by Mike Smith
“Perhaps.”
“But surely you must know people in the fleet based at Eden Prime, people you could trust?”
“I do, but I have no way of contacting them securely without the risk that the message would be monitored. All fleet communications go via the Tachyon relay stations, heavily encrypted of course, but the transmission could be tracked back to our nearest relay giving away our position. Worse, depending on who else in the fleet could be involved, the encryption could be compromised.”
“What other option do we have?” Sofia asked rhetorically. “We cannot stay here forever.” Although if truth be told, the idea was not so repellent to Sofia, when they arrived at Eden Prime Sofia knew that she would have difficult choices to make, decisions that would affect the lives of millions, maybe billions, of people. Out here however, those decisions seemed a long way away, and Sofia could think of worse things than to spend time, alone, safe on a ship with a man that she realised that she had deep, strong feelings for. If their last kiss was any indication, those feelings were reciprocated by Jon. “I’m sorry what did you say?” Sofia apologised, lost in contemplation she did not catch Jon’s reply.
Bringing up the navigation computers star-map of the surrounding space, Jon highlighted one destination that the computer had labelled as Memphis. “The Eden system is surrounded by a number of massive arcologys, entire floating cities in space. I know somebody on this one, somebody that is well informed about the military and political situation in the Eden system -somebody that we can trust.”
“Sounds good, so what’s the problem?”
“The problem, as you so eloquently put it, is that if I can think of this so can Harkov, he will probably have informants on the station, probably also mercenaries and bounty hunters looking for us.”
“You mean like on Transcendence?” Sofia asked softly, looking away. She still had nightmares about the attack, although the worst of them seemed to be kept at bay by Jon’s constant reassuring presence.
“Like on Transcendence,” Jon agreed solemnly.
“Then we do it,” Sofia replied firmly. “Better the devil that we know; we have no idea what could be waiting for us on Eden Prime.” As she spent more time with Jon, Sofia had come to realise that fear could be a person’s own worst enemy, paralysing, introducing paranoia, self-doubt and second-guessing everything and everyone. With Jon’s help Sofia promised herself that she would get over her own fears and doubts, to try and be the person that Jon seemed to think she was, a better, stronger, more self-confident person; the daughter of the Emperor.
Jon looked at Sofia for a moment surprised, and then nodded his head in approval, as if he saw something new in her, something that he approved of. “Then next stop Memphis,” he added before giving her a sly smile. “This time I do not plan to let you out of my sight for a single instant. You seem to be a magnet for trouble whenever I am not around.”
“Me?” Sofia replied with a laugh. “What about you? All I asked for is a dinner and some dancing, and you start a brawl in the middle of the club. Anyway, if you plan on watching me all the time, where are you going to sleep?” she asked playfully.
“With you,” Jon shot back, with a heated gaze. “I’m not letting you out of my sight for a moment.”
Suddenly the tight knot of fear and worry that had settled in Sofia’s stomach when she agreed that they change course to Memphis vanished. Suddenly she was looking forward to this excursion.
*****
In some ways Memphis reminded Sofia of Transcendence, it seemed that the core hub, with multiple surrounding docking spokes was a universal design. However, that was where the similarity ended, Sofia could just not wrap her head around the sheer size of the station. Dozens and dozens of hubs seemed to exist, and the various docking spokes seemed to have become so intermeshed that Sofia could not see where one started and the other ended. Jon’s description was fairly accurate that it was an entire city floating in space. This point was reinforced when docking control informed them that all the public bays were currently occupied and that if they wished to avoid a wait they would need to pay a fee for one of the private bays. Playing the part of an independent trader, Jon enquired about the docking fees for a private bay. Jon did not need to fake the shock and indignation in his voice when he refused the offer after being told how much they cost.
“I could afford a brand new ship for that much,” Jon told Sofia indignantly after shutting off the channel.
Sofia had to smother a laugh as once again Jon’s simple and relatively poor background began to show through. “I would be happy to chip in to help you afford the docking fee if you would like?” she asked with a brilliant smile.
