by A. K. DuBoff
“No. And we also can’t waver. This event underscores that we’re up against powerful adversaries.”
“Our options are becoming more constrained.”
“Though new opportunities may yet open,” Saera replied. “I’m anxious to see where Raena’s investigation into Earth leads. There’s mounting evidence that there’s something significant on the planet.”
“I don’t want to get my hopes up.”
“Me either. We still need to figure out a production strategy for the Erebus power core; that single item can do more for us than anything else—and I’m now doubly eager to no longer be reliant on Monsari and MPS.”
Wil nodded. “I agree wholeheartedly.”
“It’s time to take another tactic. The right strategic manufacturing partner would send a strong message.”
“What are you thinking?” Wil asked.
“One option is to keep it in-house within the TSS, but that goes against our mandate to be a neutral party.”
“We can’t cross that line.”
She leaned closer to the camera. “That leaves two alternatives, both with pros and cons: either we pick an existing corporation and elevate their status, or we establish a new corporation, which would position them as a new powerhouse—pardon the pun—to take the mantle from MPS.”
Wil frowned. “We shouldn’t be the ones making that decision.”
“Do you really think the High Council will be equitable about it? I love our family, but even they couldn’t approach this without bias. Your dad would say SiNavTech is happy to take it on, Ryan would jump at the opportunity to expand DGE, your uncle would make the case that VComm already makes their own micro power cells for handhelds, so they know the market. It’d start a messy bidding war, at best.”
I wonder if that’s what Dad was going to suggest? Wil agreed with Saera that keeping the High Council out of it was for the best; hopefully, his parents would agree with the reasoning.
“What, then? We quietly hand it off to the person or group of our choosing?” he asked his wife.
“You’ve selected plenty of candidates for important positions in the past. You understand how to pick individuals who’ll act in the best interest of others rather than themselves.”
He groaned softly. “And I hate having that kind of responsibility—especially in situations with galactic-scale implications.”
“I respect your judgment, just like the Aesir do.”
He tilted his head. “Now, there’s a thought.”
“Hmm?”
“The Aesir. We could hand it over to them.”
Her face scrunched. “You think they’d go for it?”
“It’s worth a conversation.”
— — —
“What do you mean ‘they took a shot at him’?” Raena Sietinen exclaimed, nearly jumping out of her office chair.
Her grandfather had passed on the news in a tone which was entirely too calm. He evaluated her over the viewscreen, still cool and collected. “I must admit, I didn’t expect Monsari to make such an overt move.”
How is he not furious? Raena felt the flush in her face. “Was it Monsari directly, or were they simply turning a blind eye?”
“Does the distinction matter?” Cris asked. “Either way, this amounts to a declaration of civil war.”
Raena’s heart dropped, and she sank back into her chair. “I hope you mean that as hyperbole.”
Her grandfather looked away from the camera as he folded his hands on his desktop. “Conflict with Monsari is nothing new. However, an act of physical aggression changes things.”
“Why would they do it? Doesn’t it make Monsari a target?”
“Lines are being drawn,” he said. “Whatever they hope to gain, they consider this action worth the risk. Or, perhaps, it was simply a test.”
“To see how Dad would respond?”
“To see how we all will. The event won’t make the news, but word will get around. In the right circles, someone willing to take a shot like that might be celebrated. There’s a lot of clout to be gained.”
“In other words, Monsari is gearing up for a larger political move.”
Cris nodded. “That’s my suspicion, based on what little information we have.”
Raena’s stomach lurched. “What does this mean for us?”
“That you must continue your work with Earth. Right now, the ancient sites on that planet have the best chance of uncovering information about our past that could reveal a new path forward.”
“None of that will do us much good in a political battle against another High Dynasty.”
“Perhaps not, but my greater worry remains the Erebus.”
She took an unsteady breath. “What if we can’t figure out how to fight them?”
“Positive visualization, Raena. We will find a way.” He paused. “Still, we must be cautious. Danger is closing in on all fronts. There will come a time when we’ll discover who truly supports us and those who never did.”
“We’ll always have our family, if no one else.”
Cris smiled. “That’s all we really need. Anyone who stands against us picked the wrong side.”
Raena gave a resolute nod, pushing down her nerves. There wasn’t room for worry or doubt. “No matter what happens, I’m ready.”
Chapter 2
As Jason Sietinen reviewed the latest TSS threat assessment report, he was again met with nominal accounts on most fronts—only a handful of civil demonstrations under the purview of the Tararian Guard. But everything is not okay. What are we missing?
The peace was an illusion. In the seven months since the Erebus appeared, Jason had been waiting for the tentative truce to shatter. The timing on the Taran calendar made it the better part of an Earth year, but the losses at Alkeer Station were the kind of tragedy the TSS wouldn’t ever forget—not to mention the personal nature of that loss to him. For the sake of maintaining the tenuous alliance with the aliens, the TSS pretended publicly to have set aside any hard feelings against the Erebus. But Jason knew he wasn’t alone in his resentment. Wrath would be dealt when the time was right.
