Nightmare Kingdom: A Romance of the Future (7 page)

Jamie led the way as they approached the ship. Unlike the big transports, the luxury cruiser did not spit fire as it came in, but settled as easily as a bird coming in for a soft landing. It was only the whirling lights that gave a sense of imminent threat.

The cruiser was small, sleek and much more maneuverable than the big ships he’d seen come in to port at Terrainaine. With those ships, passengers had to take a shuttle back and forth to the ground, but this dainty vehicle was high tech all the way.

It entered the atmosphere with rockets blazing, then settled into travel as easily as an aircar. Even as he raised his weapon to fire, he couldn’t help hoping they could capture rather than destroy it. What an addition it would be to his little community’s ability to defend itself.

Of course even if they captured it, good old Kevin would probably just demand they return it to the original owners.
Over my dead body
, Jamie thought grimly.

His small troop, moving silently just behind him, had rocket guns on their shoulders, waiting for his orders.

“Dad,” he heard Charlie’s loud whisper. “It’s an imperial cruiser. The emperor’s ship Adaeze.”

Well, if anybody knew, it would be Charlie Russell. The boy was obsessed with space travel and could identify most Aremian ships and their status.

The emperor’s ship? Claire could be on board.
He’d half expected this. Things must be getting hot about now on the capitol planet.

“Wait,” he said.

“We can’t afford to wait,” Karen protested in a low angry voice. “That thing can take down our city in a matter of moments.”

“
The emperor’s ship is small but mighty,” Charlie agreed. “It’s armed to the hilt.”

Jamie took this in and readied himself to give the order. Much as he wanted the cruiser, much as he feared Claire might be on board, he could not risk the people of New London, stupid sheep that they sometimes were.

He opened his mouth to give the order, but before he could a loud voice, obviously technologically enhanced, shouted across the plane. “Claire sent us. We bring a message from the empress.”

“It’s a trick,” Karen whispered fiercely and even by the light cast from the cruiser he could see
Mack nod agreement.

“Hear what they say,” Isaiah spoke in gentle opposition.

“Listen to my father,” Alice agreed quickly as of course she would. The girl who had lost her mother early thought her dad could do no wrong.

Only a flicker of time passed while this conversation took place. Jamie allowed himself only a second more to hear that voice calling emphatically, “Claire! Claire!” over and over.

“Come out with your hands up,” he demanded in his best old west fashion, the rocket gun aimed to fire at the first provocation.

He was gambling with the safety of his people and knew it, but the possibility of gaining a star ship of their own was worth the risk.

The main doorway slid open and he felt the tenseness increase around him. He wasn’t entirely certain that Karen would obey his orders, but might fire at any moment. She had the kind of temperament not to follow, but to lead and her judgment rested on a quick trigger.

A typically tall, hairless man in the uniform of the emperor’s own guard emerged from the cruiser, his long arms held upward as requested. Slowly coming behind him were half a dozen more, four men and two women, their hands also in the air.

“It could be a trap,” Karen whispered.

Jamie knew that
. “Stay here,” he told the others, ignoring little Alice’s smothered protest. Weapon still braced against his shoulder, he slowly stalked the distance between his party and the waiting Aremians.

Claire waited, hardly able to breathe as Adaeze reported what she was seeing through the cruiser’s eyes. “Our captain and crew are standing with their hands held in the air as the leader of the aliens . . .”

“Earth people,” Claire interrupted harshly.

“As he approaches. Each of them has a rocket gun posed for attack.”

“That’s so idiotic,” Lillianne, who seemed to have less of a grasp
of what was going on than did her sister, commented fiercely. “Our troops could take those puny Earthlings in ten seconds.”

Adaeze ignored her. She seemed less than present with her mother and sister there in the cave and Claire guessed that mentally she was with the cruiser crew on Sanctuary.

“We are sent by the rightful regent Empress Claire,” Adaeze murmured. Claire guessed she was repeating the captain’s exact words.

