by C. M. Kane
***
Tae bought her jumper into land aboard the Olympus. She swallowed nervously, because this time she was by herself. This time there was no back up; no second chances at escape if things went pear shaped. She had put her trust fully in fate and the whims of a God, or Titan as she now knew he was. She felt a bit like she was walking into the lion’s den dressed as a juicy piece of steak, and it was just coming up to feeding time. She hoped the gift she had for them might soothe the worst of their ire towards her and Brightmoon, and hopefully let her achieve at least some of her aims. Several of her crew had offered to travel with her, the chief of which had been Xirra who had argued the point heatedly, surprising Tae with her insistence. But as Tae had pointed out, she needed strong people like her to lead the Tuvarnans to safety should her efforts fail and she be captured and punished, besides which, she, like everyone else onboard needed to come to a decision about their futures very soon. Xirra had pouted, very prettily, and had reluctantly relented, and Tae had made a hasty departure before any other problems could arise.
Her jumper touched down with a light bump, she saw that Tannan was waiting for her in basically the same spot as her last visit. She quickly shut the jumper’s engines down, got out and walked directly to him.
He smiled at her in greeting. ‘It’s good to see you again, Captain Rames, if you’ll come with me they are in the Garden waiting.’
Tae looked up at Tannans smiling face. ‘No scans this time?’ She asked in surprise.
Tannans smile turned into a grin. ‘No point really, even when we do a scan you seem to be able to smuggle what-ever you want onboard anyway.’
Tae smiled tentatively. ‘I’m sorry if I got you in trouble, Tannan, believe me that wasn’t my intention, and please it’s just Tae, not Captain. I do have one large crate onboard my jumper that I need brought to the meeting if you can arrange it?’
Tannan nodded and called over a tech that was unloading some boxes nearby. He immediately loaded up Tae’s large container and followed them towards the garden, Tannan talking to her as they went.
‘I know it wasn’t your intention to cause trouble, besides, your last visit made the Gods stop and think, you made them talk to each other in a way they haven’t for a very long time, the changes in Lord Zeus alone have been subtle, but none the less, equably remarkable. Once they finally started talking they worked out most of their problems, so everything worked out well, and that’s all because of you.’
Tae sighed in relief, just before she remembered the song she had left Zeus. ‘Umm, what about the song?’ She asked warily.
Tannan laughed outright, ‘Well, from what I was told, the other Gods certainly enjoyed it, as to what Lord Zeus thought, I’m afraid you’ll have to ask him that yourself.’
They arrived at the garden effectively cutting off Tae’s answer. She took another calming breath, squared her shoulders, and plastered a look of total determination on her face, then entered.
Tannan followed directly behind her. Tae was glad she had composed herself beforehand, instead of just Zeus being there; he had also bought along Loki- the Buttroach- as well as Vulcan and Ares. All of them were sitting at the large table that was there on her last visit. Tae’s chair opposite was on the slightly lower level facing them. Well if they thought she was going to let that intimidate her they were mistaken. She walked swiftly over to the vacant chair and sat; crossing her legs she leant back and smiled brightly at them, all whilst ignoring Loki- the crud ball.
‘So, My Lords, shall we get straight down to business then,’ she asked with no preamble.
Zeus raised his eyebrows, ‘I believe this is your show, Captain, so, what requests of us do you have in mind then?’
Tae braced herself and started, ‘I would like to ask that the Tuvarnans be allowed to resettle their home planet, with a little help from the Gods. They will need some help with housing and basic foods to tide them over until they can rebuild their own dwellings and plant crops, as well as getting some more animal life onto the planet.’
Zeus nodded, he was more than happy to accede to Tae’s request, but he quickly added his own terms to their agreement. ‘As long as they in turn abide by all our laws and caste systems, as well as erect our temples for prayer, to remind them of our continued presence in their lives, than I will agree.’
Tae nodded ‘They have already discussed it and have agreed to those terms if you were to request them,’ she said breathing a sigh of relief.
