3.35.
“Technically, Mrs. Walker, the request doesn’t require your involvement any longer,” Eolai explained patiently to the President of the United States. He was not sitting in her office, but in the military base where the training of his soldiers was continuing. He was filing his fingernails as he spoke to the president’s hologram. “Your government has already settled the issue with the private ownership of spacecrafts given to its citizens with the case of Kirk Desmond. The request for a Toormonda falls under that decision. The fact that it’s a school rather than a corporation is of little importance.”
“I see your argument. The request, however, comes from the Einherjar and Taskforce Ragnarok. That makes it a national security issue,” Elizabeth – call me Beth! - argued.
“If I believed that the Einherjar intended the children to be sent on the Toormondas any harm, I would not have placed the orders for them,” Eolai said. “I do not believe that they will be involved in this project at all except for suggesting it. This is standard scout policy, ma’am. It’s part of evaluating the worlds they are sent to. First they infiltrate, and then they evaluate. The Toormondas were initially developed specifically with this goal in mind. The Einherjar are simply following their training, be it eighty thousand years out of date.”
“So you’re saying that cooperating with them, giving them what they want, will put them at ease without jeopardizing our geopolitical interests?” Walker asked.
“I believe it is in everyone’s interests to educate their young,” Eolai argued. “But I do not believe that the Toormondas that Taskforce Ragnarok requested are a threat to Earth or its interests, nor the interests of your nation specifically. And there is another matter which must be evaluated.”
“And that matter is?”
“The fact that they made the requests specifically through John Doe,” Eolai said.
“John Doe is the only member of the Einherjar who is publicly known,” she pointed out.
“It is much more problematic than that, given who John is. I understand that you view the matter differently than the Yonohoans, Mrs. President. However, the fact remains that to the Yonohoans, John is Eodar. Any request of his which can be reasonably fulfilled is something which we require a significant reason to refuse. He could demand a thousand Toormondas and I would be obligated to fulfill the demand without question,” Eolai explained. “He only asked for fifty.”
“And what if Earth determined that it was not in our interests to accept the gift?”
“He is not asking us to give them to Earth,” Eolai answered. “I only notified you of the request out of courtesy. The donations will be made to private entities according to the list that he has forwarded. You will note that all of the entities existence pre-dates the contact of our people. I must also inform you that I will be making this list public. You’ll have to justify the refusal to give a charitable donation to charitable and educational organizations on your reelection cycle.”
Walker groaned in frustration. “You win, dammit. But can we keep the fact that the request was made from Taskforce Ragnarok silent? The conspiracy nuts are already going crazy about their name choice.”
“I do not believe that the conspiracy nuts are incorrect to question their selection of the name,” Eolai said. “I am worried that we are not paying close enough attention to it.”
~~~~~~~
Nierlha restrained himself from executing the messenger. He’d already executed the majority of his tutors, as they had clearly failed in their efforts to educate him and prepare him for his eventual takeover of the empire. That they had suggested to him that the Yonohoans would do anything – anything – to ensure that peace ruled in the galaxy was absurd. He saw things differently now.
They were a war-hungry people, and they had been waiting – waiting – for someone to break the many treaties that were restraining their wrath.
The world that he had been brought up believing in was one in which the Yonohoans were weak, neutered compared to their ancient reputations. That they were cowards hiding behind their treaties and their red tape. That they would require significant effort to provoke into the war which he needed in order to justify the extreme measures it had taken for him to ascend to the imperial throne.
And that they would, naturally, be swift to return to the status quo as soon as possible.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Nierlha had instigated this war, but he didn’t want it. He needed to return to peace in order to establish his rule. All of his plans for this stage in his ascension were to be at a negotiating table with the Yonohoans, trying to limit the actual cost of the war.
Instead, he was hiding on a tertiary world, away from the luxuries of the primary or secondary palaces.
Because those palaces weren’t there anymore.
Well, they were, but they weren’t operating. The Toko had hit every known residence of the imperial family with either a Kirata beam or their damnable technology eating nanites. The fact that he could even make a holographic connection was only possible because his current location was unknown to the enemy.
Entire brightworlds were being turned into darkworlds because of the Tumbaruna Toko . The effect on the empire of that one ship was devastating. The fact that it could appear and disappear without warning had his people calling for a full surrender.
Which he’d attempted.
And been rejected.
He didn’t know what to do. If he doubled down on the war effort now, he’d only exacerbate the situation. He knew after watching the recreations of the battle for Planet Totola that his own fleet couldn’t stand up to the Yonohoan military. They could barely stand up to Earth’s military, and Earth had been a darkworld until earlier this year! What a farce!
The worst part of the situation was that Yonohoans weren’t the only ones who took the treaties that he’d violated seriously. He swallowed nervously as he reviewed the data.
The Acklatics were a non-issue. They were cowards, and it was only the fact that they were separated from the empire by the Triumverant and several more militant star-nations that kept the Rosanteans from chewing them up and swallowing them whole.
The Triumverants could potentially be bribed into remaining neutral.
The minor star-nations of the milky way weren’t signatories of the major treaties. Most of them were darkworlds that had gone bright after the conclusion of the Liberation Wars, which had decided to remain independent rather than joining one of the empires.
Those worlds were watching, Nielha knew. Most of them were angry – some of them furious – at the Rosantean Empire for the stances which the empire had taken in the past. The attacks on Earth only drove home the disdain that the empire was perceived to have at darkworlds and dimworlds and emerging star nations.
Which meant that, once the Yonohoans call to arms reached the other galaxies and the other major powers in this little corner of the universe had debated the matter long enough to take a stance on the issue …
The Rosantean Empire might be over. The imperial line might end with Nierlha. And it would be entirely his fault for provoking this war.
He evaluated his options. Diplomacy was key. He ordered the military to retreat from Yonohoan space, as well as all of the space surrounding Earth which they were legally entitled to colonize in the coming centuries. Then he ordered the military to withdraw an extra twenty lightyears from that.
Abandoning a significant edge of the Rosantean’s squid-like extension into that corner of the galaxy.
Next, he ordered diplomatic envoys.
He sent an ambassador to each of the star nations which were presently neutral, offering them extensive powers to promise favors in exchange for the star nation’s neutrality.
He ordered one sent to the Acklatic imperial family, though he didn’t see what good it would do.
He sent three to the triumverant, one dedicated to each of the primaries.
And he ordered one sent to Earth. Perhaps if he could convince the Yonohoans pet Darkworld to come to the table and accept a peace offer, he could end the war. The terms would no doubt be disastrous, but whatever poison pill they gave him, he’d swallow it and any hooks inside.
He had just finished issuing the orders for his latest plan when the Tumbaruno Toko made itself known in orbit, launching a Kirata beam at the imperial palace. The power went off, leaving Nierlha in the dark.
He sat there for a minute, wondering how long it would be before someone came to open the door for him so that he could leave the room. He hoped that he would not have to resort to shitting in the corner, like the last time this had happened.