Kayla sat at the table in her room, Corinth on one side, Rigger on the other, making stilted small talk with the agent while Corinth watched avidly.
“Sorry about … yesterday.”
Rigger smiled, easing some of Kayla’s tension at having the agent so near her il’haar.
“No harm.” Rigger waved her hand. “I’d be protective too.”
She seemed like she meant it.
“Corinth, is it?” Rigger looked to Kayla for confirmation. No use trying to hide Corinth’s name after she’d shouted it. Hopefully it was a common name in the empire. Rigger turned her attention to Corinth. She’d brought a datapad, some sort of device and a toolset with her. “I’ve been thinking about the holofield you generated on Altair Tri,” she said to Corinth, “the one that ran as background sensor trash. Thought maybe you’d like to reconfigure this more sophisticated holofield generator with me, see what we can get it to do.”
::Oooo. Kay, do you mind?::
Rigger’s tone held genuine interest and Corinth eyed the generator like a new toy.
“I’ll get dinner,” she said, trying not to cringe when Corinth slid closer to the agent and the offered electronics. The two were already absorbed in manipulating the field generator when she returned with food.
Kayla stayed with them while she ate, her mind consumed by a single question: who was Malkor? IDC, yes, a senior agent and an octet leader, but beyond that? Who was she working for, and just how deep did his involvement with the Ordochian coup go?
She’d had Corinth run a search for any information on him as soon as she’d gotten back from the meeting, to no avail. The ship lacked access to the imperial data stream while in hyperspace, and sensitive IDC documents weren’t stored in the starcruiser’s database. They’d have to wait until they reached Falanar to gain any insights. That didn’t mean the question didn’t sit heavily on her when she considered her new alliance, though.
Kayla sat near the engrossed Corinth and Rigger for a few more minutes, feeling like an unnecessary bodyguard, but once Corinth assured her—again—that he was fine and happy, she shifted into gear. She had survived the meeting with Isonde earlier and had gotten both a lesson on the political structure of the empire and a homework assignment.
Despite having an emperor, the Sakien Empire was ruled in large part by councils. The planets of the empire were divided into two groups of disparate size. The smaller of the two was the group called the Sovereign Planets. They were the original six planets that defined the empire at its founding, and the Sovereign Council was made up of their number exclusively. The Sovereign Planets were the most advanced, wealthy and powerful planets in the empire, and their council’s decisions dictated much of the goings on within the empire.
The Protectorate Planets were, on the other hand, only loosely confederated, made up of those planets added one by one to the empire as it expanded. The Protectorate Council ruled over matters between the Protectorate Planets, but had scant power to exercise change at the imperial level. The greatest power, however, lay with the Council of Seven. They had ultimate rule over the entire empire, and as the premier governing body decided the fate of the empire. The seven council seats were filled by, at anyone time: the current emperor and empress; the heir to the throne—in this case, Ardin—and his wife, the empress-apparent, who would be chosen at the Empress Game; two members of the Sovereign Council; and one member of the Protectorate Council. Each had one vote on any decision and the majority won.
With Ardin unmarried, his future wife’s seat was taken by a second member of the Protectorate Council. The Empress Game would mark a significant power shift in the Council of Seven.
Kayla drifted over to the complink. With all the talk of political structures and influential members of government today, she hadn’t had a chance to ask one of her biggest questions: why an Empress Game at all? In an empire ruled by an overlap of councils, why was one of the seats on the Council of Seven chosen by means of a hand-to-hand sparring tournament?
She accessed the ship’s databank, looking for answers. A thousand articles met her query for “Empress Game Origins,” but one came from a book titled, How the Wyrds Shaped Our Identity, so she started there.
Section 4: The Empress Game
Time and again we’ve seen how the Wyrds, in the short five months they spent in the empire before returning to isolation in Wyrd Space, influenced our traditions. Perhaps their largest contribution to imperial politics comes in the form of the Empress Game.
When the Wyrds first made contact with the empire generations ago, the then-emperor, Shazni Tirefel, became enamored with them, as did the rest of his court. Their culture, fashion, mannerisms and customs were studied to the last detail and anything “Wyrd” became the fad.
