The Adventures of Gordon Rogers: Episode 4

By Ash Nom DePlume

The fourth installment of the adventures of Gordon Rogers. Finally, going to meet the in-laws. Who would think the Empire hangs in the balance?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ash Nom DePlume
• Release date: May 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005478490

Ash Nom DePlume

Pen Names are useful for separating the part of me that needs the day job and paycheck from the naughty fun of writing fiction. Between my day job and dyslexia, writing has been a challenge but you cannot keep a good story down. I hope you enjoy the stories. If you do, tell everyone, if you do not, tell me at the contact information in the book. Free access codes for the first Angry Brothers based story, the rest have a small honorarium though from time to time there are free. The Angry Brothers is a free show that can be found on YouTube and in many other places.Hidden in my stories are actual science facts, as well as a mystery or two when I can. I always try to keep the elements of a good story, A little religion, a royal figure, a little sex (sometimes a lot), and a mystery. This makes the shortest story that meets these requirements is, "Good God, the Queen is pregnant; who did it?"I hope the readers like my stories enough to come back for more and, better yet give favorable recommendations to their friends. Please check out my newest website http://www.ashnomdeplume.com to get more detail on books. If you are interested in proofreading or commenting on a galley copy let me know. It is all good fun and I do enjoy honest feedback even when it is you missed this error.Ash

Book preview

The Adventures of Gordon Rogers: Episode 4

Copyright January 2021 Ash Nom DePlume

ISBN: 9781005478490

All Rights Reserved, so no part may be used, reproduced, or story characters without the permission of the copyright holders of those characters. Contact can be made via the contact information found at the end of this work. Email [e-mail] is also available to reach the copyright holder of this work.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. In short, this is fiction even if some things are based on facts, so relax and enjoy the story.

Prologue

A thousand years or more in the future, time, relativity, Colony collapse followed by resurrection play havoc with records; the human race leads an Empire under threat from an outside insect race. The Empire that has withstood the AI war, plagues, and a violent warring period birth, resembles a cross between Ming Dynasty China with Roman elements, with a Constitutional hereditary Emperor with the Legislative Representative and Colonial Governors are elected or appointed for life. The Empire is comprised of the Central Kingdom with thousands of planets and ten Outer Realms and Territories of an ever-evolving larger number of sparsely populated star systems. A series of never-ending border skirmishes with other non-humanoid races keeps things interesting on the Frontier.

The long-time enemy, the Wo, has always been a low-level threat, sufficient to keep the need for a strong Fleet and Empirical bureaucracy. Now it has developed into a severe threat. Projections are a loss of fifty to one hundred planets in the Central Kingdom planets within the next twenty years.

Gordon Rogers, our heroic science teacher from the past, surviving cancer and certain death. Now that he has the girl and Command of the Attack Fleet for the war with the Wo, how will he survive the bureaucrats and restrictions that threaten the Empire? Time for some outdated tech and little know-how.

Preface - Phoenix 4

Oh, Daddy, I am so close now. I feel it won't be long. I am in the correct position after playing so many roles, both male and female. Just a couple more manipulations and I will have subjugated the Emperor and soon will be my first slave worshiping me as the Mistress of the Empire. Or, is it 'The Emperor is Dead, long live the Mistress!' Hmmm, both are such delicious images of the future. How will I choose? Biljana said to her Daddy's symbol object with a hungry tone.

Yang 1

The Yang binary system enjoyed having a gas giant at ten A.U. from the common Lagrange point with eight moons that Earth-like enough to support life. Yang I is primarily agriculture. Its high elliptical position at the Northern polar position offers it light from both star at all hours of the day with only two hours of dawn and twilight per day and no deep night. It enjoys seasons that vary by comparison from Early Spring to Early Summer and then reverse. To say the plants enjoy a never-ending growing season is an understatement. Care husbandry and cultivation allow it to produce food for all ten of the Yang system planets. There is enough extra food to supply half the Fleet and still allow the Empire relief agencies access to as much food as they need for emergency relief operations. With an Empire of over a thousand planets in the Central Kingdom and who knows how many more in the other ten Realms and Outer Territories, Someone is always in need, and the Yang system often is a benevolent benefactor.

Yang VIII is home to the Imperial Palace and University Complexes and a substantial part of the Military Strategic planning structure. Its rich and abundant transition metals surface deposits allow it to be strategic reserves for the dockyards of Yang III and Yang VII with their orbital facilities for the Mega class Capital Ships. These facilities have traditionally constructed the ships that comprise the Grand Fleet that the Emperor reserves for his personal escort reaction fleet to support all the Realms and Territories of the Empire.

