The Empress and the Ambassador

by M. D. Cooper

Alastar said, anticipating her conundrum.

  The AI flagged a location on the med table, and Petra slapped a hand on it before driving her shoulder into Shadow’s chest, knocking him to the floor, driving her elbow into his throat with all her strength.

  He struggled, trying to throw her off, but Petra’s lightwand flashed, cutting off the man’s left arm, and he fell back with a strangled scream.

  Alastar announced, while Mains called out that there were more Widows coming down the passage outside.

  “Room’s clear,” Danielle said as she approached Petra, weapon trained on Shadow.

  Petra glanced around and then slowly levered herself off Shadow and rose to her feet, her gaze shifting to Diana as Danielle fired a pulse blast at Shadow’s chest before grabbing him and throwing him over a counter. The Hand agent’s order for the BOGA agent to remain still barely registered as she turned to look down at Diana.

  The empress’s breath was coming in ragged gasps, and her eyes were casting about wildly…until they found Petra’s. Her entire body trembled, and the ambassador reached out, pushing her way through the grav field to grasp Diana’s hand.

  “Alastar, how is she?”

  the AI’s voice was despondent.

  Pain stabbed through Petra’s chest, and she tried to think of how to ask after Diana’s well-being in the wake of that news. Luckily, Alastar spared her.

 

  Petra asked, glancing to the doorway, where Mains was firing at targets down the hall.

 

 

 

  Petra nodded mutely and turned around, staring at Shadow.

  “Did you have to cut an arm off?” Danielle muttered, glancing at Petra as she slapped an autosealer on the limb stub. “Such a pain to bind one-armed people.”

  Petra glared at the architect of the last three days’ misery and shrugged. “Easy fix.” Her lightwand flashed, and the man’s second arm fell to the floor.

  “I only have one sealer,” Danielle muttered as Shadow shrieked and then collapsed.

  “Cauterize it with your lightwand,” Petra replied, turning back to Diana. “It’s going to be OK. He can’t hurt you now, and we’re going to get out of here.”

  Diana’s lips pressed together, and then she mouthed a single word. “Tenna?”

  Petra shook her head, and the empress’s eyes squeezed shut, tears streaming out the corners. Their hands met again, and the ambassador called out to Mains.

  “Where the hell’s Farah?”

  “Just got a burst,” he replied. “She’s fighting half the empress’s fucking guard. We’re going to have to manage our own exfil.”

  Petra nodded, then felt a distinct absence of a particularly annoying presence. “Where’s Chimellia?”

  Mains glanced over his shoulder, and Petra leant around the med table to see the sum adjut laying in a pool of blood, half her head missing.

  “Shit,” Petra muttered. “She was a bitch, but she didn’t deserve that.”

  “That’s not how life goes,” Mains replied as he fired a trio of rounds down the corridor.

  Petra nodded, then looked around the room for another way out. “Danielle, is that a closet or a back door over there?”

  “Checking.” The agent raced across the room and pulled the door wide to reveal a row of shelves. “Fuck, closet. Give me a second.”

  She drew her lightwand and cut the shelves in half then ripped them out before driving her electron blade into the rear wall, drawing a circle in the metal and punching it out.

  “Another medlab. I’ll scout it out.”

  While the agent made a bigger hole, Petra touched Diana’s shoulder.

  “I’ll be right back,” she promised.

  Reluctantly letting go of the empress’s hand, she walked around the table—kicking one of Shadow’s arms out of the way—before reaching Mains’s side.

  “We don’t need them following us,” she told him.

  He grunted a laugh. “Tell me something I don’t know. Explosives are in my pack.”

  Petra nodded and pulled out a string of sticky bombs, tossing each one at load-bearing points in the room, and two into the passage.

  Shots streaked between her and Mains, and the agent ducked back around the corner.

  “Whenever we’re ready would be great,” he said.

  Alastar said.

  Petra turned back to the table and saw a tray next to Diana with a jumble of silver filaments on it. She then spotted a small container on a shelf and quickly put the AI’s remains in it before looking down at the unconscious form of Shadow.

  “Shit,” she muttered, knowing that Diana was going to need help, and if Mains or Danielle had to carry the BOGA agent, it would put them at risk.

  Alastar drew the words out.

  Petra turned and saw the container that was made for moving organs from cloning facilities, and couldn’t help but notice that it was just large enough for Shadow’s head.

  She grabbed the vessel and crouched next to the unconscious man. “Sorry not sorry.”

  A minute later, she had the two containers slung over her shoulder and was helping Diana sit up straight.

  “We have to move, Diana. Fast. They’re coming.”

  “I’m…” the empress whispered, but her voice cut out.

  Petra shook her head and slid an arm around Diana. “Don’t talk, just move.”

  “Sorry,” she croaked. “So sorry.”

  Danielle appeared in the hole she’d cut. “I have a way out, let’s go.”

