Chapter 6: Chak

Horti, Annjus, and Craig sat in chairs facing the gate.

“Why do you think she is coming this evening?” Annjus asked. “We have been here for three weeks to intercept her every evening, but why tonight?”

“Craig woke this morning, and he looked at me. We both felt it was going to be tonight. Jason picks up the intentions of the enemy up to a day ahead. Craig thinks he can do the same. He called Orma Chatzke, asking about me before he heard what happened.”

“Craig, you told me all about how you believed your father cheated on your mother. I found it very strange. We Uzliumbax don’t believe you should only have sex with one partner or children with one partner,” said Annjus.

“What about jealousy?” Craig asked.

“May I explain a little about us? We are a society where we have lived for a long time. We do not expect our partner to be with us forever. It happens occasionally, but our partners and we may change over time. We consider living with partners for a hundred years a long-term relationship. Jason’s empresses were all with him before his most recent descent. That was rare among us. Most of us had a partner for brief periods and then changed to another. Few of us had more than two children. In developing worlds, families were bigger. The people in the Associations carefully chose spouses who would improve the status or size of the Association. That was a public relationship. We had other love relationships and flings. The man or woman from the dominant association chose carefully with whom she had a child. A good genetic background was highly sought after. You are in your forties. Can you imagine being with the same person doing the same thing for a hundred thousand years?”

“What is an association, Annjus?” Sammy asked.

“The Uzliumbax association is the same as the House in the Cassius Empire. It is the Corporate Entity run by a member of the Royal Family. We have thousands of Associations in the Empire,” Annjus explained.

“I find it hard to comprehend living two hundred years, never mind billions of years. Annjus, you talked of the upper crust of Uzliumbax society. What about the ordinary people?”

“They changed partners as often as we did, but they behave less strategically than we do. When they were young and had children, they faced financial problems for years if they changed partners. Still, those concerns disappeared when we changed asset laws to make separations less murky and restructured the tax system to ensure we support children financially if parents separated. Most children in military families live in Empire-supported homes.”

“Cassius’ society did the same. How can society afford to do it?” Craig asked.

“Children are vital to society, and many pay taxes as we live so long. Our society is extraordinarily wealthy,” said Emic.

“I want to return to your question about jealousy in relationships. When people are younger, they tend to be jealous more frequently than when they get older. We do have different ways the same issues manifest themselves. We are jealous of power. Our people envy the ranking of houses, power, money, and performance in life and school. Ours is a highly competitive society,” Annjus added.

“You have equivalent numbers of males to females, I believe,” said Horti.

“Yes, we do, but the Dinnion and the Destroyers have far more females than males,” said Annjus.

“What is your family like?” Horti asked.

“They are preoccupied with status and position, money, and business. I had a major fight with my grandmother about this proposed trip. We nearly came to blows. My grandmother has dominated me her whole life, and if I didn’t please her, she never hesitated to slap me to submit to her will or humiliated me in one of many ways,” said Annjus and paused.

“Didn’t she want you to go, or was she scared you would die?” Craig asked.

“I told her Jason suggested I be part of a team to go to another multiverse. She pricked up her ears. She wanted to know how advanced a civilization it was. When I told her, she got so excited she was beside herself. I told her we were going to bring your people back. I could see her brain was going so quickly she was going into a speed wobble. She wanted to know how I knew what you said was true. I told her of your inventions and your powers. I finally told her about your different genes and bigger brain. Her beady eyes lit up when I told her I had received the genes and would develop a bigger brain. They go all shiny when she sees an enormous opportunity. She wanted to know who else was going.”

Annjus shook her head and blinked.

“My parents also asked,” said Horti, “who else was going?”

“Your parents asked because they were curious or wanted to be sure you had a power team. My family wants to know the relative status of those going. Grandmother was impressed Craig and also Emic were going. She brushed aside everything I mentioned about the dangers,” said Annjus and paused again.

