Empire's End: Episode 1: The Senator's Daughter Read online

  No one said anything for several seconds. Kitekh drummed her claws on the tabletop again. Her green eyes stared at nothing.

  “Look, we don’t really have a choice, do we?” JaQuan said, breaking the silence. “We’re damned lucky to have dropped out of hyperspace close to anywhere we can get help. I say, we follow Cooressa’s advice and repair the hull, then head out.”

  “Do you think there’s any chance we can acquire a crystal there?” Kitekh asked.

  “I do not know, Captain,” Cooressa answered. “They are the technology that holds the Empire together, that makes interstellar travel possible. One can be had anywhere reasonable.”

  “But is Horari reasonable?” JaQuan said.

  “It is an outlaw haven,” Cooressa said. “I feel certain anything can be purchased there, assuming one has enough currency.”

  “Anyone got a clue how much a Myollnar Crystal goes for out on the rim of civilization?” Kitekh asked.

  “You can bet it will be expensive,” Lanaliel said.

  “What if we don’t have enough?” JaQuan asked.

  “We’ve got a cargo hold full of mining supplies,” Kitekh said. “I’m sure we can barter.”

  “But those are not ours,” Cooressa protested. “We cannot sell them.”

  “If we can’t leave the Horari Belt, it won’t matter,” JaQuan said. “No one will be coming to collect them.”

  “And if we do make it out?” she asked.

  “Then we’ll deal with that problem as it comes,” Kitekh said. “Right now, God is stepping on our throat. We’ve got an inoperative hyperdrive that can be repaired only by replacing its crystal. There is only one place we can do that, and our cargo may be all we’ve got to pay for it.

  “We’ve also got a senator’s kidnapped daughter in cryo-stasis and a terrorist confined in a storage bay. The Empire thinks we’re as guilty as Brody and is no doubt scouring the galaxy for us.

  “There’s only one thing to do. We need to make the repairs we can here, limp to the Horari Belt, and try to get the hyperdrive fixed. Once we’re interstellar-capable again, we can figure out what to do next.

  “Cooressa, continue getting the hull patched. Rorgun, I want my deflector screens back online. JaQuan, since your replacement turned out to be a traitor, you’re going to have to pull double duty as pilot and engineer’s mate. You and Lanaliel replace that wiring and make whatever other repairs you can to the hyperdrive.

  “I want us ready to move in no more than two days, people. We’re down, but we’re not out. Understand?”

  A chorus of yeses issued from around the table. JaQuan smiled weakly at Kitekh’s use of the boxing phrase he’d taught her. His mentor/trainer, Lucky Latiel Harris, would surely approve of his philosophy reaching another civilization in a distant galaxy.

  “Dismissed,” Kitekh said.

  JaQuan got up. The good news was they weren’t dead. As bad as the hyperdrive being down was, it was not a death sentence after all.

  But he sensed that this was only the beginning of trouble. Kitekh was right: The Empire was surely searching for them. A senator’s daughter had been kidnapped by a human terrorist. That wasn’t the sort of thing anyone would just let go.

  SENATOR IDRIB MOL SAT AT HIS desk, quietly tapping out the legislation he intended to introduce. Since the Emperor’s sudden and unfortunate death, the government had come to a complete standstill. Ordinarily, the Council of Nine appointed a successor. But when the gambit Idrib had pushed him to attempt went awry, Acquineen III killed four members of the Council in addition to himself. The law called for six members to comprise a quorum, so the Council was hamstrung. And the Emperor had to choose or approve all members of the Council.

  Acquineen had made it impossible for his successor to be lawfully chosen.

  The solution was obvious. The Senate needed to empower itself to name replacements to the Council of Nine, so they could select a new Emperor. But there were so damned many traditionalists and fatalists in the Senate that it was impossible to get them to agree that it should be done.

  Idrib had a solution for that. But it would require legislation. And an affirmative vote. The latter part would be harder of course, but he couldn’t get the votes if he didn’t have a bill for them to support.

  Patience. He knew what to do. God had told him. God had blessed him with a destiny. He merely needed to walk the path to fulfill it.

  The door chimed.

  “Come,” he called, not looking up from his screen.

  The door slid aside. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his chief of staff, Orisin Nus, standing in a white shift and blue cloak, his family sword hanging casually on his left hip from a golden sash.

  “Excuse me, Senator,” Orisin said. “I have news.”

  Idrib stopped writing and pushed back from his desk. Orisin stepped fully into the office and shut the door behind him.

  “Tell me,” Idrib said.

  “The battlecruiser God’s True Light has conducted a search of the Rijan System. The vessel Cataan’s Claw has not arrived, although she would not be due for another day if she were traveling at standard pace for her class. Captain Kel has deployed garrisons at all stations orbiting Rijan IV, and he has probes at each of the other four worlds in the system to make certain the terrorists could not be hiding elsewhere.”

  “Do we really expect her to go to Rijan as planned?” Idrib asked.

  “It would be most unlikely, sir. Kitekh Galesh may have been ignorant of the true nature of her cargo, but after being fired on by Imperial warships, it does not seem probable she would continue to the destination they filed with Daxal Station Control. Surely, she would be alarmed and run to ground.”

