Chapter 11: Can't Live With Them
In orbit around the planet of Mars, you'd of course find it's two well-known moons, Phobos and Deimos. Both of them were popular tourist spots as Mars preferred to keep the actual planet surface relatively private. And, naturally, there were thousands of manmade satellites, forever circling the red planet, accomplishing goals from overhead surveillance to relaying communication beams to capturing video feeds to send back to the surface.
But there was one particular satellite that was seemingly not accomplishing anything. It simply orbited around and around the planet, not sending or receiving anything of value to anyone. Round with a couple of short antennas at the top, it was smaller than a Class C spaceship. A half-dozen docking ports were around the middle of the sphere, one of them currently extended out and attached to a Class A ship. Currently, a second Class A was approaching the satellite, preparing to dock.
The Genetrix, it was called, among the people who even knew it existed, which was less than ten total people. The newly crowned Queen Mars, immediately on taking that position, had secretly had it placed there. It was small and insignificant enough to be regarded by most as a defunct communication relay, but was far from it. It was actually a favor by the Queen to one of her dearest friends, Princess Venus. Just a place that nobody knew about, where Venus could come and be far, far away from her troubled life among her parents. A place to hide, immerse herself in her thoughts, and not be tracked by others. So long as she was careful on her approach and departure, it would be kept secret from the rest of the galaxy.
The docking port on the other side of the satellite where the first ship was parked extended out, allowing the small little vehicle to ease into contact with it. At the controls of this small ship, a gorgeous blonde woman dragged her right hand across a panel of switches, deactivating the engines and turning the ship off.
She turned around, standing up from the seat and shaking her head about. Her hair fell just barely past her shoulders, cascading down in golden little waves around her head. The exit door to the ship slid open, revealing a small hallway down to another steel door. She quickly marched down into this hall, shoes clanking on the grated floor.
The young woman wore a yellow, orange, and white leotard, with trimmings at the shoulders and hips that each hid a small golden blade, ready to be whipped out at a moment's notice. A poster child for representing the population of Venus, it was no wonder she had managed to earn her way into her current position.
With a couple of little button presses on a panel right by the second door, she stood there and waited. Beats ticked by, and then, the door slid upward.
Right on the other side, Princess Venus stood, hand on a panel to the left of the door. Immediately, the young woman dropped to one knee before her Princess.
"Inanna, rise," Venus instructed, turning away and going into the center of the moderately-sized chamber, a dark room with assorted chairs and beds lined up.
"Your Highness," Inanna intoned, watching the Princess take a seat in one of the chairs, picking up a whetstone and a small dagger. She began rapidly running the sharp edges along the stone, a little scraping noise sounding off with each run of the blade. "Are you well?"
Venus rolled her eyes. "Define well."
Inanna gave a somber little nod, acknowledging her Princess's slightly sour mood.
"I'm sure of it, that bitch is going to find a way to live to be five hundred just to spite me," she muttered. "Just to make sure I never take the throne, she'll force herself to stay alive forever."
"I have good news, Your Highness," Inanna said, going up in front of Venus and putting her hands behind her back, standing up straight.
"Inanna, at ease," Venus insisted. "Go ahead."
"Five thousand, now," Inanna informed her, even as she took up a slightly more normalized posture. "Five thousand. And growing by the day. Your parents are not popular on Venus, that becomes more evident with each passing day. More and more civilians are willing to take drastic measures if it means the possibility of seeing the end of their reign. You, my Princess, now command over five thousand sleeper agents, embedded among the populace of Venus, ready to fight for you when the time comes."
Venus set the whetstone down on the table, slouching over a bit in the chair. "Five thousand. Five thousand on a planet of five billion, it...we're not even close."
"Your parents have no idea they exist, my Princess," Inanna insisted. "At your command, these sleeper agents can...collect information, carry out assassinations, disrupt infrastructure, cause mass rioting, steal equipment and materials, you name it. These agents will stop at nothing to see you take the throne, you need only give them the orders. Having that element of surprise will make those five thousand be more useful than five million armed soldiers marching on Magellan Castle."
"I get one chance at this, Inanna," Venus said under her breath. "That's it. I harbor no illusions of my parents showing me so much as a hint of mercy if this fails. Best case scenario, I'm spending the rest of my life hiding out on the outer planets. If I get caught, it's life in the dungeons or death."
"Your Highness, if we were to...start a series of riots, perhaps. Maybe take out some businesses, just unhinge things a bit. You might be surprised at how many people jump to our side once a coup starts."
"I'm not looking to start a civil war!" Venus said sternly, stabbing the tip of the sharp dagger down into the table next to her, leaving it standing there. "You think I want a decade-long conflict that results in the death of half our population and the wasting of all of our resources?" She scoffed. "We're already knee deep in debt. If a civil war gets sparked, when the dust clears we'll just end up selling our ass to Earth or Mercury. Look at what's happening on Saturn, not just the destruction and death, but...once it's over, whoever holds the throne will just end up getting on their knees for Uranus or Neptune."
"If we were...smart about the way in which we went about things, there might not be a war," Inanna suggested. "Strike from the shadows, be patient with opportunities and windows, just chip away at the foundation of their rule."
