Too hot and moist to make sparring a great idea. Let's do our jobs, but intersperse that with asking Ms Marlowe about who or what might be behind the mole attacks, Lady Mercury about those friendly beetles she found, and Brother Karl about the benefits of being part of a noble house.
"I think we should actually do our jobs." You answer. Autumn shoots you a scowl, but obediently steps up to the server cart and gets to work.
Phase one of the operation is clearing the many rooms directly accessible from the temple foyer. You watch on many feeds as Lady Mercury's people enter several small shrines, bedrooms, and dining halls. Some of the rooms contain artifacts and knickknacks made of silver, and although you don't witness any acts of defilement or plunder, you can't help but worry that it might happen on a POV that is not actively being watched.
You notice Ms. Marlowe lean in close to your date, and whisper something into her ear for about 30 seconds. Then Autumn speaks.
"Mary says it was obivious that this temple belonged to a diety of life, based on the fact it is able to sustain this biosphere on a largely terraformed planet. But what we have seen of this temple makes it clear that this diety or spirit is more specifically attuned to life's pleasures."You nod.
"Makes sense. While I have one of Ms. Marlowe's mouthpieces handy though, I was wondering what she thinks of these recent monster attacks."The priestess once agains whispers to her patron for some time.
"She says she felt a malignant presence around the venue just before the attack on our last date. She paid it little heed at the time; Her faith teaches the foul spirits are attracted to the stage, but rendered harmless by true talent. No mere stage spirit, however, would dare do something like that in Mary's presence, or survive to escape unharmed and undetected if it did so. Her theory is that whatever is behind the attacks is either a higher incorporeal being, such as a diety, or a being capable of extremely high level astral projection."Both Lady Mercury and her friend then blush.
"At the time, were she not so timid, Mary would have accused your councilor Amoy. Truly Ancient Chrono-Sirens are some of the few non-divine beings capable of projecting their consciousness in a way that is both completely undetectable and capable of further magic. But the second attack occurred after Amoy left, and Mary does not believe that she is capable of projecting with such perscision from outside of the system.""Heh. Your pet priestess is wise, m'lady." States Sister Shelly, still in the phyiscal and verbal guise of your humble chronicler.
"Amoy is indeed capable of such a projection. If she is closely orbiting a blue star, as she is supposed to be doing right now, she may even be powerful enough to project across systems. I'd even wager she had motive; The girls kicked around the idea staging some sort of disaster to give you hotheaded lovebirds something to fight together. But sadly, Amoy lacks the sort of magic required to create life from nothing, and wouldn't have yet reached her destination star by the time of the second attack."Ms. Marlowe listens, and leans in to whisper to Autumn once more. After hearing the priestess out, Lady Mercury answers.
"Then the most likely culprit is the patron of one of this world's many temples. Mary suggests whatever it is, it is likely drawn to and angered by people moving and reacting as a large group, as the targets were a concert and a large group of soldiers in the middle of a drill. She suggests you ban large assemblies on the planet's surface for the time being.""Thank you, I'll take that into consideration." You attempt to look Ms. Marlowe in the eye, but she averts her gaze.
You let awkward silence stew for a moment, as you watch a feed in which two of Lady Mercury's underlings argue if a silver decoration is supposed to be a vase or a marital aid. Eventuelly the argument ends inconclusively, and you turn your attention back to the company in the room.
"So, m'lady. I read the report about the cave system. What do you think about the beetles?"Autumn's face lights up at that querry.
"Their crystal secretions taste real good. Scans suggested it could be brewed into a sort of mead, so we are doing just that. The batch will be ready in about a month and a half, and we are going to celebrate with a big tasting party. Personally, I recommend that you marry me or end the courtship before then. I'd love to invite you, but not so much that I'm willing to let that party become a chaperoned chaste date.""M'lady!" Brother Karl protests,
"that is forward and imprudent of you. Please refrain from making such comments!"The three other Golden Elk in the room laugh uproarously, amused at their comrade's impossible task of controlling their master.
You decide to bail the Chapperone out by asking about the rights of nobility. You know this topic well, as you have spent a good deal of your career dealing with them as clients and even impersonating their kind. The Confederation doesn't really care much for the ruling class of the old empire, and are perhaps the least friendly successor state towards the nobles. But still, they have to pay some lip service to the old privileges to maintain friendly relations with other, noble dominated, human civilizations. In the Confederation, Nobles are the sole beings allowed to serve as planetary governors or command the sort of truly massive capital ship or space station that hosts a 'planet like' economy. They are also generally immune to most forms of taxation, and are subject to looser regulations as to how they handle the starships and transhumans under their control.
The noble houses are kept from holding true power by the "New Rich" merchant class. Cartels and mega-corporations run by wealthy non-noble families pick infertile, strictly homosexual, or otherwise ostracized nobles to "rule" planets in their name as puppets who will die without a heir, allowing their masters to install a similar loyalist after they pass or retire.
