Extinction (42 page)

“Other than that, you have a perfectly
clean bill of health. I suggest that you go out tonight and enjoy your time
with your friends. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. My wife met D’Nerth at a
cooking class she is taking. They began talking and realized who each other
was. They have become very good friends over this past week. Isn’t it a small empire
after all?”

T’Leh felt a little sick to his stomach.
The cooking class was where D’Nerth and her friends tried to recruit people for
the underground. He would have to talk to D’Nerth about that later. For now, he
just said, “Yes, it is. I’m glad to hear that your wife is trying new things.
Goodbye, my friend, and thank you for everything.”

With that, D’Bath left the chamber. T’Leh
decided that now was not the time to call M’Tawny. He needed to think about how
he was going to discuss this new information with his friends.

That night at dinner, T’Leh sat with
D’Nerth and P’Tong and their friend he was set up with. She was attractive but
lacked any real sense of the world around her. T’Leh was surprised that his
friends would even know such a person, much less try to set him up with her. He
was, however, polite and as charming as possible towards his guest.

At the end of the evening, the foursome
took a shuttle into orbit around the planet to view the Kasmai comet. The comet
had a four hundred year elliptical orbit around the system. With their
technology, just about anyone could view the comet from a shuttle anytime they
wanted. They would just have to chase it down, depending on what part of the
system it was in. But it was special to be able to view the comet in the same
sky as their planet.

“I’m so happy that Kasmai is near our
home while I’m alive.” T’Leh was looking at the spectacular view through the
transparent roof of the shuttle. “There are only two points in the orbit of
Kasmai where it comes into contact with Tetreon radiation. Only then does it
change color and glow so that the core is completely visible through all of the
debris it sheds while it travels through space. It truly is a remarkable
manifestation of the universe.”

“Is this real netriv leather?” This was from
the woman who was not interesting enough to have her name remembered. She was
touching the seats in the shuttle and looking at all of the jewels it was
adorned with. T’Leh didn’t even bother to answer her.

D’Nerth couldn’t hold her giggles back
at her friend’s last comment. She would have to apologize to T’Leh later. She
adored her friend but should have known better than to bring her along for a
blind date with T’Leh. She was one of D’Nerth’s few friends who was a Nortes
through and through. She cared for nothing except wealth and personal gains.
She was, however, a great friend and fun to be around. It also helped D’Nerth
to network with the much higher class of Nortes that she hoped to someday
recruit to her cause.

D’Nerth looked at her husband and he
gave her an approving nod. She was glad that he had because she couldn’t wait
any longer to tell T’Leh. “P’Tong and I saw something the other day that was
even more spectacular than this.” She gestured with her hand to the view of
Kasmai.

“I told you not to peek while I was
changing at the pool house the other day”, T’Leh joked with his friends.

D’Nerth took a personal datapad from her
pocket and pulled up an image and handed it to T’Leh. “That is the first
sonogram of our baby!” D’Nerth and P’Tong hugged each other and kissed while a
tear came to her eye. “I am two months pregnant. Only twelve to go!”

T’Leh began to cry almost immediately.
He was so happy for his closest friends. He leaned forward and embraced them
both. “I could not be happier if it were my own child. You will of course have
the best doctors and care the empire has reserved for its emperor.” He thought
a minute longer before adding, “I also think that you should move into the
palace so that my aides can help you with your pregnancy and we can be closer
together. I’ll want to see my godchild every day after he or she is born. I
will be the godfather, right?”

“Of course you will, T’Leh”, P’Tong said,
still embracing his friend. “But we’ve talked about living in the palace before
and you know how we feel about it. Now that circumstances have changed, we
should talk about it again but not right now.”

After the three friends dropped T’Leh’s
date at home, they went back to the palace to talk. T’Leh brought up D’Bath’s
wife and D’Nerth assured him that she was not trying to recruit the woman. They
were just friends and had recently begun discussing motherhood and raising
families. D’Nerth didn’t have many friends who were older and had already
experienced much life had to offer. She was happy to have a new friend who could
bring a different point of view into her life.

