In the face of these examples of human insignificance, in comparison to the ages old, slowly changing landscape, many people felt the need to look for some higher meaning. Karen had little time for religion, for as a Doctor she had experience of life and death in all its many forms and knew from bitter experience how little the individual mattered in the grand scheme. To her, the important things were the people around you and the relationships you formed. She regularly witnessed the depth of love people had for one another which helped them through medical crises, allowing them to draw strength from each other. Things like that were far more important to her than the slim possibility of some omnipresent, capricious deity that required unquestioning obedience. “Still,” she thought, “to each, their own.”
In the warm, intimate glow between periods of lovemaking, Adam had described his world and civilisation to her in great detail. She was amazed at how far ahead their medicine was compared to what she knew and his stories of aliens and empires spanning hundreds and thousands of worlds left her mind spinning with so many questions. So much to learn and also unlearn. Things she’d taken for granted all of her life had been turned on their head and she now totally understood Adam’s real worry about what would happen to him should his identity ever be found out. When he’d told her about his ever-present companion, Vimes, Karen had at first felt uncomfortable but was reassured when told he wasn’t sentient and simply a program running in an organic computer lodged at the top of his brain stem. Whenever she had asked about Adam’s family, the answers were a little vague but she put that down to sadness at being apart from them and so didn’t press the point, not when there were so many other questions. Even so, Karen felt there were things he was deliberately avoiding, but for now, she would let that pass.
Karen suddenly shuddered involuntarily, feeling for an instant as if someone had walked over her grave. She’d never felt that before, until now. She stood up, deciding with a smile it was time to go back and either wake Adam or crawl back under the covers and let him warm her another way. Turning around, she was startled to see a woman standing a few yards behind her and took a step backwards in shock. She looked at the strikingly beautiful woman in front of her; tall, with short brown hair devoid of any trace of grey. Of indeterminate age, anywhere from thirty to sixty, she held herself straight and looked appraisingly at Karen, as if judging her in some way. The woman’s clothes looked decidedly dated, reminding Karen of outfits her grandmother used to wear.
Shocked at having this woman come upon her so quietly and not knowing what else to say, Karen could only come out with, “Hello, how long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough. Beautiful view isn’t it” the woman replied, a hint of a smile creasing her mouth.
She walked forward towards Karen and extended her hand.
“Apologies for startling you like that. I saw you up here alone and decided to introduce myself. I’m Christine, Adam’s mother and you and I need to have a chat.”
For the first time in her life, Karen was truly speechless and unable to articulate anything meaningful other than a strangled, “Mother?” Instinctively, she took the proffered hand, noting the firm grip and familiar unnatural warmth that immediately reminded her of Adam.
Watching the colour drain out of Karen’s face, Christine spoke. “I’m sorry, my dear, that was unfair of me and I apologise for springing this on you in such a fashion. Unfortunately, I don’t have much time here but I did want to meet with you alone before I saw my son.”
Karen interrupted, “But Adam told me he was lost with no means of contacting his family so how on earth did you find him? What does this mean?” Karen’s initial shock started turning to anger, thinking that for all Adam’s protestations of good faith and not wanting to hurt her she had been misled again. Before she could continue with this train of thought, Christine interrupted her.
“No, Karen. He didn’t lie or mislead you; everything he told you was true. He was lost and alone, just not in the way he or you thought, but I need to speak with him first before telling you the full story. Let’s go surprise him together.”
End of First Act
Dear Reader,
Thank you for making it through to the end of the first Act. I do hope you enjoyed Imperium: Betrayal.
If you did and want to know more, Act Two (Imperium: Revelations) will tell the story of Alexander’s father and the death of his family, how he and Christine met, what happens to the Emperor, Christine, Adam and Karen. To make this happen, please put up some stars and a review in support.
Paul M Calvert
London, England
Appendix 1, The Alexander Doctrine
No member of the Imperial family may marry another hereditary member of the Nobility.
Planets within Empire space, where the dominant life-form has not achieved safe manned space flight, evidenced by a successful launch into high orbit and safe return of the sentient passenger(s), are to be embargoed from all contact and outside influence.
For embargoed planets, the existence of the Empire must be kept hidden from them until such time as they have achieved the aforementioned safe launch and return. At the Emperor’s discretion, they can be offered membership of the Empire.
If the offer is accepted, the appropriate Class of membership is to be proffered, depending on their level of technological and social progress.
In the event a planet rejects membership, the solar system is to be embargoed. No contact with the Empire permitted, other than every fifty standard years at which time membership is to be offered again. Travel outside of home system prohibited.
Classes of membership are:
Class Three:
Basic Membership. Self-Governance. To be offered on reaching minimum requirement. No interference by the Empire or transfer of higher technologies. Free passage to Empire ships within the solar system. Jump Point Custom Stations installed. All citizens of the Empire to be given safe passage or assistance, without let or hindrance. Class Three citizens cannot leave their home system without the approval of the Customs Station.
