Futuristic The Darkness of Space (Supernatural Scifi)

[Mikotsuhime]

"It is very difficult," Fenrick admitted. It had taken great control of his Ferens to match the pressure pushing in, and then use it to propel himself forward. He was distracted from any explanation by Vanya insisting that Serlain liked her, and he grinned proudly. Of course she did. Serlain was the best.

Leese, on the other hand, tilted her head back, her eyes narrowing in thought.

"It might be easier to kill him in space," she said. "Some of the wildlife can survive in complete vaccuum without trouble, but it takes a lot of effort for Ferendin to match the pressure. Like Fenrick said, I would probably die within an hour. A lot of Montrose' supporters could probably last four hours, give or take. Killing them before they have a chance to reach a station would prevent them from attacking us back at their full strength."

Her brows pulled together, frustration clear on her face.

"But laserfire doesn't work. It just bounces off the chitin."

She grimaced, because she was sure she was painting a terrifying picture of her people right now. She supposed they would see when Montrose and his forces arrived, but she didn't really want to scare them.

"Renta is an asshole," Fenrick parroted, and Leese shot both him and Kas a dirty look.

"You're both terrible. He's not that bad."

"He is an asshole," Fenrick protested. "And a bad influence."

He didn't know what either of those terms meant, but they seemed fitting. Leese tried very hard not to smile, because they really were accurate.

But they had more important things to do, like blow up a space station.

"'Sensors'... see things?" Fenrick asked, trying to follow Vanya's explanations but quickly realizing she was always going to use scientific terms he didn't understand. "Did they see me?"

Leese frowned, because she hadn't considered that.

"You're very small," she said, more to convince herself than anyone else. Fenrick had a massive energy output in his normal body, but he was still only a little larger than an adult human. Sensor arrays used to document ships might pick up the anomaly, but she hoped not.

"What else is the problem?" Fenrick asked curiously. Leese debated whether she should explain, before finally giving in.

"We need to make the explosion look like a mystery, but they'll see us flying away from it and guess it's Vanya. It's like... it's like a Ferens signature," she said. Fenrick nodded, understanding crossing his face. He didn't really have any solutions either.

"I usually use a small scale fighter craft," Leese admitted. "Stealth ships of this size and scale are a little bigger than my usual fare..."

She frowned, trying to think.

"The ship isn't untraceable, which means any anomaly would have been already recorded as us arriving," she said, using the tone she got when she was thinking aloud to puzzle something out. "We could go back to the delegation. But if anyone's noticed we're gone, they'll put two and two together anyways..."

She started to pace, much the way Fenrick had when he was explaining earlier. She had an idea, but it was a crazy stupid idea, and she hated it.

"If we diverted all of the energy to the shields, how close could we get to the explosion?" she asked, already not liking how this was sounding. "If we time things right, we could weather the blast and make it look like we were caught up in it, and then use the stealth function to flee in the aftermath, when the sensors will be confused by the resulting radiation. But it would be risky. We'd have to hold position close enough to make them think we wouldn't survive. I don't want to push your ship farther than it can go."

 

[Reynarda]

Kas groaned. No lasers. Great. Deciding to ignore the giant insect image forming in his mind, he asked, "Vanya, do you have railgun on this thing?"

"Why are we using my ship to fight the bad guys?" Vanya grumbled.

"Have you ever fired it?" Kas continued, taking that as a yes.

"Yes," Vanya said, sounding offended.

Kas remembered Vanya using one of her torpedoes in creative problem solving and sighed. "At something?" He scowled when she didn't immediately answer. "What the hell did you use it for?"

"Maneuvering."

Of course she did. Why was he not surprised. "I hate you sometimes. Pull up the targeting program for me."

Vanya directed the ship's computer to put the program on the nearest wall screen. It flickered and then switched to English. Thank goodness.

"Yes, good," Kas told Fenrick while he tapped through the targeting program. "Renza is an asshole and a bad influence. Vanya is an idiot because she doesn't use her weapons as weapons."

Vanya didn't even roll her eyes, instead she was thinking that pulling any data the Olive's arrays had on Fenrick could tell them more of what they were keeping an eye out for. But Leese was right, he was too small. "If they saw anything, they'll highlight you as an anomaly. Olive Station isn't designed for research. All it's sensors monitor the asteroids and comets Olea pulls in. They will turn to the sensors for any data they can glean, but you're far too small for them to be able to tell anything about you."

"Ok, but lets say no one noticed you were gone--are they going to pull sensor data from the Nocturne?" Kas asked, nodding to himself as he checked the railgun's system diagnostics.

"And risk the UPA figuring out how my ship works?" Vanya asked with a grin. "They want to mass-produce it, remember."

Kas grunted. Small blessings, he supposed.

But as Leese began her thoughts, Kas turned around. "Oh hell no."

Vanya tapped her finger on her chin. "I can get close, but close enough to where they would reason we didn't survive?"

"No, Vanya. That's crazy." He turned to Leese. "You know that's crazy, right?"

Vanya enlarged the hologram of her ship and spun it. She added an explosion simulation and the ship gave her some ranges. She tapped a few things, frowning. This continued for a few seconds before Kas couldn't take it anymore. "Think out loud, Vanya."

"If I diverted all power to the shields, including everything but minimum life-support--we'd still have to have the reactor on, but... hmm." She scratched underneath her hat. "I wish my mom were here. The problem isn't could we survive. The problem is the ship. I presume we don't want it crippled and we don't want to explain why it's suddenly like crispy bread."

"Toast," Kas said.

"Ugh, I'm not an engineer. What time is it in Carpathia?" she mused to herself, checking her handheld. Vanya pulled up a voice only box and encrypted it. "Mom. Got a problem for you. Let's say--hypothetically--the Noct was near a very small super nova. How close could it get running shields and minimal life support without becoming functionally compromised? Super nova puts out about 10 megatons, and life support needs to support four conscious people. Love you."

"You sure asking her is a good idea?" Kas asked.

Vanya side-eyed him as she pressed send. "Do you know how many things I have run by her? She's never told a soul. She just doesn't want me messing up her ship."

"She asked her mom for help," Kas explained to the others. "Her mom's the engineer who designed this ship."

Light delay between Olea an Yasen was fourteenish minutes there and fourteenish back, Kas knew, so he jumped when an alert flashed after only ten minutes had passed. Oh. Right. The vampires had figured out how to tunnel light. They couldn't do it with anything else, but that had opened up communication options for them. Albaques' scientists were rabidly reading over data about it to figure out how to replicate it.

Vanya tapped it, and an older feminine voice said, "Love, not sure I like you getting my ship close to a hypothetical super nova. Attached some simulations with some algorithms for you. Wasn't sure how much oxygen these three others would be breathing, so I went with human averages to be safe. 10 megatons is a tiny super nova, but the Noct will still get pushed from the blast, so you'd hypothetically better point it away from any debris. Find some other problems to keep you entertained during your meetings. I don't want you messing up my ship. Dad sends his love."

"Ah, silver," Vanya said.

"What?"

"She knows," Vanya grumbled.

"Knows what?" Kas asked.

"She knows I'm off with you," she said, pointing an accusing finger at Kas as if this whole thing hadn't been her idea. Vanya pulled up the simulation her mother sent and began to run it. "And I can't ask her anything else because my father is around and he can't keep stuff to himself if he thinks the government needs to know about it. But my mom will act stupid even if she knows exactly what happened with the research station. She trusts me. My dad does not."

"This simulation is from Vanya's mom and will tell us how close we can get," Kas explained.

"Leese, can you help me prep the ship? We need power from everything but minimal life support and shields. Hang on, I'll switch the language to English. Kas?"

Kas held up the memory stick. "I can't believe we're doing this. Renza is an asshole and a bad influence. Vanya is an idiot. Leese is crazy."

"You know you love it," Vanya called as she began climbing up the ladder to the bridge. "Fenrick, we'll lose what little gravity we have in a few minutes. Is Serlain going to be ok?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Leese gave Kas an exasperated look.

"I was asked for plans and ideas, nobody said they had to be good," she argued. "I know it's crazy. It's extremely crazy. But I can't think of anything else."

She would feel better about doing it if it was only her. She had done all kinds of stupid and crazy stunts when she was by herself. Doing them when other people were also at risk? That was different.

When Vanya actually called her mom to ask her about this, Leese was a little mortified. She hadn't really expected them to go through with it, but if they were going to, at least they had an engineer on their side. She liked their chances much better if the woman who actually built the ship told them it was safe.

Or, not really safe. Leese didn't think this could possibly be safe. But not impossible, at least. She assumed that was what the message had said.

Fenrick, for his part, looked a little confused, but ready to help any way he could. He stood awkwardly at the back of the ship, hovering like he wanted to be of use, but he knew he didn't have any of the knowhow necessary for this.

Leese, for her part, nodded her head and set off to her tasks. Prepping the ship was a bit different from what she was used to, but it was pretty intuitive. It only took her a minute to get the hang of things.

When Vanya mentioned zero gravity, Fenrick turned to Serlain. He couldn't really keep holding her. If he needed to do something, it would be dangerous. He looked around, before spotting an area that looked pretty safe. An attachment for cargo, he supposed. He walked over and set the cat down, giving her a command in the Ferendin language. She tilted her head to the side as if he was an idiot for giving a cat orders, but she wrapped her tentacles around the secured handles.

"She will be fine," Fenrick assured her. Leese glanced up at him, one eyebrow rising.

"I can't believe you trained a Kaltsrit to do tricks," she murmured in disbelief, and Fenrick puffed out his chest.

"She is very smart."

 

[Reynarda]

Kas ran in and stuck the memory stick in the first terminal he found. He waited for the light on the stick to flash blue and then sprinted back out.

"Let's go!" he called up, locking the airlock. When Vanya did not instantly disengage the docking clamps and jet away, Kas scowled. He climbed up to the bridge. "Why are we still here?"

Vanya was in the pilot's chair, her fingers dancing over the console. "Remember I said it has an hour?"

Kas dropped into the chair at the weapons station and groaned. "This is a stupid plan and I hate it."

"Don't be offended, Leese, he says that about everything." She paused, then said, "Undocking. Everyone strap in. You can take the coms station, Fenrick, or one of the seats at the back. Just strap in to some seat. It'll protect you in case of sudden changes in direction or acceleration." She tapped a few things on her console before taking the stick. "I'll fire a few bursts to get us moving away, but then I'm powering down. No one take any deep breaths."

"She's kidding," Kas clarified, buckling himself in. "Right?"

She shot him a smile over her shoulder. Then she flicked her eyes to Fenrick. "Is Serlain going to be okay with high-speed directional changes?"

"If we turn really fast, are her... tentacles going to break?" Kas repeated just in case Fenrick didn't recognize "directional".

Vanya pulled up a count-down timer on the corner of her console as she worked. Kas kept taking peeks at it. There wasn't a lot he could do. He could fly and had flown, but he wasn't a pilot and he hadn't trained specifically on this ship. He figured Leese and Vanya had that well in hand.

"Ok," Vanya said, leaning back as she got confirmation that Leese had completed her part as well. "We're ready."

Kas glanced at the clock. Only a half-hour to spare. Which meant waiting. Great. He tapped his fingers repeatedly, only stopping for a few minutes when Vanya glared at him. He soon started up again.

He liked flying in starships, and he liked flying fast in starships. But he did not like riding the wave of something they had blown up. This was not fun. He liked the thrill and adrenaline rush of flying at high speeds, but not of the possibility of getting turned into space dust if Vanya's mom had gotten her math wrong. Not that he doubted Vanya's mom. Yva Zmey was probably the smartest person in the solar system but also she was not the one sitting in a tiny spaceship waiting to see if a 10-megaton explosion would kill them.

Vanya spoke and Kas jumped. Once he realized that was not the explosion--which was silly be hecause knew there was no sound in space, he knew that --he registered what she was saying.

"Brace yourselves in 10... 9... 8..."

Kas stiffened as if tightening all his muscles would keep the ship intact.

Behind them, the station exploded. The blast threw them forward, the ship accelerating from a gentle drift to rocketing forward. It shook the little ship and warnings beeped and flashed on his screen as the computer tried to target debris projectiles. None of them were headed for a collision course with them so Kas slid his eyes over to Vanya's readouts. He watched the shield and hull integrity levels, trying not to chew on his tongue. Much to his surprise, they held. They were in the orange, but they held. Her mom's simulation had worked. He still clung to his seat, his knuckles turning white.

"We may not have to even turn on the drive," Vanya mused once, after a few tense minutes, the levels on her screen drifted towards yellow. She still held tightly to the stick, keeping the ship's nose up.

"How long until we can turn on the cloaking device?" Kas asked through gritted teeth. He wasn't ready to stop clenching his muscles yet.

"A few minutes," Vanya said, her voice far calmer than he thought she had any right to be.

Kas nodded. "But we're not dead."

She chuckled. "We're not out of danger yet, but yeah."

Forcing his jaw to unlock, Kas looked around to the others. "How are we holding up?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Leese glanced at Vanya and raised her eyebrows.

"No, he's right," she agreed. She also thought it was stupid, but. It would work, hopefully.

Fenrick gave Vanya and Kas a confused look, so Leese pointed to the and the strap.

"Close the buckle around your waist once you sit down," she instructed, and Fenrick nodded. It took him a few seconds of awkward fiddling to get the belt closed, but he looked very proud once he managed it.

