Chapter 14: The Next Attempts at Surveillance

“Oh, that? I never thought it was eavesdropping, Aslan. Wasn’t it magic?”

“Spying on people by magic is the same as spying on them in any other way.”

― C. S. Lewis

Ouma Chatzke’s Home, Charassa:

“Welcome back both of you. I hope you all found the course useful,” said Brecht.

“Yes we did, it was excellent. We learned a lot and we have some new goodies.”

“We wanted to help you discover what you are going to face, in the cold light of day, rather than find yourselves in crisis and face disaster. The Cockroaches of the Coven have become master infiltrators; very much different from their past modus operandi. I am surprised they were able to keep their activities hidden for so long.”

“Brecht they have been busy planning new ways to beat the Collective into submission for a long time,” said Razza. “My parents had to make strenuous attempts to avoid helping them. Brecht how are the plans going?”

“Razza, we are well advanced in our plans to help rescue your family. However, most of my advisors counsel against both of you leading the rescue mission, since we know that the Coven leadership is aware your family will try and escape. You will both be at very high risk. Moreover, Razza, you have the responsibility to carry on the royal line if disaster strikes and if you are with them you increase the risk the Royal line could end.”

“Brecht, I understand, but how do I reconcile that idea with my vision?” Razza asked.

“I do understand the importance of your future predictions and your resulting wish to help your parents on the ground. I just loathe the idea of placing you and Jason in a risky situation. We can discuss the details of the plan we propose closer to the time, but we will support you,” said Brecht Chatzke gently.

“If we can save them, we will shorten the war with the Coven,” said Razza.

“It is important that the two of you complete the current engagement with Empire AI and Computing Systems CC safely. You need to come here for intensive military training, all of you, before you get anywhere near the ground on any Coven planet. I struggle to grapple with the idea of all of you putting ourselves at risk, but I realize there is a reason you must be there,” said Brecht wringing her hands and frowning. “If you have to go we must fine a way to keep you all safe.”

“Everything is reaching a climax very quickly both her and in the Empires. We have caught many spies and infiltrators. We can soon capture Abel Satora and drain his brain of every useful morsel of information that he has. I loathe the trafficking of people of sentience, and cruelty to animals and insects who are not sentient. Intelligence always want more.

“All of us want to recover the hostages, but there is a growing risk to all of you. I am worried about your safety. My advisors have persuaded me to allow you to complete the intelligence gathering task, despite my misgivings. Be careful, remember that cornered people are very dangerous and these cornered, greedy people are very dangerous,” concluded Ouma Chatzke.

Intelligence meeting room-University of Cassiopeia

“Do all of you all feel confident you know what you are going to be doing this evening?” Beth again asked both groups just before they left for Empire AI and Computing Systems CC. Each one nodded their head as they walked out frowning and glancing at each other.

“That was quite a session,” said Sergei, “this is the first of several nightmares that all of us are going to be facing. I can’t say that I’m looking forward, with any degree of confidence, to the Royal rescue either, but one thing at a time. We must concentrate on the task at hand, it is as much as my brain can achieve.”

“I quite agree,” said Adrianna Xavier. “Getting involved with Jason is undoubtedly a roller coaster ride. Unfortunately, I don’t even have the benefits that Razza and Julia have. Perhaps you and I can get together tonight after this impending adventure?” Adrianna wiggled her backside as she walked ahead of Sergei, smiling.

During the day they attempted to make appointments to visit Etta Panella and Abel Satora. At 3 PM, Etta arrived at their office.

“I’m terribly sorry that I have not been able to respond to your request for an appointment earlier, how may I be of help? I’m very sorry also that our CEO is too busy to meet with you, we have a lot going on at the moment.”

“We wanted to thank you personally for getting the room organized and helping us by providing so many terminals. It is unfortunately a daunting task and we are very slow and far behind in completing what we intended,” said Julia Farinelli.

