Knight of the Empire
Chapter 26

I was fuming by the time we reached the Havok. Com Ops could have at least waited until I had finished my mission and put in a report before they recalled me. The shuttle’s door slid open and I sat for a minute taking deep breaths in a vain effort to calm myself down. Lottie had the decency not to disturb me I was glad of that. With one hand I released my restraints and stood. Ross gave me a glance as he stepped outside. Placing my AR 32 on the seat next to me I took off my combat harness and helmet. No pointing in lugging all that gear around the ship. Ross was outside checking over the shuttle when I finally emerged from the interior. What surprised me was there was no one in the bay.

“You sure that message was from Com Ops?” I asked him.

“That’s what the captain told me,” he stated sounding brisk.

His briskness was down to me. I hated to admit I had been a royal pain in the arse all the way back. I had behaved like a spoiled princess or some snooty noble. The ship jerked obviously they still had fixed the problems with the inertial dampeners. We were moving away from the planet. I felt my control slipping the worst of it I was leaving my ground forces behind. Above my head the alert sounded and amber lights flashed. Suddenly as it had come my anger abated. I had to get up to the bridge

Marsha wouldn’t have gone on alert for no reason.

Ocynca was outside the bay when I exited.

“What going on?” I asked him directly.

“Marsha sent me to replace you. She didn’t want you to be unduly worried but we’ve picked up a intermittent signal coming from the asteroid belt.”

I pictured the Direkki in my mind. There was an asteroid belt further out from the sun the navy used it for target practice when the Marines were training on Farakas.

“Ok.”

“She apologises for not being here to greet you.” Ocynca went on to say. “The Havok was the only ship available the Orion and the Axon are evacing your people off Farakas.”

“They’re not my people!” I protested.

Ocynca gave a slight smile. “Tell me that in a few weeks time.”

He was right in a way. I didn’t want the responsibility but I was the closest Terran to them no matter how much I wanted to deny my heritage. “According to Ross, Marsha seemed to think Com Ops wanted to get hold of me urgently?”

“They’ve been trying for the last three hours. Marsha tried to stall them for as long as she could but they were very insistent.”

That didn’t sound good. “You don’t know what this is about?”

“Sorry no.”

“Best I contact them then.”

“Marsha says use her ready room.”

Marsha’s ready room would have looked the same to the untrained eye but I could see subtle changes obviously Shawna’s influence. To my eyes they were well suited. I sat at Marsha’s desk and turned on the comms unit taking a deep breath.

“Sandra Lock ID…” I announced to unlock the terminal. “I want direct contact with Com Ops.”

Admiral Prmi appeared on the screen and I automatically saluted I wasn’t expecting to see him.

“Admiral Prmi.”

“Colonel Locke,” he replied curtly.

I winced at the tone of his voice. “Sir?” I said a politely as possible.

“I didn’t expect you to take direct control of the ground mission.”

I was a bit taken aback by his words. “Sir?” I seemed to be repeating myself.

“You are not a field officer anymore so don’t take it all on yourself.”

“But sir,” I stood my ground as far as I was concerned that was my job. “The comms were down and we encountered Orsini.”

Prmi drew a deep breath. “Orsini? This close to a populated world.”

“I’ll have a full report to you as soon as I’ve reassessed the situation.”

“Colonel Locke you are failing to see the point here.”

I was confused at first then I felt my anger notch up. “Sir!” I hadn’t wanted to be abrupt but my temper was getting the better of me. I didn’t want to go full Valkyrie on him I struggled to rein in my temper. “The men and women under my command are in danger. None of them can handle a Rhosani.”

“There were Rhosani there?”

“Not as such but we have evidence they were using C-19 as a base.”

Prmi looked concerned. “You are certain?”

“Yes, if you’ve got my report from Melanos you would know of their use of bodies.”

“I’ve read your Melanos report. But be as it may Colonel, you are not to participate in anymore ground operations beyond the planning stage.” Prmi hesitated and then continued. “Unless you think Lieutenant Tutor not capable of leading an operation such as this one?”

