I stared at him. “This changes…”
I couldn’t speak for Isla here. Looking to her, I saw her shake with a mixture of rage and memories that seemed to be playing across her face. I wondered what kind of horrors she wanted to inflict, just as Clarice had wanted to do the same to our Chel prisoner.
Instead, she just sucked in her breath. “He’s garbage. Throw him away.”
Cassius the Elder nodded and then lifted the four-hundred-pound man up over his head as if he were a small child, showing just how powerful an enhanced Crius body was, then hurled him down over the side of the walkway. He fell downward forty stories and landed as a tiny speck against the rocky desert ground below.
Isla laughed then smiled.
Everyone else was uncomfortable except Zoe and my father, who chuckled along. My father then clasped his hands together. “Is there any objections to proceeding from this point?”
Fade looked down at the ground below. “No, I’ll surrender myself to your custody.”
“They’re not to be harmed,” I said. “Not if you want my cooperation.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Cassius the Elder said. “You’d be surprised at how many of the FSA soldiers above are former Commonwealth.”
Thomas looked uncomfortable with that statement, which told me a great deal. My brother was a former torturer and had overseen literally hundreds of executions in the name of the archduchy’s security—including former friends and colleagues.
Cassius the Elder slapped his arm around my shoulder and escorted me to the door, gesturing for the others to follow. “So what would you like for dinner? My chef makes a magnificent bloodfish.”
Chapter Twenty-One
It was not the most awkward dinner party I’ve ever attended, my father’s usual galas including orgies and gladiator battles after all, but it was easily in the top five.
My father’s dining room was set up in a large circular chamber with four entrances with light provided by organic crystals growing out of the top of the wall. The table was rectangular, however, and made of greelwood in the classic Old Crius style. A buffet of fish, meats, potamatos, brocumbers, and other traditional dishes were present. The food was being served in sterling silver containers and on fine porcelain dishes with even the utensils being electrite and costing probably more than some spacers made in a Sol year.
It annoyed me, to some extent, my father had clearly gone to the trouble of having all of these imported since they weren’t vat-grown products like I’d become used to on the Melampus but fresh. It was an extravagant luxury for the man who was deliberately cultivating the image of a hardened revolutionary fighting against an overwhelming foe.
Cassius the Elder sat at the end of the table in what could best be called a throne. It was actually made of stone and had a golden disc displaying the Sun and a Kolahn face on it, making me think my father had casually looted some temple to provide himself a dinner chair. Everyone else was sitting in typical wooden chairs across from each other with Isla to my right while Clarice sat to my left with William on the other side of Clarice. My siblings sat across from me and Isla, both looking as uncomfortable as I felt.
The servants who attended on us were unsettling, as they were dressed in sexualized versions of dinner jackets and maid uniforms and moved in utter silence. They moved in perfect unison and had no sign of response save immediate obedience. They seemed as empty as my vision of the soldiers above but I wondered if I was projecting.
Isla whispered over to me, “I was programmed with memories of being a fairy princess and this seems excessive.”
“He can hear you,” I muttered, dabbing my mouth with a napkin after trying the soup. I was glad it wasn’t poisoned but the environment didn’t lend itself well to casual conversation.
“Yes,” Cassius the Elder said, chuckling. “I had an implant in my ear that allowed me to pick up even the tiniest of noises then filtered them through a dummy A.I. to bring important bits to my attention. Very useful in court.”
“Isn’t the Crius Royal Court dust and ashes?” William said, showing no sign of my hesitation.
“Indeed,” Cassius the Elder said, chuckling. “I managed to win the Great Game through survival. All of the nobility of Crius have either renounced their titles or are dead.”
“So is that what this whole revolution is about?” I asked, shaking my head. “Rebuilding the old order? You as archduke?”
Thomas snorted, across from me.
“Hardly,” Cassius the Elder said, chuckling. “I think the first thing I’m going to sign into law is an end to any and all aristocratic privileges. There will be an Empress of Crius, dear Princess Servilia, but she’ll have a purely ceremonial position. Equality for all from peasant to prince—”
“But some more equal than others,” I said, finishing his sentence. “You’ve never cared about the people before.”
“On the contrary, I’ve always been keenly aware of their importance,” Cassius the Elder said. “I’ve never been so stupid as to believe the bullshit the state taught about us being a master race. Any and all human beings could be like us if they had enough money and a team of engineers. Even then, you can’t instill ambition and vision—after all, look at you.”
I ignored his jibe. “What are you trying to accomplish, then?”
My father leaned back in his throne and looked at me. “A lasting peace.”
“Peace,” I said, as if it coming from him were comical.
“Why so skeptical?” Cassius the Elder said, looking at me sideways.
“Because you started an intergalactic war that’s killed millions,” I said.
“Is that lobster? I’ve never had lobster,” William said, looking at it sideways.
“No, it’s shavafish,” Clarice corrected, getting some.
