The Smuggler's Ascension

by Christopher Ingersoll

  The silence that fell was palpable, as every eye turned to Kristof standing along the wall next to Max. Sabine looked upon her husband as he endured their stares, suddenly unable to feel his thoughts as he stepped forward.

  Kristof had chosen a black and grey suit that Sabine had ordered made for him even before they had been joined. The cut of the suit and its colors resembled those colors and styles of the uniform often favored by the Su’Tani, but which was obviously ridiculously expensive from its tailoring and materials. Kristof had objected at first, not used to such fine clothing, but after she had explained that it was now necessary if he wished for the noble families to take him seriously as her husband, he had relented.

  Sabine nodded to him as Kristof stepped forward to address the assemble nobles. His beard and moustache had been trimmed short, and his hair combed and tamed from its usual wild appearance. His pale green eyes remained fierce, however, and some among the nobles flinched as that fierce gaze passed over the group.

  “Let me start by saying that I know there are many among you that will continue to have a hard time accepting my marriage to the Queen,” Kristof began, his voice showing signs of a deep underlying anger. “In time you will come to accept it and even approve, I hope. Know though that we do not require you to like it, only that you accept it.” Several grumbles of disapproval greeted his pronouncement.

  “I am not here to rule over you,” Kristof continued, ignoring the grumblers in the audience. “Queen Sabine shall remain your one true ruler, I have no desire to be King. I am here to support her rule, and I must say that I love her with all that I am, and I will defend her and her honor from any and all dangers and attempts to dishonor or harm her.” The last was said with a touch of a threat that silenced any further objections. Sabine noted to herself that she would need to try and polish out some of his rough edges if he intended to speak in public again. The noble families were not used to such barely veiled threats, though she laughed inwardly at the looks on many of the nobles’ faces.

  “The dangers ahead of us are greater than any you have known,” Kristof went on as the audience sat in rapt attention. “There is much we cannot tell you freely here and now, for there is always the chance for spies to be among us, whether it be a person or a planted device. I do not question your integrity, for you are all of noble birth and above reproach, but we cannot also so vouch for your maids, your valets, and any number of others who may overhear a misplaced word in the coming days. It is vital that our enemy does not learn how much we know, or how we will seek to defend ourselves. It is enough to know, and for our enemy to know if he does indeed learn it, that I AM the ak’Sun Su’Tani, the Lord Defender of the Light, and I will defend this world, its people, and my dear wife, to the last bit of strength given to me.”

  Silence fell as Kristof’s speech ended, and then to Sabine’s eternal surprise, the room erupted in applause and cheers. Subat was clearly taken by surprise as he shared a look with Sabine, and Kristof’s mischievous wink that followed baffled her even more. Kristof walked to her and offered her his hand, and she rose from her throne and looked up into his eyes, and he leaned down and kissed her as the noble houses of Purannis cheered them wildly.

  ~*~

  ~35~

  “I don’t understand what the hell just happened in there at the end,” Sabine was saying as she led Kristof, Subat, and the other members of their inner circle into the royal apartments for a council of war. Max shut the doors behind them, leaving the ever present contingent of guards to take up stations in the corridors outside, while Max himself stood guard over the door inside and looked on.

  Kristof went to a bar along the wall and poured himself a drink as he watched everyone get settled in various seats. Sabine was too wound up to sit still, he saw, and she paced the room. He couldn’t help but admire the way the gown she had chosen for the presentation of him as her husband to the court moved as she moved. She had purposely chosen a form fitting gown in royal red that accentuated all of those features that she had stated many times the women of the court found lacking. The gown had the effect of distracting Kristof greatly whenever he dwelled on it, and he reluctantly tore his gaze away from her in order to regather his thoughts.

  “Those people were on the verge of open rebellion at times at the idea of Kristof as my husband, not to mention the thought of him being the ak’Sun Su’Tani,” Sabine went on as she came to stand before Kristof, “And then a short speech from you later and they are all cheering.” Sabine stared up into Kristof’s face, an accusation remaining unspoken on her lips.