“More than capable sir.” I began to see politics behind his thinking. I was third in line to the Imperial throne, Duchess of Mars, now Duchess of Aurelis Prime and bond sister to the Yanik clan although I still wasn’t sure what a bond sister was. I was getting buried under the weight of all those titles. Because of politics I wasn’t allowed to do the job I was supposed to do. The Guardians had made it clear my task was to send the Rhosani back into the hole they crawled out of or destroy them but Admiral Prmi was too busy playing politics. I kept my face passive. “Sir!” I protested but he cut me off.

“You will monitor and guide your ground teams from the Havok. Is that clear!” he demanded.

“Crystal sir!” I saluted for a moment I was tempted to do a Terran one but that would have pushed things too far.

The screen went blank, the system told me that it had been disconnected by the originator. I felt my teeth grit I was tempted to call Admiral Prmi back but thought better of it.

“It isn’t fair!” I wanted to yell.

“Life isn’t is it?” Lottie said.

“I suppose you are happy about this,” I snapped at her.

“Happy no, relieved yes. I really don’t want to see that again.”

“Well expect, it is what I do!”

“And I won’t like it.” Lottie argued back.

“Tough!”

“If you two have finished,” a voice suddenly interrupted. “Good thing it was me anyone else would be signing you out on a 192?”

I looked up to see Marsha standing there. I blushed red I hadn’t heard her come in. It was her right this was her ready room. She was also right about the section 192 the code for a soldier suffering from PTSD. It did sound as if as if I was talking out loud to someone no one else could see.

“How much did you hear?” I had to ask her that.

“Everything.”

“Did you know he was going to do that to me. Rip my command out of my hands!” I know I sounded accusing but I was angry and couldn’t help myself.

“No, how could I have!” she said to me directly.

“Sorry Marsha I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“That’s ok, I know the stress of command. You and I are too enmeshed in duty. I’m happy you were there and that Shawna is fine. We must keeping doing our duty no matter how onerous the task and that is all that matters.

I hated the fact but Marsha was correct. It wasn’t fair I had spent all that time convincing Doc Brown that I was healthy enough to participate in the mission. Now to have Com Ops confine me to the ship. I should be down on the surface on the surface co-ordinating the mission. “So that’s it. I guess I’d better get my gear of the shuttle and contact LT.”

I tapped the terminal and connected to comms. “Colonel Locke,” I said to ID myself. “I need a direct link to Lieutenant Tutor.”

“Aye ma’am,” the comms operator replied.

There was only a moment’s delay before I was linked to Tutor’s comms.

“Ma’am,” he said politely.

“You are to take full charge of the ground mission,” I told him it should have been me down there not leaving it to Tutor. I was a field officer fully blooded by my experiences on Anoxi and Hyren Shai. Although Anoxi still gave me a few bad moments I was clear where my duty lay. I hadn’t frozen when the Orsini attacked but had remained calm and focused. “Com Ops have reassigned me to other duties.” I tried hard to control the bitterness in my voice but failed miserably.

“Aye ma’am,” he replied sounding more professional than I did.

I broke the link Marsha was still standing there watching me carefully. “You’ll be ok,” she reassured me.

“Thanks Marsha you are a good friend.”

She merely nodded.

“I guess I better get my gear off the shuttle and monitor ground comms for here. You don’t mind?” I asked her.

“Not at all,” she said and smiled then turned and left.

I spent several minutes monitoring the ground mission comms chatter regretting that we had no remotes. I would have been able to see things first hand but I had learned to live without using them. You might have painted a large arrow on yourself when using remotes and they were often the first things to be targeted in a combat situation. Satisfied that there no problems with the ground mission I headed back to the shuttle bay. Although there was time for things to go wrong especially when you added Valkyrie to the mix. I hoped Tutor had enough sense to lay off ordering Sergeant Hollen and her squad around.

Ross was seated on a deck chair made of wood and canvas when I entered the shuttle bay. I was surprised to see it there. He stood instantly.

“Ross?”

“Ma’am are we heading back down?” he asked folding his chair up.

