Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) (5 page)

Planet Nestor’s spaceport administration
was surprised when they received the code for their Vice-Chancellor’ spaceship
on their computers and they had to scramble to clear him for an immediate
landing. Usually, even rank-and-file senators representing outlying planets
sent out the notice of their arrival in advance and expected swift clearance
and deferential treatment. But Remus was calm and indifferent and he had told
the space traffic controllers to take their time scheduling him in an open
slot. He was their own senator and like most residents of the planet, most of
the controllers were also fond of him.

    Remus watched the lights – red, green,
blue, purple against the black background – of assorted spaceships making their
landing or taking off. Nestor’s spaceport was always busy. He was glad the
traffic controllers could squeeze him in for a fast landing. There were days
when the space traffic was backed up all the way to the next planet.

    It was night where he landed and he had
sent a signal out ahead for an armed escort. When he exited his spaceship he
was greeted by a tall man dressed in the usual green and gold army uniform but
the gold on his clothes was more pronounced. Accompanying him were ten other
soldiers who stood behind him in two files holding their laser guns across
their chest.

    “Capitan Jag Manus,” Remus said to the
tall man, “You got here fast. I had just sent you the signal.”

    “We were nearby,” Jag Manus replied,
“After your departure we really didn’t have any work and I entertained the
soldiers in the bars around the spaceport.”

    “Let’s hurry, I have a lot to tell
you,” Remus said. Capitan Jag and his soldiers were his personal bodyguards.

    Capitan Jag and Remus walked over to an
airship guarded by the soldiers. A soldier stepped forward and opened the door
to the passenger compartment.

    “Capitan Jag, please drive and I will
sit by you,” Remus said. Jag suspected that Vice-Chancellor had something
private and something urgent to tell him. Whenever he wanted to hold a
confidential conversation with Jag, he always had them sit up front.

    Jag ordered all the soldiers to get
inside in the back, he himself took the driver’s seat and Remus sat next to
him. The front cabin was sealed off from the back with a glass and they could
mute any noise and prevent it from reaching the back cabin. The airship itself
was approximately 20 feet long and wide enough for just two individuals to sit
on either side.

    “Where to Vice-Chancellor?” Jag asked
as he started up the engine.

    “Battleship Command,” Remus replied, “I
need to urgently meet with general Bakus.”

    Jag pulled on the throttle stick and
the airship gained altitude moving up vertically.

    “Fly at hundred feet,”

    “As you say,” Jag replied, hovered for
a second and pushed forward on the drive stick and their airship headed towards
the air travel corridor. As the government vehicle they were allowed to fly at
two hundred feet where the air traffic was negligible. But today Remus did not
want to stand out and felt safe with the mass of private air traffic flying
around them.

    “Mute our cabin,” Remus said.

    “Already done,” Jag replied.

    “Jag, there was an assassination
attempt on me at Planet Bravo,” Remus said.

    “What!” Jag almost jumped in his seat
and he turned to look at Remus, “Vice Chancellor, that is very serious. You
should not have gone alone.”

    “I wanted to preserve secrecy but it
appears someone else knew about my trip too,” Remus said.

    “As the Capitan of your personal guards
and the one man being most responsible for your security, I should have
insisted on accompanying you,” Jag said, “But what happened?”

    Remus told him all the details from the
laser attack to the orbital space resort.

    “What do you know about an invisible
shield that can deflect laser bolts?” Remus asked.

    “Before hearing your story, I would
have denied even the possibility of one,” Jag said.

    “Starfirians have it,” Remus said.

    “Starfirians are far ahead of us,” Jag
said.

    “But you know what that means, don’t
you?” Remus said, “The assassin was a Nestorian. I would not have necessarily
believed the Starfirians because I wouldn’t put it beyond them to lie as to the
identity of the killer to avoid embarrassment and diplomatic crises. But a Starfirian
hitman would have known about the shield.”

    “I am glad it was one of ours then,”
Jag said.

    “So am I. But that means whoever was
behind it is here. Maybe even on this planet,” Remus said.

    “We should go to the police,” Jag said.

    “Jag, weren’t you a detective with the
Nestor Police Department before joining the Nestorian Republican Guard?” Remus
asked.

    “For eleven years I was a detective and
a good one too,” Jag said, “I still have many sharp detective friends. That is
why we should go to the police.”

