To be honest… the title has nothing to do with anything… It just sounded cool… and deep… at the same damn time…
Chapter 1: The Nameless King
‘Just pretend you’re floating in a pool…’ Jax thought as he drifted through the never-ending nothing of space. His breathing was slow and measured for someone who was facing his death, finding him would be easier then a blind paraplegic trying to find a needle that had been dropped in a field of grass. He decided not to bother himself with the ultimate end of his relatively short life, in sixteen years he had managed to do more then most do in a hundred. His dull silver colored fighter suit was quite comfortable in freefall, but he wished he could feel himself one last time, even his toes were separated from each other, not one piece of flesh touched another. ‘…Silas, please show up, I don’t want to die like this…’
Three Months Ago…
Pirate Ship Silas, Imperium Class Cruiser,
0100 hours Standard Interstellar Time (SIT)
Jax awoke like he usually did, suddenly and with a yelp. He sat up, the silk sheets on his bed stuck to his sweat-drenched body as he regained control of his mind. He checked the chronometer and groaned, he’d only been asleep two hours. He lay back on his pillows, stretched his arms out across the king-sized bed, and tried to recall the exact details of the nightmare, but it was like trying to grab smoke.
“Another Nightmare Jax?” the disembodied voice of Silas, the sentient computer of the ship, said.
“Yeah…” Jax said, he opened one eye and smiled, “Silas, start talking business, what are the plans for today?”
“First on the list for today is to finish tracking down that tanker that managed to get away from us and blow it up, then we were going to make some supply runs between the IED crossing stations on the Phalanx line…” Silas droned on about the things that needed doing, but before he finished the second item, Jax was in a dreamless sleep.
0800 hours SIT
This time Jax woke with a grunt and mumble rather then a yelp. He moved awkwardly to the edge of the bed, threw his legs off the side, and pulled himself into a sitting position. His blonde hair was a mess and his usually bright emerald green eyes were dull, even his skin seemed to have exchanged its usual bronzed gleam for a waxy brown. Sleep deprivation was not his friend.
“Frack the freighter, set course for the crossing stations and handle it, I’m going to take a shower…” he stood up and walked into the massive bathroom, it was easy to forget that he was in a starship with accommodations like this. The bathroom was the same size as a house, a house with real marble floors and solid oak paneling. A noble was lucky to have a ship this nice, and he got it free when he stole it from the imperial anchorage. He turned on the water and looked himself over in the full sized mirror across from the shower. “Great… I look about as shitty as I feel.”
His body was well developed for a sixteen year old, a side effect of the childhood filled with details locked deep in the recesses of his mind coupled with having to fend for himself since he was five. His bronzed flesh was covered in scars, some light and old, other very obvious and young, each one of the myriad of lines had a story, and if asked Jax knew each one. He rubbed his newest addition, a cut across the top of the right pectoral, deep enough that his ribs were showing when he got it. He had to suture it while in a war zone on a planet that was being re-conquered by the Empire with only a roll of dental floss and a piece of shrapnel he pulled from his leg. He decided that black market trading was not worth it on the border worlds after that. He stepped into the scalding hot shower and groaned as the water turned his dark bronze colored skin to a dark pink color. He liked the water this hot, it was his way of relaxing.
He tried to remember the last time he’d spent any time with someone
“We’ll be at Sun Tzu Station in about ten minutes, you’re expected to at least mingle with the buyers and have a drink at the station’s bar.” Silas said, interrupting Jax as he was just starting to unwind. “You’ll need to wear your uniform, so you might as well…”
“Silas, you remember the last time I went onto an imperial station? I would rather not be running from the fleet for another month.” Jax said, he cranked the water up a few more degrees and watched his skin burn under the near volcanic temperature of the water. He also watched it heal, a remarkable sight, the reason his father wanted to use him in the experiments…
“NO…” He shouted, snapping himself out of the spiral that would inevitably lead into memories the never wanted to deal with again. He slammed the water off and grabbed a towel. “Is my uniform ready?”
