Isha made her way through the large halls of the Emperor's fortress, quietly glad for the anonymity her human guise gave her. Most of the fortress's inhabitants knew her now, and most of them said nothing, merely nodding as she passed them by.
It was pleasant. Even now, her relationship with the Emperor and his closest advisors was defined by careful calculation on both sides, and the mortals who did know who she was (or at least knew her as one of her children, not human) usually regarded her with a mixture of fear and awe. But as far as most of the inhabitants of Bai-heng were concerned, she was merely another brilliant scientist employed by the Emperor, and there was little reason to regard her with any real fear or wariness.
Finally, she emerged onto one of the large platforms that had been built to extend outside the mountain, where her newer farms were located. A series of large glasshouses had been constructed across the platform, alternating with large, open air fields where crops grew. Various scientists, part of the Biotechnical Division, were milling around, examining various plants and tending to work she or Astarte had given them.
One of them made his way towards her. "Lady Isha," Ezekiel Sedayne said, bowing.
"Doctor Sedayne." She nodded back, not stopping her walk as he followed her.
"I was wondering, have you made any progress on the plans on expanding the Jungles of Hy-Brasil?"
Isha nodded absently, her mind focused on analysing each and every crop, plant and medicine in the labs down to the cellular level, searching for any defects and impurities. "Oh, yes. I completed it last night and informed the Emperor of it."
Isha felt a flicker of anger and envy from Sedayne, though he hid it well. He had been hoping to complete that particular project himself, she knew, to outshine both herself and Astarte.
Perhaps she would let him, next time he brought up something like this, Isha mused as she reached out through the Immaterium to tweak the gene-code of a plant that had developed a harmful mutation. Expanding that jungle was hardly an urgent project and there would have been no harm in letting Sedayne sate his pride.
Yes, next time, she would allow him to do it, Isha decided.
"I see," Sedayne said finally, doing his best to conceal his sour expression. "And have you given any further thought to the, ah, project?"
Isha sighed slightly at the question, even as she took note of another crop that had developed a beneficial mutation, deciding to leave that in for future generations. "I have, and my answer has not changed. I will not aid in any cloning of human beings, least of all super soldiers."
Sedayne looked vaguely disgruntled. Ambitious and ruthless though he was, the man was fiercely loyal to the Emperor, and he did not like it when people disagreed with his lord's plans. "And there is nothing I can do to change your mind?"
"Nothing the Emperor has not already tried, no," Isha replied dryly, absently accelerating the growth of a few of the younger panacea trees. It was always good to have more cures for the cruelties of Chaos.
Ezekiel looked sullen and Isha took pity on him. "Come," She said, waving a hand towards one of the glasshouses. "There is something I wish to show you."
Despite his current mood, Ezekiel was a scientist at heart and could not resist his curiosity, following Isha into the glasshouse. Here, there were a variety of fruits growing: raspberries, mangoes, bananas, but each of them had been modified to serve as a medicine for various diseases, both natural and artificial.
Striding over to a table, Isha plucked a vial from a rack, along with a dataslate from one of the drawers. "Tell me, doctor, are you aware of what this is?"
Ezekiel frowned, peering at the vial. " A sample of a bioweapon used by the Pan-Pacific Empire, I believe," He said after a few moments. "What of it?"
"I would like you to spend some time working on it, if you are willing," Isha replied, offering him the dataslate.
Ezekiel's frown deepened even as he took it. "Why? Surely there is nothing I can do to improve on your work?" He said somewhat bitterly.
"I'm afraid I'm rather busy at the moment with various other projects, especially the terraforming," Isha replied, leaning against the table and enhancing the growth of the medicinal fruits with a thought. "I have been able to create a cure for it, but not an inoculant as of yet. Perhaps you could do it for me, while I'm busy?" A lie, one that Astarte would not have believed, but Ezekiel was not privy to the full extent of Isha's abilities and knowledge.
Sedayne's eyes narrowed suspiciously, no doubt wondering what she was up to, but he also recognized an opportunity when he saw, and his pride demanded that he make an attempt to outshine her. "Very well, I will see what I can do when I have the time."
Isha suppressed a smile. "Thank you."
Now, that would soothe Sedayne's wounded pride, keep him from asking her about cloning on the Emperor's behalf, and perhaps he might even learn something new that didn't involve his work.
"The Imperium prospers," Malcador remarked, settling into the chair opposite the Emperor. "The people inch ever closer to the living standards of the Golden Age, our enemies are slowly but surely crumbling, and our soldiers are even better than we dared hope. We have even begun to deploy scouting missions to the rest of Sol and beyond."
The Emperor nodded. "Yes, our plans are going far better than we hoped. At this rate, I project that we will have conquered Sol and launched the reunification of all humans within twenty years or less. Mars remains the most problematic issue, we have the tools to solve everything else relatively easily."
