Hungry Corpses

Wars **** strange alliances, and where no alliance is possible it still sometimes finds a way to impose shortcuts. Exchanges of resources between enemies. Diplomatic sanctuaries stablished by mutual accord.

Their Queen was chosen by a benefactor know by the name of Apophis. It happened on the planet Fenrir in Lira System (Mystery System, in most maps). Around the Year 9000 After Fall, or 10.300 of Expansion. By this time communication between the Deshiar and human authorities was non-existent in Lira, and the fact that we know the self-chosen name of that one Deshiar is an amazing exception in itself. The Nocturnal Queen took the name Keziah, from a Keziah Mason character, exceptionally not a vampire. Not even a character who has no relation with vampires, but still, a literary character from pre-Baby Steps Earth.

The Mason Court is know as “Court of Silent Sand” by humans who pay particularly close attention to vampire politics. They use black and green as their colours, and a zombi jackal as their banner. Is particularly hard to get an audience with any authority from that court.

We knew from the first conversations with Lira System, after the Horror in Sealine, that vampires can choose to eat or not. They need to drink blood but they do not need to consume anything else. However, if they don’t eat, after some time their internal organs dissolve inside their bodies. Making impossible for them to eat. Their lungs may disappear the same way if then go too long without remembering to breath or use air for speak.

We knew that was possible, but the Mason court seems to be the only example we have access to. Because it is the only court that has chosen that way, active in the Fringes of Lira System and adjacent Sealine Ring.

They seldom allow their presence to be noticed by us, but they are very noticeable when they step out their mysterious cloaking powers.

Look like dry, long dead, corpses. Skin and bones. They are no less strong than other vampires, and according to many they seem to be even faster than other vampires when they have reason to be. Still their appearance suggests weakness and fragility.

They seldom speak, most may have lost this capacity. When one speaks is in whispers only.

If you look closely to the reality of Sealine there is no more intense place in the entire territory reached by humanity. When you look the same image from distance there was no significant change in this space station since the years 30.000 of Expansion. The records say that our conflict against the Deshiar and their vampire minions was intense between the Horror, in 22.000 and 26.000, when humanity lost Solar Systems to demons.

After that, we needed compromise, and could no longer afford to treat the aliens of Mystery System as out main enemy. We would never accept their existence, in the terms they demand it to be accepted. They would never adhere to our terms. However, we cannot afford to stop our commerce with them.

They are satisfied to keep this commerce too. Exchanging technomagic instruments and access to the system for a limited number of our potential mages, for our vessels, and materials not available in they System. They keep expanding, and that is a source of concern, but their priority is to take care of their own business, while the demons seem to be their existence as a mean to the end of extinguish humanity.

Ironically, that morbid and seemingly hostile vampiric court has been our most reliable source of information and rare tools. They have deals with the demons too, and certainly sell as much information about us to our main enemies as vice-versa. Cannot be prevented, entirely. We remain as discreet as possible.

Was a vampire thrall from that court, a former human but still less than a vampire, slaved by the blood of vampires. The one who introduced me to this graceful, good looking, vampire fellow. Almost too big to pass himself for a human, Norse features, golden blond hair falling free almost to its waist. So muscular that if wasn’t for the lack of wings I would have guessed his name to be Michael, Haylel, or Sanguinius. Instead it was “Ashspawn”.

I asked if was acceptable to call him just “Ash”, and the look on his face made me which I hadn’t.

He was, and likely still is, an interesting character. With a rare biography for anyone, even more so for a vampire. His status in vampiric society was never mentioned, but he was clearly not Queen Keziah’s subject. His knowledge in genetic engineering was amazing, and particularly deep in the field of psychic active brands. Everything in that field is considered secret, crucial for the survival of human race.

Any information about how much the demons have advanced their technology in that particular was priceless for our side at the time. Specially recent information, less than half-thousand years old.

