Chapter 5

The Treasury Year 20 R (Republic, Imperial date 7961 E)

Mylon took the penultimate wormhole leap into the orbital path of the inner gas giant and the alarms of imminent collision which had been going off solidly for the last twenty terran-hours suddenly stop and we are eerily silent. According to the radar we have arrived in an area of space almost at the heart of this triple-sun-system with no debris, none at all. Which is eerie.

‘What’s happening?’ Kelvin is the first of the crew to ask, ‘Are the instruments down?’

‘No,’ Lilian answers slowly, hesitatingly, ‘Everything’s up and running. We just seem to be in an area of calm.’

She glances at me, seeing that I appear to be passive at the revelation.

‘Our guide Ivan doesn’t seem to be at all surprised.’

No, I wasn’t, but then I’d been here twice before.

The first time it had been a murderous maelstrom in here too, but the last time I came, they’d had two to three years of clean up and most of the big lumps had been removed, but it was the dust that was collected that we surmised would be most productive. Veggie bioships need fertile soil full of nutrient minerals, water and salts to grow in, especially the 11- to 15-multihull Battleships and Carriers for carrying thousands of the triple-hull destroyers which are the tireless workhorses of the Imperial Fleet, and the iron ore and other heavy metals were required for enough projectile weapons to enable the New Army to take back the Empire by force.

‘Look at the scanners,’ I say, ‘point them at the orbit of the gas giant and tell me what you see.’

Nobody had to say anything. As the cameras pan around and focus on the gas giant, all you can see orbiting the planet is line after line of huge space carriers and battleships, so many that you couldn’t see the surface of the planet.

‘What is this?’ Kelvin snarls, as he draws his projectile weapon from its holster.

My bone dagger hits him in the throat an instant before one of Lil’s throwing knives buries itself in his heart.

Skeech jumps up off his seat, trying to scramble for his weapon, but it is under the folds of his rad smock. Another of Lil’s knives takes him out of the game for good and he slumps back into his chair.

I hold my empty hands up, ‘I’m out Lil, I only had the one blade, and Selene, well, maybe we can leave her out of this carve up?’

‘I don’t think we can leave Selene completely out of this, can we Selene?’ Lilian asks, her last throwing knife in the palm of her hand, ‘where do you keep your badge?’

‘In my shoe,’ Selene admits, remaining seated, kicking off one of her shoes. ‘May I?’ She asks.

Lilian nods.

Selene bends down and twists the heel of her shoe, pulling out a metal badge.

‘Toss it to Ivan,’ Lilian commands.

Selene says ‘Sorry, Ivan, for everything,’ before tossing me the badge.

I recognise the yellow star in the centre and the engraving underneath, ‘Republic Special Agent’, and a serial number.

‘I wasn’t expecting that.’ I say.

‘And I wasn’t expecting this,’ she says, a wane smile on her open face as she waves her hand at the screen. ‘Nor were my bosses. If I survive this assignment, I guess I am going to be out of a job.’

‘The New Empire will need good investigators,’ Lilian says, ‘are you a strongly political person or what?’

‘I am a policewoman, I work for the government, whoever the government is, and the rule of law is everything. I don’t even follow politics. I investigate crime, smuggling, extortion, tax evasion, that kind of thing; like the sales tax on this lot needs to be paid, right?’

‘Oh, the Merciants were always thoroughly law-abiding citizens,’ Lilian states, smiling, ‘I am sure that all the legalities can soon be got up to date, now that the need for all this secrecy is out of the way.’

‘Actually, there is no sales tax liability, Selene, as all these products have been freely financed by and donated to the Merciant Trust, a non-profit organisation that provides work for the citizens of Merciant Territories, of which this system forms a legal but secret part, and there is no export tax to pay as wherever in the galaxy these ships go they will remain registered in their home port, here on Treasury.’

‘Treasury?’

‘The name of the moon base which is the HQ of this organisation, headed up by the Dowager Duchess of Como Prime.’

‘Your mother?!’ Lilian exclaims, ‘Aunt Jeneve?’

