Chapter 5
Vesta, 3 Oraa, 4400 Orthodox Calendar
Saturday, 13 December 2013, Terran Standard Calendar
Vesta, 3 Oraa, year 1326 of the 97th Generation, Karinne Historical Reference Calendar
Kosigi Lunar Base, Karis
Everything hinged on this.
Just about anyone who was anyone among the Karinnes was present on Kosigi today, for this was one of the most important days in the history of the House Karinne. Jason was there with his entire extended family, and nearly all the Generations were there as well. Cybi was among them too, her little camera flitting and hovering about. All the residents of the strip were there, the command staff was there, virtually anyone with a rank higher than Major was there.
They were all there to see this. They were all there to see the hyperspace interdictor get towed out of a deep drydock bay by a pair of hauler ships. Skimmers, flying platforms, workers in E-suits and wearing gravometric engine backpacks, they all flitted around out there as the two tugs pulled the interdictor out. It was a sleek, gleaming device encased in a compressed Neutronium carapace. It was about a two hundred feet long and was shaped like a narrow oval, tapering at each end and thicker through the middle, looking very plain and nondescript. But inside that heavily armored shell was a tremendous amount of biogenic and moleculartronic circuitry powered by a singularity power plant, which powered two of six Terynium antennas. Terynium was the metal that all hyperspace communications used to broadcast into hyperspace, for the metal was hyperdimensional, it was a substance that existed as a real object in hyperspace, yet also existed in a rational form in three-dimensional space. Terynium wasn't rare, but it was very hard to refine, for it existed in its natural form only in hyperspace, and had to be brought into normal space where it was subjected to a two month long refinement process. It took months to collect and refine enough of it to form the antenna in the interdictor, and it was just lucky for them that the Karinnes of old had collected Terynium for millennia before they were destroyed, and it was all stored here in Kosigi, enough to build a thousand interdictors. It too was named in honor of Tery Karinne, who had discovered Teryon energy. The interdictor had its two antenna parallel to each other, but only one would be in use at a time. The device would alternate using the antenna in a blinking pattern, which was actually critical to forming the hyperspace distortion that would prevent jumps into space affected by it. It was not only heavily armored, it was also actively shielded. It had the most powerful Teryon shield generator in it that Myleena could fit in it, and was equipped with one of the advances the Karinnes had not implemented in any other technology, nanite damage control systems. The ancient Karinnes used robotic damage control, but their repair drones ranged from the size of a human to about the size of an inchworm. These were even smaller, almost microscopic, which were tasked to maintain and repair the delicate circuitry inside, eliminating the need to dismantle the entire device to repair something inside. The damage control robots could effect repairs while the device was in operation, where they couldn't. They needed only to put a replacement part in an access hatch, and the robots would carry it in, replace the damaged part, and then put the broken part in the hatch when they were done. Because the device needed to be in operation at all times, it was built with three redundant systems that were independent of one another, including two extra sets of antennas, and it had an internal stockpile of enough replacement parts to literally build a fourth redundant system.
And what was most important, the device was fitted with something new, something that was untested, but something that looked to be very hopeful as a defense against Consortium Torsion weapons. It was outfitted with a special spatial damper, a device that was designed like something of a shock absorber for spatial manipulation. Up to a certain point, it did nothing to prevent spatial manipulation, mainly so it didn't interfere with the operation of its own engines. But when a spike of spatial distortion entered its protection area, the dampers kicked in to reduce that distortion, smooth it out. The device was an adaptation of something they already had, standard equipment on every starship to contain spatial warping around the engine, but this specific design was built around cancelling the Torsion effect. From the simulations Myleena had run, it wouldn't totally nullify a Torsion strike, but it did reduce the Torsion effect, which weakened the strike and reduced its penetrating power and range. It would force the Consortium to close to range to use their dark matter weapons, and at that range, they were vulnerable to both particle beams and Teryon weaponry, which gave the KMS a decisive advantage. Karinne ships had stronger weaponry and better shields and armor than Consortium ships. They were refitting all Karinne ships with the new dampers. They had to be deactivated if ships wanted to use a Torsion shockwave generator to destroy fighters or missles threatening it, but that was a more than fair tradeoff to take some of the bite off Consortium Torsion weapons.
The interdictor had no weaponry, but it was designed to withstand a ferocious pounding and still operate. It didn't need weaponry, since it was going to be at the center of a network of defenses and orbital platforms that would orbit over the north pole of Karis, inside the boundary of the planetary shield. They intended to place another interdictor at the south pole and sync it with the north interdictor so both could operate in unison, giving them even more redundancy in case some kind of catastrophe befell the first interdictor and it went offline. They couldn't risk two days of vulnerability.
If it worked.
Jason was in his armor, watching at a rail from the destroyer Verivenne, an observation deck filled with friends and family. His was not the only face filled with worry. Jyslin stood beside him, also in armor, and Rann was between them, hovering above the rail while wearing a tiny version of Crusader armor, which had been made just for him and delivered yesterday. Rann still couldn't get over having his very own armor, and armor that had an engine in it that let him float, even fly around. Since it was interface controlled, it hadn't taken him long to get the hang of using the engine. All he had to do was think about where he wanted to go, and the armor took him there. Since he and all of the children of Karis were so used to using interfaces to operate their daily household appliances, even some toys, it was very easy for them to adapt to the idea of using something like a backpack engine. Myleena was out literally standing on the interdictor with several of her team, all of them armored up, literally riding on it as the tugs towed it out and towards the doors. They were going to put it in orbit before they started it up and tested it, if only to prevent a catastrophe if the thing blew up. They didn't want that happening in Kosigi.
The Verivenne followed the interdictor as it was towed down the two mile long tunnel, two miles of rock backed by nearly six feet of Neutronium armor backing ten feet of alloyed Vanidrium/Adamantium and then nearly five hundred feet of diamond-crystallized Titanium on the inside, enough Neutronium, Neutronium, and Adamantium to make nearly any government faint at the astounding cost the Karinnes had incurred to build Kosigi. There was enough Neutronium armor alone to armor fifty fleets built into the walls of Kosigi. There was enough Vanidrium and Adamantium to build armored suits for five armies of Gladiators, but the Faey wouldn't have blinked much at the staggering amount of Titanium in the walls, for that was a metal that they themselves could replicate. But they couldn't replicate the particular molecular structure used here, for it was beyond an Imperium replicator. This particular form of Titanium was almost as hard as Vanidrium, creating an awesome armored shell defending the hollow base within.
Sometimes it was easy to see why the Karinnes of old had planned to take 350 years to build Kosigi. And sometimes it was easy to see why others thought the Karinnes were so poor. In actuality, they had been one of the richest houses of the Imperium, they just chose to invest their money in things that the rest of the universe couldn't see.
What's going to happen now, Papa? Rann asked excitedly as they exited Kosigi.
"Now? They're going to tow the interdictor to the place where it's going to stay, then Myleena's going to make sure everything looks good. If it does, then we turn it on and see what happens."
"Then what?"
"Then a test drone is going to try to jump into the system," he answered. "If Aunt Myleena is right, it will get knocked out of hyperspace before it reaches the place where it was supposed to come out. Remember when I told you the interdictor worked like ripples in the pool?"
He nodded.
"The drone should hit the first of those ripples, and get knocked out of hyperspace, probably somewhere between our home planet and the morning star planet, the one we call Geya. It'll take those ripples two days to reach the edge of the interdictor's range. When they get out to the very edge, then we'll be completely safe. No bad ships can sneak up on us. The only way in and out of our home will be that Stargate right there," he said, pointing at the Stargate in the distance, which was already activated and linked to the Stargate out by the quasar, an area already heavily defended with ships and weapon platforms. Anyone trying to reach the gate would have to run a gauntlet of astronomical proportions, especially since the Kimdori had put the gate itself in an area of intense radiation. The way they had set up the shielding and the pathways meant that one had to know exactly where to jump in in order to arrive in a protected area. There was no margin for error, and that was intentional, for it made it lethal for anyone who discovered the gate and tried to jump in to reach Karis without an invitation. If one missed by even ten miles in either direction, they appeared in an unshielded area and death would be more or less instantaneous. Not even Karinne ships had the armor to withstand that kind of radiation, and ships could not jump with their shields turned on. If a ship missed, the radiation would superheat the hull instantly, like sticking the ship in the universe's biggest microwave oven, and kill anything inside, if the radiation itself didn't all but disintegrate the ship before it was reduced to a superheated blob of radioactive slag first. Radiation that powerful would both heat the ship and also tear through it, meaning if the radiation didn't kill the crew one way, being broiled by a few thousand degrees of heat would kill them the other. The area was so irradiated that only Kimdori or Jakkan sensors could penetrate it to see the gate, and the quasar's unique properties masked the gate's mass. The Kimdori had also went the extra mile to install anti-surveillance probes, threading them through hyperspace to prevent any kind of visual or sensory surveillance either, stopping the Jakkans from finding the gate with their superior sensor technology. The combination of protections made sure that anyone who did somehow find out about the gate would have absolutely no idea where to jump in in order to do so safely; they would have to jump blind into an area that was instant death. The Kimdori had set it up so that anyone who tried to jump in had to literally jump off a cliff and land on a penny, and do it blindly.
It was just a good thing that some kind of spatial anomaly contained the quasar's radiation, reduced it, else its radiation would have killed all life in the sector. The quasar was long a subject of scientific curiosity, for it seemed to exist within an area of naturally stretched space, a giant "bubble" that allowed something like that to exist, a bubble that had fooled human telescopes all of Jason's life. They hadn't even known it was there, for it couldn't be seen by the naked eye due to light refracting around the edges of the bubble, and the bubble diffused the radiation escaping it to the point where the quasar simply looked like a dwarf or neutron star. The same principle of a PPG containing the fusion of its core and making it safe also contained the quasar, but on an astronomical level. And since the bubble was stable and so huge that its boundaries were very gradual, gradual enough that they could jump hyperspace both into and out of it, and a Stargate would function inside it.
"Good!" Rann said happily. Then we take Miss Aura's people back home?
Well, that'll take a little more time, but yes, that's the plan, little man, Jason answered. There were two other gates sitting at the quasar in a protected shipyard of sorts, inactive, that Dahnai had delivered that morning and his battleships had towed back to Karis before sending them through the gate. When they had the second interdictor up and running, they would jump their entire fleet to Exile, link the stargates, then turn on the interdictor. Once that was all done, they'd start ferrying the Exiled that wished to go home back to their island, but instead of returning the crops, they were going to instead send them back with enough supplies to hold them over until they could get new crops planted. All their machines would be mothballed and his engineers would build them a modern infrastructure, converting Exile into a Karinne colony. They would get the best of both worlds. They would maintain their traditions, but also have access to modern technology and want for nothing.
Aura had met with him at his house last night and told him of their preparations so far. Of the 1,037 Exiled, a surprising 475 intended to return, nearly half. Jason figured that between his removal of them from Exile and the death of Hayr had dampened their desire to stay on Karis, and now they wanted to go home. He could respect that. He screwed up with the Exiled, he handled them all wrong, and he was man enough to admit it. He was just happy that all of them didn't want to go back. He'd do his best to own up to his mistake and do what he could to make them happy. Even though he'd screwed up, they were still his people, and he wanted to do right by them. Aura and the others that remained didn't want to be separated from the rest of Karinne, though. They wanted to be placed in the house, not on an island at the edges. Jason could agree to that, and he arranged to have them all moved into a suburb of Karsa itself, right at the heart of Karinne society. There, they would begin classes to integrate them completely into Karinne, teach them about the multicultural nature of the house, the technology, and begin their education. He reminded Aura that those who stayed on Karis could not return to Exile for anything longer than a short visit to see old friends, but she didn't seem to mind at all, and assured him that those who remained wouldn't mind either. They didn't want to return to their old lives. They wanted to live the life described by their ancestors, they wanted to be Karinnes, not just pretend to be Karinnes. And Aura had told him that the only way to do that was to be here, on Karis, and to embrace the ways and technology of both their ancient ancestors and the new Karinnes that had risen from the ashes of the old. "We are the old Karinne, Jason," she had told him. "I want to be part of the new Karinne."
The bringing of Aura into the house was very smooth, and showed him just how unenvious his wife and amu dozei were about Aura. Aura was much like a Faey woman in that she considered their sexual encounter to be a casual affair between friends with no strings, and enjoyed engaging in that age-old female Faey custom of comparison, but she showed that she was unlike modern Faey women in that she considered their tryst personal, and only discussed it with those who had a personal stake in Jason's sexual behavior, Jyslin and Symone. She was open with them, because they were the women he loved, but she wouldn't discuss the matter with Kumi or the twins, no matter how they badgered her. But, she held nothing back from Jyslin and Symone, giving them what basically amounted to a thrust by thrust description of their tryst, then nearly an hour of sly-smiled, giggling comparison between the three of them of Jason's habits, likes, dislikes, and such, comparing him among themselves and the other two having Aura rate Jason compared to her past lovers. Jason hadn't been of a mind to sit around and talk sex, and he had never particularly enjoyed being assessed like so much meat sitting in a grocery market, so he left them to their amusements.
It was just one of the quirks one had to deal with when one was married to a Faey. Living with Faey wasn't for the modest, that was for sure. He couldn't really remember the time when they'd finally converted him to the point where he'd feel not one whit embarrassed to strip off his clothes and waltz down the street, naked as the day he was born, and Aura had proved that even his human morals and concept of saving himself only for Jyslin had been torn down… torn down by Jyslin herself. He would happily screw a woman he found sexually attractive, so long as Jyslin gave her blessing and she was also attracted to him. Then he'd invite her to his house and let his wife and amu dozei gossip about it with her like teenage girls, all giggly and smiling.
He had to admit it. Jyslin's remaking of him had been to her satisfaction, making him Faey enough for her, but leaving him human enough to still be the man he had been when they met. She was the one force in his life against which he could not stand, and from the moment they met, she had started working to make him like her. Well, she had succeeded. He had resisted her, but in the end, she had won.
