Space Dragon Allepexxis

by C. K. Pershing

  The Emperor smiled, “Good. Good. I’m not judging those who find themselves in that situation. How can I? I wasn’t there. It obviously seems like a good idea at the time because I can’t imagine any of them would willingly endanger their Companions. And yet…”

  Casten’s expression grew more somber as the Emperor spoke. The other terrible side effect of Resonance was the sudden severing of the link in the trinity of Space Knight, Hyper Battle Machine and Companion. When a Space Knight died, it was bad enough for the Companion, who seemed to go into a fog and never came out of it. Most simply lost their will to live and became shadows of themselves. Some committed suicide.

  Worse were the Companions whose Space Knights went missing. Without any firm knowledge of what became of the Space Knight, these Companions always went insane, often in a violent self-destructive manner. Called “The Alone”, Companions with missing Space Knights could be truly terrifying and none had ever been treated succesfully.

  But it was The Alone who had lost their Space Knights to Resonance that were worst of all because every single one had committed violent suicide. Something about the Space Knight disappearing into Resonance would often unleash hyper violent tendencies in the Companion who would then inevitably kill himself in the longest, most painful, bloody way. There were a very small few who killed themselves quickly by jumping from a high height or gunshot wound, but those instances were extremely rare. Companion Creators had worked feverishly for centuries to try to figure out what was behind these problems but had come up with nothing.

  Seeing Casten’s expression, Paress touched his shoulder and said to the Emperor, “Casten and I have always said we’ll go the distance together. If I get killed, I’ll at least know he won’t be one of the worse cases. We both know it’ll be bad and he’ll never be the same. But there’s hope that he can simply retire to a quiet life with his thoughts. I’ll always take that over the alternative with him being one of The Alone.”

  Casten smiled, “The Companion, Space Knight, and Machine are partners forever.”

  “Exactly,” the Emperor said with a smile. And then much to Paress’ shock, the Emperor saluted and Paress and Casten both hastily returned the salute and stood at attention. Siegfried turned and took a small box from his desk and opened it. He took out the silver bars of the rank of Captain and pinned them to Paress’ uniform. “I hereby grant you the rank of Captain and all the privileges that entails.”

  He then turned and picked up another box, much older and worn. From it, he took out two badges of the Francescan Orennis leaf in black enamel surrounded by a ruby red starburst lined in gold. “I hereby award you the Easter Legion Star as a symbol that you are both members of the Royal Household’s Lifeguard,” he said as he pinned one badge on Paress’ uniform and the other to Casten’s.

  They both saluted, followed by a deep bow. “The Space Knight and Companion are honored and reaffirm our oath to do all in our power to serve the Empire, even unto death.”

  “Rise,” the Emperor said and shook their hands in turn. “And let’s hope it doesn’t come down to service unto death, eh?” He gave a soft chuckle and said, “Alright, you’d best be going. I won’t hold you hostage here any longer, so you can finally relax out of the gaze of the ‘Warrior Priest’.” He winked.

  “Y-yes, your majesty,” Paress stammered before they both bowed again. “May God bless you and may the Empire live forever!” they chorused before excusing themselves from the Emperor’s study.

  The steward was just outside the room and closed the door gently behind them. Paress’ last glimpse of Emperor Siegfried II was of the man folding his arms and turning away with a look of deep worry on his face just before the door closed. It was all he could do from barging back in the room and asking the Emperor what was wrong, but he stopped himself. It was a big Empire and this man had been shouldering colossal burdens since long before Paress was born. He was foolish to think he’d have anything of profound value to say to the Emperor in such a time.

  “…wanted to also present the Golden Bands for your uniform and the Captain’s shoulder boards,” the steward was saying as Paress turned his attention back to the man. “But we couldn’t find any in time for the meeting. The Emperor was a bit angry about that, but was happy he could at least give you his Captain’s bars and the Stars.”

  “Wait,” Paress said, as the stewards’ words sunk in. “Are you telling me these bars were the Emperor’s”

  “Yes, back before he moved up in rank in the Navy.”

