Loud clangs assaulted his ears. He turned. Just in front, Lee carried a shield in one hand, covering Platus who continued to fire.
“This way!” Platus motioned.
Lee covered their retreat with the shield while Platus led them through a small door into a maze of corridors. Lee dropped the shield and Platus sealed the door.
“I believe that’s twice I’ve saved your life now, Commander Rayne. Your debt is slowly mounting.”
“I’ll be sure to write you in my will,” Aaron said, and turned to Quintus. “What the hell have you dragged us into?”
Quintus still had a look of disbelief. “I wish I knew,” he said slowly.
Platus signaled. “There’s no time. If you must discuss it, do so while moving.”
Aaron knelt by Rachael. She was on the floor cradling her injured leg. Aaron had Lee tear a strip from his white tunic, and he bandaged the wound. “It’s just a deep flesh wound but you won’t be able to put much weight on it. I’ll carry you.”
Her jaw clenched. “This doesn’t count as quality time.”
Aaron smiled and gently eased her off the floor. She hopped with her one good foot on his back. He stumbled forward.
“What?” she asked.
“Just a little heavier than you look.”
She glared at him over his shoulder but didn’t respond.
They continued to jog behind Platus as he led them through what obviously must be secret palace tunnels. Quintus was directly behind Platus and in front Aaron. “Don’t rush to blame my brother,” Platus said. “He’s a soldier of the Empire, not a politician and certainly not a spy.”
Platus stopped at a cross tunnel. He looked in both directions.
“Lost?” Aaron asked.
“Not quite, Commander. I haven’t explored these tunnels for many years. I memorized them without handhelds to guide me. These tunnels are not mapped. They’re shielded from sensors.”
Platus came to a decision. Whether by memory or gamble Aaron wasn’t sure.
The Urbanae regarded him. “In less than twenty-four hours I sensed what was happening here. You returned me at an auspicious time, Commander.”
“Doubly glad now,” Aaron replied. It wasn’t likely Platus knew the Supreme Commander had briefed Aaron on their recently concluded clandestine operation. Although, at the back of his mind, the question Aaron most wanted answered was whether Platus was the one who gave Marcus the information regarding the dark-matter bomb. In the end, spies played with a dangerous rope which they usually hung from. Aaron decided he would let Platus have as much rope as he wanted. If the Urbanae was up to his old games, he would eventually hang himself.
Quintus looked confused at what Platus said regarding the state of affairs he stumbled upon. “Why didn’t you come to me, brother?”
Platus didn’t look back as he continued to lead them through the tunnels. “I didn’t know the upstart hated his father enough to murder him. He certainly doesn’t have the necessary support throughout the Imperial Navy from what I’ve learned. Somehow, he’s coerced or gathered support from a few houses. A small matter of subspace weapons might have to do with it.”
Aaron played the fool but gave Quintus an accusing look. “Subspace weapons?”
Either Quintus was good at this “play the fool game” too or he really didn’t know. “I’m not aware of what he speaks,” he said.
Platus agreed. “I’m not aware of much myself. Apparently the weapon has the power to destroy an entire planet. Needless to say, convincing the houses in the autonomous regions who are neither for nor against the treaty, was an easy task. Vote against the treaty, support Marcus, or . . . he’ll destroy your worlds.”
“What would he have left to rule?” Rachael asked.
“The rulers of those houses are more afraid they will not have anything left to rule,” Platus said.
Aaron tilted his head over his shoulder at Rachael. “Sounds reasonable.”
Platus continued. “Marcus does have support on Hosque. To what extent is unknown. He’s maneuvered his people into the key infrastructure. The planetary defenses, the Imperial guards have all been replaced. He doesn’t yet have control of the system. My contacts say several squadrons are on the way to deal with the system defense navy.”
“Where do these lead?” Aaron asked.
“The tunnels lead to many places,” Platus said. “I am taking us to an emergency escape shuttle on a landing platform above the palace.”
