Allison was not in top form when she woke up in the morning she had purposely gotten up at four thirty in the morning.  She was hoping for a run.  After how bad she felt during her infiltration of the super hive on Eden Prime she’d committed to keeping up her physical training.  Superhero landing aside, she was quite embarrassed to admit how out of shape she’d gotten.  Oozie kept up with her bonded sentient.  Allison saw security all over the property.  No one interfered with her morning jog.  She’d done a shorter run than she initially wanted just because she had to get cleaned up, dressed and had an hour’s trip back to the council building.  Rubina looked at Allison as they made their way back to the council building.


    “I was told you were out for a run today.  Don’t your nanites take care of that for you?”


    Allison shook her head.


    “No, I’ll never be overweight, but I can lose muscle mass.  Whether by being in zero-G for weeks or sitting on my butt doing schoolwork.  The Queen I killed on Eden Prime… it was hard.  Everything about it was harder because I hadn’t been keeping in shape.  It was kind of embarrassing, but I did finally manage to do a superhero landing.”


    Rubina quirked her head to the side.


    “Superhero landing, what is that?”


    Allison blushed.


    “Ah it’s silly but trust me it looked amazing, for once.  It was about the only thing that felt good in that whole mission.  Not that it was a mission.  I’m sorry I’m babbling.”


    Rubina shook her head.


    “No, no it is fine.  I find our conversations to be stimulating.  You humans are unique.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a species so cautious yet so willing to take risks for so little reward.  I understand humans take part in extremely dangerous recreational activities.  I believe they call those humans adrenaline junkies?”


    “Yes, they are called that yes. It’s a rare few these days.  There aren’t a lot of us.”


    Rubina motioned to Allison.


    “Is that why you are the way you are?  Every story I hear about you from the war says you were fearless, that you led the people in battle, took risks most sane people wouldn’t.”


    “No, my Babu, grandfather told me that the secret to surviving in battle is to enter it with the knowledge that you’re already dead.”


    Rubina folded her hands over her knee.


    “Interesting philosophy.  Why is it you think that works?”


    Allison shrugged.


    “I guess if you’re not worried about dying then you can focus on doing what you need to do to win the battle.  Winning the battle is a sure way of having a better chance of surviving.  So random question, are people going to call me Eonnedath?”


    “No, no, not at your age, no, but baby Allison will be called Astellia by everyone but family.”


    They pulled up to the secure entrance for the council building.  Allison waved at Rubina and rushed towards the intern office.  She slipped into her desk with Oozie in tow, she arrived by 0759.  Blubb’ta crossed her arms and looked at Oozie.


    “What is this… thing?”


    Allison patted Oozie.


    “My bodyguard nargle?  It is a custom of the royal family of Qual’sa to have a nargle for protection.  As a member of the Qual’sa royal family I am exercising the exclusion to the rule 567 for pets in the Council Building.”


    Blubb’ta narrowed her eyes and picked up a datapad.  She tapped a few things into it then frowned.


    “Whatever you need to feel comfortable, snowflake.  At least you’ve read the rules.”


    Allison patted Oozie gently.  She really didn’t want to be a snowflake, but she’d take it.  It was better than leaving Oozie at home alone.  Blubb’ta handed out assignments for the day and finally came to Allison.


    “The snowflake is at the Primarch’s office today.”


    Everyone gathered their things and started heading out.  The Yorleer that had gotten the giggles when Allison had made a face spoke to the dhampir.


    “She doesn’t like you much.”


    Allison shrugged.


    “You keep talking to me she might not like you either.  I’m Allison by the way, not snowflake, or special VIP.”


    The Yorleer giggled.


    “I know who you are, Battlelord.  I am Lia’tra.”


    Allison shook her head.


    “I’m just Allison, I don’t think anyone needs a battlelord now.  The war is over.”


    Lia’tra nodded.


    “It is nice to meet you, Allison.”


    Lia’tra headed off to her assignment and Allison went straight to the Primarch’s office.   Oozie happily walked beside her.  Allison’s day consisted of working with the Primarch’s staff and taking notes while the Primarch did her day to day duties.  It was a mostly quiet day but then she was called into the Primarch’s office during a secure military briefing.  She walked in.  The Grand Eminence wasn’t present, but his staff officers were.  Allison had worked with each of them before.  Nutina had apparently gotten a promotion and was here.  Rubina motioned for Allison to join her.


    “You’re all familiar with Allison.  While she is on leave from her role as battlelord, she is working as my intern.  You don’t mind if she sits in on our briefing and provides input?”


