TS6 - Chapter 15

“Do I-”

“Yes,” Kat replied, cutting off Dorrik as the lokkel paced back and forth fretting wildly.  “Your scales are shiny enough for me to see my own reflection in them.”

“They are not too bright are they?”  Dorrik asked, glancing worriedly at one of his forearms.  “I want them to look well cared for but not too well cared for.  I am a warrior, and it would not do for my appearance to resemble the pampered scion of nobility.”

“But you want to be a pretty warrior,” Whippoorwill interjected, struggling to keep her expression neutral.

“Exactly,” Dorrik said with a firm nod.  “Pretty but in an effortless way, as if my scales happened to glisten in an enchanting fashion on their own without any work on my part.”

“She’s going to notice you know,” Kat replied, shaking her head.  “Jaalin is hardly a slouch and the two of you were hanging out two to three times a week for months before we started our big push toward leveling up.  A sudden change in your appearance like that would be as obvious as you altering your sword style.”

“Of course,” Dorrik replied.  “I would never insult her by thinking that Jaalin would be unable to notice my efforts.  That is quite normal.  The key is to also not insult her by going over the top.  In turn she will not bring up my obvious efforts, but with any luck my care and preparation for her arrival will please her because it will show that I value her presence.”

Kat blinked at him.  She was used to many things from Dorrik, but a complex and logical breakdown of his romantic goals and endeavors was not one of them.

“A great example would be the time I learned how to put on makeup and wore it for our date to that new Italian place,” Whippoorwill said, nodding toward Kat.  “I tried to keep it understated, but I knew that your perception was at superhuman levels.”

Whip leaned back crossing her arms as she leaned back, squinting at Kat.

“Imagine my surprise when, despite all of your time and levels, you didn’t manage to notice a little bit of foundation and a nude lipstick.   Apparently, even with super senses you won’t pick up on that sort of thing unless you want to.”

Kat froze, trying her hardest to avoid the sympathy in Dorrik’s eyes.

“Did you know that there are a lot of peculiarities like that Dorrik?”  Whip asked.  The large traitorous lizard gave a slow nod.  “But of course you do.  You’re a scholar after all.  For example, what do you think that Kat’s Mind stat is?”

Dorrik glanced at her in confusion and Kat felt her blood start to run cold.

“Whip,” she began.  “I don’t know that we need to get into-”

“Forty Nine,” Whippoorwill supplied, still looking at Dorrik rather than Kat.  “Roughly how much should a stat of that level improve someone’s memory and reasoning over the average human?”

The lokkel’s eyes flitting to Kat again before returning to Whippoorwill.  Somehow, despite everything, there was an anxious, almost nervous expression on his scaled face.

“I would expect that Miss Kat has something like two and a half to three times the memory capacity of a human that has not yet begun to climb the tower,” he replied.

“Fascinating!”  Whippoorwill interjected.  “Now you’d expect someone with that much extra memory to remember her girlfriend’s birthday, right?  You know, if she really wanted to remember it of course.”

Dorrik’s expression morphed into one of complete pity, but that didn’t stop him from throwing Kat to the wolves.

“Yes,” he replied.  “It would be surprising for someone with advanced attributes to forget such an important event.”

Whippoorwill turned back to her, and Kat felt herself wilting under her girlfriend's gaze.

“And what do you think the odds are that someone with Kat’s abilities would both not notice that her girlfriend was wearing makeup for the first time in forever, and not realize that it was her birthday?  Hypothetically.”

In the distance, Kat heard the sound of footsteps beside the distinctive clack of clawed feet on the metal hallways of the massive research and industrial complex that she called home.  Immediately, she pounced on the distraction.

“It sounds like Jaalin and Heather are almost here,” Kat interrupted.  “Hopefully we can change the subject when they show up.  After all Jaalin is here to talk about important things like interstellar trade and potential alliances for the entirety of humanity, so-”

“Oh,” Whippoorwill said, raising an eyebrow.  “So forgetting my birthday suddenly isn’t important now?”

Kat began to sweat, but wisely, she chose to remain silent.  A couple seconds later, the door opened, rescuing her from the uncomfortable tension that filled the room.

Almost immediately Dorrik jumped to his feet, mouth open to say something only to pause, each of his pairs of hands grasping hold of each other and hanging on for dear life.  Heather walked in a step in front of Jaalin.  The other lokkel looked around the room, nodding once.

“You look well,” she said with a quick nod toward Kat, “and it is good to meet you Whippoorwill.  Kat has spoken much about you and it is pleasant to meet you in person.  I look forward to seeing your skill with human computing.  We will likely be working together in the coming years to update your planet’s technology base and who knows, maybe you will be able to bring a new perspective to a stagnant field of knowledge.  It has happened more than once when a new race has joined the Consensus.”

