Chapter 18

Raista, 31 Demaa, 4395 Orthodox Calendar
Wednesday, 17 November, 2008, Native Regional Reckoning
Kosiningi Emergency Response Center, Zoka Prefecture, Karis (Old Karinne Designation)

It took a while.

Jason had been taken to a room that looked like a hotel room, a sterile kind of place with a single bed and an old computer-like unit sitting on a desk under a window and a chair, but nothing else. He sat in that chair, for a very long time, and tried to come to grips with the truth that was revealed to him, to them.

The Karinnes were genetically engineered.

That was...was unbelievable. The house experimented on itself. They had to be crazy! And after the engineering experiments, they continued on with a breeding program, trying to evolve the perfect Karinne. The entire house seemed involved in this effort, everything revolving around this core goal, all other research and projects merely side efforts to keep the Karinnes busy while they waited over the generations for the arrival of their ultimate progeny.

What would they have done if they would have succeeded? What would this "perfect Faey" have done?

It seemed...evil. These people, they had become blinded by their own obsession. They had lost sight of what they were doing and become consumed by the act. He remembered what he read, that the Karinnes had become withdrawn from the Imperium, arrogant, scornful. If they would have succeeded, if they would have produced their ultimate Faey and built the ultimate machine to pair with her, how would that "super being" see the rest of the Imperium? Would she see them as her own people, or would she and the Karinnes seen them as inferior beings, people that had to be controlled, which would have started a war?

God.

Jason couldn’t blame the rest of the Imperium for attacking the Karinnes. God, they may have saved themselves.

He sat there in the chair, sometimes with this elbows on the desk, sometimes leaning back looking up at the ceiling, sometimes leaning back and looking out the window, trying to understand, trying to wrap his mind around it.

It just wasn’t hard to fathom that he was descended from an artificially produced line that might have started a fourth civil war.

Oh, his origins didn’t bother him quite that much. He could accept that he was the product of genetic engineering, that the Faey that had come to Earth and been his ancestor was one of the Generations. Despite a thousand or more years of dilution of that "perfect" DNA by human breeding, he was still enough of a Karinne to function as one of their Generations, able to use their gestalts, able to comprehend the communion of their telepathic computers.

But to him, it was like discovering he was the long-lost great-great nephew of Adolph Hitler. He was part of a family, an organization, that had totally lost its mind and embarked on a project that destroyed their morality and consumed them in nothing but the need to be right, no matter what it cost them or their house.

And their destruction was the result. A destruction he could not blame on anyone but the Karinnes.

There were other organizations he could look at that way...like the Nazis.

The project is a failure, he thought to himself, remembering the words. The project failed before it began! Thank God that Koiri Karinne understood that at the end and forbade the survivors from restarting the program!

He sighed and stood up. It was late afternoon now, and the sun was setting over a sea of gorgeous crystalline blue. A dead ocean, but a pretty one. "Time to get to work," he grunted to himself. There was more to do. Miaari sent him here to learn the truth, but this revelation was not the whole truth. There had to be something here that would save Earth from the Trillanes, and he had to find it. And he had to know, he had to know what had happened, he had to know more about the Karinnes.

He wasn’t exactly sure where he was, but he had no trouble getting around. When he realized he was lost, wandering in what looked like a hotel or a dormitory, a long hall lined with doors with similar rooms to his, a map appeared in his mind’s eye, supplied by the gestalt, showing him the entire compound. It marked him a route back to the computer core, which was his destination, and guided him with arrows in his vision when he reached turns. It guided him unerringly back to the core.

There was no one in the computer core. Casting out showed him that everyone was either resting or basicly just dicking around. Lyn, Bryn, Sheleese, and Ilia were in a large building near the ocean, probably looking around, Maya and Min were down at the beach on the west side of the island, Myleena was in one of the rooms in the building where he’d been. Songa and Myri were upstairs, Meya and Yana were close to the compound, out in the forest, probably looking at the trees.

What was it Koiri Karinne said? That the last surviving CBIM would finish cleaning up the radiation? Was it also responsible for the trees here? "Did you clean up the radiation?" he asked aloud, mainly to himself.

[Correct,] the voice of the computer sounded in his mind. [It was my task to recover this planet after the attack. I have partially completed that task, but am unable to continue due to the loss of too many remote units. I no longer have the resources to continue the reclamation effort.]

"How, how do I, uh, answer?" he asked.

[Merely send to me, Jason Fox. But you must send in the same manner I send to you. I cannot hear conventional sending. I have been told that it is very easy for the Karinnes to do.]

In the same manner. The way the computer sent did feel different, more...logical. More structured. He wrapped his mind around the idea of it, and tried to answer. He failed, then closed his eyes and tried to think like that, and tried again.

[Like this?]

[Perfect. It is good to see you well. I hope I did not inconvenience you too much, Master Karinne. I fear your cousin is not in as good spirits. I am monitoring her now. Her vital signs are stressed, and her mental activity is elevated and disjointed. She is suffering from shock. I regret answering your question in the manner in which I did. I did not realize you would react so to the answer.]

[It was a shock,] he told it. [But theres more to answer, computer, and I have to know.]

[My answers are yours, Master Karinne, and it has been my designation, or name, to be known as Cybi. All security protocols have been removed by Koiri Karinne, except the protocols around the technical data of the Program. I am permitted to answer questions about it, but not help you restart it.]

[Trust me, I never want to see it restarted,] he answered. [And don’t call me that, my name is Jason. Call me Jason. We were sent here by a Kimdori. How did they get involved? What was their role in all this?]

[The Kimdori? The Kimdori and the Karinnes were very close, Jason.]

[How did they get involved in the Program? They had to be involved in it.]

[They were critical to it.] The hologram of the nude image of Sora Karinne appeared before him, and then she raised her right hand to direct his attention to another hologram that wavered into being beside her. It showed a Kimdori male and a Faey female standing side by side. [Kimdori have unusual genetic abilities, Jason. They can invade and transform alien organic matter to match their own viral structure, but they can also invade the nervous system of other creatures and gain access to it, tricking the victim creature’s nervous system into believing that the Kimdori is merely another part of itself. In this manner, they can access the brain of a host creature and extract information.]

[Okay, I knew some of that, but not how they did it.]

[Kimdori DNA was the base of the bio-organic crystals that form the core of a biogenic computer,] the image told him. [Their metagenic properties allow them to adapt dynamically, and it was through a combination of Kimdori and Faey DNA, combined into the DNA of a silicon-based crystalline life form native to the Kimdori homeworld, they developed special organic but non-living crystals that had telepathic awareness.]

Holy cow...that was fucking brilliant.

[There was a problem, however. The crystals were telepathic, but Faey could not undestand them. They could understand each other well enough, but they lacked the ability to interface with Faey. They could not solve this problem, so, instead of trying to build a computer that could interface with a Faey, they—]

"They made a Faey that could interface with the computer!" he gasped aloud.

[Indeed. That was the beginning of the Generations program. The Kimdori assisted us in this as they assisted us with the crystals. A recombinent DNA sequence was generated that combined the necessary aspects of Faey and Kimdori DNA that would give a Faey the necessary sensitivity to interface with the biogenic crystals. The experiment was a success. Then, gene therapy was ordered for the entire house after it was refined, and in this it was moderately successful. Some Karinnes successfully took the treatment and their DNA was altered. Some died from the treatment, and some had their bodies reject the treatment, and they remained unaltered. But enough of the house was changed to permit expansion of the gene pool by breeding. My image’s namesake, Sora Karinne, was the first child born of altered parents. All CBIMs carry her image as their visual interface in her honor. She was the First Generation, and the mother of your line, Jason.]

[After the institution of the Generations program, other breakthroughs were made. They developed a new type of biogenic crystal that could receive Faey sending, but not respond. But, instead of abandoning the Generations program, they decided to continue on, for the Generations were still far superior to the new technology. They did refine this new system, however. Gestalts were made for the unaltered members of the house made of these new crystals. They didn’t give them the same functions as true gestalts, but they did allow for some moderate usefulness. These interfaces allowed unaltered Karinnes to issue telepathic commands to machines, but only on a one way basis. They also lacked the amplifying abilities of the gestalt. They were built to resemble a gestalt, however, and it became a tradition for all members of the house to wear what you now wear, Jason. The gestalt and the interface became the singular identifying mark of the Karinnes.]

Jason touched the gestalt on his face, and pondered that. That was a...logical, way to go about it, he guessed. If they just couldn’t build a computer that could send to a Faey, well, just make a Faey that could send to the computer. [But how did the Kimdori get involved? Why are they so concerned about me? Miaari said that the Kimdori care very much about me, and I don’t understand why. What’s the connection between the Karinnes and the Kimdori?]

[The Karinnes and Kimdori are deeply intertwined, Jason. We served as their intermediary in many things, and they helped us in the Program. The Kimdori kept several of the clans here, on Karis, where we helped train them and prepare them for their duties. After the Generations program began, the Kimdori saw the Karinnes as simply a new branch of their race. They called the Karinne "cousins." Even though there is less than .01% of Kimdori DNA inside you, they felt that that was enough to consider the Karinnes family, because they would look upon the Karinnes and know them, just as they knew each other. That unseen side effect was why the Kimdori saw the Karinnes as family.]

Jason lowered his head and pondered it. It did make a kind of sense. If the Kimdori saw the Karinnes as part of the family unit, part of the family, they would definitely go to great lengths for them. Pack mentality, Symone had called it. [Was this what Miaari wanted me to find out? Is this the truth they’ve been hiding all these years? The origins of the Karinnes?]

[They would never reveal a secret, Jason. It is against Kimdori ways. They are bound by ancient oaths to never reveal what they know of us. They would not tell you the truth, even though you are one of us. It would be forbidden.]

[Yeah, I figured that out. Kiaari told me once that the Kimdori cared very much about what was happening, but they weren’t allowed to directly interfere.]

[They also are forbidden to insinuate themselves in the affairs of others of their own volition,] the computer told him. [They may interfere if hired by another as part of their own activities, but they cannot take initiative. The Kimdori are watchers, Jason, not meddlers. They meddle when and where it suits them at the behest of the involved races, but they take no direct hand of action, in any matter that is not solely their own.]

[Well, that explains why Kiaari always says she’s doing what she was hired to do, and would never tell me what to do, only suggest,] he mused. [But I think they broke those rules for me. Miaari sent one of her clan Elders to cure me of a disease I contracted on Moridon.]

[Ah, the bio-agent. That is what brought the Kimdori and the Karinnes together, Jason.]

[How so?]

[Well, the Moridon, being who they are, saw the Kimdori as a threat to their security. So, they engineered a complex molecule bioagent to attack any Kimdori that visited Moridon. It was effective, but what the Moridons probably did not realize was that it took a long time for the agent to do its work on a Kimdori, and that those Kimdori infected by the agent were contagious. To make the story a short one, it literally threatened their race with eradication. I am sure the Moridons did not intend this,] the computer mused. [It is not their nature. The Kimdori came to the Karinnes in desperation, seeking help to find a cure, for it was well known that Karinne science and their geneticists were among the finest in the galaxy. The Karinnes found a cure for the bioagent and saved the Kimdori race. Since that day, the Kimdori have been the staunchest allies of the House of Karinne. And, as I think you have deduced, the Generations are also vulnerable to that agent. The segments of Kimdori DNA it attacks are also part of your DNA, and to the agent, you look like a Kimdori. It killed several Generations that visited Moridon until they were able to develop a vaccine.]

[Maeda Karinne.]

[She was one such victim, yes. But there were others that did not become common knowledge.]

Okay, that just answered a lot of questions. That was why the Kimdori were so hell-bent to help him, it was why they were going to such extemes. Not only was he considered family, he was among the last of a branch of the Kimdori "family" that was wiped out. And that loyalty was instilled by the act of Karinne doctors, who had helped the Kimdori find a cure for a deadly disease.

That was how they knew how to cure him.

[And the Kimdori knew everything,] Jason realized.

[Everything that the Generations knew, the Kimdori knew,] the computer, Cybi, affirmed.

[Wow. Well, how did you survive the attack?]

[My computer core can be withdrawn to the upper mantle of Karis,] it replied. [At the beginning of the attack, I was evacuated, and I was reseated in my original position after it was safe to do so. This is the Disaster Recovery Center, Jason. This compound exists to deal with a disaster. The Karinnes planned for disaster, but I do not think they could plan for what happened to Karis. When it was over, I was the only CBIM remaining, and upon me fell the task of undertaking disaster recovery procedures.]

[What is a CBIM?]

[Command Biogenic Interface Mainframe,] Cybi replied. [I am a supercomputer with the necessary tertiary systems to interface with distant remote units, since the planet’s communication system was destroyed in the attack. Those remote units, or robots, have cleaned up the radiation, but I lack sufficient maintenance facilities to maintain them. Their lifespan was only measured at two hundred years, and they far exceeded that time frame. Over the years, they began to fail. Now, there are none left. The last of the reclamation units stands non-functional on the far side of the island, after it managed to seed the island with stored plant seed. I have other tasks to perform, for it is my duty to restart the ecosystem of the planet, but I no longer have remote resources available to carry out these tasks.]

[What else is here? I think Miaari sent me here to find something that’ll help with what’s going on on my home planet.]

[Explain.]

It was hard to explain, so Jason tried instead sending a jumble of memories and experiences. In the blink of an eye, he tried to transmit enough information for the computer to understand what was going on on Earth.

[I understand,] Cybi noted. [The Karinnes did not keep what you would call a standing military, Jason. There were some prototypes and some concept ships, but Karinne had no navy, and had no army. There are three prototype warships at the lunar base, and within this facility there are two very old Nova fighters and a Karinne dropship, all three of which are unarmed. There is, however, a Gladiator E-mech, in the main hangar, which is armed and armored, but it is currently offline and in need of repair. The reclamation unit that failed on the island brought it from Zurya Prefecture when it was recalled. Karinne technology was much different from Faey technology. If you are to repair them, you must understand this.]

"Well, that’s what engineers do," Myleena said from the doorway. Jason turned and looked at her. She looked a mess, her eyes a bit puffy and her hair askew, but she gave him a wan smile. He reached out his hand to her as she approached, but she pushed her way into his arms instead. He held her for a long moment, giving her comfort.

Are you alright? Jason asked.

I’ve felt better. That was one fucking hell of a bomb that Kimdori whore dropped on us, she told him in reply. I just realized a bit ago that freaking out wasn’t going to do anything to help, so I gathered up myself and decided to come down here and find out what the fuck happened.

[Now that the two of you are together and alone, I must ask this. My scans determine that both of you are of the 97th Generation, which gives you equal status within the house. So, which of the two of you would have higher rank within the house?]

[Higher rank? What do you mean?]

How did you do that? Myleena asked in surprise. Send like it does?

Sharing a mental memory with her, he showed her how he had learned it. [Like this?]

[Just so,] the computer said, the image nodding. [Now, which of you would be of higher rank within Karinne?]

[Well, I’m a Merrane by birth,] Myleena told the computer. [Jason would be the ranking Karinne, because he’s not already part of another house.]

[Then it falls upon you, Jason.] The image motioned with its left hand, and a tiny door opened in the floor. A pedestal rose up from the floor, and then the top of it opened, revealing a small box. To Jason’s surprise, the box rose up from the pedestal and floated over to them. [As the ranking member of Karinne, this belongs to you.]

Jason took the box, and felt that it had no wires or anything. How had it moved? He opened it, and found himself looking at a soft cloth cushion. Wedged into it was a gold ring, upon which the face of it was engraved the crest of Karinne.

It was the insignia ring of the Karinnes!

