“It will get ugly, but it is time, Your Majesty. I will help you free your Empire from the K’tiri. I hope you will reciprocate by helping me free them from mine.”
“That is the way of the Empire, Captain. It is also the way of the Chosen. The door between our two societies is open, and we will do our best to keep it open. Your offer is accepted. Is our negotiation complete then?”
“There will be other issues. We will negotiate them as they arise.”
“I have Tested everyone else in the room, and they are true. I hope you will trust them. We have a long road ahead of us. Your help will speed the process.”
“You should know that I have never used my scree against another creature, nor do I intend to. The scree might have been necessary early in our development, but we’ve grown beyond it. Speaking only for myself, not for the rest of my people, I hope you find a means to counter it. We have been immensely successful trading within your Empire. That is the future I want, but I don’t think we will ever be accepted with the scree.”
“Maybe, and maybe not. It’s just a weapon, and there are many weapons within our two Empires. We make laws to control their use. However, restricting your use of the scree will have an impact on the other worlds within the Chessori realm. There is not a simple solution to that issue.”
“It might not be simple, but isn’t that the power of negotiation? I’m just a ship’s captain. In time, you’ll meet real Chessori leaders. They will help define solutions.”
She smiled. “I think I have already met one of your leaders. Is he ready to adjourn this negotiation?”
She withdrew, knowing there were lots of other things she could have learned from this Chessori, but such chores were for the others in this room.
She released her hold on Forg and looked around the room. Everyone waited expectantly. “You have chosen well,” she said, her gaze moving from Otis, to Waverly, and to Josh. “My Testing verifies what you already knew: this Chessori speaks true. Not all Chessori are our enemies, but the K’tiri are, and there are a lot of them.”
Forg clarified her words. “You have beaten them badly, but you have barely scratched the surface.”
“The K’tiri sent a force of thousands against one of our worlds. They were not successful.”
“I know. As a military force, it would have consisted entirely of K’tiri. I have never heard of them failing.” He stared at her, then let his gaze move to the others. He said, “They will return. However many they sent last time, the next force will be ten times that number, maybe a hundred times that number.”
His words took her breath away, and she wasn’t the only one in the room who suddenly felt uncomfortable. “You do not make it easy to like you,” she said to Forg.
His expression, as always, revealed little. “The K’tiri are a formidable opponent. I will do what I can to help you fight them. Will you Test the rest of my crew?”
She tested his crew, then Josh, Otis, and Waverly took her on a tour of the mocked-up palace complex. Buildings were just shells, most without roofs, but corridors and major rooms had been constructed with appropriate detail. Stairways and lifts were clearly outlined, as were boulevards, ponds, trees, and pathways. The two gzeikolts, the enormous, 300-story suburbs in the sky, were only outlines, but since they had not been restored at the real palace complex, they were not of great concern to Josh.
* * * * *
She spent a full day reviewing plans and walking the plateau. She planned to spend an additional day, but when Otis woke her up and led her to the boarding ramp of the mother ship, a vast crowd of Great Cats prowled the fields outside, thousands of Great Cats.
She turned to him in amazement. “What’s going on?”
The Queen finally visits, and you expect us to ignore it?” he growled.
“I thought my presence here was secret?”
Otis sat, then changed his mind. A moment later, his hot breath was on her face. “Secret? Here? Of all the places in the Empire, there is no safer place for you. We never speak of your activities to outsiders. Your secrets are safe with us.”
“Can you arrange a place for me to speak to them?”
“I could, but it’s not our way. They want to meet this person they’ve heard so much about. Walk among them. Touch them and smell them.”
The two of them went into the crowd and did just that. For many of the cats, meeting the first Great Cat to be Knighted was almost as important as meeting the Queen.
Ellie was exhausted by the end of the day, but she felt exhilarated as well. Dusty and wanting nothing more than a long bath, Otis denied her both.
“Our Elders would like to meet you.”
“You’re not one of them?” she asked in amazement.
Otis’ lips lifted in another smile. “Not yet.”
“How about tomorrow?” Otis just stared at her and she shrugged. “Can I clean up first?”
His lips lifted into a smile. “This is your back-to-nature day, Your Majesty. It would be wasted on them.”
“But not on me.”
“As Josh likes to say, suck it up, Lady.”
She frowned, but she followed him on foot to the nearest village some two miles away. Low buildings littered a grassy plain, the grass long ago beaten into submission. She shuddered when she thought about what her day would have been like had it been raining.
Six Great Cats met them, ancient whiskers graying about their snouts but all of them spry as they led her toward a low, round, thatched hut, its walls open to the air. Inside the hut, they formed into an open circle and settled onto their stomachs. She and Otis completed the circle. Darkness was falling, and a younger cat brought sticks and lit a fire, then backed away.
“We welcome you in the name of the People,” one of them said.
“Sir Otis tells me I am the first Queen to visit you. Shame on us. The People and the Royal Family have shared an uncommon bond for two thousand years, a personal bond defying time. Your Protectors have done their jobs well, and for that I thank you. We find ourselves again fighting gleasons, a problem I will rectify as soon as I am restored to the throne.”
