them, maybe even more. And that is not all. How do you think a savage could manipulate technology such as ours? They do not know our language, they cannot understand our computers. It simply cannot be the Bions that attacked Burnum.”
Arrius sniffed. “But the air,” he said.
“It does not prove anything,” said Lucius. He nodded toward the creature behind the glass wall. “This thing needs more oxygen than we do.”
Valeria lowered her hand. She turned. “What if they had help from the inside?”
Lucius considered the possibility. “Do you think there is a single human who would help those savages, commander? Let me remind you that they destroyed our planet. The thriving beauty of nature it once was has been turned into a radioactive wasteland. The beautiful blue skies are nothing more than dark clouds filled with ashes of destruction. If you know of any human who would help the savages after what they did to us I would gladly execute him myself.”
“We did the same to their planet,” Valeria said. “Have you seen what it looks like now, Your Highness?”
“I have, commander. It is not worse than how it was before,” he said, although, he did not know how it was before. He wasn’t even born when the war started. His father had told him tales about the vile creatures that attacked Palatine and destroyed their cities. It was then that the Empire decided to strike back and bomb the Bion home world. But Lucius knew even then that his father had told him only what his father had told him before. And his father before that … The war has been waging for millennia, way before the first Venator became emperor. Olybrius said the war started even before the empire existed. But history was the least of Lucius’s worries. He now hated the Bions as every Imperial did. And he would gladly destroy their home world again, if need be.
“You are mistaken, Your Highness. Talam is worse than before,” said Valeria. “They also had blue skies and lush green landscapes and cities towering to the stars. Now they have acid rains and dark clouds, and deserted cities overgrown with mutated plants. They rarely see the sun from the surface of their planet.”
“Nothing less than what they deserve, I am sure,” said Lucius. This was the first time he heard any Imperial defend the Bions. It was unimaginable. “What are you trying to say, commander? Are you implying that there are some of us who feel sorry for those wretched savages?”
“I am not implying anything, Your Highness, I was just considering the possibility. But I know for a fact that some of our people are tired of this war.”
“Some of our people?” echoed Lucius with a raised eyebrow. “Who do you refer to, commander?”
“I refer to the ordinary people, Your Highness. We have our own problems as it is. Your father saw it. He ended the war, even briefly, so we can focus on what was important – our reproduction and survival in the long run. We are dying, Your Highness. We need peace. Maybe if can work together with the Bion tribes and use their resources we might find a solution to our problem.”
“Work together?” joined Arrius with clear disgust in his voice. “Do you hear yourself, commander?”
Lucius never thought about it that way. Those Bions were nothing more than savages that deserved to die for what they did to Palatine. Lucius Cornelius Venator was supposed to be the emperor that would end the war and rid the system of all Bions. After that, he would’ve focused on his people’s problems.
“We cannot coexist, commander,” said Lucius. “There is too much bad blood between us. I do not think that our people could forgive the Bions for what they did to us. And I am sure they cannot forgive us either.”
“Maybe it is time we tried, Your Highness. War brings death, and death reduces our numbers…”
“So does theirs.”
“Indeed. But, Your Highness, they have DNA databanks. If anyone dies, they can bring them back the way they were before their death. We cannot do the same unless the brain is preserved–”
“I know that, commander, what is your point?”
“My point is: if the usurper launches an all-out assault on Talam, our empire is doomed to die. We will never be able to regrow our numbers.”
The empire was doomed to die since my father took the throne. He should’ve finished the Bions with total destruction, not peace, Lucius thought. He said, “We will prevail, one way or another.”
“At what cost, I wonder?”
“Tell me commander,” said Lucius, “where is this knowledge of what the ordinary people think comes from? You are highborn.”
“I…” she started, and then stopped when it became obvious that Arrius was uncomfortable with this talk. He shifted from one leg to another, eyes moved from the floor to the creature beyond the glass. I was adopted – Valeria transmitted to her emperor. I lived seventy years with ordinary people before Admiral Valerian took me in his house and gave me my new body. She moved her hand over her hair of thick blue wires. I am still in contact with many of those people, Your Highness. I served with more than half of them in the Imperial fleet. I know what they think of this war.
Lucius nodded. He heard enough, and he didn’t care about Valeria’s personal history as much as he cared about the creature on the other side and its reason for existence. The emperor drove closer to the glass and pressed a button where the glass wall met the metal wall. His voice boomed on the other side. “Doctor, what is your recommendation about this thing?”
The doctor stopped working for a moment and turned to see the emperor. His voice was muted somewhat because of the glass. “This boy’s biology is unlike anything I have seen, Your Highness, it–”
“Spare me the details, doctor. What do you suggest we do? Do we dissect it? Do we kill it?”
“Kill it? No, Your Highness, I would strongly recommend against that.”
“Then say it, doctor. We are running out of time.”
“Time? Oh, yes. I would recommend that you leave me here on Burnum, to further study the technology behind the boy’s creation. I want to learn how they made it and why they failed with it. Maybe we can learn something we can use on ourselves.”
