Three weeks, that's how they had Costan's ears bandaged up and immobilized, but the results were very noticeable. While the hair was a mess, he didn't have to bumps up and down the edges of his ears and scaring on the one that got half cut off was minimal. More like unnoticeable, if you didn't know what exactly to look for.

It had been two weeks since they made "barbaric breakthroughs" on the artifact. Doctor Chivack only named himself and Karkar directly in the paper about it, but only so that he wouldn't be the one pegged as "that guy who licked an ancient artifact." That left him free of bad press while still getting credit for the discoveries. There was already discussions pretaining increased funding for the Archaeology Department.

Karkar was already getting job offers. Turns out that being able to taste molecular composition was highly sought after by asteroid mining companies and material analysts. The university even planned on fast tracking him. They claim it's "to be rid of Karkar more quickly." Everyone knew it was secretly because they were getting offered a significant kickback if he went to work for AstroLabs Corporation with his doctorates.

Costan was happy for the big lugnut, but was trying to figure out a way of avoiding the palace, and his family, for his thirteenth birthday. He was having no luck on that front. He remembered the last time, the weirdo in the alien costume from a certain kids show staring at him and telling him to smile constantly... the terrible cake and the camera person complaining about the flashback from his eyes after blinding him. It was just a few days away.

Karkar and his family were scheduled to have a barbeque that day... maybe he could get the timing right and ditch out on the sugar free cardboard tasting cake, forced activities, and awkward people. Grilled meat and vegetables was far more appetizing. He'd have to get the information from Karkar and make it seem like a big ordeal to miss.

They were both enjoying some down time at the apartment, away from the world for a change.

"Hey, Karkar. You and your family are having a barbeque on the thirteenth, right?"

"Yeah, it's gonna be great! You wanna come?.... uh... hold up, that's your birthday and the Emperor's going to expect you to show up for your own birthday party."

"And I don't want to go to the birthday party because it's always lame with junk food and idiocy. I'm looking for a good reason to get out of it, and grilled vegetables sound far better than lousy sugar free cake."

"Wow, I never realized how big of a difference adding the words sugar free can make. It sounds gross. No wonder you're willing to miss out on gifts, it makes greens and cornbread sound delicious."

"Grilled meat and veggies trumps clothing that is too childish for me any day. We are going to need a plan. First off, have you gotten your license yet?"

"No, big sis hasn't had the time to take me to the DMV, but I can drive."

"But not legally... may I borrow your data pad?"

"Sure, you have some ideas or something?" Karkar unlocked his datapad and handed it to Costan.

"You could say that, is your sister okay with making a small straw purchase or two? Mostly another data pad, telecom device, and a dedicated computer."

"Why my sister? Wait, it's because she's thirty, and she'll be able to buy them without a special permit for those under thirty?"

"Now, you're using that brain."

"But why do you need my data pad?"

"To buy a Private Security Firm, manage some stocks, arrange my accounts, and see what vehicles we may be able to get."

"Okay, I'll call my sister and ask if she'll buy you stuff... I guess."

"Tell her not to be alarmed at the pending money transfer to her account. It is coming from ClawSec Securities. She is being listed as an Advisor, it's a temporary part time position and she will get tax paperwork on it. All bases covered, she just has to sign off on five papers. A nondisclosure agreement, an employment contract, and the tax forms."

"Why all that?"

"Because substantial amounts of credits require taxes and reasons, and none of it is a lie. I am paying her via ClawSec to advise the CEO, me, on how stupid my plans are."

On her break at the cafe, Ishta was enjoying a smoke and a piece of dried meat. Then her phone had an account alert, seven emails, and her brother was calling. She decided to answer it, he may be in trouble again. It had been years since the last debacle, probably the positive influence of one of the Emperor's own children. Besides, the account alert was probably just her rent being billed early and overdrafting her account.

"Hey little bro, what's up?"

"Ishta, good news!"

"I already know about your success at the college."

"No, a guy I know is bringing you on to tell him how stupid he is and buy some stuff for something called ClawSec. Mostly a temp position, but it's a few pieces of paperwork and accepting the money they sent."

"Hold on, let me check something."

She opened the account alert. It took her a doing a double take, and almost dropping her phone, to realize that ClawSec Securities LLC was sending her ten years worth of pay. She snapped out of it quickly, however; putting the phone back to her ear, her tone got serious, somber, and grave.

"Karkar, listen. I don't know how you're involved with mercenaries, but you need to find a way out of whatever mess you got yourself into. I thought we had taught you better than to mess around with people that around hundreds of thousands of credits in temp contracts."

"COSTAN. How much money did you send!"

"You know what, I'm coming over there and I'm bringing father." Click.

"I sent one hundred fifty thousand credits and all of the paperwork."

"Where do you even get that kind of money?"

"Stocks, bonds, properties, business stuff, the occasional false market collapse because of new technology... the usual rich person ways."

"And you chose to work two jobs and live in an apartment because..."

"Living well within my means to build wealth and maintaining backup plans."

