Chapter 19 - You Walk It Off, and Play a Game

"Sol?" Zoraida's 

"I was.... a Prince?"

"In a sense. Yes." She taps the bar as she arranges her thoughts. "After the destruction of Earth, the remaining thirty-two systems shattered into pieces. Your world," she pauses, "Your world was one that had been recently established when Earth was destroyed, and everyone in the star system disappeared."

"It was a ghost system." You hear yourself speaking. "No one was found. The only thing left of Earth was a cloud of space junk and the drifting moon." Every station and habitation not on the planet remained intact, but there wasn't anyone in the Sol system after the event.

"Right, well. With everything falling into pieces, nobody really cared about a newly founded colony. Not when their own established trade deals and arrangements were at risk. The Empire tried to establish itself as the new center of humanity, The Confederation rose up in opposition and they've been at each other's throats for centuries." She leaned on the bar. "The founders of your colony reached out to the alien planets nearby in friendship, and established alliances with many species."

You feel your head ringing as she speaks, but the brew you've imbibed dulls that pain to a vague pressure. 

"As the years went by, the founders' families established themselves as notable individuals, philanthropists, and eventually the people elevated them to noble status. At first, it was just formalities as recognition for their deeds, but a crises or two arose that demanded 'direct' leadership." She pours herself a glass of water and you hold your glass out as well. "That's how the first Queen was crowned. Not in the name of a God or some other Spiritual power, but by a Parliament Hearing."

"That building..." You recall. Zoraida cocks her head to the side as she sips her water. You take a swig of cool, refreshing, liquid and then describe the building and the rings in the night sky behind it.

"That's the one. It's been the center of the capital for over three hundred years. That spindle at the top was part of the original colony ship's green house module. Now it's a ritzy restaurant for the powerful and influential." She shrugs.

"There was a war, though." You question. "I... I started a war with the Empire." Your ring glows on your finger and The Cube flashes in your mind. "We found -that thing-" your jaw hurts as you speak. And the pain pulses even through the fog of your native beverage.

"When you came back, after you touched The Cube," Zoraida looked down into the water of her glass. "You held up your hand and broadcast a signal through your ring."

"I had that, even while I was in the Empire?"

"They never really understood what it was. It had been a pretty well kept secret until, well you rewrote the troopers."

"I... I what?"

"Troopers are clones, Sol, and are implanted with strains of mental and in some individuals genetic programming to ensure maximum loyalty and obedience." She held up her hand and tapped her thumb to a finger. "And with a wave of your hand, you set them free. Our whole unit."

"What happened then?"

"Your old XO flipped out, once some of the troopers realized what'd you'd done. Hell, if we'd been on a world with breathable air, they'd have prolly fucked you right on the beach." She shrugs. "He played it down after he realized he was in the small wedge of the pie chart, so to speak. After we left, he stole one of the shuttles and tried to trigger a self destruct."

"Fuck." You swear. So, you're current first officer was not the one you flew with as an Imperial Officer.

"Yeah, him, an engineer, a gunner and the Troopers' Marine Control Officer all bugged out rather than try and play the numbers game. Luckily... one of the Troopers thought ahead and was half way disassembling the callback array when they pulled their getaway. So the Self Destruct Order didn't get past the buffer." She smiles. "I remember, Octo, was so spent after that party we threw her." She smirks. "And you," She laughs, "You came to me the night before," She frowns, "the night before they betrayed us and left," She sighs, "you told me, that you thought the Troopers had 'high maintenance' beforehand." She chuckles, "I guess you and Tina went a few extra rounds that afternoon."

"What about you?" The words leave your mouth before you have a chance to question. The half empty glass goes still in Zoraida's grip.

"What about me?" There's a coldness in the question.

"Did I unchain you too? Did I get rid of the programming or whatever the Empire put into you, when they did-" you gesture at the more metallic parts of her, "-all of this?" You blink as you realize how much your head hurts right now, but you don't fully feel it. It's odd. Like having music going on in the next room but also blaring between your ears.

"The Empire didn't know WHAT they were doing when they did what they did to me." Zoraida speaks with a bitter chill. "They took technology they stole from your world and your scientists to do this to me." She holds her arm right under your face, and even drunk you can't help but notice how good she smells right now. "I knew from the moment I woke up from this, I was meant to stand with you. It's why I called out for YOU, it's why they made YOU the Captain of this ship and not their other choices." She pulls her arm back and you reach out for her.

"Zoraida, I'm sorry."

"For what?" She barks a laugh, but there's tears at the edge of her eyes. "Sol, you did nothing wrong. You didn't lie to me. You didn't sign me up for some mad experiment. You didn't order me to get into that EGG. What you did was pull me out of it, and carry me somewhere safe.

"The captain's quarters? How'd I get in if I wasn't Captain yet?"

