The RIM Confederacy Series: BoxSet Four: BOOKS 10, 11, & 12 of the RIM Confederacy Series

by Jim Rudnick

  He sighed. He’d been granted that access more than fifty years ago, when he’d been the duke’s college roommate and had been able to enter any area of the palace after that status had been verified. He’d been close to the duke. David had never lost his sense of self and had proven himself to be a good leader. They had gone from college roommates to close friends, and that friendship had been the best thing in both of their lives. He grinned as he went through the door and down the red-and-black tiled hallway toward the study. The duke had called this room the study, where he kept his office and ran the duchy from, and everyone else had followed suit.

  Adam smiled once more, remembering the time when he and David had been totally drunk, and both had thrown up right here on the door-sill of the study, and then David had asked for a steward to clean up same. Little did he know that the palace AI had reported all to David’s father—the duke at the time —and he’d paid for that.

  Crossing that sill, he stepped quickly over to the desk, sat on the chair behind it, and leaned back. This was David’s most inner sanctum—where he had run the duchy from—and he knew that just by sitting in the chair he’d—

  He let the tears come. His best friend had been killed—murdered by an assassin—the sister of the one the duke wanted to make his heir.

  “Over my dead body,” he said to himself once yet again, and the tears slowly subsided.

  David had made only that one single mistake in his whole life—the codicil that offered the dukedom and the duchy to Lord Scott. And it was his job to make sure that never happened.

  He knew he had little chance—even as the head of the Temporary Provisional Government—to challenge that codicil. So he had planned to make the opportunity less of same by getting the short list of suitors down to one great choice.

  He didn’t actually care for the Caliphate—and yet the Barony was only a bit of a better choice. The Baroness was the issue, he thought, as he wiped away the tear tracks and cleared his throat. He looked down at the desktop and the list itself—now with only two names on it. He wondered what else he might do to somehow sully the Caliphate a notch or two. Not enough to ever show that he had anything to do with it, but enough for the rest of the provisional committee to look at and to slightly curl up a lip. Enough to make the Barony just slightly better. It had to be enough—but only enough—to appear as the simplest reason to choose the Barony.

  He looked over, past the chairs on the other side of the desk, to the large bookcase in front of him. There were sections that the duke had had salted with items from all over the duchy. Each of the six planets was there, from Neen to Anulet, and each was cluttered with knickknacks and tchotchkes. He’d picked up and looked at some of them earlier, but now he just stared at them.

  He needed to tarnish—yes, that word suited his quest—tarnish the Caliphate, but how?

  On the RIM, the Caliphate was what one might call the “armpit” of realms: gambling; women of all species, humans and aliens; extortion too, it was said; smuggling; and yes, even murder too. How to paint that realm as a non-player in taking over the duchy was going to be an interesting point to try to make.

  He sat and toyed with the list as he wondered how one could tarnish what was already tarnished.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The beauty of the room struck him immediately once more. Tanner settled in to the deep leather wingback chair in an area labeled as the VIP room, by the bailiff who’d showed them in. Courtrooms, he’d heard, were always built to impress the innocent … the guilty just didn’t care. Out before him, beyond the one-way glass wall in front, lay massive pieces of furniture carved from what looked like dark mahogany. Wall hangings, drapes, and Barony flags were behind the three judges’ dais. Their chairs were tall and covered with blue leather. Even the bench in the prisoner’s box was the same dignified blue, but in velvet, as he remembered when he’d sat on same long ago. The floor was covered with a scarlet red carpet, and off to his right, in the public area, were a few people as visitors.

  He looked over at Helena and smiled, and she squeezed his hand.

  “Honey, you’re going to be okay, right?” she queried, and he could tell she was worried about him

  Why would that be? In moments, my sister, Gia, the assassin who had killed both the Master Adept and my friend the duke would be led in for her first appearance in court. What about that would cause me anguish?

