First Admiral 02 The Burning Sun (2 page)

Still, as he approached the big blue marble of Earth, Billy still had time to pause and reflect on the sheer beauty of his home world from space. One day, he considered; when the human population was ready, he would be proud to sponsor Earth and Humankind into the Universal Alliance. But, not yet, he mused. They were not ready for the culture shock that would strike when they discovered that they were not alone in the universe. The human belief that they were the only intelligent species in existence was still too strongly embedded in the leaders and governments of the planet.

If only they knew. Billy smiled to himself, setting the controls of the Black Rose to hold her in orbital position. The human race existed as an intelligent species only because of the genetic manipulation experiments carried out on their primitive ancestors by the Garmaurians some forty thousand generations before. And, ironically, after all of the work and experimentation, the Garmaurians had finally rejected humans as a viable and useful species for their colonial adventures. They had then turned Earth into a dump-planet for their other failed genetic projects. That was going to come as quite an eye-opener to the dominant species on planet Earth; and, one very tough sell for whoever had to tell them.

It was a beautiful clear, summer night in northern Europe; the dark brown continental outline was clear and precise against the deep blue of the oceans. The major cities and population centres were clearly visible from the electric lighting that made them look like hundreds of stars in the sky. As the Black Rose drifted into position, the great shining orb of the Sun burst around the edge of the planet and cast a huge yellow-white halo into the depths of the darkness of space. The sunburst caused Billy to catch his breath and marvel at the sheer magnificence and power of the yellow dwarf star that allowed life to exist on his home world.

Unfortunately, Billy did not have a lot of time for solar sightseeing. He had to get back to his mundane life as a schoolboy on the planet that stretched out below him.

With the Black Rose safely established in orbit, Billy sat forward in the single chair of the shuttle’s Command Cabin and activated the signal button on the central Control Pillar that stood out from the floor. A stealthed Ranger Patrol vessel would receive the signal and know that the recent arrival was not hostile and would maintain its vigil over Billy Caudwell’s home planet. A few moments later, the Black Rose’s teleporter pad activated with a blinding flash to herald the arrival of another recipient of the signal. When the dazzling flash had subsided, Billy watched calmly as an identical copy of himself stepped away from the mechanism.

“Good evening, sir,” the Billy look-alike, wearing denim jeans and a blue sweatshirt, announced his arrival from the planet’s surface.

“Good evening, Jed,” Billy replied completely unfazed by the appearance of his exact double, “have I been a good boy today?” he asked as the twin altered his appearance, by deactivating the shielding on his Personal Environment Suit, and reverted to his true form in an Alliance pale blue uniform overall.

Jedithram Prust, known to Billy simply as Jed, was a Thexxian who served in the Alliance Fleet as a Supply Technician. Shorter than the average adult human and possessing the olive skin of his species, Jed had the striking pink eyes and a single nostril planted firmly in the middle of his face. Watching the alien manifest in his own form, it still amazed Billy that all intelligent life in the universe followed the upright humanoid shape imposed upon them by millennia of Garmaurian genetic manipulation.

“Yes, sir,” Jed replied as Billy handed him a clear glass-like data-sphere from a recess in the Control Column.

It took a simple thought from Jed to activate the thousands of microscopic machines that swarmed to the data-sphere and began to download the memories and experiences of the ‘Billy Caudwell’ role that Jed played on Earth, directly from his memory cortex.

“I’m very pleased to hear it, Jed,” Billy smiled watching as the nano-bots crowded around the contact point of the data-sphere; which began to glow a pale red.

As part of his mission to act as Billy’s double, Jed had been ordered not to draw attention to himself. Billy Caudwell did not want Earth governments becoming aware of his double life and his access to the most advanced technology in the universe. There would always be unscrupulous people who would try to use his family as leverage to gain control of that technology. And, that was a situation that Billy Caudwell was determined to avoid.

After a few moments the data-sphere on Jed’s sleeve returned to its usual clear appearance. The memories of the last twelve hours had been successfully transferred.

“There you go, sir,” Jed announced handing the clear sphere to the human.

“Here we go again,” Billy replied, taking the sphere and holding it against his own left sleeve, just above the large, single, gold star that indicated his rank.

