by K. Aten
“Begging your pardon, ser, but she jumped into a flash flood to save you.”
Lt. Commander Tosh flushed at the memory of their narrow escape from certain death. “Fair enough, and good point but we both know how capable she is. As you were saying?”
“Anyway, I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that she hates her Shield Corp unit and has no patience for anyone that cannot keep up with her. But the problem is, ser, not many people can keep up with her. She is a sovereign and, as you said, highly capable at that. Between Connate Dracore’s channels and her own level of training, she honestly runs us around a bit. And she makes it obvious that her only care is for whatever current adventure she is on.”
“So back to your captain...I take it she left on the cycle and he followed her on the other?” Lt. Savon nodded. “And what, your captain quit simply because he didn’t like his orders disobeyed?”
“Um...no, ser. It wasn’t until after he wrecked that Captain Shendo quit.”
Tosh raised an eyebrow. “Amicably?” She had never heard of anyone quitting the Shield Corp, had never even read about it in the history books. Being chosen for Shield Corp was considered the highest honor as they only took the best of what the Psi Defense and other Corps had to offer. Though she supposed that if people did quit it wouldn’t be information that was spread around.
Lt. Savon shook his head. “I heard from Specialist Devin that he threw a waste pan at her.”
“Sorry for keeping you waiting.” Olivienne interrupted the conversation before Castellan could find out more. She glanced down at the pistol in the Connate’s grip. The barrel was much longer than standard and she met the sovereign’s eyes with a questioning look. Olivienne held it out to her, grip first. “It’s a long-shot specialty. The barrel gives it greater accuracy at distance.”
Castellan looked at the pistol in her hand then shook her head and handed it back. “Why ever would you need such a thing? Why not simply carry a rifle?”
Olivienne held up the pistol once again. “This is infinitely more portable and you never know when you may need the distance...” She trailed off and leveled a significant look at the head of her Shield unit. Savon’s return look was dark and uncomfortable before he turned away to see to the rest of the guardians. Olivienne didn’t even have a holster for the pistol; she carried it open in her hand. Weapons were only allowed in public spaces if you were of the correct authority, and un-holstered weapons were never permitted. Though any city would make special allowances for a Royal Sovereign.
When the group left the pistol shoppe, Olivienne declared that she was finished for the dae. She was kind enough to ask the lt. commander if there was someplace she wished to see but Castellan shook her head. The officer had never been one for superfluous purchases. Tosh found it curious that the closer they got to the railer station, the more tense the guardians became. She saw nothing out of the ordinary but she kept her guard up just the same.
All that tension came to a head when the group started across the busy market square. In an instant, Castellan’s intuition channel flared at the same time Olivienne spun with the long pistol raised and fired toward the bell tower. A sec later Castellan caught sight of a man falling from the fifty yord height, a rifle striking the ground just ahead of him. Lt. Commander Tosh knew exactly what had happened and she found it foolish in the extreme. Lt. Savon was prescient and must have told Olivienne about the assassin ahead of time. Then when the time came, the rogue Connate decided she wanted to take care of the man herself rather than delaying their trip by following protocol and calling on the Psi Security Corp for assistance.
Castellan opened her mouth to berate the entirely too cocky group when her intuition channel flared again. She grasped in an instant what was happening and also knew there was no time to warn, only act. She dove for Olivienne, taking the Connate to the ground as the distinctive sound of a rifle shell speeding through the air hit them. Pain spiked in Castellan’s back just below her ribs and she grunted. Then without thinking about the continued danger to herself, she rolled onto her back, pulled her pistol, and fired. A second body fell from the bell tower window just as the pistol fell from her hand. Sensing the danger had passed, the lt. commander closed her eyes as the agony coursing through her torso threatened to overwhelm her.
With the appearance of a second shooter, the Connate’s guardians sprang into action. Two took off toward the tower while Lt. Savon and Spc. Devin moved close and stood over Olivienne, protecting her with their own bodies. There was a reason protectors of the sovereigns were called Shields.