The emperor was especially impressed by the fighting prowess of the ro’haar among the group. The ro’haars competed against each other in friendly tournaments to demonstrate their skills and teach the empire something of ro’haar customs. In Wyrd Space these tournaments were common at festivals and holiday celebrations, and were often held when visiting foreign courts. It was a way for ro’haars to measure themselves, show off, trade techniques and earn acknowledgement for their skills.
The emperor was so in love with these strong, dedicated and deadly women that when his son Ghirit came of age, he passed an edict that the boy’s bride would be determined in the style of a ro’haar tournament. Considering that any female with a claim to power in the empire would be allowed to enter the tournament, the councils adopted the edict immediately. Everyone imagined their sister, niece or daughter winning and becoming the next empress.
The Empress Game has persisted since.
Imperials. Kayla shook her head at the idiocy. No wonder her people had decided relations with the empire were not worth pursuing and had cut ties. They were like children, aping something they didn’t understand.
She reached for the datapad Malkor had given her—crammed full of information on the influential citizens in the empire. She had to be ready to talk politics with as many of them as possible once they reached Falanar.
With Rigger’s quiet stream of one-way conversation as a background and the excited energy emanating from her il’haar lulling her to ease, Kayla settled into the chair for a long, boring night of biography reading.
* * *
Malkor paused in the bathroom, toothbrush halfway to his mouth, staring at the faucet unseeing. His earlier conversation with Isonde played in his head.
“The coup was the right call at the time and you know it, no matter your guilt now.”
He’d rather touch an energy conversion coil than examine his sense of guilt, or even worse, his role in the coup, but couldn’t get those words out of his head. They brought back a similar question raised by his superior, Commander Parrel, when they’d debated the IDC’s actions in the coup.
“If it had turned out successfully, if the Wyrds had agreed to create a counter-nanovirus for us once we’d taken over their planet, would you still feel guilty over what was done?”
Yes. Frutt yes.
… right?
Fizzled gel dripped from his mouth and he spat before finishing his tooth brushing.
Shadow had surprised him with her pointed questions about the coup. She wasn’t the first person to express a negative opinion of the empire’s handling of the Ordoch occupation, and was certainly not alone in her disapproval, but she was the first he’d met outside of the imperial elite who cared one way or the other. At least now he understood where some of her animosity toward the IDC came from. She might have—
A massive shock rippled through the walls and across the floor, staggering him. He fell to one knee, smashing his forehead on the edge of the sink.
“Frutting—” Another wave crashed through.
What the void? The fingers he pressed to his forehead came back bloodied but he pushed to his feet. He sprinted through the blackness of his cabin with one arm out, catching himself from slamming into his door by picometers. The portals of his room were vacant of the hyperspace glow. Two fumbling attempts at the doorpad opened neither the door nor a comm channel. He slid his hands along the wall, fingertips skimming for a seam.
Thank the stars for remnant mechanical systems.
He found the emergency panel, forced the pressure switch and reached inside the console for the manual door release. Yanking on the lever produced a split between his doors just wide enough to let in an eerie, pulsing blue glow. He pumped the lever again and they spread apart a few centimeters. Three more pumps exhausted the hydraulics of the system, leaving him with a twenty centimeter wide opening and the acrid taste of burning organoplastic.
“Malkor?”
Shadow’s voice came to him over the wailing of alarms.
“Malkor!” Her hands appeared against the edges of his door. He could barely make out her face in the spasmodic light. She managed to slip a shoulder inside, bracing herself against one door panel while she pushed against the other.
He stepped forward to help. “I’m here.”
Her eyes were huge in the dark as she assessed him, gaze flitting to his forehead before refocusing on the doors.
“I have no idea what happened,” she said. She looked fresh from bed in a sleeping tunic and bare feet, one kris strapped to her thigh.
“Is anyone else out yet?” She’d escaped her room before he’d managed to get his doors open. Impressive.
“I don’t know, I looked for you first.” She heaved and he braced a palm against the opposite door, together forcing the two panels apart.
“You all right?” they asked each other at the same time.
