I blinked at her then looked down at her hand and hesitantly reached out to take it as Rory hugged onto my other arm, her eyes wide as she looked upon me with anticipation and excitement. And we stepped into the sphere, into the light.
Never in my life, even when I had stood out on the Skin of the world and looked out into the cosmos, had I felt so... small, so insignificant, as when the light from the barely contained power of the artifacts of the Ka'Ifinitum washed over me. It was as Mab had said... I felt as if I were in the presence of creation itself as I fell to my knees, tears streaming down my face while I just stared, slack-jawed at something I still, to this day, cannot comprehend enough to explain in a manner which does it justice.
All I can say is that I was both humbled and blessed to have seen it.
Mab just sat down beside me while she looked around like someone would as they gazed upon their favorite collection of marbles. Rory stood behind me, hands on my shoulders, supporting me in more ways than one as I leaned back into her legs.
The Queen of the Winter Court leaned in and whispered, like speaking in a normal tone would be a sacrilege, “This, is all that remains of the magic of Fairie, the wellspring of life that the Fae were born of. Only four mortals have ever laid eyes upon the Ka'Ifinitum, as Titania and I moved the artifacts with the council to the chamber here on the great worldship that would be our savior.”
Then she shared, “Three went mad shortly thereafter, their minds were broken... not able to comprehend what they had seen. The fourth went on to be elected as the first President of the Leviathan, and to live an exceptionally long and successful life for a human, whose lives are measured like a candle in a hurricane.”
Rory whispered, “You are the first Human since Exodus to witness the artifacts, Knith Shade, Enforcer of the Brigade. We know you can weather it, as you are unique among your species, with partial immunity to the crushing magics contained within this chamber.”
I couldn't tear my eyes off of the glowing objects that were now singing to everything that made me who I was, harmonizing with my soul as I whispered, another tear rolling down my cheek. “Why?”
Mab spoke in her usual perturbed tone, breaking the magic of the moment as she waved her hand absently, “Because my Rory asked me to, and as much as I should make an example of her as an ice sculpture in my receiving room for a century or so for having the audacity to ask... I cannot refuse her. She is the light in my heart which keeps me honest with myself.”
I felt a slight waver in the strength of the woman supporting me. I smiled in spite of myself. I had never heard Mab express her love for any of her children like that, and every word was true since the Greater Fae could not physically lie.
Then I caught a flicker of concern in her eye as she glanced at me then stood abruptly, saying, “Time to go.”
Rory gasped then physically hauled me to my feet as if I weighed nothing. I noticed flakes and particles floating away from my face, then let the women drag me out of the chamber as I realized I was slowly being torn apart by the magic contained there.
The moment we were clear, the iris spun and closed up, leaving a seamless surface behind us. And I gasped, drawing in a huge gulp of air, filling my lungs, feeling as if a house had been lifted off my chest and shoulders as my heart pounded.
Both women were pouring magic into me. I could feel and taste it as my body tried to reject it. I recognized the soothing chill, it was healing magic. I quickly wiped my cheeks then looked back to the Ka'Ifinitum chamber and said to them hoarsely, meaning it with every fiber of my being, “Thank you for allowing me to see...” even knowing you should never thank a greater Fae.
Mab snapped, “Wasn't my idea.” She was deflecting, and didn't take advantage of my thanks, which would normally put me in their debt.
I stopped the grouch by placing a hand on her arm and making eye contact with those violet eyes that reminded me so much of my Aurora's, only hers had so much raging magic behind them they seemed to flicker in icy flames. “Queen Mab... thank you.”
She exhaled and patted my hand on her arm like it was tedious, but I caught the slight smile on her lips as she tried to maintain her dour expression.
Graz joined us, taking her place next to my cheek as Rory said with pleasure in her tone, “Shall we re-join the others then?”
We all stood straighter and headed back out into the flight center. The moment we emerged I muttered under my breath, “Fuck me sideways and space me naked.” Everyone was looking at us with smug expressions. What fresh hell did they cook up for me now since I wasn't out here to defend myself?
Chapter 4 – Negotiation
It turns out my instincts were right. While I was witnessing the wonder of the artifacts of Fairie, the President and the others were planning a mission for me. That'll teach me to leave the room to leave high ranking officials to scheme together.
I was looking at the giant holo-displays and next to the Cityship data were three ship’s registries. All remnants. Range data, maintenance histories, and cargo and life support capacities. Next to them were time projections for retrofitting one of the skin jockey maintenance tugs to extend its range to over three light minutes.
I blinked as I realized what was happening when President Yang saw us returning, and said, “Ah good, you're back. Lieutenant, we have a job for you.”
Mother was streaming all the data to me and before even she could tell me what they were proposing, I had already sussed it out. “You're sending a vessel to rendezvous with the Cityships.”
She blinked at me and then smiled at Captain J'Verris as she said, “I told you she was perceptive.”
He looked to be reevaluating me as he nodded slowly, then glanced at the data for the ships. Then he made a thoughtful sound and rubbed his chin, swiping at the air with his other hand. Two remnant vessel registries turned red, then with another swipe, the tug turned red.
