Empire of a Thousand Universes Ch. 03

As usual, all characters in this story are eighteen years or older.

HOUSE TRIESTE

Paolo was occupied on the bridge of his father's flagship, The Vincennes, conducting its preflight inspection. To the uninitiated the room would feel almost sterile, a half dozen cushioned seats in a semicircle facing a blank wall. That was because everything he needed to see, hear or feel was inside his head, or to be more specific, in his Troon.

His staff, which weren't due for some time, had the same functionality, and would be able to access data and controls simply by thinking about them. It wasn't ESP, but technology.

Many years prior, when inter-universe travel was still in its infancy, the Troon corporation perfected a procedure to implant several devices in a person's brain so that, sight, sound, hearing, and even motor controls, could be digitally transmitted to and from a person's brain.

It was originally invented to enable function in quadriplegics, stroke patients, and anyone else who suffered a disabling injury or illness. But as the paralyzed started to walk, the blind to see, and the deaf to hear, the general public wanted a piece of this new technology.

Paolo, like most people who lived for the last five hundred years or more, could send and receive auditory messages using the implant situated in his jaw bone. Using another implant in his motor cortex he could power up and fly the ship, run machinery, or simply turn on the lights in a room. And yet a third implant tapped into the occipital cortex of the brain would enable him to access any video, any monitor, or any camera feed within a certain matrix and they would show up in his mind as if he were watching a movie on a TV monitor.

Right at that point in time as he was going through the preflight checks on The Vincennes, he could just as easily have been sending text messages to Genevieve, or even monitoring the defense grid at the outer limits of their provincial solar system, or just simply watching a video.

As he was checking the power flow to the ship's engines, he heard the sound of someone entering through the ships main entry. He assumed it was one of the crew members and so kept on with his work until he was surprised to see his gray-haired father at his elbow.

The patriarch of House Trieste, Duke Benito Trieste, was not a tall man, standing several inches shorter than his son, but then Paolo got his height from his mother. How much his father had aged had initially startled Paolo when he arrived home from exile.

"Good morning son," Benito smiled and when he did the lines around his mouth and eyes became more prominent. "You are up early this morning." His father's voice was not as deep and resonating as when Paolo was a child, and it depressed him to think about how many years he had missed.

"Good morning father. I couldn't sleep, so I came down to the hanger early." Paolo tried to search his father's countenance for signs that he knew about him and Genevieve. He had just spent the night in his sister's bed, and he was anxious to know if someone had discovered their tryst.

"I received a message from the Emperor's emissary late last night," the old man said out of the blue. "It appears House Kleet may have some stipulations to the marriage contract."

"Fuck them," Heinrich said impetuously, but then he realized that he was being impudent to the wrong person, "Excuse me, father."

"No, don't apologize. I had the same reaction."

"Then why do we kowtow to these people?"

"Because we are not in the position to do otherwise," his father said with a tinge of frustration. "You of all people should know that. The only reason you are home is because of this marriage."

"I'm sorry, father. I wish this deal would have never been brokered. I worry about Genevieve."

"I know, I know. I worry about her too. But she is a Trieste, born of privilege, and privilege has its responsibilities. We are rich and somewhat powerful, but our lives are not our own."

"Yes, father."

"You're taking the Vincennes out, I see?"

"Yes, I thought me and the boys would take it out again. I can't get enough of flying this thing."

"It's a beauty, and still the fastest ship in this quadrant."

"What is it the Kleets want?" Paolo said knowing that his father didn't visit him to ask about the Vincennes.

The call came from her after his father had left and the crew was starting to take their posts. Her name flashed across the HUD in his vision; Incoming call - Genevieve Trieste, and as it did he hurried to his captains quarters for more privacy.

"Hi," he said as the line engaged.

"Hi. You left early?"

"Gen, I had to, I couldn't risk being found."

"It's okay. I know," she said apologetically. "I just would have liked to kiss you goodbye."

"You did," he said and smiled. "You don't remember?"

"No. I guess I was out of it. Did I really?"

"Yes. You called my name when I kissed you." She had also said something else, but he refrained from telling her. The joy he had found upon first hearing it disappeared quickly for it only emphasized how absurd this whole situation was, and that soon she would be married to, of all people, a Kleet.

"Oh good," she said relieved. "Where are you?"

"On the Vincennes. I'm taking her out on a training session this morning."

"How long will that take?"

"A few hours."

