Once A Warrior King

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I own neither Farscape or Hammer's Slammers, but you already knew that, didn't you? Rating: Pretty much K, or K+. I'll let you know if it changes. Time: Not too long after A Matter of Intelligence.

Frederic de Gautier.

"I should have thought we'd have been invited to the negotiations with Count von Brunswick's representative, sir."

Admiral Darlan shook his head. "No, my boy. It's not really our business. King Gustav is in charge of this planet as an ally of Marshal O'Donnell. And to hell with those Peacekeepers on the other side of town. Now von Brunswick's little domain is officially a client state of King Gustav's. We have nothing to say about affairs on this planet, although Gustav and we are both now allies of the Marshal. We do get the outer moon of New Gotland to set up a naval base and we get to fortify the inner moon as a partner of Gustav's. We get one hundred percent of the big moon and fifty percent of the little one. That's really all we need. We lack the troops and the expertise to try to run anything dirtside."

The outer moon was some four hundred thousand kilometers out and had a circumference of some ten thousand kilometers. It had once had mines, factories, homes and God knew what else, but like everything else in this solar system it had all been shot to bits in the past wars. There was nothing useful there now.

The inner moon orbited about twelve hundred kilometers up and was a couple of hundred kilometers in diameter. It was also so shot up as to be useless.

"As you wish, sir. But I'd feel better knowing more about von Brunswick. His reputation back in the Old Universe was…odd."

Darlan beamed at me. "Ah, but you are going to meet von Brunswick, Frederic. As part of the deal, Mr. Vergaah and King Gustav wish to inspect von Brunswick's forces to make sure they're as advertised. He also says he has a present for the Marshall, Lady Chiana and Professor Hovalis. I have no idea what that might be, but I asked that a representative of mine go along, and you're him. Gustav's sending a dozen or so people top look over the operation. Colonel O'Donnell, Lady Chiana, Professor Hovalis are also going along with Dominar Rygel's representatives, Baron Crichton and Baroness Sun. A lander from HFCS Waspwill drop down and ferry the whole team over. Be ready to go at 0900 local, Frederic."

I wondered briefly what kind of present von Brunswick could give to those three different persons. "Could I take Corporal Zoeller with me, sir?"

Darlan laughed. "Do you plan to scare someone into giving away secrets, Frederic? Oh, by all means take your tame savage with you."

Zoeller was a savage. He had been born on some godforsaken lost colony out beyond the bounds of civilization that had regressed to the Iron Age by the time humans had found the colony again. Zoeller had somehow managed to enlist in the Second Foreign Infantry Regiment in spite of being illiterate and innumerate. I had found him when l'Insurgente joined us and found to my surprise that under that blond Mohawk haircut and tribally scarred face was a very intelligent and subtle mind. He was also useful when I had to play "good intelligence officer, bad intelligence officer" when I was interrogating someone.

I saluted the admiral and walked back to my office.

"Zoeller, what are you doing?" I called as I walked in.

"Reading, sir."

Five years as a grognard had given Zoeller a very basic understanding of letters and numbers, but since he began working for me, he read at every opportunity to improve himself. Alas, if he kept at it, he'd probably end up as my boss.

"Well, we both have some reading to do. We're going off to visit Count von Brunswick, and I want us to know everything about him that's in our intelligence archives. So get to it."

We spent several hours reading the intelligence we had on von Brunswick, which was very little actually. Then I turned in and Zoeller kept reading.

"What are you reading?" I asked.

"The Influence of Space Power on History, sir."

He would end up as my boss.

The next morning we were at the spaceport waiting for the heavily armed lander from Wasp to get ready to fly us to von Brunswick's new home.

"May I ask a question, sir?"

"Of course, Zoeller. You may always ask me a question."

"It's about Baron Crichton and Baroness Sun. I know they're here representing Dominar Rygel, but they don't seem to do anything."

An astute observation. One I had thought about myself. I shrugged. "Difficult to say, Corporal. It may be that they're just aristocratic hangers-on, however, their histories would seem to be against that. My theory is that they're just here to observe and report back to the Dominar. We're a very long way from Rygel's domains, but he'll be interested in what the Viceroy of his Frontier Province is doing in his capacity as Human Forces Commander. As long as Marshal O'Donnell isn't planning a coup against the Dominar or starting a fight against an enemy who might take it out on Hyneria, I doubt they'll do much. Just watch and listen."

