Coeus?
Page 54
Gideon turns his head to look at me and we make eye-contact. I don't look away until I am sure that my message got across. After a few moments he shrugs and returns his attention to Exo. “Fine. We'll get you up to standards so that you can do your job. It would be a waste of money to pay that much cash to a baby-soother.”
“R- Really!?” Exo answers with a little hope in his voice.
Gideon stands up. “Yes, but first we have to get you cleaned up. My IMs will most likely refuse to work on a slimy thing like you. They don't have a mind of their own, but I set some working conditions to ensure the quality of the product.”
“Ah, ok.” Exo is silent for a few moments until Gideon starts moving towards the kitchen. “Wait. Where are you going?”
“The dishwasher. Obviously. How else did you think I can clean you up? I certainly won't bathe you in lukewarm water and rub you off with a toothbrush and velvet towels. You are waterproof, aren't you?” Gideon answers with a bored voice and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.
I smile and look down on Aurelia who is grinning at me. “Don't worry. Daddy will get Exo up to shape. He will be an excellent tutor for you and your brother.” I reach down and pat my belly which is slowly turning round again.
Then a new thought strikes me. “What do we do if your brother is similarly talented?” The two of them will be hard to control!
En route to Sol, Aether
Gideon
I lie down on my bed and sigh, thinking about today's events. First our visit to Gathering-Station, then Zeil's message of doom and the hasty meeting to decide on our next steps. We also had to file a proper report for the elders to inform them of the new situation and to propose our solution.
No. This day wasn't easy on me. In an attempt to calm my headaches I reach for my forehead and massage it. Using my VR to its limits is quite straining, but I had to be sure that my calculations weren't wrong before I made the proposal.
Cyla enters the room. She wears a black nightgown and drops herself onto the bed. She must be at least as spent as I am. I roll over and entangle her in my arms, letting out a deep sigh.
She snuggles closer and traps my arms in hers. “You know that this way of sleeping is very constricting?”
I shrug and place my chin on her shoulder. “I can sleep just fine when I have my woman that close to me. In fact I can't imagine sleeping anyway else.”
“You just want to feel me up.” She purrs.
“That's a very distinct possibility.” I admit and boldly cup her chest in my hands, grumbling with pleasure and enjoying the sensation. If this stupid universe wouldn't interfere I would never leave the bed and chain her up. Just a little to ensure that she can't leave without me.
I am having thoughts of playing with her nipples, but before I get to do anything else to her we get an anonymous call from outside the mansion. I groan. “By the nine frozen hells! That's the last person I want to talk to right now.”
Even Cyla's voice turns cold. “Your mother?”
“Who else? Do we know that many people who hide their identity when calling us?” I ask.
Cyla purses her lips and pulls the blanket closer to cover herself. “At least I do not!”
I snort and answer the call. “Yes?”
Sadina's avatar flickers into existence and she immediately starts squirming. “That cold voice! It has to be my son. Don't tell me that I interrupted something fruitful?” Her eyes wander to Cyla and she winks at her. “How are my granddaughter and my grandson doing?”
Cyla turns red with anger. “How do you know!? I've told nobody except for immediate family!”
“Ah, but you see. The doctor knows and the servers of the hospital aren't as secure as one might think.” She smiles. “At least not against someone of my calibre!”
I close my eyes and rub the bridge of my nose. The headaches are turning really strong right now. “Sadina, what do you want? I can tell that something out of the ordinary is going on. Normally you only call people when they are alone. What you are doing right now is a breach of your normal routine.”
Sadina's avatar places a hand on her cheek and her arm wander below her rack to push it up. “My son knows me so well. It almost feels like we are a real family.” Then she claps her hands together. “But by judging the look on your face that's a role I'll never be allowed to play.”
“Returning back to business.” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a green vial. “I want to trade!” She dangles it between two fingers and almost drops it, but in the last second she catches it with the other hand. “That was close.”
Cyla crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Do you care to explain? We can't read your mind if you are hiding behind your avatar!”
Sadina blinks and looks genuinely puzzled. “Yes, of course. Isn't that the point?” Then she continues as if there is no problem. “You see, I got that genetic research from back then when you attacked the Resch facility and combined it with my own. It was so fascinating! Learning the mystery behind our creation.” Her expression turns sad. “But I kind of hit a wall in my research in unlocking the powers of magic. A dead end. I need a sample from the evolved specimen.” She smiles and gestures at us. “I need your sperm and Cyla's eggs. And preferably also a few samples from your children.”
“What!?” Cyla starts screaming. “Are you mad, Woman! There is no way that I let you play around with my children!”
“But nobody gets hurt?” Sadina starts gesturing. “You see, what you two have been through can't be easily reproduced. Gideon evolved much earlier than I anticipated and the blood ritual caused an unforeseen evolution. Normally I didn't expect him to blossom like that, but he thrives! And just look at your daughter, such a promising child. Cyla's genetics seem to be a perfect match for him. I don't want to try other genetic codes. It would alter the conditions too much.”
