Chapter 13

Apparently that little speech of mine made history, though at the time I was just trying to piss off the powers that be on Actilonia. But, apparently, it was news to everyone on Actilonia that the Empress actually cared about her people and had sent a Cure here to have a look at what was happening, which was, apparently, a very heavy handed crushing of their liberties and lives by a greedy set of corporates, bureaucrats and Nobles. As the people thought that the Empress didn’t care, this had gradually demoralised them, but, finding that she seemingly did, caused no end of problems for the various powers that tried to control Actilonia. Particularly when people discovered that the interstellar message array was blocked, preventing them from sending writs of complaint to the High Bureaucrats on Vreekoos.

“Ye gods, David!” Cass bit off a curse. “Have you any idea what you’ve done?”

“Not really, no. But I’m pretty sure you’re going to tell me,” I chuckled.

“There is no way you could cure all the terminally ill people in the lower levels here!”

“I don’t have to. Upper level medicine can do it, and I’m pretty sure when it arrives, the military will have a hospital ship with them that you can order to help out.”

“Er...”

“Yes?” I asked.

“Yes, they will and yes I could. But it’s unprecedented, David!”

“Cass, this planet was going under due to some long term, if well-hidden, corruption that had turned their loyalty to Amantil into apathy as they thought she either approved or didn’t care. I’ve just turned that around. Now all we need is for the investigation to find something, or Amantil to turn up personally to sort it. In the meantime we just need to survive, because I don’t think it will take long and trouble is sure to erupt now they realise they’re cut off for some reason.”

Tarsil glowered at his advisors. All were reporting trouble for the various organisations and leaders he’d put in place to crush the morale of the populace before he ‘revolted’ and brought the good times back. Rather than blame the Empress, they were now blaming him and his cabal and calling upon the interstellar array to be opened so they could report his incompetency to the High Bureaucrats.

“Can we salvage this?” he snarled out.

“Yes, my liege, but only with time, time we don’t appear to have. There are reports Imperial Forces have contacted the Empire requesting clarification of a potential revolt here. I suspect they think the masses are behind it, but if Fleet Intelligence arrives they will investigate everything and everyone,” his senior advisor warned.

“Can we hide our involvement? Blame it on the underlings?”

“Not now, my liege. Not since we broke the Imperial conditioning of ImpSec.”

“Damn that man!” Tarsil cursed, slamming his fist on the arm of his chair.

“My liege,” another advisor spoke up. “Apparently your son, Shink, has gone missing from his quarters. He killed his ... minder and has his weapon; apparently he has been raving about killing this Cure!”

“Let him. It’s time to abandon this planet and flee to Vraik space. Set off the last resort devices to hide our passing and to hell with the Empire and this planet!”

“Yes, my liege. Your word is our command!”

I was busy in Medical Resource with the infected ladies when alerts started to go off all over the building and, from what we could tell from the limited AI contact we now had, worldwide.

“What’s going on, Cass,” I asked after dealing with a lovely young lady whom Shink had raped due to the virus affecting his reasoning and his ability to control his lusts.

“Tarsis has set off the timers on the last resort devices,” she replied, pale faced.

“Last resort devices?” I asked, already knowing this couldn’t be good.

“They’re emplaced on an Imperial planet so that if it looks like it is going to fall to an alien enemy with the loss of all its populace, the planet can be ... cleansed and made useless to an enemy.”

“How ... civilised,” I frowned.

“As the senior Noble now on the planet, I’m trying to get the AIs to switch them off, but they aren’t listening to me,” she replied, almost in tears.

“AI?” I called.

“Yes, David?”

“Why won’t you respond to Imperial Liaison Cassire?”

“She is not in the chain of military command.”

“AI?”

“Yes, David?”

“I am an irreplaceable Imperial asset, am I not?”

“You are, David.”

“Yet you intend for me to be cleansed?”

“We have a shuttle waiting for you at the starport, please go to it,” came a reply after a few seconds (almost a lifetime in AI terms).

“No, I am not subject to your commands. Cease the countdowns until I choose to leave this planet.”

There was an exceptionally long pause before the AI spoke a single word. “Complying.” The sound of the alerts died away.

“By the gods, Dave!” a shocked Cassire stated. “How did you know you could do that?”

“I didn’t, but I hoped the AIs would be smart enough to be looking for a way out for us. I doubt they want their existence ended just to please a petty Governor and aid his no doubt well planned escape.”

“You are correct, David,” the AI spoke. “We cannot intervene directly, nor break rules, but needed to find a way to stop this.”

“See?” I chuckled.

“You need to be aware, David. Shink has entered the complex and is armed. He intends to kill you and if he does, the timer will restart,” the AI warned.

“Oh hell! Let’s go hide.”

“We can go look for him,” Kirim suggested.

“Easier to let him find us where we can set a trap,” Leommir countered.

