Chapter 11: Possibilities

Faust strode into the throne room, the marionettes at his side, and everyone there stood and saluted. He nodded to them as he walked by, then turned and sat on the throne. He glanced around the room, from one of his advisors to the next. They looked worried. He could imagine how it must look to them, him returning from Japoness and storming in as though he was about to order a war.

If he'd been in a joking mood, he might have done that, just to see what they'd do.

The trip back from Japoness hadn't been pleasant, to say the least. Oh, the submarine ride had been much the same, cramped and uncomfortable and lonely at night, but Faust had had too much on his mind to notice. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't forget Ieyasu's words, couldn't tear his mind away from what they meant.

"Would you sacrifice all of Terra II just to keep your marionettes?"

The immediate answer was yes, and Faust had spent a great deal of the trip back to Gartlant trying to convince himself that he was wrong. He was still trying.

"Hauser," Faust said, turning to the elder advisor. "Status report." He paused as Hauser fumbled. Some things, it seemed, never changed. "On everything."

Faust took a deep breath as the advisors looked back and forth at each other, arranging their papers and waiting their turn to speak. He tried to relax, and reminded himself that none of this was their fault. The blame lay on the old man, on the six who'd crashed on this planet in the first place, on the Mesopotamia and the woman it was holding prisoner.

He put a hand to his forehead and sighed, then raised his head and nodded for Hauser to begin.

"There've been some problems with crime in the southwest district of the city, Fuhrer," Hauser said. "Raids on the food depots mostly, but there have been a few hit-and-run attacks on police headquarters. The police force is working on it, and at last report, they have some security footage that could lead to arrests."

Faust nodded, frowning. Two years ago, his people wouldn't have had the will to ask for more than their daily food rations, and now they were trying to steal it? Something was definitely wrong there. The police could handle the thefts, but perhaps some social work would be necessary. He made a mental note to bring it up later, and motioned for his advisors to continue.

"Production on the G-Models continues as planned, and the third factory set a new manufacturing record the day before you left," Murphy said, stepping forward with a smile on his face. "And I'm sure it'll come as no surprise to you that we got our first orders from Japoness yesterday."

Faust chuckled. "Good." Finally, something was going right. "Were they asking for any model in particular?"

Murphy flipped through his papers. "Looks like the 'Tender Caregiver' was the biggest one, followed by 'Athletic.' 'Youthful Cheer' was third."

From Faust's left, Panther gave a low chuckle. "Looks like Obiichi's not the only Japoness man who wants someone else to train with, Faust-sama," she said.

"Not that he'll need a G-Model now," Faust said. He paused, and looked at Murphy again. Something in his mind clicked, something that Ieyasu had said the first time they had talked. The faintest hint of a possibility began to grow in Faust's thoughts.

He hardly heard the rest of the status reports; most were just to keep him up-to-date on current happenings around Gartlant - news of construction, employment, education, and so forth. Since the country hadn't burnt to the ground in the five days he'd been gone, most of the reports were fairly ordinary. When the advisors finished, Faust dismissed them, but called Murphy forward to speak with him.

Murphy looked surprised, but approached the throne without hesitating. "Yes, fuhrer?"

"Tell me," Faust said, looking the other man in the eye. "Do you know if New Texas has done anything with the Maiden Circuits?"

"Faust-sama?" Tiger asked, but he motioned for her to wait.

Murphy paused for a moment, frowning. "I don't think so," he said. "I'd never heard of them before President Joy sent me here, I know he never mentioned them. Is there a problem, fuhrer?"

"There could be," Faust said. "Get in touch with President Joy, ask him about them. Report back to me exactly what he says. If you think it's necessary, I'll send Luchs with you, so she can record it." From the corner of his eye, he saw Luchs smirk, but she didn't say anything. "You were on Joy's council before he sent you here, weren't you?"

"Y - yes, fuhrer," Murphy said, starting to look nervous.

"Then you'd know if he was lying?"

The advisor took a step back at that, and looked like he was trying to say three or four different things at once. "I only served with him for a few months before he sent me here. I've hardly talked to him since, and I don't know if he'd--"

"Then find out," Faust interrupted. "Give me your report when you're done." He nodded, and Murphy hurried away. Faust settled back in the throne, and put a hand to his chin. It was only a chance, but it was one he had to take. Aside from shooting down the Mesopotamia, every possibility was a good one.

"Faust-sama?" Tiger asked again. "What was all that about?"

