Lieutenant General Salomon entered the Military Headquarters with a little less weight on his back. After having completed low-key, rapid negotiations for the construction and delivery of 3,000 new Reserve-fueled drones with Drazhan Calvo—head of Calvo Industries, as well as younger brother to late head of the family Ellanher and uncle to his daughter and the new head of the family, Quirina—he felt much more secure. Acquiring them necessitated squeezing the farms and cities of Mars out of a little more tax money, but the return on investment would be profound once Terra’s northern agricultural lands were captured. Discussions with the Calvo family always tended to be skewed to one side due to their monopoly on military equipment manufacturing in the Empire and Salomon knew how greedy they were. However once the war was concluded, there would hopefully be no more need for their services.
A uniformed man with the badge of a first lieutenant ran towards the acting General, stopping to raise a hand to his head in salute.
“Sir!” he cried.
“What’s the matter, First Lieutenant?”
“I’ve come to let you know that the Procurement Unit has been searching for the training-relevant documents and materials as you requested. While looking through General Karesti’s office, we found something that is very strange.”
“Show me.” Fabian humbly ordered, and the lower-ranking soldier led him up several floors to the study of the most powerful person in the Empire.
Rhona never would’ve let anyone scour her personal space for any reason. However, personal boundaries are a second thought, now. I’m in charge at the moment. I know what’s important.
Entering through the arched double doors of the office, Fabian found a half dozen soldiers from the Procurement Unit in various corners of the room, either shuffling through digital documents on communicators huddled around the General’s desk or on their knees sorting through boxes of physical information. This was only one squad of the dozens that made up the Procurement Unit, an inconspicuous yet vital part of the Titanian Military whose role had only multiplied in importance since Emperor Haldor rose to power and destroyed most traces of Solich history.
The soldiers promptly shot up to their feet and offered their salutes to the General’s substitute.
“What was so strange that you could not have Lieutenant Colonel Antelius help you with?” Salomon said with an air of annoyance.
“He directed us to speak to you face-to-face,” the first lieutenant who brought him to the office explained. “You two, put that box up on the desk and show Major General Salomon why we were directed to him.”
Two soldiers placed a file storage box on the General’s desk and removed all the documents from it in an orderly fashion. It was clear that it either didn’t contain all the files it appeared it could hold or that it was somehow bigger than it actually looked. Salomon approached the box and peered inside. Instead of seeing a solid bottom, he was gazing at a surface with a thumb imprint in its centre.
“So it has a secret compartment…” Salomon stood straight, crossing his arms in front of him.
What would Rhona want to hide from everyone? No one would even dare look though her possessions in her presence, so why the extra level of security for this particular box?
“First Lieutenant.” he said.
“Yes, Lieutenant General?” the young man asked.
“Lieutenant Colonel Antelius must be in his own office right now. Please call him down here.”
“Yes, sir!” he said resolutely with the pride of any other Titanian soldier in the presence of his superior, and quickly called Maedoc who arrived about three minutes later.
“What did you call… sir!” the lieutenant colonel grumbled, before realising that the man he normally shadowed on a temporary basis was present, bringing his hand up to salute.
“Lieutenant Colonel Antelius,” Salomon stepped towards the door where Maedoc remained standing before a devious smile appeared on his lips. “How about we take a little trip?”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“To… where, sir?”
“To Queen Onora Hospital.”
--
In the four-minute hyper-speed drive to Xanadu City’s premier hospital, about 10 leagues away from the semi-distant Military Headquarters which was far from large settlements, Salomon could hardly contain his curiosity about the contents of the secret compartment. He thought he’d known Rhona the best of anyone in the Empire, having known her since her days at Heimat Academy two decades earlier, himself two classes higher than the General corresponding to their age difference. Being her student mentor and guiding her through the complicated and harsh system of martial education under Emperor Henrik’s rule, he thought it impossible that she would’ve hid anything from him.
Rhona’s room in the hospital named after her mother had a door manned by no less than eight heavily armed soldiers. Not as much as Team Zero so as to not draw too much attention, but these were not run-of-the-mill soldiers either. These were mercenaries hired by Central Council to guard her, and as with any mercenary they were former soldiers who had parted from the Military in favour of superior compensation usually in the capacity of mine guards on Titan, sentinels watching over the farms on south Yeupis and Mars, keeping eyes on slaves being transported in north Yeupis, or being the bodyguards of the many politically and financially important figures of the Empire. This assignment would be the grand exception in their careers, an effort on the part of Central Council to reduce conflicts of interest that would occur had they chosen the Empire’s own soldiers to their liking.
