Earth Singer

CHAPTER SEVEN

'Good morning Captain.'

The soothing femininity of the ships interface did little for the stinging sensation in Asinius' head. Garric Rum will do that if one doesn't pace oneself. Cool overhead lights flickered to life and the opaque pane of the portholes began to glow a familiar yellow. The same yellow as an Antiganine sunrise, per the settings Asinius had requested when he first took charge of the Turcia Gratia. Asinius groaned, stretching out his broad arms with little conviction of actually rousing from his bed.

'Turcia Gratia will dock with Elysium Minor in approximately eight minutes.' The metallic female voice continued.

'Then wake me in eight minutes,' Asinius grumbled, turning himself over on his larger than standard issue Regnum Fleet bed.

'Meeting with High Command begins in ten minutes.' The ship's AI responded.

'Sector command VENUS,' he corrected. Technically, it was VONIS, Virtual Officer and Navigational Intelligence System, but Asinius always thought his personal AI sounded more like a VENUS.

'Incorrect.' VENUS retorted. 'Fleet bandwaves report the presence of the Galactus, Sanctus and Fulgur's Spear. Imperial Flagships have already docked with the Elysium Minor. The Gang of Four is present.'

'Fulgur's phallic fuck, what are they doing here?' Asinius eyes widened, taking in the dishevelled state of his cabin. 'VENUS!?'

'...Unknown.' VENUS replied. 'Presence of the Tetrarchy has been redacted over every bandwave in the Fleet.

Across the cabin the sound of the shower began as the lights flickered on in the bathroom. Transparent as VENUS's bribe was, Asinius' aching head could not argue with the allure of a steaming shower, nor could a casual whiff of his arm-pit deny that he needed one.

'Docking with Elysium Minor in seven minutes...'

'Alright my love, you win,' Asinius relented, casting aside his black-market silk sheets and contorting his feet over the side of the bed.

'Ow!' Came another voice from the floor of the room.

Asinius peered curiously down at the naked woman draped like a painting across his Verrig-fur blanket on the floor of his cabin. He rubbed his eyes as vague memories of the night before pushed their way into his head, most of them involving the amply curved Terran body before him, and some of the flexible shapes it was capable of.

'You kicked me in the tit!' She protested.

Asinius didn't bother replying, he wasn't much for morning conversation. As his mind wrestled between hung-over and horny, a feminine foot edged its way from the floor, across his knees, nestling finally between his legs.

'Morning Sir,' came the alluring refrain from the floor-beauty. 'Shall I order breakfast to your cabin?'

'Docking with Elysium Minor in six minutes...'

'Alright, alright I'm coming,' Asinius stood up from his bed and stepped over the lithe figure at his feet and a number of discarded clothes and toppled furniture as he plodded his was into the steam-filled bathroom.

'Sir? Captain? Shall I join you?' The young figure added as she collected herself from the floor, stopping momentarily to clutch her forehead as the Garric Rum caught up with her too.

'VENUS...' Asinius called from the shower.

From the opposite corner of the room the door to the Captain's cabin whooshed open, exposing the naked crewmember to a rush of cool air from the corridor beyond. With a huff, she gathered her uniform over the most urgent parts of her dignity and stormed out into the buzzing artery of the ship.

                                                                                           +++

'Save the sermon Tiber. Why me, why now?' Asisnius cut a rather more dignified figure in his deep-blue formal captain attire than he was comfortable with. His eyes carefully avoided those of the other officials, bureaucrats and admirals he took pains to elude in his day-to-day life in the fleet. As he and his old acquaintance strode through the brightly lit walkways of Elysium Minor, the largest mobile space station in the Pax Regnum, he noticed Tiber was irritatingly comfortable in the grandiose setting.

'Because the current situation demands a ship like the Turcia Gratia and leader that will bring honour to Terra. Ogff!' Asinius' finger burrowed into Tiber's spotless white robes as he bailed him up in a tiny alcove, shaded from the glistening micro-star that was the heart and light-source of Elysium Minor.

'You know Damned well the Turcia Gratia is the is a heap of slag.' Asinius lowered his voice and gave Tiber a contrived pat on the shoulder as two Imperial custodes strode past the same section of promenade. 'And you know damn well I paid for my commission, Terran papers and all, so tell me what is going on or me and the Gratia will jump so far into the outer-rim your great grandchildren won't find us.'

Tiber looked at Asinius blandly. The pair had known each other for so long there was nothing Asinius could say or do that would unnerve the Senator. His bluster being no use, Asinius withdrew is finger from his friend's chest and the two continued their stroll.

'The Pax Regnum,' Tiber continued after carefully deciding on the words, 'has existed unchanged for some two hundred millennia. In that time there has been peace, order and purpose for all living things that inhabit the stars.' It seemed Asinius would be getting a sermon after all.

'We've expanded our borders over barbaric systems, torn out the hearts of void-titans that would swallow entire moons and emerged victorious against alien armadas with more ships than the stars themselves.'

'With respect Senator,' Asinius always managed a mocking tone when using Tiber's official title. Reminding him, that Asinius knew just as much of Tiber's shady past as Tiber knew of his. 'I scored my command by gambling a green officer into so much debt he begged me to take the Gratia and his cushy position off his hands. And I've been doing just fine giving void-titans and border skirmishes a wide berth.'

'You never were a grateful man Asinius. Has the Tetrachy not been good to you? I understand the Turcia Gratia gets more than its share of lucrative commissions.'

'Customs raids and migration enforcement, not personal errands for the Gang of Four,' Asinius replied, 'They have the entire Terran fleet, millions of ships. Cruisers that could cut the Turcia Gratia in half with a single broadside, not to mention the new Corona class. Send them on a fool's errand to the border sectors.' Tiber cut-off his old friend with a raised hand.

Asinius realised they had both made their way to the steps to the Imperial Senate. Solis, Elysium Minor's micro-star poured light down over the radiant white marble exterior. The entire Senate building, indeed the whole forum district was carved from a single titanic piece of marble known as the Heart of Mater, torn from a colossal asteroid of the same name.

'You have lived a blessed life in the Pax, Asinius. We all have. Every one of the countless billions of us, and we all must pay price for it.' Tiber's tone became stern with his old companion.

'Your account my friend, is long overdue.'