Episode 6: Death Valley Queen
Part One
Toby wandered about his cabin aboard Redford's Imperial Cutter. How long had he been pacing about? Hours? Days? He clearly remembered being delivered five meals since he was brought in so it was more than likely only one to two. Long enough to become restless and start searching for ways to escape. Steal a shuttle and make his way back to the Fools Errand.
He examined the control panel for the door closely and noticed a slight chip in the side, not very large but possibly big enough to slide something in and pry it open. He grabbed a wooden lamp on a stand next to the door and smashed it against the wall, knocking off the base and splintering the bottom into a sharp point which he inserted into the panel and began to pry. Toby's lamp spike was not strong enough and split apart into useless pieces which he tossed to the side of the room. A few wood splinters stuck in his hand. He pulled them out with a wince.
He next grabbed the metal tray his last meal was served from and began bashing the panel for a few minutes until he gave up from exhaustion. After catching his breath he took a closer look around his cabin until he noticed the table in the center of the room had legs which tapered flat before connecting to the table top with a single screw. He flipped it over, letting plates and items scatter across the room and spent the next half hour prying one of the legs loose which he then took and jammed into the crack of the door control panel as hard as he could. Putting all of his substantial body weight against it was enough to break the panels face off with a satisfying "pop". The panel flew across the room, exposing the loose, colored wires it was covering a moment ago. Toby looked at them with confusion.
"I don't believe I thought this through entirely." He said to himself.
The next hour was spent slicing wires with the sharp splinters of the wooden lamp he has used earlier and touching the frayed ends together in different combinations which did absolutely nothing except for electrocuting Toby's hands no less than five times. Frustrated and defeated, Toby curled up in a ball and began to suck on his poor, singed and bloodied fingers. He stayed in that position until the door opened once more.
An Imperial guard walked thru the door to see what was once a luxury cabin completely ransacked. Garbage and debris strewn about everywhere and Toby curled up in a ball sucking his thumb. He looked down and noticed the door control panel torn to shreds. The guard used his arm to hold the door before it could close and lock them both in the room.
Toby stood up to face the guard and brushed himself off.
"Were you trying to escape?" The guard asked Toby.
Toby shrugged.
"You realize the door wasn't locked, right? You're not a prisoner here."
"Oh..." Toby responded.
The guard looked around the room once more. He was clearly irritated. "I will call someone to clean up. Lord Redford would like to see you in the captains ready room." He motioned down the corridor. "Take the lift at the end to the command deck."
Toby stepped out of his cabin and saw a group of guards standing together, trying their best to avoid staring at him and poorly covering their laughs as he walked by. They must have overheard the commotion coming from his room for the past few hours. There could have been cameras for all he knew. Apparently he was not a prisoner, but he would not put it past his brother to spy on him. He walked with as much dignity as he could muster until he reached the lift and pressed the button to take him up.
Moments later he stepped onto the command deck. No one turned to notice him thankfully. Either word had not spread farther than the deck his room was on or they were too professional to show it. As Toby approached the ready room he could hear muffled shouting on the other side which became almost deafening as the doors slid open in front of him. He entered the room and closed the door behind him.
In front of Toby was Captain Gardner Goldstring of the Death Valley Queen. One of the most decorated in his fathers Navy, the man trusted to get his planets royal family safely to their destinations as well as someone who had an appreciation for Toby's simple and forward nature. After years of ferrying nobles and diplomats he grew to despise their type.
Currently, Captain Goldstring was pacing back and forth behind his desk on the far side of the room. Verbally berating Redford who was standing on the other side of the desk with a cold look on his face. He was not used to people using this tone with him.
"You told me you were just going off to pick up your brother. Next thing we intercept from station security are reports of Grelite tearing the station apart with his flak cannon. An Imperial noble personally attacking a station owned by Sirius? There is no way your father can play this off as a simple misunderstanding. You are dragging us to war."
"My families politics should be none of your concern Captain. I will not be scolded by a chauffeur."
Goldstring was insulted but kept as calm as best he could. "At the very least give us a warning if you plan doing something similar in the future."
"We have been through this often enough that you should know to always be prepared for these things."
The men finally noticed Toby standing in the doorway.
"Please lend me your ready room for a few minutes. I would like to speak with my brother."
"Take as much time as you need. We will be leaving supercruise momentarily and I will be occupied until landfall."
Captain Goldstring walked out of the room, giving Toby a slight smile and nod on the way past him.
"Where are my crewmates, Red?"
Redford dismissed his brothers comment with a wave of his hand. "We rule planets Toby. We don't have "mates", we have subordinates. And they are where we left them."
"You might not care about anyone other than yourself, brother, but I am allowed to have friends I want to protect. You make it sound like we're gods."
Redford scoffed. "It's funny you should say that. I have always been fascinated by the creation stories from earth. Some god or mythical beast creating life. It's caused nothing but conflict there for millennia as people argued over something so trivial. It disgusts me."
He turned away from Toby to face the cabins exterior window. Watching the wild streaks of distorted space dance past them. "Our home is different. We don't have the burden of wondering how our planet came to be. We know exactly how we got there. Our family landed centuries ago and forged a civilization out of nothing. We can look to the future knowing our past is firmly rooted."
