EG 3 Ch 32 (Patreon)

“I’m so happy you could join us.” Megumi grinned at whatever gullible idiot the Empire had sent her as a toy.

The blonde woman on the other side sat without a smile. “While I am eager to do this song and dance, the reality is Baron Rayden Valcrest has been summoned back to the Empire. It is my unfortunate duty to ensure that that does indeed come to pass.”

Megumi smiled. The other woman didn’t waste any time. She had eight of her tails hidden, but the one remaining could wag happily behind her. “And how do you know that the Baron of Valcrest is present?”

“Please,” the woman said, with a droll expression. “What you’ve shared with us matches our wayward Baron far too closely for it to be anyone else. And as I said, it is my unfortunate responsibility to bring him back to the Empire, though I will say I am happy to finally understand where he has gone.”

Megumi hid her sheer joy at being able to manipulate the Empire into assisting her with her own issue. “Forgive me. I didn’t realize the Empire was so insistent on collecting a mere Baron.”

Megumi pulled at the thread that she sensed. Something did not add up. While he was a male, an increasingly rare disposition, the Empire was vast. And their nobles, if anything, complacent. There was more that was causing them to hunt for Rayden Valcrest, and that interest made Megumi curious.

“This wouldn’t perhaps have anything to do with his strange crewmate, would it?” Megumi laid her cards on the table, quite literally, and put a tablet down showing an image of Lily.

The Empire’s woman groaned. “I was half hoping she wouldn’t still be with him. But since she is, we can address this strange creature in our midst. The Empire is not currently aware of her origins or goals. She is of secondary concern. The Baron is in charge of a volatile region, and as of late, there is no one from his lineage to continue resolving the many issues the Baron possesses.”

Megumi couldn’t help the happy tail swish. Her interest involved politics. There was always money to be made in the politics of humans. “I am so sorry to hear that. His people must be distraught in his absence.”

“Considerably,” the woman agreed, though Megumi doubted that the woman across from her truly cared about the people. She was just another of the Empire’s many dogs, a high bred one to be sure, but a dog all the same.

The Empire was the heart of the Federation, and as far as Megumi was concerned, they were the leeches that had stolen the Kikai technology and repaid them with lower wages and more brutal working conditions. They were everything wrong with the universe. Yet they were so large that it was impossible to function without them. It was funny how they had managed to establish that self-preserving balance.

“Well then, we should see him return to his region. There is an obligation for all Empire nobility to feed the lands which aided them.” Megumi offered half heartedly, knowing that few of the nobles actually believed such sentiment.

For the first time in this whole conversation, the blonde across from her smiled. “Thank you. So few understand what it means to be noble. It’s not just a privilege. It is also an obligation.”

“Oh, I deeply understand that. I myself have had a substantially privileged upbringing. It’s only right that I pay it back several times. Now, about the issue we’ve been discussing. While I am certainly happy to return Rayden Valcrest to his barony, unfortunately, it does seem he’s been at the heart of several problems here in our galaxy.” Megumi had no issue working to increase the cost of her information.

The Empire’s negotiator cringed.

Megumi frowned, trying to remember the woman’s name. It was very Empire-ish. That’s right, Calise. She smiled at the successful recollection.

Calise shook her head. “Unfortunately, our communications with the young baron have not been successful. While you and I might agree on the needs of the nobility, he very clearly is not in agreement.” She dropped into a deep scowl.

“Oh no,” Megumi said, attempting to sympathize with her.

“It is fine. It will be resolved.” Calise waved off her concern. “However, it will most likely remain a point of pain until we can collect him. You must understand his recently deposed family was quite unorthodox in a number of their choices, resulting in their son’s unfortunate refusal to continue their line.”

“Horrible,” Megumi said, playing her part. “Would we be able to engage the Federation in assisting us with his removal from our galaxy? While I would like to say we would be perfectly capable ourselves, there is the small issue of keeping him alive. I’m worried the conflict he might incite would be dire enough that some of our forces would take extreme measures to stop him.”

Calise winced. “We would be most appreciative if he could be retained. He is the last of a noble line as well as a significant part of our nobility.”

Megumi grinned. There was something personal here. Something she could use. “I’m so sorry to hear that.” She leaned across the space and touched the other woman’s hands. “There is nothing more frustrating than a man who doesn’t understand his place in the world. Given their scarcity, I can understand the frustrations in a man of noble pedigree causing such frustrations.”

Megumi smirked to herself. While everyone in the universe was struggling with the drop in male partners, the Unity had no such trouble. All of the divines they were creating were made with minimal male involvement and far more laboratory expertise. It was simply an easier process.

“While I am thankful for your understanding,” Calise said with a nod, “the amount of work laid upon me does not change.”

“It never does.” Megumi remained sympathetic to earn the woman’s support.

