The Cimalian Princess: Rebellion
by AJ Marks
Part 19
Meia made her way over to where John stood now that the meeting was over. She was curious about this naming thing.
“So, what was that about the names?” Meia asked him.
“Ah, something that’s a bit of a tradition, legend has it the names go back to ancient Earth and squadrons on board aircraft carriers,” John said confusing Meia. She was unfamiliar with that term as John continued. “Squadrons would have the official name, like the one one six, and then one they would use for quick identification, like ghost or skull, that type of thing,” John said. “Some even has their fighters painted to show off the name.”
Meia frowned at that bit thinking it was strange to do such a thing.
“Yeah, we had a name for the two squadrons on the Akagi some time ago, but fell away before the invasion and never thought about it too much until now,” John said. “It can make it easier to talk to each other, like if you’re Skull squad, you have a number. I could tell half my squad with ease to go somewhere without actually trying to think of their names.”
“Oh,” Meia replied, seeing how that might actually have an advantage.
“It’s interesting your squad chose Blue Royals,” John stated, a half grin on his face.
“Why?”
“It came straight from you, the blue hair, patch, your skills, and you’re in the royal family of the Cimal Empire,” John replied back to her.
Meia stared at John for a second before managing to find her voice to reply. “I’m only one person in the squad, they can’t think of something more important to name the squadron after?”
“They did, and it’s a sign that you’ve earned their respect by everything you’ve done,” he replied back to her. “You don’t even realize how much you’ve touched their lives.”
“I guess not, I have to keep having people tell me. Maybe if enough of them tell me I’ll begin to believe it as well,” Meia said giving it some thought.
“Don’t worry about it too much, but you have that ability. I know people who try their hardest to be a leader and can’t. They lack that special skill which others just have. You have it, don’t even know it which makes you a great squadron leader,” John said to her. “Or even Empress.”
He said the last part in a whisper but Meia still heard it. She had doubts about that part. There were a lot of things she had to work on to become that leader everyone thought she was.
*****
Admiral Jack White looked over at the two senators making their way towards him and sighed. They managed to track him down again before he needed to head to his shuttle to head back to Pacifica. He supposed he could outrun them again, but he could only do that for so long. He still had to wait for the Musashi to arrive to take him back.
“Admiral, glad to see you’re still here,” one said as they closed in on him.
“Gentleman, what can I do for you today?” Jack asked them.
“We have some information about one of your fleets, and where is isn’t,” one said and Jack had a feeling he knew where this conversation was going.
“What do you mean?” Jack asked. “What fleet are you talking about?”
He silently hoped they were not talking about the fleet he figured they were.
“This ‘Strike Fleet’ as you called it, we can’t find any trace of it, in any of the locations you said it might be in,” the first senator said to him.
“Ah yes, the ‘Strike Fleet’, I thought I said it wasn’t supposed to be found for security reason,” Jack said thinking quickly.
“Yes you did, but we think you’re hiding some other facts from us,” the senator said. “We know for a fact it took on a lot of supplies, more than normal for a fleet of that size.”
“Much more than normal,” the second senator said.
“Well, that would be, um, because we don’t want people to know where the fleet is. If it continues to get supplied on a regular basis then it can be tracked, and if that happens then the Cimalian Empire would know where it was,” Jack replied. “If they know that information they might use it to plan an attack, perhaps even an ambush for the fleet.”
“That sounds logical admiral, but it goes against some interesting things we’ve heard as well,” the first senator said.
“Like the fact the ‘Strike Fleet’ is no longer in Alliance space, but is in fact on the way to the Cimalian homeworld to start an invasion on their own,” the second one said.
“Gentleman, I can assure you that no such invasion is planned, nor has there been any plan at the moment to invade Cimalius,” Jack stated.
“So you say, but I think otherwise,” the first senator said.
“Do you have any actual proof of this invasion? After the last , quote, conspiracy, unquote, that the military was supposed to have done the people now will want real, solid proof of such accusations,” Jack said hoping he could scare them into backing off for now. He had to stall for time to give Randy as much time as he could to accomplish their mission.
“Maybe not, but the press would have a field day with it, playing it over and over again,” the second one countered.
“The same press who lost all credibility with the public. Such a lie would only case much more harm than anything else. We both know the press is still reeling over their lies of the military and ‘invasion’ considering the stance they took. If they had actually done their jobs the whole fiasco might have been handled differently,” Jack said, looking as an aide walked up to him to inform him the shuttle had arrived.
