Beyond Death (Perimeter Defense Book #2) (29 page)

"Why are we solving the Iseyek’s problems without them? Georg, let's invite the Swarm Progenitor to take part in the negotiations!"

"You know, that’s the right idea. But first we need to show the Arites that we could get out of this trap without them. That will strengthen our position in the negotiations a good amount."

I called General Savasss Jach and, using Phobos as a translator, suggested the Gamma Iseyek get in touch with his acquaintances in the Arite system. His suggestion was to let the information out in doses, trying not to show our hand too early with the trophies, rescued scientists and the Iseyek Prime in our fleet. The general agreed with my position and signed off. Four minutes went by before the general called me back:

"Prince Georg, the mission was a success. The beacon in the Arite system will be turned on in one hundred ninety-four minutes. I told them that the only ship coming was
Tria
, with reinforcements for the war going on on the planet. The Swarm there doesn't know about the Sector Eight Fleet yet, so for them it will be a surprise. But, I am sure that this issue is best discussed with our feet on the ground in the Arite system."

"If we really can get out of Triasss Zess's trap, I'll kiss that hairy bug all over!" Katerina ton Mesfelle promised after the general had hung up.

"Does it just keep you up at night not to also have the Iseyek Mating Dance achievement?" I joked, but Katerina did not get it and went to mentally prepare the Swarm Progenitor for a meeting with the representative of the Arites.

* * *

Nai Igir reacted quite nervously to the information that there was an Arite on board the starship, yet I was able to calm the Swarm Progenitor nevertheless with the fact that the Truth Seeker was able to keep a close watch over the ship for the deceitful being, and would not hesitate to get involved if necessary. The Iseyek Prime hesitated for a long time and demanded that I, as an official representative of the Empire, guarantee her safety, and I even did.

The first official meeting between representatives of the Arites and the Swarm in two hundred years was planned. What was more, this historic event was planned to take place on the flagship of the Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet, the heavy assault cruiser,
Emperor August.
My cousin Katerina ton Mesfelle had already had a foretaste of the huge interest this kind of exclusive material could garner and was scurrying around the starship with the speed of a cat that’d just burned its tail, getting the equipment set up, and getting the conditions just right to record the historic moment for posterity.

But first, we would have to finish the trip to the disputed Arite system without issue, and there had been a war over that planet between the Arites and the Iseyek with varying levels of success for two centuries now. To be honest, I did have some "butterflies in my stomach" over the possibility that the Swarm could trick us again. Despite that, the general's old friends did not deceive us, and the beacon turned on at precisely the scheduled time. When it did,
Emperor August
and the rest of the Sector Eight Fleet made the jump to the Arite system’s beacon, which flashed on for just a second.

The staff officers' moods immediately improved, though they also began to look strained. I heard my subjects talking. They were all hoping very much that the Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet had in fact escaped the deadly trap, however they were not ready to believe in it all the way before they saw the chance to speak with the Empire for themselves.

And there it was, the Arite system! The ship left the tunnel accompanied by a bedsheet-sized page of system messages that flashed before my eyes momentarily. The information blockade had been broken, and a waterfall of data that had accumulated over the last few days cascaded down over me. Relation changes with factions and people, increases in global fame, reductions and increases in standing, hundreds of messages from acquaintances.

I closed the text-packed screen and simply opened my character popup:

Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle, Crown Prince of the Empire

Age: 48

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Class: Aristocrat

Achievements: Chameleon Elder Female, Favorite’s Iseyek Mating Dance, Discovered Arite Race, Alien Killer, Researcher of the Unknown

Fame: +18

Standing: +2

My standing was in the positive for the first time since I entered the game! And my fame had increased by five points in the time I was gone! Relations with factions and species I had never heard of had also grown substantially. Even the Imperial Artists faction had somehow wizened up to +8! And so, what about the Imperial Military? I had to flip through a few screens of text before finding the information:

Standing change. Empire Military faction opinion of you has improved.

Presumed personal opinion of you: +15 (warm)

"Enemy ships on directional scanner!" Nicole Savoia brought me back to reality. "Swarm ships! Forty marks. Three
Legashes
, a couple
Umoyge
s, the rest are little guys. They're getting closer!"

I imagined myself in the place of the confused and frightened Iseyek commanders, and couldn't hold back a smile. Instead of the reinforcements they were expecting, one lone landing
Tria
, an unknown fleet of three hundred starships had arrived to the disputed Arite system, and most of their radar signatures indicated that they belonged to a foreign space government. Invasion! War! Betrayal! It was probably these very thoughts setting the insect captains on edge now. But the Iseyek earned their dues: the Swarm fleet did not retreat and threw itself on the attack against the trespasser, regardless of my fleet's significantly outsizing them in both number and class of ship.

"The enemy has come out of warp at four hundred miles! Incoming video call! Your Highness, shall I put them through?"

"Put them through in thirty seconds, but not with me, with my translator Nai Igir."

I turned to the Iseyek Prime and said:

"Now is the time for the Swarm Progenitor to assert her ancient rights. Before us are your subjects. And now, they either bow before the Iseyek Prime, take an oath of loyalty and join our fleet, or I will destroy them. And it will be so with every fleet that tries to impede our movement through Swarm territory, and your path to the throne."

"May I claim to this captain that the Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet is under my command, and is no threat to the Swarm?" Nai Igir clarified.

