Pax Imperia (The Redemption Trilogy) (32 page)

“I am worried about Miranda,” Paul admitted. “I didn’t want to say anything in the briefing in front of her. You know how defensive she can get, but I don’t think she should be going. It could be dangerous.”

“She will be perfectly safe,” Jon reassured him.

“You don’t know that,” Paul disagreed. “You know what the Senator is like. You know what she is capable of. I can assure you that she has not mellowed since you last met her.”

“There is no danger.”

“Senator Calis
is
dangerous. I don’t understand why you cannot see that,” Paul insisted. “I know that you care about Miranda, we both do,” Jon raised an eyebrow at this comment, but Paul continued on heedlessly. “I don’t understand how you can so calmly put her at risk.”

“There is no risk. Senator Calis is dead, she has been for almost two months now.”

“What?” Paul exclaimed shocked.

“That is why she was not at the Senate,” Jon explained patiently.

“She’s dead? How?”

Jon shrugged unconcernedly. “The unofficial post mortem concluded she died of a heart attack, but my source informs me that her heart probably had some encouragement to stop. Poison would be my guess.”

“Your source,” Paul repeated with narrow eyes. “This all seeing, all knowing deity that you have never been willing to divulge.”

Jon just shrugged his shoulders. “What can I say? He likes his privacy, and anyway you are much better off keeping your distance. He is a very disagreeable sort.”

“But I don’t understand,” Paul said with a confused expression. “If you knew the Senator was dead, and has been for quite some time, then obviously she cannot have been involved. Hence, why are you so insistent that Miranda goes and meets her?”

“According to my
source
,” Jon emphasised the word with a grin, waving his glass of Scotch in the air simply because he knew it would drive Paul crazy. “Her son, Robert Calis is now in charge. He seems to have the support of their military, having spent most of the past few years working his way up the ranks, and is currently trying to consolidate his position,” Jon explained patiently. “As to why I was so insistent that I wanted Miranda to go, it’s simple. I want her as far away from here as possible. A harmless system, far out on the Rim, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a Confederation Navy taskforce is about the safest possible place that I can think of right now.”

“Her son?” Paul replied surprised. “The one whose nose you broke?”

“The one and the same. He seems to have made quite a name for himself in their defence force,” Jon nodded approvingly.

“Wait one minute,” Paul interrupted, Jon’s earlier words just sinking in. “Why do you want Miranda away from
Terra Nova
? Unless—you think they are going to try again for the boy, Sofia’s son, Marcus. Don’t you?”

Jon looked Paul in the eye for a moment then emptied his glass in a single mouthful. “Yes. As I said in the meeting, I don’t know how or why but this is personal. Whenever they find out that the boy is still alive, they will try again.”

“We’ve already had this argument before, remember? You are very blasé at putting my family at risk.”

“It’s my family too this time,” Jon replied mildly. Attempting to pour himself another glass, he found that the bottle was already empty and set it back down on the table despondently. “They’re going to be in danger wherever they go. This happens to be the safest place that I can think of at the moment, apart from putting them on a ship with Miranda.

Observing Jon closely, Paul realised he already had too much to drink, and perhaps, if pushed, “What are you going to do about him?”

“About who?”

“The boy, Marcus. Sofia’s son.”

Jon stood up, walked to the small viewport in his personal quarters and stared out, lost in thought for a long time, before replying hesitantly. “I promised them, I swore on my life to the Emperor that I would protect his family. All of his family, including Marcus.”

“And are you going to try and find out who the father is?” Paul asked tentatively. “With the Emperor and Sofia now gone, he is the only family that the boy has left.”

“Marcus already has a family,” Jon replied firmly. “My parents. Me. I don’t want to know who Sofia turned to after I left.”

Paul was silent for a long time, staring at his oldest friend in contemplation, before finally dipping his head in acknowledgement. “I’ll be sure to let David know.”

“Good. Also brief him about the
Erebus
depot; give him the necessary codes and tell him to take whatever he feels necessary,” Jon added, still with his back to Paul.

“You sure about that Jon? That is a closely guarded secret. I thought that they were meant to only be used as a last resort.”

