Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race (30 page)

Lucius frowned, “I’m… I’m not in this to make my own kingdom.”

“Baron, that’s probably one of the best reasons to make you our leader, permanently.” Kate laughed.  “God, I’m a politician and I
know
, the people who want power shouldn’t have it!”

Lucius shook his head, “I have no experience with civilian power.  Order of law and civilian bureaucracy… I think I’d be worse for this place than the Chxor!”

“Just… just think on it.” Max Nyguyen said.

“
I will.  In the meantime, draw up your drafts.  I’m not sure even what kind of means of ratification we can get from the populace.  Work on that as well.  Let me know what you need.”  Lucius stretched and stood, “Do we have anything else?”

“
No, Baron, I think that’s it.”

He nodded, “I’ll see you tomorrow, pending any crises.”

They’d only begun to file out when Kandergain stepped in.  She wore her normal rugged civilian clothing, her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail.  Strapped to her leg she carried a stub-barreled riot gun. 

He waited for the others to clear the room before he spoke.  Lucius stared at her with haunted eyes, “Now explain to me why I killed three thousand civilians yesterday.”

“You fired on that building because I told you to,” Kandergain said, her own voice sad.   She sat in the nearest chair, putting her feet up.  “We had a Balor infiltrator cell.”

“
Which means what?”

She took a deep breath, “Think of the Balor… like a virus.  You know how a virus works?  It invades a normal cell, scrambles its DNA, and produces a bunch of viruses out of the corrupted cell.”  Lucius nodded and waved a hand for her to continue.  “The Balor infiltrators, they work like that.  They… convert a local.  They use him to turn others.  They use those infiltrators to gather information on new worlds, and to sow confusion and discord among their enemies. “

“So… why were they here?” Lucius asked.

“
Balor love Chxor worlds.  They can subvert the top Chxor, and take over entire worlds, no Chxor will question the commands of his superior.  The ones here probably came with the occupation forces.”

“
How?” Lucius asked.  “How could one of those purple-skinned aliens hide?  They don’t look remotely like Chxor, much less Humans.”

Kandergain set her feet on the floor looking out the window for a moment.  “We’re getting near things I can’t talk about.”

“Seventeen of my Marines are dead and over three thousand civilians, and you won’t tell me what I need to know?”

“
Not won’t, I
can’t
.”  She shook her head.  “There’s some things, I simply
can’t
tell you, and there’s others you won’t understand.”  She took a deep breath, “Part of why the Balor are so dangerous is that they are all psychics.”

“
All of them?” Lucius asked, startled.  “I thought that was intrinsically rare.”

“
Among humans, yes.” Kandergain said, “But other races are different.  The Chxor have none, at all.  The Balor are all psychics.”  She shrugged, uncomfortably, “The… powers of individuals is determined solely by birth, though.  The abilities of each are useful in their jobs.  The workers can communicate and cooperate more effectively, their soldiers are faster and stronger.”

Lucius frowned, “What you’re describing sounds like an ant hill, or a hive of bees.”

“That’s a close enough approximation.  I’m giving you an approximation, only,” Kandergain said.  “Don’t make too many assumptions on that analogy.”

“
Okay… more information would—”

“
Make things more confused at this time.” Kandergain said.  “Some of what I know, you can’t understand.  Some other things… some things you won’t want to know.”

“
I may need to know them to make an educated decision.”

“
Trust me, some things you just, really don’t want to know.” Kandergain said and she finally met his eyes.  “A lot of things about the Balor make the Chxor’s actions here seem… civil.”

“
Fine, then,” Lucius said, “What do we do about the Balor here?”

“
This infestation was recent.  They probably came with the Chxor.”  Kandergain said, “The warriors who ambushed you were young and inexperienced.  It meant we had a cell here, and we needed to neutralize that cell before they reported.”

“
Why, what would the Balor care that the Chxor lost this world?”

