The winner of the marksmanship competition was a rude, loud, self important hunter that luckily toned it back when I went up to congratulate him on his outstanding result. His tone changed immediately when he saw that the voucher for Merc Industries gear wasn’t just an empty promise.
After the prize was awarded, the stands emptied out quickly, I collected them and we made our way to the rocketry exhibition slightly farther afield. Not that junior-level solid fuel rocketry needed this kind of space.
Seeing a few liquid propellant rigs for person-sized rockets I reconsider the need for space, and safety concerns. I erect a shield between both liquid rockets before liftoff which proved prudent when the second one exploded on the pad. It was an impressive fireball and I congratulated the young lady in her advanced attempt and very pretty explosion. I talked to her parents, and the parents of the other liquid-fueled craft (the winner) about aero and astronautics lessons and they agreed enthusiastically.
The feel-good vibes continue as Naomi reminds me that I have one more obligation for the day.
“The Herrat Ambassador is waiting for you in the community gardens at the Castle.”
“Security entourage?” I don’t really like that un-escorted parties are at my hone, but I don’t arrange my schedule.
“Two warrior caste Herrat, refused to be un-armed while attending the Ambassador.”
“Refused eh? And customs let them in?” I ask, surprised they brought weapons in without a fuss.
“We don’t have established protocol for such things, Empress. They did what they thought was right to prevent a conflict.”
I dismiss the comment, knowing that the lack of rules and regulations fall on me. I move the bikes to me and it’s a short ride to the Capitol District. Once I get on my property I speed up and decide it was finally time to try something I’ve been wanting to do since I saw the building in full daylight.
Many of the outside garden walls are arcuate and sloping towards the ground, the outermost stopping about four feet from road level. Today, instead of taking the lift, I’m going to drive there by building a shield ramp and my reckless, fun-loving butt is going to try it at 50kph. I laugh like a maniac as the ramp holds and I rush up the side of my Castle on a meter-wide space at the top of this wall.
Once I get to the community garden level I slow down and collapse my bike and leave it on the wall. I jump down the 2m to the silvergrass turf and survey the area. This part looks like a lightly wooded path to and from a meadow, flowering and fruiting bushes mixed within, and a smattering of herbs and groundcover that make the grass path look like a mottled cobble.
“Why do I ever leave this place?” I take a moment to just breath in the plant-filled aroma as I walk up toward a common landing that connects to the inside of the building. Before I arrive, I bring up my Empire display and focus on my immediate area, finding three non-citizens—two of which are roaming.
When I reach the grassy courtyard with an inner ring of benches facing inward toward a large pagoda, and an outer ring of benches facing out toward the garden plots. A tan and grey mountain lion is laying on the tables in the Pagoda, wearing loose, Arabian style pants and a flowing top that can not be comfortable for running on all-fours.
“Ambassador Lakeshi?” I say, mounting the steps to the level that they are on. I see two of the dots stop in what looks like the last two trees of the lane. “You can have your attendants join us, unless they are comfortable in the trees.”
The laughter I hear is a purring trill, a delightful little noise. “I prefer they give us the illusion of privacy.” She slides off the table with languid grace and proceeds to stand on her hind legs, bowing slightly before standing to a full height that must be over two meters. The posture is slightly hunched and her fore-legs don’t come all of the way down to her sides, but it looks practiced enough. “Greetings Penny Astoria of the Matrix, Empress of Humanity. The Herrat Warleaders are very interested in you.”
“That seems a worrying prospect, Ambassador, hopefully that interest is purely financial. Also, my attendant and a guard will be arriving momentarily, please alert your attendants so that they are not surprised.”
She nods, but keeps those large predatory eyes on me as she sends a message. The gold of her eyes offset the gray and tan of her fur quite handsomely. “Would you like something to drink? A bit of food perhaps? And make yourself comfortable, no need to continue standing.”
She nods at me graciously and crawls back to lying on the table. “I hear that Humans have a version of wine, and I would like to experience it.”
“We do,” I order a bottle of Pinot Grigio and a spicy Malbec to see what she prefers. I of course order beer for myself and platter full of a variety of canapes.
“Humans produce many varieties of wine, I picked one white and one red to see what genre you prefer. The snacks are savory pastries with a sliver of meat on top. Please help yourself.”
