My Life: An Ex-Quarterback's Adventures in the Galactic Empire (49 page)

It didn’t have its intended result, however. Something flew out of the night and smacked into his hand. The hiss turned into a yelp and the beam was off line when the blaster flared. That change of direction was enough to save my life. Instead of burning a hole through my gut, the beam caught me across the left thigh. There was a searing pain there and suddenly my leg would not hold me up. It was the same sensation as I’d once had when I caught my cleats on artificial turf in Kansas City and the leg collapsed. I went down in a heap, but, as I was falling, I could see a smaller shadow leap at Anders. Both of us had forgotten Jaenna.

There was a flurry of punches and kicks, some of which came from impossible angles, or maybe it was just the bad light that made them seem that way. Size alone won’t determine the outcome of a fight, not if the smaller fighter can use speed and technique to offset their opponent’s advantage. Unfortunately, when two opponents are otherwise equally matched, the odds always favor the bigger, stronger fighter. They drew apart after the first engagement, circled and then closed again. There was a muffled thud and I saw Jaenna fall. Anders leaped to kick her in the head to finish it, but somehow she rolled, hooked his leg, and sent him crashing to the ground on top of her. For a moment, it turned into an almost blind wrestling match, each one clawing for the other’s throat or eyes. Given time, though, Anders was sure to win.

I tried to stand and could not. I could crawl, though, and there was not far to go. I got my hands onto Anders just as he caught Jaenna in a choke hold. He tried to ignore me but I was able to lever myself up his back and rake one hand across his eyes. He screamed and lost his grip on Jaenna, who promptly drove a knee into his groin. That brought another scream from him and he fell sideways, trying to roll away from us. I scrambled after him, felt a leg under one hand and pulled myself along. My right hand landed on something solid and hard, just about the size of my palm. I grabbed it and swung it at Anders’ head. I could feel his head recoil from the impact. I swung it again and again until I realized, with a shock, that his head was jelly. The body twitched a couple of times and was still.

The next thing I remember was Jaenna’s hands, trying to help me to my feet. “Danny, please, you have to get up. We must have that aircar. There’s no way we can walk out of here.”

The words didn’t make much sense to me, but I was able to gain my feet. This time, the leg held. Jaenna left me for a moment to retrieve Anders’ flashlight, and his blaster. A quick look showed that my leg wound was superficial. The beam had cut across the surface, charring a groove that hurt like blazes but did not cripple the leg. I found a moment to be immensely glad that I hadn’t gone in my pants when it looked as though Anders was going to kill me.

As we expected, there were three bodies in the back room, one with his throat cut. In the light, I could see that Jaenna looked all right, although there were angry red marks across her throat. I collected a blaster from one of the corpses. There were other munitions in the back room. Jaenna looked them over, selected one and did something to it.

“Once we leave,” she said, “this place will blow up. I don’t have time to find the monitors, but they all have to be here. Haranyi would not chance even a beamed transmission.”

“Why the concern?”

“Simple. I heard your proposal to Anders. It was a good one, but he was too much the fool to see it. It will still work, though, if we destroy the surveillance records and Grayarmon plays his part.”

“And you trust him to do that?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “‘I’ve known Grayarmon a long time.”

“Jaenna, you’ve known all of the people who are involved in this a long time.”

She said, “We have no choice,” and headed for the door.

We both breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the front door: the aircar was still there. It had been moved, as Norboh had ordered, to block the alley. Grayarmon must have heard the sounds of fighting, but he had stayed at his post. Jaenna spoke to him briefly, then waved for me to join them.

The trip to the port was tense, even though no one challenged the vessel. My leg still hurt. It seemed that there was no way I could position myself that didn’t rub the wound against some surface. Jaenna sat like a statue, her blaster hidden by her cloak but trained on Grayarmon as an added precaution. I could guess what she must be thinking, but there was nothing I could say to her. Even if I had some magic words, I wouldn’t have been able to say them in front of Grayarmon. The real magic came when we reached the port. After witnessing, being threatened with and committing murder, at the port entrance it was as though none of it had ever happened. Possibly it was because one of Haranyi’s guards was driving. Possibly it was only that none of the bodies had been found. Regardless, they passed us through with no hesitation.

