BeyHop Chpt 61

Beyond Hope

- Chapter 61 - Aftershocks part One

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---

"...they put their heresy to work too soon, and revealed the danger too easily. While it seems to be beyond the First Circuit's understanding, it is not beyond mine. Too much Knowledge in too many of the wrong hands, too quickly, it has to be stopped…"

Precentor ROM, Comstar, December 11, 3062

---

Dreaming of those whom are long Gone

Spider Moon, Boojum Orbital System
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
February 2nd, 3064

Helena’s term still had not technically started, but the process of changeover was underway. Theodore’s cabinet was bringing hers up to speed: security briefings, intel briefings, and all the other odds and ends that must be tended to when becoming First Lord.

Her day was finally coming to an end. She poured herself a glass of ijero.

As she sipped it, she thought about the task before her.

“I can do this.” she said to herself.

She downed the glass and put the bottle away.

"Of course you can, you're my daughter." she looked up, alarmed.

"I knew you could do it." Simon Cameron sat in the window of the room, half shadowed, a father she barely met.

“I was barely two when you died and that settles it. Doctor Huyn is right. No more ijero while I’m still on anti-depressants.”

"I took anti-depressant medications my entire career, almost my entire life. I met Aleks in treatment, Helena," the shade said. "The depression is a family trait, goes back a long time… and you should probably wake up now."

She sat up, and looked around the room, first. Then at the blotter on the desk. A puddle of drool. "I fell asleep… damn these hours."

Helena straightened her clothes and hair, then left her office.

Bertha drove her home as usual, but what had changed now that she was busy, it was Muhammed that sat across from her instead of Jakob. He was already at home with Jonathan.

"Something on your mind?" Muhammed asked. "You look troubled."

“I’m still worried I’m not mentally sound enough for this job.”

"Mmmh. I can't convince you that you are, if you cling to doubts," Muhammed said.

“I’m still irrationally angry at the Clans. I shouldn’t be, but I am.”

"You must find your own path there," Muhammed suggested. "Seek the root of your anger, and address it."

“Hmm…”

She looked out the window at the false dawn hours.

"Yeah, like that's ever worked," Tranh Truk Ngo commented. "Do you think you could remember what I looked like when I wasn't dying, at least?"

“******. Certainly doesn’t convince me I’m mentally stable I’m doing this…”

"Dream, not a hallucination. You're talking to yourself and probably giving Muhammed a stress ulcer," he was sitting next to her in the car, while Unity City passed by through the window.

“Well shit. I’ll still take a conversation with an old friend. Even if it’s really with myself.”

The dead man chuckled, and held up his hip-flask, "Touche'. What's got your anxiety spiking, Helena? You're winning."

“Am I? Or am I doing what I always do?”

"Fat man's dead, you've got the Deserters coming back just to stand in your presence, back to the banner, undoing a big ass perfidy, fixing things. I'd say you're winning, but hey, I wasn't going to make it to fifty anyway."

“Yeah. I wish I could have been there for you in the end though.”

"It was ugly, Helena. You had enough ugly when I was alive. Besides, Jakob's a stand up guy, we were never going to really make it as a couple. You had your issues, and I was married. So good on him, good on you."

“Now I’m about to start being a bad mom and wife. The job demands it.”

"No, you don't have to do that, Helena. You proved that with Lizzie."

“I’m still going to miss so much of Jonathan’s life. Even with the best staff in the world.”

"Yeah, but you won't spend ten years away fighting a war while he grows up not knowing you at all. You just gotta make the time you do have, count… And you're good at optimizing."

“Yeah. I know. But I’m obviously still a hell of a wreck that I’m having these dreams telling me all these things.”

He shrugged, "It's not fatty, at least, right? You're dreaming about people who actually matter. Simon, surprised you picked me."

“You were always a good friend, Tranh. We may never have made a good couple, but we were hell of a team while we were both able. And you're right. I’m not having those nightmares anymore.”

"Car's stopped, time to wake up," he said, and she sat up, wiping her face.

“Well one thing is for sure. I’m clearly not getting enough sleep.” Helena didn’t realize she was speaking out loud and awake until she felt the cool outside air on her face as Muhammed was opening her door and clearly getting ready to carry her out of the car.

---

On Eve of a Star Gates

Gamma Site
Broken Wheel region, Federated Commonwealth (FedSuns State)
February 3064

Fleet Admiral Katherine Morgan Steiner-Davion floated placidly in null gee above the hull of the FCS Ian Davion. Four hundred fifty six kilometers away, gleaming in the darkness of deep space, Gateway Prototype 2 was taking shape.

