Different Paths (12 page)

Talia bowed low before her mistress. “You called
madam?”

Madam Aleksandra gestured at the table between
them. “Read the cards. What do you see?”

Talia saw that the cards were laid out in one of
the most complex patterns known to the Sisterhood. However, it was one that she
had studied in the Seminary, so she calmly sat herself at the table and began
to count her breathing. Feeling herself fall into the meditative trance needed
to read the cards properly, Talia held her hand momentarily over each card,
feeling the meaning in the placement.

“The hound of darkness shall harry the paladin of
light and his fate shall rest on a knife’s edge.”

Madam Aleksandra nodded her head in agreement.
“That is nearly the exact interpretation I got when I read these cards.”

“But what does it mean?”

“My analysis? The bounty hunter Spartan is in
trouble.”

“What can we do about it? We have already warned
him as much as the Directive allows, have we not?”

Madam Aleksandra stood up and began to pace slowly
around the room. Even agitated, her grace and poise was something to admire.

“Talia Stargleam, I will be blunt. The Empire is
in trouble and without the aid of the Terrans the Empire will fall. Every
divination I have cast shows this to be true.” Stopping at the ancient stone
tablet, Madam Aleksandra caressed its rough surface before continuing. “There
is a great debate within the High Council concerning the Terrans. Many see them
as the slaves of the past while others see them as the saviors of our future.”

Turning back to face Talia, “I left the service of
the Emperor over this debate. I could not sit by and watch others poison his
mind any longer.”

“But mistress, the Directive clearly states that
we are not to directly intervene or aid the Terrans, only observe and guide
through our wisdom.”

“So it does,” Madam Aleksandra responded. Moving
back to the table, she knelt down opposite her newest pupil. “Have you ever
wondered why I asked for you to be posted here on Terra?”

“The question had crossed my mind from time to
time. I realize that I am barely out of the Seminary and yet I received this
posting over more senior sisters.”

Madam Aleksandra gestured at the cards. “Somehow
your fate is intertwined with the paladin of light. See for yourself, turn the
next card.”

Doing as she was told, Talia drew the card and
placed it in the proper spot in the layout. They were confronted by the image
of two lovers intertwined in the act of fornication. The Lovers card signaled
the union of two forces working together toward the same goal.

Talia chewed on her lip slightly before she asked,
“But mistress, if I aid the Terran won’t I be branded a traitor?”

“Only if you fail.”

“What does that mean?”

“Simple. If my fears are correct and you are
successful, then no one on the Council would dare to speak out against you.”

“And if I do fail?”

“Then you will be dead and beyond caring.”

Talia thought for a moment before asking, “Does
this have something to do with my sister Medea?”

“Yes. She was my finest pupil. She was more gifted
than anyone currently sitting on the High Council and she was the most talented
reader I have ever trained. However, she was a bit reckless and moved too soon.
This allowed our enemies within the Empire to move against her.”

“You are asking me to take up where she left off?”

“Yes. I had hoped we would have more time
together. I had expected to further your training but my friends in the Seminary
assure me that you are the most capable and gifted student they have trained in
a decade. I am forced to rely on their judgment because time is not on our
side. Our enemies seek to move against Spartan this very evening. We must aid
him or perish.”

Madam Aleksandra reached over and drew the next
card but held it face down. “This card holds the answer to any question your
heart desires. All you have to do is give the question form and speak it
aloud.”

Talia absentmindedly chewed on a stray strand of
hair as she contemplated the offered card. After a brief moment, she gingerly
took the card. “But at what price?”

Madam Aleksandra smiled ever so slightly. “You are
indeed your sister’s sister. She asked the exact same question, so I will
answer it the same way. Every gift has a price but truth is the cheapest. This
question and answer are yours alone.”

She pointed to the red door on her right. “If you
choose to aid Spartan, everything you will need is behind that door.” Nodding
her head toward the blue door she added, “If not, that door will lead you back
to the library. I shall return to my chambers to await your decision. May the
Living Stars shine on you now and always.”

