The Sunfire (16 page)

As if the ship had been waiting for permission from its
master, the portside docking bay suddenly lit-up, the flight deck hanger doors
opening at their own will.

“Commander, you may proceed to dock,” Sofia ordered calmly.
When no response was forthcoming Sofia turned to look at Jon. He was just
staring at her, mouth agape.

“What the hell just happened?” He asked in astonishment,
looking at the flagship adrift in front of the shuttle.

“Why Commander,” Sofia replied demurely. “You didn’t think
my family was ever going to be locked-out from one of its own ships did you?
You can proceed with the docking.”

*****

Jon insisted on being the first to disembark from the
shuttle, worried that they would be faced with a volley of gunfire instead of
the usual welcoming committee, considering their less than usual arrival.
However, he was relieved to see that instead of a security team, Alexeyev, with
the Captain and his senior officers lined up behind him, awaited their arrival.
Once he was sure that there was no risk, Jon offered his arm to Sofia who
exited the shuttle, her face calm and composed. However, Jon knew it all to be
an act as he could feel her hand trembling.

Once they had reached the bottom of the ramp, Alexeyev took
a step forward. The Admiral had lost a good deal of his earlier self-confidence
and his face was pale, but he still looked Sofia angrily in the eye, then Jon.

“Princess,” he said in greeting, with little warmth.

“Commander,” Sofia queried, turning to Jon questioningly.
“What is the proper form of respect for a Fleet Admiral upon greeting a member
of the Imperial family?”

“A bow, while on one knee, my Lady.”

“I thought so,” Sofia said. “Can you please assist the
Admiral in demonstrating the proper form of respect please?”

“Certainly my Lady,” Jon replied, releasing her arm. Within
the blink of an eye he had his sword in his hand, it pointing unwaveringly,
inches from Alexeyev’s throat. “On your knees Admiral,” Jon growled.

Alexeyev cast a quick glance to his side, but the Captain
and Senior Officers were all averting their eyes, none supporting the Admiral
in his act of defiance. Hesitantly at first, especially with the deathly sharp
blade hovering in front of him, Alexeyev carefully lowered himself to one knee,
bowing. “My sincere apologies, my lady,” Alexeyev copied Jon’s respectful mode
of address, although not sounding apologetic in the slightest.

“Much better,” Sofia murmured, gliding right past the
Admiral, not even giving him another glance, and coming to a stop in front of
the Captain and his senior staff. “Captain?” Sofia left the question hanging in
the air.

With a quick glance at the blade still hovering inches from
the Admiral, the Captain quickly fell to one knee, bowing his head
respectfully. “Jefferson, ma’am,” he replied, his eyes still downcast. He was
astonished to feel Sofia’s hand rest lightly on his shoulder.

“Please stand Captain, I would be delighted if you could
spare the time to give me a tour of your magnificent ship?”

Taken aback by the warm tone of voice, the Captain stood,
uncertainly. “Of course, ma’am,” he said.

“Please call me Sofia,” she replied with a warm smile,
offering the Captain her hand, which he responded to automatically by offering
an arm in return.

“My senior officers, ma’am? Sofia?” he added, almost choking
on her name.

“Well they are of course welcome to join us, unless they
have more pressing business? I do not want to interrupt the routine of your
ship, any more than I already have,” she replied sweetly. “Shall we begin?”

With a sharp nod of his head, the Captain dismissed his
senior officers, and escorted Sofia towards the exit.

As they neared the door, Sofia paused a moment turning her
head back towards Jon, who still remained on the flight deck, hovering over the
prostrated form of the Admiral. “Commander, do you want to join us?”

“Please go ahead, my Lady. The Admiral and I have some
unfinished business to discuss first. I’ll join you later.”

“Very well,” she replied, gliding from the room, with
Jefferson still beside her, leaving the flight deck empty except for the
Commander and the Admiral.