“What does he look like?” she asked anxiously. “This man who has stepped forward to face our crew.”

“Tall for an Earthling, dark hair, lean of build.” His shoes are different than those of the others. Boots of some sort, a design I’ve never seen before.”

Claire chuckled. “When we first met I called him ‘Boots’ because he was wearing cowboy boots.
They seemed to connect him with home somehow.  And, of course, he would come out first, he was always the leader.”

“He’s asking about you,” Adaeze said.

“Tell the captain. Tell him this man is Jamie Lewis Ward from Oklahoma. He’s telling Jamie that he is a messenger from Claire, not the empress, but his friend from Chicago.”

Adaeze seemed to quiver as she sent the message. “The captain is shocked to hear and recognize my voice. A woman far speaker is an abomination. He doesn’t know what to do.”

“Tell him to say that Claire and her daughters ask the city of New London for Sanctuary. Tell him that our lives are at risk from the empire.”

Obviously Adaeze was obeying her mother. Now the question was whether captain and crew would revolt at the sound of a female voice speaking in their brains from across the worlds.

Such a thing had never before been known. Would they turn against Adaeze and Lillianne or would they remain loyal to the late emperor’s family.

Claire held her breath, knowing that not only her daughte
rs’ fates, but those of her old friends at New London hung in the balance. She wished she could be there at Jamie’s side.

Jamie wasn’t used to hearing the tall, hairless Aremians speak aloud. And this group with their uniforms and obvious air of privilege were even more unusual.

“The empress Claire and the princesses beg sanctuary from you,” the man in charge said. “They are in grave danger.”

“You got ‘em with you?” Jamie asked point-blank. “If you have, bring ‘em out.”

“They are prisoners on Capron.”

“Capron!” Mack stepped forward to whistle an exclamation. “What the hell do you expect us to do about that?”

Jamie ignored his friend. “Claire is one of us. She gave up her freedom to protect our people and we’ll do what we can to help her.”

“Hold on a damn minute.” This time it was Karen, who stepped to her husband’s side to protest. “You can’t speak for all of us, Jamie. That’s not the way it goes.”

The three stood level now, rockets still on their shoulders as they faced the intruders.

Jamie didn’t look away from the Aremians as he responded, “That’s right, Karen. We can go back to Kevin Hartley and the council and let them debate the matter for a week and a half and then tell us what to do. In the meantime I wouldn’t give Claire and her girls twenty four hours to survive on Capron.”

They all knew the reputation of the prison planet
. Jamie vowed that he would go to their rescue if he had to do it all by himself. After all, he now had the transportation he needed to get to Capron. He looked past the imperial soldiers to the little ship now only slightly lighted, quieted from the swirling beacon of light that had come in for a landing.

Old George, the only one of the group who didn’t carry a rocket gun because he simply hadn’t the strength to support one, now joined him at the front. “We need some evidence that you speak for Claire,” he said in his gentle voice. “For all we know, this could be some sort of trick to take over our city.”

The Aremian leader gave a jerky nod, than seemed to wait a moment as though listening elsewhere. If Jamie hadn’t known better he would have thought he was in radio contact with someone. But, of course, the Aremians were disdainful of such technology.

“The empress sends greetings to you and to Sylvie and the rest of the elders. She regrets never having actually met you, having had to depart from New London rather abruptly.”

This was true enough and not something just anyone would know. Claire had been among those kidnapped by the Aremians in those first days after arrival before they’d even known that the elders of New London had survived the purge that had taken the rest of the original settlers.

“I regret to say,” old George answered, “that my dear friend Sylvie is no longer with us. In fact I am the only surviving elder.”

“My empress expresses her regret at the losses time has brought and greets her old friends: Boots, Skinny and Mack.”

These were the nicknames Claire had first hung on
him and Isaiah. This had to be her, but how? It was as if she was not only hearing, but seeing them standing here confronting her cruiser crew. Even Karen looked taken aback.