One of the Wasp's marines came out and waved us aboard. There was a platoon of marines already on board, in addition to Zoeller and I, von Tarlenheim, the Baron and Baroness, Lady Chiana, Professor Hovalis and Colonel O'Donnell.

Von Brunswick's domain was a string of islands nearly a thousand kilometers south of us. I settled down while Zoeller pulled out a reader.

We were approaching the island of Choofen, where von Brunswick had his headquarters when Baron Crichton suddenly called out, "Hey, wait a sec. Can we go down? I think we should look at that."

Von Tarlenheim looked nervous, but agreed that we could land. "The Count has nothing to hide, Baron Crichton."

Everyone has something to hide, but I saw no need to contradict him.

We landed on a small island covered in vegetation. A quick look when I walked out of the lander indicated the vegetation wasn't natural, but had been planted. That the Count did indeed have something to hide was confirmed for me when a half a dozen armed guards approached our lander. Von Tarlenheim quickly shooed them away, but they maintained a close watch on us.

"What is it, John?"

Crichton pulled a bulbous pod from the top of one of the plants. "I know this plant. It's from Earth."

I leaned over for a closer look. I didn't recognize the plant. I shrugged. "Is there some reason Count von Brunswick shouldn't grow Earth plants here?"

Crichton gave me an odd look. "You've lived a sheltered life, grasshopper. This is an opium poppy."

Baroness Sun sighed. "And an ooh-pee-um poo-py is?"

"A powerful narcotic for humans." Zoeller replied.

"Yeah, and now we're dealing with Tony Montana and his little friend." Crichton adopted an odd accent for the last part of that sentence. I was about to ask who this Montana was when von Tarlenheim started explaining that the opium was a medicine and had been for millennia.

Zoeller cut him off. "Historically, opium and its derivatives have been used as pain killers. However, it's been centuries since that was the case. It's been replaced by medicines that are non-addictive and far more effective."

Von Tarlenheim interrupted. "For humans. Yes, for humans. But we sell the…product to Delvians. It's purely medicinal, I assure you."

We allowed ourselves to be herded back into the lander by von Tarlenheim and went on our merry way.

We landed at the small spaceport at Choofen City where Count von Brunswick met us and took us immediately to a parade of his forces.

Von Brunswick's tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery and other vehicles rumbled past us for better than an arn while a military band played. During a period of relative quiet while locally recruited light infantry were marching by the reviewing stand, von Brunswick told us that his dealings in opium were quite legitimate and promised to have a Delvian scientist explain everything to us. Of course, having no specialists in medicine or biology with us, it would be easy for a Delvian to pull the wool over our eyes.

After the parade, von Brunswick took us back to his palace, which really was much nicer than King Gustav's for drinks, dinner and lovely young women, whom I was positive could be very accommodating. I nudged Zoeller. "You can look at them, but no more. I assume that all of them work for von Brunswick's intelligence or secret police. They're all walking honey traps, Zoeller."

He nodded. "I had assumed so, sir."

The Count hauled out his pet Delvian who was immediately set upon by Professor Hovalis. I understood about the first three words of her first sentence and then she and the Delvian went over to a corner of the room. Apparently we did have a biologist in our little group. I'd have to pay closer attention to the beautiful red head. She was quite an expert on many things, it seemed.

In half an hour she rejoined our little group. "I've talked to Tollis, he's Brunswick's pharmacology expert. From the sound of it, his claim that the human plants are for medicinal use is true. They're bought by a race about twenty light cycles from here. They have three sexes and this opium is apparently a cure for some sort of barrenness in one of the sexes. But, we should check this out further."

"Yeah," Crichton concurred. "We don't want people thinking we're the Cali cartel or something."

I was learning about Baron Crichton's use of outdated Earth terms. I'd have to try to find out what some of them meant, if I had the time.