The destroyer turned to show the interdictor as they approached the pole, show the platforms that were arrayed around it defensively, but weapon platforms and scientific monitoring stations, to study the interdictor and carefully monitor its operation. The master control for the interdictor wasn't there, however. It was on Kosiningi, in the emergency response center, the most hardened and heavily defended bunker on Karis. Jason turned on a monitor to the side with his gestalt which displayed an image of the interdictor and three graphic displays. One would be for the power output, one for the waveform pattern, and the third would measure hyperspace distortion that might interfere with Teryon-based hyperspace communications. If the interdictor was going to interrupt their communications, they wanted to know quickly so they could work up a fix for it. The models showed that it wouldn't, but when one was dealing with new technologies, one had to be ready.
Jason still had no idea why his rail gun had stopped producing a sonic boom when fired. Anytime he thought about how things were going to go smoothly, he always remembered that stark reminder that new technologies were often fraught with pitfalls they never considered when it was developed.
The tugs put the interdictor in orbit, then they and all other maintenance and research dropships and workers backed off, including Myleena. "Alright, control, let's get this bachi game going," Myleena's voice called over a speaker. "Bring up the singularity power plant and activate the engines. Lock the interdictor in its orbit."
"Roger. Singularity power plant startup commencing." Jason was almost holding his breath as a power spike appeared on the display, as the power plant started up. Lights on the carapace came on, then they started blinking at regular intervals, warning lights. "Engines are staring up." The interdictor seemed to shift a little as the power spiked on the display, as the gravometric engines came online, turning the interdictor and seating it securely in its planned orbit, which was a stationary position over the north pole. "The interdictor's secure in orbit, Duchess," the controller answered.
"Good. Now we see if we just wasted a month of work," she said nervously. "Boot the master computer and commence interdictor startup sequence."
"Roger. Starting master computer." Jason watched the power output graph carefully, and his heartbeat was audible in his ears as he watched, all but helpless, nothing but a spectator. "Master computer is up and operating normally. Beginning interdictor startup sequence."
For nearly thirty seconds, nothing happened. But then, on the hyperspace graph, a tiny little bump appeared, then appeared again, then appeared again. It looked like an EKG for a minute as the pulses grew in strength, about two per second, but then they began to get faster, and faster, and faster. The bumps merged to form a ridged line above the baseline, and once they reached the desired frequency of pulses, the pulses began to increase in power. The hyperspace distortion readout was showing a little "background noise," but nothing that would overwhelm the filters in most Teryon communicators.
"All readouts are showing nominal," the controller called. "The pulse is building exactly as models predicted. I think it's working, Duchess."
A cheer erupted from the observation deck, but Myleena's voice cut them off. "What we're seeing may not be reality, Ensign," she warned. "How long until the pulse is at the projected power to stop a jump?"
"Two minutes."
"Then in two minutes, launch the drone," she ordered.
It was two minutes that lasted two years. There was tense silence on the observation deck, even the children being silent, as they all looked either out at the interdictor with its blinking lights or up at the monitor to watch the waveform readout increase in power. Hyperspace was a realm of mysteries, but there were a few things that the Karinnes understood, and one was that hyperspace followed some of the same rules as normal space in some respects. The interdictor would have to slowly build in power to create the desired distortion in hyperspace to stop jumps, as that waveform increased in power. That "power" wasn't power insomuch as it was a representation of the amount of hyperspace the interdictor was affecting. The pulses that left the interdictor weakened as they traveled away from it, weakened by the resistance hyperspace offered to attempts to alter it, so the interdictor had to broadcast a pulse strong enough to reach a light year out. It couldn't do that immediately, though, because if it tried to just broadcast at full power, hyperspace would resist with an effect similar to the Torsion effect, and that would shatter the antenna. Hyperspace did not like to be manipulated, so any manipulations had to be done gradually. Instead of the swimmer diving into the pool, he had to wade in slowly until he was at the desired depth.
"Ninety seconds," the controller called.
"Get the drone ready to launch," Myleena ordered.
"One hundred seconds."
"All ships begin sensor sweeps of the entire projected flight path of the drone, focus on where the math says the ship should appear."
"One hundred ten seconds."
"Start countdown on probe launch."
"Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Threshold achieved."
"Launch the drone!" Myleena barked.
Jason knew that they would only have to wait maybe five seconds before they knew. The probe wasn't manned, so it was able to jump immediately, and was programmed to enter normal space at the edge of Karis. Jason held his breath as they waited for any word, and absolute silence descended over the observation deck.
"Probe detected, six hundred thousand kathra from Geya. Right where it should be!" Myleena said with something approaching ecstasy in her voice. "The interdictor works! FUCK YEAH, IT WORKS!" she screamed in delight.
Pandemonium ensued, not just on the Verivenne, but all over the entire navy, in Kosigi, and on the surface of Karis. Everyone now knew that the interdictor worked, and in just two days, it would be protecting the entirety of the Karis system and everything around it from unwanted ships jumping hyperspace. They were now safe. They were safe!
Jason kissed just about every Faey and human that got within reach of his arms. He hugged his son so hard his armor squealed against Jason's. He grabbed Rahne and gave her a dip, then kissed her noisily. He picked up Kyri and spun her in circles so fast that she got dizzy. Myleena was still barking orders for her team to observe the power build-up carefully, but Jason didn't hear them. Everything he had planned hinged on this, had absolutely depended on the interdictors working, and working properly. Now that he knew the interdictors worked, and so far worked exactly as Myleena expected them to work, then he could move forward with the plans that had both been revealed, and those that had not been revealed. [Myleena. I want to see Kosigi focus only on interdictors outside of the plans to build more bays. In two takirs, I want to see a finished interdictor being towed out of Kosigi every day.]
[Not a problem, babes,] she answered him giddily. [Now that we can mass produce the components and we have a building plan, we can crank out one of these babies in twelve days with a full crew on it, the only sticking point will be the carapaces, building those stresses our foundry. If we put enough resources on it to build in twenty bays at twelve days per unit, you'll see one or two coming out a day. I could build even more, but we can't abandon our other work. There are half-finished destroyers and cruisers to build, we need to finish the second set of doors, and the expansion of our drydocks is important. Even more important than that, though is the enemy ship we captured. I've been splitting time to get the interdictor going, but now that it works, I'm going back to working on that. So, you want one a day, I'll give you more than one a day, but you need to let the rest of the base work on other things.]
[Alright, Myli, I'll leave it up to you.]
[Don't you always? And do I ever let you down?]
[You haven't yet, and God willing, you never will,] he returned lightly.
What happens now, Papa? Rann asked.
Now? Now, we watch the interdictor very closely to make sure it works exactly the way it's supposed to. It looks like it will, but you never take anything for granted, little man. You always make sure. Then, next week, I have to go to Terra and meet with all the important people so we can talk about the bad people and decide what we're going to do about them. After that, our next step is to go back to Miss Aura's planet and claim it for the house, and take her people back home. Then after that, well, we just work very hard to get ready for when the bad people try to come back, so we can chase them away. We have to build lots of new ships, we have to strengthen our home so it's so tough and so scary that the bad people are afraid to come back and fight with us.
Okay. When can I go see Shya again? I miss her.
He smiled down at his son, then picked him up. How about if we ask Empress Dahnai to let Shya come here for a while? And not just a couple of days. Would you like to have Shya stay with us for a week or two?
Yes yes yes yes yes! he sent excitedly. Can she stay in my room?
Doesn't anyone who comes to see you stay in your room with you?
Goodie! he beamed. I had Kyri with me, then Danny with me, I kinda don't like sleeping alone now. I like having a sister or friend in the room with me.
Well then, little man, I think you should be the one to ask. It's what you want, so you have to ask Empress Dahnai.
Okay. Can we ask now?
He laughed. Why not?
He took his son through the throng of celebrants and to a guest cabin, then he had them get Dahnai on the comm. Dahnai usually answered the call herself when she knew it was him, and today was no different. She was naked, a towel thrown over her shoulder and her hair nearly dripping wet, with little beads of water sliding down between her breasts and along the flat cleft of her abdominal muscles, draining towards her bronze triangle of pubic hair. The radiant smile on her face seemed to dim just slightly when she saw Rann with him. Clearly she thought it was a personal call, and had probably taken the towel off just to tease him a little bit by stepping back far enough for him to see her from the thighs up. She stepped up so she was closer to the camera, smiling at them. "Hey babe, and hey Ranny," she said with a bright smile. "Is this business or personal?"
"My son has something to ask you," Jason said, urging Rann forward.
He actually gave her a little bow. "Miss Empress Dahnai, would you let Shya come visit with me for a couple of weeks? Since she's going to marry me, shouldn't we spend lots of time together?"
Clever little boy, Jason had to admit. He not only asked what he wanted, he was trying to rationalize it to make Dahnai more amenable to his wishes.
Dahnai laughed brightly. "Of course she can come, Rann!" she told him. "How long do you want her to visit?"
"Umm, I dunno, how long can she stay?"
"As long as you want."
"Then can she stay til we marry?"
Dahnai laughed again. "I'm afraid not quite that long, spunky, I'd miss her terribly if she was gone for years. How does two takirs sound?"
"Takir? Two weeks?"
"Twenty days, little man," Jason reminded him. "Remember, Empress Dahnai uses the Faey calendar. It's different from ours."
"That's longer than two weeks, right?"
"Yes, it's almost three weeks," Jason chuckled.
"Okay!" he said brightly.
"Fine, then," Dahnai said as Kellin wandered into the room behind her, having just got out of the shower himself. "I tell you what, love. When we meet for the summit, I'll bring Shya, and you can take her home with you afterward. Then you can bring her back two takirs later when you come to court."
"That works for me," Jason nodded. "Do you mind?"
"Not at all!" she said. "I'm actually overjoyed that Rann misses Shya so much he wants her to come to Karis. And I can always grill her when she gets home about what she's learned on Karis," she winked.
"You try to steal another interface, and I'll ban you from here, woman," he teased.
She laughed. "I have to try, you know that."
"Too bad for you I'm ready for you."
Kellin came up behind her and put his arm around Dahnai, looking at the monitor. "Jason! Ranny! How are you?"
"I'm okay, Prince Kellin," Rann said. "Empress Dahnai is letting Shya come visit me!"
"Oh, she is, is she? Does that mean I can come too?"
"Well, you can come if you want, Prince Kellin, but I don't have room in my room for both of you," he said uncertainly. "Do you mind sleeping in the guest room?"
Kellin laughed. "I think I'd actually prefer it, spunky," he grinned. "I think your bed might be a little too small for me."
"I think so too."
"If you and Kellin want to come for another visit, I'm fine with that, Dahnai, but I'm not going to have much time for you. I'm going to be unbelievably busy for the next couple of months."
"I won't have time either," Dahnai answered, swatting Kellin when his hand slid off her shoulder, and she jumped slightly. Odds were, he goosed her. "I'll need to go over what happens at the summit, and I'll have to rearrange all our trade routes when the interdictors start coming in and going up. I've already set up a pair of stargates so visitors can reach Draconis, and I'm kicking 2M in the ass to get another pair we can use for Terra. They're pretty pissed off that I've basically ordered them to hand over six Stargates, and they only get deferred payments for four of them. The other two I claimed using Imperial privilege, since they deal directly with the security of Draconis itself."
Miaari rushed in, using her security code to defeat the door lock. "Jason, I have urgent news," she said almost breathlessly. "Empress, this concerns you too, so please stay on the line."
"What's going on? Did the Kimdori find something?"
"The Alliance did," she answered. "I just received word from sister Kiaari at the Academy. They found a Consortium base."
"Fuck yeah!" Dahnai said with eager eyes. "Where? And how long til we can organize a task force to take it?"
"It's somewhat distant, but there will be no strike force, Empress," Miaari said. "It has been abandoned and destroyed. It was a station in interstellar space, which fits with the gravity tolerance needs we have discovered about the insectoids that man the ships. The Alliance detected the explosion, and we looked back using light to survey the base's history. They failed to scatter the light," she said, a bit smugly. "A critical security lapse, for we will have the entire seventeen years of the base's life cycle recorded by tomorrow morning."
"How the hell will you do that?" Dahnai asked curiously.
"Logistics, Empress," Miaari said simply. "Several thousand sensors staged one light day apart, all recording at the same time. Each recorder will capture one day in the life of the base. After we gather the recordings, we simply merge them together so we might analyze them. The difference in angles are so miniscule that they make virtually no difference."
"Shit, that's fuckin' clever," Dahnai said respectfully.
"I am pleased that you find us clever, your Majesty," Miaari said with a slight little smile. "By this time tomorrow, I will have more detailed intelligence to pass along to you. Observing this base will give us an idea of ship fleet strength they have in the sector, and the abandonment and destruction of the base will have to be researched. They had to have a reason to do such a thing. We must find out why."
"Maybe they're pulling out of the sector," Dahnai said hopefully.
"Maybe they're just pulling back because their plan failed and they're expecting a counterattack, pulling back to where it takes too long to jump a fleet to them, yet they can jump a fleet to attack us," Jason noted. "We already know they believe in scorched earth. They won't allow anything get captured. If they can't hold it, they destroy it."
"An odd thing for them to do when they gave the Urumi all that tech, but didn't try to destroy them," Dahnai noted as Kellin left the monitor.
"Perhaps it is not their technology they protect, but something else," Miaari mused. "They already know that they are not superior to the Karinnes in technology. They could be described as being equal to the Imperium, perhaps just slightly ahead in some areas, but behind in others. What they surrendered to the Urumi may not be seen as something so vital that it must be protected. But it is clear that when it comes to their ships, the technology that is purely their own, they will not allow it to be captured. So it is only logical that there is something else they are protecting, something they do not want us to capture."
"Most people consider weapon tech to be worth protecting," Dahnai protested, glancing to her side irritably.
