The Agathon: Reign of Arturo (12 page)

The chancellor stood from his chair and approached the seated general. He looked confused. Arturo did not need his understanding of the greater plan. Just his obedience. He extended his hand to the general who stood slowly.

“Charles, I need you with me on this,” Arturo said widening his eyes.

He sensed a doubt in the general’s eyes as he took his hand and wondered if now would be a good time to kill him. He suppressed the sudden urge and pushed it deep inside him. He could feel another voice within him trying to break through to the surface and realised that he needed to end this meeting quickly. The general took his hand and shook it firmly.

“I’m with you, sir, always, what are your orders?” Escat said looking worried.

“Increase speed, General, we need to catch up with The Unity. It is time to take our rightful place in the universe,” Arturo said letting go of his hand and turning back to his desk. He heard the door slide shut as Escat left his quarters. He felt a wave of nausea and had to steady himself by grabbing the back of his chair.

“He’s afraid of you, kill him now!” he suddenly shouted to nobody.

“Leave me,” Arturo replied to himself.

“You are a fucking coward,” his own voice shouted to himself, “Kill them all. Now!” it shouted.

Arturo collapsed into a ball on the floor.

“Kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them!” he screamed at the floor.

Tears began to flow steadily down his face as he grappled with the other personality that was pounding away inside him. He grabbed his head as a sharp pain stabbed through his temples. A large pressure began to build in his mind as his sense of self began to feel crushed by the onslaught of the other person inside him. He began to feel dizzy as his body crumpled into a heap on the solid floor. The world began to spin as he let himself slip into unconsciousness.

The Unity

“I’m locked out of the communications relay,” Aron said to India. She was in the middle of her fourth rep on the makeshift bench press in the rec room of The Unity. The small room was located on the lowest deck between the exhaust manifold and the environmental systems control. It was a prime place to sweat it out as the constant release of steam from the power nodes created a great place to flush out the toxins of any planetary surface work. It was one of India’s favourite places to work out. She blew out a large breath and brought the barbell down to her chest. She held the weight steadily before blowing out and pushing it virulently back up again. Her vest top was dripping with sweat as her eyes focused on the ceiling.

“So what?” she said with one of her controlled breaths.

She brought the barbell down slowly again.

“So, I am locked out of the fucking communications relay. I got what looked like a transmission last night and this morning I come back to the console and my entry code doesn’t work,” said Aron.

India flicked her eyes in his direction and placed the barbell back on the rack. She released several tired breaths and sat up on the bench facing Aron. He had to admit that he was impressed by her strength. Her short cropped hair was stuck to the side of her face and the tone of her muscles certainly made her look extremely sexy.

“Did you forget your password? You’re getting old, sir, not quite the brightest star in the sky anymore you know?” she said smiling at him.

Aron frowned letting his silence answer the question for her. She sighed and nodded, conceding that there was no way he would forget any aspect of running the day to day operations of his ship.

“Okay, so what does that mean?” India said.

“Someone has locked me out of the system,” Aron replied.

“Stanley?” she said.

Aron raised his eyebrows indicating his agreement. India sighed standing up from the bench press.

“Alright, let me grab a shower and freshen up and we’ll go have a chat with our resident overlord,” she said moving past him.

Aron had a feeling this was not going to go well at all.

“Hang on, India,” he said grabbing her arm, “You can’t just go and ask Stanley if he’s been messing around with the computer systems. He’s dangerous.”

India raised her eyebrows.

“I ain’t no slouch, sir, with all due respect,” she said clearly taking offence.

“Neither is he, India. I want you to try your command codes in the system first,” he said.

After a quick stop at India’s quarters, they made their way to the flight deck. Oliver Jones was making some adjustments to one of the navigation panels when they arrived.

“You got that torque sensor sorted Ollie?” Aron asked taking his seat.

“You bet, sir, turned out to be a faulty relay. I’ve patched her up, but she’ll need a little dry dock time when we get back,” he replied, “Stanley was snooping around the engine room late last night. Thought you should know.”

