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I'll try to post what I've got in thousand word increments or so. Feel free to comment, but I am not necessarily trying for great prose here...I just need to satisfy my graphomania ninja

Edit: Adding some info on characters

Greg - aka Gregory Alexander Stuart, Lord of Croft. One of the seven High Lords of Brittania, and the wealthiest individual in the known universe due to outside business dealings. He fled Brittania when he learned his parents were murdered by the Emperor, his uncle, and makes his career in the Imperial Army. He has reached the rank of Colonel, and commands a regiment in the campaign against the Cultists of Atacama.

Alexander Stuart (not appearing) - Greg's father, former Lord of Croft. A playboy/rebel type who inherited his money, and continuously flaunted the will of his brother-in-law, the emperor, and paid for it with his life.

Helene Windsor Stuart (not appearing) - Greg's mother, sister of Emperor Henry, married to Alexander Stuart. Was murdered along with her husband in what was clumsily made to look like a boating accident.

Henry Windsor - aka Emperor Henry IV, or "Hal," after the original King Henry IV of England. Absolute monarch of the Brittanic Empire, comprising 49 worlds.

Valera Windsor - Daughter and eldest child of Henry, has been taking over much of the day to day running of the Imperial Government from her father.

Agamemnon Windsor - Only son of Henry, and therefore heir to the throne at age sixteen. Spoiled and petulant, he has no interest in matters of state.

Rodrick Essenay - Steward of the Croft estate for the last thirty years. A financial genius and mastermind of the success of the estate. Originally from the planet Chord, came to Brittania for business school and remained.

Lisa Essenay - An artist. Married to Rodrick, native of Grand Hebrides isle, where the Croft estate is located.

Sandy - Rodrick's office manager.

Graham Hawthorne - Former officer in the Imperial Army, now works in a mid-level managerial position with World Systems, a subsidary of Croft Enterprises on Nueva Espana.

Dr. Reinaldo Perez - Physicist, native of Nueva Espana and inventor of the mysterious Terraformer, which makes formerly uninhabitable worlds available for colonization. No one, not even his fellow scientists, can explain how it works. He has lately been active in politics and is now a member of the Governor's Council.

Dr. Maria Perez - Reinaldo's daughter and proxy on the Council. She is a Linguist by education and is currently studying roots and morphology of ancient languages in the hope to create a unified theory of the origin of all language.

Catalina Perez (not appearing) - Maria's mother, died of cancer ten years previously.

General Juan Cabral - Commander of Nueva Espana's army.

Raymond White - A sociopathic murderer and founder of the Brotherhood of Life's Blood, better known as the Atacaman Cultists. He has attracted a mercenary army of criminals to do his bidding under the guise of a religion which practices human sacrifice.

The "hotel" was worse than I expected. I'd assumed it was an economy room...not luxurious, but functional. It was a dump. I was surprsed the Tourism Bureau even kept a place like this in the database. It looked more a place where you'd pay by the hour, if you know what I mean.

A swarthy man at the desk gave me the unfriendly once-over as I checked in, but didn't seem the type to argue with money, and I punched in a generous tip for him...I always overtip. I can afford it, and I hope that it keeps spittle from ending up in my food. At least some of the time. Anyway, the desk guy gave a semi-pleased nod at this.

"You want a girl?" He asked.

"No...but is there a terminal I can use to call inter-world? I can pay the fees." He led me to the back where there was an old, but functioning terminal. He gave me some privacy, and I placed a call. The face of an attractive blonde appeared on the screen.

"Croft Enterprises, how may I direct...oh!"

"Hi Sandy," I said. "I need to speak to Rodrick, if I can."

"He's at home. Let me relay you." I felt bad about that. Rodrick had been my family's steward since my Grandfather's time, and now completely ran the business end of my affairs. he was extremely busy, and didn't get to spend a lot of time with his family, so bothering him at home seemed unfair. But it was too late to worry about that. Another woman's face appeared. She had reddish hair and ivory skin, and though I knew she was in her forties, she was still quite pretty. Her eyes widened when she saw me.

"Hello Mrs. Essenay," Is said. "I'm very sorry to disturb you...is Rodrick available?"

"Sure. Let me get him." She disappeared, and a moment later, a thin iron-haired man took her spot.