Rose Six

"Zuǒshǒu three, you are cleared for landing at Tax and Tribune (T&T) intake heavy platform 3825, slot 33," a tired-sounding senior tax clerk said.

I have to say I have a feeling about this, Rose said to her husband over the 'party line' quantum communication link that oathbonded share.

I am not sure if the landing platform can take our weight. Permission to hover while someone does a ground check? Usagi said.

Mamoru and Mizuno attend with me, I said. Once again, I demonstrated the L.A.F. skills that made me the hide-and-go-seek champion and the coolest den mother to the brood that was our overactive royal children's nickname.

Emmerich walked quickly towards slot thirty-three to view that the minimum-sized 1000 cubic meter cargo hold shuttle was landing on his super-heavy cargo platform for Tax and Tribute. 'Everybody thinks they are the big boys,' he thought to himself. Technically they are big enough to need his platform, but as the senior tenured technocrat for T&T, they better not be wasting my time. As he checked his pad’s display for where the heavy cargo lifters were to accept the cargo and fill the all too empty warehouse. Typically, the heavy cargo was left at the space station docks. It was usually redirected to other parts of the Empire, even if it carried a 10% transport penalty to be brought to the ground. The energy and fuel cost for the commercial shuttles and regulatory requirements made it more affordable to be taxed on your tax than to do the proper ground drops.

Nobody comes to the surface unless they have penalties and want to speak to a supervisor to talk their way into more trouble. The call sign of Zuǒshǒu One is a mystery as the Zuǒshǒu is an Admiral with the reserves. He would pay any taxes and tributes through his aides with the military liaison office. Emmerich has his doubts about the honesty of that department, where they listen too much to excuses or are being bribed. Then things have not been right for a while, as he is overdue for regeneration, and the Tax and Tribute department is having a cash flow problem. His oaths of secrecy are all that keep him from screaming to the press and a desire not to lose his head. The mystery of the empty warehouse contents is the most serious problem that the investigation division seems to be ignoring.

The cargo shuttle is moving like it is over-massed. Amateurs, the autopilots will compensate because, despite what people think, they handle twice the rated mass. The benefit of having done a tour in the Fleet as a drive mechanic provided an education in what things can and cannot do and what they are and are not worth. Damn it, and now the idiots are at an open shuttle door five meters up. An excellent way to get killed. Step back, Emmerich yelled as she fell out the door as he tried to run to where she would hit to see if he could cushion the fall. It has been a lot of years since he could seriously sprint. He didn't make it.

"I am a Medic Level IV crewbot, Mizuno. Please, let me scan you for damage. As your medic, you enjoy doctor-patient privacy expectations, so don't be shy and tell me all your medical conditions, Mizuno said.

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, high heart rate, high body fat index, low hormones, and bank account, Emmerich replied with tombstone humor as he felt his leg that seemed to be broken.

"You are a senior official on Yang; why have you not had proper medical care and rejuvenation?"

I am a taxman, as the most hated entity in the Empire; guess who has the most retaliatory actions taken against them. I could discuss budget problems and broken promises; good luck getting an ambulance here in the next hour, Emmerich said, fighting through the pain.

Mizuno, is he okay? I asked as I saw this aged tax agent with a bald head and glasses. He appears to be a rejuvenation objector suffering the debilitations of untreated aging and injury trying to save me from a fall; that was my powered descent.

Tell your shuttle to land, you are burning power unnecessarily, and it looks like your intake is going to be delayed, Emmerich said with some difficulty.

How much do you want me to fix? Mizuno asked professionally.

Workers compensation should pay for the injury, and I am fairly sure that insurance will not pay a bot medic for treating anything else, not that you could do much here on a landing platform, he said

"Insurance and refused payments. You are with Taxes and Tributes, which fall under the auspices of the Zuǒshǒu. As the Royal observer charged with presenting the Taxes and Tribute for his RAY fleet and the lost colony of New Betoota, this is our treat. But you will have to tell us how this happened.

The mere appearance of impropriety is a problem, he started.

I work for your boss, so no impropriety, as long as we document the transactions very well, so it stands up to an independent audit. Furthermore, I am a senior-ranked teacher of Royal Protocol, I replied, ending the argument by pulling legal rank.

Fix what you can then. I had my last treatment sixty-four years ago on joining the Fleet, Emmerich, the tax collector, said while falling onto his back when he tried to sit up for the Royal Observer

Why didn't your safety collar protect you from what looked like a simple stumble? It was noble of you to try to break my powered landing, I said to him with a smile.

