perium: without ceremony or warning, a robed member of the Imperial house delivered to the Grand Duchess Jayi Saenne a box to be given to Kellin Saenne, and everyone knew what was inside it.

A white _mey_.

As was Imperial form and custom, Imperial guards arrived at the Saenne compound one day after the delivery of the _mey_, and Kellin was basically abducted, taken from his house with nothing but the clothes on his back and taken to the Imperial palace. There, in a grand ceremony which the entire _Siann _attended, he was stripped naked and presented to Dahnai, who sat on her throne, as he was ceremonially stripped of all prior ties and obligations and handed over to Dahnai as a baby was to its mother. She accepted him into her house and then officially proclaimed that she would take his hand in marriage.

In that instant, he became the Duke Kellin Merrane.

There was no lengthy preparations or long ceremonies. In typical Faey mentality, when a woman got her hands on a man and got a marriage promise out of him, she moved fast to secure that promise, and it was no different for the Empress. Most Faey couples were married within hours of becoming engaged, except for noble arranged marriages, but Dahnai's marriage to Kellin wasn't considered noble, it was considered personal. And because of that, the marriage ceremony took place the next day.

The entire house Karinne attended the ceremony, which was so small, where other houses could only bring 100 members to attend the ceremony; every house was given 100 tickets to the ceremony. Jason even made a little money and a few friends by selling his unused tickets to other houses so they could allow more than 100 to attend. It was a surprisingly intimate ceremony, not the four hour long formal ordeal Jason expected. The High Templar of Trelle presided in a one hour ceremony where he talked of love and devotion, of being good to each other, and then he had the two intended exchange vows. Once that was done, the High Priestess of Aris and the Archprelate of Demir then had them exchange vows again, basically marrying them under all three of the gods of the Faey Trinity. Once the Archprelate of Demir gave them his benediction, Dahnai affixed a glittering platinum marriage bracer on Kellin's wrist, a piece of jewelry that had to cost a million credits. She then put a small crown on his head and named him her Prince Consort, and that was it.

They were married.

The Imperium celebrated for two weeks, which was custom, but Jason didn't engage in most of the ceremonies and celebrations. The Karinnes quietly picked up their people and returned to Terra, keeping their traditional distance from the goings-on of the rest of the _Siann_.

And it was a much larger house than when Dahnai started her courtship of Kellin. In the three months of their courting, the Kimdori had brought to him 47 of the long-lost descendents of the Generations. They were young on the average; the youngest was 22, the oldest was 42, and 22 were male, 25 female. Each one was given some idea of what was going on before they were brought to Jason, and after some discussion with them, they were taken to Karis and presented to Cybi. The Faey the Kimdori brought were carefully chosen, not for their age, but for their idealism. These were the ones that the Kimdori felt would embrace the ideals of the house of Karinne and be true members, and Jason had to agree with their assessments. They all understood the needs of the house, and the need to keep it secret. To a man and woman, Jason knew he could trust them, because _Kiaari_ told him he could trust them. No one could hide anything from a Kimdori, and Kiaari was right there to check them after a few days to see where they stood. In three months, the ranks of the house swelled to 82 members, and what was more, Jyslin, Yana, Maya, and Ilia were all pregnant by him, while Sheleese and Min were pregnant by Erinn. Jason didn't like the idea of fathering children outside of his marriage, but everyone had ganged up on him and forced it of him, and at last it was over. He had fathered his required four children. He just hoped he could be a good father to them. He was scared enough about the idea of being a father to Jyslin's child, and now he was going to have three more, from different mothers.

Those three months saw more than the house of Karinne grow. In an amount of time that defied rational explanation, the Academy of Terra went from a scarred hole in the middle of Norfolk to a glistening tower of steel and glass surrounded by an armada of buildings of all shapes and sizes. The Makati were _unbelievable_! They had brought literally tens of thousands of workers on site, and they worked with a speed that made the most diligent human contracting firm look like kids with Lego blocks. The main building in the center, a sixty story high circular tower, rose a floor a day after they got the foundation set, and the other buildings sprouted up almost overnight. They went from set foundations to frames to walled buildings in the span of a week, and it took only one to two weeks to fill in the buildings with their plumbing, power, datalines, and infrastructure. By the time of Dahnai's wedding, the main tower only had three more floors until it was completed, and 80% of the school's buildings were built and ready. The school would be totally built, all equipment installed, and ready for students two weeks earlier than scheduled.

