On The Imperium’s Secret Service (Imperium Cicernus)

by Christopher Nuttall

  “I see,” she said. OTC would have monitored starships passing through the system and landing on the planet at all times, even if some of the ships were unplanned and landing somewhere within the jungle rather than at the complex. “But how do I get you some time there alone?”

  “They’re having a ball tonight,” Fitz said. “The important detail is that they will only have one person on duty – Tuff isn't Homeworld, and there’s relatively little traffic coming in and out of the system, particularly at night. I need you to lure that person out of the room and distract him for at least ten minutes. After that, you should be able to let him go and return to the ball or the cabin if you want.”

  Mariko frowned in puzzlement...and then suddenly understood. What would her mother say?

  “You want me to seduce him just to keep him out of your way?”

  “Yes,” Fitz said. He had the grace to sound ashamed at what he was asking. “I wouldn't ask if there was any other way...”

  “I believe you,” Mariko said, slowly. She knew a little about how OTC systems functioned. No one wanted just anyone to be able to hack into the computers, or wreakers would be able to cause no small amount of chaos just by directing starships to crash into each other or slam into the planets below. The Imperium had strict laws on how the systems were supposed to work, even on isolated planets like Tuff. “And...if I do this, what will you do in exchange?”

  “If you and your sister decide you don’t want to stay with me, I’ll let you both go on the next civilised world,” Fitz said. He certainly sounded sincere. “I can cancel your debts, even ensure that you have enough cash to get home or buy a new ship. But I need this done for me today. Tomorrow we have to leave the planet, or eyebrows will be raised.”

  “I see,” Mariko said. The thought of being a whore, even pretending to be a whore, was repulsive. And yet she’d been willing to be his whore to spare Mai the same fate. What did it say about her that she changed her principles on a daily basis? “I’ll do it for you.”

  “Thank you,” Fitz said. He reached over and rumpled her dress. “See you at the ball, my dear.”

  His acting was astonishingly good. Mariko wouldn't have believed that he wasn't anything more than an aristocratic playboy if she hadn't seen the transformation for herself. No wonder Fitz had been so certain that his disguise was perfect – and even though his comrade had died, no one had suspected him.

  “Of course, Milord,” she said, with a curtsey. “See you at the ball.”

  ***

  The sound of thumping music was still audible three floors above the ballroom, where live musicians played dance tunes that echoed all the way back to the years before the Imperium, at least according to Lady Mary. Some of the aristocrats enjoyed dancing to tunes that were officially frowned upon everywhere else, as if it gave them a thrill they couldn't get through sex or hunting. Fitz had commented, rather snidely, that there were a few things forbidden to those of even the highest pedigree, which was partly why they wanted them. Drugs – including one made from processed alien flesh – and certain forms of enhancement augmentation were being passed freely around the ballroom. Mariko could only hope that Mai had the sense not to touch anything and just dance with the other retainers.

  Fitz led her up a flight of stairs and down a long corridor, each doorway leading to a small bedroom where an aristocrat and his chosen partner could linger for the night, if they saw fit. A handful of doors were closed and locked, but a couple of occupied rooms were open, revealing group orgies that made Mariko blush. She’d never even considered the possibility of having more than one man at a time, let alone being part of a group that included both males and females. And there was the room with ten men and ten women, the women bent over while the men moved from woman to woman...

  She looked over at Fitz, who seemed to have ignored the whole scene. “Is it always like this?”

  “You tell people that the mere fact of their birth gives them licence to do as they please to those who weren't so lucky in choosing their parents and you get little monsters,” Fitz said. For once, he sounded angry rather than unconcerned. “I used to be one of them.”

  Mariko looked up at him, just before he held up a hand to stop her and glanced into the next room. “That one,” he hissed. “One man in it; get him out of there.”

  “Understood,” Mariko hissed. She felt herself frozen, unable to move. How could she seduce a complete stranger – and then prevent him from going all the way? “Ten minutes, you said.”

  Fitz nodded and slipped into a nearby room, leaving her standing alone and twisting her fingers together. What would Mai say if she knew what her sister was about to do? What would her mother say? She’d disown Mariko on the spot; she still liked to delude herself that her daughters were virgins. And yet...the price was right, better than she had expected. Lord Fitz would probably keep his word. Under the two personas he projected to the world, there was a good, almost kind person. He could have easily taken advantage of her back on the Bruce Wayne.

  She braced herself and stepped forward, walking into the OTC room. It was nowhere near as elaborate as she had been expecting, not like the worlds with regular space traffic at all hours. A single monitor tracked the ships in orbit; another kept a wary eye on flying aircars packed with hunters who thought that they would have better luck taking pot-shots from high overhead...and almost nothing tracking activity inside the complex itself. There had to be another station that monitored Lady Mary’s guests, she decided, one well-hidden from view. She wouldn't want them all to realise that she was monitoring them, would she?

