Siha woke to an empty room. The hospital blanket coiled and bundled around her as she struggled to leave its grip. During this, she realized that she was no longer snuggled cozily next to her savior. His scent had disappeared.

Where could he be? she wondered. Where has he gone?

With the lights off, her only choice at this moment was to smell for the Soft Skin who had saved her. When she took her first sniff, however, she halted. There was no one in the rooms surrounding her. Curious as to why, she wraps the blanket around her and sneaks through the hallways of the empty hospital. One by one, she followed her senses as she sought the Soft Skin enigma.

He acted quite differently than what the stories told. The stories told only of Soft Skins who would come to her world only to fight and enslave her people. With that in mind, her first thought was that he would do the same. But seeing as he had saved her in her most vulnerable moment, Siha had an overwhelming degree of trust in him.

Siha knew that while she slept, he would always keep an eye on her. He almost felt like the sacred guardians of her people. Nauglamr, or Silent Fangs, as her people called them. Protectors of the spirit realm. He just had that mystical edge to him that reminded her of those mythical protectors.

As Siha bounded down one hallway and down a staircase, she grinds to a halt as she catches a whiff of the Soft Skin’s scent. Skulking through the faintly lit hallway, she stops at the door leading to the physical therapy area. Slowly peeking her nose around the door, she smells Alastair in the middle of an open room.

Opening her eyes, Siha is greeted with a darkened room. The moonlight shines brightly through the windows, affording her an uninhibited view of the Alastair sitting in the center of the moonlight. With half-lidded eyes, she shivers as the glowing garnet eyes stare off into space.

He seems… at peace. Siha thinks as she shuffles past the doorway to join him. Before she takes a step inside however, a clanging noise echoes out behind her followed by fervent cursing.

As curious as any child can be, Siha sneaks toward the source of the sound. After crossing a bend in the hallway, she spies a barely opened door with light sneaking out through the crack. Shuffling forward, she makes out some bits of a one-sided conversation. It didn’t take Siha long to recognize the voice.

“…f I wanted some half-baked theory, I would have asked for it sergeant.” Derek says bluntly. “All I need from you is the Artefact.”

Unintelligible bits of sound whisper through the pda held to his ear.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have alerted them! I have enough on my plate as it is, so just deliver the Artefact to—no. No, no. I don’t care what Captain Castor says. My clearance supersedes his in this regard. If push comes to shove, tell him to take it up with me.” Derek continues before ending the conversation, “Do not, I repeat, do not under any circumstance deliver the Artefact straight to the scientists aboard Ramaeus Station. Bring it to Argus Tower.”

Just as soon as he finished he snaps the pda down and punches in another number.

“Connect me to the Primarch. Authorization code: 87—” Seeing that the conversation had changed, Siha vanishes back into the shadows. Siha knew that the safest place for her amongst a planet full of hostiles, was being near one who acted honorably.

It would be a while before she could get back to her home planet.

This is more than I expected. Derek thinks as he surveys the area.

The conference room was bathed with light as several chairs lay either empty or half filled by the holographic figures of several senators. At first, Derek had meant for his call to update the Primarch on the next phase of the Project SCION. What Derek didn’t know was that he had been pulled into an impromptu hearing by several senators.

He recognized each of them. Each one of considerable influence while also keeping the company of an envoy. Keeping his eyes low, he evaluated each of them in turn.

On the left side of the table sat Senator Vaina and Senator Promin. Vaina is a petite woman who has a penchant for sticking her fingers in quite a lot of pies. He knew this because she worked in tandem with Director Tal. Sometimes working to cover his political side while she was told interesting tidbits of information to give her a leg up in the ‘Great Game.’ Promin, on the other hand, is an elderly man with a mane of grey hair and bright orange eyes. Being the head of the Psionis Brigade had its perks seeing as they often held a sizeable vote whenever it came to the betting rounds.

On the other side of the table sat Senator McCoy and Senator Banett. McCoy is a wiry fellow who holds the popular majority vote regarding several sizeable regions of Mars Shipyard Conglomerate. The Mars Shipyard Conglomerate usually never weighed in on political matters. Every now and then, however, they would stretch their considerable reach. Oftentimes, only in matters that involved the entirety of the Human Alliance. Banett, however, held an altogether different pressure. Banett was the head human ambassador of the alien embassies. Should anything happen to the envoys, or the envoys do something that requires human oversight, he is the one who deals with it all.

The four senators from different parts of the Sol system had joined the Primarch in the hearing. Usually when any hearing numbered more than three senators, it meant that something big was happening behind closed doors. Given Derek’s lack of oversight on his own self-proclaimed vacation, and being the overall commander-in-chief of the human military forces, it isn’t hard to see why.