"Yes, most do, but clearly the Consortium does not," she said simply. "They gave away the technology to their strongest weapons, and we know that they are their strongest weapons, for those were the weapons that the Consortium ships themselves employed. Clearly, they felt that giving away those secrets was worth it in what they gained through the bargain. That too must have a reasoning behind it. I will have to ponder the matter."
Dahnai looked thoughtful, scratching at the blue skin between her ample breasts absently as more water trickled between them. Kellin took her towel and started drying her, scrubbing at her shoulders and breasts. "I'm not sure, but I'll definitely want a copy of that recording when you have it."
"Everyone will have it. Denmother is cooperating with the Grand Duke's Academy department on the Consortium. It will be available for all to analyze as soon as it is done."
"Sounds good to me. Kellin, stop being a prick," Dahnai said testily to her left as Kellin started kneading her breasts, which wasn't drying her off so much as fondling her through the towel, clearly trying to disrupt her train of thought. Jason had seen Kellin playful, but he didn't often do it except when in complete privacy or only among close friends. He wasn't afraid of his wife at all, and was quite playful with her. But he did act with a certain amount of decorum when they weren't alone, and Miaari should have made him consider that they weren't in intimate circumstances.
"I'm just helping you dry off, my love."
"You're being obnoxious. Now stop," she ordered, slapping his hands away from her chest. "Kellin!" she barked, turning to face him.
"I just did what you wanted," he protested with utter insincerity.
She reached out and dragged him into view, literally putting him in a headlock.
"Aiy! Aiyaa!" Kellin hissed in pain as Dahnai took charge of him, and both the adults and Rann watching through the monitor laughed.
"I'll go ahead and go," Dahnai told them, shimmying in a strange fashion, as if she were trying to evade Kellin's hands. "Unless you have something else to talk about."
"Not particularly, your Majesty," Miaari said with a slight smile.
"Good. I'm going to take this comedian here and teach him what happens when he annoys me while I'm conducting business," she said, jerking on Kellin, which made him both gasp and laugh.
"What was he doing?"
"Teasing," she answered. "He was doing some things he shouldn't off camera, then he started groping me. And ever since I did this," she pointing down at where she had him in a headlock, "he's been grabbing my pussy," she said bluntly, despite the fact that Rann was there. But then again, Rann was being raised Faey, and they didn't hide such things from their children. Rann knew just about ever word there was for a woman's genitals, both the clinical ones and the vulgar ones. "He's been entirely too giddy and silly since you came to visit, and I see now I need to smack some sense back into him," she stated flatly.
"Have fun," Jason laughed.
"I will. I enjoy disciplining bad boys. I'm not so sure about him," she said, leaning down and loudly slapping him under the camera, slapping him on the butt, making him yelp.
When the connection was terminated, Miaari laughed lightly. "It is good to see that Kellin keeps her grounded," she noted.
"That he does," Jason agreed. "He's actually very jealous of her when they're in their apartment, so he's quick to recapture her attention once whatever business she's handling is finished. The poor guy, he already has to compete with the entire freakin' Imperium to get attention from his wife. Notice that he didn't get really silly until after he was sure we were done."
"Yes."
"I hope she doesn't hurt Prince Kellin," Rann said worriedly.
Jason chuckled. "It's a game they play, little man. He was just being silly, and she's going to be silly back."
The next two days, Jason didn't get much sleep.
He rode almost constant vigil on the interdictor, often watching its output screen for an hour at a time, almost neurotic about making sure that it was powering up properly, coming up as expected. Even the slightest variation, and Jason was communing with Myleena, who was now in heaven, because she was ripping the Consortium ship apart, and almost horny for the chance to put it back together and make it work again. She got so annoyed with him constantly bothering her, she blocked him for about four hours.
When not worrying about the interdictor, he was working on next week's summit. There was a lot to do there, though he would only speak in public once, and that speech was already written. He was more interested in the back room dealing that inevitably went on when leaders gathered in any numbers, and since it was his planet, ensuring the safety and comfort of all visitors was his responsibility. Kiaari was working around the clock to secure the Academy for the summit, and there were so many warships there of many different civilizations, all coming to help secure the planet in a cooperative manner, that Terra looked like the staging area for some huge imminent war. Kiaari sent him hourly updates as to the preparations, from ensuring each leader had a palatial place to stay for the two days they would be there to the steps taken to ensure the security and safety of the leaders and their staffs. Classes would be cancelled on the two days the summit would take place, and the itinerary was already set. The leaders would arrive on the first day, and then they would hold a one day conference on the next. Dahnai was the official host, and would guide the conference in the morning. There would be speeches from everyone, then they would have lunch, then they would conduct an informal conference session where they'd do the real business. Dahnai planned for the day's activities to last about 12 hours, and after it was over, the leaders would all go home. When Jason came home, he'd be bringing Shya with him for her 20-day long visit to Rann.
Rann had been spending those days up at Kosigi. Jyslin was working with Myleena on the Consortium ship, and he and Danelle had been keeping each other company while their mothers were hard at work.
Jason was also working with Myri and Aura in preparation to return the Exiled to their planet. The Exiled had something of a disagreement over exactly what was going back, for the ones returning wanted it all, but those staying did want some parts of what they brought with them. Jason also worked with the engineers that had volunteered to go back to Exile, looking over their plans, learning what they had planned.
Jason didn't pass up another chance at Aura, though, thoroughly availing himself of a little personal debauchery. Yesterday, when she came to discuss the return, he offered her more than what they'd had before, and she accepted. That evening, Jason and Aura had proper sex, as Symone might say. It was much better than a quick hour in her bed like a pair of teenagers, that was for sure, though Symone was bitterly disappointed when he banned her from joining in. Aura was his guilty pleasure, and he wasn't sharing her with a horny amu dozei. He even went so far as to take her out of the house, taking her to the second two-room guest cottage that was considered part of Tim and Symone's property, the other pool house that stood beside the guest cottage Rahne was using. There, Jason experienced Aura thoroughly, enjoying all the pleasures of the flesh Aura was willing to surrender to him… which was just about everything.
When the sun rose and streamed through the window, casting bluish light over the bedspread and into his eyes, Jason yawned and buried his head behind Aura's. They were both laying on their sides, and Jason had an arm draped over her, his hand resting lightly against her silky breast. She was still asleep, and Jason took a moment to ponder her, and recall the very pleasurable night they'd shared. It reminded Jason about the fundamental difference between human and Faey, the division, the separation of sex and love, of physical pleasure and romantic involvement. Jason had had sex with Aura. It was the second time they'd had sex, and it had been about as involved as sex could get. Aura was actually very adventurous, as brave as Tim, willing to do virtually anything he wanted to try. Jason had had every part of Aura there was to have, but it was all physical. Here, the morning after, there was… friendship. That was it. There was no love. There was no affection outside of his affection for her as a friend. There was just memory of a fun night that didn't change. He remembered the casual sex he'd engaged in with Symone long ago, and how it had led to her becoming amu dozei, but he also saw that that had been different. Symone was the wife of his best friend, had a much more intimate understanding of him because of it. The constant exposure and interaction with Symone over years, and because of the reciprocal relationship Jyslin had with Tim, had worn down the barriers between them, had caused their relationship to bloom into actual love. But the sex had had nothing to do with that. As far as the sex went, Symone was just a girl Jason liked to bang on the side, kind of like a mistress, a mistress of which his wife heartily approved.
Jason had been a little curious to see how he would feel this morning, for he really didn't engage in casual sex with friends. He knew Tim did. Tim had, over the years, spread the legs of every woman on the strip except for Temika, who shared Jason's aversion to casual sex but for her it was because of her religious view, and Maya, who had no real sexual attraction to him. He had even partaken of Kumi, Meya, and Myra, and Kumi even had a viddy of the two of them fucking like wild rabbits, which she proudly showed to anyone who wanted to see it. They were all his friends, and like a true friend, Tim was not afraid to bend a girl over when she wanted or needed it. The last of his little trysts had been just before that insane mess with the Trillanes began, when he caught Tim and Sheleese humping in the hot tub like a couple of horny teenagers. But Jason had been different. Yes, he'd had sex with four of the Marines, but that had been for a specific reason, to get them pregnant. Since then, the only women he'd had sex with were Jyslin, Symone, he'd had sex just once with Kumi, and Dahnai.
And now there was Aura.
All these years, he'd avoided casual sex with the women on the strip, both for personal and practical reasons. He hadn't felt comfortable with the idea of casual sex with friends, still clinging to one last shred of his human morality, and still feeling that there was some physical part of him that should only belong to Jyslin and Symone. But he'd also been afraid that engaging in sex with the girls on the strip would alter their relationships, would, at least in his mind, jeopardize the very strong and very satisfying friendships he had with the Marines, Kumi, Temika, Songa, and the twins, that what happened with Symone and Dahnai, who were the only women with which he'd had casual sex, would happen with every woman on the strip, so he abstained to prevent it, to maintain his friendships just as they were. It was why it took Kumi virtually threatening to leave the house to finally submit and have sex with her, and his abstinence from all the other women on the strip was one of the biggest reasons why she hadn't pressed him for more… and it had been the main reason she had had a virtual meltdown over the fake sex tape stunt, for she felt very left out. Kumi was still seriously attracted to him sexually, and the years had done nothing to squelch that in her. It had been why he had never succumbed to the twins' many attempts to seduce him. And there had been attempts. None of them had been very serious, but those teasing, joking comments and actions had had a very real offer hiding inside them. The women of the strip knew that Jason just didn't seem too interested in engaging in casual sex, and it had been a part of his personality ever since they'd known him, so they just accepted it as one of his personal quirks. And for that reason, thankfully, they didn't hold it against him. They knew his lack of interest had nothing to do with them, it was because of him. He was the one that had the problem, in their eyes, not them. But that didn't mean that they didn't still offer, continuing to offer to be the kind of a friend a Faey felt she should be. They loved to tease him, and they would often proposition him, but he always declined with a smile and a joke.
And now there was Aura.
He could feel it slip away, that last tiny little piece of what used to be his human morality, that last little fear. He could see it blowing away on the wind. He had had sex with a friend. Hot sex. Deep sex. Sex that would make a porn star blush sex. And here it was, the morning after, and what did he feel?
Friendship. He felt no different. He was not falling in love with Aura.
All these years. All that teasing, and all his forced abstinence, which Jyslin certainly didn't mind when some girl teased him and made him drag her upstairs and bang her to relieve his sexual ardor. And Aura had just proved that all of it had been sort of pointless. His friendships wouldn't change, as long as he didn't want them to. Them teasing him and offering him didn't change his friendship, he realized, so why would actually taking them up on it change their friendship? After all, they were Faey. They didn't care.
Why had Aura been different, he wondered? He'd gotten boners from the antics of the girls on the strip many times. He wasn't dead, for Pete's sake, no healthy straight man could not get horny when some beautiful girl wiggled her naked ass in his face, and he knew that if he grabbed that ass, she'd be more than happy to let him do whatever he wanted. There was no shortage of beautiful women on the strip that had caught his eye, that had sincerely offered sex to him, but he had never accepted. Why Aura?
He knew the answer. It was because she was not from the strip. She was a friend, yes, but there was no sense of threat there, no fear that he would be jeopardizing a five year old friendship if something went wrong. There was less history, and therefore less risk. If he messed up with Aura and made her hate him, it was a new friendship and thus little would be lost. But if he did something to anger one of the mothers of his children or women he'd known since living on Earth, it would hurt. He would lose a strong friendship, and it would drastically alter the society of the strip.
But Aura showed him that those were stupid assumptions. How could he live among Faey for so long, understand them so well, and still cling to a ridiculous human conception? Simple. Knowing the truth wasn't the same as understanding the truth, and Aura had made him understand.
All the proof he needed for that was Tim, for crying out loud! Tim was notorious for being available among the girls on the strip, a fact of which Symone was proud, not angry! He'd banged every woman up and down the beach except for Temika and Maya, and he was still wonderful friends with all of them. Maybe even better friends than Jason was, because he would be all that they wanted him to be. He'd said it many times before that Tim was much more integrated into Faey culture than he was, his fearlessness and curiosity that made him such a good intelligence analyst and his willingness to try new things. Tim was the kind of man the girls expected him to be, and it had not damaged his friendship with any of the women on the strip. It also didn't damage his marriage to Symone in the slightest, for she enjoyed letting her husband tomcat around, she liked it when he slaked the lust of one of the girls on the strip, because they were friends. That was what friends did in Faey society. Why? Because Tim kept it separate. Having sex with the girls did not change his view of them, he wasn't falling in love with every woman on the strip.
So… what now?
He knew that when he walked out that door, it would be different. The inhibition was gone. The fear was gone. If Min or Sheleese or Lyn or Bryn made some kind of teasing invitation, he'd take her up on it in a heartbeat if he was so inclined. Now he knew that they would see him no differently afterwards. Hell, they might even find their friendship deepen, since they would feel that he was finally, after years, opening up to them. He knew that he could sleep his across the strip, up one side and down the other, and it wouldn't change a damn thing. The only way it may change was with those women who had husbands who would need to approve, such as Maya, Temika, and Songa. Married Faey needed the blessing of the spouse to have sex outside of marriage.
And it was because of Aura.
"Mmm," she hummed, shifting against him. She reached up and put her hand over his. Good morning. Happy?
Still a little weak-kneed, he answered honestly.
She laughed. So am I. I think I'm not going to be able to walk straight for a while. But it was worth it.
That it was, he agreed sincerely. Aura, I want to thank you.
You are most welcome, she sent lightly. I should be thanking you.
No, not for the sex. Well, not just the sex. The sex was fantastic, and I never dreamed you were so kinky.
She laughed. What is this kinky? It's not translating. All I'm getting is a word I can't understand.
Willing to be, ah, unorthodox in bed.
Oh. We have no word for that. Don't the women here allow men to have anal sex? I've always found it very pleasurable, and men certainly seem to love it.
