The Last Praetorian (The Redemption Trilogy)

by Mike Smith

  Gently broaching the subject, Jon hesitantly proposed, “Perhaps I could help you…”

  Looking at him quizzically Sofia asked, “You can you help me? Sleep better?” Suddenly realising how that sounded Sofia blushed furiously.

  Jon was fascinated to notice that her blush spread all the way down her check, neck and under the sweatshirt. Jon idly wondered if she was wearing anything underneath the shirt, before bringing this thoughts sharply back on-topic. The last thing that she needed was some mooning, lovesick admirer, like the ones that surrounded her on the Imperial Star. Ignoring her reaction he cautiously explained how he could teach her to protect herself, so that if she was ever in a similar situation she could defend herself.

  “Perhaps that would also help you with these nightmares?” Jon concluded. “At the very least you will be so worn out from the exercises that you should sleep…” Jon was going to say like the dead, “…better,” he proposed.

  “Well I cannot see how it can hurt.”

  “Good. We can start tomorrow,” Jon concluded. “Do you want to try and get back to sleep?” he asked.

  “No,” Sofia replied, shaking her head violently. “I could not get back to sleep after that last nightmare.”

  “Ok,” Jon replied getting up to leave, but Sofia’s hand closed around his arm and she asked.

  “Please, stay with me a while and talk,” she pleaded looking at him beseechingly.

  “OK. What do you want to talk about?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, anything. Tell me about your early days in the Navy?” Sofia asked remembering earlier about when he had been awarded the fleet medal.

  So Jon told her some stories about his basic training, some of which made her laugh, some that made her gasp. Then he told her about his first few deployments…all the while watching her beautiful green eyes, as her eyes got heavier and heavier, before they closed completely and she was lying against his arm snoring gently. Pulling the blanket over her, to avoid her getting cold during the night, he was tempted to give her a goodnight kiss but at the last minute thought better of it. However, when he tried to rise from the bed he found that he couldn’t as Sofia still had a firm grasp of his arm. Not wanting to wake her after finally getting her to sleep, he just shrugged, switched the light off and let his own eyes drift shut.

  *****

  The light shining through the bedroom window awakened Jon early. The intense luminosity of the Altair sun and its extremely rapid rate of rotation meant that sunrise was very early. Glancing next to him, Jon was pleased to see that Sofia was still sleeping soundly. She’d had no more nightmares during the night; whether that was because of his presence, or his promise Jon had no idea, but he was pleased to see that her skin seemed to have regained some of its colour. Sometime during the night she had shifted position and her head now lay resting across his naked chest. Jon allowed himself the small pleasure of a further few minutes of rest, running his hand gently through Sofia’s lustrous red hair. Wondering what life would be like if he could wake-up every morning with her at his side… With a gentle sigh, he slid his body out from beneath hers to start his day, fully aware that if he did not move soon he would find further excuses never to leave her bed.

  Quietly creeping out of her room, praying that she would remain asleep to avoid another difficult conversation he finally let-out a relieved breath, when her bedroom door was finally closed…only to turn around to come face-to-face with his father.

  Of all the goddamn timings, Jon cursed to himself on observing his father’s shocked expression and could guess at the wild assumptions that were currently taking root.

  “Let’s get a coffee and …talk,” his father announced tersely. “While we let the women sleep.”

  *****

  With it still being very early in the morning, with the sun only just up, the temperature outside was very pleasant. Jon knew that it would climb quickly, until by midday everybody would have to take cover inside from the sweltering temperatures of the midday sun.

  Looking over the rim of his cup of coffee at his father’s brusque expression, Jon decided to go for the pre-emptive strike and try and head-off the looming argument.

  “I am not sleeping with Sofia…Princess Aurelius,” Jon hurriedly corrected himself, he had been spending far too much time recently with Sofia…the Princess, and had started to stop thinking of her as that and now simply thought of her as… Sofia. The incredulous look from his father, made him stop and review his previous statement. “Ok, I am sleeping with the Princess, but this was the first and only time.”