Von Brunswick rung a little bell and smiled at us. "My friends, it is time now for me to give you the present that I promised the lovely Colonel O'Donnell, Lady Chiana d'Nebari and Professor Hovalis." He gestured to his right and, on cue an armed guard came out leading some poor wretch by a control collar.

Even at thirty feet, it was obvious he hadn't bathed for a very long while. His only garment, a bit of cloth wrapped around his waist was stained with excretions. His hair and beard were untrimmed and matted with filth. His skinny frame showed no signs of beatings, but he hadn't been eating well.

Von Brunswick stood there with a smile on his face while the three ladies looked on with a mixture of revulsion and curiosity. Why would this man be of any interest to them?

Suddenly Lady Chiana screamed and lunged at the prisoner. "You bastard!" She yelled and kicked the man in his crotch. He fell to the floor in agony while Chiana kept kicking him.

Finally, Baroness Sun pulled the slight Nebari of the prisoner. "Chiana! What the frell are you doing?"

Chiana turned around in Sun's grip. "I'm paying him back for what he did to Jool and me, that's what I'm doing. He raped us and I'm going to do everything back to him that he did to us."

I glanced over at the Interion. Her hair had turned flame red. She took a step towards the man and then stopped.

"Go ahead, Princess." Chiana yelled. "Go ahead. Kick him."

Slowly she shook her head. "No. I won't lower myself to his level."

"I frelling well will." Chiana screamed while twisting unsuccessfully in the baroness' grip.

"That's Knowles." Jool said quietly.

"Sir Robert Knowles?" I asked. "The mercenary commander from the planet Jalo? But he's dead."

Von Brunswick beamed. "Not at all, Lieutenant de Gautier. When Admiral Cervera's forces over ran Jalo, Knowles came to me for help. He was willing to pay a great deal of money for safe passage off the planet. He has many enemies in both Universes. He did not know then that I am one of them."

Colonel O'Donnell stepped forward. "Thank you, Count. Marshal O'Donnell has had a score to settle with Knowles for many years. Back when my father led only an over-sized battalion, Knowles captured some of our wounded we'd left behind on a neutral planet to recover. Knowles wanted to sell the medicines we'd left for them. He took them and many of our wounded died. He'll be court-martialed under the Rules of War."

"You have no jurisdiction over me." Knowles cried from the floor. "You can't touch me."

The Colonel smiled, a not particularly encouraging smile. "I doubt if our courts will agree with you, but if they do, I can always turn you over to Lady Chiana, or to the civilians on Jalo."

Baroness Sun released her hold on Chiana and let the Nebari kick the prone prisoner in the ribs. I definitely heard a rib crack before Sun pulled her off.

Corporal Zoeller whispered in my ear. "Isn't the treatment of this prisoner quite a violation of the Rules of War, sir?"

I shrugged. "Knowles is more of a criminal than a soldier. He spent his career descending on helpless planets, robbing them blind and then massacring the populations out of spite when they ran out of valuables and money. If you should care to be his defense counsel, of course, I could talk to Colonel O'Donnell."

Zoeller laughed quietly. "I think not, sir. I was just curious."

Once we were back aboard the lander, I called Zoeller over to a quiet corner. "As ground pounder, what did you think of the good Count's little army? They looked quite impressive on parade, at least."

Zoeller pulled a face. "I tried to get away to take a close look at their vehicles, maybe talk to some of the troops, but every time I did, some flunky or another would shoo me back. All I can tell you is that his weaponry is modern and well maintained, and the troops seem to be well trained and disciplined. How they'd perform for real, I can't tell you."

He paused for a second and went on. "One thing about his locally recruited light infantry, though. A lot of people, in both universes, don't entirely trust their local auxiliaries. The Count's locals have weapons as good as his human troops and they appear to be familiar with them. I'd guess they're pretty good troops."

I worked on preparing my report to the admiral for the rest of the ride back.

I had finished the rough draft of my report by the time we got back. To my surprise, Ensign Coucy was waiting at the spaceport with an air cushion jeep. He saluted me formally. "The Admiral wants to see you at once, sir." He motioned for me to get in the jeep.

"What is it, Giles?" I was a little mystified.