In the Star League era, it would have been a major construction project: a ring with a ten kilometer diameter, balanced with mathematical precision, because the outer layer was an enormous fusion torus, running parallel around a Germanium/Selenium/Titanium and Silicon apparatus.

The rim of the station was a trough, but it would be sealed by the time the place was ready to activate. That would increase the diameter slightly, making it one of the largest stations ever constructed in free space (not anchored to an asteroid or moon) in history, larger than the O'Neill cylinders that existed in the Star League era.

A single, enormous machine.

Arthur's wife's machine, if it worked… but that was the kicker, wasn't it? If it worked.

Nearly a Trillion Kroner, and well over that in C-Bills. A fraction of the national budget, but still numbers that her sister-in-law joked about counting in scientific notation.

It cost as much as a squadron of the updated Avalon class battlecruisers, like the ship that brought her here.

Avalon Class Cruiser

If it works, it will be worth a squadron of Battlecruisers, she mused. Worth more, even.

She dialed up magnification. Tiny ant-like construction crew, using welding rigs the size of battlemechs, worked along the rim with almost-microscopic men in pressure suits.

Shuttles and dropships idled nearby, unloading materials or acting as construction shacks for the thousands of crew at work out there.

Her reverie was interrupted by a crackle in her helmet speakers.

"Katherine? It's impressive, isn't it?" Yvonne's tone was questing.

Katherine sighed and turned to see her younger sister standing on the ship's hull, suited up in a 'universal' suit: the baggy, soon to be completely obsolete pressure suits the AFFC was soon to phase out in favor of skinsuits and powered armor.

"Yeah, Yvonne, it is. Even if it doesn't work." Katherine used her EMU to return to the outer hull of the warship. "We've learned things just building it... where's Tancred?"

"He's back at the surface base, running combat drills with the Militia," Yvonne answered. "I wanted to stick around and… well, he was bored?"

"You sure know how to pick 'em, Yvonne. This is the most exciting thing this part of the Suns has had since… for a long time. It's a major, massive undertaking, and your fiancé is bored?"

"Not a lot he can do. Tancred's a MechWarrior, this is all null-gee construction and fabrication." Yvonne shrugged. "When you or Mister Knight try to explain it, he's lost once it gets to how it's supposed to work. Though he understands what we mean it to do, at least."

On the far side, where Gateway 1 was, the prime contractor was Ngo Enterprises. Out here, her sister's firm was a subcontractor, with one of the prime contractors for the gateway being Knight-Lenovo out of the Cambiano system. The other was Federated Boeing.

"Is it worth it?" Yvonne asked.

"Victor thinks it is. Arthur thinks so too, and he's the man who gave us gravity control," Katherine sighed. "So even if it doesn't work… it's worth trying."

Fox Class Corvettes

That part of Katherine's brain that had grown and evolved during the Clan Wars to climb to Admiral's rank, wanted more security at the site. She'd assigned a short group of Fox class Corvette under a Senior Captain, but…

But it was valuable, expensive, experimental and exposed.

Her security consciousness knew that this location wasn't a secret. It couldn't be with the amount of sheer resources for the project.

"You're doing it again." Yvonne

"I have a bad feeling," Katherine told her sister. "We need to commit more forces to protecting the project. Figuring out where to get those additional forces? Almost as bad as trying to work out what they need to defend against."

---

Plotting for Ascendance in Silence

Outside of Pluto Orbit
Sol System
February 20th, 3064

"It’s… huge." Cameron St. Jamais stared at the atrocity being assembled near Pluto's orbit.

Kernov shrugged. "The Star League had bigger in mind at one time, when DOME was still a going concern. The Houses are building our back-doors for us, it was a good idea for the Order to get inside on this, even at the prices."

"Will it actually function?"

"Yes," Kernov asserted. "It will function. All the indicators are that this is a natural outgrowth of the same set of theories that allow HPGs to reach across star systems and between Stars. Ours, of course, will be superior enough that when the time is right, it will be… relatively simple to seize the network they are building for us." He turned to the younger man. "They might even ask us to do so… or Comstar, which inevitably will be the same thing."

"I don't understand… the heretics?"

"Parrdieu has recognized her error. We now have control over ROM on that side. And with that, control over the real power," Kernov told him. "Arranging to rearrange their version of the First Circuit shouldn't be much of an issue. Dow's with us as well. When the time comes, this split will be healed and made whole again. From there, we can reclaim Comstar's rightful place as the leaders of humanity."

