EMPIRE: Succession

by Richard F. Weyand

  “But I have. Colonel Stimson leaves with you.”

  “Not necessarily, Mother. My Daniel is the rightful Heir. We go to Center to install him on the Throne. But if he is Emperor, can he not assign Brad to be your shuttle pilot, or military liaison, or whatever? Give him a duty assignment here? And so I ask you again, what are your intentions?”

  Prieto thought for several seconds before responding.

  “I hadn’t considered that, Marie. I actually hadn’t. My powers over our police forces are more limited. Of course the Emperor can assign him to any duty he wants. Even make one up, as you say. But how am I to know what Brad wants?”

  “He went to see Ann today. He wanted to know how many years there were between her and Paul. If their relationship worked. If she ever regretted it.”

  “Did he now?”

  “Yes. So what say you, Mother? When he takes us to the Illustrious, would you have Brad stay with us or return to you?”

  “I haven’t truly loved since your father died, Marie. I have been with many men, but have never loved again. Until now, I think. In some ways, Brad reminds me of an older version of your father. We had so little time together.”

  Prieto sighed.

  “I’ve been afraid to let my heart free for him, because I knew he must leave. But now that you tell me it isn’t so, I think I want him to come back to me.”

  “Are you sure, Mother? Because he is in love with you, and if you aren’t in it for the long haul with him, it isn’t fair to him.”

  “I know.”

  Prieto looked out across the room and stared at nothing for several minutes, before turning back to her daughter.

  “Yes, Marie. If he will have me, I will have him. It will be nice to be, once again, in a real relationship.”

  Bouchard went back to her room. Parnell was ready to go to dinner, but Bouchard caught his arm.

  “I need to speak with you a moment first. My mother and Mr. Carmell are in love.”

  “I knew something was going on. Is it permanent, do you think?”

  “They both want it to be. So what do we do about that?”

  “We?”

  “Yes. We. Mr. Carmell is to leave with us tomorrow. He has to, because I can’t navigate in hyperspace.”

  “Right.”

  “But if he can navigate there, he can navigate back. And somebody should report the successful rendezvous anyway, because if anything has happened to the ship, it’s a long walk back without a hypergate. So give him an assignment here.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like shuttle pilot for my mother. Very dangerous traveling back and forth in a ground car. There’s been one assassination attempt already. Or make him military liaison to Verano. Something. Make up a reason for him to stay here.”

  “I’m not sure I have the authority to do that yet. I might, because the ship was put under my command. I have to think about it.”

  “Fix it later. Ask Mr. Goulet to fix it when we get to Center, for that matter.”

  Parnell nodded.

  “OK. Yeah, I can do that.”

  When it was time for dinner, Prieto intercepted the butler on his way to Stimson’s room. Instead, she knocked on his door, and, after a few seconds, he opened it.

  “Come, my love. It is time for our farewell dinner for Marie and Chad.”

  “And for me as well, I’m afraid.”

  “Are you not coming back to me after you drop them off? I was hoping you would come back to me and be my forever love.”

  He took her in his arms, and held her for several minutes. When he finally pulled away from her, he had tears in his eyes.

  “I wasn’t sure you felt the same way I do.”

  “I thought you had to leave, so I could not allow myself to love you. But, since you need not, I can. And do.”

  Stimson nodded, then took her hand to his mouth and kissed it.

  “Come now, love,” Prieto said. “And let us celebrate with our friends.”

  When Bouchard and Parnell entered the sitting room before dinner, Turley and Gulliver were already there. Bouchard caught Turley’s eye and simply nodded. A few minutes later, Prieto entered with Stimson. They were holding hands.

  “Hey, this is great,” Gulliver said. “It’s a triple date.”

  To the Illustrious

  Stimson was up early and James, Prieto’s driver, took him into town to the spaceport. He was wearing civvies, as he and Parnell had brought no uniforms to Verano. The ground crew had their orders to release a prepped and ready armored assault shuttle to him, but it was clear they were leery of his piloting skills.

