On The Imperium’s Secret Service (Imperium Cicernus) (22 page)

***

Fitz had promised that he wouldn't spend more than twenty minutes talking to Archie. 
But it was nearly an hour before he came back out of the plantation house and over to the shuttle, his face fixed in a grimace that told the whole story.  Archie and his family had refused to listen to him, even looking like someone who had just crawled through a sewer.  He stalked into the shuttle, closed the hatch firmly behind him, and sat down on the co-pilot’s chair.

“They didn’t listen,” he said unnecessarily, as Mariko brought the shuttle’s engines online.  “Get us out of here.”

“With pleasure,” Mariko said, and triggered the engines. 

The shuttle leapt into the sky, allowing her to see the plantations before they merged into a green blur far below.  How many of the aliens, she wondered, knew that part of their plan was uncovered?  Would they decide to take the chance of launching their uprising now, before the Imperial Navy could arrive or Archie’s more careful fellows could hire mercenaries to protect their investment, or would they hope that all news of the planned uprising had been lost along with their base? 

“Fitz,” she ventured, “didn't that – well, what just happened – blow your cover?”

“I think not,” Fitz said.  “Everyone who knew who we were on the alien base died in the explosion, although Archie might realise that something was odd about me if he ever bothers to consider the point.”  He shook his head.  “We may need another cover in the future, but for the moment we still need the
Bruce Wayne
.  And
she
can't be explained without having someone like me along.”

Mariko nodded as the shuttle passed through the last wisps of atmosphere and headed out into space.  From high overhead, Greenland looked almost beautiful, as if the terraforming operatives had created a paradise.  There was no sign of the atrocity they’d committed – the first of many – to make the world habitable.  A few million Slimes compared to the uncounted trillions of humans within the Imperium...no wonder the Imperium hadn't cared, when it had discovered what had happened to the natives.  But she had a feeling that the boot would have seemed different if on the other foot.

“There are a dozen freighters in orbit,” she said, sourly.  “How many of them belong to the Secessionists?”

“We’ll compare them against the OTC records from Tuff,” Fitz said.  He smiled in a mildly reproving manner.  “You ought to know that every ship has a unique drive signature.”

Mariko nodded again as they matched orbits with the
Bruce Wayne
and docked with the luxury craft.  Mai had already docked her shuttle and taken control of the ship’s drives, ready to throw it away from the planet and into phase space if necessary.  Fitz tapped his wristcom as the hatches mated and he stepped into his ship, opening up a channel to the bridge.

“Take us on a leisurely course to Karats,” he ordered.  Mariko lifted an eyebrow.  Karats was only a day or so from Greenland, but it wasn't particularly special.  “No need to push the drives
too
much, I think; give us an ETA of three days.”

“Understood, Milord,” Mai said. 

She was less keen on being informal with Fitz, even though she still had a crush on him.  Mariko hoped that she’d get over it sooner or later. 

But Mai had gone on.  “Should I file a plan with the planet’s OTC?”

“Don’t bother,” Fitz said.  That was technically illegal, but Greenland’s OTC was a makeshift business at best.  “If they demand a flight plan before we enter phase space, tell them that we intend to visit Sumter.  They can draw their own conclusions from that.”

“There’s a wormhole station at Karats,” Mariko said, slowly.

“Very good,” Fitz agreed.  “We go to Karats – and then we can be at Sumter within seconds.”

“But shouldn't we be going faster?”  Mariko asked.  “If you want to alert the Imperial Navy...”

“I don’t think it will matter,” Fitz said, savagely.  “Archie has too much pull with the Sector Governor.  Useful fucking idiot.”

He shrugged.  “Go clean up,” he said, changing the subject. 

Mariko caught a whiff of how she smelled and winced. 

“I’ll see you both for dinner this evening,” he said with a smile.

Mariko had been tempted to ask if he wanted to share another shower, but he headed for his own suite before she could find the words to ask him.  It felt odd to feel so...horny after barely escaping certain death; was it natural, or was something wrong with her?  And she’d killed, she reminded herself as she stumbled down the corridor to their cabin, peeled off her clothes and climbed into the shower.  A dozen Slimes had died when she’d opened fire on them – and more had died when Mai convinced them that the only choice left was to blow up their entire base. 

She slumped in the shower as hot water poured over her, washing away the mud and grime from their adventure.  The Slimes had done nothing to deserve the destruction of their entire existence, let alone the near-genocide forced upon them by their human masters.  They’d only been guilty of trying to fight back against an attack of such scale that resistance was futile.  What did it matter if they killed a few dozen humans when their world was turning rapidly poisonous to them?

Perhaps that was why Fitz had decided not to hurry to Karats – or Sumter.  Perhaps the revolution would take place and Archie and his family would be summarily executed by the Slimes as they retook their world.  By the time the Imperial Navy arrived, there would be no humans left to save.  It seemed cold-hearted, even ruthless, but she’d seen enough of the contempt Fitz held for most of his fellow aristocrats...and she’d seen enough to them to know that that contempt was fully justified.  She wiped water over her breasts, watching the mud falling from her body and vanishing into the ship’s water purification system, and then started to shake.  They’d come far too close to death.

Fitz thinks that he can make a difference
, she thought. 
But what if he’s wrong
?

