Opening scene – For the Greater Good

Celia Whitley fumed. That… that bastard, Lord Piraneus. Trumped up, over himself, oily… prick. How dare he? She shook off the hand of the guard attempting to escort her out of the room. Nobody was going to throw her out. Nobody. She marched to the foyer and jabbed the call button for a car. Two of the uniformed lackeys slipped into the elevator with her before she could stop them. She faced the door, ignoring their presence, as the numbers counted down to the ground floor. Her heels beating a sharp staccato on the marble floor, she strode toward the front doors. The guards caught up with her, one on each side, but they didn’t try to touch her. Senator Ackroyd came through the doors and recognized her, his lips curving into a smile which quickly disappeared. He’d also recognized what was happening. Of course he would. Soon enough, everyone would know. Celia swallowed the bitterness.

She reached the entrance, stepped through the auto doors and stood at the top of the flight of stairs leading from the senate building to the Imperial square. The guards stopped on each side of her. She glared at them, daring them to say something but, their faces impassive, they turned and went back inside. They didn’t go far, though, as if waiting to see if she was stupid enough to try to return to the building.

She might have been sacked but she wasn’t stupid.

Celia almost ran down the steps to the square which as usual, milled with people, some on business, many here to gawk at the Imperial palace directly opposite the senate building. Piraneus had made it clear she wouldn’t be allowed to return to her office at the top of the Department of Alien Affairs building. The tower stood on her right, its plain edifice a stark contrast to the flamboyance of the Imperial palace with its sparkling crystal shards pointing to the stars. His Lordship had said ‘someone’ would deliver her personal belongings to her apartment. They’d no doubt get her secretary to do that. Celia had never liked the woman, but she supposed she did her job well enough.

A bunch of tourists dawdled around just where she wanted to go. Probably from some backward planet, here to drink in the opulence of the Empire. Good grief, there were even a couple of scaly, red-skinned aliens with them. She shoved her way through, ignoring the ‘well really’ from some fellow she would never see again.

Her blood still boiling, she let herself into her apartment, perched halfway up one of the more salubrious buildings in the district. At least they couldn’t take this away from her, it was bought and paid for by her husband before he died. Gods, she still missed him. Randolf shouldn’t have died, slaughtered by a band of Yrmak warriors that took his ship. He should have had the admiral’s stars, not that red-eyed abomination. Kicking off her shoes she went over to the bar and poured herself a large brandy, rolling the amber fluid around the glass before taking a gulp.

Well… what now? She sank into an armchair, the glass still in her hand. This morning she’d been Celia Whitley, Director of Imperial Security, an hour later, Celia Whitley, Nobody. Oh, she was still on the payroll, just suspended from duty until an official investigation had taken place. But she was still Celia Whitley, Group Leader of Humans First. And that asshole Piraneus had given her even more reason to relish her secret role.

An alarm pinged. Someone at the entrance. She switched on the display which showed a tall, thin man in the uniform of an Imperial military colonel standing in the building’s foyer. Kest. What the hells would he want?

“Whitley here. Why the visit?”

Kest pointed down at something she couldn’t see. “I’ve got your belongings. I didn’t think it was right, sending over your secretary.”

That was nice of him. “Okay. Come on up. And thanks.”

Kest brought in a hover pad carrying a crate with her few personal possessions. She’d never seen the need for much on her desk. A holo of Randolf, some personal records, three pieces of art – real art, signed paintings by Choseen, Ah Wong, and Smythe.

Celia swallowed. The remains of a career, in a crate. She didn’t need the pity in Kest’s eyes.

“Sorry, ma’am. I was shocked. And surprised. Astonished, in fact. I’m sure the investigation will clear you, and you’ll be back in no time.”

“That’s life in the Empire, I guess. Thanks for doing this. Can I offer you a drink? Tea? Brandy?” She waved her empty glass. “I know it’s early, but I needed it.”

“Tea will be fine.” Kest sat in the other armchair while Celia ordered tea through her kitchen dispenser, then poured herself another brandy.

“Did they tell you why?” Kest asked.

Celia leaned back in the chair. “Piraneus said the senate was unhappy with the way the business with the Chezahn cult had been handled. I hardly know more than the name. Why should we care if the Yrmaks want to kill each other? They’ve been doing that for… oh, ever.”

Kest sipped his tea. “True enough.” Putting down the cup, he said, “Did Lord Piraneus say anything about me? That investigation of the attack on Tian Axmar?”

So that was it. Offer condolences to Celia, eh? Not really, just protecting his skinny ass. “No. Don’t worry yourself on that score. Axmar reported to you. It was an obvious supposition, but I never believed it for a moment.” After all, she’d ordered the assault herself. “The investigation found no reason to blame anyone for what happened to her. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, that’s all.”

The colonel straightened his position into his favored military pose. “That’s good to know. She was a good operator, although we didn’t get on. She didn’t really fit in to my administration. Far too independent.”

