Imperium: Coda: Book Three in the Imperium Trilogy

by Paul M Calvert

  Adam slowly stepped away from his viewscreen and observed what was going on around him. The mood on the bridge was sombre but quietly professional with everyone simply getting on with their allotted tasks. He watched Admiral Frith, her shoulder-length black hair tied today into a tight bun, something he hadn’t seen her do before. He could appreciate what his father saw in the woman; the self-assurance she radiated seems to infect everyone around her, a trait she shared with his father. For a second, Adam lost concentration and wondered how others would see him when he became Emperor.

  Thoughts of Karen suddenly came to him unbidden, and he wondered how she was doing and whether she was missing him as much as he was her.

  SCENE 14, SEA OF TRANQUILITY, EARTH’S MOON.

  Thanks to the low gravity, repulsors built-in to Karen’s armoured suit kept her a comfortable few inches off the moon’s surface. Vimes had earlier reminded her that in a vacuum, footprints left in the fine surface dust would stay crisp and sharp for thousands of years, so she was very careful not to leave any trace of her movements.

  Only four hours earlier and about to Jump for Capital, something Sir John had mentioned earlier prompted Karen to take a small detour here, thinking this might be her only chance to do so.

  “So this is the Sea of Tranquillity, where Apollo 11 landed?” she asked Vimes, “My father told me when he was a child how he got up early in the morning to watch the first Moon landing.”

  “It certainly is, Karen. Look, there’s what is left of the landing stage. Move us closer, please.”

  Karen did so, her route following a set of footprints that led to and from a large crater around fifty yards from the landing site. Vimes had left the cloaked yacht inside it and earlier shown her where Neil Armstrong had once stood on the lip, looking in. Reaching the Lander, Karen brought her suit to a stop and resisted the temptation to extend her hand and touch the metal frame.

  “It looks so fragile, Vimes. I wonder what must it have felt like for them to have achieved all this?”

  “We will never know, Karen. I suspect they were a special breed of men; willing to risk everything to succeed and achieve immortality. Look around you. This is an extraordinary monument to the spirit of Earth. I just hope in the future it never becomes spoiled by commercialism.”

  He directed her attention to a spot away from the Lander. “That’s what’s left of the flag they planted before leaving.”

  Curious, Karen moved over to where indicated but was disappointed to only bleached white remnants remaining of the original Stars and Stripes.

  “What happened here?” she asked.

  “It’s faded and crumbled. Time, extremes of temperature and the effects of direct sunlight, Karen” Vimes replied, “In another thirty years there will be nothing left of it apart from the stick. It was blown over when they took off."

  Karen took in the scene, looking around and up towards Earth, the beautiful blue and white orb sitting low on the horizon. “It certainly is a sight. The cradle of my version of humanity, but so desperately fragile and alone.” Karen became thoughtful. “Will they ever make it to the stars, Vimes? What do you think their chances are?

  “I don’t know, Karen. I worry about how your societies haven't kept pace with the technological leaps that are occurring. Your people desperately need to get off Earth and begin exploring the solar system. As to surviving, no-one knows the answer to that, not even me.”

  She continued watching the Earthrise, the sight and the words of Vimes adding to a sense of melancholy. Deep down, Karen knew that she was mentally severing the last of her ties to Earth, the trip here a symbolic farewell; one last chance to witness humanities greatest triumph. Reluctantly, Karen turned away and begun the short walk back to the crater and yacht, her thoughts again a jumble of conflicting emotions.

  Entering the yacht, Karen went and sat in the command chair, but didn't activate the merging. Instead, she sat there watching the stark view outside. Those areas in the shade were sharply delineated against the sun, shadows razor sharp.

  Ten minutes passed, and still, Karen did nothing except stare out across the crater and try and let her mind empty, a part of her unwilling to make the last step in her severance from Earth. Abruptly, Karen instructed the ship to merge with her and gave it instructions to Jump for Capital once it had mapped the Quantum Signature of this point.

  “What will you do when you get back, Karen? Have you come to a decision?” Vimes asked in her mind.

  She responded the same way. “Yes, Vimes, I have. It’s time I faced up to my responsibilities. I will wait on Capital until Adam is free to meet with me and that’s when I’ll tell him. If he can’t get away to see me, I’ll Jump to wherever he is. All I need you to do is tell me when it is the right time.”

  Karen could sense Vimes nodding approval in her mind. The ship confirmed it was ready and awaiting her final approval before counting down. She gave assent and felt the seat restraints form around her body.

  Discontinuity

  The sharp, harsh light of the moonscape was suddenly replaced by the softer artificial one coming from the Doone’s private hanger deep below Capital, the one where she and Christine had said goodbye to their partners when they went off to war. Karen let out a deep breath, not realising she had been holding it in. Outside the ship, she could feel several servitors form out of the floor and begin removing from its surface any traces of the microscopically fine moondust. Reluctantly, Karen disengaged herself from the merging and returned control back to the AI, then gave Vimes instructions what to do with her car and belongings. She headed to her cabin to change into suitable clothes, not wanting to draw any attention to her return. She needn’t have worried, however, for the corridors of the Palace seemed almost deserted, with far fewer people about than she had expected. Black drapes and symbols of mourning were everywhere, adding a sombre overtone to her mood.

