Chapter Two: Counterbalance — Part 5
When Quet spoke, after more than a brief pause, his voice was level, quiet, and almost amiable. “A new governing force has entered the galactic picture, as Zon is expected to break its Separatist treaty very soon and return as part of the Galactic National Community. Coven and Sholm have already felt pressure from this, and both nations are offering to bring you into protection. I would of course put every angry emotion I have for you aside, and do my best to protect you from the new threat on Zon.”
“Assuming that there really is a threat on Zon, what makes you think I won’t go work for whoever finally pulled Zon out of its third planet status?” Orchid studied feedback from a loop of data associated with the signal. The information was critical to interpreting Quet’s level of honesty. “Coven — and Sholm, for that matter — can bite my ass. Sounds like I’ll have to watch my back. And you should as well — considering the number of people who want to put a knife in you.” Orchid cut communications, dismissing Spunky so she could work unhindered.
Spunky was untraceable — his signal having bounced through a dozen zero point transmitter holes in space before coming out near a communications satellite in orbit around Sholm. The General, no matter how hard he tried to find Orchid, always managed to trace the line back to his own transmitting satellite, as if talking in a loop. Even if he sent a back tracer — a highly specialized bander — into the zero holes, it would have to match a completely random digital pattern through the zero holes to find her. It would have to match a pattern containing twenty one trillion possible variations, a pattern that changed every three seconds. Orchid knew Quet would be fuming because she could not be controlled, but his emotional state was hardly her concern. She was more worried about the attack on Sholm, and wondered if the assault was an isolated one.
“Perhaps the new leader of Zon will be a peaceful person.” Orchid pulled a translucent keyboard close to her and started searching for recent news on Zon.
What she found surprised her. Zon’s entire international governing power had been merged through the will of one Supreme Overlord Imus Chen, who was even now in contact with other worlds, negotiating for information and materials exchange. Conflict would come, she was sure of it, and soon, if this Overlord Chen was anything like Quet. Orchid would deal with it in her usual, no nonsense way, should the need arise. Orchid held a suspicion that this enemy might just be powerful enough that even her ability to out-think it him would require assistance. He had proved his cunning by conquering a world of diverse and dangerous ideological views, and he may soon be proving his prowess in galactic circles. Orchid’s intuition warned her of that power, and of what would happen if it were swayed into alliance with Quet. Either way, things could get ugly. She put a call through to Representative Dawson, her legal representative within the Coven Collective.
“This is Dawson. Oh, it’s you — I was just minutes from calling you. You make any planets disappear again?” Dawson, always one of wry humor, had defended Orchid during her trial.
“Never let one miscalculation on my part slide, will you?” Orchid paused. “You heard about Zon’s recent request for admission into the Galactic Community.”
“Major hole in Sholm’s long and short term strategic warfare capabilities, I think. Quet is sufficiently upset. Did you know that Coven was contacted directly? This Chen guy is cold as ice. His DNA is flagged as well, but since the files are thousands of years old, the only person who knows anything about the situation lives on Earth, and she isn’t involving herself in such petty matters.” Dawson considered asking Orchid to check into it, the consideration actually crossed her face, and Orchid read it.
“You mean my mother, don’t you?”
“The one and only person alive today with records going back that far, I’m afraid.” Dawson admitted, as if hinting at something.
“What are the details of concern?” Orchid said, suddenly curious.
“There are simply too many to fathom. Coven can’t afford another Bender War.” Dawson thought, more accidentally than intentionally, aloud. “We have managed to keep Chen’s DNA uncertainties quiet, thus far. Of course, you’re the person most feared in a conflict of intergalactic proportions.” Dawson seemed to assume that Orchid’s potential for harm was obvious even to her.
Orchid ignored the attempt at a compliment. “I figured you would know that I as well will be keeping my eyes on the game. By the way, I will be giving the galactic community a gift for all it’s done to help my brother and myself over the years, so do keep your eyes open.”
“I always worry about your gifts. The last one irreversibly changed an entire populace.” Dawson said.
“I got the planet, and everybody living on it, out of harm’s way and back into our space safe and sound, despite the societal consequences of a monoculture with green eyes.” Orchid cut communications and looked back at her computer, smiling deviously, knowing that this new development would definitely cause a stir.
Her present to the galaxy would require her brother’s assistance. Though he would deny it fervently, Bamboo had much of his sister’s incredible genius, and twice her deviousness. It was he who discovered that the gene controlling the eye color of the Purple and Green Clans was a manufactured genetic switch, artificially emplaced into the cell structure of the ruling and serving classes during planet Jerada’s colonial period, so they could control the status of an individual through their eye color. He also figured out how, during the crossover, to create just the right pulse of energy to flip the genetic switch in question in one direction, and lock it permanently. After that, all people on Jerada would come back into the normal dimensional universe with one eye color — the color chosen for slaves. More specifically, they would return with the color most closely matching Orchid’s eyes.
With Bamboo to help her, Orchid knew she would have no complications during her next venture. The project would shake the foundations of commerce and technology for centuries to come. The issue of a new Galactic Nation and its Overlord might even prove, if not inconsequential, at least less so a concern, when the global community discovered the results of her next experiment. Bamboo had to leave soon, to visit a doctor on Zon, of all places, and she wanted to get the project done before he went on his long trip. She signaled for him, hoping to catch him before he set out for his appointment.