"Too much risk right now. Remember, it has to be clean, quick," the Princess insisted. "If the planet is in ruins when I take the throne, then what have I really accomplished?" She blinked a few times. "And it can't end with my parents dead."
Inanna grimaced, her stance stiffening up a bit. "It's...it's hard to have both."
"I don't recall saying it'd be easy," Venus said, pulling the dagger back out of the wooden stable and flipping it around in her fingers. "But that's the way it has to be. It has to be clean, and it has to end with my parents being convinced to retire to a nice estate on Mercury. I will not have them killed. So we need more, to ensure success." She looked over to her left, out one of the windows that looked out into space. "And we need funds."
"That...has proven to be somewhat more difficult, Your Majesty," Inanna admitted. "I've discussed this with the other Angels, we've been trying to find some way where we can funnel creds into our effort, but...there's not much we can do on Venus. The grip of the government is so tight. Anything we did of significance would be detected."
"We have to look beyond Venus," the Princess stated. "We need money, I'm sure of that. Coups are expensive, particularly one that has to be as well-executed as this one."
"Perhaps...Queen Mars could help?" Inanna brought up. "Mars does have a large surplus, all of that gold they keep, and...they seem uninterested in the material." She nodded. "It's worth asking, perhaps."
Princess Venus quickly shook her head. "No, no, I dare not drag her into this any more than I already have. She's already put herself out there for me by letting me hole up here, if I actually asked her to help fund overthrowing my parents...it's too much. This is my problem."
"If I may, Princess Venus, there is money to be made on Saturn right now," Inanna brought up, feeling her muscles clench up a bit even as the words left her mouth. "Both sides need—"
"No war profiteering," Venus said simply, waving Inanna off. "I need to be able to sleep at night after I've taken the crown."
Inanna nodded quickly, recognizing that it would be unwise to press her on this particular idea.
"I may have something," Venus said after a moment. "There was an announcement on Earth just earlier, you probably haven't had a chance to see it yet." She stood up, turning around and going to the other side of the room. "There's a new player in black market Imperium. They've got an alias and a general outfit description of whoever it is. The guy doesn't seem like he's all there, but the product he's putting in play is unlike anything we've ever seen before." She went over to another table, picking up a thin tablet, projecting an image of a text paragraph and a simple picture of a man from the chest up.
"You...you want to get involved in Imperium smuggling?" Inanna asked slowly.
"Whoever this is, his operation seems to be pretty small. Localized only to Earth, seems like a few cities, at least based off the report that got released. Not really befitting how good his product is." She tapped a couple buttons on the screen, causing a small hologram of a man's face and shoulders to pop up off the screen. Though the details were sparse, the top hat on his head and a mask over his eyes were distinctive. "I saw him, awhile back."
Inanna's eyes widened a bit at this proclamation. "You...you've seen him? How?"
"Not that long ago, I was hanging out on Earth. I just had to get out of that castle, I couldn't stand being around my parents one more beat, so...I just went somewhere. Somewhere I wouldn't be recognized, somewhere that might give me some kind of lead, and...there he was. Dressed like a clown, carrying a big sack...I didn't know what to make of it at the time. But now, the pieces fall into place." She blinked down at the hologram of the rough sketch of a costumed man. "He might just be the key."
"
The Holy Gobekli Temple was as perfect and majestic as you would expect such an important location to be. The main room of the structure was massive, a ceiling so high above it was dizzying to look at. If you could chance a look at it, however, you'd see an impressive mural, depicting the Goddess Terra sculpting the planet Earth amid a backdrop of countless specks of stars. A dozen pure white pillars trailed down to the floor, all of them marble, planting firmly into the brown tile ground. Multi-colored glass windows went nearly from this floor all the way up to the ceiling on many of the walls on either side, spaces between occupied by assorted old paintings. Rows and rows of cushioned, polished wood benches lined most of the area. An altar stood at the back of the room, ready to host the meat of the wedding in a handful of days.
Both Serenities were looking over the majestic chamber, currently empty and plain, no evidence that it was soon going to play host to the most impactful wedding in the history of the planet. Nevertheless, both Queen and Princess acknowledged and recognized how impressive the chamber was. Nowhere were you closer to the Gods than you were here, unless you ventured to Mars.
"It saddened me when I realized that you wouldn't be wedded on the Moon," Queen Serenity said, slowly walking down the alley between benches down the middle of the room. "Felt like the end of an era. Really hammered home the situation that we're in, but...I have to say, getting married here, there's nothing shameful about being wedded in a place like this."
The Princess nodded, clasping her hands in front of her as she strolled alongside her mother. "It's beautiful."
"The merger," the Queen suddenly said, turning to her daughter and stopping. "I had a chance to review it, it's quite generous. I must admit, I wasn't expecting some of the agreements they made." She leaned up close to her daughter's ear. "Mercury did not disappoint."
"So you won't be required to fall to your knees and kiss the hem of King Kasios's robes every time you see him?" The Princess asked sardonically, with a crooked grin on her face.
"Just once a day," Queen Serenity answered. "And obviously, no eye contact." She gave a little laugh. "No, really, Kasios...he's a good man. A little more informal than I expected, but that can also be refreshing, in a way. I was worried when I realized that I'd have to work this out with him, he just seems like such a...a strong personality. But he's reasonable. Kind, even."
