THE GUARDSMAN: Book 2: Blood Debts – Chapters 54-55

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The Guardsman, Book 2: Blood Debts:

Chapter 54)

Thomys Promethean slowly drummed his fingers on the expansive conference room table while his counterpart droned ceaselessly.

As neighbors, they had a history. For centuries the widely separated capital worlds of two fledgling conglomerate empires fought for survival and were relatively unaware of each other. Both could find the other on a star chart, but they were so many light-decades apart that the more pressing matter of surviving the onslaughts from immediate neighbors was a far more important concern, than each other. Now the two were regional powers, and no longer separated by massive distances. Now the two were constantly at blows over ownership of new clusters of stars and the solar systems they contained. Over the centuries primacy in both empires had shifted many times but now rested firmly with White Star’s Celestas League and the Chroynos Stellar Hegemony.

His opposite number was a nice enough guy. He was just on the wrong side of things. Specifically, he was the representative from the Celestas League’s home world of Tarfona to the Terraforming Commission on Earth. So, at the moment, he was Thomys’ nemesis. On top of that he was boring as sin and his points were irrelevant.

Thomys played the four fingers of his right hand back and forth over the thumb-thick folder under his palm three times in rapid succession. Thomys’ two Guardsmen were currently forced to impersonate corporate personal assistants while in the recesses of the Terraforming Commission compound. They too were bored out of their skulls. They were also sitting, while decidedly uncomfortable, in custom-tailored civilian finery. While they were perfectly capable of shuffling paperwork, like all officers in every halfway decent military system ever devised were capable of doing, using them in that capacity was akin to using a solid gold sledgehammer to pound fence pickets, really expensive and not generally necessary.

The Terraforming Commission official sat regally at the head of the conference room table and nodded attentively to what he pretended were salient points. His presence was, strictly speaking, unnecessary. However, it did fill a chair. As a result, the bureaucrat above that official could nod and smile to his superior and tell him that he had more people under him and therefore that he was more qualified for advancement than his fellow officials of the same level. That sort of inefficient thinking crippled an organization that was fighting every day for its survival and profits.

The Terraforming Commission was fighting for neither survival nor profits. They were an old, nearly religiously protected, sole monopoly. Every corporation in the galaxy that wanted to expand their territory threw precious metal forged coin money at the Terraforming Commission and its members like it was so many perfumed kisses.

The whole of the miserable planet Earth suckled from the overflowing wealth that was thrust upon the Terraforming Commission every year. The Terraforming Commission, its members, the planet, and its whole population were all fat and happy from the toils of trillions upon trillions of corporate citizens that the whimsy of this corrupt planet and specifically the Terraforming Commission routinely plunged corporations into wars through their back-room graft and corruption. It rotted the planet to the core. Earth was a socialist dumping ground for bureaucrats and the ineffectual who couldn’t make their way into the greater expanses of space, those people all seemed to make their way to Earth, apply for positions at the Terraforming Commission, and bother him. Thomys hated Earth and everything it stood for corruption, greed, nepotism, lazy bureaucracy, and the complacent yet incessantly demanding natures of everyone on the planet, it all irked Thomys to no end.

The inefficiency and corruption of it all were beyond a crime. It rose to the level of outright amoral theft in many cases, coupled with mass murder in the form of the wars the Commission’s actions instigated.

The hypocrisy of their judicial authority over the same wars they caused was even more alarming. The graft and corruption in the system made bribery so prevalent that they would gladly take enormous sums from both sides in payment for single solar systems.

Thomys’ mind wandered far and wide, while his opposite number blathered.

Everyone in the Terraforming Commission was for sale; the problem was that not only were they all for sale they would sell themselves to both sides. The only overriding authority over the Terraforming Commission was the Earth-based planetary courts. The Commission however maintained millennium-old rules that ‘forbade further contracting and canceled current contracting with corporate entities where they were legally entangled’. That meant that if a corporation took a complaint to the Earth courts against the Commission, in the decades that it took to solve a simple graft dispute, over one world, no additional new worlds would be assigned to that corporation, because of the rule about suspending any further dealings with legally entangled parties. Equally long was the assignment process, each block of worlds was a multiyear, almost decade-long, process from claim, to terraforming, to corporate release. That meant that a corporation could lose a whole generation’s worth of worlds that were applied for, in process, or under development, if they brought one lawsuit against the Commission. No one was stupid enough to start a lawsuit that alleged corruption or graft. The effect of the Terraforming Commission was to instigate wars by feeding their own corruption.

