Power Games

by David Applegate

  Andre took the head from Ash and put it in the middle of the desk and ripped the primary storage drive out of the sockets. He handed it to Avi and went to the office of the security officer and ripped the storage drive out of the computer.

  Silently they followed him to the car. Andre enjoyed their fear; It excited him. They could not get the images of him chewing on the Nāga’s nipple out of their mind. Andre regretted not having more time. But soon after they left the Embassy, Pilu’s assassins arrived. Andre regretted not being able to see the look on the Ambassador’s face when he saw what he had done to his precious Nāga.

  They drove to the far side of the airport and stopped near a warehouse. Andre got out and popped the trunk and turned to Avi and Ash.

  “Bring the box and the two drives,” Andre said, as he slipped the security badge around his neck.

  They descended into service tunnels beneath the city. Many of the pipes had no markings on them. After a long walk, Andre eventually led Ash and Avi to a grate which he lifted to reveal a ladder.

  Andre glared at them. Ash and Avi avoided eye contact and climbed down. Andre took a few steps down and pulled the grate over and covered the manhole. He looked down and saw Ash and Avi in the darkness. They descended to an extensive tunnel network.

  The tunnels were well lit. There were many homes, shops, bars, and even a brothel cut into the rock. Andre didn’t stop to look at the pale Elves in their underwear as they danced in the window of the brothel. He stepped into the dark alley beside it and went down many flights of stairs.

  Tired, Ash and Avi followed Andre to a cavern with a massive well in the middle, water from the roof dripped into it, it was a few seconds before they heard the splash of water. Andre walked around the safety rails.

  Ash looked down into the well and said, “It’s huge.”

  “I wonder what these are for?” Avi asked.

  “It is a water trap, they prevent the tunnels from flooding,” Andre replied.

  “Really?” Ash asked.

  “We are below sea level when it rains; the water flows in the gutters, and down into the wells. Most of the water is pumped out to sea,” Andre said.

  “Only most?” Avi asked.

  “The deep dwellers keep them half full. They dive into them for fun and use the water to irrigate the underground farms.”

  Andre stopped talking and stared into the dark. He felt the warmth of many living creatures approaching from in front of him, as well as from behind. As he saw the glow of many Elves in front of him, he turned to his comrades and said, “I will do the talking. You two, don’t move.”

  Andre turned and held up his quarterstaff. He knelt, placed it at his feet and stood with his arms open.

  Ash and Avi shivered as three figures stepped out of the dark. They were nearly two metres tall, in dark grey hoodies and tracksuit pants. All of them pulled out long curved blades.

  “I’m Andre Barbaro, captain of the Bloody Knife, and I am here to speak with the Night Queen,” Andre said as he stepped towards the trio.

  “No night queen here,” the first Mountain Elf said as she stabbed at his chest.

  Andre sidestepped the stab and hit her open palm under the chin. He held out his hand, and his quarterstaff flew up to it. He tapped the Mountain Elf of the head with the quarterstaff as he cast Stun. Unable to move, the elf fell over.

  The other two rushed in, Andre turned his quarterstaff horizontal and stepped between them. He cast Stun and hit them both, at the same time, in the chest with his quarterstaff. He stunned them both. Unable to move, they both fell over.

  Ash and Avi turned. “I told you don’t move,” Andre said. Ash and Avi stepped back, they saw behind them a large group of Elves, some black, some white, some tall, some short, but all of them wore the same dark grey hoodies and tracksuit pants.

  A hooded figure approached them. Andre could see the wand in her hand.

  “I am-”

  “Pilu reported The Bloody Knife lost with all hands,” the figure said.

  “Caesar Pilu kept me in the embassy under guard,” Andre replied.

  The figure looked past Andre and asked, “Why shouldn’t we kill you now?”

  “I want to speak with the Night Queen. I have valuable information.”

  “Speak. For the Night Queen sees all and hears all,” many voices said.

