The Last Praetorian (23 page)

Sofia was expecting the young officer to return to his position
in the parade line, when instead he turned the other direction to face her! 
Sofia watched speechlessly as the young officer took her hand with a gentle
smile, and bringing her hand to his lips kissed her gently on the back of her
hand. 

With a small bow and his eyes sparkling, he simply uttered
the word, “Princess,” half in greeting and half in farewell. He then departed
to re-join his fellow officers.  Sofia could not help herself and blushed
furiously. 
Bastard!

*****

Several hours later, it was late in the evening on the
Imperial
Star
, when Sofia found her father alone in his study.

“He must have been very brave, or very heroic,”
or very
crazy
, Sofia added silently.

“Who dear?” her father inquired.

“That young officer that you awarded the fleet medal to
today.”

“Oh, him,” her father replied with a grin. “I noticed that
he made quite an impression on you at the ceremony.  Although I did not like it
how he touched you,” the Emperor continued.  Sofia just waved away her father’s
over-zealous, protective streak.  “…And yes, he was very brave, and heroic,”
her father added.

Sitting down across from her father, “So what did he do to receive
such an award?” She asked curiously... and in no way personally interested. 

Her father was silent for a moment and began to explain,
choosing his words carefully.  “Different people have different… beliefs,” his
father explained to her. “Sometimes these different groups of people do not…
get on.  When this happens, sometimes, we relocate these people to other
systems to avoid conflict.  We were moving one such group of people.  25,000 of
them in fact, many women and children, when slavers attacked.” 

Sofia had studied enough political science to know that
while slavery had been illegal for centuries, it was still a very profitable
enterprise, especially on some of the rim worlds, with extreme climates but
rich in minerals.       

“The slavers attacked in a surprisingly large force and took
the Imperial escorts by surprise, most were destroyed, and the Commander
ordered the remaining task force to withdraw.”  Her father made in patently
clear what he felt regarding that, and Sofia could well understand his
disappointment at the fleet abandoning 25,000 people to slavers.  “What
remained of the task force escaped,” her father explained, “except for the
Lieutenant and his squadron of fighters.  He refused the order to abandon the
families to the slavers.”

“He ordered his squadron to stay and fight?” Sofia asked,
amazed that his fellow pilots did not just ignore the order and escape.

“No, he asked them,” came the even more astonishing
response. “According to the communication transcripts he told them that he
would prefer to die with honour protecting women and children from slavery,
than live for the rest of his life with the guilt of abandoning them.  It
seemed that his squadron agreed with him, as none of them left.  They held off
the slavers for almost an hour, until Imperial reinforcements could arrive, by
which time he was the only one left alive.”

Sofia gasped in grief. “He was the only pilot in the
squadron to survive?” she asked.  Her father just nodded sadly.  “So what is he
going to do now?” she asked concerned.

“I have not thought of that yet, he will probably be
re-assigned to another squadron,” her father replied distractedly.

“You should assign him here,” the young Sofia insisted
brightly.  “He must be an excellent pilot, and as you said, he is certainly
very brave, and heroic,” Sofia added responding with her fathers own
description.  “And anyway I thought he was kind of cute,” Sofia added softly.

Her father looked up thoughtfully for a moment before
replying, “I might just do that.”

*****

Looking at her surroundings in an entirely new light, Sofia
was completely astonished.  She knew with absolute certainty that Jon had sold
the medal.  The Aurelius Star Cluster, a medal that had been awarded exactly 16
times since the founding of the Empire, by her great, great, great grandfather
Edward.  She had checked!  She could picture Jon, in his cramped quarters
on-board the
Imperial Star
, gazing at the medal.  Rewarded for leading
his squadron to their deaths, only to be spared the same fate, by well… fate. 
Then picturing his family back on Altair, in some small decrepit apartment, in
some horrific neighbourhood, and realising that the medal could have a purpose,
could be put to good use to help somebody.  The thought brought tears to her
eyes!

The next minute she was engulfed in a familiar rib breaking
hug, similar to that which had been inflicted upon Jon only a few minutes
earlier!

