Chapter 21

The following morning (by the planetary standards used by the medical centre I was working at) Vrion and I set off in a shuttle to the port, gazing, as we passed it, at the huge shape of a planetary terraformer being manoeuvred into place to set down where it could start work, as well as a whole host of what Vrion called detector or probe ships.

“Going all out to detect Cillort?” I asked, kind of rhetorically.

“Yes, I doubt he can regain any sort of power, but there are realms who would take him and use him as a figurehead to foment trouble in the Empire,” Vrion replied.

“Yes, I can imagine they would, though I rather doubt Amantil will put up with it for long,” I said thoughtfully.

“She’s more constrained than you think. The Empire is not an autocracy. She rules by consensus to a degree. That’s not to say she’s powerless though or a mere figurehead.”

“Yes, the Great Balance. I know.”

“Yes, her power is balanced by the High Bureaucrats and the Congress of High Nobles.”

“She generally has their support, I take it?”

“Hard to tell, much of what they do doesn’t filter down to the likes of me ... or even you, despite you having to be at one of the Courts every so often,” she replied with a smile.

“Ah, so they may not exactly support her, but don’t actively oppose her either?”

“Sounds more likely, particularly as she most definitely has the power to have them investigated and demoted ... if not executed.”

“Doubt she uses that option very often. It’s an easy way to get them after you.”

“Yep, hence the last execution in living memory was Tarsil and that was with a unanimous condemnation of him from both branches of the executive arm.”

“Yes. I was there when he was disintegrated.”

“You never struck me as the bloodthirsty type, Dave?”

“I’m not. I was there as part of the Court and due to my involvement.”

“Ah, yes, sorry.”

“Wasn’t pleasant, no. They didn’t do it quickly, just enough to cause him to scream in obvious agony before they increased the power,” I replied with a slight wince.

“Yeah, they paraded us out in our drill square to watch. Wasn’t pleasant, but that was kind of the point, to let everyone know the fate of traitors.”

“We’re here,” I noted, changing the subject, as the shuttle touched down in the still well-guarded port.

“Good, let’s go. Ginlo will be waiting for us in the lobby.”

A flyer took us to the medical centre where we met Healer Dichint.

“We have seven critical cases for you to look at, Cure David,” she informed me after we greeted her.

“Take me to them in the order of the most critical,” I requested.

“I took the liberty of sorting them for you in that sequence,” she replied. “The Centre administrator wanted them done by Imperial ranking.”

“Silly, rank means nothing to me in that sense. I would always heal those suffering the most first,” I informed her.

“Yes, I told him that when he objected to my re-arrangement. As did the AI when I asked for confirmation of your methodology.”

“Politely?” I asked with a grin.

“Yes. You were right, they are more responsive,” she nodded.

“I think of them as people and I’m usually not rude to people who don’t offend me.”

“You’re really weird at times, Dave,” Vrion broke in with a giggle.

“Can’t help it,” I chuckled. “They talk to me as people so to me they are people.”

“I’m coming to the same conclusion myself,” Dichint agreed. “Ah, here we are, this is Somla, one of the few who survived the nanostorm of the last resort devices by dint of his vehicle crossing the boundary of its explosion before it became critically damaged. We have the nanites temporarily in stasis, but cannot remove them from his body without awakening them or rebuild him with them still inside him.”

“So, you’re hoping my gift will expel them and you can rebuild him?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Very well, let’s give it a shot,” I replied as Dichint left and Vrion and Ginlo set up the privacy screens.

Once the screens were in place Vrion walked out of her armour by dint of pressing various tags that released the armoured membrane and caused it to seemingly fold back into itself, freeing her and leaving her in just the utilitarian underwear the Imperial forces supplied, which were more like a soft bodysuit (think long johns) and were designed, I think, to prevent chafing. This she rapidly pulled off before stepping up to kiss me in order to get her body kick-started sexually. This didn’t take long and she leaned over a grav-bed and parted her shapely legs as I pulled off my clothing and moved behind her, fully erect.

Whilst we tried to keep our coupling business-like, it was nevertheless enjoyable for both of us and Vrion was highly skilled in hurrying or delaying an ejaculation from any male, depending on whether she liked them or not (I believed). However as this was simply business and we undoubtedly had a lot to do this day, she chose to use her internal muscles to hurry along the process, to both our delights, as, either way, it was always damned good. Vrion then mounted the patient, who had been prepared by Ginlo, and waited for the ten rotations for the healing to begin.

“And you get paid for this?” a rosy-cheeked Ginlo asked.

“I’m sure I get paid something ... a military rate,” I shrugged. “But nothing like what I earn privately working for Medical Resource.”

“I get one Royal a patient, over and above my pay,” Vrion replied.

“Damn, that’s good money,” Ginlo gasped.

“I get ten thousand Royals a patient for the Medical Resource patients, but I work for free in the lower level medical centre,” I added.

“That’s a fortune!” Ginlo exclaimed.

