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[UW] Visiting Hours [Jek, Xuan 2.0]
Aglisse 2b is a warm garden world with two and half million inhabitants. One of the riches of the Mayaran system is that there are three primary worlds, equidistant from each other but sharing the same orbit, makeing them all ideally habitable. While bothe Aglisse 2a and b are smaller than Mayara (Aglisse Prime) itself they are more dense, and more metallic overall. The entire arrangment is the result of solar system engineering by some ancient spacefaring species. There are still ruins on all three worlds.
The world itself is held for the Duchess by Lord Askira and Lady Calibar, with the Duchess also having a substantial estate. Kaluga dominates most of Aglissa 2a, more industiralized than either of the other two planets.
The Thousand Blessings is moored at Aglisse 2b's highport, the engineering team doing repairs, clean up and a thorough system by system diagnostic. TXR protocol after such an incident requires a second TXR sign off and the Duchess dispatched a courier to the closest TXR field office one jump away which will then move on to the Imperial Throne with a report.
When you disembarked you discovered that the three crewman who were ejected in escape pods were in fact, not gone. Their bodies were found in Kaluga's quarters and Kaluga himself and the only two retainers he brought with him are instead missing. The Duchess declared him a traitor and summoned half her starfleet to Aglisse 2b. Kaluga is known to have nearly as many ships as the Duchess. The rebel fleet, too, may likely get involved. Imperial reinforcement is weeks away at best.
Lady Calibar is serving as your host, all of you are staying in her magnificent city palace, not far from the lowport and its connecting elevator to the highport.
Aglisse 2b is in the middle of the enormous annual Flame Tree Festival and the city itself is celebratory, the Duchess not having yet publicly announced Kaluga's treachery.
Xuan: You've seen Rieva once since she was dragged off, kept now in a security cell in the much more utilitarian spaces below the house. You could not say anything real at the time, of course. She was despondent and offered little more than monosyllables to your code phrases. But you hope for more now, right? After all, the Captain asked Mr. Bezier to be part of her guard detail at your request.
Jek: So, you agreed to the Captian's request on behalf of the Princess to be part of guarding this Rieva woman who, after reviewing your surveillance equipment aboard the Thousand Blessings, you know was not only part of the plot to take the ship, but also the Princess' former guard captain and lover.
When you took charge of her a few hours ago you found she had been recently and brutally beaten. She has surveillance equipment focused on her, of course, but that isn't much of a challenge for you to hack should you wish to ask your own questions. Have you done so?
The world itself is held for the Duchess by Lord Askira and Lady Calibar, with the Duchess also having a substantial estate. Kaluga dominates most of Aglissa 2a, more industiralized than either of the other two planets.
The Thousand Blessings is moored at Aglisse 2b's highport, the engineering team doing repairs, clean up and a thorough system by system diagnostic. TXR protocol after such an incident requires a second TXR sign off and the Duchess dispatched a courier to the closest TXR field office one jump away which will then move on to the Imperial Throne with a report.
When you disembarked you discovered that the three crewman who were ejected in escape pods were in fact, not gone. Their bodies were found in Kaluga's quarters and Kaluga himself and the only two retainers he brought with him are instead missing. The Duchess declared him a traitor and summoned half her starfleet to Aglisse 2b. Kaluga is known to have nearly as many ships as the Duchess. The rebel fleet, too, may likely get involved. Imperial reinforcement is weeks away at best.
Lady Calibar is serving as your host, all of you are staying in her magnificent city palace, not far from the lowport and its connecting elevator to the highport.
Aglisse 2b is in the middle of the enormous annual Flame Tree Festival and the city itself is celebratory, the Duchess not having yet publicly announced Kaluga's treachery.
Xuan: You've seen Rieva once since she was dragged off, kept now in a security cell in the much more utilitarian spaces below the house. You could not say anything real at the time, of course. She was despondent and offered little more than monosyllables to your code phrases. But you hope for more now, right? After all, the Captain asked Mr. Bezier to be part of her guard detail at your request.
Jek: So, you agreed to the Captian's request on behalf of the Princess to be part of guarding this Rieva woman who, after reviewing your surveillance equipment aboard the Thousand Blessings, you know was not only part of the plot to take the ship, but also the Princess' former guard captain and lover.