[This, the ring of Karinne, now belongs to you. I would name you Grand Duke Karinne, but you would be lord of a dead planet and ruler of a house of two,] it said with not a little cynicism. [But I was bade by Grand Duchess Koiri Karinne to surrender unto the ranking survivor of the house this ring, and thus I have fulfilled my duty.]

Jason looked at it. It looked to be made of gold, but it was strangely warm to the touch. He turned it over in his hands and held it so they could both look at it, and Myleena reached down and touched it, slid her finger along the border of the crest.

[Well, at least it’ll be a nice souvenir,] Myleena sent with dark humor.

[Something to set on my mantle,] he agreed. [So, there’s nothing here I can use to fight Trillane?] he asked Cybi.

[There are things here, but it would take a great deal of work,] Cybi answered. [I believe a reclamation unit could be converted into a battle unit, but it would need extensive repair and refit.]

[Then why did Miaari send us here?] Jason fretted. [My people are in danger back on Earth! I know this is important, that she felt it was vital I know the truth, but damn it all, I’m needed back home.]

[For one, I am glad you have come, Jason. I have waited for centuries for the Karinnes to come home. Now I have purpose once more, rather than waiting alone and in silence.]

He knew it was a bit odd, but he felt sorry for the computer. A thousand years of carrying out its final tasks, waiting for survivors to come home that may never arrive, with nothing to do but wait and to listen.

[I’m sorry you had to be here alone for so long, but we’ll be leaving soon. Is there some way we could take you with us?]

[No, my core is not designed to be removed from this facility. But if you can repair the main communications array on top of the communications building, I can establish a link with your gesstalt that would allow me communications. You may return to your Earth, but I will be able to send you messages. I can also query other installations, other compounds, and see if any other systems are operational. They might be of use to you. It would permit me to gain contact with the lunar base, for example, see if there are any biogenic systems still online. The attack fleet did not know it was there. It is undamaged. The lunar base did not have a CBIS, but it did have a biogenic mainframe.]

[Could there have been survivors?] Myleena asked.

[If there were, they would have fled long ago,] Cybi answered. [It was their descendents I hoped would return to Karis. For all we know, they have. You could be their descendents.]

[Maybe Jason’s, but my Karinne ancestor was Zuy Merrane-er, Karinne.]

[Brother to Gora Karinne,] Cybi said immediately. [Married into House Merrane for the purpose of producing a child with Sera Merrane, a genetically superior female. He was to return to the house after producing the heir.]

[That’s why I’m here? Because the Karinnes wanted to breed with a Merrane?]

[The short answer, Myleena Merrane, is yes. House Karinne saw admirable genetic qualities in a Merrane female, and wished to introduce her genetic qualities into the line. Zuy Karinne died after impregnating Sera Merrane, and so that offspring remained within House Merrane. Plans were made to return the child to Karinne, but the house was destroyed before those plans were executed.]

[They were going to kidnap the child?]

[I do not have that information. It is possible,] Cybi answered honestly. [It is not the first out-of-house breeding ordered. Genetically superior Faey from outside the house were often used to enrich the line. My scans indicate that the young Faey female Jason’s memory designates as Private Yana would be a prime candidate for such a breeding partner. My scans indicate she is gifted in talent, on par with a Karinne female.]

Let it go, Jason warned in normal sending. Let it go. Remember, this was a thousand years ago, and it’ll never happen again.

Damn right it won’t, she agreed heatedly.

[Jason’s ancestor was not one of the lunar crew, for his DNA indicates he is directly of your line, Myleena,] the computer told them. [The only unaccounted for member of your line from that era is Zera Karinne, older sister of Zuy and Gora Karinne, a xenobotanist by scientific profession. Records indicate she was on a scientific expedition to a rim system at the time of the destruction of Karis. I would assume that instead of returning to the Imperium, she fled into unexplored space, and ultimately landed on your Earth.]

[That makes sense,] Jason mused, thinking about it. [What we pieced together is that the Faey that came to Earth lived there. If they were Karinnes who fled the Imperium after Karis was destroyed, it explains a lot. It explains why they never left, it explains why the Imperium didn’t know about Earth. Back then there wasn’t interstellar communications, there was no way they would know.]

[There was interstellar communication back then,] Cybi sent, a bit derisively. [House Karinne has utilized harmonized Teryon communications for centuries before the destruction of Karis. That, obviously, is how the expedition knew to flee rather than return to the Imperium, or attempt to return to Karis.]

[Teryon? What is a teryon?] Myleena asked.

[A teryon is an energy particle that exists only in hyperspace,] Cybi responded. [Karinne engineers devised a means of modulating harmonic teryon strings to broadcast transmissions utilizing hyperspace. The energy particle was named in honor of Tery Karinne, who discovered it in 2329.]

[I’m not sure how good we’ll do, but me and Myleena can try to fix the communictions tower,] he told Cybi. [It sounds like it uses a technology neither of us have ever seen before.]

[I will download all appropriate schematics and technical data to your gestalt, to aid in your repairs. Myleena Merrane also needs a gestalt. There are unimpinted gestalts stored in this room.] A detailed map of the compound flashed in his mind’s eye, showing a location of a storage room in one of the smaller buildings off the main command center. [I suggest you replace the gestalt you have as well, Jason. It is an older model, and its software is outdated. There is a newer gestalt model in storage that will have more processing power and memory, and its transceiver has more transmission range than yours.]

[I can take it off?]

[Of course you can take it off,] she sent with a smile. [Just ensure you turn it off before doing so, or the gestalt will have to be restarted before you can use it, if you ever use that one again. Tools and other equipment is stored in this area.] Another mark in the same building appeared on the map in his mind’s eye, supplied to him by the gestalt. [I have linked to your gestalt, Jason. If you have need to contact me, you need only commune with me through it. When you imprint your new gestalt, send to me, and I will establish a new link.]

[Alright. I think we’ll go tackle that right now, I think both of us could do with a little busy work, to help sort through all of this.]

[I will compile a list of known resources and possible military technology and their locations. I will also compile a list of locations for all inoperative reclamation units. These will be ready for you to peruse at your leisure.]

[Alright. Thank you, Cybi.]

[No thanks are needed. It is a pleasure you cannot understand to be able to serve once again, instead of wait in silence and hope for your return.]

[Well, you’re not alone anymore.]

[Thank Trelle.]

Jason and Myleena left the computer core room, and Jason looked at her as they walked. She seemed quiet and thoughtful, she glanced at him, then she smiled and nudged him with her shoulder. "I’m alright," she told him. "It’s just so much at once, ya know?"

"I know how that feels," Jason grunted. "For like two years now, I’ve been dealing with shocks on a daily basis. First there’s when I met Jyslin, then I find out I’m a telepath. Then I leave New Orleans because I couldn’t live with myself if I stayed in the Faey system. I get there and work my ass off to build something, I see it all knocked down, then I find out that Trillane is kidnapping human beings and selling them into slavery. I decide to go after Trillane, then I lose so many people at the explosion in Chesapeake. Then I started the rebellion, I find out the human telepaths are part Faey, I get captured, I escape, and now here I am. Learning that I’m the product of genetic engineering and that the Karinnes built stuff that I’ve never heard of. Just another typical day for me," he muttered darkly.

Myleena gave him a look, then burst into helpless laughter. "And I thought I had a bad day!" she laughed, slapping him on the shoulder.

They reached the storage room, and found boxes and boxes of gestalts, meticulously marked with the model number. Jason looked at the various models, but then a blinking outline lit up in his mind’s eye around one box; clearly, that was the box that held the proper gestalt. He opened it and found it packed neatly with about a hundred of them, laid out in a staggered packing system and wrapped in individual sealed plastic-like bags. Myleena took one and tore the bag open, then turned it over in her hands. Like this, right? she asked.

Yeah. Just be ready for it. It doesn’t really hurt, but it’s kinda scary.

I remember when you put yours on. Okay, here goes.

She set the device on her ear, fidgeting until it was comfortable, and then laid her hair over it. She quickly sat down cross-legged on the floor, and Jason knelt down with her and held onto both of her hands. Those hands clamped down on his own when the gestalt began to imprint, and she began to send wildly, chaotically, with amazing power. Jason had to shield himself from her, but given they were touching and that touch amplified their communion, it made it hard. She shuddered, then started to convulse, and Jason literally had to push her to the floor and hold her down until the convulsions eased, then stopped. She took in a deep, cleansing breath, then opened her rose-colored eyes and gave him the strangest look. [Amazing!] she sent in the communion manner. [I feel-it’s amazing! The gestalt really does amplify your talent, doesn’t it?]

[Yes, it does.]

[I can feel it touching the back of my mind. It’s like it’s a part of me! Wow!] She touched it gingerly. [Now I really am curious what would happen if I took it off without taking some kind of precaution.]

[I do not want to find out,] Jason told her. He took out another of the gestalts and opened it. He touched the one on his face and ordered it to shut down. It did so, leaving him feeling a little dizzy when the sense of it vanished from the back of his mind. He took it off and set it aside, then put the new one on.

It wasn’t half as bad this time. He knew what to expect, and in a way, that helped him endure the imprint much better than the first time. He did not send wildly like he and Myleena had done the first time, and though there were some spasms, there were no convulsions. It still wasn’t exactly pleasant, though. When it was over, the gestalt informed him that all systems were operational, and it was ready for tasks.

[That wasn’t as bad as last time. Guess you get used to it after a few episodes.]

[I hope it’s not like that every time. It’d make me scared shitless to take this one off. That was not fun.]

[Yeah. Well. Let’s get those tools. Cybi?]

[Yes, Jason?]

[We have our new gestalts. Can you download all that data to us both? Both of us are engineers, it’ll help if we both have the information.]

[Certainly. Are you ready to receive?]

[Yeah, go for it.]

[Data download is commencing now.]

A chaotic jumble of information collected into the memory of the gestalt, a memory that was separate from Jason’s mind, but a memory he could see, could look through, could sort. He waded into that memory, and found that everything he would need to know to diagnose and repair the communications system was present in the gestalt’s memory.

Amazing. The device was a harmonic teryon transceiver, which broadcast communications directly into hyperspace utilizing an antenna made of hyperdimensional matter, matter that existed in all dimensions in the same capacity. The antenna appeared in hyperspace the same way it appeared in three dimensional space. It was powered using, surprisingly enough, metaphased plasma. Phased plasma technology didn’t exist in the era of the Karinnes, but obviously, the Karinnes had mastered the technology and never told the rest of the Imperium. And their mastery of it surpassed even modern standards. The type of plasma phasing was nothing like he’d ever seen before. It was double metaphased; the metaphased plasma was itself metaphased, something he didn’t think was possible. The technical schematics, plasma conduit diagrams, logic flowcharts, and physical illustrations were also there in the gestalt’s memory, all the technical data they would need to troubleshoot the array, find the problem, repair it, then bring it back up. And it was complex. The Karinnes, their technology was beyond what he learned in school. It was beyond current mainstream Imperium technology. What he was looking at in the memory of his gestalt might be sitting on a lab table in Research and Development, or Black Ops...but here it was, built over a thousand years ago and apparently having been in use for years before Karis was destroyed.

Holy Lord above. Over thirteen hundred years ago, the Karinnes were more technologically advanced than the modern Imperium. If they hadn’t have been wiped out, how much further along would they be now? It almost boggled his mind to even think about it.

"Fuck," Myleena grunted, touching the gestalt on her face with a single finger and looking at him, as she apparently was doing what he was doing, looking through the memory of her gestalt. Man, she picked that up fast! "I’ve never seen tech like this, Jason. This makes us look like we’re still using electricity! Trelle’s garland...if they were this advanced, how the hell did they get destroyed by Merrane?"

"Because they never prepared for war," Jason told her. "The computer, Cybi. It told me that Karinne didn’t have a real naval fleet, just some prototypes. It had no army outside of some robots I guess, and I dunno about any automated planetary defenses, Cybi never mentioned them. I guess what they had here was no match for a Faey battle fleet. I guess they never believed that the other houses would violate their neutrality, so they never really prepared to defend themselves."

"All those brains, and they were that stupid?"

"Intelligence and wisdom aren’t the same thing," Jason said sagely.

"That’s true enough. Let’s go get some tools, and see if we can’t get that array working. Why we’re doing this is beyond me, but hey, it’s something to do. And you were right. I think a little manual labor will help me sort some of this out. It’s better than sitting in my room going bonkers thinking about it."

"Cybi said if we can get the array working, she can see if she can make contact with other installations. See what’s still up and running."

"Oh. That’s a good reason."


It was an educational experience.

Well into the night, the two of them crawled all over the communications system for the compound, tracking down the problem. And it was so bizarre.

They had no experience with this technology. This dual metaphased plasma system was new to them, and neither of them had ever heard of harmonic teryon communication systems. But the gestalts filled the gaps. Any time they looked at something unfamiliar, the gestalts told them exactly what it was, exactly what it did, and supplied a detailed schematic or conduit diagram to them of its internal workings. Despite having no knowledge of the system, the information and step by step instructions they could access through the gestalts allowed them to comprehend this technology and work up a course of action to troubleshoot the system and find the problem. Both of them were gifted engineers, with a knack for technology, and that engineer’s soul allowed them to work out how this system worked.

Five hours after they began, they tracked down the problem. The problem was a burned out main plasma exchanger up by the antenna, which had required them to go up to the antenna with a replacement unit that Cybi had tracked down for them. Using a flying platform and with the help of Maya and Min, they carted the new unit up there and started the work to get out the old one. It required a great deal of disassembly, for the failed unit was deep inside the antenna array, requiring them to gut the thing in order to get at it. The gestalts kept track of every piece they took out, showing them a detailed diagram of how to reassemble it when the time came.

It was strange to see the Marines out of armor. They had found some old clothes, what looked like old uniforms or soemthing, for they wore matching gray pants and a gray ribbed fabric tank top in the muggy, warm summer night air. They found boots as well, soft black calf-height boots that had no laces or buckles or snaps. Maya’s clothes fit, but Min’s were a tiny bit loose. She was a small girl, the shortest in the unit.

Careful! Jason warned as they pulled out a teryon generator. This thing is delicate, don’t bang it around!.

How do you know that? Min asked.

The gestalt told us, Myleena answered as they laied the teryon generator on the platform, on top of a series of removed plasma conduits. There, we can get at the exchanger now. Hand me the annealer Maya.

Myleena all but crawled into the hole they’d made to reach the exchanger, as Jason held onto her waist. She unannealed its housing from its mount, then grabbed hold of it. Okay, pull me out, she sent, and Jason and Maya carefully pulled her out as she pulled the exchanger along with her. Jason and Myleena heaved it over the side of the platform and let it fall to the roof below.

Maya laughed. I never expected to see a couple of techs do that!

That’s what we do with misbehaving equipment, Myleena told her. It gets spanked.

Remind me to leave if your vidlink ever goes on the fritz, Min sent dryly.

My vidlink is too afraid of me to go down, Myleena told her. Hand me the Dyson tool, will ya? Gonna need some help in there. I swear, the Karinnes musta been midgets or something. I can’t hold the unit in place and anneal it into position at the same time.

The space only had room for one person, so the smallest of them, Min, was chosen to help Myleena in the crawlspace. The two of them crushed into the space, Min literally laying on her back holding the unit in place while Myleena laid on top of her, working to get it secured. Jason and Maya held lamps up so they could see what they were doing. Ow, watch your elbow! Min complained.

I’m trying, Myleena growled. This isn’t easy, you know. Just hold it in place for another few seconds. Jason, hold the light up. More. Right there. Got it! Okay, help us get out of here.

