Smugger's Virtue (Lathos Galaxy Chronicles Book 2) (4 page)

Maxall Torin looked out the window of his office at a rare sight. The sky over Aberdine was clear enough for the sun to come streaming through. The chancellor looked out at the jumble of buildings and vehicles flitting about. The bright sun would normally bring him some pleasure, but the only thing that would do that now was seeing his daughter before him, back on Lathonian soil.

He hadn’t slept at all since being given the news that that strange man had somehow managed to get Xandra away from the party, through the streets of Aberdine, and onto his ship without any help. Not only that, but there had been no ransom demand. It was possible that Kellenar had caught up with the man and thwarted his plan, but the whole thing seemed odd.

Maxall thought about his top general as well. There was a time when they were friends. During the civil war to unite Lathos they had served together and had shared the same vision. Even back then Maxall had heard rumors that Kellenar Ragen wanted to be Chancellor. There were still rumors saying that, and too many for there to not be some substance to them.

Kellenar had always been ambitious. That was part of what made him such a good military leader. It wasn’t that much of a stretch to think that his appetite now included not just leading the military, but ruling all of Lathos. Maxall didn’t want to believe the man would use an incident such as the kidnapping of Xandra to his advantage, but maybe that was just sentiment talking.

Kellenar was not only a great general, but a charismatic man as well. Maxall had been given reports that many of the soldiers were loyal to the general first and to Lathos second. If that were true, and Maxall didn’t find it difficult to believe that it was, then he could have a problem.

Maxall was a political figure, and by definition that made him less popular with the soldiers than a general the likes of Kellenar. The general public, on the other hand, loved him. Lathos may not be a bright, shining utopia, but his economic policies and trade agreements with other planets had made most of them prosperous. If he was assassinated and the evidence showed that Kellenar Ragen had done it in an attempted power grab, the public wouldn’t stand for it.

It was also true that, because of the way Maxall Torin had structured the government, when he left office Xandra would be next in line for the chancellorship. Whether he resigned or died in office didn’t matter. Xandra would take his position. Even Kellenar wasn’t popular enough to get away with killing them both. Maybe now he wouldn’t have to.

If Xandra were to die after being abducted, then Kellenar could pin the blame on this outsider, whether the man actually was responsible or not. Then if he were to find a way to make Maxall’s death look like an accident or natural causes, he could use his own popularity with his troops to get himself installed as chancellor.

Maxall glanced back out the window. The clouds had returned and the bright sun was once again obscured. Maxall’s own mind felt as clouded as the sky over the Lathonian capital city. He wished he knew more about Kellenar Ragen and his intentions. He also wished he knew who this stranger was and why he took Xandra away without any demands or explanation. What he wished most of all was that he had his daughter back.

They had grown steadily further apart as she grew older. Xandra’s mother had died during childbirth, so for her entire life it had only been the two of them. When she was a child, he had been larger than life to her. Everything he said was genius and every move he made was brilliant. At some point, and Maxall was never sure exactly when, that had all changed. Xandra became distant and moody. When she went away to college, their communication all but ceased and would have entirely if he hadn’t kept in contact with her.

For a moment Maxall even entertained the thought that Xandra had left with this man of her own volition instead of being abducted. He couldn’t fully bring himself to believe that, though. It was just too much to think that she would leave everything she knew, including her father, to run off with a man like that.

Maxall sat back at his desk and decided the only thing for him to do right now was to control the things he still could. He had to take things one step at a time. Once Xandra was safely returned, he could ask her about what happened. Whatever her response was, he felt he could deal with it. Afterwards he would find a way to repair their relationship, and then he would decide what to do about Kellenar. The first step was bringing his daughter back. He turned to his communications panel and pressed the button that opened his direct channel to the general. In seconds the man appeared on the view screen.

"Chancellor, I have nothing new to report since the last time we spoke."

"I’m not looking for an update, Kellenar," Maxall informed the general. "I’m contacting you to let you know I’m sending my personal transport to meet you. The ship is faster than yours and well armed. You will have Xandra ready to be transferred when it gets there."

"Chancellor, there is no need to do that. Our repairs are almost complete and we should be underway shortly."