    “No, I would like you to investigate
this for me, personally and discretely,” Remus said.

    “I will do it, but please tell me why?”
Jag asked.

    “Whoever sent the assassin doesn’t know
that he died during the attempt,” Remus, “When they realize that I have
returned, they won’t know what happened. If I play it calm and pretend my trip
was placid they will suspect that their man took the money and disappeared.”

    “Brilliant thinking,” Jag said,
“Foolish of me as a detective not to think of it.”

    “You were overwhelmed with the news,”
Remus said.

    “Yes, momentarily, now I am thinking
clear again,” Jag said, “We need the culprits to remain in the dark and keep
their guard down. If you go to the police and it gets in the news then they
could go underground or maybe leave the country altogether and escape into deep
space.”

    “That is why you must do it,” Remus
said, “As vice-chancellor I will give you the authorization codes to access any
state databases and as a capitan in the republican guard you already have the
jurisdiction to investigate crimes.”

    As they were talking their airship
arrived in front of a large, enclosed metallic dome that was the headquarters
of battleship command. Jag signaled the code for vice-chancellor and this
opened a door near the top of the dome. He flew the airship inside and hovered
down to the ground. It was a circular port large enough to accommodate half a
dozen similar sized airships. Soldiers stood at the entrance of the single
corridor in this section.

    “Where do you intend to start first?”
Remus asked.

    “I will need to think this through,”
Jag said, “But the first step is to get a list of all the persons who knew
about your trip. Get me those authorization codes.”

    “Will do,” Remus said and opened the
door. He walked out of the airship and approached the corridor and handed his
metallic identification card to the soldiers who saluted him and stood aside.
Jag raised his ship in the air and exited the dome.  

“How was the trip?” General Bakus greeted
Vice-Chancellor Remus in the central command room.

    “Uneventful,” Remus replied, “listen
general, I need to talk to you in private. Do you have a quiet room?”

    “Many,” Bakus said, “But let’s put that
off for now?”

    “Why?”

    “You made it back just in time to hear
the speech of our good friend Senator Solus Varus. His followers are holding a
large protest outside the senate and he is about to go on the podium with the
live image being broadcast to all sixty planets of the republic.”

    “What is he going to rant about now?”
Remus asked.

    “Your trip. Or rather the purpose of
it,” Bakus said, “Didn’t you hear, the news has leaked.”

    “How?” Remus froze on the spot.

    “If I find out who there is going to be
my boot stamp on the leaker’s chest,” Bakus said, “But let’s see what the
‘peoples senator’ Mr. Varus has to stay.”

    Remus walked over to Bakus who was
looking at the big screen on top of the spherical wall that was beaming a live
picture from the vast grounds outside the senate. The podium was set up but
empty and Solus wasn’t yet in sight. Remus looked around the command room. It
was a large spherical room that could have easily been divided into five
floors. Indeed, there were five stages of chairs, tables and computers arranged
in a circle in a cake like pattern with each successive floor a larger circle
than the one above and the officers descended in rank downward. General Bakus
and his innermost circle were on the top and Remus was here with them. The
entire wall was covered with assorted displays that flashed alerts, beeps,
numbers, images, charts, space maps etc. in different digital lights.

    Remus could make out the screens which
showed images of the thirty plus battleships spread across the Nestorian
Republic’s space, but rest of the displays were akin to an alien language.
While he was looking behind, he heard claps and shouts and turned around to
face the big screen and saw Senator Solus walk over to the podium. The crowd
outside of senate went jubilant and he felt a knot in his stomach. These were
his own people, people of Nestor, and they had never cheered for him like this.
But he knew that his people quietly respected him far more.

    He heard hisses and boos from the
officers managing the command room. The officer class had never liked Solus and
he was glad to be watching the speech with them.

    “The People of the Nestorian Republic,”
Solus began by lifting his hand, “your senator, people’s senator is here to
speak today of a grave danger that faces our republic. I have been informed
that Vice-Chancellor Remus has just returned from a secret trip to Starfire
Empire and he has invoked the protection treaty.”

    The crowd did not react to this
announcement. Remus was not surprised because most of them were not born when
the treaty was signed and hadn’t lived through the acrimonious debate
surrounding its passage in the senate. 