  Petra nodded to the agent, and her lips brushed Diana’s ear. “I’m sorry too.”

  Danielle helped get the empress through the hole and then covered the exit while Mains fell back. Petra wove through the medical equipment stacked in the room, making her way to the exit, and tapped into the drones the other agent had sent out. The coast was clear, and she turned left, the direction Danielle had flagged on their combat net.

  she asked, not having the mental acuity to look it up herself.

  Alastar advised.

  “Go, go!” Mains shouted as he burst from the room behind Petra and ran to Diana’s other side, lifting the empress’s feet off the ground.

  Danielle was right behind them, and before they’d made it a dozen paces, an explosion thundered at their backs.

  Petra almost fell, and gave Mains a look of appreciation for his aid.

  The next twenty minutes were a mad dash through the abandoned facility’s corridors, fighting a few pockets of Widows and Impera Protego until they finally met up with a squad of TSF soldiers who escorted them to the maglev platform.

  “Took you long enough,” General Farah shouted as they approached. “Get in the middle car!”

  Petra didn’t argue as shots streaked down the passage behind her, one hitting Mains in the back, and another striking Farah in the arm.

  “Stupid pricks,” the general muttered as she lifted an arm and fired a missile down the passage. She turned and walked away before the explosion shook the ground beneath them.

  “So much for covert,” Danielle said with a laugh as she took Mains’s place helping with Diana, while a soldier half-carried the injured agent to the maglev.

  A minute later, the soldiers were aboard, and the cars took off down the track.

  “It’s gonna take a bit to get to the surface,” the general a
dvised. “There’s a huge underground lake here…used to be some sort of theme park, abandoned now.”

  Petra nodded silently, cradling Diana’s head against her chest, doing her best not to think about the loss of Tenna and how hard that was hitting Alastar.

  “What happens when we get to the surface?” she finally asked the general a minute later.

  “Malachi has a bird coming in low. He’ll drop a shield overtop and pull the whole fucking train up into the bays.”

  “You swear a lot for an AI,” Danielle commented.

  “I hate getting shot at,” Farah muttered. “Worked my ass off to get to a rank where that’s not supposed to happen.”

  Mains snorted from where the corpsman was working on him. “Sorry to make you work for a living again.”

  “Screw you, Mains,” Farah muttered.

  Petra shook her head and glanced down to see Diana staring up into her eyes, looking more lucid than previously.

  “I knew you’d come,” the empress whispered. “What took you so long?”

  “Your bureaucracy,” Petra replied with a laugh. “Can’t even mount a rescue without filling out a thousand forms.”

  Diana laughed, and then a groan escaped her lips. “Stars…ow.”

  “Just a little bit, then we’ll get you fixed up on a TSF ship.”

  The empress nodded and lay her head back against Petra’s chest, just as the train burst from the tunnel and out into a vast, dimly lit chamber.

  The track followed the perimeter of the huge lake, the far side lost in the planet’s curve and the cavern’s gloom. A gentle slope ran down to the water, dotted with dead trees and quaint houses.

  “Creepy,” Danielle muttered.

  Petra was about to reply, when the maglev suddenly lost power and the car dropped down to emergency rails, gliding to a stop.

  “Dammit,” Farah muttered. “We’re still five hundred klicks from where this track breaks surface.”

  Alastar said, his words punctuated by the sound of shots coming from the rear car.

  “Looks like our friends came along for a chat,” the general muttered as she rose and leant out an already-smashed window, firing a few shots.

  “What’s above this place?” Petra asked.

 

  “Automated?”

  the AI replied.

  For the first time since the attack on her at Atlior Pacel, Petra connected her Link to the planet’s general network, and navigated its data routes to an emergency transmitter she’d set up years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

  Petra relayed the plan, and Farah laughed. “Stars, that’ll go over well. Boring a hole in their Scipian capital world…. I like your brand of diplomacy, Ambassador.”

  “I approve it,” Diana croaked. “I never liked this place anyway.”

  The fight intensified, and Petra had to leave Diana in her seat, exiting the train car to take a position behind an old, twisted oak.

  More and more Impera Protego were pouring out of the tunnel half a kilometer behind and firing on the stalled maglev train with no apparent concern for the presence of their empress.

 

  The admiral sent just the one word before the cavern was filled with a brilliant beam of light that tore through the rock ten kilometers away, boiling the waters below and sending clouds of steam in every direction. A shockwave followed close on the light’s heels, rocking the train as it washed over them.

  the admiral called out, and Petra turned back to the maglev to see Mains limping off it, landing heavily on the ground.

  “Diana’s last on,” he said. “Woulda grabbed her, but…”

  “Go on,” Petra gestured to a tree, where three other wounded soldiers were being gathered for evac.

  A second later, she caught sight of movement from the corner of her eye, and turned to see the maglev car take off down the track, away from the fighting.

  “Oh hell no!”