"She will be fine," he assured Vanya and Kas. He assumed she would be fine. She was used to digging and tunelling through rock, so he imagined this would be ok.

Fenrick spent most of the wait time fidgeting, not entirely sure what would happen once the explosion happened. Leese was tense, though perhaps not as tense as Kas. She double checked all of the systems, and then triple checked them, and then stopped herself from quadruple checking them. This would be fine. They could handle it. She'd certainly done stupider things and made it out on the other side before.

But Fenrick was here this time, and if something happened to him again, she'd never forgive herself.

Fenrick, for his part, tensed up when itw as clear the explosion was soon. He tried to prepare himself, but he still let out a startled yelp as they were tossed forward.

"Fuck!" he squawked, and Leese glared at him.

"Don't curse."

Serlain had hunkered down in her seat, her ears back and her eyes wide as she held on. Fenrick floundered a bit, but his belt kept him in place, and eventually he figured out to clutch the edges of the seat.

It was a rough ride, but they weren't dead.

As soon as the sensors started evening out, Leese let out a whoosh of air. She hadn't even realized she had been holding her breath.

"Everything's steady," she replied. Fenrick was clinging to his seat, and Leese shot him a sympathetic look. "He's not used to vehicles."

"I feel like my bones are gone," he said, his voice a little ragged, and Leese snorted.

"You get used to it. Once we get into a safe zone I need to com Renza to let him know we're not dead. After that... We need to figure out our next moves." She said grimly. They needed a place to plan, and possibly a place to refuel. They could go back to the station with the delegation, she supposed. She didn't know if that would work, considering they were supposed to be dead. Playing dumb would only get so far. They could go to her satelite, but it was a tiny thing, and a little ways away.

 

[Reynarda]

Kas took note of the word Fenrick used to express his shock and horror at the explosion. It was good to be able to curse in multiple languages.

Vanya shot a mad grin over her shoulder at Fenrick when Leese said he wasn't used to vehicles. When her mother had casually suggested she be the test pilot for her prototype, Vanya had been ecstatic. The government hadn't been particularly pleased that a prototype was zipping around the solar system, but both her parents had argued with the rest of the clans until they had agreed. She was pretty sure her father had thrown his weight around a little.

"Next moves," Kas agreed, watching the status bars slide towards green and then teal. "Do we... go back to Olive Station?"

Vanya made a face as she tapped her screens--at least, he assumed she was making a face. It was more the way she was moving her arms than his ability to see her face that told him that's what she was doing. "Going back is a bad idea."

"Do we need to pick up the priest?" Kas asked.

"If we go back, we'll get caught up in the chaos over the station," Vanya said.

"You just don't want to deal with the vampire delegation," Kas said. "And if we return before they noticed we're gone, they can't prove anything. The vampires will be too concerned about covering their asses to accuse you even if they guess it was you."

Vanya hmphed, and Kas was starting to think there was more to it than Vanya just not wanting to deal with suspicious looks thrown her way.

"Powering down shields and--cloak is up," Vanya said.

A message from her mom popped up, and Vanya opened it. There was only one word in it.

Dead?

Vanya chuckled and sent back, Not yet. Love you.

Once her dad found out there was an explosion and she might have been near it, he was going to have fanged mountain kittens. She supposed she needed to figure out if they were playing dead or not so she would know whether to respond to the fifteen thousand voice messages she was about to get. But if he were home instead of the capital, he should be able to go ask her mother.

"Well, if we don't go back to Olive Station then we need to stop at one of the moons and get more weapons." Kas waved at his screen. "You never replaced that torpedo you used to confuse the missiles."

"Olive doesn't sell weapons, they're neutral," Vanya said as if Kas were incredibly stupid.

"Exactly why being there is a good idea."

"Not when we're trying to keep our governments in the dark," Vanya shot back.

Kas sighed. He got the feeling she was going to be stubborn about this regardless. "Ok, but do we need to get Renza?"







Pyotr Sylvestr felt his eyes rolling for the fiftieth time. The scientists were arguing about whose probes were better suited for the task. They were, of course, missing the point. The point was to get there first. To claim anything there was to claim first. It didn't matter which probes they used, and it didn't matter what data was collected. Science was never as important as politics on the road to power. And finders-keepers was not only applicable in playgrounds.

One of his aids stepped over to him. As the lead representative of Clan Sylvestr, he had no fewer than three aids--all younger members of his clan. This was his lead aid, so the boy must have something important to say. He kept his face a bored neutral as his aid told him their station had just exploded. He watched the human delegation, their aids relaying something similar. Perhaps they knew it was a vampire research station, perhaps not.

He slid his eyes to the spot Vanya Zmey had been sitting and then across to the human delegation. The Jaager boy and the priest's mercenary were also gone. If Vanya was the only one gone, he would assume she was skiving off somewhere. If both she and the Jaager boy were gone, he would assume they were in a closet somewhere. But with the mercenary gone... Well, he didn't believe in coincidences.

But someone had to take control of the situation.

Pyotr stood and the gravity philosopher--what was his name? Dmitri? Donavin?--stammered to a screeching halt. "Esteemed delegates, scientists. We have just informed there's been an explosion. A Yassen research station that was functioning perfectly by the rip is no more. Let us adjourn until we have more information."

As the various factions scurried around, trying to figure out what to do about this sudden development, Pyotr turned his gaze on Renza. He strode over to him. "Father Richtail," he said. He had studied up on everyone present and knew them all by name, rank, and potential threat level. "I presume you will need to inform your bishop of this. Or has your bodyguard left to do so?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Once Fenrick had calmed down a little bit, he slumped in his chair.

"I do not want to do that again," he said tiredly. Leese would have patted him on the shoulder, but he was too far away, so she just gave him a sympathetic look.

It was rough. She had also been a bit overwhelmed the first time she was on a ship. In Ferensen, you didn't go anywhere you couldn't get to with your own strength. If you couldn't fly somewhere with your own wings, then you just didn't go. Relying on tools like vehicles was a sign of weakness, that you couldn't complete a journey on your own. The fact that the people on this side used them so readily and without shame had startled her a bit.

A lot of things on this side had startled her. They used vehicles, they cared for their sick, and they looked after the elderly and disabled. As much as she sometimes missed Ferensen, she didn't think she would ever be able to live there again. She had grown too soft on this side, and she didn't want that to change.

"It might be better if Renza stayed there," she said, trying to shake her way out of her thoughts so she could focus. "He can tell us what's going on at the delegation, and can keep us informed while also running interference. He's got a few friends in the human government, so he'll be able to bend ears and rub shoulders."

Fenrick made a face, as though trying to imagine what that would look like.

"We will need Renta eventually. I want to study his blood. And his body. He is also very important research subject," he pressed, and Leese's mouth flattened into a thin line. She knew he didn't mean that in a bad way, but she also knew that the others wouldn't see it that way.

"He's not a research subject. If you ask him and he agrees, you can take samples. But he's not a Kaltsrit. If he says no, you have to respect it," she said firmly. She could see from the look on Fenrick's face that he disagreed, but was weighing whether arguing would be worth it.

"Studying Renta's body could bring breakthrough in contamination research. Could help many, many people," he pressed. Leese knew he was only using English to get the others on his side, and it made her face twist. He probably didn't even realize he was being manipulative. It made her regret not bringing him with her all those years ago even more than she already did.

"If you ask, and he says yes, then you can do tests that he agrees to," she said, because two could play at this game. "But if you try to steal samples without his permission, Fenrick, I will--"

She took in a deep breath and let it out. They were making a horrible scene. Fenrick wasn't a bad person, and she didn't want Kas or Vanya to think he was.

"Sorry," she said, and Fenrick immediately deflated. If Leese was apologizing, it always made him feel guilty.

"Sorrry too," he mumbled.

Leese closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. They could discuss this later. She really did not have the energy for it right now.

"We can go to my place," she said, happy to change the subject. "It's a small residential satellite. A few other people live there, but they mind their own business. I don't know if I have exactly what you need, in terms of weapons, but you can search my stash. Free of charge and no paper trail."

She rattled off the coordinates. She kind of just wanted to go to sleep, but that could wait for later. They had things they needed to do first.



Renza looked up when it was announced that the station had exploded. He didn't betray any emotion on his face or in his body language. He had spent a very, very long time practising his poker face. He prided himself on his ability to look completely normal when he was panicking on the inside, nobody around him any wiser.

Right now, he was not quite panicking. He was getting close, but not quite there. The fact that the station had exploded worried him, but there was no proof Leese was dead. They hadn't noticed any other anomalies, or they would have said something.

He stood when the room descended into chaos, but he didn't leave. Leaving would look suspicious. Leese had left earlier, so he couldn't afford to make any kind of scene.

Instead, he watched, worrying his lower lip as concern crossed his face. This was a concerning event, so it would be expected for him to be worried and out of his element.

He looked up as Pyotr approached, bowing politely according to vampire etiquette.

"Representative Sylvestr," he greeted, smiling. It was the smile of someone who was clearly out of his depth, a little nervous and unsure of exactly what he should be doing. When in doubt, it was always better to appear to be harmless. "You are correct, though I'd like to get more information on the situation before informing the bishop."

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking a bit embarrassed.

"You see, he gets frustrated with me when I bother him without knowing everything that's happening. I wasn't even aware that the vampires had a research station so close to the rip. We are calling it the rip, right? Everyone has referred to it by different names. I'm not a scientist, so I admit much of that presentation went over my head."

He laughed a little, like he was embarrassed, but also like it was clear he wouldn't understand.

The man asked about Leese. He was sharp, Renza thought, keeping his thoughts carefully hidden behind his nervous smile. This one could be a problem if things got out of hand.

"Leese actually was called by her employer," he explained. "She doesn't work directly for the church, or for me. I hired her through an agency. I've been working with them for years, and while I almost always hire Leese because of our friendship, it's much easier to go through official channels. I'm sure that somebody in your position knows how dreadful paperwork can be when people cut corners."

He said in in a conspiratorial tone, his mouth quirking into a smile like they were sharing some big secret.

"Anyways, it's entirely possible that she was called away on other business. I'm a little nervous, admittedly. I don't often handle events like this on my own, but it can't be helped sometimes."

 

[Reynarda]

Kas chuckled at Fenrick's comment. Poor guy. Knowing Vanya, they would be doing something like that again.

Guess they were leaving Renza there. Kas shrugged. He knew that Leese has said the priest dealt in information, but he just couldn’t see it.

But then Fenrick and Leese started arguing. Kas frowned. He was about to say something, but Vanya beat him to it.

“People aren’t research subjects.”

Kas winced. She had once casually mentioned that she figured there were more time-sighted vampires out there, they just didn’t want to be studied.

“I’m going to have to side with Leese on this one,” Kas agreed. “He may be an asshole, but he’s still a person. Regardless of how useful the information is, you have to get consent."

Vanya put in the coordinates Leese gave her without a word and causally shifted the direction of the ship. Kas supposed it had been decided then. As long as they could restock the weapons, he would be content.

Vanya put them at an easy cruising speed and Kas unbuckled his restraints. With a groan, he stretched.

"Speaking of research subjects," Vanya said, even though that conversation had ended a good ten minutes previous. She shifted so her knees were on her seat and her arms rested on the back. She fixed her eyes on Fenrick. "So... when you take the form of another species, do you get all of their natural adaptations?"

Kas raised his eyebrows. "You think he has a sight?"

"I think it's less a question of 'if' and more of 'which one'." Her eyes were bright. "If we studied Fenrick, we could gain more insight to how it works."

"But we're not going to do that," Kas said, fully prepared to point out she was doing what she had just told Fenrick he couldn't do to Renza.

"Of course not, but it's interesting, isn't it?"

"I bet you he has space," Kas said. "What do most engineers have? Wait, your mom is matter?"

"Energy," Vanya said. "Engineers often have matter. But all vampires have all the genes, we think. We just don't have enough space--what is your term? Real estate? Not enough real estate. So we only get one, but we have no idea how that works. Genetics, probably."

"But neither of your parents has time," Kas mused. "Right? Dad is matter and mom is energy? Edwin is matter too, yeah? Then what happened with you?"

Vanya shrugged. "Just because two vampires squish their DNA together, it doesn't mean their children look exactly like them. And anyway, I think my mom's grandfather may have had time."

"Is 'squish' one of those scientific terms."

Vanya pointedly ignored Kas, her attention back on Fenrick. "Do you sense like... lines? Or fields around things?"

"If he could see space, what would he see?" Kas asked.

Vanya shrugged again. "Silver if I know, I've never seen space. You're asking me to describe a color I've never seen but have only heard of its existence. And anyway, it might be really weak since he didn't grow up with it." She slid her eyes to Fenrick again. "It's like a muscle. All humans have them, but you only have a lot of ability to lift things if you exercise and train that muscle. And genetics play into it. Some people's baseline strength is higher than others'. Same with the sight. You have to exercise and train it to get good at it. You can not--that's an option. My dad decided to go into politics rather than become a philos. My brother likes coding a lot more than matter."

"What about the twins?"

Vanya snorted. "They're too young. They won't be tested for another year." She smiled. "Off the record, Leksi has space and Iona has energy. The space comes from our dad's mom, we think."

Kas whistled. "Your poor parents." To Leese and Fenrick, he explained, "The twins are twelve, and it sounds like it's Vanya times two."

"Ha! I was the easy child."

Kas smiled wistfully. He loved growing up just him and his mom, but hearing all Vanya's stories--like about the time Edwin got his head stuck in an access panel and she'd had to get him out before their parents caught them--made him wish he'd had younger siblings.