  It wasn’t too long before she was back in the quarters she had briefly shared with Adam, noting everything had been left exactly the same as the day she had departed with Christine to visit the Felidae. Almost a dozen messages made their presence known as she entered her suite, all but two from Adam, the others from the Emperor and Freya.

  Intrigued, Karen sat down at her desk. She opened Freya’s first and was surprised to see it was a formal invitation from the Felidae Empress to visit her once the rebellion was over, along with a video file. Intrigued, Karen instructed Vimes to play it after checking for viruses. A hologrammatic representation formed around her, which she quickly recognised as being a hall on the Progres made to mimic Freya’s home world. The sole human figure walking around looked incongruous and out of place in the alien landscape. Zooming in for a closer look, Karen was shocked to see Collinson and felt her fists bunch in an instinctive reaction to his face.

  “What the fu…” she began, watching closely, her mind racing ahead to the most probable outcome. A movement in the long alien grass behind Collinson caught her attention, and she instantly recognised Freya. Karen smiled, instinctively knowing Collinson was going to pay for what he had done. She leant forward in her chair, not wanting to miss anything and watched the hunt unfold. Despite what Collinson had done to her and Christine, a small part of her admired the man’s bravery in the face of certain death.

  Freya was playing him as a cat would a mouse, waiting for the perfect moment before striking, each blow leaving Collinson weakened, trying to break his spirit and resolve. It wasn’t all one-sided, however, and Freya’s body bore several deep gashes where her attack had been anticipated. Karen wondered how Freya would finally end it, not sure whether she would leave him to bleed out on the rocks or deliver a coup de gras.

  It finally ended after half an hour, with Collinson lying on his back, having been thrown from the rocky outcrop by Freya, who had lifted him bodily over her head and sent him plummeting to the ground. Karen watched as Freya leapt down, landing beside Collinson’s broken body to watch the life leave his eyes. Collinson muttered somet
hing, and Karen found herself wanting to shout out a warning to Freya as the Empress leant forward to catch his final words. Slowed by blood loss and fatigue, Collinson’s final strike towards Freya’s throat was easily caught by her hand, grasping his wrist in an unbreakable grip, snapping it.

  Despite the pain, Collinson made no sound, perhaps not wanting to give Freya the satisfaction, or more likely, too far gone to notice.

  Freya held his eyes until all signs of life had fled, then turned her gaze towards Karen, making her start, the scene freezing. Karen berated herself for not immediately realising Freya would know where the camera recording the event would be, then returned her attention back to Freya, the scene continuing again. Freya looked towards Karen for several long seconds, holding her eyes, before nodding and bounding away, the recording fading away.

  “Bloody hell, that was intense,” said Karen to herself as the hologram ended and the familiar scene of her room returned. She sat quietly before remembering the other message from Alexander and opened it, his familiar face appearing in front of her.

  Several minutes later found Karen wiping away the tears Alexander’s touching message had brought to her eyes. She had watched as Alexander, his face so reminding her of Adam, had expressed how grateful he was for her defence of Christine and how he would always be in her debt. Although only having known Christine for a short period, Karen missed her gentle companionship and genuine warmth, so could only guess at the terrible loss Alexander was feeling.

  Karen finally turned to the messages from Adam, nervous about opening them. Feeling a little guilty she hadn’t tried to stay in contact, Karen viewed the last letter in the series first, then exhaled the breath she didn’t realise she had been holding after reading everything was still fine and that he wanted to know why she hadn’t replied.

  “Vimes, when do you think would be a good time for me to contact Adam?” she asked.

  “Not for some time, Karen. I don’t have his current Quantum Signature so can’t contact my other half. I will let you know the moment he is back into real-time communication, but in the meantime, why not record a message for him?”

  “I don’t know what to say or even where to start. I’ll not tell him he’s going to be a father until we can meet in person. I need your help. Please.”

  Karen felt Vimes smile reassuringly in her mind, “Of course I’ll help, Karen, but first, let us go for a walk around the grounds. You need to exercise and get some fresh air.”

  Karen nodded in agreement and left the room, following the path Vimes mapped out in her mind. Despite her photographic memory, she was still unsure about getting around the vast Palace. There were a few more people about compared to when she first arrived, but still less than she had become used to. It was refreshing to be able to walk around again without anyone looking at her and wondering what her position was or being the centre of attention. Vimes had updated her status on the Palace’s information net so anyone querying who she was via their implant would receive a nondescript response, identifying her as a high-level functionary attached to the Lord Chancellor’s office.

  Eschewing the lifts, Karen used the stairs instead, walking down towards the main entrance, occasionally stopping to look at a particularly imposing painting or piece of sculpture. One caught her eye, a larger than life representation of Josef, the first Emperor. She stood and admired the craftsmanship, looking for the subtle cues in its face that showed the lineage down to Adam. Karen looked closely and jumped when the face winked at her and smiled, before settling back into its previous impassivity.

