by Skyler Grant
"You're way cooler since you became Arena Grandmaster," Kara said, flashing a smile at Jinx. "Although I'm a little more on letting Mara's people use their bombs."
"Bombs you aren't even sure would work. Bombs that, even if they fail, are going to kill a lot of innocent people. Captain, please," Melody said.
"How would we reboot a nanite swarm?" Quinn asked.
"We had a control crystal to do that. I never knew the codes on it, but I have to think they're on that scepter that held the nanites. The nanites were probably dormant, and the scepter was intended to boot them up when the Emperor planned on being able to control them," Kalisa said.
"We can make them dormant? Why don't we just put them to sleep?" Quinn asked.
"That is the bombing option, more or less. We didn't build an off switch, so the EMP should achieve the same. Poor design, I realize," Kalisa said.
"So, the scepter. We steal an item either left behind at the vault or that Joline keeps with her," Quinn said.
"Neither sounding impossible, sir. I mean, tough, but stealing things is at least what we do," Taki said.
"It isn't that simple. You'd still require a personality to take over Joline. The only ones left are clan and my family doesn't trust them," Mara said.
"We're very untrustworthy," Kara said with a grin.
"It isn't true though. What am I but a physical container for an artificial intelligence? Can we use me?" Melody asked.
"Uh, no," Quinn said, unhappily. “There’s got to be a better way.”
Kalisa said, "I think you'd be compatible, but it would be risky. Assimilation by the swarm means complete destruction of your body. If you didn't manage to take control you'd essentially be a prisoner inside the swarm."
"And a source of intelligence of everything you know. Everything you've seen. Your knowledge of all of us, my family, the technologies of the clans," Mara said.
"Magic whispering anything into your ear?" Quinn asked Jinx.
"That we're probably going to die. Order doesn't think this is something that needs fixing," Jinx said.
"You shouldn't do anything at all. So what if billions in the Core die? Screw the Core. You had the right idea coming out here. Those bastards have hunted me my whole life," Ice said.
"I hate to do it, but I kind of agree with her. You all want to play the heroes and I like that too, but people who swore to us are here and need protecting. The clans are coming. There are other folks out there who haven't sworn to Joline. Let them kill her," Taki said.
Quinn didn't want to sit back and do nothing, but when Ice and Taki agreed it was an opinion worth considering.
Jinx said, "We're building something, and for my sake you all pretend it’s just going to be these two worlds, but nobody really believes that, not even me. The Emperor went too far and we replaced him by something even worse."
"So we agree we're doing something. Letting Mara's kin blow things to hell is the backup plan,” Quinn said, then added reluctantly, “I don't like putting Melody in harm’s way, but we all do it. If that is her choice, and we have no other options, we'll support her and make it work,"
That drew nods around the table. Even those who argued against any action were aboard once a plan was decided.
"Joline has so far been keeping her transformation low-key. Acting like she is still who she was, holding court and accepting oaths from nobles around the Imperium. Converting some of the most important ones," Mara said.
Establishing her base of control, solidifying it. Probably with the eventual goal of wider scale conversion.
"That should give us lots of holo footage then. We can check and see if she is using the regalia. If she's made a public appearance in any of it—she probably kept a hold of it," Taki said.
"The Sands would know what the control crystal is. They can't destroy it and in some situations, it is maybe useful for them," Kalisa said.
"Then she'll keep it close. Good—I mean, that’s terrible, but it gives us a place to begin. The modifications you need to make for Melody? How long will they take?" Quinn asked.
Kalisa looked over to Melody. "With her cooperation? Not long. While she's a good deal more primitive than what I'm used to working on, I make my tools backwards-compatible."
"This is my idea. I'll cooperate," Melody said.
"We best not let my family know. They won't approve," Mara said.
Quinn gave her a quizzical look. "I thought with your hardened implants you couldn't ... go around them? Keep secrets? "
"They don't think I can," Mara said frankly. "I can use them now, they work for me, but I'm an Order mage. It seems I'm still nobody’s slave. Keep that quiet, for obvious reasons."
Her family had considered killing Mara before for her implants going offline. No, it certainly wouldn't be wise letting them know she had slipped the leash again.
Quinn didn't know how they'd spin this later, explaining their actions to her family, but Mara was good at subterfuge and he trusted she'd find a way. At least they now had a plan.
26
"This is a terrible idea," Ice said.
They needed a part of the fleet for this operation and Ice used this to leverage herself into coming along. She was sitting in the copilot seat, grimacing at the controls.
She said, "You've got some of the best technology in human space aboard this ship. How is it the cockpit manages to still be grimy?"
"I like grimy. It's got style," Quinn said.
Ice rolled her eyes. "I remember when you used that as an excuse for not doing your laundry. My ships are good to go."
Six fighters were attached by magnetic clamps to the hull of the Centauri Bliss. They needed information and the Core was the only place to get it. Their stealth upgrades might be impressive, but they weren't going to be impressive enough to approach an Imperium data center.
