Some Other Beginnings End (Eric pt1)

By Patrick Furlong


 Eric left the dining room and the uproar behind, Talia quietly at his
 side.   Moments after Darana had left everyone had started speaking
 at once.  Rook was trying to calm them down.

 "Go to our rooms, stay there," Eric told her.  She looked up at him
 and nodded hesitantly.

 Eric passed a Soldier in the hall.  Eric stopped short, the soldier
 was not one of the normal house guards, but instead a member of the
 Emperor's own palace troops, the 1st of the 1st.  1st Regiment of the
 1st Division, almost literally the Palace Guards.  The soldier
 regarded him from behind his Strom Trooper's face shield, Eric
 couldn't tell what the man was thinking.  Eric moved on.

 Eric got off the elevator and headed for his office in Security.  He
 rounded the corner in hall to find two Troopers flaking the door to
 his office.  The Door was open and another trooper, a Lieutenant was
 sitting behind his desk.  Eric strode forward.  One of the troopers
 blocked his path.

 "I'm sorry sir, you have been relieved of your duties as head of
 Security."

 Eric was at a loss for a moment, then he nodded, it made sense.  He
 didn't try to force the issue.  Instead he turned and headed back
 for the elevator.

 As he walked he pulled his personal communicator from his pocket,
 and punched in his personal code.  He hoped that they had not had
 time to break too deep into the house systems.  Considering who had
 built them he doubted they had.  After a short moment his
 communicator beeped a short code.  Eric's fail safe programs were
 running, quietly erasing his personal files and re-writing the
 storage crystals with random data over and over to hide all traces,
 both in Security and in the H.I.S.

 He took the lift down to the lower levels, got off and headed toward
 the House Intelligence Service offices.  He knew what he would most
 likely find but he had to check it out.  Before he got there Kyra
 stepped out of a side hall and grabbed his cape,  pulling him
 into an alcove.

 "They're there too." The older ex-rebel shook her head, "They walked
 in, ordered everyone out and started going through the files."  She
 looked on the edge of panic.

 Eric nodded, "Go to my quarters, Talia is there, I will protect
 you."  He strode down the hall.

 When Eric arrived and the House Intel offices he found what he
 expected.  Several of his men were standing around out side,
 watching through the door as troopers and technicians were going
 through everything in the offices.  They were under the watchful
 eyes of Troopers from the 1st of the 1st. Piro walked up to him,
 "Sir, what are we to do?"

 "go back to your quarters Piro, consider it a day off.  All of you,
 return to your quarters."  He men looked at each other, some of them
 moved toward the elevators, some continued to mull around outside
 the door.  Eric hoped Kyra would use the people headed for the lifts
 as cover to get upstairs as part of a crowd and not draw attention
 to herself.

 Eric walked up to the door, and officer having seen his approach met
 him there.

 "Lord Daniels?"

 "yes."

 "Ah, yes, I'm afraid that Imperial Intelligence has taken
 jurisdiction over your operation."

 "So I gathered," Eric replied.  "I have some personal files I would
 like to retrieve."

 "Ah, I'm sorry, but for the time being all here is under
 confiscation, once everything has been reviewed, personal items will
 be returned."

 "of course," Eric said.  He caught sight of a man not in uniform.
 He was waring bright colored court garb, Valentine!  Christopher
 Valentine, head of Imperial Counter-intelligence looked up at that
 moment and met Eric's gaze.  Valentine smiled at Eric, it was almost
 a sneer.

 Eric kept a tight rain on his emotions, turned and walked back
 toward the elevators.  He would need to think hard on his next
 step.




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