    Allison motioned for Oozie to lay down.  The nargle curled up with her tail over her nose.  Allison just knew it.  Even with the teenager on a leave of absence, Rubina had found a way to drag her back into the military.  No one objected to Allison being there.  Rubina motioned to the screen they were looking at.


    “Allison, we have traced shipments to the Ratoan rebels at the request of the System’s Alliance.  This is their route.  They are using aid shipments as a cover.  The aid shipments are in the private sector, and we lack legitimate evidence to stop them.  We’re trying to figure out a way to disable them and keep our hands clean.  What would you suggest?”


    Allison frowned, she wanted to say no, no idea.  Then she found she couldn’t really deny the Primarch her knowledge, it didn’t cost her effort and the Primarch had done so much for her already.  Allison mused that was probably her plan all along.


    “I would hire outside help.  Supply them through intermediaries.  Bastion station is a border prosperity station.  Your security forces and military don’t seem to have enough resources to patrol the border.  You can definitely find someone there to work with you.  I would hire mercenaries from the System’s Alliance, it is how we do things like this.  Non-tracible funds.  Complete plausible deniability.  They disable the transport in League space, if there are rebels on board, they disable them or kill them.  The mercs take the aid shipment, leave the weapons.  One of your patrol vessels shows up, the security team searches for the pirates and woops, they find an illegal weapon’s shipment.  That should give you all the evidence you need to cut off the supply line to the rebels.  You could use people from the League for the actual boarding party but if they’re from the System’s Alliance and different galaxy it is going to be extremely hard for the attack to be traced back to you.”


    Rubina smiled at Allison and motioned to the transports on the star map.


    “Well advisors, what do you think?”


    Nutina eyed Allison.


    “If I didn’t know better, I’d think your intern has done this before.”


    Allison smiled.


    “No comment.”


    Nutina frowned.


    “It seems dishonorable to me.  I say we find another way.  The right way.  No offense my friend, but this is not the Silwrath way.”


    The rest of the advisors who were all Silwrath nodded in agreement.


    “Yes, you are right.  Thank you, Allison.”


    Allison took that as permission to leave but Rubina caught her.


    “No, stay, you wanted my mentorship, part of that is seeing my day to day work.”


    Allison watched them come up with different ideas on how to make this work.  No conclusions were reached.  After the advisors left Rubina looked at Allison.


    “Now then, do you have any contacts with mercenaries in the System’s Alliance?”


    Allison didn’t want to point out her friends, not that they wouldn’t want the work, but she didn’t want them connected to her, for obvious reasons.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    “I know some fixers.  Typically, you find a fixer, you provide them with the details and the funds.  They hold the funds until the job is complete, but I thought this wasn’t umm Silwrath…”


    Rubina smiled and shook her head.


    “We have to say that because that was an official meeting.  Your plan was not part of the official record but our response to it was.  Now officially the military has no knowledge of this plan.  It is an unspoken rule.  When they say no like they did, they agree but they can’t agree on paper.  This is what I want you to learn.  Many things are unspoken here.  Or if they are, they are spoken of in very specific ways.  If you were going to reach out to a fixer, how would you do it?”


    Allison shrugged.


    “Since you lack umm… questionable contacts in the System’s Alliance I would find a corporation that wants something from the League.  Ask for a show of goodwill, a fixer contact, I can verify them.  I’d seriously consider the corporation’s request.  They’re an in.  The board and the Imperial Council are the leadership.  The agencies are how the government functions and interacts with the citizens.  The real power is credits.  Whoever has the money wins.  For vampires that’s not quite the truth, it is favors, and influence.  So, if you want access to the real System’s Alliance you want access to powerful corporations.  We do not work like the League does and approaching us like we do is a big mistake.  The people who rebuilt our society after the Gray believed humanity couldn’t handle a post scarcity society so they suppressed the technology that would make it possible.  Right or wrong, that is who we are.  Hyper-capitalists.”


    Rubina’s wings twitched slightly.


    “We have several requests for such agreements.  Are there any corporations we should avoid?”


    Allison nodded.


    “Several in fact, the main one being Crusader Tech.  They were supplying the terrorists.  They barely survived.  BMC, Biomedical Corporation is sketchy.  Those are the ones that stick out.”


    Rubina nodded.


    “BMC is offering us quite a lot for biological data.  Contacts with xenobiologists. These things cost us nothing we’ve already completed all of it.  Why do you call them ‘sketchy’?”


    Allison sighed.


