The Emperor's Ride

By Tom Anderson

This is the story of a man who saves the life of a Galactic Emperor only to have the Galactic Media put him on a pedestal he knows he does not deserve.

This is only an annoyance compared to the trouble he gets into when the Emperor's two beautiful daughters begin to take a sexual interest in him.

The Emperor is grateful to the man for saving his life, but not grateful enough to let him fool around with his daughters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781456604233

Tom Anderson

Tom Anderson was born in Watford and grew up in Porthcawl. He worked as a private investigator for a range of clients after studying at the University of Glamorgan, before developing a travel writing career using journeys taken as a surfer. The Actaeon Tide is his fiction debut.

Book preview

Ride.

CHAPTER 1

DR CARROLL

◊I had just finished cleaning out a family of tics from a fuel grade gloride mine on the planet Oshon. My star transport was on a two day layover on the planet Molal for minor repairs. I was checking out the local bars and there she was, my dear Dr Carroll sitting at a table by herself. There were two glasses, but Dr Carroll said she owed me one and Molal seemed a pleasant enough place to spend a couple of weeks in the hospital.

Bob Dr Carroll said as she jumped up and hugged me. What brings you here?

I was just heading home from a job. I'm healthy and I have nothing going on. I was hoping this would be a good time for you to put me in the hospital.

I'd love to, but I have a brand new expedition and our star transport leaves in a couple of hours. I don't have time to do it properly and I don't think that my boyfriend Mike would approve. Bob, I would like you to meet Mike. He's right behind you.

I turned to see one of the biggest, most powerfully built men I had ever met. A tic is larger than a croc and a croc is bigger than a ghoul. Compared to a ghoul, Mike was on the small side. Compared to other men, he was huge. Mike tried to put his huge hands on my shoulders, but I moved aside and he missed. Not my special ability kicking in, just me making a lucky move.

Dr Carroll smiled at us both. Mike I would like you to meet Bob. He’s a licensed Ghoul Hunter.

A ghoul hunter huh, Mike said with obvious distaste.

I smiled my friendliest smile and stuck out my hand. I prefer to think of myself as working in interplanetary pest control. It’s nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too, now get out before I break both your legs, Mike said while ignoring my outstretched hand. Mike’s tone was designed to make most men break and run and a part of me really wanted to. I just couldn't do it without saying anything.

No need to get huffy, I'm going, I said quietly.

Move faster or I will rip off your arm and beat you to death with it, Mike told me.

Why don't you just try it and get this over with, I replied, my anger starting to get in the way.

Dr Carroll jumped up and said, Don't hurt him.

In perfect unison we both turned and said, I won't hurt him.

Are you trying to be funny? Mike said.

You have to admit it is a little funny, I said and I meant it.

Do you want to die? Mike asked flatly.

Do you? I replied.

Mike, you can't hurt him, Dr. Carroll said calmly. He saved my life. A croc had its foot on my chest and was about to cut off my head when Bob got in the way. Bob took a nasty cut that could have killed him to save me.

Is that true? Mike asked.

Do you want to see the scar? I asked Mike in return.

The expression on Mike's face changed and he took my hand in both of his. I want to thank you for that. I can't imagine a universe without Dr Carroll in it.

I couldn't let her die, I said with all my heart.

Dr Carroll picked up her bag and put it over her shoulder. If you two want to spend some time alone, I could leave.

Now get out! Mike yelled as he threw down my hand.

I apologize for the intrusion. I hope we meet another time Dr Carroll.

Get out! Mike said moving towards me.

It cost me nothing to hurry my pace a bit.

Several weeks later, Dr Carroll knocked on my door on the planet Cocuru. Please don't tell me you have female company and I am intruding? Dr Carroll asked me carefully.

I'm free as a bird and I have plenty of time to go to the hospital. What happened to your new assignment Dr. Carroll?

The project leader got a better offer and I wasn't invited, Dr. Carroll replied. She tried to hide it, but I could hear the hurt in her voice.