"What about Helena Cameron?"

"Eventually, she will understand…if not, perhaps Jonathan. We have options now."

---

"Why? Kowloon is on the arse end of the Lyran Commonwealth, nowhere near NAIS. The ruler owns a tooling conglomerate, so why?" Precentor Scylla asked.

"They blame Comstar. Could that be-" Precentor Pollux started.

"No. That answer is cheap, and unacceptable even if it has an element of truth. Why them, why not someone else?" Precentor Scylla continued.

“The Davions attempted it with their NAIS first. But they made it public.” Precentor Castor answered.

"There you go, piece one," she agreed. "However, UKNT isn't exactly classified. It’s very public, and has benefited. Where did the NAIS get it wrong, then?"

“But being so remote and not having something as large and obvious as an HPG core allowed them to escape notice until it was too late,” Precentor Pollux offered.

"Back to blaming our Blessed Order? Cheap, and unacceptable. I’m not asking why they were not stopped. I’m asking why there weren’t dozens of them we had to stop."

“A mix of reasons. The Houses were all rivals with one another over the centuries and so took their own measures to keep an enemy from gaining advantage. Priorities of the Great Houses also discouraged certain pursuits, and a general apathy,” Precentor Castor expanded the idea.

"Priorities. Pursuits," Scylla underscored. "The Helm Core incident fed back tons of knowledge, and everyone devoted something to matching it. Then based their future research on expanding on it… But almost nobody, including our Blessed Order before the split, bothered with what, Pollux? What were we not doing?"

The ground warfare man frowned. "Basics. Basic, elemental research," he finally said. "The Helm pursuit was focused on matching or continuing recovery of pre-existing technologies…"

"Basic research," she nodded.

“And now that it’s in the open we’re seeing a trickle of new technologies not seen in the Golden Age. The Combine’s C3 systems, the Warp Drives, and now the Gates,” Precentor Castor nodded.

"Trickle' is right." She paused her steps. “It could be more. If we had done it first, it would be more."

She tapped respectfully at the door.

"Who are we meeting with?" Pollux asked.

"Someone who understands," she told him.

The door opened, and a mild voice said, "Come in, Scylla! Bring your companions!"

She entered the chamber, which was not the ordinary residential apartment it seemed from outside, and dropped to one knee in the middle of a circular pattern in the carpet. "Precentor Apollyon," she said with her head bowed.

The door closed of its own accord behind Castor and Pollux as they flanked Scylla and kneeled behind her.

"Excellent. You have performed your assigned duty very well, Scylla. The Master will be very pleased."

Castor and Pollux seemed to be waiting for something more.

“Pollux. I understand your anxiousness, and desire to look for and offer solutions to offset our disadvantages. But there is still time. You are doing well on training our Shadow Divisions. Castor, you are new to us. You are to aid Scylla in finding answers to the Kowloonese stealthing techniques and how to counter their gravitic manipulation drive powered ships.” Apollyon smiled.

“I understand. Peace of Blake be with you.” Pollux understood the veiled consequence of what would happen to him if he did not focus on his task.

"Do you require a counter, or a match?" Castor asked.

“Let us see if you are truly as gifted as we believe you are, Castor. Draw up options for both. See if you can go so far as to figure out a superiority we can implement before The Master’s Judgement Day.”

The Martian Physicist snorted and rolled his eyes. "No." He shook his head. "That would be stupid. Promising results before you've even designed the experiment? Is stupid. It leads to self-deception and failure. If you want that, put the guy you brought me in to replace back in charge of Omega, because he was always willing to blow smoke up the ass of a superior to curry favor."

Pollux practically scrambled away from 'Castor', and Scylla looked nervous.

Apollyon chuckled. "Well played… what can you deliver?"

"Understanding," Castor asserted. "If we understand it better, the counters, and matches, will become obvious. I am a Scientist, Precentor, not a bureaucrat. I won't promise something I can't deliver. But we can learn more."

“Good. Even if all we learn is what does not work, that is still useful knowledge and cuts off avenues to not waste more time and effort on.” Apollyon smiled again. “We still have much to do. The worlds our order has hidden from the non-Believers will be our great edge in this coming fight. Unless there is anything further you wish to ask while you have the opportunity, you all have your tasks.”

“No. Peace of Blake be with you,” Scylla said quietly.

“Peace of Blake be with us all.” Apollyon said, dismissing them with a gesture.

