Chapter 31: Fly Meets Ointment
A/N: Thank you to all my readers for 6,000 total hits on this story now. Your continued support in whatever capacity you support me is greatly appreciated.
"
"So, I feel like maybe certain expectations are being held that shouldn't be, perhaps," Kunzite said into the receiver of his communicator, a guarded look on his face as he craned his head to the left, looking around the massive grey vat in the middle of the room, over at the lockers in the corner. Viluy, suited up in the body-protecting outfit, was standing there, hands drooping down at her sides, looking rather confused and tentative. "This synthesization, it's a two-man job. There's a sort of understanding that exists between me and Endymion, that allows us to work together effectively and efficiently."
"Viluy is highly qualified. Among the most qualified chemists in the galaxy. Surely having three people is better than two?" Cronus's voice fed into Kunzite's ear via the earpiece.
"N-no, not especially. If anything, it's the opposite. This task needs one chemist and one assistant, that's it. Viluy is not needed, and regardless of her efforts or intentions, will just get in the way." Kunzite turned away, looking down the opposite side of the room, over at the barrels of boron fluid.
"Are you sure that's still the case? The batches you're making are orders of magnitude bigger now," Cronus replied.
"If I believe that things have changed, then I will let you know. But for now, I must ask that me and the Prince are allowed complete control over the laboratory. If you want fifteen thousand libras of ninety-nine percent pure product every cycle, then every little variable matters. It's nothing against Viluy, but it's the way we need to do things."
For a few beats, the connection was silent.
"Tell Viluy to take my call at her desk," Cronos said. "I'll have her informed of your terms for the laboratory."
"Thank you." Kunzite tugged the earpiece out of his ear, lowering the disc back to his belt, and then marched around the vat over towards where Viluy remained rooted, Endymion maybe a half-dozen paces away against the left wall.
"I...I just don't understand," she said meekly, Kunzite quickly closing the distance between the two. "I've been synthesizing imperium for years, there must be a way in which I can help you."
"Cronus is calling you at your desk, he wants you to go take it," Kunzite said sternly.
"Would...would you like to see my certifications?" Viluy asked.
"It's not personal. Now go." Kunzite pointed up to the catwalk above his head.
With a hopeful glance at Endymion, who offered nothing to her implied request, she began to slowly unzip the front of the protective jumpsuit that she had only just slipped on. Kunzite and Endymion exchanged an awkward little side glance as she begrudgingly pulled the thick orange suit down towards her feet.
She quickly disrobed, not saying anything to either Endymion or Kunzite, and then withdrew herself up the spiral staircase to the catwalk. They both slowly watched her depart, across the catwalk, over to the door, sensing her disappointment and frustration. Finally, with a bit more force than required, the door was slammed shut behind her.
"It goes without saying, but be careful about what you say to her in particular," Kunzite warned, looking back down at his charge. "There aren't very many people in the galaxy with enough chemistry knowledge to produce imperium of this purity, regardless of if they know the formula or not, and she is likely one of them. I'd prefer to keep ourselves as valuable as possible."
"You definitely don't need to tell me twice," Endymion said quietly. "I'm not saying a word to her about anything."
"
Cassandra startled up from her prone position on the thin cot in the back right corner of the room as the loud thud of her steel cell door swinging open jarred her from her aimless daydreams. The above ceiling light, thankfully dim and gentle, sprang to life as well. She curled her knees up close to her chest, pressing her back into the metallic wall.
She had only been up on The Savery for just under two cycles, but the experience had already done a number on her, physically, mentally, and emotionally. There were few things more hopeless than being held prisoner on the most securely-protected location in the entire galaxy, and the fact that it was a man-made, artificial construct just made things feel all the worse. It became so easy to lose track of your sense of time and have every single moment that passed become completely indistinguishable from the last. Her once-sharp eyes and expression had dulled significantly, she had thinned out a good amount, and her dark hair hung around her face in a ratty mop.
As two large men in guard uniforms entered, she assumed she was going to be escorted to another interrogation. It had been about a cycle since her last round of questions, so she had hoped that they had at the very least abandoned any hope of getting information out of her, so she couldn't help but give an annoyed groan and roll of the eyes. After a beat or two, a third man, this one tall and thin with gold-rimmed glasses, entered as well.
