For the second time in a day I was awed into silence by the cunning and viciousness of the Chairman. The man made good on his threats. I looked at my jailor, Colonel Mason, and knew that even if I killed him and all his black-suited goons in the hallway, I’d never get past the elevator. I was trapped, a rat in an alumiglass maze.
The Colonel swallowed hard.
“Though I have found humanity obtuse, greedy, petty, ignorant, and generally foolish, I have never wished them harm … until now.” I watched him, my fists clenched to keep from hurting him like I wanted to. I wanted to hurt someone or something, lash out, break and smash things. The need for violence ran through my veins but I controlled it … barely.
The Colonel stood and winced at the pain in his left leg. He backed off a pace and pushed his rifle up on his shoulder sling. “Ms. Angel, I respect you, what you did for my men. Please don’t put me in the wrong position.”
“You’ve been in the wrong position since we met, Colonel. You know the Chairman never intended me to speak openly to the Council. This is his punishment, exactly what he threatened. You were standing outside the door when the Chairman promised I would never leave this building alive if I didn’t cater to his demands. You know the Chairman orchestrated today’s attack. There’s a dead Marine in the morgue because of the Chairman. Now tell me Colonel Mason, who is in the wrong position?”
He nodded slightly and his eyes darted around the room, as though looking for someone over his shoulder. “There’s no proof of what you’re saying, and it doesn’t matter what I think. The DC have you. DC command and the UN Council will decide your fate.” I could see the beginnings of an apology in his eyes, but he made sure the surveillance of my room didn’t log him on my side of the issue. I sensed we weren’t exactly opposed, but he couldn’t say it aloud.
“Actually, the Emperor will decide my fate. When I do not return at the appointed hour, you, I, and the world will have a whole new problem on our hands.”
* * * *
I wasted precious hours pacing the room, staring out the alumiglass window to the protesting mob amassed in the streets below, watching media reports discrediting me, speaking of me as a thing that should be executed, or at the very least caged. I watched the clock pass the marker on my forty eight hour visit with dread in my soul.
Soon Earthside media buzzed with panic, all major streams displayed the same set of images – the Imperial fleet. The Imperial ships moved together, realigning into a new formation. I recognized the arrangement, the serrated edges of large, unstoppable blades. The Emperor was readying the fleet to cut through the DC blockade. His target was obvious to anyone who cared to look at his trajectory.
Manhattan.
The thing I feared most was happening before my eyes.
These ignorant DC bastards played with forces they did not comprehend. They had no reference point on Gran culture, the dueling tensions on the Emperor. The Traders and the Miners could attack any time, independent of the Emperor. The two industrial powerhouses of Gran society held more than enough warships to demolish the DC and snatch up people at their leisure.
Now I had become the catalyst, forcing the Emperor to start the war.
As protector of his people, the Emperor had little choice but to react. He could not allow the DC to hold the Princess of the Gran as prisoner. The Chairman of the UN, in his bid for power and tech, had doomed humanity to pay the horrible price of his egocentricity.
The alumiglass wall flickered and came to life with twenty images of the men and women of the UN council, each stacked in a neat little holovid grid. The Chairman sat at the center of the display, his hands steeped before him, seemingly in deep consideration. “In light of recent events and the lively debate of the Council, we have decided you will not return to the Emperor at this time. In the interest of peace and resolution of our problems with the Gran, this decision has been communicated via translator to the Emperor. His response is alarming. The Emperor has threatened imminent war if his Emissary is not returned immediately. The Gran fleets have moved into attack formations! The council desires to know why the Emperor holds you – a clone – in such high regard.”
I looked at each face, making sure they were looking at me, then faced the Chairman. “I came to find a reason for peace. You give me manipulations and rhetoric. If the Council wishes to negotiate a peace treaty, you will transport me to orbit immediately. As to why the Emperor anticipates my return – it is simple. Trust. He trusts I will do all that I can to honor him, and find some way to stop this war. Neither of us understood the quagmire of bureaucracy, special interests, and political subterfuge that would block me at every turn.”
