Negotiate with the Young World Conquerors

I managed to get about four hours of sleep after Eleni left. I was startled awake by the ship intercom requesting my presence in the briefing room. I tossed on a fresh uniform set, new jacket and the shirt Eleni had brought me.

I stood outside waiting for the captain to open the doors. With Lily on my right and Eleni on my left, neither said a word.

Lily stared straight ahead.

Eleni stared straight ahead.

I stared straight ahead.

Yesterday morning I’d fucked Lily in a makeshift tent on the beach.

A few short hours ago I’d fucked Eleni in my shower.

I didn’t know how much either of them knew but the tension in the air suggested they at least both suspected something.

The door opened.

“Lieutenant,” the Captain called. “Bring them in.”

Thank God.

The Captain’s ready room had been converted into a miniature command center. A hologram of the planet Urath rotated above his desk, surrounded by orbital maps, evacuation projections and enough flashing warning symbols to tell me this wasn’t going to be a routine assignment.

“Sit.”

Eleni took the chair to my left. Lily sat to my right. Lily subtly grabbed my hand beneath the table and interlocked her fingers with mine. Eleni in turn stomped on my foot. I held my poker face in front of the Captain, ignoring both of the girls.

The Captain expanded the hologram.

“Urath. Independent world in the Outer Territories. Population approximately twenty-four million. Their leaders requested Federation assistance just six hours ago.”

“Imperial activity?” Eleni asked.

“No.”

“Pirates?” Lily asked

“No.”

He tapped the display. A photograph appeared. The woman was young, about eighteen years of age, blonde with an athletic build like a college volleyball player. She wore a fitted blue body suit that showed off her curves, gauntlets and armored boots, with a crimson cape falling behind her.

Even in hologram form she looked simultaneously dangerous and gorgeous.

“Qara,” the Captain said. “A Cryptan.”

I cold stopped ogling her. Lily glanced at me. She’d apparently noticed.

“Problem, Lieutenant?”

“Potentially.”

“That’s an understatement.”

The Captain changed the display. Footage showed Qara descending from the sky above an Urathi city.

No shuttle. No jetpack. Just a blonde eighteen-year-old girl casually dropping out of the atmosphere.

She touched down hard enough to crack the plaza beneath her boots.

“Qara arrived approximately thirty-six hours ago,” the Captain continued. “She informed Urath’s planetary council that their world has been selected as the future home of the Cryptan people.”

Eleni studied the telemetry. “Crypta’s environmental collapse?”

“Accelerating.”

Everyone knew about Crypta. Their star was becoming increasingly unstable. Predictions differed on exactly how much time remained, but nobody disputed that the planet was doomed.

Lily finally spoke. “So she’s trying to save them.”

“Yes.”

“By taking somebody else’s planet,” I added.

The Captain continued. “Qara has offered the native population continued residency and limited self-government under Cryptan authority. Urath rejected her proposal.”

“And then?”

“They fired on her.”

I looked at the image of Qara. “How’d that work out?”

“Poorly.”

Naturally.

“Qara dismantled three planetary defense batteries, destroyed forty unmanned fighters with her laser vision and disabled an armored regiment by picking up and throwing tanks into one another.”

“Casualties?”

“Several injuries. No fatalities.”

That surprised me.

Eleni raised an eyebrow. “Considerable restraint.”

“Which is why we’re calling this a crisis rather than a war.”

The Captain changed the display.

“Unfortunately, Qara is only half the problem.”

Another young woman appeared.

Dark, wild hair cascaded almost to her waist. Golden-brown eyes stared confidently into whatever camera had captured the image, an ample chest even bigger than Lily’s bust. Her outfit looked like something halfway between ancient warrior clothing and advanced combat gear: black fabric, gold armor protecting the torso and limbs, red wraps around her wrists, and a ragged crimson sash around her hips.

Then I noticed the furry tail curling behind her. “Oh, come on.”

The Captain looked at me.

“Something you’d like to contribute?”

“Monkian.” A rare warrior species from the first game. They possessed superhuman strength, the ability to fly as well as shoot blasts of energy out of their palms. They were a boss level encounter that left most players who encountered them dead and torn to shreds.

Eleni turned toward me. She gave me a familiar look. The same one she’d given me when I recognized the highly classified Nightshade spy ship.

“How did you identify her species so quickly?”

“Tail.”

“There are twenty-six known humanoid species possessing tails.”

“Lucky guess.”

Her eyes remained on me. Our little bonding session in the shower apparently hadn’t made her any less suspicious of me. If anything, it seemed to have made things worse.

The Captain rescued me. “Kalifa. Eighteen years old. Daughter of a prominent Monkian warrior King.”

Lily blinked. “She’s only eighteen?”

“So is Qara.”

That earned another silence. The Captain enlarged Kalifa’s cultural file.“Monkian tradition requires certain young warriors to complete a conquest before being formally recognized as adults within their warrior caste.”

I already knew where this was going. “She has to conquer a planet.”

“Yes.”

“And she picked Urath.”

“Yes.”

“Which Qara had already conquered.”

“Claimed.”

“I’m guessing Kalifa doesn’t appreciate the distinction.”

“She does not.”

The display changed again. An orbital image showed a devastated stretch of wilderness along the equator. Trees scorched, mountains bruised, rivers boiling, an enormous crater. Lily leaned forward.

“What caused that?”

The Captain looked at both photographs.

“They did.”

Nobody spoke.

