The Smuggler's Ascension: Dark Tide Rising Read online

  “You already have your answer, Colonel,” the Emperor responded cryptically.

  Karina’s fist clenched and the glass in her hand shattered. Korvan saw that her eyes had gone cold in anger while the muscles of her jaw clenched hard.

  “Kristof,” Karina spat menacingly.

  “Our brother?” Korvan asked, rising to his feet. “Our brother is responsible for our father’s death and the destruction of a quarter of our fleet?”

  “Yes,” the dark robed woman said even as the Emperor looked on, his cold smile replaced by an angry look that made Korvan flinch inside. “Your brother has become this ak’Sun Su’Tani of Puranni legend and unleashed the power of the Gods to destroy your father.”

  Korvan’s thoughts drifted back to his brother, a brother he had not seen in many years. Kristof had always treated Korvan kindly when they were young, even as he himself struggled to find acceptance in their father’s eyes. Kristof had never been able to meet their father’s expectation, or he had chosen not to, and the rift between father and son had grown over the years. Kristof had also always tried to protect Korvan from Karina’s cruelties, often meeting with mixed results.

  Memories of Kristof’s trial came back to Korvan, of how Kristof had looked on in disdain as the Emperor’s nephew had accused him before the court of assault and mutiny. That day was the last time Korvan had seen his brother. Their father had told him and his sister that Kristof had been dishonorably discharged from the military, and more importantly, had been disowned from the family. All contact with their brother was from that day on forbidden, and Korvan was sent to serve out the remainder of his training on the God’s Hammer.

  “Please, allow me to kill our traitorous brother,” Karina requested from her place at the bar, drawing Korvan back from his thoughts. “I will bring you his head, my Lord.”

  The Emperor remained silent as he looked long and hard at the two siblings before him. Korvan did not care for the daggers of ice that seemed to stab through his soul as the Emperor’s gaze lingered on him. Finally the Emperor rose from behind his desk and walked to the dark robed woman before turning back to Korvan and Karina, who had come to stand beside her brother.

  “My sister here was most distraught by the news of your father’s demise,” the Emperor stated, and Korvan found it hard to believe that this was the same woman his father had married. “Your father’s failure stands as a blight upon the honor of your house, and mine as well now since he was family of mine. His failure has also disrupted other plans that I had been cultivating. This disgrace will not be tolerated.”

  The Emperor turned and came to stand before Korvan. Emperor Clovan was not a tall man, and Korvan had to look down to meet his ebon eyes. The man appeared to weigh his options before going on.

  “You will bring your brother before me dead or alive, I do not care,” the Emperor told Korvan after a long pause. Karina made a move to object, but the Emperor stilled her with a gesture of his hand. “Fail me in this, and you will find that death and dishonor are not such terrible burdens to bare after all.”

  Korvan fell to a knee and bowed his head in acceptance as the Emperor then turned to Karina.

  “You, my dear,” the Emperor went on, addressing Karina, “Have been requested by the Priestesses of the Gau’dran’Seti. Once you have answered their summons, you will assist your brother Korvan in stamping out the foul rebellions that are plaguing our outer colonies. It may be that such an effort will draw out your traitorous brother who likes to aid these rebels, as he has done for many years now it seems.”

  Korvan watched Karina’s face pale at the mention of the Gau’dran’Seti Priestesses, who had a dark reputation among the Clovani people for cruelty. None who were given over to the Priestesses returned the same, if at all. He wondered if the Priestesses would have anything to teach his sister about cruelty, since she already seemed to be a master. Karina knelt and bowed her head to the Emperor in acceptance of her mission.

  Together, the brother and sister were dismissed and slowly made their way back through the palace after gathering their weapons. Korvan silently cursed his father for his failure, and cursed his brother for his betrayal. Thoughts of having to ally with Karina came to mind, and he felt somewhat skeptical of the idea. He knew his sister’s fierce independence would not allow her to consider the idea, despite the Emperor’s orders. Perhaps the Priestesses would remove her as a problem for him. He could hope, anyway.

