The Shape of Surrender

“Sapient trafficking? Are you certain?” Zikara’s eyes widened in surprise on the holo screen.

“I cannot find any other reasonable explanation.” Nalyra drummed her fingers on the armrest of her seat on the command dais. “A complete audit of the company’s public finances showed no possible way for them to fund their current operations.”

“A grave crime indeed.” Queni’la’s voice came over the call, from somewhere off-camera.

“Then there is the matter of the target of this trafficking — strictly Zakkili women.” With a gesture, Nalyra brought up another holographic window, this one showing a list of the missing victims. “Very concerning. I can think of no pleasant reason for it.”

The two sisters were in a private call, the window only hovering a few feet in front of the Aegis’s Royal Hand. Tor’laen and the command staff were all listening in, but the sound dampeners on the dais were active, preventing the contents of the call from reaching the bridge crew.

“Do you think House Freika is involved?” Zikara asked, her face thoughtful.

“I believe they must be.” Nalyra glanced at another open holo window, this one an activity log. “Over the past six measures Meridian Operations has taken over nearly all of House Freika’s contracts. The two are wound tightly together now — it would be no stretch to call them Freika’s own private army at this point.”

“Good things rarely come when Houses get in bed with PMCs like that,” Zikara shook her head. “It appears you have your work cut out for you.”

“So it does. How fares your investigation, sister?”

“I made good on a few favors owed, and Quen needed to do some sweet talking, but I was able to arrange an appointment with High Matron Giava of House Tekelli. However…” Zikara sighed. “From my intelligence team’s investigation, I think the old bat’s control over her House is just slipping. Her shipping contracts are failing, but it appears due to a lack of oversight and enforcement, rather than another party interfering. Simple incompetence, not sabotage.”

“A pity, but I would think it’s the preferable outcome,” Nalyra replied.

“Perhaps.” Zikara gave a rueful grin. “Damnit, I should not have given you Freika. You get all the fun, Lyra.”

“I should hardly think investigating a High House and PMC for sapient trafficking counts as fun, Zikara. And I have told you countless times not to call me Lyra.”

“A slip of the tongue, sister.” The other Crown Daughter grinned. “Be sure not to work too hard, Nalyra, and make time for your Ydani to pamper you, yes?”

Nalyra simply sighed and cut the call.

She looked up to find Mikka nudging Tor’laen with her elbow, grinning at the man, while he simply raised an eyebrow at her.

The Crown Daughter made a mental note to give one of her sister’s crownthreads a sharp pinch the next time she saw the woman.

“My sister’s irreverence aside, we now have a target for our investigation,” Nalyra said, rising from her seat. “Vessa, has the intelligence team come up with anything useful?”

“Nothing definitive, Crown Daughter, but they have been able to eliminate several possibilities.” The Admiral looked down at the tablet in her hands. “We have received all the necessary security feed data from the Kelran government to rule out two possibilities: the missing women are almost certainly not being held on Kelran, and they were not moved through public spaceports. There were several partial biometric recognition hits, across multiple feeds. The system didn’t flag them individually, but put together, they were enough to form a pattern. It all pointed to the women being moved toward the spaceport district, but there was not a single hit on the public terminal scanners.”

“That leaves private interplanetary transportation,” Nalyra reasoned.

“Yes, Crown Daughter.”

“Who would have that kind of capability?” Tor’laen interjected, looking between the two.

“PMCs, for one,” Mikka immediately replied.

“That would be the most likely option.” Vessa nodded. “There are a few wealthy families on Kelran with private shuttles and landing pads, but they lack the infrastructure and capacity to move women undetected like this.”

“And Meridian Operations has a compound on Kelran?” Nalyra asked sharply.

“A sizable one, and conveniently located adjacent to the spaceport district,” Vessa replied, her voice grim.

“Our focus narrows.” The Crown Daughter gave a predatory grin. She moved over to the station of her Master Engineer, where Nivi was absorbed in her work. “Do you have anything, Nivi?”

