The Price of Conquest

Seated alone in the small, austere reception area of the former United Galaxy Patrol base outside of Vsatt, Vsuna's capital city, Kressa Bryant held the Gendzet amulet up before her, dangling it from its fine silver chain. The room's harsh lighting glinted off the primitive designs embossed on the small silver disk and drew violet flashes from the purple crystal affixed to one side.

The amulet plucked gently at Kressa's consciousness with its familiar psychic presence. She wrapped her hand around it, closed her eyes, and felt for it with her awareness. Instantly, the psychic pull increased, and the amulet glowed dimly in her mind's eye.

"Commander Vel will see you now," a voice said over the room's comm.

Kressa opened her eyes in time to see a door across the room slide open.

She rose to her feet, slipped the amulet's chain over her head, and stepped through the opening into the unadorned office beyond.

Commander Dania Vel sat behind the room's plain metal desk. She looked up, pushed the fingers of both hands through her mane of dark brown hair, and leaned back in her chair. The skin around her brown eyes crinkled with her welcoming smile.

"Hey, kiddo. How are you?"

Kressa glanced around the room and quirked a lighthearted sneer. "A little surprised to find Vsuna's new ruler in a drab place like this."

Vel chuckled. "We've got a bit of a Free World government set up now, so I turned the whole 'ruler' thing—and the nice offices that go with it—over to those with a bit more desire to try running a planet. The fleet's my only concern, which is just the way I like it."

"Vsuna ruled by a Free World government," Kressa mused. "I like the sound of that."

"I know what you mean." The commander motioned her into a chair. "What brings you back to Vsuna?"

"I'm looking for Nait."

"About the Gendzet thing?"

Kressa touched the amulet, and the psychic tug strengthened again. "Yeah."

"So you've decided to go through with it," Vel said.

"I think so. I at least have to talk to Nait about it. I assume he gave me the amulet as an invitation to look into finding a Gendzet teacher."

"You really think you've got psi potential?"

Kressa nodded. "My mother was Nepurhan royalty. Not particularly high-placed, but still from one of The Families. They're supposed to carry the genes. And enough strange stuff has happened to me over the years to make me think I might carry them, too. So, is Nait around?"

Vel shook her head. "He left a few days ago. Off to Ilek, as I understand it."

Kressa wondered if she should be worried for him. The United Galaxy had outlawed the Gendzet order. Simply possessing a Gendzet amulet was grounds for immediate arrest on any United Galaxy world, a law inspired by the United Galaxy rulers' fear of anything they did not understand or could not control. Ilek, the home of the Gendzets, was a United Galaxy world.

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"Is he coming back?" she asked Vel.

"In a week or so. Can you wait for him?"

"I don't have anything better to do."

"I might have an answer to that. A friend of mine is in town for a few days. He's been pestering me to introduce him to someone he can spend some time with. He knows Vsuna well. He could take you around, show you how we've recovered from the uprising, let you know that life goes on, better than it was before, even after everything that happened."

Kressa considered the offer. She had worked directly with Commander Vel aboard the Vsunan flagship during the uprising that freed the planet from its United Galaxy overlords less than a month earlier, allowing it to join the ranks of the Free Worlds. Despite the success of the uprising, her strongest memories of it remained the horrific amount of death and destruction she witnessed in the battle's aftermath. Vel was probably right about the healing effects of getting out to see how quickly life could return to normal.

"Sounds like fun," she said.

"Great. I'll give Jarrel a call and set up a time for the two of you to meet."

* * *

Kressa ran a hand distractedly through her short black hair and slouched farther down into her chair, struggling to ignore the pounding music, randomly flashing lights, and raucous din of excited voices. She was sitting at a ground-floor table in a sprawling, multi-level nightclub in downtown Vsatt. All around her, couples, trios, and groups of people in various stages of inebriation talked and laughed, writhed and danced, drank, breathed, and smoked a vast assortment of intoxicants. Hidden holographic scanners captured images of people from everywhere inside the club, including the exclusive upstairs rooms, and flashed them throughout the main chamber, providing brief, often intimate, glimpses of both public and private encounters.

Kressa located her glass among the half dozen sitting on the table in front of her and took a long drink. She glanced around, searching for Vel's friend, Jarrel, and the two women he'd disappeared with.

They can have him, she thought.

She wasn't sure what Vel had been thinking when she decided he and Kressa would have anything in common. The fact that he'd chosen this place as an example of the pinnacle of Vsunan nightlife showed how unalike they were, although Kressa had to admit that the erotic images flashed by the holo projectors were arousing. Unfortunately, without an object for her desire, her growing excitement was quickly turning to frustration, and she found herself studying the crowd, searching for someone more to her liking. But she saw no one among the mass of coiffed, painted, and bejeweled humanity who caught more than a brief moment of her attention. They simply weren't her kind of people.

She set her glass on the table, stood, and headed toward the exit, weaving nimbly through the thick, boisterous crowds. As she neared the front of the club, she caught a brief glimpse of Jarrel and his two pretty new friends gyrating rhythmically to the booming music under one of the spotlights, far too busy with each other to notice her departure. She did not think they would miss her.

She turned away and nearly collided with a man forced into her path by a group of laughing, drink-laden revelers. She tried to swerve around him, but a trio of giggling women staggered out of the group, arms thrown around one another for support, and Kressa had to sidestep again, right back into the path of the tall, brown-haired man.

Strong hands came up to grasp her arms, steadying her, while the mass of celebrants made their way past.

She flashed him a brief smile. "Thanks," she said, and then looked at him again.

His clothing—jacket, pullover shirt, and casual pants—were of a cut that was comfortable as well as practical, with none of the ostentatious design or ornamentation common to the nightclub's other patrons. Abruptly, Kressa realized he was as unlikely a customer here as she was.

Her dark eyes locked onto his. "I—uh…" A rushing sensation filled her head, a lightheadedness that seemed to tighten her focus on the man's striking features and mahogany eyes. For a moment, she could not look away. Finally, she tore her eyes from his penetrating gaze, blaming the brief spell on the alcohol she'd consumed and the drugs in the air. "I was just leaving," she finished. Her gaze drifted upward again, almost against her will.

The man smiled down at her. "So was I."