And what happened to Mike?

I left Mike in a hospital on the planet of Market. I promised to sexually exhaust him again as soon as he's healthy enough. Mike didn't want to wait, but he was too weak to argue.

So how do we start? I asked her.

First I give you a physical to make certain you are healthy enough, Dr. Carroll said with a grin.

I was poked and prodded, run on treadmills, and examined more thoroughly than I had ever been examined before. I understood her caution. Dr Carroll had never sexually exhausted a man into the morgue and didn't want to start now, but what a way to go.

Dr Carroll finally pronounced me sufficiently healthy. We started out with a candlelit dinner on my terrace. Then slow dancing under the stars, followed by the hundred year old brandy that I had been saving for a special occasion. I carried Dr Carroll to the bedroom.

Remember, I'm in charge. Just follow my lead, Dr Carroll told me.

I am so glad your expedition was canceled, I said with a smile.

It wasn't canceled. The expedition leader had a chance to go to the planet Lindle 4. I've dreamed of going to Lindle 4 since I was a little girl. The Emperor himself is leading that expedition.

I know, they wanted me to go as one of his bodyguards, I said without thinking.

You turned them down!

Why would I want to go? The planet Lindle 4 has been dead for hundreds of years. No ghoul could possibly still be alive. I would just be wandering around with my hands in my pockets. This conversation was taking a turn I didn’t like.

Bob, you would be wandering the streets of Lindle 4. I would kill to have the opportunity to wander the streets of Lindle 4.

Dr. Carroll, I feel the mood slipping away here.

I suppose it's too late to change your mind?

The Elan are keeping a courier craft in orbit, I said hopelessly. They told me the offer was open ended.

Tell them you'll go if you can bring your personal physician.

But Dr Carroll...

Bob I'll be your slave for life...please! In a handful of minutes a very excited doctor/archaeologist and a very horny ghoul hunter were on their way to Lindle 4.

CHAPTER 2

LINDLE 4

The Lindle were a species that had lived on only three planets before their explorers discovered the first gloride worlds. The Lindle scientists found ways to distil gloride ore into a fuel which made travel between the stars practical. They also discovered the metals in the gloride that when combined with other metals made inexpensive spaceships possible on a massive scale. Almost overnight the Lindle settled most of the habitable planets in the galaxy.

Regeneration techniques had given way to an immortality treatment by which any organism maintained itself virtually forever. The Lindle population exploded. With billions of births and no deaths it soon became difficult to find enough habitable planets for the Lindle to live on. The ability to procreate was excised from the race. There was no longer any need for young to care for the old or to replace the lives lost to old age and death.

The Lindle did not fight other Lindle. Accidental deaths still occurred, so if lack of population became a problem, new citizens could always be produced through cloning techniques. With a population of some ninety trillion, lack of population was not seen as a possibility.

Almost two million years went by. The Lindle lived for pleasure. They saw their lives stretching into an endless eternity. Technological progress was almost nonexistent. Without the prod of old age there was no hurry to do anything. Why rush when you have forever. Then something went wrong. Their bodies started to decay. Not the decay of old age, rather the decay of rot from within. Some rotted slowly, most rotted quickly. Trillions died. They could find no cause or cure except that in gloride deposits the decay stopped. Nothing ever rots in a gloride deposit. Gloride deposits are naturally riddled with tunnels and caverns. All the remaining Lindle moved to gloride worlds. They built new cities deep underground in gloride caverns.

The reprieve was only temporary. After a period of about a quarter of a million years, here and there, individuals would simply drop dead. No warning. No symptoms. One moment they were alive, the next moment they were dead. The numbers at first were small, only a few dozen per billion per year, but with Lindle dying and no Lindle being born the effects began to become serious.

The entire emphasis of the newly invigorated Lindle scientific community sprang into action, but to no avail. Ancient cloning techniques were revived in hopes of producing new Lindle so that the species might go on, but Lindle tissue refused to clone.

