Promises & Prophecies

by Lee Watts

  In the cell, Mei looked at her captain and echoed his words from earlier, "Caught, imprisoned, escaped, re-caught and re-imprisoned all in one day. That's got to be a record."

  Sosimo looked at her in somewhat playful annoyance.

  "Very funny... but the day's not over yet."

  ***

  On the planet Kohath, wind whipping his cloak as he strode down the open-air walkway constructed high above the city, Imenand approached the heavy, tall doors positioned between the legs of the enormous gleaming black statue of the god Dylimek. Drinking in the smell of the smoke wafting from the two bowls of flame on either side of the figure, he relished the moment. Elite guards in glistening red armor and brandishing blaster pikes flanked each side of the doors. Automatically opening as he approached, the doors revealed the opulent chamber beyond. At the far end of the room was a raised marble platform where now was positioned only one throne. The Dridmor Overlord Koraden sat there with the priest Jambrek to the back left of him. Standing on the ground level, amid a discussion with Koraden was Potentate of the Ramillie Hegemony, Saqir Nexos. Upon hearing the doors open, Saqir turned to see who it was. Recognizing the dark cloaked figure, Saqir stopped speaking.

  Reaching the bottom of the stairs to the platform, Imenand lowered one knee to the high-polished marble floor and waited for his master to give him leave to speak.

  "Rise and report," Koraden allowed.

  Slowly standing, Imenand announced, "Overlord, I have found... the portal."

  Koraden smiled wickedly, eyes dancing in delight.

  "Excellent. Where is it?" he asked.

  "It was in the infamous Vault, but I've brought it back with me. Shall I have it delivered here?"

  "No, Merrick is still loose somewhere. My guess is he's still on Kohath waiting for an opportunity. We can't let him get near the portal. Have it loaded on my personal ship, the Neovenator. If it's on a ship, we can more quickly deploy the legions throughout the galaxy. Have Admiral Valqson notify me the instant it is onboard, and we'll perform the ceremony."

  "Yes, Overlord. With pleasure."

  With that, Imenand bowed and began to leave the chamber to carry out the orders. Koraden then turned his attention to the mortal on the lower level.

  "Saqir, with the portal found there is only one task left to bring the age to its end. Bring me Salazar Yorin."

  Saqir smiled as he contemplated what might befall the eldest son of Darius.

  In delight, he whispered, "With pleasure."

  ***

  In the royal palace on Theera, the tall double doors of the military command center room slid open. Striding in first was Caedmon in his typical loose-fitting attire and ever-present metallic walking staff in his hand. Coming to a halt, he stuck the bottom tip of the staff against the floor twice and proclaimed, "ALEXANDER LYONS, KING OF THE UNITED REALM OF THEERA-ENTY."

  Everyone in the two-level room immediately came to attention, those seated rose, and all conversations abruptly ended. A moment later, Alexander entered and proceeded directly to a position at the room's central feature, the large, waist-high holographic projection table. Cale, as head of palace security, accompanied the king and took up a position just inside of the entrance.

  "As you were," Alexander said and gestured to get the meeting started. "General Dartaveer, report."

  With Admiral Balin taking personal command of the flagship Dauntless, Dartaveer served as supreme commanding officer of Realm military operations.

  "Yes, Highness," the dark-skinned general began as he activated the display causing a wireframe grid of the galaxy to begin floating above the circular table. "Since Chief Minister Yorin made his announcement that Assembly of Worlds members are to honor the mutual defense pact and so aid the Ramillie, we've lost the initiative."

  "How bad is it?" the king asked.

  "Bad," Dartaveer responded. "In the past two days alone, we've lost forty-eight sectors. Thank the Elder the full Assembly hasn't acted on the Chief Minister's announcement. Even with those Assembly worlds that have responded they've succeeded in cutting off the Vaunling Federation from the Coalition's supply lines, and almost every hour, I'm getting reports of another nation that's withdrawing from the Coalition. Some are staying neutral, but at least half who've left are now aiding the Ramillie. Some with supplies, others are allowing them to cross their space, and some have gone so far as to deploy forces against us. Then there's Admiral Ra'daq. He's been on a rampage - devastating entire fleets with that one ship of his."