Wore out twenty years ago, and budget shortfalls as Yang handles budget matters different than the rest of the Empire for security reasons. Leaves the tax man unable to complain or do much until the Emperor returns, he said as Mizuno first kissed his neck with an anesthetic. She then bit his neck with her sharp teeth injecting him with a significant amount of medical nanobots and other concentrated medicines.

"My analysis is that it will be difficult to provide a gentle rejuvenation, and you underwent the harsher 'gratis' Fleet rejuvenation before. Therefore, I have provided full treatment in a one-time-delayed dosage. Are you married or otherwise paired at this time?" she asked. I am not sure what that has to do with getting a minute-long neck bite that he attempted to resist. It looked more like the vampire movies where the person resists having their life sucked out of their neck. Except Mizuno was putting life into him through his neck.

"That is funny. I am the Tax and Tribute man and look at me, glasses, for Buddha's sake. This is the Royal place and central command of the military and half the government offices of the Empire. Power, influence, and money, while I wear glasses from the free clinic for veterans because my insurance denies everything. I work and live out of habit and my word to Qi Xi. If Court I would ever visit or get in communication range long enough, things will be fine. Protocol demands that I cannot appeal to the Local Court to object as it would make Taxes and Tributes look weak.

I play my role as an objector. This makes me a heroic, tragic figure, not a pathetic technocrat that most would cheer was getting what was coming to him," Emmerich said. Then he wondered why he was talking, did they drug him to speak?

"Gordon, the Zuǒshǒu, is in loco ad imperatorem, and I am here as his Royal Observer, eyes, ears, and messenger. We need to speak when you are able. We also need to get five hundred thousand cubic meters of Tribute properly deposited and clear customs. We need to enter as Zuǒshǒu and the Royal consort party and not to enter as Admiral and crew, I have been honest with you. You need to continue to be honest with me, I said.

I seldom say more than three words at a time, Emmerich said, confused as he felt an unusual tingling crawl through his bloodstream. His leg then went numb with the tingling sensation of when you sit wrong, and your leg goes to sleep.

"That would be me. Patients, particularly male trauma patients, can be resistant. As you told me a secret, I will tell you one. First, the dosage I gave you will likely be permanent, which is a no-no. But as you are left without medical support and injured yourself in a vain attempt to break my beloved Mistress’ fall, I provided for your medical needs without the need for future medical support. You are at the line for legal, medical nanotech support. You could report that, and they would remove the support that will keep you functionally ageless for the next couple of centuries or longer. At the expense of your life and mine, you are, to my readings, currently legal. Second, my scent contains enough pheromones to make you compliant. Third, as a tax man, you should have shielding to prevent tax evaders from being able to influence you," Mizuno said while batting her eyes at him.

Age and testosterone crash provides its own protection that my failed shields do not. People think I chose this seldom-used site to keep up with all the extra paperwork I get. The reality is the few automated cargo carriers I get don't play games. Easy work and I can continue with my other duties. I have an old interface with issues. How do I interact with my medical support so I can report medical needs? Emmerich said, realizing that this was not the time to look a gift horse in the mouth. He has not been asked to compromise any Taxes or Tributes while he has his recorders running. Any trial will be in the Tribute’s court, which is aware of the budget problems.

"That support will be forthcoming. The contents of the Tribute needs to be processed away from prying eyes for the good of the Empire. It would be best if the Tributes contents were offered in the Vault in full view of official recordings and full security," Rose said as her more subtle rosewater but more potent perfume quaffed over Emmerich.

It will likely be a while before I can climb down the circular stairs as tradition and security required. Large quantities are normally processed on the field here, and the specialized cargo handlers move the Tributes to the storage. One thousand tons will take only a few hours for them to handle if they had to carry it to the securest vaults, he said while rubbing at his leg, gently checking on it.

The leg damage is repaired. You will need some assistance walking until the feeling returns, Mizuno said as Mamoru helped with his other arm and handed him a cane that appeared as if by magic.

Are you familiar with high-security compression and explosives storage? Rose asked.

Yes, the energy requirements are prohibitive, so it is saved for bomb disposal and ultra-high explosive ordnance delivery. I was a tech in the Fleet. You also need to check on your autopilot as your shuttle acts like it is overloaded. Even with a ten to one compression field, you cannot have that much mass of even high-density metal under compression, he said while testing the cane and his tingling leg.

