The Last Praetorian (38 page)

“Strange, I was sure it was that code,” Jon muttered,
scratching his two day old stubble uncomfortably; he redoubled his efforts.

“Jon!” Miranda urgently encouraged him, as the tactical
display lit-up like the night sky reporting multiple weapon systems targeting
then.

“One minute, one minute,” Jon muttered.  “I’m sure that I’ve
got it this time.”

Miranda was only two seconds away from throwing full power
to the engines and making a mad dash for the edge of the belt, when finally the
console glowed green, along with the words “Access Granted.”

“Next time I agree to accompany you for a cargo pickup, how
about you mention the automated defence systems and the possibility of imminent
death,
before I agree to accompany you!
”

“Where would the fun be in that?”  Jon replied giving
Miranda a wide-grin.

Miranda had to catch her breath at the sight of him, because
he was really…very… quite… well …breathtaking.  The smile made Jon appear years
younger, more carefree and she could picture him years before, as a young boy
wearing such a smile, having been caught getting up to some mischief.  His dark
hair was tousled all over his head, because he hadn’t bothered to comb it since
rising.  Even tousled, Jon was way too handsome.  Worse, he had on a
flight-suit almost the same colour as his eyes; one that did absolutely nothing
to hide what she knew was a phenomenal chest and spectacular shoulders.  The
faded flight suit was worn and snug in all the right places.  Miranda had
always thought Jon handsome, but way out of her league.  Jon was major league,
and her, barely peewee, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t dream, noticing his
warm hand still resting on hers.

Tearing her gaze away from Jon’s handsome profile, Miranda
was shocked to see that they were now approaching the largest asteroid, far too
quickly to be able to stop safely in time. Frantically reaching for the flight
controls to reverse thrust and alter course she was astonished to feel Jon’s
hand tighten over hers, interrupting her.  Glancing frantically at Jon she
insisted, “Jon we need to alter course, otherwise we are going to collide.”

Continuing to gaze directly into her eyes, Jon replied. 
“No. We. Won’t. Miranda do you trust me?  Really trust me?”

Miranda’s thoughts whirled back to the conversation that she
had with Paul, days before, while Jon was still in a coma in Medical.  Then she
had accused Jon of leading them into oblivion, wanting to fulfil his own death
wish, and now only a few days later, here they were, heading to certain
destruction into an asteroid!  But Paul had insisted, that none of the crew,
her included, had anything to fear from Jon, and Miranda had believed him! 
Looking into Jon’s warm, understanding gaze she found herself still believing
him.

The ship’s collision alert warning started to sound, warning
them that they were barely seconds away from the impending impact, but still
Jon continued to hold her hand reassuringly.  “Trust me,” he whispered to her
reassuringly, barely seconds before the
Eternal Light
collided with the
Erebus
asteroid…

…Passing straight though the surface of the asteroid.  Jon
immediately killed the engines and the ship came to a halt within a large
cavernous hanger.  The asteroid was hollow!

Miranda looked around in astonishment, noticing curved rock
walls, and a solid flat landing bay.  “But how?” she demanded in astonishment.

“Quite simple really,” Jon explained with a pleased grin. 
It was a certain rite-of-passage, docking at the
Erebus
depot for the
first time even veteran pilots sometimes panicked, but Miranda had passed with
flying colours, although Jon could certainly forgive her for shutting her eyes
just before the moment of impact.  “The asteroid is hollow, mined from the
inside out around the same time that
Terra Nova
was constructed.  The
docking port is covered with a simple holo-projector to hide the entrance,” Jon
explained as he brought the ship into dock, ensuring that there was a hard-seal
and that the atmosphere in the depot was still good.  It had been many years
since anybody had been here last.