“There is no need to be upset, dear,” Jon’s mother explained
hurriedly.  “Ryan and I are perfectly fine here now, we’ve got over the loss of
our daughter, although we still both worry about Jon a lot.”

Sofia considered for a moment explaining that it was not
that which had brought tears to her eyes, but instead what Jon had sacrificed
for his family.  However, it was obvious that he had not chosen to tell them
how he managed to afford their new home and she did not feel that it was her
place to explain.  Anyway, Sofia could not remember the last time someone had
embraced her in such an affectionate manner.  Her father had been a loving, but
not an affectionate man.  Thoughts of her father brought back memories of her
own recent loss and before she knew it, she was spilling the story of her own
loss to Jon’s mother…

Coming to the point in the story about her attack on
Transcendence,
Sofia’s words ground to a halt, not knowing how to put into words the
paralysing fear and loathing.  However, a soft touch on her chin lifted her
gaze to look into Irene’s eyes.  Her eyes were so sympathetic and understanding
that the words just came out in a tumble, of being forced down and their
disgusting hands pawing all over her body…

“They cannot hurt you any more, dear,” Irene reassured her
softly.  “Jon and Ryan won’t let anything happen to you while you are here,
nobody can hurt you.”

“I know they cannot hurt me anymore,” Sofia tried to
explain, recounting Jon’s rescue and her captor’s violent deaths.

“Good,” Irene stated in a vehement tone that shocked the
younger woman. “Then as well as you, they cannot hurt anybody else.”  Sofia had
never considered that before, still reeling from the attack and the violence
that Jon had seemed to display so effortlessly.

However, any further discussion was abruptly interrupted by
the sound of the door opening and Ryan and Jon stomping into the room.  Both
froze like statues at the sight of the two women standing in the middle of the
room in a tight embrace with tears running down their cheeks. 

Eyes darting between the two women Jon asked anxiously,
“Mum, Sofia, is everything…ok?”

“Yes dear,” his mother hurriedly reassured him brushing away
the tears from her cheeks.  “Sofia and I were just catching up.  Have you and
Ryan finished your discussion?” She quickly deflected the question back.

“Yes, I don’t suppose you have anything to eat?  Sofia and I
have not had a proper meal in days and we are famished.”

“Of course dear, sorry I should have thought of that earlier. 
Ryan, while I am heating up some dinner for us could you prepare the guest
bedroom for Sofia.  Unless you are staying with Jon tonight?” She blissfully
threw out the question to the room.  Surprised by the sudden silence she looked
up to find the three of them rooted to the spot, all with eye’s as wide as
saucers!

“Ugh no, if you could make-up the spare bedroom…that would
be… great,” Jon replied hesitantly. Refusing to make eye contact with anybody
else in the room.

“Ok, sure dear,” Irene replied, confused by the reaction to
the innocent question from the other occupants of the room. “Ryan, could you
see to it while I go and start dinner?” She asked her husband.

“Sure, dear, I’ll get onto it right away.  I expect after
their long journey they will want to retire early tonight.”

“Sofia, would you like to give me a hand?” Irene asked
casually.  For the second time in the space of a minute you could hear a
pin-drop.

Ryan Radec, you are going to have some serious explaining
to do later
, Irene thought to herself fuming.  It seemed that everybody
knew what was going on except her!

“I’m not very good at food preparation, Mrs. Radec,” Sofia
explained softly. “But I would be happy to help you any way I can,” she added
confidently, purposefully ignoring the two men who were staring at her open
mouthed in disbelief.

Gently pulling her by the elbow in the direction of the
kitchen, Irene exclaimed loudly before the door closed, “Please dear, call me
Irene…”

Jon stared at his father intently.  This was entirely his
fault as he had planned to make detailed introductions before now!

“Not a word son, not a word!” His father exclaimed, wagging
his finger at his son before heading towards the bedrooms to prepare the guest
rooms.

“So what am I meant to do?” Jon asked the empty room
rhetorically.