"We're usually tested around thirteen to figure out what we have, but our parents usually know long before then," Vanya explained. "I don't have one of the devices they use, but I bet we could figure out which one you have."

"I bet it's time," Kas said, just because he knew it would irritate Vanya.

She scowled. "He doesn't have time."

"I bet he does."

"I bet he doesn't."

Kas' mouth spread into a smirk. "If he does, you have to compliment my muscles at least fifty times in the span of a month."

"That's stupid."

Kas wiggled his eyebrows. "You scared you're wrong?"

Her eyes narrowed. "You're on and you're wrong."

"Alright, Fenrick, what do you see?" Kas asked.

"It's sort of like..." Vanya splayed her fingers out in jazz hands, her eyes rolling upwards as she thought. "We call it the 'sight', but it's not really seeing. It's more like a feeling. You can sense how that aspect of reality functions."






Pyotr smiled slightly as smiling was polite and expected in human culture. He slid his hands into the sleeves of his perfectly tailored representative robes as Renza spoke. The threat levels had been placed at low, but Pyotr didn't trust anyone from the Great Church as far as he could throw them. He had a feeling that Renza was more than he seemed.

His lip twitched slightly at the mention of the surprise research station. Yes, that had been a calculated slip of information. They would have found out about it, and how people responded would tell them if they had known it was there. He didn't put it past the humans to spot it and destroy it just to make sure the vampires didn't get there first.

"Yes, we sent one out there before a halt was called on sending out probes and other such," he said coolly. One strand of his white-blond hair was falling out of his low ponytail and he brushed it behind his ear. "It was uncrewed, thankfully, so no one was harmed."

That they knew of. The mercenary could have done it for all he knew.

"Yes, 'rip' was the word I heard used most by your human delegation. Though, mine cannot decide on even a colloquial term. I had to listen to a three-way battle between philosophers over what they would call it in the talks on the way here." He rolled his eyes with exasperation. It was not even mostly for show. When he had demanded a debrief from Vanya Zmey, she had insisted on calling it a "spacial-temporal deconstruction"--after repeatedly suggesting he go ask a real philosopher or read a book.

Pyotr smiled and nodded gravely. He leaned in slightly and nodded when Renza did. "Indeed. Paperwork is a headache even on the best of days."

Most would write Renza off as chatting nervously to hide his fear over a disturbing event, but Pyotr thought he was using it as a distraction tactic. It made him think that perhaps he was on the right trail with the mercenary.

"Other business? More important than protecting someone as illustrious as yourself?" He was trying not to be sarcastic, but he wasn't sure his smile hid that completely. "You are doing fine, I'm sure. And you could always stick with me. I'll make sure no one bothers you. Just ask my aids for anything you need."

Pyotr looked around as if a thought suddenly occurred to him. "You were chatting with Vanya Zmey and..." Pyotr paused, calling up the Jaager boy's given name. "...Kasper Jaager. Where did they get to? They may be able to take your mercenary's place. They are both capable individuals as far as I am aware."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Fenrick flinched a little when both Vanya and Kas agreed with Leese. He wanted to open his mouth to argue, but he immediately closed it again. There was no point. They were right.

He wasn't quite ashamed of himself. He was certain that studying Renza's body would have excellent steps forward for science, and could save a lot of people. But he felt the same way he did when he was a tiny child, and his father had scolded him for flying into the rafters and being too afraid to come down.

"You are right," he said finally. "I am sorry. I got excited."

Leese glanced back at him, and her face melted into a soft smile.

"As long as you know," she said, using her motherly tone of voice, and Fenrick huffed. He couldn't feel bad when Leese was trying to comfort him.

Fenrick did not unbuckle himself even after they settled at an easy speed, and he definitely didn't try to stand up. He was pretty sure his legs would shake even when they reached Leese's home.

When Vanya questioned him, he tilted his head to the side curiously. 'Natural adaptations' were big words. He had figured out by now that Vanya liked to use big words. It made understanding her very confusing, but he wasn't about to say anything. He had studied English in his room for years, once they had figured out how to transfer data through the dimensional communication system. He had written out his dictionary by hand just in case his computer ever crashed. He had asked Leese for every book she could find, and while he had originally been too proud to read the ones intended for children, he had eventually caved and copied them out by hand too. Fenrick had spent a decade practising his English so that he could communicate with Renza and Leese, and maybe even impress them.

But here, with people who were all but natural speakers, he felt stupid. The worst thing was that Vanya spoke another language as well, and he doubted that English was her first. The fact that she spoke it with such ease made him feel kind of foolish, and reluctant to ask her to slow down. If she could speak English that well, there was no reason he couldn't too.

"I copy everything," he said, guessing at her meaning and hoping he wasn't wrong. "Copying is to blend in. I cannot blend in if things are missing."

He had no idea what they were talking about, and it kind of frustrated him, but he was determined not to ask.

"My sight has changed a lot," he said slowly, his brow creasing. "I see many colours I did not before."

Leese gave him one of those looks that was somewhere between proud and a little pitying, and his face flushed.

"We don't have the same spectrum of colour vision," she clarified for him. "It can be a little disorienting when you're not used to it. But... Hm. I hadn't thought of it, but you're right. He would have a sight."

In a way, it was easy for her mind to justify Fenrick having a sight. He was, after all, one of the best Ferensnik she knew. Him being able to use vampire magic just made sense. But the sight itself was different. She hoped he wouldn't get frustrated because he didn't know how to use it. They were a pretty adaptable species, and learned things fairly quickly. They had to be, to be able to shapeshift the way they did. Instinct played a big part in it, but if they couldn't blend in with a new species, being able to copy them was useless.

Fenrick was getting more confused by the second, but Vanya and Kas' conversation quickly distracted him.

"You have... Er... Birth mates?" he asked, and Leese had to try very hard to hold in her laughter. Judging by the way Fenrick's ears turned red and he glared at her, she wasn't doing a very good job.

"Sorry, that just sounded funny. I wasn't laughing at you," she reassured him. He grumbled something in Ferendin under his breath, and Leese gave him a placating smile. "You're doing fine. Nobody expects you to be perfect at English when the only people you've heard speak it are me and Renza."

He knew that intellectually, but it still stung.

"What's the word, then? Great English master?" he asked dryly. Leese rolled her eyes.

"Siblings," she said. Fenrick nodded.

"Siblings," he repeated.

Leese watched him, taking in his facial expression. He looked... not quite wistful. A little surprised, maybe. Fenrick and Montrose were an extreme case, but it wasn't quite as common in Ferensen to have close relationships with siblings. Eventually, an adult was expected to either take over their parent's territory or carve out their own. The process had evolved over the centuries, but it was still instinctive to see siblings as rivals. She got along quite well with her sisters, but that was primarily because they weren't warriors. Midari was a healer, and Maia was a caregiver. Their Ferens wasn't suited for fighting, so her lizard brain didn't recognize them as any kind of threat.

Montrose and Fenrick were both warriors, even if Fenrick chose study over fighting. Their relationship would always be rocky, even if circumstances had been different.

"Having many siblings sounds fun," he said finally, a smile coming to his face. "You care for them. It is nice."

He didn't sound nearly as bothered as Leese had expected, and she exhaled in relief. The last thing she wanted was for him to get depressed.

But the sight. Right. He wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do. Was it like a different colour? They had mentioned lines and fields. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be seeing lines that the others didn't see, and if he was, how he was going to know that they didn't see them. His face scrunched up. Leese looked back at him and offered a reassuring smile.

He breathed in and out, shaking out his hands as he took in Vanya's advice. A feeling. It sounded like how he used his Ferens. It had felt weird being disconnected from it when he had first entered this body, but there had been something else there that felt similar. He assumed it had been something his imagination conjured to comfort him, but now he focused on it.

It was different. It wasn't really that different, though. It felt like reading a familiar book, but in English rather than Ferendin. It felt awkward at first, but he knew how things were supposed to play out.

"It is just like Ferens," he murmured, and Leese raised her eyebrows.

"How does it look?" she asked, and he shrugged his shoulders. It was always hard to describe that. It was like trying to describe how being alive felt. It just was, an intrinsic part of his being.

"It feels similar. The concepts are the same. I think I could manipulate it the same way. It's strange. I thought I was just imagining it when I first felt it. Humans don't have abilities like this, right? But this is nice. It feels familiar."

He couldn't contain his smile as he held out one hand and concentrated.

The air above his palm wavered as he manipulated the molecules, making them move faster, heating it up. He let it go, and grinned widely. Leese, however, shot him a warning look.

"Don't do anything crazy while we're on the ship," she warned him, but he looked happier than he had since they had arrived. Serlain looked up at him and meowed.

He wanted to test himself more, but was disappointed when simple energy manipulation left him a little winded. His smile broke into a frustrated frown. He could do far more back home, but he supposed that this was better than nothing.

"I think it is... energy? You call it energy. I think?" He mused, tilting his head to the side. "It takes effort. It does not usually take so much effort. The result is the same, but the muscles are different, maybe? I think I need to practice more."



Renza smiled, because it was better to smile than not.

"Well, small blessings. As long as nobody was injured, the damage can be fixed," he said, using his 'wise preacher' tone of voice.

He shoved his hands into his pockets, even though it was not necessarily polite. He offered a crooked grin, because Leese had given him a whole list of proper terms for the 'dimensional bridges'.

"I think 'rip' works just fine, from what I was able to glean from that science presentation," he said lightly.

Dangerous. This guy was dangerous, and he was intelligent. Renza wasn't sure if he should stick close to him, to make sure he didn't find out or do anything rash, or if he should leave to contact Leese immediately.

He couldn't leave, obviously. It would be far too suspicious, and would just enforce Pyotr's ideas that he had something to do with this. He was certain the man was trying to get information from him, or trying to unnerve him. A shiver of excitement went down his spine, because it had been a long time since he had truly felt in danger like this. He kind of liked it.

Leese would have told him that this was unhealthy, and he should stop chasing adrenaline before he got seriously hurt. The little princeling would probably tell him that he was a creep.

Both of them were probably right. He decided not to dwell on it.

"I'm not quite so illustrious as you claim," he said with a chuckle. The sarcasm amused him, but he kept it hidden. "I only run a small congregation. I'm only here because the bishops are all very busy. I would say I'm more of an errand boy than anything."

He tilted his head to the side, thinking for a moment.

"Leese is here mostly as a precaution," he admitted finally, like that knowledge was something he was a bit embarrassed about. "I pay her, but the church doesn't have unlimited coffers. We've only ever run into trouble on these sorts of missions a few times, so I always tell her that if a higher paying job comes up, she should take it. Just don't tell anyone that. It's not quite a secret, but it doesn't look good for her."

The man was offering to stick with him, and he nodded. That was perfect.

"Yes, I'd appreciate that. I was hoping to speak to some of Yasen's representatives anyways. The bishop was hoping to discuss the possibility of missionary trips to the planet in the future, you see. We're very unintrusive, we just wish to spread the word of our God to others. It's our duty, after all."

The man brought up Vanya and Kas, and Renza internally grinned. So that's what this was about.

"We spoke briefly, but we separated before reconvening. I haven't seen either one of them since. I certainly wouldn't want to put them out on my account. After all, the chances of being taken hostage or getting shot at in a political meeting aren't very high. I think I can handle myself for now."

 

[Reynarda]

Kas watched Fenrick's face, feeling bad for him. He knew Vanya would use more and more science words the more interested in a topic she was, and he doubted that had been part of Fenrick's studies. He guessed Vanya didn't even notice he was struggling. She had a weird habit of assuming everyone had the same level of understanding that she did.

Vanya nodded thoughtfully when Fenrick said he had copied everything. The best the life philosophers could theorize was that it was an epigenetic modification, but what determined that was anyone's guess. Nature, nurture, maybe a combination of both. She assumed his ability was an instinctual thing, just like her sight had been originally, but if they could figure out how he did it, it might help them determine how it happened in developing vampires.

"He probably sees more colors than even you," Kas said. "Vampires can see more in the ultraviolet spectrum."

"Oh! We need to get him glasses!" Vanya said. "If you go in the sunlight or on a human ship, it could hurt your eyes."

Kas pressed his lips together to keep from laughing, but Vanya didn't seem to notice Fenrick's odd choice of words. "Yes, I have three, all younger. Edwin, Leksi, and Iona."

"It's a pretty large family for vampires," Kas said.

"Two is the norm," Vanya agreed.

"Vanya's parents like to--"

"Stop." Vanya shot him a nasty glare. "I am fully aware of how I got three younger siblings but I do not wish to think about it, Kasper."

"And how they got you," Kas added.

Vanya pointedly ignored him. "Yes, I do care for them. A lot. They're family."

She tilted her head. Right, Fenrick had been exiled by his own brother. She couldn't imagine not being anything but fiercely protective of her younger three. Sure, she and Edwin had gotten into a lot of fights--some of which had even been physical--and sometimes she wanted to shake the twins, but she would--had--sacrifice her own desires before she saw them get hurt.

"You need to not use so many philosophy terms," Kas said. "Remember Fenrick is new to English."

Vanya blinked. "His English is really good. He's like you."

Kas sighed. While he had no doubt Fenrick could pick up language quickly, Kas had been studying languages for years. He spoke several human languages and two vampire languages--though, Vanya's was really just a dialect of vampire Prime. "You've been speaking English for decades. He's a philosopher, but he doesn't know all the English words."

