Meant to have more

[maderr]

But am slightly stuck for now on 24. Should be able to do it tomorrow, unless painting takes longer than I want it to. For now, enjoy 22 & 23 and don't yell at me too much.



Chapter Twenty-two


Planet 00000000 (Zero), kavalerov Private Estate

"You can't be serious," Pyotr protested. "I didn't do all this work so you could just let them get away with it."

The Grand Chancellor's gaze was frosty as he propped his chin on folded hands and peered at Pyotr. "I don't much care why you did it. The point that you seem to be willfully overlooking, Pyotr, is that you conducted an investigation without my permission. Internal Affairs agents don't turn philanthropic - they follow my orders. As you did all of this without clearance--"

"It needed doing," Pyotr said in a level voice, though his pale, cool eyes were beginning to spark. "The matter of the Draconis is getting out of hand, because no one will do anything about it. Rather, no one will legally do anything about it. On the surface, authorities waver and debate and stall while behind everyone's back they're harming not only Draconis for their experiments but also their matches."

"Yes, at a lab that for all intents and purposes doesn't exist."

"If you'd let me question Alexander, I could probably find it."

The Chancellor sat back in his seat, "You know damn good and well I can't. Nothing about this is official - I can't just make it official now. And questioning him without authority is useless. I won't permit it."

"Because you don't want to deal with it!" Pyotr said with rare anger.

"Watch it, Pyotr. You're on thin enough ice already."

Pyotr ignored him, "You should have had someone handling this matter right from the start. Everyone knows how much potential the Draconis have - both good and bad - and yet you just sat back and let the issue waver. Just like with the Temperast, until we finally had no choice but to destroy them."

"Nothing could have kept the Temps alive. They were too dangerous."

"Perhaps. But the Draconis aren't like them - yet if nothing is done they're going to wind up with the same fate."

"Don't preach to me. I neither need nor want to hear it." The Chancellor motioned to his screen, "Let me tell you some things instead. One - as fascinating as all of this is, I can't do more than I've already stated. This is too massive, too explosive a problem. I cannot simply go around accusing and arresting high-ranking officials of the Infinitum. Not without solid enough evidence and reliable witnesses."

"Why not?"

"Don't be stupid. You know it doesn't work that way. Politics aren't as clear-cut as you like to pretend they are. So just give it up. Two - your contacts are worthless. They're barely holding up with me, you use them as witnesses at a trial and they'll be laughed out of the courtroom."

Pyotr frowned, "I grant you that Adalsteinn and Lark Faller are a bit suspicious--"

"A bit suspicious, Pyotr? According to your reports they're pirates. That uncouth red-skin certainly acted like one. And this Draconis is useless seeing as he's mated to one of the pirates. And I refuse to discuss this scientist of yours, who need I remind is in that lab you can't locate? Nor will I rehash the murderer. Oh, and let's not forget the younger Alexander. There's a reliable witness." He snorted, "It's fairly common knowledge that those two had a falling out not long after their parents died. So it won't surprise anyone if he decides to speak against Jade. Especially when it's obvious to anyone who looks at them that he's got something going with that Fornarian. Or maybe I'm mistaken?"

"No, sir."

"Then stop trying to get me to see reason when you're the one living in a dream world." His voice gentled a bit, "I understand why you insist on playing the hero, Pyotr, but it's not always the best idea." I'll do what I've already said I would, but that's it."

Pyotr remained silent, eyes downcast.

"What is it?" the Chancellor asked, resigned.

"At least give me a little more time to finish things."

"Finish things? I think you've already done quite enough."

"Let me find the lab. Please. If we can locate the lab, then we can at least do more damage than we can now. We could actually solve several problems, instead of letting everything die as rumors."

The Grand Chancellor was silent, glaring balefully at Pyotr without really seeing him. "I will give you three days - until the end of the week. After that, I'm releasing this information and washing my hands of the matter."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"Oh, don't thank me. You're going to be in big trouble for a long, long time. Before, during and after hours."

"….Yes, sir." Pyotr had returned to his normal quiet, level manner of speech…but it was tinted with a sad, disheartened note.

The Chancellor heaved an aggrieved sigh, "Pyotr, I know you mean well. You always mean well - it's what makes you who you are. But these heroic tendencies of yours only ever cause trouble. I can't bend and break the rules that we work to ensure are upheld and maintained. Even for you."

"But everyone around me can break them?"

"You're thirty-seven man, you should know by now the world doesn't always work as it should," the Chancellor sighed again. "Look - I'll give you five days to find the lab. Hopefully everything will stay under wraps that long, though if they've really downed Jade as you said, I doubt it will. And if you do manage to find the lab, I'll see what I can do to actually make this mission of yours stick officially. Maybe I'll even find a way to spare your comrades - including Ekard. It's the least I can do." He grabbed a cane that had lain out of sight against the desk until then, and rose slowly to his feet. "But after all of this is over, I think I'm going to put you where you can't cause me further trouble. My poor heart can't take much more of your penchant for noble causes."

Pyotr smiled, "If you gave it more excitement, more often, it'd be a lot stronger."

"No, thank you. Long, boring debates over stuffy laws is about all the excitement I need or want anymore. Whoever decided the Grand Chancellor needed to head of Internal Affairs was a moron." His eyes glinted, "I think after Gory Cohen is forced to resign due to unpleasant rumors, I will arrange it so that heading IA becomes the duty of the High Chancellor. Maybe that will keep future HC's from getting into trouble."

