at him since Miaari's visit.

How were the Karinnes and the Kimdori connected?

It was a bothersome question, because the Kimdori _defined_ secretive. There was so little information about them on CivNet, it wasn't funny. About the only information one could find about the Kimdori was that their homeworld was near the center of the galaxy, in a star cluster that was virtually uninhabitable by any other species due to intense radiation... yet the Kimdori thrived there, as well as other life that existed in the system. Kimdori were immune to radiation. There was mention that they were shapeshifters and that they had a pack mentality that caused them to organize into cells of family groups, but that was about it. No information about their society, their history, their culture.

That was a no-go, but there was _plenty_ of information about Karinne. It seemed that the foundation of modern Faey technology was directly traced back to the House Karinne, and there was something of an intergalactic incident when House Merrane destroyed House Karinne at the onset of the Third Civil War.

The House Karinne was formed in the year 1282 PE (Prior Era, which they counted backwards from 0 just like Earth counted backwards in B.C. years) at the end of the First Civil War. Noya Karinne, an Imperial General, was awarded nobility and the territory of the destroyed House Zudunne after she saved the Empress' ship from destruction. In that early era, the House Karinne was like all the other houses; ambitious and manipulative, gaining territory, power, and status to become one of the stronger of the minor houses.

But things changed after the Second Civil War. After being awarded more territory, Caenry Karinne, the grand duchess at that time, sold off one of the gained star systems to raise money and used it to invest in her house's research efforts. That was a name Jason recognized, not for Karinne, but her first name. The Caenry Theorem was the fundamental theorem of phased plasma physics. Jason had no idea that Caenry was a Karinne. A little more reading showed Jason that the Karinnes did _way_ more than develop the fundamental theorum of phased plasma physics. Caenry was responsible for surrendering more than 75% of Karinne territory, but the money she raised went straight into research. Hard shields, the first spatial warping experiments, ion weapons, the basics of plasma power, hot plasma weaponry, and the first experiments in metaphased plasma weapon technology were all researched by the Karinnes. It could be said with high authority that the House of Karinne was the cradle of modern Faey technology. The stargates, MPACs, spatial engines, all of it could be traced back to groundbreaking Karinne research.

But it was Moiri Karinne's act that was probably one of the most brilliant, if one considered what she was doing. She sold off _everything_ but their home planet of Karis, then consolidated all of the various research efforts by forming the Karis Academy, a centralized research facility that Caenry Karinne wisely made self-sustaining by opening it as a university, where other students could come to learn.

Karis Academy. He remembered reading about it in Xeno class. It was _the_ learning institution, a place that races all over the galaxy came to for higher learning.

Damn clever woman. The Karinnes were obsessed with science, so what better way to increase scientific advancement by putting the most scientists in one place?

At its height, the Karis Academy was the size of a large city. It had hundreds of thousands of students, and thousands of scientists and professors. At any one time, there were hundreds of major research projects going on, from a wide variety of disciplines.

But the history didn't cast the Karinnes in the warm light of science. Over the years after the Second Civil War, the Karinnes changed. They became withdrawn from the Imperium, indifferent to it, even scornful. The entire house began a controversial selective breeding program within the house to increase its power in telepathy, a program that both worked and brought about laws against it. The program _worked_. The Karinnes became known as the most powerful telepaths in the Imperium, hand over fist. It also caused Empress Ziora Shevalle to enact the Natural Progression edict, a ban on genetic engineering experiments that other houses began to consider after seeing the success of the Karinne breeding program. Over time, the Karinnes became literal outcasts in Faey society, but they didn't care. They shunned Faey society and culture and withdrew to Karis and to their own mysterious goals. It became a rare sight to see a Karinne off Karis, but they were easily identifiable wherever they went, for every member of the house wore a decorative metal device on their left ear with prongs that stretched horizontally under the left eye nearly to the nose in a delicate bar, and vertically down the front and back of the ear, then wrapping around the back of the head with a curved skull-hugging brace that rested atop their heads. That metal ornament came to signify the Karinnes and identify them wherever they went.