“Negative, I just getting my gear off the shuttle, but stay ready in case we need a evac from the surface.”

“Aye ma’am,” he said picking up his chair and stowing it in the shuttle. “I’ll just grab a quick bite.”

“Sure go ahead. I won’t be long.”

I entered the shuttle and took a look around seeing my gear lying where I dumped it. For a moment I was tempted to say, “stuff it!” and head back to the surface but that wouldn’t bode well for me. Jamming my helmet on my head I picked up my combat harness and AR 32 I hadn’t enough hands to carry it all. Ross was still in the bay as I stepped out of the shuttle. Suddenly a searing red light flashed between me and the door out of the bay, right where Ross had been standing.

My immediate reaction was to grab the doorway of the shuttle to prevent getting sucked out by the decompression. My harness and AR 32 were gone. I hung on with all my strength. Slowly I clawed my way into the shuttle and closed the door outside I could hear the shriek of alarms. I struggled hard with what I had just witnessed the Havok had been attacked but there had been no warning. I went into auto before I could blink I was in the pilot’s seat punching commands into the console. I felt a sense of dislocation realising I was no longer in control of my body.

“What are you doing!” I screamed. I had to get up to bridge.

“Saving your life you dolt!” Lottie yelled back. “And that of the crew!”

“Stop!” I struggled to regain control of my body but Lottie had effectively taken control of me. “Marsha needs me!”

“She needs you alive more,” Lottie snapped back.

“Give me my body back!” I yelled at her. Which was stupid all I was doing was yelling at myself.

“I do that and we’re all dead,” she said bleakly.

There was a sudden lurch and felt the shuttle dive out the bay the engines on full power.

“The Rhosani will follow us,” Lottie said my fingers flying over the console controls.

I felt a chill fill me. “The Rhosani?”

“Who do you think put that hole in the ship they were trying to kill you.”

I shivered thinking of my squad and the civs still of Farakas. “My squad?”

“The ships will have enough time to evacuate them and escape.”

That didn’t reassure me. “Remember I saw what happened on Analon and what they did to escaping ships.”

“Not this time,” Lottie said. “They don’t have the Thousand with them.”

“Sandra, Sandra!” Marsha’s voice called over the comms. “Are you there?”

Lottie answered before I could, not that I could, Lottie was in full control of me. “Captain Yanik get your ship to safety. Head for the asteroid belt they won’t follow you in there. The Rhosani will follow us.”

There was a pause as Marsha thought things over or that was what I guessed. “Good luck Sandra and Lottie.”

We needed more than luck we needed a miracle.

A beam of red light shot out from the pursuing Rhosani ship and missed us.

“Ya missed,” Lottie crowed clearly enjoying herself.

She pulled another stomaching churning turn and I felt bile rise in my throat and struggled hard to keep it down.

The engines whined as Lottie pushed more speed out of them.

“You know that they are quicker than us,” I said to her. Mind speech was a lot easier than speaking I was afraid if I opened my mouth to speak I’d fill my helmet with puke.

“Yeah but every minute that they delay in chasing us gives the others time to escape.”

The Rhosani ship was closing in on us.

“We aren’t going to make it?” I assumed that Lottie had a plan.

“We are,” she assured me. “I intend to see you stick around for another medal or a duchy.”

“Gee thanks,” I couldn’t help saying it sarcastically. “Just what I wanted.”

Another gut wrenching turn put end to that conversation. The Rhosani ship fired again the shot going wide. I glanced at the tactical screen it showed seven dots where there used to be one.

“That’s not going to work Marsha,” I said to myself at least this time my stomach was behaving itself. A telepathic race like the Rhosani would easily see through that ruse. Then I saw Marsha’s plan. She knew the Rhosani were telepathic and that they would head straight for the Havok ignoring the decoys. I remembered that the decoys were rigged with proximity nukes. Of course they had to get through the nukes to reach the Havok. I wasn’t sure how much damage the nukes would cause but I hoped that they would give the Rhosani a headache. Lottie threw the shuttle into a spin as a beam from the Rhosani passed close to the shuttle. Too close it looked like they were replaceing our range. Lottie continued with her madcap manoeuvres zigzagging and evading the Rhosani beams.

