The Prize: Book One (42 page)

Maybe that was part of the problem.  Few if any of the Earth many races thought of themselves as members of the human race first, and that would have to change.  If Penn could bring them together to fight this Empire, then Earth's citizens would have to stop thinking of themselves as Chinese, Russian, American, English, Serb, Arab, or any other national distinction.  From now on, they would have to understand that they were first and foremost human beings, but there still remained the question of how?  He eyed the raised walkway around the periphery of the chamber, and the number of armed guards walking back and forth.  So much for trust.  That many armed guards showed a distinct degree of paranoia.  Just then a barefoot, teenage slave girl walked by offering a tray of food.  She was clearly naked beneath a white, almost transparent shift, offering her wares too as she passed among the guests.  It was obvious to Ellis and Penn, from her hair, skin, and facial features she was human.  Penn stopped her and knelt down.  The girl flinched, expecting an attack, or worse, her eyes cast downward submissively.  Ellis felt the girl's pain and gripped Penn's shoulder hard enough to make him wince.  She'd always wondered where the young girls the slavers took ended up.  Now she knew of at least one place.  …'There but for the grace of God go I'… she thought.

As Penn knelt to talk to the girl, Ellis kept a free space around them, sometime with just a look, other times with a stiff finger in the ribs.  Penn placed a gentle finger under the girl's chin, lifting her eyes to his.  Tears welled in those eyes, tears that almost ripped the heart out of his chest.

"I will not hurt you, little one.”  He smiled, even though it felt as if a giant hand was squeezing his heart.  The girl looked into his golden eyes, drawing back in surprise, but recognizing another human.  She smiled slightly, her lower lip quivering.

"How many girls like you are in this building?”  Richard asked in a soft, gentle voice, the rage in his mind rimming the scene around him with a pulsing red halo.

"I.  .  .  I don't know Lord…  A lot.”  Her whisper almost lost in the clamor about them.  Richard could tell from her clothes and the electronic slave bracelets around her wrists and throat that she wasn't there solely to provide food to the guests.  He touched the bracelets and she flinched.

"Please, don't... they will hurt me if you tamper with them, Lord.”

"I'm no Lord, little one.”  Her vulnerability and innocence, almost brought a tear to Penn's eye.

He knew what it was like to be a slave, had tasted the way powerlessness slowly drained your will to resist, your will to live.  ”Can you leave the Palace with these on?"

"No lord, I can only go a few feet outside without them punishing me.”

"If I may, Richard.  You can safely disarm and unlock the bracelets with the electronic lock pick you carry.”  A soft voice inside his head intoned.

Richard carefully took the device out of his pocket and held it to the locks, releasing her wrists and collar.  The tiny warning light on each turned from red to green as they unlocked, catching them before they fell to the floor.  The girl gasped and looked at him with wonder in her eyes.

"How did you…?”

"It's not important.”  She rubbed her wrists as Penn spoke.  ”I need you to gather up as many of the other slaves as you can, and find somewhere safe to hide for a bit.”

"Why?"

"Because you are free now, and I'm going to take you home soon.”

"Home?"

"Home.  Earth… you know, where your parents are…”  He stopped as the truth dawned on him.  ”You were born here?"

"This place is the only one I can remember.  What is Earth?”  Richard gritted his teeth, adding another crime to his list to be repaid.  ”Earth is the place where you came from, where all humans were born.”  There was no look of understanding in the girl's eyes.

“If we can't find your parents, you will come home with me, little one.”  Ellis added.

“Here, take this and unlock everyone.  Go as quickly as you can.”  Penn leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head.  “Go.  You have little time before the Emperor arrives, and this party begins.”  With one last look into his eyes, she scampered away.  She reached the other side of the room, dragging a group of young girls and boys behind her, all dressed in a similar fashion.

"Richard?”

"What?”  His voice full of anger, but not at her.

"I love you.”  She whispered, squeezing his shoulder.  He gave her a small sad smile and he stood.

"Looks like we are going to be looking after a lot of kids.”

"I don't mind in the least.”  She smiled back.  ”Maybe they will help when our children arrive.”

"I am tracking the slaves, and will transport them out of harm's way.”  Ellis nodded.  It was time to move on.

“Did you have any trouble mapping the inside of the building?”

“Not once you were inside, Richard.”

"Good.  Let the fun begin,” he murmured.  No sooner had he said it when the anthem of the Empire blared out from the hidden sound system.

CHAPTER - FORTY TWO:               Confusion and Misdirection

The music droned on interminably, while a hidden chorus sang stanza after stanza of unintelligible verse.  Richard wondered if this wasn't deliberate, another of the Emperor's sick jokes, no doubt he spared himself the ear-splitting noise.  As the music ended, an overweight chamberlain in jewel-encrusted robes stepped forward, banging his staff on the podium floor, making it boom like a huge drum.  A second discordant tune swelled behind him.

"Kneel and pay homage to your Emperor!”  He bellowed, his voice straining over the music.  ”Emperor of the Tellurian Empire, King of kings, the savior of the universe, redeemer of Krill…”

"Really fancies himself, doesn't he?”  Ellis whispered loudly.

All around thousands of dignitaries, ambassadors, princes, and lords fell to their knees in reluctant homage.  All except two dressed in silver and black.  Behind the chamberlain, the Emperor walked slowly from behind the royal purple curtains to take his place on the ornate throne, eyeing the kneeling mob.  Idly he wondered if he shouldn't have the whole lot shot so he could start over with a fresh bunch of sheep.   At that moment, he saw two members of the crowd weren't kneeling.  He couldn't remember the last time that happened, at least not in his lifetime.  The tune ended and silence descended.

