Imperial Entanglements
folder
Original - Misc › Science Fiction
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
1
Views:
1,017
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Original - Misc › Science Fiction
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
1
Views:
1,017
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
Imperial Entanglements
style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana;">
Imperial Entanglements
By Cobalt-BlueAuthor's Note:This story contains sexual relations between a consenting male adult
and a consenting intersexual adult. The story takes place about 500
years in the future of my Atlantis Unleashed Universe. I own the
copyrights involved.Commander Malcolm Ryan kept his feelings and his thoughts strictly
to himself as he watched the track on the airlock rise to green
indicating that the shuttle bay had been returned to normal atmospheric
pressure. He knew that this mission was going to be difficult, but
fleet command had really screwed up in pairing these two captains
again. The last time they were assigned to the same mission, it hadn’t
lasted long. They’d already proven that they couldn’t work together.
But fleet didn't care about it any of that and cut orders at it chose
to do. It was up to her members to work around it.He nodded as the door slid aside and Captain Dacyn Atlyn entered the
passageway with his own first officer, Commander Seizemore in tow.
“Permission to come aboard, Commander?” the smaller man asked rather
stiffly. Malcolm clamped down on his own mental shields and sighed
inwardly. Atlyn was small compared to most Imperial Naval officers-
barely clearing a hundred fifty centimeters and fifty kilos- but he
carried with him a great sense of power. A lot of that power came from
the fact that he was one of the top rated psis in the empire.“Permission granted, sir. Welcome to the
is awaiting your arrival on the bridge,” Malcolm said and fell in
beside Commander Seizemore. It had been almost a years since the last
time he’d seen the commander, and that hadn’t been under the best of
circumstances. That year had appeared to take its toll on her, because
her deep green eyes showed a deep weariness, and of loss. There was a
lot pain that had passed through those eyes in the past year. Her red
long red hair- the exact same coppery shade as his own Captain Storm's,
her cousin- was pulled back into a fleet regulation ponytail. Malcolm
was hoping to be at least able to get a few moments alone with her to
discuss the best way to keep Atlyn and Storm from taking blades to each
other.She nodded to him and smiled. “Commander,” she said.“Commander,” he returned, not daring much more at this point. He
knew better than to try and discuss anything with her mentally. Captain
Atlyn was like himself and Commander Seizemore, a graduate of the
Imperial Psi-Corps Academy on Kentaurus. He’d easily pick up any
communication less intimate than a marriage bond, and at this point
verbal communication was out of the question. One simply did not
discuss a command officer with his subordinates in his presence.The lift ride to the bridge seemed to take forever, as they
traversed almost a kilometer of distance between it and the main hangar
bay of the Genesis.
He bode his time quietly, and waited to see how things went when they
arrived. He would have to admit, that Captain Storm hadn’t handled
things as well as he could have a year ago, but at the same time,
Captain Atlyn didn’t have to write Storm off as a lost cause.Now the situation with the Sol Union had thrown them back together.
The war had been going just fine as far as Malcolm was concerned.
They’d finally managed to push Terra back to the edge of imperial
space, a hundred and fifty light years from Thule Prime. Malcolm was
comfortable with that distance. It was halfway between Thule and Sol.
The Empire had plenty of room to expand core-ward and both spin-ward
and leeward. The Terrans could expand rim-ward and spin-ward and
leeward as well, maintaining a long border right down the middle of the
Orion Arm.The lift finally arrived and opened to reveal the hustle and bustle
of daily life aboard a Warder-class starship. Captain Storm was down in
the navigation pit discussing the course the ship would be taking to
the Epsilon Sagittarii System, where they were scheduled to meet the
Sol Union Ambassador on an uninhabited neutral planet. Malcolm
recognized the worried look on his captain's face, and was sure it
wasn’t just about the mission itself. This last campaign had taken its
toll on the fleet, and in this case a friendship that stretched back
over twenty years.“Officer on deck!” the security detail at the lift called. Malcolm
saw Captain Storm look up and watched a brief smile flash across his
face at the sight of the man next to him.
has some hope for things to get straightened out.“Captain Atlyn,” he said smiling and climbing out of the pit. “It’s
good to see you again, Dacyn.”“And you too, Daniel,” Captain Atlyn said offering a gloved hand.Storm looked at the hand a moment and then took in his own. “How was
your flight over?”Captain Atlyn smirked, “About as good as can be expected. You know
how shuttle pilots are,” he said with a wary grin. “We’ve been in
dry-dock for a month, and expect another five months before the
took a beating out there.”Captain Storm nodded, “I know what you mean. It’s been a rough ten
months for Genesis
come through that mess at HR 6998. The system is pretty useless to both
us and them, but it was just one of those situations where the fleets
caught up with each other at the worst possible place.”Captain Atlyn simply nodded and said, “If you have a moment,” he
glanced down at the navigation pit, “I’d like to talk to you about our
mission parameters.”“Of course,” Captain Storm said. He looked over at Malcolm and
Commander Seizemore. “Hello, Frankie,” he said to her.“Captain,” she nodded.“How’re your parents?” he asked.“Father’s retired now and driving mother crazy. Which is not good
since she's in charge of Atlantis'
Seizemore said.Captain Storm smiled and said, “Send them my regards.” Turning to
Malcolm, he said, “Commander Ryan, why don’t you take Commander
Seizemore to the officer’s galley for something to eat before showing
her to her quarters.”“Aye, Captain,” the first officer told him. Turning to Seizemore, he
said, “If you’ll follow me, Commander.”“Frankie, please,” she said.Malcolm nodded and replied, “It was Malcolm a year ago, it’s still
Malcolm.” The two headed back toward the lift, entered and both waited
for the door to close before letting out simultaneous sighs of relief.“Think they’ll pull this off?” she asked.“Not if they don’t straighten out that snafu from last year,”
Commander Ryan told her.“Exactly what happened on your end?” Frankie asked. “All I know is
that when Dacyn came back from that meeting with Admiral Blake, he was
furious. He said that Captain Storm had told the Admiral that he was
not comfortable with the Atlantis
the mission we were prepared for, to the one we weren’t.”“What was that?” Malcolm asked.“Hell’s Gate,”she said. “It ended up being a ten month running
battle with no back up, no support and no relief. The Terrans threw
everything they had in the sector at us. We limped back to Levi on
slipstream, and raw will power. They took out our fold drive in the
first week, hulled us in half a dozen places, and we lost half our
fighter complement.”“One ship?” Malcolm asked in horror. “Fleet sent a single ship to
Hell’s Gate?” He’d heard the rumors of the place. It was high energy
dark matter nebula right in the middle of the “corridor” leading from
the Sol Local Bubble to the Loop I Bubble or its more common name: the
Imperial Bubble. The two channels that ran on either side of Hell's
Gate were the only relative safe way to get from Imperial Space to
Union Space on slipstream drive. The Terrans were mining its gaseous
clouds and asteroids for materials and had several massive ship yards
there. It was also where they were staging their Fifth Fleet, for a
push down the corridor to inside imperial space. The original plan was
supposed to be for the carrier Endeavor
Hell’s Gate and clean it out. But at the last minute, those ships had
been reassigned to the Genesis.
Malcolm couldn’t believe that Fleet Command would send a single cruiser
to do the job of a task force.“Why not? After your good Captain told Admiral Blake that he
couldn’t trust the Atlantis
Fleet didn’t give a shit if we came back from Hell’s Gate or not. After
all, if the alpha fleet didn’t want us, we must not be good for back up
for anybody.” Malcolm didn’t need his telepathic abilities to sense her
feelings of betrayal. They were evident in her voice as she viciously
jabbed the selection plate of the food synthesizer for her chicken
salad and coffee. “Hell, the only reason we got this job was because
nobody else was available. Rumor has it, that we may not even get the
over. It’s looking like it might be a permanent transfer to the
diplomatic corps for Dacyn and desk jobs for all the rest of us- if
we’re lucky.”“I can’t believe Fleet Command would do something like that,”
Malcolm said. “You took a cruiser and did the job of a carrier group.
That has to say something about Captain Atlyn.”“Yeah, it says that he’s damn good at his job,” she said. “But Fleet
is about politics and Dacyn refuses to play politics.”“He’s an imperial prince, I can’t believe that they’d be willing to
risk that kind of fallout from the throne,” Malcolm said.“He’s an imperial prince who has no chance of ascending to the Grand
Council, let alone the throne. He’s been rejected by alpha fleet, and
he came back with his ship shot to hell. The only thing open for him is
an ambassadorship, and that’s only because of his experience in the
fleet intelligence,” she said. “To be honest, I’m about ready to go
upstairs and kick the ever living crap out of your brain-dead, Captain.”“Daniel was just trying to protect him,” Malcolm protested.“He protected him all right. Protected him right out of a career,”
she said bitterly. “Just because Daniel can’t get his head out of his
ass and jump Dacyn in his quarters, doesn’t mean he has the right to
make everyone at Fleet Command to think that Dacyn can’t do his job.”“I think you’re selling Daniel, short,” Malcolm said. “And I
wouldn’t be tossing around insults about the captain too loudly on this
ship.”“He was my cousin long before he was your captain. I can call him
anything I damned well please,” she said. “Besides, right now, I’m out
of his chain of command.”“He didn’t mean to give fleet the impression that Captain Atlyn was
incompetent. He was just trying to keep him away from danger.”“Dacyn, is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. He doesn’t
need Daniel to protect him. Hell, he took care of the whole damn ship
at Hell’s Gate. If it hadn’t been for him, I firmly believe we wouldn’t
have come out of there in one piece,” she said as the food synthesizer
created her meal from the raw energy of the ship's power plant.“So what’s the situation here?” Malcolm asked as the two grabbed one
of the many empty tables in the galley. This close to end of shift, the
place was deserted. “Is he the ambassador?”She nodded her head and picked up her sandwich and bit into it.
“Mmmmhuh.”“Why is Fleet suddenly interested in a ceasefire with the Sol Union?
We pushed them back into their own territory, but that doesn’t mean
they’re going to stay there,” Malcolm asked.She looked around to make sure nobody else was in the officer’s
galley to hear them and said, “Sol Union claims we destroyed one of
their civilian agro-colonies. We know we didn’t do it. We know they
didn’t’ do it. On top of that, somebody took out Station Twenty-six
spin-ward. They didn’t even have time for the psis to send a distress
call. All we got back was the sensor buoy, and a back-lash. The ship
was definitely not Sol Union.”Malcolm shook his head. This was not good news. In the five hundred
years since the Great Exodus of the transentients from Earth, neither
the Empire nor the Terrans had encountered a single other intelligent
species in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way. “So, they’re sending the
little prince to save the Empire,” he said half sarcastically.“That was beneath you, Malcolm,” Frankie said with a hard look.“I didn’t mean it like that, Frankie,” he told her. “I meant
that..., how to put this…, people automatically underestimate him
because of his size. That’s his strength. They think they’ll be dealing
with a boy, and they’ll get a very skilled negotiator.”“Good save,” she smiled over her coffee, letting me know that we
both knew I was bullshitting. “I know where the nickname came from, and
I know who came up with it.”“Really?” he asked. “Exactly who came up with it?”“Please, Daniel’s been calling Dacyn that since they were in school
together on Thule Prime.” She winked at Malcolm. “The only thing that
has changed in the nickname is that the word “my” has been dropped off
the front of it when it’s used publicly.”“Has he ever been his
asked. He knew that his captain had had several lovers of both genders
over the years. Sometimes it was a first officer’s job to pick up the
pieces after a bad one, but as far as he knew, Daniel had never taken
his highness to his bed.“Let’s just say that I hope your timing is a lot better than Admiral
Mitchell’s, or Lieutenant Price’s, or Ensign Monroe’s, or Daniel’s
father’s. They have had plenty of opportunities. Their timing sucks,
but they’ve had the opportunity.”“I thought that might be the case.” Malcolm leaned back into his
chair and asked, “I just wonder how that tension is going to affect the
mission.”“I don’t know. They’re both professionals, and usually they’ll do
their jobs,” she said. “Dacyn knows how important this is, and I know
my cousin has more sense than to let something personal get in the way
at this time. But last time, Daniel let the personal get in the way of
the professional, and Dacyn paid the price for it. I think they’ll get
their acts together though.”“I hope so,” Malcolm said. “I certainly hope so.”“On the other hand,” she said. “You wouldn’t happen to have a small
cargo bay we could lock them in and fuse the door would you? Maybe a
shuttle we could drag along behind with just the two of them in it for
a while?”Malcolm smiled at the idea. “We both know that wouldn’t work. Both
one of them could go right through the bulkhead and then it’d be our
necks in the noose.”“Nah, they’d wait until we reeled them back in, just to make us
sweat.”Daniel studied his old friend as they settled in to
Physically he looked the same as the last time he'd seen him. Small,
fifty-two and half centimeters, and fifty one kilograms, Dacyn
would be likely to point out to anyone who questioned his size. His
white blond hair was pulled back in a fleet-regulation pony-tail, and
his ice blue eyes raked over the room taking in every detail. Dacyn was
pretty, there was no getting around that. His features were androgynous
at best, and downright effeminate at other times. There was a reason
for that of course, but most people were unaware of the rather unusual
medical condition that the youngest son of the House of Thule lived
with. At twenty-eight, his ivory skin showed none of the early marks of
age yet, but his eyes were a different story."You look tired," Daniel tried to open the conversation.Dacyn swept his long midnight blue cloak off, and laid it across one
arm. Daniel indicated the hook on the wall near the door, and Dacyn
hung it there, turned and straightened his matching fleet tunic. Daniel
couldn't help but notice that as the tunic was pulled tight, it
outlined Dacyn's frame rather nicely, revealing to anyone who knew what
to look for, his old friend's most personal secret. "I am tired. It's
been one hell of a year.""Tell me about it," Daniel said. "That mess at HR 6998 turned out to
be one big screw up from the beginning. The system is pretty useless to
us and to the Terrans, but we were within 50 light years from Sol and
they couldn't let that pass. I don’t blame them there. I would have
attacked any Terran battle fleets that close to Thule Prime. Both
fleets were caught in a bad place at a bad time, and it turned into a
slug fest.""I heard about it," Dacyn said neutrally. Daniel had been Dacyn's
friend long enough to know that he was upset about something. Of course
he'd figured that out once Dacyn had stopped answering his
communications right after he told Admiral Blake that he didn't trust
himself to put Dacyn in danger. Daniel had thought it the honorable
thing to do. To make it clear to command that they'd put him in a
situation where his judgment wasn't always clear. The Admiral had then
removed the Atlantis
though Daniel had made it clear he was ready to step down."Is there a reason, you stopped answering my calls, Dacyn," he
finally just came out and asked."It's kind of hard to answer communications when you're in the
middle of Hell's Gate. We we've been kind of busy lately.""Hell's Gate?" What were you doing there?" Daniel asked."Getting pounded into dust while trying to take out the Terran
shipyards.""That was supposed to be our job when we got back from HR 6998,"
Daniel said."Fleet decided it was the Atlantis’
shrugging his shoulders."How many ships did you lose?" Daniel asked"None, we were the only ship out there," Dacyn said coldly. "You
minds? That was a carrier's job, not a heavy cruiser's!" That was a
suicide mission at best. Fleet intelligence had said that most of the
Terran Fifth Fleet was in those shipyards."By the time I got back from Admiral Blake's office, I had new
orders waiting for me. Proceed directly to Hell's Gate and burn out the
shipyards. My tenders were reassigned to your task force. I asked for
replacements and was told none were available," Dacyn said. "I got the
distinct impression that I was being told to either come back with my
shield or on it.""Who did you piss off at command?" Daniel asked carefully.Dacyn's eyes turned hard as the ice they emulated. "Evidently, you,"
he said coldly. His voice took on a distant professionalism, but Daniel
could hear the pain underneath it as he continued, "Now Imperial
Intelligence has put us back together for this mission. I'm sorry if
you wish it were different, but I have my orders, Captain Storm and I
will carry them out." He pulled out a memory crystal and went over to
the wall, and slid it into the socket there without another word.
