Imperial Edge

by Celinda Labrousse

  They looked like S’s with heads. That’s how the stories described them, and that’s what Miranda was seeing on their bags.

  It was one thing to see things on a holopad. The 3D projections could look quite real. But they weren't; there was a level of fake to them. Everyone knew that they were just light reflecting off the world. But it was another thing to see it in person. A real medic bag.

  Miranda stared in wonder, shook her head, and then moved on. The Ironside had already started. Eric. Eric had already started marching off towards a transport unit.

  "Soldier," he said.

  "Yes, sir," said the plain clothes soldier, saluting the Ironside; Eric brushed the salute away.

  "Commandeer me a transport unit." He threw a look over shoulder towards Miranda. She stood there, droid in arm, smiling.

  They were finally doing it. They were finally going someplace.

  "Yes, sir!" said the soldier. He ran off to get a hovercraft.

  Eric turned back to Miranda. "That will suit, yes?" The words came out stagnant, as if he was not used to asking for others' opinions. Instead he was more used to giving orders and having them followed.

  ‘I must be quite a conundrum for you,’ Miranda thought. A smirk formed on her lips. She soon wiped it off and put a blank smile on.

  "Yes, that will be much appreciated," she said. It wasn't long before the soldiers came back with a hover vehicle. Eric dropped into the driver's seat and motioned Miranda to sit on the side passenger side.

  It was an open vehicle, bars across the top, with four bucket seats. Short, stout, but a high-range hover that looked like it could go upwards to 30 or even 40 feet.

  Not a standard five-to-eight foot hovercraft. The vehicle was military grade, of course, and painted in the desert colors that would blend in with both the forest and the wheat fields; an odd match of colors that made your eyes want to look away, and not stare directly at it. Camo paint was quite the thing, Miranda thought, a scary kind of thing.

  Using the bar she hopped into the other side and kept hold of Oscar as she slid into the seat.The two of them jetted off, headed back towards the city and the recruitment office.

  Flashes of fields blended into outer city houses and then into inner-city apartment buildings and flashy town homes of the rich. They weren't far out of town at all. In fact, she wondered why they'd gone as far as they did, and why she had thought that it was farther. Her mind felt jumbled, everything in pieces, her eyes swollen from crying.

  Once they hit the edge of town she expected them to slow. For him to stop and let her out. When he didn’t, when the town came and went, fear started to creep up into her veins.

  “My stop was back there,” she told him. He said nothing. If anything, he sped up. The world blurred past them.

  “I appreciate the ride, but I needed to get on a transport unit to basic. That was back there,” she continued. His head didn’t even turn her way. Fields turned to tops of trees. They were climbing, headed into the mountains. They were going so fast all she could see was the shift from brown to green.

  “You still have your droid?” Eric asked.

  “Yes,” Miranda said, trying to get back to the question at hand. “I can make sure that I’m ok until morning. I’ll make the transport. Promise.” She couldn’t think of any other reason why he would be interested in her.

  “Good.” He increased his speed as he reached the edge of town. The countryside was blurring by. A strong wind whipped at her hair. She was glad it was secure behind her.

  “I don’t understand,” Miranda confessed. The wind was turning sharp. Cold nipped at her dry lips, the cracks stinging as she pressed them together.

  “Recruit Miranda Farmer, I am commandeering your active service to the Empire and the Crown.” Miranda’s mouth made a big O, but nothing came out.

  “As a private you are now under my command. Do what you are told. Talk only when you are spoken to. Follow my lead,” Eric said. Miranda shut her mouth with a click. After everything that she’d been through, she never thought that an Ironside would kidnap her in the name of the Emperor. This was turning out to be some adventure Oscar had gotten them into.

  Chapter 9

  “I'll deliver you to basic myself. When this is all over,” Eric told her. She didn't doubt him. Didn't have a reason to. But what all this was, was yet to be seen. The possibilities played in Miranda's head over and over again until she made herself sick. The cold beat at her arms and legs.

