“I no is common prisoner! You no can treat I like that!” Minn-O La-Fin tried that routine again, but I ignored it as usual and continued:
“You know very much and have a very high value to my faction, so I will turn you over to our investigators and they will conduct a very thorough interrogation. The information in your head is worth a lot, somewhat more than three thousand crystals!”
The girl again started testing the ropes and even tried slamming her head into the metal floor. I realized then why the Second Legion tied up their captives face down. It was so they couldn’t kill themselves by hitting the back of their head on a hard object. It was too late to tie up the rebellious girl any other way, so I simply placed her underwear beneath her head and threatened:
“You cannot kill yourself. I have a first aid kit, and I’ll heal you. But if you don’t stop jerking around or bite your tongue, I’ll stick a gag of lacy underwear in your mouth. Is that what you want? Or will you behave?”
Minn-O La-Fin went silent and just grumbled angrily. But when I reached for her panties and started balling them up, she looked scared and started talking:
“Alright, Gnat, I promising not to get out. No cripple, no suicide. Princess noble word!”
I stopped and sat back down on the box. The flashlight had rolled away, and I moved it back. It just so happened that its beam passed a different part of her anatomy on the way. She tried in vain to cross her legs, then Minn-O’s ashen gray cheeks started to blush in embarrassment.
“Gnat, why is you shame I? Military secret I is not know, value big only because Princess. If granddaughter is be dishonor, Thumor-Anhu La-Fin is take I title. And then no more worth.”
It was a fair remark. But I wasn’t trying to mock her. I just wanted to show her how inappropriate her pomposity was for this situation. Anyhow, I turned the flashlight and even offered to give the girl her underwear back and untie her, leaving just her wrists cuffed behind her back.
“Just like that? For free? Not for many thousand of crystal?” Minn-O La-Fin was extremely surprised at my unexpected mercy. But of course she didn’t refuse.
“Gnat, you is act nobility. Now telling, what is you title? Or you have military rank?”
Strange question. It even made me chuckle. Did Minn-O La-Fin really think that common decency was trait reserved for the nobility and military? I answered honestly that my homeland got rid of its aristocracy a long time ago and, although we did respect our military, I was more of a science type.
“How is this be?” The girl looked sincerely surprised. “But I am hear from Leng Thumor-Anhu that you is to be in many, many army tournament and winning all time!”
How could she know that?! Very few members of the H3 Faction were aware of my past, so hearing about it from an enemy was extremely surprising. My heart started jumping in my chest, but not because of impending danger. I felt I might be getting to something important. Minn-O La-Fin had seemingly slipped up and revealed secret information.
But I tried to pretend it was nothing, changed the topic and asked her to be quiet so I could concentrate. Then, while I dug around in the electrical system, the long-legged beauty sat in silence with her hands tied behind her back, shivering in the cold in her thin underwear.
Finally, I managed to figure out the correct arrangement of breakers, and all the lights turned on.
Electronics skill increased to level twenty-two!
Electronics skill increased to level twenty-three!
Great! Now I could turn on the engine and get back underway. Just then, my captive asked what I would do next, especially curious about her own fate.
“When we get nearer the shore, I’ll call for help on my radio. On shore, I’ll hand you over to faction leadership, and my diplomats can decide what to do with you. Maybe your grandfather will pay your ransom again if he can agree on a price. But if they cannot agree, you will be given to the Geckho to explain the four murders on the ferry. Our suzerains will most likely have a ton of questions, so I cannot imagine how you’ll squeeze out of it...”
Minn-O La-Fin jumped sharply off the box, raised her voice to a scream, and started justifying herself:
“My people here is not involve! This suggest is my personals servant! Only he is blame! Only he is Geckho punish!”
“Mhm, they might even believe you if you say it like that!” I replied sarcastically. “If two random soldiers killed a few Geckho, only they would be punished. It would probably barely reflect on your faction. But you, a Princess, were mixed up in this. You’re the granddaughter of a coruler, so there can be no doubt that this operation was both planned and agreed-upon by your grandfather.”