The Chairman started speaking and I held up my hand. “The time for rhetoric has passed. I am the Princess of the Allied Federation of the Gran, Emissary to the Emperor, and I will not be held prisoner! Return me to the Emperor, now, or prepare for war.”
As numerous protests broke out across the alumiglass wall that was once a beautiful view of the city, the Chairman snapped his fingers and spoke over the top of everyone. “Colonel Mason, take Ms. Angel under arrest and place her in supermax confinement. That is a direct order!”
The Colonel’s hand landed on mine, and I flinched, trying my hardest to suppress my need to break his fingers. Hurting him wouldn’t solve my problems or gain me freedom.
Suddenly, a massive flat black V-shaped ship appeared on the other side of the holovid display. It hovered ten meters out from the alumiglass wall, a menacing dark thing floating on the air. Cesar’s shuttle. His stolen Shadow cruiser was equipped with a shuttle that had a stealth cloaking mode. I had no idea how long it had been there, cloaked, spying on me, but I wasn’t complaining.
I lashed out and broke the Colonel’s hold on my arm. “Step aside, Colonel. You know it’s the right thing to do.”
His eyes reflected the wrong kind of resolve and his rifle lifted towards me. I reacted on instinct. A vicious kick to the groin followed by a nose-crushing right punch laid him out flat on his back. I jerked the rifle from his grasp and threw it across the room. “If you want to live, stay down, Colonel.”
Gagging on blood from his busted nose and curled over his groin injury, he rolled on his side and spat blood on the floor. I hoped I hadn’t caused him permanent damage.
I heard the bass rumble of the shuttle’s plasma cannons winding up behind me and I dived out of the way. A split second later cannon fire vaporized the alumiglass wall, wiping away the shocked faces and outrage of the UN council.
Strong wind gusts blew the harsh smoke of plasma char into the room. The stealth shuttle hovered close, barely a meter from the blasted opening in the wall. The door to my suite burst open and five black-suited soldiers leapt in, blocking my path to the shuttle. I stood and faced their rifles as my left hand flicked out to activate my Imperial shield. Though the humming energy emanating from my wristband was designed to protect me from plasma rifles, it also worked as a battering ram. I launched forward and slammed my shield through five men, knocking them aside like bowling pins.
A grating screech noise drew my attention to the shuttle as its nose pushed through the burnt opening in the alumiglass wall. The portal door slammed aside, and three meters of enraged Cat leapt into the room. Rollick had his shield lit and gauntlet blazing brightly. His roar echoed off the walls of my small suite and Marines scrambled to evade the hot bite of his blade. I’d never seen anything more inspiring in all my life.
The Colonel stood on shaky legs, looking like he might be stupid enough to try to stop me. Cesar stepped out the shuttle door onto shattered alumiglass and thrust his jackbooted foot into the Colonel’s nutsack.
The Colonel hit the floor once more, crying out in pain, his hands gripping his crotch. My pirate lover’s sharkish grin brought tears to my eyes. Cesar reached out to me. “You’re running late, Angel. The way the Emperor was growling and grumbling your name, I figured it was time to get you home.”
I leapt into his arms a
nd hugged him hard enough to feel his back crack in my grip. Behind us, Rollick was going ballistic on my ‘security’ men, hacking, slashing and bashing through anyone in reach. The Prince unleashed a hurricane of fury on the DC Marines. I was so proud of him. This was where I belonged, between these two males who made life worth living.
The Colonel spit more blood and scrambled to his feet. I turned on him, ready to break his neck. He backed away with his hands in the air in surrender. “I won’t stop you, Angel.” He looked to Cesar then over his shoulder at Rollick who was dicing up the last man standing, and his wary eyes settled on me. “There’s something you need to know about the Chairman of the UN. He’s the major stockholder of Lockheed-SpaceX. His company built all the stealth ships in orbit.”
As I attempted to understand the full import of Mason’s words, Rollick snatched the Colonel by the back of his vest and threw him across the room. With a loud crack and a yelp of pain the Colonel bounced off the wall and landed in a heap on the floor – out cold.
