Unseen Friends, Unseen Foes

by Alcuin Fromm

Table of Contents parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7a, 7b

part 7a

Lemm glanced again at Ruuta, whose smirk had blossomed into a cold smile. Esstoller finished his work with perceptibly awkward movements, but the guests seemed to pay no attention to it. They were still talking about the potential for hyperinflation on Jennok when Esstoller finished and left. The apprehension in Lemm’s chest became unbearable.

“Gentlemen, if you’ll please excuse me for one moment,” said Ruuta, standing.

Lemm’s entire body became taut. Sweat poured from his brow and he kept looking around in all directions. When Esstoller returned, he held a giant pot of soup, steam rising from its wide opening. He placed the pot in the middle of the table with a broad smile.

“Gentlemen,” he said in a heavy Irethian accent, “the Overlook is proud to serve you its specialty fish stew in our unique steamer to keep the soup hot. I will return in a moment with bowls for you.” Esstoller left with rapid steps.

Lemm came to the horrible conclusion just as Nickel announced it. “Sir, I am detecting hythurium in the warming element underneath the pot. And an energy build-up.”

“Bad soup!”

Lemm, not even aware he had spoken, jumped up and knocked his chair behind him. Nearby guests turned at the commotion. The conversation at their own table abruptly ended and all eyes turned to Lemm in astonishment and anger.

Lemm grabbed the pot and yelled as it burned his hands. He whipped it off the table, sending half its scalding contents onto the Governor, who screamed in pain and surprise.

Undeterred, Lemm ran with the dripping pot to the edge of the terrace and hurled it into the air. The blast followed a second later.

The windows and glass doors burst into countless shards from the shockwave of the explosion. A surge of hot air knocked Lemm backwards and onto the ground. Everyone at the Governor’s table was thrown from his chair or flung against the table. From the parking lot, hover alarms screamed over one another. Guests who had been cut by the flying glass or knocked about by the force of the explosion cried out in terror.

Lemm rose and rushed over to the Governor, who was lifting himself slowly, but seemed unharmed aside from burns. A shriek came from the dining room. “Im ran nethrilli!”

Esstoller pushed and shoved his way through the panicking and fleeing guests. He held a small blaster. Lemm dropped to the ground and rolled under the table, coming out the other side just as Esstoller began firing. Two shots went wide, barely missing the prone figure of the Governor.

Lemm dove forward and wrapped his arms around Esstoller’s legs, tripping and knocking him over. Grabbing Esstoller’s wrist, Lemm slammed the man’s hand repeatedly against the ground until the blaster fell loose. Esstoller swung with his other hand and landed a blow to the side of Lemm’s head, knocking him to his side.

A moment later, the Governor’s two aides finally fell upon Esstoller and lifted him up, each holding an arm. One produced a shockstick and slammed it against Esstoller’s chest; he jerked violently once before losing consciousness and falling limp.

Lemm struggled to his feet, his head pounding and his vision blurred. He looked up just in time to see Ruuta, who had been standing among the gawking guests, disappear into the crowd. Lemm shouted and started to run after him on shaky legs. The guests, terrified and uncertain what was going on, parted for Lemm in their rush to get away from him. Ruuta turned a corner and went into the kitchen.

Lemm rushed after him, knocking people out of the way and tumbling once to the ground. In the kitchen, Ruuta walked carefully over the myriad items that had been knocked loose by the explosion.

Lemm crouched down below the level of the counters and stoves and quickly took a different path to head him off at the kitchen’s back door. He removed the nano-trackers from his pocket and twisted the small vial, beginning the slow release of billions of tiny nanobots. “Get ready, Nick,” whispered Lemm. “Try to pick up the fabric of his clothes.”

Lemm stood and hurled the vial at Ruuta just before he reached the exit. It struck him in the back lightly and fell to the ground. Ruuta vanished through the door. Lemm winced as he waited anxiously for Nickel’s confirmation.

“I’ve got it, sir. 172,132 of the nanobots have attached to Tribune Ruuta’s jacket. We have a positive track.”

Lemm breathed a sigh of relief. “All right, call up a hovercab and have it sent to one of the residential houses down the street. We’ll pick it up there. It’s going to be pandemonium here for a while, and we need to slip out quietly.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lemm left the kitchen and found one of the restaurant’s back exits. In the distance, he could hear approaching sirens. A lone hover left the parking lot and sped down the street back into the city.

“Run, Ruuta, run,” said Lemm under his breath.

* * *

Lemm’s right hand lingered on the handle of the hovercab door. The cold metal felt more real, more precious than anything ever had in his life. He couldn’t let it go. He couldn’t close the door. All he had to do was sit back down and tell the driver to take him away, take him anywhere as long as it was far from the darkened warehouse where the nano-trackers had stopped.

“Um, this doesn’t really look like a place anyone wants to go in the middle of the night, pal,” said the driver, peering back at Lemm through the open door.

Lemm looked at the man. He had a plain, honest-looking face. Nothing in particular stood out about him, but Lemm saw a fellow man, flawed and imperfect as he, but also with the same human dignity and value. His resolve solidified.

Lemm hadn’t come to the warehouse for himself but for that man and billions of other men, women, and children both inside and outside the Empire. The Revolution didn’t recognize the individual. It saw only abstract things to be manipulated, it saw only disposable means to its power. The Revolution had to be stopped.

“Well,” said Lemm slowly, “sometimes duty demands we go where we don’t want to go. Pray for me.”

