by M. D. Cooper
Diana drew a sharp breath, again rose from her throne, and walked down the stairs to inspect the object Tanis held.
“That is exquisite, how did you do that?” Diana asked as she stretched a hand toward Tanis’s, though she did not go so far as to touch the gem.
Tanis eyed Diana from under a furrowed brow. “We can tell you, but in a private audience.”
“Petra, your friends don’t play fair, piquing my interest like this. Very well—though your guards will have to stay behind.”
Petra looked at Tanis and Sera, both of whom nodded. “That is more than acceptable to us, Empress.”
Diana’s guards, however, were not so accommodating, and five of them followed the group through a door on the left of the dais and down a hallway that led to a plush lounge, decorated in warm browns and light greens.
The guards waited outside, along with Berger, who had tagged along only to be refused entry.
After the door closed, Diana gave a mighty shiver, and the layer of ice melted away, leaving her standing in a blue, hooded skinsheath.
“Danny told me I wouldn’t get cold in that thing, but dammit, it was freezing. Thank stars you gave me a good excuse to get out of there. Even sitting on plasma couldn’t keep me warm.”
“Quite the trick, sitting on plasma,” Tanis said.
“But that’s just what it was,” Diana replied with a conspiratorial—rather haughty—wink. “A trick.”
She pulled the hood off her head, revealing a hairless scalp, before walking across the room to an opaque vertical stand. She walked behind it, gave a momentary sigh, and then walked out, wearing a loose, long black dress, and hair to match.
“Much better. I adore form-fitting clothing as much as you do, President Sera, but sometimes one needs some breathing room.”
Tanis laughed. “If only President Sera were wearing clothing.”
“A trick of your own to impress me?” Diana asked as she approached Sera and examined her outfit. “But that is just what skin-clothing is. A trick. But that,” Diana turned and pointed at the onyx and sapphire gem Tanis still held. “That is not a trick. Or if it is, it bested the scan tech in my audience chamber.”
“It is no trick,” Tanis replied, offering the crystal to Diana.
Diana took the crystal and felt its surface, slowly running a finger down its length. “Truly a thing of beauty…and formed right out of your hand. You must be more than a mere assistant, Jenny Sirana.”
“May we sit?” Petra asked, gesturing to the burgundy sofas arranged around the edges of a sunken seating area.
“Yes, by all means,” Diana replied. “I suppose if you are to tell me something weighty, we had all best be seated comfortably.”
Once they had taken their places—Diana on one sofa, Petra on a chair to her right, and Sera and Tanis on another sofa across from the empress—Petra began the real introductions.
“I fear we misled you somewhat when we secured this audience. Sera Tomlinson is not the President of the Miriam League. She is, rather, the President of the Transcend Interstellar Alliance.”
“That is most curious,” Diana replied. “I’ve not heard of such an alliance.”
“We work very hard—or we did, at least—to make sure that knowledge of the Transcend does not spread beyond its borders,” Petra replied.
“And those borders would be where?”
Tanis noticed a familiarity in the body language between Petra and Diana that denoted more than just strong friendship. Yet at the same time, Diana clearly treated Petra as a subordinate; someone to leap at her every order.
Petra, despite being a powerful woman in her own right, seemed to never hesitate before responding to Diana, and her body language was clearly subservient.
Petra summoned a holoprojection of the Inner Stars, and Tanis remembered all too well when Sera gave her this same explanation in Jason Andrews’s office.
The Orion Arm of the galaxy appeared in the projection, with major nations, empires, federations, and alliances highlighted. One of the largest, which was roughly centered around the Theta Carinae Cluster, was the Scipio Empire. There were no noted political entities outside of the Orion Arm, nor were there any settled star systems along the arm further than three-thousand light years from Sol.
Though the volume of space contained over three hundred million stars, Tanis knew that fewer than fifty million of them had been visited by humans, and only a fraction of those actually held permanent populations.
“This map is not unfamiliar to me,” Diana said as it appeared before them. “What are you trying to indicate with it?”
Petra inclined her head. “If you will, Empress. This is the scope of human expansion, as you know it. You see that few human settlements exist beyond a two thousand light year radius of Sol. This is a falsehood that the Transcend perpetuates.”
As Petra spoke, stars began to flash further along the Orion Arm, both spinward and anti-spinward, as well as out into the regions between the arms. When they were done, an area nearly ten times the volume of the Inner Stars was highlighted.
“This is the true scope of human expansion though the stars,” Sera said. “What you recognize as humanity’s domain, we call the ‘Inner Stars’. The area beyond is called the ‘Transcend’.”
Diana looked from Sera to Petra—who was nodding—and then back to Sera. “You’re kidding me. That region is vast! It would have taken millennia to settle it.”
“It has,” Sera replied. “But that is what our people do—well, we build more than settle…or at least we did.”
Diana’s eyes grew wide, and she sat back, clearly shocked. “You’re from the FGT! You’re the lost FGT ships!”
“I don’t think we were ever lost,” Sera said with a wink.
