Protector of the Realm

by Gun Brooke

  "SC personnel control all outgoing communication with Onotharat, so no one on the seized ships can report anything unless we authorize it. As you understand, we don't have enough manpower to monitor the Onotharians properly. Reinforcements from Gamma V and VII are due in less than two days. In the meantime, the closest SC planet, Corma, is sending ten frigates to patrol Gamma VI space until we have made repairs and can spare any ships. We still have to worry about pirates. Good news is the Onotharian 'decoys' at the border have left."

  "We haven't detected any anomalous white-noise readings suggesting any cloaked ships, either," Lieutenant Grey added.

  "Good." Rae nodded. "Commander Todd, what's the condition of the injured crewmen?"

  "Most have been released to their quarters. Fourteen are still in the infirmary, six in critical condition. Dr. Meyer has also visited the Onotharian 1, where she treated some of the wounded." Todd looked uneasy. "Seems the ambassador was very confident he'd win this battle without any problem. Dr. Meyer found four children belonging to high-ranking officials with him on his mission."

  Rae felt herself go pale. "Their condition?"

  "Uninjured."

  "Make sure these children have what they need. If necessary, bring them onto the station."

  "Yes, ma'am."

  Glancing around the table again, Rae detected the familiar fatigue she had so often seen in the faces of her crew the day after a battle. Her father's eyes looked red, and she wondered if he had slept at all. Lieutenant Grey seemed unable to relax the muscles in her jaw, and Jeremiah kept flexing his shoulders. Alex de Vies was a source of strength on a day like today.

  "Captain de Vies, do you have anything to add?" She knew her friend usually cut to the core of things.

  "Yes, I do. I'm pleased how our pilots handled themselves. The communication between the vessels worked as it was supposed to. In retrospect, we should have launched all the assault craft earlier, but fortunately, Ms. O'Dal waited for the perfect moment to attack. One of the gutsiest moves I've ever seen."

  "Any gutsier and she'd be dead," Rae muttered. Noticing Lieutenant Grey turn paler, she wanted to bite her tongue. "Sorry, Lieutenant. How is Lieutenant D'Artansis today?"

  "She's doing okay, ma'am. Dr. Meyer gave her medication and used the derma regenerator. She'll be back at work in a day or two." Owena spoke in a calm voice, and Rae had the feeling it took all of the tactical chief's self-discipline to be so matter-of-fact.

  "Her actions went beyond the call of duty, Lieutenant," Rae said. "And I intend to recommend Lieutenant D'Artansis for the Second Medal of Merit. I've also mentioned her bravery in a dispatch to the leaders of Corma, her homeworld."

  Owena's face lightened up in arare smile. "Thank you, Commodore. It will mean a lot to her."

  "Speaking of that," her father added, "I did something similar. I realized it wouldn't be appropriate for you to nominate your own spouse for recognition, so I took it upon myself to do it. I've recommended Kellen O'Dal for the civilian version of the same medal. I hope this meets with your approval, Commodore."

  The memory of Kellen's soft skin against her fingertips and her drowsy voice whispering good morning before they embraced took Rae's breath away. "She'll be stunned," she said. "And I'm grateful."

  "Hold that thought." Ewan docked a handheld computer with the screen at the end of the table and picked up the remote control. "I did some research last night, and since everyone here has at least level-two security clearances, I can share it. This incident keeps growing, and it's more multifaceted than we expected."

  Stunned, Rae found herself looking at a picture of a very young Kellen with her arm around a shorter, dark-haired girl, both of them in front of an alien animal.

  "This is Kellen O'Dal and her 'sister,' Tereya O'Saral. The name probably doesn't mean very much to any of you, but the O'Sarals were legends in their own time. Here's the last picture taken of the family before the occupation. Pay attention to the woman sitting in the middle of the first row."

  He changed to the next picture. A blond woman in her mid-thirties, dressed in an ice blue suit and wearing a golden red cape over it, looked back at her—at the camera—with calm eyes.

  "Who is she?" Rae asked, although already guessing.

