The Last Praetorian (The Redemption Trilogy)

by Mike Smith

  Sofia did not meet his gaze when he arrived, instead simply held the knife firmly in her hand and cocked her head at an angle as if to say, ‘now what’?”

  “Strike at me with the knife, like you did yesterday,” Jon ordered, wincing at the reminder of why she used the knife yesterday. “But this time slowly, and I will help you correct your posture.”

  Sofia nodded her head in understanding and reached out to strike him with the knife once-again, but this time slower, as if time had been slowed down to a crawl. Jon stopped her, when the knife was barely inches from his throat and helped her correct her centre of balance and lock her shoulder, so her full weight was behind the thrust. Jon and Sofia went through the motion half a dozen times with Jon patiently explaining what she was doing wrong and each time correcting her. Sofia refused to meet his gaze or respond, just nodding her head in understanding. After several more tries, Jon was satisfied with her posture and they ran through several more forms, from different thrusts, to slashes and blocks. They then reversed roles, with Jon being the attacker with the knife and he taught her the very same blocks that he had used on her the day before.

  Unused to the punishing physical exercise and the heat from the late afternoon sun, Jon offered Sofia several opportunities to rest but each time she refused. Impressed with her determination Jon ran through several more forms of unarmed combat, demonstrating the vulnerable areas of the body and where best to strike to incapacitate or disable an opponent. Sofia was a quick study and often only needed one or two demonstrations of a technique before she mastered it and they moved onto the next. Jon was stunned by her progress. While Sofia lacked the physical strength necessary to excel at combat, she more than made-up for it with her speed and exquisite balance. Jon assumed that Sofia had spent many years learning dance and gymnastics to have such a perfect posture. When the sun started to disappear beneath the horizon Jon called an end to the training session. Once again Sofia failed to respond, just nodding her head in acknowledgement, before pivoting around and heading back inside the house.

  Sighing wearily, Jon collected the practice mats before heading indoors for a change of clothes and a shower before dinner. Unlike their first night together, dinner was a strained event as the tension in the air between the two was easily noticeable to both parents. The two refused to make eye contact and all conversation went via one or the other parents. Finally the entire table lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. Jon was not the only one relieved when dinner was finished and cleared away. Eventually the time came to depart, with Jon waiting for his father who was in a deep discussion with his mother. With a nod of understanding, the couple broke up and Jon followed his father out of the house.

  By mutual agreement they met his father’s ex-colleagues several kilometres from the house. Jon had initially had some concerns about having to trust several unknown strangers. However, his father reassured him that he had known them all for many years and trusted them implicitly. Additionally without their help, the repairs would take weeks if not months. They agreed that his father would only explain the bare minimum, that the ship was damaged in an attack, required repairs and they wished to avoid the taxes and commission charged at the spaceport. After a brief introduction the small group made their way to the shuttle and within a few hours the landing site was a hive of activity as panels were removed for easier access and detailed diagnostics initiated.

  Having only basic engineering knowledge, Jon was little help beyond instructing the ship’s computer to power-up the individual systems as his father and the engineering team monitored the power distribution to try and locate the damaged connector.”

  The next thing he knew was a brief shake of his shoulder as his father woke him up. “I’ve been calling for the last few minutes,” he explained. “We need you to initialise the secondary actuator.”

  “Sorry I must have nodded off for a moment,” Jon explained, embarrassed.

  “Don’t worry about it, you’ve had a hard time of it recently. Look why don’t you give this a miss tomorrow and get some sleep?”

  “I’d love to,” Jon replied. “But you need me to power up the systems. The shuttle is genetically coded to me; it won’t respond to any of your commands.” At his father’s dubious expression, Jon motioned towards the flight controls. “Try it yourself; the secondary actuator is the one on the top left.”

  His father tentatively reached out to activate the control, but with an indignant beep from the ships computer nothing happened. Smoothly reaching out, Jon gently touched the control, which immediately activated.

  “And only you can fly this ship?”

  “This ship and it’s sister ship the Star Light are, were the personal shuttles for the Emperor and his family, only they have permission to fly them.”

  “So how come you have permission for this one?” Jon’s father asked the obvious question.

  Jon was about to reply that the Emperor had ordered him to use this ship to take Sofia, hence must have added him personally as an authorised pilot, when he stopped. Jon clearly remembered that night, after receiving the orders he had gone straight to the flight deck to check on the ship. He had already been given access to the ship by the time he had arrived. So exactly when had he been authorised to pilot the ‘Light? Suddenly curious, Jon accessed the security log for the ship and scrolled back in time until he found the record detailing his access. It was dated several months earlier. But that did not make sense… how could the Emperor have possibly known that he would need access to the ship so long before? He remembered the conversation with the Emperor clearly; he had made it expressly clear that the two ships belonged to the Aurelius family – they were private property and could only be flown by members of the family. Confused at why he then had been given the necessary access Jon turned back to testing the next component on the power-up list.