Daniel could not believe what his oldest friend was accusing him of."I didn't...,""I don't wish to discuss it, Captain. We've got a job to do." His
voice was implacable. "Station Twenty six in the Hyades Cluster was
destroyed two weeks ago, and not by either us or the Terrans," he said
quietly. Daniel knew him well enough to know that when his voice
dropped that low, that he was angry. The microscopic electrodes in the
wall's surface charged and it became a view screen to reveal the angle
from the station's cameras. Station Twenty-six was a listening outpost
just on the edge of what the Empire claimed as its space and along the
border with the Sol Union. It was heavily armed and shielded, but
lightly manned.Daniel could see the star field that looked to be galactic north
suddenly waver and split as a ship appeared out of the rip in space.
The sensor data in the bottom right-hand section of the screen
indicated that it was over ten kilometers long- twice the size of
anything in the imperial fleet. The design was roughly wedge shaped,
and there was none of the smooth organic lines that indicated imperial
construction, nor the heavy welded plates of the blocky Terran
aesthetics. Instead it had an almost crystalline shape to it.Suddenly points on its surface flared in brilliant red light and
something lanced out toward the cameras. The star field went white and
then it faded to black as the station was destroyed. He read the energy
output of the volley that hit the station. It had been powerful enough
to not only punch through the station's shielding, but to totally
obliterate the asteroid it sat on.He turned to Dacyn and asked in shock, "Who?"The smaller man shook his head, "We don't know. The ship isn't
Terran design, or our own. It seems that we aren't as alone in the
galaxy as we thought." That in itself was a frightening thought. In the
five hundred years since the transentients had left Earth in the middle
of the twenty-first century when it became clear that the bulk of
humanity was ready to sell itself into slavery to it its own
government, neither the imperial forces nor the Terrans that followed
them into space, had discovered even a trace of another intelligent
species anywhere in the Orion arm.The only intelligent life in known space had originated from Earth
at one point or another during her long history. The Shan, the
Atlanteans, the transentients, and eventually the baselines as well,
all came from Earth. Oh, there were hundreds of planets within the
hundred and fifty light year sphere controlled by the Sol Union that
could support life- and did. But none of it was any more intelligent
than a dolphin or a whale. The same was true for Imperial Space
centered almost exactly 300 light years from Sol."And what about the Terrans?" Daniel asked, although he already
suspected the answer."According to them, their agro-colony on 18 Scorpii was utterly
destroyed. Every man woman and child was killed. At first they blamed
it on us, until they recovered their own "black boxes"," Dacyn said.
"Then they sent several messages down unofficial channels requesting a
meeting to discuss a ceasefire." Daniel thought about it. Both 18
Scorpii and the Hyades Cluster were to the galactic north- above the
accretion disk, where the stars were thinner. Could there be a
civilization in that direction?"They keep their ceasefires only as long as it is convenient for
them to do so," Daniel said."I think this has them scared. They're already frightened out of
their wits by some of Imperial Intelligence's psy-ops. This just added
to the cold feeling in their gut," Dacyn said.Daniel suddenly had a rather unpleasant thought. "Did we attack
colony?" he asked dead serious. If anyone would know the truth about
that, it would be Dacyn. “Is this an I.I. action gotten out of hand?”Dacyn stopped and stared at him. Daniel could feel those ice blue
eyes cutting him into pieces. "We don't attack civilian targets. You
know that.""Officially, we don't," Daniel said."Or unofficially," Dacyn's voice became even colder. "I don't know
what kind of crap you've been reading in the news holos, but you should
know better than that.""I thought I knew fleet better than to expect them to send a first
son on a suicide mission," Daniel said."I said, I didn't want to discuss it, Dan," Dacyn said. This time
his voice wasn't quite so cold- just very tired."I didn't tell Blake anything out of line, Dacyn," he told his old
friend. "He asked me how I felt about the possibility of having to
order my best friend and my cousin into a possible dangerous situation,
and I told him that I had reservations about my own ability to do that.
That was by the book and it was all I said. I even offered to step down
and let Captain Baxter take the task force. He was just as qualified to
lead the mission as I was."Dacyn shook his head, "All I know is what my orders were, Dan; I was
given an impossible mission, with scant resources. I pulled it off too.
What's left of the Terran Fifth Fleet is just hull fragments and
expanding gas. The hull of the Atlantis
quilt because I used a great many of those fragments to seal my own
hull breaches. Your cousin has a sense of humor. Whenever possible the
fragments that were used had the names of the Terran ships written on
them. Atlantis
signed by about half the ships we killed." He tilted his head at me and
said, "My mission wasn't by the book, but it was successful, and most
of my crew are still alive. You tell me that you didn't tell Blake that
you didn't trust me- okay. But somebody got that impression. They may
not have punished you for your honesty Dan, but they sure the hell
punished me and my crew. There’s still talk that we won’t get theAtlantis
the diplomatic corps and my command crew will be lucky to get a desk
job."
Dan just shook his head. He had no idea what had gone on at fleet
command, but he knew someone he could call to find out. “I promise,
I’ll get to the bottom of this, Dacyn,” Daniel told him.Dacyn shook his head, “Do me a favor, Dan. Just drop it. I can’t
afford any more admirals cutting my orders based on your
recommendations.” He pulled the crystal out of the wall slot and
pocketed it. “If you’ll excuse me, I have several files to study before
we reach the jump off point for slipstream.” He took his cloak down
from the wall and started to leave.“Dacyn?” Dan called.He stopped but didn’t turn around. “Yes?”“Dinner tonight?”“Nineteen hundred?”Dacyn asked.“My quarters,” Daniel said.“I’ll be there,” he said and then left the office.As he watched Dacyn leave the office, Dan wondered how things got so
screwed up. Fleet Command had really dropped the ball on this one, and
he got the feeling that someone back there was trying to cover their
own asses. He sat down at his desk and called up his command
transmitter and keyed a specific sequence.It wasn't long before the image of his father came onto the screen.
Ben Storm had been retired from the fleet for almost ten years now, but
he still carried a great deal of weight with command."Dan, is something wrong?" he askedDan nodded, "Someone in fleet has screwed up royally. Can you check
some things out for me?"Dacyn shut the door to the quarters supplied to him, and sighed
deeply. That had been harder than he thought it would be. He found
himself struggling to keep his mind on his business, and Daniel's
genuine surprise at the fall-out from what happened a year ago had not
made it any easier. He even understood Daniel's reasoning. He wasn't
sure that he could have ordered Daniel into danger either, and might
would have done the same thing. Still it was difficult to come to grips
with- he and his crew had paid a price for Daniel's honesty.He hung up his cloak and sat down at the desk, and began to study
the intelligence file on his counter-parts. Three names stood out on
the list of personnel the Union was sending to talk to them. Kim Lee
Tong- captain of the PS
Koffi Annan was the
son of a high ranking party official back on Earth. He had been groomed
for this position from childhood. He was a highly decorated and
efficient officer who had a reputation of leading his forces from the
front line. There was a notation on his file suggesting that he was
also an elite-
Earth's attempt at genetically and cybernetically augmenting their
forces to go toe to toe with the transentients in combat. He was
obviously a dangerous opponent.Dacyn called up the image of the man, and raised an eyebrow. Kim was
the perfect example of Union's forced breeding program that began about
three hundred years ago. He was tall, with nut brown skin and dark hair
and eyes, the perfect amalgam of all the races of humans who'd
originated on Earth. There was a keen intelligence to his eyes, but
also a suggestion of easy mirth. He was actually quite handsome.The next name to stand out was Lennox Davenport. She was a career
diplomat and had handled the Union's rebellion on the Alpha Centauri
colony. Actually, Dacyn was impressed with how well she'd pulled that
one off. She'd managed to bring the colony back into the Union while at
the same time keeping the Union Fleet from obliterating the main
cities- which was their usual method of dealing with rebellion. She was
even able to keep the number of citizens sent to re-education camps
down to only include the actual rebels, instead of anyone who may have
heard their propaganda.She too was tall, with the same nut-brown skin and dark eyes. Her
hair was beginning to gray slightly, but on her, it seemed to add to
her sense of personal power more than detract from her beauty. There
was a notation on the file that she would be wearing a synthetic
mind-shield. It seems that the Psi Corps reputation preceded it.Lastly was Davenport's attaché, Thomas Ubuntu. He was a big
man that looked like his idea of negotiations involved the breaking of
bones. He too was representative of the Union's attempt to do away with
racial identity and breed an amalgam human species. For a moment Dacyn
thought that the Union must be a very boring place to live if everyone
looked so much alike. He looked closely and could see the slight scars
around Ubuntu's hairline and along his arms where his cybernetic
implants had been grafted. He didn't need the notation at the bottom of
the screen pointing out this man was an elite.His file suggested that most of his activities had been on covert
missions. There was really very little of his official background
listed. That told Dacyn one thing: this man was not attaché, he
was a political officer. He'd been assigned to Davenport to make sure
she didn't negotiate away any advantage the Union might have. He also
probably had orders to make sure that she and Kim didn't introduce any
"subversive" ideas about individuality or religion back into the Union.Dacyn opened up the file on his own parameters the Empire had sent
him. Daniel wasn't going to like some of it. All intelligence data
indicated that the Union was unaware that the Empire had fold drive on
any vessel smaller than a carrier. I.I. wanted to keep it that way, so
under no circumstances wasGenesis
anywhere within scanning range of the Koffi
Annan. Fold drive was one of the biggest military advantages that
the Empire had over the Union, and Imperial Intelligence wanted to keep
them in the dark as long as possible. It allowed the Empire to strike
within Union space without traversing the corridor.The Sol Union was of course using slipstream drive, a way of
creating a ripple in space between two points and then riding the crest
of that ripple from point A to point B. Depending on the energy used to
create the ripple, the spatial contraction around the craft ranged
anywhere from the equivalent of the speed of light to around seven
hundred thirty times that speed. But that velocity could only be
maintained in the open space of a stellar bubble. The gasses and energy
discharges found in nebulae and sections of space where the
interstellar medium was denser, created so much turbulence in the wave,
that it would throw the craft out of slipstream.Space fold avoided most of that problem by folding the space between
the two points together, allowing almost instantaneous travel. It was
still limited by the density of the interstellar medium; much like it
was easier to fold a piece of paper than it was a cloth of thick wool.
It was also a technology that the Empire had guarded jealously since
the Great Exodus.As long as the Union could not penetrate the curtain of gas between
the two bubbles in space, their threat was held at an arm's length, and
there was a balance in the known galaxy. The Union was considerably
less technologically advanced than the Empire, and far less efficient,
but it made up for the difference in raw numbers. Their approach to a
problem was to keep throwing resources at it until the problem was
crushed by sheer mass.Their innate philosophy and political structure made true innovation
difficult at best, downright impossible at worse. That was why every
imperial ship with a fold generator also had a self-destruct mechanism
built into it. Dacyn's running battle at Hell's Gate was not against a
superior armed foe, but against one of sheer numbers. The Union fought
like a wolf-pack, and Dacyn had used the tactics of a great cat. He
stalked the pack and picked off huge chunks of its fringes and then
disappeared back into the dust and gas of the nebula. They tried to
lure him out, to get him in the open where they could surround him. It
was a matter of who caught whom where, and Dacyn had been very, very
careful not to get caught too many times. If the
hands, it would have been stripped and its technology copied.Sighing, he leaned back and pinched the bridge of his nose between
his forefinger and thumb. He was getting a headache, and the grumbling
in his stomach reminded him that he'd had very little to eat for
mid-meal. Looking at the chronometer, he realized that it was almost
time for his dinner with Daniel. He hoped it went better than this
afternoon.He rose from his desk and went to the head and began to strip. A
nice hot shower and he was sure he would feel better. He tossed his
tunic and underclothes into the recycler and climbed into the cubicle
and let the water wash away the tensions of the day.
As he exited the head, wrapped only in a robe, he heard someone moving
out in his quarters. Quickly casting his mind out, he felt familiar
thought patterns and smiled to himself. Tying off the ends of the belt
at his robe, he padded into the main area of the stateroom as Frankie
looked up from the plate of cheese and fruit she'd set on the desk."I know you're having dinner with Captain Storm in an hour, but I
brought something to tide you over until then," she said."How did you know?" he asked her."It's my job to know," she told him. "If you don't eat something
now, you're likely to make a pig of yourself at the dinner table, and
as far as I'm concerned, that's not a good idea," she said with a smirk."Why not?" Dacyn asked.She lowered her gaze at him and said, "Because both of us know that
you won't stay mad at him for long, and when you two get to talking,
you'll forget to eat."Dacyn smiled, "You bucking for a promotion?""Hell no, Cap'n sir!" she said. "Just trying to make you and Captain
Storm get your heads out of your collective asses and get one with
what's important."Dacyn raised an eyebrow. He and Frankie had been friends almost as
long as he and Daniel had. When they were children, she'd tag along
behind the two of them alternating between trying to annoy them and
trying to get their attention. "That so, Commander?" he asked with a
smile."Yes sir, Cap'n sir!" she said taking down the clean uniform he'd
ordered the fabricator to cycle before going into the head. She looked
at the garment and shook her head about something before handing it to
him. "Here's your uniform, Dacyn. Do me a favor, don't come back to
this cabin tonight without it being torn at least a little bit.""Now, you're a matchmaker?" Dacyn asked."You and my cousin have been dancing around each other long enough.
Time to seal the deal or move on," she said. "If you two had settled
this a year ago, things might have turned out differently."Dacyn shook his head, "You know why I'm wary of that kind of
contact, Frankie."She smiled up at him and said, "This is Daniel we're talking about,
Dacyn. He knows, and he doesn't care.""I know he knows, and I know that it's not important to him. But I
haven't had a lot of luck with lovers," he said."You haven't had any
that's the problem," she told him. "When was the last time you even let
anyone get close to you, that magecat back on Vanir?""I backed out of that one, and you know why," Dacyn said."Yeah, I know, I know, they're just a little too "loose" for your
tastes. I think you would have enjoyed her. I sure the hell did,"
Frankie said with a smile."Frankie!," Dacyn protested."I wasn't about to let a good piece of tail got to waste-
literally," she told him. "Besides, I don't have a knight in shining
armor waiting in the wings.""Neither do I, Frankie," he told her."No, you are
armor, and so is Daniel. That's why you're perfect for each other."Dacyn grinned, "Did you really sleep with General Greenbough's
daughter?""Dacyn, I can assure you that there was no sleeping involved in that
encounter," she said with a smile. "And it took Doc Messier six hours
to repair the scars on my back and do the blood-work.""Afraid you were infected?" Dacyn asked."No, magecats aren't nearly as virulent as regular werecats. But you
know Doc. He insisted."Dacyn grinned, "I'll keep that in mind. Good thing for me, that
Daniel's just an enhancer and not a nocturnal."Frankie smiled, "The same can be said for you, you know. There's
enough shifter gene floating around in the royal blood lines that you
might could carry it.""Not from either of my parent's side of the family," he said. "Mom
is a pure psi, and Dad was just at ground zero when the AGG virus went
active. That makes me so psionic that even the Mideanites give me a
broad berth."She handed him the plate of food and said, "Eat. You'll need your
energy tonight."Daniel looked at the mission parameters Dacyn had given him and
sighed. "Okay, so no fold drive near Epsilon Sagittarii,” he said. “I
can’t say I like it, but I can deal with it. We’ll be using slipstream
down the corridor and out into imperial space on the other side. That’s
going to make us vulnerable when we come out of the corridor into the
Union Bubble.”Dacyn nodded his head, “I know. But
Hell’s Gate. We now control both entrances to the corridor, and
everything within a five parsec radius of where it opens into the Sol
Union Bubble. “He smiled mischievously and said, “If you look at a star
map of the area, Imperial space looks rather phallic as it projects
into Union space. The Union doesn’t have a ship capable of threatening
the Genesis
heavy cruisers patrolling the perimeter. The only Union warship that
should be anywhere near that is the Koffi
Annan, and that’s who we’re going to meet.”“What about the Epsilon Sagittarii?” Dan asked.Dacyn sipped his water and said, “It’s a failed Union agricultural
planet. They abandoned it a hundred ten years ago. It was too far off
their normal shipping lines to do them much good and the colonist began
to develop a strong independent streak. The Union couldn’t allow that
to happen, so they forcibly removed them and sterilized the planet.”“Wasn’t that rather drastic?” Daniel asked. He’d heard of the Union
going to some pretty strange lengths to avoid contamination of their
political and economic philosophies, but that was going to an awful lot
trouble.“You have to understand how they think, Dan. To them, loyalty to the
state is the only thing that is important. The state chooses who people
marry, how many children they will have and what sex they will be. They
even raise the children in state-run schools, not trusting the parents
to do what’s best by them. Any deviation from the official state
position on any subject is “corrected” with re-education.”“I know, Dacyn. You aren’t telling me anything new,” Daniel told his
friend.Dacyn shook his head, “There’s a difference between reading the
information, and knowing it up close.” Dacyn had served a stint in
Imperial Intelligence, assigned to the Embassy on Earth. Even in a time
of war, both sides thought it best to keep lines of communications
open. He’d actually been on Earth, and had lived in the culture for a
while. “It’s a horrible life, Daniel; at least for people who do not
fit their cultural norm. It’s a civilization that glorifies mediocrity,
and punishes both failure and excellence. The state is their religion,
and equality is their mantra.”“But some people are more equal than others,” Daniel offered.Dacyn nodded and bit into his steak. Daniel knew that the Sol Union
had been forged out of an attempt to eradicate poverty on the planet.
