The Underhill Journal

Just in case you are interested to know, I'm working on an "Interval" piece for the Rebel Empress series, set between parts 3 and 4. There will be more of these later, so watch out for them when they come!

At last, after rather a long delay, part four of my serial. This is in mostly unedited form, so please beware!
Enjoy!

Rebel Empress
Episode 4
Worlds Apart

It has been nearly six months since the end of Sakura's training on Enceladus. She has yet to return to the China-Japan war, because of the training of several Samurai on Mars that she was ordered to oversee. She has changed, radically, as a person, and seems even colder and harder than ever she was before. Her secret passion for vengeance against her father's killers is consuming her, filling the awful hole inside her that has been left by her separation from her lover, and the ache of separation from her Katana. She is finding it hard to hold herself to her fathers strict belief in the Buddha's teachings, and can feel herself turning to darkness.
Lee Chen is about to return to action as an Elite, after a string of failed trainees and a bleak time without Sakura. He knows he no longer wants to serve Eagle Empire, but with the kill chip installed inside him, he cannot see any other option if he is ever going to see Sakura again. The hope of seeing her is the only thing that keeps him going, although he too is in danger of falling to darkness.
When the Samurai training is finally over, Sakura returns to her family home to retrieve her beloved sword and speak with her brother....

The smell of the sea always brought memories back to Sakura, and today, with the Cherry trees in the courtyard in full bloom, it was like a spell. She gripped the handle of her sword reflexively, savouring the connection that she had missed for so long while trying to keep her mind on the present as she waited for her brother on the veranda. The tingling response that swam along her arm and up her spine was soothing, and brought to her mind a cherished memory of her father.
She had held the sword in awe as a child, from the very first time she saw him practice with it in the courtyard. The cherry trees that they fed with filtered sea water were in blossom then too. She had stood on the veranda, clutching a soft toy in one hand, and had seen him draw his sword to cut a falling cherry blossom in half. The sword had moved like a streak of silver lightning and her father had sheathed it again before the torn blossom had landed on the stone ground. She had clapped and laughed with joy to see it. He had glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled, then he had begun to perform a kata. She had found herself absorbed in the way her fathers sword had moved like a silver ribbon in the air, and in the way her father leaped, span and moved as if fighting with an imaginary attacker. At times his sword crackled and sparked, at other times it whined and sang and then it would fall silent, as he set himself for his next set of techniques. He had still been a young, healthy man then, before the injury that had forced him to retire young as a Samurai, and he had been the best swordsman of his time. Even though she had been very small, she had understood how great his skill was, and she had watched in absorbed silence until he was finished.
When he was done she had run up to him and thrown her small arms around his neck, demanding to see his sword close up, smiling and laughing he had shown it to her, explaining what each part was. That had been the moment that she had decided she would be like her father.
“Sakura?” her brothers whispered voice jerked her from the memory violently, leaving her feeling only the burning pain of grief and loss, the pain that she was finding it increasingly hard to fight with. For a second her sword blazed, warning her that she must now remember to keep her emotions in check. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply and then turned to face her brother.
“I'm sorry, Sakuro. I have much on my mind,” she told him simply, looking into eyes that were almost a mirror of her own.
Almost, but not quite. Sakuro was two years older than his sister, but smaller, and very slight of build. And in his eyes, there was an odd light that many people found very difficult to look into.
Although it had never been true, many people at the court of the Shogun maintained that it was because of Sakuro and his “madness” that Sakura had been sent to the service of the Shogun instead. Certainly it was true that Sakuro had a troubled mind at times, but he was not strictly mad. From a very early age it had been obvious that he would never be a Samurai, he had been too fascinated with machines, science and knowledge to be interested in swordplay.
While Sakura trained every living breathing hour of the day at becoming a Samurai, Sakuro buried his head in books and computers. He turned his bedroom into a workshop for the machines he designed. Their parents paid for renowned university professors to come and tutor him and he gained a medical degree without leaving home, not long before their father's death. Later he gained a degree in engineering, then another in Physics. Sakura had since lost track of his qualifications. In truth, Sakuro was a genius, but he was also a recluse and he had not left the family estate since childhood.
And that was the source of the odd light in his eyes, because he saw the world very differently from everyone else, and it was the reason that Sakura needed to speak with him now.
“Sakuro, I want to ask you something, but you must swear that you will not breathe a word of this to Mother. She must not know what I am about to ask for her own protection,” Sakura told her her brother now.
“Are you finally going to make a move against father's killers, Sakura?” her brother whispered.
“No, it is not time for that yet. It concerns the training I received on Enceladus,”
Sakuro seemed surprised by that, and he looked deeply into her eyes, reading her in the intense way he had always had. With a sudden, agonising, pang, Sakura was reminded of Chen's intensity. She had to look away, calming her mind desperately as her sword once again blazed in response to her darkened mental state.
“Did they rip your heart out on the Paradise Moon, sister?” Sakuro asked her, cutting frighteningly close to the mark.
“Perhaps, brother dearest. Much was done to me there,” she replied in a whisper of her own, “I have a chip in my mind that makes me a slave of Eagle Empire. That is what I need to speak to you about,”
“What kind of chip?” he asked, the volume of his voice rising suddenly as his interest was piqued.
“The Top Elite call it a Kill Chip. It is a remote Euthanasia device,”
There were two sides to her brother, the first was the fearful, quiet side that was often racked with guilt and anguish. The other side was entirely logical and rational, with no room for human emotion as he worked toward solving whatever problem was currently troubling him. The switch from one to the other was often abrupt and sometimes disturbing. In her own troubled state, Sakura was mildly alarmed by the way her brother changed, all concern for her fled before the puzzle she had presented him with and suddenly she was simply an object to be examined.
“I have a scanner in my room, I must have a look at this thing. I want to see what they've done to make it difficult to remove,”
“That's just what I want you to do, Sakuro. I want it out of my head,” but she didn't mention Chen, and her hope that her brother could save them both.
“If they've done their job properly, Sakura, I doubt we'll be able to take it out without killing you,” he told her, in a tone of voice that didn't give her any comfort at all.
“If anyone can do it, you can Sakuro, I know you can,” she replied, sounding more desperate than she wanted to. Sakuro didn't notice that, and simply smiled at her compliment and ushered her towards his room. She took one last glance over her shoulder at the Cherry Trees, and a gust of wind blew a shower of blossoms from them.

“Listen to me, Commander Lee, the Security Board want you back out in the field, in spite of my best efforts to persuade them otherwise. I don't trust you, Commander, and I will take great joy in press the Kill Switch on you when it comes to it, but High Command don't respect my opinion enough. They think you are one of our best Elite and they want you dealing with this New Rebel Army that's started springing up all over Titan. If I hear that you have put even one foot out of line, I will make sure you pay dearly for it. Is it understood?” General Deuce was snarling in Chen's face again, leaving flecks of spittle on his cheeks and brow. He had to fight the urge to wipe them away with the back of his hand, knowing just how much it would aggravate the General.
“Understood General. Where am I to report to for briefing?”
“Titan Elite H.Q. You're being placed at the head of a 2nd Elite counter-terrorist team, reporting directly to General Hine. I will be monitoring your performance closely from here, waiting for you to screw up, and General Hine will also be keeping very close tabs on your methods Commander. Take this as your final warning – no more unnecessary heroics!” Chen watched the Generals face contorting and darkening as he barked, and felt hatred welling up inside him. He knew that if he could, he would take great pleasure in killing this man who had tormented him like this for years.
“Yes sir!” he barked back, straightening himself up and saluting. He still had more reasons to live than to die, so he forced himself to kowtow once more to the General.
“Dismissed Commander,” the General barked, turning his back on Chen and staring out of his office window. Chen stifled a smirk at the General's petulance – Deuce would see his reflection in the window - and left the office hurriedly before the General decided to add anything else. He felt a sense of relief that he would finally be leaving the Academy on Enceladus and getting back to action, but it was tinged with regret at leaving behind his memories of his time with Sakura. He had to stop his line of thought there though, because it always led to the bleak possibility that he would never see her again.
He made his way through the bustle of the Academy to his rooms, where it took him about ten minutes to pack up all his belongings. After another ten minutes there wasn't a visible sign that anyone had lived in the rooms for nearly a year, and then he left without looking back, heading straight for the Hangar and his Hawk.

