Last of the Chosen (Spirit of Empire, Book One)

by Lawrence P White

  Then his thoughts coalesced. He had never met the first Artmis, the Rider of a Knight of the Realm. And that Rider’s memories, or at least some of them, had been transferred to the current Artmis. He suddenly understood.

  >It’s because of you, isn’t it.<

  >Most likely.<

  >Do you really know so much?<

  >In many ways I’m still just a child, but not in all ways. There are things of significance that I know, and I suspect I’ll discover others in time. In some ways we were both born anew yesterday, Val. We’ll both be growing up together.<

  >Why didn’t you get the full measure from your father?<

  >Riders are many-celled. My cells course throughout your body, but every cell is known to me, and in total they are me. Before Artmis died, most cells of his being fissioned to create me. But some of those cells were occupied with keeping Sir Jarl alive. They could not expend the effort to fission, so I got part of the whole.<

  >Enough that you are your father.<

  >I’m a close replica.<

  >Then she has no choice. We have no choice.<

  >Yet in spite of that, she has given us choice, Val. Think about that. There is true power in the choice she has given you.<

  >Given us. I cannot imagine disappointing her.<

  >Nor can I. Nor did Sir Jarl or my father.<

  >Certain things your father learned were because he was a Knight. I think it appropriate that you keep them to yourself.<

  >There is much that I keep to myself. In time, you will know what I know.<

  >I’m not after Imperial Secrets, Artmis. I’ve known for a long time that I’d take the oath of a fleet officer. That oath could potentially demand that we place the well-being of the Realm above our own. I will swear that oath one day. Will you?<

  >I will.<

  Val turned to Borg. “You’re going to stand out in there. There’s no way to avoid it.”

  “Then we will not waste the effort trying. Just be yourself, young Val. But be aware, as well. Always: be aware. Sir Jarl’s killers are still free, and they may believe you can lead the authorities to them. Your home might have become a trap.”

  “Do you have any spare weapons?”

  “Several. What is your choice?”

  “I’ve never used a weapon of any kind.”

  “Maybe not used, but you have certainly held one. In trained hands, a crutch such as yours is a lethal weapon.”

  Val stopped, his mind returning to yesterday in the chamber. “I didn’t need to touch those crystals,” he breathed.

  “Not so, Val. Had your crutch been lifted, you would have been killed. We Protectors do not hesitate when it comes to the Royal Family. Take this,” he said. “It’s a full-size blaster. It will be the most accurate for untrained hands. Do you know how to point and fire it?”

  “Yes,” Val answered absently as he considered Borg’s words.

  “Check the weapon,” Borg demanded, focusing Val’s attention on that which mattered most at the moment. Val examined the weapon, then shoved it into the back of his shorts. It was incredibly uncomfortable. “Two things, Val. First, if there is any shooting, drop to the ground immediately. Second, there will be no indiscriminate firing. Shoot only at things or individuals you have clearly identified as a threat. Understood?”

  “Understood.”

  They stopped just inside the tube to let their eyes adjust. The smells coming from inside welcomed Val, though he suspected they were overwhelming to Borg. They bypassed Mr. Wyzcha’s and continued down-tube to Mrs. Therly’s, just beyond Val’s shack. As they passed his home, Val noticed the front door was slightly ajar. He never left his door ajar. The hairs on the back of his neck suddenly lifted. Then he sensed the silence. It was not usually noisy within the tube, but it was never completely silent either.

  “Trouble,” he mumbled to Borg.

  “Leave, now,” the Great Cat growled softly.

  The moment he turned, Borg pushed him down and laid across his body. A blaster spoke from Val’s shack and another from Mrs. Therly’s. Borg fired twice and the silence returned.

  “Stay,” Borg commanded. Val saw nothing with his face pressed to the floor by Borg’s body, but Borg did. He didn’t see a person, but he saw the muzzle of a blaster swing carefully toward them from within Mrs. Therly’s shack. He fired, and a scream rent the darkness. A blaster skidded out onto the floor from behind the shack, and they heard another voice.

