Chronicles of the Stellar Corps: Sassy

by Bernard Paul Glover

  Sarah awoke in a cell in the Imperial Palace on Galor Prime. She couldn’t be sure whether the initial dose of Draxaline had lasted for the whole trip, or if she had been given a second dose en-route. What she was sure of when she awoke was that she was on Galor Prime, because the guards who were surrounding her all wore the uniform of the Imperial House.

  She awoke to the sensation of the ventilator in her holding cell blowing cold air on her skin. Obviously Dekert, or his minion, had guessed that there was a tracking agent in or on her clothing. It was surely Dekert’s handiwork that she was still without clothes.

  Just as it was in the Galoran consulate nine years ago, Sarah was determined that no one was going to have the satisfaction of believing that she was in any way bothered by her nudity. Even when the guards came into her cell and began pawing her, squeezing and pinching various parts of her body, and at times licking her skin, she showed no emotion.

  It was only after the fourth group of guards came to check her out that she finally asked them, “Is every single Galoran a pervert? How many more are going to come in here to get your jollies?”

  When she asked that, one of the guards, a younger female, stopped licking her stomach and looked at her. She then translated Sarah’s questions for the others. Mysteriously, in an instant, they all dispersed. It left Sarah wondering what it was all about. Had what she said elicited that response?

  At least for a time she was left alone. The occasional guard would come by and stare for a few moments before continuing his rounds, otherwise Sarah was alone with her thoughts. She used the time to assess her situation.

  Her hands were fastened to the wall with magnetic restraints. Her feet were free, though she could tell by the bruising on her ankles that they weren’t during the trip to Galor Prime. The cell was empty, apart from a chair, which she supposed was for an interrogator to sit on, though it looked surprisingly comfortable. Beyond that was the door with its potentially lethal force field.

  One of the first of the Imperial Guards she had seen when she first woke up had explained it to her. “If you try to break through not only does it match your force with equal force, but the harder you push the greater the charge on the field. Usually a prisoner is just stunned, but there have been deaths.” The guard turned and left, chuckling as he went; at least Sarah thought that was a chuckle.

  Her situation was looking bleak. Even if there was enough trace Rethor left on her skin for her people to track. She wasn’t sure what sort of rescue was possible; in fact Sarah was fairly certain that she was on her own. If that was the case, she was going to have to find a way to get herself out of this mess. “…and save Peter!” she added to herself as more than an afterthought.

  In the Imperial throne room Emperor Ettac IV of the House of Hmlar and his younger brother Melgr, former Consul to the League of Systems, now War Master, were assessing the tactical situation.

  “Well Melgr,” the emperor began, “…you are correct again. Bringing the female to Galor Prime has elicited a response. A contingent of eleven Jump-class ships are heading toward our border as we speak, but I can’t help thinking that we are not ready, not with our fleet tied up in the Lirian system fighting the rebels.

  “I don’t understand it. The Silibars and Mirattoes have always been so loyal till now, and we have always treated them fairly. I don’t understand how could we have missed the fact that they were secretly building ships for themselves inside the Lirian Nebula?”

  “That is a question that we shall have to ask the survivors after we defeat them, brother. For right now, you were asking if we should draw back some of our Axia ships from that conflict to defeat the approaching League force. My considered opinion is that we need not.

  “Our Home Guard fleet out-guns their pitiful force six to one. We can send half the fleet to attack straight on while the bulk of the Axia ships will come at them from the Chora nebula, de-cloaking at the last possible second before firing. The Corps ships will fall.

  “And, there is something else to consider, brother,” Melgr added, “There are eleven ships in their attack force. If we are smart, we may have enough parts from their wreckage to fabricate one or two more Jump-ships in a very short space of time. All that would be missing would be our cloaking unit and we would have an effective hit-and-run force. We could take care of the rebels in the Lirian system and liberate our entire fleet to face the League on our terms.

  “The empire of Ettac IV will be larger than any Galoran Empire in history.” Melgr finished his prediction of victory with a triumphal flourish, bowing to his older brother.