Watching a cat person sip wine and taste it with the open-mouthed lapping that is common for humans tasting wine, is an enthralling view. She tastes both multiple times and returns back to the white for a full glass.
“Nearly everything about this is different from the Elven varietals I’ve had. Not bad, I do quite like this one, just very different.”
Elven what now? Elves?!
“Interesting, Elves are relegated to lore and stories on Earth, it’s interesting to hear that they still exist.”
Her amused trill sends a warm shiver down my spine. “My friend said the same thing about Humans and how their dealings with the fey caused them to lose touch with their cousins many thousands of years ago. Imagine my surprise when I find out that you are a Faerie.”
“You inspected me, I take it?” She nods. “I don’t love that, but I understand why an ambassador would do so. I’m a Pixie by mutation, not by birth. I was very Human less than a decade ago. And as much as I would love to hear about our ‘Cousins’ and discuss Faerie matters, this can’t be why you are here.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
She looks slightly offended at the abrupt redirection. I shrug and eat a few snacks while she organizes her thoughts.
“The Warleaders wish to know about you as a person. Unknown quantities with unknown power make them nervous.”
“Heh, I’ve been hearing that a lot lately. Really, all I want is to make mutually beneficial deals with other races and otherwise try to stabilize Humanity’s position amongst the stars. It’s been many of our dreams for so long, and now we finally have the opportunity to do so.”
“Sounds as though the idea is still in the Romantic phase. The Herrat tried a unified Empire many times in our history. The longest it ever worked was a hundred and seven years. We have been a space-faring race for over a thousand.”
“I get that. Many Human empires of old lasted several hundred years. One lasted over a thousand and was responsible for one of the greatest spreading of technology and language my world had seen until modern era.”
“Is that what you hope to accomplish?” She’s leading me to something, I don’t know what, but I’m feeling this has turned into a ‘see what you can get’ encounter.
“I have many aims. The largest of which is that my people have the ability to find out what life is like without struggling to survive. What of the Herrat? What are the goals of the Warleaders?”
“To war, of course. We are still a very combat-oriented species. We generally focus on finding feral worlds and tame them but we also have many scientific achievements to boast as well.”
“Which brings us back to what you want from us. Trade? Mining? Industry?”
“You’re very direct aren’t you Empress.” I don’t care for the tone of that statement.
“You admitted to being a war interested species that likes taming planets. There aren’t many ways to interpret that, unless you are looking towards are resources to fuel your technologies.”
She sighs and puts down the wine. “We are interested in your Battery technology most of all, but what we really want is your inhabitable worlds. You have found five plus you Earth? These will make excellent staging points for further exploration and conquest. My true goal is to offer you favorable terms of surrender.”
I was wondering who would be the first to try this. Turns out it is the pretty kitties. I wonder what kind of honor code they abide by in war. “Does your race typically make slaves of the conquered?”
“Naturally. But we save the most promising . . .”
“Then fuck you. And Fuck your terms. I will not abide by my people being taken as slaves.”
She grins a predatory grin at that, and her guards come out of the trees. “Many races have said the same, yet still they serve. You are being served with a notice of War. Herrat Forces will arrive in an eighth mark to take your planets by surrender or by force.” Why she decides to nod instead of some ping to their HUD is lost on me, but as soon as she does I transfer two handheld weapons to my hands.
A pulse pistol and my plasma saber appear in my left and right hands respectively. I energize and strike down with the saber, which she stops with her paw and a grin.
“Your paltry tier 1 tech cannot hurt me.”
Plasma doesn’t work on it’s own? I can see it is taking energy to block it, can I overload the shield? Lased Aether perhaps? As she pushes the plasma toward my face with her mighty paw, I full auto my pulse pistol into her stomach. The fourth blast shatters the shield. I don’t know how long I held the trigger during the shock of the deafening roar she let out as the pain of losing the top of her paw made it to her brain, but eventually her legs lost the ability to hold her up as she starts licking the wound on her hand.
