Space Dragon Allepexxis

by C. K. Pershing

  “To answer your first question, I’m real enough for you, baby…”

  “…oh for fucks’ sake…

  “…and to answer your second question, the boy— who I’ll remind you is a human child of twelve fucking years old— was well within his right to fight back in whatever way he saw fit against two sixteen year-old— adults according to standard Imperial Law— Driinen. I’ll also remind you that the Driinen, being one of the fae races are practically indestructible and because of that, usually don’t know when enough’s enough. You know as well as I do that that silly bitch would have just kept coming for him.” Behlen’s voice was starting to get an edge.

  “So he uses his abilities to knock her out or something, and then leaves,” the woman suggested.

  “Not even you believe that would be the end, Leah.”

  Paress and Casten looked at each other and nodded. They both had pretty much figured it was Behlen’s wife he was arguing with based on how familiar they were being with each other— but the confirmation was nice.

  Behlen continued, “You and I both know that the second those Driinen bitches and their Companion woke up, they’d be breaking down Paress’s door trying to murder him.”

  “I don’t know…” Leah said, her commitment faltering.

  “Yes you do. Come on, is this the hill you want do die on? Protecting a couple of jumped-up Driinen assholes whose parents couldn’t be bothered to be more creative than giving their children names that start with the same two letters? Something like that, you just know the kids are gonna grow up to be bullying jerks.”

  “Heh. Yeah…” Leah laughed a soft girlish laugh. Paress had to admit that he liked then sound of it.

  “It just goes to show that no matter how advanced a star spanning empire can get, parents can still be boneheads about their kids.” Behlen said.

  “Alright, alright,” Leah said. “But putting that aside, don’t you think it was maybe overboard for his Companion to destroy the legs of their Companion? And then ram her face into the ground? Her Glamour’s working overtime to make up for the fact that he really screwed up her face. Without the Glamour, she looks like a doll that got run over by a team of horses.”

  “She was gonna get involved and he made sure she didn’t,” Behlen said simply. “Paress was already dealing with two of them. Casten made sure he didn’t have to deal with three.”

  “But destroying her legs…?”

  “Baby, I know you keep forgetting this, but look at it from the boys’ perspective. Three older girls, adults really, just magically appeared out the trees and immediately got violent. How was Casten supposed to know how much was enough?”

  “He’s a Machten!” Leah said with exasperation. “Even if she is four years older, she’s only an Insev. He was basically bullying her!”

  “Well, it seems to me that if you’re a damned Insev and you start something with a Machten, you deserve to get your ass handed to you,” Behlen said.

  Leah suddenly laughed. “Well, she was pretty stupid there…”

  Behlen laughed too. “Well, really! How does a glorified butler doll see a military-grade bodyguard and think, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a shot.’?”

  Hearing this, Casten smiled the smile of the serene to Paress, as if he’d just been proven innocent in a court of law. Paress rolled his eyes and grinned.

  Leah laughed even harder. “Oh, I shouldn’t be laughing.” And then she laughed some more. There were some muffled sounds and then, “Jeddeg, come on. Not now. If we’re gonna fool around, it’s not gonna be on this desk. And it’s not gonna be now. Shouldn’t your boys be getting here soon anyway?”

  “Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Behlen said with a laugh. “Not that it’s any of my business, and God knows, I don’t want to give you any ideas here, but why did you give the Driinen an Insev? These girls are your aces in the hole, right? Why not give them something better?”

  “I’d… rather not say…” Leah said carefully.

  “Oh really?”

  “Well, it’s just…”

  “Leah, stop jerking me around. That note from yesterday.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I know you think you’re getting your ducks in a row. And I think it’s safe to say that one of those ducks is Herman Insev. Was that how you sealed his loyalty? By giving him a shot with providing a Companion?”

  “Pretty much. Yeah.”

  “Jesus.” Behlen groaned.