"If my daughter is as badly injured as you say, then time is of the essence. My ship is coming for her and that is my final word."

"As you wish, Chancellor," said Kellenar, but Maxall knew the man well enough to detect the frustration in his voice. "Since it is your personal ship, I assume you will be onboard as well."

"Unfortunately, no," said Maxall. "I have meetings that I cannot reschedule or cancel. Please have Xandra ready to go when my ship arrives."

"You have my word," said Kellenar. Maxall had intended to be on the ship when it went for his daughter, but something in his old friend’s tone and the look in his eye told Maxall that was a bad idea. If the general did plan to eliminate him, he wasn’t going to make it that easy. Maxall couldn’t shake the feeling that he had made a grave mistake in trusting Kellenar with his daughter’s life. He only hoped it wasn’t too late.

Kellenar Ragen was getting tired of things not going as he had planned. First there was the issue with the mystery man, this strange human, somehow returning from the dead and taking the chancellor’s daughter off his ship. That the security footage showed she seemed to be going of her own free will was also unexpected, but at least easier to deal with. Now Maxall had all of a sudden decided to send his own ship to bring his daughter back home.

Kellenar would never have given the girl up at this point anyway, but the fact that he didn’t have her made it impossible. He had hoped that the chancellor would be on the transport when it arrived. Then he could simply destroy the ship and blame it on the man Xandra Torin was currently traveling with. He would still have to hunt down Xandra and this man and put an end to them as well, but that had always been the plan anyway. Then, not only would both people standing in his way have been eliminated, but he would be viewed as a hero on Lathos for killing the man who had assassinated Chancellor Torin and his lovely heir.

"We need to prepare for the arrival of Chancellor Torin’s personal transport," Kellenar said to Captain Alton Beneer, his personal chief of security. Alton was a few years younger than Kellenar. He was still in good shape, but his salt and pepper hair and the wrinkles that were already starting to crease his face were telltale signs of the stressful life this career military man had led. Kellenar considered Alton Beneer to be one of his most loyal and trusted allies. "The ship is coming to take Xandra Torin back to Lathos."

"That’s going to be a bit difficult," the captain pointed out, "unless you have a way of producing her in the next few hours."

"I don’t," Kellenar admitted, "which is why that ship can’t be allowed to return to Lathos. I want it destroyed on sight."

"Will the Chancellor be onboard?"

"Unfortunately not," said Kellenar.

"Then with all due respect, sir, you’re ordering me to kill innocent Lathonians for no reason. I want you as chancellor, and if Maxall Torin was on the ship I would call the other deaths collateral damage, but that isn’t the case."

"The captain and crew of that ship are loyal to Maxall Torin. If they return and inform the chancellor that I don’t have his daughter, he’ll want to know how I let one man take her off my ship," Kellenar explained calmly. "If, on the other hand, I contact him and tell him the man who took his daughter appeared and took her off the transport and then destroyed it afterwards, then we keep the man’s trust. Not only that, but I can then use the full weight of the military to find this man wherever he is hiding."

"I see your point," said Captain Beneer, but Kellenar was sure he still heard doubt in the man’s voice. As long as he carried out his orders, that was all that mattered. The captain left, and just after he did Kellenar received a report that the propulsion system had been repaired. He wanted badly to get underway, but his crew had informed him that the ship they were after would be easy enough to track. It was a much faster ship so they couldn’t predict when they would catch up to it, but they assured Kellenar that, while the man might be able to run, he wouldn’t be able to hide forever.

While he waited for the chancellor’s transport to arrive, Kellenar reviewed the security footage again. There was no doubt that Xandra Torin wasn’t a hostage. She knew this man and was eager to go with him. While he wasn’t an expert in such matters, Kellenar thought that maybe the way the two of them looked at each other suggested some sort of romantic connection. If that was the case, then it could be that he didn’t need to waste his time going after the girl. She may follow this man into whatever dark hole he chooses to hide in and never reemerge.

The problem was that he couldn’t count on that. If he returned to Lathos and told everyone that Xandra Torin was dead, and then she suddenly decided to reappear, it could look bad for him. Worse, even if he was firmly entrenched as Chancellor after the tragic death of her father, there could be sentiment from the public that he be removed and Xandra Torin be installed as supreme leader of Lathos.