  “So, my Imperial brother, by your leave, I wish to visit my prize before they move her to Gethal prison.”

  Ettac IV smiled at his War Master. “You have our leave,” he said. “But, brother, look but don’t taste. She needs to be physically perfect for her sentencing tomorrow. We are going to broadcast it to all the League worlds. We want them to see her condemned in a court of law. We want them to see their hero justly executed for her crime. I want them all to watch as their hero falls!” Ettac IV’s smile was as wicked as his younger brother’s. “Let them see her fall. There will be nothing that the League can say.”

  Melgr mirrored his brother’s smile as he bowed and left.

  In her cell, Sarah was cold. The floors and the wall to which she was fastened were of some sort of ceramic that absorbed the heat of her body, but reflected none of it back. It made her wonder if all detainees were held naked to facilitate interrogation. As she was deep in her musings, the faint hum of the force field ceased.

  “Finally, the interrogator,” she thought, “I have a few questions of my own for him.”

  Only it wasn’t. Sarah looked up to find the face of Melgr Hmlar grinning at her. Last time they met he was wearing the upscale garb of the diplomat. Now he wore the uniform of the War Master of the Galoran Empire.

  “Well, I see that you still like to run around naked,” he snorted. “Though, I note that the Corps has fixed up all those nasty scars that you had last time. I will have to make sure that I get a holograph to stick on the stasis jar that I’m going to display your head in. I think that I’ll keep it right on my desk.”

  “I can’t help it if your perverted agents keep stealing my clothes,” Sarah responded, not rising to his bait. “And as to my head, I plan on keeping it for a very long time to come. Just because you have some fancy new clothes doesn’t mean that you have won anything, War Master.” She emphasised his new title derisively.

  “We’ll see about that, Captain. Tomorrow you will face the judge for sentencing. Four years ago, not three light years from here, the Stellar Corps engaged a number of our finest ships. Two of your ships disabled many of them but did not destroy them, denying their crews the honourable deaths they rightly deserved. Under the Warriors’ Code of Honour this is a crime punishable by death.

  “It took some time, but we have finally learned that you were the Battle Commander, so you shall pay the price.” He smiled wickedly. “My Imperial brother has promised me the honour of gutting you myself, before the crowds in the Imperial Arena.”

  Sarah smiled. “Don’t go tuning up your photon blade just yet, War Master. Just remember what happened to Tilmon when I got a hold of his blade. You do remember, don’t you?”

  “Oh, yes, I remember that night. How can I forget? You took away my ability to conceive progeny. Do you have any idea what you really took from me? I love my brother, and I am his loyal subject, but his sexual interests are not in the gender that will produce an heir. In fact he is actually repulsed by females. He gets physically ill when he tries to mate.

  “Until that night he had given himself five years to find a female with whom he could create an heir. If he failed to do so, he was going to abdicate in my favour. I would have been Melgr XII, Emperor of the Galoran Empire. Now what am I?

  “If it was just up to me I would have tried you for what you did to me that night, and for Joln and Tilmon; crimes you committed on sov
ereign Galoran soil. But the Empire denies that you were ever there, so I can’t. Still, this will do, and I will have my revenge. And once we have your Jump technology and combine it with our cloaking capabilities we’ll conquer your precious Earth. Then I’ll have access to that Brannock-whatever cloning technology, and I will be Emperor!” With each assertion Melgr Hmlar’s voice went up a notch in volume; each time more triumphal.

  Sarah was wondering if the War Master was mad or power-drunk, but held her tongue. He had given her a glimmer of hope. As she was considering how she might make use of the information, Melgr came down from his manic high.

  “For now, you will be transferred to the cell for the condemned at Gethal Prison. Incidentally,” he added with a menacing grin, “Gethal is a male prison. I’m sure that the large population of human males that we are currently holding will appreciate your present attire.”

