“Yeah, why not? As long as none of you use the stun stick on me.”
“If you don’t try to escape, we won’t hurt you. You are the best chance for change that we have. Don’t piss off Brel Edd Senn though, he’s less committed to a nonviolent redistribution of power than most of us, but he’s our leader now.”
“The leader of the rebels?”
“Yes, that’s where we’re going, for you to meet him.”
“I’m not complaining, but the person you just shot…?”
“He is - was, a real bastard. One of Brel Edd Senn’s henchmen – and they are all men. He keeps them close to him and they do all his dirty work. Some of us have gone missing suddenly. The ones that stand up to Brel Edd Senn, the ones who have been in the rebel movement a long time and who have got a following. We always get told they have been taken by the Empire’s security people, but some of us doubt it and think they have become victims of people like Tarb Af Ack.”
“My AI identified him by his voice as a soldier in Major Bryd Sa Dett’s squad.”
“Yeah. He infiltrated the army a while back and managed to get into the Major’s unit. His job was to snatch you if he ever got the opportunity. When it was announced you were coming here – willingly, to see your father, this kidnap was planned. Some of us doubt that Brel Edd Senn is interested in persuading you to support the aims of the rebels when you get in power. He seems a bit too interested in being in charge himself.”
“And what makes you think I would support the rebels aims, and that I won’t tell what really happened to ingratiate myself with Brel Edd Senn?”
“Careful Hessy, you could turn this to your advantage, don’t piss her off.” Mike’s AI said.
“Don’t worry,” she subvocalized, “I know what I’m doing. And I wish you wouldn’t keep calling me Hessy. That was what I was called as a child.”
“You’ll always be a child to me.”
“And you’ll always be a pain in the arse to me.” she replied.”
The female captor replied to her, “Because you’ve spoken out against the current aristocratic structure and backed up those words by keeping away from Herassan space and evading being captured and returned to the Royal Court for so long. And, you have a reputation for fairness and protecting the disadvantaged with the Colonel’s army. If you’re not the person I think you are, it’s pretty much all over for us anyway.”
“Really, I didn’t know that was my reputation.”
“You also have a reputation for being rude, arrogant and violent.”
“You’re right. About the rude, arrogant and violent thing. And about the other thing as well. I saw more than enough of rampant greed and manipulation to screw the population while I was a child in the Royal Court. I don’t want to become First of The First although it seems inevitable that I will, but I am not going to be part of the corrupt and inbred elite that control the Empire right now. Everything is going to change. I can’t promise I would give you everything you want, but it will be a damn sight better than it is now!”
“If power is moved away from the center, change will come to make life fairer, if not better. That’s inevitable. So we’re on the same side then?”
“I’ll think about that,” Mike said, “but we’re not enemies.”
Mike felt hands at her neck. She lashed out and hit someone in the chest, knocking them back and kicked out, hoping to deliver a disabling kick, but swung through air, not connecting. The hands grasping her right arm had released her, she swung round and kicked out to hit the captor who had been holding her.
She heard a male voice from a few meters to her right, “You don’t seem to want to be on the same side, Sha Ast Ral was trying to remove the bag from your head.”
“Well that was stupid, not telling me what she was doing.” Mike replied staying in a half crouched attacking stance. She reached up to loosen the draw string, ready to defend herself if she needed to.
“You’re wasting your time with that.” the female said, sounding slightly breathless, “There is a lock on it which I was trying to undo.”
Mike continued to try to loosen the bag, but realizing the truth of what the female said, dropped her arms into a defensive stance.
“Your reputation for violence seems well deserved Hess An Sur. Being a good judge of what is happening doesn’t seem quite as well developed. Don’t you think that if I meant you harm I could have easily shot or stabbed you? Had you forgotten that we still have the stun stick?”
“So why did you want to remove the bag?” Mike asked.
“It occurred to me that if you are not a flight risk, it wasn’t needed, and that you would be more comfortable without it. Now, would you like it removed or are you happy having it on?”
“No I don’t want the bloody thing on. Take it off!”
“Your reputation for arrogance and rudeness is also well deserved.”
Mike sighed. “Sorry. Would you please remove the bag?” Mike said, with no contrition in her voice.
“As you’ve asked so nicely, but only if you promise not to attack me again.”
“Just take it off. Please.”
She heard someone move towards her, and felt hands at her neck again, then the bag was loosened and pulled off her head. She saw a lightly built Herassan female before her. “My name is Sha Ast Ral. You may call me Sha.” the female said. “May I call you Hess, or would you prefer First Born of the First?”
“Hess is fine.”
“Very well. This is Rad Em Forb,” she said, nodding at a slightly overweight male on Mike’s right, “and he,” indicating a short stocky male on her left, who was now leaning against the wall, holding his side, “is Fet Al Dron.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Mike asked him.”
“I wasn’t getting the better of Tarb Af Ack, I think I might have a cracked rib.”
“Let me look.”
“What do you know about injuries?” Sha Ast Ral asked.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in the front line in the army. I’m experienced in treating battlefield injuries, including my own.”
