Career Progression Part III
28 Apr 2016Jellicoe
Dinner with an Imperial aristocrat is something everyone should experience at least once in their life and if one receives such an invitation only a fool would refuse. The surroundings are exquisite, the service is immaculate and the wine is perfectly selected while the food will make anything you have tasted before seem like cold ashes in comparison, each course is prepared from only the finest ingredients and cooked to utter perfection by master chefs recruited from across the galaxy. The king was excellent company, speaking at length of his distinguished career, of ships, tactics and the differences in the Imperial and Federal approach to design. After a meal that was beyond delicious the king invited me into his drawing room, dismissed his servants, lit a cigar and turned to speak.“We should be safe from any over curious ears in here, I’ve told the staff to leave us and the electronic security is the best available.”
“You think your home is bugged?” I asked amazed.
“Use your brain lad! If we’re right and these people have murdered an emperor and a president then spying on me won’t give them much trouble. I’m pretty sure some very senior people at the Imperial court are involved and from what I can see the Federation too, so say nothing to anyone, I doubt you’re important enough to be watched yet but keep your eyes open and don’t shoot your mouth off.”
“Understood. So you asked me here, what do you know and what do you want?”
The king smiled at my directness. “I know very little for certain but I what I do know convinces me that there are indeed dark forces at work, and that they are very close to the centres of power in both our governments. Does anything strike you as strange by the way?”
“I don’t understand, it all seems strange.” I replied confused.
“Think lad, you’re a Rear Admiral, at your rank your most powerful weapon is your brain. The Emperor is dead, the President presumed dead and anyone digging into it dead, terrorists on the loose striking at both yet who remains entirely unaffected by all of it?”
“The Alliance?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes the Alliance.” The king replied. “Did it never strike you as odd that a year and a half of almost unprecedented galactic turmoil has left them entirely untouched?”
“Not until now.” I answered abashed. The king might be old but his intellect and insight were putting me to shame. “But the murder of a president or an emperor are acts of war, they’d not be mad enough to risk it, war with the Federation and Empire would destroy them.”
“It would. Unless?”
“Unless what? The Alliance couldn’t take on one of the Federation or Empire, never mind both.”
“Unless they had someone else even bigger than both standing behind them.” He added with a grim smile.
“Thargoids?” I exclaimed in astonishment.
“Thargoids.” He echoed. “We know the Alliance had contact with them back in the 50’s then it all went quiet, why? As it happens I’m not convinced the Alliance were actively involved but I’d bet my last credit that they know a good deal about it.”
“But if it is the Thargoids why all the subterfuge? If they’re that strong why not just attack?”
“I don’t know. It’s very difficult to judge anyone’s reasoning when one doesn’t have the full picture which we don’t, nor do we know anything about their race, its psyche and thought processes – just because something makes no sense to us does not mean it makes no sense to them. My best guess is that after the last war and the Mycoid virus they are being cautious and weakening us before they strike openly but I would need much more data for that to be anything other than a very vague guess; but we must be vigilant, the peace between the Empire and the Federation must hold at all cost.”
“Agreed. So what do you want from me?”
“Do anything you can to keep the peace, but mainly keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground. As you might imagine I can rarely leave Cubeo, you can tell me what you find, you have contacts in the Federation and among independent pilots and traders which I lack, especially with one secret group.”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean.” I replied unconvincingly.
“Do not presume to play me for a fool young man.” He thundered. “I know full well that you are one of these ‘Children of Raxxla’ if you were not we would not be having this conversation, or did it not strike you as odd that king in the Imperial Navy trusted you so quickly?”
“Yeah I did wonder about that.” I mumbled shamefacedly.
“Well now you know, but trust you I have and I expect that trust to be returned. Tell me anything you learn. I have my own network of contacts you do not have and anything I learn I will pass to you. Do it in person though, visit Cubeo and I will invite you to dinner and we will talk. Our first task is to try and discover if our theory about the Alliance and the Thargoids is correct because if not we have been looking in the wrong place and have lost a significant amount of time.”
“Very well.” I agreed. “One question, does the Princess know any of this?”
“I believe she suspects some of it but by no means all, and that is exactly how I wish to keep it. She can be rather headstrong at times and that is not at all what we need. Now we have been here quite long enough, you had better go before anyone’s suspicions might be aroused.