The Walls Also Have Eyes
24 Feb 2022User319792
I docked on Nain Incorporated after another clean-up operation in Summerland and the man in the black suit and Coral were already in the hangar, waiting for me. The man in the black suit never met my eyes, staring off into the hangar bay, and Coral was nervously rubbing the inside of her elbow. I stood in silence, waiting on them to say something. I could hear Captain Green ordering the repair crew over to the stern to patch up the damage I'd done when attempting to touch-down and looked in her direction, only to have the man in the black suit extend his arm quickly, with a fresh set of orders. I read them over and looked toward the man in the black suit, who continued to stare sullenly into the darkest recess of the hangar bay. I looked to Coral and she glanced at me but once before looking at the man in the black suit, who nodded toward Euclid.
When I docked at Mackenzie Relay, one of the suits was already standing there with the Imperial Diplomat that has handled my progress since the day my open palm introduced itself to his face. He looked worn. His eyes were sunken and the circles underneath darkened. His cheeks looked hollow and his hair was relatively disheveled, as far as Imperial diplomats go. He stood at attention, insofar as his attentiveness remained intact. His voice was weakened, as though his throat had been parched for days,
"Always a pleasure to reacquaint myself with you, Miss Nain. Your associate has been briefed on the matter and will provide you with a full assessment in short order. However, as your orders should have explained clearly, your violation of the Imperial exclusion zone protecting the Majestic-Class Imperial Capital ship conducting the final stages of our operations in Summerland left some of our more, shall we say conservative, leadership less thrilled about your continued participation in our operations in the system."
I hadn't expected the violation to be such a big deal. After checking out Darkwater Inc.'s mega-ship Onyx Storm, I'd expected far less concern from Imperial command pertaining to anything other than the total annihilation of Darkwater forces. I was openly firing on a Darkwater Inc. vessel. That it sat directly between Octavian and the interdictor wasn't at the forefront of my attention and I didn't think it would concern them. Nonetheless, I hadn't expected them to strip me of my assignment and ensure that I was ordered to return my Imperial vessels to their station at Fortress York. I looked to the suit, who immediately looked away with the corner of his mouth tucked in and up, before looking back toward the diplomat,
"Is there a reason that my dismissal from duty doesn't grant me free liberty with my own vessels?"
He squinted hard, lowering his head and tucking his chin into his neck. His voice was coarser than before and resonated deeply,
"You misunderstand me, Miss Nain. You have been temporarily relieved of your command duties. You have been placed on voluntary leave for the time being as We conduct Her investigations into the matter of Her Empire's infirmity."
By the time the suit and I boarded Euclid, Rosie's crew had already stripped Charon of its advanced modules and Octavian, Socrates, Eris, and Aristotle were on their way to Fortress York's hangar bays, equally stripped of their modules. When I returned to Nain Incorporated, the suit immediately off-boarded, letting me know he'd be preparing our briefing and I directed him to my quarters. I briefly discussed the matter of module storage with Captain Green, Rosie, and Violet, who suggested I would be doing myself a favor to hire on an outfitting specialist, rather than keeping Rosie's and Violet's bloated crews doing double-services. I mentioned I'd pick up some new vessels to help with module storage, Captain Green looking at me from the sides of her eyes as I said so, and would have them shortly aboard for the crew to use as secondary inventories.
On my way to my quarters, I stopped in at the laboratory, seeing the man in the black suit and Coral looking over her greenhouse. She slapped at his hand as he reached toward one of the potatoes before shushing him away, her eyes fierce and her lips curled into a snarl. He slowly walked in my direction, still facing her and stepping on my toes, turning around in a start as we collided. He asked if there was any news on the Imperial front and I mentioned that a suit had come aboard and was preparing a briefing in my quarters. He nodded, his eyes unfocused and darting back and forth, and sped away. Coral finished rearranging the potatoes in her greenhouse and waved me over.
"You know, I've been talking to some people," I glanced briefly at the greenhouse before turning my head full in her direction, "This thing sort of reeks of an Imperial scrubbing."
I squinted at her before glancing away.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Summerland is a jump away from Achenar in an appropriately outfitted ship. What are the chances this whole "Emperor kidnapping" is cover story for something else?"
I trained my eyes on her for a what felt like minutes. I thought nothing.
"One of the suits is preparing a briefing in my quarters. We can think about it on the way over."
