The Last Praetorian (46 page)

Sofia meanwhile looked around frantically for something that
she could use to defend them, but there was nothing!  Then she remembered the
pistol Jon was carrying.  Now he was no longer lying across her she could
move!  As the assassin’s attention seemed focused solely on Jon, she reached
down to Jon’s side, where the pistol was holstered…to find that it was
missing!  Her movement must have drawn the attention of the sandy-haired youth,
as he swung his rifle in her direction.

“Now, you don’t go anywhere poppet!” he urged.  “I’ve got a
nice fat bonus lined up for bringing you in alive.  Let me just check on the
Commander here... he should have been dead by now…” With that he turned away
from Sofia, leaning down to peer closer at Jon.

Something gleamed out of the corner of Sofia’s eye; turning
her head she finally saw the pistol.  It was several feet away, obviously
having fallen from Jon when he had been hit.  Sofia started to crawl in the
direction of the weapon.

“I’ll be with you in just another moment poppet,” he said
leaning down peering at the bloody remains of Jon’s shirt and chest.  “How come
you are still alive?” he murmured, amazed.

Sofia continued crawling on her hands and knees in the
direction of the pistol, seven feet, six, five… she desperately reached out
trying to get to the weapon in time, but was interrupted by the shout of
surprise from behind her.

“Tactical armour!  You’re wearing tactical armour? 
Underneath civvies!  Who the hell walks around all day wearing tactical
armour?  Well I’ll put another round through your skull, let’s see if you can
survive that…Hey, what the hell!” he exclaimed as out of the corner of his eye
he saw Sofia reaching for something in the corner.

Sofia made a desperate dive for the pistol as soon as she
heard his shout, knowing that she only had this one opportunity, otherwise both
she and Jon were going to die.  Scooping up the weapon she twisted, landing on
her back, pointing the pistol in the direction of the sandy haired man, who
meanwhile had started to swing his own rife in her direction. 

He never made it.  Unbeknown to Sofia, the pistol was set to
its highest setting.  As soon as she pressed the firing stud, the bolt
discharged from the pistol, hitting the youth squarely in the chest.  The worn
jumpsuit offered no protection and with a startled cry he collapsed to the
floor, his chest a blackened, smoking char.  Sofia looked at his body in
startled incomprehension for a moment, expecting him to suddenly get-up and
reach for his weapon once again.  However, after he remained motionless a while
longer the thought suddenly hit her, she had killed him!  For a moment Sofia did
not know what to think, did not know how to feel, but a racking cough from Jon
drew her attention back to him! 

Jon!  He was badly hurt!

Slipping and sliding to his side, Sofia looked at his chest,
and then quickly looked away.  His shirt was mangled, what remained was a
bloody mess.  Sofia could not tell where the shirt ended and torn flesh
commenced. 

“
Sofia!
”  His voice whispered hoarsely, blood
covering his mouth.  “You must go.  Take the
‘Light.  
She will respond
to you.  ‘Course is already plotted.  Go!” he choked.

“Quiet!  Don’t speak!”  Sofia ordered.  “Everything will be
fine,” but even as she spoke the words she knew them to be a lie. Everything
was most definitely not going to be fine.  Sofia did not need to be a doctor to
know that Jon was hurt, badly.

“Sofia!  You must go…leave me!”

Sofia stared incomprehensibly at Jon, her hand unconsciously
brushing back a lock of bloody hair from his cheek.  Leave him?  How?  Jon was
all that she had left!  Her mother had been taken from her when she was barely
a child.  Her father had been dead barely a few weeks.  Jon was all that she
had left from her old life.  Staring into his unfocused eyes, Sofia could
picture her life stretching out before her eyes.  No family, no friends, nobody
to come home to in the evening, nobody to love. Alone…

“No!” she insisted firmly.  “I am not going to leave you.” 
She would not accept that future for herself.  Better to stay here and die
together with the man she had fallen in love with, than accept that future. 
“If you want me to go, then you have to come with me.  Otherwise I am going to
stay here, with you, together,” she insisted.

Jon caught her hand in his, and for a moment Sofia thought
that he was going to push her hand away, when she suddenly felt his grip tighten
on her wrist.  “You will have to help me up, then,” he said.

