The Last Praetorian (37 page)

“Anyway, Jon is not a danger to you, or me, or anybody else
on this station,” Paul insisted firmly.  “Now it is getting late, so if you
will excuse me…”

Watching Paul depart Miranda realised that he had never
answered the original question. While Paul was emphatic that Jon was not a risk
to anybody else on the station, he purposefully did not mention the fact that
Jon was not a danger to himself…                   

Present Day

Terra Nova, Zeta Aquilae System

Staring at his face in the mirror, Jon was astonished to see
a bruise starting to form on his forehead.  Rubbing it painfully Jon looked
around, astonished to see his small quarters on the
Imperial Star.

“How did I get here?” he asked looking around.  The last he
could remember was being on the station, with alarms sounding…  A chime from
the door interrupted his thoughts.

“Come!” he called out.
As the door opened a
figure glided into the room.  The visitor was shorter than Jon and wearing a
white cloak that masked his or her features.  With a strange sense of
Déjà
vu
, Jon watched as Sofia pushed the hood away from her face. 

Jon could only gape, as Sofia, not having
aged a day glided towards him. “What are you doing here? I thought that you
were on Eden Prime?”

“Do you always greet your guests
shirtless?”  Sofia replied with a laugh, running her hand across his bare
chest.  As she leaned forward to kiss him she whispered. “I fully approve.”

The next moment they were twirling,
intertwined on the open-air patio, alone, with the band inside playing a slow
song, the stars shining brightly down on the young couple. 

“Getting the
hang of things, Jon?” she asked as she executed a stunning twirl.

“Where are we?”
he replied confused. “Is this a dream?”

She laughed
with genuine delight.  “You don’t miss a thing,” she responded, reeling and
darting around Jon with the grace of a summer breeze, chuckling good-naturedly
at his obvious and total confusion.

Reaching out,
he snaked an arm out to halt her, pulling her to him until her body was flush
against his.  Spinning Sofia in a gradually tighter circle, pulling her closer
with every turn, until the two of them stood utterly still at the center of the
dance floor.

And then, as if
a parched man, having been offered a drink after going for days without, his
lips descended upon hers in a desperate, demanding kiss.  This time there was
nobody to interrupt them, and the kiss seemed to go on and on, Jon becoming
lost in the feel of her.  Finally he pulled his head back from hers and opened
his eyes, terrified to think that she might no longer be there, only to find
her gazing sadly back at him.  She dropped her hands to his shoulders,
retreated one step, and another before moving her body in time to the music
once again.

“Please don’t
leave me,” Jon cried desperately. “I have been so alone without you,” admitting
it to himself at the same time as saying the words aloud.

Twirling back,
closer, Sofia touched her hand delicately to his chest, in the same fashion
that she did on the
Imperial Star
, she explained in a soft voice. “You
have never been alone, Jon.  I have always been with you, in here,” she said
laying her hand over his heart.

With that she
once again twirled away, fading from sight, as the music softened, leaving Jon
standing alone on the open-air patio.

“I’m sorry,”
Jon said aloud.  “I never wanted to hurt you, I love you…” admitting it to
himself, for the first time ever.

*****

“Son of a bitch, that hurts!” Jon panted out aloud, his
ashen face, covered in a thick sheen of sweat.  He had regained consciousness a
few days before, but it was going to take his body much longer before it
recovered.  His breathing was still laboured, the scar tissue causing his lungs
to expand and contract painfully.  Sleeping was the worst, as he frequently
awoke during the night, breathless and in pain.

Better the pain from the lungs than the pain from the
broken heart,
Jon thought.  He was still deeply shaken by the dream while
he had been unconscious in Medical.  What was worst is that Jon could rarely
remember his dreams, but this one seemed imprinted on his consciousness, every
look, and every touch, crystal clear.  Jon lost count of the times that he
found himself opening a channel to Sofia, only to angrily snatch his hand
away.  Even if he managed to talk to her, what was he going to say?  It had
been almost five years! 