Whip turned her attention from Kat and squinted at the other lokkel.  After slowly looking her up and down once she finally replied.

“Do you really think so?  I’m skilled but I’m almost entirely self taught.  Most of what I do is cobbling together other people’s programs and making sure they work efficiently on the fly.”

“No,” Jaalin replied smoothly.  “I genuinely don’t think that you will have insights that will upend a dozen centuries of incremental progress in crystal based computing, but I have been advised to be ‘polite’ and ‘diplomatic,’ but who know-”

The lizard gave a very human-like shrug.  “You might actually show us something new.  The odds are somewhere up there with your solar system containing a shielded micro black hole so that we can fuel an antimatter fabricator in your system, but stranger things have happened.  Theoretically.”

For a second, Whippoorwill maintained her wooden expression, and then she broke into laughter.

“I’m sorry,” she said between gasps, waving generally in Jaalin’s direction.  “I was giving Kat a hard time when you walked in and I just couldn’t anymore.  It’s hard to pretend to be serious when you just open with all but calling me a primitive monkey.”

“I have been instructed quite specifically that referring to humans as ‘primitive monkeys’ is considered uncouth and reactionary,” Jaalin replied blithely.  “The same with ‘scaleless savages,’ and ‘reckless barbarians.’  Apparently ‘pink skins’ is being considered as a prospective term of endearment.”

Kat reached up to scratch the side of her face, trying to conceal the relief that was running through her now that Whip had revealed that she wasn’t actually angry.  Of course, Whippoorwill hadn’t been thrilled when Kat forgot her birthday, but it was more a matter of Whip messing with Kat than with her actually refusing to talk to her or anything like that.

Probably.  She wasn’t the greatest at figuring out what was going on inside other people’s heads.  Part of her wanted to ask Belle for advice because the older shareholder would know exactly what was making Whippoorwill tick.  A smarter part of her knew that that the first part of her was being dumb and that this was a terrible idea.

“I don’t know,” Kat said.  “I kinda like the sound of ‘reckless barbarians.’  It gives our entire race a bit of swagger.  Like we’re a bunch of swashbuckling pirates or something like that.”

“I agree wholeheartedly,” Jaalin said immediately.  “It adds panache to this entire planet.  Your technology might be grossly out of date, but at least your race isn’t boring.”

Dorrik took a step forward.  His arms hung at his side, as relaxed as the crest on his head, but Kat could see the tension in his neck and back.  As much as the lokkel might try to hide it, she’d spent every night fighting beside him.  He might look calm, but his body language screamed that he was about to break and run.

“It is good to see you, Jaalin of Clan Ahn,” he said formally.  “As the Consensus observer on Earth, I would like to welcome you-”

“You are looking healthy,” Jaalin replied, nodding at him, “but there is something different.”

She tapped a claw twice against the edge of her muzzle before the light of understanding dawned in her eyes.

“You are shinier!”  She exclaimed.  “You’ve done something to your scales to make them iridescent.  The effect is quite becoming.”

Dorrik froze, he opened his mouth to say something more complicated but all that came out was a simple shell-shocked statement.

“Oh.”

“Pleasantries aside,” Jaalin continued, “We should probably talk about what is going to come next for Earth.  I am aware that the stallesp representative is already here, but it appears that there may be some interference from a third party.  On my flight in, my vessel was able to track the signature of a smaller shuttle that has apparently snuck in and landed somewhere on this continent in the last couple of weeks.  That means either a non-sanctioned interest group is going to make a bid toward Earth at the end of its integration period.”

Kaleek’s grinning face flashed through Kat’s head and her expression went carefully blank.

“I’m sure that it’s nothing to worry about,” she said.  “I will have my people look into it, but you shouldn’t let the situation trouble you.”

“But it is very troubling,” Jaalin replied, shaking her head.  “If it’s another faction of traditionalists or a localized trading group, that’s all fine.  We do not seek to forcefully guide Earth’s path so long as it chooses to follow the millennia of tradition and custom that comes with membership in the Galactic Consensus.  That all changes if the contact is from some sort of undiscovered stellar empire outside the Consensus or worse yet, some of the gardener cultists.”

“I can assure you that I will let you know right away if-” Kat began, only for Jaalin to cut her off, the lokkel’s crest twitching with suspicion.

“Smugglers, am I right?  Have they already made contact with your faction?”

Kat shared a meaningful look with Whippoorwill before sighing.

“Look, it’s only one person and they aren’t representing anyone but themselves,” Kat replied.  “I wouldn’t really call them a smuggler per se, but it is true that they’ve brought products to Earth that won’t be consumed or sold until after it becomes a member of the Consensus.  I don’t think there’s any intent to sell or buy products until that point.”