Rollick closed in on me. “You promised to return to me. I’m here to see your promise fulfilled.”
I let go of Cesar just in time for the Prince to sweep me off my feet and into the shuttle. His powerful warm arms around me, the fur of his chest tickling my cheek, this Cat smelled like home. The shuttle door closed behind Cesar who was still grinning like a fool, and everyone strapped in for a rapid ascent. Several DC military Skycars pursued us out of the city until Cesar reactivated the shuttle’s cloaking tech and left them behind.
I had visited Earthside once in my life, and it was one time too many.
* * * *
Chapter 19
Well fed, half drunk on Gran liquor, and dead tired, I spent several hours briefing the Emperor and the sullen Guild Cats on the happenings with the UN. I sensed intense undercurrents between the Emperor and the Guilds. Every time I detailed the corruption of the UN, the Guild Cats nodded as if I had confirmed something and given them new reasons to believe the worst.
The Emperor grew quiet, with only the slightest nod or comment on my words. The Prince sat by listening silently. I sensed the royal family were brooding, waiting – but for what?
When the questions stopped, I started asking some of my own. “Will you negotiate for peace? It’s not hopeless. We can still try to establish a new treaty. If we desire peace enough to compromise, the humans would listen. If you considered other means of running your mines, perhaps robotic machines instead of human workers …”
The Emperor sat silent, as though he had nothing to say.
The Trader’s Guild fatcat growled low. “Humans do not offer recompense. Why negotiate?”
The Miner’s Guild Cat nodded in agreement. “Humans … always talking. We come to acquire new workers and payment for reparations – or vengeance. Humans owe a debt of life and honor. If we spend more time talking, will they pay their debt?”
I wanted to tell the bastard no, to fuck off and die in a pile of fleas. Instead, I lied. “You will never know unless you try.”
The Miner looked to the Emperor, and I sensed what was happening. A power shift. “The Emperor’s talk has failed. Now I will talk to the humans.” He looked to his buddy the fatcat Trader. “We who have lost our workers and hold grievances against the humans do the talking.”
The fatcat nodded. These fuckers were taking over the peace negotiations. I couldn’t decide which was worse, the corrupt bureaucrats of the UN, or the greedy Guild Cats.
* * * *
Exhausted and dozing off in my chair, I headed for the deluxe cabin I shared with Cesar. I slipped in the door and heard murmurs from the bathroom. A holovid light flickered in the darkness. I moved in closer, instinctively sensing the need for quiet.
Cesar faced a holovid of a man I recognized, Doctor Philo Vale. They spoke in hushed whispers. Cesar snapped at the Doctor, seemingly angry. “I’m done with this shit. You got what you wanted from Jason’s body, you gave me what I wanted – our business is finished.”
“Cesar, humanity balances on the razor edge of interstellar war. You have a duty to mankind to see that Angel does what’s necessary to find a peaceful accord. This is not business …”
“Listen, asshole. Don’t put this war on me or her. She’s doing everything she can, while these damned Cats and you sons of bitches at the UN balk her at every turn. She’s the only reason this war hasn’t started already.”
“It’s not enough. She must convince the Cats the DC are too formidable. She must convince the Cats they cannot defeat us. If they won’t listen, perhaps she can take direct action … If she assassinated the Emperor, would that change their position?”
“This conversation is finished. Fuck off Vale.”
Cesar clicked a button on the coin-sized holovid projector in his hand and shut down the call. He looked up to find me standing in his face. Though it was dark without the light of the holovid in the bathroom, I knew he could see me from his sharp intake of breath and the rapid beating of his heart. But he didn’t see the right cross that sent him sprawling into the steam shower.
“You fucking liar! All this time you’ve been working for the DC! You brought them across the galaxy! All those dead Cats, all the Marines I killed, it’s all on you!”
