Price of Imperium

by Dave Robinson

  A sudden stop took her mind off her musings just before she ran into his back. They appeared to have reached their destination. A door opened and one of the guards went through, before waving Jhon through. He looked to have trouble with the lip of the compartment door, and Jayne reached out to steady him.

  "Thanks," he muttered, and she could hear the weariness.

  "It's nothing." She felt a blush rising and looked to see if all the soldiers were looking away. One wasn't and Jayne's cheeks burned even hotter.

  They stepped into a room full of blue uniforms. Everyone was on their feet except one or two stragglers who were just rising as they came through. Everyone seemed to be looking at Jhon, who stood there in his medical gown.

  "Please, sit down." He waved an arm toward the seats. "I know I could use a chair."

  One of the group made a small gesture and a chair was brought out for Jhon. "Please, take this seat Your Highness. I'm Eron Makar, Captain of the Indestructible and these are my officers." He pointed out one of them, a red-haired woman in a smoke-darkened uniform. "Except for Commander Morraien here, acting Captain of the Victory."

  "Thank you, Captain. This is Commander Holron late of the Talon, and the lady's name is Jayne." Jhon's voice was slow, and to Jayne's ears exhausted.

  Jayne helped him over to the seat, and was pleasantly surprised to discover someone had provided one for her too. She sank into the chair, surprised at the softness. It looked like the chairs they used in conventions, lightly padded and angled just the wrong way for any normal person's back. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that the captain of the destroyer was seated on the other side of him.

  "I do apologize for the situation, Your Highness." The apparent leader of the group said. "We had no idea you were aboard that ship."

  "Your admiral did." Jhon leant forwards and put his hands on the table, beginning to lever himself back up to his feet. "As soon as I identified myself he ordered his crew to fire on me.

  "What the hell is a Sector Guard officer doing in command of a Fleet task force anyway? And why the fuck is he ordering his crew to fire on a member of Imperial Family?"

  "I think I can answer that, Your Highness." The destroyer's captain broke in before any of the others could speak. "Gregor Tavrolan is looking to dissolve the Imperial System unless an heir is presented to the council within the next month.

  "It looks like he was involved in the conspiracy that stranded you here, and that admiral was part of his insurance policy."

  "So that's why he was sent here." Captain Makar said. "We wondered why they would rush out a new admiral when they were having trouble sending supplies."

  "Rush out?" Jhon cut in, "what do you mean rush out?"

  "Admiral Loman arrived a week ago." Makar steepled his hands in front of his face. "We were expecting a supply ship from Belkrath; instead we got a fast courier direct from Altiar with a new chief of station aboard."

  "From Belkrath?" Commander Holron cut in brusquely. "What's this about a ship not arriving from Belkrath?" Jayne was surprised to see his face whiten under the soot and smoke.

  "Yes Commander," Captain Makar raised an eyebrow. "Our supply convoy from Belkrath was due two weeks ago and still hasn't arrived."

  "We might be too late."

  "Too late, what do you mean too late?" Jhon turned towards the commander.

  "The last information we had was that the Enemy was heading for Belkrath." Holron's voice was brittle. "If they are already there we may be too late. There's no way we can get Your Highness back to Altiar, get you on the throne and still dispatch a force to Belkrath before the Enemy takes the system."

  Someone let out a long breath; it took Jayne a few heartbeats to realize she was the one who had done it. The air suddenly tasted flat and metallic as her mind flashed back to what Ober-dwan had told her. Now it was humanity's turn.

  Jhon turned back towards Captain Makar, "how quickly can you be ready to move?"

  "We should be able to lift for Belkrath within twelve hours at the outside, Your Highness." Makar looked around at his subordinates. "We have to make repairs to the Victory and redefine our force structure without Admiral Loman."

  "You have eight." Jhon said in that voice Jayne had heard him use on the Doctor. "As soon as that's done we lift for Belkrath."

