Rebellion Is in the Air

By Philip R Benge

Sung-Li, emperor of the planet Zeta and its colonies, believes that a group of people are plotting rebellion. To destroy all such traitors, he comes up with an elaborate plan to winkle the plotters out so that they can be destroyed. Prince Johan Galliano, a believer in hereditary monarchy, together with his friend and employee Troy Defoe, who believes in democracy, are caught up in the emperor`s scheming and are forced to flee from the emperor`s agents. Their journey takes them across the galaxy and back again. During their Odyssey, an actual rebellion is planned, where before only dreamers existed, however, Troy`s search for democracy leads him to an unexpected situation, one that demands a swift, but terrible, response.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip R Benge
• Release date: Jul 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463018187

Philip R Benge

Like most of the world, I had to work hard to pay my mortgage and all the other bills, which meant that I only had the time and the energy to write some short stories. I finally found the time and the energy to write some full length Science Fiction stories.

Book preview

Rebellion is in the Air

A Story By

Philip R Benge

Smashwords Edition

***************

Published by

Philip R Benge on Smashwords

Rebellion is in the Air

Copyright Philip R Benge 2018

Cover photo by Steve Jurvetson 2018

Thank you for downloading this eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form, except for quotes used in reviews.

Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author`s imagination and used fictitiously.

Contents

Chapter One: Shipwrecked and Far from Home

Chapter Two: The Town of Carlton

Chapter Three: The Town of Serenity

Chapter Four: Back to Imperial Space

Chapter Five: Betrayal

Chapter Six: Rebellion

Chapter Seven: End Game

Other Books by the Author

Chapter One

Shipwrecked and Far from Home

The day had started just like any other day for Prince Johan Galliano, a tall herculean figure of a man with blond hair, deep blue eyes. He was heir to the throne of Malinia, an Earth size planet in the stellar constellation of Andromeda. He had been resting in the lounge of his family`s small spaceship, the Excalibur, it was parked in one corner of the main spaceport of the planet Zeta. He was on the planet with his father, who had gone to the court of emperor Sung-Li, he had wanted to complain about the new taxes and the new laws that had been brought in over the last year. The laws, the emperor had said, were essential to stamp out the growing level of violence committed by those who opposed his lawful rule, the new taxes were necessary to pay for the increase in the forces of law and order needed to counter the violence. He had not mentioned the welfare of his subjects, that was of secondary importance to Sung-Li, however, the growing unrest was directly related to the fall in their living standards, only he and his followers had seen their wealth rise, seen their way of life materially improve.

Johan had accompanied his father on this trip, although Johan had said he only wanted to visit the shops of this most modern capital city of the empire, situated within the planet Zeta, home-world of the emperor. At the moment he seemed distracted, he constantly glanced at the communications centre, almost as if he expected a call. Between the expectant glances he talked politics with his friend, Troy, a young man of medium height, black hair, brown eyes and a muscular body that matched that of his friend. Johan Galliano of course was a conservative monarchist, being a prince and heir to the throne of the planet Malinia, while his friend, Troy Defoe, was a staunch believer in democracy. Even so, they were friends and respected the right of the other to hold a different view to their own; however, Troy never missed the chance try to convert his friend over to his own point of view, seeing it as a miniscule chance to change the course of Malinia. One important thing known to both men was that Troy was sympathetic with the growing faction who were behind the unrest, however, Troy thought that Johan was oblivious to this fact. He met with them, they discussed the best way to change the empire from within, however, nothing of note was decided and acted upon. Lately, rebellion had been mentioned, however, as Troy had stated, firmly, without a space fleet to counter that of the empire, the losers of such an action would be the people. For the rebellion had no chance of succeeding, given the current state of the rebels’ arms, and the emperor would crack down on the population, making their lot even poorer.

The ship`s communications centre suddenly did burst in to life, its loud screeching breaking in on their conversation, it was a friend of theirs calling, one that lived and worked at the court of the emperor, Sung-Li. It was their friend, Colane Majid, he had known the Galliano family ever since he was a lad, his family being loyal advisers to the court, and he had always been treated as one of the family.

Johan, they have arrested your father, King Galliano, on charges of piracy and treason, they have also despatched a Hunter spacecraft to arrest you, you are also to be charged with treason against the empire, you must run or else you will be rotting in the dungeons of the empire before the day is out. Colane advised his friend.

