The Last Praetorian (5 page)

*****

Arriving at the flight deck, Jon was aghast to find dozens
of cases piled high, all slowly being loaded onto the
Eternal Light
.  As
they were all marked with the Aurelius family crest Jon was willing to place
good money that they belonged to the Princess.  Already in a torrid mood
following his run in with the Commodore, Jon was in no mood to cater to the
whims of her royal pain-in-the-ass.

“Chief!” Jon bellowed towards the deck chief who was busy
supervising the final pre-flight checks for the ‘
Light
. 

“Commander?” He queried, hurrying over to Jon.

“What the hell is this?” He demanded motioning towards the
cases some piled three, four high.

“Princess Aurelius’ personal luggage,” the chief replied.  “She
ordered that it should all be loaded prior to your departure.”  He explained
apologetically, correctly deducing that the Commander was less than impressed
with the unwanted additional cargo.

“Dispose of it!” Jon snapped at the chief.  His expression
would have been comical had Jon been paying attention and not staring a hole at
the small mountain of cargo, as if by sheer force of will he could make the
small mountain vanish.

“Excuse me, sir?” The chief stuttered in disbelief, not
believing what the Commander just ordered. 

Turning his gaze back towards the deck chief, realising just
how his previous instructions could have been interpreted he clarified.  “Have
the Princess’s cargo transferred back to her personal quarters on my orders,”
he insisted.  Wondering why the deck chief seemed to be rooted to the spot, and
had not acknowledged his instructions, Jon followed his gaze across the bay to
the sight of the rapidly-approaching afore-mentioned Princess.  As the two
officers watched her approach, Jon had time to appreciate the much more
appropriate attire over the previous evening.  With her red hair pinned up,
with just a strand falling against her neck, which Jon suppressed the urge to
brush back, and a long flowing red gown that matched her hair she looked every
inch an Imperial Princess. 

Upon reaching the duo she pinned the chief with her imposing
stare and demanded to know.  “Chief, why is my luggage not loaded, I’ve been
informed,” she huffed at the word, “that we will be departing imminently.” 

Chief Reynolds looked towards Jon beseechingly and taking
pity on the deck chief, after all he was only following his orders responded.

“Your luggage will be following you at a later date,” Jon
replied in the most patronising tone of voice that he could muster.  “Capacity
constraints, I’m afraid your highness,” Jon’s voice rang with sincerity that
was mocked by the gaping cargo hold that was open behind him that could easily
contain twice the cargo that Sofia had ordered loaded. 

Her eyes narrowed in fury at the obvious barefaced lie from Jon
and was obviously about to let rip when a sly smirk came to her lips and
instead she replied, in a voice dripping with honey.  “Well I leave these sort
of considerations to fleet personnel, as I am sure that you will have no
objection to me being undressed during the trip… Commander.” She breathed
softly against Jon’s cheek as she glided past.  Picking up a smaller case from
the top of the pile she turned to the two speechless officers and explained.  
“My face-paints, after all if I am not going to have a thing to wear, a girl
needs to look her best.”  She offered both gentlemen a stunning smile, before
following the boarding ramp up into the shuttle. 

It was only with her back to Jon that he saw that what he
originally thought was a very demure gown possessed no back, with bare skin
showing from her neck, though miles of expansive back ending just above her
derrière. 

Once she disappeared into the ‘
Light
both men let out
an audible gulp. 

The chief was well connected with the fleet scuttlebutt and
like most had heard the rumours whirling around about Commander Radec and the
Emperor’s daughter, and like most had dismissed than as fantasy, but well… you
could power a reactor with the sort of sparks that those two were emitting.  He
cleared his throat again – which suddenly felt very dry.

“Not a word Patrick,” Jon ordered, “not a word.” He then
followed the Princess into the
Eternal Light
to prepare the shuttle for
departure.             