---

“Report.” The enigmatic and slightly mechanical voice demanded from the comm panel on Apollyon’s desk.

“Pollux has been chastised,” Apollyon answered.

“A disappointment. I had hoped he would have Scylla’s responsibilities, but his usefulness is with preparing the Shadow Divisions. Keep watching him. Castor?”

“He’s not afraid to speak his mind. Which is good for what we need of him. So I have him working with Scylla to ready our Navy.”

“This pleases me. Judgment Day comes soon. While the main challenge to us will be in space superiority, we will need the Shadow Divisions to take and hold ground and ultimately bring an end to the coming conflict.”

“Yes, Master. Peace of Blake be with you.”

“Peace of Blake be with you.” The Master answered.

---

The Race to Next FTL

Tamaron, Kerensky Star Cluster
Clan Space

"The data from the expedition to Kowloon has yielded some surprising outcomes," Scientist General Landon addressed the Khans. "There are several potential directions the Spheroids have either overlooked, or misunderstood."

"Is it going to be enough?" Silas Kufahl had not been Khan of Clan Coyote for very long before finding himself challenged by the situation he found himself in.

What was at stake, was no less than Clan Coyote's chief claim to fame among the Clans. Scientific and Technological excellence, and with it, the prestige to go unmolested by the other Clans.

“We know how to advance the technology. The problem remains resources. That has not changed. It will not change as things are now. But, we have found several less… intensive possible applications of the principles. Provided I am permitted to authorize the work."

"What kind?"

"The Khans are aware of the experiments in shielding done on the Ancestral Home. It is my belief we do not need to replicate the extremely dangerous system the Spheroids use to generate their exotic matter, and an application of a combination of principles can yield a much more useful protective technology."

“You speak of something akin to the magnetic bottles that contain the reaction of a fusion torus.”

"Aff. We can improve on them, initial testing in the labs shows the theoretical potentials to be worth pursuing."

“Present what you need to the Chief Merchant Factor, anything they cannot procure we will find alternate ways to obtain,” Silas ordered.

We may need the aid of the Dark Caste for this…

---

York, Kerensky Star Cluster
Clan Space

"Kenneth's work has obtained the operating principles of the Exotic Matter creation engine. But he includes a suggestion that the Spheroids may have missed something important. We, too, can build this, if his report is correct, Khan Schmitt."

"We can build it?"

"Possibly better. He notes the weaknesses in Spheroid metallurgy and materials research, their lack in miniaturization, and brute-force work in terms of system controls. It need not be either as large, or as dangerous as what they have come to rely on."

“We have few resources here. How much will we have to bargain with the other Clans to carry out this work?”

Steffi flinched, this was going to be the hard part. "Kenneth has… suggested approaching the Snow Ravens and Jade Falcons for certain key resources, in exchange for offering guidance to them in our training methods in the field of Astrophysics and high-energy mathematical theory work. It is taking a risk, I know, but…"

“Our isolation here at York is now untenable. We need allies, and for that we need to take the risk. I will reach out to them.” Hector system…

"Are you not tired of our clan being seen as a punchline to a joke?" Sellen Cage fumed. "No more. With this, we will not be the punch line of a joke about… premature emission."

Right about then, the moon on the screen… exploded.

The Khan glared at her chief scientist, who shrugged. "Well, back to the drawing board. At least this time we do not have to bargain with other clans for raw material. That shattered moon should have everything we need in terms of that, and in readily processed pieces."

"Fix it."

---

Fiery Conclusion

Star League Annex, Spider Moon
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran States)
3064

"One moon? Was probably a mistake, Liz. You cracked the second one on purpose," Victor scolded. "I figured it out."

"Raw materials," Elizabeth nodded. "What gave us away?"

"No casualties on your second or third incidents," he told her. "I'm kind of surprised nobody else caught on."

"It was a spectacular failure. I think everyone was more focused on it being a spectacular failure…"

"Rather than a fund-raiser? Oh yeah, even I was fooled by that. You blew up the second moon for raw materials on purpose. The only way it could've been even more apparent when I started thinking about it, is if you'd somehow managed to 'bag' the thing before shutting the accelerator down."

"We didn't have bags that big. Still don't."

“But I bet if I went out to some of your outer system habitats, I’d find spacers fastening together several smaller bags into one bigger bag.”

"No, you wouldn't. And that wounds me," Liz commented. "Scale, Victor. Above a certain size, you need a certain thickness. We can't extrude enough of the material in enough layers all at once, and the other issue is that it would need to be different materials. Post-Transuranic for something on that scale. We don't have the means to produce that yet."

