Space Trek (Three Novels, Three Worlds, Three Journeys Book 1)

by Jo Zebedee

  “The Empress?”

  “The Empress.” Sonly closed the door and came over to the desk. “Remember, you’re her equal.” She gave a soft smile. “More than her equal. She’ll never come close to you.”

  And yet he could feel the steel will in this room, the cold determination that ran through everything his mother did. He pushed the doubts away and lifted the comms unit, his hands shaking. He perched at the end of the desk, swinging his leg. Sonly looked at him and gave a small, tight smile, and he knew he wasn’t fooling her. The unit flashed and he took a deep breath before he flicked it so Sonly could hear it too. He put a finger to his lips and she nodded.

  “Kare,” his mother said, her voice grating through the room. He should have put a visual unit in, let her see where he was; it would do no harm for her to be shaken a little, too.

  “This is Colonel Varnon.”

  Sonly gave him the thumbs-up and he turned away with a smile so she couldn’t distract him.

  “You’ll be a general next, no doubt,” she replied. “Or perhaps you wish to be Emperor.”

  “You contacted me; I assume it wasn’t to discuss my rank. Not again.”

  “I recognise your authority in the city, Colonel,” she told him. “But I hold the rest of the empire. I’d like to meet with you.”

  His heart thumped at her words. “How many men are on your ship?”

  “A platoon.”

  “I’ll let you land,” he said. He reached for the glass on his desk– her glass– and took a sip of water. “But your troops remain on your ship.”

  “And your assurance?”

  He glanced at Sonly, who nodded, firmly. “You have my assurance; if you show no hostility, nor will we.” He switched the comms unit off. “Well, that’s it. Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. We have nothing to lose.”

  “We might have to let her go.”

  “We might,” she said, “but if she leaves you in Abendau she’s ceded, and we’ll announce it as such.”

  “You’re putting a lot of faith in me, Sonly.” Too much.

  “That’s because I think you can do it.” She put her arms around him, pulling him close, and he hoped she didn’t feel how much he tensed, how being touched made him want to run. She smiled up at him, and it was sad enough to know that she had. “In fact, I know you can. You can do anything.”

  Gods, he hoped she was right; he needed her to be right.

  ***

  It took an hour for the Empress’ ship to appear on the screen. It must have already been nearing orbit; she must have known he’d let her land. It flew down to the planet, taking its time, and he wished he’d been able to delay this meeting. Forever, preferably.

  “I’ll meet her at the port.” Kare pulled at his uncomfortable uniform, still surprised Sonly had brought it with her. If there was anything he’d hoped would never reappear, it was the Banned formal uniforms.

  “I’ll come too, sir,” Lichio said, equally smartly dressed.

  Kare shook his head. “Silom can come.”

  “There should be a le Payne there.”

  “Today I’ll be taking Kare’s name, Lichio,” Sonly said. “The Empress has to see he holds an equally strong claim to the Banned as he does to her empire.”

  Kare looked around them: Silom, Lichio, Sonly and Sam, his team.

  “Do you remember the time we were taken, Lichio? When she came to the hall and spoke to me?”

  “I remember,” Lichio said, and his face looked worried, scared even. “How you managed to face her, I still don’t know.”

  That’s two of us. “Silom?” he said.

  “I didn’t feel her,” Silom said.

  “What?” asked Lichio, and Sam echoed it.

  “I looked around the hall, and there was a girl there, one of the staff and she had some figure…” Silom started to describe the figure with his hands.

  “Quite,” interrupted Kare, trying not to smile. He should have known. “Silom learned, long ago, how to keep me out; he fills his head with that sort of crap instead. How long did it take you to learn it?”

  “A couple of years,” Silom said.

  “And Sonly has been able to do it for years now.” He pointed to Lichio. “You’re not as good at it. And, Sam, you’ve never learned how to. More than that, you’ve been taught to open your mind to it.”

  “Are you saying you could have Influenced me?” asked Lichio.

