Onoelle waited until after dinner before sending her husband out to finish the rest of the chores. The animals still needed taking care of and he had to draw up a list of items he needed to get from the village. They had spent the evening fussing over the guest house with Mentuc constantly drawing up plans as she and her friend argued back and forth over how it should look. He occasionally provided commentary in regards to how feasible something was or asked for more details. In the end they had decided for a log cabin structure that would have significantly more modern luxuries in it than the main house. For one, Jane had insisted on having access to the internet. Another thing would be the lighting fixtures. One more item that had to go on the list and something Mentuc would have to be careful with. Polymer was a lot more durable than glass, but he had wrecked the metal plough only a few hours prior. Jane was ecstatic about it all though, at least outwardly. It wasn't difficult for her to tell that her friend was still unnerved by the situation, but after a few beers had been pulled up from the cellar the atmosphere had become a lot more amicable. It also helped that Mentuc was a miracle worker in the kitchen and Onoelle had made sure that she was in between Jane and him at all times. He still hadn't come to terms with her presence and vice versa, but like he had said, he accepted her being there and Onoelle's behaviour helped put Jane slightly at ease.

Now that Mentuc was gone, Onoelle turned to her friend who was laying down on the carpeted floor on her back, gazing at the sculpted ceiling. It felt good to be in the same house with her old roommate again. They had weathered four years of studies together and had gone on quite a bit of adventures. Compared to the relatively sheltered life she had now, she had gotten herself into a lot of trouble back in the days and she and Jane had been thick as thieves throughout it all.

'So Jane. You have questions I bet,' she opened.

'I do. I also find it simultaneously worrying and hilarious that you send him outside whenever you want to talk to me. I thought you trusted him?'

'Oh, ouch, wounding me from the get go,' she replied with a smile. She sat down on the floor next to her friend, leaning against the head of the bed.

'I do it to put you at ease. Dolt.'

'I know. Harlot.'

'So... Questions?' Onoelle repeated.

'Ah. Right. Yeah, for starters,' Jane began, rolling over so she could look at her friend. 'What's the deal with him calling you Onoelle? As far as I'm concerned you're still called Leonne, right?'

Onoelle shrugged.

'I gave him his name. He thought it fair to give me a name as well.'

'Do you know what it means?' she asked, her tone making clear she knew more.

'If you're going to tell me that the name means more than my name turned backwards and messed up, then I'm aware.'

'Then you can guess my next question, right?'

'Of course.'

'Why did he name you life?'

She got up and twirled around before bowing gracefully, eyes sparkling with mischief.

'That is what I am to him. I'm his life.'

Jane snorted and chose to not open Pandora's box of worries just yet.

'And you named him? Why Mentuc?'

'Take a guess.'

'Hm. You've always had a fondness for Latin, didn't you? Even though most people regard Imperial as the new dead language to go to.'

Onoelle nodded.

'Mentuc... Sounds like two different parts. Men. Men. Mental? Mentis?'

'You know, when you say it like that it sounds so...'

'Retarded?'

'Awww. Are we going to be offensive now?'

In the past they had often hold pillow fights and wrestled playfully, but she had never won against the slightly taller woman, who had always dominated her with annoying ease. Which made her unlikely to go on the offensive Now however...

'Do you give?' she asked, her legs wrapped around her friend's waist and her arm slowly but surely boring down harder on Jane's neck.

'I give! I give!' she coughed.

Onoelle grinned and gave one final squeeze before relenting, but not untangling her legs.

'God dammit girl, you got strong. And fast.'

'Of course!' she boasted. 'I train every evening with him.'

'You're not distracting me that easily. Mental. I got that one right, so the other one is tuc.'

Onoelle let her friend break her mind on that one for a good while. They had both taken up ancient languages as a side study but where Jane had gone for Imperial, Onoelle had always had a fondness for Latin and the Roman mythology. They had always been together, however, and had thoroughly vetted one another before taking any test or exam, so they both knew a fair bit of the other language.

'I give up. Too many options.'

'Good. I'd have been concerned if you found that one.'

'Wait, what?'

'I'm not telling.'

