Star Warrior: A SciFi Alien Romance (14 page)

Jorav tapped a finger against his temple, lost in thought for a moment.

“That is a good point,” he said. “Though somehow I doubt I will be able to convince the emperor to abandon the finery of his palace.”

I shrugged. “Fine with me. That will make him that much easier a target when I eventually escape this place and come back with a ship of my own to ram a few nukes down your throat.”

I looked up to Jorav again, expecting another laugh. Perhaps a small smile or something. We seemed to have a good rapport going, but he frowned. Damn. Just when I thought things were going so well.

“What?”

“You would do well to remember that I allow you some leeway, but saying something like that where any of the emperor’s agents could hear you will result in a slow and painful death.”

“Right,” I said. “Probably a good thing to remember.”

We settled into silence after that. The reminder that this trip could very well result in our death was somewhat sobering. I wished I was back home where the politicians were so busy being at each other’s throats that they couldn’t stop to have a nefarious plot or have someone killed. It was one of the nice things about not living under an autocratic dictatorship as a form of government.

I also found myself wishing I had one of those little mini nukes that could be hidden in a tooth or something. Bite down on it and say goodbye to whatever urban center you happened to be hanging out in. The intel guys for the fleet had come up with some really nasty surprises over the years, and I figured there would be no better death for a human soldier than to bite down and take out the emperor of the Livisk with me.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. I hadn’t had the foresight to have someone install a low yield plutonium fission device in my molar before shipping out to be captured.

Still, I made sure to take in everything that I was seeing even if there wasn’t a way to blow it up. After all, I was getting a front row view of the Livisk home world. As far as I knew there wasn’t a single human who had gotten this view before. Most of the people who were captured were supposedly sent to work in mines or whatever it was that the Livisk thought warranted slave labor.

Getting a tour of their capital city including all the best places to send down an orbital bombardment? That was the sort of thing that an intelligence official would salivate over. I figured I might as well make use of the opportunity on the off chance that I did manage to escape someday.

I didn’t think that escape was very likely. Especially now that I was being taken for a meeting with the man in charge, but still. Old habits died hard. And so I looked at everything. It took everything in. Plotted exactly how I would reduce this city to ash if I was given the opportunity. There was nothing more cathartic to me than planning a good old fashioned “take off and nuke it from orbit.”

I glanced over to Jorav and he smiled.

“You have to hit those large power stations, the big pyramid shaped objects around the edge of the city, if you want to have any hope of bombarding the place,” he said. “Otherwise the shields we have to stop people from doing exactly what you’re plotting will stay up and the city center is fine, though the outlying areas are pretty screwed since it’s nothing but mountains around here to concentrate the blast.”

I blinked. And then I grinned and wrapped my arm around his. I even paused to enjoy how nice and hard his muscles felt underneath all that blue sparkly skin. A girl could get used to that. He was still the enemy and all, but I figured take small pleasures where you could find them.

“You know, aside from the whole captivity thing I think I could really get to like you,” I said. And I was surprised to realize that I meant it. It was as though he could read my mind.

I’d heard the Livisk had abilities that bordered on being able to read minds, it had made the Admiralty more than a little paranoid about them stealing our battle plans mentally or something for the first five years or so of the war, but then we started winning and it became obvious that they weren’t using any sort of special mind control powers to gather intelligence or affect battles. They were doing too piss poor a job of prosecuting the war for anything like that to be possible.

We made the rest of the ride to the Imperial Palace in silence. It seemed that Jorav was just as nervous as I was. And I was getting more and more nervous the closer we got to that massive structure. It was the kind of building that screamed power. The kind of place that made you feel like the end of the world was near.

We were escorted straight through to the emperor’s throne room, which ended up being a massive gallery with balconies running the length of the room on all sides with people staring down at us. Odd that they would be so trusting. Sure there were shields that could keep somebody from being hit by an energy weapon in the here and now, but this structure screamed age. Presumably it dated back to before the days when shields had been invented but after the days when projectile weapons were around, considering the bow and arrow was a fairly consistent invention we’d discovered amongst emerging civilizations in the galaxy.

The emperor was not quite as impressive as I would have imagined,. He had ridiculously elaborate tattoos, but his body wasn’t nearly as muscled as Jorav’s. Actually, if I was being totally honest, and I had no intention of being totally honest in front of a man who could have me tortured and killed, then the Emperor was a little portly compared to the other Livisk warriors I’d seen in my time.

Then again I suppose that made sense. He lived in a palace that was just about as ostentatious as I would expect from a man who ruled over a civilization that was known for being a little too militaristic for the comfort of the civilizations in their galactic neighborhood. Of course humanity was cleaning out that neighborhood, but it was slow going.

We stopped in front of the emperor’s chair. Throne. Whatever. It was a technological monstrosity that glittered and shown with a thousand little lights. In short, it was tacky as all fuck. Not the sort of thing I would expect from the ruler of a galaxy spanning empire.

Jorav got down on one knee in front of the emperor and I did the same. I even managed to keep myself from rolling my eyes, though the desire was there. Jorav held his arms out to the side, but I held myself to simply getting down on my knees in front of this asshole.

Showing respect to a man who had single-handedly caused the deaths of millions of humans with his stupid war because there was a chance I could find myself added to those millions was one thing, but actually feeling that respect was another. Jorav could blow this emperor all he wanted, but I had no plans to do more than the bare minimum required to stay alive.