  Paress was about to charge past the steward and back into the Emperor’s study. “I can’t accept these.”

  But the steward grabbed Paress’ arm in a shockingly strong grip. “You can and you will,” the steward said simply. “It would be unwise to turn down this gift.” Paress stared at the steward, so unassuming, and yet suddenly very terrifying. There was no malice in the man, but Paress knew that to push the issue would be a big mistake. The steward stared back mildly, unflinching from Paress’ eyes— much like the Emperor himself.

  As Paress slowly relaxed, the steward said, “Very good. Now as I was saying, at the last moment, the Queen has donated your Captain’s shoulder boards and Golden Bands from her own royal guard. You will find these in the cockpit of your Hyper Battle Machine and I advise you add them to your uniform as soon as possible.”

  He escorted them to the Brynwal’s main hatch and out on to the gantry. “Thank you for your service to the Empire and please know that the Emperor takes special pride in supporting you. The Emperor is infallible and therefore his faith in you is a sure sign of your value to the Empire. Good luck in your missions and I look forward to when next we meet.” And with that, the steward turned, walked back up the gantry and disappeared back inside the royal yacht.

  As they walked farther away from the Brynwal and over to where Allepexxis was waiting, Casten said, “Damn, can you believe this? The Star? We’re like, his personal body guards now!”

  Paress laughed, “Yeah, although I don’t know how much of his body we can protect while we’re chasing pirates from halfway across the galaxy.”

  “Ah, you know that’s not the point. It’s that if the Emperor ever goes into battle, we have the privilege to fight alongside him. How awesome is that?”

  “Pretty awesome,” Paress agreed.

  “And the Golden Bands. Those’re gonna look so cool on our cuffs and on Allepexxis. People’re gonna know that the Emperor is your patron and when you retire, you’ll get a peerage. Maybe be made a Baron of the Realm. A baron. Nobility!”

  Paress shook his head, “Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. I can’t believe all this is happening and know I sound pretty out of it. I guess I’m just overwhelmed.” He looked over his shoulder at the Brynwal disappearing behind them. “Maybe I’m also just worried about how we’ll be serving another Emperor by the time all this is over and we retire. I’m gonna miss him.”

  “Geez, he’s got a ways to go,” Casten said. “Don’t dig his grave yet.”

  “I’m not, but come on, the man’s 80 years older than us. I think it’s pretty much a given we’ll outlive him.”

  “If we’re not killed in action first.”

  “Oh, well that makes me feel better.”

  Casten laughed. “Well, you know! What else is the matter? That vision thing you had?”

  “Well yeah. In a way I think it’s worse that I can’t remember it. I feel like something really profound happened to me and you’d never know it, because I can’t remember a damn thing.”

  Casten considered and then said, “Hey, was it like that other time back when we first synched with Allepexxis as kids? That whole thing was pretty bad and I still remember you slumped over in tears when we finally got the cockpit open… You had experienced something pretty amazing then too.”

  Paress thought for a moment back to a painful incident eleven years ago when he and Casten first became the Space Knight and Companion to Allepexxis. After completing a grueling test of his abilitie
s to activate the Machine, he experienced something major, only to have his memory of the event quickly and cruelly stolen from him by some kind of telepathic entity. It still haunted and angered him years later.

  “No, that was somebody invading my mind and stealing my memories. This was more like…trying to figure out what something tastes like from just a drop of a sample, if that makes sense. It was gone before I had a chance to focus on anything. And now the whole taste has dissolved and gone.”

  “You said you saw people and fire.”

  “I did? Damn, I don’t even remember that much. But you don’t find it a bit creepy that the two other people that this happened to— one goes into Resonance and the other dies in a freak space jump accident? Both bodies never found. And now me…”

  He thought about how the Emperor hadn’t spoken about the details of his Empress, who was lost at such a young age, leaving her husband and three children behind. The Emperor had never gotten over her loss and didn’t remarry; he depended on his faith to get him through the grief— which is what started the whole “Warrior Priest” business in the first place.

