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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/icallshogun on 2024-10-28 11:32:07+00:00.

Gifts

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When your days were busy, time would do one of two things. Pass by at an extraordinary pace, or grind to a standstill. There was no inbetween, not that Alex was familiar with. The previous two days had fallen into the former group. He had already been busy with the run-up to the first meeting with the Confed about returning to the Artifact. Imperial Intelligence was getting his falsified ARGUS data all lined up, and it was looking good enough that he wouldn’t be able to tell it had been manufactured if he hadn’t been there for a ton of recording.

That had been most of what was on his calendar, originally, until Sharadi pulled his little stunt landing four people in the brig and one under the watchful eye of Eleya’s guard that he had to do something with. Imperial Intelligence was helping with that, too, as was the fairly limited justice system on board. Data analysis of the communication logs and some gentle interrogation had yielded the original plan: bribe him to leave. Only Senator Mateku and Hatae had been informed of this. Sharadi had intentionally kept Kaleta out of the loop about that part, probably because neither she nor Nova would have approved of such dealings when it involved Carbon if she had time to think about it. Hatae had just flown off the handle before the deal could be brought up.

The bribes were also the why behind Mateku’s cane being weapon-heavy. There was a concealed compartment in the pommel that had been housing a roughly 800 gram ingot of manufacturing-grade rhodium. Proof that they were serious, with several more kilos of other expensive metals for Alex on the Starbound if he would disavow the entwinement and allow them to drop him off at any location in the system he wanted.

That one ingot alone was probably worth a hundred thousand dCred, if he could find someone willing to buy a lump of high purity rhodium from a guy off the street at market value. Nobody in Sol, let alone on Earth, would believe for a second that he had a backpack full of rare metal to sell because he’d been bribed by space aliens, even if they were right there in orbit. Alex couldn’t imagine what the taxes on something like that would be, for that matter.

He kept it, of course. And the cane too.

Sharadi’s crew ended up getting themselves a real sweetheart of a deal anyway. They all received a trip back to Na’o in the brig of one of the Sword’s frigates, for the low price of pledging fealty to Alex. To understand the fact it was his sense of honor, his willingness to forgive people in a terrible situation making mistakes… once. And that a step out of line, an unkind word, or anything but absolute obedience would see that protection taken away. They all took the pact.

It was a gamble, yes. But he now had video of all of them swearing their allegiance to Eleya, Carbon and himself, and the throne. All witnessed by Admiral Olan and one of the military’s Chief Adjudicators. Alex felt kind of bad for Tenol and Savane. Cousins from a mid-tier Noble house that was now overwhelmingly dead. Sharadi had tried to hype them up: it was going to be easy. Flash the cash and the Human would walk. Base creatures, after all. They would be there for this triumph, their names alongside his as they helped restore the Empire.

They weren’t prepared for the fight, or for Sergeant Zenshen putting a gun in their faces. Or solitary confinement, or interrogation at the hands of Imperial Intelligence. Basically the entire experience after Hatae took a swing at Alex had left them shaken and ready to capitulate on anything and everything. Tenol had broken down crying and thanked Alex when presented with the opportunity to avoid execution, without even hearing the terms. Olan believed that Alex had actually made disciples out of those two, however useful they would be.

Former Lieutenant Nalen would be on that ship as well. He would be spending a year in prison back in Tsla’o space for what was basically assault, his future after that currently up in the air. He had experience the military couldn’t afford to throw away at the moment, but if they retained him he would likely find himself somewhere very far out of the way. Maybe that listening post that Carbon had threatened him with.

Speaking of Carbon, she had two meetings with Eleya in as many days. Both times with positive outcomes, though having a goal they were both working towards for once likely helped. It had been decided that simply calling up Sharadi would not have the right weight - he would just end the call like last time they had spoken. To penetrate the shell he had put up would require something he could not simply switch off. She would be going to speak with him in person.

Alex might be tagging along for this, depending on how the meeting this afternoon went, what the timeline going forward would be. If there wasn’t enough space for the trip, the plan was to request enough time before a joint operation to the Artifact starts, so that the esteemed Lan Tshalen could return to Na’o for a few days. They would even like to bring the erstwhile Pilot along as a goodwill visit of sorts, if possible. Confederation intel would know some of that is bunk, though there was a long and detailed conversation about a new class of Lan being brought up in the salted data he was about to upload.

Today, though… Today was moving at a glacial pace. Alex had gotten up at three ship time, which was totally unreasonable, and hauled his ass down to the Xenotech lab so they could finalize all the data that would be uploaded, including the intrusion software. Verify everything was in place and ready to go one last time, and then set a very small script to start up the ARGUS so it would begin recording right at the end of the last fake chunk. He didn’t even have to be awake for that, which was part of the plan.

Also part of the plan? Stopping in at sickbay to get his teeth crammed back in. He didn’t like it but the mediboard did a great job, and the attending doc was kind enough to furnish him with a mild, Human-safe sedative to use once he got back to his cabin. Which he did because he was very awake at that point and he needed to be convincingly asleep within the hour.

When the alarm in their cabin went off at six ship time, everyone was on the same page: he was once again recording live. Neya had put on a guise of formality, acting more like the personal assistant Alex had once thought her to be. Carbon didn’t change her morning routine, the ONI already knew they were married and doing married people things. If anything, she lounged on him longer than normal, held him a little more possessively.

Carbon skipped breakfast and left for the station early. She had plans with his mom, which ONI was also likely aware of as all of those emails had gone through military servers. Neya also bowed out not long after, having little to do and taking the day for herself. Alex spent some time reading a book that the library on board had translated into English for him - a kind gesture that was also funny because if he didn’t turn the visual translator on, there was no data saved on what he was reading. The print wasn’t thick enough for ARGUS to catch, only going down to about a tenth of a millimeter resolution. Could have been a whole file of state secrets. He didn’t know that was what happened. He was just a rube trying to learn about their culture for his little reports, so they’d have to deal with an extra two hours of him humming in interest.

But there was that meeting to attend to, which was why he was now sitting in Eleya’s antechamber waiting for her. They were carpooling. He checked his watch, a chunky retro model clad in shock-resistant black rubber armor, and did the math to convert it to ship time… She was a minute late. Wait, no, he was still three minutes early.

Ed had managed to impart the importance of showing up early, particularly when dealing with government types, which Eleya definitely was. If five minutes early was ‘on time’ to them - a lot of Confed Navy Officers subscribed to that idea - show up ten before that. Make them arrive second. Power move.

Didn’t work as well when the place you were meeting was basically their house. She lived there, after all, she had been there since yesterday for all he knew.

The Empress was right on time, the doors to her inner sanctum swinging open silently on well oiled hinges. Dressed in a new, less ornately decorated jacket with a slightly more Human-conventional collar design, she looked… like his aunt. Eleya was just in that zone for him now. He wasn’t going to tell her that, but she was. She had become a relative in his mind.

Alex still hopped up out of that chair and gave her a bow like they had a much more formal relationship. “Empress. Good morning.” He was wearing his most formal t-shirt and work pants, even had his external translator. Every bit of clothing on him and all the electronics in his pockets - save for the Tsla’o communicator he used to find his way around the ship - were Human made objects he had brought with him. Keeping up appearances.

“Good morning, nephew.” She looked him over with a small amount of disappointment, then scanned the rest of the room, quite empty save for a few Guard still stationed out here. “Where is Carbon?” That sounded…

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