“What about the planetary defenses?” Vee asked. “Won’t they destroy it?”
“Marcus is unaware of it. By the time he gets word and they assume who’s in it, we’ll be gone and under the protection of your ships in orbit.”
Something else puzzled Aaron. Their escape seemed a little too easy. “Platus, how’d you get past the dampening field with your weapon?”
The Urbanae looked honestly hurt by the question. “Please, Commander. I am internal security. Only internal security operatives have these old built in backdoors into the security systems. In our entire history IS has never engaged in politics. It’s one reason we were so stable for so long.”
“This rock stable stability is crumbling of late,” Lee said.
Platus regarded him. “We have Bannon and the other USS conspirators to thank for that, do we not?”
Quintus interjected. “I’ve always found Platus’ unique talents to come in handy at the most opportune of times.”
“How fortunate for us,” Rachael said.
“I’ll say,” Lee added.
Aaron wanted to laugh. Rachael was certainly showing her cynical side lately.
Platus paused at another door. He turned the wheel, and the door swung open, creaking on its old, rusted hinges. The small craft was on the pad. Aaron gritted his teeth.
Half a cohort of centurions stood between them and it.
***
Lee absorbed the situation quickly.
The centurions had the numerical advantage. But they had Platus with his pulse pistol. A cluster of spears arced towards them. Platus stepped back and yanked in the door. As the projectiles clanged away, the Urbanae burst out firing. The Imperial goons who tried peeking above the shield wall caught a full blast.
While the Imperial troops covered, Lee waded into them. He punched the shield held by a centurion in the center and knocked back the entire front-line. Another centurion thrust a short-sword at Lee, he side stepped, gripped the man’s shield and pulled him toward Aaron and the others behind. A pulse blast ushered him into the next life.
Off to see your Imperial Gods little centurion.
With an outward sweep, Lee batted the left half of the front flank, they stumbled on one another. Any he exposed, Platus shot.
The centurions then adopted another tactic. They surrounded Lee, shifting with expertise to block Platus’ fire. That exposed more of them. But Platus didn’t get all quick enough. A sword sliced Lee’s shoulder. He swatted that centurion goon away. He blocked another slash with his arm. Then several centurions behind him screamed. Lee whirled. Spears impaled them.
Lee twisted. The Commander and the others picked up another round of spears and charged. They yelled, and the centurions turned to meet them. Lee mangled their formation with help from Platus, creating an opening to advance to the shuttle.
The Commander and the others weren’t much use with the spears other than their initial toss. Now Lee had to mitigate the centurions slicing at his comrades. He picked up a fallen sword and drove it into the back of one standing over Dawes. Lee ducked as a sword slashed overhead, he spun and swept his sword behind him and caught the centurion in the legs above his gauntlets.
The six still standing backed away together. Lee vaulted into the shuttle as Platus kept firing from the boarding ramp. Aaron and the rest were already inside.
“Platus, open comms for me,” Aaron said.
Platus moved to do it and slapped the control for the bay door.
“Flaps!” Aaron shouted.
Moments later the comm crackled.
“Commander? We’re having trouble receiving. Jamming field emanating from Hosque. Penetrated it for now. But they might rotate the jamming again.”
“Flaps. We’re coming up from…” he checked the board for the coordinates, found them and read them. “Protect our egress, Ensign. Send a signal to Decimus aboard Phalanx and warn him. The Emperor might be dead. Prepare to receive our shuttle. Lock on to this transmission. We’re departing the Imperial Palace roof.”
If news of the Emperor’s demise surprised Flaps, he didn’t reveal it in his voice. “Aye, Commander. Energizing defense systems now. We’ve got you on sensors. We’ll cover your egress.”
An alarm blared. Hostile targeting systems painted them.
Aaron threw his hands up. “I thought you said by the time—”
Platus himself look surprised. “The boy isn’t as stupid as his father might have believed.”
