LbN: Thanks for the reviews, guys! Hope you like the new chapter.


The only good thing was that this had happened on the first night of winter, Thor concluded. The snow was just settling in, and it wasn't a terrible storm, so conditions for the cars weren't awful. When they made it to the ruins of the Dagger Pagoda, they saw that the transport had lodged itself in one of the crevices. Thankfully, the doors were not blocked. Thor pried one open and walked into the darkness. Something whizzed by his head. A boy swung his sword again, but Thor was ready this time. There wasn't much room to fight in the small entryway, so he pinned the boy to the wall, disarming him. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Kenzo," the boy said, panting. His terrified eyes darted to the back of the transport, and back to Thor.

It was then that Thor noticed that there were more children aboard the craft. He backed away from Kenzo, and handed the boy his sword back. "You're a very brave fighter, but there's no need to be afraid. I'm Thor, the ruler of this planet."

"Oh," was all Kenzo said.

"How many of you are there?"

"Six."

Thor nodded. "Come with…is that a baby?"

"Yes. Why?"

Thor's mind was reeling. What in the name of Chimaera was happening? "We'll discuss everything when we get somewhere warm. Come along, all of you."

The children cast nervous glances at each other, but followed. The temperature inside the transport was almost as cold as outside of it, so they had no other choice.

Thor turned off the transport's flashing headlights and followed them outside. When everyone was situated onto a hover bike, they took off into the night.


Thor could hear Rada's voice as he walked down the hall toward the meeting room. He yawned, wanting nothing more than to go back to his rooms and fall asleep. But he couldn't. After moving beds and a crib into one of the empty apartments, and checking on his son, Thor had called a meeting to address what was happening. He walked wearily into the room and took his seat at the head of the oblong table. He leaned back in his chair, so that only the back two legs were on the ground, and folded his hands over his stomach.

"Those bastards signed a treaty and still sent transports!" Rada fumed, banging his fist on the table. "We ought to take a ship over there right now."

"What I don't understand is why they sent children," Kayia said. "Those kids are too young to be criminals."

"You've got that right," Savva agreed. "They've got such bad separation anxiety that it took me forever to be able to leave and get them some food."

"We should wake some people up on Hecate," Salem said. "If this is the Chancellor's idea of a treaty, we should correct him."

Thor sat up finally, and the room got quiet. "None of us are in the frame of mind for diplomatic talks," he said. "Rada, get us copies of the treaty to look over. Here's the point: the children are here, and must stay here until we get to the bottom of this. My dear Second has gotten to the key part of the matter—why children? There is something big going on here. The first thing to do," he said, holding up the paper Rada had passed to him, "Is to find out what loophole they found. With all of our revisions, on both sides, they were bound to have noticed one. Tomorrow, I will speak to Kenzo. He seems to be the oldest, and the children look to him as their leader. After that, we will figure out a course of action. Remember, Chimaera is still relatively secret; which means we are still at the mercy of the Juno system, more or less. It will do us no good to go accusing them of breaking the treaty, when we don't have any facts."

"Thor," Salem said quietly. "I think I've found the problem."

"Yes?"

"It says that no criminal transports will be sent to Chimaera—which, I'm sure, is the case. I doubt the kids have done anything wrong. But I think that's where our flaw was. We were so worried about them flooding the planet with criminals, that we made it too specific."

"You're saying that he's sending random people down here, because I forgot to tell him not to."

"In essence. With all of our talks about making Chimaera a public planet eventually, we forgot about the now. It would have been an easy fix—just adding the stipulation that all other transports must be approved by both governing parties. But we didn't. We traded our consent to be a private planet for their not moving criminals here, and that's where the treaty ends."

"Damn," Thor said. Salem was right. "Unfortunately, that still doesn't explain why they're sending children down here, alone, in the middle of winter."

"Guess we'll have to wait until morning to figure that one out," Savva said, yawning.

Thor glanced over at the hourglass. "Which is only five hours away. Go to bed, team. We'll deal with this in the morning."


"Why Thor! I didn't expect to speak with you so soon. What can I do for you?" the Chancellor asked.

"I'm calling about the transport."

"What transport?"

"The transport that landed here last night. Full of children."

"Thor, surely you're joking. We haven't sent a transport in months, much less one full of kids."

"Six children under the age of ten crash landed near the ruins last night," Thor said, trying to keep his patience. "It was a transport pod of the same style that Hecate uses."

"Thor, people from all over use those pods! They might even be runaways from another system. I have no knowledge of a transport being shipped to Chimaera."

Thor stared at him for a moment. "Very well," he said. "I'm sure there's some misunderstanding here. Sorry to trouble you with this."

"No trouble at all. I'm happy I could clear things up," the Chancellor said.

The Beast King couldn't help but notice the man's smug grin. "Indeed. Have a nice week, sir." He pushed the button and ended the transmission. "You can come in now, Salem."

His Third walked into the room, smirking. "How'd you know I was there?"

"Because the only other person with the balls to eavesdrop is Savva, and she would've come inside to begin with."

"Why'd you give up with him so easy, Thor?" Salem asked. "You know he was lying."

"I know," Thor agreed, nodding. "But it won't do any good to push the matter now. What we need to do is talk to the children. Then we'll figure out where to go from there."

LbN: Hope you liked the chapter! Send reviews please. I love feedback! :)