. You have the identification codes Donnar provided for me as Fleet Captain and Governor of Lussern?”

  “Yes.”

  “Use them with my name to close the message. Maybe that will convince an Imperial captain to investigate quickly.” I doubted it, but it was worth a try. “Once you’re certain the message is received, lift off and rendezvous with the Francis Drake.”

  I cut off the protest that was sure to follow by going to my cabin. I don’t know if Jaenna was able to sleep on her own, but I needed the drugs. Only when I had cut a patch for four-hours’ worth and stuck it over my forearm did I start to relax. I guess I make a lousy hero.

  I woke a bit before the four hours was up. That was a good indication of how wound up I was, waking before the drug was completely expended. I didn’t feel rested either, which had to be psychological. The drug-induced sleep was supposed to be very restful. Once I was up, I decided that a change of clothes was essential. My pants had been ruined by Anders’ blaster and my tunic, after being slept in, was almost as bad. The uniform Donnar had given me was in the cabin. Looking at it brought a lump to my throat. Angel had brought it on board the boat with some crack about formal dress at weddings and he not having his colors. Damn the empire and its politics! It had not hit me fully until then just how much I missed the son of a bitch.