The Last Praetorian (44 page)

Lately her work did not seem to be enough anymore.  She
remembered when she first had joined the Senate, the desire to do good, to help
people… to make a difference.  The naïve optimism of youth, Sofia assumed.  The
only force that ruled the Senate was inertia and public opinion.  Sadly Sofia
faced the truth that Jon’s actions and his manipulation of the media against
the Syndicate cartel, with the resulting Senate rush of activity had achieved
more in six weeks than she had realistically achieved in almost half a decade…

Well Jon is not the only one to take drastic measures, in
drastic times.

Opening a channel to Fleet Admiral Sterling, she reached one
of his very surprised aides, who pointedly informed the Confederation President
that at three in the morning New Eden system-time the Admiral was asleep.

“That’s fine,” Sofia replied with a saccharine smile.  “I’ll
hold while you go and wake him up.”

While she waited on hold for the aides to raise the Admiral,
Sofia thought back to her conversation with Paul.  She would do whatever was
necessary; pay whatever cost that was required to get the Confederation fleet
moving out to
Terra Nova
.

She knew that Harkov hated Jon, hated him with an intensity
that was bordering on an obsession.  Sofia could still remember that terrifying
moment, holding Jon’s broken body to her breast.  She still awoke occasionally
with a silent scream, covered in sweat, remembering the incident.  No, she
would do whatever was necessary to protect him from that same fate twice…

Five Years Previously

Memphis Station, Procyon System

The
Eternal Light
dropped out of FTL in front
of…nothing.  Sofia looked out of the cockpit viewport confused.  There was
nothing outside the ship, no planets, no stations, no ships…only the endless
night of interstellar space, surrounded by a hundred million brightly shining
stars.

Jon meanwhile was tapping his finger incessantly on the
ships console, eyebrows furrowed, obviously deep in thought.

“A problem?” Sofia asked nervously, the last thing she
wanted was to spend the rest of eternity floating through deep space, with a
pair of malfunctioning engines, with a brooding companion as her only company. 
Jon had been unusually quiet ever since their departure from Altair.  Or at
least
quieter
as Jon was always a man of few words, believing that
actions spoke louder than words.  Sofia was determined to get to the root of
the problem before they arrived.

“Not really, more trying to decide upon a course of action,”
Jon explained after a moments thought.  “That is Eden ahead,” Jon pointed to
one of the brightest stars almost directly ahead.  “It’s barely 2.5 light-years
away, a few more hours in FTL and we will arrive,” he added biting his lip.

“And that is not a good thing?”

“Perhaps, it all depends on who… or what is waiting for us?”

“You are still worrying about Harkov?”  Sofia deduced.

“I’m worrying who else Harkov could be working with.  If he
has decided to take this course of action alone, then there is no problem. 
However, for all I know this could be a fleet-wide coup d’état...”

“…So we could be flying directly into a trap?”

“Perhaps.”

“But surely you must know people in the fleet based at Eden
Prime, people you could trust?”

“I do, but I have no way of contacting them securely without
the risk that the message would be monitored.  All fleet communications go via
the Tachyon relay stations, heavily encrypted of course, but the transmission
could be tracked back to our nearest relay giving away our position.  Worse,
depending on who else in the fleet could be involved, the encryption could be
compromised.”

“What other option do we have?”  Sofia asked rhetorically. 
“We cannot stay here forever.”  Although if truth be told, the idea was not so
repellent to Sofia, when they arrived at Eden Prime Sofia knew that she would
have difficult choices to make, decisions that would affect the lives of
millions, maybe billions, of people.  Out here however, those decisions seemed
a long way away, and Sofia could think of worse things than to spend time,
alone, safe on a ship with a man that she realised that she had deep, strong
feelings for.  If their last kiss was any indication, those feelings were
reciprocated by Jon.  “I’m sorry what did you say?”  Sofia apologised, lost in
contemplation she did not catch Jon’s reply.