Three of these centers orbited the capital, space stations that received all data from the Imperium and provided local storage and sorting before passing it on. They were operated by Imperium Intelligence, which meant their sensors and security were on the extreme end of good.
"Hold on to your stomach," Quinn said to Ice, before signaling to Jinx that they were ready.
Reality twisted in on itself. Quinn spent awhile as some sort of ocean crustacean, a rather surly one.
Then they were back in reality.
"Execute," Quinn said over the comms. Ice wobbled in her seat, looking distinctly ill.
The fighters unlocked their clamps and spread out around the Centauri Bliss. Each had been fitted with an energy shield and they'd salvaged quite a bit of crystallized mana from the three clan vessels they'd neutralized.
"It's okay to vomit, everyone does. Even I did," Quinn said.
"Wimp," Ice said, her normally pallid skin still looking particularly green.
Automated defense drones were already rising from the station to engage them. Far more maneuverable than any vessel that had to contain life support, they were almost all thrusters, sensors, and guns.
Quinn tapped the Bliss’s thrusters, not engaging their own shields quite yet. Right now Mara was outside and also clinging to the hull. He just had to get her a proper angle so she could launch herself down to the station.
Even if she ship couldn't manage stealth here, Mara was convinced that her stealth suit could handle even the security of Imperium Intelligence.
A single ship would have been overwhelmed quickly by the security drones, which was why they brought the fighters.
The drones had already closed to firing range. The Bliss’s armor plating took several hits, but Quinn held position, waiting for Mara's signal. As soon as it came in that she was clear he activated the shields.
"Did we get lucky?" Quinn asked.
Ice groaned as she flipped through sensor readings. Quinn used the time to hit the thrusters, drawing the fighters away from Mara before turning to let loose a burst of energy fire.
"Have we ever gotten lucky? Three minutes out," Ice said.
This was Mara's plan. The station would have archived full surveillance information from the surface, including keeping track of the activities of the Empress.
The drone defenses were incredibly dangerous, but they were also very focused. With amazing sensors they were all about identifying a target’s weak spots and hitting them. These drones could take out even an Imperium battleship in a hurry, but the Imperium didn't have anything like the energy shielding of the clans. Their precision was useless against something it required brute force to bring down.
That was where the three minutes came in—the time for the nearest Imperium battleship to reach them and provide that brute force. They patrolled the system regularly and it could have been anywhere from ninety seconds to ten minutes away.
Quinn sent a timer to Mara.
They might have a bit of leeway after the battleship arrived. If they kept things at range there was a chance, but that degree of fire power would still bring down their shields quick. For all that the Centauri Bliss had been upgraded, it was essentially a light freighter. There were limits to their defensive ability.
The fighter combat was already worse than hoped for. They'd counted on being able to destroy a fair number of the drones, but so far the fighters hadn't hit a single one. They were too fast, too smart.
Quinn wasn't having any more success.
They needed someone else to take over gunnery operations, the question was who. This was a battle of technology, they needed someone who could outsmart and anticipate these machines, and ideally knew the ship systems as well.
"Dela, these drones are slippery. Mind taking over on weapons and seeing what you can do?" Quinn asked through the comm.
"On it," Dela said.
"Still not trusting me to handle your gun? Here I thought we were growing," Ice said.
"Dela's head is stuffed with implants from Kalisa who is as mad scientist as they come. Kalisa's tech overcame Mara's stealth technology, I'm hoping it can out-think these drones," Quinn said.
One of the drones blinked out on the sensors, falling prey to a cascade of energy blasts.
Right, that was working out in a hurry. Dela wasn't just firing the weapons on the Centauri Bliss, she was now providing tactical support to the fighters.
They could communicate with Mara, but she couldn't answer. Even an encrypted signal from her would break her stealth and send up an alert from the station sensors.
The Centauri Bliss bucked as a shot hit their armor.
Quinn quickly checked systems. Most of their shields were holding, but they seemed to have collapsed in one quadrant. It wasn't a fuel issue, their fuel supplies were holding up.
"Kalisa and Melody, shields out in quadrant three," Quinn called. The drones were alert to the vulnerability. They might not have been programmed to recognize the shields, but their targeting algorithms were smart enough to know they were now doing some damage.
Evasive maneuvers were no use against these drones, so Quinn burned the engines hard, pushing on a big burst of acceleration. The drones were capable of keeping up, but at the cost of some of their mobility. While they were able to maintain fire towards where the shields were down, Dela was also able to target them properly.
Three drones went down, but by the time the shields went back up Quinn was recording multiple, minor hull breaches and system outages.
The shield on one of the fighters flickered off and within seconds it was destroyed, the drones converging on it and their concentrated fire hitting near the engines where the armor was weakest.
"I don't like losing my people, Quinn," Ice said.
They'd known it was the risk. The fighters were able to hold far less fuel, and while their shields were smaller and consumed less energy, they still weren't able to maintain them as long as the Centauri Bliss. The hope had always been that their evasive abilities would make up for it, but as maneuverable as they were the drones were better.
"Tell them to break off contact and move back. They stay, they'll die. They can return when it’s time to bounce," Quinn said.