"Oh, like how I got in Uni on sports, but you made it clear how important a fallout plan is. But she's coming here and bringing my father... oh no. She's bringing father."

"I'll be able to ask him about the barbeque."

"You don't get it, this place better be spotless. Put the data pad away, help clean, and put on something formal."

"It can't be that bad."

"He's a Captain in the Space Force."

Two hours later, the sound of dress uniform boots could be heard making an undeniably professional pace up the hall. There was a knock at the apartment door, three affirmative clashes of knuckles and wood, evenly spaced. Karkar looked at Costan, who looked at him. It could have been any number of palace officials, police officers, or military personnel.

"You going to get that, Karkar, or do I?"

Captain CanKar was not having a nice day. ClawSec was shifting structure from primarily public security like mall cops to a drastically more militant state under a mysterious new owner. The fact that it was doing so by the minute was even more worrisome, with all three of the retired battleships being bought and updated; command was worried. Why were they gearing up for interstellar warfare? The ships were retired from service because there was no interstellar war, just small skirmishes within the Empire.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Then his family got involved. It may be a serious breach in etiquette, but he was going to get some answers. ClawSec involved his daughter with its nonsense, and his son was telling her to sign off on it. Command may not have been able to contact anyone in ClawSec that knew what was up, but his son might know. He knew those job offers were too good to be true, just what kind of crowd had he gotten himself into? He would know soon enough, he knocked on his son's apartment door.

The timid "who is it" that came out of Karkar was almost humorous to Costan, but he wasn't saying anything. If he was afraid of his father, he had the right to be. Concerned parents were often also angry parents, from Costan's personal experience, and Karkar's father was also a Captain.

"Karkar, you have a lot of explaining to do. Open this door and spill it."

Karkar bolted to the door and opened it. Captain Cankar stepped in, quickly followed by Ishta. Karkar was standing straighter than Costan had ever seen him, his father assessing every little detail.

"Karkar, my son, lots of big things are going on. Those big things involve some very wealthy people. Those people are probably also very powerful and dangerous."

"Yes father?"

"Do not question, it is a fact. You are somehow involved, so let us have a little talk about it."

"Yes father."

Ishta closed the door as they proceeded to the den.

"Costan, would you put the kettle on? My father and sister are here to talk."

"Okay Karkar, I need to ask them some questions, if they have time."

The three took places around the table, spacing themselves evenly. Captain CanKar led the conversation.

"So, what do you know about the job offers that you have received?"

"Well, aside from that they require me to finish my education and they pay well, not much."

"I was happy to hear about it. Current events have me concerned. What do you know of ClawSec?"

"Only that they are the most popular variety of mall cops and security for mom and pop shops."

Costan carried out the tea tray, placing four sets evenly around the table.

Ishta noticed the fourth setting and spoke up.

"Costan, I know you are successful for a twelve year old, but this is an adult's conversation."

"Yes, one that involves the owner and CEO of ClawSec Securities LLC."

The room froze, tensions thick, minds racing. Karkar had a beads of cold sweat running down his neck trying to figure out what trouble he was in. Captain Cankar was connecting as many dots as possible in hopes of getting a feel for how deep into the metaphorical hole he had wandered. Ishta wasn't prepared to be meeting someone rich and powerful enough to buy entire battle ships, especially space fairing ones.

Costan fixed another two sets at the counter, no one noticed. There was another knock at the door, breaking everyone's thoughts. The kettle began to whistle.

"Karkar, will you get that", Costan asked as he went to switch the kettle off. Karkar hesitantly got the door. Costan wasted no time in pouring every set with his favorite saffron and hops tea before going back into the kitchen for the biscuits.

The two senior officers of ClawSec had made a good of timing as possible, but traffic had made them late. First impressions were important, and they were going to be late to the first meeting with the new owner. Their stiff, stressed postures did little to ease the tension in the room. They stayed by the counter, where there were two tea placements. Whatever involved the accomplished Captain Cankar and the boss, it had to be huge.

"Stop looking so stiff, you look like some movie minions."

"Costan, this isn't the time", Ishta gently coaxed, hoping he would realize how serious everything was.

"Ishta, have you decided to accept the position I offered you within my business?"

"When, wha. Never mind, this is no time to be playing around."

"Gentlemen, early this morning, I purchased ClawSec. I have plans that involve our navy not being caught with it's pants down, hence the battle ships."

Something broke in the minds of everyone present. Nobody expected the child, nobody believed him either. It had to be a distraction for the shoe to drop. One of the ClawSec spoke up.

"Listen, kid, this isn't play time. Where is the owner of ClawSec?"

Costan fixed him with stare that would kill any house plant "I am the owner. If you can not understand that, you need to find an alternate career path."

"We get it, daddy bought the company or something, but you're not in charge."

"Congrats, you're both getting demoted, now get out of my apartment and don't come back. Tell Laulkart that he will be recieving treatment for the pancreatic issues and a promotion, on the company." Costan did things on the data pad while they alternated between "you can't" and "where's your parents.