When you took charge of her a few hours ago you found she had been recently and brutally beaten. She has surveillance equipment focused on her, of course, but that isn't much of a challenge for you to hack should you wish to ask your own questions. Have you done so?
Comments
Do I hope for more? I'm not sure I know myself. Rieva was once my everything, and while our reunion has stirred that feeling in me again, her actions have been woefully out of step with the future that I foresaw for myself when I threw myself in with the Free Suns.
Aglisse 2b's gravity is reassuring after some time in space. I feel more at home with it's familiar weight pressing down on me, my formal robes settling where it should. I go to see Rieva today not as I knew her best, in practice robes or casual finery, but in what I would wear if I were Father sitting in judgement at her trial.
Why had I asked Allevard to assign Bézier to her guard rota? It would likely be inpolitic for me to see Rieva alone, but I imagine Bézier will be able to wipe me from the records if need be.
I heard it said once that you can tell the character of a society by how they treat their mad, the elderly, the poor, and their prisoners. Or something like that, but catchier. I think kids were part of the equation, too. Either way, I'm generally not in favor of beating prisoners... surely there's some professional courtesy for when the tables are turned?
I want to know who beat her. Yes, I make these systems dance like finger puppets.
And maybe I want to geek out about the bomb tech, too. In better circumstances, I think Robynne, Rieva, and me should be talking over coffee and doodles and staying up way too late, coming up with schemes.
The security station is a small with four consoles and a heavy door leading to the holding cell hallway. It's a black hole where undesirables are likely to meet an equally dark fate. The dark-haired guard you're relieving clicks off her call to some paramour who she's hoping to meet at the festival tonight, stands up and stretches. She reports that all has been quiet, and that the traitor has refused food again, and you both key the computer to log your biometrics and transponders for the changeover.
You take not of the monitoring information, showing that the prisoner is not in danger of dying, though she is in a great deal of pain, though the small groans coming through the audio pickups would probably tell you that much. Once the other guard leaves, Jek, you get an opportunity to take a look. When you review the logs you notice a 20 minute period about three hours ago that is flagged as having monitoring failure. The only way for you to access that video is to get administrator access to the system, which would be an Access roll, so +Interface.
All this is what you are in the middle of as the outer door opens and Her Imperial Highness and Kohaku, her guard captain, enter the detention area. You've found a weakness in one of the guards, haven't you, Jek, what is it?
Yes, I need to see those vlogs. I'll send a message to medical for a small requisition of painkillers. That's not right, beating a prisoner certainly would never be tolerated when I'm in command. If Rieva's looking at me, she's likely to see a cloud of emotion being masked.
As I'm working over the console, I allow a small polite smile to HIHX, widening a bit when I see Kohaku. She's got a problem, and it involves dice. Or the races. Or slots. Or cards. Or holocubes. Debts. Debts that get paid. Funny how deep that Imperial purse for "miscellaneous expenses" can dig, isn't it? I wonder who else knows. I'll have to try her luck if she's on a bad streak.
(Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 1, 1. Total: 3)
Apparantly Lady Calibar or, more likely, her Security Chief are freaking paranoid. It should have been a simple hack but you get suckered by a data trap that emerges from nowhere. In fact you suspect a less deft... a less specific hacking technique wouldn't have tripped it at all. only a moment watching what's happening with this little noisemaker has your blood running cold. You know this person's work.... who is it who is here and why do they scare you?
You can override the whole thing right now if you use one of the triggers the spymaster gave you. Of course it will increase your debt, but the alternative is letting your opponent know you're here.
When I arrive, Mister Bezier appears involved with some sort of delicate operation on the console. I file away the calculating look in his eyes when he sees Kohaku with me and wait for him to acknowledge me properly.
I don't let myself look at Rieva just yet. I'm not ready.
