The Cimalian Princess: Clone
by AJ Marks
Part 25
Henry looked down at the data pad the enforcer handed him giving him the information he suspected once Meia had managed to escape. She found the rebellion and now appeared intent on escaping from Cimalius, something he figured she would do. He had no doubt such an escape would prove futile, but he wanted to make sure especially considering he controlled the rebellion, and having her leave only reinforced his grip.
“Typical,” he said reading about how they chose the Gamma transportation station to stage the attack. “Tel Admiral Jezic to send an extra garrison of troops to the Gamma port in sector five in addition to what he’s already sent there.”
“By your will emperor,” the enforcer said bowing, never questioning his order.
Henry watched the man walk out and knew it would only be a matter of time before Meia was back in her cell and this time he wouldn’t allow her the luxuries she had before to escape. This time he would have the building under tighter guard. He turn seeing a shadow, holding back a curse as a girl appeared in front of him.
“So much trouble for one person, I see you fret too much over her,” she said.
“And you don’t worry enough about her,” Henry said.
“No, I fret over the more important things,” she said laughing at her statement before escaping back into the darkness of the shadows.
Henry didn’t bother to reply knowing it was useless, but also that she always failed to see the bigger picture. He had his traps laid out and only had to wait for the prey to come calling.
*****
Meia glanced at the group of guards in front of her and counted at least a dozen. It was more than she expected to encounter but knew it was less than what they would find at the Gamma port and relieved they had changed their plans.
“Are you sure about this?” the lead man said with her.
“It’s the only way,” Meia stated, gripping her own weapon a bit tighter and waiting for the opportunity to attack. The guards were alert making her slightly more nervous than she would have been but was committed to the plan. She saw no point in waiting to give the order to attack.
She opened fire on the closest guards watching them drop before switching fire to another guard as the others opened fire as well. The guards fell quickly as the group entered the base now that the outer guards had been eliminated. Meia felt bad about killing them, they never knew they were following an illegal emperor.
She quickly headed to where she hoped a freighter was waiting. They headed down passage ways she knew were under surveillance but at the moment didn’t care. They had one goal, and anything else was failure at this point. She could not afford to fail now.
“I hear guards coming from behind us,” one of the group said.
“Let them come, we don’t have time to get bogged down,” Meia replied to them as they rounded the corner and she spotted what they were looking for. “This way.”
“Go ahead, we’ll provide cover until you’re ready,” the leader of the group said setting up a small area where they could defend the shuttle. Meia nodded at him and headed into the freighter hoping it wasn’t too modern inside, as it would be easier for her to hack into the controls and take command.
Quickly heading to the bridge she felt grateful there was no one on board before sitting down in the cockpit and checking out the readouts. The group outside had engaged the guards even as eh looked at the fuel, thankful it was full before powering up the engines. The whine of the engines filled the cockpit as she watched the gages and power levels rise.
It seemed like it took forever for the engines to finally register they were ready to go.
“Let’s go,” Meia yelled over the intercom, waiting a few seconds as she heard running on board, some weapons and a person rushing towards the cockpit.
The man stopped short at Meia pointing the weapon at the doorway before relaxing a bit.
“Let’s go,” he said to her.
Meia didn’t have be told twice flipping the switches and buckling herself in for the ride. The others would get bumped around but would survive. The doors closed as the freighter lifted off the ground heading up into the sky.
Meia worked the controls feeling the reaction of the ship and learning how it would work. It wasn’t really a freighter as a small shuttle probably used to escort small groups to the mines which had small landing pads.
The freighter slowly overcame the gravity of the planet heading to the safer confines of space where she didn’t have to fight gravity and the atmosphere to maneuver and fly. She hoped the defenses around Cimal were light to allow her time to engage a small jump out of the system. If she could do that their escape would almost be complete.
The clouds of the planet disappeared as she looked over the controls making sure the engines were still functioning, and calculating the fuel the jump would require. They could do perhaps two jumps, but they would not be able to reach Alliance space much to her disappointment. She hoped the radio of the freighter worked.
“Anything I can do to help?” the man who entered the bridge earlier asked, sitting down in the other chair.
“Watch the communicator and scanner, here,” Meia said pointing to the screens in question which would allow her to work on the calculations and where to jump once she got her bearings. The next part would be to enter the coordinates into the computer for the jump.
The view out the window turned to black and the artificial gravity on the ship came to life.
“Am I supposed to see something important on the scanners? And the control center is trying to reach us,” the man said to her.
“The control center isn’t important, we’re trying to escape, remember?” Meia said back to him and reminding him why he was even on board the ship in the first place. She looked at het scanner not seeing anything which confused her, there should be something around the planet for defense. “Let me know if anything appears on the scanner.”
Now she had to find a suitable spot to jump from so they could try to contact the Alliance.
*****
“Admiral, we have a problem.”
Jezic turned to the man who called out before walking over to see for himself what the problem was. Looking at the screen he noticed a small transport shuttles had blasted off from one of the Epsilon ports. He quickly recalled the area and realized it was from the same area where the escape had taken place of Meia.