The space between the inner and outer walls was tight and claustrophobic and it was difficult to be still and keep quiet, but there was really no other option. If the Eagle Empires soldiers sweeping the room just on the other side of the wall suspected anything, then everything he had achieved so far would amount to nothing.
"I've found one," he heard someone say beyond the wall. His heart began to hammer in his chest. Who had been caught? Could they be relied on to keep quiet? "There's no ID chip to scan," the speaker added.
"You people just don't know what's good for you do you?" another voice barked, menace dripping from each word. "Give me your name and ID number now!"
He held his breath, fearing the worst, but the request was met with silence.
"Give me your name and ID number now!" came another bark, punctuated with the unmistakable sound of a fist being driven hard into the relatively soft flesh of someone's stomach. There was a gasp, but there was no reply. Whoever it was that was making the demands let out a roar, then there was a crash of furniture and a barely stifled scream. The beating of his heart went up a gear and he could feel sweat standing cold on his forehead.
"Ok bitch, I'm not playing. Name and number!" There was a wail of pain.
"Katya Tomaski, ID, KT18316TN,"
A wave of nausea rose up in him at the sound of her voice. Katya. Possibly the last person whom he would want to have been caught. Would she tell them anything? He had always been so sure of his ability to trust her. Was she going to crack?
"Where is Niall McCreedy?" It was a venomous snarl, accompanied by a howl from Katya.
"That's enough, Sergeant Grieve, " A new voice said suddenly, a calm voice with the slightly clipped tones of a Titan-Chinese, "Take her to the medic team now,"
"Yes, Commander Lee,"
He felt panic flood his veins. He was caught for sure. There was no way that Commander Lee would fail to find him, no way that he could be quiet enough or blank his mind enough to avoid the Elite's senses picking up on his presence.
"Take the rest of the team on a second sweep of the basement. Turn it over completely," the Commander ordered now. He could hear a number of feet snap together in a salute, then they scurried from the room. Was the Commander alone in there now?
The next few moments went by agonizingly slowly. He knew the Commander hadn't left the room, but the silence in there was so complete that he could hear the footsteps of the soldiers as they descended the stairs to the basement. Then finally the Commander broke the silence.
"Before I ask you to come out, I want you to know that I'm not going to arrest you. You can choose not to believe me, but I am going to help you escape. If you want to believe me, then please come out and talk to me. Otherwise, stay behind the wall and I will walk out of here,"
Paranoia gripped him. What kind of game was the Commander playing? Several moments passed in tense silence, as Niall expected any moment to find the door he was hiding behind thrown open. But the Commander didn't move, he simply stood in the room beyond, waiting. Niall felt like a mouse trapped beneath the gaze of a cat.
"I realise you think that I am trying to trick you. I know there's nothing I can say that will reassure you otherwise," the Commander began again, then he continued, " I will wait here for another 5 minutes, then I will leave. I will direct my men to keep looking in the cellar for another 15 minutes after that, which should give you plenty of time to escape, and I will make sure that Ms Tomaski is treated properly,"
It sounded good to Niall, but he was still nervous about the Commander's true intentions. He had had far too many dealings with Corporation people to be able to trust even the most benign sounding offers from them. He would have to wait and hope that the commander would be good as his word about letting him go. It was the only other option apart from death. The silence between them stretched, and still the Commander made no move on the other side of the wall.
"Niall, do you know how they stop the Elite forces from rebelling?" The Commander asked suddenly, surprising him, "I've got a kill chip in my head, just like the Security bots on Mars. If I step out of line, General Deuce on Enceladus will take great pleasure in pressing the switch on me," there was a heaviness in the other man's voice that belied his youth. Niall could feel the truth in what the Commander was saying through it.
A strange feeling overcame him, a pang of the empathy that had made him fight against the Corporation to begin with. He'd always assumed the Top Elite were what they were out of loyalty to the Corporation, not out of coercion. Before he could stop himself, he pushed open the concealed door he was hiding behind and stepped out into the room, all mistrust gone in the face of the other man's pain.
He'd seen plenty of pictures of Commander Lee Chen before, because he had been a popular figure with the media for quite a few years now, but he'd looked like an arrogant, self interested young man under those headlines proclaiming him to be a "Hero". The man he saw now somehow looked very different, even though his face was the same. Something had obviously profoundly changed him.
"Thank you, Niall," the Commander said quietly, smiling in an oddly sad way.
"What happened to you?" he said, meeting the Commanders eye and asking a question he had posed a hundred times to the people who followed him.

Sunset over the Metropolis of Titan. The distant light of the sun was dipping beneath the tips of the skyscrapers, slightly deepening the gloom that the city perpetually lived under. Saturn dominated the eastern horizon, a muddy circle that stained the evening sky, blotting out the stars. The City moon was so far from the heart of the Solar System that the glow of Sol barely touched it. Titan did not have the privilege of Enceladus's SimSun, so it's denizens lived in a world of artificial light and shadow. Chen stood on the balcony, leaning on the railing, staring outwards at the twinkling cityscape while his mind looked deeply inwards.
Too much had happened that day, and he found himself wallowing in the kind of confusion that often dogged him over his feelings for Sakura. Why had he helped Niall McCreedy?
His mind had been in a fog since he'd been given this assignment, he'd felt uncomfortable about taking it on simply because it wasn't the kind of thing he was usually sent to do. He was used to the clearcut issues of tackling the Mafia and other criminal tribes that dogged the lives of ordinary people on Titan and he'd managed to avoid being put in a situation where his loyalty to the Corporation was ever tested. Until now.
Sakura had made him realise that he had no particular loyalty to his employers, but of course, it was also Sakura who had made him realise just how much of a slave he was to his employers too. Because of this, Chen had found he couldn't help but sympathise with the rebel and his cause. He had come to realise the oppressive nature of the Corporation and come to understand the fact that to most ordinary people in the Solar System, the Corporation represented a greater evil than any of the criminals he'd based his career on chasing.
That didn't answer the deeper question, the one that was really giving him pause for thought though. Why had he told McCreedy everything? Why had he told him about the Kill Chip? Why had he told him about the Corporations collaboration with the Shogun of Japan? Why had he told him about Sakura?
As he racked up the number of offences he had committed in that one conversation in his head, his heart began to hammer. What kind of reckless fool was he? Didn't he want to see Sakura again? He was incomplete without her, how could he put his only source of hope at risk like that? He could almost hear General Deuce gloating now. He'd be claiming how he'd always known Lee Chen would go wrong from day one as he threw the switch. When would Sakura ever hear what had happened to him?
Damn the fact that he was little more than a glorified slave! Anger exploded out of him and he let out a roar as he threw his fist through the glass doors that led back into his apartment. The pane shattered, and Chen collapsed to his knees among the shards, blood dripping from his fist.
He closed his eyes, despair welling up inside him. All he wanted in life was to be with the woman he loved, why was everything so complicated?

Sakura surveyed the battlefield from the screen in her Hawk. Her 2nd Elite Samurai were pressing hard on the positions of the Chinese Zen Pilots where they were trying to give back up to the Chinese Infantry. The Cavalry were making mincemeat out of those infantry under cover from the Samurai in their Swifts. The battle would soon be hers, but it wasn't in her heart to care. She felt very little any more, except for the gaping wound in her heart that Lee Chen had left, and the burning desire for vengeance of her father's murder. Since neither could be solved while she had the Kill Chip in her head, she had had to push all feelings aside to be able to cope with the hand that fate was dealing her.
She flicked off the screen and pulled up the message Sakuro had sent her earlier. It was terse and cryptic, which was his usual style at the best of times. It simply said "Breakthrough, Sister dearest, try and get home soon,". She had mulled it over several times already, and, in spite of the brief flush of excitement she had felt when she had first read it, had decided on the balance of things that it would have to wait. He hadn't demanded her immediate return from China, so he couldn't have made that much of a breakthrough. Even so, it did make her wonder what he had managed to do. She had no room for hope though, two years of waiting for Sakuro to beat the Kill Chip had worn down her ability to hope.
"Lady Sakura! We need some backup! Some of the Zen Pilots have broken free and we are coming under heavy fire from them! Repeat, We need backup!"
Sakura sighed and leaned back into her seat. She really hadn't wanted to get involved this time, because it was when she flew in battle that she most missed having Chen beside her. Nothing that she had ever experienced was like flying with him into battle. She stopped that train of thought dead in it's tracks. It didn't lead anywhere good and she had a battle to fight.
"Alright, let's go and help them out," she told her ship. She felt a wave of excitement from the Hawk and the engines roared into life. The ship leaped skyward and Sakura flicked her screen back on, using it to pinpoint the rogue Zen pilots. She spotted them quickly.
"Okay, let's go get them,"
The Hawk threw itself upwards full of a sense of joy. It had been a long time since Sakura had fought in battle with it, and she knew it missed the wild twists and turns of full melee. It reached it's peak and began to drop on the positions of the Zen Pilots. Sakura let her senses extend into her ship, becoming one with it. Together they dropped into a tight, corkskrew, and she gripped the gun controls tightly. In her mind, Chen flew like a ghost towards the earth with her, their flightpaths back to back, twisting together so closely that if she closed her eyes she could see his face just above her own. She had to hold the pain this made her feel deep inside, because she couldn't let her Hawk feel it any more than she could let her Kitana feel it. She would curse herself later for this weakness, but right in the heart of battle, there was no time to think about it.
She began firing as soon as she had one of the Zen pilots in her sights, but he span away as soon as she touched his wing with her fire. She followed him, her Hawk still spinning in the air as the other Zen Pilots moved to follow her. He twisted away from her, with the effortlessness of thought, but she followed him, her mind as melded to her ship as his body was. Another spray of fire from her guns and the Zen ship in front of her tumbled from the air, wings too torn to continue flight.
She pulled up sharply, turning her ship now towards her pursuers, and spitting rockets at them. They swerved and dodged, leaving themselves open to her cannon fire even as they desperately worked to avoid the rockets. She was almost disgusted at how easily they seemed to fall from the air under her cannon fire. The Zen pilots were second only to the 1st Elite in piloting skill, but to her the gap seemed so vast that there was practically no contest at all.
The battle was soon over and her forces claimed victory over the Chinese once again. The southern provinces of China would soon all be under Japanese control, although Sakura knew that would simply focus the Chinese effort to expel her troops from their land and it would yet be a long time before she would be able to push northwards.
She was in the process of debriefing her 2nd Elite Samurai when a message came through from the Shoguns's office. Reluctantly she left the debriefing room to take it. It took all of her effort to quell her hatred before the hologramatic representation of her master.
"Lady Sakura, congratulations on yet another decisive victory!" He exclaimed jubilantly by way of greeting when the connection to Tokyo went live.
"All for your greater glory, my Lord," she told him, wishing him death in her heart. Her sword whined in frustration at her side, echoing her inner feelings perfectly. She was glad he was not actually in the room with her.
"Unfortunately, I am going to have to pull you and your Samurai away from the war for the moment. The Corporation are calling in a favour," he told her without preamble. She clenched her teeth and tried to ignore the scream of rage uttered by her sword. She could feel it's echo in her heart, but she could not give vent to it.
"Where are they sending us, master?" she asked, her voice completely without emotion.
"Back to Mars, unfortunately. There is some kind of prisoner uprising taking place there,"
"Your will is my command," she replied, cutting the comlink before he could say anything else. She knew she could easily blame it on Chinese interference in the networks.
Back to Mars. Back to that dusty hell hole that she had only escaped a year ago. Back to that place that reminded her of the grief she felt at losing Chen.
It was only when her Hawk screamed at her she realised she had put her fist straight through the screen in front of her.