  “I give up!”

  “Come out, and keep your appendages where I can see them,” Borg commanded.

  A clean-cut human stood up and edged out from behind Mrs. Therly’s shack. “I’m unarmed,” he whined.

  “On the floor,” Borg commanded. “Keep your appendages free.”

  The man went down to one knee, straightening his arms to stop his descent. Val sensed nothing, but the blaster in Borg’s hand spoke, and the man’s hand and the hidden weapon in it disappeared. He cried out.

  Suddenly Borg was off Val and racing for the shack. He fired a stunner at the man on the floor as he went by. He crashed through the door of the shack without slowing to open it, and his stunner fired again. He leaped back to Val and lifted him in one strong arm, then leaped to the side of the tube, his body pressing Val to the wall. He lifted a communicator to his muzzle and growled a few coded phrases, his eyes never stopping a constant scan of their surroundings.

  “Are there better lights in this place?” Borg asked softly.

  “No.”

  “Any good hiding places?”

  “There’s a door leading to an old storage bin about a hundred meters down-tube. A couple of R’bock friends of mine live there. It does not have an exit.”

  “Then we will not go there. Be alert for explosives or vapors. It’s time to leave. You lead, I will follow. And be silent.”

  Val knew how to be silent, and he knew every nook and cranny of the place. He wound his way between shacks until nearing the entrance. From this point, there was no more cover.

  “Down,” Borg commanded. Val stopped where he was and lay on the floor. Borg did the same. It wasn’t long before two fighters arrived with a squad of Imperial Marines. Borg briefed them, and they spread out and moved down-tube until they were lost to sight. Police cruisers began landing in two’s and three’s until the entrance to the tunnel was completely blocked. Most of the police followed the marines.

  Borg never let Val leave his side. “I need to find Mrs. Therly,” Val insisted.

  “I’m sorry, Val, but I believe I found her. There was a body inside her home in addition to the one I wounded.”

  “Describe it.”

  “A human female of indeterminate age, quite overweight.”

  Val’s shoulders sagged. “It’s her.” He started into the tube, but Borg stopped him. “Consider, Val. Do you really want to see her as she is now?”

  Tears filled his eyes. “No, I guess not. I should get my things.”

  Borg sat on his haunches to face Val. “What would you bring away? I will send for it.”

  Val considered, then wiped the tears from his eyes and faced away from the tube. “There’s nothing here for me now. Let’s go.”

  When they reached the spaceport, they waited until Resolve returned. When the ramp lowered, Val crutched his way to the ship, turned to look one final time at his old home, then squared his shoulders and crutched his way into the ship.

  Chapter Forty-three: Deportment

  Val woke up famished. He asked Resolve’s Artificial Intelligence, the AI, where he could get breakfast. “One moment, Val,” it responded.

  One moment turned into several minutes, then Otis appeared. “Good morning, Val.”

  “Good morning to you, sir.”

  “Daughter has invited you to join her for breakfast. Are you up to it?”

  “Otis, let’s be real about this. I’m a beggar, and she’s Daughter. Her work is done on my world. Isn’t her interest in me done as well?”

  “Sorry, Val. You w
on’t get out of it that easy. And no, her interest in you has just begun. So has mine. Do you have even the slightest comprehension of what you accomplished back on Hespra III?”

  Val squirmed. “I may be a poor beggar, but I’m not stupid, Otis.”

  “No, that you are not. You saved her life, Val. More, you sacrificed your own life to do so. It’s pure luck that you are alive today. Few within the Empire would have made that choice.”

  “You would have. So did Sir Jarl. Every officer in the fleet takes on the same commitment. It’s part of their oath. I’m studying for the entrance exam to a fleet academy. When I graduate, I’ll take the same oath.”

  “They stand by their oaths and do their duty, but when it gets close and personal, like it did for you, most would hesitate, and hesitation would have meant her death. You’ve moved into a small, very select group, Val.”