  “I cheated,” Kristof admitted after a moment.

  “You cheated?” Sabine asked, obviously confuse. “You cheated. How the hell did you ‘cheat’ in there?”

  Kristof found his wife absolutely adorable when she was angry, but he decided she would not appreciate his smile just then at her confusion and irritation.

  “When I was a smuggler before the Bonibus disaster,” Kristof began, “I often had trouble convincing people that the cause was worthy and that they should donate the needed supplies or weapons for those fighting the oppression of the Clovani Empire. It was always Anasha who turned the tide in that effort. I had no idea at the time that she was Su’Tani, all I knew was that she had a way about her that was able to sway people to her point of view.” Kristof looked to Subat for support.

  “My daughter, Anasha, was a gifted empath,” Subat told the assembled group. “More than that, though, she was able to use her gift of feeling peoples’ emotions to ‘touch’ them, as she once described it, and modify their emotions. Often the changes she brought about were ones those people wished to act on already but were fearful, so her mental touch was more of a nudge to move them in a direction they already wanted to go. She told me once that it was much harder to ‘nudge’ people in a direction they did not want to go, but it could be done. I’ve never known anyone else with that particular gift, so I can’t offer much more about it.” Subat looked at Kristof as he said “She also told me, though, that she could only do it to one or two people at a time.”

  “So you somehow ‘nudged’ the entire royal court?” Sabine accused Kristof.

  “More or less,” Kristof admitted with a grin. “The knowledge how to do it was there in my mind after last night,” he went on. “I could feel a great amount of fear in that room. Much of the anger directed at our marriage was actually to cover their fear of the armada on the frontier. They needed something to believe in right then, so I called upon the power that was unlocked within me last night and pushed them over the edge to believing in us.”

  Kristof could tell that Sabine was struggling with anger at the idea of his manipulating the royal houses, but he also knew that she shared Anasha’s memories as well, and that his telling of her use of the ability would have awoken those memories in her mind. Kristof struggled himself with this peculiar loss of sense of self and the presence in his mind of memories that belonged to both Anasha and Sabine. They both were quite literally three souls combined into one being inhabiting two bodies. It was enough to drive one mad if he thought on it too long.

  Sabine laughed after a few moments, and the tension left the room. Kristof helped Subat pass drinks around the room as Sabine finally settled on a stool at the end of the bar near to him.

  “Not everyone in that room cheered or seemed to be all that ‘nudged’, as you say,” Sabine’s grandfather, Admiral Geoff Arctura, stated after everyone was settled. “The Houses of Brondus and Kovington did not look happy at all at your union or the pronouncement of a new ak’Sun Su’Tani.”

  “Count Brondus has often allied with Grand Duke Duranis in the People’s Senate,” Prime Minister Rossada offered. The Prime Minister had proven himself loyal when he thwarted Grand Duke Michal Duranis’s brief bid to control the throne after the assassination of Sabine’s mother, and he had been asked to join their council to provide political insights into the Great Houses and the people they ruled.

  “Why wo
uld Baron Kovington not be with us though?” Sabine asked. “He is family, my father’s uncle to be exact.”

  Prime Minister Rossada offered the most reasonable explanation to this as well.

  “As you are childless at present, Your Majesty,” Rossada explain, “the Baron legally stands at the head of the line of succession to the throne should something happen to you. I suspect he does not care to think you may be with child soon now that you are married.”

  “I hate politics,” Sabine said acidly.

  “I take it you haven’t had a warm and fuzzy relationship with your great uncle,” Max suggested from his post at the door.

  “Not particularly,” Sabine replied, annoyed at the android’s peculiar perception in this. “My mother once accused him of being a pedophile when she had drank a bit too much at a family gathering one time when I was eight or nine. She said it a bit too loudly, maybe yelled it might be better, and from then forward her and my great uncle did not speak and I was not allowed near him. My father was furious with my mother over the whole affair, and I never learned if it was true or not.”