“Red or purple sash?”
“Red, purple makes me look too royal.”
“Crap, looks like a Royal Navy Frigate is also parked at this particular base…”
“Isn’t that good news, check it’s registry and make sure it’s not an old friend.” Jax said. He was still on edge around the Empire’s special operations corps, especially since he just had a run in with them a year ago. He quickly toweled down and started putting on the black Imperial Naval uniform. He smiled when he saw himself in the mirror, buttoning the black silk stand up collar shirt while only wearing a pair of boxers with little smiley faces on them. He also smiled when he thought of the reason the IED used to purge the white shirts from it’s uniforms; the rebel Colonial Revolutionary Front’s Free Navy uniform was white and gold and they didn’t want to look anything like the ‘damned serfs’. He pulled the black uniform jacket on and buttoned it up, then tied the Red senatorial sash around his waste and looped it around his shoulder.
“Seventy-three citations for bravery, forty-three citations for defense of the Empire, and sixteen merits of honor from the emperor himself…” Silas said, listing off the record of Jason Casey, the man for whom the uniform was made even if he didn’t wear it all that much. “…if they even thought you had almost the same number of CRF awards they’d shoot you on sight. You’re lucky the Emperor keeps your little secret from the Navies.”
“I guess it also helps that I hold the rank of Flag Captain of the third Imperial Armada and Lord Admiral of the Sirius Star.”
“The Emperor always did like having a high ranking noble in the Imperial Navy on his side.” Silas said, “especially since the Imperial Navy is prone to picking new Emperors when the old one ticks it off.”
“Back to the point, registry?”
“A-18843924-B, it’s the Raconteur, Batista class attack frigate.” Silas said, he referenced the name and the number with his internal database to make sure the RNS Raconteur had never run across either Silas or Jax. “Looks like a new friend, nothing we need to worry about, I don’t think Batistas even come with the type of equipment to identify us.”
“How long until we dock?”
“Two and a half hours, we’re in a holding pattern, believe it or not.”
“Holding pattern?” Jax said, slightly dumbfounded, he knew the only legal crossing points between the now smoldering border were usually jam-packed with trade ships trying to squeeze their bulk through the narrow passes, but he never expected it to be full enough to put a battle cruiser with an Imperial sigil into a holding pattern. “why the frak is this place so busy, did someone important die?”
“Like I care to know? Just get aboard and make some credits.”
Jax frowned; he could tell Silas was up to something.
“Are you going to be joining me?” Jax said, hoping that Silas would volunteer some information about why the imperial starbase was so busy on this particular day.
“Yes, I think I shall, android 21A has just finished a neural refitting, it should be able to take my program.” Silas said as he locked the ship’s autopilot system into the ‘dumb’ computer that was designed to run the starship in the event of the SILAS program failing. He then downloaded into the docked android, which jolted out of it’s nook and quickly scanned the room as it assimilated the SILAS program. “Always a ride this…”
“Silas, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, this look is really slimming for you.” Jax said as he quickly surveyed the android body. Every android on the ship was identical from the black hair to the white skin and the grey eyes. They were made to stand out against a human crew, not blend in. Their usual voices were a dull monotone, but the SILAS program was designed to make any non-sentient piece of hardware into a near-living being.
“Aren’t you glad the empire stopped experimenting with sentient AI after my creation?” Silas said as he started picking out his choice of clothing. “Otherwise they might have a cybernetic rebellion as well as a division in the human race to deal with.”
Jax watched the android undress, looking away quickly after it had fully disrobed, androids were one hundred percent anatomically correct, and the androids on the Silas were some of the most accurate and impressive in the empire. Jax actually blushed.
“Silas, I’m going to take a nap, wake me when we’re docked.” Jax said as he returned to his room from the bathroom. The android-Silas smiled as it began to pick out officer’s clothing from the adjoining closet. Jax rolled into the bed and quickly drifted off again.