"Miss Cassandra," he said, voice finely clipped. "Please, come with me."
"I don't know anything," she grumbled, nevertheless slowly planting her feet onto the cot so she could push herself into a standing position. "Just let me...just please leave me alone, at the very least. I really don't have anything to say to you."
"We know," he replied. "We need to go over some information and have you sign a few things. Once you're done, we're handing you off."
"W-what?" she stammered, looking up at the trio of men before her. "What does that mean?"
"There's been some new information in the last several days," he explained. "Long story short, it would seem that you were framed as part of a complicated redirect operation by imperium smugglers."
Cassandra had been beaten into such a depressed state that she couldn't quite bring herself to be overly excited, but was dimly aware that her circumstances were suddenly looking much better. "W...I...so...you mean…"
"You'll have to sign off on an agreement to accept the time you've already served here. We're prepared to offer you a compensation package in exchange for your acceptance." He glanced down at the small tablet in his right hand.
"So...I'm free to go?" she asked.
"Well, not exactly," he admitted. "According to this, we're handing you off to the royal house on Jupiter, some sort of charges of embezzlement that were superseded by our charges. You'll have to answer for those. But in terms of imperium smuggling charges...we're dropping them."
A shaky little smile found its way to her face, though it flashed through for only a brief moment. Things had been going so poorly for her recently, she wouldn't have been shocked if this was some sort of prank to get her to put her guard down.
"Miss?" he prompted. "Are you ready to go?"
She nodded quickly, pushing herself away from the wall. "Y-yes, I...sorry, yes. Let's go."
"
Slowly, Endymion strolled down the line of massive U.V. Ray Ovens, peering through the glass window on the front of each. Each large heated chamber held several clear trays layered on top of each other, each tray loaded with a thick plate of synthesized imperium.
"Nothing's going to happen," Kunzite said. "This is really the most uninteresting part of the process."
"I just can't help but be fascinated by this part," he said quietly. "Just as it's actually being transformed into a usable substance. Thinking about everything you could accomplish with it. All the things that people all across the galaxy will do with just this."
Kunzite gave a little nod, then went over to the counter space on the far side of the room, where the large red container was currently sitting.
"And this was just from one day. Think of what we can accomplish in this laboratory in just...one cycle. One year. Yes, we definitely did the right thing, coming here. All the good we can do, we owe it to the universe."
Kunzite pulled a fat, green bottle out of the container, setting it down on the counter space, then reached back into the box and removed a pair of clear, thin glasses with long stems. Sealing the box back up, he ripped away a little paper seal on the mouth of the bottle. "I thought we might celebrate the first batch."
Endymion swung around to watch as Kunzite pulled a small cork out of the mouth of the bottle. "Who are you and what have you done with my general?"
Kunzite gave a small smile as he started to pour a small quantity of the red liquid into each glass. "Kenney, aged fifty-five years. Quarter million a bottle. Just fifteen percent alcohol, you pay for the taste. This I have more appreciation for than just trying to overwhelm the drinker a high percentage."
Endymion slowly came across the room, towards his guardian, pulling the hood on his protective gear down to his shoulders as he went over.
"You see all this?" Endymion pointed to his sides, indicating the various furnaces and the massive vat. "The, the laboratory, the chemistry, the...the synthesization?"
"Yes," Kunzite said, re-sealing the bottle and setting it down next to the container. "You think we should change the layout?"
"No, no, nothing like that, what I'm saying is...this is all this is to us, from now on, for however long we remain in this line of work. Just the laboratory. We synthesize the product, we hand it off. We don't know anything about the people selling or buying it, we don't think about what's happening out there on the ground level, none of it matters. Cronus's network has been active for a decade, it's established, there won't be any problems with that. No turf wars, no more violence, no more hurting people, I...I think we really made it." He nodded, putting his hands on his hips, slowly looking around the laboratory. "It's just a business. Imperium for money. Just so happens to be illegal." He shrugged. "Gods, I can't believe all the mistakes we made when we started, what was I thinking, putting myself so close to that kind of danger?! And...and the people I hurt on the way...the risks I took, I can't believe I let any of that happen! I never should have let myself get any more involved than this. H-hopefully, Zoisite's scheme to get that Cassandra woman out of prison works, and then...well, obviously, I'll have to live with some of the things I can't undo. But from now on, nobody gets hurt."