Opening the airlock into the depot, Jon motioned Miranda
ahead of him exclaiming “Open Sesame! I give you the cave full of hidden
treasure…”

Miranda stopped just inside the airlock, her mouth agape in
disbelief.  Facing her was another massive cavern; it must have been hundreds
of meters in length, as she could not see the far end in the dim light. 
However, it was not the size that astonished her but the contents, for the cave
was full of crates, some small, barely a few meters in length, others massive,
running into tens of meters square.  The cave was full of them, ascending up
into the dark roof of the cave.  Curious to know the contents of the crates,
she cautiously approached the nearest one.  With a glance towards Jon, who
nodded in agreement, she prised the lid off, astonished at the contents.  Pulse
rifles, dozens of them, neatly lined up, taking one out she was astonished to
see that it was immaculate, as of it had just rolled off the production line. 
The next crate held the same, the one after that, energy pistols, after that
grenades, missiles and so it went on.

“It’s an arms depot,” Miranda exhaled in understanding, her
mind boggling at the size of it.  “You could equip an army from this one store;
no scratch that, a dozen armies.”

“One of a dozen, at least that I know of,” Jon explained,
looking around the room.  “Top secret Imperial Navy arms dumps.  Known only to
the Emperor and his most trusted adjutants.  A last resort.  A worst-case
scenario. Only to be used if the very existence of the Empire was threatened. 
Of course nobody saw that the biggest threat to the Empire came from… within. 
Hence now they lie abandoned, forgotten, disused, until now,” Jon said firmly.

“But I don’t understand,” Miranda said confused.  “These
must be worth millions, tens of millions of credits, more profit than Vanguard
would make in a life-time.  So why not just sell them?”

“Well putting aside the question of who I would sell them
to,” Jon replied.  “As the only customers in the market are thieves, pirates,
mercenaries, slavers...” Jon uttered with disgust.  “Exactly the last sort of
people I would want possessing this…what would I do with the money?”  Jon
asked, curiously.

“What would you do with the money?”  Miranda asked in
astonishment.  “Spend it, give it away, and live like a king, like an emperor…”
Suddenly Miranda realised what she had just uttered aloud.  Who Jon was, who he
had been…  “The Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, told you about this, didn’t he?” but
the question was rhetorical, how else could Jon have known about this, and what
other secrets had the Emperor divulged to Jon?

“You don’t need to sell this, because you don’t need the
credits,” realisation dawned on Miranda as she followed the thought through.
“Because you already have more money than you could spend, more money than an
Emperor could spend in a lifetime…because he told you where it was hidden…” 

The Aurelius family, who had run the Empire for over five
centuries, Miranda could not picture, could not imagine, the wealth that they
must have accumulated, now all gone… but not all, some of it would have been
hidden away, just like this arms depot, hidden away, a last resort, a
worst-case scenario…

“Not all of it,” Jon replied embarrassed, but pleased that
she had worked it out.  “After Marcus’s death, all the family wealth was
inherited by Sofia.  However, there were other accounts, anonymous accounts,
shell companies, assets, and investments all carefully hidden away.  Not even I
knew about them all, Marcus still had secrets, things that he did not divulge
even to me.

“Then why the big charade, Vanguard,
Terra Nova
, all
the contracts, all the effort, for what?”  Miranda demanded, remembering all
her hard work and effort to make Vanguard a success and for
what
?

“People need a purpose, a reason, a goal in life Miranda,”
Jon explained patiently.  “I should know this better than most.  When the
Confederation disbanded the Imperial Navy, many people, good people, honest,
honourable and hardworking, had their life taken away from them.  They were
lost like me… They are honourable people; you think people like Paul, David,
Gunny, and Jason would have just accepted a few million credits each if I had
offered it?  They would have been horrified, it would have besmirched their
personal honour, they would have thrown the money back in my face.”

“So you gave them a purpose,” Miranda exhaled in sudden
comprehension.  “You created Vanguard not as a company intent on profit, but as
a purpose for them.”

“Vanguard generates a profit,” Jon replied defensively.

“But if we are not here for cargo to transport, why are we
here?”

“There are some supplies that I want to pick up, and one
other little thing…” Jon replied with a hard, flint-eyed expression.

*****

The
some supplies
, turned out to be a dozen of the
larger crates, which of course happened to be at the far end of the depot.  Too
heavy to carry by hand, Jon and Miranda had to utilise the automated cargo
handlers to help load the crates aboard the
Eternal Light
, even with the
automated cargo handlers it was long, hard, sweaty work, but finally several
hours later the crates were aboard the
Eternal Light
, and Jon and
Miranda stood alone, facing a massive internal blast door.