However, like many good ideas, it was one that had gotten out of
control. "Some people are more equal than others. Party leaders like
Captain Kim's family get the best goods and services, have more choices
in their lives, and for the most part don't have to struggle as much as
the run-of-the-mill citizen. But, they're still living in a nightmare
if you ask me. At least we’re honest about our class differences. We
don’t make
give everyone an equal opportunity.”
"What about their elites?"“Do you mean the party elites, or their special forces?” Dacyn asked.“Special forces, like Captain Kim,” Daniel answered.“I see you saw that too,” Dacyn said with a smile. “They get special
training; extra privileges and the rules are somewhat relaxed for them.
But at the same time, they have a role to play for the media services-
heroes of the motherland and that kind of thing. To be honest, it was
rather sickening to watch when I was there.”“Did you get to meet any of them?” Daniel asked.Dacyn chuckled and put his fork down and asked playfully, “Wondering
if you have competition?”Daniel raised an eyebrow and picked up the opportunity to flirt, “A
man likes to know what he’s up against.”“What you’re up against is a bland gruel of the same ol’ same ol’.
Earth has no personality any more. They’ve bred themselves into
mediocrity. Everyone is the same; the same skin tone, the same hair
color, the same eye color. The only differences seem to be build, and
they’re working on getting rid of that,” Dacyn said.“What about the elite’s power? How much of a threat are they?”“To you?” Dacyn shook his head, “Not at all. Most of them are either
organically or cybernetically enhanced, but they tend to be class three
and below. When our parents left, they did a very good job of scouring
the planet of any traces of the enhancer gene and the nocturnals.
Earth’s racial harmonizing program further diffused the gene, and now
they’re lucky to get one in a hundred million that have an active gene
and those are so low powered that the government has had to start
implanting cyberware to make up the differences.”“You still didn’t answer my question,” Daniel said.“What question?”“Did you meet any of them?” Daniel smiled and reached out and took
Dacyn’s hand sat on the table between them. Daniel took it in his own
and squeezed it gently.“A few. They weren’t very subtle, and I think a few were assigned to
get close to me, to find out what they could. My title both fascinated
the Terrans and disgusted them as well.”“Did they,” Daniel asked.“Did they what?”“Get close?”Dacyn raised an eyebrow and smiled coyly. “Not that close. I don’t
have to sleep with someone to get that kind of information. Besides,
that would give away secrets that could be used against my value as a
negotiator.”“So, chaste as ever,” Daniel accused.Dacyn nodded and his tone became more playful, more relaxed. “I’ve
had a few interesting offers, but every time things start to get
interesting something interrupts.” He squeezed back on Daniel’s hand.“So, do you want to pick up where we left off last time?” Daniel
asked.With a smile Dacyn said, “I forget where we were.”Daniel stood and pulled Dacyn’s smaller form to him. With a gentle
strength, he tilted the blonde’s head and back and kissed him
seriously. He felt Dacyn melt against him, as his mouth hungrily sought
Daniel's.It had been over a year since Daniel had held this man like this. It
had been over a year since he'd felt like holding anyone like this.
Daniel had had his share of lovers in the past, but the one he never
had was the one he kept coming back to. Fear of the loss of a
friendship, fear of rejection from someone so important to him had kept
them both dancing around each other since they were old enough to
graduate to more adult games than furball and "space pirate".He felt Dacyn's hand begin to roam up and down the front of his
tunic, feeling the hard muscle beneath. With both thumbs, he began to
rub circles around Daniel's nipples through the cloth. It was
rekindling a slow burn in Daniel's body that he hadn't felt in over a
year. He wrapped his arms around Dacyn and pulled him tight, as he
kissed him with a building need he hadn't known he had.Suddenly Daniel felt the flat of Dacyn's palm against his chest, and
he was pushed backwards against the bulkhead. Like many enhancers,
Dacyn was much stronger than he appeared. Daniel found himself thankful
for his own enhancements because of the sheer force of the drive of
Dacyn's body against his. The blond began to gently nip and then kiss
the skin down Dan's jaw line, trailing his tongue along like hot little
pinpricks of passion.An almost incoherent growl came from Dacyn as he began to tear at
Daniel's tunic, opening the seal at the shoulders, and pushing it down,
temporarily pinning Daniel's arms in the neck of the garment. Daniel
had never seen his friend like this, lost in a passion that never
really showed through the tightly controlled reserve he usually
exhibited.Suddenly, a hot shiver of pleasure shot straight to Daniel's groin
as Dacyn locked his hot little mouth, on Dan's right nipple, and began
to gently nip at the hard little nub. Daniel struggled and wriggled to
get his arms out of the sleeves of the garment that had fallen to his
waist, all the while the smaller man was rubbing his hand against the
hard pillar of flesh in Daniel's slacks.
height difference, he
thought to himself. This
just isn't fair.Daniel finally managed to pull his right arm free of his tunic and
push back at Dacyn's shoulders backing the smaller man off. "Drop to
sub-light a minute," he said. Give me a chance to catch up. I'm not
going to sit here and be felt up without at least a chance to do some
groping of my own." He dropped the tunic to his feet and stepped out of
it.Dacyn smiled up at him and asked, "What's keeping you?" He reached
up and deliberately tore the seam at both shoulders of his tunic where
it closed on either side. "That should take care of that," he said."What?" Daniel asked pulling Dacyn's hands away from top of his
tunic. "Let me do this."Dacyn shook his head, smiled and said, "Just taking care of
something Commander Seizemore warned me about.""And what would that be?" Daniel asked pulling the seams wider to
let them slip off Dacyn's shoulders revealing the ivory white skin and
A-cup sized breasts beneath. He smiled and ran a hand across the hard
nipple of one. "You know, you never let me see you shirtless after
these started to develop.""I was embarrassed," Dacyn said. "My body isn't exactly normal by
anybody's standards." The fact that Dacyn was born a functional
hermaphrodite was not exactly a state secret, but it wasn't generally
known to anyone except for his family and a very few very close friends."I think your body is gorgeous," Daniel said ducking his head to
lick gently on the dark pink nipple. He felt a shudder run through
Dacyn's body, and a soft inarticulate groan escaped his throat. He bit
gently on the small nub before bending to sweep the smaller man into
his arms. Six steps later, he was gently laying Dacyn down on his rack.Again, with a strength that surprised Daniel, Dacyn reached up and
pulled him back down into a deep kiss. He felt Dacyn's tongue seek
entrance into his body. Daniel had no idea where this passion was
coming from, but it promised to be one wild ride. He and Dacyn reached
for each other’s belt line at the same time and began to fumble with
the fleet issue clasps. He felt his give way first and Dacyn pushed the
material away to give him access to the straining cock underneath.
Dacyn's hand was cool against his hot flesh, as he be pushed the
foreskin back and began to gently stroke him.Daniel opened his partner's trousers to find what lay beneath. He
felt Dacyn's manhood rise like a hot pillar of flesh to meet his hand.
Pulling back from the kiss, he looked down and began to push the
uniform down Dacyn's legs. Dacyn lifted his butt to let the material
slide off, and for the first time since they were children was Dacyn's
most private secret revealed.A long pillar of ivory flesh rose from a patch of white blond hair.
Like most men in the Empire, he was uncut, and a deep purple head was
peeking out from the foreskin gathered at the tip. Rich blue and purple
veins rain down the skin to disappear into thin pubic hair. Following a
line down from the split where the crown was, he could see the pillar
disappear into the glistening slit beneath it, forming a second sex
organ, a vagina."They're inside," Dacyn said.Daniel looked up to see Dacyn sitting up on his elbows and smiling
at him. "Huh?""You were wondering where my balls are," he said. "They're inside my
body.""Reading my mind?" Daniel asked."When you've got your hand wrapped around my dick, the connection is
sort of intense. It's harder not to read your mind, than to read it."
He gave Daniel a small look, "Do you mind?"Daniel shook his head and smiled, "Not at all." He dipped his head
down and ran his tongue up from the slit, tasting the juices flowing
there, up along the shaft of Dacyn's cock. As he reached the crown, he
pulled the skin back down to reveal the head. Then in one quick motion,
he engulfed the pillar of flesh with his mouth. Dacyn tasted like
nobody he'd ever tasted before- male or female.
He brought his hand up and began to gently penetrated the slit under
Dacyn's cock. It was wet and slippery and Dacyn arched his back
alternating between driving his hard dick down Daniel's throat and
Daniel's fingers deeper into his opening.
"Alert, alert, Captain Storm to the bridge!" the ship's communication
system suddenly blared through the ship. "Alert, alert, Captain Storm
to the bridge. All hands stand by. Alert Condition Amber!"
"What the fuck?!" Daniel said looking up from his task.
Dacyn collapsed back down on the rack and slapped the mattress,
obviously even more frustrated than Daniel. "I can't believe the
timing. Is the whole universe out to keep us from being together? Did
we piss off some God, who's taking a perverse pleasure out of
frustrating us?"
Daniel rolled out of the rack and began to pull his tunic back on. "You
want to join me on the bridge?"
"Hell yes," Dacyn said. "And as soon as I get there, I'm going to kill
Commander Ryan if this isn't something serious."
"Only if you give me Frankie as a replacement," Daniel told him handing
him his tunic.The lighting on the bridge had been subdued for battle conditions, a
condition, Dacyn was all to accustomed to seeing over the last year. As
he entered the large oval-shaped room, he could see that there was
already a tactical readout of the Genesis'
traversed the corridor between the Imperial and Union bubbles of space.
A second ship's position was being projected at five light years
distance inside
the corridor."Captain on the bridge!" the security detail at the lift called.Dacyn noticed that Malcolm at least had the good graces to look
embarrassed at the sight of him and Daniel together. "Captain, we've
got a tail," Malcolm said. "Sensor contact five and half light-days
distant inside the Ophicus gas field, sir. She's maintaining
slipstream."Dacyn and Daniel both did a double take at that, "Come again,
Commander?" Daniel asked."She's maintaining a matching course and speed to us, sir- inside
the gas field. Her Relative Luminal Velocity is matching ours at 731 ls
per second.""In the gas field?" Daniel asked again."In the gas field sir," Malcolm replied confidently again. "Don't
ask me how captain. Her ship must be taking a pounding with those kinds
of atomic collisions on her navigational deflectors. We can't see her,
but her wake is impressive." He magnified the tactical readout on the
main screen at the front of the bridge. An image of a compression wave
created by the other ship's slipstream inside the gas appeared on the
edges of the gas wall. It was like some kind of giant bubble moving
just under the surface of the gas. "At first we thought it was a radar
reflection of our own slipstream wake, but it didn't match up. The gas
actually had an energy wave moving through it.""What do scans indicate?" Daniel asked."Can't be sure sir. We really don't have anything to compare it
with, as we've never encountered a ship that could maintain hyper-light
speeds in a gas field. It keeps a course parallel to ours, and
increases speed when we accelerate and decreases speed when we brake.""Telepathic contact?" Daniel asked.Malcolm nodded. "I wouldn't have called you to bridge if I hadn't
confirmed it sir. There's definitely a sentient community in the vessel
sir. I can't get anything clear. The thought patterns are distorted by
their drive and the distance."Daniel turned to Dacyn and asked, "Can you get anything?"Dacyn nodded and closed his eyes. He cast his mind out- first
feeling the fifteen hundred or so souls on the
screening them out. Widening his thoughts, he felt the three links that
ran back to Thule Prime: the first two to his parents, and the last one
to the mindsong- the empire's psionic network. He filtered those out
and began to hunt.It didn't take long. At the distance indicated by Malcolm, he felt
an alien set of thought patterns: aggressive,
strong, and stalking. They knew we were out here, but were just
watching, waiting. Beyond that, he could get no more. Their thoughts
and their drives were so strange as to be almost unreadable.He felt something seem to detect him, suddenly aware that the
watchers were being watched. Dacyn yanked his mind back just before the
attack hit his shields. Surprise!
Other minds! Must kill! Another
wave of psychic assault hit his shields. It was almost too much. Dacyn
reached out for the bulkhead to steady himself, only to suddenly find
Daniel. He jerked his hand away lest the aliens use the contact to
reach his childhood friend. He wrapped himself inside his own shields
shutting off the outside world.It was a hundred times worse than anything he trained for at the
academy. It was alien, it was fierce, and it was electronically
augmented. He felt the assault pour into his shields trying to gain
purchase, trying to reach his core, trying to burn out his mind, and
move on to the others in the ship. It had already engaged Dacyn, so it
had to finish him off first, lest he strike from the rear.Closed off from the outside world, Dacyn only had his own energy
reserves to draw from. Frantically he pulled from deep inside him every
erg of energy he could generate. The pounding continued, monstrously
strong, it tried to overwhelm his shields with attacks from all sides.
Dacyn reached deeper, to the core of his being to the white light was
his very soul. There he found the lines of sharing that connected him
to the mindsong, to his father, to his mother. His mind cried out.Something clicked inside him. An indistinct image of another person
reached out and touched his face. Energy poured into him. He drew on
it, strengthened his shields. It was enough! He felt the battering
start to give way, as the onslaught was slowly pushed back. He centered
himself, reached out with his own mind and slung the attack back at his
captors.More surprise! Momentarily stunned! Dacyn pressed his
advantage. He searched around with his mind for whatever was augmenting
the attack. There!
An image of a central crystalline device came to his mind. He mentally
smiled to himself and poured energy back up the lines of attack.It was like fighting a fire-hose with a fire hose. Psychic power
blazed across the void of space and back to the minds of his attackers.
With a final push, he drew up everything he could take inside himself
and unleashed it in a single burst. It was enough, it was too much. He
mentally screamed as the energy poured through his mind and out into
the alien device. Suddenly it flared white hot and bright and the
blackness took him."Helm! Get us out of here! Full power to the slipstream! Take us to
800 ls!" Daniel called as Dacyn suddenly pushed him away and collapsed
to the floor. "Get medical up here on the double!""Aye captain," the helmsman replied."They're veering out of the cloud sir. They're on a pursuit course!"