She walked over to Fet Al Dron. “Lift up your jacket so I can see. I’m not a magician.”
He lifted his jacket and Mike carefully examined the area that was troubling him, pressing in several places and asking if it hurt.”
She stood up and said, “You’re OK. It’s a bad bruise. If we can get you to a medibot you’ll be OK in an hour. Otherwise it will be tender for five or six days, then you’ll be fine.”
“When I was told we were going to kidnap you, I didn’t think I’d be getting first aid from the First Born of the First.” Fet Al Dron said.
“Don’t get too excited. A few minutes ago I was working out how to kill you quickly.”
“What, all by yourself?” he laughed.
“Without the bag on my head, and unarmed, I’d have you down in a couple of minutes. With a blade, a few seconds. With a pulse or KE weapon, you’d all be dead before you could blink.” Turning to the leader of the group, she continued, “If we’re going anywhere dangerous I’d better take point. You’ve lost one soldier; you don’t want to lose any more.”
“I don’t think so. We’re here to get you to Brel Edd Senn and we’re going to take you there. You can keep the bag off as long as you behave, but step out of line and it will be back on you, and if you think you’re that good at fighting, we’ll cuff you too.”
Mike sighed. “You don’t seem to understand. Things have changed now. I can use the rebel movement to help me get what I want. You work for me now. I need to meet with Brel Edd Senn to break the news to him.”
“No, you don’t understand. Brel Edd Senn doesn’t want to work with you. He certainly won’t work for you. He wants you out of the way so that when the First of the First abdicates, and all the signs are that he will do that fairly soon, there will be a power vacuum and we, the rebels, will move in and take power. I’m pretty sure that when he says ‘we’ will take power from the ar
istocracy, he means ‘he’ will take power. The best you can hope for is that he will keep you in a comfortable prison – unless the traditionalist rebels can take back control of the movement, and then you will be allowed to go free as soon as power has transferred to the people. Now get behind me and keep in line. Fet and Rad will be either side of you. If you’re any trouble you’ll get the wrong end of the stun stick or I’ll shoot you. If you can still walk afterwards I’ll have you cuffed and hooded with the bag again. Do you understand?”
Mike pursed her lips and stared at Sha Ast Ral for a moment, then in a lightening quick move punched her just below her breastbone and snatched the KE weapon out of her hands. In a swift flowing motion she swung round and kicked Fet Al Dron in the chest, lifting him off his feet and laying him out on the floor. Continuing round she swung the butt of the weapon up into the side of Rad Em Forb’s head.
Chapter Thirty Three
Power Adjustment
Mike stepped over to Fet Al Dron, picked up the stun stick and took a small dagger from him. She turned to Rad Em Forb and removed a short sword and a small hand held pulse weapon from his belt. Finally she moved over to Sha Ast Ral, who was now recovering from the blow to her solar plexus and beginning to sit up. She crouched down beside her and retrieved the blade that had been taken from her in the Palace escape tunnel. “I’ll let you keep your own blade. I don’t think you could do me much damage with it, do you?” She stood and held her hand out to Sha Ast Ral, who took it and pulled herself up.
Mike stepped over to Rad Em Forb, who was still laying on the floor. As she bent down he scrabbled with his hands on the floor and tried to push himself away from her. “Stay still!” she snapped at him. She took his head in her hands and looked at the bruise where she had hit him with the stock of the KE weapon
“You’ll have a lump come up there, but I only tapped you. You’ll be fine.” She handed him back his short sword. Holding her hand out to him she said, “Don’t try and draw it on me or I’ll have to kill you. I’ll keep your pulse weapon for now.” He grasped her hand and pulled himself up.
She got up and walked over to Fet Al Dron, who was getting to his feet, rubbing his chest where she had kicked him. “You’ll be OK. I only knocked you over.” She handed his dagger back to him. “I only took this to make a point. Get rid of it as soon as you can and get a proper blade. If you stab someone with that it will just annoy them.”
“Right,” Mike said, turning to address them all. “Now that unpleasantness is over, I’ll explain how this works. I’m in charge. If you choose to follow me, Sha, you’ll be my second in command. Fet, Rad, you two will be my personal guard and foot soldiers. The plan is, we reclaim the rebel movement for what you call the traditionalists. Hopefully we’ll do it peacefully, if not, we’ll do it the other way. Personally, I don’t care how we do it. You get one chance now. You either volunteer and you’re with me, or you can leave. You need to decide now. Sha, are you with me?”
Sha Ast Ral glowered at her, and after a pause, said through gritted teeth, “I’m with you.”
She looked at Fet Al Dron but before she could speak, he said “I’m with you.”
She turned to Rad Em Forb and said, “How about you Rad?”
He looked her with an angry look on his face and said, “You hurt me. You didn’t need to do that.”
“Stop whining. I didn’t even fracture your skull. Are you with me?”
“Yes, but only if you promise not to hit me again.”
“Grow up. I’ll take that as a yes. And I’ll try not to hit you again, but I’m not making any promises.” She tossed his hand-held pulse weapon over to him. “You might need this.