"Commander Lee? General Hines is on Channel 3 for you,"
Chen looked up from the pool of blood and glass he had been contemplating at the sound of the intercom blaring with that message. Reluctantly he dragged himself to his feet, ignoring the pain of the pieces of broken glass that embedded themselves into the soles of his feet as he walked over them. He hit channel three on the Com Station.
"Commander Lee here, you wanted to speak to me General?"
"Yes Commander. I have an urgent order through from Cent Com. There is an uprising on Mars that they need your team to investigate. They need to establish links to Niall McCreedy and his rebels,"
Chen's heart sank. He knew what that meant. He would have to fabricate evidence of links if none existed, and he really didn't want to be involved in that. How could he betray McCreedy like that?
"Word is that you will have to work with your old pupil though, the Japanese General. What was she called again?"
For a second Chen thought he had misheard what General Hines had said. His brain seemed to go into paralysis while his heart and stomach did backflips.
"General Hachi?" he said, trying to sound like he couldn't quite remember.
"That's it, Sakura Hachi. I hear she is quite a brilliant tactician. Should be an easy job for you Commander,"
"I'm on it, General. We'll be shipping out within the hour,"

My landscape of memory is a place as full of shadows as a forest in moonlight. The light of recollection pierces it's gloom and highlights just a fragment of detail, often something sharp and stark. These fleeting images have often come to me at awkward moments, catching me off balance, and sometimes stabbing painfully at me with their clarity.
It happened to me again yesterday. I was standing by the sink, cleaning the cutlery, staring out across the sleepy river valley of the place that I currently call home. The setting sun slid into view through the open window and for a moment I was blinded by it. I closed my eyes and saw arcs of blood sprayed across the white walls of my parents apartment. There was nothing more to it than that one image, yet it knocked the breath out of me. My stomach lurched wildly in response to some further memory that it did not care to share with the rest of me, and I had to grab hold of the sides of the sink as it emptied itself of the lunch I had only recently consumed.
It's been ten years or so since my parents were killed, but the fragmented memories of the night they died are like open wounds inside me. I cannot recall it all, not even nearly, but my fear of what happened then has driven me every day since. There are some things it is worse to remember than to forget.
I've been sitting for hours this evening, alone in my room and trying to piece together the fragments that I do have of that night. It's an arduous task and I feel completely masochistic in attempting it, but now I can't face it any more. I note it down in the little black book I keep with me all the time, then snuff out the lamp and attempt to sleep.

If my memories form a dark forest in my mind, then my dreams are wild creatures that hunt beneath it's eaves.

I've just started work on this last night, but I've already managed to get a fair bit into it, so I thought I'd post a preview of it here. This is subject to change (as in fact are all the parts I have already posted, within reason!). Enjoy!


Rebel Empress
Episode 4
Worlds Apart

It has been nearly six months since the end of Saphora's training on Enceladus. She has yet to return to the China-Japan war, because of the training of several Samurai on Mars that she was ordered to oversee. She has changed, radically, as a person, and seems even colder and harder than ever she was before. Her secret passion for vengeance against her father's killers is consuming her, filling the awful hole inside her that has been left by her separation from her lover, and the ache of separation from her Katana. She is finding it hard to hold herself to her fathers strict belief in the Buddha's teachings, and can feel herself turning to darkness.
Lee Chen is about to return to action as an Elite, after a string of failed trainees and a bleak time without Saphora. He knows he no longer wants to serve Eagle Empire, but with the kill chip installed inside him, he cannot see any other option if he is ever going to see Saphora again. The hope of seeing her is the only thing that keeps him going, although he too is in danger of falling to darkness.
When the Samurai training is finally over, Saphora returns to her family home to retrieve her beloved sword and speak with her brother....

The smell of the sea always brought memories back to Saphora, and today, with the Cherry trees in the courtyard in full bloom, it was like a spell. She gripped the handle of her sword reflexively, savoring the connection that she had missed for so long while trying to keep her mind on the present while she waited for her brother on the veranda. The tingling response that swam along her arm and up her spine was soothing, and brought to her mind a cherished memory of her father.
She had held the sword in awe as a child, from the very first time she saw him practice with it in the courtyard. The cherry trees that they fed with filtered sea water were in blossom then too. She had stood on the veranda, clutching a soft toy in one hand, and she had seen him draw his sword and cut a falling cherry blossom in half. The sword had moved like a streak of silver lightning and her father had sheathed it again before the torn blossom had landed on the stone ground, and she had clapped and laughed with joy to see it. He had glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled, then he had begun to perform a kata. She had found herself absorbed in the way her fathers sword had moved like a silver ribbon in the air, and in the way her father leaped, span and moved as if fighting with an imaginary attacker. At times his sword crackled and sparked, at other times it whined and sang and then it would fall silent, as he set himself for his next set of techniques. He had still been a young, healthy man then, before the injury that had forced him to retire young as a Samurai, and he had been the best swordsman of his time. Even though she had been very small, she had understood how great his skill was, and she had watched in absorbed silence until he was finished.
When he was done she had run up to him and thrown her small arms around his neck, demanding to see his sword close up, smiling and laughing he had shown it to her, explaining what each part was. That had been the moment that she had decided she would be like her father.

Here, after a slight delay, is the third part of my serial.The Rebel Empress
Episode 3
Hawk

In the last episode Sakura Hachi began her training on Enceladus at the Elite School. She was assigned to Commander Lee Chen as her instructor who had been censured for failing to follow orders exactly. Within the first week of her training, they had fallen in love. Knowing that the penalty for becoming involved in such a way would be extremely severe, they decided they must keep it secret.
Sakura Hachi survived her implant operation entirely intact, unlike many other Elite hopefuls. She woke to find that her telepathic skills were particularly acute and that she had a deep telepathic bond with her lover, Lee Chen.

“We get to see the best of our parents, and we get to see the worst of parents,”
She thought about his voice as he'd said that, the way he'd closed his eyes and gently shook his head, then he'd continued, looking directly at her in the way he'd developed since her operation. Nothing could be hidden from that steady look. “In my family, all the young men were expected to go and join the war on Earth. We came from a tight-knit community in the South China Sea district of Titan,”
She had heard of The China Sea. It was a vast, sprawling network of suburbs in the Southern hemisphere of Titan.
“But my mother,” he went on softly, his eyes becoming suddenly distant as he looked into the past through the depths of his thoughts, “My mother was not from our community. My father brought her to live with his family at the end of his time fighting in the War.
Everyone welcomed her to begin with – after all she was a refugee from the War, but once my brothers and I had been born, things began to change. She didn't want her sons to go back to China, she didn't want them to die. Father didn't want to break with the family tradition, he didn't want to disobey Grandfather.
I was the youngest, and I remember when my eldest brother went off to the War. He was fifteen years old, and my mother wailed and tore at her hair as Grandfather took him away. Father held her tightly and said nothing. My brother never came back.
When my second brother was due to leave, my mother pleaded and begged my father not to send him. They argued and fought over it, waking me up in the night to hear my mothers screams and my fathers anger. My second brother went to war, and my mother ran crying down the road after my Grandfather's car. All our relatives had gathered in the street to say their own goodbyes, but as she ran by them, one by one, they turned their backs on her. My second brother came back, wrapped in a thick black plastic body bag. I remember my parents weeping over it together, clutching at each others hands.
I was their only remaining son, and my father no longer wanted me to join the War in China. My Grandfather ordered everyone in the community to shun my parents, and we had to move away. Dad took a poorly paid job as a security guard and taught Martial Arts, Mum ran a flower stall in a market.
Out of all my brothers, I was the most talented at Martial Arts, and because of this, Grandfather came often to visit us where we lived. He repeatedly tried to persuade my parents to send me to the war. There were many arguments, but my parents refused to give in to his demands and eventually my father asked him not to return,” he stopped then and looked away. Sakura could felt the swell of regret inside him. She guessed at the source.
“When you told your parents that you wanted to join the Elite, they did not take it well, did they?” she asked gently, thinking of the look in her fathers eye when she had chosen to follow the life of a Samurai.
“No, they did not,” he answered, turning to look at her again, “But they did not try to stop me,”
“What about your Grandfather? Did he find out what you had chosen to do?”
“He found out, and he let me know just how displeased he was, but like any dutiful grandfather he has not disowned me. That would be a waste of the chance to remind me how wrong I was to defy him,” Chen's words were leaded with dark irony. Sakura could tell he would have preferred to have been disowned.