  “Hey, just because Lessil isn’t up to the same combat standards as a Machten design in hand to hand doesn’t mean she’s worthless,” Leah said. “As we’ve already covered, Driinen are pretty tough on their own. They don’t really need a bodyguard. They only need someone to synch them with Glissraiyeh. Considering what I get in return, I can make that trade.”

  “I won’t bother asking what you get in return. I know you won’t tell me and I have a feeling I know anyway. But are you seriously telling me that Insev— Lessil— is able to synch those two up with #63? Seriously? All those tentacles the Machine has and all that?” Behlen sounded incredulous.

  “Yes, I am. So maybe you shouldn’t be so cavalier with me.”

  “Hey, I’m not the one leaving death threats on other people’s office doors.”

  “Well what did you expect?” Leah said, anger filtering back into her voice. “First, you bum-rushed right past Arthur Severn to recruit Paress, even though Arthur’s the one who should have recruited him since he’s actually the head of Instruction— and then while you’re there, you get that damn thing going with the Marines.”

  “Spare me the crap about Arthur Severn and how he should somehow get dibs just because of his department. Arthur’s just another of your cronies, or should I say ‘ducks’, who thinks he’s got a shot with you in the bedroom since he’s on your team. The silly bastard was so damn pissy when we got here and I introduced him to Paress and Casten. Real damn professional.”

  Well, at least I know why Dr. Severn was so mad at Dr. Behlen when we first showed up, Paress thought.

  “And you,” Behlen continued, “you thought you could make an end run around me and wiggle your ass in Arthur’s face in the hope that he’d get to Wystra to recruit Paress before I could— but I got there first, my love. You guys would have wasted the kid’s talents with some half-assed Machine when you know damn well he belongs with #25. So much stupid shit to keep me from having a win…”

  “It’s not like I was making a secret of it,” Leah said. “If making Arthur think I’d sleep with him in exchange for helping me was the price to pay, I’m okay with that because I damn sure didn’t want you activating Allepexxis!”

  “Leah, as much as I find it humorous when people say it with such reverence, the fact is, #25 is one The Seven, for God’s sake! It needs someone special to bring it to its full potential and Paress has proven he can do that. Think of what that means.”

  “I am, dammit. And unlike you, I’m capable of understanding that the damn thing is a monster, one of The Seven or not. That much power shouldn’t be in the hands of one person. I’ve always felt that way. And that goes beyond our fight.”

  “Oh, not this shit again…” The edge returned to Belen’s voice.

  “Yes, Jeddeg, this shit,” Leah said, also getting an edge. “Allepexxis is not some kind of Machine that will save us all from some imaginary boogey man. It was built to…”

  “Leah, the Old Man wanted me to…”

  “You bastard, I’ve told you to stop calling him that! I’m his daughter! And I don’t even call him that. I swear to God, if you keep it up, I will murder you in your sleep. And you know damn well there’s enough people here who would back me the fuck up when I tell the cops it was some kind of self-defense because you’d threatened me.” Leah’s voice went from a shriek to a low growl.

  Paress looked at Casten in shared shock. The Old Man was Leah’s father! And her threat just now sounded real enough.

  Behlen’s voice was also low and Paress strained to hear. “
I don’t doubt it, you psychotic bitch. But like I said before, you think you have your ducks in a row. And maybe you do. You probably have a whole damn flock. But I’ve got a few birds on my side too. Some hawks, a couple owls maybe. The kinds of birds that ducks aren’t very good at fighting. Oh, and now I have a fucking dragon too, so lay the hell off!”

  They were both silent for a few minutes. Paress held his breath for fear of making a sound.

  “Listen, it’s only a matter of time before you find out from one of your spies,” Behlen said. “And maybe you already know. But when Paress unlocked #25, he saw something pretty major. First, he saw one of the patterns of Universal Truth. It pretty much left his mind as soon as he saw it, but he’ll remember it again, that’s how it goes. But then he saw something else.”

  Leah’s voice was calm and had lost its edge. “I heard someone stole his memories. Before you ask I had nothing to do with that.”