  “Well, from the very beginning we’ve promised to not try anything stupid with Resonance,” Casten was saying.

  “Yeah, and now we’re on our way to get in our Machine and perform a space jump to another system to chase pirates,” Paress said with a groan.

  “You worry too much. Jump tech’s come a long way since what happened to the Empress. And besides, she didn’t have me and Allepexxis doing the jump calculations.”

  “Heh, silly me for thinking that the Empress of the galaxy had lousy equipment…but a nobody like me has the real good stuff.”

  “Well, even the most low-end tech from nowadays would seem like magic to someone from a while ago,” Casten offered.

  “I knew it. So you admit that you’re not so special,” Paress said.

  “Would you like your head to make the acquaintance of your ass?” Casten asked. “Because I can make that meeting happen.”

  Paress couldn’t help but laugh. “How do you come up with this shit?”

  “No idea. Proof positive I’m not so low-end...” Casten smirked.

  “I suppose so.”

  A small forest had separated the landing field where the Brynwal was located from the one where Allepexxis waited. As they emerged from the forest, Paress grabbed Casten’s arm. “Look!”

  A group of technicians were walking away from Allepexxis, behind them the giant black dragon’s wings each received a thick gold band in the area of the red Orennis insignia. Against Allepexxis’ overall black, the effect was rather stunning and Paress felt like his Machine looked like it could be the basis for a giant military seal.

  “Wow, he looks amazing,” Casten said.

  As they got nearer, the technicians stopped and saluted.

  Returning their salute, Paress said, “I didn’t expect to see Allepexxis get the bands so quickly. I don’t even have my own yet.”

  “Yes sir,” the group’s sergeant said. “When the queen learned that you’d be receiving the golden bands, she wanted to make sure neither you, nor your Machine left the planet without them. I managed to get together enough survivors from here and there to do the job.” As the sergeant spoke, Paress noticed that most of the team were made up of old men and women and some very young cadets. Obviously, the older people were retired, but had come to do the job because the people who would normally do it were likely killed in Ange’s revolt.

  “Thank you. All of you,” Paress said, making sure to shake each one’s hand.

  “It was the least we could do. You saved us,” a woman who looked old enough to be the Emperor’s mother said. She wore the rank of lieutenant, but seemed to be okay with letting the younger sergeant command the group.

  “The Emperor got here soon after I did,” Paress said. “He would have taken care of things if not for me.”

  The old woman smiled. “You didn’t know that when you arrived. But you dropped everything and came anyway. And when it comes down to it, the Emperor’s group was good for chasing away the Aldonis, but they might have caused a lot of extra damage saving us down here. You generally don’t use a group of battleships to take out the head of a cult– unless you wanna take out a whole bunch of other stuff with it.”

  Paress smiled at the old woman’s candor. He outranked her both as a newly-made captain and in overall standing since Space Knights operated beyond the usual Navy chain of command. But she had no problem speaking with him like they were just two people chatting on the street. She hadn’t even glanced at his Easter Legion Star.

  He nodded. “Fair enough, lieutenant.” He shared a smile with Casten and they both bowed to the group of survivors— people who had taken the time to add Allepexxis’ Golden Bands despite the very real possibility that they’d lost loved ones in the days prior. “This Space Knight and Companion are honored to receive your gift. Thank you.”

  They returned his bow and he stood to continue on his way, patting the sergeant’s shoulder as he passed. With the technicians behind them, Paress said, “I almost cried just now. Certain things just hit me in a certain way and that was one of them.”

  “Well, of course,” Casten said. “The whole thing was like something out of some kind of tragedy with the old people coming to help since the able-bodied are dead. Who wouldn’t be moved by all that?”

  “So this isn’t just me being some kind of silly telepath picking up on people’s feelings?”

