Pax Imperia (The Redemption Trilogy) (44 page)

Jon caught her by the arm, alarmed at how pale she had suddenly gone. “Are you okay?” he asked concernedly.

“Sorry, yes,” Anna said, shaking her head. “You just took me by surprise. Of course I’ll take her to medical and get her checked out. Where are you going?” she called out after him, taken by surprise by his already retreating form, his long stride quickly eating up the distance to the exit, which was already sliding open at his approach.

“I’ll be on the bridge,” Jon called out over his shoulder. “I have a message I need to deliver.”

Anna was going to follow him, to ask what he meant by that cryptic remark, when she was reminded of the little girl now in her arms. Changing direction she headed toward Medical instead. Her questions for Jon about what happened down on Capella could wait.

*****

“Captain, report,” Jon demanded, stepping out onto the bridge several minutes later, having come directly from the flight deck. “What is our current position?”

The Captain looked up in surprise at his unannounced entrance, and then looked twice, taking aback by their Emperor’s dishevelled state. “We are currently in a geo-synchronous orbit, five-hundred kilometres above Capella, my Emperor.”

Normally Jon would have taken exception to the title, but instead he took a seat in Admiral Romanov’s command chair, back ramrod straight, eyes fixed directly ahead. His thoughts were in a whirl, but time and time again they came back to Harrison’s dead wife, staring up at him, angrily. Demanding to know what he had done to stop this.

“Bring the dorsal and ventral railguns online and prepare to fire,” he ordered abruptly.

“Yes, my Lord,” the Captain replied after a moments’ hesitation, still staring at Jon’s battered and bruised face, torn and bloodied clothing. “The target?”

“Headquarters of United Stellar Services.”

At a nod from the ship’s Tactical Officer, the Captain turned back to face Jon. “Target locked and awaiting your orders, sir.”

Jon blinked, as if hearing the voice from a great distance, suddenly remembering about Gunny and the marines on the planet below. “Signal Captain Frasier and Gunnery Sergeant Reynolds on the planet. Order them to pull back and get to a minimum safe distance,” he ordered.

Stepping out onto the bridge, having run most of the way from the flight deck, Paul was just in time to hear the last order issued by Jon. He had been worried about him, as he had said very little on the flight back. “Jon, stop this madness,” he urged him stepping closer to his side. “You cannot do this.”

“You forget who I am now, I can do anything that I want,” Jon contradicted him. “I gave warning to those who murdered Marcus, Sofia and so many others on Eden Prime. Yet still they defy me. The most sacrosanct bond between Lord and his subjects is that he will protect them. I promised Harrison that I would protect his family, and I failed. Now all will witness my retribution.”

“Jon, listen to me,” Paul said increasingly franticly, trying to get through to him. “There are people down there that had nothing to do with this, innocent people caught up in this feud of yours. Do they deserve to die because of the actions of others? Pawns on a chessboard, that’s what you said, remember?”

“What would you have me do instead?” Jon replied. “Send Gunny and the marines back in there to separate the innocent from the guilty? How many of them would I be ordering to their deaths? How many more children would lose a parent this day?”

“There is always another way,” Paul insisted.

“Not this time,” Jon insisted. “You know the thing about revenge? It eats away at your soul, a little piece at a time. You make one compromise after another, and before you know it you look in the mirror and you don’t recognise the person that is staring back at you.”

Realising that enough time had now passed for Gunny and the marines to get to a safe distance, Jon turned to the Captain. “Fire,” he ordered. Watching emotionlessly as the ship opened fire on the planet below. Once all the rounds had been fired and the weapon systems once again secured, Jon rose from his chair turning to face Paul for the last time.

“I make it a point not to look in the mirror anymore. Go home Paul, back to Carol and your children. You don’t want to have any more part in this, as this is only the beginning. They think this is some sort of game? Well I have stopped playing their games and, as for their chessboard? I will smash it into a million pieces.”