I absolutely use the trigger, I can't risk Tameron knowing I know what I know. He's cold and vicious, but not better than me — I think — and in deep with the Remnants. I last crossed paths with him in a campaign on █████████ Alpha, one of the other squads didn't make it. Clearly, he's somehow involved with the bomb- but how? Did he write it? Plant it? Shit, did he upload himself and is hiding somewhere on board? My imagination runs away with what a killer like Tameron would do interfaced with a starship, and it ironically makes me feel better, since we're not asphyxiated or crashed into a sun or murdered in our beds. But worse yet, what if it's coincidence and we've got two fronts to defend?
I am not going to sleep well tonight.
I've tried to compose a message to Robynne about this latest development, but all I end up with is
We have to talkwhich sounds wrong, maybe sends the wrong impression. Before I send it, HIHX parades in, every inch of her. I press the privacy key on the console, then straighten up."Your Imperial Highness," I say, trying to sound formal yet welcoming. "Hello, Kohaku." That sounds more casual, sure.
I don't bother to hide the dismay on my face when I see the state that Rieva is in.
"Mister Bezier," I acknowledge, looking skyward to avoid Rieva's wounds, barely stopping myself from hissing in sympathy. I notice Jek's posture, the sheen of incipient sweat on his brow. The way he straightened up when I walked in the room. "Are you alright?"
I take stock of her dismay, and hazard, "Like you, I'm concerned about the state of the prisoner." I hope she doesn't think I did this. I mean, violence if in my wheelhouse, but not this particular distasteful kind of violence.
One eye is purpling and swollen nearly shut and other bruises visible on her skin. Telltale signs of blood are around her mouth. Her right hand appears swollen some of the fingers held stiffly, probably broken.
The pained inhale reminds you of what caught your attention when you first came into the holding area to check up on her...
The guard you relieved has left. The holding hallway is dim and the first cell is the only one occupied by a dark, ragged bundle that just inhaled in pain. This brings back bad memories, doesn't it? What do you do?
Yeah, this is like that time in the monastery. I was a young man back then, not even allowed to grow my hair. They took in a warrior monk for heresy. Of course, we know ways to cause pain without damage, but that wasn't always the case out in the world. The monk, they called him the "One to be Broken" so I never knew his name... none of us did. I heard he starved himself to death rather than recant. Can you imagine the will behind that? What does it take for a man to truly force the body into submission over one of its most base instincts? To take a slow path... By choosing the manner of his own death, he earned respect and awe, despite his heresy.
I set the vlogs on a timed loop, keeping only my own copy, then approach Rieva. "What happened? Who did this?" I've knelt by the cell opening, close but not dangerously close. What did she do to merit this?
The bundle raises its head, glares venomously at you with her good eye, then spits on the floor between you with swollen lips and turns her head again... what do you do?
"Everything is a choice. I'm choosing to treat you decently." I'll grab a bulb of water from the dispenser and roll it into the cell. I lean back against the wall, waiting to see what she'll do.
She drinks the water greedily, pouring the last bit over her head. After a moment she speaks in a low, raw voice.
"A choice?" She sighs. "When did I have a choice?"
"What do you mean? Did someone force you?" I look casual, trying to reach out to her at the same time trying to remember what little tradecraft I know.
She shakes her head, a humorless bitter chuckle huffing out of her nose. "No... I mean I couldn't choose but to love the most impossible person in the galaxy. One who doesn't love me equally. The rest is consequences."
I force myself to look at the wounds that litter the face of the woman I once thought I loved. "I need to talk to her. But I'd rather that the logs didn't show any record of our conversation." I let the obvious implication sunk in. "You don't owe me any favors, but I'm asking for one."
"Love?" I shrug. "Lots of people aren't lucky in love. At least you knew where your cards lay. Love leads you to attempted murder?"
"I couldn't possibly do that, Your Imperial Highness." Without moving a muscle in my face and using an economy of movement, I deliberately turn a knob and the green lights on the monitors flash red, then amber. I look a little smug, then serious. "These logs have already been tampered with."
I flick my eyes at the entourage. "No recordings by the ship, that is to say."
My hand floats to the console to open the door. I flit inside and sit opposite Rieva. Fix my eyes on her.
I wait for her to speak. As long as I have to.
I carefully do not smile. I've got the system doing my own recordings. Once HIHX is diverted, I'll look at Kohaku. "How's lady luck treating you these days, Kohaku?" It's friendly, like I don't know about her debts or troubles. I'm just making conversation, right?
