Wrath of Axia (The Arcadian Jihad) (17 page)

“No, I am not. I have come to discuss mutually agreeable terms that will satisfy you enough to call off this,” he waved at the troops and armor. “This rabble. I want a talk between gentlemen, not a shouting match with savages. Perhaps you and I could have a quiet word, leader to leader. It will be to your advantage. I have huge balances in my off-planet accounts.”

Berg chuckled. “I think not, Governor. You have nothing to offer me that I want.”

The Governor puffed up his substantial chest. “You are wrong, Mr. Smetana. I could make you a very wealthy man.”

“You’re finished,” Berg said icily. “Everything you own is confiscated. You have no wealth. You will be stripped of all of your titles and positions as well. If you persist in fighting against the legitimate President of the Nine Systems, I will see you be tried for treason.”

The man went red with righteous anger, and he started to shout at Berg when he caught sight of Xerxes Tell. He turned ashen.

“Mr. President, Sir, I didn’t realize.”

Tell held his hand up for the man to stop. “Governor, it is said that, ‘all truths are easy to understand once they are discovered, the point is to discover them’. You have now discovered the truth, and I strongly urge you not to try to prolong the bloodshed. Mr. Smetana has made it so eloquently clear, so to continue now would be to commit treason. The choice is yours, for you are still under flag of truce.”

The Governor only needed a few seconds to work out that his reign over Cadmus was over. The best he could hope for would be mercy, to keep his life. His shoulders slumped. It was articulate as any declaration of surrender. He signaled to the city, and the gates opened and Smetana’s men flooded in. They had conquered their first planet.

System Standard 2734.1640 Battlecruiser Sword of Axia in orbit above Cadmus

“Signal coming in from Axis Nova, Sir. It’s encoded, so I’ve copied it to your terminal.”

Rad Bose hurried down to his cabin. He read the signal and chuckled. It was all the confirmation he needed. He returned to the bridge and switched on the ship’s broadcast system.

“Men and women of the Sword of Axia, I have received a message from President Bartok. He has sent part of his personal fleet to reinforce our ships. Our mission is to destroy these traitors, and finish them forever. Go to your battle stations. Our fleet is about to attack the Rex Salis as it has been seized by pirates who are conspiring with the enemy. When we have completed our task we will land on Cadmus and destroy this rebellion. That is all, prepare for action.”

He smiled as he clicked of the broadcast system. They’d hit the rebel scum like a bolt of lightning, and once the reinforcements arrived he could hit them with massive and overwhelming force. Even as he was anticipating his moment of triumph, the watch officer shouted that the President’s ships were approaching planetary orbit. He called for his First Officer.

“Mr. Deckermann, are we closed up ready for action?”

“All stations manned and ready, Sir.”

The comms officer called out, “Signal from the new ships, Sir. They’re ready for immediate action.”

“Good. Weapons officer, blast the rebel ship out of space!”

Every man on the bridge looked around aghast. Why was he not offering them a chance to surrender? The enemy ship did not threaten them. This was, well, tantamount to murder.

“Did you hear me, Mister?” Bose shouted. “I told you to fire on the Rex Salis. Do it now or I’ll have you removed!”

“Sorry, Sir. Right away. All main batteries, fire on my order. You know your targets. Fire!”