Short, pudgy, and sparkly stared. He didn’t look all that dangerous. He had a ridiculous scepter in one hand, and as he regarded us a Livisk woman who was rather not clothed stepped around and handed him a tablet. He looked down at it for a moment and then handed it back.

Well then. It appeared that the throne wasn’t the only thing that was supremely tacky in the throne room. I already didn’t like this guy on principle considering the whole war thing his dear old dad had started, assuming intel about the current status of the Livisk royal family was up to date, but I was starting to like him less and less on a more personal level too.

I had a hard time taking any ruler seriously who thought they could get away with sitting on a throne like that and actually having naked women serving him.

Jorav,” the emperor said, spreading his arms wide. “Please, stand. A man as daring as you need not get down on his knees before me.”

Jorav looked up but stayed on his knees. I was on the verge of getting up myself, but I figured it was probably safe when in the Livisk capital city to do as the Livisk did. Maybe there was some tradition where the emperor asked you to get up and if you did he would blast you with a vaporization rifle or something like that for daring to do what he said as an absolute ruler. It would’ve been one of the less fucked up aspects of Livisk culture I was aware of.

I just didn’t know, and I didn’t want to find out the hard way. So I stayed put.

Jorav’s eyes burned with a fierce fury that surprised me. It also surprised me that this young pudgy emperor didn’t seem to notice that fury behind his uncle’s eyes.

“There was a time when I wouldn’t be afforded even that much honor, your highness,” Jorav said.

I’ll admit I wasn’t the greatest at reading alien emotions, but it seemed he’d just stuck his foot in it from the way everyone in the throne room started looking at one another. The emperor frowned, but it was only there for a moment and then the smile was back.

I was on guard. It didn’t do to let your guard down when somebody as powerful as this asshole looked upset and then tried to cover it up. In my experience with high-ranking types that never meant anything good. I’d seen similar looks from admirals right before they told me I wouldn’t be in command of anything bigger than a patrol ship on the outer edge of the solar system for the rest of my career, and maybe I should just go ahead and resign.

I’d shown them. Gotten my ship destroyed and most of my crew captured. Yeah, I was on a roll.

“You seem tense, Jorav,” the emperor said. “You need not worry.”

He waved a hand. “As far as I am concerned, all the sins of the past are forgiven.”

Something was wrong here. He just told Jorav that all the sins of the past were forgiven, sins that were actually my fault, but there was something about the tone of his voice and the expression that passed across his face that told me those sins weren’t completely forgiven. No, there was something dangerous going on here.

The emperor turned his attention to me and I found myself wondering how much of that danger was directed at Jorav and how much would soon become my problem.

“I understand from my intelligence sources that you are the woman who was responsible for the destruction of the station that caused Jorav’s dishonor,” he said. “I find it odd that you would be so close in his company after that unfortunate meeting.”

I darted a look to Jorav, terror seizing my heart. I had a very strong feeling that I was about to die. This guy knew I was responsible for Jorav’s dishonor which meant he knew I was responsible for killing his mother and his aunt. I didn’t even know that I’d been responsible for that up until a few minutes ago, but he’d had plenty of time to stew over it. Several years. He didn’t seem to happy about it, either.

“I have taken her into my protection, nephew,” Jorav said.

The emperor looked back at Jorav and anger flashed on his face again. I had a feeling there was some weird Livisk honor thing going on here, but for once I was all for their weird honor thing if it meant I got to keep my skin intact.

“So I’ve heard,” the Emperor said. “I admit this disappoints me, Jorav.”

“Does that mean you are taking back your…”

“I said that all the past was forgotten,” the emperor snapped, some of that anger that had been lurking under the surface finally bubbling up. There was more chattering from the Livisk around us. All of them looked just as portly as the emperor, with the exception of a few younger fit Livisk who were obviously there to be aesthetically pleasing for the rich and powerful types.

I guess not all of them on the homeworld could be mighty warriors. The propaganda we saw back home had lied. There was a big surprise.

The emperor droned on in an almost bored tone. “But the past being forgiven doesn’t mean that the present or the future will be forgiven as well.”

“What are you saying nephew,” Jorav said.

Only the emperor ignored him. He turned his attention back to me.

“I’ve heard that you fought very well. You would have to if you were able to destroy a space station and best my uncle. He is one of our best tacticians and warriors, after all.”

I couldn’t decide if that was dripping with sarcasm or not. Hell, I wasn’t entirely sure the Livisk even had a concept of sarcasm.

Jorav grunted as though he’d been slapped, but he kept his peace. If the emperor was trying to provoke him it wasn’t working.

“I’ve taken the command level crew from your ship and had them tortured for any information they might have. They don’t get to enjoy the protection my uncle has extended to you for some reason I can’t begin to understand.”

The way his eyes ran up and down my body left no doubt that he thought he understood exactly why his uncle had extended his protection to me. I held my tongue. Now didn’t seem like a good time for me to let my smart mouth get me in any more trouble. Especially speaking a second language that I wasn’t at a hundred percent on.

I was just glad I wasn’t expected to read anything as part of this exchange. I couldn’t get past Dick and Jane levels of reading in the weird pictograms that passed for an alphabet on their world. Though I suppose for them it would be Krull and the Gatharg Beast or something ridiculous like that in their reading primers. Assuming they even had something like that.

“After they are finished being interrogated and tortured I have every intention of sending them to work hard labor with the rest of your crew. We might even use them for propaganda purposes or something,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “What do you think of that? Having your failure broadcast all across the galaxy? Letting humanity know that even their home system isn’t safe from the might of the Livisk Ascendancy and it’s all your fault?”