'Hey, that's not fair!'

Onoelle laughed easily before squeezing down hard, drowning Jane's protest as she tried to break free from her grasp.

They spend a few minutes wrestling playfully, Jane eventually managing to escape her only to be jumped by a far too hyperactive Onoelle. By the time Onoelle decided that the pecking order was properly established, Jane was panting heavily from the exertion.

'I am really glad you're here, y'know?'

'If you're going to try to murder me every time I come visit I should stay away for longer.'

'Or just don't leave.'

'Are you sure you're fine?'

Onoelle sighed. Jane was still worried. It was normal, really. She wouldn't get over her concern in regards to Mentuc at the drop of a hat.

'What exactly is it that you're worried about?'

'You know your track record. Bad boyfriends. Even that kidnapping. You tend to fall for people who you should have as patients and who are incredibly controlling. You know just as well as I that there was a damned reason the police were on the speed dial.'

Onoelle shrunk at that. The words rang true. Her time spend at university was equally divided between studying, making poor life decisions and hanging out with Jane.

'And you fear Mentuc is the same?'

'Well... You did hire me to treat him like a patient.'

She nodded, conceding that point. 'He's not though. He's... Post traumatic stress disorder and a disassociation from emotions fit him better than the desperation for control that my previous fuck ups had.'

'So he's in control of himself then? Really? What will you do if you decided to leave? To do things he wouldn't agree with?'

'He would be sad and he would try to understand.'

Jane perked up at that, pleasantly surprised.

'Really? He wouldn't hurt you, chase you down or otherwise become angry?'

'No. He doesn't really get angry, that's one of his issues. He is not accustomed to feeling emotions. Before you give me the spiel that such a thing is exemplary psychopath behaviour, it is not. It is different but I cannot tell you why. See it as patient confidentiality.'

'We are treating the same patient, are we not?' Jane tried.

Onoelle's eyes darkened visibly, ending that line of conversation decisively.

'Right, so he doesn't get angry? At all? I mean, he must display some show of emotion. Something that keeps him going in life. Everyone needs a purpose,' Jane reasoned. 'A man without a purpose is just an empty shell. Emotion gives us motivation, gives us goals. Greed, anger, jealousy, lust, hell, love! They all give us something. How can you claim he even loves you if he is so cut off from emotions as you claim he is?'

'I must admit that the way he loves isn't exactly up to conventional standards and I will be the first to admit that our relationship developed rather strangely and even crudely at some points. For starters he is not entirely alien to lust, thank the stars for that. It is still in him, albeit suppressed and heavily so. That was the main factor what brought us together in the relationship as it is today. Pick up your jaw before it hits the floor,' she snidely remarked, seeing her friend gaping at her.

'You seduced him into marrying you?'

'No. Shut up and let me finish.' She tilted her head. 'It helped, though.'

'Leonne!'

'He is trying to find a goal. To reconnect with his emotions and stop being as robotic as he is when it comes to his mental capacities.'

'Efficiency isn't everything?' she quoted.

'Exactly. Imagine him, as you will, a mixture between an idiot savant, a computer program and an infant. He is highly intelligent in some areas, persecutes every goal he sets himself in the most rational, direct and logical manner possible and has virtually no concept of morality. In a number of areas that are vital to us while growing up, social graces, natural physical urges, anything that really defines us as human on a social and psychological base, was alien to him. When he came to the village I was curious about it. I was pretty much locked away here and he was a fresh challenge.'

Jane rolled her eyes and Onoelle decided to ignore it.

'It didn't go as I expected. He belied every expectation I had of him and his mind ran circles around mine. He did not understand me, but he did make an effort to. I did the same, trying to understand him. Everything I have studied is to understand minds akin to my own. Sure they may be different, may belong to psychopaths, madmen, depressed people, people dealing with mental illnesses of all sorts, but his mind was alien. How can you try to grasp a psyche you don't even share a baseline with? We were like two toddlers trying to figure out nuclear physics. It brought us close, as he usually stayed far away from the village and I spent a good amount of time tracking him down.' She didn't add that it usually ended with her overextending her reach, getting lost, being surprised by a change in the weather, running out of food and another plethora of troubles and that every single time Mentuc went to rescue her.