He said to me as he appeared to be thinking, “Lieutenant, the only vessels space worthy enough to reach the Cityships are the Ready Squadron fighters. We could retrofit a tug, but by the time we finished the modifications to extend ranges and life support, the ships would already be in its normal range.”
Then he seemed to be proposing something to me, “The problem with using Ready Squadron, is there is virtually no cargo capacity and each can only carry one passenger. To ferry over emergency supplies enough to make a difference and escort a proper diplomatic crew while having seats to spare for patients in critical need of our medical facilities, we'd need over two-thirds of the entire Squadron. A waste of resources and leaves little room for redundancy in our shift rotations.”
Everyone was silent as he just looked expectantly at me like I had the answer for him. I looked hesitantly at the final Remnant hull number and everything crystallized. There was no way in the world they'd have me command an away team if I didn't have the one thing they needed.
I looked at everyone's expectant faces, and then back to the two Fae with me and saw in their eyes they had pieced it all together too, so they kept silent. I exhaled loudly and sighed. “I take it that you presumed to tell him you needed to commandeer his ship, and he told you to go space yourself?”
Three seconds of silence passed before the Elf tipped his head back to laugh. Seeing the pretty man laughing, got first the President, then the others to laugh too as he gasped out, “His exact words were 'Go fuck yourselves,' but pretty much the same thing.”
I looked around then asked, “None of you know how to deal with offworlders on the Remnants, do you?” Their silence spoke volumes. “The key is just that, you have to deal with them, not make demands, no matter how polite. And I'm sure in the classified portions of my jacket details the fact that I know her captain. Which is why I was assigned to the mission.”
Yang's smile was all teeth as she said to the man, “Dangerously perceptive.”
I don't know why I was surprised that the Underhill was the one vessel capable of
long-range, and even deep space flight, and was the best maintained Remnant attached to the Leviathan. Not to mention that it was simply huge, and dwarfed all the vessels on or in the Leviathan except for the two giant maneuvering Tugs that helped in the Turnover Event.
Not wanting to raise any hopes I prompted, “Isn't the Underhill a little overkill for a diplomatic mission? You know she can carry over three million metric tons and has atmosphere processors that could almost support a whole bulkhead deck of a D-Ring?”
She needed the over-engineered life support systems because of all the questionable businesses that drew crowds from the world... such as the brothel and the casino. The Underhill had industrial scrubbers that could support almost five hundred people.
“So I'll need details if I'm going to have to negotiate, Mac is no pushover, and he's likely to tell me to space myself as well,” I asked,
“There will be a Fae representative, of course,” Mab replied.
She meant a Fae to keep tabs on us. As all-powerful as the Greater Fae liked to project they are, they didn't trust anyone. I think it is because their two courts have been in a functional cold war since long before Exodus. They expect everyone they meet to have ulterior motives because that was all they knew.
The President inclined her head. “Of course, to represent the interests of the Fae and us preternatural on the world.”
Does it make me a bad person that I keep noticing how Yang keeps trying to lump herself in with the magic races on the Leviathan even though she is half-human like she is ashamed of that part of her?
Rory exchanged a look with me, telling me she shared my thoughts. Mother teased, “No, Knith, I'm the one in your head.” That sounded almost... jealous?
I tried not to grin as I thought, “Yes, even though I keep telling you not to be.”
“Boo.”
“I'll boo you.”
Mayor Florentine prompted me, “You don't appear to suffer fools, Lieutenant Shade.”
I shook my head as I shrugged in apology.
It got her to smile mischievously when I shared, “No, which is why I'm only a Lieutenant after decades of service. That and well...” I left the inconvenient truth unspoken, that I was Human in a profession that put me at a severe disadvantage.
The others looked annoyed I even made the implication. Truth hurts. Though the Mayor just smirked in amusement. Ok, maybe I was starting to like the woman. She shared, “Yet here we are, in need of someone with influence none of us has with a resource that can help us reach out to the incoming Cityships and work out a cooperation pact while supplying what aid we can to their people before they get in range for easy transport.”
Yang spoke over her, cutting her off. “Plus you have the seniority needed to lead the mission under diplomatic oversight, so it is a win all around, assuming you have any influence over the vulgar captain of the Underhill.”
I sighed heavily and said, “You cannot make demands to Remnants. They are more like Fae than anything, everything is negotiated and it has to benefit them in some way.” I caught Mab's lips quirking as she suppressed a smile. I used that and pointed at my fire and ice lips as an example of the results of making a deal with the Fae.
I sighed and said to the air, “Mother?”
She said in the tinny, detached voice I hated, “Contacting the Underhill.”
A grumpy old man answered. “So they're stooping to having you make their demands, Shade?”
I chuckled. “Well hello to you too, you old space fart. And I'm not going to demand anything.” President Yang took a step forward to protest, just to run into Mab's outstretched hand. Just a look from the Winter Queen had her close her mouth and press her lips into a line.
“Then to what do I owe the pleasure? And how many are listening in?”
Graz chirped out, “A metric shit-ton, you grizzled space turd.”