  “I believe you. It was someone who had a back-end access to #25 to get past all the defenses. The kind of stuff The— your father— would know. Maybe it was him. And if it was, it proves I’m not crazy to think he’s still alive. There are two other possibilities, and we both know who they are. But that’s beside the point. The thing I want to tell you that nobody else knows except for me, Paress, and Casten, is that I’m nearly positive he saw Elder Ahdoh.”

  After a moment, Leah said cautiously, “How can you be sure?”

  “Because he told me. Well, that is to say, he remembered the words after his memory was wiped. That, along with some music, which I’m positive is the Overture.” Behlen’s voice sounded hopeful.

  “But nobody knows what any of the Songs sound like. Why would you think it was the Overture?”

  “What else could it be? He hears something about Elder Ahdoh and then suddenly he hears some music that he’s never heard before. It brought tears to his eyes along with whatever he saw. Really, could it be anything else?”

  After another few moments of silence, Leah said, “Why are you telling me this? This is pretty major.”

  “Because I’m hoping that maybe you’ll finally see the big picture and let me do my thing.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “Leah, listen, I’m sorry I stole your father. It’s not my fault he wanted a son…”

  “What the fuck?” Leah’s voice raised in fury.

  “Listen!” Behlen hissed. “Sorry! It was a bad choice of words. My point is that I fell for you before I even knew who your father was. I’d been seeing you and we’d been going at it pretty hard for months before you finally introduced me to him and even then it took me a minute to figure out who he was. Heaven forbid you actually warn me.”

  “We’ve been over this, I’m getting tired of apologizing.”

  “I don’t want you to apologize. I’m just saying that he took me in. I wasn’t trying to be his prodigy, or son, or whatever it was he wanted for me. I was happy being my own man and was glad to leave you and him to be some kind of amazing team.”

  “Yeah? So what changed?”

  “When you lost faith in him.”

  “Jeddeg, the man was becoming unhinged over time. And he got worse every time he came back from his damn trips. And you know, the fact that he got a couple hundred people killed didn’t help his case.”

  “Well that’s the thing, Leah. As you started to drift away and think he was crazy, I started to understand him more and believe in what he was doing. Is it any wonder we got close? His own daughter wanted him committed!”

  “For his own safety, damn it. How many fucking times…”

  “Yes! Yes, I know! But if you’d just have trusted me to take care of him…”

  “Jeddeg, you started to sound just like him. Hell, these days, sometimes you sound worse! Leaving him in your care would have been like leaving the inmates to guard the other inmates.” Leah sounded exhausted. “And after all that, after everybody warning me, I left him with you and what happens? He escapes!”

  “He didn’t escape. I let him go,” Behlen said.

  “I know, dammit. I keep hoping one day you’ll just agree with me so that I can get over it and maybe start to believe you’re not insane. But no, you have to go and prove me wrong every damn time.”

  “But if I didn’t let him go, he wouldn’t have been able to send me those clues and messages.”

  “Oh my God!” Leah nearly screamed. “Stop saying that! My father is not sending you cryptic clues from some kind of hidden mountaintop located at the center of all the universes— or whatever the fuck weird idea you have at the moment. My father is dead. A bad jump. Food poisoning. Hell, he slipped on a fucking banana peel. Whatever it is, he’s dead. If he were alive, why wouldn’t he just send you the information outright? Why all the secret stuff?”

  “I keep telling you,” Behlen said gently, “The Truth has to be revealed in the correct order or it won’t align. What’s true in this dimension isn’t in others. Hyper Battle Machines use extra-dimensional technology. Aligning the Truth across even eight realities is hard, doing it across one-hundred and forty is almost impossible.”

  “Exactly!”

  “I said ‘almost’, not totally.” Behlen said. “Why is this so hard for you to believe? We have seven different races here on Elise Empyreah that work in extra-dimensional operations. This isn’t fantasy.”

