“Oh, yeah sure,” Mr. Tyo’sen said cheerfully. “My house is your house, anything for an old friend.”
The family sat around as if nothing unusual was happening. The mother and father watched holo-dramas, the son played an online game, the daughter read. All the while the assassin began setting up her long black rifle in the corner.
* * *
Cha’Rolette took a step forward, and the three Butarian delegates took a step back in fear.
A trio of windows were open behind her, displaying her economic projections through the next five cycles.
...So, in conclusion, you have three choices. You can either honor the terms of the contract, which will grant you a net loss of eighty five million and change, half of which you can cover by diving into your bankruptcy relief fund; the other half you can cover by selling off your tabana capacitor patents which you aren’t even using at the moment. Or you can break the contract and incur the stated penalty of eight hundred million, plus a reparation to the families of the victims, which I calculate to be no less than seventeen million, plus a loss of reputation and brand recognition, which I calculate to be at least seventy-eight million over the next three years alone. You can refuse to pay the penalty, in which case Alliance military will be notified, and your lands, assets, and chattels will be seized and put up for auction, and the three of you, along with your board of regents, will be thrown in sector prison along with the cousins and uncles of the people you let die.
She stepped in even closer, and the men began to sweat. Her ta’atu slithered around like vipers. I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to bet your stockholders will want you to take the first choice.
“We’ll honor the contract,” the lead delegate said, snatching up the tablets and nearly tripping over his companions as they scurried out of the room.
“Thank you so much, mediators,” Mara-Dellian ambassador said, bowing deeply.
Gerald leaned in to Ilrica. “Boy, she is really scary sometimes.”
“Only to spineless button-mashers like these guys,” Ilrica whispered back.
A few minutes later, they exited the consulate, the Mara-Dellian delegates inside cheering in their high squeaky voices.
Ilrica yawned as security checked their identification. “Man, I don’t know why we even bother coming along to these things. The Duchess can handle these all by herself.”
The point of this is for you to get experience. I can’t think of a better education than watching a Ssykes negotiate. I should charge you for the privilege.
“I’ve certainly learned something,” Gerald said.
“What’s that?”
“Never oppose a Ssykes.”
Ilrica laughed.
Cha’Rolette gave a satisfied grin. You are learning, after all.
Ilrica stretched. “Okay, I’ll see you guys later. I’ve got some errands to run, then I have to go make sure our pair of NEET’s back on their ship eat their lunch. It’d be a real pain if they starved to death.”
As Ilrica leapt away, Gerald turned to Cha’Rolette. “Have you been able to find out anything since we got here?”
She narrowed her voice so that only he could hear. Yes, things are really getting tense out there. Zurra’s father is a much better politician than I would have suspected. He’s been signing up planets in opposition to the Bertulf military buildup. They’re calling it the Core-Worlds Sub-Federation. He’s already got two dozen worlds on his side, and he’s bringing in more just as fast as the Bertulf reassert control over their old territories.
“But that’s good right? I mean, with a force to oppose them, the Bertulf won’t dare make a military move, right?”
No, this is bad. The more the two sides entrench themselves, the closer we get to a full blown civil war within the Alliance. And the worst part is, it looks like Ssykes Industries is falling in on the side of the Bertulf.
“Why would they do that?”
War is good for business, but only if you end up on the winning side. Somehow, my father believes that the Bertulf are going to win. Until I know why he thinks that, I can’t really do anything.
“So, is there anything we can do?”
For now, we don’t have enough information. We could make things worse by acting rashly. Just watch and wait. I’ll keep digging.
“Okay.”
Now that business was over, they ran out of things to say. Cha’Rolette looked away from him, and he looked away from her. Things had been awkward between them ever since the incident with the oracle. They’d bump into each other, and nervously make an excuse to be somewhere else. Things were tense, and they were both feeling frayed.
“So... how long are we going to go on not speaking?” Gerald asked.
Cha’Rolette closed her beautiful eyes. You’re right. This has to end. Let’s find a place where we can talk.
“Lunch?”
Are you paying?
“What do you think?”
I’ll grab my card.
“Good idea.”
* * *
As the Tyo’sen family ate lunch together, the assassin stood up. Her rifle stretched nearly the entire length of the living room, the barrel resting just inside the windowsill, so it could not be seen from above. A series of forcefields acted as a flash suppressor. An articulated tripod carried the weight. There was no ego in her demeanor, no pride, just a sense of professionalism, and a programmed desire to complete the mission.
As the father finished a story about him and Sarai when they knew each other back in college, the whole family laughed together. They hadn’t the slightest notion that the memories were forged. The assassin caught a glimpse of her reflection in the living room mirror. For a moment, she could see in her mind the image of a man, holding her up above his head, a smile on his face. Was it a memory fragment she had picked up from someone while diving into them? Was it a glimpse from a past life? She deleted it without further speculation and returned to the task at hand.