“
The Balor are psychic, remember?”  She said, standing.  “They’ll be able to take secrets out of any normal human’s mind.  They knew about the Dreyfus Fleet.  They’re having their way with the Republic right now.  They will not allow you to get a strong power base here, not when they can prevent it.”

“
What do we do?” Lucius asked.

“
I’m not sure.”  She sighed.  “They were sending a message.”

Lucius nodded, “How long do we have?”

“I’m not sure.  You destroyed their ship, so you might have stopped the message.”

“
Their ship?” Lucius asked.

“
They secondary explosion, I’m pretty certain.  Their Patriarch—” she cut off.  “Their leader will always have a means to escape.”

“
I see.  Will we need to prepare for a battle in space?”

She shook her head, “I don’t know if they’ll attack directly.”

Lucius frowned, “I don’t like being kept in the dark about this.  I understand what you’re saying, but, I think I’ve earned the right to know what I’m killing people for.”

She sighed, “You have nightmares, Lucius?”

“Yes.”

“
Have you ever had a nightmare where you woke, screaming?  Have you ever had a nightmare so real, you clawed at your face to wake yourself?” Kandergain’s eyes were dark.  “This is that kind of horror, Lucius.  These are thoughts and ideas that you don’t want to pollute yourself with.”

Lucius sighed, “Kandergain, I’ve seen terrible things.  I’ve done terrible things.” He paused, “The only nightmares I ever have are when I see the faces of the people I’ve lost.  The only dreams that haunt me are the ghosts of the dead, and I can’t face them without knowing that I sent them to their deaths for good reason.”

Kandergain nodded, “Think on this then, Lucius, and tell me if it’s a good enough reason.”  She swallowed slightly, “Those Balor who ambushed you incubated in a Human host.  Somewhere, some poor bastard screamed and twitched while those things ate their way to the outside when they hatched.  Then they fed on what was left.  Is that a good enough reason to want to kill the Balor?”

***

Lucius returned to his office to find Reese waiting.  “I see you returned, Lucius, though I don’t know why you’d fight for this world and not for our home.”

“Reese, you don’t know how glad I was to hear you’re still alive,” Lucius began.

“
What, you forget so quickly why I left?” Reese snarled, “You left my wife to die on Nova Roma.  I saw what happened here, Lucius.  I saw what Chxor rule is like.  If we’d gone back—”

“
Can I get a word in—”

“
No!” Reese snarled, “You left Alanis to die!” Lucius typed something into his keyboard as Reese rounded the desk, “I don’t know why you—“

He broke off as the door opened.  His head snapped around, an angry expression on his face that vanished into shock at the person who had arrived.  “Alanis?” he asked.

“You idiot!” She shouted.  “I told you to stay with Lucius, and when I catch up to him, what do I hear?  You decided to stay and fight the Chxor?  Are you insane!?”

“
Alanis?” Reese asked again, totally confused.

Lucius shook his head, “I’ll let you two be alone for this joyous occasion.”

“What in God’s name possessed you to get off the
War Shrike
!  I told you to stay with Lucius, no matter what, I told you—”

Lucius firmly shut the door behind him, shook his head and decided he would finish his work the office down the hall.  The building had many unoccupied offices, thankfully.

He heard the muted sound as something glass broke.  He thought he heard a couple of thumps.  He shook his head again, “I don’t want to know.”

***

A few hours later, a bewildered looking Colonel Proscia found him.  “Your office...”  He shook his head, “Was that your sister?”

“I don’t want to know,” Lucius said.

“
There were clothes on the floor and Commander Leone...“

“
I don’t want to know,” Lucius said, more firmly.

“
And—”

“
There are things I don’t want to know.” Lucius asked, “This is one of those things.  I love my sister dearly, and Reese is—was—a friend.  I don’t want to know.”

Colonel Proscia shook his head, “It certainly was… confusing.  I take it you relocated?”

“Yes.” Lucius let out a breath, “Why’d you come looking for me?”

“
I wanted to ask you about earlier, when you fired on the building.”  The Marine Colonel looked tired, almost haggard.

Lucius sighed, “What do you want to know?”