For now, everything was suspiciously quiet. Something was brewing beneath the surface; he sensed it. It wasn’t a matter of if the Taran Empire would be plunged into chaos, but when.
A knock sounded on his office doorframe, and he looked up to see his mother. “Come in.”
Saera slipped inside and closed the door behind her. “There’s been an incident.”
Jason braced for the news. If she was coming in person, it was no doubt serious. “What happened?”
“While your father was leaving the Monsari estate, someone took a shot at him.”
“What?!”
“He deflected it—no need to worry—but obviously there are… implications.”
“Shite.” Jason deflated in his seat. “I take it the negotiations didn’t go well.”
“It appears they only accepted the meeting as a pretense to get your father there. Our suspicion is that they were trying to provoke him into taking unbecoming actions that they could use against us.”
“The TSS or the Sietinen Dynasty?”
“Probably both. As well as all Gifted, most likely. Since they consider us to be ‘dangerous savages’, and all that.” She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall.
So much for the peace and quiet. Jason ran his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe they’d make a move like this now.”
“Clearly, they saw an opportunity.” Saera’s brows were pinched with concern.
He hated seeing his mother like that. They’d been through plenty of tense times in their professional lives together, but she was still the stalwart mom who’d comforted him when he was scared or hurt as a youth. Witnessing her be so openly worried hit deep.
“It’ll be okay, Mom,” he told her.
The words sounded hollow to his ears, but Saera straightened and gave a confident nod. “I know it will. Thank you, Jason. I’ll keep you
apprised of further developments.”
“All right.”
She gave him a half-hearted smile and departed.
Jason returned his attention to the minor TSS incident reports on his desktop. None of this scratches the surface of the real issues.
He closed out from the reports and pushed back from his desk with a sigh. The attack on his father was just one more item to add to his growing concerns.
The absence of the Erebus wasn’t all that surprising. After they’d dropped their ‘gift’ in the TSS’ lap, they’d closed up their micro-rifts and disappeared behind the dimensional veil. They were no doubt still watching Tarans’ actions, but with everyone on their best behavior, there was no reason for the aliens to intervene.
What was far more concerning was how uneventful things had been on the surface in the Outer Colonies for months. The botched siege on Duronis had been the last incident of any significance, with only a handful of smaller demonstrations in the intervening time. However, since the original perpetrators hadn’t been apprehended, it simply meant that their planning had gone underground. What had become clear, though, is that the Coalition’s network was large and very well-funded. Unfortunately, the people behind it were also very smart and had covered their tracks with expert precision.
Jason regularly scanned the public news reports about the sector around Duronis. There was absolutely nothing useful—all headlines perfectly manicured to avoid discussion of the real issues within the Taran Empire.
Yet here he was, stuck at Headquarters away from the action. Sure, teaching passed the time, but he wanted to stand up to the Erebus or apprehend criminals. Knowing there were now would-be assassins running around made it that much worse.
I need to know what’s really going on out there. We can’t afford to be caught by surprise again.
The TSS was counting on him to be in regular communication with their undercover operative, Kira, who was working inside the Sovereign Peoples Alliance with her fiancé, Leon, and their informant, Lexi. Kira had struggled to embed herself deeply enough into the Alliance to learn anything incriminating about the larger Coalition. The nature of the assignment made regular check-ins difficult, much to Jason’s consternation. Technically, the Alliance didn’t like its members talking with anyone outside its membership; yet, the organization’s leaders also recognized that enforcing a no-outside-contact rule would create more issues than it solved. This left a small opening that they had exploited over the past several months.
However, Jason hadn’t heard from Kira for two weeks now, and they were past due for her latest report from the field. For those check-ins, Kira would call Jason on a throw-away handheld, used only once.
It’s been too long. What if something happened to her? He wasn’t typically one to worry, but with the Alliance, the concern was valid.
The organization had a history of disappearing people, and they had every reason to make sure Kira was never able to report what was really happening within the organization. Even if she hadn’t been found out, it was possible they were keeping too close a watch for her to get out a message.
He tapped his fingers on his desktop. I need to make sure she’s okay.
Jason only had one option to get in touch. They’d set up an encrypted account for Kira that could receive text messages and files, which she could access remotely. Using coded phrasing, they could send notes to each other that would come across like a casual interaction that shouldn’t raise alarms if anyone happened across their communications.
If everything was okay, she would be checking it regularly. It was better than him being stuck in ‘wait and see’ mode.
Jason opened up a new text message to send via their established covert protocol: >>Hey! Wow, how time flies, huh? Things have been quiet around here. Mom and Dad keep asking about you. I figure you’re busy, but just wanted to say hi and make sure all is well.<<
Once the message was sent, he tried to turn his attention to other tasks. He wouldn’t be able to rest easy until he heard from her—not when he knew the Alliance was capable of such terrible things. Please, reply soon, Kira. I don’t know what I’d do if you disappeared, too.
