{Reipon}
Pehton dragged herself out of bed. If it weren’t for the big meeting today, she’d prefer to stay in and hide. She looked so miserable out among the others that Korac had pulled her in for a hug at the end of the night. Held her for a few seconds, and when they pulled away, a single yellow tear fell from his lashes and hardened on his face.
The badass Icarean General cried nacre glass. And smelled so good—For two seconds, all that peppermint and frost almost made her forget about losing Oleen.
There was something wrong with Pehton.
The mirror agreed. Dull eyes. Lifeless feathers. Armor covering every centimeter of her skin, leaving only her face exposed. She needed some life injected into her. A change.
Damn.
She’d missed makeover night.
Pehton bent at the waist and fluffed her orange feathers, grateful that she’d showered twice since facing the decimation on Lukemore. Now the light tresses bounced easily, as if revived. Next, she receded her armor to only a skimpy halter top and a miniskirt with some knee-high boots. Sassy. That’s what she wanted. After applying some red lipstick and matching eyeliner, Pehton was prepared to face the group.
Including Caedes and Miy.
Out of the room, down the hall open to below, Pehton was delighted to find Pax playing in the gigantic tree.
The little monkey hung upside-down from a branch and waved happily at her. “Hi, Peh Peh!”
Pehton hid her wince. The boy always referred to her by the same name Razor used. Pax was the only one allowed to call her that. Hands on hips, she bragged, “Hey, there little daredevil. I heard you took your daddy down last night.”
“Hee!”
“Tameka, did you tell everyone our toddler defeated me?” Xelan groaned from the corner as he turned. He spared Pehton a wink.
She smiled at the impossibly wholesome Icarus.
Tameka beamed at Xelan. “Setting the record straight is all.”
Pehton reached her fist out to the upside-down mini Progeny. He bumped it with a giggle as the red of his face darkened. “Nice work, Pax. I can teach you some moves to take down bigger opponents.” She was five feet tall and offered self-defense to all her height-challenged brethren.
“Yes, please, Peh Peh.”
“We’ll be in a meeting, kiddo. Barge in if you need anything.” Tameka blew him a kiss before they all headed into the dining room.
For some reason, Xelan furnished it with the galaxy’s longest table. Lacquered black, of course. Everyone sat at it, facing the front of the room.
Tumu and Lamassau were seated on Pehton’s right, dressed in pale Tritan robes matching their partner’s skin, followed by Ross and Jack. The teenagers dressed in casual shorts and tees. Devis took a meditation pose in the room’s corner. Kyle sat beside Ross with Andrew on his right. Both looked plagued by the same stress-induced insomnia that kept Pehton up all night. Pablo and Lynn shared a chair, her snuggled in his lap. Korac and Sagan took up the opposite end of the table. The Seamswalker wore one of the war criminal’s button-downs. He kept it casual with—shocker—leather pants and a silk t-shirt. Yes, that was casual to him.
Working her way back up the table on the left side, Pehton smiled at Bones and Iuo, always rocking the tactical gear. Iuo already set up his stenography equipment for meeting minutes. They waved to her and pointed at a free chair between them and Korac. Pehton quickly shrank away from the attention at the front of the room to sit beside them. As her butt hit the seat, Caedes and Miy walked into the dining room together and took two seats on Pehton’s side of the table with Bones and Twenty-One between them.
Something—What was that? A niggling, irritating sensation on the back of her head—
Pehton turned to find Korac staring intently at her and then glancing at Caedes with something close to murder in his eyes. It was so absurd that she almost laughed. Pitifully, of course. Instead, she waved him off and shook her head. That’s not how she wanted it, but it was disgustingly endearing that Korac should care.
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“Morning, everybody.”
Pehton stopped smiling at Korac and looked to the Traitor Prince of Cinder. He and Tameka stood at the front of the room, operating a device that projected an image of L. Capra in three dimensions.
Tameka opened, while Xelan sat his ass on the table to listen. “Here’s what we gathered from Phase I intelligence.”
They explained the Imminent sleepers in the Reipon guard. Discussed the evidence Pehton’s team gathered to prove Imminent’s involvement in perpetuating slave labor throughout the Vast Collective. After which, Tameka pointed to the L. Capra image.
“Here they mined this mineral…” Tameka explained while Xelan handed out the contained sample. “…In excess despite its difficulty to excavate.”
Xelan picked up from there by switching places with Tameka, and Pehton had to admire the easy partnership between them. “This ore brings us to Phase II and confirms a fear I can’t keep to myself any longer.” He pressed a button and Monarch 3 illuminated in three dimensions. “Our next major target lies here.”
