“Time until we reach Wecarro?” She glanced over to the form of Mia, sitting relaxed at the Astrogation position. Her projected presence wasn’t strictly necessary, but she and Kelsoe had reached an agreement for Mia to retain a visible presence in the ship, if only to help Kelsoe stave off loneliness.
“We will reach the nearer edge of Wecarro space in two weeks,” Mia returned, “but it will take us some time to approach the planet. Aarlan and I never traveled this way before, and I would prefer to take the unknown defenses cautiously.” Kelsoe was nibbling a fingernail as she stared at the view screen. “If your lunch has settled, we should probably continue with your classes. We have much to cover before we reach Wecarro.” Kelsoe groaned. “Later today, if you wish, you can begin weapons training.” The young woman’s grey eyes widened, and a slow smile spread across her face.
“That would be very nice indeed.”
Two weeks and four days later Kelsoe came up to the command deck to discover the vast world of Wecarro floating in the view screen before her. “I didn’t know that we were so close!” she exclaimed, plopping down in the command chair as she took a sip of her hot klah.
“We aren’t, really.” Mia looked up from her Astrogation screens and smiled. “The view screen is set to high magnification for your benefit. We’re still several days out. I’m just waiting for a fat freighter too…” she paused, “there!” She pointed, and a faint moving dot was highlighted on the screen. “We’ll shadow that ship in.”
Kelsoe stared at the approaching blue and green planet with mixed emotions. She was conceived there, and her family lived there, but try as she might, she couldn’t feel any attraction to the place. Traffic was racked and stacked in neat circular patterns that reached from the surface to high orbit, while elsewhere ships moved through the clutter, dodging to avoid the floating ships that were awaiting customs inspections. A small sleek two man ship shot past the tail of a wallowing merchantman, with another slightly larger ship in close pursuit, strobing red lights flashing along its hull.
“The first ship is probably a drug smuggler or a joy-rider out for a hop. The second ship is the police.” Mia explained before Kelsoe could ask. “From what I’ve come to understand things are somewhat slow today. Usually there are a number of Fleet vessels around to add to the general confusion.”
Kelsoe took another sip of her klah, never noticing that the drink had gone cold. “Where are we going?” She asked in a soft voice. The globe before them pivoted.
“There!” Mia exclaimed, highlighting an island in the middle of the southern ocean. “That is the Smith Estate. A thousand miles long by two hundred and fifty wide, it is the home for the Smiths and several thousand servants; perhaps eleven thousand all told. This is just the residence, you understand. Official business and state functions are conducted in the capital city of Valderon.” The globe swung only slightly, the highlighted city of Valderon sitting in a wide bay on the closest shore to the Smith Island, a thousand miles distant. Even from this distance Kelsoe could see a tangle of airports, spaceports and roads surrounding the great city and stretching hundreds of miles inland to the very feet of a towering purple range of mountains. The air was hazy and slightly yellow and the great towers of the Imperial Capital caught the sun and reflected it like shafts of living fire.
“Is that…pollution in the air?” Kelsoe asked, wrinkling her nose slightly.
“Yes.” Mia answered promptly. “This pollution is only from homes and transportation; there are, after all, eight billion people living on this world. Heavy industry was relocated to uninhabited worlds centuries ago. Where the air was already toxic, a little more pollution wouldn’t matter in the least.”
Kelsoe looked at the sprawling city and shuddered. “Yuk.” Mia laughed gently.
Kelsoe checked her clothes and equipment again, but couldn’t help the feeling that she’d missed something. As they went into orbit over the Smith Residence, Mia had made slight adjustments to her costume as better images began to come through from the local media. It appeared that the women were given somewhat greater latitude in their outfits now, and Mia made adjustments accordingly, lowering Kelsoe’s décolletage as much as decency allowed. The first time the young woman put on the dress she’d blushed furiously, not used to having her ‘assets,’ such as they were, on public display. Understanding Mia’s reasoning however, she struggled into the dress with a minimum of complaints. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and in her right hand she held a broom. Slightly longer than normal, with a simple twist the brush would drop off and Kelsoe would have a serviceable short staff, which she’d been training with for the past eighteen days. She had really wanted to take her pistol with her, but with the advanced detection technology available, she knew it wasn’t to be.