    “You know that my birth parents were important within the System’s Alliance.  BMC cloned my biological mother at least three times.  Kidnapped two of my sisters.  Kept one of my sisters trapped for a few centuries.  They had a black site ship...  Cloning wolf-born.  Trying to create super soldier dhampir-werewolf hybrids.  Experiments with nanotech about two hundred years ago.  My aunt and uncle… kept them in stasis for three decades.  I found records at my apartment on our home world from a thousand years ago experimenting on humans trying to create a new evolution.  Crazy disturbing stuff.  For some reason my sister Eyre seems to have gotten over them kidnapping her and faking her death?  Not sure why.  I have business with them for Oozie.  Eyre arranged it.  I also guess if they hadn’t done all those disturbing experiments I wouldn’t exist.  Doesn’t make them right.”


    Rubina’s wings flexed a few times, indicating she was deep in thought.


    “Do you trust them?”


    Allison looked around.


    “So, this isn’t official?”


    Ruby shook her head.


    “No, just two family members speaking.”


    Allison sighed.


    “Ruby, I don’t trust any corporation.  Even the ones I own.  No one has this data yet, BMC has a lot to gain, but they’re also huge.  I would go with a corporation that is dependent on your data.  Offer them exclusive access.  You can’t force the scientists but the data you already have from your system surveys would be almost priceless to a corp like that.”


    Rubina handed Allison a list on a datapad.


    “Look through that do you know any of those?”


    Allison scanned the list and gave a small laugh.  Her corporation Xenobiologics Incorporated.


    “My corporation is here on the list.  I’m not sure why.  I found a Qual’sa datavault.  All from before the civil war…  They’re supposed to be trying to see if we can rebuild the Qual’sa ecosystem in a dome before I try full scale on a planet.  Not whatever this is.  Unless you still have surveys from the Qual’sa home world.”


    Rubina went to her console and typed in a quick request.  Before she could look up from her screen she received a response.


    “We have a full survey from before the supernova.  We haven’t even been assessing that list.  The councils haven’t voted on whether we’re going to open our government gathered data to for profit purposes.  Is your corporation for profit?”


    Allison shook her head.


    “No, it is a money pit.  It will be selling things it finds that have legitimate uses, but all the money is going back into the corporation and a new home for the Qual’sa people.  Once that is completed the credits will go to pay back my initial investment.  There is some debate with my sister about the order that happens.  It’s listed as a not-for-profit, mostly for tax reasons.”


    Rubina nodded.


    “Then the request for Qual’sa data is approved or will be as soon as I send a message.  Do any of those fit the bill?”


    “Thank you.  Umm, this one here.  Gaea Reborn LLP.  I know them.  They’ve been bothering me for information on the planet I found near the center of the Galaxy.  And the data on the degenerate matter I gathered.  My friend Bit wasn’t inspired by their offer and she’s my partner and the legal adult that is on my salvage corp.  I had my own reasons for saying no.  The woman running it is like twenty-four years old total tree hugger.  Crowdfunded it and she is working with my sister.  I wanted to give them the data.  My sister who is an anti-corp radical and wants to bring our home world back to its natural state.  IE Not engulfed by a global swarm of nanites.  I have a lot of sisters.  Apparently, my brothers are too smart to get turned into vampires.  It’s not a corporation; It’s privately owned by three people, Talia Wilson, my sister Mitena Aurelius, and a werewolf, Riley Blythe, all decent people from the record I had.  Bit did research.  Their offer was… very low.  They couldn’t even pay for the antimatter that my wormhole jump cost.  Small, hungry, and probably a noble cause… for now.  Who knows once the credits starts coming.”


    Rubina leaned on her desk.


    “If your sister is involved, why didn’t you help them?  Is there a reason?”


    Allison sighed.


    “My sister is great.  I’ve met her a few times and she’s amazing.  She was born into a culture on our world that revered nature.  Revered our home world.  They believed that spirits inhabited everything, they got that one right, they’re like right next to werewolves.  The thing is this isn’t a thousand years ago.  This is now.  If our planet thaws there are dangers.  Instability in the domes where hundreds of millions of people live.  What they’re trying to do is… problematic.  There is a harsh reality they don’t understand.  They’re na?ve and their good intentions could have a very bad outcome.   That all being said for the wolf and the human, they’re likely desperate enough to accept almost any deal.  My sister is a vampire. I don’t know her well enough to know if she’s like the rest or still quick to trust people.   Two out of three means the vote is in the favor of the na?ve ones.”


    Rubina smiled.


    “I do not think anyone understands the depth of knowledge you have of the universe around you.  I’ve never met a battelord before, but I see every day why you are so effective at war.  Your mind seems to see everything as a battle to win you seek every advantage.”


    Allison blushed.


