Political Constraints & Chemical Floods
Chapter 11
SirNi
The liquid felt reassuring in its warmth and loosened his thoughts. He pondered the personality of Harwalan, the appearance of Chiana, the powerful fury of Jothee, and D'Argo, who had sacrificed his life that his friends, with a man who sought to tell the truth and now questioned all the things he had fought to achieve, could escape and initiate the conclusion of the Scarren Empire. The Scarrens had not fallen, but they had been temporarily stopped.
Though he sought to keep his thoughts from the subject of his enemies, they always returned, and Scorpius wondered how Braca would react to the war in this sector. Few species walked into Tormented Space of their own accord, and Moya's crew had only escaped into it for a lack of other options. Scorpius himself felt a surge of fascination at their choice, for that many wormholes, in that one place.
Whether Braca followed him, with an army or not, Scorpius had the idea that Harwalan wouldn't let him come. Harwalan might counter him with that mysterious ship, or create a tight quarantine, or think up an excuse which involve an issue with the Peacekeepers. Perhaps she might inflict the hallucinogens on the people in the sector, or her own soldiers, and warn Braca from the sector. He wouldn't believe her, but politically, he wouldn't have a choice.
Braca appreciated politics.
Scorpius moaned as the chemical touched his sexual parts. He had removed all of his clothes to relax in the vat. The coolant system detached with difficulty, but the rod stayed in his head. He never glanced at his reflection that way, and Sikozu carefully didn't turn around. Nonetheless, even his body needed air sometimes. The substance stayed on him like glue. He remembered Phrexari's frightening usage of that.
Sikozu ahemed.
A weird noise crawled out of his larnyx.
Sikozu laughed. "Getting a reading."
"Who is it?" Scorpius said. "Where is it?"
Sikozu leaned toward the monitor, positioned so she hid it from his sight. In place of it he got a good look at her neck. She wore the high collar down, and he saw the muscles strain.
"She's found us, hasn't she?"
"She's there, Scorpius," Sikozu whispered, "and she isn't cloaked. She hasn't communicated yet."
"Harwalan's waiting for me, Sikozu." Scorpius leapt out of the vat and got into his suit, tugging his right leg. The substance stayed on him, and he saw difficulty in making it clean. "Get this vat in the cargo compartment."
"I don't need orders from - "
Scorpius snarled. "Get it in there."
Sikozu growled and stood up from the chair. She walked to the vat, not peering at Scorpius. The rubber suit looked evil, unusually, and shone in the lights in the Iresa. "You owe me one, Scorpius."
"Sure, all right." Scorpius yanked on the suit, ran forward and clicked the button for the comm. "Malahati Harwalan, I'm glad you arrived."
"Yes, thank you," Harwalan said. "How are you?"
"This sector pleases me," Scorpius said. "I've been researching."
"What, if I can ask?" Harwalan said.
Scorpius smiled. "The Scarren Empire."
"The usual," Harwalan said. "Would you think more work would be a bother?"
"What might that be?" Scorpius said.
Harwalan said, "You'll be under a secrecy agreement. Might I have permission for entry on the Iresa?"
Scorpius frowned. "Of course, Malahati. I would find it a pleasure."
Harwalan's light laugh said the truth of their conversation.
"I'll find a shuttle for you," Scorpius said.
"I have my own," Harwalan said. "Please open the hangar."
Scorpius peered around for Sikozu. She lifted her hands, like picking up the vat, and grinned.
"The hangar has now opened," Scorpius said.
Harwalan laughed again and the comm clicked off.
Scorpius looked at Sikozu. "What did you do with the vat?"
"She won't find it," Sikozu said.
Little traces of panic bubbled, and Scorpius didn't like them. "But it's on the ship?"
"I couldn't shove it outside," Sikozu said.
"So she might find it," Scorpius said.
Sikozu smiled. "Oh, she won't find it."
"Where is the vat?" Scorpius said.
"Trust me, Scorpius, like you trusted me before the Peacekeeper Wars," Sikozu said.
Scorpius frowned. The coolant rod beat against his head.
"You don't have a choice," Sikozu said.
