“Imagine yourself able to retire from your life on the run and give guidance to the future ruler of a significant chunk of the galaxy,” Cassius the Elder said. “You want a large family? Give her sisters. You can have them with the space marine from Shogun, she seems less inferior than most. Maybe a few more mistresses once we have the wealth of planets again.”
“Think on this, Cassius,” Zoe said, interjecting before I said something I regretted. “Our revolution has the potential to succeed in changing the destiny of humanity. We need a human heart to guide us and Servilia is a child who is sweet as well as idealistic.”
“It’s like there’s mutation in your DNA from mine,” Cassius the Elder replied.
“You want me to serve as your puppeteer,” I said.
“No, I’m capable of doing that myself,” Cassius the Elder said. “Once the Commonwealth has dominated the human race for a sufficiently long time and they’ve secured whatever resources they need, Servilia will be an adult and negotiate greater freedoms for humanity as a member of the Commonwealth. We can also use the technology of the Elder Races to secure our place in the universe. She’ll be the heroine of the hour and all the bad of the Archduchy of Crius will be forgotten with its successor state lasting a million years.”
I stared at my father. “Your plan is missing a few hundred steps between point A and point wherever the hell you think it’s going to end at.”
“Another reason we need you,” Zoe implored.
And I thought of the young girl I’d seen on the screen then broke.
“Show her to me,” I said, taking a deep breath.
It was a transparent attempt to manipulate me but I couldn’t resist what they were saying. If she was of my blood, then, stolen DNA sample product or not, I had an obligation to help her. Certainly I wasn’t going to abandon her in this place among these people when I was planning to blow up the planet. Wow, I’d just lost all honor somewhere along the way, hadn’t I? I was going to be a kinslayer and an oathbreaker as well as a man who worked against his own nation’s remnant.
So be it.
My father tapped a silver bracelet hidden under his sleeve and a holographic display appeared that showed a schematic of the palace. It was covered in red and black dots, the red dots identified by name with no such moniker for the black dots. I spotted my friends were located in the upstairs above us, far from any detention facility, but surrounded by many black dots. Fade and Terra hadn’t been put in the dungeon levels at the bottom either, which told me we were still being treated as “guests who couldn’t leave” versus prisoners, if I was to use my sister’s descriptor of distinction without difference.
Zoe looked at me. “Cassius, is there anything I can do to prove I am still your sister and not the monster you remember my doppelganger being?”
I didn’t know if I could trust me. “I don’t know. I want to believe in you but I’ve seen so much.”
“Do not let the Kathax version of Judith delude you,” Zoe said. “They are creatures of deceit and lies. The Kathax Prime is a being who wanted to elevate us and bring fire like Prometheus.”
“The fruit of knowledge of good and evil,” I corrected her.
Zoe didn’t hesitate to nod. “Yes. That doesn’t mean I believe in him utterly. We are dealing with weighty matters. Kings and succession. The responsibility for such is immense but I am prepared to carry it.”
Yes, but was the galaxy prepared for you to do the same? “I’ll try, Zoe, for you and Thomas’s sake.”
“See? This is why none of you were ever any good at being Crius nobles,” Cassius the Elder said. “You all act like you love each other rather than trying to kill each other like proper nobility. None of you have tried to kill me either.”
“You know, I really don’t know if you’re kidding or not and that frightens me,” Zoe said.
“Another reason you’re not good at this is you don’t know,” Cassius the Elder said.
Moments later, a young woman of about fourteen years of age entered into the chamber. She was beautiful, as all Crius nobility were, with Old Earth Indian features that were the hallmark of House Dumas. If she was a creation of mixing my DNA with Princess Germania’s, then micro-surgeons had done a masterful job of making her look almost entirely like her mother. Still, there was a softness to her which had been lacking from Princess Germania and a brightness in her step which belied the fact she was the puppet ruler of a dead nation’s ghost as well as a figurehead for a rebellion its general didn’t intend to win.
