The Fight for Creation: Book 01 - Life Warrior (7 page)

“I’m sorry about your loss.”

James sighed, “I know he thought he was doing the right thing.”

“I’m sure he was.”

They were bumped by another couple and Janie Rico said, “I’m sorry; I’m such a klutz.”

James snarled at her, “Well watch where you’re going.”

The couple quickly moved away and James said, “These minor nobles need to know their place.”

Juliette stared at James and his smile quickly returned, “I’m sorry for that interruption. You are a marvelous dancer.”

“Thank you.”

The music ended and Juliette moved back toward her table, “Wait, would you like to dance again?”

“No, I’m feeling slightly tipsy from the wine; maybe later.”

James led her back to the table and Juliette saw him and her mother exchange a look. She knew something was going on and she knew she wouldn’t like whatever it was. She managed to excuse herself from the gathering and teleported back to her room and started reading the news reports on the Admiral’s death. Most of the reports had a tone supporting the Admiral’s actions. She used a code she had stolen from her mother years before when she was ten years old and looked at her messages. She wondered why every message before the Admiral’s death had been erased. One recent exchange caught her attention. Her mother had sent a message to William Dodd saying that she would still keep the agreement.

She sat back in her chair and thought about what agreement she had made, who it was made to, and why she was now agreeing to still keep it. The answers that came to mind disturbed her. She looked at the stories of the attempt on the Duke’s son’s life. The vision of James snarling at Janie refused to leave her mind. She finally went to sleep knowing that the Duke’s son was still in great danger and she was being placed in a position where she felt nothing but dread.

• • •

The company of Life Warriors charged in on their target and took the city. A voice announced, “Mission complete and objective achieved.” A White Warrior stood in front of the company and said, “You have completed your training. You will graduate tomorrow and the Realm welcomes our newest Life Warriors to our fraternity. Congratulations and I know you will make a difference in the fight for creation.”

The warriors shouted their glee and everyone hugged each other. Jon joined his comrades in the celebration, after which they left to contact their families. The six weeks had been hard, but they had emerged from it stronger and wiser in the use of their armor. All three brothers were being considered for future promotion in their units and though they didn’t know it, they had passed several tests of the watchers following their actions.

• • •

The Graduation went smoothly and the class was surprised by Duke Robbins and his wife being there as the Realm’s representative. They felt immense pride when the Duke and his wife walked through their ranks and personally congratulated each of them.

Jon waited until his father arrived in front of him and said, “I’m very proud of you, Warrior. Your accomplishment means so much to the Royal Family.”

Jon smiled and said, “Thank you so much, Your Highness.”

His mother came up next and hugged him. Everyone wondered why the Duchess did that but figured she was overcome with emotion. Jon’s eyes were moist but he held the tears back. His brothers were with their families at their units and he joined them as his parents teleported back to Ross. He was going to join them later that evening. His company commander didn’t know about his family and he wanted to keep it that way.

• • •

Jon hugged his parents and Robert shook his hand, “I’m proud of you son. I wish I could have shouted it to the crowds today.”

“I’m sorry, Dad. We’ve been able to prevent our fellow warriors from learning who we are and I think it’s best we keep it secret.”

Sarah said, “Many of the news channels tried to find out where you were posted but were unable to find you. I’m just thankful no one else tried to harm you.”

“I’m sure that’s past now that the Royal Family is going to start a family.” Jon saw his parent’s expressions immediately change. “What’s wrong?”

“Very few know this, but Victoria cannot have children. They’ve just found out and they wanted to tell us before it got out.”

Jon sat down stunned by the announcement. He looked at his father and said, “What does that mean for me?”

“Not much right now.”

“What do you mean right now?”

“If something happened to the Royal Couple, we would take their place; not you. You don’t have anything to worry about until many, many years in the future.”

“Dad, Mom, I’m not Royal Blood.”