  The incredulous look from this father changed to one of complete disbelief. “You are sleeping with the Imperial Princess Sofia Aurelius, daughter of the Emperor? Are you insane!” His father hissed angrily trying to keep his voice quiet so not to wake anybody else in the house. “Good grief boy, I thought we at least raised you with some common sense. What is the penalty for sleeping with an Imperial Princess anyway?” He went on rhetorically, “Seeing as it is the death penalty for even touching one of the Imperial family I would assume at the very least it is a more painful death.”

  “Have you finished yet?” Jon interjected angrily. “While I did sleep with her, once, just once… I’m not sleeping with her if you know what I mean?”

  “No,” his father replied just staring at him perplexedly.

  “Look dad, we are both adults here, let me put this simply. I am not having sex with her!” Jon exclaimed loudly.

  “Keep it down son,” his father replied nervously looking around the small garden. “We don’t want the neighbours to hear, what would they think?”

  Jon just rolled his eyes in disbelief and replied. “I don’t know dad, hopefully they won’t think I am sleeping with Sofia, aghhh,” Jon cried banging his head against the wall. “…With Princess Aurelius,” Jon replied completely exasperatedly.

  Ryan just continued to look at his son with a concerned expression before stating stoically. “I think you are getting too emotionally involved here, son,” and he went off to look for more coffee.

  You think! Jon thought unkindly, watching his father disappear into the house.

  *****

  It was late in the afternoon, and the sun had begun its descent and the outside temperate had fallen sufficiently for Jon and Sofia to practice outside. As it was still extremely hot, Jon had elected to forgo a T-shirt and just wore a pair of sweatpants. Sofia meanwhile, had managed to find a better fitting shirt and wore a pair of jeans. Both antagonists faced off, a few meters apart, on some old exercise mats that Jon had found.

  Blinking away the sweat from his eyebrows, Jon was having second thoughts about this whole escapade. What had seemed like a perfectly good idea late last night, was quickly giving way to the light of reason during the day. Jon was having trouble focusing on the task at hand, as his attention was continually drawn to Sofia’s figure. In the casual workout clothes she seemed far younger than her age, and her clothes were clinging to her in all the right places, actuating her stunning figure.

  Meanwhile Sofia could not take her eyes off Jon, standing there bare-chested like some Greek god. Her eyes followed one particular rivulet of sweat as it ran down his chest. Sub-consciously she licked her lips and only when she looked up into Jon’s eyes did she recognise the desire that was burning brightly in them, most likely mirroring her own expression.

  “So what do we do first?” she asked nervously, trying to distract herself from his body… and his searing gaze.

  “As most of the time you will be fighting men that are bigger and stronger than yourself, I will teach you to fight with a knife. A gun would be far more effective for you, and we will get onto that, but you will find yourself in a situation one day when you don’t have a gun or have lost it. It will be easy for you to conceal a small knife somewhere, and most men won’t be expecting it. So you will have the benefit of surprise.”

  With that he drew a small combat knife that he kept in the secure armoury that he maintain
ed at his parents house. Carefully handling it to Sofia hilt first, he encouraged her to get used to the weight and feel of the small blade. “From now on you will carry it with you…always,” Jon insisted seriously. “Now let’s start with a basic thrust. Attack me with the knife,” Jon insisted.

  Noticing her hesitation, Jon called out frustratedly. “Haven’t we already been over this?” Reminding her of the time in the officer lounge of the Imperial Star, when he faced, unarmed, the senator’s son who had his sword drawn.

  Jon at least had to give her a little credit, that she did not need to be told twice, and at least she made an attempt to stab him with the knife…even if it was completely pitiful.

  Sighing in frustration, unsure if the heat caused it, the close pull of Sofia’s body or the task at hand, Jon desperately tried to think how best to proceed. In basic training it was easy. The sergeant gave you the knife, ordered you to defend yourself with it; and then proceeded to kick seven bells of crap out of you until you succeeded. Eyeing Sofia in front of him carefully, with her hair tied back in a braid, the swell of a breast tapering down to her narrow waist…Jon tore his gaze away.