  *****

  Life slowly settled into a routine, with Jon rising early, wondering aimlessly around the house until the temperature cooled later in the day to spend a few hours training Sofia, before working on the shuttle repairs late into the night.

  Jon was exhausted, tired and irritable. While Sofia’s progress in their afternoon training sessions had been astounding she still refused to even look him in the eye, let alone talk to him and the atmosphere in the house was…unpleasant. The little sleep that Jon had been getting was restless, intermittent and plagued by bad dreams. Sofia fared little better, as she had retreated back into the same shell that she had after the attack on Transcendence, and showed little appetite over meals, content to just push the food around her plate and actually eat very little. Her sparking emerald green eyes, had faded to a dull green, and her skin appeared pale and washed out.

  Having put-up with this for almost a week and having been unable to get a word out of his stubborn son, Ryan decided to approach the Princess directly. Ryan did not have much experience dealing with Imperial Princesses, but having been married for over 30 years he felt that he had some experience with women. That afternoon, when Sofia had once again retired to her room and Jon had fallen asleep in the kitchen, Ryan felt it was as good as any opportunity to try. Knocking gently on her door, hoping that she was not also asleep he was relieved to hear her voice, giving him permission to enter. Upon entering Ryan found Sofia sitting up on the bed, with her head resting on her knees, which were folded against her chest. Ryan’s heart went out to the younger woman, as she seemed so alone and miserable. It occurred to Ryan that if Catherine were still alive, she would be around the same age as this woman. While there was nothing he could do for his long-dead daughter, perhaps he could help this troubled young woman.

  “Excuse me Princess, I hope I am not disturbing you…” he apologised, suppressing a grin at the flash of surprise that crossed Sofia’s face. You didn’t know that I knew your secret, let’s see what else you don’t know, Ryan thought to himself smugly.

  “I didn’t know that you knew who I was,” Sofia explained, embarrassed. “When Jon did
n’t say anything, I thought it best to keep quiet about it.”

  “Jon told me, the night you arrived. However, I would probably have guessed eventually…Anyway I don’t have much experience prostrating myself in-front of royalty,” Ryan explained matter-of-factly.

  “It’s not necessary, to be honest. Having spent my life as an Imperial Princess, it was nice just to be Sofia for a while. Anyway it was fun helping Irene with the dinner, I’ve never cooked before,” Sofia explained with a giggle.

  For a brief instant, Ryan could understand his son’s attraction to the Princess, as when she laughed her entire face lit-up with a smile. Taking a seat next to her on the bed, Ryan cast his eye around the room trying to think how he could bring up the topic of her and Jon’s sudden coldness. “Did Jon tell you that he bought this house for us?” he finally asked.

  “Yes, Irene mentioned it.”

  “When I asked Jon where he got the money, he just told us that he sold some silly trinket that he had been given. Must have been some expensive charm…”

  “The fleet medal, the Aurelius Star Cluster,” Sofia decided to confide in Jon’s father. It bothered her a little that Jon’s parents did not seem to be aware of the sacrifice that their son made for them.

  Ryan’s eyes went wide at the news. “Sounds important,” he whistled. “I hope Jon does not get into any trouble if anyone ever finds out.”

  “I’m sure that daddy would have been furious if he discovered that Jon had sold the award,” Sofia explained. “But I think, secretly he would have approved, if he knew what Jon had done with the money.”

  “Jon talked about your father a lot when he was last home,” Ryan replied thoughtfully. “At the time we did not know who he was, and Jon was not forthcoming, but I knew that Jon respected him a great deal. Jon referred to him as one of the greatest men that he had ever known and I know that Jon is devastated about his death. He blames himself for not doing enough, not being able to protect him.” Deciding to change the topic slightly, Ryan added. “I remember one of Jon’s biggest regrets was not being able to meet your mother. He often told us how he would have loved to meet such a person who could have captured your father’s heart so completely. I think Jon thought your mother must have been a pretty special woman.”

  “Yes, she was,” Sofia replied. Remembering the times as a child when her mother would comb her hair and sing softly to her until she fell asleep. “I think my mother would have enjoyed meeting Jon too. Aside from her, Jon was the only person who could never be intimidated by my father.

  I remember one time when I was caught sneaking around the ship, I liked to do that a lot.” Sofia added with an impish grin. “Father threw an almighty tantrum, furious that I had sneaked out without an escort and was proposing all sorts of terrible repercussions. When Jon calmly placed himself between my father and me and simply stated that the blame should lie with him as he was in charge of seeing to my safety. For almost an hour my father belittled him, blamed him, cursed him, threatened every punishment under the sun, from demotion through to treason and death. He just stood there not saying a word! Finally my father collapsed into a chair exhausted and just dismissed him, but still he stood there impassively and inquired as to my punishment. Faced with a possible death sentence and he was concerned about my sentence! I don’t think father knew what to say; he just dismissed us both. Aside from my mother, Jon is the only other person to stand-up to my father, on my behalf. I think everybody was secretly terrified of him, but not Jon.”