  "Not Belkrath," Holron corrected him. "First we're going to Nightfall Station. They've got a full squadron of the Imperial Guard, complete with Planet Busters, and without you they're about as useful as Tavrolan's damned guard. Once there you can release the planet-busters and we can lift for Altiar, with any luck we'll be able to get there before Tavrolan dissolves the Imperium."

  "I knew it was close, but I didn't realize it was that close." Captain Makar balled his hands into fists. "It sounds like we've got a lot to do and not much time to do it in."

  "Not much at all," Jhon said. "But while you're at it, can you have someone find us some clothes."

  "Yes please," Jayne added, "they are getting a little drafty."

  The next few hours went quickly. The only time Jayne was separated from Jhon was when they came with new clothes for her. It was the same as most of them were wearing, a dark blue suit without any markings except a black patch on the shoulder with an eight-pointed gold star over a red diagonal cross. She had no idea what it was made of, but it was comfortable, especially the boots which very quickly molded to fit her feet. It hung like a good wool suit, but was softer than silk against her skin.

  She came out to see Jhon dressed the same way, in the same blue uniform the rest were wearing, but with a small crown insignia on the shoulder boards and lapels. He nodded and she thought she saw a hint of warmth in his eyes at the sight of her in the uniform.

  "How does it look?" For just a moment she couldn't resist twirling around before him.

  "Good," he smiled briefly. "Sorry, but I have a ton of work to do."

  She came over towards him and looked at what he was working on. "Can I help?"

  "I don't know." He pointed at the screen. "Two days ago I was homeless, ten years before that I was a junior officer. Now I have a whole battle squadron looking to me for leadership."

  "Why are you in charge now?" Jayne moved a little closer. "Shouldn't whoever was second in command have taken over once the Admiral was arrested?"

  "Normally, yes," he glanced down at the screen. "However, when I called treason I essentially took command of the whole Interdiction Force."

  "So that's why they're following you."

  "Exactly," he grimaced at the display in front of him. "And now that I've done it there's no easy way to back out. I'm in charge whether I like it or not."

  "Alright, so what's the plan?" Jayne smiled brightly at him, her trained support response kicking in. No matter how strange the person's story, always treat it as seriously as they do. Her smile faltered a moment as she wondered if maybe it wasn't his story, but hers.

  "The plan, such as it is, is to go to Nightfall Station and try to round up as many ships as we can." He took a deep breath. "Once we've got that done, we lift for Belkrath and hope we can hold the Enemy off long enough for reinforcements to arrive."

  "Don't hope for too much, Your Highness." Commander Holron entered the room. "Most of our forces in that sector have been either disbanded or redeployed. A lot of what's left is under Sector Guard officers who will have less than nothing to do with you."

  "So what are you saying, Commander?"

  "Call me Tam, Your Highness." He squared his shoulders before continuing. "My orders were to find you and bring you back to the capital before Gregor Tavrolan destroys the entire Imperial System. They were not to risk the entire human race by letting you lead a doomed charge to try and save a world that may have already been destroyed."

  "What do you mean?" Jayne interrupted. "There's a whole world full of people out there and you can't just leave them to die?"

  He turned haunted eyes toward her. "I can and I will, if it's the only way to save all the oth
er worlds." His words came slowly. "My duty is to the entire Imperium, not to any single world in it. If we cannot put the Prince on the throne the Imperium will fall apart. Once that happens there will be no Fleet, no Imperial Guard, no one to stand between those planets and the Enemy.

  "They don't win if they destroy Belkrath. They don't win if they destroy Earth, or even Altiar." He stood there, a short balding man, dressed in a smoke marked uniform. "They only win if they destroy humanity, and I swore an oath to prevent that."

  Jhon nodded. "So you're saying that you need me to go back to Altiar, regardless of what happens at Belkrath."

  "I don't need you, all of humanity needs you." Holron's intensity caught Jayne's attention. "If we lose the Imperium to Tavrolan, there will be no option. He will dissolve the the Guard and that will leave us with no way to stop the Enemy. We cannot accept that."

