Chapter 6

It was fairly clear that the Raffagee thought that this would be a quick assault, leaving two unfortunately dead humans who really ought to have known better than to venture into the Raffagee zone. What they didn’t expect though was Kiria who was combat trained also wearing full Ground Force armour and not minded to be gentle to anyone coming at her with a knife. Hence, the guy who dived at me found I’d twisted out of the way and Kiria had grabbed the knife from his grip and landed a solid blow to his head, dropping him on the spot, causing the other Raffagee to pause. She then gripped the knife with both hands and bent it almost in half before tossing it down onto the unconscious male.

“You sure you want to play this game, boys?” she asked sweetly.

“Just kill them!” a masked figure yelled out.

“That’s the one ImpSec will want to question,” I informed Kiria.

“Yep, I’ll leave him alive. The others will have to take their chances,” she nodded as the Raffagee rushed us.

I, during her reply, had pulled a concealed, spring-loaded baton from a pocket. It was a clever device that, closed was the length of four of my fingers, but sprung out to the length of my arm and was extremely tough as well as weighty. Hence, when Kiria launched herself into the midst of the clump of Raffagee, I simply defended myself as well as insuring she did not get overwhelmed. Though I rather doubted there were enough of them to overwhelm Ground Force armour. It was soon obvious that the Raffagee realised they might just have bitten off more than they could chew and I noted the being whom I had designated as the leader beginning to back off. As he was the one we wanted to capture I wasn’t having any of that and so leapt forward to engage his group, smashing my baton down on his defenders’ wrists, probably breaking them before ‘clipping’ the side of his head and, hopefully, simply knocking him out, not killing him. The other Raffagee were now scattering away from Kiria, whom they now realised was armoured, even if they could not see it, whilst those she had downed all had their zirioks bent to make a statement and show her contempt of them ... probably, I can’t always figure out what she’s thinking.

The brawl ended when a full squad of Tukla arrived and piled into the fray. Both Kiria and I stood down and carefully made no sudden moves. We were then approached by the Raffagee I realised was Harraskariit as well as a female whom I didn’t recognise.

“These are the humans who assisted us to identify Kallach and his ... people’s involvement in the intimidation beatings of anyone thought to be sympathetic to humans, Vice Governor,” he began.

“You do seem to be intent on causing some incidents down here,” she nodded, speaking directly to us with a slight smile.

“I’m just an artist. This is my sister, Vice Governor Livallaree,” I replied innocently, somewhat spoiled by Kiria’s snort of laughter behind me.

“Your ‘sister’ appears to be wearing the latest version of Ground Force armour, Ser Artist,” Livallaree replied dryly, showing an impressive grasp of Imperial basic and dry humour.

“Oh, that’s because I’m a Commander in Ground Force as well as a Healer, Vice Governor,” Kiria replied politely.

“Always wear armour when presumably off duty?” Livallaree asked with a wry expression.

“In theory we are rumoured to live in it,” Kiria replied straight faced, causing Livallaree and Harraskariit to start laughing. “I’m Kiria, this is my brother Dayyev.”

“Oh my! Your husband, Tillan, warned me about you and please call me Livallaree,” she replied. “Now, care to explain why I have the welcome sight of the local chapter of the Wrath of Yronite looking like they’ve had better days strewn all over the market here?”

“They objected to my drawing people and things, Livallaree,” I replied.

“They would,” she sighed. “But it looks like they may have learned a valuable lesson.”

I reached down and pulled the mask off the leader, showing the surgically adapted features of what we now knew was an Yron. “This one was in charge and I suspect you’ll want to question him closely over the Renso incident.”

“That we will. The Yron assassins rarely break cover and we have a hard job tracking them down,” Livallaree commented as Harraskariit cuffed him.

“Tomorrow, when the Princess visits, I have a suggestion...” I began.

“Please do not advise me to call it off. The Princess insisted.”

“No. But, how about we invite the Colour Party of the Raffagee Ground Force Regiments here and have Amanda bless their Colours?”

“In the market?”

“Why not? It will be a hell of a slap in the face of the elder males and show the people down here what they can aspire to, if they want.”

“Interesting idea, wonder if I can swing it?”

“The Regiment can comply. Princess Amanda approves the suggestion,” the AI in Kiria’s armour spoke out, surprising us.

“Guess she was keeping an eye on me,” I chuckled.

“Looks like it,” Kiria giggled.

“OK. Just exactly who are you, young man?” Livallaree asked.

“Dayyev, Amanda’s boyfriend,” I replied.

“I’ve seen the tri-dees. You look nothing like him.”

“Oh, that’s a holo-disguise so I can do my art stuff without being mobbed,” I chuckled, knowing Amanda used one too.

“Clever! I guess the Princess does something similar?” Livallaree frowned.

“Something like that,” I chuckled.

“Well, we’ll all meet tomorrow, including the Princess,” Livallaree nodded.

“Yes, though I’ll look slightly different.”

The following day Amanda arrived in a flyer. Kiria and I joined her in the upper-level secure terminal before being escorted by Trusha to where the official greeting party awaited her. There was a slight pause as we hugged and kissed and Kiria got a hug as well.

“Trusha was disappointed she didn’t get an invite to play yesterday,” Amanda giggled.

“She has her job, looking after you to be specific,” I smiled.

