Kyle, part 8

The group of them looked resplendent in their Imperial blue uniforms that Sekula had managed to put together. The new security cards that Culp had imprinted were perfect, too. It was a wonderful stroke of teamwork, and they were deep inside the Imperial Palace.

Krigbaum and DeAlteriis were posing as guardsmen, carrying ceremonial laser lances, at the front of the party. They wore long blue jackets, with white tights, high black boots, and golden helmets. They had crimson sashes showing their position as honor guards, and these ended in holsters containing laser pistols.

Culp, Heeswyck, Sekula and Hollingsworth were dressed as senior officers, bringing up the rear of the group. They looked very regal in their highly decorated uniforms. These were identical to the honor guard uniforms that Krigbaum and DeAlteriis wore, except that the officer's helmets were trimmed with a mane of black fur. The officers didn't carry lances.

In the center, in the place of honor, was Mitchell, playing the role of visiting diplomat. She was the spitting image of the VIP accompanying the honor guard, and she was dressed in civilian clothes peculiar to the world of Narfoss - where they were all supposed to be from. Her outfit was a fiery red, filmy dress, with bright orange fur trim. It was incredibly tight, and hid nothing of her figure. The engineer, much more comfortable in worker's dungarees, hated it.

Celena also walked along in the center of the visiting party, a few steps behind Mitchell, as a lady-in-waiting. She wore a light, thin outfit of white gauzy material, and a veil over her face.

"Alright, this is where we split up." Hollingsworth stopped in the center of the abandoned corridor, at a vast intersection of hallways. The group stopped with him, and grouped around.

"Sekula, you and Krigbaum head down that way to the security cells. According to Celena, he's in cell 27b. The rest of you come with me. We're going to pay Barnette a visit in the high chamber. All of you, get your pistols ready, this could get ugly. Most palace revolutions are."

They broke up, and went their separate ways. All of them were grim and set hard for the task ahead, but Sekula especially was anxious.

*****

Barnette was sitting on the Imperial throne, surrounded by his sycophants. On the floor in front of him, the tiny robot, covered with hologram projectors, was doing a dance. The group laughed, not noticing the vast double doors open.

"Who the hell are you?" Barnette barked out, when he noticed the group in blue coming in the throne chamber. "Don't you know this is the Imperial Throne room?"

"I know what this is, you filthy sonofabitch." Hollingsworth was walking across the room, straight towards Barnette. "Do you know what the Emperor normally does with swine like you that defile his throne?"

"I'll have you arrested, and you'll never see the light of day again. Guards, get in here." He pleasantly drank the rest of his drink and then placed the goblet down on a hover tray. "Wait a second, I recognize you. You're Abusheega Haut Hollingsworth. I thought your family was disgraced," Barnette was looking over his shoulder at his cronies, "When all the noble families were declared outside of Imperial favor?"

"We were disgraced, you filthy bastard. My family, and dozens of others that faithfully served the Empire for centuries. Billions of Imperial citizens died because the social structure was destroyed. Whole worlds were disfigured and wasted. Entire sectors were plunged into economic ruin. All for your personal pleasure. But that's all over now." And after they had entered the chamber, but before the guards reached Barnette's side, Hollingsworth raised up his laser pistol, and burned a clean hole through the head of the traitor.

"Shit!" Krigbaum jumped for a table, taking snap shots with his laser lance, and he was followed by the rest. Mitchell had thought to push the heavy table over, and they were using it as a barricade. The palace guards, seeing Barnette laying dead on the floor, immediately began firing at the group behind the table.

The robot, only 30 centimeters tall, was evidently keyed to Barnette's voice, because it just bobbled around in a circle on the floor. Until Culp shot it's head off with her laser pistol. 'So much for E-Kyle', she thought.

The rest of them were trading shots with the palace guards, and it was largely a stalemate.

Then, all of a sudden, the giant irridium sphere, symbol of Imperial might, that hovered in the center of the chamber, over the Imperial Throne, began to move. It floated over the group of palace guards, and then came crashing down. It must have weighed fifty tons, if it weighed a gram, and the whole palace shuddered. The guards were no more.

Celena collapsed after the sphere dropped, and they realized that she had moved it with her mind.

*****

Something was happening. He felt the floor shake, and knew that the entire palace must have been upset by something vast.

The past few days had been very strange, and very different from the previous stretch of time he had been in the prison. He had been a ward of the trecherous Barnette for some time now, ever since he and his hologram robot had taken over the empire.

The strange part was that he could feel his mind being contacted. He was no psi-talent himself, yet still, the training he had received as a youth let him know when his mind was being probed, or sensed. And today, of all days, it was stronger than ever.

The small set of chambers that were his prison 'cell' were quite comfortable, but for the fact that he was all alone. He had plenty to eat, and to do - video, music, library data - but absolutely no human companionship. They hadn't even given him a valet robot for company. And no access to current news media. That's okay, he thought, it probably would have made matters more miserable.

Miserable, yes, but he could have taken it all. Except for his seperation from Sekula. That was the pain, the part that hurt. And the fact that he knew, somehow, that whatever Barnette was doing with the Empire, it wasn't for the benefit of his, Kyle the First's Imperial subjects.

And now...what? What was going on? There was something big happening, if it could shake the entire Imperial Palace. What the hell was it?

And, if in answer to his questions, the security door to his front chamber was suddenly opened from the outside world. He rushed out to see what was going on, for even Barnette would have let him know - even if it was to just gloat.

And there, in his prison, was standing Sekula. Kyle ran to her, and grabbed her up, and kissed her without saying a word.

Behind the two of them, DeAlteriis just stood there, smiling.

*****

end