She twisted the yoke in her hands, sending her Hawk into a deep, spinning dive after Chen's. They plunged together, Hawks flying back to back in a tight spiral towards the ground. It was a wildly dangerous maneuver, with Chen less than an arms length away from her as they dropped at full throttle, but she could feel the ship as she felt her Katana. It was a part of her and an extension of her. She could make the most minute changes in her trajectory by thought alone, and she could react to anything with the speed of those thoughts.
Not only that, but the depth of the bond she had with Chen made it easy for her to know exactly what he was about to do – she could feel his presence as strongly as she could feel the presence of her Hawk. Dangerous as it seemed, there was very little danger to either of them, and they pulled up together at the very last second and headed for the skies again, their flights intertwining like those of courting swallows in spring.
“Damn it!” Chen suddenly exclaimed over the channel, and she could feel his irritation.
“What's wrong?” she asked him.
“We've got to go fly a mission – a squadron of 2nd Levels have run into trouble down in the Underbelly on Titan. There's no-one else to give them support, so we've got to go,”
“My Hawk isn't armed,” she reminded him.
“That's a quick stop at the Elite Platform, it won't take more than a couple of minutes to arm her up,” he told her.
“Ok Commander, let's go,” she responded, already lifting her Hawk towards the subtle skies of Enceladus again. Pulling the throttle back, she blasted towards space, with Chen arcing upwards in parallel with her. Enceladus shrank below them, it's tropical forests quickly becoming a green smudge between the deep blue of it's oceans. They rose quickly above the SimSun, the glass on the cockpits darkening automatically to prevent them from being blinded from the Fission Satellite's glare. Titan was hanging on the dark side of Saturn, hidden in it's own night, so they swung fast around the rings and arrowed towards the Elite Platform that orbited the City Moon.
“EP1, this is Elite 21 requesting permission to re-arm for Elite 30,” Sakura heard Chen hail the platform, “We kind of need to make this quick guys,”
“Hi, Commander Lee. Elite 30 is listed as “in-training” here – I take it this is your student?” came a voice back from the Platform. Sakura felt Chen's irritation again.
“Yep, so let's rock and roll guys – we've got a situation in the Underbelly to deal with,”
“Affirmative, Commander, swing by Bay 4 – everything is ready to go there for you now,”
Sakura spun her Hawk and made for Bay 4, with Chen close behind her. He hovered above her ship as the robots in the bay got to work, filling the chambers in her Hawks empty guns and packing it's missile bays, and they shot towards the surface of Titan together at high speed the very second the bots were done.
Sakura rode the thick atmosphere of Titan with expert assurance. She followed Chen as he bulleted round the curvature of the moon, heading for the southern pole and the suburb known as The Underbelly. It was the part of the moon that got the least light, and the part that seemed to accumulate the majority of Titans vast criminal community – possibly because of the long hours of darkness.
The firefight lit up the night sky, with the red laser fire from the Swifts of the 2nd Level Elite competing with the yellow incendiary fire from the S.A.M.'s om the Surface among the rooftops of the Underbelly. Sakura saw a Swift turn into a ball of fire and heard the scream of it's pilot just as they came in range of the firefight. There was no time for instructions, Chen barreled forward in his Hawk and Sakura followed suit, trusting to her instincts and battle experience to carry her through. She fell into perfect sync with her lover, feeling his movements as she had done earlier and twisting her own ship into them. There was no thought in her as she threw the switches to release missiles at the S.A.M. sites below, and it took only thought to guide them to their targets.
One of the sites locked on to her, and she felt it like a cold breath running down her spine. She plunged her ship downwards at full throttle, then pulled it up again just as the wingtips were about to brush the top of a squat low-rise that housed another site. The S.A.M. Missiles didn't have the agility to cope, and slammed into the low-rise as she twisted her Hawk away. There was a wild cheer from over the comm links from the 2nd level Elite, and Sakura smiled quietly to herself.
Above her, Chen was involved in a dog fight with three Mafia Stingers. He'd thrown his ship into a tight corkscrew spin to avoid the small, agile, short-range fighters. They were spitting rounds at furiously high velocity from dual Mini-guns mounted on each stubby wing while they swarmed round him in an attempt to shred the fuselage of his Hawk.
A Swift plunged, burning past him, another three stingers following it while the pilot screamed over the comm links. Chen followed the path of it down with his eye, trying to get a clear shot at the pursuing Stingers even as he twisted his Hawk to avoid the one's on him. From a hangar below another 30 or so Stingers swarmed out, making a b-line for Sakura as she pulled her ship up to assist him. They scattered as the burning Swift plunged through them and hit the ground.
“This situation is completely out of control – we have to regroup!” Chen yelled over the comm links, “Everyone make a break for the upper atmosphere – the Stingers can't follow us there,” he barked.
Sakura followed his order, pulling her Hawk up and gunning it so that she shot upwards, breaking away from the Stingers that were closing on her and outrunning them easily. Chen appeared on her right wing, flying in tight formation with her, while the Swifts began to congregate around them as they all headed upwards.
“Swifts form up and be prepared to cover us as we dive in. We're going to blitz the Stingers with machine fire while you guys work the S.A..M's with missiles. Stay above us and keep as tight a formation as you can – that will keep the Stingers away from you,” then he switched to a private channel and added, “We do a corkscrew dive and keep up continuous fire. Follow my lead and keep within a wingspan of me – we're going to have to skim pretty close to street level,”
“Yes, Commander Lee,” she replied without a trace of irony. There was no way of telling who might be listening in to their conversation. She felt a wave of love from Chen, and smiled to herself.
“On my mark, Elite,” Chen spoke across the open channel, watching while the Swifts formed up into a tight vee across the dark Titian sky, “Three, Two, One - “ he hesitated a breath as the Swifts shifted to their final position, “Drop!”
Sakura and Chen plunged downwards, twisting around each other, the Swifts following them and blanket firing their missiles at the S.A.M.s below. The Stingers rose up in a swarm towards the Hawks, but were scattered suddenly as the Hawks pulled up sharply and began firing. Sakura and Chen were still locked into a tight spiral and spinning so fast that it was impossible for the Stingers to target them. They peeled apart suddenly, following the scattering Mafia ships, then pulled back together as soon as they had the Stingers attention. All around them the S.A.M. sites were exploding, the Swifts taking advantage of the activity below to take them out.
Sakura entered that flowing state of mind where she did nothing more than act. She could never accurately recall afterwards what happened when she entered mushin, but it never mattered. The Stingers swarmed towards them again, but the depth of her bond with Chen meant that they could not match the Hawks for co-ordinated movement, and the swarm began to disintegrate, with many of the tiny ships being shredded by the machine fire of the Hawks.
Then she and Chen were flying at street level, their Hawks belly to belly through the narrow lanes of The Underbelly. Sakura was aware of people fleeing for cover as they flew by, but her attention was focused on the Stingers coming up behind and ahead of them. As one, Chen and Sakura slammed the brakes and flipped their Hawks down a side street. Although the Stingers were more agile than the Hawks, the Stinger pilots didn't have Elite reactions and there was a large explosion as several of the tiny ships slammed at full speed into buildings as they failed to turn in time. The Hawks flipped up in the air, rising above the rooftops and then turning back down so that they faced the remaining Stingers and unleashed a volley of bullets. What was left of the Stingers broke off their pursuit and Chen and Sakura climbed back into the sky to give support to the Swifts.
After the battle, Chen and Sakura followed the Swifts back to their Titan base, while Eagle Marines cleaned up at the weapons depot that had been the mission objective.
“Thank you Commanders, we couldn't have done it without you,” the Swift Captain told them over the comms as they flew, “Our intelligence was way out on their Stinger capacity and on the number of S.A.M.'s they had,”
“I'd get Intel to check it's sources again. If they've got a squealer then I'd say you were being set up by the Mafia,” Chen told the Captain.
“I will be doing just that. Commander, right after the Press Conference,”
“Well, me and my apprentice here will hang ten for the debriefing, but we'll have to shoot off before “meet the press” time. I'll leave you to that pleasure,”
Sakura grinned to herself again, and flipped to a private channel.
“You seriously don't want to bask in the publicity you just made?”
“I seriously do, Sakura, but unfortunately there's a couple of small details I have to pay attention to. Quite apart from the fact that General Deuce needs just the smallest excuse to roast me, you're to avoid any publicity whatsoever until you graduate, so we debrief quickly and head home,”
But, things did not turn out quite so simple when they arrived a few moments later at the Swift Base. There were journalists on the landing strip at the base, waiting with camera's in hand to film and photograph and question Chen when he arrived.
“Well I hope the General has got his coals good and hot, I have no idea how I'm going to talk my way out of this one,” Chen sighed as he brought his Hawk into to land. Sakura dropped hers next to his and quickly climbed out of the cockpit. By the time her feet hit the tarmac, Chen had already been swarmed by members of the Press, each shouting over the top of the rest to try and get their own questions heard. Chen was trying in vain to raise his own voice above all of theirs. The level of noise was not particularly pleasant to Sakura's heightened senses, and judging by the sense of discomfort that Chen was broadcasting to her, she knew that being in the centre of it all was more unpleasant still.
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” Chen bellowed suddenly, losing his cool altogether. The pack fell silent, “Thank you! I can't give you any more than a statement today because I am with my Trainee Elite. We received a distress call from the Southern Swift Squadron and as we were the only available Elite in the vicinity of Saturn, we had to respond. We achieved a significant victory against Mafia forces and have dealt a blow to their weapons manufacturing capabilities. There will be a press conference with the Swifts after debriefing and you can have all your questions answered there,“ The noise of the pack began to rise again, so Chen had to shout over the top of them, ”I'm sorry, but that's all I can give you,”and he began to wade his way back through the pack towards Sakura.
The Press, seeing that there was nothing more to be had from Chen, mostly began to head towards the conference room. A few held back still, with a photographer taking pictures of Chen and Sakura, and one standing staring at the two of them, chewing on a pencil and scribbling notes on scrap of paper.
“General Deuce will ban the publication of any pictures or articles with a rooky Elite in them!” Chen shouted back over his shoulder. The scribbling journalist looked up as if startled and came hurrying over to them as they began to head for the Briefing room.
“Dmitri Jones of the Saturn Telegraph, Commander Lee. We've spoken before,” the man said breathlessly, holding out a hand to Chen which Chen ignored. The journalist took it in his stride and turned to Sakura.
“And you'd be Sakura Hachi, the Shogun of Japan's top Samurai. It seems rather unusual for you to be an Elite rooky – there must be quite a story there,”
Sakura did not need Chen's sense of urgency to choose not to reply to the question. There would be a diplomatic firestorm between China and Eagle Empires if her face got plastered all over the Media in Elite Uniform, and of course relations between China and Japan would be plunged to new lows. She did not want that kind of thing to happen while she was not there to fight the ensuing battles.
“Dmitri, go and speak to General Deuce. You know what he's going to tell you, but that's as much story as you are going to get,” Chen snarled, before turning away. Sakura didn't give the journalist a second glance before following Chen, but if she had, she would have been surprised by the thoughtful look on his face.