I raise my hand. “Sadina, there is no way that I would allow this madness to continue. Can't you see that you are living inside a delusion? I've said nothing so far because you were just an annoyance, but you have to come clean with yourself and with Ed. He still has hope for you. Whatever went wrong inside that brilliant brain of yours, you have to stop it.”
Sadina makes a dismissive gesture. “Pff! Ed. That's such an old story by now. I left that behind a long time ago. And who says that I can't get the samples by other means?”
I feel Cyla stiffen at my side and glare at Sadina.
“Oh, come on. I am offering you the solution to all your problems.” She dangles the green vial in front of her.
“You still failed to inform us of what that is.” Cyla growls.
Sadina starts nodding. “Yes, how stupid of me. Sometimes I am really scatterbrained. This is something I cooked up by using the new insights I gained from the alien DNA-research. It was also hard to get my hands on some Drazi-DNA samples, but you brought more than enough corpses from that captured ship.”
She holds up the vial like the holy grail. “This is a very potent virus. I hand-crafted it to match the Drazi biology perfectly. Once released, it will deal with the problem.”
I squint my eyes. “And the results?”
Sadina shrugs. “Nothing special. I chose to alter the common Drazi version of the cold. Then I combined the properties of Aids with Ebola and gave it airborne properties. The virus runs through two stages during its lifetime. During stage one the virus acts much like Aids and exists within the hosts immune system without doing too much harm. Once the Drazi are exposed to excessive amounts of female pheromones, like on a planet, the virus enters stage two and becomes more aggressive. The immune system gets wiped out and the organs are attacked until the host dies.”
“It's a very elegant solution. The ship-crews are left alive to spread the virus. They slowly wither away like a normal aids patient. Planetary populations are wiped out within days after the virus had enough time to spread and enters stage two.
Putting ships under quarantine won't work because the vi
rus doesn't enter stage two on a ship. How the virus spreads will be a complete mystery to them until they can identify the pathogen. And by then it will be most likely too late.”
“You are insane! What if the virus backfires!?” Cyla calls out. “And what if the other species find out? Biological warfare is the one thing all sentient life agreed on banning! They will be all over us!”
“Pfff!” Sadina snorts and shakes her head. “How should they know unless you tell them? The Galaxy is a dangerous place. One always has to be careful of dangerous germs. Every species knows that and performs painfully careful tests on the biological environment of other species. The Drazi on the other hand are settling every world they can find as they please. They don't care if it is wild and unexplored. It is just a question of time until they will encounter something really nasty. There will be no way to prove that it was us. All we have to do is to deploy the virus on one of their frontier worlds with one of our teleportation nodes. It'll be untraceable.”
“What proof do you have that it won't turn on us? And you don't even know what we came up with. A strictly mechanical solution feels much safer to me.” Cyla asks.
Sadina rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Oh, please. Mechanical solutions! Did you devise a strategy to nuke entire star systems? Humans are fighting mice and rats with traps and poison since the dawn of civilisation. It doesn't look like we are anywhere near winning.
Are you planning on destroying hundreds of life bearing worlds to get rid of the Drazi? My solution is much simpler and less messy.”
Cyla closes her mouth. Apparently she didn't think about what it means to wipe out the Drazi. We certainly can't get them off the occupied worlds and nobody has enough troops to clean those worlds by hand. When Cyla wants to speak again I raise my hand and grab her arm, opening my mind to hold her back.
“Where do you want to meet us?” I ask Sadina. Even if I don't give my mother what she wants, we have to accept. This is a unique chance to catch her. Cyla has to realize that. There is no other possible choice than to accept the offer. The only thing that stands to discussion is whether or not we are willing to betray her or if we take the deal.
“Marvellous!” Sadina pockets the vial. “We will meet once Aether is back in Sol, three days from now at seven. The handover will be at the old teleportation station close to central city square. Further instructions will follow once you are there. Don't be late.”
78. ~Shell Game.~
“
A sunray in the darkness will never be seen if there is nothing it has to shine upon.
”
-Unknown
En route to Sol, Aether
Gideon
“We have to catch her!” Ed paces up and down inside my office. “This is a unique chance which may never present itself again!” He looks up. “You are sure that nobody else knows about this?” I nod, but Cyla starts complaining. “I don't understand why you want to keep this under such tight security? Surely it would be best to swarm the entire area with your agents? Sadina will surely pull out some kind of underhanded trick!”
“We can't trust my bureau. I have no evidence, but somehow she continuously manages to evade us. She must have at least some kind of access to the law enforcement. Maybe it's our servers or a hacked sprite, or a blackmailed faceless. There is no other way to explain that she evaded us so long.” Ed grumbles. “I can gather seven, maybe eight agents whom I trust completely to do this off the record. This chance is too valuable to give it away.”
I rub my eyes and try to think. “Okay. You say that she will be warned if we activate too many of the faceless. I get that much. Are there any other resources which we could use? Surely we can count on my immediate family? That would bring in six more people, including me.”
“Seven!” Cyla corrects me.
