Empire Uprising (Taran Empire Saga Book 2): A Cadicle Space Opera

by A. K. DuBoff

  TSS Headquarters! With the Sietinens! If someone had told her that she’d one day be hanging out on Jason Sietinen’s couch, she would have dropped to the floor laughing at the absurdity of the prospect. Yet, being in his personal space felt as natural as it had to be in his presence. She kept waiting for the spell to wear off and to find herself nervous and star-struck, but there was none of that. Just comfort as a sense of ‘home’ she’d been longing to find for her entire life.

  After spending more time than she cared to admit flipping through shows on the viewscreen she had no intention of watching, she wandered around Jason’s living room looking at the few personal effects on display. Pictures of him with his parents and sister confirmed the family relation that still seemed too crazy to be possible, as well as proving that they were all ridiculously photogenic.

  How are these people even real? The answer was obvious—because they had been genetically engineered to be the pinnacle of the Taran form. She’d heard about the dogma of the Priesthood and had a rough understanding of what the Cadicle was supposed to be, though to know there was a real, living person attached to the title was mind-bending. Not to mention that she now found herself with the prospect of having a relationship with the guy’s son.

  What’s the son of the Cadicle supposed to be? Is there a name for that? Her brain felt fuzzy from all the internal questioning. She wanted to focus on the fact that she and Jason felt right for each other, yet she couldn’t ignore the larger political implications of that relationship. All those people who ever fantasized about marrying someone highborn didn’t think it through very closely.

  She wandered to his desk in the back corner, where she noticed a picture of Jason with his arms around a young woman with shoulder-length, dark hair. The two of them looked happy and relaxed together, almost playful. Who’s that?

  The door beeped and then slid open. When Jason stepped into the doorway, he noticed her looking at the picture.

  “That’s a conversation for another time,” he said. “And no, we aren’t together now.”

  Then why is there still a picture of her on your desk? She left the question unspoken. “How’d the debrief go?”

  The door closed behind him. “Just the first step in a longer process. They’d like to speak with you now.”

  “I figured that was coming.” She walked toward him.

  “It’s off to a good start,” he said. “The more forthright you can be, the better.”

  “If I knew anything meaningful, the planet wouldn’t have been all but destroyed.”

  “You know more than you might think.” He stepped closer and placed his hands on her shoulders. “We need to explore every little detail for clues about where they may have taken Leon.”

  “What about the files from my Alliance handheld?”

  “They’re incomplete. It’ll take time to sort through to see if anything can be salvaged.”

  Lexi’s heart dropped. “He wouldn’t be lost now if I’d never put out that call for help.”

  “What happened to him isn’t on you, Lexi. He knew the risks of the undercover mission, so did Kira.”

  She nodded, knowing the truth of the words. It still hurt, though, to know her friend was in danger. “I didn’t realize what I was getting into when I joined the Alliance, and I still don’t know what I’m doing.”

  “You think the rest of us do? I just take it one moment at a time. What seems like a good decision one moment can seem like idiocy a day later.”

  “You hardly seem like the kind of person to make mistakes.”

  “I have my share of regrets, believe me.” He glanced almost imperceptibly toward the picture of the woman on his desk.

  “Am I going to be one of those?” she asked.

  “To the contrary, I think you’re the first thing I’ve ever felt so certain about.”

  Her heart warmed. “I know the feeling.”

  “Then, please trust me when I say, be yourself when you go into this meeting. Be honest and try to keep an open mind.”

  “Deal,” she agreed.

  He escorted her back up the elevator to Level 1 and into a small conference room in the Command Wing. Wil and Saera were waiting, a tablet resting on the table in front of them.

  Lexi sat down next to Jason on the opposite side of the oval table.

  “We’d like for this to be a productive conversation,” Saera stated.

  Wil slid the tablet across the table to Lexi. The screen was covered in small-typeface text with a blank signature line at the bottom.

  “What’s this?” Lexi asked.

  “A blanket immunity agreement, retroactive to birth. Needless to say, we don’t hand these out very often.”

  Her mouth dropped open slightly. She clicked it shut and swallowed. “Why?”

  “We want you to tell us everything, without reservation. Whatever happened on Duronis is part of something much, much bigger, and we need to start putting the pieces together.”

  She caught Jason’s gaze. “Did you know about this?”

  “They told me a few minutes before this meeting. I highly recommend you sign it.”

  “Do you think I’m a criminal?”

  “No one in this room does, which is why you have this offer in front of you. Not everyone in the Guard might feel the same way.”

  She stared at the tablet. Immunity for everything she’d done while in the Alliance and everything before. Absolved of murder in the eyes of the law. She should have been happy, or at least relieved, but instead she felt ill.

  I shouldn’t get special treatment. Is the only reason I have this because Jason has feelings for me? It’s not right. She tapped the edge of the tablet. “I don’t like the idea of being in your debt.”

  Wil tilted his head slightly. “Our debt?”

  “Isn’t that how this kind of thing goes with highborn? You offer me a great deal in exchange for never speaking to your precious son again so he can be free to pair up with someone more suitable?”

