Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

The Katti's Chosen

"Do your choices hold sway over your life? Does fate? Maybe both."

Somewhere in Elibean Space…

The room was pitch black. Suddenly, a bright beam of light forming a cone blinked into existence. It illuminated a patch of the black, reflective flooring upon which a brown haired young man wearing a tan poncho stood. His head was cast down and his eyes were closed.

"Disciple Mark," a booming voice announced, echoing throughout the rest of the unseen chamber. The young man in the cone of light opened his eyes and looked up, silently waiting for the voice to continue. "You, among all your class, showed the most promise… and exhibit the most insolence. Your latest grievance has cost you dearly and as a result you face the greatest of punishments. How do you plead?"

Mark stood still, his amber eyes contemplative as he formed the words in his head. "Magistrate," he said after the pause. His tenor voice echoed throughout the chamber much like the Magistrates, but didn't carry as far. "I will accept my punishment. However, I believe I have the right to speak my peace before your judgment is handed down. May I do so?"

"You may."

"I came here with the knowledge that I was better at everything than everyone around me. I learned quickly that was not the case when I arrived. Insolent, as you say, I always put up a fight, attempting to hold my ground. Yet that was not an attempt to get free of this academy, but to learn by trial and error. And I paid very close attention.

"My latest actions, however, are not born of my inability to keep up. Nay, after countless hours of study and practice, I feel as if I've learned everything I can. But I desire for more. I need to know more. That is the source of my… insolence now. That is all."

The room fell silent after Mark finished speaking. The few moments of silence stretched into minutes. Murmurs could be heard coming from someplace farther into the room that was not illuminated at all.

"We have decided on your punishment, Mark Alastrian," the Magistrate said. Mark arched an eyebrow. Not 'Disciple Mark', but his full name? He silently wondered what this meant. "You shall be stripped of your title within the Academy and be expelled. You shall never again find your way here. However…"

Mark stopped his move to leave. There was more? This was unexpected. He waited patiently for the Magistrate to speak.

A couple hours later, Mark stood in the passenger compartment of a commercial travel shuttle. The windows to the outside were whitened out to ensure he couldn't see where he was, just like it'd been on the way in. Back then this shuttle was full of excited students, each picked by mysterious head hunters roaming the galaxy searching for prospective students of the Tactical Academy of Silence.

Now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure that was its real name. Not that it mattered in the end. He was still expelled and no longer was he their student. No, now… He looked down and read the piece of paper in his hands again, not entirely sure he'd ever absorb the words fully.

'You are here by expelled from the Academy and promoted to Special Class Tactician. You can no longer credit anyone but yourself for your abilities, and as such have not a name behind your talent to vouch for you. You may not use our name, not that you could if you tried, to achieve any position or office in any of the Spaces.

As Special Class Tactician, your destiny is your own, but your training is ours. You will always be one of us, even if you're no longer with us. You've been granted your freedom in exchange for your life long service. In pursuit of that which you professed, your mission is to use what you have learned as you see fit. Grow in power, wisdom, and courage until you're peerless. Only then can you honor yourself and the house that trained you.

And don't die.'

"That's a hell of a way to graduate," Mark muttered as he let his hand drop back into his lap with the letter. He sat in his seat, not sure what to think or feel. After a while though, his mind settled on what happened at the trial.

The expulsion was expected, it was why he'd acted out. But the title came out of left field. He hadn't expected that and that's probably the one thing that irked him the most. The elders had seen right through his plan to force them to expel him and turned it around on him.

"I suppose that's why they're elders," he muttered to himself with a grimace. He knew now that they'd beaten him long before even calling him to trial. "I knew they were holding back. But now what am I supposed to do? I can't go back and ask them to teach me, so… I guess there's only the long way left now. Stupid elders."

"We'll be arriving at Port Badon, perimeter Planet of the Lycian States," the captain announced over the intercom. "There will likely be a twenty minute baggage inspection period and you'll need to go through customs so have your passport ready. Other than that, have a safe journey. I'm not sure what you did, kid, but you're the first one to be expelled that didn't end up in a body bag. Good luck."

