Ancient Relics (THE RIM CONFEDERACY Book 4) Page 4

  "Captain Scott, please … take a seat, will you?" she said as she continued to look down at the tablet in front of her.

  He did so and waited a few minutes for her to finish her work. She turned the tablet off and looked at him for the first time.

  "Captain, I understand that you're making progress on the crew selections. That's a good thing," she said and nodded to him.

  Her hair looked perfectly coiffed around her head and her blue, blue eyes were staring right at him. She was dressed tonight in something he’d call formal. She wore a maroon jacket over a white blouse and a matching skirt with some kind of gray highlights. No fashion expert, he thought, but she was more dressed up than the last time he'd had dinner with her. Killer heels again too.

  "Ma’am, yes … thank you, we're making great work on filling our crew spots. Got myself a solid XO too. And the help, by the way, of some of your own crew CPOs in our crew interviews earlier today was muchly appreciated too. Ma’am." He smiled at her.

  She smiled back and then looked down at the papers in front of her.

  "Yes, I see some of the names you've requisitioned, and they all sound like they're fine."

  He nodded to her.

  "Yes, Ma’am, but can I ask about that dinner? I thought maybe you were going to cook for us both—like last time?" he said and she smiled back at him right away.

  "No, we're not dining alone—tonight it's a state dinner over at the Palace for the Executive Realm group, and yes, I'm glad to see the dress blues. You'll look the part of our newest Barony captain, and all you need to do is smile a lot and nod. It's all I ever do," she said ironically and that got a matching smile from him.

  Time, he thought, then to get this out in the open.

  "Ma’am. I met with the Baroness awhile back when I first arrived, and she told me something that was—well, disturbing, Ma’am. And it involved you—"

  She slapped her hand palm down onto the table in front of her and cut him off.

  "Captain, I have no idea what the Baroness said—but I know this. It was aimed—whatever she said—to hurt me. Or to drive a wedge between you and I. Or … well, I don't know what else … but let's hear it, Captain. What could she have said?"

  He looked down at the empty tabletop in front of him and wished he could have been anywhere else.

  "Ma’am, she told me that you had some famous Confederacy Statute academic accompany you to the 100th Anniversary event as you were going to use him as backup when you claimed—if that is the correct term, Ma’am—the count from Olbia as a husband. At least that's what she told me, Ma’am," Tanner said and then he looked up at the pretty woman across the table from him.

  She toyed with the tablet's stylus, and it twirled in a tight circle a couple of times before it slowly went still.

  "That, Captain, is true. She instructed me months earlier to find the most knowledgeable expert on our Confederacy Statutes to ask him how I could 'break out' the count from Halberd within the law. So that, she said, Nusayr would be beholden to the Barony—and that might work out well for us—especially if he went back to Olbia to lead the current revolution." She picked up the stylus again and used it to scratch a spot on the back of her left arm, and he noted that she did so totally unconsciously and with no feelings of being anything but honest.

  He thought on that for a moment. And he nodded. Then he suddenly pulled back his head as he digested the end of her last sentence.

  "Current revolution, Ma’am? I know nothing of that …" he said and looked right at her.

  She returned his gaze and nodded.

  "Yes, Captain … the deaths of both the count and his sister the countess have galvanized the whole planet into action. They are under assault from the Caliphate forces with the Ramat leading the charge. But they have also issued a Declaration of Independence and have petitioned the RIM Confederacy Council to make a presentation at the next meeting. That's where the Baroness left for just this morning.

  "Do you believe what I've said, Captain? I do swear it was not my idea—just me following the orders of the Baroness."

  She looked at him and turned away. She was not sure. Then for no reason Tanner could think of, she snapped her fingers and stood quickly but made him sit still.

  "I will be right back, Captain. Just need to go get something to show you … I'll be right back," she said and left the room in a hurry.

  He could hear her heels on the tiled floor until she reached the carpeted corridor and he sat and waited. The viewport was closed so he had nothing to do but sit and wait.

  A full five minutes later, she came back into the room, and her accompanying EliteGuard carried in a large steel box and placed it on the table in front of her seat.

  "Thank you, Lieutenant," she said to him and waited until he had closed the door behind him as he left the room.

  She found the thumb lock, and using her left thumb, she stuck it into the secure lock. After a moment, the top popped open, and she reached in with both hands and took out what looked like a large, very thick book.

  She placed it on the table and then motioned for him to come over to stand beside her, which he did.

  No title or name on the cover, he saw at first. It was a huge size and thick, but that was all he could tell with its cover that held only the Barony logo of the twin crowns. Nothing more than that.

  She laid a hand on the leather cover and stroked the twin crowns that had been embossed on it, and Tanner could see this book meant something to her. Something more perhaps than she wanted to let on.

  "This—and not many non-family members even see it—is what is called the Blood of the Barony tome. It is the book that each of the ruling barons or baronesses use to record and send down the coming generations, that which they want the next ruler to know. It goes back … well, at least a thousand years, and it has been passed to me. From my father directly to me—the Baroness does not even know about its existence. She, as you're aware, married into the position that she holds, so the book was passed over her to me."

