First Admiral 02 The Burning Sun (3 page)

“Your Brilliance has asked me to design a weapon that would eliminate all life-forms on the third planet in this solar system,” Claggit began, the image focussing closely on a blue and brown planet with white clouds, “this planet, here, I believe it is called Terra or Earth,” he paused for effect pointing to the large image.

“I would humbly submit,” Claggit continued as the image pulled out to show the whole solar system again, “that we send the Lissian Emitter,” the image showed a silver object approaching the yellow dwarf on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth, “and bring it into a safe orbit around the star in direct opposition to the planet itself,” the image changed to an overhead shot of the spinning planets with the moving silver object being hidden from the Earth’s line of sight by the star.

“Yes…go on?” the Empress said, her interest piqued again as she leaned forward in her throne.

“At a time of Your Majesty’s choosing, the Emitter would send forth a highly concentrated pulse of Lissian radiation that would excite and destabilise the solar plasma creating a massive super-charged solar flare,” Claggit continued, with a graceful bow, as the image returned to a profile view of the system and a huge yellow mass shot forth from the surface of the Sun towards the Earth image.

Rapidly, the yellow mass overwhelmed the first two planets in the system before slowing down. The image then cut back to the Earth close up as the yellow mass engulfed the blue planet.

“The super-charged flare would take around two Terran hours to reach its target, but would effectively be unstoppable. All life on the third planet would be vapourised in exactly three minutes and fifteen seconds as the solar flare material, trapped by the Terran atmosphere and gravity, swept around the planet until the increasing heat finally burnt away the entire atmosphere,” Claggit intoned matter-of-factly at the simulated annihilation of a life-bearing planet, “The flare material would then continue to engulf the fourth, red planet, before running out of energy, leaving the Terran planet sterilised with no hope of life ever being re-established”, the image showed the planet Mars being swamped by the yellow mass before the image cut out.

For a moment, the entire Throne Room fell into a hushed awe. Claggit and Bem eyed each other nervously as the Empress stood up and walked slowly towards them.

“Master Claggit, we salute you,” the Empress smiled, approaching the opened silver sphere.

“Thank you, Your Phenomenal-ness,” Claggit replied as both of the Xanath backed anxiously away from the slowly advancing Empress.

“And, how do we get it past the Alliance Scanners?” the Empress asked.

“We have disguised it as a simple space rock, Your Generosity; the Alliance Scanners will simply detect a lump of floating material with a high-metallic composition,” Claggit bowed low and slapped Bem on the side; to copy him, as the Empress began to slowly circle the table, “and, it can assume a liquid state to meld with passing objects as well as change colour to further blend in. In fact, it would be completely undetectable unless you were looking for this specific piece of equipment.”

“Very clever, Master Claggit,” the Empress praised with her best insincere smile, “we are pleased with your work.”

“Thank you, Your Marvellous-ness; we are happy to have been of service to you,” Claggit smiled nervously bobbing yet another bow.

“We hereby decree and command,” the Empress began formally, “that you take your device to our scientists and show them how it operates. You will then be taken to the Imperial Treasury and handsomely rewarded before being returned in great honour to your home planet of Xanart.”

“You are most generous, Your Terrific-ness, most generous indeed; thank you, thank you,” Claggit stammered, with relief. He grabbed the Emitter and closed it down whilst Bem grabbed the floating table and display cube.

“We thank you for your efforts Master Claggit and assistant Bem,” the Empress smiled as the two Xanath were led away bowing, scraping, thanking and praising.

“Sudrus,” the Empress beckoned the Captain of Bodyguards when the Xanath were out of ear-shot, “when they’ve showed us how it works, take them to the Treasury and then kill them,” she turned, striding toward her Onyx Throne.

“Majesty,” the tall Bodyguard, uniformed in black, saluted, bowed and was about to back away when the Empress turned to him again.

“But, don’t let them bleed all over the Imperial Jewels, Captain Sudrus; their Xanath blood is very corrosive,” the Empress added and dismissed the Bodyguard.

Returning to her Onyx Throne, she sat down again, gracefully.

“Those things are a nightmare to keep clean in the best of circumstances,” she sighed despairingly.

