by Mike Smith
So how had he done it? Sofia hated not knowing things and would not let the thought go. Stole it? Blackmail? Threats? Sofia rejected each one out of hand, unable to picture the scene of some darkened corridor with Jon shaking-down somebody for money. She knew Jon, knew that he would never lower himself to that, that his personal honour and integrity would not allow it. Her mind kept going back to phrase a few years ago. Why did that sentence keep sticking in her mind? Well that was an easy question to answer, for that was when she had first met Jon, at the award ceremony… and suddenly everything clicked into place and she knew with absolute certainty what Jon had used to purchase a new home for his family…
*****
Imperial Princess Sofia Aurelius, daughter of the Emperor, crown jewel of the Empire, stifled a yawn. As an Imperial Princess, tradition dictated that she had to be present, at her father’s side, at the fleet award ceremony. Held twice per year it was to recognise Imperial Navy personnel, the backbone of the Empire, for outstanding contributions and for heroism and bravery. Peering down the line of immaculate navel officers Sofia was quick to form the opinion that there certainly were a large number of Captains, Commodores and Admirals to be recognised.
Is nobody else in the fleet below Captain capable of bravery and heroism? Sofia wondered ironically. Perhaps the rest of the navy have more common sense.
Finally her eyes came to rest on one of the officers at the end of the parade line. Considering her earlier thought, she noticed that he was much younger than the rest, nearer her own age. He was also a lot junior, no Captain or Admiral but simply a young Lieutenant. By chance he was also standing directly opposite from her, while the other officers seemed to be staring into outer-space, probably trying to stay awake too, Sofia thought, this officer was staring straight ahead, at her! Subtly glancing to either side of herself she confirmed that nobody else was standing near her, noticing her puzzled expression, the young officers featureless expression shifted to a knowing grin for an instant, and then was gone! Sofia was incensed! But what was she going to do? Interrupt proceedings and berate the young officer, in front of all, for smiling at her! Everyone in the room would think her silly, hence with a firm shake of her head she intently focused on the Admiral currently being awarded the fleet cross for bravery. Yawn.
Quickly glancing back to the officer to check that he was not still staring at her - he was, she averted her sight again. Damn it! She could feel herself start to blush and it was only through extreme self-control and thinking about other topics, aside from young fleet officers, with deep grey eyes…
Finally, much relieved, the ceremony came to the young fleet officer, the last recipient for the day.
“Lieutenant Jonathan Radec,” a voice called out. The young officer stepped smartly forward. “In recognition for outstanding heroism and bravery, in the face of impossible odds and at significant risk to yourself, and your squadron, the Emperor awards you the Fleet Medal. The Aurelius Star Cluster.”
Sofia could not help it, her mouth dropped open in disbelief. This young man, this lowly Lieutenant, surrounded my Captains, Commodores and Admirals was to receive the Fleet Medal, the Aurelius Star Cluster. The highest military award in the fleet, in the Imperium? No way!
However, the young officer ignored the stunned silence in the room, ignored the fact that every eye in the room was on him, probably the fleet, as this ceremony was broadcast live. Instead he confidently marched forward to stand in front of the Emperor, her father to receive the award.
Falling to one knee in front of the Emperor, with a flourish, her father laid the medal around his neck and then in a complete break with tradition and to an audible gasp from the audience offered the young man his hand to stand. For a brief moment Sofia thought that he was going to refuse her fathers hand. After all, it was death for anybody daring to touch the Emperor, she wondered why her father offered his hand, perhaps some test? However, the young officer smoothly grasped his hand and rose, once again to his feet. Slowly, but with increasing volume, clapping began from the legion of assembled officers, which quickly grew in volume until it was deafening.
Sofia was expecting the young officer to return to his position in the parade line, when instead he turned the other direction to face her! Sofia watched speechlessly as the young officer took her hand with a gentle smile, and bringing her hand to his lips kissed her gently on the back of her hand.
