by Jim Rudnick
The girl in pink took one more step and her camera was once again centering on Tanner, when the Duke dove on top of him trying to protect him and the next bullet caught the Duke in the back as he fell on top of Tanner.
EliteGuards were suddenly all over them all, knocking down Helena too and others were gathering up the Baroness, while others were using their stunners to mow down the MEDIA from end to end. They fell where they fell and were quickly surrounded by more EliteGuards who were lining up the paralyzed bodies and beginning to pat them down for the weapon.
Beneath the pileup on the stage, Dr. Etter paid no attention to anyone and fought with the EliteGuards to get to Tanner.
“Doctor—I’m a god damn Doctor,” he screamed at them and that got him some traction.
Moments later, at Tanner’s side, he took one look at him, taking his pulse from his neck and screamed for first aid. He also did the same pulse check for the Duke, but that was a lost cause as the Royal lay on his side a dead man.
He jostled Helena and got a good response but she was in shock, as troops of med team people showed up with gurneys of anti-grav plates and quickly under his direction, got Tanner up and on one and he then had time to look at the Master Adept.
The single shot—the first one it appeared had caught her directly in the heart. She was dead, he said to a med tech and he sat there on his knees, wondering what had just happened in less than half a minute.
Three shots—two dead and Tanner hanging on but barely.
“STAT, STAT he screamed at the meds handling the gurney “he needs a robo-doc cardiologist settings STAT!” he screamed and leaned forward to bury his face onto the carpeted altar…
Marriage….and death…he said to himself…
#####
The Baroness was fuming again and even Helena couldn’t settle her down as easily as last time.
“My god, child. An assassin opened up on your husband and you are preaching to do nothing? Just hold her in the EliteGuards jail cell, and let time go by?” she said and she picked up her tea cup and threw it across the room. It smashed on the wall and the shower of pieces down onto the tiled floor of the small parlor was noisy.
Helena nodded.
“I took the time to sit with you to yes, discuss this assassin, one Gia Scott who appears to be Tanner’s sister. What to do with her is easy—let her sit in jail till he is better. I do non counsel any kind of mistreatment. I do not counsel death either—as it appears that one or the other are what you’re after…” she said and she drank heavily again from her coffee.
Sleep, she said. I need sleep. It had been barely fifteen hours since the shooting last evening, and she’d of course not gotten to bed either. There was the whole taking of Tanner up to the Barony Hospital ship and getting him the best medical care possible. The best cardiologist in the realm met them there and after a quick inspection of the gun shot wound, he was tucked into the best robo-doc on the ship, settings made, diagnosis's made and validated and the tank was closed up to begin the slow process of healing Tanner.
She had sat there straight for over ten hours. She had had so many coffees that while she was still awake and alive, her nerves were shot.
That was her husband in there, she realized.
She wanted the assassin dead. Deader than dead.
But that was her own wants.
What Tanner might want would be different, and she was determined to allow that to occur.
He would be in the tank for over ten days it appeared.
Then he’d need rest and gentle recuperation for up to six more weeks the cardiologist had said. Ordered, in fact and she had been pleased to say that would happen for sure. She ordered him to clean up his own affairs, assemble a team of support personnel no matter what the size or cost and make arrangements to go to Bottle with she and her husband. They’d look after Tanner for the first six weeks on Bottle and she would personally look after all the details. He had been oddly struck by that, but nodded.
“First time I ever got invited on a Honeymoon,” he said and the joke was poorly received.
He pardoned himself and said it would be so and then she’d left the Hospital ship as she had to now attend the Baroness down in the palace in Nere’s City.
She couldn’t have any more coffee. That was sure.
The Baroness looked at her and asked “Helena, are you okay—I can call for the palace Doctor if you’d like…”
Which got her a head shake from Helena.
“No, I’m fine. Let’s talk about the collateral deaths. The Master Adept first?” she said.
The Baroness nodded.
“Yes, that is worrisome to me. If anyone could see that this was going to happen—it should have been her. So why?”
Helena shook her head no.
“I’ve no idea, but that inability to see and to do something about the assassinations, led to her death. Perhaps she just couldn’t see her own ending,” she said.
The Baroness tilted her head to one side.
“Not hardly, I have an EYES ONLY request from the new Master Adept already. I think she knew. And I think there was a reason that she chose to allow events to unfurl on their own. I have no way to back that up, but I will see if I can find that reason,” she said.
An aide rushed in then with a new tea cup and placed it in front of her.
She nodded and waved the woman away, taking a sip from the hot tea.
She smiled a bit, as it was to her liking.
“The Duke however, is another matter. Rather, I would suppose the ‘ex-Duke’ is the issue. He had no heirs, no family, no one else to take over the reins of his realm. More than enough time, I’d suppose, to find a spouse who would bear him some heirs. But no one now. We are going to be very courteous to the Duchy—especially as they may all be breaking apart too—and we’d like to see if we can help with that—”
“How dare you turn this sad state of affairs into an opportunity for you to increase the size of the Barony? That is the ultimate worst-case scenario to occur with the death of the Duke,” Helena spit out at her mother.