Chapter 3

Planet Earth

“Emma!” the familiar voice of Billy Caudwell called out through the hubbub of the school corridor.

It was ten-thirty, the end of second period, and the corridor was jammed with the shuffling feet of hundreds of students making their weary ways to whatever delights awaited them in third period. Teachers called out above the general mayhem to round up tardy students to their classes or to keep the corridors and passageways moving freely. Through the press of book-clutching uniformed bodies, Billy Caudwell forced his way breathlessly forward to speak to the tall, blonde, blue-eyed girl who was the object of his attention.

With her back to the struggling, sweating Billy Caudwell, Emma Wallace winced. Too late, she thought, he’s seen me, so I can’t pretend I didn’t hear him and walk away; though that would have been her preferred option. The friend she had been walking along the corridor with smiled, nudged Emma on the arm, and walked onwards to her next lesson, her books clutched tightly to her chest.

“Billy!” Emma Wallace turned and smiled nervously as the sweating and out of breath fifteen year old schoolboy finally managed to work his way to her through the crowd, “how are you?”

“God, this place just gets worse!” Billy gasped breathlessly as the other students jostled and pushed their way past him to their own next lessons.

He had dashed along three similar corridors to catch up with the beautiful blonde girl he had become enamoured of in the last few months. His second period in history was to be followed by a third period in Mister Laughlin’s German Class, which was two flights up, and another two corridors along. So, to speak to Emma, he had to move quickly to avoid the dreaded detention that was the sanction for lateness to classes.

Oh God, he’s all horrible and sweaty, Emma thought as Billy gasped for breath amidst the press of bodies.

Billy Caudwell, despite being a year younger than Emma, had really only appeared amongst her circle of “friends” since the beginning of that year. She used the term “friend” loosely as she was aware that Billy Caudwell probably harboured some romantic intent towards her. She had always had that instinct of knowing when young men were attracted to her, and she was quite prepared to utilise the knowledge to her advantage. They were male, and, hence, were only after one thing; therefore, she considered, it was entirely acceptable to make use of that attraction for her own benefit. Billy Caudwell, however, did not really rate in Emma Wallace’s estimation of potential boyfriend material. Billy was nice, kind and sensitive. He was also kind of cute in a little-boy-lost sort of way that some other girls found quite appealing. But, handsome and exciting, he was not.

In the Emma Wallace ranking system of boyfriend material, Billy Caudwell was a “probably not”.

But, like a few other boys she had assigned into the “probably not” category, Billy Caudwell had his uses.

He was always a good listener when she was troubled and could always be relied upon to cheer her up. He was good at maths and history; and an aspiring fashion designer, such as Emma Wallace, had to have good grades at several subjects to get into one of the prestigious Art Colleges in Glasgow or London. The end-of-term exams were due in a couple of months and she was weak in maths; so she would have to rely on Billy’s expertise to get her through. These were the important pre-Qualification exams. If she made a mess of the actual final exam, then she could fall back on the pre-Qualification as the basis of an appeal.

So, gritting her teeth in a weak smile, Emma Wallace tried her best not to show her distaste for the perspiring, red-haired boy who had stopped her in the corridor.

“What are you up to then, Billy?” she smiled her best attempt at friendliness, hoping that she wasn’t going to smell that dreadful sweaty odour.

“Just wanted to ask you about the school dance next week,” Billy gasped nervously, his pale, freckled face red-flushed from exertion.

Oh God, he’s going to ask me out, she shuddered mentally. Emma had hoped that the dreaded “let’s-just-be-good-friends” conversation would be able to wait until after the pre-Qualification exams. But, now it appeared that that particular occasion was drawing closer than she had anticipated.

“What about the school dance?” she replied slightly on edge.

“Well, if you’re not going with anyone,” Billy swallowed nervously, “would you like to go with me?”

Well, there it is, Emma thought, the worm has finally developed enough backbone to ask me out.

“Well, I don’t really know,” Emma tried to hedge her options.

The school dance was only a week away, and suddenly she realised that to date, no one had actually asked her to go. The dance had not been high on her list of priorities, until now. But, it just wouldn’t do for a popular and attractive young woman with fashion design ambitions to turn up without an escort. After all, she wasn’t one of those geeky, bookish girls that fainted with expectation whenever a boy spoke to them.

