The Divine Sedition [Complete]

Chapter 7 Rear Admiral Bjorn Muller Becomes Restless

Rear Admiral Bjorn Muller put down the glass of fine Scotch he was drinking to calm down his irritation and restlessness. The alcohol had not helped, and he was reluctant to have another glass. Bjorn was a high-ranking officer in the Terran Council Interplanetary Forces, and it was inappropriate for him to get drunk while on duty, although Bjorn knew that his family ties would stop him from getting reprimanded in any case. Bjorn was frustrated that he hadn’t heard anything from Nuriel regarding his request that they were to capture Keila Eisenstein and hand her over to him. He had given them three days. Three days had passed, and yet he hadn’t heard anything from them, which compelled him to act. Unfortunately, his options were limited. His superior, Admiral Max Wellington, had not sent him any backup and attacking the asteroid B528A, also known as Eden, with a mere single ship, amounted to suicide.  

Bjorn Muller needed a success story, and the capture of a figurehead of the Martian rebellion was just what he needed to gain a well-deserved promotion, a promotion that would take him off active duty in this interplanetary wasteland and give him a cushy lifestyle back on earth. Bjorn Muller wanted a position on the House Muller board as a military advisor. Bjorn felt resigned to his fate. He had been so close yet so far from getting back permanently to Earth for the last 20 years, but the final breakthrough never seemed to come. He damned his younger self for being so ambitious and excelling at the aptitude tests in his youth. If he had been more like his younger brother in his childhood, his life would be so much better. 

Bjorn’s brother, Michael, was utterly uninterested in his career, but was due to his family ties, still running one of the House Muller’s horse racecourses. In Michael’s case, he was not interested in managing anything, but instead, he served as a figurehead for the racetrack doing what he liked doing the best, drinking, and mingling. Michael would never be taken seriously in the family, but his life was thoroughly enjoyable. His other brother, Benjamin, ruled on his father’s, Joachim Muller, side, and this led to deep jealousy and hatred in the eyes Bjorn. Bjorn’s military ambitions led to him being stuck on a gloomy military spaceship most of the time, with nothing but the darkness of space to look at. He had no family of his own and would never have if he couldn’t get out of active duty soon. Bjorn was 70 years old, and although he could comfortably live more than double that age without complications due to the 29th century DNA regeneration technology, where people lived to be at least 150 years old, Bjorn felt that his life was drawing to the end.  Bjorn decided that it was time to act. He went to the hologram generator and tried contacting the Divine Control Centre located on an asteroid just above Eden.

Keila woke up with a shocked expression when she saw the very lifelike hologram of Bjorn Muller in her room. She instinctively reached for her gun and gave out a loud shriek when she couldn’t find it. Metatron rushed in to find out what the commotion was about.

Metatron:

-          Is everything okay, Mistress Keila?

Keila:

-          That Terran commander! What is he doing there?

Metatron:

-          That is a hologram machine. He is calling us.

Keila calmed down. She felt silly for panicking at a hologram machine. They had hologram machines on Mars as well although the devices they had on her home planet made it obvious that is was a hologram, while the Terran hologram machine accurately replicated the outer layer of a person, making it almost impossible to tell a hologram apart from a real human.

Keila:

-          Silly me for jumping at a hologram!

-          Is that the commander of the ship that destroyed my ship and killed my friends?

Metatron:

-          I don’t know, but I would assume so.

Keila:

-          Are we able to blow up his ship with the weapons we have onboard?

Metatron

-          Potentially, but we need to get him in range first.

Keila closed her eyes. Instantaneously a vision came up. It was her mother, and the message was clear. “Keila, tread carefully, no one needs to die today, this not your destiny.”

Keila:

-          No, we should try to avoid violence. You speak to him. Step up on the hologram transmitter and find out what he wants.

Metatron stepped up on the hologram transmitter and started up a communications link with Bjorn Muller.

-          This is Metatron from the Terran House of Goldstein, stationed in Eden. State your business, commander.

Bjorn:

-          This is Rear Admiral Bjorn Muller from the Terran Council Interplanetary Security Forces.

Metatron:

-          Okay, state your business commander.

Bjorn Muller could feel how his anger was growing; the arrogant bastard he was talking to intentionally disdained his rank to provoke him. He managed to control his temper, however and to stay on track.

Bjorn:

-          My business as REAR ADMIRAL for the Terran Council Interplanetary Security Forces is to bring in the fugitive terrorist, Keila Eisenstein. I have already discussed this with your colleague Michael Bernsmith, or as he refers himself, angel Nuriel. I do not have the time or patience to explain myself to you, can you put Nuriel through.

Metatron:

-          There is a slight problem with that request Rear Admiral Muller. You see our friend Nuriel is permanently indisposed, so you’ll have to discuss the matter with me.

Bjorn:

-          Permanently indisposed?

Metatron:

-          As a Terran Council officer, I am sure you understand the term and its implications. Now say what you need.

 Bjorn:

-          As discussed with Nuriel, we gave you three days to deliver Keila to us, or we would come looking for her ourselves. The time is up, where is she?

Metatron:

-          Well due to Nuriel’s unfortunate passing, that message didn’t reach me.  I guess I can investigate the matter and see if we can aid you.  We’ll get back to you in a couple of days.

Bjorn:

-          You are not listening to me, you insolent t**t! You have failed to carry out your part of the deal, and now my men will land on Eden and apprehend Keila ourselves.

Metatron:

-          Unfortunately, we would consider that trespassing, and that would force us to eliminate you and all your men.

Bjorn:

-          This is unacceptable. You are threatening a Terran Council Rear Admiral!

Metatron:

-          Not threatening commander, just stating a fact.

-          If the Terran Council wanted to take something with force, they would show up in numbers with a fleet and not a single ship. Stay where you are, commander, I will discuss the matter with my colleagues and get back to you.

-          Metatron Out!

As Metatron stepped off the hologram transmitter, he sighed loudly. What a mess they were in. Mistress Keila would never surrender herself to the Terran Council, and if they did not cooperate, Bjorn Muller would eventually get enough reinforcements to attack the battle station. He looked at Keila, and she spoke.

Keila:

-          Just as I thought, it’s me he is after.

Metatron:

-          Yes, I assume you are not too keen to surrender yourself?

Keila:

-          Torture and a public execution? I think I’ll pass.

-          But what if we could give him my corpse?

Metatron:

-          Your corpse? You want me to kill you and hand over your body?

Keila:

-          Not my real corpse. A decoy.

-          How long would it take you to make a clone of me in your medical lab?

Metatron:

-          A real functional clone with memories and well-developed neural patterns? That would take years!

Keila:

-          No not a functional clone, just sack of meat and bones looking like me, like the ones we make of animals for eating.

Metatron:

-          A couple of days, but they would never fall for it; an autopsy would reveal the fraud.

Keila:

-          Don’t be too sure about it. I know about this Bjorn Muller guy. He is so vain he would swallow the bait sink and hook with no questions. Just think about it, he can be the hero of the Terran Council, the one killing the infamous terrorist Keila Eisenstein, finally get his promotion and ending up on the council back on Earth. Or he could call in the fleet, and his superior will get all the credit.

Metatron:

-          You seem terribly sure about this guy?

Keila:

-          Let’s just say our paths have crossed in the past.

Metatron:

-          Okay. Let’s do this.

Metatron stepped up on the hologram sender and contacted Bjorn. As Bjorn answered, Metatron simply said “We’ll bring her to you in 48 hours”, before ending the transmission, without giving Bjorn Muller a chance to get another word in.