The Last Praetorian (The Redemption Trilogy)

by Mike Smith

  “Thank you Albert,” Jon uttered sincerely, grabbing Sofia by the hand and pulling her in the direction of the newly revealed exit.

  “What about you?” Sofia asked in a concerned voice, remembering the warning that Jon had conveyed about his own parents. It was unlikely that Harkov’s men would treat this little man any better.

  “Don’t worry about me,” Albert insisted, pulling an assault rifle that was almost taller than he was from behind his desk. “You look after Jon, there are not enough people left like him in the Empire, trust me I should know.”

  With that Sofia allowed Jon to pull her through the hidden passage, which shut quickly behind them. Sofia could hear a muffled explosion from the other side of the door, followed by Albert’s high-pitched yell, “Just come and try and get me you bastards!” Whatever else was said was quickly drowned out by the booming sound of an assault rifle being fired on full automatic. Sofia, however, had no way to telling if this was Albert’s or Harkov’s men as Jon continued to pull her along the pitch black corridor, the sound becoming fainter and fainter as they hurried away.

  Suddenly a bright light appeared ahead; as another hidden door slid quietly open. Sofia had no idea if this had been triggered automatically by their approach, or Albert had activated it from his office. Silently Sofia hoped that Albert was safe, as in the short time that she had meet him she had grown fond of the man.

  Stepping out into the bright naked lights of a corridor, Sofia had to blink rapidly to adjust her eyes to the sudden piercing light. Looking around cautiously, Sofia was glad to see that nobody else was in sight. It could be difficult to explain to a stranger how come you just stepped out of a solid wall!

  Meanwhile Jon was quickly looking around to reorientate himself. “Good,” he stated. “We are not far from our docking bay and the ‘Light, the sooner that we get off this station and to the Eden system, the better I will feel!” Jon pushed Sofia on ahead of him, urging her to hurry.

  For many years later the gunshot that echoed down the corridor would haunt Sofia. Unlike the high-pitched whine of an energy pistol or rifle, this was more a resounding crack, like the first bolt of lightning in a storm. Before the sound even registered with Sofia she went sprawling to the ground as a huge weight slammed into her back. Time seemed to suddenly slow down to a crawl. For an instant she thought that she had been paralysed, as she was unable to move from the neck down. It took a few moments for her thought process to catch-up and realise that it was not her body that was frozen, but a large weight bearing down on her, pressing her into the corridor floor, she could barely breathe, let alone move!

  A damp wetness started to spread across her blouse, and for a moment she thought that she had fallen in a puddle of water. It was only when she finally managed to get her hand free and bring it up to her face that she realised the awful truth, it was not water, it was blood! The rapidly expanding pool of blood seemed to spread everywhere! Sofia thought that she must have been going into shock, as she could not seem to hear or feel anything, her ears still resounding from the earlier gunshot.

  Taking a deep lungful of oxygen, time suddenly sped up as a racking cough sounded from above her. Twisting around Sofia looked into Jon’s eyes, which were glazed over in pain. A froth of blood appeared from between his lips, which started to trickle down his cheek. Suddenly Sofia realised the awful truth, the blood was not hers! It was from Jon!

  “Jon!” she cried, trying to twist around to get a better view. However, Jon was a dead weight lying across her back. She dared not push him away, worried that it could cause him more harm. However, from the corner or her eye she saw something far more terrifying approaching. The sandy haired man was wearing a crumpled jumpsuit, almost faded through in some patches from constant wear. However, it was not that which drew her attention but the large rifle that he carried in his hands, firmly pointed in their direction!

  “I told Franklin that there was no point in chasing you across half the station, that sooner or later you would have to return here, but no! He insisted on trying to barge his way inside, after your little friend. Well, he took half a dozen shots in the stomach as thanks,” he laughed. “So this is the infamous Commander Radec, I hear that you took out Marcel and his entire crew back on Transcendence,” he muttered with grudging respect. “Lucky I brought Betty here with me,” he stroked the rifle fondly. “I don’t particularly want to end up like Marcel.”