  “Well, considering you’re not that kind of telepath, I’d say no,” Casten replied. “No, this is just you being a normal, feeling, human being. Or I should say ‘sentient being’ because truth be told, it all makes me a bit misty too.”

  Paress wasn’t sure if Casten was making fun, but when he looked at him, the Companion had an earnest expression. Paress was glad. Plenty of people had never seemed to understand his moods— his father for one, which was so cliche, but there it was. Casten, on the other hand, could be a real pain in the ass, but was always on the same page where it counted.

  As they got near Allepexxis, another group of technicians were finishing up final checks and stood ready. Unlike the former group, these people were all obviously currently serving, and had been assigned from one of the starships to help. Although none of the attending Francescan ships had carried a Hyper Battle Machine, these people had obviously worked with one before because they all knew their jobs well.

  “Your Machine is fully charged, re-armed, and ready to go,” a smart lieutenant said with a salute. This one was a bright-eyed halfling who stood in sharp contrast to the previous group of technicians. Paress subconsciously noted that a halfling was probably a perfect technician— the small size perfect for squeezing into tight places in military equipment other races would find impossible.

  Returning the man’s salute, Paress said, “Thanks lieutenant. We’re back out to kill some pirates, so I know we’ll be ready for anything they can dish out.”

  “I guarantee it, sir.”

  “Excellent.” Paress had to resist the urge to partake in small talk— something he found himself doing all too often lately— and just climb into his Hyper Battle Machine.

  A small gantry had been placed leading up to the open main blast door on Allepexxis’ upper chest. Allepexxis was currently in a horizontal laying position, so the hatch was above Paress’ head. He reached up and grasping two bars, pulled himself inside.

  The moment he did, he was inside Allepexxis’ own internal anti-gravity field and found himself weightless. Instead of having to pull himself against the planet’s gravity up along the access shaft into the cockpit, he easily shot upward into the Machine with no gravity to pull at him. Casten easily floated along behind him.

  As they got farther inside, first the main hatch, then a series of armored blast doors closed behind them, sealing them inside the giant mechanical dragon. Just before they got to the main cockpit, the shaft branched off, leading to Casten’s secondary c
ockpit. They hovered for a moment in weightlessness.

  “See ya on the other side,” Paress said.

  “Geez, I won’t be that far way. At least I’ll be in the same Machine with you and not stuck on some ship,” Casten said.

  “I know, but we’ll still be apart in separate cockpits. At least until we get some down time to hang out.”

  “Yeah.”

  Paress gave Casten a hug. “See ya,” Paress said.

  “Yep.” Casten moved up and floated off into the other shaft, more blast doors closing behind him.

  Paress hovered for a moment before moving into the cockpit, the final heavy bast door closing behind him. As he pulled himself into his seat, the gravity in the cockpit changed to approximate one g on the same horizontal plane as the seat so Paress felt as if he was sitting in a normal chair on a planet’s surface. Well, a normal chair surrounded by screens, switches, and control sticks.

  Just before sitting down, he saw the golden bands to be sewed on to the cuffs of his uniform jacket and his captain’s shoulder boards. He smiled as he picked them up and put them in his pocket. He’d attach them once he was in space and got some downtime.

  The cockpit itself was shaped like a ball and tilted depending on Allepexxis’ configuration or attitude. Since Allepexxis was configured for flight, the Machine was in a horizontal mode, head forward and standing on all four legs. In upright configuration, Allepexxis could stand on its hind legs in a pose similar to most bipedal creatures. Since that mode put the Machine into a position rotated 90 degrees from flight mode, the cockpit would automatically also turn 90 degrees in the opposite direction to keep the pilot upright.

  Allepexxis had been kept in standby mode since the previous battle, so Casten hadn’t had to perform the Awakening procedure to bring the Hyper Battle Machine online. So as soon as Parees sat in his seat and grasped the control sticks, the cockpit sprung to life, screens instantly lighting up with views all around the exterior and other readouts providing a steady stream of information. The slight hum of Allepexxis’ main engine grew louder.