“No! Not be! Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin is not know! This is my slave suggest plan for revenge Gnat, and I agree! You bring shame for noble girl before, and I need be to revenge Gnat to keep honor! Is law of my people!”
“And how did that go? Feeling avenged?” I chuckled mockingly. “I've taken so much from you in the last few days my inventory is full. And yet you came back for even more revenge... Do you think your grandfather will be happy when he sees how it turned out this time? Now you made Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin look like a big-talking oath-breaker.”
“How? No, this no be!” But now the Cartographer girl was afraid. Clearly, the threat of her being interrogated by people or Geckho was not so frightening to her as angering the strict Psionic Mage.
“Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin promised in very bombastic terms with many Geckho around that your faction would not ambush or track me as I left the spaceport. But not only was I tracked, you snuck onto a ferry, killed some Geckho and tried to pin it on me. What are promises of a Dark Faction Leng even worth if they cannot be trusted?! When the Geckho find out about this, your grandfather’s reputation will fall very, very far...”
I had never before seen such authentic horror in Minn-O La-Fin’s eyes, even when she was being attacked by the lusty harpy. She started shaking and said with resignation:
“If grandfather authority is to fall, rage of old man be terrible... I can even losing title. This shame worse than to die.”
I decided to take pity on the pretty noble girl, and tried to reassure her even if she was from a hostile faction:
“Minn-O, I am not planning to raise this topic with the Geckho, so if you do not mention it, nothing bad will happen with your title. After all, I realize that you are not only a warrior, but a member of a ruling family... whatever that means in your world.”
“Gnat,” she sighed, her emotions overflowing. She paused, trying to find the words. “I am to hate you so, so bad before. This same amount I admire you nobility now. When your faction to lose war soon, I say word for take you on our side! Your glowing eyes be so pretty. You is find girl my planet fast-fast and live happy!”
Probably, Minn-O La-Fin meant that as a compliment, but I really didn’t like her confidence in her side’s impending victory.
“My ass! That will never happen!” I turned as serious as possible. I steeled my voice, looked right into her eyes and said, “Minn-O, I will do everything in my power to defeat your faction. I swear it! But as for you...” I took a decisive step toward her and, taking advantage the Princess’s cuffed hands, embraced the girl and kissed her right on the lips.
Minn-O clearly was taken aback by my audacity, and spent a few seconds frozen, not stopping me. But that didn’t last too long.
Danger Sense skill increased to level nine!
Feeling her knee heading for my crotch, I easily dodged and, smiling in satisfaction, walked away from the spooked girl:
“That is just a down payment. It seems like, every time we meet, you end up totally or partially naked. This is the third time and its making me think. And if your peculiar attempts at ‘revenge’ don’t stop, I’ll think you're trying to set up these situations on purpose. This time you even painted your breasts and shaved your pubes. So, are we clear? Great. And now let’s go upstairs. You will show me how to turn on the ferry’s engine.”
<
br /> Chapter Thirty-Three. Radugin’s Bunker
DESPITE THE LATE HOUR, my return to the Capital did not go unnoticed. Dozens of faction members came out to see me get out of the Peresvet. It met me at the cargo pier in the Antique Beach and brought me right to our central fortified citadel. Somehow, all these people knew that a Prospector by the name of Gnat had returned from a two-day space flight on a Geckho shuttle, and not empty-handed. I was met with shouts of greeting, given approving slaps on the shoulders and asked all kinds of questions about space.
Fame increased to 24.
All the attention and kindness were great, but I couldn’t stay and chat. I was expected by Dome leader Leng Radugin and both of his deputies, Tyulenev and Lozovsky. They were in the Leng’s office deep under the fortified citadel. I didn’t want to keep them waiting, so I hurried to the meeting, despite the fact that my legs were shaking in exhaustion and my mind could barely think.
The muscular First Legion soldiers brought my heavy cargo containers into the headquarters, and the prisoner, hidden under opaque fabric, was taken by the arms and legs and brought somewhere else. Accompanied by two high-level First Legion troops, I took an elevator deep under the earth to our holiest of holies — the command center for all the H3 Faction’s nodes and combat divisions.
