Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress) (42 page)

The Black Priest motioned to one of the crew members
who roughly prodded the Commander in the back and guided him through the
hatchway towards the transport dock. The Commander turned and spoke from the
other side of the hatchway, “when do I get my Communication’s Officer…” the
hatchway door closed.

The Black Priest turned to face his henchmen. “Destroy
the body and contact Confederate Command, get all the traffic data for sector
K55 and all possible areas within the range of a Starfighter. There must be
somewhere he had to stop to refuel.” The Black Priest shuffled over to a viewing
port and stared out into space. He saw the shuttle being escorted back to its
ship with two Starfighters as escorts. Something is not right here, he thought.
Cargo ships don’t carry circuit boards for Starfighters, especially Confederate
Command Starfighters. This Captain of the Guard is laying a false trail. He
turned to the crew members sitting at their stations on the bridge. “Get me
Filo at the Palace on the communicator.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

“He is not at the Temple my Lord. Do you wish me to send
a runner for him?”

“No, do not,” answered the Black Priest now
considering the situation. “Get me the Empress.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

The private android of the Empress rushed with a
communicator and gave it to the Empress. “Yes, my Black Priest?” she said
seductively.

“Empress, we could save much time if we had a more
positive idea of where the Captain would take the Emperor. Perhaps the Emperor
had informed the Captain or surely yourself where he would like to be in such
times as those that have befallen him,” the Black Priest said equally as
smoothly and now suspecting the motives of the Empress.

“My Black Priest, I have no idea where the Emperor
would have wanted to be, he never talked of such things.  The Captain
never mentioned any of his discussions with my husband. Is the mission going
poorly, do you require assistance?”

The Black Priest now knew something had happened with
the Empress. His power over her had lessened too quickly and too fast. Filo
must be involved, but how? That simple creature is not capable of such
independent thought of such complexity. He realised his immediate priority is
that he must succeed quickly with the recovery of the Emperor. That would win
him irrevocable favour within the Imperial Court and the support of the people
of the Confederacy; a necessary part of his future plans. He now cherished the
thought of the Empress’s body being compromised. Soon will she will pregnant
with a celapod, that will ruin her if not kill her, celapod births are often
complex and violent affairs, especially with his help. He became excited at the
thought and swayed on his feet, soon the Confederacy and Imperial Court would
be his to command. He realised he had spent too much time involved with his own
thoughts and quickly answered the Empress.
“No, my Empress.
These matters require certain approaches and information is the key. I will
resume my mission and I am sure to have positive results in due course.”

“Excellent my Black Priest.
I am always here to assist you. The people of the Confederacy
wait for the return of their Emperor,” she said in a seductive voice and turned
her communicator off. She lay on the bed next to Filo and ran her hand along
his neck tenderly. Her eyelids were almost closed as a sensation new to her
swept through her body. The tenderness under her tongue burned and suddenly a
small sharp tube broke through her flesh and wiggled within her mouth.

Filo was wrapped around a young male peasant with his
mouth over his with his tongue deep inside the boy.
His tubes
feeding off the blood pumping from the boy’s heart.
Filo squirmed and
gripped the boy’s body in a vice like grip as he increased the size of the tube
allowing the terrified boys pumping heart to deliver the full flow into him.
The blood flowing back into the boy’s body was thick and oily stripped of all
nutrients and oxygen. The boy convulsed and shook as his life energy was
drained from him. He turned a sickly blue grey colour and died in
Filo’s
vice like grip.

The Empress stroked
Filo’s
head as he let the boy go and sat up on the edge of the bed. The Empress called
out and two worker androids entered the room and removed the body.

“You teach me now?” she hoarsely whispered in
Filo’s
ear running her finger down his scaly neck.

“You try, maybe too early, not working yet, but you
try,” he said beginning to converse more easily. The hormonal changes in his
body and mind were developing quickly with the Empress’s genetic code altering
his own.

The Empress clapped her hands and the two worker
androids returned with a terrified young worker girl, gagged and blindfolded.
They placed her on the bed and left the room.

---------

Toormis hooked up his modified combat computer from his
Starfighter directly into Traveller’s computer system. Quickly he bypassed the
security systems and had complete control of the Emperor’s private ship. He
grinned when the ship’s systems came on line and he sat back in the pilot’s
seat astonished. Traveller had everything any Confederate ship had ever been
equipped with and there were many more systems he had no idea what they did.
“Hey girl,” he said out loud. “We’ve got some learning to do, you and I.” He
rubbed his hand along the flight control panel with affection.

“Who are you talking to?” Cassy said peering up into
the hatch Toormis had used to gain access to the ship.

“Admiring the most amazing space craft I have ever
seen,” he shouted back. “Come around the port side and I’ll lower the gangway.
This ship is mine now”

“Oh, Toormis.
It belongs to the Emperor.”

“Yeah, well… maybe.
He can have it back when I’m through with it. Come
aboard.”

Cassy walked around the side of the ship and Toormis
met her and showed her inside. “Isn’t she something,” he said.

“Toormis I’m nervous just being in this ship.”