Kohaku's stone face tells you she is very displeased by this development, but nods acknowledgement.
You enter the cell and sit.
The silence stretches on for what seems an eternity. She glances up at you, taking in the outfit with her good eye. She then slowly and with much, probably painful effort, pulls herself into the formal kowtow position.
"H-how may this honor less worm serve her Imperial Highness? she rasps out.
Jek,
I attempted to save my love from a life she hated. How could I do less when fate put such an opportunity in my way?
Kohaku glances toward then cell, then gives you her stoniest look. "Threatening me is a bad idea, Bezier."
The console flashes from your side, showing that the override has allowed you access to the logs.
Surely she knows that I love her? But if there was a time when love is not enough, it is at the end of a pistol on the bridge of a vessel separated from the vastness of space by only a wall.
I wait for her to explain.
It's a sniff from you that has her look up. She pulls herself upright again, painfully, remaining seated on the floor in front of you. She looks at you for a time, her own eyes tear and she lowers them from yours.
"I thought it could not get any worse. But you weep and I find I was wrong. Again I was wrong." She says her voice still that quiet rasp. "I should have accepted the General's blade that day."
"Did she ask you to save her?" I wonder, looking at her beaten self. "Now she'll need to try and save you... but 'tis better to have loved and lost, and all that."
I look innocently at Kohaku, nodding toward the cell. "What threat? I thought you might want to talk about it without HIHX listening." I look at the console out the corner of my eye and shunt the vlogs to private storage so I can review without the world looking over my shoulder.
My blood runs cold. It can only mean that, or that Akio thought that she brought so much shame to the house that he asked her to take her own life.
"With his blade at my throat, he offered me honorable death, or banishment along with my oath to never speak with you again." She lowers her chin again. "I took what little hope there was. I did not have the strength to choose otherwise."
"You made that decision correctly, at least," I say, distracted. "I still can't fathom why you dashed that hope onto the rocks." I'm lying of course. I can't pretend to myself that there is no love left in me. But she doesn't deserve to know that.
I lower my voice. Of course, Jek wil likely still be able to access this conversation with the recording instruments in this cell, but I'd rather not conflict Kohaku's loyalties without need. "You are not the only one to be working with the Rebellion. I received no communication that a plan was afoot, and would not have gone along with one that resulted in so much loss of life. We are not the Empire. We are better than them." I pause, hungry for information. "Where do your orders come from? If I am to shield you from the worst repercussions of your actions, it will be better if I know."
Jek,
She glances towards the cells and closes the distance between you a little.
"With you, Bezier? Did we suddenly form an intimate attachment I was not aware of?" She scowls. "Threat is the only possible reason to bring up such a thing. And that will not work out in your favor."
She can't faze me. I've seen some shit that'd turn you blue. "Kohaku, you've spent so long with the stick, you've forgotten about the carrot. What if I'm just trying to get on your good side by helping you?"
Jek,
Kohaku studies you intently at this closed range between you.
"What... what do you want in exchange for your 'help' I wonder. And how do I know you will not use what you know to blackmail me, however unwisely?"
Xuan,
She scowls...you think, at your evaluation of her decision. She seems surprised at your claim of being a rebel. But she recovers her balance quickly.
She shakes her head.
"Kaluga gave me my orders, but I do not wish your protection, Xuan. That hope was... nothing but a delusion. Sword or rope, I will not refuse my fate again."
She looks away, wheezing a bitter chuckle.
"And if you are a rebel you are a niave one. Such loss of life? Xuan, it was one ship and there would not have been any loss at all had your Captain simply surrendered. If the ship had been destroyed, who would you have lost. Your sweet old Aunt? The one who betrayed us?"
She looks up at you again. "If the plan had succeeded, it would have avoided millions of deaths. Even so, war is coming, Xuan. People are going to die."
I try not to think about the last game of gēmu I played, when Akio turned my emperor into a servant and slaughtered all my guards.
And then, "You must talk quickly and completely now about Auntie Bai. What do you speak of? What betrayal?" She had something of this on the bridge, but I hadn't understood.