Well, yeah, some men do, and… bleh, never mind, he grunted, which made her laugh in delight. What I'm trying to say is thank you for showing me more than a fun night in bed. I've had sex with you, Aura, twice now. And despite that, I feel no different towards you.
I would hope that you'd at least like me a little more, she sent timidly.
I do! he protested. That's not what I meant, Aura! Let me finish. For years, I've abstained from casual sex with my women friends despite my wife's blessing because I always feared that it would damage my friendships with them. I was afraid to get too close, because the two Faey women I have had casual sex with, Symone and Empress Dahnai, have ended up becoming my amu dorai and amu dozei. I was afraid that that would keep happening, and that eventually, one of those relationships would fall apart and it would destroy my friendship with the woman, which would irreparably damage the entire society we enjoy here on the strip, where everyone is friends with everyone else. I didn't want to risk what I already have to consummate long, sincere friendships. But then you come along. I think I see why Jyslin pushed me at you now, to show me what my head knew but my heart wouldn't accept. I see now that Symone and Dahnai became something more because I wanted them to be something more. But if I don't want it to be something more, then it won't be. You've shown me that I can be a friend without becoming a lover. Does that make sense?
She rolled on her back and looked over at him. Yes. It makes perfect sense.
Does it bother you that I think of you as only a friend, and not something more?
Bother me? It makes me relieved, she laughed. If every man I brought to my bed went and fell in love with me, Trelle's garland, I'd be afraid to have sex! It's a flattering idea, to be honest, that I could be such a powerful lover, so feminine, that no man I had sex with could resist me. But that's just an old myth, and women know it. If it were true, it would be a damn inconvenience, having all these lovesick men bothering me endlessly.
Jason laughed helplessly.
Love is love, and sex is sex, Jason. They are two different things. It sounds to me that your own experience, falling in love with two casual partners, has skewed your view of things. After all, you weren't born Faey. What we are raised understanding about our culture, you had to learn. It sounds to me that you finally have comprehended the lesson, that's all. It just took a while for it to sink in.
Just about, he chuckled, leaning down and kissing her. Thank you for a wonderful evening, Aura. And thank you for showing me how silly I've been.
I do hope this means I haven't served my purpose, she smiled at him.
We have I can barely walk afterward sex, and you think I'm gonna just turn my back on that? he laughed. Same offer as before, babe. When you're here and I have time, I'm yours if you're horny. But, I have to warn you about one thing.
What?
Symone is not entirely straight, and she's deeply imprinted on me. My attraction to you will bleed into her. She will be very grabby with you, almost shamefully forward, and she may even ask you to have sex with her.
After I get to know her, I'll gladly accept. I've found pleasure in a woman before, Jason. I enjoy both men and women. I had a woman for a lover before I met my husband, and we maintained our liaison for years afterward. It used to drive my husband wild with lust to watch us, she laughed. Symone is a very attractive woman. I'll gladly let her taste me, and taste her in return. And if you're there, I'll finally be able to know sex with a woman who will let a man touch her.
Your friend didn't like men?
She shook her head. She only liked women. She would have sex with me and allow my husband to watch, but she would not let him touch her. She was the only woman I ever knew that was afraid of the sight of an erect penis. My husband had to keep himself covered when he watched us, for if he grew hard, Yaega would become afraid and stop.
It sounds like she had some issues, Jason noted.
Yes, but we accepted her quirks. Among my people, acceptance matters most of all, despite things like that.
He sat up and stretched, and she sat up with him. I guess I should get back. There's much to do yet.
I know. I have a lot of work to do myself. We're both kinda playing hooky here.
Another term I don't understand.
A human youth's game of intentionally not going to school. It was called hooky.
Ah.
Despite the joking about not being able to walk straight, both of them were quite stable when they got up, showered, got dressed, and then walked across the compound to his house. Jyslin and Rahne were sitting at the table with Rann and Kyri, and Yana was helping Ayama bring a platter of blueberry waffles to the table. He only had to take one look at the tightness, the hurt in Yana's eyes to see that in his attempts to avoid damaging his relationships with the girls by abstaining, he had done just that by succumbing.
He didn't give her the chance to leave. He knew Yana, knew her probably better than anyone, and he knew what that look meant. She was about to flee back to her house, and if she got away from him, he may never get her to open up to him enough to explain it to her. She trusted Jason far more than she had ever trusted another man, because he had given her a special trust when they conceived Kyri, had let her into his mind when no other man would. But she felt as if that trust had been betrayed, because he had given to another woman, whom he barely knew, what he had denied to her, her best friend, since Kyri was conceived. That special relationship between them was very much at risk, and he knew it. And he couldn't let it happen. He got up and chased her down, catching up to her in the kitchen, grabbing her by the shoulders and stopping her. Yana, stop, he said. Let me explain.
Explain? Explain? she demanded, putting a sarcasm into her thoughts that no spoken word could ever justify, so absolute was her outrage and indignance, indignance that Jason had refused to be a proper friend to her, to all the girls of the strip, but had the nerve to bring some new girl into their domain and rut her like a stag, and do it right in front of them! At least the first time could have been explained as a moment of passion. Jason was a man, after all, and he had desires. But this time was deliberate, and was like a slap in the face! She felt insulted, offended, rejected, belittled, and scorned, and she was furious. Absolutely furious.
That's right, explain, he sent in a way that showed that he had no defenses. That he would not hide his thoughts from her. He reinforced that by reaching down and grabbing her hand, making skin to skin contact, which vastly increased Yana's ability to focus her power on him. Yana was the second most powerful telepath on Karis, eclipsed only by their daughter Kyri. She was probably the second most powerful in the entire Imperium. When a telepath of Yana's power was making direct contact, Jason couldn't even resist her if he wanted to. But he offered no defense against her, allowing her to look directly into his mind, anywhere she wanted to look, because mere words were not going to explain the truth, and he knew he only had one chance to tell her before she hardened herself to him. Without sending, he showed her his thoughts, allowed her to experience his discovery through his eyes, through his mind. He showed her how he had felt before, the fear that he would harm the wonderful relationships he had with the girls if he changed them. He showed her how he'd come to feel that way, because of Symone and Dahnai, how every women he'd engaged in consistent casual sex had become a love, and his fear that it would keep happening and cause damage to the treasured friendships he held with the women on the strip, friendships he treasured as much as his children, and much as life itself. Then he showed her Aura. He showed her the epiphany, the realization that he finally understood that those two exceptions had caused him to incorrectly interpret the rule. He showed her that he realized now what Jyslin had done, bringing a woman he would see as safe to engage in casual sex to show him that he was completely wrong. He showed her that he knew now that he would not change his friendships with the girls if he gave them what they wanted, and that wasn't sex, it was the feeling of intimacy to know that Jason would if they wanted it. They wanted the closeness that Tim was willing to give them. The friendship. That was what they wanted. That was what he was now willing to give.
I've been stupid, Yana, he admitted. I was trying so hard not to damage what I have, I damaged it by not doing anything, and I'm sorry. I should have seen that the same thing that happened between me and Kumi might happen between you and me. It was never about you. Never about you, Yana. It was about me. But I understand a little better now, as you saw. The next time you ask, I won't say no. Not because you're angry with me, and not because of this fight, but because I understand now. I will be the friend you want me to be. Can you forgive me?
Her answer was to give him a passionate kiss. I forgive you, Jayce, she sent. I'm sorry I got so angry. I didn't realize you felt that way. Why didn't you tell us? We could have explained it to you, we thought you understood! We thought you still felt that you owed Jyslin some kind of allegiance based on your human upbringing, like how you acted when we had you give us our children.
When Jyslin wore that out of me, all that was left was the fear, and I guess I never really thought to explain it. Nobody really asked, he told her, holding her hands and looking down into her eyes. I hope the others aren't angry too.
I don't think so. Myri told us last night, and she was laughing about it. A few were a little mad. Some were happy, thinking that you were finally coming around.
I guess they were right, he chuckled. But I don't blame you for being furious, Yana. Me and you aren't quite like me and the others. There's a little more there between us, he said, smoothing her hair from her face gently. It's not love, but it is trust. I saw it in your eyes, saw your trust in me fade away. I'd have been miserable if that would have happened. Of all the girls on the strip, you're my best friend, Yana. If there's any friendship I don't want to lose, it's yours.
That's so sweet to say, Jayce, she said with a glowing smile. So… are we going to take numbers, or is this going to be first come, first serve?
He almost fell over in laughter.
All was forgiven.
The funny part of the whole thing was, now that he'd seen that he'd been dumb, nothing really changed. He had gone around after breakfast and talked to every single girl on the strip except for the twins, who were on the island and already knew anyway, and Kumi, who left very early to go take care of some business in Karsa. He apologized to each and every one of them, and promised them that things would be different, that he'd try to be the friend they wanted him to be. He was honest, telling them that he'd been too afraid of losing them as friends to risk changing his relationships with them, that Jyslin had ground away his notion that he had to save himself for her, and that he knew now he'd been wrong, that not being willing to treat them as friends had been damaging his relationships with them.
To a woman, they all forgave him.
Aura wasn't only forgiven, she was accepted among the girls like some kind of hero, the ray of light that had finally shone down on Jason and set him straight.
He could tell, he could see it. When they talked to him now, they were the same as usual, still laughing, still teasing, still joking, but they felt closer to him now. They knew now that if they invited, he wouldn't say no, but they didn't invite. They were just content with the knowledge that they could invite. That was what they wanted more than anything else. The act wasn't as important as the security of knowing they would not be denied the act if that was what they wanted.
Jyslin and Symone were utterly smug about it. They'd been telling him that for years, but finally, finally, he got it through his thick skull. I worked very hard to get you here, you silly man, Jyslin laughed over breakfast. So did Symone. It's just not proper, what you were doing to the girls. I gave up trying to tell you long ago. When Aura came along and you finally started showing some interest in a woman and not hiding it or suppressing it, it wasn't hard at all to make you understand. I knew that eventually you'd realize it yourself, all you had to do was keep fucking Aura. And thankfully you're smart enough to see the truth quickly, she winked. So, from now on, if one of the girls asks, you have my blessing to say yes… not that I really expect them to line up or anything. But don't you dare roam around out there and come home too tired for us, or I'll kick your ass.
I hope you're right. I'd kinda expect them to do something.
Jason, they do think you're sexy, but it's not about sex with them, it's about willingness. Eventually they'll start approaching you, when they're truly in need and you're available, but it won't be any time soon. If they lined up, like you're saying, they'd find it to be incredibly rude.
Rude?
Rude. They know now that you'll be a true friend if they need it, and to chase you down and demand sack time without really needing it is extremely rude. It's boorish. When they truly feel like they want or need buddy sex, they'll ask. Until then, they'll go on being just the same. They loved you as a friend before, they'll love you as a friend now. Nothing will really change.
That didn't happen exactly as Jyslin predicted, though. It turned out that there was one woman who was bound and determined to exploit Jason's change of view despite being considered rude. But, she was a rude kind of girl.
Kumi.
Jason had figured that if there was anyone on the strip that would jump all over him, it would be Kumi, and he was not wrong. She'd learned about him and Aura the night before from Myri and had not been there when he went to apologize, and she wasted no time hunting him down after she got back, which was after Zora took Aura back to the island. Kumi made no pretenses about why she was there, and she didn't hide the fact that she'd come for her piece from Jyslin and Symone, either. She stepped into his office wearing nothing at all, and she shut the door behind her with her eyes all but blazing with both lust and anger.
"If you can fuck Aura, you can fuck me," she told him in a voice that brooked no defiance. "Now strip."
"I'm kinda busy, but if you don't mind a quickie bent over the desk, I can find the time for that," he answered without batting an eye. "We can have some hot sex some other time."
She had come expecting a fight, and his sudden and complete surrender to her demands threw her off her prepared arguments. All she could do was nod dumbly and allow him to pull her over to the desk and bend her over, almost disbelieving he was actually going to do it. She kept looking back at him in disbelief, and she didn't believe he was actually going to do it, that it was just another prank, even when she saw that he had an erection. She still had doubt in her eyes when he settled in behind her, and she even sent her disbelief when she felt him press himself between her legs. She wasn't going to believe that he'd do it until he actually did it, that this was the same kind of elaborate prank he'd pulled on her long ago, and that nothing short of penetration would make it abundantly and unmistakably clear that it was no joke.
Her eyes widened in honest shock when he began to do just that, and his offer to have sex with her again later finally hit her, almost like a hammer. When she finally understood that he was doing more than just giving in, that he was offering, she gave a delighted laugh. "Oh, yeah baby, I finally get banged without having to threaten to leave the house! Do me like a Barkan whore!"
He gave her what she wanted. He banged her like a Barkan whore.
And he didn't have to apologize to her. His actions spoke louder than any words or sending. Kumi forgave him too. In her own special way.
After Kumi was dealt with, figuratively speaking, things settled back down. Jason got quite a bit of work done that day, catching up on the mountain of paperwork that had piled up on him ever since the trip to the planet Exile weeks ago, stuff he had to get done before the summit, so nothing was hanging over his head.
They had also extensively tested the interdictor, which was now at full power. Jason watched from his study as the destroyer Dauntless made multiple attempts to jump into the system. It tried every possible trajectory angle. It tried overpowering the resistance with its engines in every possible configuration. Myleena tried everything she could possibly think of, but nothing allowed the ship to jump more than two hundred feet closer to Karis than when it started.
That was such a relief that Jason almost felt like a Skaa had just gotten off his chest.
The experimentation did prove a few things, and surprise them a little bit. The distortion field did deflect hyperspace ships, knocking them off course, if they tried to pass through the field at a very shallow angle or tangent to the field. They also found out that a ship could jump in the area, but only jump away from the system, but not very far. The ship would only stay in hyperspace for about a two microseconds before it was knocked out again, but that split second let a ship travel about .317283 light years. And there was a curious additional effect, as well; the ship should have only traveled .3068182 light years in that time. The ship got some kind of boost out of jumping with the flow of the distortion, but then it overtook the next distortion wave and was knocked back into real space.