After the last hour or so involved him getting chewed out by this swarm of politicians, it looked to be that they were going to go their separate ways.

“Great,” Derek mutters too low for the transceivers to pick up, “nothing like being shish kebabbed in your own meeting.” He had hoped that he could broach the subject of the Spacers with them.

“What was that?” Luciana asks, his temper cooling.

“Luci, if you’d—”

“I would caution your choice of words, Ramaeus.” Vaina says calmly. “The Great Game requires us to not be away for an inordinate length of time. If you have something to say, speak quickly.”

Derek breathes in deeply before steeling his resolve. If he was to have any luck with this coming topic, he would have to state it succinctly.

“I wish to put someone forward as the Spacer Representative within the Great Game.”

“…”

Unease, mottled with trace specks of uncertainty spreads thickly throughout the room. It wasn’t visible on the politicians faces, but it was still there. Cutting through it would be one of the harder things he had done today.

“Isn’t it a bit early before we start allowing applications for the role of Spacer Representative?” Banett inquires, his voice low and heavy. He knew more than most why it was such a sensitive request.

“Indeed. It is too early for the Spacers to have their own representative in the Game.” Promin added.

As the group breaks into a full-blown conference trying to find the various reasons for the Spacer representation, Derek shuffles from one foot to the next, trying to find the right words to say. He knew something like this would happen as soon as he broached the subject, but he didn’t know how it would be resolved. It was one of the many things that he didn’t know how to do.

Despite Derek’s trepidation on the matter, he didn’t recognize that the conversation had ended. The senators had already started staring at him in the quiet room.

“Sorry. You were saying?” Derek asks as he folds his hands behind his back.

“What are your motives in this, Ramaeus?” Luciana responds, knowing full well that Derek doesn’t bring up something without due importance.

“I—”

“You found a Ruler.” Vaina interrupts, comprehension dawning on her face. The other senators break out of existence as they rush to find out what it is they know. Hushed whispers sound from each empty chair as their aides struggle to find the meaning of such a statement.

“Clarification please?” Luciana asks.

The senators return to their seats, pensive thoughts leak across their faces. Faces carefully crafted into masks of stone.

“A Ruler is someone with the capability to rule. Not in the same way as we know it, but as either a single, or multiple, themes. Each them a rulership given by the Gods. More often than not, they are only known by their theme’s influence in their dimension.”

“How is that possible? It hasn’t even been a week since they got here!” McCoy remarks.

“You have to remember that our rules of leadership do not necessarily apply in the same way on the other side of the Veil. To them, it is more like a set of guidelines to which someone may be elevated. Only the Gods know of such things.” Vaina replied. Turning to Derek she asks, “So who is it, Commander?”

Derek shuffles once more in place before responding.

“Originally, he was meant to be a participant in Project SCION. As it stands, his name is Alastair Thawn. I was present when he seemed to unshackle a piece of his power. Apparently it was enough for the Gods to name him The Crimson King. From what I can tell, he holds governance over certain aspects of life energy.”

Promin sits up quickly, excitement growing in his eyes. It wasn’t long after that he started firing questions off at a mile a minute. “What kind of life energy? Is it restricted to his psionic tuning? Is it usable in the Astral Realm? What is its purpose? What are its limitations?…”

Before Derek could answer, Luciana rumbles out, “I believe the more pressing question is how long before he turns on us.”

Derek pauses, unsure of which question to answer first.

“If I can get him to finish the Project, I should be able to keep him on amicable terms with us. If not… well we can—”

“Don’t even think of pushing it off till later. If he becomes unstable, who do you think will bear the brunt of the feedback from the public?”

“Erm—”

“If there is to be any way to be sure, we need to find his limitations and use them as leverage.” said McCoy. “I believe a suitable way to find out such limitations is through the Commanders previous statement. Put him forward as the Spacer Representative.”

“Agreed.” Promin and Banett state. All eyes turn to Derek once more.

“Do you believe he will accept the position?” Luciana asks, his tone hardening. This was not an avenue of choice that he was comfortable with.

“If I stress the situation correctly, yes. He seems to be of an honorable sort so asking him with a specific purpose in mind would help drive him towards accepting.” Derek replies. From what little he knew of Alastair, he could bend the facts enough to where he could be coerced into the position.

“It would have to be a temporary position then.” said Vaina. “From what I can tell, the Spacers are an adaptable lot and are almost always on the move.”

“In that case, do we have any Games that require an extra player?” Promin inquires.

“I believe the alien envoys are in need of a healer for the team match, ‘Battle Circle’, in a couple days and need a player.” Luciana states. “‘Ask’ him if he is interested. Call it an ‘instructional demonstration of the capabilities of the Spacers.’”

Derek sighs before nodding his head in acquiescence.

“Very well.”