“For heaven’s sake, woman, what are you trying to tell us? You are driving me crazy!” Craig harrumphed, throwing up his hands.

“She told me she was going to crow to all her cronies. I was going to be the greatest, and I was going to bring so much new business to the house. I was a fantastic asset. I could persuade Horti to make me a queen of more planets than I would manage as an Empress in Jason’s Empire. These new people would surely swallow up Jason’s Empire. She suggested I swap from Jason to Craig to consolidate my position.”

Horti grinned. “She is worse than Philippa, I assume?”

“No, she is nothing like Philippa, and status is unimportant. My Grandmother is obsessed with status. She was enraged when I said no; she can’t tell anyone; it was confidential until I told her otherwise.”

“So, you are saying she is slightly status-driven,” said Craig frowning.

“It is more than that. She loves to brag and crow. Grandmother screamed at me, saying her friends wouldn’t tell anyone, and I was not to tell her who she could or could not tell.”

“That is nasty stuff,” said Horti, “how did you handle her, Annjus?”

“It was easy; she is a bully. She hadn’t yet comprehended that she no longer had power over me. Her miserable, one-tracked mind means she is inflexible and is slow to change direction. She is like an old battleship without inertial compensators. Grandmother raised her hand. For the first time, I did the same. In a quiet voice, I told her I was on a secret mission sanctioned by the Emperor, and I was chosen to go on the mission by a Crown Princess from another Multiverse. She would not speak of my actions until I gave her explicit permission. I also told her I would no longer tolerate her lifting a hand to me.”

“That was an important confrontation. I don’t think you could have done better,” said Horti. “She had no choice but to back down.”

“I could see her slowly work out what happened. The power balance had shifted, and it wasn’t in her favor. Yet she knew our Association did not lose anything and could gain something. Only she lost power and influence. She felt herself losing status. Her face sagged. If the Emperor knew she had loose lips, she was in bad trouble, but Horti was an even bigger but unknown danger.”

Horti laughed but abruptly stopped and frowned. She looked at Craig and raised her eyebrows.

Craig nodded. “She is coming; get up and get ready.”

The air before them shimmered before Chak arrived, sword in hand. Annjus chopped the side of her hand sharply downward. Craig captured her in his ring.

“Gotcha,” said Horti grinning.

Horti and her team sat in the conference room next to the hospital, waiting for the Mother Superior. There were snacks and drinks on the table.

“How long did Mother Superior say it would take, Horti?” Aubrey asked.

Horti looked at the time and frowned. “She said it would take five minutes to get a preliminary overview unless there were complications.”

“There must be a major complication, as it has been three and a half hours,” said Heather.

“What sort of pods do they have?” Sammy asked.

“Nothing like anything I have seen before. They use methods of power generation beyond magical power. The metal alloys are inordinately complex. I can sense the power source nearby,” said Horti.

“Then there must be a serious problem,” said Sammy, drinking water before turning to Horti.

“How many of these priestess queens are there?” Sammy asked.

Horti turned to nod to Charlie.

“While in the tunnels, I recalled a magical scan that produced a picture of the tunnels, energy weapons, energy sources, and life signs. I used it,” said Charlie.

Horti and Aubrey closed their eyes, then opened them simultaneously.

“That scan takes a lot of power; there isn’t much energy. How did you do it?” Aubrey asked.

“The first time, I used a full load of all my power. I have been practicing storing it, and my buffer is pretty big. I scanned ninety degrees before I ran out. I found hundreds of thousands of them, maybe millions, if they are spread around the planet, billions. The next time we went down, I finished the scan,” said Charlie grinning broadly.

“How the hell did you do that?” Lisirra asked loudly.

“I found places where you can tap into magic. The place is wired for magic and other power. They have magic-dense places; I suspect several small reactors supply them. There is a lot of sophisticated activity down here,” said Charlie.

“Why didn’t you tell me, jackass?” Lisirra asked.