  Andre walked towards the tunnel and looked up to the camera and said, “The Nāga had me scan stars. I remember which ones. All of them binary blues joined by a vortex.”

  The elf walked over to Andre and said, “We know they are searching for more sources of antimatter. Your information is worthless.” She pointed her wand at his chest and asked, “You need to do better?”

  “We were not scanning for antimatter. We were using tachyon pulses to see if any had space station bases inside of them.”

  “Nice try, but the Nāga do not have tachyon technology.”

  “They do not have a copy of my readings, but the Empire does.”

  The elf gasped then nodded. “It is worth keeping you alive for a while.”

  “You should know the Elves have the Soul Sword, and that has the Nāga scared.”

  The elf raised an eyebrow, leaned in and whispered, “You may live, but we have no use for them.”

  “They are my crew, and we have these,” Andre said as he took the hard drives, “Fresh from the Embassy, two drives for two lives.”

  The elf paused, then she nodded. “They are your responsibility.”

  Two Elves came over, and Andre handed one of them the drives, took the identity card and put it on the device and said, “You will need this to unlock them.”

  The female elf who had first spoken beckoned over her shoulder as she walked away. Andre turned to Ash and Avi and said, “Come.”

  ✽✽✽

  Four Ogres in black robes with red trim stood with the Ogre Ambassador. He stared at the head on his desk.

  “He is too dangerous to capture alive,” one said.

  “Did you have to kill the others?” The Ambassador asked.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “Before Caesar has all our heads on his mantle, you better find and silence Andre,” the Ambassador said.

  The assassins turned and left.

  ✽✽✽

  Andre sat in the back of a warehouse near the airport, a Field Elf came and asked, “Why did you leave the car nearby?”

  “To get your attention.”

  She nodded and said, “The Night Queen wants you to run a small space station for her. It has a Goblin crew, and they get rowdy often. It will be up to you and your henchmen to keep them in line.”

  “Why?” Andre asked without looking up.

  “We need to hide you. The Ogre embassy has reported Ash and Avi as deserters wanted for killing the head of security after he caught them robbing his office.”

  “What sort of station?”

  “The primary function is an intelligence operation, but it has a few repair bays we use for our smuggling operations. Our ships come and go via the dark dimension, make sure you do nothing to draw attention to yourselves.”

  “I hate Goblins, they stink.”

  “We need a place to hide you and to be frank; you smell worse than any Goblin.”

  “I am not an engineer nor a spy.”

  “You’re not much of a captain, either.”

  “I am a high ranking-”

  The elf interrupted him. “You’re a distant cousin of Caesar Pilu, a political appointee and now an embarrassment he wants to go away,” she said. She pointed to the ground and said, “permanently.” She stepped closer and said, “The Brotherhood has put a million on your head. Word is you killed a Nāga.”

  “It was either my life or hers.”

  “You’re lucky we hate the Nāga more than we hate Ogres,” she said. She turned, and as she walked away, called out, “Come.”

  “Where are we going?” Andre asked as he ran up to her.

  “We a
re not going anywhere. You and your friends are leaving soon. First, we pack you inside a cargo container; it will not be comfortable, and all we have for you is emergency spacesuits. Normally we smuggle goods in, not out. Once at 100 AU out, we will shoot the container into space with a short-range locator beacon. Another ship will soon come and collect you. It will take you to our base.”

  “I see,” Andre said.

  “Now about that location?”

  “Once aboard your ship, I will need access to the navigation charts for the Dark Nebula, I will give you all the details of the stars I scanned, and the locations of the Nāga bases.”

  “Are you worried we will hand you to the Brotherhood or the Nāga?”

  “I know you will not hand me over. But I am worried about Ash and Avi. They are my loyal lieutenants,” Andre said as he glanced at the two worried Ogres behind him.

  “If you are not lying, we will transfer all three of you to our base.”

  “Will you permit us to be armed?” Andre asked. He pointed over his shoulder at Ash and Avi. They remained silent and tried not to look worried, as Andre said, “Those two will need more than fists with a large group of Goblins.”