  That was Idrib’s thought as well. It was a shame Captain Kel had failed to capture them before they made it out of the system. That opened things up considerably. But a dishonored Graur who’d been reduced to captaining a merchant vessel couldn’t run forever. And for the moment, she’d be seeking the most immediate shelter she could find.

  “Let us involve the police,” Idrib said. “The Space Rangers are better than the military at this sort of work. Have them put out a search-and-seizure order for Cataan’s Claw. Tell them why, so there are no accidents. We want my daughter back alive, if possible.”

  “No bounty hunters, then?”

  “Absolutely not! The situation is still controllable. If we let bounty hunters in, we will be cleaning up explosions for months, and we still may not have Haneeta back or the terrorists in custody.

  “Send an alert to the Imperial Star Force as well. It’s highly unlikely Captain Galesh will go anywhere near real civilization, but in case she makes a mistake, we don’t want to miss our opportunity.”

  “Yes, sir,” he said. He paused for a moment and frowned. “Senator, God’s True Light reports that the ship was struck by beamer cannon as it was entering hyperspace. If something went wrong, it is possible . . .”

  His words trailed away. He looked helplessly at Idrib.

  “It is possible my daughter is either dead or forever lost in hyperspace?” he said.

  “Yes, sir,” Orisin said.

  “I hardly see where that changes anything, do you?”

  “I suppose not, sir.”

  “She was kidnapped by human terrorists. Whether she returns safely or not is immaterial. Indeed, it will fan the flames of outrage if she does not.”

  “Yes, sir,” Orisin said again.

  He looked uncomfortable. Idrib didn’t see why. They had known there were risks when they’d embarked on this scheme.

  “Get those calls into Imperial High Command and the Grand Marshal of the Space Rangers,” Idrib said. “If there is a chance to recover Haneeta, she will need to be found sooner rather than later.”

  “Yes, sir,” Orisin said.

  He saluted and went out. Idrib returned to his legislation. He just needed to keep walking the path. Everything would come to be as God intended.

  A S I SIT HERE IN THE co
ckpit of my ship, watching helplessly as the beamer and particle cannon rays streak through space, as the mass drivers pound the planet’s surface, I know I’m the dumbass who struck a match near this powder keg. There is virtually no sound out here in space, but the screams of the dying still reach my ears.

  It doesn’t matter what the Emperor or the Keepers of the Faith say. This is the end. There is no Empire after this. The principles on which it was founded have all burned away in the fire of this madness.

  And all because I didn’t listen when I should have.

  An ordinary day went suddenly and unexpectedly sideways for Captain Galesh and her crew. They had no idea a kidnapper and terrorist was aboard Cataan’s Claw when they left Daxal Station. They had no idea they would set in motion the events that would bring about the Empire’s end.

  Even that didn’t have to be, though. Things could have ended differently if I’d simply ignored or disobeyed my orders.

  But how was I to know?

  What waits for the crew of Cataan’s Claw at the Horari Belt?

  Can they repair the ship’s hyperdrive?

  Will the Empire find them before they prove their innocence?

  Find out in the next exciting episode of Empire’s End, “The Outpost”!

  Available now!

  Tap here to get it from Amazon.com

  Author’s Note

  H EY, Y’ALL! THANKS FOR BUYING AND READING Episode 1 of Empire’s End. It’s a thirteen-part serial (kind of like a traditional TV show), with new episodes dropping every two weeks. Stick with me, because it’s only gonna get more interesting from here!

  You know what really helps authors? Reviews. The more four- and five-star reviews a book has, the more likely Amazon is to recommend it. And a lot of the better advertising websites have minimum numbers of reviews and star averages before they’ll even take you.

  So if you liked Empire’s End, I’d be really grateful if you wouldn’t mind reviewing it. All you gotta do is tap the link below and rate it a number of stars you think it deserves and write a few words about why you liked it. You might not think so, but it really makes a difference to a book and its author.

  Thanks so much. Appreciate you!

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  Also, if you want to know more about Empire’s End, check out my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/empiresendserial. It has bonus material, release dates, sci-fi trivia, and other cool stuff.

  -JP

  Empire’s End

  A Science Fiction Serial by:

  JP Raymond

  Episode 1:

  The Senator’s Daughter

  Copyright 2018 JP Raymond

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Design by:

  Fleur Camacho

  About the Author

  JP RAYMOND WAS TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY by Star Wars in 1977. He spent the rest of his youth in love with Princess Leia, obsessed with all things science fiction, and railing against the identity of a certain Jedi Knight’s father.

  He eventually went to college, where he studied literature and got all sorts of ideas about writing about the human condition and penning the Great American Novel into his head.

  These days, he’s finally managed to author his own space opera saga. Empire’s End is his first foray into traditional science fiction, and he’s having a blast with it. He credits George Lucas for lighting the fire that got him here, but he refuses to accept Darth Vader as Luke’s father.

  Send JP a subspace communication at [email protected] and tell him what you think of Empire’s End. He’ll reply.