Jon waited until the doors had firmly closed and that they
were alone, before he turned his cold stare back upon the Admiral, still on his
knees. Secretly Jon was impressed with the way in which Sofia had handled the
situation. Many times before had he stood at the side of her father, the
Emperor, as he had berated an officer. He had shouted at them, sworn at them,
even threatened them, but never once had he simply ignored them. Jon felt that
it was highly effective and surprised that the Emperor had never thought of it
before.

“I expect that you are very angry right now,” Jon mused
aloud for the sake of the Admiral. “Probably even furious, imagining all the
ways that you could take your revenge for this humiliation.” Jon’s blade
flashed up, touching the Admiral just under the chin, forcing him to lift his
head and look him in the eye. “So you can give up any and all of those ideas,
right now. For the Princess is protected, by me. Any scheme or idea that you
come up with, you will need to get past me first, and that won’t happen. But an
even better reason to abandon any ideas you might have, right here, right now,
is that if I suspect, I even
think
that you are plotting against her, I’ll
kill you. Without giving it a second thought.”

Alexeyev looked Jon in the eye and sneered, “Then why is
Harkov still alive? Perhaps you are not as infallible as you thought?”

“Harkov is still alive because the Emperor ordered it. If I
had my way, Harkov would have been dead and buried many years ago. Unlike the
Emperor I don’t make a habit of leaving live enemies behind me. Anyway, I am
busy at the moment, but Harkov has not escaped my attention. I’ll very soon get
around to dealing with him. However, I am happy to let him live, for a little
while longer. As I know with absolute certainty that he is terrified of ever
closing his eyes, as he knows that one day he will open them and I will be
there and it will be the last thing that he ever sees. So Admiral you have a
decision to make now, do you want to live, or die?”

“The other fleet Admirals will never follow her,” he hissed.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Jon replied. “But perhaps she will
surprise them too, the same way as she has surprised you. For there is an inner
strength in her we have all underestimated. She is her father’s daughter, the
latest in a long line of rulers. Anyway it matters little to me as either
they’ll follow her or I’ll replace them with somebody who will. So what’s the
decision, Admiral?” Jon demanded.

Alexeyev looked into Jon’s steely eyes, which were hard,
cold and unforgiving. He well recognised the truth of his words. He could
either choose to live or die this day.

Not unsurprisingly he chose to live.

*****

Several hours later, after Jon had re-joined Sofia and the
Captain on the remaining tour of the ship, they were finally ready to depart.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Captain,” Sofia said. “You
have a fine ship and crew, you should be proud of them.”

Jon was amused to note the slight flush that appeared on the
Captain’s face at Sofia’s high praise. It looked like the Captain was half in
awe and half in love with the young woman already. Jon did not mind, as he was
secure in Sofia’s affections and as long as the Captain remained only in awe…

“Admiral Alexeyev is not going to be present for our
departure?” She asked in surprise.

“He had an upset stomach, he gives his apologies my Lady,”
Jon was quick to inject. Actually Jon had no idea where the Admiral was,
suggesting to him that he make himself scarce for the rest of the visit.
Hopefully he was currently in his own quarters, contemplating his future and
own mortality.

“Very well,” Sofia said. “Bill, in that case will you please
pass on my instructions to the Admiral?” She addressed the question to the
Captain.

“Of course, Sofia,” Jefferson replied, with another small
pink spot appearing on his cheeks.

It took a lot of will power on Jon’s behalf not to roll his
eyes in disbelief. They had only known each other for a couple of hours and
were already on first name terms?

“Sofia,” Jefferson requested embarrassedly. “Could you
please return control of my ship?”

“Of course,” she replied, wide-eyed as if the very thought
had never crossed her mind. For the ship’s internal systems had returned to
normal soon after they had docked, but the external flight controls, including
engines, weapons and sensors had stubbornly remained locked out to the crew.
“I’ll do that as soon as we depart, except for your weapon systems, of course.
They will remain locked out for several more hours after our departure.
However, I am sure this will not be a problem, after all you don’t have
anything you need to shoot at.”