Not stupid—but maddened by resentment. Lee looked at the Commander. Both of them were probably thinking the same thing.
***
Aaron couldn’t believe they’d come all this way, only to be shot down in an Imperial shuttle over Hosque. Missiles launchers and laser batteries locked onto the shuttle. One hit would finish it. The alarms stopped. Explosions rattled the area around the palace. Imperial atmosphere fighters were engaging the weapon batteries targeting the shuttle.
“Those fighters are loyal to the Emperor, they will cover our escape,” Platus said.
“Perhaps this will be a brief rebellion,” Lee said.
Aaron didn’t acknowledge the lieutenant. Hatching chickens came to mind.
Flaps interjected on the comm. “Commander! A large Imperial fleet just transitioned from warp at the system’s edge. Time to arrival sixteen hours.”
“Define large, Ensign.”
“Two hundred and fifty warships, sir.”
Those definitely weren’t friendly forces. “You were saying, Quintus?”
“We will fight.”
“Quintus. You don’t have the forces in system to fight this. They’ve made their move. Now let’s make ours.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Marcus will want to consolidate his power around the threat of his new weapons. He must be building them somewhere. I think I might have an idea where.”
Quintus eyed him. “Is that so? Should I even bother to ask how?”
“Someday perhaps. But not today.”
“Then lead the way, Commander Rayne.”
The Imperial fighters provided enough of a distraction until the shuttlecraft egressed from the planet rising out of the raging chaos. The fact the shuttle was still in one piece meant Marcus didn’t have the orbital defenses under his full control yet. He might soon.
Chapter 21-Brute Force
“That is a reckless sequence of events backed with much prayer” – Quintus Scipio
Phoenix
Eight light years beyond Hosque
There had been a heated discussion on the method of transport. Quintus believed he should go charging in on Phalanx, and if they found anything in Draconis, he’d demand to know on whose authority and what was going on therein.
It was difficult convincing an entitled Imperial, no matter how great a commander he was, that people with agendas didn’t simply bow down and hail you as the great authority. It hadn’t worked before with Brutus Bannon and his conspirators, and it wouldn’t work now.
Aaron fully realized what Shepherd told him about Quintus and Platus now played out before him. Platus was far less naïve in the realm of politics and political maneuvering. Not necessarily someone who reveled in it, but someone understood it. Platus knew how to navigate the political world and mitigate or manipulate it in a favorable direction.
Then there was Quintus. A man who’d earned his status through merit, who became something of a politician after he was a soldier, and couldn’t fathom the disloyalty of his men. Quintus wasn’t able to internalize it, so it didn’t exist. No matter how many times the Lord Commander was presented with reality.
Quintus wasn’t foolish. Quite the opposite, he just so believed in the idealistic man that he didn’t comprehend evil.
Aaron tried to convince the Lord Commander it wouldn’t be that simple. If the facility was there in Draconis, many highly placed people had ensured it remained secret through extraordinary means. If they could maintain that by vaporizing the Imperial flagship and its Lord Commander with it, they would. The Imperials at Draconis might not even be aware of the Emperor’s demise or even care.
Aaron played the one card he knew Quintus couldn’t refuse. Aaron had saved the Lord Commander’s life at the Battle of Atlas Prime. He’d bonded with Quintus in an unusual way that probably neither of them understood. During the battle, Quintus had all but given up when half his crew betrayed him. Aaron wouldn’t have it. He’d boarded Phalanx after Brutus Bannon’s loyalists tried to seize the ship, and he helped Quintus regain control and live to prevent a war.
Quintus had told him during their first meeting that perhaps in another life they might call one another brother. In many ways, Aaron conceded the larger-than-life presence of Quintus. Here was a man who believed in all that was good, in honor, loyalty, and justice for all. Not just his own people. Not only people he knew. But everyone. That itself was an honorable trait. Because the farther removed from people we are, the less one tends to care about them. Quintus was a man who it seemed cared about everything and everyone.