As Lindle population declined, they would empty a handful of worlds to cluster on one world. Then the clustered worlds began to be depleted and a handful of clustered worlds would be emptied to cluster on one world. The last world, the final clustered world, where all the remaining Lindle went to spend their last days was Lindle 4.

It was called Lindle 4 because it was the fourth Lindle world to be discovered. Lindle 4 was the most impressive of all the Lindle worlds. The other Lindle worlds had been packed up before they had been abandoned. Only Lindle 4 had not been packed up. It was prized beyond all the other Lindle worlds combined.

Lindle 4 had been found when it was part of the Empire of Shonlin the Great. The work to examine the sight was slow and methodical. Gloride deposits are unstable. As the fuel for its radiation becomes depleted, the way the fuel is utilized changes. As a result the deposit reaches a state where the radiation increases a thousand fold, to the point where it became deadly to all living things.

Lindle 4 was the first time a known gloride world became super radioactive. It happened during the Empire/Barony wars when the sight had been temporarily abandoned. Lindle 4 was in the section of the Empire of the Lan-Thu that was ceded to the Baronies of the Sons of Shonlin and at first it was thought the Empire had intentionally made the mine dangerously radioactive to spoil the sight for its new Barony owners.

Eventually the process was understood and other gloride worlds were found that were also super radioactive. Near the end of the gloride deposits life the depleted fuel on the gloride world would cause it to become super radioactive, with brief interludes when it was barely radioactive at all. When the fuel was finally totally depleted the gloride deposit would collapse to perhaps one hundredth of its former size, causing the entire world to collapse to a much smaller sphere.

◊◊◊

The Emperor was overjoyed when he was told that Lindle 4 was to have a 500 hour window of low radiation. This was to be followed by a brief burst of super radiation before the planet's collapse. The Baronies knew that only the Empire of the Lan-Thu had the resources to mount an expedition of sufficient size and scope to truly take advantage of this 500 hour gift. There were those who worried that this was a Barony trap. The Emperor's death would cause chaos and confusion that could be used to split off a piece of the Empire, perhaps conquer the entire Empire to form a new Empire with the Baronies in control. The Empire's own scientists went over the mathematics and did their own tests. It was confirmed. There would be a 500 hour window of low radiation followed by planetary collapse.

No expense was to be spared. The sight was to be emptied of all significant Lindle artifacts during that 500 hours and the Emperor was going there to watch. The Emperor completely dismissed the idea of a Barony trap. The Barony forces were no match for the fleets of the Empire. There was no one strong leader among the Households of the Baronies, and the Baronies had their hands full defending against raiders from the outer worlds and pirate raiders from the Market Sphere.

The Emperor was an avid collector of Lindle artifacts. If he had been passed over for the throne the Emperor would have been an archaeologist and devoted his life to studying the Lindle. The Emperor had to go. Lindwella (or Linda as she was called by her family and close friends) alone among the Emperor’s children shared his passion for the Lindle. Lindwella also would go.

Lindle 4 had the worst of the Lindle ghoul infestations. They were larger and far more numerous than at other Lindle sights. It had been three hundred and fifty years since all life had ended on Lindle 4. How could any ghoul have survived? Still no chances were to be taken. As modern weapons were totally useless in a gloride formation, the best ghoul hunter teams in the Empire, as well as the best teams from the Baronies and the Market sphere were to come. Also the 900 men of the Emperor’s personal guard, the finest fighting men anywhere, newly trained in ghoul hunting techniques and armed with the finest ghoul hunting weapons were also to go. Even a single man ghoul hunter team was offered the chance to come, at twice his normal fee. He alone declined. He didn't do bodyguard work. The man saw the job as an excess of caution. How could any ghouls have survived?