Mark arched his eyebrow. "A body bag? I wonder… Oh well," a grin suddenly split Mark's face. "I'll have the last laugh anyway when the elders find that little gift I left them. They won't be able to get rid of the smell for at least a couple years."

Planet Caelin, Capital of Caelin State, Lycian Space

"Chief Wallace, Lieutenant Truestrike and Divo are here."

"Thank you Victoria. Please send them in."

A buxom woman in a slimming blue dress with long blond tresses that flowed over her shoulders like a yellow waterfall pressed down a key on the computer console in front of her and said, "Yes chief." After she released the button, she looked up from her computer console and nodded at the two men standing in front of her desk. The two nodded back, turned, and walked into the Chief of Police's office.

"Sir, you wanted to see us?"

The Chief, a balding man in his fifties with graying side burns, looked up at the red haired man who'd spoken. He nodded and motioned for the two men to sit down in the office chairs in front of his desk. "Yes, Kent, I wanted you and Sain specifically because I know I can trust you."

"Trust us?" Sain asked. He pushed his unruly light brown hair away from his eyes with a swipe of his hand and gave the chief a lopsided questioning look. "Whatever could that mean?"

"Be quiet and let me finish," the chief snapped. Sain grinned sheepishly in response to the stern look the chief and Kent were giving him. "Yes, despite you're inability to be serious Sain, you can be trusted. And Kent, you're as dutiful and loyal to the law as any officer could hope to be. That's why I've chosen you for this mission."

"A mission that sounds like it's not official police work," Kent observed.

"It is, actually," the chief said. "Though not by the usual measure nor standards. As you both know, Governor Hausen is dying. His brother and Vice-Governor, Ludgren, has been filling in for him daily basis, but it's only a matter of time until the old man kicks the bucket."

"Excuse me sir," Kent said, "but I fail to see how politics are any of our business. While it's horrible that the Governor is dying, there isn't anything we can do about it. We're just police officers."

"What's with all the questions? It is our official duty to the state of Caelin to look to the safety of the elected governor and his immediate family," the mildly irritated chief said, "and I bet neither of you knew that Governor Hausen had a daughter." The surprised expressions on Kent and Sain's faces made the chief grin. "The truth is that his daughter was born of an illicit union. As a politician, Governor Hausen couldn't let that kind of information get out, it would ruin him. But that didn't stop him from being a father to the girl up until she ran away from home when she turned eighteen. He disowned her."

"And now we're going to have to go out and find this missing daughter because the governor is having a crisis of conscience on his deathbed," said Sain. He snorted derisively and shook his head. "Lovely. Pray tell, we have a direction to go in? A lead perhaps?"

"Actually," the chief said, "the Governor received a letter from his daughter, Madelyn, just recently." Chief Wallace picked up a stack of papers and held it out to Kent. He grabbed it and the chief continued, "She had apparently eloped with a Sacean Noble and went off to live with him. They had a daughter named after the Governor's late wife, Lyndis. The Governor said he would like to see his daughter and her family at least once before he goes, and because of the sensitivity of the issue, this must remain secret. Hence the Governor asked that I find two officers that could be trusted and send them to fetch his daughter and her family."

"I see," Kent said. His head was bowed as he looked over the papers. "I believe that we don't have a lot of time left to find her from the way you describe it, sir. Was there a specific place in the Sacean Expanse that the Governor's daughter said to find her?"

"Unfortunately," Chief Wallace said, "no. But she did say who she married and noble Saceans usually have large fleets with predetermined flight patterns across the Expanse. If you go to several of the key ports of call in the Expanse, you should be able to pick up the fleet's trail, or if you're extremely lucky, you'll run right into them. I listed the ports that you should look into first on one of the sheets I just gave you."

