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  ‘Who’s to say I wouldn’t just get another job. Or I might have savings I can fall back on.’

  ‘And have you? Got savings or a job?’

  ‘I have some savings. Enough for a few months while I look for another job.’

  ‘That still doesn’t cover the charges against you, does it?’ Don didn’t answer. He stretched and yawned trying to get his head in gear after being electrocuted, his shoulder still stinging, although as he reached back he could feel a plaster. They’ve removed the shock pellet. ‘This swap. It gets me a pardon. Then I will be allowed to live. That’s what I understand about applying to the Emperor for leniency?’

  ‘Yes. That’s exactly what happens. But do you know how many people apply? Thousands and he only choses twenty.’

  ‘So, this swap. What is it? What do I have to do?’ Don asked, his speech still slurred from being unconscious.

  ‘We will get you in to see the Emperor. Once you’re there we want you to kill him. We will facilitate your escape.’

  ‘And if I do this, I am supposed to trust you? You could just lock me up or execute me. Maybe torture me for a few days first.’

  ‘Of course, there are no guarantees. But we will pay you 10 million units, and this will be in a named account that only you can access, before you meet with the Emperor.’

  Don thought for a while. This was no time to make a decision like this. ‘I need to be able think clearly about this. My head is spinning.’

  ‘We can give you twenty-four hours, but applications have to happen soon, otherwise it will be another year. In that case you’ll be executed. You want some time to think, there’s a suite in this building. Relax and get your head in gear. We’ll come and see you tomorrow.’

  ‘Am I allowed to leave?’ Don asked, expecting the answer to be no.

  ‘I’m afraid not Mr Jackson. You can’t leave. If you don’t do this for us, you’ll never leave.’

  ‘Who is this assassination for? Who gains?’

  ‘That’s not of your concern,’ he said.

  ‘I need to know, otherwise I’m not doing it. And your price. It’s too low. I want one hundred million.’

  The two men looked nervously at each other. ‘Fifty, and you have a deal.’

  ‘Hold your horses,’ Don said. ‘I haven’t decided yet.’ Don stood up. ‘Show me to this suite,’ he told them. The door was opened by the other man. Don looked him in the eye. He wanted to remember his face as he walked through.

  He spent that night feeling restless. Even though the bed was comfortable and the environment relaxing, he only managed three hours of sleep. It wasn’t much of a choice. They hadn’t left him with any options, which was of course the point. If he tried and failed to kill the Emperor, he would be killed. If he refused to do it, he’d be killed. He wished he could know who was behind this. He could only guess that a coup was underway. Lord Bander always seemed Machiavellian. Perhaps he planned to seize power and make himself Emperor? Or was it the Crown Prince, himself – the next in line to become Emperor? After all the Emperor was 988 years old and was expected to live forever. He had already killed a son. Prince Edwin. The old Crown Prince, who died ten years before the current Crown Prince was born.

  There was a knock at the door. It was seven a.m. and even though he was awake, he didn’t want to face this choice they had put before him. The two men did not wait to be given permission to enter the suite. Behind them came two guards who grabbed hold of him and hoisted him up onto his feet.

  ‘It’s time to choose Mr Jackson. Just think. A new life, a new identity and wealth beyond your wildest dreams. All you have to do is this one thing for us.’

  ‘I don’t trust you. I don’t believe there is way out. Say I did it. Say I killed the Emperor. I would never see daylight. His guards wouldn’t let me escape.’

  ‘Who do you think controls the guards Mr Jackson? It’s us. It’s all us. The Emperor’s power has been slipping away for years.’

  ‘Why? Why has it been slipping?’ Don said as he sat back down on the bed. The guards didn’t react.

  ‘He wants peace. His rivals want an excuse to put down an independence bid from Micklemass One. If he continues with his policies the colony will break away and will become a regional power in direct conflict with us. Plus, it’s time for a change. Hereditary titles don’t function in a world, where the rich can live forever. His leadership is tired and out of ideas.’

  ‘So it’s all political? A changing of the guard. And that’s all it is?’