“So, Tuesday for when you present the drawings and studies?” Victor scoffed.

"We're still bottled up by energy limits," Elizabeth admitted. "The sustained energy needed to fuse atoms into the right configuration exceeds what we can generate. And the stuff might only happen naturally somewhere near the Galactic Core, or in the debris of a black hole self-destructing. Dark matter or superstrings maybe."

“Okay, here we go. Let me guess: you want exploratory missions sent out.”

"Yes please?" She gave him the big eyes. "Arthur and I would be very happy to help bankroll a deep survey of distant space! Of course, we can't."

“Mostly because it gives me something to do with all the ships that are starting to become obsolete for other purposes.”

"They'll become obsolete, assuming Gateway works. I think Gateway will work. Arthur thinks so, everyone who signed on thinks so… but it can still turn out to be a failure, so they're not obsolete yet. And may end up being useful for decades while the gate network is being settled in and built." She seemed to shift her demeanor. "Imagine the Age of Sail, and the early advent of Steam."

“Why do you think I’m trying to make sure we stay ahead? Between your university and NAIS, we have a real edge on the other nations now. We can’t rest on our laurels.”

"Temporary edge. The problem with any innovation, is that it happens when it's ready to, and usually in more than one place. We got lucky because your Mother, and you, were willing to invest early. But that just means our possible competitors are that much more motivated to really pour it on. The Steam Engine was invented to pump water out of coal mines in Scotland. Less than a century later…" she trailed off.

“Like I said, we need to stay ahead.”

"Then you'll be funding the AI research project?" Liz suggested. "Because that's going to be needed desperately if you really want to stay ahead of the competition."

“Yeah. Sometimes I curse Helena for giving hers to the Outworlds first. But maybe we can get cut in on that too.”

“Avellar invested first," Liz observed. "Of course, he did it with money I loaned him, but he was the first national leader to spot the value of project Kolossus."

“Skynet, Kolossus… Why do I feel like I’m tempting fate to end humanity with some of these project names?”

"Jane suggested the next one should be named 'Dahak'. If you fund it, we'll have it under construction in the Winter system. Dahak, in the fiction, was an AI sentience devoted to the preservation and protection of mankind, not their domination."

“Well, let’s hope it shares our definitions of preservation and protection.”

"I'll settle for 'it works'," Liz commented. "Kolossus is powerful, but disappointing. And Skynet's artificially intelligent, but about as smart as… as a dim toddler outside of some very narrow applications."

“Yeah. Helena thinks Kolossus just needs more time to learn and grow into itself, and dim toddler sounds just dangerous enough to start armageddon.”

"Good thing we're not trapped on one world, isn't it?" Liz chuckled as Arthur came in.

"Honey, what was the verdict?" Liz asked tensely.

"I'm not sterile," Arthur told her.

She closed her eyes. "Then the problem is me."

"No, the problem is 'it didn't work yet'. Doctor Huyn assures me you're about as fit as you should be. We just need to keep trying." He took her hand. "Oh, hey Victor."

“This seems like a good time for me to leave you two alone. Besides, I’ve got an Estates General that’s about to jump down my throat for funding more mad science.”

"Thanks, Vic. Give Isis my best," Arthur said idly. "Tell the politicians they're going to be rolling in money if they just shut up and stay out of it."

“If you two do need help, you’re not the only ones doing science. Just let me know. We’ve got some good doctors coming along now with new techniques for just about everything,” Victor said as he got up to leave.

“Thanks, Vic. We’ll keep it in mind.”

---

Under the Gun

Kowloon, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
3064

"I need you to talk to Elizabeth," Arthur told Helena. "She needs the support."

"January?" Helena asked.

"Yeah," he said. "The miscarriage hit her harder than she's willing to admit. She's making a big show of trying again, but…"

“Of course, Arthur. Anything I can do to help you two. It’s what family does when they see each other struggle.”

"I'm worried," he admitted. "Lizzie's people, the Kowloonese, they favor large families, no birth control. They only relented on abortion a few years ago. She wants more than the traditional 'heir and a spare', and so do I. But not if it's going to wreck her health."

"You've been taking contraceptives," Helena said.

"Yeah. She made me visit Doc Huyn to get my count checked."

“It’s likely she’s doing the same and hiding it from you. Taking contraceptives again. Despite her desires. Because she also desires not going through that again.” Helena cupped her chin in her hands.

"She wasn't when we lost Penelope," he said. "Two months in and she miscarried."