"Wait, Costan. When you sent Ishta that stuff, it was through ClawSec. ClawSec's been buying high end military stuff... if you have that kind of money, why live here? There's nicer apartments and why the two jobs?" Karkar was confused and connecting dots.

"You remember how I taught you the importance of backup plans, fallback accounting, and stuff? The two jobs are financial security, the cheaper apartment is living within my means, and just "because I'm the Emperor's twelfth kid" doesn't cover anything. It doesn't cover food, housing, tuition, utilities, or much of anything."

Captain Cankar took interest, but not the positive kind. "Costan, would you be willing to accompany my to the base? Some of the higher ups have more than a few questions for you."

"That sounds like a false invitation."

"In a way, come with me."

"You two, out. Now."

Hours passed by in the debriefing room at the Space Force Base Kurag. Costan had been asked hundreds of questions, all of them being repeated multiple times and by different people. Most of them thought that he was an extremist or nutjob planning something nefarious, none of them expected the answers he gave. The sheer complexity and audacity of the scheme was a study in comic book villainy gone awry.

"Okay, I know we have been over it all multiple times, but let's start from the top." This interviewer was wearing the same no nonsense look as he had the last time.

"Am I being arrested or something?"

"No, but aren't allowed to leave until we have the information we want."

"Then tell me what information you're after so that I can tell you. Then I can go get something to eat and you can stop wasting your time, my time, and taxe credits."

"That's not how this works, Costan. You should know that by now."

"So, what is it then? Is it a black op to get rid of me funded by Grequenok or my sister?"

The interrogator genuinely paused, it was the first unintentional thing he had slip today. "You would believe that your sister or aliens would be willing to risk trying to get rid of you?"

"I wouldn't put it above her. Every single person who watched her twenty filth birthday bash until the end could tell you that she hates me, hates the Emish, and has a particular disdain for the Northern Wastes Military Academy."

"How about something else. According to your file, which is not small, you're forbidden by Empirial mandate from quote, "doing anything remotely techy", end quote."

"You're missing over half of that quote. It forbids me from doing anything techy on palace grounds with a strict beginning date and end date of should I ever become successor. It also firmly iterates any and all variations of bounds pretaining to the palace... and every example of what was considered to be "techy"."

"Have you ever broken that mandate, on purpose or accident?"

"There was only the one time when I tried to use the toaster and it resulted in me also being banned from the kitchen because it was too much hassle. I was cleared of wrongdoing by investigation into whether or not using a toaster was simply that or doing something techy. The head chef didn't make things better by calling it the electromechanical grain material crematory."

Snickering could be heard through the two way mirror. Costan shot it the death glare.

"Is it illegal to put cheese on bread and toast it?"

"No, why?"

"Then they need to stop laughing. You get me here and ask me hundreds of questions, just to laugh at my answers. This, lack of even awarding dignity, is why I keep two jobs, manage a lot of stocks, and am on track for my doctorates. You may not respect me or take me seriously, but in time I won't be a minor and you will have to. You bastards only take me seriously when I do big things that you don't like because you wouldn't listen to begin with. This reminds me of sitting in the palace dungeon for a week because I wanted cheese toast that wasn't burned to cinders."

"We get it. You are fairly successful despite your age, and you want respect. So, how was this supposed to get you that respect?"

"This wasn't, it was a big thing designed to get you to take the threat of interstellar warfare more seriously. It concocted expressly because the military and my father, Emperor Karcos, were not listening. Like always."

"Well, you have our attention. You purchased a private security firm and started making waves just to get us to do what, exactly?"

"Update and innovate, because if the Grequenok figure out the slip drive they will declare war."

"You sound a little too sure about that, care to clarify?"

"Their home system had two forms of intelligent life, but they take honor very seriously. A joke caused an interplanetary war that resulted in that system only having one intelligent species. The Grequenok know that Yitas openly mocked them for their honor codes and made jokes about them, on a live broadcast that was even on the exoplanetary networks."

"You make a decent argument. This doesn't make you look less like an insurgent, however; it does clarify something. You are aware of the justified uses clause in the sales of the battleships?"

"Yes, it was a backup plan to have them on the cutting edge so that if the military didn't listen, at least they would have three suitably capable vessels."

"So you purchased them to refurbish, refit, and update on a lark that they would be reacquired by the military? All because you believe that the Grequenok will declare war when they attain a feasible method of getting to Emperial space. Let's talk about something else."

"Fine, not like you're taking anything seriously anyways."

"Costan, I am taking this very seriously. You have three battleships under your thumb. You could pose a very big threat, we are assessing if you are."

Many more hours passed before Captain Giagan showed up to take possession of the "unruly child". Giagan informed Costan of the changes that were being made.

"You have been busier than expected, far busier. We had you pegged as the kind to try and make yourself untouchable sort, but this is something else. Emperor Karcos is taking direct control over all of your holdings, you are now forbidden from doing anything techy within all Empirial space until further notice, grounded, and under house arrest."

"But"

"NO BUTS, you are considered a possible threat to the entirety of the Empire. You won't attend the college, the birthday party, or the barbecue.