Page 18 of Destinies of Diamond
“We can’t just burst in there!” one of the members of the nobility shouted. “It was a disaster last time!”
“I know that, but we’re more prepared now,” another replied. It was Pollux’s father, Caius. “We know the frequencies we need to absorb the power of the quasar.”
“That might well be,” a third man said. I recognized him as Leonardo di Rossi, one of the representatives in charge of Terran governments. “But we can’t afford to get too arrogant. If we go through their main environmental defenses, we have no idea what…”
He stopped mid-sentence when he finally noticed me and Knox. “Your Highness? What are you doing here?”
Every single member of The Grand Judiciary turned toward us. Normally, their scrutiny wouldn’t have bothered me, but at that moment, I was frozen. Their conversation had shocked me so much that for a few seconds, I didn’t know what to say. I quickly snapped out of it and answered with a question of my own. “Are you saying I’m not at liberty to join an emergency meeting of The Grand Judiciary whenever I desire, Lord di Rossi?”
“Not at all, Your Highness,” he replied. “It’s just a little surprising. We thought you were busy with your studies.”
“And my schoolwork is more important than a possible attack on the Apsid Quasar? I don’t think so.”
“Besides,” Knox drawled, “I’m assuming that if this happens, we’ll be directly involved. We’re supposed to be here. In fact, we deserve it far more than some people who are currently present.”
From our right, Knox’s father Peter and his brother Harry glowered at him. Knox’s parents had never approved of his sexual relationship with me. My father had blamed Knox for my refusal to marry Penelope, and because of that, the Alexanders had lost a lot of favor with the king. They still belonged to his inner circle, but things were much tougher for them. “Knox, now’s really not the time,” his father hissed.
“Indeed,” I said. “Now’s not the time to focus on trivialities. Can you tell me what is going on and why we’re considering such a drastic approach?”
“We’ve detected some serious activity in the heat patterns around the Apsid Quasar, Your Highness,” Caius Donadieu explained. “We believe the apsids are preparing for another attempted invasion.”
I suppressed the urge to flinch. In hindsight, it had been foolish of us to believe we would leave no traces of our expedition. We’d forced our way through the event horizon around the apsid home world and we’d used a huge amount of energy to do so. Then there was the Great Mother, who’d transported us back using her mysterious skills. That alone would have been noticeable to our scanners. We were lucky nobody had managed to make the connections between the power output of the chimeras and this incident, because otherwise, we would have been in a lot of trouble.
“I see,” I answered. “Has there been any sign of apsid crystallized units?”
“Nothing specific, no,” Peter answered between gritted teeth, “but it’s unavoidable that it will happen.”
“We can’t base such serious decisions on speculation, Milord.” I looked around and took note of a very serious absence. “Why was my father not consulted on this? He should have been present for an emergency meeting of The Grand Judiciary.”
“Oh, this isn’t exactly an emergency meeting, Your Highness,” Caius offered. “It’s more like a debate. As Lord Alexander pointed out, we haven’t seen clear signs of enemy units invading our territory. We wouldn’t want to bother the king with such an issue until we agree on a clear course of action.”
I frowned. That didn’t sound right at all. Yes, The Grand Judiciary had a lot of power and could make pertinent decisions on their own. But only my father could give the order of entering the quasar. He was the official head of all the star fleets and without his approval, there would be no attack.
“I believe that bringing it up with him is urgent, before we go any further. The heat patterns at the quasar might not be signs of apsid activity at all. We’ve had a power surge at Tartarus Base that brought down the main generator. My main goal when I came here today was to check if there had been similar issues in Hades.”
Chaos exploded throughout the room at my announcement. I waited and gave the nobles a few moments to recover their composure. It was Pollux’s father who finally asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. “But, Your Highness, if there are issues at Tartarus Base, it might be all the more important to act now. What makes you say this isn’t related to apsids?”
“There have been many instances of solar explosions in the past. We haven’t been affected by such anomalies in Tartarus Base, but when we were at The Fields of Mercury, my chimera and several others were damaged because of similar energy bursts. The Charybdis even went dormant. We’ve fortunately managed to return her to her previous state, but the fact remains that the solar energies in The Fields of Mercury affected us. And so, I can only conclude that this might just be a natural phenomenon.
“If that is the case, we’d be making a big mistake if we focused on the apsids. The alien threat is without a doubt something to be wary of, but we can’t forget that the sun itself remains a danger. The High Priestesses of Gaia are only now starting to rebuild Terra. An increase in solar output could be devastating for their efforts and destroy all our sources of natural foodstuffs.”
I was talking out of my ass a little bit, since I was pretty sure solar explosions had nothing to do with recent events. But even so, it wouldn’t hurt to remind The Grand Judiciary that our main goal here wasn’t destroying the apsids. It was protecting Terra.
Or at least, that was the official story. To this day, I didn’t fully understand the interests of all the people here.
“You’re correct, Your Highness,” Leonardo said. “I have heard many High Priestesses make a note of having problems in some areas. We’d be best served in trying to increase the protection around the larger and most useful settlements.”
Other people started to nod. “This would come in handy even if there’s an apsid attack.”
“And we can always increase patrols to monitor the region, just in case.”
“It’s a better option than trying another assault on the quasar, that’s for sure. We’ve already lost enough troops to that insanity.”
I secretly wondered what they’d have all thought if they’d known my lovers and I had been there and come back—with the Great Mother’s permission no less. A part of me wanted to tell them, just to see the looks on their faces. But I recognized that part as the one that hadn’t left the quasar unscathed so I silenced its voice.
“I’m glad you agree. Now, I’m afraid I must excuse myself. Since the Hades Moon Base isn’t at risk, we might be needed elsewhere.”
“Of course, Your Highness,” Lord Alexander said. “Thank you for honoring us with your presence and for clarifying the situation.”