‘I hope so, Lil,’ I say, ‘but it has been twenty years since I was here last, so she should still be in her late-sixties.’

‘But twenty years ago —’

‘The fact that I was arrested by the Rebels on Como Prime? Yes I was, actually by the Como Police, conscious that crimes had been committed, and that the Merciant government had fallen, taken out to a man and woman during the invasion. But, as you have pointed out, I had jumped here too and I was a lot less cautious in my desperate approach than Mylon was, but then I had Pynom II, “Pippa” to help me.’

‘Your wife’s zulon?’

‘Yes, she had never had contact with any other zulon, so she was secret to them, but linked to my wife on Treasury,’ I announce, ‘but Mylon is about to make her final jump to dock with the Fleet Flagship. I think the Fleet may be wanting to launch immediately, if not sooner. Perhaps we should continue this conversation nearer to where the action is likely to be launched from.’

The screen goes blank for a moment and, when it flickers back on, we find we are so close to a battleship that the gleaming white hull completely fills the screen. Then the detail gets even bigger as we close up even nearer, and as our ship turns to allow our side airlock to align with their dock, the screen image shows the side of the battleship and that the orbit of the planet is filled with an uncountable number of spaceships, mostly huge warlike craft.

‘Impressive,’ Lilian admits, ‘So this is what you have done over the last twenty years with your Treasury?’

‘Mostly,’ I reply, ‘but count that as twenty-three years, my sister Sholona was essential to the project. And not only our Treasury was used, but other noble families contributed towards it. Of course not many of the original investors will benefit in the end, but once we have freed the galaxy of the rebel warlords and dictatorships, who knows who we will find in hiding or surviving like me from continuous incarceration?’

There is a bump, as we connect with the larger ship.

‘I think we should make our way to the airlock.’ I say, ‘now, Lilian, are you all right with us doing that?’

‘Yes, of course, what it is happening here is beyond my wildest dreams, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your undoubted contribution to all this, but, Brother, this only delays my revenge until we have used these assets to restore order, it doesn’t affect it. But who knows, maybe neither of us will survive the battles to come.’

‘Who knows?’ I reply, unsmiling, then turning to Selene. ‘Are you with us Selene, or do we need to restrain you if you retain your loyalty to your bosses?’

‘I have only known the Republic in my short life and my period of service in its name. I have always known that it is rotten to the core, but it is what we have and I have no means of knowing if what you are aiming to restore will be better, I am sure that it would have to be very bad indeed to be any worse. Tell me, will your new Empire be better than what we have now?’

“It will be fairer, I can assure you. There will be peace between worlds and if I survive and have anything to do with the new constitution I will ensure that the Merciant model is favoured above all others. But, I have been away from here for twenty years, and I do not know what constitutional changes have been made or have met with better favour in my absence. My main concern now is catching up with my family, seeing my wife and son for the first time in twenty-three terran-years and seeing my daughter for the very first time.’

‘I thought your family were ... Ah, so they were not lost in an accident?’ Selene looked at Lilian, who also had her eyebrows arched at this news, ‘They made their way here?’

‘No, I brought them here, twenty-three years ago and last came here with no time to see them twenty years ago when I brought Lilian’s severely wounded mother here.’

‘My mother, here?’ Lilian asks. ‘You are sure she did not die at your hands on Como Prime?’

‘No, she was badly wounded there and I had to jump here with minimal delay and only had time to shoot her escape pod and its life support including Pippa down to the moon surface. I hope she survived that serious wound, but I had no time to delay as I had to return while the wormholes that Pippa had created were still open for my journey back to Como Prime without zulon support. And it has been twenty years since then.’

Lilian runs towards the airlock. I wave Selene through the door before me. I offer to return to her the badge, but she declines.

‘I don’t think I am going to need it again,’ she says. ‘You really are full of surprises Ivan, I apologise for my deceit, but I was investigating whatever crime you and your accomplices were intending to perform. My bosses guessed that the Merciant treasury would be full of precious metals, jewels and classic waxarts, but this? Never.’

‘As I now believe you are also full of surprises.’

