by Kyle Larson
They couldn’t get rid of the Colonel, so they assigned him to a patrol post on the other side of the Antioch Belt. They rarely had to see him, but Riz heard the Colonel slowly became more vocal and was building up his side of the army. In all fairness, he was doing exactly what he should have been doing for the Pirates of Mercury, but he wasn’t being honest about it. Riz began to fear the Colonel would try to overtake the rest of the fleet with his own. And if that were a possibility, would the soldiers even bother fighting for them. Riz doubted it.
“Sir, we have proximity alert,” an officer said, his announcement echoed around the bridge. “Transponders from all of our ships. There’s a clearing, just beyond the debris field. They’re all accounted for.”
Riz and Aren breathed a sigh of relief. No ships had been lost. There was still the damage report, which could be just as bad, considering how much damage their ship took. The other ships in the fleet were constructed from components of older ships and nowhere near as sturdy as the Empress. As soon as the scans started pouring in, Riz and Aren assessed the damage. It was not good. Most the ships would take months to repair.
They weren’t lost and they were all salvageable, but the time it would take to complete all the repairs would cause a major delay. The soldiers already wanted revenge and would have a hard time remaining still. This created a very volatile situation.
“Captain,” another officer said. “We’re picking up multiple signatures approaching. They’re all registered as friendly, and their largest ship is requesting communication.”
“Put him through,” Aren said. She stood ready to face the person she was sure it was.
The Colonel’s gray face appeared on the large monitor in front of her. Aren clenched her jaw in anger at him, all the while glancing at the massive fleet flanking him. There were hundreds of ships, all fully operational, capable of taking on fleets much stronger than the wounded one Riz and Aren commanded.
“Greetings, your highness,” the Colonel cackled from his stern face. It was an insult, as the Colonel knew Aren resented that title and had renounced it.
Aren ignored the petty jest. The sight of the Colonel sickened her. His gray skin and yellow teeth, eyes that looked dead and lifeless as the rest of him. Each breath sounded like a growl, fighting for air with weakened lungs. No one knew exactly how old the Colonel was, but there were guesses. Some said in his eighties, others repeated elaborate rumors that he used illegal medical practices to stop his aging and he was actually hundreds of years old. Most people found his appearance jarring and abnormal.
“Is this the fleet you’ve brought for us?” Aren replied.
“Oh dear,” the Colonel said, shaking his head sarcastically. “Why don’t you take a shuttle over here? I think it’s time the two of us had a little talk. Bring your friend Riz, too. This concerns you both.”
The screen went blank before either Riz or Aren could respond. They exchanged nervous glances.
“A little advice,” Harcrow called up from below them. He always hated how they perched themselves up higher than the rest of the crew. It was a clear symbol they thought they were better than the other officers. Harcrow enjoyed watching them get scared of what would happen. “Don’t keep the Colonel waiting. I doubt he’s in a good mood now he sees the mess you two made of our fleet. The mess he’s going to have to clean up.”
The words stung Aren and Riz, because they knew Harcrow was right. The Colonel would have no trouble pinning incompetence on both of them and taking complete control of the Pirates of Mercury. They’d be lucky if he didn’t arrest them both on sight. There was no escape though, so they proceeded to the nearest hangar and powered up a small shuttle, departing the Empress.
“I’ll fly, Riz,” Aren said.
She could tell Riz was a nervous wreck. As tough as Riz projected to be, when true fear came to him he had a hard time hiding his reaction to it.
“Aren, I’m sorry. I should have secured Kelvin before the fleet even arrived. I should have sabotaged the Monarch, but I thought our fleet would be enough,” Riz said.
“You should have. You’re right. You underestimated my brother and our people. If we get out of this, don’t do that again. We’ll be lucky if the Colonel doesn’t throw us on a labor deck or worse. This is your fault, Riz. You need to get it together. I’m not helping you anymore.”