That sent Myleena flying to her note panel, vowing to try to come up with some kind of external hyperspace "catapult" device that would let a ship mimic this effect and get a boost when jumping hyperspace, which would let them travel even faster in hyperspace. And that was good. Even one second shaved off a hyperspace jump was one second the crew was not subjected to the stress of hyperspace.
Myleena also saw a potential to exploit the "troughs" in the hyperspace pulses, and made note to try to come up with some kind of engine modification that would sync the ship with the distortion wave pattern and let it jump out, but still prevent ships from jumping in… when she found the time in the middle of the other fifty thousand things she was doing. From what Jason could see, it was possible, but the ship would still have to stop at the edge of the distortion field, where the border caused anything not approaching at a tangent to drop back into normal space. But still, the ability to jump a fleet to the edge of the distortion field in order to attack a fleet sitting there wondering what the fuck just knocked them out of hyperspace could be quite useful.
The Dauntless spent nearly six hours trying to breach the interdictor and jump into the system, but it was thwarted at every turn. No matter what it did, it got no closer than .99999987375 light years from the planet.
Beyond any shadow of a doubt, the interdictor was an absolute and smashing success. It worked exactly as Jason had prayed it would, and so far, it seemed like an impassable barrier. But then again, the Consortium might have scientists that thought differently from they did, and they'd find a hole. But still, they'd have to find it, and that could take years.
Jason knew then that he was in business. And business was about to boom.
After dinner, he and Jyslin took Rann to the beach, and Myleena decided to take a well deserved break and join them with Danelle. They lazed about the beach on beach lounge chairs, nude bodies warming in the sun, while Rann and Danelle built a sand castle near the surf. "Trelle, I needed this," Myleena said with a long, contented sigh, wiggling a bit in her lounge chair.
"That's why I made you come down," he told her. "You've gone way too long without a little rest. You certainly didn't get any at Danelle's passing party."
I don't think so either, she agreed. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that, she sent with absolute pride in her voice. My daughter expressed at five. Now that bitch Yana can just shut the fuck up.
Jason laughed. Such total hate for Yana, he teased with a grin. Not that I want to bring up work, but anything you haven't put in the reports and Jys hasn't told me?
A little. We're taking apart their power broadcasting system now. It's not easy to understand because we don't have the computers to control it, but we're studying the transmitter array now. I'm going to try to find some way to jam it. We know for a fact that the brain implants in the insectoids run on that power, so if we can jam it, we'll mess up their control over the things. Maybe they'll go nuts or stop fighting or even turn on each other if we can disrupt their little mind network.
Always a good thing. How does it work?
Not sure yet, but it broadcasts a very low-energy kind of plasma that's almost like a modulated signal, attached in some manner to the microwave band of the EM spectrum. The plasma rides the microwave carrier and the receiver demodulates it.
So instead of transmitting signals, they're transmitting energy, Jason mused. That's pretty clever.
It's fairly sophisticated, she agreed. I've never thought of anything like it, that's for sure. If there's anything we can learn from them, it's this. This is a branch of plasma physics we've never encountered before, and trust me, babes, we've thought of a lot of branches of plasma physics. I already have plans to adapt it to our nanotechnology. If we don't have to put batteries in the robots, we can make them fuckin' microscopic. I could design robots that we could inject into a body and do surgery from the inside, for example.
Hmm. It sounds like this plasma power system doesn't have much range, if it runs on microwave bands. They don't penetrate magnetic fields well at all, and they can be blocked by ferrite metals.
You're right, but for the wrong reasons. I'd guess it doesn't have much more than a five thousand kathra range. The microwave carrier breaks down quickly because of the plasma riding on it, so the receiver can't be too far away.
You learned all that without even turning it on? Jason asked in surprise.
You can learn tons by not turning something on, Jayce, she sent teasingly. Especially when you rip it apart. Carefully, of course, since I want to put it back together, but I have that transmission unit in exactly seven hundred and ninety-two pieces on the floor of my lab, all lovingly labeled and waiting for me to put it all back together.
And thus your true motive to take a break is revealed, because you can't walk around in your lab, Jason teased.
She laughed. Nah, I needed a break. And I've been hearing some rumors, she said, looking over at him. A little vulpar told me that you've broken your vow of celibacy.
Jason laughed helplessly. If you could call it that. I just realized I was holding onto it for the wrong reason. I almost permanently damaged a couple of very close friendships.
I could see that coming, she told him calmly. The girls put up with it because it's one of your little human quirks, the same as Mika, Mike, and Luke, but the instant you spread that Exiled woman's legs, you opened up a whole pod of kaba nuts. When you did that, you were saying you will have buddy sex, and all these years you've had the girls here offering, and you wouldn't touch them. That probably pissed a couple of them off.
Yes, it did, and I apologized, he agreed. But, having casual sex with someone outside the strip made me realize I was rejecting the girls for the wrong reason. Aura opened my eyes.
Well, good for you, she sent, looking over at him with a smile. But don't get any ideas, buster.
I know. Me and you?
Ewwww!!!! they sent in perfect unison, complete with synchronized shuddering, which made Jyslin nearly fall out of her lounge chair laughing.
The light moment faded quickly, though, when Cybi communed with him. [Jason, Miaari needs you in your study, right now,] she told him urgently.
He quickly swung out of the chair. [Tell her I'm on my way.]
He didn't bother to dress, he just rushed back home. He bounded into his study, where Miaari was waiting for him, and she closed the door and activated the security. "I got here as soon as Cybi called, Miaari," he told her, reaching for the robe he kept on the door to the little bathroom off his study. "What's up?"
"We managed to extract more intelligence from that destroyed Consortium outpost, Jason," she told him, her eyes grim.
He frowned. "Don't beat around the bush, just tell me," he sighed wearily.
She did so. She brought up something on the wall monitor, a start chart. "The base was here. When they destroyed it, we used trajectory analysis to discern the destination of the ships that destroyed the base. Here. Star XJ-783, in the Beta Quadrant, halfway across the galaxy and on the far side of Exile. Where we would be least likely to look for them," she concluded darkly. "We sent a probe, Jason. It was destroyed, but it took this footage of real space before they discovered it."
She waved her furry hand before the screen, and it showed grainy video of an orbital station the size of a small moon. Surrounding that station was an absolute armada of Consortium warships.
There were not dozens. There were not hundreds. There were thousands.
She saw the realization dawn in his eyes. "We counted three thousand four hundred and twenty-two ships, my friend," she said curtly. "And while we watched, we saw sixty more jump into the system. They are not quite so decimated as we believed. But for some reason, despite this overwhelming force of numbers, they still do not make a move. That means that they could be engaged in clandestine action, or…"
"Or they're waiting for something," Jason finished, his eyes almost disbelieving, his hand clutching the edges of the robe. Over 3,400 of them! That was over three hundred times larger than his own fleet! How would they fight a force that large? His ships were better than theirs, but there were so many… so many!
"My God," he said, putting a hand on the pit of his stomach. He almost felt sick. "If they reach us, can we stop them?"
She nodded calmly. "Do not forget, Jason, the GRAF cannon has no range limitation," she told him. "If they try to sail that fleet into Karis space, then we can pick them off at our leisure. They will not be able to see the shots coming as the weapon gives no energy signature to detect, and we will have an entire year to destroy them. They will be, how do you say, shooting barrel fish," she said in English.
"Like shooting fish in a barrel," he corrected in English, a language he rarely used anymore. Miaari's assertion made him feel a little better, but he'd been taught too much about tactics not to appreciate what a fleet that size could do. "We have to get the interdictors set up as fast as possible," he said.
She nodded. "The Denmother hates the idea of the interdictors, but even she will not balk at this," she said, waving at the still image of the enemy fleet. "Their fleet is larger than ours. But, it is smaller than the average fleet of the major powers in this sector, the combined forces of the Imperium of both house and Imperial navies, the Skaa, the Alliance. A fleet that size could attack the entire Imperium simultaneously, if they so wished, but the size of the Imperium fleet would make it dangerous to try. That is why I believe they wait, Jason. We saw sixty ships arrive before our probe was destroyed."
"They're calling in ships," Jason grunted.
She nodded. "I do not know where they are coming from," she admitted. "They could not be from Andromeda. We calculated the hyperspace jump distance and concluded that it would take nearly five years of continuous hyperspace travel, with no stops, to get from Andromeda to here. So, if these ships here are from Andromeda, then they have to have been sent five years ago. So, these ships must have been within our galaxy, gathered together, or they must have been dispatched five years ago."
"Them being here doesn't make much sense," Jason grunted. "But five years ago does. Remember what happened five years ago?"
"The restoration of Karinne," she nodded, and her voice changed as it often did when she was thinking out loud, which was often when she made her most astute observations. "So, their spies here see the Karinnes return, they investigate Karis and determine that the planet is not radiated, and they launch a fleet from Andromeda. But they attack us before the fleet arrives, taking a calculated risk, because their spying probes show that the Karinnes are building up, building far faster than seemed possible thanks to our assistance, and between their numerical superiority and their Urumi allies preventing the Imperium from assisting, they believed they had enough to take Karis and hold it long enough for their huge fleet to arrive and reinforce them, prevent the Imperium from driving them back out. That was why they attacked anyway, even after they were found out and the Trillanes and the Urumi began rejecting their bargain," she realized. "They knew that fleet was coming, and they wanted to take Karis before that fleet was revealed to the sector. If they succeeded, the fleet could move in and hold it. If they failed, then they weakened us for this second attack, which would be much larger. Or, it is entirely possible that the first attack was nothing but a probing action," she pondered. "A test to see our defenses, so that this larger fleet would know our tactics and be ready. If the first attack succeeded, all and good. If it failed, then the second wave would have detailed analysis of our ships, defenses, and battle tactics. It is also possible they did this because of the balance of power in the sector. If the fleet showed up before Karis was taken, it would incite the entire sector to rise against an outside threat and fight the Consortium. But if they revealed their fleet after they took Karis, then they would have what they want, and it would take the rest of the sector too long to organize and attack. They had little intelligence on Karinne ships and felt that a three to one tactical superiority combined with the Urumi assistance would be enough to take Karis. They were in no way prepared for Karinne ships to be superior, or that you would be capable of crippling the Urumi fleet literally on your own and allow the defenses to concentrate on the Consortium. Had they succeeded, they would strip Karis of our technology, they would capture the Generations and the humans and Faey on the planet, they would take Cybi, and then they would willingly withdraw. They would have everything they wanted." She frowned. "Very clever. These Consortium adversaries know the races of this sector very well. They knew that an overwhelming show of force would incite strong resistance, so they do exactly what they must do in order to accomplish their goals, without causing all races to oppose them. No more, no less. It is almost Kimdori in approach and execution."
"Not any longer. The whole sector knows about them now, and if they attack, odds are the whole sector will resist."
"Yes, and they don't have enough ships to fight everyone," Miaari mused. "And they still wait. For something, they wait. Are they waiting for more ships? Are they waiting for some critical piece of information? Are they waiting for the completion of some clandestine mission? Or are they waiting for something else? The waiting, that is the key. What are they waiting for? If we answer that question, then we will unravel the entire mystery." She looked at him, speculative and thoughtful. "Perhaps they wait because of you."
"Me?"
"You. The one thing they must have learned from the first attack is that the prize they seek, Cybi, had defenses against which they cannot stand. In order to get to her, they have to go through you. And you proved that that would be extremely difficult. If any attack on Karis is to succeed, the Consortium must find some way to neutralize the Generations, prevent them from joining to Cybi and using the power of a biogenic mainframe to repel the assault. Remember, my friend, that you all but single-handedly crushed the Urumi attack, and it was you who prevented their burrower units from reaching the bunker. They know now that you are the most powerful defense they must circumvent, and they cannot move until they can get around you. There is no machine or technology that can stop psychic powers, Jason. None. The only race to have ever created a machine that can change, alter, or augment psionic abilities is the Karinnes. The Consortium has no defense against you. The only defense against a telepath is from another telepathic being, and we do not know if they have any telepathic beings among them. Shields and armor will not stop you from reaching inside a Consortium ship and tearing it apart from the inside out with your telekinetic powers, or finding some way around the defense the insectoids have and destroying their minds. And when you are linked to Cybi, you have that power. You are the greatest weapon on Karis, Jason, and I will bet my white bar that you are the reason they wait. Until they can counter the threat you and Cybi pose, they cannot attack us. The prize they seek is like fire, and they must find some way to pick it up with their bare hands without being burned."
"Well, if we can interdict the entire sector, it won't matter."
"The issue with the interdictors is this. When we start installing interdictors, the Consortium will hear of it. I have no doubts that they have spies among the Imperium. If they truly comprehend the danger those devices pose them, they will attack regardless of what they are waiting for. Their ability to jump in real time is one of their greatest advantages, just as it is ours. If that is taken away, the Imperium's Stargate technology reverses the advantage to us. And I have little doubt that the Consortium will not also attack the Imperium in hopes of capturing a Stargate. Every race and government in the sector would do war upon the Imperium for that secret, if they only knew they could win. But the Faey telepathy makes war against them in their home territory a very dangerous proposition, as does the simple fact that anyone who boards a Stargate must subdue the telepathic workers and soldiers inside it. There are few things in this universe a general fears more than the thought of having to assault a heavily defended objective protected by Faey. They must invade to capture the objective, and that means they have no choice but to come within range of Faey defenders and subject themselves to telepathic attack."
Jason scratched his chin. "So we do it all at once," he said. "We build seventy-seven interdictors, then we move them out and put them in place all at once, and nobody but Dahnai knows about it," he said. "By the time the word gets back to the Consortium and they make a decision, it'll be too late. I'll mount a GRAF cannon on the Aegis and gallivant it all over the Imperium and wipe out their attackers, one group at a time."
She nodded gravely. "That is the best course of action. The Consortium's main focus is us and the Imperium, so we must deny them their immediate goal. Dahnai will be furious with your decision, Jason. She will demand an interdictor for Draconis, at the very least."