“Did it have to be done?” Colonel Proscia asked, his voice calm.  Lucius could see the other man’s ghosts bothered him.

He thought back to Kandergain’s descriptions and of the terrifying battle between her and the psychic Balor.  “Yes.” He sighed, “I wish there was another way.  But yes, it had to be done.”

The other man nodded.  “Thank you.”

Then he left Lucius to face his own ghosts

***

Chapter
IX

February 19, 2403 Earth Standard Time

Faraday System

(status unknown)

“
Lucius, darling, so glad you could take the time to see me.” Lucretta Mannetti said, either with total sincerity or total sarcasm.

Lucius bowed slightly and decided some sarcasm of his own in order, “Lady Kale, looking as splendid as ever.”

She smiled, “What do I need to do to get out, Lucius?”

Lucius cocked his head, “That… might take a lot on your part.”  He shrugged, “Something about an attempted coup d’etat, piracy, and several counts of murder.”

“Surely you can put a good word in for me?”

“
Let’s see…” Lucius looked to the ceiling, as if for inspiration.  “I could put in a word about how you… stabbed me.  Or… there’s also the fact that you betrayed me a second time.”

“
You wouldn’t hold that against me, would you Lucius?” she pouted.

“
Lucretta, you tried to kill me.  Twice.”  Lucius snapped, finally sick of the pretense.  “I respect your ability, I respect your persistence.”  He let out a deep breath, “You’re an attractive woman and you’ve got some amazing attributes.  That doesn’t mean you’re not a traitorous snake.”

“
Well, if we want to get down to it, Lucius, you betrayed me first.” A gust of wind off a glacier held more warmth than her voice.  “You foiled a plan ten years in the making when you betrayed me and you didn’t even get rewarded for it.  How long was it before you finally received command of the
War Shrike
?”

Lucius looked away, “Ten years.”

“Ah, yes, ten years shackled to a series of bungling captains.  I might have fled in exile, but I heard.”  She laughed darkly, “Oh, I heard about brave Captain Stravatti, who received a rapid promotion from his ship’s valiant actions at Resev Beta.  And there was Duke Penn, who amazingly cornered the Privateers of Saratoga.  What happened to him after his promotion?  Ah, yes, he led five thousand men to their deaths in a vain attack against the Chxor.”

“
I stayed loyal to a belief,” Lucius said.

“
A belief that you still follow, apparently, if you serve the puppy-Emperor who wants me hung for treason.”  The pirate admiral seated herself, treating the prison stool as a throne, “Did you ever ask yourself what rewards you could have held with me?  Did you ever wonder whose orders I followed in my bid for power?  Did you ever think I had loyalties beyond my own ambitions?”

Lucius turned away, “I doubt, very much, you looked beyond your own gains.”

“Then you’re wrong!” She surged forward, face pressed against the bars.  “My gains… those significant rewards, I earned those, and you know it.  Didn’t we fight off the infamous Thomas Kaid, together at Port Fel?  Name another
admiral
to match that.  Didn’t we bring down Saragossa’s defenses, despite the knowledge it would buy us little time?”  She spat, “Those corrupt bastards at Fleet hated our successes and you know that.  They hated that I was a woman, that a woman could do what so many of their cronies couldn’t.  They hated you, because of your father, a man whose only crime was to ask for what should have been his in the first place.”

“
And why does my father always come up?” Lucius asked, his voice tired.  “I made peace with my father’s failures long ago.”

“
Your father, that’s the center of all this, don’t you realize?”

Lucius turned, startled by the raw emotion in her voice.

“He made me see, Lucius.  He made me see clearly, for the first time, what had to be done.  What still can be done.”  She pushed back from the bars, shaking her head.  “That coup attempt you foiled, the mastermind behind it that no one ever uncovered… that was your father, Lucius.”

“
My father is dead,” Lucius said, his voice suddenly tight.  “They executed him for treason three days before my fifth birthday.”