Then came the Third Civil War. In 2886, the Faey Imperium broke into two factions, the Loyalists and the Seditionists, but House Karinne refused to take sides. They remained neutral, which was the policy of the house for a thousand years, offering no aid to either side. Both sides, however, didn't honor Karinne's neutrality. In 2887, Seditionist forces spearheaded by a Merrane battle fleet destroyed Karis. They used Omega weaponry, which irradiated the planet and made it uninhabitable, even to this day, some 1,307 years later. Seditionist and Loyalist houses, both sides, then hunted down and killed all the remaining Karinnes. Both sides, the history read, feared Karinne retaliation.

It took a little time for him to understand why they'd be afraid. It seemed that House Karinne was well knownalmost _infamous_for the telepathic power of its nobles. All of them, every single Karinne noble, was staggeringly powerful in talent, because of the very controversial selective breeding program the house underwent between the second and third Civil Wars. There were even documented cases of Karinne nobles having telekinetic ability, which was as rare among the Faey as telepathy was among humanity. Both sides feared the power of Karinne nobles who now had no house, and had nothing to lose. So they were hunted down and killed. They even went so far as to kill Karinne nobles who had married into other houses and become part of the new house. Male nobles changed houses when they married, becoming part of the new house.

That explained why both Jason and Myleena were so strong in talent. Jason, being male, was weaker than Myleena, but that was a relative comparison when one considered that Jason was more powerful in talent than maybe 94% of Faey females. He was almost even with Jyslin. His _weaker_ talent was way more than most Faey women, but Myleena, a female, was much stronger than him. Myleena had to be in the top 1% of all Faey in telepathic power.

The destruction of Karis had negative repercussions through the rest of civilized space. The loss of Karis Academy _really_ pissed off some of the other spacefaring races, because quite a few non-Faey students were killed in the Merrane assault. The newly reunited Faey Imperium, under a new Empress and a new ruling noble house, found itself suddenly at war with another civilization called the Urumi, who considered the death of its students on Karis an act of war. The Urumi had been allied with the Loyalists, and when they lost the war, the Urumi simply declared war on the entire Imperium.

That wasn't the real problem, though. Since the destruction of Karis Academy, Faey technological advancement had slowed to a crawl. Stargates, moleculartronic computer architecture, and MPAC technology had been the only real major breakthroughs in the millennium since the Third Civil War, where before, Faey technology had been advancing by leaps and bounds. They had killed the golden goose when they destroyed the Karinnes, for the Karinnes had been the backbone of the Faey scientific community.

That was interesting and all, but it didn't really answer the question. There was no mention in any of the various historical files he read that linked the Karinnes and the Kimdori in any way. He had no doubt that some Kimdori had attended Karis Academy as students, but outside of that obvious assumption, nothing.

But there had to be _some_ connection, and Miaari had said without saying that that connection was very important. That connection just had to be why the Kimdori had done so much to help him; clearly, they wouldn't render so much aid to him for some other reason. There was something back in the marches of history that linked the Kimdori and the house of Karinne together, and that was what Jason felt that Miaari wanted him to find.

Jason kept reading through the historical files of several universities on Draconis, and was engaged in reading another essay on the Karinnes when the door opened, and Myleena Merrane stepped in. Jason felt that shiver when he looked at her, and he had to wonder if this was Myleena, or if it was Miaari. "It's about time," he said simply.

"I was busy," she said, in her own voice. It was indeed Myleena. "I didn't know I'm related to someone famous," she said with a humorless chuckle.

"Me?"

"Gora Karinne," she stated. "His older brother was married into Merrane. I looked through Merrane genealogy, and he's my thousand-year removed grandfather."

"How did your parents take it?"

"They died when I was a baby, along with my older sister," she grunted. "I was raised by my aunt Uri. My uncle Taen has been riding me about having a baby to continue my line, but I've blown him off for years." She snorted. "I guess I shouldn't. I looked it up, babe. I'm the last living descendent of my line. All the splinters off my line died before having kids, or they did have kids and their kids died before producing any heirs. I'm it. That's a sobering thing."

"And what do you think about it?" he asked.

