TICEES (84 page)

Dar lurched to his feet and grabbed Ticees, picking the man up as though he weighed nothing and slammed him down violently into the command chair.

Ticees froze. His facial features depicted his ire, and his fists clenched. “I’ll fucking kill you myself,” he hissed at Dar.

Dar nodded to him. “We’ll see about that.” He brushed himself off and then looked at Korba. “You took your bloody time getting here.”

Korba glared at him. “What made you so sure I would come in the first place?”

“I never was sure, but I was fairly convinced that as long as the
not knowing
was gnawing at you, you would come to your senses eventually.”

Ticees moved, and Dar’s gun came around. “Give me a reason to melt you to that spot,” he growled.

Ticees settled back down.

Korba straightened himself. “You know I’ve left my ship unattended just to come down here and check out your allegiances personally.”

Dar chuckled. “Well, I’ve left my ship, too. But I think Solis and Tarn have things pretty well covered.”

Ticees was not amused. “Someone owes me an explanation!” he roared.

Fremma lunged again, and this time Dar pushed him to the floor. “Cool off!”

Fremma twisted loose, his eyes ablaze. “Just give me one second with him. I won’t kill him. You have my word.”

Dar grabbed him by the front of the shroud. “I know what you want to do, but it’s not our way,” he ground out. Dar shoved Fremma back and then turned away from the man, trying desperately to control his own festering need to inflict inhumane damage.

Korba folded his arms over his chest and sat on the corner of a piece of equipment, his glacial azure eyes piercing Ticees. “You know, I entered into this whole thing with the intent of dispensing with you without any chance of you knowing the reason behind my wrath. I didn’t think you deserved an explanation. But maybe it is best that I give you one. After all, we give our enemies warnings just before we strike, so why not apply that here?”

“What are you raving about?” stormed Ticees. “What could you possibly want that you do not have? I am the Emperor by name, but you run the show. Without you I am nothing! So what drives this? What could have possibly happened to bring this on? We have been friends since our teens. We have shared everything—”

Korba exploded forward, grabbing the giant man from his seat and slamming him to the wall, pinning him with a force beyond the cosmos. “Tell me what we share!” he seethed. “Tell me what we both possess so deeply?”

Ticees’ eyes searched Korba’s frantically. He blinked several times. “We share an Empire, we share the same values—”

Korba pressed his forearm into the Emperor’s throat, cutting off his oxygen. Then he released his hold temporarily before ramming the man back against the wall with bone-crushing force. “Tell me about these values that we share,” he spat out.

Ticees shook his head. “Have you gone fucking mad?”

This time Dar lunged forward, but Fremma caught him, stilling his hand.

Ticees looked beyond Korba to the other two men, the rage radiating off them as sure as the spectral lights. “What is wrong with the three of you? What could possibly bring about such mass destruction, such carnage? You need only have talked to me.”

A feral growl rose up from Korba’s throat. He reached for his knife, running the blade swiftly down the length of Ticees’ uniform and splitting it from his neck to his thighs. Ticees’ eyes widened with terror.

“Is that all Chelan had to do with you to spare herself, just talk to you?”

Ticees went limp. “Oh shit…”

The smile that traversed Korba’s face was that of a devil possessed. “So, tell me of our shared values.” Korba dropped his knife. With one arm across Ticees’ throat, Korba reached down for the Emperor’s genitals, grasping them firmly in his gloved hand. He twisted, and Ticees cried out in agony.

Korba brought his face to Ticees’ ear. “Tell me about your Iceanean values when you pushed yourself into my woman.”

Ticees’ face was contorted with pain.

“Yes, we shared all,” Korba hissed. “But there was one thing we never shared, one precious gift. That gift belonged to the three of us, but never to you!”

Ticees struggled for air, his senses clouding. “While you were gone, she fucked whom she pleased—”

Korba nearly lost it. He glanced at the knife in Fremma’s hand and almost let the warrior have his way. Dar was so taut with rage his whole body trembled. Korba looked back at Ticees, squeezing the man until Ticees’ face went pale. “She made love to those she loved! She made love to Dar and Fremma! You should have never touched her in any way! You never deserved to touch her in any way!” And he stepped back, releasing the man completely.