'I can understand that. Two different minds communicating in a completely different language. You have to restructure everything from the base up and you had no Rosetta stone to guide you. Similar to the disaster of Kiren III, right?' Jane offered, referring to a diplomatic first contact disaster that sparked a war between a human nation and an alien race that ended with near annihilation for both sides. In humanity's defence, the Kiran's ambassador had put the head of his human counterpart in his mouth and the creature had a frightening amount of teeth. The man's guards couldn't have possibly known that this was a friendly greeting to the other party.

Onoelle nodded, a smile on her face. It was a ridiculous story and despite that it had lead to over two billion casualties on both sides three centuries ago she still found it hilarious.

'So that leads me to the next question. What has he gone through that made him this way?'

The door to Doctor Eisel's room slid open soundlessly, only the soft whistle of displaced air alerting the tired man of the event. Eisel wasn't young anymore, well in his fifties, but where his mind was still as sharp as ever the man who now entered had retained both that and his physical fitness. Eisel jumped at attention, saluting Admiral Verloff.

'Sir!' shouted the surprised scientist.

'At ease Doctor.' The Admiral subjected the tired Doctor to his best scrutinising gaze and the man appropriately wilted under it.

'I heard you have been trying to bluff your way into the communication centre? That curious about the outcome of the operation? You know you don't have clearance. I ought to lock you up for trying to bribe and threaten my security personnel.'

The Doctor's eyes went over the highly decorated veteran in front of him before he sagged with relief. 'The operation was successful then. Thank God.'

'Hmph. Didn't take you for the religious sort.'

'I'm not, sir. Would you like to take a seat?'

'I would, actually. Sit down as well. I've come to give you the report in person.'

'Sir?'

'Your freaks performed as expected. Better than expected. The entire fleet is now in our hands and is making it's way to our inner zones. You will be part of the crew dedicated to reverse engineering them.'

Admiral Verloff grinned as he saw the scientist fiddle with his hands, visibly hungry for more. The man might have a razor sharp mind, but he was understandably worried about the creatures he had created. They were like children to him. While he still despised what Project Genesis represented, he had managed to move past his disgust for the soldiers in question. It was hard to hate the people bleeding and dying on the front line. He was far too much of a soldier himself to do so. He hated the idea they represented but the Genesis soldiers themselves? No, they were soldiers. Under his command. More or less.

'In order to take the entire fleet we deployed the entirety of Project Genesis. Two thousand and five hundred soldiers. Alongside them we deployed three full battalions of Special Boarding troops. Another twelve thousand men and women. The best of the best that we still had after the disasters that our previous boarding missions were. Roughly two thirds of my men are dead, Doctor. Eight thousand six hundred and forty-three casualties.' The last was said in a whisper and the Admiral was pleased to see the man in front of him blanch at the number.

Eisel closed his eyes for a few seconds before nodding once and opening them. 'I am sorry to hear that Admiral.'

The honesty in the doctor's voice surprised him. Verloff hadn't expected that from a guy who played God.

'And what of mine, if I may ask?'

'A hundred and twelve dead spread across all their platoons.' The Doctor practically collapsed with relief. 'Your freaks employed hit and run tactics whenever possible to keep themselves from being overwhelmed. My men couldn't move as fast as yours, nor did they have the same equipment.' Bitterness crept in his voice. 'Your soldiers used mine as bait in the end and hit the enemy from behind again and again. The units that took the most casualties were the ones aboard ships where my men were slaughtered to the last and yours ended up getting pinned.'

'Sir I—'

'Shut up. I don't want to hear any excuses, they did what was most efficient and I will not blame anyone but the enemy. I have read the reports. Our gauss weaponry utterly failed to properly penetrate the bugs carapace. It is equal to our body armour. And apparently they have critters bred to fight in melee that are even tougher. My men were ill equipped for the fight and worst of all the fuckers used plasma. Plasma Doctor! Inside a ship! I remember laughing when I read that you wanted to equip your superfreaks with bloody repulsors. Now it seemed that it was the right choice. Luckily enough for us it seems that the bugs aren't well versed in ground pounder combat, but my officers reported that the bugs adapted and learned in the field as they were being cut down. We still need more intel and we need it fast. We'll hold the fort for now, rebuild our fleet up to spec and then we'll go on the offensive. In that regards I've come to give you your damned promotion!'