T’Leh was satisfied with the answer she
gave and dropped the subject. He then told them of his horrible news that he
could never be a father. The three friends cried together again, this time for
the sadness they felt for T’Leh and M’Tawny. When it was time to end the
evening, D’Nerth and P’Tong went to the guest quarters they stayed in every so
often. In the morning, they would all have breakfast and then T’Leh would again
have to deal with the affairs of his empire.

~

One month had gone by since T’Leh had
received both the best news of his life and the worst. He was looking over some
military documents when his call chime came alive. He pressed the button and
immediately saw the visage of his highest-ranking Nortes military commander,
General N’thoth. “Your Highness, my greatest apologies in disturbing you.” He
bowed his head in a subservient manner. “I need for you to come to the war
council chambers immediately.”

For a moment, it sounded as though the general
were giving him an order. T’Leh didn’t like him to begin with and he knew that
the feeling was mutual. Had it been any other day, T’Leh just might have gotten
into a verbal lashing of the general to put him in his place. However, it
seemed as though something big was happening and T’Leh decided that he would
deal with it later. “I’m on my way. But be warned, this better not be a trivial
matter that has moved you to talk to me in such a way.”

The general just smiled and the screen
went blank. T’Leh took the palace shuttle to the chambers. The shuttle was very
roomy, even though there were six warriors with T’Leh to ensure his safety. He
leaned to his most trusted warrior and whispered to him, “I think the general might
be standing too close to me when we get to the chambers.” The warrior smiled in
a way that was only perceptible to T’Leh. The warrior knew that T’Leh wanted
him to bump the general when they entered the chambers. It was a game T’Leh
liked to play and he thought that his warrior did as well.

Even though they did not generally have
a sense of humor, T’Leh noticed that his warrior had seemed to gain one in the
twenty-eight years they had been together. Each new baby born into the royal family
was given a warrior from birth who stayed with him until the warrior died,
usually around one-third of the Nortes’ life. Then another would take his place
as the lead warrior for that person.

Warriors were not given names, just
rank. T’Leh secretly referred to his warrior as Fouter, the Nortes slang for
friend. When they arrived, Fouter walked into the chambers ahead of T’Leh and
of course the general was standing in his customary spot to greet the emperor.
As T’Leh walked toward his seat at the dais, he walked straight towards General
N’thoth. Fouter used his lower right arm to move the general from T’Leh’s path.
N’thoth would certainly have a bruise the next day. T’Leh thought that it was
odd that N’thoth was still smiling.

When T’Leh took his seat, he saw D’Bath
walking into the chambers, ushered by two of the general’s aides. T’Leh
immediately began to think that his infertility had somehow become known and
now he and D’Bath were about to be executed for hiding the secret. He kept his
face stone. “What are we doing here?”

General N’thoth’s smile fixed into a
straight line across his scarred and misshapen face. “I have come to believe
that there are traitors in the very mist of the royal family.”

T’Leh felt that any moment his very own
warrior’s hand would reach out and crush his skull. “What are you talking
about? There hasn’t been anyone charged with treason in more than six hundred
years. You better have proof of this so-called traitor or you will find
yourself in a tube.” His voice was more calm and even than he felt inside.

“As I said, Your Highness,” N’thoth
continued, “there are traitors, more than one. My spies have found the
beginnings of an underground network of Nortes who have been communicating with
the slaves.” A collective gasp erupted from all those who did not already know
what the general was going to say.

“We believe that they have been teaching
slaves to speak Nortes as well as some of the more common slave languages. This
can only point towards an uprising among our slaves.” The general made a point
of making dramatic gestures as he walked in the chambers. “We raided a meeting
of these dissidents this afternoon.”

“Without my knowledge!” T’Leh was
furious that his citizens, possibly completely innocent civilians, had been
attacked by his general’s men.