“Dear, do not be alarmed. I see things others do not, but they never know. But now you—as my daughter, should know that about me and my way of thinking. My apologies if this comes as such a surprise to you…but you should know what I know, dear,” she said and that got her a grudging nod from Helena.
“Our guests were likely all pretty upset,” Helena said more as a question than as a statement.
The Baroness nodded.
“I’m told that over at the landing port, everyone just took off—no getting authorizations from base control for most of them. Probably worried that they might have been next. From what was to be the most interesting and biggest event in the RIM Confederacy history—it’s gone way past that. Not a single meal served, but it will be the talk of the vid world PRESS for a hundred years for sure…”
She half smiled,
“At least you two did get married. Your husband is in capable robo hands and will get up and walk out of the tank in a week or so. And you’ll go off to your Honeymoon to lie on the beach for a month…”
“Or six months….we don’t know as yet,” Helena added and nodded her head.
She smiled at the Baroness.
“I must go and get showered and changed and then go backup to the Hospital ship, Mam—or, Mom I guess is more apropos,” she said, her voice going up at the end of the sentence.
The Baroness nodded.
“Mom is just fine, dear. Love you—and give Tanner a kiss on the cheek too—well, through the display panel at least for me, would you please?”
They stood and hugged, and each went their own way…Helena to take a quick shuttle up to the Hospital ship…and the Baroness to her console in her private office to research the Duchy, it’s realm planets and what might be an opportunity…
#####
Up on the Hospital ship that hung in low orbit above Neres City, the calmness was overpowering.
&nb
sp; Quiet it was. So quiet that the very nominal noises that the robo-doc were loud in the room. It was a private room, tucked in a side apse of the ICU. All white as normal, the robo-doc stood like a shiny nickel-plated machine of mercy in the white room, the only hint of color at all.
On the wall, were hookups for the robo-doc; oxygen, fluids, transfusion hookups, meds, blood gases, CXR, ECG monitoring electrocardiogram gauges, vitals—all were handled by the robo-doc but some items needed support hookups. The gentle almost silent hiss of the oxygen was the loudest part of the noise level and it was the first thing any visitor noticed.
There was one chair in the room, higher than most so that the person sitting could lean forward and peer down into the robo-doc’s clear display at the person who lay inside.
The person, was Tanner Scott, recently the recipient of a gunshot wound to his chest.
The bullet had hit him in the chest just to the left of the sternum. It had not hit the heart but still caused much damage. As the gunshot wound happened outside, there was a large fear of infection, which the robo-doc countered better than any live human doctor could. It tested every three minutes for the first cellular notifications of infection. If the cellular infection was verified then the robo-doc inserted anti-infection drug dosages into the fluid flow of the IV else it waited three more minutes to test again.
The robo-doc also looked after the normal human needs, oxygen and fluid and solid waste.
Within the tank anyone who looked in would see the patient, lying in the liquids that filled the tank. Eyes closed, a mask over his nose and mouth with inserts that gave him oxygen and fluids too. He was naked in the tank, muscled shoulders and some scars on his left arm could be seen. Where the bullet had entered his chest, there was a robo-doc sealed plate, that sat on his chest covering the wound itself. Inside that sealed unit, pure oxygen was being pumped, as well as small robotic arms inside that looked after the initial wound care were there as well. Their initial job had been to insert themselves into new incisions made by their scalpel settings, then delving into the wound area to find and remove the slug. Once that had been done, those arms then took on the job of tending to the wound. Of working on the suturing and general cleanup of the torn edges of the bullet wound. All the suturing was done quickly and as usual, perfectly as well. Once done, they retracted and were held in abeyance should they become needed once more.
But it appeared that the wound, serious as it had been, was not beyond the scope of the robo-doc’s abilities.
Tanner lay in the unconscious state that one was always put into by a robo-doc, everything monitored, analyzed and then responded to by the AI.
His chest rose and fell slowly as his breathing was measured and distinct.
His color was still pale, he’d lost much blood just hours ago and the transfusions were still ongoing.
His temperature was up, which was no surprise as his body was under such assault from all the various items that he was receiving from drugs and the internal injury aid.
He lay there, and waited for the time when he would be awoken.
Of course to him, as all robo-doc patients, time would stand still.
He would awaken, and for him it was just seconds after facing his wedding guests as the new Lord Scott.
He did not know that the Master Adept had been shot and killed.
He did not know that the Duke d’Avigdor had been shot and killed.
He did not know that the assassin, lay in the Barony EliteGuard jail as a prisoner.
He did not even know the assassin was Gia, his sister.
He knew little.
But when he came out of the robo-doc there would be an answering for all of this and more….