  ‘You could put it that way, yes,’ he said. Don stared at him with a long stare, trying to make up his mind, whether he could trust this man or not. 50 million would be nice. And as for killing, he’d done it many times. It was nothing to him. Besides he had felt the Emperor was a tired institution. But their plan was to just change one Emperor for another, whether that was the Crown Prince, or Lord Bander.

  ‘Okay. I’ll do it. But if I get caught, I will tell them everything – just so you understand. That should make you try harder to get me out once the job is done.’

  ‘Fine. We’ll add you to the pardon request list. You will stay here until on the day and then we’ll get you in at the top of the list. The other petitioners can watch the carnage,’ he explained and then grinned and turned to his colleague, who didn’t grin. Don looked at the other man in the room. He’d said absolutely nothing, this whole time and he wondered why. He looked back and then looked at his feet. 50 million units. That’s what he had to keep in the front of his mind. Besides the fact that the Emperor’s men had killed his father before he’d had a chance to petition the Emperor for a pardon. That hurt. That was unfair.

  Chapter Ten.

  Karry’s Second waited on her ship for an hour, constantly checking the time, eager to track the fugitive from the unauthorised settlement on X35. He or she may not even be here. They may have escaped. She had been monitoring all ships in and out of the station throughout that time, starting when the drones tracked the ship here. She was sure whoever it was, wouldn’t have risked trying to run.

  ‘That’s it,’ Karry’s Second said, as the last minute of the hour ticked past. ‘I will go to the security control room and direct you from there,’ she told the droid AI.

  ‘Yes, Karry,’ it replied.

  She marched off out of her ship and back up to the administrative floor. She was met by a group of security personnel. ‘Out of my way. You have forfeited your right to protect the fugitive.’ At the back of the heavily armed men, the manager Nogort, stared at her defiantly.

  ‘As we speak, I have forces leaving this station to defend it. Your drones will be destroyed if you don’t back…’ he was interrupted as the droids started to fire their machine guns at the security men as some fell where they stood, and others ran including Nogort. When the way was clear Karry headed to the control room. She stepped aside as her two droids smashed open the door and shot the two guards as the control personnel turned in their chairs with their hands up.

  ‘Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!’ one them shouted.

  Karry’s Second entered. ‘If you want to live then I need the exact location of this ship,’ she said as her implant projected a screen into the room and the ship was displayed, with the name and number on the side.

  ‘Yes, of course. Just a minute,’ one of the men said. He was short and red faced and dressed in a black uniform. He typed into his keyboard. ‘Bay three,’ he said. ‘Although it is readying to leave you will have to be quick.’

  ‘Karry, we are engaged in a fire fight with base security. Do you give us permission to kill our assailants?’ the droid AI asked her.

  ‘Yes, you have permission to destroy any or all of the personnel. Send a contingent to Bay three. Instruct the drones to engage any ship leaving Bay three,’ she added instructing the commander of her battle cruiser.

  ‘Received,’ the commander said. A dozen drones took off fast to intercept the ship leaving the base. ‘Do we destroy it?’ he asked.

/>   ‘Disable it. I need to interrogate the fugitive,’ she explained. ‘Who was piloting that ship?’ she asked.

  ‘A man called Able. Kendrick Abel.’

  ‘How did he register? Did he state his business here?’ Karry’s Second asked.

  ‘Yes. He is security personnel for this base. He spends most of his time here.’ Karry’s Second looked confused.

  By the time the droids had fought their way into Bay 3, the ship had left. ‘The fugitive is loose,’ the AI told Karry’s Second.

  ‘Pull up the outside feeds,’ she instructed the base security manager.

  ‘Yes.’ The ship was being met by drones and they were firing. The fugitive ship was returning fire.

  ‘Get the battleship there,’ Karry’s Second instructed Commander Fisk, the battle cruiser’s commander. ‘I have a feeling he will be defended by others in the area.’ She watched on screen as two battle drones were destroyed. Then three ships entered the area and began to engage the remaining drones. ‘Quickly commander. We’re losing our drones.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  ‘Who are these people? Do you recognise these ships? Where did they come from, the base?’ she asked the base control personnel, who were sat in front of the monitors.

