Death to the Imperium (Imperium Cicernus) (22 page)

She
swallowed. “It’s up to you, Doland. It’s your choice.”

Doland
was visibly shaking with terror. The poor man was obviously terrified. But who
wouldn’t be? Hell, he was thinking about turning into a nightmarish, monstrous
creature.

“I’ll
do it,” he said, his lips trembling. He turned to Tekka. “I’ll stand just in
front of the force vault. As soon as I change, push me straight through the
barrier. I’ll hopefully retain enough of myself to destroy the machine once I
am inside. We’ll see.”

Tekka
nodded. “Very well.”

The
Lieutenant offered Doland his hand. “You are the bravest man I ever had the
privilege of serving with,” he said.

Everyone
looked miserable, and Doland felt his knees trembling. A large part of him
seemed ready to fly into panic. Was he making a terrible mistake? He was
talking about
losing his very life
. Was he ready to die? He had never
really considered the idea of death, but now the concept of eternal blackness filled
his mind. Never again would he experience a planetary sunset, or taste the
sweetness of Star One sherry. He would simply… be gone.

Then,
as he stared into the electric blue of the force vault, he felt a strange
peacefulness come over him. It was remarkable; if he had believed in a divine
deity, he might almost have supposed that he had been touched by God’s own
hand. For the first time in his life, a transcendental warmth filled his body.
Doland smiled, and took one last look at his friends. He embraced Glitz, and
then turned to Alyce, who leaned forward to kiss him on the lips.

“Goodbye,”
he said simply, and walked to the force vault. He paused right at the edge of
the crackling energy field, his nose almost brushing the crackling force. He
turned with a slight inclination of his head, and nodded at Tekka. “I’m ready.”

Glitz
stepped forward and stood to the side of Doland, ready to shove him through the
force vault as soon as he transformed. He knew that if he pushed him a moment
too soon, Doland would be killed instantly. Tekka, who had attached a
dispersion unit to the end of his sonic blaster, brushed his finger against the
trigger which would cause a stream of radiation to stream towards Doland.

“Goodbye,
friend,” Tekka said, and fired the blaster.

The
laser energy streamed out, exciting the nanoparticles. Doland did not fall to
his knees this time. The reaction was instantaneous. Sharp claws shot out from
his limbs, and his skin turned dark and tough. The Weerm turned his head
sharply and hissed at Glitz.

Wasting
no time, Glitz leapt forward and kicked Doland squarely in the back. The
Weerm, taken by surprise, was thrown through the barrier, straight into the
force vault. Enraged, the creature let out a howl of fury. With inhuman anger,
Doland the Weerm turned to Ozytan’s diabolical machine, and began to take his
anger out on the controls. A couple of furious blade slashes severed the
connection to the main sequencer. Then a swift knee-stroke destroyed the main particle
incubator. With one last savage cry, Doland launched an attack on the nuclear source,
disuniting the power source from the machine.

In
his blind fury, Doland had damaged the outer protective guard of the nuclear source.
There was a massive, fiery explosion, which was contained inside the force
vault. The flames shot right up to the ceiling, touching the antimatter
battery. The safety shield kicked in before the integrity of the power source
was lost; a miniature force vault opened around the antimatter battery, which
had the effect both of protecting itself and disabling the main force vault.

The
flames died down quickly, absorbed by the nuclear dampers. Doland was left on
the floor, lying in a pile of mangled machinery. Everyone was quiet for a
moment, then Alyce ran to Doland, and flipped him over, expecting to see the
corpse of a burned-out Weerm.

But
his flesh had once again become white.

“Doland?”

He
coughed and spluttered; his eyelids flickered open. “Alyce?”

“Get
someone from medical here right away!” Alyce shouted.