A searing pain ran up my right arm about the same time as sudden decompression ripped me from the pilot’s seat, the same decompression that would have killed me had I not been wearing my armour. Half the shuttle was gone and I was spinning away from the wreckage. I had a exchanged a quick death for a slow one from asphyxiation. The armour would keep me alive but it wasn’t designed to be used in space.

“We’re going to die,” I said to Lottie speaking in my mind.

“Not if I can help it!” she declared.

It was hard to keep an eye on my surroundings tumbling head over heels.

“Gotta get clear of the shuttle,” Lottie said.

I felt my hand draw my sidearm and fire emptying the clip shooting in different directions in a effort to stabilise our flight.

“Good old Newton!” she remarked happily.

Although I couldn’t see what there was to be happy about at least we had stabilised and even if we were moving away from the remains of the shuttle. I got a glimpse of my right arm. The arm had been singed by the particle beam from the Rhosani. My armour had protected me from the worst of it. It throbbed with pain reminding me that I was still alive.

“We’re going to die out here,” I said morosely.

“No you are not,” Lottie insisted.

“It’s alright for you, you’ve died once before,” I snapped at her.

“I never did!”

“What?” I said it wasn’t what I had read. I had sent a lot of my spare time reading while I had been stuck in the palace.

“I wanted to when they pulled my broken and crushed body from the rubble. We were at the peace conference of Earth when Corporate decided to bomb it.”

“That’s not what I read?”

“Corporate blamed it on Mars First terrorists but Corporate planted it. I know I was there.”

“That’s not what the official story says.”

“Written by those biased against a free Mars.” It was Lottie’s turn to sound bitter. “It was at the same time the government decided to experiment with organic based AI.”

“Organic AI?”

“AI created using living brains. If the public had found out there would have been riots and the AI war would have never started.”

I was horrified. The Confederacy would never have countenanced such actions. The T’Arni would have never sanctioned it. It was almost like slavery. “Your own government did this to you?”

“And more in secret of course they didn’t want Joe Public spoiling their plans.”

“Joe Public?” that wasn’t a term I had encountered before.

“Ordinary people. Of course that was when we still had national governments all competing with each other to be the first.”

If couldn’t think of any example within the Confederacy I avoided politics I had left that to my father. I let Lottie continue it wasn’t as if I had anything better to do.

“What did they do to you?”

“Removed my brain, a very complex operation and if anything went wrong the brain would die,” Lottie said. Her voice turned bitter. “They put it out I died in hospital and gave my body an elaborate funeral.”

It got that part but there were things that troubled me. “So how did your name crop up during the AI War if the government was so secret?”

“Because no passwords are that safe. Someone hacked the government computers and revealed the data they wanted to be secret. That was before the AI went mad.”

“But you didn’t?” I ventured.

“True but I did steal their ship in revenge. Whoever hacked the government computers inadvertently unlocked the inhibitors they placed on us. So I took their ship and ran. The rest is easy the T’Arni found me. They weren’t sure what to do with me so they turned me over to the Ezarans. Who released me and transplanted my consciousness into a machine rather than being a brain in a tube.”

Reading wasn’t the same as actually being there. I couldn’t think about how much Lottie had suffered. “Didn’t think that possible,” I said to her.

“Those clever Ezarans did the impossible. My conscious mind was transferred to a machine and they allowed the organic part of me die. Yet I was whole and sane if a machine consciousness.”

“Hold on that doesn’t pan with what I’ve read. The histories say they used brain scans.”

“That failed but the government didn’t want to admit that so they used living brains but they weren’t choosy about which ones they used. They tried ape brains first but then moved on to human when they found the ape ones weren’t good enough for AI.”

“That’s disgusting,” I interrupted. “Little wonder they hid what they were doing.”

“As I was saying,” Lottie continued smoothly. “Once a machine I was shifted from system to system losing a part of me as I went.”

“You seemed fully capable as my implant.”