  “We shall return your quarterstaff and their weapons, but we prefer it if you didn’t use any deadly force,” the elf said.

  Andre grinned and said, “We will trade some of our weapons for some stun guns, pain inducers, shock collars, and a torture helmet.”

  “Agreed,” she said. She stepped forward and said, “If you contact anyone, the deal is off. There are many bounty hunters out to get you.”

  “Understood.”

  “Do you have any locations of Brotherhood bases?”

  “I am aware you are fighting a war, and I will tell you everything I know about the Nāga. But know this. I will not help you wipe out my people. I want to liberate them from The Nāga. With them defeated, my people will be free.”

  “The Ogres betrayed us and sided with the Nāga.”

  “Most of the space-born only fight for the Nāga because they do not want to be enslaved by the Dökkálfar.”

  “Are you aware Caesar Pilu is working for the Nāga? He has the space-born collecting exotic matter to pay for ships so he can go to war against the Empire.”

  “Why do you care?” a confused Andre asked.

  “You didn’t know?”

  “No,” Andre replied. Even more confused, he frowned and asked, “What happened?”

  “The Empire attacked some of your bases, destroyed many ships, captured at least a dozen of your ships and mobile construction docks.”

  Shocked, Andre asked, “How many?”

  “They wiped out six bases. The Nāga said the information could have only come from you.”

  Andre gasped. Yes, somehow, they captured my ship. Andre stepped towards the elf and asked, “One of our ships can take on at least two, no three, of their cruisers. The Elves must have had help. Did you help them?”

  “Ha! We do not need them to fight our battles.”

  “How did they take out all six bases?”

  “They had communication codes and convinced the Ogres they were a Nāga fleet and took out the defenders at point-blank range.”

  “If that is true. the information came from me, to be precise from my ship.”

  “If they have it, it is likely at Haven.”

  “Will you give my people a chance?”

  “Help us, and we will give them one chance, but if they attack us, we have to defend ourselves.”

  Andre nodded.

  Chapter 7

  September 7, 11,571. Imperial Palace.

  The lights came on in the throne room. Admiral Niemi stood beside the big screen on the wall opposite the Senators. Takahiro sat on his throne and turned it to face the screen. The display showed Elven patrol boats escorting six black ships.

  “That concludes my report on Operation Dark Nebula,” Niemi said. “The fleet is returning to Haven. In the last raid, we captured six pirate vessels intact and two mobile construction docks. We will transport prisoners to prisons on the ice planet of New-Iceland IV.”

  “Thank-you,” Takahiro said. He tapped the tablet attached to his chair, and the dais turned to face the senators while Viktor took his seat. “I have feared this day would come. It is worse than I had expected.”

  “How could we have missed that many Ogres in the Dark Nebula?” Dain asked.

  “I remind everyone we do not have a regular patrol near the edge of the Dark Nebula because of the dangers of collision with dark clouds,” Viktor said.

  “I think we must do our best to avoid the conflict in the Dark Nebula,” Takahiro said.

  “Why?” Arjuna asked.

  “Arjuna, we have damaged the pirates, but I see no reason to stop two enemies from fighting each other,” Takahiro said.

  “A war we know almost nothing about,” Dain remarked.

  “We cannot send out stealth ships in the Nebula, as the dark clouds will do extensive damage to them. Besides, the Ogres do not have a mass communication system for us to intercept,” Takahiro said.

  “How long will it take you to build a ship that could enter the Dark Nebula and spy on them?” Viktor asked.

  “It will take us a few years,” Takahiro replied.

  “We should prepare our defences,” Dain said.

  Argon and Adalwulf nodded in agreement, Takahiro stroked his beard. “We must not overreact, if we build new orbital defence stations, it could invite an attack,” Takahiro said.

  “We must do something. There may be billions of space-born Ogres living in the Dark Nebula,” Viktor said.