“Send in the 1st CF, new orders, stop the shuttle at all costs,” he said.
“Admiral, that goes against the standing orders from the Emperor,” the man said.
“Just do it,” Jezic replied, turning to his communicator and waiting a few seconds before he could report to the one person who could officially overturn the orders. However walking over there would waste more precious time than he felt they had.
“Admiral, I assume there is a reason for this interruption,” the Emperor said.
“A small transport shuttle blasted off from an Epsilon port in sector five,” Jezic said watching as the Emperor seemed to realize the timing of the escape, they were expecting the Alliance fleet any minute now.
“What!” the Emperor stated.
“I’ve ordered the 1st CF back with orders to destroy the shuttle,” Jezic replied hastily.
“Do it, do not let her escape,” Henry said with a growl.
“I won’t,” Jezic promised, he wanted to get out and destroy the shuttle himself.
“Sir, I have Admiral Wambu on the line asking for conformation of the order.”
“I’ll handle that, send the 3rd CF s well,” Henry said.
“By your will,” Jezic replied as the screen went blank. Jezic turned to see the incoming Alliance fleet and cursed his luck before sending the order to the 3rd CF to engage as well.
*****
Meia continued to impute the data for the spot she considered most likely to survive after they jumped. Retrieving the data had been harder than expected as the old computers were slow in retrieving her request.
“We have incoming ships, several of them, I think it looks like a fleet of ships.”
Meia glanced over noticing that several ships were dropping out of hyperspace and without the benefit of military targeting computers the blips looked the same. She had no way to tell if these ships were military, Alliance, Cimalian, or civilian ships. She did understand the military and knew what was dropping out of hyperspace were not civilian, but a fleet this large was only one thing, a military fleet.
“Well, we’re out of time,” Meia said putting the final bits of data into the computer and hoped the ship held together for the long jump.
“I have an incoming communications, not from the planet.”
*****
Randy heard the change in pitch of the engines indicating the ship dropped out hyperspace and the regular engines had engaged. Back in regular in space the scanners now would work better and give him a better view of what they were up against.
“Nothing important on the scanners,” Aaron stated. “Picking up one small freight or shuttle, nothing else.”
Randy nodded feeling a bit better with that, hoping they managed to find the planet without it defenses around giving them time to actually do what they needed to be done. He turned to Meia, “it’s all yours.”
He watched her nod and walked over to where Hans was, the communications officer made room while activating the controls for her to use.
“This is Meia to anyone in the Cimalian Empire,” she said beginning her speech.
He watched her speak wondering what might transpire. John already had asked again if they were to scramble. So far Randy had said no, he was using this time to recharge the hyperspace engines for a quick getaway and only wanted to use the fighters as a last resort in what should be a diplomatic mission.
He looked over at Hans who was monitoring any replies which they might receive. Again Meia repeated her initial request and this time Hans’ head shot up and looked over at him, indicating some reply had been received. Now was the time of truth, they would see what, or who, they made contact with. Randy switched it over to hear for himself.
“This is Emperor Henry Cimal to Alliance fleet, you are ordered to stand down, surrender or be destroyed.”
Randy was only slightly surprised at the reply, what shocked him the most was it was the Emperor himself who had replied, not the person he expected to hear from. Randy understood along with everyone else that surrender wasn’t an option he, or anyone else on board, was considering.
“You misunderstand, we are not here to surrender, but begin, perhaps, a peaceful diplomatic process to cease hostilities between the Cimalian Empire and the alliance,” Meia stated back.
“There will be no talk unless it’s to resort the Cimal government to the Alliance under the rightful rule of the Emperor Henry Cimal.”
“That condition is unacceptable at the moment,” Meia replied.
Randy frowned a bit at that last statement from Meia but said nothing, waiting to hear where this conversation was going hoping she had a plan in her mind. It was then another voice joined the conversation.
*****
Are there two of you?”
The question caught Meia off guard for a second looking over at the man and hesitating engaging the engines. “What do you mean?” she finally asked.
“Well, you’re speaking on the communicator from that fleet,” he replied back to her.
“I am?” Meia asked now confused before switching the communicator on so she could hear as well.
She had an odd impression to hear herself replying back to her uncle and briefly wondered who, or where the unknown fleet was from. She quickly made a decision and activated the communicator.
“This is Meia Cimal to unknown fleet, come in,” she said, waiting a few seconds in silence hoping she had not made a mistake even as the engines continued to power up for the jump.
“Who is this? I know it’s not Meia, because I am Meia,” the reply came back to her.
“I don’t know who you are, but I am Meia,” Meia replied confused for a second.
She needed to know who she was dealing with and turned the transport towards the unknown fleet hoping to get some a visual of the unknown ships. Slowly the ship’s details came into focus as she almost cried out of relief, the Akagi and a smile broke out.
“Randy, are you there?” she asked.
“Um, we have new ships in the area,” the man seated next to her said.
End part 25