  Kare smiled. “You’re a pushover, Lich, if I wanted to. Which I don’t; I like you far too much the way you are. You put so much energy into outsmarting people, too much belief in the value of logic, a good brain, instead of instinct. You couldn’t withstand a mind sweep– you saw that when you met the Empress. Not unlike our friend Phelps, actually.”

  Lichio went a little pale at that. “So, should I stay out of her way?”

  “And lose that excellent brain from my team?” asked Kare. “No, focus on me. Don’t look at her, watch me. Actually, all of you, no matter how strong you are, do that. She’s very different from me– she does it more, she’s very adept.”

  “What does her psyche feel like?” asked Sonly.

  “Sam, you tell her. You’ve been around it most.”

  “She comes into your mind,” Sam said. “It’s not like a thought, exactly, more like a presence.”

  “Kare does the same, when he wants to,” Sonly said.

  Sam shook his head, firmly. “It’s not the same. You always know when Kare’s there, yes, and if he wants to, he can turn it on. But, with the Empress, it’s fear you feel and it’s hard to resist. Very hard. When I turned against her, it had been months since I’d seen her in person, and I had to do it to save my life, but it was still incredibly hard.”

  “You were lucky,” Kare said, and then he amended it. “We were lucky. What you watched went against the beliefs you were brought up with; that makes it harder to hold you. Your religion probably saved us, Sam.”

  Kare looked, not at the screen this time, but out of the window and he could see the ship now, a white dot against the blue sky.

  “We should go,” he said.

  “I’m not going down to greet her,” Sonly said. She had changed, too, out of the military-style fatigues she’d been wearing earlier, into a crisp, white, one-piece suit, tightly tailored. Her hair was up, almost severely so, and what make-up she had on was muted. It sent as strong a message as his uniform did– that she didn’t need any trappings of power, or a mask, to hide behind. She was Sonly le Payne, leader of the Banned, daughter of Darwin. She needed nothing more.

  “Why not?”

  She smiled. “My dear colonel, I’m the one she’ll have to deal with. Your revolution was carried out on my behalf. I gave the Banned forces the authority to recognise your command; otherwise you would merely have been the leader of a gang of slaves.”

  “It was my revolution,” Kare said, “and she’s asked to meet me, not you, Sonly. I don’t want you putting yourself in the firing line for me.”

  “Unless you’re planning to usurp me as well, I have the authority, not you. This is constitutional now.”

  A smile spread slowly over Kare’s face, at the thought of what Sonly might do to his mother, and then he sobered. He pulled away from the rest and beckoned her to him.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “The night we talked about taking the palace?” She nodded. “I said some things I didn’t mean. The Emperorship, I can’t take it. Whatever we decide– and you’re a good enough politician to force something through– it can’t be that. I can’t be her heir, take her name, not after what she’s done to me.”

  “It’ll be hard– we don’t hold planets like we did– we don’t have our own army,” she said. “We’re reliant on the great families, and they’ll want a clear handover. But, I think we can force it– if you’re prepared to be president.”

  “Yes, I’ll take that. Anything but the empire.” He g
lanced at the others and back to her. “Promise me you’ll find another way.”

  She nodded, but bit her lip. “Okay, we’ll force through the presidency. I promise.”

  “Thank you.” He turned to Silom. “Ready?”

  “I’ll be waiting,” said Sonly. “I have a few concerns about some of the things your mother authorised. Most of all, the way she treated my colonel when she had him in her power.”

  Sonly reached out and straightened his uniform, and then looked him critically up and down.

  “You look good,” she said. “The hair makes you seem older, adds gravitas. And you can’t see the scar; she’ll hate that, it’s her symbol of mastery over you. Remember, Kare, confidence all the way; you deserve to be here. You won the planet, you’re married to the opposition’s dynasty, the future is yours.”

  “Right,” he said, and turned to go.

  “Kare,” she said.

  He looked back.

  “Shoes. I insist.”

  A short time later, Kare watched his mother’s ship swoop down to Abendau.

  “Can we impound the ship?” he murmured. “It’s beautiful.”

  “I don’t think so,” Silom said. “Not while she’s our guest.”