The price he was demanding for his teachings was such that I was **** to travel back to a secure area and pass the request up. When the answer came, it came by Emergence Net, directly from a general of United Military. They never use this channel of communication for anything less important than prevent the imminent fall of an entire stellar system. The answer was, needles to say, yes.

I would imagine something like that should be placed in more capable hands than mine. I am a very ordinary agent, regular human, nothing noteworthy.

Probably they didn’t had any Asgardian close enough, and didn’t wanted to risk losing this contact for delaying the deal.

What he told me, in the curse of a dozen encounters, I organised for better comprehension. Avoiding repetitions and excluding my participation in the conversation as much as possible. It was limited to ask questions and encourage the clarification of some point that seemed obscure to me.

“What is like to be a vampire?” asked the lassie.

She was a subhuman, by alexandrine law, goes without saying. That was not relevant where we were at the time. Her homeland. Specifically, she was a conceptual subhuman, instead of uplifted or fallen. Skinny, milk white skin, pale blue eyes. Her head had no hair. Looked human up to the like of earlobes, above expanded to all sides, giving her the aspect of an ice cone with two large balls. And exposed veins, that pulsed gently most the time.

She was wearing a white dress decorated with embroidery in silver thread at the sleeves end and collar. Rustic and elegant at one time, the tissue. Shaped like the negligee you could find in some Victorian noble lady in some computer RPG. In a summer night, at the coast of Italy or some place like that.

Evening was certainly hot enough, but we where not at any bedroom, so I had to assume that was a clothe intended to public spaces.

_Depends on the individual vampire, I suppose. Like being anything else_ that is my evasive answer, usually.

_In our case, it ratter depends on where you are. Being a pos in human society means to carry human envy all the time. Specially for those like myself, heirs of lineages with active psychic traits. Human resentment is heavy, since they have all the power and our people has no defence against their whims.

I smiled.

She was a telepath, obviously. I didn’t knew that only because I had studied the subject. In fact, for every brand of psychic active subhuman you can find hundreds of identical copies that have no psychic ability. Imitations sell nicely, have many uses, and are immensely cheaper to cook.

Telepaths who score high in the scale of intensity make me feel as if there was an anthill inside my hear, whit ants moving in all directions. The ants became specially restless when they focus in my direction. I suspect her range was considerable too, but that was speculation from scientific literature and personal experience.

Funny sensation, uncanny. Used to be painful, when I encountered my first subhuman telepaths as a vampire. They cannot “read” us, and is unhealthy for them to try. Bad for their mental stability. Vampires who have some telepathic seeds growing in their blood can send messages to them, and open themselves to messages from them, but active intrusion to manipulation of to spying is almost impossible. The are far more aware of what happens in their minds than non-telepaths, as you would expect. Deceive and trick unwanted visitors is not hard for them.

They train it with each other, often. As a joke or a game. Comes with telepathic genes, I suppose. Is one of those things different cultures name in different ways, organize a bit differently, but they all share.

Anyway, her presence was a little disturbing to me, because of that. Only very powerful minds are.

Despite the distraction, I noticed she said “pos”, contraction of poshuman, instead of “subhuman”, and “lineages, instead of “brands”. No need to read minds to know this was a woman who did not grew up in Alexandrine Human society.

Her depreciative opinions about humanity were taken from second hand.

_Not all human nations are the same. The Law of Alexandria, from the Consensus, leave a lot of room for humans to choose their govern and their laws. Freely. That include the possibility to grant rights and obligations to genetically engineered people.

_...or deny those non-human people rights, completely.

_Correct. In many nations the pos have all the rights humans have. Respected disposition in the penal code to balance things. Since humans only live up to 300 years, and the “pos” or “sub” humans are biologically immortal. Generally speaking.

For a moment I saw annoyance in her face. She was a surprised to find someone presenting a not entirely negative side of Alexandrine Society.

Most vampires living inside demon territory came from human nations under vampiric protection. What we would call “Deshiar territory”. The people living in those areas, incidentally, have a different name for what they are. Both humans and vampires.