  As his shuttle made its way from the planet’s surface and to the orbiting ship yards, Korvan looked upon the Tiger’s Fist and slowly began to make plans for his reunion with his brother. A smile crept across his face as those plans began to take shape, and how he planned to visit a multitude of their sister’s favorite tortures upon him. The family honor deserved no less than to have it washed clean in blood.

  ~2~

  High above the blue and green world of Purannis, a sleek matte black ship dropped out of hyperspace and began its slow approach towards the planet. Against the backdrop of space the ship was barely visible. Only as the sun shown on its hull as it approached the planet did its many weapons begin to show. After a few moments, the ship’s running lights came alive in flashes of red and green.

  On the ship’s command deck, Kristof Anders looked on as his home slowly grew bigger through the windows before him. Home. His fierce green eyes took in the world that had once meant little to him, but was now the source of his greatest love and happiness as he ran a hand through his dark hair. Much like his ship, he was dressed in his customary black pants and leather jacket, while his shirt this day was a pale green that matched his eyes, a gift to him from his diminutive wife and the Queen of Purannis.

  Thoughts of Sabine, his wife and Queen filled his mind as Purannis slowly grew in the windows. He had not seen his dark haired love in over a month now, and he was eager to be back in her arms. He hated that his missions often kept them separated, but he also enjoyed the wild reunions that followed his long absences as the tiny woman would literally jump into his arms. It was lucky that she was so small, otherwise those wild jumps would probably knock him to the floor.

  Kristof’s thoughts were also on his other wife, Anasha, who also waited for him on the planet below. The three way marriage between the Queen, her Consort, and a woman of the Su’Tani Order had become a great scandal among the noble houses and the people of the Protectorate, he knew. Never before had such a union taken place among the Puranni people, let alone among a member for the royal family. Sabine’s icy stare had silenced any objections from among the court, but the whole affair remained a point of gossip and intrigue throughout the Protectorate.

  Kristof could easily picture Anasha, blond hair moving as if alive as the muscles in her body flexed in humor, laughing merrily at the outrage of the noble houses as her blue eyes sparkled. Perhaps her recent resurrection from the dead made her take the gossip and intrigue less seriously than she should, Kristof thought, since her perspective was somewhat skewed. It mattered not to him, though, for he was ecstatic at having the woman, who had been his wife long ago before she died, in his arms once more.

  Standing beside his command chair, as they watched the pilot and copilot at their stations before them, stood his android friend, Max. Much like the ship and Kristof’s attire, Max was done up in black, though he also sported red stripes with silver filigrees from shoulder to waist in a V-pattern, as well as red and silver stripes down the outside of his legs. Max’s head, which had once been a deep dark red, was now an almost human color, though his eyes retained their solid red coloring. Max stood beside Kristof and watched the pilots handle the controls as the ship approached Purannis.

  “Purannis Orbital Control to Phantom,” came a voice over the comm unit, “We have your transponder on our scanners now.”

  “Control, Phantom requesting a landing vector to the Palace Spaceport,” the pilot replied through his headset. “Transmitting code clearance now.” Kristof waited patiently as the request was logged, eager
to be home.

  “Acknowledged, Phantom,” the voice of the orbital traffic controller returned after a few moments. “You are cleared to the Palace Spaceport on heading 216 by 17 by 335. Confirm.”

  “216 by 17 by 335, acknowledged,” the pilot replied as he typed in the coordinates into the console before him. The screen before them came alive with a virtual image of their assigned flight plan.

  “Acknowledged, Phantom, and welcome home,” the flight controller replied as the comm went silent.

  “Take us home,” Kristof ordered as the pilot powered up the sublight engines.

  “I’m glad I don’t get all the fucking menial tasks now,” Max said lightly. “It’s good to not be the servant anymore.”

  Kristof laughed as memories of granting Max his freedom came back to mind. That had been a bit of a scandal on Purannis all by itself, since androids were rarely afforded rights like those of a flesh and blood person. Kristof’s gesture had angered many who bore an irrational prejudice against androids, but the Queen had again put her foot down, reminding the people that they owed Max a great debt of gratitude as well.

