POV: Lyra
[Still unconscious—third person observation]
Helena finally understood why she was being tortured. It wasn't because she went against the High Commander's orders and used poison. It was because the High Commander, for some reason, thought that the poison she ordered got into a being he cared about. The High Commander had feelings for the female who was with the Emperor!
Greg scoffed, which brought Tanner out of her thoughts. His eyes bore into hers as he said, "And you thought she was an accessory. Stars above, Tanner. You're a bigger idiot than I thought you were."
"I didn't terminate her. I didn't. I never sent anyone after her." She repeated in dismay.
"Who did you send Brown to terminate? Be specific this time."
"T-The instructions I gave w-was to g-get t-to one of th-their offspring. A youngling."
Greg's features hardened again. He would be the first to admit that he was a horrible being but he would never go after a minor. Tanner's offspring were way past eighteen cycles so they were technically within his reach. "You sent him after a youngling?" He asked in disbelief, and she nodded while averting her gaze from his.
He started thinking again, recalling the scene at the medical station. He did see a youngling next to that now-infertile female matched to Christian. He thought that his distant cousin had adopted an offspring. But now that he thought about it, he wondered if that youngling was the one Brown was after. He faced Tanner again and asked, "How was the youngling supposed to be eliminated?"
"X-Xytherium."
"How much?"
"I-I don't know. B-But he said that it would be m-more than e-enough."
Greg shook his cranial area in disgust as he uttered demeaningly, "What a coward you are, Tanner. Lost the adults and now after their minor. An easier target, I suppose."
She kept insisting, "I didn't do that to the Empress. I didn't. It wasn't my contract. Brown was probably acting on another client's instructions."
"No, he wasn't." Greg said. "It was your instructions but it was a termination gone wrong."
Tanner's red and teary optical organs widened in surprise. Greg scoffed darkly again as he spoke patronizingly, "You don't really know anything, do you, Tanner? You don't know how to take precautions. You can't cover your tracks. You don't know how to avoid using poison. Void, you don't even know who to hire as a proper assassin."
He pinned her neck to the wall and said menacingly, "The youngling you wanted to terminate is alive. You know why? Because the Empress saved him. The Empress took that Xytherium blade you ordered for the youngling. She saved the youngling, and she was rendered..." Greg took a heavy breath and his eyes glistened in anger before he finished his sentence with the word, "...unconscious."
Tanner's eyes got wider and wider as she processed what Greg said. She then muttered to herself, "No. No. No."
Greg then said, "Tell me you weren't stupid enough to leave a cocky note for the intended victim." When he saw her trying to avert her guilty-looking eyes even further than they already were, he sighed in frustration as he remarked, "Hopeless."
"Please. Spare my family. They don't know about this. They're innocent. Please."
Greg tightened his grip around her throat and said, "Shut up. Here's what you're going to do the moment I release you. Listen very carefully and do as I say this time. Am I clear?"
She nodded without hesitation, and Greg continued, "You will go to security and confess that you hired Brown. You will tell them that you ordered a youngling to be terminated. And you WILL insist on the highest form of punishment from them. Not termination. That's not the highest. Torture. Neural whipping. Joint-breaking. Electrocution until you pass out. Those kinds of things. And no one can know that I was here. No one can know that I'm asking you to do what I'm sure you will do. If you disobey me, your offspring are at my disposal, as is your match. Do I make myself clear?"
Her complexion was turning paler by the second, especially when Greg listed the types of punishments that he wanted her to ask for. But when she thought about her family, she could only nod with optical fluid streaming down her face. Greg threw her body on the ground one last time and left with his males. When they exited the compound, Greg asked his males, "Are the disabled surveillance systems back on?"
"Yes, Your Excellency."
"The missing part from when we were there?"
"Replaced with the copy from the previous night."
"Good. We're done for the night. I'll get your commander to disburse the credits."