Kunzite nodded, holding one of the glasses up towards Endymion, picking up the second one for himself. Endymion took it, swirling it around gently and staring intently down at the red drink within.
"So, then," Endymion said quietly. "Let's say...to peaceful, lucrative, black market imperium." He raised the glass up towards Kunzite, Kunzite stuck his identical glass over towards Endymion's tapping them together, prompting both of them to slowly drink the contents.
After several beats, Endymion doing his due diligence on the complex tastes of the drink, the Prince swallowed down, processing the assorted flavors.
His mental musings were interrupted by a soft alarm sounding off from the row of ovens across the room.
"
A soft alarm sounded off from the row of ovens across the room.
"There we are," Kunzite said, swinging the large front door of the leftmost oven open. Endymion quickly reached forward with a large pair of metal tongs, big enough to grab onto both sides of the top tray, and yanked it out. Endymion easily moved the tray around as if it carried no more weight than a feather, courtesy of the anti-gravity technology the pincers had.
"So, Cronus, I wanted to say something, just in case it maybe...put some friction between us," Endymion said as he dumped the contents of the tray into a large rectangular bin right behind him. The solid sheet of synthesized imperium shattered into several pieces against the bottom of the bin with a sharp crack. The Prince quickly turned around, grabbing the next tray with the pincers and pulling it out. "So, Viluy—"
"Oh, no friction," Cronus assured him, watching as the second sheet of imperium was tossed into the large bin. "I completely understand that you two want to work in whatever environment and situation you're most comfortable in, and that even a slight deviation from ideal circumstances can cause problems. After all, I am asking an awful lot of you two."
Endymion worked quickly, having had a lot of practice in the last cycle, sending another thick sheet crashing down into the bin every handful of beats.
"I just hope she wasn't too upset about it," Endymion said. "She seemed perfectly nice, it wasn't anything personal against her."
"She'll be fine," Cronus assured him.
"So, any reason why you stopped by today?" Endymion asked, dragging the bin over a few steps so he was now in front of the second oven, beginning to repeat the process of dragging out trays. Kunzite, over on the right side of the room, began to dump imperium sheets into his own bin, doubling the number of jarring crash sounds in the room.
"Just checking in on my investment," Cronus said, a small smile on his face. "I was in the area, thought I'd stop by, since I knew you were working today. We're making a lot of money together, you and I, I'd be a fool to not make sure you're happy."
"Oh, we're happy," Endymion assured him. "Especially if that crate up on the catwalk you brought is for us."
"Ah, yes," Cronus agreed, motioning up towards the wooden box above his head. "I thought I'd bring your payment."
"The last payment was a little heavy," Endymion said conversationally. "Couple million extra in there, I think."
"Well, the last batch was a little heavy," Cronus pointed out. "I don't want to be accused of getting extra work from my employees and not compensating them."
Endymion nodded. "You might be the only person in the galaxy who thinks like that."
"So tell me," Cronus began. "Your father, do you have any concerns? Do you believe he suspects anything? I want you to feel as if you can come to me if you get the sense that he's starting to wonder about you, or me."
"Oh...I have a feeling that my father would sooner accuse every single other person in this galaxy of being involved in imperium smuggling before he'd accuse me," Endymion said. "And he's expressed nothing but admiration and appreciation for you."
"Good to hear," Cronus said.
Over the course of a few secundas, Endymion and Kunzite had deposited all of the synthesized imperium into the two bins. Both of them went to the edge of their bins and pressed a button on the lip, causing a digital readout on the side to flash up a series of digits.
"Six twenty-one point four," Endymion announced.
"Three eighty-one point nine," Kunzite followed. "That's one thousand and three point three, bringing us to a final count of five thousand and eight point one."
Cronus placed his right hand up on Endymion's left shoulder. "One cycle in, and I have to say. I think this could be an arrangement that lasts a very, very long time."