  “Because my father is none of those races, Jeddeg. He wasn’t even Blessed. He’s just a normal old human whose nanites haven’t been able to keep his brain functioning properly and you’re following him like he’s some kind of prophet. Dammit, now you’ve got me speaking about him in the present tense.”

  “Alright, I’ll get to my point.”

  “You actually have one?”

  Behlen sighed. “Dammit, is it any wonder why sometimes I want to strangle you?”

  “None at all,” she said with a laugh, “but go on and tell me your point.”

  “Nobody’s been able to get #25 to work until Paress, right?”

  “Right.”

  “When he did, he saw the first level of Truth, and then there’s a very good chance he saw and heard something very important about Elder Ahdoh.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you that…”

  “But regardless of whether Paress saw Elder Ahdoh or not, we can both agree that him getting #25 started is pretty important for better or worse in what the Empire does from here on out.”

  “Yeah, I can agree with that. I mean, I still think Allepexxis is going to be much more trouble than he’s worth and putting so much power in the hands of one very young Space Knight is asking for imminent disaster, but whatever. Go ahead.”

  “Okay, well, since getting Paress here in the first place is what got the ball rolling, let me show you how I found out about him in the first place and how I was able to get a jump start on your boy Arthur.”

  “I’d wondered…” Leah said as the sound of a drawer opening and closing was followed by her asking, “What is this?”

  “Just open it.”

  It must have been an envelope because Paress could hear the sound of paper getting unfolded. There was a very long pause during which Paress could only imagine what was going on.

  “It just appeared in my pocket one day,” Behlen said.

  “When?” Leah asked.

  “Three years ago.”

  “What? But he was only nine then! He wasn’t even Blessed. And nobody’s ever been able figure out who will receive the Blessing because environmental factors and other things can influence the nanotech right up until the moment it occurs during puberty.”

  “Well, whoever put that envelope in my pocket sure did. And you know who I think that person is.”

  “Yes, of course you would,” Leah said with a small groan.

  “Who else could it be then? Notice the only thing written other than the name…”

  “Yes, the number twenty-five. I know.” After a pause, Leah said, “So what do you want?”

  “I want you to
give me some peace while I see where all this goes. Fending off your…let’s say ‘incursions’, is not only getting tiresome, they’re getting counterproductive to the greater good. I’ve been watching Paress for three years waiting to see if that note would be legit.

  “How did you think I had Glynnis ready to go with Casten? Because I told her three years ago I’d need her best possible work. So she started grooming one of each gender. And when Paress tested out to be better suited to have a male Companion, she sent me Casten.”

  Paress and Casten looked at each other again. Casten’s expression was hard to read. Paress had a feeling his own expression was equally unsure.

  “If I agree,” Leah began slowly, “do you promise to cut me some slack also? Ditch that alliance you set up with the Marines?”

  “You know I can’t do that,” Behlen said. “They’re one of my aces. You have buddies in the Court. I need something to safeguard me.”

  “Alright, fair enough. But do you at least promise to keep your nose out of Space Knight recruitment? You’re in Hyper Battle Machines, for God’s sake. I don’t know how you managed to get the Commandant to approve all this in the first place…”

  “I’ll keep out of recruitment personally, but I would still like to have some say in who gets assigned to the machines up to #34,” Behlen said.

  “Denxeiter?” Leah asked. “Why would… Oh. Right. Because he was the last of my father’s Machines.”

  “Exactly. But I promise that you’ll still have final say. I’d just like to have some input and be kept abreast of what’s going on. The whole Resonance thing, for example. But you have my word I won’t step on any toes. Just give me #25 and let me do my thing and you’ll get to do yours.”

  Leah laughed. “Your word? Sorry, Jeddeg, but that doesn’t count for much.”

  “You wound me, my love,” Behlen didn’t sound particularly hurt by Leah’s taunt. “Alright, how about this as a show of good faith: I’ll tell you how I managed to get old Commandant Ghant to give me free reign with recruiting Paress.”

  Paress could hear the smile in Leah’s voice. “This ought to be good. Deal.”