Imprint of War Page 5

  "Welcome to the Paris, Princess-Captain," Captain Egan said in perfect Aeolian. "Please, take a seat and make yourself comfortable. We have a lot to talk about."

  Hecate lowered herself carefully into one of the chairs on the side of the table, her ribs still sore and tightly bandaged. Andrea sat beside her. Captain Egan sat across the table from Hecate, looking at her intently. He seemed to be studying her face; but then abruptly spoke.

  "We have sent all available personnel to your ship to help your damage control teams. I trust they are being helpful?"

  Hecate nodded. "Thank you very much."

  The Captain grimaced. "Well, it's certainly not enough to make up for us being late to the party. We had originally intended to be here waiting for you when you came into the system, but we were unavoidably delayed a few minutes. Please accept my deepest apologies for what happened to you and your crew."

  Hecate nodded. "I understand. We're just grateful that you came when you did. Another ten minutes and we'd have been fighting hand-to-hand in the passageways."

  Captain Egan nodded in turn. "Yes, I know. Again, my sincere regrets that we couldn't get here sooner."

  "But where...where did you come from?" burst in Andrea.

  Captain Egan grinned at Andrea. "You mean originally? Or just recently?"

  Andrea grinned back and exclaimed, "Both!"

  "Most recently, we've been enroute from Pestuda. We had to make a emergency stop there due to an injured crewman, and it threw us just a bit later than anticipated to get back over here to Pestilence Port."

  Hecate breathed, "And originally?"

  "Earth, of course," said Captain Egan.

  There was a dead silence in the room.

  Captain Egan looked at them askance. "You seem surprised," he said.

  Hecate frowned. "Earth is just a legend to us, a myth. I never believed it was real."

  Now it was Captain Egan's turn to look puzzled. "But...I thought...your father was a firm believer in the Earther legends, and in fact devoted the best part of his adult life trying to prove them!"

  Hecate shook her head. "That doesn't mean I took them seriously. It's the official policy of our government that those are just myths, with no basis in fact."

  "Ah," said Captain Egan.

  "So...I... I never believed in them like my father did. I just thought he was chasing ghosts...just a hobby..."

  Hecate stopped. She lowered her head. Tears came into her eyes.

  Andrea Iona placed a hand on Hecate’s shoulder lightly. "Let's talk about something else," she said. "You have males in your officer corps! How is that possible?"

  Captain Egan smiled. "We have a different society than yours, and in our society, both males and females have equal opportunity for advancement. Everything is based on merit, especially in our Navy."

  Andrea made a "wow" with her mouth. "That is going to take some getting used to!" she exclaimed.

  Hecate nodded. "Definitely."

  Captain Egan continued to smile. "I'm sure you'll get used to it in time, but for now, we'll make every effort to have our best female officers attend to you, just to reduce the culture shock."

  Hecate nodded.

  "Now," said Captain Egan. "About the intact destroyer that tried to run - we have boarded her with our Marines and taken all remaining survivors into custody. The crew has been locked up in one of our cargo holds, and the officers are in our brig. I suggest that you question them to determine why they attacked you.”

  Hecate smiled a feral smile. "I’ll question them, Captain. But I already know the answer.”

  Beside Hecate, Andrea agreed. “Auntie Empress.”

  Hecate turned and looked at Andrea. "We can take the Captain and XO aboard the Nemesis and put them in our brig, but we don't have room for the rest of them."

  Andrea nodded. She looked at Hecate. "It really depends on what you are going to do next, Hecate."

  "I'm going to Aronte and kill an Empress," Hecate growled.

  A short silence ensued as each person thought through the implications of what had just been said.

  Captain Egan spoke first. "We can retain the rest of your crew onboard and ferry them to Aronte, or any other location you wish, Princess-Captain."

  "Good, thank you," said Hecate. "Andrea and I will put our heads together and formulate a plan, and let you know."

  At that moment, the Chief Petty Officer guarding the door called out, "Attention on deck!" Captain Egan stood to a loose attention. Hecate glanced at Andrea, then both followed suit. Behind them through the hatch came a large man, also in dress whites. He walked to the head of the table and stood behind the chair, resting his hands on the back of it.