  "Queen Deamareille O'Saral Royale. Mother to Tereya and her three siblings, two brothers and a sister, all younger. To the left of Deamareille is her husband, King Tyo-Vendel O'Saral Royale. Only the king kept the O'Saral Royale as an honorable addition to his family name. As for Armeo, should he claim the throne one day, he'll be crown prince until he is of age, which is twenty-two Gantharian lunar years. Only then is he entitled to the name Armeo O'Saral Royale. Of course, as it stands now, if the Onotharians remain in power of Gantharat, it's all a moot point." After Ewan told the history of the royal family of Gantharat, he pressed the remote, and a handsome young man with Armeo's eyes appeared on the screen. He wore a uniform and stood in front of an alien crest.

  "Zax M'Aido, age twenty and graduating from the Gantharian Academy of Pilots. Here, he's already secretly married to Tereya O' Saral. When his father, Colonel M'Aido, acting Governor of Gantharat at the time, found out about it, Zax was ostracized and later killed in the line of duty before Armeo was born. Here are similar pictures of Tereya and Kellen." The admiral flipped through two more pictures showing the two girls in the same uniform.

  "Tereya and Zax lived with Kellen on her farm, and when Zax died, Tereya stayed with Ms. O'Dal. The two girls raised the boy together, until a fateful day five years later." Ewan clicked the remote again, this time showing a death certificate. "Tereya M'Aido was fatally injured in a vehicle accident on her way home from Vastar, the nearby city. Nobody saw it happen, and the other vehicle involved was never found.

  She died hours later at the local clinic. As we know, Kellen has raised Armeo since then, watched over him and kept him safe."

  "What about her father? Did you find out more?" Rae asked.

  "Yes. Bondar O'Dal, farmer, family man, was much more than that. A widower since his daughter Kellen was eight years old, he disappeared shortly after the invasion of Gantharat, only to emerge four years later, this time with two daughters. Claiming Tereya was adopted, he settled in a relatively peaceful valley in the countryside, growing crops and breeding maeshas. You saw the creature in one of the pictures earlier.

  "During the next four years, Bondar O'Dal led a double existence. Farmer by day, resistance leader at night. He was a high-ranking member of a small group of people determined to fight the Onotharians. They managed to obtain several sensitive documents over the years, including the specs to Onotharian 1 when it was still being built. When Bondar was on a mission inside an Onotharian prison, trying to free members of his group, he ran into an ambush and was killed. Kellen and Tereya were sixteen at the time."

  "Oh, my God," Alex murmured. "Sixteen isn't very old for a Gantharian."

  "No, but they ran the farm with the help of the supervisor Bondar had employed." Ewan glanced up at his daughter, his eyes expressionless. "At the same time they enrolled at the academy, Kellen O'Dal evidently became active in what was left of her father's resistance group. Doing mostly humanitarian missions, smuggling refugees and organizing food transports to remote refugee camps, she also carried out courier assignments. When Zax was killed, she increased her activities, but they almost ceased after Tereya died."

  Rae felt her fingertips go cold. Staring at her father, she couldn't believe her ears. "She was an agent for the resistance?"

  "Yes. She kept Tereya's secret, and later Armeo's, without any aid or support, as far as we know."

  Rae stood and walked closer to the view screen, now showing a picture of Kellen and Armeo. As she stared at the beautiful face, she placed both hands on the conference table, secretly biting her tongue hard. Oh, Kellen. What other surprises do you have up your sleeve?

  Kellen checked her appearance in the mirror. Knowing she would face not only Rae and her father, but also several other hi
gh-ranking officers, she had opted for the black leather suit she wore when Rae tractor-beamed the Kithanya to Gamma VI. She admitted it was a blatant display of independence to not show up at the debriefing dressed in the neutral SC uniform she had worn since recovering from her injury. It was also oddly comforting to wear her own clothes, and it was an unmistakable way to reaffirm where she originally came from and who she was.

  Her eyes shimmered a sharp, translucent blue, with sparkling highlights of a light she'd never noticed before. Is it because of you, Rae? This light—distinctive and obvious to anyone who takes the time to look close enough. Mystified, Kellen reached for a large silver-covered titanium hairclip and put her hair up in a twist before she walked out of the bathroom.

