The Cimalian Princess: Rebellion
by AJ Marks
Part 29
Jezic listened to the reports coming in about the battle. So far he managed to hold the alliance back and jammed their communications to the surface. It took some effort to place his fleet between the two and he wondered how long he could hold the position. The Alliance had already sent several shuttles to the surface and now he wanted to prevent anymore.
“Admiral, we’ve lost the Valiant.”
“Tell the Indivisible to take the position,” Jezic ordered.
“The captain won’t like it,” the reply came back.
“He has no choice,” Jezic growled.
He watched as the battle-cruiser slowly moved into the position.
“Incoming battle-cruisers,” the captain said.
“Bombers?” Jezic asked wondering if he could use them in an attack.
“Rearming, be a few minutes,” the captain replied back to him.
“We don’t’ have a few minutes,” Jezic replied back to him. He watched as the enemy ships continued to close in. His only hope was Admiral Wambu would be retuning soon and with that fresh ships in this battle. All he had to do was hold on a bit longer and victory was his.
*****
Meia listened in and hesitated for several seconds before moving forward as well. The others went forward as well and she thought she spotted some hesitation in the palace guard’s actions, as if he was conflicted about something.
“Thought you were going to stay hidden?’ Greg asked.
“I wanted to meet this mysterious contact,” Meia said, having a suspicion on who it was.
Everyone seemed to look around but no one spoke up again.
“She’s gone,” the palace guard said, looking around in amazement.
“She?” the commander said.
“You mean my clone of me when I was five?” Meia stated watching as the guard seemed to almost nod. “What’s the quickest way to the throne room from here?” she asked having a bit of a plan.
None off the guards spoke for a few seconds. “Down that hallway, but they’ll be expecting you do to that, this other hallway is a tad longer, but less opportunity for traps.”
Meia gave it some thought and looked at the faces of the group. “No, we take the short route,” Meia said.
“It’s a sure trap!”
“I know, but the other way is also a trap,” Meia stated. “Our only hope is to get to the throne room now where this battle will end.”
“Is that wise?” one of the men from the resistance said.
“Look, um.”
“Terry.”
“Terry, my uncle already things he’s won, and that I would take the longer path because it has less obvious areas for a trap, but I’m not going that way, you are” Meia said changing her mind again.
“What?” the commander said obviously unsure about this.
“I’m going the short way, you are going the long way,” Meia said. “I can sneak past roups by myself than a larger group can, and I need a distraction. “I’m used to the shadows, its where I belong and where I’ll go to end this.”
“My orders from Admiral White are quite clear lieutenant,” the commander said pulling rank with her.
“I’m changing this, we need to win, and this is something my uncle won’t be expecting,” Meia said to him.
“She’s right,” a woman said. “She needs to confront her uncle alone, especially if she is to be the Empress.”
“Ewa? Greg said.
“It’s what needs to be done, we all know this,” Ewa said.
“She’s right,” Greg said looking at the commander. “We can do better going down and causing as much havoc as possible.”
The commander seemed to war with himself for several long seconds. “Fine, but don’t get yourself killed.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t’ plan on it,” Meia said, taking her RPG and looking down the hallway. She knew somewhere down there was also her younger clone. In a way she might be even more dangerous than her uncle.
“Squads six and seven, follow me,” the commander said as the group headed down the path along with the palace guards another squad setting up a defensive position at this point. With a last look Meia started her way down the corridor and on her own path.
Meia stayed in the shadows looking for anyone who might be waiting for her. A few minutes later echoes of RPG fire rang thought he corridor. She could only hope everyone survived as she continued on, passing a couple of guards who never saw her. She reached the end of the hallway and heard voices.
“Sire, they’ve fallen into our trap,” a voice said.
“Excellent,” a familiar voice said sending chills down her spine. She swallowed taking a firm grip on her RPG knowing who was in the room. Taking he steps forward she confronted her uncle at last.
*****
Randy looked back at the scanner once more knowing that the Cimalian fleet would arrive in a matter of seconds now. There was a large battle raging and he hoped he could survive long enough for the battle on the surface to end.
“Enemy fleet has arrived,” Aaron stated to the bridge.
The fleet had dropped out near the Warspite and Bismarck. Randy hesitated a second before deciding on staying with his original battle plan. He needed to open that path to the planet again, and needed to know what was going on planet-side. The lack of knowledge did not make him feel any better.
“Admiral, enemy fleet concentrating on the Warspite, its taking heavy damage,” Kim stated.
Randy gritted his teeth in frustration with the knowledge the battle wasn’t going his way. He needed a way to figure out what he could do to regain an advantage.
“More missiles headed towards the Warspite,” Toni stated.
“Can anyone intercept?” Randy asked.
“Negative,” Aaron replied leaving Randy feling a bit helpless as the missiles streaked towards the battle-cruiser. One missile was destroyed by defensive fire but the other three struck the ship. Randy could see the damage indicators going off as the damage was relayed to his console on the status of the fleet.