  Saera let out a loud guffaw and quickly covered her mouth. “Sorry. One day, Lexi, you’ll appreciate how hilarious it is that you thought that of us.”

  Wil shook his head and chuckled.

  Lexi looked to Jason for explanation. “That’s not what…?”

  He smiled apologetically. “Let me put it like this. When my sister, Raena, met Ryan, he was working as a servant. When my dad recognized a resonance connection between them, he arranged another meeting to nudge them together.”

  “Ryan… as in Ryan Dainetris?”

  “Lineage not discovered until after the fact,” Wil clarified. “I assure you, if I had reservations about you and Jason, I would state so explicitly.” He pointed to the tablet. “This agreement has nothing to do with what’s going on between you two; that’s your business. I told Jason a long time ago that I have no expectations other than I want him to be happy.”

  “We’ve read Kira’s field reports about what she learned while undercover,” Saera said. “We know several incidents transpired—situations where we suspect people died—and we’re grateful to whoever stopped those bad people from doing very bad things.”

  “We hope to have an unfiltered conversation about those events and others,” Wil added.

  Lexi nodded. “All right.” She signed on the line using her finger and then placed her hand on the screen for a biometric record.

  Wil telekinetically pulled the tablet back to him and countersigned. “Okay, to business. Start from the beginning—from when you first heard about the Alliance.”

  Chapter 16

  Leon had been in darkness for so long that he’d lost all sense of place and time.

  He was strapped to a seat inside some sort of shipping crate, to his best estimation. The air had been chilly since he’d cooled off from the fight during his failed escape attempt, and he now shivered in the blackness of his cold, silent world.

  His captors had whacked him rather forcefully in the head at one point, which had somewhat ju
mbled his recollection of events. There’d been the meeting in the basement, and they’d cornered him. They’d then taken him to another room, where there had been a scuffle. Another man was being held, and the situation hadn’t looked good for him. When Leon had made a run for it, they’d knocked him out. The next thing he knew, he had awakened in the dark box.

  Whatever happened to the other guy? Is he being held like this, too?

  Leon had already tried numerous times to call out for help or signs of other captives, but there had been no reply. No other sounds, even. His throat was so terribly dry from lack of water that he didn’t dare waste energy calling out again.

  Time passed in a dream-like state. His eyes kept wanting to make sense of the shadows, even though there was truly nothing to see. The utter silence had made him hyper-aware of his own breathing and pulse, as well as the scent of stale sweat souring the air.

  A shudder broke through the void—the first sensation outside his body that he’d experienced for hours. Occasional trembles rocked him in his seat, and then there was stillness again.

  The sound of bolts sliding open preceded narrow cracks of light along the edges and top seam of his enclosure, then a shock of blue-tinted illumination flooded in.

  He squinted against the onslaught. “Where have you taken me?” he demanded. His eyesight was too bleached in the sudden light to see if there was anyone nearby to hear the question, but there was a good chance someone had opened his cell door.

  “Quiet,” came the response in a gruff male voice.

  A moment later, two figures stepped forward, silhouetted by the white-blue beam, and ducked into the box to remove the restraints at Leon’s sides.

  “It’s about time you let me up to take a piss.” His eyes were adjusting, and he could now make out a third figure standing outside the crate.

  The man stood with his hands clasped behind his back, observing Leon. After several seconds of Leon picking out the man’s features through the strong backlighting, he realized that it was the same manager with whom he’d spoken on Duronis.

  “This would have been much easier if you’d come willingly,” the man stated.

  “Why have you taken me captive?” Leon let heat into his voice, not caring what kind of impression he made. He had no intention of working willingly for the kind of monsters who’d knock out and bind someone who’d turned down a job offer.

  “We have a very important project in the works, and we’d like you to assist.”

  “You say that like I have a choice.”

  “We can’t very well force you to comply. However, if you’d like to walk out of this in one piece, it’s in your best interest to do what is requested.”

  “I’ll never help you.”

  “Perhaps losing a foot would persuade you.” The man glanced down at Leon’s feet. “Really, the only part of you that’s useful to us is your mind, so removing the extraneous bits might be an effective means of motivation.”

  Leon stared back at him, dumbstruck. He’d known the Alliance had a sadistic side, but it was something else to experience it firsthand. Frankly, he didn’t want to lose any limbs. Not only did he enjoy martial arts, but walking on his own feet was a preferred mode of transit.

  His mind raced back to the conversations he’d had with Kira before they went undercover on the mission. She’d told him that keeping interrogators talking was key. Unless he got lucky, rescue was more likely than escape; he’d given it his all before, and now here he was. That meant he needed to buy as much time as possible for rescuers to locate and extract him.

  Unfortunately, that meant he’d likely have to play along. The good news was that if they had captured him for his mind, then they needed a specialist. Resorting to the recruitment of an unwilling participant suggested they likely didn’t have anyone else with his expertise. That offered an opportunity for it to seem like he was being agreeable without actually accomplishing their objectives.

  “I happen to like my feet,” Leon replied to the threat. “I’d prefer we talk about this like reasonable individuals.”