She concluded the visit with her own parting shot.

*****

Several hours after departing from the
Invincible,
Jon was still at the flight controls of the
Eternal Light
. He was
exhausted from the events of the day. Having long since unbuttoned the neck of
his tight uniform and, with his sword resting beside him on the co-pilot seat,
he was reflecting on the events of the day. All-in-all Jon thought it had gone
better than expected, although he was still astonished at the sight of Sofia so
effortlessly bringing a battleship to its knees. He was reminded of one of his
sister’s old fairy tales about a princess who had befriended a dragon. How the
massive and mighty dragon had bowed down before the diminutive princess. Jon
thought his long dead sister would have appreciated the comparison.

He had questioned Sofia closely about the event soon after
their departure and Sofia had confessed her father had given her the master
command codes for all Imperial Navy ships. Jon had long since given up
wondering how it seemed she could sneak around the
Imperial Star
with
impunity, suddenly rematerializing elsewhere without a trace; no wonder.

With the shuttle on autopilot and still several hours from
their next rendezvous with the fleet, Jon leaned back in the pilot seat, fully
planning on getting some rest before their next encounter. However, no sooner
had he closed his eyes than Sofia’s voice blared out of the ship’s intercom,
the device doing nothing to hide her frustration.

“Commander, I need your assistance. Immediately,” Sofia
ordered.

Stretching his tired muscles, Jon slowly got to his feet,
wondering what the problem was this time. Sofia had certainly found her inner
authority and was making full use of it. Jon had lost count of the number of
times, since their departure, he had been ordered to check on something,
retrieve this or deliver that. What was more, Jon was almost certain Sofia was
doing it just to antagonise him for some reason. Probably her way of reminding
him of her new found status and power.

Eventually Jon found Sofia standing in the middle of one of
the master cabins, a look of complete and utter frustration on her face. “You
called m’Lady?” Jon asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Help me out of this thing will you?” She insisted. “I
cannot reach the clasp.”

Rolling his eyes, as a Commander’s job was never done, he
approached her, once again admiring how the robes clung to her figure. Reaching
to the back of her neck, he helped her unfasten the clasp.

With a simple shrug of her shoulders, the robe slid to the
floor. Jon could only gape at the endless expanse of back suddenly revealed. He
had spent a considerable time wondering what Sofia was wearing underneath the
robes, the answer had suddenly become clear. As aside from a pair of lace white
panties, she was completely nude.

“Enjoying the view Commander?” Sofia asked, glancing over
her shoulder, eyes twinkling, a hint of breathlessness in her voice. “Anyway I
thought that the proper form of greeting to a member of the Imperial family,
was on your knees?” She suggested, sweetly.

Jon thought that was an excellent idea, as his legs
currently felt that they had turned to jelly. He thankfully sank down to one
knee, which gave him an even more fantastic view of the endless flesh on
display in front of him. Sofia was not the only one that was breathing
raggedly.

Once Jon was finally on his knees, Sofia turned to face him.
Gently running a finger down his cheek, she inquired. “As the Empress, I
believe you need to follow my every order, to the letter, is that not correct?”

At this point Jon was having trouble speaking as his mouth
had gone completely dry, so instead he gave a small nod in reply.

“Then I am ordering you to kiss me, Commander,” she
breathed, eyes sparking in anticipation.

With eyes now almost black with desire, Jon did not need to
be given the order twice. In one swift movement he rushed to his feet. Lifting
Sofia into his arms and fusing his mouth to hers, he carried her to the bed,
never once letting go.

Present Day,

The Sunfire, Outskirts Beta Hydri System

The small fleet of shuttles dropped into ‘normal’ space
almost simultaneously, maintaining a tight formation heading towards the second
planet of the system.

