What happened next looked like the beginning of a sun going super nova, a bright circular spot grew on the Council Ship while the white yellow glow from my own ship continued to pour into it, too fast to comprehend instantly, then expanding outward from the point of impact and then I couldn’t see anything at all because the screen had blacked out, either from dampeners or some effect of the explosion itself, I didn’t know which. Our ship shuddered just a trifle as the blast ripped past us, but that was all. Within seconds the image had returned to show empty space where the Council Ship had been. Completely empty.
“We suffered some small residual damage.” One of the numerous crewmen said, studying the data on his diagnostics display.
“You waited a long time to fire!” Naagrotod snapped.
“Handle it.” I told the crew at large. “I don’t want to hear about it again.”
“Yes Sir.” They all said.
“Escort the Princess to my quarters.” I told the guards. I’d find out where I lived one way or another!
“Yes Sir.” The guards in question said.
“Naagrotod.”
“Yes Sir?”
“I want a complete battle analysis.” I ordered. “Our remaining forces and whatever Imperial Forces remain. I want Ertiga blockaded. Be thorough.”
“Yes Sir.” Naagrotod said and saluted. By his happy look he must be figuring his star had just risen. I had just taken over the most powerful Empire in all the known Universe, yet I still didn’t know where my own quarters were on my own Flagship. I got up and followed the guards as they escorted Meerla to my quarters, just down the corridor from the Bridge, it turned out, and escorted Meerla inside when the door opened at my presence. It turned out that it had been a good thing the Kievors had copied me so thoroughly, right down to the exact genetic code.
If I had thought previously that my own star had risen I was now subjected to wonders beyond imagining. We walked into the foyer of my quarters and found ourselves in a luxuriously appointed chamber that must have been twice as large as Last Chance herself and stuffed with fanciful tapestries, ornamental furniture, antique weapons, and all manner of odd assorted items. Corridors and other rooms led off in dozens of other directions.
“Leave us.” I told the guards, who obeyed after saluting. The door sealed shut behind them and I was alone again with Meerla.
CHAPTER 11
“Do we even want to go back now?” Meerla asked cheerfully, all pretense of anger gone.
I scowled at her, looking around, but no one who might be listening would know what that meant. Still!
“You’re quite the evil genius, Brune!”
“It is an amazing twist of fate.” I said. “That’s for sure. So you’re not really mad?”
“Not as long as I’m to be Empress.”
“You’ll be looked on as a traitor to your line.”
“My father is a worthless drug addict,” Meerla said, “and anyway, like you said, my lineage won’t be interrupted. Someone has to father my children. Might as well be you.”
I began searching through the dozens of rooms that were my new quarters and soon found a mini-Bridge room. The room activated upon my entrance. This room was incredible beyond anything I had yet seen. The walls, ceiling and floor, that lit up as I entered, lit up as the image of space around us. Like I was in space, and not in a ship that was in space. Besides the Command Chair and Console, two other Technician’s Stations and Meerla and I, we might have been standing right in the vacuum of space. Alartaw needle ships were coming out of Hyper Space (what the crewman had called it), joining us, even as we watched. To our rear, at quite a distance, floated the Kievor Trade Station in its orbit around the Red Giant. So they saw the destruction of the Council Ship and would be wondering. Would they suspect that I was now in control of the entire Alartaw Empire? I seriously doubted it. I still could hardly believe it myself.
“Computer?” I asked, a stab in the dark, though said confidently.
“Yes Commander?” Asked a seductive voice. “Do you wish to override?”
“Not at this time.” I answered. Of course the Commander would have the authority to override the main Bridge, but I had a thought; “Can override be achieved from anywhere outside this ship?” I was thinking secret codes or Imperial Mandates and such.
“No Commander.”
“Does anyone else aboard have the authority to override?” I looked at Meerla.
“No Commander. You are the sole authority.”
“Good!” I said, grinning at Meerla, who scowled back. “But if I’m injured or killed, from this point, Meerla is to assume Command. Understood.”
“Noted, Commander.” It answered. “Meerla Krazdop is now First.”
“The Council has screwed everything up in my absence.” I now told the computer. “So to start setting things straight I need a record of all their recent activities.”
Without a word the computer blanked out a huge section of space around us, on the forward facing wall (forward to the Command Chair) and began displaying Council Minutes, memorandums, dictates, and everything else pertinent to the Council. Ex Council, I reminded myself. They were very much dead. Meerla and I spent the day watching and learning, and began to get a fair understanding of what we had gotten ourselves involved in. The drug addicted Emperor Morgata Krazdop had ruled for over three thousand years and had thousands of children, but Meerla was the only legitimate child of a legitimate marriage (Morgata had killed Meerla's mother when she failed to produce a man child on the first attempt, and never remarried). Her mother was of one of the other Great Houses of the Alartaw Empire, so Meerla had Aristocratic blood from both families.
Over the years, Morgata’s addiction continued to worsen until a Council was appointed to rule in his stead. The Council was comprised of various highly placed Statesmen and Empire Officials, and for the last hundred years had run the Empire in the Emperor’s stead, but as close as I could figure it had probably been pulling the strings from the shadows for far longer. My own stand, I learned, was one of barbaric expansion. To eradicate all other sentient species. To assure the Alartaw dominance forever. A stand the Emperor had put on hold due to lack of interest and a stand the Council had not pursued.