She and Claire had not known each other long enough to become friends. Initially the tall fair woman who was now Mack’s wife, had been a rival for command of the community.

“Wait a damn minute,” Karen yelled. “Just one minute. If Claire is back on good old Capron, how is she talking to you here? This is all one big fat scam, Jamie, that’s as obvious as the nose on your face.”

“Obvious,” agreed Mack, backing up his wife.

“Not obvious at all,” George added pleasantly. “Seems to me a far speaker is involved.”

If a stony-faced Aremian could look embarrassed, then this one did. “That is possible,” he answered conservatively, addressing himself to George and ignoring the others.

“The emperor is deceased,” George continued the conversation. “He was the only remaining far speaker.”

“Though they do say the kid emperor might have some talent,” Karen added.

“Not the emperor,” the Aremian corrected. “He would not speak for Empress Claire. Further than that I can not comment.”

Nearly had to be one of the girls, Jamie considered and eliminated possibilities in a flash of thought. But the Aremians claimed females never were far speakers. And he’d never heard of anybody being able to more than hear and speak over the distances. This one seemed able to see out of this guy’s eyes.

He was about to ask what Claire wanted them to do when the sound of roaring motors disturbed the quiet of the night and he looked around to see lights approaching from nearby New London.

This wasn’t exactly a surprise. No doubt people back in
town had been aware for some time of the landing. Maybe they’d just now gotten up the courage to come and investigate.

The bad news was that this meant Kevin Hartley and his security staff were approaching. That meant things were going from worse to much worse.

Kevin was bound to clog up the whole process.

The fancy black car that Kevin had selected from the vehicles stored by the elders after the community had been virtually wiped out pulled to a stop behind Jamie’s crew. Town constables, wearing side arms that would have been totally ineffective in fighting off invaders, leaped out and waited while Kevin, wearing a dark blue robe over his pajamas climbed out. His hair mussed and his face pale, he looked like he’d just gotten out of bed.

He stared open-mouthed at the cruiser and at the Aremians, still holding their hands aloft, and then began to apologize, “So sorry, your lordship,” he groveled. “Please know that you are our honored guests and that this, all of this,” he nodded at Jamie and company, “is just a terrible mistake.”

He strode forward, addressing himself angrily to Jamie. “In the name of all that’s holy, Ward, put those weapons down! You trying to start a war.”

At the order, most of those with shoulder rockets lowered their weapons. Jamie and Mack and Karen’s boys were the only ones who did not comply.

“Blast it all, Ward, these are the emperor’s men, put your weapon away.”

“Kevin,” the cruiser captain said as if in sudden discovery. “The empress says she can remember when you were a small time bully.”

Jamie thought as he watched Kevin’s face turn red and then purple that he was going to choke.

How had Jamie let this happen?
  Claire’s memories of those first hours on Sanctuary before she was kidnapped remained vivid and Kevin had been one of the kids she’d really disliked.

A bully and a blowhard, he and his followers had held power only briefly. Karen was on that list too, though she knew from the regular updates Mathiah had received over the years that she had joined forces with Jamie, Isaiah and Mack
and eventually married Mack.

“What was Jamie thinking to step down?” she asked her daughters in the darkness of the cave on Capron. “He should be giving the orders, not that Kevin person.”

“Is that a message you want sent?” Adaeze queried, “or simply a comment.”

“A comment,” Claire snapped, her attention diverted as she heard the sound of voices outside the cave and the boulder that covered the doorway began to move. “We’ll have to leave things on Sanctuary to Jamie for now and see what we can do for ourselves.”

“I’m ready to get out of this place,” Lillianne announced with some bitterness and Claire suspected that somewhere, beyond her hearing, her gentle younger daughter was speaking words that her father would not have approved.

Claire grinned. It seemed like only yesterday that she’d been a rebellious teen herself, but when these two girls of hers revolted, worlds would shake.