    “No, I don’t really… I just… anyway, GR is your best target.  They will not be able to offer you much in the way of financial return but that isn’t what you want.  Just do not let them near nanite tech.  Not that I think the Synthlin share that with anyone anyway.  As my home world shows in the wrong hands it can be very bad tech.”


    Rubina took the datapad back and tapped on GR.


    “I will reach out.  Thank you.  You enjoy this don’t you?”


    Allison shook her head.


    “No, I like being just a teenage girl.  Leave this stuff for other people.”


    Rubina’s wings twitched.


    “Is that why you’ve stepped back from your official duties?”


    Allison nodded.


    “I just want to be a normal kid.”


    “A normal kid who goes to formal social events for their school.  How is that working out for you?”


    Allison sighed.  Rubina nodded.


    “You know, sometimes we delude ourselves into believing we are something we are not, or we don’t want to believe the truth.  You are a predator.  You are either deluding yourself into believing you are prey, or you are in denial of your true nature.  I will not be party to forcing you into anything you do not want.  There is a saying amongst Silwrath: Dragon’s never sleep, they just rest their eyes.  You’re resting your eyes.  One day soon you will open them again and your enemies will tremble.  Until then make sure you enjoy your time amongst the prey.  If I had a daughter, I would give her that advice, so I pass it on to you.”


    Rubina picked up a diplomatic folder.


    “Please deliver this to the acting Synthlin representative at the offices of the high council, right into his hands.”


    Allison took it.


    “Right away, Primarch.”


    Rubina smiled.


    “Please wait for his response.”


    Allison nodded and walked towards the high council offices.  The Synthlin office was in chaos.  She pressed her palm on the security panel and the door opened.  She watched as the Synthlin inside panicked about something that was going on.  Allison waited until one with a less ornate encounter suit passed her and she tapped the arm. It paused and looked at her.


    “What do you want?”


    Allison held up the folder from the Primarch.


    “The Primarch asked me to deliver this to your representative.”


    The Synthlin stared at the folder like it might bite him.


    “You can just put it on his desk.”


    Allison frowned.


    “Primarch said in his hands.  So, where is he, sir?”


    Panic entered his voice.


    “That’s what we want to know!”


    He rushed off, she looked around and raised her voice.


    “Where is your representative?  What do I tell the Primarch?  Do I tell her he is missing?”


    Every single Synthlin stopped suddenly and looked at Allison.  Then each other.  Finally, one of the Synthlin rushed over.


    “No, no, you can’t do that.”


    Allison stared at her.


    “The Primarch told me to put it right into his hands then wait for a response.  She might notice if I don’t show up with a response.  I’ll just go explain, I’m sure she’ll understand.”


    The Synthlin reached her palms out toward Allison and sounded quite adamant as she spoke.


    “Let’s not be too hasty.”


    Allison looked around at the office.


    “None of you have a clue where he is?  This is the council chambers we’re all wearing communicators with tracking on them.  I doubt there is another building in the League with more surveillance.”


    The Synthlin who had been speaking with Allison moved closer.


    “We would need to speak to security to access that.”


    Allison looked at her like she was crazy.


    “And?  I don’t understand the problem.  Where is the representative’s security detail?”


    They all looked at each other then it seemed like they realized who they were talking too as eyes turned towards her again.  The Synthlin in front of her spoke again.


    “You’re the battlelord.  You could help us…”


    Allison shook her head.


    “No, not anymore, I’m just an intern and why would I help you, you lot have been going out of your way to accuse me of every crime you could imagine.”


    “Battlelord, that was not the will of our people.  It was a very vocal minority that have now been removed from power.  You need to understand how important it is we… do not uh… umm.”


    Allison looked towards the representative’s office.  Something about what Allison was seeing through the partially open door did not sit right with her.  She sighed.  She was really starting to hate League politics.


    “Do not what?”


    The Synthlin tapped her encounter suit’s thighs.


    “If…”


    She looked at a couple of other Synthlin then back to Allison.


    “If there is another large… incident umm we could lose our seat on the high council.  So, I assure you everything is under control we just need time…”


    Allison swore under her breath.  She was starting to realize the Primarch knew something was wrong, she couldn’t involve security, so she had a little heart to heart, just long enough to freak the Synthlin out.  Then she tossed Allison into the ocean like a life raft for the drowning Synthlin high council office to cling too.  She thought some very uncharitable thoughts about the Primarch.


    “Won’t force me into anything I don’t want… liar.”


    The Synthlin looked at Allison.


    “Will you help us?  It is very important that no one knows what is going on here.  Very important.”


    Allison sighed.


    “Fine, I need to know everything, but you better send a message to Blubb’ta and the Primarch’s office saying the reply is going to take time and that you’re asking for my help around the office while we wait.”