“We should shortly be approaching the coordinates that you
supplied,” Miranda broke the silence. Over the past hour the tension in the
cockpit had intensified to a level where you could cut it with a knife. “Still
nothing on sensors,” she added.

“She’s out there, I can feel it,” Jon added, staring out of
the cockpit window intently.

Paul, the third and final occupant in the cramped cockpit of
the shuttle exchanged a worried glance with Miranda. It had not been the first
on the journey, for while Jon had always been a man of few words, since
departing
Terra Nova
he had said almost nothing at all, beyond
reassuring the two of them the massive warship would still be there, and safe
to board.

“Jon,” Miranda said hesitantly. “Is everything alright?”

“Sure, what makes you think otherwise?” Came back the
nonchalant reply.

“Well it’s just if you squeeze that flight control any
harder you are likely to break it,” she quipped, motioning towards his hand,
which was white with strain.

Jon blinked, glancing down at this hand and, with a
conscious effort, released his hands from the controls, flexing them to regain
the circulation. “Fine,” he confessed. “So maybe I’m just a little edgy.”

“Something you want to share with us?” Paul inquired, giving
him a worried look out of the corner of his eye.

Sighing deeply, Jon tried to put his feelings into words.
“If you must know, I didn’t think I would ever come back here. I spent six
months of my life on that ship, I was close to the crew. I’m not looking
forward to going back. Too many memories.”

Biting back the sudden pang of jealousy Miranda felt upon
hearing his explanation, she added, a bit more sharply than she intended, “I
thought fraternising with the crew was prohibited in both the Imperial and
Confederation Navies?”

Jon looked at her, shocked, before laughing. “I wasn’t
talking about fraternising with them, it’s just
—
” Jon
sighed. “Many of them were very young and straight out of the academy. For some
of the crew this was their first tour of duty, they looked to me for direction
and for me to keep them safe.”

Paul patted Jon on the shoulder reassuringly. “They knew the
risks when they signed on. I’m sure that you did everything that you could.”

“But it wasn’t enough, was it?”

“We’ve arrived at your coordinates,” Miranda interrupted
sharply, swiftly changing topic. “Still nothing on sensors.”

“She’s there, waiting,” Jon replied distantly, once again
zoning out. Miranda and Paul exchanged worried glances. Moving closer to the
flight controls, Jon started to broadcast the necessary command codes to
reactivate the long dormant systems on the ship.

Miranda stared ahead at a solitary star, which she was sure
was not there moments ago. Blinking, trying to focus, for it seemed that a
shadow had detached itself from the greater depths of space. It only finally
dawned on her, when a second star appeared, that they were not stars at all,
but navigation lights. Slowly, but with quickening pace more and more appeared,
further highlighting the massive superstructure of the ship. Miranda was in awe
at the size of it, never before had she been so close to such a massive ship.
“By the Maker,” she murmured aloud.

“I told you so,” Jon reassured the other two. “I told you
she would be here, waiting for us, just sleeping. Ready to awaken in the time
of need,” Jon breathed, speaking out loud to himself. This time Miranda and
Paul’s worried expressions were interrupted by the chime of the shuttle’s
communication system.

“Jon, Neil here,” the Doctor interrupted them. “I have
completed scans of the outer hull and radiation levels seem to be within safe
levels, however we need to scan inside to ensure that no residual radiation
remains.”

The Doctor’s voice roused Jon, who had been lost in the
past. It reminded him of another task that was still required and this one
being particularly unpleasant. Tapping the communication controls he broadcast
the message to their fleet of shuttles. “All ships are to hold this position at
a minimum safe distance. I will take a security team on board to escort the
doctor and his medical team while they conduct final scans. We will signal when
it is safe to commence docking operations. Neil, Gunny, David
—
follow
us in, we will use the upper flight deck.”