Etta chatted for a while and then left looking very tense, despite trying to look casual and relaxed. She glanced at Jason nervously several times. She left as suddenly as she arrived.

Julia cleared her throat and everyone slowly moved their attention to her. Julia scratched her left ear.

Sergei began to get ready to work on a terminal. Several of the group sighed and moved to the terminals. At 8pm, Razza looked over at Stinger Murphy who was sweating profusely and dropped her bag. Most of them were startled but grinned at each other before looking at Razza, who scratched her right ear. Jason casually reached into his bag and switched on his masker as did Mandy Fritzell and Marsin Zinduski.

Razza began to undress, followed by both groups. Beneath their clothing they wore Collective made, custom assassin suits. Razza carefully opened the door a few inches and peered through for several moments then slowly eased it shut and nodded. Antonia Mico, joined her. They both shimmered then disappeared. The door opened then partly closed leaving a small gap.

Jason walked to the door and was joined by Trackrof Graf. They both switched on their cloaking, bent down and began to crawl on the ground. He looked back and saw the faint haze of Trackrof behind him, then looked both ways up and down the passageway and could see no sign of Antonia and Razza. He moved to crawl next to the wall and banged his knee as he shuffled forward. He cursed under his breath as he looked ahead. Fifty more yards to crawl to Abel Satora’s office! Jason found it exhausting after a few short yards as he had not crawled since he was in the Army.

The guards patrolled every half hour, which increased their risk of discovery. At night the passageway was more dimly lit, nevertheless there were surveillance cameras high up on every wall on which they could be seen if they exposed their faces or moved too quickly.

They slowly made their way up the passageway. Jason could see that the time was passing quickly on his heads-up display. They needed to hurry so he sped up his pace. He could hear Trackrof faintly puffing behind him.

Jason’s knees and elbows complained and as he became progressively more uncomfortable, he had a flashback. There were the smells of the jungle and he heard the sounds of gunfire and then the rhythmic sounds of a machine gun followed by the thump of a mortar. He heard the bullets zipping close to him. Broken bodies moved slowly in the air in slow motion after an explosive concussion nearby. He heard ringing in his ears ... more muffled concussions. He desperately crawled away, firing, rallying his men and pulling his wounded sergeant behind him, the blood running down his face from the bullet that creased the top of his head ... the faces of the three he lost as he crawled past them, so often repeated in his dreams.

Jason shuddered convulsively and paused briefly to wipe the sweat running down his face. His left eye burned, he paused to rub it and then wipe his soaking brow. He felt his heart thumping in his chest. He slowly calmed his breathing and forced himself to hurry.

The pair tiredly passed the door of Abel Satora’s room. There was a blue haze that surrounded the door and walls. He assumed it was an effect of the mechanism blocking electronic communication and disabling surveillance. The two of them laboriously turned the corner. The crawling pair maneuvered themselves down the passageway adjacent to the longer wall of Abel’s room.

Jason turned around to face the route back while ensuring he gave Trackrof room to work. The faint haze confirmed Trackrof was in front of him. He reached in his pouch and retrieved his drill, then blocked any view the camera might have by hiding the small drill in front of him. The drill was very close to silent. He only heard a faint crackling, but it was agonizingly slow. He looked at his heads-up-display. Time was passing all too quickly. The sour reflux of his evening snack made itself known so Jason adjusted himself to take the pressure off his stomach and swallowed to reduce the burning and the foul taste.

Finally, he was through the wall. He inched his body higher up the wall, to hide the drill for his second hole and started drilling again, a foot closer to Trackrof, but higher on the wall. He glanced at the time ... ten minutes before the next patrol! He sighed as he once again felt it was through the wall, and put the drill back in his pouch. He felt in his second pouch for the surveillance devices and pulled out the first one. It looked too big to fit in the hole. His heart missed a beat and he felt it thumping in his chest and found it hard to catch his breath. It was too big for the hole, he was sure it would not fit. He decided to try and insert the device. It was a tight fit but he gently pushed it through the wall until he saw a tiny green light flash twice. He gently pressed the protruding head and it miraculously blended in to the wall. He wished it would’ve made its own hole as well. The crackling sound of Trackrof’s drill stopped, followed by the sound of her fiddling in her pouch and he heard a gentle scratching on the wall. Trackrof then touched Jason’s hand.