I wanted to kill him, the only man in the universe I loved. As he stood and wiped the blood off his face, he looked me in the eyes through the darkness. “It’s not what you think. I don’t work for the DC. Vale gave me the secret location of the DC docking bays on Luna. His information allowed my men to steal the Shadow cruiser. Later, he gave us the DC transport routes so we could steal the ore freighters we used in trade with the Gran. He wanted Jason’s research, then Jason’s body after he died. Vale sent Jason to the Gran to collect evidence of the illegal clones being sold by Nugene. I never took a single credit in payment from Vale or the DC. I swear it on my life. I hate the DC. You know this!”
I was shaking so bad with the need to lash out, to kill him. I could rip the skull from his body with the raw power of my rage, but I held it in check … barely.
“Turn on the light.”
Slowly, with fear and suspicion in his eyes, his heart beating triple-time, Cesar flicked the switch on the wall and lit up the small bathroom.
“Look me in the eyes and tell me you had nothing to do with the DC’s attack on the Gran. Tell me you’re not a spy!”
He slowly raised his hands, as if I held a gun on him. “I swear on the lives of my men I am not a DC spy and I had nothing to do with their military operations. I used Vale for info, to take the things I needed. You can thank Vale for giving me the precise location where to find you at the UN tower in Manhattan. His information helped us bring you home.”
Disgusted and furious, I left Cesar bleeding, asking my forgiveness. I knew if I stayed in his room any longer I’d hurt him. I escaped to Rollick’s quarters and took the edge off my exhaustion in the arms of my Prince and his concubine.
* * * *
The Chairman of the UN agreed to come up to orbit to personally negotiate with the Gran on one condition – that I was not present for the talks. The Chairman blathered on and on about his demands for Gran tech. The Emperor calmly nodded agreement, and stated he was willing to listen to a list of the Chairman’s demands. The holovid call ended and the Emperor promptly ordered me to represent his interests in the peace talks.
That wily Cat! “You heard the Chairman. I can’t be in the room.”
“Neither will I. You stand in my place. You are my Emissary, Angel.” He wrapped his huge arm around me in a fatherly hug.
Fuck.
I leaned into his powerful embrace, accepting my place in his world. I didn’t fit anywhere else in this messed up universe. “What if they refuse to talk because of me? Humans think I am an assassin. And what about his demands for tech? Would you give him all your technology? He will find a way to use it against the Gran.”
His penetrating eyes watched me, and I knew this Cat was so very wise. The un
spoken things between us weighed heavy on my soul. His absence at the peace talks filled me with a sense of impending doom.
“If they desire peace, they will accept you on my behalf. If not, they will make war. I am not concerned with trinkets and tech. Such is the business of the Guilds.” He rolled his massive shoulders as if it didn’t matter, the idea we might go to war because of me.
He clicked dismissively. “The decision is not mine. The Guilds address their grievances as they choose. I can not stop them, but I do not support them. I will not make war without your advice, Angel. I was not party to the original Treaty between Traders and humans, and I will not be party to this negotiation. This is commerce. The Guilds hold the primary power among the Gran. As Emperor I provide balance between the Guilds. I represent the needs and rights of the citizens of the Allied Federation of The Gran.”
He’d tried to explain this several times before. Only now, when I could see the Guilds’ power manifested, did I grasp the fact the Emperor didn’t rule as dictator. He was a referee to mitigate squabbles between the Guilds, a protector of the colonies. So why throw all his power at me? What could I do except piss off both Cats and humans alike?
* * * *
I’d avoided Cesar during the two days we waited for the Chairman to make his way out to distant orbit for the negotiation meeting. A couple hours beforehand, I decided it was time to face him.
I barged into his room and interrupted a conversation with his Irish sidekick. “Chancy, you’re coming with me when we meet with the DC. They don’t know your face, and I need someone who understands the twists and turns of human corruption to keep an eye on the situation.”
The Irishman gave me his wicked squint and looked to Cesar as if he expected to be saved from a fate worse than death. “Fuck’s sake! I’m not keepin’ sketch for her! Not with the windy fuckin’ DC!”