*****

With the shuttle pre-flight checks complete, Jon eased the
Eternal
Light
smoothly out of the flight deck into deep space.  Barely a few
kilometres from the
Imperial Star
the 58
^th
Squadron fell into
an escort formation around the lone shuttle, as Jon laid in a course for the
nearest FTL jump point for Eden Prime.  With the course laid in, a
communication window superimposed on the cockpit display lit up to display the
face of Lieutenant Elizabeth Zhang; Jon’s second-in-command of the 58
^th
Squadron.

“Morning Commander!” Elsie cheerfully exclaimed, “So I
understand that we have an extended babysitting duty for her
royal-highness-pain-in-the-ass?”  Jon frowned, glad that the Princess was back
in the VIP quarters and not in the cockpit to hear that less than flattering
description. 

Elsie had always been one of the most vocal members of the
squadron in terms of disparaging remarks against Sofia and Jon knew for a fact
that she was not Sofia’s favourite either.  He had long been varying the
Praetorian’s schedule to ensure that the two of them were not alone together,
after having to separate the pair after their last fight.   Shaking his head in
despair that he would never understand the inner workings of the female mind he
focused his thoughts back on the task at hand.

“A simple escort mission, nothing more Lieutenant,” Jon
clarified.  “We escort Princess Aurelius to Eden Prime, hand her over to Senate
security to take over her security detail then high-tail it back to the fleet; a
cake-walk,” Jon exclaimed confidently.

“Will you be returning with the squadron or remaining on
Eden Prime with the Princess?” Elsie inquired uncomfortably, refusing to meet
his gaze.

“My place is at the head of the Praetorian’s, at the side of
the Emperor,” Jon announced firmly. “I’ll be leading the 58
^th
back
from Eden Prime,” Jon insisted, wondering at the strange question.  Jon was not
sure if he imagined it or not but he thought he detected a slight blush on his
second-in-command as she nodded in understanding.

“Understood Commander,” she acknowledged “The Praetorian’s
will hold escort position until we reach safe FTL distance.  ETA twenty
minutes.” 

Jon acknowledged the response and cut the communications
link.  Leaning back in his chair, as the ship was now under computer guidance he
thought back to the unusual conversation with Elsie.  Jon had known for some
time that Elsie was developing a crush on him, however being her direct
superior he refused to acknowledge it.  Thinking back over the past few months
Jon came to realise that Elsie’s bad-attitude to Sofia coincided with the
increasing amount of time that he had been forced into spending with her.  Eyes
narrowing in sudden suspicion, Jon came to the conclusion that Elsie was
jealous of Sofia!  What with the increasing rumours that had been spreading
through the fleet about the Princess and himself Jon came to realise that it
would be good to have some separation from Sofia.  Jon had been, for a while,
unfairly holding Elsie back from promotion for his own selfish reasons.  Elsie
was long overdue her own squadron and at that point chain of command would no
longer be an issue...  Perhaps Elsie would help him overcome this emptiness
that Jon had discovered within himself when he was around Sofia.  Decision
made, Jon leant back to relax waiting for them to reach minimum FTL safe
distance from the star that the fleet had been orbiting.

*****

Jon was roused from his thoughts by an alert from the
communication system.  The fleet had suddenly started to broadcast on the
emergency channel, before going dead.  Mystified Jon checked the ship’s sensors,
which confirmed that all was fine.   The fleet, now many hundreds of kilometres
astern was continuing to orbit the distant star, with no other ships or objects
detected on the scanner.  So why the sudden broadcast on the emergency
channel?  Assuming it was just an accident, Jon opened communications to the
flagship, the
Imperial Star
… to which there was no response.  Even more
confused now, the Commander instructed the ship to run a self-diagnostic of the
communication systems. All of which was working fine. 

Another communication channel opened up from Elsie.
“Commander, we have lost contact with the fleet,” she reported in an equally
bewildered tone.

“Hold position here until we can re-establish
communication,” Jon ordered as the door to the flight deck slid-open to reveal
Sofia.  Jon noticed Elsie’s gaze flicker to Sofia, for an instant, before
darting back to Jon’s.

“Acknowledged sir, squadron will hold formation at this
position until we re-establish fleet communication.”  Turning away from the
communication channel Jon noticed Sofia’s gaze fixed stonily on the now blank
communication monitor. 