  When Stimson got aboard, the ground crew chief got in the co-pilot’s seat and just watched. Stimson just did the normal things. He pulled the pre-flight checklist from its stowage in the document box between the two seats and started powering up systems and checking them one at a time as he ran down the checklist.

  By the time Stimson got to the end of the pre-flight checklist and stowed it into the document box, the crew chief was satisfied.

  “We all good, Sir?”

  “Yes,” Stimson said. “Everything well on the good side of nominal. She looks like a good bird, Sergeant. Thanks for that.”

  The crew chief nodded, gave him a thumbs up, and got out of the cockpit. Stimson waited for the All Clear signal from the flight line chief, and then spooled up the engines.

  Bouchard, with the help of several household staff members, had spent the day yesterday packing. She had three trunks of clothing and accessories making the trip with her. The rest would ship later. Parnell had his one little suitcase. Most of Parnell’s things were still in his quarters – an apartment in the Residence Wing of the Imperial Palace – from before he took the trip to Garland.

  “You have more support equipment than a mounted battalion,” Parnell said to Bouchard.

  “As it is, I’m cutting it close,” Bouchard said. “I assume the dress and grooming standards of the Empress of the Galactic Empire exceed those of a senator of Verano.”

  “Very likely so.”

  Turley and Gulliver met Parnell, Bouchard, and Prieto under the portico of the main house. Staff had several of the little electric carts used for getting around the estate there, two for passengers, one with household staff aboard, and one flatbed version loaded with Bouchard’s three trunks.

  Parnell came up to Turley and Gulliver. Prieto and Bouchard were having a private conversation off to the side.

  “I’ve very much enjoyed meeting you both, and all our little scheming sessions,” Parnell said to Turley and Gulliver.

  “We’ve enjoyed it, too, Your Majesty. And we are always here for you, as the need arises. We need to give you a full brief, when things calm down, about all the things we are currently doing in support of the Throne.”

  “Very good, Governor Turley. Well, I guess it is goodbye until then. Thank you for everything.”

  Parnell shook Turley’s hand, then Gulliver’s.

  “And you as well, Mr. Gulliver. Thank you for everything.”

  “It has been my pleasure to serve, Your Majesty.”

  They heard the whine of shuttle engines approaching then, and watched as Stimson brought the shuttle down on the bridge to the mainland. The gardeners had fussed about Bouchard’s prior landing up by the house, and it was not necessary now.

  Everyone got into the little electric carts and headed down to the shuttle. When they got there, the household staff loaded and secured Bouchard’s trunks in the luggage compartment of the shuttle. Bouchard got into the co-pilot’s seat, and Stimson got out to say goodbye – for the time being – to Prieto. Stimson climbed back aboard, the electric carts withdrew, and Stimson spooled up the engines and took off from the bridge.

  “So what’s our spacing plan, Colonel?” Bouchard asked Stimson.

  “We have several hours to get to the hypergate, Milady. You can’t transit into hyperspace too close to the planet. So we have to go out to the hypergate first, which is a w
ays.”

  “Then how long is it to get to the next star system for the rendezvous?”

  “About an hour and twenty minutes,” Stimson said. “It doesn’t take long.”

  “Then how long to the Illustrious, Colonel?”

  “We don’t know where in the system she might be, Milady. She could be light-hours away. But she has a hypergate projector, so she’ll come to us. That will be quick. We just have to wait the time it takes for our signal to get to her.”

  “OK. Then we dock, move all our things aboard and move your things from the ship to the shuttle, while they service and refuel the shuttle. Then the Illustrious gives you a hypergate and you’re off. Then the Illustrious pulls the hypergate over itself and heads for Center.”

  “Probably not, Milady. You left out one step. Since Illustrious doesn’t know when we’re coming, they’ll probable want to top off all their supplies from their supplies caches first. Then she’ll leave. They might start doing that while I’m still getting ready to go.”

  “OK, got it. Thank you, Colonel.”

  “No problem, Milady.”