Malcolm said."Battle-stations!" Daniel said. He settled into his seat and looked
over to where Commander Seizemore was trying to rouse Dacyn. "Charge
defensive screens, bring the main batteries online." Turning to the
screen he said, "Aft tactical.""They'll have to cross our wake match our harmonics sir," Malcolm
called. Two ships in slipstream couldn't hit each other unless they
were on the same wave of contraction. The spatial distortion would send
any weapons fire off into wild tangents away from the target.The tactical screen switched to show an alien craft like the one in
the mission briefing. It was big and crystalline in construction. Tiny
points of light were gleaming along its white surface. He took a second
to glance over to Frankie and ask, "How is he?"She frowned up at him and said, "I don't know. It looks like some
kind of psychic overload."He turned to Malcolm and asked, "Why only him?"Malcolm shrugged, "Unknown sir. He shut himself out from the song
and the ship's net too. I think he was trying to keep them from
discovering the ship's communications net. Then suddenly he was back in
the song but not through the usual paths."Daniel nodded and turned back to Frankie and said, "I'm sure that
makes sense to you telepath types. Do what you can for him."Frankie didn't say anything, she just turned back to trying to rouse
him. Daniel for his part turned his attention back to the pursuing
craft. "Change tactical angle to Z plus one tenth light-second."Again the tactical screen shifted. It showed the alien vessel on a
straight-line attack sequence- directly behind the
hell?" Daniel asked. "Is their captain insane?" He turned to weapons
officer and ordered, "Launch gravitic countermeasures."The officer nodded and repeated his order, "Launching gravitic mines
now."On the screen, three dots detached themselves from the aft of the
They suddenly split into three more, and those split into another
three. He watched as the alien craft closed with his mines. "Detonate
on my mark," Daniel commanded. Daniel couldn't believe it. A first year
cadet has more sense than to fall directly aft of a ship of the line
for the very reasons he was demonstrating.As the alien craft closed with the mines, Daniel waited. "Give it to
me by the numbers, Mr. Harris.""Enemy craft 25 light-seconds from mine net.""Twenty-sir, fifteen, ten, five, enemy craft will be on the mines on
my mark, sir. Mark!""Detonate!" Daniel ordered."On screen the twenty-seven gravitic mines suddenly pulsed as quantum
space and real space were merged and ripped apart by a gravitic field
equal to twenty-seven small singularities. The alien ship suddenly was
thrown clear of their pursuit path, but surprisingly was not destroyed.
It spun off of the slipstream wave and careened into the gas wall of
the corridor."Quantum particles off the chart, sir. Her power plant has been
ruptured," Malcolm said. Suddenly the section of wall where the craft
disappeared erupted into a fiery explosion. "She's gone sir."Daniel nodded to Malcolm and watched as the med-techs moved Dacyn to
sickbay. "Very well, Commander. Send a scrambled message to fleet
command with our sensor logs, and the bridge recordings included.
Advise them that we are continuing to the rendezvous point at Epsilon
Sagittarii. As soon as we get a report from Doctor Tyde in sickbay,
send it as well-scrambled.""Aye captain," Malcolm said."Time 'til we exit the corridor?""Just a little under three days sir," he said.Daniel nodded and studied the corridor ahead. Three days until they
left the corridor and into open space; three days until they could call
for any kind of back up short of a carrier; Daniel got the feeling it
was going to be a long three days as he settled back into his chair and
watched the stars streak by. "Stand down from battle-stations. I want a
ship's status report in thirty minutes."Perhaps twenty minutes later, Malcolm stepped down from his bridge
station and said quietly in his ear, "Doctor Tyde said to tell you that
Captain Atlyn was starting to regain consciousness."Daniel smiled over at his XO and said, "Thanks, Malcolm. You have
the bridge." He then quickly slid out of the chair and headed toward
the lift. "I'll be in sickbay if you need me.""Aye, sir," Malcolm said as he took command of the ship.Dacyn swam up from the blackness. There was a horrible pounding in
his head, and he felt like every muscle in his body had been stretched
and strained. Forcing his mind to concentrate, and his body to obey, he
opened his eyes to see a woman wearing a medical smock. As her hand
reached out to touch his face, he counted six fingers, and realized she
was a Mideanite healer. Perfect for someone who was suffering from
psychic backlash.:How do you feel, Captain?: she asked him mentally."Like I just lost ten rounds with a werewolf," he said.:Mentally, please Captain. I'm Doctor Sarah Tyde, and I need to
assess any damage to your psirebral nodes,: she said again.Dacyn nodded and said, :How's the ship?:She raised an eyebrow, :As far as I know, we're safe. There
aren't any emergency klaxons sounding.:Dacyn reached out with his mind. His channels were raw and burned,
but he could use them. It was painful, but he knew that would
eventually subside. He found what he was looking for, the ship's
psiber-brain had been untouched by the attack. :That's good.:Dacyn felt Daniel's rather worried mind as he entered the sickbay.
He mentally smiled to himself. The doctor stood and spoke aloud,
"You're suffering from severe psionic backlash. Your channels have all
been burned wider. You should be okay in a day or two, but for now, I
prescribe rest, orange juice, and aspirin.""Aspirin?" Dacyn asked."Aspirin. It'll relieve your headache but won't interfere with your
psionic channels," she said."Channel widening?" he asked his second question.She smiled at him, "You burned your psionic channels open wider. The
amount of energy pouring through that attack you sent out must have
been staggering." She shook her head and looked over at the captain and
said, "You're lucky he's alive, Captain. He channeled about half the
carrier energy for the mindsong in a five parsec radius into that
mental blast. He blanked out most of the communications net for a good
five seconds. We're getting all kinds of psi-calls all the way back to
Thule Prime."Dacyn watched Daniel shake his head and say, "I never understand it
when you start talking psionic medicine."Doctor Tyde smiled and said, "You know that the Empire uses certain
frequencies of the Mideanite Mindsong as its communication net. The
part used by the Imperial Navy is really a very small fraction of the
overall energy of a psionic network that spans an area three hundred
light years in diameter and encompasses six billion active telepathic
minds, ship's psiber-brains, and technopathic transmitters. Well,
Captain Atlyn shut the entire system down in the corridor and channeled
its energy into a single psionic attack. He did this
do that, he had to burn the channels in his psirebral nodes wide enough
to handle that kind of energy without killing him. To be honest, I
don't know why it didn't kill him, it should have. That kind of
shielding has never been used while drawing off the mindsong." She
smiled, "I may even get a couple of papers of it."Daniel nodded and said, "I think I understand- a little." He turned
to Dacyn and asked, "What happened?""They weren't aware that we have psionic capabilities. When they
found me listening in on them, they attacked. When they followed me
back here, they found the ship's psiber-brain as well as about two
hundred or so telepathic crew. At that point, they had to finish me off
first before they could move on; otherwise, I could attack them while
they were distracted. I pulled into myself and shielded. Somehow I
found the carrier frequency of the imperial mindsong and used that to
counter-attack.""Well, whatever you did, you turned their captain into an idiot. He
tried to match our slipstream harmonics from directly aft. He flew
right into our gravitic countermeasures.""I would be surprised if the captain or anyone connected to their
electronic augmentation survived. My counter attack wasn't to their
minds, it was to that device. When I overloaded that, I would say that
whoever was tied into the augmenter, got the backlash from it being
destroyed," Dacyn told him.Daniel nodded and said with a smile, "Just be careful next time. I'd
hate to lose our ambassador on the way to the peace talks."Dacyn smiled back and asked quietly, "Is that the only reason?"Daniel looked around the sickbay to see if anyone was watching and
leaned down and kissed Dacyn rather seriously, "No, but it's the only
reason I'll give the crew right now."As Daniel pulled back from the kiss, the ship's intercom went off.
"Captain Storm, please contact the bridge." Dacyn noticed that
Malcolm's voice sounded nervous.Daniel went to the wall communicator. Dacyn could see that the
privacy indicator light was on, so Daniel picked up the handset and
spoke into it instead of putting it on the speaker. "This is the
captain, what do you need XO?" Daniel's face took on a startled look.
Dacyn's own channels were too raw to warrant a telepathic contact to
simply satisfy his curiosity. Besides it would have been rude to
eavesdrop on a private communications. At least that’s what Dacyn told
himself. Finally, Daniel said, "I'll take it in my office."He turned back to Dacyn and said, "You follow the doctor's orders.
I've got ship's business to attend. I'll be back." He smiled at Dacyn
and left the sickbay.The news Daniel had received was something that no captain was ever
really comfortable getting. There was a Priority One call for him from
the Emperor. That was almost never good news.Of course the term "emperor" was something of a misnomer. The
Emperor was in actuality the eighteen members of the Imperial Grand
Council acting as one. All of them were hundreds of years old and had
been instrumental in organizing, and implementing the Great Exodus from
Earth. They represented four poly-spousal families, consisting of the
Lords of the Empire, the First Pride, the Shan First Pod, and the
Mideanite King and Queen. Usually most of the day to day operation of
the empire was delegated to the Lords of the Empire, two of which were
Dacyn's genetic parents. Daniel had had enough contact with Dacyn's
family over the past twenty years to know that all five of the Lords
considered him their child.He entered his office and locked the door. Standing at near
attention at his desk, he called up the secure com channel, sighed
deeply and hit the "accept" code. The air above his desk wavered and
took the form of two men. Both appeared to be in their early twenties,
but Daniel knew that they were well over a thousand years old. The
well-built blond was Lord Sloan, and the smaller brown haired man was
Lord William "Your Majesties," he said. "This call is unexpected.""Well, the circumstances are unexpected, Captain Storm," Lord Sloan
began."How can I be of service?""What is going on that somehow your ship is in the middle of a
fifteen light year communication dead zone?" Lord William asked. "And
are you in need of assistance?"Damn! News travelled fast in the Empire,
"We were attacked by the alien vessel, My Lord. Prince Dacyn came under
psionic attack from their ship. He fought them, off and destroyed their
electronic augmentation." Daniel shook his head, "I can't say that I
completely understand the intricacies of psionic combat, but I'm told
that he drained the local carrier wave for the imperial mindsong to
counter-attack. It seems to have turned the alien captain's brains to
gelatin, My Lords.""And the status of our youngest?" Lord William asked.Ah this was what it was about. Daniel
knew that both of Dacyn's genetic parents were powerful psionics-
something that Dacyn evidently inherited. However, neither of these men
were those genetic parents. That suggested that they were handling the
inquiry to keep it at least somewhat light handed. "He is recovering in
sickbay. Doctor Tyde says that he'll have one hell of headache, and
that his channels have been widened. There is a report on his condition
on its way to the admiralty at this time, My Lords.""I see," Lord Sloan said quietly as he leaned out of the
transmitter's pickup range to speak to someone off screen."The ship is undamaged, and the alien vessel destroyed, My Lords.""Any other casualties?" Lord William asked.Daniel shook his head, "No My Lord. The alien vessel never got a
shot off on the Genesis.""Do you feel we need to send another ambassador, or will Dacyn be
able to complete his job?" Lord Sloan asked."Lord Dacyn is completely capable of handling his duties, My Lords.
Doctor Tyde assures me that he will be fully recovered by the time we
reach Epsilon Sagittarii." Daniel took a deep breath and said, "He will
however, not be going down to the planet without a fully armed security
contingent."Lord Sloan smirked and said, "Captain, if he went down with anything
less, I'd have your hide.""Yes, My Lord.""Not your command, just your hide.""Yes, My Lord."
"So, in your estimation of the situation, Dacyn is tired but fine.""No My Lord. Prince Dacyn is exhausted and injured but will recover
in time to carry out his duties.""He's tired, and fine," Lord Sloan said. "Trust me Captain, that
wording will do us all a whole lot more good than injured and
exhausted. He's tired and fine but will be fit enough to carry out his
duties by the time you get to the rendezvous point.""Yes, My Lords," Daniel said wondering exactly what was going on in
this particular section of the imperial family."Good," Lord Sloan said. "By the way Captain..., well, you'll get
the formal invitation when you return from this mission to Thule
Prime..., but you've been invited to dinner upon your return.""My Lords? I thought our mission parameters were to return to Levi,
so that Captain Atlyn can resume command of his ship.""The Atlantis
for at least six more months. General Seizemore, your aunt I believe,
is seeing to her refit and upgrades personally.""Yes, My Lords. So we will be transporting Prince Dacyn back to
Thule Prime to deliver whatever treaty and or report he can hammer
out." Daniel took a deep breath and took his career in his own hands.
"I trust, My Lords, that the Admiralty will be informed of this change
in orders?""The Admiralty, will be told, Captain. You will report to Thule
Prime as ordered, wherein you and your crew will be given extended
leave while the Genesiswill
be refitted and upgraded to bring to her up to specs for her new role
in the coming conflict with the aliens.""My Lords, do you know something about the aliens that I'm unaware
of, or more importantly should be aware of?" Daniel asked carefully."At this time we are simply classifying them an advanced hostile
force until proven otherwise and feel it is better to be prepared than
caught with our proverbial pants down. The Grand Council has already
given the go-ahead on these upgrades, and both the Imperial Senate, and
the House of Citizens have approved the funds.""Yes, My Lords. Is there anything else?" Daniel said, still at
attention."Yes, Captain," the female form of Lady Katherine, Dacyn's mother,
entered the screen. "Don't let them upset you unnecessarily, and make
sure that you and Dacyn take them for everything they've got and
several things they don't know they had.""My Lady?" Daniel asked."The Sol Union, Captain. Now would be a good time to start making
them regret that they ever went to war with us; and you and Dacyn are
in the position to do that.""I believe Prince Dacyn and the Atlantis
way in doing that My Lady.""Yes they did. Now it's your turn to help finish the job," she said
rather coldly. Daniel got the feeling that this was one woman he never
wanted angry with him. "Dacyn will listen to you like he will listen to
no one else. He'll bounce ideas off of you, Captain. I'd really rather
not lose all those nice little colonies you've managed to obtain for us
in that fifteen light year bubble around the corridor entrance. The
freeing of that many souls from the tyranny of mediocrity is rather
pleasing to me, Captain Storm.""Yes ma'am," Daniel said carefully."Oh, and casual dress, Daniel," she said. "We're having a barbecue
at the family compound.""Yes ma'am," Daniel said. He remembered barbecues at the Atlyn
compound when he was a child. They were a lot fun- for a child. He
wasn't sure about as an adult when titles and rank meant more. He was
after all, still only a citizen, not a member of any noble house."Relax Captain," Lord Sloan said. "We got what information we
wanted. Unless you need support vessels we'll see you when you get
back." Daniel understood the threat in that statement. A request for
support vessels would probably garner a carrier task force, complete
with Imperial personages aboard. He also knew that Dacyn couldn't do
his job at that point."Yes, My Lord.""Thule Prime out," Lord William said and cut the transmission.Daniel sighed and leaned against the desk. This mission just got a
hell of a lot more complicated.Six days later, Dacyn was staring down his own executive officer,
his attaché and his friend. "You will be taking a security
contingent," she said."They'll just get in the way, Frankie. Diplomats get nervous around
security types. It's difficult to talk peace while surrounded by guns.
Besides, I can take care of myself," he protested"What part of: you will take a security contingent with you, do you
not understand. This is not open to debate or discussion." Frankie
looked over at Captain Storm and said, "And he doesn't count as a
security guard.""What part of I don't need one, do you not understand?" Dacyn
replied with a smile."The part where you're not listening to me. Because you are going to
take a security detail. If for no other reason your security detail
will be there to make sure that Davenport's security detail and her
political officer behave themselves," she told him.Dacyn locked eyes with her."Okay, but only three.""Of my choosing," she said.He raised an eyebrow and said, "Okay.""You gave in to that too quickly," Daniel said.Dacyn simply smiled and picked up the data sheet on the desk. "Where
are the talks being held?""In an old government building that both the Empire and the Union
have been renovating," Commander Ryan said. "It's been certified as
secure by both security forces.""It's not certified as secure by me
at him, “But then again, you already knew that."He grinned back, "Sometimes our captains forget what it's like to be
an XO." He winked at her and added, "We have to remind them."Dacyn and Daniel exchanged looks. Finally Dacyn said, "Okay, okay. I
get your point. I'll let you select my security and I'll stay with them
at all times. And you can take a shuttle down and check out the
security yourself. You can even take Malcolm with you. But if you do,
along too.""Okay," she said. Looking over at Malcolm she continued, "We leave
in an hour.""In the meantime, let's go over this itinerary, and what the Empire
wants out of the talks, and what concessions we're willing to make,"
Dacyn changed the subject.Daniel sighed and said, "I don't know what the Diplomatic Corps told
you. But I have it on best authority that certain members of the
imperial family would hate to see us give any of the colonies we've
taken back to the Union." He noticed the long look Frankie gave Daniel.Dacyn simply nodded, looked down at the sheet and made a few marks
with the stylus. "I have some ideas along those lines," he said. "I
have several options for an opening offer, a maximum that I'll "give
away" and a compromise position I'm willing to take. I hope to hammer
something out closer to my starting offer than my compromise position.