Servilia was wearing a miniature version of a black Crius Naval uniform and I was both appalled as well as struck by how adorable it looked upon her. At least my father hadn’t gone so far as to put medals or a rank on her. Nevertheless, I was furious about his exploitation of her image. Hell, the exploitation of her entire life if any of what they’d said to me was true. My father was a liar and while it was likely she’d been grown from mixed Mass/Dumas DNA, I had no doubt he’d just grab a child off the street and alter her with genetic therapy if it meant bringing himself closer to the crown. Hell, she was fourteen now, which meant she was possibly a sentient bioroid like my sister had made. One that grew up like a normal child—a young Pinocchio for their experiments. God, when I had become so cynical? Oh, right, when my world had been destroyed.
“Hello, Grandfather,” Servilia said, looking at my father. “Is this really your son or one of Zoe’s puppets?”
Well, at least she sounded like me.
“I fear this is the real Cassius the Younger,” my father said. “You can tell by how much disrespect he treats me with. If this was my father’s time—”
“Perhaps you are not one to talk of filial piety,” I said, reminding him of the story he’d told me. “Given what you did to your own father.”
“And you believed that story?” Cassius the Elder said.
Just think of blowing up the planet, I thought.
“It was true,” Cassius the Elder said. “But you should never believe anything that comes out of a politician’s mouth.”
“My father tells me you’re my daughter,” I said, standing there stiffly. “I hope he has not made your life too miserable.”
“I believe you know him well,” Servilia said cheerfully. “I hate my grandfather and all he does to the troops around us. I am a prisoner on a dead world and witness to barbaric atrocities. I believe his actions against the Commonwealth are justified, though. I also love my aunt and uncle, who are both good people. Are you?”
“Not in the slightest,” I said cheerfully. “I am but a simple man making my way in the universe. I have no more need for titles, wars, principle, or honor. My days of swinging a sword or shooting a gun are behind me.”
“Ha!” Cassius the Elder said. “He’s also a big fat liar.”
“He doesn’t look fat,” Servilia said. “Certainly you hide a extra few dozen pounds, Grandfather.”
I turned to my father. “You’ve convinced me we’re related.”
“Why don’t I let you two, or you three if Zoe wishes to spend time with you, chat while I examine the treaty proposal?” Cassius the Elder said. “Despite what you may believe, I am taking your offer seriously.”
“Regardless of the fact you’ve done nothing but mock it,” I said, looking down at Servilia. There was something about her posture which reminded me of Judith despite the fact they had no relationship. It was my mind telling me I could have had a child like her if circumstances were different.
Indeed, could still have a child if I didn’t get myself killed on some ill-fated mission like the one I’d assigned myself. I wanted redemption, if such a thing existed, and the only way to do that was do something ridiculous and grandiose to make up for all the tens of thousands of lives—if not hundreds of thousands—I’d taken during the Commonwealth-Archduchy War. But what if it wasn’t so difficult? What if redemption was simply being a family man who looked after those he loved? I had found my humanity with my crew but was endangering t
hem for pride. What if I just took my daughter—I was already thinking of her as such—and ran? Would history really gainsay me? Would I care?
“Your choice,” Cassius the Elder said, clasping his hands together.
I took a deep breath. “I’d very much like to get to know you, Princess.”
“Archduchess,” Servilia corrected.
“Of course,” I said, kneeling down to talk.
The next three hours were spent with me conversing with the young girl and finding her to be a frighteningly intelligent child in matters of everything from politics to economics to who would win the next Who Wishes to Marry a Prince? reality competition. I used several leading questions to test her and determined by her answers that her memories were false, implantations by Zoe’s mnemonic technology. How did I know this?
Because they were moments taken from mine, Zoe, and Judith’s pasts. While my father had clearly tasked my sister with creating a clone aged equivalent to the presumably late “real” Servilia, Zoe had gone above and beyond the call of duty to create a person who would make an ideal ruler. At least from the perspective of an autocrat ruling over a military aristocracy. She was a trap for me and I wanted to raise her and see her ruling over Crius’s remnants, if not humanity as a whole. My father and sister knew this.
