GENESIS - THE BEGINNING. Book 1

CHAPTER 8 ... I Never Ask

They sat in a sparsely furnished waiting room. Two chairs and a desk off to one side in front of an open window. No carpets. No pictures. No potted plants unless one considered the short leather skirted female warrior with a naked and shiny sword resting in the crook of her left arm.

"What do you think boss, we in for the chop or something?"

Captain Billy O' Ryan. Large. Brawny and completely at ease, stopped cleaning his thumbnail with the business end of a combat knife and glanced at Mike. "Or something. Just play it cool and we'll have that drink you owe me afterwards." His chair creaked as he shifted his large frame.

"You may go in now." Tobor said. She moved a few feet from the door. There had been no noticeable communication between her and the occupants in the office and Lieutenant Michelle Hendricks looked inquisitively at the woman's ears but did not notice any listening device. "A warning," the woman said softly. "Your life at this moment is counted in seconds. Under no circumstances approach the Emperor with ulterior motives. They will be your last."

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" Mike asked stopping in front of Tobor and glared at her.

"A warning only Lieutenant. A fair warning. There are no others," she said softly.

"Enough Mike. Let's get this over with," Billy said as the door opened wide from the inside.

"Please, sit down people," Emperor Katya Berotivich said as they entered the office which was as sparsely furnished as the waiting room. Two empty chairs awaited the pilots before her large desk. On each side of her stood a warrior woman in short leather skirt and halter with the inevitable naked sword in the crook of the left arm. Dressed similarly as the two warrior women, her eyes were hard and forbidding.

Katya watched as their eyes darted about the office. Mike looked up and noticed the four Polrobs floating silently in each corner of the ceiling. She had no idea what to expect.

"I have asked the two of you to this meeting as the time has come for us to discuss some serious issues. I take for granted that you are sticking to the story of this so called Vigrior and the events after your crash landing?"

They both nodded their agreement. "Then please, both of you stand up and move away from your chairs." Frowning in consternation, they looked doubtfully at each other and moved behind their chairs.

Two silent but deadly laser beams from the two furthest corners of the ceiling struck them in the centre of their foreheads and exited diagonally from the side of their heads. The two Pilots were dead before their bodies hit the floor.

BOTH CITIZENS HAVE EXPIRED SIRE. ALL VITAL SIGNS HAVE STOPPED IN BOTH CITIZENS. MONITORING...

The two female warriors stepped up to the bodies and rolled them onto their backs. Tobor McIntosh, War Princeps of the clan Centurion, looked back at her Emperor. "This is too much of a risk Sire."

EKG INDICATES BRAIN ACTIVITY SIRE. MONITORING...HEART BEAT IN BOTH CITIZENS HAS COMMENCED. VITAL SIGNS ERRATIC. KIDNEYS, SPLEEN...ONE...SIRE THIS...ONE ... IS MOST UNUSUAL...THIS DEFIES...LOGIC. HEART RATE STEADYING. HEART RATE NORMAL AS PER PREVIOUSLY LOGGED. BRAIN INJURIES FROM BOTH CITIZENS ARE MINIMAL AND HEALING. EKG AND BRAIN STEM MONITORING INDICATE THAT BOTH CITIZENS ARE IN A COMA.

"Sire?" The War Princeps asked urgently, her eyes wide. Two sword points rested lightly against the pilots throats.

"I know. I know Tobor." Katya answered. She too stared wide eyed at the pilots. "I have this huge feeling that... if they die, we all die. Damn it all. I have this strong sense of doom. I don't understand it. It's like a physical.... I don't know" She held her hands over her face and mumbled to herself.