“Lieutenant General Fabian Salomon coming through, make way!” Antelius cried on the man’s behalf, prompting the mercenaries to shift away from double doors leading to the room.
The two men entered the room, being welcomed by bright fluorescent light emitting from rods of Utrium fixed to the ceilings. The beeping of a heart monitor and barely audible dripping of an IV system could be discerned from behind a series of three curtains that cordoned off the back-centre of the room. Maedoc had activated his Detection beforehand and picked up three presences inside the cover of the curtains. He showed that number of fingers to Salomon who acknowledged it with a quiet grunt. The acting General stepped forward and pushed aside the curtain nearest to him.
Besides the figure they expected laying in the hospital bed—wearing a set of pajamas instead of an ordinary gown to accommodate her unique injury and a purpose-built device that covered her midriff to hold together her healing viscera and deliver medication directly to that region—two other women sat at her bedside.
“I hadn’t expected to see you here, Princess Ninon,” Salomon smiled at the younger of the two women, before turning to the other. “You as well, Alda.”
Ninon appeared quite similar to Rhona, except that her own face had a slightly wider shape, and its features were not quite as sharp, but she was considered pleasant looking regardless.
“Lieutenant General Salomon, what brings you here? It’s really good to see you.” Ninon stood up as her maid followed her and simply bowed her head in greeting.
“Please, if you must, call me Mr. Salomon. I’m your aunt’s good friend, aren’t I?”
“Of—of course,” Ninon said humbly and shyly. “And who might that be?”
She pointed behind Salomon’s shoulder at the slightly shorter man.
“Forgive me for not introducing myself, Your Highness. Maedoc Antelius, Lieutenant Colonel. I’ve come here with the Lieutenant General for some important work.”
“That’s alright,” Ninon smiled. “It is a great pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Colonel Antelius.”
Antelius only smiled at her politely.
“I’m sorry, Princess Ninon, but may we please have a few moments to ourselves with your aunt? We won’t bother her. Like the Lieutenant Colonel said, it’s important work that we want to get over with quickly.”
Ninon took a glance at Rhona for a moment, before looking back at Fabian. What business did they have with a woman who unconscious and unaware of what was happening?
It’s not my matter, she reasoned. I don’t need to dig my head into something I don’t need to.
“Alright, you may have the room,” Ninon nodded. She looked over her shoulder to see her maid. “Let’s go, Alda.”
“Of course, Princess Ninon.” the woman who was three years younger than her aunt said.
“Thank you so much, Princess Ninon.” Salomon grinned as the two ladies made their temporary leave.
“She seems like a reasonable young lady.” Maedoc noted of the presumptive heir to the Titanian throne.
“Certainly more reasonable than the general must’ve been when she was her age,” Fabian shuddered. “But yes, Ninon’s a lovely girl. I suppose she takes after her father.”
“I see,” Maedoc remarked, having never met Emperor Halsten before. “Now, why did you ask to bring this box here?”
“Put it to the right side of the general,” Salomon sternly ordered, his curiosity mounting. “Less talking, more doing.”
Maedoc did as asked, placing the box on the bed up against Rhona’s abdomen. He saw her chest falling and rising and tried not to think about what would happen if she suddenly were to awake. He stepped back as Salomon made his way to the right side of the bed. He produced a knife from his pocket. Although astonished, Maedoc suppressed his alarm.
Fabian lifted Rhona’s right hand, slender due to her weakened state. He stuck her thumb out and made a swift, shallow cut across it. Before blood could drip on the bed, he pressed the thumb into the indent in the box. He held it down until he heard the click, signifying the unlocking of the false bottom.
Salomon took in a deep breath as he pulled the bottom away, Antelius standing readily beside him should anything dangerous occur. After all, now knowing that Rhona had secrets to keep, they had reason to expect anything.
The contents of the box were not harmful, but they caused both of the hardened men to feel nauseous after realising what they were looking at.