The Szuiltan Alliance (The Szuiltan Trilogy) (20 page)

"We can tell you on the way Marm, but the Leader requests your presence immediately. He is in a room down the corridor."

Carina remembered now. Carlton had left the bed some hours ago to attend a meeting to finalise plans for the ceremony of the signing.

She grabbed a thin, ankle length dressing gown from the wardrobe and pulled it on.

"Is the Leader in danger? Am I in danger?" She tied the belt quickly as she spoke.

"The threat is unclear Marm, but the Leader wishes you with him."

Without another word she hurried out of the room flanked by the two soldiers. Her stomach fluttered with fear but she maintained her outward composure. She noted that both soldiers had drawn their weapons and heard, with a further twist in her insides, the sound of safety catches being clicked off.

Still the alarm screeched through her head.

She wanted to shout questions at the two soldiers, but their attention was firmly on the corridor around them.

There were four more Aksian soldiers clustered around a door further down. They too had their weapons drawn and had the look of those about to enter battle. Wary, nervous, agitated, hyped up on adrenaline.

The door slid open and she was hustled inside. The two soldiers who had escorted her entered also and remained by the now closed door.

Leader Carlton strode to her and took her in his arms. He kissed her briefly on the mouth and smiled.

"I'm glad you're here."

Was the smile strained? Carina detected something behind that smile. Carlton was worried, perhaps even a little frightened.

She became aware of the others in the room, the Leader's top advisors, most of whom she knew personally, and more soldiers. The room seemed filled with people.

"What's going on Jimmy?"

Carlton unfolded his arms from around her and led her to a vacant chair by the single desk in the room.

"We're not sure yet, but our initial reports are of an attack on the Earth Controller."

Carina was stunned. "When?"

"Just a few minutes ago. As soon as the alarm went off we were in touch with the Stain Commanders here. They told us of the attack, nothing more."

"But who..."

"We don't know," said Commander Felton, stepping forward. The Leader's Senior Military Advisor had strapped on his handgun, she noticed, something he had never done before in all the time she had known him.

"Two things are certain," said Carlton, turning to face the others in the room and addressing everyone generally. "One is that whoever carried out the attack might equally try to attack us, and two is that the Earth contingent are bound to at least suspect our hand in this somewhere."

"Surely they wouldn't believe that?" said Councillor Morgan, the soft lilt of his accent all but submerged beneath a tremor of fear. "You don't think they'd try and retaliate do you?"

"If we had been attacked, the Earth contingent here would have been our first suspects," said Commander Felton. "If we had felt there was sufficient proof we would have retaliated."

"But there won't be any proof. We didn't do it!" Councillor Morgan again. His voice betrayed the fear he felt, fear shared by many in the room, but most made at least an outward show of controlling it.

Carina was frightened too. She was as afraid of death, particularly a violent death, as anyone else, but she too controlled it. She was official mistress to the Leader of Aks and, although she knew that most of those in the room saw her as little more than decoration, she would not let them think of her as a whimpering coward. When she spoke, several in the room were surprised by the strength in her voice.

"We are well guarded here by our own troops, but can we trust the Stains? There are only a small number of us compared to the military strength of Stain aboard this station."

Carlton nodded, a faint smile on his lips. He had always known that Carina was strong and intelligent. He thought it about time that some of those of a superior attitude among his advisor discovered it too.

"I still hold a fundamental belief in Stain's neutrality," he said. "However, it would be foolish to risk all our lives on such an admittedly unproven belief."

"Plans are already under way for our move to the shuttle and back to the fleet," said Commander Felton. "I think we had best stay among the safety of our ships until this is cleared. At this time we have no real idea what's happening or how safe or otherwise this station now is."

"I agree," said Carlton, taking Carina's hand and helping her to her feet.

Carina watched thoughtfully as Commander Felton spoke briefly into the communicator in the wristband of his tunic. Obviously the answer satisfied him as he began organising the soldiers in the room. The situation was dangerous, that would have been obvious even to a fool, but it was confusing as well. Who would attack the Earth Controller? She was certain that neither the Leader nor any of his immediate entourage would have sanctioned such a thing. But who other than Aks stood to gain from an assassination attempt on the Earth Controller? And, perhaps just as important in regard to their current safety, had it been successful?

The advisors were being herded like cattle by the soldiers into the middle of the room. She allowed herself to be led by the Leader into the centre. The advisors were nervous, frightened. She could not blame them. The Commander's organisation of them was for one particular reason, a reason they would all be aware of. For anyone to attack the Leader they would first have to kill the soldiers and the advisors surrounding him. They were nothing more than an expendable human shield.

Leader Carlton showed no change of expression but Carina felt his grip on her hand tighten as the door to the room slid open. She glanced at him. He was frightened too, she knew, just as much as the rest of them, but he could not,
would
not show it. He had to set an example. For maybe the first time in their relationship she felt respect for him, respect as a leader of men. She could not love him as he wanted her to, but if they came through this danger alive she would try to treat him better than she had. He deserved more than the manipulation she had always indulged in.

The Aksian soldiers who had remained outside in the corridor now joined the head of the group, leading the way as the untidy convoy of people hurried out of the room.

There was no panic, Carina noted. Felton's soldiers were doing an admirable job of controlling the frightened politicians around her. These were the same politicians who, at home on Aks, would stride up and down the corridors of their official residences, snapping orders at these same soldiers, reporting them for the slightest hair out of place or unfastened button. She found it ironic how they now followed those soldiers like frightened sheep, eager to do as they were told. How long would it be after this, she wondered, before they returned to their old arrogant ways? She hoped the soldiers were enjoying their moment of power.