Two rifle blasts shoot past me and I hear surprised hisses and bodily thuds coming from behind me. I suppress my urge to look behind while in paws reach of a predator and sprint sideways and vault the railing of the pagoda, and swing back around to where I heard the thumps. I see squirming cats with big scorch marks on their chests. I put two pistol rounds in each of them to stop the squirming. When I look over to find the source of the rifle fire, I see Solaris’ helmet and the tip of my pulse rifle peaking over the edge of a higher garden wall. I briefly salute her and then make my way back to the Ambassador.
Tessa, can you ground the Herrat shuttle and prepare it for me to remote pilot?
I can ground them, but their control technology is more advanced than ours, and it would take learning it to rig it to fly for us. May I suggest a standard cargo pod and a warehouse drone?
Sounds great. I put up a shield around the pagoda and try to block exchange access
“By Supercluster Forum treaty,” She coughs up what I’m assuming is blood. It’s blackish and smells bad. “prisoners are to be afforded medical assistance.”
“You are not my prisoner, you are free to leave. However, by attacking me on my world, diplomatic envoy or not, I can have you executed. Your remains and the remains of your guards will be returned to your people, as is our custom.”
I walk back to the two guards, have a crate delivered and toss them in it. I summon my shuttle stuff the still alive ambassador in the crate, seal it, put it in the shuttle and return the shuttle to its extra-dimensional space. Hopefully she’s in stasis. I had a sinking feeling that if she died, she’d be taking half my castle with her.
I ask Tessa if she’s inside my suite, and she tells me that she’s currently on Alaris. Crap. Ahh well, mind talk it is then. I sigh as I walk through the sliding glass doors to a promenade district with empty spaces for shops and restaurants, the tenth floor being the top floor for businesses. Apparently here are also apartments behind them? I have not studied the layout of this place enough. Same as every other thing in my life though.
I see Naomi sitting at a table looking at screens while sipping something insulated. I sit across from her and she looks up with a smile.
“Glad to see all your parts are still connected, Empress. While I was waiting, I approved some businesses that have petitioned to move in to the Castle, or at least have a stall. The fancy tailor you visited and the meat-man were among the first. I hired a former building manager to handle renting some of the smaller apartments, and am looking for an assistant to help with your rather extensive task list.”
“I should get an assistant for my business scheduling and task prioritization. As well.”
“I’ll put that on the list.”
“Whew, Admiral. I wish you would have picked another place to have a meeting.”
“Heh, thanks Solari, for the backup. They chose that location on purpose no doubt. I was surprised they came to fight.”
“You and me both. Thanks for loaning me the rifle, this thing is preem.”
“Sure thing, but it looks like I need to make a few hundred of them. The Herrat just declared that they would make war on us a year from now.” Solari and Naomi’s eyes go wide. “They severely underestimated our capabilities this time, and I’ll bet that their adjusted estimates won’t come close to what we can do. That being said, it’s about time we fleshed out some military staffing.”
Alright, open call for an Admiral’s aide, O-3 or higher. Administrative assistant, E-4 or higher. System Defense Commanders x3, O-4 or higher, SD assistant E-4 or higher. SDC’s can find their own staff or talk to the new Nav-Admin guy. I tap away at the messages.
“Naomi, can you schedule me with the Captain of the Alaris and Alaris herself?”
A few ideas start circulating through my crystal-mechanical brain, devious, atrocious, and effective ideas on how to make an example of the Herrat and their predatory practices.
“Yeah, that shark-tooth grin on that face is nightmare fuel, Admiral. Are you murdering cats in your mind?”
“Yes. Yes I am.” I giggle unconsciously and I see both of my table mates shudder. “Sorry, it’s just I hate when people mess with me because they can, so I like a good payback lesson. Also, it involves me making a bunch of things, which I also like.” They just nod and continue focusing on things that keep their gaze off of my face.
Penny, priority call from Rich.
No. No no no. Not now. Why does shit have to blow up now!?
“Hit me, Rich.”
“Well, Penny, Finally got back in contact with Peter and the gang. They’ve been ferrying refugees to stable areas away from multiple conflicts. Many locations have upwards of fifty thousand people waiting for evac. The former US Navy has been setting up relay ansibles to help deliver rations, but there’s no way to erect even temporary housing for that many. They’ve already started pinging people with the Astoria migration agreement, and over a million have agreed within the last month.”
“Fuck.”