"Oh, please, please don't tell me you're actually…" the Princess reached up to cover her face with her hands. "Mother, please, it would be way too weird if—"
"Oh, mind your own business," the Queen said jokingly, crossing her arms over her chest. "No, really, I wouldn't concern yourself with it, we're...I don't think that's going to happen." She gave a small smile. "I'm just happy Endymion is...softer and cleaner. Much more your type." She grimaced. "You've saved the Moon by doing this, sweetie. You really have. I'm just glad that you're getting to marry a man who suits you so well in the process."
Princess Serenity nodded, pushing a lock of blonde hair out of her face.
"How are things, uh...with him?" She glanced about the giant room. "Where is he? Why wouldn't he be here?"
The Princess's face fell a tiny bit. "Oh, he...he'll be along later, he said. Tonight, maybe tomorrow, he...he had some things he needed to take care of." She blinked rapidly three times. "That's all he told me, it's...it's odd. He was never gone this much for vague reasons before."
The Queen gave a look of surprise. "Vague reasons?"
"He won't tell me why he has to go, won't tell me where, just...he says it's political stuff, royal responsibilities, that's all I can get out of him. Lately, more and more. I just didn't think that he'd have so many duties now, he's not even twenty." She shrugged. "I don't want to annoy him, I just thought we'd be spending more time together."
"Oh, honey, I...Endymion is highly intelligent. Brilliant, even, he's going to have plenty of responsibilities as the Prince. The King would be a fool not to have him involved in politics, and it'd be short-sighted to not make sure he's prepared for taking the throne one day."
"I know, I know, I...know that he could end up taking the throne at any time, and he has to be ready, he told me that, I understand," the Princess acknowledged. "But, there's just…" she grinded her teeth for a moment. "For the first time, I just feel like there's a part of his life that I'm being cut off from. I don't like it."
The Queen stood there in silence for a few beats, thinking as her daughter glanced about in mild discomfort.
"Well, sweetie...try to press your way in," the Queen suggested.
"How do you mean that?" she asked.
"Well, I think...if I had to guess, Endymion is maybe making some assumptions about what would and would not interest you." The elder Serenity shifted her weight back and forth a bit. "He likely thinks that...the things he's doing would just bore you. No offense, darling, but you've never shown much of a taste for political theater. Just, really try to convince him that you care and you want to know about what he's doing. I'm sure he'll open up once he realizes you're interested."
The Moon Princess thought for a moment. "Of course I'm interested, I...our Kingdoms are about to become one. What concerns him concerns me, now and forever." She clapped her hands together in front of her. "You're right, I'll just...I'll show him that I care about what he's doing!"
"That's a great idea, honey," the Queen encouraged. "And I'm happy that you're showing so much interest. Just...show him that same level of interest, and eventually he'll realize he doesn't have to protect you from it."
"
Out past the asteroid belt, the modestly-sized ship aimlessly floated through space, engines shut down. A sickly green smoke slowly plumed out of the filtration system on the roof of the ship, being released into the absolute cold, quickly dispersing. Other than that, The Qesem showed no signs of life, looking abandoned and uninteresting. You never would have guessed that, within the holds of the cruiser, groundbreaking scientific discoveries that could change the fate of the galaxy were occuring.
Stepping away from the counter, a large rectangular box flashing assorted colored lights along the front atop it, Kunzite pulled the respiratory mask up his face. He watched the rubber tube that trailed from the top of the box up to the ceiling gently twitch around, then nodded.
"Alright." Kunzite glanced over at Endymion, who similarly stepped back and removed his respirator. "Now, we just wait."
"Man, that reaction is strong," Endymion muttered. "In the flask, wow, the expansion. That's something else."
"I'm just relieved that everything behaved as expected," Kunzite said. "Having you here, on this ship, while doing all this, I...we're really leaving so many things to chance. If Zoisite forgot a single step or sentence, misspelled a single word, any discrepancy, and for all we know we could have been creating a bomb." Kunzite rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "And we certainly have enough Imperium here to vaporize a small moon if it's energy output was made into an explosive."
"Rest easy, Kunzite, knowing that I gave you no choice in the matter," Endymion said simply, glancing around the room, then going over to one of the empty counterspaces, judging it.
"Your Highness, I...we need to have another conversation about logistics," Kunzite started as Endymion occupied himself with measuring out the length of the spare counter. "If parabolic correlations holds and if the refined product is as pure as I expect based off the information I have, we'll get a million creds per libra. Even if we got Mimete to bite on, say, ten libras every six days, which is no guarantee, we are clearing six hundred million a year. We are still not anywhere close to seeing enough return on investment to make breaking so many laws worth our time."
"Well, it's a process, we'll work our way up." Endymion spun around and carefully examined the layout of the room.
"Yes, but how?" Kunzite pressed. "There are several bottlenecks and blockages in front of us making this effort worth our time, we should consider how we're going to address them."
"Okay, so, this set of equipment is all we need for this process, right?" Endymion asked, pointing over at the tube furnace and the assortment of beakers, piping, and bowls on the counter, as well as the U.V. Ray Oven.
"Assuming that it worked, yes," Kunzite answered.
