In her suite which was one of the best onboard the SS White Blaze, and that was saying a lot, Lia Du Passa settled back and relaxed, slightly. Biana sat in a chair opposite her and enjoyed another drink. All five were in the same group of suites. The two bodyguards sat apart from the women.

“Okay sweetie, get a drink and relax a bit.”

“I will relax once we hit hyperspace. What is the transit time?” Lia asked her assistant.

“Twenty three periods. They are a lot slower than the Legions ships, Mistress.” Lily responded.

A chime sounded, a glance at the annunciator in the room showed that the pleasure craft was now moving. A star ship has no portholes and all passengers were required to be in their cabins until the jump to hyperspace was completed although some passengers chose to ignore this instruction. To compensate for not being able to see outside, each room had a view plate if the passengers wanted a view.

“Good” Lia had a smile on her face. She looked again at her assistant. “The destination again.”

“A planet called Depra IV, it is a mature planet with a large farming component. But it also has a series of luxury retreats which cater to...”

“Enough, we will be met there?”

“That was the arrangement. A company ship will take us to SB-14, a station in your companies’ main construction system.” Lilly paused. “After that, I don’t know.”

Lia nodded. She knew but didn’t intend to pass that information on until necessary. The group sat quietly for a while. Biana sipped at her drink while Lia sat and tried to relax while throwing looks at the panel which was showing their progress. Lilly collected her mistresses’ comm unit to update it.

While watching the annunciator was interesting, other things also kept running through her mind. So it was after another fraction of a period had passed that Lia looked at the annunciator and noticed that the readings were now steady and showing a constant velocity.

With an exclamation she looked around. Biana waved her hand as she took a sip of her drink.

“Don’t look at me, sweetie, I know nothing about these things!”

Lilly shook her head. Her two guards looked at each other. The senior Tom Patton, a tough but smart ex trooper ventured an opinion. “Maybe being a civilian luxury ship, they don’t accelerate fast.”

“Maybe, but they need a minimum speed to perform the jump and they aren’t there yet.”

After another exchange of glances, Rim Iska, the second guard spoke. “I will go and see what I can find out, stay tight.”

Lia nodded. “Be quick.”

*********

The bridge of a luxury star cruiser is very different from a bridge of a warship. While they have much of the same equipment, sensors and controls, the layout is usually different, the décor is less military and the controls are more compact in their groupings along with fewer bridge crew members to operate them. Finally, they don’t have a weapons station and the atmosphere is a lot less intense.

Irina Ress was pleased with the performance of the SS White Blaze. Captain of the ship for the last standard year, she was almost at the top of her profession, only the commodore of the line was ranked higher. As captain of the lead ship in the company, she could expect that to be her next promotion when the current commodore retired. Approval from space control to depart had Captain Ress turning to her pilot.

“Let’s get going. Pilot, engage the thrusters and start moving. Engine room, stand by. Navigator course laid in?”

Drucic Du Pulls, the navigator turned and acknowledged that the course and coordinates were entered.

Pilot Ram of Nicos V gave a crisp “Yes Ma’am.” His fingers played across the board and the craft began to move towards the jump zone threshold. Monitoring the engines as well as other systems kept the pilot involved. The Navigator on the other hand his own systems to watch. The ship started slowly, didn’t need to impress these passengers.

The Pilot, carefully watching, amongst others, the collision avoidance system noticed something unusual. Two battleships were on what the computer estimated was a collision course. He was about to report when the communications officer called to the Captain. He had received a transmission.

“Captain Ress, I have the Captain of the Legion Battleship Barrows Night for you sir.”

A holographic picture appeared. “Captain Zapis here. I have orders from the Palace via the Marshal. Do you understand?”

There was silence for a fraction. Then slowly, “Yes I do.”

“Maintain speed, do not increase speed, and prepare to accept shuttles from this ship and my sister ship. Understand?

“Yes. Pilot?”

“Holding speed sir,” in a quiet voice he added, “Those ships are at battle stations sir.” The Captain swallowed, being the target for a battleship was not something that made her comfortable.

“We are holding current speed, Captain Zapis.”

The pilot next spoke quietly to the shuttle bay officer. That worthy refused to believe his orders at first, until Captain Ress broke in and confirmed the order.