    “But don’t let the word ‘protection’
fool you,” Solus said, “The Starfire Empire intimidated our senate into signing
this treaty and now they will be sending the Imperial Starfleet into our space.
But don’t blame your Senator Remus for this. He was just the messenger, a
pigeon of Chancellor Augus whose orders he has to follow.”

    Remus clenched his fist in anger and
Bakus laughed derisively, “nerve of Mr. Varus.”

    “The Starfirians have been invited.
They are not a Republic, they are an Aristocracy,” Solus said, “They want us to
have a king, a king who will serve the interest of the rich, the powerful and
the officers. Starfirians must be told to return. We must firmly tell our
government to cancel the protection treaty. To cut off ties to an elitist state
where a small minority rules. Starfire fleet must not enter our space.”

    The crowd cheered madly and Remus
looked at Bakus.

    “Is the news of the battle still a
secret?” He asked.

    “No, but our ever an optimist war
minister Horus Bors has been telling the people what a victory we won,” Bakus
said, “even many senators think that we fought some space bandits. You should
have dealt with him before you left. He can give me orders in your absence, you
know?”

    “What orders did he give you?” Remus
asked.

    “To not demoralize the people by giving
a pessimistic portrait of the battle,” Bakus said.

    “I cancel that order right now,” Remus
said.

    “A bit too late,” Bakus pointed to the
big screen.

    “We just had a battle and our brave
soldiers sent the invaders running,” Solus said, “yet our General Bakus won’t
call it a victory. His tongue freezes in his mouth and he is left stuttering.
He wants more battleships, you know.”

    “That’s enough,” Bakus muttered under
his breath.

     “Every officer wants his own
battleship and we have to pay the taxes for that,” Solus said, “No more tax
increase.” The crowd roared in approval.

    “I call on peoples, workers and
soldiers to dethrone the elite loving regime of Chancellor Augus,” Solus said
then waited as the crowd started throwing items in air, “Now I don’t mean a
revolution, I mean protests in the street. The Republican Guard, an officer
controlled and officer loving force would love to shoot down peoples. Don’t
give them an excuse. I will fight the battle in the senate; you fight it on the
streets. All hail the people.”

    “All hail the people,” the crowd
shouted and Solus walked down the podium and disappeared in the crowd.

    “All damn Solus Varus,” some junior
officer from a stage below said and many repeated after him and booed at the
screen loudly.

    “Silence,” Bakus said, “the army is
apolitical and we do not support or oppose any particular senator. We follow
orders.”

    The room quieted down but Remus saw
anger on the faces of many officers and resignation on others.

    “We need to have that private talk
now,” Bakus said to Remus. Bakus and Remus exited the stage by climbing down to
the floor and they left the command room through a small corridor. Bakus led
him to a small office and closed the door from inside.

    “Your room?” Remus asked looking around
at an empty room with few papers and pens on the table.

    “No, one of many quiet rooms for
privacy,” Bakus said, “Vice-Chancellor, what did the Regional Star Commander
say?”

    “Promised help but has to go through
the formalities of analyzing and verifying our data,” Remus said and then over
the next fifteen minutes told him the events of his trip and the contents of
his conversations. Bakus scratched his chin and thought silently for a few
minutes after Remus had finished.

    “What forces here do not want Starfire
Fleet’s presence?” Remus asked.

    “The ‘peoples senator’ Solus Varus,”
Bakus said, “you heard him loud and clear.”

    “Except he is not part of the
government and wouldn’t have had knowledge of my secret trip,”

    “That is true,” Bakus said, “there are others,
more quiet, but more dangerous. There were rumblings in the army that this war
had provided a great opportunity to build up a large number of battleships and
become a space power unto ourselves. They resent relying on outside help.”

    “Battleships take money and resources
and we don’t have a lot of them,” Remus said, “the republic is in huge debt and
Solus and his followers won’t allow a single tax to be raised.”

    “If we could catch the people behind
your assassin then the opponents of Starfire protection would have eggs on
their face,” Bakus said, “That will buy us time.”

    “I have appointed my capitan Jag Manus
to flush them out,” Remus said.

    “One man?”

    “He was a former detective.”

    “Do you need army’s help?”

    “No,” Remus said, “There are only three
individuals I trust completely: Chancellor Augus, you general and capitan Jag.”

    “I agree,” Bakus said, “Let’s keep this
news under wraps till we know who was behind it and then we will pound on
them.”