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

===Premonition===

“Well, Governor, thank you for the excellent meal,” she said, her red gaze sweeping the room.  “Shall we adjourn to the ballroom?”

“Indeed, your Highness,” Sralah said.  He stood as well, as did the rest of the group.  Jake took the opportunity to glance at the others of their group, noting with grim humor that Alex looked about ready to run for the door.  As the group parted to allow Venus to lead them into the nearby room, Alex faded into the shadows of a large, black marble column, and stayed there.

Jake sighed.  His own father had never intimidated or enraged him that much.  He meandered over to where his friends was lurking.  “If you want to head out, man, feel free,” Jake said, sotto voce.

“I will, trust me,” Alex muttered.  “At the dinner, we had to stay in place, at least.  No such safeguards here.”

“What’s with the tin soldier costume?” Jake asked, glancing over the purple, white, and black outfit.

“My father’s colorblind,” Alex said tightly.  Jake put his hands up.  Alex sighed.  “Sorry.”

“Go, man.  No reason to stick around.  You came on your own, Freya can find her own way back or leave with us,” Jake pointed out.

“Yeah.”  Alex glanced over at where Venus was holding court.  Soft music was starting up from the speakers on the pillars and columns of the room.  “I just might.”

Freya spotted them scheming near the door and chuckled.  She trotted over, a grin on her face.  “Well, there you are.  You trying to escape?”

“I sure am,” Alex said, looking around for his father.  Joseph was bedazzling the Governor with some tale or another, his attention firmly drawn away.  “Why?  You trying to duck out too?”

“Nope, I want to stay and mingle a while,” Freya said.

Alex grimaced.  “All right.  I’ll see you tonight,” he said, sidling towards the door.

“Alex, come on.  Stick around for a while.  Your father’s fucking about with the Governor, you’re safe,” Freya said gesturing over to an expansive dessert table.  “At least stay for some wine and schmoozing?”

Alex sighed, tightly and impatiently.  “Fine.  Not a second longer than the time it takes for Dad to get bored.  I know, I know,” he said, catching his friends’ irritated looks.  “I sound like a preacher, here, but trust me, Dad WILL fuck this.”

Venus was deep in conversation with one of the local PDF officers when Jake walked by her on his way from Alex.  “Colonel, that’s not really the point.  The distribution of Mechanicus blueprints to the city manufactoriae is important, obviously, but that means they get to pick production oversight methods.  And the means they have selected are both quite direct,” Venus said.  “That’s the price we paid.”

“I know that, your Highness, but it’s cutting into their resources and our time,” the officer said.  “The unlikelihood of an attack on a Legionary homeworld aside, some of our gear is five generations old.  We’re still using the Mark Ten Leman Russ Demolisher, for goodness’ sakes.  They’re overseeing our production, so they have to know how old some of it is.  And of course, meanwhile the Salamanders just get copies of the blueprints to make as many of their designs as they wish.”

Venus’ eyes narrowed in silence.  The officer paused as his words caught up to him.  “Astartes’ needs would be greater, of course, your Highness, but the point stands.  Why would the Mechanicus insist on babysitting us and then make their own jobs harder?”

“Who knows?” Venus asked.  She caught Jake’s eye as he approached.  “Jake, this is Colonel Kacmen, the local PDF quartermaster.  Colonel, this is Jake Seager."

“Colonel,” Jake said, shaking the proffered hand.

“Sieur.”  The colonel turned back to Venus.  “Would you be able to assist us, your Highness?”

“Perhaps, if I was going anywhere near a Forge World at any point in the next five years,” Venus said.  “I’m heading straight off to college, Colonel.”

“Oh.  I didn’t know that,” the Colonel admitted.  “Whereabouts, your Highness?”

“Kouthry Technical Institute, New Arks Hive, Terra,” Jake said.  Kacmen glanced over at him.

“Are you a student there, sir?” the Colonel asked.

“I was accepted in the same class as Venus,” Jake said.  “We’re rooming.”

“Rooming?  I don’t know what that means,” Kacmen said.

“It means we’re moving into the same room.  Sharing an apartment, Colonel,” Jake said.

Kacmen stared.  “Oh.  I…colleges on Nocturne don’t have those arrangements, you see,” he said.  “Does this mean that you two are Bonded, your Highness?” he awkwardly asked.

“Nope,” Venus replied.  “Just very close.”  Jake smiled to himself, reflecting on his earlier plans, but kept quiet.

“Oh…” Kacmen trailed off, clearly wrong-footed, but pressed on.  “Well, then…what program will you undertake at this college, then, your Highness?”

“I’ll be going for Inorganic Chemistry,” Venus said.  “Jake’s going for Industrial Design.”

“Something that annoys and terrifies me,” Jake said with a laugh.

“Why take classes that frighten you?” Kacmen asked.