  “That hardly seems reason for him to have been happy at her demise,” Kristof added with a touch of sarcasm. “Are we sure he wasn’t part of the plot?”

  “I have no doubt he was not too heartbroken over Queen Josephine’s death,” Subat said. “But I have sensed no deceit from him or any of the others since we have returned. I have made a point of placing myself in close proximity to all of the members of the noble houses that remain on Purannis to be sure there were no hidden agents left behind by Grand Duke Michal.”

  “Well that’s good to know,” General Mannis added. “If they pose no immediate threat, then I suggest we ignore them for now and seek a way to turn away the Clovani threat.”

  All agreed, and a general debate of various options began. Kristof only half listened. His thoughts instead drifted back to the past when Anasha led him back from the edge of death. She had told him it was up to him to stop his father, and no one else. Also, Subat’s own vision had seen him aboard his father’s flagship, hands bound, followed by nothing but light. The debate in the room about attacks and counter attacks seems like nonsense to him, though he knew these people needed to at least feel involved.

  Sabine left her stool and came to stand before him. She took his hands in hers and peered up into his eyes, perhaps sensing his thoughts. Since the Binding, they had been closer than ever, so he guess she probably did know what he was thinking.

  “What is it?” Sabine asked Kristof, her voice cast low so no one else would hear.

  “Gentlemen,” Kristof said, his gaze still lost in Sabine’s eyes. “I do not believe the answer to our problem lies with ships and strategies.”

  “What have you seen, my son?” Subat asked as he joined Sabine and him at the bar.

  “It is more about what you have seen, father of my spirit” Kristof said somewhat formally, finally turning his gaze away from Sabine’s eyes to look at Subat. “I must face the father of my blood directly,” Kristof announced. “Whatever the solution is, I will find it there, not here.”

  Silence fell as they all considered the implications of Kristof’s statement. Sabine embraced Kristof tightly, clearly fearing the thought that he might soon leave her. In his heart, Kristof had seen that it was more than just a brief separation that was coming, but he could not bring himself to tell her. He guarded the vision tightly in his mind so she would not pick it up on her own, and hoped he could do what he needed to in order to ultimately save her life.

  ~*~

  ~36~

  Sabine could sense that Kristof was keeping something from her that evening, but whatever it was he was keeping it tightly sealed in his mind. Even their newfound closeness gave her no insight into his thoughts. The war council had broken up soon after Kristof’s cryptic statement, with Prime Minister Rossada tasked with sending a message to the Clovani armada stating the Queen’s Consort wished to meet face to face to discuss terms to resolve the current hostilities.

  Not even Subat had been able to give Sabine any insight into Kristof’s mind when, during a brief moment apart, she had asked her mentor if he knew what Kristof had in mind. Instead, Subat had told her that, according to the legends, those chosen as the ak’Sun Su’Tani often saw many timelines at once and would become distant to those around them as they sought out the proper course of action through a myriad of options. This knowledge had done little to calm her concerns, however.

  “You’re quiet this evening, my love,” Sabine said softly as she nestled her way into his arms. The warmth of his body against hers chased away the chill that had begun to creep into her heart at the thought of him leaving her soon.

  “I’m sorry, my love,” Kristof responded quietly. “I am not looking forward to seeing my father again. We have never been all that close, and we did not part on very good terms.”

  “When did you see him last?” Sabine asked, glad that he was at last talking.

  “On Bonibus,” Kristof said after a long silence, “at the prison.”

  Silence returned as Sabine sensed Kristof struggling to find the words for what was racing through his head. Finally, he broke the silence, his voice low.