  “Very funny, Vimes. Very funny,” she scolded her companion, smiling broadly when she realised who had been behind it. “One of your defensive avatars, I suppose?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Of course. After the attempt on Christine, amongst other things, I increased the number around the Palace and improved their survivability. Of course, now the secret is out, in due course I will have to come up with something else…or perhaps have already,” he replied, cryptically.

  Still smiling but now in a much better frame of mind, Karen left the building through the ornate and imposing main doors and entered the grounds, the subtle pine scent both pleasing and refreshing. At this mid-point in the Palace’s wide arc, she could clearly its two wings, each stretching away into the distance on both sides. Ahead, in the far distance, she could see the beginning of the forests that surrounded the Palace.

  On a sudden whim, Karen remembered that Adam used to go sailing as a boy, so spun around and retraced her steps back to the Palace, walking through and finally out the other side, facing the sea at the valley’s end. It was several miles to the coast and Karen was in two minds what to do. A part of her wanted to walk where Adam had spent much of his time as a child, but the long walk was a little daunting, especially as all of it was unfamiliar. Unsure what to do next, Karen hesitated until Vimes spoke quietly in her mind.

  “With respect, Karen, stop thinking like a citizen of Earth. This is Capital, and you are in the Imperial Palace of the Empire. Look.” Mentally, Vimes directed her to a small platform that had appeared, as if by magic, through the door behind her and was now hovering two feet off the ground behind her. “This will take you wherever you want or simply follow when you want to walk.”

  “So much to learn,” Karen spoke aloud, shaking her head slightly as she stepped aboard and gave the disc travel instructions.

  SCENE 15, A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

  “Captain, please come to the Bridge. There is something important you need to see.” Commodore Skye Macfarlane was called to the Bridge by her First Officer, Jill Boyce. The note of excitement in Jill’s voice cut through Skye’s black mood, caused nearly two days ago by the appearance of a second Rebel fleet that had Jumped into the system and was heading towards her far smaller band of ships. Although she had managed to elude the Rebel fleet that had followed her through the system since escaping the trap around the planet Ragnar weeks before, this new development had meant she knew the end was now only a matter of time, even with the new weapon frantically installed by Professor Lucking only a few days before.

  “What’s so important that you can’t handle it, Jill?” she asked her second-in-command, confidence in Jill’s abilities reinforced by many weeks of watching her deal with the constant pressure of the pursuing Rebel. Taking a few moments to try and stretch out the knots in her neck from spending too much time tensed in front of her screens, Skye checked with her ship’s AI to find out what was the matter, pausing mid-stretch to focus on the information coming in from long range sensors.

  “You’ll know in a moment, Captain,” came Jill’s cryptic reply.

  Skye jolted upright as the AI explained what had happened, her face lighting up with a smile that threatened the corners of her mouth as she took in what the news meant. A few moments earlier, sensors had detected the system’s Jump Station coming under attack from a massive fleet of Imperial ships. A smaller, yet still immensely powerful fleet was moving away and heading on a course that would meet with hers in less than a day, intercepting the second Rebel fleet that was trying to catch hers in a pincer. At the same time, an urgent message for her had come in from no less than Duke Gallagher himself, instructing them to hold their current heading, along with a large data packet for her that the ship’s AI was already beginning to precis.

  Her stiffness completely forgotten, Skye hurriedly threw on her jacket and quickly left her Ready-Room, trying hard to compose herself before entering the Bridge. It took a few moments, but satisfied she had the smile under control, Skye entered and walking swiftly to her seat, waving away the salutes and acknowledge from the Officers on duty. Jill walked over to her, a glint in her eye that suggested she too, was having difficulty in maintaining her composure at this turn of events.

  The two women exchanged a long moment, each taking the eyes of the other, acknowledging without words the significance of what they were seeing. The three-dimensional tank displaying the
relative positions of the three fleets hung brightly above the floor, and Skye immediately noticed a change. She instructed it to zoom in and mentally confirmed her suspicion with the ship’s AI. Skye turned back to Jill and smiled broadly.

  “Well, well, looks as though Admiral Charalambous has decided we aren’t so interesting after all. Was it something I said?” noting how the Admiral’s pursuing fleet was already beginning to turn, apparently trying to avoid engaging with the new arrivals and probably intending to try and reach the safety of Ragnar’s orbital weapon platforms.

  Jill returned the smile. “No, you’ve been nothing if not hospitable. I think it might have more to do with those new ships. “ She mentally pointed to them in the tank. “If it weren't for the Imperial signals confirming their identity, I wouldn’t have believed they were ours.” She highlighted something in the tank for Skye in case she had overlooked it. “Look at their acceleration. A steady 3-G. Either they are all from a high-gravity world, or someone’s made a breakthrough. At that acceleration they are going to be catching up with the second Rebel fleet in short order, probably not long before we get there. Do you think these latecomers to the fight will mind if we lend them a hand?”

  Before Skye could respond, the ship’s AI began feeding both she and the First Officer with a summary of the data packet. Both women exchanged glances as the information flowed to them via their implants, confirming both the capabilities of the new Imperial ships and instructions they were to join with the splinter group in neutralising the second set of rebels. Then came the two bombshells neither had expected in theirworst nightmares.