“I will answer that question specifically and generally. First, if I discover confidential information about my host, I must ask, is it private to them, or should it be spread around? Secondly, not everyone will come on the mission. If I were to tell anyone, it would be Horti, but Horti already knew as she did the same before I did it,” said Charlie. “Lisirra, you are not on my list of confidants, and you are the last person I would tell as I suspect you have a low chance of coming along. Horti selected you at first as she thinks you will shine. I am less certain, and your behavior today reinforces my initial impression.”

“Rubbish, I will be one of the most important, if not the essential person on the team,” said Lisirra.

“I wondered if all Zaos were difficult. At university, I discovered they tend to be prickly but nothing like you. You are able, but you demonstrate an overinflated view of your abilities and a lack of control of your emotions,” said Charlie.

“You exaggerate; I am only helping the team,” said Lisirra.

Aubrey glared at Lisirra. “Call one of us a jackass again, and I will blast you and give you some real pain. Are we clear?”

Lisirra mumbled but restrained herself with considerable difficulty. Her face went red, and then she took several deep breaths. “I am sorry, Aubrey; please accept my apology, Charlie,” said Lisirra.

Jiskassa raised her eyebrows and looked at Aubrey and then Heather. “You guys made more progress with Lisirra than we did in a year.”

Lisirra glared at her but said nothing.

“Why did you tell us today?” Annjus asked.

Charlie nodded to Horti.

“After we scanned the place, the Mother Superior approached me. She told me when I scanned the underground city, she and the priestesses discovered their mission. They would build whatever structures were required on our side to facilitate the move. I must bring back scientists or give them the plans.”

“How can they do the work necessary to shift trillions?”

“They have three planets, and there are billions of them. She was happy we all knew about them and what they could do. She said trust must go two ways. She says that in the available time, the only methods that can work are ship, planet-sized, and smaller planet-based gates to bring across essential people,” said Horti. “The oracles tell her everything is way behind, and we will lose many.”

“Do you know when we must move across?” Asked Craig.

“Mother Superior told me time is running out fast and wants us to begin the last training phase today,” said Horti. “She is coming our way.”

The Mother Superior walked into the room in her humanoid form.

“We have two major problems we are grappling with: the young lady has a bomb in her brain we cannot remove, and her memories have other memories recently placed on top of them. They did the same memory superimposition in her crystal.”

“Do you know what will lead to an explosion?” Lisirra asked.

“The bomb will explode in two weeks of their time, but here it translates to four weeks. Whoever controls her gave her limited time to do what they wished.”

“Mother Superior, I suggest we work in two groups; one group will join with your interrogators and the other with your medical people and engineers to grapple with removing the bomb. Griffexor managed to find a way to remove a parasite that moved dimensions to escape removal,” said Horti.

“Horti, who do you wish to place on the team looking for the original memories?” Asked Mother Superior.

“Aubrey was our lead person when we needed to find hidden memories in the game. Craig and Charlie also have valuable skills. Sammy has medical skills. The rest of you distribute yourselves to whichever area you believe you have the most to offer.

“Let us work on the problem for the rest of the day and assess our progress. In the worst case, we must leave here in three weeks. We have a lot of training before then, so let’s get to it,” said Horti. “Mother Superior, I will float between groups, as will you?”

The Mother Superior nodded. “Change into your Azloc body to use our equipment most effectively. First, we will familiarize you with our equipment.”

They met ten hours later to discuss their findings while remaining in Azloc form telepathically.

‘Mother superior, thank you for allowing us to use your wonderful equipment,’ said Horti. ‘Who will report from the interrogation team?’

Craig put up his hand. ‘After learning how to use the equipment, the Colza taught us to use networked communication in condensed time. I am sure all of you did the same in the other team, but for completeness, I will describe the process and experience. We changed our frequency to a different net once we fired up the simulators. The Colza gave us detailed instructions, but none of us needed them. We also can speak to our task group using a separate chemical network.”