“Sire, I know that you love your empire
and your people. I’m sure that any measure I make to ensure its safety is in
the best interest of you and your people. However, if in the future, you want
me to inform you of such actions before they take place, I will. And sire, I do
believe that we will be performing many more of these actions in the near
future.”

“Why this meeting? Surely you could have
told me this in my office.” T’Leh knew that N’thoth was hiding something.

“I believe that your office has been
soiled enough already by the traitors we caught today. I only wished to help
distance you even further from what is about to happen. That is why I felt
these chambers would be the most appropriate place for the interrogations.” He
then tapped his com-badge. “Bring them in.”

A male and female Nortes were brought into
the chamber with arms bound behind their backs and hoods over their heads. T’Leh
assumed that they were also gagged because of the muffled sounds coming from
under the hoods. The general walked to the two figures and removed the hoods.

T’Leh almost fell out of his chair.
Standing bound and gagged before him were P’Tong and D’Nerth. “What is this
nonsense?! Answer me at once!” T’Leh shouted. Fouter knew his master well and
moved into position to kill the general if it was so ordered. Fouter didn’t
know anything of politics but he knew he had never heard T’Leh so angry in his
life and he knew that it was the general’s fault. If the general could not
explain his actions, he would be dead very shortly. And unfortunately, if the
general could explain his actions, then Fouter would probably have to kill his
master’s best friends.

The general knew why Fouter had moved
towards him so he hastened his speech along. “Emperor T’Leh, your friends have
been conspiring against you and the empire. They have been leading an
underground movement for some years now. We have information that leads us to
believe that their capture will unravel the entire movement. Once we have
interrogated them in the tubes, we will surely be able to quash this
underground quickly and quietly.”

The general also believed that T’Leh was
somehow involved or at least knew of the plots his friends were scheming. He
couldn’t come out and say it without absolute proof; otherwise, he would be
summarily executed. Once D’Nerth and P’Tong had been placed in the torture
tubes, he was sure he would get the information against T’Leh he needed to have
the brat-emperor killed. N’thoth knew he could run the empire from behind the
throne if T’Leh’s cousin was made emperor.

T’Leh kept his composure even though he
was dying inside. “Why is Dr. D’Bath here? Why does he need to witness this?”

N’thoth tried to put on his most sincere
expression of regret, which was difficult as he had never felt regret in his
life. “Dr. D’Bath, we found these two traitors getting ready to have a meeting
with their other degenerate friends. When we raided the store they were using
as a front for one of their safe houses, there were five civilian casualties.
I’m afraid that one was your wife and the other your son. All of the other terrorists
took poison capsules to avoid being caught. We still don’t know why these two
didn’t follow suit. They’re probably just cowards. Again, I am truly sorry for
your loss, Doctor.”

D’Bath crumpled to the floor and T’Leh
couldn’t help but let a tear escape his eyes. He was crying not only for his
friend and most trusted advisor but for his friends who he was about to kill.
He knew that they didn’t take their poison capsules because of the child
D’Nerth carried. Through all of his pain and grief, T’Leh knew what he had to
do.

He couldn’t allow his friends to be
tortured for the obvious reason that he couldn’t bear to see them go through
that type of pain. He also couldn’t allow them to give up all of the
information they had on the underground, especially his name. T’Leh looked
directly into D’Nerth’s eyes and saw that she, too, was thinking the same
thing.

She then made a quick look to her
stomach and back to D’Bath. After T’Leh had told his friends that he could not
father any children, D’Nerth had suggested allowing her husband to give D’Bath
his sperm to be artificially inseminated into M’Tawny. T’Leh quickly dismissed
the idea and told them of the touching ceremony that took place after birth to
verify the DNA. T’Leh thought that he knew what D’Nerth was now suggesting with
her quick glances.

T’Leh saw that his warrior was just as
close to N’thoth as he was to his two friends. He quickly dismissed the idea of
having the general killed instead. There were too many witnesses and he
couldn’t kill them all. He would be quickly put down as a traitor to his own empire
and killed along with his friends and their unborn child. T’Leh looked away. “Warrior,
kill the traitors.”