  With a prod from his toe he pushed Jon off Sofia, rolling him onto his back so Jon’s eyes stared up sightlessly. Another bout of coughing, and a gurgle of blood caused the sandy-haired gunman to step back in surprise. For the first time since his approach a look of doubt replaced his cocky expression. “That’s not possible,” he muttered taking a closer look at Jon. “I hit you with a high explosive round, most of your chest should be spread across this corridor. No way man, can you still be drawing breath.” He moved closer to investigate.

  Sofia meanwhile looked around frantically for something that she could use to defend them, but there was nothing! Then she remembered the pistol Jon was carrying. Now he was no longer lying across her she could move! As the assassin’s attention seemed focused solely on Jon, she reached down to Jon’s side, where the pistol was holstered…to find that it was missing! Her movement must have drawn the attention of the sandy-haired youth, as he swung his rifle in her direction.

  “Now, you don’t go anywhere poppet!” he urged. “I’ve got a nice fat bonus lined up for bringing you in alive. Let me just check on the Commander here... he should have been dead by now…” With that he turned away from Sofia, leaning down to peer closer at Jon.

  Something gleamed out of the corner of Sofia’s eye; turning her head she finally saw the pistol. It was several feet away, obviously having fallen from Jon when he had been hit. Sofia started to crawl in the direction of the weapon.

  “I’ll be with you in just another moment poppet,” he said leaning down peering at the bloody remains of Jon’s shirt and chest. “How come you are still alive?” he murmured, amazed.

  Sofia continued crawling on her hands and knees in the direction of the pistol, seven feet, six, five… she desperately reached out trying to get to the weapon in time, but was interrupted by the shout of surprise from behind her.

  “Tactical armour! You’re wearing tactical armour? Underneath civvies! Who the hell walks around all day wearing tactical armour? Well I’ll put another round through your skull, let’s see if you can survive that…Hey, what the hell!” he exclaimed as out of the corner of his eye he saw Sofia reaching for something in the corner.

  Sofia made a desperate dive for the pistol as soon as she heard his shout, knowing that she only had this one opportunity, otherwise both she and Jon were going to die. Scooping up the weapon she twisted, landing on her back, pointing the pistol in the direction of the sandy haired man, who meanwhile had started to swing his own rife in her direction.

  He never made it. Unbeknown to Sofia, the pistol was set to its highest setting. As soon as she pressed the firing stud, the bolt discharged from the pistol, hitting the youth squarely in the chest. The worn jumpsuit offered no protection and with a startled cry he collapsed to the floor, his chest a blackened, smoking char. Sofia looked at his body in startled incomprehension for a moment, expecting him to suddenly get-up and reach for his weapon once again. However, after he remained motionless a while longer the thought suddenly hit her, she had killed him! For a moment Sofia did not know what to think, did not know how to feel, but a racking cough from Jon drew her attention back to him!

  Jon! He was badly hurt!

  Slipping and sliding to his side, Sofia looked at his chest, and then quickly looked away. His shirt was mangled, what remained was a bloody mess. Sofia could not tell where the shirt ended and torn flesh commenced.

  “Sofia!” His voice whispered hoarsely, blood covering his mouth. “You must go. Take the ‘Light. She will respond to you. ‘Course is already plotted. Go!” he choked.

  “
Quiet! Don’t speak!” Sofia ordered. “Everything will be fine,” but even as she spoke the words she knew them to be a lie. Everything was most definitely not going to be fine. Sofia did not need to be a doctor to know that Jon was hurt, badly.

  “Sofia! You must go…leave me!”

  Sofia stared incomprehensibly at Jon, her hand unconsciously brushing back a lock of bloody hair from his cheek. Leave him? How? Jon was all that she had left! Her mother had been taken from her when she was barely a child. Her father had been dead barely a few weeks. Jon was all that she had left from her old life. Staring into his unfocused eyes, Sofia could picture her life stretching out before her eyes. No family, no friends, nobody to come home to in the evening, nobody to love. Alone…

  “No!” she insisted firmly. “I am not going to leave you.” She would not accept that future for herself. Better to stay here and die together with the man she had fallen in love with, than accept that future. “If you want me to go, then you have to come with me. Otherwise I am going to stay here, with you, together,” she insisted.