They pulled the two of them out, and Myleena immediately crawled back in. Alright, give me the first conduit section, let’s get it back together.

What’s it like Jayce? Wearing that thing? Min asked.

It’s like having a computer attached to my brain, he answered, picking up the first conduit section and handing it in to Myleena. Right now, it’s got all the technical specs for this system in its memory, and me and Myleena have been using that to repair this thing. Believe me, without it we’d have no idea what we’re doing.

That’s fuckin’ right. This is tech I’ve never seen before, and trust me, I’ve seen tech that no one outside of Black Ops has seen before. This makes some of the stuff in my lab look like a boy’s builder set.

What makes it different? It looks like plasma stuff to me, Maya sent.

Yeah, it’s plasma, but it’s dual metaphased plasma, something I didn’t think was possible, she answered. Some of the new systems coming down out of research are starting to use miniaturized metaphased plasma power systems for power, but this is like fifty years ahead of us, and this shit is like fifteen hundred years old.

Really?

Yeah. Black Ops would come in their pants at the thought of coming down here and tearing this place apart. What we could learn from what the Karinnes left behind, it’d be a fucking quantum leap. She was quiet a moment. And that’s exactly why it’s never going to happen.

What do you mean?

I don’t want them coming here, Maya. I don’t want to see what little is left of the Karinnes ripped apart. This place, it’s like a page out of the past. It’s history. It, it’s like this place is almost holy, ya know? I don’t want to see it violated, even if it does mean we pass up a chance to learn. I don’t want to see a team of Black Ops techs ripping open Cybi and killing her just to see how she works.

Cybi?

The computer, the one down in the basement, Jason answered. It calls itself Cybi.

It’s AI, Artificial Intelligence, Min noted. I’ve never seen one so advanced before. It even seems to have emotions.

Yeah. When she talked about how long she was waiting for us to come back, Jason sent with a shudder. I could feel her loneliness. Half the reason we’re fixing this array is so she can keep in contact with us when we leave. I don’t want to leave her here all alone. That would be...cruel.

You’re a good man, Jason, Maya sent, putting her hand on his shoulder and giving him warm look.

Jyslin has all the luck, Min complained.

It took them about an hour to reinstall everything they had to take out in order to get at the exchanger, as Jason and Myleena took turns doing the work of reassembling the unit, since it was hard, cramped work in the compartment. Jason and Myleena closed the access panel when they were done, and Myleena clapped her hands together as if to shake free dust, and waved for Min, who was closest to the controls for the platform, to take them down. "That’s that. Did we leave out any pieces?"

"Doesn’t look like it," Maya said after looking around, and the platform descended to the roof.

[Cybi, we think we got it fixed. Can you start it?] Myleena called.

[One moment.] The equipment inside the spire gave out a muted hum, and lights began blinking at the top of the metal spire. [The array is up. It is running a diagnostic now. I believe it is operational. Thank you, Jason, Mistress Karinne.]

[Call me Myleena,] she told her.

[Myleena. The array is operating. The transceiver units are also operating. The array is fully up and working. Sending an open query to all units. One moment.]

The array gave out a sudden higher-pitched whine, as it obviously began to transmit.

[Kosigi is responding. That is the lunar base. It is on emergency power.]

[Is it a CBIM like you?]

[No, Kosigi has a Mark IV Mainframe, not a unit of my technical advancement. There were only six CBIMs, and I have confirmation that the other five are destroyed. I am getting responses from most of the satellites in the sensor jamming network. Those units should not be operating,] she mused to them. [They should be inoperative after this much time.]

[Unless the Kimdori have been maintaining them,] Jason offered. [They have to know about this place. I think they’ve been keeping it secret.]

[That is possible. I am receving a reply from a scout vessel 7,538 light years from here, at Nebula GF1848. It reports it has no crew aboard. I am receiving echoes from several mainframe units on Kimdori Prime, but not responses. Those units lack the necessary equipment to reply, but their biogenic crystal lattices are detectable by my array.]

[The Kimdori have biogenic computers?] Jason asked in surprise.

[Why would they not? They can interface with them the same way they interface with the minds of living beings, and they were key to their creation. A biogenic computer would be the most logical computer for them to use.]

[She has you there, Jason,] Myleena grinned.

[I will recall the scout vessel, if you so wish it. It is fully operational and is capable of jumping back to Karis.]

[Go ahead, call it back. We might be able to use it to get back to Earth.]

[Sending the order. It will arrive in 1.2 days. It must clear the nebula before it can jump back to Karis. Kosigi responds that it has two prototype destroyers and a light cruiser docked, which are salvageable with maintenance, but it has no power to open the bay doors. It requests a maintenance team to be sent or the restoration of the main power station on Karis, which is impossible. I will respond by ordering it to remain in standby for now. Its emergency power will last for 1,685.5 more years, so it is in no danger of power failure. Is this satisfactory, Jason?]

[Why ask me?]

[Because you are in command of this planet, and it is your orders I obey,] Cybi answered.

[Oh, go ahead and do what you think best. I’m not really qualified to give any real orders here, Cybi. I really have no idea what the hell is going on.]

That seemed to amuse Cybi. [Be patient, your Grace. Leadership is a learned skill more than it is a natural quality.]

[Please don’t call me that.]

[Yes, Jason.]

"It’s working," Jason said to Min and Maya. "Cybi made contact with the lunar base and a single scout ship somewhere out in the galaxy that’s still working. The base is a bust, but the scout ship is on the way back here. We can use the scout ship to get home."

"Nice," Min said. "I’m hungry. Let’s go grab some of those tasty field rations," she said sarcastically.

"I’m getting a little tired. Wonder what the others are up to?"

Where are you guys and what are you doing? Jason called in an open sending that reached all over the island.

Me, Meya, and Sheleese are on the way back from checking out a big fuckin’ robot on the other side of the island, but it’s in pretty bad shape, Myri called. It’ll take some major work to get it up and running. It’s been sitting there for at least a hundred years. The others had better be finishing up that inventory I told them to do.

We’re almost done, Sarge. Not much here. I found a small armory of about fifty weapons, but that’s it, Ilia answered.

We’ve got two small single-seaters I think are some kind of old fighters over here in the hangar, and a pretty old dropship that might still work, Zora added. I’m inside it now-wait, got it. This thing still works. Took me a few to get the hang of this layout, this is different than any dropship I’ve ever seen. Damn, after a thousand years, it purrs like a vulpar. Okay boss, we got an operational dropship here.

They got quite a bit of stored equipment, but I can’t make any sense of any of it, Bryn chimed in. It’s all weird shit I’ve never seen before.

Nothing edible around here at all, boss. We’re stuck with field rations til we’re done, Lyn reported. I tested the plants, and none of them are digestible.

I’ve finished up testing the water, Sarge. It’s clean, so we’re good on that, Yana reported. It’s saltwater though, so we’re gonna have to run it through a purifier.

I’m in the infirmary. There’s not much here I’m familiar with, and I’m not sure how much use it’s going to be. I’m going to need some time to try to work this out. I wish Rann were here, he was so good with the technical things, Songa sent sadly.

What’s your status up there, Jason?

We’re done repairing the comm array. It’s up and running, and the computer has made contact with a lunar base and a lone unmanned scout ship out somewhere in the galaxy. She recalled it, and it’s on its way back. We can use that to get off the planet. The lunar base says it has 3 ships in its bay, but it doesn’t have power to open the doors to let them out.

Are they operational?

No, it said they need repairs.

Sounds like the scout ship is our best bet. I’m not too keen on hitching a ride with that robot ship back to Draconis. Alright, everyone, stand down for tonight. Grab some bunks over in that hotel, grab some food, and take it easy. We’ll pick up again in the morning.

After a dinner of field rations, everyone claimed a room in the hotel building beside the main operations center, but Jason couldn’t sleep. He ended up sitting on a sandy beach just beside the compound, lights from the compound washing light over the area enough to let him see, see the white sand, see the waves crashing into the beach in soothing rushes of sound, feel a warm breeze blowing in from the sea. This place was so much like Earth...well, at least here on this island. There wasn’t a single animal anywhere on this entire planet, except for the twelve Faey and lone human here.

It had been too much. He laid back and looked at the unfamiliar stars, his eyes automatically seeking out the constellations that his father would always point out to him, but they weren’t there. How did they get here so fast? Just yesterday, he’d never have believed that they’d end up here, with the crest ring of the Karinnes in his pocket, and them doing repairs to help a sentient computer keep in contact with them when they left. He expected to be on the way back to Earth, or already be there, by now. He had hoped to be back at the mountain, back with Jyslin. But he was here, on this dead planet, discovering that his lineage was more amazing than he ever believed, and that his ancestors had left behind technology that would be considered highly advanced even by today’s standards.

So much intelligence. So little wisdom. Had they become so arrogant that they believed nobody would dare attack them, so they didn’t even bother building a defense to protect themselves? Did they believe that the other houses would honor their vows of neutrality to the point where they did not take precautions? Or did they simply become so blinded by their own ambitions that they ignored the defenses of the house? He guessed he’d never really know. Cybi might know, but in a way, he almost didn’t want to ask the question. It was the distant past, and it wouldn’t be a very good story.

It was almost too unbelievable, and it did make him curious. Cybi had told him that only some of the Karinne line had been altered. He wondered how the house operated with the Generations on one side and the unaltered Karinnes on the other. How did the unaltered Karinnes see their altered cousins? Was there any friction within the house? He guessed he’d never know, but it did cross his mind.

So much to think about...too much to think about. It was all so overwhelming. So many questions, so much speculation about what had happened, how things had led to this point. The only real satisfaction he got out of it was that he finally understood how the Kimdori were tied up in all this. They had been helping him because he was considered a cousin to them, a relative, and they wanted him to know his history. They wanted him to see that he was the legacy of Karinne, and Miaari had sent him here, to Karis, to show him where he had come from and the melancholy pride of being part of something that had at once been so grand, so visionary, and also so ominous, so dangerous. The Karinnes had had the potential to be a tremendous asset to the Imperium if they ever would have shared the technology they created, but also be the most evil, sinister force unleashed upon the galaxy, using their advanced technology and their genetically altered members to conquer the inferior.

Yet they had done neither.

It could have all turned on the motivations of a single House ruler, he supposed. Instead of doing either of those, they simply remained quietly motivated to continue their nearly mad objective, ignoring the Imperium, ignoring reality, and focusing with what Jason saw now was suicidal focus on a single goal.

But that was the past. It would never be repeated, if only because there were only two Karinnes left.

He thought about what was ahead of them. They had to get back to the mountain, and do it without leading Trillane right to the base. If there was something here he could take home to help them there, he’d be overjoyed to find it. From what he’d heard, it was now basicly a state of war back on Earth, as Jyslin unleashed her fury over Jason’s capture upon Trillane, and Trillane became more and more extreme in their retaliatory actions. He had to get home and put a stop to it. Jyslin’s actions were understandable, but the lay human population was starting to suffer because of it, and if they turned the people against them, they were doomed to failure. He wasn’t sure how they were going to get there, but they’d find a way. If he could just get close enough to make contact with someone, they could send a dropship for them.

Footsteps reached his ears, and he turned his head on the sand to look. Songa was approaching him. He sat up as she sat down beside him, then she leaned against him. He put his arm around her. They said nothing, sent, nothing, for a long time. He was used to this. Songa found comfort when someone was holding her, and sometimes she needed that comfort even now, months after the death of her husband. She didn’t like to be alone, especially at night. She put her head on his shoulder and simply enjoyed his company, and all he could really think of was how hard all this had been on her, and how he felt responsible for her loss. She didn’t blame him in any way for Rann’s death, but they had been there helping him. If they’d have stayed home, if they hadn’t have gotten involved, then Rann would still be alive.

And that would have gone against everything both of them believed in, he realized. Rann had died doing what he loved, doing what he needed to do. If he had stayed home, he wouldn’t have been being a doctor.

But he still owed her. Songa would get anything she needed, and if there was ever anything he could do for her, it would be done. He owed this woman so much, and he would always be there for her.

She lifted her head and looked up at him, the reached over and put her fingers on the gray metal of the gestalt delicately. It looks good on you, she told him. I don’t think I told you that.

I’m already used to it.

Does it slide around?

No, it kinda glues itself into place. It’s not uncomfortable, though.

Oh. Jason, will you do something for me?

Anything, Songa.

I’m lonely. I don’t want to be lonely.

He understood what she meant immediately. And he would be a terrible friend if he didn’t give her what he wanted. He leaned down and kissed her, gently, and she wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled herself into his embrace.


It had been a good thing for her. And it wasn’t all that bad for Jason...and he knew that Jyslin would have approved in a heartbeat.

Jason woke up early and left the room Songa had claimed as her own before dawn, letting her sleep peacefully. He could never be Rann, but at least, for one night, there was no pain, there was only the simple pleasure of making love with someone she liked very much, which to a Faey was a more than acceptable thing. It was a night spent doing anything but mourning her husband, and Jason supposed it was another step towards completing her mourning for him.

One thing, though. Songa was a biter. He was going to have to have a little talk with her about that.

He turned a corner, and almost fell down backwards, because he nearly walked headlong right into Miaari!

"Miaari!" Jason gasped, putting a hand over his heart. "You scared me to death!"

"May, may I?" she asked hesitantly, holding her hand out. "Jason, are we still welcome in your house now?"

He gave her a surprised look, then laughed. "I couldn’t be angry with you!" he exclaimed, pushing past her hand and simply giving her a warm hug. "I see what you wanted us to find, Miaari. For what it’s worth, thank you for showing me my heritage."

"I am very glad you’re not angry," she said in relief, putting her hands on his shoulders. "I thought you might be upset when you discovered the truth, and realized we have been hiding it from everyone, even you."

"Why? Why hide it, Miaari?" he asked, pushing out enough to look up into her amber eyes. "Why didn’t you just tell me?"

"Long ago, at the end, Koiri Karinne forbade us from revealing our knowledge of the Karinnes," she explained. "We were bound by that declaration, even to the point of not allowing us to tell you. She did not want the Imperium coming here and salvaging anything. She wanted the loss of the Karinnes to be absolute, to her own people. She wanted their betrayal to give them nothing in return. We even have orders to attack and destroy any who violate this place, except for those who have the right to be here," she told him intensely. "Even now, Jason, I may not tell you what I know. Koiri Karinne’s edict still leashes us. I am only here because you have managed to restore a CBIM, and it has queried. Our computers on homeworld detected the query, and that was a condition that would allow us to come here."

"What do you mean?"

"We were forbidden to come here, Jason, except under very specific circumstances," she told him. "Koiri was very specific. She told us that no Kimdori may return to Karis unless invited, and only a Karinne could extend such an invitation. There were other conditions that would allow us to return, but only to fulfill certain specific objectives, and we were not permitted to change anything, move anything, or take anything from here. Koiri wanted the planet left inviolate. We have fulfilled our duties to her. We have kept Karis a secret. We have maintained the sensor jammers to hide the fact that something survvied here that was cleaning up the radiation. We have destroyed those whose curiosity threatened the sanctity of Karis. When the CBIM you restored sent an open broadcast, it was a condition set forth that would permit the Kimdori to return here. We were permitted to send a single scout back to Karis to investigate, to ensure that the planet was not being invaded by outsiders. I am the single scout, Jason. I am here alone, sent here to investigate the open broadcast...but I knew the origin behind it," she told him with a wolfish smile. "Semantics, I suppose, but the oaths we have taken are maintained."

"You, you still can’t tell me?"

She shook her head. "I wish I could, Jason. Believe me. There is so much here, so much I wish I could tell you. But a Kimdori is her word, and her word is true. The secrets must be maintained. I hope you are not angry."