“Well, if you’re not going with anyone,” Billy Caudwell pressed his argument, his sweaty face visibly shaking with anxiety.

“Yeah, okay, alright, Billy,” Emma replied interrupting his proposal a little more sharply than she had intended.

Oh God, did I sound a bit desperate there, she considered. I hope he didn’t think I was actually keen to go with him. It’s just he’s going to have to do for the moment, Emma thought, I’ll push some of the better looking, older, hunky guys to ask me out later on. At least one of them might have a car, and hopefully the ability to keep his hands to himself, she shuddered.

“Oh, fine, great,” Billy Caudwell smiled broadly his previously concerned face now wrinkling with relief, “I’ll meet you Thursday night then,” he added.

“Yeah, looking forward to it,” she smiled with as much faux-sincerity as she could muster.

“Sorry, but I’m off to Mister Laughlin’s for German,” Billy smiled and began to walk away briskly.

Five steps later, he half-turned to flash a broad beaming smile at Emma and lost his footing. Recovering from the half stumble, Billy Caudwell blushed, turning bright red, and smiled sheepishly while waving feebly before turning away to dash to his next class.

What have I done? Emma Wallace thought to herself, clutching her books closer to her chest. Her next class, English, was only a few steps away. The large brown sliding door was as inviting to her as the fiery pit of Hades. Still, she had to attend; fashion designers had to have good grades in English. With the sun streaming brightly and warmly through the large arched windows of the corridor, Emma Wallace trudged leaden-footed to her next class.

Well, at least she now had a fallback position for the school dance, she considered. He wasn’t ideal, but it was better than the shameful embarrassment of arriving all dressed up and no one to dance with. There were a lot worse than Billy Caudwell at the school who might have asked her to the dance. He wasn’t that bad looking and was better than nothing at all, she consoled herself; besides, it would be easy enough to ditch him when they got there.

But, red hair?

Uuurgh!

Chapter 4

The Artreaus System

The Bardomil Empress was not happy. As a creature who had grown used to immediate obedience, any delay in fulfilling her wishes was a cause of major irritation and anger. Silently, she stalked around the specially prepared Battle Command Centre aboard the flagship of the Bardomil Imperial Sixth Fleet. With her beautiful angelic-like face twisted in a rictus of annoyance and frustration, she stomped heavily amongst the terrified senior Officers who stood at attention in a semi-circle in front of her elevated throne.

“Incompetent fools!” she bellowed as her immaculate dark green dress swished and swirled around her in response to every small movement, “Why are we still waiting!?”

“M...M...Ma...Majesty,” the terrified Fleet Commander began to explain.

“M...M...Ma...Majesty,” the Empress sneeringly mocked the frightened senior military Officer, “We have been here for nearly four hours waiting for you imbeciles to test this weapon. How much longer!?” she raged, shoving her angelic, hate-twisted, face close to the Fleet Commander’s.

“Majesty,” the Fleet Commander swallowed nervously; hoping that he wouldn’t pass out from terror, “we have to wait for the planet to align correctly to make best use of the weapon’s potential,” he stammered.

“That’s not good enough,” she shrieked, as if her temper tantrum could somehow speed the orbit of the doomed planet, “How much longer must we wait for your stupidity to make any progress!?”

“The planet should be in optimal position in twenty-three minutes, Majesty,” the Captain of the Imperial Bodyguards, Sudrus, reported from one of the consoles close to the Empress.

For a moment, the Empress paused, her face changing from a mask of hate to one of placid calm and gentleness in the blink of an eye.

“There, Gentlemen,” she addressed the terrorised Officers sweetly, “that is how to do things efficiently; thank you, Captain Sudrus,” she smiled.

Turning with balletic grace, the Empress tiptoed daintily up the three steps to her specially positioned throne, and sat down.

“You are dismissed, Gentlemen,” she smiled relieving them with a regal wave of her pale grey hand.

Having been sent away, the senior Officers scattered rapidly in all directions like chickens in a coop that had been disturbed by a hungry fox, relieved to be out of her icy and deadly glare.