Treasure of the empire e.., p.1
Treasure of the Empire (Enemies of the Empire Book 2), page 1
Hadwin Fuller
Treasure of the Empire
Enemies of the Empire - Book Two
Copyright © 2023 by Hadwin Fuller
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Hadwin Fuller asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Hadwin Fuller has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.
First edition
This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy
Find out more at reedsy.com
Contents
Get A Free Novel
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
21. Chapter 21
22. Chapter 22
23. Chapter 23
24. Chapter 24
25. Chapter 25
26. Chapter 26
27. Chapter 27
28. Chapter 28
29. Chapter 29
30. Chapter 30
31. Chapter 31
32. Chapter 32
33. Chapter 33
34. Chapter 34
35. Chapter 35
36. Chapter 36
37. Chapter 37
38. Chapter 38
39. Chapter 39
40. Chapter 40
41. Chapter 41
42. Chapter 42
43. Chapter 43
44. Chapter 44
45. Chapter 45
46. Chapter 46
Epilogue
Get A Free Novel
Sign up to Hadwin’s mailing list and get a full-length novel completely free. You’ll also receive regular updates along with special offers, free giveaways and exclusive content. Click the link below or type it into your web browser to sign up now.
hadwinfuller.com/signup
Your details will be kept confidential, and we will never send you spam
1
Chapter 1
“Listen,” I said, casting a few cautious looks over my shoulders to make sure no one else was within earshot, “between you and me, Val, I’m really starting to hate the Free Stars Alliance.”
“Hate them?” said Val, onetime imperial lapdog turned FSA rebel. She folded her arms across her chest and gave me one of her best disapproving frowns. “How can you hate them? The FSA is the only reason you’re still alive and not being pulled apart atom by atom by the empire’s best scientists. If it wasn’t for the FSA-”
“I know, I know,” I groaned as I twisted the microwrench attachment on my hypertool around a stubborn bolt. There was a hiss of hot steam, and I pulled my hand away while issuing a sharp yelp. “I’ve seen the ‘Empire’s Most Wanted’ bulletins on the imperial UNI-net. Between you and me, I’d expected them to offer a lot more thurrans for the reward, but I suppose I should be happy with being ranked amongst the most dangerous people in the universe.”
“They’re saving the real reward money for your droid.” Val shook her head in wonder, and her short silver hair rustled from side to side. “And I still can’t believe how much they’re willing to pay to get their evil claws on it.”
I frowned up at Val. She had known Aria for a while now, and even boarded an imperial starship to rescue her (along with her brave and loyal inventor) from certain doom at the hands of the emperor’s lackeys. But she still didn’t call Aria by name and instead always referred to her as ‘that droid’. What was up with that?
“Val,” I asked as I jammed my fingers into the back of the coffee machine’s innards in search of the cause of the blockage to the main intake valve, “do you have something against droids?”
Val looked a little taken aback by the question. “No. Why?”
I shook my head. “No reason. I was just wondering.” The tips of my fingers scraped against something soft and soggy at the back of the coffee machine. “Anyway, like I was saying, if I have to stick it out with the FSA for much longer, I’m going to start contemplating throwing myself past the event horizon of that black hole that’s just on our doorstep.”
I gestured to the nearest window, outside of which a network of yellow and black warning buoys were scattered across a great, hulking black void. The Darkstar Outpost where the FSA had its little hidden base was right next to the event horizon of a gigantic black hole. And it hadn’t just ended up there because of bad logistical planning. According to Val, the immense gravitational forces of the black hole bent spacetime around the hole, creating a gravitational lens that refracted light and other forms of energy, effectively rendering the outpost invisible to conventional sensors and scanners. That was good from the point of view of hiding out and keeping me and Aria out of the empire’s clutches, but bad if you didn’t love hanging around the event horizon of a black hole with nothing else to do except fix broken-down coffee machines.
“Look, Nolan,” said Val, placing her hand on my shoulder and giving what she probably thought was a reassuring squeeze. “It’ll just be for a little while longer. Renard told me the moment the opportunity arises, the FSA will hide you away somewhere safe and out of the way.”
I tore a wodge of soggy doughnut from the back of the coffee machine and flung it pointedly in the bin to show what I thought about Field Commander Renard. Hiding out of the Darkstar Outpost were half a dozen other imperial subjects who were on the run from the empire, but none of them had been forced to work for free to pay for their stay. Sure, most were children, but they could still be made to help out around the place. I wasn’t sure how, but there had to be something they could do. Perhaps stick their slender arms into dangerous machinery to clear blockages?
