Chapter 17: Marco Petray

Jason only missed two days of university. His experience of the last few days seemed almost like a dream. He smiled thinking about Julia. He enjoyed spending time with her and getting to know her.

He ran with Aylot and the dogs through the university. He noticed the air initially felt cool but he enjoyed the bracing feel as they ran. The dogs gambled around in front of him, and played with each other but Aylot enjoyed trotting next to Jason as they received many stares and amused laughter. Aylot behaved more like a pet dog than a pig but was a delightful companion. Jason believed he was much more intelligent than even Rover.

Jason walked into the gym, and had a brief chat with Julia. He started his program with the animals waiting along the wall. Everyone in the gym noticed the new addition. Aylot enjoyed immediate popularity after he was introduced by Jason to the students. He was keen to watch everything that was happening, but was highly engaged during the sparring. Lydia made the mistake of jokingly asking Jason if his little piggy had any party tricks. The domestic pig was well known in the Empire even though the pigs that Jason had seen were different to both those on earth and to the boars. They were smaller had a redder skin, had tiny round ears and seemed more docile than Earth pigs from what he had seen on the media.

Jason suggested that Lydia get out some of her heaviest ship armor for trans-dim testing and his little piggy would tear it to pieces. She looked at him skeptically. She reminded him very much of Lucia and he realized that a wager was in order. He asked her if she was prepared to bet ten imperial shekels that his little pig could pierce the armor and damage something underneath it. She very suspiciously looked at Jason then at Aylot who was sitting angelically listening to every word, but agreed to the bet while shaking her head. She found a huge piece of armor which she screwed onto a plank on a pole support. The armor was thicker than that on a heavy gunship. Jason telepathically explained to Aylot that they were playing a joke on Lydia and that he was to scratch a big L on the wood underneath the armor and showed him what it looked like.

Jason indicated to Aylot that if he succeeded he would be a magnificent pig and would be given a special bowl of food that night. Aylot indicated humorously he would prefer a red bow as he didn’t need to eat but definitely was highly motivated to be Jason’s magnificent pig.

Aylot changed form, leading to people stepping back in shock, gave a mighty snort, ran forward and struck the armor, his left tusk clearly could be seen piercing the armor even though it was for a very brief period of time moving down and to the right. He returned to sit next to Jason after changing form and sat there looking very pleased with himself while Jason patted him and praised him. Lydia unscrewed the armor and saw the deep gouge down the wood in the shape of the first letter of her name. This is one amazing pig she said to Jason. He can change shape just like the dogs. It is truly amazing how he can penetrate armor like that. I would have paid ten shekels any time to watch such a demonstration.

Aylot sat there and snorted while moving his head up and down. He looked very cute and she came up to him and scratched him on his head as she had seen Jason do and behind his ears. He looked idyllically happy.

Jason found that he had missed very little as the groups had spent one day in the laboratory learning to use the smaller boxes which had been produced for every table on request by the University from the engineering on the ship. The second day was an introduction to one of the new languages used in robotic control. Jason had learnt the language on the ship and was reasonably familiar with its use.

While trying to concentrate on implementation of a program that he had just completed Jason heard loud talking and laughing. He looked over to see an arrogant young man speaking loudly and laughing with his group of hangers on. Jason recalled him as having irritated everyone constantly that term. He dressed in a very showy way, spoke loudly to his cronies, but generally restricted his irritating behavior to the restaurant or while walking to and from problem sessions and laboratories.

His laugh reminded Jason of a hyena. He would laugh and then snort and it just grated on Jason’s nerves. He was trying to concentrate on the last line of his program which somehow was not working and every time he thought that he got it, the laugh distracted him as did the loud talking. Jason knew him as Marco Petray, having asked others about who he was once previously.

“Marco some of us are trying to concentrate over here. I wonder if you guys can keep it down,” said Jason in a polite and restrained voice, while thinking that he would rather like to knock his block off.

“Get stuffed dickhead. Jason you are supposed to be such a clever prick why don’t you go and brown-nose the professor to tell you the answer,” he retorted cleverly, finding himself very funny and again laughing in his supremely irritating way, while looking at his friends for approval, which he appeared to receive in spades which encouraged him even further.

“You really think you are somebody. The only reason you are here is because you are the nephew of the Emperor. Otherwise you are a pretty dimwitted idiot from a backward planet,” he continued to say, “I have noticed you hardly ever even finish your problems and didn’t even show up for the last few days. Just do your own work and don’t interfere with us.”