My father cleared his throat as Servilia and I discussed the principles of Michael Allenway, the prophet’s first heir, who had talked at length about honorable behavior during war. I used to believe in his words so much.
“Yes?” I asked, looking over to Cassius the Elder.
“I have finished analyzing the Commonwealth’s officer,” my father said.
“And?” Servilia, of all people, asked.
“I’ll have my answer in the morning,” Cassius the Elder said. “In the meantime, I suggest you meet with your lover in your quarters. I’ll have your other associates kept as collateral on your good behavior.”
“Hostages, you mean.”
“Call it what you will.”
I looked at Zoe and wanted to thank her but I shook my head and patted Servilia on the head as I left.
Could I really jeopardize this world to stop the Kathax Prime?
To stop my father?
I had no idea.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I stared up at the ceiling of the room, resting my head on my pillow as Clarice rested her head against my chest, our naked forms entwined. The room was oval shape, obviously made for inhuman occupants but not so much that it hadn’t been able to be adapted to its Earth-descended new tenants.
The bed was massive and there were primitive wooden dressers about the chamber, giving it a somewhat medieval feel. Still, there were air purifiers and environmental controls that made night on the unusually hot world bearable too. Light in the chamber was provided for by voice-activated organic crystals that were presently off, leaving only moonlight trailing in from the three orbs in the sky as well as the reflected light from the planet’s rings.
Much to my annoyance, my father had placed the House Mass coat of arms directly across from the bed on the wall, forcing my eyes to see it every time I looked forward. The golden dragon hissing as its claws bit into the Lucifer’s Wings of Crius’s national flag. What a pretentious symbol. Even the Mass family motto, “Through strife comes valor” was meaningless to someone who’d actually experienced the horrors of war.
Isla was far from our place in the Kolahn Palace, working among the injured and damaged in the Free Systems Alliance medical wards below. I felt troubled by the profound ambiguity this entire mission had left me with. My father and my siblings alive! Servilia…my daughter….sister? What was the term for someone created from your DNA but not really?
All of them plotting to take over the universe. I wasn’t sure whether I was in a good place or a bad place mentally as it seemed reality had no end of complications for me. I still had to deal with Kathax Prime, but the fact he was patronizing my father and his soldiers meant getting to him would not be easy.
I still had no idea what, exactly, they were doing with their troops but I had a stronger feeling than ever it had to be stopped. There no point in tempting fate by poking the dragon in the Elder Races. A man who stood before a storm, declaring himself to be a greater warrior than it, merely proved himself to be a fool. A part of me wondered if I only wanted to do this mission because the image of Judith, the shameful digital succubi I had no name for having claimed her appearance, had asked me to do it. Was I so desperate for her approval I would settle for a lie even to destroy this monstrosity? I could not answer that question.
Because I wanted nothing to do with these deep thoughts, I was grateful for the distraction Clarice provided. There was simplicity in hot flesh and the comforts of a lover. I didn’t want to be the person on whom the Spiral depended and if I was running away just trying to be the captain of the Melampus, was that such a bad thing? Were there not enough heroes I couldn’t live as a normal man?
No, that was a lie. I wasn’t a normal man. Normal men surfed the waves of life and were either drowned or washed away by it. I demanded the universe bow to my wishes and give me the life I wanted—which it sometimes did. That wasn’t normal by any stretch of the imagination. In that, I wondered how different my father and I were.
“You have that look on your face,” Clarice said, putting her head in her palm as she leaned on her elbow. It allowed me a look at her smile, broken nose, and cheeks that I found irresistibly appealing.
“What?” I said, looking over to her.
“You have that expression on your face that you’re thinking of something more than the soldier by your side,” Clarice said. “The one you’re fucking.”