“It’s Kaleek isn’t it,” Jaalin responded, casting an accusing glare at Dorrik.  “He’s on planet and he’s doing something dumb right now.  I can just just smell it.”

Dorrik practically collapsed, all the tension that had been building up in his neck and legs gave out at the same time, transforming the carefully constructed image of him being calm but not overly excited into a shambolic mess.

“He is here on vacation,” Dorrik gushed,unable to stop himself as he withered under Jaalin’s gaze.  “I tried to stop him, but it is not like I have a fleet of patrol cutters on hand to arrest every tourist that lands on Earth.  I’m not even sure how, but somehow he managed to evade my detection net.  There are energy signatures from a ship approaching Earth and landing somewhere in the Americas, but beyond that I don’t know where or when.”

“I’m sure that if we asked enough questions,” Jaalin replied severely, fixing her gaze back on Kat, “we could find someone that knew where or when Kaleek landed.  After all, early contact is heavily proscribed.  There is a massive fine for doing so, and I don’t think anyone involved would want to raise the possibility that outside interference has tainted the ascension.”

“Isn’t the penalty just a fine that I’ll be able to waive if I win?”  Kat asked.  “We aren’t accepting any help from any alien sources until Earth joins the Consensus, but wouldn’t the stallesp have no leg to stand on if they were to make a big deal about it?  After all, they invaded Earth and they’re still working with Millennium to try and take over the planet.  At least we are lucky that I managed to kill one of Mr. Jackson’s squad mates during the assassination attempt on me.  At a minimum that should slow them down so that I can-”

“They have replaced their losses,” Jaalin said, her voice still grim.  “It took them a bit to find someone willing to step onto the public stage, but the stallesp found a warrior amongst one of their client races that ‘happened’ upon Mr. Jackson and his partner in a bar in the tower.  The public story is that the new member had a falling out with his former party but no one particularly believes that.  In reality, all that truly matters is that he has begun to climb again.”

Kat frowned.  She was only on the twentieth level.  There were four left before she could try to ascend and take over as Earth’s administrator, but Mr. Jackson was closer.  Much closer.

It might still take him a little while to shake the cobwebs off of his new team, but even if he was hitting every dungeon, Kat doubted that she’d be able to overtake him in time.  Given the established animosity between the borderline mythical samurai and herself, letting him become Earth’s lead administrator was less than ideal.  Probably in a fatal way.

“Heather,” she said, addressing her chief of security.  “Do we have any leads on Mr. Jackson?  We might need to drop a missile or three on his head in the near future.”

“Nothing,” Heather replied, shaking her head.  “I can reach out to Belle, but as strong as Millennium was in a direct conflict, their ability to hide themselves and drop into deep cover is unmatched.  There are a couple world events including the most recent attempt on Jasper’s life that I think are related to them, but they haven’t even left digital fingerprints.  It’s like we’re trying to hunt ghosts.”

“Then we need to hire the intelligence equivalent of those guys that run around with night vision cameras and those radios scan and amplify random static to make it sound like cryptic responses,” Whippoorwill said.  “The stallesp agents that helped Millennium last time were good.  Too good.  What we’re going to need are people like me.  Folks clued into society’s underbelly enough that they notice the small things.  Like the fact that a complete lack of fingerprints is a sign in and of itself.  Everyone is trying to bribe or blackmail someone.  The entire computer network is a mess of hacking and counter hacking, and nothing is perfectly hidden.  With enough of us working together we might be able to find some spots where it looks like there hasn’t been any actual intrusions or counter intrusions.  If we start investigating there, we’re either going to find the culprit or a saint, and I’ll be honest.  I don’t trust saints.”

Heather shrugged, the miniature motors in her mechanical arms whirring quietly.  “As good an idea as any.  I don’t think it will be nearly as easy as Whippoorwill seems to believe it will be to parse through literally all data globally looking for calm spots, but ordinary methods aren’t working, so we might as well try something extraordinary.”

Jaalin and Dorrik shared a glance.  After a moment of silence, Dorrik nodded and Jaalin turned her attention back to the three humans in the room.

“I may be able to help,” she said slowly.  “It won’t be pleasant, but if all of us are willing to face a challenge that may be beyond us, I have a solution that will force Mr. Jackson into the open, if only for a day or so.”

“But I warn you,” Jaalin continued, her voice grave.  “This will feel like a punishment.  A trial unlike anything you have ever faced.  You will suffer in ways that you did not know possible.  I hesitate to bring this option up, but it seems that time is running out and our choices are limited.”

Kat stiffened her spine, nodding curtly.  She had no idea what the lokkel had in mind, but the planet was counting on her.
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