He groaned. "She will," he realized. "God, I hoped I'd never have to do this. We can't tell her, Miaari. We can't tell anyone about this. They may know that we know about this fleet, because they'll think that probe came from the Karinnes, but so long as they don't think that Dahnai knows about them, if she makes no obvious preparations like concentrating her fleet, then they won't be rushed. They're waiting for something, like you said, as we want them to keep waiting. We need the time. We just let them keep on waiting, and then spring it on them all at once. And when Dahnai finds out I hid something like this from her, she may never speak to me again," he said with sincere regret.
"No, Jason. I think Dahnai does need to be told. She is a realist. We will explain this to her, and explain why it must be done. She can quietly prepare her fleet but not take any action."
"But she'll demand an interdictor."
"We must make her see a truth, Jason. She can protect Draconis and lose her empire, or she can do nothing and perhaps save it all. But one way or another, she needs to be told. In person."
He gave her a bleak look. "Call Jinaami, Miaari. This has to be done in absolute secrecy."
She nodded simply. "I must get Denmother's approval before we allow this."
"That's fine."
Jason sat at the kitchen table a long time, while Miaari made the calls to get Dahnai through the Kimdori protocols. This was scary news, but only scary in how it would affect next week's summit. Thankfully, and with not a moment to spare, Karis was safe… for now. The interdictor put them a year away from any attempt to attack, and the Consortium could not jump into the quasar and use the gate. If they missed the safe zone, they were dead. Even if they hit the safe zone, the Kimdori would just turn off the radiation shielding, and they were still dead. Karis was untouchable. That meant that their only recourse now was to lure the Karinnes away from Karis, and that could be done by attacking the Imperium. Jason and the Karinnes weren't a true part of the Imperium, but they did care, and they would help if the rest of the Imperium was attacked. Jason was loyal to his Empress, but not out of political motivation, out of personal affection. He loved Dahnai, and he would fight tooth and claw to protect her… but never to conquer in her name.
This had implications for the sector more than Karinne, at least for now. If they tried to jump their 3,000 ships to Karis, they'd be in for a year long trip, at least, and they'd have that much time to destroy their fleet. If Myleena's idea about syncing jump engines worked, they could launch hyperspace missles at any fleet sailing at sublight speed, subjecting any attacker to the equivalent of storming the beach on D-Day that would last a whole year. A whole year of being open to attack. And Miaari was right about one thing… when they got here, then they'd have to deal with Jason and Cybi if they wanted to take Karis. Cybi's biogenic mainframe amplified Jason's powers exponentially. With them buried deep in the planet, they were all but untouchable while they could attack the Consortium fleet. The real question was what the four major empires of the sector would do about this, the Imperium, the Skaa, the Alliance, and the Collective. When they found out that the Consortium was massing a huge fleet out in the Beta Quadrant, how they reacted to it would dictate the history of the sector.
This was confirmation, though… justification. Everything he had done up until this point was now justified. He had been right. The Consortium had not left for good. They were just pulling back to reorganize. They were coming back. This was proof, they were coming back. Oh, he was sure some would say that them destroying their bases near this sector was them retreating, but no, it wasn't a retreat. They had simply pulled back and denied anyone a chance to capture their technology. They wanted no bases within easy strike range of the Imperium, not with their advantage of being able to jump hyperspace in real time. It behooved them to keep their bases far from the Imperium, to make it a dreadful risk to jump an attack fleet to take the Consortium on in their own back yard. Jason didn't see them as destroying that base as a retreat, he saw it as a preparation for a protracted war.
Jason was making all of his plans based on the threat the Consortium posed not just to Karinne, but to everyone. Seeing this fleet, knowing that he had been right about the Consortium, showed him that he had done the right thing. The Consortium was a threat to everyone, and the threat they posed would cause the plan behind the plan to fall into place.
And it was a good plan… if he lived to see it through.
The first steps of it were complete. The interdictor worked. Dahnai would be pretty easy to sway to lease Stargates, mainly because all she could see was the revenue it would generate for her house. Once that step was complete, then would come the work outside the Imperium. He would start with the Alliance first. Yes, that was the best place to go. They were the most "civilized" of the four empires, the least warlike, the most multicultural and the most willing to adopt a new idea, so long as the idea was a good one. They were the only empire where the lesser species had joined willingly and not been conquered, as they had in the Imperium.
Miaari's hand touched his neck, and he felt that moment of expansion. She knew about his plan. She couldn't help but know. And since she knew about it, Zaa knew about it. But that was no problem, since Miaari thought that it was actually rather clever, and Zaa thought it was a good idea. They would help, when the time came, even if what he intended to do seemed crazy.
But sometimes crazy works.
"I have Dahnai," she told him. "Come."
"Thanks, Miaari," he said, taking her hand and holding at a moment. She smiled at him earnestly, and patted his hand.
"Any time, my old friend," she told him.
Dahnai looked quite curious, looking around Jinaami's private office. She only entered the office to confer privately with Zaa, and she was quite interested in everything she saw around her. Since the Karinnes had returned, memory bands and biogenic computers had been made available to the Kimdori, who used them off planet. Draconis was one of three places where the Kimdori employed that technology, and Dahnai was observant enough to catch it. She'd seen those bands around the wrists of Miaari and Kiaari, had seen it on the wrist of Zaa when she conferenced with her, and she wouldn't miss the significance that Jinaami also wore one, but only within the confines of her own office. Jinaami never wore it in public. She was doubly surprised not to be looking at Zaa, but looking at Jason and Miaari. "What's going on, baby?" she asked in confusion. "You could have called me using the usual channels. They're secure."
"Well, this is even more secure," Jason said simply, sitting at his desk with Miaari standing beside him. "What I'm about to tell you cannot leave that office, Dahnai. You and Jinaami can be the only ones to know. Don't even tell Kellin."
"I'm not sure if I want to hear this news," she said.
"Probably not. Show her, Miaari."
"The Kimdori tracked the Consortium from their destroyed base, your Majesty," she told Dahnai. "We tracked them to a second base in the Beta Quadrant, some five months of jump distance from here for the Imperium. We dispatched a surveillance drone to the system, and this is what it found." She waved her hand at the computer, using her memory band to access the computer and give it orders.
On a second window on the monitor, Jason and Dahnai saw the same footage, 22 seconds of footage as the drone panned across the fleet, including the arrival of more ships. Then it ended abruptly.
"Three thousand, four hundred, and twenty-two ships, your Majesty," she said simply. "They have pulled back beyond your ability to jump out and attack them, but within their range to jump to attack us. We do not know how long they have been there, but it is clear that they are waiting for something. That is enough ships to attack any empire in our sector with a reasonable chance of success, yet they do nothing but wait."
Dahnai was silent a long, long time, as small, honey-colored Jinaami stood silently behind her, her face grave. "Fuck," she finally said, leaning back in her chair. "I'm sure you didn't bring this to me if you didn't have a plan."
"We have a plan, Dahnai, but you're not going to like it," Jason answered.
"Well, let's hear it."
Miaari laid it out in simple terms. "We know the Consortium knows what goes on in the Imperium and the sector," she said after she explained the background. "If they know what the interdictors are and what kind of danger they pose, they will be spurred to attack despite what they are waiting for. The interdictors rob them of their greatest advantage, the ability to jump hyperspace in real time and attack at will and whim. So, the best chance we see, your Majesty, is to install all of them at once."
"Which leaves us vulnerable until you have enough built to do it," she concluded. "How long?"
"We can build a minimum of twenty every twelve days, provided nothing goes wrong," he told her. "Since it's apparent now that this is very important, I'll see if I can't step up production, but for now let's go with that. So, five takirs or so."
"So long," she groaned, leaning back and looking at the ceiling. "But if I demand they go up as I get them, I risk losing every system not protected if the Consortium catches word of it. Fuck, why did I get out of bed today!" she growled. "Alright, what's your clever plan to handle this, Jayce?"
"We keep quiet," Jason answered. "We don't even mention this during the summit. They know I know because they destroyed the probe, but if they don't see anyone making any preparations, they'll hopefully think that the probe never got the information back to us, nobody believes me, or they don't care. Meanwhile you very quietly find some reason to make sure your fleet is ready to move fast, but nothing overt. It might not be a bad idea to very quietly get the house fleets mobilized."
"But they'll see that as preparation."
"Not if they think it's just some kind of internal Imperium tension. Go to the Dorranes and Shovalles and ask them to pretend to have some kind of spat, then mobilize their fleets and make all sorts of noise that there's about to be a house war. Make sure everyone knows about it, make sure it's all over INN. All the other houses are going to mobilize, and you'll have all the justification you need to redeploy your fleet, to stop an internal war between the two largest houses in the Imperium in a time of crisis."
Dahnai gave him a look, then laughed richly. "Oh my, that's brilliant! Using one of our greatest flaws as a tactical advantage, fuckin' brilliant, babes!"
"Do you think Semoya and Emae would do it?"
"I'm sure they will," she said, tapping her jaw rhythmically. "They're not stupid. I'll have to tell them the truth, but I'm also sure they won't tell anyone else, so their navies will think it's real. They can handle the real tensions so long as they keep their fleets on opposite sides of the Imperium. Then, after we get the interdictors, they miraculously kiss and make up."
"Sounds good to me," she said.
"A suggestion?" Jinaami said hesitantly. Jinaami had long been intimidated by Miaari.
"I'm always open to suggestions, Ambassador," Dahnai said.
"The Empress should not be vulnerable in this, and the most vulnerable time will be the time immediately after the summit. It would reinforce the illusion of tension if her Majesty was not on Draconis as this fake confrontation develops. She is well known to be sensitive to the inner machinations of the Siann and has stepped in to crush these kinds of things pre-emptively in the past. Well, it's now common knowledge that the High Princess is going to spend two takirs on Karis with her betrothed. It would be best if the entire Imperial family went with her. That puts Empress Dahnai under the protection of Karis, yet also ensures she is not here to prevent the internal tension from erupting, it will give Semoya and Emae the space to develop their fake feud. After all, most in the Imperium believe that Karis is cut off from the Imperium, so it would look quite natural to them to see two major houses making noise while the Empress is away, and where they believe she cannot keep track of their activities. After, say, fifteen days, Dahnai seems to finally find out what is going on, but by then the fleets all mobilize, and it appears that she is returning to put a stop to it. By then, the fleets will be in a position to all move swiftly to counter any Consortium invasion, and during this time when the Empress must remain on Draconis, she leaves her family on Karis where they are safe and the Grand Duke dispatches a sizable portion of his fleet to Draconis under the pretense of being summoned by the Empress, but in actuality they are there to protect her and Draconis from Consortium attack. It both continues the illusion presented to the outside and ensures the protection of the Imperial family. To perpetrate the deception, the Empress will need utterly secure communications to coordinate with Emae and Semoya. I believe that Denmother would be willing to arrange that communication, since this is so important. That way the Empress does not have to rely on uncertain communication channels that the Consortium may have tapped."
Miaari smiled broadly. "Jinaami, that is devious. I am most pleased with your suggestion, and will speak highly of you to Denmother."
Jinaami absolutely beamed.
"I have to admit, it's fuckin' clever," Dahnai said with a nod. "It moves my family to safety and gives Semoya and Emae a takir to stage the feud. Then I come back with the Karinne fleet at my back and make all kinds of ugly threats, but it will take me a little time," she said, wiggling her hand in a Faey manner that mimicked the human gesture of "air quotes," "to get things calmed down. The tension should last until, say, the interdictors are ready."
"I don't object, with the interdictor up here at Karis, I can afford to deploy the fleet to Draconis," Jason mused. "And I'd be overjoyed to protect your family, Dahnai."
"I have one demand, though."
"What?"
"You will not put us in that hovel!" she said hotly. "I demand accommodations suitable for an Empress!"
"Well, there are none near the strip," he told her, thinking. "You could stay in a hotel in Karsa, I suppose."
"I don't demand a palace, but isn't there at least one empty house near your beach?"
"Empty? Miaari?"
"There is not an empty house, but there is the empty land at the fence border on the north side," she said. "Part of the buffer. We could annex enough of it to build a house that many could use after Dahnai, a guest quarters of sorts for the Grand Duke's guests. That, or we could host them in the Scimitar and leave it at the dock."
"How about a yacht or something?" Jason asked. "I'm sure we can find something pretty big we can moor at the dock for them."
"I'm not staying in a boat," she said indignantly. "You have space and Makati there. Build me a house!"
"How big could we make it?"
"It's nearly two square varta of land that we could spare and maintain the fence. At least a four bedroom, three story abode with a pool, garden, and deck, but many will see it as insulting for the Grand Duke to have a guest house grander than his own."
"Nah, everyone knows I hate pomp and circumstance, and I love my colonial," he said dismissively. "Okay, that's what we'll do. I'll put my Makati on it, Dahnai. There'll be a nice house here waiting for you when we finish at the summit, but nothing outrageous, so be ready to rough it compared to what you're used to. And just think, you'll get to keep your kids with you while you're here, a whole takir or more of being a family."
"That's true," she said with a dreamy smile. Dahnai loved her children tremendously, and Jason again felt so sorry for her that a stupid tradition separated her from her own children. "I'll inform Harae so she can work out the logistics and pick the guard detachment coming out. I'll only tell Kellin what I'll tell the public, that you've invited all of us to Karis for an extended visit, and I've accepted."
"It sounds like a plan," Jason nodded in agreement.
"Actually, many will see it as sense. Nobody will doubt my reasoning for going to Karis. You're my most powerful ally, and it would only look natural for the two of us to sequester ourselves away after the summit to talk about the results and make plans. And while I'm away, my treacherous nobles go and start a feud that requires me to roar out of Karis dragging along half the Karinne fleet to try to settle things down," she mused. "Everything about this plan just fits all together with what we need. You're pretty damn clever, Jinaami."