Nodding, she pulled him to his feet.  After Jon took a few
shaky steps, almost collapsing she ducked her head under his arm, supporting
his weight.  Half carrying him, half dragging him, they headed in the direction
of the shuttle, arm-in-arm, together.

*****

Lowering Jon gently into the co-pilot seat of the
Eternal
Light
, Sofia hurried away to find the emergency first-aid kit.  The journey
back to the ship had been a nightmare.  Jon had gone more and more pale with
every step.  Near the end of the journey Sofia thought that it was only sheer
determination that was keeping him on his feet.  The couple attracted unwanted
attention the moment they had stepped onto the docking ring.  Jon was a torn
mess, trailing blood behind him.  Sofia was little better, being covered in
blood from when Jon had bled over her.

Tossing open the first aid box Sofia rummaged around,
finally sighing with relief when she found the emergency analgesic, thanking
both Jon and her father for insisting that she attend the same emergency
medical training that was mandatory for all the ship’s crew.  At the time she
had vehemently fought against it; she was an Imperial Princess – what did she
need to know about medicine?  The ship had dozens of trained medical personnel
for that!  As she injected the opiate directly into the blood stream in Jon’s
neck Sofia shook her head in disbelief, amazed at her previous arrogance.

“No more…” Jon moaned, pushing the injector away from his
neck, barely half used.

“But the pain…” Sofia stammered.

“Any more and it will leave me unconscious, I’ll cope with
the pain.  You must start the engines, Harkov’s men could be right behind us…”

Nodding, Sofia took the pilot seat for the first time.  Her
father had taught her to fly the shuttle at a young age, although Sofia had
shown little interest.  Once again she wished now that she had paid more
attention…  Keying the emergency engine start, Sofia watched, biting her lip
anxiously as the engines quickly powered up.  Noticing that Jon now barely
seemed lucid, she transferred power to the engines and piloted the ship out of
the docking berth.

While the Emperor had taught her basic piloting skills,
unfortunately this did not extend to docking etiquette, specifically the need
to request
permission
prior to departure.  Hence her first flight was
almost cut dramatically short as the
Eternal Light
shot out of the
docking bay, directly into the path of a docking freighter.  It was only due to
quick reflexes and a scream of pure terror that she pulled up and missing the
freighter with barely meters to spare.

Of the two dark fighters that launched immediately after the
shuttle in pursuit, one was not so fortunate.  The shuttle was rocked by the
explosion as the heavily armed fighter slammed into the side of the freighter,
its missiles and ammunition exploding in a massive fireball behind the
shuttle.  The second fighter however managed to avoid the freighter at the last
moment, quickly accelerating to catch-up with the fleeing shuttle.  It did not
look like they were going to make such an easy escape as they had from
Transcendence
.

The alarms on the
‘Light
warned Sofia of the
approaching fighter as its targeting scanners tried to lock onto the ship.  Unfortunately
Sofia was no combat pilot, unlike Jon and had absolutely no idea what to do,
hence she did the only thing she could think of; she accelerated.  Throwing
full power to the engines she was pushed back hard into the pilot’s seat as the
shuttle’s internal dampeners struggled to compensate.  Taken by surprise, from
the sudden acceleration, the fighter in pursuit fell behind, until it too
accelerated to match speed, before slowly, inch by inch it started to close the
gap.

The warning chime of a missile starting to target them had
Sofia urgently trying to shake Jon awake.  The chime suddenly changed to a
scream to indicate a missile launch!

“Jon!  Jon!  Please wake up!”  Sofia urgently shook him.  “I
don’t know what to do, help me.  Please!”  Whether it was her words, the rough
shaking or the scream of the missile alarm, but finally Jon’s eyes seemed to
focus on her own.

“Top right,” he wheezed.  “Ship’s tactical computer… code
Alpha, Gamma, 2… 3.  Automatic,” he stuttered, before another tremor shook his
body.

Sofia quickly hurried to follow his instructions, finding
the correct panel on the flight controls and quickly entered the correct code. 
As if the ship had just been waiting for permission to slip its leash the
moment she finished entering the code, the ship’s computer deployed the guns
into their firing position, the rail-guns’ barrels spinning up to speed,
calculating speed and trajectory of the incoming missiles.   The minute the
missiles came within range, the ship unleashed a barrage of gunfire.  Targeting
the closest missile first, the guns tracked the trajectory spitting out their
lethal load, tearing into the first missile before seamlessly switching to the
next.  The second missile detonated barely one hundred meters from the
shuttle.  Meanwhile the guns swivelled to face the oncoming fighter; were they
not controlled by an emotionless computer, an observer might think that the
operator was anxiously waiting for the target to come within range.