Tekka
approached the man slowly, his eyes wide with surprise. The plan had worked
perfectly, and Ozytan’s machine had been destroyed. Now no more people would be
turning into Weerms; the Imperium had been saved. But he couldn’t understand
why Doland had survived. That nuclear blast had been enough to destroy a small
moon; if it hadn’t been for the force vault, and then the nuclear dampers, they
would all have been wiped out. So how had Doland survived? Was it possible that
he had made an error in calculation? If so, it would be the second error of his
life—and one that he would actually have been
glad
to have made. But
Tekka knew when he seriously considered the situation that he hadn’t
miscalculated. Now that he came to think about it, a lot of things didn’t make
sense.

Why
had Doland’s transmogrification on Mazaroth disrupted his DNA to the point when
he no longer registered as human? And what were the chances of the two men
meeting again on Rechya, totally coincidentally? And how had Doland reverted
back to human form after being re-transmogrified, when the process should have
technically either been permanent or killed him? And now the man had survived a
nuclear blast without a single scar…

There
was something very peculiar about Raja Doland…

“Who
are you,” Tekka whispered, as the medical crew took him away. “Who are you,
Raja Doland?”

“We
won!” Captain Alyce Wickham said.

A
cheer rose up from the men congregating around the control room. The bodies of
the Weerms had been cleared away, and a post-battle team would be arriving
shortly, both to collect the bodies and to obtain as much data as possible
before clearing up the station. It had been sad to lose the Marines that had been
transmogrified into Weerms, but everyone knew that things could have been
worse. A lot worse. If Ozytan’s plan had succeeded, the Imperium itself would
have crumbled overnight. The Zierons might have predicted that it would end in one
thousand years anyway, but that was a long time away…

“You
all fought valiantly,” Lieutenant Jameson said, including both his men and the
rest of the people on the flight deck in his expansive gesture. “And you all
have much cause to be proud of yourselves.”

“It
is regretful that lives were lost today,” Alyce went on, “and I know that some
of you will have been very close to the Marines that were sadly killed. But I
want you to know that their deaths were absolutely not in vain. Because of the
bravery of all of you Marines, the safety of the Imperium has been maintained.”

“Navy
and Marines unite!” one of the men shouted, and everyone laughed. The Navy and
the Marines had a historic rivalry—it was largely good-natured, but
occasionally things could get ugly. But when they needed to, the two military
groups could work together astonishingly well—and the Battle of Station 949 had
been an excellent example of that.

Captain
Wickham, after the clean-up team had arrived, took her men—Glitz, Tekka, Doland
and the Marines—back to the
Deliverer
, and asked Seraph to set a course
for Lightworld. She had never liked military debriefings, but it was a
necessary part of the job. It would be a little different this time, however,
as she would likely be considered the hero of the hour. Hopefully being a hero
wouldn’t involve any additional paperwork. Alyce had a distinct feeling that it
might.

When
they were on the way back to the Volori System, Alyce relaxed in the command
chair on the flight deck, letting her muscles loosen for the first time. As she
sat facing the hexagonal display screens, she felt two strong hands begin to
massage her shoulders. From touch alone, she knew that it was Glitz. She tilted
her head back to look at him, and smiled. Glitz rubbed her shoulders firmly, pressing
out the tension knots that had appeared. He had a quick glance behind him; they
were alone on the flight deck, so they could talk privately.

“You
know that thing you said back on the base…” Glitz said softly. “You know, when
those Weerms were pointing their guns at us… Did you mean it?”

Alyce
sighed, and turned her command chair around to face him, preventing him from
rubbing her shoulders any further. “Look, Glitz. What I said… I thought we were
about to die. I… didn’t want to die without saying it. But we didn’t die.”

Glitz
frowned. “So it wasn’t true?”

“I
didn’t say that. I
do
love you, Glitz. But I was foolish to admit it.”
She hesitated, trying to find the right words. She knew what she had to get
across, but she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “We’re from different worlds,
you and me.”

“You
mean you’re too good for me?”

“You’re
putting words in my mouth. I’ve just seen so many romantic relationships
between members of the Navy and civilians—too many to think that anything good
can come from them. They invariably end in upset. I care for you, Glitz, but I
can’t just drop everything and fly away with you. I’ve spent years building up
my career. How could I just throw it all away?”

Glitz
paused to consider. “I wouldn’t dream of asking you to abandon your career for
me.”