  Another officer at the HPT added to the report.

  "Also, Sire, we've experienced nearly a complete breakdown of operations security. Every government that left had access to our plans and codes. We can't change them fast enough to keep up with the situation. Plus, there might be some governments now working as double agents for the Ramillie."

  "There's more," Dartaveer added. "The Terkasi have withdrawn their forces from at least forty-seven Coalition outposts to shore up their own defenses. Some of the stations are reduced to skeleton crews, others are completely abandoned. If we-"

  Interrupting the report came a quick repeating, high pitched alarm from a console on the room's open second level. A nearby officer turned to see what was going on. Hitting a switch, he deactivated the alarm and quickly read the information."

  "Report," Dartaveer called out."

  "Sending it to the HPT now, General," the officer replied.

  As the holographic image of the galaxy shimmered, it was replaced with a grid showing Realm controlled space. A red blip was approaching the Celtis Po system. Dartaveer tapped some of the controls on the table to get more information.

  "The signal is coming in from one of our hyperspace buoys. It's relaying telemetry of a Ramillie force heading for the system. E.T.A. four hours."

  "What is the status of-" Alexander began to say, but the previous alarm sounded again. Dartaveer shook his head as he programmed the display to de-magnify and show more of the map, which included surrounding space.

  "Detecting a second strike force. It's heading for Borila."

  "What do we have that can get there in time?" Alexander asked.

  "The Dauntless has formed a strike force with the Resolute, and Victory. They could make it to Celtis in just over three hours."

  "Are there any Coalition ships to send to Borila?"

  Dartaveer ran his eyes over the listing of allied ship positions then looked up from the screen to the king and shook his head.

  "None that could get there before the Ramillie do, Sire. Our ships could get to Borila at about the same time the Ramillie do. What are your orders?"

  "Blast," Alexander grumbled. "Our first duty is to the people of the Realm. Contact Admiral Balin, have him lead his group to Celtis Po - best possible speed."

  "Roger that, Sire," Dartaveer acknowledged then turned and nodded to one of the officers in the room who immediately went to a console to relay the order.

  Alexander extended his arms forward and leaned upon the HPT staring blankly at the floating display.

  "It's all falling apart isn't it, Caedmon," he whispered in lamentation. "We were so close. If it weren't for Salazar's vendetta against me, we would've have won this war in few more months. Maybe we should pull back our forces - just concentrate on protecting the Realm."

  No one dared speak, the entire fate of the galaxy hung in the air. If the Realm withdrew from the Coalition, then the fragile alliance was undoubtedly doomed. Without unification, most of the nations would quickly be re-conquered, their leaders executed, and populations subjugated under complete iron-fisted control of the Ramillie.

  "My first duty is to the people of the Realm," Alexander quietly commented to no one, though all could tell he was thinking out loud and reasoning with himself.

  After a long while, Caedmon broke the silence and spoke softly to the king.

  "Sire, didst the Elder have thee lead the nations to resist the Ramillie?"

  "Didst," Alexander answered lowly while
keeping his eyes on the display.

  "Then I call to thy memory words of the Holy Codex, For I am the Elder..." before finishing the quotation, the sage man's demeanor transformed from gentle to strong and determined, "I change not."

  Hearing the passage, Alexander's focus seemed to shift from the distant to the present, and he pondered the words for a moment then a small smile crossed his face. In silence, he turned his head to face the Faithful Voice of the Elder. Caedmon nodded in respect to his king and Alexander returned the gesture.

  With renewed determination and surety, Alexander straightened himself and began calling out orders.

  "General Dartaveer, compile a list of our most trusted allies and get them on a secure holo-channel for a conference right away. One way or another, this war will be over in a few days. I have a promise to keep."