"What _can_ I think about it?" she said, throwing up her hands. "I've always been able to sense Kimdori, you know. I was terrified of them, afraid they'd find out that I could, cause then they'd kill me. Every time I felt one, it'd look right at me." She shuddered. "And now I find out that it's not unique."

"Could your parents sense Kimdori?"

"No idea," she shrugged.

"So. What do we do about it?"

"What can I do about it?" she told him. "I'm a Merrane, babe, no matter that I have an ancestor from another house. Just about every noble has relatives from other houses nowadays, because houses intermarry. I have my orders, and those are to get you into Makan Academy."

"Where?"

"Makan Academy, the best engineering school this side of the galaxy," she told him. "As soon as you heal up, I'm supposed to take you there. Personally. Then you settle in and learn engineering properly, and once you graduate, you come back as the newest member of Black Ops."

"I see this is going to be interesting," Jason said simply, giving her a cool look. "Because I have no intention of going anywhere but back home. I hope you're ready to chain me to a desk on Makan."

"If that's what it takes," she told him evenly.

"It'll take more than that," he warned. "You seem to forget, I'm fighting a war back on Terra. I'm not too concerned about what the Imperium has in mind for me when my people need me."

"It's not really your problem now, babe," she told him.

"It will _always_ be my problem," he said coldly. "One way or another, I'm going home, Myleena. Either you're going to help me, or I'll go _through_ you. I was told that you'd help me, but I guess you're more worried about being a _Merrane_ than you are a _relative_."

She gasped. "What do you expect?" she snapped. "Yes, I'm curious about how we came to be relatives. Yes, I like you, Jason, and I'm worried about you, and I'd like to help you. But I have my orders, and they're good for you as much as they are for us. You can reach your full potential at Makan, and maybe you can do some good for your people there. Did you ever think of that? Make your case, babe, do it out in the open instead of with a bomb. You ever think of talking to an INN reporter? Lots of people kinda like you, babe, cause you're a romantic figure. If you went on INN and explained what was going on, maybe you could create enough public support to have the Empress start investigating a hell of lot harder than she has been. People thought your attacks on Washington were funny. Show them a face to go with that sense of humor, and fill people in on what motivated it all."

"You're the second person to suggest that," he said, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"It's not a bad idea. But be that as it may, I'm not here just to talk about our common ancestry." She brought up a handpanel. "Let's start with how you were getting around without being detected."

"Push off, Myleena," he snapped. "I'm not telling you _shit_, because if I reveal how we did it, then the people still back there who depend on those things for their lives will have their asses hanging out in the wind. There's no telling who else is going to see anything that goes in that panel, so you get _nothing_."

"Now hold on"

_I said _no_,_ he sent with ferocity, resorting to sending to fully convey his outrage at the very thought of it.

_Hold on there, babe, don't take it out on _me_,_ she sent with supplication. _I was told to ask. I asked, you said no, and I'm not gonna push it. I don't really blame you, truth be told._ She came over to his bed, and looked at the monitor sitting on the table in the corner, which had lines of flowing Faey script and a picture of a Faey woman with a metal object attached to the left side of her face. _I see you've been researching,_ she sent. _That's a Karinne._

_How can you tell?_ he asked, calming down considerably from the mollifying tone of her sending.

_The thing on her ear that sticks out under her left eye. All Karinnes wore it, even when it gave away who they were._

_I don't remember seeing it on that picture we found back home._

_Who knows?_

_If all Karinnes wore it, why wasn't the one in the picture?_

_Maybe she lost it. What are you looking up?_

_Well, now that I know where I came from, I'm trying to understand that side of me better. I've been looking at the history of the Karinnes. I'm also trying to find why you and me can do what we can do concerning _them_, and what it means. There's more there. There's something important there. If I can just figure it out, it would let me sleep better at night._

_Good luck,_ she sent with a shrug of her shoulders.