He froze as he heard footsteps and soft voices. The patrol sounded very close. Jason looked intently towards the corner. He saw the first guard, then he heard a curse and saw the second guard fall across the passageway. He heard a faint, “Oh shit,” from Trackrof whose face was inches from his.

The first guard walked back to help his colleague.

“What happened Morg?” The first guard asked.

“I tripped over something,” replied the second.

“Morg you are the clumsiest person I know. There is absolutely nothing there. Have a look yourself. Hurry up we are going to be late, let’s move it!”

The first guard helped Morg up and they moved on.

Trackrof felt for, then touched Jason’s hand twice. He heard her very softly beginning to shuffle which he assumed was her turning to begin to move back to their room. Jason followed behind her. His elbows and knees as well as his hips felt bruised but he pushed himself to move along steadily. What a relief to be in sight of the room! While moving along the wall Jason stuck several tiny surveillance monitors near the skirting boards. As they drew near the doorway, Etta Panella wrenched open her door and strode towards the office of Abel Satora. Jason and Trackrof both froze and shielded their faces. Etta put her hand on the pad and while she waited, she looked directly at Jason and Trackrof. They heard an acknowledgment from inside and the door opened. She continued to peer in their direction, shook her head and entered Satora’s office.

They began to move but were forced to freeze as they heard footsteps. Two guards made their way quickly down the corridor and turned towards information technology and the server rooms. Jason could feel his heart racing. They cautiously moved forward again. Jason was moving too quickly and bumped into Trackrof’s feet. He heard her catch her breath and start crawling a little faster. She reached the door, waited for him as arranged and when he tapped her foot, she pushed the door a little wider, crawled into the room with Jason just behind her and then they slowly stood up, made their way to their chairs switched off the cloaking dressed and sat down. Trackrof began to work on her terminal.

Jason took out his brain and soon was immersed in the question of the nature of new dimensions in the alternate universe. He realized there were seven common dimensions between the new universe and the universe they were in, but there were several different dimensions inherent in the new attached universe. This led to a different set of possibilities of further universes to which one could travel and explained how there were a limited subset of other universes to which one could travel, from any particular universe. It was easy to return when one had ‘ascended’ once, but a second ‘ascension’ would in all likelihood reduce any possibility of a direct return to the first unless you had a common dimension. Time passed very rapidly as he worked. He was so deeply engrossed in what he was doing that he didn’t notice what was going on around him.

Julia turned to the group. “People I think it is time that we made our way home. No matter how much we do we don’t seem to be making much progress in this project, it is much too hard for us. I am feeling quite hungry. I’ve called my house and arranged dinner for all of us. I am feeling quite peckish and that snack that we had earlier was too little. I need something more substantial. You are all welcome to join me,” said Julia standing up, yawning and stretching.

They all walked outside. Jason took deep breaths of the fresh evening air. The building looked stark in the security lighting. He shuddered unconsciously.

Julia called in her shuttle which took both groups to her home. Jason sighed then stretched his shoulders as he entered the shuttle. Both groups found seats in the spacious craft, then looked at each other and grinned, but remained quiet after Julia pointed at the pilot and put her index finger in front of her lips. Jason did not feel like making any small-talk.

Julia Farinelli’s Estate, Cassiopeia:

Julia’s estate looked even more impressive from the air than Jason had remembered it. Jason noticed the complex was much bigger than his first impression of it. The walls extended around the twenty buildings that made up the estate. There were three large gates in the walls that led to different parts of the estate. The mansion where Julia lived looked like a boutique hotel, surrounded by gardens, but was dwarfed by the substantial buildings standing behind it.

