Goddess of the Galacticide Episode 39 - The Oath We Swore

Episode 39

The evidence was burning in Cha Dzeeny’s hand.

Palace Security had noticed his software intrusion, flagged a suspicious data collection, and tracked him down to the requesting terminal within an impressively short time. But they had no details about the mission—or who was behind it. Shaajis Linuka had worn the transic since childhood, as a pendant, out of sight, on her skin.

Meta-forensics scans could reveal the original owner of the tiny piece of hardware in a few passes. He had to get rid of it.

Baaii Fij studied Cha. She looked exactly like he remembered her, but he doubted her assessment of him would be as complementary.

“Get the transport,” she said.

The female guard who had held Cha at gunpoint earlier walked away. No callsign mentioned, not even a nod or stare was needed to signal whose job it was. A close-knit team. Operating on collective intuition, relying on absolute trust.

“And give the man his meal. But just the meat, not the skewer.”

Cha’s dirty, dried-blood encrusted appearance might not have impressed Baaii, but that didn’t let her underestimate him enough to hand him a small, pointy metal rod.

But even the filled meat bowl he was handed came with opportunities. Religious practice was discouraged during communal meals in the Levy Fleet, but Cha could still sign a seventh mural into the crumbled dirt floor of the vendor stall without lifting his finger once. With the final circle he would push the transic into the now loosened dry soil.

“Dinner with family,” murmured the guards.

Cha froze, looking up at the group. Baaii nodded. Dinner with family, the seventh mural, was a cornerstone of ancestral worship. Assembling as many family members as one could, living nearby or summoning the dead through tales, was the true bedrock of Aloo Dashaad society. These guards recognized how much this meal meant to Cha.

Believers. True krrugze darrtuzkeee. Cha clenched his fist, still holding the transic node.

The old lady had prepared the meat to perfection. Sour on the bite, sweet on the tongue, and spicy in the aftertaste. The flavors of life, condensed in a cube of dead animal.

The bowl was empty when the transport arrived. Nondescript hovercraft, for 6 to 8, spacious enough to accommodate everyone wearing gear. The female guard stepped out of the pilot section.

She pierced Cha with a stare, then turned to Baaii. “This man here is trouble. The handler’s guys will want to see him immediately.”

Baaii took Cha’s bowl. “You’re in trouble with the Assembly?”

“Yes,” he nodded. “Technically, I’m absent from my unit. Penal unit.”

“Get in. Explain yourself on the way,” said Baaii.

“Do you want me to let them know we’re coming?” asked the woman.

“No, I want to hear this story first, before we inform the keeb pewak.”

Cha climbed into the seat the woman pointed at. “White faces?”

“Assembly staff,” said Baaii.

***

The hover transport’s interior was utilitarian, but the ride was surprisingly quiet.

Baaii kept shaking her head while holding her temple implant. Cha had no doubt she was glancing over Cha Dzeeny’s file her colleague had found. Her blank stare switched to rays of fury directed at Cha.

“By the Ancestors, Dzeeny!” She took a deep breath. “What were you thinking? It looks like absence from duty is the least of your worries. What is this stolen classified equipment business—carrying a treason charge? A compounding treason charge, on top of the one you already had.”

Stolen equipment. The sphere drive array. The Assembly must have pieced together who stole their tech. Of course. They had left witnesses behind.

“It all looks bad,” he said, “when read as a summary.”

“Bad?” Her voice was almost pleading. “Cha, they’ll tear you apart for this. And now you added intent to compromise sovereign security.”

She was right, of course. A clever prosecutor could paint Cha as a terrorist.

“How did you get all these reports so fast?” asked Cha. “Were you expecting me?”

“No.” The other woman swiveled her seat around, now facing Baaii and Cha. “Remember when I held that gun to your neck? I could wipe off some cell samples and run them through the system.”

The transport had a field forensics station. Magii! Its systems had to link to an Assembly network to pull a complete file on Cha. Also pushing an alert about him apprehended on Dziilaa Sok. He didn’t just make the Shaajis mission harder; he killed their best friend—surprise.

They needed a new ally. Someone on the inside. With access to the Shaajis. Someone who disliked the Assembly enough to call them ‘white faces’.

“Clever,” Cha said, looking at the woman. “You could run anyone’s DNA?”

“In less than a pass.”

He turned back to Baaii. “You’re right, my journey will likely end in front of an Assembly firing squad.”

Cha snapped his thumb up, revealing the transic node.

“What’s that? How did you conceal this?”

“High-security transic node. Won’t show up on most scans. It contains the data I collected.”

“Why would you give this to me?” asked Baaii. “This will be evidence in a case against you.”

Regardless of her loyalties, Baaii Fij did not want to see Cha Dzeeny harmed; of that he was certain. Certain enough.

“Would you give this back to the Shaajis?” asked Cha. “It is hers.”

“The Shaajis asked you to… that doesn’t make sense.”

“Don’t believe me?” He handed the transic to the other woman. “Run your tests. You have all the royal family members in your database.”

***

The forensics station whirred, clicked and squelched for a felt eternity. The unit beeped, the woman verified the results, then gestured her team leader to look at the output.

Wrinkles like canyons ran across Baaii’s forehead. “Stop the transport.”

Baaii climbed back to Cha’s seat. “Besides your genetic fingerprint, the system found two more. One for Linuka Omga. And another for Kel Chaada.”

She held the transic close to Cha’s face, her gaze searching, beseeching, pleading for answers.

“The Shaajis gave me this. Linuka Omga. She received it from her father, who gave it to her in case she ever needed to flee from enemies.”

“The Assembly,” said Baaii.

Cha nodded. “The Shaajis wants to free her aunt from external influence, bring her to the Assembly World to take her rightful seat in the chamber, restoring the honor of Aloo Dash. Re-unite the fractured delegation.”

“Re-unite the Ancestrate?” asked Baaii.

“You should ask her yourself when she comes to the palace.”

The guard team exchanged long glances.

The other woman broke the silence. “Sentinel, we’ve all sworn an oath to the Shaajis.”

“You’re right—we have. And I intend to keep mine. Loyalty to the Shaajis, I actually swore it to. The same you all pledged your lives to. And that Shaajis was Linuka Omga. The Assembly vrrozhopak never bothered to install Vriishany Omga formally, skipped the rites, put her on the throne, and us as dressing around it.”

Cha wondered when Linuka Omga surprised him in his quarters on board the Ṭawːtfé̃ and asked him to leave his life behind to mutiny and take over the battlecruiser for her cause—how long did it take him to decide? He recalled it as near-instant, but maybe it had felt longer for the Shaajis asking.

This team here fought the same battle.

The transport pilot spoke first. “If the Shaajis is coming, we need to hurry. What’s the plan, Sentinel?”

“Cut off Vrra Pommee’s system access,” said Baaii. “He’s with the Shaajis for a few more shifts and cannot be alerted. Cha, whatever plan you needed this data for, it has to happen before the end of the rotation.”

He nodded. “Who is Vrra Pommee?”

“Special envoy to Aloo Dash. Assembly handler for the Shaajis. The evacuation access system you downloaded maps for? He is the only one controlling it. If he gets scared, he will hush the Shaajis into her secure quarters and seal them. You won’t be able to get to her before a battle fleet arrives in orbit.”

Cha closed his eyes. The mission was back on, with new allies, but a closing time window. With the Assembly alerted, this opportunity would not come back. They had to strike today.

No detailed planning, no simulated drills, no quiet infiltration. Aerial approach, frontal assault. If the Shaajis' reality projecting magic wouldn’t break the multiverse, the sheer amount of luck they required might.

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