“Qara and Kalifa encountered one another shortly after Kalifa’s arrival. Both asserted ownership of Urath. Neither recognized the other’s claim. Their disagreement became physical.”

“How long?” I asked.

“Approximately forty five seconds.”

Lily stared at the crater again.

“Less than a minute?”

“Urathi negotiators managed to convince them that continuing their battle would undermine the purpose of conquering the planet as their battle would surely destroy it.”

Eleni studied the damage readings. “If this energy estimate is accurate, a sustained confrontation near a population center would be catastrophic.”

“It is.”

The Captain brought up an evacuation map.

“This is the Azure Dawn’s primary assignment. We’ll coordinate with Urathi authorities and civilian shipping to evacuate settlements within projected engagement zones. Federation Command is dispatching additional transports, but they’re several days away.”

“And us?” I asked.

The Captain looked directly at me.

“You aren’t participating in the evacuation.”

I had a bad feeling.

“You’re going planet-side to negotiate.”

There it was.

“With Qara and Kalifa.”

“Correct.”

“Two world conquerors.”

“Yes.”

“Who just left a scar on the planet’s equator that can be seen from space?”

“Yes.”

I wasn’t ready to die. I pointed at Lily.

“She’s an Angelite, she has diplomatic training.”

Lily’s eyes widened. “Sir—”

“Basic diplomatic training,” the Captain corrected.

I pointed at Eleni. “She’s Special Operations they love this kind of crazy stuff.”

Eleni calmly folded her hands. “As the shadow arm of the Federation we are uniquely unsuited to represent Federation diplomacy.”

The Captain leaned back. “Neither conqueror has demonstrated an interest in indiscriminate killing. Qara wants a viable world for the Cryptan population. Kalifa wants recognition that she successfully completed her rite of passage. Urath wants both of them gone.”

“So everybody wants something.”

“Exactly.”

“And somehow I’m supposed to find the combination where nobody destroys a continent.”

“Now you’re understanding the assignment.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Can we even stop them if this goes bad?”

The Captain and Eleni exchanged a glance.

“No,” Eleni said.

“Nothing?”

“The Azure Dawn’s weapons could potentially injure either individual under ideal circumstances. Whether they could incapacitate them before retaliation is doubtful.”

I looked at Qara’s image.

“There is something that could.”

Eleni’s attention immediately returned to me.

The Captain sighed. “What?”

“Colonial Marine Armor, Mark Twelve.”

Silence. Lily looked confused. Eleni didn’t.

“Mark Twelve power armor,” she said slowly.

“Very rare,” I said. “Very expensive. But a Marine wearing one could probably fight either of them on equal footing.”

Eleni’s eyes narrowed. “And how would a Federation Lieutenant know the performance characteristics of a classified Colonial weapons platform?”

Shit. “Rumors.” I keep accidentally leaking my knowledge from the previous game and she never fails to notice.

“Rather detailed rumors.”

“I enjoy bars and Colonial Marines love talking about their equipment while on shore leave..”

“Not classified equipment.”

The Captain raised one hand. “Whatever inexplicable source of military trivia the Lieutenant possesses can wait. We don’t have Mark Twelve armor,” he continued. “We don’t have Colonial Marines. What we have is diplomacy.” He tapped the display. Two locations appeared on opposite sides of Urath.

Qara had established herself in the northern hemisphere. Satellite imagery showed an enormous crystalline structure rising from a frozen mountain range, its translucent towers catching the sunlight like something from a fairy tale.

“She constructed that?” Lily asked. “She hasn’t even been there that long.”

“Advanced Cryptan technology.” Eleni chimed in.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE — NORTHERN URATH

Qara had apparently decided that if she was going to conquer a planet, she was going to do it properly.

Then the southern hemisphere appeared. I stared. A narrow street. Paper lanterns. A wooden sign. And a tiny izakaya tucked between cramped buildings.

“That’s Kalifa’s headquarters?”

“Yes.”

Another photograph appeared.

Kalifa sat cross-legged behind a table buried beneath piles of empty bowls and plates. Skewers were piled beside her. An exhausted-looking restaurant owner stood in the background while the Monkian conqueror enthusiastically devoured something from a bowl larger than her impressive tits.

Lily covered her mouth. I couldn’t tell whether she was horrified or trying not to laugh.

“She’s been there for nine hours,” the Captain said.

“Doing what?”

“Eating.”

“Nine hours?”

“The owner estimates she has consumed approximately fourteen percent of the town’s food supply.”

I looked at Kalifa. Then Qara. Crystal palace. Izakaya.

These were the two women threatening twenty-four million people.

“There’s one complication,” the Captain said. “Neither will attend a joint negotiation.”

“Why not?” Lily asked.

“They really don’t like each other.”

“I see. So I have to approach one first.”

“Yes. Whichever woman you meet first may influence how the other interprets Federation involvement.”

I looked at Qara.

She had a civilization behind her. A dying world. Billions of people who needed somewhere to go. She wasn’t conquering Urath for glory. She was doing it because she believed she had no alternative, yet she was still a conqueror bent on taking the planet by force.

Then Kalifa.

For her, Urath wasn’t salvation. It was a test, a rite, a tradition. A way of proving herself worthy to her people.

Two angry eighteen-year-old girls with enough power to flatten cities, both convinced this planet belonged to them.

The Captain dismissed the hologram. “You leave in thirty minutes.”

Lily and Eleni stood.

I didn’t.

Not yet.

The first conversation mattered.

And I had to decide which world conqueror I wanted to disappoint first.

Which Girl Should be approached first?

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