  “Damn,” Kare said, and Silom smiled.

  “It’s good, you know? You. Like this. You’ll be doing impersonations next.”

  “I’m bluffing.” It was the understatement of the decade. He was terrified, utterly terrified. Already his shirt was drenched with sweat, and his hair was sticking to his scalp.

  As the ship opened, his mouth went dry. The Empress stood, framed in the doorway, her red dress in stark contrast to his dark uniform, her psyche casting through the people waiting and binding her escort close. He enhanced his own psyche, very slightly, and when she felt it she turned her focus on him.

  “Mother,” he greeted her, and heard a small intake of surprise from one of her advisors.

  “I didn’t expect you to take the time to greet me in person, Kare,” she said, her voice dripping with scorn.

  “I’m here on behalf of my commander-in-chief, Sonly Varnon. She invites you to come and meet with her.”

  “My invitation was for you to meet with me.”

  “You can see if our commander will change her requirements, but I normally find my wife isn’t inclined to do so,” he said, and felt her pique rise as he reminded her again of Sonly’s claim on him. “This way, if you will.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  Sonly looked at Lichio and then Sam. “Remind me what they did to him,” she said.

  Sam looked at Lichio, questioningly, and Lichio shrugged.

  “Which bit?” asked Sam.

  She drew her shoulders back. It had to be faced. “The worst you can remember.”

  Sam relived for her, again, the last day in Omendegon, and as he did Sonly spared herself nothing in her imagining, seeing how Kare’s arms must have been pulling out of their sockets, the flesh sloughed, the flow of water over him as he jerked from shock after shock. She imagined Lichio and Silom, both terribly wounded, huddling in their cells listening to it, and the Empress in her full regalia watching Kare, adding to his torture by doing the one thing a psycher can’t abide: taking his mind and invading it, touching all the hidden corners and tormenting it. I will do whatever it takes to make her pay for what she did to him.

  At the sound of the door opening Sonly looked at the Empress, straight in her eyes. You will not take me. The Empress’ focus turned to her and Sonly was, briefly, affected by it, before she pulled herself straighter. She’d lived with a psycher long enough to know how to stand against it. Bring it on, you bitch.

  “I never bought into that with your son; I’m not going to start with you,” Sonly said. The Empress’ presence drew back from her, and she smiled– no one was about to hold sway over her mind.

  Sonly moved on to the matters at hand. Kare took up a position by the door, his stance confident, gaze steady. He was carrying out his role to perfection. He’d be fine, he just needed to calm down a little, let it happen. She turned to the Empress. “Sit down.”

  “Empress,” Averrine reminded her. “I have a title.”

  “For now. I’m not going to waste time; I want you to abdicate. If you do, we’ll let you set up wherever you choose and you’ll be allowed to keep recognition of your former position.”

  “I’m not here to surrender,” the Empress said coldly. “You may have Abendau: I have the army, and the families. Once I unleash my forces, I will destroy you.”

  “And your city,” Sonly said.

  “Which can be rebuilt. I have the steel to do so, which is more than you or your pet psycher does. Tell me, how long do you think, really, he can keep it up against me? My psyche has been engulfing his since I arrived, and he seems to be weakening.”

  Sonly looked at Kare, who showed no reaction to the Empress’ words.

  “Did you think putting him in a fancy suit means he’s my equal again? You have no understanding of what it takes to wield the sort of power I have, and he had. No, Sonly, this isn’t a case of you putting your weakened husband on my throne. If you want my empire, you’ll have to fight for it, planet by planet, city by city, homestead by homestead, and you don’t have an army to do that,” said the Empress, calmly. “Nor the will.”

  If not having the will to murder millions for the sake of an empire was a bad thing, she could live with the criticism. She handed the Empress a message filche. “This went out to the planets as your ship docked. It’s an agreement, by the general of your forces, to surrender.”

  “This is a surrender of Belaudii.”

  “And a direct order to surrender in any territory which becomes partnered with the Banned,” Sonly said. “Clause 4.b sub note 3; I don’t think Phelps read the sub note.”

  “You have no governments, and no army to surrender to.”