“Well,
I’m glad you understand.” Alyce’s voice had changed suddenly. It had become
once again cool and magisterial.

“You
know what I think?” Glitz said, annoyed by her manner. “I think you’re scared
of getting close to someone. I think you’re sabotaging this relationship
because you’re frightened.”

“What
relationship?” Alyce felt her temper flaring. “We slept together twice!”

“Yes,
and then you said you loved me!”

“I
did, but then I explained that it couldn’t work!” She took a deep breath.
“Dismissed, Mr. Glitz.”

Glitz
stared at her, his eyes cold. “Certainly,
Captain
.”

He
marched out of the flight deck, and Alyce immediately instructed Seraph to seal
the doors. She wanted to be alone. Burying her face in her palms, she began to
cry. She
did
love Glitz—she truly did. But it couldn’t work, could it? She
would be abandoning everything. But did Glitz have a point? Was she just
running away because she was afraid of getting too close to someone? She had
never said the words “I love you” to anyone before. Had she made herself
vulnerable by admitting her feelings for him?

She
shook her head, and wiped her tears away roughly. She was being ridiculous. The
idea of a Navy captain giving up her career to run away with a convicted
criminal… well, it was preposterous. Still, she had previously admitted that
many elements of life in the Navy had left her disillusioned. Maybe it
was
time for her to move on. She scowled. Her mental arguments would often proceed
in a similar way. She would bounce back and forth between opposing viewpoints,
unable to settle on an opinion. She needed to make a resolve, and stick with
it.

And
so she made her resolve, and decided that she would not change her mind.

***

Captain
Alyce Wickham was sitting in a Debriefing Room along with the Admiralty Board
of the Imperial Navy. She had been sitting there for several hours, making yet
another report. She had done nothing but make reports for nearly three days. The
admirals, along with some other experts that were present, had questioned and
cross-questioned her on every point, seeking to extract every possible detail.
She knew that Glitz and the others would be undergoing a similar process. It
was soul-destroying, but she was being treated well. Finally, the admirals
seemed satisfied with the information that they had acquired from her.

“Thank
you, Captain Wickham,” the First Naval Lord said. “You may leave.”

“With
permission, sir, I would like to ask the Admiralty Board something.”

“Go
ahead.”

Alyce
took a deep breath. “I am considering leaving the Imperial Navy. I have served
for longer than the minimum five years required.”

The
First Naval Lord tapped the table. “It would be a great shame to lose you,
Captain. I must confess that I had great doubts about the appointment of a
female Captain, even after your successful mission to Chaos. But you have
proven yourself, beyond a doubt, to be better and braver than any man I have
ever met.”

Alyce
felt her cheeks burning with pride. “Thank you very much, sir.”

“Why
do you want to leave?” Admiral Trenna said.

She
paused. She could hardly admit the truth to the Admiralty Board, that she was
considering leaving because she had fallen in love with an ex-convict. They
would think her to be a fool. There was a large part of her that considered
herself a fool. But she could not lie to them either.

“The
battle has caused me to rethink my life,” she said slowly, carefully avoiding
falsehoods. “Although I have been happy to serve the Imperium for years, I believe
it may be time to seek out other ways to be of service.”

The
First Naval Lord nodded slowly. “So what do you intend to do?”

“I
think I will leave.”

“You
should be aware that if you choose to leave, we will be forced to requisition
your ship, the
Deliverer
. I understand that this may be difficult for
you, but we simply could not have such a dangerous ship in civilian hands. We
would, of course, arrange for suitable compensation to be made.”

Alyce
suppressed a sarcastic grin. The
Deliverer
was an astonishing ship, a
product of alien technology. It seemed unlikely that the humans would ever come
close to producing such a fine vessel. It was priceless, and thus any
compensation would never be able to fully cover its value. However, the First
Naval Lord’s words came as no surprise. She had fully expected the Navy to
confiscate the ship if she left; that was one of her main internal arguments
against leaving. In a flash of sudden inspiration, Alyce realised the real
reason that the First Naval Lord had kept her ship behind while the others went
into combat. It hadn’t been because she was a woman. It was because he hadn’t
wanted to damage his prize.