Corinth lurked behind her, gripping one of her kris still sheathed. The dagger looked more like a shield than a weapon in his hands.
“Malk?” Hekkar shouted from down the corridor. His second-in-command jogged up and Shadow sidled away.
“I’m good,” Malkor said. “Let’s check on the others.”
All around his octet fought through the frozen doors like divers searching for air. Janeen was already in the hallway, pulling at Vid’s doors, noticeably keeping her weight off one ankle.
“Gio?” he shouted. A mass of twisted wreckage marked Gio’s quarters and blocked the end of the hall. Flaring blue light crested over the pile, offering the only illumination amid the chaos. Various snapping, popping and sparking sounds emanated from beyond the destruction and smoke billowed down the corridor.
“Not sure he’s home, boss,” Hekkar said.
Shadow was yanking on the other side of Vid’s door so Malkor set himself to helping Trinan while Hekkar went for Rigger. Aronse, his last IDC agent, spilled into the hallway as they freed the others.
“What do you know?” Malkor asked.
Janeen replied from where she sat propped up against a bulkhead with Aronse examining her ankle. “Last I heard the hyperdrive was acting twitchy and the captain wanted to drop stream to cool it off.”
“Any idea whose space we’re in?” With so many other things going on he hadn’t followed their stream course.
“None.”
“I think we’re in the Mine Field,” Hekkar shouted.
Wonderful.
The Mine Field was dead space, the wreckage of a war long lost by both sides. It stretched in a void between the farthest Sovereign Planet and the closest Protectorate Planet. A freak exception to kinetic laws drew all of the hyperspace streams in the area through the point, and the same energy anomaly caused disruptions in hyperspace such that fifty percent of ships dropped stream there. Normally they’d have avoided this area of space altogether. Anyone deposited in the Mine Field would have to navigate through the scattered debris with a precision some ships just weren’t capable of, until they reached one edge of the field and had the jumping room for a hyperstream launch.
And then there were the rooks.
An explosion on the other side of the debris wall sent them all to the floor. The concussion subsided into an angry sizzle and another wave of the fumes of burnt organoplastic washed over them.
“We have to get to an undamaged section and find out what the void is going on,” he said.
The corridor dead-ended in a viewport but two maintenance shafts ran in opposite perpendiculars, opening at floor level. “Half and half,” he shouted. Better to split his team in case either escape became a death trap. Hekkar and Vid set to popping the panels off the openings.
Rigger approached. “If we can get to a section with emergency power I can tap into the ship’s systems and get a sense of the damage.”
“We’re gonna need Rigger to bypass the security if any of the crisis lockdown protocols are in place,” Hekkar said.
Shit. Both teams needed Rigger.
“We can do it.” Shadow crouched beneath the acrid smoke layer, pushing Corinth’s head down. “We can hack the systems. Hang on.” She left the boy long enough to sprint back into her room, then returned clutching a slim case. She gripped Corinth’s arm, clearly ready to spur him to motion.
Malkor didn’t want to send his whole team in the same direction in case things went to shit, but without Rigger…
“Trust me,” Shadow shouted.
Her confidence convinced him.
“Trinan, Vid, with me.” The rest scrambled to follow Hekkar’s lead as he dove into the other maintenance shaft. A shower of sparks illuminated Aronse helping the limping Janeen over, then they were all just silver outlines in the pulsing light. Before he could duck into the opposite tunnel, Shadow darted past him, Corinth in tow, and disappeared inside.
“Wait,” Malkor said.
Kayla ignored him and crawled into the tunnel. Corinth scampered in beside her, despite the passage being barely large enough for an imperial male. She didn’t have the damnedest idea where to go. It was doubtful Malkor had a greater understanding of starcruiser schematics than she did, though, and his debating their options wasn’t helping her get Corinth to safety. Who knew how much structural damage their wing had sustained, or when the smoke would kill them.