Colane, you know the charges are false, he would never turn to crime, and although my father would dearly love to see an end to the empire, he would never see it torn apart in a bloody civil war. Johan replied angrily.

The truth does not matter Johan, and also, I have heard that Sung-Li would like to put Lord Carsten on the throne of one of the planets in the empire, as a reward for his loyal support over the last year, maybe he has decided upon Malinia. Majid began. While Malinia may be a relatively new space colony of only three hundred years, it would surely keep Lord Carsten in riches for the length of his life. It would also help to consolidate Sung-Li`s grip on the empire, you must run now or face imprisonment and then death. Colane advised his friend and then rung off.

However, he had not rung off from fear of his call being overheard by one of the many spies that watched anyone and everyone above a certain rank or position, no, he had been ordered to cut the call short, after delivering the warning.

Johan quickly told Troy of the warning he had received while heading for the small bridge of the luxury space yacht, not a military craft but an unarmed ship of state. Troy imagined that Johan would have dearly liked to have gone to the court of Sung-Li and demanded that his father be released. However, that would have seen him imprisoned alongside his father, better to flee now and later, covertly, return to Zeta, and only then attempt to free his father. They were the only people currently on board the craft, so Johan sat in the pilot`s seat while Troy sat in the navigator’s seat and they prepared the ship for immediate lift off.

Johan did not ask Troy if he wanted to go with him, firstly, they were very good friends, and secondly, Johan had been brought up as the heir to the throne of Malinia, and so the thought as to whether he should ask permission of someone in his employ simply never entered his mind, in any case he needed him on this trip. As for Troy, well Johan was his friend and Johan needed his help. Johan, his mind working on his next move, turned to Troy.

I will head for the local asteroid field, once inside there we can to hide out while we make plans to secure the release of my father.

Troy nodded in agreement, although he did wonder if being so near to the centre of the empire was the best place in which to hide, surely Sung-Li would soon find them, that is to say his Hunters would. Unfortunately, the Enforcer, a Hunter spaceship, appeared over the far side of the spaceport and hailed them just as Johan fired up the engine. Knowing that his plan could no longer be considered as an option, Johan blasted out of the spaceport, and without asking permission from the control tower to lift off. Troy smiled as they broke law after law, soon they really would be outside the law, he thought. Unfortunately, the Hunter was in hot pursuit of their craft, and Troy thought that there was every chance of other Hunter spacecraft appearing on the scene, then they would be forced to heave-to. Their only chance was to jump in to hyperspace, for want of a better or more exact term. Just then they received a call on their radio.

Excalibur, this is Captain Malik Raptor of the Hunter spaceship Enforcer, turn your engines off now or suffer the consequences of continuing to run from a duly appointed officer of the empire.

Johan looked a little sick when he heard Raptor`s voice over the radio, for one thing Raptor was very good at his job. However, luck was still with the two outlaws, the latest sub-space radio equipment was a top-secret technology that few people within imperial space possessed, or even knew about, the Hunter spaceships did though, they possessed this new technology. However, Johan knew Raptor, he knew that the Hunter captain was not about to share his bounty with another Hunter, they were safe for the moment. This meant, that when finally, Johan took the Excalibur in to hyperspace, the Enforcer could only follow it, it certainly would not call ahead to have ships waiting there to capture or destroy their quarry.

For the rest of the emperor`s subjects, should they want to contact another planetary system, the only way was to use the interplanetary mail system, any starship travelling in the correct direction was used for this task. Even so, it was a slow system of communication with no alternative. Sub-space communication for the rest of the emperor`s subjects was not possible, yet, messages sent through it tended to reach the recipient scrambled, making the system unreliable, and the greater the distance, the more scrambled your message.