  The frontal assault approach was not going to work. No way was he seriously going to attack her, even if Sofia ever contemplated that he would physically hurt her. That left the current approach, encouraging her to attack him seriously. Not the current half-hearted approach that she showed, but with the full-on intent to cause as much harm to him as possible. Well, if the physical approach was not an option, time to try the psychological option, Jon reluctantly decided.

  Moving far closer, to use his slight height advantage, as a psychological advantage to intimidate, he swore at her. “That was pathetic,” he noticed the ripple of surprise in her expression. Jon had never addressed her in such a coarse manner before, having always treated her politely and with respect. Steeling his heart for what he was about to say, he continued in the same manner. “No wonder your father admitted to me that he was ashamed of you. How many times he cursed the day that he had a daughter, and not a son.”

  Now the surprise was giving way to shock and hurt, Jon knew that he would need to go even further to ignite her anger and hatred, those emotions he could use, could mould, to teach her to harness and use to protect herself. Thinking what he could use to truly hurt her, he remembered stumbling into the room yesterday shocked at seeing Sofia and his mother in such a loving embrace, something that she had never been able to have with her own mother. Her Mother!

  “You’re useless! Marcus was better off without you. He told me that he wished it was you that had died in child-birth and not your mother!” Now he could see the flames coming into her eyes, her grip unconsciously tightening on the knife, her muscles stretching ready to strike. Just a little more!

  “I don’t know why he was so bothered, personally,” Jon commented, off-hand. “She was just another concubine to the Emperor, I know that he had dozens of them since.”

  With a wordless cry Sofia sprang forward like a cat, slashing the knife at Jon’s face, which he blocked at the last second, taken by surprise at her speed. But already she was twisting around to try and stab him in the chest. Again Jon parried and again, each block just fuelling her ire. However, Sofia was tiring quickly and, finally in tears, she threw the knife aside and swung with the palm of her hand at his cheek. While Jon recognised the blow, this one he allowed through his guard, as Jon felt he deserved far worse for his earlier lies.

  With a surprisingly hard smack, that snapped Jon’s head back from the force of the blow, the sound brought Sofia back to her senses. Staring in disbelief at the person that she thought she knew, that perhaps she had even begun to fall in love with... Turning away in tears, she ran back inside the house. Even from outside Jon could hear the force of her bedroom door slamming shut. Rubbing his face in pain, reminding himself to watch out as she had a vicious right hook, Jon left to find his father.

  Training was over for the day and Jon needed to get repairs started on the ‘Light.

  *****

  It was a sombre pair that made their way towards the shuttle later that day after sunset. Jon had insisted on waiting until the cover of night to avoid anybody following them and discovering the shuttle.

  “Do you want to talk about what is bothering you?” His father inquired, breaking the silence.

  “No.”

  “How did the training go? I saw you teaching her earlier.”

  “Ok,” Jon replied.

  Finally giving up in disgust - obviously Jon had learned that particular trait from his mother, Ryan turned back to the trail, following the directions sporadically supplied by Jon. Having made good time as Jon had made careful notes of their journey from the shuttle, they soon arrived.

  “Wow, she’s a beauty!” His father commented running his fingers along the bow. “We never used to get anything like this at the spaceport. Usually we just got beaten up shuttles and the odd decrepit freighters.”

  “But can you fix her?” Jon inquired in frustration, interrupting his fathers little jaunt down memory lane.

  “Now don’t get your knickers in a twist, son,” Ryan replied and added with an evil grin. “And come to think of it, you stay away from your Princess’ knickers.”

  Jon just rolled his eyes and replied, “She’s not my Princess, dad.”

  “Could have fooled me, the way that you two were drooling over each other, earlier when you were practicing.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jon replied desperately trying to change the topic. He had already had one cold shower. Trying to forget the way that Sofia had looked, standing there in a thin shirt and form fitting jeans, sweat glistening on her brow. Jon could already feel himself getting warm again, so instead he focused on the expression on her face as he lied about her mother and the tears she had shed. Jon felt his blood run cold and his heart turn to stone. Yep, that will do it, Jon thought to himself, ashamed. He turned his gaze back to his father who had crawled under the port engine.

