Goddess of the Galacticide Episode 41 - This Seat Is Taken

Episode 41

The glowing woman appearing in the center of the room looked like Linuka’s mother. Sharp cheekbones, the straight Omga nose and the narrow lips Linuka had inherited. Shoulder-length black hair. Elegant and alive.

The Remnants had told her a human avatar broadcast hit the battlecruiser, asking for Linuka. Alarming, but also curious. Once the avatar projected into an empty crew quarter, the privacy requested felt like a trap.

Whoever this stranger was, she appealed to hard-wired human emotions: Who was my mother? This was just some woman of a similar type. Not her mother. She knew she was about to be manipulated. But she was dying to find out how.

“How did you know how to contact me?”

“I got access to the frequencies to reach Remnant ships.”

“I thought that was a well-kept Assembly secret. Officially fighting the Marauders. Secretly trying to enlist them into government programs.”

“Lady Omga, you are as well-informed as I imagined. I am Rige Khuksos.”

Lady Omga. Respectful, but avoiding the Shaajis title. Measured, calculating—an Assembly Member?

“Who are you to me?” asked Linuka.

“We almost served in the same government. I was the Minister for Economy appointed by Regent Drrem Rrunsash. You might have been too young to remember, but I spearheaded the campaign to control rampant inflation after the Ancestrate dissolved.”

“Save the Wegker.”

“You remember—how lovely. Indeed, this was our slogan. A bit plump, I admit, but the program stabilized the Aloo Dash core worlds financially and helped retain the traditional currency.”

“What has it to do with me?”

“My second term was supposed to begin with your declaration as head of state for the Regencies of Aloo Dash.”

“Sorry. I was deposed by a coup. I hope this didn’t cause too much trouble.”

“But it did indeed. A blunder instigated by irresponsible people. A major mistake—one I am trying to correct.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to open a dialogue. I bring good news, bad news, and I have one question.”

Linuka was certain someone using secret Assembly frequencies could only bear bad news.

“There’s nothing to start a ‘dialogue’ like bad news. Let’s have it.”

“The vacant position in the chamber, left by your late mother, the Shaajis Sya? It has been filled. By me. I am the 319th member of the Assembly.”

Nothing was as cruel as reality. This woman, daring to look like a cheap copy of her mother, now desecrated the seat of Kel Chaada, galactic savior, and her mother, the Ancestor Queen.

“You got big shoes to fill, lady.”

Her quip was like a half-hearted slap hitting hardened power armor.

This Rige woman had destroyed Linuka with one sentence. Linuka was foolish, lazy, and arrogant for assuming Sya Omga’s Assembly seat was still open. Setting in motion a grand plan for changing galactic politics. Influencing from the shadows, power broker-style. Oh, yes, Linuka could run missions, buy a Traaz, deceive AI cores, deploy marines. Infiltrate places, steal stuff, kidnap her aunt. She was daring. She was brave. She was a stupid mpets. She had powers, but hadn’t learned how to wield power.

Linuka was a child. And this woman—she had blocked the critical path to her glorious plan. And she knew it.

“Why,” asked Linuka, “would I care about this? Had I wanted to claim that seat, I would’ve done so a long time ago.”

Why didn’t she claim the seat before? Why didn’t her father, who was a magiimuus Member of the Assembly, push for her inclusion? Because she was a born immortal? Because it was too dangerous? No. Oh no. It was because she was a child. A child not ready to face the star-flare heat of galactic politics. And she still couldn’t handle it today.

“Lady Omga, I know this. I do not pretend to understand your endgame, but it is obvious you abducted the Shaajis Vriishany for a reason. If you wanted her dead, we would have found her slain in her palace. You took her because she has value. But, a Shaajis of Aloo Dash has only value in one of two places in the galaxy. One is on the throne of the Ancestor Rulers. That is where you took her from. The only other place is the Assembly. You wanted to install Vriishany Omga in the chamber, taking your mother’s place, potentially leading the largest human voting block.”

Did the multiverse mock her? Were the realities tired of Linuka bending and breaking the rules. Rige might appear like a faded specter of Sya Omga, but she wielded the brutal analysis her mother was infamous for. Or she had help…

“Bravo, Assembly Member Rige,” said Linuka, “your multi-awareness program is paying off. So many great insights.”

“Ah, yes. You are talking about the Keyframe program. Another folly, fomented by the same person.”

Linuka inhaled. The realities split, but not far, no distinctive breaks between the alternatives. This conversation was pivotal, one of the rare moments the multiverse lacked creativity and funneled all world lines through a small set of options. All of which had the same answer.

“Lotnuuk Rrupteemaa.”

“Indeed,” said Rige. “Creator of the amnesty option for Dark AI Remnants, benefactor of the human-AI interface program, and mastermind behind the coup which dethroned you, Lady Omga.”

Don’t trust Rrupteemaa were the last words her father had spoken in this reality. He had known. He always knew. This is how he saved the galaxy. He knew what he was doing.

Linuka exhaled. “Why are you telling me all this?”

“Oh, this is the good news: the Assembly is not your enemy. Never was. Your enemy is Lotnuuk Rrupteemaa. Not the institution your own father helped recreating.”

“You mean the same institution my mother was set on destroying?”

Rige Khuksos tilted her head. Why would this give her pause? Sya Omga planning to blow up the grand chamber including its human occupants was not a secret, certainly not for the Assembly Members.

“I never thought about your parents as diverging role-models,” said Rige. “Two paths to consider: overthrowing the government or reforming it. Both my parents were bankers, so I became a banker.”

“And now the Assembly wants to appeal to my father’s side of my genetic make-up? Be friends?”

“No,” said Rige, “I would not insult you by pretending to be your friend. But—I also do not want to be your enemy. You have proven to be highly capable by taking possession of key strategic assets in this galaxy. You have close connections to all non-human factions, powers beyond immortality, and you are on a collision course with the Assembly.”

The woman smiled. “The good news is we do not have to be opponents. After you procured the sphere drive, you had been absent for a good part of the spin, so I venture to assume whatever you needed to do or prepare is now done. You are ready for the next step. Your last remaining enemy. And I will bring Rrupteemaa down with you. Expose his schemes; how he wronged your family—and you.”

The realities showed no immediate deception. Rige was not a child, and her plans were likely of a long-term nature, but everything she said rang true.

“And this leads me to my question, Lady Omga. What would you need from me? What can I, can the Assembly do to appeal to your side who wants to better the galaxy, not burn it down?”

Rige kept calling her Lady Omga, but she wanted her to be Kel Chaada’s daughter. Did they send her a Sya Omga-lookalike envoy not to please, but repel her from her Omga past? The Vnaas the Cruel line of the family? Plans within plans. 100% pure Assembly diplomacy.

Diplomacy?

Linuka sighed. Why not?

Vriishany Omga, playfully skipping through the Chéé’s corridors somewhere, enjoying her adventure, was supposed to placate a hostile galaxy, smooth things over with the Assembly, buy a future for her selfless holy warriors. And maybe even for herself. Her father had died so that she could live.

Linuka stepped close to Rige Khuksos’s avatar.

“Has my father officially been declared dead by the Assembly?”

“Your father? No. We did not want to be… “

“This is the one thing you can do for me,” said Linuka. “Declare Kel Chaada dead.”

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