In the view screen she saw the saucer drift lower, with her subsonic speed of descent and advanced stealth systems making her virtually invisible to both electronic and visual observation. Crossing over the sunset line to the night-side, Kelsoe saw the lights of the estate before them igniting the walls with artificial daylight.
“It looks like a fairytale castle!” She whispered to no one in particular as she gazed at the slender white spires tipped with brilliant red roofs. The thick walls of the crenellated castle were sparkling white, as were all the surrounding outbuildings.
G’Fleuf replied. “It was built to look just that way.”
Kelsoe swallowed. “Where are we landing?”
On the view screen, a bright spot appeared on the back side of the castle, between the rear wall and a well-manicured wood that sat behind it. “There.” Mia said slowly. “There appears to be an open archway between the rear lawn and the central courtyard. From there you should be able to get in quite easily.”
“Yeah.” Kelsoe replied sourly. “So she says—but she’s not the one who’s going.”
“Remember, keep to the servant’s hallways.” Mia continued, ignoring the tart comment. “It is a matter of etiquette that royalty are not to see the servants.”
“Why? Will the sight of a little honest sweat make a royal turn to dust?” She snarled her reply.
“Perhaps. Just do as I ask, please.”
“Yes Mia.” In the screen the saucer dropped lower, the towers and the castle walls rising up to overshadow the small craft. “It appears that that the rear gardens and woods are in shadow. I’ll let you out here.” The cold hand of fear touched Kelsoe’s spine as the ramp flowed down to the manicured lawn five feet below. “Welcome to Wecarro, Primus Smith.” Mia said formally as she took her first step down the ramp.
Chapter 6
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
“Remember the maps we drilled into you, Kelsoe.” Mia spoke soothingly in her ear. “And remember that if you have a question…ask! While you were asleep last night I installed a tiny transceiver in the same container as your own AI. Tying in to your audio circuits, it will allow us to stay in touch, however the range is short and easily blocked, but the signal cannot be picked up.”
“That’s very nice to know.” Kelsoe replied in a trembling voice and stopped, gripping the broom handle until her knuckles turned white. The warm air was soft on her cheeks, and smelled of jasmine from the vines draped on ornate trellises in the courtyard. She frowned as the faint scent of charred wood came to her, as if from an old fire, but in the darkness she could see nothing out of the ordinary. “I remember the maps. Go in the back entrance, take a right, then a left and go straight ahead until I find the grand staircase. To the left of the staircase is a small door that leads to the servant’s stairway. Take the stairs up to the fifth floor. That will be the private rooms of the Primus.” She swallowed her fear. “Do your sensors detect any other servants or Smith’s about?”
Mia was silent for several moments. “Surprisingly, no. Move out, Kelsoe, but be very careful.”
Kelsoe moved forward, her soft soled slippers making no noise on the hard stone pathways of the courtyard, and then on the marble floors of
the mansion. Her legs made a soft whisk, whisk sound as they brushed her unfamiliar petticoat, and she grimaced at the noise, sure that anyone within one hundred yards could hear it. The inside of the mansion was like a tomb, and she stopped. “I wish I had brought night vision lenses.” She murmured.
Kelsoe’s vision went from black to a monochromatic daylight, like you would find outdoors under a full moon, and she stifled an exclamation. She had totally forgotten about the small AI G’Fluef had implanted in her hip that was also tied into her corneal implants. Apparently circuit analysis and targeting displays to her HUD were just a few of the things that it could do.
“Well now.” The young woman exclaimed in a sub vocalized mutter. “I wish I had known about that earlier. What other surprises do you have up your sleeve, computer?” The silence in her mind was ominous.
“How are you doing?” Mia asked softly only a few minutes later, and Kelsoe jumped.
“You sound nervous.”
“I am nervous, Kelsoe. Something isn’t right here.” It wasn’t the answer Kelsoe had hoped to hear.