Voices in the dark, he couldn’t see anyone, he could hear them, five men stood near him talking.
“…utterly useless, test after test yields no results…”
“We must give it time, the serum will work…”
“…perhaps his breeding isn’t pure enough, his mother was a worthless whore from a border colony…”
“No, it was his genetic abnormalities that allowed him to survive the first batch of testing, your son is the perfect specimen for our tests.”
“Doctors, Admiral, I think the boy needs rest, he is exhausted and in pain…”
“…Yes, throw him in a cell. If he shows no changed by the next test have him put down, he obviously wasn’t worth the frack that made him.”
“…Admiral, your son could unlock the key to creating the perfect super-solders, I would say he is more valuable then even you…”
He felt someone kick him, then he felt the cold metal of a wall, then more kicks until he was coughing up blood, but he still didn’t open his eyes.
“No spawn of mine would be this much of a coward…”
“…Admiral, please…”
The boy opened his eyes in time to see another armored boot flying towards his face, the impact broke his nose and eye socket and sent him into a pain filled blackness.
Jax jumped out of bed, the echoes of his scream were still reverberating through the room’s metal walls. He ran his hand over his left eye and felt mechanical implants that replaced the bone around his eye.
“Silas…” he gasped, then he felt the cool hand of the android on his forehead, “…it…”
“Don’t think about it…” Silas said as he stroked Jax’s sweaty forehead. Unlike Jax, Silas knew exactly what had happened to the child known as Patient 001 thanks to his creator, the only man in the lab that cared more for the boy then the experiment. He continued stroking, just like his creator did, until Jax had fallen back into his restless sleep, then he made a call.
Android Cybernetic Lab, Sea of Tranquility, Earth’s Moon
It had been eleven years since Dr. Robert Silas Jefferson had worked in Exo-Dynamics on the prison planet Brimstone, eleven years haunted by what went on in that lab, eleven years hoping he could someday be granted forgiveness by the poor child he helped torture. To that end he had designed every program that left his facility to seek out “Patient 001” and protect him. What he didn’t expect was a call from one of them asking for advice, but that’s what he got.
“Dr. Jefferson, I need your help.” Silas said Via android, waking the doctor from his nap on his desk. The elderly man put his glasses on and looked at the screen on the wall and nearly died at the sight.
“For a type 21A your cognitive functions are incredible…” He muttered, then he realized what he heard was more important then what he saw, “…but only the Sentient Interactive Linguistically Advanced System program used my voice.”
“Doctor, this is about, Patient 001. He forgot everything during an illness after his escape, when the metabolic changes finally occurred all the memory of his father and of the laboratory were repressed. But now they’re coming back and giving him nightmares…” Silas said, he didn’t want to tell the doctor who that boy had become so he skirted the fact that he was a pirate now and that helping him would be considered an act of treachery by the empire. “…help me help him.”
“Erm…” Robert said as his sixty year old brain kicked into high gear, his chance was here, he could make amends for the suffering he caused, “…it worked, the genetic structure of his brain was altered enough that he lost his original self and created a new one. His original self was strong, pain and hate can create layers of defense that we could not foresee. That self is fighting off the genetic changes…”
“Doctor, won’t that…”
“If that happens he will die.”
“So, how do I save him…”
“He needs to integrate, to merge who the serum made him into with the person he was before the serum changed him, he needs to learn to accept who he was and what he is.” Robert said. He was shocked that this particular situation came to pass, the possibility of the subject’s cellular memory overpowering the genetically altered material was considered too great a risk after Patient 001 escaped, Exo Dynamics ceased to exist thanks to the thought of what was now actually happening. “Silas, do you know who he was?”
“I know about as much as you, he was the Admiral’s son.”
