Unseen Friends, Unseen Foes
by Alcuin Fromm
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Table of Contents parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7a, 7b |
part 7b
conclusion
Lemm stood up straighter and stared Xor in the eyes, taking slow steps backwards towards the ship. “Tinnoli sacrificed himself to save me. Now I can return the favor.”
Xor laughed. “What a load of pious—”
“For the Empire!”
Behind Lemm, the cockpit of the corvette suddenly lit up. The warehouse filled with a deep whirring sound that steadily rose in pitch. Xor and Ruuta looked all around in confusion. A technician sprinted down the gangway of the ship and ran towards the far end of the warehouse.
“The bomb’s armed! It’s set to detonate!”
Xor stared wide-eyed at Lemm, his agape mouth dropping the cigar.
“You should never leave a radio arming sequence code in the memory banks of an assassin robot,” said Lemm. “Forty-five seconds. Can you outrun your own destiny?”
Ruuta shrieked and ran towards the sliding door. Xor stood a moment longer, barely able to believe what was happening, then turned with a snarl and sprinted after Ruuta.
Lemm began shaking violently and his legs gave way. He fell to his knees. “Nick, make the comm link!”
“Yes, sir.”
Lemm heard a series of beeps and then a click over his earpiece. He whipped out his datapad and screamed into it.
“There are windows in the ceiling! You could crash through them. If you’re as good as your word, now’s the time!”
The bomb’s build-up to detonation became an ear-piercing shriek, echoing throughout the entire warehouse. Everyone had fled, but Lemm knew the blast would be far too large for anyone to escape, including himself. He closed his eyes and offered up a final prayer.
Above him, one of the peaked windows shattered and a craft quickly descended to the ground. Lemm opened his tear-filled eyes. He stood and ran to the silver four-seater, piloted by Fengrick. The passenger door was open by the time he got to it. He jumped inside.
“Straight up!” yelled Lemm. “Go! Go!”
Fengrick nodded and jammed the controls forward. The hover jumped upwards, reaching full speed as it shot through the narrow opening. Lemm gasped, half-expecting to slam into the ceiling. Fengrick hunched over the controls with a determined look on his face. There was a moment of horrible tension.
In an instant, the warehouse was gone, vaporized by an expanding ball of superheated violet plasma. Lemm gripped his seat as the shockwave struck the hover and sent it careening end over end.
“I’ve lost the directional servos!”
The hover plummeted towards the ground. Lemm felt horribly familiar with the sensation.
“Nick, can you get the steering back online?”
The ground twisted up towards them.
“No, sir, but I will overload the anti-gravs before we hit the ground. I think I can create a sort of bubble that will—”
“Do it!”
The final thing Lemm saw before he closed his eyes was a spinning patch of pavement just below them. The anti-gravs screamed their resistance to Nickel’s remotely overloading their energy intake. A piercing screech gave way to a deep boom and the entire frame of the four-seater rocked. Lemm felt himself smashed into his seat, then a final collision brought them to a standstill.
The wrecked hover billowed smoke from underneath, but they were on the ground. Lemm turned to Fengrick who let go of the control wheel with trembling hands.
“Are we even now?” said Fengrick.
Lemm laughed. His throat tightened, and he found no words. He nodded. Before them, a gigantic cloud of dust and debris rose silently into the night sky.
* * *
Lemm sat on the same bench in the Western Park where he had sat nearly two I.S. months ago when Nickel first reconstructed the schematics for the hythurium-shielded corvette. This time, he noticed the crisp autumn weather and enjoyed watching the passersby. As he waited to meet Fengrick for the first time since the explosion of the warehouse, he glanced up into the sky and saw the faint white outline of the completed Relay Station.
The weeks since those fateful days had been a constant parade of meetings with both Olmeninian and Imperial officials. The Ministry of Intelligence had sent an entire forensics team along with half a dozen Advocates to circumvent the corrupted Olmeninian and infiltrated Imperial institutions and represent the interests of Lemm and the Empire.
When all the dust had settled, Lemm was exonerated of all wrongdoing from the warehouse explosion, the restaurant explosion, and his harrowing descent in the escape pod. Expenses would be paid not by the Diplomatic Corps, but the Ministry of Intelligence. Forty-eight Revolutionaries were rooted out of various government and corporate institutions to be imprisoned along with Mal Esstoller. An Imperial-led forensics team found traces of DNA from both Xor and Ruuta in the ruins of the warehouse. They and fifty-seven co-conspirators had not survived.
Fengrick saw Lemm from across the park and waved. Lemm returned the wave with a broad smile. The former captain was wearing civilian clothes. Lemm stood, and they shook hands warmly, then sat and relived the whole experience over again, going over every detail like familiar friends.
“To be perfectly honest, I really didn’t think you would come to that warehouse,” said Lemm. “I was convinced I would not get out of there alive. My plan was so crazy, and asking you to follow me and risk your life was so reckless, I—”
Fengrick smiled and raised a hand to stop Lemm. “It was something I had to do. Guilt is a very strong motivator. Even after your assault case was dismissed, I couldn’t shake the feeling I was a traitor. I was tainted. When you called me that night with your crazy plan, as you say, you gave me a chance for redemption.”
“We saved each other, I guess,” said Lemm.
They sat in silence for a long time.
“What will you do now?” asked Lemm.
Fengrick chuckled. “Life-changing events tend to, well, change your life. I’ve decided to start a whole new career. The infiltration of the Revolution you exposed is just the beginning of the problems here on Olmenin. I’m going to start a new journal to investigate what’s going on and expose the truth.”
Lemm nodded in approval. “Good for you. Maybe someday you can work for the Ministry of Intelligence.” He smiled. “I might know someone there who’s looking for men he can trust.”
* * *
An Imperial honor guard stood waiting for Lemm when he arrived at Platform 68-8-14 of the Olmeninian Central Spaceport. Governor Rone-Irr stood together with Ambassador Ziisch. Behind them, Consul Anróyiv tapped impatiently at a datapad. A new two-man ship sat on the platform. As he approached, Lemm took out his datapad to show Nickel.
“Oh, a RO-867,” said the AI. “That’s the latest model.”
“I wonder who will be flying it,” said Lemm.
Governor Rone-Irr stepped forward and shook hands with Lemm. “You will be flying it, Ensign Meetrich. This is a gift from the Olmeninian Police Department. They wish you to know that your bravery and courage have inspired many to rediscover their commitments to the force, and to cleaning it up.”
Lemm smiled awkwardly. “I’m honored.”
“And we wish to thank you again for saving our lives.” The Governor cleared his throat. “Isn’t that right, Consul?”
Consul Anróyiv looked up from his datapad. “Yes, yes, of course. Meetrich...” he sighed. “Perhaps you weren’t quite the fool I took you to be.”
Lemm felt a lump in his throat. “Coming from you, sir, I take that as the highest compliment.”
He boarded the ship, connected Nickel, and began the pre-launch cycle. “Wonderful little piece of craftsmanship, isn’t it, Nicky?”
“Quite, sir. What will you name it?”
Lemm thought for only a moment before pulling back the control stick and lifting off the platform. “We’ll call it the Tinnoli.”
“Very good, sir.”
With a blast of blue plasma exhaust, the Tinnoli swept up into the sky on its way to dock with the orbiting Imperial transport vessel. Lemm glanced back one last time at Olmenin then looked up to the stars and his destiny.
*
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A sequel, To Die Like a Man, begins in issue 955.
Copyright © 2024 by Alcuin Fromm