  “You know that I am Clovani, yes?” Kristof began, and Sabine nodded against his chest as she listened to the beat of his heart along with his words. “I was the weapons officer aboard the cruiser Hammer when a Puranni freighter’s hyperdrive dumped them across the border into our space. The Captain of the Hammer was an unmitigated ass eager for promotion and possessing an overinflated notion of his own skills. He dismissed the freighter captain’s claims as lies and declared him to be a smuggler; after which he ordered me to fire on, and destroy, the freighter. My sensors clearly showed the telltale signs of a malfunctioning hyperdrive, so I refused the order.”

  Kristof laughed unexpectedly.

  “I suppose I owe the freighter captain and crew a debt of gratitude,” Kristof said after his laughter trailed off. “I had been itching for a reason to strike the Captain ever since I had been assigned to the Hammer. When the Captain began shouting in my face about court martial and firing squads, I punched him so hard that the ship’s surgeon had to fuse his jaw back together and regrow three of his teeth as well as fix his arm that broke in his fall. In the ensuing madness on the bridge of the Hammer, the freighter crew must have made some emergency repairs because they were gone by the time anyone thought to look for them.”

  “I was arrested, of course,” Kristof went on. “I would have probably spent twenty to thirty years in a Clovani military prison after it was learned the Captain was the Emperor’s nephew, but my father intervened. Admiral Ethan Anders, my father, came to me as I sat in a cell awaiting the trial verdict and told me that the family name would not be dishonored by my actions. He informed me then that I had been formally disowned and was no longer a member of the Anders family. I was also dishonorably discharged from the military and told to leave Clovani space; a final gift, he told me, rather than having me sit in a prison poisoning the family name.”

  “That’s horrible,” Sabine said sadly. “Your father should have defended you, not turned on you.”

  “My father was all about duty, honor, and advancing the family legacy,” Kristof told her. “At the time, he did not blame me so much as he did the freighter and its crew for creating the situation in the first place. Very irrational logic, I know. I think that is where his hatred of your people began. My marriage to Anasha guaranteed that hatred, however.”

  “But she was an amazing woman,” Sabine objected, as memories of the woman flashed through her head courtesy of the Binding ritual.

  “My father believes in racial purity, and he also blamed her for all of my crimes that followed, and everything that happened on Bonibus,” Kristof explained. “When my father came to Bonibus and learned of my crimes and that my wife had been Puranni, he flew into a rage, again blaming the Puranni people for bringing his son low, and once again
staining the family honor even though he had disowned me years ago. He vowed to one day avenge the family honor, and here we are today. It’s never really occurred to him that Anasha was Su’Tani and not really Puranni, not that I think he cared at that point.”

  “That’s insane,” Sabine objected, while feeling a great sadness for Kristof, who had lost and endured so much over the years. Family, career, and love had all been taken from him over the years. She was glad to finally be able to bring some love back into this man’s life, a man who desperately needed and deserved it.

  “Hatred and bigotry are never very rational, my love,” Kristof laughed. “In the end, it was all of these things that brought me to both Anasha and then to you, and now the three of us are joined forever. How could I ever wish to do anything differently?”

  Sabine lifted her head from Kristof’s chest and kissed him deeply as his arms wrapped around her tightly, and he returned her kiss in kind. She would have gladly stayed that way all night, but the communications panel beeped from the desk nearby. Sabine knew that only a select few from the high command and the Prime Minister had access to that particular line. Rising reluctantly from Kristof’s lap reluctantly, Sabine went to the desk and switched on the monitor. Prime Minister Rossada’s white haired image greeted her.

  “My pardons for intruding, Your Majesty,” Rossada began, “but you wished to know immediately when the Clovani responded. As instructed, I sent the request while omitting your husband’s name. Admiral Anders has consented to meet with the Royal Consort of the Queen two days hence aboard his command ship, the Wrath of Clovani, at its position along the frontier. Our envoy has been instructed to come alone and unarmed, as we expected.” The Prime Minister paused before continuing. “Your Majesty, I must again object to this course of action. Should anything happen, we will have no way to provide assistance to your husband.”