Lemm closed the door and turned around. The warehouse towered above him like a black hole against the dim stars. To his left the bright Olmeninian skyline glittered. He began walking into the shadow of the massive building as the hovercab left.

“You’re all set, Nick?”

“Yes, sir.”

“The code will be... ‘For the Empire.’”

“Understood, sir. You’ll have to be close.”

“Understood, sir,” said Lemm. He tried to chuckle, but it came out as an unsteady grunt. Lemm reached a tall sliding door. Discretion would be pointless now, he thought. He had made his bet, and there was only one way to find out if he had been right.

“Ruuta, you foul scum! We never finished our conversation about the disadvantages of a centralized banking system. Open up, you traitorous vermin! You anarchist! You—”

The door slid to one side and a blaster emerged leveled at Lemm’s head.

“You’re so right, Junior Ambassador,” said Ruuta. “We have much to discuss.”

Lemm raised his hands. Ruuta motioned him inside with the blaster. Lemm stepped inside and Ruuta slammed the sliding door shut, then placed himself behind Lemm, prodding him forward into the warehouse.

Shadows obscured most of the massive building’s interior, but a pool of illumination filled one of the corners. Lemm looked up and saw a handful of lights were on while dozens more remained dark. Alongside the lights ran a line of peaked glass windows to let in sunlight during the day.

They reached the edge of the shadows and moved past a wall of crates. A military corvette loomed in the lit corner of the warehouse with technicians circling it and detaching it from its moorings.

“Beautiful, isn’t she?” said a new voice from Lemm’s left, thick with an Irethian accent. “You are looking at destiny.”

Lemm turned and, despite himself, smiled.

“Uln Xor.”

A tall, strongly-built man with an unkempt beard and wild hair stepped out of the shadows. In his hands he held a stack of datapads. He was chewing on an unlit cigar.

Xor motioned to a passing technician and whispered something to the man. The man nodded, came over to Lemm, and frisked him. When he had finished and found no weapon, he looked over to Xor and shook his head. Before leaving, he snarled at Lemm and spat on him. “Imperial pig.”

Lemm pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the spit from his shoulder and cheek. The man’s gesture had only deepened his resolve and calmed his nerves. “So you’re behind this whole thing?” said Lemm.

“You know me? I’m flattered.”

“There aren’t many photos, but I’ve done my homework.”

“At the Ministry of Intelligence with Daddy, I’m sure. I’ve done my homework, too. You’re no diplomat, Lemm Meetrich. We tracked you carefully at first, not knowing what to think about your sudden arrival. But just about the same time we figured out who Tinnoli was... or should I say, Sill Vorna, your role in the whole thing became much clearer.”

Xor handed the stack of datapads to Ruuta and nicked with his head to remove them. Ruuta hesitated for a moment, and a sour expression formed on his face, but he relented and scuttled away with the datapads. Xor pulled out a lighter from his pocket and relit his cigar.

“And what is my role?” said Lemm.

“According to Tribune Ruuta, you have managed to keep the Governor, Ambassador, and Consul alive for a little while longer. That’s unfortunate for us, but it was never our main goal here on Olmenin. Nor was disposing of Tinnoli.” He smiled.

“Nor is disposing of you, for that matter. These are all just perks. No, Lemm Meetrich, your role has been a very poor excuse for a spy. There have been a dozen times since you arrived when we could have quietly disposed of you. No one would have known.”

“It helps to have control over the courts and all the sources of information.”

Xor chuckled. “Yes, that’s something the Empire never figured out. You have your military and you have your lofty ideals, but then you let the planets run around like children, setting their own rules and governing themselves. That’s what makes the Empire so weak.”

“Freedom?”

Xor chuckled again, but this time without humor. “There is no such thing as freedom. Humans are bundles of nerves twitching and jerking according to the forces of nature. Humans are bacteria crawling over the planets, devouring them, and then slinking off for their next round of desecration.”

Lemm shook his head as Ruuta returned and stood behind Xor. “What a sick view of things.”

Xor puffed his cigar. He turned and began walking slowly towards the ship. Ruuta motioned with his blaster for Lemm to follow.

“In time, your youthful optimism would wane and you would see the truth of things. But I’m afraid you won’t be given that time. You will reveal every last bit of information we can ream out of you. And then you’ll simply disappear.”

He turned back to look at Lemm, the ship framing him from behind. “The Revolution must continue. It is bigger than any one of us. Even me. It is the evolution of mankind. It is our destiny.” Xor lifted his arms in triumph. “And this ship will be pivotal for the Revolution.”

“A hythurium-shielded flying bomb,” said Lemm.

Xor nodded with a slight look of surprise. “Maybe you’re not such a bad spy after all.”

“Your lapdog here was sloppy,” said Lemm, nicking his head towards Ruuta, who reached out and slapped Lemm. He shook his head and continued: “He left too many clues. Tinnoli was one step away before you killed him in cold blood. Thankfully, I’ll be able to finish what he started.”

Xor laughed. “I think not, Lemm Meetrich. In a matter of minutes we will launch this ship. Scanned from afar by the Relay Station, it will seem perfectly harmless. No one will notice a thing until it docks, detonates, and destroys the Empire’s latest tool of oppression.”

Lemm shook his head and circled around Xor. “And that is where you fail, Uln Xor. Your twisted philosophy utterly fails to understand human nature. One aspect of human nature is the capacity for self-sacrifice. And if necessary, the ultimate self-sacrifice. You are prepared only to sacrifice others.”

Proceed to part 2...

Copyright © 2024 by Alcuin Fromm