Jason noticed that Julia was behind him and had heard the whole exchange as did most of his group. He saw Razza listening at the desk on his right and had probably heard Marko as well. He said to Julia quietly, “I find it hard to understand this idiot. He must be looking for trouble and I am the trouble black hole.

“The inevitability of all of this is so sad. No matter what I do not he will be drawn into my orbit and he will be sucked in past the event horizon,” Jason said laughing. “I am going to try and ignore him if I can. I saw him trying to needle Cyril the other day and he simply smiled and ignored him. I’m not going to rise to his bait. I don’t intend to be the one to get kicked out because of that twit. While he was rabbiting on I finished that last step and it seems to be working. You seem to be done so let’s go and have a quick morph.”

Julia was addicted to morph as much as Jason was to coffee. He had got used to morph as he had no option at the University if he wanted a hot drink. He was forced to pass Marco’s desk on the way out and just knew that Marco would not be able to leave it alone. He saw Marco put out his foot, allowed himself to pretend to trip while falling towards Marco and while steadying himself he stuck his thumb into the nerve plexus on Marco’s shoulder to deliver a dose of agony. Jason continued onwards quickly and had already moved two paces from Marco when Marco shrieked, “he attacked me, he attacked me!” Marco pointed at Jason. The professor stopped Jason and asked Marco what had happened.

“He has had it in for me Professor all term. For no reason at all Jason attacked me,” said Marco accusingly in a whiny voice.

The professor turned to Jason and raised his eyebrows.

Jason had watched Marco’s display incredulously. Both Razza and Julia had been a few steps behind him and saw exactly what happened. There were prominent holo-recorders all over the IT laboratory.

“Professor, I would suggest that we look at the holo-recording of the last ten minutes. I will bring my two witnesses with me if I may in case there is no recording,” said Jason in a calm accommodating tone. The professor duly took them into his office and they watched the last ten minutes along with Marco and two of his friends.

“Mr. Petray, I have heard your complaint and I have watched the recording of the last ten minutes. Your father and your uncle were similar unruly opinionated underhand individuals. We had a tolerant attitude in those early years believing that people would mature and outgrow their bad behavior.

“Our research showed that that was not the case, so we changed. We subsequently implemented a low tolerance policy and that was much more effective. Mr. Marco Petray you will attend a disciplinary hearing this afternoon. This behavior is not tolerated at the university. The Dean abhors the kind of behavior that you have exhibited and we will obtain all recordings of your behavior on campus.

“I suspect however that we will find you have been consistent in this behavior elsewhere. If that is the case we will make sure that you learn appropriate ways of behaving or you will leave this university. I will communicate with the Dean and we will send you an appointment time for your attendance. Mr. Canon I cannot find any difficulty with the way you responded. You are dismissed.”

Jason thanked Julia and Razza for helping him and suggested they make their way to the nearest campus Morph shop.

“I know the type and I know Marco from school,” said Julia, “there is no way that moronic imbecile is going to let it go. The University has limited scope for punishment and this is not a big enough problem to get him kicked out. He is going to blame you Jason, for all his trouble. He does not know the meaning of responsibility. My father has had a number of unpleasant encounters with his father in business and avoids him like the plague. Marco was a classic bully at school. He was bigger than many of the others in his class. I’m not sure how he got away with it as a school generally was tough on bullies, but somehow he did. The school did not have the level of surveillance that we have here at the University. Mark my words he is going to try something sneaky. You need to watch your back,” said Julia firmly.

Razza had very much more situational awareness than did Julia. She knew that Jason had guards. She had observed them within minutes of seeing Jason. Paranoia was necessary for survival, her father had told her. However, Razza was very much more relaxed than she had been for years. She was feeling happy. The daily anxiety that she had felt that gnawed at her was reduced to a more comfortable level. She knew it was not over but had a sense that things were moving towards a positive outcome for her and her people in the Empire.

The Emperor had been very supportive. He had told her that they had used the technology that she had provided to ensure that the University was clear and was continuing to remove the cockroaches of military origin throughout the Empire. He had provided her and her group with their own guards who would continue to watch them until the risk was removed.

Cassius had told her that in error one of her group on another planet had undergone the conversion process and had not died but had been transformed into a bug. This was a great surprise. The investigator had not looked at the data on her device and had not even noticed cockroach DNA of any type.

The doctors had investigated in some detail and said they believed conversion could occur because their cockroach DNA was in a trans-dimensional space and was moved there to create the human form. The Emperor had said that they could all undergo the process should they wish to do so, but he was not in any way pushing them to do it. Razza relished having the ability to change into a bug and desperately felt the need to fit in. Her group at the University had decided that they were all going to undergo the conversion.