_Doesn't it make you curious?_

_Of course it does, but I have bigger things to worry about. Like keeping your ass alive. Did you know that Trillane had the nerve to come here and demand they hand you over?_

_No, I didn't._

_Holy Trelle, was Commodore Yia _pissed_,_ she sent with a laugh. _She's the hospital's commander. Trillane has some serious guts to try to come in here after you, but now they're gonna face the wrath of the Medical Service. It won't be pretty._

_I knew there was a reason I liked Faey doctors._

_They have guts for people who vow never to raise a hand against another. Then again, they have their ways of making others pay when they get pissed. Trillane might get all their doctors recalled to Draconis._

"More power to them," Jason said, standing up and going over to the panel he was using. He sat down in front of it and scrolled through the essay again, scanning it with his eyes. _I'm going to warn you right now, Myleena,_ he sent privately to her. _I will not be on any transport to Makan. When my arm is healed, I'll be going back home. You can do whatever it is you need to do to try and stop me, but it's not going to get you very far. When it's all said and done, I'll be back where I belong. You can try to get in my way, or you can bow to that inevitability and help me. If you help me, I'll remember it. If you get in my way, I _will_ remember it. How you want to play that game is up to you._

_My, sounds like I'm being dismissed._

_You are. Out. It's clear you have nothing of substance to talk about, I have work to do, and we can save the chitchat for the next time._

"Alright, alright," she sighed. "I'll come see you tomorrow, okay?"

_Whatever makes you happy. Just remember what I said. I meant it._

_I suppose you do, but this isn't your sandbox back home, babe. You're in _my_ sandbox now, and you'll find that I'm very stingy when it comes to sharing my toys._

_Guess it'll just be that much more humiliating when I break out of here, then,_ he shrugged. _You are nothing but a momentary inconvenience, Myleena._

_That_ got her. _Oh, you're just digging your own grave now!_ she sent hotly. _You wanna play with me, babes, you just got yourself a game! And when they put you on that transport to Makan, I'll be in the seat next to you laughing the whole way!_

_We'll see._

She stormed out, and Jason had to smile. Getting her angry may have been petty, but he wanted her to be mad for a little bit. If for no other reason than she had it coming. He sighed and stared at the face on his monitor, an old picture of a Faey woman with hair the color of pampas grass that was long and straight and parted in the middle, hanging in front of her right ear but pushed over her left, staring at the camera with a serious, almost irritated expression. Her right eye was closed ever-so-slightly more than her left, a glittering crystal bead was hanging from her right earlobe on a golden chain, and that dark metal ornament on the left side of her face with its elegant prong resting under her left eye, flowing back to her left ear where it joined with the rest of it. So this was a Karinne, a woman named Sora Karinne by the caption of the photo. What secrets were lurking behind those violet eyes? What secrets had gone with her to her grave, as the warships of Merrane destroyed Karis around her? He read the caption again.

[Duchess Sora Karinne, daughter of Grand Duchess Garda Karinne, Heir Apparent of House Karinne. Photo taken 2675, Karis Academy, Karis.]

Well, warships wouldn't have been over this woman's head. She had lived hundreds of years before the end of Karinne, a picture from over fifteen hundred years ago. Was she one of his distant ancestors? Probably not. She was the house ruler, after all. Jason didn't have the ego to think that he was descended from the ruling family in the noble house.

"How do I fit in, Sora?" he asked the picture aloud. "And where do _they_ fit in? I don't see the connection. I could use a little help here."

The picture was silent. Then again, pictures usually were.

"You're a big help," he accused the photo, then switched over to the mail program. It was time to send a little correspondence to INN. Maybe they could find a reporter that wasn't busy.

                                        * * *

The interview wasn't half as bad as he thought it would be. A reporter was at the hospital literally _minutes_ after he made that call, and he found her to be warm, enthusiastic, friendly, and very nice. They talked for quite a while about what they were going to talk about, and she assured him that he could say whatever he wanted. Her name was Tiya Harelle, and he grew rather fond of her as the day progressed.

When the time came for the cameraor her personal panel in this caseto roll, she was both professional and discreet. She did not wander an inch from the material they had talked about. She asked him about what was going on back on Earth, and he answered her. He told her about how the humans were being treated like dogs, and his accusations of slaving (which he admitted he couldn't prove), and his decision to risk everything to do something about it. He told them about what he remembered of his capture, and informed the entire Imperium that Trillane had fired on a car holding doctors, and one had died. The Imperium treated their doctors like saints; even an accidental killing of a doctor was a major black eye to Trillane in the eyes of the rest of the Imperium. That was a damning offense.