  The hours to the hypergate dragged. The scenery doesn’t change very fast in space. Bouchard and Stimson took turns napping. They had lunch. The shuttle had no QE radio, and the time lag back and forth to the planetary VR system grew. There was pretty much nothing to do but wait.

  The acceleration made it worse. They were under a continuous two gravities. At one gravity it would take forty percent longer to get to the hypergate.

  In the passenger compartment, Parnell was by himself. In sixteen years in the Imperial Marines, he had spent a lot of time in transit, some under more comfortable conditions than others. As transits went, this one was less comfortable than some, more comfortable than others. He downloaded the headline stories from the major newsfeeds to the shuttle and read.

  By the time they got to the hypergate, they had built up quite a bit of velocity. The hypergate itself was oriented across their path, so they didn’t have to build side vector to pass through it.

  They had not worn helmets to this point, though military pilots usually did, but Stimson handed one to Bouchard now.

  “Put this on, Milady, and set the visor to Hyperspace in the VR controls.”

  “What will that do, Colonel?”

  “It will allow you to see everything normally except hyperspace. You don’t want to look out the cockpit windows in hyperspace, Milady. It’s unsettling and disorienting.”

  Bouchard put on the helmet and set the control. Stimson was right. Everything looked the same. So far, anyway.

  Stimson commed the hypergate traffic control center and got a straight-in approach. The Verano hypergate didn’t have a high traffic density and they were allowed to just go straight on through.

  The hypergate itself was a large toroidal structure with a narrow band surrounding a circular hole. The hole itself was covered with a blue haze, through which Bouchard could see the stars beyond. They were going hundreds of miles per second at this point, and it wasn’t long after seeing the structure that they hit the blue shimmer and normal space disappeared.

  The view out the cockpit windows now was of a mottled dark gray. Not so bad. Bouchard turned off the Hyperspace control of the visor and looked out into hyperspace without the filter. It was like the back of your eyelids when you were nauseous. Urp. She turned Hyperspace mode back on.

  Stimson dialed the acceleration back to half a gravity and selected the course to the uninhabited star system where they would meet the Illustrious. They did a broad turn, and Bouchard saw icons sliding across the navigation display until a star registry number – not an inhabited system name – was dead center.

  “Is that our destination, Colonel?”

  “Yes, Milady. Now we just have to make sure we don’t go blowing past it, which at twenty-thousand c is easy to do.”

  There was a counter running down on the instrument panel. It now showed seventy-five minutes to arrival. It had taken them over six hours to go a couple million miles to the hypergate, and now, in less than a quarter of that time, they would be three light-years away.

  The dropped out of hyperspace in the Goldilocks zone of the uninhabited star system. That is, they dropped out of hyperspace at the distance from the sun where an inhabited planet would orbit if there were any. This is the distance most ships stayed at when in a system, because it had the sort of conditions, in terms of sunlight, heating, and cooling, that ships were designed for and crews had the most experience with.

  Stimson started a scan of the system looking for Illustrious’s drive signature. He also sent out an IFF ping, a strong burst radio transmission that Illustrious would be sure to pick up. It took several minutes for the shuttle’s sensors to find her.

  “Ah, there she is.”

  “You found her, Colonel?”

  “Yes, Milady. She’s about fifteen light minutes away. She actually should have heard us by now.”

  Stimson had cut the shuttle’s acceleration back to drop out of hyperspace, then reengaged it at half a gravity. Half an hour after they dropped out of hyperspace, the Illustrious dropped out of hyperspace behind the shuttle and Stimson’s sensors picked her up. The big carrier was accelerating at one gravity and catching her.

  “Lieutenant Colonel Stimson in Verano Police shuttle alpha-zero-zero-four calling Illustrious.”

  “Shuttle four, this is Illustrious. Welcome back, Colonel. Prepare for docking. Release helm to Illustrious.”

  “Roger that, Illustrious. Releasing helm. Prepare to receive Emperor and Empress.”