“I take it from that look on your face,” said Val, “that you don’t approve of Field Commander Renard?”
I cast another look around the rec room, but apart from the miniature plastic G-ball players on the miniature plastic G-ball table, we were all alone.
“No, I don’t,” I said as I tightened the bolt I had removed earlier with my hypertool back into place. “I’ve been camped out in this outpost for months with nothing to do except fix coffee machines and play miniature G-ball.”
Val nodded in an understanding way, then she glanced over at the G-ball table. “Do you want a game?”
“I don’t like miniature G-ball.” I slammed the plastic hatch on the side of the coffee machine shut, grabbed an empty mug from the rack, stuck it under the nozzle and hit the button marked BLACK COFFEE. There was a spluttering sound from the machine’s innards, then a stream of thick black goop started to ooze out of the nozzle.
“I’m not drinking that,” said Val, eyeing the black goo suspiciously.
“Who said you had to? That’s just the NUTRi resin that got stuck in the machine after one of your FSA friends decided to see what would happen if they stuck a bit of half-eaten doughnut in the steam extraction vent. Well, whoever it was, I’d like to have a stern word with them. A very stern word.”
I slapped the microwrench attachment on my hypertool against my open palm several times in what I hoped was a macho manner.
“Actually,” said Val, who was squinting into the trash bin at the remains of the soggy doughnut, “I think it was probably Sergeant Blackwood.”
I gave an involuntary gulp. “Sergeant Blackwood?”
“Yes,” said Val. “I’m almost sure it was him.”
“How come?”
“Because he always eats the raspberry creams.”
I glanced into the trash bin where the wodge of doughnut I had rescued from the machine’s innards was lying amongst the other bits of refuse. Although it was hard to make out exactly what doughnut the wodge had once been (at least without some kind of doughnut forensic expert), it looked like there were splotches of what appeared to be raspberry jam mixed in amongst the soggy chunks.
“Well,” said Val, unclipping her portable comm unit from her belt. “Shall I ask Sergeant Blackw
I gave a dismissive wave. “There’s no need. I’m sure he won’t do it again.”
“Are you sure? Because he can be very clumsy sometimes. He told me in private that only last week he damaged the artificial gravity chamber in the gym because he was using bodyweights over the weight limit.”
My face flashed with anger. “That was him?”
Val flicked her eyes invitingly towards her comm unit.
“That was him,” I shrugged, trying not to seem as outraged as I felt internally. So Sergeant Blackwood was going around the outpost sabotaging all the machines and appliances that fell to the Senior Appliance Technician to repair. Well, that was quite understandable. A man of Sergeant Blackwood’s muscular bulk must have had a hard time not breaking everything he touched with his enormous, galaxy-wide biceps.
“Look, Nolan,” said Val, this time with what was probably supposed to be a reassuring arm-grab. “You’ll only be here for a little while longer, I promise. Renard will find you a new home, and as soon as she does, you and your droid can disappear - far away from the empire and the FSA.”
I nodded, my eyes downcast at the goopy obsidian contents of the mug. The coffee machine had stopped vomiting up NUTRi resin, and now all that was left to do was test out if the machine was working with a new order. I set the mug down on the counter, took a clean mug from the rack, stuck it under the nozzle and hit the BLACK COFFEE button again. There was a whir of machinery, and this time a much thinner, browner liquid came streaming out of the nozzle.
“Tell you what?” said Val. “I’ll go talk to Field Commander Renard right now. See what I can do to get you out of here.”
“Really?” I said, feeling a sudden elation in my gut. “You’d do that for me?”
“Nolan,” said Val, taking the fresh coffee mug from the machine and giving it a cautious swig. After she had gulped back the mouthful, a satisfied smile appeared on her lips and she gave me a playful wink. “For the man who fixes the coffee machine, I’d do a whole lot more than that.”
2
Chapter 2
“This is it, Aria,” I said, as we rode the turbo lift up to the top floor of the outpost. As I watched the numbers on the display screen climb higher, I rubbed my hands together with glee. “We’re going home.”
“Home?” said Aria, her voicebox amp enunciating the word with all those little emotional associations humans provided naturally, but which droids could usually manage about as well as most humans could calculate quantum equations in their heads. “Back to Reydros III?”
“No. I’m talking about our new home.”
“Our new home?” said Aria, her voice mirroring the same excitement I felt in my belly. “So? Where is it?”
“Well, I don’t know that exactly,” I admitted. “But that’s got to be the reason Field Commander Renard has called us to see her.”