"Apparently they'd had you doing repair work," she chuckles, "On the security locks, as a matter of fact."

"Really?" You laugh. "That was their mistake." You smile and give a glance at your ring. Apparently you had a knack for machines.

"Oh Yeah." She waggles her eyebrows, "But in the end, the Project Lead wanted to see where things ran and green lit everything that followed after." She sums things up and quietly empties her glass down her throat.

"So that's how Doc Tomoe ended up on my crew?" You finally take a drink of your water.

"Ee-yu-pah" She enunciates the word and pops her lips while she rolls her eyes at the memory.

"You don't like her?" You ask, and teeter a hand back and forth.

"I didn't like her." Zoraida admits. "Now, I'd probably go down on her most nights out of the week. Woo." She blinks. "Bout time," She laughs. "That stuff finally found what's left of my liver; all at once, it feels like." She admits.

"Right." You nod. "So I brought us back to.. Yv..Yv...." You try to bring your homeworld's name into the front of your mind, but your already sobering up, damn that was too quick! Were you a lightweight or not? "I brought us back to my home."

"Right." Zoraida nods and watches you carefully.

"So, okay. Back up in history. How'd my world end up under Imperial control?"

"They pulled some shinanigans with a line of unpopulated systems that are basically just mining fodder, and used it to tap the borders of you home system. Then they made all kinds of fuss about territorial heritage and reunited with the rest of Humanity."

"My mom wasn't having any of it."

"At one point, when the Empire's envoys were literally outlining how their military could 'enforce peace' on 'liberated' worlds, she told them to go and fuck themselves and had the Marines throw them out of the Parliament building."

"Shit." You start laughing. "But that makes no sense, wouldn't we have been executed to prove a point or something?"

"No. The Empire showed up with enough firepower to force your mother to concede a very carefully lettered treaty of annexation." She nods, recalling. "I guess you were kinda young then" She does the math on her fingers. "The way you described it; one day you were in class with kids from a whole bunch of races, and the next-" 

"-Uniforms, Order, The One Race." You grumble.

"Yeah." Zoraida agrees.

"Fuck." You swear, and lean over to pour yourself more water. You drink a few glasses empty before setting the glass down. "I should probably go finish that assessment?"

"Sure you're up for it?" Zoraida looks you up and down.

"I'll do some of the less strenuous tests." You stand up and feel a wobble in your legs. "One of the less stressful tests, you amend. Then I'll take a break." You promise and Zoraida puts the glasses away. You wait for a moment and watch as she starts to clean up. She waves you off with a smile, and you swagger back to the Trooper room and the machine.

"Luck be a lady tonight, You wonder as you bring up the screen and select the last available option:

>Probability Awareness Test 

Sounds like a math or reasoning sort of exam. Seems like a fair shot. 

The screen flickers then suddenly a table emerges. On the screen, four beautiful females, if two dimensional, are seated along the curve of the table, opposite you.

From the left to the right, you recognize their species, and can infer a few details about them. 

The left most woman is a Hollanta -being the feminine form of their race description- Her tall body has a serpentine suggestion to the length of her limbs and neck, but elegantly styled hair curves from her head in loose curls. She wears a heavy fur coat, closed, and has gemstone jewelry on her seven of her fourteen digits. She sits upright with poise and calm, and throws disparaging looks at the other women at the table.

The next woman is a Vozi, the bright green of her skin contrasting with the streaks of pink in her otherwise white hair. She's leaning back in her seat, boots on the table, and her arms back to push her chest out. She's wearing a bikini top under a leather jacket, and cut off pants. On the bottom of her boots, the treads have been reshaped to spell out 'Fuck' if she walked through something that could leave a print. She's leering at the camera's POV, and licks her lips with a pierced tongue.

The third woman is shuffling and cutting decks of cards over various types, an easy thing given she has four arms to do it with. A blue green Quathari. She wears the elegant white and blue robes of a traveling priestess. The smile on her face speaks of mischief and a glint of schemes can be seen shifting from each of her four eyes. Occasionally, as the screen cycles through animations, she blindly deals a card to one of the other women, puts a finger to her forehead, and guesses the card by suit and value. 

She's always right, and while Vozi is unimpressed, and the Hollanta looks suspicious, the last one seems generally gleeful when her card is guessed. A tall, dark green woman with sharp looking teeth, the belies her down to earth attire. She looks more like she's about to pull apart an engine than she does play a card game. But somehow, the Urak woman makes the plaid and denim combination work for her.

The screen scrolls out text and once again, you're given a choice:

What Game shall you play?

>Straight to the Point (Generate the straight of hte highest value)<
>Courtly Gathering (Gather sets of particular value, and by a face card)<
>Last Laughs (Be the last person playing as you pair off cards and deal them down)<
>Holden's Hold 'em (an 'intimate' variation of Human 'Hold 'Em' games)<

And how shall you play, morally speaking?

