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‘Your fault’ I hissed ‘As soon as I get the chance I’m modding that replication sub routine.“ There was no physical response from her, usually she scowled! ‘Not a chance, its self aware and my defence circuits may not be as good as hers but go near any of me without my say so lover and you’ll get a real surprise !
I knew what she was talking about. Zeid had warned me about NOT tampering with the internals! Not the physical ones anyways! She had, as he had put it, necessity demanding its requirement, a module that generated a large, almost electrostatic semi plasma discharge, similar to a release, liken to a lightning bolt! Believe me its most unpleasant !
Think of sickness, multiply it ten times, that’s the after effects ! She admitted, that when I had activated her noise sub routines, she had tried to shut them down? To no avail. The self awareness chip had locked the sub routines, making them inaccessible for deletion or reprogramming. Now who’s fault was that!
Now, on random activation, with or without my command. Her eyes flashed as she hissed ‘Thanks to your modifications last time! No control over them at all now !’ I found it hard not to grin. That, on my part, I suppose was a little like putting a red flag in front of a bull, as the matador might agree.
Why did I sense that there was an element of desire, for some revenge on her part? Mainly because I had grinned ! Oh yes! She leaned forward and I watched as she cloned into the Princess ! A big smile, across her lips, as she whispered “Come on lover, you know you want to! Say the magic word
Governor Sobnexcge stared at the screen, as the emblem of the elite forces appeared, signing off his communication with Lelanora from Fendiq. He slumped back in his seat, resting his eyes, then pressed the screen. A voice answered in a drawn out mononous voice. “Yes my Lord Governor”
“Any news of the Princess ? “ “No my Lord, the locator pulse has not been detected but the storm is causing us problems in searching for her, we don’t think we will be able to resume full search capabilities until dawn tomorrow, when the storm should be easing down.”
“Let me know as soon as you have a locator fix and remember she has not had her medication, so she may be extremely dangerous! No physical threat or contact whatsoever and tell your men to keep their distance, until she’s been tranquilised. Use the new formula supplied.”
“Is that wise my Lord Governor ? It may trigger an immune response which will almost certainly trigger the pulse weapon ? “ Sobnexcge had known Cistera’s father, he had fought in the colonial wars with him but had grown weary of the constant wars, in the end agreeing to Lelanora as Governor usurping Cistera’s father.
He knew how it had been accomplished, yet it was a secret, he knew he would carry to his grave. He was a dead man if certain courtesans found out about his complicity, but worse still, things had gone wrong and Cistera’s father, so he had been informed; had ended up dead.
The revolt following the death had been crushed with bloody consequences by Lelanora’s Elite forces, showing no mercy, they had almost committed genocide, thanks to a new weapon they had employed, which had wiped out 60% of the opposition in one hit. The rest capitulating to servitude under Lelanora’s new goverment.
A pact made with the Jogarth had sealed a truce, so fighting had stopped but at a price, the Jogarth demanded a lot in return and the Elite, were only too pleased to supply them with materials and slaves, disposing of the troublemakers from the so called aristocracy and courtesans.
Worse? Could it get any worse for them? They could be sold off to the dreaded Urowq disfigured and brutal. They had a hatred of the Fendiq who had, in one of the battles won by the Fendiq forces led by Cistera’s father, torched their capital city, eventually razing it to the ground.
Luckily the Urowq, although despising the Jogarth, held them in respect, so dared not attack Fendiq or its colonies, for fear of reprisals from them. They did however always offer the maximum, in buying Fendiq slaves,whenever the occassion arose and their treatment of slaves by their new masters often resulted in them killing themselves. Something the Urowq did their best, to make sure didn’t happen, as they tried to pospone indefinitely, the savage torture and brutal humiliation of their captives.
Despite Sobnexcge pleading with Lelanora, to put a stop to the sale of the Fendiq to the Urowq, she had chosen to ignore and the slavery continued. As more and more Urowq sought to acquire Fendiq as slaves, a symbol of their new found power, knowing the more courtesans and aristocracy in particular, they acquired, the power of Fendiq would be destroyed forever, leaving the doors open to future possibilities.
The thought that the Jogarth might not always be so accommodating, to that harlot Lelanora, spurred them
on. Not all of Fendiqs military had been seized, converted or destroyed. Some had disappeared and seemigly without trace, despite intensive searches to find them, which eventually tailed off, as failure after failure costing more and more resources and time wasted energies, were redeployed elsewhere, with infrequent but nevertheless occuring civil riots.
It had pleased Lelanora to place Cistera under house arrest, exile her, she could not bring herself to have her killed, the risk of such news she had reasoned would cause rebellion amongst the people, insurrection beyond all comprehension.
She could not afford to implement the weapon again, to subdue the populace killing most of them in the process, she needed slaves for the Jogarth and workers to keep the Royal coffers full. Her control of Cistera made apparent, rendered certain factions; ameniable to her demands.
The third year of Cistera’s exile had seen rapid changes on Fendiq, the sale of slaves had almost stopped, thanks to a new trade agreement with the Jogarth of the rich mineral ore Trexl found in two massive sites on Fendiq bringing new found wealth and possibilities. A relief, given that most of the sites on Orias had diminished output to a level where it was too expensive to mine.
Meanwhile Nathan and Cistera ?.
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