Then came... the _question_. It was the question that she hadn't said she was going to ask, but he knew she'd drop it on him. "There are rumors that there are humans expressing talent, Master Fox, and that you're one of them. Would you like to confirm or deny this?"

"I won't hide it," he told her. "I have talent. It's one reason why Trillane has gone so far to try to kill me. It's what I meant in my original statement when I said that they knew who and what I was. Trillane has known I have talent for a long time."

"Really?" she asked, giving him a smile. "I know our viewers can't experience you proving it, but I'd like to" then she gasped, and laughed. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'll attest that statement. Jason Fox _is_ a telepath!"

From there, after that revelation was over, they talked about Kumi. Miaari had specifically told him to talk about Kumi, so he did. He described her as exactly what she was, a Trillane noble who had risked her own life to investigate his accusations, and was nearly killed because of it. He never named her, but any reporter worth her salt could figure out who it was with a little investigation... and Tiya certainly seemed competent.

"And you know where she is now?" Tiya asked.

"Not anymore," he answered. "Now that she's recovered, I think she's back on the trail of who tried to kill her. And I doubt she'll be very forgiving when she catches up to them, given that they shot her in the back."

Take that, whoever it was who tried to kill Kumi. Now they'll be looking over their shoulders, looking for a fire-eyed Eleri Trillane, coming to exact a little vengeance.

The interview wound down after that. When it was over, Tiya shook his hand, told him it was nice to meet him, told him to look for the interview to run at evening headlines, and left.

Jason watched the interview that night, and was _impressed_. Tiya did not edit anything. The interview was played in its entirety, using that single camera angle with the hospital room in the background. There was a little piece before the interview that described Jason as a rebel protesting House Trillane by using armed force. Tiya was very professional about that piece, not showing bias either way, simply stating the facts as they were known for the benefit of the audience, and then going straight into the interview. After the interview she commented to the anchor that she had been very impressed meeting Jason in person. "He's just as charismatic in person," she said with a smile. "A very kind and thoughtful young man, with a sense of purpose about him that I noticed immediately. He's a man that believes in what he's doing with all his heart. Some may call him a rebel or even a murderer, but he truly believes that he's fighting for the betterment of his people."

"He won't be doing much fighting from a hospital bed in the medical annex," the anchor tittered with a grin.

"True. Perhaps that's why he agreed to do the interview," Tiya acceded.

"Is there any word about his legal status?" the other anchor asked.

"At the moment, no," she answered. "Imperial JAG refuses to comment, only stating that it's a currently active case and they won't comment. Trillane lawyers, on the other hand, have been very eager to comment about the case. They accuse the JAG of stonewalling them and denying them an extradition hearing. Rumor in the Palace is that the Imperial arm intends to keep Jason Fox as a researcher, given his knack for Faey technology."

"Ah. Any information on who this injured Trillane noble is?"

"There's no official confirmation from the Trillane spokeswomen, but most likely it's Countess Eleri Trillane. She's been missing for several months, last seen leaving her office where she served as a military liaison. She's officially listed as AWOL, for she was in her conscription."

_Nice,_ Meya commented after they finished watching. _What was it like to sit there and talk to her and know that the whole Imperium was gonna see it?_

_Didn't really bother me,_ he answered. _I'm not camera shy, Meya. I used to play football in front of a hundred thousand people every Saturday. That gets you used to being in the public eye._

_At least she was fair to you._

_Yeah, she was._

_Think it was a good idea to reveal you have talent?_

_Actually, I think it was,_ he answered. _Now the Imperium knows that some humans are telepaths. Trillane has some questions to answer now, because I made it clear they knew about it. So does the Imperial government, for that matter._

_Yes, now the rest of the Imperium has a better understanding of what's going on,_ Songa sent in agreement. _Knowing that some humans are telepathic explains a few things to them, like why Trillane hasn't simply rooted us out and crushed us._

The interview led to one drastic change within the hospital. After the doctors and nurses saw it, they all, one by one tentatively began trying to send to him. They heard him state he had talent, but it was like they didn't entirely believe it, and had to see for themselves. They found out quickly that he hadn't been lying. He had never sent to them or around them, but when they asked him if he had talent face to face, he answered honestly. One nurse just laughed and gave him a sour look, shaking his head. "All this time you could hear us?" he accused.