Jon had no doubt that Sofia could afford to purchase most of the station and still have change left over, but he shook his head, politely declining the request. “We need to stay in character anyway; no independent trader would ever use a private berth. We would destroy any profit that we would make from the venture before we had even arrived. Only wealthy individuals or company owners ever use those berths, or visiting royalty of course…” Jon snickered. “We will wait, we are hardly in a rush.”
“In that case,” Sofia replied stretching, she had been in the co-pilot seat for many hours and was very uncomfortable. She noticed Jon’s eyes immediately drawn to her bosom, quickly averting his gaze with an endearing blush when he realised that she was watching him. Sofia had to suppress the wicked grin that she could feel threatening to escape. Deciding that now was a good a time as any, especially when she had Jon off balance she stood up, and leaning back on the flight panel she looked Jon straight in the eye.
“So are you going to tell me what has been bothering you since we left Altair?”
“It’s…nothing” Jon replied, averting his gaze from Sofia. Infuriated Sofia stamped her foot in frustration. Perhaps it would just be easier to order him to tell her, Sofia mused. Deciding that she did not want a relationship like that, she instead settled her hand on his chest and softly beseeched him. “Please Jon, we promised that we would talk, no more secrets. What is it that is bothering you? You have been unusually quiet, even for you, ever since you had that private conversation with your parents before we left.” That conversation bothered Sofia almost as much as Jon’s subsequent silence. For the first time since she could remember, she had felt part of a family. Being excluded from the final goodbyes had hurt her painfully.
Recognising the pain and hurt in her eyes, Jon cursed himself; he had been trying to spare her the worry and instead had just made it worse! “I didn’t want to tell you as I didn’t want you worrying,” Jon explained softly, cupping her cheek with his hand.
Leaning into his gentle touch Sofia explained. “It worries me more when you are obviously unhappy and won’t tell me what the cause of the problem is.”
“It’s…my parents.”
“Ryan? Irene?” Sofia asked confused. “They seemed fine when we left.”
“I am more worried about what will happen to them once we have gone,” Jon explained. “Harkov and his thugs are not going to stop looking for us. When your father elevated me to the Praetorians all records of my past were destroyed. It’s standard practice for us, so that nobody can dig into our past and blackmail us against your father, however records do exist. Sooner or later Harkov is going to find my parents and then…”
Sofia gasped, as she had never considered the evil Harkov could stoop to. Sofia could not imagine the anguish that Jon would have to face in choosing between his family and her; his duty to her father versus the obvious love that he had for his family. “What are we going to do?” she asked.
“I have already done it,” Jon replied looking away ashamed. “The reason I wanted to talk to them in private was so that I could warn them. They have agreed to leave the house; they still have friends, colleagues in the old neighbourhood. They will stay there for as long as necessary until I can let them know that it’s safe.”
Sofia could not prise any more
information from Jon or his family about their original home, just that it was a small apartment, in one of the more run-down, dangerous areas on Altair. “They will be safe there?” Sofia inquired.
“Yes,” Jon replied firmly. “They still observe the old codes there, blood, loyalty, silence. They will be safe there, protected and if Harkov sends forces in after them…well, “ Jon shrugged. “There will be a dozen more unclaimed bodies that will turn up the next morning. Harkov would need to send an entire division to fight their way in to get them, he will not spare the forces for that.”
“So what’s the real problem?” Sofia asked perceptively.
“That I spent my life trying to get them out of that hell-hole, now my actions have resulted in them having to go back there. They deserve better,” Jon insisted.
“Then you should never have taken me there.”
“No!” Jon replied vehemently. “It was the only place that I could be absolutely sure that was safe, and we needed to get the Eternal Light repaired. Anyway,” Jon replied with an embarrassed smile. “I wanted them to meet you.”