  “I can’t look at it that way.”

  “Nor should you. But others can, and they do. Daughter certainly does. So do her Protectors, myself included. So, too, does every member of this squadron. Think about it, Val. The sole purpose of every person and every ship in this squadron is to see that Daughter is safe. Because of you, we still have a job to do. Trust me, among our small group your name is known, and you are held in high esteem. You cannot prevent that, nor should you try. Your example is an inspiration to all of us.”

  Val was speechless. He considered Otis’ words for a long time. “I did not seek this,” he said eventually. “I only sought to fulfill the duty Sir Jarl gave me, a duty that I’ve always known I would accept as an Imperial line officer. He’s the one you should be grateful to.”

  “We are grateful to him. His passing will not go unnoticed. But, Val, his death was not by choice. Yours was.”

  “No, sir, it wasn’t. It was my duty.”

  Otis hesitated for a time in thought, then looked deeply into Val’s eyes. “Well said,” he growled. “By those words, you have ensured your entrance to Fleet Academy.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. If you qualify academically, you’re in.”

  Val sat on the edge of the bed, his face pale. Had he heard right? He was going to Fleet Academy? Breakfast suddenly didn’t matter any longer.

  “I don’t understand, Otis. And I really want to qualify on my own.”

  “I believe you might have succeeded on your own, as amazing as that sounds, but what is the goal here? Is it to get accepted, or is it just to prove to yourself that you could do it on your own?”

  “Uh, maybe a little of both.”

  “If you get into an academy, it will be because of your hard work. I can promise you that much. No one is going to do the hard stuff for you, but surely you can let us help with the things that are beyond your control.”

  “I had a plan, and I was on track.”

  “And you had some insurmountable obstacles.”

  “Not insurmountable, just difficult and expensive. Fake transcripts and recommendations from non-existent teachers can be bought. It just takes a lot of care and a lot of money.”

  “You had those kinds of funds?”

  “I was working on it, and I was on plan.”

  “You are determined, aren’t you!”

  “I am, sir.”

  “I think you’ll be in a position to present real transcripts now.”

  “I’m not sure what the next couple of years hold for me.”

  “No one is going to promise you the Academy, Val. You have to earn that. But real schools are definitely in the picture now, and you’ll have real teachers to make recommendations. You’ll have mine as well.”

  “Otis, you know as well as I do that with a few words from the Royal Family, I won’t even have to qualify. I don’t want that.”

  Otis considered. “Some gain entrance in the manner you suggest, mainly members of powerful families, but even they have to meet a certain minimum level of competency.”

  “I’m not after a minimum level of competency, Otis.”

  Otis grinned a feral grin, his lips curling up to reveal a mouthful of vicious teeth. “Nor is Daughter. Or me. But like it or not, your examiners will have a letter of commendation from me. It will be just a piece of the process, but it will be noticed.”

  “Please don’t, sir.”

  “Val, do you honestly believe you’ll need such letters?”

  “No.”

  “Nor do I. Those letters will be there anyway. Consider the purpose of the examination process. What do you think they’re looking for?”

  “The very highest academic standards.”

  “Academics are just a part of it.”

  “Then I don’t know.”

  “They’re looking for people who will be true to their oath, Val, an oath to serve the Empire. Your actions have already proven beyond any doubt that you will. The rest is just a formality. You’re in.”

  “I’m in?” he asked in a small voice.

  “You’re in, provided you don’t shirk your studies.”

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  “Don’t promise me, Val. Promise yourself. That’s all I ask. I have never written such a letter for anyone, but for you, it is my duty and my pleasure. Consider it from my viewpoint. How do you think I’d have felt returning to Triton with Daughter’s body? Eh?”

  Val stared into those feral eyes. “I can’t imagine anything worse.”

  “Nor can I. I would hope to die first. That’s what you have given me, it’s what you’ve given my team of Protectors, and it’s what you’ve given every member of this squadron. We will not forget, Val.”