  “Because you were so good at them anyway, right?” Kristof said lightly in response to his android friend, enjoying the look of outrage that came in response to his teasing statement.

  “I’ll have you know I was most excellent at those tasks,” Max grumbled under his breath, which made Kristof laugh even harder. While Max was very good at dishing out sarcasm and jokes, he often didn’t take them very well, Kristof found.

  Slowly, the Phantom descended into Purannis’s atmosphere as the sun sank slowly towards the horizon in the distance. Night would be falling soon at the Palace, Kristof thought, and he began to think about where he would find his wives. Sabine often met with her senior council in the late afternoon, he knew, so finding her would be easy enough after he landed.

  Anasha would be harder to find, Kristof knew. Upon her resurrection, the woman had declared that she would resume her role as a Su’Tani defender, much to Sabine’s objection. Kristof knew that Anasha had ranked high among the Su’Tani before she had left the order to marry him. Once she had rejoined the Order, she had resumed her rank as well and now commanded the Su’Tani along with her father, Subat. That meant that she could be anywhere in the Protectorate right now, and may not even be at the Palace when he arrived.

  The landing was smooth, as it always was in this new ship that Sabine had ordered made for him. Kristof rose from his seat, nodded to the pilots and a pair of other crew that manned stations in the cockpit, and headed back into the ship that was his home while he was away from Purannis. Unlike the Wraith, that had been his ship when he’d first met Sabine the previous year, the Phantom was in pristine condition.

  The Wraith had been a heavily modified courier ship tasked with being a freighter and smuggling ship. The Phantom, however, was a military ship from end to end that just happened to carry cargo from time to time. The Specter Class corvette was four times the size the Wraith had been, which meant Kristof needed more people aboard other than just Max and himself. The Phantom had fifty crew members, not counting Kristof and his irritable android companion.

  The Phantom and the whole Specter-class had also been built from the ground up to be a stealth ship more than a warship, Kristof knew. While it was still heavily armed, the ship was meant to evade confrontation rather than seek it out. Its black specially painted hull would absorb or deflect sensor energy, making them virtually invisible in space, while its engines were designed to hide the telltale glow and heat of their thrusters.

  Kristof found he missed the Wraith, however, as he felt the ship touch down at the Palace’s private spaceport. The crew of the Phantom were all extremely competent and eager to please, but Kristof had not adjusted to the lack of solitude like that the Wraith had offered. Besides Max, the only thing about the Phantom that felt right to Kristof was Slag, his old combat sparring android, whose processor had managed to survive the Wraith’s death and be placed into a new android body.

  Gathering his flight bag from his cabin, which like the rest of the ship was larger than on the Wraith, Kristof made his way to the ship’s cargo bay, which would have opened its ramp by now to the outside world. Fall was coming to this part of Purannis he noticed, as a cool wind blew into the cargo hold. Descending the ramp, a familiar sight greeted him.

  Subat, his father-in-law and mentor, stood at the base of the loading ramp in his customary black and grey combat fatigues. Despite being the commander of the Su’Tani Defenders, the militant arm of the Su’Tani Order, he always wore this nondescript uniform that displayed neither rank nor unit of service. Subat’s towering reputation was all the badge of office he needed. The light from the falling sun gleamed on the man’s bald head as Kristof approached, and his blue eyes that he’d passed on to his daughter seemed joyous at Kristof’s return, even as his face remained impassive as always.

  “Well met,” Kristof called in greeting before clasping the older man’s hand warmly.

  “Well met, my son,” Subat answered just as warmly. “Your absence has been too long. Your wives are most put out at your tardiness.”

  Kristof cringed inside, knowing he was in for an earful from his two tiny, yet strangely large in presence, wives.

  “We got sidetracked on Mallis IV after bringing in fresh supplies and weapons,” Kristof replied. “The rebels came under attack sooner than expected and needed some urgent air cover. We did what we could, but the attack went badly and we had to evacuate as many as we could to Mallis VII before we could return.”

