Chapter 28

..[ JACY ]..

Taking into custody the leading figures in the northern continent had been a normal mission. There had been a few close calls, but those had to be expected. Jacy was hard pressed not to call it the most involved they had been on any planet since the expeditions began. They had literally overthrown most, if not all, powerful figures in the planet. Or made them surrender to them. The Empire. If someone had asked her fifteen Years ago if she thought she would one Day be involved in the takeover of a planet, the answer would have been a surprised no. Followed by a ‘what kind of question is that’ question.

But here they were, having done just that. All major leaders were in their custody, and most of their subordinates too. Most if not all of their security teams had been killed. Surprisingly, the least degree of killing had actually happened in the frontlines. With the central continent suffering the least losses. The more stubborn northern and southern sides had suffered substantially more losses. But they had soon realized what they were up against and stopped attacking. It had still taken a lot of convincing but the on ground officers had made what could be called the smarter choice. Continuing the fight would have left them decimated, maybe even completely annihilated. Mativo didn’t want that.

At first, Mativo’s insistence not kill so many of them might make him look less evil. But the reality was that he only saw them as potential tax sources. With an advanced civilization like the Talingi, getting taxes from them would be a lot more easier and faster than getting it from an hunter-gatherer civilization. It was all profit to him, and the more people The Empire had, the more money would be filling his pockets. And the more he would have to conduct all the other things he wanted to.

But Jacy had her doubts about that. What the Talingi had was a more or less collapsing civilization. She was no economist but even she knew what war did to the economies of the civilizations. It would take a lot of investment on The Empire’s part just to get the planet from the depleted sight the war left it, to a more civilized civilization. One capable of making money on its own. Enough to pay taxes.

She knew that he had people dedicated to thinking things like that through before deciding whether it was a good idea or not. But she also knew that he had trust issues, and he would have to go through nearly everything they put in front of him before agreeing to it.

She decided to visit them when she had the time and ask about the Talingi planet. What they thought about it? What kind of future they could see for the Talingi as a people. That was also something important that needed considering. It would help determine just how fast they could be assimilated into The Empire. The sooner the better it would be for The Empire. But with the current enmity still ongoing, it could take decades to make the Talingi agree to working with each other.

But those were issues to be dealt with later. Same as the issue, or lack thereof, with Mondhe. It had been her first time killing, and Jacy knew that it affected people in one way or another. For those not strong enough, it could even break them before they could have the time to make something of themselves. Well, except for Mativo. Jacy was more than sure that the first time Mativo killed, it affected him nothing at all. She even suspected that Mativo could exterminate a whole planet and only complain about how much work it had all been. Actually, the amount of work it would take to do it might be the thing that would stop him from doing it. Not worth his time, he would say.

But Mondhe wasn’t Mativo at all. She had as much feelings as the next person. And killing was going to affect her. She was fourteen. Jacy had thought her not old enough to be participating on the mission. A lot of people had. They said they should wait at least until she was eighteen. The hybrids might be considered somewhat adults at fifteen but that didn’t mean they were ready to take on the responsibilities of taking someone’s life. Mativo had refused. Arguing that the sooner she was exposed to the realities of the life she would be choosing, the sooner she can decide whether it was really for her or not. He had pointed out that some people really never become ready to take on the responsibilities of taking lives. The last stroke was arguing that she should be the one to decide what she wanted to do. Even without knowing who was proposing what, Jacy knew what Mondhe would choose to do. Sylvia, not so much. She had held out hope until the mission was done. Thinking that by some miracle, Mondhe would decide not go through with it at the end.

After the mission, Mondhe seemed fine. Like everything was normal. And Jacy knew that there would be no way of knowing how the mission had affected her. At least she hadn’t hesitated when it came to it. So had her team said. If there was anything bothering her, no one would ever know. Maybe Mativo. And she had seen the two talking. If it affected her, he knew. And if she only told Mativo, then no one else would ever know.

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Jacy let it be. And she strongly advised Sylvia that too. Especially considering that Sylvia might have had issues of her own. To keep asking Mondhe about it would alienate them. And they had been making progress in their relationship. Jacy knew that Sylvia hoped one day for Mondhe to consider her something of a mother figure. She might not be a mother, but she knew that at some point, a parent had to accept that they were not the go to person for their kid when something was concerned. Sylvia had done a splendid job with Kay, but Mondhe was a whole different kind of monster. And she would require a whole new set of parenting skills.