Cassius greatly appreciated their educational cubes and had praised them for their decision to approach Jason. He learned the cockroach language to be able to use his cube effectively and found he was impressed with the quality of content on the cubes. Razza relished the opportunity to show her real skills as did the rest of her group. They had all made strenuous attempts not to be out of the normal student range even though they did not do well enough to stand out. She recognized that Jason’s group was performing really well. He would now see that their group was no longer going to be distant second best.

“I have an important piece of intelligence for the two of you,” said Razza enigmatically.

This well and truly engaged Jason. Why for the two of them he asked himself?

“Razza you have both of our attention and we have no reason to delay. It appears that all of us have drunk our morph. So get to it girl, let us hear this important snippet of information.”

“We are going to get a project where two groups combine to do a big program together,” said Razza, “they want us to have the experience of a multi-programmer, system design, and systems analysis environment. Several corporates, the military, and public-sector submit requirements each year. The University tries to maintain close relationships with likely employers. The employers benefit from the construction of programs that are supervised by eminent professors. University benefits from enhancement of its reputation and from students who are employed subsequently.

“I would propose that as we are second after you, we join forces to provide a formidable group to slaughter all competition. I might know this information because I have ten thousand spies and am all knowing. On the other hand I might have heard it from a second year student who said that at this stage of the year it is done every year.” Razza said laughing.

Both Jason and Julia considered carefully what she had said. Julia answered before Jason.

“Razza I am sure that our group would be happy to meet with you guys and do the project together.”

“How was your weekend Jason and Julia? Was he a good slave and is he trainable despite his sadly limited background?” Razza asked quizzically.

“Razza when did my aunt tell you,” Jason asked assuming that Alana was the most likely culprit.

“When I was talking to the emperor he suggested that I meet The Empress who he said was also the Chancellor of the University as well as being his wife. I told her that I was very pleased that I had spoken to you Jason and I was very impressed by how efficiently everything had been organized.

“The Empress assured me that you are not perfect and she told me about your box crisis where you had a brain fart of such severity you forgot your own battleship. She said many people forget a password or an appointment, but very few people that she knows forget they have a huge battleship that they visit often and even fight battles in.

“She told me that she was concerned that you might later forget your wife, though she told me in your case it was not only possible but it was likely; you had a lot of women who would be prospective wives and it might be easy to forget one or other of them. She said that you collect women like many people collect ancient artifacts. She said the difference was that those who collected artifacts often had to search hard. But in your case you somehow managed to attract a hell of a lot of women and not only that you were going to be a father of a considerable number of children.

“She warned me not to join the queue. She also said that she did not know anybody else who appeared to attract trouble with such skill. She said you were like a super magnet floating through a steel factory.

“She did admit that despite your very obvious limitations that she was very fond of you but she did say you did have clear limitations and like most men had a limited understanding of the unique skills of women.” Razza sat there looking smug and grinning at Julia who was smiling during the exchange.

They decided to eat lunch together. She had a great skill in teasing Jason and making him constantly embarrassed. Julia evidently also enjoyed her company.

At home Jason told Sgt. Sophie Stone, who led his guards, about what had transpired that day and gave them instructions as to what to do if Jason was attacked. He expected Marco and some of his friends to do the usual bully intimidation exercise, and try and beat him up where they would not be observed. He predicted that likely they would do their thing either when he was on his way to university or leaving university.

As it was unlikely that they knew where he lived they could not cover all arrival points, but could easily follow him when he left university the next day. He would nevertheless be alert in the morning. Marco would not make the same mistake twice and would ensure that he was not observed. The University had holo-recorders everywhere and he would not take the chance.

As Razza had predicted they were given an assignment to start while at University then complete over the next semester. Two groups would have to combine to organize the necessary work. They first had to form the combined groups and then present to the professor to receive their specific assignment. Julia nodded to Razza and the two of them presented themselves to the professor who uploaded the assignment to them and their groups.

Jason looked at his Brain and saw that they needed a plan to efficiently undertake ongoing very large data searches through related and unrelated multiple databases. The search query could change depending on the search findings. The searches would need to operate in the background continuously pulling out information that satisfied defined criteria and modifying its searches. It was very much the problem faced in medical research. It would allow a researcher who researched the entire field of medicine to observe the evolution and change in research while they worked and be continuously up to date. The researcher could easily track what was new in an evolving field and always be working with the most current information.

Jason realized the same problem was faced by border protection and immigration who needed up to date information on system breaches and they could learn from each breach to track all who used that method to gain entry. Each new bit of information allowed more people to be tracked. Jason was sure that the size of databases they would be working with in either area would be huge.