"Who dares offend their Emperor?”  The chamberlain shrieked in outrage, as if trying to hammer Penn and Ellis to their knees by volume alone.  Behind him, the Emperor leaned forward, his interest piqued for the moment by this unusual event.

"We do!”  Richard's voice thundered back equally loud.  Humans do not kneel to someone they have not chosen of their own free will!”  The power of Penn's voice shocked the chamberlain, and he staggered back as the waves of sound battered him.  Penn and Ellis walked slowly toward the raised dais, people scrabbling out of their way less they get caught in the crossfire that was sure to come, and stopped a few feet away from the dais.

"And we never will!”  Penn thundered.

“You, you…”  The chamberlain began to splutter.  The guards around the perimeter leaned forward, their weapons rising, safeties off.  ”You dare!”  He said, finding the words at last, flinging them at the pair.

"We dare!”  Penn thundered back.

"Who... who are you?"  He spluttered, unable to think of anything else to say or do.  This was so unusual and irregular to his perfectly orchestrated birthday tribute is bordered on insanity.

"PENN!”  The Director cursed, his eye glued on the pair as he came out from behind the curtain to stand by the throne.  “Mother of heaven, how did you get in here?”

  He mentally skipped back through the data files.  He watched the events in fast forward, seeing the beauty and timing of each move and how Penn and the woman managed to walk through three layers of Palace Security.  It was like witnessing some perfectly choreographed dance.  He shook his head in disbelief.

"How could they all be so stupid?"

"My name is Richard Penn, and I am here to render judgment on this abomination of an Empire, and on you!”  Penn's thunderous voice hammered the podium, his outstretched arm, and forefinger, pointing accusingly at the Emperor.

Richard thought his rage would get the better of him, but to his surprise, he felt calm.  He'd reached his goal at last, and was about to do what he'd promised the ghosts of so many dead that he would.  Emperor laughed at him, and some breathed a little easier, thinking it might be some elaborate joke.

"And to what do I owe the honor of this visit, Richard Penn?”  The Emperor asked in a sneering tone.  Even so, it shook his being to the core to find his most sworn enemy standing in front of him.

"The death of four billion people, and the destruction and rape of my planet.”

"Is that all?" the Emperor brushed the accusation away as if it were nothing but an annoying fly.  ”I thought for a moment you had a real grievance.  Go away child, you annoy me.”  Penn felt Ellis hunch her shoulders, as if ready to charge the podium.

"That is such a pity, and I came all this way to bring you this.”  Penn's expression would make a church gargoyle look happy.

He brought a brightly colored sphere out of his pocket and held it up.  It looked like an ornament the people of Earth once placed on their Christmas trees when there was such a thing as Christmas.  The Emperor looked at it just as the Director leaning down.

"Kill them, your Majesty!  Kill them NOW!”  Emperor Cytec shook his head, his hand caressing the arm of his throne.

"You think to harm me, child!  I think not!”  He touched a sensor on the arm, instantly bringing the force shield around the podium to maximum.  Richard and Ellis grunted sagging to their knees as the gravity under them increased.  “And you will kneel to me.”

"Shit!”  Penn grunted.  ”Crafty sucker put a gravity plate under the fracking floor!”

“Yeah, and he's got a damn energy shield surrounding him, and the damned Director.  We don't have anything to get through that.”

“Stick with the plan Ellis.  Let's do what we came to do, and get out hell out of Dodge.”  Penn gasped as he forced himself upright, activating the defense shield on his right arm.  Pressing a button on his wrist comp, he saw Ellis's arm shield come to life out of the corner of his eye.

At that moment, responding to some inaudible command, the guards opened fire, but at the same moment the Palace was rocked to its foundation by a massive explosion, plunging the Palace into darkness as planned.  As the lights went out, deadly lances of   cobalt colored fire crisscrossed the room.  Penn let go of the sphere ,and turned his back on the Emperor, switching places with Ellis as the sphere drifted up.

"Ready?"

"You need to ask?”  Ellis snapped as she deflected a sizzling plasma bolt.

Clearly, the guards could see, and didn't care about the safety of the other guests, as their fire increased.  Richard and Ellis each slipped on a pair of eye shield moments before the sphere exploded into an eye-searing flash of light, and mind numbing sound.  Even so, some of the guard kept firing, and they had to angled the bolts off their shield, deflecting the cobalt beams into the packed, screaming bodies around them.

"And don't stop to take souvenirs!”  Ellis yelled.

"Me!”  He grunted as he took the first step and moved off the gravity plate.

Behind his virtually impenetrable shield, Emperor Cytec II watched in stunned amazement, protected by his shield, he was un-blinded by the dazzling explosion of light and sound.  He thought it impossible for anyone to move, let alone walk under three gravities, yet these two did.  He swallowed hard as the two silver and black figures became a blur of motion ripping through the panicking mob and guards alike.  In the darkness, the guard's bolts left a trail of dead and dying behind the couple as they weaved their way out of the audience chamber.  In what seemed like the blink of an eye, they were out and gone, their progress illuminated by the bright flashes of plasma fire down the hallway.  Now littered with the bodies of the dead guards, as the last Imperial weapons fell silent.  Not so the audience chamber, where the screams and moans of dying people filled the air already thick with the smell of smoke and burned flesh.  The floor was now more colorful with the blood of his subjects.  The scene held no more interest to the Emperor than a field full of dead and dying sheep.  He turned to look the Director in the eye.