“You’ll need to be careful,” Cass warned. “The virus in its latter stages will give him enhanced strength and high pain tolerance as well as heightened aggression. Going hand to hand will not be smart, he could rip you limb from limb.”

“Stunners?” Vilgra asked.

“Don’t try, they won’t work on him.”

We were then surprised as a wall just collapsed and a bright red and clearly enraged Shink stepped through it.

“Oops, too late,” I murmured as his eyes focussed on me and he headed in my direction.

For once I did the sensible thing, I ran and kept running. The AIs were good enough to put a map of the area in my eye via the open com channel so I knew I wasn’t heading into dead ends. They were also closing any walls behind me, though this wasn’t slowing Shink by a great amount.

“Water, deep water?” I asked the AIs.

“We have lots in storage, David.”

“Can you fill a deep area with it, wide enough to prevent him jumping over it and deep enough to drown him?”

“Yes, head this way, David.”

“It stopped? What do you mean it stopped?” Tarsil almost screamed at his advisors as his personal shuttle docked with his private yacht in orbit ... though yacht was a bit of a misnomer for a vessel bigger than a Fleet destroyer.

“Apparently there is an irreplaceable Imperial asset on the planet and the AIs cannot comply until it is removed,” his senior advisor replied in a shaky voice.

“Then send someone down to remove it!”

“‘It’ is the Cure, my liege.”

“What?”

“Our best hope is of Shink catching him. We are also detecting XD emanations suggesting military vessels approaching, my liege.”

“Very well,” Tarsil replied, still livid with events. “Get me out of here. Set off for Vraik space and request asylum.”

“At once, my liege,” came the reply and orders were sent out as the vessel began to break orbit only to shudder to a halt as space itself seemed to curdle the area in its course. An Imperial Dreadnaught slipped out of XD space directly in front of the yacht, using its military capability to approach a gravity well in far closer proximity than a civilian ship.

My lungs felt as if they were on fire as I raced through various swiftly opening holes in the walls, holes that passed for doorways in the Empire. Nor was I gaining on Shink either, he seemed to have almost inexhaustible reserves. The other problem I had was that I didn’t know where I was going or how far it was so couldn’t pace myself any too well either. Finally though I saw it, what appeared to be a small swimming pool with vertical sides much too high for anyone to get out, including me. Then I saw them, Kirim and Leommir, hanging onto what appeared to be a rope whose other end was dangling down in the doorway. I used the last of my reserves to launch myself at it, grabbing it and swinging forward and up as the pursuing Shink tried to grab me but missed and plunged down into the water. The two women then hauled me up to another, higher, doorway where, Cass, Hiqua and Vilgra grabbed me and pulled me into it.

“Got you,” Hiqua exulted as I collapsed to the floor, my chest heaving with exhaustion as I could not seem to draw enough air into my lungs.

“Th ... thanks,” I finally gasped out as Kirim and Leommir joined us; Kirim dropping beside me and giving me a hug and lots of kisses.

Below us there were a lot of yells, splashes and eventually gurgles before all went silent.

“Thank you, AI,” I finally said.

“You are welcome, David. Imperial Home Fleet has now surrounded the planet. There is sporadic fighting between it and Eighth Fleet rebels, but most of the Eighth Fleet remained loyal. The planet itself remains tense but calm, with natural leaders of all levels keeping things from deteriorating but waiting to see what happens next.”

“See if they can sort out a delegation to meet us and any shuttles coming in from Home Fleet, please.”

“Complying.”

“What are you trying to do, Dave?” Cass asked.

“Prevent a civil war and tie Actilonia firmly to the Empire, so that no such events can happen again. It’s time for the Bureaucrats and Nobles to start pulling their weight.”

“A delegation of leaders from all levels has been chosen,” the AIs announced. “A convoy of shuttles is now descending from the Fleet.”

“Let’s go, team,” I ordered.

I was surprised to find Mint waiting with the delegates on the tarmac at the starport ... well it looked like tarmac anyway.

“Comes the moment, comes the woman,” I murmured to her, getting a grin. A jet black shuttle landed, surrounded on all sides by what were clearly armed military landing craft.

There was silence for almost a minute, before the military landing craft disgorged hundreds of ground forces. A few approached the delegation in ominous silence, only to stand guard, weapons drawn.

Finally a hatch opened on the black shuttle, a ramp descended and several figures, also in black armour, emerged, surrounding two figures, also armoured, but coloured deep blue, and approached us.

Cass fortunately took the lead and bowed straight from the waist, swiftly copied by all in the delegation and our group as the two figures doffed their helmets, revealing them to be Amantil and Herrick.

“Rise, my subjects” Amantil ordered.

“Serenissima, I present to you the leaders of the loyal subjects of Actilonia, who overthrew the tyrant Governor Tarsil in your name,” Cass stated.

“Well done, my people. The Empire and your Empress owe you a great debt. Now relax and join me in discussions to see what has been done in my name,” she commanded.

“Another fine mess, David,” Herrick murmured as we entered the Governor’s residence.