“The Empress explained it as a means of encouraging the High Bureaucrats and Nobility to invest in the medical research necessary to put me out of a job.”

“Yeah, I guess it would. Don’t they know about your charitable work though?”

“Not sure, doubt they’d care to go slumming it either,” I chuckled. “If you’re high enough to know what it is I do in the upper levels, you’re usually rich enough to afford me, though a good few choose not to know.”

“Right,” she nodded. “Time’s up Vrion.”

“Good,” Vrion replied and pulled her underwear back on. “Did it work?”

“Yeah, his body is naturally expelling the nanites through his sweat pores. They’re disintegrating when exposed to air, the bed’s taking care of the rest,” Ginlo replied as Vrion hit the tabs on her armour to cause it to fold around her.

“It’s done, Healer Dichint,” Ginlo called out as we dropped the privacy screen. “You can now regrow his missing bits.”

“I have scheduled a team to attend, thank you,” Dichint replied. “We have a few more nanite plague victims waiting for you.”

“Lead on, Healer Dichint,” I sighed.

Far above Kansdoorf a probe ship, using data gleaned from records normally stored on Vreekoos, finally detected the underground redoubt of Cillort and reported the position to the ground forces command. On the ground, those forces moved into position to surround an area under the capital city of Kansdoorf, though away from the medical centre where I was working. Vrion and Ginlo, through their armour, were connected to the forces info channels. They were aware of what was happening and warned Healer Dichint of possible casualties, long before the Commander Ground Forces would have. Hence, the medical centre was prepared for the assault, several non-urgent cases were being sent to centres further out and skilled staff shuttled in to prepare to deal with the situation.

“They have detected the redoubt, Serenissimo,” a junior bureaucrat announced to Cillort as he sat in conference with his command staff.

“Not unexpected,” Cillort muttered. “Prepare the evacuation and the demolition charges. All staff are to head for the evacuation zones, don their alternative identities and wait in place in the safe houses until planetary restrictions are lifted.”

“At once, Serenissimo.” The junior saluted and left.

“Gentlemen, you know the plan,” he spoke to the remainder. “We hide until we can escape this planet. The Governor of Hinsticht is our ally, though has remained supposedly loyal to Amantil. If we can make it there, we can rebuild. I wish you well.”

“Serenissimo, I wish to command the sacrificial rear-guard,” Admiral Spake requested.

“I will need your expertise in the future,” Cillort replied.

“They will be expecting to find me. My absence will be noted and the search intensified. If they are found, the junior staff will point them in your direction, even if none know your destination.”

“Oh, but they won’t,” Cillort replied with a sneer. “The exits they are heading for are trapped and a last resort cordon activated. None will survive to tell that we live.”

“Yes, Serenissimo,” Spake swallowed nervously at Cillort’s ruthlessness.

“Relax, you are essential to my further plans, hence your presence here. Now come, follow me to the real exit.”

Off in the distance I could hear explosions and the sounds of fighting, though other than a steady stream of flyers being used for medical evac, nothing was really to be seen. I finally persuaded Vrion that I needed lunch and she, as well as Ginlo, escorted me out to the market again, though Dichint remained behind to deal with the constant number of patients coming in.

It was only when I was munching down on a snack that I suddenly started as I saw several men emerge from what looked like a closed shop and head more or less towards where we were sitting. They were clearly out of place for the area they were in and were unmistakably observing all going on around them.

“Vrion, that guy in front, that’s Spake. I’m sure of it,” I said quietly.

“Might be wrong, but let’s check and hopefully only get told off for stunning innocents if it’s not him. Rather that than letting that monster escape,” she muttered, drawing one of her two weapons, the stunner as used for urban warfare and civilian restraint, followed swiftly by Ginlo.

I, in the meanwhile, also approached, though broke off at an angle to try and get around the group. As soon as Spake spotted the approaching troopers he and others pulled weapons, and they were not stunners, but pulsed hyperbeam pistols, utterly deadly in an unarmoured civilian environment. Both Vrion and Ginlo realised the deadly nature of the weapons and dived for cover as panicked civilians tried to get out of the way, causing confusion by way of a now running mob.

However, by this time, I was in amongst the presumed traitors and was using a short piece of wood to go for their various nerve clusters, whilst moving swiftly and randomly to prevent them getting a shot at me. In the distance I could also hear the sounds of an approaching military flyer, which in turn was making the armed group lay down even more fire as Vrion broke from cover to dive in amongst them taking a pulsed shot to the shoulder which almost severed her arm, though the armour itself sealed up immediately and kept her arm together where it could, hopefully, be repaired or, in this case, cured by me. I was determined.

Other troopers were now dropping in to surround the area. I spotted one of the men at the back make a break for it into the crowd and so I followed him as he forced his way through the struggling mass of civilians. He soon realised he was being followed and turned with his weapon just as I got close enough to take him out, only for his shot to slice my leg off even as we both fell, me keening in agony, him unconscious.