“Crown Daughter!” She seemed surprised by the inquiry, seemingly unaware of the woman’s presence before she spoke. “Uh, yes. Yes I do!” Her hands flew across the screen of her workstation. “Ever since you said you suspected Meridian Operations, I’ve been tracking them. It was lucky, I managed to get my hands on their authorization pattern from a careless server dump through the Kelran intranet. Whoever did it failed to properly sanitize the database — those patterns are top-level company secrets.” She chuckled, hands still moving.

“Then, using the Aegis’s Citadel Q-comm credentials, I seeded a query across the network.”

Nalyra narrowed her eyes. Seeded a query across the network. A small suspicion entered the back of the Crown Daughter’s mind, but she let the engineer continue speaking.

“Whenever a vessel emerges from subspace, the Q-comm network discreetly pings them. If they don’t have Meridian credentials, the network ignores them, but if they do, it records the emergence and sends it to our servers. Even in the half-day since it’s been running, I’ve got a mountain of results.”

Nivi tapped a few more commands on her console, and a starmap appeared above the command dais’s holo table.

“I cross-referenced it against Meridian’s reported operating bases and filtered out most of it, but…” Another few taps, and a system was highlighted on the map. “This one has a ridiculously high volume of Meridian traffic, for a supposedly uninhabited system.”

“That’s…brilliant, Nivi.” Vessa looked completely impressed.

“It is indeed.” Nalyra nodded. “But Nivi, you did submit a request to the Core to use the Q-comm network in this manner, yes?”

The engineer simply blinked at the Crown Daughter, her eyes wide. Nalyra pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes.

“Nivi…”

“Ah…sorry, Crown Daughter…” Nivi said sheepishly.

“Vessa.” The Crown Daughter looked to her Admiral.

“I’ll get the necessary documentation ready immediately.” Vessa’s mouth settled into a tight line. “But the submission date…”

“I’ll handle it,” Mikka volunteered. “I went through basic with a woman who works in Q-comm administration. If I slide a couple hundred credits her way, she’ll make sure no one looks too closely at the date and time on the forms.”

“Please do, Mikka.” Nalyra peered at the holographic star chart. “In the meantime…” She tapped the hologram of the highlighted system, causing it to expand. “How soon can we get an investigation team into this system?”

“Less than a ship day.” Vessa tapped a few times on the holotable’s control panel. It highlighted the Kelran system they were currently in. “In empyrean terms, that system is but a stone’s throw away from Kelran. Even our scout ships can make that dive in a few bells.”

Nalyra stared at the holographic display, her lips pursed.

“Nivi, highlight the system that contains House Freika’s main estate.”

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“They’re based in the Casven system, right?” Nivi muttered, fingers flying across her console. “Here.”

A third system was highlighted on the star chart. Silence fell over the command dais. The three highlighted systems formed an almost equilateral triangle, each roughly the same distance from the other two. Quick and easy access from all sides.

“That feels like it cannot be a coincidence,” Tor’laen said quietly.

“You’ll hear no argument from me,” Vessa added.

“This is indeed worth investigating.” Nalyra leaned closer to the hologram, her eyes narrowed. “Admiral, send the scout ships as soon as possible. I have faith in the crew, but do remind them to be discreet — I have no desire to give our target a chance at equal footing.”

“As you wish, Crown Daughter.”

Nalyra looked up, noticing Tor’laen’s gaze. She locked eyes with him, and the Ydani gave her a slight nod. Over their Bridge, mutual feelings of apprehension and eagerness swirled together.

“High Matron Sivena’s shuttle is on approach, Royal Hand. High House Freika’s credentials are confirmed.”

“Direct it to hangar four, officer,” Nalyra ordered. “Sergeant Kinna, be sure there is a suitable escort waiting to bring our guests to the bridge.”

“Yes, Crown Daughter.” The woman snapped off a salute, reaching for her communicator.

“Imagine that,” Vessa said quietly from her place at Nalyra’s side. “The owner of Meridian Operations just happened to be staying at House Freika’s main estate.”

“It is quite convenient, is it not?” the Crown Daughter returned, sharing a grim smile with her Admiral.