Once the wars started the Terraforming Commission’s judicial arm managed all conflict disputes, since they were the only Earth organization that had extra-planetary reach. Their judicial arm acted as a court in all matters arising from armed conflict. They served as both judge and jury. They were even empowered through their ability to grant rights to planets and systems to enforce their edicts. To facilitate their own actions the judicial arm had its own bureaucracy and officialdom. Not surprisingly the judicial arm was populated by peace-loving intellectuals who gravitated to the court systems, hated the corporate despoilment of solar systems, and despised their incessant corporate conflicts even more, regardless of the conflicts’ origins. The Terraforming Commission’s judicial arm strictly enforced the use of conventional munitions only in conflicts. Corporations were smart enough to strictly maintain that line.

The Terraforming Commission also considered any corporation embattled in the Terraforming Commission Court to be ‘legally entangled’ and they would cancel all current contracts. The judicial arm however was the only aspect of the Terraforming Commission that was efficient. They were efficient not through any fault of their own but because they had nothing to do most of the time.

The halls of the Commission’s Courts were lined with humiliating images of disgraced corporate officials and military commanders who committed atrocities, along with listed convictions. Most of these corporations had paid crippling fines and suffered personal and property levies, reparations, and cessation of hostilities in favor of the grieved corporation. This generally resulted in the destruction of the corporate empire as an operating entity. Their neighboring corporations generally consumed the broken pieces. Subsidiary worlds, disgusted with the tributes demanded to make the Court reparation payments, often secretly petitioned corporate neighbors for friendly annexation.

The only time the Court really got its hands dirty was when those unscrupulous individuals were executed for genocide or slavery.

The Commission’s judicial arm had no investigative arm. The grieved corporation had to collect all the information and build the prosecutor’s case on its own. That created a host of problems from rehabilitating survivors with search and rescue, to collection of evidence supporting the charges. Given the Hegemony’s history as recently as twenty years ago, with the death of Katharina Chroynos, her whole family, and the whole rest of the planet around them, that was the only time Thomys wished that there was actually a bureaucracy in place.

Thomys felt a knee press into his right knee under the table. His senior Guardsman sitting to his right next to him shuffled some paper forms while Thomys pulled himself out of his Terraforming Commission-based daydream. “Arbiter, the Celestas League representative makes some interesting points,” Thomys droned in his formal introduction.

While Thomys was taking a breath, he was interrupted by the Celestas League representative, “Why thank you, I’m glad you see it our way”

Thomys interrupted in kind, “The problem is that those points are asinine and have absolutely nothing to do with any reality we live in.” Thomys received the form from his Guardsman, “This is ‘Terraforming Commission Standard Form for System Terraforming and Occupancy Record Sheet’.” With a flick of his wrist, he sent it spinning down the table to the arbiter. “You will be so kind as to notice that it is the publicly available Celestas League Occupation Record Sheet for the region in question. You will also note that every single one of those seventeen solar systems listed there are approved for Celestas League occupation which is a one hundred percent success rate in a contested region.”

Thomys received an identical form from the Guardsman to his right before he continued, “Here is a copy of the publicly available Chroynos Hegemony Occupation Record Sheet for the very same region in question. Please note, that while our applications were submitted prior to Celestas League applications, and without error, for every single one of those seventeen systems. However, they all somehow managed to end up in possession of the Celestas League. It is ‘statistically aberrant’ that in a region contested by no less than four powers, ourselves and two minor corporate powers, that every one of these seventeen systems contested between the Hegemony and Celestas League they all went to the Celestas League. It is as unlikely to occur as a coin flip landing in favor of the Celestas League seventeen times in a row.