This whole mess couldn’t be more amusing, once I understood it. The Kievors had turned me into the one Alartaw who was bent on destroying them (and possessing the power to do so), and not only that, but the first action I had taken was to destroy those who had not wanted that course. How was I to explain to the Alartaw who had backed me, the majority it seemed, that I no longer wanted to follow my original course? They had followed me because as a race they were aggressive conquerors and they had grown tired of the complacency. Yes, an amazing situation.
“The Council was the voice of reason, and you’ve killed them.” Meerla said, and it was my turn to glower at her. She smiled sadistically.
“Commander?” The computer interrupted.
“What?”
“A battle group is approaching out of warp.” She said. “The Captain requests permission to engage the hostiles.”
“Granted.” I said. “But who are they?”
“Locals.” She said. “A representation of all sector species.” A large box of data disappeared in front of us to be replaced with an empty spot of space. The magnification grew until a massive armada of varied fighting ships could be seen. They covered the wall.
“Why are they attacking us, Brune?” Meerla asked contemplatively.
“A better question would be ‘why now’?” I asked, and we both wondered into each other’s eyes questions which could not be spoken here.
Another place on the wall cleared to be replaced with a view of the Main Bridge, and centered on a decoratively uniformed Alartaw. The Captain.
“Thank you Commander. We have waited for this for too long.” He said. “I won’t let you down.”
“Against this riff-raff,” I scoffed contemptuously, “I should hope not!” There were doze
ns of other Alartaw ships around us as well, and none massing under what I would call Capitol Class, and our technology! The image of the Captain blinked away.
“You just ordered them destroyed!” Meerla shouted at me, able to hold it in no longer. I’m pretty sure I flinched at the emotion in her voice. I had, hadn’t I?
“What was I supposed to do?”
“Not order them destroyed! Do you realize what you have done?” She seemed really distressed. I had to admit to a bit of concern myself, but was making the Kievors mad even a concern anymore. Why was all this happening now? I supposed the Kievors had decided they just couldn’t wait anymore, and probably hadn’t expected us to vacate their Station. We were just two insignificant factors in the whole equation, anyway. What a cluster fuck!
“They’re attacking us, Meerla!” I defended myself. “The crew would mutiny if I ordered us to run. Alartaw don’t run, especially from riff-raff.”
“They don’t look like riff-raff, and there are sure a lot of them.”
I turned from her exasperated face to look at the screen showing them, where more and more were coming out of warp. “I guess you may have a point at that.” I conceded. There was a seemingly endless river of them appearing, and all pouring relentlessly down onto us.
“Computer?” I had an idea that wouldn’t have been possible with Last Chance’s meager computing power but should be more than possible here.
“Yes Commander?” She asked.
“Please generate an animated battle scenario enactment based on their firepower and numerical strength, based on the vessels now visible.” That didn’t even take into account however many more were yet to come, but would give me a good idea of what to expect.
“Yes Commander.” The computer had barely finished speaking when another window opened showing our small fleet (an obviously animated version, but as picture perfect as the real thing) rushing out to engage the much larger enemy fleet. We immediately wiped out the whole front of the advancing horde, but we were struck in return. Viciously. Then we struck again, and were in turn struck. We kept attacking, using our better speed and agility to great advantage, but wholly outnumbered. They wiped us out quickly and soon only my own Command Ship was left, having hung slightly back as was the norm in such battles, and then that was gone too. Only the enemy remained, a still endless river.
“I notice that you don’t pose our survival as a possibility.” I said.
“There is no possibility, Commander.” She said.
“Why is that?”
“The approaching fleet, though not of Kievor manufacture, are displaying Kievor energy weapons signatures. We are susceptible to them.”
I glanced at Meerla. Her face mirrored my concern. The Kievors had been busy. They had not rested all their hopes upon us, after all.
“Share this data with the Captain, please.” I ordered resignedly.
The view of the Main Bridge and the Captain reappeared as the computer played the reenactment for them. The Captain looked just as resigned as I felt.
“Yes, we have just become aware of this data as well.” The Captain said. “I would never have suspected the Kievors would do anything so foolish. The reptile races will turn on the Kievors at the first opportunity. Orders, Sir?”
“Use your best judgment.” I said. “Communication ended.” The view of the Main Bridge and the Captain disappeared. I waited one minute.
“Computer?”
“Yes Commander?”
“What orders have the Captain given?”
“Captain Puguta has just ordered all military activity to cease until Ertiga has been reclaimed in your name. We are now . . . ”, she paused in her explanation to me as I felt a strange, kind of buzzing, throbbing feeling pass through me, completely unlike the warp sickness I suffered with human jump technology (though I knew instinctively that we were jumping), “entering Hyper Space.”
“Are we leaving any undefended non-combatants who would be susceptible to this rabble alien army?” I demanded.
“No Commander.” She answered. “As you know, we have yet colonized no worlds in this sector. There were no unpopulated worlds free for colonizing, and the Council has banned all aggression.”