  “Give us some light, can you son,” his father’s muffled voice came from underneath the shuttle. Switching on the flashlight that they both carried for this very purpose he shone the light underneath the shuttle where his father was pointing. A few minutes of banging and a couple of muffled curses later his father slid out from underneath the engine.

  “The port engine is fine, I could not see any damage at all. Looks like the problem is with the energy distribution matrix, the good news is that we can fix it. The bad news - it will take some time, as my colleagues and I will need to test each connection individually to find the bad one.”

  “How long?” Jon inquired in a sinking tone.

  “Working out here, only after dark?” Ryan directed the question towards his son who nodded in confirmation. “I would guess four, maybe five nights tops,” he replied. “Perhaps shorter if we strike lucky and find the damaged connection earlier.”

  Jon just stared into the night sky, wondering who else out there might be looking for them and how soon they would arrive. However, if his father said it would take a week, that’s how long it would take. Nodding his head in understanding, Jon offered his hand to his father and helped him up.

  Noticing the despondent look on his son, Ryan clapped his hand on his shoulder and said positively. “Look on the bright side son, you can look forward to a week of your mother’s cooking and a week of getting hot and sweaty with your Princess.”

  “Fantastic,” Jon replied sourly.

  *****

  It was very late, or more precisely very early when they arrived back. The women had already retired to bed for the night. After sharing a late night snack, the two of them also quickly retired to their beds. They both had a long week ahead to get the shuttle repaired quickly. Jon paused briefly outside Sofia’s closed bedroom door, straining to hear anything, but unable to do so quickly carried on into his own room. Tired from the long day and longer night, Jon quickly fell into a restless sleep, with
dreams of faceless people chasing them and Sofia’s desperate cries for help.

  Jon arose early, once again woken by the bright light streaming through the blinds. Having slept terribly through the night, waking up several times unsure if the cries of help were from his own dreams or the occupant of the next room. Deciding that he desperately needed some coffee, Jon switched the machine on and sat in his parents’ kitchen watching the sun rise quickly into the clear sky. It looked like it was going to be another scorcher of a day. The kitchen was bright and airy and Jon recognised several of his mother’s small touches throughout the room, but for Jon it never felt like home.

  Jon had spent his childhood in a small, dingy, mouldy apartment in one of the many slums in Carrington city. The kitchen was barely big enough for one, let alone a table and chairs. The combined living room, dining room was just about big enough to fit the family around a table and the view…well it offered a superb view of the dank, grey, opposing apartment block. The hollow centre of the tower block had long filled up with trash, completely blocking the windows of some of the lower apartments. As for the smell… it was unbelievable. However, Jon remembered a happy childhood with Catherine still alive and healthy. His parents were not around much, always working hard to earn enough money for them, but it was still a family.

  He was interrupted by the sound of movement behind him and instinctively knew that it was Sofia. Jon wondered how and when he had become so in tune with the Princess that he could feel her presence. Remembering the harsh words stated the previous day, Jon did not turn around but he knew that she had seen him by the sound of her sudden indrawn breath. Jon heard the clinking of cups and the sound of coffee being poured, followed soon after by the sound of the kitchen door being quietly closed. Jon wondered if the echo left in the kitchen was actually the sound of his heart breaking.

  Naturally an active person, Jon found the inactivity during the day particularly frustrating, and he continually found himself staring at the clock waiting for the sun to set so they could resume work on the shuttle. It was therefore a shock when he noticed that Sofia had changed into her workout clothes and was following some of the more simpler warm-up exercises that he had taught her the day before. Frankly Jon was surprised that Sofia had any desire to continue with the training, but as was often the case he found himself under-estimating her. He hurried to change into his exercise clothes, this time deciding to wear a shirt, as Jon had no plans to torture himself demonstrating the various holds and throws by holding her against his bare chest.