“They were put there to defend the Empire—against any threat. I think that time is long overdue, don’t you?”

“Very well, I’ll let David know. Is there anything else?”

“You are my oldest and most trusted friend, therefore I can only ask this of you. If anything happens to me, promise me that you will look after my family? Especially the boy. He is all that I have left of Marcus and Sofia,” Jon pleaded.

“I will look after him as if he was my own, but nothing is going to happen to you.”

“It’s just a feeling I cannot shake. As if my time is fast running out. The informant on Eden Prime said that a storm is coming, and I believe him. It’s coming, and I’m now all that is left to stand in its path. And I don’t think I can stop it.”

“Then don’t do it alone. Let us help you.”

“Thanks Paul.”

Jon turned to watch Paul depart and, as the door slid shut behind him, he turned back to look out of the small viewport. “Not this time,” he whispered to the empty room. “This time I stand alone. Too many people that I love have already died.”

*****

With a sigh Jon turned around to face the station one last time. Having spent most of the past few years of his life here, it was the closest that he had to call home. However, it was not his home and never really had been. His place had always been at the side of the Emperor and with Sofia. This had simply been a convenient place to hide away, from his mistakes and fears. But he could hide no longer.

“Goodbye old friend,” he uttered affectionately, laying the palm of his hand flat against the bulkhead.

“So you can say goodbye to your station, but not me?” Miranda’s amused voice floated through the air.

“Now that you are in charge around here, I doubted that I was going to get permission to depart until I had said a proper goodbye,” Jon grinned, as he opened his arms to her. As she stepped into his embrace, he tightly wrapped his arms around her. “Goodbye Miranda,” he breathed into her neck.

“You stay safe, okay?” She returned the embrace just as tightly.

“You too.”

“I’m sure that the meeting with the Senator will go fine,” she replied with just a hint of doubt.

Jon just smiled knowingly at her, “I’m sure that everything will work out fine. Who knows, you might even be surprised at who you find there. You look after my station now,” Jon added with a laugh, easing himself from her embrace.

With a final wave of goodbye, he stepped up the boarding ramp of the
Endless Light
, disappearing into the ship.

“Light, are we ready to depart?” he called out.

“Yes Commander, all pre-flight checks have now been completed,” the ship responded. “Please select destination coordinates for the navigational computer.”

“Home,” Jon replied unthinkingly.

After a momentarily pause the ship repeated, “Please select destination coordinates for the navigational computer.”

Which was the ships way of asking where the hell was home these days, Jon sadly concluded. “Confederation flagship
Relentless
, 8
^th
Fleet, in orbit around Altair V,” Jon clarified.

*****

Stepping out of the
Endless Light
onto the flight deck of the
Relentless,
Jon immediately noticed the line of troops at parade ground rest, with the senior officers neatly aligned in front of them. Standing at the front of the line to greet him was Admiral Romanov. The moment that he stepped onto the flight deck the crew immediately saluted, the senior officers falling to one knee, the Admiral included, bowing down before him.

In Jon’s opinion, as a welcome home, it was more than a little overdone.

He acknowledged them with a salute, before quickly dismissing them all. After all it would be embarrassing for the ship to collide into something, as all the senior staff were busy prostrating at his feet. He noticed that one figure had not moved, Admiral Romanov was still on one knee, head bowed, a few feet in front of him.

“Anna, I have already told you once before, there is no need to kneel before me,” he reminded her gently.

“Proper Fleet etiquette needs to be adhered to at all times,” Anna replied, adding after a pause, “My Emperor.”

Jon winced at the biting tone of her voice. It was obvious that she was quietly furious. “Sorry about departing without any forewarning,” he apologised belatedly.

“It is my responsibility to protect you, my Lord. A little hard to do when you up and vanish,” she carried on, as if she had not heard a word that he had said.

Jon corrected his earlier thought, she was
royally
pissed off. “I apologise. It won’t happen again,” he said stiffly, remembering all the times Marcus had vanished without any forewarning. “Let me buy you dinner to make up for it.”