Saying that the past three ship-days had been hectic would be putting it quite mildly. While waiting for the results from the scout ships, the Aegis had launched a very public and very thorough inquiry into both High House Freika and Meridian Operations, even going so far as to petition the High Fortress for access to both organization’s private finances and operations reports. After an appropriate pause, the Aegis had carefully leaked the fact that their investigation had turned up nothing suspicious.

Nalyra couldn’t stop a grin from spreading across her lips.

After confirming the results of the scout ships, their survey of the supposedly uninhabited system, the Aegis and her crew had moved quickly. They left a small contingent of Armswomen and crew on Kelran, supposedly continuing their investigation into the trade dispute. Diving out of the Kelran system, the Aegis had made a brief stopover at the very edge of the suspect system; Grace Eridi Zii.

Finally, their next dive brought them to the Casven System, in orbit over Casven Three, a sizable colony where High House Freika had its main estate. There was also a noticeably large Meridian Operations compound on the planet, which had surprised none of the remaining command staff.

“It is like dangling candy before a babe,” Nalyra said with a faint sneer. “Just the idea of a personal apology from a Crown Daughter is all it takes to have Nobles like her salivating.”

“She did not even hesitate for a moment.” Vessa shook her head. “To think our prey would so willingly come to us.”

“And bringing her little pet along with her.” The Crown Daughter glanced at her Admiral. “You looked into this Lady Rastia?”

“Thirty-five years of age, from a minor house in the frontier,” Vessa replied immediately, not needing to glance down at her tablet. “She became chief executive and head of operations of Meridian around five years ago. She essentially owns the company at this point.”

“Mmmm.” Nalrya crossed her legs. “And of course, I feel so terribly about our misguided investigation that I would apologize to her personally as well.”

“Quite so, Crown Daughter,” Vessa said. “I do find it surprising that they asked no questions at the invitation, however.”

“Trust me, Admiral, I painted myself as so very embarrassed in the rumors.” Nalyra grinned. “Women like this High Matron are always quite certain they are far more clever than some upstart Crown Daughter half their age. I would wager she cannot wait to rub this in my face.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the door to the bridge sliding open. Nalyra quickly rearranged her expression into one of solemn regret.

“Announcing High Matron Sivena of High House Freika, and Lady Rastia of Meridian Operations,” one of the Armswomen announced, escorting the pair into the room. Following orders, the soldiers brought the two women straight to the command dais.

The Crown Daughter gave a psychic nudge to her Admiral, letting her know it was time to issue the orders. Vessa nodded very slightly, and tapped once on her tablet.

“High Matron Sivena, Lady Rastia.” Nalyra rose to greet them, as a show of her supposed humility.

The High Matron pounced on it immediately.

“Actually it is now High Lady Rastia, Crown Daughter,” the woman smirked at Nalyra. “A title appropriate for Rastia’s services rendered.”

“Of course, High Matron.” Nalyra inclined her head to the other woman. “High Lady.”

Sivena was about what Nalrya expected. She wore a luxurious and frankly excessive white dress, almost a ballgown, trimmed with voluminous amounts of animal fur, also as white as snow. Her long, dark brown hair had streaks of grey, undoubtedly left undyed on purpose, an attempt to give the woman a more dignified appearance. Her face was prim, and there was no small amount of confidence in her blue-grey eyes.

Rastia, on the other hand, was dressed more like a businesswoman. A fine suit, well-tailored to the woman’s figure, was her attire. The fabric was dark grey, but faintly embossed with silver around the collar and sleeves. Quite an expensive outfit. Her dark green hair was kept short, curling around her head, and her eyes were a dark brown. She held herself with far less confidence than the High Matron, but there was certain excited eagerness that hovered about her.

“Now then, about this foolish investigation of yours,” Sivena started, folding her arms. “I must say, I am terribly disappointed that you would suspect us without even a shred of solid evidence. High House Freika has done nothing against the Crown’s laws and wishes.”