Thomys spoke with a coldly casual calm, “In addition to that there is the small matter of the Celestas League’s utter disregard for Terraforming Commission’s written policy.” The Terraforming Commission official acting as arbiter looked nervously several times from the red-faced Celestas League rep to Thomys reclining comfortably as he flipped open the folder under his hand. “Please note for the audio portion of this transcribed conversation that I have in this folder reconnaissance images taken of all seventeen worlds which the Celestas League has claimed in their statistically highly unlikely winning streak.” Thomys started flipping the bundled full-color images with text inserts one by one down the table so that they landed at different parts of the table, which forced the arbiter to reach side to side to catch and look at each one of the packets just to keep them from falling off the table.

Thomys plowed forward, “You will note that each of these seventeen image packets can be indexed from the publicly available Celestas League ‘Terraforming Commission Standard Form for System Terraforming and Occupancy Record Sheet’ I just provided for this arbitration’s records. Per the Terraforming Commission ordinance regarding the occupation of new worlds, the receiving corporation has a three hundred and sixty-six Terran calendar day window in which they are required to occupy those worlds.

“Our stealth scout ships entered every single one of those worlds unopposed and in fact five of those worlds, entire battle groups entered and conducted maneuvers around the suns and planets for over a week in each system without being challenged by or even seeing a Celestas League ship or settlement. Fifteen of those seventeen worlds, all in excess of three hundred days old, have little to no activity at all. The Celestas League will be hard-pressed to meet the Terraforming Commission’s definition of ‘occupied’ in all but those two systems.

“The Chroynos Hegemony would like to enter several formal motions into the record during this arbitration as per our rights in the charter, given these circumstances. First, the Hegemony requires an immediate correction of the current ‘statistical imbalance’ during the currently contested expansion, since we know that the Celestas League wouldn’t dream of anything untoward it all must be a computer error, that a little human input can easily fix. Second, the Hegemony would like to formally request a one-hundred-and-twenty-day suspended investigation into the occupancy of the systems in question. According to the Terraforming Commission’s regulations, worlds will be fairly divided among applicant entities, and worlds not occupied and developed will default to the next applicant after three hundred and sixty-six days.

“The Commission’s rules are the Commission’s rules after all. Even with the time that the images spent traveling to me, and the weeks I spent traveling to Earth, the Hegemony believes it would only be fair to give the Celestas League an opportunity to correct this accidental oversight on their part. We know that it takes many months of work to meet the Commission’s definition of ‘occupied’. That way we won’t have to trouble the Commission again before those one hundred and twenty days have elapsed.” Thomys smiled brightly back at the arbiter as he stood, “I unfortunately have another meeting I need to attend on the other side of the Commission’s compound. I really do need to excuse myself. You all can keep those image packets. We have the originals.”

Thomys turned to leave for his lunch reservations at his favorite Terran steak house, and he heard the arbiter and Celestas League arguing violently in voices hushed enough to be obscured on the recording devices they were both pressing closed with their palms. His Guardsmen flanked him in a smooth wedge as they reached the door. The one redeeming quality of the Terraforming Commission was that thanks to the money they had to burn the dining outside the compound was among the best in the galaxy.

Almost immediately after the door closed it opened again and the expected Celestas League rep spilled into the corridor crowded with corporate reps and Terraforming Commission personnel. “What the hell are you thinking in there?! You can’t show them pictures of our systems!”

Thomys laughed in the man’s face as he skidded to a halt uncomfortably between Thomys’ two Guardsmen, “You bet I can! And I just did. What are you going to do about it now? Pay your pet arbiter more? Maybe pay off his boss again too? It’s in the record now and there is nothing you can do about it. You won’t even make it to Earth courts over this so don’t think of trying to drag us down into this mess with you.” The man flashed a slightly feral look while Thomys’ Guardsmen remained unmoving, pressing his flanks, “Press your little paid-for-arbiter on this and he will turn on you and you’ll never be able to float another bribe in this building. Take us to the Terraforming Commission judicial and the first thing they will do is review the meeting’s audio and toss you out, then roast your arbiter, which means you will never float another bribe in this building. Either way, you’re screwed.