They were almost at the hanger area now, their progress surprisingly easy and uneventful. She could hear the faint humming of shuttle engines, their own shuttle she was sure, ready and waiting to take them to the safety of the Leader's cruiser and the surrounding presence of the Aksian fleet. She allowed herself a brief sigh of relief. They had almost made it. She squeezed Carlton's hand and he turned and smiled at her.

The first explosions blasted dust and debris into her face.

She screamed, temporarily deaf and blind, and felt her grip on Carlton's hand slip. Someone pushed past her and she fell, twisting her ankle, landing on something soft, another person, someone sobbing and shaking.

As hearing returned she could make out gunfire, the screech of ricochets, the screams of the dying and injured. She was aware of shouting too. Orders, demands, curses. The politicians were huddled on the floor around her, trying to hide, trying to survive the vicious firefight that raged around them. Desperately she searched for Carlton, but he was not among them, and then she realised. She looked up.

Carlton still stood, his expression defiant, a weapon taken from a fallen soldier in his hand, spitting bullets towards the enemy, leading by example as always.

The enemy. Where were the enemy?

She could hear the gunfire, see the Aksian soldiers fighting around her, fighting and, in many cases, dying in grim explosions of blood. She could make out faint shadows, figures in the smoke caused by the sparks and fires that raged along the corridor, but she could not see them clearly enough to know if they wore uniforms. Who were they? Earth? Stain? Who?

She could hear Felton, shouting at Carlton to get down, shouting at the others to get up and move. She could see the logic. The Leader was too clear a target while he stood and the others cowered on the floor. Felton wanted the human shield in place again. Well, she too could lead by example.

She pushed herself to her feet, determined to stand alongside Carlton. Perhaps she could shame the others into following her? She knew in that moment that she desperately wanted Carlton to live. Despite the preparations and the thought she had given to surviving into any new regime that might rise she realised now, with a shocking clarity, that she enjoyed her situation with Carlton. The thought of becoming the official mistress to a new Leader was both hateful and unbearable. She turned to the politicians around her and screamed at them to get up.

Hesitantly, some of them started to move, started to stand. She could see it in their eyes, hatred, contempt at the way she was shaming them into risking their lives. How could they stay huddled on the floor when the Leader's official mistress, a person of little significance in their world of power and politics, stood bravely at his side? The human shield was rising.

Too late!

Blood spattered Carina's dressing gown as the first bullet gouged a bloody furrow through Carlton's shoulder. The gun dropped from his hand, clattering noisily on the floor even in the clamour of the battle.

She turned to him, reaching out, as the second and third bullets thudded into his chest, explosive charges shattering his ribs, pulverising his heart.

Leader Carlton was already dead as the final symbolic touch span through the air towards him.

Carina heard the swish, the susurration of air. She turned. Something was flashing through the air. She felt the breeze of its passing as it narrowly missed her head.

The
bolargo
wrapped itself almost elegantly about the Leader's neck, the heavy wooden hand-grips at each end crossing and re-crossing each other, the serrated wire between them twisting and sawing. It snapped shut, the wire untangling, straightening itself, dropping to the floor at her feet.

She watched, stunned and speechless, as Carlton's head toppled sideways, rolling off his shoulders, bouncing hideously on the floor, coming to rest against the wall, his sightless eyes staring at her, blood spurting from the severed arteries.

As his body collapsed in a bloody fountain, she found her voice and screamed.

Chapter 34

Suzex sat on the only chair in the otherwise empty room. It moulded itself to his body and began to gently massage his back. He noted the logo in the arm.

Reagold Corporation. A rare import no doubt.

He had arrived on Szuilta less than fifteen minutes ago, his fast ship having been allowed through the cordon of Szuiltan escorts constantly patrolling nearby space. One of the translator globes had led him into this building and then this room. He had not given any reason for his visit, nor had he asked any questions. The Szuiltans did not need the former and would not give answers to the latter. There had seemed little point in pursuing either.

Now he waited for an audience with the Szuiltan President.

He had met the President twice before, but the prospect of another meeting still made him nervous. Suzex was a proud man, proud of his strength, proud of his courage and his intelligence. The Szuiltan President was the only creature he had ever faced that made him nervous. Except, perhaps, for Miar Shrilor.

Thoughts of Shrilor fired the rage that still burned inside him. That bastard Lescight! One day he would have his revenge on Shrilor and on all those arrogant, self important, self appointed guardians of so called right and justice, the Trading Inner Council. Shrilor had retired, so he had heard. Well, there were ways of bringing him out of retirement.

A door dissolved in the far wall and Suzex rose from his chair. It would be discourteous to receive the Szuiltan President seated.

First through the door were two Bosens. Suzex had guessed as much, partly because they always preceded the President and partly because he could smell them before they entered. They stood one either side of the door and were followed by a translator globe, floating some six feet off the ground, undulating and pulsing as it approached within three feet of Suzex.

The President of Szuilta followed silently.

Suzex had never been able to surmise whether the flotation was natural or technological. The President’s jelly-like form spread shapelessly into the space ahead of him, shimmering and undulating like an enormous water droplet held together only by surface tension. He didn't so much float as pour himself from one position to the next.

Suzex cleared his throat and waited. He knew from past experience that the President would not pause long before speaking, and that when he did speak it would be of importance. He was not one for prevarication.

 "Welcome Mr Suzex. I hope the news is good?"

Although the voice emanated from the translator globe, a large bubble pulsed on one side of the Szuiltan President with each word.

"Very good Mr President." Why did this alien unnerve him so much? He had met creatures of all kinds in his life, some even worse looking than this Szuiltan, yet there was a barely hidden and massive potential for danger and violence in the Szuiltans that even a man of Suzex's history felt wary of. Plus the simple and unavoidable fact that the Szuiltans were both alien and
intelligent
.