Mativo had given the Talingi leaders one to two Months to learn how to communicate in English. It was supposed to be the first show of their acceptance of what their new reality was. Then, the talks would begin. As much as they had been aggressively subdued, Mativo planned to expose them to the expanse that was space. And The Empire. Which would soon cover most of the southern half of the Milk Way galaxy. He hoped that would focus their energies into something else and that they could learn to coexist with each other.

Most of the crew would spend that time exploring the entirety of the planet. From pole to pole, east to east again. The main goal was to make sure as much of the natives knew that there was a new species in town. They would still be leaving soon and only leave a small detachment that would try and keep everything in check until the other ships made it to the planet. The closest one was over twelve Months away at its cruising speed. One of Swift’s shuttles could make to it in three Months, and their shuttles could make the trip in around seven Months. Considering a shuttle had been send out the moment they learnt the full scope of the situation, the return shuttles would be at the planet in less than eight Months. The detachment that would be left behind would have to hold out for that long. Jacy thought it was doable. Mativo didn’t care either way. They had been subdued before, they could be subdued again. With their nuclear weapons completely disarmed, it would take them a lot longer than that for the planet to have even a single nuclear bomb. The lesser main goals involved understanding the rest of the species, their culture, beliefs, how the economy had been like before the planet was plunged into war, etcetera. They were also scouring the planet clean to make sure there was no other nuclear or such other weapons they had missed during the first major disarmament.

..[ MATIVO ]..

“How could this have been your first kill?” I asked for what felt like the umpteenth time.

“Forgive me for not being okay with killing other intelligent beings,” Sylvia said defensively.

We were having something of a Senior Officers get together. All fifteen of us. It had happened a few times during the second expedition but Jacy had made it become a tradition that happened once every Fortnight. Of course, my net had ruined it somewhat. But Jacy made sure that anyone capable of getting to the Swift within that time and go back to their duties without it affecting the duties attended. So even when the net had been stretched apart, the get-togethers happened. With the least attendance on record been eight Senior Officers.

It was five Weeks after the subjugation of the planet and a third get-together, when it had become known that Sylvia had had her first kill during the subjugation. I was still not sure how she had managed that.

“That’s not the issue here,” Mũsango said, after swallowing a mouthful of rice and stew. She took a sip of water before continuing, “Do you know how many planets we have had to kill intelligent beings?”

“I guess I got lucky.”

“You mean you let others kill before you had to?” Xhalo asked.

“No. I used stun,” Sylvia said, not wanting to make it look like she let others do the dirty work while she kept her hands.

“Be glad they didn’t recover and attack you,” Xhalo told her.

“I made sure they couldn’t.” She pushed her plates around for a while before adding, “I used a very strong stun.”

“So, it’s very possible you have killed before.” Jacy told her as she finished up with her food.

“What!?” Sylvia turned to her, eyes wide in horror. “NO!”

“A strong stun to the right spot on the head or the heart is enough to kill,” Mũsonde offered his medical expertise, further increasing the horror in Sylvia’s face.

“Don’t worry. This was your first kill,” I told her as I tried to keep up with the others. I was the slowest eater I had ever met. So much that I preferred to eat alone to avoid the instances where I was the only one left eating. All that chewing sounds were always disgusting coming from other people when I wasn’t eating, and I didn’t want to subject others to my own chewing sounds.

“You don’t know that!” Sylvia was still in a state of disbelief that she might have killed an intelligent being unknowingly.

“He is right,” Xhalo added. “You are a pretty great shot. If you wanted them out but not dead, then that is what you did.”

“But I didn’t know a stun at certain places could be as bad as a fatal shot.”

“Do you remember shooting one of those areas?”

She was thought for a while before giving a half-hearted, “No.”

“Then you’re good.”

The conversation continued, moving onto other topics soon enough. The get-togethers were meant to build deeper relationships among the Senior Officers and smooth out the interactions during normal duty hours. They seemed to be doing well so far. No major arguments had occurred between the Senior Officers that couldn’t be resolved with a little dialogue.