"A little disappointed, maybe, but not angry. I understand that it’s very important to you."

She patted his shoulders. "Who received the ring?"

"I did."

She sighed explosively. "Thank the Denmother. That means that things have progressed as we hoped. You are the Grand Duke Karinne now, Jason." She reached up and put her hand on his neck, and he felt that sense of expansion that told him that she was looking into his mind.

"Seeing what I know?" he asked, with a slight smile.

"Of course I am," she told him with a toothy smile. "I must see what I can say, and what I cannot. I must know what you have thought to ask of the CBIM. But know this, Jason. Any answer I can give, most likely the computer can give as well. It would have the same knowledge as I, and it is not bound by my oaths. Indeed, it will tell you anything it knows, for you are the Grand Duke Karinne. It cannot deny you any request."

"That’s twice you’ve called me that. It makes me wonder what point you’re making."

She smiled at him.

"But I have to ask, Miaari. Why send me here? I know you think this is important, but you also know what I’m doing back home. I thought you were sending me here to show me something that might help against Trillane, but there’s nothing here but answers to questions that don’t do me any real good."

"Jason, everything is here," she told him, patting him on the shoulder as her other hand boldly reached down to his leg. He felt her put her hand in his pocket. "My dear friend, everything you need to defeat Trillane and save your people is right here."

She pulled her hand up between them and opened it. Within her furry palm was the signet ring of the Karinnes.

"This is what I sent you here to recover, Jason. Nothing else. This is the greatest treasure on Karis. This ring gives you the fealty of the CBIM, and that is a powerful, powerful thing. It marks you as the lord of this planet. Everything here belongs to you, and to you alone. And I knew that it would be you that would receive it. Myleena would reject the ring because she is a Merrane first."

"You knew about her."

"Since the day she was born."

Jason looked at the ring. "I don’t understand, Miaari. How can this help me? It really doesn’t mean anything."

"It means everything, my dear friend," she told him, looking down at him seriously. "And this is something I do not need to be evasive about, Jason. This has nothing to do with oaths or secrets. This ring marks you as a member of the Siann, the ranks of the noble rulers. You are the Grand Duke of a noble house, you sit upon its throne. According to the laws of the Siann, you can claim right of ownership of Terra, because you were there first. You were born there, you were raised there. You are a Terran. Your citizenship upon Terra absolutely cannot be challenged. That is why I sent you here, Jason. Not only were you the perfect choice to take the seat of Karinne, you also had the most to gain from that position, and could bring about real and effective change because of it. Unlike any of the others, who would use this gift as nothing but a means of self-enrichment, we knew that you would use this power wisely and responsibly, and could immediately use it as a club to strike the hands of Trillane away from your home planet. Trillane has run rampant all over your planet and your people. They have done much more than you know, and none of it has been good. The slaving is but one small activity you stumbled upon by accident. They have done equally terrible things."

"Why didn’t you just send me here right off, Miaari?" he asked, a bit annoyed. "We could have saved lives!"

"And they would not have taken you seriously," she told him in reply. "We helped you, allowed you to begin the action against Trillane, to give you a name, Jason. To get the attention of the Siann and the Empress herself upon you, to know who you are. If you would have shown up on Draconis with the ring and declared your dukal rights, they would have laughed you out of the Palace. But this Jason Fox, appearing wearing a gestalt and with a reputation for strength, cunning, and power, they will listen to him. They may not believe him, but they will listen. And that is what you will need."

He considered her words, and though it sounded a little strange, he guessed he should appreciate her opinion. "How old are you, Miaari?" he asked impulsively.

She gave him a light smile. "I am an Elder, Jason," she told him. "I am the first daughter of the clan’s founder. Were it not for my older brother, I would be the clan’s heir. But I envy him in no fashion. The duties of the clan leader are not for me."

"So, you’re older than that male that came to cure me?"

"He is my son, my friend."

"But Kiaari is your sister, and she’s only fifty?"

"My parents continue to produce offspring, Jason," she told him with a smile. "They are the alpha pair. They control the clan. They deigned to allow me my own mate, and from time to time they permit us to breed. I have six children, Jason. Kereth is but one of them. Two are Elders, the rest are younglings."

"Huh. You must have one hell of a family reunion."

She laughed, a strange growling sound, then grabbed his hand and placed it in her own, around the ring. "Ask the CBIM about the Siann Charter, Jason. Have her download a copy into this. Read it," she told him, tapping the gestalt on his face, placing a lingering finger on the prong leading down in front of his ear. "Everything you need to complete that task will be in the charter. You will know what to do. Just understand one thing, my friend. When you take that step, you are accepting the responsibility that making such a claim will entail. If you challenge Trillane for ownership of Terra, understand that you must carry through with that responsibility. Your ignorance of the workings of the houses or the basic fundamentals of Imperial economics will not be an excuse. The Empress will expect the same from you she expects from Trillane, and unlike Trillane, you have nothing but your own self and the money you have stored away on Moridon. Understand this before you take that step. Be ready for it."

He could not miss her warning. Make sure you know what the hell you are doing before you even think of standing before the Empress. Have a plan.

"I understand," he told her seriously. "So it may be easier to push Trillane off Earth?"

"I doubt that now. Trillane is furious, Jason. Your mate, Jyslin, she has pushed every button Grand Duchess Trillane ever had, and invented quite a few besides. Even now, Trillane is evacuating the entire continent of North America, and they intend to blast it into dust. They know your rebels hide somewhere on the continent. Tired of trying to find them, they intend to destroy the Legion by devastating the entire continent."

"You’re serious!" Jason gasped.

"Deadly," she answered. "Jyslin made it impossible for them to move any foodstuffs in North America without huge losses of materials and transports. You fail to appreciate the scope of Jyslin’s escalation, Jason. Nothing could so much as take off from the ground anywhere in North America and be assured it would survive to reach orbit. Her tenacity and focus on the task you left behind has been nearly superfaey. I honestly do not see how she has done it, it is incredible. Her love for you is so great that she moves heaven and earth itself to avenge you, my dear friend," she told him, her fingers sliding down until her palm cupped the left side of his face. "And now, faced with severe losses, Trillane has decided to abandon North America to Jyslin, and then burn it to the ground in spite. Your wife is in very real danger, my friend. Going back to Terra is not going to help her anywhere near as much as you going to Draconis could."

Jason could only try to comprehend that. Had Jyslin really done that? Had she pushed it so far, pushed it so hard, that it caused this kind of a drastic response? The short answer is yes. He knew his wife. He knew her well. She not only had the technical skill, she had the sheer balls to push it that far. The same woman who so tenaciously pursued him, so fearlessly, would not bat an eye over taking Trillane to the mat and trying to bite off their noses with her bare teeth. That indomitable will was both one of her most endearing qualities and one of her most annoying tendancies.

Now, Miaari was telling him that he had to save his wife from herself, and save everyone else as well.

"Miaari."

"Yes, Jason?"

"You said that no Kimdori could come here unless they were invited."

"That is correct."

"Well, I’m inviting," he told her. "If I asked the Kimdori to come here, would they?"

"In a second," she told him. "We owe the Karinnes a great deal, Jason. We thought we may never have the chance to repay that debt. If you call the Kimdori, they will come. Honor and duty would demand it. But why would you summon them here?"

"If they want to repay the Karinnes, they can help us get all this old junk fixed," he told her. "I’m positive your Elders have the knowledge to do it."

She grinned at him. "Very well done, my friend. I see our choice of you for this was perfect. Yes, we retain the knowledge to repair Karinne technology. But what will we repair?"

"Anything. Everything!" he told her. "This isn’t a dead planet, Miaari, it’s just waiting to be fixed. If Cybi could clean up the radiation and get grass and trees to grow on this island, then we can restore this world. It’ll take time, but it needs to be done. I can’t leave this place like this. If I have to take responsibility for taking this ring, then I have to own up to all of those responsibilities. And a really big one is right here. The stupidity of my ancestors destroyed this planet. It has to be put right. Cybi started it, but now all her robots are broken. So we have to help her finish it. I have to take responsibility for two planets."

"I am relieved beyond measure over the choice we made," she told him with almost quivering emotion in her voice, patting his cheek. "Let us contact the Denmother, ruler of my people. If you request help as Grand Duke Karinne, she will respond. She will bring Kimdori here to help you repair your machines."

"Let’s go do that right now. Er, if we can."

"Yes, we can, Jason. We cannot use your computer’s teryon transmitter, for we have no unit on Kimdori capable of receiving it. But my ship has a comm device we developed after the fall of Karinne that works in a similar manner. With it, we can communicate with Kimdori Prime in real time."

Jason followed her outside, and to the landing pad where the dropship she had sent them in still rested. Beside it was a sleek craft, with a long pointed nose and two curved, stubby wings at the stern, with a fuselage made of a coarse, almost ruddy looking gray metal. The craft was the size of a fighter, but Jason saw that the majority if its interior was hollow, allowing room for at least six people inside. It had a ramp at the stern leading up into the ship.

The interior was spartan. There were no living quarters, no seats, no nothing. Just an empty bay with a single seat at the bow, a seat for the pilot. She led him up and had him sit, then leaned over him and waved her hand in front of a blank series of dark glass screens. They lit up, but none of them had anything. Instead, three dimensional holograms appeared in front of them, projected by the plates out into the air. She touched a series of holograms in quick order, and then a rectangular hologram appeared before the seat, at Jason’s eye level. Jason had to admire the clever layout of a Kimdori craft. Holographic controls!

Jason expected them to have to go through a series of Kimdori lieutenants or officers before addressing this Denmother. So, he was a bit surprised when he found himself looking at a regal-looking Kimdori with a charcoal gray coat of fur with a white patch under her chin. "I am Zaa, the Denmother," she announced in a commanding voice. "Speak."

Wow. Wow. She was so sure of herself, and her eyes bored into him like beams of the purest light, dazzling him. She held herself with a regal bearing, as if she was the lord of all creation, and she knew it. She looked at him, and he felt like a mouse caught in the gaze of the cat.

"I bring before you Jason Fox, my Denmother," Miaari said with the most profound respect in her voice, her muzzle over Jason’s shoulder. "Show her, Jason."

Jason understood what she meant. He held up the signet ring of Karinne, feeling almost unworthy to have her look upon him. Zaa’s eyes widened when she saw it, and then she smiled broadly. "Thank the gods," she said with explosive relief. "I have waited a very long time to say this, Jason. The Kimdori officially recognize the authority of the Grand Duke Karinne. Now speak, your Grace. What do you wish of the Kimdori?"

"Help," he answered, still feeling a little unsure of himself in the presence of this august, commanding Kimdori. "Everything here is broken, and Miaari told me that if I asked, the Kimdori would come and help get everything working. Would you do this?"

"I will arrange it immediately," she told him. "We will begin to arrive in three hours. Do you require anything else?"

"Well, not that I can really think of, your, uh, Majesty. Miaari kinda dragged me over here before I had a chance to really think about that."

"Take a moment, your Grace. Is there anything we can bring to make things easier or more comfortable? How are you doing in food, for example?"

"All we have here are field rations."

"Then, shall we bring more suitable food for you?"

"If you don’t mind. There’s me and eleven Faey and Miaari here. If it’s not a bother."

"It is no bother at all," she told him with a light smile. "So, I am bringing mechanics to begin repairs, materials to assist in those repairs, and foodstocks more palatable than field rations for you and your Faey companions. May I take initiative to bring what I think best, since you are uncertain?"

"Well, sure, if it’s no bother, your Majesty. I trust your judgment."

"Then I will take my leave and see to the matter personally. Miaari."

"Yes, my Denmother?"

"You have done well. We are most pleased with you."

Miaari lowered her eyes and bowed her head. "I am honored beyond words, my Denmother."

"Expect the first Kimdori to arrive in three hours, your Grace. Good fortune to you."

And then her image vanished.

So, that was the Denmother, the ruler of the Kimdori. A very commanding presence. She was very...noble. He still found himself a little intimidated, and she wasn’t even on the monitor anymore.

"Wow," Jason breathed.

"I know. I find my fur shivering whenever I look upon her. To know that she is pleased with me," she said, touching his neck, and he didn’t need to share with her to feel her excitement, for her hand quivered. "My parents will explode with pride." She leaned in and licked his cheek with her tongue, which was hot. "Now then, Jason, let us go have a talk with your CBIM."

"Cybi. She calls herself Cybi."

"Amazing, is it not?" Miaari asked. "They have emotions, but sometimes it isn’t easy to tell where the programming ends and the spontaneous reactions begin. There has always been debate as to wether they are self aware. I think that they are."

"Alive?"

"Yes, alive."

Jason pondered it a moment. "I think that she very well could be. When she told me about waiting, I could feel the loneliness she endured waiting for us to come. I don’t think a computer could be lonely."

"Yes. Take us there, Jason."

They went down to the core, and Jason saw that they weren’t alone. Myleena was there, half of her body hidden inside the metal chassis of some piece of equipment, just her bare legs sticking out. Those legs were long and shapely and quite attractive, a light blue showing they didn’t get much sun, with freckles on her knees. "Myleena?" Jason asked in surprise.

Hey babe. Just checking something out. Cybi said this memory unit isn’t working, I’m seeing if I can’t get it going.

"Nice legs."

She laughed. "I couldn’t sleep and wandered down here." She squirmed down a little, exposing a dainty little pair of lacy pink panties, which made Jason laugh. "What?"

"I never pegged you as the lacy type."

She slid all the way out and looked up at him, showing she was wearing one of the tank tops they’d found in the hotel. "What did you expect?" she asked, giving a hard look up at him. "Pliable titanium?"

"I don’t know, something, well, less lacy."

She was about to say something else, but the taller Miaari came up behind him and looked down at her. She flushed slightly, her expression unsure. "Uh, hello," she said from the floor. "Who are you?"

"I am Miaari," she stated in her confident manner. "And you are Myleena Merrane."

She flushed purple, as Jason knew she was not comfortable around Kimdori, quickly getting up to her feet. "I, uh, I didn’t know that you were...coming," she said, giving Jason a frightened look when Miaari boldly reached out and put her hand on her neck.

It’s alright, Jason assured her.

Easy for you to say. You haven’t lived your life terrified to be in the same room with one.

"There is no reason to fear the Kimdori, child," Miaari told her bluntly. "We have watched you for your whole life, and ensured you would be well. We are your friends."

"You’ve watched me? But I can feel it-" she blurted, blushing a deep purple.

"You can sense us," Miaari stated. "Of course you can. You are of the Generations, after all. The bonds between the Kimdori and the Generations is a strong one, Myleena. To us, you have the same sense of presence. It is how we know you are a Generation."

Myleena looked at him worriedly, but Jason just put a hand on her bare shoulder. "Trust her, Myleena. She’s helped me this whole time. If it wasn’t for Miaari, we wouldn’t be here right now."

"Indeed," Miaari sniffed. "Call forth the CBIM, Jason."

[Cybi?]

The shimmering hologram that the computer projected appeared beside them, and glowing eyes regarded the three of them unblinkingly. "Welcome to Karis, Mistress Kimdori. Why are you here?"

"As was permitted, a single scout has come to investigate the transmission sent from Karis," she answered in a stately tone. "Part of our agreements to defend this planet. If you check Grand Duchess Koiri Karinne’s final instructions, you will see that my presence here is legal."

"Searching. Indeed, you have leave to investigate. I am relieved to not have to take action against you."

"Cybi, I’ve made contact with the Kimdori," Jason told her. "They’re coming to help repair things. Can you work up a list of everything that’s broken, and organize it so the most important things that need to be fixed are at the top?"

"How should I prioritize? By what reasoning?"