Diana’s gaze turned to Petra, and Tanis could see that the Empress was not happy. Tanis couldn’t blame her; to have a friend lie to you about everything…it was not easy to deal with.
“So are you not from the Miriam League?” Diana asked Petra.
“Not exactly, no. The Miriam League is a puppet nation of the Transcend. We have nations all along the edge of the Inner Stars that we use to slow outward expansion.”
“So you’re corralling the…Inner Stars, as you call them.”
“We’ve been protecting ourselves,” Sera interjected. “During, and after, the FTL Wars, the FGT ships were targets. I’m sure you know of the Oregon. There were other incidents, as well. We decided to move out of range, so to speak, and set up our own civilization.”
“You’re not acquitting yourself well,” Diana replied. “From where I stand, it looks like you’re hoarding technology and manipulating the rest of humanity as though we are your little experiment.”
Tanis could see Diana’s point. It was not an unfair assessment, and she expected that it was a response they would often receive.
“You need to understand, Diana,” Petra said in calm, even tones. “For a time, the Transcend thought that it was the ark. It appeared as though the bulk of humanity was determined to wipe itself out. We tried to help several times, but it never went well. That is why the FGT disappeared.”
Diana didn’t respond immediately, instead drawing long, slow breaths as she examined each of the three women in turn. “Why now, and why me?” she finally asked.
“Because war is coming,” Sera replied. “And we need your help.”
Diana shook her head, an incredulous look on her face. “What could the mighty Transcend need from Scipio?”
> “We need you to help us because we are not one united front,” Sera said. “Things beyond the Inner Stars are not so simple.”
“They rarely are,” Diana said with an exaggerated sigh. “Tell me then, Sera of the Transcend, what troubles do you face?”
“My father—the former President of the Transcend—and another FGT captain, Kirkland, rarely saw eye-to-eye. My father believed—”
“Wait,” Diana interrupted. “Your last name…Was your father related to Jeffrey Tomlinson, captain of the Starfarer?”
Sera laughed without humor. “He was not related to him, he was the captain of the Starfarer.”
“Yet the note of sorrow I hear in your voice tells me he has only recently passed away,” Diana observed.
“That is true. My father was assassinated only four months ago—by agents of Praetor Kirkland.”
“The president and the praetor. Then I must assume that your Transcend had a schism at some point.”
Sera nodded. “Some three thousand years ago, though it was a slow progression for some time. The Transcend is very large; even with FTL it takes centuries for news to reach every corner.”
“Yes,” Diana nodded, examining the galactic display before her. “That you’ve managed only one fracture in such a long time is very impressive.”
“We occupy a large volume of space, but our population density is nothing like the Inner Stars. Most of our development is in discrete areas.”
Diana smiled knowingly. “Behind dust clouds and nebulae. That was the genesis of Scipio, you know.”
“I’ve heard that, yes,” Sera replied. “We allow our disparate regions autonomy, though there is still an overarching central government.”
“And where do your borders with Praetor Kirkland’s regions lie?” Diana asked.
Petra updated the holoprojection to show lines drawn through the region beyond the Inner Stars. “The two halves are split along the Orion Arm of the galaxy. The Transcend controls the region of space on the coreward side, and Kirkland’s Orion Freedom Alliance controls the rimward side.”
“And you’re at war?” Diana asked.
“It’s mostly been a cold war,” Sera replied. “It is difficult to fight a battle on such a vast front.”
“So what has changed?” Diana asked.
Tanis wondered at Diana’s demeanor. She had been far more animated when Petra had told of the Transcend itself—of course, at the time it had been a solution, not a problem. Now the empress gave the impression of the calm before the storm.
It occurred to Tanis that Diana may have already known of the Transcend, but was playing along. The woman was likely a consummate actress.
“Two things have precipitated our new strategy,” Sera said. “Tanis?”
“Tanis?” Diana asked. “So your name is not Jenny Sirana?”
“No, it is not,” Tanis replied. “You might have heard of me; my name is Tanis Richards. I come from the ship you would know of as the GSS Intrepid.”
This time Diana showed more than a small reaction to that revelation—her eyes widened, and she sat forward. “Are you playing a game with me, Petra? I’ll admit to more than a little skepticism over this whole Transcend tale, but Tanis is a known quantity—so to speak.”
“None of this has been a trick, Empress,” Petra assured her. “I had hoped to have more time to share this news with you, but things are moving quickly.”
Diana peered at Tanis while running a finger along the gem she had taken. “You do not look like what the records show of Tanis Richards. I would not even believe you to be a relative of hers.”
Tanis nodded slowly, and as she did so, her face changed shape. Her forehead and cheekbones shifted, her jaw widened, and her nose shrunk.
The empress shook her head in disbelief. “I have scanning systems in here…they can see your bones, Tanis Richards…they changed shape.”
“They did,” Tanis said, then worked her jaw for a moment. “And it is far from an enjoyable process, let me tell you.”