“It’s our home now Cassy, Please don’t worry.” He
said, and then tried to cheer her up. “This ship has the most amazing cloaking
abilities. Here, let me show you,” he said and turned to make his way to the
Bridge.

“Toormis, don’t you dare,” she said seriously but
suddenly relaxed and brushed her hair from her face. “Toormis come here.”

Toormis stopped, turned and walked back to her. “Yes,”
he said.

She moved against him and wrapped her arms around him
burying her head against his chest. “Please forgive me. You have given us the
only chance we have. Thank you for the work you have done getting access to
this ship. None of us but you could have done it.”

Toormis wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held
her close to him. He felt her closeness and the warmth of her body against his.
“Cassy,” he said softly, the only thing in all that’s happened is the comfort
that I know you are safe and with me. I will never let anything happen to you.
That I promise with all my heart.” He gently released her and looked into her
eyes. Her eyes softened and she squeezed him as she put her lips to his.

Footsteps sounded up the gangway and both Toormis and Cassy
turned to look still embracing. “Oh my,” Torquay said embarrassed. “So very
sorry to disturb, I saw the gangway down and just thought…”

“That’s OK Torquay,” Cassy said separating herself
from Toormis. “Toormis was just getting the ship ready to fly. We need to get
those supplies and be ready to go,” she said and hurried past him down the
gangway.

Torquay looked at Toormis who just seemed to be
standing there daydreaming and touched him on the arm. “She’s great isn’t she?”

“She certainly is…” he said dreamingly, then cleared
his throat. “Oh! Yes, yes. She certainly is,” and grinned at Torquay, “quite a
girl indeed!”

“Can you fly her,” Torquay asked feeling elated with
this young man’s emotions.

“Yes, almost too easily.
Her basic flight controls are almost identical to a
Starfighter but there’s double everything; two complete systems and a third
auxiliary system for stealth and cloaking plus the armament of a Battle
Cruiser, 6 crew plus android support systems and double life support. I will need
to study up on those but as far as flying. She will be easy.”

“What about the androids,” Torquay said noticing there
was an android co pilot sitting in a seat deactivated.

“There are two onboard as Bridge crew,
another four elsewhere
I saw on the equipment manifest.”
Toormis said pointing to the co pilot’s seat, the other one is in the
stateroom. I’m sure the others are somewhere. We’ll keep them all deactivated.
Maybe in time we can reprogram them to accept us but until I’m sure it would be
dangerous to activate them without knowing their safety and security protocols.

“Yes of course,” Torquay said bending over to get a
close look at one in the co-pilot’s seat.
“An advanced model
by the look of it.
The Administrator is very good with androids. Maybe
he could have a look at them.”

“Sure, wouldn’t hurt to have the data on his memory
chips. But for now we need to prepare the ship for departure. I have no idea
how long we have before this base will be compromised.”

“I’ll give Cassy a hand with the rations. The
Administrator is busy with weapons and electronics,” Torquay replied and left
the ship. Toormis sat in the pilot’s seat and began studying the controls. He
went through the ship’s log and located the flight into Zion’s atmosphere. He
turned on the visual file of the landing and saw the camouflaged space dock
doors under the base open up. Clever, he thought and switched to Bridge visual
at the same time and saw that the ship was piloted only by the co pilot.
Strange, he thought. Why send the most valuable ship in the Confederacy to Zion
and store it here? Ah! He thought, Lord Ambrae. He was always up to something.
He dismissed those thoughts and concentrated on the file and saw what he wanted
to know, the pilot’s actions and the readout of his monitor on the space dock
door operation.

He brought the controls up on screen and activated
them. A loud noise reverberated through the base and ice cold winds blew in as
the hidden doors began to open. Toormis quickly shut the controls off and the
doors closed. The Administrator, Torquay and Cassy rushed down the stairs and
into the hanger.
The surprised look on their faces made
Toormis smile as he studied them on the Bridge monitor.

“That was a
test, that
was a
test. All ships to remain stationary during all tests!” he said loudly over the
ship’s intercom like the drill instructors do at Space School.

The Administrator and Torquay turned immediately and
went back up the stairs. Cassy lingered and shook her fist in the air knowing Toormis
would be looking.

“All dock personnel to report to the Bridge
immediately!”

Cassy smiled and ran up the gangway.

Both the Administrator and Torquay went into the
storeroom to check on Peter. He was still asleep and they were relieved to see
the colour had returned to his face.

“We will need to get him onboard soon,” the
Administrator said.

“It would be wise to leave him here as long as
possible. Let’s make getting him onboard our last task. We don’t want to wake
him if we can help it. He would take too much of our attention.”

“Yes, you are right. I have everything ready to put
onboard from my end. I will do that after one last check of the communication
console upstairs,” the Administrator said and left. Torquay stayed with Peter a
little longer. Cassy came up the stairs and saw him in the storeroom through
the doors.

“How is he Torquay?” Cassy said kneeling down and
looking closely at her brother’s body but knowing someone else was in there,
her face twisted with that thought.

“He’s fine I believe. Toormis told me it affects
everyone differently. It’s interesting though, according to Toormis Johe never
suffered from space sickness. Just goes to show how beings are not their
bodies.”