Jason had a hunch that it was a defense Department project to pick up those who were entering into the Empire illegally and track them down. The Empire did not only have a problem with cockroaches. There were many illegal entrants from multiple different species and systems all over the galaxy and possibly from elsewhere even more distant. The proposed system would have to allow for the addition of unlimited numbers of extra databases to be added. Jason knew that they had the ability to make use of very powerful AI’s that would help with the task, but at the same time he realized that it was structured to be a huge task that would occupy all of them. This was a task beyond a Google of the future.

He and the group discussed it over lunch, decided that they would each consider some strategies independently, and would meet in more detail the next afternoon after physics, and electronics, half laboratories.

Razza approached Jason as he started walking home.

“Jason may I walk with you? I would like to chat about the project. My real spies believe it is a vital project to get right. They agreed with your guess that it is a project to track illegal entrants to the Empire and the company is one of yours that does the programming on contract.” Razza said.

“Razza today is not a good idea. I am expecting to be attacked by Marco and his cronies and I do not want you to be at risk.” Jason said.

“Jason I can look after myself and that turd is not going to worry me.” Razza answered firmly. “Let’s walk quickly, it is a blustery day and not pleasant to be dawdling.”

Jason was alert as they left the University. He could see his guards following discreetly and then he saw Marco approach from his right. The wind was blowing strongly towards him stinging his eyes as Marco approached him.

As Marco drew closer Jason could see him lifting a device in his left hand and wave it in the air. He could not identify it but recognized in Marco’s right hand a police baton called a ‘bone breaker’. He saw his guards restraining Marco’s friends as he had requested. Jason could no longer see Razza in his peripheral vision. “Jason move sideways quickly,” Razza said urgently. He did so quickly and began to close the distance to Marco. “No, Jason you idiot stay away from his poison,” He heard her say then he moved sideways again. He was ready for Marco and intended to give him an unforgettable experience. He involuntarily stopped.

Marco was laughing and jeering and Jason heard him say, “Buddy boy I am going to break your bones and there is nothing you are going to be able to do about it.” Jason could not think. He could not move. He felt the baton hit him on his upper left arm. He felt the severe pain of the vicious power augmented strike, but his bones were nearly unbreakable and his augmented skin dramatically reduced the impact. He could not use his trans-dimensional skills. He could not breathe! He was suffocating. His brain was fogged and sluggish. He couldn’t close his eyes. He saw Razza strike Marco on his arm where he held the baton. He dropped it and turned towards her. She struck the small, silver, square device out of his left hand and almost simultaneously struck him in the neck. Jason could see his guards running. It was all over. Marco collapsed to the ground. Jason could not breathe and he was swaying and going to fall and there was nothing he could do. His vision was going grey.

Razza ran to Jason to support him, but found him unconscious and not breathing. She eased him gently to the ground. The guards were amazed at how strong she was.

“He is suffocating, get us to the ship urgently. I will try and keep him alive.”

He woke on the ship in a pod. He had an available hologram which showed him what was happening next to and around the pod. He saw Razza, who looked tearful leaning over and looking into the pod first, then he saw Philippa, Jonathan, Norbert, and then his uncle and aunt, Cassius and Alana enter the hospital. Celia and Felicia were still at Beeliar waiting to be replaced by a second updated fleet from the Empire.

At least he could breathe, but he could barely move a finger and could not feel his legs. His muscles ached and felt tight and cramped. His arm ached but it felt like a minor ache only. His mind was still very foggy. He still couldn’t use telepathy to communicate and talking was out of the question. The doctor saw that he was awake and came over to speak to him.

“The poison is one that is not recognizable by either the pod or any of the Empire doctors or even the poison specialist from the Collective. You were kept alive by Razza, then by the medics on the shuttle and finally you were placed into the pod. Razza gave us the delivery aerosol.

“We are still analyzing the poison with bug help. It is a very intricate complex poison. We have sent the evolving description to the collective as we analyze it. You are currently being kept breathing by the pod. The poison does not affect your heart or bowels for some strange reason but knocked out your muscles and your ability to breathe. You are gradually clearing the poison assisted by the pod. The pod has great difficulty latching onto the poison. It is being metabolized by your remarkable immune system then your liver. We removed a considerable amount of poison from you which would otherwise have taken a considerable period further to clear, by replacing all your circulating blood three times at fifteen minute intervals. As the poison did not appear to be damaging your body we did not put you into stasis and we have kept you here in order to either build an anti-toxin or support your system until it removes the poison. You are in no danger whatsoever and we estimate that you will have disposed of the poison by tomorrow morning at the latest.”