  ‘I believe so. They are all part of the security team employed to defend the base. They are contractors.’

  ‘Why would they engage Imperial ships?’

  ‘I don’t know ma’am. They’re brave I’ll give them that.’ As they watched the fire fight a drone hit the engine and it began to smoke heavily. ‘Your target ship is now disabled.’ Just as he said that, the droid bodyguard suddenly began to lock and load their weapons and move outside of the large security room. Karry looked round, slightly startled.

  ‘Sixteen targets are closing in on us,’ one of the droids said.

  ‘Engage and eliminate,’ Karry’s Second said and they began to engage. Within a minute they were all dead and one of Karry’s droids was damaged but still operational.

  The battle outside the station was in full flow. The battleship was engaging several targets simultaneously and had blown one of the enemy ships into oblivion. The other was gearing up to leave, its propulsion system was heating up.

  ‘One of the ships is leaving. Shall we stop it?’ the commander asked Karry’s Second.

  ‘Negative. We have the one we want,’ came the reply. ‘Board the ship and recover the fugitive for questioning,’ Karry’s Second instructed.

  ‘Yes ma’am,’ he responded. As the second ship left the area, the battleship approached the fugitives ship. Now finally they may find out what the settlement was, who owned and built it, what was its purpose. ‘Ship BG45-T, this is the commander of Imperial Battle Cruiser LK897-Q. We will now board your vessel. Any resistance will be put down. Unlock your bay door,’ the commander said.

  There was a moment of silence then the ship’s commander replied. ‘You have permission to board,’ he replied as the bay doors opened. The commander of the Imperial ship, Dan Fisk, prepared a boarding party. Five droids and two marines.

  ‘I am returning to the ship to interrogate the fugitive,’ Karry’s Second said, while standing down her droids. They all gathered back at the transport ship and Karry’s Second entered first, climbing up into the ship as the droids filed in behind her.

  Chapter Eleven.

  The Emperor gathered his privy council in the throne room on the run up to the General Council of the Empire. ‘Issues,’ he said loudly. ‘What can we expect from this General Council?’ he asked. In his mind he already knew many of the issues facing the Empire. His son the Crown Prince sat at his right side and Lord Bander to his left, at the top of a large table. On the other side were the members of the Privy Council. Twelve of them. There were representatives of each of the colonised planets; eight in total and his head of security Karry Diss, Lord Bander and the Crown Prince, then his top legal counsel Mark Barkett.

  ‘There are murmurings of independence from the President of Micklemass One. There is talk of a military build-up there, plus we have the as yet unresolved issue of the unauthorised settlement, on Amalthea, which Karry is dealing with.’ As Barkett said her name he leant forward and looked directly at her. The Emperor then took the que and looked at her.

  ‘Well?’ he asked.

  ‘We have tracked a fugitive, named Kendrick Abel, to a space station. There was some resistance, but it was quashed, and we have the fugitive in custody. I have yet to receive an answer as to what he was doing at the settlement. But my suspicions are that a weapon’s smuggling operation was running from there. There were Imperial weapons found in the buildings.’

  ‘How will you extract the information from this man?’ The Crown Prince asked.

  ‘Enhanced interrogation. It’s happening right now. I will have answers within the next couple of hours, if everything goes to plan.’

  ‘And what of the space station? They resisted Imperial demands to hand him over. Should we treat this base as being hostile to the Empire?’ The Emperor asked.

  ‘Yes, we should,’ Karry replied.

  The Emperor turned to his legal counsel, ‘Issue a writ and Karry,’ he turned back to Karry, ‘Send a contingent to the station and seize it in my name. It will be absorbed into the Empire’s control.’

  ‘Yes sire,’ she said.

  ‘Who would need these weapons?’ The Emperor asked.