  "Stand easy, please," he said. He looked at Hecate. His uniform was similar to Captain Egan’s but had five gold stars on the shoulder boards.

  "Hello, Granddaughter," he said.

  Black Ship

  Acinaces – a type of Scythian sword used by the Aeolian matriarchy; it appears to have been the weapon of choice for the original twelve Amazon warriors deposited on the planet Aeolis in 750BC. This type of sword ultimately became a symbolic weapon used only for executions and challenges. A lengthened, highly decorated example of this sword was known as the Imperial Sword and could only be touched by a member of the Imperial Family for the purpose of challenging in a Blood Match.

  - RimWiki, 2675 Edition

  Onboard the Frigate RDF Paris

  Hecate stared at the big man in the white uniform standing at the head of the conference table.

  In her Mother's chambers at the Imperial Palace, there was a picture. It was a picture of a man dressed in the uniform of a Palace Guard, with black beard, blue eyes and a sword at his side. It was her Grandfather Zeno. Hecate knew the story well - how Grandmother Antiope was widowed at a young age when her first husband, Prince Hyginus, died after their first child, now Empress Hippolyta, was born. And how Grandmother Antiope had taken a second husband, a commoner from the Palace Guard - a large man with a sword. The man in the picture. And how Grandmother Antiope had become pregnant again with her mother, Princess Deinomache, and upon her birth, by Imperial law, the commoner - her grandfather Zeno - had been banished. Imperial law did not allow a commoner husband to remain in the Imperial Household if a female child – a Princess - was born. The man had been allowed to hold the newborn baby once; and to kiss her once; and then he was whisked away, never to see or touch her again.

  The man standing in the conference room in front of her was a big man. He had no beard; but he had the same blue eyes. And the same smile.

  Hecate breathed, "But you can't be him..."

  The Admiral - because Hecate realized that must be the rank she saw on his shoulders - merely continued to smile as she processed.

  "My Grandfather was exiled to Barcam...he is dead. They reported him dead..."

  The man tilted his head wryly. "The rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated, I'm afraid."

  "But," came from Andrea. "You would be...what...70 or 80 years old!"

  Admiral Jake Hammett grinned. "Well, actually, that's not even close. But let's not talk about that. I try to keep my age a secret from most of my staff."

  Hecate protested. "This is not possible!"

  Jake waved Hecate to her chair and sat down. "It is possible, Granddaughter. I will explain it all to you in good time - perhaps at dinner this evening. But for now, just accept that I have a method of staying young. And that I am, indeed, the same man from the picture in your mother's bedroom. How is your mother, by the way?"

  "No - wait - how do you know about the picture?" asked Hecate.

  Jake smiled at her. "Let's just say, my exile has not been as strict as some would think it, Hecate dear. But really - how is Deinomache?"

  "As well as can be expected, considering her husband was just murdered by that bitch of a sister of hers," growled Hecate. Andrea nodded.

  "Wait!" Hecate exclaimed, as a sudden realization struck her. "If you are my Grandfa
ther...and you are from Earth...then..." she stopped.

  "Yes, Hecate dear," said Admiral Jake Hammett, Chief of Naval Operations of the Rim Defense Force, with a huge grin. "You are one-fourth Earther. You are part legend."

  ***

  Hecate sat, trying to comprehend what she had heard. Beside her, Andrea Iona could no longer restrain herself.

  "How is it that you look like us, talk like us?"

  Jake looked at her. "What do your Earther legends say?"

  Andrea stared at him. "They say that the Aeolians originally came from another planet, called Earth."

  Jake smiled. "And that is the truth."

  "No!" exclaimed Andrea.

  "Yes," said Jake. "It is true."

  Hecate grimaced. "But how?"

  Jake leaned back in his chair. "Approximately 2,900 years ago, a rogue ship stopped by Earth and abducted several hundred people. It transported them to Aeolis and abandoned them there. Over time, they survived and prospered. The rest is history. At least, your history."

  Andrea thought. "So - you're saying, we are descended from you?"