"I don't know, sir. Please, just get in. The Admiral is waiting with both King Gustav and Mr. Vergaah."

I got in the jeep and on the ride back to the palace I went through the list of my possible transgressions. An intelligence office is always doing something that someone won't like. If he's doing his job properly, that is.

Coucy led me into the throne room and then into the operations center. There I found King Gustav, Queen Christina, Mr. Vergaah and Admiral Darlan.

"There you are, my boy." Darlan said with just a bit too much jollity in his voice. I guessed I wasn't in trouble with him. Yet.

"Please sit down, Lieutenant." That was King Gustav, very businesslike and gruff. I sat.

Gustav went on. "We have been contacted by a ship that has entered our system and is presently sitting at the edge of our system. Just outside of the range of our sensors so we are unable to determine exactly what kind of ship were dealing with." He stopped, as if expecting a reply from me.

"Surely ships come here, Your Majesty." I had absolutely no idea what this was about.

"It's a Peacekeeper ship." Mr. Vergaah added, unhelpfully.

"Perhaps they wish to visit Captain Cilo?" I ventured. What the devil was this?

"The Peacekeeper captain asked specifically to talk to Captain de Gautier, the Commander of HFCS Bethesda."

"Ah." I thought I knew what this was about. "In my report, Admiral, I mentioned that I ran into a Senior Lieutenant Lyssa Tarpa at Karraid." I explained my mission to Karraid and how I had run into the Lieutenant.

Queen Christina grinned. "We have received no visuals, but from her voice I suspect that the officer is an attractive young lady. Did you perhaps exaggerate your rank to impress her, Lieutenant?"

I grinned back at her. "I am not above lying to an attractive woman, but in this case I did not. She simply made a wrong assumption."

Gustav growled at me. "Then this Peacekeeper officer should only command a scout? Hardly a threat to the warships here, unless she's here to do a reconnaissance of this system and its defenses."

"I believe that it would be a good thing to let everyone in the area know that there is a powerful human task force based here, Your Highness." Mr. Vergaah said lightly. "I think we should invite her to come and meet with…Captain de Gautier here."

Gustav glared at one and all, then the Queen spoke. "I agree. Don't you my dear?"

Gustav began to glare at her, then nodded sheepishly. "Yes."

When our little meeting was over, Darlan took me aside in an alcove in the palace. "I'm sorry, Frederic. I hadn't carefully read all of your report. The part about the Peacekeeper officer you met slipped my mind."

One does hope ones words are read with great interest by ones commanders. One is often disappointed. "Why were King Gustav and Mr. Vergaah so upset, sir?"

"Gustav mostly was upset. Having lost a complete planet before, he's a bit paranoid about losing this one. He was afraid we were having dealings with the Peacekeepers behind his back. You weren't, were you?"

"Of course not, sir."

Next morning I sat with our staff officers, Gustav's officers and the Human Forces Command staff, watching Lieutenant Tarpa be interrogated, oh so politely, by Mr. Vergaah. "You wish to defect from the Peacekeepers to Human Forces Command, Lieutenant?"

"I have little choice in the matter, sir." She replied tartly.

"Um." Vergaah said softly. "Little choice in the matter? That's perhaps not the best reason for joining us, is it?"

Lyssa colored slightly. "Allow me to explain. My Sector Commander, based in the Keilan-Borta system, Admiral Olan, has tried to avoid the factionalism that has overtaken the Peacekeepers in the past twenty five cycles or so. The loss of the resources of the Hynerian Empire when Bishan was overthrown, the loss of the major Delvian worlds, the collapse of our alliance with the Luxans, and the arrival of humans in this New Universe, as you call it, has led to extreme strains on the Peacekeepers. The major factions, the Scorpius faction, Grayza's faction, the Loyal Fleet Association, the Control Group, not to mention officers who have gone rogue…" Lyssa stopped for a moment. "Well, the Peacekeepers are hardly a unified group as we once were."

Baroness Sun snorted. "This is hardly a new phenomenon, Lieutenant. When my husband first arrived in this end of the Galaxy, Captain Crais was perfectly willing to ignore Command's orders so he could pursue a personnel vendetta. Scorpius and Grayza are also known to me, and believe me…"

"Yes, yes, Baroness." Lyssa said shortly. "But things were never as bad as they are now."