The most prudent thing for him to do was to stick to the current plan. He would hunt down these two and eliminate them, then return to Lathos and give the sad news to her father that his daughter had been killed by this outsider and that Kellenar and his troops had killed the enemy of Lathos in a violent battle. Then, when it appeared that the grief-stricken Maxall Torin died of natural causes from the stress of losing his only child, Kellenar would swoop in and claim the title of Chancellor for himself.

An hour or so later the communications officer informed the general that Chancellor Torin’s personal transport had arrived and was requesting landing instructions. Kellenar turned on his view screen that showed the ship waiting just aft of them for the energy shield to come down. He called Captain Beneer and gave the order to fire. Kellenar then watched with no emotion as the unsuspecting transport ship was destroyed in a massive explosion. After receiving the report of the sensor scan and being satisfied that there were no survivors, Kellenar went to his communications console and made two calls. The first was to Chancellor Torin to inform him that his transport had been destroyed shortly after Xandra had been transferred and that the man responsible was the same one who had kidnapped her on Lathos. The man now had her again and Kellenar assured the Chancellor that they would find the man at all costs.

The second person the general contacted was General Brylar Belin. "General, I want you to mobilize the third fighter wing and the destroyer fleet as well. We have a dangerous fugitive to hunt down and I want to make sure he doesn’t escape again."

Further across the galaxy, Matt Britton sat at Xandra Torin’s bedside and held her hand. He had been pushing his engines to their limit and, as much as he wanted to reach their destination quickly, he knew that if he burned out his propulsion system, that was never going to happen. So he cut his speed back to three quarters, which was still enough to keep ahead of Kellenar Ragen’s ship if it came after him, and went to check on Xandra.

The thought that the general might decide not to follow them wasn’t one that Matt entertained for too long. The information given to him by Ilyea Kurt and the medical attendant on Ragen’s own ship all pointed to the man not only wanting Xandra, but wanting her dead. The information from the bio-scan that Matt performed on Xandra led him to believe that the man might just get his wish.

While all of her external wounds were healing nicely, the internal bleeding hadn’t stopped. Matt knew there was nothing he could do about that. Xandra needed a doctor, and she needed one soon. Because of that, Matt had considered abandoning the plan he’d constructed when he and Xandra had escaped Kellenar’s ship. At that time he made the bold decision to take Xandra back to Earth.

In many ways it made sense. Earth had the most advanced medical facilities and the best doctors in the galaxy. Even though Xandra wasn’t human and Lathos wasn’t a planet that had any contact with his home world, their experience treating many alien races combined with the fact that Lathonian physiology was nearly identical to humans led Matt to believe he was making the right choice.

There were likely to be other worlds much closer that had far more experience with treating Lathonians, but Matt also figured that by now they all were aware of him and most likely knew who Xandra was. If he stopped on any of those worlds, it was likely that he would be arrested and Xandra would be returned to Lathos. That would be acceptable to Matt if he could be sure that anyone other than Kellenar Ragen would be the one to come after them.

Matt had long lived by a simple code that stated he covered his own ass first and foremost. Helping others was okay, as long as it wasn’t at the expense of his well-being. Xandra had changed all that. While their time together had been far from perfect, it was still enough for him to fall in love with her. He never knew what that meant until it happened, but now that it had, he found himself thinking more about her needs than his own. Far from being strange and unsettling, Matt found it to feel natural and comforting.

That was why the other problem with returning to Earth didn’t factor into Matt’s decision at all. In his early days as a smuggler, he had built a reputation on his home planet, and it wasn’t a good one. That he was Roger Britton’s son may have bought him some goodwill in the beginning, but that was a long time past. The last information Matt had received was that if he ever set foot on Earth again or even so much as entered their solar system, he would be arrested and tried for his crimes, which now included evading the authorities.

Matt had no doubt that the benevolent nature of his race would mean that they would take care of Xandra without asking any questions, and that once she was fully recovered she would be able to explain to them about Kellenar Ragen and request asylum. Then she would also find out that Matt had been deceiving her from the start about pretty much everything. He held no illusion that she would be able to forgive him and continue to love him after that, but since he was going to be spending at least the next few decades in prison that hardly mattered.