Riz didn’t respond, he just stared straight ahead at the massive ship they piloted too. It was bigger than the Monarch and the Empress combined, with a fleet of impeccable ships surrounding it. If Riz could salvage he and Aren’s ships, the Pirates of Mercury would be unstoppable. That was a diminishing possibility as the reality that they were at the mercy of a man that despised them hung over him.
Aren shook her head in disgust and went full throttle toward the large ship. Eventually, a tractor beam locked on to them and guided the small shuttle to a small hangar near the top of the ship. The hangar was dimly lit and barely big enough for the shuttle. When they landed and the hangar compressed, a door at the end of the room parted, and in walked the Colonel.
“I’ve not got a lot of time,” he said, hurriedly. Two large guards with electro rifles in their hands entered and stood behind him. “So I’m going to make this quick. We must begin repairs on your remaining ships immediately. All my engineers will assist. You’ll need Harcrow to coordinate. Once they are repaired, their captains will report to me. Riz, you are assigned captain of the Empress. Aren, you will stay onboard this ship, Redemption One, and will be our chief political strategist. Once we take control of our first planet, we will need to establish a government. You will oversee that, with yourself as president. So, the safest place for you now, is onboard Redemption One.”
“Absolutely not,” Aren said. “I’ll stay where I want. You want me to help you form a government, then that’s the deal. My home is on the Empress so that’s where I’ll stay. When we free a planet and request they let us establish a base there, like our charter dictates, then we’ll worry about where I live.”
“I’ll allow it,” the Colonel said. “But the two of you need to make no mistake: this is my fleet now. Riz can help me by being a good captain and strategist. Aren can help me by keeping our future citizens happy. I don’t want either of you trying to interfere in my job. I’ll get you the planets, you deal with the people. No questions asked. Is that understood?”
The Colonel was in his element. Dictating terms and giving orders was what he’d been doing a great deal of his life. It made him feel alive to be in power again. He’d waited and slowly put himself in that position, and now, no one could oppose him.
“No one anticipated the Lunar Guardians getting involved. I didn’t even know the Lunar Gale still existed,” Riz said.
“As I told Riz on our way over here, he underestimated our people. All these kingdoms are strong, even Uranus. None of them are going to be easy free from the rulers that control them. I don’t think any of us will make that mistake again,” Aren said. “Especially Riz.”
“Well said, your highness,” the Colonel said, with a loud laugh to follow.
Aren was quick. In a matter of seconds, the old man was in the air and then pinned against the wall, with Aren’s hand around his neck. The two guards began to move for Aren, but the Colonel waved them off. He smiled an evil smile at Aren. Knowing that he could get to her made him happy.
“Call me that again, old man,” Aren whispered, daring him. “You ever call me that again, and I’ll kill you.”
She released him and pushed him aside. The Colonel stumbled and let out a few choked coughs, but he regained his composure in a few seconds.
“I look forward to watching you govern, Ms. Sellwood,” the Colonel said, tipping his hat. “The two of you better get to work. We have a fleet to restore. Before we came to rescue your lost ships, we picked up a signal from one of our probe satellites, near Jupiter.”
The Colonel took out a tablet and held it up for Aren and Riz to see. They were looking at a Jovian
Fleet Docking Station, just past Jupiter’s most distant moon, J2.
“This is their third largest docking station. Watch for a few seconds,” the Colonel said.
The hangar doors to the docking station parted and a fleet of ships quickly exited. They headed off, past the moon, and into space, disappearing within a minute.
“They are on a direct course to our part of the Antioch Belt. It’s safe to assume word of our endeavor is out,” the Colonel said. “We need to have all our ships ready when they get here, which we have no way of knowing. Jovians run cloaked transponders. We won’t know where they are until each time they pass through a border.”
“We’ll be ready for them,” Riz said. “I’d like to see them try to bring the fight to us in here.”
“Oh no, they won’t be bringing us the fight. We will be bringing it to them. Once your ships are prepared, we will fly out of the Antioch Belt for good. We will reveal ourselves to the Nine Kingdoms. It’s time.”