*****

The first railgun round appeared from seemingly nowhere, splitting the midday sky where storm clouds had only just started to gather. The projectile, already super-heated to over one thousand, six hundred degree centigrade, parted the clouds travelling at over fifteen times the speed of sound, leaving a glowing halo, as the heavens parted in its wake. The first round impacted the headquarters of United Stellar Services two-thirds of the way up the building. The shell, travelling at a perpendicular angle, burrowed it’s way through twenty floors, setting all alight, burning a tunnel fifteen meters in diameter.

The entire building shuddered at the force of that first ringing blow.

Then the remaining rounds started to fall, first one, then another, hammering into the side of the building, the building trembling after each impact. The internal structural supports were weakened to such a degree that they could no longer support the weight of the above floors.

With an almighty groan, the loadbearing supports snapped, and floor after floor came crashing down, one on top of another. The noise was unbelievable, one continuous almighty roar, the sound of the building’s death cry.

When the dust finally started to settle, many hours later, all that remained of the once massive building that towered over all the others was a twisted pile of steel, concrete and broken glass.

The price paid for a murdered wife, tortured husband and orphaned daughter.

*****

It was several hours later, late into the night on-board the ship, when Jon finally found himself outside the personal quarters of Admiral Romanov. He had taken a shower and was relieved to be back in his white naval uniform, with his dark cloak wrapped around him, but sleep was still not forthcoming. He had tried to eat but the food had stuck in his throat. Eventually he had decided to check up on Harrison’s daughter. The least he could do for the parents was keep an eye on her, but he’d been surprised to be informed the Admiral had already taken the girl with her after all the necessary tests had been carried out.

Announcing his presence, after a long pause the door finally slid open, permitting his entry into the darkened room. Pausing for a moment just inside the room, Jon let his eyes slowly adjust to the dim light, as the stars offered the only illumination in the spacious room.  Anna was facing away from him, her posture stiff, back ramrod straight, as she stared out at the panoramic view. As if finally acknowledging his presence, she turned around to face him, and it was only then he saw the pistol in her hand.

Pointing directly at him.

“I know I promised to keep you informed of my activities, but I think this is a little extreme,” Jon quipped, motioning to the pistol still firmly trained on him.

“Tell me about Captain James Harrison,” Anna demanded, “And how he died.”

Jon eyed her warily, eyes flicking once again to the pistol, before he nodded his head. “Captain James Harrison killed himself with a pistol on-board the
Indomitable
soon after the attack on Eden Prime. An attack that he instigated.”

The pistol in her hand wavered for an instant, before she took a firm grip of it, pointing it directly at his head. “You’re lying. James would never have done such a thing. You ordered the attack, and then killed him to cover it up.”

“No,” Jon disagreed. “Harrison killed himself after I threatened to expose who was really behind the attack on Eden Prime. His family were being threatened. They were to be murdered unless he did as instructed. I offered him an alternative, leaving him the pistol and time alone. Did I kill Harrison? No. Did I give him little other alternative than to take his own life? Probably. But in the end it was still his choice.”

“James was a good man, he would never have—”

“Done exactly what I would’ve in his situation,” Jon interrupted her. “As I sat in his chair, in his personal quarters on his ship, as he confessed everything, I asked myself that same question. What would I have done if it were my wife, my daughter? The answer is I would have done
exactly
the same as him—and more. There is no difference between Captain Harrison and I, except for a twist of fate. But this doesn’t have anything to do with Captain Harrison and I, does it? This has everything to do with James Harrison and Anna Romanov.”

“I loved him so much, but he still left me for
her
,” Anna cried.

“You don’t get to choose who you fall in love with.”

“I have been sitting next to their daughter while she slept. She is so beautiful. It made me see what I had missed out on, made me realise she could have been mine.”

“Then it would have been you dead, down on that planet,” Jon pointed out to her. “None of this is your fault.”

“You don’t know the first thing about me. I could’ve tried to stop him—”

“Malthus?”

Anna looked up in shock, “You knew?” she gasped.

“That you were working for him? Reporting my every action and move. Yes.”

“But how? Why?”