“This is your
one more little thing
?”  Miranda
inquired looking at the massive door apprehensively.  Whatever required such a
massive barrier, in a hollow asteroid that was already brimming with weapons
and high explosives did not even bear contemplating.

“Behind this door is the reason why you will not find this
depot on any Imperial Navy report, or manifest or star-chart,” Jon explained
cryptically.  “This is why it was only known to the Emperor and a few of his
closest advisors.”  Approaching a console set into the frame of the massive
door, Jon once again typed in a code, which to the best his knowledge he was
the last alive to know.  This time there was no hesitation, no mistake.

“Authorisation Code – Accepted,” the console flashed. 
“Voice print authorisation required.”

“Jonathan Radec, Commander, Praetorian Guards, 58
^th
Squadron,” Jon tonelessly announced to the door.

“Voice Print – Accepted,” the console once again reported. 
However, this time there was no other prompt and the massive door started to
open, slowly, ponderously.

“Open Sesame,” Jon announced to the door.

Miranda was astonished that as the door opened, she could
see that it must have been close to thirty centimetres thick: what horror could
possibly be behind such a door?  However, Miranda was disappointed to find that
the room behind the door was barely twenty meters by ten meters in size, a
cubbyhole compared to the rest of the massive depot.  Lying in the middle of
the room, like a tomb of old rested a single solitary box.  Approximately six
meters in length, half in width, half in height, Miranda thought for a moment that
it was a coffin.

That was until she saw the markings on the crate, and took
several steps back in terror.  “Is… Is it safe,” she stuttered.

Approaching the crate cautiously to check its contents, Jon
replied.  “It’s been sitting here for almost a decade, surrounded by lethal
weapons and high explosives, in an unstable asteroid belt.  I think if it was
going to go off, it would have done so by now.”

Satisfied that what he was looking for was present and that
everything checked out, he turned back to Miranda and asked.  “Give me a hand
with this can you? Probably best that we don’t drop it…”

Present Day

Terra Nova, Zeta Aquilae System

It was much later that evening, after the
Eternal Light
had docked and its cargo was safely transferred to
Terra Nova,
that Jon
was secretly reviewing reports in his quarters.  Jon was coming around to
appreciate Miranda’s suggestion of filing reports electronically, as this
allowed him to neatly circumvent the doctor’s explicit orders that he should be
recuperating and in no way, or form, be working.  Having been unceremoniously
booted out of his own office by Miranda he had quickly converted his quarters
into a new office; after all, he had plenty of room, as it previously only
consisted of a bed, chair and table...

Poring over the daily reports that had been filed while he
was off station, he looked up in complete astonishment as Miranda breezed into
his person quarters.

“By all means, come in!  Make yourself at home!” Jon
commented derisively.  “You know I could have just finished a shower, and be prancing
around in here naked!”

Miranda’s eye’s brightened at the prospect, and she replied
flirtatiously.  “I can always come back a bit later…”   

Jon just rolled his eyes in disbelief.  He had initially
been shocked upon awaking in medical, to hear that Paul had abdicated his
responsibility in favour of Miranda. 

Although Paul was perfectly in his right to decide who was
in charge during Jon’s absence, initially Jon had been surprised at the
decision.  Jon still remembered Paul’s reservations clearly from their late
evening drinking session in Paul’s apartment.  However, it would seem that
Miranda’s hard work, dedication and passion had even brought around their
cynical Operations chief.  But the additional responsibility had done wonders
to the newest member of the senior staff.  Jon still remembered the angry,
untrusting young pilot that had awoken in medical, demanding when she could
return home.  However, the news about her family and the recordings from the
Syndicate outpost had cut any lingering ties to the Syndicate.  Meanwhile, her
rotation through the various departments had expanded her horizons and brought
her into close contact with the various department heads that she had quickly
managed to win over.  Jon still chuckled on remembering the expression on
Gunny’s face when challenged to an arm wrestle.