"Start with what you need to keep the reclamation going," he told her. "I guess the reclamation robots should be on the top of the list. From there, just go with what you think is important."

"The listing is compiled. I have included device, function, and location."

"Mistress Cybi, are there memory bands here for my people?"

"Yes, Mistress Kimdori." A hologram of the compound appeared beside her, complete with a mark showing a storeroom in the hangar building. "Five thousand memory bands are stored in this room."

"What is a memory band, Miaari?"

"It is a ring of biogenic crystal connected to a microcomputer and transceiver," she answered. "Wearing a memory band, I can interface with the CBIM in a manner similar to the way you do." She touched the gestalt meaningfully. "It is the Kimdori’s version of a gestalt."

"How do you do that?"

"That is a question you should think very carefully about before demanding an answer, Myleena Merrane," Miaari told her with a direct stare. "I will answer it, but you will be forever sworn to absolute secrecy. It is something that no one outside of the Kimdori, the Generations, and the CBIMs know. It is our greatest secret. Jason is deeply connected to Jyslin, and even she does not know this. To reveal this secret is to forfeit your life to us. Do you understand this?"

"I...I think I want to know. I’m a Generation, after all, and, well, I’m in this up to my neck just like Jason is. I may be a Merrane, but this shows me I’m something more than that." She pointed to her gestalt.

"Very well. But understand, Myleena, this is a matter which you will never repeat, to anyone. Not even your deepest love."

"I understand."

"Kimdori can interact with those they touch on a direct level," she told her. "When we touch, we share. What is yours, and what is mine, becomes ours. Those practiced in the sharing can know everything that the other knows, and hide what they bring to the sharing from the other. We can also perform this with the special biogenic crystals that the Karinnes developed. Connected to a computer, these crystals allow us to share information back and forth. With a memory band, my people can transmit and receive knowledge directly with the CBIM, Cybi. And she can relay messages back and forth between us."

"You’re telepathic?" she gasped.

"No. But what we do is not far from your ability," she answered.

"Wow. I’ve never heard of anything like that." She licked her lips. "Well, that explains why you guys love being spies. Shapeshifters who can steal information from the minds of others? It’s like fuckin’ perfect."

"Indeed."

"Uh, why can we sense you?"

"Because there is some of us inside you," she told Myleena straight out, reaching out a clawed finger and poking it into Myleena’s chest. "The genetic manipulation the Karinnes did upon themselves introduced elements of Kimdori DNA into your line. It is those elements that give you the ability to commune with Cybi and interface with your gestalt. You are our cousins, Myleena."

Myleena paled. Jason quickly put his hands on her shoulders. "Breathe," he told her.

She gave him a wild-eyed look, then blew out her breath. "Don’t do that to me!" she said, then she laughed. "I’m still trying to get used to the idea that I’m what I am, and then you tell me that I’m not just Faey!"

"That is how your ancestors did it, Myleena," Miaari told him. "Without the Kimdori, there would be no Generations."

"You knew, didn’t you?" she demanded of Jason.

"Cybi told me yesterday. I was going to tell you, but we all got busy. It wasn’t the kind of thing I wanted to talk to you about just out of the blue."

"Well, I can forgive you, I guess. I think I’m gonna go get some clothes on, if we’re gonna have company. Be back in a few."

She walked away, and Jason couldn’t resist. "Nice butt," he called.

She grabbed the waist of her panties and pulled them down as she walked, mooning him, which made him laugh. "Careful, I might get excited!"

"Like I’d let my brother jump me," she told him over her shoulder. "Go find one of the other girls, I’m sure they’d let you between their legs, no problem."

"Actually, the two of you would be considered a breeding pair to the Generations," Miaari noted dryly. "You are not that related."

"Eww!" Jason and Myleena called in unison. Miaari’s eyes widened, and she laughed. "Now then, on to matters," she said after Myleena left. "Cybi. Locate the file containing the Siann Charter, and download it to Jason’s gestalt. He has need to read the document."

"Working." Jason felt a jumble of text download into the gestalt’s memory. What he found there was a 300 page document titled The Siann Charter. "Download is complete."

"Alright, Jason. Read that. Understand it."

"I’ll do it, but I hope you don’t mind if I give Myleena a hand. There’s still a lot to do, and I can’t let her get too far ahead of me here. I’ll read it and think about it later, okay?"

"That is fine. There is time yet, but do not waste too much of it. Jyslin is counting on you."


Jason had expected to see maybe a dropship or two of Kimdori landing at the platform after those three hours, after Myri had gotten them all up and put them back to work cataloguing the stored equipment there, trying to get an idea of what was left and what still worked, and Jason and Myleena were trying to fix a shield generator that had been part of the compound’s defenses, but had failed over 500 years ago. The two of them were outside to see it, and they had to stop and stare in shock.

It wasn’t a dropship. An entire fleet of long, sleek ships appeared on the western horizon, and Cybi warned them that the Kimdori had arrived.

There were thousands of ships. Thousands! They descended like a swarm of wasps, scattered across the sky. Many of them landed on the island. Many more did not, flying off to other parts of the planet. Only one ship landed on the landing pad, however. All the others landed in the grassy field beyond the compound, and Kimdori boiled forth carrying boxes and bags, wearing toolbelts and bandoliers The lone ship that landed on the platform by the dropship and Miaari’s craft was large and painted blood red, but had a pair of almond-shaped eyes painted on the side. Jason and Myleena climbed down off the generator unit and made their way over to the platform, arriving just as the hatch opened. They approached the vessel as a single figure appeared in the doorway.

Jason almost fainted. It was Zaa, the Denmother! She had come in person!

She stalked down the stairs like a panther, and took note of the pair immediately. Jason could just gawk at her like a deer staring down a wolf as she just got bigger, and bigger, and bigger as she came up to them, until she was there. She had to be seven feet tall! "Your Grace," she said in that strong voice, reaching out and putting her hand on his neck. He immediately felt that feeling of expansion that came when they shared with him. "I am pleased to be here. As promised, we have arrived, to help you begin repairs."

"D-Denmother," he said, feeling at a loss. "I didn’t realize you’d be coming in person, or I’d have, well, got cleaned up or something."

She laughed, a rich, vibrant sound. "A true ruler rolls up his sleeves when it is needful. No ruler should ever feel that pushing a mop is below his station, if there is need for it," she said simply. "And this lovely young Faey must be Myleena Merrane."

"Y-Your Majesty," she said, bobbing a quick bow, then wiping at the dirt on her face with a flush of embarrassment.

"It is good to see the two of you together," she said, reaching out and brushing her thumb against that smudge of dirt on Myleena’s face. "You two were to be our last hope of restoring the line of Karinne. Pray tell, are you married, Myleena?"

"Me? No," she said.

"We shall find you a suitable husband," she declared. "There are too few of the Generations left. Continuing the line should be your highest priority."

"There’s more than just me and Myleena?" Jason asked in surprise.

"Yes. There are exactly two hundred and thirty-five of you," she told him evenly. "But the others, we decided they were not up to the challenges that holding the ring would entail. We watch them and care for them, but they do not know of us, and do now know what they truly are. Only the two of you know the truth. The two of you, you were our best choices. We were about to undertake the task of bringing Myleena here when we discovered you, Jason, quite by accident. It was then that we realized that you would be the best choice. Myleena would have been an excellent Grand Duchess Karinne, but we felt that her loyalties to Merrane would interfere with her judgment as to what would be best for the house. Koiri wanted Karinne to be its own house, not a lapdog to the house that brought them down."

Myleena flushed.

"We do not blame you, Myleena. It all happened centuries before you were born, and the Merranes have taken good care of your line since then. Your loyalty to your house is an admirable thing, but we felt that it would be a stumbling block if you suddenly found yourself ruling a different house while still being raised as a member of the ruling house. But you had all the qualities we searched for as a Grand Duchess, cousin. You are intelligent and strong-minded. You are fearless, but you are compassionate, and you have great loyalty to those you call friend and family. You would have been a wonderful Grand Duchess, at least after you realized that your ties to Merrane were chains holding you back rather than family bonds."

"Well, I..." she said, then she looked away. "I guess I’ll have to have faith in your wisdom, Denmother. If you think Jason was the better choice, it’s not my place to gainsay you."

"It is your place to gainsay me, child," she told Myleena with a slight smile. "But look me in the eye and tell me that breaking from your family to establish your own noble house would have been easy for you."

"No, I, I guess it wouldn’t have," she admitted.

"Fear not, child, I’m sure Jason will give you a place of great importance within Karinne. You are the one Faey who understands his troubles and his unique understanding of the truth. He would be a fool to deny the wisdom of your council."

"No doubt," Jason agreed. "So, what do you say, Myleena? Want to come over to the dark side? I’ll give you a Duchess title. For what it’s worth."

She laughed. "Deal!" she said immediately. "Duchess Myleena Merrane Karinne. I like the sound of it."

"As it should be. So, your Grace, we await your permission to begin. No Kimdori will so much as leave their ships until we have your permission to do so."

"Uh, Miaari said you’d need memory bands. We have some stored here, I guess we can start there. Get those distributed out. Cybi, the CBIM, she’s already compiled a list of what’s broken and needs repair, sorted by highest priority. When we get the memory bands handed out, Cybi can coordinate the repair effort with your people."

"Miaari has thought ahead. Such a good child," she said respectfully. "Truly, I must contact her parents and heap praise upon her."

"She’s been very good to me, Denmother. I’d never have reached here without her. Hell, I’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for her."

"Yes. She has done well." She turned and made a gesture to her ship, then looked back. "I have ordered the Kimdori to begin."

A swarm of Kimdori boiled out of Zaa’s ship, and they all came up to their ruler and bowed. "Take us to the memory bands, please," Zaa called.

With Cybi’s help, they went to the store room holding the memory bands. Zaa opened one of the boxes, withdrew what looked like an ornate silver bracelet, and put it on her right wrist deliberately. Her eyes seemed distant for a moment, and then she smiled. "They are functional. Distribute them as is needful," she commanded.

"It will be done, Denmother," one of the Kimdori said with a bow. Kimdori began grabbing the crates and started carrying them out of the room.

"Your Cybi is quite the soul of courtesy," Zaa told him. "Quite unlike the CBIM of Karis Academy. She was quite arrogant."

"I’m surprised you didn’t bring your own, Denmother," Myleena noted.

"When we agreed to help the Karinnes, we agreed that biogenic manufacturing facilities would only exist upon Karis. When Karis was destroyed, we honored those oaths and have not made any more. The memory bands we had ceased working centuries ago."

"So, the Kimdori had a real interest in getting the Karinnes back."

"Of course we did. But those reasons are but shadows when compared to the recovering of lost family, Jason," Zaa told him. "Yes, it will be nice to rebuild the biogenic labs and produce new memory bands and new computers. But they are nothing but tools, and we have functioned without them for hundreds of years quite well. This, this is the true treasure of Karis," she told him, putting her hand deliberately on his shoulder. "When the Karinnes were destroyed, we despaired. Not for the loss of a trading partner, but for the loss of our cousins, for the people we have known for centuries, who knew the truth of us, people who understood us like no others could. They were not just our partners, Jason. They were our friends, our family. Restoring the family means more to us than anything else. If you commanded that no more biogenic crystals ever be made again, we would abide by that decision happily, for they truly do not matter. They are nothing compared to the two I see before me now."

Jason couldn’t say much in the face of that kind of glowing praise, but it certainly made him appreciate just how seriously the Kimdori took their promises. Nobody ever would have known, and it was nothing but gain for them to break that promise and build biogenic manufacturing plants of their own. But they did not, because they made a promise.

"I, I understand, Denmother," he said with a knowing nod.

She patted his shoulder. "I am glad that you do," she told him seriously.

Miaari rushed into the room, and she had just about all the Faey in tow with her. All the Marines were there, as well as Meya and Songa. "Denmother," she said with a deep bow. Upon hearing that name, the Faey all quickly bowed as well. "My deepest apologies for not being here to greet you, my Denmother. I was helping the Marines with a task in one of the sub-basements."

"Miaari. Approach," she commanded. Miaari came up to her and kept her head bowed, her eyes down, almost leaning into Zaa’s hand when she placed it against Miaari’s neck. "Know that I am pleased beyond measure with you, child. You have lived up to your clan’s reputation, and have increased it. It will be forever known that it was Miaari Thresxt who brought about the return of the house of Karinne."

Miaari bowed to her ruler. "Your praise humbles me, my Denmother," she responded eloquently.

"You have earned your place at my right hand this day, child," she told her. "Attend me."

Miaari gave her a startled look, and then nodded to her and moved to stand beside her, standing at her right side and slightly behind her. But her eyes were almost rejoicing. Clearly, standing at the right hand of the Denmother was some kind of very high honor among the Kimdori.

"Who commands this host?" Zaa asked the Faey.

"I’m the squad Sergeant, your Majesty," Myri said, stepping forward and bowing. "What may we do for you?"

"On my ship is more suitable foodstocks for you. My Kimdori will unload it for you. Upon you falls the task of showing them where to store it, and it is your responsibility to prepare it."

"I, I can make us something," Songa offered. "I’m not a bad cook, and we’ve already found the kitchen. It’s going to need some work to get it working, though."

"I will dispatch a maintenance team to the kitchen at once," Zaa intoned, looking at Miaari expectantly.

"Go with them," Miaari ordered, pointing at one of the workers. "See to it."

"Yes, Handmaiden," one of the Kimdori laborers said with a bow. "Ladies, if you would follow me," he said.

Myri looked to Jason, and he nodded. The Faey all left to take care of that problem, and Zaa looked to Jason. "I would like to see the core," she told him. "May we visit it?"

"Of course, your Majesty!" he said, his tone making it clear he thought it was a rather silly question. He wouldn’t deny Zaa any request right now, not after bringing a virtual army of maintenance workers to help them get things working again.

He escorted them to the core, Myleena and Miaari attending, walking just behind as Jason led Zaa there. "May I ask a question?" he asked.

"Of course."

"What does it mean to have Miaari attend you? I’m sure it’s a high honor, but what does it mean?"

Zaa glanced over her right shoulder, where Miaari walked just behind her. "This day, I place my safety and welfare into the hands of Miaari," she explained. "She stands at my right hand, the most trusted of my subjects, and she will attend me as my personal servant. If anything is given to me, she will carry it. If I have commands to issue, she will relay them, and issue those orders using her own judgment. At the setting of the sun, if I am pleased with her performance, she will step from my right hand and walk forth with the title of Handmaiden, forever known as one who held the highest honor in the land beside my own, and forever welcome into my presence at her own pleasure. The doors of the Hearth will never be shut before her."

"What if, she, uh, doesn’t please you?"

"Then she will take her own life," Zaa shrugged. "To stand before the Denmother and Denfather and fail this most sacred of tasks is a shame no Kimdori could suffer." She glanced at Miaari. "But I have every confidence in her. She has so greatly pleased me already, she could act the total jackass all day and I would still find favor for her in my heart."

Miaari literally glowed with pleasure at that statement, but Myleena couldn’t supress a giggle. "I guess a statement like that is kinda funny when you’re talking about someone that could look like one."

Miaari gave Myleena a cool look, then casually reached over and flicked her ear.

"Ow! I hope you saw that, Denmother!"

"Naturally. Were I standing in her stead, I would have flicked you on the nose," she stated. "It stings more, I’m told," she told Jason with a sly smile.

Jason couldn’t help but laugh.

