Patience or Fear

"Lets start getting your men their transfers until dinner arrives." She needed that list and needed to know how much he could glean from what she did on the computer. He watched over her shoulder for a bit, but she didn't do anything unusual. Then he got bored. Lucky break.

Not so lucky: he had several hundred men. They couldn't all come at once at least. She arranged for transport as well as transfer papers. And saved the list to her personal file. She couldn't manipulate the shuttle but she might be able to lock it in the port and evacuate the air. Then dinner came.

Zemma fed a few bites to Nor just to keep up pretenses. Nor seemed annoyed there wasn't more.

"So you must be a navigator as well, to be able to lead us to the edge of the Underverse?"

Oh dear, that question was much too casual and she didn't know a star map from a dinner plate. Except that star maps didn't usually come with sauce on the side. Be vague.

"I don't understand navigation, it's like a program in my head. Key it up and out it spills."

"But you know the key?"

"Oh yes."

He wanted to ask what the key was, it was on his lips. Zemma waved a fork at him.

"Nuh-uh. We aren't close enough yet. Just because I was created, not born, doesn't mean I don't want to live to see the Underverse." She smiled a Lady Vaako smile and felt dirty. "What do you have in mind for this Riddick? Public execution would be best but if you just throw his body down in front of the throne and take your place there, that would probably satisfy."

It was the first time she had done more than hint that he would be the next Lord Marshal. It was a dangerous ploy but a necessary one. If he was just a true believer he might decline the offer and be less susceptible to manipulation. Ultimate power corrupted more easily.

"Why did the Lord Marshal place all this information in the head of someone playing the role of mental idiot?"

She'd been waiting for that one. She looked dreamily into space as if the memory of the Lord Marshal alone was enough to transport her to the Underverse on wings of bliss.

"The Lord Marshal knew he might be called to the Underverse before his people were ready. But he didn't want them to lose the chance to be reunited with him in paradise." Her voice was singsong and theatrical. "This is only a test of our worthiness."

You don't think he's THAT susceptible?

We can only hope.

J'Pheth looked off into space as if seeing his Lord and Master in the great beyond.

Pitiable.

Stick a fork in his eye, quick!

Zemma clenched the fork more tightly. How fast was she? Could she afford to throw away this mask so quickly on a gamble?

You're afraid. He hurt you before and now you're afraid.

Patience. The masks give us a safety margin only as long as they are intact. He doesn't know it was me in his room that night. Patience.

You're afraid.

Yes.

"You think you can lure the pretender here after my men arrive?" His voice said he was committed. Zemma smiled in her head. It might not get that far.

"Yes," Zemma smiled Dame Vaako's smile again; it was easier this time. Dame Vaako might be her salvation. She still had the Lady's ring in her room. If she could get to it. If she could get close enough to J'Pheth to use it. If it did anything useful.

Sounds like a bigger gamble than a fork in the eye.

Patience. It's not the now.

Will you be able to act when it's now?

Zemma wasn't sure anymore.