Silent Rising, Page 5

Maximus?”

  Her metal mouth and eyebrows took a downturn. “He was my father, Your Highness.”

  “Was?” Lucius asked.

  “He died defending the emperor.”

  Where his place should be, thought Lucius. “A true soldier,” he said, and then moved his eyes at Doctor Modius. “I presume this is the infirmary on Aquila.”

  “You presume well, Your Highness,” Modius said.

  “Good. Now take me to my palace,” said Lucius. “I have a score to settle and an empire to rule.”

  All four exchanged glances. Modius rubbed his hands nervously as if wondering how to say his next words.

  “Say what you have, doctor, and get me to my palace.”

  “Umm, that might be impossible at this time, Your Highness.”

  Lucius raised an eyebrow. “Impossible, you say?”

  Arrius stepped forward. “Palatine has fallen.”

  “Fallen?” Lucius almost choked on the word. “I will smash those Bion savages for the insult!”

  “They were not Bions, Your Highness,” Arrius said. “It was the Praetorian Guard.”

  Suddenly Lucius remembered. Macrinus’s voice played back in his head – Something is happening, Lucius. The Praetorian fleet is moving over the palace. I am reading reports about riots on Palatine ... Wait! My prince, your father, he – he’s dead! Lucius’s eyes opened wide. “Furius,” he said. It was only logical that Furius was behind it. He was the General of the Praetorian Guard.

  “No, Your Highness,” said Arrius, “they found General Furius dead inside the palace, right before the Praetorian Guard made their move. It was someone else.”

  Lucius felt a sudden heat rising from the inside. He gritted his teeth. “Give me his name.”

  “No one knows who he is,” said Valeria. “A ghost, some say, come to haunt us for our wrong doings.”

  “Ghosts don’t need a fleet.” Lucius tried to move, yet somehow he was restricted. He turned left and then right. His arms were tied, but … they were not his arms. They were old, rusty, simple steel. His right hand was a claw. Suddenly the heat inside arose to a whole different level. “What have you done to me?”

  Modius winced. “Your Highness, it was the best we could do–”

  “The best? I will have you executed for this insult!”

  “No, Your Highness, Modius is right,” said Clodius, his metal legs clanking nervously in place. “When we found you on the moon base your head was the only thing that remained of you. Thanks to your royal birth you had the best skull that was ever forged. It served its purpose, your brain was safe. But everything else was vaporized, even the wires on your neck. We had to replace all of it. Your Highness, if it weren’t for the doctor’s genius you would be dead.”

  “Genius? Genius? I will have both your heads for this!” Modius and Clodius lowered their heads. “Arrius, untie me!” Arrius stepped forward. He took out the sword from his belt and with two clean slashes both Lucius’s arms were free. Lucius then gave commands to his legs to move, but they were oddly different, unstable somehow. He looked down and his heart nearly stopped functioning. “Wheels,” he said. “You gave me wheels?”

  “We do not have humanoid legs, Your Highness,” said Modius. “Even Clodius has four legs from a cyber spider.”

  “I do not care about you insignificant beings!” Lucius’s claw grabbed Modius by his neck and pulled him closer down. “I had a body of Imperial steel and gold. I want it back!”

  “I am afraid, you cannot have it back, Your Highness,” said Clodius.

  Lucius turned and gave him a long stare of death. “You are next, Clodius.”

  “Your Highness,” Arrius interfered, “if you kill the doctor there won’t be anyone left to improve your body once we get the parts you need.”

  Lucius’s bloodthirsty stare moved on Arrius.

  “Modius is the only doctor we have left,” said Arrius.

  Lucius let go of Modius, his teeth gritted to a point where it hurt. He rolled closer to the captain. “What do you mean he is the only doctor we have left?”

  “Aquila is the only battleship class vessel we have,” said the captain and lowered his head like a guilty child.

  “What?” Lucius tightened a fist and a claw. “Where are my other battleships?”

  “They um … they–”

  “Say it!”

  “They surrendered to the Praetorians.” Cowards. Pitiful Cowards. “No one knows you are alive, Your Highness.”

  “Then inform them.”

  “There is no way we can inform the other ship captains without the Praetorian Guard intercepting our transmission. If they realize you didn’t die on Timor, I am afraid they will launch every ship they have to find you.”

  “Then let them find me.”

  “You do not understand, Your Highness. We are in no position to engage in battle at this moment.”

  Lucius fought the urge to strangle the captain and everyone else in the infirmary. “How many ships do we have and what class are they?”

  “We have forty ships under your command,” said Arrius. Forty … forty ships out of four hundred. “We have one battleship, ten fighters, and twenty-nine merchant frigates.”

  Lucius couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You are saying that I command a fleet of merchant ships?”

  “Yes, Your Highness.”

  “How do I get my Empire back with freaking merchant ships?”

  “We have a battle plan, Your Highness.”

  “A battle plan? You mean a trade plan, captain. What sort of battle plan involves twenty-nine merchant ships?”

  “We plan to raid Imperial convoys and bases, Your Highness. You do know the location of all military bases, do you not?”

  Lucius closed his eyes. “Explain to me, captain, how are we going to raid a military base with merchant frigates?”

  “You are the emperor, Your Highness, we do not doubt your genius.”