I've also got a few "cultural" propositions that I think will do us
much more good in the long run.""You still look tired," Daniel said.Dacyn saw Frankie and Malcolm exchange looks and made some excuse
about going to check the shuttle over before going down to the planet.
Dacyn smiled to himself at their kindness and appreciated their
discretion. Sighing, he looked over at Daniel and said, "I am tired.
Mainly it's because I'm still fighting my own channels after that
attack.""I don't understand. I thought that Doctor Tyde said that you would
be completely recovered by the time we got here," Daniel asked
concerned."I am- for the most part. It's just that what I did widened my
channels so to speak. Now I have to simply restructure my personal
shields to accommodate those wider channels. It means that not reading
minds has been much more difficult lately."Daniel nodded and asked, "Is it going to cause problems for the
negotiations?" he asked.Dacyn shook his head and smiled, "Only for them. I suspect that most
of them will be using electronic mind shields while we are down there.
I know that the Union file on me states that I am a graduate of the
Psi-Corps Academy on Kentaurus, so they'll take precautions. However,
like my parents, electronic mind shields- especially those of Union
design- have never been very effective against me. Now, it would seem
that they are even less so. Hell, half the time I can hear the ship
psiber-brain chattering away as it runs the
functions are supposed to be behind a shield.""Have you reported it to the engineering department?" Daniel asked.Dacyn nodded, "Yes. Both the electronic and the biological shields
are in place. It's just me adjusting to what has happened.""So that's why you're so exhausted. You've been fighting off the
ship's brain." Daniel said.Dacyn nodded and replied, "Something like that. It'll take a while
to get readjusted. It won't interfere with the mission." He looked over
at Daniel and said, "It's just interfering with our chances to resume
what we started a week ago.""No rush. I can wait," Daniel replied.Dacyn shook his head and said ruefully, "As can I. It's just
frustrating.""Tell me about it," Daniel said. Dacyn could literally feel him
forcing his mind away from the image of Dacyn laid flat on his back on
his rack, rampant and excited. He felt the blood rise in his cheeks.
"Your blushing," Daniel commented."Sorry, I caught that image," Dacyn said.It was Daniel's turn to blush. He stammered for a moment and then
said, "Tell me about these cultural ideas. I thought you said that the
Union went out of its way to avoid cultural contamination."Dacyn smiled, "I know. The real problem we are having with the Union
is that there are no third or fourth parties for which public opinion
can be swayed in either the direction of the Empire, or the Union.
There's no real political pressure either of us can place on the other
in the court of public opinion. There are just us and them.""And now the aliens," Daniel said."The only public opinion of the aliens I'm interested in is how we
can get them to stop attacking us," Dacyn said. "The real problem is
that the only way we get the people in the Union to see us as something
other than the monsters that their propaganda portrays us as, is to
conquer the planet they're on, which is not really something we want to
do. You wouldn't believe the difficulties their propaganda has caused
their own officials in the colonies we've taken in this sector.""Such as?""We don't have much of a problem identifying the former political
officers and party officials on the planets we take. Usually the local
population is more than happy to hand them over to us- or at least
their heads." Dacyn smiled, "The Union has spread a bunch lies about us
torturing and killing civilians and prisoners of war. You know,
beheading them to make an example and that kind of thing. Well, when we
would take a planet, the people would go ahead and kill their political
officers as sort of a way of trying to please the new imperial
governors. They figured they save us the trouble of killing them. We've
lost a great deal of valuable intelligence that way, but the
populations have been almost eager to adjust to imperial rule.""What do you propose to do about those colonies. You know the Union
is going to ask for them back," Daniel asked."That's one of my fall back positions. We control a hemisphere
roughly fifteen light years in diameter from the entrance to the
corridor. Like I said, its general shape is rather phallic. The outer
five light years of the sphere contain a total of two former Union
worlds- neither of which is of any value to us, and the populations are
made up mostly of military families, and postings. Outside of hostage
situations, in which we are loathe to be involved, they are more
trouble to keep than they are worth. I'm going propose making that a
de-militarized zone for both governments. We can patrol its edges but
not enter into those star systems with any armed ships. My fallback
position would be to give those systems back to the Terrans and then
make the next innermost five light years a DMZ. I won't go any further
back than that.""What about the systems in that area?" Daniel asked."A lot of agro-worlds, a few industrial complexes, and one or two
recreational facilities. Most of them were already starting to get
restless under Union rule anyway. I think they'd make fine colonies for
the Empire. They are also diversified enough to create a third
government among themselves to be an independent buffer state between
us and the Union.""So then it won't be just us and them?" Daniel asked."Yes, and no. We know better than expect any kind of fairness out an
international or in this case and intergalactic governmental body. The
UN screwed us hard back on Earth. The idea here is to create a zone of
trade that will be too valuable to the Union in its influx of capital
for them to try and conquer it, and it will keep our forces from
bumping up against each other.It will also offer an insertion point for Imperial Intelligence to
disseminate cultural changes into the Union.""You're wanting to introduce free-market ideals into what is
essentially the biggest socialist government in the history of Terra?"
Daniel asked. "You're insane."Dacyn smiled, "Their economy is stagnant. The only technological
advancements they make are through espionage, not through any real
research because free-thinking is discouraged. The richest elite have a
standard of living that is barely above that of a citizen of the
empire; and fewer freedoms than even our subjects. Their spreading the
wealth around has only managed to lock the culture in place, and make
the whole population slaves of the government. The only thing they
spread around was the misery.""This isn't some kind of crusade to free the masses of Terra,"
Daniel warned him. "They brought it on themselves. They tried to
enslave our parents, and they drove us from our home planet in the name
of global warming, social justice, and any of a dozen other catch
slogans that were not about helping people or the planet but were about
seizing power.""Oh trust me, I know. I've listened to my mother and my fathers wax
eloquently on everything that happened five hundred years ago. I've
also gotten drunk with Captain Plainwalker of the
about his mother being murdered by a UN soldier using stolen Atlantean
weaponry," Dacyn told his best friend. "I just think of this as a way
of breaking the Union's back. You see I have also studied the fall of
the old Soviet Empire, and I have a plan of my own to unleash on the
Sol Union.""What are you up to Dacyn?" Daniel asked. His voice suddenly worried.Dacyn just smiled and said, "Nothing short of ending this war, and
bringing freedom to this arm of the galaxy," he said."Freedom has responsibility with it Dacyn. Something our forefathers
almost forgot. Something these people have no concept of. To them, the
State holds all responsibility. They are happy in their poverty because
everyone else around them is just as poor. They don't know it can be
better.""I know. It may take a thousand years, Daniel, but I have time to
wait. I'm a patient man." He gave Daniel a playful wink, "I've waited
almost twenty years for you. Waiting a few hundred for this kind of
plan to come to fruition is no big deal.""Do your parents know you're playing politics, Dacyn?" Daniel asked."My genetic parents do. My brother Colin does. The rest, are content
to let me have a free hand here as long as I don't upset their apple
carts.""I can't believe that Lady Katherine and Lord Dannon would agree to
this," Daniel protested.Dacyn smiled at him and said, "Who do you think helped me come up
with it?"The facilities had checked out with Commanders Seizemore's and
Ryan's expectations, and Daniel felt much better as the captain's
pinnace flew in over the deserted city. The Union had used neutron
weapons on the planet. It destroyed all animal life within a certain
radius but left the cities and infrastructure intact in case they had
wanted to use them again. Of course, that had been over a hundred and
ten years ago, and much of the city had been reclaimed by the rich
temperate grasslands and forests surrounding it. Now it looked more
like a huge crumbling zoo than a city.As the small craft had set down in the landing grid indicated by
Commander Seizemore, the fighter escorts hovered above- again at
Commander Seizemore's insistence. She wanted to remind the Union that
they were sending a lowly ambassador to these talks. The Empire was
sending a Prince of the Realm. Daniel approved.As the air locks cycled and the craft's sensors confirmed the safety
of the landing area, Daniel looked back over at the security contingent
that the commander had chosen. They looked resplendent in their
imperial dress uniform- with fully functional side arm and personal
weapons. Two were shifters, a weretiger and true werewolf. The third
was a Shan defender, marked by her bright purple hair the long folds of
flesh running between the outsides of her arms to the small of her
back, forming a flying-squirrel type of wing. Not very effective for
flying in an atmosphere, but highly useful as diving planes in the
water environment that the Shan preferred.Although looking rather normal, the two shifters were well capable
of handling several of the Union exo-cyborgs, and the Shan defender
could tear the hull off this pinnace and use it as shield if need be.
Of course that would also release the pheromones that defenders
excreted when excited and would be highly distracting to anyone in the
area- especially the two shifters. They would probably go berserk and
kill anything attacking the party. Commander Seizemore had rigged the
security detail for maximum effectiveness and the survival of
was good at her job.As the door opened and the detail filed out to take up flank
positions, Daniel and Frankie straightened their uniforms. Dacyn had
chosen instead to wear a rather striking white tunic and slacks with a
matching hooded cloak. Between his own light coloring, and the gold
trim, he would stand out amongst the more drab utilitarian uniforms and
dress of the Union. He would be a white rose among the brambles. Daniel
was still unhappy by the fact that Dacyn wore no weapon other than a
small knife at the back of his belt- evidently the other ambassador
would be similarly armed.They filed out into the fresh air of the planetary autumn, and
Daniel was struck by the beauty of the world that the Union had so
casually cast aside because of the independent pioneering spirit the
colonists had begun to develop. Rich golds and reds ran through the
local hardwoods in the distance. The grass was just beginning to take
on a slight gold cast to its deep green, and he could hear the sounds
of what he assumed were birds crying in the distance. It was a welcome
sight to his space weary eyes. The day that he came to prefer the
recycled air of a starship to a planetary surface, was the day Daniel
knew to resign his commission and become a farmer.At the end of the walkway they were stepping out onto was a pavilion
of sorts. On the other side, the Union shuttle was just touching down.
In contrast to the imperial organic design that was more reminiscent of
blade of grass, the Union craft was a big blocky thing with thick
welded plates, short stubby wings, and huge engines that wrapped around
its aft section. He noticed that their fighters too were hovering over
the shuttle.Daniel knew that the agreement called for both ambassadors to enter
the pavilion simultaneously, so the party made a short journey to the
end of the walkway and waited patiently. Silence surrounded the
Imperials as they awaited the Union shuttle to cycle. Daniel leaned in
next to Dacyn and said, "Your mother told me to make sure that you took
them for everything they've got and several things they didn't know
they had."Dacyn looked at him startled and asked, "When did you speak to
Mother?""Right after you fried the alien captain's brain," Daniel told him.
That was what that summons from the bridge was about. I thought you
knew.""I don't read your mind unless asked, Daniel," Dacyn replied."Or we're intimate?""Don’t' get me started right now, Dan. I have to concentrate," Dacyn
scolded him."Okay," Daniel told him. "Later.""Definitely later."Five minutes later, they were all entering the main pavilion of the
conference hall. Daniel noticed that the Union security contingent was
ten strong and was entirely made up of cyborgs in exo-armor. Each was
capable of ripping a man in half, and had several rather nasty
surprises built into their augmentations.Davenport proved to be a woman of medium stature and graying hair.
She looked as tired as Dacyn. Behind her was Captain Kim, giving rather
uncomfortable sidelong glances at the cyborgs. Lastly was the huge form
of Davenport's attaché, Ubuntu. The man just looked huge, mean
and nasty. The whole contingent however, had a look of bland sameness
about them. They were all the same shade of nut brown, with the same
rich dark hair, and brown eyes. They weren't unattractive- far from it-
they were beautiful, but they were simply all the same. It was in stark
contrast to the rich variety of racial mixes found in the Empire. There
was no ethnic strife in the Union because there was only one ethnicity."Ambassador Davenport," Dacyn said with a slight nod. Daniel noticed
that he did not bow. A captain in the Imperial Navy did not bow to a
superior officer. Bowing was for teachers, masters, and for the Emperor."Your Imperial Highness, Prince Dacyn Atlyn, it is good to meet
you," Ambassador Davenport said. The woman immediately went up in
Daniel's estimation. She was going to meet Dacyn on his terms, not try
to force him into hers. He also noted the slight wince in Ubuntu's eyes."This is Captain Daniel Storm, of Their
Majesties' Ship Genesis, Commander
Francis Seizemore, my diplomatic attaché, and my security
contingent, Lieutenant S'vinn of Shan Prime, Gunnery Sergeant Michael
Stone of Levi, and Chief Garrett Tanaka of Thule Prime," Dacyn
introduced the Imperial party.Ambassador Davenport turned and said, "This is Captain Kim Lee Tong
of The People's Ship
Koffi Annan, Mr. Ubuntu, my diplomatic attaché, and his
security detachment." Daniel smiled at the implication that the
security detachment was Ubuntu's and not hers.Dacyn smiled and gestured toward the conference hall saying, "Shall
we go in and get started?"The woman returned the smile and replied, "By all means, Your
Highness." Again Ubuntu winced.Dacyn said, "Please call me Dacyn. When people call me your highness
I start looking around for my sisters. Besides, your attaché
seems uncomfortable with my title.""Titles are a remnant of the oppressive classes from Earth's
history. We do not recognize them," Ubuntu said."That's nice," Dacyn told him man returned a confused look.
Evidently he'd expected Dacyn to take offense at the remark. Of course,
he didn't know Dacyn very well. Half the time he complained that his
title gave him more trouble than his rank in the Imperial Navy."You are also a Captain in the Imperial Navy, are you not?" Captain
Kim asked as if reading Daniel's mind.Dacyn nodded and sighed. "Yes, I'm the Captain of
Atlantis. She's currently in dry-dock, so I drew this duty.""The Atlantis?"
Captain Kim asked. "Isn't that the ship that engaged the Fifth Fleet in
Corridor Nebula?""We call it Hell's Gate," Commander Seizemore said."A reference to a fictional religious after-life," Ubuntu said."An apt name for an unpleasant place," Captain Kim said. "It has the
advantage of being much more descriptive." He nodded his head, one
warrior to another, "The admiralty back home is still trying to figure
out how you were able to defeat our wolf-packs with a single ship."Dacyn smiled and said, "I was smarter than the pack, Captain Kim.
Beyond that, I'd rather not say.""Of course, Captain Atlyn. We in the service understand these
things," Captain Kim replied with another sidelong glance at Ubuntu.Daniel smiled at the exchange as they entered the main hall and
moved toward the conference rooms. He got the feeling that Captain Kim
was in many ways a kindred spirit to himself. That was an uncomfortable
thought, the idea that the enemy was human as well.Nothing else was said as they entered the conference room and spread
out at the table. These negotiations were really like nothing that had
ever taken place before. There was no intergalactic community looking
on to see if they were acting diplomatic. There were no media channels
recording. It was simply the representatives of two governments
hammering out a ceasefire.Dacyn took off his cloak and casually tossed it on an empty chair
and waited for Ambassador Davenport to sit down. He poured himself a
glass of water and sipped it carefully. Daniel had never seen his quiet
friend this confident, this in control. He briefly wondered if this was
the way Frankie saw him everyday aboard the
until the Ambassador sat down and opened his datapad and stylus and
began to read.As Ambassador Davenport got settled, he looked up and asked, "Now
exactly what are the Union's requests for a ceasefire, and are you
authorized to actually sue for peace?"