  “They said the whole area we’re behind is one-way glass we can see out of, but everyone in the courtroom cannot see through. We got spirited in by our EliteGuards, and no one knows—Gia will not know—that you are here, love,” she said, still squeezing his hand.

  He attempted to smile at her and nodded. Beyond the glass wall, off to one side, the bailiff who had escorted him into the courtroom led in the prisoner.

  Gia looked fit, he thought.

  She was shackled, but still each step was measured, and she seemed to bounce along behind the bailiff until he seated her on the blue velvet banquette and attached her wrist cuffs to the stanchion beside her.

  Her hair needed some cutting, some makeup perhaps, and better, more court-impressive clothes, Tanner thought as he went through a list of what would help her look her best—and he stopped himself cold at that thought. I am here to watch her take her medicine—not to help in any way.

  The bailiff then barked out loudly, "Order, order ... order in the court," and the talking stopped immediately. Directly in front of Tanner, at what would be the prosecutor’s desk, a man rose to speak to the court.

  “I am told that this is a continuance, Your Honors, for the accused, one Gia Scott. Without going over any of the evidence against her, which includes video—professional quality video—of her shooting—”

  “Objection, Your Honors,” the defense attorney said as he jumped up to his feet. “The prosecution cannot present any evidence at this time, or, for that matter, these fraudulent videos which we will move to strike them all at the proper time, Your Honors,” the young man said, leaning forward toward the bench where the three judges sat.

  Wonder who picked out this guy, Tanner thought, and he made a mental note to check on that later.

  The judges didn’t even confer on his objection, and the one in the middle said quite dryly, “Objection sustained. Mr. Prosecutor, you know better than that—and further, that is all for the accused’s actual trial. This is a continuance hearing, and so we’d ask that you please stick to that item only.”

  The prosecutor didn’t even flinch, Tanner noticed, wondering why he’d even bothered to say that about the video. The man obviously realized that was for another time.

  Everyone knew Gia had killed those two at his wedding, and, yes, there were dozens of very professional videos shot of the actual event, which included her using the camera that held a gun to shoot and kill two of Tanner’s friends.

  The prosecutor said, “My apologies to the court. Our continuance today is to ask that the accused be remanded over to the Barony Hospital Ship for full mental and psychiatric testing.

  Sanity is a legal term denoting that an individual is of sound mind and therefore can bear legal responsibility for his or her actions. The official legal term is compos mentis. It is generally defined in terms of the absence of insanity—non compos mentis. It is not a medical term, although the opinions of medical experts are often important in making a legal decision as to whether someone is sane or insane. And we ask for no time frame for this part of her sentence.”

  He stopped for a moment to look down at a paper in front of him. “We therefore petition the court that to establish whether or not the accused, Gia Scott, is sane would be the first logical step in her trial. If found sane, she will stand trial as charged for murder. If found insane, she will remain up on the Hospital Ship in their secure psychiatric ward until such time as she is found sane, Your Honors.”

  Once again, Gia’s defense counsel jumped to his feet. “Your Honors well know that those acquitted of a federal offense by reas
on of insanity have not been able to challenge their psychiatric confinement through a writ of habeas corpus or other remedies.

  ”We hereby serve notice that without such a trial, we need to place a limit—Your Honors need to place a limit—on this sanity evaluation time to be spent by my client up on the Hospital Ship. They could keep her there indefinitely without any way for us to gain her freedom, Your Honors. Surely that is not what such an observation and analysis should be for,” he said.

  The defense counsel took a deep breath and continued forcefully. “She is not guilty of anything at this point, Your Honors, so such a continuance sentence amounts to unfair and unconstitutional imprisonment on the Hospital Ship with no time limits instated at all.”

  The judges conferred on that one, Tanner noted. That young attorney had made some sense of this.

  Putting Gia in the psychiatric ward for evaluation for years and years was really circumventing the whole “innocent until proven guilty” axiom.