He wouldn't have believed it was possible had he not seen them do it.

In all, Jason was pleased. The planet was running itself now, with Secretary Kim doing most of the work. Ayuma had things well in hand. Dahnai still called and asked him to court, but she had a husband now, and her calls for him to visit were much fewer and further between. Suralle was being fair and dutiful with moving food, meeting the quotas, and Kumi had set it up so the Earth's take went to U.N. control, to pay for things.

Things were good. Earth, the humans... they didn't need him as much now.

By the opening ceremony of the Academy, attended by emissaries and nobles and even heads of state of governments other than the Imperium. Dahnai was there with her new husband, showing signs of her pregnancy now. One of the Supreme Councilmen that ruled the Alliance attended the opening ceremonies, as did ambassadors from the Nine Colonies, the Urumi, even an ambassador of the Skaa, who looked _very_ uncomfortable and got quite a few nasty looks. But Jason had already warned _everyone_ that though Terra might be a planet controlled by the Imperium, the Academy was a free zone, where any race or government could come. The Imperium and the Skaa may be at war, but on the grounds of the Academy, they were not allowed to fight, and Skaa vessels were permitted rite of passage to reach Terra... within certain reasonable restrictions. A fleet of Skaa vessels would be attacked, but a single unarmed civilian ship was more than welcome to arrive and transport students.

The ceremony was brief and to the point. A ribbon spread across the central building was cut by the Grand Duke Karinne, and inside, in the main auditorium, speeches talking about a new age of cooperation and learning dawning were given by Dahnai and several other governmental emissaries, including the Skaa. INN made sure to keep a camera locked on Jason at all times, and many cameras were careful to catch any interaction between the Grand Duke and the Empress. Some of the tabloids were running stories that the Grand Duke was trying to poison the marriage between Dahnai and Kellin, and they wanted to see how they acted together.

They were mightily disappointed. Jason, Jyslin, Dahnai, and Kellin stayed together, talking and laughing, and it was very clear that the two couples were quite happy to be in each other's company. And when the four expanded to six, with Tim and Symone, there was nothing but sickening friendship and comfortable closeness.

After the ceremony, The Empress and her husband paid a visit to Foxwood, the manor of the Grand Duke. There outside of cameras, she spent the night, leaving everyone to only ponder and imagine what might be happening inside. In the morning, the Imperial retinue left to return to Draconis.

That day, the Academy officially opened its doors and began accepting students for a term that would begin in two weeks. Professors were already in place, already knew how the Academy was going to operate. Students flocked in on a continuous line of transports from Draconis, and exotic ships from other races, other governments, appeared outside the moon's orbit, jumping in from hyperspace and having left before the ceremony had even taken place, carrying professors, students, and research material to the new hub of science to replace the lost Karis Academy.

The Terra Academy was more than just a school. It was insurance. Now, Earth was totally safe, from the Trillanes, from the Shovalles, from anyone that would exploit the planet or the human race. With the Academy there, Earth was now off limits, a place to be left alone, where the planet and its people could produce food for the Imperium and host the Terra Academy to provide educational benefits for any who could manage to enroll, as well as centralize research to advance the cause of science. It was a place where there was any number of plots and intrigue, but that intrigue would be intragalactic in scope. Since many governments had students and ambassadors in Norfolk, it would become a new hotspot for the brokerage of information, all carefully watched over and controlled by the young Terran Gamemaster, Kiaari.

And that was what it would be. There would be no second school behind the first where the Karinnes pursued their own research. Not now. Not yet, anyway. The school would run of its own volition under the careful ministration of Ayuma Karinne. It would be given time to settle in, mature, and then, maybe in a few years, the knowledge of the Karinnes would slowly be funneled to the Academy, kept in a secret building that would house the first of the new CBIMs, and from there, they'd have to see how it would go.

One week after the opening of the Academy, a note was delivered to both Secretary Kim of the United Nations and Empress Dahnai Merrane of the Imperium. It was from the Grand Duke Karinne, who stated that due to the rigors of office, he was taking an extended vacation and would be unavailable except in the most dire emergency. The note told them that in such an emergency, Kiaari could contact him.

When Dahnai sent a message to the Marines guarding Foxwood, they replied that they had heard no such plans to take a vacation. They went to go confront Jason about the note.