In any case, those vampires do not know Alexandrine Society better than the people who live under demonic rule. In “Deshiar” society you do not find the constant anti-human propaganda. On the other hand, you can easily forget our society exists, considering how little attention it gets.

You should know already that demons only started improving their genetical engineering recently. Their primary concern in regard to biological people is to find ways to breed more mages. Potential for magic is a major concern for them, and genetical engineering don’t seem to help it, least not so far. They need mages to do the maintenance of Mecha Demon bodies, among other things.

Just like your side, demons struggle with the fact that is impossible to train mages anywhere outside Mystery System. They can improve anywhere, but only up there a person with potential can develop into an active mage.

Having that focus, they largely neglected other uses of genetic engineering.

Took them more than one hundred thousand years to realize that humans have a telepathic net of long-range communication. Sustained by genetically engineered telepaths. And the Kinetic-Cannons puzzled them even more.

Before they realize the utility of psychics their plan was to kill, or abandon to their own luck, all biological entities. I believe. As soon as they managed to build AIs capable to enter the Astral Plane and learn magic. Nowadays, they changed those plans. However, your will hardly find any sort of consensus among the High Demons about what to do with biologicals.

They have achieved the necessary expertise to create their own brands of psychic conceptuals only in the recent 5 thousand years.

Mind you, psychic subhumans have been the most important strategic advantage of humanity over demons. Since around the years 30. 000 of Expansion.

For over 70.000 years after that only a few individual demons dedicated time to investigate that branch of genetical engineering. And until 5.000 years ago demons could only cool stolen recipes of psychic active brands, variating secondary details in some extent. They can get the technomagical tools necessary to meddle in psychic active genetics, as easily as alexandrine humans can. They just had other priorities.

Then, demons started designing their own brands of psychics, 5 thousand years ago. And they have already produced a weapon superior to any created by humanity. In some aspects.

_How old are you?_ I asked the lassie.

_3.011 years old. You guessed it had to be less than 5.000. Still, it is way more than the maximum longevity of humans.

_Again, not of all humans!

I was born more than one thousand years before Expansion Age itself. When I was turned into vampire, I was more than 23.000 years old. Nevertheless, I was a human.

_I assumed they were legend. Just fantasy. You are saying you used to be one? The immortal humans.

_”Asgardians”, they are called. Everyone who was born human before the end of year 25 before Expansion had the right to remain biologically immortal, and legally human. Many of us signed out that right for the sake of coherency. I am one of those who did not supported the Consensus, not one of those who supported it and didn’t gave up their immortality despite their believes. Not that I imagine this distinction should make any sense to you, here and now. No one cares anymore, I stopped believing that distinction was important long time before I stop being human. What happened long time before your birth.

_Why did you became a vampire, then? If you were one of the few privileged humans, who had both legal right and biological immortality.

_Oh, me? The job I wanted was only available for vampires.

_You must be joking! What job was that?

_I would be a boring person if I answered all your questions about myself.

_Well dressed man like you? Never! Man who knows how to choose his clothes, always has something interesting to say. According to my experience.

_You are very kind with your praises. Most woman would have mentioned my cerulean eyes.

_So, you saw a girl alone, sitting by the big, round, stained glass window, and you came. Are you hunting me, vampire?

_You usually don’t need to ask when a vampire is hunting you. Besides. In those places where the Tripartite Accord is Law, we consider unpolite to make that question.

_I shall remember that.

_Since you are curious, I came closer to the window to better see the watch the city from here. Only noticed your presence when you spoke.

_Should I let the conversation die then? So I don’t risk offending you with another improper question.

_How about I make the questions, now?

_You mean another, after that one? I feel under interrogation already.

_Being a powerful telepath by birth, and an important scientist by merit, our AI overlords must have pressured you to accept cyborg implants since you reached physical maturity. Because you are precious for them, and they would want to keep you safe. Organic bodies, bones, etc, they are too fragile. Still, you have managed to postpone the operation. Because you are afraid. The prospect of having your original bones replaced by cyborg versions scares you.