Even with her enhanced vision, the servant’s stairway was still very dark, and Kelsoe had to move slowly to avoid tripping over her long dress. Edging the door open, she stepped onto a polished wood hallway that seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance. Paintings hung on the walls in profusion, and graceful statues graced the many corners and inset niches. The chill air in the house was heavy with the scent of years of polish and wax.
“Wait!” Mia whispered, so as not to startle the young woman. “Use the small drone I prepared.”
Kelsoe reached into the pocked of her dress, and pulled out a small one inch in diameter silver ball. Twisting each half in opposite directions to activate it, she set it in the palm of her open hand and watched as it floated away as silently as a soap bubble.
“There is a motion detector ahead and to your right, in the corner of the ceiling.” Mia hissed.
Kelsoe glanced up and squinted. “I see it. I can fix it.” From another deep pocket in her dress she withdrew the simplest of weapons; a small wooden slingshot. Unwrapping a brown marble the size of her thumb, she loaded the slingshot, drew and fired. The small brown ball stuck to the motion detector with a soft plop, and slowly swelled until it filled the entire corner of the room, covering the motion detector. Kelsoe pocketed the slingshot and moved on. Three more motion detectors and a waist high laser alarm which she simply rolled under, and she was at the royal apartment. The door had no handle and no lock, but a simple glass panel set into the wall beside the door. Shaking, Kelsoe placed her hand on the panel of the DNA reader. Beside the door a tiny light turned green, and the door hissed softly open. Kelsoe stepped in, and the door hissed shut behind her.
“This place give me the creeps! It’s like a tomb.” Kelsoe whispered under her breath. “Where is everybody?”
“That is bothering me too, Kelsoe. Get in, send the message and get out. The drone can sense no alarms in this room.”
Kelsoe took the first left down a long dark hallway and stopped at the first door on the right. She swallowed, and her spittle held the bitter taste of her own fear. Again replying to the touch of her hand, the door slid open soundlessly. Kelsoe stepped in and stopped. What was supposed to be the office of the Primus had been stripped to the walls. Where the armoire with the FTL transceiver had been, bare wires stuck out of both wall and floor. “Oh shi…” was as far as Kelsoe got before a crashing pain struck her in the back, sweeping her consciousness away with it.
~~~
She woke with the taste of vomit in her mouth, and fought for several long moments to keep from repeating her mistake. Her entire body felt battered and bruised, and her limbs seemed to be shaking uncontrollably. Finally, shuddering, she swallowed and opened her eyes. Her vision swam for a time, and her head pounded in perfect time with the agony in her back, but the trembling in her bound arms seemed to subside somewhat. The room was dark, but thanks to her enhanced vision, not pitch black. Other than the chair she sat in, the room was empty and featureless.
“How are we doing Mia?” She sub vocalized as she shut her eyes again. Silence was her only reply, and suddenly Kelsoe was very very afraid. Being bound alone in a dark room can do that to you. The pain that pulsed up her back to the top of her head made thinking nearly impossible, and all she wanted to do was to scream. “Oh gods, let the pain ease off…just a bit!” She prayed, fighting back her nausea. Surprisingly, it seemed that the gods heard her, as the pain eased to a whole body throb, and she felt her heartbeat slowly try to return to normal. She took a deep breath of cold musty air that held a chilling scent of old blood, or maybe it was her imagination. It was then that her dire situation crashed down on her. “I failed.” She wailed in her mind. “I’ve lost everything! I’m going to die and the entire Smith family is going to die because I failed.” She clenched her jaws as another wave of nausea passed over her. “Whoever caught me is going to find out everything, and everyone will die!” She moaned in despair.
A small rational part of her mind that was not affected by her throbbing pain disagreed. Not so. The voice seemed to say. You found out that there has been a political upheaval since your father was here last, and that the opposition were, in all likelihood, waiting to trap him and not a silly kitchen maid. When she just wanted to whimper, and feel sorry for herself the stubborn independent Kelsoe who’d grown up in the Den continued remorselessly. You discovered that all the Smiths have either been taken or perhaps killed, and that the Smith Residence is empty.
Kelsoe hung her head. “I thought that this was civilization.” She grumbled to herself. “I think I’m going to be sick again.”
Getting sick again might not be a good idea. The rational part of her commented dryly. When they come, you need to act dazed and confused.