"Greg? Where are you? I heard you left Atacama, but that's all." Briefly, I explained my circumstances. Rodrick's face grew dark and grim.

"There's something odd about this scenario," he said. "Ordinarily I'd think the Emperor would go through me, just for convenience sake. I get the feeling you're being maneuvered. Let me make some calls. Im sure I can find you a better place to stay. Do you have a portable I can call you on?"

"No, but if you hang on, I'll see if I can get the code for the machine here." I found the manager at the desk, and a few more credits persuaded him to give me the code. I relayed it to Rodrick, then waited by the terminal. It went faster than you might expect. Less than ten minutes, anyway, and Rodrick called back.

"OK, I've sent a car for you. One of our business associates, Graham Hawthorne, will be there to pick you up, and he'll take you to a guest house in the city." I smiled and shook my head.

"Once again, I am impressed. How did you swing that?" Rodrick shrugged.

"Simple enough. You own the house."

"Really? What on earth do I own a house on Nueva Espana for?"

"It was for sale. Don't worry, it's already furnished. A housekeeper will be there to give you the key. Call me once you get there...I need to contact the Governor's office." He signed off, and I shook my head. Incredible. Who else could buy a house on another planet in five minutes flat? I'd have to remind myself to tell Rodrick to give himself a raise.

I went out to the desk.

"I'm checking out," I told the manager. His eyes popped.
"You haven't even seen your room," he protested. "Besides, you paid in advance, and the contract says no refunds."

"No trouble, I'm not asking for one. Thank you for the use of your terminal. I'll just be out front waiting for a ride." I left the astonished man behind and went outside. The street had a rather run-down look. There was a small food shop across the road, and what looked like low-rent apartments. There weren't any areas like this in London, I reflected, but then, the poor people would probably just have been evicted into the countryside to starve. Uncle Hal could give old Machiavelli a few pointers.

Before long a sleek groundcar pulled up. It looked brand new, and had a business logo on the doors...World Systems. An innocuous enough name.

"Mr. Hawthorne?" I asked, as the young man jumped out of the car.

"Yes sir! Please, just call me Graham, sir." He looked ready to grovel, and I wondered what he'd been told about me.

"I'm just Greg," I said, as Graham grabbed my bag and tenderly stowed it in the back seat.

"Yes, sir," he said, obviously not paying attention to what I'd actually said. "Do you have any more luggage, sir?"

"No, I'm just in from the field. I'm traveling light."

"Oh, of course, sir." We got into the car, and we pulled away from the curb. I examined the man. He had dark hair like most of the Espanans, but paler skin and an accent that placed him as an offworlder as well. He seemed bubbling with nervous excitement.

"Let me say, sir, that I am honored to assist you. I'm sure you don't remember, but we met...briefly...during the rebellion on Preston." Preston. Seven years ago, and I'd been a new Captain.

"Ah...yes. I'm afraid I don't remember you. You were in the army then?" He must have been fresh out of boot camp if that were the case.

"Yes, sir. I'm from Chord." So that explained the accent. "Preston was my first action, and I was wounded bad. You came across the field of fire and dragged me out. You saved my life, even though you were wounded as well." Ah. I did remember that incident, but I had escaped relatively unscathed, and hadn't even required hospitalization for my minor injury.

"I'm glad you're well," I said. "I'm sure you would have done the same for me...so how did you end up here?"

"After Preston I had to leave the military on disability, and went to business school, and was hired on by World. I have a good job now, but I was amazed to be contacted by Mr. Essenay himself."

"Wait, so your company is part of Croft Enterprises?" he looked at me, wide-eyed.

"Why, yes sir. We dont publicize it, but we're wholly owned by Croft. By you, sir."

"Oh." Way to make an impression. The boss has no clue. I cleared my throat. "So where are we going?"

"All I have is an address, sir," he confessed. "I know where it is, but I am not familiar with the building itself." I turned out to be a small house on a quiet street, but not far from what looked like the business sector. It didn't have much in the way of land, but looked comfortable enough, especally after the oddly-smelling motel I'd just left.

Graham grabbed my bag and carried it to the door before I could stop him, and the door popped open and a middle aged woman appeared. She must be the housekeeper.

“Thanks for the ride,” I said to Graham, grabbing my bag out of the back before he could. “Do you need, ah...” I proffered my credit card.