With his own simple thought-command, Billy activated the microscopic machines in his own Personal Environment Suit to download the data from the sphere into his own memory. It took a few moments for the tiny machines to congregate at his sleeve, but when they had gathered and formed a connection to his brain via the PES, Billy felt a sudden and firm jolt. The sphere flashed red for a few moments as Billy tensed up; the memories flowing directly to his cerebral cortices.

When it was over, Billy gasped, blinked his eyes rapidly several times and shook his head. Sighing heavily, Billy put the data-sphere back into the recess and wiped his face with his hands as the memory cortices integrated the data into his own recollections. The last thing he needed was to be found out because he had “forgotten” something important.

“You all right, sir?” Jed asked, as he always did, when Billy was gathering his new thoughts and memories.

“Yes; thanks, Jed,” Billy replied as the memory images flashed through his mind.

It had been a good day for Jed/Billy down on planet Earth. Nothing untoward had happened. He hadn’t been in or caused any trouble that day. But, it did appear that his parents had argued again. They seemed to be constantly arguing and irritated with each other and that frustrated Billy. He had given them both the Mind Profiles of successful Garmaurians. They had no money worries now, so they shouldn’t be arguing, Billy conjectured. They should be happy and enjoying life; but all they seemed to do was fight and bicker. Billy Caudwell just did not seem to be able to comprehend why his plan was going so wrong.

“What were you doing before you left?” Billy asked sending a thought command to his PES to initiate the jeans and sweatshirt image.

“Algebra homework in your room,” Jed replied nervously as the First Admiral’s blue PES began to morph into the required configuration, “your father has been in the loft since he got home from work; and your mother is in the kitchen writing,” he reported.

“Algebra,” Billy groaned, “oh, thanks a bunch,” Billy shook his head in dismay.

He hated Algebra. Despite the fact that his mathematical knowledge was in the region of two centuries ahead of anyone on Earth, he still detested the subject, which had been his least favourite before the failed abduction that had made him First Admiral.

“Fairly easy, sir,” Jed reported with a mischievous smile, “Simultaneous equations; should take you no more than a couple of minutes.”

“Yeah, great,” Billy replied, “So, what are your plans for tonight then, Jed?” he checked that the image being projected by his PES was correct.

“Back to the Officer Texts, sir,” Jed said matter-of-factly, “and catch-up on some sleep,” he added.

Jedithram Prust was quite happy to use his down time to study to become a Supply Officer and further promotions. He was young and ambitious and knew that the fledgling Alliance would soon expand presenting him with greater opportunities.

“Are you comfortable on the Ranger? I always thought they were cramped and untidy ships,” Billy asked.

“No problems, sir,” Jed replied, “I’ve got my own cabin and the crew pretty much leave me alone.”

“OKAY, then, I’ll try not to disturb you,” Billy promised, “but keep a watch on the Emergency Command Frequency in case I’ve got to come back in a hurry.”

“Yes, sir,” Jed replied, knowing only too well that if some crisis arose then he would be back down on Earth in the First Admiral’s place in rapid order.

Satisfied that the image was perfect, Billy stepped over to the teleporter and activated it through a thought command in his PES.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t,” Billy smiled, with a cheeky wink.

Then, he disappeared in a blinding flash.

Chapter 2

The Imperial Palace, Bardan

Lullina, the Grand Empress of the Bardomil, stared in shock and incredulity at the object on the small, circular, legless table hovering before her.

“It’s...a rock!” Lullina said icily, her voice echoing around the cavernous Throne Room, to the two yellow-clad figures prostrate on the floor before her.

“If it pleases Your Imperial Gloriousness,” one of the prostrate figures raised his head, smiling nervously to explain just exactly what this “rock” was.

“This had better be good,” Empress Lullina replied haughtily still staring at the object.

Sammut Claggit, of the Xanath species, tried to rise to his feet only to be brutally shoved back down by one of the two black uniformed Imperial Bodyguards who hovered menacingly over him and his young assistant, Bem. Raising himself up onto his elbows, Claggit realised that this was going to be a tougher sell than he had first imagined. Looking up at the Bardomil Empress, sitting on the green and white onyx throne, Claggit shuddered inwardly. She was a beautiful creature to look at, tall, slim, elegant and graceful. Her pale peach gown seemed to shimmer at her slightest movement creating a swirling pattern of various shades in the gossamer-fine material. Her face was almost angelic with the high angular forehead; created by binding her head when she was just an infant, to achieve that haughty superior expression. The golden skull cap, wreathed with the jewelled coronet, set off her pale grey facial features perfectly; even those sinister completely jet black eyes that stared malevolently at anyone who incurred her displeasure.