Hi, how are you?  I know we haven’t spoken for years and
I am sorry I hurt you.  How about picking up where we left off?

It sounded pathetic, even to him!  For all he knew she had
long since moved on, found somebody else, somebody to share her life, her bed… 
The thoughts made Jon’s heart freeze and his blood run cold.

Looking at the chronometer in his bedroom - he had finally
been kicked out of Medical after his complaining reached unbearable levels,
even for his medical staff - Jon noticed that it was just after five in the
morning. 

Rise and shine,
he thought sourly to himself.

It was barely an hour later when Jon shuffled painfully into
his office, unannounced.  “What the hell are you doing here so early?”  Jon
demanded foul tempered, partly from the pain and lack of sleep and partly
because he was hoping to beat the current occupant to his chair, failing
miserably.

“Well good morning to you, feel free to just stroll in,”
Miranda replied waspishly.

“It’s my office.”

“Not until the Doctor clears you back for duty, and for god
sake sit down before you collapse!”

Jon distinctly disliked following others’ orders, although
he had no problem issuing them, but deciding to overlook the point, this once,
he slid gratefully into his chair.  “What’s the latest?”  Jon asked trying to
peer over the rim of the data pad that Miranda was reading. 

Miranda only angled the pad further away from his eyesight. 
“None of your concern,” she replied abruptly.  On her first day she had
discovered that the department heads were producing daily reports,
in hard
copy
!  A young ensign then collated these before they were delivered to the
Commanding Officer for review.  Miranda could not believe it!  She had
immediately ordered that all department heads would file daily status reports
electronically henceforth.

Jon meanwhile was bored and looking around his office for
something to amuse himself.  Noticing the desk had been moved to the other side
of the office, away from the energy field encasing the window, he commented. 
“So I see you had the energy grid repaired, I’m surprised you did not have the
window altered to remove the need.”

“I thought about it, but I guessed you would just have it
modified back again when you returned to duty.  I felt sorry for the poor
engineering team wasting their effort,” Miranda went back to reading her report
ignoring Jon much to his chagrin.

“It got nippy in here without it.”

“So Paul informed me.”

Jon waited expectantly for the obvious question, but was
disappointed when it was not forthcoming.  “Pretty difficult to breath in a
vacuum,” he prodded.

“Hmmmm…”

Jon fell silent, fairly deflated that Miranda was ignoring
him, unused to this restless inactivity.  “Don’t suppose I could interest you
in a short trip?  I need to make a cargo pickup.”

“There is nothing on the shipping manifest.”

“It’s personal.”

“I didn’t think that the Doctor has reinstated your flight
status.”

“He hasn’t, hence I need a pilot.”

“Well I am busy, lot of others to choose from on the
station.”

“Sure, I guess,” Jon replied dejectedly.  “Never mind, I’ll
go and find somebody else to fly the
‘Light
…”

“What?”  Miranda squeaked, she actually squeaked! 

Jon had to try hard to suppress a grin at his victory. “Well
I did not want to drag you away, you’re obviously very busy,” he hedged.

“No, no, no,” Miranda stammered quickly. “I’ve just finished
here.”

“You’re sure?”  Jon inquired doubtfully.

“Sure!” Miranda stated glibly, tossing away the data pad
that she had been so engrossed in, only moments before.  Skipping around the
desk, actually skipping!  She pulled Jon out of his seat towards the door.

“Well…if you’re really sure,” Jon deadpanned. 

*****

The
Eternal Light
tore away from the station at full
thrust, before nose-diving into an uncontrollable flat spin, coming back to
level flight – inverted, if it was possible to be inverted in space, where the
absence of gravity made concepts of
up
and
down
relative.

Miranda was just laughing with delight, hair flying in all
directions as the ships internal stabilisers tried to compensate for the wild
manoeuvres, with only limited success.  Miranda had never flown a ship, beyond
her old
hawk
fighter, that was so responsive.  The ship seemed to
respond instantly to each of her light touches, gliding and soaring through the
intervening space.