Away and down. That was her only plan as she crawled blindly. Corinth gripped at her with his mind, holding on like he might have clung to her hand if they weren’t crawling. She pressed on, hearing the others behind her. The textured surface of the passage met her palms as she passed one junction in an effort to gain more distance. When she came to a second, she reached for the rungs of the ladder that led to a lower level. Kayla descended quickly, Corinth all but stepping on her hands as he followed. She dropped two levels and hit the bottom of the shaft. Everything was darkness still and she led them farther down the next tunnel. A slow rumble started as no more than a tremor, then built to a jarring vibration through the floor and walls as they advanced.
Damnit.
::Kayla!::
I know, I know. Of course he couldn’t hear her. It was too late to turn back and find another junction. All they could do was press on into the worsening situation. They hit a branching finally and she chose left. Relief surged when she slammed into the dead end of the tunnel.
“Release is at the top,” Malkor said.
She heaved the hatch open and spilled into a corridor painted with a gray glow. Around a bend the promise of light beckoned even as another explosion sounded nearby. She took off at a run, hauling Corinth along. His unblocked fear buffeted her.
One hundred paces later they came face to face with a containment door sealing the corridor. The panel indicated it had enough reserve power to keep itself in lockdown, no more. She went for the panel but Malkor stopped her, one hand on the door. She pressed her hand to the metal—hot to the touch.
He glanced back the way they’d come. “No other choice.”
Malkor led the way back to the life or death gamble of the tunnel and they crawled inside. She lost track of time as they scurried down and away, aware only of her stinging knees and Corinth struggling to keep up as he crawled beside her. When the air heated and filled with the tang of smoke she was ready to take on anything rather than stay in what promised to become a tomb.
They dropped down several levels and landed in a tunnel that ended in a pressure-locked, heavy-construction door with a barely active panel beside it. Only the brief interruptions of light told her Malkor’s fingers worked on the panel, attempting exit.
“Damnit!” He slammed a palm against the door. Behind her Trinan and Vid cursed in similar frustration.
“Get out of the way.” She squeezed past Malkor, Corinth following. She retrieved the slim case she had jammed under the band holding a kris to her thigh and selected one of her tools. Prying the panel’s face off revealed a complex mass of circuits glowing beneath.
So. Slightly more complex than she’d expected. She studied the design, trying to identify the circuits controlling the locking mechanism. The others’ harsh breathing echoed in her ears.
Hmm… It might be that one. Or… it could be that… She reached out slowly.
::No.:: Corinth grabbed her hand. The dim light painted his face, lighting his wide eyes. His pupils darted back and forth, watching the flashing patterns.
::Here. This one.:: He pointed but she couldn’t differentiate his directions. Corinth took her tools before she could pass them. He delicately disrupted the flow of one circuit while he reached for a second tool to twitch the activation of another. She held her breath while he worked, time grinding by.
::Almost—:: Sparks flared. Corinth spasmed hard against the tunnel wall as the security door whooshed open. Kayla crawled out and tugged Corinth’s unconscious body from the shaft. Her fingers found a pulse in his throat as the others climbed out.
Malkor crouched beside her. “Is he—”
“Alive, I don’t know how bad.” She held Corinth to her.
Malkor’s voice was firm. “We have to keep moving. We can rest him someplace safe once we get to the powered sections of the ship and find out what’s going on.”
She nodded, rising to stand on stiff legs and heaving Corinth’s dead weight up. Without a word Malkor took him from her, hoisting her il’haar onto a shoulder and taking off down the corridor.
“He’ll be all right,” Vid said.
Her eyes were full of Corinth’s still form as she jogged after Malkor automatically.
* * *
Corinth hadn’t roused by the time they reached a fully powered section. Malkor handed Corinth to Trinan, who cradled him like a baby in his arms. Adrenaline’s burn-off bled the strength from Kayla’s body, and though she knew Corinth was her responsibility, she let the impressively muscled Trinan continue to hold him as if he weighed no more than a leaf.
The ship’s damage hadn’t been fully assessed, but conversations with the bridge crew and security team revealed fairly localized destruction. Several sections on multiple decks were still black though, and no one could account for the situation in those areas.
That was the least of their worries.