I walked past a few guard posts and armored doors until I found myself in a huge brightly-lit room. In the middle of it, there was a huge ovular table with an eerily glowing surface. I walked up closer.
Well, well! This wasn’t a table at all, but a huge screen, divided into a bunch of equilateral hexagons. It was a map of our territories and the neighboring nodes in greatest possible detail. It showed all the buildings, fortifications, hills, forests, roads, divisions, moving vehicles and even individual soldiers! As soon as I realized what it was, I turned away before anything stuck in my memory.
“Good move, Gnat! That could spoil your whole Cartography-leveling tactic,” chuckled an unfamiliar man standing across the table from me. His face was strange, but he had Tyulenev’s voice.
Unlike the portly bald man with a huge beer belly in the real world, Tyulenev was a normal person in the game, a slightly chubby man with a thick head of red hair and a bristling red beard. It was fairly unusual to see such a large difference. After all, every other person I’d met in the game looked more or less the same as in the real world. But there must have been a reason for this. The Dome’s third in command was wearing a scratched-up heavy armor exoskeleton. The laser rifle on his belt, though, was nearly pristine.
The game avatar of diplomat Ivan Lozovsky was standing next to him. He was not much different from the real man. But I was most interested in Dome leader Radugin, because I had never seen him before.
Leng Radugin. Human. H3 Faction. Level-84 Administrator
I do not know how this person looked in the real world but, in the game, he was a forty-year-old dark-haired man with the appearance of a typical academic, very gaunt and with slightly slumping shoulders. Unlike his deputies, Radugin was not wearing armor, and not even military-style clothing. He had on a civilian suit, a white shirt and even a tie.
“Mission complete, sirs! The voyage with the Geckho crew was a success! I established personal contact with Geckho and proved my worth as a Prospector. They also hired me for two more flights! On the asteroid, I discovered a Relict outpost and took some ancient artifacts! On the ferry back, I was attacked by the Dark Faction, but I fought them off!”
“Great, Gnat! Sit down,” Radugin pointed me to the edge of the interactive table, because there were no chairs or even stools in the room. “And now, we want to hear every detail.”
* * *
My tale lasted more than two hours. I was brutally tired and about to collapse, but I couldn’t make it any shorter no matter how hard I tried. They were constantly asking me to clarify details, and some parts had to be retold many times. They wanted to know everything — how the Geckho crew functioned, their numbers and professional makeup, flight time, overload tolerance, whether the air was breathable by humans, the inner structure of the shuttle...
My high-detail scan of the Shiamiru was a real coup. My three leaders spent at least half an hour looking over the three-dimensional diagram, changing the angle to see different parts and discussing animatedly. Lead scientist Gerd Valentin Ustinov was even called to the meeting to try and copy the three-dimensional render to another computer. It took him a while, but he managed, then dashed off to the Prometheus with the invaluable data and a full inventory of supplies from my containers.
Also, Ustinov took the light spacesuit I’d been issued by Captain Uraz Tukhsh. I tried to protest and explained that it was only temporarily issued to me and I would soon have to return it, but I couldn’t stop him. My three bosses were on his side, so there was nothing I could do. Gerd Ustinov just gave me a vague promise that he would do his best not to damage it, but he wouldn’t go so far as to make any guarantees.
After that, I didn’t even mention the Annihilator. The last thing I needed was to have that priceless item taken from me and potentially lose the armored Listener's suit!
Landing on the asteroid, studying it and drilling, the automatic processor, levitators, the Relict base, the guard drone, the gravitation crane, the artifacts, the Listener’s suit, the bracelet... I showed them the bracelet, but the extreme Intelligence requirement immediately chilled their enthusiasm. As far as I understood, no one in our faction had an Intelligence of twenty-eight, so we couldn’t even determine its properties. I got the bracelet back and continued my story.
At the part about the asteroid explosion, Leng Radugin grilled me about whether Leng Waid Shishish’s cruiser had survived, but unfortunately I didn’t know.