The Admiral seemed to deflate after hurling those words.

'We achieved a great victory today, but you know how the Empire is. The Houses will act up again, becoming more uppity. You need a rank to be able to hold your ground against them. If we lose the slight advantage that we have gained because our oh so noble merchants want to earn more, we'll lose our window to strike back. We need our fleets to possess the bug technology, because I don't think those things are as stupid as some of us would like to believe. They know we have their technology and they'll come after us in force. They'll learn from their mistakes and we won't be able to use this trick again. Not now that it worked. Do you have something to drink in this damned office? I could use it.'

Doctor Eisel quickly hurried over to his cabinet and pulled two shot glasses and a dark-green bottle out of it, offering one to the high ranking officer.

'Tequila? You surprise me.'

Eisel shrugged and poured the man a glass, which he downed instantly. As he did with the second and third, before finally pausing at the fourth. Eisel sat down again, waiting patiently for the man to speak. He and the Admiral had never been on the best of terms but they were both united by the gargantuan task of safeguarding the Empire. Knowing the truth, not the lies the media spun to the populace at large or the self delusion that the Merchant Houses cloaked themselves in, had brought them further together, even though their ideals and beliefs were vastly different. Only their absolute loyalty to the Empire had united them before.

'You'll be made General. Full General. None of the lieutenant or colonel bullshit. You'll be placed directly underneath me and I've been given command of just about half of our entire fleet, of every ship we have. Our diplomatic corps has gotten us some new intel as well. Seems like the Kra'lagh are going in for the full genocide and any allies,' he spat the word, 'we had are now looking at us as if we're a chicken ready to be plucked. The Empire stands alone, Eisel. Not even the other human nations are willing to stick their neck in, treaties be damned. It is us against the universe.'

The Admiral turned to look the Doctor in the eyes.

'So we're going to burn the universe. Your men will be reorganised into the Genesis Battalion. You will be given full command of that and I'll work closely with you to employ your superhuman bastards. You'll be in charge of the massive R&D department that will be linked with the unit as well. They'll be used as the tip of the spear once our fleet gets going. Reconnaissance in force, kidnapping, technology theft and other generic intel recovery missions will be your main task, but if need be you'll be deployed for home defence as well. Frankly speaking you'll be all over the place but in compensation you'll get what every scientist in the military has wet dreams about. You'll have full and total control. The Emperor has decreed it. If things turn any more sour we'll have to re-institute a draft and you know how the Houses will react to that shit.'

Eisel's eyes turned sharp. 'The Emperor has decreed it?' There was a specific inflection in his voice that took the Admiral a moment to place.

'Yes, he— Oh goddammit Eisel. I'll ignore what you said and all that you implied with that. Otherwise I'd be forced to shoot you.'

'Rest assured Admiral,' the Doctor stated, standing up and walking over to his computer. 'My loyalty to the Empire is absolute.'

'It better be. You're military now, doc. Full military, not an attache. With all the privileges and responsibilities that entails. If we ever fail the Houses will take over.'

Eisel activated the holoprojector and a map of the Empire flashed into being, different colours indicating the dozens of nations surrounding it and a large swath of green indicating the Kra'lagh held areas. 'I am well aware Admiral. It is my fervent hope that we can bring the Empire towards what it was supposed to be.'

'There's the minor issue of a superior power trying to genocide us in the way, doc,' Verloff chuckled darkly. 'Not to mention our own internal strife. You know how it goes. Assume victory is on the way and everything goes to shit.'

'Yes, Admiral', Eisel darkly agreed. 'I know.'