Vanya considered this, then nodded to herself. But was quickly distracted by the shimmering heat and light over Fenrick's palm.

"What's that? Which one is that?" Kas asked.

"Energy!" Vanya crowed, pumping both fists into the air. "I'm so jealous, I thought energy would be cool to have."

Kas snorted. "I'm pretty sure you waltzed out of the womb and announced to your parents you had time sight."

Vanya's smile wavered. When she had first instinctively frozen a glass she had dropped when she was five, her parents had frozen with the glass, staring at her. She had thought it was pretty nifty, but they had sat her down that evening and told her not to do that in front of anyone outside their clan. Her father had been very stern, and she was pretty sure she had cried and he had felt bad. When she had told them she wanted to train and become a philosopher like her mom when she was ten, her parents had argued. She'd never heard them argue before. And then they had sat her down and told her why.

Sometimes Vanya wondered what her life would be like if she had been more low-key about her sight. If she had listened to her parents' now justified fear. But she was her mother's daughter, and she couldn't have done anything less. She also had her father's pig-headed stubbornness. She knew her mother blamed herself--saw it in her sad smiles. But Vanya only blamed one person, at it wasn't her mother or her father.

If she had kept quiet, she wouldn't be here, talking someone from another dimension through learning sight, that was for certain.

She beamed at Fenrick. "Yes, it takes effort. You'll just need to work on it more. But soon it will be easy. Like my mother, she can get the energy in her tools so precise that she can handle volatile--ah, materials that combust--or, hm, things that catch fire very easily."

Kas was trying and failing to hide laughter behind his hand. "You're so bad at this."

"Shut-up, Kas." Vanya thought for several seconds. "I can get you books!"

"In English?" Kas asked.

Vanya deflated. "...Maybe."

A message popped up on her screen. And then another. And another. Kas pointed to it, and Vanya huffed and muttered under her breath about just asking her mother.

According to the text messages, her father had asked her mother but still wanted to know what in sanity's name she thought she was doing and she'd "better not be with that Jaager boy". She loved her dad--he was the best dad in the galaxy--but the man would have lower blood pressure if he trusted her to take care of herself. She sent him a short reply, letting him know she was fine.

"So these other people," Kas began slowly, his mind switching from vampire sight in dimentional beings to humans at suspicious satellites. "At your satellite. They aren't going to ask questions about two vampires... Vanya, you have another hat?"

"So many hats," Vanya confirmed.

"We'll just hide their ears--Fenrick, don't smile at anyone."

"Can I--"

"No, Vanya, you may not smile at anyone either. And put all your hair under your hat."

She snickered. "Aye, aye, Capt'n."





Pyotr nodded in solemn agreement as Renza used his pastor voice.

Pyotr hummed in agreement. "Yes, the science types do love to talk and use big words with no meaning."

He could respect using big words with no meaning if it were for politics, but he privately thought scientists did it to make themselves sound smart. In his experience, they were easily duped and easily controlled. Just threaten to take their funding and see how high they jumped for you.

He did take note of the term "run" when Renza referred to his congregation. That sounded more business-like than he would expect from a priest.

Pyotr smiled good-naturedly. "Still, I hope they take good care of their errand-boy."

Pyotr's smile sharpened when Renza mentioned the bishop wanting to send missionaries. There was relatively-free trade, and humans did live on Yassen, but he doubted the others would much appreciate missionaries. Vampires had their own beliefs, and he didn't think they would necessarily disagree with the humans' god. It was more the humans themselves they wouldn't much like. Still, it might be amusing to watch.

"Ah, well you are fortunate," Pyotr said. "I am one of the most influential representatives, your bishop could speak to me. I would be willing to take it before the rest of the clans."

It was a distraction, but one he thought he could afford to see through. He was no closer to knowing where the missing three were. There were far too many options. Jaager and the mercenary could have taken a job to blow up the station and Vanya was just hiding in an empty room somewhere. The mercenary could have gone off alone on something entirely unrelated, and Jaager was working alone. The Jaager boy was a problem. He had personally sent several assassins after him but none of them had succeeded and Vanya claimed there was nothing she could do about him--him being a disrupter and all. He couldn't really see Vanya being in on the explosion plot. She had too much at stake. It was all coming back to the mercinary, but there was a very real possibility that the priest had no idea where she was.

One of his aids approached and whispered, "The Nocturne is missing, sir."

Or maybe he was wrong. He waved his aid away.

"Well, Father Richtail, we will make sure there are no kidnapping or shooting attempts."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Fenrick looked at Kas like he had grown an extra head.

"There are MORE colours?" he asked incredulously. Leese was honestly glad they were on a pretty dark and muted space ship, because he would probably be overwhelmed if he was set down in the wilderness where colours were everywhere.

"Yes, glasses would be a good idea," she mused, and Fenrick laughed. It wasn't particularly a happy laugh, though. He had been handling the vision talk well so far, but the idea that his eyes might be hurt was darkly amusing.

"This eye sees nothing," he said, pointing to his obviously injured eye, then to the other. "This eye sees some. Not all. I can read, and I see close things. I cannot see much far away. It is hard to make it worse when it is already bad."

Leese bit her lip, because this was still hard to listen to. He had been navigating very well. He told her that he used his Ferens to navigate back home, so he might have even been using his energy sight subconsciously. When she wasn't looking at him, it was easy to forget that he wasn't the same as before.

"You should still wear glasses," she said, her tone stern. He blinked, as if he hadn't realized what he had been saying, and the tips of his ears flushed. He still had a habit of being down on himself without even realizing. That was expected, but frustrating.

"Ok. I will wear glasses. What are glasses?" He asked, and Leese tried not to laugh.

"She's wearing them," she pointed out, and Fenrick turned even redder.

"Ah."

"A lot of things are different. You'll get used to them, and there's no shame in asking questions," she said, hoping to make him feel more comfortable. He looked more embarrassed, if anything, but he nodded.

Vanya spoke of her siblings with such fondness, and to Leese's surprise, it made Fenrick smile.

"That is good. It is important to care for family," he said. "We have many siblings, but we do not live together. We leave our parent when we are... four tens. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. My parent stayed with me longer, but he died one year ago. It sounds nice, to live with siblings and parents."

When Vanya seemed excited by his 'sight', he beamed proudly. It wasn't quite as much as he had hoped, but it was something.

"I used to do more," he said, though he was trying not to linger on that too much. "I am not good at English, and maybe not good at 'sight'. I was very good in Ferensen. But I can learn. This is like Ferens, and I know Ferens."

He wondered if Vanya would want to research him and his sight, once this was over. He would probably be stuck on this side forever, now, and while he had been trying not to think about it, he would have to face the music at some point.

Leese looked to Kas, her lips pursing like she had something she needed to say but wasn't entirely certain how to say it.

"They... probably won't mind. I mean, they won't tell anyone, for sure. We kind of have a rule? Nobody says anything about anybody else's business, and in turn, nobody else says anything about yours," she explained.

She was tapping her fingers on the arm of her chair, and finally leaned her head back and sighed. She might as well just be blunt.

"I know you're with the military, but I'll be clear now. You cannot tell anyone about this place. A lot of these people are refugees. Undocumented. People who may have done minor illegal things. Nobody is violent, and they're generally decent people. I think my neighbour even is a vampire? I've never seen her without a sunhat. I've been living there for years now, and I've helped a few other people get set up there too, so nobody will be suspicious. All I ask is for you two to keep quiet in return. Please?"

She tried to give a pleading look, but she wasn't good at it. Renza said she always looked too intense.

"She is not threatening you," Fenrick, said, and it was Leese's turn to flush. "She just looks like that."

"But yes, hats won't hurt," Leese said, waving a hand flippantly. Fenrick, at least, knew what a hat was. He had never worn one before, but he figured it couldn't be that hard.


Renza clapped his hands together, delighted.

"Excellent! I'm glad you spoke to me, then, Representative. The church is always looking to spread its gospel, and this is an excellent opportunity. I can direct the bishop to you, so you can discuss it at length."

Really, he hated the idea, but he had to give the bishop something in exchange for coming here. Renza's position in the church was very middling, but men of faith were very good at manipulating others. He didn't want the extra responsibility and visibility of being the bishop, but he needed to maintain his role as head priest of his congregation. It gave him freedom, but he also had personal things tied up in it. As the priest, he oversaw the running of the orphanage, and it was important to him to keep it safe and comfortable for the children. He made sure they got as neutral an education as he could give them, and rooted out the abuse that ran rampant in the facilities as best he could. If he lost his position, he wouldn't be able to do that.

So he would send missionaries to Yasen. No question.

"I'm glad about that. Am I keeping you? I wouldn't want to take up your time if there's something you need to look after. Obviously a satellite exploding is a big problem, and I can't imagine the beurocratic nightmare that will follow."

 

[Reynarda]

"That's what I'm told," Kas answered dryly. "I asked Vanya her favorite color one time and she tried to describe this color that's darker than blue."

Vanya gave him a look. "Not darker, has a higher frequency."

"Whatever." Kas frowned at Fenrick. "Yeah, you need to wear glasses. Vanya's broke one time--"

"Kas punched me in the face."

"--and she had to keep her eyes closed so it wouldn't damage them," Kas finished. He had purposefully left that part out.

"It also helps if you use your sight for a really long time," Vanya added, tapping her glasses. "You know how reading small writing for a long time can give you a headache? Same idea. Or if you've been in a really bright light for a long time."

"Also you can adjust the darkness," Kas said, nodding to Vanya as she demonstrated by darkening the glasses. He paused. "You know... you might be able to find glasses to help with your sight--I mean, your vision."

"Might be the nerve itself," Vanya said. "Don't get his hopes up."

Kas shrugged. "I'm nearsighted--I can only see things close up. I had to have surgery to fix it. We may be able to find glasses that can do something similar depending on what's causing your nearsightedness."

Vanya climbed out of her chair and trotted towards the ladder, her magnetic boots clicking across the deck.

"Vanya?! The ship?!" Kas said.

"It's on autopilot, yeesh, Kas." She disappeared down the ladder.

She reappeared several minutes later with a pair of glasses. Vanya held them out in front of Fenrick's face, one eye closed. "Mm, your face is a different shape than mine."

Pulling out a tiny screwdriver, she adjusted them. With a nod to herself, she slid them onto Fenrick's nose and ears. "There. The buttons here, on the arms, control how much and what type of light they let through. You can leave them transparent while we're on my ship, but you'll want to adjust them if we go somewhere made by humans. Oh! And it's rude to talk to someone with darkened glasses. Unless it's family or friends and it's not important. Like if they ask you if you want a drink you don't have to clear your glasses to answer." She set her hands on her hips. "Anyway, how's that?"

Vanya wondered what it would be like to have a lot of siblings but not all live close. Her clan all lived in one area. Sure, it might be several kilometers between each of the families' homes, but they were still close.

"Hold up, you're older than forty? Uh, four tens? You look like... late twenties? Early thirties?" Kas paused. "Is that just because you're in the form of a vampire and they age more slowly or... huh. I guess you age slowly, too. We leave our parents usually around two tens."

Vanya chuckled at Fenrick saying it must be nice. "Yeah, well, I'll tell you what. You can come stay with me and my family. By the end you will want to protect all of them and also strangle all of them with your bare hands. That's pretty much what living with family is like."

She smiled at Fenrick's determination to learn his new skill. "I'm sure you'll get really good at it. And sounds like your proficiency in Ferens means you have a head start."

Kas considered when Leese answered his question. Well, not saying anything was good, but he still worried that someone would come along and offer money for information. And if people were hungry, they'd give up the strangers for money to survive. He didn't really blame them, but he needed to make sure they didn't get tracked down.

But she clearly had something else to say. Something she didn't like. And then she gave him an intense look that he wasn't sure how to interpret, even with Fenrick assuring them she wasn't threatening them.

Vanya snorted. "Kas isn't in the military."

"Yes, technically--"

"If he were in the military, he would have killed me by now."

Kas stared at her, open mouthed. She had broken their unspoken rule. They did not acknowledge that neither of them had any intentions to kill the other.

"And I'm not in the military. I owe those bastards nothing." She glanced at Kas. "What. Am I wrong?"

Kas rubbed his forehead. No, Vanya was not in the military. They had put her in the field with very minimal training. He wasn't sure if they just hadn't expected the UPA military to mobilize one of their hunter-class special forces or if they had wanted Vanya to die. Kas had almost taken him out when they first met. He had had him pinned to the floor, his nose gushing blood, and asked him who the hell he was. Then Vanya bit him. Which had shocked Kas so much he jerked away and Vanya escaped. Since then, he had been trying to teach her how to fight instead of just relying on her sight.

But that didn't mean she had had to blurt the fact he was intentionally not killing her.

"I'm special forces," Kas said with a huff. "They sort of expect me to go to seedy places and deal with people they pretend not to know exist." He paused. "Not saying your home is seedy, or anything. But they don't ask me about my contacts or what I had to do to get the job done."

"It's how they sleep at night," Vanya added.

"As long as they are not actively threatening my home, I don't really care who does what," Kas concluded.




Pyotr wondered if he was going to regret this. "Yes, send your bishop my way."

Either way, he would not let the church send missionaries for free. If he was going to bring this before the clans, they would owe him. And Pyotr loved being able to hold things over people's heads.

"Hm? No," Pyotr said absently. "My aids are handling what must be done here and now. I will make an official statement once we have more information. The scientists will figure out what happened. Before then, well." He smiled grimly. "If we release too much information, everyone is going to think it was an attack by the other side, and we don't want to harm our truce."

