Power Games

by David Applegate

  Kaede crawled out from under a large bush. With each step, he pressed down into the mud and left a trail. He doubled back by walking in his footprints and climbed a tree. He watched and waited as Nori searched for him. When Nori saw the tracks, she stopped and looked around. She followed the trail with her toy laser pistol ready.

  Above her, Kaede stood on a branch, holding onto the tree with his right hand, his pistol in his left. He watched as Nori emerged from under the bush. Nori stood and looked around, Kaede dropped down behind Nori and shot her in the back. The buzzer on Nori’s jacket sounded. Angry, Nori spun around and fired at Kaede, but the system had disabled her gun. The tablet showed Kaede with three points and, Nori with zero.

  “No fair,” Nori cried out.

  Kaede shot Nori in the chest, and said, “Yelling no fair in battle gets you shot at a second time. There is no such thing as a fair fight.”

  “He cheated,” Nori yelled as she ran up to the teahouse.

  “Sorry, but Kaede is right. The only fair fight is one everyone loses,” Katerina said.

  Patya walked down the path. “How goes the test, Prince Kaede?” Patya asked Kaede.

  As they walked to the teahouse, Kaede replied, “Good.”

  “Why are there only two detectors on the vest?” Patya asked.

  “Front and back of the heart for the kill shot; I am going to add smaller ones, including some on a soft-padded helmet; one on the forehead and then another one on the back of the head,” Kaede replied.

  “Some want to place a ban on your selling the device because it is military training equipment,” Patya said. He went to kiss Katerina. She turned her head, and he kissed her on the cheek and sat beside her.

  “I am adding to the system a helmet, shin, knee and elbow pads, each with detectors. Let me market it as a kid’s toy. I can sell the Imperial Security Agency a version where the gun is a training rifle. I can add a device to the vest that generates a mild shock when a laser detector is activated. To increase difficulty, I can make the detectors smaller, have a counter to require a set number of hits, or set a minimum time for laser contact on the detector to count as a hit. I could also add a hit point bar on the vest. Or a combination of those,” Kaede said.

  “General Feygold has enough support for a ban,” Patya said.

  “I plan on presenting him with training weapons that have the same weight as real weapons.”

  “Those are fine, as they are for adults.”

  “Orcs give their kids rubber axes and mallets. Goblin teenagers carry real knives, and giants take their children hunting with real guns,” Kaede stated.

  “You can have a toy gun, just one that is not like a military training device,” Patya said.

  “But the guard has off-road vehicles,” Kaede argued.

  “Yes, they do,” Patya said. “What has that got to do with toy guns?”

  “You don’t stop private sales of off-road vehicles. Anyone who can afford to can have armour and bullet-resistant glass installed by Alexandris Security, a company owned by Pharaoh Takis Alexandris, who sells you the same glass for all Imperial armoured vehicles,” Kaede said. “Again, I ask you, can I sell the toy version?”

  “Patya, he has you there,” Katerina said, standing. She walked over to Kaede. “You will make an excellent lawyer, but it is soon time you boys went to bed, so pack away your toys.” She looked at Patya when she said toys.

  “Did you come to confiscate my toys?” Kaede asked. “I warn you I have an army of lawyers on speed dial.”

  “No, I came with a proposal from Petrov Arms to licence your laser and laser detector,” Patya said.

  “I have proposals from Hashimoto Defence and Reinhart Armaments; I will consider yours, then work out if one of your bids is high enough for an exclusive contract, sell you the product or licence manufacture to one group. Whichever proposal makes me the most gold, wins,” Kaede said.

  “Prince Kaede, this is for Imperial Defence,” Katerina said.

  “I want to be Emperor one day, so I need to be richer. The Defence Contractors Act limits the profit, so I need to expand my market,” Kaede said. “You cannot just proclaim any invention is for Defence of the Realm and take it; there is a process.”

  “Are you sure you haven’t been to law school?” Patya asked.

  “I have read a few law books,” Kaede replied.