She hung her head, then lifted it to the one who had spoken and said, “As bad as the gleasons are, the Chessori are far worse. I stand here today only because Sir Otis and a few of his brothers and sisters withstood the horrors of the mind weapon to rescue me. I will be forever grateful. The People believe they owe a debt of obligation for what the Royal Family did for them some 2,000 years ago. Now, the tables are turned. The Royal Family is indebted to you. So, too, is the Empire.”
The Great Cat nodded its head, but she wasn’t done. She looked deeply into each of the eyes around the circle, then said, “You have fulfilled any obligation you ever owed to the Royal Family, and I hereby release you from it.”
As one, all the Great Cats leapt to their feet. They prowled the interior of the hut shaking their great heads and muttering quietly to each other. When they formed up again, they settled around her in sitting positions, their heads tilted down toward her, their yellow eyes staring into hers. She suddenly knew that Otis’ listening to Ellie pose did not belong just to him. A couple of heads tossed angrily, hackles rising down the backs of both.
Their leader spoke. “Your Majesty, you honor us beyond words, but now is not the time.”
She tilted her head to the side. “I didn’t say I wanted you to stop. My love for Sir Otis knows no bounds. My love for you and our relationship follows from that. I cannot imagine existence without my Protectors.”
Her lips firmed. “When I speak of my Protectors, I never infer ownership. They are you, the People. You have proudly sent them for generations. I hope you will keep sending them, but no longer can they serve out of obligation. That obligation has been satisfied. I ask for your continued Protection, but I ask for it based on what it has really been all along: duty and honor. I throw the words friendship and love into that pot, but in that regard I speak only for myself.”
The Elders
either did not know protocol or they simply ignored it. They spoke briefly in low tones in their own language and seemed to reach agreement.
The leader spoke. “We agree: past debts are paid. That does not mean we will forget, ever. Our protection services have become as much a part of us as they are of the Royal Family. They will continue without cost to the Royal Family despite a considerable cost to us. Thank you for permitting us to serve out of honor rather than obligation.”
“Have any of you been Protectors?” she asked.
A low growl sounded from Otis, and she turned to him in surprise. “Am I out of order?” she asked.
He returned that pertinent look cats are so good at and deigned not to answer.
The speaker answered. “All of us knew you as a young child. I am sorry about your mother and siblings. We, of course, accept some of the blame.”
“We’re not playing that game,” she responded firmly. “We’re looking forward.”
“You’ve had a long day, Your Majesty. We’ll escort you back to the ship.”
He didn’t wait for an answer. He simply stood up and padded away. She and Otis followed, and the rest followed after them. She heard low conversation among them on the way, but she was content to just walk. It had, indeed, been a long day.
When they reached the ship, the leader spoke. “If you are willing to spend one more day, we will sing tomorrow night.”
“I’d be honored.”
He nodded. “Good night, Your Majesty.”
* * * * *
The next day she met Otis’ family. He had sired six pups four years earlier. Danril, a Protector herself, had birthed them here on Brodor and raised them in the traditional manner. Otis still referred to them as pups, but to her they were fully grown Great Cats. More mischievous than the Protectors she’d known, they were clearly still adolescents.
That night, Otis lead Ellie, his family, Josh, Waverly, and a few other senior officers back toward the village. “Singing is a thing of magic to us, and our tales are a source of education for our young,” he instructed them. “Our Elders have clearly broken with tradition here - you are the first outsiders to hear them.”
Night had fallen by the time they reached the site, a barren field outside the city. A series of fires had been set along the outside perimeter of an enormous clearing to provide a semblance of light. But clear vision was not essential here, the newcomers learned. Hearing was all that really mattered.
A Great Cat padded in a tight circle in the midst of the spectators. As soon as the visitors were seated, he began. He didn’t sing, not exactly. His tale was spoken, but so expertly that it sounded like a song, and it was, in fact, the cats’ way of singing. Ten minutes into the song he switched to Galactic High Standard, warning the listeners that the tale would lose some of its smoothness in the process.
They heard two stories that night. The first was the battle outside Chandrajuski’s home against the gleasons. Great roars sounded as Otis and his partners attacked, shrieks sounded as each Protector fell, and solid booms sounded from instruments among the spectators as Otis and Jessie fired blindly into the underbrush, wounding the last gleason. The audience shared their agony as the two later raced for the house, both of them severely wounded. A roar sounded as Otis leaped into the air reaching for the knife, followed by a hush when he fell fatally wounded.
The second song was of a one-legged beggar thwarting all security to reach Daughter’s side just in time to prevent her death. Otis’ decision to follow Val rather than stop him as he raced toward Daughter had become a standard item of course structure for Protector training.
The orator ended the story by turning to Ellie. “You have since Knighted Val, but to us he has always been a Knight.”
* * * * *
Ellie left the following day. Her next stop was back to Governor Seeton on Aldebaran I. Her cruiser was scheduled to have a hypercom installed. She fretted at the delay, but she understood its importance.