She supposed she should be worried, but all she could think was that after years of repression, she was going to enjoy this a whole lot.

“Adaeze, Lillianne,” she said, picking up one of the large rocks that lay on the ground. “It’s time to give them hell.”

When the first man stepped through the opening, she crowned him with a mighty blow to the skull. Even as he fell her daughters struck the next two that entered.

And then suddenly, rough and dirty barbarians were rushing toward them from all directions.

“Don’t be afraid, Mom,” Adaeze told her. “These are on our side.”

Lillianne smiled in satisfaction as the cluster of people at the entrance of the cave moved back to allow them to exit
, their heads bent in submission as the empress and the two princesses walked out into open air.

“How did you do that?” Claire whispered to Adaeze.

“These are not brain blind like the others,” Adaeze said  in a normal tone as though not at all troubled by being overheard. “We sent them word of their obligation to the late emperor.”

“Obligation? Most likely he sent them to this terrible place.”

“Obligation,” Adaeze repeated, “and power. They are not concerned about the traditions that say a female can not be a far speaker. They will do as we say, my sister and I.”

Claire recognized an incipient problem. Both girls would need to be taken down a notch and reminded that they were only kids. Otherwise, they might be telling her what to do.

But right now, she’d give them full range. “Get us off this damn planet,” she ordered.

Adaeze gave a nod. “As you say, Mom.”

It wasn’t quite that easy. In the first place the approximately forty percent who could communicate mind-to-mind wanted to honor their distinguished visitors. This was, Claire decided, probably the only place in the universe where nobody cared that the far-speakers were girls. They were just glad some kind communication between planets existed and hoped that by ingratiating themselves, they might have a hope of getting off this forsaken world.

The other  approximately sixty percent either wanted to kill them just for the fun of it because they were not
Capron’s prisoners, or were gloating over the very large loot they hoped to gain from the emperor for the return of his family.

It was not a pleasant position to be in, but Claire hadn’t been empress of the Aremian Empire for fifteen years for nothing. She’d learned the lessons taught by her highly skilled husband.

She put words in her daughters’ heads and they started telling the telepaths about what was actually going on in the other worlds, how their beloved father was dead and a little boy with only limited skills was on the throne.

And in her own words Claire told the pathetic creatures that huddled around them close enough to hear her speak what was going to happen to them if they even considered touching a hair on their heads. She explained point by point some of the more unpleasant punishments she could hand out. They weren’t sophisticated people and she was, or had been, their empress. And Claire could be most convincing.

By nightfall the three of them were housed in the best Capron had to offer, a recently built wooden shack that did less than their cave prison to keep out the cold wind. And they were served large slabs of roasted meat with root vegetables, and her daughters were hungry enough to eat heartily of everything served, even though they had to use their fingers in place of forks and spoons. As for Claire, a life-long vegetarian, she was content with sampling the vegetables and hoping that none of them came down with any kind of stomach disorder.

They were settling down onto their makeshift beds on the floor when Adaeze suddenly straightened, the look coming to her face that told her mother she was focusing on a significant communication.

“He’s just standing out there all by himself, yelling “Claire! Claire!” she said aloud.

“He who? What are you talking about?”

“The man you call Jamie,” Adaeze responded in a tone of disgust. “That’s a little boy’s name.”

Claire sat up. “Jamie’s from Earth. You can’t hear him. He can’t hear you.”

“I can see him through Aremian eyes. They’re watching him and thinking he’s out of his mind.”

“You said he was alone.”

“He thinks he is. But our crew is trying to keep an eye on everybody and everything. They don’t understand what’s going on.”

Jamie was calling for her. Suddenly Claire felt almost fifteen again. Her first instinct was to instruct her daughter to send words through the cruiser crew that she was okay and no longer a prisoner. But then she had a second thought and reclined again on her sleeping mat. “Get some sleep, Adaeze,” she said. “Your sister’s already in dreamland.”