Aren and Riz found themselves nodding in agreement. They were tired of hiding, as well. They had nothing to lose at this point.
“There’s one more thing, before you go,” the Colonel said. “We’re no longer the Pirates of Mercury. The Pirates of Mercury are a silly mythology. A scary fairy tale children tell one another. We’ll be calling ourselves the Wanderers. Good luck to you both, and try to do what I say. There’s no reason we can’t all get along.”
The Colonel gave them a sinister grin and then left the hangar, with his two guards behind him. Aren and Riz felt a great relief that they weren’t being escorted into the bowels of the ship in handcuffs. The relief was short and the reality that the Colonel now controlled them stayed. They would have to watch their step and only hope they could keep him from going too far.
As soon as their shuttle was airborne and headed back to the Empress, Aren began to talk.
“The first chance I get, I’m taking him down. He might have us now, but it won’t last. The old man is slipping,” Aren said.
Riz said nothing. There was no point. There was nothing he or Aren could do at the moment, so he didn’t want to waste time speculating.
“Aren, just be careful,” Riz said. “I know you think he’s crazy, but he’s smarter than we think. That fleet he built, that’s something. Whatever your plan is, make sure it works, because if it fails you won’t get another chance. Do you understand me?”
Aren said nothing. She hated being given unsolicited advise and how he often talked down to her, either because of her age or because he was threatened by women.
The shuttle arrived back in the hangar of the Empress. There were crews, rushing around with tools and parts, to different shuttles. They would eventually depart and go help the damaged ships. At this point, Riz wasn’t interested in a power play, but he could see Aren was and that wouldn’t be good for him. He would have to keep a close eye on her.
Aren made it back to her quarters and sank into the nearest chair. It had been eight hours since she arrived aboard the Empress, under the command of the Colonel. She and Riz were not permitted rest until the Colonel was assured that all ships were undergoing repair. It had taken quite a lot to get the right repair crews where they needed to be, and with the right tools. Now every ship had the mechanics and tools needed, it was just a matter of time. There was nothing to do but wait, so Aren decided to rest.
She thumbed through her phone and the scratchy Tube feed she could pick up. It was actually better than it ever had been, because they were close to the edge of the Antioch Belt. She saw a news broadcast of the Monarch leaving Mercury, and that Queen Evet had granted Kelvin’s service fulfilled. The broadcaster said the Monarch would be headed to Venus and the trip was estimated to take five months.
Aren stood and poured herself a glass of water. She stared at the workstation with the enhanced transmitter that helped her zero in on Kelvin’s frequency. She assumed he had been looking for her, and once he broadcast, she could find him immediately. Aren wondered if Kelvin would be listening.
She took a seat and powered up the workstation. The frequency scanner came online. Before she sent it searching for Kelvin, Aren accessed one of the probe satellites, between Earth and Mars. It had a telescopic lens, capable of getting a great shot of Earth or Mars, but mostly used in infrared mode to detect any of their departing fleets.
The blue planet Aren once called home appeared in her monitor. Africa was the prominent continent she could see at the moment, its lush green jungles contrasted by the dry deserts that carved up the continent. This was the first time in years Aren had looked at a live feed of Earth. It looked so delicate and peaceful from this perspective. The people of the planet had no idea what was about to happen in the Nine Kingdoms.
Aren’s heart sank when she thought that the billions of people on Earth were now at the mercy of the Colonel. Her parents would not surrender to the Colonel without a fight, unless they knew it was futile, so she hoped the Wanderers could demonstrate what they were capable of once the Jovians engaged them. Aren wanted desperately to transmit some sort of warning to her parents and tell them they should surrender their power now and let the people of Earth be free.
That wouldn’t happen, though. Aren knew the only way her parents would surrender their power was if the fighting risked too many lives. She suspected Kelvin would try to strengthen and rebuild the alliances of the Nine Kingdoms. His ideals gave him away, and it was the only strategy she could see working against the mighty fleet the Colonel was prepared to unleash.
