'I've tried. For a thousand years I have tried.
'But as each end draws near, as ache claims my bones, my heart flutters with ague, my senses fade, every time I wake in that damned bath, youthful once more. I fight a losing battle with my own will. Perhaps, had I the courage, if I could take my own life in some captivating fashion, I might raise the power to stir the hearts and minds, to shake the foundation of Abrasax Industries, the Thousand Families, and heave it all down, crushed into dust beneath the feet of time. If I believed that would stop the harvesting, I would do it. But that is a fantasy. I have only the argument, not the answer.
'I pity my children, my house, that we are bound to this addiction. I bear the burdens of all Abrasax, that we have willfully driven humanity down this dreadful path.
'What I do next, I do purely for myself.
'Our battles of words have become increasingly violent. I know I will find the means to goad him into performing the act of which I, myself, have proved incapable.'
The door to her chambers dings, and Jupiter looks up from the sheave. Her face is clearly troubled, so deeply she cannot explain exactly what troubles her.
"Come in," she says low and full of sorrow. Her eyes expectantly look for Caine's reassuring ones.
"Your Majesty," replies a gravel filled voice, and the sargorn steps into the chamber, filling it to bursting.
"Oh, hello." Jupiter swings her feet off the bed, standing so she doesn't feel so completely dominated by the sargon's size.
"I have news. I have located Mr. Apini's captors. He is on an ice planet, at Andromeda's edge."
"Yes, I know."
"But," The sargorn lifts its head, apparently quite put out. It was so proud to have accomplished its mission.
"Kiza received a coded FTL a few hours ago. Whoever it is tried to blackmail her. We're still not sure exactly what they wanted. But she couldn't bring herself to be their spy." The sargorn's wings flickers.
"You tracked the signal?"
"No, it bounced off too many relays. But whoever it is made a mistake. They showed Stinger. Being...tortured." Jupiter gulps back a rising bile at that image. The first time it had been played, she had left the room. Kiza's stricken face had shamed her into watching. "Even then, Stinger managed to relay their location to Caine. Some hidden code the skyjackers use. Even the Aegis don't know what all the signals mean."
"Then I have failed, Your Majesty. My fate is in your hands," and the sargorn falls to one knee, rattling the floor as she does. Jupiter steps backward, startled. Jupiter sags a little more under another weight placed upon her thin shoulders.
"Do you, do you have a name?" Jupiter asks softly.
"Aknet, Your Majesty." She raises her scaly reptilian head, studying Jupiter, as if she suddenly comes to a decision.
"Well, Ok, Aknet. I have one question. Well, two, but the second one depends on the first."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Jupiter takes a steadying breath.
"Aknet, are you a spy?" Aknet's scaly lips twist.
"Yes, and no." Jupiter crosses her arms.
"Not an answer. Why are you here?" She cannot force any anger into her voice. Seraphi's last words haunt her. So much has been placed on her. She feels the weight of Earth, of her family like a smothering blanket. She fears she carries the fate of Stinger in her inexperienced hands. Only Caine seemed certain they could recover his oldest friend and mentor. She had to try, with every weapon she could muster.
"When the lycantant pack came recruiting, I joined intending to discover their plans."
"And then you joined me because?"
"To watch. To see if you were a worthy lord." Jupiter scowls
"I'm nothing like Belam." Bitterness taints her voice. Her family imprisoned in that horrible death chamber. Balem's final accusation. His cries as he fell. These are seared into too many of her dreams.
"Exactly. With Belam lost, we servitants assigned to project Earth became lost. Those who escaped. Some sought other work, but most have nowhere else to go." Like the keepers? Jupiter wondered. Who, or what, else had been left behind?
"And your part in all this?"
"To report back to those who wait at the edge of this sector, and decide if we should pledge our loyalty to you."
"Decide? I never asked for anyone's pledge."
"Exactly, Your Majesty." Jupiter soaks this in.
"Sargorn, um, Aknet, you have become familiar with this planet where Stinger is held captive?"
"Yes, My Lady." Jupiter pauses before posing her last question.
"Would you like to go hunting?"