“Well, that fact is extremely important to us and our Earth as a whole,” Radugin explained. “Leng Shishish was recently appointed viceroy of a large sector of the galaxy for his service to Krong Daveyesh-Pir, and that includes our home planet. And his Tinakuro star cruiser is the flagship of the Geckho fleet meant to come to humanity’s aid if we’re invaded.”
Ivan Lozovsky agreed that the condition of the cruiser was of great importance to humanity and promised to ask Kosta Dykhsh about it.
But I continued my story. The flight back, landing in the spaceport, breaking the gravity compensator, the tense encounter in the restaurant, my purchases in the shop, getting on the ferry...
Just then, we were joined by Gerd Tamara. Security let the leader of the Second Legion right through and the severe paladin just stood there in her armor suit, listening attentively to my story.
Meanwhile, I described last night’s battle. Three members of the Dark Faction tried to take me prisoner and killed some Geckho. Then I had a firefight with Minn-O La-Fin, she’d tried to mine the ferry, I stopped her with poison gas, took her prisoner and made a scan. I replaced the Annihilator with the shotgun in my story, though. Other than that, it was the pure truth.
They all listened attentively, although the scan of the ferry was not of much interest. As far as I understood, our scientists already knew how to build such technology, so it didn’t have much value, given we already had other proof of who killed the Geckho on board.
When I told them that Minn-O La-Fin and her powerful grandfather knew about my past before the Dome, though, there was a storm of discussion. As far as I understood from the pitched dispute that followed, Leng Radugin himself didn’t know this, which was to say nothing of common faction players. They came to the conclusion that the only people who might know worked in staffing, which left us with Tyulenev and the curators of the Dome project, who were not in the game. The third in command went pale and hiccupped out that he was not involved but would certainly figure out how it leaked.
Leng Radugin was in a very decisive mood and pressured his subordinate:
“Tyulenev, this is in your own best interest! I give you two days. After that, I need the names of the traitors! For the duration of this investigation, you are forbidden from l
eaving the Capital!!!”
Finally, I finished my narration with Minn-O La-Fin helping me turn the thrusters back on and docking the ferry in a severe storm, just barely scratching it. Sure, a few of the Geckho pier’s posts had to be reset, but that was nothing in comparison with my saving the ferry from being blown up or sunk.
“This is all coming together very well for us,” Lozovsky said when I finally finished. “First, we can drag the Dark Faction through the mud face first. Killing four Geckho is a very serious crime, and our suzerains will demand extravagant compensation.”
Gerd Tamara cut into the conversation for the first time:
“If it was officially approved, then yes. But Leng Thumor-Anhu and the other corulers can easily claim they were not involved and place the blame on insignificant pawns. Knowing the Dark Faction, the scapegoats will be quickly executed in the real world. That will simultaneously prove how upset they are and destroy evidence. But the Dark Faction as a whole will be relatively unscathed and only have to pay a monetary penalty. I can even imagine its maximum amount. Remember when our soldiers accidentally shot Kosta Dykhsh when he was poking around where he shouldn’t have been? They made us pay eighty thousand crystals. It should be less for common Geckho, but even if it is the same, that comes to three hundred twenty thousand crystals. The Dark Faction is loaded, so that’s like birdshot to an elephant!”
Lozovsky and Tyulenev agreed with the leader of the Second Legion that such a financial penalty wouldn’t be a huge burden to them. Leng Radugin heard them out and asked about the situation with Minn-O La-Fin. Ivan Lozovsky answered thoughtfully:
“If it can be proven that she took part in killing the Geckho, Minn-O La-Fin will be punished severely in her world. She’ll either lose her title or be sentenced to death. But it isn’t hard to see that her influential grandfather will say she was not involved, and it was all her companions’ idea. Perhaps, the Leng will manage to protect her reputation. At any rate, it makes no difference to us whether she is charged with a crime. This issue will be settled purely between the Geckho and Dark Faction. It won’t come back on us.”
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