Greg only took two steps before one of them said, "Your Excellency, we still have the Xytherium dosage you asked for. Do you want to hold onto it or..."
"Return it to your department. If they offer a refund, you two split it. Treat it as a tip for a job well done tonight."
"T-Thank you, Your Excellency. That's very generous of you. We'll take our leave now." Xytherium was expensive because it's illegal and because of the tedious process to synthesize it. So, a tip from the return of that poison was almost the amount the males were being paid for the job they were doing for Greg that night.
Greg checked his chronometer, and pondered on what he wanted to do next. His cousins had the real audits. Maybe not all of it but even the most recent ones could get him and the beings he colluded with into significant trouble with security. And those two were real sticklers when it came to the law, so much so that they were almost blind to all the pathetically-conspicuous holes in the system.
But something seemed off. If they had the data, what were they waiting for? Why were his associates still free and had no clue what was going on? Trying to see how his cousins would think got him nowhere. He knew them. They didn't think very far. They could spell the word 'strategy' but they didn't know what that word entailed. And his two cousins were very reactive. They'd act on the first piece of evidence that they got. If they got the audits, they wouldn't have waited.
Greg then pictured me, and he sighed in bliss. How would she think? She was smart, and his two cousins listened to her. Void! Even he listened to her. What could she have said to get them to wait? What was she waiting for? Out of nowhere, he muttered, "Lyra, how are you thinking about this?"
He knew that he had to leave soon. They were about to get caught, and he was not going to stick around to wait for that to happen. It wasn't just the audits. Security would no doubt question Tanner's willingness to confess. And if I got his cousin to use his Emperor's Authority now, his cousin would obey like a good little subordinate and use it. And whatever happened this whole night would be exposed.
The only thing he would miss after leaving was stealing those glimpses of the Empress. When she smiles, laughs, shouts. Hmph. Greg chuckled at how pitiful he sounded when it came to me. Who knew there'd come a day when he would fall for someone. His cardiac pump was never stolen but he had willingly given it to her, a Kaelari. She wasn't even a Lyrokan and he didn't care. He didn't see the point in challenging his cousin to claim her. The way she looked at Greg himself was clear. She wouldn't be happy with him. And he didn't want her to be unhappy.
Greg's sights somehow went to the distant nebula visible through the station's transparisteel ceiling, its purple swirls bright against the dark void. He then said, "You did this on purpose, didn't you? This is my punishment. You made me fall in love with someone I can never have, bonding her to the being I hate the most. You're lucky I want her to be happy. Otherwise, I would've terminated that cousin of mine who you are giving EVERYTHING to."
He sighed and took out his comm-device to call the medical station. After one signal, someone accepted and Greg said, "I'd like to know the Empress's status."
"We're only allowed to release that information to authorized family members. May I know who this is?"
Greg bit his lip before he said, "Christian Blackfur. The High Commander. I was with the Emperor during the bio-fluid transfusion to extract the Xytherium."
Greg mentioned the transfusion and the poison to indicate that he was on the medical station level with the rest of the party, and prayed that the technician on the line wouldn't ask for further identification details because he only vaguely remembered his distant cousin's identification code. If he told her who he really was, there was a chance that the technician was not 'authorized' to give him information on me, and he was not taking that chance. He had to know how I was.
"Oh, Your Excellency." The technician believed him. No data-journalist got word that the Empress was poisoned by Xytherium yet so that detail convinced the technician that Greg was really Christian.
She seemed more polite and friendly when she said, "Well, everything's good with her so far. So, uh, you already know she's breathing on her own and her vitals have returned to normal now. A doctor checked her fifteen minutes ago, he said everything is fine. She's still in rest mode. Would you like me to tell the Emperor you called, Your Excel—"
"No. That won't be necessary. Thank you. Have a good night." Greg said and ended transmission. Before he fled the sector and disappeared without a trace, there was one more thing he had to do. So, he went back to his habitat and stepped on it.