Cassius came over. “Marco was disarmed by Razza who saved your life. She saw the aerosol attack which she recognized as a typical cockroach method. Usually it was used in assassinations with very much more toxic poisons. She then struck him in the throat which left him unable to breathe while she kept you alive breathing for you and doing cardiac resuscitation as she was not prepared to take the chance that your heart failed. By that time your guards had got to you, but did not need to do anything for you other than to call for medical help.” Cassius said.

“Your guards did not help Marco who was panicking as he could not breathe. They nearly didn’t resuscitate him until one of them said, which was what I suspect saved him, ‘Jason could challenge him to his estate if he lives’. Had I been around at the time I would’ve let him die. They didn’t know I would’ve simply confiscated the estate. It is true you can challenge him to his estate.” Cassius said vehemently.

“He was taken for interrogation by intelligence as were his five friends. He had the minimum treatment to allow him to be interrogated. His father supplied him with the poison. They arrested his father and he is being interrogated.” Cassius said angrily.

“Marco’s friends intended to add to your misery by adding to the beating. They did not have toxin but they did have bone breakers. They are truly a brave lot. Your aunt went into a rage and was ready to remove them all from the University, until I pointed out that this was not on university grounds. You will be permitted to challenge all of them individually in order to acquire the full or part assets of their houses. They were willing accomplices in attempting to harm you or kill you. I will support you fully in this regard. I will not permit this reprehensible behavior in my noble houses.”

“As Emperor I will not allow proxies to fight on their behalf’s as they themselves chose to participate in beating you up. In the case of Marco; as his father was also involved it will be for the full assets of their house. The others will forego a quarter of their assets. The formula for claims against estates and houses is an old one and is widely known. You of course will have to do the necessary. In Marco’s case it will be to the death as it is in all cases that involve the entire assets of the house. In the others it will be to significant injury and incapacitation.

“Jason I have already taken action. I have specified what will happen and I have decreed that the fights will be by unarmed combat in all cases. The Petray house is a rotten one from the inside out and a blight on this Empire. They operate on the fringes of legality and are friendly with known criminal groups. I will not tolerate this from any house. If the father does not reveal the source of the poison I will make sure he will face death. I have spoken and I am resolved,” said Cassius. His face was red and suffused and he looked exceedingly angry.

“I have sent troops into his corporate offices along with a legion of accountants. Petray after his interrogation will either be dead or in prison for a very long time. No one will have the capacity to dissolve his house. His wife and other members of the family are all under house arrest in case they attempt to flee or cause some form of sedition. I will not have foul play in my Empire. The houses shall not meddle in my business or with my family.” He stood there thinking for a few minutes which Jason thought was very rare for Cassius.

“Razza you are formally adopted as an honorary member of my family, honorary only as you have a living family. I am eternally grateful for what you have done. I know that you still have your family, but you don’t have them here and now you know you have a family where you came from and you have a family where you live. You shall have a suite in the palace next to Jason’s to use as you wish for the rest of your life. You will also have a stipend annually and guards to protect you from your enemies and the enemies of the family. I have spoken, and this is how the resolution of this matter shall be.”

Jason could see Razza doing the equivalent of a curtsy out of the side of his eye. He could see her grinning. She looked very happy.

Razza moved over and stood next to Jason so that he could see her more clearly.

“Emperor Cassius I thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is truly an honor. I am the first previous cockroach now praying mantis to become part of the Empire and part of the first family. I took the opportunity after Jason was safe in medical care, to become more fully one of the family of humans and as Jason says, ‘one of the bugs’. I was a bug before, now I am a renewed bug.

“I hope to shine and honor the family. It will also give my compatriots a great sense of security knowing that one of us can become part of the first family of the Empire. For this I thank you from all of us.”

Jason felt that he could blink more easily. He realized that he was looking out of the windows of the pod. Somehow the machine was breathing for him. Every muscle still ached. He felt increasingly sleepy and dropped off.

Jason woke the next morning feeling refreshed and energized. The ache in his muscles was gone but he felt weak. He realized that he was breathing on his own. He could see that it was about four thirty in the morning, but he needed no more sleep. His awakening must have triggered something that alerted one of the nurses, who came over. The pod was open. He found that he could speak and think quite clearly. He tried to sit up but found that his muscles cramped and he lay back with agonizingly cramped muscles in his stomach chest and neck. The nurse pointed to a yellow button on the pod control hologram and Jason soon felt his muscles relax.