“You have a choice. You can either go home to ‘North-Star Manufacturing and Mining Incorporated’ and tell your brother-in-law, Mister Johann Riedesel, and your darling sister that North-Star needs to immediately get itself into gear and settle those planets, or the Commission will seize them and hand them over to the Hegemony as the second string applicant, which would break your planned buffer zone. Or alternatively, you can stay on Earth prattling with the commissioners about how much the loss of their jobs and subsequent bribes are worth.”

The infuriated rep snarled, “What the hell do you want Thomys?!”

Thomys sighed at the man’s stupidity. “What I want is to avoid the regional war you and those idiots at North Star insist on plunging us into,” Thomys finished the last with a schooled smile. “We’ve just placed you in ‘check’. Now you have the choice, you can press the issue here, which will lead to the loss of all of those worlds. You know as well as I do that the Hegemony’s Army and Naval Corporations are at full strength again and have kicked your rear ends up past your ears over the last two decades. You also know that North Star, while larger, is still not up to operational strength on many units. You can’t even send colonization fleets out to whole regions of space. Your alternative is to not fight us, cede the future planned worlds in the region, and concentrate on the ones you already have.”

Near apoplectic with frustration, his opposite number sputtered, “Thomys! You know damn well in that case that the third solar system on that roster will fall to the Hegemony and that it has not one but two ‘Earth normal’ agricultural worlds!”

Thomys dismissed casually, “That’s not your problem now, is it? Those worlds are ours. Contest them and you will lose your buffer zone and they will probably fall to us anyway because you will be rolled back by at least five and probably eight of those seventeen you cheated to get.

Thomys continued to press, “On top of that your activities will be under the magnifying glass in the next region so you will have to play by the rules. This means that you will not be able to touch those worlds because you will still be under the seventeen system re-balancing from this last spat of yours. North Star will never touch those new worlds in either case. Your options now are losing ‘some’ of the seventeen you cheated to get plus the next batch, or losing ‘all’ of those seventeen plus the next batch. Believe me; the Hegemony is getting tired of going to war with the League.”

the League representative, still visibly agitated, said, “Fine. I’ll pass your message on to CEO Riedesel. We are not interested in a war either.”

Thomys turned to leave without saying anything further.

One of his Guardsmen behind Thomys scoffed in the man’s face. Thomys had to silently agree with him.

The League representative didn’t get it.

If the Hegemony had to go to war again it wouldn’t be over systems. It would be to crush Riedesel because he was endangering the Hegemony.

The League was thinking the Hegemony was tired of war.

The Hegemony was tired of repeatedly going back to war with the same dishonorable and annoying opponent.

Chapter 55)

Celine reclined lazily in her favorite chair.

The blissful comfort and three massive arching windows in the Citadel wall behind and over her left shoulder melted the warm sunshine into the room in pure light. The afternoon sunshine eliminated the need for the incessant overhead lighting that crowded everywhere else on the planet.

Celine didn’t begrudge the lighting or its use. The more lighting people used the better for the family. After all, as the light bills went up that was more money for her family and Phyllip was always in a good mood when he looked at upward trends in electrical power usage.

The reclining lounge chair cupped and cradled her slight form as she continued to relax. The chair would suck her down into a warm horizontal napping position if she pressed herself back any further. Somehow the marvel of technology sensed when she moved and pressed herself into the cushions looking for a more comfortable position. It subtly changed to conform to her form in its constant quest to best accommodate its guests.

The perforated leather breathed wonderful soft whispers of cooled air over the side of her body that was in contact with the lounge chair.

Celine was cradled slightly to her left with her book in hand. She leaned peacefully into the light and the lounge chair scooped her into the first three-quarters of a ‘W’ while slipping her to the side and cradling her so she could lean all the way back and still enjoy the maximum sunlight on her book.

The classics were always entertaining.

This reproduction of a multi-millennium-old fiction was particularly entertaining. The story was ancient when humanity had first left the home solar system.

These classic stories made the Terraforming Commission look positively young, by comparison!

It was so quaint reading about those times when the fastest transportation available was a horse, of all things. And friends walking to see each other and not using the vid or even a comm to see if one another was home first was nearly humorous.

There were so many things that were exactly the same though. Silly young men doing silly things to impress their ladies – that had surely not changed. Women scheming against one another. A woman setting men against each other for her own benefit hadn’t changed either. The honor duels and the associated pecking order resulting from them can still be seen today.