“Very good. Now, arrange for your purser to meet the landing party with a full list of all passengers on board. We will need to find the persons we are looking for fast.”

“I will arrange that, but if you will tell me who you are looking for I can give you their suite.” All rooms on board this ship were suites. He gave a wave to the purser who had arrived on the bridge with his report and was now standing with his mouth open.

There was a fractions delay while the battleships maneuvered to ride parallel to the luxury cruiser. With their greater speed, they were quick to catch up.

On the first shuttle was the ranking officer of the company of troopers. He was with the first assault platoon. Each platoons commanding officer had been told who they were looking for. Their surprise turned to astonishment when he told them why and where the orders came from. The smarter ones put two and two together.

“Very good we are looking for the following, Lia Du Passa, Biana Lee Appa, Lilly Nanta and two bodyguards, Tom Patton and Rim Iska.” Captain Zapis decided to pass the information along.

“Are they facing charges?” Captain Ress spoke after a fraction spent consulting with the purser, “They are in suite 14, upper deck.” At a nod, the purser left at a run.

“Charges include treason, sabotage and attempted murder.” Was the unsmiling reply. That brought more looks.

“I see,” The Captain managed. “Your shuttle craft are boarding now.”

The shuttle bay officer was astonished, but when the shuttles landed and the troopers exited in space battle dress, he got the idea. The troopers entered through the airlock five at a time, the best that could be managed, but there were two airlocks. No time was wasted allowing the shuttle deck to pressurise and depressurise.

Both the platoons were quickly assembled. One headed towards the target suite with Major Gammon, their commander. The other to back up changed out of their armour.

*********

After leaving Lia’s suite, Rim Iska went first to the lounge, taking a seat at the bar and ignoring other passengers present even though they were supposed to be in their suites, he engaged the bartender in a conversation. Asking how the ship operated, he got the usual stories, none of which were of any use to him. He quickly understood that he wasn’t going to get anything useful from that person. Stopping to chat with an attractive server, he noticed a screen where he could get an outside view.

Swapping his name and suite with the woman server, he sauntered to the screen. Engaging it and allowing it to run its settings was quickly done. Selecting an outside view he looked around. At first, it just showed the stars and other craft. Moving the view, he was shocked to see a close up view of an imperial battleship.

Transfixed, he stared at the view, seeing shuttles returning to their ship shook him back to reality and galvanised him into action. Running to the exit he ignored the stares from everyone in the lounge and called for a transit lift. Exiting on the proper floor, he ran to the door. Banging on the annunciator stud, he finally got the door open.

Unnoticed by Rim, the lieutenant leading the assault team was right behind him with a very nervous purser.

Inside, Lia and Tom both came to their feet, staring at Rim.

“What is it?” Lia demanded. “Speak up.”

Hand on the back of a convenient chair to steady himself, Rim gasped out. “The Legion, there is a battleship.” He pointed to a wall.

Tom leapt for a view screen, silently cursing himself that he hadn’t done this earlier as he switched it on.

Lia started, then stepped to the table where her comm unit had laid. “Where is it, my comm unit?” She shouted.

The door slid open, the purser had opened the door with his emergency code and legion troopers, still in their zero gravity armour, flooded in. Tom and Rim, being experienced ex-troopers, took one look and fell to the floor, arms spread. Troopers immediately secured them.

From her chair Biana gawked as two troopers grabbed her and pulled her to her mildly intoxicated feet. She was too stunned to protest.

Lilly had quietly picked up Lia’s comm unit, moved across the room and was sitting with it at a table. Planning to update the operating system, she realised how valuable it could be when Rim made his startling announcement and Lia went to the table to look for it.

Spinning on her heel, Lia’s eye’s swept the room as the troopers charged in. Seeing her com unit in the hands of her assistant she screamed “Kill it,” as troopers grabbed her but it was too late.

Even if Lilly wanted to, she was in the hands of troopers herself. Knowing that the information on it was valuable, she made sure that she kept it safe, the idea of using it to negotiate with the empires lawyers now fixed in her mind. Her loyalty only went so far.