Robert leaned back in his chair, none of the staff at Exo-Dynamics knew the real name of their co-workers due to the sensitivity and unethical tests they were running, they didn’t want someone returning for revenge. The Professor, the Doctor, the Veterinarian, and the Admiral, that’s all he knew of the Exo-Dynamics team, and he was the Professor.
“Silas, protect him, make him whole again, atone for my sins.” Doctor Robert Silas Jefferson said, then he terminated the signal. He pulled his pistol out of his desk drawer, it was a military-grade class 4 mass driver pistol, it could send a liquid metal bullet through almost any known substance except Diamond. He then grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen and wrote out an archaic prayer to a god deemed dead to most of humanity; a god he hoped existed.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions
He picked the gun up and put it against his temple, his hand shook as he disabled the safety. He blinked once, barely a thought passed through his mind, then he whispered “Good luck…” and pulled the trigger.
INS Pallas Athena, Red Scepter Fleet Flagship, Admiral Thomas Casey Commanding
1300 SIT
The Red Scepter Fleet Commander was the second highest position in the Imperial Navy. Over one third of the raw power of the Imperial Navy was concentrated in the Red Scepter Fleet, and it’s commanders were fiercely loyal to their Flag officer. Admiral Thomas Casey, technically a Fleet Admiral, stood in the command dais of his new flagship, master of all he could see. One of his aides handed him a news report.
Murder or Suicide?
Religious inscription leads some Imperial Officials to think Famous Android designer and Bio-geneticist was killed by cult rather then suicide.
Doctor Robert S Jefferson was found dead in his office this afternoon, shot once through the left temple with a class 4 Military-type mass driver. What was originally viewed as a suicide became slightly more puzzling when the investigators finished cleaning the blood off what they thought was a suicide note and discovered a religious incantation. This has led the Imperial Security Forces to suspect the Doctor was murdered by a radical religious cult for his research into the genetic mutations that have become common in modern humans and his work on Android Sentience.
When asked about the murder/suicide, Religious Leader Pope Godfrey had this to say, “Doctor Jefferson was a blasphemer of the worst kind, he tried to become God by creating sentient life. His death will not be mourned by the Church, but it was not condoned by it. I pray that the incantation was written by his hand and that he repented his sins before ending his life.”
His death has set off riots across the Empire and in rebel systems. Scientists are refusing to accept that one of their leaders would ever write an incantation, especially the stoically atheistic Jefferson. The leader of the Imperial Board of Science called for a full investigation.
Jefferson was the Director of Genetic Research on the Imperial Board, as well as founder of the Cybernetic Development Company and Genetic Anomaly Laboratory. He wrote over fifty books including “Genetic Mutation; Humanity’s Future” and “Cybernetic Life: When a mechanic becomes a doctor, and a machine a person.”
‘Finally dead you old hack.’ Thomas thought, ‘but still causing trouble’. He also received orders to contain the rioting on New Celtic. ‘Through non-lethal force, subdue the individuals that are disturbing the peace and tranquility of the world, be prepared for a request to extract Tribune James Murdoch from his compound on the southern continent if disturbance increases to dangerous levels.’
“Set course to New Celtic, full slipstream.” The admiral said as he sat in his chair and held on. A bolt of light erupted in front of the sixteen mile long dreadnought as the ship tore a hole between layers of normal space. Then it forced its bulk into the gap and vanished, the hole sealed behind the huge drive system. A split second later, the ship burst out of the slipstream just outside the gravitational pull of a binary star. The ship fired up its hyper drive system and moved closer to the blue-green planet in the middle of the gravity belt.
“Lieutenant, prepare to extract the Tribune and cleanse the planet of its disturbance.” The admiral said with a twisted smile that made his emerald green eyes flicker with evil. “I don’t really care who dies and who lives, just so long as no one on this world ever thinks about fighting back again.”
So… What do ya think? Dark, demented… creepy mostly homicidal characters… oh yeah, and JAX!