* * *
Gerald and Cha’Rolette sat down together in a little corner café, just a few blocks from the consulate. It should have been a nice afternoon date, but instead it felt like a funeral. Cha’Rolette kept fiddling with her utensils and checking the time. She looked like she would rather be anywhere but there with him.
“You know, if you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be. I won’t blame you.”
What? No, I want to be here. I just... I have something I need to say, and I’m afraid how you’ll take it.
“Do you feel like you know me pretty well?”
Well, yes. You’re not all that complicated.
“Then you’ll know how I’ll react, so just get it out.”
She took some confidence from this.
Look Gerald, I have a confession to make.
“You realize I’m not actually a priest yet?”
She blushed with embarrassment. Stop joking, this is really hard for me to admit. Look, when I first started making donations to your mission...
“I know, I know, it was just part of your family’s practice of purchasing kharma.”
No, she said, reaching forward and grabbing his hand. It’s worse than that. Much worse.
“It is?”
Yes. Please listen.
She was relieved that he didn’t pull away this time, so she left her hand on his. My plan was to get you working for me, make you completely dependent on me, and then humiliate you in front of the entire academy. I was going to threaten to withdraw all of my support if you didn’t obey.
Gerald was too shocked to respond.
But now that I’m to that point in my plan, I just can’t go through with it. Somewhere along the way, everything changed. It’s tearing me up inside, I just had to tell you myself before you found out some other way.
Deeply hurt, Gerald pulled his hand away. He felt like he had just been kicked in the chest.
Say something...
Gerald realized he had been holding his breath. “I me
an... I dunno, what am I supposed to say? You... you were going to put all those kids out on the street, just to settle a personal quarrel with me?”
I know, she said, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. It was terrible, I realize that now. All those poor little kids.
She wiped her cheek. I promise you I’m not going to do it now. Whatever happens between us, they’re safe, okay?
Gerald’s face was pained. “I mean, can I even trust that? I feel like everything we’ve done together was a lie.”
No, it wasn’t a lie.
“It wasn’t?”
She shook her head. No, I was a lie, but you were true, and what we did was real. I was the only part that was false.
Gerald tried so hard to understand. He thought of little Nust with his camera, little Yurawaa with her dreams to be a brain doctor, little Vixikiz with his favorite game. He thought of them tossed out into the streets, at the mercy of the elements and the dregs of society. Most of them wouldn’t survive a week. Gerald felt like standing up and screaming at her. He strained to keep his voice in check, so much so that it cracked as he spoke. “I mean, these are just little kids, Duchess. Do you realize how evil that would have been?”
I know. I’m so ashamed, she said, her lip trembling. I’m so sorry. I’m just as bad as my father. I realize that now. I completely deserve it.
Seeing him so upset at her destroyed her. Knowing that he was completely justified only made it worse. She dropped down in her seat, weeping softly. Gerald was beyond furious. It took every ounce of willpower that he possessed to stay where he was. He wanted to run away, but he held his ground. Seeing her crying like this reminded him of Trahzi, and of Zurra. As angry as he was, he just couldn’t stand the thought of making another one of his friends cry. He didn’t want to hurt them anymore. Slowly, he allowed his fists to unclench.
“No, you are not like him,” Gerald forced himself to say.
Yes I am, she sobbed.
He reached up for his prayer beads, but they were gone. He said a silent prayer for strength. When people were mean to him, he felt like he could take it, but when they threatened those innocent little kids, it was something he just couldn’t stand for. And yet, he knew that unless he wanted to see Cha’Rolette also holed up in her quarters, he would have to find the strength to forgive her.
Slowly he reached out and tilted her chin up. Her eyes were all puffy and red from crying. “Someone like your father wouldn’t feel bad about the plan, nor would someone like that admit it to me, they’d just do it, right?”
I... guess so, she said, sniffling.
Gerald took out a handkerchief and handed it to her.
She looked like she was about to start crying again. Thank you... I know that wasn’t easy for you.
“It really wasn’t,” he said, taking a drink from his glass. “I have every right to be mad at you, but this is how I am choosing to react:”
She leaned forward, holding his handkerchief, hanging on his every word.
Gerald took a deep breath. “The person you are now would never hurt those kids. That is how I choose to look at this. Everything before that... is just something I’m choosing to let go of.”
Cha’Rolette’s eyes swam. Forgetting all decorum, she leaned over and hugged him. She buried her face into his muscular chest, and burst into fresh sobs as she let it all out.
I was so scared, she said. I was so scared that you’d hate me.
Her tears were so pure, he couldn’t help but hug her back.
“I believe in redemption,” he said. “I believe in second chances. I just... didn’t realize it would be this hard to forgive.”
She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. You do forgive me, right?
Gerald nodded, and realized that in his heart he really did. “Yes, I do.”
Thank you, she said, sobbing even louder into his chest.