  In short order, the leaders, or representatives, from each of the core Coalition nations were projected on one of the large floor-to-ceiling displays in the command center room. At first, there was near chaos as they all talked at once about how the Coalition was collapsing, the Ramillie were advancing on every side, and rumors began flying faster than lightspeed. Eventually, Alexander quieted them and addressed the group.

  "If we break up the Coalition and the Hegemony wins this war then all of you know your lives are forfeit. The Ramillie will hunt down and kill each of you and everyone else they even suspect had any part in this uprising. I've no doubt Theera, and many of your worlds will be reduced to ash with our entire populations exterminated to serve as examples of what happens to those who dare to fight back. There's no choice to be made here! Many of you have said 'if we fight, we die,' but if you don't fight you certainly will die anyway. The Ramillie offer you two options, surrender and die, or fight and die, but I offer you another alternative - fight and live."

  A yellow-skinned man on the left side of the screen responded first.

  "How?"

  Alexander smiled coyly.

  "By taking the fight to the enemy. So far, we've been liberating conquered worlds, but if you think about it, we haven't taken or even engaged forces on a single truly Ramillie planet because they're all inside The Cloud. So that's where we have to go."

  "Inside THE CLOUD?! That's insane. No one has ever got passed The Cloud!"

  "Wrong," Alexander countered. "The Ramillie do it all the time. Their hyperspace technology allows them to bypass normal space and go around that barrier. The Realm has a few hyperspace generators, but not enough to deploy a significant force inside The Could, and I'm guessing it's the same with the rest of you. Therefore, I say we jump to one of the positions outside of The Cloud where they have one of their massive jumpgates, and we use that to have our fleets pour into The Cloud like bees from a hive. There's no reason for them to have defenses up and ready. No one has threatened their worlds in more than a thousand years. We'll surround their key systems and demand immediate surrender and withdraw of their forces from all sectors outside The Cloud."

  There was silence as the various Coalition members considered the daring plan.

  "It's risky," one of them at last voiced.

  "Indeed," Alexander admitted, "but war is risk. We'll never have a better chance a victory than now. We will never be stronger, and the more we wait, the weaker we'll become. We strike now, or never."

  After a long while, the first response came, "I agree."

  Eventually, the group came to a unanimous decision to proceed with the attack. It would take a few days to reposition their various fleets to be able to make a united assault. Alexander entrusted General Dartaveer with coordinating the details for Realm forces, and he set to work by contacting ships right away. Cale, quietly standing by the door, heard the entire plan and also set to work for his final act to bring down Alexander and the entire Coalition.

  CHAPTER 24

  "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed." - Genesis 2:8

  Sosimo Degare Fauntleroy LaRouche... the Fourth, sat on the metal slab jutting from the wall of his cell on the Ramillie capital world of Kohath. Unlike his previous incarceration, this time he and his crew were not in the holding area for an arena, but rather in prison.

  With arms crossed and a grimace on his face, the pirate sat there brooding. Noticing Sosimo's sour demeanor, Byron, the only other occupant in the tiny cell, spoke up.

  "What's wrong, Cap'n?"

  Sosimo looked at him in frustrated amazement of such a question.

  "Really, Byron? I'll tell you. It's high fuel prices and the bad economy. They've really got me down," he mocked.

  "Don't even get me started on the economy," Byron stared in complete sincerity. "I'd invested in this one agriculture company on Haralus III, but do you know ever since they had that so-called 'plague' my stocks have dropped like a rock."

  Sosimo looked at his cellmate, and longtime crewmember then shook his head.

  "I like you, Byron. You're loyal... dumb as a rock, but I like you anyway."

  "Aw come on, Cap'n. We'll get outta this. You always think of something sooner or later."

  "It's the later part that has me worried," Sosimo grumbled.

  "What do you mean? All we've got is time," Byron answered with a smile.

  "No, we don't, and that's what has me concerned. We've been here about three weeks now, and have you noticed when we went to the common area for food that we're just about the ones who have been here the longest? The guards get the longest serving prisoners then they vanish."