I said 500 hundred thousand cubic meters, as that cargo shuttle is at over five hundred to one compression, as it has a full tokamak power system. This is high-value cargo, and we did not want to risk multiple trips with the multiple cloaked shuttles. It needs to be in the impregnable vault for the good of the Empire before anyone knows what we carry. We have ten more stealth shuttles waiting to switch out with none the wiser. This shuttle has fifty thousand cubic meters of Osmium or a billion tons. The Rebudium, Tungsten, Gold, and Platinum are in greater quantities. If you would lead the way, we could have the compression field transport containers offload in the secure vault before anyone is wiser, Rose said to Emmerich as he concentrated on controlling his physical reactions to the medicines, nanobots, and perfumes.

Is that why you did not land? he asked.

Exactly, the pilot does not think your platform would take the weight and give away the values of the content, Mamoru said quietly while still assisting Emmerich to stand and walk on his recently repaired leg.

Have your cargo units follow us down the stairs. Why did you not simply sell it all on the open market for more credits than the Empire will grant you? Emmerich asked suspiciously.

"Protocol, Zuǒshǒu and his wife, Princess III Michelle Rogers-Folgers, are loyal to the Empire. You could say we are the Empire as he is in loco ad imperatorem. The markets would collapse with these quantities. We are at war with the Wo, these are valuable military supplies. He could have had these deposited as converted amounts and requested the supplies for the Fleet against the Wo. We have all the supplies we need, but the rest of the Empire is also in need. "The Vaults can never be too full," is what my grandfather, you know the Emperor says. We also have a vast supply of quality foodstuffs packaged for a century of storage. There are other materials that the Empire can distribute easier without undue influence if it is in the Vaults. Tributes are then redistributed through its channels and under the control of the Empire and not commercial hands. CrossRoads may not be an isolated problem, and we do not need another insurrection at this time," Princess Michelle said, appearing suddenly after Emmerich entered the building.

Emmerich attempted to bow for the Princess, who he recognized. You are injured and excused at this time, she said with a beaming smile that, if he was younger, would have melted his heart.

I am not sure if your cargo containers can navigate the circular stair, he said.

I used to come here as a child to look at all the gold. I remember the stairs well to this, the largest single Vault. The units can barely fit. We need to be at the bottom to direct them as it will get crowded. When the compression field is released, it will make even the Vault seem cramped, she added.

Your Majesty, I remember when you and your caretaker, or should I say the Emperor in disguise, would visit me. A lot has changed in the last twenty-five years. I take it your Mother and Father have not informed you of very private events, Emmerich said nervously. They then reached the bottom of the stairs facing a massive steel door in front of the maze designed to slow thieves if any could enter to steal anything. The circular stairwell was steep, narrow for cargo, and is a long kill zone as needed.

You better show me. We suspect there are problems in paradise, which is why we are proceeding with customs reporting at declaration and offering of Tributes. Otherwise, we would have entered with all the pomp and ceremony while the crew delivered the cargo, Princess III said with a fishing for answers tone.

Problems don't cover it. Do you remember how to enter? he said.

Michelle used her L.A.F. to traverse the hundred meters side of the massive floor preparation area between the stairs and true door. The massive floor area is where materials were customarily left. The lower-level cargo handling robotic units then traversed the maze to the inner vault chamber warehouse. She ignored the combination decoy lock and tapped in the correct entry code on the wall that had no apparent markings in the lower-left corner. A door 1.1 meters wide opened in the stone wall adjacent to the doors. The one-meter diameter floating spheres followed in single file to wait for the Clerk of Tributes to make his way riding on a cargo handling robot.

I thought you said that was unsafe, and there was security on the bots to prevent that, she said with a teasing tone from their shared memory of her childhood.

If I didn't tell you that, I would never get your grandfather to stop riding them around. It is not like I could tell the Emperor in disguise or not to stop, Emmerich said with a laugh as he stiffly climbed off of the Robot he called Tim.

How did you know it was him, Princess Michelle asked.

It was an outstanding disguise, but I wouldn't make a good Tax collector if I couldn't spot a fraud, he said with a laugh.

"He is sensitive and not latent," Rose said while gliding to a stop from her L.A.F. over the distance as Mizuno arrived and ran her hand over the area Emmerich stood scanning him.

I don't remember this old keyboards and desk with papers and such for entry clerks who have not been granted H.U.D. access, Princess Michelle said.

"I am sent to mediate disputes at the Fleet Complex, and parts have some E.C.M. that my aged military-issued hardware was susceptible. My A.I. burned out long ago. The video and audio interface to my optic and audio nerves still work. My watch can provide me with a visual and audio interface. But I need the keyboard and other materials to investigate the clues on the mystery I am about to show you, your Majesty.

I am under direct orders from your father to report this to nobody, which may not be a legal order. I am unable to reach Minister Qi Xi for