“You’re making a mistake admiral, and you’ve been warned,” the first senator said.
“I suggest you think carefully,” Jack stated. “Now, I must be off.”
With that he continued on heading to the landing pad and the waiting shuttle.
*****
Carl looked over at his wife for what seemed like the hundredth time now in the past hour. She came home from work really quite and he wondered if she had heard something else. The visit from Dave had not gone over well with either of them. He wanted them to do something neither of them even felt comfortable with, add in the conversation Carl had with Frank and things actually looked rather wonderful and bleaker than normal.
“I heard a few things,” Ewa finally said. He watched his wife’s face for several seconds before she continued on. “Some in the resistance seem to think that Meia is working for the Emperor, others think the leaders are, no one knows who to trust anymore.”
“The resistance is fracturing,” Carl said knowing the news was both expected and not welcome at the moment. The very moment they needed a leadership it fell apart. “Is there anyone we can trust who is still working inside?”
“I have no idea,” Ewa replied. “What about Frank?”
“I’m hesitant to talk to him, especially after our last conversation,” Carl replied honestly. “I got the feeling that the resistance leaders will not trust us, after all Meia was brought to them by us last time.”
“But Meia came to us, we didn’t go looking for her,” Ewa replied back.
“I know, but that’s the feeling I got, and that the leaders are working with the Emperor,” Carl said.
“Then we have no friends to help,” Ewa stated.
Carl thought about his wife’s comment and started to reply about a half dozen times to counter argue her. Unable to think of anything he sat there in silence until a knock on the door brought him out of his musings. He looked worriedly at Ewa who made her way over to the door allowing the person into the room.
Frank walked into the room, past Ewa and looking over at Carl. “Oh good, you’re both here, that will make things easier than,” he said to them.
“What’s going on?” Carl asked, his worry increasing that Frank had suddenly appeared in their apartment looking for both of them.
“The resistance leaders are summoning you, if you don’t show up soon they will order you both killed,” Frank said. “They think you know too much about them, especially after everything that happened and what happened recently.”
“What do you think?” Carl asked, wanting to get his opinion on the subject.
“I don’t know, only that everything seems to be going to Hades in a basket lately,” Frank replied.
“Did you ever think its our own leadership of the resistance which is causing the problems?” Ewa said speaking up, her arms crossed.
“Don’t’ even think that Ewa, they’ve gone through everything that we’ve gone though and more, that’s why they are so against the emperor,” Frank replied back to them.
They looked at each other for several seconds before anyone said anything, each lost in thought.
“Are you sure about this, you could be leading us to our deaths anyways,” Carl replied hoping to get through to his friend. Carl didn’t trust the leaders of the resistance anymore than his wife, but he wanted to try and reason with Frank, see what was really going on. “In fact, ordering our deaths only proves they are no better than the Emperor, maybe even worse.”
“Maybe, but I’m willing to take them over the Emperor any day of the week,” Frank replied back telling them which side he was on. In fact, the tone in his voice made Carl’s neck hair stand up. He had the feeling they could no longer trust Frank at all and they were probably already in grave danger, probably even more than he realized right now.
“Frank, think about this, they are an unknown. If they gain power it could lead to even more deaths, perhaps a total collapse of our society, is that what you want?” Carl asked trying to appeal to the man in some way.
“What I want?” Frank replied a bit too loudly. “What I want is a normal life, one without the Emperor in it! Is that too much to ask for Carl?”
“No,” Carl replied, holding up his hands in an attempt to appease Frank and prevent the situation from escalating. “Think about this Frank, you’re going about this the wrong way. There are better way to get what we want.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore, you’re coming with us,” Frank replied, pulling out a PRG before Carl could do anything. “Don’t be stupid, we have all the exits covered. You either come with us, or die right here and now, your choise.”
Carl looked at the weapon pointed at him then over at Ewa unable to come up with anything which might even get them out of this alive. Everything was becoming a huge mess at the moment.
“Frank, you’re mad, you realize that? Doing this means nothing will happen at all,” Ewa said.
“I know where my loyalties lie, and we need to figure out where yours are as well,” frank replied, making a motion towards the door for them.
With a look at Ewa Carl slowly stood and made his way towards the door hoping for an opportunity to escape otherwise he had a feeling he would not survive this trip to the resistance. They were playing by some new rules. Either they were scared of something, or someone else was calling the shots.
End part 19