Chapter 21
Not all the sectors rescued by Waverly’s Raiders needed new governors. Some of the governors had remained loyal, treading difficult waters for years. Frncona did not share that reputation. It’s entire sector hierarchy had been removed by Struthers, then again by the Raiders. Veswicki had spent two full months underground preparing Frncona for the Raiders’ arrival. Part of that preparation included narrowing down a field of candidates, then Naming one of them acting governor after the fighting was done. When convenient, the Queen would confirm his choice after Testing.
Traditionally, Queens traveled to sectors to Name governors. Elaborate ceremonies were the norm. Ellie continued that tradition, traveling to every recovered sector, even those whose governors had not been replaced, reconfirming the crown’s confidence in them. Her arrival on Frncona surprised Veswicki. So recently had the fighting ended that the Raiders had not yet left.
That suited Ellie just fine. She always relished visits to her troops, and they appreciated the attention from the person who led this vast galactic organization. This was her last stop before the dreaded convocation on Triton, and she intended to make the most of it.
Her first order of business was to Test several of the senior politicians and military commanders. Following those Testings, she planned to hold private meetings with each individual, then with the group as a whole. A lavish ceremony for the general populace would cap off events.
The Testings began. Ellie was seated on a throne-like seat in the governors reception hall, a cavernous room designed for much larger audiences than the one present on this day. Veswicki, the senior Raider commander, several of his staff, and her Protection detail formed a small group around the throne.
The governor came in and knelt before Ellie. She commanded him to stand, and she stood with him. She reached out her hands, placing one on each shoulder, and looked into his eyes. The Testing began. Testings for governor were thorough, and this man passed with flying colors. She released him, congratulated him, then called for the next candidate.
Her fifth Testing was of a fleet commander. She accepted his application for the position, stood him up, and placed her hands on his shoulders.
The moment she did, she cried out. The admiral grabbed her arms and attempted to roll with her to the floor, using her body for cover, but Ralph moved too quickly. He tore Ellie from the man’s grasp and went to the floor, his body covering her. Her arms went to full extension, and a purplish ooze shot from her hands. The ooze quickly turned to a dull shade of brown.
The room erupted in shooting from above. Protectors sprang into action, returning murderous fire and gathering around the Queen. Veswicki and the Raiders sought cover and added their fire to that of the cats, but the ambush had been set too well. Everyone in the room died except Ellie. Unknown to the assailants, her Rider had traded its life for hers, removing the deadly poison in the only manner it could, taking it into its own body and leaving hers.
Jessie, Mike’s personal Protector, was in charge of external protection on this particular day. She quickly organized a team of Raiders that burst into the room with guns blazing. Their only purpose at the moment was to cover Jessie while she retrieved the Queen. The operation was successful, and Jessie leaped from the room with one arm around Ellie. The brownish fluid extending from each of Ellie’s hands, her dead Rider, remained behind. Jessie didn’t stop until she reached a Raider aid station. There, she held briefly while the medic examined Ellie and bandaged her hands, then she loaded Ellie onto a shuttle and brought her to the medical station on her cruiser.
Ellie was in enormous pain, her hands literally shredded by Cassandra as she burst out of her body. Doctors sedated her and worked on her for hours, then installed her in a tank. When she came out several days later, they installed gloves over her wounds and inserted pain blocks into each arm. Ellie awoke in bed, her thoughts dulled by the pain medication. Jessie was at her side.
They stared into each other’s eyes in silence. Ellie was the first to speak. “I
don’t remember anything.”
“You were poisoned, Your Majesty. Cassandra carried the poison from your body.”
Ellie’s eyes closed and she went internal. Moments later her eyes flew open in panic. “She’s gone!”
“Yes, Your Majesty, she’s gone. She made the ultimate sacrifice for you. So did Ralph, Veswicki, Waverly’s senior officers, the new governor, and your Protectors.”
Through her fog, it took a while for Jessie’s words to sink in. When they did, Ellie’s face froze and her gaze dulled. It wasn’t long before tears cascaded down her cheeks. Jessie, in a most un-Protector-like manner, gathered Ellie in her arms and pressed her to herself.
Triton
Chapter 22
Mike, posing as a repairman, stepped lightly from the transporter and reached back inside for the heavy toolkit. “Thanks for the lift!” he called to the driver as the transporter pulled away.
He looked up at Resolve’s burnished underside and let memories flood his mind. He’d spent a full year inside this ship when he and Ellie escaped from Earth. He’d killed George, fought off the Chessori, and he’d brought Ellie to a place they had thought would be safe. How wrong they’d been.
Those had been difficult, trying times, but as he looked back on them he felt once again the glow he felt every time he thought of Ellie. In his wildest imaginings he could never have foreseen himself falling in love with the Queen of All Space, but even more amazing was the fact that she’d fallen in love with him. And events surrounding that relationship, well . . . he shook his head. Words might exist to describe them, but he didn’t know the words. Too much had happened during the intervening years.
And now . . . they had reached the end game. The future was grim, but it was not bleak, and that was because of the players. So many fine people. His new friends would have been movers and shakers in any undertaking, but when it came to the demands of Empire they had given all that they were.
Voice of the Chosen (Spirit of Empire, Book Three) Page 37