No, they certainly didn't want that, now did they?

"I'm sure it was some sort of malfunction, but this will stall us for..." he drifted off, staring out the windows at Olea.

"Gerik," he called, and the young aid was at his elbow in the blink of an eye. "Contact Vanya. Tell her ignoring me will result in consequences. I want the Nocturne. Find it."

With a bow, Gerik turned and strode off to do his bidding.

Stall tactics. Vanya was always stalling, always buying herself time. It was a stupid thing for a time philos to do. But if this were Vanya, why was she stalling? What did she know?

And maybe it was a coincidence. It was also possible that the Nocturne was still docked at the station, it was just cloaked and its test pilot hiding inside it. It was possible that the mercenary had found a better job. It was possible that the Jaager boy was having a bout of food poisoning.

But Pyotr didn't believe in coincidences. Not when semi-intelligent beings were involved.

"Yes, it is going to be a bureaucratic nightmare," he agreed, remembering Renza was there. "But I'm sure you have your own troubles, so I won't burden you with mine. I won't keep you if you have your own duties, but, please, let me know if I can assist you in any way."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Blue, but darker. Or at a higher frequency, anyways. It sounded pretty. Fenrick was certain that it would be more vibrant than he was used to, but he kind of wanted to see it.

The ship and the research station had both been fairly dark and muted. It reminded him of home, until Leese and the others had shown up. The shade of Kas' and Leese's hair was so different. He had been surprised, but things had also been very busy, so he had tucked his surprise and curiosity away to focus on other things. Now, it seemed that he could ask some questions.

"Leese told me about 'red'," he mused, crossing his arms over his chest like an old man who was telling one of his grandfather's war stories. "I thought Renta was mocking me, because he is ass-- an asshole. But it is... bright. Different. Your hair surprises me. It is so bright! I have never seen bright hair before. But I like red. It is strange, but pretty."

The glasses seemed complicated, but interesting. He had never been around light bright enough to hurt his eyes, so it was hard to imagine, but he'd take her word for it. Except there was one thing that bothered him.

"Why did you punch her?" he asked, confusion in his voice. "You are friends. Is violence between friends normal?"

He certainly had never punched his friends. Sometimes Jona was annoying and made Fenrick want to bite him, but he never did. Aggression between friends was too easy to escalate, and could ruin relationships. Fenrick was a warrior, but he had learned over the years that curbing his dominance and submitting to others was the best way to keep relationships conflict free and pleasant. Kas and Vanya bickered, but it was like the way he and Jona and Rielle bickered when they were experimenting. Physical violence was different, and it left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Sometimes relationships are more complicated," Leese said, because she had a feeling Vanya and Kas wouldn't want to expand on the complicated nuances of their not-friendship. She still wasn't entirely sure this wasn't some kind of weird unrequited love thing. She was about eighty percent sure it wasn't, but not 100. Fenrick still looked uneasy, but luckily the conversation shifted.

He made a face, scrunching up his nose.

"You... do things like that? Fix bad eyes?" He asked, surprised and a little wary. "If eyes are bad, they are bad. It is weakness. My eyes are bad because I lost fight. Bad eyes show I was weak. Nobody would ever fix them."

It confused him, more than anything else. Montrose had mutilated him so visibly because he had wanted to send a message. He had wanted to kill him, but when denied that, he wanted to make it clear what happened when somebody crossed him. It wasn't something he would have ever allowed Fenrick to fix. If he had sought out a healer, Montrose would have scarred him over again.

Leese could tell what he was thinking, and her mouth set into a tight line. This was not really a conversation she wanted to have here. It was true that her people were ableist, and that there was a rampant problem in their society. But a part of her was afraid of Vanya and Kas judging them. It was true that after coming to this side and seeing the kinds of accommodations and care there were available for the sick, she had been shocked. It was a big change, and one she longed for back home.

But Montrose was already invading this place. He was painting their species in a bad light, and highlighting their social failings was only going to make that worse. She didn't want the Ferendin to become monsters or enemies to man and vampire.

"Things are different here," she said, and she tried to keep her emotions out of her voice. "It's common to help people who have imperfections. Scars can be healed, and disabilities can be improved. I know a man who was born with one leg, so he scraped together money to get a new one. It's just the way humans are. I think vampires are the same way."

Fenrick stared at her, shock and confusion on his face. He didn't understand it, and the fact that he didn't understand it bothered him. That a society could so easily take care of its weak was foreign to him.

He couldn't say he entirely disliked the idea. Back home, healers were reserved for warriors and emergencies. Illness happened, but it was something you needed to fight on your own. He'd seen people succumb to diseases that probably could have been treated, and he'd always felt pity for them. Stopping senseless death and illness was why he studied the contamination. He didn't know why he had never considered that it could be applied in other ways.

He startled out of his thoughts when Vanya slid the glasses onto his face.

"Ah? Oh, I see," he said, playing around with the settings. It was kind of fun, but after cycling the darkness a few times he grew bored of it. He smiled, deciding that he was going to focus on the complicated things later, and thanked her.

He listened to Kas' surprise about his age, and was about to ask him what age humans left the nest before he elaborated. Leese, on the other hand, laughed.

"Fenrick is only 46," she said with a grin. "In terms of human age, he would probably be in his early twenties. Maybe twenty-one? The scarring makes him look a bit older, though."

Fenrick pouted at her, because he didn't want them to think he was a child. He was totally an adult capable of taking care of himself.

But the idea of being 21 again made him shiver.

"Two tens is too young," he said grimly. "When do you-- Wait, no, humans do not have larval stage."

Renza had mocked him mercilessly when he had asked him about that, but he thought it was a pretty normal question. Leese gave Kas and Vanya a dry smile.

"He's painting a really scary picture of us to you, I'm sure. We have built in armor, and the larval stage is the first fifteen years or so, when we can't retract it. We don't look exactly like humans or vampires, but the shape is pretty similar. Neither Fenrick or I are big freaky bugs, I promise."

Fenrick looked offended that she would even say that, but she ignored him. He was quickly distracted by Vanya's talk of family.

She wasn't actually being serious. He knew she was just joking around, but the idea was nice. Being around lots of people who all cared about each other sounded... fun. He kind of wished his own family had been like that, but his father had been very caring towards him, so he had already lucked out.

He wouldn't ask her if she was serious. It was better not to ask, or he'd get disappointed. Besides, he was pretty sure her parents wouldn't like him. Parents generally didn't.

Leese listened to Kas' explanation thoughtfully.

"It's kind of seedy," she admitted with a shrug. "But nobody will threaten you there, that's for sure. Just, maybe get rid of any logos that might associate you with authority. They generally don't react well to that sort of thing."


Ah.

Renza was right about this man. He was sharp, and a manipulator. The truce between nations was just one of his pawns, to be moved around and used as he felt necessary. That was troubling, but not unexpected. Renza liked to consider himself the same kind of person, though Leese always told him he was too soft to really sacrifice people and their safety for his own ambitions. She was right, but he never told her that. He didn't want her to get a big head.

"I will keep that in mind," he said, smiling brightly. "Have a good day, Representative. I'm sure we'll speak again before this delegation is through."

He would make sure of it. He did not trust this man to leave him alone near the rip or Leese's people.

He slipped away, but he didn't take out his communicator. Instead he milled about, making small talk when he needed to and listening to conversations. He didn't have a leg to stand on when it came to the explosion himself, so all he did was offer polite encouragements and counsel here and there.

He would call Leese later, when he was completely alone. For now, he would not give Pyotre anything to suspect him of.

 

[Reynarda]

Kas raised his eyebrows. Then he turned a smirk on Vanya. "Fenrick thinks my hair is pretty."

Vanya rolled her eyes. She was somehow managing to recline in her pilot's chair, her legs over the arm. "He likes the color, you walnut."

Kas groaned when Fenrick asked if violence between friends was normal. "I didn't mean to punch her! I thought she was someone else! She literally popped into time right next to me! It was reflex!"

There were, of course, plenty of times he had meant to punch her, but that was not one of them.

Vanya snorted. She was more impressed that Kas hadn't insisted that they weren't friends than anything else. But she wasn't about to go into the details of their very weird and very complicated relationship with someone they had just met.

Kas opened his mouth and closed it several times. He couldn't imagine a society that thought something so easily fixed should be left unfixed just so everyone could know the other person had a weakness. Everyone had something that wasn't perfect--it was part of being human. And vampire. And Ferendin, he supposed. He wasn't really sure how to say as much.

But Vanya seemed to know how to respond. "Bad eyes, bad ears, bad legs, bad brains. We fix them all. And if we can't fix them, we use some sort of tool that help them out. Like glasses."

As Leese explained Fenrick's age, Kas raised his eyebrows. Forty-six was older than both he and Vanya, but he didn't seem--oh. Kas grinned. "So you and Vanya are the same age."

"I'm more like twenty-three in human years," Vanya corrected, scowling. She had returned to her seat and was once again draped across it. When Fenrick mentioned larval stages, her expression shifted to mischief. "Humans kinda do have a larval stage."

"We do not!" Kas said. "Your baby stage is the same as ours, you nerd."

Kas smiled a little awkwardly when Leese clarified. Yeah, he had been kinda thinking bugs. "Built-in armor sounds handy," he said. He tapped his light-weight bulletproof vest. "We have to make ours."

Vanya eyed the UPA logo on his shirt sleeve pointedly and Kas huffed. "Good thing Vanya likes to wear Kaz-sized clothes, I suppose."

"Good thing," she agreed.

Kas tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. "Are we there yet?"

"Kasper Jaager, I swear, if you start acting like a child I will treat you like a child." Vanya glanced at her console. "We're nearly there."

As she stretched, a notification popped up on her screen, ringed in red. Kas squinted. "Who is in your contacts as 'Dickhead'?"

Vanya smacked her hand on the console, deleting the message. Then she just sort of sat there, not moving.

Kas waited, the seconds ticking by. "Vanya?"

"Silver." Groaning, she pushed her glasses up on her head and rubbed her eyes. "I should not have done that. Aw, blood and silver."

"Can't you get it out of your deleted?" Kas ventured, not really sure what was going on.

"Maybe." She pressed her thumbs into her forehead. "But reading it could be worse. It'll just have threats--but this is bigger and more important, and anyway, he can't carry out any threats because then he looses his bargaining chip, right? Well, it could just get worse I guess, but--"

"Vanya, who?" Kas asked. He hadn't really been able to follow what she was saying because she had been talking too fast.

She took a deep breath, pulled her beanie off and ran her fingers through her hair. Then she shoved it all back under the hat and pulled it down over her eyebrows.

"Well, my absence, at least, has been noticed." She flicked her eyes to Leese. "How good is Renza? Because he's most likely about to be cornered by one of the most dangerous vampires on Yasen."

"Whom you have labeled as 'Dickhead' in your contacts?" Kas asked, amused.

"He is a dickhead," Vanya muttered.






The dickhead in question smiled politely at Renza. Even if he was more than he seemed, Pyotr wasn't sure he was much. He knew something, but then everyone knew something. That didn't mean they were a threat.

"Thank you, I look forward to it, Father Richtail."

He watched the priest stride off to mingle. Well, he wasn't pulling out a communicator or a handheld. That said something at least. Whether it said he knew nothing or he knew enough to not be stupid, Pyotr wasn't sure.

Gerik reappeared at his elbow. "No response, sir."

"Can you see if it was received?" Pyotr asked.

"Not when the Nocturne is cloaked--if it's cloaked. We can't find it. It could be dead for all we know."

Pyotr sighed. Sometimes he wished his aids were a little cleverer. But then, he supposed, they would become dangerous. "Send another message informing her I will be taking another look at Dmitri Zmey's fidelity."

Gerik nodded.

"And message Yva. Tell her Vanya is missing and I need the specs to the Nocturne to find her." Pyotr thought for a second. "And have Reeta keep an eye on the priest. If he sneezes, I want to know."

With a bow, his aid strode off to do his biding. Pyotr turned his gaze back to Olea. He wasn't really sure if this were all interconnected. He could be barking up the wrong tree. But Vanya missing and ignoring him was a pretty good indicator that she knew something she didn't want to share. But what it could be when she knew the stakes, he had no clue.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Renza continued to mingle for a bit, before he noticed that Pyotr was no longer in the room.

If he knew his type (and he did, very well) this definitely wasn't over. He was suspicious, so he would probably have him followed. That was how these things always played out. Renza had played this game more times than he could count, and by now he was quite good at it. He also quite enjoyed it.

Glancing around the room to make sure nobody was watching him, he politely excused himself to the washroom.

He walked there calmly, like a man with nothing to lose, and once he was inside, he slipped into a stall and pulled out his communicator.

He hadn't noticed a tail, if only because he hadn't checked. He was almost certain there was one, so he might as well have some fun with the representative, if he was going to insist on being nosy.

He dialed a number into the device, then plugged the headset into his ear.

"Hello?" A woman answered after a moment, and Renza was very glad he was in the stall, because he was pretty sure his poker face was not holding up. Luckily, his voice was even.

"Bella, sweetheart," he said in a worried tone, using the codeword they had for when he wasn't alone and somebody was most likely listening in. "Please tell me that you called Leese out on a mission, because she's gone dark, and one of the vampire representatives is suspicious."