After sending Grayarmon on his way, our own sentry’s hail and salute when we reached the landing boat was a glad sight. It even seemed to brighten Jaenna a bit. It certainly brightened me. We had returned home. Even though, sitting on Kaaran’s surface, we were far from safe, it made me feel better. Harvangi met us in the main passenger compartment, his appearance betraying the fact that the sentry had rousted him from bed. His surprise at our arrival turned to concern when he saw my limp and I told him that Angel was dead. It wasn’t the fact that shocked him, death being part of a freebooter’s job description, but the location. No one would look for it in the governor’s Residence on Kaaran, at the heart of the civilized empire.

Harvangi, Jaenna and one of the troopers sat me down in the boat’s medical unit, not much more than a first-aid station really, and pulled my pants off. The burn had bonded one edge of the fabric into the wound. None of us noticed until they yanked on the pants. Then it was all I could do to stifle a scream as it came free. The actual wound wasn’t too impressive, a thin, blackened crease across the top of the thigh now covered with blood oozing from the spot where the pants had pulled loose. Harvangi plucked a tube from the locker and squirted a line of what looked like shaving cream into the char. A thin patch of clear material then went over the top, sticking tightly to my good skin on all sides. The pain began to ease off as soon as the cream hit the wound. By the time it was covered, I could flex the leg without wincing.

“That’ll heal it in about three days,” Harvangi said, “as long as you take it easy, although you should be able to walk without much of a limp by tomorrow. Ramorir, I’m sure, could fix it so you’d never know it was there, but I’m afraid this way will leave a scar.”

That should be the worst scar I have on my body. With the pain almost gone, I ceased to think about it. “How fast can you get us into orbit to rendezvous with the Francis Drake?” I asked him.

“We can boost within half an hour, allowing for clearance,” he said. “Without waiting for clearance, I can be ready in ten minutes, but the defenses may shoot.”

“I can stand the wait,” I replied. I would have to. There was far too much firepower on and around Kaaran to tempt fate that way.

“At your order, then, I will obtain clearance and prepare to lift.” Harvangi stood up.

He was about to go when Jaenna broke in. “No, wait,” she said. “We can’t do that yet, Danny.”

Jaenna’s voice, so soft it was almost to the point of being inaudible, brought Harvangi to a halt. He looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“What do you mean, ‘we can’t do that yet’,” I asked her.

“We can’t leave. Not yet.”

“Why, in the name of little green space rocks, not?”

She didn’t meet the question directly, not at first. Instead, she asked me if I intended to give Norboh’s information to the Fleet. In truth, I had almost forgotten that I had it. But now that she raised the issue, I couldn’t think of any alternative.

“That’s why we can’t leave,” Jaenna told me. “We’ve been so rushed that I haven’t had a chance to think everything through, but now I have and I just don’t believe it. My father and brother cannot have betrayed the emperor. It cannot be true.”

She was trembling from head to toe. “Is it that,” I asked, “or is it that you can’t believe they betrayed you?”

She ignored the question. “My father is one of the great rulers of the empire,” she said. “He is one of the leaders of the independent worlds. What could he gain from Carrillacki? The idea is absurd.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t sound absurd to me. “What of Norboh?” I asked her. “He was your teacher; you trusted him as much as anyone. Even if you didn’t, we have whatever information he found.” I held up the little card in its plastic sheath for emphasis.

Jaenna dismissed it abruptly. “That means nothing. Norboh could have been fed false information, it happens all the time. Angel could have been killed to prevent us from helping, however unwittingly, the ones who planted that information. I can’t leave until I’m sure.”

“Fine. Then let’s beam this to the Fleet squadron here. If it has half the information Norboh led us to suspect, they will answer the question for us.”

“And that would be just what Carrillacki wants. Even so, nothing would happen right away. You don’t think a squadron commander would take a message out of the black and move against one of the chief Imperial governors. No, this would cause a delayed explosion when it reached Fleet Command, or Jonthar a Jerem if he is really in command. It would cancel out all the advantages from the tie to Duromond.”

I was sure she was stretching to make the logic fit. “Do you really believe what you are saying, Jaenna?” I asked.