  The made-up bed caused her to inhale a sharp, painful intake of air, suddenly out of breath when she remembered how she and Rae had turned to each other several times the previous night, reigniting an insatiable passion. Shaking her head, Kellen forced herself to focus on the matter at hand and left her quarters.

  She and her guard walked through the busy station and rode the elevator to level one. Removing any expression from her face, she approached the door and nodded to the ensign guarding it. As she entered a small waiting area next to the main conference room, she saw a small kitchenette at the back wall and, suddenly thirsty, she grabbed a Recyc-Flaxen mug and filled it with water.

  "Kellen? We're ready for you."

  The husky voice made the small hairs on Kellen's arms stand up, but she calmly finished her water. "I'm ready as well."

  Rae's eyes were a stormy gray, which Kellen had learned was not a good sign. She scanned Kellen's outfit, raising an eyebrow as she gestured toward the tight-fitting leather attire. "Back to where we started?" she asked.

  "It seemed appropriate." Kellen heard how short she sounded but didn't know how to change it since her vocal cords felt as rigid as the rest of her body.

  Following Rae into the conference room, she braced herself. Admiral Jacelon, Lieutenant Grey, Commander Todd, and Captain de Vies sat around a rectangular table. The men rose as she entered,

  Alex de Vies pointing toward an unoccupied chair next to him. "Hello, Kellen. Please, sit down."

  Nodding briefly to the people assembled, Kellen did as suggested. She was relieved to find only familiar faces in the room and, glancing at Rae, she folded her hands on her lap, preparing to be questioned.

  Admiral Jacelon put down his handheld computer and regarded her closely, but not with obvious doubt or hostility, as far as she could tell. "Kellen, we have asked you to join us, to confirm some information and possibly elaborate on it as well."

  "I will try, sir." Kellen made sure the words came out strong. This was no time to appear weak. She had at least some leverage, having aided in the battle yesterday.

  "Good. I've briefed the commodore and her senior crew about what SC Intelligence have found in their records. They have their ways of tapping into data streams, though I can't go into detail how that's done, and came across some documents that shed light on the current situation. Why don't you start by telling us what happened when your father died?"

  Steeling herself against the sudden pang of longing that flared in her chest, Kellen said, "My father, Bondar O'Dal, was a member of the Gantharian resistance as well as a Protector of the Realm. He brought Princess Tereya O'Saral home from the Gantharat Hossa asteroid, where she and I went to the music conservatory. We were twelve years old when my father dared bring us back to Gantharat, claiming he had adopted Tereya. He settled as a farmer, breeding maeshas and growing crops. He loved us deeply and worked for a free Gantharat. As it turned out, he died for it."

  "We understand there was an ambush."

  "My father kept his records and documents in a vault beneath the barn floor. That last morning... I have often wondered if he suspected what was going to happen, because he took me to the vault and showed me how to open it. Inside, I saw a table with four chairs. Blueprints were displayed on the walls, and some were rolled up like paper scrolls. He showed me around, explaining his filing system in the computers and the cabinets. That's when I saw the blueprints of the prototype. Father said the Onotharians had long strived to construct a cloaking system for their flagship. One of the members of his group had found a flaw in the design, a fatal flaw as it turned out, which the Onotharians obviously never managed to rectify."

  "The node you fired on yesterday." Sitting down at the head of the table, Rae leaned forward on her elbows. "Keep going."

  "I had learned of my father's sacred duty toward Tereya when he came to get us on the asteroid and we went underground. During our last conversation, he stressed it would become my duty, in case something happened to him. I asked him what the mission of the evening was, but he' refused to tell me. All he said was that several lives depended on the outcome." Kellen swallowed hard, forcing herself to keep going. It still hurts, Father. Sixteen lunar years and I'm still broken. I haven't healed.

  "Strangers brought his body back. No explanations, just his body, in the back of a terrain hover vehicle. I made Tereya stay out of sight and arranged to have him buried at his favorite place on the estate." Kellen forced herself to go on, although the memory of her father's broken body, the gray paleness of his skin, still caused her nausea. "Later I found out that he and his group had rescued political prisoners from one of the asteroid-belt prisons, but when they returned, the Onotharians ambushed them."