  "No, we can't," Jhon stood up. "I'll be on the bridge."

  Jayne hurried to follow him, not entirely comfortable with the intense man in a Commander's uniform.

  *

  The trip to Nightfall station was largely uneventful. It was all new to Jayne but even the newest battle cruiser was no starliner, and she found herself spending most of her time with Jhon. At first the strangeness was difficult, but there were some things that were familiar, and she wondered how the Imperium would have developed things like coffee. Jhon couldn't remember when she asked him, and somehow she did not feel comfortable enough with the rest of the crew to ask anyone else.

  Most of the time she sat in on meetings, trying to understand what they were talking about; everything from the Guard to the Imperium was alien to her. She wished Ober-dwan were there, but he had been taken to a different ship. So she spent her time listening and learning, trying to give Jhon good advice when he asked for it. The Imperium sounded like a mess; the Emperor and council sat at the top, but most things were decided at the Sector level. There was also an Imperial Parliament, or maybe Congress, but without the Emperor there had been no one to call it into session for decades.

  Jayne shook her head at the politics, then tried to calm down some of the arguments, whenever anyone would let her. Once she got used to some of the terms it was no different than the arguments over what to do with the latest grant that she had to deal with back at the center. Tam Holron wanted Jhon to go back with him to Altiar, wherever that was, while Jhon wanted to go haring off to some place called Belkrath to fight the "Enemy," whoever they were.

  More than once she thought she must be hallucinating, but it was too real, and there was no way that she would be hallucinating some strange science-fiction setting like this one. Her tastes ran more to romance, with the occasional dip into mystery or even fantasy, but not that far out space stuff that Bill liked. Thoughts of Bill put her back in her cabin more than once, but she always managed to pull herself back together.

  *

  Tam was on the bridge when they dropped out of fivespace near Nightfall Station. For a moment he was carried back to their last visit, when Talon had reached the station on the last gasp of her life-support, and he'd been hoping against hope that he would be able to talk his way out of things before the guard's battle cruisers blew them out of space. This time he was aboard a battle cruiser squawking the "Throne One" transponder code and there was a full battle squadron arrayed around them.

  "Commander Haiston, please connect me with Admiral Torrens' office," Tam spoke softly, watching the viewscreens to see what response they would see this time.

  "Very well, Commander."

  It took a few moments for Haiston to get through, and while he did that, Tam took in the tactical display. The battle cruisers were still there, moving towards them in defensive formation. Their own formation sat still, the super-dreadnaughts in tet formation with the still-damaged Victory in the tail position, away from the station. Things looked different when you were looking at something other than the emitter of a hammerbeam.

  "I have the Admiral, Commander."

  Tam nodded to Commander Haiston, then turned his attention to the com screen. "Thank you for your quick response, Admiral."

  "Think nothing of it Commander, you went away with a destroyer and now you come back with a full battle squadron. That kind of thing makes an Admiral curious, especially when you keep showing up at a top-secret installation."

  "Yes ma'am," he started to reply.

  "Admirals don't like being curious," she cut in before he could say anything more. "And one of the good things about being an Admiral is that I don't need to stay curious very long. I want you and whoever else is running that show aboard the station in two hours; Torrens out."

  Tam started to reply, then realized he would be talking to a blank com display.

  "Get a shuttle ready if you please, Commander." He turned to leave the bridge. "It won't do to keep the Admiral waiting."

  Chapter 15

  Jayne sat beside Jhon in the shuttle. After the last few days she seemed to be generally accepted as his aide, which helped things immensely. The only option she would have had if they hadn't accepted her was to hide in a cabin and cry, and there was nothing that could be solved by doing that. Instead, she was sitting in a shuttle, which was nothing like what NASA called a space shuttle, approaching a station that looked to be bigger than the entire city of Seattle.

  She felt Jhon reach over and squeeze her hand. "Quite a shock, isn't it?" His words were pitched low enough that she doubted anyone else had heard.