Clarice added the last bit as if it was a subtle reminder versus the rather bomb-level hint I should not be distracted while in bed with my lover. Normally I didn’t have this sort of problem, and that was part of my appeal. If one was going to do anything, particularly make love, then one should always make sure it occupies one’s complete attention.
So I made up an excuse. “I was thinking of how lucky I am to have you.”
“Bullshit,” Clarice said. “I say that as your best friend.”
“Friend?” I asked, wondering if that was where she classified us. She’d wanted to make our relationship permanent but I wondered if she was now downgrading my hesitation.
“Don’t overthink my words,” Clarice said, putting her hand on my arm. “Albeit, Isla wants me to have your baby.”
I suddenly choked on the nitrogen-oxygen mix in the air.
Clarice laughed. “You’re cute when you’re stupid.”
I stared at her. “Oh, you were joking.”
“Not really,” Clarice said, sighing. “Isla says a lot of strange stuff. I suspect if she was captain, she’d turn the Melampus into a floating brothel, nightclub, and drug den. She’d also assemble a harem for us both then raise the kids as her own. Blame it on the way she was programmed and how life shaped her thereafter. It’s why I love her and you do too.”
“I see,” I said, nodding. “Well, that makes sense. I love you too.”
I was surprised I’d never said it before.
“Thanks,” Clarice said. “Not that I wouldn’t mind procreating eventually. You’re as good a candidate as any.”
“You flatter me,” I said.
Clarice paused. “What do you think of that?”
“I don’t know.” I paused. “But I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“Finally,” Clarice said. “Honestly, I don’t know about children. I know what I just said, but it’s an issue I’m back and forth on. My family lost a third of its members in the Commonwealth crackdown. They were a bunch of slavers, murderers, and scum, but still my kin. Most of the survivors have returned to piracy, including Janice. I’m debating whether or not to go talk to her.”
“Ah,” I said, knowing what it was like to carry a cursed genetic legacy.
“Or murder her,” Clarice
said. “Either way.”
“Perhaps both,” I said. “I keep forgetting I’m not the only person on the ship who has had their family torn apart by war.”
“Yours welcomed you back,” Clarice said. “Which is unfortunate because they’re a bunch of egomaniacal assholes.”
I paused. “Yeah, they are.”
“That was one fucked-up dinner party,” Clarice said.
“Yes it was,” I said. “It got worse in the library.”
“How so?” Clarice asked.
I bit my lip. “Servilia is my daughter, or so my father claims.”
Clarice stared. “Is she?”
“I think she’s a genetically engineered construct,” I said, pausing. “Not quite a bioroid. She was undoubtedly made with my DNA or my father’s, though. Given I’ve seen pictures of her as a twelve year old since the Free Systems Alliance began, I’m going to assume she’s capable of aging into her new role.”
“Which?” Clarice said. “Is she your sister or your daughter?”
“You have no idea how little I want to ever hear that again.”
Clarice grimaced. “Sorry.”
“She’s an innocent,” I said, shaking my head. “A person. Someone I don’t want caught up in this war any more than she already is.”
“Which is pretty damn much,” Clarice said. “She’s the figurehead for the Free Sytems Alliance.”
“Yes,” I said.
“Well, we’ll just have to rescue her,” Clarice muttered. “Then we’ll work on deprogramming her from snooty princess.”
“Says the former Princess of Shogun.”
“I know best,” Clarice said. “Also, I’m not a former princess. I just have no desire to re-conquer the world from the Alliance or Commonwealth or whoever holds it now. The planet can safely put whomever they want in my family’s place but I hope they’ll do away with the institution of cartel rule altogether.”
“Thank you for that advice,” I said.
“Anything else I should know?” Clarice asked.
“My father is collaborating with the Kathax Prime,” I said before explaining her the intimate details of his plan. “He wants to raise humanity above all the other species. Even if it means risking our complete annihilation. Being conquered by the Community is just part of a plan to raise our technology levels a few millennia. Ultimately, I think he imagines us ascending to become gods or whatever he thinks the Elder Races are.”
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