Davenport looked somewhat startled at his bluntness. She covered it by
pouring herself a glass of water and drinking it as well. Setting the
glass down, she said, "Yes, I'm authorized to hammer out a preliminary
peace treaty- but it has to be ratified by the Sol Political Bureau,
and the Prime Minister."Dacyn nodded, "And your terms?""We want what was stolen from Earth's genetic potential returned,"
Ubuntu interjected."Excuse me?" Dacyn asked."When the enhancers rebelled against the rightful world government
and left the planet, they scoured away the genetic potential for
transhuman powers, as well as took with them the advanced Shan and
Atlantean technology unearthed by the war criminals Katherine Katz, and
her paramours. That's not to mention taking the shifter gene as well.""Mr. Ubuntu," Frankie interjected. "You do realize that you just
called Prince Dacyn's mother and fathers war criminals don't you."Ubuntu's eyes widened somewhat. "That was five hundred years ago!""Yes it was. When my parents left Earth, they were over five hundred
years old," Dacyn told him."I don't believe it!" Ubuntu protested."Believe what you wish, Mr. Ubuntu," Daniel told them. "I've known
Captain Atlyn's family since I was a boy. Trust me, they're immortal,
or as close to it as a human can get. All members of the Imperial Grand
Council are, as are the First Princes and Princess.""That's preposterous!" Ubuntu said."And that is the reason you continue to lose in conflict after
conflict with the Empire," Dacyn said leaning forward. "Have you not
yet figured out, we could take Earth back if we wanted to? But we don't
want to. We just want to be left alone.""The official stance of the Union is that the Transentient Empire is
a group of systems in a state of rebellion," Ambassador Davenport said.
Dacyn leaned back in his chair and said, "Amabassador, we've never been
part of the Union. The Empire was founded a hundred years before Earth
achieved star flight and followed us into this sector of the Orion Arm.""Be that as it may, that is the official stance of the Sol Union,"
she repeated, with a somewhat embarrassed tone.Dacyn smiled and said, "The Transentient Empire's stance is that the
Sol Union is an aggressive expansive state that is a threat to Imperial
citizens and subjects alike. Now we can either continue this kind of
posturing or get down to business."Again, Davenport looked over at Ubuntu and sighed, "Very well, let's
limit our talks to the matters concerning the ceasefire and leave
politics for a later time.""Good," Dacyn said. "Now what are the Union's terms for a cease
fire?"Ambassador Davenport looked at her own datapad and then said, "The
Union's terms are that the Empire pull its forces out of the Sol Union
Local Bubble, and the interconnecting corridor; the return of all
former Union colonies, and properties, and compensation for the loss of
the Fifth Fleet and the shipyards in the Corridor Nebula."Dacyn nodded, smiled, looked over at Daniel and then back to
Ambassador Davenport. "And after that list of demands that you are in
no position to make, why shouldn't I simply ask Captain Storm to
vaporize the Koffi
Annan and resume
the war as before." He leaned forward and said, "We're winning,
Ambassador. The only reason we're considering this ceasefire, is
because both of our territories have been attacked by an unknown
hostile alien force. The Empire can fight a war on two fronts, the
Union can't." Captain Kim's eyes grew large at the threat to his ship."Because I can guarantee that you would not get off this planet
alive," Ubuntu threatened.Frankie began to giggle as Ambassador turned to Ubuntu and said,
"Shut up, Ubuntu. You're not being very helpful." Turning back to
Dacyn, she said, "We would prefer you didn't. What are the Empire’s
terms and let's see if we can work our way to the middle."Dacyn smiled and said, "We leave our forces exactly where they are.
Call it quits, stop shooting at each other, and open trade.""To be honest, Dacyn," Ambassador Davenport said, “You could press
for that, but I'd never get my government to agree to it. You have to
give us something to show for our trouble; to save face so to speak."Dacyn leaned back, and thought for a moment. Daniel couldn't believe
it. He was actually getting the Union to consider the program they'd
discussed on theGenesis. "We'll
pull back five light years. Those five light years will become a
demilitarized zone where neither of our forces will enter with armed
ships. Traders only.""That's only two planets!" Ubuntu said.Dacyn raised an eyebrow. "Two planets with the families of several
flag officers and at least three of your Political Bureau members’
families.""I thought the Empire claimed not to take political hostages,"
Davenport said."We haven't. They're still right where your ships left them. We'll
even let them go home if you want. But we'll keep the planets if you
want to be recalcitrant.""Seven light years," Davenport countered. "And you reimburse the
Union for the lost Fifth Fleet."Dacyn smiled and said, "I went to a lot of trouble to destroy those
ships. It would look strange if we paid for my doing my duty.""We'll send you their hull name plates back if you want. As soon we
get them pried off the Atlantis'
them to repair our own ship," Frankie said."My government will never agree to that," Dacyn said. "That fleet
was lost in a military action. Payment for them would be tantamount to
admitting that destroying a warship in a war was wrong. It's not and
we're not going to do it." He sighed, "However, I have counter
proposal.""Go ahead," Davenport said.Dacyn tapped the e-pad with the stylus and brought up a star map of
the sector. He drew a line across it, did a few quick calculations and
said, "We'll pull back eight light years. We'll send your people from
those planets back to you- those that want to go that is. You'll pull
back another two light years from the present lines. We declare the
whole area a demilitarized zone, and help the systems inside it set up
a government independent from both of ours; with trade agreements to
stimulate both our economies." He smiled, "A buffer state between us."Davenport considered the options. She looked at her own datapad and
showed it to Ubuntu. The two spoke quietly, and Daniel noticed
Davenport fumbling with the pin on her collar. Finally, she looked back
across the table, "It's a start. I think if we can set up the details
of this independent state in a way that meets with both our approvals,
we're on our way to ending this conflict."Dacyn smiled and said, "Good. Why don't we get down to the brass
tacks then.""What about the Union's demand for genetic material?" Ubuntu said.Dacyn looked up and said, "Mr. Ubuntu, we're not going to give the
Union the ability to create transhumans and then enslave them. That was
why we left." He smiled, "We're actually doing you a favor. To be
honest, we really should give you the gene back, and sit back and watch
you destroy yourselves with it. If you start breeding supermen with the
ethics of your government, it wouldn't be long before you destroyed
yourselves.""But you stole Earth's genetic birthright!""No, Mr. Ubuntu, Earth rejected it and we left. You chose mediocrity
over the right to fail. The problem with making outcome equal is that
you destroy greatness as well as failure. Now you're paying the price
for that choice. Your citizens are monitored, guided, and pampered
right into apathy. They have no reason to strive for excellence and are
punished for doing so. Who are we to deprive you of the unintended
consequences of your choices? The genetic material is off the table,
and it won't come back on."Ubuntu looked stunned, but said nothing else as Dacyn and Davenport
got down to hammering out the details of Dacyn's plans. Again, Daniel
was surprised at his friend's ability to calm a tense situation with
just the right word; to deflect a criticism, or to make a point by
simply lifting an eyebrow or the downturn of his lips.After a while, he became bored watching the proceedings and found
himself wandering the room. It looked like a very utilitarian
construction with little to no adornments. He found himself looking out
the window as Epsilon Sagittarii set in the distance. It was a huge hot
A class star, and the planet's orbit was much further out than Thule
Prime was from its home star.As the blue white light faded behind the mountains, the colors of
the trees became deeper orange, and red. One whole mountainside in the
distance looked like it was bleeding."Beautiful, isn't it." He had not heard Captain Kim approach.He turned and faced his counterpart, and said, "Yeah. Sometimes I
miss the wind and the trees. Starship duty doesn't give much of a
chance for that kind of thing.""I know what you mean," Kim said. "I grew up on a collective near
Pyongang, and sometimes miss the planting season." He smiled wryly and
added, "And then I remember the smell of animal waste on the raw earth,
and my nostalgia goes away.""Aren't you going to get in trouble for talking to me?" Daniel asked
indicating Mr. Ubuntu with his head."Ubuntu is Ambassador Davenport's political officer, not mine. I
will speak with whom I want on this mission. At the moment I wish to
speak to a fellow starship captain, even if he's technically an enemy
of the state. I think that he and I have more in common than I do with
Mr. Ubuntu.""Brotherhood of space?" Daniel asked."Precisely, Captain Storm. There is something that binds sailors on
the starry sea that the planet-bound will never know.""Captain Kim, I believe you have the soul of a poet."He smiled and said, "Long shifts in the void give one time to
contemplate life, and the twists and turns it sends a man.""Don't I know it," Daniel said."Do you have a family?" Captain Kim asked."My father, and two sisters," he said."No wife or lover waiting at home?"Daniel shook his head and said, "No. There is someone, but we can
never seem to get more than a few minutes alone without being
interrupted."Captain Kim smiled. "I understand. The Political Bureau has yet to
choose a wife for me. I've had a few lovers, but never can seem to
settle down. The call of space.""We don't do that," Daniel said."Do what?""Our government doesn't choose our spouses. We marry who we choose,
and who we fall in love with, and who chooses us. There are those who
are pulled together by other forces, a pride-bond or a pack-bond for
shifters; life-bonds for the Mideanites and other psis, but for the
most part we are free to make our choices, and our own mistakes.""For three hundred years, the state has chosen our spouses. We are
free to take lovers as we and our spouses choose, but children must be
born with our spouse," he said. "It keeps the divisiveness of racial
inequities from tearing our society apart."Daniel did not trust himself to answer that. "Why not simply allow
poly-spousal marriages?""That makes tracking parentage and genetics too difficult. It's
easier for the state to handle things the way we do.""I see," Daniel said."What is she like?" Kim asked."Who?""The woman with whom you can't seem to connect."Daniel chuckled and said, "He.""Excuse me?" Kim asked."My lover is a man," Daniel told him.Captain Kim looked genuinely surprised. "You're government allows
that kind of relationship?""Of course. It's none of the government's business who we love," he
said.Kim shook his head, "That would never be allowed in the Union. It's
not productive to the state. Children born with the gene for same sex
attraction are aborted before they come to term."Daniel shook his head and said, "That explains a lot.""Excuse me?""Nothing," Daniel said. He couldn't believe it. Terra had managed to
wipe out the very gene they were trying to breed for by aborting the
sequence for same-sex attraction. The enhancer gene lined up with it
fairly consistently, and almost completely for those with enhanced
strength and durability. Add into it the propensity for bisexuality
among shifters, and downright hypersexuality among magecats, not to
mention the biological necessity for it among the Shan and you had a
damn near requirement for a society to recognize and allow same-sex and
polyspousal unions. The only race in the empire that came anything
close to a majority of opposite sex two partner marriages were the
Mideanites, and that majority was by the slimmest of margins.The reason the enhancer gene flourished so heavily in the Empire was
the advanced genetic engineering that the Shan and the Atlanteans
brought with them. The adaptation of the Shan healing pods into
artificial wombs had guaranteed the ability of every marriage no matter
what the gender make-up to have children. Children and the sanctity of
family were one of the Empire's highest social priorities."I don't understand, Captain," Kim said."Sorry," Daniel said. "It's a cultural thing. I think our societies
have drifted very far apart. I don't think your Union would ever be
able to absorb the Empire even if it had the military wherewithal to
try. I think the only hope for our being able to live side by side
peaceably will be Captain Atlyn's buffer state.""Is this difference so very important?" Kim asked. "I mean are you
incapable of controlling your base desires?""The point is why should we have to? What business is it of the
government to decide what goes on in a bedroom, or a family?" he asked
the Union captain."It doesn't further the species," he said. "It's not like two women
or two men can have babies.""Maybe not in the Union, but he Empire has resources that allow us
to do just that. Captain Atlyn's oldest brother is the genetic amalgam
of five members of a single polyspousal family.""Isn't that a waste of resources that could be better used somewhere
else?""Who is to say what resources are wasted? A family with the
resources can use them however they want. It's not the government's or
anybody else's business how a family spends its money," Daniel said."Besides, I'm rather glad that our government doesn't forcibly abort
babies who carry the gene for same-sex attraction. That means I
wouldn't be here," Daniel told him. "And I've got news for you,
Captain. I like being alive.""No offense was intended, Captain Storm. I am simply somewhat
surprised by this discovery.""Not a problem, Captain. Just remember when you're dealing with
Imperial citizens that not everything is always as it seems. Don't
judge us by your cultural standards.""I'll keep that in mind," Captain Kim told him. "You've given me a
great deal to think about.""Just don't let Mr. Ubuntu catch you thinking," Daniel told him.Kim smiled back. "I won't."Dacyn watched Ubuntu carefully out of the corner of his mind. The
man was up to something, and Dacyn couldn't afford to take his
attention away from Davenport to determine what it was. He sent a quick
mental signal to Frankie, :Watch Ubuntu. He's up to something.::Will do, Dacyn. You keep your eye on what Davenport is offering.
There's a trap in there somewhere,: she sent back.He and the Ambassador began a diplomatic duel as deadly as any
physical conflict in which he'd ever been involved. The fate and
freedom of whole star systems and billions of people were at stake
here. He would make a suggestion for the structure of the buffer state
government, and she'd make a counter offer that sounded reasonable, but
there were subtle dangers that would give the Union undue influence.Dacyn had studied the negotiations of people like Carter and
Brezhnev, Reagan, and Gorbachev, and Kennedy and Khrushchev. He knew
the old playbook by heart. At one point, he leaned back in his chair,
borrowed from the master negotiator of them all, and said, "Ambassador,
if you don't wish to negotiate in good faith, I can walk out of here.
We don't have to have this ceasefire, you do. We've already discovered
that we can destroy the alien vessels. You can't."That got her attention. "Very well, Prince Dacyn. We'll table the
suggestion of military advisers to the buffer state for now. But don't
make that threat again. We will
Dacyn smiled, "I'm sure you will, Ambassador." He didn't have to add
the part about waiting for the collapse of the Union and going in and
picking up the pieces. It was understood."This is enough!" Ubuntu slammed his hand down on the table. "I will
not let you sit here and carve up this sector of the Union and give it
away to the imperialist!" He turned to his exo-borg guards and
screamed, "Kill them all!"Suddenly the ten exo-cyborgs in the room swung around weapons drawn.
Dacyn felt himself slammed into the floor as Lieutenant S'vinn threw
him to the ground and covered him with her own body.""Damn it, S'vinn, I'm not helpless! I can help!" he growled into the
floor."No way sir!" Commander Seizemore threatened to cut off my wings if
I let anything happen to you, and I believe her!" He felt the woman's
massive strength pin him to the ground.All around him, he heard the clatter of automatic weapons fire. Even
after five hundred years, neither the Empire nor the Union had found a
more efficient method of dealing death on a man-portable scale than
hurling objects at hypersonic speeds. Sure, on a starship, energy could
be broadcast to hand weapons, but on the battlefield it was not as
effective as a simple slug thrower. Nobody had yet been able to come
with a small enough battery capable of powering a hand held energy
projecting weapon. Slug throwers were still the most efficient way to
kill people."Okay, if you want to play that way," Dacyn growled and centered his
mind. He closed his eyes and separated his mind from his body and let
his astral form float through the defender. He couldn't really blame
the woman, she was only doing her job, and that really did include
throwing him to the floor and pinning him to the ground. Still it was
unpleasant for both of them as his astral body passed through physical
one.Looking around he saw where both Chief Tanaka and Sergeant Stone had
shifted. Tanaka was seven hundred fifty kilos of anthropomorphic tiger.