  Stimson released his helm controls to Illustrious and the big ship’s computers took over. Their acceleration gradually increased to one gravity as the big ship came up alongside.

  “My God, Colonel. That thing is huge.”

  “They’re pretty big, Milady. And His Majesty has a few hundred thousand of them, all under his command.”

  That thought staggered Bouchard. One kept forgetting just how big the Empire was, and what even small percentages of really big numbers added up to.

  The shuttle edged sideways toward the carrier, both now at the same forward velocity and acceleration. Bouchard saw one of the pickup booms extended. They edged up to the boom until the shuttle latched with the dolly on the boom. The shuttle’s engines shut down, and the dolly moved the shuttle in towards the carrier until the hatches met up and mated.

  “Well, we’re here,” Stimson said.

  Stimson and Bouchard unstrapped from their pilot seats and went back into the passenger compartment. Parnell was still strapped in, waiting for the go-ahead.

  “All right, Your Majesty. We’re good to go.”

  Parnell nodded, and released his harness.

  “Thank you, Colonel. Milady?”

  He held out his arm to Bouchard and she took it. Stimson cycled the latch and they stepped through into the Illustrious. They were dressed in casual civilian clothes, hardly auspicious for being received aboard Illustrious, but the nice thing about being Emperor is that you were always right.

  There was a side party of ten waiting in the anteroom to the docking port. As this room would be used to stage the Marines loading into shuttles, it was a big enough room for everybody. The officer of the deck blew a small pipe and the side party snapped to attention.

  “Emperor arriving. Empress arriving,” he announced.

  Rear Admiral John Stevens and Brigadier General Clyde Cosworth were there to greet Parnell. They both snapped to attention and saluted. Parnell returned the salute.

  “At ease, gentlemen. It’s good to see you again. Admiral Stevens, General Cosworth, I would like you to meet Milady Empress, Marie Louis Bouchard.”

  They did not shake hands with either the Emperor or Empress, by long-standing precedent. They nodded to each in turn. Admiral Stevens, as the senior, spoke for them both.

  “Your Majesty, it’s good to see you again. Milady, we’re very pleased to meet you. I imagine you’re tired aft
er that trip, so I’ll have Commander Burns here show you to your quarters.”

  “That will be fine, Admiral Stevens. Thank you.”

  “We stand by for your orders at Your Majesty’s convenience. Commander Burns?”

  Burns stepped forward and led Parnell and Bouchard into the ship. The officer of the deck ordered the side party to ‘at ease,’ and then dismissed them. They filed out of the compartment. As that was going on, Colonel Stimson came aboard and had a brief conversation with General Cosworth and Admiral Stevens.

  “Milady Empress has three trunks of her things on board the shuttle, Sir. I was thinking we might give her a second quarters on flag deck as her preparation room and for storage of her things. Also, the shuttle needs to be prepped for the return trip to Verano.”

  “Return trip, Colonel?” Cosworth asked.

  “Yes, Sir. We need to advise Verano of the successful rendezvous or they will send out search parties. Something might have happened to the Illustrious, in which case the Emperor would be stranded here.”

  “I see, Colonel. Very well.”

  “At the Emperor’s request, I will take the shuttle back to Verano, Sir, and remain there. You can confirm those orders with His Majesty later.”

  Cosworth nodded.

  “Very good. Thank you, Colonel.”

  Stimson turned to Stevens.

  “Admiral, I am advised that His Majesty wishes you to top off the Illustrious from local supply caches and prepare for immediate spacing to Center. You can also confirm those orders with His Majesty later.”

  “Thank you, Colonel. Those are the orders I was expecting.”

  “Dismissed, Colonel,” Cosworth said.

  Parnell was in the quarters he had had before on the flag bridge, an admiral’s suite. There were MPs blocking the corridor partway down, and they stepped aside as Parnell and Bouchard, led by Commander Burns, approached.

  Having been advised in VR of the change of plans, Commander Burns stopped and addressed them at the door of Parnell’s quarters.