The shuttle settled on the ground near the house. The pilot opened the door and the stairs unfolded. She stood beside the craft as her passengers debarked.

“Come through to the dining room. I would’ve liked to have introduced all of you to my parents but unfortunately they are traveling elsewhere in the Empire. They travel together often,” Julia said as she guided her guests along a wide passageway to a beautiful room with tall windows made of tiny pieces of glass of varied colors creating attractive glowing portraits. Jason recognized a younger Julia in one window as part of a family group. The occult but gentle light showed off the intricate art. The chairs arranged around a heavy inlaid table had tall backs and the table could seat thirty with comfort. The chairs had deep green comfortable cushions. The table itself looked ancient and was made of a very thick knotted wood. The color was a rich light brown almost tan interspaced with other colored woods, all with many shades. They had matching half-inch-thick dark boards as placemats. The walls were paneled in a delicately textured cream material that Jason could not identify. Beautiful tapestries were suspended on the walls. Jason looked up and saw the doughnut-shaped central light suspended in midair without any visible source of support. The ceiling was ornately carved with subtle and delicate swirling patterns.

“I would like to suggest that we don’t talk about work tonight, as we are going to have to discuss all of it with Beth tomorrow,” said Jason. “We have been together for some time but I hardly know anything about your group, Razza. So much happened so fast at university, I don’t feel I have had time to find out about you.”

Razza glanced at the members of her group.

Ten drone waiters and an AI served drinks and starters on very large trays.

Jason was not familiar with the yellow drink he was handed, but it was delicious. He could not identify the flavor. They each had a square plate with the family crest prominently displayed with the food arranged in a square around it. The food was bite sized morsels in different shapes. Each was more delicious than the last.

“Julia this food is delicious and that drink absolutely spectacular.” Jason said appreciatively.

Julia smiled indulgently. “Even as your forty million, two hundred-thousand and thirty-fifth wife I was sure that I would have something unique to offer you!” She said giggling.

Razza smirked.

“The drink is from an exotic fruit from a planet of ours. It will not grow elsewhere despite all our efforts. We have many plantations scattered all over that planet. Every food that you will have tonight was grown by our family somewhere on one of the planets we own. The chef and her team have been with our family for at least forty-five thousand years if not longer. She refuses to talk about our secrets as she has been sworn to silence by my father. My father prides himself on treating his employees like family. She however despairs of my father. He likes very simple and plain food, but she loves to cater for groups of guests, particularly those who will appreciate her food. My mother enjoys entertaining her friends and occasionally my father will be happy to enjoy an evening that she organizes. My father is very much a homebody and has a poor tolerance for company. He has his own interests and pursuits.

“Now Razza let us hear a little about your little about your group.” Julia insisted.

“Sergei always tells a good story,” Razza turned to Sergei. “You begin and we will see how far we can go tonight.”

Razza turned to face Julia again. “Julia, I think it is an excellent idea that we get to know each other little better especially as you are probably the thirty-fifth wife while I will be the thirty-fourth wife. You will be the twenty-nine millionth mother of his children and me one later,” said Razza grinning broadly.

“Ladies if you have finished establishing your positions on the hierarchy of Jason’s future wives can I proceed?” Sergei asked. Both women made rude signs at him.

“We are all part of the extended royal family. Each of us had a very similar upbringing and background and we have functioned and lived together as a group ever since we were grubs. Our parents synchronized our conceptions so that we would be together as a cohort. As soon as the eggs were hatched, we were shipped to the planet where we were to be brought up and educated in complete secrecy. No one knew of our conceptions and of our existence except for our parents and their loyal supporters and servants. None of us has ever met our parents directly as we left as grubs too young to recall them. We have all had extensive contact with our parents throughout our lives: as closely as they could do it without us being together with them. This communication was undertaken with the greatest secrecy.