  “The Ministry of Population, Society and Culture have underestimated the population of the space-born Ogres, and we have no idea how many Dökkálfar or Nāga there are,” Patya said, “We must find out how many systems they occupy.”

  “It is impossible to conduct a census of the space-born, we base the projected population on population growth of Ogres since the first settlement of Nu Kōnstantinoúpolis,” Arjuna said.

  “Your formulas are wrong. You saw the report, over a hundred ships under construction, along with a dozen space stations. Fortunately, they did not have adequate defences, and the fleet caught them off guard,” Patya said.

  “They only have a few ships, and almost no defences,” Viktor said. “But we knew that, and that is why we struck.”

  “We should conduct more raids before they can organise a counter-attack,” Yaotl said.

  “Are you suggesting we order the Navy to exterminate the Space Born Ogres?” Árni asked.

  “No. I am suggesting we should have attacked more locations,” Yaotl replied.

  Takahiro stood up and said, “No. We made it clear this was retaliation for the attacks on the Exodus ships.”

  “What will we do to protect the Exodus ships?” Dain asked.

  “Plot a new route to avoid the Dark Nebula further and have the Navy patrol it with a large flotilla,” Takahiro replied.

  “What about the Nāga and the Dökkálfar?” Patya asked.

  “Both will be difficult to monitor. The location of the Nāga is in the Hyades, and the Dökkálfar are inside the Dark Nebula.” Takahiro replied.

  “We need intelligence on them,” Dain said.

  “I can send a task force of my stealth ships to study the Nāga, but the Dökkálfar are out of our reach for now. It is too dangerous for us to send ships into the Nebula,” Takahiro said.

  “Once again, we rely on your privateer fleet,” Dain said. “What about the Navy?”

  “We need more front-line ships,” Viktor said.

  “Do you have the facilities to build any?” Rudolf asked.

  “Yes, we are working on upgrading the Lightning-Class Patrol Cruiser able to take on the Ogre’s warship,” Viktor replied.

  “What about the hyperdrive?” Takis asked.

  “Almost ready,” Takahiro said.

  “When will it be ready?” Viktor asked.

  �
��We are not sure. We need to resolve navigation issues,” Takahiro replied.

  “What about missiles for my planes?” Rudolf asked.

  “Yes, Patya, any progress?” Takahiro asked.

  “We will soon be ready to go into production,” Patya replied.

  “Good,” Takahiro said, “I propose we let our enemies destroy each other to buy the time we need to build and develop new ships. But we must bring the last Exodus Fleet home.”

  Many applauded.

  ✽✽✽

  Kaede sat on the sofa in his room, reading on his tablet. Izanami lay beside him on the couch. He glanced at her, and she asked, “What are you doing?”

  “What’s wrong?” Kaede asked.

  Izanami got up, adjusted her skirt and stormed off.

  Sora and Akiko came over and said, “Don’t bother Kaede; she is in a foul mood.”

  Kaede glanced at Izanami. “Hey, don’t look at me like that!” Izanami barked.

  Kaede shrugged and went into his kitchen. Sora went after him, while Akiko grabbed Izanami.

  “Hey!” Izanami said.

  “Sit down,” said Akiko as she pushed Izanami back onto the sofa.

  ✽✽✽

  In the kitchen, Sora came over Kaede, “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  Sora picked up the tablet, on the screen was a book, ‘How to choose a prime,’ Sora swiped the screen to the trash bin and selected permanent delete. She said, “Oops, I hope it wasn’t anything important.”

  Kaede smiled and pressed confirm on the delete.

  Sora put the tablet down and said, “Read comics on your own time, Mako and Miko will be here soon, and we didn’t come over to watch you read.”

  “All you do is do each other’s hair and talk about clothes, makeup, and schoolwork.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “Dance.”

  “All right, you can dance with Izanami while we talk.”

  “Do you prefer dancing with Akiko?”

  Sora blushed and replied, “No.”