Chapter 14 of The Serpent’s Garden is here. Red One and Nanil have a chance for a heart-to-heart, er heart-to-primary reactor, while our tiny crew of salvage station technicians are dealing with yet more system faults and have reached out for some support. Back in the armada, Iljta prepares for another stage of diplomacy with the Hegemony’s second (and hopefully friendlier) alien contact.

A snippet can be found below, with the full chapter and story in the link above. Enjoy!

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The cardinal overseer was not immune to his own prejudices; he was old enough to remember the Pride as it was and what it should be, and he still looked in askance at those officers that believed otherwise. The circumstances of their birth were immaterial to him, only what they stood for and what values they espoused. The beliefs of a people, especially among their finest echelons, needed to be grounded in rectitude and propriety.

Understand your thoughts, for they are the basis of your words. Watch your words, for they will guide your actions. Comport your actions for they will prove your character. Safeguard your character, for it will spur the thoughts of others.

A harmful thought could become harmful action, like a gestating spore might erupt from its host to contaminate others. Philosophers had likened it to how a drop of blood, if not stemmed, could eventually lead to the death of the body. Iljta himself preferred a more medicinal analogy: it was always best to stop an infection from taking hold in the first place. In doing so, you prevented all the suffering, no matter how slight, that could follow from a single germ.

Through Hierarch Nanil-Wanlei, Iljta understood many of those officers better now, though he still disagreed with the tenets that they espoused. They might believe that such beliefs and the actions that sprang from them were a necessity within the Frontier, but the Hegemony had not needed to live that way before. If a synth constructed for war and war alone could change, then so could flesh and blood beings.

Understanding brought guidance, guidance brought compliance, compliance brought stability and stability brought peace.

Unless Prelate Akis-Cawvin is correct, and our visitor is more than what it appears… and claims to be. Assemblage 182 had had several days to go over the data they’d acquired during Trepasser’s visit to Porseira, but Implacable Agent of Retribution gave up little. Its armour was thick, its design unfamiliar and its technology esoteric. What the engineering teams had been able to decipher was that the vessel was more heavily armed than it first appeared and its capabilities were still largely unknown. That remained a disquieting truth, one that would only be solved one of two ways: the sharing of technical data between friends, or a direct demonstration.

If his mission succeeded, they would have the former. If it did not… he did not know what would happen afterwards. A second hostile Contact would vindicate many of the wrong opinions in the Hegemony, but he couldn’t do anything about that. His task remained as it had been since he had left Unherta in search of an alien visitor. Serve the Hegemony, serve the Pride and serve the ideals he believed in.

Interrupting his thoughts came a notification from Communications. “Data stream from Thoughtful Repudiation of Intent, administrant. Hierarch Nanil-Wanlei sends greetings and a briefing package.”

Iljta bobbed his head slowly, gaze still fixed on the signals. Four border sentinels flying in escort formation around their visitor, and a new sixth return: an interstellar unit large enough to swallow all five of the other vessels around it and a sizable chunk of his own task force. It flew close to Implacable Agent of Retribution, like an oversized calf following its mother.

“Message to Hierarch Nanil-Wanlei and Red One,” Iljta replied, rising from his chaise. “Extend our welcome on their return to Porseira. I hope their travels were safe and productive, but,” he said looking at the size of the file Thoughtful Repudiation of Intent had sent to his vessel, “I suspect it was not uneventful.”

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