Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Two (section)

===A Revelatory Night===


Jake reclined in the spacious seat of the diplomatic car Remilia had requested.  How she had convinced the castle staff to let them borrow it, he didn’t care to guess.  Remilia herself was sitting beside him on the backseat of the car, trying in vain to encode her portable vox to the local network.  “No good,” she grumbled.  “The bloody local nets are all four generations behind on cell codes.  I’ll never get a signal.”

“I had the same problem.”  Jake glanced over at Remilia, who had selected a nicely cut silver shirt and conservative pants for the occasion.  “You look nice.  How are you not dying of heat?  You’re from Inwit!”

“Good genes,” she said with a shrug.  “I’ll still be wearing thermos tomorrow.”

“Me too,” Jake said emphatically.

The car halted in front of a small restaurant by the outer edge of the city walls, and the servitor at the drivers’ seat turned the vehicle off with a clatter of cooling metal.  Remilia and Jake emerged to find the air much cooler, but still boiling by Terran standards.  They walked the short way to the restaurant and entered, and to Jake’s infinite relief, it was even cooler inside.

“My Lady Dorn, my Lord, welcome,” the woman at the front desk said.  “How may I serve you?”

“A table for two with a bit of a draft,” Remilia said, smiling politely.  “And a steady flow of ice water.”

“Yes, indeed…do follow me,” the hostess said, leading the pair into the building.

Alex finished changing and slid his wallet into his pocket.  “As soon as you’re ready, babe,” he called.

“Hold up…there,” Freya said from the other room.  She emerged decorated with the single tiny sapphire she had decided to purchase that afternoon hanging from her neck.  “Where do you want to go?”

“Somewhere close to the castle,” Alex said.  “Maybe that steakhouse you saw at the market?”

“Sure, let’s head out,” Freya replied.  As she said it, a familiar red light filled the main room.

“Hey, kids, I’m out of here,” Venus called.  “You two sure you don’t just want room service?”

“We can save that for a rainy day.  For now, let’s experience Nocturnean cuisine,” Freya said.  She eyed her shorter cousin’s formal uniform, replete with weapons.  “No crown this time?  A shame.”

“Oh hush, that thing is for times when I need to look regal instead of just important,” Venus chided.  “Besides, I’m going to replace the guy I’m dining with tonight, I want to be able to look him in the eye.”

“Right.”  Freya nipped her cousin’s ear on the way out the door.  “Knock ‘em dead.”

“Not yet, they need to stay active until I take office and fire them all,” Venus said nonchalantly.  Freya started.  “A joke, a joke.”

Jake dug into his appetizer, grateful that Remilia had chosen a place with Terran-style food.  “Good call, Remilia,” he said.

“Thanks.  Apparently this is The Place to Go when Terran diplomats are in town,” Remilia said.  “I think a Lady Primarch qualifies.”

Jake grinned over his riblets.  “Man…that gets me.”

“Huh?”

“At what point did rubbing shoulders with the most powerful people in the galaxy become something I do over dinner?” he laughed to himself.  Remilia half-grinned.

“When you got a scholarship to Imperator.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”  Jake leaned back, sipping his water.  “Thanks for this.”

“My pleasure,” Remilia said with a smile.  “So…what do you think of Venus’ homeworld?”

“Amazing place.  The weather, the people, the architecture…amazing.”  Jake nodded at his own wisdom.  “It’s a proud world.”

“It is.”  Remilia nicked one of his riblets and chewed.  “I want to go see the place they call the Jewel.  It’s a city in the middle of an acid ocean.”

“We’re going there soon, though, right?  Four days per city, then two extra in the last one and then off to Fenris,” Jake said from memory.

“Yep.”  Remilia finished the rib and wiped her fingers.  “I’m glad to see you taking to Alex’s tutelage.”

“Mmm.  Muscles, flex,” Jake said deeply, clenching his neck.  Remilia snorted into her drink.

“You want to get into a contest, buddy, you ain’t gonna win.”

“Hmph.  No fair.  You can kick a hole in rebarred concrete,” Jake grumbled.

Alex downed his first beer and tapped the rim for another as the waitress walked by.  “Thanks.”  He waited until she was out of earshot before sighing.  “Thank goodness the legal age is seventeen here.”

“Heh.  Not too much.  You need to be lucid,” Freya scolded.

“I won’t splurge.”  Alex let his eyes wander across the room.  “I feel overdressed.”

“Eh.”  Freya shrugged her bare shoulders, and her braids fell across her pale flesh most distractingly.  “We’re not hiding our tourist origins.  Embrace them.”

Alex chuckled.  “Right.  You think we’ll get to see some of the Salamander bases?”

“I hope so.  The Wolves and the Salamanders can’t be much more different, tactically.  I want to see how everything else is different, too,” Freya said eagerly.  She grinned, flashing her fangs in the low light of the room.  “Beyond the superficial.”

“Yeah?  How do they operate differently?” Alex asked.

