Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.) (12 page)

“I’m going for a walk,”
she said, throwing the piece of wood into the remains of last night’s fire and
standing up.  She sheathed the monomolecular hunting knife, one that Cornelius
had called a Bowie, into its special case.

“Don’t go far,” said
Cornelius, looking at her as he pointed a finger in her direction.  “I know
this isn’t Azure, and there are a lot of safeguards built into this recreation
area, but it still wouldn’t do to not be aware of your surroundings.”

Rebecca nodded, then
turned away and walked quickly down the path that had taken them from the car
park into the so called wilderness.  The arguing died behind her, and she was
happy that it hadn’t grown in volume.  They would hash things out, and then
they would be back to normal, and she didn’t have to go through the
uncomfortable feelings of listening to the two most important people in her
life arguing about her.

The path was peaceful in
many ways, winding through a forest so unlike any wilderness area on her
homeworld.  Here there were no plants, or even worse, the hybrid plantimals,
that would kill any animal life that got within reach.  There were some
poisonous plants, and Cornelius had made her well aware of them, but you
actually had to do something stupid to be harmed by them.  Dangerous animals
roamed the true wilderness areas, some as deadly as anything Azure had.  But
the repulsion systems placed throughout the recreation area kept them confined
to the true wilderness, and away from people.

And within the hour the
celebration would kick off in the Capital city, the largest in the Empire.  And
here she would be, stuck out here in these woods, away from all the excitement,
on the other side of the mountain range from civilization.  She might be able
to see the fireworks when night came, and she was sure she would see the
suborbital light show from here, if she stayed in a clearing.  But she would
still miss all the excitement of the people, the parades, the thousands of open
air concerts.  The pageantry.  Most of all she would miss seeing the Empress
and the twins on the reviewing stand as the largest of the parades passed by.

Why in the hell did I
have to end up with such a farm boy of a father
, she thought with a
slight smile.  There was a little bit of anger in that thought, but not much
when she thought about it.  If he hadn’t been such a farm boy, and a hunter,
she would not be here this day.  And neither would Junior.

*     *     *

“Everything is ready,
your Majesty,” said the Chief of Detail for the Empress’ protection staff.

Jennifer looked up from
where she had been looking down on one of the twins.  Augustine was being his
usual surly self this morning, crying and complaining at every turn.  Glen lay
peacefully in his crib, cooing and smiling at the world.  Both babies had been
fed, both had been bathed and changed.  Both had gotten all the attention that
any infant could want.  And both were acting as polar opposites.

I wonder if the Empire
will wish that Glen had been the first one into the world
, thought the Empress,
smiling down on her complaining son.  By precedent the first born child was the
heir, the next in order the spare.  There had been exceptions, such as when an
heir and turned out to be unfit for the role of Emperor.  But being a difficult
baby was not grounds for dismissal from the inheritance that birth had
bestowed.

“I guess the little
terrors are ready as well,” said Jennifer, almost laughing at the expressions
on the faces of the people that were helping to raise and protect her
children. 
They may be the objects of adoration to you
, she thought,
looking at the faces. 
But to me they’re my children, nothing more, nothing
less.

The chosen nurses took
hold of their charges, lifting them from their cribs and placing them in the
carryalls that had been designed for them.  They were larger than those used by
most mothers in the Empire, and that size was not because of any extra luxury
built into the baskets.  No, they were the most protective carryalls that the
science of the Empire could devise.  And the detail carried attachments that
would make them even more protective.  Glen and Augustine might only be her children
to her, and a big only.  But they were the most precious of gems to the people
of the Empire, symbols of the heritage that was humankind’s in this space.

An elevator took them up
to the rooftop landing pad, where a half dozen heavily armored aircars waited. 
One was the luxury conveyance that would carry the Empress and Glen to the
reviewing stand, along with agents of both of their protective details. 
Augustine would fly in another of the cars, just as luxurious, with his own
protective detail aboard.  At first Jennifer had balked at being separated from
one of her sons, but on this both Sean and the Secret Service had been
unbending.  With two children, they were not about to carry both eggs in one
basket, especially in something as inherently vulnerable as an aircar.

The cars left the
rooftop, along with four other identical appearing cars that carried more of
the security detail.  All appeared identical on the outside, but their
interiors were very different.  Three were quick response vehicles with armored
security agents ready to act as a reaction force.  One was a command and
control vehicle.  And all were targets that would hopefully absorb any attack
directed against the Imperial Family.

As soon as they were in
the air the twenty Marine assault carriers formed up around them, each carrying
a reinforced squad of Marines in heavy battle armor.  Overhead flew a squadron
of atmospheric fighter craft.  Enough firepower to fight off any conceivable
assassination attempt, and there was really no danger of anything larger this
deep into the Empire.

Jennifer looked with
approval on all of the precautions.  She wished that it wasn’t necessary, but
since it was, she was glad that it was the best possible.  In fact, her
children were in many ways the most protected in the history of the human
species.  They were constantly monitored for any kind of medical emergency,
they had the best nanosystems in the Empire injected into their bodies, making
them essentially disease and all but poison proof.