“Neither was my ancient ancestor that started the Bristone Empire. But he was the right person at the right time. You can always refuse the throne and allow the next in line to replace you. You do not have to accept the crown.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I am. However, if word gets out about the Royal Couple not having children you will be a target again.”

“Dad, I’m a target either way. Unless a child is born, I will not be forgotten.” Jon paused, “How have the Royal Families become so power mad? Everything I’ve read about the Realm’s rulers doesn’t describe them like this. What’s changed them?”

Sarah sighed, “Most of the Royals lost their psychic abilities. Now the most powerful ships we have are useless and the members of the Royal Family can hide their true thoughts and feelings. Ambition is a temptation that few can resist.”

Jon shrugged, “I don’t want it.”

Sarah looked at Robert and he said, “That is the one quality that the best of our rulers all had in common.”

Jon shook his head, “I really mean it; I don’t want the position. If offered, I will refuse.”

Robert smiled, “Well, I don’t see it coming to that. Just watch your back.”

“I’ll do the best I can.”

Sarah smiled and said, “Let’s celebrate your graduation and put these sad thoughts away for the moment. I’m so glad you’re home even if it’s only for a few days.”

Jon smiled and said, “There is no place like home.”

• • •

William Dodd looked at his oldest son on his display, “Have you been able to find him?”

“I finally have, Father.”

“That’s really good news. Are you going to be able to make it happen?”

“The computer whiz you sent made all the difference. Once we knew the company he was assigned to, the programming was rather simple. It’s set to trigger in their first call up.”

“Can it be traced back to you?”

“No, it can’t. The system is not part of my responsibility and the operator who normally serviced the machine was called out of the room for an emergency to a peripheral computer. The Whiz had enough time to make the changes.”

“Just make sure you’re not around when it happens.”

“It’s not in my area of responsibility. No one will look my way. Besides, he doesn’t know who’s paying for his services.”

“Thanks, Son.”

William sat back and truly hoped his son was correct. He was not a member of the Royal Family so he could have his mind read by a Cat or Zord. Even if they came close, he would act like his brother and remove himself as a danger to the family. He was just barely high enough in the membership so that they could not question him and fortunately, James Jr. knew nothing about the plans. If things fell in place, he would end up being the King of the Realm and the Dodds would be returned to the ranks of high royalty. He smiled and thought about what it would mean to be a Duke.

• • •

The three brothers teleported to the assembly station and were working at perfecting the use of their armor. Jon looked at Dern practicing with his armor and said, “I just don’t understand how you’re able to get your weapons out so fast; your guns seem to appear instantaneously.”

Dern switched between his shoulder cannon and hand gun faster than they could see. “It’s a language thing.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Jon, what’s the command you use to activate your projectile cannon?”

“Activate projectile cannon. Why? What’s yours?”

Dern said, “De.”

Tegen and Jon stared at him. “What do you mean De?”

“The Canith language is done in very short sounds. For instance, if I want the shoulder cannon and the laser together, I say Det.”

“Let’s try this, Dern. We’ll start with no weapons and we’ll activate our laser, small hand laser, and shoulder cannon at the same time. Tegen, you call it.”

Tegen watched them and said, “Now!”

All three of Dern’s weapons appeared before Jon’s first one. “I’m telling you, it’s a language issue.”

Jon looked at Tegen and said, “Can we reprogram our commands?”

“That’s easy. The system is designed to work with each warrior’s preferences.”

“Dern, can you teach us those commands.”

“Sure, we’ll link and I’ll put them in your memory.”

The three linked and Jon thought about the new commands. “This is so much more efficient. I notice you gave us all of your language.”

“Might as well; most no longer speak it, but use the language of the old Alliance. We may want to communicate in it because of how much can be said in the shortest time possible.”

Jon thought in the Cainth language and was amazed at how much could be said with just a few syllables.

Dern said, “We’re reporting to the armory tomorrow to load our real weapons instead of these low power training units. Have you thought about what you’re going to select?”

