Chapter 20; The Last Warrion
Baraz
The pressure from Keeth’s forces increased. General Z intended to use this pressure to draw him into a test of Lea’s new weapons. It was the decision of the cabinet ministers that it was only a matter of time before Hazey Point was discovered by the spies on the other side. Soon, it would be time for the Royal forces to lead Keeth here for a final show down. It was still up to Lea and Pedra in their race to solve the last problems with their ultimate weapon.
Z let himself be chased here. He looked out the portals of the secret bunkers as the wind moaned across the dunes, kicking up clouds of sand. On the horizon, the twin orange suns heated this bleak landscape into a fiery borealis as they dropped below the horizon. Immediately, he watched the fingers of frost wind their way across the shadow side of the dunes across the landscape. Tube heaters lit up underneath the electronic sensors to keep the lenses clear.
Outside the bunker, as the outside temperatures began their usual nightly drop of ten degrees per hour. This drop will continue each hour through the night that will freeze any living thing solid by dawn. The inhabitants of the planet, lizard-like beings and semi-sentient insects, ceased their search for food and hurriedly began to bury themselves where they would pass the frozen night asleep. They would be reawakened by the warmth of morning’s fiery dawn a return to their daily cycle.
In the last light of evening, a lonely bit of flotsam came over the horizon. It was a tumble weed ball rolling along seemingly free and unfettered, going on its merry way. “I should be so free,” thought the guardian watching it on his monitor.
Just then, it came within the electric scan area of the guard-robs in that sector. In a blue flash, the tumbleweed disappeared into scattered atoms. Once again, the screen was empty except for an occasional dust devil.
“Now, Jar,” he said to himself, “let that be a lesson to ya’. There ain’t no freedom in this life. He shook his head to clear these thoughts away. He continued muttering to himself, “Boy, I must be gettin’ stir-crazy stayin’ down in this hole all these months.” He turned and smiled at Cyn, his mate, at the next console. “There’s my answer. If I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have met her and would not have ever mated. Maybe there is some God somewhere in this wide galaxy. I sure got lucky this time.”
And then, a darker thought crept in as he thought of little Zinny down in the nursery barrack. Would he ever grow up to know what a great man his godfather and namesake, the heroic General Zintaurus Medio, was?
Boy, I sure was surprised when the great General showed up to congratulate us in sickbay. He let his mind go back to that day when the stiff old General came through the door.
Jar had jumped to his feet, saluting, “General on deck!”
“As you were, young man.”
Jar was surprised, “General, I sure am stunned to see you here.”
Uncomfortable with the show of emotion, the old man blushed a bit and said, “Well… you have the confidence in our cause to have this child. I am here to honor your contribution to our future.”
Cyn just smiled her best smile and uncovered the baby’s head so he could see him.
With a shaky voice, Jar stuttered, “We named him after you,sir.”
The old man leaned over to get a good look, “Isn’t that something. Let’s have a look at my name sake, then...”
Cyn’s smile broadened, “I am so nervous. I hate that you had to make a break in your busy schedule for us.”
The old man smiled, “My life is mostly sad, Yeoman. This is an opportunity to do something blessed.”
They laughed, “We are so glad to brighten your day, sir.”
“I can not forget that your family has blessed me more than once. If your husband hadn’t thrown his shield and deflected that spinner bomb that had been meant for me at the Battle of Givon Morass, then I wouldn’t be anywhere.”
“It was nothing, sir. You are simply too valuable to lose.”
“And now, you can both add to my honor by allowing me to be the god father to your son.”
Jar was so shocked that he couldn’t even talk. Good old Cyn, ever the glib one, as if she got offers like this from galactic heroes every day, said, “We would be honored, Sir. It was more than we could ever have hoped for.”
“Fine, I am honored as well.”
Cyn continued, “We had already decided to name him Zintaurus? Is that alright with you?”
The General wiped a tear from his eye and nodded yes.
Jar cleaning some dust off his screen said under his breath, “What a guy! He’ll get us out of this mess if anybody can.”
Farther down the line, people shifted about checking the dust covers of their electric systems. The Hawk was their name for the wind. If the “Hawk” was going to rage tonight, starting up those dust storms, then they didn’t want to be caught by an officer with diminished weapons potential. That was the quickest way to latrine duty that existed in this world.
Baraz, the 66th ruler in his line, heard the wind begin its nightly song. He stood at the portal to the fighting bridge and gazed around lovingly down on his forces standing in groups around their laser cannons or staring into satellite monitors searching them for any sign of enemy approach. He thought of the sixty seven men and women who had worn his crown before him.
Someone noticed him and his entourage up on the landing and brought the room to attention. “Emperor on the Deck!” He waved to them, and they cheered. “As you were people…” He walked on to complete his rounds.
Unlike the last two Emperors, he was no stranger to a fighting deck. His troops knew this leader well. This had been his Warrion since he was twelve. For the last seven years, he had led them in many a daring escapade.
He walked along the row of dusty soldiers, old grizzly faces and scared young faces, some even younger than his own nineteen years. As he passed among them he grabbed hands, spoke a few words here and there. As easily as any member of an inner circle should be, his camaraderie generally acknowledged their shared previous experiences that these men and women and the Royal Family had shared over those years.