  ‘It will be separatists from Micklemass One, but until we have that confirmed, we must keep an open mind,’ Lord Bander explained.

  ‘I will be meeting with the President tomorrow. I need this resolved by then.’

  ‘Yes sire,’ Lord Bander looked at the information coming into his EyeSpec. ‘The General Assembly is ready for you sire,’ Lord Bander said. The Emperor stood up and was followed by the Crown Prince. The Emperor walked out of the throne room followed by his entourage. The Crown Prince sat back down.

  ‘Lord Bander,’ he said as he approached him. ‘Our plans?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s happening don’t worry,’ he replied. The two were unwilling to discuss the plan any further, out in the open. The Emperor was well known for his paranoia. Ten years before Crown Prince Zarka was born he had murdered his older brother, Edwin – the old Crown Prince, who was two hundred and eighty years old when he died. In an era where the Emperor was expected to be immortal, the only way any disgruntled ruling elite could change their leader was to kill him. Abdication was not ever considered. The only reason an Emperor would abdicate is if his health was failing, which in these days of medical marvels, was very unlikely to occur. Modern medicine could repair the body indefinitely, with a mixture of DNA manipulation, and organ replacement with very precise body parts grown in a lab. The other way if there was one, was a severe accident, but given that the Emperor had people around him concerned with his safety, twenty-four hours a day, this just couldn’t happen. The only way was assassination.

  The Emperor and his entourage swept through the wide ornate corridors of the palace and into the legislative council section of the building, that was integrated with the offices and living spaces of the Emperor and his family and key staff. It was the largest building in New York and dominated the city. It was designed to be imposing, to intimidate the dignitaries and politicians that come here every day to get things done. Once a month leaders from across the Empire, either arrive in person, travelling across the galaxy in ships that travel just below the speed of light and for the longer distances, the warp gates which create and use worm holes to travel quickly from place to place, from the further reaches of the Empire. They were enormous circles made of concrete which were a kilometre across to accommodate the largest spacecraft with long antennas which stretched out on either side, then attached to them were the control centres and quarters for the engineers who operated and maintained them.

  The debating chamber was a giant hall, with high ceilings and representatives from the colonies and the regions on the colonies, numbering over
100,000. However, only a fraction of those individuals would attend in person. Most would watch the business of the chamber from back home. The ones who were hoping to speak would generally attend in person. Each person wanting to speak would add his or her name to a list and no matter the question, when it was their turn the Emperor would hear the petition and respond. He would attend the general assembly for five hours and during that time answer as many questions as possible. It did mean that petitions from the 100,000 officials would take months to be answered, but there were other methods, meaning that if your question or issue was more urgent you wouldn’t have to wait as long as that. The chamber was more about politics than dealing with individual problems, urgent or otherwise.

  The first question was introduced to start the session. ‘The Most Honourable member for Goteck, Micklemass Two,’ has the first question,’ the Speaker said. He was there in the chamber.

  ‘Is the Emperor seriously considering Micklemass One’s Presidents call for independence, and if he is, does this mean all other territories can do the same?’

  The Emperor stood up. ‘No, he is not,’ came the short reply as he sat back down.

  ‘Well then, Your Highness, will you put down the rebellion that is building against you?’ the member asked.

  ‘Peace talks are ongoing. There is no threat of rebellion,’ the Emperor explained.

  Another member stood up, before he was interrupted by the Speaker.

  ‘The member for Deadwood Micklemass Two,’ he yelled, his voice carrying across the chamber.

  The member for Deadwood, stood up again. ‘What news is there, Your Highness of the short exchange of fire at the Space Station X35?’ he asked, as Micklemass One representatives shouted their objections.

  ‘The member for Atok will remain seated and quiet for the Emperors reply, or you will be removed,’ as the Speaker spoke, he signalled to security personnel. Three large men rushed off to the section of the chamber where Atok (Micklemass Two) representatives were sat. No member could interrupt the Emperor and if they do, they get arrested and could get cast out of the chamber and fired from their posts. There was a limit to the Emperors tolerance of opposition, even here.