  A tiny voice in Lucius’s head whispered, putting a salt over his wound, you wanted to show your father you could lead your men in battle even when the odds were not in your favor. Well here’s your freaking chance. Somehow he managed to get back his composure. “Captain, commander, I want all ship captains at the CIC in ten.” He then tried to drive himself toward the door. “Can’t this freaking thing go any faster?”

  “You need to press the turbo button on your thigh, Your Highness,” said Modius.

  Lucius was seconds away from bursting again, but he pressed the button without saying a word. It didn’t go any turbo as it said, it just didn’t go as slow as before. “Modius,” said Lucius as he neared the door. “As soon as I get my legs back I will have you executed.” And he left the infirmary.

  All of the ship captains were inside the CIC few minutes earlier. They were seated at a round table that had a tactical map of the solar system projected above it. Some of them stared at the emperor’s fleet, which was now a cluster of green dots running away from Palatine and toward the edge of the system. Lucius was standing on his wheels under his knees to appear taller than the rest – he was the emperor after all – and he was eyeing everyone. They are here for glory, he was certain, and noble titles. But there were two captains that caught his eyes – one of them was robotically-looking, while the other was a clear Bion copy with their long organic hair and skin visible on his exposed parts: his face, his neck, and from his elbows down. Lucius thought the two captains were no merchants, but pirates or smugglers, or maybe both. These two could be resourceful. “Your names,” he said.

  “Captain Lartius of the Falling Star at your service,” said the first. His vocal cords were badly damaged. He sounded almost like one of those ancient robots Lucius had seen in the Imperial Museum.

  The second bowed. “Captain Frang of the Silent Wind, Your Highness, the best ship captain in your merchant fleet.” Somehow Lucius didn’t doubt that.

  “Frang,” Lucius said, “your name is not of an Imperial origin.”

  Ca
ptain Frang looked warily at the other captains and said, “I trade with the Bion tribes, Your Highness.”

  Trade or raid, I wonder? “What brings you here, captain?”

  “I came to serve the true emperor.”

  You came to serve your own cause. Lucius decided to keep an eye on him. The emperor then moved his eyes to the rest of his captains. “Each of you will be greatly rewarded for your service,” he said. And as he suspected, captain Frang’s eyes glittered at the prospect. “Our cause is just, ladies and gentlemen, as I, Lucius Cornelius Venator, am the true emperor. I will not lie to you. The Imperial fleet has four hundred military class vessels at their disposal. One hundred of those are of the Praetorian Guard. And you are right,” he said. He could read their faces pretty well, their doubts and fear. “We would not be entering in direct battles unless absolutely necessary. Our top priority will be to acquire military technology as much as we can. We will upgrade each of our ships with weapons worthy of battleships. We will upgrade our bodies with weapons worthy of the Praetorian Guard. And we will win this battle, no matter how desperate it may seem.” Every captain had a smile on his face by now, not a trace of their fear was left. Look at this, father. I can inspire them better than you ever could. “I want your names and genealogy and your military experience, if any, delivered to my cranial computer immediately. I want to know who I am dealing with so I can give you assignments that match your competence.”

  “Umm, about that,” said Valeria as she leaned to his ear. “Your cranial computer was damaged. Doctor Modius had to take it out.”

  By now Lucius was used to bad news. He just looked at her and asked, “Anything else I should know, commander?”

  She hesitated and Lucius rolled his eyes. Gods, I’m surrounded with imbeciles. “Your cranial transmitter was swapped with another…”

  “…let me guess: with another transmitter from different era.”

  “It is old, Your Highness, yes, but Modius had to swap them, so the new emperor–”

  “Commander, there is only one emperor, and his name is Lucius Cornelius Venator. Don’t ever forget that.”

  “Apologies, Your Highness,” she said. “What I meant was that the usurper can track your transmitter wherever in the system you are. Now, at least, we won’t have to worry about that.” She paused for a moment staring at his tense face. “If it gives you any consolation, Your Highness, all of us had our transmitters swapped. Now we can only communicate within the fleet.”

  “It does not give me any consolation, commander,” said Lucius, but for once he thought they did the right thing. He then turned to the captains. “You will send me your personal data at the Aquila’s main computer. You will also send me a full inventory of everything you have on your ships. I want to know how much fuel you have, how many weapons and batteries you have and which type they are. I want to know what sort of cargo you carry. You will send me everything you have. If any of you need equipment or fuel you will send me a request with your inventory. After I review your data, you will have your assignments and everything you need that we can spare. Dismissed.”

  AILIOS

  “Do you honestly believe that we’ll be searching for a sect of cybernetically enhanced humans?” asked a tiny man with grayish skin, same as the briefing room’s walls. A chameleon, thought Ailios. He is already afraid and changed his color. “I mean the military could wipe them out in like a day or so, why bother to send us?”

  “Because they are preparing to defend Talam, you idiot,” said another man, sitting right next to Ailios. He had a metal ball levitating above his palm. Mover. Those were one of the most powerful humans that ever existed. Ailios had heard a story that a mover once brought down an entire city to the ground. I hope he doesn’t accidentally drop the ceiling down. Ailios’s eyes moved up to make sure the ceiling didn’t move, and then down again. A girl with long golden hair sat in front of him. She turned and gave him a