It wouldn’t do Jamie any harm to worry a little.

Jamie had never felt so frustrated in his life. Claire, his Claire who had sacrificed herself in a relationship with the emperor to safeguard the rest of them, was asking to be allowed to come home. And Kevin Hartley and his supporters were saying they would meet in the morning to consider the request.

What if back when she was fifteen Claire had said,
‘Well, I’ll give it a year or two to think whether I want to marry the emperor and be available as a perpetual blood donor at risk of life and sanity?’ Where would the rest of them have been, continually at risk of capture and enslavement by the Gare. Most certainly in that situation, Kevin Hartley would not be mayor of New London.

Not that he envied him the position. He detested long meetings and bureaucratic entanglements. No the person who should be leading them was Isaiah, who would listen to Jamie and Mack’s concerns and see the community safe. Well, as safe as it could be under the circumstances.

The odds were certainly against them. It wasn’t like they had a chance of overrunning Sanctuary and driving the Gare  out. The best they could hope was that they could defend themselves.

But Claire, what about her and her two poor little girls, defenseless in the mess that was the prison planet. No doubt they were already suffering terribly.

The image of the fair-haired delicate little girl with the ready tongue played through his eyes. Her huge blue eyes gazed pleadingly at him. If it had been up to him, she would never have been sacrificed in the first place. He would have fought for her, but she had chosen Mathiah, the Gare emperor.

He was hardly aware that he was saying her name out
loud as he strode across the lush plain outside New London, but he’d been a warrior too long not to be aware that he was being watched and who was doing the watching.

Stupid Kevin hadn’t even locked the cruiser crew up, but had been ready to give them open access to the city as honored guests. Jamie figured as long as they were kept busy out here watching him, nobody else was at risk.

Finally he came to a stop like a mule stubbornly refusing to move one more inch and called gruffly, “You might as well come out and talk. We need to come to an understanding.”

Quietly, almost soundlessly, the captain and crew from the cruiser came out to stand, tall and threatening, around him.

“We’ve got to go rescue Claire and the princesses,” Jamie said.

Even though he knew that the man standing before him was only a more distantly evolved member of his own race, he seemed alien standing there, his large eyes unblinking. Finally he spoke, “I am Ther
eon,” he said, “captain of the ship Princess Adaeze and member of the imperial guard.”

“My name’s Jamie Lewis Ward and I hail originally from the state of Oklahoma in the USA on planet Earth.”

They exchanged nods. “Now can we go get Claire?” he asked. “In fact, why didn’t you bring her with you?”

“She was imprisoned, as were the princesses. Those who held her hostage told us to go to the emperor and demand ransom. They were unaware that he no longer lived. The empress sent
us here.”

Former empress, the way Jamie saw it. But he wouldn’t argue.

“She asked for sanctuary,” Captain Thereon went on, “for herself and the princesses Adaeze and Lillianne.”

“Adaeze? The same as the ship?”

The captain nodded.

“Well, as a resident of New London I say we get them and bring them back and we’ll worry about what the mayor of
this place says when we step foot back on Sanctuary.”

“Blood,” the Aremian corrected.

“Sanctuary,” Jamie argued.

He thought the captain almost broke into a smile. “We will go for them,” he agreed and led the way toward the ship.

“By the way, captain,” Jamie said, as the crew followed behind him. “Aren’t you and your people kind of out of line running off with Claire and her girls this way?”

“No. We are in line with the late emperor’s wishes. The Empress Claire is the rightful regent for the new emperor
and we stand by her loyally as is our duty. Traitors are fighting against the imperial guard. “

Jamie nodded at this summing up of the whole complicated political question. Most likely it wouldn’t matter who was right, but who was the most powerful and he had a feeling it wasn’t Claire and her imperial guard.

He went on board the little ship with these men and women he didn’t even know, deciding that for certain sure Isaiah would call him a fool.

But it was almost as though he could hear Claire calling to him across space.