Later that night, Sakura stood alone in the hangar with her Hawk. It hadn't received so much as a scratch during the battle, but she couldn't help running her hands over it's sleek black hull to be sure. She could feel the whisper of the ship's circuitry under her fingers as it responded to her touch, reminding her, achingly, of her sword. She still felt incomplete without her Samurai blade at her side, and neither the docile, puppy like AI of her Hawk nor the intense love of Chen quite filled that hole in her psyche. After all, she had been bred for the Blade.
You are sad, why? The words formed in her mind, although in truth they were less words than simple feelings. Under her fingertips she felt a sympathetic warmth radiating from her Hawk. It made her pause and think.
Was she simply sad because she missed the symbiosis with her Katana? Or was there more to it than that? She was now several months into her training, and there were only slightly more than two months to go. She should really feel elated about that, because she felt exiled from the war here, and helpless for it. She was also passing every assessment with flying colours, which meant she was guaranteed to graduate.
But there was Chen, and she knew, instinctively, that leaving him behind would be much more painful than leaving her sword in the care of her family. Knowing him, loving him and coming to understand his side of the war that she was fighting had left her with questions and feelings she could not simply deny. Her father had questioned the war, but now, through Chen, she could see first hand the futility of it, as well as the way that Eagle Empire was manipulating the whole thing. China and Japan would constitute a serious threat to their hegemony if they ever joined forces.
That was a distraction though, she realised as she pulled her mind back from that tangent and forced herself to contemplate again what she would feel without Chen. She had never contemplated love before, had never had time for it as she plotted her long course of vengeance against her fathers killers, and now she had found it, she was reluctant to let it go. But how could she do anything else?
I will always be with you, she felt the ship's response to her distress, and she ran a soothing hand over it's hull again.
“I know, and I am glad. I'm sorry I can't explain to you properly why I am still sad,” she said quietly, trying to bring her love for the Hawk to the fore in her mind to settle the ship.
A sensation like a soft, caressing touch, running up her spine distracted her entirely. Chen was coming towards the hangar door. She glanced across at it, waiting for him.
You are sad because of Commander Lee, the Hawk told her, surprising her. There was some resentment in it's tone, and a certain edge of protectiveness too. She shook her head and laughed softly.
“Yes, but it's very complicated. It's not his fault, so please don't be angry with him,” she soothed the ship.
I will try, the Hawk responded, calmed by her words and the feeling of anticipation flowing through her as she waited for Chen.
The side door into the School slid back with a hiss, and Chen stepped into the gloom, quickly crossing the huge space of the Hangar to wrap Sakura in an embrace. Here, in the cool darkness of the Hangar, there was no need for secrecy. Sakura's Hawk and it's cooling engines concealed them entirely from the surveillance cameras, and there was no-one else about at this time of night.
“General Deuce is screaming for Dmitri Jones's blood. Apparently he actually submitted an article about you to his editor, who sent it straight to the General,” he told her at last, when they finally broke.
“It will be better for everyone, I think, when I am gone from here,” she told him, sighing.
“It won't be better for me. I'm trying not to think about what it will be like when you're gone,”
She closed her eyes, straining to think through the white noise of thoughts in her head. She wondered if she would find calm again, and hoped that her sword would bring her equilibrium back.
“Do you think we will ever see each other again?” she asked him, voicing the fear that she had so far held back.
“I don't know,” he replied, and she could feel the bleakness that that statement made him feel. They were skating close to the void with this conversation, and she knew she had to bring them back from that brink, for now. She wrapped her arms around him, held him tightly and whispered softly in his ear.
“I do know we have time left. Let's not waste it with this,”
Then she said a gentle good night to her Hawk, and led him away from the darkness of the Hangar, back towards the sleeping quarters of the School.

Here it is - the second episode of my serial!


The Rebel Empress
Episode 2
Elite

In the last episode, Sakura Hachi learned from her master that she was to be sent to the Elite school on Enceladus, which is Eagle Empire's top military and espionage school. The “education” comes at a high price, and one that Sakura Hachi finds an affront to her Samurai honour. Eagle Empire has contracted the use of the Shogun's Samurai as a mercenary force in return. She finds herself caught between the desire to further herself for her own ends, and the need to maintain her honour. Yet she follows the order, realising that the training and implant technology that she will be given will allow her to become much more powerful than she already is.

Meanwhile, at the Elite School on Enceladus, a young Elite commander is being debriefed after jeopardising a high level mission.....


