by A K Lambert
Rapha turned around, his face ashen. ‘Analysis of the remaining occupants is coming through.’ He looked away, then back again, his face nearly white now. ‘Sir, your son was on board.’
Chapter 45
The Death Sentence
Outside of the Solar System - 2013
* * *
The TC battle cruiser had left the Solar System two months ago, and was on route to wormhole Toraxi 4, one of the few large enough to take a ship of this size. Mancer wouldn’t need to leave with the Prince for a while yet.
He sat in his quarters with a glass of whisky from the bottle given to him by Zander. ‘From me, old friend, for you to enjoy on your return journey, after the conclusion of a successful campaign.’
It had been successful. One Princess dead and one Prince here on board with him—a bonus. But the cost? His son dead, and a chasm in his heart that would never heal. Damn, he hated this war. This was not how it was supposed to end. Where was the glory in this?
He drank some more, wondering if there would be any solace in drinking the whole bottle. There was a knock on his door. ‘Come in.’
It was Casma, his petty officer. ‘Sir, an FYE only message has just arrived from Premier Gor.’
He accepted the orb and stared at it. ‘What now?’ he shouted. Premier Gor’s ghostly image appeared as soon as he docked it into the holo-projector console.
* * *
‘Congratulations, Commander. The elimination of two Royals is an excellent result. The War Council have asked me to extend their profound thanks.’ His voice was an unfeeling monotone. ‘We have one more duty for you to perform. With the Princess tragically killed, the Council has decided that the best resolution of the whole affair is to eliminate the Prince as well.’ Mancer sat up straight, What the hell?
‘Please be in no doubt that this order requires your immediate action’ Mancer stared at the holograph, speechless. ‘The war is at a critical stage. Your battle cruiser is urgently needed back in Trun space. We need you to ensure this happens. Do not return using the sphere as originally planned. I repeat, stay with the cruiser. Again, congratulations. Gor out.’
Mancer and Casma walked down the corridor to the detention centre that was holding Ventar. An execution required two officers in attendance. He was confused why Zander had not given him the message personally. What was going on at home? And why make him stay with the cruiser? The excuse given was lame. And now he had to execute a boy!
They arrived at the makeshift execution chamber, normally a common room. The engineers had rigged up a plasma chair, ensuring a quick death, with no pain for the condemned. When they entered, Ventar looked pathetically small in the chair. Though his hands and feet were secured, he still appeared calm.
They both sat down. Mancer stared at the boy, wondering to himself what the hell he was doing. He had never disobeyed an order in his life—he didn’t know how to. He told the executioner to proceed, not wanting to drag this out any longer than necessary.
A rough-looking soldier stood by, but it was evident from his demeanour that his heart was not in this. ‘Ventar of Verceti, you are charged with war crimes, and the War Ministry of Trun Rizontella decrees you will be put to death by any reasonable means. You have two minutes to make a declaration.’
The young Prince smiled at the soldier and then looked directly at Mancer.
‘Firstly, I would prefer not to be executed. Secondly, I go by another name—Camerra Kalter of Trun Rizontella. I’m not in your database, but my parents are: Camerra Maot and Camerra Jake of the KBS. A simple DNA test will prove that I am their son.’
Stunned silence fell over the room.
He continued. ‘Thirdly, the leadership of Trun is now deeply infiltrated by an evil race known as the Zerot. They are perpetuating the war between our two nations ahead of an invasion force that is coming to annihilate any of us left and rape our planet. The Trun and the Vercetians need to stand together. It is my intention to unite them. This foe is deadly.’
A completely dazed Mancer looked at Casma then back to Ventar. ‘Er, anything else?’
‘Yes. You haven’t killed Princess Tauriar either.’ His sudden smile was wickedly devious. ‘A ploy set up with the help of the people of Earth. You destroyed the wrong sphere.’
‘Oh, and your son Kean is still alive too. He should be in the sphere with the Princess heading back to our home world.’
‘Commander Mancer. This is one order you can disobey.’
Postscript
Katie walked into the dining room of the large detached house in Cork, with a tray of food prepared by her own fair hand. It was just the two of them now, her and James. No more Vercetian food ever, now that the others had all left. The thought made her a little sad. In her eleven years on Earth, there had always been the promise of a return home. How far off never seemed to matter, their primary goal was always to train and protect their princess. She just knew that one day she would go home. But now that would never happen. She would never see Preenasette again, her friends, family, or any other Vercetians for that matter.
James was at the dining room table marking test papers for his students at the university. He took his work very seriously and wanted to carry on lecturing. She placed the tray on the table. He looked up. ‘Just a few more minutes, sweetheart.’
‘Take your time. Nothing here will spoil.’ She loved the way he used English colloquialisms. “Sweetheart” on Verceti meant a Zakat meat delicacy. He had immersed himself into life here, especially since he began working at the university. He wouldn’t have a problem living out the rest of his life here, and she wouldn’t have a problem spending the rest of her life with him.
But, Katie had a secret—a big secret. One she would never be able to reveal to James. One she would now, never have to.
She knew he was a Trun. The spy in their ranks.
