Stratego Fleury sat outside Consul Blake’s office, waiting to be called in. She looked down at her freshly pressed uniform and her hand-shined black boots. She didn’t always wear a uniform, usually donning a Lux Orbis suit instead, but she always wore one when meeting with the Consul.
Her gaze wandered around the room as she waited, until it settled on the quote inscribed above the Consul’s office door: You were not made to live as brutes, but to seek wisdom and knowledge. Ella thought of how many millennia her ancestors were unwittingly made to live as brutes and was determined to not waste the opportunities given to her to change humanity’s future.
“The Consul will see you now, Stratego,” said Consul Blake’s Aide, ruining her line of thought.
As Ella entered, she saw Blake, who rose to greet her. “Ella!” he said enthusiastically. “How have you fared since the attempt on your life?”
“Thank you for the concern, Consul, and for the Berserkr guard. I have been as well as could be expected. I don’t care so much about the attempt on my life, I knew what I signed on for, especially since the four previous Stratego’s were assassinated; I care more about how.”
“I understand. I felt the same way when clones tried to assassinate me in the subterranean roadways of Sᾶo Paulo Pyrἰnas; now, I don’t even visit my home continent anymore,” a glint of sadness crossed over his eyes as he said this.
“I will get to the bottom of the assassination attempt, Consul; the Parabellum Scramasax V Imperator Thegn, Marston Kane, took it upon himself to investigate personally so he could discover any and all information about the phase-matter weapon, and I have the utmost faith in his abilities.”
“And how is my hand-picked Parabellum Thegn conforming to Lagos Pyrἰnas and the heat of this continent?” Kai said. Though Kane thought Ella had chosen him for the position, it was Kai who chose Mars, against Ella’s wishes. Kai knew it was because of the previous relationship between the two that Ella hadn’t wanted Kane there, but after the information he discovered about him, Kai knew Mars Kane was the one to accomplish the mission.
“He was the right choice, as you said, Consul. But you know all this because I send you daily reports. What did you need to see me in person for, sir?”
Kai smiled. He liked this woman’s attitude. “For multiple reasons, Stratego. First, I am told that there was a breach of protocol, and the Meliora Thegn reported a failed attempt on the Odina Replicant Project on a Nova Gnosis-encrypted hologram. Is this true?”
“Yes, Consul, it is. I ended the sync and spoke with the Thegn immediately. He reports to me in person on every minute detail from now on. I smashed the hologram device and sent a purge through the system also to delete all data from the sync. I also sent the Shadow Berserkrs to interview the others in the sync; they won’t give our secret away, sir.”
“Very good. Now, about the assassin…” Kai began, still incredulous at the thought of what he was about to say.
“Yes, Consul?”
“The assassin was not a clone, confirmed through DNA and RNA tests, and through the assassin herself. She laughed at me when I called her a clone, which could have been a ploy, but the DNA and RNA tests don’t lie. The assassin was human.”
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Ella stood there in disbelief—she didn’t have words to say besides, “Why would a human—”
“That is my question also, Stratego. I currently have the Shadow Berserkr Thegn who questioned the assassin investigating further. Since you have Imperator Thegn Kane running a separate investigation, I want the two to meet and collaborate on their findings.”
“Yes, Consul…” Ella said, still struggling to understand why a human perpetrated the assassination attempt. She began clenching her hand into a fist from the anger she felt swarming inside. “If this attempt on my life was ordered by humans, we have more of an up-hill-battle to fight than we first thought, Consul.”
“I agree. Start drawing up contingency plans and orders of battle for us to establish, should the need arise. We need to step up the timeframe for the Odina Replicant Project also.”
“Yes, Consul, and I agree. I will meet with the Meliora Thegn immediately and I will have Imperator Thegn Kane meet with the Shadow Berserkr Thegn when he returns from Thov Rapra.”
“What is he doing there?”
“He sent me a note saying his iris was used to scan into an emergency access door at Thov Rapra, and he had to go investigate immediately. He was gone before I could talk to him.”
“Very well. Keep me informed on that also, and I would like to meet with Imperator Thegn Kane when he returns.
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After Ella left the Consul’s office and began walking to her own, she thought about the repercussions of what the Consul had just told her. Now Lux Orbis had to fight against a human faction as well as the clones? Unbelievable. Who could these humans be? How would she even begin to find them? Fuck. She had to convene with the Continental Deputies and alert them to this news. How did the human faction get access to this unknown weapon? Had they attacked Lux Orbis before and framed the clones for it?
Ella took a breath. Then she took a deeper breath. The questions were rolling through her mind, and they weren’t slowing down. What was the human faction planning? Were they working with the clones?
Ella tried to keep focusing on her breathing.
She got to her office, shut the door, hurried to her desk, and began writing down all her questions as they popped in her head so she could formulate an appropriate response later and bring solutions to her meeting with the Continental Deputies.
With that done, she put the pen down, put her head in her hands, and thought about what she needed to do next. She felt for the familiar silver tin in her uniform pocket, removed it and took a dose of the magnificent green-blue pill. She began thinking more clearly and decided what she would do next.
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Kai needed to find out who the person was in the hologram from X’s deep-iris scan. Unfortunately, as the Consul of Earth, he didn’t have the time to investigate the matter himself. He would have to trust someone to do it for him. Since the Shadow Berserkr Thegn was already investigating, Kai could have him focus on this individual and find answers. But what if the Thegn was a part of the assassination plot? What if he had wiped X’s memory or corrupted the deep-iris scan?
He decided he would wait for the results of the Shadow Berserkr Thegn’s investigation, and depending on those results, Kai would have him would run an independent investigation.
Kai had too much to do and not enough time to do it in. He had to get ready to meet with the Lux Orbis Planning Directorate to discuss Odina’s Advent Day events and his role in them; it had become a global holiday for the last ten years, and Kai had six days to prepare.
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Ella tried her best to hide her disdain from the Meliora Thegn. Ever since he put their Odina Replicant Project in jeopardy, she found it difficult to trust this man.
“Give me a status update, Thegn.”
“We are doing everything we can, Stratego. We simply don’t have the same technology that the clones do, which makes every endeavor for this project more difficult. We are five thousand years behind them…I’m doing everything possible.”
“I know the amount of time displaced between us and the clones. You have ten days to report progress in this project, or you will be replaced. I have had enough of your failures, as has Lux Orbis; we cannot accept failure in this.”
The Meliora Thegn walked out and left Ella stewing about his shortcomings. They had to have Odina’s capabilities, otherwise humanity didn’t stand a chance of succeeding in their endgame.