“What’s the difference?” William said.
“There isn’t one,” Clarice said. “Not really. Just like there isn’t much difference between the Commonwealth’s Reclamation and Cassius the Elder’s plan.”
Cassius the Elder chuckled. “I like your friends, Cassius. You’re unusually silent, though. No answer to my question?”
“William and I are in accord for once,” I said, taking a deep breath. “You have no idea how much damage you’ve caused in the pursuit of your ambitions.”
“Six million,” My father said, sighing. “That’s a rough estimate, give or take a couple of hundred thousand and ignoring the various groups that were fighting already when one side or the other joined the FSA. It’s actually a relatively small number of people killed. The number of people willing to fight for the Commonwealth to the end is far less than anyone suspected. They broke themselves against the flower of Crius’s soldiery and expended their best soldiers. Those left were very often those conscripted from the very worlds they conquered.”
I suspected my father was making up a number far less than the actual number killed. My own research had confirmed at least sixteen million killed in the conflict and Commonwealth numbers went from fifty to a hundred and fifty million depending on which source you chose to believe. Either that, it was a war being fought for revenge and a man’s vanity, making my father worse than all the archduchy’s convicted serial killers put together.
“And how is that going to bring peace?” I said, shaking my head. “You’ve not brought up the fact I talked about the Commonwealth surrendering once.”
“You could have everything you want,” Isla said, looking around. “All of the worlds independent except for the ones united under the FSA. Certainly, you can’t want the Community to invade.”
“Can’t I?” Cassius the Elder said.
Isla did a double-take. “What?”
“My father has some very interesting ideas about the future of humanity,” Thomas said, looking over at Clarice then me. “Ideas that don’t necessarily involve the stated goals of the FSA.”
“I’ve seen how empires are built,” Clarice said, looking over at him with disgust.
“You actually are waging war just for the purpose of inviting the Community in. They’ll smash the Commonwealth and all other nations involved in the war that refuse to surrender. Then you’ll be appointed as Viceroy or whatever and be the leader of a united humanity as a Community satrapy. King Herod to their Roman Empire.”
“I’ll be the greatest traitor since Judas, Brutus, or the Reverend Calvin Jones. Bigger perhaps,” Cassius the Elder had no shame in his voice. “Nevertheless, humanity will finally be underneath one single government and rule of law. Furthermore, we’ll be backdoored into the Community as members. A non-voting territory of one of the larger members like the Ants, Tecktoki, or Sorkanan.”
“Why in the world would you want something like that?” Clarice asked, stunned.
“On the planet Third Apollo, the population has a typical life expectancy of sixty. The genetic damage to the entire race of humans there is so extensive that one in three children die. They can’t escape what their world has done to them and it’s so toxic they don’t even bother to try to preserve their habitats but often let them fall apart. Slavery is effectively legalized, as your bioroid friend can attest, yet protections for human workers have been stripped clean on dozens of worlds the Commonwealth promised to improve the lives of when they conquered them. The availability of medicine—”
“I get it,” I interrupted, not wanting to hear another of my father’s speeches. “The human race is awful and suffering. It always has been.”
“Stability, technology, and economic prosperity are the only cures for that,” Cassius the Elder said. “The Community is the only power strong enough to bring that about. The Commonwealth might have been able to do that but they overstretched themselves and picked a fight with the archduchy. A victory they won only at the cost of vilifying themselves across the Spiral. Even then, it was already falling apart. It may be a few centuries but the Community will create economic links and shrink the size between worlds thanks to their superior drives. Human culture will mix more freely after the damage done by the Collapse. We’ll become one race again and socialized to the point where we can finally leave this shithole of an existence.”
I stared at him. “What makes you think the Community won’t just take us for everything we’ve got then ‘free’ us once we’re no longer worth paying for? That didn’t work out so well for the former territories of the British.”
“Speaking of which, I’ve been the ant rather than the boot,” William said, interested in this conversation far more than I expected him to be. “It’s not something I recommend. You may think turning yourself over to the Community is going to work out well but you’re not joining an empire if they’re landing troops. Joining empires gets you benefits but all of those are going out the window when you’ve got no cards to play.”
“We have cards to play,” Zoe said, her voice cheerful. “Ones even the Community would regret forcing us to deal.”
I had no doubt she was referring to the markers and their relationship with the Kathax Prime. I wasn’t sure we were to that point in the conversation, though. They were playing around and I didn’t want to tip them off to just how much I knew right now.
“There are other options,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Imagine if you were to agree to this peace treaty.”
“Proposed by the Watchers,” Thomas said, looking at me. “The secret police of the Commonwealth.”
“Which means that this treaty actually has legs,” I said, simply. “Imagine you getting all of those worlds’ independence and then using your position to create economic ties in place of direct military and government ones. You can create whatever unequal treaties you want with the Community, but trade will happen and elevate our technology level to equality with theirs. You also won’t go down as the worst traitor in human history.”