Standing, Madam Aleksandra moved out of the
sanctum leaving Talia alone with her dilemma.

Fearing to ask the wrong question, Talia thought
about everything that Madam Aleksandra had told her. Of course, it did
illuminate many things that had happened to her during the Seminary. She had
always felt that there had been some sort of guiding hand in her training. Now
she knew that to be true. However, the thought of the Empire failing was almost
preposterous…almost.

Since her graduation, she had seen the decadence
and corruption that plagued her homeworld. Many Sylvans just wanted everything
to stay the same or better yet, go back to how it was millennia ago but one
thing that she had learned by watching the Terrans in the short time she had
been on Earth, if you are not moving forward, then you are moving backwards.
The only constant in the universe is change. Nothing stays the same...nothing.

This of course led her back the question at hand,
the card.

One of the most gifted mystics of her people had
given her a prophetic card. One that held the answer to any question she could
fathom. She could ask anything, yet the grey eyes of Spartan kept coming back
to haunt her thoughts. Seeing that as a sign from the Living Stars, Talia spoke
softly to the darkness.

“Is it my destiny to aid Spartan?”

Flipping the card over, Talia let it fall to the
center of the layout and was confronted by the image of the Chariot.

The Charioteer is a man on the move and he’s in
the driver’s seat, both literally and metaphorically. It is the card of forward
motion and change. It depicts the timeless quest for exploration and conquest
but it also embodies a certain amount of contradiction since it hints at an
unstoppable destiny that can’t be avoided.

With a simple nod, Talia moved to the red door and
stepped through intent on confronting her destiny.

Chapter 11

Agent Smith hadn’t stopped talking since they
climbed into the skimmer. The young agent was trying to impress the Galactic Marshals
with greatly exaggerated tales of his detective skills and trying to regain
some measure of confidence after the blow he’d received from the handcuffed
bounty hunter.

Iaido hadn’t really been listening but even so,
his yapping was starting to grate on his nerves.

Finally Cassius turned around and asked, “Don’t
you ever shut up?”

The shock on Agent Smith’s face at being spoken to
in such a manner lasted all of about ten seconds before turning to a mixture of
anger and embarrassment. Leaning forward in the chair, he pointed his finger at
the small marshal. “Now listen here, you’re in my jurisdiction and at my
request. All I have to do is snap my fingers and….”

Whatever threat he was going to make died as
Cassius shoved a ten inch piece of metal into Agent Smith’s neck. The dying
agent grasped feebly at the protruding knife as his life blood spewed all over
the cabin, including covering Iaido’s keikogi.

Cassius looked over at Iaido and winked. “Damn he
was annoying!”

The driver began bouncing the skimmer all over the
air lanes. It bucked so violently that Iaido had to use his recently freed
hands to hold himself in place.

Brutus noticed his freed hands through the rear
view mirror and gestured towards them with his head when he asked, “How long?”

Iaido shrugged. “Before we were three blocks from
the dojo.”

Brutus smiled slightly to himself as he took the
skimmer into a steep dive. Warning lights flashed red all across the instrument
panel. Pulling up sharply on the controls, the skimmer leveled out a few feet
above the colossal rock of granite known as Stone Mountain. Landing heavily,
the landing gear collapsed under the strain. Before the damaged ship came to a
complete stop, all four doors popped open and the two Marshals leapt out.

Iaido shifted his position slightly but was still
inside the doomed craft.

“I guess the story will be that I killed Agent
Smith with a knife that I had hidden in my keikogi. During the struggle inside
the skimmer, you were forced to make a crash landing here on Stone Mountain and
regrettably of course, I was killed in your attempt to recapture me. How did I
do?”

Cassius nodded his approval. “That’s almost
exactly how I was planning on writing this in my report. Of course, I will add
how we tried to talk you down, even after your brutal murder of a federal agent
but eventually we had to shoot you.”

Iaido snickered. “Unarmed? That will do wonders
for your career.”