He chuckled. “Of course the flying rat is there. Hello everyone.”
When nobody spoke I sighed and continued, “I need to hire the Underhill, Mac. Name your price.”
The collective gasp from the room had the man I still suspected of being the missing King Oberon of the Fae, chuckling. “Now you're speaking my language.”
A Fae worthy negotiation followed, and after I declined his first three prices, and hung up on him on the fourth, he called me back. “Keep in mind, young Knith, that you had said to name my price.”
I nodded to thin air. “Yes, but I said nothing about me accepting an asinine deal.”
His laugh filled the space before he said, “True. You negotiate like a Fae.”
Ok, now that the bullshit was over, we could get down to business. “Now how about your real terms, Mac. And I know it needs to bend in your favor.”
In the end, he got a great price for the hiring of his vessel and crew. Full restock of reaction fuel for maneuvering thrusters, xenon gas for the main plasma drives, and topping off the water storage and oxygen tanks. Only a fraction of all of that would be used in the single round trip the Underhill was being hired for.
In addition, any of the people who lived on the ship, and worked in the many businesses and shops onboard, and were uncomfortable leaving the relative safety of the world, would be granted temporary quarters until the Underhill returned.
Oh, and the entirety of the Leviathan's historical music catalog which dwarfed the anthropological music database that Mac had spent decades wheeling and dealing for.
It was all a whirlwind after that. Engineering crews were sent to the Underhill where it was docked on the Beta-Stack D-Ring to assist in a pre-flight check while the various other Remnant vessels that were connected to the Underhill, like remoras, to make the largest off-world community cluster, detached and limped their way to other airlocks on the Skin.
Two smaller ancient vessels that were little more than empty hulks that served as living quarters for some of the residents, couldn't disconnect as they had no functional engines or independent life support anymore after so many eons of disrepair. So they were going to have to come along for the ride.
Resupply crews were dispatched to provide the agreed-upon supplies and fuel, while the President and Congress put together a delegation that included engineers and medical personnel.
Things were moving fast, they expected us to be prepared to launch first thing in the morning. At least that would give me some time with my girl since neither she, nor her mother for that matter, were going to be part of the delegation.
Mac had been adamant that no self-serving, sanctimonious, duplicitous royals were allowed on his ship. He capitulated on the point that the Fae and other preternaturals needed a voice in the first contact with the other ships of Earth. So the compromise was one that made me groan. Delphine of House Kryn, captain of the Queen's Guard would accompany us and speak for the Fae under Mab's authority, and a palace guard from the Summer Court just because neither court trusted the other to not to make any deals that would benefit the opposing court.
I suspected Mac's true reasoning why he didn't want any Fae royalty on his vessel is that... if he is who I believe, he doesn't want anyone seeing through his disguise, and only someone as powerful as the Queens or their children would be able to do so.
Just more Fae games.
On the bright side though, we were bringing a portable Rammasan quantum entanglement communications system, the same as what is used by both the Ready Squadron and the Brigade to allow for faster than light, zero lag communications. It was a breakthrough by a human physicist, Viktor Rammasan, about a thousand years into our flight.
Score one for us Humans.
Rammasan had postulated that we could utilize the phenomena of quantum entanglement to vibrate entangled particles to cause the same vibration on the reciprocal particle, and those vibrations could be read like binary, giving us instantaneous communications.
That breakthrough stopped the communications lag for Ready Squadron when they were operating at the
edge of their operational envelope.
This would allow us real time communications with the Cityships until they rendezvoused with the Leviathan.
When I reached home late that night, after four or five briefings too many, I had thought about the discussions with the Cityship captain about the compliment of their ships. Men, women, and children. I whispered to Graz, who got a huge smile on her face, and she whistled shrilly, causing her family to explode from my nightstand in blazing trails of sparkling dust and then they were gone, zipping up into the ventilation system in search of my request.
That... conveniently left me alone in my quarters with the most alluring creature I had ever laid eyes upon. Just being this close to her made my heart start to race. I reached out and pulled her onto my lap, where I had sat on the edge of my bed to decompress.
Our eyes met, and I was lost in hers. How had I ever gotten so lucky to be with someone like her, intelligent, funny, and the appearance of the greatest masterwork of the most accomplished artisan in the history of the world?
She saw the awe in my eyes as her cheeks glowed with a pink and purple blush, and we kissed... I felt whole again as I got lost in the tenderness and the vulnerability we both opened ourselves up to, leaving our hearts in each other's care.
The flaming magic of one of my lips sizzled against hers, making wisps of steam drift up from our kiss.
I whispered something we had only just recently been able to admit to each other, “I love you so much, Aurora of House Ashryver.”
She smiled into the next kiss, then pulled back as she started stripping me out of my Scatter Armor, tossing my helmet to the side. “And I love you too, Knith Shade of the Brigade Enforcers, my impulsive knight who tilts at windmills.”
She hesitated and said, “You know you have to be more careful. You thanked mother twice in the chamber of the Ka'Ifinitum.”
Worldship Files: Cityships Page 4