“There are really not many options, Dern. The choice of weapons is limited by the cannons, lasers, and projectile guns the armor is designed to use.”

Tegen said, “I’ve been playing with the software and I think there is another weapon we can put into our armor. I’m not sure how we’d use it but it’s a pretty powerful choice.”

Dern looked over at Tegen, whose talent was mechanical. Neither he nor Jon could match the Glod in the ability to make, design, or understand mechanical devices. “What is that, Teg?”

“I was looking at all the weapons stored in the armory and I saw a large storage area that contained mini-penetrators.”

Jon snorted, “Get real, Teg. Those missiles are designed to kill starships. They’re longer than we are.”

Teg smiled, “But they’re not wider. I measured our armor across the shoulders and we could push the missiles length wise into our back armor and I think it would accept them.”

Jon thought a moment and said, “But what would we use to fire them? We can’t put a launcher in our armor.” He saw Teg smiling, “You’ve already come up with a way to do it.”

“It’s as simple as turning your body to your target and having it come out of your chest armor. Your targeting software would aim it.”

“But it’s wider than my chest when the force field activates.”

“True, but the space inside the skin of your armor at your chest is large enough to launch it and the force field will activate after it leaves. All you’d do is eject it and it would automatically ignite and lock on whatever target you designate with your tracking system.”

“Do you have the software to control it?”

“That was the easy part. They’ll each be assigned a number and they’ll eject sequentially. If you want to fire multiple rounds, you just say how many you want. It’s not any more difficult that pulling out clips for your other weapons.”

Dern said, “How do we get them in our armor?”

“One of us will stand with their back to them and the other two will push them in.” Jon and Dern stared at Tegen and he said, “Hey, they’re on sleds that will make it easy. Just give them a push and they’ll go right in.”

Jon sighed and said, “I don’t know where we’ll need something as powerful as a mini-penetrator, but I guess it’s better to have them and never use them that to need one and not have it.”

“You two need to give me your helmets and let me make the necessary software changes. Dern, it would be easier for us to just copy your weapon commands directly into our systems than have to reprogram them one by one.”

Dern called up his armor and took off his helmet and handed it to Tegen. Jon pulled his off and also handed it to the huge Glod, “I think most of the regiment has already armed themselves.”

“They have; they wanted the first choice of weapons.”

“Well, tomorrow is the last day so we need to get up early and get it done.”

Tegen sat down at his work bench and said, “I’ll see you in the morning. I’m going to make these changes before I go to bed.”

Dern and Jon left to get some sleep before the next day.

• • •

The three brothers entered the armory the next morning and Jon said, “Can you hear it?” They nodded. “This is the music I heard when I selected the cutlass. Some of these weapons are calling to us.”

Tegen had a huge smile on his face as he said, “Well go and get them. We’ll move the penetrators later.”

Jon went over to the auto-cannons with his eyes closed and finally stopped and lifted one from the pallet. He immediately looked at his memory and the girl in the green fencing outfit and saw it starting to fade. He thought, “There is no need to worry, you and your brothers will have my complete devotion.” The memory drew back into clear focus and he moved to the next pallet.

The three brothers moved around the armory as if they were in a trance and after two hours, their armor was complete. Jon listened to the music and said, “I don’t think I’ll have to select these weapons.”

Dern said, “You’re right. They’ll select themselves.”

Tegen said, “All that time wasted changing the commands.”

Jon smiled, “It wasn’t wasted. We just don’t know when we’ll have to do it manually.” Suddenly all three turned toward the far wall. The power packs for the armor were in containers next to the wall. They looked at each other and went to the packs, pulled out a new unit, and changed them into their armor. Their systems immediately had a higher illumination. “Tegen, what’s going on with the power?”

“According to my analysis, these packs are different. The circuits operate at a much higher speed.” Tegen said, “Quiet my beauties. We’ll sing together soon.”

Jon and Dern repeated what Tegen said and the music faded far into the background. Tegen looked at them and said, “Now the penetrators.”