That displeasure was something that Sammut Claggit did not wish to incur. Claggit was well aware that the Bardomil Empress was completely insane and the comparison to the infamous Tarselian Ground Frog was more than apt. The males of the species, during the mating season, would indiscriminately eject small, highly venomous spines from their skin to eliminate their rivals. In the frenzy of the mating season, all reason and sanity completely vanished from the male frog with their deadly spines killing anything and everything that got in the way. The Empress could be just as unreasonable in one of her towering rages, and equally lethal.

“If it pleases Your Radiance,” Claggit began once again, “please do not be fooled by the appearance of the weapon before you...”

“This...rock…is a weapon, Master Claggit!?” the Empress sneered, “do we have to hit our enemies over the head with it?” she barbed.

“No, Your Graciousness,” Claggit smiled weakly, “this is, in fact, the perfect stealth weapon...if I may be allowed to demonstrate?”

“Proceed,” the Empress waved languidly to allow the Xanath to stand up.

“Thank you, Your Radiant Magnificence,” Claggit began, nervously eyeing the Bodyguard; who drew back, and rose to his full height of just over one metre, “if I may approach the...rock?”

Like most Xanath, Sammut Claggit was short in stature, but possessed a mind and intellect far greater than most in the universe. His lank greying hair hung down in long ringlets around a sharp, pale blue, angular face that was marred by a deep, livid, red scar that ran from his forehead down to his chin.

“Yes, yes...get on with it!” the Empress sighed with an edge of irritation in her voice.

“If you will observe, Your Serenity...” Claggit began, nervously approaching the rock, and touched its surface.

Instantly, the rock façade melted away to reveal a silver metallic sphere the size of a soccer ball.

“No! No! No!” Claggit cringed, his hands raised high above his head as two dozen Bardomil weapons were charged, ready to fire, at the sudden transformation of the object.

“Well, well, Master Claggit, you might just have something of interest there for Parlour Trick Magicians,” the Empress said slowly, moving to the edge of the throne, her attention suddenly taken.

“Thank you, Your Greatness,” Claggit replied, nervously glancing at the dozens of weapons still pointed at him, “this is a small, self-contained Lissian Pulse Emitter,” he continued.

Nervously, Claggit stretched out his hand towards the sphere, whilst still watching the Bodyguards, and pressed the side of the object. Rapidly, the sphere broke down into four leaves on a shallow dish base, showing an array of circuit boards and mechanical moving parts.

“A Lissian Pulse Emitter, Master Claggit?” The Empress queried, “What does that do, exactly?”

“Well, Your Perfectness, under normal circumstances,” Claggit began, “absolutely nothing, but in close proximity to highly conductive super-heated plasma it creates what is called magnetic reconnection.”

“Which is, Master Claggit?” the Empress began to lose the thread of the description.

“Well, Your Fabulousness, in simple terms, if you were to put it close to, say, for example, a yellow dwarf star, it would cause a super-charged extremely powerful solar flare. May I demonstrate?” Claggit asked.

“By all means,” the Empress conceded starting to become bored again.

“My assistant, Bem,” Claggit motioned for the other prostrate figure to rise up, “has created a visual representation of the weapon in action, for your edification.”

“Do get on with it Claggit,” the Empress snapped, “our Imperial patience is wearing thin,” she warned, the novelty of this new distraction beginning to wear off.

Bem, the assistant, nervously stood up. He reached just over one metre in height. He was several decades younger than Claggit, and fresh faced for a Xanath. His hair, darker than Claggit’s, was neatly shorn to expose long pendulous ear lobes. Nervously, Bem set down a small cube on the floor behind the hovering table and activated it. After a few moments of grainy static, a three-dimensional image of a solar system cleared to a crystal sharpness. At the centre a large yellow dwarf star burned, surrounded by eight planets. The sixth of the eight planets was the most striking, with a spectacular ring system around it.