  This guy was good, Tanner thought, or at least he was young enough to not fear the Barony and its powers over his career.

  The middle judge nodded and said, "We hereby grant the petition of the accused to be remanded up to the Barony Hospital Ship for up to one full year for full observation, monitoring, and analysis. Reports to be tendered back to the court for sanity hearing at that time, on a monthly basis. In one year, she is to be released back to the courts for trial no matter what the findings are. Until then, for this case, we are adjourned …”

  Tanner stirred and looked over at Helena.

  “It was me,” she said. “I found this young man—one Jordan Alpert—after bothering to read some reports from our judicial minister on how the young man was able to get some ‘carved in stone’ cases un-carved! I figured that as she is your sister, she deserves the best attorney we could find.

  “Took a few weeks of careful planning while we were on Bottle—you thought I had that real need for all those Reiki stone massages about a month or so ago … not true. I was on Ansible with staff arranging for him to be hired to be your sister’s attorney. Hidden, mind you, behind a storefront legal shop in Neres City. No one will ever trace it back to me—to us, I guess I mean—honey,” she said sheepishly.

  He looked at her and smiled. “Figures that my wife would be ahead of me—part of being married,” he said and leaned forward to kiss her.

  As he straightened out, he looked across the courtroom to see the bailiff was undoing Gia’s cuffs from the stanchion beside her. She stood, looking almost straight at him.

  Helena noted that too. “She can’t see us, Tanner,” she said.

  “But she might believe that I’m right here,” he said.

  Gia. Gia, what have you done … he thought as he and Helena rose to go back to the palace.

  #####

  On the Neres Navy base, Tanner was being taken for a tour with his aide, Lieutenant Kiraz, and they’d only now gotten to the new building.

  “Lieutenant, there was a time-line for this one, right?” he asked, and she nodded as she looked down at her tablet to search for that date.

  Already today, he’d seen the latest incarnation of the Captains Council chambers up on the second floor of the current administration building, and it had passed, he’d thought, with flying colors. It was perfectly laid out and, as his aide had known, ready for the upcoming new captains for the new Barony Navy ships. She’d thought of just about everything, and he wondered just how he’d not thought of that. But that’s what aides are for, we Royals claim.

  That made him grin and he turned his head to one side, so Ayla wouldn’t see it.

  In an even tone, she said, “Sir, says here that the first date for occupancy permits to be issued was a month ago.”

  He grunted and looked at the enormous concrete piers and foundation pillars that were still wet and shiny. The building—at least as far as he could tell—was still months away from completion. The deadline had obviously been missed, and as he was about to ask her for more details, the sound of a ship coming in drowned out any conversation for a minute or two.

  It was a RIM Navy vessel—the RN Rigel, and his next meeting with his new admiral was on same. He shaded his brow with a hand and watched as the pilot dropped her down perfectly, which for a six-hundred-foot cruiser was not an easy task, right onto her landing pad. As the dusts quickly diminished, he could see the usual greeting party of Customs and Health officers heading out on their small vehicles. As expected, the landing ramp came down quickly thereafter.

  He smiled. “Admiral Higgins is going to be early. I like folks who are early in all things, I think,” he said.

  His aide nodded. “Sir, I might offer that the completion of this new naval admin building might be a great first project for the new admiral?” she casually offered, and he knew he’d picked well when he’d chosen her.

  “My thoughts exactly, Lieutenant. And as my aide, you do realize that you’re going to be the one who will ‘liaise’ between Higgins and me—right?” he asked.

  She nodded once more. “Aye, Sir. And he’ll get the same speedy help I always offer. I would think that there will be tons of that help needed starting today—but that it will slowly fade as he finds his way,” she said as she reached in her pocket and handed Tanner a small black box.

  For a Hopian, she was taller than most, but she carried it well. Knowing that you want to excel in the navy—any realm’s navy—meant that you had to follow the normal rules. Work hard and long; exercise to keep a more than healthy body; take professional development courses; and participate in extracurricular activities, often seeking the opportunities out.