He had one of the exo-cyborgs in each hand and was trying to stuff one
of their heads through the other's torso. Stone was in his anthro-wolf
form and about half Tanaka's size but was stalking the three ‘borgs
who'd engaged their body armor and were surrounding Ubuntu in a
protective stance. He could see the effect of S'vinn's pheromones on
the bodies of his men, as they were both sporting huge rampant
erections.He watched as Captain Kim flung himself across the room, grabbed
Ambassador Davenport by the collar, tucked and rolled pulling both of
them under the heavy table. For just a moment, Dacyn saw the outline of
a great cat in the man's avatar. :Well, well, well. The shifter gene
isn't completely gone in Union,: he mentally sent to Frankie.:Dacyn! What the hell do you think you're doing!:
mentally.Dacyn spun in time to see two 'borgs begin to take a bead on Daniel.
:I'm protecting my investment!: he screamed back. He gestured
and hardened the air between the Union soldiers and his lover. The
bullets ricocheted up into the ceiling as the two bionically enhanced
soldiers continued to pour fire into the force field. Daniel looked
surprised for just a moment and then a smile spread over his face.
Dacyn could see him concentrate on the lead 'borg. The man toppled
forward, the metal reinforcements in the shoulders and neck of the
exo-armor suddenly crumpled and the helmet crashed downward snapping
his neck.Suddenly the second exo-borg stopped dead in its tracks, a look of
confusion on his face. Dacyn watched and smiled as the nut brown lips
began to turn blue as he was deprived of oxygen to his biological
components. Frankie had merged with his computer network and taken
control of the cybernetic components. One of the problems with
exo-armored ‘borgs was that many of the internal organs were implanted
with computer controlled pharmaceutical pumps. Controlling those
circuits was easy for a technopath like his first officer. This man was
suffocating in a room full of oxygen.The sound of a high powered sidearm came from the table near where
both his body and Ambassador Davenport were stashed. He looked over to
see a half transformed Captain Kim firing point blank into the joints
of one of his own security contingent as the exo-borg tried to smash
through the table with its mechanically augmented limbs. Having little
effect, the Captain slung the gun to the side and stood up, continuing
to change into what appeared to be the battle form of a wereleopard-
clouded by the looks of it. With a primal scream, the wereleopard tore
into the exo-borg as the hapless man fired his chain gun into the
captain's stomach. Unless he was firing silver- which was highly
unlikely, the wounds would be painful, but not life-threatening. He
watched as the Union Captain drove his claws through the eyes of his
opponent. An incoherent scream later and the wereleopard was standing
over the bloody corpse. Dacyn smiled at the sight of the bulge in what
was left of the captain's uniform slacks. Even Union shifters were
affected by Shan pheromones.He felt the round that tore through Frankie's shoulder, more than he
heard it. The two had shared thoughts enough that there was a
rudimentary connection between them, and being in his astral form
combined with his recent difficulties, he couldn't help but pick up on
her pain. Spinning around to where she was lying on the floor in a
growing puddle of blood, a nasty wound through her right shoulder, he
felt something grow white hot in his mind.:Enough!:
felt and heard the crack and pop as every Union electronic mind shield
in the room fried in its casing. He telekinetically grabbed the Union
soldier standing over Frankie and pulled him off the ground. The man
rose into the air by the unseen force of Dacyn's mind, and with a
vicious twist of that force, was ripped in half. Great fountains of
blood erupted as Dacyn dropped the dead exo-borg to the ground.Looking back around, he saw that the two Tanaka had attacked were
down. One of the ‘borgs surrounding Ubuntu had fallen but another had
taken its place. The rest were dead or dying. Tanaka, Stone, and Kim
were stalking Ubuntu's defenders. Davenport was huddling under the
table, and S'vinn still had him pinned to the floor. He dove into his
own body, ignoring the shudder of discomfort that ran through both him
and the defender."Commander Seizemore is hit. Get her to pinnace, and I'll get the
Ambassador out of here.""No can do sir," S'vinn told her. "You're safety is top priority!""I'm trying to get my ass out of here Lieutenant, with as many of
our people alive as I can!""Yes, sir, uh ma'am?"Damn! I'd forgotten about the defender's sonar. At this close
range it had to be giving her a detailed layout of my body,
He also realized that while his mind was gone, his body had reacted to
the defender's pheromones at that close range. He not only had a spike
in his trousers, but his underwear was soaked from both his sex organs.
"Don't worry about it, Lieutenant. Just let me grab the Ambassador, and
we'll high-tail it out of the room. You cover us, then grab Commander
Seizemore and follow us to the pinnace!"He could literally feel the Lieutenant thinking about her options.
She couldn't come up with a better plan so she nodded. "Yes, sir! On
the count of three, grab the Ambassador and get out of here." Dacyn
nodded and prepared to leap. "One, two, three!" she shouted.Dacyn rolled out from under the woman and grabbed the surprised and
frightened Ambassador. "Come on, Lennox. This party's gotten a little
too rowdy for my taste!" They both went running for the door, as
Lieutenant S'vinn lay down a heavy covering fire of concentrated water
blasts from her hands. Dacyn knew those blasts packed enough wallop to
punch a hole through plate steel.He darted across the room in a low crouch, the Ambassador in tow.
Shoving her through the door and around the corner, he came face to
face with a combined force of both Imperial marines and Union shock
troopers. He looked over at the marine force commander and said, "kill
anything in there with a cybernetic implant!"Strangely enough, it was the Union commander who said, "You guys
heard the lady, Captain Kim was right! Take out Ubuntu and his exos!""Lady?" Dacyn asked as Lieutenant S'vinn came through the door
carrying Frankie.Davenport pointed to the front Dacyn's uniform where it had been
torn by the force of the Lieutenant's tackle and revealed his chest for
anyone with eyes to see. He blushed deeply and pulled the garment up to
cover himself. "It's a long story.""I'd love to hear it," the Ambassador said with a smirk and tilt of
her head. Then looking over at Frankie she added, "After we get her to
your shuttle. I don't trust our medical facilities to handle a possible
enhancer."Dacyn nodded to her and the Lieutenant and said, "Come on."They pounded their way down the main entrance to the building and
out to the pavilion. A quick right hand turn and forty meters away, the
pinnace pilot was awaiting them, med kit in hand. Dacyn shook his head
as the skidded to a stop at the hatch and told the defender, "Get her
into the auto-doc. I'm going back after the captain.""No you're not, sir!" the Lieutenant protested.Dacyn grabbed a side arm from the pilot and said, "You take care of
Frankie. I'll be right back!""At least take my tunic, sir!" the Lieutenant stripped the garment
over her head and tossed it to him. It was pain in the ass to get the
Shan to wear clothing as it was, so Dacyn knew the woman had no
problems with modesty. He just smiled and pulled it over his head,
grateful that she was that much bigger than he was.Beside him, the Ambassador had already grabbed a gun and was waiting
on him. "What? My captain is in there too!"
Dacyn smiled at her and said, "Let's go!"Before they reached the building though, the sound of automatic
weapon fire and explosions filled their ears. Suddenly the center of
the building exploded straight up and it began to rain fiery debris.
They skidded to a stop and covered their heads as pieces of mortar,
furniture, and brick fell all around them.:Daniel!: Dacyn
mentally screamed. He flung his mind out frantically searching for any
sign of life in the building. It was just a jumble of frightened
soldiers- both Union and Imperial.I can't believe he stopped it.
Am I alive?
What happened?
How did we survive?
Captain! That
mind was Sergeant Stone's.Dacyn homed in on Stone, and saw the image of Daniel lying crumpled
on the floor, buried under the bloody form of Chief Tanaka's battle
form. Without waiting for the smoke to clear, Dacyn ran headlong into
the building, Ambassador Davenport just a few steps behind him.He scrambled through the shifting debris in time to see Captain Kim
and Sergeant Stone now in their human forms lifting Tanaka off of
Daniel. "Daniel!" he yelled and began scrambling down the pile of
rubble that used to be a wall.Someone grabbed his arm, "Let them get him out of there first,
Ambassador." It was one of the Union shock troopers.For some reason the sincerity in the man's face stopped Dacyn cold.
Somewhere along the way, this man and his comrades had stopped being
the enemy. Now he was just a soldier doing his job- trying to give aid
to another fallen soldier."What happened?" Dacyn asked.The man shrugged, "I'm not sure ma'am. All I know is that when we
rushed the room, Mr. Ubuntu said something about taking out half the
city, and detonating some kind of explosive. The Imperial Captain over
there did something and the blast was focused straight up. I don't know
what he did, ma'am."Dacyn nodded to the man and said, "Don't worry about it trooper." He
turned back and saw where Kim and Stone were bringing the captain up.
The marines were loading Tanaka into an oversized corpsman's sling. He
scrambled down the debris to where a second corpsman was checking
Daniel over. The bigger man was groaning.
"It means he pushed his enhancer talent to the point that he was
drawing on his body's physical reserves. He exhausted himself directing
that blast straight up instead of out where it would have killed all of
us.""How?" Kim asked."Daniel," Dacyn stopped and corrected himself, "Captain Storm can
manipulate both gravity and density. I'd say he solidified the air
around the blast into a cone shape, forcing itupwards like a shaped
charge. I'll bet part of the roof of this building landed in the sea
twenty kilometers to the east of here."Captain Kim nodded and gave Dacyn a long look. Oddly enough, he
wasn't wearing an electronic mind shield and Dacyn still couldn't read
him. "So you're him."Dacyn shook his head, "Him what?"The captain smiled and said, "It's not important. Let's tend to our
wounded and get out of here. Did you and Ambassador Davenport get
things hammered out?""Not quite, but I think a few hours of peace and quiet tomorrow,
with large pot of hot coffee may just do it," Dacyn told him."I'll make the briefing room aboard the
least we can do after this fiasco.""If you don't mind, Captain, I'd rather take care of this on the
officer, until Captain Storm recovers, I have a responsibility to
advise her Exec.""I understand," he said. "I'll make sure Ambassador Davenport is
there."Three days later, Daniel found himself back in his own quarters,
looking disgustingly at the plate of high protein fish the galley had
sent up. He hated fish, had all of his life. Whenever he and Dacyn
would go fishing as boys, he'd always give what he caught to the
caretaker of the cabins where they stayed.The door chimed and he called, "Enter."Dacyn entered the cabin with a large tray and a smile. He still
looked tired, but this time it was a good tired. He looked down at the
tray on Daniel's desk, picked it up and dropped it in the recycler.
"Hey, I wasn't finished with that!" Daniel protested more out of
something to do than any desire to eat what was on it."Yes you are. You hate fish.""So?"Dacyn uncovered the tray he was carrying and set it on the table.
"So, I brought you steak: rare and with all the fixings just the way
you like them."Daniel smiled up at Dacyn and before he realized what he was saying,
asked, "Have I told you that I love you?"Dacyn stopped cold where he was and looked down at him. "As a matter
of the fact, you haven't."Daniel realized he just stepped over a line that there was no going
back from. Up to this point, it could all have been passed off as
experimentation, the stress of the job, or just general horniness. Now
though, the words had been said, or at least implied. There was no
going back. But Daniel found that he didn't care. He smiled up into
those ice blue eyes, "Well, I do."A light suddenly lit Dacyn's face like he'd never seen before. It
was a look of pure pleasure. "I love you too, Daniel," the smaller man
said in a very low whisper. "More than I could ever tell you."Daniel reached up and pulled him down into a serious kiss. He felt
Dacyn's tongue press against his mouth, seeking entrance. Daniel opened
his slightly to accommodate the hot organ.One of them groaned and Daniel was unsure as to which one it was.Finally, Dacyn pulled back and said, "Uh uh. Not until you've eaten.
I promised Doctor Tyde I'd get some protein in you."Daniel reached out and stroked the outline of Dacyn's hard cock and
said, "I know a great source of protein."Dacyn said, "Be that as it may, consider it dessert. If you're good.""Hey, who's the captain here?" Daniel asked."We both are, but it is
want dessert, first you have to eat your dinner.""Okay, okay," Daniel said pulling the steak to him. "If I'm going to
eat, you can at least catch me up on how the negotiations are going."Dacyn smiled, poured them both a glass of wine from the bottle and
said, "They're concluded. Davenport and I worked out something that
both our governments can agree to. Don't be surprised if we both end up
patrolling this section of space for quite a while.""What do you mean?""There's going to be a fledgling government made up of the neutral
systems. Both the Empire and the Union are going to work together to
guarantee their independence from both sides until they're strong
enough to stand on their own.""Did anyone stop to ask the systems involved?" Daniel asked as he
tore into the steak. It perfect, and much to his surprise, it was real,
not synthesized. "Where did you get a real steak?""From Captain Kim. It seems that some of the cattle survived the
sterilization of the planet and went feral. He and Chief Tanaka went
hunting last night.""You mean it was brought down,..,"Dacyn nodded his head. "The captain is a rather good hunter.""I take it the Union is unaware of his status as a shifter," Daniel
commented."His command crew knows and Ambassador Davenport knows. She also
knows my secret. But, she is keeping both to herself.""How?""When Lieutenant S'vinn tackled me, she ripped the front of my tunic
off."Daniel nodded and asked, "How did that go over?""She indicated that what she knew wasn’t important to her
government. I think that woman is going to be calling in a lot of
favors over the next few years. Some of them, even from us.""Oh well, as long as it doesn't interfere with our oaths to Empire,"
Daniel said."Captain Kim knows about us too.""So? The negotiations are over; neither of us can be used as a
hostage now. It doesn't matter," Daniel told him between bites of
steak. "Tell me something though.""What?""How are you going to get the systems out here to agree to the form
of government you hammered together for them? I mean you never asked
them what they wanted.""What makes you think that? My brother Colin has been negotiating
that side of it for almost six months now. I was using their blueprint.
They're getting exactly what they asked for," Dacyn told him."You are one devious little shit, you know that don't you," Daniel
said."I've had good teachers," Dacyn said. "I paid very close attention
to both Mother and Father over the past several years.""It's a shame you won't be on the Grand Council," Daniel said."What, are you looking for position as Imperial consort?""Heaven's no!" Daniel protested. Then something hit him. "Oh shit!""What?" Dacyn asked."We can't let this go too far?"Dacyn put down the glass of wine he was holding and asked flatly,
"And why the hell not?"Daniel looked over the table at him and said, "Because I'm just a
citizen. You're an imperial noble. Your parents will never agree to it."Dacyn smiled, "You let me handle my parents. Besides, your father
has turned down half a dozen peerage awards. You would be a noble if
he'd just give in and accept one.""Oh, that's what this is all about. Twisting Dad's arm?""No it's not about twisting Admiral Storm's arm. Nobody twists
Genesis' arm and gets away with it, not even my parents.""So what's this about then?" Daniel asked.Dacyn stood and walked over to his chair and said. "You just told me
you loved me. Did you lie?""Hell no! What a thing to ask! You can read my mind and find out
that's true.""Yes I can, but I won't. You know that," Dacyn said. "And if it's
true, then you just answered you own question.""That's too simple of an answer," Daniel said."It's a true answer," Dacyn replied leaning down and kissing him
rather seriously. "Do you want me to show you exactly how true it is?""What about dinner?" Daniel asked between kisses."We can skip dinner and go straight to dessert," Dacyn replied
unsealing the openings at the top of Daniel's uniform with gentle tugs
with his fingers."Wait a minute," Daniel said re-sealing the uniform and going into
the next room. He hit the intercom function on the wall and said,
"Captain Storm to CiC."“CiC here," Commander Ryan came on the screen."What's the status of Epsilon Sagittarii, Commander?""Sir?""What's the status of this system's primary? Any danger of it going
nova?""No sir, not for at least a billion years." Commander Ryan said
confused."Good. Now I'm going to be in my quarters for the next eight hours.