"Well, I'm thinking…" Endymion walked out towards the middle of the room, looking around. "...we could have eight of these in here. Eight of those setups. Eight batches, all going at once. There's plenty of downtime during the synthesization, we just have to...stagger it. You and me, we could manage eight setups at the same time, we just have to be precise and careful."
Kunzite looked about. "Possible. That would solve the...production bottleneck, maybe, but we still have distribution, and we still have the fact that the cave is going to be discovered eventually, and the boron fluid supply. So, for starters, distribution, are we really going to pursue...business relationships with more Imperium Kingpins?" He blinked. "Not exactly a profession that attracts the sane and reliable, look what we went through just to come to an understanding with one of them."
Endymion held silent for a moment, going over to the round barrel in the corner of the room, peeling up the tin lid and peering down into the brown liquid within. "Kingpin...is Kingpin really an appropriate term, when the character in question is a female?"
Kunzite gave his charge a confused look, stepping over a bit to set his respiratory mask on an empty counter space.
"What's with that? Kingpin even though it's a woman...while we're at it, Kingdom even if there's only a Queen, why is that?" He sealed the barrel back up. "I guess...Queenpin and Queendom sound pretty dumb."
Kunzite set his right hand on the counter surface, leaning up against it a bit, staring.
"I imagine most words sounded dumb at first, though," Endymion mused quietly, suddenly snapping his gaze back over to Kunzite. "Uh, I'm not concerned about having to work with Imperium dealers, the whole planet knows about our product now. They'll toe the line for a chance to sell it. There are tens of thousands of cities and towns on this planet, we've only gotten it out onto the streets in a few. Not even scratching the surface. Distribution's easy."
"Okay then, in a perfect world, perhaps we'll be making...several billion creds a year, so maybe we'll have something worth the time, effort, and risk. Debatably, at least. Meanwhile, like I said, that cave will be exposed at some point. Could be tomorrow."
"Could be twenty years," Endymion shot back, glancing over at the furnace and watching the indicator lights on the front flash and blink. "Besides, we're about to essentially take control of the Moon Kingdom. How hard can it be to arrange for that section to be ignored?"
"Once the agency puts two and two together regarding the boron fluid theft, I imagine they'll crack down quite hard on it, and make acquiring more almost impossible," Kunzite continued, wondering if there was a roadblock he could possibly come up with that would dissuade Endymion from continuing with this.
"I'm the Prince of one of the most prosperous Kingdoms in the galaxy, Kunzite, I'm sure I can make a barrel disappear every now and then if push comes to shove," Endymion replied dismissively.
"And then, we have the Serenity situation," Kunzite reminded him. "You said it yourself, she's starting to grow uncomfortable with your absences, and I'm sure that the problem will become more pronounced after the wedding. We need to devise a system where everything runs through your guardians."
"You let me worry about Serenity, I've...I've placated her," Endymion assured his general.
"She didn't seem particularly placated to me this morning," Kunzite replied. "And if I may say so, Your Highness, it may not have been wise to miss her visit to the Gobekli Temple."
"We have a schedule to keep," Endymion said simply. "She'll still be there tomorrow, and I'll meet her there, and we'll have an amazing time touring the lower levels of the temple, and she'll forget all about this. I am spending almost all of my time outside of this business with her, she's fine." He chewed his lower hip for a brief moment. "She...she's getting older, she's about to become a mother, s-she must understand that at a certain point that we can't just lay in bed and cuddle all day every day!"
Kunzite held his tongue, arms resting at his sides, watching Endymion stumble through his thought process.
"No, no, Serenity's...whenever it comes up, I just tell her it's politics and...finances and things like that, she can't stand any of those things, puts her right to sleep, always has."
Kunzite slowly nodded. "It still would be a good idea to construct a system where you are not involved in the day-to-day of this operation. It was probably a mistake for you to be here today. I strongly recommend we find another way going forward, all I need is an assistant who can follow orders."
"I...I couldn't have missed this," Endymion insisted. "This is the most important thing happening in the galaxy right now. One of the most important things ever, probably. We're on the brink of synthesizing Imperium with a ninety-eight percent purity rate, maybe a little more! This, what's happening in this ship right now, is going to buy this galaxy an extra few hundred years with the lights on, time enough to...search unknown space, find new Imperium veins, or maybe new resources entirely that can power our civilization." He looked up at Kunzite, a look of mild disbelief on his face almost. "How could I have missed this? What will I ever do in life more important than what's happening, right here, right now?"
Kunzite looked like he wanted to protest, words building up in his mouth, but they never made it out.
"If this works, we'll have guaranteed our survival for thousands of years, Kunzite. I think that takes precedence over...looking over an old temple I've seen many times already."
"Alright," Kunzite conceded. "Fair enough, but next time we need to synthesize—"
"We'll talk about it," Endymion said, finality in his voice. "Later. For now, let's think about the logistics of getting eight workstations running on this ship."
"
Kunzite opened the U.V. ray oven, revealing a large gray tray filled with cubes of refined Imperium. Unlike even the last batch, these ones were essentially perfectly clear. They were difficult to distinguish from glass, so transparent they were. Endymion's eyes lit up as Kunzite examined the stacks of cubes.
Even though he didn't yet know if the synthesization had worked, it certainly looked as if things had gone exactly as planned based off how the product looked. He watched as Kunzite pulled out the reader, gently poking the end of the metal prod into one of the cubes.