"Then you'll be back this afternoon?"

"Yes. Why?" He asked though he knew the answer.

"I want to see you. Is that okay?"

"More than okay."

"Maybe we could go for a ride this evening?"

"I'd like that."

"Good, then it's a date."

"Are brothers and sisters supposed to date?"

"Is that how you see me, as someone sisterly?"

"No."

"Oh good, because I think I remember someone coming all over my tits last night, and I don't think it was my brother. I thought that it was my lover?"

"It was."

"Oh in that case, good."

"Gen?"

"Yeah?"

"Where did you learn to talk like that?"

"I listen to the house girls when they talk. I remember one saying that her man likes such talk. She said it excites him. Does it excite you?"

"Yes."

"Good, because it excites me too. Paolo?"

"Yeah?"

"I want to feel you in my mouth tonight, and I want to feel your mouth...oh, you know."

"Where?"

"Don't make me say it."

"This was your idea."

"Oh, gods Paolo. I don't know. All of this is so new."

"Say it."

"I want to suck your cock as you eat my pussy," she shrieked with girlish glee. "Was that right?"

"Oh yeah. That was perfect."

***

He remembered reading that pilots from an earlier age, especially those whose ships didn't have the power to escape a planet's gravitational pull, wore suits to stave off the g-force effects on their bodies.

As the Vincennes catapulted through the planet's atmosphere they had to be pulling at least ten g's, maybe more, and yet he felt none of it thanks to the ship's anti-gravity. In fact, his coffee cup, sitting on the console, and still half full, had not the least ripple on its surface.

"Status, Mr. Como," Paolo barked to the man at the helm.

"The ship is responding to commands in normal parameters, engines normal, all systems normal, sir."

"Mr. Rapalla, anything on the scans?"

"Negative sir, only ships that have previously been identified."

"Mr. Como, make for the fourth planet."

"Graz, sir?"

"Yes, Mr. Como, or is this a geography lesson?"

"No, sir."

"Good. Make for it at full speed."

"Are we going into orbit, sir?"

"No, Mr. Como. This is only a training session. You'll be sleeping in your own bed tonight."

"Very well, sir."

"How long would it take to enter Graz's orbit, Mr. Como?"

"Approximately forty-six hours, sir."

"That fast?"

"Oh yes sir," Como said with some satisfaction. "She's the fastest we got, fastest anyone's got."

"Except the Emperor?"

"I would venture to bet even against the fastest Imperial Corvettes."

"Well let's hope we won't have to find out, huh Mr. Como?"

Como's face showed that he wasn't sure which way to take that statement. He would have loved to pick a fight with an Imperial Star Corvette.

That was the problem, the people in his home system assumed their ships and men were superior to anything that the Empire had to throw at them, but Paolo had seen first hand the great fleets that the Emperor had at his disposal.

"In a one on one battle, maybe, Mr. Como," Paolo said to his helmsman, though he knew that the rest of the ship's crew was listening. "But in a war of attrition, us against the Empire, we wouldn't have much of a chance."

"With all due respect..." Mr. Como never got a chance to finish.

"Unknown ship closing at twelve o'clock, Sir," Mr. Rapella the ship's science officer interrupted.

Paolo saw it on the ship's exterior cameras. "Enhance the image, Mr. Rapella," Paolo said loudly, and as he did the image of the ship became clearer in his head.

"Who are they?" Came from a concerned Mr. Como.

"They aren't one of ours," Mr. Rapella answered.

"Have the ship come to battle stations, Mr. Como." And before the order registered in anyone's mind, the ship's claxon horns started to sound, an obvious assumption on Mr. Como's part.

He was a good crewman, and smart, but Paolo came forward and rested a hand on Mr. Como's shoulder. In doing so he didn't have to say a thing or highlight to the rest of the crew the man's nervousness. He just settled him down.

For they all knew, having seen the image of the red ship coming at them at one-quarter light speed, that it was the Deofol.

House Kleet

When Heinrich awoke, to his surprise Caprice was still at his side, naked and asleep, though it was still quite early. The morning light shining through his window made it easier to see her features, and he noticed that in some ways she was prettier than he remembered, and in some ways, she appeared like any other girl.

She was tall with dark hair, attractive, natural breasts, and a waist to hips proportion that resembled a renaissance statue. But it was her face that he was concentrating on at that point, the finely chiseled features and high cheek bones all showed perfect bone structure and none of it with the aid of surgery.

