Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress) (32 page)

She proceeded quietly to the infirmary and shot dead
the sleeping guard. Satisfied with the night’s activity she retired to her
chambers, hid the blaster and went to sleep.

She awoke the very early the following morning to an
urgent message delivered by a Court Official. “The Emperor has been kidnapped
by the Captain of the Guard and three guards were murdered. The Captain logged
out of Ennack’s atmosphere at the beginning of the 3
^rd
shift. Two
tactical response squadrons are in pursuit. What are your orders my Empress,”
the Court Official said breathlessly.

“Summon the Black Priest at once!”

“Yes my Empress,” he said and hurried to find the
Black Priest, his body shaking with dread in anticipation of conversing with
that creature.

The Empress showered and was just completing dressing
when her personal android interrupted her with the news that the Black Priest
was waiting in the adjoining passageway. “Show him in,” she ordered.

“Good morning Empress,” the Black Priest said in a
pleasing voice.

“You have heard the news?” she replied.

“But of course. The Palace is alive with the news of
the kidnapped Emperor. And stolen by none other than the Captain of the Palace
Guard,” he said calmly almost too casually. “Such a turn of events would hardly
be expected,” he added.

“You now have your opportunity, my Black Priest. It is
you I want to chase him down and return the Emperor safely to the Confederacy.
There is much support to be gained for you from the Imperial Court if you can
return our Emperor quickly and unharmed. It would be appropriate if the
Captain’s accomplices were Irrimus sympathisers. You have particular skills and
personnel suited to such tasks?”

“Yes of course Empress, and the Captain?”

The Empress turned and looked at herself in the full length
mirror against the wall. “He is a criminal is he not and guilty of treason. You
have the power of the Imperial Court to administer whatever justice you feel is
appropriate; after a detailed confession of course.”

“Yes, yes indeed my Empress,” he said bowing. Feeling
elated he turned to leave.

“Also,” the Empress added without looking at him.
“Leave Filo in the Palace.”

“Filo?” the Black Priest said in surprise. “He’s
invaluable to me on activities such as these.”

“I require his assistance in interrogating certain
Irrimus prisoners,” she lied. “I will send him on to you when I am finished.
You have your instructions, now go!”

“Yes Empress,” the Black Priest said having learnt not
to anger the Empress with questioning her directives and left the room.

The Black Priest returned to his Temple and
immediately called for Filo. Filo entered the Black Priest’s room and stood
beside the window looking down at the Palace. “Yes, my Master?”

“Have you done something to the Empress I’m not aware
of Filo?”

“No, my Master,” Filo hissed. He was too simple a
creature for complex emotions and gave no indication both physically or
mentally he may be lying.

The Black Priest shuffled close to him and asked him
again, “have you done something to the Empress I am not aware of?”

“No, my Master.”

The Black Priest chose not to peruse the matter at
this time. He would know soon enough after his return and the delicious thought
of the Imperial Court elated by the return of the Emperor and the death of the
Captain far outweighed a simple disciplinary matter with his celapod. There was
much to be gained from this mission.

“What is it Master?” hissed Filo.

“Nothing Filo, nothing at
all my
friend.”

---------

Toormis checked his instruments and dropped out of
hyper drive. The solar system containing the planet Zion was clearly visible.
He made a series of long range scans on the other planets in the system.
Satisfied they were lifeless and he wasn’t being observed he entered the system
and set a course for the cloud encrusted fifth planet.

A buzzer sounded and an illuminator started flashing
as his angle changed with the forth planet coming into view. He quickly banked
and turned to regain the angle shielding him from the source making his buzzer
sound.

“What is it?” The Administrator asked.

“It appears we have company hiding behind the forth
planet,” he replied and rechecked his instruments. “They know we are here but
they are not doing all that good a job of hiding. Could be an ambush but I’m
not sure. I got a second of scan of the area and a shadow image of a ship now
shows. Its shape is more of a transport type than a fighter.”

“Friendly… perhaps,” added the Administrator.

“Nothing is friendly that is trying to hide. Fear or
hostility, has to be one of them,” he said arming his weapons and sending out a
jamming signal so whoever it is won’t be able to transmit for assistance.

“Could they have already communicated our position?”
the Administrator asked.

“No, I would have been alerted to transmissions that
close. We risk being reported to the Confederacy once we are out of range.
Toormis made up his mind he must not risk detection. That ship out there must
be neutralised, it must know we are here and may have already identified his
Starfighter.

“Got a little trick that should work in this
situation,” Toormis said quickly working his instrument panel. “It’s a one shot
chance. You game Administrator?”

“I don’t know what you intend to do,” the Administrator
said not amused at tactics this pilot was suggesting as some sort of game.

“Here goes.”