The ship gave a slight shudder as it exited supercruise. Red turned to his brother again. "But that is not the only problem we face. We built our home in the middle of a hurricane. Hundreds of worlds, thousands of systems want what we have and in one moment of weakness everything we have built can be blown away. Look at what happened to Ram Shackle in the place he was supposed to keep safe. They lost one man, Captain Tylor I believe his name was, and everyone else saw opportunity. It didn't happen immediately, but over time they moved in and now one of the strongest areas for humanity has become a hive of pirates and degenerates. I can't allow the same thing to happen to our home."
Redford pointed at Toby. "You are a coward and a sloth. If you are allowed to run this family, everything our past generations worked towards will be for nothing. I know that father called you back to us so he can officially run you out of the family now that you have been branded a terrorist. It doesn't matter how hard you fought to get away from your us, your fate was sealed the moment we sent you off to the camp. It would have been easier for you to have just died when you were supposed to."
The Cutter banked to come in line with the planet they were aiming to land on. A barren desert world with a single, massive green patch intruding on a spot just above the equator.
"Welcome back to Aristaeus, brother."
Redford walked back onto the bridge of the Queen to get a better view. Toby meekly followed behind, all the confidence he gained from his travels seemed to leave him at once.
As Earth suffered from pollution and overpopulation during the early 22nd century, fleets of enormous colony ships spread outward in search of new planets to colonize. Unfortunately, early space travel was not without its dangers and primitive witchspace drives had a tendency to fail during long voyages, leaving its passengers stranded in between stars. The ships themselves had a hearty design. It was not unheard of for these now multi-generational ships to pop up from time to time, finally reaching civilized space again after decades of barely lightspeeed travel. They were a living monument to human perseverance. The colony ship commanded by the Worthington family was the sole surviving vessle to reach this sector at the time. The planet it landed on was properly named Aristaeus after the last surviving Titan in Greek mythology. The hypocrisy of his brother ranting about creation myths on a planet named after a character from a long dead religion was not lost on Toby.
The planet itself was a barely livable desert, but it was their new home and with years of hard work the colonists finally thrust their way through the neigh impenetrable surface into its massive caverns buried deep beneath which to this day provide an ample water supply to its people. Because of the undertaking it takes to create a well, only a single massive city was founded, Aristaeus Prime.
Focusing for so long on drilling also revealed the planet to have rich stores of rare metals. Though the galaxy is a vast place and there are many notable planets with similar resources, centuries of working these metals made the factories on Aristaeus Prime prized for the quality of their product. Their largest customer being Gutamaya, the maker of the ship Toby was currently standing on and also the provider of warships for the bulk of the Galactic Imperial Navy. The starship components made on his planet were vital to combating the stress put on their warships and allowed for the graceful, artistic designs Gutamaya was known for. Without his families product, Gutamaya would have to settle on the more practical and blocky designs used by the Federation and that just would not be acceptable. Due to this, the Worthington family was under pressure from the Empire to keep their trade exclusive. No other organization would have the pleasure of doing business with Aristaeus.
The Death Valley Queen finished its glide through the atmosphere and exited the cloud cover above the megacity. Coming into view was the edge of Aristaeus Prime. The industrial centers formed a ring along the outer sections to house the slaves and factory workers. Barges could be seen flying freshly mined ore from the solitary dig sites in the wasteland to the metallic separators which billowed toxic smoke above. Soon after, his ship was above the middle residential and business sections. The buildings around them began to grow taller and taller until the ground beneath was barely visible, covered by swarming layers of flying passenger vehicles darting between skyscrapers. And then just as suddenly, they were in the innermost ring of the city. The Imperial Gardens. Beneath them were the mansions of business owners and nobles alike. Massive in their own right but dwarfed compared to the skyscrapers from earlier. Green forest lands and delicate farms and parks splashed color across the landscape. From this height Toby could barely make out the anti ship defenses that dotted the Imperial Garden. They were covered as best they could in order to not ruin the view from above, but you could spot them if you knew what to look for.
The same defenses were placed strategically throughout the city as well. As beautiful as Aristaeus prime was, the entire megacity was in actuality a fortress. Finally, they reached the center that all the city was there to defend, Worthington Tower. An elegant structure with flowing edges and the tower itself protruding from the middle. Not as intimidatingly tall as the buildings in the commercial sector, it was as big as it needed to be to host dignitaries and house the royal family. His family. That building might as well have been the center of the galaxy for most of Toby's life.
They landed on his families personal pad directly outside the courtyard of the tower. Toby made his way thru the ship to the exit, escorted by Captain Goldstring and his brother. Admonisher Grelite stood guard next to the stairs that lowered to the ground from the belly of the ship.
Before he could disembark, the Captain grabbed Toby by his shoulder and pulled him close.
"I know you have spent time fighting pirates in deep space, but right now this city is the most dangerous place you could be. Keep your eyes peeled." He shoved a small personal communicator into Toby's hand. "When you need me, don't hesitate to call. There are people in this city that are still loyal to you. We will do what we can to keep you safe."
Toby scurried off down the stairs behind his brother until they reached the surface.
"Why would anyone be loyal to someone as pathetic as myself?" He thought silently.
The grass felt odd under his feet. This was the first time in weeks he had been on solid ground and he had almost forgotten what it felt like. He took a deep breath of fresh air and closed his eyes for a moment to savor the brisk wind on his face. Opening his eyes he could see Worthington Tower looming before him and was frozen under its intimidating shadow.
He drew out what little courage he had left and stepped forwards behind his brother and Grelite. Flanked by royal guards. This was not the homecoming he had expected.