"
Princess Saturn's head snapped up as soon as she heard her bedroom door click open, immediately focusing on Cassini as he entered her dimmed private chamber. Her lead advisor was followed by two short women in modest maid outfits, one carrying a silver tray with rolled-up leaves of lettuce, the other with a similar tray that bore a few yellow pillows and a large teacup.
"Did it come?!" Saturn asked, eyes widening as she quickly scrambled to sit up on the edge of her bed, swinging her legs around from the prone position she had been in while she was by herself.
Cassini pressed his right index finger to his lips, moving to the side so the two maids could deliver their offerings to the young Princess. With an impatient pout, Saturn nevertheless understood the need for keeping matters of planetary security a secret.
"Your Highness," the first maid said quietly, setting the tray on the bed right next to her. "Lettuce wraps." She expansively gestured towards the collection of food.
She nodded, eager to be left alone with Cassini. "Thank you," she rushed out, reaching down to grab one of the rolls.
The second maid, this one a good deal shorter than the first, set her medicines out on the other side of her. She bowed as well. After taking a couple bites, she quickly picked up the teacup and one of the pills. She tossed the oval tablet into her mouth and swallowed it down with a gulp of the liquid concoction.
"I-it's okay, you two can go," she said, twisting her head back and forth to look at the two in turn. "I promise I'll finish it all, you don't have to stay."
The two middle-aged women glanced at each other, silently considering her guarantee.
"No, really, I promise," the Princess repeated. "Please, don't let me waste your time."
"I'll make sure she finishes," Cassini offered, stepping up between the two maids. With his assurance, they quickly turned and left the room, padding across the carpet and leaving the preteen girl alone with her advisor.
The moment the door across the room snapped shut, Saturn couldn't help a little grumble. "You hide one pill in your bra, and they never let you live it down."
"It was definitely more than one," Cassini chided. "These pills are helping you stay alive, Your Highness. Every single person working in this palace treats you keeping up on your medication as a matter of life and death, as they should."
"But they taste bad," she said lamely.
"That wouldn't matter if you put them far enough back on your tongue," Cassini said simply. "We've been over this."
Princess Saturn relented from further childish protests, as she was far more interested in whatever information Cassini might have. She brought her legs back up onto the bed, crossing them underneath her, looking up to Cassini eagerly. "Well, what happened?"
"Finish that roll, and I'll tell you."
Saturn groaned. "Cassini, I'm not six!"
"Then prove it," he challenged.
Saturn quicky relented, shoving the last bit of the lettuce wrap into her mouth, comically consuming it as fast as she could manage.
"Anonymous donation, eight billion creds, just like ten days ago, and ten days before that," Cassini said.
"There are only a few people in the galaxy who could possibly afford to give away tens of billions of creds every cycle like this," Saturn mumbled, looking down at the carpet in front of her, face wrinkling as she was plunged into thought. "This doesn't make any sense."
"And last night, there was an implosion on Tethys, one of The Rings's missile silos. Crumbled into nothing, current theory is sabotage. They had been using that particular silo to keep us from establishing any sort of reliable presence on that moon, so it's certainly a significantly loss for them." Cassini stood up straight, putting his hands behind his back.
Saturn reached over and grabbed another one of the wraps, lifting it up to her mouth and taking a bite out of it. "It all has to be connected, right? It can't just be a coincidence."
"It is difficult to believe that we just so happen to have a mysterious billionaire benefactor and a rogue military unit coming to our aide at the same time, yes," Cassini agreed. "It's equally difficult to believe that one entity is capable of funding us and providing ground support for the war at the same time, though."
She picked up another pill and the teacup, repeating the process from earlier.
"However, the influx of war funds has allowed us to overwhelm The Rings over on the Apollina Crater on the southern hemisphere, so we've managed to start pushing them back towards the Marin Trench. We can use the bottleneck to keep them from just retreating back to their territories, and actually take prisoners. Plus we were able to launch a stealth attack on a key camp on Titan, mission success." Cassini watched her finish the second lettuce wrap. "I don't want to make any promises, Your Highness, but I can honestly say that I believe the tide of this war is starting to shift in our direction. And if we continue to receive anonymous assistance from whoever out there happens to like you so much, the generals believe we could be headed towards a final resolution in three years."
"I suppose that passes for good news," Saturn said.