She stopped and stared at the assembled officers. Hmm! Did her eyes linger for just a second on me? She had been told that I was the task force's intelligence officer and not a ship's captain, of course.

She went on. "Admiral Olan avoided commitment to any of the factions. Of course, he got no support from any of them. Our ships never got needed spare parts, we never got replacement personnel, no new ships were assigned to us. We got nothing."

"Then five solar days ago, a command carrier, loyal to Vice-Chancellor Grayza, arrived in our solar system. Our most powerful ship was a patrol cruiser, no match for the Cielindo which is commanded by an Admiral Bastains. Bastains used to be a junior captain, but apparently Grayza promoted him to his present rank on her own authority.

"The Cielindo came to your system?" That was Baroness Sun. "I took my flight training in Prowlers on the Cielindo. She was obsolete then and was little better than a hulk the last I heard of her. Grayza must be scraping the bottom of the barrel if she's reduced to putting that old wreck back in service."

Lyssa nodded. "She has benefitted from the spare parts and replacements that should have gone to us. She's only two thirds the size of a modern command carrier, but she could easily destroy our ships. Admiral Olan was ordered aboard Cielindo with his senior officers. They were all executed. The officers of all our other ships were ordered to come aboard Cielindo or their ships would be destroyed. Two monitors tried to escape and they were destroyed."

"Monitors?" asked Gustav.

Admiral Darlan answered. "Our term for a common type of Peacekeeper escort ship, similar in function to our destroyers. But destroyers are fast, well armed and lightly armored. Monitors are slow, well armed and heavily armored."

"And you escaped to come here because…?" Mr. Vergaah interjected smoothly.

"Admiral Olan had ordered my ship to the very edge of the solar system, with her engines powered down and not using any kind of active sensors. My orders were to observe. After what I observed, I had no desire to be executed or to serve that tralk Grayza, I came here."

"Does anyone know that you were at the edge of your solar system and what you observed? Or that you came to us?" Mr. Vergaah asked.

Lyssa shook her head. "I believe that the staff officers that knew of my assignment were among those executed. I don't know if they advised anyone else. Since I had no idea I would end up here, no one back in the Keilan-Borta system could possibly know I'm here."

"Hmm." Mr. Vergaah smiled ever so slightly. "Do you think that Vice-Chancellor Grayza will be content with her new conquest, or will she have ordered this Bastains and the Cielindo to try to add more, particularly Captain Cilo's little group, to her domains?"

Lyssa didn't need any time at all to think that one over. "She'll want to add this planet to her domains. It's common knowledge among the Peacekeepers that King Gustav is here, but I'm quite sure that Grayza has no idea that a human task force is based here. I'm sure Bastains will come here expecting to find only the limited planet based defenses that King Gustav has."

"Dear me." Mr. Vergaah said with a smile. "I think we should prepare for a visit. And a surprise." He turned back to Lyssa. "Lieutenant, I believe that a place can easily be found for you and your crew with Admiral Darlan's task force. In the meantime, if you will excuse us, we do need to prepare for our visitors."

One of Gustav's soldiers led Lyssa out. As she left, she ran her eyes across the assembled officers. Did she look at me for just a brief second?

Many hours later I left the meeting. We had gone over every scrap of information available about the force that Grayza was about to send against us. Baroness Sun had been particularly useful in describing the strengths and weaknesses of the Cielindo. I wondered if perhaps she and Grayza had butted heads in the past as she seemed to have a pronounced dislike of the woman.

I trudged through Gustav's palace until at last I found myself at the doorway to humble quarters. Someone else was there.

"We need to talk. Inside." Lyssa gestured to my door. I happily let her in.

She stopped, turned and looked at me. Without warning she threw a punch at my head. Damn! Too much time spent behind a desk and not enough in the field. I moved too slowly and got a tremendous clout on my ear. I staggered backwards and did my best to drop into a fighting crouch. To my surprise, Lyssa just stood there with her hands on her hips.

"You lied to me."

"I did not."

"Yes you did. You told me you were a ship's captain. You're not."