"I can only serve, your Majesty," she said modestly in reply.
"The Denmother does not post a fool in one of the most important Ambassadorial posts in the sector, Empress," Miaari said simply. "Jinaami is a clever and capable Kimdori, and she honors her post every day."
"I am humbled by praise from you, Handmaiden," Jinaami said, her cheeks ruffling and looking down. It was a reminder of Miaari's position of awesome power within the Kimdori. As a Handmaiden, she literally stood at the right hand of the Denmother, and was allowed to speak on her behalf. For Jinaami to hear praise from Miaari was the same as hearing it from Zaa, as far as she was concerned.
"I think this will work," Jason agreed. "Just as Jinaami laid it out. It fits together almost perfectly. I'll get that house built and kick some asses in my factories to get those interdictors built quickly."
"And I'll get everything ready over here for us to pay an extended visit to Karis, and pull Semoya and Emae aside and give them some private orders," Dahnai returned. "Actually, I think those two will enjoy this. They're rivals, but they're also friends… not that their friendship wouldn't stop them from stabbing each other in the back," she laughed. "But, I doubt that they'll take it personally once the insults and threats start to fly. They'll keep their heads, because I'll make sure they understand how important it is to posture and threaten, but prevent any actual fighting. They'll probably enjoy stirring things up and pretending to be at each other's throats, though. They'll see it as a grand game, to see just how stirred up they can get things without having things erupt into actual war. Their enthusiasm should sell it."
"And the Consortium should never see the truth," Miaari concluded. "They will see the dissention as the reason the fleets mobilize, and continue to wait for whatever it is they are awaiting. Everything Empress Dahnai does will make sense to them given the information they have on her and the Imperium, and nothing will seem amiss. They should not see the mobilization as a threat or any kind of preparation for Consortium attack."
"Then we're all in agreement," Jason said, clapping his hands. "I'm looking forward to having you here for a while, Dahnai, even if I'll be a little too busy to spend much time with you. I'll have a lot on my plate while you're here."
"I'll have my children with me, babes, I'm sure I'll be quite content," she smiled.
"I'll build a pool and a couple of big slides, just for them," he winked.
"They'll love it," she laughed. "Let me go, before too many people start wondering why I'm in Jinaami's office for so long."
"Alright. We'll be ready for you."
"And I'll have everything all set up on my side. See ya later, love," she said, blowing him a kiss.
"Good luck, hon."
When the transmission died, Jason leaned back in the chair and chuckled. "Miaari."
"Yes?"
"Tell Zaa that putting Jinaami on Draconis was one of the best ideas she ever had."
"Yes, if I were of her clan, I would be incredibly proud of her," she agreed. "I will speak highly of her to Denmother tonight, when I give her my report."
"She deserves every word of praise."
When someone asked the Makati to do something, it got done fast, it got done right, and it got done well.
There were several Makati contractors on Karis, but Jason had one favorite, Red Horn Construction. They had been the ones that had built the fence, and had built several of the buildings in the White House complex. When Jason called them and told them he wanted a spacious, handsome five bedroom, three story house with a pool, a garden, and attached to the strip, to be built specifically to house Empress Dahnai as a guest house when she visited Karis, the owner, Krabbad Gratikar, dropped everything and came to his house. For three hours, they talked about designs, floor plans, amenities. What kind of pool he wanted. What kind of garden style. How he wanted the fence rebuilt, which required input from Aya.
They debated for quite a while, until Jason finally settled on a three story colonial in the same architectural style as his own house, six bedrooms, four baths including a hot tub in master bedroom on the second floor, a study, a secure communication room so she could conduct her business, a hardened bunker in the basement to serve as protection in case of an attack, a large pool with a separate spa built beside it, a small guest cottage, and a floral garden along the fence side of the house. They talked with Erinn, who owned the house on the other side of the fence, and he agreed to give up a little bit of his yard so they could rebuild the fence, and in return the Makati would expand his pool and install a hot tub in his back deck.
By midnight, they had the plans and a contract. Krabbad swore to him on his family's rune slate that the house would be built in five days, because a project like this would not be very hard for his contracting team. And when a Makati made that kind of an oath, that was a guarantee that it would happen.
Of course, Krabbad also pissed off a few people, because he brought in his entire workforce that very night and happily started demolishing the fence at four in the morning. Jason got dragged out of bed to straighten it all out, and worked out a schedule that prevented Krabbad from doing any heavy work for 9 hours every night, to let people sleep.
But, once daybreak came, Jason saw that Krabbad was hell-bent to honor his word. The fence was already torn down, and he'd already surveyed the land and made his engineering plans for his team to follow. By ten that morning, they had dug the foundation pit, had laid out the sewage, water, and power lines, and were already working on the hardened bunker for the protection of the house's occupants. By two that afternoon, the bunker was complete. By four that afternoon, Krabbad had set the basement and foundation, and was preparing to set up the plascrete frame of the house. By nine that evening, the frame was up, the pool had been laid out but not started, and the land had been surveyed for the two room guest cottage that would be on the far side of the pool from the main house. Krabbad knocked off at 13:27 that evening, and by then, the interior plascrete walls of the house were up, the floors were installed, and it was ready for the internal preparations. He kept a team there that night installing the datalines, conduit, pipes, and equipment that the Empress would need, from the house's control computer to her secure room for private communications.
At daybreak, they started up again. Jason again wandered down from time to time to check their progress and he continued to work on knocking out all the paperwork that had backed up on him. By nine, all internals for the house were installed, and it was ready for internal finishing. By 13:00 in the morning, all the internal drywall type material was up, and the outside siding was starting to be put up. By two that afternoon, the exterior of the house was complete, they began digging the pool, they were laying the foundation of the guest house, and the designers had stormed into the finished interior to begin planning out the furniture, paint, drapes, and other things the house needed. By sunset, the pool was dug and the plascrete had been set, they were installing the pumps and filters to keep the pool clean, and the guest house's bones were erected and waiting for the walls to be put up.
By sunset the next day, the guest house was built, the lawns installed, the walkways laid, the beach pathway extended to the house, all utilities were on, all internal sensors and computers had been tested, and Krabbad declared the project complete. It took Red Horn Construction three days to build something that would have taken a human contractor three weeks. The result was a lovely brown colonial with Terran 19th century European style furniture inside, done in dark, rich woods, soft silks, satins, and brocades, and subdued colors. It was tasteful and elegant, but not so luxuriant that it looked garish or overdone. Jason had wanted something suitable for Dahnai but not Imperial, and Krabbad had given him exactly what he wanted.
Jason's side of the preparations for the summit was complete, and he was actually ready for it. He had cleared his backlog of paperwork and studied the leaders coming to the summit. He had gone over his speech with Miaari and Zaa, he had carefully planned out what he hoped to accomplish, and he got the strip ready for the arrival of Dahnai and her family. He also got back the last of his ships, and the KMS was fully operational with what it had.
Another task he had for himself was to go visit Cybi personally. There, in her core room, they communed for nearly eight straight hours. Jason had ideas, he had notions, and he also had to discuss the plan more with her, so he did it all at once. Cybi saw the value in his idea, an idea inspired by Miaari, so she agreed to bend herself to the task of making the necessary designs for the equipment he wanted.
He had also leaned on Myleena a little. He impressed on her the urgency to get interdictors, that the Imperium depended on it, and she agreed to divert some resources to increase interdictor production. He needed 76 interdictors plus one extra one for Karis, and she promised him 76 interdictors in 40 days by opening up ten more bays to interdictor production and diverting dock workers that could have been working elsewhere to work on them. She put Jyslin in charge of the interdictor production, which wasn't unusual, for Jyslin was a senior member of her engineering team. This… did not make the human and Faey dock workers happy, but overjoyed the Makati and Kizzik workers. Jyslin was a former Marine, and she was a wonderful woman and loving mother, but she was a hard-ass when it came to keeping order and following the schedule. She was not afraid to take command and enforce strict discipline. With Jyslin up there, there would be no slacking, no jawing, no dallying about. People would do their jobs, work hard, and earn their pay. The Imperium depended on them, and she was there to remind them of that fact every other second.
Jyslin had taken Rann and a contingent of Dukal Guard with her, and Ayama had went with them to nanny for Rann when Jyslin was at work, so Jason was left more or less by himself in the house, with only Surin, Rahne, and the five guards that commonly guarded him, Aya, Ryn, Shen, Suri, and Dera. They took guarding him and the house in shifts, but he didn't notice it too much because he was so busy. Miaari brought him hourly updates on any possible Consortium movement. The four Brood Princesses sent him daily reports about their activities, and he saw that they had everything well in hand and were quickly going to have their systems running smoothly. Aura kept him well informed about the Exiled's preparations to split up and what preparations had been completed for both those returning to Exiled and those preparing to move to Karsa. Dahnai was sending him messages about the summit, coming up early next week, and their preparations to come for a protracted visit. He sent her a recorded tour of the house he'd built for her, and she was quite pleased with it. "I love that furniture, hon!" she said excitedly after seeing it. "Is that a Terran style?"
He nodded. "Nineteenth century. It's not authentic, but the furniture makers did a good job with the imitations."
And Jyslin's prediction held true. The girls on the strip did not bother or harass him. They were just the same as they always were, stopping by and chatting, smiling, laughing with him, and there was a little teasing, but there were no invitations. He was sure that Kumi would come prowling again soon, and he also knew the twins were going to give him a hard time, but everything else was calm and normal.
It was nice to see Rahne finally coming out from her little cottage and getting more involved with life on the strip. Ever since he'd moved her in, she'd kept more or less to herself, and didn't come over to the main house very often. He rather liked here. She was friendly and a little shy, since she had knowledge of things without any practical experience, so that made her a bit hesitant and quiet. She would watch before doing, and she didn't speak or send very often, more content to observe. Oddly enough, it wasn't Temika that seemed to be the person she got along with best on the strip, it was Maya. Maya was such a dear, and Rahne felt lonely, so it was only natural, he saw, that Rahne would gravitate towards her. Maya was the mother of the strip, the woman with the most experience because she had three children, and Rahne, who had no one, was drawn to the nurturing nature of Maya.
It was also curious in how utterly Faey Rahne was. She had been educated by Cybi, and Cybi had taught her to be a proper Karinne, making absolutely no mention of human customs, culture, or history. Jason didn't much agree with that. Rahne was a Generation, but she was also human, and she deserved to know the other side of her heritage. But, in some ways, it worked. Cybi had prepared Rahne for the unique aspects of life on the strip, and if she didn't feel like she fit in with the people, she at least understood the culture and the customs unique to the Grand Duke and the area in which he lived. This, naturally, annoyed Temika, who thought she was going to have a human friend that would share her views. Outside of that, Rahne was a shy young lady in some regards, but had Faey brazenness in others. That was why she was laying unclothed in a chair by the pool in the morning sun, reading a hand panel and letting the blue sun try to darken her pale Scottish skin a little bit… without much success. Rahne was very fair, and she tended to freckle rather than tan, but he could give her points for trying. Cybi had educated her with Karinne morality and modesty, which allowed her to fit in on the strip very well. She was slender, having gained weight to a healthy level after getting her from the Urumi underfed and underweight, but she was still looked not entirely good. Her ribs still stuck out just a little, and her hipbones were pronounced. She needed to gain about five more pounds before she looked robustly healthy. Jason had come out to do some laps, since he'd not had any exercise lately and Kumi had gotten him into the habit of swimming for exercise, wearing a baggy pair of swim trunks. When it came to swimming for exercise, he didn't like to do it nude, it was… distracting. Kumi was much the same way, for she always wore a suit when she swam for exercise, but would happily shed that suit when it came to swimming for fun.
"That's a lost cause," he chuckled, looking down at her.
"What do ye mean?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Use the tanning bed down in my basement," he told her, pointing up. "The atmosphere here filters out almost all the UV light, so you can stay outside almost all day and never tan. Handy when you're out on the beach, but damn inconvenient when you're trying to tan a little."
"Och, I dinna like the tanning bed," she complained. "It's narrow and uncomfortable, and I feel like I'm being baked in an oven."
"I can't argue with that," he said, throwing his towel on the chair beside hers.
"No work today?"
"Plenty of work today, but it can wait a little bit," he answered as he went over to the pool and sat down on the edge, putting his goggles on. "I haven't done any swimming in a while."
Ye were out on the beach yesterday afternoon, swimmin' in the ocean, she noted as he slipped into the water and started swimming for the far side.
That's not exercise, that's fun, he answered. Have you been thinking about what you want to study at the Academy?
Aye, she answered. I think, since I dinna know my own past, that I'd like to study history. But, since history willna serve the house very well, I'll also study business. Miss Kumi always whines that she doesna have enough people on her staff to do all the work, and Maya said she thought I'd do well workin' in the business field.
Maya's right, Jason agreed, turning and swimming back the other way. Just do what interests you, Rahne. If you don't want to study business, don't. The house could use a historian just as much as it could use another worker in Kumi's office.
But I can do both, she assured him.
You should be able to, he agreed. When do you want to start?
Well, with all this craziness goin' on right now, I think it might be best to wait a while, she answered. I think I'll start takin' the remote courses they offer down in Karsa, and once things settle down, I'll go to the Academy like Temika and Mike did.
Sounds good to me. Been looking for a house?
Aye. I think I found a nice one, about eight blocks from here, down near the city line. Next door to a fine and handsome young man named Abrams. He's in the navy, I think.
Pete? Jason sent with a mental laugh, since his face was underwater. Yeah, he's in the navy, he's the captain of a destroyer. Fine man, Rahne, fine man. Intelligent, witty, charming, and pretty funny.
Aye, I talked to him a bit when I went to see the house. Said that the last owner moved to Herann to get in on the land grants, wasn't happy with the size of his lot.
Do you like the house?
Aye, it's fine, fine indeed. Much too big for me, but it's Dukal property, so I'll have to go through the Land Grant Authority.