  Melgr clapped his hands and a troop of guards entered the cell. Two guards placed their hand weapons to her head while four others aimed their rifle-like weapons at her from farther away. Melgr pressed a stud on his wrist and the restraints on Sarah’s arms released.

  Aboard the Pegasus, Mandy and Admiral Flyn were in a virtual conference, by secure link, with the captains, and their executive officers, who made up the various battle groups. Mandy was laying out the battle strategy, answering questions and listening to suggestions from her peers aboard the other ships.

  The question and answer session was going well. As Mandy answered questions, her answers stimulated the thoughts of the other commanders. This led them to offer suggestions. Most of them had, at one time or another patrolled the Galoran frontier, and knew the region. Some of the suggestions they made sparked ideas that Mandy hadn’t considered earlier. By the end of the session the battle plan was greatly improved.

  There was only one question that gave Admiral Flyn pause. As Mandy was expanding on her plan for the deployment of the ships in the Chora nebula, where the Pasteur had been attacked four years earlier, Captain Carstairs of the Andromeda directed a question at Admiral Flyn.

  “Admiral, I have a question that I am sure is on many minds here: Why is Acting Captain Running Deer the Battle Commander when there are obviously so many other captains with greater qualifications?” The shocked looks on the faces of the other officers in the virtual conference room told the story of how they truly felt. Carstairs question was not an issue that anyone else had considered.

  Ipzr Flyn never batted an eyelash and in a calm even tone replied: “Because I chose her.” The captain asked no further questions. His exo did, however, offer very positive input several times, contributing greatly to the strategy session.

  During the discussions the Admiral was called away to take an “eyes-only” communication. She was only gone a few minutes. She returned looking very uplifted.

  “I have just received some news that will possibly make a difference. For the past five years we have had a Drixian agent planted deep in the Emperor’s household staff. At great risk she was able to smuggle out a report of immense value to this conference.

  “As this agent is employed by Ettac IV as a physician, she doesn’t have as much access as we would have liked to long range communication equipment. To have sent her in with her own transmitter was impossible. However, the Galorans just sent out a transmission to the entire League of Planets announcing that the sentencing for ‘crimes’ allegedly committed by Captain Maloney, of which she was convicted in absentia, will be broadcast to all League systems to demonstrate that her demise was legally ordained and totally proper according to Galoran law.”

  Throughout the virtual conference room there was a look of horror. Mandy struggled for an instant to keep a grip on her emotions. Before anyone could respond the admiral continued.

  “The agent somehow managed to attach a coded report onto the tail end of that message. In it she informed Command that there is a massive rebellion going on right now in the Lirian nebula. As some of you know, the Lirian sector is high in many raw materials which is why it has been the hub for Galoran ship production.

  “The Silibars and the Mirattoes, both being technically highly proficient races, were their main, and until recently, greatly trusted, work force. It seems, however, that for the last six years these trusted servants have been secretly building a fleet of Axia ships for themselves, hidden in the nebula. Now they have risen up against the Empire. All available Galoran ships are engaged in supressing the rebels.

  “With most of their regular ship deployment are now keeping close watch on the remaining systems, to keep them from joining the rebellion. The only ships available to send against the first battle group will be the Home Guard. They do have a number of Axia ships, but overall they are limited in strength.

  “Our agent is certain that they have fallen for our diversionary tactics, and believe that only Pegasus and Captain O’Gill’s battle group will be attacking Galor Prime. It suggests several possible counter-attack plans on their part, but if we quickly review their possible options I am confident that Captain Running Deer’s strategies will have answers to any threat they pose.”

  The virtual conference wrapped up shortly thereafter. As the various commanders and their exos briefed their crews, and Mandy did the same with the crew of the Pegasus, Admiral Flyn made another secure call to the Andromeda.

  “Captain Carstairs, is your exo, Commander Lauzon, there with you?” she asked. By way of answer the captain signalled to someone off screen and Hélène Lauzon joined him. “Good!” Flyn continued. Then, addressing the executive officer she said, “Commander Lauzon, I am ordering you to place Captain Carstairs under arrest. He is to be thoroughly searched, scanned and confined to the brig, incommunicado – complete isolation. He is not allowed even to talk to the guards on duty.”