All changed with time and all remained exactly the same.

Phyllip would be positively mortified reading this story … Celine smiled happily as she bathed in the natural sunlight. The empire’s electricity baron reading about a time when there was no such thing as electricity.

The man would be positively apoplectic!

Then again with his distaste for all things electronic, maybe the lovable brute would be right at home.

The little girl pleaded, “Mommy?”

Struggling not to sigh as her daughter Persephone tried to weasel out of doing her homework again. She tried something new to get out of her work every day. The eight-year-old kept Celine on her toes. She had to pay attention to everything the precocious little thing did. Persephone would try to talk her way out of doing her work so she could find trouble somewhere. That was why Celine had her seated at the table in the library next to her, where she could watch the girl’s every move.

Celine took a breath and responded, “Yes Persephone…” Celine pulled her marker out of the book and carefully placed it on the line where she had stopped after hearing Persephone’s call. When she looked over Persephone was busily ignoring her homework and occupying herself with looking at Celine while happily swinging her legs in the chair that was too large for her.

The girl delayed, “Mommy?”

Celine responded patiently, “Yes Persephone. Stop stalling for time. You aren’t leaving this room until all your schoolwork is done. The sooner you finish the sooner you can leave to play.” The child had done her own hair again. Celine was reading while she waited for Persephone to arrive after her lessons, Persephone had sat down and immediately begun her work, and Celine hadn’t noticed her youngest daughter’s hair at the time.

Celine fought valiantly to keep a straight face. The little imp had managed to make two ponytails on her own. But the one over her right ear was so high and was so twisted on itself that it poked straight up into the air like an extra thick antenna, before gravity took over, making it look like a floppy dog ear. The other was behind her left ear and pulled a crooked line across her scalp. Most of the hair on her whole head was pulled up and over to the right. The skinny little tail on the left looked starved and depressing.

How the girl’s tutors could keep a straight face all day was worthy of a pay raise for all of them.

The girl’s independent streak was something of a topic at functions. There was usually a new story for every social event. Celine tried to squash them; she didn’t want to damage the poor thing’s self-esteem, but some stories were just too funny to let pass.

Celine knew she would hear about this one within the week.

The child was fishing for an excuse to stop working, “Well … um.” Celine smiled at the image of herself at that age. When she finally finished her question, it was tactfully developed and well delivered. “What book are you reading Mommy? Is that book anything I should read for school?”

Persephone was definitely getting better at wasting time!

Not only was it a solid delivery, but on the topic of school. So Celine chose to humor the attempt before redirecting Persephone back on track. “This is a very old book baby.”

The girl protested, “It doesn’t look old. That book looks new.”

Celine shared, “It looks new because your father and I take good care of our books.” As Celine sat up, the lounge drifted firmly and gently at the same time to accommodate her new posture.

The girl attempted to divert, “Oh … So, do I need to read it too?”

Celine offered, “Not yet you don’t, Persephone. This is a very long story and very old, so you will need to learn a lot of your history lessons before much of it will make any sense to you.” Celine tried to redirect to the topic of lessons and failed.

Persephone evaded, “Oh. Well, why did they make the book if it needs a whole lot of school lessons to understand that one book? I thought you were supposed to read to learn, not learn so you could read to learn. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Celine smiled warmly at the logic only an eight-year-old could concoct. “I think what I meant was that you could read this book, but the story is so old that until you knew more history you would be confused by what the characters are doing.”

Pretending interest to get out of her school work, Persephone asked, “What kind of history? How old is that book Mommy?” She was happily swinging her feet, and no longer leaning against the back of the chair. She had migrated to face Celine.

Celine knew she lost this round. ‘Outsmarted by an eight-year-old’ Celine sighed to herself. The chatter break would go on until Celine could redirect Persephone back to her homework. All she could do was out patience the child. “Well the history that you need to study is ‘Old Earth’…”

Disgusted, the girl snapped, “Earth?! Why would anyone want to go there!?”

Celine snapped, “Persephone Apollonia Chroynos! Are you going to let me finish or do you plan on interrupting everything? We can make this a silent study session with no dinner if you want to misbehave. Is that what you want?”