Glen cooed, a behavior
slightly ahead of the developmental norms of his age.  Both of her children
were advancing faster than normal, part of their genetic heritage.  Jennifer
ran a finger along his face, stopping on his lips, as the baby kicked his legs
and waved his arms in the uncoordinated manner of infants.  The Empress felt
her eyes begin to tear up as she thought of the life that was ahead of him,
even if he didn’t become the Supreme Ruler.  If both survived to the day that
their father died, Augustine would become the Emperor, while Glen would become
the heir to his older brother, unless that brother happened to have children of
his own at that time.  And when Augustine’s first child was born, Glen would
move in order to become the spare once again, continually moving down the ranks
as more children were born to his older brother.  Still, Glen would be expected
to hold a high position in the Imperial government.  A High Ambassadorship, an
Admiralty appointment, or the head of some government commission.  His life
would not be scrutinized to the point of his brother’s, but he would still
remain in the public eye for as long as he lived.

The minutes seemed to fly
by as the beautiful mother played with her child in his carrier beside her. 
She was thinking that they might be the jewels of the Empire, but to her they
were her and Sean’s children.  She would see to it that they were raised as
normally as possible, a daunting task considering their positions.  The Chief
of Detail across from her closed his eyes, and she knew he was linking in with
the rest of the huge security apparatus that surrounded them.

“We will be landing in
one minute, your Majesty,” he told her, eyes opening again to show he was once
more in the here and now.  “Allow the detail to disembark first, then you and
the nurse. We will wait in the secure location under the stands until it is
time to move into the public eye.  Once in the stands, stay in the designated
area.”

Jennifer nodded, thinking
on the details for a moment.  They wanted people around her to take any
possible attack on themselves before it got to her or the children.  She was
wearing protective clothing herself, impact armor and an internal laser
reflective layer that would defeat most magrail weapon shots while deflecting
up to two seconds of laser fire.  If she was shot in the head none of that
would make any difference, of course, so security would try to prevent that. 
Once she was in the stands there would be an electromagnetic shield and a
transparent kinetic barrier in place to protect her.

She had asked Sean about
all of the precautions, if it was something that every Emperor had to go
through.  He hadn’t thought they had been quite this restrictive, though he
believed that history had taught that some of the more despotic Emperors had
even greater security in place.  But since there had been multiple attempts on
the lives of the Imperial family in the last couple of years, including the
successful assassination of a sitting Emperor, his wife and his heirs, as well
as the latest attempt on Sean and her, it had been decided that the most
stringent methods were called for.  And she was willing to go along, as long as
it kept her children alive.

The aircar landed without
so much as a bump, the finely tuned inertial compensators taking up any force
that the pilot wasn’t able to smooth out.  The hatch lifted away, forming
overhead protection, and half of the security detail deployed from the
vehicle.  Marines in their signature heavy armor were already in view around
the area the detail had deployed to, and Jennifer knew there would be more of
the troopers hanging in the air, constantly on the watch.  The Chief of Detail
nodded to Jennifer just before he got out, and the Empress followed the nurse
who was holding Glen’s carrier out into the open.

The morning sun was
bright in the sky, warm on her skin.  She looked down at Glen, who was out into
a deep sleep.  Augustine wasn’t complaining for once, and when Jennifer looked
down on the heir she was happy to see a peaceful sleeping expression on his
face. 
Pleasant dreams, baby
, she thought as she followed her Chief of
Detail and the two nurses into the safe room underneath the viewing stand.

“We go up in fifteen
minutes,” said the Chief of Detail.

They were supposed to be
in place five minutes before the head of the parade reached the stands.  The
parade started seven kilometers from the stand, toward the harbor, though still
quite some ways from the water.  It ended twenty-three kilometers further on. 
It would take three hours for all the bands, floats and military units to pass,
and then Jennifer could go back home, where she preferred to be, safe and
secure with her babies.

“It’s time,” said the
Chief of Detail.  The nurses had checked the babies, making sure both were
still dry, waking them for a moment to give them some milk, then letting them
both drift back into a deep sleep.  Jennifer led the way this time, the two
nurses with the babies coming up behind her.

As soon as she appeared
on the reviewing stand the crowd of people within sight of the area went wild. 
There were almost a hundred people on the stand already, high ranking officers,
members of Parliament, city officials.  Jennifer’s spot was in the center at
the front of the stand, with open areas on either side of her for the babies. 
She looked back for a second at the large screen viewer over the stand.  Her
face was on the center of the screen, while two boxes to either side showed the
sleeping babies in their carriers.

The Empress waved at the
crowd, now feeling every part the most important lady of the Empire.  She made
her way to her seat and looked over the crowd as soon as she was comfortable. 
Across the street were several hundred meters of seating, twenty-eight rows up,
with thousands of VIPs sitting in their finery.  The street was packed in both
directions, some citizens in their best clothes, many others in their party
casual.  The crowd was about eighty percent human, but a good showing of the
large alien population of the city was present as well.  And everywhere she
looked there were people in uniform, mostly those on liberty or leave, here for
the celebration, but also a good number of soldiers and Marines in armor,
adding their surveillance to that of the police.

The sound of a band came
to her ears through the noise of the crowd, bagpipes in the forefront of a
Highlander unit of the Imperial Army, the lead party of the parade.  They were
still minutes off down the street, marching forward. 
I wish Sean were here
,
she thought, looking over at Augustine.  
This is really his place
.  She
shook her head, knowing that Sean was where he needed to be, improving the
morale of the troops on the front on this day of celebration.  She looked again
up the street, determined that she was going to enjoy herself and take in the
sights.

*     *     *

Chief Warrant Officer
Debra Visserman kept her F-48 Peregrine flying straight and slow as she cruised
over the line of the parade.  She was the wing of the group commander, toward
the center of the sixty-four plane formation as it flew over the marching units
at a stately one hundred kilometers an hour at two hundred meters altitude.