Elite: Dangerous

Betrayal

“ASTRA, damage report!” Anwen demanded.

“Shields are at four percent and regenerating. We have lost the hull plating on starboard aft. Starboard frame shift capacitor is damaged, and currently operates at 44 percent nominal capacity. The reactor containment is stable.”

“That was a close call.” Anwen stated. She turned to the princess. “If it wasn’t for Major Hitchens, we’d be toast by now. He saved our lives. I’m sorry he didn’t make it.”

The princess still stared in disbelief. “Hitchens, he…he died!”

Anwen nodded and clumsily laid a hand on the princesses arm. She had no idea if that was appropriate, but she thought the young woman might need it. “He was a good man. I’m sorry for your loss.”

The princess still stared through the canopy, where a monstrous red sun filled half the view. A single tear was rolling down her cheek. Anwen felt the sudden urge to hug the girl, but she thought that really would have been inappropriate.

A few hours later, Anwen sat in the mess, opposite to Princess Aisling and her handmaiden.

“I think we have a situation here.” She started. “I want to put the cards on the table. Where those your own people?”

The princess shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. Maybe they where just pirates?”

“Not likely. Those ships were a bit too shiny and new. And a wee bit too well armed for mere pirates. No pirate flies around with military grade shields and weapons.”

She paused for a moment.

“I’m not very good with politics, but aren’t you the heir to the throne? Maybe the Empress is after you?”

The princess managed a smile. “You don’t follow the news, do you?”

“Not at the rim, no.”

“I abdicated from my right to the throne and endorsed my aunts coronation. She’s mainly on the throne because of me. She’s not my enemy.”

“Ah, so you rejected the throne. Why?”

“In troubled times like these, emperors tend not to live for long. And, to be honest, in my current position, I have a lot more power to change things.”

“Don’t expect me to understand that.” Anwen shook her head. “Anyway, who knew that you where going to take the trip on the Merope?”

“Only a few trusted people from my staff. The captain of my flagship, and Major Hitchens of course.” She swallowed hard, when saying the name of her bodyguard. “I trust all of them.”

“Well, somebody must have tipped them off. And if the whole world believes, you are on your space liner, it must be someone from the inner circle. What about Vernon?”

“Who?”

“The guy who sent me the order to pick you up?”

“No. She’s absolutely trustworthy!”

“If you say so.”

Now Genna barged in: “What about you, eh? You’re some petty crook no one’s ever heard of. How are we supposed to trust you?”

“True. Except for the crook part. Truth is, you can’t.” Anwen answered. “Since you will not believe my word anyway, all I can offer is this:”

“If I wanted you dead, all I head to do would have been shooting down your shuttle. Nobody would ever even noticed I was there. No need to endanger my ship.”

“It still can be a trick, to obtain our trust!” Genna hissed.

“And then what?”

“I don’t know? What do they pay you?”

“Genna!” Aisling interrupted her. “This isn’t helping!”

She turned to Anwen. “I’m afraid, we have to trust each other. You’re the only one, who can take this ship home after all.”

Anwen nodded. “Give me four hours, to do some repairs, then we’ll be on our way. I think we’ll have one more stop on the way. I suggest not jumping through Sokram, but HIP 6369. Just in case, they know our original route.”

“If that’s all, Your Highness, I suggest you get some rest.”

She got up and walked out towards engineering.

Two hours later Anwen was replacing a capacitor in the frame shift drive, when she heard footsteps.

“With all due respect, your Highness, but passengers are not allowed in engineering. Not even when they have royal blood in their veins.”

“I think we need to talk.” The princess approached Anwen. “I believe you know more about what’s going on, than you’re saying. And I also think I need to know.”

Anwen turned around. “Do you think I’m a traitor?”

“No. You couldn’t have possibly known enough to even know who you where picking up.”

“Vernon could have told me.”

“No. She couldn’t. You see, I wrote that message myself. There is no A. Vernon in my guard.”

“I thought so. So you actually trust me.”

“For now, yes.”

“All right. I didn’t want to say something, before I was absolutely sure I was right. You see, the traitor must be someone, who knows the plan. Someone who is close to you. It wasn’t Hitchens though, or he wouldn’t have sacrificed himself to save you. And since it’s not me that doesn’t leave us with many suspects.”

Aisling Duval went pale. “Genna has been my handmaiden for years now. She was assigned to me the day my governess released me from my education. Why would she do something like this?”

“Why don’t we ask her?”

“No, no, this cannot be!” Aisling walked up and down, hand-wringing.

“I’m sorry. After I told you about the new course I picked up an unauthorised transmission on a hyperspace channel. Someone here is running a deep space comms device.”

“No, there must be some other explanation! I, I can’t believe it.”

Anwen handed a data tablet to Aisling. The intercepted comms was directed towards the Zhuaha system.

Aisling Duval rose up with a determined expression and started to leave engineering.

“Where are you going?” Anwen asked.

“I’m going to end this once and for all. If Genna has something to do with this, she’s got some explaining to do!”

“Wait!” Anwen rushed after the younger woman, but Aisling Duval was not willing to discuss this.

Anwen caught up with the princess right when she was about to open the cabin door.

“We need to be a little careful when we interrogate her. We don’t know what she has planned.”