With a small bow and his eyes sparkling, he simply uttered the word, “Princess,” half in greeting and half in farewell. He then departed to re-join his fellow officers. Sofia could not help herself and blushed furiously. Bastard!
*****
Several hours later, it was late in the evening on the Imperial Star, when Sofia found her father alone in his study.
“He must have been very brave, or very heroic,” or very crazy, Sofia added silently.
“Who dear?” her father inquired.
“That young officer that you awarded the fleet medal to today.”
“Oh, him,” her father replied with a grin. “I noticed that he made quite an impression on you at the ceremony. Although I did not like it how he touched you,” the Emperor continued. Sofia just waved away her father’s over-zealous, protective streak. “…And yes, he was very brave, and heroic,” her father added.
Sitting down across from her father, “So what did he do to receive such an award?” She asked curiously... and in no way personally interested.
Her father was silent for a moment and began to explain, choosing his words carefully. “Different people have different… beliefs,” his father explained to her. “Sometimes these different groups of people do not… get on. When this happens, sometimes, we relocate these people to other systems to avoid conflict. We were moving one such group of people. 25,000 of them in fact, many women and children, when slavers attacked.”
Sofia had studied enough political science to know that while slavery had been illegal for centuries, it was still a very profitable enterprise, especially on some of the rim worlds, with extreme climates but rich in minerals.
“The slavers attacked in a surprisingly large force and took the Imperial escorts by surprise, most were destroyed, and the Commander ordered the remaining task force to withdraw.” Her father made in patently clear what he felt regarding that, and Sofia could well understand his disappointment at the fleet abandoning 25,000 people to slavers. “What remained of the task force escaped,” her father explained, “except for the Lieutenant and his squadron of fighters. He refused the order to abandon the families to the slavers.”
“He ordered his squadron to stay and fight?” Sofia asked, amazed that his fellow pilots did not just ignore the order and escape.
“No, he asked them,” came the even more astonishing response. “According to the communication transcripts he told them that he would prefer to die with honour protecting women and children from slavery, than live for the rest of his life with the guilt of abandoning them. It seemed that his squadron agreed with him, as none of them left. They held off the slavers for almost an hour, until Imperial reinforcements could arrive, by which time he was the only one left alive.”
Sofia gasped in grief. “He was the only pilot in the squadron to survive?” she asked. Her father just nodded sadly. “So what is he going to do now?” she asked concerned.
“I have not thought of that yet, he will probably be re-assigned to another squadron,” her father replied distractedly.
“You should assign him here,” the young Sofia insisted brightly. “He must be an excellent pilot, and as you said, he is certainly very brave, and heroic,” Sofia added responding with her fathers own description. “And anyway I thought he was kind of cute,” Sofia added softly.
Her father looked up thoughtfully for a moment before replying, “I might just do that.”
*****
Looking at her surroundings in an entirely new light, Sofia was completely astonished. She knew with absolute certainty that Jon had sold the medal. Th
e Aurelius Star Cluster, a medal that had been awarded exactly 16 times since the founding of the Empire, by her great, great, great grandfather Edward. She had checked! She could picture Jon, in his cramped quarters on-board the Imperial Star, gazing at the medal. Rewarded for leading his squadron to their deaths, only to be spared the same fate, by well… fate. Then picturing his family back on Altair, in some small decrepit apartment, in some horrific neighbourhood, and realising that the medal could have a purpose, could be put to good use to help somebody. The thought brought tears to her eyes!
The next minute she was engulfed in a familiar rib breaking hug, similar to that which had been inflicted upon Jon only a few minutes earlier!
“There is no need to be upset, dear,” Jon’s mother explained hurriedly. “Ryan and I are perfectly fine here now, we’ve got over the loss of our daughter, although we still both worry about Jon a lot.”