Zeus turned to Tannan, ‘arrange it,’ Tannan immediately noted it on his ever present Com-tab.
Tae continued. ‘I have a friend on Terra, her name is Margarete Teshan. She was very badly burnt when she was younger. I would request that your Med Techs fix her scaring as best they can, as well as return the House of Aphrodite in Jaxburg where she works to its original glory, instead of the smelly run down dump it is today.’
Zeus frowned in confusion. ‘I don’t understand, the major houses collect taxes from all the houses to take care of the upkeep and running of everyone equally, and that includes the smaller and obviously less successful houses, yet you say this woman’s place of work is a dump?’
Tae nodded. ‘Valaria said there’s been no upkeep in years.’
Zeus was outraged; he turned to Tannan and said slowly, ‘send some WLE Warriors and techs to all the Terran houses immediately. I want them to go over all of the accounts thoroughly. If any houses have been cheated I want those responsible for it sent to the Island at the first available opportunity. I will not have workers cheated out of what is rightfully theirs by a greedy few! In the meantime have this house, and any others that may need it, rebuilt to a fit state, and arrange for the woman’s surgery, as well as any credits that may be owed in compensation for her enforced hardship.’ Once again Tannan noted it down and started the process of issuing immediate orders.
Zeus turned back to her with a raised eyebrow, a signal for her to continue. Tae took a deep breath knowing her biggest request was coming and hoping she had lulled them with her easy requests.
‘I would also request that you order the entire planet of Thall to come in line with all of the other planets in your realms with their Caste system. I would like to formally request that they be given freedom of choice, and that their current system of being born into a Caste is scrapped, in favor of individuals picking one at the age of seventeen when their schooling finishes. In other words, I am requesting that the Thalien people have the exact same rights as every other planet in your realms.’
Zeus frowned again; he was genuinely perplexed by the request. ‘They already have freedom of choice; ever since the majority of their Warrior Caste was trapped under that bloody distortion field and some of the Worker Caste had to take over their duties.’
Tae nodded. ‘I know that, but it hasn’t actually been made into law yet. I would like you to officially make it law from this day forward, so that all of your realms stand together as true equals.’
Zeus knew from the look on her face that this simple request was important to her for some unfathomable reason. What the hell, he thought, it’s already a fact, easy enough to make it law. ‘I agree to the condition,’ he shrugged unconcernedly and turned to Tannan nodding again.
Tae smiled in relief, she had done what Cassandra had always dreamed of; she had just made the entire Thalien race equal like everyone else. ‘Thank you, Lord Zeus.’
Zeus looked confused at her sudden formality and politeness, he watched in mild alarm as she raised her com watch to her mouth.
‘Please excuse me a moment while I contact my second,’ she said with a smile. ‘Adam, Lord Zeus has just agreed, you may begin, good luck my friend, and I hope we meet again one day soon.’ She listened to Adams reply then turned back to the now four highly suspicious frowning Gods.
‘As a mark of my appreciation for your concessions I have just had my second, Adam, collapse the distortion field that has held the majority of Thalls Warrior Caste trapped. You see it was Ca
ssandra who originally trapped them, with the help of Brightmoon. Since then she has been storing the Tuvarnans under it every time their numbers rose too high to stay onboard the ship. They were simply waiting for the day when they could return to their home in peace; that day is now here thanks to your generosity.’ She paused in thought before adding, ‘but I think you might want to have Lord Poseidon nip over and explain the new rules to the old Warrior Caste leaders, before something unfortunate occurs.’
Loki started laughing, ‘Well at least we now know what you were up to, and I notice you elicited Zeus’s promise before you released the warriors.’
Tae smiled benignly. ‘I, of course, had full confidence Lord Zeus would see the wisdom of my request, regardless of when I asked it.’
Zeus raised an unbelieving eyebrow. ‘Oh yes, I really believe that, especially after the little song you left me,’ he said dryly.
Tae reddened at the reminder of her rudeness. ‘I must apologize for that, my Lord, and beg your forgiveness,’ she said as contritely as possible.