Cassius pulled out a second pistol and tossed it
to Iaido’s feet.

“I never said you weren’t armed. In the struggle
with Agent Smith, you were able to get his service blaster and so, regrettably
of course, we had to blow you away.”

Looking down at the gun at his feet, Iaido could
tell it wasn’t a standard issue blaster but a Peregrine Disruptor Mark II from
the distinctive flaring of the barrel ports.

 The PDMkII was a close combat sidearm that fired
a beam of energy that was deadly up to fifteen meters. The main advantage of
the disruptor over other blasters was its capacity to disable or kill its
targets. With a disruptor there were hardly any minor wounds. Disruptors were
originally developed for medical use; the beam was designed to re-align the
molecules of a wound causing them to knit back faster. Unfortunately, that
didn’t happen. The energy beam caused some sort of feedback in the atoms of its
targets, causing them to fly away from each other. This tended to take several
seconds but when it did, the target area would literally explode, causing a
wound nearly one-hundred times the size of the beam. For example, a soldier struck
in the shoulder area with a standard blaster would be severely injured but
still slightly functional and could return to combat after seeking medical aid.
The same wound with a disruptor would cause the soldier to lose the affected
arm and possibly die from blood loss and shock.

It was said to be extremely painful and had been
outlawed by the UNCF for nearly three decades for being inhumane, although many
were still found in use in the outer regions. Unfortunately, disruptors were slow
to fire and also known to be unreliable. They needed a lot of maintenance to
keep in good working order. A misfire in a disruptor usually sent the energy
blast back through the weapon engulfing the weapon and shooter.

Reaching down, Iaido slowly picked up the
disruptor. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Marshal Brutus had
moved into a flanking position armed with a large bore carbine and had it
trained on his chest. Without taking his eyes off Marshal Cassius, Iaido began
to breakdown the pistol.

“You don’t mind do you?”

Cassius shrugged. “Not at all, I would do the
same.”

“So, I guess this is the end of the line for me?”

Cassius nodded, “Yep. It’s a shame really. I’ve
always wanted to meet you.”

“Really?” By this time Iaido had the disruptor
broken down into its three basic parts; barrel, energy cell and frame but
needed more time so he kept the marshal talking.

“Why is that?”

Cassius scoffed at the question. “You’re a legend.
Achilles the invincible warrior; your exploits before and on Gilese are
legendary.”

Using his handcuffs as a jumper between the
positive and negative connections of the energy cell, Iaido could already feel
it starting to heat up. Dropping the energy cell inside the skimmer’s back
door, Iaido moved towards the edge of the cliff.

“I haven’t gone by that name since Gilese. In many
ways Achilles died on that mountainside with the rest of Omega Squadron.”

Cassius shifted slightly closer to the skimmer to
get a better angle on Iaido. “Judging from your actions since then I would have
to agree. The funny thing is you weren’t even supposed to be involved.”

“But I am…the moment you killed the Sgt. Major I
became involved.”

Cassius shook his head. “But we didn’t, we planned
on killing him but his wife had already done the job for us before we arrived.
We’ve just been cleaning up loose ends since then; the Fed, you and the gypsy
next.”

Taking a gamble that the marshal wouldn’t shoot
him in the back, Iaido turned away and scanned the terrain down this side of
the mountain. It was steep but a rapid descent looked survivable and there
would be cover for his escape. With the beginning elements of a plan forming Iaido
asked, “So…you and I are going to have a shootout like two gunslingers in the
Ancient West?”

“That’s the plan. I realize that you would rather
have a blade in your hand but this is my fantasy, not yours.”

Iaido gestured toward the second marshal. “And if
I win?”

“It won’t happen old timer, I am the fastest
Myrmidon ever designed. According to the official records my reflexes are even
faster than you or your brother.”

“Really?”

Cassius nodded toward his left. “Look the crows
have already arrived to feast on your carcass.”

Iaido watched as Edgar landed on a nearby branch
with a loud squawk.