Sofia considered for a moment explaining that it was not that which had brought tears to her eyes, but instead what Jon had sacrificed for his family. However, it was obvious that he had not chosen to tell them how he managed to afford their new home and she did not feel that it was her place to explain. Anyway, Sofia could not remember the last time someone had embraced her in such an affectionate manner. Her father had been a loving, but not an affectionate man. Thoughts of her father brought back memories of her own recent loss and before she knew it, she was spilling the story of her own loss to Jon’s mother…
Coming to the point in the story about her attack on Transcendence, Sofia’s words ground to a halt, not knowing how to put into words the paralysing fear and loathing. However, a soft touch on her chin lifted her gaze to look into Irene’s eyes. Her eyes were so sympathetic and understanding that the words just came out in a tumble, of being forced down and their disgusting hands pawing all over her body…
“They cannot hurt you any more, dear,” Irene reassured her softly. “Jon and Ryan won’t let anything happen to you while you are here, nobody can hurt you.”
“I know they cannot hurt me anymore,” Sofia tried to explain, recounting Jon’s rescue and her captor’s violent deaths.
“Good,” Irene stated in a vehement tone that shocked the younger woman. “Then as well as you, they cannot hurt anybody else.” Sofia had never considered that before, still reeling from the attack and the violence that Jon had seemed to display so effortlessly.
However, any further discussion was abruptly interrupted by the sound of the door opening and Ryan and Jon stomping into the room. Both froze like statues at the sight of the two women standing in the middle of the room in a tight embrace with tears running down their cheeks.
Eyes darting between the two women Jon asked anxiously, “Mum, Sofia, is everything…ok?”
“Yes dear,” his mother hurriedly reassured him brushing away the tears from her cheeks. “Sofia and I were just catching up. Have you and Ryan finished your discussion?” She quickly deflected the question back.
“Yes, I don’t suppose you have anything to eat? Sofia and I have not had a proper meal in days and we are famished.”
“Of course dear, sorry I should have thought of that earlier. Ryan, while I am heating up some dinner for us could you prepare the guest bedroom for Sofia. Unless you are staying with Jon tonight?” She blissfully threw out the question to the room. Surprised by the sudden silence she looked up to find the three of them rooted to the spot, all with eye’s as wide as saucers!
“Ugh no, if you could make-up the spare bedroom…that would be… great,” Jon replied hesitantly. Refusing to make eye contact with anybody else in the room.
“Ok, sure dear,” Irene replied, confused by the reaction to the innocent question from the other occupants of the room. “Ryan, could you see to it while I go and start dinner?” She asked her husband.
“Sure, dear, I’ll get onto it right away. I expect after their long journey they will want to retire early tonight.”
“Sofia, would you like to give me a hand?” Irene asked casually. For the second time in the space of a minute you could hear a pin-drop.
Ryan Radec, you are going to have some serious explaining to do later, Irene thought to herself fuming. It seemed that everybody knew what was going on except her!
“I’m not very good at food preparation, Mrs. Radec,” Sofia explained softly. “But I would be happy to help you any way I can,” she added confidently, purposefully ignoring the two men who were staring at her open mouthed in disbelief.
Gently pulling her by the elbow in the direction of the kitchen, Irene exclaimed loudly before the door closed, “Please dear, call me Irene…”
Jon stared at his father intently. This was entirely his fault as he had planned to make detailed introductions before now!
“Not a word son, not a word!” His father exclaimed, wagging his finger at his son before heading towards the bedrooms to prepare the guest rooms.
“So what am I meant to do?” Jon asked the empty room rhetorically.
*****
Dinner consisted of a meat stew with some carbohydrate supplements, and fresh vegetables, recently picked from his mother’s garden. Having been living on fleet rations for the better part of a week both Jon and Sofia were famished and hence both asked for second helpings. The topic of conversation at dinner was purposely kept light with Ryan and Irene updating the young couple on the latest news on Altair. Jon asked a few casual questions about some of the old neighbours and the new, along with inquiring about what they thought of the new house. The only important topic discussed over the meal was regarding repairs to their ship. Ryan assured his son that while he had long since retired from working at the spaceport, he still knew a number of colleagues working there which would be happy to help.