I hadn't expected her to try to pierce through the veil of the official story. The whole organization has been trying to figure out who or what went rogue and if we might have been implicated, but I expected Coral would have been the first to harden our focus on our end of the matter and ignore the externalities. I looked at her from the corner of my eyes, as we continued toward my quarters, and her head was bowed. She held her hands out in front of her, playing with a complex, invisible module, and her head turned from left to right. I began to look forward to what she'd be saying in the briefing when we entered my quarters but she froze at the sight of the suit and remained silent, her eyes soft and wet, for nearly the whole of his time aboard.
The man in the black suit was already deep in discussion with the suit, and the organizational all-hands remained in effect. As it turned out, the Imperial diplomat had found himself in some increasingly hot water. When I slapped him, I'd thought his bloviating nonsense about Imperial slavery was the normal self-congratulating bull about how the institution of Imperial slavery has proven itself to be the measure of cultural fortification. This is not the case.
In the aftermath of the NMLA attacks he found himself making in-roads with Senator Nerva, and his introduction to the organization came at what turned out to be a formative period in his career, crystallizing his already pro-slavery sentiment and steeling him as an avid detractor of the Empress. Our first interaction, paired with The Empress' support for Hadrian's bid for recognition as a member of the Imperial Family, pushed him to throw his support behind Senator Nerva's bid to clear the Neo-marlinists of any involvement, in the Nine Martyrs attack, beyond their tenuous association with the group. Hadrian himself was only too acceptably responsible, and he'd kept his thoughts to himself as ACT investigations first implicated and then cleared The Empress' cousin.
His efforts at bringing himself closer into Senator Nerva's circle were advanced by his continued support and investment in the organization and, eventually, Nain Incorporated. Hoping to keep the organization close, and viewing himself as an inclusive Imperial diplomat, he'd made sure to keep a close eye on me, that the organization's efforts were focused and appropriate for an organization with investments and interests outside of the Empire. My assassination assignments in Achenar and the deaths of hundreds, possible thousands, of anarchists in the surrounding systems were directly resulting from his oversight. The Galileo incident only bolstered his efforts, providing him with further reason to seek Senator Nerva's counsel.
"So what exactly are we worried about?"
The man in the black suit looked at me, wrinkling his eyebrows, and I continued,
"Well, if he isn't already dead and he was still trusted enough to provide us with the orders, shouldn't we assume we're in the clear?"
The suit pursed his lips, looking at Coral- who remained captivated by him- and smiling, before looking back toward me,
"The current matter at hand is that despite our lack of knowledge regarding any of Senator Nerva's activities, our point-of-contact for the establishment of Nain Incorporated was a diplomat with a known affinity for the Senator. The Galileo incident didn't reveal any of our capabilities, providing little more than our own suspicions regarding the possible breaching of the Pilot's Federation's communication's networks- which with our own and Salvation's communications networks, in addition to The Winking Cat's breaching of Galnet, should be little news to them beyond the possible weaponization of benign code. With the information your handler," I looked at the man in the black suit, who's eyes remained fixated toward inactive corners of the room, "has provided us, regarding your activities, we now have reason to believe that our point-of-contact's connection to Senator Nerva could implicate us as potential co-conspirators."
I looked away and my eyes began to lose focus. I don't care about any of these people. At what point would me simply doing my job make me into a co-conspirator in the kidnapping of The Emperor. The suit snapped his fingers in my direction. He looked away, briefly, and laughed before continuing,
"Strangely enough, Miss Nain, when you slapped the diplomat you brought us to his attention. The facts will clear us quickly after a thorough investigation but, as you and the other Miss Nain are familiar with, an Imperial truth is never as simple as a collection of facts."
He completed his briefing, suggesting my decision to complete some hauling contracts in the aftermath of my dismissal may be in the organization's best interests and I made sure to get him safely back to Achenar. The Imperial Diplomat was being worked over with a fierceness and the suit made clear that the organization was doing its part to ensure the Empire never again found itself deceived by its own. Coral remained in silent awe, walking to her greenhouse as we walked the suit to the hangar bay. Having been watching her closely, I looked toward the man in the black suit as she picked up a potato and carried it toward the suit. He received it, looking deeply into her eyes and nodding. They spoke for a short time, Coral growing increasingly relaxed and eventually smiling. They embraced and she was flushed as she walked back toward me. The suit looked toward the man in the black suit, raising the potato, and the man in the black suit slowly nodded. The two men stared at one another before the suit placed the potato in a harness under his arm and boarded his ship.
Coral came within arms reach and explained the suit had been five years ahead of her in the program and all I could think was: who wears a harness for potatoes?