The Admiral finished off the rest of the bottle and retreated back to his command, leaving Doctor Eisel alone with his new badge of rank and all the security clearances that were hardcoded into the small device. He rolled it between his fingers as he read through the countless after action reports. He was only partially paying attention to the task at hand. His mind was occupied elsewhere, thinking about the Empire. He had plans of his own, plans that went far beyond the current war. He had not lied to the Admiral. His loyalty to the Empire was absolute, even as he had become privy to a few very well kept secrets, the most dangerous one of them being the one in regards to the Emperor.

The Empire stood for things. For ideals. For the belief that any man could advance to the very top if he showed that he was capable. That discipline was a vital component of any functioning society and that the military was the guiding hand that led young, inexperienced men and women to greatness, pushing them to be the very best. He had been one of them a lifetime ago and the academy had seen his scientific talent and developed it until he was the Empire's most awarded scientist.

The only blight that festered in the Empire were the Merchant Houses. Egotistical, profit-driven vultures that cared not for the betterment of the Empire at large. Even though the military was heavily depended on them for running the economy at large and providing them with fleets and most of their logistic support, they were charged heavily for it. Ignore that the military was all that stood between extinction and that the men and women in it died by the thousands to keep them safe! All that mattered to them was their own wealth and comfort.

That would change, one day. But like the Admiral had said, they had a war to win first. Not just survive, no, Eisel looked past that. They needed to win and needed to do so decisively. The Empire had enemies on all fronts, facing both their own kind and aliens. They would have to beat them all to triumph. Project Genesis was the first step on that road. Becoming a General was a second. Now he had to focus on making his soldiers more efficient, more lethal. Design better equipment for them. For the Empire to win, for the military to take the place it deserved, Eisel would have to take the lead and turn his personal project into his very own mailed fist. It was a shame they lacked the materials for another battalion. He would have loved to create more of them, but the costs had been astronomical, the sheer scope of the investment alone having shown the dire straits the Empire was in. So the army he had would have to do. They would face the most gruelling of trials in the battles to come, but he would support them to the very best of his ability. In that way he had to admit that he did regard them as children in a very wrong and twisted way.

His attention was pulled back to his computer when his Supporting Intelligence, a far cry from the mythical, impossible to achieve, fully sentient Artificial Intelligence, beeped and reported him that somebody had made a request for a meeting. He opened the mail and his eyes widened in surprise.

' X-12845623 ,' he mused aloud. 'My favourite defect. What in the world would you want to speak to me about?'

'A lot,' summarised Onoelle. 'He has gone through a lot. And that is for him to tell, not me.'

She shrugged and Jane nodded. She was starting to give her friend more credit than at the start. She was financially secure and had both a house and a husband to her name and that was certainly more than Jane herself had, even if she was still wary of Leonne's husband. At the very least he seemed to be no threat to her.

'To get back to an earlier point, what makes you so sure he loves you? We were kind of sidetracked with the lust conversation and everything else, but you still haven't answered me properly.'

'That's true. It is complicated though. How would you define love? Loyalty? Trust? A promise? That takes root in the former two. We're wed, legally binding but you know as well as I do that a short call to the city hall could annul that in the blink of an eye. So what is love? Passion? There is certainly plenty of that. Caring for one another? That he does too. Providing for one another? I'm not living in poverty, am I? Then what is love? We call it an emotion but it is hard to define. Does he get butterflies in his stomach when he looks at me? I don't think he does—'

'Leonne?' Jane asked, seeing her friend go pensive and silent.

'I'll be damned,' she whispered. Jane could barely pick it up. 'He does, actually,' she corrected herself, remembering how often he just stood still to look at her with that strange smile on his face. A smile of her own brightened her features. That was a touching, romantic thought.

'And how do you define butterflies?' Jane asked, dispelling the magic and earning a solidly thrown pillow to the head for the effort.

'I'd say the love from him to me is based on a mixture of the things I mentioned before,' she continued. 'Passion. Trust. Loyalty. Care. And something he sees in me that I can't put into words but it does feel lovely when he looks at me like that.'

'Are you blushing?' came the incredulous answer.

Onoelle felt the heat on her cheeks, realised her friend was right, felt them burn even harder and responded by throwing another pillow at her.