Pax Imperia (The Redemption Trilogy) (34 page)

Over sixty years old, Captain Vickers was a grey haired, grizzly old bear, who had served in the navy most of his life first in the Imperial Navy and then with the Confederation. Miranda had privately asked Jason one evening why he had not been purged along with the other Imperial Fleet captains, as few had survived. Jason had just laughed, informing her that the Senate had not yet found anybody brave enough to inform the Captain that he had been dismissed, as he would have just shot the messenger and carried on regardless. Captain Vickers was determined to die on the bridge of a warship, either of old age or injuries sustained in battle—whichever happened first.

As they approached the planet, the Communications Officer reported that they were being hailed. With a nod of his head from Captain Vickers the main view-screen came alive to display a young man, wearing an unfamiliar uniform, who, without any preamble, demanded to know the reason for their unannounced arrival.

“The
Warspite
is here to deliver two guests to meet with Senator Calis,” Vickers announced.

“The Senator is currently unavailable. You are welcome to make an appointment and come back at a more mutually convenient time,” the young officer announced.

“Listen son,” Vickers growled. “I did not travel over fifteen light-years to be given a personal out-of-office message from you. If you missed the news, we have a new administration and a new boss. He has an even lower bullshit threshold than me, and that
is
a compliment. Furthermore the
Warspite
is heavily armed with both dorsal and ventral railguns, missiles and a full company of marines. So let the Senator know that either she will be entertaining my guests, or my railguns, followed soon after by a company of marines. It’s her choice.”

With a blink, the young officer announced. “The Senator will see you now.”

“Good choice son.”

After the communication screen cut off, Vickers turned to face Miranda. “There you go girl, delivered safe and sound as promised. If you have any trouble down there, or don’t contact us every twelve hours I’ll level a few cities and then send the marines down to come and fetch you.”

“You don’t happen to be acquainted with Commander Radec do you?” Miranda asked suspiciously, as the Captains plan seemed eerily familiar.

“Of course I do girl. He was a young lieutenant under my command. I taught him everything that I know.”

Miranda was not in the slightest bit surprised.

*****

Robert was halfway through regaling Sofia stories of his childhood, which frequently sent her into gales of laughter, when the aide interrupted them.

“They’re
where
?” he exclaimed in disbelief, glancing at Sofia, but upon noticing her curious expression at the interruption, quickly looked away. “How long?” he demanded his face tight with anger.

“Is something wrong?” Sofia interrupted, before the aide could reply.

“No nothing, just some unexpected visitors,” Robert replied with an apologetic frown. “I am sorry but I will need to cut short this evening, as I need to meet with them. Please excuse me,” he apologised, wiping his mouth with a napkin before getting to his feet.

*****

Miranda had to forcibly close her mouth, as she could only gape at the man standing in front of her, after he had introduced himself. “Senator Calis?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yes, and who the hell are you?” he demanded curtly. “To just show up in orbit unannounced, in blatant breach of our sovereign space I might add, with a naval taskforce and threatening destruction on a planetary wide scale unless I grant you an audience.”

Miranda and Jason were too astonished to respond, glancing at each other in confusion, before Miranda confirmed. “Senator Rione Calis?”

“My mother,” Robert snapped.

“Perhaps we could meet with her—”

“You’re about six months too late for that I am afraid. She’s dead.”

Once again Jason and Miranda could only stare at him in shock. This time it was Jason who recovered first, as, having spent many years in intelligence, he had learnt that those who did not recover quickly from shocks often never recovered at all. Instead he started to look at the man in front of him in a new light, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He was starting to get the sneaking suspicion that he and Miranda had both been sent on a fool’s errand. “Forgive our surprise,” Jason stepped into the conversation smoothly. “We were not aware that the Senator had passed away. You have our sincere apologies. I am Lieutenant Jason Edgar, and this is Miss Miranda Sun. Commander—Emperor Radec sent us here. We had some questions for your mother about the attack on Eden Prime.”