“Oh, no, sir. Mr. Essenay took care of that. Please call if there’s anything else I can do.” He drove away, looking slightly overwhelmed, and I turned to the house.

“Mr. Stuart?” The housekeeper said. “It’s all ready for you.”

“Thank you.” We went inside. The place was spotless. The housekeeper didn’t say much, but she showed me around. I could see she’d even turned the bed down for me.

“Is there somewhere I can get my uniform cleaned?” I asked. I was wearing my plain black dress uniform, and I only had one spare with me...and no other clothing at all.

“Give it to me, and, I’ll get it done,” she said.

“OK...uh...should I leave it somewhere?”

“No, I’ll take it now and bring it back.”

“Right.” I went to the bedrom and was a little surprised to see the housekeeper follow and wait in the doorway. OK, fine. If she wanted a show, she’d get it. I took off the boots, then the shirt and pants. Her eyes widened at my scars, but the housekeeper didn’t say anything. Just took the clothes and left.

I got out my spare uniform and went to take a shower.

Not long later, and dressed in an identical unadorned black uniform, I sat at the terminal (a nice modern one) and signaled Rodrick’s home.

“Ah, Greg. Good. I’ve got the details. There’s a big banquet tonight, and you’ve been invited. It’s in just a couple of hours, and a car will be around to take you...a real chauffeur this time, not a company car. The inauguration’s tomorrow, and they agreed to have you sit with the other visiting dignitaries.” I was a bit confused by all this.

“Wait, let me sit...? They didn’t know I was coming, did they?” Rodrick sighed.

“No, it seems not. Now that you’re there, it’s arranged for you to attend.”

“So Uncle Hal just ordered me here, without actually arranging anything?” I wasn’t real happy about that. It also meant I hadn’t been invited by the government here. I my have been the Emperor’s nephew and a ‘visiting dignitary,’ but I was also an officer of the Imperial Army. I could see where my crashing the party might not be the best idea. I said as much to Rodrick, who sighed.

“The Governor’s office seems to be OK with it, but be careful.” I could see Rodrick was worried. “You could get caught in the middle if either side takes offense to anything. I’ll try to arrange transport for you in case you need to leave in a hurry. Otherwise just be on your best behavior.”

“Who me?”

[...our embasy with Nueva Espana...] Embassy. Two Ss.
[ told me there were signs." ] Misplaced quotation mark.
[there was a twety percent fee] Twenty.
[affairs. he was extremely] Looks like you missed a capitalization here.
[We dont publicize it] Missed an apostrophe this time.
[“Who me?”] And a comma here. Who, me?
[I couls stand next to a Private soldier and noone would be able to tell the difference.] Could, no one.
[glass partition eparating us] Separating.
[to an even larer room] Larger.
[was a riased section] Raised.
[I took me seat] My.
[rather eldetly and apparently] Elderly.
[ Espanan couisine has a bit] Cuisine. I think. I might be misspelling it myself.
[a microphone that had een pushed] Been.
[over the murmurngs of the hall] Murmurings.
[both cranign their necks] Craning.


Not bad. I'm enjoying it so far--you've laid out the world interestingly enough to keep my attention. Hope you don't mind that I'm catching your errors. Looks like you might need a good old-fashioned spellchecker.
It keeps occurring to me that he seems to be fairly important for being a soldier. Of course, as you said, the Espanans don't know where he is on the hierarchy and neither do I. Might be fairly unimportant especially if the Emperor isn't a hereditary title.
Except that it appears to be. Hm.

Oh boy. I was thinking for a moment that his Uncle Hal was quite the chessmaster, but if Valera planned it...my, things are getting interesting.
Please do post more. This is great.

If your word processor doesn't have one I'm sure you can find one online. That's what I've heard, anyway.

I won't question your plotting, mate. wink You've got me quite interested, and I'll patiently wait until stuff is revealed.

Not a good stopping point, but I had to wrap it up for the day.

Jasper...I've been reading your Glitch story in chunks and I like it a lot. I'll post some real comments once I get up to date.

"No telling. He could be on his way to a safe Colony, like Chord or Hellas. Or that could have been a decoy, and he's still hidden here." The General seemed surprised I'd answered. He was silent for a moment, then signaled the two police officers with him.