*****

Dinner consisted of a meat stew with some carbohydrate
supplements, and fresh vegetables, recently picked from his mother’s garden. 
Having been living on fleet rations for the better part of a week both Jon and
Sofia were famished and hence both asked for second helpings.  The topic of
conversation at dinner was purposely kept light with Ryan and Irene updating
the young couple on the latest news on Altair.  Jon asked a few casual
questions about some of the old neighbours and the new, along with inquiring
about what they thought of the new house.  The only important topic discussed
over the meal was regarding repairs to their ship.  Ryan assured his son that
while he had long since retired from working at the spaceport, he still knew a
number of colleagues working there which would be happy to help.

Jon had not been away from Altair long enough to have forgotten
how things worked.  As nobody had much to spare, everything worked on an
informal barter system, where you helped out your neighbour and colleagues, and
they returned the favour when you need it.

By then it was already starting to get late, Jon was
exhausted and looking forward to getting some rest.  Sofia’s expression was
also starting to sag, so she quickly agreed when Jon proposed that they both
retire early for the night.  Showing Sofia to the guest room and making sure
that she had everything that she needed, Jon wearily made for his own room, only
just having time to strip-off his flight-suit before falling dreamlessly
asleep, draped across his bed.

*****

Jon’s eyes suddenly snapped open, a couple of hours later,
all his senses suddenly flaring to life.  His hand had instinctively reached
for his sword by the side of his bed, before he realised that he was not in his
quarters on the
Imperial Star.
  Jon stayed silent for a moment, reaching
out with all his senses trying to determine why he had woken so suddenly. 

Suddenly he heard the noise again that had woken him moments
earlier.  A muffled cry coming from the next room – Sofia’s room!  Grabbing the
nearest pair of pants, which Jon ironically noticed were a pair of sweatpants
emblazoned with the tag ‘Property of Imperial Military College, Altair,’ Jon
hurried towards Sofia’s room.  Not noticing anything out of the ordinary, Jon
decided that discretion was the best approach, hence knocked softly on the
door.  As there was no response, but still the occasional muffled cry coming
from inside the room, Jon slowly opened the door and entered the room. 

As his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark he could make-out
Sofia laying across the bed, she had obviously found one of his old sweatshirts
to wear, as it was about five sizes too big and reached almost to her knees. 
Tossing and turning on the bed, face covered in sweat; it was obvious that she
was having a terrible nightmare.  Being able to guess the contents of the
dream, Jon hurried to her side and taking care not to restrain her, gently
touching her on the shoulder.  “Sofia, wake up. It’s just a bad dream,” he
whispered quietly trying to rouse her gently from the nightmare in which she
seemed trapped. 

Sofia however was caught up in the dream, muttering, “No,
no, no… help me! Somebody help me…Jon!”  

His heart almost breaking from the gut wrenching fear in her
voice, Jon shook her more urgently.  “Sofia!” he whispered urgently. “Wake up
it’s just a dream!”  Suddenly her body froze solid and her eyes snapped open. 
It was only Jon’s quick reflexes that avoided a vicious black-eye when her fist
came flying out of nowhere towards his face.  Ducking the blow, he was prepared
to fend off another when he noticed that her body had relaxed a little and her
eyes were focused on him.

Confused, Sofia asked. “Jon?  What are you doing here? On my
bed?”  Looking down Jon realised, embarrassedly, that he was lying on her bed,
having fallen onto it ducking her earlier vicious left hook. 

Quickly rising off her bed he looked her in the eye and
explained. “You were having a bad nightmare, I was trying to wake you.” 

Sofia averted her gaze and drawing up her knees to her
chest, hugged herself tightly.  In a small tone of voice she apologised. “I am
sorry for waking you.  This is the third time I’ve woken up tonight…I don’t
sleep… very well. I’m sorry.” 

Jon’s heart went out to the younger woman, remembering the
first time that he had been in combat, remembering how he was unable to sleep
for days.  “Do you want to talk about it?” Jon asked softly, deciding that it was
probably now safe to sit down on the bed next to her.

“There is not really much to tell,” Sofia explained. “It’s
dark and cold and I cannot seem to move.  There are… things. I cannot see them.
I just know they are out there in the darkness, coming closer and then they
start to touch me.  I try calling for help, begging them to stop but they keep
coming.”