Endymion had known excitement and thrill before, of course. Being the son of a mighty King, growing up in a palace, having virtually everyone around him desperate to make him happy at all times, it had a way of guaranteeing his life was filled with mostly ups and very few downs. Maybe too many, as after a certain point, he could almost become numb to these moments of jubilation, as they were commonplace. But, perhaps more than any time he could ever remember, Endymion found himself truly enthralled and invested in what the reader was about to tell him. This was something above and beyond the usual.
And then, the reader blinked out some digits.
99.01%
"Oh, YES!" Endymion yelled, clapping his hands together emphatically. "Ninety-nine percent!" He spun around, pacing a few steps away from the oven, blowing off a bit of energy that had built up from the anticipation. "NINETY-NINE PERCENT!"
Kunzite nodded, pulling the reader out of the tray. "Good sign, but we still have to check the energy output."
"Oh, YES!" Endymion grunted, hands balling into fists in front of his chest as he violently shook them around, seemingly ignoring Kunzite's warning. "YEEEESSSS!" Suddenly, he spun back around, sprinting over a couple steps and jumped up, slamming his body into Kunzite and wrapping his arms around him, forcing the larger bodyguard to stagger back a couple steps.
"Okay, okay! Your Highness!" Kunzite said, grabbing at the back of Endymion's shirt and tugging it down. "Alright, it's very exciting, now that's enough! Please!"
Endymion dropped down. "Kunzite, buddy, we've done it! Hell, that's even better than you were projecting! Ninety-nine percent, I...I wonder if the chemists that work for the agency could even manage that! Oh, Kunzite, you're a magician!"
Kunzite shrugged, giving Endymion a couple of shoulder pats to try and calm him down. "It's just a matter of...following instructions precisely and understanding the science behind it, but...yes, if correlation holds, this is hugely significant." He pulled a pair of tweezers out from his pocket and plucked one of the cubes out of the oven. "I'll check it."
As Kunzite went over to the counter space to the right, Endymion kept his gaze on the tray of cubes. Enthralled by all of the power that the Imperium represented, the Crown Prince was almost overcome with a great rush of emotion. Somehow, it was different, on an entirely different order of magnitude from even their first batch. He was smart enough and had a good enough understanding of math to know that even the eight percent increase in purity was supposed to represent a huge step-up in the utility of the energy. Not only did it mean more money, but the additional value to the galaxy was monstrous. Because of this, the galaxy would survive. The race against time and resources had been won.
By his hand.
"It's holding," Kunzite announced, turning back to look at the Prince, who was snapped out of his power trip.
"Parabolic?" Endymion asked.
"Yes, meaning...if these readings are accurate, I think we can reasonably ask for one point one million creds a libra." He rubbed his upper lip. "They'll have to invent new units of weight measurement for this, this is so potent that most people won't need more than...a third of a carat at a time."
"Are they safe to touch?" Endymion asked.
"Should be fine now," Kunzite reasoned, going back over to the oven and pulling out the tray, shuffling to his right to place it down on the counter. "Each one of these uncias, each cube, could fetch a quarter-million on the streets of Earth."
"Why don't you keep one?" Endymion suggested, reaching over into the tray as Kunzite set it down and grabbing two of the glass-like squares. He took them over in front of him, then grabbed one in his left hand and presented it out to Kunzite.
"What for?" Kunzite asked.
"Well...this is the first time in recorded history anyone's been able to get anywhere close to this sort of purity, it...it's a really big deal. This has to be right up there with the first ever Barson tunnel through the asteroid belt. We should keep a little token of it, you know?" Endymion pressed his left hand right up to Kunzite, just in front of his chest.
"I'm not really the sentimental type, Your Highness," Kunzite protested. "It's perfectly fine, I'm happy with...just the memory of this. And it might not be a good idea for you to keep one, either, the last thing you want to do is be caught with something like that."
"I don't mean, I'm not saying we'd carry them around or anything. I just mean, keep it here. On board The Qesem." Endymion withdrew his hand back, looking down at the crystals in his palms. "This ship has to be a safe place to keep it, right?"
Kunzite thought for a half-beat before nodding. "Well, that's fine, um...why don't you keep both of them? You know, for...both of us?"
Endymion nodded, reaching down underneath the counter and sliding an empty drawer open, storing the cubes in the hidden compartment before closing it back up.
"Alright, let's pack up, and I'll open up a tunnel to shoot back to Earth," Kunzite said, reaching down to the floor at his feet and picking up a black bag, opening it up on the counter and picking up the tray.
"Wait, wait," Endymion interjected, stopping Kunzite just before he was about to dump the Imperium into the bag. "I...I told Serenity I might not be back until morning, we should have enough time to make another batch before then. The timing should be perfect, actually, if we start cleaning the containers now."
Kunzite, taken aback, set the tray back down on the tablespace, turning to his charge. "You...you want to make more? Right now?"
Endymion nodded. "Why not? It's not easy to cut out time to get up here, let's...take advantage of all the time we can get. I already told her that I might be gone awhile, let's use that. Come on, for...for all we know, this might be the last time I get a chance to participate in one of these, let's double-dip."
