Chapter 13: No Way In

"I got the call set up, Fox."

Fox felt the need to blink a few times, suddenly jolted back into the moment by his newly discovered aunt, Karen Altruis. Glancing towards her, he quietly asked, "Um…is there a way to keep Krystal from 'listening' in on us? You know she's probably going to try."

Mrs. Altruis cocked her head slightly. "Why is that a problem?"

Fox sighed. "I know we don't act like we hate each other, but her goals are completely incompatible with mine, and I wouldn't put it past her to try to throw a wrench in my plans. The less she knows about what I need to do, the better."

The woman nodded, scratching her muzzle. "Well, in that case, I'll put on some music."

"How is that supposed to help?" asked Fox.

"Cerinians are extremely sensitive to outside stimuli. They respond strongly to sounds, bright lights, overpowering emotions—things like that. If you've ever met a highly sensitive person before, Cerinians are like that, but turned up to 11. Overstimulation makes it hard for their telepathy to work."

"Interesting," Fox muttered. "That's good to know."

"Honestly, yeah," Mrs. Altruis replied. "As someone who's gone to Cerinia quite a few times, having a simple way to keep their invisible 'tentacles' out of your head is invaluable."

"So you're familiar with that feeling, too?" asked Fox.

"The 'snakes' on the brain? Yeah," she replied.

While Fox crossed his arms, the woman picked up a thin remote and powered on the large display screen mounted to the wall above the chest of drawers where Fox found the picture of Vixy. Navigating through the various menus, she selected the music tab, then hit play on a playlist titled "Intense Orchestral." The aptly-named playlist began, filling the living room with the sound of a fast-paced string and brass ensemble. Turning the volume up to the point where Fox felt himself becoming overwhelmed by both the volume and the musical complexity, she placed the remote on the chest of drawers and walked past Fox into a hallway outside the living room.

Fox followed her lead as she walked down the hall, which ended in a large study with a skylight that, thanks to the position of the sun, bathed the entire room in an intense wash of light. The instant he stepped into the room, Mrs. Altruis closed the door behind him. The sound of the music in the living room faded for the most part, but not completely.

He allowed himself a moment to take in his surroundings. A simple wooden desk sat in front of a bay window that granted him a view of the narrow street outside the house and the stucco buildings opposite to it. To his right, a viewscreen identical to the one in the living room displayed an image of a strange-looking, lean Cerinian vixen seated in a desk chair. The room she occupied was dimply lit, but enough light existed to highlight the bamboo walls and multiple tapestries that hung from them.

The woman herself had no visible facial fur, which made her heavily tattooed light purple skin even more jarring to look at. She wore a midnight purple robe with its hood lowered, but the small amount of skin visible below her neck suggested that she may have shaved the rest of her fur and tattooed the rest of her body. Her straight-to-a-fault dark purple hair fell short of her shoulders, with several of its strands woven together with decorative gemstone-encrusted beads.

Mrs. Altruis spoke to Fox, then to the screen, breaking the silence in the room. "Fox, this is Hyacinth—captain of the Cerinian High Council's guard. Hyacinth, this is Fox McCloud."

The Cerinian stared at him, her icy purple eyes sizing him up and trying to divine his character and motivations. The seriousness of her gaze made Fox wonder if her telepathy somehow had the ability to travel across the solar system, even though he knew that was impossible. At least, that's what he told himself.

Hyacinth spoke in a quiet, subdued voice that somehow managed to project a subliminal sense of power. And to Fox's surprise and relief, she spoke his language. "Hello. My friend has been telling me about you."

Fox nodded, allowing her to continue. "She claims you know of something that my people need to know about. Please elaborate, if you can."

"Yes," Fox replied, trying to avoid looking intimidated by her. Despite her slender build, she had the distinct appearance of someone who was definitely not to be trifled with. "There's a mega-corporation from the planet Skallis that's planning to attack your planet with an army of Cerinian clones, and one of your people is working with them to make it happen."

Hyacinth reacted with less shock than Fox expected. "Neron," she muttered.

Fox opened his hands. "You already know about him?"

"Yes," said Hyacinth. "We've known about him for over a year. He's been trying to distribute his manifesto as much as possible among the anti-establishment groups on Cerinia. But him working with a corporation from Skallis is new information—very concerning information. Do you happen to know what they're after?"