  “As honorable as the delay was,” Subat said matter-of-factly, “I do not think Anasha or Sabine will care in the least.”

  “As always, you speak truly, father,” Kristof conceded and they both laughed. “Where might I find my irritable wives, anyway?”

  “The Queen is in session with the representatives from Bonibus,” Subat answered after another laugh. “She seems most eager to send aid to the people there, for some reason.”

  “She witnessed their plight personally during the trip here,” Kristof said, as he remembered the mad dash to escape the moon almost a year ago. “Max said she took it rather personally.”

  Subat nodded as they entered the Palace, knowing the conditions on Bonibus well, and walked along its white and blue colored halls. Kristof felt out of place in his black leather jacket, his holstered blaster at his side, in these white halls with their blue drapes. Royal Guards stood at attention at various stations as he and Subat passed deeper into the Palace, saluting the pair as they passed. Kristof remembered that he had the official rank of Colonel with the fleet now, though he chose not flash it around.

  “And Anasha?” Kristof asked, fearing she would be off world somewhere. His fears, however, were misplaced.

  “My daughter has taken a very active, hands-on role in training new the Su’Tani recruits,” Subat informed him. “Those recruits have accumulated a great number of bruises, I hear, but also a great amount of knowledge.”

  Kristof laughed as he thought back over the times Anasha had trained him in the Forms of Se’Ti, the Su’Tani martial arts that also served as their meditation forms as well. He had accumulated a great number of bruises himself, he recalled, before he had mastered Anasha’s teachings.

  “I feel bad for the trainees then, yet glad for their rather thorough instruction. Is she here, then, or at the Temple?” Kristof asked curiously.

  “This particular batch of trainees will one day serve here in the Palace,” Subat said, “so they are in the Palace training facility. Come.”

  Subat took the lead and the two men travelled yet deeper into the Royal Compound, taking turns seemingly at random. Kristof knew that his new father had served years here, so he followed in silence. Thoughts of seeing Anasha filled his mind with anticipation at seeing her bright blue eyes again.

  The training center bustled with activity as Kristof and Subat entered an observation area above the gym. There w
as a running track along the perimeter of the center below them, while within the track there were matted areas for sparring, an obstacle course, and a weight training area as well. It was the sparring mats that drew Kristof’s attention as he spotted his wife down below in the midst of a hand-to-hand combat lesson.

  Anasha reminded him greatly of Sabine, his other wife, when it came to her choice of training attire. His blond haired wife had chosen a pair of form fitting black training pants along with a tight fitting sports bra, leaving her midriff bare, for this day’s exercise. Kristof admired her seriously well-toned form as she sparred with a group of her trainees.

  The exercise appeared to be a six on one engagement, Kristof saw, and he wished the trainees the best of luck even as he knew what the outcome would be. The trainees attempted to work in tandem as they moved to attack their teacher. Anasha was constantly moving, though, never in the same place for more than a second. While the trainees’ strikes and kicks missed their mark or glanced off an arm or leg, Anasha’s strikes did not. The trainees fell one by one as the exercise drew to an end and Anasha stood triumphant.

  Kristof applauded loudly as he descended to the training room floor. Anasha turned to look at him as he crossed the floor towards her, and he could see the play of emotions in her face. He knew she would remain in the role of trainer before her group of trainees, though, and not show those emotions outwardly.

  “Your trainees seem a bit banged up,” Kristof said lightly as he watched the group slowly return to their feet behind her and fall into line and at attention. He also watched the way her chest rose and fell as she caught her breath, the way the sweat glistened on her skin, and the fire in her eyes that he had seen there so many times before.

  “They’ll live,” Anasha replied. “You’re late,” she added accusingly.

  “Why, I do believe you’re correct,” Kristof said teasingly as he set his jacket and gun belt aside. He watched her as he removed his boots and also set them aside, before he walked out onto the training mat with her.