However, before the fighter could reach weapons range the
Eternal
Light
reached minimum safe distance from the station for the FTL engines to
engage and the ship jumped to light speed, leaving the final fighter to turn
back in frustration, its quarry having escaped.

*****

It was barely a thirty-minute jump to the Eden system. Sofia
spent the time in increasing desperation trying to keep Jon conscious and
trying to stem the increasing flow of blood.

The minute that the
Eternal Light
dropped out of FTL,
Sofia activated the emergency distress beacon on the shuttle, uncaring about
the attention that it might draw, knowing that if Jon did not receive emergency
medical attention soon, it would not matter.

“Jon,” she cried cradling his head on her lap on the floor
of the shuttle.  She had guessed that lying him flat on the floor might help
stem the flow of blood from his chest.  Unfortunately it only had limited
effect and she could feel each beat of his heart, slowly getting weaker as the
precious lifeblood drained from his body.  “Look we finally made it, we’ve
arrived, we are at Eden!”

Jon’s eyes opened for an instant, focusing on the blue green
orb that was floating outside, the two moons orbiting the planet unmistakably marking
it as Eden Prime, political centre of the Empire and home of the Senate.  Jon
took one final breath before his eyes closed for good.  Sofia bowed her head
against his, her own tears mingling with his blood.

*****

Captain Turner, of the System Patrol Craft
SPC Intrepid
,
had only started his shift barely twenty minutes, previously and was still on
his first cup of coffee in the morning when the distress call arrived.

“Sir, we are receiving an automated distress call,” the
communications officer reported.

“Location?”  Turner asked in surprise.  As the home of the Imperial
Senate, the Eden system was one of the most heavily defended in the Empire,
hence nothing of any interest ever happened.

“Seems to be coming from out near the heliopause.  Looks
like the ship has just dropped out of FTL.”

“OK, Helm, lay in a course,” Turner ordered, before turning
back to the communications officer.  “Try and raise them on a channel, find out
who they are and what’s the nature of the emergency.”

“The automated distress signal is broadcast ship
identification and registry,” his Executive officer reported.  “I’m running it
through the ship registry on Eden Prime, we should have a match in a few
moments…” Turner acknowledged his bridge officers, turning back to his coffee
cup.

“Sir,” the communications officer reported hesitantly.  “I am
in contact with a young woman on the ship.  Sir, she claims that she is Princess
Sofia Aurelius, daughter of…”

“I know who Sofia Aurelius is,” Turner stated rolling his
eyes with a smile.  “This must be a prank!  You remind this woman the penalty
of wasting Imperial Navy time…”

“Sir,” the communications officer reported.  “The woman
claims that she is accompanied by Commander Jonathan Radec, that he is badly
injured and needs immediate medical attention.”

Turner spitted out a mouthful of hot coffee over his
immaculate white uniform.  “Confirm that last communication, now!” he ordered. 
While Sofia Aurelius was a name known throughout the Empire, Commander Radec
was not.  Shunning the media spotlight he was never far from the Imperial
family, intelligence reported that the Commander should have arrived weeks
before, with the Praetorians escorting the Princess.  If it was true that the
Commander was on-board, then maybe that really was the Imperial Princess, and
if Radec was badly hurt…Turner broke out in a cold sweat.  It was well known
throughout the fleet that the Emperor was fond of the head of the Praetorians. 
If Radec died on his watch…

His executive officer wordlessly handing him a data pad with
the ship’s registry had him jumping from his seat moving swiftly towards his
helm officer.  “Flank speed!  Now!” he ordered.  “I want to be alongside that
shuttle five minutes ago.”  Hitting the communications button on the flight
controls he opened a channel to the medical bay.  “Doctor,” he ordered.  “We
have two patients that will be arriving shortly, I have been informed that the
Commander is badly injured.  Get a medical team down to the docking bay
immediately, and Doctor…” The captain thought for a moment how best to phrase
the next instruction.  “I expect both patients to make a full recovery, or so
help us God…”