They’d dropped stream in the Mine Field and the rooks had already spotted them. The mechanized sentinels prowled in their direction. The ship was on frantic alert, trying to make their way to the edge of the Mine Field without appearing to be fleeing. Desperate movement, it was rumored, drew the rooks’ attention like an electromagnet.
More immediately, though, they were under attack. Two smaller ships that must have been lurking in the Mine Field dogged their retreat, taxing the starcruiser’s superior shields with an array of weaponry, some more effective than others.
“Hekkar’s team made it through all right, we’re rendezvousing at Ardin’s quarters, near the bridge,” Malkor said. He touched her shoulder. She’d been staring at the ruins of the ship’s medical station, useless to the still unconscious Corinth. “I don’t want to leave you here. You’ll be safest with the rest of us.”
The group started into a jog, heading down the corridor to the magchute that would bring them to Ardin’s floor.
“What kind of weaponry does the ship have?” she asked Malkor.
“Very little. It’s a private luxury vessel, not a gunship.”
“Ion cannons?”
He shook his head.
“Frag missiles?”
“A few.”
She huffed out a breath. “We could be in serious trouble.”
They made it to Ardin’s wing without further incident and met up with Ardin, Isonde, the rest of the IDC agents, including Gio, and half of the ship’s security force.
Trinan carried the still unconscious Corinth to one of the couches. Janeen sat nearby, her ankle elevated on a table and a frustrated look on her face. Kayla perched next to Corinth and rested her hand on his shoulder.
An open comm link to the bridge gave them a stream of information on the assault and their progress out of the Mine Field, and a debate arose.
“We have to stop running and fight those ships.”
“We don’t have the firepower for it.”
“If they manage to get microbolts through the shields in the aft we run the risk of losing the engines. We’ll be sitting ducks for the rooks.”
“Jumping a hyperstream is our best chance of escape.”
“If we take much more damage, we won’t be able to open a stream.”
“We could detonate a concussive charge off our bow, which might give us enough running time to make it to the edge of the field.”
“That’ll bring the rooks for sure.”
Whatever threat their attackers presented, it was agreed that any action that would further provoke the rooks was too risky.
Corinth stirred. He raised a shaky hand to his head in a semiconscious gesture to ward off pain. His eyelids peeled back slowly.
“I’m here,” she said, before he could panic.
::I know. You’d never leave me.:: His mind voice was groggy.
Conscious of Janeen watching them, Kayla kept her words short. “How do you feel?”
He flexed his hands, then shifted his legs and feet. ::I’m fine, just…:: He shook his head. ::Knocked me out, that’s all.::
She brushed a hand over his brow. “You did well.”
He smiled at that, looking up at her. ::So did you.:: She felt his pride.
Vid approached. “How is he?”
“Okay, I think.”
He looked over at Janeen. “How ’bout you? Aronse said she thought the ankle was broken.”
“Damn medstick’s useless on this. I’d be up and about in a stabilizer splint if we were planet-side.”
“Gonna have to heal the hard way.” He gave Janeen an apologetic smile. “Probably best Malk refused to give you the assignment after all.”
The look she shot Kayla said exactly which assignment Janeen had wanted.
Activity from the comm caught everyone’s attention when the ship rocked with another impact. Only the tangle of debris that made a maze of this quadrant saved them from an all-out assault by the other two ships. The captain directed a duck-and-weave course through the dangerous cover.
“The rooks have mobilized!” The transmitted shout brought silence to the room. She wrapped one arm around Corinth and pulled him closer.
The attacks on the ship ceased, the other two ships apparently trying to mimic the starcruiser’s flight path to screen themselves from the rooks, balancing stealth with speed as they shot for the edge of the field. One of the two ships dropped off radar, melting into the background sensor noise of the field. The other fled alongside as the rooks hopped space to reach them.
How the rooks made their attack, what happened and where the rest of the rooks were Kayla didn’t know. One minute Ardin’s whole starcruiser held its breath, the next everyone broke into shouting.
“The rooks got the other ship!”
“Oh shit, they tore it apart!”
“Hit the engines. Now! Everything!”
The starcruiser burst toward the edge, tore open a hyperstream and launched into it. Silence reigned for a heartbeat, then, cheering erupted.