Class Two:
Intermediate Membership. To be offered on reaching a Unitary World Government. Limited transfer of higher technologies and trade with other worlds, providing it would not adversely impact on the planet's population or ecology. Acceptance of Universal Imperial Law. Payment of the Imperial Tithe. A non-voting seat at the Sector Council.
Class One:
Full Membership. To be offered where there is a Unitary World Government and colony worlds have been founded within the solar system. Where colony worlds are not feasible, they must have achieved manned safe travel to and returned from nearest planet or moon. Appointment of Imperial Nobility to Planet. Unrestricted trade and transfers of technology. Free passage allowed in and out of the home system. A voting seat at the Sector Council. Provision of troops to the Imperial Navy and the maintenance of own Fleet as per Imperial Edict. All citizens have full rights and responsibilities.
Appendix 2, Capital and a bit of history
The Empire was old. So old in fact, the majority of its citizens didn’t know or had forgotten it might have once gone by a name other than “Empire.”
Not that too many of those who knew would have cared overmuch, for life in the Empire was good for the majority of its citizens and worrying about such things tended to be the purview of historians and scholars.
Before the Empires founding, the planet now called simply Capital had been no different to any other that nurtured human life in the galaxy. Circling a yellow, type G star in a binary system, it was one of twelve planets held by that sun. It sat in the habitable Goldilocks zone with another, slightly smaller planet that orbited closer in and was at the hotter end of what humans would find comfortable.
Home of the Emperor, his family and the Imperial Court, it was now a verdant, lush world that showed little sign of the widespread industrialisation and scars of war which had marked its surface millennia before.
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br /> Pre-Empire, every continent on Capital had borne a number of civilisations, each with unique languages, customs and mores. Throughout recorded history they rose, blossomed for a time, then stagnated and ultimately fell. Religious, economic or ideological wars had all been fought at one time or another, many on a global scale.
During these periods of rise and fall, almost every conceivable type of governance had been tried and found wanting. No matter what good intentions or altruistic ideals these civilisations began with, each, in turn, had failed by not providing one or more of the four main constants of governance; the will to make hard decisions on behalf of the people, the illusion of freedom, social cohesion, and protection from the harsh realities of existence.
Invariably, after each fall, one strong, clever or charismatic individual would come forward and lead the people out of darkness and despair and into the light, promising hope and a return of pride. Unfortunately, no matter how pure in heart or noble their intentions were to begin with, in time each new start would invariably harbour within it the age old cycle of growth and collapse.
Ironically, it was not during one of these periodic collapses or wars that the Empire came into being, far from it. It began in a peaceful period that had already lasted ninety years, following a devastating world war which ruined many of the world’s economies and saw tens of millions killed. After the war ended, scientific advancements and burgeoning prosperity brought about a time of optimism in which nations decided to compete with each other to conquer the challenges of space instead of on the battlefield. The urge to spread across the solar system intensified following a planetary near miss by a potentially planet-killing, massive nickel-iron meteorite. Nearly half of the planet's population watched in horror as it burned through the upper atmosphere, before skimming away into deep space, changing their perception of space forever. Into this time of exploration and advance was born Josef Doone, youngest of three children from a well to do family living on the largest continent, Mohanes. Showing enormous talent from an early age, Doone was by any measure a genius. Not only did he possess a remarkable ability to take other people’s ideas and improve on them, but also displayed an instinctive understanding of quantum physics and genetics. These prodigious talents would ultimately propel him into the history books.
Aged twenty-two, he revolutionised power generation by working out how to liberate and commercially utilise the energy released from the total conversion of matter into energy. Governments paid huge sums to licence this technology and Doone rapidly became an incredibly wealthy man. In addition to fulfilling the growing energy needs of a modern, technological society, this new power source accelerated the move out into the solar system, something that had begun several years previously. Using ships designed around Doone’s total conversion engines, nations began exploring the solar system, mining the asteroid belts for raw materials and water. This expansion and utilisation of resources allowed colonies to be settled on the hotter sister planet and bases to be established on less hospitable ones.
Josef, drawing on his wealth and powerful commercial interests, established a private laboratory at the edge of the solar system, away from prying eyes and manned it with the brightest and best from his huge commercial empire. Focusing all of his efforts into the study of Quantum Attraction, Josef first postulated, then proved and finally demonstrated that it was possible to move objects or messages instantaneously from one point to another, providing the “Quantum Signature” of both points were both known and outside of a sun’s gravity well. When the two “Signatures” were matched together within an artificially generated QA field, the lesser of the two signatures and anything contained within it would instantaneously move to the greater. Every star, depending on its mass and gravity well, was postulated to have at least one, or possibly more, regions (Jump Points) where Quantum Signatures could be matched and Jumps performed.