Ticees slumped to his knees, grasping his damaged organs. “Fuck,” he wheezed. He hunched over as he panted for air. After a time, he finally looked up at Korba. “How did you find out? Who finally talked? Stose? The maid? Who was my fucking traitor?”

Korba turned from him in a storm of black, running his hands through his hair in a bid for any tendril of control he could muster. Then he let his head fall back as he drew in a deep breath. Dar and Fremma were coiled for whatever was to come.

Korba finally turned back to Ticees, the Warlord’s azure eyes aflame. He drew out a projection instrument and placed it on the floor in front of them all. The light beam sprang from the top and dispersed. Before them all, an image of Chelan appeared. She lay on her side in a large bed, a single white sheet drawn over her and tucked by her hand to her breast.

Ticees almost stopped breathing. He squinted at the image, realizing that he could see her quiet respirations. Her incredibly long hair was splashed out behind her in a sunburst. “Shit,” he uttered in astonishment. Then his heart thudded against his chest, and he gasped. “She lives.”

Korba closed his eyes for a moment, attempting to clear his vision of the tears that threatened just at the sight of his beautiful angel asleep in his bed.

Ticees struggled for air. He winced. “Oh my god … Korba … I’m so sorry … I … I never meant for things to go wrong the way they did.” He attempted to straighten. “I loved her.”

Dar had to draw on every ounce of discipline he had not to blast the bastard, and he could tell that Fremma was waging the same battle. But they both knew that in the end, any punishment was to be doled out by Korba’s hands. Dar remained rooted to the spot.

Korba looked to the ground and shook his head. “Love,” he whispered. “You really have no idea, do you?”

Ticees looked frantically at the man who now took on an air of calm. The peace that overtook the Overlord was more distressing than all that had gone before.

Korba continued to stare at the floor, his voice soft and low. “Describe this love for me. Tell me how you loved her in front of the Guild.”

Ticees’ head sank. Korba whirled around in a flurry of ebony. “Tell me!” he shouted. “Tell us all how you loved her that night!”

Ticees sat back on his heels and looked up at the ceiling, tears streaming down his face. “I wanted her … all of her … I thought she would come to me. I thought she would give herself to me … willingly … I—”

Korba’s voice boomed. “I don’t want what you thought, what you hoped for! I want to know what you did! Tell me what you did!”

Ticees looked at Korba, and his features hardened. “I tried to make love to her! I tried to impregnate her!”

Korba lunged at him, grabbing him about the neck and squeezing hard. “Don’t fucking lie to me! Quit fucking lying to us! And quit fucking lying to yourself!” and Korba rammed Ticees’ head back against the wall. “Tell us all what you did, or I’ll let Fremma have a slice of you, and then we will all sit back and watch while you bleed out. Tell us!”

“Okay,” Ticees wailed. “I raped her! God, I raped her in front of the Guild!”

Korba released him and sprang back from him. “You deserve no less than to be cast aside in the dungeons of hell for what you put her through. You are no better than any of the beings we have ever destroyed—you are even worse. You betrayed our beliefs, you betrayed our morals and standards of conduct, and you betrayed the very basis upon which our society is based. And worst of all, you did it from the top, from a position of power, and with that power you betrayed the friendship that we all forged a lifetime ago. And the deepest betrayal of all was to her!”

A soft moan came from the projection and all the men’s eyes snapped to Chelan. She murmured in her sleep and rolled to her back, one breast becoming exposed as she stretched contentedly.

Korba whirled, his eyes ablaze, “You don’t even deserve to lay your eyes upon her, much less force your body into her!”

Neither Fremma nor Dar had time to react. Korba struck with the speed of a demon hell-bent on destruction. A saber materialized from his shroud, and the blow was struck. The blade penetrated the top of Ticees’ right shoulder, travelling diagonally across his chest and through his heart. The man gasped and looked up through clouded eyes at his executioner. He clasped at his chest as he struggled for his last breaths. “I’m sorry,” he uttered.