  Jon caught her hand in his, and for a moment Sofia thought that he was going to push her hand away, when she suddenly felt his grip tighten on her wrist. “You will have to help me up, then,” he said.

  Nodding, she pulled him to his feet. After Jon took a few shaky steps, almost collapsing she ducked her head under his arm, supporting his weight. Half carrying him, half dragging him, they headed in the direction of the shuttle, arm-in-arm, together.

  *****

  Lowering Jon gently into the co-pilot seat of the Eternal Light, Sofia hurried away to find the emergency first-aid kit. The journey back to the ship had been a nightmare. Jon had gone more and more pale with every step. Near the end of the journey Sofia thought that it was only sheer determination that was keeping him on his feet. The couple attracted unwanted attention the moment they had stepped onto the docking ring. Jon was a torn mess, trailing blood behind him. Sofia was little better, being covered in blood from when Jon had bled over her.

  Tossing open the first aid box Sofia rummaged around, finally sighing with relief when she found the emergency analgesic, thanking both Jon and her father for insisting that she attend the same emergency medical training that was mandatory for all the ship’s crew. At the time she had vehemently fought against it; she was an Imperial Princess – what did she need to know about medicine? The ship had dozens of trained medical personnel for that! As she injected the opiate directly into the blood stream in Jon’s neck Sofia shook her head in disbelief, amazed at her previous arrogance.

  “No more…” Jon moaned, pushing the injector away from his neck, barely half used.

  “But the pain…” Sofia stammered.

  “Any more and it will leave me unconscious, I’ll cope with the pain. You must start the engines, Harkov’s men could be right behind us…”

  Nodding, Sofia took the pilot seat for the first time. Her father had taught her to fly the shuttle at a young age, although Sofia had shown little interest. Once again she wished now that she had paid more attention… Keying the emergency engine start, Sofia watched, biting her lip anxiously as the engines quickly powered up. Noticing that Jon now barely seemed lucid, she transferred power to the engines and piloted the ship out of the docking berth.

  While the Emperor had taught her basic piloting skills, unfortunately this did not extend to docking etiquette, specifically the need to request permission prior to departure. Hence her first flight was almost cut dramatically short as the Eternal Light shot out of the docking bay, directly into the path of a docking freighter. It was only due to quick reflexes and a scream of pure terror that she pulled up and missing the freighter with barely meters to spare.

  Of the two dark fighters that launched immediately after the shuttle in pursuit, one was not so fortunate. The shuttle was rocked by the explosion as the heavily armed fighter slammed into the side of the freighter, its missiles and ammunition exploding in a massive fireball behind the shuttle. The second fighter however managed to avoid the freighter at the last moment, quickly accelerating to catch-up with the fleeing shuttle. It did not look like they were going to make such an easy escape as they had from Transcendence.

  The alarms on the ‘Light warned Sofia of the approaching fighter as its targeting scanners tried to lock onto the ship. Unfortunately Sofia was no combat pilot, unlike Jon and had absolutely no idea what to do, hence she did the only thing she could think of; she accelerated. Throwing full power to the engines she was pushed back hard into the pilot’s seat as the shuttle’s internal dampeners struggled to compensate. Taken by surprise, from the sudden acceleration, the fighter in pursuit fell behind, until it too accelerated to match speed, before slowly, inch by inch it started to close the gap.

  The warning chime of a missile starting to target them had Sofia urgently trying to shake Jon awake. The chime suddenly changed to a scream to indicate a missile launch!

  “Jon! Jon! Please wake up!” Sofia urgently shook him. “I don’t know what to do, help me. Please!” Whether it was her words, the rough shaking or the scream of the missile alarm, but finally Jon’s eyes seemed to focus on her own.

  “Top right,” he wheezed. “Ship’s tactical computer… code Alpha, Gamma, 2… 3. Automatic,” he stuttered, before another tremor shook his body.

