Chapter 27: Chapter 26 – Under The Table

In the next month, the paper that Axian and the rest of the team published, quickly shook up the whole Neo-Hegemony. Or at least those who were knowledgeable enough to understand its contents. When Parthen, sitting in his office on Mors Caminus read it, he couldn’t help but form a small smile. Even though he barely understood its contents. 

 

“Good… Good! They have already got results! By the time we also finish our own version, we can implement their changes into it!”

 

“Why not just work together?” Rururin asked, dressed as a maid, not even trying to read the published paper of the scientists.

 

“Politics.” He sighed, rubbing his temple. “Even though we lead our people, there are many kinds of interests afloat amongst us. Even in the admiralty board. The more secure we got, many different factions rose up amongst the people.”

 

“And? It is not like they could threaten the four big groups! They have been around for centuries!” Rururin said, scoffing at those who tried to peddle their own, little groups’ interests. 

 

“True and we want to keep it that way! We are going to work out the manufacturing process and come up with a way to streamline it! Admiral Jankho has already started to rope in his trusted merchant friends to start collecting the resources! Our part is to set up the manufacturing lines and get ready to mass produce this… Suit of Ares!” He explained, standing up and walking before his panoramic glass. “It is up to the scientists to make sure we can put one together that can also work to the specifications.” He smiled. “Their job is to solve the problems we can’t! This way, even if a group emerges that would try and… take a slice for themselves, so to say,… they wouldn’t get the whole thing at once.”

 

“I hate politics, Major General!” Rururin said, sighing, walking up next to him.

 

“Me too. That is why I am happy that it is the Admiral’s headache to deal with and not mine!”

 

…

….

…..

 

“We need to acquire it.” Keshnar said, his voice resolute.

 

He, Mirian and Omega were sitting at a table, discussing their current proceedings. They had run into a small problem in the past week, as one of the components they needed was completely synthetic. The team had already come up with a method to reproduce and manufacture it, the problem was, one of the required resources was rare in the Neo-Hegemony. Its name was Formium. It was a weird, metal-like element and its most advantageous property was that it could be easily morphed into different shapes when working with it. Even better, it could withstand extreme forces and strains, without breaking. Any deformation it would receive would be nulled in a few hours. It would simply revert back to its original form in the end. Using it, the humans created a new element, mixing it up with others and finally naming it; Celestial Bronze. It made up most of the moving parts inside of the Suit of Ares. It made the Xanthe capable of incredible flexibility and still retain its sturdiness. It was requiring way much less maintenance than it usually would, making it capable of field operations, lasting even years. Its properties were showcased by the fact that after thousands of years, the Xanthe was still in a working condition. 

 

“Do we really need it?” Mirian asked.

 

“100%!” Keshnar answered. “We could replace it, but that would produce errors down the line. The maneuvers the suit is capable of, could easily snap them! That would be fatal in a battle!” He explained while Omega remained silent as he had no new memories coming up to him at that moment.

 

“We have a very limited supply of Formium… the amount needed is impossible to acquire.” Mirian shook her head, looking at the report of Keshnar.

 

“I know.” The professor nodded. “But I have a solution to that!” He said proudly. “You do know which alliance has an abundant supply of it!”

 

“I do.” Mirian nodded, looking at Omega, explaining it to him. “The Professor’s kind has a territory, containing around 130 systems.”

 

“147 by now. Another group joined the Alliance of Free Systems.” Keshnar said. “I keep up with the news through some of my family members.” 

 

“I see.” Omega nodded, listening to them, impressed by what he was hearing.

 

“But to acquire it…” Mirian sighed softly. “I doubt they would deal with us. We are not hostile per se but… It would bring trouble and way too much attention to them to trade with us! They wouldn’t risk it!” 

 

“And we don’t really have much to barter with.” Keshnar himself added. “Besides some tech we have.”

 

“And that is out of the question!” Mirian quipped at him immediately. “No tech is to be sold or traded away!”

 

“I know!” The slime laughed.