But it was too late. Aisling Duval was had already hit the door opener, and the cabin door slid away.

“Genna!” She said with a tone of authority that made even Anwen shrink back a little.

The handmaiden whirled around. “Your Highness!” She said in a sweet voice. “What can I do for you?”

Aisling threw the tablet on the small table. “Explain this to me!” She demanded.

Genna stared at the data tablet for a moment, then turned towards the princess. “I’ll have to admit that little bitch is cleverer than I thought! She found the transmission, right?”

“Oh, it doesn’t matter, they’ll be here soon anyway. Until then…” She suddenly produced a blaster from somewhere under her dress.

“Genna, why?” Aisling Duval asked.

“Why? Why?” Genna laughed. “Your grandfather was weak. He was a shame for the empire. Or what’s left of it. We need to restore the empire to it’s old power and glory!”

“You’re with Emperor’s Dawn!”

“Finally, she’s getting it.”

“Why are you going after me then?” Aisling wanted to know.

“Because you are the natural heir to the throne! We spend years to prepare the court, undermine your own and put everything in place to be able to control you, once you become Empress. And what do you do? Hand it over to your aunt without even putting up for a fight. But Arissa is weak, she knows she needs your support, if she wants to keep the senate on her side. With you out of the way though…”

“Why would you work these people?”

“Still so stupid. You have no idea about the true values. We must restore the empire to it’s former glory, or we will all fade away! What has the world become. Humans from all the stars literally invade our territory, slaves who wander free and start businesses. These are times of decadence and filth!”

“In the old empire you would have been a slave yourself. Is that really what you want?”

“Pfft.” Genna sneered. “I’m not important, I am only a tiny cog in the big machine. I do my part and that will be my glory.”

“Two ships just dropped from hyperspace.” ASTRA’s voice suddenly boomed over the intercom. Time to interception minus 71 seconds.”

Genna now pointed the gun at Anwen. “They want you alive if possible, princess, dead if necessary. But she, well, she’s just in the way.”

Anwen instinctively grabbed the princess, pulled her back, and slammed the door shut.

“Run!” She told the princess.

“Your blaster!” Aisling screamed.

“Hitchens took it! Run!”

The two ran towards the mess, hearing the cabin door open behind them. Anwen shut the airlock behind her and pushed the princess forward. They ran past engineering and entered the bridge. Anwen jumped into her seat.

“Your Highness, seal the airlock!”

“Done!”

“ASTRA, full speed ahead and plot an escape course.”

“Affirmative.”

“Open airlocks one and two!”

“This is not advisable!” ASTRA stated kindly. “It would lead to decompression of decks one and two.”

“I know, just do it.” Anwen screamed, while she started flying evasive manoeuvres.

“Ships in range in minus 5”

The ship was shaken by something that sounded like an explosion.

“Airlocks open, decks one and two depressurised.”

Aisling Duval jumped into the navigator seat below Anwen. “What did you do that for?”

“She has a blaster, she can burn her way through the airlocks. I can’t depressurise the living quarters. And now there is vacuum between her and us. And the space-suits are on our side.”

“Good thinking!”

Laser beams flashed left and right of them.

“Shields down to 2 percent” ASTRA said.

“They are targeting our engines, they want us alive!”

“Can you operate a gun turret?”

“No!”

“Well, now you learn”

All the gizmos in front of Aisling Duval lit up, and yellow cross-hair began to hover in front of the canopy. She grabbed the stick, and tried moving it.

“Course plotted. Align ship with jump vector” ASTRA soothed.

Anwen switched off all flight assists, and swung the ship around. Immediately their attackers came into view.

Aisling tried to move the cross hair on one of the ships. It turned red, and she pulled the trigger. Two multi-cannons and a beam-laser began spitting doom onto the other ship, and she could see how the shields lit up in an eerie blue glow.

Both enemy ships scrambled, and the acceleration pressed her into her seat, as the turbo boost propelled the Merope past her attackers.

The hard points retracted, and ASTRA’s soothing voice started counting down.

“Four…Three…Two…One…Engage!”

The world fell away, as the ship jumped. What seemed like hours, but was merely seconds later they fell into frame shift and a wave of blinding light and heat rushed over Aisling, before the canopy shielding turned dark enough to allow her a glance at the red dwarf they orbited now.

“Prepare for another jump!” Anwen called from above.

ASTRA counted again, and again, the stars fell away. But this time something seemed wrong. In mid jump a terrible noise, like tearing metal, screamed through the entire ship. It’s passengers felt thrown around in their seats, and a loud boom ended their jump.

The Merope immediately fell out of frame shift into normal space, and half of the HUDs in the cockpit went dark. Pieces of metal and broken glass lazily drifted around the cockpit.

“What happened?” Aisling asked.

“Something blew up during the jump!” Anwen looked through the canopy into the light of a glaring white super-giant. Suddenly a black shadow crossed their field of view.

It was a, terribly distorted, human body. It slowly drifted through the ships emergency shields, just to to burn up in the glaring heat, as it drifted into open sunlight.

“Was that?” Aisling began.

“Genna.” Anwen finished the sentence. “Seems she found a way to harm us without getting to the cockpit. She blew something up.”

Aisling’s heart sank.

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