  "Cap'n, where are all those guards going?"

  "Not the guards, Byron, the prisoners. The prisoners never come back! My guess is after a while they take you out, and it's a quick execution. At least I hope it's quick. I'm not into that whole slow, lingering, well... pain thing."

  "I hear ya, Cap'n. I'll tell ya what real pain is. One time I had this ingrown toenail..." Byron proceeded to detail his lifelong foot ailment issues for several minutes. "Now, that's pain I tell ya," he said, at last, finishing the tale.

  Sosimo sat there, somewhat dumbfounded for several moments before replying.

  "No, Byron. Pain... pain is having to listen to that story. I almost wish the guard would come and take me away."

  "Well, one's head'n to us right now, Cap'n."

  "I said almost!"

  Byron was correct. One of the guards, in traditional red armor and helmet, stopped outside the energy barrier of their cell. Withdrawing his subrifle from its holster, he then tapped the controls and lowered the forcefield. Leveling his weapon at LaRouche the guard gestured for the pirate to step outside.

  "I think there's been some kind of mistake," Sosimo tried to deflect with a smile. "We've only been here a few days."

  "No, Cap'n," Byron interjected. "Remember, we've been here more than three weeks now." Looking to the guard, he added, "When he gets nervous, he gets mixed up sometimes."

  Sosimo's smile melted, and he turned to Byron then just shook his head. Turning back to the guard he asked, "Could you take him first?"

  In response, the guard kept one hand on the weapon's trigger and with the other hand pointed to Sosimo then down the hallway."

  Sosimo stepped out of the cell, and the guard reactivated the forcefield, sealing Byron inside again. With a nudge of the rifle into Sosimo's back, the pirate captain started walking down the corridor.

  "See ya later, Cap'n. Guess I'll just wait for ya here."

  Making his way down the cell block, Sosimo grumbled, "Loyal, but dumb as a rock."

  With each step, Sosimo's mind raced in search of some means of escape, but as creative and resourceful as he was, there was no way to overcome all the guards and security measures. Reaching the end of the walkway the door opened and, to his surprise, he was ushered into one of the interrogation rooms. At first, he was relieved until he remembered how interrogations usually involve pain. Having just suffered through Byron's foot saga, he didn't know how much more pain he could take.

  The
guard reached into one of the many pockets on his utility belt and withdrew a small device then placed it on the room's table. With a flick of his gloved thumb, the device activated. A soft tone began to emanate from the item and quickly raised in pitch then faded. Sosimo had seen many such gizmos. It was a jamming device. With the sound gone, the guard holstered his weapon then reached up and removed his helmet.

  "Merrick!"

  "Good to see you again, Captain LaRouche."

  "This is the second time we've run into each other in a Ramillie prison. We have to quit meeting this way. What's going on?"

  "Since our breakout I've stayed on-world, I'm looking for something, and I think you might know where it is."

  "I see my reputation precedes me. I do have somewhat of a knack, panache, some might even say brilliance when it comes to finding, shall we say, hard to locate items. What are you looking for?"

  "Something that was in The Vault."

  "How did you know I found it?"

  "I get a lot of the comm traffic from the radio in my helmet."

  "So, you hear voices in your head, go on."

  Merrick didn't even bother responding to the pirate's quip.

  "Point is, I heard you found The Vault, that the Ramillie caught you there, and they brought something back with them."

  "Yes. It was this big ring - about waist high. Had a lot of carvings on it. Once they found it, they didn't care about anything else in The Vault. They had it loaded on the ship. What is it?"

  "A portal to another dimension."

  "Is it valuable?"

  "It's dangerous. Do you know where it is now?"

  "Sure, when they were taking us off of the ship, I heard one of the crew saying orders came in to transfer it to another ship."

  "Which ship?"

  Sosimo smiled.

  "I'll tell you, but it will cost something."

  "What?" Merrick asked in trepidation.

  "You have to help me and my crew get out of here."