‘What about you and I, your wife... ‘

‘My wife and family comes first in everything, Selene. My marriage has been on hold for twenty years, but that hold is now at an end. If it means anything, Selene, other than being raped a few times in those early few penal months, you have been my only willing partner and I am grateful to you for allowing me to become ... a little more human again.’

‘And I am grateful that you interceded on my behalf before Lilian threw that last knife. Thank you.’

‘I don’t think she would’ve done, otherwise there would have been no discernible time between Skeech dying and yourself stopping that last knife.’

‘I know. I had assumed that she would kill me or not without a second thought either way, and had no means of deciding which way she would go.’

‘And I thought that once the three males were impaled, that she would more than likely let the galley slave go,’ I admit, ‘but I had no clue that you were an agent.’

‘The agency had tabs on Lilian for some time and alarm bells rang when she revealed to the authorities that she was offered smuggled goods by Kevlin, and then tried to keep secret that she had paid a lawyer to get him off with a fine. She was not to know that her lawyer was one of our informants. Then you showed up and I was sent in to get close to all of you and let my department know. Fortunately, it all happened so quick I never got a message off.’

‘Mylon would never have sent it. She is now in communication with Pippa, and Pippa is babbling about not being alone again, other than all her clones who are in every one of these vessels and all want to exchange greetings with Mylon!’

I wonder if zulons ever get headaches through overload from thousands of smart young kids open to their own community for the first time and full of questions?

Outside the connecting airlock, Lilian and her mother Gillian are embracing, their tears of meeting again after so many years apart, when Lil had been still a child, was too much for them both. Gillian was looking very good for her age, I think. Behind the couple I see my mother’s smiling face, too, standing next to my sister Sholana, and I start to move towards them, but Jeneve shakes both her hands held in front of her and points me over to her left.

There I see a woman standing with a small boy next to her and a baby in her arms.

At first I am uncertain, because the scene is almost exactly one I had long ago imagined when I last visited this moon twenty years ago, an image of my wife and children, still so young that they must’ve been in stasis since I was last here.

Impossible, I think. Ever since mankind first began exploring other planets within its home system, suspending life was necessary to explore even the neighbouring planets, but the meeting up with the ancient alien race of zulon and our subsequent partnership together, and with it the key to creating wormholes, all research into the area of stasis had ceased as being unnecessary. However unlikely, it seems this mirage of loveliness is my young family frozen in time. I run towards them.

‘Velda?’ I ask, ‘is this really you?’

‘It is my husband, it is,’ she says, tears already steaming down her cheeks, ‘Welcome home to your family, my darling.’

Before I can even embrace them to my bosom, I look at my dear wife, someone I haven’t seen in twenty-three years. Her beautiful face has hardly changed a moment in those years.

When I faked our accident, half a galaxy away from this point here, Velda was twenty terran-years, and my son Ivan II was just two then; and my expected daughter wasn’t even born.

I look at my son, Ivan, clearly only a couple of years or so older than he was twenty-three terran-years ago, who shrinks away from the gaze of an old, strange and savage-looking man, and tries to hide behind his mother’s i-rad suit. I smile at his natural reaction to me, and turn my gaze to the baby sleeping peacefully in Velda’s arms. Wow, what a beautiful baby in repose she is, her face relaxed in sleep, her face also slightly squeezed up as if she sensed the light here was stronger than where she had come from and didn’t quite want her sleep interrupted yet. She had not an inkling that her father was so near after such a long absence.

I look up and stare into Velda’s blue eyes, still as crystal clear, just as I always remembered them, although now glistening with the wetness of joy and outputting of emotion.

I almost croak the words, ‘How?’ when perhaps I really mean why?

‘You and your father assembled the finest minds you could from Como Prime and its tributary planets and moons, here in this place, my dear husband. You, who was so open to always include your bride in everything, from our wedding night until we parted when you had to go to the Academy, you gave me the means to channel some of your life’s work. Don’t forget, my dear Ivan, that you made me aware that one of the conditions of our arranged marriage was for our new family to own and exclusively use this place you called Treasury and the surrounding worthless triple-sun system was all a part of my dowry.’