The beams licked out and smashed against the shields of the Rex Salis. Their shields didn’t hold as the ships were running too close to each other. Rafe Glen had understood that they were in talks with Bose’s flagship, and foolishly he hadn’t expected the enemy’s deceit. The salvos blasted great holes in the Rex Salis’ hull. Nothing could protect it from one of the most heavily armed and armored warships in the fleet. Especially when they were not expecting it, and had stood down from General Quarters. Every crewmen on the Sword of Axia, save for Rad Bose, privately shuddered as they felt the power of the point blank salvo, knowing what it would do to the other ship. On the bridge, Bose watched the main screen and saw the catastrophic damage his salvo had done. But he stopped gloating and flinched as they returned fire and a salvo struck his ship. The crew was thrown off their feet. It was astonishing. How could they take a hit like that and be able to return fire? But even as Bose was shouting for his weapons officer to fire again and the helmsman to take evasive action, the ships of the President’s fleet from Axis Nova surged in towards the stricken Battlecruiser. A score of ships fired as one a massive salvo that at close range was impossible to withstand. To their astonishment the Rex Salis disintegrated. The warship imploded in on itself in a huge tangle of plasteel, engines, atomics, fusion drives and most of all, the bodies. There were hundreds of them. It was terrible to watch human flesh tumble through space. Some of the bodies were still whole, still alive, gasping out their last breath. Rad Bose did not see the human agony and destruction, for he saw something beautiful and poetic. He called to his bridge crew.

“Look at it, all of you. Isn’t it wonderful? It’s almost like a ballet, no, a grand, tragic opera. Sheer poetry. Sensor operator, make sure you get plenty of images. I’ll have an oil painting made of this and hang it on the wall of my cabin. It’s breathtaking.”

He ducked instinctively as a large piece of debris hit the lens that was sending the pictures to the viewscreen. The crew recognized it as a human body, broken and bloody. Bose’s smile widened even more. As he walked off his bridge to return to his cabin, his crew heard him say a final word.

“Poetry!”

They exchanged glances with each other.

System Standard 2734.1641 Settler City Spaceport, Planet Cadmus

Darkness was falling on Settler City as Cadmus spun slowly in orbit around its sun. The pyrotechnics two hundred miles away were brilliant, and they looked up but Blas whirled around as Evelyn cried out in pain.

“What is it, are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “No, no, I am not hurt. There has been a catastrophe. I felt hundreds of minds scream out in pain. Constantine, I’m very much afraid they’ve destroyed the Rex Salis, Rafe Glen’s ship.”

“Are you certain?”

She nodded. “Look at those lights in the sky! It could only be the molten debris from a large warship. It’s Rafe.”

Blas called Rusal and Smetana over to where Evelyn stood, still shivering with shock. She repeated what she had experienced.

“Have you tried to contact Rafe?” Rusal asked.

Blas nodded. “We’ve been trying for several minutes. I fear that…oh, my God!”

Warships were landing at the spaceport. They recognized the huge, Heavy Battlecruiser as the Sword of Axia slowly dropped down towards a landing on the far side of the spaceport.

“That’s Rad Bose’s flagship. I’ve seen it too many times to make a mistake. Evelyn is right. Rafe would never have let them get past him, so they must be dead and the ship destroyed.”

They watched the Sword of Axia settle to the landing pad. It was next to the Nebula, their only chance of escaping from Cadmus. They felt a black despair enshroud them. The rebellion was finished almost before it had started.

Berg snorted. He was too old a hand to let a setback overwhelm him. He started shouting orders for his crews to take to the boats and return to Arta City. Their attack was finished, and they faced annihilation if they waited any longer. The Sword of Axia with the rest of its warships, troops and guns was too much for their tiny force.

“Constantine, round up the marines that came from Rafe Glen’s ship and take them with you, or Bose will hang every last man. Hurry!”

Rusal watched the men begin to run back to the shore.

“That’s it, we can’t get near the Nebula, and so we can’t leave the planet. We’ve no chance of taking another ship,” Rusal said stiffly. “We’re stuck here, boxed in by Rad Bose’s fleet.”

There was silence for a few moments as they considered the enormity of their situation. One moment they’d been triumphant, only to have victory snatched from their grasp.

“There may be a way out,” Evelyn said. She’d been getting strange thoughts, as if someone was trying to get into her mind and tell her something, but who was it?

Blas spoke gently. “Evelyn, even you can’t get us out of this one.”

She left them and walked across the spaceport, towards a nearby Battlecruiser, The Magellan. It was the ship that had tried to stop them when they approached. It stood waiting to depart on its next mission. Yes, it was someone on board the Magellan that she sensed. She turned back to Blas.