Major Gammon and the purser entered the room. All the five were in custody and alive. Good, he thought. Finding the platoon commander, he confirmed that the comm units each owned were safe and collected. The luggage would be dwelt with later.

Turning to a frustrated Lia still struggling and using her extensive repertoire of curses and insults, he waved her to him. The two troopers holding her marched Lia, who continued struggling, over.

The Major regarded her steadily then spoke. “By order of the Dark Lord, you are under arrest. Charges include but are not limited to, treason, conspiracy to commit treason, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted sabotage of a fleet armoured planetoid, conspiracy to commit said sabotage and suborning a member of fleet personal.” He looked around at the rest of the group. “These charges apply to all of you, so don’t feel left out.”

The Major waved at the lieutenant commanding the platoon. “Move them out,” went to the troopers.

“Why didn’t you do something?” Lia screamed at her erstwhile bodyguards.

“Troopers in armour carrying heavy weapons? Good way to get us all killed.” Tom muttered.

“So?” Lia yelled.

The troopers holding her pushed her against the wall of the transit shaft. “If you don’t shut up we can gag you. Your choice,” one said.

“Ok, big brave man.” Lia sneered.

“I’m not a man.” The female trooper replied unsmilingly, still holding Lia firmly.

At the now pressurised shuttle bay, they were loaded into separate shuttles and flown back to the Barrows Night. There Captain Zapis had them processed as ordinary prisoners. They were searched and all personal effects catalogued. Given prison garb, they were then placed into separate cells.

The two men took it stoically, Lia defiantly, Lilly submissively while Biana was still confused but also submissive with touches of “Do you know who I am?”

Onboard the SS White Blaze, the second platoon, augmented by security police cleared for this purpose, was searching the room. Deciding that a proper search would take too long and not wanting to delay the departure of the White Blaze, the decision was reached that the search crew would leave with the ship. The second battleship would accompany her to bring the platoon and the police back, along with the results of their search.

Captain Ress agreed happily and the SS White Blaze was soon on its way.

Also on its way, in this case back to Tihab, was the IS Barrows Night with its five unhappy prisoners. After landing in separate shuttles, they were placed into cells in a legion prison. Later that day they were turned over to the security police.

*********

When, on the seventeenth Wassas, the story broke there was consternation followed by rampant speculation in the media. The First Councillor made both an appearance in the news bulletins and live on broadcasts.

Later that day, a committee of business leaders met with the First Councillor and the Marshal. Protesting what they called ‘high handed’ actions of the Dark Lord, they demanded access. Somewhat to their surprise, this was granted.

Driven to the palace, they were ushered into a meeting room. There they found out that dealing with the reality, rather than the abstract, was a lot different. Confronted with both the Dark Lord seated on his throne and some details of the treason planed, they collectively pledged their loyalty to the Dark Lord.

With a rather cynical smile this was accepted. As well, the Dark Lord proclaimed that he had no intention of interfering with business provided that it was carried out in a free, fair, honest, open manner without collusion, price fixing or other illegal activity. He also pointed out that enforcing this usually was the province of police, local and planetary governments, backed up by sector and galactic councils.

Standing, He promised however, that when dishonest practices came to His attention they would be swiftly dealt with. After the usual protests, this was accepted, promises were made and the businessmen withdrew.

As they did so, the Dark Lord was joined by His usual companion, along with the Ladies Dana, Luca and Andrea.

“I wanted my sword.” Lady Luca groused. At this the Dark Lord laughed and the brown haired Lady smiled.

“They reacted exactly as I expected them to.” The Dark Lord chuckled.

Lady Dana spoke with a laugh. “Did you see how they came in all high and mighty and with one look from you they were grovelling!”

“Some were. There was one at the back, he didn’t say much. But he didn’t grovel either. I think that he could be useful.” Lady Andrea put in.

“A good thought Andrea.” The Dark Lord agreed. “Have the guard pull together some information on him. Then we will see.”

“Ganner Re Dapplell. Businessman, a financier and broker. I will see what turns up.” Lady Andrea mused.

Turning to the brown haired Lady, Dana gave her a slightly jealous look. “You have had some fun lately!”

“More than I usually get.” Was accompanied by a rueful look.

With a laugh the four retired to their private quarters.