  He nodded, thinking that while that made sense from a family point of view, surely, if it could help the new ruler to rule … it should be passed to anyone who had the big job rather than family bloodlines only. But I can't say that, he thought.

  "Ma’am, what kind of things get passed down? Information on planets within the realm or what a Baron had for dinner or …" he said.

  She took that minor comment well and shrugged. "Anything can be left to the next blood ruler, and let me tell you, there's a ton of those dinner menus," she said and they both smiled.

  "So, why would you be showing me this?" he said, wondering why.

  "Because I want to show you something within the book—written in my father's hand too," she said.

  She flipped over the large cover, and she reached down three or four inches to an area where the pages were blank. She then searched toward the front of the book for the last written page. It took a moment and she pointed out a part of one of the last pages for him to read.

  He leaned over and saw that the baron had had a nice, flowing cursive script and the area to read was only a few pages from the end.

  He read and then stood back.

  "Ma’am, this is pretty much a very private conversation between the two of you and I don't—"

  She interrupted him again. "Yes, I know. But I wanted you to read what the baron had to say about his own wife—who became our Baroness."

  The baron had said, with a very serious and sobering note, that he did not trust his wife.

  That Helena was not ever to trust her stepmother.

  And for the good of the Barony, if Helena could, she should try to get back control of the Barony.

  By any means needed, the baron had added, and that Tanner could see, could be read anyway one wanted.

  He cleared his throat.

  "Ma’am … I thank you for the trust that you must have for me. It was unexpected, but I thank you none the less," he said and half-bowed his head to s
how he was appreciative.

  She nodded too. "Yes, Captain, I wanted you to see what I face. From notes from beyond the grave to the orders of the Baroness. It's what I live with every day …" she said as she closed the big book.

  She laid her hand on the twin crowns on the cover for a moment before lifting it back into its steel security box and sliding the cover closed until the security lock beeped at her three times.

  He smiled at her and she smiled back.

  "That's not to say the book is all like that," she said and then counted on her fingers one by one.

  "One baron—my great-great-great-great-grandfather—is that enough?" she said as she tilted her head to one side and then nodded to herself.

  "Yes … it was he who said that the fate of the whole galaxy lay on Ghayth—a planet not even in the Confederacy. My father pointed that passage out to me and then told me that he'd actually visited the planet outside the RIM and all it is, is a wet foggy planet with no sentient life at all. Then there was the message that said that all new barons should marry only women from Amasis so as to provide a solid manufacturing knowledge to the first family. We were also instructed to never visit DenKoss, as any planet with no land on it to speak of would be a waste of a state visit. Or the one," she said, ticking off another finger, "where we were only buy our Palace furnishings from families that had lived and worked on Neres for at least three generations. Oh, and the one I like best was from a baron of what, 500 years ago, who said that if we wanted the Barony to be important, that we'd create a zoo of aliens only to remind us all of what it was like to be human and to be at the top of the food chain."

  She shook her head.

  "So much for wise words from the past," she said as she took his arm and led them out of the room. Stopping only for a moment to instruct her EliteGuards to gather up the security box and return it to her quarters, she walked with him down the corridor to the lift.

  "State dinner party. You'll be seated beside someone you won’t like, across from someone you can't understand, and on the other side, there'd be me," she said as she squeezed his bicep, and they left the Sterling for the Palace.

  On the way, Tanner wondered about why a baron, any baron, would leave behind things that were of no real value, no real use to following generations, and that one stumped him.

  #

  Bram had been picked up by two Provost Guards as soon as he'd left the gym on the Navy base. They had asked him if he was Lieutenant Bram Sander, and when he acknowledged his identity, they simply said to follow them.

  Pleading that he was sweaty and smelled bad didn't even slow them down as they marched him across the tarmac to the edge of the base. They reminded him to buckle up as they all were seated in the Barony Jeep, and as soon as the driver heard the click, he accelerated like they were late.

  From the side street that bordered the base, they turned onto the expressway that ran through the city proper and took the exit labeled as the Palace exit.

  Shit, he thought, this was about to get heavy, and he saw the Jeep wasn't stopped at all by any of the guards, access points, or barriers. Not five minutes after being picked up, Bram followed an EliteGuard through several sequences of anterooms after lobbies after presentation rooms … until he was lost.

  But that didn't matter to his guard who kept moving deeper and deeper into the Palace until he stopped at a non-distinct door and knocked.

  Moments later the door beeped, and Bram thought the AI was expecting them. The guard opened the door to allow him to enter and then closed the door from outside the room.

  And what a room it is, Bram thought as he walked in and stopped to stare.

  It had been, he supposed, a previous baron's hunting room, because every square foot of each of the four walls had the heads of animals mounted on display boards and frames. Some he knew, like Jaels and Oveds, but the size of these heads were immense. Whoever had taken them must have been hunting for only the biggest and the fiercest. On the far wall were a brace of those sharks with the twin heads from DenKoss, and he figured half his body would fit into those mouths. There was a huge winged dragon from Eran, where everything grew bigger than it did anywhere else. Over the mantle was a beast that he'd forgotten its name, but he knew this one could run twice as fast as a human. When hunted, it almost always went free as it simply killed the hunters. But its name, he thought, what was that one called—

  "It is called a Tanalorg, Bram … and yes, it killed the whole hunting party except for the baron himself over on KappaD," the Adept Counselor said dryly and then turned away from him to face the door on the other side of the seating area at the center of the room.

