Pax Imperia (The Redemption Trilogy) (15 page)

He was only going to need the one bullet.

Jon looked at the image of the mother and child hanging motionless in the air in front of him. Ten minutes later, the Sergeant returned with the prisoner. Jon instantly recognised Captain James Harrison, ex-commanding officer of the
Indomitable,
from the official records photo
.
The Captain’s face was pale and his eyes had a haunted look, which only exacerbated the dark rings under them. Jon observed Harrison glance at the holo-picture on the desk. Satisfied that his initial assumption had been correct, he slowly reached across, deactivating the image. Without the bright illumination from the device, the shadows seemed to leap out from the corners of the room, as Jon had purposefully kept the illumination low.

He observed that the Captain’s hands were firmly restrained behind his back. “Sergeant, remove the Captain’s handcuffs, and then you may leave.” It was obvious that the Sergeant was about to protest, but Jon forestalled this by raising one hand. “That’s an order, Sergeant.”

The marine’s protest died on his lips and, instead, he simply nodded his understanding. Once he had finished removing the handcuffs, he stepped from the room.

Jon had no doubt that the marine was standing guard outside, ready to dart back inside at the first hint of trouble. “Take a seat. Captain,” he indicated towards the empty seat on the other side of the desk. As the Captain sat stiffly opposite, Jon carefully considered his next actions. Jon looked into the haunted expression on the man’s face. It was the expression of a man who had already lost everything and long since resigned himself to his fate. It was an expression Jon was intimately familiar with.

Jon came to recognise that, in many ways, their fates were already inexplicitly bound. Because of this man’s actions, he had lost everything. The result of this man’s actions was that in turn his own life and career were now forfeit.

Two officers. Two lives—both destroyed.

Jon was surprised to find that, instead of the expected anger toward the man, he felt some empathy for the Captain. As he gazed into the man’s eyes, Jon was surprised to observe a hint of surprise, as it was obvious the Captain recognised him. “I take it that you know who I am?” Jon asked.

“Yes Commander, I was on the bridge of the
Protector
with Admiral Sterling when we arrived in the Sigma Draconis system, after receiving your distress signal, but—”

“You thought that I was on the surface of Eden Prime? You thought that I was dead?” Jon interjected. Harrison nodded his head. “I was on the surface when you started your bombardment,” Jon said. “But I was not at the Senate. Hence I survived the attack. My family was not so lucky and my wife and father-in-law didn’t survive,” he stated impassively.

Captain Harrison dropped his head, uttering, “I am sorry for your loss.”

In that brief moment Jon recognised the shared pain in them. “Would you care to explain your actions, Captain? To justify them and state, for the record, what precipitated this attack, which resulted in the death of thousands, including my own family?” He could not hide the full extent of his anger and pain, his voice rising in pitch and volume.

“My actions were my own. None of my crew were involved and, in fact, they all acted honourably to try and stop me. This should not reflect badly on them. I take full and complete responsibility for my actions.”

“I don’t give a damn whose responsibility it was,” Jon shouted, slamming his fist onto the surface of the desk, causing the datapads to go cascading onto the floor. “I want to know why! I want to be able to understand why my wife and father-in-law are no longer alive, why they had to die because of your actions. I don’t want excuses or justifications; I just want to know the truth. Why did you do it? You are a decorated officer, with an exceptional career. You were on the fast track to make Admiral. Why throw it all away?”

However, Harrison refused to answer, just remaining silent, staring at the desk, his eyes unfocused.

Jon pushed away from the desk in frustration, turning his back on the Captain, staring out of the viewport trying to get his temper back under control, as he knew that this line of questioning was not going to get anywhere. Suppressing the deep-seated need to wrap his hands around the Captain’s throat and to squeeze until no life remained. He completely forgot about the pistol, which was still resting on the table, but in his heart he knew the broken man still seated behind him was no threat to him.

“What is going to happen to me next?” Harrison asked softly.