Bringing Zaa to the core was a curious event. She stood there in the large room, surrounded by memory units, staring at the huge crystal spire that served as the primary core of the CBIM. She seemed to stop breathing for a moment, putting a hand to her chest, and then the CBIM projected its image out for them, the deceptively nude appearance of the first of the First Generation, of Sora Karinne. The image bowed to Zaa with flowing grace. "Your Majesty. Thank you for assisting us," Cybi intoned respectfully.

"It is the least we can do for you," she answered. "I wanted to come down and see you with my own eyes. I wanted to see a CBIM once more."

Cybi bowed again. "Your visit honors me, your Majesty."

"I must ask. Was the data of the Academy lost?"

"Everything that the CBIM of the Academy retained exists within my memory, your Majesty. We have lost no data. It was transferred to me at the onset of the attack, intact. The knowledge of the Karinnes is preserved."

"Thank the gods," Zaa breathed, patting her chest. "To lose that would have been a tragedy of untold dimensions."

And that was the end of the audience. Zaa seemed to have wanted to go there to look upon the CBIM, and ask that one question. She turned to Jason and regarded him with those powerful eyes. "I will return to my ship now, Jason, so that I might be on hand to coordinate the repair efforts. It would please me to visit you again this evening. Miaari has shared with me that you have something to read, and some decisions to make. I would give you the time and space you need to ponder these matters, so you might better consider your next course of action. Later, if you so wish it, I would give you counsel and answer any other questions you might have."

"I’d really appreciate that, Denmother."

She reached down and put her huge hand against his neck. He felt that sense of expansion that came when she shared, and then smiled. She reached over his shoulder, and he turned to see her place her hand against Myleena’s neck. Myleena gasped and almost reflexively reached for her hand, but remembered herself and stayed still, allowing Zaa to do as she willed. She leaned down and licked Myleena’s cheek, which caused her to giggle reflexively. "Such good children of Sora Karinne. She would be proud of you. We will see ourselves back to my ship, Jason. Until tonight, be well."

"Uh, goodbye, your Majesty," he said. Miaari gave him a glorious look, then followed Zaa as she swept regally from the room, performing her duties as a Handmaiden to the Denmother by following her ruler at her right side.

"Wow," Myleena whispered, putting a hand to her face, as they watched her go. I, I...felt something. Was that her doing-you know?

Yeah. It’s an odd sensation, isn’t it?

It felt...nice. But what a presence! Not even Empress Dahnai seems so, so, royal!

I know. I feel like a little kid when I look at her.

You know, Jayce? I don’t think I’m scared of Kimdori anymore.


It was a sticky problem.

Jason thought about it almost all day, sitting on a rock by the beach, watching the waves lap against the sand. Jason hated heat, but the beach was the only warm place he had ever found he liked. The heat was allayed somewhat by the wind, and the water and the sand appealed to him in strange ways. It was a nice place to get away from all the commotion on the compound, a place to sit and think in relative quiet.

The first thing he did was read the Siann Charter. It was a fundamental document of governance for the Imperium, something akin to the Constitution, or the old Magna Carta. It was the basic foundation of the Feudal system of the Imperium. It laid out the powers of the ruling house, the powers of the Highborn houses, those houses with direct blood relation to the ruling house, and the powers of the Minor houses, those houses without direct blood relation to the ruling house. It laid out the benefits and responsibilities of each tier of houses, and placed rules and customs that had to be obeyed by all in order to foment a less hostile operation of the Imperial system.

It was those rules and customs, known as the Rules of Siann, named for the very first Empress, who had established the Siann Charter that also bore her name...though not willingly, that’s for sure. According to the history entailed within the document, she agreed to the rules to prevent a war from tearing her newfound Empire apart.

Too bad it didn’t stick.

That was what Kumi always meant when she said that Trillane could lose its charter. The charter was the bestowing of the Noble title by the Empress, and it literally meant the Charter itself. When the Empress gave a copy of the Siann Charter to the leader of a house, then that house was a Noble house, and she could take it away if a house committed certain crimes laid out in the charter. Slavery, which had been illegal even back then, was on that list. If that happened, then the Empress would take back that copy of the charter from the offending house, stripping them of their noble status. It was ceremonial, to be sure; some houses had been in existence for thousands of years, and that original copy of the charter was long gone. But every noble house had to keep a copy of the first page of the Charter, written on paper, within the building holding the seat of the House. It was the law. And it was that piece of paper the Empress would take back in ceremonial fashion, taking away that which the throne had bestowed.

He read through the rules, and saw that Miaari did indeed tell him true. The rules would permit him to stand before the Empress himself and plead his case, and would also give him leave to make the claim that Trillane had no rights to Earth, because he had first rights to it.

That was the easy part.

The hard part was what to do after that. If he didn’t have a plan before he made that gamble, then not only would Trillane keep Earth, then hell, he’d lose the house of Karinne, as tiny as it was, when he failed the Empress. He would be held to the same standard as Trillane, and as Miaari said, he had no house, no materials, no infrastructure, and no money. Just a little cash in the bank in Moridon, some of which he couldn’t even touch because the chip they’d implanted in him had been lost when he lost his arm.

Sure, there was the technology of the Karinnes, but he had a responsibility here. Koiri Karinne had demanded that the advances of the house of Karinne be denied to the Imperium, and to be honest, he still felt honor bound to deny the Imperium any kind of technology or help that would let them do to some other species what was done to his. He would not give them tools to use to conquer other planets. He would not allow it to happen to someone else. He had fled from the Imperium so he would not be a cog in their machine. Now he found himself inexorably linked to that which he despised, a part of their system, but he still could not see it within himself to sell out his morals, even if it meant getting what he wanted, even if it meant beating Trillane. There was such a thing in his mind as too high a price to pay for victory. If he sold out and gave the Imperium Karinne technology, then the blood of anyone killed by it or subjugated under the Imperial flag using it would be on his hands and staining the flag of Karinne. Under no circumstances, in no manner or fashion of any kind, would the Imperium get one dirty finger on anything on Karis. Not even a metal screw. Not even a fucking grain of sand. Nothing.

Fury and outrage fueled Koiri Karinne’s dying declaration to deny the Imperium everything the Karinnes had had to offer. Cold anger and unwavering resolve caused Jason to take the same position. Karis and her secrets were for the Karinnes and the Kimdori, and only for the Karinnes and the Kimdori. To the Imperium, to the Faey, this planet was just as dead and inaccessible as they believed that it was.

He was going to need money if he wanted to kick Trillane off Earth, make things better for human kind, and yet still meet the production quotas of food that Empress Dahnai would demand.

That was what had him stumped. He sat on the rock and thought. He sat on the sand and thought. He laid in the sand and thought. He laid in the wet sand when the tide brought the water up to where was and still thought.

Think, idiot, he growled at himself. You’ve done more with less before. There has to be a way to get this done without sacrificing Earth and without compromising morals. If it was impossible, Miaari would have told me so. How? How do I meet the demands of the Empress when I have nothing, and keep Karis a secret?

Inspiration!

Just because I can’t reveal Karis and its technology doesn’t mean I can’t use it!

Dripping wet, Jason ran through the compound, down stairwells, through hallways, until he was again in the core. Cybi’s projection winked into being when he entered the chamber, her face quizzical. [Jason?]

[Show me. All of it,] he ordered. [Show me everything that the Karinnes kept secret from the Imperium.]

[It will take time. There is much.]

[Then the faster we get started, the faster we can finish.]

[Shall I begin with operational technologies, or research materials that were still under development?]

[Let’s start with stuff they already had working. After that, we can get into the stuff they were researching.]

The hologram smiled, eagerness to again be of use clear in the communion between them. [Very well. I will begin with power systems, then we will cover starship developments; weapons, armor, shields, engines, and other systems. Then we will move into sensor systems and other planetary technologies, and then move into the tertiary scientific knowledge; biology, chemistry, physics, archaeology, anthropology, paleontology, botany, history, and so on. So, let us begin.]

It took hours. Jason began standing, but eventually he unded up seated on the floor, eyes closed and head bowed as he continued his communion with Cybi, a communion where she explained every technology that the Karinnes had developed to be a viable system. All of them, from the most important and used, to the most whimsical. Anything the Karinnes researched and developed into a working technology, Jason had Cybi summarize for him.

All he could say was...holy shit. The Karinnes didn’t focus on any branch of technology. Their house members were adherants of every scientific and educational discipline, from armor and weapons all the way to philosophy. They were true scholars, considering sociology to be as equally important as hyperspace physics.

And that was where they had truly branched off from conventional Faey science. The Faey knew little of hyperspace, that area of upper-dimensional space that three dimensional beings like themselves couldn’t fathom or comprehend. The Imperium used hypserspace engines to travel to star systems that didn’t have a stargate, and that was why they had broken away from the technology...because of the stargates. But the Karinnes had continued the research of hyperspace, and had learned how to use hyperspace travel to move in real time between systems, without the relativity delay, had learned how to use it as a means of interstellar communications, and had even harnessed a hyperspace particle called the teryon as a power system, for the particles were highly, highly energetic when they were captured and dragged into normal space.

The Karinne grasp on hyperdimensional physics was the fundamental difference between them and the Imperium, and it altered their entire viewpoint. They had many technologies that reached beyond the three dimensions in which they lived. Just like the Kimdori, when they did use interfaces, they were three dimensional, holographic...but there were almost no interfaces. The gestalts served as the primary interface for the Generations, and the similar-appearing interface unit was the interface used by the rest of the house. Karinnes had moved beyond keyboards and control panels long ago, and only used U/Is as a means for non-Generation house members to receive data from the unit they were using. To them, it was simply a different realm of the universe to explore and understand, where the Imperium treated it like a live snake, something dangerous and only to be used when necessary.

And there it was. There was what he was looking for. When Cybi showed him that, a relatively unimportant technology as things went, he knew exactly what he needed to do. The plan fell together in his mind. Everything he needed was right there, and the greed of the nobles of the Siann would be the engine by which he could move his plans right into place.

With the help of the Kimdori, it could be done.

[Is there a working unit here?]

[There is a unit here, Jason, but it is inoperative. It requires repair.]

[We’ll take care of that when we’re done. Keep going.]

Jason wanted to see all of it, so he continued with the communion, so Cybi would be able to complete her task.


To Myri, Myleena, Songa, and Meya, who were looking on as Jason continued his education, it was a strange sight. Jason sat on the floor, dried sand clinging to his clothes, scattered on the floor around him, hands on his knees and head bowed. The projected holographic image of Cybi was curled around him, holding his face between phantom hands and pressing her forehead against his own.

"I wonder what they’re doing," Songa whispered to Myri.

"They’re communing," Myleena told them. "Cybi and Jason are in a state of mental communion. I can’t tell what they’re talking about, though. They’re doing it privately."

"What’s that like?" Myri asked.

"Kinda the same as normal sending, but it’s faster, and there’s a lot more, well, bandwidth. More gets moved at once than in sending.," she answered. "You getting the hang of that yet?"

Myri put her fingers on the device now gracing the left side of her face, which looked like a gestalt, but was actually an interface unit. All the Faey were wearing one now, because with the repair of many of the compound’s devices, the use of an interface was required just to make them work. Songa could not even cook, because the stoves had no manual controls. Virtually everything in the compound required an interface to make them operate.

"Yeah, I am," she answered. "It’s the part where I have to think to the machine what I want it to do that’s kinda tricky."

"It took me ten minutes to get the stove to work," Songa admitted with a wry chuckle. "But it was nice to get the exact temperature I wanted."

"Using the latrine was a challenge," Myri grunted. "Having to think flush at the toilet was almost too much for an old war dog like me."

The others laughed.

"Weird, I didn’t have any problem."

"Well, you’re an engineer, and you’re a Karinne," Meya told her. "I’ve seen Jason do things without thinking about them. His ability to monkey with Faey tech with no training sure as hell isn’t entirely normal. I think you know how to do that by instinct. It’s in your blood. Like a genetic memory."

"I never really thought about that, but I guess it’s possible," Myleena mused, tapping her gestalt with a finger as she pondered the idea.

"Gotta give it to the Kimdori," Myri noted. "I think they fixed almost everything in the compound already, and they got like fifty people working on that robot on the far side of the island. Their ships are already taking off to go to other parts of the planet."

"One of them told me they have a team on the moon, trying to get the lunar base back up," Myleena told them. "I think when Jason asked them to fix everything, they took him literally."

"You say what you mean when you address one of us," Zaa, the Denmother, barked as she came through the doors behind them. She had six Kimdori in tow with her, including Miaari. Myleena saw that Miaari looked different now. She had a patch of white fur under her chin that descended as a wide band all the way to her crotch, just like Zaa. They all bowed to her respectfully. "Jason asked us to fix everything, and we will do our best to honor that request."

Jason was aware of Zaa, because Cybi told him she was there. He opened his eyes as Cybi withdrew from him, breaking their communion because he wasn’t going to keep her waiting. He stood up and bowed to her, then started self-consciously wiping at the sand caking his clothes. "Uh, excuse my appearance, Denmother. I got caught up in what I was doing. What time is it?"

"It is evening," she told him with a light smile. "What have you been doing?"

"Cybi’s been showing me what the Karinnes knew."

"A wise use of your time," she said approvingly. "I release you now, Miaari. Step forth, Handmaiden, and take up the task I have given you."

Miaari bowed to Zaa and stepped out from behind her, and came over to Jason. She put her hand on his neck, and Jason had to touch the white fur on her chest, touching her just between the collarbones. "I take it this is your sign of station?" he asked.

She chuckled. "Observant," she told him. "Yes, I may now wear the white band, so that all Kimdori know I am a Handmaiden. And you are now my responsibilty," she told him, patting him on the shoulder. "I am your emissary to my people. I am the ambassador to House Karinne."

"I wouldn’t want any other."

"I’m glad you feel that way," she told him, leaning down and licking him on the cheek.

"Now, Jason, come with me," Zaa ordered, holding her hand out to him. "Miaari has explained your position, and I would give you counsel."

"I’ll take all the help I can get, Denmother," he told her. "I don’t have any clue of how to be, well, a noble."

"That innocence should be maintained, Jason. You do not want to be a Faey noble. Do not lower yourself to their level. But I will help teach you how to deal with them, my cousin, and together we will consider a plan of action to achieve your objectives. If you so wish it."

"Please!" he almost begged.

And so, they walked. They walked hand in hand, and in that physical contact they shared. They never said a word. They never really looked at each other, but that touch, that powerful touch, was the only indication of a lengthy period of explanation, debate, and instruction. They left the building and walked down to the beach, then walked along the shoreline as the waves lapped at their feet, as Jason identified his objectives to Zaa and explained his desire to maintain the secrecy of the house’s technology, and in this point Zaa wholly approved. Not only was it tradition to keep such dangerous tools out of the hands of a violent and unpredictable species like the Faey, it was just good plain common sense. Zaa and the Kimdori felt that the Karinnes had evolved past such things, and as such were competent gatekeepers for such technology. When the Karinnes felt that the Imperium was ready for something, they would release it. Indeed, Zaa had to remind Jason that the Karinnes were the fundamental cornerstone of most of the Imperium’s technology, that most of the Imperium’s current technology was based on Karinne research. They did make public some of their breakthroughs...just not everything. They had guided the Imperium’s technological development to keep them competitive with other civilizations, but not allow them to overwhelm them. The Karinnes knew that if they handed over everything they knew to the Imperium, then the Imperium would use it to make war on their neighbors. It was a mathematical certainty.

