LOCATION: CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR’S HOME
PLANET: BASTION 123295 CFP
STARDATE: 4205779x03 | TIME: EARLY EVENING
Due to his many successful exploration missions, Aureth Vallor had earned the rank of Captain in the Empire, but here on the Combat Force Projection planet, he was just the Chief Administrator.
It was a menial admin job on a planet that was mainly operated by the military, but Vallor didn’t care.
He had no true aspirations to rise in the military ranks. Captain was just high enough to earn a comfortable salary, a decent harem, and provide him with just enough power that he didn’t need to worry about the petty things.
Like assassination. Or politics. His family name shielded him from most of the bullshit others had to deal with in a large bureaucracy like the Obsidian Empire.
The weather on Bastion was pleasant for once, so Vallor decided he and Six would walk to his home.
He made small talk on the way, and Six responded perfectly. She’d been with him long enough that she knew how to handle his gigantic ego.
When they arrived, Vallor held the door open and allowed her to enter first.
“After you.”
It was unusually gentlemanly of him, and she maintained a smile on her face as she forcibly swallowed down the bile rising in her throat.
Her nerves weren’t only about being alone with him. She’d resigned herself to that long ago. She knew she was about to kill the man whose fortune hers was tied to.
And although the freedom from his vile touch would be welcome, harem members from a dead mid-level (at best) administrator in the Empire didn’t have many prospects for a better future.
Still, she and the other eleven were resolved.
“Why don’t you go get comfortable, and I’ll open some wine and begin working on dinner?” she suggested.
She joined her hands in front of her, pressing her breasts together in the way she knew he couldn’t resist.
Gulp.
“Y… yes.”
It was all he could muster before he turned and walked to the back of his sprawling house.
Six laughed. The bile was beginning to recede. Just a little.
She selected a bottle of a medium dry white wine with the right level of minerality to disguise the bitter leaves she’d be using in the first dish.
She opened the bottle and poured a glass for Vallor, leaving one extra empty glass next to the bottle.
She wouldn’t dare presume to pour for herself unless he told her to. Which he never did.
It was a running joke with the other girls. They all knew he’d never allow them to partake, but they always left an empty glass just to force him to look at it and make the decision each time.
And each time, without fail, Aureth Vallor chose the path of the arrogant asshole. No surprise there.
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Six found the box on the shelf where Three had left it, tucked behind sealed containers of grain. She opened it and found three compartments labeled simply with numbers one through three.
Six turned on the stove and drizzled a light oil in the pan as it heated over the flames.
Then, she selected four thin slices of marinated beef and laid them carefully in the pan, watching them dance in the heated oil.
Six julienned two stalks of a green root vegetable and added them to the mix. She followed it with a single leaf of a very special bush.
It had taken the women years to procure and prepare this one dried leaf. It was from a planet the Empire had finished with long ago. They had stopped there during an exploration mission to check some readings, and Eighteen (rest her soul) had discovered something odd.
A bush rose defiantly from the dead soil of the planet that had been stripped of all resources. Against the black and gray backdrop, it had bloomed with bright red berries and brown leaves.
The harem had been searching for this plant for decades. Eighteen ran for it and was able to pull one leaf. She stored it away safely, but when the surveillance scans showed that she had left the ship without authorization, Vallor made an example of her.
She was left on the planet with only one week of rations and zero prospects for survival.
Six sighed, and dropped the bits of dried leaf into the pan.
She covered it and turned the heat off, letting the steam soak in the flavors, before carefully laying the first course out on a dish with the presentation of a master chef.
She put water on the stove for pasta, and carried the wine and appetizers to the table just in time for Vallor to return.
The bile rose again as she looked at him but she forced the smile to stay on her face. He was wearing red silken pajamas. To dinner. Ugh.
Six served the meal.
First the delicate meat appetizer with the greens and the leaf. The wine was perfectly matched to mask the bitter flavors.
Next was pasta, tossed with a rich cream sauce and seasoned with an aromatic bulb similar to garlic. When the cream sauce was added to the first dish, the wine and his stomach acids would form a dangerous mixture in Vallor’s stomach.
But it was the dessert that would finish him off. It was a special sorbet Six had made. She mixed two frozen fruits in with honey and lemon juice. But the finishing touch was just a few shavings from a particular dried mushroom.
When these hit his stomach, the first thing that would happen is that Vallor would fall asleep. It might take ten minutes for this first phase.
Six would have to drag him to his bed, because by morning, his stomach lining would have ruptured. The internal bleeding would take time to kill him, but the paralysis would last long enough that he would die in his sleep.
The plan was almost complete.
However, just as Six was in the kitchen scooping the dessert into an elegant bowl, there was an insistent knock on the door.
“Go see who that is,” Vallor said. The irritation was evident in his voice. “Tell them to fuck off until tomorrow.”
Six swallowed hard, wondering if someone had reported her, but she forced herself to remain calm and walked quickly to the front door. Every step felt like an eternity as she thought her cover was surely blown.
The knocking persisted until she unlocked the door and pulled it open.
“Step aside, girl,” the men said as they pushed through the door past her, and stomped straight into the dining room.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Vallor shouted. “How dare you storm into my home without an appointment! And with your shoes on, no less!”
But the insignia on the officer’s sleeve indicated he was one of only two people on Bastion that outranked Vallor.
When Vallor saw that, he stood from his chair and did the first smart thing he’d done that evening: he shut his mouth and listened.
“Chief Administrator Vallor,” the Supreme General said. “Get dressed. You’re coming with us.”
Vallor, unusually cowed, asked: “For what purpose? Can it not wait until tomorrow? I’m in the middle of dinner.”
“You will report to High Command immediately as to why you chose to delete an intelligence report from Portal Tech, rather than approve and send it up the chain.”
Vallor scoffed.
“What could be so important coming from those—”
“They have captured 1,092 enemy combatants from the planet you discovered. Earth.”
Vallor swallowed. “Yes,” he said. “Just give me a moment.”
He staggered a bit as he walked unsteadily toward his bedroom to change again.
Six glanced toward the kitchen. Her sorbet was already beginning to melt.
And with it, an opportunity decades in the making was about to be lost.