Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

by Young Jack Random, with his flashing smile. I was always better at being you than you were, said the Fury.
    Random snarled at him, and left him behind. His various wives nodded at him from doorways he passed. He should have made more time for them, but then, he'd always known they married the legend, and not the man. And finally Owen Deathstalker came and walked beside him. We should have died in the rebellion,
    Jack. At least our deaths would have had some meaning then.
    When Jack Random came at last to the wine cellar door, he was alone. He'd said all his goodbyes, except to the one person that mattered. He unlocked the door, let himself in, and closed the door behind him. The last time he'd ever do such a thing. Ruby Journey still lay dead on the floor. Jack leaned back against the door. Hi honey, I'm home, he said, or thought he said. And then the last of his strength went out of him, and he fell forward onto the cold stone floor. He felt the impact, but it didn't hurt him. Ruby. You won't have to go into the dark on your own. I'm here. He crawled slowly forward, leaving a trail of blood behind him on the cold stone. When he was almost there, he reached out to take her hand in his, but he died before their fingers could touch.

Chapter 6
    Royal Wedding
    Wedding days are supposed to be important. A man and a woman, joining their lives together, to love, honor, and worship each other's body till their breath runs out or the stars go cold. Weddings are supposed to be days of celebration, of ancient and important oaths freely entered into, that will change two lives forever. Till death or divorce do them part. How much more important then, a wedding between a man and a woman who were that very day to be also crowned King and Queen of the Empire, constitutional monarchs for billions of men and women, on thousands of worlds. (Parliament had decided against an Emperor and Empress.
    It was felt by all that the old titles suggested too much power.) The dual wedding and investiture was going to be the biggest ceremony the Empire had ever seen. The bride and groom got no say in the matter. As always, private romance had to take a backseat to public politics.
    Golgotha went loudly and ostentatiously crazy as the countdown to the wedding hit the last few hours. Everyone who was anyone would be attending the ceremony in person, and holo coverage would be transmitted live to every planet in the Empire. Street parties choked the thoroughfares, as all but the most essential occupations were shut down for the day, as a mark of respect. Everyone wished the couple-to-be well. Robert Campbell and Constance Wolfe's faces were everywhere, from all the various news media to all kinds of merchandising. Not all of it particularly tasteful, or even authorized, but it just showed how everyone wanted to get involved. Presents for the happy couple had been arriving from all over the Empire for months. They were currently being stacked and guarded in three separate warehouses, after being carefully checked for bombs or booby traps. Because there were always a few spoilsports.
    The imminent wedding and investiture had pushed all the other news off the holo screens, which was just as well, because all the other news seemed to be uniformly bad. The Shub armada and the awful vessels of the Recreated were still bearing down on Golgotha. Diana Vertue had gone to meet Shub in the Deathstalker's Last Standing, but first reports of their confrontation had not been encouraging. Elsewhere in the Empire, Ghost Warriors and Furies, Grendels and insect aliens and Hadenmen, fought dreadful battles with human armies on hundreds of worlds, and good news was hard to come by. There was no shortage of bravery or great feats of valor, but the odds against Humanity were perhaps just too great this time.
    So Parliament brought the Royal wedding forward by a week. As a distraction for the general populace, it worked fine. People seized on the forthcoming spectacle with a desperate joy, glad of an excuse not to have to think about… other things. It helped that Robert and Constance's arranged marriage was also clearly
    a love match. They obviously adored each other, and it seemed that the whole Empire wished them well. (No one mentioned Constance's first proposed husband and potential monarch, Owen Deathstalker, still missing and presumed dead. If anyone thought of him at all, it was to curse him for not being around to save Humanity, when he was needed most.)