This peaked Aron’s interest. He turned around and looked at him frowning.

“Oh?” he said.

“Yep,” replied Oliver rubbing his hands with a worn out cloth, “He didn’t touch anything, he just came in, looked around and left,” he said shrugging.

Aron didn’t like the sound of that. He looked at India who seemed troubled.

“Run a full ship-wide diagnostic,” Aron said to her.

She nodded in agreement and began punching commands into her control panel.

“He’s a big lad, isn’t he?” said Oliver rhetorically.

“What is it with men and their preoccupation with size?” India replied concentrating on the computer.

The door to the flight deck slid open and Hector Stanley suddenly entered. The three Unity crew members all turned in unison and looked at the man as he stood in the doorway. Stanley looked coldly at Oliver. There was an awkward silence on the flight deck when Aron decided to break it, before it became worse.

“Mr Stanley, good morning,” he said, “Please come in.”

“Well, I think I’ll go check on the rest of the… eh… torque sensors,” said Ollie squeezing past Stanley.

He glanced back at Aron as he left through the entrance and widened his eyes as if to wish him good luck. Aron did not reciprocate. Stanley stepped inside the perimeter of the door mechanism which allowed it to close behind him.

“Report,” Stanley said looking at India.

India frowned. Aron had a tough enough time giving orders to people, but most of all to India Walder. She did not like being told what to do by anyone. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath flicking her eyes back to Aron who nodded at her.

“We are just running some ship-wide diagnostics at the moment, Mr Stanley,” she replied through gritted teeth.

“Why?” he asked.

“It’s standard procedure, Stanley, we don’t want any surprises this far out,” replied Aron looking straight at him.

“Where are we with the deployment?” Stanley replied not reacting. He stepped closer to Aron’s flight chair and looked out at the stars.

“We have five of the buoys set in place, we’re moving onto the sixth. All systems normal,” replied Aron turning to face the forward windows. He could feel Stanley getting closer to him and moved his eyes gently down to the panel where his pulse gun should have been. The tension on the flight deck was thick.

“Can I ask you a question, Mr Stanley?” India suddenly said from the left chair.

Aron looked at her, a little nervous as to what was about to come out of her mouth. He saw Stanley look over at her curiously.

“What do we intend to do when the relay is in place?” she said.

Aron looked up at Stanley who had turned his head back to look out the window.

“That is not your concern, Ms Walder,” he said, “You are here to position the relay buoys, then return to The Village once that is accomplished.”

“I see,” said India frowning and looking at Aron, “Thank you for clearing that up.”

“Mr Stanley, all due respect, but shouldn’t we wait here until the effectiveness of the relay has been confirmed? At the moment we seem to be having some difficulty accessing our communications channels, so we don’t even know if the damn things are gonna work or not,” said Aron.

Stanley looked at Aron.

“Your communications system will not take your access codes because I have reset them, Mr Elstone,” he said, giving a hint of a smirk.

“What?” Aron said fighting a burning rage that had suddenly lit a fire in his stomach.

He hated anyone messing with his ship’s systems without his express permission. Especially a member of the Colonial Guard.

“How did you get access without my command codes?” he asked him trying to restrain the anger.

Stanley looked blankly at him.

“Mr Elstone, I am head of security for Arturo Verge. There is no system in the colony that I do not have access to. This ship is under the command of Chancellor Verge, not you,” he replied averting his gaze back to India.

Aron could see India’s face was beginning to redden as she took a deep breath and pretended to ignore the comment by pressing a few random buttons on her flight control system.

“I see,” Aron replied, “Well, if it is not too much trouble I would like to have access to it again, as it is part of the normal operations of this ship and as I’m captain, I think it necessary to be able to get into it.”

Stanley turned back to Aron and looked at him with a nonchalant expression that told Aron that it wasn’t going to happen.

“Access to the communications system is restricted for the remainder of this journey,” he said, “Those are the chancellor’s orders. I will release the lockout upon our return to The Village.”