Zeus simply stared at her, while Vulcan, Ares, and Loki all grinned. ‘I wish I could be there to listen to Poseidon explain the new Caste rules to Griffon the Warrior Castes leader,’ laughed Ares. ‘That’s going to be an interesting time.’
Zeus turned back to Tannan, ‘Contact Poseidon at once and inform him of what’s happened, tell him to make all possible haste to Thall to keep the peace. Tell him to issue what-ever threats will be needed to keep everyone in line. Better yet, he can tell them if anyone disagrees with the new rules they are welcome to the recently terra-formed moon of Davon seven to begin a new life. You can also send a contingent of Wolven and Vampires from the WLE to enforce the peace. I don’t expect too much trouble, but tensions will be high for a time.’ Tannan nodded and walked away a little to contact the Atlantis so Poseidon knew what had just occurred.
Zeus then turned back to Tae again, ‘So is that all, or do you have more requests?’
Tae nodded, ‘Just two more, I would like for any of Brightmoons crew that wish to stay onboard to be able to keep their positions.’ At Zeus’s look of concern she continued on quickly. ‘They are a good and loyal people, Zeus. They will follow what-ever Captain you put onboard with both bravery and loyalty. I have already informed them that if you were to allow any to stay they would have to abide by your wishes, they are also prepared to give you their pledges if you wish them.’
Zeus nodded reluctantly, ‘I give you my word that I will seriously consider this request before I finally decide, and the last thing?’
Tae looked at each of them in turn before she said quietly, ‘please don’t hurt Brightmoon, she’s not what you think’
Zeus looked at the others than back to Tae. ‘What do you mean?’
‘She’s alive,’ she said, and then started her explanation of her time on board the Dreadnaught, from her arrival through the time bubble, up until her last escape from the Olympus. She went through everything that Cassandra had told her about the ship, including her own experiences in receiving her extra Nanites, and then of her bonding experience. When she was finished she sat back and looked at the four stunned faces in front of her.
‘Sentient,’ murmured Vulcan staring at Tae, excitement building rapidly in his eyes. ‘If this is true, than that must mean those red moving lights on the hull…’ he stopped for a moment as his eyes widened in shocked comprehension.
‘What? What’s wrong? Zeus asked quickly.
‘Those shifting red patterns,’ said Vulcan. ‘I think they’re nanite swarms.’
‘That’s impossible; nanites are microscopic, for us to be able to see anything like that would put each pattern in the Vigintillions!’ Said Zeus.
‘Yes, but it would also make sense with everything I have learned from the limited sensor readings that I have obtained so far.’ Vulcan turned to Tae and stared at her whilst deep in thought.
‘Do you have any evidence of any of this?’Ares cut in suspiciously.
‘Honestly, Ares you are the most suspicious person I have ever met in my entire life,’ said Tae. ‘As a matter of fact I have a little of the record of my receiving my second, much larger lot of nanites. Adam recorded it at the time.’
She asked Radnor who was standing behind Loki for his com-tab, when he handed it to her she downloaded the vid Adam had given her to play onto it, and from there onto the large com screen behind them all. She had never seen what had happened from this viewpoint before, and found she was quite interested. She watched curiously as Adam lead her into the room and explained what could happen. She saw Loki frowning when Adam mentioned the procedure could kill her. Ares and Zeus on the other hand, looked interested in what was about to happen. Vulcan was the surprise to Tae; he was on the edge of his seat, his eyes practically glowing with curiosity. She saw Adam give her the Freya’s breath immobilizing her body; he then strapped her head down firmly. They seen him hesitate, frowning to himself just behind her, before he took a deep breath and touched the injector to the base of her skull. Shortly after that the agonized screaming began.
She caught Loki’s flinch out of the corner of her eye. ‘If it’s any consolation, it was as bad as it looks,’ she said in a matter of fact tone.
‘After a while Cassandra came to me and took me away from the pain for a while, when I returned to myself after her death, it was more… manageable,’ she turned the vid off. ‘The rest you know up until now,’ she concluded.