“No, no, not my program, Venus’.  Inorganic?  That stuff is a mystery to me.  I loved my Chemistry classes at high school, but I’ve seen Venus’ textbooks, and they baffle me.”  Jake smiled.  “Design, now, that’s nice and simple, comparatively.”

“‘Simple,’ sure,” Venus scoffed.  “Man, I’ve built anti-tank weapons from scratch in my basement and I can’t do what you do with a pencil.”  Jake allowed a modest shrug.


Remilia, meanwhile, was browsing the dessert table when a familiar voice spoke up.  “Well…this ''is'' a pleasant surprise.”  Her eyes tracked the sound –

“Lieutenant Kines?” Remilia asked in surprise.  “Wow, how are you?  What are you doing ashside?

The officer shrugged, offering her his hand.  “Someone needed to fly Haarlan back to the spaceport after he gets drunk,” he said quietly.

Remilia gaped.  “What?”

“Did I say that?  I actually meant that I really wanted to see you.  Wait, that sounds creepy.  How about ‘I volunteered to retrieve the data on the Punisher test from the Governor’s office, and also generously offered myself as the loyal martyr who got stuck in the room full of politicians while the other junior officers descend on Skarokk’s bars like a flock of vultures.’”  Kines thought for a moment.  “At least three of those are true.”

The deep red and yellow lights of the room vanished into the white and grey uniform he was wearing, which was notably bereft of pins, ribbons, medals, and so on.  Then again, he was an O-2 Lieutenant.  Remilia smiled.  “Well, I’m glad to see you too.  How has your month been?”

“Boring.  Very much so.  We weren’t allowed to leave the ship except in groups so we didn’t overwhelm the planet’s limited facilities,” Kines said.

“We only saw a few crew while we were down here,” Remilia remembered.

“Well, ma’am, I’d like to think you stayed close to the upper crust, such as it is, as opposed to what my shipmates have probably been doing,” Kines said.

“What’s that?” Remilia asked.

“Going on hunting expeditions and getting eaten, getting riotously drunk, discovering Nocturnean food poisoning, and making all the local prostitutes very, very rich,” Kines listed.

The Imperial Fists heiress laughed aloud at his refreshing frankness.  “Well, that’s certainly a long way from what we’ve been up to, all right,” she said.  “Have you seen the others?”

“Sadly not, ma’am…Remilia,” he corrected.  “I actually only arrived after the dinner.”

“Oh.”  Remilia glanced around, seeing Jake and Venus still holding court with some PDF, Alex standing clean on the opposite side of the room from them, conspicuously close to a door, and Freya only a few paces away.  “Freya, look who’s here.”

Freya glanced up.  “Oh, hi Lieutenant!  How’s things?” she asked, brushing her fingers on a napkin and walking over, a plate of desserts balanced precariously on one hand.

“Quite well, thanks,” Kines said, shaking her hand.  “I suppose this is about the end of your sojourn, isn’t it?”

“Sadly,” Freya sighed.  “But then we get to go to my home, and I am completely psyched.”  She grinned at the thought, and her fangs glinted in the red light.

Kines, now inured to them, nodded politely.  “Well, it’s good to see that you enjoyed your stay.”

“Well, not so much, really,” Remilia said glumly.  “Did you hear about what happened to Jake?”

“’Fraid not, what happened to him?” Kines asked, glancing over at where the hiver was chatting with a young noble from a local family.

“He got brained by a drunk in a bar and nearly died,” Remilia said matter-of-factly.  Kines started.

“Holy…wow, that’s awful!”  He looked closer at the younger man and noted where the hair on the back of his head was shorn close.  “Well, he’s okay, right?” he asked.

“He’ll be just fine,” Remilia assured him.  Freya noted the pheromones that preceded Remilia’s next question with distinct interest.  “How much longer are you ashside?”

Kines, lacking her ultra-refined senses, shrugged obliviously.  “A few more hours.  No more.”  He half-smiled.  “But we’re going to be the ones carrying you to Fenris, right?”

Remilia didn’t blush.  Freya noted that that had taken conscious effort.  “Right, of course.  Well.  Let’s avail ourselves of the time we have, then,” she said.  Freya smiled to herself and decided to give her cousin a bit of privacy.  She drifted over to where Jake was cheerfully trading banter with a local noble his own age.

“Well, barfights aside, sure, it’s been a fascinating and enjoyable trip,” Jake said to the much darker man.  A boy, really, he looked younger even than Jake.

Freya walked up behind them as the other boy replied.  “I’m glad to hear it,” he said.  He turned as he saw Freya approach.  “Ah, Lady Freya.  A pleasure.  I’m Avin Kel’ro,” he said, extending a hand.

She took the hand and shook it, smiling as if she had the vaguest idea who that was supposed to be.  The lad seemed to wilt a bit as he realized that she had the same lack of knowledge that Jake had apparently displayed.  Before he could expound upon it, however, an altercation from where Alex was standing caught her ear.