Aron thought about reaching across and strangling the arrogant man to death, but took a deep breath instead and turned to face the windows.

“What happens if there is an emergency, Mr Stanley?” said India through gritted teeth.

“Should that occur Ms Walder, I will contact The Kandinsky personally for a rescue,” said Stanley.

“And if you are injured?” she replied.

“Let us hope that I am not,” he said.

Aron sensed that Stanley was becoming acutely aware of how angry India was getting. He wasn’t sure if he could control her much longer.

“India, can you go to the engineering bay and check on the sub light drive? I think it’s out of flux,” Aron said to her.

He could see one of her fists was clenched and needed to defuse the tense situation. She looked at him frowning, but nodded a thankful reply. She shifted out of her flight chair and squeezed past Stanley making as little eye contact as was possible. When they were alone, he turned to Stanley.

“Have a seat,” Aron said to the big man.

Stanley hesitated for a moment before climbing into India’s chair. There was an awkward silence as Aron once again flicked his eyes down to the compartment which held his pulse gun.

“It’s not there,” said Stanley looking out of the window.

Shit, thought Aron.

“What isn’t there?” he said knowing the answer.

“Your pulse gun, Mr Elstone. I removed it, please don’t take it personally,” he said smiling to him for the first time since he boarded The Unity. Aron didn’t reply.

“The chancellor permitted me the use of the weapon when I was given this ship, Mr Stanley, has that order also been rescinded?”

Stanley didn’t reply. He sat quietly looking out at the stars. He closed his eyes slowly and laid his head back into India’s chair.

“What’s on your mind, Mr Elstone?” he said, “I assume you asked India to leave because you wanted to discuss something?” he said breathing in slowly almost in a meditative state.

“Okay,” Aron said, “Why are you here? Surely this mission did not require your personal attention, Stanley. We could have deployed these communication buoys without being overseen. The chancellor has never requested the presence of the Guard for any of my missions, why this one?”

Stanley opened his eyes and turned his head over to look at him.

“The chancellor does not need to explain himself to you, Elstone,” he said.

“Stanley, we’ve been at this our whole lives,” said Aron, “I have shown you nothing but respect in your position and have devoted my loyalty to the chancellor. You know that.”

Aron tried to inject as much sincerity into his voice as he could. They should have both been on the same side. Growing up in the colony, Stanley had earned a reputation as a bully, regularly dishing out beatings to colonists for various reasons. Some of them simply because of the mood he had been in at the time. He was widely feared. . Although separated by nearly eight years in age, Elstone had had his fair share of run ins with the head of the Colonial Guard. Stanley had always been a loner, but had been hand selected by the previous chancellor, Rogan Soanes. Although information about Soanes was thin on the ground, there were stories from the elders that he had been a fair and just man. His death had been a mysterious one. An accident on board a mining ship. It was a widely accepted theory that Stanley had assassinated him on the orders of Arturo Verge. Aron didn’t have first-hand experience with Stanley’s violent side, although he had come close. Not as close as his encounter with Escat, an encounter that normally would have cost him his life had Arturo not stepped in
and prevented it. An action that Aron still to this day could not understand. He somehow felt on some level that Stanley held some sort of respect for him. Not enough to stop him from killing him, but they were at least on speaking terms which was a lot to be said.

“You and I are warriors, Elstone, of that you can be certain,” Stanley said.

Aron was taken aback by the strange comment.

“You know the value of following orders and you know how to lead. I remember when you were young and first came to the attention of the chancellor. He asked me to keep a very close eye on you. You have a way with people that the chancellor admires, did you know that?” he said.

There was a strange calmness to Stanley’s voice that was unnerving to hear. He was beginning to wish that he had stashed another pulse gun somewhere else in the cockpit.

“The colony needs people like you, Aron, we are lost as a people. We need leaders like you,” Stanley said.

Aron couldn’t help but take it as some sort of threat.