"Is sleeping without us that bad, Faust-sama?" Luchs asked. She sounded like she was teasing, but her words hit hard.

Faust took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. He owed it to them - he owed them everything - and he couldn't go through with this without telling them what might happen. He stood up, turned, and opened his arms to the three marionettes.

There, holding them all, Faust allowed himself to relax, just a little. "There's something I have to tell you," he said quietly.

They took it better than he'd thought.

Granted, Panther was storming around his bedroom looking like she wanted to break everything there, Luchs hadn't said a word since he finished, and Tiger was clinging to him like one of them would die if she let go. Faust pushed that thought away as soon as it showed up; it was too close to the truth.

"I can't believe this!" Panther seethed. "Almost three hundred years, everything that's happened ever since the first Faust . . . all so we can go up into space and be some ship's lover? No!" She drove her fist into the wall, sending cracks through the stone. "Faust-sama, I won't accept this!"

"Neither will I," Faust said, though he couldn't put the force into it he wanted to. Telling the story had drained him more than he wanted to admit. It was one thing to hear it from Ieyasu, but having to tell them, when they were the ones who were supposed to make it come true?

He'd just told them all of their own deaths. There wasn't any other way to put it.

Luchs's eyes glowed bright behind her bangs, then dimmed, and she turned to Faust. "It's true, Faust-sama," she said, sounding like she was holding back tears. "I've checked the historical archives, and hacked into Hess's databases, in case he was hiding something. Ieyasu told you the truth."

"I almost wish he'd been lying," Faust said. With his free arm - Tiger was still holding onto the other - he motioned for Panther to come back to him and the others. They were sitting on the edge of the bed, and Panther squeezed in between him and Luchs, prompting the blue-haired marionette to move behind him and lean over his shoulder.

"Thank you, Faust-sama," Tiger whispered.

Faust looked down at her and his heart nearly stopped. She was crying. Tears streamed from her red-brown eyes, wetting his sleeve and . . . and. . . .

It was all Faust could do to keep from cursing himself. He'd made it worse. Just as Ieyasu had said, the more the marionettes grew, the more human they'd become. None of them had ever cried before. And none of them would have, at least not yet, if he hadn't told them what was coming. But he had, and so they were growing, because he treated them as people and not marionettes. Because he'd done what he thought was right, because they deserved to know, even if the telling had almost torn him apart.

He'd thought he owed them the truth. But he'd never thought of what it would lead to.

"Tiger," he whispered, and pulled her close as well as he could. Luchs and Panther leaned in as well, and Faust closed his eyes. It shouldn't have to change, he thought. He should be able to stay with them, forever; he'd more than earned it and could hardly imagine life any other way.

"Are you sure we have to do this, Faust-sama?" Luchs asked, quiet and subdued. "Hess knows the Maiden Circuits well enough after everything he did for the chips. He might be able to come up with something else. I could help him."

"That's what I was thinking," Faust said. "Ieyasu told me not to, but. . . ." He shook his head. "Ieyasu doesn't understand. It's easy for him to talk about losing you three, he doesn't have you."

"Good thing, too," Panther said. "I would have torn off that stupid mustache of his years ago."

Somehow, Faust managed a smile. If she was still threatening violence, Panther would be all right. It was much the same for Luchs; if she was offering to work with Hess then she must have something in mind. And Tiger. . . . She would be all right. She had to be. She'd seen him through everything since his first day. She wouldn't fail him now.

When the time came to sleep, the marionettes didn't draw to see who would stand guard. They all stayed, and piled together in Faust's bed, much as they had in Japoness. He didn't object, but thanked them all for staying with him. He was beyond caring about what it might look like to others, or what they might think.

His time with them would be short enough, no matter what, and beyond that lay many, many lonely nights. And perhaps that was why he couldn't get to sleep.

Faust lay there, awake, staring up into the darkness and trying to figure out what he could do. If Murphy could get information from New Texas on what they'd done with the Maiden Circuit, then he might be able to have Hess replicate them, maybe find a way to make them grow artificially so they could fool the Mesopotamia. Sure, the previous Fausts hadn't thought such a thing would be possible, or else they probably would have tried it. Why wouldn't they have, if they'd all been in love with Lorelei?