But he was gone.

Jyslin was gone.

Kumi, Meya, Myra, and Fure were gone.

Tim and Symone were gone.

Songa and Yohne were gone.

Maya and Vell and their two daughters, Yana, Zora, all of the ex-Marine Countesses were gone.

Erinn and the new Faey members of House Karinne were gone.

Ian, Temika and her boyfriend, and all the human telepaths, even the ones still in training in Boston, were gone.

How they had all vanished over the night was a mystery, a mystery that raged through the Marines and the upper echelons of the Imperium for years. Nobody had seen them leave. Nobody knew where they went. Nobody knew how to reach them, or when they would return.

Ayuma Karinne, the only Karinne left on Terra, knew where they were. Everyone was sure of it. But when she was asked about it, she would only smile and tell them that Jason was on vacation, and would speak not a single word more on the matter, politely and forcefully changing the subject.

Kiaari wouldn't even smile. She just gave one a cold stare until they felt uncomfortable enough to change the subject themselves.

It was a mystery that remained so, for a long time. Jason Karinne was out there. They all knew he was out there, for over the months after his disappearance, he did surface two times. The first time, he mysteriously appeared at the United Nations after Secretary Kim relayed an urgent message to Kiaari that African rebels were about to try to declare war on South Africa. Jason simply showed up at the United Nations, ordered a very public mobilization of Marines and Karinne regulars to crush the invasion by force, and then he vanished. After Faey army units and exomechs began to muster in Cape Town, the rebellion quickly dispersed.

The second time he surfaced was at the birth of Dahnai's third child, Shya Merrane. He and Jyslin, who was _very_ pregnant, appeared at the Imperial Palace the day before the scheduled birth of Shya, and were immediately invited in. Everyone wondered what had been said, what they'd talked about, if the Empress had throttled the Grand Duke for his absence, but by the next day no one cared, for Shya Merrane was born right on schedule, in a natural childbirth.

Nobody saw Jason and Jyslin Karinne leave, and people were _watching_ for it. They simply vanished, and it too was a raging mystery that went on for years, since the Imperial Palace was the most watched building in the Imperium. For two people, and one heavily pregnant, to vanish without a trace from that building was almost impossible.

But in time, even those curious events faded into the tedium of day to day life. Things continued in the Imperium. A new civil war didn't surface, though there was always maneuverings and schemes by the Highborn houses. The crushing of Trillane had sent a sharp lesson through the Highborns that Dahnai was watching them, and though Merrane wasn't the power it once was, the threat of her calling in the deadly warships of House Karinne, which was related directly to the throne by means of the betrothal of Shya Merrane and Rann Karinne, was a threat they could not ignore. The Karinne ships always simply appeared like ghosts, then vanished like smoke, and their fearsome firepower and powerful armor and shields were afforded the utmost respect by military women. And though never more than three were seen, it was very clear that there was more than three. They would appear on separate sides of the Imperium, seeming to patrol, to make themselves be seen, and then vanish. They always moved in a triad of two destroyers and a cruiser, and they were an eternal reminder to the Highborn houses that Dahnai Merrane had a _powerful_ ally to call upon if they got any bright ideas.

But oh, were there schemes. A day didn't go by without some new plot being hatched in the _Siann_, but now, they weren't nearly as dangerous. The ascendance of Karinne had tipped the scales back to the center, where the weakness of Merrane was covered by their alliance to the enigmatic, mysterious, dangerous House Karinne and their cunning and fear-invoking Grand Duke Jason Karinne. The House Karinne had brought equilibrium back to the Imperium, and Dahnai's position as Empress and House Merrane's place as the ruling house were secured.

It wasn't a perfect system, but so long as the threat of the mysterious House Karinne kept the Highborn houses in check, quelled their lust for the throne, the system wouldn't fly apart at the seams.

And that made nearly everyone happy.


Epilogue

_Brista, 4 Kedaa, 4396 Orthodox Calendar_
_Monday, 15 November, 2009, Adjusted Calendar_
_Foxwood East Manor, the Capitol city Karsa, Karis_

Perfect.

It was a beautiful summer day. It wasn't too hot, and a nice breeze blew in from the ocean which was visible from the patio of the house. Karis had no insects, so they never had to worry about bugs interfering with their barbecue, a barbecue that took up the entire patio and spread out to the concrete around the pool.