  “A piece of advice for you, don’t reduce the quality of your laser emitter to reduce the price. I am sure you will have many contracts to supply them all over the Empire. You will make a pile of gold. I will even enter into a manufacturing deal with you,” Patya said.

  “Nori, why don’t you take the toys and meet me in my room? One of my Knights will take you,” Kaede said. He packed his gun in a carry case and put the vest into a box.

  A Knight stood behind Nori. “This way to the elevator,” she said as Nori packed her gear. The knight took the box while Nori carried the two cases.

  After Nori had left, Kaede said, “You could have just placed a call to me, Czar Petrov. What is on your mind?”

  “Honey, we can use some tea,” Patya said as he climbed the stairs and sat at the table on the balcony.

  “Yes please,” Kaede said and sat opposite Patya.

  “Remember the magnetic coils that we confiscated from your laboratory?” Patya asked.

  “Yes, how could I forget? The next day after you took them, Grandfather came and threatened to shut all my projects down,” Kaede said.

  “That was because your company was developing a smaller and cheaper cloaking device. In the interest of Imperial Security, we confiscated the field generators along with the data. Your Grandfather will compensate you, but I made sure he will licence the technology from you.”

  “Why?”

  “Takahiro created the first cloaking device and has a legal monopoly on stealth devices. He left me a licencing agreement and other contracts for you to sign,” Patya said.

  “What about my engine?” Kaede asked.

  “It is yours,” Patya replied.

  “That is the big secret; they are testing my engine now?” Kaede asked.

  “You know I cannot tell you,” Patya replied.

  “I have the highest clearance,” Kaede protested.

  “As do I, but Patya keeps secrets from me too,” Katerina said as she placed a tray on the table.

  Kaede looked at the teapot and three cups.

  “Omega Clearance only means that if you need to know, we will tell you. But only what we think you need to know. The Emperor doesn’t believe you need to know the details,” Patya said.

  “But I need to know the results,” Kaede said.

  “We informed the design team and made recommendations for changes,” Patya said.

  “I had a hand in the design, including the trigger,” Kaede said. “Are you going to confiscate my compact fusion reactor?”

  “I and others are worried that a semi-portable fission device is a bomb, not a power supply, especially since it weighs only one hundred kilograms,” Patya said.

  “You can say his name; eventually I will get that report,” Kaede said.

  “Dain is not the only one in the Senate who is concerned. Experts tell me it would not make an efficient bomb, but they fear it could explode,” Patya said.

  “Is this because I designed a fifty-megaton bomb, right?” Kaede asked.

  “Designing such a weapon aged nine has made a few worried. Worse, you told no one,” Patya replied.

  “Well, I thought if a nuclear bomb detonated a hydrogen bomb, then your twenty-five-megaton hydrogen bomb could be used as a trigger for an exotic matter bomb. I am sure it is capable of taking out multiple large ships in one huge blast,” Kaede said as he raised his arms and spread them out, “I thought you would be happy.”

  “Release the information to him. All of you were in a panic when intelligence reported the possibility the Ogres know how few fire ships we have,” Katerina said.

  “Precisely why we nee
d to keep it to a few and have them move about more. We need to keep the Ogres guessing. But to do that, I need to finish these new reactors so we can build bigger, faster ships,” Kaede said.

  “Well?” Katerina asked.

  “I checked your calculations and conducted a few tests, but the Senate has sealed the data,” Patya said with a broad grin.

  Kaede was excited. He jumped up and asked, “You set it off? Can I see the video? How big was the blast?”

  “See, this is the reason everyone is worried about you,” Patya said.

  “As if you sat straight-faced when you set off the device?” Kaede asked.

  Katerina poked Patya’s arm and said, “He giggled like a schoolgirl as we watched and waited in the command centre. They tested the bomb far outside the system; a drone was streaming live to us. The bomb looked tiny as it floated in space, ships cleared the area. Then when the bomb went off, he stood cheering like he just scored his first goal. He was so excited; He couldn’t sleep that night. The main blast was over a thousand kilometres in diameter.”