“Massive energy build-up in the Warspite’s engines,” Aaron said. “Captain has ordered all hands to abandon ship.”
Randy nodded knowing the situation and hoping her crew would get to the escape pods.
“Hyperdrive engines powering up?” Kim’s voice said confusing Randy.
He looked to see what was going on unsure the Warspite could even run with so much damage. Doing so could cause the ship to tear itself apart.
“Enemy battle-cruiser destroyed!”
Randy looked down to see the path was almost clear.
“Send the second squad now, any word from the surface?” Randy asked.
“Negative admiral, still nothing,” Hans said.
“Get me General Porkins,” Randy said waiting only a few seconds before the general’s face appeared. “General, we have no word from the surface, so we don’t know the situation, only that the group made it down t the surface shortly after that we lost contact.”
“Understood admiral, we’ll be alert,” Porkins replied back.
“Then tell your pilots full speed, I don’t know how long we can kept he enemy fighters off your back,” Randy said to him. The general nodded before the screen went blank.
“Oh goddess!” he heard behind him. He turned to see what happened now.
*****
Meia peered into the doorway seeing the throne room. It was a large room where her uncle would entertain guest. She heard the fighting raging down the corridor, probably the trap her uncle had waiting for her. The group wasn’t that far away as she slipped into the room and into the shadows looking towards the center of the large room. Her uncle was sitting down looking over reports.
Walking around she noticed a few exits to the room a child could use and made note of them before finally turning her attention towards her uncle. Taking a deep breath and releasing it she noticed he stiffened slightly.
“I know your there, come on out,’ her uncle said, turning slightly in the direction she stood.
Meia stepped forward keeping a firm grip on the PRG, its grip feeling very warm. She noticed her uncle’s face seemed to show a bit of shock as she appeared and she wondered if he was expecting her child-clone instead.
“Well, Meia, I must say you’ve caused a lot of problems for the Empire with tis, in face you’ve almost caused all my plans to fail,” her uncle stated. Meia noticed his arrogance the moment he saw her and made her wonder if he was scared of the girl. She filed that bit of information away knowing she could scare her uncle as well.
“Thought I already had,” Meia replied back to him.
“Don’t be silly girl,” Henry said rising from the throne and moving a few steps towards her.
“Why no, you’re already afraid of a small girl, one who is already planning to overthrow you,” Meia said to him, see his face which this time didn’t shock, almost as if he expected that.
“Yes, I will admit, Brandy has been troubling for a while, but that’s been fixed,” he said to her making her wonder about that.
“Are you sure, she already has some of the palace guards on her side, saw it myself,” Meia stated recalling the brief encounter she had with the girl.
Henry’s face faltered a bit with that bit of news and Meia knew he had not expected that.
“She’s probably already planned your death, what did you do, make her like you?” Meia said to him with a smile. “Probably your biggest mistake, giving her my skills, memories and your ambitions.”
It felt strange standing in front of her uncle and for the first time in her life, she felt no fear. She felt she finally had an advantage over him.
“Its time to stand aside uncle, we both know who the real ruler is,” Meia said to him, not expecting him to do anything of the sort. She knew only one of them would leave the room alive.
“Stand aside for someone like you, you’re an insult to the Cimal family line,” Henry said to her, his face starting to show some rage. Meia was able to see the main doorway to the room and Henry’s back was to it. She noticed a slight noise but remained focus on her uncle.
“Prince Boris is my father,” Meia stated seeing a guard had walked into the room unnoticed by her uncle and stopped at the sight in front of him.
“Your father, my brother was a weak fool for wanting to marry Epsilon trash,” Henry spat. “Good thing I persuaded grandmother of the folly which could happen is we allowed such a thing. It would have destroy the fabric of the empire.”
“So you killed him, my mother and her family,” Meia said back at him, getting angry as well. He was the cause of all her suffering.
“It was so easy,” Henry relied, calming a bit as he seemed to recall how he did it. “Grandmother was a senile fool, all I had to do was get rid of father, the only real threat to my rule.”
“So why keep me around?” Meia asked, watching the guard’s posture.
“I never intended to keep you around forever, but once dear old brother had an heir I could make my move,” Henry said. “You see, I spend the past twenty years making sure the cloning process was perfected.”
“Why not use the frozen sperm from my father?” Meia asked.
“What? Risk creating another weak fool,” Henry spat out. “Never, I wanted to shape the next leader and I did that in Brandy. She’ll lead this Empire to greatness after I’ve finished.”
“Well, thank you father,” a child’s voice said as they both looked over to see Brandy step out from the shadows.
“However, you’ve become a bit too ambitious from what I’ve heard,” Henry stated looking at her. “Doesn’t matter, now that I have Meia again I can create another daughter clone, the perfect daughter.”
“No, your reign does end today and I’ll be the one to do it. But really, you shouldn’t have mentioned all of that in front of a lower class citizen,” Brandy said pointing a PRG slightly behind Henry.
Meia watched as Henry looked behind him to see the guard standing there with his mouth agape in shock.
End part 29