***Tirnanog, Hochberg***

***Astra***

“This thing looks like it hasn’t gotten any attention for a century,” Magnus complained while he wiped off the dusty touch-screen with a cleaning rag. The device flickered to announce its displeasure, switching back and forth between displaying two messages. 'Power Saving' and 'Maintenance Mode'.

My partner shook his head. “A little more power would be nice.”

One of the technicians went to adjust a power generator which rattled softly in the hallway outside. It was a cobbled-together machine which ran on plant oil, far less sophisticated than what we had in Aerie.

I took a look around the room while Magnus mumbled his complaints and tapped the screen.

Sarah had picked us up early in the morning. Protected by an entire detachment of guards, our delegation had enjoyed a short tour of the surface settlement.

Magnus was very interested in Hochberg's architectural style. He mentioned Egyptians and Incans several times while we passed through the impressive fortress city. The Hochberg had inadvertently copied the building styles of two ancient cultures from Earth. As far as I understood, their defining feature was layering huge and precisely cut rocks on top of each other.

My partner immediately came up with a conspiracy theory of someone trying to revive the past.

The possibility existed, but I would rather believe in a more practical explanation – owed to the lack of other building materials.

What do you do when you have nothing but rocks to build your house? You pile up rocks.

What do you do to make it stable and durable? You take big rocks.

What do you do when you have a population of super-strong people? You take even bigger rocks.

And let's be honest here, there were only so many ways to pile up rocks without having them crumble on top of you. It wasn't necessary to explain the similarities any other way.

Thankfully, we went over one of the bridges to the other mountain fortress before Magnus's theories could get too wild.

Then the Hochberg took us deep down into the bedrock on which their fortress city was built. The narrow corridors immediately reminded me of Mount Aerie.

What Magnus called Incan architecture gave way to walls lined with rusty sheets of metal and degraded plastic. It was the old, original settlement which had given rise to Clan Hochberg.

Unlike at Mount Aerie, where the old colony had turned into the settlement’s heart, Hochberg had abandoned most of the old facilities and built their colony on top of the twin rocks. Now, the old facilities lay largely abandoned except for the parts which were used as storage spaces and cellars.

Down here, we entered a room which reminded me strongly of the Hall of Law in form and size. But the computer wasn’t being used as a podium, nor was there a half-circle of tables for the elders.

Instead, there had been several cubicles which housed offices in the past and a thick layer of dust covered everything. It looked like the people had just picked up everything of use and left.

In their efforts to get power down here, Hochberg technicians had cleaned up most of the half-withered furniture, only to find out that the computer still had an old power line supplying it with just enough energy for standby operation. This wasn’t enough to get the big screen running.

“There was never a reason to maintain the old tech down here,” Tianna explained. She was standing to the side, so she wouldn't get in the way of the technicians who busied themselves with tidying up the place while Magnus gave orders. “Which makes me wonder why the computer still had power. Someone must have been maintaining it.”

“Another indication that there are Forgotten operatives within our ranks,” Vanya commented. “I’ll urge our people to find out why this thing was left untouched down here. The whole matter reeks of someone playing for the other side. At least it looks like they don’t have a lot of manpower.”

“Why do you say that?” Tianna asked.

Vanya gestured at the computer. “If they had the influence, they would have done a better job at maintaining the power supply. It would have also been prudent to wage a campaign to make us forget about the computer’s existence. Like it happened at Aerie. The fact that it didn’t happen makes me hope there are fewer Forgotten operatives in Hochberg.”

She looked at me with a grin, but I didn’t fall for the insinuation of Aerie lacking the necessary vigilance to prevent insurgence.

The matriarch was surrounded by a group of guards who felt like elders if I was any judge of power.

Our hosts had upped the security at this meeting, so I had no intention of causing an incident because of pride.

“I suppose it will be the same with all the clans,” Magnus commented happily. Whatever the technician outside had done, it worked. The console showed now the same login screen as the computer back at Aerie.

Magnus inserted the data stick into the intended slot and typed in his password. “Earth is using these systems to monitor the former colonies.”

He hit ‘enter’ and was greeted by… an error message.

ERROR!

Please try again. You have two more attempts before the system is locked down!

Vanya snorted. “I expected something like this. After you barred them from Aerie's system, Earth must have changed the access codes remotely. They would have been foolish not to react after weeks of losing contact. The question is, how will you prove you ever had the correct password?”

“Don’t fret without knowing the whole story,” Magnus replied and pressed on the panel which held the touchscreen until it clicked. “My people studied this system and schooled me on its intricacies. Earth may be able to lock us out of the software from their side, but as long as we have direct hardware access and they do not, we have all the leverage we need.”

He lifted the touchscreen off the panel, revealing a cable connector, some empty sockets, and a generous amount of sealing material. Whoever had built the system decided to seal everything which didn’t need direct access with glue.