For a split second there was silence on the other end of the line, and then the sound of shuffling papers. Hanabelle was probably using the sound effect as a chance to come up with a lie. She was so smart and good at thinking on her feet, and that was what he loved about her.

He wasn't entirely sure if vampire ears would pick up both ends of the conversation, but it never hurt to be prepared.

"I didn't," Hanabelle said after a second, her voice grim. Oh, she was having just as much fun as he was, he could tell. "But there was that... You're alone, right?"

He looked around for effect.

"Yes, I snuck away. Is it something bad?"

"Mmm... You didn't hear this from me," she said slowly. "But you know Jensen Carlton, right?"

Oh, that was good. Jensen Carlton was an infamous Albaques drug smuggler, but not so infamous that his name coming up would be overly suspicious.

Renza groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Please don't tell me she's doing anything illegal. There was a soldier talking with us earlier, and I just really don't want this turning into trouble. There's already trouble here," he said, pleading in his voice. Hanabelle was silent for a moment, and when she spoke her tone was apologetic.

"All I know is that Jensen Carson was looking for a mercenary to help him smuggle a shipment of cocaine-laced blood into one of Yasen's ports. I turned him down, because we don't do that kind of work, but... Leese is pretty well known. It's a possibility he contacted her himself."

Renza bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

"Ok. Ok, that's... Ok. I'll try and keep him distracted, then. Just, if you hear from her, please get her to contact me."

The last part was not necessarily a lie. He really did want to hear that she was ok.



Kas' hair was pretty, really. Fenrick wasn't really an expert on that sort of thing, but the colour was nice. Somehow he got the feeling that agreeing with that would be weird, so he didn't say it, but he did nod. He was confused about the 'popping into time' bit, but figured it was just a phrase he didn't understand.

"Ah, yes. I accidentally stepped on Serlain's tentacle once. Those things happen," he said wisely. Serlain, who had finally relaxed into her little cubby, looked up at him when he said her name. She eyed him lazily for a moment, then settled once more, all of her tentacles loosely encircling the holds she'd found to keep her situated comfortably.

When Vanya explained that they fixed everything that was wrong with the people in their populace, he found himself feeling a little awed. He sat up straighter, because he had never really considered that was a possibility before.

"You have the resources? You can do that?" he asked curiously. "We have healers, but healers are only for warriors."

Leese stayed quiet, because this wasn't really a conversation she wanted to have, but when Vanya mentioned human larval stages, she grimaced. Fenrick immediately sat up in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

"That is different," he argued. "Human babies are soft and squishy. They cannot even hold their heads up without help! They would be eaten by Yargeen if they were in Ferensen. Larval stage is for protection. Human babies have no protection. They are like those things. The soft and squishy things Renta talked about."

Leese's grimace became even worse.

"Pork buns?" she asked, hoping she was wrong and knowing she wasn't. It wasn't really a good analogy.

"Yes! Those. Soft and squishy. It is no good. They need armour. That humans don't have armour is... not thinkable," he said, his disbelief palpable. Leese rolled her eyes, because this was something he'd been on about ever since she had sent him a picture of human life stages.

The conversation lulled then, until Vanya got a message she clearly didn't like. Leese's communicator pinged in turn, and she felt dread well up in her stomach.

"I won't say I'm not worried, but--" She stopped, frowning. She opened her mouth, then closed it again.

The message wasn't from Renza. Instead it was from an unknown number, though she knew exactly who had sent it.

'jsyk ur now smuggling cocaine into yasen. soldier you were talking to might be chasing you? renza says txt him when u have time.'

She sighed, because of course he had gone and done something ridiculous.

"He can take care of himself, I think. By the way, Kasper, apparently you're investigating me for drug smuggling, and that's why we're not at the delegation."

 

[Reynarda]

Reeta Sylvestr was the youngest daughter of Pyotr's youngest cousin. She really was not old enough to be doing politics. But her uncle liked using her young face as a cover for listening to people. Reeta wasn't sure she liked it, but she was getting better at it. And her mother thought it might get her into politics.

At least the priest was easy to follow. He didn't seem to notice her at all. So she casually leaned against the wall by the washroom door. He probably was just going to pee, Reeta thought. So when she heard the conversation, her eyes widened.

Reeta pushed off the wall and hurried to find Gerik.





"Yes, stepping on your cat's tentacle, totally normal," Kas agreed wisely.

"Kaltsrit," Vanya corrected.

She shrugged when Fenrick asked if they had the resources. "Well... it sort of depends on what your clan has access to," she admitted. "And if they don't have access to it directly, if they can get it from another clan for a fair price."

Kas couldn't help wonder why healers were only for warriors. But Leese's expression suggested this was not something she wanted to get into right now. He decided to leave it be for now.

And anyway, his species' larval form was being insulted. "We don't need armor, our parents protect us," he said.

"They are very soft and squishy. And they have no teeth."

Kas shot Vanya a look. "Vampire babies only have their canines, so I don't want to hear it." But the pork buns sent him over the edge. "What?!"

Vanya laughed, nearly falling out of her chair.

"Nothing like pork buns! You are so weird." Kas scowled.

Vanya was picking at her fingernails, her left foot twitching almost of its own accord. It was the vampire equivalent of pacing, and it was making Kas nervous. He had always assumed she had a handler of sorts, but he had never thought it was actually some guy in the government that apparently had something he was holding over her head. But then Leese got a message she wasn't sure about and Vanya got a second message. They both stared at their respective messages until Leese broke the silence.

"Drug smuggling?" Kas asked, frowning. "Should I be investigating you for drug smuggling?"

"Drug smuggling?" Vanya asked, sitting up with a jerk, her eyes wide. "Into Yasen? Please say into Yasen. Yes, excellent."

Vanya opened the message and snorted. The threat had teeth, she had no doubt, but she really had no clue how he could pull that off. She tapped reply and decided to send a voice message just to be annoying.

"Hi, Gerik, how's your mom?" Because even though it said it was from Pyotr Sylvestr, she knew who was really sending the messages. And Gerik wasn't as dim as he pretended. "Can you please inform his illustriousness that I am in the middle of hunting down a drug runner so he can dispense with the threats. Though, if this is his drug runner, tell him to let me know so I can stop chasing them, mkay?"

"Did you just--Vanya," Kas scolded. "You can't just accuse a representative of drug running."

"Oh, yes I can. He can't tell me to leave it, now." She tapped the record button and continued. "I have to go dark so I won't be able to receive any more messages. Can you have his highness take notes for me? I'm bummed to be missing the meeting. Thanks, Gerik, you're the best."

"You're so full of it," Kas said, when she ended the recording. "You're bouncing that, right?"

"Kasper, I wasn't born yesterday. I'll bounce it thirty times and double back five just for you." Vanya pulled up the path for her message to travel through the satellite relay, and Kas tried not to peak at it. Some of those were probably dark satellites.

"Yeah, but now Dickhead will know you're with me," Kas pointed out.

"Oh, he probably knows that already," Vanya muttered.

"Are you going to tell me his name or let me call him Dickhead until I figure it out?"

Vanya snickered. "Honestly hearing you call him Dickhead brings me great joy."

She flipped a few switches and Kas felt the ship begin to slow. "We're coming up on those coordinates, Leese. How do I dock with this station? Do I need to contact them?"






Pyotr was surprised to find Gerik and Reeta in the little side room he had declared his office so soon. He waved the military officer he had been speaking to away and gestured to them.

Gerik stepped forward, shadowed by Reeta. "The priest went into the washroom and Reeta overheard him talking with who we assume is the mercenary's boss."

"Assume?" Pyotr asked, his expression annoyed.

"Working on the confirmation, sir. The mercenary seems to be running spiced red to Yasen for Jensen Carson."

Pyotr eyed his aids. "Confirmation?"

"Jaager is after her, and so is Zmey." Gerik played the message Vanya had sent, and Pyotr allowed himself to make a face. Oh, she sounded confident. Either she was confident because that was what she was doing or confident because she knew she was giving him no room to recall her without looking suspicious. She was getting smarter.

Pyotr scowled. That was a dead end. For now. "Any response from Yva?"

Gerik cleared his throat. "Well, Engineer Zmey blocked you years ago, so I was using mine, but now she's blocked that, too."

"And mine," Reeta added.

"From what I can gather, Engineer Zmey has blocked our entire clan," Gerik finished with a slight shrug.

Pyotr rubbed his forehead. Yva was starting to grow a spine. It had started when Vanya was born but it had only gotten worse. Or perhaps her pathetic husband had done that. He thought about contacting Edwin Zmey, but last time he had done that, the boy had sent him a virus in response.

He could start flinging dirt on Dmitri Zmey's name to see if it got Vanya's attention. He had plenty of other threats, and it would keep her obedient even if she were doing what she claimed.

But that was a bit extreme.

"What about the priest?"

"Jan is watching him," Reeta said quickly.

"No, I mean what do we have on him?"

Gerik shrugged as he flicked through his handheld. "Leads a small congregation, oversees an orphanage. Takes on missions and such for his bishop. Doesn't have much--"

"What about his past?"

Gerik paged back through the report. "Ah. Looks like he was a victim of the Minerva Tragedy--that human mining satellite. Grew up in a church orphanage. There's a few notes in here about various things. But nothing we could use."

Pyotr frowned, his eyes unfocusing. "What are the details of the tragedy?"

Gerik had no idea where that train of thought was going, but he dutifully pulled up a report on that. "An equipment malfunction caused a fire. Many of the workers were undocumented."

Pyotr hummed, interlacing his fingers and resting his elbows on his desk. While it was underhanded, it was hardly an eight-year-old's fault.

"Oh. Hm."

Pyotr looked up over his interlaced fingers at his aid.

"There were quite a few survivors, but only two from the actual disaster sight. Renza-Korlan Richtail and Leese Atalasia." Gerik looked up from his handheld. "What does that mean?"

Pyotr honestly had no idea. Other than that the priest and mercenary had known each other for a long time. "Go tell the priest I wish to speak with him."

Nodding, Gerik messaged Jan. "He'll be here shortly, sir."

Back out in the mess, where many of the people who really didn't have much to do other than eat and worry, Pyotr's third aid, Jan, approached Renza. He bowed politely. "Excuse me, sir, but Representative Sylvestr wishes to speak with you. If you could follow me?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Interesting. It was all very interesting, and very different. The fact that different clans had different resources was fascinating. Ferensen itself was low on resources, especially in the winter years. A growing population with very little increase in food production was taking its toll, as was the slow mine-out of natural Ferens. Leese had told him this side was more abundant, but he hadn't really taken in what that meant. It seemed they really did have more of everything.

Fenrick didn't approve of his brother's invasion plan, but he could see why he had gone with it.

But then Vanya said something that immediately distracted him.

"What do you mean they have no teeth?!" He exclaimed in horror. "How do you eat? How do you defense yourself? No teeth! That is ridiculous. You are exactly like pork buns."

He seemed to have his mind set on that, and Leese didn't have it in her to break his heart, so she didn't argue. Besides, she was already feeling that one headache that came on. The one she got whenever Renza and Hanabelle worked together. It wasn't a bad headache, in the sense that they usually had good intentions and did a good job, but keeping up with their schemes was exhausting.

"He roped a friend of ours into this," she said with a sigh. "I don't even know which of them came up with this. I hope he knows I'm the one who has to clear my name when this is over."

She grumbled, but she didn't sound too upset. It was a decent distraction tactic, so she would let it go. But if he ever made her out to be a murderer or something, she was going to pinch his ears so hard.

Seeing that they were coming up at her home, she gave Vanya a number to radio to the satellite. When it was received, they docked. The dock itself was a lot sparser than Olive station, and there were only a few people working. An older man in his sixties gave her a look when she stepped off the Nocturne, but Leese was pretty sure he didn't know how not to scowl.

"You getting into trouble, Lisa?" he asked, and she grinned at him.

"Always, Marty. I've got a job I'm working on, so I brought in some help. You think you could show us your weapons stock later?" she asked, flashing him a winning smile and fluttering her eyelashes. He rolled his eyes and shooed her away.

"Don't try and bewitch me, you harlot. I'll see what I've got that'd fit a ship that size, but it'll cost you extra after what your priest pulled last time," he grumbled. Leese grimaced, because Renza had gotten a little drunk and puked in the man's artificial vegetable garden the last time he visited, and Marty would never let her live it down. But at least he was being pleasant today, as far as he went.

"Thanks, Marty, you're a darling," she said brightly, slapping him on the shoulder. Fenrick had hung back the whole time, watching with wide eyes. He'd managed to figure out the glasses so it wasn't obvious, but still. There weren't many people around, but the place was so full. There were different machines and parts everywhere, and he had never seen anything like it. When Leese led them to the residential section, he was shocked. It was just a hallway with apartments on either side, but the hallway was wide enough that they'd tried to make it look like a street. The ceiling was blue, and the wallpaper was bright and cheery. A few of the doors had cute little signs, and there were tiny gardens here and there. It was surprisingly cheery, even if the paint was peeling in places and some of the doors were run down.

Leese led them to a door near the end of the hall and keyed in her code.

"Don't expect too much," she warned, stepping around the ugly fake plant Hanabelle had gotten her as a house warming gift years ago. "I don't have anything fancy. But there's a couch and a shower, and we can rest a bit before we come up with a solid plan."

The inside was small, and a little cluttered. There was a kitchen and dining area, and the sleeping area was separated from the rest of the room by a screen. The bed was in the corner, and it wasn't made. There was no laundry, though, which was a small blessing. The sofa and telescreen were squeezed between the sleeping area and the dining bar, and there were various knicknacks spread out on shelves and the occasional end table. Fenrick looked around with wide eyes, and Leese pointed him to the sofa.