 

“Then? You want to rob them?” Omega asked, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Not really.” He said. “But I have friends in the underworld sector there. I could set up a smuggling operation. Formium in exchange for some medicine.”

 

“Medicine?” Mirian and Omega asked at the same time.

 

“Drugs.” Keshnar nodded. “My kind breaks down almost anything we consume. We have some synthetic drugs here that dissolve slowly and give my kind a great high! I could trade them for Formium! They have that in abundance anyway!” 

 

“Wait, wait, wait!” Mirian stood up, leaning forward, looking into his beady eyes. “You want to set up an illegal drug trade?!”

 

“Please! It would be an exchange of goods!” Keshnar jiggled in place. “Under the table, but a trade nonetheless.”

 

“Heh…” Omega chuckled, not really bothered by his words, curious as to how Mirian is going to reply.

 

She just straightened her body, crossing her arms, thinking about it. The small room fell silent very quickly and neither of them decided to make her hurry in her decision. 

 

“Would you be able to secure it for us?” She asked in the end.

 

“Hah!” Keshnar laughed. “I could get as many as we need! At first I was thinking about getting enough for repairing the Xanthe!”

 

“Okay.” Mirian nodded in the end, completely serious. “But we can’t be found out!”

 

“Sure! I was planning to go with the Dawn!” Keshnar answered.

 

“You were?” Omega asked, surprised. 

 

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“Of course! We retrofit it a little, get it some fake papers and be on the way! It has enough space to bring back the first haul and is casual looking enough to slip by the border patrol! I can simply parade around with its crew as my slaves, nobody would bat an eye!”

 

“I would.” Omega protested.

 

“I know.” Keshnar nodded, turning towards him. “So I went ahead and spoke with the two. I even persuaded the one called Miyon. It was not easy but little Sylen was helpful.”

 

“Little Sylen?” Mirian asked, as he was only calling those people ‘little’ who he saw as a worthy individual to be his potential students.

 

“You are something else.” Omega said, shrugging. If they already agreed, he was not about to refuse. 

 

“So! Do we have an agreement?” Keshnar asked, laughing. 

 

“We do.” Mirian and Omega nodded.

 

“Great! We can be on our way two days from now! The Dawn is already being fitted out to blend in more with the ships of the Alliance!”

 

Mirian and Omega just shrugged again, the latter finally understanding why he did not see either Miyon or Sylen in the past three days.

 

…

….

…..

 

When the Dawn was on its way, from the outside it was much newer looking than before. Besides replacing some of its worn down outer shell, it was also featuring a brand new, blue and white colored paint job. Even its insides were overhauled a little, getting a fresh coat of paint and some very well needed upgrades, especially in its cargo holds. 

 

“The ship had some old damages that were finally fixed!” Keshnar said, as he was with Miyon. They were checking out the main cargo bay and taking another round of inventory of the drugs they were shipping at the moment. 

 

“It saw a lot of things.” Miyon said, with a soft sigh.

 

“I noticed old holes on the hull. Those were left behind by Wuulfharn ships, weren’t they?”

 

“Yes.” Miyon nodded. “We ran into a Wuulfharn Warthog once.”

 

“Which generation?” He asked back quickly.

 

“I don’t know. The one that was around the same size as the Dawn.”

 

“Hm, then you are lucky! It had to be a few centuries old. The new Warthogs wouldn't punch a hole into this ship's hull but simply blast through it like nothing! How did you escape? Usually when you are rammed by one, your only outcome is to get taken away to be a slave!” 

 

“I wouldn’t say that I was lucky.” Miyon whispered, shaking his head. “We were coming home from a failed outing. We went into a new system but found nothing to salvage there. We just came out of an Astropath when we were ambushed by it. It hit us from the left side but the angle was weird. We were not caught on its ramming device completely.” Miyon started to explain, almost as if he was in a trance. He found it weirdly relieving to tell it to someone. To someone who he barely knew, yet his thoughts were simply spilling out of his mouth. “The hull was still damaged and some of them got on board. It was my first time seeing one of my kind’s ancestors.”