“You see, these are civilian systems built for industrial use. The ones who designed these computers never had something like a kill command or military-level access denial in mind. Well, they had, but only regarding hackers and cybercrime. In their minds, a hacker shouldn’t ever have direct access to the hardware. Which is why they implemented a reset option for system maintenance. Just in case someone took control of the system from the outside. These extremely expensive computers were meant to overlook even more expensive hardware, so downtime costs lots of money. What do you do if a minute of standstill costs you hundreds of thousands? You implement a fail-save to get the system up and running as quickly as possible.”

Magnus took two screwdrivers and shorted two terminals for five seconds before the screen went black. Once he took them away, he reattached the touchscreen which was quick to show ‘Reboot...’ and lines of code began running past.

“Why didn’t the original settlers reboot their system if it is so easy?” I asked.

Magnus shrugged. “I doubt anyone knew of the feature. The computers were maintenance-free as far as it concerned the settlers. That’s why they chose them. And this feature isn’t something you would write into a user manual. Maybe a select few knew, just in case something happened. But since Earth planned for Tirnanog’s fate, those people would have been silenced before they implemented their plan.”

Finally, the screen flashed and once again showed the normal login window.

“Ahh, aren't factory resets a wondrous thing?” Magnus cracked his knuckles and repeated the login procedure to set a new password. Seconds later, he was inside the system and to the Hochbergs' awe, the supercomputer came back to life.

Not even Vanya could hide the excitement in her eyes. To Tianna's mirth, Vanya was the first at the device, tapping away at icons to see what they did.

“Vanya!” Tianna raised her voice. “Do you even know what you are doing?”

The matriarch rolled her eyes. “I have used some of the old tablets which are under the ministry's supervision. It's not like I don't know what a computer does.”

“Ahem!” Magnus cleared his throat. “If I may? Or do you feel capable of setting up a proper security protocol to keep Earth out?”

The girl who had gotten carried away with a new toy clicked her tongue. “You may proceed – after you create administrator accounts for us.”

I raised an eyebrow and studied the girl. She knew more about computers than I would have expected. Back at Aerie, we had some working systems, but they were treated like holy artefacts by the fifth strata. Getting enough time to become familiar with a device was rare. I certainly had not gotten the chance to collect experience with Earth’s technology – except for the very basic music player I could call my own.

“As you wish.” Magnus gave a mocking bow and went to work.

Seeing our chance, I signalled Peter to join us and stepped closer to Vanya and Tianna who were watching Magnus like firehorns their nest.

“I hope this gesture of friendship will be taken as intended by our allies.”

Vanya looked up at me and smiled while she stroked her hair. “Your fantastic story just got a lot more believable. I may be inclined to forget about you snooping around our colony.”

“Whatever do you mean?” I asked.

“Your little stroll,” Tianna clarified. “I have no definite proof, so we will treat it as if nothing happened. Just don't get yourself into trouble while you are on our turf.”

“Theoretically, if someone from our delegation left the docks, then only to make sure the evidence would arrive at the proper authorities.” I smiled.

Tianna frowned at me. “I still would like to know how you got away without anyone seeing you.”

Vanya rolled her eyes. “I already told you. She is a speedster.”

The advisor grimaced. “Nobody is so fast that people can't see them anymore! Especially not when they are newly partnered and didn't have time to grow their skills. Astra partnered just a season ago.”

Vanya clicked her tongue. “Well, she doesn't need to be superhuman if she has Precognition and some Sensory mutation. She just has to wait for the right moment and move while nobody is looking her way, then stop when someone is looking. Even if someone saw her appear or disappear within their peripheral vision, most people without mental augmentations would simply think they are imagining things. Those with augmentations might just ignore her when she is zipping down the main traffic route. Powerful speedsters are uncommon but hardly unheard of.”

I smiled at the girl, wondering what would happen if she ever managed to find a suitable partner to complement her mental abilities. She would be a hellion.

If Vanya and Tianna knew our true capabilities, they would hardly allow us as close to the matriarch as they did right now.

“On that note.” Vanya turned her attention towards Thalia who was watching the proceedings. “You are no longer hiding? It's rare for me to meet someone who can block my abilities so completely.”

Thalia inclined her head. “It's rare for me to meet someone whose skill I can acknowledge without reservation. Let's just say playing the silent overseer is rude when I am already uncovered.”

The matriarch tilted her head. “You were also present at the Thich attack on Aerie’s recruiters?”

Thalia nodded.

“Care to show me?” Vanya asked. “I understand, people unlike us have some reservations against rummaging through the minds and memories of others.”

“I also avoid using my abilities to interfere with others unduly,” Thalia stated primly. “But I might be uniquely suited to show you a few selected memories of the events as I perceived them.”

She held out a hand and the girl came closer to take it before they froze. A minute passed before they separated.