“I appreciate it. It has been difficult coming out here and resolving this.” Calise bowed. “And I am greatly looking forward to a final resolution.”

“I would be too if I were you.” Megumi grew tired of this, but hid it deep. “Now, as we discuss him, I must insist on your help identifying what he might or might not do. We are simply too caught up trying to catch him and struggling to predict his next actions. If he is a member of the Empire, do you perhaps have a detailed dossier on him?”

The woman winced, and Megumi wanted to scrape her face off. Why ever would she come to this discussion with so little to offer? It was infuriating. But then again, she reminded herself that humans were lesser beings and that one needed patience to understand those so different from herself.

“Unfortunately, Rayden recently broke most, if not all, psych profiles we could build on him based on prior interactions. It has been one of the more difficult aspects of this case.” Calise stated. “His family had attempted to manipulate his mind, and when he broke the shackles of such training, it led them to their current situation.”

Megumi tried but failed to hide the disgust on her face. “I see. I had no idea. It must be difficult.” Still, she persevered and pushed through.

“Thank you,” Calise said. “Rayden Valcrest is my betrothed. The Empire is continuing to put pressure on my duchy to resolve this.”

Megumi pinned her smile on her face. Betrothed? Duchy? This woman in front of her wasn’t some random hound sent to collect the wayward captain. She was a motherfucking duchess.

Megumi’s first inclination was to squeal with joy. The amount of effort that would be put in behind a duchess was far preferable to anything before. But that squeal of joy died before it was born as she realized the secondary implications. The Empire had sent a duchess to retrieve this man. In other words, the tolerance for failure was even lower than she could have expected.

“Well, hopefully we’ll be able to collect him,” Megumi said quickly.

“I can only hope.” Calise perked herself up. “He’s been difficult thus far, but there’s no reason that we can’t change that and fix this situation.”

The woman smiled while Megumi internally cursed a thousand times. She had called for the Empire’s help, and they had given her nothing more than the fuse that led to the bomb already causing her issue. Not only did it make the problem hers by officially acknowledging it, it made perfectly clear what was at stake. Really, killing the captain would not solve anything.

Megumi was left plastering a fake smile on her face. “I’m certain we’ll be able to reclaim him alive,” she said to the duchess before her, just as her communicator began chiming with urgency.

She glared at it. It shouldn’t interrupt her, not in the middle of this meeting, unless of course, one of a very select few was trying to get a hold of her. And if that was the case, the situation had grown more problematic.

***

I watched the research station, which looked like a large top spinning in space, waiting for something to happen while time ticked away.

"Quieter than I would expect for a research station," I said, leaning back in the captain's chair with a bloated Pip curled up on my lap. Every now and then the little leviton would groan, open an eye to make sure he was still in my arms, and then go right back to napping and moaning about having an overfull stomach.

"You know, you didn't have to eat all of the neutron cores." I told him.

"Pip," the little leviton said weakly. He’d been like this for over a week, talk about over eating. Though despite swallowing enough mass over a hundred times his size, he was neither heavier nor larger than before.

"Of course, whatever you need, Pip." I nuzzled him affectionately before glancing back up at the rest of my crew.

"Well, it’s only really possible to keep a secret research base secret if there's not a whole lot of movement," Melgara pointed out.

"I suppose you would be the expert," I teased. "By the way, you haven't told us much about the black sites that you used to work at."

"Dangerous places," Melgara shrugged. "Lots of sciencey bits I'm not sure you all would appreciate. I know my prior attempts to talk about it with Minnie fell on deaf ears."

The ancient black dragon looked up from her seat. "When the Void comes to claim us all, so too will our knowledge disappear."

Melgara was less than impressed and made it known with a purse of her lips.

"Well, I'm curious. What did you work with?" I leaned forward, chin in my hands.

"Mostly genetics," she answered.

"Well, if that's how you talk about it. No wonder she got bored." I told her.

"Re-sequencing of genetic anomalies, as well as mimicry of existing genetic morphs." She offered.

"Cloning?" I asked.

And she blinked. "Yes.” Her eyes narrowed as they watched me. Apparently I had connected more than she had been expecting.

"I mean, it seems to be a topic you were quite knowledgeable in. Consider it an educated guess. Whose clones were you making?" I asked.

"Mostly rich CEOs, maintaining a bank of clones and refreshing them often with new brain scans, so that we could dump the memories inside the clones in case the CEOs ever died." She was so nonchalant about the absurd process she had just described.

"Wait." Brick spun around. "How often do the CEOs die now? And also thank you. That confirms and explains like a million conspiracy theories."

"I didn't take you for a conspiracy theorist." I lifted a brow at Brick, and he scoffed.