"It's certainly much better than the endless stalemate of the last several years," Cassini reminded her. "I can't even begin to try to explain who this mystery entity is who is trying to help us, but rest assured knowing this, Your Highness. Because of their intervention, I believe we may have finally caught something of a break."
"
Inanna held the golden data chip up in between her right hand's thumb and index finger, out towards Princess Venus, who was impassively seated in one of the chairs near the center of The Genetrix's circular interior.
"Enough dirt to bury a small city," Inanna proclaimed. "Even someone as well-connected and wealthy as Solomon won't be able to hide from this."
"Makes me wonder what the law enforcement agencies of the galaxy are doing, if it was so easy for us to find all this," Venus wondered aloud.
"I have to object to the use of the word 'easy', Your Highness," Inanna said.
Venus, with a smirk, gave a little nod. "Fair enough, Inanna."
"This information has been copied into twenty different data chips, distributed all over the solar system, ready to be spread like a virus across every information network that exists. All that's left to do is make our threat."
"The other Angels are in position and can release this information at a moment's notice," Inanna added. "He's completely boxed in, he just hasn't been told yet."
"Nothing concrete about who this Tuxedo Mask individual might be yet?" Venus asked. "I haven't heard much lately about that."
"Not really, unfortunately," Inanna admitted. "He's a ghost. His product is being dealt, in bulk, on virtually every street corner across the galaxy, and nobody knows who he is. I don't understand it."
Venus took a moment to look around the mostly-empty chamber of black walls. "We need agency resources to find him. No reason to wait any longer at this point." She looked up to Inanna. "Make Solomon aware of our intentions as soon as possible. No point in waiting, the sooner we figure out the identity of Tuxedo Mask, the sooner we can fund our coup."
Inanna bowed towards her. "Will do, Your Highness."
"
Grandmaster Galen sighed heavily, hunched over slightly at the head of the long table, almost every member of the agency high council gathered before him in rows down the sides. His hands were down on the table surface, head bowed. Behind him was a large map of the galaxy, each planet and moon depicted, with glowing red dots on almost every single planet and moon, many of them hosting over a dozen such points.
"Not sure there's much of a point in even having the map up," Orion grumbled. "It's understood, the stuff is basically everywhere, we're trying to bail out a sinking yacht with a thimble."
"Maybe stay away from the sinking ship analogies," Timon protested. "Things are bad enough without exaggerating."
"Alright, we're...we're trying to push a tsunami wave back with an umbrella," Jorja suggested. "It's certainly bad, however you want to put it."
"So much for 'Tuxedo Mask' running out of product," Naxos said bitterly. "That's what I get for having a little bit of optimism."
"We've managed to seize about three libras of the product over the last cycle," Galen announced. "Well over a hundred arrests in total, not a one of them bringing enough charges for us to actually get any of these dealers to flip."
"There has to be a way to get around this!" Kasios huffed. "We're the ones with jurisdiction over imperium smuggling crimes! The game has changed, this new imperium strain makes the old laws useless! We should be pushing the royal houses to adopt no-tolerance policies."
Galen's nose wrinkled. "We've been communicating with the various Kings and Queens of the galaxy about this issue, but they don't seem particularly receptive to such drastic changes."
Kasios gave a hesitant little shrug. "I mean, I hate to say it, but...desperate times being desperate times, maybe we need to press harder?"
Galen grimaced. "No other way to put it, most of these royals aren't big fans of the agency. Jupiter and Mercury in particular don't really appreciate us right now. And, even if they won't admit it, a lot of them probably have an appreciation for the black market for imperium. They're not all-in on the ideology like you, Kasios."
Kasios rolled his eyes.
"The less money people spend on imperium, the more money they spend on things where the money remains circulating on-planet, better for the economy," Galen continued. "They'll play along with us as much as they need to, but ultimately they don't really want to completely end the black market."
"The galaxy is dying, and that's the garbage that's holding us back from actually conducting an effective crackdown," Kasios grumbled.
"We can't exactly fight a war against seven different planets at the same time," Galen added. "And that's effectively what it would take for us to get what we really need. Obviously, we're going to keep pushing, but it's going to be a long process before we can get anything close to what we need to significantly slow the smuggling down."