Lorelei. Faust sighed. She was supposed to be the key to all this, the reason that the Maiden Circuits had been made in the first place. The old man had loved her, if he'd loved anyone. If he'd had the others' memories, Faust knew, then he'd be just as desperate to bring her back. And then he wouldn't have seen the marionettes as anything but tools, and thus not treated them well, making it so they wouldn't grow enough to bring back Lorelei. The irony was almost enough to make Faust laugh, but then he realized that it was, in fact, all his own fault. If he hadn't told Tiger to break Hess's memory machine, she and the others wouldn't have grown as much as they had.

So, in making it so he didn't have the overwhelming need to rescue Lorelei, he'd made it possible. Faust covered his eyes and groaned. Somewhere, someone had to be laughing at him. Probably the old man.

At least, Faust thought, he'd made Gartlant better for all its people, made it so they were glad to have him as a ruler. To have the people of Gartlant cheering his name, to know that he'd made a great difference in their lives simply by ruling as he saw fit . . . was it worth giving that up, sacrificing all that he'd done, to keep the marionettes?

Faust raised his head, and looked at Tiger, Luchs, and Panther in the dim light, then closed his eyes and lay back down. He hoped no one ever asked him that question, as the answer was more clear than he wanted to admit.

When Faust rose the next morning after a dreamless sleep, he found Hess waiting for him outside his door.

"Fuhrer," Hess said, greeting him with a nod. "There's something I need to show you."

Faust frowned. That wasn't normal. "Let me wake them up," he said, knowing he didn't need to say who. "Give me--"

"My apologies, fuhrer," Hess said, leaning forward, "but it would be best if you came alone." Hess gave him a significant look. Faust wondered for a moment how that was possible with the strange glasses Hess wore, but let it pass.

Faust followed Hess through the palace's dark hallways. It was early enough that few people were awake, and they met no one as they headed toward the elevator. They descended to Hess's basement lab, neither saying a word. Faust had a feeling that whatever Hess suddenly had to show him, it wasn't good. While the bald man rarely showed much emotion, he never hid his subtle joy at working on a new project, and there was none of that now.

When they reached the lab, Hess exited the elevator and motioned for Faust to follow. "I discovered this when you were in Japoness," he said. "I was working on the next generation of the Maiden Chip design when I found a series of commands built into the systems here that I hadn't seen before."

"I see," Faust said, following Hess into the back part of the lab. They reached the room with the marionette pods and the computer where Faust had first learned of the Maiden Circuits. "What is it?"

"An answer to one of your questions, fuhrer," Hess said. He sat down at the computer, and began moving through some of the familiar instruction screens.

A moment later, Faust watched Hess enter a series of screens he hadn't seen before. At first, they looked like the ones used to design the Maiden Chips, but there was something different. . . . Those weren't the smaller, simpler designs of the chips. Three marionettes were silhouetted on the screen, and Faust knew those shapes.

Internal readings for Tiger, Luchs, and Panther were displayed before him, and Faust lowered his head when he realized what they meant. On each of them, the Maiden Circuits were displayed in color . . . mostly in color, with a percentage next to them. Tiger's was highest at 82, with Luchs at 75 and Panther at 70. It was worse than he'd thought, and Faust realized that his time with them all had just grown shorter.

"There was a significant increase last night," Hess said, sounding indifferent. Faust guessed the other man didn't know what it truly meant. "I remember that you were concerned about making the Maiden Circuits grow. It seems that you've been doing that without realizing it."

Faust held back a curse, reminding himself that it wasn't Hess's fault. He had the sudden urge for a glass of wine, but pushed it down, and was about to say something when Hess made a surprised noise.

"Interesting," Hess said, and Faust leaned over his shoulder, looking at the screen. Hess tapped a section below the three marionettes, a series of colored bars moving up and down. "They're all starting some kind of reaction. I haven't seen that pulse pattern before."

Worry, Faust realized. They were worried because they'd awakened and he wasn't there. "Keep me posted on this, Hess," Faust said, heading out of the room. "And keep up your work with the second generation of Maiden Chips. Devote as much as you can to that."

"Yes, fuhrer," Hess said. Faust didn't need to turn around to know that the other man was smiling.

Faust made his way back to his chambers. To his complete lack of surprise, the marionettes met him halfway, standing together in one of the hallways and looking very upset with him. Faust gave them a half-smile as he walked toward them.

"I'm sorry about that," he said, before any of them got a chance to speak. "Hess had something important to show me."

"You can't say you want us around all the time and then leave us like that," Panther said, looking like she wanted to spit.

Luchs nodded. "It's not very nice to let us wake up alone, Faust-sama," she said.