Yes, and far too interested in the activities of Humans First. “As you say, she was good.”

But Kest had raised an interesting point. What if Axmar had found out something? Piraneus was known to be a supporter of Admiral Ul-Mellor. What If Axmar had discovered the attack on the Yrmak business had been carried out by Yrmaks in the pay of Humans First and she’d passed that on to Ul-Mellor? If she’d died, as she was supposed to, it wouldn’t be an issue, but she hadn’t. “Did you complete your investigation of what happened to Axmar, Colonel?”

“It’s in your inbox, ma’am.” He stopped. “At least, your successor’s.” He rubbed his fingers over his mouth.

“It was on my watch. Surely it’s no sin to tell me something I would have known in an hour’s time?”

He looked away for a moment, then shrugged. “Why not? She was held at a brothel, a place called Inferno.” His lips turned down. “You will have heard of it.”

Yes, she had. Weird sex any way you liked it. It was none of ImpSec’s business. Neither was Celia’s business interest in the place. “Did you obtain any vid from there?”

He frowned. “We did. It’s disturbing.”

Kest didn’t approve of kink. Too bad, a lot of other people did. The vids sold well in the spacer bars. Never mind. “I take it she escaped. How did she do that?”

“The clerk at the desk was overcome by a man he assumed was a punter. His name is Brent Walker. They managed to make it off the space station, and then we lost track of them.”

Celia placed her elbows on the arms of her chair and tapped her fingers together. Plenty to think about there. They would have had to remove the shock collar fitted on Axmar’s neck. Walker must have done that. Otherwise the collar would have killed her well before she reached any of the station docking bays.

“Until she reached Admiral Ul-Mellor.” The very name made her retch. Pumped-up, miserable, red-eyed demon. How the Emperor had allowed that alien upstart into the Imperial Fleet was beyond her ken.

Kest shrugged. “And there the trail ends.”

He knew more, she recognized the gleam in his eye, waiting for her to ask him to continue. She sure wasn’t going to ask.

He gave up after locking eyes with her for a little too long. “Fortunately, my Yrmak contacts could give me more. She and Walker turned up on Semla, asking questions about this.” He pulled out his comm and pressed a control. A symbol floated in the air between her and Kest, three concentric circles with eight rays crossing over the center.

“I remember that. Axmar wanted to follow up on it and we couldn’t see any point.”

The colonel nodded. “I discussed it with the station’s Yrmak chief of police when we found it on the wall of a destroyed Yrmak business. She said it was just a child’s scrawl. That’s when you told me to get her to follow up on the Brixton business.”

Yes, and they were not going to talk about that. She waved her hand at the symbol. “That’s the Chezahn thing?”

“It is. According to our Yrmak contacts it’s a symbol for the Chezahn sect. The fellow was reluctant to talk about it, said it was Yrmak lore and none of Human business. But we did some follow-up with other sources. You’ll know that the star representing the eye of their mother constellation has gone supernova. One of the fundamental Yrmak groups has decided it means the Mother is angry with them for straying from the path. The symbol is used to show that an Yrmak has been executed for deviant behavior, which might be as simple as associating with Humans. Anyway, after that, Walker and Axmar left the planet. Nothing was heard from them until they turned up again, with Admiral Ul-Mellor.”

Celia tapped one finger on the arm of her chair. She hadn’t known about the significance of the symbol until Ul-Mellor told her. Yrmak affairs were beneath her dignity. She left it to Kest. But while she was all for encouraging aliens to kill each other, she didn’t want Humans First’s interest in the matter becoming known. Which was why she’d decided to make sure Tian Axmar was… diverted. Not only was the woman good at her job, she was far too close to that demon mongrel in a Fleet admiral’s uniform.

Kest’s voice cut into her thoughts. “Will she be coming back?”

“To ImpSec? It’s not my problem anymore, is it? At least for the time being. I expect it’s all going to be investigated again, by whoever gets the job.” She sat back in her chair. “Thank you so much for coming, Colonel Kest. I appreciate your concern.”

Kest read the ‘dismiss’ signal correctly and rose to his feet. “Well, I’d better be going. Best of luck, ma’am. For what it’s worth, I think you were hard done by.”

Celia stood, shoving away the welling in her eyes. “Thank you, Colonel. All the very best. Do you know who my replacement will be?”

He nodded. “Admiral Kanrizz has been shifted out of military intelligence. He has already moved into your office. He will be in charge of the new investigation.”

How very bloody nice. It sounded to her like somebody had it in for her, and she didn’t have to look far for a candidate. She saw Kest to the door, then went into her home office. The connections to ImpSec were gone, of course. That was okay. She had even more secure connections to her Humans First account.

Her new project wasn’t something she wanted ImpSec to know about. It was going to be messy for a little while, but eventually everyone would realize the end result was worth a little pain.