Chastened, the girl mumbled, “No, Mommy.”

Celine accepted, “Thank you.” The little weed liked dinner too much. She only missed dinner twice for misbehavior, and since those two applications, the mere threat was enough to halt all but the most decided tantrums. “Earth is where we all came from many, many, many years ago. Before we had space travel and all the other wonderful things that we have in our time. When all our people still lived on one small planet, on planet Earth. This book is new but a copy of a story that is even older than the dream of electricity, medicine, flight, and even our buildings.”

The girl looked completely perplexed as she puzzled something out. Celine waited for whatever the revelation would be. They were always entertaining in their innocence. After several long minutes, the question arrived, “How did everyone fit on one small planet?”

Celine smiled, “Because there were a lot less people then. People didn’t live as long because they didn’t have our medical care. They didn’t have nice things to take care of their food and water. So people got sick from eating and drinking bad foods. It was very difficult to live, so there were a lot fewer people.”

The next question arrived quickly, “So how did we get so many people?”

Celine wondered, for a split second, if that was more of a ‘biology’ question than a ‘history’ question. The former she was not prepared to explain to an eight-year-old. “Well with all the nice things we have today, and all the more space we have for people to grow big and strong, and with all the time that has passed it really wasn’t that hard to have as many people living as we do today. Does that make sense?”

The girl sat and pondered for a few moments. Celine held her breath and hoped that she wasn’t going to have to explain the ‘other’ option, the ‘biology’ option, to Persephone. “Yes, Mommy. That makes sense.”

Celine reminded, “Alright Persephone. Break time is over, back to work please.”

Persephone chirped, “Okay Mommy.” Celine cracked open the book and had just begun to settle back into the lounge chair. Just as she moved her bookmark, “Mommy?”

Celine warned, “Persephone…”

Persephone blurted, “Just one more question! Please, then I’ll get right back to work.”

Celine’s placating exhale was accompanied by the closing of her book, “Just one.”

A strange sour look on Persephone’s face she asked, “Why Earth? Thomys says Earth is just a bunch of useless arrogant paper-pushing morons who do nothing but louse up the simplest tasks and profit from their mistakes and profit from their correct actions. That sounds like a pretty bad place to be. Why would anyone want to be on Earth?”

Celine frowned before answering, “I think I need to have a talk with Mr. Thomys Promethean about the things he tells eight-year-olds.

“Earth is not just home of the Terraforming Commission, the people Thomys was undoubtedly talking about, Persephone. Earth is the spiritual and ancestral center of the Human universe. Everything that we are comes from Earth. Earth, the Martian metroplex, and the Venetian industrial grid are the oldest and most respected three planets of the tens of thousands of solar systems, and all the planets in those solar systems, in all of Human space.

“Thomys Prometheon is just a grouchy old cynic who is filling your little ears with the grumbles of his job. Thomys’ job, well one of his many jobs, is to work with the Terraforming Commission for an orderly expansion of our space. When things go wrong, we end up fighting over solar systems. When the Terraforming Commission does something outlandish like giving one of our stars to a rival it starts wars.”

Perceptively the girl asked, “The Genesis Wars, Mommy?”

Celine accepted, “That’s correct, baby. Thomys and your father work very hard to keep those wars from happening but when they do they are very bad.”

Considering, Persephone asked, “Well, why are they called the Genesis Wars?”

Celine had to think about how to explain that to a child, but tried anyway, “Because we are ‘making’ planets that we can use for our people. It comes from a very very old story, even older than this one,” holding up the closed book, “About where Earth came from. Someone thought that they wanted to play God, and ‘make worlds’. When they did, they called it Genesis. The arrogant fools are so busy playing God that they don’t bother making rational and judicious decisions based on properly allocating those new worlds. They take credits for personal gain instead, and tens of thousands die.”

The eight-year-old was sitting with her head cocked slightly over her left shoulder. The hair was absolutely comical. The stony, thoughtful expression on the face and the tumble of thoughts Celine could see behind those blue-gray eyes, was anything but funny.