"Did the doctors find out why?"

"They won't say. Just that it's unlikely to happen again."

“****** that. If I have to make it an order from the First Lord, they’ll cough up what went wrong.”

After Arthur left, Helena had to make it a First Lord's order.

---

The Awful Truth

Four hours later, she knew.

"Poisoned?"

"It was an assassination attempt, we're pretty sure, we don't know who, but we know how," Doctor Huyn explained. "And when. Liz was dosed during her visit to Inarcs. The compounds that killed Penelope are man-made, and she ate whatever it was that had them. We can't prove who the source is, but OCB is still investigating."

“******!” Helena’s face was red with anger. “Keep me apprised.”

"Will do. Ms Whyte has the details," Dr. Huyn said suggestively. "So maybe ask Jane."

“I’ll do that. Thank you, Doctor Huyn.”

"I serve." Huyn took the dismissal for what it was, and left the office.

Jane Cameron, cybernetic sister of Helena Cameron

“Jane. I think you know why I’m calling,” Helena punched open a line on her comm panel.

Five minutes appeared on Helena's screen, and Jane's 'office spare' remote came in on-the-dot five minutes later. "It's about Liz, isn't it?"

“Somebody poisoned her.”

"It was the eleventh attempt since January of '62," Jane told her. "We caught nine of them, one failed on their own… This was the closest anyone's gotten, and my agents think it happened because the assassin penetrated Duchess LaRue's security in the kitchen staff. Getting Lizzie to accept more stringent measures is proving… difficult."

“Well, when we can, we’ll just have to do blind shopping. No one knows for sure what is actually going to whom.”

"I've stopped four aimed at you since I took over OCB," Jane added. "Some of them are creative."

“******. All right, as soon as you have someone for me to punch in the face, I want to know who it is so I can deck them into the next millennium.” Helena shook her head. “It’s too late to retire to a ranch and live a life of anonymity isn’t it?”

"That one was too late when we were born, sis," Jane told her. "Jakob's in the lobby and coming up. Try to look surprised. He's being romantic... Which is also my cue to get lost."

“All right. Give my nieces and nephews hugs and kisses for me.” Helena smiled.

"Always." Jane's remote returned to the charging and maintenance station in the next room, and powered down.

What am I going to say to Liz later? I mean she deserves to know the truth, but how do I break this to her?

Return in Disgrace

Crimson Shadow Road, Point Gamma
Deep Periphery

Dante Truscott was still a Khan… sort of. The faux Star League had arranged for the captured members of the Star Adder Touman to be returned to the Homeworlds… without their weapons, their ships, or their equipment.

Disarmed, humiliated and traveling on someone else's Navy transport. In a sense, he felt both admiring of Cassius, and furious with his former Khan. Killed yourself to avoid this humiliation.

He had somehow remained in charge after. None of the surviving Warriors were willing to challenge him, so he was still responsible. At least, until they could reach the Homeworlds and the full Clan could determine the outcome for someone who could answer for losing nearly the entire Naval Reserve the way they had.

Which was probably why he was not facing challengers yet. Nobody else wanted to have to answer for the failure at the objective system, especially such a humiliating defeat.

Cassius had tried to shield him and the survivors with his letter. Trying to absolve them of fault. But despite that and Cassius’ death, there would be a reckoning. It is the way of the Clans.

Will it be Absorption? Or worse? He didn't know, and he wasn't keen to find out.

Stanislov N’Buta walked up to his table.

“I have come to meet you part way.” Stanislov said.

“That bad?”

“Aff. We are the third Clan to be severely mauled. But there may be a way. We could combine with what is left of Clan Steel Viper. Individually, we are weak and ripe for absorption.”

"I will have to step down, quiaff?" Dante asked. "For this to go through? A Clan cannot have more than two Khans."

“Aff," Stanislov told him.

"Then I will step down in your favor, Stanislov N'Buta. You have been doing the work, or you would not have presented this to me as an option."

“That is true, and I regret I do you this dishonor and disfavor.”

"Regret nothing, Stanislov N'Buta. We grossly misunderstood what we were going into. The Clan needs better leaders than that," Dante told him.

“Aff. I still had hope I could persuade the Steel Vipers to accept you as Loremaster at least.”

Dante chuckled, "There is no way they would do that, we both know it."

“Aff. I was asking the impossible. Still, they agreed to the terms for the Trial and should we win, I will be Khan.”

"Good enough. Honor thy Clan."

"Seyla."

---

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