“We’re not alone. We can take the Magellan.”

They stifled a smile. She was deadly serious, but didn’t she understand the massive defenses that guarded a Battlecruiser when it was on the ground? Apparently she didn’t, and she continued to carry out her plan.

“President Tell, please come with me. I want you in the lead, and the rest of you are to follow. We need to keep out of sight of the Sword of Axia. If they see us, we’re finished.”

She led them out to the Magellan with Xerxes Tell and the others behind her. Two sentries in full battle armor, both holding laser rifles, guarded the ramp. They watched her approach with some interest, but no alarm. In the dim half-light, they hadn’t seen Tell.

“Yes, Miss, what do you want? This is a naval vessel. It’s off limits.”

She stared at them. “The President has commandeered this ship. Stand aside!”

There was no hesitation. “Yes, Miss.”

The both saluted. Blas knew how his Orphexian partner had overcome them, but she couldn’t subdue an entire ship on her own. Their party walked up the ramp.

“Don’t draw any weapons,” Evelyn said quietly. “We can’t take this ship by force. My way is the only way.”

“A whole ship?”

She smiled. “Trust me, Constantine.”

That trust was immediately put to the test. They heard footsteps and a squad of naval marines armed with laser rifles marched around the corner. It was then that Blas understood. Their officer looked familiar. It was formerly Ensign, and now Commander, Alex Yalonda. The naval officer who’d helped them before. The naval officer that none had suspected was a woman when she first joined the fleet. Not just a woman, but also an Orphexian like Evelyn, and she also had the power of mind control. His immediate concern was whether she was on their side or the enemy, but Evelyn had already communicated with her. The Commander spoke to her squad.

“President on deck. Salute!”

The marines presented arms.

“Form up behind the President. You will be his bodyguard while he is on board.”

Alex led them through a maze of passages. “Where are we going?” Blas whispered to Evelyn.

“The bridge, we need to take control of the ship.”

A Battlecruiser! There would be guards, marines and layer upon layer of security. But he trusted Evelyn, even though he doubted the ability of two young Orphexians to take on an entire warship. The bleep of her commset sounded and Alex answered. They heard her say, “Very well, I’ll send two of my men to escort the Ambassador to the bridge.”

They reached the bridge door. Alex opened it without hesitation and they pushed on to the nerve center of the ship. Admiral Voss was in a chair fitted to a raised plinth so that he could see everything within his domain. In front of him was the Captain’s chair that was empty. Voss was casually initialing a touchpad. He dismissed the clerk and look up. His pale face drained of blood when he saw who was standing on his bridge.

“You! You’re the escaped prisoner, the impostor who claims to be Xerxes Tell. What in space are you doing on my bridge? You men,” he shouted at Tell’s escort. “Arrest that man!”

“Sir, this is the President of the Nine Systems,” their sergeant blurted out. “We can’t arrest him.”

“He’s a damned impostor. I know that Xerxes Tell is dead. Shoot him! Shoot him!”

His voice was a shrill scream, his face suffused with blood. Blas and his comrades were uneasy. If the control that Alex Yalonda had exerted on her men was less than one hundred percent, they may start shooting. He needn’t have worried.

“No, Sir, you’re wrong,” she replied quietly. “He is the President. We know it for a fact.”

She nodded to two of her troopers. “The Admiral is ill. I want two of you take him to his quarters and restrain him for his own protection.”

Two troopers walked forward to obey, but before they led him away the bridge door opened and another squad of ship’s marines rushed in with guns drawn. A cruel looking officer, a captain like Yalonda, led them. This time the guns were pointed at Tell and his cohort. The captain looked across at Voss. “You pressed the emergency button, Sir?”

“Yes, Captain, these people are traitors. Take them away and lock them in the cells.”

The officer started forward, but before he and his men could act the bridge door opened yet again and the senior diplomat they were carrying entered the bridge, flanked by two of Yalonda’s men. Every crewman stood to attention. The Ambassador was aboard. She glanced at Voss first.