This was a day to celebrate, for Jyslin had given birth the night before, to a beautiful baby boy.

She was there now, sitting in the seat of honor near the grill, holding her newborn boy in her arms while people gathered around her, congratulating her, getting a look at the newest Karinne.

His name was the Duke Heir Apparent Rann Brian Fox Shaddale Karinne, and he was Jason and Jyslin's first child.

He looked like his mother, though. He'd been born with pink skin like his father, but he had his mother's pointed ears and her facial structure. His eyes were a beautiful blue, like his father, and his hair was a carrot-colored orange. He had been born weighing nine pounds two ounces, and was twenty inches long, a fairly big baby, but Jyslin had only laughed and said that of course he would be big, since he had such big shoes to fill.

The moment had been miraculous. They were at the new Karsa Medical Center, and Jyslin was its first ever patient, since Kimdori didn't really need medical treatment. Symone and Tim attended them during the birth, and while Kimdori medical specialists helped Jyslin through her labor and kept watch of her vital signs, Jason held her hand and gave her support and comfort as she endured the pain of childbirth. But then the moment came, and it was magical. Hours of pain culminated in a four minute delivery, and it seemed that before Jason could blink, a wet, splotchy infant was being cradled in large Kimdori hands. The baby began to cry immediately, and he was wrapped in a towel and placed on Jyslin's naked breast. "Hello there, Rann," Jyslin said in a weary voice, but her face was radiant and her expression was one of the most tender love. "I'm your mommy. Welcome to the family."

The family. They were all here, and it moved him to see so many fat Faey. Six of the nine Marines were pregnant, and four of them were his. Yana, Maya, Ilia, and Zora were all _very_ pregnant, with due dates a few weeks apart, with Yana being next up for birth in about three weeks. Four women, four women not his wife, all carrying his babies, doing their duty to the house by carrying his children to protect the line and to broaden the gene pool of the Generations. Two more boys and two girls. Sheleese and Min were also pregnant, but they were pregnant by Erinn. And many of the new Generations that had been brought into the house were pregnant as well. Myleena was due in two months, 16 of the 22 Generation males had brought girlfriends or had found women among the workers and impregnated them, and 18 of the 25 Generation females were pregnant now, impregnated by the boyfriends or husbands they had brought with them or finding men among the workers... but not among the male Generations. Jason had already ordered that the Generations couldn't interbreed yet, because Cybi said it could cause problems with inbreeding later. For two generations, Generation Karinnes couldn't produce children with each other. It was a virtual baby boom, and Jyslin was only the harbinger.

They would be born here, on their ancestral home planet. Karis. That was why the House Karinne basically vanished _en masse_ from the Imperium. There were 1477 non-Kimdori on Karis now, and they were all here, in Karsa. They were the families of the Generations, boyfriends and girlfriends and extended families, including Generation parents of the ones that had been inducted first. There were also human telepaths and their families here, the descendents of the non-Generation Karinnes, brought here to learn about who they were and master their telepathic powers in an environment of complete acceptance and inclusion. They were not scary telepaths here, they were just like everyone else. But there were more here. There were certain Faey that the Kimdori had selected to bring here that could be trusted, hardy souls that had accepted a secret mission to help restore the planet of Karis to life. They were terraformers, technicians, workers, scientists, adventurers, and homesteaders, willing to get their hands dirty, and all of them had been inducted into the house as Zarinas and Zarinens. They were all Karinne nobles now, and this was their home as much as it was Jason's.

Slowly but surely, Karis was going to be brought back to life.

Rann was the omen of things to come, for he was the first person born on Karis since its destruction. This was his home planet, this was his birthright, this was a part of him. This was where all Karinnes would be born, from now on. This was their home planet. And in time, maybe in Jason's lifetime, Karis would be revealed to the Imperium, revealed as a planet restored from destruction and again inhabited.

But that would be much later. For now, Jason was quite content to live here in peace and solitude and focus himself on the last great task that laid before him, the restoration of Karis.

Rann was the first step down a very long road. Hopefully, in a hundred years, the plant life of Karis would be restored, animals would be brought here from other worlds to start an ecosystem, and this planet would be truly alive once again. But until then, there was a lot of hard work ahead for all of them. There were eleven other continents to restore after this small one was complete, and there were ancient cities to explore, old equipment to salvage, and artifacts to find and secure to be put in museums to honor the memory of those who had lived and died here.