Unless the aliens show up, the Koffi
Annan fires on us,
or the that star goes nova I do not want to be disturbed Anybody that
disturbs me for anything other than those reasons, I will bust down to
assistant custodial engineer to for the academy’s C4 heads. Do I make
myself clear Commander?""Crystal sir," Ryan said."Very good Commander. Storm out." he killed the connection.Pulling his tunic over his head, he returned to the main sleeping
area, to find Dacyn lying stretched out and nude on his rack. "Do you
need to call my cousin?""Whatever for?" Dacyn asked. "She knows not to disturb me right
now." He wiggled his eyebrows at Daniel, "That is unless you've got a
kink I didn't know about.""Dacyn!" Daniel protested as he shucked his trousers and crawled in
next to him. "What a thing to suggest!""Shut up and kiss me," the blond said.Daniel snuggled up to the smaller man and kissed him seriously on
the mouth while his hands wander down the sides of his body. He felt
the smooth skin down his ribs and lats and along his hips, and then
dipped his hand inward to find he semi-hard shaft of flesh. He pushed
back on Dacyn's foreskin and began to nibble down his neck.Much to his surprise, Dacyn simply lay there and let him explore his
body- something he'd always wanted to do. He kissed across the ivory
skin of his collar bone and down the cone of his right breast. The
nipple was hard and excited, and he bit and chewed on it gently. He
felt Dacyn's cock stiffen in his hand, as if his mouth had sent a pulse
directly to the organ below.He reached up with the other hand and cupped Dacyn's other breast as
he slowly began to stroke the cock in his hand. It was a strange
sensation, having both a small breast and a dick in hand, but they
belonged to Dacyn and that made it right as far as Daniel was concerned.Dacyn groaned and arched his hips up to meet his strokes. Daniel
released the nipple from between his teeth and began to kiss southward
along the rise of Dacyn's ribcage, and down his flat stomach. A small
treasure trail of fine white hairs led down from his navel to a patch
of sparse white-blond hairs at the base of the cock and around the lips
of the vagina that it disappeared into.Daniel pushed the foreskin back and drug his hand gently downward to
the opening below it. Taking the head into his mouth, he gently and
leisurely sucked his way down along the thirteen or so centimeters of
cock until he buried his nose in the white hairs below. Dacyn wasn't as
big as most men, but he definitely had a mouthful. All the while, his
hand sank lower and lower to find the entrance to Dacyn's most secret
of places.He felt the outer lips part, and his fingers slipped deeper past the
inner ones to the opening inside them as he drew back from the cock in
his mouth. Dacyn was soaking wet, and his fingers slipped inside
easily. He heard Dacyn growl in pleasure as his strong hands began to
play with Daniel's hair. He arched his hips up driving his cock deeper
into Daniel's mouth and Daniel's fingers deeper into his pussy."Daniel, Daniel, Daniel!" Dacyn moaned. Suddenly a shudder ran
through the small body under him and Daniel found himself gagging as
jet after jet of hot thick semen hit the back of his throat. It was
more than he'd ever seen any other man come in his life.He fought to drink it as fast as it came, tasting the unique
sweetness of it that was all Dacyn. When it finally stopped jerking in
his mouth, he wiped his lips and looked up at his lover and said. "That
was definitely dessert.""Oh, that was just the first course, my beautiful Daniel."Daniel chuckled, "Beautiful? Me? Hardly."Dacyn smiled and sat up, his cock still hard. He pushed Daniel back
onto his back and smiled. "With that red hair, and green eyes, you're
the most beautiful man in the empire." He kissed Daniel on the neck and
began to run his fingers through the light dusting of red curly hair
around Dan's nipples and nipped him gently with his teeth. "I've
thought you were beautiful from the first time I saw you in the palace
with your father twenty years ago."He ran his other hand up the hardness of Daniel's thigh to reach the
long shaft of flesh sticking out of the mass of copper curls above it.
With strong fingers he gently but firmly stroked Daniel's twenty-two
centimeters of hard cock. Daniel felt Dacyn's hot breath on his stomach
as he continued to kiss lower and lower down his chest, across his
abdomen, until his cheek was brushing against the head of Daniel's cock.Dacyn wiped it against his cheek, and across his lips. He whispered,
"I've never done this before," and took about a fourth of it into his
mouth, stretching his cheeks out wide."Teeth! Teeth!" Daniel warned.Dacyn took the pillar of flesh out of his mouth and smiled meekly,
"Sorry.""Dacyn, you don't have to do that," Daniel said."Do you want me to?" Dacyn asked."Only if you want to," Daniel said."That's a cop out. Now do you want me to suck you or not?" he said
playfully. Suddenly, he sat and straddled Daniel. "Or I can think of
something else we can do." He reached back and grabbed the shaft of
Daniel's cock and maneuvered himself over it. Balancing on his knees,
he rubbed the opening of his vagina up and down the shaft. He leaned
forward and kissedDaniel. "Do you want me as a man or a woman?""I want you as you, Dacyn," Daniel answered.Dacyn beamed again with the same look as when Daniel told him that
the loved him. "I love you Daniel Aaron Storm. I want you inside me. I
want you beside me, forever."Daniel reached up and grabbed Dacayn by the arms and pulled him down
on top of him. He felt Dacyn's legs stretch out along side of his. "I
love you too, Dacyn but we don't have to see all of the palace in one
night." He could feel the head of his cock nestled between Dacyn's
outer lips. "We can take this slow. Enjoy it. If you want to give me a
blow job, that's fine. You know what they say about practice makes
perfect.""Perfect practice makes perfect," Dacyn teased."If you want me to make love to you that's fine too. Or you can sit
up again and impale yourself on my dick and simply fuck my brains out.
This is about both of us, Dacyn. It's not a competition to see who
comes last, or first, or the most."Dacyn nodded and snuggled against this chest. "I love you Daniel.
Did I tell you that?""I love you too, Dacyn," he repliedHe felt Dacyn shift his weight further down on his body. His cock
head began to slip deeper inside Dacyn's vaginal lips. At the same
time, he could feel Dacyn's hard cock leaking pre-cum again on both of
their stomachs. Dacyn wriggled and slipped further down onto Daniel's
cock until Daniel felt something blocking further progress.With a sudden realization, he understood what was happening. He
pushed Dacyn's shoulders up so he could see his face. "When you agreed
about being chaste, you were serious weren't you." Dacyn nodded. "No
wonder you're such a firecracker right now. This really is your first
time isn't it? What I'm feeling with my dick is your cherry, isn't it?""Is that a problem?" Dacyn asked."Why don't you read my mind and find out?""I told you, I won't do that," Dacyn said."Why? I'm inviting you to. Dacyn, I have nothing to hide from you."
Again, an epiphany struck Daniel. "You're afraid of what you'll find,
aren't you. You're afraid that you'll find that I don't love you." He
wrapped his arms around Dacyn and pulled him tight against his chest.
"We're not going any further until you find what you need, Dacyn. Read
my mind, find what you want."Dacyn laid his head on Daniel's chest, and began to draw circles
along his arms, as Daniel's cock was buried about a fourth of the way
in Dacyn's pussy. Daniel felt a brief touch of something gentle against
his mind, a bright shining butterfly kiss against his soul. :Are you
sure?: Dacyn said
mentally."Of course I'm sure," Daniel told him.
Again, the brief touch. It was if someone was gently sifting through is
memories, his feelings. Images of Dacyn came to mind, recollections of
feelings that he never understood as they grew into friendship, then
something more. Curiosity about the hidden mysteries that he knew
Dacyn's body held were gently examined; mysteries that he respected and
loved his friend too much to ask about without invitation.
asked, I'd have shown you anything you wanted to see.:"But it wouldn't have been right. I didn't want you to think it was
just curiosity.":Some of it was, and that was okay. I've been curious about your
body too,: he told
him. The memories shifted again, the slow realization that his
friendship had turned into something more, something precious,
something he was afraid of losing if he expressed it.
haven't we?:
mind voice asked.Daniel grinned at him, "Yeah, but we aren't now." He looked up at
Dacyn and asked, "Did you find what you wanted?"Dacyn nodded. "That and more.""Now see, I do love you," Daniel said."That's a good thing, because you've got about a quarter of your
manhood buried inside me, and since we've decided that we're going to
finish with it, we might as well figure out how best to proceed." Dacyn
said smiling."How does it feel?""Good, full, I want more, but it's a little painful.""How?""Well, it's stretching against the opening of my hymen and that's
uncomfortable. I guess the only way to get past that, is simply to do
it," he said."Do you want me to, or do you want to?" Daniel asked."Well, the brave thing to do would be to do it myself." He smiled at
Daniel and twisted his hips slightly. "But you know something. I'm
tired of being..., uhggg!"Daniel knew what he was going to say, knew what was coming and
decided to act. No building up to it, simply get the little pain over
with so that the greater pleasure could be enjoyed. With a quick upward
thrust of his hips, he felt his cock tear through the membrane and bury
itself deeply in a single motion. He felt a rush of slick liquid
suddenly pour onto his pubes as Dacyn settled all the way down. "How's
that?" he asked.Dacyn smiled as he sat up and said, "Much better." He began to raise
himself up and then back down on the pole buried in his pussy. Daniel
looked down to where he could see his dick disappearing into the lips
of Dacyn's opening as his lover’s cock stuck out from where the
clitoris would normally be. Daniel watched it continue to drip pre-cum
in long strings to pool on his stomach."Do you always leak this much?" he asked teasingly."Don't you?" Dacyn asked.Daniel shook his head, "No but then again, I'm not powering two sets
of reproductive organs." Suddenly a thought hit him, "Uh, you can't,…
uh get pregnant can you? I haven't gotten my shot this month because of
being in sickbay." All Imperial Naval personnel were required by
regulations to remain on contraceptives during their tenure of service
if they were unmarried- no matter what the gender..Dacyn smiled and said, "No. The doctors told me that the double set
of hormones keep me from getting pregnant. If I want to get pregnant, I
have to start taking something suppress the testosterone my body
produces." He smiled. "We're safe.""Famous last words.""We can stop," Dacyn said."Do you want to?""Hell, no. I've waited twenty years to get you where you've got me
and I'm not going to stop until we're both finished." He began to
slowly rock back and forth on Daniel's cock, his facea mask of pure
joy. For Daniel's part it had been a rather frustrating encounter up to
this point. All the stops and starts had his dick throbbing and his
balls aching. He reached out one hand and began to stroke Dacyn's cock
as his own was buried inside the other man.He could feel Dacyn pick up the tempo of the movements as again he
felt the butterfly touch against his mind. He felt a strange echo of
pleasure in his body, as Dacyn moved against him. He felt the sense of
fullness Dacyn was feeling; the feeling of his own hand wrapped around
Dacyn's cock, and the feeling of his own cock buried deep in Dacyn's
pussy. It was the most sensuous thing he'd ever felt in his life.Suddenly his body and Dacyn's were in sync. He could feel Dacyn's
passion rising to match his own need. Daniel rolled him over onto his
back and took over the thrusting. Dacyn locked his legs behind Daniel’s
back and rose up to meet his thrusts. As he devoured Dacyn's mouth with
his own, he felt Dacyn push his hand from the smaller pillar of flesh
that was Dacyn's cock and take over stroking it in time with Daniel's
thrusts inside him. With deep strong strokes the two men brought each
other to the brink of infinity, and then plunged over the edge.
Daniel felt his cock explode inside Dacyn, coating the walls of his
vagina with thick hot spurts of seed. At the same time, Dacyn's cock
exploded between them spraying the both of them with a coating of
Dacyn's own semen. Finally, they collapsed into each other on Daniels'
rack, spent and happy.It had been a long three weeks: a week back to the corridor, a week
through it, and then a quick fold to Thule Prime and a week of
debriefing for the Admiralty. Lord Sloan had been as good as his word.
The Genesis
fold straight back to Thule Prime and went right into dry-dock. To say
the Admiralty had been shaken up was putting it mildly. When he arrived
back at Fleet Command, he found his father of all people in charge of
fleet deployment.
His dad had taken him aside, at one point and said, "Boy I ought to tan
your hide,""What did I do?" he asked."I've been trying to avoid any imperial entanglements since I put
Kilpatrick down and retired. Now you go and put your neck right in the
noose.""What are you talking about, Dad?""This," his father said handing him a paper with the Imperial seal.
"They've gone and made me a Grand Duke, and an Earl so that you can
marry Dacyn.""You'd think that they would have let me tell you first," Daniel
said with a slight feeling of irritation."Boy, I've known you two were going to end up together since you
were twelve. I'm just surprised it took you this long.""Are you really upset about this, Dad?"His father smiled, "About the fact that you are finally settling
down? No. About getting stuck in the Imperial Senate, you're damn
right. I don't need that kind of headache!""Let Aunt Mick or Uncle Jason do it.""I can't," he said."They made it hereditary, so the only person that
can replace me is you, or your sisters Mary or Ginger, and you damn
well, those two need to stay out politics.""So, it's not like I got anything to worry about. After all, since
it's hereditary, don't you have to die for me to take over?" Daniel
teased his father about his own longevity."I can always abdicate," he warned."Conflicts with my duties in the Imperial Navy," Daniel said. He
remembered his Aunt McKenzie complaining about Dad saying just that in
order to avoid helping run the family business."I'll conflict you. Remember boy, I'm cutting yours and Dacyn's
orders now.""Yeah, but Dad. You want grandchildren don't you," Daniel said."That's what Ginger and Mary are for," he said with a grin."Okay, Their Majesties want grandchildren don't they?""They can want in one hand and...,""Daaaad," Dacyn warned.His father smiled at him, and said, “Go and get out of here. Your
cousin wants to talk to you before you go to that barbecue tonight.""What does she want?""She didn't say."It took Daniel half an hour to track her down to the high energy
physics lab at the shipyards. As she looked up from the computer model
she was working on, Daniel noticed she was still favoring the shoulder
where she’d been shot. Doctor Tyde had said it would be sore for a
while but she should make a full recovery. He smiled at her and said,
"Dad said you wanted to see me?""Oh, of course, Your Grace," she said with a mischievous grin."That's Dad, not me.""Oh didn't you realize that since your Dad now holds two titles, the
lesser of the two falls on you, My Lord," she said playfully."Don't you start," Daniel replied irritably. This day was just not
going well."What can I say? Your side of the family seems to be getting all the
good perks here lately.""I don't know, you said something about a roll in the hay with
General Greenbough's daughter.""Yeah, but she hasn't called back. Probably won't either. She's
probably off priding some place.""Now what did you want to see me about?" he asked."Oh, platinum.""Huh?"“Are you going to," she looked around to see if anyone could hear
her, "going to make this a permanent thing between you and Dacyn or is
it going to be another one of your wild,passionate, hot flings?""Frankie, we're talking wedding bells and titles here. I don't think
I have a much of a choice," he said."No, there's always a choice. You may not like consequences of the
choice, but there's always a choice."Daniel shook his head, "Not really. You don't know what happened
that night. It's permanent," he told her realizing that not only was it
true, but that he was happy about that."Then platinum.""Again, huh?""It's his favorite metal for jewelry," she said."Oh, you mean for a wedding band or an engagement ring?""Wedding band, engagement ring, bonding cuff, cock ring, nipple
piercing, whatever you guys are going to use," she said."Frankie!" he protested. Taking a deep breath he said, "Actually,
the wedding rings are made of poly-ceramic steel.""You got him a ring made out of a starship hull?""Yep, the command module of the Atlantis,
and mine is from the Genesis.""Damn Navy brats," she muttered. "Oh well then," she said reaching
into her pocket and pulled out a platinum band. "Use this for your
engagement ring then. It was Grandpa Storm's."He took and looked at it. "Maybe you should keep it for your husband
or wife.""Please, I've got a starship to keep running, and a captain to look
after. I don't have time for marriage.""You won't stay a commander forever," he said."No, probably not. But that just means I'll have more work to do if
I get my own ship.""That's what XOs are for," he told her with a smile. "The good ones
figure that out.""Yes, that's what XOs are for. But you and I both know that I'm
going to be harder on an XO than you or Dacyn ever were. By the way,
how're you guys going to work out postings?""The Genesis
patrolling the borders of the DMZ. We'll never be more that thirty
light years apart. And there'll be plenty of duties alongside each
other.""Remember, Daniel. What Mom and Dad have always said: That's what
marriage is about. It's about who's beside you, not who's on top."