Three shuttles separated from the formation, leaving the
remaining ships stationary in space and heading towards the upper flight deck
of the
Sunfire.
There were no issues docking as the massive flight deck
dwarfed the small shuttles. Once the shuttles had docked successfully and all
systems were powered down, Paul and Jon prepared to depart, to lead their
respective teams.

Jon noticed Miranda unbuckling her flight harness in
preparation to depart with them. Hurrying over to her he motioned for her to
remain in her seat. “Miranda, I want you to remain with the shuttle until I
signal that it is safe.”

Miranda gave Jon an outraged look, insisting. “I’m coming
with you. I can look after myself just as well as you can,” she insisted,
touching the pulse pistol at her side.

Sighing, Jon squatted down until he was level with her.
Reaching out with his fingertips he brushed them gently against her cheek.

Miranda’s breath caught in her throat, as she stared into
his understanding grey eyes. She could vividly remember the last time that he
had touched her in such a fashion. She could still recall his taste on her
tongue, his searing heat as he pressed intimately against her. Miranda averted
her gaze so Jon would not see her flushed cheeks.

However, Jon did not mention anything or purposefully
ignored it, instead he replied softly. “I have never doubted your bravery or
your courage. Instead I am trying to spare you from something, trying to keep
you away from it for as long as I can. For one hundred and thirty eight brave
souls perished on this ship and they are still out there, some in their seats
at their consoles, and others fallen where they stood. Please stay here, let me
spare you from seeing that.”

Inside Miranda cursed herself, for she had come to realise
that she had a weak-spot for this softly spoken, gentle voice Jon occasionally
employed. Not trusting herself to speak, instead she just nodded in agreement.

With a gentle smile, Jon pushed a lock of hair back behind
her ear and, dropping a soft kiss on her cheek, breathed. “We will be back
shortly.”

Departing the shuttle, Jon noticed a small crowd already
gathered at the bottom of the ramp. Paul, David, Neil with Gunny at its head.
Stopping a few feet from the bottom, to utilise the height advantage he called
out, “Ok, listen up people. We are going to split into small sweeper teams. We
will spread out and check that the ship is safe. There are one hundred and
thirty eight crew on this vessel; we need to find all of them. I shut off the
environmental controls prior to closing down the ship, hence the bodies will
not have decomposed significantly, frozen by the sub-zero temperatures.
However, they will now start to decompose rapidly. I have designated cargo bay
two as a temporary morgue; we will move any bodies we find there. The
temperature has been lowered and we can store the bodies until they receive a
proper burial when we are back. Are there any questions?”

“Is there any risk from the radiation that killed the crew?”
One of the marines called out from the back of the group.

“The radiation employed by the weapon was specifically
designed to disperse quickly, it had an extremely short half-life. Therefore
there should be no risk. However, to be on the safe side the Doctor and his
medical team will be on board to confirm it is safe. Any other questions?”

With a general shaking of heads, the large group broke up
into smaller groups, each departing for their allocated sections. Jon fell in
behind the group tasked with the bridge. He had no wish to go back there, but
it was his responsibility and his fault that they were all dead.

Upon reaching the door to the bridge, Jon turned back to
address the marines, security officers and medics that made up this detail.
“Wait here,” he ordered. “I need to go on ahead, give me a few minutes.” Nobody
in the group was willing to meet his gaze, everybody understanding why Jon
needed some time alone.

Stepping onto the bridge, Jon was taken aback by the bustle
of activity, exactly as he remembered it. Officers moving quickly between
consoles, orders and information passing backwards and forwards. Steve
occupying the captain’s chair, his back to Jon. Janet, his Executive Officer,
seated next to him.

Blinking away the sudden vision, Jon instead faced the
silent, desolate bridge. Fortunately the effects of the radiation had been
swift, most died before they even knew what had happened. The sub-zero
temperatures had preserved the bodies, hence the majority looked simply asleep.
Bodies slumped over consoles, others still in their seats. Softly walking
around the fallen bodies, Jon approached the front of the bridge. Taking a deep
breath he turned to face Captain Ferguson. Fortunately, like the others, the
signs of his death were minimal. A small trail of blood ran from his lips, down
the side of one cheek. Obviously he had bitten his tongue, or lip, when he had
died.