"As far as we know, they want your planet's natural resources—specifically a black rock called thyresium," Fox explained. "You probably have a different name for it, but it's used as fuel for faster-than-light capital ship engines."

He considered extending the previous sentence and airing his concerns about an empowered, newly imperialistic Cerinian civilization aided by Asgard Industries' interplanetary business network, but in the forefront of his mind, he feared that in some capacity, Hyacinth—like Krystal—would not see a problem with that idea. So, he kept that particular concern unspoken.

The tattooed Cerinian stared at him, traces of confusion visible in her eyes. "I knew Neron better than anyone—and unless he's completely changed as a person, he would never sell himself or Cerinia out, no matter how much someone offered to help him accomplish his goals. I've never met a more principled, loyal, patriotic man than him. So—what that tells me is that this company you claim he's associated with is in lockstep with his plans for Cerinia. Either that, or he plans to stab them in the back after they help him complete his takeover of the Council."

Fox returned an expression of surprise. "I didn't tell you about them wanting to overthrow the Council. Did you already know?"

"Of course," said Hyacinth. "He's been distributing his goals to anyone on Cerinia willing to listen. We know he wants to depose the High Priest and reform the Council. He just never said how he planned to do it. But now that you've pointed out how he wants to enact his plan, I'm a lot more worried."

The realization that she—and likely by extension, the Cerinian Council—knew about Neron's goals (however vaguely) caused Fox to fall silent as he pondered his next response. "That's it? They already know? Does that mean that this idea is dead now and we need to plan to go to war with Asgard directly or to attack the planet's thyresium deposits? But wait—she didn't know about Asgard's involvement with this. They probably viewed Neron as a credible threat, but not a major one that needed to be dealt with immediately."

A question popped into his head—a question with an answer that could possibly resolve the tension around the plans that he, Felix, and Scarlet had in mind. He chose to present it. "Hyacinth, how confident are you that your defenses and your fleet would be able to hold off an invasion force if one attacked right now?"

The Cerinian looked uncertain. Her ears twitched, and she suddenly struggled to make eye contact with Fox. "I don't know if I can answer that…I wish we were in person so I could judge your motives." She locked eyes with him again. "So, before I answer that question, I have one for you, Fox: under whose auspices are you operating? I doubt you're working alone. Ordinary people don't just find the information you gave me. Your answer will determine mine."

Fox cringed, knowing that telling the truth would likely not go over well with her. But he feared that if he fabricated a story, the lie would unwind itself eventually and leave him in an even worse spot. After all, he was dealing with a race of telepaths. So, he chose to be honest with her. "I'm working for the CEO of the Gaia Corporation on Skallis."

Hyacinth frowned. "Asgard's rival, I presume."

"Yeah," Fox sighed. "Look, I know what you're thinking—I don't have any ulterior motives. I just want to make sure that your planet's government stays the way it is."

The Cerinian raised a surprised, subliminally angry eyebrow. "How does that concern you at all?" she snapped with traces of xenophobia leeching into the tone of her voice.

A knot formed in Fox's throat. He knew what he needed to say, but the icy hand of fear kept him mute. If he revealed the reason for his—and Felix's—worries about Asgard's scheme, would Hyacinth share them, or would she react like Krystal and decide that a corporate-backed Cerinian imperial project was, in fact, a fantastic idea?

He saw no way forward except to confront his fears head-on. "This concerns me and everyone who lives in the three closest star systems, because Asgard's plan with Neron is to use Cerinia's natural resources to create a monopoly on thyresium. This would make so that once the mines in the rest of the systems are dried up, faster-than-light travel would be severely restricted unless governments and companies went through Asgard Industries to buy the material. And if your hint that Asgard might be in lockstep with Neron's agenda for Cerinia is true, he might be planning to leverage Asgard's monopoly on thyresium to strongarm other planetary governments into changing their policies, or even trying to rule over them. Basically, my fear—and the reason I care about this—is that if Neron's plan succeeds, this entire corner of the galaxy might become a corporate-backed Cerinian empire. I don't have anything against you or your people, but I do not want that."

Hyacinth sat in silence, processing Fox's statement. With every second, his anxiety grew even more intense. Then, the woman sighed. "I understand, Fox. Thank you for being honest with me. I sense that you were afraid I would hear the truth about Neron's ultimate goal and agree with it. Let me put your mind at ease: I most certainly do not."

Fox let out a colossal sigh of relief.