Robert glared at them for a moment, before acknowledging their apology. “I accept your apology, and now that you are aware that my mother is dead, and that your trip was a waste of time and effort, you can show yourselves out. I’m sure you can find your own way, as obviously you found your way in here easily enough.”

“Now that we’re here, perhaps you could answer our questions?” Miranda inquired.

“Now is not a good time,” Robert replied. “I was just in the middle of dinner, I was entertaining—” he abruptly fell silent, remembering whom he was addressing.

“Dinner?” Miranda inserted with forced cheerfulness. “Excellent. We’ve not eaten yet and would be delighted to join you.”

Robert gave them both a hard stare before sighing, realising that he was not going to be rid of them that easily. “Excuse me for just a minute,” he stated, disappearing back through the door where he first appeared. Returning a few minutes later, he escorted them to what was obviously a large dining room, containing a vast table that could easily seat dozens. His half-finished meal, along with two full but untouched wine glasses, seemed very alone in the middle of the table.

As Jason closely observed, a server quickly appeared with a third glass, filling it almost to the brim before unobtrusively vanishing. “I hope we are not interrupting anything?”

“Not at all, a simple dinner by myself, please take a seat,” Robert replied. He motioned to the chairs on either side him where his own plate resided.

As Jason lowered himself into the chair he could feel warmth from the well-worn leather, as if another body had been sitting in the same seat only minutes before. Acting on instinct, he laid his hands, palm down, on the solid oak table in front of him. Again he could feel warmth emanating from the table, as if another plate had been resting on the surface, the heat having been absorbed by the wood. Leaning back in the chair, Jason could just catch a faint hint of a smell. It was light and flowery; perhaps a subtle perfume or lightly scented shampoo? What confused him most was that it caused a spark of memory, as if he had smelt it before, but for the life of him he could not remember when or where. Shrugging off the feeling, he could only assume that somebody else had been sitting in the chair, prior to their arrival. He promptly forgot about the entire train of thought as soon the food arrived.

“So you are the Senator’s only son?” Miranda broke the silence, after additional plates, heaped with food of many different varieties, had been brought out.

“Yes.”

Jason and Miranda exchange glances, remembering the story about the encounter between Jon and the Senator’s son.

“A problem?” Robert inquired, noticing their expressions.

“No. It’s just we’ve heard the story, about how you and Jon first met…” Miranda faltered.

“Indeed, not many people can lay claim to having their nose broken personally by the Emperor.” Robert laughed.

“You don’t hold a grudge?”

“Not at all. The event was quite an eye-opener for me, at least after the swelling went down.” Robert laughed again. “Jon Radec could have killed me but, instead, he spared my life, even complimented me on my bravery. Nobody had ever done that before. Stood up to me like that. I suppose you could say that it changed my life. My mother was furious of course; the Emperor, Sofia’s father, dismissed her demands for Jon to be punished. So she promptly removed us from the
Imperial Star
in protest. Quite fortunately, as it turned out, as soon after Admiral Harkov instigated his coup. Had we remained, I doubt that he would have simply released us. On our return I enrolled in our defence force.”

“I understand that the cause of the disagreement was over the Princess? Is that true?” Miranda pressed curiously, as Jon had been reluctant to give out any further details other than what he confessed to during the senior staff briefing.

“The Princess? You mean Sofia?”

Miranda blinked in surprise, sure that she had been imagining what she thought she saw when he uttered Sofia’s name. It had only been in his eyes for a fraction of a second, but she recognised that look instantly. How many years had she spent with Jon, seeing exactly the same look in his eyes whenever Sofia’s name was mentioned? “My God, you’re in love with her too.” She blurted out the accusation before she could even stop and think.

“What? No!” Robert looked up, startled by the sudden accusation.

“You can protest as much as you like, but you cannot hide it from me. I recognise that look. Is the whole damn galaxy in love with this woman? What is it about her?”