"I'm not trying to guilt you into saving their lives. I know and you know they need to be just where they are for this operation. I’m just telling you, I don't like it," Ice said.
Nothing from Mara. They were still within their expected window. The battleship was getting close, opening fire from a distance. At range it was easy enough to avoid the shots. In another thirty seconds it would be getting a lot harder.
A second fighter exploded. That was two losses on their side, while they'd destroyed over twenty drones. It wasn't a fair exchange. The station had one hundred and twenty drones. They'd wiped out a little over fifteen percent of the defenses at a loss of almost thirty percent of their own ships. It was a rate of attrition which would get them dead quick even if the battleship wasn’t factored in the equation.
Mara's signal came. She would have left the station about thirty seconds earlier, before drifting far enough away before sending that beacon.
Quinn signaled the fighters and hit the engines. Three seconds of burn and a quick burst of reverse thrusters to slow the ship’s movement to a crawl as he dropped their shields.
Mara had better be on the ball. They couldn't linger.
The four remaining fighters shook the ship as they landed, their magnetic clamps securing them into place. It required them to drop their own shields and a third exploded, this time right against their hull as a drone struck it with perfect timing.
Fighters back. Mara clear. That was everybody. Drones swarmed them and massive bolts from the battleship thundered in their direction as Quinn hit the signal to Jinx.
Reality dissolved around them in a rainbow-colored blur.
27
Another family meeting. This one included dinner, and was aboard the Centauri Bliss. Mara wanted to report on the intelligence she'd recovered.
"Pass me that," Kara said, adding another steak to the pile growing in front of her.
"One day I'll vivisect you and figure out the secrets of that metabolism. I want it," Kalisa said seriously.
"Bribe me enough and I'll think about it. People have taken us Yek before, but nobody really figured out how we work," Kara said cheerfully.
"So do we have a location on the scepter?" Quinn asked.
"We do, but more than that. I managed to put together a pretty good idea what Joline is doing and it is horrifying. As bad as we feared, but in a completely different way," Mara said.
Quinn wasn't sure what difference that made to their planning. Still, he had to admit to being curious.
"Our fear was that she was going to effectively dissolve the population of the capital. What is she doing instead?" Quinn asked.
"She's making huge changes quickly. Instead of weapons of war, she's building cloning tanks."
That sounded better than the weapons of war, really.
"The nobility?" Kalisa asked.
"Smart guess, or you're just as twisted as they are. Nobles are coming from all over the Imperium to kiss the ring. Not everyone has sworn, but the widescale civil war has turned into isolated conflicts," Mara said, and brought up two holograms over the table. One showed rows of beds with humans on them, tranquilized. Another was a close-up of a couple boarding a shuttle, the image zooming in to reveal a network of silvery veins within their necks.
"Control mechanisms without a full takeover of their minds?" Kalisa asked.
"Imperium Intelligence uses them to interrogate assets. They cause degradation of the nervous system in the long term, but can render subjects pliable for months. Nobles are either leaving in this state, or they aren't leaving at all," Mara said.
Quinn was starting to feel his stomach sink. It was bad enough to think of facing the forces of the capital. If Joline was quickly solidifying her takeover of the Imperium, things got even nastier.
"What about the ones in the beds? What is she doing to them?" Jinx asked.
"Testing, breeding. It seems that she is trying
to combine the magical lineages of the Imperium to give one multiple gifts and increase power," Mara said.
It hadn't been years, or months, but days. This kind of progress in that short a time was terrifying.
"Interesting, although I am sure she can't be the first to have performed such experiments," Kalisa said.
"She isn't, but she is the first to have captured hundreds of nobles across different families to use freely as test subjects, with nanites backing conventional cloning technologies. I don't have her lab notes, but I'm concerned she might be able to pull this off," Mara said.
"We gave her a fairly weak mage as a host. So now she's building herself a stronger body," Quinn said flatly.
"And doing it rapidly. The rest of what she is doing is even more nightmarish."
Another image. This one had some sort of large vat that looked used for production. It was filled with tangled corpses. A makeshift mass grave.
"Why?" Jinx asked, her voice gone cold.
"Commoners, the unmagical. She seems to be experimenting on the best ways to mass-murder them while also harvesting material. This is an experiment where she is attempting to turn them into some sort of biological slurry she can use to help fuel faster clone production," Mara said.
"Recycling something that she sees as useless, turning it into a superior form. Trying to upgrade the human race," Kalisa said.
"And doing it with alarming speed. Without question the Glittering Sands are highly intelligent. They have no bureaucracy they need to answer to, have no concern about public opinion, and can build massive facilities in a matter of hours," Mara said.
"All of this isn't happening fast. It is happening slow. This is just her testing and refining techniques before she takes it Imperium-wide," Jinx said.
Kalisa said, "No wonder Order magic doesn’t wish to stop what she is doing. Right now the nobility are ... what? One to two percent of the Imperium? If Joline has her way they'll all become mages. If you wanted your weapon against my people, here it is."