For the first time since his arrival Anna looked up into his eyes. “I was not aware that the navy charged for food these days.”

“It was worth a try,” he laughed. “Obviously you are not a cheap date. How about, dinner, dessert
and
coffee then?”

“I guess that you have tried that line before,” Anna smirked.

“Many times.”

“Did it ever work before?”

“Never,” he added with a broad smile, offering his hand to her.

Accepting the hand, she struggled to her feet, laughing. “Okay, then I’ll accept, and it can be a first for you.”

Motioning her ahead of him toward the exit from the flight deck, he enquired. “So how goes my Empire? Has it collapsed from my absence yet?”

“Not yet,” Anna reassured him. “But there have been reports of increasing pirate attacks and the Planetary Governor here has been demanding an audience with you to know when their Tachyon relay is going to be replaced.”

“Looks like it will have to be a short dinner,” Jon sighed. “We will be lucky to make it through dessert, let alone coffee.”

Chapter Twelve

Callas Prime, Tau Ceti System, Callas Star Cluster

Rolling over onto her side, Sofia leaned into her husband’s warm embrace. She let out a quiet, satisfied sigh, refusing to open her eyes, instead trying to shrug off the nightmare that she just had. She could still picture the scene of the shells impacting the Senate, the blinding light, and the heart-stopping fear.

She struggled to open her eyes, blinking several times to try and clear her vision. Like every other part of her body, they responded sluggishly, taking a long time to focus, as if her eyes had been shut for an overly long period of time. As her eyes came to rest on the person sitting beside her, she felt the caress of his hands suddenly vanish, and moaned at the loss of his touch.

It was not until her vision cleared and her brain started to process the images that she realised the handsome man sitting beside her was not her husband. He was dressed in a dark uniform that she did not recognise, and had black hair and warm brown eyes, high cheekbones and a determined chin that defined his face. The uniform emphasised his long, firm limbs and broad chest. The man had an aura of quiet authority about him, almost bordering on arrogance. Obviously he was a man used to giving orders.

“Robert?” Sofia replied confused and disorientated. “Robert Calis?” she echoed, as she almost did not recognise him. The last time that she had seen the man was almost five years before, on the
Imperial Star
, just before she and Jon had been forced to flee from Harkov. “What are you doing here?” she asked. Looking around, she did not recognise her surroundings, and was definitely no longer in her home on Eden Prime. “Where am I?” she asked in a daze.

“It’s okay,” Robert reassured her soothingly. “You are safe and well and that is all you need to know at the moment. As to where here is, you are at my home, my personal apartments on Callas Prime.”

“Callas Prime? But what am I doing here?” she replied confused. “The last thing that I remember is—” but the last thing that she remembered was the horrific nightmare that she had woken up to, with death and destruction raining down all around her. Worse she remembered with absolute fear, something that she
had
to do. “My father!” she cried out in terror. “I must go to him, he needs my help.” Sofia tried to sit up, but once again her limbs failed to respond and she would have fallen, had Robert not caught her in time.

“Sofia stop,” he instructed her firmly. “There is nothing you can do. You must rest now and let your body recover. You are safe here and that is all that’s important.”

“My father,” she begged him. “Where is he? What has happened to him? Is he also safe?” Robert didn’t need to reply, as she could see the answer in his eyes, as he looked away, refusing to meet her gaze. “Tell me,” she begged, desperately reaching out to him.

He caught her hand in his own, bringing it to his chest as he first looked back at her hesitantly, before finally focusing on their hands. “I am so sorry Sofia, there was nothing that I could do for him. Your father was already in the Senate at the time of the attack,” he trailed off sadly.

“My father?” she asked again, helplessly.

“I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you. Your father died in the attack. Marcus Aurelius is dead.”

For the longest time Sofia just could not accept the news. She had spent years coming to terms with his loss, only to find that he had not in fact died, but instead been held captive, imprisoned by Sejanus, once a loyal Praetorian, but who had been dismissed and turned against his former master. Only now to be informed that once again he was gone, torn from her, but this time forever. Unable to find the words, she instead sobbed loudly, tears running down her grief-stricken face.