Tumu nodded as if he’d already guessed. Pehton glanced beside her at Korac because he leaned forward with his elbows on the table, eyes narrowed. She and Sagan exchanged a glance, and both shrugged. But Pehton swore she glimpsed—apprehension? Surely not fear?
Xelan said, “Iuo, please let them know the latest from your Imminent contacts.”
It was odd to have a verified Imminent agent in the room. Especially given how badly Lucas and Smith hurt them. Pehton hoped the leaders here checked and double checked Iuo’s allegiances on the regular.
The Lamian Prince bowed his head before setting aside his equipment to address the room. “I met with Primary Rem and Abresson.” Anger emphasized the ‘S’ in his lisp. He peered at Xelan before nervously wetting his lips. “Remorse was piloting Para.”
The room went still and trained their eyes on him with bated breath.
“She’s in good physical condition. Not pregnant—”
The air whooshed out of them in relief.
“—But I don’t know how much longer that will be the case. He accepted my doctored footage of your sightings throughout the Vast Collective and ordered me to report to him in the next quarter night. We’ll meet at the Queen’s Fare on Monarch 3. He specifically mentioned they’d increased security there, three-fold.”
Korac startled the room when he cursed. “They wouldn’t.”
Pehton shot a questioning glance at Sagan, but she was all eyes for Korac.
“They would. Have. Are.” Xelan sounded the most grave Pehton had ever heard him.
Jack raised his hand and sheepishly asked, “What’s happening?”
Tameka took the floor. “We’ve all read the Verses by now. Sagan, what’s the significance of the mineral found on L. Capra? What was important about Monarch 3?”
Sagan frowned but recited, “The soil from L. Capra and… Oh, Elden. The gas from Mon3 hives—”
“And the ore from Thailea created the Progeny,” Tameka finished with a quick glance at Xelan.
Gasps around the room. Some gaped or blinked wide eyes.
Tumu cut through the din. “But if Imminent is operating in Enki, where are they hiding this army—”
“Army?!” Jack’s eyes doubled in size.
“—Lamassau and I haven’t noticed this activity.”
Xelan hushed the crowd with a push of his hands. “I know it’s a terrifying hypothesis, but that’s been my concern for some time. Ever since Enki first assigned the Icari to those planets. Tumu. Lam. While you haven’t noticed it, we can all agree Enki is enormous. It’s easy to hide an evil organization where there’s only thirty of you in a sphere the size of several million suns.”
Pehton felt small in a room full of giants. She’d lived a while, but her experience amounted to very little compared to even the young Progeny in this room. The history between them spanned millions—hundreds of millions—of years. The Tritans made her people and forced them to serve in Enki. When they gave them missions outside the Dyson’s Sphere, it was all Enki-oriented—
“Pehton?” Tameka called her name as if she’d said it more than once.
“Yes?”
The fierce Progeny woman shifted the three-dimensional image to Enki. “In your time here, did you ever engage or interact with a project of this nature?”
Pehton shook her head, half-disassociated from the overwhelming significance of this conversation. “No. But I wasn’t popular with the Imminent-aligned Tritans. I worked more for Tumu, Wiw, and Lance.” A thought occurred to her. “Has anyone tried contacting Lance? He must be one of the only decent Tritans left—No offense, Tumu—”
“Hey!” Lam took offense.
“—Someone should make an ally of that man while he’s still alive and not exiled.”
Tumu glanced away from Pehton to meet Xelan’s waiting gaze. They both shared a curt nod before the Prince of Cinder confirmed, “Excellent suggestion. Sagan, can you and Tameka work on that? It’s more Phase III related, but best to get a move on.”
“Absolutely, Wingmaster.”
Korac picked Sagan’s hand up from the table, kissed her knuckles, and threaded his fingers through hers.
Elden. Pehton walked a fine line between disgusted with them, jealous, and just happy to share in the aura of their cuteness. When she returned her gaze to the front of the room, she glimpsed Caedes staring at her. Taciturn as hell, she wasn’t surprised he contributed little to the conversation, but Pehton half-expected some cutesie stuff from the new couple. Yet they both managed professionally, far better than even the couple giving the lecture. Miy hardly looked away from the front.
After a few heartbeats, Caedes gave Xelan his attention once more, and Pehton could finally take a breath.
“So our focus for Phase II is Monarch 3.” Tameka beamed with an enthusiasm that lit up her eyes. “If we can find whatever facility collects the gas, we can hit them three for three. No mine on L. Capra. No plant on Mon3. No more Aegis blood and ore from Gait or Thailea.”
Xelan grinned down at her in another disgusting and perfectly heart-warming display of affection.
The Shadow was so… One could both aspire and throw up all at once.
Bones punched his hand and declared, “Let’s find that damn plant!”
Pehton loved this idea.