"Cuff him. I'll bring in Miss Perez." They had me turn around and put a pair of bracelets on me. I recognized them as neural restraints...struggle too much, and you get a shock directly to the pain centers of your brain. It's bad.

The cops stepped outside, but left the door open. A moment later, Maria entered. She'd been quite pleasant at the banquet, but now she looked like Death itself. Before anyone could stop her, she had me pressed back against the wall with a small but very, very sharp blade pressed under my left ear. One slash and I'd bleed out in less than a minute.

"Give me one reason not to kill you now," she said. I could think of a few reasons, but maybe not good ones. I thought about dying. Felt nothing.

"Go ahead," I said. "You'll be doing everyone a favor." Her eyes were only inches from mine, and I saw her determination falter. She pulled back slightly, but kept the blade in place. I was pretty sure it was a scalpel.

"Did the Empire take my father?" She asked quietly. I knew then that she couldn't kill me, not in cold blood like that. I was almost disappointed.

"I don't know for sure," I said evenly, "but it seems likely." The pressure from the blade eased minutely.

"You had nothing to do with it?"

"No. Not directly anyway. I could be a decoy, but I was not made privy to the plan." Then she stepped back. One of the policemen, grabbed the scalpel away from her, and the General took her arm.
"I believe him," she said.

"Miss Perez, you are not an expert interrogator. You can't trust..." She shrugged.

"I just said I believe him, that's all." I was oddly touched by her statement. One of the policemen cleared his throat.

"What are we doing with..." He gestured at me like I was some kind of animal. Oh, well, so much for sentiment.


They ended up taking me to a medical facility for treatment. I had my wrist bone lasered back together, with dire warnings not to do anything strenuous with it for a week. They also straightened my nose a bit, and gave me a full scan to make sure nothing else was wrong.

I imagined I'd be taken back to my cell when the docs were finished with me, but instead I was taken to a room there at the hospital. Inside was the General, two soldiers, and Maria Perez.

"Please sit down," the General said. He looked worried. Very worried. I took my seat and waited. There was silence for a moment. Maria made a small throat-clearing sound, and the General looked at her, then shrugged.

"Well, there's no easy way to put this, but it seems that Brittnia was attacked." I raised my eyebrows.

"What do you mean?"

"Just that. It wasn't us, be we received several jump-beam contacts indicating the planet was being attacked, then they cut off." My brow was furrowed. Much of the Imperial government could die, and I wouldn't shed a tear, but Brittania...there were five billion innocents there who didn't deserve to suffer because of their rulers.

"Has anyone gone over to see what's happened?" I asked.

"It's nothing we've ever seen before," the General replied. "The jump point's been closed. Theoretically, that shouldn't be possible, but if we try to put in the coordinates, it comes up as a null." Now that wasn't good.

I've been in the army since I was seventeen. At the Academy, we were taught practical knowledge. Sure, I'd had basic physics, but I couldn't explain how the jump points worked. They just...were. So how could one be closed? To my small mind, it was like a star ceasing to be where it was last week. The General cleared his throat again.

"We want to put together a team to look. With a fast ship, we can get from the Cranning Station to Brittania in a week without jumping. If the points come back, we'll be redundant. If not...someone needs to do it."

"We?"

"Maria thinks you should come along as having an interest in Brittania." He glanced at her, and I thought I read some discomfort in his eyes. Maria tilted her head up slightly, as if determined. I was getting the impression she outranked him. I wasn't sure why or how, but the body language was clear.

"Well, I do appreciate the offer. I would like to join you...but why the change of heart? Last night I was pretty sure I was dead." Maria answered.

"I did some research. I found out about your parents and your...career. I thought you might be on our side if it came to that." I had to shrug.

"What's in the past remains there. I won't support you if you are aiming for a bloodbath of a revolution." Maria recoiled.

"Of course not," she said. "But we would like to work for a compromise concerning the Independent Worlds." Maria took a breath. "And I would like to formally apologize for how you were treated. The officers who hurt you have been suspended, and I myself am very sorry for threatening you." She really did look ashamed.

"Apology accepted...though I don't see why you are delivering it for everyone else." Maria opened her mouth, but it was the General who responded.