Aren knew she had to be strong. The Colonel may be misguided and aggressive, but he shared the same desire as she and Riz believed in a Nine Kingdoms that were free of rulers. All people should be able to govern themselves, and rallying behind borders and flags only delayed the possibility of war between the Nine Kingdoms. Aren truly believed that if the Nine Kingdoms were left to live as they had been, when war came it would be worse than any in history. She didn’t see the irony of that fear, now that she lead the charge to start one. All she could see was her and her mistrust for the Jovians. In her eyes, and the rest of the Wanderers, the Jovians were the conquerors they were protecting the Nine Kingdoms from.
The frequency monitor alerted her to a broadcast coming from just outside Mercury’s orbit. It was Kelvin, trying to establish communication through one of the channels she had broadcast from. Amelia tuned in, but did not link up to him. She couldn’t risk it being traced, now that they were on the Colonel’s ship. It wouldn’t look good if he found out she’d spoken to her brother, either.
“Aren,” Kelvin began. “I don’t know if you can hear this, but I’m sending it into the Antioch Belt, hoping it finds you. I’m on my way to Venus, to reestablish our alliance with them. After I’ve completed my service there, I’ll move on to the other Nine Kingdoms and try to bring them together. We’re going to stop you.”
Aren smiled at the confidence in Kelvin’s voice. Even though his words were against her, she was proud of her brother.
“If you can hear me, I want you to know it’s not too late. If you returned to Earth and answered for your crimes, I’m sure mom and dad can plead with the courts to go easy on you. You don’t have to do this. If you continue down this path, it will get to a point where our family can’t help you after the battles are fought. If you attack any of the Nine Kingdoms, you will be beyond. Please just come home.”
Tears welled up in Aren’s eyes. She could see her reflection in one of the dark monitors. For a second, Aren remembered the girl she had been when she left Earth. Aren was very positive and optimistic, but today, she viewed that as blind and weak. Aren was a realist now.
“No matter what, know this: I’ll always be your brother. This is Kelvin, over and out.”
The transmission turned to static and Aren switched the workstation off. She turned to look out into the stars. For the first time since she had been a child, she could see the stars clearly now. They were out of the Antioch Belt and their journey had just begun.<
br />
Aren wasn’t nervous. This was her time, and she meant to see through what she helped start.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE MONARCH WAS well past Mercury. Kelvin stood in the observation deck, watching the solar shields fly back toward their planet. The sun was far enough behind them and they were on their way to Venus. Kelvin hadn’t started to study them, as there was not much information. Venus kept to itself and they did not have a navy. There were few ships on Venus.
Venus was known for it’s warriors. They called themselves the Gravity Warriors, and they were mysterious. Their order was known for fighting in some of the most brutal battles of ancient war and winning every time. That was all Kelvin knew. He would have time for research, as the journey to get to Venus would be at least six months, possibly more if they hit any pockets of space debris.
Space seemed wondrous to Kelvin when he first set out among the stars. It was almost magical to him, but now it seemed dangerous. Dark, massive, and lonely is what Kelvin saw when he looked out of the giant glass dome. The future had never seemed so uncertain and frightening to Kelvin, but he knew there was time and he was doing everything he could to help shape it.
The Lunar Guardians had departed just before the solar shields had. The Lunar Gale was much faster than the Monarch and had barely been damaged in the star dragon stampede. Kelvin’s uncle and the other Lunar Guardians assured Kelvin they would help Earth’s Navy build ships like the Lunar Gale. Now that they were allowed back on Earth and anywhere in the Nine Kingdoms, the Lunar Guardians stood prepared to defend against any threat.
“Did you hear about it yet, Kelvin?” Amelia said, from behind him.
Kelvin hadn’t heard her enter the observation deck. He didn’t turn around right away, especially when he noticed the tone in her voice was one that usually accompanied bad news.