"Right then," Sain said as he pushed himself from the office chair. "Let's get going, partner. Can't keep the Governor waiting, can we?"

"One last thing," Chief Wallace said as Kent stood from his chair. "I don't have any proof or anything, but something isn't right about this situation. Don't tell anyone where you're going, if you have to say something, say it's a business trip to Ostia. I'll cover for you on this end. But keep this assignment on the down low."

The two gave the chief a nod to acknowledge what he said and left his office. As they passed Victoria's desk, Sain gave her a wink. Her response was a deadpan stare. Kent noticed the stare and without even looking over, smacked Sain upside the back of his head. He smiled as Sain started complaining while rubbing his head and Victoria giggled.

"Off on another adventure," Sain said once they reached their desks. "This one should be fun. I hear Ostia's a great place to be this time of year."

"You're going to Ostia?" asked someone down the other end of the room.

"How can Murkowski hear me talking from all the way over there?" Sain whispered as he waved a thumbs up at whoever had asked the question.

"Could it be that you're obnoxiously loud?" Kent asked. "Or that you announce everything so that anyone two blocks away can hear you with perfect clarity?"

Sain pouted as he stuffed several sheets of paper into his leather briefcase. "I'm not that loud. You're just jealous that I'm more handsome that you."

Kent rolled his eyes as he finished organizing the papers on his desk and stood up. He grimaced at the myriad of disorganized assignment forms, reports, magazines, newspapers, letters, and bills piled upon Sain's desk. He wished, not for the first time, that his neatness had rubbed off on his partner.

"All ready?" Sain asked, wrapping an arm over Kent's shoulder. Kent gave him a look which Sain interpreted as a positive response. Kent rolled his eyes when Sain's response was a stupid grin. How had this man ever made it into the police academy?

As they walked into the elevator which would automatically take them to street level, Sain asked, "Why do I feel like we're shortly going to be running for our lives?"

Kent sighed and finally shoved Sain off of him. "You heard the Chief. If he thinks something's not right, then there's probably something going on that we can't fully see until we're in the thick of it."

"Yay…" Sain's unenthusiastic response drew a snort out of Kent. "Well I for one hope the Chief just had too much of his wife's cooking last night. I want an easy mission for once so that I can have some time to myself. These latest cases have been killing me."

"You mean so you can get back to your floozies?"

"Hey," Sain reached out, grabbed Kent by the shoulder, and then started to shake his finger at him. "They're not all floozies. Just the ones I meet Monday through Sunday." Kent laughed but before he could respond, Sain continued. "Do you have that list the chief gave you? Where do we go first?"

Kent pulled the sheet of paper out of his brief case and looked over it again. "The first name on the list is Port Bulgar near the Sacean/Lycian Intersect."

"Bulgar… sounds like a good place to pick up a few barmaids."

Kent scowled. "Is that all you think of, you buffoon."

Sain grinned wolfishly and replied, "A man's got needs, you know?"

"I'll show you needs," Kent grumbled as the elevator finally reached the end of the 53 flight drop to ground level. "I've got some things to take care of before we go. I'll meet you at the spaceport."

Sain saluted and started walking. Kent shook his head and went the opposite way.

A/N: And here we have the end of this little plot set up. Clearly, something is going down in the upper echelons of power in Caelin, but never fear, the peerless officers of the law Kent and Sain are on the case! With their efforts... well, with Kent's the day will be saved. Let's be honest, Sain would be a lousy cop without someone to hold his leash. I'm basing Sain off of a combo of his game version and Tony DiNozzo from NCIS. They're pretty similar, though DiNozzo is more cop than knight and that fits my story better than Sain's game persona. If you've not seen NCIS before, and I highly recommend it, new episodes can usually be seen on Tuesdays on CBS. Old Episodes are always being rerun somewhere. Plus, there's always the Internets!

Next Chapter: More introductions. Lyndis' Legion is slowly being revealed!

Thanks for reading. Constructive criticism and comments welcome.