Turning to Sha Ast Ral, she handed the KE weapon back to her. “You need this more than I do. You were leading this group, what was your plan?”
“We are in a disused subway. Mass transit isn’t fashionable now. The steps lead to the main concourse, The entrance is sealed, but there is a doorway at the back that was an emergency exit. It’s now used by the maintenance bots and for occasional manual inspections. There’s a ground car waiting for us in the assembly area at the back. We were going to take you back in that to the rebel headquarters, but I’ll turn off the signal suppressors and you can call in your friends from the Colonel’s army.”
“No! Don’t turn them off. I can’t use the army, and your information is a bit out of date. The Colonel is now the General. She had to restructure now the army is so big.”
“I heard her army…”
“And my army.” Mike interrupted her. “I spent over a thousand years in Sally’s army. It’s part of me and I’m part of it.”
“OK,” Sha continued, “I heard your army had some kind of success while you were chasing the legend of Tk'ng Dach Rm.”
“A legend?”
“Yes. Everyone knows he doesn’t really exist. He’s just a bogeyman to frighten children with – and some of the more impressionable youngsters who join the army.”
“He exists all right. He’s flesh and blood and as real as you and me. He was, anyway. Until Mark killed him.”
Sha grinned. She was enjoying this. “And who is Mark? Another story made up to entertain children. Mark the giant slayer?” she laughed, but without much humor. “I think you’ve been breathing too much smoke with the other soldiers, telling each other scary stories during night watches. If you’re going to try and take over the rebel movement, you need to get your head together and start being able to tell the difference between fact and fiction.”
“You’ll find out I’m not prone to flights of fancy. Mark is a pre-emergent that Ker Din Ser Forn made a Friend of the People. Remember that fucking great big People’s ship up there that’s blocking off all the daylight to the city?”
“What about it? Is that Ker Din Ser Forn’s ship?”
“No, it’s Mark’s. He is a natural warrior, and now he’s been given the People’s tech, he is almost invincible. He fought Tk'ng Dach Rm in hand to hand combat, and as I trained him, he naturally won.”
“It’s a good story, but that’s all it is.” Sha sneered. “I hope your plan doesn’t revolve around a mythical pre-emergent super-soldier.”
Mike smiled. “No, I don’t want Mark, or the army involved, or this would be an alien invasion. This has to be done by us, the Herassan people, otherwise it will have no validity either in the eyes of the citizens of the Empire or by all the other civilizations in the galaxy. But when this is all over, if we are still alive, you’ll meet General Sally and Mark, Friend of the People, slayer of Tk'ng Dach Rm.”
“Yeah, well forgive me if I don’t believe it until I see it. What is this ‘Mark’ supposed to be anyway? Something like a Krendor?”
“No, he’s a mammal. A bit bigger than me.”
Sha laughed again, with real humor this time. “Now I know you’re joking. A mammal! A super soldier! What next? Does he ride into battle on a unicorn?”
Mike smiled at this. “No, he doesn’t have a unicorn, but, well, wait until you meet him.”
“I’m not sure that I should be following you if you believe these children’s stories.”
“Actions speak louder than words. I told you I could take you all down if I was unarmed in a couple of minutes. When it came to action, I took you all in a couple of seconds. I can give you a re-match if you like, or we can stop dicking about and get on with it. But, if you don’t want to be part of it, you can leave now. No hard feelings.”
Sha grunted, then said, “I’ll stick with you for the time being, you are the First Born of the First. What’s your plan?”
“My plan is your plan, to start with. We get in the ground car and you take me to Brel Edd Senn. It’s may get a bit bloody at that point. Are there any rebels you trust who we can call on?”
“You might have got the wrong idea about us. We’re not soldiers. The rebel movement has always concentrated on winning hearts and minds. It’s only since Brel Edd Senn got involved that we’ve become more of a milita
nt organization, and the only rebels that are inclined to fight are Brel Edd Senn’s henchmen. He seems to have picked out the biggest, strongest and ugliest Herassans to be the hard core of his supporters. They are all armed and it’s best not to argue with them or get in their way. So if you’re thinking about getting an armed squad to go in there with you, I don’t have anyone for you, and to be honest, the three of us won’t be able to do much to back you up.”
“Shit! That’s going to make it more difficult. Let me think about that on the way to the ground car. For someone who’s not a soldier, you took out Tarb Af Ack without much thought.”
“Oh I’d given it a lot of thought. I don’t like any of Brel Edd Senn’s cronies, but Tarb Af Ack was his main fixer. He always seems to be one of the last people seen with any of the rebels who disappeared after crossing Brel Edd Senn. Even before he started using the stun stick on you I was suspicious of Brel Edd Senn’s motives for sending Tarb Af Ack with us. I doubt you would have reached the rebel base alive, or us either. Something bad was going to happen on our way back, something deniable. Probably an ‘accident’ in the ground car which would have killed us all apart from Tarb Af Ack who would have a ‘lucky’ escape.”
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