But the houses do maintain some power. A number of prominent houses control enough lower value agricultural and resort worlds to field small starfleets and wield some power in the halls of the Confederation's weak central government. Like minded noble families form unions to protect and advocate for their interests. Although they generally claim some lofty purpose or another, the primary function of a noble union is to quickly form a quorum of nobles that can vote the deconsecrate the bloodline of any merchant family audacious enough to marry into noble blood so that they may attempt to rule planets directly.
Brother Karl gleefully explains all this, despite the fact that you already know it. Eventually however he gets to giving you some new information, relating to the local Noble Unions.
"There are two in this vast stretch of the frontier." Brother Karl explains,
"each about as powerful on paper as any noble union in Confederation Space, but spread out over much wider areas. The Staging Guild is far more likely to be friendly to your cause, governor. They are closely tied to the central government, and support the actions of many of its departments - including the Judgement Department's Penal Colony program. M'lady's brother Lord Auditor July is loosely affiliated with this union, as their public facing leader is Lord Governor Vitalus of the Cauldron of Prayers in the Frontier Gate system. Many transhumans, myself included, are born on that world, and our creation benefits the union as we either serve it directly or by yielding taxation on our sale and creation. So it benefits the union to keep a few Department of Human Integrity Auditors on the payroll."Brother Karl pauses for a second before explaining the other local union.
"They call themselves the Congress of the Frontier. They have some ties to cartels and mega corporations who want to conduct the sort of experiments that civilized people do not want on their world or in their system, but in general they value their independence and keep their distance from the Confederation and its various official functionaries. Normally, I'd advise you to be wary of this group; They have a reputation for hiring pirates and aliens to take out penal colonies to prevent the Judgement Department from gaining a foothold in their turf, but they also do alot of busniess with smugglers and other such nerdowells, so it is possible you might get along. The congress is led by Governor de'Rooster of a planet called Verdant Globe that is probally just outside the Solo's single jump range from here. de'Rooster is said to be an agricultural genius, and allegedly exports 5 to 8 times the amount of food expected from a crop world the size of the Verdant Globe. Perhaps a good ally to have if you plan on housing more people than you can feed."A brief silence falls, before Autumn speaks reluctantly in a low growl.
"What Brother Karl fails to mention, probably because he knows I hate the fucker, is that my father Jove commands a star destroyer for The Congress of the Frontier. You are my friend and likely husband. Even if that wasn't the case, my well being is now tied to the fate of this world. I'm not sure how much pull he has within the union, but I'd be willing to reach out to him on your behalf if you'd like.""That is very mature of you, m'lady."Lady Mercury wordlessly flips Brother Karl a rude gesture, and turns her attention back to the hologram POVs floating above the server cart. Juan's group is now preparing to open a sealed set of double doors at the bottom of a flight of stairs, that likely leads to the basement. They wait until a few more groups arrive to back them up, before going in.
The basement is an impressive chamber, similar in size and layout to the temple foyer where you stand. Where the foyer has a wine fountain, however, the basement has a strange pool of sparking, glowing, rainbow colored goop. Someone in Juan's group is quick to scan the pool, and the results are quite fascinating. The pool is entirely liquid biomass, largely made up of perfectly preserved cells and DNA. The scan recognizes human donors, terran animals, and several dozen alien species, but the vast majority of the biomass in the pool, about 88% of it, is of unknown origin. Also fascinating is the origin of the pool's sparks and glow: a neural network. Thinking cells of many species are linked together; the density of this network seems to increase as one travels deeper into the pool, but the scan only pierces about a meter of the goop. One more thing resides in the pool: vines. They extend from the center of the goop, completely covering the floors and walls of the basement chamber.
On the POVs, Juan's group spreads out and begins to explore without incident, but up in the foyer things begin to get exciting.
"Lady Mercury, we must leave now." Brother Karl declares,
"something is trying to lure us into that basement with inhaled pheromones."Autumn frowns.
"But I don't smell anything... or have any urge to go anywhere."You quickly tap your wrist interface to run an allergen scan of the air in the foyer. Sure enough, there is enough unknown psychoactive pollen in the air to absolutely melt a human mind. The fact that it is not affecting Lady Mercury, you, or anyone else in the room is strange.
"I see it. But if it was going to get us, we'd be got by now." You muse,
"I don't even think my helmet would protect me from that much crap in the air. Perhaps, Brother Karl, it only affects Transhuma- FUCK!"It is at that moment you spot Sister Shelly staggering toward the basement stairs, her naked true form no longer concealed by an illusion. Her eyes are glazed, and drool falls from her beak.
How do you proceed?
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Topic: (SG) Penal Governor (Read 8711 times)