Greenland was hardly the worst place in the Imperium, nor was it the only planet that had seen its indigenous life form pushed to the brink of extinction by human settlers.  And there were hundreds of thousands of millions of aliens labouring away in the Imperium for their human masters. 

The Imperium was steadily decaying – Fitz had said as much and Mariko suspected that he was right – but what would happen when it fell?  Could the chaos following the collapse of imperial order be truly worse than that order?

Shaking her head, she used a sonic sweep to flick the water off her body before she stepped out of the shower and into her cabin.  At least she’d had the foresight to buy a nightgown that covered everything as well as the sexy nightwear Mai had thought they might need for their new master.  It was funny how she would almost have preferred being a courtesan to being an assistant secret agent, even if being a secret agent was much more interesting that doing little more than showing off her body for Fitz.  Out of habit – Fitz had drummed it into them time and time again – she picked up one of the pistols he’d given them and dropped it into her pocket before leaving the cabin. 

Mai, according to the ship’s computer, was still minding the bridge.  Military ships manned the bridge at all times, as did the larger civilian vessels, but there was little point on the
Bruce Wayne
.  The only thing that could touch them in Phase Space was an artificial gravity well and if that happened, there would be no warning until they actually slammed right into it.  But Mai took her duties seriously – and besides, she’d discovered the engineering texts loaded into the ship’s computers.  They included data on systems that the Imperium considers highly classified, including wormhole generators.  Fitz’s only comment had been to warn Mai not to share her knowledge too widely. 

Bracing herself, she touched the chime on Fitz’s door and was surprised when it hissed open at once.  Fitz was seated at his desk, studying a star chart that showed the Sumter Sector and its surrounding territory.  Beyond the Rim, beyond the stars officially controlled by humanity, eighty stars glowed bright red.  The Snake Empire was tiny compared to the Imperium – and if it came down to a straight fight the Imperium would steamroll them into the ground, blasting their worlds to radioactive dust – but it was formidable enough to make conquering it a difficult proposition.  It had been hundreds of years since the human race had encountered another multisystem polity and overrun it, assimilating their developed worlds into the Imperium.  The old lust for conquest and unity no longer existed.

“The Snakes have a vested interest in keeping the Sumter Sector destabilised,” Fitz said, by way of explanation.  “And rumour has it that they have been backing the Secessionists with whatever they want, as long as it can’t be traced back to them.  The Snake we met on Greenland does tend to support that rumour.”

Mariko nodded.  The Snakes had been lucky.  Some three hundred years before the wavefront of human expansion would have washed across their homeworld, a group of human renegades had given them access to technology they wouldn't even have been able to dream about before they met the human race.  Within fifty years, they’d united their homeworld and created a number of colonies, occupying a number of worlds with their own intelligent races as well as worlds they could settle without opposition.  By the time they met the Imperium formally, they had a fleet that could protect them against anything short of a full Imperial Navy Task Force.  And in the political paralysis gripping Homeworld, it was unlikely that the Imperial Navy would ever be permitted to gather the force necessary to crush the Snakes...

But that would change if there was clear evidence that the Snakes had been aiding the Imperium’s enemies.

“They have to be mad,” she said, finally.  “What does supporting the Secessionists get them?”

“A distracted Imperium,” Fitz said.  “There’s a great deal we don’t know about the Snakes – starting with the exact size of their Navy.  What if they plan to wait another few hundred years and then invade?  They could put together a fleet that would be a match for the entire Imperial Navy if they were prepared to spend hundreds of years working on it.  It isn't as if we’ve been building capital ships for the last few hundred years ourselves.  What new production we’ve been focusing on is small ships to protect our shipping.”

Mariko could see the problem.  The Imperium was so large that it was difficult to imagine an enemy that could actually hope to win a war of attrition against the human race.  It was possible that the Snakes might be able to take the Sumter sector and its neighbours, but the invasion would unite the human race against them.  The Imperium would be able to bring overwhelming firepower to bear against the Snakes...

...Except that seventy percent of the Imperium’s industrial base was manned by aliens, aliens who might welcome the Snakes as liberators.  The Imperium was huge, but could it survive uprisings on every major industrial node and countless other worlds besides?  And what of the aliens serving in the Imperial Navy?  Would they turn on their human comrades?

“Dear God,” she said.  The carnage would be appalling, far worse than civil unrest or even a civil war.  “But why would the Secessionists go along with them?”

“'He who pays the piper calls the tune',” Fitz quoted.  It had been a favourite saying of her father as well.  “And besides, what if the Snakes offered human worlds autonomy or independence – and protection from aliens who might want a little revenge?  Some of the Secessionists have always proclaimed human and alien equality.  Why should they not work with the Snakes?”

He shook his head.  “But the Snakes have always resented us. They might turn on their allies once the war is over.”

Mariko closed her eyes, in pain.  “I wanted to ask you something,” she said, as she sat down.  “Is it...normal for me to feel shock over killing people?”

Fitz did her the honour of considering the question seriously.

“I felt the same way after I first killed someone,” he said, finally.  “He was trying to kill me at the time, but I still felt dreadful when I realised what I had done.”

Mariko looked at him.  “How did you cope with it?”

“I had to keep reminding myself that if I hadn't killed him, he would have killed me,” Fitz admitted.  “And the
Slimes you killed down on the planet would have killed you without a second thought.”