  Ayla was at the top of her game, and Tanner was sure she’d excel. Her smile was the best feature she had. She was pretty enough with that tinge of red in her auburn hair, and she did, he’d admit, look great in her uniform. And considering that Hope was her home world, which was known as a really hardworking human realm, it further meant that she would excel. He knew that and it was partly up to him to help by both being a hard-nosed Royal as well as a mentor.

  He nodded back to her as they both turned to face the Jeep as it was pulling up in front of them.

  Admiral Higgins disembarked from the Jeep, strode up to face them, and smiled as he came to full attention and saluted.

  Tanner smiled back, offered a return salute, and then stepped forward to offer his hand. “Welcome, Admiral. We are all so pleased that you’ve accepted our offer to become the new head of the Barony Navy—and these are for you,” he finished off as he handed the man the small black box.

  Higgins had a quizzical look on his face. He opened the box, took one look at its contents, and then snapped it shut. “Lord Scott, I am more than surprised by the honor. I imagined that—as the new navy admiral to replace yourself—I’d be a single-star admiral. But this box, Sir, contains five stars, which would make me a fleet admiral, Sir. Do I have that right?” he asked, his voice solemn and reverent.

  Tanner nodded. “Aye, Admiral. Fleet admiral for the Barony Navy—in fact, for all of the Barony Forces—is what you are as of today, Sir. Get your steward to order full new uniforms for same, and enjoy the rank. Trust me, there are going to be days when you think it’s all not worth it—at least there were for me, Admiral. And welcome aboard, Ethan!” he finished off.

  Higgins grinned at him, tucked the black box into a pocket, and then looked around them. “Construction coming along, is it?” he asked.

  Tanner glanced at his aide and nodded.

  “Sir, yes, ‘along’ might be a word that would apply,” Ayla said. “However, it’s already a full month past the final dates for occupancy permits to be applied for …” she finished, her voice trailing off.

  Higgins tilted his head, and a hint of a smile crossed his lips. “Then I’d guess I want to see files on same—may I ask, Lord Scott, if I can instruct your aide to get me same? Or do I need to go through other channels—sorry to have to ask about this so soon, but I’ve got the stars.
Time to earn them,” he said.

  Tanner grinned at him. “Admiral, Lieutenant Kiraz is my real strength—and yes, as she’s in the navy, she technically works for you, so command away,” he said.

  Higgins smiled and gestured with his head. He and the lieutenant ambled away from him and began to talk among themselves.

  Tanner looked back at the Rigel and noted she was getting outfitted by the base chandlers. A group of sailors was leaving the ship on what looked like shore leave duty. He thought back to his days of getting his land legs back for shore leave and enjoying new planets and the local cultures. He’s thought there was nothing better than to have a beer or a scotch and just sit and soak up a new culture. He’d done it all over the RIM and the Earldom inward, and he knew how important shore leave was for a crewman.

  The new admiral and his aide were lost in conversation while she showed him something on his tablet. Tanner walked toward the Rigel, and in a few short minutes, he was just behind a CWO on the tarmac who was having some troubles with a chandler over supplies.

  “Yes, but as I said, and as our requisition says, we want complete cables—not ones like these that still need splicing and then for the RJ45 connectors to be installed and then tested. With over two hundred of these cables, we don’t have the time to do that—which is why we req’d ‘complete’ cables,” he said, his voice exasperatedly tight.

  The chandler looked down at the requisition in his hands and then back at the CWO, and he shrugged his shoulders. “Then maybe you should'a ordered them way before pulling in—it’d take, what, three days for one of our staff to complete these two hundred cables. And you ordered them just yesterday,” he said, crossing his arms.

  From what Tanner could see, the chandler did have a point. “Might I inquire—”

  Realizing a Royal stood behind them, the two men jumped to attention after the usual half-bow one gave a Royal.