The Lindle site was huge. Only about a tenth of it had been thoroughly explored. Archaeologists went with teams of workmen, deciding which items to remove and which items to merely record and leave behind. Thousands of huge packing crates were constantly being moved into, and spread throughout the mine. As the empty crates were being filled, they were constantly monitored and their contents meticulously recorded. The amount of artifacts being removed was enormous, a continuous flow. The ghoul hunter teams kept their eyes open but mostly just kept out of the way.

The Emperor stayed with half a dozen of the most prominent archaeologists, examining the ruins and discussing the last days of the Lindle. The Emperor was in heaven. Lindwella went off alone, in the company of a contingent of her father's guard of course. They were content to follow, not lead. They had no eye for the ancient splendor. Lindwella's safety was their only concern.

PRINCESS LINDWELLA

Linda picked up a small beautiful painting of a silver gray bird sitting in a tree with yellow flowers and leaves of green and orange. She also picked up a small sealed bottle, liquid still in the bottom, on a chest next to a bed with the covers thrown back as though someone was about to slip in. Linda opened a drawer and pulled out a scarf of incredible softness, but of a beautiful color she could not put name to. A handful of other souvenirs, then Linda and her guards headed out of the ruins and towards her quarters in the landing craft.

Linda was barely out of the mine when the attack began. Linda heard the screams, saw people covered in blood, some dragging more seriously hurt behind them. After them came a half dozen ghouls which the Imperial Troopers used force rifles to cut to pieces.

Communication in a gloride deposit must be hard wired. The only hard wired line was connected to the safe area at the center of the sight. The Emperor's guards had herded him and the six archaeologists with him into the safe area. The surface was much too far away. The Emperor ordered the guards to make a quick reconnaissance of the immediate area to bring back any other survivors and then come back to wait for help to come. None of his guards returned. Not one. The ghouls smashed against the bars of the enclosure. They could not break them down or slide between them. The Emperor and the other six were safe for now. Linda could not think of all the people who had died. Linda had to concentrate on the fact that her father was still alive and he was safe.

Only 100 of the Emperor’s guards were in the ruins with him. The other 800 assembled outside the entrance. They were men handpicked from across the Empire. Big, well muscled, highly disciplined, and well trained in the weapons they carried. They would march straight down the main corridor to the safe area, pick up the Emperor and march straight out. There were only thirty hours to planetary collapse.

As Linda watched them march into the mine opening she knew her father would get out. It was a three hour march to the safe area and a three hour march back. Her father was safe now and Linda could not imagine those men not bringing him out. Linda's only concern was that the ghouls might find a way to break into the safe area before help arrived.

Linda watched as the minutes passed by. One hour, then two, and finally three, then almost four, when word came from the safe area that the first of the guardsmen had just come around the corner at the far edge of the hallway. Linda felt as if she were a balloon so filled with air as to be about to pop when someone untied the string and let the air out. The half dozen guardsmen were overwhelmed by ghouls and dragged away. Linda's mind couldn't focus on what she had heard. How could they have failed? The hours went by and no more guardsmen came.

There were a handful of Imperial Troopers. They were only armed with force rifles and force rifles were less useful than clubs in the mines. There were thousands more in the transports, but they were mostly men trained to analyze, catalog, and pack Lindle artifacts. The rest were trained only to run the ships. None were trained to fight ghouls, even if ghoul fighting weapons could be found. Less than twenty hours to go. Not enough time to send for help from anywhere.

The Elan representative told Linda that the ghoul hunter who had refused to come had changed his mind and was nearly here. The situation had been explained to him. Linda almost laughed in the Elan representative's face. Only one man, he was the only hope there was. Linda allowed the Elan representative to talk to the event recorders who swarmed around the entrance to the mine. Within minutes word was being spread across the galaxy that there was a possibility that the Emperor might still get out of Lindle 4 alive. Linda even talked to the event recorders herself. Linda put on her most convincing face. Linda told them that she believed this ghoul hunter would get the Emperor out. Even so, other methods were being explored. He was not the last option. The Emperor would get out. Linda lied. This ghoul hunter was the last option. Linda wanted to have the troopers herd the event recorders into the mine opening. Then they could record each other being torn to pieces.