In shock, Olivienne stood and brushed herself off then turned and looked down at Castellan. The lt. commander’s eyes were shut and her breathing was significantly faster than normal. “Lieutenant Commander Tosh, are you well?”
Tosh swallowed the pain in order to speak and managed to grind out an answer from between her clenched teeth. “No, Connate Dracore. I’ve been shot.”
“Oh bollux!” Olivienne spun toward her lead guard. “Get a doctore here now!” Lt. Savon pulled the voteo from his belt and made arrangements for the swift arrival of a medican while Olivienne knelt to examine the officer on the ground. She grew alarmed to see a rapidly spreading puddle of blood from beneath Tosh. “Stay with me now, Tosh!” She didn’t get a response so she tried mind to mind. “Tosh?”
“I’m here.”
“Hold on, okay? A medican will be here—” She glanced up at Lt. Savon and he held up two fingers. “Two meens. Please, just stay with us.”
“I will.” Castellan wasn’t speaking aloud because she was trying to conserve energy. She was also doing special breathing exercises to help control the pain. She had learned many rotos before that controlling pain went a long way toward preventing shock. Just as promised, a medican arrived and began treating Tosh’s wound. They were lucky enough to get the Penterole’s only doctore with the telesana channel. Or maybe it had more to do with the fact that the initial voteo call said the Connate’s group had been fired on and one person was hit. Taking no chances with a sovereign’s life, they sent the best they had.
As soon as he saw that the shell was still in the wound, he called out to the group. “Any of you apport? I need this shell removed so I can do a healing!”
Olivienne quickly answered. “I am. What do you need, Doctore?”
He had already rolled Castellan over onto her stomach and cut a section of the officer’s shirt away, displaying the grievous wound that was a handspan above her belt. “The shell struck her left kidney. I’m going to pry this wound open so you can see the shell, then I need you to apport it out. I can’t start the healing until it is removed!”
“I can do that.” She looked at where Castellan’s head was turned with her right cheek pressed tight against the rough stones of the marketplace. “Do you need something to bite down on?”
Castellan groaned and managed one word. “No.”
The apport only took a sec. As soon as the offending shell was removed, the doctore slapped his hand over the hole in Castellan’s back and called forth the power of his healing channel. Sweat beaded across his forehead as he used his telesana to its limit in order to repair the damage inside. Meens passed and Olivienne was only vaguely aware that her small group surrounding them had expanded to more than quadruple in size as local Psi Security Corp units arrived at the scene. The Connate watched her companion fight through the agony of being shot and for the first time in her life, she regretted her casual disregard for standard Shield Corp security procedures.
The doctore finally pulled his hand away to reveal new pink skin beneath. Castellan appeared to be unconscious and he turned to Olivienne. “Connate Dracore, the shell expanded while inside and did a lot of internal damage before stopping. It was a good thing I was so near on business or she would not have survived. I recommend bed rest for the next few daes to replenish her lost blood, otherwise she is completely healed.” He stood and swayed, clearly having drained himself to perform his duty. He was
steadied by Lt. Savon.
The Connate stood as well and glanced back down at Castellan. “When will she wake? Does she need a med facility?”
“No, as I said she is completely healed. Just needs to remake a few flasks of blood is all. She should wake within a quarter oor. I activated her pineal gland and put her to sleep while I was working on the wound. I find it easier to have the patient unaware as they’re less likely to distract my empathy with their pain.”
Olivienne nodded and stood up from where she’d been kneeling on the ground next to Castellan. “Do you need us to call a moto, Doctore...I apologize but I do not know your name.”
He held his hand out to her. “I am Doctore Bessing, and I am honored to meet you, Connate Dracore. I only wish it were under better circumstances.”
“As do I, Doctore Bessing, as do I.”