  "Not exactly," said Jake. "A better way to put it would be that we are all descended from the same ancestors. But 2,900 years ago, your ancestors split off from ours. Since that time, we've evolved separately."

  "Oh, Stars!" said Andrea. "I have a thousand questions."

  "Me, too!" said Hecate. "Starting with, do all Earthers live as long as you?"

  "No, I regret to say, they do not," replied Jake. "I am the only one so far, and that because of a very special circumstance, not likely to be repeated."

  "What circumstance?" asked Andrea.

  Jake glanced at Captain Egan, then back to Andrea. "Let's save that conversation for dinner tonight, shall we?"

  He rose from the table. As he did, Captain Egan stood to attention again, as did Andrea. Hecate, however, was too shocked by the events of the last few minutes to respond in kind.

  "I'm sure you would like to get cleaned up and rest a bit after the battle," said Jake. "Let's get together in – say, ninety minutes - for dinner, and I'll answer as many of your questions as I can. Will that suffice for now?"

  Hecate belatedly stood and nodded. "That would be good. I could use a bit of time to process all this."

  "Good!" said Jake. "I'll see you at dinner. Captain Egan will take care of you."

  Nodding at Egan, Jake left the room.

  Captain Egan turned to Hecate. "Is there anything I can get for you or your crew at the moment?" he asked.

  Hecate shook her head. "No, Captain. Perhaps we should just regroup for now. This is all new and strange to us."

  Captain Egan nodded and led them from the room. They passed through the Bridge again, down the stairs, and to a cross-corridor which led into Officer Country. Egan paused before a door, and with a touch against the pad, it opened.

  "For you, Princess-Captain," he said. "Commander Satra will be next door." Hecate nodded, glanced at Andrea with an unspoken thought, and entered. She knew her quick glance at Andrea was all that was needed to remind her XO to stay on her toes. Behind her, she heard Egan continue down the passageway with Andrea, and the door slid shut behind her.

  Looking around, Hecate found a rather large cabin - compared to her cabin on the destroyer, it was huge - with a bed, desk and chairs arranged neatly. Pale peaceful colors were present throughout, and on one wall was a large viewer, with curtains hung on the sides, made to look like a picture window. The scene looked out on a beautiful green meadow, with mountains towering in the background. Hecate assumed it was a scene from Earth. Strange animals ate grass in the meadow, four-legged with brown pelts and white tails. Some of them had antlers.

  On the left was a door; peeking through, Hecate saw a bathroom, with a big, beautiful tub and shower. She hadn't seen an actual tub since leaving Aronte. She wasted no time putting it to use.

  An hour and a half later, Hecate finished dressing. While she had been in the bath, someone had cleaned and pressed her uniform, which now looked a bit less like it had been through a battle. She looked in the mirror on the bathroom door. "Presentable," she thought. A soft knock on the door brought her attention back from the mirror. "Come," she said loudly, then thought, "What if they don't understand Aeolian?"

  But evidently, they did, as the door opened, and a female orderly came in, taking two steps into the room and then bowing in the Aeolian fashion. Hecate was taken aback.

  "Dinner is served in the Admiral's cabin, Mum," said the orderly. "I can take you there when you are ready."

  "I'm ready now," said Hecate. She followed the orderly out of the cabin and down the passageway, back toward the Bridge.

  "How is it that you speak Aeolian?" she asked.

  The orderly looked at her, smiling. "Compressed learning, Mum. Any crew working in the Aeolian Empire must master the language."

  Hecate puzzled over this as they crossed past the stairwell up to the Bridge and over to another door, which the orderly palmed open. She then stood aside for Hecate to enter. Inside, Hecate found herself in an anteroom, with a couch on one side and a couple of overstuffed chairs on the other. Through a door she could see the Admiral's cabin. A lace tablecloth covered a heavily laden table, and standing awaiting her arrival were the Admiral, Captain Egan, and Andrea Iona. She entered the cabin and stood behind the only vacant chair. All three bowed to her in the Aeolian fashion. Hecate blushed. "I'm sorry, am I late?"

  "A Princess is never late," smiled Jake. "Please, sit."