For the first time since they had met Robert’s frown disappeared, and was replaced with a softer, younger, more carefree expression. “Her smile? Her touch?” he proposed. “Or perhaps it is her generous spirit and her desire to help others. Do I love her? Perhaps. But I could never compete—not against Jon Radec. You know I spent many months observing the two of them together? I suppose I was jealous of him, of the way that she used to look at him. Each of them would observe the other, when they thought he or she wasn’t looking. The two of them would automatically gravitate to each other. It didn’t matter how many others were in the room, they would always end up next to each other. And when they thought that nobody else was looking, they would just stare into each other’s eyes, as if everything else was forgotten, leaving the two of them alone, in their own little world.”

Robert continued, in a pained voice, “Do I love her? It doesn't really matter because her heart is no longer hers to give. It has belonged to Jon Radec for the longest of time.” Robert sighed, looking up into Miranda’s gaze, expecting to see pity there, but instead finding compassion, sympathy—and understanding? He was suddenly extremely curious about this beautiful woman seated next to him, who already seemed to know him so intimately. “But you don’t need me to explain, because you already know what I’m talking about, don’t you? How do you know?”

Miranda looked aside, blushing, realising that she had already admitted far too much. It was only Jason’s bewildered gaze, looking first from one, then to the other that reminded them that they were not alone.

“I often take a stroll after dinner, would you care to accompany me?” Robert inquired, wanting to find out more about this intriguing woman, and how she could possibly know him so well. Having a sneaking suspicion that the two of them shared a common heartache.

Miranda considered the offer, as she was also curious to know more about the Jon that this man described. A younger one—less troubled, certainly happier. A man that she only saw such brief tantalising glimpses of. Therefore, with a nod of her head, she rose from her seat and departed with Robert.

Jason watched, open-mouthed in astonishment, as the two of them disappeared together. “Well, I’ll just keep myself company then,” he said out aloud to the now empty room.

*****

“So how long have you known Jon Radec?” Robert inquired, breaking the silence that had fallen as the couple walked through the gardens together for several minutes, both lost in thought.

“A little more than two years,” Miranda replied, taken aback by the question.

“And how long have you been in love with him?”

“A-a little less than two years,” Miranda wavered. “How did you know?”

“The same way you did, I guess, when you were asking me about Sofia. I saw the look in your eyes. You knew exactly what I was talking about.”

“I don’t understand—”

“When you accused me of being in love with the princess.”

“You never answered that question, by the way. You just said that you could never compete.”

“Maybe. Anyway I was younger back then, perhaps it was more by way of a childish infatuation.”

“And now?” Miranda pressed, wondering why the answer seemed so important to her.

“I don’t know,” Robert answered truthfully. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

“It depends on the question.”

“What did you do when you realised that he loved somebody else?”

Miranda did not immediately reply, and Robert was beginning to think she was not going to answer the question at all, when in a quiet voice she replied.

“I wanted to hate her for stealing him away from me, but after I met her I realised that I couldn’t. She was no more at fault than I. You cannot help who you fall in love with. What did I do? I love Jon and I wanted him to be happy. So I stepped aside in the end, although it was the hardest thing I ever had to do.”

Robert stared off into the distance long after she fell silent. The sun was just starting to dip behind the horizon; the clouds tinged with a stunning shade of pink. “You shame me,” he confessed hoarsely. “You make me question my own actions, as love cannot be locked away and denied, but should be set free. You are an intriguing person Miss Sun. I doubt that many others would have acted as selflessly as you.”

For he had spent many hours with Sofia over the past few weeks, unable to ignore any longer the pain in her eyes as she desperately asked after her husband. Now, he was wondering if he could be as strong as this woman and let Sofia go. Unfortunately it was not that easy for him. He had been honest with Sofia when he said that the repercussions of doing so could be fatal, not just for him, but all those who depended on him to keep them safe.

Miranda frowned, wondering what Robert meant by those words, but instead prompted him. “Whatever the cost of hanging on?”

“I wouldn’t say whatever the cost, but it does occur to me that we have a lot in common.” Robert grinned, turning around to face her and taking a step closer.