Jon had not been away from Altair long enough to have forgotten how things worked. As nobody had much to spare, everything worked on an informal barter system, where you helped out your neighbour and colleagues, and they returned the favour when you need it.
By then it was already starting to get late, Jon was exhausted and looking forward to getting some rest. Sofia’s expression was also starting to sag, so she quickly agreed when Jon proposed that they both retire early for the night. Showing Sofia to the guest room and making sure that she had everything that she needed, Jon wearily made for his own room, only just having time to strip-off his flight-suit before falling dreamlessly asleep, draped across his bed.
*****
Jon’s eyes suddenly snapped open, a couple of hours later, all his senses suddenly flaring to life. His hand had instinctively reached for his sword by the side of his bed, before he realised that he was not in his quarters on the Imperial Star. Jon stayed silent for a moment, reaching out with all his senses trying to determine why he had woken so suddenly.
Suddenly he heard the noise again that had woken him moments earlier. A muffled cry coming from the next room – Sofia’s room! Grabbing the nearest pair of pants, which Jon ironically noticed were a pair of sweatpants emblazoned with the tag ‘Property of Imperial Military College, Altair,’ Jon hurried towards Sofia’s room. Not noticing anything out of the ordinary, Jon decided that discretion was the best approach, hence knocked softly on the door. As there was no response, but still the occasional muffled cry coming from inside the room, Jon slowly opened the door and entered the room.
As his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark he could make-out Sofia laying across the bed, she had obviously found one of his old sweatshirts to wear, as it was about five sizes too big and reached almost to her knees. Tossing and turning on the bed, face covered in sweat; it was obvious that she was having a terrible nightmare. Being able to guess the contents of the dream, Jon hurried to her side and taking care not to restrain her, gently touching her on the shoulder. “Sofia, wake up. It’s just a bad dream,” he whispered quietly trying to rouse her gently from the nightmare in which she seemed trapped.
Sofia however was caught up in the dream, muttering, “No, no, no… help me! Somebo
dy help me…Jon!”
His heart almost breaking from the gut wrenching fear in her voice, Jon shook her more urgently. “Sofia!” he whispered urgently. “Wake up it’s just a dream!” Suddenly her body froze solid and her eyes snapped open. It was only Jon’s quick reflexes that avoided a vicious black-eye when her fist came flying out of nowhere towards his face. Ducking the blow, he was prepared to fend off another when he noticed that her body had relaxed a little and her eyes were focused on him.
Confused, Sofia asked. “Jon? What are you doing here? On my bed?” Looking down Jon realised, embarrassedly, that he was lying on her bed, having fallen onto it ducking her earlier vicious left hook.
Quickly rising off her bed he looked her in the eye and explained. “You were having a bad nightmare, I was trying to wake you.”
Sofia averted her gaze and drawing up her knees to her chest, hugged herself tightly. In a small tone of voice she apologised. “I am sorry for waking you. This is the third time I’ve woken up tonight…I don’t sleep… very well. I’m sorry.”
Jon’s heart went out to the younger woman, remembering the first time that he had been in combat, remembering how he was unable to sleep for days. “Do you want to talk about it?” Jon asked softly, deciding that it was probably now safe to sit down on the bed next to her.
“There is not really much to tell,” Sofia explained. “It’s dark and cold and I cannot seem to move. There are… things. I cannot see them. I just know they are out there in the darkness, coming closer and then they start to touch me. I try calling for help, begging them to stop but they keep coming.”
Jon could immediately see the parallels between her attack and the nightmares, but did not think it would help Sofia to bring-up the obvious similarities. Thinking furiously, it occurred to Jon that a big source of the problem seemed to be that Sofia felt that she could not defend herself, hence being unable to move in the dream. Never in his life had Jon ever contemplated combat training for an Imperial Princess, but considering their current situation, some self-defence training was probably going to be far more useful than her political science lessons.