“Commander Lee Chen, can you explain to me, in detail, what possessed you to go running back into that building?” the tall General in the sleek black uniform, sunglasses and 4-star cap asked the uniformed man standing to attention in front of his desk.
“There were a number of children in the building, sir. They would have died,” the Commander replied, staring ahead with his back ramrod straight, not looking at the General's face as he spoke. He knew he was in trouble, but he wasn't about to back down.
“Collateral damage, Commander Lee. You know the rules as well as I do. What you did was in direct violation of your orders,”
“With respect, sir, it would have been immoral for me to leave them. It was because of my actions that the building was collapsing,”
“To hell with morals, boy, we aren't in this for morals! We are here to serve Eagle Empire and we must follow the orders we are given! The Press are all over what was supposed to be a covert mission. So what if they are calling you a hero and so what if they are being paid to overlook your real objective, you brought unnecessary attention to yourself!“ The Generals rage was high now and he had got out of his seat and was circling his desk towards the Commander, ”You weren't chosen for the Elite because of your morals, you were chosen for your martial arts and the simple fact your implants didn't kill you! It is an honour to become Elite, and Eagle Empire place a great deal of trust in you in exchange for this. You know what the penalty is for misuse of your powers, Commander Lee,”
The General finished off yelling directly into the Commander's face. The Commander did not flinch, in spite of the purple-faced fury that was inches from his eyes.
“You're real hard, aren't you Commander Lee? Do you think your “morals” make you special?” the General didn't seem to like his attitude.
“No, sir. I believe that my morals make it easier for me to live with myself,”he replied, then instantly regretted the glibness of it.
“You've got guts boy. I'm calling that insubordination and you're going to have plenty of time to practice living with yourself for a while. You are officially out of front line duty and out of the limelight. I'm scheduling a year of teaching here at school!”
Lee Chen's heart sank. Teaching was reserved as a cooling off duty for the Elite. It was an intensive, but thankless job with little genuine excitement. Most of the students that went through the Elite school were only 2nd level and below. Only a handful of Top Elite students were ever undergoing training here at any one time, and most of them would never make it. The qualified Top Elite were used to an elevated status as Heroes to most of the inhabitants of the Solar System and were used to fame and excitement, not the high level of failure and frustration of tutoring one on one with those students trying to reach their own level. Lee Chen was no exception to this, morals or not. His last stint at the school was one that had left something of a scar in his memory.
“Now go report at the space port – your first student is coming in at 1100 hours. The file is there at the immigration desk. Now get out of my sight, Commander Lee,”
He turned to leave, and had his hand on the handle of the General's office door when the General fired off a parting shot.
“Don't forget, Commander, about that little piece of military hardware inside your head. One more false move, son, and boom!” and as he said that he mimed an exploding head at Lee Chen, smirking as he did it.
Lee Chen needed no excuses to leave in a hurry – he had never liked General Deuce and always felt distinctly uncomfortable when the topic of conversation veered anywhere near the question of his “service” to Eagle Empire. He'd wanted to be a Top Elite ever since he'd been a kid, but not out of any loyalty to the Corporation. He'd wanted adventure, to be a hero and to make a difference to the lives of ordinary people in the fight against the Criminal gangs that ruled the streets of Titan.
He hitched a ride on a delivery shuttle that was heading to the Space Port then he breezed through customs and immigration – his uniform doing all the talking for him. He stopped to pick up the file on his student, but didn't bother to read it. Previous experience had taught him there was no point getting too involved at this stage. He would find out what he needed to know as he worked with whoever it was had been assigned to him.
In the VIP lounge he found two other Elite, waiting for a ride for an undercover mission. They shook their heads and laughed at him when he told them what he was waiting for. He simply shrugged it off and laughed with them, he had a reputation to maintain with them after all.
At 1100 hours, a ship arrived at the port and all three Elite stared in surprise at it. It was a Samurai fighter, a class of ship that Japan's enemies had nicknamed Wasps. It touched down lightly and a Samurai woman leaped out of it, adding to the surprise of the Elite. Lee Chen suddenly thought to look at the file he was still holding in his hand, and saw the name at the top. Sakura Hachi. The woman was obviously his student. Suddenly everything had changed.
He knew the name well, his grandfather had been muttering curses to it for the last few years whenever Lee Chen had time to go home to visit. She was the young general who had become a thorn in Old China's side. In theory that meant that she was Lee Chen's enemy, his grandfather's family had fled China because of the War, but Grandfather had never given up on the idea of going back. Grandfather did not like the idea of being called Titian or even Titian-Chinese – he was Chinese and always would be. His grandfather had been deeply disappointed when Lee Chen had decided to become an Elite rather than go to China to help in the war like many of his uncles, cousins and even some of his brothers had done.
“You got some luck, Chen. She's a nice looking girl,” one of his colleagues said, distracting him from his thoughts. He looked up and tried not to imagine what his grandfather would be telling him if he was here, and found himself staring at the most attractive women he had ever seen, which came as a shock.
Sakura Hachi was now making her way towards the immigration officials that stood waiting at the entrance to the VIP lounge. She was tall and willowy, and moved with the effortless grace that a great sword fighter should have. Her long black hair was tied up high on her head, and it shone like polished ebony in the artificial sunshine of Enceladus's Sim Sun satellite. Her face wasn't clear from the distance, but her skin was pale gold in colour, in strong contrast to the red of her lips. The immigration officials took one look at the pass she presented to them and let her into the lounge. The soft scent of Jasmine came with her, wafting towards the young Commander. The smell seemed to put his brain into overdrive, as his senses began vying with each other to tell him how to feel. His common sense, which often had his grandfather's voice, told him he shouldn't trust her, while his telepathic senses reacted with deep foreboding. His physical senses were at war with this though, because the way she walked, smelled and the softness of her step as she moved towards him were telling not only to trust her, but to get close to her. Now she was near enough to see her face, and he couldn't help but soak up every detail. Her eyes were dark, nearly entirely black and full of mystery. Her lips were small but generous, her eyebrows curved gently upwards and black, her cheekbones high and well sculpted. There was coolness and hardness in that beautiful face though, and he could feel the aura of danger about her, which served to deepen his confusion. Somehow, his sense of self-preservation kicked in, and he moved forward to introduce himself without his reeling brain having to give any instructions.
“Hi, I'm Commander Lee Chen. I'm going to be your mentor while you're here at the Elite school,”
She put her hands together and bowed to him, low enough to show respect, but not so low as to show submission. He returned her bow, feeling distinctly awkward and burying his grandfather's voice at the back of his mind. Her dark eyes never left him, and he knew she was soaking up every detail of him and weighing him carefully in her mind. He wasn't sure how that made him feel at all.
“Thank you Commander, I'm looking forward to working with you,” she replied, her Common only mildly accented and her voice soft and quiet.
He opened his mouth to reply, found his mind was suddenly blank, covered it with a sudden “coughing fit” and pointed vaguely in the direction of the exit. She gave him a concerned look, while behind him Chen could hear his fellow Elite laughing quietly enough that only he could hear them. He quickly mastered himself, not wanting to be humiliated in front of them.
“Sorry about that,” then he pointed towards the exit again, “If you would like to follow me, we'll take the shuttle back to the school and find out where your accommodation is,”
“I've left my belongings in my ship,” she told him, pointing back at the Wasp in it's landing bay.
“The Port Stewards will unload it and transfer your belongings to the school just shortly – unless there is anything you want to bring in yourself?”
She shook her head and began to make her way to the exit, leaving him to follow her. It was then he noticed that she was not wearing her sword.
“Are you sure you're happy having the Port Stewards handling your sword, Ms Hachi?” he asked as he fell into step with her. She glanced up at him.
“Please call me Sakura. I suspect we will be spending a lot of time together,”
That made his brain start racing again. He had to cling to the fact she hadn't answered his question like a drowning man to a branch to stop himself from being swept away in it.
“Of course, Sakura. I thought a Samurai's sword was too precious for them to be parted with their master?”
“I did not bring my sword with me, it is still at my home in Japan,” she told him quietly, “It is too precious for me to bring here,” she added, looking very directly into his eyes. From the look, the tone of her voice and his sixth sense, he understood immediately why. She did not want to her sword to fall into Eagle Empire's hands. Yet, the idea of a Samurai without their sword... it was almost unthinkable.
The shuttle, an ancient, rickety vehicle with room for 12 passengers, was sitting outside the Space Port already, waiting to fill up. The sleek cars of the obscenely wealthy citizens of Enceladus slid by, heading from the Space Port to their luxury homes scattered among the forests and lakes of the moon, while the old shuttle huffed and puffed as it idled at it's stop. A couple of kids in Elite School Uniform were already on board, the insignia of 2nd level student status, the soaring eagle with the Roman numeral for 2 emblazoned over it, showing on their sleeves. They leapt to their feet as soon as they saw Commander Lee climb on board, saluting him with obvious zeal until he told them to be at ease. For the first time in his life, Chen found the attention a little embarrassing.
The journey to the Elite School was short, although the noise from the old shuttle's wheezing engines was so loud that conversation was impossible. For Chen the noise was mildly painful, so he sank into his seat opposite Sakura and covered his ears with the upturned collar of his uniform.
The Elite School was built to look like one of the massive palaces that had been the preferred style more than a millennium before in Old Europe. It was only a couple of stories high, but it sprawled across a large area of land, with wings flanking the main structure and lots of large, separate buildings dotted around nearby. The main building was the tallest part, a storey higher than the wings, and it had a small turret at each side that were another couple of storeys higher again.