Yah, you can only have one land grant property, Jason told her. When the owner moved to get in on the bigger land grants inland, he had to surrender that grant back to the house. If you want it, it's yours, hon.
Aye, I think I might like that, Jason, she agreed. It's a fine house. It even has a small pool in the back.
Then consider it yours. I'll have the deed in your hands by lunch. Consider it your land grant. [Cybi, do me a favor. Jump into the land grant computer and take the house by Commander Abrams off the list. It's Rahne's grant.]
[I will do it happily, Jason. I will have the authority deliver the deed to your house immediately.]
[Thanks, hon, you're a lifesaver.]
[Naturally.]
There, all taken care of, he told Rahne, turning again.
Thanky kindly, Jason. When can I move in?
In a few days, he answered. I'd like you to stay here at least until Dahnai returns, so you can meet her and her family, and it'll give me enough time to make sure you're going to be okay. I'll worry about you when you move out and on your own.
That's sweet of ye, Jason, but I can take care of meself.
I know you can. Cybi taught you everything you need to know to be your own woman, Rahne, but if you didn't notice, I'm a worrier at heart and I put my nose in other people's business. You're like my very own little sister, and I worry about you because you deserve to have someone worry about you. I know you are ready to live on your own, but I am not ready yet. Just humor me.
She laughed. Aye, I guess I can do that, Jason. It'll give me time to decide how I want to furnish and decorate the house, I guess. She was quiet a moment. I had a question.
I may have an answer, you never know.
Be nice, she sent teasingly.
[Cybi told me of the plans ye've made with her. Are ye truly intendin' to go through with it?]
[Yes.]
[But… Cybi told me that we've always kept our secrets. Isn't this compromising the house?]
[Yes and no, he answered. What you have to understand, Rahne, is that the secret isn't so secret. The Consortium knows about the Generations, about Cybi, about everything. We don't know exactly how much they know about biogenics, but they know about Cybi, and after the battle, they damn well now just what the Karinnes are capable of. Miaari thinks that's why they're afraid to attack us now, because of Cybi and because they'll never take her so long as there is even one Generation here to defend her. It would defeat the purpose of why they want Karis so badly. Cybi is the ultimate prize, and there's no reason to attack if they know there's no chance of success. There's no telling how much they told the Collective, there's no telling if they approach some other government and reveal that secret trying to enlist allies against us, there's no way to know how much everyone else knows. Sk'Vrae's made no mention of any of it, nor has her Brood Princesses, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't know. Given I gave her such a favorable deal with her border systems, she has no reason to piss me off right now and she knows it. And if she knows, there's no reason that the Alliance doesn't know, or the Skaa, or anyone that has contact with the Collective. One of the realities we have to face is that our secret is out, and since it is out, then there's no reason to hide it. We don't have to declare it from every rooftop, but we're in a war here, and we have to use every weapon available us.
[We are a weapon, Rahne. Miaari was right about that. That's why I went to see Cybi and we discussed it. That's why she's generating the plans for the biogenic tactical unit.]
[What is that?]
[A much larger version of the gestalt, he answered. Remember our one great advantage, Rahne.]
[We can commune with biogenic computers.]
[No. That's not it. Our one great advantage is those biogenic devices can augment our own power. That's what a gestalt does, remember, it's not just a computer we can commune with. Well, what Cybi's designing is a portable unit that will boost the power of any Generation that's linked to it. By myself, with just my gestalt, I can maybe lift about four hundred pounds with my telekinesis. Linked to that unit, I'll be able to lift four or five tons, and I'd be able to shred an enemy fighter from far outside its weapon range. I want her to design one into every ship I fly, to give me extra protection, and also a new Gladiator just for me. It's also the other reason why I want a CBIM installed in the Aegis. That gives whoever is linked to the CBIM tremendous power, and that power will be mobile. Instead of being locked at Karis and only able to defend, the CBIM in the Aegis will be able to attack. That kind of power could turn that one ship into a bulldozer, Rahne, because there's no defense against our telekinesis except distance, and that won't be much help. Cybi says that a CBIM specifically designed for combat would give the Generation enough range to destroy ships with telekinesis without getting in range of a Consortium ship's Torsion weapons. If I was linked to a CBIM in the Aegis, I could crush every ship in my way. There's no telling how long the secret of biogenics will stay secret, Rahne, so we have to exploit that advantage while we have it. Our technology gives us an edge, but the Generations are our strongest weapon. We have to be ready to use them if necessary, and that means building biogenic systems and new CBIMs that will give us mobility and versatility. We never explain how we do it, that secret must never be revealed, but we have to be willing to use the weapon the Consortium is so desperate to capture. Ourselves.
[I know that if we use them in open battle, then we're revealing the true power of the Karinnes, but we have to have that option open. And then we have to protect ourselves from fuckin' everyone,] he communed with a disgusted tilt in his thoughts. [This is why we keep the secret, but we may have to reveal it to save ourselves from the Consortium. We have to have that option open, and just deal with that mess when the time comes. Survival is only single goal. We must protect Karis at all costs, even if it means revealing that secret.]
She was silent as he swam five more laps, then she finally responded. [I guess I can ken,] she told him. [But it's an awful risk.]
[Tell me about it. But we're looking at fighting a defensive war against an enemy we can't reach who can more or less attack us at their leisure. We have to put every weapon we can use on the table. Oh, I'm not going to trot the Aegis out and give everyone a tour of it, that's for sure. And I'm going to do my best to keep the secret, try to only use that weapon when nobody can see us. But, I have to have the option. I have to have that alternative, then deal with the consequences afterwards.]
[Aye. I think I ken what ye be sayin' now, Jayce. We have to have the tool in the box, even if we never take it out.]
[Exactly. Needless to say, I'd never really use the Aegis like that except here, in defense of Karis, but with luck, by then there will be at least five CBIMs on the planet to scare the piss out of the Consortium. As soon as we get those interdictors built, that's our next major focus. Cybi is terrified something will happen to her without another CBIM being online. Before they fell, the Karinnes had seven CBIMs. One on each continent, one on Kosiningi, and one at the Academy. I intend to eventually build ten. Two on Karga, one on each of the other continents, and four on ships. And with Cybi already being here, that'll give us eleven. But in the short term, I'm going to focus on two. One in Karsa, and one on the Aegis. After those are built, then we'll worry about the others.]
[A sound plan.]
[I hope so. Building a CBIM is beastly. That's why there were only seven. It will take the entire focus of most of the resources of the house, and a hell of a lot of help from the Kimdori, to build a new CBIM. Zaa estimates it'll take about a year.]
Your Grace, I have a communication from Empress Dahnai, Aya sent from the house. She needs to talk to you.
Alright, I'm on my way up, he answered, swimming to the edge and climbing out. Remember, tanning bed, he teased as he grabbed his towel.
Oh, go on with ye, she answered, shooing him with her hand.
Jason scrubbed his hair with his towel as he went up to his study, where Aya and Dera were waiting for him. Dahnai's face was already on the screen, and she was smiling brightly. "Hey hon," he said as he came in. "What's up?"
"I got some interesting news today, Jason, and we need to talk about it when I come visit you."
"No problem. What is it?"
She looked him right in the eyes. "I'm pregnant. I'm having twins. Two girls."
"Really? Congratulations!" he said happily. "This is really unexpected!"
"Oh, boy, is it," she told him. "Jason, the twins are fraternal, and one of them is yours."
His smile dropped right off his face. "What?"
"It's yours. I conceived last month when you came to court and threesomed with me and Kellin. My doctor's already confirmed it. One of them is Kellin's, and the other is yours."
"No fucking way!"
"It's a bit of a shock to all of us," she said ruefully. "I wasn't supposed to be fertile. I don't closet up with the Merrane sire now that I have two daughters and I'm married, but I did want Kellin to be the father of my first child in marriage, so I was going to sequester myself when I entered what the docs said was going to be my fertile phase. Well, I guess my body ignored the doctors," she said with a rueful chuckle. "Thank Trelle that it's twins. If I had a baby by you first while married to Kellin, the tabloids would have never let me live it down. But since it's twins, they won't say too much. One of the babies is his. I'll just have to make sure that Kellin's daughter is officially born first, then your daughter."
Jason, however, wasn't entirely happy about it. True, he saw the child as a blessing, as a gift, and he would love her as he loved his other children. But it was the mother that was going to be the problem.
That daughter would be a Generation… and she was going to be the daughter of the Empress!
Fuck. Dahnai as the mother—he'd have to tell her! Holy God, how was he going to teach his daughter her heritage without sharing the Karinnes' greatest secrets with Dahnai and Kellin? Every mother of his children knew the truth, they had to know the truth because of the children. He would have to hand over the greatest secret of the Karinnes to someone he would not trust with those secrets. But what choice did he have? Dahnai would have to know, would have to understand, or she wouldn't understand why he would so adamant, so vociferous about forcing her to abandon tradition over his daughter. But to make her understand, he would have to reveal the secret of the Generations. And then they'd both have to face an angry Siann, who would be outraged that Jason would demand a breach of ancient traditions and customs over the dispensation of his daughter. What a fucking dilemma!
"Jason? What's wrong?" Dahnai asked seriously.
He looked up at the ceiling. How the hell was he going to handle this mess? That child could not be placed in a Merrane foster family. She had to stay here, or stay with Dahnai. There was no choice in the matter. That child was not only a Generation, she was also a target. True, kidnapping a daughter of the Empress would be virtually impossible, but she would be the only known Generation living off Karis.
Shit! This was going to be a fucking mess! He was going to have to fight Imperial tradition and infuriate the Siann over his daughter, because he absolutely could not allow her to be raised as a Merrane. She was a Karinne, she was a Generation! She had to be kept safe, taught her powers and her heritage, and he could already see the wrestling match he was going to have with Dahnai over her.
He looked at Aya, and saw her grim expression. She was starting to see the problem here. He bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to think his way through, but already feeling a migraine coming on. What a total mess.
"Jason!" Dahnai said urgently. "What in Trelle's name is the matter? Aren't you happy about this?" she said in a very dangerous tone. Their entire relationship hinged on his answer, and he knew it.
"Of course I'm happy that you're pregnant, and I'm delighted I'm gonna be a father, but… God, Dahnai. You have no idea what this means. No idea how much trouble it's going to cause." Aya nodded gravely as he blew out his breath. "Is it public?"
"Not yet," she answered. "I just found out and told Kellin about an hour ago. I haven't given my doctors permission to release the news yet."
"Then for the love of God, don't do it yet," he said. "We have to talk about this first."
"Why?"
"Because it's going to make the Siann blow a plasma exchanger," he said darkly. "You have to be ready for it, Dahnai."
"I've produced two heirs to the throne. Why the fuck would they care?"
"Because my child will not be raised by the Merranes," he said bluntly, looking her in the eyes.
"What? Just wait one fuckin' minute, babes," she said with sudden heat, then she laughed suddenly. "Okay, I think I see where this is going to go," she said, brushing her gorgeous bronze hair from her eyes. "Alright. How's this. I announce my pregnancy at the summit, and then we talk about it when I come to Karis. That gives us time to work this out, it doesn't raise too many alarms, and it also even fits in with Jinaami's plan. After all, I'm an Empress pregnant by a Grand Duke and with my daughter betrothed to his son. There are some political issues here that would need to be sorted out."
He mulled it over, then blew out his breath and nodded. "Alright, I can agree with that. "But… fuck," he said grimly. "I'm sorry if I'm worrying you, but you'll understand when you get here, and we talk. Because now we have a hell of a lot to talk about." He looked up at her and gave her an honest smile. "But for what it's worth, Dahnai, I'm very happy for both of us."
"Thank you, love," she said with a gentle look. "I've already named her."
"Oh? And where was consulting me?"
She laughed. "The Empress always has the right to name the child," she teased. "Kellin's daughter is named Miyai. Our daughter is named Raisha."
"Both of them are lovely names."
"I thought so too," she smiled, touching her stomach. "I'm so happy to be pregnant," she said impulsively. "A woman truly feels whole when she knows she's bearing new life into the world," she told him in a musing voice.
"You take care of yourself, hon, you're carrying my daughter now," he told her with a gentle smile.
"I will. I'm such a lucky girl," she said with a wondrous smile, putting her hand over her stomach. "I'm carrying the daughters of both the men I love, at the same time. All the love I have, all the love you and Kellin give me, it's all right here, and I'll feel it every second while I carry our daughters inside me. Trelle has truly blessed me."
"That's poetic, Dahnai. And beautiful."
She smiled gently. "I'll be busy until the summit, love, so I'll talk to you next then. Four days," she reminded him.
"I'll be there in two. I want to be on hand to oversee the last of the preparations."
"Then I'll see you in three, we're arriving a day early," she told him.
When she cut the communication, Jason staggered over to the chair and sat down hard. His mind was whirling. Dahnai… he was having a daughter with Dahnai. God, if there was only one thing that could happen that could turn his entire life on its ear, that was it. Yes, he was happy, very happy to be an expectant father, and he was joyful that Dahnai was so happy to be carrying their daughter.
But oh, God, the complications it was going to cause.
He blew out his breath. "Aya, shoot me. Please."
She laughed silently. It looks ugly, but things will work out, your Grace. The Empress will understand.
"I'll have to tell her. I'll have to tell her everything. She has to know, she can't be a mother to Raisha and honor her Karinne heritage if she doesn't. And that's why this is going to get ugly. I'll be giving the secrets of the Karinnes to the last woman in the Imperium that should know them," he groaned. "But what else can I do? Steal Raisha and start a civil war? Deny Raisha her rights and heritage? She's a Generation!"
Things will not look quite so bad after you talk them out, Jason, she sent, very informally, which was rare for her. Call Jyslin. Call Tim and Symone. And call Miaari. You'll need all of them to work out just what needs to happen here.
He nodded. "You're right. You're always right, Aya. What would I do without you?"
Suffer terribly, I imagine, she sent with a smile.
"I'm not inclined to argue with that," he said, and he started making calls.
They had a lot to talk about.