  Rae laced her fingers together, her glance unwavering. "I'm sorry we have to bring up such painful memories."

  "I understand the necessity for these questions." Kellen tried to keep her voice matter-of-fact.

  "We've seen evidence of how you joined another resistance group when you were eighteen."

  "The resistance leaders approached me several times before I became of age. I could not leave Tereya home alone, so it wasn't until we both enrolled in the Academy that I saw the first opportunity to make a difference and honor my father without risking Tereya. We stayed on campus in Ganath, the capital, and I went on missions when I knew Zax and Tereya were busy with studies and each other."

  "What was the nature of your missions?" the admiral asked.

  Kellen hesitated for a moment, her eyes finding Rae's. "As soon as I was able to use my pilot's license, I started transporting refugees and other resistance members, both planet side and to nearby systems or asteroids, using different aircraft put at my disposal. I never asked where the resistance cell got them, and I participated in low-risk missions because of my duty toward Tereya. I also served as a courier, transporting documents off-planet to resistance-owned ships hiding in the asteroid belt."

  "Low-risk, you say. I guess everything is relative," Ewan Jacelon said. "You must have put your life on the line for your country on several occasions. Did any of your missions result in major collateral damage?"

  Kellen felt her anger erupt as she looked at the faces of the individuals around the table. "The Gantharat resistance makes sure that civilians, whether Gantharians or Onotharians, are safe. We are not terrorists. We don't go after soft targets. The Onotharian government, however, doesn't bother to show the same consideration. Many Gantharian men, women, and children have died because of their actions. Even their own people have suffered, since many of them voiced their opinion against the occupation. Onotharat and Gantharat were once allies, and many families have mixed heritage. Now, family members are at war with each other.

  "So, to answer your question, no, I have not killed any civilians or innocent people. However, I have destroyed several military Onotharian vessels, and the soldiers aboard died in the process." Kellen was not about to make excuses for taking the lives of her oppressors, and she looked straight at Rae, half expecting her face to show dismay. But to Kellen's surprise, she merely nodded as if she understood. "If you had seen what these bastards did to Tereya...The local Onotharian police force ruled it an accident, but it was obviously not. There's no way I can make you understand how terrible it
was to watch her die, and to once again take care of a loved one who was dead from excessive violence." Kellen found it increasingly hard to speak. "She was a beautiful, loving mother. Armeo deserved to have her in his life—and she was eliminated, murdered in cold blood."

  Kellen fell silent then, aware that her emotions were running so hot, she could misjudge in some way and undermine her own cause. Thankfully, the admiral began to speak, taking her mind off her agonizing memories and giving her a chance to compose herself.

  "Armeo has the potential to become either a pivotal person when it comes to Gantharat's and Onotharat's future or a formidable puppet for any mastermind who gets their hands on him," he said. "I now understand why you are so adamant about protecting him—you and nobody else. I have communicated with the Supreme Court judge presiding on the Dalathea, and she informs me she intends to try this case personally. Judge Beqq is one of our leading experts on intergalactic law, and since the SC doesn't acknowledge Onotharat's occupation, Gantharian law takes precedence."

  "So Kellen's case is strong?" Rae asked.

  The admiral hesitated. "I'm not sure how much weight it will carry. According to Judge Beqq, being a Protector of the Realm falls into a legal gray zone. It's an ancient tradition, originally bestowed upon twenty different families centuries ago, now dwindled to one living person protecting one last member of the Gantharian royal family."

  Unable to remain seated, Kellen rose and walked over to the porthole. Staring at the busy port outside, she placed a hand against the transparent aluminum, feeling its cold surface on her palm. "Four dynasties shared the honor when the occupation began," she said. "During the first five years, they fought hard to keep the O'Saral family safe. More than fifty individuals gave their lives, but in the end their sacrifice was pointless. The Onotharians systematically targeted and destroyed the O'Saral Royale. My father had no alternative. He had to keep Tereya's identity a secret. I knew when he died that protecting and fighting for Tereya, and later Armeo, would be my lifelong duty."