‘Damn it, this is not what I expected,’ muttered Zeus to himself as he quickly gathered his errant thoughts, ‘That being said, you are still far too young and inexperienced to be in charge of that ship, there has to be another solution.’
Tae shrugged. ‘Well if you want me out than your going to have to subject someone to that, and you must also take into account what Brightmoon wants. I have already told you she’s sentient, so please remember she has a mind and feelings of her own. She doesn’t just agree to do anything I want, I usually have to explain things as best I can to her and hope that she trusts me, and she also has her own wants and needs that must be addressed. As it is, when I tried to explain she might have to have a new Captain well, she definitely wasn’t happy. In fact she got so upset her weapons targeting switched on and she started to search around for something to blast. That’s when I backed off the subject, but she still seems quite sullen, so I decided to leave it up to you to work out.’
She smiled calmly and looked directly at Ares, ‘and if the thought of killing me so Brightmoon has no choice but to accept someone else comes to mind, please don’t forget she has already killed all the others that came before me, the ones she decided she didn’t want. She’s highly intelligent intellectually and understands everything that I say now. I don’t have to resort to picturing things in my mind when I speak to her anymore, she’s learning and adapting to my mind incredibly quickly, but emotionally it’s a different story. At times she can behave more like a small child of around two or three, most other times she’s much more like a young adult. Now you have to ask yourselves this question; what might an enraged child or teenager do if you deliberately took away, or hurt, the one person they love and trust totally? The one person they have waited millennia for. Theoretically you could have a homicidal Dreadnaught on your hands if she finds out you killed me; and trust me when I say, she has a lot more to offer in a fight than what you were witness to with Hera.’
Zeus looked at Tae for a long moment, his face showing no emotion. Tae met his eyes with a calm surety of her own; whatever happened now was up to him to decide. She’d just lobbed a nice big hand grenade named Brightmoon into his lap.
‘We need to think on this for a while, Radnor, please escort Captain Rames to the room she was using before she left us so abruptly.’
Radnor came forward immediately. ‘Yes, My Lord’ He turned to Tae, ‘this way please, Captain.’
Tae rose and looked from Zeus to the other Gods, ‘My Lords, there’s one more thing you need to k
now before I go.’ At their immediate interest Tae continued. ‘Before she was destroyed, Hera managed to get off a single narrow beam message through the portal. Brightmoon blocked it as soon as she could, but what went through was more than enough.’ She stared into the frowning faces before her. ‘It was complete instructions on how to make a portal device, along with one portal address– Salernis.’
Zeus leaped to his feet swearing violently, his hand grasping the handle of his sword. ‘She betrayed everyone; just for her own petty revenge.’ He turned his enraged eyes on Tae who stepped back involuntarily. ‘I curse the day I let her get away with murder; this is my fault for not acting when I could have.’ He laughed bitterly. ‘She made one mistake though,’ he turned and looked at the others, a chilling smile curling his lips. ‘She thought we would be unprepared, she thought we would lose, but once again we’re about to prove to Cronus and his progeny just how badly they have underestimated us.’
‘I will take my leave then, My Lords, Tae said formally, before she gave a light bow and turned to follow Radnor from the room, leaving the Gods to discuss all she had just told them. She realized with a start she hadn’t even mentioned the clue Cassandra had given her, nor had they asked, and after her last little bombshell she figured they probably had enough new information to sort through. She hoped fervently that Brightmoon had gotten over their little discussion earlier. The trouble was, Tae thought the Dreadnaught was up to something, it had gone suspiciously quiet after their little chat. Unfortunately there were still a couple of areas of the ship that Brightmoon refused even her access to. One was what Tae thought of as her “lab”, where the ship built things like the buzz bombs. The other area was the top seven floors of the ship, which she refused to give anyone access to, no matter how much she tried to cajole her. Not knowing what the Brightmoon was up to had never worried her before, as it had always seemed to fit in with Tae’s own plans nicely, now she was starting to get concerned she might not like the ships next little “surprise” for her.