Of no immediate commercial use within their sun’s gravity well, Josef kept this breakthrough and associated technology secret, aided by the isolation of his laboratory at the edge of space. He knew that once this and his other work on genome enhancements became known, Governments would seek to take them from him for their own ends.
Conveniently located close to the systems only Jump point, Josef’s research station was kept away from inquisitive eyes and guarded by the best private security money could buy. Utilising his immense wealth to produce and equip star-faring probes, each with the ability to map Quantum Signatures, Josef quietly launched hundreds from his laboratory to neighbouring star systems. Travelling at a constant three-G’s of acceleration and allowing for slowing down at the destination so precise Quantum mapping could take place, the first probe took just over five years to reach the closest system outside of their binary, four light years away. With the “Signature” of a distant Jump point mapped and transmitted back using Quantum Attraction, Josef was eventually able set up a commercially sized transmitter/receiver, enabling instantaneous travel between the two systems. Although instantaneous travel to another star system was now a reality, journeys within a sun’s gravity well still required travel through normal space and could take several weeks.
Maintaining strict secrecy, and using families from within his commercial empire, Josef began establishing small colonies of like-minded on an increasing number of new worlds. Growing increasingly fearful that Governments would interfere with his plans or seek to take control of his technologies, Josef accelerated preparations for the time when he might have to flee. By his sixtieth birthday, Josef was the de facto owner and leader of nine star systems, albeit sparsely populated ones. Inevitably, an undertaking of this magnitude could not be kept secret forever. When news of his discoveries and the existence of human colonies around other stars finally became public knowledge, Josef was forced to flee the home system with his family and associates. As he had predicted and feared, national Governments on the home planet tried to take control for themselves and gain a monopoly over the new technologies and worlds he had discovered. Faced with the stark choices of either capitulation, imprisonment or fleeing, Josef and his associates abandoned their home system forever through the Jump Point, leaving the laboratory and transmitting machinery behind to self-destruct in a total conversion explosion, leaving no trace of his research or discoveries.
At this point, Josef felt relatively safe, as he knew that even if the will was there to follow him to the stars, it would be many years before construction of ships large enough to make the trip through relativistic space could even be begun. Even then, without his QA drive, the travel time at one-G would take a little over six years, by which time he and his fledgling colonies would be ready for them.
Following the destruction of Doone’s laboratory and disappearance, along with any hope of their taking or replicating his QA jump technology, Governments turned inwards, seeking to try and develop it for themselves and claim the stars for their own people. As a result, planetary co-operation began to fall apart
With the passing of years, suspicion and greed replaced the earlier altruistic fervour to explore the system and protect the race, eventually culminating in a series of small wars over territory and resources. Mistrust and xenophobia flourished. Old religious and ideological hatreds resurfaced which had previously been buried under a thin veneer of civilisation and prosperity. Eventually, one side believed they saw an opportunity and in a bid to destroy their rivals, managed to turn the orbiting asteroid defence platforms onto their enemies. The very weapons designed to protect the planet and race were now used to destroy everything they had built up. As nations retaliated from hardened bunkers, a cataclysmic war ensued, decimating large areas of the planet and killing hundreds of millions within days. The atmosphere became full of particulate matter released from fires and impact strikes, which in turn decreased crop yields and brought about global starvation. Finally, once the dust of war had literally settled, billions were dead or starving and what civilisation remained had returned to pre-industrial revo
lution levels.
Away from the home system and safe amongst the stars, the colonies set up and controlled under the benevolent Doone family could do nothing but watch in horror at the unfolding tragedy back home. After seeing the use of the weapon platforms and the resulting catastrophe, the Councils tasked with governing the nine colonies met and decided to appoint Josef, now in his eighties, as Emperor. He had proved not only his own worth but also the wisdom of a central figure best placed to avoid the ruinous infighting and national allegiances that had bedevilled politics back on the home planet. Whilst no-one thought it would be perfect, in those dark times a strong, fair leader and a family bred for the task of leadership and continuity seemed the best system of governance, especially when compared to those that had failed so many times in the past.
Now that it was impossible for them to be followed, and safe in their colonies, the Doone family set about building a new civilisation amongst the stars from out of the ruins of the old. Josef’s advances in genetic manipulation extended life three-fold, but unfortunately it came too late for him and he died peacefully, aged 105, surrounded by his family and friends.
Before dying, Doone had set out the future shape of his new Empire. Using the home solar system as the centre, space around it was split up into thirty-six Sectors, each controlled by a Duke who reported directly to the Emperor. Planets were controlled by Earls who in turn reported to the Dukes. Planets were further sub-divided with Viscounts and Barons responsible for continents and major cities respectively. Senior Civil Servants could expect to hold minor ranks, such as Baronet.
Imperium: Betrayal: Book One in the Imperium Trilogy Page 33