#####
Gloria, the new Master Adept was again frustrated with what lay before her. She knew what she had to find out—yet once again for the tenth time this day, she had another question for the aide that she’d inherited. She shook her head and went to stand in the big window that looked out to the west of the tall brown tower that lay in the Issian walled city. It was the home of the Master Adept, her new home and she shook her head as she stared out.
It was like taking over that farm that lay below. Quiet, but run down. Acceptable but very much out of date. Empty, but here there were probably the same number of people hidden away as were varmints below in the farm house. It hadn’t been used in more than five decades her aide had told her. Her aide was full of information and for that she supposed that she should be grateful.
But to have to ask her for just about everything—was that not a sign that she was so lacking in the abilities that a Master Adept should have?
She watched the clouds for a moment above the farm and noted that they were pure white, fluffy and high above Eons. They heralded a coming storm, she could tell but that was most likely not going to happen till later in the evening. Across the distance to the horizon, the bare brown land that had once been fertile fields lay barren and overgrown. She wondered at the report that sat on her tablet with some interesting news, she’d gathered after a quick scan of same, that their sun was undergoing a change—for the better it appeared. She shook her head. Too many reports—that’s something that she knew she would have to deal with over her sojourn as the Master Adept as if anything like this could be considered ‘temporary.’
She shook her head again. Being the Master was not a real surprise, as she knew that for the last ten year’s she’d been groomed for it. She knew she would take over that role but she assumed that it would still be decades till she was called to step up.
Every single skill that she had, she had used to try to find out when that might occur, but the old Master had never allowed her to delve that deep into her own brain—she was as surprised at the events of two days ago as anyone else was.
She leaned forward, touching her forehead gently to the glass, the cool glass that kept her in comfort while Eons baked in the sun’s rays. She leaned there for a second or two and then sighed, and pushed back.
She walked back to the seating that she liked, the twin love-seats in the light brown—beige maybe it was called. As she sat, her glance went over to the bookcase against the far wall, that hid the private study that she’d been in twice. Once, just to get the news of what was to happen at the Wedding—and of course to learn the past of the whole Issian race. That they’d been marooned here on Eons some twenty thousand years ago. That the knowledge about that and all that had come to pass, was hers alone. That she was to quietly hide that knowledge till the next Master came along.
The second time, was earlier today, when she’d read the latest few pages in the Master’s Book, and had realized that it would take a month or two to even make a dent in the book. Still, she had found some information on the event of two days ago—and that she had learned that the Master before her had written that she was the one, who’d choose the next Master.
That it was her choice, and to pick well, but to ensure that she fully trained the next person well.
She had immediately, of course thought of the current members of the Issian inner circle.
She knew them all. She had never met a few of them in person as they were spread out over the RIM Confederacy. But that didn’t matter, as a mind-link meant that you knew someone intimately as soon as your mind linked with theirs.
She knew that she would begin the process of finding a suitable candidate or even a few, soon.
But that was all for later.
Now, as she thought out loud, it was time to speak with the lieutenant.
She thought simply “bring him in,” and the aide who she’d inherited, did just that and in two minutes, lieutenant Bram Sander was seated in front of her.
His mind was covered with what looked like a shroud, she thought.
She could not see in at all—which of course, anyone with the full Issian ability could do.
That was to be expected, but she needed more…
She looked at him and gave him a small smil
e.
“Lieutenant, my apologies at the suddenness of my request to attend her today. With the new Barony Drive, at least it would take only a few hours out of your day,” she said, thinking niceties first.
Bram nodded.
But he looked a wreck, she thought.
He had not shaved in days it looked like, not even to meet with the Master Adept.
His uniform in the Barony Navy was crumpled and there was still a stain across the left forearm of something that looked like dried blood.
His eyes were bloodshot and he had a small scab across his right temple too.
He looked at her and didn’t smile back.
“Not a problem, Master as soon as we’re done, I”l be back on Neres at their Hospital ship, waiting for the next robo-doc analysis…” he said.
Not quite a resounding hello, she said to herself, but then could she blame him.
“I know of course, about your mind-link with our Master Adept, just a couple of days ago. I know that you were asked to freeze…to allow the events of a few days ago to occur. I do not know why that was asked of you—but that it must be a very troubling weight on your mind. I asked you here today—to just to say thank you on behalf of the Issian race,” she said quietly, and went on.
“I know much more than you do—so again, I ask you to grieve and to live. More will be passed on to you at a later date…till then I ask that you give yourself patience…patience, my son,” she said once more and he smiled slightly at her attempt to make him feel liked.
He nodded to her and she half smiled at his nicety.
She nodded back to him and he hoisted himself up and off the soft love-seat and walked straight out of the room, to get to the robo-cab to take him back to the city of Dessau and then by shuttle back to Neres in a few more seconds.
She got up and went back to the window to stare out at the landscape before her. She knew, although she’d been the Master for all of a few days, that she’d be staring out of this window to the scene before her for years and years. She wondered if the old Master used to do that, and she figured that they were alike. Old broken farms, brown sere lands and a coming storm. All seemed to be completely normal she thought.