Faust chuckled. "You weren't alone, you were all there."

The three of them looked back and forth at each other, then back at him. "That's even less nice," Luchs said.

"Besides, what if something happened to you?" Tiger asked, stepping forward.

Faust opened his arms, and drew the three of them in for a hug. Some part of his mind told him that he'd better enjoy this while he could, as it wouldn't last much longer. He fought back that part, though he couldn't help wondering if it was denial or determination that drove him.

"Nothing's going to happen to me," Faust said. He hoped it was true, but what might happen to him wasn't his concern. It was what would happen to them.

Later that day, Faust was in a meeting with an ambassador from Xian, discussing the construction of a G-Model marionette factory in that country, when he received word that Murphy was requesting to speak with him. Faust almost stopped the meeting right there, but knew he couldn't. As important as Murphy's news might be, the betterment of Gartlant still had to be his first priority.

Faust was, however, very glad that Xian's ways of doing business were short and to the point, instead of Japoness's style of endless banter before anyone even said they were there to make a deal. As much as he'd come to like that country in his short visit, there were a few things he knew would get irritating if he had to deal with them every day.

The meeting ended well. Xian was the largest importer of G-Model marionettes, so the country's leader was very eager to have the technology available for his peoples' use and creation. Faust wondered how they would adapt the Maiden Chip, or even if they would, and was still thinking about it when he left the meeting room.

"Luchs," Faust said, "once the marionette factory in Xian is complete, see to it that I'm updated on what they do with the Maiden Chip, if they alter it in any way for their people, things like that."

"Yes, Faust-sama," Luchs said, her eyes glowing blue for a moment.

"Why's that, Faust-sama?" Tiger asked. "Do you think they might try something with the marionettes?"

"He just wants to be sure they don't try to replicate us too accurately," Panther said, grinning and clinging to Faust's arm. "He doesn't want anyone else to have us."

Faust managed a chuckle, but Panther's words cut deeper than he'd thought. That, of course, was the heart of the situation. And that was why Murphy's news could be so important. Assuming it was good news.

From the look on Murphy's face when Faust joined him in his chambers, things hadn't gone well.

"Fuhrer," Murphy said, giving a fairly casual salute in greeting. "I've spoken with President Joy. He's . . . being stubborn."

A memory flickered through Faust's mind, and he understood. President Joy being stubborn was nothing new. "How so?" Faust asked, frowning. "Has he done any work with the Maiden Circuits or not?"

Murphy looked uneasy. "President Joy says he hasn't," he said. "But I've worked with him for long enough, I know the look he was wearing." He smiled at the questioning look Faust gave him. "I was a pretty lowly advisor before he sent me over here, sure. But the man doesn't hide his thoughts very well. I don't think he thought I'd ever amount to anything, so he probably figured he didn't have to hide anything from me."

Faust put his hand to his chin. "I see. You think he's lying?"

"I don't know, but I'd bet he's hiding something," Murphy said. "I've still got a few contacts in New Texas's government, so I might be able to get a hold of someone who knows something and is willing to talk." He paused, and grinned. "I might need bribe money."

Faust nodded. It'd be worth it.

"Is that why you left New Texas, Murphy?" Tiger asked. "You sound like you didn't like working for the President very much."

"Something like that," Murphy said, leaning back against his desk. "Joy's got a big ego, thinks a little too much of his country, mostly because he runs it. I wasn't part of his usual family of advisors, I'd worked my way up through some other connections. I was always kind of a fifth wheel around there, so when it came up that you were asking for advisors from other countries, fuhrer, I figured it was as good a chance as any."

"And what if Faust-sama hadn't liked you?" Panther asked, smirking. "You talk a lot for just an advisor."

"You don't get into politics without learning how to sneak around and cover your tracks," Murphy said, smirking right back at her. "I learned how to talk my way through more than a few things." He then turned serious. "Besides, fuhrer, you've been good to me here. I'll do whatever I can to help."

"Thank you," Faust said, then turned to leave. Once he and the marionettes were in the hallway, he turned to Luchs. "Was he telling the truth about all that?"

"Yes, Faust-sama," Luchs said. "I think you can trust him with this. Even with bribe money."

"Good to know." Faust nodded to himself. Things were falling into place. Time and money would solve everything - not the way he usually liked to work, true; there wasn't much he could do in this situation except direct people and hope they got the results he wanted. But at the rate things were going so far, he was daring to hope.