  Hecate sat and then the others followed suit. An orderly appeared out of nowhere and suddenly wine was in her glass, followed quickly by the others. Jake picked up his glass and raised it in a toast. "The Navy!" he announced. Hecate joined in the toast but couldn't help a quick glance at Andrea Iona. She was not quite sure which Navy he meant.

  Andrea spoke. "Admiral Hammett. You said you would tell us how you came to be...well...Hecate's grandfather. And how you have lived so long. And what the hell you are doing here in Aeolian space!"

  "I did promise that, didn't I?" said Jake. "Very well. This is a bit of a long story, so please settle back and get comfortable."

  ***

  “In our year 2121 – your year 2871 – an intelligent AI starship we call Pandora landed on Earth and warned us about a vicious Empire of aliens 805 light years away from our planet. We call these aliens the “Bats”; to us, they look like a small animal we have on Earth which you don’t have – tall, thin, light fur, pointed ears on top of their heads, fangs”.

  Jake waved his hand at his personal holo and it expanded, becoming visible to all, and showed a rotating, 3D image of a Bat. Jake saw Hecate shudder; Andrea grinned at the thought of a new enemy to fight.

  “Pandora called for three humans: me, an air force pilot named Teresa, and a scientist named Kirsten. Pandora declared that by her computation and simulations, we were the three people who were destined to lead Earth into the future by creating a Space Navy. Nobody at the time understood this; there was tremendous resistance. Everyone – including us – thought Pandora was crazy. But, in the event, she put us on a path that we couldn’t change. She provided funding, technology and knowledge to us so that we could get our Navy going – what we now call the Rim Defense Force, or the RDF.”

  Jake waved his hands in a circle. “Everything you see around us – this frigate, all the technology, all our knowledge about the Bats and about your Empire, started with Pandora. Her name fit her well – she truly opened a box of troubles for us.”

  Jake grinned, took some coffee, put the cup down in the saucer, and continued.

  “The Bats are a truly genocidal race. If they discover any sentient race nearby, they immediately assault the planet and destroy every intelligent creature on it. They do not allow other sentient races to exist near them. Right now, the edge of their Empire is about 100 lights from the edge of Rim Space, our border. They are slowly but surely heading our way.”

  Andrea did some quick computation
s in her head. “So even if they don’t accidentally stumble on you with a scout ship, you’ll be fighting them in about 25 years, because your radio emissions will meet the boundary of their Empire. There won’t be any hiding from them after that.”

  “Exactly,” nodded Jake. “We estimate about 28 years plus or minus five years, and that’s if they don’t stumble on us by accident. But we are aggressive in our scouting, so we believe we can intercept any scouts before they find us. We’re working on the assumption we’ll fight them in about twenty years.”

  Hecate interrupted. “Are you ready? To fight them?”

  Jake shook his head. “Not yet. If the war started today, we would not survive. But we are working as hard as we can to get ready.”

  Hecate looked at Andrea. Both were thinking the same thing. If the Bats destroyed the Earthers, it would only be a matter of time before they came for the Aeolians.

  Jake continued. “In 2141 by our calendar – 2871 by yours – I came to Aronte in secret, hoping to find a way to create an alliance with your people. During that time, I met your grandmother, Hecate – Princess Antiope.”

  “You save her life when she was attacked by assassins,” interrupted Hecate.

  “Yes,” said Jake. “That’s right.”

  “And then you married her,” Hecate added.

  “Yes. I loved her very much. I grieve her death to this day, Hecate. She was truly one of a kind.”

  There was a quiet period around the table for a few moments. Finally, Hecate broke the silence. “And then my mother was born, and you were exiled.”

  “Yes,” nodded Jake. “I was exiled back to Barcam, but of course I was not really from there. I returned to our headquarters on a planet called Kamilaroi, not too far from Earth. And I’ve been there for the last forty-four years, building up the RDF and preparing for the war that is coming.”

  “Were you here in the Great Raid of 2141?” asked Andrea.

  Jake bowed his head slightly. “I was, Andrea. And I know what your grandmother, Ligeia, did that day. She saved the city. Antiope cried for her. As did the entire nation.”