  Sofia remembered that incident clearly. She had never seen her father so angry and was terrified of the consequences, but Jon had deflected his anger away from her. Ever since then she had seen Jon in a new light, somebody that she could trust, somebody that she knew she could rely upon to protect her. She had never felt so safe as she did when she was with Jon.

  Ryan smiled at the story, finding it incredible to believe that his son had stood up to Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor, all to protect this young girl from his temper. “Jon never spoke much about himself and his exploits in the navy,” Ryan explained slowly. “I got the impression that his life was very dangerous and he did not want us to worry… His mother, Irene, was constantly asking him if he had met anybody, I think she was hoping that he would meet some girl, settle down and start a family of his own. I remember there was this one time…” Ryan explained, giving Sofia a knowing look, as she was captivated by what he was saying. “Irene pestered Jon endlessly about whether he had met somebody. Finally Jon capitulated and confessed that he had met someone.”

  Suddenly Sofia realised that she was no longer having fun. She had been spellbound hearing about her family from Jon’s own words to his father, but she did not want to know about some fling, or even worse, a permanent relationship that Jon was involved in. She could feel a growing knot in her stomach as Ryan repeated Jon’s words, describing this beautiful woman, with flawless skin, beautiful eyes and the grace and manner of a Princess. Sofia could hear the words as if coming from Jon himself, conveying the love and affection that he held for this woman.

  As a clump of something cold and unpleasant landed in the pit of Sofia’s stomach, she hesitantly asked, “Did Jon ever tell you her name?” While she did not know all the women on-board the Imperial Star, she knew many of them, and counted a significant number as her friends. Thinking back she could not remember the number of times that her female friends commented about the fetching Commander, she knew that more than one of them had approached the Commander, but each one had been politely rebuffed. At the time she had felt relieved, jealous of any other woman sharing the Commander’s attention, but unsure why. Now she knew that most likely at least one of them had caught his eye.

  Surprised at the question, as Ryan was preparing to leave the Princess to her thoughts, he shook his head in a negative. At the disappointed look from the Princess he did add. “The only other thing that he mentioned was that she had flaming red hair, and eyes like the brightest emeralds.” With a smile in her direction, he left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

  He was talking about me! He meant those beautiful words for me! The thought sang through her mind. As an Imperial Princess of the Empire, Sofia had very little say in her own life. Her time was strictly scheduled for study and, or official ceremonies, for her to appear next to her father. Therefore Sofia had never had to make an important decision on her own before. Sofia sat down and thought long and hard for many hours about what she wanted.

  *****

  Jon had been waiting for some time at their usual place for their training sessions, having laid out the practice mats some time earlier. However, now the sun was starting to hang low in the sky and still Sofia had not appeared. Sighing, Jon prepared to put the mats away and call it quits for the evening. Jon was surprised to regret the end of their training sessions together. While Sofia had said almost nothing after their first day, he missed at least being able to spend some time with her, being able to touch her. Blinking back the sweat from his eyes, Jon was surprised to see her approaching in the late afternoon light. Dressed in her usual workout clothes of a T-shirt and jeans, with her hair tied back in a braid, Jon tried to work out what seemed different about her. Finally he realised that she was looking him in the eye, not diverting her gaze like she had for the past few days, and her smile… her smile lit-up her entire face, reaching into her eyes which seemed to glow with an inner warmth. Jon swallowed deeply. Forget repairing the energy grid for the shuttle, Sofia was emitting enough energy to fly the ‘Light halfway across the galaxy by herself. As she approached, Jon took a self-conscious step backwards unsure of the reason for the dramatic change.

  “Sorry I am late,” Sofia uttered as she arrived at the practice mat, shooting Jon a smile that rooted him to the spot.

  “What do you want to practice today?” he asked, reluctant to bring up the reason for her good mood and jinx it. God, how he had missed her smile!

  “Let’s practice hand-to-hand, you know physical co
ntact,” she stated giving Jon a look that, hot damn, was almost predatory if he had not imagined it.

  “Ugh, sure,” he replied. Totally off-balance by her sudden about turn in mood, wondering suspiciously if this was a ploy to get him off balance for their practice session…in which case, Jon admitted to himself, it was working terrifically well.

  Both antagonists dropping into a basic combat stance, which Jon had painstakingly taught to Sofia, they observed each other closely. Which was to say that Jon was observing her sparking eyes and warm smile…when Sofia darted a quick blow to his torso, which, frantically, Jon only just managed to block in time. After that Jon decided it was safer to focus on her hands and feet than other more alluring parts of her body to focus his gaze on. As they fought within the tight confines of the training mat, Jon came to some quick conclusions.

  First, that she was an outstandingly able student and had been paying close attention, as he fought to defect blows to his face, torso, groin and legs in rapid succession. Second, that Sofia was toying with him! Sure, she was an outstanding student, but she was not following through with her blows and instead of identifying a weak-spot in his defence and focusing on it… she was playing. Suddenly it struck Jon that Sofia was not intent on actually hurting him, but was…enjoying herself!