In this night of nervous waiting, it was hard for him to look at these brave people. Sometimes, despite his experience, his youth would show. Tonight, he was nearly overwhelmed by sheer terror of the fear of what these men and women might be facing their final curtain. If the Admiralty had its way, this brave band would cease to exist. There must be some way out.
I wonder if they can tell how scared I am, he thought. His eyes drifted to the monitors for about the hundredth time in the last few moments. All eyes followed his. As usual, nothing showed on them. This waiting is always the hardest thing to bear. On the one hand, we really don’t want Keeth’s people to ever to come, yet it sure would break up this interminable boredom. For the thousandth time since he had taken the scepter from his brother’s hand, Baraz thought of what must be happening in the labs far below.
Z had sequestered them so long ago. Surely, if he has done that, they must be close to some kind of break through. The power usage down there has been enormous. That’s why they had picked this planet. The wide span of temperature differential at dawn and at dusk created electricity in huge amounts. Giant batteries had been buried in the sand and Lea and Pedra had made good use of this storehouse for what ever experiments they were engaged in.
He thought about last year, how they had called him to his brother’s room for the rites of ascension to the Jeweled Throne. Even though he had known that his brother was not long for this life, he was shocked by the finality of it all.
His brother, Davil, had been a great leader, mentor, and best friend for all of his young life. After he had been gravely wounded in battle to evacuate Vars IV, his brother had valiantly rallied the troops and had gotten them on shuttles, barges and vessels of any kind in order to facilitate their escape.
I wish I had been there with my troops, but I had been sent here to prepare this place as we knew
that our previous base, Vars IV was, at best, a holding spot, too hard to defend for a very long time.
When the new troops had started pouring in, I was thankful for my dear brother’s foresight as we were able to rest them, heal them, and care for them much better than we had been able to in some of our previous moves. He had lingered for less than a year. As we waited for my eighteenth birthday, he helped me learn to command of this station and the empire that it represents. He taught me so much. If this is our last hurrah, then, we are ready.
He even presided at the ascension ceremonies as his last official act before passing on. It was so new that I could not even face burial at that time. Now, we are surrounded, trapped here. He lies below, preserved until I can organize a decent burial in space as is warranted by his rank.
He shook himself. We have no time for woe. I have no time to miss my older brother. If he were here, he would have laughed at the irony of our position. Looking around he could not avoid the wave of despair that swept over him. What exactly am I the ruler of? I rule this one scrubby, arid sand dune on the only barely inhabitable planet in a system on the edge of this galaxy known as Hazy Point? Not a very heroic name for what may be the last battle of the old Empire. All over a Jewel Throne far off on a planet that I barely remember.
Baraz had been a small child the last time that he had seen that stupid throne, the Royal palace or even our home planet of Arth. Fourteen long years ago, my uncle Admiral Heren Menzi and his henchmen began this war. Succeeding Admirals had kept us running and hiding. Over the years, the opportunities had been few when we had been able to stand and fight.
Baraz suddenly felt so tired. But to him, these brave soldiers that surrounded him looked even more tired. Davil laughed about his childhood dreams of a time when an earldom was all he could have expected. His expectation or his life plan was for him to rule a few planets, maybe a couple of solar systems under my father’s lead.
Later, I would sit with my family as one of my six older siblings would ascend and we would all do our parts as I would live out my boring, quiet life. He laughed to himself how never in his wildest dreams would he have expected this turn of events.
Looking at this last Warrion, he could knew from many trials that these people were good soldiers. They paid no attention to the hopelessness of their situation. They paid no attention to the furious conversation going on inside his head. They bustled around him, doing their jobs. They appeared busy and fine. He knew that each person here had made a choice in this conflict to follow the Menzi family in this quest to reclaim their Jeweled Throne.
He stood straighter. They believe in us. They all have shown time after that they are willing to die for that belief. This thought somehow made him feel, on the one hand, better, and, on the other hand, ashamed that he lacked their fortitude.
A comm.-tech touched his sleeve deferentially and dropped to one knee beside him. Always embarrassed by these occurrences, Davil turned and spoke, “Rise and speak, good yeoman.”
“Sire, General Zintaurus Medio wishes your presence in the lab-module, please. He assures me that it is urgent.”
“Acknowledge and tell him it had better be important to draw me off the fighting bridge at this time.”
The comm. tech saluted and turned back to his console as Baraz headed for the lab. A general sign of relief went through the soldiers as he passed from view into the hallway leading to the down tubes.
The elevator carried him even further underground to the city that had been built in preparation for what could be their last stand. The men really like their new Emperor, but, they did not want him to be there when the attack came. They were glad he would be below where it was safer and could be protected better. The older ones looked to their weapons as they assumed that the good “General Z” must have arranged for the Emperor to be below just when the attack was coming.
They tried not to look at each other. They may have started out as clerks and bureaucrats, but they were now battle hardened veteran soldiers. They knew that if Keeth had found them now, he would have no less than three million troops with him. They were ready though. If this was the end, so be it.