"No, I don't," Scorpius said. "I'm also in a hurry. I need some information set up in the database."
"I won't do that," Sikozu said.
Scorpius tapped the controls. "That's my duty."
"The Malahati's flying in," Sikozu said. "Which tells me of my duty."
Any other time, he would have built a second plan. Harwalan, her brillance, and, though he realised it might be the source of his ultimate destruction, his attraction to the woman, somehow stayed ahead of him Scorpius didn't know how she had able to do it, but he had to find out how. The vat was part of the strategy, but it wouldn't achieve the solution alone. "Good," Scorpius said. "You're in the role?"
Sikozu smiled. "I'm your servant, Scorpius, whenever she's around us."
Scorpius quivered as Malahati Harwalan's shuttle whapped the Iresa. When he created the ship, he had obtained an equipment series with armament meant to benefit a smuggling freighter, escape pod flying from a ship in a war zone, or shuttle fleeing from heavy orbital fire. He had hoped, but hadn't been able to, test the defensive capabilities himself. He should have, because, like a meeting with a hostile pirate vessel in the Uncharted Territories, the Mistress's shuttle had found the Iresa's weakness.
The steel structure of the Iresa, by the copilot's seat, threatened to come apart soon. Acidic infestations had appeared between the interior and exterior and made the entire section, from the bow to the airlock, dangerously worn. Scorpius wanted to replace it whenever he found a station, but Harwalan's shuttle found it first. His ship shrieked and for a horrible moment he wondered if the ship would literally rip apart and set him right in the middle of space.
Scorpius had been standing, one hand opened on the floor. Sikozu grabbed a console, her hands behind her back. Her eyes were wider than they had been for a long time. While she glanced at him, Harwalan, and four of her guards, walked into the Iresa. Harwalan's shoes made a loud click on the Iresa's floor, and Scorpius lifted his eyes.
He had not seen the expression on Harwalan's face in their other conversation, and somehow he suspected that his position made her hormones throb. She frowned, which he saw in her eyes rather than her tiny eyebrows. She seemed more intrigued than angry or nervous. Her bright red lips quirked a little. But she didn't seem strictly happy. Was she disappointed? Or contemptuous? He wasn't able to place the emotion.
Harwalan, taller than him anyway, said, "Scorpius. Perhaps you do not require my lesson."
Scorpius stood, shoulder height against the woman. "Perhaps."
Harwalan peered up and down his body. "Yet, Scorpius, you appear to ask for it."
Scorpius frowned. "I'm only interested if you are, Malahati."
"Not at the moment," Harwalan said. "I have research that I want you to run."
"And that might be?" Scorpius said.
Harwalan walked toward the Iresa's computer console, heels clicking on the floor. Scorpius brushed her left arm, which he had never felt. The white material of Harwalan's suit, blinding in a strong light, felt as rough as old leather. Scorpius wasn't sure how, but Harwalan seemingly removed all of the imperfections of the material. Harwalan knew Scorpius had touched her, and turned around.
Scorpius realised he had done something improper. The coolant rod thumped against the inside of his head. Rather than the usual anger, this time he felt exhaustion and a need to remove the rod. While he lifted a hand to his head, Harwalan walked toward him and punched him in the neck. That wasn't quite it, he thought, as he toppled on the floor. He was oblivious for a moment, and then pulled himself up on a knee.
"You knocked me off my feet," Scorpius said.
Harwalan stared at him, furious. On one finger, underneath his eyes, sat a small, sticky material. The material, which had fallen from the vat, appeared like a radioactive green blob. Barely an inch in size, it nonetheless looked glaring on Harwalan's glove.
"You touched me, and you stained me," Harwalan said.
Scorpius, within the ache, realised that she didn't know it had been from the vat. She might never have had a glimpse of the material. That presented him with an advantage, but at the moment he had anything but. "I won't do that again," Scorpius said. "I promise, Mistress Harwalan."
Harwalan brushed the material toward him. He looked to his chest and grinned.
