[OC]
Monday Morning Bleary, I guess. I hit 'post' before remembering a title
SO: 'The Truth of Lies (PRVerse B2 C8.3)
Didn't get posted last night, things getting in the way and I just sorta crashed. But, here it is!
First Book2 (Prev) wiki (Next)
Julia had to suppress a grimace at Uncle Kaz's wording. Stating so bluntly that this man was a Prince-in-exile who was going to be hidden didn't seem to be the most politic approach to her.
Everimal, however, showed no sign of being bothered. The man nodded and gestured around himself. “It will, indeed, Prime Minister Feldaran, and we thank you. My colleagues and I look forward to being able to continue our various areas of research, and teaching your people the information we know in order to let them run tests that we cannot while we hide down here.”
Julia cocked her head at the Pinigran. “While you hide down here? You expect to remain here for that long?”
The man gave her what her translators marked as a wry expression. “Oh yes, I am afraid. In fact, I fear that me and mine will never set foot outside of the confines of this facility. I had hoped that I could come here, to the Council World, and declare openly my departure from The Kingdom. However, I have been informed that my King has already scheduled my State Funeral, and is making a public spectacle of it. There is a lot of subtlety that I won't go into, but suffice it to say that he doesn't entirely believe your assertion that you destroyed my ship. This is something of a final demand from him to me: If you are still alive, Return Or Else."
"Once that funeral happens, it means that, to the Pinigra, I am already dead... and any Pinigran who finds me is obligated to make that 'fact' a reality. That proclamation is, by the way, permanent. Hundreds of years from now, it will not have softened one bit.” He turned back to Kaz. “The Human Captain who found me was good enough to leave a few men on my ship, and they have been flying it – at much lower speeds than it is capable of – since we departed.
“I have been informed that, by now, they have made a complete copy of everything on the ship’s computers. This is good, for that ship must be destroyed.”
Julia heard an indignant noise come from the seat beside her, and Aunt Yoro spoke. “Surely you can’t be serious. Having the data from the ship is priceless for us, of course, but for our engineers to actually get their hands on those engines…”
Everimal made a dismissive gesture with one hand. “Unavoidable, I am afraid. If he is holding that funeral, it means that his Royal Majesty will unequivocally wage war against the entire League if he even believes I am still alive. If he finds out that you have, in-tact, the only prototype of the latest engines I have created, ones with more speed than even the warships he allows only his personal guard to use? There is nothing he won’t do to get it back.”
Yoro lifted a single eyebrow at the man. “Nothing, really? Even risk the sanction of the Old Machines.”
The Pinigran’s voice came out in an odd down. “Your Grace, if he was sure you had that ship and he couldn’t retrieve it, he would not only risk Ultimate Sanction, he might deliberately bring it down on the Pinigra again.”
Julia smiled at what had to be a jest. To think that they would bring down Ultimate Sanction on their own over stolen tech… Wait, What?!
She sat bolt upright in her chair and nearly spilled her drink as her mind caught up with the implications of those words. Again?!?
Julia’s mind reeled as she tried to process Everimal’s statement, and she missed Uncle Kaz’s response. Something in his tone pulled her out of her reaction, however, and she looked around to gauge everyone else’s reactions.
I must have mis-heard something. No one else is reacting the way I did. But, it came through very clearly. Maybe an error in my translation software? She was about to dismiss her concerns when she saw the Pinigran glance at her and his foot twitched. I am not sure what that reaction means in his kind, but I bet it has something to do with nervousness. Maybe he said something he didn’t mean to? She resolved to go over the recordings with a language specialist, and have Jake check the software versions on the translators for everyone in the room. Then she realized she’d missed a little bit, and tuned back in as the Scientist made a dismissive gesture. Head in the game, girl!
The man spoke in scornful tones. “You mean the Toothless Warriors? What about them? They were gelded before any of your species figured out fire, much less went out into space.”
Yoro responded. “It is strange for you to be so dismissive of them, though, isn’t it? I have read a number of accounts from the founding of the League, and there are a number of reports from both our own people who were there and the Xaltan which claimed there seemed to be some sort of strong animosity between your two species, and that your people seemed to fear…”
The Pinigra’s head swayed side to side in a negative gesture, and he waved to interrupt. “Oh, those accounts must be exaggerated, or those giving them probably mis-understood something they saw. We Pinigra do not fear the Ronarnar.”
Julia had to hold herself in stillness to keep from reacting to what she saw in the man’s micro-tells. A lie! But, who would fear the Ronarnar? He isn’t wrong to call them toothless warriors.
Everimal continued. “Pity them, maybe, but we do not fear them.” Ok, wait... that was more-or-less truth. Those statements are contradictory, though... I need to find out more.
Aunt Golna’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Wait, you say that they were…”
Uncle Kaz interrupted. “As fascinating as this is – and make no mistake, Everimal, I wish to have a great many of these discussions with you about so many different topics – there is a more pressing matter we need to cover.”