Diana was silent for nearly a minute as she stared at Tanis, then at Sera. “You spoke of two things that have brought you out of the shadows. Your ship is the first thing, then,” Diana supplied, nodding to Tanis. “Your advanced technology coming into play—so to speak—has already had a very destabilizing effect on the galaxy.”
“I’ve heard of what is happening in Silstrand, and what you’re doing there as well.” Tanis mixed admission, and then accusation in her tone.
Diana’s eyes narrowed. “Silstrand has long been useful; a buffer between us and the AST—rather, the ‘Hegemony’, as that prissy Uriel insists it be called now. But they have begun to destabilize. They’re weakening, and I can’t have that.”
Angela said with a laugh.
“Setting Silstrand aside for now,” Tanis said with a wave of her hand, “the Hegemony and the Trisilieds have already made a play to take the Intrepid’s new colony—one deep in the Transcend. They attacked with one hundred and fifty thousand ships, but we were able—with the Transcend’s help—to defeat them.”
Diana drew a deep breath. “You have a faster method of FTL than dark layer transition! Any place ‘deep within the Transcend’ would take many years of travel to reach. For those people to find you and strike at you, and then for you to travel here…. No, there is no way the timelines work without it.”
“And now you have the second thing,” Sera said. “We have jump gate technology that provides near instantaneous travel to any location in human space.”
“So,” Diana said as she rose from the sofa and walked to a side table. “The most valuable technology in the galaxy—Tanis’s picotech—lies nestled within the oyster that is the Transcend, and your enemies possess the ability to reach in and pluck it free. That is the long and short of it, is it not?”
Diana poured herself a glass of whisky on the rocks as she spoke. She took a sip, and then gestured to the side table. “Help yourself, if you wish.”
“I’ll take you up on that,” Sera said as she rose. “And you have the gist of it, yes. Of course, you must also realize that Orion has made jump gate technology available to the Trisilieds and the Hegemony. They may have also put it in the hands of the Nietzscheans. We’re not certain yet.”
Diana put her cup down and pushed her long black locks behind her ears as she leaned against the side table. “Now that is troubling news. So then, are you going to share your new toys with Scipio, if we ally with you?”
“Always right to the point, aren’t you, Diana?” Petra asked.
“You know me well enough, Petra,” Diana said coolly. “I do not like to beat around the bush; I prefer to drive over the bush, or through it.”
Sera took a sip of her whisky before replying. “Exactly what we share, and how we turn over new technology will be details we need to hammer out, but we will certainly provide you with enough technology to give you an edge over your enemies.”
Diana met Sera’s eyes—both women unblinking as Diana spoke. “Are you so certain that I’ll ally with you? I’m not telegraphing it, but I’m very displeased at being lied to for so long.”
“I can tell,” Petra replied. “You’ve been curling your pinky finger. You only do that when you’re exceptionally angry.”
Diana held up her left hand and uncurled her finger to show a small line of blood on her palm. “Yes, I suppose I do.”
“I’m not certain of anything,” Sera said, guiding the conversation back to the matter at hand. “But I came here in p
erson because we need you to hold the Inner Stars.”
“Hold them?” Diana asked. “Hold them against who?”
“Well, for starters, against the Hegemony,” Sera replied. “Orion has provided them more than just jump gate technology; they are funneling resources into the Hegemony at an alarming rate. Now that a direct assault on Tanis’s colony has failed, we believe that they will commence with a more conventional approach.”
“Orion wants to control all of the Inner Stars, and then use their combined might to destroy the Transcend,” Petra said.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Diana said. “Why would I ally with you and not them?”
“Because they’re not coming to take our technology,” Tanis said. “They want to destroy us and it. Orion does not believe the AIs we have, our level of nanotech, and certainly not our picotech.”
“Or your impervious shields,” Diana added.
“Or our stasis shields,” Tanis agreed with a nod.
“It seems odd that the Hegemony would side with them,” Diana replied before taking another sip of her drink. “They pursue technology as relentlessly as we do, and I understand your thrust that Orion would come for us before long..”
Sera gave a soft laugh. “We don’t know for sure, but I suspect that Uriel and Garza are using one another.”
“Garza?” Diana asked.
“He’s the one leading Orion’s war effort,” Sera replied.
“That doesn’t surprise me, then,” Diana said with a rueful laugh. “Uriel is a schemer; there’s no way she’d ever be subservient to anyone else.”
“You talk about her as though you’ve met,” Sera observed.
Diana nodded absently. “Once, long ago—before either of us held our current positions. The woman is a snake.”
“There’s more we must tell you,” Petra said reluctantly. “There is much afoot that you are not aware of.”
Diana turned her head and locked her steely gaze on Petra. “Yes, it would seem so. Like a woman I had considered a dear friend acting as a spy this entire time.”
“It’s no picnic, that’ for sure,” Sera said quietly.
“I’m sorry, Diana, I really am,” Petra entreated. “But surely you must have suspected. Why would an ambassador from somewhere as distant as the Miriam League work so hard to get to know you?”