Celine kicked herself as she reviewed the conversation about what could be causing such a development in her daughter. She knew immediately she let her own anger color her answer.

When Persephone’s answer arrived, Celine almost fell off the lounge in surprise at what came out of the child’s mouth, “So the Terraforming Commission plays God parceling out worlds. Because they don’t plan things correctly, and take bribe money instead, they start wars all over the Galaxy.

“Because the terraforming and creation of worlds are called ‘Genesis’. They just added ‘Wars’ to the end, to designate any conflict between empires over newly terraformed planets in the hundreds and hundreds of solar systems terraformed every year. Thomys says people on Earth are just a bunch of ‘arrogant paper-pushing morons’. You just said that they were arrogant for playing God. Why do you need to talk to Thomys about that? He told me the truth. You just told me so; you feel the same way Thomys does. Why is what Thomys told me bad? And why is he in trouble for what he told me?”

Celine held a master’s degree in business Finance, and another in Communications. She came from one of the most powerful land-owning families on the planet. She dabbled in real estate, meaning the dirt under the mega-buildings and the whole structure above ground, as a hobby.

For fun Celine personally directed investments in her personal and Phyllip’s portfolios each so large that it would make a series of combined interstellar universities blush in shame-filled inadequacy.

Celine definitely did not want to get into the nefarious benefit Earth gained by constantly pitting the Corporate powers against one another in incessant resource-draining extraterrestrial power struggles.

That was a Pandora’s box she could not afford to open if she ever intended to redirect her procrastinating child!

Celine tossed the book into her lap frustrated beyond belief. She had just been bested by an eight-year-old.

The jerk of Persephone’s head as she tried to figure out why Mommy was now frustrated and making faces at her set her floppy hair antenna bouncing comic absurdity.

Celine was saved from laughing hysterically by the opening of the Library door, “Hi Squirt! Hi Ma.”

Persephone immediately turned, perked up, and shouted while standing, “Rhea!”

Looking up from her eight-year-old, while Persephone turned to face the door, Celine was glad for the modest face-saving interruption for a change when she spoke, “Hello Rhea.”

As Persephone happily bounced out of her seat at seeing her older sister entering the room, Rhea coughed a laugh at the girl. “What did you do to yourself, Squirt? I fixed your hair this morning for you, now look at you.” Rhea’s hangers-on fluttered back and forth at the door, while Rhea knelt in front of Persephone. Shaking her head while she smiled at her little sister, Rhea tugged the tangled bands out of Persephone’s hair. She quickly ran her hands through her hair to lay it flat.

Celine asked while her older daughter worked on her younger sister, “Are you heading off?”

Rhea chirped, “Yes, just a quick bit of shopping. We have that thing at the end of the week, and I wanted to find some earrings and maybe shoes to go with that dress we were talking about the other day.”

Persephone snatched her hair bands back from her older sister, “I want to do it. How can I ever be pretty like you and Mommy when I can’t even make my own hair?”

Rhea corrected, “I’m not that pretty Squirt. I’m just a little above average.”

Celine watched from her comfortable recliner, past her daughters, as two of the three little bitches that sucked up to Rhea rolled their eyes at the last comment. The smart one just looked down and scratched under her nose, and across her lip to cover her disdain. Celine noticed it all before the heartbeat finished for that instant. The effortless good looks, grace, and poise that were so natural for Rhea meant that she could spend a matter of seconds on her appearance and look better than the three useless people at the door could after hours of work.

Every time Rhea said she was a little above average, whatever group of sycophants she was with invariably took it as a snub to their own looks, which Rhea accomplished so effortlessly, while to them it was all-consuming.

Celine suspected that Rhea said those things on purpose just to annoy them.

Rhea was definitely her father’s daughter!

The woman had no patience for stupidity in private but loved to make them dance in public, just to let them know who was really holding the strings.

The hair lesson continued, while the three invaders in Celine’s private library pawed and shuffled in her doorway. This batch of hangers-on was at least smart enough to know not to invade Celine’s sanctum.

Rhea coaxed Persephone, “Now, run your fingers through … there. Now pull apart like I showed you this morning … No, stop trying to look over your head at your hair, you keep moving your head off to the side and you are making things a mess … Good, now you are split … Good, keep one side in your hand, and pull the loop over the hair … Good. Make sure you keep your hand over your ear. You want things even … Tie it down. Good. Stop.”