Kunzite, after a moment's pause, picked up the tray and began dumping it into the bag. "Very well."
"
"I remember, when I was a little girl, and I found out about...you know, giving birth, I was terrified," Serenity said, laying back on the large bed, eyes closed, body twitching slightly as Endymion rubbed his large hands along her feet in his lap.
"I can't blame you on that one," Endymion said, looking up at Serenity's face from the foot of the bed.
"Just...the idea of growing a person inside of you for cycles and cycles, slowly ballooning up, and then you have to...push it out of you, I thought it was the most terrifying thing I had ever heard." She gave a tiny smile. "Wanted nothing to do with it. Told my mother that I'd never go through with it no matter what."
Endymion wordlessly continued massaging her feet, enjoying how he was able to provoke such strong spasms and responses from her body with little more than light stimulation.
"But now...thinking about it, it's really amazing. That I have everything I need to grow a human being, right here." She reached up, placing her hands on her belly. "All the...little things that make a person a person, I can do the whole thing right in here."
"Well...almost everything," Endymion pointed out. "I might have...supplied a little something."
Serenity nodded. "And, you helped, thank you, but...still, it's really a miracle." She beamed widely down as she picked her head up to look at her stomach. "And now, I can't imagine wanting to do anything more than I want to push this little one out in a few cycles."
"Oh, this kid of ours, going to be beautiful," Endymion said softly, letting Serenity's feet go and creeping up on the bed, laying down next to his wife-to-be. "I mean, you and me, our genes, combining? It's not even fair to the rest of the galaxy. Boy, girl, doesn't matter." Endymion reached over and patted Serenity's stomach.
"As long as he...or she gets your brain," Serenity mused.
"Oh, your brain is fine," Endymion insisted, coming over to kiss her left temple. "Five days. Five more days, and we'll be together forever, in every way that we can be."
Serenity reached over to wrap her left arm around his shoulders. "I can't wait. It's going to feel so much better when it's official."
Endymion got up onto his knees, looking down at Serenity from above. "Oh, uh, I'll be out of the palace for a little bit this afternoon. Actually heading out soon, I'll be back before dinner."
"What's up?" Serenity asked, picking her head up and using her right elbow to prop herself up.
"Oh, the usual," Endymion said with a dismissive little wave of his hand. "Uh, trade disputes, taxation, uh...blah blah blah, mundane doesn't even begin to describe it, but I have to get experience with it." He slunk off the bed into a standing position. "If I say any more than that, it'd bore you." He began casually walking around the bed, heading for the bedroom door.
"Then bore me."
Endymion froze mid-step, foot up in the air slightly, a small chill running through him at these three simple words. He simply stood there for a moment, then turned to Serenity. "I'm sorry?"
"I'm serious," Serenity pressed, getting up into a full sitting position. "I've been thinking lately, Endy, and...look. In a few days, I'll be the Princess of the Earth-Moon Kingdom. And you'll be it's Prince. So, really...we're both in the same position. We're both...on the same level. So, me trying to insulate myself from all the...the mundane, maybe it's not right. Maybe I need to share in some of that. I was thinking about what you said a while ago, about how you're preparing to be King, and...well, I'm going to be Queen too. And I have to accept the things that come with that, so, whatever it is that you're doing, I want to hear about it."
"S-Serenity," Endymion said, feeling his armpits start to sweat a bit. "Don't be silly, I...my presence in your life insulates you from all that. You don't have to think about those kinds of things because I'm here! That's how this works, that's...it's a perfectly fine arrangement for royals! I don't need to 'share' any sort of burden, or anything, I'm perfectly happy with it!"
"W...well, Endy, I…" Serenity swallowed a little lump in her throat. "...it's not just that." She gestured over at the Prince. "I know, I know that you're far better equipped to handle the duties of the throne than me, and I'm grateful for that, but...it's…" she grimaced. "I don't like being left out."
"Left out?" Endymion repeated, clasping his hands together in front of him.
"We've known each other for years, we've been close for years, and...this is really the first time that I've felt like there's a part of your life that...I'm being blocked out of, and I don't like it." She frowned a bit. "Yes, obviously, I don't read the same books that you read, I could never read most of the things that you do, but...I mean, I'd still be there with you when you were reading. All this time away from the palace, no idea where you are or what you're doing, I don't like that. I don't want that. I want to be a part of your life, even if I...even if I can't actually involve myself in it, I want to know about it. If I get a little bored by it, so be it."
Endymion's head sunk down a bit to his left, looking down at the floor, the gears in his head cranking about. "S...Serenity...I…"
"I don't like this idea of you having this...whole other part of your life that you feel like you have to keep away from me," she continued. "I like that less than I like being a little bored. So, let's be a real couple. If these things you're doing are important enough that you need to take time to do them, then...then I care." She gave a faint little smile.
Endymion sucked in a deep breath, going red in the face. He turned away from Serenity, putting his hands at his sides. "Oh, well...Serenity, that's a really nice thing for you to say."
She nodded at his back. "So...lay it on me. Trade disputes, taxation, paint drying, whatever it is, I want to hear it!"
"Well...sweetie, you know I'd just love to, but…" he glanced over at the door, almost as if he was pondering making a break for it. His brain scrambled to come up with something he could say. Something that would satisfy her that wouldn't also be immediately proven a lie.