"Sit down, relax. When was the last time you slept?" she asked, and he flushed.

"A few days?" he admitted, and she scowled as she instead pointed him to the bed.

"Lay down, then. You can get a nap in while I get us some food. If I pay him extra, Marty might throw in some fresh cabbage. He pretends to be a grouch, but he's a sweetheart."



Renza looked up as he was approached, doing his best to look confused.

"He does?" He asked, humming curiously. "I just spoke to him earlier."

He didn't make a scene, though, and followed along, seemingly a little nervous, but not to the point of outright suspicion.

Inside he was absolutely grinning. They had taken the bait. Excellent. Hanabelle would have informed Leese of what was going on, so he could only hope she kept the charade up for long enough that they could solve whatever problem was going on with the bridge.

He smiled when he was led into the other room, a bit of confusion mixed with wariness on his face.

"Did you wish to see me, Representative?"

 

[Reynarda]

Kas figured that Fenrick was not ready to learn how babies got fed. Vanya looked like she wanted very badly to tell him just to watch his face, but she was ultimately distracted by the approaching satellite.

Once Vanya had set the ship by the satellite and killed the reactor, Kas went to find different clothes. He changed into something nondescript with no logos and set his bullet-proof vest over it. He also slid a gun into a shoulder holster and pulled a jacket over that. He was sure this place was fine, but he didn't want to bank on that.

Vanya had also changed, and Kas was a little chagrined to realize that it was not the clothing he had noticed first--which were a lot more casual and masculine than the previous jumpsuit--but the lack of a bust. It was something of a joke between them, but there were others present, so he pressed his lips firmly together to keep himself from saying anything. He looked constipated.

Vanya pulled a hat over Fenrick's ears. "There."

He could see Kas out of the corner of his eye, very obviously staring at his chest, looking like he was about to explode. He rolled his eyes. "Yes, Kas? Do you have a question?"

"Is it a non-titty day?" Kas asked in a rush of air.

"Fenrick is not ready to learn about titties, Kas." Vanya snickered. "But yeah."

"We switching to 'he'?" Kas asked.

Vanya shrugged. Vampire Prime didn't have gendered pronouns--the pronouns were based on status--so Vanya had been very amused when he had first tried to make sure he was using the proper ones in English. "Sure."

"Are you carrying a gun?"

Vanya rolled his eyes. "What is this, twenty-questions?"

Kas manged to get a handgun on Vanya before they followed Leese into the station. He smiled politely at the older man Leese was chatting with, and glanced back to make sure Vanya and Fenrick were behaving. Vanya had dimmed his glasses and was most likely studying the satellite's interior from behind them. Fenrick looked awed. But they weren't touching anything they weren't supposed to be.

"He seems nice," Vanya said cheerfully once they were out of earshot of Marty.

Kas shot him a look but was quickly distracted by the residential section. "Wow, this is nice. It looks homier than where I grew up."

"That's because you grew up on a military base," Vanya said.

Kas followed Leese into her home, but Vanya paused on the threshold, looking expectantly at Leese. Kas chuckled and waved him in. "I'm pretty sure that was an invitation."

"I don't want to be rude," Vanya mumbled, stepping inside and making sure the door closed behind him. He looked around and turned a smile on Leese, inclining his head slightly. "Thank you for inviting me to your lovely home."

Kas, not a vampire and therefore not bound by vampire etiquette, flopped onto the couch with a groan. "Yeah, it's a nice place. Speaking of sleep..."

But Vanya was way ahead of him. He flopped across Kas' lap like a cat demanding attention. Kas grunted as Vanya's bullet-proof vest collided with his crotch.

"Damn you," he groaned.

Vanya tugged off his hat and glasses and set them on the arm of the couch and then pulled one of the throw pillows under his head.

Kas rolled his eyes. He really was a cat. A sly smile slid across his face. "Hey, Fenrick, do Kaltsrits purr?"

"Don't you dare," Vanya mumbled into the pillow.

But he didn't put up a fight at all when Kas began gently stroking his hair.

"Is there anything I can do?" Kas asked. "Before this sleep-deprived vampire gets too comfortable?"





Pyotr looked up from the handheld he was reading a report on as Renza was guided into his make-shift office. Smiling politely, he gestured to the chair Gerik had kidnapped from a nearby room.

"I did, please have a seat."

Pyotr made a show of arranging the little desk before returning his eyes to Renza. "I have received some disturbing reports, and I thought maybe you could shed some light on the situation," he said almost apologetically.

"It seems there is a drug smuggling ring trying to run some illicit drugs into Yasen." He hesitated as if he were about so say something he was worried would hurt the hearer. "And... well, I don't know how to say this kindly, Father Richtail. But it seems like your friend has taken the job to smuggle those illegal drugs."

He smiled sympathetically as if this may be a shock to the priest. "I know she's your friend, but we cannot allow that into our home. It could hurt many lives. Is there any information you could give me that could help me make sure this does not get to Yasen?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Fenrick had to admit, he had been very curious about something all the way to Leese's apartment. He hadn't asked, because he didn't want to make a fool of himself in public, but now that they were inside, Leese could see he was practically vibrating with tension. It was only a matter of time--

"What are 'titties'?" he blurted out finally, and Leese pinched the bridge of her nose.

She knew she would have to have this talk with him eventually, but she had been dreading it in the back of her mind ever since he showed up. It brought back horrible memories of when Renza was going through puberty and she had scoured the church libraries for every book on parenting and human sexuality she could find. It was exhausting and a little traumatizing.

"It's a body part most females have," she said, trying to keep her voice unembarrassed and steady. Fenrick glanced at her, then turned to Vanya, squinting.

"Ah. So you are not female now. Ok. I get it," he said, smiling. Leese would have to explain the intricacies of gender identity combined with biology at some point, but she really didn't want to do that right before making dinner.

"It's... something like that," she said, her voice open-ended. The deep freeze had some preserved meat, and she fished around for a cutting board before pulling it out.

Fenrick toddled over to the bed before flopping down. It was very soft. He had heard of this kind of bed before, but had never experienced it. He made a pleased sound as he buried under the blankets and curled himself into a cocoon.

"This is nice," he said, his eyes already half closed. Leese hummed, already working on finding her hotplate.

"Just rest. I always get antsy when people try to help in the kitchen," she told Kas. She headed to the wall and flipped on the telescreen, switching it to a music station and setting the volume so it was low, just an ambient background noise. "Let me know if the music's too loud. I know vampires have sensitive ears."



Renza eyed the seat for a moment before cautiously sitting down. He was wary, but not too wary. Mostly just confused about why he was being called.

Reactions had to be subtle to be believable. Being too obvious made everything immediately look fake.

"Disturbing reports?" he asked, his brow furrowing. Inside, he was delighted that his bait had been taken, but his face showed not a hint of it.

Instead, he cringed for only a moment when Pyotr mentioned drugs, before quickly closing his expression off.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, and there was the tiniest hint of nerves and suspicion in his voice. "I can't imagine Leese would transport drugs. She's not that kind of person."

He glanced around the room, fidgeting with his hands in his lap.

"I just - I find it hard to believe, without proof."

 

[Reynarda]

Kas pressed his lips together at Fenrick's blurted question. "I'll tell you when you're older."

"You wanted to know how human babies get fed, yeah?" Vanya asked, his eyes still closed.

"Vanya, no!" Kas groaned.

"Well, all mammals, really, so vampires, humans, cats, vixps. It's how we feed babies since they have no teeth and can't hunt. People with 'titties'--females--make a liquid that has what babies need."

Kas was rubbing his eyes and groaning.

Vanya slid his eyes open. "You do know the titties are not for you, Kas, yeah? They're for babies."

"I am fully aware of that, Vanya, thank you."

Vanya smiled at Fenrick. "But, yes, not female anymore. I slide through female and male depending on how I'm feeling. English has gendered pronouns--he, she, they--but Prime, my language, doesn't, so I'm not too fussed about pronouns. If you want to be particular, like Kas, you can ask."

Kas coughed. "But, uh, the titty day or no-titty day thing is a joke."

"I was male when we first met, and female the second time around," Vanya said.

Kas pinked and covered his face with his hands. "I was just a little surprised, okay."

"So he's got me pinned to the wall, and he's like, 'oh... titties?' And then goes bright red." Vanya grinned up at him. "So I said, 'yeah, titties today'. Kas likes titties."

"Well you take a nap, you little prick?" Kas said.

Vanya grinned, crossing his ankles. But he did close his eyes, so Kas didn't have to smother him with a pillow. He gave Leese a thumbs-up to indicate the music was not bothering him. After a few minutes, his breathing shifted, and his chest stopped moving as much.

Kas leaned back against the couch with a sigh. He almost closed his eyes, but he didn't want to fall asleep. Instead he quietly asked, "You doing ok, Leese?"





Pyotr smiled internally. So he knew something. The priest wasn't too bad at this, but he wasn't that great either.

With a sigh as if the discussion pained him, Pyotr leaned his elbows on the table he had claimed for his desk. He didn't know what all of this had to do with the rip and the explosion, but he needed to confirm if his agent was lying or not. He wouldn't put it past Vanya to go running off with the Jaager boy to escape the talks, but she had also been extremely excited about the rip. Even all her suggestions he go stick his head in a vat of silver hadn't hidden the excitement. His instinct told him something was off about all this, and his instinct was usually good.

He adapted the concerned and sympathetic father-figure act he really wasn't too bad at.

"I understand your disbelief, I do. We want to see the best in our friends. And, perhaps my sources are wrong. Do you have anyway of contacting her or confirming her location? If she is innocent, we would like to confirm that."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Fenrick was a researcher. He had seen all kinds of gross things in his work. He had carefully dissected the remains of contaminated corpses - a job that no other person in Ferensen's capital had been brave enough to do - and had taken samples of all kids of body fluids and excrements for the purpose of his research.

But he couldn't quite hide his disgust.

"You eat... Things that come out of your parent?" He asked in horror. "Like, bodily secretions? They eat bodily secretions? That's so gross! Is it like the Paranin bird that vomits into its hatchling's mouth or--"

Leese sighed, but the can had already been opened, so.

"It's not that gross," she assured him. "I mean. It is kind of gross, but baby humans can't digest anything solid for the first bit anyways. It's just natural for them. Hanabelle asked me about how we fed our young, once, and she thought we were the gross ones."

Fenrick glowered, popping his head up.

"It is not gross. Parasin beetles are good for you. Titty water cannot be good for you."

Leese was going to strangle him if he said the word titties anymore. She would also probably strangle Kas and Vanya, just for good measure.

"It's called milk. Please don't say titty water," she ground out as she began to chop the frozen meat. Fenrick rolled his eyes as though the distinction was useless, but he didn't argue.

"Why do you like the titties," he asked Kas, his eyes narrowing. "Is... Do people drink the milk? If they are not babies?"

Leese was very impressed that her knife did not cut off her finger when it slipped and plunged into the counter.

"It-- Can we just say it's a reproduction thing and move on?" she asked, practically pleading. Fenrick, however, could not deny that at heart, he was a scientist.

"Is it involved in reproduction itself, or just courtship? Like how stingers are courtship, but not reproduction," he questioned.

"Ask Vanya about his gender some more," Leese ground out, if only to stop having this conversation. Fenrick gave her a Look, but he was deterred... For now.

"I will ask pronouns. They are confusing. I called Renta she, and he got very angry. I do not want to make you angry," he said wisely.

The way that Vanya described his gender was interesting. It wasn't completely unusual, to him.

"Some Ferendin are like that. They change when they want. Most only change for reproduction. Some do not change at all. I never change. My friend, Jona, change once for children. His partner could not get good eggs. He change back after laying, said he did not want to be nurturer forever," he explained. Jona hadn't quite liked to the experience, but Rielle had been happy that they were able to conceive. The eggs wouldn't hatch until summer in another nine years or so, but he knew they were both excited to be parents.

"The Ferendin idea of gender is... different," Leese explained. They were still talking about sex, but at least it was sex she was familiar with. "Everyone has the capability to be either sex, but our 'gender' norms are typically more..."

She frowned as she spiced the meat, her brow furrowing.

"It's complicated, but it's not as rigid for most people as it is in human society. Also it's not really binary."

"Leese complained humans were weird, because they are only one," Fenrick said, and Leese's knife slipped again as she turned to glare at him. That had been years ago, and she had been justified.

"I was frustrated. You try raising a human teenager when you barely know how humans work," she grumbled.

She was rustling around in the kitchen, and finally set the meat to sear.

The conversation lulled after that, and she was grateful. Not only to get out of biology talk, but for the chance at silence.

She would text Renza tonight, but she'd messaged Hanabelle already to let her know she was safe. This whole day had been non-stop tension, so now, as she stood in her tiny kitchen cooking vaccum-frozen mystery meat over her shitty hot plate, she finally felt like she could relax a bit. Not too much, but a bit.

"I'm fine," she said when Kasper asked, her smile a little thin, but not forced. Fenrick had curled up on his side, his eye closed. Leese was pretty sure he was awake, but he was pretending to be asleep. She might as well indulge him.

She finished up with the meat, then pulled out her rice cooker to move to the next task. Cooking was simple and repetitive, and it calmed her.

"As terrible as it sounds, I'm a little relieved. I've been fearing something like this would happen for so long. Now that it actually has, there's no more waiting, no more uncertainty."