"Don't say that, Scorpius. You know, like me, that you never hold to them. But I will tell you this. If you break that one you'll obtain the lesson," Harwalan said. "On your feet, Scorpius. I have other business than the research, and we have been too long in your little ship."
Scorpius stood up and leaned against the back of the pilot's chair. She exaggerated the final phrase, and he thought she did it to get his rage up. She did. "What do you have for me?"
Harwalan tapped several buttons on the console, concluded with a loud thump, and turned around and faced Scorpius. Her eyes looked straight at him, but he couldn't see inside the folds of skin around them. Harwalan crossed her arms, and for a moment her hands seemed to whirl around like liquid. Many of her guards were fish. Might she have similar traits in her lineage? That seemed too obvious.
"Pay attention," Harwalan said.
Scorpius smiled. "My attention is completely on you, Mistress."
"On me, or my words?" Harwalan said.
"Every part," Scorpius said.
Harwalan shook her head and made a quiet, almost innocent laugh. "You are second only to Crichton in the legends across the Uncharted Territories, Scorpius. Are you as legendary in the sexual conquests?"
"Crichton rarely asserts dominance," Scorpius said. "Woman assert dominance over him far more often, and it's amusing to see."
"The legends I know of say the reverse," Harwalan said. "That is fascinating." Her hands settled from squirming, and, underneath the unstained white suit, Harwalan's muscles tensed. Her appearance became colder and meaner. "You are distracting me, Scorpius. I have had enough of these games."
"What are my orders?" Scorpius said.
"You left the Peacekeepers, and you think as a soldier nonetheless," Harwalan whispered. "That might be useful in your project. Reports from my spies deep in Banikstan's fleet have warned me that several Luxans and a Nebari left a fifth of his primary base in complete disarray after they were rescued by a pair of unknown mercenaries. Your quest is to discover who these invaders are, and see if you might recruit them."
The coolant thumped its liquid into Scorpius's weary skull. "I'm only a new recruit. Why not send someone else?" He prowled his memory for her guards's names. "Why not Ceranne? Or Lerash?"
Harwalan grinned, and Scorpius felt her tighten her trap around him. She had a plan, and he only was aware of the barest edges. What did she want to do? What would he have to do to find out? "I need you to prove your worthiness. You are new, and you are known for your backstabbing habits."
Harwalan paused, and Scorpius looked desperately for a reply. Harwalan leaned, hands on knees, and smiled at him, face to face. "Bring them in, Scorpius, or you will find that I consider you a traitor."
"And the punishment for treason is always death," Scorpius said.
"Bring them in, Scorpius," Harwalan said.
Though he hardly imagined how he might accomplish such a thing, Scorpius agreed to her request. "Yes, I will, Malahati Harwalan."
Some steps to his back, Sikozu made a noise, like a giggle.
Harwalan frowned at Sikozu, and Scorpius heard silence. "The same for you."
For a moment, no one made a noise. Then Harwalan stood up, brushed her knees, and walked to the transport.
"You said you had several things," Scorpius said. "That was only a single one."
Harwalan smiled. "You have a vat in here, with my chemicals. Do not interfere with my business again. You have one more chance." Harwalan peered into the transport. "That's assuming that you prove that you are not a traitor, and I admit I do not know if you are able to do that. I might meet you again, Scorpius, or I might not." She walked into the transport and, a moment after that, disconnected from the Iresa.
Parts and paneling fell again, some of them on Scorpius. He sighed.
"Might I have your thoughts, Sikozu?"
"She owns you, and you are very frelled."
"There's always another way," Scorpius said.
Sikozu peered at the hole where the transport left. "If she knows?"
"If she knows," Scorpius said. "We're not turning ourselves in, so we have one option. We have to find Jothee, Chiana and the Luxans."
Scorpius grabbed the pilot's seat and lifted himself. He hadn't realised how much Harwalan wore him out. If he had ever used up rods as fast as he was now, he would be surprised. The green substance dripped to the floor, reminding him that Harwalan knew what he had been doing. He had to be more careful, or risk finally reaching the conclusion of his strength. Even Crichton hadn't been able to defeat him. Nor High Command.
Could Harwalan do it?