Toormis fired a small capsule from his nose cone. The
object started spinning and gyrating creating a disturbance in space
approximately the size of a Starfighter. Toormis steered it by remote control
changing the course of the object by bouncing it just in then out of the
enemies scanning angle behind the planet. “Here’s my own modification to this
tactic,” he then explained his tactics to the Administrator as he got the
object to transmit only half a distress message plotted to be only readable at
the range he programmed. His target ship would get a very weak, garbled signal.
Just enough he hoped to get their attention while he tactically manoeuvred behind
them. In this case he needed to fly at maximum speed hugging the interference
margin of the outer atmosphere of the planet while calculating his best method
of neutralising the target.

“Brilliant idea Toormis,” the Administrator said. “Has
it worked before?”

“First time I’ve tried it… Hang on,” he said as they
came under the planet’s gravitational influence. He accelerated towards the
edge of its gaseous atmosphere. In his haste Toormis failed to adjust his
scanner to analyse the outer layer of planet’s upper atmosphere, it contained
volatile gases. The Starfighter began to vibrate as it entered the planet’s
outer atmosphere. Using gravity for a slingshot effect the Starfighters speed
increased. “Shouldn’t be long now and we‘ll surprise that ship and knock out
its electronics,” he said straining to speak as the gravitational forces
increased dramatically.

The hull of the Starfighter glowed white hot and began
igniting the gases which began streaking just behind the vessel in a series of bright
yellow and red trails. The now burning gases began increasing in size and
volume building enormous pressures. Soon a gigantic fireball formed and its
velocity increased as it steadily crept toward the
Starfighter.        

“Oh boy!”
Toormis shouted fighting the controls and catching a
glimpse of his rear view monitor. The forces acting upon his body were extreme
and his ship kept accelerating but the fireball kept creeping closer and
closer. With the greatest of efforts, Toormis moved his left hand off the
shaking handle of the control console and forward toward the weapon’s panel. He
glanced at his monitor, the fireball now filled the whole screen showing white,
and yellow flashes with incredible intensity. His fingers strained but finally
touched the weapon’s panel and with one final effort pressed a switch releasing
a rear torpedo. A silver flash left the rear of the Starfighter and detonated
upon contact with the fireball.

The resulting blast flashed across the surrounding
space instantly turning it bright silver which buffered the Starfighter with a
mirror smooth energy wave followed by a tremendous explosion. The closeness and
intensity of the explosion caused the Starfighter’s shields to disintegrate and
its systems began to shut down randomly. The Starfighter’s integrity held but
the ship spun out of control and hurtled into space spinning and spinning until
at last the emergency auto correction systems of the ship began to attain some
semblance of control. The Starfighter careered considerably off course and both
on board were close to unconsciousness when the ship finally came under
emergency computer control.

Toormis was the first to recover and frantically
fought to remove his helmet. “Wow!” he exclaimed. “You OK back
there…  
“Administrator?”

“Are we dead yet?”

Toormis strained to answer, “not yet but I think the
ship died a little.”

Suddenly the radio crackled. The transport ship had a
visual image of the Starfighter on their monitors. “Toormis is that you?” a
female voice said. The scanners on her ship recognised the Starfighter’s
signature.

Toormis was nearly speechless, “Cassy!?”

“Oh it is you. Thank the Stars,” Cassy replied but
added. “Toormis you lit up the whole solar system. Why did you do that?”

“To impress the ladies of course,” he answered without
thinking.

“Why are you here? Did father send you? We were
ordered to cease all communications some time back and have heard nothing
since. What is going on?”

Toormis suddenly felt a great weight pressing down
upon him. His mouth went dry and he fought for words, his mind was full of
terror. How would he tell her of her father? He took the only way out he could
think of, “Cassy there is a Confederate emergency and we must end this
transmission right now. Just follow me,” Toormis said and flicked his
communicator off.

Toormis’s Starfighter had a number of severely
crippled systems and crept slowly toward Zion. Zion increased dramatically in
size and the two ships felt its gravitational pull as they went into orbit
around her. Once stably in orbit Toormis switched on the ship to ship short
range atmospheric communications.

“Cassy, you reading me.”

“Yes,” Cassy replied.

“Good. I assume your pilot is android.”

“Yes, that is correct. I’ll put him on.”

“Awaiting instructions Commander,”
came
the mechanical voice of an android over the radio.

“Have you been briefed on landing on Zion and it’s
affect on electronic systems?”

“Yes Commander. One is not to fly anywhere but in the
corridor directly above the land base. The base emits a magnetic tractor beam
of Class 2B origin and neutralises the effect of radium based interference and…

“Yes, yes,” Toormis said cutting the android off, not wanting
a full description. “My beacon locating computer is burnt out. Is yours picking
up the signal?”

“Yes Commander.”

“Good, take the lead and I will lock on to your ship
with my space dock manoeuvring tractor beam… Class Alpha Basic 1-1,” Toormis said
adding the technical term.

“Affirmative Commander.”
The small transport ship slipped in front of the
crippled Starfighter and Toormis engaged the tractor beam. The beam shone an
iridescent green and Toormis punched a few keys on his onboard computer and sat
back putting his hands behind his head. He had nothing else to do but be towed
to the land base below.  His face was etched with worry as he contemplated
how he was going to tell Cassy about her father.