She had witnessed him dispatching the message orb eight years ago. The one that was subsequently reported missing. He had been so moody during the weeks leading up to it, as though he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. She had gone to find him at his favourite spot in the woods to talk to him, to see what was on his mind, only to stumble on him in the act of dispatching it. She understood immediately. Lots of small things falling into place that only a loved one would notice. He appeared to have taken the attempt on Grace’s life harder than anyone, and he took little trips away that had no real rhyme or reason to them.
She had immediately gone to Prime and Temper and told them. The three of them had spent all night discussing it. They had all finally agreed to leave things as they were. Knowing about the spy would mean they had the upper hand in managing sensitive data. They would be able to keep him at arm’s length but still within reach. Moreover, what could they possibly do with him? They had no justice system here, or anywhere secure to hold him. They couldn’t hand him to the authorities of Earth and say. ‘Lock him up; he’s a dangerous alien.’ No, watch and wait was the best policy, and they thought it best to keep this information between the three of them. Katie had agreed to to keep up the illusion that they were still together. But how could she not? She loved him, and her love was unconditional. She’d watched him over the next few weeks. He was in turmoil; she knew that. But as the weeks and months passed everything returned to normal. They had announced to everyone at dinner two months earlier that they had deep feelings for each other.
His mood had dramatically changed with the detection of the Trun cruiser. A full diagnostic was carried out on the sphere in preparation for departure, and a major software failure discovered. Prime’s first thought was sabotage. It would take time get to the bottom of it and effect repairs, so Prime and Temper started working on a backup plan for their escape from Earth. Meanwhile, Mandy and the CIA agent Janet Kilkenny had discovered a Trun agent with Jon, and formulated a rescue plan. When Janet had mentioned she thought the spy’s ship might be near the Gearagh, they had immediately surmised that the sphere was in the reserv
oir. Prime now had the means of initiating a far better plan. Katie would be needed to feed misinformation to James.
Peter and Helen who were at Harewood Hall trying to fix the software problem, were diverted to the site of the Trun sphere at the Gearagh, near Macroom. But they couldn’t get past the Trun security system and it appeared their new plan would fail. But with the arrival of the other sphere at Harewood Hall, Prime’s plan was back on course. A software link from Ventar’s ship and a reboot, meant Grace’s sphere was operational… and sabotage was not the cause.
Just before the escape, Prime had asked James and Katie to remain. It was imperative that Earth be unaffected by the Vercetians visit—they would need to react to any unforeseen consequences. Not the real reason, of course, but it was what Katie wanted, and for Prime, it was a good solution to his unsolvable problem. They would send a ship back to them one day.
Together, they watched everyone board the sphere. James and Katie made their separate ways back to Cork, giving James a chance to inform the cruiser that the other sphere, with the Princess, had taken off. They had, in fact, boarded Ventar’s sphere, but it was Grace’s sphere, piloted by Peter, that left the lake, hoping to lead the Trun a merry chase through as many wormholes as he could. Grace—with Ann and Janet’s assistance—had requested the military forces of Earth attack the sphere when it entered their airspace. She had told them that they would be unable to damage it because of the superior shielding, but what it would do was to alert the Trun ship to their location.
Katie monitored James carefully and, to her complete relief, he did not make contact with the Trun ship. Meanwhile, with the Earth and the Trun’s attention on Grace’s sphere, Grace and the rest of the two Life Teams at Harewood Hall made a cloaked getaway in Ventar’s ship.
So, no more Vercetian food.
‘Come on now, darling,’ she said to James, who was shuffling his papers in order to put into his briefcase. ‘Our salad is getting cold.’
Prime finally had the ship to himself. They had just passed through the first wormhole of their journey and now had a period at sub-light speed and required semi-stasis travel. He’d closed Temper’s stasis pod and carried out the safety checks. Just him now, but he would enjoy a brief time to himself first. He had much to contemplate.
They needed to go home, that much was clear.
Tauriar had locked horns with this creature that had appeared to be a Trun but wasn’t. She had been mentally traumatised, left in a coma and showed no signs of improving. The only thing she had managed to say as she was carried onto Kobios’s sphere was, “He called me his sister.” What did that mean? She had no siblings. Could it be one of the princes? There had never been any previous use of the term brother or sister between the Royals. There had always been ten years between them, so it never seemed appropriate. Prince Camcietti was who knows where, and Prince Ventar was still a boy. It all baffled him.
William, near death. The creature had tried to kill him. A Zerot, Gordon had told him, posing as a female Trun. Only the quick thinking of Kobios had given him the slim chance of life. They had been friends for over thirty years. He didn’t want to lose William. His injuries were severe but hopefully, the doctors at home could save him.
Gordon had also explained that the creature had been boasting about how deeply they had infiltrated the upper echelons of Trun society and were manipulating the escalation of the war with the Vercetians. Soon, they would bring their world to its knees before invading and ravaging the remaining population. A tactic they had apparently used on many worlds, over many millennia.
And the young prince, captured by the Trun. He needed to find them and make contact. Convince them who the real enemy was.
He was sorry to have left Kobios on Earth, but the time required to pick her up might have meant the difference between a successful escape or capture. Kobios was first to point this out anyway. He had also told her about James, and Katie’s plea for them to be allowed to stay on Earth. He asked her not to make contact and to leave things be. James had the opportunity to betray them but didn’t. He told Kobios he would come back for her one day, but for now, his mind was on the threat of annihilation against Preenasette.
And that had Prime at a complete loss.