This girl, with the right dress, makeup, and hairdo would be captivating, he mulled, but what was more evident from her looks was that this girl, Caprice, if that was truly her name, was more than she purported to be.

She sighed in her sleep and then rolled over facing away from him. This was his chance. He slowly and lightly lifted the sheet off of her naked body exposing her tush, and there on her left cheek, where he had once heard it should be, was a tattoo, a small crest, with the initials underneath; "U. d. N.".

So it was as he suspected, she was not just some random girl picked up off the streets by a debauched old man who had a taste for young women. She was from the Ufficiali de Notte.

The Ufficiali de Notte was a semi official agency whose sole business was the procurement of women throughout the universes. Not just any women, but the most beautiful in all of the Universes, and not just for any client but the most discriminating.

She was prime meat on the hoof, so to speak, and her story about winning her freedom from her dying master? Well, that needed to be verified, he thought to himself.

"Mmmmph," the girl muttered and slowly awoke and rolled over onto her back. She gave Heinrich a look as if she had seen an apparition. "Oh, it's you!"

"Yes it's me," he responded and smiled as of it were a big joke. That reaction startled him. He had never smiled at one of Brother Horn's young girls. Before this girl, they had all been chattel.

"You owe me ten gold pieces," she said as she brushed the hair out of her face.

"That was only if I took your virginity, and forgive me but I don't remember ever fucking you. Which, I think, was a serious miscalculation on your part."

"I didn't think you'd come that fast from a mere blow job," she snickered.

"It's been a while," he said out of embarrassment, for it hadn't been a while. Only a few days prior he had fucked some pretty but forgettable young thing in that same bed. Now that he was considering it, they were all pretty and forgettable.

"Are you a virgin, also," she pressed her point pretending not to hear his previous excuse.

"What? Don't talk foolishness. I was prepared to give you something for last night, though I don't see why. I seem to remember already paying Brother Horn for your services. Either way, I'm willing to deal with you."

"How nice," she said sarcastically.

"Don't be so snide. Even though you're "de Notte" you'll find it a harsh world out there if you don't have an agent looking out for your interests. And I don't think you're too enthusiastic about going back to the Ufficiali."

If she was startled by his knowledge of her identity, it didn't show on her face. She was good, he thought.

"What did you have in mind?" She asked with the same half-smile on her face that she had been grinning since she had awoken. He wondered if that smile was for him or whether it was all a mask.

"After fucking you tonight? Not much. But you amuse me, and if you keep amusing me, maybe we can work something out."

"You didn't want to tap this right now?" She asked pulling the cover off herself and exposing a body that many men would pay dearly for.

"Not now, though that's very tempting. I have too much on my plate today. Besides, what's your hurry?"

"Let's just say I don't like to leave a deal on the table."

"Relax, the deal, and the table will be here when I get home tonight." He reached into his pocket and brought a number of gold coins. Tossing them on the bed he said, "Buy yourself something to wear for tonight."

"Like what?"

"Like something skin tight, revealing and easy to take off."

"Or maybe something skin tight and revealing that you won't want me to take off?"

"Even better, he said and then left the room.

As he exited his room and made his way into the upstairs hall, he noticed his man Ludendorff standing near his room. The man was of average height, but he had a barrel chest on him that just exuded strength. The story was, that he had once been a weightlifter in the games.

"Oh good, Ludendorff," Heinrick said to the head of his household, "I need to talk to you."

"I need to talk to you also, sir."

"There's a girl in my room, and she is to be given every accommodation."

"Sir?" Ludendorff said, his brows furrowing with surprise.

"Every accommodation I tell you," Heinrich repeated, and started down the hall as Ludendorff followed.

"Yes, sir."

"Also get in touch with Brother Horn, and have him find out everything he can about her." Heinrich considered mentioning her U. d. N. affiliation, but then thought better of it.

"Is that all, sir?"

"Yeah, that's it for now. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Heinrich asked at the top of the stairs.

"I'm afraid I have bad news, sir," Ludendorff said though his expression never changed.

"Yes? Yes? What is it?"

Our exalted leader, Emperor Maximillian, has passed away."

"When?"

"Three days ago, sir. We just got word on the overnight." Ludendorff could see no change in his master's visage, and it puzzled him. His master just stood there staring off into space. "I'm sorry for being the bearer of such bad news."

"That's not bad news, Ludenoff, Heinrich said with glee. "That's great news."