“I have known from almost the first day that we met. It was most opportune you being on Eden Prime just in time for the attack. Also your reason for being there was absurd. Called before the Senate to account for two deaths on your ship? I’ve seen the fleet look on as hundreds, thousands have died, and the Senate didn’t blink. Your story about them being involved in people trafficking was a nice touch however, as my feelings on that topic are well know.”

“But why didn’t you do, or say anything?”

“Two reasons,” he replied. “The first a matter of expediency, better the spy that I know, than the one that passes by unnoticed. The second is that I know you. When I was in your office with my sword at your throat and looked into your eyes, I could see all your hurt and pain. But more than that, I could see your courage and strength. Malthus thought that you were weak and could easily be controlled, but I knew better. You are your own person Anna. You didn’t give up when Harrison left; it was you who achieved all those notable successes, not him. You are beholden to nobody.”

Taking a couple of steps closer, Jon held out his hand. “So now you must decide if you are going to kill me. The decision is yours, nobody else’s.”

Anna paused for a moment, glancing uncomprehendingly at the pistol in her hand, before depositing it carefully in his outstretched hand.

He did not need to glance at the pistol but could feel from its weight that it was fully loaded and he would have been dead if she had decided to follow through with her threat. Checking that the safety was on, Jon lowered the gun to the table, before taking a step forward, embracing the woman.

“How did you know?” she asked softly into his chest. “How did you know that I wouldn’t have killed you?”

“Because for a long time James Harrison loved you. He was a good, honourable man. He would’ve never loved a person who could murder another in cold blood,” he reassured her, brushing away the tears running down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” she sniffed. “I should’ve confided in you long ago.”

“It doesn’t matter what happened in the past, it cannot be changed. But help me, Anna. Help me stop what happened to James and his wife, help me stop another girl having to grow up without her parents. Who is doing this? Why?”

“Malthus,” Anna insisted. “Senator Malthus, and his son.”

“But I don’t understand, Malthus is dead,” Jon replied in a confused voice. “Paul showed me the DNA results, it was a 99.9% match.”

“I don’t know how he faked his own death, but I assure you that he is still alive. He personally ordered me to kill you, only hours ago. He was enraged by your attack on United Stellar Services, he owns the company and it is a big source of his income.”

“I know,” Jon agreed. “But I didn’t know that Malthus had a son, as there was nothing in his records.”

“They keep it very quiet. His son, Benson, is just like his father. Cruel, arrogant, spiteful, used to getting what he wants, but he’s also crude and doesn’t have his father’s brains. Malthus is clever and very patient, he is good at bending people to his will, he eventually finds a weak spot in everybody, then uses it as leverage. Even me,” Anna confessed. “As he promised me the one thing that I wanted more than anything—revenge. That James should pay dearly for his betrayal and I would finally have my vengeance against him and his wife, the woman that he left me for. But I promise you I didn’t knew what he had planned, I would never have agreed had I known…”

“Why is he doing this?”

“All I know is that he hates your family. It’s almost an obsession with him. You should hear him ranting and raving for hours upon end, about how the Aurelius family stole his inheritance. How
he
should have been Emperor, not Marcus,” she replied drowsily.

Worried that Anna was starting to fall asleep, as she was leaning heavily on him, he lifted her head to look intently into her eyes, surprised, as normally they were bright and clear, but now cloudy. “Anna, where is Malthus?” he insisted firmly.

“Don’t know,” she shook her head, as if disorientated. “He wouldn’t tell me… didn’t trust me…”

Becoming more and more concerned by her behaviour, he shook her firmly, but she could not be roused from her stupor. “Anna, what have you done?”

“Poison,” Anna replied sleepily. “Malthus supplied it to me, told me to use it on you. He threatened that if I didn’t do as he ordered, he would make public my betrayal. That he would destroy my career, and tarnish my name. That is all that I have left after James abandoned me and I won’t let him take it from me,” she insisted with quiet dignity. “I would rather die first.”

Jon lowered his head helplessly, as he could feel her breathing starting to slow, her heartbeat fading, as he held her tightly in his arms, supporting her weight.