Aria nodded her heart-shaped head but didn’t say anything. Her amber eyes watched me curiously.
“You know something, don’t you?” I asserted, pointing a finger at her. “You’ve been talking with the outpost’s central computer again, haven’t you?”
Aria looked away into a corner. “Maybe. But I don’t-”
I grabbed Aria by her casing. “What do you know? Tell me! Tell me now!”
“Alright, alright! Look, I don’t know anything, really. Only that a ship is being prepared in Hangar 4. But that’s all I know. I swear.”
I frowned at the information. A ship being prepared was a good sign, but only if it was the right size. A large craft would indicate that Renard was finally setting out on her ridiculous quest to reclaim that ancient Celestian artefact, the map to which had been temporarily installed in Aria’s CPU unit by an agent of the empire (a shadowarden, no less). The imperial data was the reason Aria had been taken prisoner by Commander Kaelen Ravus on his imperial battlecruiser, the Merciless. It had been hell to get her out of that tight spot, but I had managed it (with a tiny bit of help from Val).
“What class is it?” I asked as the elevator hummed on its journey to the top floor.
“Odin class.”
I racked my brain trying to remember the private interstellar vessel class ranking system. If my memory hadn’t been damaged too badly after my recent escapades on the Merciless, then I was correct in my recollection that the PIVCRS used the names of ancient gods from Old Earth to determine the size category of non-imperial vessels. Imperial vessels were simply known by their types: warship, battlecruiser and (most feared of all) dreadnought.
“Odin class?” I repeated. “That’s pretty small, huh?”
“It has a crew capacity of six.”
I nodded slowly at the information. “Sounds about right. Two passengers-” I pointed fingers at Aria and myself. “-plus a small crew to pilot the ship. Just what the doctor ordered. I wonder where they’ll take us.”
“Probably to one of those uninhabited worlds,” Aria quipped, her tone implying that she didn’t appreciate the prospect of being stranded on a rock without even the most basic amenities afforded to the least civilised planets in the imperial order.
“I wouldn’t be so sure - but even if they did, we’d still be OK. They’d be bound to leave us with a basic terraforming kit - a NUTRi-synth generator, a 3D printer, forcefield-protected housing, a few plasma rifles - everything we’d need to get by. You wouldn’t have to worry about using twigs to replace a malfunctioning hydraulic.”
Aria’s head cocked to the right, and her amber eyes shuttered slightly in the way that I knew from experience indicated a wry smile.
“What?” I asked. “You don’t believe me?”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you, Nolan.”
“Then what?” I asked, suddenly feeling the temperature rise around my collar. After everything I had been through to get Aria back, we were finally on the cusp of getting everything we wanted: a place of our own to live outside the influence of the empire. But now it sounded like Aria was having second thoughts - or that something else was bugging her in her addled circuits.
“It’s…”
There was a soft chime, and the lift doors opened. The humming had stopped. We had arrived at our destination. I stared at Aria, waiting for her to finish what she was about to say. We had been summoned to speak with Field Commander Renard, but we weren’t under orders to scurry to her command room as fast as possible.
“Aria?”
Aria shook her head. “It’s nothing. I am excited, Nolan. But it’s like you say. I’m just a little worried about leaving normal civilisation behind.”
I placed my hand on Aria’s casing, right where her shoulder would have been if she had been human.
“It’s going to be OK. I promise. Whatever happens, we’ve got each other. And that’s all we need. Understand?”
Aria’s amber eyes bore into my own, and for a moment, I thought she was going to say something, but instead she simply nodded.
“Come on,” I said, stepping out of the lift and into the dimly lit dark grey corridor that was identical to every other corridor on the outpost. “Let’s go see where they’re going to send us.”
3
Chapter 3
Field Commander Renard stood by the wide viewing windows in her command room and looked out into the lightless void where the nearby black hole was steadily churning away, sucking in matter, light and anything else it could get its greedy paws on. Her shoulder-length auburn hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail that rested on the back of the collar of her light grey military uniform. Next to her was a simple desk with a built-in terminal. On the other end of the desk was a metal pole with a cylindrical metal ball on top. I had no idea what it was, and my best guess would have been that it was one of those laser party light emitters - something that would have been wildly out of place in the office of an FSA officer (and therefore probably not what it actually was).
“Field Commander,” said Targul, Renard’s personal assistant. The lanky, black-haired teenager wore no military uniform. If rumours were to be believed, he had earned his promotion to Renard’s side on the basis of his work organising the civilian aspects of the Free Stars Alliance.