"Yes, sir."

"I am leaving. Do not call me again, unless it is to inform me you have located your infernal lab. Or to tell me you've finally decided to settle down."

"The latter is highly unlikely. You should know that by now." Pyotr's lips twitched.

The Grand Chancellor eyed him, nodding. "You can't old man for trying. I am ever hopeful that I will someday meet the man or woman capable of distracting you from your infernal heroics. Try to stay out of further trouble, Pyotr. It's getting more and more difficult to get you out of it."

"Have a good day, Grand Chancellor." He grinned at the glare his lingering formality earned him, "Uncle."

Muttering under his breath, the Chancellor departed.

Once his uncle was gone, Pyotr sat behind his own desk and mused over the report he'd spent hours typing. "Five days…I'll never find it in five days." Frustrated, he stood up and stalked from his study. He sighed softly at the empty hallway, and thumbed a button on the controller carried in the pocket of his black slacks. A minute later, an elderly but fit-looking woman in a blue and silver uniform appeared. "Jenna, I don't suppose you've seen our guests?"

"The Draconis and red human are in the game room, the Fornarian and white human in the green bedroom."

"Have dinner prepared for eight and chime them all a half hour before?"

"Would you like it served in the formal dining room?"

"Good grief, no. The casual one is fine."

"Of course, my lord."

"Thank you, Jenna."

The woman dipped her head and shoulders in a half bow and then immediately retreated.

*~*~*~*

"So how did your meeting with the Grand Chancellor go?" Einn asked.

Pyotr lips quirked as he eyed them. "He wasn't much impressed with the company I keep."

"Yeah, Faller has trouble making good first impressions." Einn laughed and ignored the wrathful look sent his way. He turned serious again a moment later, "But did you get what you wanted from him?"

"Not really, no. He doesn't much like when I do this sort of thing…and he is right in that his hands are tied at the moment. It doesn't matter what I'm doing - I have little hard evidence to back up my claims."

"So…" Cyan frowned. "He's not going to do anything? Even though most of the Chancellors are engaging in highly illegal activities?"

Pyotr shook his head, "He's not taking any formal action, is all. He's planning on sending what I gathered - your names stripped of course - to contacts in the media. That will spread rumors unpleasant enough that the parties involved will cease what they're doing."

"But that doesn't do anything to help the Draconis."

"It will do something - the Conis will not appreciate learning that humans have been tampering illegally with the Draconis. It will raise the issue from one of passing interest to one of major concern. And perhaps it will spur people to finally come to some decision." Pyotr shrugged, "As it stands, that is the best we can hope for."

An unhappy silence fell across the table. "So…that's it? Can't we do anything else?" Karmikel shoved his plate angrily away, "What about Fall? What about Sean and Mendel? Come on, Winter, we didn't do all that work just to settle for something as unsatisfactory as that. We deserve a better ending."

"I know," Pyotr said quietly. "But without the lab, we have no hard evidence that they actually did anything. Alexander covered his tracks all too well, and my only supporters are criminal elements or tied to criminal elements. Without some sort of hard evidence, like the lab, we have nothing."

Cyan frowned, "You have no idea where it's at?"

"None." Pyotr looked tired. "We assume it must be hidden somewhere in the fourth quadrant, since you can set up genetics labs easily there."

"I disagree," Cyan stated. "The rules in that quadrant are strict, and everything in the labs is kept tight track of. If you're going to do illegal experimentation, it's better to do it where the government isn't looking - and it's always watching the fourth quad."

"So you're saying it's somewhere in one of the other three? But it would be almost impossible to do. It's simply too difficult to get around the laws and regulations."

Cyan shook his head, "Not if you're hiding the lab in a place that's used to receiving strange items and equipment, and all manner of species. A place that ships and receives so often that, if you had the right insiders, you could get away with quite a bit."

"You almost sound like you know where it is," Einn said slowly.

"I…" Cyan hesitated. "Something my brother said, only it didn't make sense until now. I hadn't realized the location of the lab was unknown."

"So where is it?" Pyotr asked eagerly.

"I think it's on Rehab. More likely, the moon."

Silence.

Einn broke it, "The research lab is on Rehab? Why? How in the hell? That shouldn't be possible."

"Wrong. Getting out is the tricky part of Rehab. Getting in is very, very easy. And given we probably cage just about every common and semi-common species in the four quads - a few Draconis and their random mates wouldn't be hard to slip past the systems. If you had the right connections."

Faller looked at him, "You're a damned Guard, why do you sound so casual about all these fucking flaws you're listing?"

Cyan glared at him, "I wasn't aware of them until I started to put the pieces together. Besides, I'm not referring to Six, where I work. No one and nothing twitches in six without permission or the proper key. But sectors one, four and seven are for the really minor criminals. The security there is much lighter - especially one, which is just for minor juvenile offenders. Seven is for minor female offenders, and four is for men. Kidnapping the Draconis and their mates and slipping them through seven and four would be easy. Of course, you'd need an insider or three. That's the catch to it all. But if you did have the right contacts inside Rehab, I could see where it could be done. Hell, I bet even the staff for the lab was slipped in as pick pockets and the like."

"I've been an idiot," Pyotr said roughly. "All this time I just automatically assumed they were in quad four." He shoved back his chair and rose to his feet, "I will see to this. Finish eating." Determined and almost cheerful, Pyotr strode from the room.