Korba released the hilt and straightened. He almost staggered back, and Dar reached out to steady him. All three men watched as Ticees drew his last breath, his body slumping forward.

Korba whirled away and then strode over to a wall. He leaned into it, his forehead against it as he struggled to contain his emotions. Dar stepped up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Korba turned around and hugged into his friend. “How could I have ever doubted you, Dar?”

Dar embraced his friend as hard as he could. “I gave you every excuse in the world to doubt me. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have come here. If I hadn’t, Ticees would have sniffed out my subterfuge.”

Korba pushed back from Dar. “This has been one hell of a day,” he whispered. “I’ve laid waste to my planet, I’ve killed millions, and I’ve executed our Emperor.”

Dar’s lip quirked. “A job well done, I’d say.”

Korba nodded weakly. He looked to Fremma and beckoned the man over. He wrapped his arms around the warrior and clung to him as though he were life itself. When he finally released Fremma, he looked at the two men. “I couldn’t have done this without either of you.”

“Sure you could have,” assured Dar. “It might have taken a little longer, but the end result would have been achieved, nonetheless.”

Fremma folded his arms over his chest. “I, however, have a bone to pick with you. Since I made sure your sorry ass got down here in one piece, I should have at least been allowed to impart a little Earthly justice.”

Korba straightened his shroud. “I must admit, my dear man, I came within seconds of allowing you to do just that.”

Fremma smiled. “Well, no matter. Just witnessing the expression on his face when he realized Chelan was alive after all this time was more than worth the trip.”

Fremma had no sooner mentioned her name than a soft, epicurean voice moaned with blissful satisfaction. All three men turned toward the projection and watched as she shuffled to her side, reaching for a pillow and nestling into it.

“Sweet mother of the universe,” Dar uttered. “Have you ever seen anything as beautiful as that?”

“Never,” whispered Fremma.

Korba stepped forward, gazing at the goddess before him for a moment. Then he leaned over and picked up the projection device. Her image disappeared, and he turned to Dar and Fremma. “Let’s go visit the real thing.”

All three made it back to RIBUS 7 unscathed; the last remnants of the battle raged around them as they left the planet’s surface. Korba immediately took over command from Tarn and set about the task of seeing the battle to its end. As the hours passed, all four men watched as messages flowed in indicating a thorough and clean sweep of the planet.

Soon, reports from Toran crossed the intel lines indicating that RIBUS 6 was in the process of purging itself of Ticeenean loyalists. Although the battle cruiser was too far out to be of help, Toran was on his way back in a high-speed fighter. Now the order was going out throughout the galaxy to all the RIBUSes to enact the same cleansing process.

Korba released the ship from its red alert, and then he relinquished himself to his emotions. Iceanea and the Empire were his, and he allowed himself a small victory smile. But what truly gladdened his heart and mind was the end of Ticees himself. If all else had failed save Ticees’ demise, it would have been more than enough.

Korba remained very still for a time as he sorted through all the ramifications of what had just been accomplished. Dar, Fremma, and Tarn all busied themselves about the Command Center, issuing new orders and directives. Korba watched them as he ran his fingers through his thick hair and inhaled deeply. Then he felt a surge of energy knife throughout his body, every fiber, every nerve enervated. The Empire be damned. What he wanted to do right now was make love to his woman—long, deep, and hard.

He glanced at his chambers just as there came a flash from an indicator light. Korba exhaled and restored his professional demeanor, shelving his ardor.

Just then the doors opened, and all four men looked up at the shrouded figure that entered. Toran pulled back his hood and smiled broadly. “I come all the way back here to my home, and I find it in ruins. Some welcome that is.” And Toran dropped his helmet and descended the stairs to Korba and hugged him tightly. “Congratulations, my friend,” he complimented. “I’m just sorry that I could not have been here to help.”