Five meens later, Castellan still had not woken but plenty had happened around her. For starters her body had been placed on a litter for transport back to the railer. Also the bodies of the two assassins had been collected by the Security Corp officers. Lt. Savon spoke with the head of the Security unit and arranged for them to share any information found about the attackers. Assassination attempts on the royal family were of utmost priority and there would be an extensive inquiry conducted. Shortly after their conversation wrapped up, two of the Shield Corp team grabbed the ends of Castellan’s litter and the small group, with a much larger force of Security officers surrounding them, proceeded to the railer. When they reached the first class segment, the guardians holding the litter stopped outside Castellan’s private cabin but Olivienne waved them on.
“No, take her to my room please.” The trundle bed had been left down and Olivienne sorrowed to know that she was partly responsible for the tragic turn the dae had taken.
Unfortunately for Spc. Devin, he was the closest one to her person when Castellan swam toward consciousness. Her first thought was of pain and danger. Before he could react, the lt. commander had pulled her pistol and was pointing it at his head. Thinking fast, Olivienne apported the weapon from Tosh’s hand and into her own. “Don’t hurt him, you’re safe. Everyone is safe.”
Castellan opened her eyes then and as her memory returned of the events in the market square, so too did the anger. Feeling only marginally weak, she sat up in what she quickly realized was the Connate’s bed. “What were you all playing at back there? I have never seen a more irresponsible and poorly organized group in my life!” She stood from the bed and her anger seemed to grow, causing the three Shield guardians to take a step back.
Lt. Savon knew well that he had not performed his duty as he should have, but the Connate had commanded him and he was bound by duty to take those orders from her. With much sorrow, he bowed his head. “My deepest apologies, Lieutenant Commander Tosh. Our plan was carried out without enough thought and preparation, therefore was foolhardy in the extreme. I shall resign my commission as soon as we reach Tesseron...”
He was interrupted when Olivienne stepped forward. In her own anger, Castellan failed to notice how drawn the Connate’s features had become. She only saw a selfish sovereign whose reckless actions risked multiple lives besides her own. What if the shooter had hit another person, or a child? What if there had been no telesana-wielding doctore nearby, which was the only explanation for her quick healing? Both her mental tirade and Lt. Savon’s resignation offering were interrupted by the Connate’s solemn voice. “No, Savon. I’m afraid this entire debacle lies solely on my shoulders.” She focused her gaze on Castellan. “I was the one who instructed him not to inform the local Psi Security Corp, as is standard procedure for a premonition of assassination. I was cocky and thought we could handle the shooter with the information provided by our channels—”
Castellan sliced her hand through the air in front of her to cut off the Connate’s words. “None of you have any true idea of either the power of Psi channels, or the limitations. As you’ve just learned, nothing is infallible. Events like assassinations can be masked merely by putting two shooters in the same place. Unless your prescience is of the highest rank, you will not see two separate events but rather just one. Protocol is put into place to guarantee potential enemies can’t use those limitations as a screen. Whomever sent those attackers clearly knew about the Connate’s penchant for disregard of her Shield unit and counted on that fact when they set up this little trap.” She turned her gaze to look straight into Lt. Savon’s eyes. “Let this be a lesson to you going forward.”
She took a step toward the door and Olivienne moved to block her. “Where are you going? The doctore said you need to rest!”
With minimal concentration, Castellan telekinetically pulled her pistol from Olivienne’s hand to her own and re-holstered it. “I am going to rest in my own cabin where clearly I am safest. Good dae to you, Connate Dracore!” With those final words she turned and strode from Olivienne’s room.
Chapter Nine
ONE OF THE main reasons that Castellan was so calm and cool in any situation was because she was a fairly mellow soul who was extremely slow to anger. To be fair, if events went so far wrong that they could burn through the wick of her temper, then surely they were wrong indeed. She was furious upon returning to her own cabin, though the heat of the anger had mostly left her as exhaustion set in. Her battered body had been through too much in the past few daes and there was not much she could do at that point but rest. It was nearing sup time but she had no appetite as they ate their middae meal quite late. Of course being shot played a large part as well.