"What better way to see where you stand?" he asked in reply.

The male, Herik, could just chuckle and agree.

The visits from Myleena after the interview were short and unfriendly. She was _pissed_ that he went public, because now it was not going to be easy for them to cart him off to a transport and make him disappear. She limited herself to daily visits to check on his medical progress, as she gave him a cold stare, and then she would leave.

That worked for him. It gave him time to observe things, and start planning his escape. The secured wing in which they were located was indeed secure. It had impressive security; sensors, cameras, motion detectors, spectrographic sweepers that penetrated optical camouflage and holograms, and checkpoints at the junction of every hallway. Every occupant or worker in this wing wore an ID tag that marked them as belonging there, and anyone without one set off an alarm that brought guards to that location within twenty seconds. It was very difficult to get in here if you weren't supposed to be here.

It was impressive security. The only weakness of it was that it only extended as far as the hospital walls.

That was the way out of here. The window. It was pretty obvious that there was too much security to go any other way. His window would _open_, and that gave him direct access to the outside. The only problem was that they were on the sixteenth floor. It gave him a breathtaking view of the ocean, but it made trying to go out that window and climb out a tricky proposition. Climbing up was just as tricky, since there were twelve floors over them.

Not a problem. Not in a place where they used stretchers and gurneys equipped with antigrav pods. Those devices were designed to hover a set distance over the floor, and though they wouldn't fly, they would give him a way to go out that window and not fall to his death. It would just take a little bit of custom modification.

So, Jason split his time between reading about the Karinnes and studying medical gurneys. They were simple devices, using weaker versions of the antigrav pods in armor, which meant that they operated on the solid ground protocols; they didn't see altitude, they saw only the distance from the ground. Antigrav pods were more than capable of full flight as long as they weren't loaded down.

It took him about three days to understand how he could jerry-rig a gurney to get them out that window alive. One gurney would be strong enough to carry all three of them.

Things degenerated quickly back on Earth in those days since the interview though. Trillane had declared martial law back on Earth and banned all travel to and from the planet, to more effectively crack down on the rebels who continued to elude them and continued to destroy their Sticks, and who were now also dealing damage to Trillane's military infrastructure. Good God, Jyslin moved fast. Where Jason had been content to slowly escalate into armed action against Trillane forces, Jyslin, now commanding the rebels, was going absolutely apeshit all over them. Every day, this armory or that supply depot or that communications hub was attacked by drones, or bombed, or was even attacked by ground forces armed with infantry weapons that the Faey had never seen before, weapons that went right through the issued armor used on Terra. And all the while, Sticks and dropships fell from the sky like rain, and Trillane still had not engineered a way to stop it.

Clever, clever Jyslin. She was using the railguns.

There wasn't a day that went by where there wasn't a blurb on INN about another attack, or another Trillane operation to try to root out the rebels.

Clearly, he had to get back home fast, if only to save Trillane from Jyslin.

Jason realized quickly that the Medical Service was not putting _any_ kind of special restrictions on him. They would allow him to do whatever he wanted, as long as it was within the guidelines of their _own_ rules. They didn't treat him any differently from any other patient, which gave him all the rights of any other citizen. He could have any visitors he wanted, and what was most important, they allowed him to buy anything he wanted and have it delivered to his room, _just like any other patient_. As long as it wasn't something banned by hospital policy, they didn't care what he bought and had delivered. The only bottleneck to that was the Imperial people. They were the ones that were inspecting what was brought into his room, they were the ones denying him delivery of some things they considered too dangerous, and they were the ones that were monitoring his CivNet activity and his incoming and outgoing calls. He had no doubt that Myleena was keeping an inventory of everything he tried to have delivered, and was studying it to see what trick he had up h