 

“Which one? The 2 meter tall ones or those that are close to 3 meters?” Keshnar asked.

 

“The latter.” Miyon nodded. “They are really nothing but beasts walking on their hind legs.” He snorted. “I was trying to tear the ship away so we could run but they were already onboard. Watching them from the video feed was horrifying enough because they had to hunch forward to fit into the corridors. By the time I managed to free the Dawn, four of them were in.”

 

“How did you get rid of them?” Keshnar asked, as he knew very well that they were physically way stronger than most species. 

 

“It was Sylen’s parents… my daughter and my son-in-law. Irian, my daughter, was rushing Sylen into the ‘panic room’. It was an escape capsule. Our plan always was; If anything would go horribly wrong, they would be at least saved. Sylen was just a baby back then. Nelvin, my son-in-law, was leading them on a wild goose chase. He was a great mechanic and knew the ship inside and out! He was running circles around them, closing them into different sections of the ship, keeping them away from Irian and Sylen.”

 

“You were planning to…?” Keshnar asked, having some ideas but wanted to hear it from Miyon. 

 

“Open an Astropath and shoot the escape pod into it. It had been kitted out to survive a trip like that. We would stay back and make sure they can’t follow them.” Miyon said with a trembling voice. “But one of the Wulfhaarns broke off and was heading towards Irian. My daughter placed Sylen into the pod and closed it, leading the beast away…” Miyon said, falling silent for a long minute, wiping his eyes in the end. “We opened the Astropath and sent Sylen away. Then the ship was set to self-destruct. But it never came to be as they managed to override it. Or jam the ship’s systems. I never got to know. We were captured and dragged to the cargo hold. That is when another Astropath opened up and Neo-Hegemony ships came out of it.”

 

“Hah! Lucky coincidence!” Keshnar chuckled.

 

“I wouldn’t call it lucky.” Miyon continued, taking a deep breath. “They were a hunting party. Immediately opened fire on the Wuulfharn’s ship, destroying it. Then noticing their presence on the Dawn, they also targeted us. One of the blasts opened a hole where we were. I was knocked out and woke up at the Gate of Kaltazar. There I learned they picked up Sylen later on and I was reunited with her… but my daughter and my son-in-law were dead. They couldn’t save their lives.” He shook his head. “I still don’t know how they died but I saw… What remained of them. I just hope it was quick and painless.” He groaned, holding his chest that was hurting strongly. “I was bound to a hospital bed for a year but managed to recover. I had to. For Sylen’s sake!” 

 

“I see.” Keshnar said, reaching out with a tentacle, patting the back of Miyon, easing his pained heart. “Don’t worry, with these reinforcements, the ship could resist even a newly built Warthog’s ramming attempts! Hehehe, your daughter is going to be my newest little student, I won’t let her be captured! Her brain is an unpolished one. It just needs a little bit of scrubbing to shine!”

 

“Isn't a smooth brain the exact opposite of what you want?” Miyon asked, chuckling a little, forcing back his tears, diverting his own thoughts onto a different topic.

 

“Hah! Not in my species!” Keshnar laughed. 

 

“Well, until you don’t make a smooth brain out of my only granddaughter I won’t make a fuss. She is already a grown woman. Maybe I should finally take my hand off of her shoulders and let her do what she wants.”

 

“You should, or else no child would learn how to stand on their own! Also, that does not mean you can’t protect her! Just do it from afar! Support her when she needs it but let her make her own decisions even if they are not the right choices!” Keshnar said, honestly trying to give him some advice.

 

“Are you a father too?” Miyon asked, finding some truth in his words.

 

“Yep!” He laughed “I am 290 years old, so I have some little jellies, floating around in the Galaxy! I let them all go already, so I am speaking from experience. Don’t worry, you just have to be there for her if something goes wrong!”

 

“That… I can do.” Miyon smiled, happy to have this talk with someone who seemed to understand him. He felt like some old, heavy baggage was lifted off of his shoulders. He felt lighter, more energised and most of all, happy.

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