Zaa looked over his objectives, and looked at the beginnings of the plan he had in mind, and felt that it was a good start. She helped him refine his idea, pointing out the flaws in his reasoning, and suggesting ways to cover those gaps. She helped him shape his idea into a workable plan that would cover all of his objectives and keep Karis and the secrets of the Karinnes out of the hands of the Imperium. It would require a little revelation to the Imperium, to instill the necessary fear into the Siann not to mess with Jason, just as they feared the original Karinnes. That fear was necessary. If the Siann did not fear Jason, they would not take him seriously, and they would do what they could to sabotage him. That was why Miaari had guided him into his war...so the Faey would know him, and respect his ability. Zaa’s suggestions expanded on what Miaari began.

After Zaa helped him refine his objectives and forge them into a workable plan of action, she taught him. She trained him in the arts of politics, giving him a cavernous, almost encyclopedic knowledge not only of Faey politics and the rules of their system, but the politics and operations of several other space-based civilizations, warning him that he would have need to deal with them as well. The Karinnes were very separate from the Imperium, even as they were a part of it, with their own diplomats and their own agreements with other civilizations. She taught him about galactic economics, so he would know how to better deal with others and understand their motivations and needs. She educated him in the subtle arts of sociology, teaching him about the Faey from a clinical point of view, so that he might better understand his adversaries. She also taught him about other races, like the other races of the Imperium; the Makati, the Goraga, the Menoda, the Kizzik, and the Parri, so he might better deal with them. But she also taught him about species outside of the Imperium, such as the Moridons, the Urumi, the Zogans, the Jakkans, the Pharaiali, the Zki, the Skaa, the Kra-jktha (a sound they made with their mouth mandibles, which had evolved into a proper name for the insectoid race), and the Bari-Bari, the other species in direct contact with the Imperium, the races whose civilizations bordered Faey space.

As the sun set over the ocean, Jason stood before Zaa, the Denmother, looking up the foot of height difference between them, paying close attention to the last of her teachings. She explained to him something that she really couldn’t teach, and that was how to be a good leader. She told him that being a good leader wasn’t something one could learn from a book. She could mentor him on the general idea of it, but to do it required his own style, and required him to adapt himself to the personalities of those he led. The Kimdori were a very orderly species. They knew what had to be done, and they did it. They had a highly refined sense of duty and propriety that the Faey lacked. The Faey were a chaotic, arrogant, self-centered species, easy to predict but hard to control, and unfortunately the humans were no different from them. It was this messy pair of species that Jason would have to deal with, and unfortunately, he couldn’t lead using the same tactics that Zaa did. She readily admitted that it was easy to lead the Kimdori, and it would not be easy to lead the Faey and the Terrans. She urged him to draw on the experiences he had running his rebellion, and above all, keep his sense of humor. She told him that it was probably his most endearing personality trait, and he could use that sense of humor to both deal with the stresses of command and make that command an easier task, for he had a way about him that did put others at ease, especially Faey. Jason’s sense of humor made him more personable to the Faey and Terrans, and he should remind himself that seeing the lighter side could both make it an easier job, and make it a more enjoyable job. She also reminded him that to a Faey, he was both charismatic and devastatingly handsome, and that was as much a weapon he could use in his duties of leadership to foment obedience as it was a hammer he could use against the majority of the female Faey of the Siann. He had qualities that most Faey males lacked, qualities that Faey females secretly desired. The same attraction that had brought Jyslin to him could be a quality that would make Faey obey him.

And they were done. She had nothing more to teach him, nothing more to discuss with him. She ended their sharing by professing her admiration for him, and her stalwart promise that the Kimdori would always be there when he needed them. She told him that what began as a repayment for saving the Kimdori race had become a willing partnership, an extension of family. The Karinnes and the Kimdori were more than allies. They were cousins, family, and the Kimdori never abandoned family.

Zaa held up their clasped hands, and then let go. He withdrew his hand, feeling their sharing end, and he felt strangely wistful. Zaa was an incredibly wise Kimdori, and being joined to her mind that way was like sitting at the feet of a master. "I see that your Karinne heritage has held true through all your family’s generations of human breeding," she told him. "Sharing with you took no effort at all."

"I can’t thank you enough, Denmother," he said humbly, bowing before her with utter sincerity. "What you’ve taught me today could mean everything."

"I hope it serves you well, your Grace," she told him. "For seeing you survive and thrive very much matters to us. And not just for what we gain from the old partnership. We care about you, very much. I care about you, Jason. The doors of the Hearth will never be closed before you. You are always welcome in my presence."

"Thank you," he told her, then they both looked up as they heard a low rumble. A ship descended through a large cloud, and it was a bloody big ship. It was shaped like a long, narrow triangle, with a narrow bow that flattened out to a wide stern, the center of the ship flared thicker than the edges. Its hull was burned, pitted, stained, and looked like the thing had been dragged by a chain over a gravel driveway. But it was its size that amazed him. It was the size of an American aircraft carrier! That ship was almost the size of a Faey destroyer!

"I see that the scout ship has arrived," Zaa noted.

"That’s a scout ship?" Jason gasped. "It’s huge!"

"Jason, to the Karinnes, a scout ship was not a small reconnaisance craft. It was a research vessel, scouting new sectors of space. That ship will be packed with scientific equipment, and its computer will be filled with the results of its exploration and research. By tradition, they were unarmed, but had strong defensive systems such as shields and heavy armor, allowing them to escape if threatened. It is the only starship that Karinne produced in any quantity."

"Holy cow," Jason breathed as the ship lazily turned and descended, then landed directly into the water of the ocean, just off the compound. The ship then slowly crept up to those buildings that were built right out into the sea, and then from the sound of it, it began to power down.

[Jason, the scout ship has arrived. It is conducting an internal scan and diagnostic before docking, to ensure it is safe to expose Karisian air to its internal atmosphere. It reports it will be ready to dock in 6 minutes.]

[I saw it land, Cybi,] he answered. [By the way, what kinda specs does that ship have? I think we didn’t get that far.]

[I am receiving the ship’s telemetry now. It is downloading its logs. To answer you, Jason, the ship’s class is the KES, Karinne Exploratory Starship. The docked ship reports that its official designation is the KES Scimitar. The Scimitar is a D-model, commissioned in 2879. A standard KES carries scientific and survey equipment for the mapping, study, and research of stellar features, planets, and planetary ecosystems. The Scimitar was fitted for dedicated research of astral phenonena: nebulas, black holes, quasars, and such. The standard crew of a KES is 67; 24 starship operations crew, 43 scientists and scientific support crew. Its is equipped with a Mark IX Hyperspace Jump Engine for interstellar travel, and utilizes Cascading Spatial Translation Engines for standard propulsion. It is powered by three singularity power plants, and has no offensive weaponry. It is equipped with a Class V Composite Harmonic Teryon Shield and is armored with a standard AE-5 Compressed Neutronium hull. the bulk of its internal systems are comprised of sensors, scanners, and research equipment.] There was a pause. [The ship reports its crew evacuated to a planet in 2887, and sent the ship via autopilot to a nebula, where it went into standby mode to await further orders. It has remained so since then.]

[Could it be the ship that went to Earth?] Jason asked curiously.

[No, it is not. Its crew manifest does not include any of the Generations. If you make your way to the docking building, you may tour the ship. It will be docked by the time you arrive.]

A touch of Zaa’s hand conveyed the conversation to her. "Let us go inspect this vessel," she offered. "After all, it will be useful to your plan."

"It’s way bigger than I thought it would be, but yeah, it’ll still work."

Jason and Zaa were just the vanguard of all the Faey and a swarm of Kimdori technicians on hand in a receiving lobby when an extending hallway reached out to the hatch of the ship, and that hatch opened with a hiss of exchanging air and a puff of steam from the bulkhead. Zaa pointed, and the Kimdori started filing into the ship with their bags and tools, preparing to get to work on the scout ship. After the first wave of Kimdori entered, she touched Jason on the shoulder, and looked pointedly at the Faey behind them. He nodded and turned to face them.

"Guys," he said to them. "I’m sure you realize that you’ve kinda stumbled into something pretty big here. It kinda blindsided me too, truth be told. But, I don’t think I have to even mention that what you’ve seen here can ever go past us."

"No shit, Jayce," Myri snorted. "You’re one of us, honey. We’d never go back on you."

"Be that as it may, I have to kinda make sure of it," he told them, glancing at Zaa. "So, I think the only way I’m gonna manage that is if I’m more or less your boss."

"You are already," Yana noted.

"No, I’m your assignment," he told Yana. "The only way I can be your boss is if you’re in my house."

"Join House Karinne? Honey, you don’t really need house soldiers," Myri told him. "Besides, we’re Marines."

"I never said you’d be house soldiers. I said you’d be in the house," he told them. "What do you say? Put a silly title in front of your name, stop paying commoner’s tax, and seal the deal because you’ll be up to your pretty little necks in it right along with me?"

Maya laughed, and Meya gave him a look. "You’re offering us titles?" she asked.

"You bet I am," he told them. "All of you, Countesses. Well, except Myleena, I already made her a Duchess. That way, we all know we stay together, we work to make this place live again, and we all keep this secret between us. Because it won’t just be an assignment," he said, looking at Yana. "It’ll be a goal we all work for."

"Does Myra get a title too?" Meya asked.

"Well, if it’ll make her jealous, no," Jason said lightly, which made Meya laugh.

"I’m in. It’s about time I got something more than a paycheck for dealing with noble brats," Meya said quickly.

"What about our families?" Maya asked.

"Immediate families, you can bring. Extended families, well, you’re gonna have to be a little evasive," Jason told her. "So Vell and your children are more than welcome, Maya. And your son, Zora. And I’m not talking about us being prisoners here, guys. I’m just saying that the fewer that know about Karis, the better. I’m willing to trust that you and your families can keep this secret. In exchange, you get to share in any success we manage to find if this insanity pays off for us. If we do everything right, then Karinne will be part of the Siann again, and we’ll own Earth."

"Well, we are still enlisted, Jayce. That’s a problem."

"No it’s not," Jason told her. "The laws of the Siann state that if I bestow noble titles on you, any Imperial military commitments are voided at my discretion, if I decide I want you elsewhere. If you’re still in your conscription, that conscription transfers to the house," he said, looking at them. Of them all, only Myri was career. All of them were still serving some stage of their conscription.

"You’re asking me to toss my pension, you know," Myri told him, but she was grinning.

"I think I can do something about that, Myri," he told her dryly.

"Well, I busted my ass for ten years in the Marines so I could have some security when I get old. I may not get old here, but if it works, then I’ll have some security. I’ll go for it, Jayce."

"Me too!" Maya called.

Quickly, in rapid succession, all eleven of the non-noble Faey agreed. They could see the potential benefits of being a noble, and they all believed that Jason would do his best. It would be worth the work to see something come of the new House Karinne. They swarmed around him, kissing him on the cheek, patting him, but Jason could only look to Zaa. She nodded approvingly, telling him that he had handled it correctly. He had both tied up a potentially dangerous loose end and increased the ranks of his tiny house by filling it with people who believed in him. That was important.

"Just don’t think that your frilly new title is changing anything for the time being!" Myri barked suddenly. "We’re still Marines until this is over, ladies, and Jayce is gonna need our guns, not our titles!"

"Yah yah, Sarge," Sheleese rolled her eyes.

"That’s Countess Sarge to you, potato-tits!" Myri snapped.

Jason almost gagged from a sudden bout of helpless laughter.

The interior of the scout ship was dim, smelled dusty, and was very sterile. The Kimdori were already crawling all over the ship, yanking wall panels to get at equipment within, opening crawlspaces, even crawling up into the ceiling and under the floor as they went to work. This ship was going to be very important to what they were doing, and it had to be fully operational as fast as they could fix it. They made their way to the bridge, and it was a curious affair. It was small, and only had chairs for four people. One in the front, one in the middle, two to either side behind. The middle chair looked like it was the ship captain’s chair. The front chair was probably the pilot, and the two in back had to be flight officers. The one thing that was apparent quickly was that there were no controls, only Faey backglass displays on consoles that the chairs could swivel underneath. It was simply four chairs with their displays facing a blank metal wall. The only decoration in this place was the Karinne crest, and underneath it, stylized writing on the back wall between the two chairs, in Faey script: [KES Scimitar, Commissioned 2879 with the blessing of Grand Duchess Koiri Karinne.]

"Nice name for a ship," Myleena noted a they looked around.

"No flight controls," Zora said curiously, walking up to the front chair. "This has to be the pilot’s chair. I wonder how they flew it."

"By interface," Zaa informed them. "This is a Karinne ship, Marine. The only manual controls this ship contains were only for emergencies."

"I’d say that’s your chair, Zora," Jason told her. "This thing is gonna need a pilot, and you’re the resident pilot."

"Mine, eh?" she asked, then she sat down in the chair and swivelled behind the black glass panel in front of her chair, looking it over. Then she sighed. "I guess the flight systems are down. I’m not getting anything here. This console is dead."

"I think they’re on autopilot. That, or the ship doesn’t recognize you as a pilot," Jason reasoned.

"I’m sure Cybi can fix that when she rewrites the ship computer’s protocols," Myleena said as she stepped up to one of the back chairs and waved her hand in front of the panel, in the same way he remembered seeing Miaari do so in her ship. The displays suddenly lit up, and then holographic projections rose up over the blackglass console, showing the ship and a list of systems. "This is engineering," she told them. "Ship’s status. It’s not good, Jayce. Almost all the ship systems are down. We’re gonna have to really roll up our sleeves to get this thing up and running."

"How did you do that?" Zora asked.

"Wave your hand in front the little grill-looking thing on the right side, it seems to be some kind of switch that tells things around here to wake up and start listening for an interface," she told Zora. Zora turned and did so, and her console came to life, showing a three dimensional image of the ship with numbers around it displaying heading and speed, and a startchart appeared on her left, projecting out past the side of the console, showing their current location as [Karis] and showing a dashed line leading halfway through the map, to an orange nebula deep in the spiral arm of the galaxy.

Myleena sat down in the chair, and the holograms over her console changed quickly, as she seemed to get a grasp of their layout and system and started issuing commands via her gestalt. "Engines are about the only thing running. The ship let everything else go, even some of its own computer systems, to keep the engines operational, so it could be recalled when it made contact with someone."

"How long will it take to get this this fixed?" Myri asked.

Myleena snorted. "It’s gonna take at least a day or two, it’s gonna depend," she said. "I woulda said maybe a week, but Denmother Zaa has put an army of techs in here, and the Kimdori really know what they’re doing."

"This ship has highest priority for repair," Zaa said simply. "You are going to need it."

"I need to get down there. I can’t let a chance like this go by. It’s not every day a girl gets to stick her hands in the guts of a ship like this."

"The ship won’t be refitted, Myleena, just repaired. My workers will make no changes to the ship, in any way. But they will not clean up the hull. Its bedraggled appearance is necessary."

"Necessary for what, Denmother?" Myleena asked.

"Necessary for them to believe that it has been hidden for a millenia," she answered, looking at Jason. "When they see this ship, they need to believe that Jason tracked it down and found it using clues left behind on Terra."

"Oh-ohhhhhhhhhhhhh," Myleena said, then she nodded enthusiastically. "Laying the foundation!"

"Exactly," Zaa affirmed. "Jason must convince the Siann that he is what he claims to be. If he appears in a salvaged Karinne ship, it reinforces his declaration. I find myself needing rest. I will withdraw now. Jason, I will be leaving for the homeworld in the morning. I will leave Miaari in control of the Kimdori workers. She has been instructed in my wishes, and will oversee things to my satisfaction."

"I’ll miss you, Denmother," Jason said honestly.

"You must come visit me sometime," she told him, taking his hand.

"Thank you," he told her sincerely, looking up at her. "Thank you for everything."

"You don’t need to thank me, Jason. It was my pleasure," she told him, running her fingers along his cheek. Then she patted him on the shoulder and withdrew to a symphony of respectful bows."