“I am dazed and confused.” Kelsoe growled to herself. “It’s no act.” She leaned back in the chair, and tried to relax. It might have been minutes or it might have been hours later when the small noise caused Kelsoe to open her eyes. The metallic scrape of a key in a lock, told her that someone was coming, as did the sound of a door opening. She purposely didn’t move. A rough hand pushed up her sleeve, and she felt the bite of a needle in her bicep. Someone slapped her cheek hard enough to rock her head, but Kelsoe felt the blow only distantly. She let out a low groan with an agony she surprisingly didn’t feel. Hands gave her body a hard shake. “Wake up!” A male tenor voice that was trying very hard to sound gruff and threatening muttered. “My sensors indicate that you’re mostly awake.” The hand slapped her again, and her cheek burned. “Wake up!” Kelsoe groaned again, and opened her eyes, blinking them several times rapidly, as if she were having trouble focusing.
“Stop hitting!” She mumbled in a voice she hoped sounded like it was filled with agony.
“You jest answer a few simple questions and I’ll let ye go.” The man had a peculiar accent, and she didn’t believe him for a second. She risked a quick glance to discover that her tormenter was a short thin man, whose beaklike nose had been broken sometime in the past and pointed slightly to the left of center on the man. His shoulder length hair was lank and greasy, and his right eye seemed to be different color entirely from the other. His shirt was dark and wrinkled, and there was a small plastic badge clipped to the outside of his right pocket.
You know that he will kill you as soon as you answer his questions, the cold dispassionate voice said in the back of her mind. “No shit!” Kelsoe’s recovering awareness answered. “I have to keep him interested.” She mused. “But how, now that he’s given me drugs.”
“What do you want to know?” Kelsoe slurred aloud.
“Who are you, what were you doing in the royal apartments, and who sent you?”
She blinked her eyes again and stared into the darkness. “How did you find me?” She asked, twitching slightly in her bonds.
The interrogator snickered. “Pressure switches built into the floor,” he bragged, “now
answer the question.”
“My name is Mimi Deliz,” Kelsoe answered, stunned that she was fully in control of what she was saying; as if the drugs she’d been given had no affect at all, “and I was hired two months ago as a cook’s assistant.” A cold white light in the dark room indicated that the interrogator was checking her story on his PDA. The ablicant light from the device affirmed Kelsoe’s guess about his appearance. The light went out.
“That much checks out.” The voice in the dark admitted, and Kelsoe sighed in relief. Despite Mia’s assurances that she would be able to insert her name and employment information into the staff database, she had been worried. “Go on.”
“I was sent to go to the royal apartments, enter a certain room and see what was there. That’s all…I swear. I didn’t steal nothing sir. I saw an empty room with some wires sticking out of the floor.”
“I believe you.” The interrogator’s voice rasped. “Now, who sent you?”
Kelsoe wobbled in her chair. “I don’t feel so good.”
“Talk, damn it!” The voice growled.
Kelsoe’s wobble became more pronounced. “It was Count…” She paused dramatically, gurgling deep in her throat. “I really don’t feel so good.”
The interrogator was on his feet in front of her. “Count who, you silly bitch??” The hand flashed down again, and Kelsoe felt another searing pain in her cheek. “Tell me, or I’ll make sure you don’t feel good—ever.”
“He had grey hair.” Kelsoe whispered. “And a…and a…” Her head slumped forward onto her chest.
“Who, damn it? Who?” The interrogator screamed. Kelsoe’s limp head flopped against his chest as with his hands on her shoulders he shook her roughly. In the dim light and confusion the interrogator never noticed that the small flat plastic identity badge that had been attached to the front of his jacket was now missing. Using her teeth, Kelsoe popped the badge loose and dropped it down the front of her low dress, and then went completely limp. When the interrogator pushed her away more roughly than needed, she and the chair wobbled for a moment in the darkness, and crashed to the hard floor. Kelsoe lay very still. Behind her back the rough landing had concealed the sound of her strong hands breaking the small wooden chair spindles that her wrists had been tied to. She let spittle run out of her mouth, and from the corner of her eye Kelsoe could see the interrogator shudder.
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