Federated Commonwealth
November 14th, 3056.
There is always something to upset the most careful
of human calculations.
-Ihara Saikahu, 1642-1693
Hagiwawa. Kitalpha. Junction. Homam. Proserpina.
The systems and jumps passed by in a blur as Omi traveled onward. One planet was the same as another to the grieving princess as she fled the ruin of her family. Her days were filled with little but the attempt to deal with the ghosts of her dead father, uncle, and brothers. Nights...the nights were worse.
More than once Omi woke up from fitful sleep in tears or a cold sweat. The memory of the men she had killed blurred with Hohiro and Minoru's faces in her dreams. Sometimes in her dreams, she was the one to stab her brother in the back and feel his blood splash against her robes and hear his dying rattle of breath.
Those nights, sleep totally abandoned her.
It was on Proserpina when Omi left the Yukikaze as one of the flotsam flung free by the explosion engulfing the Combine. Walking down the ramp to the port like a ghost, her heart numb and her tears having ceased only when she had no more to give from her burning eyes in the weeks since her brother's final words, news reached Omi. The recording of her brother's defiant death as all was lost for him had spread from Benjamin on the wings of dropship traffic and HPG transmissions. Like a rock thrown into a lake, the ripples were spreading throughout the Combine.
Warlord Benjamin was dead in the second day of rioting that had engulfed his capital, blamed for the treason that had claimed her brother. Warlord Galedon had pledged his support to her half-brother Franklin Sakamoto, who was forming a government on her ancestral homeworld. Warlord Pesht was incommunicado, although unconfirmed reports spoke of fighting that mirrored the worst of the First Succession War on worlds bordering the Smoke Jaguars . Meanwhile her cousin Miyako called for loyal samurai to flock to her banner raised on Dieron to take revenge for her father's death by treachery.
Omi roused herself to act then through her will to perform one last duty to the Combine as Keeper of the House Honor. As Shin Yodama made the final arrangements to cross the border, she visited the Proserpina HPG and the Pillarine temple. Orders were sent; the same orders as those of Jamila Benhashemi when the Von Rohrs took over. "Go underground, preserve the Combine, aid the true Kuritas, not the usurper Sakamoto." A brief message of commiseration to Miyako for their shared loss and a promise of support for her now-orphaned cousin on Dieron. Finally, Omi stared at the screen and then slowly typed a line of poetry that she had memorized.
"Les sanglots longs/Des violons/De l'automne/Blessent mon coeur/D'une langueur/Monotone."
Next came the address of a trading concern on Robinson, and she then slid her new identification card made out to Aihara Tokiko to send it priority to the location which the diplomatic courier from New Avalon had specified int he message that she received last year.
With that, she exited the HPG compound and headed down the street past the flapping Combine banners with a heavy, leaden tread to her rendezvous with Shin Yodama. She knew in her heart that she would likely never return to her homeland; no chance that she could visit the graves of her brothers, father, and ancestors to pray for their spirits. Her last sight of the Combine was the poison-filled clouds of Proserpina, poisoned by the centuries of war between her family and Victor's as her shuttle broke ground enroute to the Wanakaze.
Xhosa VII. Clovis. Exeter.
"Purpose of entry?"
Omi controlled an involuntary wince as her healing shoulder took the opportunity to remind her of how close to death she had come. She was fortunate to have only suffered a punctured lung and a clean fracture of her collarbone in the escape from Benjamin.
"Trade in ivories." She responded coolly, taking the opportunity to open the teak box to show the customs clerk the exquisitely carved Kitsune no Yomieri set of figurines that she had brought with her across the Combine. The katana was hidden underneath the velvet holding the other ivories, of course. Omi refused to part with the sword, even if she still had nightmares about the man she had killed with it.
"Identification?" The clerk adjusted his half-moon glasses to look at her as she handed over her identity card.
He swiped it in the reader, and the computer beeped twice, relaying a message generated automatically.
"Miss Aihara, there is a security hold on your party. Take a seat there until a supervisor can arrive to process you." He pointed to a waiting area guarded by a pair of soldiers in AFFC green undress uniforms under the Fist and Sunburst.
Omi nodded and waved Shin over to sit next to her under the eyes of the guards. The ex-Yakuza raised an eyebrow and leaned his head toward the pale-faced girl with bags under her eyes dressed in the utilitarian coveralls prevalent Sphere-wide for ship crew. "Problems?"
Omi shook her head. "I sent a code before we left that should have flagged this identity for special processing. The Fox relayed it to allow me to contact authorities of sufficient rank to process me and provide swift transportation to safety." She inclined her head to the nearer guard, who was staring at the two Combine refugees with naked suspicion tempered by hatred. "Old feuds run deep in this part of the Inner Sphere."
"Hai." Shin replied laconically before leaning back in his chair to read a magazine from the waiting room table showing a stunning young blonde woman in a sundress clearly patterned after the Lyran Royal Guards' colors.
Half a hour later, Omi focused her attention on a short, finely featured brunette woman in uniform with striking hazel eyes and a dark chocolate skin tone entering the waiting area with an obvious aide in tow. The guards saluted her, which she returned as she zeroed in on Omi. "Miss Aihara?" she questioned in a slightly musical voice. "Hauptmann Indira Parvati of Panpour. I just need you to verify your identity." With that she waved her aide to open his briefcase to extract a portable DNA scanner.
Omu nodded and placed her finger in the indicated sample tube. there was a brief prick of pain as the machine took the blood sample, then a beep and a flashing green light. Parvati gave a brilliant smile. "There! You are who we have been expecting. If you will follow me, we have a car."
Omi stood wearily and walked with the Feddies through the building to where a green-painted hoverlimo waited in a parking spot marked OFFICIAL BUSINESS ONLY with a burly sergeant standing guard next to it. Parvati opened the rear door for them, and then followed as her aide took a seat up front behind the armored partition.
As the limo began to move, Parvati rubbed her temples then gave Omi an inquisitive look as she spoke in accented Combine Japanese. "I don't know who you are, or what's going on, but I received FLASH orders to assist a young lady showing up with your name and that DNA profile two weeks ago, as did every other MIIO and DMI office in the March. So, if you don't mind me being blunt, what in the world is going on and how can DMI assist you?"
Omi gave a wan smile, then glanced at Shin. Her companion gave a small nod and a reassuring squeeze of the hand. "My name is Omiko Kurita, daughter of Theodore Kurita, and I wish to ask for asylum on New Avalon as quickly as I can be transported there. I fear that I am the last survivor of my family."
Across from her, the DMI officer opened and closed her mouth like a fish on dry land, forcing Omi to stiffle a highly inappropriate case of the giggles.
"Arey, Kya?!" Parvati swore, the tone of the expression showing her shock despite Omi not knowing a word of Hindi. She then punched the intercom button. "Driver! Get us to the Duke's residence and step on it. Call McLauren from MIIO and tell him to meet us there too. This promises to be an all-nighter." Parvati then shook her head and focused on Omi.
"Well on behalf of the FedCom welcome to Exeter, Kurita Omiko-sama. We will get you the rest of the way to New Avalon, although I have to warn you, it's a kicked over anthill for us as well these days.