Freya counted on her fingers.  “We don’t use Terminators as much, they rebuild reduced squads, they don’t use speeders or other fast movers, they have Chaplains, we have fewer Thunderhawks by half…tons and tons of stuff.”

Alex cocked his head.  “You keep saying ‘we.’  Do you think of yourself as a Space Marine?”

“I may not be able to wear Power Armor or absorb knowledge by eating brains, but I’m a Wolf.”  She nodded cheerfully.  “The year and a half I spent on Fenris as a kid were some of the the happiest years of my life.  When I went back, it was even better.  I can’t wait to go back again.”  She smiled again.  “You’ll love it.”

Jake cut a piece free from his sauroch flambé and bit in.  “Delicious,” he said.

Remilia sipped her wine, nodding appreciatively.  “It is.”  She finished her starter bread and dug in to her own entrée.  “To answer your question, no.  I would like to be able to play after college, but I don’t have a team in mind.  Frankly, I’ll probably just go into politics.”

“You hate politics,” Jake pointed out.

“I completely loathe politics,” Remilia grumbled.

“Then don’t!  Start a business or something,” Jake said.  “You get to pick.  You know how few Terrans get to pick?  Go into the private sector.”

“Like what?” Remilia asked.

Jake shrugged, biting into his sauroch.  “You’re awesome with money.  You could start an accounting firm.  Or go into the Army and lead the Quartermasters’ Corps.  You’re too smart to waste your time on something you hate.”

“Thanks, Jake,” Remilia said, touched.

“I mean it.  Go travel.  Find a world inside Imperial Fists territory that’s in the middle of an economic downturn and build it back up.  Or hell, go Rogue Trader.  Live like a queen,” Jake continued.

“‘Remilia Dorn, Corsair Queen,’” Remilia said aloud.  “That…is amazingly appealing.”

“I can see it.  You could have a servo-skull follow you around and record it all.  Sell holos on the Network and make trillions,” Jake joked.

“Stop making sense!” Remilia said plaintively.

Venus held her plate of nibbles with one hand, the other resting on the hilt of her scabbarded Power Rapier.  “Governor, as much as I’d like to say that that’s in the cards, no.”

“Ah, your Highness, you wound me,” the Governor said sadly.  “I suppose you have your heart set?”

“I do indeed,” Venus said.  She had decided to tie her hair back in a ponytail that night, and had been laboring to project a feel of complete confidence to her audience.  “Kouthry.  On Terra.”

“I see,” the Governor said.  He and the leaders of all seven Sanctuaries, plus nearly a hundred lesser dignitaries, had assembled that night.  “Well, I’m sure it’s a good school.”

“My father and mother are both graduates, and my boyfriend is staff there,” Venus said proudly.  “I’m looking forward to it.”

“We had been hoping that you would pick a Nocturnean school, your Highness,” the well-muscled Governor said.  The man had been a PDF trooper in his youth, and had clearly kept up the exercise routine.  Venus found herself liking the man.

“Graduate school may happen.  We’ll see,” Venus allowed.  She plucked an hors d'oeuvre from her plate and bit in.  “I don’t know.”

“Ah well,” the Governor said.

“Governor Erd’Chel, please, do not misinterpret my intention,” Venus said.  “Nocturne is my home, and though Terra may house me, I will not forgo my heritage.”  She smiled tightly.  “I’ve not felt so alive as I have since I arrived.  Not in a long time.”

A robed man bearing the stylized I of the Scholastica Psykana walked up to the Governor and whispered something.  Venus’ supernatural hearing detected it verbatim.  “Governor, the echo is back.  I recommend a level five alert.”

“Do it,” the Governor said.  The psyker backed away, leaving the Governor grimacing.

“Something require an alert, Erd’Chel?” Venus asked mildly.

“Not at all, Venus,” the Governor said, deftly assuming the same informality as his guest.  Venus nodded contritely.  “At least not an alarm.”

“Do tell,” she said, downing another bite of imported Septiim liqueur fruit.

“A small radio echo.  We suspect that a Tier Y energy spike may be building in the sun,” the Governor explained.  “Nothing fatal, but worthy of immediate observation.”

“Of course, I apologize.”  Venus set her tray down and wiped her fingers clean on a napkin.  A paper napkin.  How much did THAT cost to import?  Finishing off her plate, she wandered off to the center of the floor, seeking a new speaking companion.

She spotted her old teacher Isaac across the room and smiled conspiratorially.  He returned it, winking over his drink, before resuming his conversation with the robed Salamander beside him.  The warrior had been silent for much of the night, including the toast to Venus, and Venus ambled over, wondering if he was familiar.

He was not.  The robed Space Marine nodded his respect to his Lady Primarch.  “Princess Venus.  An honor,” he rumbled.

“As you were, Marine.”  Venus inclined her head.  “I do not believe we have met.”

“I am Fletsun, my Princess, Master of Sanctity,” he said, surprising Venus deeply.  The fifth highest-ranking member of the entire LEGION was on-planet and she hadn’t been notified?