  He hadn't even noticed her in the room, which was an issue. He was about to speak, but she held up her hand and stopped him, and then he realized she hadn't done that at all; it was what she had sent to his mind from her own. Obviously much more superior at the craft than I am, he thought and he smiled. She probably got that too …

  The door opened and in strode the Baroness.

  Shit … double shit, he thought and stood at —when in doubt, revert to military SOP had been drilled into him for years, so that's what he did.

  The Baroness sat and motioned him to join her on the facing divan, and he sat gingerly noting the Adept Counselor had taken up a position on the left flank of the Baroness, and she perched herself on the arm of that couch.

  They all waited and once the Baroness had gotten comfortable, she looked at him.

  "Lieutenant, I have been looking into you and your past with the RIM Navy, and so far, I like what I see. You have been a loyal, supportive crewman to Captain Scott and I like that especially—loyalty is everything to me. Agreed, Amihan?" she said and looked over at her Adept.

  The Issian didn't even look at her Baroness, but nodded and then pointed at Bram.

  "And a part——a large part—of that loyalty is the ability to never forget who wears the crown—our Baroness, Bram," she said quietly.

  "And what that means," the Baroness said in response, "is that when I ask for you to do something for me, your only answer would be …"

  "Yes, Baroness—I would agree wholeheartedly, Ma’am" he said, as he knew what the right answer was in this room.

  Amihan nodded.

  "Right answer," she said.

  "And that favor that I am asking for is a simple one—one that in fact, you should be prepared to do because of who you are."

  She nodded and then leaned forward toward Bram.

  "Your captain has a problem with alcohol. You know it and so does the rest of the RIM too. What I want is for you to watch out for him—keep him as far away from Scotch as you can. Find a way to be close to him—you are friends, you will remember—all the time to keep him on the straight and narrow. No booze will make a better Barony captain and that's what I expect from you, Lieutenant. Think you can do that?" the Baroness asked, but Bram was sure it was an order.

  And he nodded.

  "Ma’am, yes, Ma’am, and if he does try to abuse alcohol, I'll try to keep him in line," he said.

  "I didn't ask you to try, Bram," the Baroness said as she leaned back into the couch. "What I asked for is for you to succeed. Not try. Do." She stared at her Adept.

  Her Adept looked at Bram and said nothing. Her stare was direct. He looked back at her and dipped his head a millimeter.

  "That will be all, Lieutenant," the Baroness said, and she rose as he backed out of the room, not even realizing the door had opened up behind him.

  Moments later he was being whisked away in that same Jeep, and he wondered who he could check with to find out more about the Baroness's Adept.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The captain of the Atlas was the first one to jump on board the shuttle that was to take them up to the Neres Station to see his ship for the first time. Tanner smiled as he thought being eager was allowed—especially as this ship was something new, special and unknown.

  He sat in one of the far side seats from the door and buckled
in right away. Moments later, Bram strode on board and sat opposite him, and they both grinned at each other.

  "Something new for today," Bram said.

  "And maybe for the rest of the week," Tanner said and they both chuckled.

  A few minutes went by and then the door began to slowly slide shut.

  "Wonder why there's only the two of us," Bram said and he was answered almost immediately.

  "Two passengers for transit up to the Atlas. Please buckle up," the AI said, and as Bram complied, a chime sounded.

  "Up in ten seconds," the AI said and sure enough, in that amount of time, the shuttle lifted off with a roar. They were flung back deeper in their seats as the shuttle accelerated.

  The blue sky out of the window showed it was a nice spring day. The sky soon turned to a deeper blue and then black, as the shuttle left the atmosphere. Out the side port on his side, Tanner could see a few RIM stars. As the shuttle swung to port, the huge white Supra Class destroyer came into view.

  "She's white," Bram said in surprise, "and damn big too."

  Tanner nodded. "Around 1800 feet long, 80 thousand tons, crew of 550 or so. That's big," Tanner said as he gawked at the features they could see.

  As the shuttle flew from the rear of the Atlas to the mid-section and the shuttle bay, they could see the three huge Perseus engines that powered the TachyonDrive took up the whole rear of the ship. Around the area just in front of the engines was a toroid shell that held lots of arrays, communication disks, and other items that neither could say what they did. In front of that were stacked decks with view-ports and access ports. The whole hull was white in color, with the telltale red and blue of the Barony colors too.

  "AI, could you please tell the pilot we'd like a full tour all around the Atlas before we dock," Tanner said.

  The AI was silent for a moment and then replied, "We have no pilot at all, Captain. The shuttle is being piloted by our shuttle AI—but monitored by the bridge of the Atlas. In fact, the shuttle is plugged directly into the BioNeuralNet that is a part of the Atlas—the latest in AI possible, Captain."