  Carstairs’ jawed dropped for an instant, before he exploded. “On what charge?” he demanded.

  “On suspicion of being a Bureau Agent; you gave yourself away when you were the only captain in the briefing to refer to Captain Running Deer as ‘Acting’. That, and your impertinent question, demonstrated the contempt that most Bureau agents have for former zoners in general, and hunters in particular.” Flyn turned back to Lauzon. “Captain Lauzon, carry out my orders, and then bring whomever you choose as your exo up to speed on our strategies. And Captain,” Flyn added, be aware, you are not the ‘Acting Captain’. Captain Carstairs has been officially relieved. You are the captain of the Andromeda! I have already informed Terran Command. Your orders should arrive before the battle starts.”

  The new captain of the Andromeda nodded to the admiral. “Aye, Admiral!” she responded formally, signalling to the bridge Security crew to take Carstairs in hand. The admiral acknowledged Lauzon’s response and then signed off. In her hearts she was hoping that Carstairs was the only Bureau agent who was in a position to endanger the mission.

  Sarah arrived at Gethal prison shackled hand and foot on a very tight chain. This time the chains had no locks to pick. Without the electronic controller opening them was impossible. Also, she still had no clothing. As the guards brought Sarah into the facility their counterparts on the main gate were staring at her with hungry eyes. The same happened at each check point until they entered the cell block. Sarah was really beginning to believe that Galor Prime was a planet populated by oversexed perverts; both males and females. She was relieved when at the final checkpoint Melgr’s people handed her over to a Zaran guard, though the War Master’s guards continued to escort her until she reached her cell.

  Inside the cell block the cells were arranged much like old-style Earth prisons. Five levels of cells arranged in a quadrangle facing into a common area at ground level. The common area was deserted at the time she arrived. The Zaran guard indicated that her cell was on the opposite side of the common area.

  The moment she stepped into the quadrangle she was bombarded by cat calls and wolf whistles. Sarah took it in stride – literally. She continued to walk proudly across the f
loor towards her cell, seemingly impervious to their whistles and calls. But the raucous activity didn’t last long.

  From a cell on the second level a voice bellowed: “CAPTAIN ON DECK!” Instantly the cat calls and whistles were replaced with the sound of three hundred and twenty-two pairs of Corps-issue boots snapping to attention. Sarah recognized the voice.

  “At ease,” Sarah commanded. “Mr. Preston, report!”.

  “All of the male crew of the LSS Intrepid present and accounted for, all but three, ma’am.” Peter responded smartly. “Exo Miranda Carr and the female crew were separated from our group. I have reason to believe that they are being held in a different facility.”

  “Understood,” Sarah replied. “…and Captain Grifn?”

  “Deceased, ma’am,” Peter replied. Sarah heard both sorrow and anger in his voice. He continued, “They lined up the senior officers on the bridge and beheaded him in front of us…” He let his report fall off there.

  Again Sarah responded, “Understood” Then addressing all of the prisoners she said, “Listen up, all of you, if I have anything to say about it, there will be no more deaths.” Sarah stopped in the middle of the quadrangle. “Officer of the Watch, make a mental note that as of this time I am assuming command of the crew of the Intrepid Mr. with Preston as my exec. I will get you out of this; all of you! Do not give in, resist our captors, and resist even more any sense of defeat. WE ARE THE STELLAR CORPS!” she shouted, emphasizing each word. To which, in unison, the crew of the Intrepid shouted back: “MA’AM, YES MA’AM!”

  “Ooh Rah!” Sarah responded quietly to herself as she continued on to her cell.

  In the cell the War Master’s guards went through the same procedure as they did in the holding room back at the palace. Multiple weapons were pointed at her as they removed her shackles. This time she was not secured to the wall, but one guard did take the blanket and sheets from the bed. It was apparent that she was to be kept exposed for all to see.