The thing was that he still had to get her there. At top speed it was still going to take two more days to reach Earth, and he knew he would have to cut back from time to time to save his engines. If things went well, it would still take three days to reach their destination.

Smuggling was a dangerous occupation, and Matt made sure to keep medical supplies onboard. He had a device that could heal even severe cuts and could treat up to third degree burns. He had another device that could set broken bones and could even accelerate the healing process. He had used them to treat what he could, and the wound on her head had disappeared so completely that it hadn’t even left a scar. Her other minor cuts and bruises were gone as well, but the bio-scans kept showing that she still had internal bleeding, and according to his diagnostic computer the only way to treat that was through surgery.

Some of the internal wounds did seem to heal on their own, and at first that gave Matt hope that the others would as well. As time passed and that hadn’t happened, he realized that she was going to need a doctor to go in and take care of it.

He went back up to the cockpit long enough to ensure they were still on course and to check on the engines. They had come further than he had realized and Matt found himself looking at stars he hadn’t seen in years. He only took a minute to admire them, however. After verifying that the engines had returned to normal operating levels, he pushed the throttle all the way forward once again and went back to the lower deck to be with Xandra.

All of sudden he felt extremely tired, so he crawled in bed beside her. He smiled at how peaceful she looked. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought that she was about to jump up and beg him to take her on another adventure. Matt grinned sadly at that thought, because it suddenly came to him that his days of adventure were at an end. "Well," he said to the beautiful woman next to him, "at least you made my last adventure my best." He leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips. Minutes later he drifted off to sleep.

Matt didn’t know how long he had slept. While he did, his dreams were of Xandra. He dreamed about the night they spent together in the abandoned warehouse just outside Aberdine on Lathos, and about the night they made love there onboard his ship.

He dreamed of the future as well. In that dream Xandra was happy and healthy and still in love with him. They were back on Lathos, but even the dreary, overcast sky couldn’t do anything to destroy how wonderful it felt to be there with the woman he loved. It was just a dream though, and a fantasy as well. None of that had happened and was never going to, but it felt good even so. Dreams have to end, and Matt’s did as well. He woke to find Xandra smiling down at him and running her fingers through his mop of curly black hair.

At first Matt didn’t even realize he was awake. Everything felt too perfect. He assumed what he was experiencing was simply one dream ending and another beginning, just as had happened a couple of times already. It wasn’t until she spoke that he knew he was actually awake, and so was she.

"I was wondering how long you were going to sleep," she said with a smile, her gray eyes taking him in.

"Xandra, you’re awake!" he said, sitting up and gripping her shoulders. He definitely wasn’t dreaming. "How do you feel?"

"Better," she said, "but I’m still weak. I think I need to eat something. You wouldn’t have any of that, what did you call it? You wouldn’t have any of that chocolate left, would you?"

"Wait right here," he said with a smile. He went back up to the main deck and returned with some chocolate, along with food for a proper meal. While she ate, he gave her another bio-scan. He was disappointed to find that while much of the internal bleeding had stopped, that wasn’t entirely the case. The diagnostic scanner confirmed that she would still need surgery. He decided to wait to break it to her until after she finished eating.

"Roger, I have to say that was the best meal I ever had," she said with a smile. Even though she still looked pale from the internal bleeding, Matt still thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. It was at hearing his father’s name that he remembered his vow.

"Xandra, I have a couple of things to tell you," he said, the smile disappearing from his face.

"You can tell me anything," she said. Matt took a deep breath and tried to steel his courage. "It’s okay," she said with a smile as she leaned back against the pillows. She was still weak and Matt had insisted she remain in bed even while she ate. Matt could tell that the meal hadn’t done as much as he had hoped to build her strength, but he knew he needed to get everything off his chest.

"First of all, it looks like you’re still bleeding inside. You’re going to need surgery, and soon. Since I’m not sure who we can trust, I’m taking you back to Earth. They have great doctors there and if anyone can help you, they can."

"That’s perfect, Roger," she said, her voice sounding weaker with every utterance. "I really want to see your home. I’ll bet it’s beautiful."