"Endy?"
Suddenly, he turned around to face her. "I can't tell you."
He held back a wince, just barely, at seeing her face fall at these words. He hated to see her look so hurt, knowing that she was sensitive to even the slightest provocation, but he didn't have enough time for anything else.
"What?" she asked, raising her eyebrows up her forehead slightly.
"It's not a question of...of want to," Endymion insisted, mentally beating himself up for not having a more elaborate falsehood ready just in case. But he had never imagined that Serenity, of all people, would be so insistent about learning the details of royal politics. Now, he was stuck. "It's a question of...can I, and I can't go into more detail than I already have. Not yet."
Serenity blinked her big eyes a few times, mouth opening slightly in confusion. "Why?"
"W-well...these matters that I'm handling, or in some cases the...the old cases that I'm reviewing, they pertain to Earth specifically. The things that Kunzite are teaching me, some of them are private Earth matters." He ignored the sense of dread building in his chest, knowing that he had no choice but to continue on. "Things that shouldn't be disclosed to just anyone, and...and certainly not the Princess of another Kingdom. It's...well...it'd be viewed as a security violation to go into specifics with someone outside the circle of knowledge."
Serenity's face was wrinkled in utter shock at this proclamation. "I...you're serious?"
Endymion nodded stiffly. "I'm afraid so. T-that's why...that's one of the reasons why I'm so vague when talking to you about it, I have to be."
"But...but we're a couple!" Serenity protested, looking at Endymion as if he had just sprouted a second head. "Surely they'd understand, I...in a few days I'm going to be Princess of the Earth just as much as I am Princess of the Moon, surely that qualifies me!"
"Yes. Yes, in a few days, you'll be Princess of Earth," Endymion agreed. "In a few days. Not...not today, not right now. You see?"
There was a most uneasy silence, filling the entire room, suffocating everything for several beats. Endymion almost felt pained physically from the utter confusion that Serenity was clearly experiencing.
"I'm sorry, I...look, it doesn't matter at all!" Endymion insisted. "In a few days, we'll be married officially, and then I can...I can tell you anything you want to hear about! So, let's just...put it on hold for a few days, and once we're married, I promise you, all the secrecy goes away!" He nodded energetically. "Okay? It's not my decision, I...it's just what I've been told to do."
"But...but it is your decision," Serenity protested softly. "I...how would anyone even find out if you told me things? What, you think I'd...pass it along to my mother and we'd use it against you?"
"No! No, no, I...of course not, I just...I want to follow the rules here," Endymion said. "I know you wouldn't...tell anyone, but given that it's just a few more days, I'd prefer to stick to protocol."
Serenity still looked rather shocked, Endymion eager to extract himself from that befuddled, accusing, hurt gaze.
"A-after the wedding, I'll be as open about my activities as you'd like me to, I promise," Endymion said quickly, pointing over to the door. "I actually have to go now, I'm very sorry, if it was up to me...t-then..well, yes."
He quickly spun towards the door, marching towards it, feeling Serenity's glare on the back of his head.
"
"I was not ready for her to say that," Endymion mumbled into his hands, leaning forward into a concrete wall, forehead resting on the surface. His eyes were closed, face lined with stress wrinkles.
He and his most trusted guardian were standing a few steps into a thin, dirty alleyway between two tall buildings, the sidewalk just maybe five paces away to their right. Other than a few dumpsters and garbage bags laying about, it was vacated, just a long lonely stretch of cement and concrete.
"Get your head off of that wall, it's disgusting here," Kunzite recommended. "And put your hat back on, they could be here any time."
Endymion obliged, turning around so that his back was leaning up against it, also placing his top hat back atop his head.
"You should have had a story ready," Kunzite reprimanded. "If you had told me that this was a concern, I could have come up with one for you."
"I didn't think it was a concern, she...she seemed completely happy with the way things were, I...I started spending more time with her, giving her more attention, being a little more...aggressive with her, and she was fine!" He shook his head. "Can you imagine, Serenity of all people, suddenly actually wanting to hear about the mundanity of being a royal?!"
"Is it going to be a problem?" Kunzite asked.
Endymion gave a shaky little shrug with his shoulders. "I...I could tell, she was hurt when I said that to her. I didn't know what else to do, I couldn't...I racked my brain, trying to come up with something that would be good enough, I'm sure there were countless things I could have said, but...I just couldn't find one." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Okay, I'll prepare myself better going forward, we'll be married in a few days, and...she doesn't hold grudges, I know her, give me a cycle and she'll have forgotten that this ever happened. It won't be as big of a deal after the wedding anyway, I'll be spending much less time away."
Kunzite nodded, then turned his head to the left. "Alright, she's coming."
Endymion stepped away from the wall, looking down the long thin path, seeing Mimete flanked by two large bodyguards, strolling down towards them.
"It...it just didn't feel good, you know?" Endymion said, squaring his body up towards the approaching trio. "Hurting her feelings like that, over something like this." He sighed. "But I'll get through it."
The two waited in silence, Kunzite's stance wide and ready to take one of a large number of actions to protect the Prince if necessary. Endymion pushed distractions regarding Serenity out of his mind for a moment.