She cocked her head, an image of false surprise on her face, “Did they, Lucius?  Or is that just what they told you?”  She chuckled at the look on his face.  “Think about loyalties, Lucius.  You stopped the very plot that would have made you heir to the Empire.”

Lucius stared at her, unable to look away.

“
How different would things be, Lucius, were your father Emperor.  Would he have accepted the corruption?  Would he have burned with the ambition that caused the sacking of allies?  Would he have been the puppet that this last Emperor was?”

“
You lie.” Lucius whispered.

“
Think about loyalties, Lucius.  Think about all the questions you never asked.”  She sagged back onto her stool.  “Then, when you’ve thought about all the loyalties they never gave you in return, and then come tell me I’m a traitor and deserve to hang.”

***

Lucius stepped into the tight office without knocking.  “I need to know—”  He broke off, startled to see Kandergain and Admiral Mund in close conversation.

The two shot each other looks that spoke volumes and Kandergain stood.  “Lucius,” she nodded.  “I was about to leave anyway.”

Before he could say anything, she squeezed past him and stepped out of the office.

“What was that about?” Lucius asked, hiking a thumb over his shoulder.

The old man smiled slightly, “Oh, she had some questions for me.”

“About?” Lucius asked, suddenly suspicious.  He wondered how much manipulation by people he’d trusted had shaped his life.

“
Something personal to her,” Admiral Mund said, his voice suddenly flat.

“
I see.” Lucius answered.  He took a breath, “Tell me about my father.”

Mund sat down in a chair.  He pulled a bottle from behind it and poured himself a drink.  “Hmmm.”  He stared at Lucius for a long moment.

“That’s not an answer.”

“
That wasn’t a question,” the Admiral said.

Lucius snorted, despite himself, and took a seat across from his former mentor.  “When I went to the Academy, you told me you’d served with my father.”  Lucius took a deep breath.  “I’ve heard...” He looked away, staring at the walls of the office.  Somehow, the old man still had his sword collection.  He stared at the blades for a long moment, searching for the words.  “I know my father attempted to put himself on the throne.  I know that he was the bastard son of Emperor Romulus I, older by a year than the Emperor he served.”

Lucius met Mund’s blue eyes.  “Tell me the truth.  Did my father rebel from ambition for the throne?  Did Romulus II have my father executed for treason?”

Mund took a long sip.  “Marius Giovanni was a complex man, Lucius.”  The old man turned his gaze on the swords of his collection.  “He had ambition, in plenty.  He had a sense of justice, and a knowledge of men.  He held loyalty to those he served and to those who served him.”  Mund turned his gaze back to Lucius again, “When we served together, he was a good friend.  I can’t say what drove him to betray his half-brother, his Emperor.”  Admiral Mund shrugged, “I’ve wondered about that for a long time myself, Lucius.”

“Did you ask him?”

Admiral Mund laughed, “Of course!  God, I asked him a dozen times!  He’d spoken of the Empire for so long like it was some holy thing and then did his best to tear it down.”  He shook his head, “The answers he gave, when he gave any answers, were cryptic at best.”

“Cryptic?” Lucius frowned.  He remembered his father only as a warm presence, a deep voice.  He’d heard Marius Giovanni described as a raving madman, an ambitious schemer, and as a brave warrior.  Cryptic did not match with any of those impressions.

“
When he…” Admiral Mund tossed back the drink and set the glass aside.  “When he led his ships against the Emperor, I was the Admiral who fought him.  When Marines dragged him before the Emperor, I commanded them.  Your father… he changed, Lucius.  He saw something, or heard something, and it changed everything for him.  He never shared that knowledge, but it lurked in every word he said, every move he made.”

Mund reached out and grabbed Lucius’ hands, and held them and stared into his eyes.  “When I asked him why he went rogue, he said it needed to happen.  When I asked him why he led ten ships against twenty, he said it needed to happen.”  The old man let Lucius’ hands go and sat back, his rasping voice little more than a whisper, “When I asked him why he surrendered, knowing he’d face death, he said it needed to happen.”