Perhaps that was being a bit too candid, but she didn't feel like lying.

"Things are going to be pretty bad for a while, but... I'd rather fix things and deal with the aftermath than pretend none of this is happening."



Renza's face pinched. He clenched his fists, looking around the room. Just the right level of shifty.

"I don't... I wouldn't want to call her if she's working," he said defensively.

Hm, should he give in a little bit? Pyotr was trying to be his friend, and he knew it was a crock of shit. But if he could play the stupid religious country boy who saw the best in everyone, it might make him lower his guard.

"Look, I tell her not to do anything illegal. I hate it when she puts herself at risk like that. If she is doing something dangerous, I don't know where she is. I could..."

He trailed off, nervously licking his lips.

"I could maybe call her dispatcher."

 

[Reynarda]

"There are no species on your planet that feed their young with something they make?" Vanya asked curiously. "Quite a few of the species on Yasen do that. Same for Albaques."

"It is a little gross," Kas admitted.

"What, didn't your mom breast-feed you?" Vanya asked, and Kas went pink again.

"That's not just something you ask!"

Vanya took that as a "yes".

But then Fenrick said "titty water" and Kas choked on his own spit.

"It is very good for babies," Vanya informed Fenrick, helpfully patting Kas' chest until he stopped coughing. "And if the baby is sick, the mom can make antibodies to help them fight the infection."

Kas had his throat clear of spit when Fenrick asked if adults drank breast milk. "Oh! No! Gross! Vanya! Look what you've done!"

"You're the one who brought up titties," Vanya said. "Ima let Kas handle this one. I can give the scientific reason Kas likes them, but that's all."

Kas reflected that he could grab the pillow from under Vanya's head and use it to smother him. He made a variety of faces. "A courtship thing--an attraction thing."

And then something Fenrick said registered with his brain. "Wait. How the hell are stingers used in courtship?!"

Vanya shrugged when he said he would ask the pronouns. "Yeah, some people are particular about it. I won't get angry, really. But I don't expect you to guess, either. Kas stressed himself out trying to guess."

Kas sighed. He hadn't wanted to mess up, and he had felt weird asking an enemy agent for their pronouns. But he had gotten used to it after he had either guessed incorrectly or Vanya had changed genders but had not had a chance to change clothes.

"We aren't quite as rigid as humans, either. But our expectations in society for the genders are not the same as humans," Vanya said.

"Wait, you can change for reproduction? That's pretty neat," Kas said. "We can't do that--well, not without help."

Vanya made a face. He had been planning on messing with Fenrick a bit, but Kas had put the brakes on that.

Kas was about to ask which human teenager Leese had raised when he got the sudden feeling that it was Renza. Yeah, that seemed something out of nightmares. He supposed having a horny human priest-in-the-making when you weren't human would definitely make for some challenges.

Kas nodded, absentmindedly smoothing Vanya's shirt. "No, I completely understand. It takes the stress of waiting and wondering off, so you can focus on the problem."

He nodded, agreeing it was going to get bad. "Yeah."

He thought about the weirdness of fighting Fenrick's brother's goons. That would almost be the easy part. The hard part was that they had no idea how to close the rip. The other hard part would be keeping the human and vampire governments from doing anything stupid.

He couldn't help wonder who Vanya considered one of the most dangerous vampires on Yasen, and what their connection to Vanya was. He hadn't seen Vanya talking to any politician-types. But he had seemed pretty freaked out after deleting that message, and Kas had gotten the feeling the politician was blackmailing him somehow. And if that politician was going after Renza...

Kas got the feeling "rescue Renza" might be one of the first things on their to-do list. Renza seemed like he liked to poke people with a stick just as much as Vanya did--he was just subtler at it.

He glanced at Vanya--who was passed out--and Fenrick--who was at least pretending to be asleep. After a few minutes of quiet, Kas asked, "Do you think we can do it? Stop... Fenrick's brother's goons and then close the rip?"




Pyotr kept his eyes on the priest--not eye contact, he didn't want to threaten him, but on his forehead. He wanted him to feel trapped an uncomfortable but not unsafe.

As he squirmed, Pyotr hid his smile. He hoped this boy didn't have any dreams of going into politics. He was worried about his friend and didn't want to get her in trouble--it was all over his face.

Pyotr knew he should care if the mercenary were smuggling drugs into Yasen, but he had bigger fish to fry. If she wasn't, he could force Vanya to tell what she knew. If she was smuggling drugs, well, that would be disappointing. Hopefully the team researching the station explosion would have something for him to leverage.

Pyotr smiled when Renza began to cave. "Yes, if you could call her dispatcher and help confirm where she is, that would be most helpful."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Leese hesitated, her hand freezing from where she was measuring the rice to go in the cooker. The measuring cup hung in the air for a moment before she finally tipped it over.

That was the question, wasn't it? Could they do it? She honestly had no idea. She wanted to be optimistic, but sometimes it was so hard. Fenrick shifted on the bed, and she cast him a worried glance.

She didn't want to upset him. She also didn't particularly want to talk about what had happened, but she knew that it was inevitable.

"We don't have much of another choice," she said, her voice thin.

She finished measuring out the water and turned the rice cooker on.

This would be so much easier if Fenrick didn't speak English, or if she could switch to a different language. But that was just lying to him, wasn't it? Lying wasn't going to help anything.

"I don't know if we can beat him. Montrose is strong, but more than that, he's ruthless. He doesn't have inhibitions. Our biggest advantage is that he doesn't know anything about how this world works. If we can isolate him and take him off-guard, our chances of winning are higher. But no matter who he brings with him, he's the biggest threat."

Fenrick shifted on the bed, and Leese turned to the living area. Her old arm chair was beaten up and threadbare, but she slipped into it with a low sigh.

"I refuse to underestimate him," she said, her voice soft. "I honestly hoped I would never see him again. I'm not going to lie and say that I'm looking forward to this, or that I'm completely confident. But if we don't put forth an effort, people will die. I'd much rather do whatever it takes to avoid that."



Renza continued to squirm, because Pyotr had the exact same bearing as the matron at the orphanage did. The personage of caring, when really it was all a ploy to make him mess up and admit his wrongdoings. Pyotr wouldn't hit him with a switch, but he was just as conniving.

If this meeting had convinced him of anything, it was that he was going to take great joy in wasting this man's time.

"I-- I'll call her," he caved in finally. "Just. Just let me talk, ok?"

He hesitated, unsure if he would be willing to call Hanabelle in the room or not. But he doubted he would be allowed to leave, so he pushed his chair back, pacing nervously as he retrieved his communicator.

"Renza?" Hanabelle responded, her voice concerned. Renza swallowed, glancing at Pyotr for a moment before averting his eyes.

"Bella, sweetheart," he said, his voice a little shaky. "I think Leese might be in trouble."

Hanabelle was silent on the other end for a long moment before he heard the sound of something being set down on the table. Probably a coffee cup. He almost felt a little bad, because he was asking a lot of her with this elaborate performance. She'd have to find something to set the vampires and their attention on. He was certain that there probably were drugs going into Yasen, but it was likely on a much smaller scale than Pyotr undoubtedly envisioned.

"She turned off tracking on her ship," she said after a long moment. There was the sound of keys clacking, and then Hanabelle swallowed. No doubt she had been working hard in the short while between their last conversation. "I'll give you her last coordinates."

She rattled them off, and Renza recalled the location in his head. It was very close to a flightport on Yassen, one of the biggest and busiest interplanetary stations that he was aware of. If there was smuggling to happen, it would likely be there. Renza almost felt bad for Jensen Clark for ruining his operation.

But most importantly, if word got out to the rest of the vampire delegation, it would make the relations between them and Albaques even rockier. With luck, it would delay the investigation of the rip long enough for Leese to contact him.

Renza let out a shaky breath, squeezed his eyes shut, and finally shut his communicator.

"There," he said, giving Pyotr an uncomfortable look that wasn't quite fearful, but close. "I don't know anything else. I'm sure Leese isn't involved. Can I... Can I go now?"

 

[Reynarda]

Well, that was true. They didn't have much of a choice.

But not knowing exactly what they were up against made Kas' insides squirm. He didn't doubt that they would try their very darnedest, but he just wasn't sure if it was going to be enough.

He glanced at Fenrick. Montrose was his brother, and having to fight him would probably not be easy. Or maybe it would, if his sad, wistful expression when Vanya had talked about his family was any hint.

Kas sighed when Leese admitted she didn't think they could beat him.

"Well, we use the ace up our sleeve that we have. Besides, we have a decently smart crew. We can figure something out. We'll just have to put our heads together."

He figured he didn't sound very optimistic even if his words were. But what else could he say? They had to try, that much was obvious. Deciding that had already lost would only be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Vanya's eyes popped open and he sat bolt-upright. Kas yelped in surprise.

"I forgot to tell Fenrick not to use his sight near you."

"Holy hell, Vanya, will you just sleep like a normal person," Kas grumbled, pushing him back down. "You can tell him when you both wake up."

To his surprise, Vanya closed his eyes again.

Kas sighed, leaning back in the couch. "We'll figure something out," he repeated, more to himself than to Leese. "I'm a little worried about our governments, though. The station exploding will stall them, but I'm going to be honest. I don't know who is trying to get information from Renza, but I don't like it."






Pyotr and his aids listen to the conversation between Renza and "Bella" in silence. Well. If this were some elaborate ploy, the mercenary's dispatcher was in on it. Pyotr couldn't decide if this were a ploy. Or even if it was, if the priest were in on it.

He glanced at Gerik as Bella gave the coordinates. Gerik had them pulled up in seconds on his handheld and showed it to Pyotr. The elder vampire frowned. The coordinates were not exactly a surprise, but the fact that they weren't a surprise didn't mean he believed these two humans.

Gerik tossed him a questioning look and Pyotr nodded. He would need to call in a few favors, but there should be a strike team headed to that flightport in no time at all. Gerik was stepping outside, calling the first of Pyotr's people in the military, before Renza even ended the connection.

Pyotr sighed. He still wanted to keep the priest. If nothing else, he could use him as leverage to get the mercenary to talk to him. But that would cause a political nightmare that he wasn't ready to deal with. He would keep the idea in his back pocket, though, in case he needed it.

"Yes, Father Richtail, I have no further questions. And I hope, for your sake, your friend is not involved. You have been most helpful, thank you. We will revisit the conversation about missionaries to Yasen soon, thank you."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Leese hadn't meant to dampen Kas' spirits. She really hadn't.

She pressed the heel of her hand to one eye and deflated.

"I mean, I'm sure I'm biased," she pointed out. "Montrose and I don't have a good history. I underestimated him before, and it... it didn't turn out well."

She was scared of him. She knew Fenrick was too, even if he would never say it aloud. Montrose had mutilated him physically and humiliated him when he was little more than a teenager.

He never blamed Leese for it, but Leese knew deep down that it was all her fault. If she hadn't encouraged him, he never would have challenged, and now everything was so messed up.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be a downer. If we can take him out before he gets to a planet or satellite, he'll be too busy focusing his energy on keeping space from crushing him. It'll be much easier."

Fenrick shifted over, glancing at Vanya with his eye barely open. Leese wasn't sure if he was still pretending to sleep (poorly) or if his curiosity would get the better of him.

Impressively, he closed his eye again.

Less impressively, he snorted when Kas expressed concerns over Renza.

"Renta is good at lying," Fenrick said, and from the lack of sleepiness in his voice, Leese decided he must have been awake the whole time.

"I'm worried, because I don't want him to be in danger, but I'm not worried about him being able to handle it," Leese agreed. She hesitated for a second, then figured she might as well play all her cards on the table. "Our friend in the Albaquese military is probably helping him forge data. I have no doubt they're sending the vampires on a wild goose chase right now."

She tapped her fingers on the arm rest.

"Anyways, we have an understanding. I don't extract him unless he sends a signal. If I break his cover, he'll be pissed at me for weeks. So until he or Hanabelle update me on the information, I'm going to assume he's got things under control."

It was hard. She had been little more than a teenager when she met Renza, just barely an official adult, but she had still raised the kid. Or they had raised each other, more like. He had always been far too mature for his age. He never spoke about his time on the satellite or his birth parents, but Leese knew the state he had been in when she found him.

The fact that his parents were working on a dangerous and dubiously legal mining operation had been enough of an indication that they had no money or resources. It was no surprise their son had learned early on how to manipulate and steal to get what he needed.



Renza exhaled, torn between his relief at being allowed to leave and his worry that Leese would be caught doing something illegal.

He nodded solemnly, then left the room.

Ok, that was one thing solved. The drug bust would take a few hours, probably. That was a few more hours for him to figure out what to do next. He couldn't contact Leese or Hanabelle again, so in the meantime, he would have to hope that both of them took care of themselves. Hanabelle was no doubt spreading rumours on the internet about Yasen's board of representatives failing to catch drug smuggling until it was practically on the planet, and he had no doubt a few of her reporter friends would be there within the day to grill the officials. Hanabelle was very good at using the extranet to cause discord, and he almost felt bad for Pyotr for the PR nightmare that he was going to cause him.

But if he was busy trying to cover up that shitstorm, he might be a little less focused on Renza. Especially if he thought Leese was acting on her own, as Renza had tried to push. He could play innocent a little longer.

He wished he could contact Leese. He knew that she trusted him, but he didn't want her to worry herself sick. She always did when he was on these dangerous missions.