She slumped, the fire out again. “I don’t know,” she whispered miserably. “I don’t know what I really believe, but I can’t lift off until I find out.”

“Maybe we should see what’s on the card,” I suggested. When she said nothing, I gave it to Harvangi who fed into the boat’s computer. Would it read it? Zilch. Nada. Nothing. However the data were encrypted, our computer couldn’t read it. “So much for that idea,” I said. “Do you have a plan for finding the truth?” I asked Jaenna.

She smiled then, but it was more a death’s-head grin than a real smile. “I once swore to my brother that I would be here for his ceremony,” she said. “I intend to do exactly that. When I see my father, I will know whether this is just another plot.”

“Jaenna, if you do that, the only other plot involved is going to be the one you’re planted in.”

“That may be so,” she said. “But I will know.”

“I can’t talk you out of this?”

“No.”

I sighed. “So be it. But if you’re going, so am I.”

“You don’t have to do that, Danny.”

“I know. Don’t remind me.” I was already reminding myself that I had casually agreed to commit suicide. It is amazing what women can do to male equilibrium. “There’s no point going now, though,” I pointed out. “If we’re going to walk into this, we might as well be rested. I want you asleep between now and the time we leave, even if it’s chemically induced.”

“At your order, Command.” There was no hint of Jaenna’s usual grin as she left.

The landing boat was large enough to hold several individual cabins, one of which was Jaenna’s. As a result, she had some privacy, and so did we. The moment her door had closed, Harvangi turned to me, a troubled look on his face.

“Danny, I don’t know all of what has happened, but I can guess,” he said. “If there is going to be trouble, why not take the strike force with you?”

“Thanks,” I said, “but no. It won’t work. Two or twenty-five will be all the same. Anyway, I think there is a good chance they will let us in. There’s no one alive, other than us, who knows that we have learned anything significant. What will happen after Jaenna has her say is another matter, but the strike force wouldn’t be enough to make a difference.”

He looked puzzled, so I kept going. “Can you communicate with the Fleet flagship?” I asked.

“Not directly. The Avenger will be below the horizon for another four hours. Until then, I can channel through the Francis Drake.”

“Forget the relay,” I told him. “The direct beam is safer.” Four hours was just about the time we would need to leave for the Residence. I made my mind up quickly. “As soon as we’ve left the boat, beam the information on the card to Avenger. Use a tight beam, I don’t want anyone else picking it up. You have the identification codes Donnar provided for me as Fleet Captain and Governor of Lussern?”

“Yes.”

“Use them with my name to close the message. Maybe that will convince an Imperial captain to investigate quickly.” I doubted it, but it was worth a try. “Once you’re certain the message is received, lift off and rendezvous with the Francis Drake.”

I cut off the protest that was sure to follow by going to my cabin. I don’t know if Jaenna was able to sleep on her own, but I needed the drugs. Only when I had cut a patch for four-hours’ worth and stuck it over my forearm did I start to relax. I guess I make a lousy hero.

I woke a bit before the four hours was up. That was a good indication of how wound up I was, waking before the drug was completely expended. I didn’t feel rested either, which had to be psychological. The drug-induced sleep was supposed to be very restful. Once I was up, I decided that a change of clothes was essential. My pants had been ruined by Anders’ blaster and my tunic, after being slept in, was almost as bad. The uniform Donnar had given me was in the cabin. Looking at it brought a lump to my throat. Angel had brought it on board the boat with some crack about formal dress at weddings and he not having his colors. Damn the empire and its politics! It had not hit me fully until then just how much I missed the son of a bitch.

I pulled on the uniform, taking care with my injured leg although it now gave me only a dull ache. Then I carefully fastened the little Fleet Command ribbon below the collar. There was something eerie about dressing in the uniform of a service that had seen its glory years before Rome was built. Looking at my reflection, I saw an officer of the ancient Sri’Andor, not Danny Troy. I felt cold and the muscles twitched all the way down my spine. Then I turned and buckled a blaster onto the belt. That was a futile gesture, for sure. If Jaenna touched off her old man the way I thought she would, not even a hundred blasters would be enough.