“There will be a full investigation,” Jon replied tiredly. “It will have to be held in open view of the public. Too many people have died and justice will need to be seen to be done. Somebody needs to be held accountable for this. The people will demand it. Witnesses will need to be called; your crew, your officers, your Commanding Officer Admiral Sterling—” Jon noticed the Captain stiffen at his name, but continued on unrelentingly. “—And your family.”

This caused an immediate reaction, as the Captain suddenly looked up, the horror etched clearly on his face. “My family?” he repeated. “This has nothing to do with them. I have already told you that I acted alone. Keep them out of this.”

Jon stared at Harrison, unsurprised at the outburst, before continuing on thoughtfully. “Of course, at the moment there is not much of a judiciary left to hold such a trial, so perhaps I will just dispense with that. I will simply announce that you have confessed to your crimes and have denounced all your fellow co-conspirators.”

If Harrison looked horrified before, this declaration almost sent him into shock. “I have already told you, repeatedly, that nobody else was involved, that I acted alone.”

Jon simply shrugged his shoulders, with an unconcerned expression. “Then you will have no problem with me announcing that. After all, seeing that you acted alone, there is nobody else to be concerned that you implicated them.”

Harrison, meanwhile, turned such a shade of grey that for a moment Jon was concerned he was going to collapse. “You cannot do that. Please,” Harrison begged of him. His earlier quiet, demeanour now totally stripped away. “I beg of you, please, do not do that.”

“Why shouldn’t I, Captain? Give me one reason why I should not announce to the entire Confederation how you confessed to all, and identified all those involved?”

Harrison seemed to stop breathing completely, closing his eyes, bowing his head. “My family,” he whispered. “They will hurt my family.”

Jon heard the pain in the man’s voice and took no pleasure in knowing that his earlier guess had been correct. The one thing, the only thing that the Captain valued above all else was his family. Jon took his seat once again, observing the ruined man sitting across the desk from him, before inquiring compassionately. “Who has your family, Captain?”

“I don’t know,” he uttered. “I received a call from the kidnappers, but it was heavily encrypted and untraceable. They didn’t identify themselves, just claimed to have my wife and daughter and that they would kill them if I did not do exactly what they said.”

“How did you know that their threat was real? That they even had your family?”

Harrison finally looked up from his lap, looking Jon straight in the eye, as he replied in a dead voice, “They forced me to watch while several of them took turns raping my wife. They told me that if I didn’t watch, if I looked aside even for just one moment, that they would kill her.”

It was Jon who looked away this time, not able to stomach the expression on the other man’s face, the total helplessness and despair that he saw. He could not block out the Captain’s words, which continued on, relentlessly.

“After they had finished, they told me what I had to do. They warned me that if I told anybody, or did not carry out their orders to the letter they would do the same to my daughter. By the Maker, she is only seven years old. I couldn’t. I had no choice, I had to—”

Whatever else he was going to say was lost to the sound of sobbing as he broke down completely. Jon could not look at him, instead thinking about the options available to him. He realised there were very few. He had not been lying when he said that justice needed to be done, or at least seen to be carried out. The Captain’s actions, no matter the reason behind them, could not go unpunished. Somebody would have to pay the ultimate price. “There will be no public trial,” Jon uttered quietly, causing the man opposite him to fall silent. “No witness will be called and I will be making no announcement regarding any co-conspirators, or anything else that you have confided in me. In return I promise you that every effort will be made to secure the safe release of your family,” he stated, taking a deep breath.

“But, a price must be paid for this. Too many people have died, too many lost their lives as a result of your actions. Therefore a sacrifice must be offered up to appease them.” Jon insisted emotionlessly. “I can give you five minutes alone with your family.” He leaned forward to activate the holo-projection. Staring at the image for a moment longer, Jon rose from his seat, adding gently. “They are both very beautiful.” With a final meaningful glance at the pistol still resting on the desk, Jon took a few steps towards the exit, but stopped before the doors sensed his arrival.