“Good.” I said. I was thinking that I needed to be careful. This computer was no dummy, but I had been gone, out of the loop, for several years, so I couldn’t be expected to be up to date on every new development. Just be careful, I told myself.
Naagrotod patched through the data I had requested and Meerla and I studied it in awed silence. The Alartaw presently occupied nine hundred eighty seven thousand, two hundred sixty three worlds. The battle between the insurgents and the Loyalists had only cost the Fleet just over ninety three thousand fighting craft of various classes, which left, all told, some forty six million Fleet craft and some four hundred and odd million other individually owned ships that, though not of military designation, were none the less just as well armed. Like all other races, individual Alartaw went nowhere unarmed.
“Nearly half a billion fighting craft!” Meerla said, stunned, as we sat and examined the endless reams of data we had at our disposal. “That’s incredible.”
“And yet not enough.” I said.
“How do you figure?” She demanded, giving me a look like I was stupid.
“How many alien races have the Kievors shared their technology with, just in this one sector? Computer?” Meerla’s face registered her understanding immediately, but skepticism showed there too. The computer wasn’t as quick this time.
“Unknown, Commander.” It finally answered.
“How many alien races reside in this sector?” The computer wasn’t as intelligent, obviously, as I had at first worried it would be.
“Twenty eight thousand, four hundred sixty three, Commander.”
“See my point.” I told Meerla.
“Yes, but the Kievors wouldn’t do anything that crazy.” Meerla didn’t want to believe it, that was clear. Her face said it couldn’t be.
“I believe they would, and have.” I said. “They’re leaving all the indigenous races as a buffer while they prepare to leave. A much more advanced and dangerous buffer now that the Kievors have shared their technology.” I went on; “What about these black holes the Alartaw were supposed to have? Have you heard anything about that?”
“No. But you’re the Commander. I’m just a Princess. What would I know?” She said sarcastically. I ignored her.
“If we had this great black hole weapon, why wouldn’t we use it and destroy all of these alien warships?” Now she didn’t have a smart reply. I was on a roll.” I think the Kievors knew exactly who we were. Well, you know what I mean.”
“No way!” There was no sarcasm in her voice now.
“Yeah,” I said, “and I think the Kievors were telling the truth about the black holes blocking the worm holes, except that they are the ones installing them. They said they were buying Trinium to forestall others from getting their hands on it, but that really doesn’t make sense if you think about it.” I tapped my index finger on the side of my head. “Why would they be buying it all the way back you know where? It doesn’t equate. They wanted the Trinium because they’re making the black holes themselves, to try and bottle us up here, because they are unsure of all of our technology. Try to trap us with all these newly armed alien races, which, it seems, the Kievor have turned against us.”
“And on and on throughout all Kievor localities.” Meerla said, understanding. “The Alartaw haven’t attacked anyone in a hundred years, and the Kievor have been busy the while.”
“Because the Council wouldn’t advocate further expansion while the advantage was yet ours!” I was mad. Really furious. Really an Alartaw.
“But what did they hope to achieve by . . . “
“Don’t say it.” I interrupted. “It was never about us. It was about the two of them! The data they could provide and we helped them to pull it off.”
“They miscalculated.” Meerla said.
“We were the wrong two to piss off!”
“Commander?” Asked the air, but it was Puguta, not the computer.
“What?” I demanded. His face appeared on the wall.
“We’ll be arriving Ertiga shortly.”
“And?” I snapped. These people were going to learn to function without asking my opinion on every little issue. That is why there is a Captain, isn’t it! It’s called delegating.
“Well Sir, are you going to be leading the landing forces?”
“Frankly Captain,” I said viciously, “I had considered just vaporizing the planet. Do you think I would make a lot of Alartaw angry if I did that?”
“Sir! There are billions of civilians on Ertiga! It would be unprecedented! Sir, you have not yet even been Coronated. I do not recommend it.” I could see that it was taking a lot of guts for Puguta to voice his opinion in light of my erratic behavior. Maybe he was right, though the prospect of vaporizing a whole planet did intrigue me.
“That’s really rather too bad.” I groused.
“I see that your time among the herbivores hasn’t changed you much, Sir.” Puguta ventured, but I didn’t smile at him. Let him sweat. I turned to Meerla;
“Should I lead the troops while we destroy your father?” Meerla didn’t find that funny, nor, judging by Puguta’s sharp intake of breath, did he.
“I suppose that’s the thing to do.” I said, turning back to face the Captain’s image on the wall when Meerla only scowled.
“Very good Sir.” Puguta said, his image blinking quickly away.
“Am I living up to my name, dear?” I asked Meerla sweetly.
“You’re certainly living up to something.” She said bitingly. “You’ll be Brune the Brute before you’re finished. Of course, you’re destroying all respect for me, not that that concerns you. Thank you so very much.”
“You’ll have all the respect you desire when you’re Empress.” I said. “Look at it this way; now you become Empress much sooner! Hell, you might never have become Empress otherwise. I don’t think the Council was going to give up their power without a fight.”
Chronicles of a Space Mercenary Page 23