Admiral Mund shook his head, “He was brave and noble then too, for his surrender meant the men under him received lenience.  He and his officers, though…”  Mund shook his head.  “There’s only one penalty for treason, you know that.”

“
Lucretta Mannetti told me that my father lived.” Lucius said, suddenly bitter that he’d listened.

“
What would she know—” the old man suddenly broke off.  “No…”

“
What?” Lucius asked.

“
There were rumors.” Admiral Mund said, “There always are.  I thought nothing of them.  But, sometimes the truth can lie in a rumor.”

“
Could my father still live?” Lucius asked, incredulously.

“
I doubt it.” Mund said.  “The bitterness of his betrayal… I very much doubt it.”

Lucius nodded, “Thank you.”

The old man shrugged.  “The past is the past, Lucius.  It hurts to remember, sometimes, but it lies behind us.”  He sighed, “I’m old, Lucius.  Truth to tell, I’m afraid if you don’t take the Emperor’s job as fleet commander, he’ll drop it on me.”

“
You’ve served before.” Lucius said.

“
And left in disgust.” The response came immediately.  Mund gave a rasping laugh.  “I’m too old for that nonsense now.   Half the life extension treatments won't work on me at this point, and the ones I've already had don't help much anymore.  It will be worse if you choose to… do whatever you’ve planned.”

“
Do you…” Lucius cleared his throat, “Do you think I betrayed the Empire by not accepting his offer?”

“
Yes.”

Lucius winced.

“But I also think you would doom humanity if you took it.”

Lucius looked up sharply.

“I served the glorious Nova Roma Empire for fifty three years, Lucius.  I watched it change from the hope for humanity to the cancerous sore it died as.”  He shrugged.  “Nations rise and wane, Lucius.  I think that the legacy of the Empire is too tainted to rise again.”

“
What about the Emperor?”

“
I don’t know.”  The old man shrugged.  “Were he not burdened with his father’s legacy, he’d serve as a fine leader.  As it is, even many on Nova Roma had come to hate the Empire.”

“
So what’s the future, then?” Lucius said, “The Republic, rotted from the center?  I know of a dozen minor warlords, a handful of pirate kings.  Who else stands for humanity?”

“
Well, Lucius,” the old man smiled, “there is you.”

“
Ah,” Lucius sighed, “Baron Lucius Giovanni, champion of the doomed?”

“
Has a nice ring to it.”

***

“
Hello?”

Lucius stood up from his chair and moved to the door.  He opened it, “Yes?”

Kandergain stood outside.  “Hi, Lucius, got a sec?”

He nodded, reluctantly.  “Certainly.”  He wanted more time to think about the day’s stunning revelations, but…

He stepped aside and she stepped into his living quarters.  He could have taken something bigger, but the apartment building served as the officer quarters for his fleet.  He didn’t even need the two rooms of the apartment.  His handful of possessions still sat in two chests tucked neatly against the wall.

She stared around at the bare apartment, “Getting moved in?”

Lucius shrugged, “Not much to move.  Most of my possessions are still on Nova Roma.”

She winced, “Oh, yeah, sorry.”

“Alanis said the Chxor didn’t seem in much of a hurry to loot the estates, so it might still be there when we eventually retake it.”

“
So eager to rebuild the Nova Roma Empire, then?” She asked, her voice sharp.

Lucius felt his shoulders sag, he didn’t want a fight, “No, but it’s my home.  I don’t want to see it ravaged by the Chxor.”

“Ah.” She said, “So you haven’t…”

“
No, I haven’t decided to take the Emperor up on his offer,” Lucius answered.  “I don’t see a lot of options… but I haven’t made the decision yet.”

“
Anyway…” Kandergain said, throwing her ponytail over her shoulder, “I thought you might like this,” she said and held out a picture frame.

“
What is it?” Lucius asked, taking it.  He stared at the picture for a moment.  A woman and a girl stood near a lake or perhaps the ocean.  The faces looked familiar, but he couldn’t place them.