They found her rooms easily – only a few doors away from his, then Chen took her on a tour of the school. That afternoon he commandeered a training room and got straight to work on the first part of the training programme. The idea of it was to push the new student to their limit both physically and mentally over the first week, because that seemed to help the chances of the Elite implants taking.
They stood opposite each other on the mats in the training room, and while she had taken a moment to centre herself, breathing calmly and focusing herself inwards, he had had trouble keeping his mind clear. She had attacked first, moving towards him with a speed that had more than surprised him. Rookies before implant surgery were like flies to be swatted by the Elite, but she was not an ordinary rookie- she was a battle hardened Samurai General and the greatest living sword fighter in Japan. Even though she had no sword – they sparred with empty hands – she was still a devastating force. She had struck him before he began to react, but that was enough to bring him back to his surroundings. He blocked her next attack and countered with all of his enhanced speed, grasping her arm and twisting it behind her back. The scent of jasmine had filled his nostrils again then, so as she slipped from his lock he let her go, his ability to do anything about it suddenly evaporating. She span and landed the back of her fist against his jaw, her foot sweeping his away from him. In a split second he recovered, barely losing his balance, and he brought his palm up to connect with her solar plexus. She blocked it, which surprised him, but she didn't manage to block the elbow he brought round to her cheek, and she staggered sideways, which was when he realised that he had struck far too hard, and he'd hesitated to see if she was all right. But of course, she was no rookie, and she'd snapped out a sidekick as he was turning towards her to speak and check that she was ok, and caught him hard in the chest.
They had fought nearly all afternoon like that. He had come out on top, tiring much more slowly than she did and having much faster reactions, but he'd never really felt himself pushed like she had managed to do. What he had in speed and response from his implants, she almost made up for in technique and experience. The pattern was set though, and it seemed like the first week flew by, with nearly every hour spent sparring on the mats.
A week later, the night before she was due to have her implant operation, Chen sat alone in his rooms in the school, staring blankly at the wall. The last student Chen had taught, during a previous stint at the school, had died before he could complete his training. Chen had obscured the boys name from his memory, but he remembered him well enough, for the brief time he'd known him. He'd been about 15, enthusiastic, energetic and gifted in Martial Arts, but he hadn't survived the implant process. Chen had been given a few days leave to get over the shock , although it never really left him. It wasn't that he was particularly close with the boy – he'd only known him for a week. It was the suddenness of it that had stunned Chen.
And tonight, the night before Sakura was due to face the same process, He couldn't get the boy's face out of his head – just as it had looked when he'd pulled the zip on the body bag up over the young boy's face. He felt a chill deep inside him as he wondered if he would have to do that to Sakura the next day. He knew he would feel more than shock if that happened.
His confusion over Sakura had deepened over the course of the week, driven by three simple things, the smell of the jasmine perfume she wore, the closeness of her lithe body as they sparred on the mats and the nagging voice of Grandfather. He was literally at war with himself.
Nothing about what he felt for her was simple, or clear-cut, and there were many, unpleasant consequences to be had if he acted on any of his feelings. If he followed his Grandfathers voice and killed her he would face a Court Martial and a Death Sentence. No doubt General Deuce would be pleased at that. If he allowed himself to fall in love with her and they were discovered, he would have his implants removed and his Elite status revoked. That amounted to a Death sentence too, no-one had ever lasted long once they'd had their implants removed and they found themselves “ordinary” again. There would be no walking away from training her either – General Deuce would never allow him to ditch it and if he persisted in trying, with his previous record at obeying orders, he could find himself without Elite status for that. Then on top of all this, there was the strange, icy feeling inside him at the thought of her death, a feeling that was full of foreboding. He was well and truly caught.
A soft knock at the door roused him from his woes, but even as he replied that the door was unlocked he knew it was her. She stepped silently into his rooms without even the barest rustle from her silk kimono and he could smell the dampness of her freshly washed hair and the waft of fresh perfume that told him she'd recently showered. There were no lights on in his rooms and his curtains were drawn, but she moved easily through the gloom to stand before him, her golden skin made white by the shafts of reflected light from Saturn that made twilight of the nights on Enceladus.
“Is everything well with you, Commander Lee?” she asked, the tone of her voice suggesting that she knew that things weren't well with him.
“Please, call me Chen,” he told her, avoiding her eyes and her question.
She nodded in acknowledgement.
“Chen, you seem to be troubled,” she stated, taking a much more direct approach.
“You didn't come here to talk about me,” he told her baldly, still avoiding her eyes.
She sighed and, unexpectedly, put her fingertips to his cheeks and guided his face to look directly at her. He tensed, his heart suddenly pounding and adrenaline coursing, almost as if he was preparing to fight, and yet he was paralysed by her steady gaze.
“You're wrong. All day I've felt the turmoil inside you. On the mat you should have humbled me, but instead you were hesitant and distracted. I saw anger and confusion in your eyes too, and I sense that all these emotions are foreign to you. You seem like a man who has no room for doubt in his life,”
She had read him alarmingly well.
“I'm a dead man,” he aloud, the words escaping from him in a strangled hiss. He jerked his head away from her and buried his head in his hands.
“I don't understand,” she sounded surprised, and worried, neither of which he'd really expected of her. She was so self-assured and serene.
But it was too complicated for him to explain to her, and he had no idea where to start. He opened his mouth several times to elaborate, but nothing came out. Sakura watched him with a look of growing concern.
“Chen?” she put her fingertips to his cheek again, her eyes seeking his.
“If my Grandfather saw me now I'd be disowned,” he managed.
“Your grandfather is Chinese?” she asked him although it was more of a statement than a question.
“I am Chinese, my brothers and cousins have died in the war, fighting against your men,” he blurted out, instantly regretting it because it didn't come close to explaining the mixed up emotions inside him.
The way this affected her surprised him. He could feel the sadness welling up inside her with his telepathic senses.
“My father always believed the war with China was wrong. Many good, talented and strong Japanese and Chinese died for the pride of the Shogun and the Platinum Throne, which he believed to be a stain on the honour of both countries,”
“But you fight for the Shogun. What do you believe, Sakura Hachi? He challenged her, and she could see the anger burning in him.
“I do believe, but I must fight for my master because honour demands. I do not yet possess the strength to challenge him,”
“And that is why you have come here? You don't have a clue what you are letting yourself in for!” He spat at her, his grip on his emotions waning, “You will end up being owned by the Corporation, just like me!”
“It is a risk worth taking,” she replied steadily, not letting the edge in his voice affect her.
“So you know about the kill chip do you?”
“Kill chip?” she repeated, sounding uncertain, “What kill chip?”
“I didn't think so – it's Top Secret. They don't tell us about it until after they've implanted it – it's their control. It's a remote explosive device, implanted deep in the brain tissue to make it impossible to remove. An Elite does anything the Corporation doesn't want them to do and the chip is “activated”, “ he was ranting as he spoke, his words spilling out of him in a great rush while he kept his eyes fixed intently on her.
“I am not in their employ,” she replied, “They cannot justify that,”
“Do you think they are going to turn up the chance to have an Elite Samurai? I've seen the schedule for your surgery tomorrow, they aren't leaving anything out,”
“So they are planning on double-crossing the Shogun?” she whispered in a hollow voice. She closed her eyes and sank back on her haunches. Chen felt for her, not even needing his sixth sense to tell him that she was angry, although he could feel the anguish in her at being used like a pawn in this way. There was doubt there too, though he couldn't guess where it was coming from. What she said next surprised him.
“If you are my enemy, as you have already plainly told me, then why are you telling me this?”
She hit the rawest nerve inside him with that question, and panic (an emotion he was completely unfamiliar with) flooded him suddenly. He swallowed convulsively a couple of times, trying to smother it, but still it filled him. He knew he couldn't form an answer for her, even though he knew what that answer was. Telling her opened up a whole new raft of problems. She watched him struggling through narrowed eyes, and when he couldn't answer she spoke again.
“We still have the best part of six months to spend together, Chen. It would be foolish for you to hold anything back from me, especially after tomorrow,” she told him.
After tomorrow, she would be able to see into the madness that was currently gripping his brain, she would know how she affected him. She was so utterly right, there would be no escaping from the truth. The words exploded out of him.
“I've fallen in love with you,”
She froze, staring at him with a wild expression that almost seemed to reduce her to being a young, frightened girl. He felt a sudden, desperate urge to take her in his arms and comfort her, but was stopped by the chill of uncertainty that was spreading in his stomach. Until this moment, foolishly, he hadn't even considered what she might actually feel for him.
“I am sorry Sakura, I shouldn't have burdened you with this,” he said hastily as she continued to stare at him. The silence between them lengthened, until she broke it by drawing in a long, deep breath and closing her eyes. When she opened them again, her usual serenity seemed to have returned to them.
“I don't know what you can see of my heart, Lee Chen, but you should not be so quick to apologise. Until the moment I met you I had never considered love, now it is never far from my thoughts. If I seem startled, it is simply because I know as well as you what such a love could cost us, but there it is. You love me and I love you, now we must learn to live with it,”
Almost before the last word had left her lips Chen had wrapped his arms around her, then he buried his face in her hair, letting the smell of jasmine surround him. She touched his face with her fingertips again and drew a kiss from his lips.. The moment seemed to hold for an age, but at the back of both their minds was the danger they were putting themselves in. At last he drew back from her and looked into her face.
“No-one must ever know,” he whispered.
“No-one,” she agreed.