"Far better than we had hoped for," Malcador admitted. "And yet, so much of it is because of an Eldar warp-construct."
He raised a hand to stop the Emperor from speaking. "Yes, I know. We are on a timetable, we must use every resource available to us and she has more than upheld her side of the deal so far in exchange for a frankly trivial repayment. I deny none of that. But old habits die hard, and I still fear that this will have consequences down the line."
"Then we will deal with those consequences when the time comes," the Guardian of Mankind responded calmly, pulling out a bottle of wine, an expensive gift from one of his vassals, from his drawer and pouring the crimson liquid into a pair of glasses. "Right now, the priority is reclaiming the Primarchs, crushing the Orks and preventing Chaos from building up. Everything else can wait. And I am still very much the stronger partner here. Isha, even if we assume that she has been lying all this time, is no fool. She will not endanger her life and her people's wellbeing recklessly."
"I am aware," Malcador said, accepting the glass of wine and sipping from it, savouring the rich, sweet taste. "Still, so much of our infrastructure and resources are dependent on Isha now. It makes me uncomfortable. But you're right, speed is the priority here."
What would happen if they failed to reclaim the Primarchs or crush the Orks in time did not bear thinking about.
The Emperor nodded. "I do have plans for making us less reliant on Isha soon. I have studied her work extensively, and I believe we can reproduce a not inconsiderable amount of it once we have the proper facilities. We will need to capture Luna, but once we have, we can repurpose much of the Selenar gene-labs to serve as the primary source of food and medicine for the Imperium instead of Isha's farms."
"That is good," Malcador said with a sigh, taking another drink of wine. "And yet, the issue still comes back to speed. We will not be able to take Luna for at least another three years."
"We are going as fast as we can with our current resources." The Emperor replied, setting his wine down and steepling his fingers. "Any faster would hamper our efforts to build up a strong base to expand from, not help it." The Lord of Mankind frowned, a flicker of annoyance crossing his face. "If only Isha was willing to lend more aid with the production of the Astartes…but she is angered every time I press her on the topic."
Malcador snorted slightly. "You asked her about cloning again, didn't you?"
"I did," The Emperor replied, leaning back in his chair. "It had to be done."
Malcador shook his head and set down his empty glass. "How many times are you going to do this song and dance? You raise it, she gets angry, and then you two don't talk about it for months until you think that she might be amenable to agreeing, it turns out her answer hasn't changed and the whole process repeats. This is, what, the fifth time? I'm afraid I've forgotten."
"The sixth," The Emperor corrected, a little sourly, well aware that Malcador had forgotten nothing and was merely needling him.
Malcador chuckled. "You need to learn to let things go. As useful as being able to clone Space Marines rapidly would be, we are already considerably ahead of schedule and the Thunder Warriors serve their role well enough for now."
"Yes, but it could be faster," The Emperor retorted. "The faster we can finish the conquest of Earth, the less time that Chaos and the Orks have to grow stronger and the more quickly we can find the Primarchs."
"Have you actually informed Isha of that last part?" Malcador inquired dryly. "Or only the first two?"
The Emperor's silence was telling. Malcador sighed. "I do not think she will ever agree to cloning, given what she told us of her experiences during the War in Heaven, but if you told her that you are looking for your sons, she might give up some other secret or creation that would speed up the conquest. Use her soft heart to your advantage, old friend, do not try to work against it."
The Master of the Imperium still did not deign to respond, and Malcador sighed again. He understood his friend's reticence in confiding his fears and worries for his lost children in anyone, much less an Eldar Goddess the two of them had known for the blink of an eye, relatively speaking, but they truly did need to speed up the Imperium's rise to power as much as possible. And given how much they had trusted Isha with already…
"I will speak to her about it," The Emperor said finally. "And I shall see what I can convince her to do so."
Malcador nodded. He considered it for a moment, and decided that this was as good a moment as any to inform the Emperor that Astarte wished to speak to him on the matter of the Thunder Warriors and Space Marines.
But as Malcador opened his mouth, the doors to the Emperor's study burst open, and Valdor entered, the usually dignified Captain-General hurtling like a bullet towards the Emperor's desk.
"Valdor?" Malcador questioned as the Captain-General slid to a halt in front of them, concerned by this deeply uncharacteristic behaviour. "What in the world is the matter?"
The Captain-General spoke so rapidly that no one without superhuman perception would have understood him, his words shocking Malcador to the core and causing the Emperor to go completely rigid.
"The Star Hunters sent a report back from the Cthonia system. They have found a Primarch."
Author's Note: And here we go with a new chapter, and the beginning of a new arc. For those interested, the next chapter is already up on my P-a-t-r-e-o-n, the link to which you can find on the Spacebattles or SufficentVelocity version of this fic.