Page 72 of Destinies of Diamond
“The truth is somewhere in the middle, Lord Donadieu,” I told him. “There’s always been tension between the Lower Chimera Unit and the Grand Chimera Unit. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone found a way to exploit that. And at the end of the day, the power of the chimeras comes from Terra.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“First of all, panicking and lashing out is unacceptable. Most Terrans are uninvolved in this debacle and we still need them to supply our work stations. We’ll put out a statement regarding my father’s death. An accidental explosion should be fine as an excuse. We won’t mention the chimeras. While we do that, we solidify our defenses. I don’t think the apsids are a danger right now, but we wouldn’t want to run into surprises. In the meantime, we’ll wait for our Terran source to send us information.”
“Ah. I was wondering where Acting Pilot Renard was when I didn’t see her with you,” Knox’s father commented.
Had he, really? Was he aware that Selene had been on the ship before the explosion? There was no way to know how many of these people had been involved in my father’s ploy, which meant that my excuses could very easily fall apart if I wasn’t careful.
Fortunately, I had plenty of experience with saying the same thing over and over without repeating myself. The Great Mother had been very useful in staging a few attacks which would hopefully give The Grand Judiciary a target that wasn’t us.
Using another war with the apsids wouldn’t have worked, since I’d told The Grand Judiciary that I didn’t think they were a problem. But The Grand Judiciary already had issues with Terrans. All I had to do was to nudge them in the right direction.
It wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind when I’d decided to take the throne, all those years ago, since it endangered innocent people a lot. But I’d done that before. I’d killed, murdered, and stained my hands with blood. I wasn’t afraid of doing it again, as long as it was for a brighter future—as long as Selene was safe.
I just wasn’t convinced that was true, but at this point, I had no choice but to go along with it.
“We have to organize a crowning ceremony then,” Knox said, taking a step forward.
I nodded. “While we do that, you’ll be on standby to intervene if anything goes wrong on Terra. Pollux will go with you.”
We didn’t need to have this conversation here, but I was proving a point. I had to show The Grand Judiciary that I was taking charge and they all needed to follow my orders. Hopefully, having an enemy would be enough for them, at least until the rest of our plans came to fruition.
“The Chimera dynasty will still persevere. This is only a temporary setback.”
Several members of The Grand Judiciary shared a look. “And your uncle? Was he with King Philip?” Paul Welton inquired. “We’ve received no word from him.”
I was a little surprised no one had asked about Archibald until now. Maybe these people were better informed than I’d believed. For the moment, our excuse would be enough, but in the future, I’d look at it more closely. “He was injured in the attack on Tartarus Base. He’s recovering, but he won’t be able to assist us.”
Shortly after that, I dismissed the meeting, more than eager to get these filthy aristocrats out of my face. I asked Paul to stay behind. “Lord Welton, I need to speak with you in private for a minute.”
“Yes, of course,” he replied steadily. “What is it?”
I pulled him aside, into a private study. Knox took position next to the door, and although he tried to not look too threatening, he failed.
“I’m told Penelope is missing. Is that true?”
Paul pressed his lips together so tightly they went white. “Unfortunately, yes. She disappeared a few days ago.”
“I spoke to my father before he left Tartarus Base. He said he had reason to believe there was an information leak involved. Could her kidnappers be behind this whole incident?”
I wondered how he’d handle this. My father had made it clear that he knew Penelope had left of her own accord. But no one would guess that she’d turned to me for aid, especially since it was known that we were at odds.
Would Paul admit to his daughter’s treason? With my father dead and the tablet presumably destroyed, he still had leverage over my family.
“The truth is, Your Majesty, I’m not so convinced she was kidnapped. Penelope was… very spiteful. I believe she took your understandable rejection personally and she sought a way to destroy you.”
“Ah.” I carefully schooled my features into neutrality. “And did she have access to sensitive information that would’ve helped her with that?”
Paul grimaced. “The device where I kept most of my data was genetically locked, so she could access it. It simply didn’t occur to me that she’d do something like this.”
I hadn’t expected him to be so straightforward and throw Penelope under the bus, but in a way, it made sense. He was fairly young and he could always have another child if he needed one. Ingratiating himself into my favor was more important.
“I believe… Well, the most problematic factor is Flight Lieutenant Cavallero’s ancestry.”
He looked at August, obviously hesitant and not knowing if he should say more. I hummed under my breath. “I don’t see how it would be. August’s background can only help us, if the apsids ever do return. That was the whole point of the experimentation, correct?”
Paul’s breath caught. August smirked at him slowly. “Don’t look so shocked. Do you think I’m so unaware of myself that I wouldn’t acknowledge what I am? For Tartarus’s sake, I survived direct exposure to space.