Leaning forward, Sofia easily slipped her arms around his neck, touching forehead to forehead. It was so easy to forget how traditional Jon was, his firm sense of honour and intimate sense of right; of course Jon would want his parents to meet her… “And I am glad that I had the chance to meet them,” Sofia insisted. “Having met them I think I am beginning to understand you a bit better,” she added.
“Really?”
“Really,” Sofia added leaning an inch closer so that their lips could gently touch, almost immediately Sofia could feel the fire spreading though her body. Kissing Jon was like nothing she had ever experienced before.
Meanwhile Sofia promised herself that she would address the problem with Jon’s parents. No matter what happened to her, what decisions she made that might affect the entire Empire, she would not forget that an empire only consisted of its people. Jon was right about one thing, his parents deserved better; Sofia vowed to herself that they would get it.
*****
Walking along the grey, featureless, corridor of Memphis, Sofia wondered if all these stations had the same interior decorator. Her own apartments on the Imperial Star had been richly decorated with thick carpets, rugs, and pictures. The stark, regular strip lighting of this corridor replaced with subtle shades and chandeliers. Sofia even pointed this out to Jon who only laughed.
“Not everybody is as rich as your father! Who would pay for all those fixtures here and who would pay to maintain them? No, the rest of the Empire consists of the functional minimum.”
Sofia assumed that insight also extended to her clothes. Not that there was anything wrong with them, the tan coloured blouse, jeans and ankle length boots that she wore, almost a spitting image of Jon’s own clothes. While functional, Sofia secretly missed some of her old dresses, bright colours, made from the finest silks of the Empire, tailored by the finest designers in the Empire… It occurred to Sofia that what she probably missed more was Jon’s reaction to her appearing in such clothes. Whenever she appeared, she could see the shock in Jon’s expression, his sudden indrawn breath, followed soon after by his grim expression, his disapproval plain for all to see. However, Sofia would have had to be blind to ignore his blistering gaze that would follow her everywhere. Then again maybe they were unnecessary after all, as when she appeared from the washroom having changed into these casual clothes, the heated gaze was still present in his eyes when he raked them over her body. However, this time instead of the disapproval that she was used to seeing, his expression turned to a warm smile and he nodded his approval, with a simple “I like it.”
Sofia decided that she liked this reaction almost as much. She decided in the future that she would just have to alternate, to keep him guessing.
At least, unlike on Transcendence and Altair, she was not attracting so many stares. With the casual clothes, and her hair in a neat braid reaching her lower back she did not stand out as much. Well, at least not too much, as a person would have to be blind not to notice the stunningly attractive woman. Although Jon’s possessive grasp of her hand as he lead her though the station made it obvious to everybody that she was currently unavailable.
“Where are we going?” she finally inquired, long since totally lost by all the twists and turns of the different corridors.
“We are going to meet my contact on the station,” Jon explained. “We are just taking a more roundabout route as I want to ensure that we are not being followed.” Jon was only too aware of how vulnerable the two of them were on this station. At any minute, any turn, an ambush could spring its trap on the pair. However, the other part of Jon’s nervousness was from having to leave his Valerian sword on the ‘Light. It would have completely destroyed the façade that they were trying to project of a married pair of young, independent traders. No trader would ever wear such a thing. Instead he had holstered at his side a standard pulse pistol, but Jon still felt naked without his sword. Jon knew that is was just superstitious nonsense but he honestly felt that the blade protected him; Jon secretly feared that the day he died, the weapon would be out of his reach…
Eventually they came to an unmarked office door, in the middle of the commercial district. Jon pressed the announcer and waited patiently.
“What happens if he or she is not here?” Sofia whispered, self-consciously.
Jon just shrugged. “Albert works longer hours than I do, as far as I know he does not take holidays or any breaks. If he is not here, then I assume it is because he is dead.”
The statement was prophetic, as only moments after he had finished, a high pitched, suspicious voice blared out of a small speaker above the announcer button. “Go away, I am not interested in buying anything, or converting to this week’s latest religion.”