“I know. She was trying to persuade me to sneak out with her to help you.”

“I can imagine what your mum might say to that,” Kiria laughed.

“Oh yes, and she’d definitely find out. Plus, I have these rest days for a reason.”

“Yes, we don’t want you burning out.” I nodded with a sly grin.

“As if! No, they are for discussions with the Governor and other senior staff, as you well know.”

“So, not a day off?” Kiria asked.

“Not really, bit more relaxed though in the second part which was where Trusha wanted to sneak away.”

“There’ll be other times,” I chuckled.

“Better be,” Trusha murmured in the background as we moved off.

The official greeting was fun, if now becoming familiar. Vice Governor Livallaree greeted us warmly, though stared a little at me as if trying to penetrate the holo-disguise.

“You can’t see through it,” I chuckled as we began the now ‘traditional’ walkabout.

“I know, it’s very impressive,” she nodded.

“Only used on public occasions, same as Amanda’s.”

“So, that’s not the real Princess I’m seeing?”

“No, though in private talks she may drop it. It’s clear you’re trustworthy, as are all Raffagee in senior positions that we’ve met,” I replied.

“We have our rogue elements, same as humans no doubt.”

“Yes, though it’s a bit harder for humans, with AIs keeping an eye on us.”

“I have hopes to soon introduce a limited approved network of them in the lower levels. Your ... dealings with the Yronite thugs have cost them support and left them open to mockery,” Livallaree smiled.

“Good,” I nodded, before pulling out my sketch pad to capture the scenes.

Several hundred rotations later we finally sat in a comfortable lounge along with Livallaree as well as Tillan and a few, as yet unknown to us, Raffagee of both sexes. At a sign from Amanda, via a successful security scan by Trusha, we dropped the holo-disguises, causing the Raffagee, other than Livallaree, to start slightly.

“My goodness, you are very different from the public image, Serenissimé.” Livallaree stated.

“It permits me a private life away from the glare of the newsies and the just plain curious,” Amanda explained. “Please, just call me Amanda. This is an informal meeting to update me on various goings on in the Raffagee zone that has piqued the Empire’s interest.”

“Of course, Amanda,” Livallaree agreed.

“Interviews with some ... arrested Yronites have given us a probable source for the fake medical seal devices they were using to foment trouble in the human and joint zones,” a young male began. “We have passed the details on to Ser Tillan and ImpSec.”

“Thank you, Roshilloon,” Livallaree said.

“You can also expect further incidents in the lower levels tonight. Certain anti-human factions who were planning violent protests will be selectively targeted to ensure they have other things to worry about,” Tillan added,

“And what of any non-violent protests?” Livallaree asked with a frown.

“Will be permitted to protest,” Amanda replied. “We only intend to pre-empt violence, not legitimate protests.”

“How do you know who these people are?” Livallaree asked. “The Tukla have been looking for them for over a year, but found very little, if any, evidence.”

“I’m afraid we served warrants on several of the Tukla senior officers for obstructing justice,” Roshilloon replied. “Some we believe may have been blackmailed and will be dealt with leniently, others were taking bribes or were sympathetic to the Yronite cause.”

“My apologies, Serenissimé. It appears my governance is not as effective as it should be,” Livallaree sighed.

“It’s Amanda, and I doubt much if any blame will be laid at your feet. Am I correct, Tillan?”

“Yes, Amanda. The plot was well constructed, if losing ground steadily as the next generations of Raffagee refused to accept the primacy of the elder cause. Your senior assistant, Vice Governor, was one of those arrested and he was the one keeping certain evidence away from the light of day or quashing investigations.”

“Tivartrendos?” Livallaree asked with a sigh.

“I’m afraid so.”

“I would never have suspected...”

“It was a very cautious cabal, but, as I said, steadily losing ground due to your good work and the loyalty of other staff under your control, forcing them to become ever more circumspect in anything that they attempted. It was only on the lower levels that they had any control, even then they were beginning to lose it,” Tillan explained.

“And then young Dayyev here blew it wide open?” Livallaree asked, looking bemused.

“In a sense. His drawing of the attackers of the parents of the child Teronee enabled the arrest of Kallach who stupidly was sitting on a mass of written records that implicated various senior figures in the administration; as well as the whereabouts of the surgically adapted Yronite assassins and other gang leaders.”

“Written?” Livallaree asked somewhat bemused.

“They thought they were being clever, in not using a medium the AIs could detect in other zones and places,” Tillan shrugged. “Worked too ... for a while.”

“How do we spot it now?” Roshilloon asked.

“We got the pseudopaper manufacturer’s code for the batch they use. That alerts the AIs in the other zones to the carrier and we track them from that,” Tillan explained.

“So we still don’t know what information they send anywhere then?”

“No, but as we now have a good few names under observation. We can track them via nanite spotters and listen in that way.”

“Is this not illegal?” Livarallee asked, looking concerned.

“For your Tukla, yes. For ImpSec, no, as it involves a plot against the Princess, the planet and the Empire,” Tillan explained.

“Ah, I see. Their ‘plan’ was to take over Coriolia as a purely Raffagee planet, despite the majority of we Raffagee being perfectly happy here?”

“Yes, regardless of it originally being a human world in a human Empire. That sort of thing bothers my mother a great deal.” Amanda confirmed.