Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) by Sid Kar Read Free Book Online Page B

him.
        Remus watched the lights – red, green,
blue, purple against the black background – of assorted spaceships making their
landing or taking off. Nestor’s spaceport was always busy. He was glad the
traffic controllers could squeeze him in for a fast landing. There were days
when the space traffic was backed up all the way to the next planet.
        It was night where he landed and he had
sent a signal out ahead for an armed escort. When he exited his spaceship he
was greeted by a tall man dressed in the usual green and gold army uniform but
the gold on his clothes was more pronounced. Accompanying him were ten other
soldiers who stood behind him in two files holding their laser guns across
their chest.
        “Capitan Jag Manus,” Remus said to the
tall man, “You got here fast. I had just sent you the signal.”
        “We were nearby,” Jag Manus replied,
“After your departure we really didn’t have any work and I entertained the
soldiers in the bars around the spaceport.”
        “Let’s hurry, I have a lot to tell
you,” Remus said. Capitan Jag and his soldiers were his personal bodyguards.
        Capitan Jag and Remus walked over to an
airship guarded by the soldiers. A soldier stepped forward and opened the door
to the passenger compartment.
        “Capitan Jag, please drive and I will
sit by you,” Remus said. Jag suspected that Vice-Chancellor had something
private and something urgent to tell him. Whenever he wanted to hold a
confidential conversation with Jag, he always had them sit up front.
        Jag ordered all the soldiers to get
inside in the back, he himself took the driver’s seat and Remus sat next to
him. The front cabin was sealed off from the back with a glass and they could
mute any noise and prevent it from reaching the back cabin. The airship itself
was approximately 20 feet long and wide enough for just two individuals to sit
on either side.
        “Where to Vice-Chancellor?” Jag asked
as he started up the engine.
        “Battleship Command,” Remus replied, “I
need to urgently meet with general Bakus.”
        Jag pulled on the throttle stick and
the airship gained altitude moving up vertically.
        “Fly at hundred feet,”
        “As you say,” Jag replied, hovered for
a second and pushed forward on the drive stick and their airship headed towards
the air travel corridor. As the government vehicle they were allowed to fly at
two hundred feet where the air traffic was negligible. But today Remus did not
want to stand out and felt safe with the mass of private air traffic flying
around them.
        “Mute our cabin,” Remus said.
        “Already done,” Jag replied.
        “Jag, there was an assassination
attempt on me at Planet Bravo,” Remus said.
        “What!” Jag almost jumped in his seat
and he turned to look at Remus, “Vice Chancellor, that is very serious. You
should not have gone alone.”
        “I wanted to preserve secrecy but it
appears someone else knew about my trip too,” Remus said.
        “As the Capitan of your personal guards
and the one man being most responsible for your security, I should have
insisted on accompanying you,” Jag said, “But what happened?”
        Remus told him all the details from the
laser attack to the orbital space resort.
        “What do you know about an invisible
shield that can deflect laser bolts?” Remus asked.
        “Before hearing your story, I would
have denied even the possibility of one,” Jag said.
        “Starfirians have it,” Remus said.
        “Starfirians are far ahead of us,” Jag
said.
        “But you know what that means, don’t
you?” Remus said, “The assassin was a Nestorian. I would not have necessarily
believed the Starfirians because I wouldn’t put it beyond them to lie as to the
identity of the killer to avoid embarrassment and diplomatic crises. But a Starfirian
hitman would have known about the shield.”