Andromeda's Fall (Legion of the Damned) Read Free Page B

perched atop the one-hundred-story-tall Imperial Tower. If one looked closely, it was possible to see that the familiar outlines of Earth’s seven continents had been etched into the opaque structure. The skyscraper had been built by Emperor Alfred II to house the planetary government and to remind the local citizens of where the real power was.
    Hundreds of people had been invited to the governor’s ball, so as the limo circled the tower, and the pilot waited for a clearance to land, Cat had an opportunity to eye the sprawling city below. Elysium’s streets were laid out grid-style. But there were so many of them that Cat wondered if anyone could come to know such a huge metroplex.
    Rivers of glowing headlights flowed along the main arterials. Commercials, many of which circled entire buildings, flowed snakelike from one section of the city to the next. And blimps that looked like internally lit jellyfish drifted across the night sky, all competing for eyeballs and mindshare. It was both beautiful and horrible. Or that’s the way it seemed to Cat as the air car came in for a landing.
    At least two dozen landing pads were located in the area just below the gigantic globe. And while vidnet reporters weren’t allowed on that level, their airborne cameras were. The machines jockeyed for position as Cat stepped out of the limo. She smiled as the lights hit, and paused to turn a full circle so all the fashionistas could appreciate her ten-thousand-credit evening gown. It was red, with slits up both sides, and glittered under the lights.
    Then Cat took the arm of the brightly uniformed militia officer who was waiting to escort her inside. He was a lieutenant, about her age, and clearly enthralled. His carefully memorized words of introduction were lost in the roar of repellers as Cat’s limo took off. But it wasn’t important since the officer was little more than an accessory and indistinguishable from all the rest of his kind.
    Together, they entered a lobby, where Cat was welcomed by some functionary or other, guided onto an elevator, and taken down to the fifth-floor ballroom. It consisted of a huge room decorated in the early Imperial style. Heroic 3-D murals covered all four walls and morphed into fresh perspectives every three minutes.
    Hundreds of less important individuals were already present, and most turned to stare as her name was announced, and cameras swarmed around her. Then it was time to greet the governor and her husband. Both wore perpetual smiles, claimed to know her parents, and were clearly wary. And for good reason. Though nothing in and of herself, Cat could do them harm by dropping a few carelessly chosen words to the cameras.
    After exchanging pleasantries with them, Cat allowed herself to be steered over to a reception line, where a line of lesser functionaries were waiting to greet her. It wasn’t long before their faces became a blur, their names merged into a meaningless drone, and she was grateful when the last sweaty hand had been shaken.
    That was the point when things took a turn for the better as a group of chattering young people closed in around her. She knew many of them and was barely aware of the manner in which the disappointed lieutenant was shouldered aside by a fop decked out in a vid suit. Pictures of Cat and her friends roamed his body, and everyone laughed as the likeness of a girl with spiky pink hair slid down into his crotch.
    During the next hour, Cat gossiped with her friends, took a moment to flirt with a moody sim actor, and consumed three cocktails. She was about to visit the buffet when a formally dressed hostess appeared at her side. “Lady Catherine? My name is Stevens. A man is here to see you. We told him you were busy, but he claims to have an urgent message from your uncle.”
    Cat frowned. “My uncle? You’re sure?”
    Stevens had closely set eyes and thin lips. “That’s what he claims,” she said noncommittally. “But I have no way to be sure.”
    Since