  Her blood soaked dress gave little protection against the change in weather. As they climbed higher into the mountain range, she worried herself until she had no more worries left in her. Eric noticed her shifting, shivering, and hit a button on the control panel. A stream of warm air poured out of the vent ducts, bathing her in a blanket of heat and numbing the day's happenings. It didn't take long for Miranda to fall asleep. The blur of her world passing by, the white nose of the wind whooping past her ears, the hum of the hover engine, the rays of summer sun; all pulled at her until she gave in yet again to her exhaustion.

  She was caught off guard when the hovercraft came to an abrupt halt. Eric jumped out and headed towards what looks like a cave entrance in the side of a mountain. They were far away now, miles from any point of reference. No, she couldn't even see the farm valleys below. Or the tall shining tower of a city she had just once lifted her eyes to. But they were still on the planet; that much was certain. The hovercraft had incredible capabilities, but not interplanetary travel. That was at least something.

  “I guess that means we're going here,” she said to his back. She was slower to climb out of the hovercraft. Sleep was hard to shake when she needed it. She didn't know how long she had been asleep. The sun was still in the sky, so it could have been minutes or hours. Or it could have been the next day, as tired as she was. The next day was quite probable. She had no way to tell. The only person that could provide her with answers was walking away into a deep dark cave.

  “Beep beep!” Oscar called from inside the hovercraft.

  “I'm working on it,” she told him as she helped him down from the craft. She sat him on the ground and made her way towards the cave, sure that he would follow. Oscar's love for everything dark and spooky was a well known factor in his adventures. One time when her sister was in charge of tracking down Oscar, Mary found him in a burl hole. He had chased a timbar down the hole, cornering the creature in its own borough, and kept it trapped until he was found.

  Miranda felt safe putting him down, knowing that he would definitely follow. She walked past the mouth of the cave, assured that someone would probably do something with the hovercraft. Miranda took one last look back at the craft.

  If this truly was a military base, then the Imperial forces would find something to do with their craft. Otherwise, why park it here? The Ironside wasn't stupid.

  As she walked past the mouth of the cave, the sudden shift from light to darkness left her feeling cold and alone. She really wished they would get to a point where she could change out of her bloody dress. The last remnant of the life that she knew now clung to her, but only as a reminder of everything that she has lost and nothing of her future.

  Ahead 10 feet stood a guardhouse. They had painted the exterior red-orange to match the color of the walls, so all anyone could see were the green bars sticking out, blocking the way further in.

  “Halt!”

  She heard the sound of a blaster rifle clicking back into charge mode. Miranda stopped. She couldn't see where the shot might come from, but she didn't want to press her luck.

  “State your name, rank and business here,” said a soldier who had suddenly appeared from apparently nowhere.

  “Miranda Farmer. Private. I was told by the Ironside that went in before me to follow.”

  Sweat trickled down Miranda's neck. She'd never had a gun pointed at her before. Guns were wholly for hunting wild ors, or other creatures. Not to be ever pointed at people.

  The soldier steadied the rifle
in his hands. Miranda’s legs twitched, wanting to run. There was a first time for everything. And apparently this was her first time to have a gun trained on her. And quite possibly the last.

  Miranda waited. She hoped she had answered the question right, given the alternative of being shot. A long pause stretched out.

  If one could hear clicking on a fazer rifle, Miranda's ears strained to do just that. The pause gave her eyes time to wander. The cave seemed to be lit from the inside, with sconces every three feet or so. Large metal cages held electric light from some unknown crystal; probably some expensive thing provided by the Empire for places like this: holes in the wall, where the military oversaw the edge outposts to protect the people on the planet.

  Not that it helped protect her family from the rebels. Miranda clenched her fists tight. She wouldn't be running. Those rebels needed to pay. And if the Empire couldn't protect its own people, then she would become part of the force that protected the outer edge.