She stripped the bloodied shirt from her body and fingered the rent that was originally made by the shell and enlarged by the medican. With a sigh of disgust, she balled the gray fabric and tossed it into the trash receptacle. She felt tired and dirty with dried blood so she opted for a quick sluicing in the shower before downing two large glasses of water and falling into her bunk. Before drifting off to sleep, she wound and set the fancy geared alarm clock next to the bed. She wanted to be up and ready to depart the railer as soon as it arrived in Tesseron. If she never saw the Connate again it would be too soon.
Back in Olivienne’s cabin, her feelings ran the entire opposite gamut as the ones belonging to Castellan Tosh. She was well aware that her actions had not only endangered lives but had brought dishonor on her Shield unit. Honor was a concept that she had only recently been made aware of since becoming acquainted with Lt. Commander Tosh. It was almost surreal that they had known each other for so short a time yet Olivienne had been instilled with such a foreign awareness. Even though Castellan had survived the assassination attempt, Olivienne feared that their budding friendship had not. She needed to make amends and she wasn’t sure how to go about it.
After an initial awkward silence when Tosh left her cabin, the three members of her Shield unit that had been in the room for the confrontation took their leave as well. Perhaps she could start there. Deciding on a course of action, she left her cabin in search of Lt. Savon. Olivienne found him playing a card game with specialists Devin, Soleng, and Qent. As soon as they caught sight of her, the entire quad stood and saluted. She waved them to take a seat again and Lt. Savon spoke up. “Is there something you need, Connate Dracore?”
She nodded and was more solemn than they’d ever seen. Gentry Savon was startled to see that the sovereign before them was not the same he had been dealing with for the past few rotos. She seemed...subdued somehow. “Actually, there is something I need. I need to apologize to all four of you. Lieutenant Commander Tosh was completely correct with her assessment of the situation todae. Not just that, but of her accusations involving me in general. I realize, perhaps belatedly, that I have made your job extremely difficult over the rotos.”
Savon, being the good lieutenant and loyal subject, tried to prop her up. “It’s not so bad, Sovereign. I could only imagine what it would be like to suddenly find people following me around everywhere, dictating where I could go and what I could do for safety’s sake. I understan
d how you would think of us all as an inconvenience.”
“You are right in that I’ve always found my Shield unit to be an inconvenience. I’m driven and my career means a lot to me. I loathe having to slow down for trivial things like protocol and security. And until todae, I’d never truly understood the necessity of it all.” Olivienne took a seat on an unoccupied chair and got to the point of what she had to say. “My stubborn selfishness not only endangered your lives, but the lives of innocent bystanders as well. I want to apologize for that and for besmirching your honor in the eyes of Lieutenant Commander Tosh. You did everything you could to keep me safe, despite the situation I put you in, and I will be sure to put a recommendation for each of you in my report to the Queen and Imperium.”
Olivienne stood once again and swept her gaze across all of them, landing on Lt. Savon. “Going forward, I will do my utmost best to follow protocol. There will be certain things I will need to do to perform my own job, but I will try to follow your recommendations.”
Savon stood as well. “Begging your pardon, Connate Dracore, but when we get back to Tesseron, you will most likely have a brand new Shield Captain to break in.”
“Then I suppose I’ll have to repeat my words at that time because I mean every single one. Good night, pseros.” With that, she left them to their game and returned to her cabin but not without one last regretful glance to Tosh’s door.
THE NEXT MORNING Castellan was up earlier, feeling better than the dae before. She was scheduled to meet with General Leniste at seven hundred oors local time so her outfit choice was none other than her white dress uniform. She was always embarrassed to wear it, with the colorful patches on each shoulder and the medals clinking where they sat on her chest. The trousers had a royal blue stripe that ran down the outsides and disappeared into her tall dress boots. Her belt, holster, and pouch were all gleaming black to match. They were still twenty meens out from the station when she shouldered her accessory satchel and lifted the large duffel from the floor. It was heavy, as anything containing five rotos of a person’s entire life could be, but she managed. She was just getting ready to go through the exit door of the first class segment when she was stopped by a familiar voice.