Jon carefully got down on one knee, so he could look the
Captain in the face, to an outside observer it almost seemed like Jon was
bowing down before the bridge crew. “You should be proud Steve,” Jon whispered
quietly. “You and your crew completed your mission. You did what duty demanded
and you stopped them before that terrible weapon could ever be used on others.
I’m proud of you, all of you,” Jon said with a raised voice, addressing the
entire bridge. “Now that you’ve done your job, it’s your turn to rest. We will
take you home, back to your loved ones, so that you can finally rest in peace.”
Jon took a deep breath before continuing. “However, first there is one last
mission to complete. Somebody that I love, somebody that I care about more than
life itself, needs our help. She has already lost a mother; I won’t let her
lose her father too. For that I need your help, I need this ship, as we can
only do this together.”

Jon felt a slight breeze passing across his neck, unsure if
it were the environmental systems coming fully back on-line, or the answer he
had been looking for. Regaining his feet, he took one final look at the
courageous crew of the Sunfire.

He left the bridge and told the recovery team they could
start to remove the bodies.

*****

It was a sombre group that gathered in the ship’s briefing
room several hours later. The recovery of so many bodies had dampened their
enthusiasm for the mission. A stark reminder of what they could all possibly
face in the next few days. Jon had organised some food and drink for the
officers, as they were too busy to eat since their arrival, but the food and
drink lay untouched. Nobody had an appetite anymore.

“Paul, what is the status of the
Sunfire
?” Jon asked,
getting straight down to business.

“Pretty good all things considered,” Paul replied. “We have
already run a full diagnostic test on all of the computer and flight control
systems and they all came back green. All the internal systems were shielded
against an EMP strike.” Paul added, referring to the Electro-Magnetic Pulse
caused by the close detonation of the neutron bomb. “Damage to the ship is
minimal, mostly localised around the bow, point-defence weapons. Fortunately
those can be repaired in space, so there will be no need for a space-dock. The
ship’s ammunition batteries are almost full; we have eighty-eight per cent of
the ship’s missiles and ninety-seven per cent of the rail gun rounds. All that
is required is to bring the ship’s reactor up to full power and then initiate a
cold start of the engines. This will take a couple more days, as we need to do
it slowly to check for leaks or damage.”

“Thanks Paul,” Jon replied. “Doctor, what about radiation
levels?”

“They are all within safe parameters,” Richardson replied.
“It seems as though the weapon worked exactly as designed, killing the crew,
but dissipating quickly.” The firm set of his jaw and the biting tone of his
voice, easily conveyed his thoughts about such a weapon.

“Jason, any intelligence on a suitable target we could
commandeer, to sneak onto Tartarus?”

“I think so,” Jason replied. “I have been checking the
flight plans filed in all the adjoining sectors and I think I have found a
suitable target. A medium sized freighter, called the
Phoenix,
is
scheduled to dock in a few days at a shipyard in the Sluis System for a sensor
refit. This is scheduled to take a few days and then there is a flight plan
already scheduled to take her back to Tartarus in exactly five days’ time.”

“Paul, will that fit within your schedule?” Jon asked.

“It will.”

“Gunny, assemble your team then. We will target the
Phoenix
,
and once we have the authorisation codes will fly her ourselves to Tartarus.
This will then give us two days to locate, secure the Emperor and make our
exit, before the
Sunfire
arrives to punch us a hole off Tartarus.”

“Are there any further questions?” With a shake of heads
around the table, Jon concluded the meeting by saying. “In that case Paul, I
have transferred the ship’s command codes to yourself. Congratulations on your
new commission, Captain Harrington.”

Paul only grimaced, nodding his head in acknowledgement.