“We grew up underground in a small city unknown to the Coven. The planet itself is much like many of our habitable planets but is perhaps more remote. All the Cockroaches on that planet are of our species and our people. The city we lived in is largely dedicated to advanced genetic engineering and research. The planet is technologically advanced, but even while it sells products to the Coven, the Coven intelligence services have had limited success in penetrating the security of the companies and the planet. Intellectual property is strongly protected in the Coven, which has been to our benefit as security was tight around the planet.

“Up until three years of age we simply played with our peers. Our education began gradually, but progressively became more intensive. We were trained in the languages of the Collective and Empire as well as in our own languages and dialects. From the age of five we commenced military training to equip us to be able to survive in almost any situation. We did intensive intelligence work concentrated upon running intelligence networks and secret communication. We did spend time becoming proficient in using all the known weapons of every known species. We learned how to care for each other medically and support each other in times of difficulty.

“From the age of twelve our education further intensified physically, militarily and academically. We became proficient in martial arts and using ancient weapons. We learned how to survive in hostile environments and craft weapons to help us defend ourselves or catch food. We learned how to hunt and how to survive being hunted. At fifteen years of age we commenced university education and advanced military education, equivalent to the War Colleges. We began to learn to fly craft, to drive tanks and operate gunships. We learned to navigate and to operate as crew on a ship. It was a disciplined education conducted in a concentrated way over many years to make us well-rounded in our future adaptation to the Empire. We even lived in a small town as if we were in the Empire. We learned to detect those who would attempt to tail us or capture us. We learnt to recognize that we were under surveillance and what to do about it. We learned the methods of the Coven, the Collective and those of the Empire.

“We spent three years working in counterintelligence on the planet, learning how to fool the Coven and protect our species while gaining experience living as if we were in the Empire amongst those who were seeking to expose us,” explained Sergei.

“Most other Cockroaches delegate the upbringing of their grubs and younger Cockroaches to institutional care. This is not the way of our species. Our species evolved earlier than the other species within the Coven and was sentient hundreds of thousands of years before they were. That is the source of much of their envy. We helped them when they became sentient but there has always been grumbling resentment against our kin.

“We bonded very strongly with our parents, despite our humanoid form and status. We have also bonded very closely with each other as a group as we have always been together very much like brothers and sisters. We know each other very well and have grown to trust and rely on each other,” concluded Sergei.

“It is so different from my life,” said Mandy Fritzell. “I can hardly believe you were forced to live that way. How do you feel about it?”

“From the earliest times in our childhood it was drummed into us that our families depended upon us. We were the vanguards of a new life and a new future as the Coven was not going to change and nothing positively had changed in a million years. Our family encouraged us to find a life outside the Coven; they were convinced they would all be killed at some stage. We learned we would live or die depending on how well our cohort adapted in a new environment. We spoke to our families often and every effort was made to make us feel as if we were part of our families. We were told endlessly how important our family was, how important the others in our group were to us and that our group was our family and our original families’ future.

“We knew that this was our life, we accepted it and made the best of it. We had good teachers and we had indifferent teachers. We had many different models of people who cared for us, some were terrific, much like parents, others were pedestrian and a few were awful. We even had an occasional case of abuse. In some ways our lives could be considered to have been harsh, but in other ways we had wonderful companionship and a trust in each other. We learned how to cover each other’s backs and to work with each other. It was a very rich and invigorating life. We were stimulated educationally and our physical and intellectual life was fostered and cultivated.

“There are advantages to our kind of upbringing, if it is done well. Our cohort learned to cooperate and we did not suffer as someone would do with a poorly functioning family. We had many positive parent models and then excellent mentors. They provided a superb education; both physically and mentally. Of course, I don’t know what it would’ve been like being brought up on a day-to-day basis by family, AIs and family retainers.

“The question you may ask is, what made me unique or different from the others. That was a question we asked of ourselves. All of us were exposed to the same education, the same daily activities and the same adults. Our mentors insisted we all specialized in diverse but overlapping areas as they did not know whether our group would be forced to break up at some time. The school encouraged us to develop hobbies and interests. We competed actively in sports and games.