— — —
Lexi twirled a section of her brunette hair with one hand while she anxiously drummed her fingers on her desktop. Her patience for acting like she cared about the Sovereign Peoples Alliance had worn through a long time ago, so keeping calm enough to maintain her cover brought out every nervous tick she’d ever expressed.
In a moment of clarity, she realized that her foot was also rapidly jerking back and forth, in addition to her fingers taking on a life of their own. She made a conscious effort to sit still.
What is it that Leon wanted to talk about?
She hadn’t been able to concentrate on her mundane work tasks since breakfast. Kira’s fiancé, Leon, had made a passing statement about hearing something interesting the night before, and she was dying to learn the details.
Maybe he finally got information about where the Coalition is based so I can leave this shiteshow behind. It could be wishful thinking, but she needed to believe that the end was in sight.
The days of working at the Alliance office had long since blurred together. She used the term ‘work’ loosely since activity had seemingly ground to a halt since the failed cargo ship takeover during the attempted coup on Duronis. The Alliance’s shift to keeping a low profile had worked to her advantage at first, with the organization having been unable to conduct a thorough investigation into the control room cave-in she’d caused. The entire incident had been written off as an ‘accident’, just like she’d hoped.
However, after spending the better part of the year with little to do, she was getting antsy. The one saving grace had been having Kira and Leon around the office.
Lunch was fast approaching, fortunately, so she had social time to look forward to—and, with any luck, an opportunity to hear about what Leon had learned.
Unable to focus on her tedious administrative tasks, Lexi spent the remaining fifteen minutes until lunch looking over the morning’s news reports. There hadn’t been any major incidents reported on the galactic broadcast streams, but she’d been hearing rumors around the office about new demonstrations happening on Duronis and the surrounding planets.
Recently, the messaging she’d seen on Duronis ranged from ‘independence in the Outer Colonies’ to ‘down with the Central Planets’. However, it lacked any kind of cohesive argument about why. That was by design. The Alliance’s entire purpose behind fueling that messaging was to create disruption and dissent in the public consciousness. With a vague enough rally, people would fill in their own reasons to be upset and add fuel to the larger movement. It was on a simmer now, building their following in preparation for an explosive boiling over when the Coalition was ready to make its move.
That move was coming soon—the energy around the office had shifted again, just like before the last big revolt.
Except, she was frustrated to not have any details about what that move might be. They’re being even more secretive than last time. You’d think with two telepaths we could learn more!
At 13:00, Lexi locked down her desktop and went to the cafeteria where everyone gathered for lunch. A quarter of the tables were filled by the time she arrived. She spotted Kira and Leon among those seated, easily recognizable from a distance by Kira’s vibrant red, pixie-cut hair.
Lexi waved at them before grabbing a plate of bland fare from the buffet line; like the second-hand nature of the furnishings throughout the Alliance’s building, the food was subpar. The menu was frequently various forms of mush that were more ‘nutrition’ than ‘cuisine’, but on the rare occasion there was something solid, the once-fresh items were noticeably nearing their expiration date, almost certainly purchased at a discount.
Today’s sampling happened to be one of the trademark gruels, this one beige.
Great.
Lexi set her tray down on the table with a sigh a
nd took a seat across from her friends.
Kira scooped up a mound of the beige mush on her spoon and watched it dribble back into the gelatinous mound. “I need a real meal.”
Next to her, Leon shoved his tray away from him, a look of disgust twisting his handsome features. “I second that.”
Though his fair complexion wasn’t what Lexi would typically go for, she found his unique violet irises quite mesmerizing. She’d never said as much to Kira, but she could see why the other woman had fallen for the guy.
“Hey, at least the food is free.” Lexi used her spoon to play with the mush until her growling stomach’s demands overrode the lack of visual appeal. Once she got past the first bite of the slimy texture, the vaguely nutty flavor wasn’t too bad.
After running from planet to planet without a proper home to call her own for most of her life, one thing Lexi did appreciate about the Alliance was that it had offered her a measure of stability over the past year. They fed her. Housed her. Gave her tasks she could pretend were meaningful employment. Though it wasn’t a great life, her situation could be a lot worse—or so it seemed on the surface.
Just when she started to think it wasn’t so bad, she’d remember that the Alliance had been willing to kill innocent children in the name of ‘independence’ and that they’d disappeared her closest friend. Perhaps not all the people in the Alliance were bad, but there was an evil undercurrent in the organization.
They need to be taken down. She reminded herself that it was best to keep that thought front and center at all times—regardless of how they’d made her feel like part of a community.
“Well,” Kira said, a mischievous sparkle in her hazel eyes, “I have credits to burn, and I need to get out of here for a while. What do you say to an offsite happy hour?”
“I don’t think ‘happy’ or ‘fun’ are even in Oren’s vocabulary,” Leon replied.
Lexi smiled and took another bite of her meal. Leon was one of those quiet, cerebral types who consistently caught Lexi by surprise with spontaneous displays of dry humor. Not that she thought the guy was uptight, it was just never clear when he was listening to them or when he was lost in thought ideating about whatever it was super-smart people contemplated.