Bringing up the navigation computers star-map of the
surrounding space, Jon highlighted one destination that the computer had
labelled as
Memphis
.  “The Eden system is surrounded by a number of
massive arcologys, entire floating cities in space.  I know somebody on this
one, somebody that is well informed about the military and political situation
in the Eden system -somebody that we can trust.”

“Sounds good, so what’s the problem?”

“The problem, as you so eloquently put it, is that if I can
think of this so can Harkov, he will probably have informants on the station,
probably also mercenaries and bounty hunters looking for us.”

“You mean like on
Transcendence
?” Sofia asked softly,
looking away.  She still had nightmares about the attack, although the worst of
them seemed to be kept at bay by Jon’s constant reassuring presence.

“Like on
Transcendence
,” Jon agreed solemnly.

“Then we do it,” Sofia replied firmly.  “Better the devil
that we know; we have no idea what could be waiting for us on Eden Prime.”  As
she spent more time with Jon, Sofia had come to realise that fear could be a
person’s own worst enemy, paralysing, introducing paranoia, self-doubt and
second-guessing everything and everyone.  With Jon’s help Sofia promised
herself that she would get over her own fears and doubts, to try and be the
person that Jon seemed to think she was, a better, stronger, more
self-confident person; the daughter of the Emperor.

Jon looked at Sofia for a moment surprised, and then nodded
his head in approval, as if he saw something new in her, something that he
approved of.  “Then next stop
Memphis
,” he added before giving her a sly
smile.  “This time I do not plan to let you out of my sight for a single
instant.  You seem to be a magnet for trouble whenever I am not around.”

“Me?”  Sofia replied with a laugh.  “What about you?  All I
asked for is a dinner and some dancing, and you start a brawl in the middle of
the club.  Anyway, if you plan on watching me all the time, where are you going
to sleep?” she asked playfully.

“With you,” Jon shot back, with a heated gaze.  “I’m not
letting you out of my sight for a moment.”

Suddenly the tight knot of fear and worry that had settled
in Sofia’s stomach when she agreed that they change course to Memphis
vanished.  Suddenly she was looking forward to this excursion.

*****

In some ways
Memphis
reminded Sofia of
Transcendence
,
it seemed that the core hub, with multiple surrounding docking spokes was a
universal design.  However, that was where the similarity ended, Sofia could
just not wrap her head around the sheer
size
of the station.  Dozens and
dozens of hubs seemed to exist, and the various docking spokes seemed to have
become so intermeshed that Sofia could not see where one started and the other
ended. Jon’s description was fairly accurate that it was an entire city
floating in space.  This point was reinforced when docking control informed
them that all the public bays were currently occupied and that if they wished
to avoid a wait they would need to pay a fee for one of the private bays. 
Playing the part of an independent trader, Jon enquired about the docking fees
for a private bay.  Jon did not need to fake the shock and indignation in his
voice when he refused the offer after being told how much they cost.

“I could afford a brand new ship for that much,” Jon told
Sofia indignantly after shutting off the channel.

Sofia had to smother a laugh as once again Jon’s simple and
relatively poor background began to show through.  “I would be happy to chip in
to help you afford the docking fee if you would like?” she asked with a
brilliant smile.

Jon had no doubt that Sofia could afford to purchase most of
the station and still have change left over, but he shook his head, politely
declining the request.  “We need to stay in character anyway; no independent
trader would ever use a private berth.  We would destroy any profit that we
would make from the venture before we had even arrived.  Only wealthy
individuals or company owners ever use those berths, or visiting royalty of course…”
Jon snickered.  “We will wait, we are hardly in a rush.”

“In that case,” Sofia replied stretching, she had been in
the co-pilot seat for many hours and was very uncomfortable.  She noticed Jon’s
eyes immediately drawn to her bosom, quickly averting his gaze with an
endearing blush when he realised that she was watching him.  Sofia had to
suppress the wicked grin that she could feel threatening to escape.  Deciding
that now was a good a time as any, especially when she had Jon off balance she
stood up, and leaning back on the flight panel she looked Jon straight in the
eye.