"I’m glad I got to meet someone like that once before I die," Zora said as she sat back down in the pilot’s chair.


It took them two days to get the Scimitar repaired.

There was a lot of damage. They ignored everything but the necessary systems; propulsion, life support, shields, power generation, and still it took two days to get everything fixed. Jason and Myleena recruited just about everyone into the repair efforts, as they themselves had Cybi download what data they needed to work on the ship and they started pitching in. Jason didn’t know half as much as Myleena or the Kimdori, so he isolated himself to finding and repairing damaged conduit, something he did know how to do and was pretty good at doing. He drafted Yana and Maya to be his assistants, and the two of them would get locations from the Kimdori workers on bad conduit, find it, and replace it.

There was more damage than just the marching of the years, though. Many of the ship’s systems had been cannibalized, either taken by the crew that abandoned it or stripped by some passing ship that had happened across the ship. They had taken sensor arrays, power plants, spare parts, replicators, anything that basicly wasn’t nailed down and half of what had been. Their stripping of the interior of the ship was why the ship was having so many problems.

It did give him a chance to get an idea of the ship, though. It really was a flying laboratory, with most of its rooms and decks dedicated to research, rooms they basicly wrote off and ignored, for most of the equipment that was in those rooms had been taken. The ship was laid out in a very logical manner, with a pair of main passages running amidships on each deck that served as the main artery, where everything branched off from those two hallways. Engineering was the domain of the back quarter of the ship, and everything from there to the bow was all research. The top two decks were primarily crew quarters, and a look through them showed that the Faey who had abandoned this ship had had time to do it. Most of the personal effects were gone, leaving behind only small knick-knacks and a few articles of clothing. Everything else was gone, showing that the Faey had definitely premeditated their departure.

The ship’s logs supported that. The logs stated that after the Scimitar got word of the attack, and then the final warning for all Karinnes to flee came down, they decided to do what Jason’s own ancestors must have done. They found a good planet that could support life and evacuated to it with every bit of equipment and supplies they could get, which seemed odd to Jason. They could have waited on the ship itself, but they had instead chosen to make camp on a planet and wait it out. Then they had the ship hide in that nebula and wait for a recall order, an order that never came. The ship had the location of the planet where the Faey went in its memory, and Jason was of a mind to go there and see if there were any Faey there, see if they’d managed to establish a colony of exiles.

"What do you think of all this, Maya?" Yana asked as they sat in a narrow crawlspace with Jason, who had half his body stuck in a bulkhead as he worked a damaged piece of conduit free of an exchanger and a junction where it went through a bulkhead.

All of what, Yana?

"The ship, and all of what the Karinnes did. I think it’s really strange. Why would they keep all this a secret? They had stuff that was like ultra-advanced back in that time, and it’s still advanced now, but not by much. We kinda caught up to them. Why didn’t they make a killing patenting it and selling it? Or hell, why didn’t they try to take over the Imperium? They’d have won that war, hands down."

"They didn’t care about money and power, Yana," Jason told her. "All they cared about was their research. I know it’s hard to understand, but the Karinnes were very different from other Faey. Their focus was on science, not on power. They considered the pursuit of knowledge the greatest thing in the world, and that’s what they did."

"You’re right, I guess I don’t understand it," Yana chuckled.

"You will," he told her. "I’ve already decided that everything here on Karis stays on Karis. The Imperium won’t see so much as a moleculartronic board from here. They won’t even know it is here. As far as the Imperium is concerned, Karis is still a radioactive wasteland, and it always will be. The only thing they’ll ever see of the Karinnes is this ship. I won’t even let anyone wear an interface or gestalt off this planet or out of this ship. When we leave the ship, they stay behind."

"Why?"

"Because I don’t want the Imperium to even think that they’re anything other than what the old stories say they were, simple jewelry. And it’ll discourage any kind of temptation," he added.

"Well, they don’t really do anything off the ship, Jayce," Maya noted.

"And that’s exactly why nobody will wear one outside," he told them.

"Makes me wonder how they kept it all a secret," Yana mused. "You know, with the Academy being here and all, and all the outsiders."

"I looked up the old maps, and saw that the Academy started off in the capitol, but then it was moved to a large island just off the main continent," Jason told her. "The new Academy was a hell of a lot bigger than the old one, the size of a city. It really was a city, if you think about it, self-contained and self-sufficient. Most people probably thought they built the new one so it could have more room, but I think they put it there to separate the Academy from the rest of Karis, so they could keep the benefits of having the Academy with all the input and research from the non-Karinne scientists, but still have the privacy to do their own work. With all the outsiders isolated to one island, it would make what really went on here easier to keep secret from them."

"Still, it couldn’t have been easy."

"I bet it wasn’t, but they had the Kimdori here to help them, and the Karinnes were the strongest telepaths of their era," Jason reminded her. "I’m sure between them, they could keep a lid on the truth."

"Probably."

"Here," Jason said, handing out the damaged conduit through the hole, having to squeeze it through. One of them took it, and put the replacement section in his hand. He carefully navigated it through the tight access door, then lifted it up and into place with careful moves, being careful not to scratch or nick the edges of the conduit.

Do you mind explaining what we’re going to do a little, Jason? Maya asked.

"Not at all, hon," he told her. "Well, first thing we’re gonna do is go back to Earth. We’ll approach in a way that makes it look like we came in from inside the system, and then get all the Legion out of the mountain. That’s our first objective. I need to get them out of there before Trillane does something insane. Once we have them, we’re going to Draconis. What we’re doing there is fairly simple, hon. We get in front of the Empress, and I claim my ancestral rights as the last descendent of the Karinne nobles. Obviously, I’m not gonna tell them about Myleena right at first," he explained. "From what I read of the laws of Siann, if I can prove I’m a descendent, they can’t say anything."

"How can you prove it?"

"I won’t be able to with direct evidence, but I’ll have a hell of a lot of circumstantial evidence to prove my point. This ship will be a big one," he answered. "When I tell them I found the ship my ancestors came in, it’ll have weight."

"But this isn’t that ship."

"But they don’t know that, do they?" Jason said pointedly. "It’s not solid evidence, like I said, but it’s a biggie. I also have all the scans the docs took of my DNA, showing that I have similar DNA to a Faey. Add that in with the fact that I’m a telepath, and it all fits. Humans are telepathic because they’re part Faey, and those Faey had to come from somewhere. Add a ancient, battered Karinne ship into that equation, and what answer do you get?"

"Ah, I see," Maya noted. "Yeah, that is a solid conclusion, isn’t it?"

"Yup. As far as they’ll know, the ring was on this ship, and after I found it, I read up on the laws of Siann and figured the rest of it out. I do have something of a reputation for being clever," he said modestly. "Of course, Trillane and maybe the Empress will see it as simply a ploy to kick Trillane off Earth, but I’ll have enough solid evidence behind me to give my argument enough weight that I’ll get a foot in the door. After that, it comes down to some negotiation to sway the Empress to side with me. That’s where it’s gonna be tricky."

"How so?"

"If I do this, hon, I’m going to be held to the same expectations as Trillane," he explained. "I’ll have the same quotas of food production to meet, and unlike Trillane, I don’t have a huge noble house to mobilize to produce that food. And also consider that if I pull this off, Trillane will sabotage the hell out of Earth as they go to make sure I can’t possibly meet that quota. And I’ll be honest about it hon, I’d never meet it. I have no money, no resources, just me and a handful of radicals. So, what I intend to so is lease the planet’s food production to another house, with heavy Imperial oversight, and make terms that gives that house virtually all of the profit, which is a win-win situation for the house. There won’t be any house soldiers on Earth, only Marines. The other house will only be here to help with the farming and move the food, that’s it. That’s one half of it. The other half of it is something I found in Cybi’s stored memory about Karinne technological advancements. It seems that the Karinnes did some work in other fields, and at some point in the past, they tackled the technology of replicators.

"What they came up with is a replicator that can produce complex molecules," he told them. "But they didn’t get it to work right, because it couldn’t produce any element larger than Iridium, when they were trying to build a replicator that could replicate any element. That’s still better than the replicators they have now, though. The Karinnes used it to produce materials they needed for their research, it was why the house didn’t really care about money. They could replicate what they needed, even precious metals like silver, iridium, and tungsten to sell on the open market if they needed cash. But they didn’t see the kind of need for it I have for it now."

"Complex-food!" Maya gasped.

"Yeah, I already crunched the numbers with Cybi, and it’ll be capable of replicating edible food. The Karinnes never used it for that, but it’s entirely possible. Not sure how it’ll taste, but it’s possible. That’s the carrot I’m gonna dangle in front of Empress Dahnai. I’ll offer her that technology in exchange for her siding with me. Merrane could make a killing if they patented that thing and sold it, and besides, if the Imperium can replicate food to make up its food shortage, it’ll go a long way to making the Imperium more self-sufficient. In the end, everyone will win except Trillane. Earth is taken away from Trillane, the house of Karinne is restored to the Siann, my people can find some dignity under direct Imperial supervision at first, then slowly migrate back to what we had after the replicators cut the need for Earth’s food production, Merrane makes money, people in the Imperium don’t starve, and everyone’s happy. Except Trillane."

"Wow. That’s pretty smart, Jayce," Yana said.

"Thank Denmother Zaa," he told them. "I told her my basic idea, but she’s the one that helped me flesh it out to where it has a chance to work. I didn’t think of things like leasing out Earth to cover the short-term quotas. She also helped me by teaching me things I’d need to know about being a Grand Duke. Dealing with the other nobles in the Siann and shit like that. She’s a very smart lady, and I’m gonna be sending her thank you notes for the next fifty years. At least."

"Sounds like taking that title was a good idea," Yana giggled.

"I certainly hope so. Thanks, by the way. I know you’re taking a risk by jumping on board with me, guys."

"A chance to be a noble in a house like this? I think it’ll give me one hell of a story to write when I’m old," Yana said.

"You believe in something so strongly that it makes us believe in it too, Jason," Maya told him simply. "Through all of this, you’ve never strayed from what you believed in, and you really care about us. Why wouldn’t a girl take a chance on a man like you?"

Faith. Miaari told him that faith could be a powerful weapon. Now, he finally understood what that meant.

The ship shuddered, which made Jason bang his head on the bulkhead when he flinched. What the hell was that! Jason’s sending boomed strongly through the ship.

Ack! Sorry! Zora sent through the ship. That was my fault! The pilot controls just came back up and I was practicing on a simulation. I kinda forgot to separate the simulation from real commands!

Watch it, girl! Myri barked. This isn’t your personal toy!

It won’t happen again, I disengaged the pilot controls, Zora called. And cut me some slack, will ya? You have any idea how tough this is? I’m learning to fly an unfamiliar ship from scratch here, using a control system I didn’t even know existed!

The ship will fly itself, Zora, Jason told her. You just tell it where to go.

And if the autopilot fails? I’m not about to let this ship take off if I can’t safely put it back down, Jason. It’s just common sense.

She has a point there, Ilia agreed.

How are you coming along, then? Jason asked.

I’m getting the hang of it, she answered. It’s really not much different from flying a dropship. I just kinda think out loud which way I wanna go, and the ship goes that way. It’s not hard, it’s just taking some adjustment here..that’s what’s hard. My need to use my hands confuses the ship, ’cause it sees two sets of commands, what I want to do, and then a repeat command right after as I try to use the controls to do it. If I do pilot this thing manually, I’m gonna have to sit on my hands to keep from trying to grab a control stick and throttle.

Ah. Well, just be careful, he sent.

Will do.

"Sounds like Zora’s having fun up there," Yana giggled. "Wonder what it’s like for her."

"Different. Exciting," Jason said. "She’s been a pilot all her life, and now she gets to sit in the pilot’s chair of something nobody’s flown in a thousand years. For her, it’s probably really exciting. I just hope she gets the hang of it quick. When we show up at Earth, Trillane might shoot at us. She’d better be ready to handle this thing."

"I’m pretty sure she will. It’s just a matter of doing what she already knows how to do a little differently than she’s used to, that’s all," Maya said.

"Yeah, I know."

[Jason, computer reprogramming is complete. The Scimitar computer is now up and running,] Cybi communed to him. [I must give thanks to Miaari. Her technicians were very quick and effiicient in reparing the computer systems.]

[Yeah, they really are doing a good job. With the computer up, how much longer til everything’s fixed?]

[One moment. Miaari relays that according to her master technicians, the ship should be fully repaired and ready for the mission in five hours. All primary systems are now operational. All that remains is redundant and tertiary systems, such as the system you are working on now. It is part of the power supply system for deck sections that once had equipment installed that is no longer there.]

Jason grunted a little. [Well, it had to be fixed, so I’m fixing it.]

It’s getting a little late, ladies, Jason. Are you hungry? I’m making some chaya stew, Songa sent.

Chaya stew! Sign me up! Min sent eagerly.

Maya’s stomach growled. I think I’m about ready for something to eat, too, Maya sent with an audible laugh. Let us finish what we’re doing and we can come eat.

Sounds like a plan, ladies. Finish up what you’re doing, and we’ll break for chow, Myri ordered.

"She’s really a good cook," Yana said appreciatively.

"She’s just happy she can be doing something right now," Maya said observantly. "If I lost Vell, I don’t know what I’d do. I feel so sorry for her."

"I heard you’ve been giving her some man comfort, Jayce. That’s really nice of you," Yana told him, tapping him on the shin. "She’s a sweetheart."

"It’s the least I can do for her," Jason told them honestly. "I owe Songa a lot."

"Think you can owe me enough for a quickie?" she asked.

"Yana!" Jason barked.

"Hey, a girl has to ask, ya know," she giggled. "We have to make sure you’re taken care of since Jyslin isn’t here. You’re a squadmate’s husband, Jason. We gotta look out for you. A lone boy surrounded by girls? Someone’s gotta keep the monster in check, so why not me?"

"Songa is taking care of that, thank you very much," he said primly, aligning the conduit and sealing it in place. "And of all the girls in the squad, you were the last one I expected to proposition me, Yana."

"Pft. Just give it us enough time stuck here with you, and we’ll all come to knock on your door," she told him bluntly. "Even Maya."

He ignored that. "Alright, that’s it, we’re done. Let’s collect up the tools and go grab some dinner."

"Let’s get some food in your mouth so you don’t have so much time to think," Maya told Yana.

"What? It’s not like you haven’t thought about it," she accused Maya. "I guess that wasn’t you last night sending me a memory Jyslin shared of you of Jason naked, and wondering what he’d be like between your legs!"

"Okay, I really didn’t need to know that," Jason said with a faint blush as he squirmed out of the access door.

"Thinking about it and blurting out like that are two different things," she said pointedly in reply. "Really, Yana. He’s consoling Songa, which can’t be easy for him because her husband was his friend, and you ask a question like that! All that talent, and not a lick of common sense!"

"Let’s go eat, before I find out way more than I want to know," he said loudly. "Then again, I think I already have," he said, looking at Maya.

She blushed a disturbing shade of violet. "Well, I am her partner. We’re close friends," she explained.

"Uh-huh," he said, looking at Yana.

"Well, she was curious, and that was a long time ago, right after you and Jyslin had your first night," she said weakly, turning purple. "And I can’t believe you told him that!" she hissed at Yana, standing up and glaring at the younger Marine.

Yana gave her a smug look.

Jason stood up and cleaned his hands on a rag, then tossed it right into Yana’s face. She gagged, then laughed as she pulled it off and stood up. "Sorry cutie, but a girl’s gotta be a girl," she told him, leaning up on her toes and kissing him on the cheek. "Now let’s go get some dinner."

Chapter 19