“That is indeed what our official inquiry returned,” Nalyra said, the very picture of royal contrition. “Hence I have invited you to my Citadel, to remedy the matter.”

“It is quite the impressive ship.” Rastia was looking around, a measure of excitement clear on her face. “I had not believed I would ever set foot aboard one.”

As they were talking, Nalyra’s Armswomen had discreetly placed themselves at the edges of the command dais. If either of their guests had noticed, they didn’t say anything about it. Unsurprising. Very few people knew what took place on the bridge of a Citadel. It likely looked perfectly natural to have guards posted here as well.

“It would seem I had indeed acted in haste,” Nalyra said calmly, dipping her head slightly to both women. “Perhaps I was overeager to pursue justice in the name of the Monarchy.”

“You are still so young, Crown Daughter,” Sivena returned, subtly looking down her nose at Nalyra. “Prudence and sound judgement will come with time. I would recommend looking to your elders for guidance more readily.” She laid a hand on Rastia’s shoulder. “Take the High Lady here. Even younger than you, but with enough sense to seek out my advice and wisdom.”

Nalyra had to suppress something halfway between a gag and a giggle.

“I shall take your words into consideration, High Matron.”

“Yes, I would highly recommend that you do,” Sivena sniffed at her. The Crown Daughter entertained a brief fantasy of sticking her dagger into the woman’s sizable rear.

“Now, about this matter of your apology and our forgiveness…” Sivena started, looking to the Crown Daughter expectantly.

It was all Nalyra could do not to laugh in the woman’s face.

“Yes, I suppose it would be best to proceed with it,” the Crown Daughter said solemnly. “Ah, however, perhaps first there is something you would deign to give me a moment of your time for?”

“And just what is that, Crown Daughter?” Sivena seemed amused by the notion.

“Oh, just this.” Nalyra glanced at Vessa. “Admiral, if you would?”

“Yes, Royal Hand.” The woman looked to the front of the bridge. “Bring up the feeds, visual only for now,” Vessa ordered.

“Yes, Admiral!”

Instantly, the viewports of the bridge were covered with a series of windows, each showing the inside of shuttles packed with soldiers.

“...and just what is this?” Sivena asked, her gaze sweeping over the displays.

“These are helmet camera feeds from my Armswomen, sent over the Q-comm network,” Nalyra answered, a small smile on her face as she moved next to the High Matron. “You see, something has recently come to my attention. A supposedly uninhabited system, Grace Eridi Zii, was found to have a sizable military compound on one of its two planets.”

As she named the system, Nalyra noted Sivena’s eyes narrowed the slightest bit. On the other hand, Rastia’s face quickly became a much paler shade of green, blood draining from it.

“Now this compound is operating outside of Monarchy authority, and as such I have sent my Armswomen to…investigate the site.” Nalyra paused a moment, then looked up as if she had just recalled something. “Ah, though, come to think of it, I do believe ships bearing Meridian Operations credentials have been recorded coming and going from the compound’s location.”

“Ah, I…I know nothing about—” Rastia started, stuttering.

Sivena cut her off.

“Meridian Operations is a sizable private company. There are multiple layers of delegation, and it would be unwise to assume that all of their actions have been approved by Rastia.”

“Perhaps so,” Nalyra said pleasantly. “Regardless, the site requires investigation under the Crown’s laws.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Rastia fumbling for her communicator.

“Oh, High Lady,” Nalyra caught the woman’s gaze. “Unfortunately, we’ve been having such trouble with the Aegis’s internal comm relays lately. I sincerely doubt you’ll find a suitable signal while on board.” She smiled sweetly at the woman.

Hands trembling, Rastia slowly returned the device to her belt. Her eyes darted about the room, only to clearly note the position of the surrounding Armswomen, now each blocking an exit from the command dais.

Sivena, however, was as rigid as steel. She stood there, a slight air of wounded-dignity about her, as if it were all a misunderstanding, and she the wronged party.

“Now, if you’ll indulge my curiosity, I am quite interested as to what my soldiers shall find.” Nalyra couldn’t stop her grin. “Let us find out together, yes?”