  “You're free to pass,” said the guard.

  The green stick rose up to align with the guardhouse, melting into the wall as if both had never existed. Miranda gave a half salute, half wave at the guard and continued down the passageway. 20 feet in front of her It opened up into a large cavern that looked like some kind of landing bay. Different shuttle craft and fighter planes littered long stretches of carved stone that emptied out into the side of the mountain. There looked to be a place to land carriers and light shuttlecraft.

  ‘Wow, that looks really interesting,’ Miranda thought. Each of the crafts were made from a shiny, antioxidizing alloy. It was a special kind of mineral found only on certain planetoids in the deeper reaches of the star system. This metal had a high-impact grade resistance that could deflect asteroids and other debris that floated around in the depths of space that sometimes came into contact with orbiting ships. It was also extremely conductive.

  And it was on that basis that interstellar ships could gather enough photon energy to reach hyperspace. Every second level Empire student knew that. But Miranda had never seen one in person, let alone a hangar full of them. Looking around, she noticed that it wasn't a single vehicle here; that was simply a planetary ship. All of them had interspace capable engines, and advanced AI droids that accompanied them.

  Men and women ran around in different directions. Some to the left, some to the right, some carrying large stacks of tools. Others carried cans and food supplies, still more supplies for refueling. It all was one big mess of humanity before her eyes.

  Docking fighter pilots in space suits, their helmets held under their arms as they walked and talked; men and women of all different planetary backgrounds; she had never seen such an array of human life gathered in one place before. Someone pushed her from behind. She stumbled forward into the path of an inbound jet when fingers grabbed her arm, pulling her to the side and out of the way of the planes wing.

  “Thanks,” Miranda said, “I'd be a pancake.” She looked up to see the face of her rescuer, only to find it was Eric. She shook her head, startled out of her daze.

  “This way,” said Eric, ignoring her obvious stares. He looked good, too good without his helmet on: his hair, the cut of his jaw. It wasn't fair how good he looked. She wanted him out of her thoughts. It was better to think of a man that could never be hers than to let herself be overwhelmed by her present.

  They passed through the open hanger down a hallway off to the right, making left and right turns until Miranda knew there was no way she was making it out of here without help. At some point in the journey, they came to an inner sitting area that had been carved from the walls.

  The floor was a maze. Stone walls and half-doors came up to create cube-like spaces where people had desks for their holodrives and other work. Miranda's eyes went wide. She had never seen so many people in one place in her whole life. Somehow, this place with its tight walls and underground spaces felt even fuller than the large city she had just come from. Both of which she had seen the first time that day. If her eyes got any wider, she would look like an Irentan. She couldn’t believe she was seeing all of this.

  All because of Oscar and his need for adventure. But if she had been with her family... She let that thought sit. She had no family, and saving Oscar had saved her. Longing for them was a death wish.

  She wanted to be with them again. But she didn't want to go where they were anytime soon.

  Eric kept pulling on her arm. He ushered her back through the cubicles to a door cut out of the wall. He opened the door, clicking on the lights. Inside, the room was twelve feet by twelve feet. A square cut to perfection. Except when she looked closer.

  There were deep gouges on every wall. Something, someone, had desperately scratched the walls; probably trying to get out. Whoever they had shoved into this hole, and it certainly was a hole, either didn't need or was being denied light. And it had clearly driven them mad.

  A shiver ran down Miranda's spine. This room in the middle of this hangar, inside this work area, was some kind of holding cell; maybe even a prison. She had never known any of this existed on her planet. She had never even thought to ask. All she knew was farm life. And farm life didn't include blasters and prison cells and spaceships.

  Her whole world seemed to be cracking open with every step she took on this new adventure. Her mind stayed glued to the present, trying not to fracture under the pressure of her changing world. Miranda took a deep breath and looked away from the scratches.