  "It's nothing I would have ever imagined."

  "It's probably a bigger change for you than being left on Earth was for me."

  She smiled ruefully. "I have to say we weren't as welcoming to you as you have been to me."

  "You weren't shot full of drugs and dumped on one of our street corners; that does make a difference." Jayne was surprised there wasn't more of an edge in his voice as he said that.

  "No, but I think I was about to get shot full of drugs and dumped on a Seattle street corner; if I was lucky," she replied.

  His next words, if he was going to say any, were interrupted by the sound of the pilot's voice over the intercom, telling them they were about to dock. Please return your seats to the upright position, she thought.

  The next few minutes were taken up by all the details of docking; her stomach lurched when they switched from the shuttle's internal gravity to that of the station, but otherwise it all went smoothly. They were the first ones out the hatch, and the first thing she noticed was that the air tasted different. It was hard to explain, but each ship or station she had been on had its own unique taste. Jayne supposed she should have thought smell, but she felt it more in the back of her throat than her nose, which made it a taste as far as she was concerned.

  Once again, they were surrounded by guards, this time in black. There was something odd about them at first, something that took a moment to register. Something about how they responded to Jhon. The other guards had carried themselves like troops. These ones seemed more like the bodyguards she saw on TV. They looked ready to jump on a grenade, where the others had appeared to be looking to shoot the thrower before it left his hand.

  Jayne shivered and drew a little closer to Jhon. The station was huge, the shuttle bay she was in stretched out to the size of a small airport. Surrounded by the guards, they walked down the ramp to what looked like a wheel less golf cart, hanging just above the deck. Jhon was the first in, and she followed, surprised again at the comfort of the seats. As soon as the last of the guards was on the running boards they started moving.

  After a short trip through dark and empty passageways they found themselves coming into a more populated part of the station. Now there were people moving around, wearing uniforms like the ones she had already met, but this time in black rather than the blue she was used to seeing. It reminded her of the police station where Bill had worked, especially the way it got busy right before something important was about to happen. The car came to a stop, and the guards waved them off. This ti
me Commander Holron took the lead, while she and Jhon followed with Captain Makar.

  They passed through a wooden door, one of the last things Jayne would have expected to see on a space station, and came into an office dominated by a woman in the same black uniform, only this time with stars on her collar.

  "So what have you brought with you this time, Commander?" The woman's voice was brusque, and Jayne was glad she was not on the receiving end of those eyes. "The entire Interdiction Force, instead of a destroyer full of exies?"

  "Yes ma'am," Holron said, eyes straight ahead. "May I present His Royal Highness, the Prince Jhon, heir presumptive to the Imperium, Captain Eron Makar of the Indestructible, and Ms. Jayne Connors."

  The woman's features softened a touch, as she rose to her feet. "It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness. I am Admiral Vatriz Torrens, and Nightfall Station is at your disposal."

  "Thank you, Admiral," Jhon said. "I think we are going to need everything the station can provide and in short order. The Interdiction Force has been supplied out of Belkrath for the last year, and the most recent supply convoy is a month late." He took a deep breath. "I believe the Enemy has already reached Belkrath, and the only hope we have is to send your command."

  The admiral nodded. "Yes sir, I'll have your quarters set up aboard the Imperial Protector immediately."

  "Pardon me, Admiral," Commander Holron said diffidently. "What about Admiral Calthran's orders to me. He specifically ordered that I return to Altiar with the Prince. If he isn't there within the next three weeks, Gregor Tavrolan is going to dissolve the Imperial System." He braced himself. "The Imperium itself is at stake."

  "Yes Commander and the planet Belkrath is also at stake." Admiral Torrens replied. "It is the first duty of the guard to stop any Enemy incursion; we have to go to Belkrath."

  "But why does Jhon have to go?" Jayne cut into the conversation, ignoring the look she got from the Admiral. "Can't you just take this fleet of yours to Belkrath while he goes back to Altiar and deals with this Tavrolan person."