"Dr. Perez...that is to say Reinaldo Perez...is a full member of the Governor's Council. Miss Perez here is his proxy, and retains full voting power in the council until such time as Dr. Perez returns or is replaced in the elections next year." Coming from an absolute monarchy, I was a little fuzzy on just what a "full member of the Governor's Council" might be, but it sounded like Maria...relatively young a pretty though she was...held some pretty big reins here on Nueva Espana now.

Let me just say I was glad she didn't hold me responsible for her father's disappearance.

[One of the policemen, grabbed the scalpel away from her] Get rid of that comma.
[Brittnia was attacked] Misspelled. wink

xd I love Greg's bluntness. "Say, is that chocolate pudding?" Way to change the subject.


This is quite fascinating. Quite fascinating indeed--can't wait to see what else is going on--and going wrong. Keep it up.

You'd almost think these clowns were afraid of me. I was held in the ship's brig, which had a sturdy enough cell in its own right, but they also put shackles on my ankles and wrists. There was enough chain to let me walk and use my hands, but obviously I was slowed down somewhat. Add to that the two armed guards outside the door, and I was pretty well taken care of.

Sort of.

In these instances, it is best to plan ahead. Number one was to get out of my cell. Number two, I had to find Maria. I didn't think they'd harm her, since she was a hostage worthy of ransom, but who knew. Next we'd have to escape, or somehow take over the ship.

Then, of course, it was a couple of days travel to anywhere. This was going to be tough. As I thought about this, I heard the hum of the main drive. The Cultists had apparently gotten the battle cruiser running again, and were using this ship for transport instead of their own smaller vessel. Nothing I cold do about it. I just sat and waited for an opportunity to present itself.

The one guard wasn't fast enough sliding a food tray under the door, so he got to die first. I had to break his arm in a few places before I could take his gun and shoot him, then get the keys. The other guard fired and missed at least four times while I was freeing myself. Amateur. He died next.

The sounds of course, brought about six other guards. I'm fast, but not that fast. The sixth managed to shoot me in the gut before I killed him. Not one of my worse wounds, I noted, but unfortunately there wasn't a hospital nearby. I wondered if the ship's doctor was still alive. Not likely.

About then the ship was rocked with an explosion. Considering this was a battle cruiser, it takes some doing to "rock" the ship. I held a pair of guns and moved slowly down the corridor, then froze.

Someone was running down a side corridor. Ready. Aim...

Maria appeared in front of me, eyes wild. Her right arm was bloody up to her elbow, and she was holding a scalpel. What was it with her and medical instruments? I guessed she must have palmed it when we were in the medical bay. She seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see her. We both started talking at once.

"What did...?"

"How did you...?"

We were both cut off by another explosion.

"I think that's my fault," Maria said, looking abashed. "I threw and grenade into the engine room." I was impressed.

"Who's left?" I asked. "I got eight."

"I got nineteen, I think." Twenty-seven. That was all I had counted on the boarding crew.

"Will the antimatter tanks blow?" Maria asked nervously. I shook my head.

"No, they're in their own containment field...they'll be fine even of the ship melts around them." And a good thing, too. If that much antimatter were destroyed at once, it would make the old fusion bombs look like firecrackers. Of course, there was no one out here to die but Maria and I. "It's just the rocket fuel for the guidance thrusters going up," I added.

"We've got to get to the bridge," I said, starting to move down the corridor.

"What? Can you pilot this thing?"

"Not exactly," I said. "But these ships are mostly automated. Besides, we're in the middle of nowhere. I think all we can do is call for help." We made it to the control room, but by then I was feeling light-headed, which at first I thought was messing with my mind.

The display showed that our ship was heading right for a planet. I checked the coordinates. They were correct. The only explanation was that there really was a jump point there in deep space, and the Cultists were taking us back to Atacama.

No time to worry about it. I hit the button for the landing sequence. We were already decelerating toward the planet, but not fast enough to void a crash landing. I didn't know how many of the directional rockets were left...the last ditch effort would be to use the airfoils to slow us down in the atmosphere, and with any luck steer enough to land in the desert, as opposed to a city.

There was a terrible sound of metal being twisted and wrenched as we entered the atmosphere.

Maria was watching another monitor.

"We lost the Cultist's ship," she said. "It was clamped to the side." I hit the airfoil control, and we began to slow. I was relieved to see that we were far from any of the few population centers...though it crossed my mind to wonder what we'd do when we landed.

Not to worry, I passed out before we hit.