**********

This lack of a reliable technology meant that the ruling bodies of Zeta`s space colonies were autonomous, to some degree at least, and fancy titles had become the norm, such as King or Prince being used by the local rulers and their direct descendants. Some of them enjoyed the permission of the locals, such as on Malinia, others were no more than warlords, who now only ruled by the permission of the emperor. Space pirates had also made use of the slow speed in communications, which is why fifteen years ago, Sung-Li, when he had been merely the president of the federation, had announced martial law and brought in a new police force, the Hunters. As their name implied, they were essentially bounty hunters, as they were paid partly on results, and many pirates were finally enlisted in to their ranks. When the scourge of the space pirates, just ten years ago, was finally laid to rest, Sung-Li mounted a coup d'état and took control of Zeta and its colonies, and he became Emperor Sung-Li, and with the Hunters to back him up, the planets, who had no space fleet to call upon, quickly surrendered to his will.

**********

With the Excalibur blasting out of the spaceport, they had managed to build up quite a lead over the Hunter, whose engine chose this minute to stick in third gear, for want of a better term, making the captain swear as he gave chase. The engineer thumped his computer, for it was its programming that was causing the problem, but this had no effect, then he contacted Raptor.

Captain, we can either turn the Stardrive off, and I can fix the computer manually, although that might take me some time, or, we can wait for the computer`s diagnostic program to finally fix the problem.

Raptor would not permit the engineer to turn off the Stardrive, for that would allow the Excalibur to escape. So, he ordered that the computer be allowed to sort itself out, this took it most of the remainder of the day to do. Finally, the computer spoke to the engineer.

Full power is now available, please enter your required power output.

Raptor, on hearing that the computer had finally fixed itself, swore and then ordered full speed ahead, and now they steadily began to overhaul the slower space yacht.

As the Enforcer quickly closed the gap between the two spaceships, the Excalibur finally reached the systems heliopause. This is a point where interplanetary space meets the space that encompasses this planetary system, the point that marked the limit to this star`s influence. To have entered hyperspace earlier could have endangered the inhabitants by disrupting the space near to one of the planets. Johan now took the space yacht in to hyperspace.

They had been fleeing their pursuer through hyperspace for a day when the Stardrive aboard the Excalibur began to complain. It had been due for service when they returned to Malinia, however, travelling at their maximum speed, normally only used due to an emergency, for so long, had caused what had been only a potential problem in to happening. Troy, who had been awake now for most of their flight and the preceding day, some thirty-six hours, woke Johan from his sleep to advise him of the situation.

Johan, the Stardrive has developed a fault in its cooling system, and it will soon breakdown if we do not return to normal space and carry out repairs. To wait any longer will be to see it become just so much scrap metal. Troy advised his friend.

With no other option open to them, Johan agreed, and they safely dropped out of hyperspace as they neared the next inhabited planetary system. Johan groaned, for he knew where they were, he and Troy had long been part of a covert reconnaissance team that had watched the inhabitants of the third planet out from the system`s star. What they had witnessed was a barbaric paranoid people, one who thought nothing of committing acts of violence or killing. He in no way saw the similarities between their technologically advanced empire and the people on this planet. Although, to be fair to him, each year warfare did break out somewhere on this planet, and the money that should have been spent to combat the planet`s diseases was spent on weaponry. Thankfully, the people of this planet had not yet perfected space travel, only getting as far as their planet`s moon, except for small robotic craft that had surveyed many of the other planets of the system. Thankfully, because they had perfected nuclear weapons with which they threatened one another constantly. Johan, amongst many others, had no wish to see such a people make interplanetary voyages. As these thoughts passed through his mind, he voiced his fears for the future.

Troy, I just wish that we had not be forced down on to that particular planet; our lives are in enough danger. However, it is the only one in this system that has a breathable atmosphere, what choice do we have.

Johan had been thinking about the emperor Sung-Li, and when he had finally decided to mount a coup against the leaders of the planet Zeta and its colonies. It had been after Sung-Li had read the earlier reports sent by the first survey mission to the planet, it detailed the actions of the natives on this planet in full, one named Earth by its inhabitants.

Soon their damaged craft was passing through the outer part of the system, with the Hunter close behind them and drawing nearer as every minute past. Ahead of them, a gas giant appeared on their forward view screen, one called Neptune by the inhabitants of Earth. Johan tried to increase his lead over the Hunter by using the moons of this planet, but to no avail, the posse of Hunters aboard the pursuing starship were cutting down the distance between them as every second past. The feeling of defeat almost overcame him when his computer called out a warning to him.

My Lord, the craft behind us has locked its weapon system on to us. The metallic computer voice