Carnage by Aer-ki Jyr (the chimp paradox .TXT) 📕

Director was telepathic…he was minted a Monarch with the rank of Baron and assigned to a planet of his own to oversee. 392 years later he was reassigned to another larger one, then three more over the course of 10,304 years before being promoted to Count and given a system of his own to run.

He’d been a Count ever since, even when others more junior to him were promoted to Marquis…though that wasn’t surprising. One had to pass through the Clans to become a Duke, and there were only a limited number of them. But when he’d been assigned to this post he’d had his second personal conversation with Davis, in which he told Meerkan he would never rise above the rank of Count.

At first the Bsidd had not liked what he was being told, but as the Director went on to explain his strengths and weaknesses, he also explained his proclivities. Meerkan was good about dealing with what was local, but the larger his domain became the less responsive he was to it. The Director had told him that a different skillset was required to manage systems with ample communications lag between them, as well as a drought of information. Meerkan was best suited for local environments where he could access information quickly, fully, and get feedback within hours, if not minutes.

The Director went on to explain more, all of which defined him better than he had previously understood, and when he was finished the Director summed up the situation as being a perfect fit for Meerkan at the Count rank, not because he hadn’t improved his skills, but because his skills needed to continue to develop in this pocket of the empire. Not every Monarch would one day become a Lord, and they didn’t need to be. Without the lower ranking Monarchs the Lords couldn’t do their job. It was a team effort, and they were not redundant. They had to work on different aspects of the empire, as did the Director.

So Meerkan was meant to be a Count permanently, and due to his developing skills and fit for the ‘local’ environment, the Director was assigning him to one of the three ‘embassy’ posts within the Neofan temples. He’d act as Monarch over the Star Force city being built there, as well as being the main conduit between the Neofan leadership and Star Force, for the head of House Atriark resided here, and it was him who Meerkan was waiting for on the rooftop after his arrival in the Star Force city had been recently announced.

The Bsidd stood there waiting alone, for neither leader wanted any form of ceremony. They had periodic contact with each other when necessary, and neither one of them had any interests other than conducting business.

Soon a barge appeared in the sky just beyond the city shield perimeter, and it was not stopped. It passed through the atmospheric dome that was filtering out some of the native allergens from the air but still allowed large objects through up until there was a security issue, then it would become a solid defense shield as soon as the correct button was pushed in the command center.

But that wasn’t needed today, and the barge flew straight across the city over top the highest of the smooth towers until it slowed and descended next to Meerkan, with only a single Neofan aboard. Reignor Plausious had elected to pilot the craft himself rather than bring another with him, let alone a security detail. He had no need to, even if Star Force was not trustworthy. The Neofan had enough power here to wipe out the Star Force city with ease if they wanted, and Plausious no doubt had enough Essence skill in his single body to defend himself against whatever Meerkan could order thrown at him.

So neither of them made any symbolic gestures, knowing the situation both were in and opting to treat each other with informed respect and meeting alone, with the Reignor stepping off the floating barge and still standing taller than the Bsidd, who typically towered over most members of Star Force, but here he was definitely the smaller…though neither of the two individuals acted as if it mattered. Without Star Force House Atriark was doomed, and without the permission of House Atriark for the Star Force city to exist in this Temple, it would be eradicated with little effort by the mostly apathetic Neofan, who seemed to think scruples were a quaint idea formulated by the naïve who did not have the knowledge or will to do what the situation required.

“Count,” the Reignor said in English as he walked up to him and looked down from his crown-like head ornamentation as his wings flexed slightly behind his body. “I have news from Yenoiv.”

“Trouble?” Meerkan asked, knowing that was the name of the Neofan’s new galaxy that they were trying to colonize as their original one of Utovi was still in the process of falling, and now completely abandoned by House Atriark.

“On the contrary. The Hadarak have ceased the bulk of their reinforcements and returned to normal, periodic probing for weaknesses that they do in all of our owned galaxies. They seem to have accepted our ownership of Yenoiv…yet they never do. They are redirecting the bulk of their reinforcements elsewhere. I do not know the purpose of this, nor the destination. It will take another century or two before our scouts report back, but there is a small chance those reinforcements could be coming here, though I personally doubt this. Never the less, I wanted to give you fair warning.”

“Where do you believe they are going?”

“Somewhere of greater need. The Bond of Resistance does not include all who fight the Hadarak, and Hadarak territory extends beyond our holdings in some areas. Star Force, despite your many successes, is not more powerful than the Neofan. So the Hadarak would not pull their forces