  “I did not,” Patya said.

  “You did so. Patya, let Kaede view the video,” Katerina said. “The weapon has Viktor worried because it can destroy multiple starships.”

  “You can tell Viktor my team are still working on a stable fission denial field. But we will not stop working on a field that can protect a starship, or city, from the blast wave from a fifty-megaton bomb,” Kaede said.

  “Relax, drink your tea, and I will get some bread and cheese,” Katerina said. She slid the tablet to Patya. “Go on, show him the videos.”

  “Yes, dear,” Patya said.

  Kaede watched Katerina leave. He leant over and asked, “I know you still hunt Demons.”

  “We haven’t seen one in centuries,” Patya replied as he opened the Big Bang folder and started the videos playlist. “The first video is the trigger.”

  Does he know? Kaede pondered. He asked. “Is it true that is the real reason we left Terra was to leave all the possessed behind?”

  Kaede’s statement disturbed Patya. He glared at Kaede and growled, “Where did you read that?”

  “There are claims you arrested and tortured people just for talking about possession,” Kaede replied.

  “I torture no one-” Patya said.

  Katerina put the tray down hard and interrupted Patya. “Patya! You are head of the Inquisition. How dare you lie?”

  Patya looked at her, and with a smile, said, “If you let me finish, I was going to add, who didn’t deserve it.”

  Katerina said to Kaede, “His favourite method is the confessional; He puts suspects into a small, comfortable black room and displays evidence of their crimes and mind probes them, while they are under duress,” Katerina looked at Patya and said, “Nowadays even he needs a warrant for the court to use it.”

  Patya shrugged as he said, “I rarely use duress.”

  Katerina gasped and said, “You’re meant only to use it on the worst criminals.”

  “I do,” Patya said as he looked left.

  Katerina snorted and said, “Kaede, as you see, Patya frequently bends the truth.”

  “Cool,” Kaede said with a grin.

  “Thanks,” Patya said to Kaede. He then glared at Katerina.

  Katerina raised an eyebrow and asked. “Why is his lying cool?”

  “The bending, not breaking the rules, is a mental challenge. It must be so exciting to be that intelligent and cunning,” Kaede said.

  “See, he gets it,” Patya said with a broad smile.

  “Your ego is over-inflated,” Katerina said. She took a chunk of cheese and put it in Patya’s mouth, then pressed play on the tablet.

  Kaede leaned over and said, “Anyone can lie; it takes a genius to avoid telling a lie and not reveal a secret.”

  Patya with a broad grin, adjusted his position closer to Kaede holding the tablet up.

  ✽✽✽

  Nori sat in the bubble bath in Kaede’s bathtub, which was the size of a small pool. When Kaede joined her, Nori splashed Kaede, and Kaede splashed Nori. Soon shouting and laughing, Kaede wrestled, with Nori, and pinned her to the wall. Laughing and squirming, Nori cried, “I give up. I give up.”

  Freya came in, gasped, raced over and pulled them apart. “No fighting.”

  “We were just playing,” Kaede said.

  “Keep it friendly,” Freya said and sat down.

  “Watch this,” Nori said and disappeared underwater.

  Freya stood at the edge and waited. After a minute, she knelt, reached in and pulled Nori out of the water.

  “Nori, what were you thinking?” Freya asked, “You should be careful around water.”

  “It is all right. I can hold my breath for a long time,” Nori said.

  “That does not mean you tempt fate by sitting on the bottom of the bath,” Freya said.

  “Yes, Miss,” Nori said.

  Chapter 28

  Many ships sailed down the canals to Imperial Lake and surrounded the island. Most of them were crane barges laden with rock; The rest were a collection of freighters, cruise ships, and a few Imperial Navy patrol boats. Construction began on expanding the island to twenty-five kilometres in diameter, with the western bridge closed.

  In the park workers carefully dug up trees and placed them into giant pots on the back of trucks; workers took the trees to other parks in the city to replant them.