“You were never good at gēmu, Xuan, your heart was too soft.”. She sighs. “It was Lady Bai, your eternal watcher, who betrayed us to the General. He told me himself.”
"What else did he tell you?"
It didn't hurt too much yet, this betrayal. But it would. I could feel it burning.
"That I was a fool for falling in love with you." Her voice comes quietly, with an edge of sadness. "For thinking we would ever be anything more than a momentary passion."
"I'll try to arrange for an 'accidental' escape," I say, voice going cold. "Send me a message on my private channel to confirm your safety. Use the phrase 'momentary passion,' so that I know it's you. Make sure that your Rebel contact passes word up the line that I shouldn't be blindsided by future maneuvers if they want them to succeed." Rieva will know I'm all bluster, but I don't care. I take a breath, looking again at her injuries. "And tell me the guard I need to have removed from their duties."
Xuan
She looks up at you calmly, her good eye strangely beautiful in the light.
"So that was not...?" The glint seems to shift in understanding. "I see." She glances at the door, then looks down, takes a breath, and looks up at you again.
"You are neither my liege nor my love now, Xuan. I do not want your help, and I do not obey you. I will not resist my fate any longer."
When Kohaku and Jek are acting normal, I hold two fingers out next to my side; a gesture I've established with Kohaku for asking for a moment of privacy. When she's gone, I point over my shoulder with my thumb. "This trick you just pulled, where you loop the footage of her being in the cell. You can do it again, right?" I ask first. Then I explain my plan: I need Jek to bug Rieva's implants and then track her. See where she goes. And I want her to think that I'm doing it without the Captain and TXR's help.
Which, depending on what Allevard says, I might be.
"What do you say?" I ask Jek when I've finished explaining. "Think you can do it?"
"Future favors," I tell Kohaku, "And not like that." Not that I'd mind favors from her, but I'm not a creep. I give her a slightly reproachful look, but hurried since Xuan's heading back. "And I'm not going to blackmail you because we work together. We need to trust each other. I want to be able to rely on you to get my back if shit hits the thruster. And vice versa." I zip it and get my act together when Xuan's present again.
When HIHX addresses me, I look attentive and responsible, and say, "Indeed so, Your Highness... but such a loop can be detectable depending on the length of time." I shrug modestly. "As for bugging the existing implants, well... there are implants and there are implants. I expect it to be a simple matter. You don't want a fresh implant, do you?"
I have to know, too, but there's no way to be discreet. "Did Rieva tell you who... beat her?"
I walk with him to the door of the holding compound, where Kohaku is waiting. I gestured in the direction of the terminal with a be-ringed and manicured hand. "I'll look over the logs later, see who came in. Unless you already have?"
Even in her small gestures, she's regal. Such poise, it's impressive. "I haven't had a chance yet. I've only just retrieved them." My eyes flick to Kohaku, asking a question without words.
Jek
Kohaku's lips thin as she returns your look from behind Xuan, she gives the slightest shake of her head. You can read it clearly enough. Yes she did it. No she doesn't want Xuan to know.What do you do?
"It will take some time to decode, Highness. Your time is too valuable... We can review later, that's a good idea." I don't look at Kohaku.
I turn away from the holding compound, flipping my hood up over my features. Over my shoulder to Kohaku, "Ping Miyako and Haru, have them meet us at the entrance to the lowport. We're going shopping."
Most of my funds were still tied to Imperial credit, so of course whatever I purchase will make its way to Akio. But for some reason he hasn't come after me yet, so I might as well continue to take advantage of that.
I needed to make direct contact with the Rebellion. Between Rieva's actions and those of Taru's, I need to hear what my orders were. On Aglisse 2b, my contact was a street performer named Lilat. She was meant to be found in lowport between Perfumer's Alley and a grey market implant shoppe. I had no other way to seek her out, I'd have to chance upon her directly.
Before I left The Thousand Blessings, I routed messages through it to Robynne and to Allevard. The message to Robynne asked xie to join my for some shopping and included the coordinates of the market square between the alley and the implant shoppe. The message to Allevard invited him to tea in my quarters that evening.
I had a message for Auntie Bai too, but it was better delivered in person.