"We were born from the ruins of a fallen empire," said Hyacinth, "We are the royal exiles, the descendants of the fall. The Council's policy from the beginning has been to remain separate from the other systems and people in this part of the universe—not for our sake, but for theirs. No one questioned this foundational doctrine until recently."

"Can you explain?" asked Fox. "To be honest, I'm mostly in the dark about your people. I don't really know what you're about."

"That's okay, Fox," Hyacinth replied. "It's that way by design. But to understand why Neron is planning to overthrow the Council and why there's a growing resistance against them on Cerinia, you have to understand that when this planet was first colonized, we had an enormous head start when it came to technology. We were where your civilization is now, but over a thousand years ago."

Fox's eyes widened.

The woman continued, "We saw what happened to our empire. We realized how hated we had become, and how far our subjects were willing to go to be rid of us. So we colonized a planet far from the part of the galaxy we came from. We kept to ourselves for centuries, choosing not to advance our technology or our military capabilities beyond what they were when we first set foot on Cerinia's surface. This was fine for over a thousand years, but as time went on, other civilizations began to develop space travel and more powerful weapons. And we started to feel threatened. We've never had a conflict with anyone outside of Cerinia before, so we don't truly know how capable our defense network is. But some of us who've seen what people like you have access to think that we no longer have superior technology. The growing fear on Cerinia, and the reason there's a resistance building, is that we won't be able to defend ourselves if a hostile foreign power decides to attack us. This is the fear that Neron is preying on—his propaganda messages are filled with fearmongering about the Council being weak and impotent."

Fox cocked his head slightly. "It sounds like you share their concerns, though."

"I do," Hyacinth replied, "The acting Council has taken and is taking active steps to build up our current military capabilities, but some people here on Cerinia don't think it's enough. Neron's message is that keeping our defensive, isolated policy in place is an outdated view that doesn't work anymore—he thinks the only way forward is to look outside Cerinia and to compete with other planets in this system, both economically and militarily. And if he's working alongside a large enough company that has his back, I can see him finding a way to do that."

A tense, flat expression crossed Fox's lips. "As I told you, Neron plans to attack your planet, and when he does, you'll know why, and to some extent you'll know what he plans to do afterwards. So, my question is, 'what are you going to do about it?'"

Hyacinth looked downwards for a second before reluctantly meeting Fox's eyes again. "I suppose we'll do our best to fight him off. But if I'm vulnerably honest with you, I think we'll fail."

"Why? Because you don't have the military power to hold off Asgard's corporate landing fleet?"

The Cerinian shook her head. "No—because I think enough of our own people will defect or refuse to fight. The Council has been cracking down on dissent more than they have in history, and it's not working. The people here have gotten a taste of your culture—your devices, your media, your music, your ideas…and many of them want more of it. The fact that I'm speaking your language right now is proof enough that we can't keep ourselves completely walled off from the rest of the galaxy. But we have to maintain our identity and our traditions. We won't exist anymore if we abandon them. Neron wants to do that. And unfortunately, many of my fellow Cerinians agree with him."

A feeling of defeat threatened to creep into Fox's psyche. He only had one thing left to offer Hyacinth, and if he was honest with himself, he knew it was worthless. Yet, he still chose to put a voice to it. "The CEO of the Gaia Corporation really does not want Asgard to take control of your planet's resources, and he'd be willing to send ships to your planet to help you hold off the invasion force. Look—I know you're going to ask what he wants, and I know he would love to have access to those thyresium deposits. But he doesn't want to mess with your government, and he seems like the kind of guy who'd respect your culture. And you said that your people can't wall yourselves off forever. Might as well let someone in with less questionable motives, you know?"

Hyacinth let out an audible groan. "The Council would never agree to it. If you and your 'business friend' want to attack Asgard's landing force outside Cerinia's orbit, go ahead. But if you venture into our sphere of influence, you're going to be viewed as an enemy—possibly more than Asgard's fleet, because Neron is involved with them, and you have no one."

Felix's last conversation with him flashed through Fox's mind, reminding him of one final detail. "No—we have someone you'll be receptive to. Just give me a chance."

Hyacinth lowered her head and looked upwards at him with a borderline mocking gaze. "Who is this 'someone?'"

"I don't know," Fox admitted, furious that Felix couldn't have given him more information. "They're someone important, though. Just…give me a chance to bring them to you so your Council can decide if they want our help or if they want to get overthrown by Neron and Asgard."