“I tended to be the entertainer and the light relief. I enjoyed mathematics and most of the scientific subjects. Navigation was my great interest. I like any and all sport and I’m happy to watch any sport. I like practical jokes. In my spare time I enjoy studying history. I’m only beginning to find myself as a separate person since we started University even though we still live in each other’s pockets. The idea of a relationship terrifies the daylights out of me. I am used to the brothers and sisters of my group, but I struggle to see myself living in a committed relationship and not seeing my group every day.” Sergei said thoughtfully.

“Jason for your interest, we looked at the behavior of Cockroaches on your Earth. The Coven behavior is not as bad as your Cockroaches are, even though we are closely related to those undersized runts. Under Razza’s parents rule the society was an egalitarian open one, under the Coven it is rigid and authoritarian and exploitative. We never lived in filth, but the Coven has become increasingly evil and malign in their bid to retain power. As the dominant species on our planets we evolved differently to your Earth insects.

“We are an older society than those of the Collective and had we continued under the rule of the Emperor we would have been significantly more advanced than the Collective. Very slowly the Coven has fallen behind. Sadly, the ruling elite are malicious and exploitative. Our galaxy has plenty of room for expansion, but they are lazy and do not want to put effort into development. I find that hard to understand when we have highly advanced AIs who can do the same level of construction as in the Collective. Developing a planet is not difficult at our level of technology. You have seen how much Porquenta has done in such a short period of time,” concluded Sergei.

“People I think that is about as much as we can do tonight. I am sure that tomorrow is going to be a very long day,” said Razza.

“Jason you and Razza are welcome to stay,” said Julia with an inviting smile.

Several in the group whistled and raised eyebrows as they followed Julia to the front door. Jason and Razza followed behind the group. Razza took hold of Jason’s arm, leaned towards him and kissed him affectionately on the neck and then hugged him as they both watched the group head for the shuttle to go home.

She smelled delicious.

Julia pulled Jason with Razza following to her room and encouraged Razza to help her slowly undress Jason. Julia gently pushed Jason backwards onto the bed and climbed onto the bed and crawled like a predator towards his waist. She began licking him from above his cock and then kissed him passionately, before licking and teasing his nipples. She waved Razza onto the bed as she sucked Jason deeply into her mouth and moved so she could look at him while she blew him. Razza tentatively licked his balls then became more enthusiastic. She pushed Julia out of the way and took Jason deeply into her mouth and then further down her throat.

Jason arched his back.

“I can’t wait,” said Razza as she moved to straddle Jason and inserted him into her and settled down with a sigh. She moved slowly and began to lean forward and talk dirty into Jasons ear, then leaned back to move agonizingly slowly.

Jason grasped her breasts and squeezed them.

Julia tickled Razza’s clit and slowly began to move her finger more urgently. Razza sped up and came explosively.

“That was fast girl!” Julia remarked laughing.

“I needed that and I was really worked up from today,” said Razza, “Anyhow, I am an altruist and I wanted to leave you some Julia!”

Razza laughed and slowly slid off Jason to lie next to him panting.

Julia climbed up on top of Jason and slid forward to kiss him passionately. “Hang on, don’t move I have an idea.” She climbed off and looked in her bedside drawer and pulled out a container. She poured some of the fluid on Jason’s legs and chest, then massaged him gently, but largely avoided his erection waving wetly but valiantly in the air.

She then climbed back onto him and began to slide backwards and forwards. When she reached his face she kissed him. She bent her pelvis after sliding on him for several minutes so he entered her with a little help from her hand. She was hot and wet and Jason tried to move. Julia pressed down on him. “No, you don’t, I am in charge, I am your mistress don’t forget it.” She kissed him passionately and very slowly began to move. She moved herself upright and her legs to the side and began to move more quickly. “Now you can move Jason!”