For God’s sake, get over it you two!
Jon thought to
himself before inquiring of Sofia.  “Something I can do for you, Princess?”

“I’ve lost our data-link with the
Imperial Star
,” she
explained, “I was reviewing the current makeup of the Senate when the data-link
dropped out and I cannot re-establish it…” Jon checked the communication system
again which still reported that all data-links with the fleet were still down. 
Bringing Sofia up-to-speed on the current situation he explained that if they
could not re-establish communication they would return to the fleet to
determine the cause of the communication failure.  However, the explanation was
suddenly cut short by a communication from the
Imperial Star
. 

“Finally!” Jon exclaimed stabbing the control to open the
channel, ready to demand an explanation for the inexplicable loss of communications.
 However, Jon’s demand for an explanation died in his throat when the face of
Commodore Harkov appeared, unsuccessfully trying to suppress a smirk on his
face.

“Commander,” he started without any preamble “we have a
situation here
,
there has been an unsuccessful coup attempt on the
Imperial
Star
, we have now regained control of the ship but there have
been…casualties.”  Shifting his focus to Sofia he continued.  “Princess
Aurelius, I have to regrettably inform you that your father, Emperor Marcus
Aurelius was killed by the traitors during the attempted coup.”

Jon’s blood ran cold upon hearing this news. He had failed
his master in the most grievous way possible.  The sudden short gasp next to
him reminded Jon that Sofia was far more affected, a daughter who had just lost
her father.  Glancing up at Sofia he noticed that her face had turned an ashen
pale and she wavered on her feet for an instant.  Grabbing her arm in a firm
grip he helped lower her towards the empty co-pilot seat next to him.  Jon’s
thoughts meanwhile were in a whirl… When? What? How?  However, his thoughts
were interrupted by the Commodore’s next instruction, which made the hair on
the nape of his neck rise in alarm. “Commander, I am ordering you and your
squadron to escort Princess Aurelius back to the
Imperial Star
until we
have a better handle on the situation.”

You cannot be serious!

To return Sofia to the ship where her father had just been
murdered?  The security around Sofia’s father, Emperor Aurelius was
impenetrable.  Jon should know, having spent most of the past few years as head
of the Praetorians personally overseeing his personal security.  Multiple layers
of security ringed the Emperor; it would take somebody with extremely high rank
to be able to have penetrated all of them.  Suddenly Jon’s heart froze, as if
somebody had clamped a fist around it.  Staring into the face of the Commodore,
who was unsuccessfully trying to suppress his smirk, the face of somebody
extremely self-satisfied.  Jon knew with absolute certainty the Commodore was
behind this plot.  Jon had always known that the man was a liar and cheat who
hungered for power, but to move against the Emperor himself?  Treason!  Jon
gripped the hilt of the sword at his side until his hand turned white… He
should have cut off this serpent’s head when he had the opportunity… glancing
at the glazed face of Sofia, he knew that he was too late and she now had to
live with the consequences of his mistake. 

Knowing that he would never give-up Sofia into the hands of
this lunatic, Jon replied firmly.  “The Emperor’s final command to me was that Princess
Aurelius was to be escorted safely to Eden Prime; as nobody has the authority
to override that command, I will continue to carry out my duty.” 

The smirk on the face of Harkov’s face slipped slightly into
a snarl as he once again ordered.  “Commander, I now have ultimate authority
for this fleet and I am ordering you to turn your squadron around and proceed
at best possible speed to the
Imperial Star
and hand-over Princess
Aurelius into my personal protection.” 

Jon almost had to laugh at the order, hand over Sofia into
the arms of this traitor… he would sooner fall on his own sword.  Instead he
simply replied, “The Emperor’s final order stands, Princess Aurelius will be
escorted to Eden Prime where she will be placed under the protection of the
Imperial Senate.”  Jon was expecting the Commodore to bluster and threaten as
usual but instead he just sneered.

“So noted Commander, I’ll enter it into the fleet log that
at this time you refused a direct command from the Fleet Commander to return
your squadron to the flagship.”  With that the communication was once again
cut-off.