  A table sat in the center of the room. It looked like it came straight out of the floor, made by the same people that had carved the room. It matched the red-orange of the rock perfectly, and nearly blended in if she wasn't looking directly at it. On either side were two metal chairs. No frills or fancy carvings here; just a simple chair. The back stood up to about Miranda's waist.

  On the left side corner, farthest away from the door, a small figure was curled up in a ball, its head in its knees. It looked to be a third-generation, humanoid droid; the warm glow of its silicone skin gave its age away.

  Eric chose one of the chairs and pulled it out from underneath the table. A screech sounded as it scraped across the stone floor. He gestured for Miranda to sit. Miranda slid into the seat, aware that her dress was clinging to her.

  The Ironside stepped back into the corner. Oscar, not wanting to be left out, slid across the threshold to a spot underneath the table.

  “Beep beep beep beep beep beep,” the little droid said. The humanoid droid looked up from his scrunched position. Whether it was truly a ‘him’ or ‘her’ was irrelevant. Humanoid droids didn't have any assigned sexual orientation. But the hair was short, the body stout, and it looked like something that would consider itself a ‘he’, if given the option. Not that MIranda was trying to judge it. She was just trying to keep from calling it an ‘it’ because she knew for a fact that Oscar did not like to be called an ‘it’. There was some level of respect to be given a droid.

  Miranda tried to smile, but she felt that maybe it looked more like a grimace.

  “Please,” she said, gesturing towards the chair in front of her. The droid uncurled slowly and stood up. Miranda could see where pieces of its silicone flesh been ripped, torn and bruised as he moved closer.

  Metal wiring was visible underneath the patches of flesh and clothing that clung to his metal frame. Miranda looked it over. It could be a pleasure droid, or possibly a service droid. It was hard to tell.

  It pulled out the chair in front of her, taking the time to lift it up so as not to screech across the stone floor, and sat hunched over before her.

  The shoulders were broad. Fake silicone muscles outlined the arms. Its hands looked almost humanoid. Except for where gear joints showed through where knuckles should be.

  Even with his head tucked, his eyes stared into hers. Red, as if on fire from the inside. They were the most inhuman eyes Miranda had ever seen in her entire life.

  Miranda shifted in her chair. Oscar didn't have eyes. His sen
sors picked up a lot of things. But there was no facial expressions to anything that he did.

  This droid was made to look and feel synonymous with the human beings that created it, only to suffer and deteriorate into its current state of disrepair.

  “Ask him,” the Ironside said from behind her. Miranda looked at Eric.

  “Ask him what?”

  Eric shrugged.

  “Ask him,” he said again.

  Miranda rolled her eyes as she turned towards the droid. This interview was getting off to a great start.

  “What is it that you need to tell us?” she said in the beeps and boops of droids. The droid didn’t move. Miranda reached out a hand to pat his hand, not knowing what else to do.

  “Beep Beep Boop,” she said. You have something to communicate? The droid tilted his head to one side.

  “Be bop bop bop,” said the droid. You talk funny. You are hard to understand.

  Miranda listened to his tones. They were less sharp than she was. Rounded at the edges. She adjusted in turn, trying to pick up his accent.

  “Beep Beep Boop,” she said again. She could tell that the way she spoke Droid to him was old fashioned. Like someone trying to speak Common from 50 years ago, not knowing how the language had shifted and changed on her home planet of a Oreilly 13.

  “You must tell me what you know so the Ironside will know.” She kept adjusting her tone and trying to lift her words to match his. She had never spoken with any other droids outside of Oscar.

  “Beep, beep.” This is going too slow, complained Oscar from underneath the table.

  The old droid looked briefly at Oscar. “Beep whistle bop,” it said at last.

  The Ironside tilted his helmet.

  “What did he tell you?” he asked.

  She turned back towards Eric.

  “He told me Hello, and that his name is X5314,”

  “Ask him where his charge is,” Eric said. Miranda sighed and turned back towards the droid. She didn’t like playing middle man. But she was here, and she had a job to do, apparently.