When the Elan courier ship landed Linda expected the ghoul hunter to come in for a moment to be briefed on the situation. Linda wanted to thank him personally for coming, to hold his hand, to look in his eyes, to bless him before he went to his death. He jumped out of the Elan courier ship and talked to an Imperial Trooper for a moment. Then he ran for the entrance to the mine. He ran. The Emperor's personal guard had marched in grimly, every eye alert, every muscle tensed, every hand ready. He ran.

There were only fifteen hours until planetary collapse. Linda was glad he ran. The hours went slowly by. There was no hope. The ghoul hunter was almost certainly long dead. Three long hours went by. Why did Linda bother? Linda was busy coming to terms with never seeing her father again, never feeling her father's arms around her. Never giving her father her biggest, brightest smile because Linda loved the smile her father always gave back.

◊As I got out of the courier craft I ignored the mobs of event recorders being held back by lines of Imperial Troopers. I had been told about the eruption of ghouls that had killed virtually everyone in the Lindle ruins. The Emperor was still in the safe room and if I could get him out of the mine before the gloride deposit’s collapse destroyed the planet, the galaxy might still be spared the Baronies of the Son’s of Shonlin and the Empire of the Lan-Thu going to total war. I grabbed one of the Troopers and made certain that I understood the markers that led to the safe room. Then I ran in the mine. Every time I met a ghoul my ability would take over and use my body to kill it. When I would regain control of my body I again started to run for the safe room. I didn’t even try to keep count of how many ghouls I killed. There seemed to be an endless supply of them. I didn’t have time to be afraid. I filled my mind with thoughts of how many people would die in the war that the Emperor’s death would cause. I went around a bend in the tunnel and saw the entrance of the safe room in the distance.

The men in the safe area saw me at the end of the hallway. A ghoul moved in front of me to block my path. My ability took control and used my body to kill it. As the ghoul fell down I regained control and walked around it. The men just stared at me. They must have lost all hope when the last of the Emperor's Guards had fallen just feet from their enclosure. I smiled at them.

Could you gentlemen please open the gate?

They didn't move.

Please open the gate!

They still didn't move. Two ghouls came around the corner, snorted, and charged. The men sprang into action. The gate opened, I was pulled in, and the gate closed just as the ghouls smashed into the bars.

I looked around. The six elderly men were the archaeologists. The last man, twice my age but half theirs, was the Emperor. I pointed to the audio sender that was hard wired to the surface. Does this still work? One of the elderly men said it did. I knew I had to be gentle. I know they have been under a great deal of strain. Still, they were alive and a great many other people were dead. If I didn't get the Emperor out of here, millions, perhaps billions more will die. I closed the link and talked into the sender. I am here. The seven gentlemen appear to be undamaged. We are heading for the surface. Nesslun, Done! I then picked up a large rock and smashed the box.

Water bottles only. It’s a long walk home, I told them.

All seven of them picked up their water bottles and strapped them on their belts. They then picked up satchels and papers and other personal belongings. The Emperor picked up a small, delicate piece of art. Its beauty touched me deeply. I could understand why the Emperor held it so carefully.

Water bottles only gentleman, I told them as I tried to catch the eye of each one.

They all put down their belongings, except for the Emperor who stared straight ahead still clutching his prize. I grabbed the piece away from the Emperor and hurled it to the floor smashing it into a million pieces. Anger flashed through the Emperor's eyes and he raised his hand to strike, then the Emperor to half the galaxy came back. Was that really necessary? the Emperor asked calmly.

I smiled. Yes it was. You are going to need both hands for the trip back and I need your full attention.