  All over the island dozens of work crews marked out roads and started to fence off building sites. Other teams marked large rings around the Palace, the first, five kilometres in diameter marked the construction of a wall, gatehouses, parking structures and roads, at six kilometres out they marked the location of a fence around the park.

  Over the lake, starships descended and dumped tonnes of rock into the water. On the barges, an engineer showed teams of workers maps of the new island, bridges, and tunnels from the north, south, east and west.

  On a large barge, a team of engineers looked over a set of plans: The top one showed the positions of the pylons around the existing island to form a twenty-five-kilometre diameter circle around the current island. A Flower Elf in a hard hat left the team and walked down the hall to another office.

  The engineer stood in front of a wall screen and faced a group of engineers as an elf in a suit handed out tablets to each of the seated attendees. When the assistant was done, the engineer said, “Welcome to Kaede Constructions, Imperial Island expansion and redevelopment project. You are team zero six nine. Before we start, make sure you have the right tablet.”

  The engineer waited while the others checked the number on their tablet. After he looked around, he said, “Every day your tablet will have your work schedule and notifications, so do not lose it. I shall play a short introduction video, then take questions.”

  The engineer nodded to his assistant who dimmed the lights, and the engineer taped the large wall panel behind him; it displayed a video.

  The video showed a time-lapse of pylons rising one by one out of the water around the island. Steel girders appeared to form a massive frame, then inside panels appeared. A voiceover by Kaede said, “The first stage is to expand the island to a diameter of twenty-five kilometres. The wall will be built in eight sections, six of which will be completed in the first phase. As a pair of support columns are finished, a team will come behind to start on the mould. Once completed, barges will fill it with molten rock. During this phase, other teams will reduce the existing parkland, begin construction of new roads, hotels, and expand the base of the island.”

  The video continued. It showed a robot submarine drilling into the rock at the bottom of the lake. Another robot inserted large rods into the holes. The robots used lasers to melt the rock around the rods. A large metal construction mould was constructed around it and filled with a liquified rock from barges, while starships supplied the ships with fuel and supplies. The voiceover, by Kaede, said, “Most of the rock will come from asteroids. Once they have been bro
ken up and processed, the rubble will be loaded into Starships to be delivered. After completing most of the outer wall, barges will turn their attention to filling the gap between the island and the outer wall. As they do so, they will work towards and then complete the outer wall.”

  The video showed robot submarines with mechanical arms. They moved rocks and melted them with lasers. They started at the base of the existing island and spread out to the new outer wall. A time-lapse scene showed submarine robots filling the gap between the wall and the island until near the surface. Submarines retreated, and various teams of workers in heavy environmental suits worked to meltdown mountains of rock and spread it out. Other groups constructed moulds to form tunnels, giant pits, and driveways.

  The voiceover said, “In addition to melting rock, the submarines will construct many moulds to form caverns; tunnels and the foundations of buildings.”

  A time-lapse showed hundreds of buildings rising and covering two-thirds of the island. The voiceover said, “The second phase will see most buildings constructed. Most will be one point three kilometres tall. However, Kaede Plaza will feature two towers, each two-point-seven kilometres tall, on the eastern shore with a dozen office buildings, hotels, a marina, and a beach. The main highway will run between the towers to the eastern gate of the Palace. On the western shore will be Hashimoto Towers; it too will feature two towers, each two-point-seven kilometres tall.”

  A time-lapse scene showed a large open park with only a few trees between the Palace wall and a five-kilometre-wide circle of buildings and then another to the shore.

  The voiceover said, “Between the Palace and the commercial centre will be a 500-metre wide park. In the commercial centre will be office buildings for every department, military branch, and major corporations. The new Hashimoto Grand Hotel and Casino will be north of the Palace with a Hashimoto Teahouse, Kaede Mall, and the Kaede Fun Park. South of the Palace will be a massive mansion, it will be the House of Lords, the upper levels will be offices, and various courts, in a chamber underground will be a stadium-style chamber able to seat ten thousand Lords. In the towers flanking, this mansion will be offices for the lords and a residence.”