“Correction,” Clarice said, her voice icy and hateful. “You would go down as the worst traitor in human history, Cassius. After all, it’s your name they’re using to do all this horrible double-dealing and treason, not his.”
“I had noticed that. I just wasn’t going to bring attention to it,” I said.
“Except you just did,” Zoe said, looking amused.
“How are you leading this war anyway?” I asked, staring at him. “Is Thomas doing the actual commanding? You’ve never strategized outside of a brothel or high lords smoking room.”
“The definition is a good king is not a man who knows how to rule but who can delegate to those who can,” my father said, smiling.
“With the help of the Kathax Prime?” I asked, causing everyone in the room to go silent.
“Thomas, would you be a dear and help our guests find their accommodations?” Cassius the Elder said.
“Like hell we are,” Clarice said. “You think you can divide and conquer the Melampus crew?”
“I think I’ve already done that and if I wanted to actually conquer you, I’d just send a couple of hundred soldiers to do it,” Casisus the Elder said. “Which is extreme overkill since I think the best your group could repel is fifteen.”
“We could totally do twenty even if we all died,” William said, clearly either not appreciating how much danger he was in or perhaps having long since made peace with it.
I closed my eyes. “I’ll be fine. Besides, I wasn’t very hungry anyway.”
Isla looked at me. “With your permission, Supreme Commander, I’d like to attend as a witness.”
“No,” Cassius the Elder said, pressing his fingers together. “I’m afraid this is a family gathering only.”
I decided to risk our position further. “During this conversation will you tell me what you’ve done to your soldiers?”
You could have heard a pin drop but the first person to show their revulsion and guilt was the one I expected least. Thomas looked away with a disgusted look on his face. “What has been done cannot be undone.”
“I’m willing to hear their offer, my son,” Cassius the Elder said, calling me that for perhaps the first time in a decade. It only aggravated me further. “I have, after all, traded on your name extensively. Furthermore, you have my word of honor that no harm will come to any of your associates and they will be allowed to leave when we have finished our negotiations.”
I noticed he didn’t mention anything regarding his soldiers. Was it because there was nothing to say? No, the servants were a clue my “vision” held more than just the product of a fevered imagination. Something was going on here, something terrifying. I needed to find out the whys before I decided whether or not to blow up the planet. Which, honestly, still sounded like something out of a bad holovision show.
“Your word of honor would mean more if I hadn’t noticed you felt the need to repeat it and have betrayed virtually everyone you’ve ever worked with,” I said simply.
Zoe actually laughed at that. It made the entire dinner party all the more awkward since I didn’t find anything funny about it.
“Nevertheless, it is the best offer you’re going to receive,” Cassius the Elder said softly. “Look at the bright side, it is rare one can be involved in a deal where all the kingdoms of the world may be offered if one but bows down and worships.”
“Am I the Devil or Jesus in this allegory?” I asked.
“Is there a difference?”
That summarized the issues of my homeland in a nutshell. “I’ll go.”
“Of course you will,” my father said, as if it were a foregone conclusion.
Thomas proceeded to stand up. “I shall explain our situation, Ms. Rin-O’Harra, Ms. Hernandez, and Mr. Baldur. I think you’ll find what I have to say quite enlightening.”
“I haven’t agreed to go yet.” Clarice’s voice was low and threatening. I also saw she’d managed to get a knife ready. I had no doubt she could get to my father before any of his bodyguards could protect him. Always willing to sacrifice her life for millions. That was Clarice. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t just be her life even if she did manage to kill my father here—which
was unlikely.
“You can trust my brother,” I said, looking at him directly. “He’s a more honorable man than I am. Even when he shouldn’t be.”
That seemed to affect him. “I’ll take them to see their Commonwealth friends first. To show we haven’t harmed them.”
“Yet,” Cassius the Elder said.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Departing from the dining room with my brother and Zoe, the three of us entered into a massive library in an oval shaped chamber. There were dozens of shelves and reading tables throughout with a large octagonal window to the west. I’d been in many libraries before but few of them contained actual books with paper and plastwrite sheets.
It was a remarkably inefficient form of storing information and I was pleased to see a central computer terminal and holotop interfaces on the tables. It struck me as a place which symbolized my father, full of pomp and classicism but signifying nothing but his own ego. I wondered if there were any books he’d actually read in here or if they were just for show.
“Are you familiar with the Earth American Continent Civil War?” Cassius the Elder asked, walking over to a table and taking a chair before turning it around to face me.
“Which one?” I said, trying to keep it all straight. Earth history was something of a blind spot with me. I’d only learned about the Earth German Nazi movement recently. It was a source of embarrassment, given many planets still used them as a casual invocation of evil like the Knights of Velusia and, well, the Archduchy of Crius.
“The first one where the institution of slavery was the matter of dissent,” Cassius the Elder said.
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