He remembered the closure that he felt in his dream, as he exchanged those last few words with this family. He felt this man deserved something similar. Therefore, keeping his back towards him, so he could not see the lie in his eyes, Jon stated. “Your father-in-law, Admiral Sterling, asked me to give you a final message. He told me to tell you that he loves you very much and is proud of you. Nothing that you have done, that you could do, would ever change that.” With those final words he stepped from the room, the doors sliding shut behind him.

Jon was unsurprised to see the Sergeant-at-arms waiting impatiently just outside the entrance. He looked up in surprise at Jon’s exit. Stopping for a moment to exchange a few words with the marine, he continued on his way after the marine nodded in understanding at his instructions.

Jon’s stride only broke momentarily when, just before he reached the end of the corridor, the
crack
from the single gunshot echoed down the hall.

He promised himself that he would find the people who hid in the dark and had been the cause of all this pain and misery. Jon knew perfectly well that such monsters existed, and that is why he always carried his sword at his side, to slay such vile creatures wherever he found them.

Chapter Six

The Protector, Flagship of the Confederation 12
^th
Fleet

As Jon stepped out onto the bridge of the
Protector
, everyone fell silent. All conversation ceased, as all eyes turned to face him. Based on their reaction, he assumed Admiral Sterling had already forewarned the senior officers about the change in command. Therefore, without offering any explanation for his presence on the bridge, Jon approached both the Captain and the Admiral as they rose quickly to their feet.

With all eyes still firmly affixed upon him and, without having uttered a word, Jon calmly took the seat that had been vacated by the Admiral only moments before. He could hear the indrawn breath at his impetuous actions, as Jon had not even glanced at the Admiral. It was an obvious sign to all that he was now in charge of the ship and the fleet.

“Captain?” Jon left the question hanging in the air, glancing at the man standing next to Admiral Sterling.

“Morden, sir. Uh Commander, sorry, I mean Emperor, sir,” Morden stuttered, unsure of how to correctly address the man.

“I have always simply preferred Commander,” Jon replied calmly, not paying any attention to the hesitant answer, instead continuing on, “I need you to open a communication channel.”

“A channel?” Morden replied hesitantly, exchanging a glance with his Communication Officer. “A communication channel with whom? Commander,” he quickly added.

Only then did Jon push the dark hood of his cloak back slightly, so he could look the man in the eye. “Why, a channel to everybody Captain. You are to take command of the Tachyon communication relay network. You will broadcast my message to everybody, every man, woman and child in the Confederation. They will all need to hear what I have to say.”

Captain Morden could only gape in surprise.

The discovery of the Tachyon particle was an unexpected result of the in-depth research conducted into quantum mechanics via massive particle accelerators, late in the twenty-first century. The concept of quantum entanglement had long been recognised. Namely that when two particles became entangled at the quantum level, when separated—even by great distances—the two particles would always share the same value or direction of spin. Later research in this area discovered that this unique property continued even when they were separated by huge distances, as if they were connected by some unknown bond. What was even more incredible was that this bond seemed to travel faster than the speed of light. After much research, it was ultimately discovered that Tachyon particles were the cause of this phenomenon, although it was later discovered that they did not travel faster than light but passed through quantum wormholes, literally gaps in space-time. This allowed them to move between any two points in the universe, almost instantaneously. This phenomenon became the founding principle for faster-than-light (FTL) travel, although it took a further three decades for that theory to become reality.

The theory of quantum entanglement was soon put to good practical use in communications. With humanity spreading throughout the Sol System, this discovery immediately overcame the limit imposed by the speed-of-light on real time communication throughout the Sol System.

Massive tachyon relays were built around every planet and many life-supporting planets in adjacent systems. These worked on a packet based delivery system, for if a relay did not know the destination for a particular communication packet, it could pass this on to a subsequent relay to route the message. The system was a proven one, having been perfected over a century before via the development of the Internet. Within a decade all other forms of communications had become redundant, as they were replaced by the now ubiquitous Tachyon relay system.