Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress) Read Free Page A

Hall. His face and features had not changed expression from before or
after witnessing the incident of the T334 Trigealian robot going berserk. His
eyes did flicker a little faster than Norfians would have liked. They pride
themselves with their emotional and intellectual control and they considered
their eyes a useful but at times a treasonous accessory to their bodies.
     
    This half Norfian descendant was tolerated and
accepted by the Confederacy for his remarkable ability with complex administrative
problems. Under his administration the Academy greatly benefited militarily,
and with that came great wealth and prestige. He also had a remarkable database
with recorded transgressions of nearly everyone in positions of power within
the Military Training Network. It was very dangerous to cross him. The
Administrator of the Confederate Military Academy had over many years
transformed his position into one of the more deliciously elite and powerful
positions within the military training establishment. He was answerable only to
the Empirical High Command and the Trigeals - the non humanoid masters of
intervention and dominant species across the vast Imperial Empire of the
Confederacy. 
     
    He surveyed the situation in front of him and took
immediate and absolute control. A small console like device attached to his
left arm hummed as it calculated a suitable response and intervention to the
current situation. The response the Administrator observed on the tiny screen
made his eyes flicker a little faster. In no more than a second he understood
his next action would change his life and possibly that of the Confederacy
forever. With an almost unperceivable motion of his hand he touched a key on
his arm console initiating the acceptance of the computer solution presented.
He turned on the Academy public announcement system and issued his orders.
     
    “This is the Academy Administrator! All personnel are
to report to their duty stations immediately and be security scanned! Those
whose duty stations are within the Great Hall of the Academy are to report to
their barracks and submit themselves to a security scan within one micro of
arrival. Any failure will result in negative… no terminal intervention! Remain
at your duty station or barracks until further notice. You have your orders.”
The Administrator watched as compliance by all personnel was immediate. He
allowed himself a brief hint of a smile in acknowledgment that a course of
action was now in motion he could not stop, maybe not even by Trigealian
intervention itself.
     
    He walked back to his seating position in the Academy
and surveyed a now empty Hall except for the row of T334’s to the far left.
They needed no active security as they were impenetrable and impossible to alter,
steal or destroy. To try to touch one or even get inside the cordoned area
meant a quick death. The Trigeals insisted on storing some of them here to
reinforce in all military trainees and hence future commanders of the futility
of rebelling against Trigealian interventional control. There should be twelve
but he could only count eleven. Such an incident as this he thought should
create its own intervention and affect everyone in this sector of the
organisation. He wondered why nothing had happened; but saw this inaction as a
great opportunity. He looked at his arm console, scanned it with his desk
monitor and transmitted a message to Planet Security.
     
    A short time later the Security Chief of Ennack, the
home planet of the Confederate Empire strode into the Great Hall with the
precisely measured steps from a lifelong career in uniform. He glanced
momentarily at the row of unpiloted T334’s and shuddered. Their scanning ports
reflected all light and were eye like in appearance. Their mechanical bodies were
twice the size of the average humanoid, black with a strange shimmering
quality. They bristled with antennae and were the most feared creation
throughout the known universe. He saw his