Quintus had fought—and killed his own people to thwart their injustices, to bring lasting stability and peace to the two largest human enclaves who after years of a space cold-war might finally negotiate an official treaty and possibly an alliance. Quintus had conviction. And it was a shared ideal. Although they were worlds apart in personality, with Quintus, Aaron truly had a brother—a kindred spirit. Perhaps that was why they’d bonded in the short time they had.
After some wrangling, he’d convinced the Lord Commander to go in secret aboard Phoenix. If they found any activity, then they would determine the best course of action.
***
A few hours later, still en route to Draconis, Quintus sat opposite Aaron in the ready room, and they continued a heated but controlled argument.
“A dark matter bomb, Quintus. A weapon of mass destruction, possibly. But subspace weapons? They are weapons of mass annihilation. One of those things could rip a hole in the fabric of the universe, unleashing all kinds of underlying energies from subspace into normal space, disturbing the equilibrium of dark energy and matter. It’s like toying with the strands which hold this universe together.”
The Imperial looked off to the side. “Is this how you justify it? One is an atom bomb and one a hydrogen? Just less powerful?”
Aaron sucked a deep breath and blew it out. “No. I would never try to justify the creation of either weapon, but you’re talking about the future of humankind. Why would you even contemplate supporting the development of subspace weapons which could destroy the very frontier we sail on?”
“Just as you are not fully aware of the dark matter weapon. Neither do I have knowledge of this particular subspace weapons research facility.”
Quintus tapped a console on his Imperial handheld and images appeared above it.
“The Draconis star went supernova millennia ago. Draconis-2 is barely now habitable again. There’s nothing there. Platus assures me he knows of no such facility and believe me he is well connected. If he doesn’t know. It doesn’t exist.”
The holodisplay flashed in front Aaron. “Platus is loyal. Loyal to the Empire. He wouldn’t reveal it even if he did.”
“He is loyal to his brother first.”
“What if his brother’s loyalties and his didn’t align?” Aaron asked.
“What are you saying?”
“What if he believes your judgment is clouded by the recent diplomatic overtures and he can’t be loyal to that vision anymore
because it isn’t what’s in the best interests of the Baridian Empire?”
Quintus didn’t answer.
Aaron pressed. “You once told me you didn’t desire war but if it came to it, you might struggle between your love for the Empire and its death. You wouldn’t allow it to die because it had less than stellar ideologies. Platus is the same. Empire first. As it should be. I can’t argue with that. But I’m not convinced it doesn’t exist. I believe Platus is mistaken—it’s there and he doesn’t know.”
Quintus sighed. Whatever thoughts he wrestled with, it was clear his loyalties were at war with his ethics. The battle between the two raged inside him.
“And if we find such a facility in Draconis?” he finally asked.
“If we find such a facility, then by all the known Deities, we beg one of them to help us. I swear to you Quintus, when we return to Sol, I will get to the bottom of our dark matter bomb. You know enough to know, I’ll never support its continued development.”
“I never doubted that you would, Aaron.”
Aaron heard the words, but he was certain Quintus would be more convinced by action. How could he or anyone condemn the Imperials for developing subspace weapons while the USS was developing an equally terrible weapon?
***
Less than two days later they’d reached Draconis. Everyone including Quintus and Platus were here on the bridge. The all kept their gaze fixed to the holoviewer. Phoenix had dropped from warp just beyond the system’s edge an hour ago and began a passive scan.
“Initial sensor returns, Commander,” Vee reported.
The holoviewer swirled. A long slim shaft connected an object with two large rings which rotated about the axis in orbit of Draconis-2. A squadron of Hemiolia-class destroyers patrolled the outer and inner system and a large sensor net orbited the planet. No doubt, smaller arrays spread throughout the system monitored everything else.
Unite the Frontier (United Star Systems Book 3) Page 12