Smashing that object seemed to bring them all back. I tried to put more iron in my voice than I felt. "Now listen carefully, especially you your Majesty. You’re no Emperor of mine and down here I am in charge. I say move, you move! I say stand still, you stand still! Everyone else listen to me. If we don't get back nothing much changes in the galaxy. If the Emperor doesn't get back the Empire and Baronies will almost certainly go to war and there are no shortages of renegade fleets that will take advantage of the confusion. Whole worlds will be made lifeless, billions will die. The Emperor has to get out.

"I can't be everywhere at once. If I am killing a ghoul on one side of us and a ghoul charges at the other, I expect one of you to jump into the ghoul’s arms rather than let the ghoul harm the Emperor. If I find out that one of you let the Emperor get killed, what I will do to you will make what the ghoul would have done to you look like a lover's embrace.

If I am fighting, stay out of harm's way, but stay close. I handed each man two fist sized stones, one for each hand. Use these if a ghoul gets too close. Throw a stone at the ghoul. You won't stop it, but you might slow it down long enough for me to get there. Do not throw a stone to help me! I don't need help with ghouls. Do not throw a stone at any ghoul that’s anywhere near me! I am much more worried about one of you cracking my head open with a rock than I am worried about any ghoul. Stay close. If I do go down, run like hell. You might make it. But remember, the Emperor must make it out and I might not be dead.

We opened the gate and stepped out of the enclosure. Two ghouls charged us from out of a side corridor. The Ride took control and I became a powerless spectator in my own body. My body killed the ghouls and I was in control again. The men looked at me, then looked at the ghoul corpses, and then looked at me again. Come on, I said.

The men carefully stepped around the ghoul bodies. The ghouls didn't look dead. One of the archaeologists nudged a ghoul body with his shoe. He then gave it a good solid kick. Then he was kicking the ghoul with all his might. Stop it, I told him. You are going to need all you're energy. It's a long walk home, I said as I started off at a brisk pace.

When someone would lag behind, I would drop back and give them a sharp slap on the butt. It worked with horses; it seemed to work with eminent archaeologists as well. One time I felt the Emperor needed a swat also. Fortunately, he saw me coming and increased his pace. Yelling at an Emperor is one thing, spanking one quite another.

Killing the ghouls became routine, requiring only a few seconds per ghoul. Most of the ghouls were badly smashed up and they all were bleeding. The Emperor's guardsmen had not gone down easily. The floor was thick with blood, both human and ghoul. Someone was always falling and I would have to stop and help him to his feet again. We didn't have time for this. I wasn't worried about planetary collapse; the burst of radiation preceding it would kill us all.

The Emperor fell only once. I hoisted him up by his collar. The look he gave me did not bode well. I almost certainly would see the inside of the Emperor's dungeon. Oh well, at least it's bound to have less blood on the floor than down here. How much less I didn't care to speculate.

At one point one ghoul attacked from the front and at the same time one ghoul attacked from the rear. I was at the front and after my body killed that one I regained control. I ran to the rear as quickly as I could. The other ghoul was already tearing apart one of the archaeologists. I kicked the ghoul away, and when the ghoul came roaring back The Ride took control and my body killed the ghoul. The archaeologist was dead, no question. I pulled his neck tag,

Let's go, I told them.

They looked at the fallen man. He was sitting face down, his head between his legs.

He's dead, I told them.

The Emperor told one of the archaeologists to check him. If he is still alive we will carry him. The man moved forward and pulled the fallen archaeologist to a sitting straight position. The head fell back between the body’s shoulder blades, being held on only by the muscle and skin at the back of its neck. The men sprang back in horror.

At the top of my lungs I screamed, I know dead! When I say something or someone is dead, they're dead! Now move it!

The six of them started out with more speed than I thought they were still capable of.

The hours went by. The ghoul killing became easier the more exhausted I became, as though my conscious mind only got in the way. My body would kill one in front and they would wait for me to finish, then they would follow me around it. If one would attack from the back or the side, they would move a few feet away. Wait for me to kill it. Then we would all start out again.

We were about one hour from the opening when the ghouls stopped coming. I didn't know if I had killed them all or if they simply didn't want