Lucius made a grimace. “I believe you do not mean the organic parts?”
“Oh, no, no, no, Your Highness, not the organic parts. It is the cybernetics that I am interested in, and their connection with his brain.”
Lucius nodded. “Very well then.” He pulled his finger from the button. “I’m taking Aquila for a quick run. Commander Valeria, you are in command of my fleet in my absence. I will also leave the majority of my soldiers here to assist you if the outpost needs defending.” He turned to go, saying, “And make sure the doctor doesn’t create any more of these creatures before I come back.”
“As you command, Your Highness.”
Arrius was walking back to Aquila with the emperor, a group of ten soldiers escorting them and lighting their way with flashlights. Only their boots echoed against the walls, something that made Lucius envious every time he heard it.
“How is the work on the new battleship going?” the emperor asked, taking his thoughts away from the wheels under his knees.
“The crews of Silent Wind and Bright Star have dismantled their ships, as you ordered, Your Highness. With Clodius’s help they have managed to reactivate eighty percent of the battleship’s systems. But they need Clodius to finish the work.”
“Clodius is needed at the operating table. They can have him back after his service is no longer required here.”
There was a moment of silence and then Arrius asked, “Why Silent Wind, Your Highness? You might have noticed that Captain Frang is a dubious man.”
Lucius gazed at the moving spotlights ahead, a sign of the hangar bay marked their approach to their destination. “It is you who gathered all those ships, captain. You were supposed to make sure there were no dubious people in my fleet, were you not?”
“Captain Lartius recommended the man.”
“Lartius isn’t a trustworthy example.”
“That may be true, but Lartius would do anything for a good
coin. He hopes for high honors once you take the throne.” They entered the hangar bay. Two shuttles awaited their arrival. “One of my captains told me that Lartius was a loyalist. Coin maters to him, but so do you, Your Highness.”
Lucius doubted that. “I do not trust Lartius and I do not trust Frang. That is why I chose Captain Galerius of the Bright Star to command the new battleship. He is a war veteran from the Battle for Luna. Half his crew is retired military and hardened soldiers. They will keep their eyes on Captain Frang and his men.”
“Captain Galerius is an excellent choice, Your Highness, but the battleship is important to us. Maybe you should reconsider–”
Lucius stopped, halting the entire group. His eyes pierced the captain. You would do well if you did not question my orders in front of my men, captain – Lucius sent to him – I would gladly welcome your council and recommendations. But in private.
Arrius lowered his head. “I apologize, Your Highness. It will never happen again.”
They finished their walk in silence.
Lucius took the command seat once they reached Aquila’s bridge and waited for his soldiers and equipment to be transferred to Burnum before he departed. This time, though, the emperor called Captain Lartius to join him in the bridge as his personal advisor. That way Lartius would be of little concern while Lucius was raiding a new target.
The huge robotic man lumbered closer to the emperor and waited for him to explain why he was called.
“Captain Lartius,” said Lucius, “I have come to understand that you have experience with raiding merchant ships.”
Lartius was taken aback. “Raiding? Where did His Highness hear such lie?” His crude robotic voice chafed Lucius’s ears. Lucius didn’t hear it anywhere. He was convinced that this man was a pirate, and he rarely misjudged other people when it came to their fleet designation.
“That is irrelevant, captain. Answer my question.”
The man bowed politely. “I apologize, Your Highness. I am familiar with certain tactics, it is true.”
“How do you find your targets and how do you raid them?”
Lartius looked at the captain and then back at the emperor, and smiled, golden tooth glittering in his mouth. “I have access, Your Highness.”
“Access to what? Speak.”
“To the Imperial mercantile grid, Your Highness.”
The emperor fixed his eyes at Arrius – How did we not know of this? – Lucius sent.
It cannot be true, Your Highness – was the reply – He is lying.
“Are you talking about the same grid that the Imperial admirals have access to?” asked Lucius.
The man nodded. “I know of every Imperial merchant ship in the system, its trajectory and cargo, with a small margin of error, of course.”
Lucius looked at Arrius and saw the surprise in his eyes. “That’s not possible, Your Highness–”
Lucius cut him off with a wave of his hand. Those scavenging pieces of rusty metal had entire spying network on our grid and no one ever bothered to figure out how some freaking pirate could raid a merchant ship in open space and know its exact location at the right time. He brought his gaze at Lartius. “Give me the closest ship that carries military technology.”
Lartius’s smile turned evil. “Gladly, Your Highness.” He closed his eyes for a moment, accessing his cranial computer. “Lightning Bolt,” he said. He opened his dark red eyes. “Three million klicks, bearing: six-three-three.”
“Can you confirm its cargo?” asked Lucius.
Lartius nodded. “Weapons,” he said. “Lots of weapons.”
“Prosthetics is what I need more than weapons. Do they have any?”
Lartius nodded again. “Military-grade,” he said.
Finally something good to hear. Lucius turned his gaze to the stars beyond the screen. “Captain, set an intercept course for the Lightning Bolt. I believe there is a pair