  She took off running, racing after the train until she nearly reached it, desperate to do so before it crossed a crevasse ahead that was only traversed by the narrow maglev rail. Petra poured on a burst of speed, not excited about attempting a jump, only to stumble and nearly fall as a tremor shook the ground.

  Alastar cried out, and ahead, Petra watched in horror as the far side of the crevasse leapt away a dozen meters.

  The track broke apart and fell into the dark void, while Diana’s car fell onto emergency rails once more, slowing, but not enough to stop before reaching the gap.

  Petra let out a wordless scream as she pushed herself as fast as she’d ever run before, knowing all the while that it wouldn’t be enough.

  The car with Diana inside flew over the edge of the crevasse, and Petra began to slow in despair.

  Alastar screamed one word in her mind.

 

  Petra cursed her forgetfulness as she gave one final burst of speed and dove over the cliff’s edge, thanking the stars that the car had turned sideways, its larger cross section slowing its descent as she fell toward it.

  her AI advised.

  Petra’s feet struck the car, and she scrambled her way across the side to where she’d left Diana. After what felt like an eternity, she reached the window and saw the empress still strapped in her seat, mouth wide and eyes bulging.

  Petra’s lightwand flashed, and a second later, the window was cut free. She reached through and, with one hand, grasped Diana’s arm, while cutting the strap with her other.

  “Hold on!” she yelled amidst the buffeting winds as she wrapped her arms around the empress.

 

  Petra unfurled her wings, and the maglev car dropped away, the rapid deceleration nearly tearing Diana from her arms as she pumped frantically to slow their descent. Then she twisted, flying laterally through the crevasse, finally leveling out only a dozen meters above the floor, with the cliff walls uncomfortably close on either side.

  “Stars, Petra.” Diana must have been screaming, though her voice was barely audible over the howling wind and a strange thunder.

  At first, Petra thought that the roar was the maglev car hitting the bottom of the canyon, but the sound was getting louder, not quieter.

  “Water!” she shouted a second later, pumping her wings to gain altitude as a dark mass appeared in the gloom ahead.

  Petra wheeled in the canyon’s tight confines, slamming her knee into the cliff wall and clipping a wing on an overhang before finally stabilizing, flying the other direction while the water’s spray splashed at her feet.

  The next minute was an agonizing struggle. She needed to keep climbing, while also holding the empress tight in arms that were trembling from the effort.

  Bit by bit, the thundering behind them decreased, and the crevasse widened until suddenly they came up over the edge, and Petra wheeled in the air, looking for her people.

  “There,” Diana whispered, and Petra caught sight of a pinnace settling down at the edge of the lake, while another streaked overhead, firing beams and missiles at the Impera Protego still pouring out of the maglev tunnel’s entrance. “The cavalry.”

  “About time,” Petra muttered as she swooped down to the shore.

  The empress’s grip tightened, and her head eased up toward Petra’s, their lips brushing before Diana whispered, “I’m glad I finally got to see you fly. Even more glad you don’t suck at it.”

  The ambassador laughed. “Next
time, let me show off when I’m not in a mad rush to save you.”

  “Why? It’s so sexy.” The empress’s eyes were wide and unfocused. “Maybe I should be in danger more often. But who will save me when you leave?”

  Petra laughed and brushed her lips against Diana’s cheek, unable to speak for a minute as she accepted how much she cared for the woman in her arms.

  “I don’t care where you are in the galaxy,” she finally said. “I’ll always be there to save you.”

  AFTERMATH

  STELLAR DATE: 10.12.8948 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: SWS Krul’s Might

  REGION: Alexandria, Bosporus System, Scipio Empire

  “I would really like to know where Fiona ended up,” Diana said as she reclined on the bed in her stateroom aboard the Krul’s Might.

  Petra shrugged as she laid down next to the empress. “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

  “Stars, you love being a spy, don’t you?”

  The question caught Petra off-guard, and she paused to give it some thought.

  “Don’t look so pensive,” Diana chided. “It was rhetorical.”

  “But is it?” Petra asked. “Maybe I don’t like it that much anymore. It’s a lot different when your loved ones are in peril. Not a fun adventure at all.”

  “Say that again.”

  Petra gave the empress an innocent smile. “That it’s not a fun adventure?”

  “No, the part about loved ones.”

  Petra rolled onto her side and gazed into the empress’s eyes. “Is that what we are again?”

  The corners of Diana’s mouth curved upward. “Maybe…once the Transcend pays for blowing a hole in my planet.”

  “Make Ryse pay for it,” Petra countered. “If that idiot hadn’t given Orion aid and resources, none of this would have happened.”

  Diana groaned. “What a fool. Trust me, he’s going to pay for a very, very long time.”

  “Well, it got us a trip to Spica at least,” she replied. “That’s worth something.”

  The empress nodded. “A bit of a respite, though with your jump gates, we only get a day in space before we have to deal with Ryse’s succession plans.”

  “Then let’s not waste any time.”