I relaxed, but still kept a good distance between us. "I told you that my ship was the Bethesda. To a human, that would have implied only that I was from that ship. I did not say that I commanded her and I did not lie to you."

She glared at me. "You told the Luxan you were the captain. "

I nodded. "I freely admit to lying to the Luxan. I'm an intelligence officer. We do lie. Don't Peacekeepers lie on occasion? And if you choose to eavesdrop on another's conversations, I can't be held responsible for what you hear or how you interpret it."

"So you're saying this is my fault?"

"Exactly."

Lyssa's face was starting to redden. I prepared for another punch. To my surprise, she pulled her shirt over her head and pushed her bra along with it. As I had suspected, her breasts were small, but very firm. Her stiff pink nipples were poking up nicely. She walked over to my bed, sat and began to take off her boots. She glared at me again. "Do you expect me to take off your clothes, too?"

How could one resist such a romantic invitation?

An hour later we were cuddling among the tangled covers of my bed. Her hair had come undone from the braid she wore it in. It was long, blonde and very fine. I was enjoying playing with it.

"What will become of me?" she asked suddenly.

"You'll end up working for me, I'm sure."

"As your tralk?" she said disdainfully.

"Not at all. I'm the chief intelligence officer for the task force. A genuine Peacekeeper scout, crewed by genuine Peacekeepers will be very useful for keeping an eye on areas that we don't want people to know we are interested in. Eventually, of course, word will get out that there's a Peacekeeper scout serving with us, but even then, no one will know if you're commanding that Peacekeepers' scout for us, or if your ship is really from one of the Peacekeeper factions."

I stroked her hair a bit more. She still seemed tense. "We're somewhat familiar with local technology. We can tweak your ship's engines and sensors and increase your stealthyness considerably."

"Steel- thinness?" She said uncertainly.

"We'll make you harder to detect."

"Peacekeepers aren't afraid of being detected by their enemies."

"Considering your ship's weaponry, you should."

She snorted.

I went on. "Admiral Darlan will confirm your rank. We don't have a rank of Senior Lieutenant, so you'll end up a lieutenant like me. Your crew will also be given whatever ranks are similar to ours. We will need your input in that, Lyssa. As members of the Imperial French Navy, and an ally of Human Forces Command, you'll be paid as we are, promoted as we are, in short treated just like the rest of us."

She turned and looked up at me. She stared for a long time. Finally, she spoke. "I don't know how to say this."

All sorts of horrible thoughts raced through my mind. However, I smiled at her. "Just begin talking. That would be best, I think."

"I was raised as a Peacekeeper. I was born on a command carrier. I never thought of being anything else but a Peacekeeper. Nothing else seemed possible for me. Eventually, I realized that the things had changed. The idealized view of the Peacekeepers I had grown up with was no longer there. People like Grayza and Scorpius and others had changed what we were. All that mattered to them was power."

"There are also humans like that, Lyssa. "I said. No sense in giving her the wrong impression of humanity.

"I now find myself no longer a Peacekeeper and in a situation I never imagined myself in. Nothing in my training prepared me for this." She stopped and shook her head briefly. "Oh, I know. Baroness Sun managed the same thing a generation ago. As did Aida Borzon, who is now the Vice-Marshal of Human Forces Command, and her adopted daughter. And other Peacekeepers, I know. But this is me. Just me."

She stopped and looked up at me very seriously. Finally, "I need a friend. Not just someone to recreate with, or an acquaintance. I need a friend. Someone to help me. To explain things to me. To…to…to… to do I don't know what. I've never had that kind of friend. Peacekeepers just don't have that kind of a relationship."

A human woman in this situation would have been crying by now. Lyssa looked more like she'd like to take another punch at me. I stroked her hair some more. "You know, I met a woman once who thought I might be interesting. I think she may have been right. I think that you are interesting as well."

I put my most serious look on my face. "Mind you, I'm still your immediate superior. Friendship in those circumstances can only go so far. Do you understand that?"

"Yes sir." She smiled and saluted me. "But I wouldn't want my friend to think that I have no interest in having someone to recreate with, too." Her hand was sliding down my chest.