  Sofia quickly hurried to follow his instructions, finding the correct panel on the flight controls and quickly entered the correct code. As if the ship had just been waiting for permission to slip its leash the moment she finished entering the code, the ship’s computer deployed the guns into their firing position, the rail-guns’ barrels spinning up to speed, calculating speed and trajectory of the incoming missiles. The minute the missiles came within range, the ship unleashed a barrage of gunfire. Targeting the closest missile first, the guns tracked the trajectory spitting out their lethal load, tearing into the first missile before seamlessly switching to the next. The second missile detonated barely one hundred meters from the shuttle. Meanwhile the guns swivelled to face the oncoming fighter; were they not controlled by an emotionless computer, an observer might think that the operator was anxiously waiting for the target to come within range.

  However, before the fighter could reach weapons range the Eternal Light reached minimum safe distance from the station for the FTL engines to engage and the ship jumped to light speed, leaving the final fighter to turn back in frustration, its quarry having escaped.

  *****

  It was barely a thirty-minute jump to the Eden system. Sofia spent the time in increasing desperation trying to keep Jon conscious and trying to stem the increasing flow of blood.

  The minute that the Eternal Light dropped out of FTL, Sofia activated the emergency distress beacon on the shuttle, uncaring about the attention that it might draw, knowing that if Jon did not receive emergency medical attention soon, it would not matter.

  “Jon,” she cried cradling his head on her lap on the floor of the shuttle. She had guessed that lying him flat on the floor might help stem the flow of blood from his chest. Unfortunately it only had limited effect and she could feel each beat of his heart, slowly getting weaker as the precious lifeblood drained from his body. “Look we finally made it, we’ve arrived, we are at Eden!”

  Jon’s eyes opened for an instant, focusing on the blue green orb that was floating outside, the two moons orbiting the planet unmistakably marking it as Eden Prime, political centre of the Empire and home of the Senate. Jon took one final breath before his eyes closed for good. Sofia bowed her head against his, her own tears mingling with his blood.

  *****

  Captain Turner, of the System Patrol Craft SPC Intrepid, had only started his shift barely twenty minutes, previously and was still on his first cup of coffee in the morning when the distress call arrived.

  “Sir, we are receiving an automated distress call,” the communications officer reported.

  “Location?” Turner asked in surprise. As the home of the Imperial Sena
te, the Eden system was one of the most heavily defended in the Empire, hence nothing of any interest ever happened.

  “Seems to be coming from out near the heliopause. Looks like the ship has just dropped out of FTL.”

  “OK, Helm, lay in a course,” Turner ordered, before turning back to the communications officer. “Try and raise them on a channel, find out who they are and what’s the nature of the emergency.”

  “The automated distress signal is broadcast ship identification and registry,” his Executive officer reported. “I’m running it through the ship registry on Eden Prime, we should have a match in a few moments…” Turner acknowledged his bridge officers, turning back to his coffee cup.

  “Sir,” the communications officer reported hesitantly. “I am in contact with a young woman on the ship. Sir, she claims that she is Princess Sofia Aurelius, daughter of…”

  “I know who Sofia Aurelius is,” Turner stated rolling his eyes with a smile. “This must be a prank! You remind this woman the penalty of wasting Imperial Navy time…”

  “Sir,” the communications officer reported. “The woman claims that she is accompanied by Commander Jonathan Radec, that he is badly injured and needs immediate medical attention.”

  Turner spitted out a mouthful of hot coffee over his immaculate white uniform. “Confirm that last communication, now!” he ordered. While Sofia Aurelius was a name known throughout the Empire, Commander Radec was not. Shunning the media spotlight he was never far from the Imperial family, intelligence reported that the Commander should have arrived weeks before, with the Praetorians escorting the Princess. If it was true that the Commander was on-board, then maybe that really was the Imperial Princess, and if Radec was badly hurt…Turner broke out in a cold sweat. It was well known throughout the fleet that the Emperor was fond of the head of the Praetorians. If Radec died on his watch…