"The other thing I need to tell you is that my name isn’t Roger." He paused for a moment to let it sink in. Matt couldn’t tell if the look of discomfort on her face was due to her condition or what he had just admitted, but he knew he had no choice but to continue.

"Roger Britton is my father. All the things I told you about being in the Planetary Defense Force and being decorated for bravery is all true, but it happened to my father and not to me. My name is Matt and I’m nothing but a smuggler. The night I met you I had just come to Lathos to look for my next job." Xandra closed her eyes and hugged her stomach. Matt still wasn’t sure if she was reacting to his admission or her own condition, but he was worried all the same.

"Don’t we make quite a pair?" she said quietly as she opened her eyes. Matt could tell it took a bit of an effort to do so. "Not only are we both liars, but the lies we told brought us to right where we are. I have no doubt that if I had told you who my father was, you never would have even considered letting me go with you when you left Lathos."

"Probably not," he said softly. He suddenly found it hard to look her in the eyes.

"You have to be thinking that if you had told me the truth when we first met, I would have shot you down just like every other guy who spoke to me that night."

"Yeah, I’d say something like that," he grinned.

"That’s probably what would have happened. So, if either of us had been truthful, I’d be back on Lathos being bored out of my skull by my classes and the prospect of being groomed for a job I don’t want, and you’d be off somewhere smuggling stolen merchandise for someone. The problem with all of that is that I’ve fallen in love with you," she said, turning to look at him and squeezing his hand.

"I love you too," he said and kissed her passionately.

"Then let’s get me to Earth so I can get better, and then we can start our new lives together," she said when their lips parted.

"About that," he said, turning away from her.

"This is supposed to be the part where we’re totally honest with each other," she told him. "Don’t ruin the moment."

"I’m going to be honest," he assured her, "but I think I’m going to ruin the moment we’ve been having, too. When we get to Earth I’m going to be arrested. I don’t know how long I’m going to be in jail, but it won’t be a short stay."

"Then we’ll go someplace else," she said. "There has to be other worlds with doctors."

"My first goal was to get far enough from Lathos so that no one knows you or that General Ragen is searching for you. I think I’ve accomplished that, but now that means that the best doctors we could hope to find are on Earth. Lathos physiology is unknown in this sector, so I don’t feel comfortable having you in the hands of anyone but the best. Even if that weren’t the case, we’d have a hard time finding a place where there isn’t a price on my head. Earth will probably treat me a little better because I’m Roger Britton’s son."

"You must be one hell of a smuggler," she deadpanned.

"I like to think so."

"Well, then I guess Earth it is," she said. "But once I’m healed, I’m returning to Lathos to talk to my father. Once he knows that you’ve been helping me, then maybe he can do something to help. Lathos and Earth may not be allies, but I’m sure your government won’t ignore the request of another head of state."

"Xandra, it’s too dangerous," Matt insisted. "Ragen wants your father’s job, and to ensure that he gets it he needs you dead, too. If you go back, there’s a good chance he’ll get to you first."

"You’ve been risking your life for me from the start," she said. "How can I not do the same for you?"

"I’m asking you not to do that. We don’t have to figure all of this out now. The first thing we need to do is get you taken care of." Before Xandra could object, Matt heard his proximity alarm sounding. Confused, he looked over at the chronometer next to the bed. He was shocked to see that he had been asleep for almost twenty-four hours. He had clearly been more exhausted than he had realized. "Wait here," he said, then went back to the main deck.

"Okay, here’s where we stand," he said after coming back a few minutes later. "I fell asleep and pushed the engines harder than I should have, and they overheated. In the process I got us close enough to Earth space that I was able to contact the PDF. They’re sending a ship to meet us now. It should reach us in less than an hour."

"What does that mean for you?" she asked.

"What it means for you is that you will get the surgery you need. You’re going to be fine. As for me, it’s just as I said. I’m going to be arrested and I’m going to have to stand trial."

Xandra didn’t say a word. She just cried on Matt’s shoulder as he held her in his arms. He was relieved to know that she was going to be safe. To Matt, that was what was most important. An hour later he was kissing her just before the doctor on the Planetary Defense Force vessel took her away to perform surgery and he was taken to the brig.