So
she faced the most difficult choice of her life. She could either stay in the
Navy, keeping the ship built by the alien race that she had dreamed about since
childhood, or she could abandon everything and run away with a smuggler. If she
did
choose the latter option, would she be happy?

“Do
not feel the need to rush into a decision,” Admiral Trenna said.

Alyce
forced a smile. “Thank you, sir, but I have made my decision. I wish to—”

***

Glitz
scowled as he made his way down the long corridor. He was being escorted back
to the
Deliverer
by a young Navy officer, but he secretly doubted that
he would be allowed to board the ship. It seemed highly unlikely that the Navy
would allow an ex-con back on board an alien super-ship—not now that the
immediate crisis was over. No, he was sure that they would want to confiscate
it, perhaps to pull it apart and cannibalise the components. Either way, he
wasn’t sure that he
wanted
to go back on board. Alyce had made it
perfectly clear that she wasn’t interested in a relationship. The Zierons had
given the ship to both of them, technically speaking, but he wasn’t going to
argue with the Imperial Navy. No, he would probably use some of the money he
received for selling the Cellzers, and buy himself a new ship. The
Merchant’s Bad Luck
, perhaps, would be a fitting name, after his recent
disappointment.

He
had been subjected to a thorough grilling by several senior Navy officers; he,
Tekka, Doland and Alyce had all been briefed separately, according to standard
Navy procedure. The Marines, too, had been questioned. The thorough examination
had taken almost three days, during which time Glitz had almost lost the will
to live. Now that the debriefing process had been completed, a victory
celebration was to be held on Strobe, a party moon. The whole affair was strictly
classified, and the general public would never be allowed to find out about
Ozytan or his terrible mission to turn a third of the humans into Weerms. No,
they had simply been informed that a mad rebel attacked an Imperial station,
and was promptly destroyed. Glitz didn’t think he would be travelling to Strobe
with the others. Sure, he liked a good party, but Alyce would certainly be
there. He didn’t want things to be awkward. He was not the kind of man who
would spend weeks pining after a woman that he couldn’t have. He was realistic
about these things. He was old enough to realise that life was mostly shit,
with perhaps a few enjoyable moments thrown in.

When
he reached the
Deliverer
, he stepped inside cautiously, thanking his
escort for showing him the way. There was no sign of Navy occupation, and no
one tried to prevent his entrance. Inside, Alyce was sitting alone on the
flight deck. She got up from the sofa as soon as she saw him.

“Glitz.
We need to talk.”

“I
don’t think so.” Glitz shook his head. “I think we’ve done all the talking
necessary. Now it’s time to move on.”

“Please,”
Alyce said, pointing to the sofa. “Please humour me.”

He
nodded reluctantly, and joined her on the sofa. Alyce had changed into normal
civilian clothing, which had been a welcome relief after wearing her uniform
for so long. She looked very pretty, Glitz had to admit. She was wearing a
black skirt and blouse, and her face was fresh. She seemed a little nervous.

“I
spoke to the admirals,” she said. “They said they wanted to keep the ship.”

“No
surprise there. I suppose they’ll find you another vessel to command.”

“No,
you don’t understand. I asked for permission to leave the Navy. And the admirals
said that if I chose to leave, I would have to give up the
Deliverer
. I
had to decide between staying in the Navy and keeping the ship, and… well, and
you
.”

Glitz
paused, trying to understand what she was getting at. “So… what did you
decide?”

“We
came to a compromise.” Alyce took a deep breath. “I have decided to leave the
Navy, with immediate effect. Usually, officers have to give a fourteen-week
notice period, but after the battle they decided to let me go earlier. And I
have been allowed to keep the ship, as long as I stay in the special reserves.
That means that if they
really
need me, I will return, and the
Deliverer
will once again be at their disposal. They’ve fitted the ship with a recall
beam, so they can take control over the ship and bring it back at any time.”

“So…
so you’ve really left?”