Revenge of the Heir

Back to Work

Eric was at the airport an hour later, and had finally turned his phone back on. As soon as it powered on, it began ringing with Holly calling him.

"What did you do?" she asked him as soon as the call connected.

"I did a few things here, why do you ask?" he asked her.

"Because the President is here asking me questions about you, and I do not know how to reply." she said rushed.

"I would advise the truth, we may be dating, but we are not in violation of fraternization rules." he said as his flight was called to be boarded.

"How long before you get back, they are asking me for some reason?" she asked before he heard someone ask a question. "Hold on, someone wishes to speak with you."

He was about to say something when a man asked him a question.

"Colonel Eric Christensen?" he asked.

"Yes sir." he replied before knowing who it was.

"The is President Tycho, Lt. Colonel Winters asked because it was believed she could reach you faster than we could. Why was your phone off?" he asked.

"Apologies sir, I was attending the hearing as ordered by the court after the testing. I am on plane now, scheduled to depart in 10 minutes. I should be back to the base within a few hours." he informed the President.

"Than you will be in time to join me for dinner with Ms. Winters while we discuss something. Enjoy your flight Colonel." he said before he handed the phone back to Holly and he heard him say he would see her later.

"Eric, what the hell is going on?" she asked worried.

"What were they asking about?" he asked her.

"Our relationship." she said without elaborating.

"Well I might be a little uninformed, but I might guess it concerns us. As to why, I could not begin to tell you." he said.

"They seemed surprised that we had not acted on anything before we did considering how closely we have worked together in the past." she told him.

"Like I said, the truth is not something to be afraid of. We did not do anything against the rules even, although we could have gone to General Knight first. Sorry, I have to go, we are about to start taking off." he said.

"See you when you get back." she said before she hung up.

As soon as he landed and deboarded the plane, he saw the sign from a driver waiting for him as he walked with his carry on. "I am Colonel Christensen." he told the driver.

"Do you have any bags checked?" the driver asked.

"No, I am prepared to depart." Eric said.

"Follow me." he said as he turned and lead Eric to the limo that was waiting for him. He got in and was surprised a woman was sitting their waiting for him.

"Lord Heinrich." she said as the driver shut the door.

"You must have me confused with someone else." he said as he went to open the door.

"Apologies, Colonel Christensen." she said quickly. "I assure you however that I am not confused about who you are, even though you might be uninformed of that fact as of yet." she said as he heard the drivers door close.

"Very well, who exactly are you?" he asked.

"Chief of Staff Veronica Meyers for President Tycho. Do you prefer Christensen or Heinrich?" she asked him.

He looked at her like really? The Imperial Courts did not allow hidden identities, but they did allow alternate identities to protect the identity of a victim.

"Either will work perfectly, I do not personally care." Eric said as they drove from the airport and he knew instantly they were headed for the Military Base. "What is this about?" he asked her.

"I do not know sir, all I know is that we were very near this area anyway, and that as soon as the judge ruled he demanded to be brought here. Once he was told you were unavailable he asked to speak with Lt. Colonel Winters." Ms. Meyers said as they made another turn.

Eric looked out the window for several minutes, deciding that this woman had nothing useful to tell him about why the President was suddenly interested in him in any way.

"Colonel, may I ask what your intentions are?" she asked him making him look at her.

"What do you mean?" he asked her to clarify the question.

"I do not know what the President intends, however my intent is to now get out of this car. You can have the driver stop now or I will jump." he told he bluntly not intending to spend one more second with the woman.

"I am under orders to deliver you to President Tycho at Freebird Army Base." she said as he opened the door. "What are you doing?" she demanded loudly.

"Jumping out at the next corner. Have a horrid day Ms. Monroe, and pray you never see me again, because I will be far less kind with your insinuations." he said as the driver came to a stop and he got out of the vehicle.

Veronica opened her door in a panic, as Eric began running off at a pace she had no hope of matching in her high heels. Because of his recon of the area, he knew exactly where he was and how to get to the base. In fact, depending on how long she spent chasing him, he could most likely beat her there because of the roads themselves.

40 minutes later he had ran the 6 miles across the rough terrain, and changed his clothes before he called Holly. He noticed his phone had yet to ring once, and smiled as she answered the phone.

"Yes?" she asked him.

"Are you with the President still?" he asked her quickly.

"Yes, we are in the main conference room in the Admin building." she replied confused. "Ms. Monroe know this."