Everimal gave the affirmative head bob again. “Of course. You want to know why I – a Pinigran with the ear of the King and close enough to the throne to be considered for the chair when the current King vacates it – would throw it all away to come to the League and take the unspeakable step of not only sharing our technology, but sharing the research that goes beyond even that.
“I can give you the answer simply: What you call the Old Machines.”
The announcement hung in the air for a moment, then everyone tried to talk at once. Everimal held up a hand and allowed everyone to settle before he continued. “As both the chief of the few dozen or so scientists that the King allowed, and someone in line to potentially contend for the throne one day, I get a lot of reports of the outside universe which few receive.
“This Includes intelligence reports from outside the Kingdom.” The man stopped and blinked a few times, then turned his eyes up a little and got a far-off look that Julia figured might be a universal for nearly all species. “It is funny, really. I spent my life running away from the inanities of the political maneuvering and stature, which is why I maneuvered myself into the External Intelligence Directorate. No one in the Kingdom cares what is going on outside it, so I could safely ignore the job and do what I chose… and being in a position that everyone considered irrelevant kept me out of most of the machinations of my fellows.”
The Pinigran shook his feathers a bit, then returned his gaze to his audience. “Of course, I had to do a sort of bare minimum, just to keep up appearances… and that was enough. I became alarmed when I realized how quickly you Humans had begun to advance in science, and that you not only showed no signs of ‘properly and sensibly’ slowing down, but were working hard to increase the pace of advancement.
“Even more alarming was the fact that you were actively encouraging everyone else in the League to do the same by example, direct request, and as a matter of survival as they tried to keep up.
“I’d always had an unseemly interest in science, the universe, and how stuff really worked. A certain level of amateur science was, to be honest, what I was doing with a lot of that time I’d bought myself by taking on a position that no one watched and keeping myself out of politics.”
A Pinigran who despises politics and actively tries to keep himself out of it? Mom and Dad said I’d see things in the Council that would beggar belief, but this is certainly one I’d never have guessed.
The man continued. “So, I made my projections, went to the King, and – to give you a short version – got approved to create a small directorate for scientific advancement about fifty years ago.
“I then, very happily, left all reports of anything outside the Kingdom behind and concentrated on my own passion: Physics. I did, however, attempt to at least look like I was doing what the King expected, and recruited as many people as he would let me. Not an easy task within the Kingdom, I will tell you, but that’s a matter for another time.”
Everimal stopped and sighed. “I’m sorry, I do tend to go on, don’t I? Suffice it to say, one of my subordinates took an interest in the outside world, and when the intelligence service picked up the information about the Punishers he brought it to the entire science team.”
No one is reacting, again. Julia had, barely, managed to suppress a start when she realized that the Pinigran was referring to the Old Machines when he said ‘Punishers.’ She wanted to pursue the word, to ask him about it, but no one else had reacted at all. That is twice, now, that I seem to be hearing something that no one else is. Is my translator on the fritz? I might think so, except there are odd micro-tells of nervousness when he refers to them. Do the Pinigra fear the Old Machines that much?
None seemed to notice her reaction, either, and the Scientist continued. “I had, of course, heard about the countdown timer that you Humans had found in the Old Machine data.”
Wait. This time I got ‘Old Machine.’ Did he use a different word?
“I also knew that you were continuing to pester them; something which we Pinigra consider deeply unwise, by the way. If we’d had our way at the Council’s founding then it would have been a deep violation of Council Law to interact with the things at all. If you…”
Another wave of the hand, and Everimal visibly turned the direction of his statements. “Well, suffice it to say that my team got our hands on the full set of data, despite that idiot Ambassador’s best efforts to avoid receiving it from you. What we saw alarmed us to the extreme.
“I went to His Majesty myself, pleaded with him to force our Ambassador to officially take the data – mostly to make sure we had it all – and to reduce the isolationism of the Kingdom in order to take part in the investigations.
“As you can probably guess, he flatly refused. Not only that, he ordered my team to destroy all copies of the documents that they had, and ordered me not to allow them to see my own coppies, nor to discuss the matter again. I was stymied, and afraid, and… well, here we are, my team and I, at your disposal.”
He’s lying. She traded glances with Uncle Kaz and Katja. They see it, too. He is lying about something. Well, maybe not lying, but he isn’t telling us the whole truth. He is terrified of the Old Machines, and I’d bet my last breath against the Void that it is a deep cultural fear.
“We were unable to leave with anything in the way of data crystals, but the information in our minds will, I think, be most valuable to all of you quite quickly. The only thing we ask for, other than a safe place to work, is that we have all of the information related to the Old Machines and the investigations of them sent to us as soon as it is found.”
Evirmal sat a little straighter, and his face looked a little it downwards. “We will never be able to convince the Pinigra that we didn’t betray everything we were born to, and our Kingdom and species. We do what we do to protect them, however. Please understand, we are still loyal to our people, our allegiance hasn’t changed. It is just… we have evidence that the Machines are an existent threat to all sapient life, and – even as advanced as our tech is – we do not have the ability to fight them.
“Given that, and the fact that The King has strictures in place to limit even the modest technical gains we have made, we have no choice but to come out here, to you, in order to help in the coming defense.”