  “How was it possible for the crystal to reach her?”

  “Simply put, it was a failure on my part.”

  Val looked at him in astonishment.

  “Such words give pause for thought, do they not?” Otis asked. “Take heed of my next words, Val. The moment you moved toward those crystals, I knew my best efforts had failed. What did I do?”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention to you.”

  “What I did is perhaps the hardest lesson a Protector learns. Even in failure we do not give up. We continue protecting. There will be failures in life, Val. You, too, will fail along the way, perhaps many times. In fact, you failed so badly when you saved Daughter that you almost died. The lesson here is that you do not focus on failure. You keep looking forward, you keep doing your job. Later, you examine the failure and learn from your mistakes, but you focus forward. We Protectors are the best there are at what we do, but we fail occasionally. Failing is not okay, but we do not stop at the point of failure. Ever. We keep our focus forward. We keep our performance at the highest level it can be, because even in failure, our jobs are not done. I think you’re man enough to understand the lesson.”

  “I do understand, sir, but . . . I failed to save her?”

  “No, that’s not what I said. You saved her, but you could have done a better job of it, and it’s something you’ll want to work on over the coming years.”

  “Work on what?”

  “Management, Val. Management.”

  “I totally do not understand you.”

  “I’m not surprised. Your whole life has focused on survival. It looks like you’ve learned that part well, Val, but there’s more inside you. Now that you’ve learned how to survive, it’s time to learn to lead. Are you ready for that? You want to be a good fleet officer. To be really good, you need to learn to lead others. That means managing your resources, which in most cases are people. You could have managed me and my brothers much better yesterday.”

  “I could?”

  “Absolutely. There were six of us. A simple statement like “the crystals are poisoned,” would have brought instant response from us, and you would never have had to touch them.”

  “And one of you would be dead now.”

  “Probably not. You’ll learn more about our capabilities in time, provided you stick around for a while. We’re better than that, Val.”

>   He hung his head in shame, mumbling, “Oh.”

  Otis reached a hand forward and lifted Val’s chin. “Look forward, young man. Do not focus on failure, focus forward. You did exactly the right thing with the tools available to you, and no one will ever take that away from you, least of all me. Are you willing to accept the fact that there are better ways to do things? Are you ready to learn? My men and I are prepared to spend the time with you if you are willing. We all want you to be better prepared, to be the best you can be.”

  “I see your point, and yes, I want to learn – almost as much as I want to stay alive. I did not want to die in that room.”

  “Or any other room. But we’re keeping Daughter waiting. I suggest a quick shower and a change of clothes. You have fifteen minutes.”

  Val showered, though it took him a minute to figure out the controls. He searched for his old clothes and in the process found cupboards with several changes of clothes. Among them was a plain spacer’s uniform, a dark blue, one-piece coverall lacking only emblems of rank. Well, Val thought to himself, if they put it in here, I guess I can wear it. To his surprise, when he pulled it out, he discovered the left leg had been shortened to match his stump. When he put it on, he looked in the mirror and sucked in a breath, then stood tall with his shoulders back, liking what he saw.

  He made his way to Daughter’s quarters and stopped before the door.

  What now?

  He knocked softly, and the door whisked to the side. Daughter stood up and came to greet him, her eyes full of sadness.

  “I’m so sorry about Mrs. Therly, Val.”

  He nodded, but there were no words.

  “Please be seated,” she invited, indicating a chair at the table. Before sitting, he remembered himself and bowed. “Good morning, My Lady.”

  “Actually, it’s lunch time, but I’ve ordered breakfast for you. Please be seated. And welcome to you as well, Artmis.”

  They both sat, and she stared at him for a time. “Would you like to talk about it?”

  “There’s nothing to talk about, My Lady. I lost two people that I didn’t know I loved until it was too late to tell them. They’re gone, but their memory remains. I’m glad Borg stopped me from seeing Mrs. Therly. Are we underway?”