“True but most of what made me, me was gone. Somehow the Guardians had found the missing parts and constructed a simulacrum of me.”

“Which they put in me. Not that I had any choice in the matter.”

“Neither did I if you remember,” Lottie replied.

We both lapsed into silence each deep in our own thoughts. All I could do was watch the scene unfolding.

The Rhosani fired at the wreckage of the shuttle their shots going wide. They seemed to be still searching for me. If a beam hit me I would have been vaporised a quick death to the slow one I was going through. The chances I would be rescued were about zero. The Rhosani ship moved away apparently satisfied that we had been destroyed. I glanced to my helmet HUD according the popup screen I had at least eighteen minutes of air.

Lottie must have seen the same popup on my HUD. “Slow shallow breaths Sandra, conserve the air we have?” she said to me. “We learned that in flight school.”

There were things I had to say before the air ran out. I might be dying but there was a chance my corpse would be found and there were things I needed to say.

It took some effort to get the armour’s HUD to go into recording mode. This would be my last chance to speak. I ran through what I wanted to say in my mind replaceing it hard to put my thoughts into words.

“Tony,” I said and hesitated. “We could have been great. There was so much more we could have done.”

“What are you doing?” Lottie interrupted. “You need to conserve air!”

“This is my last chance to say goodbye don’t ruin it!” I snapped back in my mind. “We’re dead anyway.”

“We not dead yet so don’t give up hope.”

“If the Rhosani don’t come back and finish us the lack of oxygen will!”

I continued as Lottie lapsed into silence. This time I was in the right. The chances of us being found was extremely remote. I started up recording mode again.

“Tony we could have been more but we are creatures of duty and that would have come between us. Marsha it’s been any honour to be your XO and you’ve been a good friend and I’ve enjoyed my time aboard the Havok. Ellie keep yourself safe you hear. And keep working towards peace the peace you want. Mother put what happened in to you in the past it’s time to move on. Speak to Camelia and let her apologise. And to Camelia I know I haven’t lived up to your standards but that’s not who I am.”

“Is that it?” Lottie said to me.

“No! To Prince Lento and Sheila I’m sorry I won’t be attending anymore meals I want to thank you for everything.”

There was more I wanted to say more but saying anything more would deplete my air faster. It already tasted stale as the recyclers struggled pull oxygen out of my breath.

A flash of light had me alert. I wasn’t certain but it looked as something had either jumped to hyperspace or exited it. I saw another flash followed by another something was happening but too distant for me to see. A hyperspace point opened closer to me and two ships emerged from it. A dagger like Terran frigate ‘General Class’ and the more familiar wedge shape of a Confederacy light scout the same class as the Sovran. As close as they were relatively in space they were too far away for the reach of my comms. As much as I wanted to yell and wave calling them to rescue me I knew how futile it was and as to my comms it would just be static in the background. I watched them head away I couldn’t see what two ships could do against the Rhosani. Then I remembered Ellie’s task force. So it hadn’t been more than just a rumour.

“Get them,” I whispered. “Get those Rhosani bastards.” That was as much as I could do, hope they destroyed the Rhosani before they decided to cut and run.

Glancing at my armour HUD I froze according the system I had five minutes of air left. I couldn’t afford to panic I would only use up my remaining air too fast.

“Relax Sandra, relax,” Lottie murmured in my mind.

There wasn’t much else I could do I was resigned to my last minutes. As with times like this my mind drifted seeming to fix on Tony’s face. I found myself admitting that my attraction to him hadn’t just been lust there was a connection between us that went deeper. It had taken me this long to realise that fact. It was my only and biggest regret I would never get to see his face again I was going to die alone in space. But I wasn’t alone I was here with Lottie, Lottie who seemed to put a positive twist on our fate.

My breathing was becoming a burden, my chest hurt and my right arm had gone completely numb. I was nearly at the end a tear tickled down my face as my vision darkened. The last thing I heard as the darkness took me was Lottie’s voice.

“Thank God they found us,” she said. Then added. “You took your time!”

Blackness rolled over me as I lost consciousness.