Mimete clapped as she came up to the two. "Alright, boys!" She reached back behind her right side, tapping a leather case with her hand. "You two made some big promises last time we met. I have to say, that little sample you gave us, woo, I haven't been able to sleep well. Ninety-nine percent!" She bobbed her head around. "I've got a bet with one of my lieutenants on whether or not you've actually got two libras of the stuff, he thinks that little crystal was it."
"Two point two?" Endymion asked, lifting his right hand up slowly and pointing at the leather case. "Let's see it."
"Oh, come on, you think I'd ever rip off you guys?!" Mimete said with a dry little laugh. "You're my best supplier, I'm sure as shit not getting stuff anywhere close to this good from anyone else!" She turned to her right-side guard. "Toss it over."
Bending down slightly, he opened the clasp atop the case and held the opening out towards the two, exposing neat rows of creds within. He slid the case along the ground over in front of Kunzite. The Earth general bent down, hands rummaging through the case. He warily glanced behind him, out to the sidewalk, every few seconds.
"So, when's the well running dry?" Mimete asked. "How long before you run out of product?"
"At the current rate, not in our lifetimes," Endymion answered.
"I plan on living a long time, are you sure about that?" Mimete countered.
"Actually, I was rather wondering how much you can take on," Endymion began. "I'm trying to make some real money here, Mimete. And I think you are too. So, two libras a meeting…" he gave a casual little shrug. "Are we really content with using a scalpel instead of a sword?"
"So...you want me to take more of your product?" Mimete asked, Kunzite standing up and quickly taking a few steps back towards a green garbage sack on the ground. He kneeled down, opening the mouth, releasing a particularly offensive stench but revealing a paper-wrapped package. He picked it up.
"If you can handle it, we can deliver it," Endymion insisted. "The only question is how much can you handle?"
Kunzite slid the package across the floor, dirtying the paper as it cruised across the filthy ground and coming to a stop in front of Mimete. Her left bodyguard picked it up, opened the edge, and pulled a small reader out of his chest pocket.
"Our organization is quite large," Mimete said. "We have a presence in most large cities on this planet, actually. We could, most certainly take on more Imperium, assuming that future batches are as pure as what you promised."
"Ninety-nine point oh-one," the bodyguard read off the reader.
"Oooooohhhhhh," Mimete moaned, almost orgasmically. "You boys are absolute wizards! How do you DO IT?!" she shouted the last line, perhaps unwisely.
Kunzite put a hand out towards her, indicating wordlessly that she should calm down. "How much more?" he asked.
"You bring...you bring ten libras next meet," Mimete suggested. "Ten, I can distribute that much in six days." She cleared her throat, nodding. "But I'll be paying with gold. Can't lug all that money around a slum."
Endymion nodded.
"Alright...come find me in Spokai," she instructed, pointing over at Endymion. "Spokai's my next spot, come find me there, we'll meet up." She grinned widely as Endymion and Kunzite started to slowly back down the alley, back out towards the sidewalk. "Tuxedo Mask, you and me, we're gonna make a LOT of money!"
As the two retreated back out into the relative safety of a sparsely-populated walk, Kunzite gave an annoyed look over his shoulder. "She really should learn to keep her voice down when we're so close to—"
The violent, booming sound of a plasma weapon being discharged cut off the rest of Kunzite's sentence. Clearly coming from the alley the two had just left, Kunzite reflexively grabbed the Prince by the collar and shoved him against the concrete wall, affording him as much protection as he could on short notice. As Kunzite withdrew his own small firearm, a second blast rang through the air, again from the alley.
"Stay behind me," Kunzite ordered, pressing himself up against the wall right next to Endymion, closer to the alley entrance than the Prince, and quickly shuffled along the wall over to the opening. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small mirror panel, holding it up to his left, using the small reflective tool to see around the corner and into the alley.
Endymion carefully craned his head over to look at the mirror, adjusting his position so he'd be properly positioned to see. Mimete was standing there, plasma pistol drawn, both of her bodyguards laying face-first on the disgusting ground of the alley. She was bending down to pick up the paper package.
"What in the…" Endymion muttered. Both of the men on the floor had large, obvious wounds on their backs, no doubt the targets of both gun discharges just moments before.
"Sorry, boys," Mimete muttered, the two of them just barely able to hear her over the surrounding din of panic as nearby passerbys fled the sound of gunfire. One of the men made a little groaning noise and suddenly lifting his left arm up. Mimete quickly fired at his head, blasting a burning hole in it, removing whatever little life was still in him at that point. Endymion winced at the display.
"But you can't work with the same people for too long in this business," she concluded. "Gotta keep it rotating."
For no immediately obvious reason, she fired a fourth blast into the other body, seemingly just to assure that her bodyguard was actually dead, and then turned around and sprinted off, holstering the weapon and holding the package under her right arm.
Kunzite pocketed the mirror, turning to Endymion, who looked vaguely confused and scared, mouth hanging open. Slowly, the Prince turned his head to look up at his charge.
"We're leaving," Kunzite said simply, putting his hand behind Endymion's back and pushing him off the wall.
"Yes, we are," Endymion agreed breathlessly, going into a fast walk down the sidewalk, away from the carnage, all too aware that they were the only ones in the area, as everyone else had vacated immediately on hearing the gunfire.