  “Lichio?” asked Sonly, glad to see his focus firmly on Kare and not the Empress. She glanced at Kare, worried, and saw he’d slipped off his shoes and now balanced on the edge of a desk, his uniform swamping his thin frame, his head down, taking no part in the proceedings.

  “Of the outer rim, thirty planets have so far agreed to our terms and their garrisons have surrendered. It’s speeding up, though.”

  Sonly saw, for the first time, a look of doubt cross the Empress’ face, quickly smothered.

  “I hold the combined planets,” said Averrine. “Dignatis, Clorinda, Peiret, the rest. Holding the outer rim means you still have no power base, and no army.”

  “Except Belaudii’s,” Sonly said. But she needed the Hiactol family on board. They were the key military family– to fully hold the army, their support was vital. And so far there had been nothing from them.

  “And Peiret,” added Lichio. “They’ve confirmed their support, and so have Tortdeniel and Balandt. Clorinda has also opened negotiations with us.”

  That helped. Balandt held the financial balance of power. Clorinda, along with Peiret, were the two closest planets to Belaudii and the two largest families. If they were all onboard, even Hiactol couldn’t stand alone. She nodded, satisfied, and, when the Empress went to speak, held up her hand.

  “I’m in command,” Sonly said. “I’ve given you your chance to accept our terms– now I’m imposing them. I have your palace, I hold at least half the planets, and your army are in the process of surrendering. They follow their general’s instructions in the absence of any other.”

  She hesitated at a feeling of oppression in the room, and she looked around to see what had unsettled her. Frightened her, actually. Lichio turned his gaze to the Empress and Sam dropped to his knees. Lichio knelt, too. Now, the imperious gaze moved from them to Sonly and the compelling need to please the Empress ran through her.

  She looked at the still passive Kare. Help me. He lifted his head and met her eyes, but didn’t move. Kare, help. The Empress pulled at her and Sonly was forced to turn
, fighting all the way, and focus on the Empress. Peace, overwhelming peace swept over her– it was right for her to give herself to the Empress. Maybe Kare, too, could cede, and they would be blessed by the Empress’ benevolence. He’d been taught how wrong he was to stand against her; perhaps he could be forgiven. How wrong we were, she amended, and was rewarded by a crescendo of pleasure, warming her, making her crave more.

  Sonly sank fully to her knees. Kare, she thought, and tried to look at him, but couldn’t turn away from the Empress, who smiled in triumph.

  “I want your fealty,” the Empress told them, and Sonly knew it was the right thing to do. She heard Sam offer his, saw Lichio bow and confirm his and then the gaze was on her, the soft grey eyes demanding absolute loyalty, and Sonly sank under it. She forgot about Kare, forgot about anything other than her mistress in front of her.

  Dimly, she noticed movement and realised it was Silom, striding forward to join his cousin. She forced herself to look at him as he took his place beside Kare. She caught Kare’s eyes, so different from the Empress’, their green colour harder, more demanding, yet kinder, and her fear receded a little.

  Kare raised his eyebrow, questioning her, inviting her in his familiar way. His stance was relaxed and welcoming. She pulled herself to her feet, painfully slowly, and although the fear grew, she focused on Kare’s eyes. She thought of his laugh, of him asking her to marry him because it would piss Eevan off. She remembered him touching her and loving her. The Empress’ mind focused on her again, and she staggered, stumbling forwards. He smiled at her, encouraging her, and she took the last four steps to him. As she fell into his embrace, the fear disappeared.

  “Well done,” he whispered into her hair. She looked round to Sam and Lichio. Lichio looked at Kare, and she willed him to pull away from the Empress. He tried to stand, but failed. Instead, he crawled to them, clumsily, not at all like Lichio. He looked back not once, but twice, each time hesitating before he continued. Kare held his hand out to Lichio– his long, slender fingers clawed– and Lichio grabbed him as if it was the key to life. Kare pulled him the rest of the way, until Lichio knelt at his colonel’s feet. Slowly, he stood, still using Kare’s hand to give him the strength he needed.