  The operator looked up from where he had been sitting, his feet propped up on the console in front of him, and looked over at her. Mariko had altered her dress slightly to show off more of her breasts, even pushing them forward in a manner calculated to attract attention. Despite herself, planning her presentation had almost been fun. Perhaps Fitz felt the same way when he moved between his fop and secret agent personas. The operator wasn't particularly attractive, Mariko realised, but he didn't look to be one of the sadists from down below either. She could do it!

  “Hi,” she said, with a giggle she’d borrowed from the twins. It was almost easy to slip into the persona she’d designed, as if it was just another form of dress. “Are you bored up here on your own?”

  The operator swallowed. “I’m afraid this place is closed to everyone, but staff,” he said, with some difficulty. It wasn't as if OTC on Tuff was particularly important, after all. “You shouldn't be here.”

  “But I have been paid to give you a good time,” Mariko said, with a wink. “You don’t need to stay here, you know.”

  His eyes dropped to her breasts and never moved from them as she came closer. He probably spent his time watching aristocratic women and the paid retainers showing off their stuff, without ever being able to touch them. Lady Mary wouldn't have bothered to consider that she should have ordered her retainers to please the rest of her staff as well.

  She took his hand and helped him to his feet, smiling down at him as though he was the most attractive man in the world. He staggered forward and somehow ended up with his hands pushing briefly against her breasts, before stumbling backwards as if they were made of red hot coals. Mariko fought down a giggle and took him in her arms, pushing her lips against his.

  He hesitated and then returned the kiss with surprising passion. Her guess about him having watched so many of his superiors enjoying themselves without being able to join in must have been right. He didn't know what to do with his hands; they seemed to slide over her bottom, then jump away as if he didn't seem to realise that she was truly there for him.

  Oddly, the thought gave her strength as she led him out of the chamber and down the hallway to one of the open rooms. He was kissing her passionately even before she had locked the door, half-pushing her towards the bed. Like so many other young men, part of her mind noted, remembering her adventures as a younger girl, he wasn't really capable of controllin
g his passions.

  “You don’t have to hurry,” she said, as she allowed him to pull off her dress. His fingers fumbled over the catches, before unlocking them and revealing her bare breasts to his gaze – and wandering hands. He didn't seem to be trying to hurt her, unlike the guards who had threatened to molest her in prison, something that made it easier for her to tolerate his touch. Clumsy as he might be, unpleasant and evil he wasn’t. “We have all night.”

  Ten minutes passed slowly as she introduced him to a few things no girl had ever done for him before. She had already determined that she wasn't going to have sex with him – she hadn't fallen that far, not yet – but she could play with him until his manhood twitched and spurted white liquid over her hand. Helping him to his feet, hiding her amusement at the shame on his face, she pulled him into the shower and washed him down, even as he tried to twist away from her. Did he think that he was the only man to have a premature ejaculation, really? Men liked to claim that women had more problems with sex than they did, but Mariko suspected that it was the other way round.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she whispered to him as they pulled on their clothes. His face was still glowing bright red, even though his breathing had calmed down. “We’ll see each other again.”

  His eyes seemed to light up. “Really?”

  “Of course,” Mariko said, feeling a flash of shame. It was a promise she would not be able to keep. What would he think when she didn't materialise at the next ball? She thought about the short-term memory loss the guard had experienced five days ago and wondered if they should do the same to him, but such a procedure had to be risky. A simple memory scan would reveal what had happened, even if it couldn't retrieve the lost memories. “And you were very good.”

  She glanced at her watch – twenty-seven minutes had gone by since she’d taken him away from his duties – and then led him out of the corridor, back to his station. There was no sign of Fitz or anyone else, but there was a single red light blinking up on the console. She felt a sudden shock, fearing that Fitz might have left some sign of his presence, before the operator tapped a control and the red light turned into a starship requesting permission to enter orbit.

  “They had to wait,” he said, and started to giggle. Mariko joined him, even though she couldn't help, but feel that someone might have a few hard questions for him within an hour. “Nothing too important, just supplies from Sumter. Maybe the snobs down there will have to go without their caviar or baked spice cakes for another hour.”

  Mariko frowned, inwardly. She’d been part of the interstellar trading community and she suspected that the bulk freighter taking up orbit was simply too large to be bringing supplies to a single planet. Unless, of course, they were bringing more than processed foodstuffs. Almost all planets, even the poorest in the Imperium, could produce enough food to keep their population well fed. It was rare for any world to be reliant on supplies from the outside universe. But not every world produced advanced weapons and protective armour for soldiers.

  “I have to go back to the ball,” she said, sadly. She wondered if Fitz felt the same guilt when he manipulated Lady Mary or his Auntie Jo. Maybe she wasn't cut out to be a secret agent after all. “Have a good life, all right?”

  She left, heading down the corridor before he could call out after her. The orgy was still going on with as much enthusiasm as ever, probably aided by nanotech supplements that delayed orgasm in men and increased orgasm in women. They too were carried from world to world by various freighters, sometimes being worth an Emperor’s ransom on worlds that had religious prohibitions against such devices. A man called out for her to join in and she hesitated, half-wondering if she was already too compromised to object to joining an orgy, before shaking her head and walking onwards. And then a shadow stepped out of another door.

