them to watch for anything unusual, anything out of the ordinary no matter how irrelevant it might seem. Tell them to report suspicious activity immediately.”
The captain rose to his feet with care, keeping his head bowed. He walked, stiff as a board, to his command console. “Yes, General. Mr. Stax, get on the com and send out an alert. Lieutenant Rowd, did we get a reading on that ship?”
“No sir. It had some sort of shielding. No reading.”
“Any name on the vessel? Any identifying marks?”
“No sir, they were moving too fast for a visual ID.”
The captain turned toward General Bom. “General, do you want us to continue to scan the asteroid field? At the very least, there may be some debris. More than likely the ship collided with a rock and broke apart.”
“More than likely they’ve flashed to another quadrant, idiot. There won’t be any debris. I’ll be in my quarters. I don’t want to be disturbed unless you have word of that ship.”
The command room remained quiet as a grave until General Bom had disappeared through the doorway. When the sound of his footfalls died away, second in command, Lieutenant Rowd, approached his captain.
“Sir,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Do we know what the general is looking for?”
The captain shook his head.
“But sir, how can we be expected to find something if we don’t know what it is we seek?”
The captain shrugged. “We do whatever he tells us to do until he leaves this ship. Those are our orders.”
“I don’t mean to question the General, sir, but it makes no sense. It’s as if he’s ordering us to chase a phantom.”
“Keep these thoughts to yourself, Lieutenant. Such questions won’t do you any good, and they sure as hells won’t do me any good. Until General Bom leaves our ship, we follow his orders.”
“Yes, Captain.”
General Bom dismissed his personal guards. He paced the floor of his cabin, ignoring his growing hunger, his thirst.
If she could set aside the requirements of her body, so could he.
He was of the Blood. The power should never have been given to an inferior female, never. It should have passed to a son, to his son. But his sons had died at birth, deformed, mutant, the results of generations of past genetic tampering with his bloodline.
All he had left of his line were the three abominations, his daughters, his daughters with her.
How he hated that bitch. She’d used him, absorbed his blood, allowed him a taste of hers, taken his seed three times, given him more pleasure than any man had a right to experience in this galaxy, and then, when he’d begged her to stay with him, to rule jointly with him, she’d left without a single backward glance.
Her heart was devoted to that ordinary soldier, Dua N’ib.
She knew how to hide from him, the Empress. And she’d taken her consort and her children with her. Ah, but the worst of them, the one who posed the greatest threat to the Coalition...
The General allowed himself a smug smile.
He’d managed to steal that one from under her nose. He’d almost succeeded in ridding the galaxy of them all, but for one rogue resistance fighter and an undermanned laboratory...
Damn the Gods.
He hadn’t been able to risk a full complement of guards. Word would have leaked out—General Bom would have been caught breaking his own laws banning recombinant DNA.
She should be in his possession right now, the one named Aja. He would have her if it wasn’t for this cowardly captain and his equally cowardly crew.
He could have guided them through the Pikes if the effects of the Blood hadn’t worn off. Now his supply was exhausted. He’d used the last of it to track her, to trace the tiny bio-mimetic diode he’d ordered implanted in her, the diode that contained a few microns of his serum.
Ika Bom laughed. He’d made use of his own daughter’s blood, injected directly into the right temporal lobe of his brain to give himself the Sight, the ability to fly by
The captain rose to his feet with care, keeping his head bowed. He walked, stiff as a board, to his command console. “Yes, General. Mr. Stax, get on the com and send out an alert. Lieutenant Rowd, did we get a reading on that ship?”
“No sir. It had some sort of shielding. No reading.”
“Any name on the vessel? Any identifying marks?”
“No sir, they were moving too fast for a visual ID.”
The captain turned toward General Bom. “General, do you want us to continue to scan the asteroid field? At the very least, there may be some debris. More than likely the ship collided with a rock and broke apart.”
“More than likely they’ve flashed to another quadrant, idiot. There won’t be any debris. I’ll be in my quarters. I don’t want to be disturbed unless you have word of that ship.”
The command room remained quiet as a grave until General Bom had disappeared through the doorway. When the sound of his footfalls died away, second in command, Lieutenant Rowd, approached his captain.
“Sir,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Do we know what the general is looking for?”
The captain shook his head.
“But sir, how can we be expected to find something if we don’t know what it is we seek?”
The captain shrugged. “We do whatever he tells us to do until he leaves this ship. Those are our orders.”
“I don’t mean to question the General, sir, but it makes no sense. It’s as if he’s ordering us to chase a phantom.”
“Keep these thoughts to yourself, Lieutenant. Such questions won’t do you any good, and they sure as hells won’t do me any good. Until General Bom leaves our ship, we follow his orders.”
“Yes, Captain.”
General Bom dismissed his personal guards. He paced the floor of his cabin, ignoring his growing hunger, his thirst.
If she could set aside the requirements of her body, so could he.
He was of the Blood. The power should never have been given to an inferior female, never. It should have passed to a son, to his son. But his sons had died at birth, deformed, mutant, the results of generations of past genetic tampering with his bloodline.
All he had left of his line were the three abominations, his daughters, his daughters with her.
How he hated that bitch. She’d used him, absorbed his blood, allowed him a taste of hers, taken his seed three times, given him more pleasure than any man had a right to experience in this galaxy, and then, when he’d begged her to stay with him, to rule jointly with him, she’d left without a single backward glance.
Her heart was devoted to that ordinary soldier, Dua N’ib.
She knew how to hide from him, the Empress. And she’d taken her consort and her children with her. Ah, but the worst of them, the one who posed the greatest threat to the Coalition...
The General allowed himself a smug smile.
He’d managed to steal that one from under her nose. He’d almost succeeded in ridding the galaxy of them all, but for one rogue resistance fighter and an undermanned laboratory...
Damn the Gods.
He hadn’t been able to risk a full complement of guards. Word would have leaked out—General Bom would have been caught breaking his own laws banning recombinant DNA.
She should be in his possession right now, the one named Aja. He would have her if it wasn’t for this cowardly captain and his equally cowardly crew.
He could have guided them through the Pikes if the effects of the Blood hadn’t worn off. Now his supply was exhausted. He’d used the last of it to track her, to trace the tiny bio-mimetic diode he’d ordered implanted in her, the diode that contained a few microns of his serum.
Ika Bom laughed. He’d made use of his own daughter’s blood, injected directly into the right temporal lobe of his brain to give himself the Sight, the ability to fly by
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