With a smirk at Sofia, Jon replied. “Albert let us in, it’s me, Jon and…” Jon looked helplessly at Sofia trying to think of a suitable label, shrugging again he simply added, “a friend.”
The voice from behind the grill was silent for a moment, then the door slid silently open, darkness beckoning from within. Giving Sofia an unladylike shove from behind, he quickly ushered her into the room before stepping inside, the door quickly sliding shut behind them. The lights suddenly illuminated, blinding both of them. When they could eventually see once more, they both stared at the barrel of the gun pointing at them!
Jon stepped in front of Sofia, worried that Albert could end up shooting her simply because he didn’t recognise her. A healthy amount of paranoia in his job went a long way to avoiding a lengthy jail sentence or a quick execution from a competitor. “Albert it’s me, Jon, put the pistol away.”
The barrel wavered for a moment. Then the owner lowered the weapon onto the table. Sofia was astonished to see that the owner’s head barely came above the table. He was a child! However, on closer observation, the unshaven face, weathered skin, distrustful blue eyes that Sofia realised that the man was far older; probably some years older than Jon, and that the man was a midget!
“Before you make some insulting comment,” Albert interjected. “I am fully aware that I am shorter in stature than others…” It was obviously a sore topic for him. “I come from Kessler IV, where the gravity is much stronger, hence we don’t grow as tall. However, it has its advantages,” Albert added, effortlessly lifting the table that he was sitting behind into the air with one hand.
“Just ignore Albert,” Jon replied. “He is very self-conscious.”
“As you would be, if everywhere you went, you were followed by sniggers and terrible jokes behind your back...” came the indignant reply.
Taking a few steps forward Jon reached the short little man and with apparently little effort picked him up enfolding him the most almighty hug. “It’s good to see you again Albert,” he said.
“Put me down, put me down,” Albert squealed, pounding futilely on Jon’s back.
Jon lowered him gently to the floor, and Sofia thought she
recognised a softening in the man’s eyes as he glared at Jon.
“For a dead man, you certainly still seem to be very much alive,” Albert chuckled.
“Dead man?”
“The news channel’s have been broadcasting nothing but unsubstantiated rumours of the Emperor’s death, your death and even yours Princess,” Albert addressed Sofia.
“You know who I am?” Sofia asked, shocked.
“Of course, I know who you are,” Albert sniffed. “I would not be very successful in my job if I did not recognise the Imperial Princess, Sofia Aurelius, daughter of the Emperor.”
“And what exactly is your job?” she asked curiously.
“Albert is an information broker,” Jon explained. “If Albert doesn’t know about it, it’s not worth knowing.”
“And how much would you charge Harkov for our location and our lives?” Sofia demanded scornfully, less than impressed with the man’s chosen profession.
“Everything has a price Princess,” Albert hedged. “However, somethings have a price that nobody could afford, not even with all your family’s wealth. Everybody looks down on me, just because I am short, but not Jon. He has never treated me any differently than everybody else.”
“I don’t like big people picking on smaller people,” Jon interjected firmly.
Albert looked fondly at Jon, nodding his head in thanks. “Which is why this information is free. You need to get off Memphis immediately. Harkov has spies, and assassins throughout the station. They have even approached me with offers for your location,” the man sniffed disdainfully. “As if I would even contemplate divulging that information for their paltry sums. You need to make it to the Eden system, the Imperial forces there are still loyal to Fleet Admiral Sterling. He was one of your father’s oldest and most trusted admirals, he is still loyal to the Empire and will offer you sanctuary. Harkov’s forces will not be able to reach you there. You will be safe there, but you must go now!”
A red light started to chime incessantly on the small console that was embedded into Albert’s desk. “They have found you already!” Albert hissed, touching another control on the panel. A panel on the rear-wall slid open to reveal a previously hidden passage. “In my profession a backdoor is always advisable, it is not on any of the station schematics, it will take you out near the docking port; now GO!”