"I will be there in a few minutes." he said as he had been headed there anyway. He had changed to his uniform, when before he had been in civilian clothing.

He entered the conference room, and both of them looked at him confused.

"May I ask where my Chief of Staff is?" President Tycho asked him as he entered.

"Mr. President, Colonel Eric Christensen reporting as requested. As for your Chief of Staff, she is likely between the guard station at the gate, and the expressway entrance at the Southeastern corner of the base." he said as he had long ago found the running trail that actually came through the perimeter fence without so much as a guard. He had filed the security issue the moment he had found it.

"Why are you no longer with her?" He asked as Eric came in and took the seat he was offered.

"She insinuated the wrong thing, and I told her to stop the car or I would jump. Once I opened the door to do just that, the driver pulled over and stopped the vehicle. If I never see the woman again, it will be far too soon." Eric told him as one of his guards whispered in his ear.

"Inform her to wait for me outside the conference room." he said to the guard as he looked at Eric again.

"What did she insinuate?" he asked her.

Eric looked at him, and shook his head. "Mr. President, I am certain both of us have far more serious work to perform than your Chief of Staff insulting me with questions that insinuate I want something from you. Why don't we start with why you are here to speak with me in the first place? Fraternization is not such a serious offense as to warrant your involvement, even if we had begun fraternizing by the definition used by the armed forces." Eric asked looking at him and getting to business.

"Do you ever relax Colonel?" Tycho asked.

"Not when I am facing an interrogation from the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Armed Forces over allegations I have not even heard yet." Eric told him deadly serious. He was treating it as preparation for Court Martial.

President Tycho laughed at his response for nearly a minute before he was able to regain his composure. "No, not an interrogation, or any allegations of wrong doing. We need to have a conversation, especially after what happened today."

Eric sat there for several moments before it was clear the President was not about to continue. "The matters of my parents estate have no bearing on how I will serve my country. Nor do I wish to actually practice the law at this time." Eric told him.

"Actually, they might. Especially now that you have convinced a judge to order the ruling on your parents plane crash be revealed." President Tycho said with a smile.

"Mr. President, I do not appreciate being forced into a game where we spend hours discussing bull s**t while important matters are left unattended. If we have business together, I suggest you get on with it. Otherwise I have far more important matters to deal with at this moment." Eric told him as Holly looked shocked.

"Eric, this is-" Holly began outraged when the President stopped her in her tracks.

"He is right, we do both have important matters to attend to. One of which is for me to come here and speak with you Lord Heinrich." President Tycho said making Holly look at him in shock. Eric did not react in any way as Holly slowly looked at him, the surprise evident on her face.

"As I told your Chief of Staff, you must have me confused with someone else. I am no Lord." Eric told him.

"Do you think it possible for me to be mistaken like that?" Tycho asked him in response.

Eric looked at him dead in the eye, and nodded one time. "Yes, I do believe it is possible. So far as I am aware, my parents held no titles when they died." he said bluntly not caring if it was offensive.

"At that time, your grandfather still possessed it. He did so until 2 years ago when he passed. He made it clear in his will that the surviving Heir of Steven and Joanne was to be named Lord on or before his 25th birthday. At which time all but a small percentage of the Family Trust was to be turned over to him to assist in the maintenance of the Empire as required by law. The Heinrich family is one of the 5 Houses of Lord's." President Tycho told him as he sat back in his chair.

Eric smacked the table, and both of them looked at him worried. "It has bugged me for years why that report has taken so long, why my Uncle would go to the effort of killing his brother. He was after the title belonging to their father." Eric said with a smile.

"A position that became yours upon the death of your Grandfather. He was well aware you were still alive, and even kept your Uncle from succeeding in his quest for that very thing." President Tycho said knowing the details. "Your Uncle has used the possibility of his fathers death destroying the fabric of our empire if they failed to act. He however failed to account for the fact that the position would go to Stevens twin sister Pamela."

Eric shook his head. "No, the judge he has been paying has been filling his head with promises that he would one day be the Lord. I assume you are referring to the Lord's Council?" he asked as Tycho nodded. "That would give him strong motivation to do what he has done."

Tycho nodded again. "It would indeed, hence the reason we need to speak. The Lord's Council has been missing one member for 2 years, and a decision must finally be made. Only you can make it, and I believe you should be given the opportunity to know exactly what it is you are choosing."