_You are bad at that thing, sire. Not much experience making questions, clearly. Let me help you with an example. “How did you know I am a scientist? To say nothing about an ’important’ one.” Notice the inflexion at the end of the first sentence. That, sire, indicates a question.

_Oh, I am a scientist myself. Genetic Engineering, exploratory research, specially interested in psychic properties. That thing we use to calibrate the third spiral in psychic-inert and psychic-active genome leaves a very distinctive kind of residual radiation. I had the time and the interest to sharp my senses to detect that without any effort. Boon of vampirism.

_Do you see that radiation? And, why you say I am “important”?

_Because our field is so vital for the war effort that no assistant would be allowed anywhere near our precious technomagical instruments when they are active. Our work is strictly “need to know”, by default. Since you need to know it, you are among the few important ones.

As for my question. Why are you worried about that? Cyborg tech is ancient, has been completely safe for dozens of thousands of years. It is expensive, but our employers will certainly not send you any bill. Besides, certainly, after 5 thousand years, if they didn’t **** the issue, must be because they respect your feelings about it.

_My surgery is schedule for some day in the next month. No precise date yet, for security sake. I will know in the last minute. Because they need my work transferred to an inter-stellar vessel. Strategic considerations, it should be closer to the frontlines, and they are moving constantly.

_Life in space-ships is certainly a bit different. More dangerous, less comfortable a bit. Don’t chance much for my kind, but for organics like you…

_It is more than that. Few vessels from our side have artificial gravity, and the one where I will be is not in that list. It is a military vessel. One of those that are prepared to have biological residents, so, it is not likely to do the sharp turns vessel totally populated by AIs can, but they will not slow down things to the level tolerable to a non-cyborg. Is not practical, from objective point of view.

_My ship has artificial gravity. Demons need some of us, vampires, you know. Because without our blood magic there is no way to make durable technomagical instruments of any kind. By our turn, we must have biologic people living nearby. The comfort of living things is not an afterthought from our point of view. Why don’t you request a transfer to a vampire ship?

_Because that would make me a prey to any vampire in the ship. Vampire kill their preys, sometimes, even if not most of their hunts end up in ****.

_True. However, you have about 5 million intelligent preys to each vampire in those ships. Chances are you will never find any vampire in person, much less die as prey of one. The hunt is not that frequent. Besides, there is one way to be sure that you will not became a vampire prey. Without the need of being turned into a vampire yourself.

_How?

_To enter a relation with some vampire, who can shield you.

_You suggest I try to find a vampire, and ask him to turn me into a thrall. A THRALL! You mean, a, vampire, thrall? Darling…

_It would certainly speed up the process of earning you that transfer. If you requested it.

_Sounds like you where actually hunting, tonight.

Well, that was the conversation. This woman was by my side after that night. We worked together, and if she had accepted, I would have petitioned the necessary instances to have her turned into a vampire. Long ago.

However, we walked in different directions recently.

You don’t want to know any of that. You want to know what is that new living weapon developed by the demons.

However, that is my price. Your people have arrested my, …”ex-wife”, if we need a name for it. Your people will deliver her to the care of Mason Court. That is a court I trust and their agents are close enough to where she is being kept captive. Your people must stop torturing her, must make no further effort to get anything from her. If they want what I am offering.

I will know when she is safe, and then we will reestablish contact to conclude this deal.

Mr Ashspawn interrupted conversations at that point, I was unable to find any clue about him for the following legal year. More surprisingly, I got no new assignment. No mission or relocation. My orders where to stay where I was and find out more about him. I was producing reports, but I had nothing relevant to report, and suspected no one was paying any attention.

One day, not different to any other day in this year, as far as my perception could reach. I found Mr Ash sitting on my armchair. Installed in my living room, with a posture that suggested he had been there since the building was build. Waiting patiently for that moment.

_Time to conclude our transaction. _ he said.