But that was later. Right now, it was time to celebrate. Jason had been kicked off the grill by Temika, who cooked hamburgers and hot dogs with practiced ease as everyone sat on patio furniture or stood, moving from group to group as they talked animatedly and happily, but everyone took a turn coming to Jyslin and seeing their new baby. Jason took a seat by Jyslin and put his arm around her, which caused her to lean over and kiss him. "Well, my Duke, it seems we have a very sleepy heir," she said aloud as she looked down with soft eyes at their son, one of the few times they spoke, because right now, she didn't want to exclude anyone.

"It seems so," he answered. "We should tell Dahnai that Rann was born."

"Only if you warn her she can't see him. He's not leaving Karis yet, love. Not for a while."

_I agree. Let's give him time to get used to his new home._

Rann's eyes opened, and he looked at Jason quizzically, then he closed his eyes again.

"That's why I'm not sending, love," she giggled. "Rann's gonna be like his mommy, walking through Trelle's hair. I was the same way when I was born, so my parents say. I was sensitive to sending at birth, but then my sensitivity faded, and my power didn't fully wake up 'til I was seven. I think our son's gonna be a strong telepath."

"With parents like you two, Ah'd put money on it, sugah," Temika chuckled.

"And when are you going to join the fat club, Mika?"

Temika laughed. "Me an' Mike are workin' on it as fast as we can, sugah," she assured Jyslin. "Did Ah show you the ring?"

She held up her left hand, showing off a diamond ring.

"Only about fifty times," Jyslin teased. "When are you sealing the deal?"

"We dunno, maybe next time we go back to Earth. We're both Baptists, we want a Baptist minister to marry us."

"I have to go back next week, Mika. Want to tag along?"

"What you goin' back for?"

"Some paperwork that Kim and Kiaari don't want to send here. I'm not sure what it's about. I'll probably take that opportunity to publicly announced Rann, and then we'll have to leave again to present him to the Empress so she can validate the contract."

"Ah still don't believe you betrothed him befo' he was even born."

"It's the way they do things in the _Siann_, and we have to keep the ties between Merrane and Karinne very public, to keep the Highborns from getting any bright ideas. As long as the threat of a squadron of Karinne ships jumping in is there, the Highborns are kept leashed."

"Yah. They got those other ships workin' now?"

Jason nodded. "They installed the new biogenic computers in them a few days ago. They're doing the shakedown now, and if they pass, we have seven more ships in the fleet, five destroyers and two cruisers. They're starting to build Gladiator e-mechs now too, since they have the Shimmer Dome running at full capacity."

"Good deal."

"Enough shop talk, love. Just look at that sunset. Isn't it beautiful?"

Jason looked out over the sea, and saw the blue star of the Karis system setting over the ocean, the normally blue sun taking on a lovely shade of violet as it neared the horizon, but it still painted the sky red, due to the physics of light that reached the planet's surface. Fluffy clouds turned pink as they neared the horizon, and it was one of the loveliest sunsets he had seen in his life.

"It's very beautiful," he agreed. "Jyslin?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For never giving up. For being a tenacious bulldog, and for falling in love with me. Without you, I think I'd never have found true happiness."

She gave him a heart-melting look, and put her head on his shoulder. "I love you, Jason Karinne. I love you with all my heart, and I will love you until time ends and Trelle cuts this existence away from her hair. You are my greatest treasure."

He couldn't say anything to that. She handed Rann over to him, and he cradled his son to his chest, feeling his warmth and his tiny body against him, and he knew that he had finally found his place. He was the Grand Duke Karinne, ruler of a planet and a feared power player in the Faey Imperium, but that title shriveled to nothing when compared to the greatest titles ever created.

Husband.

And Father.

Here, on Karis, with Jyslin at his side and Rann in the nursery, Jason could finally look out at that sunset and know that he had reached the end of a long, difficult road, with a new long, difficult road before him.

But both roads led to the same destination.

_Home_.

*_The End_*
_Thus ends the tale of Jason_
_Fox and the Subjugation._
_But the universe is a_
_vast and wondrous place,_
_filled with all manner of_
_wonderful sights, rich history,_
_and intriguing stories._
_And there will be other_
_stories to tell._
