Career Progression Part IV
09 May 2016Jellicoe
Following my dinner with the king I returned to the social whirl that was life for the privileged elite of Cubeo. It was a time I will always look back on fondly till my dying day, my duties were light, I was young, I was rich and I was in the company of people even younger and considerably richer in a system dedicated to expensive pleasure seeking but free of some of the more tiresome moral strictures that usually typify the Imperial core worlds. I lived well, much to the irritation of my counterpart from the regular navy, I moved out of my quarters in the legation compound and rented a lavish apartment in the fashionable quarter of the capital city, I ate only in the very finest restaurants, I made sure I was seen in all the right places around town and I gave lavishly to charities in favour with the princess and her court. The contacts followed, young naval officers from good families, thrusting businessmen on the rise and decadent aristocrats drawn to Cubeo to escape the often stifling formality of more traditional Imperial society. At the same time trusted members of my crew got to know privateer captains and freighter pilots in the princess’ service, I have no doubt that the princess, or more likely her people knew exactly what we were up to, but such is the way the game of power is played. At the apex of Cubeo’s glittering world of wealth and excess we the Princess Aisling herself. Beautiful, charming and provocative, risqué enough to inspire gossip but never crossing the line into outright scandal. I met the princess on several occasions during my stay and was enchanted every time, but I was neither rich nor important or I suppose interesting enough to get close to her, though she did see fit to grand me the honorary rank of Viscount in the Imperial Navy which was not, I gather, a usual occurrence.
Enjoyable as my time as a naval attaché was it could not last forever and finally I received a signal from Admiral Craddock ordering my return to Nannorum for a fresh posting. I was disappointed but it was no bad thing, I had been intoxicated by Cubeo but it was time to leave, I missed the freedom of open space, the bridge of my ship and the thrill of action. I made my goodbyes, dined for the last time at my favourite restaurant, attended a final party and packed to leave. The morning of my departure I was having a cup of the excellent Imperial tea while my crew finished prepping the ‘Warspite’ for our voyage when a smartly dressed man surreptitiously pressed a mini data slate into my hand and whispered “From the king.” In my ear. Later in my cabin I took out the slate, it was DNA encrypted and was just one line of text.
“The dead do not always stay dead. Watch her.” It was unusually enigmatic for the usually straight talking old warhorse and I wondered at the possible meaning. The following morning all became clear as the news flashed across the galaxy that an intact escape pod had been found that was strongly believed to contain the former president Jasmina Halsey.