  “You’re a terrible liar.”

  “Well, you’re a terrible captor, threatening me into compliance. How else do you expect me to react?”

  The man stomped forward, his eyes narrowed and lips curled back into a snarl. “I expect you to do every bomaxed thing we ask, or you have no hope of making it out of this alive.”

  Now that he was closer, Leon could see a red welt on the side of the man’s head where Leon had landed a blow during his botched escape attempt earlier.

  Well, that explains his nasty mood. Leon nodded his understanding of the man’s statement. “So long as I’m in one piece, I’ll complete the tasks given to me.”

  “Glad we could reach an agreement.” The sneer twisted into a sinister smile. “Now, let’s get you acquainted with your new lab.”

  — — —

  Lexi could hardly think straight after her initial debrief with the TSS High Commander and Lead Agent. Having Jason in the room had offered a surprising amount of comfort, but it had still felt like the authority of the Taran Empire was out to get her.

  Following the meeting, Jason had excused himself to go take care of some business, and he’d directed her to the Mess Hall to grab a meal.

  Walking into the large room, she was amazed by not only the homey appearance but also the pleasant aromas. Filled with hundreds of seats, the space was furnished with real wooden tables and potted plants that made it feel like she was planetside. A large buffet to the right side of the room had a wide variety of dishes that looked like the fare found in an upper-class restaurant—nothing like the gruel she had forced down during her time in the Alliance.

  As she finished filling her tray, she noticed the back side of a familiar shock of red hair. She ambled over.

  “Kira?” she asked, waiting for the woman to turn and confirm.

  Her friend snapped to attention. “Lexi! Thank the stars.”

  Lexi set down her tray on the table. “Pardon?”

  “Sorry, I just wasn’t sure what they might do with you. I told them you were innocent in all of this, but you never know how those statements might get interpreted.”

  Lexi slid onto the booth bench across from Kira. “They offered me a blanket immunity deal.”

  “Oh, good!”

  “I took it, obviously.” Lexi poked at her meal.

  “Glad to hear everything is coming together for you.”

  “Only thanks to you. I’d still be stuck on Duronis—probably dead.”

  “I think you’re more of a survivor than that.”

  Lexi shrugged. “Not like you. How you can transform…” She whistled through her teeth. The image of Kira with her silvery second-skin still sent a chill up her spine.

  “You’re rather impressive yourself.”

  “I guess we’ve had our share of surprising each other with hidden abilities.”

  “And friends in high places.” Lexi shook her head. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that your handler with the TSS was the son of the most famous guy in the entire Taran Empire!”

  “I don’t think I’m the one he really wants to be ‘handling’.”

  Lexi’s cheeks burned. “Oh, do not go there.”

  Kira burst out laughing. “Your face! Oh, my stars.”

  “Is it really that obvious there’s something between us?”

  The Guard soldier laughed harder when she looked at Lexi, clutching her midsection as she leaned back uproariously in the booth.

  “Shh! People are staring at us.” The situation hardly seemed funny to Lexi. Perhaps this outburst was just a bizarre manifestation of Kira’s stress about what had happened with Leon. She decided to let her friend wear herself out.

  “I’m sorry.” Kira tried to catch her breath. “I really didn’t think you were going to meet your future in-laws like that.”

  “What?! No…” Lexi felt the flush in her face intensify.

  She hadn’t
thought about where her relationship with Jason was headed. At the moment, she only knew that she really liked the guy and that he seemed equally taken with her. The thought that a long-term relationship would mean family dinners with High Dynasty leaders hadn’t sunk in.

  Kira reached across the table and patted Lexi’s hand. “You’ll do just fine. For what it’s worth, I’ve heard nothing but good things about them being genuinely nice people.”

  Lexi snatched her hand away and crossed her arms. “Coming from the person who’s apparently been on a first-name basis with a Sietinen all this time.”

  “It wasn’t relevant.”

  Lexi gaped at her. “But he’s…”

  Kira shrugged. “I grew up on Valta. My system wasn’t even a formal member of the Empire until four years ago. I don’t really get starstruck by the Taran elite.”

  “I guess.”

  “There’s something you should understand about the Guard, the TSS, and whatever other military,” Kira said. “When you’re a soldier, that’s first and foremost. It’s you, your team, and your superior officers. Yeah, we’re in the service of the Taran people so we technically report up to the Taran High Council in a tangential capacity, but they have no say in our day-to-day operations. Taran nobles are a distant afterthought. If they’re doing their job well, we shouldn’t even know they’re there. They’re people, like anyone else. Why worship them?”

  “I wasn’t ‘worshiping’.” Lexi sighed.

  “Relax, I’m just messing with you.” Kira waved her hand playfully. “Seriously, though, just be yourself. Don’t overthink it.”

  “I wasn’t until you got started on all this.”

  “And soon enough you won’t care again. It’s a special thing to find someone you click with.”

  Lexi nodded. “Yeah, it is. But this is all crazy!”

  “Not gonna lie, when I saw you two start making eyes at each other...” She grinned and clicked her tongue.