“You are good. Either what you showed me is true, or you are far better at this than I am.” Vanya clapped her hands together. “I hope you will join us at the feast once Magnus sets up our UI. I understand it’s highly unconventional to invite others to eat together, but Tianna proved some humour when I tasked her with organizing something official.”

“I admit, I didn’t truly believe it would work,” Tianna admitted. “Our selection will be accordingly meagre.”

“It will be my pleasure,” Thalia replied politely. She didn’t mention how it would have looked if unlocking Hochberg’s UI hadn’t worked.

Finding the system to be identical to Aerie’s, it didn’t take Magnus very long to set up Hochberg’s supercomputer with the same features.

Soon enough, the Hochberg’s glazed-over expressions left no doubt about the UI working.

It took some more time to clean up the system and to train a group of attentive Hochberg on its functions, but somehow we managed to join the aforementioned feast by late afternoon.

It took place in a generous hall back at the western fortress city. The wall to our right was set up with a banquet of different foods – mostly things which would have been safe to eat for anyone even before Hochberg’s UI was unlocked.

The one thing which found favour among everyone was a hot stone setup which allowed people to try various types of meat, vegetables and spices of their own accord.

We were dining with Tianna, Vanya, and her guardians in a U-shaped setup.

Vanya was sitting at the bottom of the U while we had taken the right. The seats across from our delegation were still suspiciously empty. Thankfully, a messenger had forewarned Peter about the other guests.

My expectations were proven right when the doors to the hall banged open and ten disgruntled-looking Thich strolled into the room.

One of them quickly took the lead and approached Vanya until the guards stopped her.

“What is the meaning of this?” the woman asked while ignoring our presence completely.

“Meaning of what?” Vanya returned the question while she chewed on a piece of meat. She had taken her time tasting herself through everything on offer. “And hello to you too, Dejana. I wondered why you were taking your time.”

“This!” The woman pointed at her eyes. “UI! Do you want to land all of us in hot water with Earth, child!?”

Vanya didn’t even blink. “As far as I am concerned, we were already in ‘hot water’ with Earth. Additionally, our friends from Aerie had quite a few interesting things to share about what your people have been up to.”

The matriarch shook her head. “At first, I thought their story to be too far-fetched to hold any credibility. Plus, it was entirely contractionary with what you have been telling us this past winter. But where your delegation could only give me hot air and promises, Aerie has produced at least some evidence. I assume you know what I am talking about?”

Dejana crossed her arms. “We do not.”

“Hm.” Vanya looked towards us. “Anything to say?”

I sighed and got to my feet. “Clan Aerie requires Clan Thich to give an official statement in regard to your collaboration with Earth, your secret breeding program, and your attack on our recruitment expedition. There is no point in denying anything. We have witnesses who can be examined by your choice of empaths and telepaths. Or any other mutation which allows truth assessment.”

Dejana finally granted us her attention. “And what happens if we do not comply?”

“Then Clan Aerie will make use of addendum five in the peace treaty. We will send a punitive force to the Old Camp and kick your people out. Hopefully with Clan Hochberg as a neutral supervisor. In case you keep refusing to explain, Clan Aerie will officially declare war on Clan Thich.”

“You will declare war on us?” Dejana snorted and walked further up to the table. “You don’t even know what war is, child.”

“I may not know what war is, but I have seen my fair share of fighting,” I retorted. “Our elders have already made their decision. We are only speaking for them.”

Dejana turned to face Vanya. “Then we demand to be allowed to leave. It is fairly obvious that Clan Hochberg and Clan Aerie already have their set opinions about Clan Thich.”

The matriarch frowned. “After your reaction to the UI, I don’t think so. The later Thich learns about it, the better. You may be protected by the treaty thanks to your status as emissaries. But if Aerie’s claims are true, then your people have broken the treaty and you are no longer protected. I would advise you to stay here with us until someone can verify the state of things with your leadership.”

“Then I demand a trial by combat.” Dejana smiled devilishly. “And just to show our benevolence in regards to these false accusations, we will have it to first blood instead of death. If my representative wins you let us go. If he doesn’t, we stay.”

I frowned and looked at Peter. “Can they do that?”

Peter massaged the bridge of his nose. “The trial is meant to prove one’s honour and skill to another clan. To risk your life in a duel and receive a boon. It has nothing to do with whether you are at war with the other party or not. Though, I would argue we have no reason to grant them this opportunity.”

“Ah, but would Clan Jeng and Clan Vier consent to future relations if you betrayed the traditions?” Dejana pointed out.

Vanya clicked her tongue. “She has us there. No matter whether we are inclined not to honour the traditions. If anything of it came to the ears of the other clans, it might impact relations negatively.”

“No problem!” Magnus stood up and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. “I’ll be damned if they are allowed to run because nobody dared to give them a proper beating.”