"I mean, you don't exactly have to pay that much attention to hear them. They're practically mainstream media at this point." The grogax was clearly put off by the attention on his theories.

"Well, to answer your question, Brick, we would have an actual death maybe every two years." Melgara told him.

"Then what did you do the rest of the time? You couldn't just be maintaining them.” I realized why she’d be working on some of the mimicry, she was ‘improving’ the clones.

"You'd be surprised how much goes into maintenance, Captain. But no, there's quite a bit of research I was able to do with the equipment used for cloning. Not to mention, being able to generate a clone creates substantial avenues for research, given you can isolate variables far easier." She told me.

I stared at her, waiting for her to answer the question.

"Genetic improvement, as well as some of the foundational research that created the JACK drive." She slipped that last part in so casually.

"The JACK drive?"

"The JACK drive," Melgara said, with no small hint of pride.

"Could you make a JACK drive?" I asked, causing the woman to sputter.

"Do you even realize the amount of resources that go into a singular drive? Not to mention the equipment I would need to even get there."

I stared at Melgara with a smile and blinked as handsomely as I could.

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Of course you don't."

"I mean, we've got a helivore. Pretty sure that's a cheat for just about every scenario." I offered.

Melgara paused. "I would actually agree with that. But Lily alone would not be capable of replicating what is needed. It's the quantum syncing that's the hardest part. You have to have the pair."

"So does this ship have a pair?" I asked.

"Yes, one is likely maintained in some system as part of a whole collective. It's not much more than a relay station."

I squinted. "Does that mean they could brick my JACK drive if this paired part dies?" I gasped and grabbed the edge of my seat with enough urgency that Pip startled and nearly rolled out of my lap. "Are they going to charge me a subscription for the JACK drive?"

Melgara blinked at me. "Even I'm not that evil. That's a step far gone in morality."

"I wouldn't put it past corporations," I grumbled. Subscriptions were pure evil. I was honestly surprised that I hadn’t encountered that many.

"There's certainly some amongst them who would, but there's a history of subscriptions causing riots. It was one of the biggest pain points as humanity integrated with the rest of the universe. And to answer your question, your JACK drive will still function if the other half is removed. You just won't have instant communication capabilities any longer."

"Oh. Okay." I let out a sigh of relief and sat back, reseating a rather disgruntled-looking Pip. "How much longer do we have?" I asked.

"Four hours," Lily spoke, before anyone else on the bridge could. "And the four hours doesn't count for any response time as well.”

“Your two new sanguafae lovers will hopefully have made a big enough distraction." Melgara commented.

"Though they are not—" I began, only for Lily to jump to her feet.

"They are not his lovers," she shouted angrily, as Melgara leaned back in her seat with a satisfied smirk.

"Please don't antagonize the helivore on the bridge. It benefits none of us," I scowled at the blindfolded woman.

"I disagree. It is interesting to observe her territorial behavior." Melgara took a tablet out and started scratching her observations onto the screen with a stylus.

"And Lily, I've said for the umpteenth time, I have no interest in either of them. You've got nothing to worry about." I calmed her down.

Even bristling as she was, Lily settled back down.

"Do not worry, Lily. They will not be joining this crew," Violet reassured her. "I do not like those sanguafae."

"I'm fairly certain they're not actually interested in the captain," Melgara said. "That's just how their people are naturally. Perhaps the whole talk of your blood being special is just them softening you up too."

Lily still frowned, though my scowl toward Melgara grew. "That doesn't change the fact that you've been using their behavior to tease Lily."

"Oh, have I been teasing her?" Melgara asked. "I suppose." The blindfolded doctor turned toward me.

"I suppose when you wear a blindfold, it is easy to miss, isn't it?"

Her face dropped into a deep scowl.

"Turnabout is entirely fair play." I cut off any complaint before it came from her mouth.

"Since you're so familiar with sanguafae," Violet started, "what does one who's actually interested act like?"

Melgara gave a toothy smile. "They get nippy."

"They would bite the captain?" Lily's eyes glowed bright pink.

"They'd want to feed on him. They have a very hard time resisting drinking from someone they're actually interested in. Though they’d need permission to bite him, they would scratch with their fangs to get a small taste," She answered.

"Those two did seem interested in biting the captain," Lily countered.

"It's different," Minnie promised. "When I've seen it in the past, they often put their fangs on them. What you saw there was just them being flirty. Not that I think they would have said no if the captain had offered his neck."

"Which I did not, Lily, nor will I." I met Lily's eyes before she could complain any further.

She sat back down and crossed her arms, and I let Melgara get away with her distraction, noticing how she had used Lily to get us off the topic of her past research. Though she'd certainly already told us enough, I wondered what bits she was hiding, and wondered if even Minnie knew all the details.

The black dragon was being quiet, though that wasn't exactly an unusual state for her.