Fox thanked his lucky stars that his boldface lie about Felix's mysterious 'someone' being important to the Cerinians was not able to be vetted by Hyacinth's telepathy. At the same time, he desperately hoped that his unfounded statement somehow held a shred of truth.

The Cerinian looked at him and sighed, frustrated and dismayed but also realizing that she had no options of her own to successfully repel the looming attack. "Fox, the Council will never agree to meet with you in person. That's just not how it works here. They won't speak to outsiders in person. But if this so-called 'important person' you're talking about is one of our own, they might entertain it. Having said that, I don't see you getting any traction with the Council, no matter what you do."

Fox's ears and shoulders fell. His voice a mixture of anger and crushing disappointment, he spat, "Well, then they're screwed. And so are you and I. Hope that makes you happy."

The genuine frustration behind his words hit Hyacinth harder than she expected it to. Her ears flicked backwards momentarily before she collected herself and replied, "I'll tell you what—I'll send you a code to get past our orbital defense network. If that 'important person' you mentioned really is important and is one of my people, you can bring them here." She narrowed her eyes. "…But if they're not, and you've been bluffing, it will not end well for you."

"I understand," said Fox, grimly.

Hyacinth shifted in her chair, then added, "I've already stepped away from my duties for too long, so I need to get going. I'll send you the code momentarily. And by the way, even though I don't know if there's anything either of us can do about all this, I do appreciate your concern. Thanks for putting in the effort to reach me."

"You're welcome."

The Cerinian moved to turn off her camera, but before she did, she glanced to her right—at Fox's aunt—and said, "It was good to see you too, Karen. I wish things weren't the way they are right now. I'd love to be able to bring you back here again."

"Me too," Mrs. Altruis lamented.

"Goodbye," said Hyacinth, closing the call and causing the viewscreen on the wall to turn blue.

With the sound of the loud classical music from the living room filtering through the study door, Mrs. Altruis turned to Fox and asked in a whisper, "How concerned should I be about this?"

Fox frowned. "Immediately? Not very. But over time, I think it will cast a shadow over a lot of things if Asgard succeeds."

His aunt's PDA chirped and indicated a message from Hyacinth, which she opened. "That's the code she said she'd send. Go ahead and write it down."

"Got it."

With the primary purpose of his visit complete, Fox let out a deep breath and looked out the study window, then back at his aunt. "I wish I could stay longer. It's been a long time since I've…well…interacted with any of my family members. Most of them have been gone for a while."

The vixen returned a mournful expression. "I know—it has to be hard knowing what happened with your mom…and your dad."

Fox shook his head and muttered, "And now on top of all this bullshit with Cerinia, I find out that my mom was alive for years, and that I never had the chance to see her again because my dad wouldn't be honest with me."

Although her expression betrayed uncertainty, Mrs. Altruis replied, "If I'm honest, I was never fond of him. I know you're nothing short of a hero, but both I and Vixy were always wary about the whole mercenary thing."

"Do you think she wouldn't have wanted me to do what I'm doing?"

Mrs. Altruis let out a reserved sigh. "I don't think it, Fox—I know it. It was something she was willing to look past with your dad…for a while…but keeping up with you from out here, she wasn't excited about where you were heading. But make no mistake—she was beyond proud of you for what you did in the war."

Fox sat in silence, processing her statement. "That makes it two people who've hinted that I should hang it up. And you know what? After this situation with Cerinia is taken care of, maybe I will. I can't believe my dad would lie to me about my mom like that. Why? Was it because he knew she wouldn't approve of me following in his footsteps? Did he lie to me so I would? It wasn't my idea to go to military school. Everything that happened after that—meeting Falco and Slippy, Andross, Pigma betraying my dad on Venom—was more or less an accident. I never felt like I had much of a choice in any of it. It was a case of 'this is how it is, and you're the one who's equipped to handle it.' Same as it ever was, I guess. I'm in that exact same spot now. I don't want any part in this. I don't give a shit about Felix's company or hyperspace routes or thyresium. I don't want to fight to protect a group of people who can't even be bothered to talk to me in person because I'm not good enough for them. But if I do nothing, guess who's going to be putting their boots on our collective necks eventually? Or maybe Hyacinth really is right—there's nothing I can do about it. Maybe I really should walk away before I get killed in a pointless war."

As he thought, however, one notion occurred to him. "I'll find out more about Felix's 'important person,' then I'll make my decision."