I turn to face her, then my eyes wander to her belly. Her current state didn't reach the point at which her movements are hindered, but her second pregnancy is visible nonetheless. “I am sorry, Dear. You can't join us on this adventure. You are-”
“I can and I will!” She crosses her arms in front of her chest and stomps the ground. “Try to stop me and we are sure to have our first domestic quarrel! That woman is nuts and she threatened my children. I'll see to it that she is put into a small room with rubber furniture and foam for walls!”
“But-”
She interrupts me. “There is no 'But'! We will catch her. Together.”
Ed raises a hand. “Cyla, maybe you should really stand down in this. Sadina is a dangerous and unpredictable person. It pains me to say so. She is dangerous. She needs help, but until we can give her that help we have to treat her like a real danger to our lives.”
Cyla glares at Ed, but says nothing. Apparently his earnest tone took the wind out of her sails. She grinds her teeth and after a few seconds of silent staring she nods.
Ed turns towards me. “But Cyla is right in one aspect. Sadina will most likely try to trick us. I want to believe that the genetic samples are her true aim, but we have to take everything into account and we have only a little more than two days left. We have to cover all angles, so how would you make the exchange if you were Sadina?”
I snort and call up a map of Aether on my office table's display. “If I were her, I would avoid direct body contact altogether. She wants us near the old teleportation station. Most likely she will require me to place the samples somewhere and make the exchange via teleportation.”
Cyla shakes her head. “The whole of Aether is warded with sensors to stop people from teleporting around as they please. If she uses teleportation we will instantly know where she is. She doesn't have a warrant of attorney like government officials.”
I raise an eyebrow. “I have a warrant of attorney for teleporting around as I please?”
Ed slaps a hand to his own forehead and Cyla puffs out her cheeks. “Of course you have. You do it all the time! Why do you think it is that nobody arrested you yet?”
I shrug. “Luck?” I wasn't really thinking about it. But then again the few instances where I actually teleported without using the official teleportation chambers were emergencies.
Ed raises his hands in a calming gesture. “Sadina is on Aether. We know that. All we have to do is to stay in a state of lock-down as soon as we arrive in Sol. I can arrange that. We have to lure her out of her hiding place. Then we have to outsmart and catch her.”
That's pretty obvious. But how can we do that if we don't have the required manpower? “And how do you intend to achieve that? I understand that knowing a trap is the first step to avoid it, but Sadina is playing her own game right now. We are just invited guests who don't know the rules.”
He looks up squints his eyes at us. “By the only means possible. We have to hide our plan inside other plans. And we need someone who is able to best Sadina's hacking skills.”
I nod. “I might be able to do that if I get full access to Aether. But that requires additional authorities by the law reinforcement.”
“Think of it as done.” Ed answers.
Sol, Aether
Melan
“Gideon, are you sure that you want to go alone?” I ask with a little insecurity in my voice. “As much as I wish it were different, Sadina isn't a part of the family any more. She is dangerous and jumping at this chance seems foolish.” I turn my gaze downwards to avoid his eyes, then I scan the crowd around us. We are close to Aether's central square and it is about time to get new instructions from Sadina.
There is no way to know what she planned for us, so all we can do for now is to go along and hope that some of our safety measures work. At least I hope that we have all angles covered. From teleportation, to a private shuttle, to an escape through the sewers. Unless Sadina managed to hack an inter-system teleport station I have no clue how she intends on getting off of Aether.
Gideon draws in a deep breath. “Look. Sadina is practically a ghost. Nobody knows how she gets around, how she hides her tracks inside the
network. She is non-existent.”
He crosses his arms in front of his chest. “I've been waiting for fifteen years to get my hands on her and this is a chance. Maybe the only chance. She is definitely getting bolder and it could prove to be her undoing. If we let it pass, we might have to wait another twenty years. Just make sure to trail me out of sight. If Sadina smells that anything is wrong she might not show up. You are the only one on Aether who controls that hiding spell as well as she can.”
The muscles of his jaw start working. “I've to be the one who is responsible for the handover, so I can't be the backup.” He points at me. “That means only you can do the job.”
I sigh and cast my cloaking spell to hide myself. “If you wish. I'll make sure to cover possible escape routes. I want to catch her as much as you do, maybe even more. Though I find it particularly hard to fathom why she would instigate this. So much time without even a hint of her whereabouts and then we catch her because she got cocky? It's too good to be true.”
Sol, Aether
Gideon
After watching Grandmother disappear inside her cloaking field I start walking down the street towards central square. I just hope that this doesn't turn out to become some glorious fuck up! Our greatest problem is figuring out what's going through Sadina's mind. Up until now her actions were always reasonable. At least in a twisted kind of way.
Her goal is proving that techno-mages aren't weak. For that reason she created me. So it stands to assumption that she isn't an extraordinary fighter. She may be good, but not outstanding.
So why has her attention shifted from aiding me, to furthering her genetic research? Or is it something different altogether? Maybe she really just wants to check on my current state since I underwent some unforeseen circumstances?
But why doing it this way, instead of stealing the genetic material somehow? I am sure that she could find some hair or skin samples anywhere I have been. Closing my eyes, I ponder over the situation.