“Hey, take it easy will you,” Jon groused.  “The
‘Light
is
an old girl now, show her some respect will you?  Remember this ship is only on
loan to me from the Emperor, he might want it back one day and in good
condition too!”

“I forgot you once told me that this ship belonged to the
Emperor, wow he had a good taste in ships,” she gushed, motioning towards the
rich internal decorating, with the Aurelius family seal prominently displayed. 
“Anyway seeing that he no longer needs it,” she added tactlessly.  “I guess
it’s yours now.”

“Actually this now belongs to the Imperial Princess Sofia Aurelius,”
Jon corrected her.  “After the Emperor’s death she inherited all the family’s
assets, companies, properties… and ships.”

“Wow, stunningly beautiful and totally loaded, you
completely blew it with her!”  Miranda replied with another giggle, barrel
rolling the shuttle, much to Jon’s dislike, as his lung was screaming in
protest and the painkillers he had taken before the flight were making him
nauseous.

“She was better off without me,” Jon replied morosely.  “But
at least she let me keep the ship.”  Jon remembered their parting words
painfully.

Recognising that she had spoiled the mood with her flippant
comments, and worried at Jon’s pale face, and glassy expression Miranda finally
levelled off the ship, reducing power to the engines.

“So where is this cargo that you need to pick up?” she asked
curiously.

“The Ceres asteroid belt, you will find it in the
navigational computer.  It should only be a few hours flight time at
sub-light.”

“What sort of cargo are you planning on picking up?” 
Miranda asked curiously. “Some rock to throw at your department heads when they
next don’t deliver your reports on time?”

“I was thinking something a bit bigger...”    

*****

A few hours later, Miranda was rousing Jon awake after he
had fallen asleep on the way, due to lack of rest the night before.

“Ok we’re here, so where to now?” she asked, her curiosity
peaked by his earlier comments.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Jon brought up the ship’s
sensor report and highlighted one of the largest asteroids, almost 2.5
kilometres in length, and almost as long in diameter, at the middle of the
field.  “This one,
Erebus
, and try and not hit anything else on the
way.”

“Gee Jon,” Miranda replied expertly plotting a course, to
weave through the field.  “Couldn’t you have chosen one on the edge of the
field?”

“And deprive you of the opportunity to show off your
superior piloting skills?  No,” Jon replied, keeping one eye on the sensors to
make sure that Miranda did not drift too close to one of the spinning rocks. 
However, he needn’t have worried as Miranda expertly threaded the
Eternal
Light
between the rocks, slowly moving towards the centre of the field, and
the largest asteroid.  

The
Eternal Light
was still almost five kilometres
from the centre of the belt, when suddenly on the emergency channel a broadcast
started to announce. “Unidentified ship, you have entered restricted space. 
Vacate this area immediately or lethal force will be authorised.  Unidentified
ship, you have entered restricted space…” the message continued to repeat
itself.

“Whoa, easy,” Jon murmured, touching the back of Miranda’s
hand reassuringly as he fired the port control thruster to move them away from
one particular rock that had encroached within a few meters of the ship.

“Sorry,” Miranda replied embarrassed. “I was surprised by
the message and lost concentration.”  She glanced over at Jon’s hand that was
still resting on top of hers, noting that he had not withdrawn it after she had
corrected their course.  Finally she decided that if Jon had not noticed, she
would not bring the issue up, anyway his hand was warm, and it was kind of
reassuring…

“That’s ok, I forgot about the message, anyway I better send
the confirmation code before the automated defence systems blow us up,” Jon
replied with a grin.

“
What
automated defence systems?” Miranda inquired,
shooting Jon a disturbed look.  “You did not mention any automated defence
systems.”

“Sorry must have slipped my mind, anyway nothing special, a
couple of rail guns, probably a few missile emplacements, might be a particle
weapon or two.  It’s been a while,” he replied.  Instead, his attention was
focused on his console, as he seemed to be busy entering a 32-digit
confirmation code.  The flashing red light, with the words declaring “Access
Denied” did not particularly reassure Miranda.