"No, you may not," I said, trying to put a complete end to all such topics. My combat starships are the force that will lead to you power over the Swarm, but the fleet is not subject to the Progenitor. For now, we are just working together. You need my ships to get to the capital system Dekeye and be crowned ruler of the Swarm. And I need you because no Iseyek wouldn’t dare stop the Progenitor from moving around Swarm territory. As soon as you reach your goal, my fleet will leave the Swarm. That much I promise you. Naturally, though, this can only happen after the Swarm settles accounts with me over their betrayal in the Kej system."

Nai Igir confirmed that she had understood my conditions, then I ordered her to put the incoming call through. The Iseyek Prime spoke for a very long time. I didn't understand a word of her squeaking, but I didn't hurry to use Phobos or Popori de Cacha to translate, as I was afraid of distracting her. Finally, my translator turned off the microphone and turned to me.

"They will not resist, and agree to join your fleet, Crown Prince. Just one condition was named: these ships are to stay in Swarm territory no matter what, and your Highness cannot take them out to the Empire. If Prince Georg agrees to this limitation, they are prepared to join immediately."

I gave my permission for the Iseyek ships to only come to my side temporarily until Nai Igir had officially become the ruler of the Swarm. The Iseyek Prime made a short trill into the microphone, and an excited shriek and whistle rang out from "our" Iseyek on the common fleet channel.

"Admiral Kheraisss Vej, accept these new ships under your command!" I said and, taking off my headphones, went to find the Arite. I just had to tell him about the change in the situation and suggest conducting three-party talks with the Swarm Progenitor.

* * *

I couldn't find Bionica, either in her room, or on the general deck, so I turned to the Truth Seeker for help.

"The Arite is now in your bedroom, Crown Prince. Her and my sister are fighting."

"What could Astra have found to disagree with it over?" I grumbled in dissatisfaction, then hurried to my cabin.

I could already hear the muted screams and cursing coming from behind the closed door as soon as the doors of the elevator opened. After opening the door to my cabin, I took a careful step over the two girls, who were fighting on the floor right in front of the door. Astra and Bionica were rolling around the carpet screaming and wheezing and pulling one another's hair. I briefly took a seat in an armchair, and looked on with the measured interest of an observer as the two approximately equally sized girls grappled. The forces were equal, and neither of them were preparing to give up.

I had to intervene. I took a pitcher of emerald green juice, walked up to the fight and poured the contents out on the overeager girls. The tangle of bodies fell apart in a moment, and both participants in the fight jumped back with a catlike hiss.

"That crazy idiot Bionica attacked me! The android is clearly broken!" cried Astra, first to speak through tears of pain and shame.

"Well that green-haired witch threw a serving tray at me. With boiling water in the mugs, by the way!"

"You're damn right there was! You need to learn to think with those computery brains of yours. I burned my fingers because of you!"

"Well you freaking bit me. Some Princess! Who taught you those manners?!"

"Oh, I taught myself, dearie! It looks like the android has finally come out to play! You got something wedged in your chips, huh?"

I hurried to play the peacemaker before the fight built up to a new pitch:

"Astra, I've already warned you about Bionica. Plus, you lost the bet and promised to behave irreproachably, nobly and with exceptional dignity, as a true Princess should. Which is why this is strike one, and two, and you will be seriously punished. You will spend the next three days as the android's servant: you will clean up after her, wipe the floors, cook the food. You'll spend all these days in Florianna's room, and there, by the way, you'll also be cleaning up after and feeding your sister. And if I hear even one complaint about you not doing your job well enough, I'm sending you to spend a month on an Iseyek ship. You can entertain them with your dances! The insects, and not just they, really liked your performance. I even got a report that a video of your dance is the most popular file exchanged on the data networks of my fleet."

"But Prince, that's not fair!" The Princess, somewhat rumpled up in the fight, tried to object, but I immediately interfered in my favorite’s objection:

"Not three days, but a week! And if I hear one more word of complaining, it'll be a month! How will I get through to you...?" I turned back to the Arite with an irate expression on my wounded face. "You are aware that androids are not capable of aggression, aren’t you?! And how am I supposed to explain to my subjects the fact that my normally peaceful android is behaving like this? You have exactly one week to learn to be an android. And if you try to pull any more stunts like this, I'm setting you down on the first planet we reach, no matter if there's intelligent life there or not. Now you and I are going to three-party negotiations between three great cosmic races, so get ready and get yourself together."

Making use of the fact that Astra had turned away and was digging in the cabinet, Pseudo-Bionica turned into a white cloud for a second, before returning to the synthetic blonde’s body, but without scratches on her face or a torn collar on her uniform.

"Let's go. But I warn you now, if you try to copy the Iseyek Prime, you will be learning to breathe in a vacuum!" I threatened the Arite, and he accepted the condition.

The negotiations took place in the large hall of
Emperor August.
Katerina and her assistants made the broadcast. The previously unknown type of Iseyek with blue wings was shown in detail to the humans, then there was a section on the shape-shifting Arite, then me in ceremonial uniform with a made-up face. After that, I asked everyone to clear the room, and only the three of us remained in the center of the hall.

The negotiations were laborious and drawn-out. The Arites and the Swarm were arguing about the peace conditions and on what terms their two races would be able to co-exist. The options considered were many, from: everything will remain as is, and the war will continue until one of us is totally destroyed, to the recognition of the Arites' right to reside in Swarm territory and the opening of Arite systems to Iseyek immigrants. At some point, the option of uniting the two cosmic governments in a united Federation was even considered, with a Queen-Ruler in the person of Nai Igir.