Persephone asked, “Why?”

Celine watched with interest as her daughters played with Persephone’s hair.

Rhea informed the little one, “Because I’m going to show you a trick. Now grab your tail, and you feel your fingers on your ear?”

Persephone agreed, “Yes.”

Rhea followed up, “Good. Feel the same on the other side. That is where you want it, even on both sides.”

Persephone asked, “Now what, Rhea?”

Rhea chastised lightly, “You know this. We did it this morning. Did you already forget?”

Child-offended, Persephone snapped, “No!” Persephone leaned her free hair over a little and let it fall past her shoulder. She scooped it into her hands and slipped the band over the hair. When she was set, she pulled it along her scalp until she grabbed both tails and felt her knuckles along her ears.

Rhea stood during the eight-year-old’s hair examination, with a little smile for her favorite sister.

Persephone popped with excitement as she turned in the same motion, to face Celine, “Look, Mommy! I did it all by myself, without a mirror!”

Celine’s smile lit the room, “Very good, Baby!” Celine’s chagrin at being out-debated by an eight-year-old slipped in the face of Celine’s abject joy at something so delighting the girl.

Rhea chirped, “We’re going to go Ma.”

Celine smiled and accepted, “Alright, Rhea. Make sure you are back in time for dinner. We need to review the marriage arrangements with the family over the table.”

The rude throaty ‘blah’ sound that Rhea made was decidedly impolite but amused Persephone to obscene giggles.

Celine snapped, “Rhea!”

Rhea acquiesced, “Alright, Ma … I’ll be back in time. You know this thing isn’t going to happen for another three months. You don’t need to worry about it this much.” As Rhea slipped past Persephone, she kissed her mother’s cheek. On her way back to the door she playfully tugged one of Persephone’s tails.

It was like a lever that spilled more giggles on the floor.

Celine shook her head and rolled her eyes when no one could see. Ten years apart and the two were like peas in a pod. Admittedly one was much smaller than the other, but Persephone would follow Rhea around all day like a happy puppy if she was allowed. Rhea would not only accept but often willingly encourage the behavior.

Celine went back to her book with a sigh.

Celine looked up just in time to see Persephone trying to make her silent escape with her sister.

Celine snapped with motherly calm, “Persephone. Is your homework all done?”

That stopped Persephone in her tracks as she was split between hurrying to follow to keep the door from closing between herself and Rhea, and the gravitational pull of her mother. Persephone offered, “Most…”

Celine demanded of Persephone, “Is ‘most’ the same as ‘all’ done?”

Miserably, Persephone replied, “No.”

Celine ordered, “Thank you, Persephone. Please sit down and finish your work.”

She grumbled all the way to the chair, while Celine reclined comfortably smiling at her daughter.

Celine made excellent progress on her book. Persephone had no questions, and the sun drifted lower in the afternoon sky.

The arrival of a new visitor was irritating, but it had been a while since the last group. When the door opened Celine was ready to rip into the impertinent who couldn’t follow simple ‘do not disturb’ instructions for study time.

When she saw Phyllip she recognized the horror on his face immediately from when her baby Phyllip was murdered on the front lawn. Celine could only rasp, “What’s happened?”

Phyllip intoned what Celine most feared, stating only, “Rhea…” The sinking pit in her stomach wanted to burn its acidic contents out of her guts while she vomited at the same time. “The building was attacked, there was an explosion.”

The book fell forgotten from her trembling hands, as the sobs approached and Celine fell to the floor painfully retching her guts, through tears.

Phyllip was immediately by her side.

Persephone didn’t understand what was going on. But she knew it was bad enough to make her mother cry in pain. And it involved Rhea …

Eight-year-old Persephone was suddenly very scared.

Thank You!

Thank you for reading this chapter!

Your next chapter is HERE.

If you liked what you read and you are interested in the full book the links are HERE on the Blood Debts book page…

However, if you are more interested in the narrated version, you can catch the start of your author-narrated series HERE:

Enjoy!