  “Milord,” she said, recognising Fitz. She would have preferred to be alone, but that wasn't going to happen. “I...”

  Fitz winked at her, took her arm, and led her down the stairs back to the ball. It was hard, so hard, to keep a normal expression on her face, even though they were surrounded by men and women who considered her one step above an animal, if that. The care and attention that some aristocrats were prepared to lavish upon their small collections of dogs, cats and even horses never failed to surprise her. Someone could have fed an entire town on what they spent to feed their pets daily.

  Everyone seemed to know...she knew she was imagining it, but their glances seemed to mock her even as she danced with Fitz. He was a good dancer, moving his feet in time with the music and smiling at her whenever she looked at him. How could he be so normal about it? He’d just carried out a data raid on Lady Mary’s OTC and he didn’t seem to even care...he just smiled at her and danced.

  “We’ll go back to the ship tomorrow morning,” he whispered in her ear. He sounded as foppish as ever. “Have everything packed up for 1000.”

  “Yes, Milord,” she said. She had to maintain her own act, after all. “And where are we going next?”

  “I’ll let you know in the morning,” Fitz said. He’d promised to tell them other things as well, but...would he keep his promise? There was no way to know. “Get an early night. I have to speak with a few people before I go to bed.”

  Mariko nodded, found Mai, and headed back to their cabin. If nothing else, perhaps they could leave him at the next civilised planet they visited. And then they could go home.

  Chapter Eleven

  It was surprising – or perhaps it wasn’t – just how much the Bruce Wayne felt like home. Mariko felt nothing but relief the moment the shuttle docked and they were out of reach of a vengeful Lady Mary. If the operator had reported his little encounter with her to his mistress, might his mistress realise that Fitz had used the time to access her computers and download information she would surely prefer to remain hidden? And then what would she do? The safaris made an excellent cover for disposing of nosy intruders.

  “Take us out of orbit and on a direct course for Greenland,” Fitz ordered, as soon as they had disembarked from the shuttle. He was holding a small case in his hands, but the remainder of their luggage had been left in the shuttle. They could empty it out during the voyage to Greenland and replace it with whatever they needed for that planet. “And then meet me in my cabin for a chat.”

  Mariko nodded, fighting down a yawn. She hadn't really been able to sleep last night, even though she’d been exhausted. Seducing someone still felt wrong. Maybe she’d bought their freedom, maybe she’d won them a chance to restart their lives, but it still felt wrong. She could never discuss it with her parents, even their father. And their mother would be totally irrational about it. What if everything had gone horrendously wrong and she’d been caught?

  She headed up to the bridge and checked the download from OTC. On impulse, she put it on the main screen and displayed the take from Bruce Wayne’s passive sensors against the official list. Two starships had been tracked entering low orbit that hadn't been included on the direct download from OTC, as if Lady Mary hadn't wanted to draw anyone’s attention to them. Starships in orbit generally relied upon OTC rather than their own systems, which made it a neat way of disguising ships without having to use a cloaking device. And if someone did ask questions, Lady Mary could dismiss it as a sensor glitch, perhaps caused by Tuff’s odd atmosphere.

  “Mariko,” Mai said slowly, “are you all right?”

  Her sister was more perceptive than she seemed, Mariko reminded herself. God alone knew what Mai was thinking. They’d both been prepositioned by various aristocratic fops over the last week and it had taken a combination of diplomacy and determination to avoid being dragged into their beds. Mai might have even been wondering if Mariko had failed to evade one of the aristocrats and ended up servicing him one night.

  “I think so, yes,” she said. “But we do have to talk to Fitz once we get into phase space.”

  She tapped the console, powering up the phase drive as she sent Bruce Wayne hurtli
ng away from the planet. Mai left her to her own thoughts as she ran a series of diagnostic programs to check that the drive was working properly before starting the countdown to entering phase space. Mariko keyed in the command sequence as they passed the phase limit, expecting that any moment would bring an outraged demand from the planet that they stop and prepare to be boarded. Instead, two minutes after they crossed the phase limit, the stars blurred into a spinning whorl of light and then vanished in the inky absolute darkness of phase space.

  “Phase drive online, all readings nominal,” Mai informed her. There was no reason why they shouldn't be nominal – the Imperial Navy had surveyed the Sumter Sector centuries ago and charted all of the gravitational masses large enough to interfere with phase drive – but Mariko was feeling paranoid. “What do you want to talk to Fitz about?”

  “What I did for him on the planet,” Mariko said, softly. Right now, it seemed like a dream more than real life. “Come on. Let's go find him.”

  Surprisingly, they found him in the machine shop, studying a set of devices she didn't recognise. “Phase space is really little more than a pocket dimension surrounding a ship,” he said, by way of explanation. “The really interesting part of that little datum is that if anything should happen to be transmitting while we’re in phase space, the signal will be reflected back to us, allowing it to be isolated, tracked down and then destroyed.”