* * *
While the father and kids played in the background, the assassin loaded a fist-sized round into the weapon and closed the breech. The tripod extended and she plugged herself into the weapon. Through the eyes of the flower vendor across the street from the café, a surveillance satellite orbiting above the city, and the city grid tectonic markers, she calculated the exact spot she was aiming for half a continent away. Air, pressure, wind velocity, barometric pressure, temperature, frontal activity, atmospheric composition and density, the positions of the planets and star in this system. Even the locations of comets and larger asteroids were taken into account in the miles and miles of calculations that ended with the single point in space that was her target. As the mother served up some sweet cream, the assassin placed her hand on the trigger, and the aether impeller whirred to life.
* * *
Cha’Rolette ordered the biggest dessert on the menu. She was so adorable as she ate it, he couldn’t help but smile. Her eyes shone as bright as the stars. She looked light, like she might just float away at any second with happiness. It was as if an enormous weight had been lifted off of her heart. To him, she looked as angelic and radiant as she had appeared in his vision of her. It was then that Gerald felt like he truly understood the beauty of forgiveness for the first time.
“I finally did it,” he thought to himself in relief. “I finally managed to get though a big ordeal without hurting one of my friends.”
Cha’Rolette’s eyes went wide with terror. GERALD, GET DOWN!
She grabbed him and yanked him out of his chair with all her strength. As he fell to the cobblestone there was a crack like a bull whip and their table exploded, along with half the café.
People screamed and ducked down. There had been no warning, there was no visible sign of where the shot had come from. People looked around frightfully, unsure of which way to run.
Gerald had just enough time to lift his head up. The table where he had been sitting had been reduced to splinters. If Cha’Rolette hadn’t grabbed him, he would have been liquidated. Injured patrons were pulling themselves out of the rubble. To the east, a hole as high as a man had been punched clean through an office building.
Cha’Rolette’s ringlets glowed as bright as the noonday sun. Every ounce of her strength went into the barrier she created. The second shot punched another hole through the office building. It struck her barrier just inches from Gerald’s face, cracking her shield and ricocheting the shot up into the spire of the Senate building. The spire snapped off at its base, falling into the lanes of air traffic. Cars and trucks fanned out in a panic to avoid the falling stonework, crashing into buildings and each other. Emergency defense fields attempted to come up, but their controls were sabotaged. Pedestrians screamed and ran for cover as cars, glass, and stone rained down to the streets below.
The air folded and four Ssykes bodyguards appeared and pressed their backs against her, shielding her from all sides. Their body armor hummed to life, creating a dome of energy around her.
They’re shooting at him! Quicker than thought, Cha’Rolette jumped away from her guards, throwing herself on top of Gerald, and rolled him over.
The third shot shattered her barrier completely, tearing into the ground where Gerald’s head had been, and boring down nearly a mile into the ground before finally burrowing itself to a stop.
Gerald heard screaming in his mind, louder than anything could have physically been heard by his ears. It shook his entire frame. He could feel it all the way to his bones. There was something wet on his face. Without thinking, he reached up and touched it. His hand was covered in green blood. He looked over at Cha’Rolette, who was writhing on the ground next to him. All of the ta’atu on the right side of her head had been torn off by the shot. She gripped the bloody stumps, screaming in agony.
Gerald felt his heart break as he reached out for her. “NO!”
The Ssykes men were only a fraction of a second behind her. They jumped on top of her, desperate to save her life even at the cost of their own. The air folded around them, and they disappeared, taking Cha’Rolette and Ger
ald with them, just as the fourth shot punched through the office building and pitted the ground where they had been.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
There are, of course, laws in place to protect people from being prosecuted for crimes committed in previous lifetimes. This, however, does not stop personal quarrels from boiling over. Seeking out people who wronged them in a previous life is sadly common, and can perpetuate feuds for generations. Jilted ex-wives and husbands can be notoriously vindictive towards their cheating former spouses, and people who would never consider hurting another can be led to hunt down their killer once they find out they had been murdered in their last life. This has led to the development of two competing industries. One, a series of security agencies designed to help one conceal the identity of their previous lives, and another, a group of detective unions who can seek out people in their current incarnations for an exorbitant fee.
One of the worst cases of cross-life crime occurred between F’hartrokaan Sintas and Hosox Qeebvub of Alani, who managed to hunt down and murder each other back and forth through thirteen successive lifetimes before the courts finally sealed their incarnation records. As a general rule, you should never give out your former life information to anyone.
- A Quick and Simple Guide to The Galaxy, page 209, Tongzen Press
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Dyson, but physically your son is in perfect health,” the doctor said, patting little Gerald on the head. “He’s had an awful lot of broken bones, but they’ve all healed nicely, if that is what’s bothering you.”
Mary leaned forward, deep lines of worry on her face. “No, there’s something not right. Everything breaks around him. People keep getting strange diseases.”
“I don’t see how that can be blamed on your son. Since extraterrestrials started visiting, humans have been introduced to a whole new spectrum of...”
The doctor’s computer sparked and the screen went black.
* * *
“Hurry up!” Mary yelled, yanking on his arm as they walked down the trash-filled street.
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