Here's a small preview of the second installment of my serial. Hope you enjoy it.

The Rebel Empress
Episode 2
Elite

In the last episode, Saphora Hachi learned from her master that she was to be sent to the Elite school on Enceladus, which is Eagle Empire's top military and espionage school. The “education” comes at a high price, and one that Saphora Hachi finds an affront to her Samurai honour. Eagle Empire has contracted the use of the Shogun's Samurai as a mercenary force in return. She finds herself caught between the desire to further herself for her own ends, and the need to maintain her honour. Yet she follows the order, realising that the training and implant technology that she will be given will allow her to become much more powerful than she already is.

Meanwhile, at the Elite School on Enceladus, a young Elite commander is being debriefed after jeopardising a high level mission.....


“Commander Lee Chen, can you explain to me, in detail, what possessed you to go running back into that building?” the tall General in the sleek black uniform, sunglasses and 4-star cap asked the uniformed man standing to attention in front of his desk.
“There were a number of children in the building, sir. They would have died,” the Commander replied, staring ahead with his back ramrod straight, not looking at the General's face as he spoke. He knew he was in trouble, but he wasn't about to back down.
“Collateral damage, Commander Lee. You know the rules as well as I do. What you did was in direct violation of your orders,”
“With respect, sir, it would have been immoral for me to leave them. It was because of my actions that the building was collapsing,”
“To hell with morals, boy, we aren't in this for morals! We are here to serve Eagle Empire and we must follow the orders we are given! You weren't chosen for the Elite school for your morals, you were chosen for your martial arts and your ability to work well with your implants! It is an honour to become one of the Elite, and Eagle Empire place a great deal of trust in you in exchange for giving you these powers. You know what the penalty is for misuse of your powers, Commander Lee,”
The General had gotten to his feet during his tirade and had finished off yelling directly into the Commander's face. The Commander did not flinch, in spite of the purple-faced fury that was inches from his eyes.
“You're real hard, aren't you Commander Lee? Do you think your morals make you superior?” the General didn't seem to like his attitude.
“No, sir. I believe that my morals make it easier for me to live with myself,”he replied, then instantly regretted the glibness of it.
“Well, boy, you're going to have plenty of time to practice living with yourself for a while. You are officially out of front line duty. It's time you took a turn teaching in the school,”
Teaching was reserved as a cooling off duty for the Elite. There were never more than a couple of students undergoing Elite training at the school – the rest were level 2 and below students, and most of those who began training didn't finish it. It was an intensive, but thankless job with little genuine excitement. The Elite weren't interested in those kind of jobs as a rule, since they enjoyed an elevated status as Heroes to most of the inhabitants of the Solar System and were used to fame and excitement. Lee Chen was no exception to this, morals or not, and he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Now go report at the space port – your first kid is coming in at 1100 hours. The file is there at the immigration desk. Now get out of my sight, Commander Lee, before I decide to take more serious action against you,”

The Rebel Empress - Episode One – The Sword

Welcome to the future.......

. ...Where society has changed beyond recognition......


. ....Where we have been scattered across the corners of our Solar System.....



.....Where a secret war rages.....




..................The year is 3007. Earth is a desert wasteland, ravaged by years of war and climate destruction. The nations that were rich enough to survive have spread out across the Solar System, terra-forming the outer worlds and colonising them.
Mars is owned by the Megacorp Eagle Empire and is it's mining and manufacturing base. Millions of workers live there as virtual slaves in conditions considered too cost inefficient for robots. There is also a vast penal colony, whose inmates do the most dangerous tasks like mining in the deep mines, up to a thousand miles beneath the planet's crust.
Eagle Empires Upper Management classes live on the terraformed paradise world of Enceledus, far removed from the realities of the rest of the Solar System. On the water world of Europa, the descendants of the European states of old Earth live, co-existing in a one-sided alliance with Eagle Empires.
Earth itself remains inhabited by a few tenacious cultures. Many traditional Asian cultures cling on in the hot, harsh conditions, as well as those from the Middle East, South America and Africa who did not have the means to leave the planet as it became increasingly uninhabitable. Most of these cultures are heavily steeped in religion or traditional beliefs, in particular the Japanese culture, which has returned to a strict feudal warrior culture and is locked in a local war with the Chinese. Both cultures are highly technological and martial.
Titan is a metropolitan world, where Eagle Empire has it's HQ and the majority of the Solar Systems citizens live. Life is tough on it's means streets and can be very short among it's gang culture. Crime is high and a state of martial law exists. People still live much more freely there than on Mars though, and consumerism is widely encouraged to keep the populace self interested and passive.
Eagle Empires holds a powerful hegemony on the nation States of the Solar system and over it's millions of employees. Real wealth belongs to only a few, very privileged, poverty is shared by the teeming billions who live each day in fear.....


.....Change is coming.........


She thought about something her father had said to her, a long time ago before he died. He'd said, “Our Culture, the Japanese culture, is very ancient. It is ruled by honour and by the Sword. One cannot function effectively without the other, for honour must be upheld by the Sword to thrive, while the Sword must be tempered by honour so it does not become the tool of Tyranny. They must exist in balance, my daughter, and that is the key to the life of the Samurai.” She used her thoughts to drown out the distracting noise of the battle that was raging around her, allowing her blade and her body to become one.
An Inigawan soldier in full Synth-Steel armour came rushing toward her, his face contorted with his battle cry and his short sword held high to slash her downwards. She stepped under his blow and deflected it, then swept her Katana round and sliced through the weak spot in his armour just below his jaw and took his head from his shoulders.
Behind her, falling on the massed ranks of the Inigawa infantry like a wave were the Shoguns shock troops. They were under her command, as usual, for this campaign against the rebellious eastern clan. It was the third uprising of her career as the Shoguns most successful General, and it was about to end just as the others had, with bloody defeat for her Masters enemies.
“This is especially true for the Modern Samurai, because of the power of the weapon we wield. We can deflect bullets and laser fire, we can slice through anything but Synth-Steel, and, more importantly than anything else, we can become one with our weapon,” her fathers words flowed through her as she let her sword lead her, cutting a clear way through the enemy, “When the sword becomes an extension of yourself and each of your movements becomes the flow of considered practice, when you enter the state of mushin you will become your sword, flying, spinning and dancing like a falling cherry blossom. You will be free of fear and have no concern for death. Once you have achieved this, my daughter, you will become truly formidable,”
Her fingers around the hilt of her Katana could feel the pulsing power of the blade through it. Razor sharp steel protected from damage by a powerful electromagnetic field, a shield whose density, frequency and intensity she could control by thought from an implant in her brain. Through it she could feel the tension of the blade as if it were a part of her own body. She could imagine manipulating the electro-magnetic field like flexing the muscles of her arm, and so could thrust it's paralysing power into an enemy without letting the edge of the blade itself cut them. She could use it to wreck electrical equipment and force shields and could focus it to create great heat. There was not a weapon in the Solar System that could match the Katana, one on one, but there were only a small number of people qualified to wield it.
And she was one of them.
And now she was spinning and cutting through her enemies as if they weren't actually there. Her mind was still and fearless, every fibre of her being was focused in the moment, and through the blade. Before her, the Inigawa began to flee, as they began to see how easily she was brushing them aside. With each step her blade found fresh blood, sneaking with cold accuracy through the chinks of their armour as easily as if they had stood naked in front of her. Common soldiery with no training in the Sword, they were no match for her.
Inichi Inigawa stood watching in dismay as she carved her way unerringly to his position, the Shock troops felling his infantry like so many trees. Dust was flying up into the air, churned by the battle, sticking in the throats of all on the battlefield and closing down the field of view rapidly. Inichi unsheathed his own sword, memories of the training ground fresh in his mind. How many times had he stood before her only to be humiliated, beaten by a mere girl? The blade of his sword throbbed angrily, sparking as dust burned in it's field. For an anxious moment, she disappeared from view, and he found himself gripping his sword tightly and clenching his teeth.
“Are you ready Inichi Inigawa?” her voice was almost in his ear, he span to face her and saw her standing, as relaxed as ever she had been in school. Her casual demeanour was slightly spoiled by the blood splattered all over her kimono. Samurai no longer wore armour in battle – the blade was enough to protect them from nearly all harm.
“I am ready, Sakura Hachi,” he replied, his lip curling into a snarl, “Now I shall regain my honour,”
“We shall have to see, Inichi, although I remember a boy who once cried because he was beaten by a girl,” she taunted him back, moving slowly into fighting stance as she watched the hatred form across his features.
“You were always too confident in your abilities!” he growled back at her, then he rushed forward, sweeping his sword low and leaving a trail of hissing sparks behind as the dust was burned by the field of the blade.
She laughed as she blocked his attack and turned it, sending him staggering back.
“And you of yours. I wonder whose confidence was misplaced?”
He roared, charging, and she sidestepped him with ease. Her sword found it's mark, almost cutting him clean in half. She watched him fall and saw the light fade from his eyes. Anger contorted his features to the last. Another swipe of her sword took his head away from what remained of his body, and she wrapped it quickly in a swathe of cloth she cut from his bloodied clothing.
Word spread out from around her what had been done to Inichi Inigawa, and the battle began to grind to a halt. Inigawan soldiers threw themselves to the ground, some falling on their weapons, some falling on the mercy of her men. Some fled only to find themselves faced with the Shogun's cavalry, impassable astride their Desert Strider Bots with their fierce red eyes in their horselike heads spraying laser fire at the fleeing men.
Sakura flicked the blood from her blade, sheathed it in it's saya, and looked out across the battlefield. The crows were already leaving the parched trees of the scrub land and picking at the fringes of the dead. Again it was over quickly, the power of the Shock troops charge into their enemy had left them in disarray and then the death of their leader left them shattered. She had broken all the prongs of the resistance to her Master's rule now, and they should be able once more to return their full attention to the war with China.
The time after the battle passed in a blur as it always did for her. The stream of orders she had to give took some time to run dry, for there was so much that needed to be done before she could climb into her ship and begin the journey across the dusty savannah back to the Shogun's castle at Tokyo.
As the bland expanse of dusty ground rolled beneath her, her father's voice returned to her again.
“The blade of the Sword is unique. Only the ancient process by which the master swordsmiths have always crafted the blades of the Katana can fo