“So are you going to tell me what has been bothering you
since we left Altair?”

“It’s…nothing” Jon replied, averting his gaze from Sofia. 
Infuriated Sofia stamped her foot in frustration.  Perhaps it would just be
easier to order him to tell her, Sofia mused.  Deciding that she did not want a
relationship like that, she instead settled her hand on his chest and softly
beseeched him.  “Please Jon, we promised that we would talk, no more secrets. 
What is it that is bothering you?  You have been unusually quiet, even for you,
ever since you had that private conversation with your parents before we
left.”  That conversation bothered Sofia almost as much as Jon’s subsequent
silence.  For the first time since she could remember, she had felt part of a
family
. 
Being excluded from the final goodbyes had hurt her painfully.

Recognising the pain and hurt in her eyes, Jon cursed
himself; he had been trying to spare her the worry and instead had just made it
worse!  “I didn’t want to tell you as I didn’t want you worrying,” Jon
explained softly, cupping her cheek with his hand.

Leaning into his gentle touch Sofia explained.  “It worries
me more when you are obviously unhappy and won’t tell me what the cause of the
problem is.”

“It’s…my parents.”

“Ryan?  Irene?”  Sofia asked confused.  “They seemed fine
when we left.”

“I am more worried about what will happen to them once we
have gone,” Jon explained.  “Harkov and his thugs are not going to stop looking
for us.  When your father elevated me to the Praetorians all records of my past
were destroyed.  It’s standard practice for us, so that nobody can dig into our
past and blackmail us against your father, however records
do exist
. 
Sooner or later Harkov is going to find my parents and then…”

Sofia gasped, as she had never considered the evil Harkov
could stoop to.  Sofia could not imagine the anguish that Jon would have to
face in choosing between his family and her; his duty to her father versus the
obvious love that he had for his family.  “What are we going to do?” she asked.

“I have already done it,” Jon replied looking away ashamed. 
“The reason I wanted to talk to them in private was so that I could warn them.
They have agreed to leave the house; they still have friends, colleagues in the
old neighbourhood
.  They will stay there for as long as necessary until
I can let them know that it’s safe.”

Sofia could not prise any more information from Jon or his
family about their original home, just that it was a small apartment, in one of
the more run-down, dangerous areas on Altair.  “They will be safe there?” 
Sofia inquired.

“Yes,” Jon replied firmly.  “They still observe the old
codes there, blood, loyalty, silence.  They will be safe there, protected and
if Harkov sends forces in after them…well, “ Jon shrugged.  “There will be a
dozen more unclaimed bodies that will turn up the next morning.  Harkov would
need to send an entire division to fight their way in to get them, he will not
spare the forces for that.”

“So what’s the real problem?”  Sofia asked perceptively.

“That I spent my life trying to get them out of that
hell-hole, now my actions have resulted in them having to go back there.  They
deserve better,” Jon insisted.

“Then you should never have taken me there.”

“No!”  Jon replied vehemently.  “It was the only place that
I could be absolutely sure that was safe, and we needed to get the
Eternal
Light
repaired.  Anyway,” Jon replied with an embarrassed smile.  “I wanted
them to meet you.”

Leaning forward, Sofia easily slipped her arms around his
neck, touching forehead to forehead.  It was so easy to forget how traditional
Jon was, his firm sense of honour and intimate sense of
right
; of course
Jon would want his parents to meet her… “And I am glad that I had the chance to
meet them,” Sofia insisted.  “Having met them I think I am beginning to
understand you a bit better,” she added.

“Really?”

“Really,” Sofia added leaning an inch closer so that their
lips could gently touch, almost immediately Sofia could feel the fire spreading
though her body.  Kissing Jon was like nothing she had ever experienced
before. 

Meanwhile Sofia promised herself that she would address the
problem with Jon’s parents.  No matter what happened to her, what decisions she
made that might affect the entire Empire, she would not forget that an empire
only consisted of its people.  Jon was right about one thing, his parents
deserved better; Sofia vowed to herself that they would get it.