Naxos sighed heavily. "If only all royals were like you, Kasios."
"I agree," Kasios said.
"Alright. Enough about that for now. We'll keep running operations and making arrests, all we can do. Eventually, there will be a breakthrough. Maybe we'll squeeze some concessions out of some of the royal houses on law changes while we're at it, but we can't count on much." He pointed over towards the lone empty seat at the table, down near the bottom of the table on the left side. "So, I'm sure everyone's wondering where Solomon is."
Focus in the room quickly shifted over to the vacated leather seat.
"So, I got a message from him earlier today. He's having some health problems, and feels he can no longer effectively serve on this council. Effective immediately, he has resigned his post," Galen reported, slowly pivoting his head back and forth to each present council member.
"About time," Jorja muttered. "I'll sure miss all the nothing he did around here."
"Take it easy," Galen warned. "Solomon served on the high council for nearly forty years, and his connections have been valuable to us." He cleared his throat. "He has a replacement ready to be offered up for consideration, and was quite enthusiastic in his suggestion."
"Well, obviously, it's his son," Timon said dryly.
"It's not, actually," Galen corrected. "I was surprised too. But he actually recommended we bring Princess Venus on to replace him."
"Wait, what?" Orion questioned, jolted out of his mildly-depressed malaise. "Princess Venus? T-that might be even more questionable!"
"She's young and she's in a position of power outside the agency," Galen pointed out. "Plus, Venus has a strong history of co-operating with the agency, and working very hard to end imperium smuggling. We should, at the very least, consider it."
"She's never held any position in the agency, official or unofficial," Orion pointed out. "I'm not sure she's ever even been on board The Savery. At least Solomon's son has been assisting his father with agency business for the last fifteen years in an unofficial capacity."
"If recent events have taught us anything, it's that it's very useful to have members of royalty moving in lockstep with the agency. I'm not saying we bring her on blind, but we should give her every opportunity to earn a spot on the high council. She might be a couple years away from taking the throne, let's bring her on now."
"Not like imperium laws can get any stricter on Venus," Naxos pointed out. "I mean, not to be insensitive or to paint with too broad a brush, but it has to be said that women from Venus aren't exactly known for what they have between the ears."
"We'll give her the opportunity to buck the stereotype," Galen suggested. "That's all I'm suggesting. If she's interested enough in the spot for her to contact Solomon about it, then there's probably something there beyond what you'd expect." He lightly tapped his knuckles against the table surface. "That's all for today, meeting adjourned."
"
Princess Serenity sat down on the floor of her bedroom, legs crossed underneath her, watching Chibiusa scamper around in front of her on all fours, chasing a colorful ball around. It was programmed to automatically start rolling around randomly every time she touched it, meaning that catching up to it only gave her another thing to chase after. She was having a lot of fun, fully able to entertain herself.
Which was good, as her mother currently only had a fraction of her attention on the young child. The lion's share of her focus was on what she was holding in her hands, right in front of her. She wore a conflicted scowl that spoke of the weariness in her mind as she closely examined the three page document. The very same one that Prince Endymion had given her a cycle and a half ago.
She scanned the small text along the first page, a bunch of overly-complicated language about the terms of the restraining order, taking about four hundred words to say what could have easily been said in twenty. She wasn't sure what she expected to read this time that she hadn't already read a dozen times before.
She flipped up the bottom right corner of the page, turning it over to the third and last one. Lines along the bottom for signatures. Prince Endymion's on the left. But the line on the right, waiting for her to fill it out, still absent any of her penmarks, rendering the restraining order completely irrelevant without someone who actually wanted to keep the offender away.
She sighed, lolling her head backwards, looking up at the ceiling, then giving a frustrated grunt. With a snap, she slapped the documents on the floor to her left. After contemplating the ceiling for several beats, she looked back over at the papers.
Her turmoil was temporarily interrupted when Chibiusa crawled over, grabbing onto Serenity's right knee and trying to climb into her lap.
"O-oh, hi!" she said awkwardly, so lost in her muddled thoughts she struggled to come up with a good welcome to her daughter. She helped the toddler into her lap, rubbing her little shoulders, but before long, her gaze was pulled back to the documents next to her.